Class Act / Daddy's Watching (Guest Co-Host: David Parke)

Guest cohost David Parke is seated and present to debate his pick “Class Act” (1992 d. Randall Miller). We name our hills to die on, talk about the granddaddies of movies that look “made for streaming,” style vs. substance making this more similar to “Frankenstein,” and “Oppenheimer,” than some may think, and the wildest movie ending in the history of The Review Review so far. All that, and Paul pays full and proper respect to the fine gentleman from Oakland, California. #pleasehammerdonthurtem 6/9!

Transcript

SPEAKER_02 0:00

I need to introduce what this is. Hello, listener. Welcome. It's me. I'm Paul. I'm one of your kind of standard, not very don't be excited. You know how this goes. You're off the shelf.

SPEAKER_04 0:14

And oh, and this is JC Petty, top of the line, right here.

SPEAKER_02 0:19

This is this is the good shit. Amar, absolutely not. That's right. No. Welcome, listener. The other voice you're hearing is uh a co-host for today. Hello. For the first time. Yeah. And I certainly hope not the last time. Sure. Yeah. No, I'm come guest. Come co-host. Sure. Always love having you.

SPEAKER_04 0:40

I like being on the show. I love movies. And uh I like I don't get to talk about movies enough. Although uh uh my 10 and six-year-old think I probably that's all I talk about. Why do you talk in movie quotes all the time? I'm like, because my brain is broken.

SPEAKER_06 0:54

Tell me about it.

SPEAKER_04 0:55

You could say that again.

SPEAKER_01 0:57

Oh, you came in here looking like shit. Tell me about it.

SPEAKER_02 1:02

Well, we've already hit the groove, y'all. So David Park is here. You know David Park. He was from our point break episode and our Defending Your Life episode. That's right. And now he's here for uh oh, sorry for class.

SPEAKER_04 1:15

I don't know. What am I? I was I was interested in hearing what I was here for.

SPEAKER_01 1:18

Uh no, please tell me, inform me.

SPEAKER_04 1:20

I'm here for class account. Apparently, I only like movies from the first half of the 1990s.

SPEAKER_02 1:26

I mean, it's a great era. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It really is. It's arguably the I'm 89 to like 96. I know I'm going into mid-90s here, but it is arguably the best clump of years of film. I mean, so much.

SPEAKER_04 1:39

I was listening to uh not to bring up another movie-centric podcast. How dare you. Uh, after the studio came out, I got into the um what's the podcast that they talk about on there all the time? The town. And so I listened to that uh to keep up with what's going on in the industry, actually. Um and I brought that up for a reason that I've already forgotten. Undoubtedly.

SPEAKER_02 2:04

Because it took me forever to figure out the name of the podcast. Indubitably.

SPEAKER_04 2:08

Um but uh why did I bring that up? I don't remember. You'll cut that part.

SPEAKER_02 2:13

Oh, c uh eras of filmmaking. Um like early 90s, like clumps of great movies.

SPEAKER_04 2:20

Yeah. And nope. That's the best I can deal with. I don't know. Don't remember. Oh, okay. I'll give you this to tie it back into uh that show, the studio. The guy that plays the producer, that's not Seth Rogan. Uh the comedic actor Ike Baron Holtz, he now has a podcast. And apparently he had Dave Franco on, who's a connoisseur of 1999 films. So like his like deal is 1999, and like how great that year was for movies. But I think you could do that for almost any year in that in the 90s, in that decade, you could be contender for the best movies.

SPEAKER_02 2:59

I think you could do that for a lot of the 70s, the 80s. There's so much good stuff during the big boom of true independent filmmaking and grindhouse filmmaking and all these different movements that seem to be happening. And now it's just how do we churn this into as much for the stakeholders?

SPEAKER_04 3:18

You know, the way my the way I was gonna say the way my brain works, that brain fart that I had is just a teaser for later in the episode when I remember. It's exciting. So everybody's gonna just keep listening. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 3:31

Well, everyone, it's Paul, it's David Park. David, what you been doing?

SPEAKER_04 3:37

I am freelance for the last year as a video editor here in Hollywood. Um, and the most exciting thing, although how do we keep this evergreen? I it's so funny. I have been working on movies that maybe you've seen at this point.

SPEAKER_02 3:55

You'll find you'll find out later in the podcast why I just said that. You have so much to look forward to.

SPEAKER_04 4:01

Sweet. Um, so uh I've been uh I used to work at Disney before I went corporate. Uh now that I'm freelance, I'm now available. Disney famously not corporate. Sorry. I mean literally, I was doing corporate videos. You apologize. I was doing I was doing less synergy and more business-to-business marketing. Workflow. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Um, and uh and so uh so yeah, I've been working back at in the studio system and constantly finding jobs, and it sucks. How about you?

SPEAKER_02 4:34

Oh, dude. Well, outside of also you know, job hunting and things of this nature. I spent some time going through our backlog of episodes because I mentioned to you something about directors, and I love that you brought this movie because you gave me, I was like, give me one to three movies, and it was like this and back to school, and I can't something else. And I was like, these are totally left field, and I'm kind of inspired. And also, I've been wanting to re-watch this movie like actively, but I went through. I would like to read you a list of directors that we've done zero times or very little. Okay. Kubrick, Carpenter, Cronenberg, Kelly Reichert, Brian De Palma, Robert Townsend, Francis Ford Coppola, Lynn Ramsey, Danny DeVito, PTA, Abel Ferreira, Gina Prince, Blythewood, Affleck, Del Toro. We've done one Ridley Scott.

SPEAKER_04 5:33

Wow.

SPEAKER_02 5:34

One Spikely, one Albert Brooks. So yeah, pump your fist in victory. I just am kind of floored to a degree that these like quote unquote optimer filmmakers and stuff, like we haven't done more of this stuff, but like we did half baked. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 5:57

I remember when you first reached out before we did Defending Your Life, and I think of that pitch to this day, and maybe the pod has evolved since then. No. But when I tell people the when I tell people, oh, I'm going on the review, the review review, and if they're not listeners already, they say, What is that? And I say, I give the the premise of the pod, but I say the pitch is usually find a movie that you have strong opinions about, whether you like it or not. So usually if I think of prepping, like anytime we chat on text or something and we're making movie references, even those references that I make are based off of the most obscure movie that I might have a strong opinion about either way, and that might not be in the zeitgeist. So all of those directors unfortunately don't have non-zeitgeist films, really.

SPEAKER_02 6:46

No, that's a really good point. And I I also, you know, people are choosing things that are very personal to them and want to talk about it.

SPEAKER_04 6:56

It's almost that's that's where that's that's the the corner you get boxed into. Is it with though given those parameters, now it's a personal choice in either way. Because I think uh 13 was one of the other movies that I had thrown out. That was the other one. That's one of the movies I almost walked out of in my life. Oh, yeah. I have no idea.

SPEAKER_02 7:20

I cannot remember who it was. I remember Holly Hunt. No, not Holly Hunter. Holly Hunter? Yeah, let's see. I can't Evan Rachel Wood. Yeah. Uh let's see. I barely remember it. And the guy who ended up directing The Brutalist. Uh-huh. Is in 13, I think.

SPEAKER_04 7:40

Oh, yeah, that's right. And I thought that was wild because I hate that movie. Um, Catherine Hardwick.

SPEAKER_02 7:44

Catherine Hardwick, who like did Twilight and whatever. Um you also brought so far, I think, the only Catherine Bigelow. Uh oh, really? I don't think we've done any other Bigelow where it's like No Zero Dark 30. No near dark. I thought somebody might bring strange days at some point.

SPEAKER_04 8:08

Is it looking at your back catalog, it feels right. It feels like it should.

SPEAKER_02 8:13

We just did Demolition, man. Oh, yeah. And guess what else we just did? Orange County. I love Orange County. Just did it. Steucy. It's just literally any store on Hollywood Boulevard. Literally any store. The premise to that movie and this movie, so many similarities. Yeah. Shane Brainerd, Sean Brumder, the mixed transcript, the genius kid. It's a it was crazy. I saw so many parallels to things that came after this movie in this movie. And I want to give credit to this movie for that.

SPEAKER_04 8:53

It it it certainly is uh groundbreaking in that way.

SPEAKER_02 8:56

It has its moments, damn it.

SPEAKER_04 8:58

It's funny that I went into it thing, and we'll talk about it later, what what it's based on, but I went into it like, oh, it's a take on the body swap comedy, but it's not like but that was my like I haven't seen this movie in probably 10 years, but I please don't be soul man, please don't be soul man, please don't be soul man. I did wonder like what it would look like in through 2026 eyes. It's not horrible, but I also don't know if I'm well I watched this movie, I must have been 10. I don't know that I'd show my 10-year-old this movie.

SPEAKER_02 9:29

Sure. And as you said, we'll unpack more of that. I want to say, in terms of Soul Man, that's a movie with just like straight up black face. This is a movie with a black cast. Yeah, yeah. So this is a very different situation. Uh we talked about what we've been doing. David, do you know what comes next?

SPEAKER_04 9:44

This which what what I'm watching. Um, my wife and I, my wife was home sick and said, Hey, do you mind if I start Peaky Blinders? And I said, No, it's fine, but I'd like to watch it with you. I came home and she had just about finished season one. So then she ended up watching it twice, and I was behind like a season and a half, then all of a sudden two seasons, then she had finished the show and was waiting for me to finish the show. Loved the show. Oh. And then we watched Immortal Man and it was bad. Oh, unfortunately.

SPEAKER_02 10:18

Not everything can be El Camino.

SPEAKER_04 10:21

Which I still haven't seen because I think I did watch Breaking Bad. I I also never finished Better Call Soul. Oh. So I gotta finish that so that way I can then go into El Camino. Gutting so good, though. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Better Call Soul's great. But so so we watched Peaky Blinders and we're fresh off of that. Um uh which is you know old news already. But what was great was we started it like a week before the movie came out. So I told her I was like, yeah, we're behind, but a movie's coming out next week. She was like, Are you kidding? So catch up, catch up, catch up, catch up. Yeah, so it was kind of great. It worked out timing-wise, and that was our big uh that was our big thing. We haven't found the next it yet. It did get me to convince her to watch Oppenheimer, which she did not watch when it came out. Oh, whoa. So I showed her that. We've watched that this week. Um, and she was like, uh, it was good. Killian Murphy was great in it, but like it was too mathy for me.

SPEAKER_02 11:14

Um, but I it's a very cerebral, like you're looking into the galaxies inside of Robert Oppenheimer's eyes in terms of like, what am I doing? What will come of this? Like, what are the repercussions? My my uh and I forgot how it's a long movie, yeah, but so much happens in that movie.

SPEAKER_04 11:34

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 11:35

And I will, listener stay tuned, draw comparisons to class act and Oppenheimer's having been fresh off of this, there are characters with similar names here. So we're okay, good.

SPEAKER_04 11:50

Fresh off of two views of Cat of Class Act with an Oppenheimer in between where we're uh three Dr.

SPEAKER_02 11:58

Oppenheimers, two actors, two Dr. The math I can't do.

SPEAKER_04 12:02

Do you like this?

SPEAKER_02 12:05

Listener.

unknown 12:06

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 12:06

David is making like the triangle on his face, channeling the power of the atom. I went to the Eagle Theater at Vidyots with uh the beat out who has been ill as well and on the mend. We always wish her well, special K Excel Sior. But we went and saw my favorite Scorsese. Have we done a Scorsese? Wow. Color of Money. I haven't seen it. I love I got it. Fine. Watch The Hustler if you have time. Okay, watch Color of Money. These movies being 25 years apart totally works for me. I love both movies, but I'm the the fucking weirdo. People are like clapping for Tom Cruise and like Paul Newman, of course, when these names come up on the big screen. And then like it's like Robbie Robertson music, and I'm like, yeah. And it's like me and like three other fucking dorks, like Michael Ballhouse, Thomas Goonmacher.

SPEAKER_03 13:06

Oh shit!

SPEAKER_02 13:07

Yeah, so either way, uh, it was such an incredible experience. It looked beautiful. It was, I think it was a very good digital transfer for whatever that's worth. Soundtrack is so much better, it scores so much better in the theater, which is hard to believe. But also, like the movie is snappier and quippier and hornier and funnier than it's ever been. Like, I've and part of it I'm sure is because I've never been so locked in. But please watch that movie if if you're gonna be able to do that. Have you ever seen it in the theater before?

SPEAKER_04 13:43

No, I mean I've seen the movie five, six times, but it was like the first theater experience. The Exorcist when it got re-released in theaters in the early 2000s. Yeah, the director was all kinds of shit I had never seen before on VHS at that time. Yeah. It was '99 that it had to be.

SPEAKER_02 14:01

Because I was I had just gotten my AARP card. Dinner was 315, 330.

SPEAKER_01 14:09

That's 2000.

SPEAKER_04 14:10

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah. Um I remember seeing that. And when I saw Halloween in the theater for the first time, it was like a rip, dude. Yeah, that was about that was a blast.

