Episode #392 - The Bubble

[0:00] On this episode, we discuss The Bubble!

[0:04] The movie equivalent of the Celebrity Imagine video.

[0:08] Harsh, harsh, but fair.

[0:12] Should we even do the episode now?

[0:30] Hey everyone, and welcome to The Flop House. I'm Dan McCoy.

[0:41] Hey, it's me, Stuart Wellington.

[0:44] Oh wow, groovy.

[0:45] And I'm Elliot Kalin, and I'm not even going to try to simulate that level of grooviness.

[0:49] I just can't do it. It's only groovy still.

[0:52] Oh buddy, groovy still.

[0:54] Why are we feeling groovy? Is it because we're walking across one of Manhattan's bridges?

[0:59] Yeah, I saw a lamppost and the power was flowing.

[1:03] That's pretty groovy.

[1:05] The bridge that that song is named after is not really much of a pedestrian bridge,

[1:09] so I don't know why it's about walking along and seeing lampposts, but anyway.

[1:12] Wait, feeling groovy is about a fucking bridge?

[1:15] Looking for love and feeling groovy?

[1:18] Yeah, I guess.

[1:19] The 59th Street Bridge?

[1:22] I think now it's the Robert F. Kennedy Bridge, right? Or is it the Ed Koch Bridge?

[1:29] I don't live in New York anymore. I don't care about those people.

[1:31] Well, now that we've got you all on the edge of your seats with all this bridge talk,

[1:35] we're going to talk about how this is a very special time, why we're feeling so groovy.

[1:40] It's MaxFunDrive, the one time during the year that we come to you and ask the listeners for a little support.

[1:46] Let me talk to you about it.

[1:48] This is the time when we ask our listeners, hey, if you enjoy this show,

[1:51] you like what we do and you'd like it to continue to be part of your life for years to come,

[1:56] please consider becoming a supporting member of MaxFun with a monthly payment that helps sustain our show and the network.

[2:03] I'm not going to say a lot more about it now.

[2:05] We're going to talk about it a little later, but please listen when we do talk about it a bit.

[2:09] I know it's a pain when I was a kid.

[2:11] I didn't like it when PBS would interrupt me watching Sherlock Holmes on Mystery

[2:16] to talk about the importance of public-supported media and hold up their tote bags.

[2:19] But we're going to have some cool gifts, some rewards to talk about at both the network level

[2:26] and rewards that are unique to our show.

[2:29] So please don't skip ahead when we get to that.

[2:32] Unless you just go join now at MaxFunFun.org forward slash join and then fuck it, skip whatever you like.

[2:39] But now, for now, back to the show.

[2:41] This is a podcast where we watch a bad movie and then we talk about it.

[2:45] And, oh boy, we talked about it this week.

[2:48] We did a movie that we were sort of hoping to avoid, I think, all of us.

[2:52] Yeah, we put it off a lot.

[2:54] We kept delaying it, and I like a master torturer out of a Gene Wolfe novel.

[3:00] Whoa, you're subverting the torture with perfect memory?

[3:04] And you're sort of terminus est?

[3:07] I kept saying, what about the bubble?

[3:10] Hey, am I saying that right? Is it terminus est? Is that how you pronounce that shit?

[3:14] Because that's also, obviously, before you interrupt me, guys, I know it's also the flagship of Typhus the Plague Lord in Warhammer 40,000.

[3:22] Oh, thank God.

[3:23] This is the kind of stuff that our pledgers love.

[3:26] So if you want more of that kind of extremely esoteric Stuart role-playing game and 70s fantasy novel knowledge, please let us know.

[3:35] I don't think it's technically a fantasy because it happens, wait, does it happen far in the future or far in the past?

[3:39] It happens far in the future, right?

[3:41] Yeah, I don't remember.

[3:43] Jack Vance's dying earth novels happen far in the future, and there's still fantasy. There's wizards and stuff.

[3:48] Yeah, I think wizards and stuff is the key, whether it's a fantasy novel.

[3:53] Yeah.

[3:55] If you look up fantasy in the dictionary, it says noun, subject, wizards and stuff, adjective, descriptor, wizards and stuff.

[4:03] That's how fucking when Ian McShane gets hired to be in the Jack Vance novel movies, he's like, yeah, it's just wizards and stuff.

[4:10] So we put off the bubble quite a bit, and then we watched the movie.

[4:15] Were we right to put off the bubble as long as we were?

[4:18] I think we knew that this was one that was going to specifically just make us unhappy, and for a long time we didn't do it.

[4:26] And then we're like, oh, the Flophouse cupboards are bare.

[4:29] We can't come up with a better idea.

[4:31] Time to chap our own asses for two hours.

[4:35] And the thing is, this was a big picture in the sense that it has major stars and it's directed by Judd Apatow.

[4:43] Elliot's favorite comedic director and dramatic director.

[4:47] Well, we'll talk about it.

[4:49] But in the olden days, this would be released to theater where it would be a major flop.

[4:57] A huge hit.

[4:58] It was on Netflix where when we announced the bubble, many listeners were like, now what is this movie?

[5:05] You're not talking about Steven Soderbergh's Bubble?

[5:08] You're not talking about the 1966 The Bubble directed by Arch Obler that was recently done on Mystery Science Theater 2000 through their Gizmoplex website?

[5:16] You're not talking about the hit graphic novel written by Jordan Morris?

[5:20] Yeah.

[5:21] Bubble?

[5:22] We're pre-flopping the movie.

[5:24] Take that, Jordan.

[5:26] You're not talking about Michael Bublé, Many Mom's favorite singer?

[5:30] Uh-huh.

[5:31] You're not talking about the carbonated alcoholic beverage?

[5:35] It's alcoholic.

[5:36] Just Bubbles?

[5:37] No.

[5:38] Bublé?

[5:39] There's a beverage just called Bubble?

[5:41] I don't know.

[5:42] I see drag queens drinking on Drag Race.

[5:44] OK.

[5:45] You just want to be cool.

[5:46] Yeah.

[5:47] Stuart knew what he was talking about when he came to the beverage industry.

[5:49] Thank you.

[5:50] I didn't realize.

[5:51] I wasn't expecting immediate pushback.

[5:54] And then I folded.

[5:55] That's when Michael Palin rushes in.

[5:57] Nobody expects immediate pushback.

[5:59] Yep.

[6:00] So I'm going to pull back the apron here and let everybody know.

[6:06] Pull aside the apron.

[6:07] Pull aside the apron and let our listeners know that we had actually intended to do this episode a few days before.

[6:14] But Dan got very, very sick.

[6:16] I did.

[6:17] This is not a joke.

[6:18] I'm being 100 percent serious.

[6:19] No.

[6:20] Almost as if his body was rejecting the movie.

[6:21] Yeah.

[6:22] Rejecting the movie Bubble.

[6:23] It caused a bubble in his tumbo and it made him go to the bathroom and barf.

[6:28] I had set up all the recording equipment.

[6:30] Stuart had not gotten the – it was close enough that Stuart had not gotten the text saying, I can't do this right now.

[6:36] Like somebody in a horror movie expecting to be warned that the killer is on their way.

[6:41] I was using a hot air dryer on my hair and obviously on my other parts to make sure my whole body is dried like a normal person.

[6:50] Sure.

[6:51] But I didn't even hear all the notifications.

[6:53] I was just humming a little song to myself like at the body shop or whatever that is.

[6:58] And I was having a really good time.

[7:01] I show up to Dan's apartment and Audrey is like, do not come in.

[7:04] Dan says, you're not allowed.

[7:06] Quarantine.

[7:07] No, it was – I mean like 45 minutes beforehand, like the contents of my body violently ejected themselves through my mouth.

[7:15] And all of the sweat in my face came to the surface of my head.

[7:21] And I was like, oh, now I've got a 101 fever all of a sudden.

[7:25] Dan, that's Hellraiser type stuff.

[7:27] If the sweat comes out on your face and then it pulls up to the top of your head, anti-gravity style.

[7:32] Dan's description is getting Ruben Oslund.

[7:34] I just got real clammy on this episode.

[7:36] And look, if anyone is worried about Stuart, I've tested for COVID multiple times.

[7:42] Vomiting is not a typical symptom, but it can be in some cases.

[7:46] But I'm not – it was like a 24-hour stomach bug.

[7:49] I'm feeling a lot better, but thank you.

[7:51] That's such a good movie, 24-hour stomach bug.

[7:53] It's great.

[7:55] So, well, this whole thing is set up.

[7:58] I hope that with all this time that's passed, I hope I remember all of the hilarious jokes and bits in the movie.

[8:05] It's all kind of blown out of my brain.

[8:08] It's going to be fun.

[8:10] I want to take a moment before we talk about the bubble to apologize to the makers of the movie Airplane 2, the sequel.

[8:16] A movie that we recorded a special bonus content episode about, and you'll hear more about it at a future time for this pledge drive.

[8:25] When we talked about that movie, spoiler alert, it made me so mad, and I was like these people are so lazy.

[8:30] They're using the same joke over and over again.

[8:32] I didn't realize there was another level where you just don't make jokes.

[8:35] Instead of repeating the same joke over and again, you just have no jokes in the movie, so I want to apologize.

[8:39] You keep making faints in various directions of where some comedy could be found if an enterprising minor came along and dug it up, but there's no –

[8:48] Well, I'll tell you what.

[8:49] Here's the thing.

[8:50] Maybe this is a new step towards really including the audience where it's like, hey, here's a space for a joke.

[8:57] What would you put here?

[8:58] It's like you make the call, but instead it's you make the joke.

[9:01] That way maybe this is the greatest comedy movie ever made because it really makes the audience, the observer, a full collaborator in that they have to fill in the jokes that would be there but are not there.

[9:11] I will say this is such a stacked cast.

[9:14] These are all funny performers, people I have laughed at before, that for the first 30 minutes I wasn't enjoying it, but every once in a while I would laugh at something and then stony silence for the next 90 minutes as I got worn down.

[9:31] Getting sicker and sicker.

[9:33] It's resolute refusal to figure out what it's about or why anyone is supposed to be watching it.

[9:38] That is also – every time a plot is about to erupt, the movie tamps it down.

[9:42] It's like, shh, people are worried right now.

[9:44] They don't need this stress, this tension.

[9:46] So should I go through this movie?

[9:48] Yeah, please.

[9:49] I'm not going to go through it.

[9:51] I'm not going to go through it super detailed in some places because it's kind of more an Altman-esque movie.

[10:00] I would also describe it as what if day for night was not good, but okay, we start with

[10:10] a bunch of posters for the cliff beasts action movie series and there's a caption which tells

[10:14] us this is the 23rd biggest movie franchise of all time and now they're about to film

[10:18] cliff beast six during covid in England and we haven't seen the cliff beast yet we do

[10:23] see them dance to how would you describe a cliff beast because the idea is that this

[10:26] is a huge action series that everyone's familiar with well yeah it's a cliff beast it seems

[10:32] appears to be kind of a t-rex with wings like a little t-rex with wings or like in between

[10:37] a velociraptor and t-rex like clearly this is meant to evoke the jurassic park series

[10:44] but it is more of a fantasy version of it like a little more violent um i think one

[10:52] of the series is pretty violent a guy gets eaten by a t-rex while he's not sitting on

[10:55] the shitter sure way to go sure but like i think that this seems to be does not fulfill

[11:01] the promise of ghoulies that where the t-rex would come up through the toilet seat and

[11:04] bite him in the butt as we talked about the critters episode you know how long they fucking

[11:08] tried to get that gag to work they're like well his snout doesn't actually fit and they're

[11:11] like but what if what if we made a giant uh toilet they're like well that wouldn't make

[11:16] sense at all they're like no the joke it's like a multi-person public toilet where everyone

[11:23] sits in a ring around the edge of the bowl um see now i'm just imagining how you would

[11:27] do it in effects where you would have to build like a bigger toilet with a bigger ghoulie

[11:32] and then composite it you know with a regular sized uh person you know it wouldn't be really

[11:37] cool if in the first jurassic park movie when he's sitting on the thing he's frightened

[11:41] of the t-rex and instead a ghoulie climbs up the toilet did you expect me did you surprising

[11:47] twist no well but i mean i know nature finds a way that's what i'm saying yeah nature

[11:53] except ghoulies didn't find a way let's say gorier it looks a little more like disreputable

[12:00] than the part of the problem with the this movie one of its many problems but one of the problems

[12:06] is the movie within the movie and i and i see this in a lot of comedies and i i hate it every time

[12:11] like the movie within the movie i feel like shouldn't look like a parody and a comedy for

[12:16] the most part like the movie within a movie it shouldn't it should it should not look like a

[12:20] parody instead it should look like you are taking those elements that are sincere about it so far

[12:26] that it becomes fun and that that was the thing i agree that these scenes if this is what you're

[12:30] saying the scenes in the movie kind of didn't go far enough to be like a funny takedown of those

[12:35] types of movies and instead they were just kind of like goofy kind of silly slapdash or the serious

[12:40] stuff just seems funnier when put next to seeing their actual lives and how like you know just

[12:48] dysfunctional everybody right there was there's one scene the scene skipping ahead the scene

[12:52] later on with the tiktok girl teaches uh teaches it one of the cliffbeats how to do a dance that

[12:58] scene like almost got there where i was like okay this is a funny like extrapolate exaggeration of

[13:04] of chris padden blue you know if you're gonna go that outrageous sure but that's a different it's

[13:09] like a tone issue it's like figuring out what kind of comedy you're making because i would argue that

[13:13] for the most part though like if you're making this kind of movie i don't know i always have

[13:17] the problem if it looks like a comedy sketch if it looks like a an snl like trailer i'm like okay

[13:22] well this works at that length but if we are to believe that these are all professional people

[13:28] making a movie like what is this movie like why do we think that this is a movie that people

[13:34] who are professionals think that other people are going to go see i want at least that grounding and

[13:39] then the wackiness well no it's cool because what about off-screen shit yeah the filmmaker

