Episode #377 - The Gray Man

[0:00] On this episode, we discuss the gray man, more like the board identity.

[0:06] Am I right?

[0:30] Hey everyone, welcome to the Flophouse.

[0:38] I'm Dan McCoy.

[0:39] I'm Stuart Wellington.

[0:40] I'm the special podcasting operative known as Elliot Kalin.

[0:44] That's my codename.

[0:45] My real name though is Elliot Kalin.

[0:46] Your name is not cool enough.

[0:48] It's not cool enough, Elliot Kalin.

[0:49] If you're going to be an operative, if you're going to be a top secret operative, you need

[0:53] like a cool name, something that just sticks right in the brain.

[0:57] Something that connotes dullness.

[1:01] Or something like Sierra Six, which sounds like a seltzer of water of some kind.

[1:06] So we're going to get into this when we talk about the movie, but we're talking about a

[1:09] character who is introduced to us with the name Courtland Gentry.

[1:13] They're like, no, no, no, no, no, no, no.

[1:18] He's going to be Sierra Six from now on.

[1:24] As the person who was taking notes to summarize this movie, I found it very convenient that

[1:28] all I had to write was six.

[1:29] Yeah.

[1:30] Over and over again.

[1:31] Yeah.

[1:32] They said, what's dumber than Courtland Gentry?

[1:35] I know Sierra, but what if we can make that even dumber?

[1:39] Sierra Six?

[1:40] Great.

[1:41] Okay.

[1:42] So it's- Numbers are all the rage these days.

[1:45] That 11 over on Stranger Things.

[1:48] People love numbers.

[1:49] Yeah.

[1:50] People like 11.

[1:51] People like five less than her.

[1:54] Or five better.

[1:55] I guess we'll find out.

[1:56] Oh, potentially.

[1:57] Yeah.

[1:58] It depends on what you're- Dan, what do we do on this podcast?

[1:59] We don't just talk about numbers.

[2:00] This isn't What's Your Number, the movie, the podcast.

[2:04] This is a podcast where we talk about movies that were critical or commercial flops.

[2:12] And in this case, I know you're going to say something about Topeka.

[2:16] Also there's a secondary Topeka-related mission statement, just opinions on Topeka.

[2:22] Calm down.

[2:23] I wasn't even going to say it.

[2:24] I was kind of done with that bit.

[2:25] But you want to keep it going, Dan.

[2:26] Well, you seemed- You had this look on your face like you're going to say something.

[2:31] I presumed that was it.

[2:32] I was actually going to say, and this might be what you were going to say, I think we

[2:35] might have to change our remit because the idea of a commercial flop is so much harder

[2:38] to understand now.

[2:39] The Gray Man is a Netflix original, so who knows how well it did?

[2:43] Nobody.

[2:44] That is why I say critical or commercial flop, that and to fend off the people on the internet

[2:54] who are constantly like, I thought that was a financial success.

[2:57] I'm like, look, man, it's just a name.

[2:59] Don't get hung up on it.

[3:00] Do people actually do that?

[3:01] I wish.

[3:02] Yes, they do it all the time.

[3:03] And I'm like, I wish honestly at this point, I wish I could go back in time, change the

[3:08] name to something that makes no reference to something that could be misinterpreted

[3:14] that way, because I don't like having to be like, look, we're going to do whatever

[3:18] movie we want to do ultimately.

[3:20] So Dan is the podcaster equivalent of King Kong standing on the Empire State Building

[3:24] and these internet people are the biplanes that are flying around bothering him with

[3:29] their questions.

[3:30] Listen, until he drops out of sheer, sheer boredom.

[3:33] But Dan, what you're saying is, I love what you're saying to us is if you could turn back

[3:39] time, if you could find a way, you would change the name of this podcast to something

[3:48] else.

[3:49] Now, imagine Dan is twirling around in a thong bodysuit with sailors all around.

[3:52] Yeah.

[3:53] Thanks for sharing that with us, Elliot.

[3:55] Now, Netflix, Netflix does not release numbers, but they do release number six, Sierra six

[4:01] star of the Greyman.

[4:02] Yeah.

[4:03] And wait a minute, there's 11 who's on Stranger Things, a Netflix show.

[4:07] Sounds like Netflix releases a lot of numbers, Dan.

[4:09] I guess 11, of course, is on HBO.

[4:12] According to Netflix, this was very successful for them, but it was and it wasn't even like

[4:18] a critical flop.

[4:20] Let's say it's a critical despite being good.

[4:24] I'll say this, Dan.

[4:25] Yeah.

[4:26] Netflix likes to play.

[4:27] I feel a little fast and loose with the numbers since I'll turn it on.

[4:29] They're like, this movie is the most watched movie in the world, by the way.

[4:34] It's on your home screen and it's playing right now unless you press a button.

[4:37] And I'm like, wait, does this count as a view?

[4:39] I'm not watching this.

[4:41] I feel like they are.

[4:42] It's a little unfair that they're like, it's amazing.

[4:44] Everybody in the world is watching Squid Game merely because we forced it onto their TV

[4:48] screens whenever they opened our app.

[4:51] That's what they do.

[4:52] The most popular album is this shitty U2 album that no one wants.

[4:56] Yes.

[4:57] Apple could say it's the most most downloaded album in music history is this U2 one they

[5:03] shoved onto my phone and I deleted that shit as fast as I could.

[5:06] I felt that's maybe the most violent and this shows how entitled and privileged my life

[5:11] has been.

[5:12] That was the most violated I ever felt was opening my phone and seeing this U2 album.

[5:17] Again says more about me.

[5:18] First world problems.

[5:19] First world problems.

