FH Mini 152 - Birthday Movies

[0:00] Hey, everyone, and welcome to the Flophouse.

Dan McCoy

[0:06] I'm Dan McCoy.

[0:08] I'm Stuart Wellington.

[0:10] And I'm Elliot Kalin.

[0:14] We all did it.

[0:15] We all said our names funny.

[0:16] Hey, this is a Flophouse mini.

[0:18] Elliot sang bass.

Elliott Kalan

[0:19] Dan sang tenor, treble.

[0:22] What is it?

Dan McCoy

[0:22] Yeah.

[0:23] Tenor, I don't remember.

[0:23] Tenor, yeah.

[0:25] Well, Jewish people don't know that song.

[0:26] Anyway, moving on.

[0:27] I don't think anyone knows that song anymore, although it's referenced on this show frequently for some reason.

Stuart Wellington

[0:36] Lost the time.

Dan McCoy

[0:39] This is the Flophouse podcast, a podcast that is often about bad movies.

[0:45] We watch them, then we talk about them.

[0:46] But every other week, we do these minis where it's kind of more freeform, and I'm in charge this time.

[0:54] Me, Dan McCoy.

[0:55] Danny's in the driver's seat.

[0:57] Mm-hmm.

[0:57] Driver Danny.

[0:58] We are.

[1:00] Comes with all you see here.

[1:02] Yep.

[1:03] We are entering the month of June.

[1:06] And I know my co-hosts love it when I bring it up.

[1:10] My birthday is in June.

[1:11] That's my birth month.

[1:13] I've referred to this before on the show.

[1:15] You're on Gemini, right?

[1:16] Gemini.

[1:17] That's right.

[1:17] Gemini on the holograms tonight.

[1:19] Makes sense.

[1:19] Yeah.

[1:21] How so, Stuart?

[1:22] You're the astrologist here.

[1:25] You're – let's dive into this.

[1:28] Well, you were born in June, right?

[1:29] Yeah.

Stuart Wellington

[1:30] Okay.

[1:30] You know, it's – you got – there's kind of two sides to Dan.

[1:34] There's the outgoing side and the side that just wants to cuddle up and stay inside.

[1:39] Yeah.

Elliott Kalan

[1:40] Yeah.

[1:40] That is also called being a human being.

[1:42] Yeah.

[1:43] Sure.

[1:43] Uh-huh.

[1:45] No, no.

[1:45] It's only people who were born in June.

[1:47] I mean, we all wear masks.

[1:47] Some are laces.

Stuart Wellington

[1:47] Some are leather.

[1:48] Sounds like real fire sign energy, Elliot.

[1:50] What's your sign?

[1:51] Sagittarius.

[1:52] Is that a fire sign?

[1:53] Oh!

[1:54] Yes, it is.

Dan McCoy

[1:55] Oh.

[1:55] Oh, wow.

[1:56] Well, I guess that proves it anyway.

[1:59] Yep.

Stuart Wellington

[2:00] It's real, folks.

[2:01] Okay, boys.

[2:02] Round them up.

Dan McCoy

[2:04] So, back to the –

[2:05] What, the planets?

[2:06] Just to see what it goes.

[2:07] Oh, we got what we need, boys.

[2:09] Swarm, swarm.

[2:09] And all the planets get rounded up and thrown in jail.

[2:12] Back to the conceit of this mini, though.

[2:14] I've referenced this before on the show that –

[2:16] That's your birthday coming up.

[2:18] Yes, yeah.

[2:18] When I was growing up, my parents rarely took us out to the movies.

[2:23] Too expensive.

[2:24] At a certain point, though, all I wanted –

[2:27] Unlike nowadays.

Elliott Kalan

[2:28] Yeah, now when they're just giving movies away for free.

Dan McCoy

[2:30] Well, I mean, my parents did sort of claw their way up from lower middle class to upper middle class over the years.

[2:36] I saw it in the foods that I was fed when I was young versus how we eat now.

[2:41] But anyway.

Elliott Kalan

[2:43] When they started serving you beef instead of whole grade blorp.

Dan McCoy

[2:49] Government blorp.

Elliott Kalan

[2:53] Point is –

[2:54] I don't know why my tax dollars are going to buy in government blorp for some poor people.

[2:59] Point is –

[2:59] It should be going for bombing poor people in other countries.

Dan McCoy

[3:03] At a certain point, all I wanted to do for my birthday was to go see a movie.

[3:08] And sometimes this was the party that I had.

[3:12] You know, like my parents would take me and a few friends to a movie.

[3:16] I think a couple times it was just me.

[3:19] But I am going to quiz you on some of these movies that I recall being my birthday movies.

[3:26] Wow.

Elliott Kalan

[3:27] Because you would think a birthday movie would be like a big release.

[3:30] Yeah.

[3:30] We're going to take Dan to see a big, great movie.

[3:33] Out of Africa.

[3:33] He's going to be forever.

[3:34] Yeah.

Dan McCoy

[3:35] Well, you know, I chose what movie we were going to see.

[3:38] I was like, this is the one that I want to see.

[3:41] And my memory is not the most reliable.

[3:45] But to the best of my knowledge, these are all movies that I saw in the theater because it was my birthday pick.

Elliott Kalan

[3:54] And nobody look them up and find out that two came out in the same year.

[3:57] Don't Columbo Dan on this.

[3:58] We don't need it.

Dan McCoy

[4:00] And so this is structured somewhat like a game.

[4:05] I'm going to see if you guys can guess the movie from information I give you about each of these pictures.

[4:14] Out of Africa.

[4:15] And then, nope, none of them were out of Africa.

[4:17] I still haven't seen Out of Africa.

Elliott Kalan

[4:20] Someday we will have to do Out of Africa.

[4:21] None of us have seen it, right?

[4:22] And I refuse to believe it exists.

[4:23] No, we haven't seen it.

[4:24] There's no way it's a real movie.

[4:25] It was a big hit.

Stuart Wellington

[4:27] A huge hit.

[4:27] Yeah, I feel like we, aren't we going to do like best picture winners that we've never seen or some shit?

Elliott Kalan

[4:32] Maybe that'll be our Flop TV.

[4:33] We got a lot of good ideas for Flop TV at Roots once.

[4:36] We should start talking about that off mic.

[4:37] We got to set a meeting about that.

[4:39] If we're going to do it, we got to schedule it, yeah.

Stuart Wellington

[4:42] Listeners, write in and tell us to set a meeting.

Dan McCoy

[4:46] Get into our Google Calendar and put it on the internet.

Elliott Kalan

[4:49] Listeners, we don't want to use AI, so we need you as our agents that do these things for us, yeah.

Dan McCoy

[4:54] Yeah, I'm going to see whether you can guess the movie.

[4:57] But then I'm going to, I want you guys to discuss whether these movies were birthday worthy.

[5:03] If you only got to see a couple of movies a year, would these be films worth spending your birthday shit on?

Elliott Kalan

[5:11] So you're like Charlie from Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.

[5:14] You get one piece of chocolate a year on your birthday, but it's a movie.

Dan McCoy

[5:18] Yeah, although.

[5:18] I bet the gold makes the movie taste bad.

[5:20] I got to admit, I got to admit, this is how I remember growing up being.

[5:24] But then I was looking at movies that were released in the same zone, and I'm like, oh, but I also saw that one, I'm pretty sure, in the theater.

[5:34] So occasionally, there were actually.

Elliott Kalan

[5:37] Maybe I didn't grow up in a house underneath the Coney Island Cyclone roller coaster.

[5:41] Yeah, possibly, yeah.

[5:41] Maybe.

Dan McCoy

[5:42] Okay, so here's the first picture.

[5:45] It's from 1988, and the first bit of information I'll give you is the actor who plays the title character of this 1988 film gets third billed.

[5:57] He's Uncle Buck.

[6:00] That would be wild.

[6:01] There's no way.

[6:01] John Candy.

Elliott Kalan

[6:02] John Candy's getting third billing in Uncle Buck.

[6:04] Who else is in the movie?

[6:06] After a couple of kids.

[6:08] After a couple of kids, yeah.

Elliott Kalan

[6:08] Or is Macaulay Culkin?

[6:09] Which Culkin is in that?

[6:10] Yeah.

[6:10] It's a Culkin.