SPEAKER_02 14:20

Before we move on, I just got the Halloween 666, Halloween the Curse of Michael Myers, co-starring Paul Rudd. Yeah. Co-star of one of the great nearly perfect movies, Clueless. Yes. There's like a producer's cut of this movie. I was gonna ask about the producer's cut. And I got it for like $12 on Blu-ray.

SPEAKER_04 14:40

That's like 90 bucks. Well, because I think for a while it was only available in the box set. Okay. It was like it never released on disc unless you bought the box set. And then same thing, like I think H2O was not available on Blu-ray unless you bought the box set.

SPEAKER_02 14:55

And so there's so many bad dude, there's so many bad movies in that clump. So like that's like but I think I have I can't forgive Halloween 2. And I I can never remember which one I did.

SPEAKER_04 15:08

Rock Zombie Halloween 2 or both? Carpenter.

SPEAKER_02 15:11

I also don't like Halloween 2. I've most people like Halloween. Who directed 2 Carpenter? No, he wrote it. Oh, that's right. That's right, that's right. It was um I can't remember who did three. I like three. I can't remember which one I don't like between four and five. I always mix those up. Yeah. But way to go, nerds. Fucking box sets and the whole deal. Uh Rick Rosenthal. Rick Rosenthal.

SPEAKER_04 15:36

Yeah, I don't like uh I don't like Halloween too, but I feel I feel like of nerdy Halloween fans, they like Halloween too. I have I have a definitive ranking of the films and all that stuff. Great.

SPEAKER_02 15:47

That's like me with nightmare. It's like I also Halloween ends. Woof. Yeah. Woof, woof, woof. Please come back and do a horror movie with us for spooky season at some point. Please. Yeah, we would love it. We're going to move on, folks. We've talked about what we've been doing. Yes. We've talked about what we've been watching. David, I would like you to tell me as much as one possibly can stand about Class Act.

SPEAKER_04 16:15

Okay, I'm gonna fill your earholes with a bunch of facts. Strap in. Here we go.

SPEAKER_02 16:20

Promise just the earholes. Okay, great.

SPEAKER_04 16:23

Um, Class Act is a DePas Entertainment Warner Brothers. That's a Warner Brothers subsidiary, folks, uh film that was released in 1992. It is rated PG 13, and they make the most out of that PG 13. Um and it's an it is it blazes by so fast, even though it's an hour 38. Like I was surprised. I was like, how long is this movie? I was like, is it an hour 10? Or agreement. Really? Oh wow. Sorry.

SPEAKER_02 16:53

Um, don't this is what we're here to do, baby.

SPEAKER_04 16:57

It uh I feel like there's scenes on the cutting room floor that I miss uh story-wise. Um and it You know what?

SPEAKER_02 17:08

Maybe it would have put some other things together, but the storylines and the that they decided to keep, we need to save this. I need to let you keep going. It's a it's a it's it's a type of film.

SPEAKER_03 17:18

Um like every other film. It is a type of film.

SPEAKER_04 17:23

It was a film that was shot. It was produced, made, released, the whole thing.

SPEAKER_03 17:29

People saw it and paid money. They yeah. People sometimes had sex in the theaters. People made thesises and renaissances and whatever about it at their schools.

SPEAKER_04 17:40

Uh the budget is $7.5 million. Estimate if you were to do that today, this movie would be $17.6 million. Uh, opening weekend was June 7th, 1992. This was an uh get out of school, go with your buds to go see this movie.

SPEAKER_02 17:58

Okay.

SPEAKER_04 17:59

Um uh to put yourself in the mindset on a I had not even been born June evening.

SPEAKER_02 18:04

So I wouldn't know. I wasn't, I had not I was seven. Oh wow.

SPEAKER_04 18:10

Um you cut school to see class act when you were seven. That's fucking dope. That's amazing. I was like, I'm fucking second grade. I'm out of here.

SPEAKER_02 18:18

You're the coolest person I've ever met.

SPEAKER_04 18:20

Because I ditched school to go see class act in 92. You were seven? Let me tell you about this guy, man.

SPEAKER_02 18:26

That's the ballsiest shit I've ever heard.

SPEAKER_04 18:29

Um, the opening weekend it did $3.42 million. That's eight million dollars, which isn't anything to shake a stick at um in terms of uh, you know, if you've considered the budget was $7.5 million. Uh it wound up uh making $13.2 million in the theaters. Were that to be today, that would be $31 million. That's a good amount of money. And uh that's that's the worldwide money as well. Um so other releases this weekend are Patriot Games. Is that Mel Gibson?

SPEAKER_02 19:00

Or that's the Patriot or is Harrison Ford?

SPEAKER_04 19:03

I'm sorry, I'm thinking the Patriot. This is the Patriot Games. Um, I don't think I've seen Patriot Games. Who did uh Patriot Games?

SPEAKER_02 19:10

That's Harrison Ford. Sean Bean is the bad guy. Oh, nice. I cannot remember the director right now, but it is the movie where Harrison Ford takes over Jack Ryan from Baldwin. Oh, it's a Jack Ryan film, it's the second Jack Ryan film sequel to Red October.

SPEAKER_04 19:27

Nice. Uh other top fives in addition to Patriot Games, Sister Act, absolute classic.

SPEAKER_02 19:33

Great movie. I love that movie. And I feel like some of this movie Evergreen.

SPEAKER_04 19:36

Yes, true. Um, I feel like uh Sister Act 2 I remember more fondly. Um, I don't know why. You're Jennifer of Hewitt.

SPEAKER_02 19:48

That's why I can't I was gonna say I can't imagine that you would if you were to watch it today, although like the hook of that song is great.

SPEAKER_04 19:55

There's a lot of parallels between that movie and this movie. Correct. I think they shot it in the same classroom.

SPEAKER_02 20:00

David, I have great news. They didn't have any lovely lavender collaboratories in Sister Act 2. Uh, you get your Mel Gibson movie. Here you go, bud. What you were looking forward to.

SPEAKER_04 20:13

Oh, uh is that oh, Lethal Weapon 3. There he is. Maybe I saw Lethal Weapon 3. Yeah, I saw Lethal Weapon 3 in my periphery, and I was like, Patriot, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 20:22

Oh, so you cut school inside? That's it, yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 20:26

Um uh Far and Away. I know that title. Is that Tom Cruise? It is okay, and Nicole Kidman? Yeah, it is. Sweet. And then did that have a song? Was that like an Oscar song movie?

SPEAKER_00 20:38

I don't know.

SPEAKER_04 20:38

It seems like a movie with that that, like this one, says the name of the movie in the song, you know.

SPEAKER_00 20:50

Embrace her time from the Apple Box.

SPEAKER_04 20:56

And then, oh my god, holy shit. Inceno Man. To round out the cinematic universe, you could do a double feature of Encino Man and Class Act and be like, what the fuck?

SPEAKER_02 21:08

Uh similar to Oppenheimer, you could. Should you?

SPEAKER_04 21:14

Uh well, you know what? Toward the end of this movie, they hint that maybe they're gonna then tell Blade's story.

SPEAKER_02 21:20

It feels like they're trying to set it up for a sequel.

SPEAKER_04 21:22

And I'm they're definitely Frankenstein 2025ing the end of this movie a little bit.

SPEAKER_02 21:27

Shut it down.

SPEAKER_04 21:30

Um and then uh Alien 3 finished sixth. Now, do you like that movie? I've never seen it.

SPEAKER_02 21:35

Um, dude, I'm a I'm an Alien 3 lover.

SPEAKER_04 21:38

Now there's some news about there was some news months ago about Alien 3. Are you privy to this?

SPEAKER_02 21:45

No, I was just gonna say I watched the producer's cut of it or whatever, and I did not enjoy it. And actually, I'm a weirdo and enjoy the theatrical cut. This is it. The assembly cut is coming out. I I watched it on Matt's crazy. I did not really enjoy it. Oh, okay. I don't think it had been available since DVD or maybe Blu-ray. Oh, so this isn't new. But it was, it's kind of a big deal. It's the first time it was on digital, I'm pretty sure.

SPEAKER_03 22:08

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 22:09

And I was like, this is very long. We're doing the same things over and over again. This in class act, a lot in common.

SPEAKER_04 22:19

But the stony show up in Anthony.

SPEAKER_03 22:23

The alien is played by Polly Shore in the assembly cut.

SPEAKER_02 22:34

Terrible. So this finished seventh though, but ended up with 31 adjusted on 17. So it still like doubled its money.

SPEAKER_04 22:46

Well, then they they did this. Was this between House Party was one and two? Or two and three?

SPEAKER_02 22:52

Because it was definitely before four and five or the remake.

SPEAKER_04 22:55

There are six house parties.

SPEAKER_02 22:56

No, there's a lot of house party. I still love the first one. I watched it half a dozen times.

SPEAKER_04 23:01

This is the only kid and play film I've seen in the kid and play universe.

SPEAKER_02 23:05

This gets more and more bizarre every second. I I have a fondness for house party to this day. I gotta see it. I liked kid and play as a as a young lad. Yeah. But I only knew kid and play from my nostalgia doesn't extend to this.

SPEAKER_04 23:22

Yeah, I only knew kid and play from this movie and knew that they made music.

SPEAKER_06 23:26

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 23:27

Um, but like, yeah, this is it. And then I think they have the the dance that my my sister's ten years older than me, so she was doing like the kid and play. Yeah. Um uh other films from '92, Delicatessen, Noises Off, The Year of the Comet, Newsies, Folks, Night and the City, Shining Through, Malcolm X, and Hook.

SPEAKER_02 23:48

Of course, you had to bring up Hook. It's always about you, you, you, you hit my brain. You want a cookie, you want a party.

SPEAKER_04 23:57

That's so good. I the the only thing I hate Steven Spielberg for is that he hates that movie.

SPEAKER_02 24:04

Well, he's admitted he looks back on it fondly in some ways, but as you listen to our hook episode before or after this episode, who's to say? But he has like interesting mixed feelings. I'm actually looking forward to because I haven't re-watched it yet. I haven't sat and watched that movie critically as an adult ever. Oh. So it'll be interesting to go on that journey.

SPEAKER_04 24:26

My wife to Neverland. My uh my wife has an aversion to Christmas outside of Christmas, and it's a Christmas movie. I always forget. Oh, I love that. They go to London to see uh uh Nana Wendy for Christmas, yeah. Um, so it doesn't really play a part of the movie other than they're going to see her for Christmas, and they're doing a dedication uh at the hospital. Great picture and incredible John Williams soundtrack. The s the score is like what though I've only seen John Williams at the bowl once, and I I don't think you ever know when they do what what the set list is gonna be, but he did hook when I saw him, and it was great.

SPEAKER_02 25:05

I love the Home Alone scores. Love them. Yeah. And was like, Home Alone, Home Alone, Home Alone, and at times, and somebody was like, He only does music from his movies. Yeah, thank you, David. That's it. David shook his head. There's like a violent reaction of like, oh my god. And that that score to me is timeless.

SPEAKER_04 25:26

That's like if you if people get mad at you for saying, Oh, I love John Hughes' movies, Home Alone is my favorite, and somebody gets mad at you, and it's like, Yeah, I'm right. Or like um a buddy of mine likes to be uh a pain in the ass and says, My favorite 80s band is Green Day, because technically they started in the 80s. So that's funny.

SPEAKER_02 25:44

Yeah, I mean, but that's the thing, is like I agree where it's like, look, um Dutch as much as weird science, as much as planes, strains, as much as home alone. These are all John Hughes movies. Yeah, yeah. They all have this a similar feel, regardless.

SPEAKER_04 25:59

Yeah. I think this is there's there's like um, there were like the late 90s teen movies that were homages to John Hughes movies, but then there's films like Plains Strains and Automobiles, which was a John Hughes, an 80s John Hughes movie that was not about high school. And then there's the tier below it. And I feel like Class Act fits right into that tier below John Hughes style film that's not a John Hughes film.

SPEAKER_02 26:26

I made a list of movies that I think have pieces of this movie that I like better than this movie while intentionally avoiding John Hughes.

unknown 26:40

Oh.

SPEAKER_02 26:40

And we'll go over that list as we talk about.

SPEAKER_04 26:43

Um and then, oh, uh letterboxed average three. Now, I know that we follow each other on letterboxed, so I did not rate it because I didn't want to tip you. Sam smart man. So I didn't know that. This is news to me. Um, and you can follow you. I'm at Paul Axe Badly. David, you are David underscore park with an E at the end, P-A-R-K-E.

SPEAKER_02 27:06

And then, of course, run B M C. There's an at before that.

SPEAKER_04 27:13

Um, I love that Siskel and Ebert were split on this movie.

SPEAKER_02 27:17

The fact that Siskel was on the up for this.

SPEAKER_04 27:20

My man. No shit. My man. Uh 17% Rotten Tomatoes, how dare everyone. Uh 72% popcorn. Well done, everyone. Uh uh, Metascore 42. Uh and uh yeah, no major awards. How dare the Academy. What? Yeah. It should have won Best Song. What won Best Song in '92? Best original song. Did you it was good? Did you like Oh, End of the Rose, Boys to Men. No, Class X better.