[5:20] I don't even hate U2 as much as like most people seem to these days.

[5:24] It's fashionable.

[5:25] But they put out some really strong albums in the past.

[5:30] I don't want this one.

[5:32] Who can forget?

[5:33] Who can forget?

[5:34] It's not to my taste.

[5:35] That whole thing on the pop tour where Bono was like the devil on a phone call with somebody.

[5:39] Great stuff.

[5:40] Great stuff.

[5:41] The Spider-Man musical.

[5:42] Wonderful.

[5:43] I guess there's only two members of U2.

[5:44] The two U2 they call them.

[5:45] The U2 two.

[5:46] Yeah.

[5:47] But yeah.

[5:48] I don't want a U2 album.

[5:49] Fetch.

[5:50] Fetch they call it.

[5:51] Now that we're on the subject of talking about numbers like U2, let's talk about number six,

[5:56] the hero of the movie, The Gray Man.

[5:57] Now featuring a featured on Netflix, according to my television, it's in the top 10 of all

[6:03] movies.

[6:04] Now, I have a question.

[6:05] Why is this movie called?

[6:06] I know it's based on a book called The Gray Man.

[6:08] They barely ever refer to him as The Gray Man.

[6:11] I think they do it once.

[6:12] Why don't you just call it number six or something like that or Sierra six?

[6:15] I am number six.

[6:16] I mean, I as much as I'm number four, I think.

[6:20] Oh, shit.

[6:21] I mean, number six is Patrick McGoohan's character from The Prisoner, but they never call him

[6:25] The Gray Man.

[6:26] Dan, sorry.

[6:28] As much as The Gray Man is a uninspiring name, I think Sierra six or six would be a less

[6:36] inspiring.

[6:37] Well, they're the only three titles talking about the musical six, which has some, you

[6:41] know, real like bangers in it.

[6:43] Thumbs up.

[6:44] But it's a huge hit.

[6:45] I mean, you have a great man.

[6:47] He works in a gray area.

[6:49] He was.

[6:50] I'm just saying they should call him that more in the movie because they just say it

[6:52] once.

[6:53] And I mean, a lot of time or wearing like a gray tracksuit, really, where you're not

[6:59] where you're not listening to me before or something about the flop house.

[7:02] It's just a name.

[7:03] You can name anything.

[7:04] Oh, right.

[7:05] Yeah.

[7:06] You can always sit on.

[7:07] Always sit on our own flop card.

[7:08] You're right.

[7:09] I should have been.

[7:10] I should have been more.

[7:11] We're sensitive to the fact that they don't.

[7:12] They could just name a movie.

[7:13] Whatever.

[7:14] They don't hold it.

[7:15] That movie.

[7:16] So The Gray Man begins in 2003 in a Florida state prison.

[7:20] Ryan Gosling, whose character, again, is named Courtland Gentry, who is trading quips with

[7:26] which does sound like the name of a kind of mid-level hotel.

[7:29] Yeah.

[7:30] Like a regional hotel.

[7:31] Yeah.

[7:32] Yeah.

[7:33] Yeah.

[7:34] He's trading quips with CIA agent Billy Bob Thornton.

[7:37] He is a lifetime criminal who's been in prison since he was 15 years old and seems to have

[7:42] a very good prison barbershop because, I mean, he looks great.

[7:46] And I mainly comment on because Billy Bob Thornton has that very traditional CIA agent

[7:51] look of coming off a three day bender.

[7:54] It's great.

[7:55] Thumbs up.

[7:56] I think that's more of a traditional Billy Bob Thornton look.

[7:58] But he looks so much.

[7:59] He looks so much more cleaned up later on.

[8:01] I'm guessing it's the wig department's problem.

[8:03] Yeah.

[8:04] So we're introduced to this character.

[8:05] We'll find out later on because I'm not going to go through every single jump around and

[8:10] flashback or whatever.

[8:11] Right.

[8:12] So he's in jail because he killed his dad for abusing him and his brother.

[8:17] He was protecting his brother.

[8:20] So he killed his dad and then is was sentenced to like 30 some years in prison, which is

[8:25] a lot for a 15 year old.

[8:27] Well, his dad was the president, though.

[8:29] Oh, that actually makes sense.

[8:31] Yeah.

[8:32] Yeah.

[8:33] So I'm going to say that, Stuart, not to throw you off track too early, my Ryan Gosling plays

[8:37] such a bland nothing character in this.

[8:40] We're given so little reason to like him.

[8:42] And it felt when you went in the movie, you find out about this killing his dad for abusing

[8:46] him and his brother much later.

[8:48] And by the time it showed up, I was like, too little, too late movie.

[8:51] I am.

[8:52] It is past the window where you I can care about this character.

[8:54] And it felt very great.

[8:55] Man, he's but I mean, here's the thing, Dan.

[8:59] Maybe you call it the gray man, but you make him an interesting character for the audience.

[9:03] But if I mean, I found Gosling perfectly likable in this like Gosling is a weird one for me

[9:10] like he's a baby goose.

[9:13] I think for me, he's at his best when he's allowed to play a little funnier.

[9:17] Yes.

[9:18] Like this is not really one of his I mean, he has a lot of quips, but it's it's it is

[9:23] a role that I feel like it is usually a good role has two pillars, let's say one is a well

[9:28] written character and one is the charisma of the actor.

[9:31] And this role has one pillar, which is just Ryan Gosling's charisma.

[9:34] And he has there is no there's no written character there for him to lean on.

[9:38] And it's even and you see it even more with Ana de Armas, this character who has nothing.

[9:43] She has no character written for us entirely resting on her shoulders.