[6:12] Maybe this will help.

[6:13] That when they're born, they go, it's a Culkin.

Dan McCoy

[6:15] Maybe this IMDB goof will help narrow things down.

[6:18] Is it The Adventures of Ford Fairlane?

[6:20] No, that was later, right?

[6:22] This goof points out that unless genetics work in a special way for the title character's species, he and his mate, both blue-eyed, could not give birth to brown-eyed children.

[6:34] So that's a big genetics goof that this picture made.

Elliott Kalan

[6:39] So we know someone is of a different –

[6:41] Is it Babe?

[6:42] Oh, is it Howard the Duck?

Dan McCoy

[6:45] I don't believe that Howard the Duck had a child in the film.

Elliott Kalan

[6:49] Howard the Duck.

[6:49] He did in my unofficial sequel, Howard 2.

Dan McCoy

[6:52] He practices the act that would lead to children.

Stuart Wellington

[6:55] That's true, yeah.

[6:57] Let's see.

[7:00] No, I –

[7:01] I'm going to need one more clue.

[7:02] Is it a dog movie?

Dan McCoy

[7:03] Is it Beethoven?

[7:06] A dog movie.

[7:07] It's not a dog picture.

[7:10] This one might give it away.

[7:11] Young Dan was interested in this movie because he saw a making of that highlighted its new, for the time, and groundbreaking morphing special effects.

[7:22] There's a big morphing scene at the end of this movie.

[7:29] If you don't get it from this, the last one's a gimme.

[7:31] Okay, well, wait.

Elliott Kalan

[7:32] Give us a moment.

[7:33] Give us a moment.

[7:33] I remember when morphing was – everybody's morphing these days.

[7:36] Everyone's morphing these days.

Dan McCoy

[7:37] That's a video that I didn't even see.

[7:39] I know it as a reference that you make to a video that they used to watch at the Daily Show.

Elliott Kalan

[7:43] We used to watch at the Daily Show.

[7:44] There was a – I forget what Santa comic it was, but he'd do impressions of presidents.

[7:48] And he decided to morph together all these different presidents.

[7:51] And he would just – the reason we watched it is because his intro was so forced.

[7:56] He goes, everybody's morphing these days.

[7:58] So I thought, what if we could – what if we – what if I morphed the presidents together?

[8:01] So we would just say – we just walk around saying, everybody's morphing these days.

Dan McCoy

[8:05] And then when Morbius came out, we were like, everybody's morbid these days.

[8:08] Everybody's morbid these days.

Elliott Kalan

[8:11] Everybody's Norbit these days.

[8:14] Especially Eddie Murphy.

[8:16] Oh, for sure.

[8:16] So it's something where someone – something morphs or someone morphs.

[8:20] There's another species.

[8:21] What year?

[8:22] 1988.

[8:24] And I know when you say it, I'll be like, oh, right.

[8:28] The title character is the third-billed actor.

[8:32] So it's not – so there are bigger names in it than the title character.

Dan McCoy

[8:35] Not that this will help you, but this is the one that I'm more doubtful about.

[8:42] Like, was this my birthday movie?

[8:45] I saw – but I did see it in the theater.

[8:47] So let me just move on to –

[8:51] The last one will –

[8:52] It's not Teen Wolf 2.

[8:53] The last one's going to give it to you, I believe.

[8:56] Young Dan had a big crush on the female lead in this movie, Joanne Whaley.

[9:03] Oh.

[9:04] Joanne Whaley.

[9:06] I don't think it's as big a gimme as you think it is, Dan.

[9:08] She used to be known as Joanne Whaley Kilmer.

[9:13] Someone who might also have been in this picture.

[9:16] Oh.

[9:17] That involves new morphing effects.

[9:21] Yeah.

[9:21] The saint.

[9:22] All right.

[9:24] All right.

[9:24] Well, how about this?

[9:26] George Lucas produced it.

[9:28] Howard the Duck.

[9:29] No.

[9:29] This is real genius?

[9:31] This picture is titled –

[9:33] Radioland Murgers?

[9:34] Willow.

[9:35] Oh, Willow.

[9:36] Oh, there is morphing.

[9:37] Warwick Davis was third-billed for Willow.

[9:39] That's right.

[9:40] Oh, yeah.

Elliott Kalan

[9:41] Yeah, I think there were other gimme clues you could have given us.

[9:44] That would have made it a little easier for me.

[9:45] He married the name of the female lead.

Dan McCoy

[9:48] What?

[9:49] He married Saoirse?

[9:51] Yeah.

[9:53] Willow.

[9:54] Okay.

[9:54] So, before we decide whether this movie was birthday-worthy, I did look up what other films were in release at the time.

[10:02] We have Red Heat, Big.

[10:05] Fuck, yeah.

[10:06] The Great Outdoors, Crocodile Dundee 2, Big Business, Bull Durham, Funny Farm, Rambo 3, and The Presidio.

Stuart Wellington

[10:17] Jesus Christ.

[10:18] Should I have gone to see The Presidio instead?

[10:21] Well, that last one I think you made up.

[10:24] But all the others, woof.

[10:26] Wow, yeah.

Dan McCoy

[10:27] Send them off.

[10:28] You don't remember Mark Harmon and The Presidio?

[10:30] Big was such a huge movie.

[10:32] Yeah, Big was such a huge movie.

[10:33] I know.

Elliott Kalan

[10:33] I saw Big in the theaters, and I think I was seven years old or six years old.

Dan McCoy

[10:35] I didn't see it until BHS, and I think I was interested in Willow because I didn't, you know, I had not—

[10:42] Well, it's a big fantasy movie.

[10:43] Yeah, why not?

[10:43] I had not yet learned that George Lucas producing something was a bad sign rather than a good sign.

[10:49] I was like, Star Wars, George Lucas.

Stuart Wellington

[10:51] I want to see Willow.

[10:52] And Raiders of the Lost Ark you produced.

[10:54] Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[10:55] But the—

[10:55] I definitely—my uncle took me to that, and I, guess what, loved it.

[10:59] But you didn't want to go see The Great Outdoors to see the on-screen debut of Annette Bening.

[11:07] Really?

[11:08] Yeah, that's her first movie.

[11:09] Did she play the bear?

[11:11] No, she's that big steak.

[11:13] Okay.

Elliott Kalan

[11:15] She was in the makeup chair for 40 hours.

[11:16] Yeah.

Stuart Wellington

[11:18] Which was the one where the guys eat testicles?

[11:20] Is that Funny Farm or Great Outdoors?

[11:21] That's Funny Farm.

[11:22] That's Funny Farm.

[11:22] Yeah.

Elliott Kalan

[11:23] Where he keeps eating them, and then he's going to break the record.

[11:26] He's breaking the record.

[11:27] And then it turns out they're sheep balls or something like that.

Dan McCoy

[11:29] Four stars from Roger Ebert, Funny Farm.

[11:31] He loved Funny Farm.

[11:33] Loved it.

Elliott Kalan

[11:33] There's some funny stuff in Funny Farm.

Dan McCoy

[11:35] Yeah, it's up the title.

Elliott Kalan

[11:36] It's right there.

[11:37] It's not called Serious Farm.

[11:39] It's not Cold Comfort Farm.

[11:40] I mean, knowing what I know now—

[11:41] Which is also a funny movie.

Dan McCoy

[11:43] Knowing what I know now, I guess I would have chosen big out of these pictures.

[11:49] Willow—

Stuart Wellington

[11:50] I mean, as a kid, a thousand percent I would have picked Willow.

[11:53] You're also like a year or two older than me, so you were—you should have been past Willow time.

Dan McCoy

[11:59] Our mutual friend, John Holt, when he worked in a video store, they had the Willow test, which was if people—

[12:11] People were asking whether our movie was good or not compared to Willow, they were like, oh, that's better than—that's a little bit better than Willow.

[12:18] Or I'm like, that's worse than Willow.

[12:20] And it was sort of like on the idea that Willow was like the lowest movie that you could plausibly recommend.

[12:29] It's like funny.

Stuart Wellington

[12:30] Willow was one of those movies where—

[12:31] I think Bill Kilmer's performance in that movie is like kind of incredible.

[12:35] That he is like—

[12:35] He's great.

[12:36] He's so good.