[13:43] saying that the people who go to movies are fucking idiots and that the people who make

[13:48] movies are idiots it's a movie that is it's but it's also the the tone the real tone issue i have

[13:53] overall with this is that it is a movie that is all about like skewering hollywood pretensions

[13:57] but it doesn't really like it doesn't really go very well that's the other thing yeah if if the

[14:02] people making the movie were all idiots if that was the point of the movie this movie

[14:06] does not have fangs enough for anyone like if the point of the movie was

[14:11] that these people are all like incompetent and we are to laugh at them that would be one thing

[14:18] but i think that you're ultimately supposed to like some of them which is well it reminds me

[14:22] of a do you guys remember the movie state and main from years ago that's another movie where

[14:26] i felt like it had the same problem where it was like we're gonna take down the movie business

[14:31] but the movie but we also want you to like these characters so they're not like bad people and

[14:35] what they're doing isn't that bad it's just kind of you know light and silly but it's not that silly

[14:39] okay but let's get to the plot we haven't met these characters yet okay first off we meet the

[14:44] producer gavin peter serafinowicz and he's explaining he's explaining to two new staffers

[14:49] uh gunther and bola that they are going to be working to take care of the actors in this covid

[14:55] free bubble they've created at this luxury hotel in the middle of nowhere in england uh and this

[15:00] is mean this means we're gonna have to manage the volatile emotions of these actors and i was really

[15:04] excited at this point because i'm like darth maul's in this fucking thing awesome yeah the

[15:09] voice of darth maul i'm sorry i didn't know him when you see him in a comedy is you're like

[15:16] darth maul at last they're gonna reveal themselves i mean darth maul was cut up like he was

[15:24] yeah uh that one of those actors we soon meet is carol cobb played by karen gillan

[15:29] and she skipped cliff beast 5 to make a movie where she played a half israeli half palestinian

[15:34] woman who fights aliens and brings peace to the middle east and we only get to see a glimpse of

[15:38] this and similarly it looks more like a sketch scene than it does a real movie and that movie

[15:43] was a bomb so her agent uh rob delaney is like you have to take this role and you're gonna go

[15:48] into this covid bubble for the whole production and leave your fiancee and your soon-to-be

[15:51] stepchildren behind and she arrives there's a lot of stale jokes about covid tests and distancing

[15:58] and like she has to quarantine herself and there's just a montage of her for two weeks

[16:02] drinking and eating snacks and it feels like this is not the movie's fault but all of this

[16:06] covid material feels super outdated and old already yeah and let's talk about because so

[16:13] for all the audience members who were in the camp of like the bubble what's that like the

[16:18] bub the titular bubble we're talking about a covid bubble yeah that they are all filming this movie

[16:24] this movie is a product the steven soderbergh movie bubble which was about an enormous sentient

[16:29] bubble that eats the town uh this is a product of early pandemic and um you know to get back to

[16:37] like the characters like being these dumb actors i think that part of the problem that one's brain

[16:44] rejects this movie is like you're like okay we all went through the pandemic why are we caring

[16:53] about the travails of these like the most pampered people in the middle of the pandemic

[16:58] and again if it was a meaner movie like the joke of it would be that like these are the

[17:04] most pampered people and uh experiencing hardship for the first time and it's going to take them

[17:12] apart yeah that if it went full bore in that that could be a good premise but because it doesn't

[17:18] it's like what are you guys what's going i mean like even when like later on when people are like

[17:22] starting to get shot you're like well you know you kind of brought this on yourself by whining so

[17:28] it's still not doesn't feel harsh enough you know and yeah what was the what was the anne

[17:32] hathaway movie that we watched was it called lockdown lockdown lockdown yeah i had so much

[17:36] more respect for that movie after this because i was like i didn't like that movie but it still

[17:41] felt like it was getting a little bit closer to a real feeling about what it's like during that time

[17:46] than this was uh whereas this is the minute that's like uh-oh they're in a bubble at a huge luxury

[17:53] hotel well everything they want is right there and there's no real hardship except that they

[17:57] don't have to leave this luxury hotel it's like uh that sounds great let's uh let's let's send

[18:02] that copy over to the makers of lockdown so they can add it to the movie poster better than bubble

[18:09] and you can send the quote to airplane too i owe this movie an apology says ellie caitlin

[18:13] us i saw the bubble he screamed

[18:20] that's that episode of mash right they don't usually attribute quotes that way with like

[18:25] with some context stage direction and such but re colon the bubble

[18:31] not as good as lockdown uh so there's a lot so anyway they're all going crazy quarantine

[18:36] quarantine quarantine quarantine time quarantine cow one of the lesser disney characters quarantine

[18:44] cow yeah so quarantine time ends the cast meets for cocktail party we meet the rest of the actors

[18:49] i'm just going to go through all the other characters are okay now luckily you don't

[18:52] actually have to put too much time in describing them because they don't really have a lot of

[18:56] person yeah no they're really playing off of their already being famous there's lauren played

[19:01] by leslie man she's mad at carol for skipping the last movie there's dustin played by david

[19:05] de coveney lauren's ex-husband who immediately tries to rekindle their relationship and they

[19:09] start screwing again crystal played by iris apatow she's a tiktok influencer who's been

[19:13] brought to the cast as a new cast member and she quickly makes friends with carla the sarcastic

[19:18] daughter of the movie stunt coordinator and we don't find out till later in the movie why carla

[19:22] is there when the stunt coordinator escort stunt coordinator character is just john cena in a cameo

[19:27] over an ipad later on as we see and played by dennis hopper's daughter oh okay what yeah i

[19:34] hopper his daughter denise hopper yeah uh yeah i'm sure that's how you wait are you sure it was

[19:39] dennis hopper's daughter not and not doc hopper's daughter from the muppet movie uh oh yeah you're

[19:44] right it's yeah was she trying the clue the clue was was she constantly trying to kill kermit and

[19:49] harvest his legs yeah that's what would tell us yeah galen hopper hmm let me check the let me

[19:55] yeah just there's there's dieter played by pedro pascal who's a decadent burnt out

[20:00] Oscar winner who is also joining the cast the first who also like I

[20:04] Have to get like the guy has so much charisma. I mean he can kind of get through

[20:09] But they it's they still they don't I mean they don't give him a lot to do. Yeah, that's kind of wasted

[20:15] You know of the main cast like I was most happy to see when he appeared on screen. Well, like but

[20:22] Yeah, I like as the movie went on they really didn't seem to know what to do with them like

[20:27] Well, they don't really seem to know who did what to do with most there's Sean played by Keegan Michael Key because I'm not done

[20:32] With the rest of the characters. Yeah, there's Sean played by Keegan Michael Key who has recently started a self-help cult

[20:37] There's Howie played by Guz Khan. He's the big loud comic relief actor

[20:41] There's Annika who's a clerk at the hotel who's played by Maria Bacalova and apparently was while making this movie that she was notified

[20:48] And she had been nominated for a Best Supporting Actress Academy Award for Borat 2

[20:52] It was

[20:54] Charming and she's great and charming

[20:56] Yeah, and there's Darren played by Fred Armisen who is a the director of this cliff be six

[21:02] He's an indie director who's making his first big-budget movie again. This is a thing that happens in Hollywood

[21:07] They could have really satirized it and they don't really

[21:09] They don't really go after it the idea of someone who has made a small

[21:13] Indie darling movie and is now in charge of this enormous

[21:16] Operation and is flailing a lot of characters and yet this first group scene is incredibly low energy

[21:21] it really does feel like all the actors were brought in on the first day to mingle with each other and they said and they

[21:26] Shot it and then was like and they're like pretend to be in your characters for a couple. There's like not a lot going on here

[21:30] I mean I

[21:32] So, I don't know how this was

[21:34] Produced like I don't know like the story behind it like it seems like, you know, Apatow obviously known for doing a lot of

[21:41] Improv and mostly like, you know, that works when it's like let's do a lot of alts for something and maybe something

[21:47] Interesting will happen and unlike Elliot like what do you call him an alt man? Yeah

[21:54] Here he's going in more of an alt man direction where it's like you have your character

[21:58] You're going to exist as your character and just interact and we're just gonna record all it like Robert Altman

[22:03] He's working off a screenplay with stories, but he did so much more

[22:07] No, but it was just like he's

[22:10] stories

[22:11] but you look at a movie like

[22:13] Nashville or McCabe and mrs. Miller or even like a wedding where it's clear that there's a certain amount of just kind of like

[22:19] Open room for everyone. Yeah. Yeah, this seems like more the ultimate of predator port a where it's like

[22:24] I don't know how much screenplay there was

[22:27] Yeah

[22:29] Yeah, they just like threw everyone together like I don't work itself out and like look I I I

[22:36] Like Apatow a lot more than Elliot is what I was gonna say

[22:39] like I think the early things he directed are very funny and like

[22:44] He was a necessary corrective to some things that were happening in comedy before that

[22:49] But at this point like he certainly he brought back

[22:54] I'm still talking. Okay. Sorry. So he's to go back to like actually writing a script

[23:00] Doing that that's all I want to get going. Sorry

[23:03] No, I say he certainly brought like a real humanity to comedy I feel like him and like, you know, like

[23:09] What in TV like Mike Schur and Greg Daniels and stuff like yeah at a time when comedy had gotten very like ironic bitter

[23:16] Yeah, they brought a real kind of like heart back to it, which is very valuable

[23:21] But here it's it's kind of doesn't it doesn't have that even yeah, you know, so it's it's kind of missing that

[23:26] I'm not gonna go scene by scene through the movie because again, it's kind of like you're just watching characters

[23:30] I will say that uh, there's a lot of montages. We watch the cast rehearse a bunch of fight scenes and animal stunts

[23:36] There's no jokes there

[23:37] they do a very elaborate tick-tock lip-sync dance video which seems more like a

[23:41] Scene that is meant to be clipped from the movie and shared virally than like a joke scene like it's not funny

[23:46] It's not funny

[23:47] Like the first time it tick-tock scene comes up

[23:49] I'm like, oh this kind of makes sense like because there's a tick-tock tick-tock star here

[23:53] Of course dick stock, which is a different social media

[23:56] I

[24:00] Thought was stock footage of sticks

[24:03] It's stock footage of both sticks like branches and also sticks the band. Yeah

[24:10] Images of Dennis de Young or number or a twig. That's where you go. Yeah the short story sticks

[24:17] Um, no, the thing is though. The thing is though if you remember stick stock you weren't there, man

[24:21] Make sense for them to do a tip-tip a tick-tock

[24:27] Tip-top

[24:30] Top stick stock

[24:33] No, like I feel like if they're in a bubble like that's what they would do like, oh, yeah, we'll get together

[24:37] It'll be fun. Like what like but then it becomes like such a runner for the fucking movie and it's not inherently funny

[24:44] That this person a tick-tock star and the movie seems that they get it

[24:47] Good point, I think I'm gonna flip-flop on my tick-tock stick stock

[24:52] Your stick stuck on your previous position

[24:55] Guys, I go down to the ship shop. That's where I buy it's a shop where I buy ships

[25:00] Everything ship shape at the ship shop

[25:06] And then I'll go to the chip shop at a Brooklyn restaurant, which is no longer there anymore

[25:10] Yeah, unfortunately, it was a ship shop. Yeah, it was a ship shop

[25:13] Chip shop at a Brooklyn restaurant, which is no longer there anymore. Yeah, unfortunately, it was

[25:18] Yeah one place he could get a fried Mars bar in Brooklyn anyway, so

[25:22] The but it's I think you're right

[25:25] We were saying is right that they seem to think that just mentioning that she's a tick-tock influencer is kind of like enough of a

[25:30] Joke, yeah, the reference is enough a joke, but this it's not really there's no joke there

[25:35] The producer gets calls from the head of the studios played by Kate McKinnon and she's always in a different kind of lavish

[25:41] 1% vacation resort, you know and a very chaste romance starts between Pedro Pascal and Rhea Bukalova

[25:48] Where she refuses to sleep with him until he agrees to different types of long-term

[25:53] Funny bit where he's like, do you want to have sex with me? She's like, yes, but first we have to do all these things

[26:00] Yeah, and of all the runners

[26:02] That's the one that I liked the most and it's the one that at the by the end feels the most like a story has

[26:07] Happened, you know, yeah, yeah, and eventually we see some scenes from the movies

[26:11] Dan's already talked about those. I got to talk about that though now, okay

[26:14] So this is a movie that's meant to be shot entirely on green screen and filled in with tons of effects

[26:20] Yeah, where's the germany grooms groom? So when they show these grooms groom scenes, but it's all all the effects are

[26:28] Finished they show it's all finished effects, which are also as Dan pointed out very much like a parody movie

[26:34] Yeah, but I don't know would it have been better if they just kept it

[26:38] I mean, I feel like for realism's sake because it's not like they're doing the fucking special effects

[26:44] No, they're not rendering it on the fly. I mean as much as Marvel would love that

[26:48] Yeah, I mean, oh, I guarantee you they're working on some kind of AI

[26:54] Special effects program that would render in real time

[26:57] Yeah, wonderful. Yeah, but I don't know do you think it would have been I feel like it would have been better if they played

[27:03] it straight

[27:05] But just kept it all done on these green screens which make it inherently silly even though their performances would be

[27:12] Not silly. I wonder I think that would have worked

[27:15] I think that would have gotten not that seeing the scenes from the movies isn't tiring after a while

[27:19] But I think that would have gotten tired much faster

[27:22] Yes, the joke is that the thing that they're doing just isn't there which is a joke

[27:25] They make they have the two guys who are

[27:27] Representing the cliff beasts on the right screen and they they have jokes instead

[27:31] I think that to break it up visually it helps a little bit to have those scenes

[27:35] You just wish that they looked more different than the rest of the movie, you know

[27:38] Yeah, you wish they were shot differently

[27:40] But they looked like real things or they were like shot with like though like the different like they were shot with one of those

[27:46] Michael Bay cameras

[27:48] Yes, that shakes all the time. Yeah that shakes all the time. Like everything's like overly saturated and Michael Bay is like

[27:54] I've invented a new camera. It's constantly shaking

[27:56] It can only take it only record shots that they go for a half a second before it shuts down or spins around

[28:02] or spins around and I think that the

[28:06] No, I don't know the thing. I was gonna say about I don't know. We're damn what we hide

[28:09] Well, I do agree

[28:11] You know with Stu to some degree that like oh, you know

[28:14] I think just them, you know acting as tennis balls is funnier than all the effect stuff and I

[28:21] mean, maybe it's just the part of me that's too much of a

[28:25] Movie fan to like just go with the movie like there is a like a nerdy part of me

[28:30] That's just like that's not how it would be. That doesn't make any sense right away

[28:34] but

[28:35] There are moments where I do find it funny most

[28:40] Too long, but I like when they're all sick, you know

[28:44] flew much like I had and they just start like falling and drifting away from the

[28:50] Climbing a cliff and then they keep letting go and they're just floating in midair because they're clearly on what yeah on the on wires

[28:56] It's that I think that I thought the first time I saw that I thought like that's a really funny visual because

[29:01] It looks like a finished movie where they're just kind of floating in midair

[29:04] They've given up but it's I wish they had been more that inventive with the rest of it that like each time

[29:10] They had had a thing like that where it was a yeah, it was paid off that

[29:15] That it was looked finished, you know, yeah, like so many things in the movie

[29:18] They're just like it seems like I don't know. This is the scene that we improvised this morning

[29:23] Let's make it happen rather than like a payoff

[29:26] So David a company's character. He wants to rewrite the script. The director won't let him everybody hangs out

[29:31] They get news that someone had a positive kovat test

[29:34] They all have to quarantine again

[29:35] Cut to a montage of them killing time alone in the rooms like building skills and Leslie, man

[29:39] We see starts out very clumsy on roller skates and they gets very good at roller skate dancing

[29:44] And I was like, did she get really good at roller skate dancing for the role?