[9:46] You know, and it's so it's I by the time they got to that, I was like, movie, if he lives

[9:50] in the gray area, just make him like a morally conflict, morally complex dude.

[9:55] Up to this point, he's like, you know, they're trying to make him into a good guy, good guy,

[9:58] which I mean.

[10:00] I wouldn't mind it. I mean like I might it more with on a day arm is not having

[10:05] More of a character because number one we saw how fun she is as a as a goofy spy in no time to die

[10:13] but so much fun also like then it becomes like a trend of like having like a bunch of

[10:18] Like boring characters if our lead character like the thing I think the idea is that we see him being abused later on and the form

[10:27] His dad, you know burning him with a cigarette lighter or maybe a cigar we don't see what actually made the burn but

[10:35] But him being like if as long as you can, you know, stay calm through this, you know

[10:41] You'll you'll be unstoppable and that's a killer. That is the great man superpowers

[10:45] He is preternaturally calm just sort of self self-possessed and calm

[10:50] well, all this chaos is going on around and that could could work, but

[10:54] Yeah, I didn't it didn't for you. Oh, yeah. No it didn't for me it very much

[10:59] Well, I have I will get to get to I have a lot of I have a lot of issues with this

[11:03] What what at first I was like, oh, this is kind of a mediocre programmer by the end of it

[11:06] I was I found myself actually offended by the existence of the movie in some case. So we're almost done with the first scene

[11:15] Billy Bob Thornton's character whose name is Fitz. I think it's right. Well, so they call it's right. Yeah

[11:21] Named X-Men villain of the same name. Well, let's get back to that first scene. So

[11:31] Thank you, he does he offers to commute ascendance if he

[11:35] Engages in a lifetime of being a CIA hitman. Boom. That is our setup. We have to accept it. Is it silly?

[11:41] Yes, but it's an action movie. Whatever. Let's let's fucking get on this. We bought the ticket

[11:47] We paid for our subscription. Let's just take this ride guys

[11:50] I'm willing I'm willing to suspend my disbelief and continue with the Hollywood idea that the CIA is this sort of masterful shadowy

[11:58] Organization that just murders people secretly left and right you never find out about it

[12:02] Even though all the evidence in the movie is that every operation is a total fuck-up that with non-stop collateral damage

[12:08] it reminded me so much we'll get to it will run me so much of in Firestarter when they're like

[12:12] Rainbirds the best in the business and it's like really he kills ten extra people for every target you send him after like yeah

[12:18] Yeah, you get this tremendous value

[12:21] Amortized over a dollar per bullet. It's amazingly. It's amazingly cheap. Yeah. Yeah, okay

[12:26] So it is now 18 years later in Bangkok

[12:29] We know it's later because they tell us and because six now has a little beard. That's Ryan Gosling's character

[12:35] His name is Sierra six

[12:36] He's got a little beard and then finally Ana de Armas shows up and she is wearing this fucking amazing suit

[12:43] Yeah, that's a great so much charisma. Oh, man. Why couldn't she be the lead?

[12:48] We'll find out

[12:50] So the end of it this I will get when we get to the end of it

[12:53] It's the most enjoyable moments for me where the end when she's running around with rocket launchers strapped to her back like a Bugs Bunny

[12:59] Hurdling hurdling past bad guys. That is definitely a thought that I also had though

[13:03] I was just like well

[13:04] She's played sort of like fourth banana and to spy movies now like give her the first

[13:11] They should call the movie first banana. That's her code name

[13:15] First banana, she's the best in the biz. She peels the bad guys first banana

[13:19] So Ana de Armas is like a partner co-agent or something and she gives six a little water pistol

[13:25] She she's just assigned to she's a different agent assigned to his case. She's not part of the Sierra program

[13:30] She's yeah, she's not one of the elite CIA hitmen. She's one of the slightly more

[13:35] commonplace

[13:37] Yeah, yeah, so he yeah, this is specifically this is a

[13:43] Specific non Sierra

[13:46] Mission he's getting orders directly from Langley

[13:49] And is from a shadowy figure the shadowy head of the CIA known as Denny Carmichael

[13:58] Which is the hilarious name to say over and over played by what Reggie Jean page?

[14:05] From Bridgerton the guy the guy who's just skeet not over the place and he doesn't do any of that in this movie

[14:10] no, no, no, no, but he has that he's the character in a lot of these spy movies who is

[14:14] Kind of the villain and he says things that make people that should sound tough

[14:18] But no one in the movie takes him seriously as a as a bet

[14:22] He reminds me of Kelsey in Money Plane where like from the wrong point of view

[14:26] He is the baddest of badasses, but nobody takes him seriously that way and that was when I realized yeah

[14:30] Wait a minute. This movie is just a Warren Ellis comic where everyone talks tough all the time and shoots each other

[14:36] He keeps referring to

[14:38] The old man who is the person really in charge who we do not meet and is a clear setup for further

[14:46] Gray gray man. Oh, you think so?

[14:48] I wasn't sure about that man because I think we do meet him at the very end, right?