SPEAKER_02 27:54

I mean, the way the movie starts with the it's so good. It's all attitude. It's it's great. I mean, it has its moments. So kudos to you, director Randall Miller, also director of CBGB, Bottle Shock, and House Guest. House Guest Sinbad.

SPEAKER_04 28:11

Love House Guest.

SPEAKER_02 28:12

Writers of the screenplay were John Semper Jr., writer of Green Lantern Beware My Power, and Cynthia Friedlob, who it looks like did this movie. Music was Vasal Benford, the associate, The Sixth Man, a movie I thought about while I was watching this movie. Swan Princess Christmas. Interesting, this person, David, when I was doing research on this, this is like an insanely musically talented human being. And uh the scores that I mentioned are largely the more known things. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 28:50

And I Or is he like a studio musician? Does he not do movies? Is he like a music guy? Did he work at like Paisley Park?

SPEAKER_02 28:57

Oh yeah. He's like a music music guy. For certain, for certain. But like I God, the music in this movie drives me fucking insane. Cinematography of this movie, Francis Kenny. Now I have to look in my context. New Jack City. How high. Another movie I thought about. Oh, yeah. And Heathers. Producers were Todd Black. Antoine Fisher.

SPEAKER_04 29:21

So funny. I was like, do I know this guy? No, I know Kenny Francis. Just go ahead, please.

SPEAKER_02 29:28

Flipping the flip flop it flip. Producers were Todd Black, Antoine Fisher, Suzanne DePas, who's most of the production company. So it's not just a clever name. Joe Wisen, R.I.P., Kiss the Girls, Gene Higgins, Arlington Road, and several others. Have you seen Arlington Road? No. It's a trip, dude. I'm thinking Road to Perdition right now. Oh, if you can, if you can handle a movie about conspiracy and etc. etc. Right now, Arlington Road is a trip. Another Mel Gibson. Joe Bridges and Tim Robbins.

SPEAKER_04 30:02

Conspiracy theory.

SPEAKER_02 30:03

I can't. Oh. That's what I'm thinking of.

SPEAKER_03 30:06

I was like, no, I want to talk about Arlington's movies.

SPEAKER_02 30:09

Mel Gibson had two conspiracy movies? You have to keep bringing it back to Mel Gibson. No, he's not in Arlington Road. I just wasn't paying close enough attention. Is it Patrick Stewart in that too? He's like the bad guy. Maybe. I don't even remember.

SPEAKER_04 30:24

Wow. The only thing I remember from conspiracy theory is that Mel Gibson leaves a piece of hair on a door handle to make sure that no one else had come into that room or something. Oh well, I'd have to rewatch it. That's a weird detail I remember from when that movie came out. Anyway.

SPEAKER_02 30:39

I could sit here, we could talk about weird details from payback or lead to payback my son!

SPEAKER_04 30:45

The Patriot. He probably says that in that too.

SPEAKER_03 30:51

He does say that in the Patriot.

SPEAKER_01 30:55

Fucking Mel Gibson.

SPEAKER_02 30:57

Damn it. Chris Kid Reed was Duncan. Pinder Hughes. Yeah. Polyshore is dead, fresh dressed, and House Party from 2023, the official like remake of the first movie. Chris Play Martin was Blade Brown. House parties one, two, and three. Karen Parsons was Ellen, Major Payne, The Ladies' Man, 13 Moons, and famously Hillary from The Fresh Prince of Bel Air. Yep. Which crossed my mind. Alicia Rogers was Demita, Boys in the Hood, and Soul Ties, not to be confused with Soul Man, very different. Meeshaq Taylor, R.I.P. was I love Meeshach Taylor. Me too. Dude, I liked designing women as a kid. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 31:41

Like mannequin. Mannequin is so good. And he specific like without him, I don't know that it would be that good. But and then tell me you've seen the Key and Peel sketch about doing uh the the movie, the movie round table, the studio round table about Gremlins 2.

SPEAKER_02 31:58

Oh my god, if you listen to our Gremlins 2 episode, but go continue.

SPEAKER_04 32:04

It's just an incredible homage to me, Shock Taylor.

SPEAKER_02 32:07

Oh, it's it is like it is him essentially. It's Jordan Peel doing him. It's so good. Uh he's Duncan's dad. He was, thank you. Uh he was also in Mannequin, the aforementioned. House of Games, which is a David Mammoth movie that I hope we do someday. And Explorers, Loretta Divine was Blade's mom. What Women Want, I am Sam, Dream Girls.

SPEAKER_04 32:33

So good and underutilized in this movie. Like every scene that she's in is incredible.

SPEAKER_02 32:39

She has a thing where you as a I, as an audience member, just lend her immediate respect and credibility. Yeah. And she knows how to use that. She knows she has that. And I agree. She's I wish she had more to do, and there were just more of her.

SPEAKER_04 32:58

The last time. And we'll we'll get to it. You don't see her enough. Doug E.

SPEAKER_02 33:04

Doug was popsicle. Cool Runnings, Shark Tale, and the mildly underrated Dr. Giggles. Don't know. It's a movie that I think barely made it to the theater that has a little nightmare on Elm Street, a little Jollo, a little I mean, it's it's a fun kind of slasher movie. Rick Ducoman, R.I.P. was Rikert. Little Monsters, he was also in Gremlins 2, which you could I that could be Little Monsters. Blank Check, which could also kind of be Little Monsters. And Jury Duty, which could also kind of be Little Monsters. Lamont Johnson was Wedge. Jerry Maguire, waiting to exhale. Kix, Thomas McHale Ford, R.I.P. Mink. I actually think Wedge is great, and I think Mink is great. Yeah. They're like the unsung MVPs that have stuff to do.

SPEAKER_04 34:01

I wish they had more motivation than just being guessed, I guess. But like, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 34:05

And I kind of wish very empty characters than the actors doing a lot.

SPEAKER_04 34:09

Yes, yes, yes. But yeah, I mean, uh Thomas Ford, he's great. And he was great as Tommy on Martin. On Martin, thank you for mentioning that.

SPEAKER_02 34:16

We have a bunch of really good like TV folks involved in this movie. Harlem Knights, The Butcher's Wife, Braindoners, Rhea Perlman, Miss Simpson, Barbie, Matilda, Canadian Bacon, and famously Cheers.

SPEAKER_04 34:35

Cheers. I wrote another note here. And do you know that her dad is uh Duncan's teacher in the in the dad classroom? That's her dad. Yeah. I noticed that they're so both their teachers are Pearlmans.

SPEAKER_02 34:49

When the credits were rolling, I noticed I was like, oh. And you were, I want is Ron Pearlman also? I was just like, what? Wait, are they related? I don't know. Sure. I like to think so. Yeah. Why not?

SPEAKER_04 35:02

Oh man. Okay. Uh shall we get into fun facts?

SPEAKER_02 35:04

I think we should. Let's do it.

SPEAKER_04 35:08

The song rolls. Oh, thank you. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 35:11

It's my pride and joy. He did that little tiny fun fact. Like Ben was like, you can you can improvise one. And Chris was just like, okay. And then he just did that. And I was like, don't do it, don't try again. That's perfect.

SPEAKER_04 35:29

Nailed it. One take. Chris One take is what we like to call it.

SPEAKER_02 35:32

Yeah, the one take machine gun.

SPEAKER_04 35:34

Uh this film is a retelling of Mark Twain's The Prince and the Pauper. And like I said earlier, I was like, oh yeah, that makes more sense than the body swap thing. Oh, yeah, sure. Um, Poly Short appears as uh Julian Thomas in an uncredited role. Yet he he I he throws away his name and then he goes back into the weasel, which is literally his character from Encino Man.

SPEAKER_02 35:55

So I think he refers to himself like as Stony at a point. Or is he just Paul Short?

SPEAKER_04 36:05

Yeah. He's just Betsy Short from Yeah. Oh man. Um, I had a dream one time that was so good.

SPEAKER_02 36:14

Never start a sentence that way, especially now when we're doing class act, David.

SPEAKER_01 36:19

Um can I keep that? Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 36:23

Uh you sure you don't want to push this to February next year?

SPEAKER_06 36:26

Um that is really funny.

SPEAKER_04 36:35

Um where I had a legit whole I I believe I have it somewhere. A outline for a sequel to Encino Man. It was called How Stony Got His Groove Back. And I wrote the writer on Twitter. I was like, hey, I legit have a pretty good story arc for the sequel to Encino Man if you want to hear it. I did not hear back. Can we get Paulie? He would do it. He wanted to do the what's it called? Uh he wanted to do the what's it called? They uh we want to do the Richard Simon Simmons biopic, the last one. What's his name is now the president of SAG? I don't think we could get him. Oh, Sean Aston.

unknown 37:14

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 37:15

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 37:16

I met him at a SAG meeting a couple years ago. I mentioned such a nice guy. Yeah, imagine. And I it seems to be doing a I think I like what he's doing as the president of my union.

SPEAKER_04 37:28

Good. Yeah. Yeah. Um, and then Brendan Fraser, would he come back?

SPEAKER_02 37:32

I think maybe. Depending.

SPEAKER_04 37:34

David. I'm talking scrub style reboot of Encino Man, where it's like actually good.

SPEAKER_02 37:40

Can I be one of their kids? Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 37:42

I think Matt's kid thing.

SPEAKER_02 37:46

Oh, can I be Matt's kid? Sure. Matt's dead.

SPEAKER_04 37:48

But I'll be Matt's kid back for revenge. Okay, that's all my that's my poly shore diatribe.

SPEAKER_02 37:55

I just tried to ruin your movie. Okay, go ahead.

SPEAKER_04 37:58

Um uh so this was interesting. Uh Changing Labels was the original title of this, and it was sold to MGM in '85. Um, it's funny, it makes me think of like, was this so it was put into turnaround, then TriStar Bar TriStar acquired it. Two years later it went to turnaround again, and in 19 not in 1990, Warner Brothers finalized the deal that would automatically green light the production and title it Class Act. But the original League characters were originally written for two white actors before Kidd and Play signed on to Star and contribute the anti-drug track Get It Right. Now, that being said, do we know who they thought they might have in mind for it?

SPEAKER_02 38:47

I don't know. I don't know if they ever got to the point of development. Like because it got turned around twice. And like it's rare for something to get turned around twice and made.

SPEAKER_04 38:56

Yeah. I'm the TriStar thing threw me because I was like, oh, that was, but it was Orion pictures that did Bill and Ted. Because I believe Biodome, another Poly Shore vehicle, was one of the last Orions. But I believe it was originally the script for Bill and Ted 3. I believe Biodome started as the script for Bill and Ted 3.

SPEAKER_02 39:19

It's so wild that these things like develop and morph into what they become. This movie feels like something that was written many times, developed many times, like, and then somebody at a studio, like frankly, was smart enough to be like, we can package this for this, like isn't it the director's first movie?

SPEAKER_04 39:38

Yeah, they probably pulled something off the shelf and like, here, do this, and then you can go do your own.

SPEAKER_02 39:42

They were probably fulfilling something with Warner Brothers or whatever, and maybe they liked it or whatever. Like clearly, there's a level of they're they're swinging for some comedy for certain. And sometimes there's some contact.

SPEAKER_04 40:00

Maybe Cynthia Friedlob had something on someone at uh at Warner Brothers. We'll get into that too. Um mostly shot in LA. I love period LA. I loved there was a great uh so this director has gone to do bad movies, but there's some stuff in here that's fairly competent. Um, but I did make a note later that I think it was a lot of it was saved by the editor. Um, as an editor, I guess I'm saying that, but there's a lot of good choices made. However, this is a director thing, or maybe the DP thing, but there's a great crane shot when Blade goes home. And you can see I know what you're talking about. You can see him riding Duncan's bike to his house where he crashes, but it's a great long lens. You get Blade's house in the foreground and the city of LA behind him, and it's falling down era, Los Angeles. I just love that era.

SPEAKER_02 40:57

I rewatched that not too long ago. Dirty LA is so awesome.

SPEAKER_04 41:01

Yeah, I think I watched it too, and I think I text you about it because I think we were like Robert Duvall. It's it's kind of like a geez, and we're talking about this during the class second episode. Um, it's kind of like a uh so uh it's kind of like a uh a harbinger of a conversation.

SPEAKER_00 41:16

But it's yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 41:18

It's kind of like, are you into do you like the movie Falling Down? And then if you if you say yes, it's understandable why you might not.

SPEAKER_02 41:25

Why do you like it? Is also like a a tricky question because some people they get to the end of that movie and they're like, but he's not the bad guy. Right. And it's like, no, but he it he knows he is, I know he is, the world he is yeah, it's a great picture. There's a level to this that it's like, you're not fucking Batman, and he's not a good guy necessarily either.

SPEAKER_04 41:48

Yeah, I think it it also gets a huge pass for me grow having grown up here in LA. That's the LA I remember as a kid. Oh, awesome. And so it's like it's a great document of the city at that time, which is cool.