Elliott Kalan

[12:38] I have to admit, I saw Willow as a kid.

[12:41] I really don't remember it very well.

[12:42] And I maybe should rewatch it again sometime, but I don't know.

[12:46] It's a—

[12:46] Yeah, yeah.

[12:47] So I can't accurately judge it, you know.

Stuart Wellington

[12:49] Let's move on to that.

[12:50] I hope you don't get too scared by all that morphing tech.

[12:53] I know.

Elliott Kalan

[12:53] The morphing will really throw me off, yeah.

[12:56] Well, it's like I just showed my younger son Labyrinth.

[12:58] He had never seen it before.

[12:59] Oh, sick.

[13:00] And I remember as a kid seeing that and thinking that CGI owl in the opening credits looked amazing.

[13:05] And watching it now, I'm like, this is the worst thing in the movie.

[13:07] Other than some of the songs, this is the worst thing in the movie is this owl.

Dan McCoy

[13:12] Let's move on to the next movie.

[13:15] There's—you know, this is like a seven-year span, so there's not too many of these.

[13:19] Sure, sure, yeah.

[13:21] This next movie, the first thing I'll say about it is—

[13:23] Willow.

[13:25] The German dub of this 1989 film changes the name of the baby from Oscar to Donald.

[13:33] Oh, this is three-minute—no, no, this is Ghostbusters 2.

[13:35] This is Ghostbusters 2.

[13:37] Yeah, yeah.

[13:38] Ellie got it right away.

[13:39] I was going to—like, just so we have more content, I will say that the other clues were going to be, it contains cameos from Cheech Marin, Ben Stein, Chloe Webb, and Bobby Brown.

[13:49] Mm-hmm.

[13:50] There's a goof listed here.

[13:53] The camera—

[13:54] Vigo is—

[13:56] The camera that—

[13:57] Not from Carpathia, actually, but from Bohemia.

[14:00] The camera that Vinkman—obviously, I would have said name redacted, but the camera that Vinkman uses to take pictures of the painting, a Brooks Very Wide, would not be appropriate for this kind of photo shoot.

[14:11] Even though the description of the camera says, when used properly, it's great.

[14:17] It's very sharp at every aperture.

[14:19] There are no distortion, and there are no ghosts.

[14:22] Oh.

[14:23] And, of course, that Elliot's boss is in this movie in a small part.

[14:27] Yes, yeah, that's true.

Elliott Kalan

[14:28] But, yeah, that's—as soon as you said that he's 89, baby named Oscar, yeah, Ghostbusters 2, yeah.

Dan McCoy

[14:35] Yeah, no, a classic, the Scolari brothers.

[14:37] Yeah, I gave him the chair.

[14:38] Oh, yeah.

Elliott Kalan

[14:39] Ugh, ugh.

[14:40] The movie that introduced me to the actor, Harris Ulan, yes.

Dan McCoy

[14:43] It always has a place in my heart, yeah.

[14:45] A movie that even as—I mean, like, I'm fond of this movie.

[14:48] Like, there's good stuff in it, but even as a kid watching it for the first time, the only thing I remember really making me laugh in it is when the guy says, like, oh, well, let's say it's my favorite show.

[15:03] That and Bassmasters.

[15:05] Bassmasters.

[15:05] It's a fishing show.

[15:06] It's a fishing show.

[15:06] He goes, I know Bassmasters.

[15:07] I know Bassmasters.

Elliott Kalan

[15:08] I mean, I saw that.

[15:09] I was the right age to see that in theaters and love it.

[15:11] I loved that movie.

[15:12] I saw it in theaters.

[15:12] That's crazy about it.

[15:13] And adults were like, eh, it's not that good, and I was like, shut your mouth.

[15:16] And now when I watch it, I'm like, yeah, it's not as good as the first Ghostbusters, but, you know, I still enjoy it.

Dan McCoy

[15:21] And here's where I get a little confused about my own memories because other movies at the time, the first one listed, this was second at the box office, and it had been out for 30—

[15:39] Years?

Dan McCoy

[15:39] I don't know whether it was 30 days or 30 weeks, but—

[15:43] 30 weeks seems too much.

[15:44] 30 weeks seems crazy.

[15:45] It must have been 30 days.

[15:46] The second place is Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, which I also saw in the theater.

[15:50] So, but we also have Dead Poets Society, Star Trek V, The Final Frontier, See No Evil, Hear No Evil, Field of Dreams, No Holds Barred, and Roadhouse.

[16:04] Oh, wow.

[16:04] We used to have it so good, guys.

Elliott Kalan

[16:05] We did.

[16:06] We did.

[16:07] I mean, I think those—

Stuart Wellington

[16:08] How many weeks was Roadhouse in theaters?

[16:10] Well, I don't know.

Elliott Kalan

[16:11] Again, I don't think it's probably not weeks.

[16:12] But back then, movies were—

[16:14] Like, you could say, like, oh, Indiana Jones was also in theaters at the same time.

[16:18] Movies were just in theaters longer back then.

[16:20] Yeah.

[16:20] Like, the runs were longer.

[16:22] You could have—

[16:22] Movies would close in one theater and open in another theater sometimes still.

[16:25] Like, it was—

[16:26] Yeah.

[16:26] It's conceivable that those movies, you would have seen them both in theaters maybe even a month or two apart, you know.

Dan McCoy

[16:32] No, it must have been.

[16:33] There's no way we would have gone out and seen them, like, back-to-back.

Elliott Kalan

[16:36] But I would say Ghostbusters 2 is eminently birthdayable when you're—

[16:39] Okay.

[16:39] Yeah.

Dan McCoy

[16:40] You didn't really weigh in on Willow.

[16:42] I don't think whether you officially thought that was a birthday worthy.

[16:46] You want my official—

[16:47] Yeah, sure.

Elliott Kalan

[16:47] Why not?

[16:48] Yeah.

[16:48] Sure.

[16:48] Why not?

[16:49] Go see it.

[16:49] I don't remember the movie.

[16:51] But I think a big fantasy film that I think it totally—

[16:54] Yeah.

[16:54] Let's go see that for your birthday.

[16:55] Of course.

[16:56] Yeah.

Dan McCoy

[16:57] Yeah, certainly if I hadn't seen Indiana Jones, I would pick that one.

[17:02] But Ghostbusters 2, I remember having a good time, even though I was like—

[17:05] Also, there is a mild disappointment to me as a big Ghostbusters fan.

[17:08] It's just hard.

[17:09] That first Ghostbusters is a miracle.

Elliott Kalan

[17:11] That first Ghostbusters is so magical.

[17:12] Yeah.

Stuart Wellington

[17:13] Also, part of the birthdayable means that you are also getting your parents to go see a thing they might normally not see.

[17:21] Yeah, that's true.

[17:22] So Willow fits that bill perfectly to me, and Ghostbusters 2 to some extent as well.

Dan McCoy

[17:26] Yeah, although my dad was a Bill Murray fan, so I think he probably was like, yeah, yeah.

[17:33] But mostly because of the Razor's Edge, stuff like that.

[17:36] Yes.

[17:38] Here's one that I think Elliot's going to get immediately, but we'll see.

[17:44] I started out with an absurd clue because of that.

Elliott Kalan

[17:50] The perverse part of me, even if I know it now, wants to say that I don't know it, but I may not know it at all.

Dan McCoy

[17:55] In this 1990 movie, one goof tells us that the stockings of the lead actress keep changing color.

[18:03] So that's just, in case you noticed it, a movie that, again, I thought Elliot would be so intimately familiar with that I'd start off on hard mode.

Elliott Kalan

[18:15] It's a 1990 movie.

[18:17] Yeah.

[18:17] The stockings of the lead actress keep changing color.

[18:20] Mm-hmm.

[18:22] No, I don't know it intimately enough, I guess.

Dan McCoy

[18:25] Here's something that'll heat things up.

Elliott Kalan

[18:28] It really makes me look better after I knew a movie just from the name of the baby that was in it.

Dan McCoy

[18:33] When the redacted store pots and pans of steel in the microwave, they turn it on and it explodes.

[18:40] There may be sparks and smoke, but a microwave.

Elliott Kalan

[18:42] This is Gremlins 2, the new batch.

[18:44] Yeah, of course.

[18:45] Yeah.