[14:52] He's the one who who gives them a talking to I thought by the old man

[14:55] I thought they just meant the head of intelligence, you know

[14:58] so

[15:00] Six does not take the shot to kill the target

[15:03] Because a kid gets in the way so he has to do it up close

[15:06] so we get a little action sequence where he's like killing a bunch of dudes turns out the target that when he corners in the

[15:11] target is

[15:12] number four Sierra for one of his his brothers-in-arms a fellow assassin who has a

[15:19] they get in a fight in like a little fireworks area and

[15:26] Launching alley

[15:29] Of Bangkok it was full of fireworks the fireworks pit

[15:33] six wins and four because he has been bested hands six a

[15:38] Secret medallion that we will later find out has a even more secret little thumb drive in it

[15:46] Carmichael and six have a phone call Denny Carmichael's not happy with this situation

[15:50] Six is like I'm gonna go on the road. I'm gonna go rogue. So he goes off the grid he

[15:55] Borrows somebody's clothes which continues a trend where he asks everybody before he takes their outfit

[16:00] He asked them if there are 42 regular which I checked and I think I think Ryan Gosling's a 42 regular. I buy it

[16:06] Yeah, glad that you

[16:09] I also appreciate they didn't say like 42 long. I'm like Ryan. You don't have to lie about your height, buddy

[16:15] This this is one of a few different kind of forced cute little runners

[16:19] The other being for me went the the Fitz Roy's nieces love of vintage

[16:25] Pop I guess which is huh, which I was like, can we give these characters like actual things?

[16:31] Can we give them actual personality things? I don't know that that's like that cute. I don't know Elliot

[16:38] I feel like I don't know worn down by watching so many movies. I don't know

[16:42] I'm saying that like I've seen a lot of movies where like like

[16:47] Last night in Soho and things like that where young women are

[16:50] Obsessed with the music of the guy the music that the guy who made the girls don't like music says Elliot Kaelin

[16:57] But I'd love to see a movie where girls listen to music that like girls listen to now and not just what that what the

[17:03] Guy who made the movie likes to listen to you know, I mean people listen to everything

[17:07] That's true. So he so six

[17:10] It doesn't feel the same to me as in book smart when they do the karaoke of you ought to know

[17:14] Where it was like I totally buy that I buy that these girls are into this into this music

[17:18] Even though it's not the music of their era or whatever, you know, yeah, so six calls retired

[17:24] friend

[17:25] Mentor father figure Fitz who now like he looks great. He's got his gray hair. He's got a little mustache. She looks awesome

[17:33] That's Billy Bob Thornton who seems to be still despite being retired

[17:37] He's still gonna be six is ally and he gives him some advice on a new extraction point

[17:43] Meanwhile back in Langley Denny decides to overrule his I guess

[17:50] one of his agents played by Jessica Henwick who is really great and doesn't get to do anything in this movie other than like

[17:56] You know like tut tut and be mad at Chris Chris Evans

[18:01] So there were long there long periods the movie where I forgot she was in the movie and then she would show up to tell

[18:06] Chris Evans you can't do that. And then she'd go back to the craftsman. Can't let a dog play basketball

[18:14] There's a version of this movie where there's a version of this movie where I'm into armistice six and Jessica Henwick is Denny and

[18:20] It's instantly a more interesting movie instantly

[18:23] Yeah, Danny or Denny or the the the villain that Denny brings in which is yeah late is Lloyd Hanson played by Lewis Evans

[18:31] yep, he's one of the Hanson brothers now a

[18:33] a

[18:35] assassin

[18:39] You didn't you didn't you didn't pick that up I thought it was all context clues

[18:42] I didn't think that I guess the scene I guess where he just said mmm bop and then walked into another room

[18:46] Yeah, you know this movie so tiny little Easter eggs like that. I like

[18:51] Chris Evans is having all of the fun that Ryan Gosling is not allowed to have although he's basically playing

[18:58] Henry Cavill from the last mission impossible with mustache

[19:02] Yeah, like that, well, yeah a lot of his personality comes from his mustache and his sort of like retro

[19:08] Like mid-century shirts. He wears. Yeah, I feel like they missed it. They must look great. Oh, he looks great. He does

[19:16] Man, yeah, I dress as well because someone dressed him. It's not like he picked out his own clothes

[19:20] Maybe did I don't know but I feel like he's got some serious cheeks on him

[19:23] I feel like there was a like butt cheeks. Yeah, maybe it's yeah

[19:27] Maybe it's because I mean the Avengers movie even pointed out what a great. Yes

[19:33] yeah, I feel like the

[19:36] Knives out maybe because they got to do it first

[19:38] They got to have this guy who is best known as Captain America

[19:41] Kind of surprised the audience in turning out to be not a good guy

[19:44] And I feel like this movie I couldn't help because it's the Russo brothers that made it

[19:49] I couldn't help thinking that they're like now we're gonna show Captain America being like a bad guy

[19:53] But it never quite it just doesn't it doesn't come off the same way

[19:56] And I was I kept hoping for the moment where I'd be like, I can't believe I'm seeing Captain America

[20:00] America do this the same way that at the beginning of Once Upon a Time in the West, when you

[20:03] see that Henry Fonda has shot a child in the face, and you're like, that's not what I expect

[20:07] Henry Fonda to do, like, I wish they could have played off of it.

[20:09] Certainly not the actor Henry Fonda.

[20:11] Yeah.

[20:12] Well, the fact that he-

[20:13] He should be in jail.

[20:14] The fact that he shot a child in the face on the set and then they had to write it into

[20:15] the movie so that he didn't go to jail.

[20:18] True Hollywood stories.

[20:19] So Lloyd is being brought in, but apparently he's a loose cannon.

[20:23] He's an independent contractor assassin with a huge network of killers on hand, and he

[20:29] lives in a castle, I guess.

[20:30] He has a seemingly unlimited budget.

[20:33] Like he must be spending billions of dollars on this operation.

[20:36] Yeah, I was like, is he- did he set himself up at Versailles?

[20:40] What's going on?

[20:41] Yeah, so basically in a montage, we see that he kidnaps Fitz's niece, who we later find

[20:49] out has a pacemaker and a fetish for like old timey records.

[20:56] And is close to Six.

[20:57] So he and Six already have a familial relationship.