[29:48] Were she already really good at roller skate dancing and the best acting in the movie is her pretending. She's not good at

[29:55] The same way that Michelle Yeoh for all the reasons she earned that Best Actress award

[30:00] that she won not too long ago before we recorded this,

[30:02] is playing a character who convincingly

[30:04] does not know how to do kung fu

[30:06] and is doing martial arts clumsily

[30:10] and looking like she has no idea what she's doing,

[30:11] is, must be the hardest thing for Michelle Yeoh

[30:13] to do in the world.

[30:14] So maybe Leslie Mann is just pulling out all the stops

[30:17] to make it seem like she's not good at roller skating.

[30:19] Maybe she's an amazing roller skater.

[30:20] In which case-

[30:21] Right in, Leslie Mann.

[30:22] And Leslie Mann, I wanna see you in a roller skate movie.

[30:24] Like, I think that would be hilarious.

[30:25] I'd love to see Leslie Mann star in a movie

[30:28] about a champion roller skater,

[30:29] someone who owns a roller rink.

[30:31] What would it be, guys?

[30:32] Let's get that Xanadu reboot off the ground.

[30:34] Yeah, call it Manadu,

[30:36] because it's Leslie Mann.

[30:37] Yeah, yeah.

[30:38] Better yet, call it Manitou.

[30:40] Yeah, because it's a sequel, yeah.

[30:43] No, call it Manatee,

[30:44] and she's a roller skating manatee.

[30:47] Oh, wow, okay, yeah.

[30:48] Get on this, Hollywood.

[30:49] I mean, at that point,

[30:50] you don't even need the roller skates.

[30:52] I mean, just manatees.

[30:53] No, no, no, no,

[30:53] that's the roller skates make the movie.

[30:55] You know what, yeah, actually,

[30:55] you're right, forget the roller skates.

[30:57] She's just a manatee with Leslie Mann's face.

[30:59] It's still a remake of Xanadu.

[31:00] There's probably already an Asylum production

[31:03] about a killer manatee called Manatee, right, Dan?

[31:07] Probably.

[31:09] Probably.

[31:10] I'm sorry, this is flashing me back to one of my,

[31:14] as Jesse Thorne very insultingly calls them,

[31:18] my low-effort tweets where I talked about Leslie Mann.

[31:23] Yeah, you sweat over those fucking things.

[31:24] Oh, sorry, sorry, Man Mann.

[31:26] Like Hephaestus over the forge.

[31:28] Man Mann, who has all the powers of Leslie Mann

[31:31] because, of course, Man Mann was bitten

[31:33] by a radioactive Leslie Mann.

[31:35] That is a low-energy tweet,

[31:37] delivered with even less energy.

[31:39] Well, you know, it was interrupted by two doofuses.

[31:45] Would a doofus suggest that the movie Manatee

[31:47] is not a remake of Xanadu, but a remake of Mannequin,

[31:50] where the main character is a mannequin of a manatee?

[31:53] Tell me if I'm a doofus now, dumbass.

[31:55] You had my attention, but now you have my interest.

[31:59] I mean, like, certain suit coats

[32:01] would look great on a manatee.

[32:03] Yeah, so the first one's called Manatee.

[32:04] The second one, of course, is now Manatoo,

[32:06] on the move again.

[32:07] On the move, yeah, on the move again.

[32:09] And then Manatree.

[32:10] Manatree?

[32:10] Manatree, yeah.

[32:11] Oh my God, it writes itself.

[32:13] And you got the sponsor tie-ins, Manatee Manischewitz.

[32:16] It's the only sweet wine that tastes like a manatee.

[32:18] Manatees, they're men's undershirts

[32:20] that have a manatee on them.

[32:22] Oh, I thought you were talking about manatees,

[32:24] the only fans with the hottest manatees.

[32:29] Yeah, yeah, the manatee just teases you,

[32:30] just waves its tail.

[32:31] And you're like,

[32:32] I understand why those pirates and sailors

[32:34] thought these were mermaids, hello.

[32:37] Suddenly I get it.

[32:38] I'll be taking the role of Odysseus, please.

[32:41] I don't think there's any manatees in the Odysseys,

[32:44] are there?

[32:45] Well, yeah, no, but like the sirens,

[32:46] he had the rest of his crew all like,

[32:47] and he's like-

[32:48] The sirens were the Greeks explaining manatees.

[32:51] Well, he's like, keep the beeswax out of my ears,

[32:53] because I want to hear that shit.

[32:55] Elliot, is that why sirens on an ambulance

[32:59] and such are called sirens?

[33:01] Is it from the sirens?

[33:03] That's a good question.

[33:04] I don't know if the word siren has a deeper root

[33:07] that involves sound,

[33:08] or if it's a response to that,

[33:08] but it's very possible.

[33:10] Very possible.

[33:11] You could write in listeners,

[33:12] but probably by that time I'll have Googled it

[33:15] and or forgotten I asked the question.

[33:16] So, you know, take your pick.

[33:20] Choose your own adventure.

[33:21] Maximumfun.org slash join.

[33:23] Anyway, so,

[33:25] Do we have the fucking drug scene yet?

[33:27] No, we're getting there.

[33:28] That's way later.

[33:30] Characters start having sex with each other.

[33:31] Do Covey and Leslie Mann have sex on the set?

[33:33] Carol meets a soccer player

[33:35] who's staying at the same hotel,

[33:36] which is weird that their bubble overlaps

[33:39] with another bubble,

[33:40] like a Venn diagram between a soccer team

[33:42] and a movie suit.

[33:43] Shoot, it doesn't make sense.

[33:44] They have sex after she learns her fiance has left her.

[33:46] Howie, the comic relief actor,

[33:47] he gets stressed out and punches Do Covey in the nuts

[33:49] and runs away.

[33:50] And this leads to the hiring of Mr. Best,

[33:52] a mean security guy who attaches tracking badges

[33:55] to the actors.

[33:56] This doesn't really pay off.

[33:57] The tracking badges don't pay off.

[33:58] Mr. Best pays off.

[34:00] Yeah, you know what?

[34:01] Like I didn't, I don't remember laughing at it at the time,

[34:03] but in retrospect, remembering how seedy Mr. Best is

[34:07] kind of makes me laugh.

[34:09] Okay.

[34:10] That's fair.

[34:11] He's like, he's a very like,

[34:11] like sort of low-level British gangster kind of.

[34:14] Yeah, he's a little ponytailed.

[34:16] He's played by the actor Ross Lee,

[34:19] who I'm not particularly familiar with.

[34:21] Although, according to Wikipedia,

[34:22] he did have a show called Ross Lee's Ghoulies,

[34:25] a horror comedy themed Saturday morning studio based show.

[34:28] Maybe it was something in which

[34:29] Ghoulies bit people on the toilet.

[34:32] Or maybe Ross Lee bit people.

[34:35] I'm fulfilling Ghoulies fans dreams

[34:38] by finally biting them on the butt from the toilet.

[34:42] I'm going to mention-

[34:43] Wait, wait, wait, wait.

[34:45] Fans appear on the show.

[34:47] Yes.

[34:48] And it's always been their dream to be bitten on the butt.

[34:50] I feel like it's just like,

[34:51] it's basically just a horror convention type thing, right?

[34:54] Where you go to one of those horror conventions

[34:57] and you pay for Michael Myers to like choke you.

[34:59] Yes.

[35:00] Or like when you go to a comic convention

[35:01] and you see people,

[35:02] everyone wants to take pictures on their knees

[35:04] in front of the members of the 501st Legion,

[35:06] as if the Stormtroopers are about to execute them.

[35:08] This is something you see at a lot of comic conventions.

[35:10] Nobody wants to take a picture of them

[35:12] defeating a Stormtrooper.

[35:13] They only want pictures where they are

[35:14] at the mercy of the Stormtroopers.

[35:16] I wonder if that's in the 501st contract

[35:18] where they're like, we can't lose.

[35:20] We have to look super cool.

[35:23] Unless we're fighting the Rocker Vin Diesel.

[35:25] Well, that's why Vin Diesel is a member of the 501st,

[35:27] I'm sure.

[35:28] I'm sure he dresses up and goes out to conventions

[35:31] as a Stormtrooper.

[35:32] But anyway,

[35:33] then next comes the second weirdest scene in the movie.

[35:36] Pedro Pascal is exercising to this full length video

[35:38] where Daisy Ridley is like an exercise teacher.

[35:41] Oh yeah.

[35:42] And then she starts sex talking to him

[35:43] and then he enters the screen like Videodrome style

[35:46] and has sex with her.

[35:47] And it is-

[35:49] Go on.

[35:50] Say more.

[35:51] It makes that much sense.

[35:52] And the thing that makes-

[35:52] Is it super long and sexy or anything?

[35:55] No, not at all.

[35:56] I mean, the idea of Pedro Pascal and Daisy Ridley

[36:00] in my head feels sexy,

[36:02] but on the screen,

[36:04] it didn't seem to work.

[36:06] No, it doesn't work quite right.

[36:09] Audrey was like,

[36:11] another young woman with an old man in the movie.

[36:14] And I'm like, well, I mean,

[36:16] I agree with you in general.

[36:17] This is the situation in which it makes the most sense.

[36:20] It's the scene in which he is just fantasizing about-

[36:22] It's supposed to be a fantasy, yeah.

[36:24] Yeah.

[36:25] A hallucination of this woman that he's already seeing.

[36:28] And between the two of them-

[36:29] It's not like something super egregious

[36:31] where it's like Gabriel Byrne married

[36:33] to Toni Collette in Hereditary

[36:34] and you're like, wait, what?

[36:36] So the actors come down with the flu.

[36:42] Then we have the scene where they're climbing a mountain

[36:44] in the movie and they start throwing up on themselves

[36:46] and they are just hanging in midair

[36:47] throwing up on themselves.

[36:48] It's okay.

[36:49] They asked Carol to start a mutiny among the cast

[36:50] but they refused to.

[36:51] And I was like, phew, a plot almost broke out.

[36:54] That's a relief.

[36:57] Carol finds out that as a result of her agitation,

[37:00] her lines have been given to Crystal,

[37:02] the TikTok influencer.

[37:03] And we watched this movie scene

[37:04] where Crystal teaches a cliff beast,

[37:06] a young cliff beast, a dance,

[37:08] which is kind of a funny idea.

[37:10] And-

[37:11] Yeah, I think in the context of the bubble,

[37:13] it made me angry, but-

[37:15] I think if you saw that scene in a parody

[37:17] of a Jurassic Park type movie,

[37:19] you would think it was a funny scene.

[37:21] And I kind of liked it in addition to losing her lines,

[37:24] she also got yelled at by a cliff beast

[37:26] and pees her pants a lot.

[37:28] Yeah, that character.

[37:29] And there's like a tube with fake pee in it

[37:30] that's just spraying out of her pants.

[37:32] The rest of the cast-

[37:33] Why are you doing this to me?

[37:35] Yeah.

[37:36] One issue I have with this scene

[37:37] is that the rest of the cast also starts dancing.

[37:39] And it's just like, this is not the first or last scene

[37:42] in the movie of just the cast dancing.

[37:44] And I'm gonna tell you something, guys.

[37:45] Something I realized watching this movie

[37:46] that I kind of always knew deep inside,

[37:48] but now I really know.

[37:49] I hate scenes in movies.

[37:51] This especially happens during the credits of movies

[37:52] where it's just the cast dancing.

[37:54] I hate it.

[37:55] I don't wanna see it.

[37:56] Yeah, well, look.

[37:57] It's like, I finished watching Barb and Star

[37:58] and I was like, I really enjoyed that.

[38:00] I liked that movie a lot.

[38:00] And then the credits was just the cast dancing together.

[38:03] And I was like, turn this shit off.

[38:05] And Danielle was like, I wanted to watch that.

[38:08] And I'm like, I'm leaving the room.

[38:09] I can't, I don't wanna see the cast having a great time.

[38:12] I mean, that movie is so good.

[38:13] Otherwise, I don't begrudge it.

[38:16] But I understand what you're saying.