[18:46] When the goofy one, I forgot his name, he was going, ho, ho, ho, ho, ho, ho, and just throwing them in there.

Stuart Wellington

[18:50] Yep.

[18:52] Is that Lenny?

Elliott Kalan

[18:53] Lenny, yeah, that's Lenny.

[18:55] George and Lenny?

[18:56] George is the other one, yeah.

Dan McCoy

[18:57] I threw this in just as an extra because I knew you would get it by this point.

[19:01] This is a little trivia.

[19:04] The only adults the Gremlins don't attack are Grandpa Fred and Mr. Katsugi, and Grandpa Fred doesn't seem scared of the Gremlins.

[19:13] This would have been...

[19:14] He interviews one of them live on television.

[19:16] Yeah.

[19:16] This would have been partially explained had a deleted scene been kept.

[19:20] In this scene, Grandpa Fred initially thinks that the Gremlins are some puppets introduced by his studio and carries on presenting.

[19:26] He improvises and presents his show as Grandpa Fred and his friends, which the Gremlins like and turn to face the camera alongside him.

Elliott Kalan

[19:34] Oh, I mean, it's too bad they didn't keep that in because otherwise...

[19:37] I always wondered that because Gremlins 2 is such a tight puzzle box.

[19:43] All the logic tracks.

[19:44] It's such a logically rational movie.

Stuart Wellington

[19:46] When I was watching the movie, I was like, this one thing doesn't make sense.

[19:50] What is this for, Gremlin?

Elliott Kalan

[19:52] In this movie, Leonard Maltin reviews the first movie, and then the Gremlins kill him for doing it.

[19:58] I buy that.

[19:59] That's believable.

[20:00] I love that movie so much.

Dan McCoy

[20:02] Hulk Hogan stops the Gremlins from ruining...

Elliott Kalan

[20:05] Now, when I saw it, Hulk Hogan was not in the theater with me, and yet the Gremlins continued to play the movie anyway.

[20:11] Yeah.

[20:13] When the theater usher is clearly independent filmmaker Paul Bartel, and yet...

Dan McCoy

[20:19] Clearly, clearly this movie was birthday worthy, but let's...

[20:23] Just for fun, I'll tell you what else was in the theater around this time.

[20:25] We had Dick Tracy, RoboCop 2, Total Recall, Another 48 Hours, The Forgotten Picture, Betsy's Wedding, Back to the Future Part 3, Pretty Woman, Bird on a Wire, and The Adventures of Milo and Otis.

Stuart Wellington

[20:44] Oh, that's a rough one.

[20:45] You should have taken your ass to Milo and Otis.

[20:47] Yeah, because you like to see pets killed right off camera.

Dan McCoy

[20:50] What are those adventures?

[20:51] What are they?

[20:52] Have you never seen The Adventures of Milo and Otis?

[20:55] No, I never saw it.

[20:57] I was not a fan of the genre of, like, real animals are on an adventure.

[21:03] Yeah.

[21:04] That was sort of...

[21:05] You're like, homeward bound?

Stuart Wellington

[21:06] Go wherever you want.

[21:07] I don't care.

[21:08] There are some good movies in there.

[21:09] You got some Total Recall.

[21:11] Yeah.

Elliott Kalan

[21:12] No, I mean...

[21:13] Et cetera, et al.

Dan McCoy

[21:15] No, I mean, like, there are.

[21:16] The other ones are less appropriate to my age at the time.

Elliott Kalan

[21:21] Yeah.

[21:22] But, of course, yeah, I think We Can All Get Gremlins 2 is a movie that should be watched.

[21:25] By everyone on every birthday.

Dan McCoy

[21:26] Yeah.

[21:27] Yeah, that's a birthday movie this year.

[21:29] Yeah.

[21:29] Yeah, a national...

[21:31] There should be a national holiday where we all just watch Gremlins 2.

[21:34] I would love it, yeah.

Stuart Wellington

[21:36] Okay, well, here's people who don't like Gremlins 2, but I don't want to know those people.

[21:41] No, I do not want to know those people, yeah.

Dan McCoy

[21:43] I'm just sad for them, honestly.

[21:45] Yeah, like...

[21:46] They're missing out.

[21:46] What do you enjoy from?

[21:47] Yeah.

[21:49] Okay.

[21:51] Birthday movies.

Elliott Kalan

[21:52] Well, is this batch not new enough for you?

[21:54] Is that your problem?

[21:55] Yeah.

[21:56] So, birthday movies.

[21:57] So, this is 1991.

Stuart Wellington

[21:58] Oh, I just like it when a new sky rise that's high tech doesn't have problems with it.

Dan McCoy

[22:04] Yes, Elliot, you have caught on to the pattern.

[22:06] I am going chronologically.

[22:08] Okay.

[22:08] Did I say sky rise?

[22:09] Oh, the shadow.

[22:10] Yeah.

[22:11] This 1991 picture.

[22:13] So, not the shadow.

[22:14] All right.

[22:14] The woman playing the mother is only 10 years older than the actress playing her daughter.

[22:19] Again, starting off on hard mode.

[22:22] Yeah.

[22:23] Not necessarily because you'll know it, but because there was a lack of material for this one.

Elliott Kalan

[22:27] There's a woman and her daughter.

[22:29] Okay.

[22:30] Mm-hmm.

Dan McCoy

[22:31] So, yeah.

[22:32] Just keep that in your back pocket.

[22:35] Mommy dearest.

[22:36] Yeah.

[22:37] I went to see a rep screening of Mommy dearest on my birthday because I was a young John Waters.

[22:43] Oh, you wish.

[22:46] So, okay.

[22:47] Here's a goof.

[22:48] Here's a goof about this movie.

[22:49] Yeah.

[22:50] Let's hear it.

[22:50] One cannot make any sound when choking because the foreign body, in this case, the piece of meat, is stuck in the trachea, which is the air pipe.

[22:59] So, air cannot go out.

[23:01] Hence, choking to death is silent.

[23:03] So, that's a real big goof.

[23:06] So, someone chokes on some meat, but they're making sound.

[23:08] Someone chokes on some meat.

Elliott Kalan

[23:09] I mean, that's true.

[23:09] If someone, if you think someone's choking, if you ask them, are you choking?

[23:13] And they can say yes, they're not technically choking.

[23:15] Right?

[23:15] Like, they shouldn't, if they can't answer, then they are choking.

[23:18] Yeah.

[23:18] That's just a little helpful hint from Surgeon General, Flophouse Surgeon General, L.A.

[23:21] Kalen.

[23:22] PSA.

[23:23] Yeah.

[23:24] Dan is the Flophouse Postmaster General.

[23:26] And Stuart is the Flophouse Party General.

[23:28] Aw.

[23:29] Yeah.

[23:31] Yeah.

[23:32] If you have any guests.

[23:33] I think you're going to have to go on to the next one.

[23:34] Stuart, do you have any ideas?

[23:35] These are tough.

[23:36] Yeah, these are tough.

[23:36] This is a tougher one.

[23:37] It's almost like he's making it difficult for us.

Dan McCoy

[23:39] The actor, who played the title character, gave an interview to Entertainment Weekly.

[23:45] Uncle Buck.

[23:47] Out of Africa?

[23:48] It's not Uncle Buck.

[23:49] Where he stated that he and his co-lead, quote, didn't get along in the movie particularly, but it worked for the movie.

[23:56] I mean, I drove him nuts, and he encouraged me to drive him nuts.

[24:00] What about Bob?

[24:01] What about Bob?

[24:01] It is What About Bob?

[24:03] Oh, okay.

Stuart Wellington

[24:04] Pew, pew, pew, pew, pew, pew.

[24:05] I was going to say Dutch.

Dan McCoy

[24:08] I'm just going to give you this last goof because I find it funny.

[24:12] Yeah.

[24:13] When –

[24:15] The title question is never answered.

[24:18] Yeah.

[24:19] When Richard Dreyfuss' character breaks into the store to get a weapon to kill Bob, he rejects a gun as, quote, too messy.

[24:26] However, the explosives he picks likely would have been just as messy if not more.

[24:31] Got him.

[24:32] Good goof.

[24:33] Solid goof.

[24:34] Solid goof.

Elliott Kalan

[24:36] Yeah, where were the screenwriters on that one?