[21:00] Close to the person Six.

[21:02] She's- in age, she's-

[21:03] No, no, in age, she's a teenager.

[21:04] Yeah.

[21:05] Close to Six.

[21:06] She's five and three quarters.

[21:07] Her birthday's in a couple months.

[21:08] Billy Bob Thornton is like-

[21:09] And she keeps reminding us.

[21:10] Billy Bob Thornton, who is now being held captive by Lloyd, orders Six to be killed

[21:20] by the same extraction team he arranged.

[21:23] What a betrayal.

[21:24] It's fine.

[21:26] So we get a plane fight on this cargo plane with like flares and smoke bombs, and it ends

[21:32] with a hole being blown in the side of the plane.

[21:35] And like Six jumps out and has to like chase a guy while flying through the air to get

[21:40] his parachute.

[21:41] There's some neat ideas, like I feel like there's bits where like where he keeps trying

[21:46] to get a parachute and it either gets sucked out or somebody else takes it.

[21:49] Like I think that's kind of a neat idea.

[21:50] And there's some cool stuff, but it's- I don't know about you guys, but it was hard for me

[21:56] to follow this one.

[21:57] Yes.

[21:58] I was wondering, I was wondering why like this movie is trying very hard to do, I feel

[22:02] like Mission Impossible type set pieces.

[22:04] And why in the last couple of Mission Impossible movies, the set pieces are gorgeous and they're

[22:08] so exciting.

[22:09] And here I just couldn't get into them.

[22:11] And I wonder if that was it.

[22:12] That it was kind of, it was moving so fast, it was hard for me to follow exactly what

[22:15] was happening sometimes.

[22:17] Yeah.

[22:18] There are some action set pieces in this that I actually like a fair amount, but this one

[22:23] is kind of hard to follow.

[22:25] And it weirdly like cuts off before you would expect it to.

[22:30] It kind of feels like the movie's like, all right, well, you've seen one of these things

[22:33] where a guy dives after a guy and like does the thing where he makes his body small so

[22:38] he can catch up and get the parachute before.

[22:40] It's like you don't need to see it happen.

[22:41] Yeah, yeah.

[22:42] Scott McCloud writes out and explains it.

[22:44] It does feel like the movie goes, and then the plane explodes and Six has to jump out

[22:49] and he's going and yada, yada, yada.

[22:50] You get the idea.

[22:51] Anyway, he's calling Fitzroy.

[22:52] You get the rest.

[22:54] I mean, it reminded me of the really fun plane fight level in Uncharted 3, which is great

[23:01] and is literally ends with you landing in the desert and then the game just progressed

[23:06] from there.

[23:07] It's great.

[23:08] What a game.

[23:09] I like that.

[23:10] I have to say, in these movies, usually.

[23:12] In these movies, there's only the one so far.

[23:14] I know they're making a sequel and a spin off of some kind.

[23:17] On Wikipedia it says, a spin off film which will explore a different element of the Gray

[23:21] Man universe will be written by etc.

[23:23] What other elements of the Gray Man universe are there?

[23:25] There's nothing.

[23:26] I mean, let's just hope it's Anadarmus.

[23:28] I guess so.

[23:29] It's a paper thin universe.

[23:33] Movies of this ilk.

[23:34] And I know, listeners, I know all universes are paper thin if you believe in the M brain

[23:39] theory of stacked universes.

[23:41] Look, I don't.

[23:42] Man, you would have been roasted online if you hadn't given that good save.

[23:47] I'm so glad I covered myself.

[23:48] Yeah.

[23:50] No, in movies of this ilk, they usually make it that, you know, Fitz would be the bad guy.

[23:56] That we're supposed to be shocked that this character that we only now met and is a shadowy

[24:03] government person betrayed his son-like assassin character.

[24:08] And I liked that this movie at least was like, no, no, no, they actually have a good relationship.

[24:13] It's just that he got pushed out.

[24:14] And then like the one time that Fitz is like forced to betray him, they have a little call

[24:21] on the phone.

[24:22] It's like, uh, yeah, they've got my niece and six is like, oh, okay, cool.

[24:27] Like understood.

[24:28] Yeah, I get it.

[24:29] It's all in the game, baby.

[24:31] So so at this point, six has managed to escape the first genuine attempt at his life.

[24:38] He is on the run.

[24:39] He landed in Turkey.

[24:40] So, uh, yum.

[24:43] And Lloyd has now scrambled assassins from all over the world.

[24:47] We see assassins from all different locations with, uh, you know, monuments and other landmarks

[24:52] in the background.

[24:53] So we're like, oh, wow, even that's the Sydney Opera House.

[24:57] It's ridiculous.

[24:58] And all the and they're all walking up to their planes fully armed as if six is going

[25:03] to jump out of the plane at them.

[25:05] And so many of them are wearing like skull bandana masks.

[25:07] And it's like, you got to wear, I mean, you put on your cutest outfit when you're going

[25:12] to kill.

[25:13] I guess so.

[25:14] Like the best case scenario.

[25:15] You've got a plane flight to get to where six is like, relax.

[25:18] You got some time.

[25:19] You know, that's true.

[25:20] Put your yoga pants on.

[25:22] Get your head.

[25:23] It's a perfect time.

[25:24] It's a perfect time for us to have a flashback.

[25:28] Two years ago, the gray man is wearing a dope suit and he has to be a babysitter for Fitz's

[25:34] niece, whose identity has been leaked to, I don't know, assassins all over the world.

[25:40] And Denny Carmichael's like, I don't care about that.

[25:43] You don't need protection.

[25:44] Where Fitzroy lives on his show, yeah.

[25:46] So he has to.