[38:18] It's funny.

[38:19] It's like, I enjoyed it the first time I saw it.

[38:22] And there's something about Mary when it's new.

[38:25] I'm like, oh, this is like very joyful and fun.

[38:27] Look at this.

[38:28] And it plays into your hopes as a naive viewer

[38:32] that all the actors are friends.

[38:33] They had fun.

[38:34] It's a party to make a movie.

[38:35] They all, they're all, you know,

[38:37] have a special relationship.

[38:38] But after a while-

[38:39] Jonathan Richman's just hanging out, playing songs.

[38:41] Yeah, and after a while, it starts to feel to me like,

[38:43] hey, check out this cool party you weren't invited to.

[38:46] But you get to watch it.

[38:47] If I wanted that, I'd watch The Tonight Show

[38:48] with Jimmy Fallon.

[38:49] Some of that might be about you.

[38:50] It's not that cool a party.

[38:52] I do think that like, as, yeah, the success of it in,

[38:55] there's something about Mary led to Hollywood being like,

[38:58] these saps eat it up.

[39:00] They love it when we pretend to like each other.

[39:02] Yeah, this is the end of every comedy.

[39:04] Well, it's similar to the end of every SNL

[39:06] where the cast is just hugging.

[39:07] Like, oh, what an experience we've been through.

[39:09] And I'm like, I don't wanna see this.

[39:11] I don't care.

[39:12] All I want is to read stuff

[39:14] about Orson Welles talking shit about other people

[39:16] or Brian Cox talking shit about other people.

[39:19] My fucking idol.

[39:20] Dream guest for the Flophouse,

[39:21] Brian Cox, you're probably listening to this shit.

[39:23] Come on here, buddy.

[39:24] Yeah, Stuart has been,

[39:25] he's been lobbying us in our Flophouse text chain

[39:29] to get Brian Cox on the show.

[39:30] And it's like, yeah, we're not against it.

[39:32] So, Stu, I think you gotta take that public.

[39:34] Start asking Brian Cox.

[39:35] Adam Vennon himself should come on our show.

[39:37] Yeah, manifest that somehow, Stuart.

[39:39] Yeah, I'm trying.

[39:40] Did I see him on Broadway?

[39:41] Of course I did.

[39:42] And the Tom Stoppard play rock and roll.

[39:43] It was great.

[39:44] Brian Cox should come on the show.

[39:45] America's greatest living playwright, Tom Stoppard.

[39:48] I don't think, you can't call Tom Stoppard

[39:50] America's greatest living playwright.

[39:51] He's not American.

[39:55] He's a British person of Czech extraction.

[39:57] So he's not American at all.

[40:00] There's a ad that keeps running on New York One here in New York City, where I live, the

[40:04] big city, Big Apple, advertising the current run of Leopoldstadt, and that's a word-for-word

[40:10] recreation of the ad.

[40:11] Really?

[40:12] Did they say America's greatest living playwright?

[40:14] Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[40:15] Or, like, our greatest living playwright.

[40:16] Okay, our greatest living playwright, I would totally consider.

[40:19] I would consider that.

[40:20] Yeah, humanity, yeah.

[40:21] Although, I have to say, I recently watched...

[40:22] Oh, the humanity.

[40:23] I recently watched On the Razzle, which I had never seen before.

[40:25] I saw the, like, great performances version of it.

[40:28] And I don't know that farce is Tom Stoppard's greatest strength, as much as I love his other

[40:35] plays.

[40:36] You're like, stop, Ard, making farce.

[40:39] Stop, Ard, man animation does a lot of good stuff.

[40:43] Have you ever worked with them?

[40:45] But so, Tom Stoppard, we'd still love to have you on the show.

[40:48] Brian Cox, of course, we'd love to have you on the show.

[40:49] Come on the show.

[40:50] If anyone wants to pledge, not money, but that Brian Cox will appear on the show, thanks

[40:54] to their efforts...

[40:55] Cox and Stoppard.

[40:57] They're cops.

[40:58] Hold on a second.

[40:59] We're detectives?

[41:00] Is Brian Cox and Tom Stoppard, as they are now, they're detectives?

[41:03] Uh-huh.

[41:04] Cox, Stoppard.

[41:05] Maybe Ronnie Cox shows up?

[41:07] We'll, you know, we'll figure it all out.

[41:08] We'll figure it out.

[41:10] And Bob Stoppard.

[41:11] I don't know who that is, but...

[41:14] So they have this thing, and then Docovney and Mann break up again.

[41:17] Leslie Mann tries to escape the hotel, and this is when, in the middle of the night,

[41:20] she's running out to a cover of Heart of Glass, I think.

[41:23] And...

[41:24] Yeah, it's Miley Cyrus singing Heart of Glass.

[41:26] Okay.

[41:27] It's an interesting choice for the scene.

[41:28] And a security guard, assuming that she is a crazed fan, shoots her hand off.

[41:33] And that is, that's a wrap for Leslie Mann for most of the rest of the movie.

[41:38] Did you guys feel like it was an escalation, or not a far enough escalation, when she got

[41:41] her hand shot off?

[41:43] Well, it's a weird effect that this had on me, because I was like, that is far more brutal

[41:50] than I expected out of the movie.

[41:51] Like you see...

[41:52] Shut up!

[41:53] How normally does it include hand explosions?

[41:54] Yeah, no.

[41:56] Her stumpy hand with just like one finger on it.

[41:59] It's more the kind of thing you expect to see when Travis Bickle goes on a rampage than

[42:02] in the Judd Afton movie.

[42:04] And yet, after an hour of nothing happening, it had curiously little effect on me.

[42:10] So you're saying you were already so numb from the movie that seeing Leslie Mann, one

[42:15] of America's sweethearts, have her fingers blown off on Zarina Farneo was not enough?

[42:19] And you know, I've watched a number of movies, and a lot of them have plots.

[42:25] Oh yeah, name them.

[42:26] And you know, arcs.

[42:28] So seeing this happen, I'm like, okay, so they're going to do a bit where she has like

[42:31] a weird robot hand, or some kind of a fake hand, and that's going to be fodder for some

[42:37] more hilarious jokes.

[42:38] But nope, she just disappears at that point.

[42:41] And it feels weird, like, I don't know, at that point, if you're going to shoot a shooter,

[42:45] just have her explode.

[42:47] That's Stuart's rule for filmmakers.

[42:51] If they're not going to get a robot hand, just have them explode.

[42:54] Just have them explode.

[42:56] So understandably, after the security guards have mutilated one of his stars, the producer,

[43:01] Peter Serafinowicz, he wants to shut down the movie, but Kate McKinnon won't let him.

[43:04] And this leads to a series of Zoom calls up the chain, where she calls her boss and says,

[43:09] we've got to shut it down.

[43:10] And then he calls his boss and says, we've got to shut it down, but they won't let them.

[43:13] And it ends with-

[43:14] Her boss, Raising Cane's John Lithgow.

[43:16] That's right, Raising Cane and Buckaroo Bonsai's own John Lithgow.

[43:20] And it ends with John Lithgow and his Chinese boss making plans to play tennis because they're

[43:25] on the same beach together and didn't realize it.

[43:27] Guys, how did this-

[43:28] And it seems like this is heading towards a satirical point, because the idea that everyone

[43:34] up the chain doesn't want to do this, but is being forced by the person above them,

[43:38] and that at the very end, this Hollywood studio is owned by a Chinese finance executive, but

[43:43] it doesn't really go anywhere.

[43:45] It doesn't make a point.

[43:46] Yeah.

[43:48] In theory, sure, I could see where this could go somewhere.

[43:51] In practice, this part of the movie made me really annoyed, again, from a reality of the

[43:57] business angle, where this is all happening because Karen Gillan is flagging like, hey,

[44:03] all this horrible stuff has happened, culminating in an actor's hand getting shot off.

[44:09] And the idea that-

[44:11] Is John Landis running this show?

[44:13] What's going on here?

[44:14] He wouldn't just hold it with a hand.

[44:18] They try and set it up with like, look, COVID has shut everything down.

[44:21] We really need this movie to go forward, et cetera, et cetera.

[44:25] But the idea that they would treat talent this poorly on a major picture is odd to me.

[44:34] At least that no one would have any concerns.

[44:38] I mean, considering-

[44:39] Titanic and whatever.

[44:40] I mean, they just killed Uma Thurman, you know, right?

[44:42] Yeah, but like, is that, I don't know.

[44:45] But I know what you're saying.

[44:46] I know what you're saying.

[44:47] Well, especially when they've taken so many COVID precautions, the idea that they would

[44:50] have no other precautions whatsoever.

[44:52] Well, and there's something that feels a little disconnected when the, what that shows is

[44:58] that the low man on the totem pole, the people who have to deal with the worst conditions,

[45:02] in this case, are actors.

[45:04] Yeah.

[45:05] Whereas, I don't know, an actual satirist might be like, no, okay, why don't we show

[45:09] the people who get shit on by the actors?

[45:11] Yeah, that's what bothers, like, it's all focused on how poorly these actors are treated.

[45:16] Like, actors would be treated the best of anyone on this goddamn production.

[45:20] Well, if the movie wants it both ways, because they keep making jokes about how actors demand

[45:24] pampering and they get all this stuff.

[45:26] But then also, you're right.

[45:27] They are the ones who are like, supposed to be the ones we're sympathetic with, or at

[45:30] least, if not sympathetic, the ones that are being shown taking the hits the most, you

[45:36] know.

[45:37] Yeah.

[45:38] In Leslie Mann's case.

[45:39] Um, John Cena has a cameo after this as a stunt coordinator who is working remotely

[45:44] through an iPad.

[45:45] This is such a funny idea for this scene, and they just don't, I feel like, just don't

[45:48] execute it as well as they, they don't, they don't go as far with it, because the idea

[45:52] of a stunt coordinator who's appearing via an iPad, can't really see anything, is lagging

[45:56] and freezing up, and then someone getting hurt badly.

[45:59] Like, this is where, this is the scene where a character should get their fingers blown

[46:02] off.

[46:03] It's like, they're, I mean, that might be a little too close to actual reality that

[46:06] a stunt goes wrong and someone gets shot on set, since, but I can't remember the timeline

[46:11] if that happened before or after this movie was made.

[46:13] Well, that's what, like, like good satire, like Judd Aptow loves to deliver, holds up

[46:17] a mirror to society, and I think in this case, being a little too close to home might work,

[46:22] Ellie.

[46:23] Maybe.

[46:24] Okay, maybe you're right.

[46:25] Maybe you're right.

[46:26] Um, but it's a, then, but no one seems to either, no one seems to really get hurt from

[46:29] this stunt go wrong, and it was like, I want the movie to have the courage of its convictions

[46:32] and really injure somebody, especially since this is a coming after scene where someone's

[46:35] hand got blown off.

[46:37] Carol wants to leave, her agent says, More blood, cries Elias.

[46:40] Well, more satirical blood, you know, go all the way, if you're going to make the joke,

[46:44] go all the way and do the whole joke, you know?

[46:46] Yeah.

[46:47] Yeah.

[46:48] I mean, if you want me to care about these characters, give them traits, beat them up.

[46:52] Yeah.

[46:53] Well, there's a reason, there's a reason that Spider-Man is the greatest and most beloved

[46:56] character in, in fiction, and it's because he never catches a break.

[46:59] He's always getting beat up whenever they do a series where it's like, and now everything's

[47:03] working out great for Spider-Man.

[47:04] Those are the worst Spider-Man stories.

[47:06] Like you want to see your main characters get, have trouble, uh, with a capital T and

[47:10] that rhymes with P and that stands for pool.

[47:12] And there's a scene in a pool in this movie, but I don't remember if it's around here or

[47:15] not.

[47:16] Anyway.

[47:17] Uh, they, Carol wants to leave.

[47:18] Her agent says, if you leave, you are going to owe the studio for all the money it's going

[47:22] to cost them, which is tens of millions of dollars.

[47:24] Everyone in the cast is unhappy.

[47:26] There's a weird scene where the hotel workers are celebrating how bad the movie is going

[47:30] because the longer the actors stay there, the more money the hotel makes.

[47:35] And that, that did feel like a weirdly tone deaf scene where the service workers are like,

[47:38] yeah, yeah, we love this.

[47:40] This is great.

[47:41] Like they're the villains all of a sudden.

[47:43] And the service workers all sing together.

[47:45] Uh, I don't remember what song they sing.

[47:47] Do you guys remember?

[47:48] Uh, no.

[47:49] Okay.

[47:50] Uh, there's an actor standing in for Leslie Mann and while working with her, uh, David

[47:56] Duchovny is like, I feel bad.

[47:57] I left my family to do this and she storms and he storms off.

[48:00] Uh, Carol learns that her grandmother died, but this studio won't let her leave to attend

[48:04] the funeral.

[48:05] And, uh, this, and Kate McKinnon decides it's time to pump up the cast by having Beck play

[48:10] a concert for them remotely and they all dance around while Beck plays what, Lady Night,

[48:15] Ladies Night.

[48:16] And, uh, I have become very, very, uh, uh, inured to celebrity cameos as jokes in movies.

[48:23] I feel like the John Santa one works a little bit because it's like, oh, I buy him as the

[48:27] guy doing this thing.

[48:29] It's not just someone walking on and going, I'm John Santa, John Santa, what are you doing

[48:32] here?

[48:33] But just having Beck come on and just kind of sing a song while everyone dances.

[48:37] I'm like, what's, what's the joke?

[48:38] I mean, the joke is that like, clearly this is just like one of a million of these he's

[48:43] doing because like they did, he doesn't even bother to replace like the title of the movie

[48:48] or whatever, or like, and like he and Kate McKinnon are like talking over each other

[48:53] on this thing.

[48:54] Like they aren't timing it out right, but, uh, it's not much of a joke.

[48:59] I'm just identifying that there was, but you know, it has a lot of jokes.