Dan McCoy

[24:38] Yeah, I got to fact check that.

Elliott Kalan

[24:41] The other movies in release, and again –

[24:43] What About Bob is another one I remember very little about even though it was one we watched multiple times when I was a kid.

Dan McCoy

[24:49] So the other movies in release, and I might have even gotten this one wrong because I saw – I also saw Robin Hood, Prince of Thieves in the theater.

[24:58] That's a birthday movie.

[24:59] Yeah, for sure.

[25:00] It may have been my birthday movie.

[25:02] I don't know.

[25:03] City Slickers, Dying Young, The Rocketeer, Backdraft, Jungle Fever.

[25:07] Oh, The Rocketeer.

[25:08] Wow.

[25:09] Don't tell mom the baby city's dead.

[25:11] Babysitter's dead.

Elliott Kalan

[25:12] The baby city?

[25:12] The baby city is dead?

[25:13] The baby city?

[25:14] Don't tell mom.

[25:15] Baby city has been destroyed.

[25:17] It's been wiped out.

[25:18] God stepped on the baby city.

[25:19] Oh, no.

[25:21] It had so many years left as a city.

Dan McCoy

[25:24] What's a town but a baby city, guys?

Elliott Kalan

[25:27] Yeah, that's true.

[25:28] Yeah.

Dan McCoy

[25:29] Soap dish, Thelma and Louise.

[25:30] I just remember –

[25:32] Wow.

[25:32] Talk about two movies that would be an interesting double feature.

Stuart Wellington

[25:36] This little kid wasn't watching Thelma and Louise.

[25:39] But like Soap Dish I saw in the theaters.

[25:43] That's wild.

[25:43] Is this in 91?

Elliott Kalan

[25:44] I must have been nine or ten years old.

[25:46] Why did I see that?

[25:46] I definitely saw –

[25:47] I definitely saw that movie.

[25:48] I did not understand it at all pretty much.

Stuart Wellington

[25:50] I could be wrong, but I very much feel like I saw Robin Hood, Prince of Thieves either at my birthday or someone else's birthday.

[25:57] Probably.

[25:57] I definitely saw it at someone else's birthday.

Dan McCoy

[25:59] That is a birthday movie.

[26:01] It's a quintessential birthday movie.

[26:02] That is like – not to be – like women or people of all genders can enjoy Robin Hood, Prince of Thieves, but that is a very like young boy birthday movie pick.

Elliott Kalan

[26:16] It's got laughs.

[26:18] It's got action.

[26:19] Now, I keep saying, oh, I saw this thing in the theater.

[26:21] I should mention – I should point out not to lord my economic stability over Dan's as a kid, but my family was the exact opposite where we went to see everything.

[26:31] Like we were constantly going to the movies as a family.

[26:33] So I saw so much stuff where I'm like, why did I go see that in the theaters?

[26:36] Oh, my family just was going to the movies.

[26:38] And so that's why I saw Soap Dish in the theater, having no interest in it, not understanding it, not liking it.

Dan McCoy

[26:44] Well, would you say what about Bob is birthday worthy?

[26:46] Because I remember this one sticks in my head because as a child at least, I was very disappointed in What About Bob?

[26:54] Because it was not the Bill Murray character that I liked.

[26:58] Yes, it's a different kind of Bill Murray.

[26:59] I was like, cool, above it, Bill Murray who is like quipping on the side.

[27:04] I didn't like this guy who's being an irritant and ruining a man's life.

[27:12] I found that very stressful.

Elliott Kalan

[27:14] But I could see you being like, oh, I want to see the new Bill Murray movie for my birthday.

[27:17] Like that makes perfect sense to me.

Stuart Wellington

[27:18] And you love the drive.

[27:19] My dad likes Bill Murray, so I want to take him to this.

Dan McCoy

[27:22] Yeah, I want to do something nice for my dad.

[27:24] That was definitely foremost in my mind as a child.

Elliott Kalan

[27:27] This was the period – I mean, that's very sweet.

[27:29] This was the period when my dad looked the most like Richard Dreyfuss in his life.

[27:33] There was a period where the family joke was, oh, Richard Dreyfuss is actually my dad, like under an assumed name because they looked so similar at the time.

[27:39] And this was the – What About Bob is the peak of – if you want to know what my dad looked like in 1991, watch What About Bob and look at Richard Dreyfuss.

Dan McCoy

[27:47] So did you enjoy seeing your dad driven mad?

[27:50] Who wouldn't?

Elliott Kalan

[27:52] I feel like you're the – again, you're the opposite.

[27:53] You wanted to make your dad happy and I was like, how do I drive him to the brink of madness?

[28:00] Can I play with madness in regards to my dad?

[28:02] Yeah.

S4

[28:07] International Waters is back, baby.

Elliott Kalan

[28:11] Do you like fun, silly conversations?

S4

[28:13] Do you like fun, silly games?

[28:14] We got them both.

[28:15] And it's on International Waters.

[28:17] I am the host, Dave Holmes.

[28:19] This is a panel show that pits American and British comics against each other in a lively and hilarious competition.

[28:25] What is Gentleman's Relish?

[28:26] Who is Bagpuss?

[28:27] Why is the Oscar Mayer Wienermobile so emotionally resonant?

[28:30] And why doesn't American cheese have its own anthem?

[28:33] Get the answers and be left with numerous questions about that and so much more nonsense.

[28:37] And or cod swallow twice a month here on International Waters.

[28:42] You can catch International Waters on MaximumFun.org or wherever you get your podcasts.

S5

[28:52] Hey, Alexis.

[28:53] Hey, Ella.

[28:54] What animal has the most teeth?

[28:55] I would guess a shark.

[28:57] A snail.

[28:59] No, snails don't have teeth.

[29:01] They have thousands and they are freaky looking.

[29:04] No, I don't want that to be true.

[29:06] Okay.

[29:07] Did you know that the hippocampus in your brain is named after the half horse, half fish sea creature found in Greek mythology?

[29:13] I didn't know that, but we're meant to be doing animal trivia and hippocampus isn't a real animal.

[29:17] Well, that doesn't matter on Comfort Creatures.

[29:19] You're right.

[29:20] It doesn't matter at all.

[29:21] Comfort Creatures is a cozy show for lovers of animals of all shapes and sizes, real and unreal.

[29:26] If that sounds like your cup of tea, then join us every Thursday for new episodes on MaximumFun.org.

Dan McCoy

[29:33] I'm just going to take a moment to tell you about some of our sponsors.

[29:37] The Flophouse is overwhelmingly kept going by listeners like you who go to MaximumFun.org and become members.

[29:46] We thank every one of you, but we also have a couple of other sponsors.

[29:52] Firstly, Aura Frames, you know, Father's Day is coming up.

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[30:19] You know, next time he starts one of the old back-in-my-day tales.

[30:24] Maybe there's a photo there for reference.

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[30:31] Listen to all those plosive Ps, and hopefully they're not popping on the microphone.

[30:38] It helps you take those memories that might just live in your head and puts them there where you can enjoy them.

[30:45] They pop up.

[30:47] Think about them.

[30:47] Think about good times.

[30:49] I have an Aura Frame.

[30:51] I enjoy it very much because, honestly, otherwise, a lot of those photos would just stay on my phone where I would forget about them and never look at them again.

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[31:51] Terms and conditions apply.

[31:53] And, oh, oh, my friends, we also have a second sponsor.

[31:56] It's Squarespace.

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[33:15] Let's move on to the next movie from 1992.

[33:21] Out of the four films featuring this continuity of this character, the 92 installment is the only one with credits without the character's logo.

[33:31] So, there you go.

[33:32] A little bit of boring trivia for you.

[33:35] Four installments with this character.

[33:38] Well, this sort of like general continuity of the character.

[33:41] Oh.

[33:43] James Bond?

[33:43] Is that James Bond movie?

[33:44] Yeah, I was going to say.

[33:45] Here's one you'll enjoy because it's the rare incorrectly regarded as goof.

[33:52] Okay.

[33:52] IMDb's best category.

[33:54] Incorrectly regarded as goof.

[33:56] People bending backwards to justify various things.

[34:01] When Redacted plays the CD, just for fun, he scratches it back and forth like a record a few times.