[25:48] So six, despite having no background in babysitting, has to babysit Fitz's niece, who has some

[25:54] kind of pacifier.

[25:55] I know.

[25:56] Like some kind of ninja next door.

[25:57] He's going to have some kind of adventure in babysitting.

[25:59] Yeah.

[26:00] Like some kind of Mr. Nanny.

[26:02] So we we get a little reveal that one of one of six is tattoos is just the name Sisyphus

[26:07] on his heart.

[26:08] That's pretty cool.

[26:10] That's a good tattoo to get.

[26:12] She plays after having a scare with her pacemaker.

[26:15] She puts on a quirky record, which is perfect for an action sequence, which is what we get.

[26:20] And the assassin shows up and six beats him up pretty quick.

[26:24] And it's fun.

[26:25] OK, that was it.

[26:26] That was the whole flashback.

[26:27] And that's in present day in Vienna.

[26:29] That was just and that's all just a setup that now six cares about.

[26:33] Six also cares about this niece.

[26:35] And, you know, Lloyd went too far in doing that.

[26:38] Up until this point, we thought he might if he met the niece, he might just gobble her

[26:41] up like a wolf lying in a bed, pretending to be a grandma.

[26:47] Yeah.

[26:48] Yeah.

[26:49] Yeah.

[26:50] Like Saturn thinking he's eating a child.

[26:51] But it's just rocks.

[26:52] Stupid Saturn.

[26:53] Look under the swaddling clothes.

[26:55] What a fool.

[26:57] I didn't realize one of my kids was just super dense and round.

[27:00] Well, down the gombo he goes.

[27:03] Yeah.

[27:04] What a dumb type.

[27:05] I mean, a Festus probably looks like a rock.

[27:08] OK.

[27:09] So.

[27:10] I like that Stuart is edging slowly into a Greek mythology hot or not section that I'm

[27:15] really excited to finally hear.

[27:17] Oh, I thought it was the Stuart Wellington roast of Greek mythology.

[27:22] Oh, hell yeah.

[27:24] You thought Kratos fucked up the Greek gods.

[27:26] Now it's time for Stuart.

[27:28] I see King Midas is in the audience.

[27:31] Get a load of this asshole.

[27:32] Hey, buddy.

[27:33] How's that gold silverware doing for you?

[27:36] I like to think that I'd be a little more specific than just say, hey, look at this

[27:39] asshole.

[27:40] But you know what?

[27:41] That's just how you start.

[27:42] I'm just buying time.

[27:43] Buying time for the old wheels to start turning.

[27:44] Yeah.

[27:45] So we're we're in present day Indiana.

[27:46] Oh, I see Medusa's here.

[27:47] Don't look.

[27:48] Anyway.

[27:49] Don't worry.

[27:50] We'll have more of these jokes as the show goes on, folks.

[27:53] OK, so six meets up with a quirky hacker guy to find the tracking information for Chloe's

[28:00] pacemaker and get new passport photos taken.

[28:03] So that, of course, means it's time for us a for a shirtless Ryan Gosling shot.

[28:09] He's covered in scars and tattoos and he's completely yoked.

[28:13] Like this dude looks amazing.

[28:15] Zero percent body fat.

[28:16] And you know what?

[28:17] Despite all those scars and tattoos, I think I could fix some guys.

[28:21] So don't fall into that.

[28:22] No, no, no.

[28:23] It's not your job to fix them.

[28:25] No, don't fall into that trap.

[28:27] He's got a little beard.

[28:28] He's got that haunted look in his eye.

[28:30] He's got that.

[28:31] He's more fixable.

[28:32] A little blonde shock in the front of his hair for some reason.

[28:34] Yeah, he he does look like it looks like he drinks out of court containers behind the

[28:39] restaurant.

[28:40] So, OK, turns out that eccentric weirdo is actually a trap based assassin.

[28:46] Turns out this man who is essentially a spider in human form and is doing everything.

[28:50] He's giving off so many warning signs, not since the not since that New Yorker story

[28:55] about the girl who goes out with that guy and he stalks her and she's a cat person or

[28:59] something.

[29:00] Has there has there been so many warning signs in such quick succession?

[29:03] Yeah.

[29:04] OK, so, yep.

[29:05] Trap based assassin traps him in a well like a spider, like a trap spider.

[29:11] Mm hmm.

[29:12] So while six is my guy, luckily the traps him in a well that we later found out has

[29:16] that has has like an escape kit in it that is everything he needs.

[29:19] But we'll get everything he needs.

[29:21] Yeah.

[29:22] Mm hmm.

[29:23] So six takes a little while, but he does MacGyver his way out of that trap.

[29:27] Meanwhile, Ana Darmus is being interrogated by Denny Carmichael, who's a real creep, keeps

[29:32] turning off the recording.

[29:33] Yada yada.

[29:34] He's basically an Ana Darmus character.

[29:36] Is her character Miranda?

[29:38] What?

[29:39] Because they vary.

[29:40] Her name is nobody refers to her by name like she's only there to save Ryan Gosling.

[29:46] Every once in a while, according to Wikipedia, her name is Danny Miranda, which sounds like

[29:50] two first names.

[29:52] It sounds like like like a sitcom detective sitcom character.

[29:56] Yeah.

[29:57] But yeah, I've never referred to her by name because she just exists.

[30:00] Yeah, she just exists in her relationship to Six.

[30:03] She has no outside existence of her own whatsoever.

[30:05] So I lost focus for a moment because I was distracted by a tweet from Kevin Smith about

[30:10] how much he still bones his wife.

[30:12] Dan, why are you looking at Twitter and especially Kevin Smith's Twitter while we're recording?