[49:05] The Flophouse podcast, Dan, let's take a break from the movie and can you tell our listeners

[49:09] how they can support the Flophouse podcast, a veritable sea of jokes that they can swim

[49:14] in?

[49:15] Yeah.

[49:16] Cornucopia.

[49:17] I mean, don't swim in it.

[49:18] I don't think it would support, uh, your body weight, but this coming from a guy who loves

[49:23] Uncle Scrooge, the character who swims in money.

[49:26] Yeah.

[49:27] Okay.

[49:28] Well, let's, uh, let's talk about Max Fund Drive.

[49:29] What's Max Fund Drive?

[49:30] Well, some shows make their money with corporate funding that comes with a lot of strings attached.

[49:35] Some shows paywall, some are all of their content behind services that take a cut without

[49:39] giving much back.

[49:41] But Max Fund, that's an artist collective, baby.

[49:44] That's also now completely employee owned and managed and it says, Hey, we're going

[49:50] to make all our content, well, almost all our content free to you upfront.

[49:55] If you like it, consider tipping the creators for their time and effort so they can continue

[49:59] to make.

[50:00] I've been making the shows that you love.

[50:02] When you give it to MaxFun,

[50:03] some goes off the top for operating costs

[50:05] to pay those employee owners,

[50:07] but the vast majority of it goes directly

[50:10] to the shows that you personally select

[50:11] when you become a member saying,

[50:13] this is what I like, this is what I listen to.

[50:16] Now, no one likes interruptions,

[50:18] and believe you me-

[50:20] Except me, when it's me making the interruptions.

[50:22] Yeah, you love them.

[50:24] And believe you me, no one of us

[50:26] likes coming out here asking for money,

[50:27] so that's why we do it only once a year,

[50:29] so the rest of the time,

[50:30] we're out here just making the show,

[50:32] so help us keep it to just once a year.

[50:35] Please join us as a member.

[50:37] I want to say, believe me, we know times are tight,

[50:40] the world is uncertain.

[50:41] If you are a person who cannot afford it right now,

[50:44] we're not talking to you.

[50:46] You don't need to feel bad about any of this,

[50:48] but maybe you'll be in a better position

[50:49] to become a member another year.

[50:51] If you can afford it, I say,

[50:54] as someone who supports MaxFun and other podcasts myself,

[50:57] it feels good to feel like you're a patron of the arts,

[51:00] or whatever it is that we do at The Flophouse.

[51:04] And there are multiple ways to support.

[51:06] You can join or upgrade,

[51:08] or boost by a few bucks between levels.

[51:11] All memberships at the $5 a month or more level

[51:15] get bonus content.

[51:16] There's hundreds of hours of extra shows

[51:18] from across the network.

[51:20] I'll get into our specific bonus content

[51:23] in just a few moments.

[51:24] Or you can purchase a gift membership

[51:27] for a friend or anonymous MaxFunster,

[51:30] and the recipient will get access

[51:32] to all that bonus content.

[51:33] Let me get into some of the thank you gifts.

[51:36] At the $10 a month or more level,

[51:39] you get access to the bonus content,

[51:41] as well as a reusable vinyl sticker of Tom Brokaw

[51:46] in a Dune still suit with a slogan that says,

[51:48] if it ain't Brokaw, Dune fix it.

[51:51] I have already affixed one of mine to my laptop,

[51:54] I think I might post a picture of it.

[51:55] Baffle your friends and confound your enemies

[51:58] with this beautiful sticker of Tom Brokaw,

[52:00] a fan of Dune.

[52:01] At $20 a month, you get all that I've mentioned,

[52:04] plus you get to pick either a sporty cap

[52:07] with the MaxFun rocket ship logo,

[52:09] or you get the MaxFun culinary kit,

[52:13] a secret blend of herbs and spices

[52:15] that will give your tongue maximum flavor.

[52:18] It's not actually secret,

[52:19] I think you can see what's in it on the label.

[52:21] So don't worry if you've got problems.

[52:24] And the second volume of the MaxFun-

[52:26] Let's just call them problems.

[52:27] Yeah, problems, food problems, we call them.

[52:30] Second volume of the MaxFun Family Cookbook

[52:32] with recipes beloved by various hosts.

[52:34] I know Stu contributed a cocktail recipe,

[52:37] and I wrote a very long explanation

[52:40] of a Vietnamese pork dish I make at home.

[52:43] But those are the network gifts.

[52:45] What about Flophouse-specific stuff?

[52:47] Yeah.

[52:48] Let's start with bonus content.

[52:49] We've already recorded Flop Tales,

[52:51] a Flop Tales bonus adventure with Dan,

[52:55] and that's me, Elliot, and Zhuben Pereng

[52:58] as your favorite cartoon dog heroes,

[53:01] with Stuart as the game master,

[53:03] controlling our adventure, or guiding us.

[53:07] I mean, not controlling us.

[53:08] We made our own choice.

[53:09] The first episode of the new adventure

[53:11] should be in your member bonus feed for 2023 right away.

[53:16] And the thrilling conclusion will drop sometime thereafter.

[53:20] That bonus content will be there

[53:21] no matter what else happens.

[53:23] But also, if the Flophouse specifically

[53:26] gets 2,000 new or upgrading members,

[53:29] we will record a member bonus audio commentary for Bratz,

[53:33] the first Flophouse movie to bring us true joy.

[53:36] We did a listener poll, and Bratz won out

[53:39] over us yanking the Manc Crank or the Babylon Bacon.

[53:42] So some people may say,

[53:44] didn't you already do a commentary for Bratz

[53:46] that was kind of a janky audio

[53:47] from a live show we did a long time ago?

[53:50] That was more of a riff show.

[53:51] Yeah, a riff show.

[53:52] This will be a crisp new audio commentary,

[53:55] and I think that will be a delight.

[53:59] If we reach 2,300 new or upgrading members,

[54:04] we have a double prize.

[54:06] First, we promised you an episode

[54:08] on one of the top 10 money-losing flops

[54:09] we haven't already covered on the show,

[54:12] and released the full video of that episode to YouTube,

[54:15] so you can see Stu's beautiful face

[54:17] and Elliot's and my passable ones.

[54:20] In addition, we will-

[54:21] Thank you.

[54:22] Yay, you.

[54:24] Hey, passable is great in this world.

[54:25] We'll get to do what we've done in previous years,

[54:27] and we'll pick 30 of our new or upbrading,

[54:31] upbrading, I will upbraid you, no,

[54:33] upgrading listeners to get personalized gifts

[54:36] from one of us.

[54:37] 10 will get signed copies of Maniac of New York

[54:40] from Elliot, 10 will get Hinterlags, Hinterlands,

[54:43] Hinterlags?

[54:44] Hinterlags.

[54:45] Sorry, I'm not used to reading so much copy at once.

[54:48] Hinterlands swag from Stu,

[54:50] and 10 will get drawings of a movie character

[54:53] they request drawn by me.

[54:54] I call it copy.

[54:55] It's stuff that I wrote out to remind myself ahead of time.

[54:59] Anyway, and lastly, if we really do well on this drive

[55:05] and hit 2,600 new or upgrading members,

[55:08] we will record a member bonus audio commentary

[55:11] for Food Fight, exclamation point,

[55:14] the movie that caused Stuart's soul to leave his body,

[55:17] the movie he actively campaigned against last year

[55:20] when we offered commentaries.

[55:21] Make him pay for that transgression.

[55:24] Make him pay by paying him and the rest of us

[55:26] through the medium of MaxFunDrive.

[55:28] If we get enough new members,

[55:29] we will torture Stu audiovisually via Food Fight.

[55:34] No, no, don't torture me.

[55:35] Oh, I'd hate it, yuck, ouch.

[55:38] I don't like it anymore.

[55:40] This is really, really transitioning

[55:41] to Stu's only fans, fast.

[55:44] And remember, all these perks are nice.

[55:46] These are thank you gifts.

[55:47] Again, we don't hide half our content behind a paywall.

[55:50] We make our show free and we offer extra fun tidbits

[55:54] as tokens of thanks because we can't do it

[55:56] without you, the listener.

[55:57] So will you please join us as a member?

[56:01] Maximumfun.org slash join is where you go to do that.

[56:05] Go to Maximumfun.org slash join.

[56:09] Elliot, take us back into the bubble.

[56:12] We've decontaminated.

[56:13] We're going back into the bubble.

[56:14] What's happening in the bubble?

[56:15] Can't fight it, get back in the bubble.

[56:17] Get back in the bubble.

[56:18] Okay, get back in the bubble.

[56:20] They're gonna, the stars are gonna shoot an interview

[56:22] for Entertainment Tonight and the cast learns

[56:24] that things are going so great

[56:26] that when they finish Cliff B6,

[56:27] they're just gonna roll right into Cliff B7

[56:29] and Carol's like, no, no, and tries to get the word out

[56:33] that this needs to stop.

[56:34] And Crystal helps Carol shoot a viral video

[56:36] pleading for help, but the stuntman's daughter deletes it

[56:38] and then they all slap each other, you know, one at a time.

[56:42] Carol reaches out to Key for emotional help,

[56:44] but he breaks down and admits that he's a fraud.

[56:46] He didn't write his own self-help book.

[56:47] He barely even read it and he doesn't have anything.

[56:51] Video of Crystal, the TikTok lady,

[56:53] sneaking out to get drunk.

[56:55] This is something that she did very early in the movie

[56:57] and I was like, oh, so is this gonna pay off at all?

[56:59] It finally pays off.

[57:00] It spreads everywhere and now she's canceled online

[57:03] as a COVID risk.

[57:04] And that leads to the weirdest scene in the movie.

[57:08] I said the second weirdest was Pedro Pascal

[57:10] entering a full body exercise screen

[57:13] and having sex with Daisy Ridley.

[57:15] This is the weirdest scene in the movie.

[57:16] Do you guys want to describe it or should I describe it?

[57:21] Well, they all take a bunch of drugs, right?

[57:23] And they sit around.

[57:24] They're all sitting around doing drugs.

[57:25] In a circle as you do when you take your drugs.

[57:28] Does, David Accompany looked right at home.

[57:33] And he did at one point.

[57:35] For legal purposes, that is entirely a joke

[57:38] that is not in any way related to the real David Duchovny.

[57:42] Fictional David Duchovny.

[57:43] I'm saying he's a good actor.

[57:44] And he, at one point he does a line off

[57:47] of Keegan-Michael Key's head, which is pretty funny, right?

[57:50] That's pretty funny.

[57:51] So that's not the weird part though.

[57:52] So they're doing drugs and for some reason,

[57:55] maybe you guys can help me figure this out.

[57:57] Their faces start to morph into like baby's faces.

[58:01] And then one of them morphs into very young David Duchovny,

[58:05] which is weird.

[58:08] I forget who.

[58:09] One of them morphs into Benedict Cumberbatch

[58:11] and I don't remember why.

[58:13] Well, someone says that they look like Benedict Cumberbatch

[58:16] and you see them and then they have morphed

[58:19] into Benedict Cumberbatch.

[58:20] And also like Karen Gillan has morphed into someone else.

[58:25] Like, is that a character we saw?

[58:27] Like a guy with a beard?

[58:28] Is that specific or is it just-

[58:30] Just a face.

[58:31] Just a face.

[58:32] So they're like, oh, it's hilarious.

[58:33] When you're on drugs, you think that Karen Gillan

[58:36] looks like this beard man.

[58:38] Like a beard papa, if you will.

[58:40] I just got done watching the most recent episode

[58:43] of Party Down, the new season of Party Down,

[58:46] which is great and I'm very happy to see it again.

[58:48] But in this episode, all the caterers take mushrooms

[58:52] and they're all tripping.

[58:53] And at no point in the whole episode

[58:55] do they do any weird visual effects.

[58:57] It relies exclusively on performers

[58:59] doing very good performances of people on drugs.

[59:02] And I'm like, oh, this is how this shit's supposed to be.

[59:04] Not grotesque, baby-faced, digital enhanced jokes.

[59:09] What it feels like to me is I wonder if it's a scene

[59:12] that wasn't working and they decided to kind of like

[59:14] gag it up by putting the special effects in.

[59:16] I don't know, but there's a-

[59:17] Well, yeah, especially because other than

[59:19] the Benedict Cumberbatch thing,

[59:20] none of the visuals have anything to do

[59:22] with what is happening.

[59:23] Like, it's not like they're related in some way.

[59:26] That was when Pat Boone had his version

[59:30] of the show What's Happening.

[59:31] It was called What Is Happening.

[59:32] Is that what you just said, Dan?

[59:34] Yeah, that's right.

[59:36] Welcome to What Is Happening.

[59:39] Hey, What Is Happening.

[59:39] And now, here's some smooth, inoffensive sounds.

[59:44] So, it's a very weird scene.

[59:47] And I don't know enough about drugs.

[59:50] I don't know what drug they're doing.

[59:52] Like, it looks like cocaine,

[59:53] but as far as I know, cocaine doesn't usually make you-

[59:54] There's no-

[59:55] Like, hallucinate.

[59:56] So, maybe there's other stuff they're doing.

[59:57] It just makes you super funny and interesting.

[59:59] It just makes you-

[1:00:00] Interested in something and really eager to tell other people about it like even the hallucinogen like there's a whole spectrum like you know

[1:00:06] I guess some of them tell me more Dan. You're officially now my shaman who's gonna bring

[1:00:13] He's a no naira not look I haven't taken an LSD, but I have taken mushrooms, and I know that like

[1:00:21] it's just

[1:00:23] you know like designs and patterns start like sort of moving and feeling

[1:00:30] Sort of alive and pulsing and breathing and like you know there's some synesthesia that goes along with it sometimes if you listen to music

[1:00:35] You get some visuals, but it's not like it transforms people into other stuff now Stewart

[1:00:41] It sounds like you have taken LSD

[1:00:43] So does it does it transform people's faces into Bennett at Cumberbatch so the most meant my most memorable?