[34:07] And it sounds like record scratches.

[34:09] Although the technology to do so in real life was not invented until much later.

[34:14] Redacted is shown having several pieces of advanced technology that were impossible for the time.

[34:20] So, that was not really a goof, guys.

[34:22] He just had advanced technology that could scratch CDs.

[34:25] Advanced technology.

[34:27] For some reason.

[34:28] He thought it might be useful to do that.

Elliott Kalan

[34:32] All right.

[34:32] Now, I think it's not…

[34:35] Scratching CDs.

[34:35] Now, I think it's not James Bond because I don't see James Bond scratching a CD like a record for a goof.

[34:40] That would have been pretty cool, though.

[34:42] Yeah.

[34:44] There's four movies in this version of the continuity of this character.

[34:49] Yeah.

[34:49] Is this a…

[34:50] Is this…

Dan McCoy

[34:50] And the weird thing is…

[34:52] This isn't like Batman Returns, right?

[34:54] It is Batman Returns.

[34:56] Oh, okay.

[34:56] Because technically, those first four movies are all supposedly in the same continuity, even though they're wildly different in style.

Elliott Kalan

[35:02] They're incredibly different.

[35:03] You have different actors playing Batman at different points.

Dan McCoy

[35:05] Yeah.

[35:06] Yeah.

Elliott Kalan

[35:06] I mean, they're all now in the DC continuity, right?

[35:09] As of the Flash movie.

Dan McCoy

[35:11] Oh, right, right.

[35:12] Yeah.

[35:12] But, yeah.

Elliott Kalan

[35:13] So, what other clues did you have for Batman Returns?

Dan McCoy

[35:16] Well, I did have one more that was a gimme.

[35:18] Which I also saw on the later.

[35:19] That I just thought was…

[35:20] Yeah, of course.

[35:21] …fun.

Elliott Kalan

[35:22] You're like, Danny DeVito plays the penguin in this movie.

Dan McCoy

[35:25] It is penguin related.

[35:27] It is…

[35:27] Okay.

[35:28] The trivia here is the production…

Elliott Kalan

[35:29] Paul Rubin's playing the penguin's dad?

Dan McCoy

[35:31] No, no.

[35:32] I mean, well, he did, but that's not the…

[35:34] That's not the right name.

[35:34] The production wanted to use king penguins, but the only tame ones in captivity were at a bird sanctuary in the Cotswolds, deep in the English countryside.

[35:45] So, the birds were flown to the States in the refrigerated hold of a plane.

[35:49] They were given their own refrigerated trailer and swimming pool with half a ton of fresh ice every day and had fresh fish delivered daily straight from the docks.

[35:58] Even though the temperature outside frequently topped 100 degrees, the whole site was refrigerated down to 35 degrees.

[36:04] The birds also had an around-the-clock bodyguard.

[36:07] The birds clearly enjoyed the experience as, following their stint in Hollywood, most of them had mated and produced eggs, the sign of a contented penguin.

[36:16] Oh.

[36:17] So, that was a penguin vacation for these people.

[36:19] That sounds great.

Elliott Kalan

[36:20] I mean, if anything, that movie is worth it so that those penguins had a cool vacation.

[36:24] Pun intended.

Stuart Wellington

[36:26] Also, the fact that it has probably two of the best supervillain performances of all time.

Elliott Kalan

[36:31] In Christopher Walken as Max Treck and that one guy who plays his son.

[36:35] Dad, save yourself.

[36:39] I think that trivia fact was written with a hint of like, can you believe they did all this for penguins?

[36:46] That's the least of what they should have done.

[36:48] I'm glad they took care of those penguins.

[36:48] That was very sweet.

Dan McCoy

[36:49] Yeah, they should treat the penguin actors well.

Elliott Kalan

[36:52] Treat the penguins as living things.

[36:53] Yeah.

[36:54] That have specific needs.

[36:55] So, Dan, what did you think about Batman Returns when you saw it in the theaters?

Dan McCoy

[36:58] I loved Batman Returns.

[37:00] I mean, I do think that at the time, I was a bit confused at it compared to the first Batman,

[37:10] which is like still Tim Burton-y.

[37:12] Super tight.

[37:13] But a much more straightforward take on Batman.

Elliott Kalan

[37:16] This one is much more, it stops being a Batman movie for big chunks of the movie.

[37:19] Yeah.

Dan McCoy

[37:21] Yeah, I was a little more mixed as a kid, but like Gremlins 2, where as a kid I was a little more mixed.

[37:27] I thought this was kind of like a funny horror movie, not like a cartoon come to life.

[37:34] I've only come to love it more and more over the years as I've grown used to what it is.

Elliott Kalan

[37:39] So, when I first saw Batman Returns, I was like, I think it is birthdayable for sure.

[37:43] Batman was a huge movie.

[37:45] You're going to see the sequel.

[37:46] Batman Returns, I remember seeing it and being like, that was, I didn't, it made me really uncomfortable.

[37:50] It was like, this is darker and weirder than I expected, but I have come to like it more and more as time goes on.

[37:56] I still don't like that Batman just is shooting people in the beginning of the movie.

[38:00] Yeah.

[38:01] But I do like, but as opposed to Gremlins 2, which I loved from the moment it started.

Stuart Wellington

[38:06] And you like it when Gremlins shoot people in Gremlins 2.

Elliott Kalan

[38:09] I mean, the thing is, Gremlins are villains.

[38:11] So, yes, I do like it when they shoot people.

[38:12] But Batman is a hero, so he should not shoot people.

[38:15] Especially when his whole thing in the comics, or one of his whole things is, I don't kill, I don't use guns.

[38:20] Like, at this point, that had been established for, I think, 30 years at least.

[38:24] Yeah.

[38:25] Maybe I'm wrong about that.

[38:26] Maybe I'm wrong about that.

[38:27] But that's okay.

[38:27] I can be wrong about things.

[38:28] I'm not perfect.

[38:29] I'm not Batman.

Dan McCoy

[38:29] Just for context, because I think it's kind of fun.

[38:32] The other movies that were big at the time.

[38:35] Yeah, what else could you have seen?

[38:36] Yeah.

[38:37] We had, also in the top 10, Sister Act, Patriot Games, House Sitter, Lethal Weapon 3, Far and Away, Encino Man, Alien 3, Class Act, and Basic Instinct.

Elliott Kalan

[38:52] Now, a lot, most of those I did not see in the theaters, yet somehow Far and Away I saw in the theaters.

[38:56] My dad wanted to see it so badly.

[38:58] Really?

[38:58] Because he wanted to see a historical drama.

[39:00] He was like, a drama about the land rush?

Dan McCoy

[39:02] Yes, I want to see this.

[39:04] And we went to go see it.

[39:05] Ron Howard?

[39:07] Please.

Stuart Wellington

[39:09] Yeah, I feel like, I don't think I saw very many of those in the theater, which is weird.

[39:14] I definitely saw Sister Act in the theater also.

Dan McCoy

[39:16] I weirdly saw Alien 3 in the theater, even though it seems like I still would have been kind of young for it, but I did.

Stuart Wellington

[39:25] I was obsessed with Alien 3.

[39:27] I didn't get to see it in the theater, but my parents saw it, and they were like, okay, you can rent it when it comes out.

[39:33] So I was like counting down the fucking days.

[39:36] I had like the Alien 3 trading cards.

[39:39] I was like super into it.

[39:41] Yeah.

[39:41] That was a little disappointing when I saw it eventually.

[39:44] Yeah, I still liked it.

[39:45] Yeah.

Dan McCoy

[39:45] I still liked it, but I was a little disappointed.

[39:48] It was one of those like, I like Alien and Alien so much, like I have to like Alien 3.

Elliott Kalan

[39:55] Yeah, but that's hard because it's, I mean, Alien 3 has, it has its ups and downs, but like to be coming after Alien and Aliens, like how do you follow that up?

[40:02] Like that's almost impossible.

Dan McCoy

[40:05] Okay, this is one that I think you're going to get almost immediately.

[40:09] What year is it?

[40:10] 1993.

[40:11] Jurassic Park.

[40:12] Yep.

Elliott Kalan

[40:14] Come on, man.

[40:15] What else are you going to see for your birthday in 1993, dude?

[40:17] Come on.