[30:16] I don't, it was, uh, unless you need a notification, HowlDotty, HowlDotty, our producer retweeted

[30:23] it.

[30:25] That's why I saw it.

[30:26] And you got a HowlDotty retweet alert on your computer and you said, I'll have to check

[30:30] this out.

[30:31] We, no, we, well, I didn't think that we would go so fast that I would miss anything in this

[30:38] web of, of, of pieces from other spy films, but apparently we already did pass something

[30:45] while I was not paying attention, which was him being trapped in the well.

[30:49] And I just wanted to make a note of this, this, this, uh, guy who makes fake passports

[30:54] and stuff.

[30:55] He is from moment one, the most suspicious acting man, everything about him says, I'm,

[31:01] I'm going to betray you and trap you in a well.

[31:03] Yeah.

[31:04] Yeah.

[31:05] And from my perspective as an audience member, look, I don't mind it that much because part

[31:10] of it is creating the tension of like, something's going on here, like, you know, uh, like playing

[31:18] the audience that way.

[31:20] But on the other hand, six is supposed to be the world's greatest, I mean, he is, you

[31:27] could say maybe he's a blunt instrument or a scalpel.

[31:30] He knows how to kill.

[31:31] He doesn't know how to recognize danger, but it also shows that his back is up against

[31:37] the wall and he knows that there's something up, but there's, he has like no other options

[31:43] right now.

[31:44] I guess that's true because the only short of a fly buzzing by this guy's face and his

[31:48] tongue zapping out and catching it and pulling it into his mouth, he could not be more creepy

[31:53] and suspicious.

[31:54] Like there's no, I, for a moment I worried that six had wandered into the lair of a vampire

[31:58] and that the movie was about to take a very abrupt turn, but that's where they call me

[32:02] the gray man.

[32:03] I can only operate at dusk because I can't be out in the light of the sun of a vampire

[32:06] assassin.

[32:07] Yeah.

[32:08] Anyway.

[32:09] Anyway, he's in a well, Ana de Armas is being questioned because she was just trying to

[32:13] do her job, but now, uh, now Denny suspects that she's also in on this thing that have

[32:18] we learned what, what's on that thumb drive yet or no, no, no.

[32:22] And he, uh, and he of course, and he threatened, you know, he threatened, he takes her off

[32:26] active duty and she's like, well, I'm not going to stand for that.

[32:29] Um, I can't, you mean I'm not allowed to go back into the field and help Ryan Gosling

[32:33] kill people and cause massive damage.

[32:36] That's not why I got into this job.

[32:38] Meanwhile, Chris Evans, uh, shoots his own pilot.

[32:41] So they will make an emergency landing in Vienna with his little hit squad, uh, which

[32:46] is perfect timing because, uh, Ryan Gosling, uh, six manages to, uh, make an explosion,

[32:53] uh, and escape right as, uh, Chris Evan and his hit team arrive, uh, six guards through

[33:00] those goons, uh, like a hot knife through goons.

[33:03] What I have two things to say about this escape from the well, one, he creates an explosion

[33:07] which blows away the guys who are at the edge of the pit.

[33:10] Yet Ryan Gosling, who is inside the pit where the explosion takes place is totally fine

[33:14] and jumps right out.

[33:15] I don't understand where this explosion happened.

[33:17] Maybe he threw it up in the air and it, I don't know.

[33:18] Well, you swam way down to the bottom of the well and the explosion is at the top.

[33:23] Although it does seem like debris would crumble into him.

[33:26] I mean, gravity would make it harder than it seems.

[33:29] But he shaped the explosion, I guess, so everything shot right out.

[33:32] But also, where did he get the stuff that he's using from, like, is there just like

[33:37] a case of tools in the well?

[33:38] He had it in his backpack.

[33:39] Did he go into the well with his backpack?

[33:40] He had his backpack.

[33:41] Yeah, yeah.

[33:42] Oh, okay.

[33:43] Yeah.

[33:44] So he made out all the stuff that was, yeah, yeah, we're learning that there's also pipes

[33:49] and a water main and all kinds of shit.

[33:51] You scoff at me for eating mango, but the dishwashing seems to have, you're right, you're

[33:56] right.

[33:57] That's it.

[33:58] You're right.

[33:59] I missed that.

[34:00] He has a backpack on.

[34:01] Okay.

[34:02] So he kills all the goons.

[34:04] He exchanges a little bit of banter with Lloyd, but then he's rescued at the last minute by

[34:10] who decides to help Six track down that mystery drive that he mailed to retired CIA chief

[34:19] Alfre Woodard, who is currently living in Prague.

[34:23] Open the mail for your mystery drive.

[34:26] Mm-hmm.

[34:27] Lloyd goes back to his lair in a castle in Croatia to torture Billy Bob Thornton.

[34:31] Just pulling his fingernails out.

[34:33] Yeah.

[34:34] It's kind of gross.

[34:35] Yeah.

[34:36] And then Lloyd decrypts the thumb drive and reveals evidence that Denny is a bad guy.

[34:42] Big surprise.

[34:43] It's like, it's so fucking lame that they're like, I'm assuming like, I figured they all

[34:49] assumed he was a bad guy.

[34:50] Well, also that that Alfre Woodard is like, this has all this, all this thumb drive is

[34:56] a collection of video and other evidence showing them killing people, causing explosions.

[35:02] And it's like, well, that's what the hero of the movie does.

[35:04] So you got to tell me why this is why it's bad when Denny does it.

[35:07] But it's totally cool when Ryan Gosling does it like, I don't I didn't understand the difference.

[35:11] They're like, this is this is without authorization.