SPEAKER_02 42:00

People with cool P last names. Yeah. Pendergast? Fucking Robert Duvall, R.I.P. That was one of the first movies. I was like, I made uh the B Dog watch Days of Thunder. And uh then watched Falling Down on my own. Yeah more and I love the Michael Douglas performance, don't get me wrong. There's a bunch of really great shit in that movie, but the Robert Duvall performance is like special. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 42:25

Yeah, yeah, yeah. He really uh he cooks, as they say.

SPEAKER_02 42:28

He was one of the greats.

SPEAKER_04 42:29

Um uh there was uh so Randall Miller was originally going to be a cameo uh in the film, uh, and they shot it, but then they uh scrapped it along with I think a few other scenes.

SPEAKER_02 42:41

Dude, wow, okay. So there is proof he made there was some decision making that happened. Yeah. Maybe some of it was good. He should his cameo that was unnecessary. All right.

SPEAKER_04 42:50

Do you think the the home video release has deleted scenes? I don't know. Find it and order it. There's a I might. Um there's a couple storylines I wish played out more. Um and they just didn't.

SPEAKER_02 43:04

Oh man, we can't talk about this movie for four hours, David. Okay, sorry. I refuse. No, but that's the thing is like I'm gonna tell you now because I think you already know you have an uphill battle. I think so, yeah. David, if you would be so kind, as this episode is brought to us by Uphill Battles.

SPEAKER_01 43:28

Think about it. Is this the hill you want to die on? Is this the battle you want to fight?

SPEAKER_04 43:35

I have long-lasting friendships that are because of this movie.

SPEAKER_02 43:41

I can see why there's some nostalgia pull. Yeah. I get it. This was the first time I'd watched it in a very long time. And I was like, and I'm gonna explain to you a lot of the reasons why. And I love that you're like having a laugh about it because it's one of those things where it's like finishing a movie is a monumental. Thing. Period. And you make some excellent points that I agree with in terms of some of the stylistic choices and stuff of the visuals and especially the costumes.

SPEAKER_04 44:09

Blade looks so fucking cool in every scene. The line. I want to cut the sleeve jacket. Oh yeah.

SPEAKER_02 44:17

With the black um slacks and the black shirt and the gold, like and the Honda CBR. Like, this is the kind of stuff where I'm like, yes, bro. Yes, yes, yes.

SPEAKER_03 44:28

But also cool. I can't see beyond any of it, though. Cool as ice. No, I can't see beyond it. Cool as ice? We're trying to talk about class act. That's the anti-class act.

SPEAKER_02 44:39

Oh, man. That's that is Mr. Van Winkle appropriating. That's true. A thousand percent. If you'd like to tell them the log line.

SPEAKER_04 44:48

Yes. Okay. You can. A valedictorian and a juvenile delinquent have their school records switched and begin to be treated like the other.

SPEAKER_02 44:58

Whoa, whoa, whoa. Hijinx ensue. Uh, try to roll your way up the hill. But you know what?

SPEAKER_04 45:06

At least every time there's hijinks, you get the same song to play over and over.

SPEAKER_02 45:11

Think about what you just said. Think about what you just said. How would you know the hijinks were about to end? The battle has begun. Hey, we're back. We got up the hill. Can you believe it? I'm ready to die. Is it worth the fight? Don't do it. Hey. We're gonna play our own version of Cinephile. I feel like we've earned this. Yeah. So I'm going to say the first actor that hits my mind, and we're gonna go from there. Shoot. Tom Cruise Mission Impossible.

SPEAKER_04 45:58

Alright. And I've gotta say a different Tom Cruise film.

SPEAKER_02 46:02

Yes.

SPEAKER_04 46:03

Got it.

SPEAKER_02 46:04

Movie, movie, movie, movie, movie.

SPEAKER_04 46:05

Got it.

SPEAKER_02 46:06

Tell someone's wrong.

SPEAKER_04 46:06

It's so funny. I almost went with a different Joseph Kaczyski movie, just knocked myself right out. Tom Cruise go. Maverick. Mission Impossible 2. Uh do I just go through those? You're wearing a hat.

SPEAKER_06 46:20

I'm literally wearing a hat.

SPEAKER_04 46:22

Uh um uh Rain Man. Mission Impossible three. Oh, okay. So we are doing that. Yeah. Um Dead Reckoning, part one. Mission Impossible Fallout. Okay. I don't know the franchise that well, unfortunately. Um uh this is uh Top Gun Mission Impossible Ghost Protocol. Love it. Uh collateral.

SPEAKER_02 46:48

All the right moves.

SPEAKER_04 46:49

Cocktail.

SPEAKER_02 46:50

Risky business.

SPEAKER_04 46:51

Oh, good one. Um uh uh the firm taps.

SPEAKER_02 47:00

Well, I don't know that one. Um do you want to challenge? Do you want to challenge taps? Do you think I'm wrong? I've never even heard the title before. Oh, okay. Do you want to check it or do we move moving? No, keep moving. I try to do that.

SPEAKER_04 47:14

Um uh you brought it up earlier. Color of money.

SPEAKER_02 47:17

Good.

SPEAKER_04 47:18

Pull right the rug right out from under me. The outsiders. Ooh, good one. Um uh uh oh, I love this one. Um Oblivion. The last samurai. Ooh. Uh uh War of the Worlds. Rock of Ages. Oh god. Oh, uh Tropic Thunder. Gary Maguire. Does it have to be released? Yeah. Oh, okay. Well, when does that come out? Um uh you can't do digger. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Nice track.

SPEAKER_02 47:58

Um interview with the vampire. Do we keep going then? No, I just sent you. I want I did you ever play 21? Are you a basketball person at all?

SPEAKER_04 48:20

I am not a basketball person, but yes, I played 21.

SPEAKER_02 48:22

But you don't prove it.

unknown 48:24

No.

SPEAKER_02 48:24

Do you know what that means? Like sometimes like once you get 21, if somebody wants to, they'll say prove it, and you hit one more free throw or three-pointer to cinch you. There you go. So I I kind of approach it like that was fun. That was a good one.

SPEAKER_04 48:37

I feel like I redeemed myself from the last time where I don't think I understood the rules. You've been redeemed. Yes.

SPEAKER_02 48:42

I think you've done very, very well. So, David, I would like to know your tell me a little more about your first experience, at least your rating for Class Act, and then your most recent.

SPEAKER_04 48:53

So I did a bit of a deep dive research. I went in search of other podcasts that have talked about it, and they confirmed something that I was looking for, which was that I watched this on TV as a 10-year-old.

SPEAKER_02 49:06

So I watched it in the theater as a seven-year-old.

SPEAKER_04 49:09

That's weird. What are you talking about? Um uh and this person said that it played on Comedy Central all the time, and that does track because Comedy Central would have been a young network at the time. And we had K basic cable, so that would have been a network, and they didn't have original content yet. So they were just probably constantly playing this. I would have guessed Cinemax or something like that. Okay. Um, but I watched this on TV a lot. This was like a comfort movie. I'm at home playing in my living room on a Saturday and have the TV on in the background, and this is one of the movies that I would stop flipping for.

SPEAKER_02 49:42

So this is a highly rated movie for you.

SPEAKER_04 49:44

Like as a as a child, as a nostalgia. This was a this was uh is Class Act on sick. Whoa like yeah, yeah, yeah. Uh okay uh because it was uh it's that it's that rung below quality that is still good. Like I wouldn't say this is too dissimilar from Sister Act 2 or now those are two school movies, so let's uh call it uh an Cinoman's another one that I would put this in the same tier of type of film that I don't know that they really make anymore. The I would say that What is this type of film?

SPEAKER_02 50:21

This is a like a yeah, like a body. I mean it's a body swap, a role swap, uh that there's definitely a class swap. But in terms of like it's like training places to a degree. Like it has like echoes of that at times.

SPEAKER_04 50:37

It's it's almost less though the plot points, and it's almost more the uh the budget, like the drama might fit into something like that. This movie has no stakes. Right. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 50:50

Yeah. It's a stakes. And so it to me, I understand, especially as a kid, if you're like, I just want to something that makes me feel cozy and warm and toasty. I'm looking at Los Angeles, I feel like I'm at home, everything feels familiar, like I like these rappers, like the the comedy. It's all very I understand it's very approachable. I like this a lot better than Goodburger, and I have to consider it. I think that's I think that's a good point. Because I think Goodburger has pieces of this in it. It's a one of the movies that crossed my mind that comes after this movie.

SPEAKER_04 51:28

And I think that that's also in that same echelon of type of film. It's like a type of movie. And that's why I was like, the is the drama the the modern take? But the drama has like an auteur director like that is doing a film. Like it was shot on film, the drama. Imagine Heckerling doing this. Right. Yes, yes, yes, yes. Absolutely. But they don't make what's the new version of that? Imagine Martha Coolidge doing this. Right, yeah. Like what movies are out that are like this? I don't know.

SPEAKER_02 52:00

And I don't it's a I I see echoes of a lot of things, and I'm gonna mention it, but I w I would like to know your is your original rating like a five? It's a four out of five.

SPEAKER_04 52:09

It's a four out of five lollipops, yeah. Very high. Yeah. Um this was a the like Bill and Ted was above this. Back to the Future is and was above this. Um but this was a solid like Is this above Bill and Ted for you? No, no, no, no. Bill and Ted is above this. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay.

SPEAKER_02 52:26

The way that my brain is.

SPEAKER_04 52:27

I apparently only know two time travel phones that are above this. Um but like uh Time Cop, not even close. No. Um nobody cares. But this is a movie that would stop me. Like I would put it on. Right. You had said yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 52:41

So what would you say now? What was that viewing like? How you told me hoopla, which I finally got my hoopla figured out and go buggy.

SPEAKER_04 52:52

Oh, really? I watched I only used hoopla on my phone. It seemed okay.

SPEAKER_02 52:56

I I had issues with like it figuring out my library card and it not loading right and having to reload and redo patents. Yeah. I I don't know.

SPEAKER_04 53:05

I got a new one because the LA's I'm old, the downtown Fuck you class Grand Central Library turned 100 and they they released these like limited edition cards. So I'm gonna get it, it literally changed my library number. And so I had to I had to change Libby, I had to change hoopla, I had to do all that stuff. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 53:22

And listener, if you have these fantastic offerings from your local library, hoopla, libby, and canopy, yeah. Uh you understand, yeah. Yeah, the the annoyance is I have to change my member number, and it's like you pay nothing.

SPEAKER_04 53:38

Yeah. And um, you know what I just found out is you get free New York Times subscription with LA Public Library, not LA Times, though, New York Times, but you know what that means? Add free Wordle and you can go and play all the Wordle.

SPEAKER_02 53:52

Listener, this is evergreen information.

SPEAKER_04 53:57

So hit up your library, well, check and see if your local library offers these perks. Um, and uh and yeah, get get to Wordling. This is amazing. And all of the New York Times games. You just have to refresh it like every three days or something like that. Connections is the one that I occasionally. You'll get ad free connections.

SPEAKER_02 54:16

Sports connections is one that I and you'll be able to go if you use your subscription. You can go into the past games as well as oh yeah, you get access to like everything that the archive, the annals as we like to call it here on the program. Uh David, you just re-watched this. How did you consume it? Was it Plex or Hoopla?

SPEAKER_04 54:35

I had it on my Plex. Okay. I watched it a second time on Hoopla because Plex wouldn't play at double speed as my like rewatch and hoopla wouldn't.

SPEAKER_02 54:44

Watch it at double speed.

SPEAKER_04 54:45

The second time. Because I wanted to make my notes.

SPEAKER_02 54:47

Wow.

SPEAKER_04 54:47

The first time I wanted it unencumbered. I wanted no I couldn't have something in front of me while I was doing that.

SPEAKER_02 54:53

Are you a 1.5, 1.2 podcast person?

SPEAKER_04 54:55

No, I'm a two. Yeah. You're a two. I'm an editor though, so I do this all day. Every day. Like I've been listening to I you know, if you're doing a behind the scenes thing and then you have an hour-long interview with John Favreau, I'm not watching that for an hour. I don't have time. Yeah, no, it's I need to consume it in at least 30 minutes. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 55:13

Uh maybe I need to train myself to do this.

SPEAKER_04 55:16

You don't need to. Everybody hates me for doing it.

SPEAKER_02 55:19

I don't hate you for that. I admire it.

SPEAKER_04 55:21

On top of that, I use Overcast, which has a smart uh smart time thing too, so it removes all the gaps. Oh, wow. As well as listening to it.

SPEAKER_02 55:29

And as you know, I use Garage Band and sit and go click, click, click, click, click, click, click. That's the rumor, anyway. I'm not gonna confirm or deny that. So are you still as highly rated? Is the nostalgic pull still there for you?

SPEAKER_04 55:44

Um the nostalgic pull absolutely is still there. I would put it at three and a half out of five lollipops. Um generous man. But uh knowing that it's it's the the point five is giving nostalgia. Like it's really like I don't know if I could go below three.

SPEAKER_02 56:02

This is one of those things that I've been dreading on this podcast where it's like, I don't want to like take your toy from you. Take my toy. Because then we'll Because it doesn't hurt anybody. It has no stakes, really.