[40:18] Yeah.

[40:18] That's it.

[40:19] A summer movie in 1993?

[40:20] Are you crazy?

[40:21] Mostly the biggest movie in the world.

[40:24] You're finally going to get to see realistic dinosaurs on screen.

[40:26] It's your birthday.

[40:27] You're a young man.

[40:28] Yes, of course.

[40:29] Is this what you're seeing?

Dan McCoy

[40:31] I'm just going to give, you know, these were kind of.

Elliott Kalan

[40:35] No, I went to see Rising Sun for my birthday that year.

[40:37] Like, what are you doing, Dan?

Dan McCoy

[40:38] These were kind of boring ones because I knew that you would immediately get it.

[40:42] So I'm just going to give you that little extra.

Stuart Wellington

[40:44] When Newman gets spit in the face.

Dan McCoy

[40:47] We got a goof here.

[40:50] Dinosaurs are not actually alive anymore.

[40:53] Hammond has a pronounced Scottish accent at the start of the film, which deteriorates markedly in just a couple of scenes.

[40:59] By the end of the film, he has an upper class English accent.

[41:02] This is something that I have never noticed in Jurassic Park.

[41:05] Is this true, Elliot?

Elliott Kalan

[41:07] To be honest, I will have to pay closer attention.

[41:09] I think I just, I'm so keyed in for dinosaurs.

[41:12] I'm not really paying that close enough attention to Richard Attenborough's performance, you know.

[41:16] I think it, you know what, but I bet it's, I bet it's, by the end, I think his accent has become more, like, elegant.

[41:24] Yeah.

[41:24] So I think that might be true.

[41:25] That might be true.

[41:26] Yeah.

Dan McCoy

[41:27] This is a movie, like, I know that you adore it.

[41:30] Like, as a kid, like, I had just read the book and I loved, loved Steven Spielberg movies.

[41:39] I loved Jaws a lot.

[41:42] And I was a little disappointed by Jurassic Park because I didn't feel like it had, like, the elegance of, like, some of that.

Elliott Kalan

[41:50] I think that's true a little bit.

[41:52] I think Jurassic Park, if it wasn't for the effects, would not stand as high in Steven Spielberg's, you know, filmography.

[41:58] But, like, I think you just can't, you cannot overestimate the power of a movie showing you something you cannot see in any other way.

[42:05] Yeah.

[42:06] That the only way you can ever see this is through a movie.

[42:08] And to see it in a movie and feel like I'm seeing it, like, it looks so real.

[42:12] And then we watch, it's one that my kids both like.

[42:13] Truly, like, the first time.

[42:15] Yes, for the first time, like, for the first time, not just in movies, for the first time in human history, you are seeing what it would look like if dinosaurs were living now.

[42:24] You just can't, like, I can't overestimate how amazing that is.

[42:28] Even though the movie itself, yeah, it's not, like, there are sequences that are fantastic in it.

[42:31] But it's not, it's not E.T., you know, it's not Raiders, you know, but it's still.

[42:35] But, I mean, I saw that movie, I saw a sneak preview of it the night before it came out.

[42:40] So, I saw it, it was an 11.45 screening the night before it came out.

[42:44] Then after school, the next day, I went to see it again.

[42:46] And then I think I saw it, I don't know how many more times, in the theaters.

[42:49] Like, I just couldn't get enough of it.

Dan McCoy

[42:51] Mr. and Mrs. Kalen, your son hasn't been in school all year.

Stuart Wellington

[42:56] Well, that was like me.

[42:57] I remember going on a birthday party to see, like, a morning screening of Last of the Mohicans.

[43:04] And then I went again later that night because I was like, this movie fucking rocks.

Dan McCoy

[43:11] Huh.

[43:12] I mean, like, I, a lot of people love Last of the Mohicans.

Stuart Wellington

[43:17] I saw that as an adult and I was, like, almost immediately bored by it.

[43:21] Yeah, I mean, I was a kid looking for battles.

[43:23] And I got, they served them up.

Elliott Kalan

[43:26] I mean, Last of the Mohicans, I think as a kid, I found it very boring.

[43:29] But as a grown-up, I think it's really good.

[43:31] But, yeah, I just, but I totally get, Dan.

[43:34] And you seeing it, you don't have the same connection to dinosaurs necessarily that I have.

[43:38] Yeah, I think that was a big part.

[43:39] That this was like, there was one, as I've said this many times to my family, there's one thing I hope I live to see.

[43:45] And that is real proof of extraterrestrial life somewhere in the universe.

[43:50] Like, I don't think I will live to see that.

[43:52] But I, it's something, I want more than anything else.

[43:54] And, like, next to that would be to see a dinosaur.

[43:57] Like, I know I'm never going to be able to do that.

[43:59] And so this is the closest I'm going to come.

[44:01] So you're hyped for Disclosure Day, I'd imagine.

[44:05] I've been, again, that's not, I've seen movies with aliens in them.

[44:07] Like, to see a movie about aliens is not as exciting because I've seen that before, you know.

Dan McCoy

[44:11] But have you seen a movie about disclosing that aliens exist?

[44:15] The proof that aliens exist.

Elliott Kalan

[44:17] There's so many billboards about that in LA.

[44:19] And I keep, and the font looks just enough like the font in the Disclosure poster that I'm like, is this about aliens sexually harassing Michael Douglas?

Dan McCoy

[44:26] Like, what's going on?

[44:27] You know, early reviews have been very positive.

[44:32] And I believe it because it's Spielberg.

[44:33] But, like, man, those trailers do nothing for me.

Stuart Wellington

[44:37] The, like, one shot of the car bursting through a house, I'm like, oh, okay.

[44:42] Yeah.

Dan McCoy

[44:44] For some reason, there's, like, as we got closer to the present day, records got spottier on the two websites I was checking.

[44:54] I only have the top five for this.

[44:56] But, of course, Jurassic Park topped the weekend.

[44:59] And then we've got –

[44:59] Oh, it did.

[45:00] Last Action Hero.

Elliott Kalan

[45:01] Really the highest grossing movie of all time up to that point?

Dan McCoy

[45:05] That's an underrated movie.

[45:07] That's a fun movie.

[45:07] Cliffhanger.

[45:09] Unforgiven.

[45:09] That's an underrated movie.

[45:10] That's a fun movie.

[45:11] Yeah.

[45:11] Wait, did you say Unforgiven?

[45:13] Unforgiven and Scent of a Woman.

[45:15] Scent of a Woman, I don't like that much.

[45:16] But the rest of those are really good.

[45:18] Yeah, it's a fun weekend.

Elliott Kalan

[45:19] I don't like Scent of a Woman's message, which is never rat.

[45:24] I know.

[45:25] I'm like, this is ridiculous.

[45:25] I mean, even as a kid, I'm like, what the fuck are you talking about?

Stuart Wellington

[45:29] The fundamental flaw with that movie is that Chris O'Donnell's character and Philip Seymour Hoffman should have been swapped.

[45:36] Yes, they should have been swapped.

[45:37] Yeah.

Dan McCoy

[45:38] Okay.

[45:39] We've reached the end.

[45:41] This is the last movie.

Elliott Kalan

[45:42] Also, Al Pacino plays it a little subtle.

Dan McCoy

[45:45] This is the last movie.

[45:46] He could push it a little more.

[45:47] But I appreciate you going on this journey with me.

[45:50] It's like even though I didn't know you as a child, you've joined me on these birthdays.

Elliott Kalan

[45:56] I wish.

[45:57] I wish we could have, yeah.

[45:58] But as adults, this would be weird.

Dan McCoy

[46:00] Yeah, that'd be weird.

[46:01] Yeah.

[46:02] In this 1994 film, the female lead's gracelessness in the film stems from the first scene she shot.

[46:12] When she waited for the title character to help her down, instead he took her parasol and walked away.

[46:18] She tried to get down alone and flopped to the ground.

[46:21] The director liked it so much that he kept it in the film and staged more scenes of her stumbling, being dumped through windows, etc.

[46:29] So, we got a parasol on there.

Stuart Wellington

[46:32] What, the mummy?

[46:36] Parasol.

Dan McCoy

[46:37] By the way, the mummy is a perfect birthday gift.

[46:39] No, it's a birthday gift.