[1:00:49] Experience let me see I think what happens when you take LSD is you play a bunch of hours of killer instinct in your friends

[1:00:57] And then you watch Reckless Kelly starring yahoo serious, and I'm back-to-back. That's a double feat are those movies on L

[1:01:05] They're both the funniest movies that I've ever seen in my entire life. This is a pretty standard LSD experience is playing

[1:01:14] And I'm like I just gotta break this dude's combos, but I'm just I'm just slipping

[1:01:18] I'm not good at killer instinct anymore, but uh yeah, so I feel like that. That's the only difference

[1:01:22] So I feel like if this movie wanted to show these characters being on LSD

[1:01:27] They would have of course had them playing killer instinct, which I think would have actually kind of enhanced the sequence

[1:01:31] What do you yeah?

[1:01:32] Do you think they I was gonna say that the problem was that they couldn't get the rights to Reckless Kelly?

[1:01:37] But that's impossible. They know there's there's no way

[1:01:41] Maybe I could see that maybe but Reckless Kelly. They're just a self-addressed stamped envelope

[1:01:48] Yeah

[1:01:51] So it's a very strange scene they do another tick-tock lip-sync together and during that Dieter

[1:01:57] Pedro Pascal has a heart attack and everyone takes turns giving him different types of medical care

[1:02:03] They're just shoving you know drugs and things into him until

[1:02:07] Anika the hotel clerk that is in love with him gives him a shot of I know adrenaline or something

[1:02:14] Pulp fiction except everyone acts as if that's the crazy thing

[1:02:18] They're like what are you doing when we've just seen them?

[1:02:20] like shoving his body into a bathtub full of ice and throwing drugs into a system and things like he climbed into a

[1:02:27] Mirror like workout machine like he can do almost anything right there is a cartoon character essentially

[1:02:35] Yeah

[1:02:35] And there is a seed of a funny idea in this to me like the idea like these actors none of whom have like medical

[1:02:41] Training are just like making wild leaps about what's wrong with them and trying different treatments. I think that could be funny

[1:02:46] But it's a it's potentially a very funny idea

[1:02:48] But she brings him back they declare their love for each other and Carol's like we came together

[1:02:53] I can lead us to freedom if we just work together

[1:02:55] But we can't get to that first because first we need to see another cliff beats a cliff beats scene not cliff beats

[1:03:01] Which is of course my my dub album

[1:03:06] Recorded entirely on a mountain

[1:03:08] Yeah

[1:03:11] Yeah, it's here it's your your bootleg tape of only Cliff Burton bass solos

[1:03:16] You got it. Look look they mix them down

[1:03:18] I know they mix them down too low got to bring the mix up so you can hear him

[1:03:21] Clifford cliff beats would also be a great album for for someone named Clifford beats

[1:03:28] He was born with the last name Beach spelled with a Z at the end yeah, and it's crazy cuz he's also a big red dog

[1:03:34] right

[1:03:38] Played by Martin short

[1:03:41] Clifford the big red dog guy did the mo-cap for the big red dog

[1:03:47] Got something here I got something

[1:03:49] Lay it on us make it happen Clifford Clifford the big red dog. He gets a red for meeting cliff beats

[1:04:04] And measure which was the better

[1:04:08] History will be the judge

[1:04:21] Okay, cool, okay, so anyway, they're shooting the scene where they have to destroy the cliff beasts by shooting them in the genitals with

[1:04:29] Okay, so most of these jokes aren't funny. I do like the Pedro Pascal is

[1:04:35] Kind of funny in the in the movie clips like and the captions are always saying in LA like

[1:04:43] Unintelligible accent like he has chosen some kind of weird accent to do and he's doing some kind of weird character

[1:04:49] And at least like I don't know there's something like he's making an effort. Yeah, does it work probably not

[1:04:54] I mean you be the judge so Dave Duchovny stops the scene and he argues with the director

[1:04:58] it's really just the diversions the other actors can escape the set and security chases them and

[1:05:04] Carlo the stunt daughter reveals that she was hired to prevent to befriend Crystal

[1:05:08] So she could be a mole in the group and they have a fight and then there's an incredibly pointless

[1:05:11] Cameo scene where Carol runs into James McAvoy who's apparently shooting a movie somewhere else in the same bubble and they dated at some point

[1:05:19] It's it's it's useless

[1:05:21] Eventually after David Duchovny has a stage fight with the director and then a real fight and beats him up for real

[1:05:26] The cast gets away they get into a helicopter

[1:05:29] Keegan-michael key is supposed to fly a helicopter in the movie. So he's learned how to lift it up and down

[1:05:33] He doesn't know how to fly it but together all with their hands on the stick to guide it

[1:05:38] They managed to fly the helicopter away

[1:05:40] And then we get that then we get our favorite title screen that ever shows up in a movie two years later

[1:05:52] Two years later what I didn't mention is that there's a guy who's making a behind-the-scenes

[1:05:56] Documentary the whole time who's supposed to shoot the extra features or whatever and they're he just pops up every now and then to get insulted

[1:06:02] He has made a documentary about the making of the movie that documentary is somehow already a big hit

[1:06:07] but it's also having its premiere and we see the cast being interviewed on the red carpet for the premiere of the documentary and

[1:06:13] That nothing is learned and they're just doing the same old stuff. And you know, yeah

[1:06:17] it's well

[1:06:18] it's also weird like so much of we see like and they show a trailer for the trailer for the documentary and so much of

[1:06:24] We see is just like

[1:06:27] reiterating things that we saw

[1:06:29] Before in a way that I'm like, this is wild that this is going on for so long

[1:06:33] Like if you're gonna do like this time leap ahead

[1:06:35] You you just do a couple of jokes about how everyone's life has changed since then or whatever none of that stuff

[1:06:41] There's nothing about that there

[1:06:43] then there's a very meta scene at the very end where the producers and the director are watching the helicopter fly away and

[1:06:49] They're they're talking about how well we tried I mean it's during kovat that we're making this if the movie's not very good

[1:06:55] They can't get mad at us because we're just trying to entertain people during a hard time, right?

[1:06:59] And that's how the movie ends. It was like, yeah

[1:07:01] Don't don't don't give me an apology for the movie at the very end and then there's some kind of end credit scene

[1:07:08] But I could not watch it because every time I tried Netflix would jump me straight to a trailer for the new season of Luther

[1:07:14] So I just didn't see that and so thus ends the bubble not with a bang

[1:07:18] but with a trailer for Luther, I think I fast-forward is the end and I did see it and it was like a

[1:07:24] Just like a whole lot of not like it was like literally just like Fred Armisen like turning to the screen going

[1:07:29] Mm-hmm or something like that like something like that. But yeah that ending look

[1:07:36] It's it's accomplishing exactly the opposite of what it wants because I think it was just like hey, don't be too mad at us

[1:07:41] But I'm like, hey if you knew how bad this was

[1:07:44] Yeah, it's so much matter it's like if if Steven Spielberg Spielberg ended the Fableman's with whatever his name is Jack Fable

[1:07:51] Sammy Fableman turning to the camera and being like hey if you don't relate to it

[1:07:55] That's because it's one person's story and he got to finally tell the story on film, right? Even if you didn't enjoy it

[1:08:00] It's good therapy for the director

[1:08:02] Anyway, and it's like wait a minute. Hold on now

[1:08:04] I don't like the movie because it feels like you think people are not gonna like it and you're not doing anything about that

[1:08:09] Yeah, yeah, the Fableman's I really enjoyed them

[1:08:12] Right, I mean like yeah to me that's a maybe not the most app because it is a good

[1:08:21] Like hey, we knew it was a bad movie, but what are you gonna do we made a little Judd named Hirsch

[1:08:30] My man kills it with a very intense accent. Yeah. Yeah, that's some of the best undershirt acting I've seen

[1:08:38] Yeah, yeah

[1:08:41] Hey, let's talk about our final judgments whether we thought this was a good bad movie a bad bad movie a movie

[1:08:46] We kind of like I'm gonna say look

[1:08:49] Don't hate Joda Judd Apatow. I'm sorry

[1:08:54] You know if you're out there feeling feeling your hurt feelings about the movie. I know that he has admitted himself like

[1:09:02] Maybe this wasn't my best best work

[1:09:05] I like all of the

[1:09:07] Actors in it to one degree or another like including some like big favorites of mine in this in this film

[1:09:14] But I also huge Karen Gillan fan. I'm a big Karen Gillan fan. She's great

[1:09:19] As mentioned Pedro Pascal is particularly good, you know, I could

[1:09:23] It's ton of great people in this movie, but Griffin Newman's co-star Peter Zara Finnewitz. Here's Sarah Fenwitz a dream

[1:09:31] Briefly said hello to him once when Steve Bodo brought him into the office

[1:09:37] Since I probably shouldn't I mean, I don't it doesn't he was he was around for for reasons and

[1:09:43] Murder somebody

[1:09:45] Yeah, he just kind of look confused as to why he was there. Steve was working on a possible project that

[1:09:50] Oh, I say anyway, but I'm Darth Maul animated series

[1:09:54] Yeah, anyway, it's Darth Maul at the mall. Yeah

[1:09:57] Anyway, it's Darth Maul at the mall

[1:10:00] He's just a kid, just a normal kid trying to grow up as a dark side Jedi apprentice.

[1:10:04] Or sorry, Sith apprentice.

[1:10:04] Skateboard tricks, thank you.

[1:10:05] Yeah, doing force skateboard tricks, yeah.

[1:10:08] Yep, go on.

[1:10:08] Point is, I just want to say I've liked all these people before, I will like them again.

[1:10:14] But this particular film I found to be one of the most trying experiences

[1:10:20] I've had for this podcast.

[1:10:22] And that's saying something.

[1:10:24] So it's a bad, bad movie.

[1:10:25] Yeah, I'm also going to say it's bad, bad.

[1:10:27] I feel like this movie has a weird challenge in that it's a movie that at the same time

[1:10:33] seems to have way more resources than it needs.

[1:10:35] And it's kind of drowning in effects and things like that.

[1:10:38] And also not enough resources.

[1:10:39] And because so much of it is just them hanging around this one location, this one hotel.

[1:10:45] And I kind of wonder, would this movie be better if it went bigger?

[1:10:49] Would it be better if it went smaller and more intimate?

[1:10:51] Like it's kind of just in the middle.

[1:10:53] And the result is that there's not a lot for the comedy to latch on to.

[1:10:57] And it feels like a movie that doesn't know what choices it wants to make.

[1:11:02] And so it doesn't make choices.

[1:11:04] And I think there's a good version of this movie that would exist.

[1:11:07] And you just have to choose what tone it has and how far it wants to go and stuff like that.

[1:11:12] Yeah, you saying that reminds me of like there's that scene in Wonder Boys,

[1:11:16] in Wonder Boys, where Katie Holmes...

[1:11:17] The movie where Michael Douglas and Tony Maguire are floating in an ocean.

[1:11:25] You know what I mean?

[1:11:26] The best movies in the ocean.

[1:11:27] The ocean of emotions.

[1:11:28] The emotion ocean.

[1:11:29] Yeah, that's what that manatee swims in.

[1:11:33] The emotion ocean.

[1:11:34] Katie Holmes reads Michael Douglas's like,

[1:11:38] at that point, like 800 or 900 page manuscript.

[1:11:41] And she's like, you remember how you tell us that writing is making choices?

[1:11:45] It kind of feels like you didn't make any.

[1:11:49] Like, that's this movie.

[1:11:51] You put your finger on it.

[1:11:53] Yeah, I was kind of a grouchy boy about this one.

[1:11:56] A little bit of a steward stinker on this one.

[1:12:00] Yeah, I mean, I'll echo both of you guys.

[1:12:02] Like, I like a lot of the cast.

[1:12:03] I have liked a lot of Judd Apatow movies.

[1:12:07] But yeah, this one doesn't really work.

[1:12:09] And it feels very thrown together.

[1:12:12] And it feels like another...

[1:12:14] I mean, it feels it reminded me of COVID lockdown,

[1:12:18] which is not a place I want to go back to.

[1:12:22] And it also feels like another symptom of the like endless glut of content

[1:12:29] coming out of the current streaming marketplace

[1:12:32] of just like stuff being shoveled out there.

[1:12:35] And it feels underdone and underthought through.

[1:12:39] And yeah, it's not for me.

[1:12:40] No, thanks.

[1:12:41] Uh, let's move on to letters from listeners.

[1:12:47] Hey, you not only support The Flophouse

[1:12:50] and other great maximum fun podcasts,

[1:12:52] but you also write us letters.

[1:12:55] Thank you.

[1:12:56] Giving us free content.

[1:12:58] Sucker.

[1:12:59] Stuart, shut up.

[1:13:01] You're blowing the game, Stuart.

[1:13:03] And here's one.

[1:13:04] Keep kayfabe.

[1:13:05] Here's one from Jacqueline, last name withheld.

[1:13:09] Jacqueline Bessette.

[1:13:10] Who writes,

[1:13:11] Hello, Floppies.

[1:13:13] I have listened to y'all from 2019 when I was 19 years old.

[1:13:18] I wonder how many...

[1:13:19] Stuart had a look on his face like,

[1:13:21] were people that young in 2019?

[1:13:23] Is that possible?

[1:13:24] I wonder how many other quirky young adults

[1:13:27] have had The Flophouse be such a cornerstone

[1:13:29] of their cooking, cleaning during their uni years.

[1:13:32] That's a clue to where this letter is from.

[1:13:34] Oh, I think we're traveling across the pond.

[1:13:38] Okay.

[1:13:39] Stuart, I love it.

[1:13:40] I love this movie.

[1:13:41] I hate it.

[1:13:45] See, I like it in a vacuum,

[1:13:47] but now that we're actually talking to an English person,

[1:13:49] I can't think of how much pain.

[1:13:52] Yeah.

[1:13:53] I don't have any witty detours for you,

[1:13:55] but my question is,

[1:13:56] would you ever like to write or direct a short film of your own?

[1:13:59] What vibe or style would it have?

[1:14:01] Secondly, what are the top countries listening to you besides the US?