SPEAKER_04 56:15

And I will agree with you there. And I have problems with the movie from a story standpoint. So most of my scoring is because I loved this movie as uh as a kid. I'm interested if I uh because I love this movie as a kid, I watched it in the last 10 years, you know what I mean? And so I hadn't I wish I had a bigger gap, maybe because I'm seven years old. But I also quote this with friends all the time.

SPEAKER_02 56:42

It's what for me, it's one of the outside of like some of the stuff that kind of works where I'm gonna say it now. It's like you're not deaf, and it's like, yo, I'm gonna deaf is brother on this block. I'm gonna kick you in your face if you keep. And it's like, why is everybody in this movie? And I get it, it's a difference in in classes and cultures, but like everybody's so fucking stupid so often, and it just like so hi, here we go. It's Paul. I'm going to be a little more popular.

SPEAKER_04 57:15

I do want to oh, I I should also give you and the listener context. I grew up here in Los Angeles, right? I grew up in Westchester, uh, which is a uh an unencob uh unincorporated area of the city next to Inglewood, Westchester High School, very, very and I have a 10 uh sister that's 10 years older than me.

SPEAKER_02 57:37

Right.

SPEAKER_04 57:37

This was all of her friends in high school that I saw.

SPEAKER_02 57:40

Oh, people you had like admired and were so cool.

SPEAKER_04 57:43

And in 92, I went from public school to a private school in Hawthorne, which is interesting. And so I went from third to eighth grade in Hawthorne, and these were my classmates, and these are the movies we all watched. And so, like, until I discovered Blink 182, like I only listened to rap and hip-hop and RB. Like that was it. So this was familiar to me at that time, and so I do think I should put that caveat out there of my nostalgia for this is that time in my life.

SPEAKER_02 58:14

I'm gonna ask you straight up right now, how did you end up feeling about the soundtrack when it was over? I loved it. You this is a thing where it's like you and it's like I I like like a couple songs from it. Yeah, the the black box shows up at a point, MC Hammer shows up at a point. Whose credit only is Hammer. And at that point, I believe he is Hammer, and I say this with all respect because I would never ever in any way on any level even infer that I'm insulting one hammer. I'm not kidding though, like gentlemen from Oakland, like all respect and nothing but respect. But when you hear can't touch this, it's either a time capsule or there's intention. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. And so it it time capsules the movie to a I definitely and you're not wrong.

SPEAKER_04 59:05

I thought it was an interesting needle drop because I was too young at that time to know is this modern or is this ironic, or is this funny? Like I'm trying to do why they were using it. Where it's like, you know, kid is getting it. It didn't bother me. Like it didn't, it only took me out of the film because of the zeitgeist nature of the song.

SPEAKER_02 59:31

Uh I just I think it's there's some things that work, like that song in the soundtrack in context of the movie, like totally works. The black box song in the club. Yeah, great, totally works for me. There's stuff that works in the movie. Having said that, totally watched this sometime within a couple few years of it coming out. I know I watched it. I have specific memories of like little things like kid being on the belt sander and yeah, like a couple like few, like the truck, Lucille, the truck. Yeah, like a few little things about the movie, but not much. And I think this is a movie where it's like I rewatched House Party, like I said, like about half a dozen years ago, and I was like, okay, look, some of this shit is like okay, fine, it's borderline, whatever, depending on who you're talking to. It's aged pretty well for me, obviously. This was one of those movies that I was like, I kind of want to keep this in the like, yeah, I like this. I don't want to question it. And so walking away, it must have been like a two and a half or a three, right? Something in the like, yeah, it was fine, it was good. Like, if somebody were like, What's like a goofy comedy that like it like very specific things? I'd be like, How do I think Bill and Ted falls?

SPEAKER_04 1:00:44

I I I always wonder if people like it as much as I do.

SPEAKER_02 1:00:48

Bill and Ted is really, really it is an excellent adventure. Yeah, it truly is. Yeah, be excellent to every like when Face of the Music came out.

SPEAKER_04 1:00:57

I watched it and I kind of liked it.

SPEAKER_02 1:00:58

Yeah, I think it's a solid movie. Bogus Journey is an okay movie. I like both movies. I think Sadler's great in that movie. But there are movies that there are echoes that come after this movie that I enjoy a little bit more for whatever reason. I don't know why I feel like I need to make that point, but like Friday. Of course, she's all that can't hardly wait. 21 Jump Street, Don't Tell Mom the Babysitter's Dead, Don't Be a Menace, Billy Madison, Step Brothers, Ten Things I Hate About You, One of Them Days, Super Bad. The that list goes on. And the main thing with the movie for me, outside of everybody just apparently being like dumb, is this feels like a first-time director. Like kid and player pretty huge at this point in time. And this guy clearly really wants to be funny and give them an opportunity. And there's a level of I enjoy the kid performance. I don't know how to really feel about the play performance. For a lot of reasons, partly because, like, again, no stake. He's not intimidating necessarily. And I understand that there is a level of like, yeah, but this is supposed to be like kind of a farce, it's supposed to be kind of goofy. Uh, not to relate things back to Pauly Short, but it's a it's a thing where it's like, I don't know how to feel about a lot of the performances again, outside of Wedge and Mink, who I think are fantastic. Yeah, I love those. And I I have feelings about some of the other performances, so we're gonna get into this. I walked away. I'm gonna take a liberty rule as I am the co-host on Me Known Program. Don't fight me, let me just get up the sill. I'm at 1.75 wax figures. Oh, that's a good, yeah. Is that Chuck Woolry? No, that's Ryan Seacrest. That robot is Ryan Seacrest. No, wait. That's I think that's right. I think that's fine.

SPEAKER_04 1:02:58

And I don't want you to I don't want you to walk on eggshells. I have nothing. I will not have a few. I am as a bit going to cinematize this film and try to try to prositize We have about an hour to talk about this, folks.

SPEAKER_02 1:03:14

Let's start getting up this hill. We're at three and a half. Yeah. And one uh three and a half, three and a half pops. I lollipops out of five, yeah. 1.75 wax figures. It's class act with David Park, who is one. Let's start the movie. Now, you've made this point when that song first comes in. Class act yeah, and like the colors, the vibe, the feel of the colour.

SPEAKER_04 1:03:39

You get the in-living color, say by the bell title treatment. A different world.

SPEAKER_02 1:03:42

Like it's just like it is in my zone for sure. Yeah. And so I'm loving the credits. I'm loving this fresh prints and Ceno Man kind of thing. If there's a lot of shit that I I mean, I had the hots for Karen Parsons. I still do to whatever degree.

SPEAKER_04 1:03:58

She is just pitch perfect in this movie.

SPEAKER_02 1:04:01

Have you seen Major Pain?

SPEAKER_04 1:04:03

Uh, I think I saw it when I was a kid. And it's it didn't teeth. It didn't live on in my rewatch like this one did.

SPEAKER_02 1:04:13

So this is the flip for us of Karen Parsons movies. Like I I could drop pretty much anything and watch Major Pain almost any time. And I Nick Castle, who plays The Shape, directed that movie. Awesome. I love it. He he directed uh uh I think Halloween four. Last Star Fighter. Yeah, I don't know. I don't know. I don't know in terms of uh his film or something.

SPEAKER_04 1:04:34

It wasn't Halloween four, but yeah. Yeah, yeah. He directed one of the Halloween films, but yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:04:38

So the movie starts with Kid in jail narrating, and the movie does abandon that for long periods of time. I don't hate this, but this movie is kid's story.

SPEAKER_04 1:04:50

Yes, yes, yes. You don't hate what? I don't hate a cold open exposition-y type setup, but I understand from a writer's standpoint that it's such a crutch because then it leads into all the voiceover that they kind of also abandoned. Totally. Completely and totally so many motifs are abandoned.

SPEAKER_02 1:05:14

Dude, I there are things that repeat that I don't want to repeat, and things that are abandoned that. And it's like I like Reichert showing up, I like the Duke performance. It's again, it's a thing where it's like this guy's always so great as like a cop or a lawyer, or the like your everyday like kind of guy who's like the volume is turned up a little. Yeah. And the haircut that play gets. This is the thing is like the movie is trying to do stuff all the time. So when play gets that first haircut, and it's where he and they and they flip, like things are flipping compared to what the usual with them in real life, which I think was part of their intention.

SPEAKER_04 1:05:56

You mentioned well, I think also uh they had done a radio. Interview where they said that this movie is actually pretty close to how they were.

SPEAKER_02 1:06:04

Like, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 1:06:05

Yeah, kid was like the book smart one, and play was the the street smart one, and that they they played into that. I didn't even pick up on the hair swap thing. That's the movie's trying to do stuff.

SPEAKER_02 1:06:18

Yeah. It really is. Like I the it's clearly these two guys at I think the height of their fame and power potentially. It had to be, yeah. In their sway in Hollywood. And some of it like totally does land for me, and some of it not necessarily. But I think like that really does lie with the director ultimately. So many things in the end lie with a director. And Duncan, his main problem, the kid, is that he has to pass PE to get into Halvard. Half?

SPEAKER_04 1:06:51

I didn't know I stopped listening. Right. Like that's how much I like the movie, and I'm like, I I just need beats. It's it's so broad strokes to me. Like it's just like, hey, he's having a ton of he needs to get into school. Don't care.

SPEAKER_02 1:07:04

I get to I there's a point that I get to where I'm like, oh my god, where I start to feel kind of exhausted. Like the movie ends like five or six times. It feels like it could. And yeah, I made notes about yeah. Yeah. We we meet everybody and how they are and what they need in terms of at least Duncan and Blade. Yep. And their identities are mixed up by this large-breasted. How big do you think titties were? This movie is obsessed with titties. It really is. This movie loves titties. So, I mean, which sure, why not? So at school, they're in this file mix-up thing and end up in different classes. And I find it funny that the photos in the files they're wearing what they're wearing that day. That's a good point. Like that there's first time directory like continuity and even the principal, I think he has a photo of himself in his office and he's literally wearing the same thing.

SPEAKER_04 1:08:09

Oh, okay.

SPEAKER_02 1:08:10

I find it very I find that pretty funny. Yeah. There, there are things like I was saying, it's it when he's going over like there's a knowledge bowl. I'm like, okay, cool. This is something that like I can this will happen. I look forward to this. Yeah. Great. And when the principal says to play thinking he's kid, lean on me, bro. Where he makes that reference to the Morgan Freeman movie. It's so funny.

SPEAKER_04 1:08:37

Yeah. I do like the dialogue. I I think that's a good exercise in writing. Now, this is like one of those things where it's like the story could have been solved by anybody just using people's names.

SPEAKER_02 1:08:50

Yeah, right.

SPEAKER_04 1:08:51

Um, home alone, like a phone call. Now they did write you know, John Hughes is uh a genius and wrote around that and just knocked the phone lines out, but like a phone call could have solved this.

SPEAKER_02 1:09:02

Well, like play is an opportunist in the movie. Yeah. And so him taking control and Duncan being such um like a beta, yeah, beta cuck. Yeah, like just being like, okay, whatever you say, like they do establish who these characters are pretty quickly. And I do I, you know, I'm sitting already here like defending the movie to a degree where it's like, no, I feel like this, like, yeah, pump your little fist, your little useless fist. But kid, he he meets with the principal and he's like getting poked with a bat and shit.

SPEAKER_04 1:09:36

Oh, yeah, that seemed really problematic when he reaches for one bat and he finds a different one, and like, oh man. Some of that was a little uncomfortable to watch.

SPEAKER_02 1:09:44

Um but the the the movie is like mostly like you need to see how different their lives are because of their because of their class. Like the movie does have some stuff to say about that. True. Yeah. Dougie Doug, like being an opportunist as well. Like many opportunists in this movie.

SPEAKER_04 1:10:03

It's true. Hey, look, they they they're out there on those streets.

SPEAKER_02 1:10:05

Yeah. Wedge, who is it ever said in the first hour and 10 of the movie that he's a drug dealer?

SPEAKER_04 1:10:13

No, it's absolutely comes. No. Just like Polly Shore, it comes from absolutely nowhere. Yep. There's an absurdist tilt to this movie that is like not super working. Yeah. I did like one of my Yeah, yeah, we'll get to it.

SPEAKER_02 1:10:27

What a sweet man.

SPEAKER_03 1:10:28

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:10:29

Yeah. So Wedge and Demita shows up, and Duncan finally sees his mixed-up file, and we see that you know, the main thing about this movie is coming to terms with that they're complic they're complicated people, kid and play. And I think Kid does have a good character arc in the end and has some realizations he comes to. Again, the movie tries to do some stuff, yeah. And it's trying to be like, you know, no drugs. Drugs are bad.

SPEAKER_04 1:10:59

Yeah. And and Pauly Shore is the one of all people that usher that storyline in out of nowhere.

SPEAKER_02 1:11:06

Dude, it's like kind of glossed over a couple times that there's gonna be like an anti-drug rally or whatever. It's so many things, yeah. As I'm paying like wait really close attention and watching it 1.0. Mmm. Yeah, right. Impressive, no?

SPEAKER_04 1:11:22

Uh a real Cinefa.