Stuart Wellington

[46:41] It's a perfect birthday movie.

Dan McCoy

[46:42] What is the mummy?

[46:43] Just give someone a mummy.

[46:46] Someone's got a birthday?

[46:47] Give them a mummy.

[46:48] Just give them a mummy.

[46:49] It's already wrapped up.

[46:50] It is wrapped.

[46:51] Yep.

[46:51] Don't unwrap it, though.

[46:52] You will not be happy.

[46:53] Don't unwrap it, no.

[46:55] It's a display piece.

[46:58] Here's something that might help you out.

[47:00] I'm going to need one more, yeah.

[47:01] Anachronism.

[47:02] Okay.

[47:03] The playing cards used at the tournament have rounded corners, as modern decks do.

[47:07] Yep.

Stuart Wellington

[47:08] It's Maverick.

[47:09] Hell yeah, Maverick.

[47:10] I like that one.

[47:10] There you go, yeah.

Dan McCoy

[47:12] And this extra bit of…

Elliott Kalan

[47:15] Are they saying those playing cards are too modern?

[47:17] They wouldn't have had rounded corners?

Dan McCoy

[47:18] No, they would have straight corners.

[47:20] This last bit of goofery, I liked, and it's actually…

[47:23] It makes a good point.

[47:25] In the final hand…

Elliott Kalan

[47:26] Sometimes goofs are right.

[47:27] Dan, Dan, he gets mad at goofs when they're wrong, but he'll give them credit when they're

[47:30] right, you know.

Dan McCoy

[47:31] No, it's true.

[47:31] This one makes a good point.

[47:33] In the last hand, the dealer, who was in on it with Angel, swaps out the shuffled deck

[47:38] with a stacked one to give Angel a small, straight flush.

[47:43] However, that would work only if the other two players had really strong hands, but not

[47:46] as strong as Angel's.

[47:48] Commodore had four of a kind, which fits, but stacking the deck in such a way that Maverick

[47:53] gets a royal flush in the same hand makes no sense.

[47:56] And that is true.

[48:00] So, the ghost of William Goldman, please come and answer for your crimes.

[48:07] This and Dreamcatcher.

[48:07] I mean, of which Dreamcatcher would be the main one, right?

[48:09] Yeah.

[48:10] This is a distant second.

Stuart Wellington

[48:13] Very distant.

[48:14] Okay.

[48:14] So, what were some of the other movies against Maverick?

[48:17] This was one I did not see in the theater.

[48:19] I saw it on video, and I remember, I think, watching it twice.

[48:24] I really enjoyed it.

[48:25] I really enjoyed Maverick.

[48:26] I saw it in the theater.

Elliott Kalan

[48:26] I saw it in the theater also, and I really liked it when I saw it.

[48:28] And I remember this was one of those movies where it was not a big hit.

[48:31] It was like, it did well.

[48:33] It was a hit.

[48:34] But I remember people being like, eh, that wasn't so good.

[48:36] And I was like, really?

[48:37] I really liked it a lot.

[48:38] I haven't seen it in years.

Dan McCoy

[48:38] It's just like a farm-like light comedy.

[48:40] You know, like, obviously, Mel Gibson is hard to watch these days.

[48:44] But, you know, Jodie Foster.

Stuart Wellington

[48:45] Yeah, that's going to be a tough one for me to revisit without watching it.

Dan McCoy

[48:47] Yeah, but James Garner always goes down easy.

[48:49] James Garner is so charming.

[48:51] Jodie Foster gets to do comedy, which he rarely gets to do, and she's funny.

Elliott Kalan

[48:54] Which is too bad, because Jodie Foster is so funny.

[48:56] Jodie Foster can be a very funny performer.

Dan McCoy

[48:58] I wish she got to do comedy more often.

[49:00] Yeah.

[49:00] But, yeah, for some reason, and I looked on various sites,

[49:04] but for this date, my sources only gave me, as other movies,

[49:09] The Flintstones and Schindler's List.

[49:12] So, the real gamut there.

Elliott Kalan

[49:14] Again, both movies I also saw in theaters.

[49:16] But, yeah, I think Schindler's List is not really a birthday movie.

[49:21] No, I don't think so.

[49:22] I think that might make you a little sad on your birthday.

[49:23] I feel like going to see that on your birthday is a bit of a Shonda, right?

[49:27] I mean, the opposite of a Shonda.

[49:29] It's a mitzvah.

[49:29] You know, you're remembering those who we've lost on your birthday,

[49:32] but it's not a fun thing to do, you know?

[49:34] Yeah.

[49:35] But, and The Flintstones is, yeah.

Stuart Wellington

[49:39] That's one of those ones.

[49:40] I've never seen The Flintstones movie.

[49:41] Is it something I should watch?

[49:44] I haven't.

Elliott Kalan

[49:44] I've not seen it since I saw it in the theater as a kid.

[49:47] Do you like corporate entry?

[49:49] Yeah.

[49:49] It's another, it's like, here's a movie about cavemen,

[49:52] and they live alongside dinosaurs,

[49:55] but most of the movie is about who's going to get control of the corporation.

[49:57] And it's like, who cares?

[49:59] There's so many of those movies.

[50:00] Who's the evil guy, Rob Lowe or some shit?

Stuart Wellington

[50:03] It's Kyle MacLachlan.

[50:05] Kyle Mac, okay.

[50:06] Yeah.

[50:07] Does he do anything that's like psychosexual?

Elliott Kalan

[50:12] Not in The Flintstones.

[50:13] Oh, no.

[50:13] I mean, he does have like a secretary that he's having a sexy relationship with.

[50:17] Yeah, the Halle Berry character.

[50:18] The Halle Berry character.

Dan McCoy

[50:19] She's playing, is she playing Sharon Stone?

[50:21] Like, I think that's, I think that's the name that they gave her.

[50:24] That's the joke.

[50:24] That makes sense.

[50:26] Yeah.

[50:27] I mean, it's a movie that like has amazing production design,

[50:31] but it just like fails at understanding what anyone might want to see in a Flintstones movie.

Elliott Kalan

[50:37] It is not a, it's just not a very, it's just not a very funny movie.

[50:41] And I mean, the one joke that I remember from it is there's,

[50:44] they're all these kids playing at a playground and then a pteranodon,

[50:48] you see its shadows swoop by overhead and everybody runs away.

[50:51] And then just a huge, enormous amount of bird shit falls on the playground.

[50:54] And like, that's the joke.

[50:56] That's it.

[50:56] You know, that's the level of the movie.

[50:58] So, and that's the, that's the one joke in the movie that was funny enough that I remember it.

[51:01] Yeah.

[51:02] Yeah.

Dan McCoy

[51:03] Well, thank you for going on this birthday odyssey with me.

[51:07] This remembrance of things past.

[51:11] This has been the Flophouse podcast, a podcast about movies, usually bad ones.

[51:17] We're on the Maximum Fun Network.

[51:19] Go to MaximumFun.org to check out other great shows in the network.

[51:24] Check out Howl Dottie.

[51:26] Just try and figure out how it's spelled and Google it.

[51:28] And you'll see what our producer Alex Smith is up to.

[51:31] A lot of fun stuff.

[51:32] You'll enjoy that as well.

[51:33] But for this Flophouse mini, I've been Dan McCoy.

[51:37] I'm Stuart Wellington.

Elliott Kalan

[51:40] And I'm Elliot Kalin, wishing Dan a happy birthday in the future and a happy many birthdays of the past.

[51:48] Oh, thanks.

[51:49] Oh, that's pretty sweet.

[51:50] And many birthdays in the future, too.

[51:51] I'm not saying this should be his last one.

[51:53] Oh, God willing.

[51:53] I like him in the future.

[51:54] So let me, so let me, let me, don't, don't cut that out, but let me say this being better.

[51:58] And I'm Elliot Kalin, wishing Dan McCoy many happy birthdays for those we've missed and those yet to come that we will celebrate with him.

Dan McCoy

[52:06] Oh, an excellent toast.

[52:07] Thank you.

[52:08] Yeah.

[52:14] Maximum Fun.

[52:15] A worker-owned network.

[52:17] Of artist-owned shows.

[52:19] Supported.

[52:19] Directly.

[52:20] By you.

FH Mini 152 - Birthday Movies

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