[1:14:04] That's it.

[1:14:05] Many flops from the UK.

[1:14:07] Jacqueline, last name withheld.

[1:14:08] I'll start with the first one.

[1:14:10] As one might expect,

[1:14:11] mostly English-speaking countries,

[1:14:13] because it's an audio medium.

[1:14:16] There are plenty of bilingual

[1:14:19] or many-lingual people in other countries,

[1:14:22] but we have a lot of listeners.

[1:14:24] Yeah, name names, Dan.

[1:14:25] What countries are you?

[1:14:27] We have a lot of listeners in the UK

[1:14:32] and in Australia

[1:14:37] and where else?

[1:14:40] Also Germany.

[1:14:41] That's not an English-speaking country,

[1:14:43] but a lot of Germans.

[1:14:44] It's because of my fucking killer Werner Herzog impression, I bet.

[1:14:47] Well, the problem is a lot of German listeners listen

[1:14:49] because they think Werner Herzog is on the show,

[1:14:51] but it's actually just Stuart.

[1:14:52] It's just me.

[1:14:53] Denmark.

[1:14:54] Do my little goofs.

[1:14:56] We got some live shows to plan in these countries.

[1:14:58] Let's do it.

[1:15:02] Yeah, if you were going to make movies,

[1:15:03] I don't know.

[1:15:05] Jacqueline specifies short movies,

[1:15:06] but I don't know why we have to keep ourselves to that.

[1:15:12] This is burning material.

[1:15:14] We can't get into, like Elliot and I,

[1:15:16] any ideas we have.

[1:15:20] I have a screenplay that's out now for producers looking at it,

[1:15:22] and I don't want to say what it is

[1:15:24] because I want it to get made.

[1:15:27] But I will say there is a short film

[1:15:29] that I've been planning to write

[1:15:31] that I would like to direct,

[1:15:33] and I just haven't gotten around to it

[1:15:35] because I've been so busy.

[1:15:36] I would call it a deadpan comedy,

[1:15:39] a historical deadpan comedy,

[1:15:42] but I think I could shoot very cheaply.

[1:15:46] As the non-creative of the gang,

[1:15:48] I can answer.

[1:15:49] I wouldn't say that's true.

[1:15:50] And I don't know.

[1:15:51] I feel like generally when I work,

[1:15:54] mainly when I write or work on comics and stuff,

[1:15:57] I usually kind of gear toward the horror or horror comedy.

[1:16:03] Because I both like things to be scary,

[1:16:05] and also I just can't help but make things funny, you know?

[1:16:09] Yeah, I know.

[1:16:11] I mean, horror comedy definitely would be my favorite genre

[1:16:16] and the one I would want to do.

[1:16:17] And up until recently, it has been...

[1:16:21] I feel like it was labeled box office poison for a long time

[1:16:23] for reasons I'm not sure about.

[1:16:26] It's one of these things where there's a period

[1:16:29] where horror comedy hits

[1:16:31] an American werewolf in London,

[1:16:33] and then they're high-profile...

[1:16:35] Then you get your American werewolves in Paris.

[1:16:38] Yeah, well, but also high-profile failures

[1:16:40] like early James Gunn works.

[1:16:42] Slither was a big bomb.

[1:16:45] The Frighteners was a big bomb.

[1:16:47] Well, people were already so hyped on Night of the Creeps

[1:16:49] that they're like,

[1:16:50] we don't need Slither 2.

[1:16:51] Yeah, but I feel like...

[1:16:53] I think part of the issue is that we like horror

[1:16:55] and we like comedy,

[1:16:57] but I think your civilians,

[1:16:59] your average person does not like to mix those two things.

[1:17:02] They like to know whether they're supposed to laugh

[1:17:04] or be scared of something.

[1:17:05] Except it seems to be on a serious upswing.

[1:17:11] You got your Megan, you got your Barbarian,

[1:17:14] you got your Cocaine Bear, you got...

[1:17:16] I would say those are...

[1:17:20] Except for Megan, that is a different level of success though.

[1:17:24] Well, but we're living in a world

[1:17:25] where that's the new marker.

[1:17:30] What movies can actually get people into the theaters enough?

[1:17:33] At least it's like, oh, they didn't make as much as Avatar 2,

[1:17:35] The Way of Water, so...

[1:17:36] So they're automatically failures.

[1:17:38] No, but I feel like something that...

[1:17:42] I feel like I'm learning about your average viewer

[1:17:45] is that they have a certain amount of appetite

[1:17:47] for certain things,

[1:17:48] but they don't want just nonstop that thing.

[1:17:51] And the problem that a lot of film and TV makers

[1:17:55] have, I think, is they say,

[1:17:57] people like this thing, let's make more of that.

[1:17:59] Where I think with a lot of people, it's like,

[1:18:00] oh, I had that thing.

[1:18:02] I think a lot of average viewers are like,

[1:18:03] I saw Megan, I love that, that was really fun.

[1:18:06] Okay, what else am I going to do?

[1:18:07] That ticked off that box for a little bit.

[1:18:09] But I do think, I don't know,

[1:18:11] I do think that there's a mini resurgence

[1:18:13] of horror comedy as a viable thing.

[1:18:16] Could be, I mean, I hope so.

[1:18:18] I love them, so...

[1:18:20] You know, I'm looking back,

[1:18:22] Happy Death Day, et cetera.

[1:18:25] I'm glad that...

[1:18:26] And certainly horror movies that are pitched as fun.

[1:18:30] Like, if you go to this thing,

[1:18:31] you will have a good time.

[1:18:33] Well, I think maybe that's it,

[1:18:34] is that if you pitch something

[1:18:35] as like a horror comedy,

[1:18:39] it confuses people.

[1:18:40] But if you say like, this is a fun horror movie,

[1:18:42] then they're like, yeah, yeah.

[1:18:44] That they don't want to...

[1:18:45] And the way you do that is you...

[1:18:46] It's not about trauma.

[1:18:47] Yeah, you show...

[1:18:48] It's not about trauma.

[1:18:49] Yeah, A24.

[1:18:51] Yeah, what you do is you show the cast

[1:18:53] having a little dance party on the set.

[1:18:55] No, no, you do not do that.

[1:18:56] People are gonna be like, this looks great.

[1:18:58] Don't do it.

[1:18:59] You don't do it.

[1:19:00] Do not do that.

[1:19:01] That's a don't maybe do it.

[1:19:03] Don't do it.

[1:19:04] Not a do-do, yeah.

[1:19:05] And I love seeing actors dancing

[1:19:08] when they're in a musical

[1:19:09] or when it's a dance scene.

[1:19:10] I just don't...

[1:19:10] I don't need to see them dancing

[1:19:12] the way people dance at weddings.

[1:19:13] You know, I don't need to see that.

[1:19:15] I also want to make clear,

[1:19:17] we like A24 style horror movies too.

[1:19:20] Yeah, of course.

[1:19:21] We just like having the option

[1:19:23] on the buffet to have something...

[1:19:24] Yeah, if A24 is listening,

[1:19:26] we still like your shit.

[1:19:28] No, I know, I just...

[1:19:29] Look, who cares?

[1:19:34] Okay, this next letter,

[1:19:36] I was gonna explain myself,

[1:19:38] but it's not important.

[1:19:39] Brandon, last name withheld, writes,

[1:19:42] the subject heading for this email is,

[1:19:44] who says Godzilla can't just step on a house?

[1:19:49] All right, let's hear it.

[1:19:50] Let's hear it.

[1:19:51] I mean, he stepped on Bambi once,

[1:19:52] that's smaller than a house.

[1:19:56] That's the mute.

[1:19:58] Is it bigger than a bread box?

[1:20:00] Bambi how many Bambi's tall is your house?

[1:20:04] Dear speeches in your last episode Elliot put forward as a as a fact the idea that you couldn't have Godzilla

[1:20:10] Just attack a single house

[1:20:12] fair enough

[1:20:14] Normally the movie would be quick and boring, but I asked you this sharks

[1:20:17] What if in that house was one Kevin McAllister a home God's alone if you will how interested are you now?

[1:20:25] How interested are you now, you don't have to you don't know what's gonna happen in that movie anything could happen

[1:20:30] It's the last truly original Hollywood movie. I don't know if it's truly original. It's just not

[1:20:35] Slammed together. Yeah, two things

[1:20:39] Fight up Godzilla if so, how much prep time does he need?

[1:20:43] What would be the traps or just Godzilla defeat but ultimately respect the crafty home defender after a link lengthy

[1:20:49] But narratively bittersweet battle should you find this a tempting offer?

[1:20:53] Let me suggest that Godzilla is not the only movie monster

[1:20:58] I don't

[1:21:00] Oh a de-aged

[1:21:01] Macaulay Culkin CGI'd onto a tiny child's body could go up against the limits are only your imagination

[1:21:07] So I was stumbling over the word D aged which without a hyphen is very confusing

[1:21:13] Yeah, I will say the limits are not so much our imagination as the imaginations of people who have already made movies about monsters

[1:21:20] Since we're pulling from

[1:21:22] Yeah, Godzilla

[1:21:24] Here's here's what I'll say to that Columbus. Sure

[1:21:26] We'd all love to see Kevin McAllister go up against a bigger challenge and there's no bigger challenge literally than Godzilla

[1:21:32] but I have that there's a thing called a

[1:21:36] Proportionality and I think on the the wet bandits are proportionally a good challenge for Kevin because they are dumber than him

[1:21:43] But they are slightly bigger and slightly stronger being adults and there's two of them

[1:21:48] The Godzilla threat seems out of proportion for Kevin since again

[1:21:51] He can put as many nails on steps or little micro machines on the floor

[1:21:55] Godzilla's is gonna crush them all between his giant under his giant foot. There's a between his toes

[1:21:59] He's not gonna slip on the marbles or the or the micro machines if he steps on a nail

[1:22:03] It's gonna get bent because he's so strong. It's not gonna go into his foot and he's also emitting radiation

[1:22:08] Which I don't know how Kevin is gonna

[1:22:10] Defend himself against that unless he's in a lead line suit

[1:22:13] We're just gonna make it harder for him to accurately aim a BB gun

[1:22:15] Which again have would have no effect on the inches if not feet thick derma of Godzilla and the armor plating

[1:22:22] That's just a part of his scales

[1:22:23] And so I think maybe Kevin should like level up to something more on the Jason level of monster

[1:22:31] As opposed to going all the way to a kaiju you want him to pay his dues

[1:22:36] Paraphrasing the concept of challenge ratings in TNT

[1:22:39] Exactly exactly

[1:22:41] It's not it's not that I wanted to level it's not Renfield for he's got a he's got a bigger and bigger monsters increases hit

[1:22:47] Points and endurance. Uh-huh. Yep. Absolutely. Once you get to a certain level and he gets enough magic items that are appropriate

[1:22:54] Yeah level he'll be able to take on a Godzilla's. Well, no, I don't think I don't think that's true

[1:22:58] I mean if there are magic items the homo in universe right now

[1:23:00] The most magic item is like the shovel that the old the lonely old man next door has

[1:23:05] But if there's there's a certain limit as to how powerful there's a ceiling to the power of Kevin McAllister

[1:23:11] He is a human child

[1:23:14] Or paranormal abilities who is dealing with human sized objects?

[1:23:17] And so I think a human sized opponent is really what he is most

[1:23:21] Getting like an old man suit or something a door knob until it glowed

[1:23:26] Yes, and to make a man skeleton appear inside his body. You're saying this child is not a magical

[1:23:30] I believe the skeleton appeared in his body because he was electrified by not by the heat, right was that

[1:23:38] These are two examples of outlandish things that okay. Well, yes

[1:23:43] I feel like those traps would have no effect on Godzilla. Yes

[1:23:47] Godzilla again born in the heart of a nuclear blast

[1:23:50] He literally has radioactive fire inside of himself that he could use to just destroy Kevin McAllister instantly including the house that he's in

[1:23:58] And the electricity he walks through power lines all the time if anything it might part charge him up more

[1:24:04] But overall it all comes back to the same thing

[1:24:07] Which is again the home that Kevin is protecting is itself not strong enough to withstand the might of Godzilla's

[1:24:14] Giant foot now again, certainly not the home alone, but if the home had to help

[1:24:20] Now if you were saying could Kevin go up against the monster from relic

[1:24:24] Possibly that's not a human monster. It's

[1:24:30] Evil granny from relic

[1:24:33] Or is the is a granny from granny evil or is some

[1:24:39] Becomes evil halfway through now. Here's the crossover. I want to see

[1:24:43] What happens is she abuses the powers of the me chow that she takes? Okay. It's supposed to make her live a lot

[1:24:50] Sure, so what I want to see is Kevin McAllister up against the babysitter from don't tell mom the babysitter's dead

[1:24:56] And here's how that trilogy goes first one prequel. He's up against the babysitter. She's mean they come to an understanding

[1:25:02] They have to team up at the end to go up against a bigger monster not Godzilla big second one

[1:25:07] It's the movie. We know the babysitter's dead pretty early on third movie zombie babysitter comes back to you after Kevin McAllister. Oh, okay

[1:25:15] Yeah, okay

[1:25:18] About that is that for that storyline you can skip most of don't tell mom the babysitter's dead

[1:25:22] Just make your own machete cut I guess of the of the of the movies where it's just the beginning of don't tell mom

[1:25:27] The biggest well, yeah

[1:25:29] It would be like an evil dead to where it has that five minutes

[1:25:33] That's basically just like really running evil dead very quickly. And now they're okay

[1:25:38] There's a threat for Kevin McAllister Kevin's family. So Kevin's family goes to Tokyo or something on vacation

[1:25:44] Kevin took the wrong plane. He ends up at the cabin from evil dead. Now. He's got a fight off the dead. There's some

[1:25:50] Yeah, exactly

[1:25:53] Yeah, so Kevin goes to Michigan

[1:25:55] He's and he's with his buddies

[1:25:58] He's based out of Chicago

[1:26:00] Feeling Minnesota. Yeah, and but he's in Denver and he's dead. So who knows what's gonna happen. He doesn't know what to do

[1:26:06] Ever since ever since they shut down the Denver Tourism Bureau things to do here when you're dead

[1:26:11] That's what the thrillists

[1:26:14] for

[1:26:15] For Denver says if you're dead, here's some things to do this weekend. Anyway, um

[1:26:21] Let's do I think we put that one to rest. Yeah, let's do movie recommendations. You know what I saw

[1:26:27] Recently, I went did it open up your eyes?