SPEAKER_02 1:11:24

Yeah. So it's just like Blade, for instance, his whole thing right here. While the files are mixed up and Duncan's figuring this out and everything, Blade's like threatening him and like putting him on a sander and shit, and he's like, Look, I'll save you from Wedge because he's gonna kill you because of the Davita thing or whatever, right? Yeah. Uh and he sucker punches Wedge. Yeah. And they switched the movie, is so obsessed with them with moments where they're where things are switching.

SPEAKER_04 1:12:03

Okay. Uh in is there another one at that moment when he after he sucker punch punches Wedge, or it's just the the showing.

SPEAKER_02 1:12:16

They sh they switch like for some reason. Look, if you're gonna be me, you have to drive my truck. Got it, yes, yes. Like you have to ride my bike. Like there, it's just like, why?

SPEAKER_04 1:12:29

I just I don't have no problem with that.

SPEAKER_02 1:12:33

But hey, I don't have a license, I don't know how to drive. This thing is my baby. You better learn. Well, he says, I don't either. Yeah, well, and he's people think you're me, like they like they gotta think you're cool. Yeah, I don't know, and the music is already killing me. It's just or it's repeating.

SPEAKER_04 1:12:50

So this is what I hated the the class act song or the score, like the underscore. Uh so watching it in two times speed, I noticed it more. And I think it was a it was done in post, obviously, but it was most music is yeah, it was to to sh they were like overselling the differences of the classrooms. Like every time they cut to Duncan in Blade's class, there's hip hop playing. And every time they cut to to Blade in Duncan's class, there's like orchestral classical music playing. And I was like, This didn't need to be this didn't it's it's very heavy. The class commentary is super and that's that's what was bothering you. It's less needle drops, it's more the score having to project what's happening and repeating, repeating, repeating.

SPEAKER_02 1:13:44

Like it doesn't mix up what we're listening to. Yeah, like it's just the same thing repeating. It's like somebody hitting Casio beats number six over like cool beats number six. I can respect that. So everybody is gotten you know haircuts. The narration is gone for this point, I think, until the most of the movie. Yeah. And here's the thing with like Meeshak Taylor, actor totally leaning in, doing a really good job. Doing the dad is like, this is part of the time capsule thing. He like he he's obsessed with his son like being gay, potentially being gay, yeah. Like it's it's his one thing like in the movie, and the mom's just kind of along for the ride. Yeah. And that that whole storyline with the parents don't work for me.

SPEAKER_04 1:14:32

It reminds me of uh Gary's parents in Weird Science a little bit. Oh, funny. Um, or like, uh are there any other John Hughes movies where the parents are some parallels here? No, it mostly reminds me of Gary, Gary's parents from Weird Science.

SPEAKER_03 1:14:48

Gary?

unknown 1:14:49

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 1:14:50

Gary? Where they are uh like at one point, aren't they holding like milk and cookies?

SPEAKER_02 1:14:58

Yeah, and Blade comes down and takes one. Like he helps himself to one. That's the thing, is he's just like, dude, the one time he gets physical with somebody, he like sucker punches him. When you watch him dance, when you see his feet, it's like I can do that. I'm 111 years old. He's everyman, but he's but but it's about swag, it's about attitude. I can teach you to be a rapper 90 minutes, no problem. I mean, he teaches him so fast.

SPEAKER_04 1:15:30

Yeah, you know what I love about that scene is like one of his goons is also in the room watching.

SPEAKER_02 1:15:36

Like Blade has goons? It's so good. Why are they 40? Hire goons, you know why? Because they're the same age as kid and play. Oh, that's true. Dude, they're clearly like it's like that is a 26-year-old man. What is happening here? Like when they go to the bar, they're supposed to be 17, and Blade has sex with everybody. 10 women.

SPEAKER_03 1:16:01

And he's like ordering drinks, and he's like 17, and black boxes, like, everybody, everybody.

SPEAKER_02 1:16:07

And it's like, you know who Blade's gonna fuck? Everybody, everybody. Nuts. Do you come a lot? Come here a lot. I thought it was the language, like my Microsoft Word program on my computer. Why are you so dumb? You're the smartest kid in the world.

SPEAKER_04 1:16:28

That scene is like incredibly quoted with me.

SPEAKER_02 1:16:31

It's one of my favorite scenes of the movie, partly because play is pretty solid in this scene of again the way it ends when he's when he when Kate says, You're not deaf, and it's so sincere. And play says, if you don't stop insulting me, I'll kick you in your face. Because that is well written.

SPEAKER_04 1:16:50

What's funny is well delivered by they're doing who's on first. Right, exactly. Yeah. Um, I do think uh and and stop me, uh, I as as poorly stop yelling. Play stop yelling. As poorly written as it seems you find these characters because he's so dumb. They play it really well, they're really good in this because it's uh it's about class and yeah, culture and exposure. But I think them as their committers' roles are really good.

SPEAKER_02 1:17:21

They I agree, they're very committed. There are things like with play yelling, yeah. Where it's like to me, again, an experienced director would be like, dude, with the yelling. Yeah, like you do not hit on a girl, you hit on a bitch, and you're just like, Oh, and again, it's great in this scene. This is where you see progression from the two of them. Is it it sprouts really from this scene? Yeah. And Duncan, the passing P.E. thing where he kind of owns his power, yeah, is like, Blade, you're gonna help me pass P.E. And we go into football mode, and Blade just elbows like a nerd in the face.

SPEAKER_04 1:18:00

That's the only time we see him absolutely passing P.E. for him. Now I guess he's like, Oh, yeah, I'm great at sports. If you take a look for it, I know all of a sudden I don't know, right? But maybe no one ever asked him to kick a football, and he looks like his form is really good.

SPEAKER_02 1:18:16

Like, oh, dude, I feel like that football goes four feet up, 20 feet forward, and then starts bouncing.

SPEAKER_04 1:18:22

Oh, maybe, but his leg extension looks like he's got a great high kick. Yeah, he really does. I'll give him that. Yeah, but yeah, like um uh this is where I was gonna Oppenheimer this thing. The movie Oppenheimer really moves, like no scene really starts or ends. It feels like in Oppenheimer there's a lot of the middles of scenes, but the movie's really long. So much happens in that film. And I feel like maybe that's happening here a little bit. Like, wow, Blade tells us I'm really good at sports. Welcome to Intermission.

SPEAKER_03 1:19:14

Okay. Thank you.

SPEAKER_04 1:19:16

All right, so sport So Blade tells us he's good at sports. The director does not treat his audience as if they're stupid. If they heard him say that, we don't need to prove it.

SPEAKER_02 1:19:28

Fine. I mean, he elbows a nerd and sucker punches somebody. He's clearly talented.

SPEAKER_04 1:19:34

Only once, though, whereas we get a class act montage of football kicking from from Dunkid. Yeah. So I think uh that was I did make a note to to compare it to Oppenheimer in that way. Like the director does not treat his audience like they're idiots.

SPEAKER_02 1:19:48

No, I I'll give them that. I'll give you that. Blade's more of a theory than straight at popping people out of nowhere. So it's got great reflexes. The thing that this movie like does, the thing that bugs me is like not only is like everybody like why is everybody dumb? And that and as a result, like Wedge has to be so bumbling, and so on, and so many people do that it's it can be a little bit much. I Ebert apparently was like, the movie's fine, it's just too goofy. And I was like, Oh, I think I yeah, Cruster, I'm with you, bro. And people the a big thing about this movie, and I guess with Blade, it's it's by choice, it's kind of inferred, but like everyone has this problem where they cannot speak and they cannot read. And that's where the move like the movie keeps making those jokes, and it's just a lot for me.

SPEAKER_04 1:20:49

I think this is why it worked for me as a 10-year-old, though. I think I was that kid, I was like one of very few white people at a school in Hawthorne. I think I was Duncan, like as a 10-year-old, and I saw myself in that probably. And so do you think Duncan walked so Carlton could run?

SPEAKER_02 1:21:08

Did you just say that I'm gonna cut this? Did you just say that kid was white? No, I misunderstood.

SPEAKER_04 1:21:15

No, I'm saying I was Duncan as who he is in the movie. I felt that way. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Uh, like where I didn't have the culture that they all had. Right. You know, right? So it's like, and boy, did I learn a lot of slang from this movie, especially in that scene out of the club, you know what I mean? Where I was like, oh, okay.

SPEAKER_02 1:21:38

The fashion, the shoes, yeah. So many of the things in this movie look good, and some of the like you were saying, like somebody said somebody says like 5,000. Like I think kids. Yeah. I was like, oh shit. Yeah, 5,000. I was like, oh yeah. Also, suddenly, you know, at the like halfway point of the movie, there you go. Listener, we're halfway through. How where are we at? It's hard to I like this better than Goodburger. I want to say, but Mink suddenly shows up, and there's a level, it's like, this guy looks great. I like this performance, I like the level of confidence. Who the fuck is this guy? Why is he so and that's the I can intuit, I can infer that Mink is probably like the the head of the snake drug dealer. But it's like all this seems like is he's like, why aren't you more popular? I need you to be popular. Yeah, I have a lot invested in you being popular, and it's like, but why?

SPEAKER_04 1:22:35

This is this is where there were opportunities for the script, for sure, because Wedge Wedge's biggest beef is that Duncan is going after, or Blade, quote unquote, is going after his girlfriend.

SPEAKER_02 1:22:51

That's it. Well, and the girlfriend's more going after him.

SPEAKER_04 1:22:54

Yeah, yeah, yeah, for sure.

SPEAKER_02 1:22:56

Like the the females in this movie are they not to be messed with. Are pretty well written. They know what they want, they go for what they want.

SPEAKER_04 1:23:07

Like on their date, Demita is always like, hurry up, let's go! Yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:23:13

They both have uh plenty of I can't think of the word in this moment. Either they they have plenty of like autonomy.

SPEAKER_04 1:23:23

They're absolutely individual people. They absolutely yeah, correct. Like they don't hold it for sound. They don't need kid or play.

SPEAKER_02 1:23:36

Well, they want kid or play, which is so much better and so much more important. I'm so glad that you and I see this piece of this the same way and agree with that as human beings.

SPEAKER_04 1:23:46

Maybe that was the input from uh from Cynthia Friedman.

SPEAKER_02 1:23:50

That was the thing from Oppenheimer.

SPEAKER_04 1:23:51

Yeah. Remember that scene with Mary Poppins at the end when she doesn't give enough shit to fucking the other lawyer guy? Drink the spoon. It doesn't matter what's in it.

SPEAKER_02 1:24:03

So this is a thing that bugs me about this. I keep coming back to this. They did in movies like this, like She's All That or whatever it are, it is, or The Wedding Singer, or they came together. People are trying on clothes, and I'm like, has this motherfucker never put on clothes before in his life?

SPEAKER_03 1:24:21

It's just kid like trying to haplessly put on clothing. And I'm just like, why is this happening?

SPEAKER_04 1:24:29

I love a montage.

SPEAKER_03 1:24:30

You still familiar with these clothing. Does this movie have like four montages?

SPEAKER_02 1:24:35

I think it's great. It's like watching Rocky Ford. I wish. Although, I mean, this movie has arguably better fashion than Rocky Ford. I I want to mention it again when Play shows up with that lime jacket on and like the cool motorcycle and everything. And and like the way that this is written, where it's like he's a secret okay guy, where it's like he wants to listen and be listened to. And I think this scene is really great where she's like, Yeah, tiny deaths, and like that, this is what that means. Like this movie is horny, these are children.

SPEAKER_04 1:25:09

For sure. Like she's 26-year-old children. Yeah, exactly. Yeah, no. Uh what was her name? Helen or Ellen? Ellen? Uh yeah, she's super horny in this movie.

SPEAKER_02 1:25:18

Dude, her and Demita both. Again, like they have authority over what they want and who they are and everything. Yeah. Have you ever seen the movie The Perfect Weapon?

SPEAKER_04 1:25:29

Nope.

SPEAKER_02 1:25:30

Ever heard of it?

SPEAKER_04 1:25:31

No. I don't think I don't think so. You poor best. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:25:34

No. But there's a there's random neon stuff in this fate club that they're in at points in a just like this reminds me of perfect weapon. It's just like people are like, I don't know, just throw some neon shit on the walls.

SPEAKER_04 1:25:46

Or like cocktail or like blade runner. The exact blade runner.

SPEAKER_03 1:25:52

Ouch to Blade Runner. Take that fucking Ridley Scott. Apparently, there's a reason we haven't had a blade runner. It looks just like the overlit, overblown class act from 1992.

SPEAKER_04 1:26:09

Yeah, speaking of overlit and overblown, yeah. There's scenes in this movie I feel that could be lit better.

SPEAKER_02 1:26:14

The movie is like kind of offensively bright. Yeah, it's just flat.

SPEAKER_04 1:26:19

Like and what's crazy is like the DP didn't not do good stuff. I agree. Um, I mean, Heather. Oh no, Heathers is Heather's as flat as this. I actually like the view of Heather.