[1:26:30] Yeah

[1:26:32] Life is demanding. Huh? Um, I

[1:26:35] Went to

[1:26:37] The Prospect Park Nighthawk. I saw myself a sweet repertory screening of

[1:26:42] Psycho 2 directed by Richard Franklin

[1:26:44] I have long

[1:26:46] Maintained that the biggest problem with psycho 2 is that it is impossible for any movie to be psycho

[1:26:54] We already have a psycho it had such possible for one movie to be just one

[1:26:58] Well, but the thing is like at this point even psycho isn't psycho because it's had so much cultural impact. You cannot that's a good

[1:27:04] recreate

[1:27:05] Psycho, but the shot. Yeah. Yeah, but the beauty of

[1:27:09] Psycho 2 is that the plot takes into account?

[1:27:12] We all know psycho. So let's I

[1:27:16] Don't want to say too much, but the movie like uses the knowledge that you know, what psycho is

[1:27:22] Against you in a way that I feel like more

[1:27:26] more

[1:27:27] sequels should

[1:27:29] sort of think of

[1:27:31] Entry points like okay

[1:27:32] Let's like how does this movie relate to the first one and like less into like a sense of like?

[1:27:35] Oh, let's continue the story or let's repeat the story, but more like Norman's on the on a rampage again

[1:27:40] Yeah, like like how does this relate to the story in a more in like a more holistic way?

[1:27:45] Like like what can we turn on its head?

[1:27:47] What can we change? What like what do we want to learn more about?

[1:27:51] I don't know. It's it's a it's a it's a good movie directed by Richard Franklin the Aussie

[1:27:58] Director who was an acolyte of of Hitchcock's. Yeah, I am so I enjoy it

[1:28:04] Anyway, that's cool. I'm gonna recommend a movie from 1987. Yep. Perfect year

[1:28:11] I'm recommending a movie called light of day

[1:28:14] directed by of course

[1:28:16] director of heartbeats Paul Schrader

[1:28:21] And lighted a need to

[1:28:24] Listeners there's nothing I would like more than for you to go to maximumfund.org slash join and pledge us

[1:28:28] But other than that if you could go to the heart beeps Wikipedia page and just just have it say that Paul Schrader directed

[1:28:34] Yeah, that'd be great. And then somebody record Paul Schrader's reactions live off of Facebook

[1:28:42] I don't I this is all gonna end up with Paul Schrader tracking us down. So no

[1:28:49] Schrader yeah, I just I feel like

[1:28:54] Challenging a poker game. I don't love that. He was always fighting the Ninja Turtles, you know, that's true

[1:29:01] He did that so light a day is it's an interesting little movie

[1:29:06] It's probably it's not one of my favorite Paul Schrader movies, but I think it would be heartbeats

[1:29:11] this movie stars Michael J Fox and Joan Jett as a pair of siblings who are

[1:29:17] in their early 20s living in Cleveland and

[1:29:20] they are

[1:29:22] living like a blue-collar life, but they are also trying to make it as

[1:29:28] As like a small-time rock and roll band and Joan Jett the sister

[1:29:33] Has a young child and she cannot give up her dream of being a rock star

[1:29:39] or at least living a rock and roll lifestyle and

[1:29:42] So it means that Michael J Fox has to take on the responsibility of watching this child

[1:29:49] and it's

[1:29:51] You know, it's and there's additional family drama

[1:29:54] It shows the like the side of the Midwest like a blue-collar

[1:30:00] West that you don't get to see very often.

[1:30:02] The mullets are great.

[1:30:04] There's a very small cameo from Michael Rooker,

[1:30:08] which I'm assuming was shot before,

[1:30:11] like I'm assuming it was shot like around

[1:30:13] when Henry Portrait of a Serial Killer is being made.

[1:30:16] Like he had not been in much stuff at this point.

[1:30:18] And it also has Michael McKean,

[1:30:20] who plays the bassist in their band,

[1:30:22] who's in it quite a bit

[1:30:23] and has a variety of different facial hairs.

[1:30:25] So that's worth watching.

[1:30:26] Again, like it, there's,

[1:30:29] it verges a little bit into like TV movie

[1:30:33] or movie of the week,

[1:30:34] but that could also just be how much like big movies

[1:30:37] have altered my brain.

[1:30:38] But if you're interested in watching

[1:30:40] kind of like a smaller movie,

[1:30:42] that's set in kind of a part of America

[1:30:44] that you don't really see very often in movies,

[1:30:47] check out Light of Day.

[1:30:49] I wanna recommend two movies.

[1:30:51] One of them has the word day in the title.

[1:30:53] So it doesn't get more thought out than that.

[1:30:56] This actually was not the movie

[1:30:57] that I was originally gonna recommend,

[1:30:58] but after watching the bubble and thinking about it,

[1:31:00] I was like, and mentioning,

[1:31:01] there's a good version of this movie

[1:31:03] and it's called Day for Night.

[1:31:04] So that's the first thing I'm gonna recommend is

[1:31:06] Day for Night, or the original French title is

[1:31:08] La Nuit Américaine, The American Night.

[1:31:11] It's directed by Francois Truffaut

[1:31:13] and is about the making of a movie in France.

[1:31:15] Jacqueline Bessette, who wrote us that letter earlier,

[1:31:17] is in it.

[1:31:17] And it's just, it feels very Robert Altmany,

[1:31:21] where it is about people making a movie.

[1:31:23] There's a number of different storylines going on

[1:31:25] with the different people in the movie

[1:31:26] and it shows you so many different people involved.

[1:31:28] But because it's a French movie,

[1:31:30] it's a much smaller crew than an American movie would have.

[1:31:33] So there's a real sense of intimacy to it.

[1:31:35] It's just really good and parts of it are very funny

[1:31:37] and parts of it are very kind of like

[1:31:39] dramatic or heartbreaking and characters do foolish things.

[1:31:44] And it's just a really enjoyable movie,

[1:31:47] but it's also a very wise movie

[1:31:50] about what the process of filmmaking is like,

[1:31:52] as you would expect Francois Truffaut to have

[1:31:54] since he'd been making movies for years by that point.

[1:31:56] So that's Day for Night.

[1:31:57] But the movie I wanted to recommend,

[1:32:00] I think it was last episode,

[1:32:02] I think I also recommended a movie about some women

[1:32:04] who are going through challenges in their lives.

[1:32:07] This, I want to do another one of those.

[1:32:08] And this one stars recent Academy Award nominee,

[1:32:12] Michelle Yeoh.

[1:32:13] That's right, it's a movie about women

[1:32:15] dealing with challenges.

[1:32:16] That's The Heroic Trio from 1993,

[1:32:18] directed by Jonny To.

[1:32:20] And you have, it is, watching it, it's like,

[1:32:23] oh, this is like what a 90s Hong Kong idea

[1:32:26] of a superhero movie,

[1:32:28] before the Marvel movies had kind of codified

[1:32:32] what a superhero movie is supposed to be.

[1:32:33] But after the Batman movies had come in

[1:32:35] and kind of made their impression

[1:32:37] about what a superhero movie is supposed to be,

[1:32:39] but filtered through a very Hong Kong filter.

[1:32:41] There's three powerful women.

[1:32:43] There's Michelle Yeoh, Anita Mui and Maggie Chung,

[1:32:46] I'm sure mispronouncing names.

[1:32:47] And they play Wonder Woman,

[1:32:50] the Invisible Woman and Thief Catcher,

[1:32:52] but not the ones,

[1:32:53] not the Wonder Woman and Invisible Woman

[1:32:54] we're familiar with.

[1:32:55] But they're three women who find themselves

[1:32:58] on different sides at first,

[1:33:00] when an evil villain who lives under the streets

[1:33:03] in the sewers,

[1:33:04] but the sewers look kind of like caverns of a city,

[1:33:07] is collecting babies,

[1:33:09] thinking that one of them will become

[1:33:11] the foretold new king of China.

[1:33:14] And there is a lot of real fun fights.

[1:33:18] It gets very strange at times.

[1:33:19] And the climax of the movie,

[1:33:21] you watch it and you're like,

[1:33:23] oh, Michelle Yeoh is gonna go on to an Academy Award,

[1:33:26] but she still did this bonkers scene

[1:33:28] that involves her fighting like the charred body

[1:33:32] of a super powerful wizard, magician.

[1:33:35] It's just, it's a super fun movie.

[1:33:37] So that's the heroic trio.

[1:33:39] That's on Criterion right now, right?

[1:33:41] It is on Criterion right now.

[1:33:42] They have a Michelle Yeoh collection on right now.

[1:33:44] With Yes Madam.

[1:33:46] Yeah, Yes Madam's on there also.

[1:33:48] And Supercop, a lot of stuff she was in.

[1:33:51] That's good.

[1:33:52] Yay.

[1:33:53] Hey, before we go,

[1:33:56] just one last pitch for becoming a Max Fund member.

[1:33:59] I know I'm coming into this with such aggressive energy

[1:34:01] because it's actually gonna get a little personal here.

[1:34:05] Be aggressive, Dan.

[1:34:06] No, no, no.

[1:34:07] I talked last show a little bit

[1:34:08] about how the Flophouse has almost magically changed my life.

[1:34:13] It's introduced me to people

[1:34:14] I wouldn't have known otherwise,

[1:34:15] whether it be kind, enthusiastic, wonderful listeners

[1:34:19] we meet on the road,

[1:34:21] or if it's a chance to text our guest Gillian Flynn

[1:34:24] about bad wigs in a movie,

[1:34:26] or if it's even meeting my wife through a karaoke event

[1:34:31] arranged by Max Fund New York.

[1:34:33] So like, it's just been a wild thing to be-

[1:34:37] Wait, who'd you meet at the karaoke event?

[1:34:39] My wife, Audrey.

[1:34:41] Okay.

[1:34:41] I was hoping you were gonna say it funnier.

[1:34:43] Yeah.

[1:34:44] Thank you.

[1:34:46] It's allowed me to showcase-

[1:34:47] Shouldn't have needed the prompting.

[1:34:48] Shouldn't have needed it.

[1:34:49] I was, you know what?

[1:34:51] It's, I think it's to my credit

[1:34:53] that I didn't know where he was going with it.

[1:34:56] Fair, fair.

[1:34:57] It's allowed me to showcase both my own voice

[1:35:00] and the voice of my dear friends, Stuart and Elliot,

[1:35:03] in a way that actually gets out into the world

[1:35:05] and connects with people.

[1:35:06] It's kept me and Elliot and Stuart financially afloat

[1:35:10] during times where we've all gone through

[1:35:11] a bunch of ups and downs.

[1:35:13] And most importantly, it's made me feel connected

[1:35:16] and less alone in this world,

[1:35:17] knowing that other people like the same dumb nonsense

[1:35:20] I do and we do, whether it's my co-hosts

[1:35:24] or you out there in listener land.

[1:35:27] And I'd like to thank everyone for that.

[1:35:29] And I know it's been important for our listeners as well,

[1:35:32] because I've heard stories about people

[1:35:33] meeting their partners because of the podcast

[1:35:35] or adopting a child through context to the podcast

[1:35:39] or folks going through a tough time

[1:35:41] who've been helped by listening to us be silly.

[1:35:43] And I honestly kind of don't like to think about it too much

[1:35:46] because I'm a 44-year-old man from the Midwest

[1:35:49] and emotions confuse and frighten me.

[1:35:52] But it's honestly been very meaningful to me

[1:35:55] to know that if some angel pulled

[1:35:56] and it's a wonderful life on me

[1:35:58] and showed me how life would be different

[1:36:00] if I'd never been born,

[1:36:01] that because of this podcast, in large part,

[1:36:03] there would actually be a significant difference

[1:36:05] in the world.

[1:36:06] So we've got a lot of new stuff in store for this year.

[1:36:09] We've been trying to do more video content and fun tidbits.

[1:36:12] We're working on an ambitious plan

[1:36:14] for more live streaming shows in the coming year.

[1:36:17] So if you want the show to not just survive,

[1:36:19] but to continue to thrive and expand,

[1:36:22] consider becoming a member at MaximumFun.org slash join.

[1:36:26] That site again is MaximumFun.org slash join.

[1:36:29] If you like us, pick the Flop House,

[1:36:31] one of your shows to support.

[1:36:33] And thank you so much for being a listener.

[1:36:36] And that's it other than also thanking our producer, Alex Smith,

[1:36:41] who puts the show together.

[1:36:43] You can find him on various socials as HowlDotty.

[1:36:46] But I will say, for the Flop House, I have been Dan McCoy.

[1:36:50] I'm still Stuart Wellington.

[1:36:52] My name is MaximumFun.org slash join.

[1:36:56] I'm sorry, it's Elliot.

[1:36:57] Bye.

[1:36:59] Bye.

[1:37:01] Hey, everybody, it's Flop House time.

[1:37:04] From coast to coast, we're the most Flop House podcast that there is

[1:37:09] because we're the only one.

[1:37:11] So by definition, we are the most Flop House podcast there is.

[1:37:15] Flop House.

[1:37:16] Yeah.

[1:37:19] Stu's unimpressed.

[1:37:21] No, I loved it.

[1:37:22] MaximumFun.org.

[1:37:24] Comedy and culture.

[1:37:25] Artists owned.

[1:37:26] Audience supported.

[1:37:27] Comedy and culture.

[1:37:28] Artists owned.

[1:37:29] Audience supported.

Episode #392 - The Bubble

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