SPEAKER_02 1:26:30

I like the look of Heathers because it has and this to me uh I like the look of New Jack City quite a bit too. That's a great movie. Like that's a movie that I thought we would do before this movie. To be a hundred percent honest with you, as we're as we're trying to zigged. Mink showed up halfway through the movies. We're talking through this in order. The the also the weird to meet us like I work at this wax museum movie studio across from my house. These guys live on this couch outside of my house. Cool. But then she showed them a poster instead of a wax figure.

SPEAKER_00 1:27:11

Right.

SPEAKER_02 1:27:11

I designed this poster for the wax museum movie studio from across the street from my house. And yeah, and did she design the poster or did she design the figure? In the poster? I don't they again, please. I hope that wasn't the scene that hit the cutting room floor.

SPEAKER_04 1:27:26

These are my concerns. It was probably shot after the wax museum. They are like, we have to explain this wax museum. How do they get into the wax museum? She works there.

SPEAKER_02 1:27:36

Sure. Yeah, she has access somehow or whatever. I I do like the way that when Kid finally does his thing. Uh or kid is supposed to it's not kid. Play, and I mix this up. Play does the dissertation that he the car? Yeah, which it's like the way he's describing it is like Yeah, the way uh an ice car works is the same way that like sex works and explosions and like these uh depending on how big your shaft is. I I love how the teacher is like, Wait, you mean this, right? And he's just like, uh yeah, sure. Whatever you know what you said, teach and then the teacher's like, Oh, I'm so smart because you're so smart because I'm so I some of the stuff of of the way that they write how people around them assume especially play is gonna be because of the assumed IQ.

SPEAKER_04 1:28:36

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:28:37

Like that stuff works for me.

SPEAKER_04 1:28:38

Yeah, yeah. Yeah, I think it's I I think it was also probably easier in that time where this m obviously this movie would never be made today in the way that it was. Um but I think in this time it was almost softer around the edges in some ways, because if it were made in the 70s, it'd be even worse. You know what I mean?

SPEAKER_02 1:29:00

Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 1:29:01

Versus so it's a it's a sanded around the edges movie that wasn't as progressive as we are now. Right. So it's like that middle ground. It's that it's that middle ground where they could still do it and they leaned on it.

SPEAKER_02 1:29:13

This is the it never feels like it does like low-hanging fruit jokes, but it doesn't do like a bunch of racist or racial jokes. It does class-based jokes and culture-based jokes more. And like the thing is, like, more than anything, the movie to me is just like it's so far for the most part, aside from some things that I like to look at, and I I think I'm I don't know, it's just like a nothing burger.

SPEAKER_04 1:29:42

Sure, yeah, it's very milk toast.

SPEAKER_02 1:29:44

Yeah, I I I don't know when Wedge is finally revealed to be a drug dealer, suddenly fucking Pauly Shores here, and rap only takes this long to learn, and this is the only move you need to know. And this is is this what you think you were saying earlier? Yeah, the director respects the audience. Is that what these choices are? I mean, they're not.

SPEAKER_04 1:30:06

This is me playing devil's advocate.

SPEAKER_02 1:30:08

Okay. This is my glasses. This is you playing Keanu Reeves. This is you playing Yeah, I was was he Bill or Ted?

SPEAKER_04 1:30:14

Uh, he was Bill uh uh he's Bill He's Bill. He's Bill. I was Bill. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:30:21

I loved you as Ted. No, I I just when Wedge suddenly like Minks money's been stolen by someone, and it's clearly Wedge, but Wedge says it's somebody else.

SPEAKER_04 1:30:33

The scene is on the getting room floor. That's another example. Oh, I did want to go back real quick. There's the last time we see Blade's mom is really sweet scene between him and his mom when he's doing homework and she's like, What are you doing? He's like, homework, and he's got the flower and kind of calls back. But it's actually a really sweet scene. It is, and I almost feel like did she say, like, I'm not here just to welcome him home. Like, we need one more scene. But like, you never see her again. I would love to see her again. Like, I don't disagree. After later, when he gets when they all get out of jail.

SPEAKER_02 1:31:06

Um I'm way more interested in the relationship between those two people than whatever the fuck is going on with and we're not done with Duncan and his parents. So the sloppy Suze dancers don't show up to the leaning tower of cheese anti-drug rally, as we were promised by the whistle.

unknown 1:31:28

Ow!

SPEAKER_02 1:31:30

Jury duty too, back injury. But the these bars, too, like that they go to, the sets are just rough. When they end up like they're on these dates with these girls, and again, mistaken identity, and everybody, as I guess we're supposed to do. Yeah, everybody just like goes, Oh, Blade Brown, yep, I'm scared, I'm terrified, I give you all respect and fear and admiration, and uh all right, and apparently that's what the director's doing. Um, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 1:32:02

Um yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:32:05

Oh, David.

SPEAKER_04 1:32:06

Well, I just saw my note for the Incinoman sequel we were talking about. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. But there's a great dance montage. I love a dance montage.

SPEAKER_02 1:32:14

I did so man, is it is it good, bad, or indifferent that the one from Secret of the Oewes, the vanilla ice performances that's so much better than the kid in play performances. And the rap, when it gets self-referential and boastful, the shit's okay. Yeah. But overall, in terms of the bars and the rhymes, are akin to a crime. They're not evergreen, they're not even pine. Yeah, these are not good.

SPEAKER_00 1:32:41

Um, but it's were they handstrung?

SPEAKER_04 1:32:45

Were they hamstrung to do this anti-drug message because the film wanted to turn around three times and then Kinplay signed on? Were they were they um were they like, okay, and this sucks, this sucks, but you gotta consider the time that this film was made. Was the studio like, we'll give you money for it, but we need to have an anti-drug message if we're gonna have two black leads?

SPEAKER_02 1:33:08

There well, and that's the thing for a million reasons that we may or may not know about as Warner was starting to become what it is now at this time. Yeah, this was around when Warner was like, What's up, what's up, new line? What's up, like all sorts of truth, yeah. And was becoming more of a like, how do we sell Bugs Bunny? How do we sell Batman? Which was maybe the thing that really got that going as that shows up in this movie, Batman. As right, that's right, that's right. But the as we're going into that final set piece, and like, dude, I just I can't get over to did you remember Gerardo, the rapper? Uh Informer. It sounds like Informer. I don't know. I do like also that like this is the message that does work because the the the anti-drug thing feels fucking shoehorny.

SPEAKER_03 1:34:06

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:34:06

Like when Ellen hands Blade the condom, and when people reference condoms and just like yeah, um mutual decision making permission is cool. Yeah, like this is a good thing. Like this movie does have some things that work.

SPEAKER_04 1:34:23

Yeah, yeah. And that Blade didn't didn't try to do that with her before that. Right. He he's ne that's the thing is.

SPEAKER_02 1:34:30

He seems like a really moral bad guy. He sucker punches people, and that's about the worst thing he does. And like outside of like threatening people and like trying to make people, you know, do what he wants and dance for him, but like he's a snappy fucking dresser. I mean, Minx may be a little dreader, a little better. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 1:34:50

But like other than I love Minx suits, dude. He looks so good. Other than um making Duncan live his life, he doesn't take advantage of Duncan in any other way, and his goons are always looking out for him.

SPEAKER_02 1:35:04

Well, and it's it's kind of like Goodburger when like, yeah, Keenan and Cal, like the motivations and so many of these movies are so similar. I it and that's the thing is like this is like a genre unto itself, but this is like a subgenre be below that where we've been talking about this is a movie with a black cast that's telling that story of that culture and these classes that exist within. And I by the way, I almost uh rated this movie phone banks because I actually love the shot.

SPEAKER_04 1:35:35

I almost did too. The shot it's a good one. Now, there's something so the first shot is actually along uh like right near Barum.

SPEAKER_01 1:35:44

Oh, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 1:35:45

But then all of a sudden you're on the universal backlot with almost no art direction. It just looks like the universal backlot.

SPEAKER_02 1:35:51

It's bad, it's lit badly.

SPEAKER_04 1:35:53

There's just no art department budget. It just looks like the backlot. And I'm like, does it look like the backlot? Because I have a universal pass right now and I'm just there all the time. Yes. Or but also yes. Oh man.

SPEAKER_02 1:36:09

You're right. Two types.

SPEAKER_04 1:36:10

Yeah. Look at my note. The back lot, l-ol.

SPEAKER_02 1:36:14

I love how you just like the movies. You've also, oh my god, three ninjas franchise can't do it. Sidekicks, airheads, the best die hard ripoff told from the opposite. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Um, my boyfriend's back. Oh man, that came out of my birthday. Uh yeah, as we're talking about Oppenheimer and my birthday. So anyway, the chase.

SPEAKER_04 1:36:36

The reason those are on there is the chasing feels like out of those types of movies. And when I talk about those lower rung movies, that's not a good chase scene. These are my comfort movies. These are the movies I would also stop flipping the channels for, including Cat Class X. Okay. So that's what these are.

SPEAKER_02 1:36:52

I'm gonna give you, I'm gonna give you this as we've gone over the list. Three ninjas, yes. Sidekicks, yes. Airheads, yes. Yes. I can't wait to do airheads on this podcast. Yeah. And I have a feeling you may be the person to do it. I'm down. As we're looking at each other on like the if that was gonna be on your list of movies to bring. Oh man, Sandler, Busheni, not to mention Michael Richards, Michael McKean. Oh my god. She divorced me after she saw the shit states underwear. But that that movie at least had like a cop who had a divorce on the line. This movie, it's like, oh, my my son might be gay. Yeah, I don't know. And I'm like, I don't care.

SPEAKER_04 1:37:36

I didn't but that's also one of the only storylines that actually pays off. Like, in terms of like it has an arc.

SPEAKER_02 1:37:45

Well, I I think it does like kid has to come out of his shell. So he does the rap thing, like about two-thirds of the way through the movie. Play and and also like has to punch a dude in the face because the main thing for him becoming cool and like a man is like physical violence and has a George McFly moment. It's a and in the chase you were talking about, there's like a speed ramping that happens at the end where I'm just like, but why? It does it one time. They finally get found out in terms of their identities, and the the two love interests, Karen Parsons and DeVee, they're like, fuck these guys in this moment, of course. But also everybody wants to survive as Mink and his goons are chasing that higher goons, and they go back into the wax museum. I like the set piece. I don't like the way it looks, but I like the set piece.

SPEAKER_04 1:38:41

It's poorly lit. It just looks like it looks like they have fluorescent lights on in a closed wax museum. Whereas the hall of horror should be really contrasty and like I almost want to download the movie and recolor it.

SPEAKER_02 1:38:55

Yeah, have fog pumping in. Yeah, don't show so much of the headroom above people. Like the shots are just like the director, like the DP was like this, and the director was like, I don't know.

SPEAKER_04 1:39:05

You know what's funny is they run into the there's the subway turnstile that they run in, but they immediately run out. I would love to see something shot on they're on the universal lot, go under the earthquake set. And oh sure, you know what I mean?

SPEAKER_02 1:39:17

Like they were allowed to wax figures or something, had access, and that's they try to do Benny Hill stuff and Three Stooges stuff and like Laurel and Hardy stuff, like through some of the like you were we were saying who's on first earlier. And like no one knows who Trebek is. And again, Jimmy Swagger. These people are so yeah, nobody knows who anybody is. And I'm just like the Louis Armstrong thing is funny. I thought this is a thing. We haven't talked about Dougie Doug as all at all, but like he There's nothing but heaps of praise.

SPEAKER_04 1:39:49

Yeah, yeah, yeah. So good. Okay, we agree. Um I thought of this movie. I think I knew this movie before Louis, before Louis Armstrong was in my subconscious. Okay. And then every time I heard Louis Armstrong after, specifically Jeepers Creepers, I only thought of this movie. Like when I sing Jeepers Creepers, I'm singing it because of this needle drop. It's just so good.

SPEAKER_02 1:40:11

Oh, I was gonna say, and I guess I am because of that Justin Long movie that was directed by that. Oh, I didn't uh did a little monster.

SPEAKER_04 1:40:18

I did see Jeepers Creepers. Yes. I liked the Bee Eating You uh Vanity Plate, right? Is it Be Eating You? Yeah. The Creeper. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:40:26

And we get to see Jason, though, as we're talking about. But like he's wearing coveralls, which is not correct. That's Michael Myers. And he has like long hair, which is not correct. That's leatherface at times. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But he keeps stabbing himself in the head. And where did that vent go? Did it go to another?

SPEAKER_04 1:40:43

I don't know, but I love I love a movie that people are crawling out of vents. It's so good. No, I think it was a I think it was I thought it was another set piece in the wax museum.

SPEAKER_02 1:40:52

I get they they're suddenly in like a grocery area. And Duncan finally gets the love and respect of this look at my note.

SPEAKER_04 1:41:03

A climbing through the air duct scene. This movie has it all.

SPEAKER_02 1:41:06

Well, we're very different. And then the George McFlyn moment, which to me like Back to the Future, earned the stakes of that are insane. In this movie, it's just like uh can't be a man until you start punching people.

SPEAKER_04 1:41:19

At least they start punching people in the head. At least they attached him to a dolly so he could just float across.

SPEAKER_02 1:41:25

Their style. Their style. Sure. The movie has some stylistic flares. And so Rikert is suddenly back, and we're back in the jail suddenly, and it's all just like tonally and editing-wise, it's just like it was like, oh, right, this was a motif. Right. Oh, we're back to this. And the movie to me felt like it could have ended the same way at the rap battle. They could have had the final fight there, and that could have been over, but we wouldn't have got the max the wax museum.

SPEAKER_04 1:41:57

Correct. I you can't you can't not have the wax museum.

SPEAKER_02 1:42:00

But it could have ended there, it could have ended after the chase.

SPEAKER_04 1:42:03

But if it ended there, you what what happens with Wedge?

SPEAKER_02 1:42:08

What happens with you know what I mean? Just but that's the thing. If if you go from the rap battle and then all of a sudden it's the final battle of the movie, what happens after the this first opportunity to end the movie like really mattered? Correct. Like this just took this movie took like at least 25 minutes of my time. I feel like this movie could have been 70 to 75 minutes.

SPEAKER_04 1:42:30

I I am caught off guard by what happens after they get out of jail every time I watch the movie.

SPEAKER_02 1:42:35

It just keeps going. They let everybody out, including Blade, who's like on parole. Yes. And it feels like the movie's gonna be a little bit more.

SPEAKER_04 1:42:44

Yeah, you never see Rick DeComan again. Like you there he should have been in two more scenes in the middle of the movie.

SPEAKER_02 1:42:49

We gotta be at the knowledge bowl because that had to happen because somebody mentioned that once.

SPEAKER_04 1:42:53

And the moment you said storylines that do get paid off that don't need to be, this is what I wrote. Knowledge bowl. Forgot about this part. Host oh, who is the host? His name is Skip Wankman. Right, yes, yes, yes. But the actor, I don't know. I know him.

SPEAKER_02 1:43:08

He's in a movie called Stone Cold with Brian Bosworth, who was I don't know if I saw that, but I know this guy from something maybe from TV. He's been in stuff, but yeah, like and they're playing against a Catholic girls' school. Why this the guard and the secretary are now together because the guard wanted to be with her because she had big titties. Yeah, that's right. And we I did I found that cute. But I that was one of the things that paid off that I was like, I like that. Yeah. Like he was hopeful, he seemed like a nice enough guy. He he was interested in the story. Yeah. And are you like me? Did you think that the secretary was the principal at the beginning of the movie? Some administrator.

SPEAKER_04 1:43:43

Oh, see, I thought she was the principal in the palace at the beginning. Maybe she wasn't, and then all of a sudden she wasn't. She was the secretary. I was like, oh, she should have been the that maybe that one doesn't pass the back. It passed the backdle test, but like it she should have been the principal, I feel like.

SPEAKER_02 1:43:58

Yeah. And that's great, it passes the backdale test. It failed every other test.

SPEAKER_04 1:44:03

Look, man, that's crazy. Take the ones you can get.

SPEAKER_02 1:44:06

But hey, we get in this cool high school movie trivia about what's it like when you come? What's that about? Give me euphemisms for when you come. Tell me how much you're coming.

SPEAKER_04 1:44:15

And that this is the that this is the payoff of the entire movie. Is that I guess Blade learned something? Like, is that what the message of the movie is?

SPEAKER_02 1:44:29

It's that, and then it does the thing that I've done it a million times that Friends does, where it's just like super crazy homophobic and very time and has gay panic. And Meeshach Taylor's that last scene before they start breaking the fourth wall. That's right, yeah. Insane. Dad hears his son loudly. Very clearly fucking very clearly doesn't know what it is. And then he bursts into the room because they're stupid. And he's like, Hope you're using a condom. Hit that pussy hard. Awesome titties. Cool deal. Let me know if you need help in any way, shape, or form. And then goes back to his wife. No, I'm gonna finish, David. I've talked a lot and I'm gonna talk a lot more. And he goes back to his wife and he's like, our son was slapping those titties and getting down, and he's totally straight, and that's awesome. And the wife's like, we should fuck. And the husband's like, yep. And they fuck while they're kidding.

SPEAKER_00 1:45:36

He's fucking 50 feet away. The dad is like, she had, what did he say? Cash is old knockers.

SPEAKER_04 1:45:50

I think he like he he like catches himself because he uses she stacked or something like that. Stacked, which is so unlike him. He's so he's so uh uh put together and buttoned up.

SPEAKER_02 1:46:00

Yeah, and then the fact that she's like, oh, oh the the wife is like all on. She's like turned on by the is my son's hard penis functioning well, and I am ready. And me, Shaq Taylor, like rest his soul, is like yep.

SPEAKER_04 1:46:21

Well, like what's funny is like I'm kind of insane movie when he when Duncan says I'm kind of in the middle of something, dad. Is that like isn't that like uh akin to they're right behind me, aren't they?

SPEAKER_02 1:46:34

Like when when a character We're kind of in the middle of something, Dad, this lady's vagina. I know, son, I'm watching you, and I'm getting erect as well. Oh man. And I'm gonna go show your mom. It did, you know what though, this movie. So it didn't. You know what, though. That happened.

SPEAKER_04 1:46:53

You own that. I'm going to when he says, I hope you got your Jimmy hat on, son. Yeah, he does. That immediately got me to uh equate it to the digital underground song because he says he can't go to gym without. Were you doing the humpty humpt? Yeah, yeah. So I was like, oh, okay, now I get it. Because yeah, so insane. I did want to give uh thank you for bringing this movie.

SPEAKER_02 1:47:19

This was so fun to talk about. I'm glad. I just want to say, like, as as we're clearly wrapping up, because we got to the end of the movie, like the end of the movie is them breaking the fourth wall and then blade trying to not sequalize. Perfect, no notes. Although I became a world famous kicker and went to USC or what or Stanford or whatever, and Blade's like, wait, what about my perspective of the same fucking story? I'm like, no, no.

SPEAKER_04 1:47:43

But it are am I wrong? Am I wrong? Is that not Guillermo del Toro's Frankenstein movie? I haven't seen it. Halfway through the movie, it's like, hold up, let's hear the other side of the story. And they start it all over again.

SPEAKER_02 1:47:56

Hold up. Hey, it's time for the next episode.

SPEAKER_04 1:47:59

So weed every day. So don't listen to it. To pedestal this film. To pedestal this film, just like almost just like Frankenstein 2025.

SPEAKER_02 1:48:08

You're putting the pussy on a pedestal like Meshach Taylor in this movie. This is true. Now we're gonna go back to our final ratings. Yes. We've talked about this movie like very thoroughly. Good for us. I hope that the listener enjoyed it. The movie? No. But the episode, sure.

SPEAKER_04 1:48:26

I know two people that for sure are gonna love this.

SPEAKER_02 1:48:29

I had a lovely time talking about this movie. Watching the movie never again. Never again. How dare you, sir. Now, he's is he playing his hand? Uh, who should go first? Yourself or myself?

SPEAKER_04 1:48:41

Uh you go. I've written some thoughts down here, but maybe they'll be informed further.

SPEAKER_02 1:48:47

I will not watch this again. Otherwise, I would give it a heart. But this is what I'm gonna do because this movie is it's not quotable, it's not re-watchable, it's not well scored outside of some actors that are really like uh we're gonna find out. You like the main theme some set pieces and some of the themes of the movie work. I'm gonna give it a two. I'm really glad we talked about this.

SPEAKER_04 1:49:14

I brought you up a quarter star.

SPEAKER_02 1:49:15

Yeah, I I came up a quarter wax figure to Alex Trebex. I'm just gonna call it what it was a legend R. ID. But I liked talking about this movie, and something we talked about a lot in um White Man Can't Jump was just how fantastic the movie looks, that it has that 90s LA look. It has amazing costumes, amazing like sneakers. It makes some very big colorful choices in the things that are alive in the movie. And it really caught me off guard how well this movie looks at. Times and how well acted this movie is at times. Hate the writing, hate the editing, hate the lighting. Yeah. Don't like the directing. I don't want to sit here and bag on it forever. But I I think it's it earns the two where it's like this movie deserved to be made, produced, released, consumed, the things that we went over.

SPEAKER_04 1:50:22

Um I think I'm I I think I'm still at three lollipops out of five.

SPEAKER_02 1:50:28

So you did come down to half a point, though.

SPEAKER_04 1:50:30

Yeah, I guess so. Okay.

SPEAKER_02 1:50:31

Um but with a heart. So it's the rewatch territory.

SPEAKER_04 1:50:37

Yeah, I got it. I will always re-watch this movie. I can't wait to show my kids this movie. They will not like it. They will never watch it again. Um it's a form of torture. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But this is Golden Arches!

SPEAKER_03 1:50:49

Lean back, boys!

SPEAKER_04 1:50:51

Um the note I wrote here is ultimately it's fine, but tons of logic leaps.

SPEAKER_06 1:50:59

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 1:50:59

And I draw the Oppenheimer references. Um not everything needs to be explained, but I I think he said you would, you would, you would call out the editor as something you don't like. I do think this was saved in editing. I think things that were left on the cutting room floor are a detriment to it. I don't think I would blame the editor for that. There's certain things that happen and cuts that happen in the film that as an editor, I'm like, that was kind of cool and creative. I don't know what I've if I would have thought about that. Like the whole title sequence is this animation, uh, this animated background, think in Living Color, think say by the bell, that type of stuff. But then they tease the dolly shot along the bars, and then they go back to the title. And I was like, that's like a cool like choice.

SPEAKER_02 1:51:48

It has some cool stylistic stuff into it. And way to go to like to your point, maybe this is part of part of the thing for me. It's like it ain't Sally Menke in Teenage and Ninja Turtles, it ain't Marsha Lucas in Star Wars. But there's a level of this where you're probably right where the director or someone at Warner Brothers made a choice where they're like, we need to use this, we're not gonna use this because the director can't stand up to those people, andor the director has been allowed to make certain choices. This just felt like a lot of different people making different choices for different reasons.

SPEAKER_04 1:52:24

I'm gonna look up real quick. It's fun to Google things during the podcast, but I want to see who cut it because did the studio assign the editor to the uh to the thank you um to the director because he was unproven because he was a f oh my god. There we go. Okay, John F. Burnett and Richard Lehman.

SPEAKER_02 1:52:52

It had two editors, which isn't uncommon. Uh oh, I did want to draw the Greece. Leviathan. I do think I do think for the fun alien rips there are two things the principal does that reminded me of Greece.

SPEAKER_04 1:53:06

There's the tone thing that he does, and then he's like, he he's writ reiterating dialogue from earlier, but is doesn't in Greece they talk about ripping them up on certain. So like I feel like those are two Greece call-outs.

SPEAKER_02 1:53:20

This editor also did a movie called Murder by Death, which is an underrated comedy from the 70s that's like pretty dude. Yeah, and I don't know who the other editor was as we are perusing.

SPEAKER_04 1:53:34

Miami Vice TV show one episode. These are great things. This person did the rough cut. This person did the assembly. Um you would know better than I would. And then this guy did the fine pass.

SPEAKER_02 1:53:47

Yep. And that's the thing, is it feels like multiple different people trying to tell different stories. And so it just feels like quite jumbled to me. So we did walk away at coming down a half a point, up a quarter point. And so if we averaged it, it's a two and a half. Yeah, yeah. But I that's the thing, is like for me, is like absolutely not. I will not watch it again. But thank you for bringing this, talking about it. Of course. We had a chance to watch it. I want to make sure that we thank Ben, our regular co-host. If you're able to get the Cinephile cards from Ben, you will be able to slay him. That is the only way. It is his whorecrux. Is that right? Probably not. It is his whorecrux. Great. I did a great job. Just like I did on that other thing that we talked about, Serena de Bert. Nope, it was a different thing. No, Mark Twain. Doesn't matter. Jamie Henwood does our bookend themes. Matthew Foskett does what you been doing and what are we watching. Myself and Chris Olds do fun facts. David Park came through, talked about some of his letterbox stuff, talked about some of his other choices. Are there anything we missed, anything else you want to talk about? Plug whatever.

SPEAKER_04 1:55:00

Um no. I mean, if you're really into Jimmy Eat World and you want to hear two dudes talk about every Jimmy Eat World song in their entire catalog, you can listen to Jimmy Eat Pod, which is a podcast I had, and we ran out of songs, so we don't do it anymore.

SPEAKER_02 1:55:13

Is that for certain going to be the way that it's gonna be forever in terms of no more Jimmy Eat World songs?

SPEAKER_04 1:55:19

No, they're in the they're in the studio cooking, so we'll have something soon. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:55:22

Well, so you're you're warming the oven, as it were, maybe.

SPEAKER_04 1:55:26

Yeah, but what's crazy is like now like the I don't even know if I remember how to research that podcast. So it'll be interesting because it we ended it a couple years ago at this point. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:55:35

Well, like I feel like I because I smoke so much weed. Yeah. Um I feel like I have to learn how to drive this every time we do it. So thanks for showing up, everybody. We got all the way up the hill. Our sponsor finally conquered. Way to go. Thanks for joining us. David will return. Ta ta