[35:13] It's like, well, even the stuff they're doing with authorization is pretty bad.

[35:16] It's all bad.

[35:17] It's all terrible.

[35:18] Yeah.

[35:19] Yeah, it's true.

[35:20] I mean, I guess I guess the idea is that this is like shadow government stuff.

[35:26] I think they even say that at one point.

[35:28] That's what Ryan Gosling does.

[35:30] It's not like America voted.

[35:31] It's not like the Senate voted to pass a bill saying zero six should go kill a guy, you

[35:35] know?

[35:36] I know.

[35:37] But but what?

[35:38] Look, I'm not I'm not arguing in favor of Ryan Gosling as a gray man who goes around

[35:44] shooting people.

[35:45] Dan's like, where's the candidate that supports my pro gray man position?

[35:50] But I do think that the idea is supposed to be that at least those unsanctioned operations

[35:56] are like sanctioned, like the the the the goals of them are at least sanctioned by the

[36:02] official government, whereas this is this other stuff is like some cell within the government.

[36:07] In theory, Ryan Gosling is supposed to be taking out like drug dealers and arms dealers

[36:11] and terrorists.

[36:12] And Denny is taking out maybe his landlady.

[36:15] Maybe like.

[36:16] Yeah, he he signed up to be a fucking Dexter, you know, a killer that kills other killers.

[36:20] He's not down with being just a regular killer who kills normal non killers.

[36:25] But it is one of those things where I'm like this.

[36:28] This is information that the the audience already assumes that this guy is bad.

[36:32] He's been against the whole time.

[36:33] And also he's like hiring all kinds of assassins.

[36:36] At this point, you're like, I wish there was a little bit more of a reveal where it's like,

[36:41] oh, this drive reveals that Denny Carmichael is actually drawing the earth or drawing the

[36:46] moon down to the earth to destroy the planet.

[36:49] Yeah.

[36:50] OK, well, Denny Carmichael has a has a secret double life as Osama bin Laden, like something

[36:55] something that means something as opposed to just like me.

[36:58] But the movie doesn't really.

[36:59] I guess that's what it comes down to for me is like all these movies are just excuses

[37:02] for people to shoot things and blow them up.

[37:05] Yes.

[37:06] But here the excuse is so weak that it made me it feels like explosion porn and shooting

[37:10] porn after a certain point.

[37:12] And the idea that, well, of course, Ryan Gosling has to murder dozens and dozens of people

[37:17] in order to save this one girl, like or that we can watch a shootout as we're going to

[37:22] get to soon between an army of mercenaries and and Prague police officers who are legitimately

[37:29] trying to stop a gun battle in the middle of the middle of Prague.

[37:33] And it's just like that the movie just wants you to kind of the movie is not rough enough

[37:38] for this to be like heat where we're supposed to question the thin line between villain

[37:42] and hero.

[37:43] It's not fun enough for it to be the end of the army to be heat.

[37:47] Yeah.

[37:48] But it's not fun enough for it to be like, you know, a James Bond movie where you're

[37:52] like, well, this is a cartoon world.

[37:54] I'm not supposed to take this seriously.

[37:55] You know, it's a it's just it's are we at I'm sorry, I was are we at that shootout now?

[38:01] We're just about to.

[38:02] So they can't they learn that they can't copy the drive.

[38:06] So six now has to wear it on a little medallion around his neck and it looks a lot like the

[38:11] medallion that the bad guys all want in Minions, the rise of grew, which I know that's good

[38:16] information, actually.

[38:17] So so I the first time I showed up, I was like, wait a minute, is this a crossover with

[38:21] Minions?

[38:22] I wouldn't surprise me.

[38:24] Yeah.

[38:25] Because there's later on, there's a there's a joke where Chris Evans refers to he refers

[38:32] to Ryan Gosling's character as like looking like Ken, which is wild because the whole

[38:37] time Ryan Gosling was doing press for this movie.

[38:40] He had that like platinum blonde Ken hair from the Barbie movie.

[38:43] They're playing Ken.

[38:44] Yeah, man.

[38:45] Wasn't it?

[38:46] Wasn't an awesome choice.

[38:47] OK.

[38:48] I will also mention.

[38:49] Wait, just one more thing about Minions.

[38:50] Rise of grew.

[38:51] Is that so?

[38:52] Oh, sure.

[38:53] First time.

[38:54] First time.

[38:55] My younger son ever went to a movie in the movie theater.

[38:56] It's the movie he wanted to see.

[38:57] And my wife has not been in a movie theater, I think, in three years because of covid.

[38:58] And she kept saying, I haven't been to the movies in three years and I'm seeing Minions

[39:03] rise of grew.

[39:05] This is the movie I've been waiting three years to go to the theaters for.

[39:08] And I thought that was I just thought that it very funny that she was disappointed in

[39:12] that.

[39:13] I mean, yeah, but she could also, you know, you guys could go see a movie.

[39:18] It's more maybe your wife's trying to tell you to get some babysitters and go out to

[39:22] see a movie.

[39:23] We don't have a whole club of babysitters.

[39:26] We don't have all have alimony and passes in a complete disregard for mortality.

[39:30] We can't all we can't all just go see a movie.

[39:32] Go see a good movie.

[39:33] Actually, that's a pretty good defense.

[39:34] You're like, oh, not all of us can spend our afternoon watching a piece of shit like Minions

[39:40] rise of grew.

[39:41] Yeah, what are you talking about?

[39:44] That's true.

[39:45] No, you leave.

[39:47] You make the kids go see the movie by themself.

[39:49] Then you go across the way you go see bodies, bodies, bodies or some shit.

[39:53] I don't know.

[39:54] Whatever you want to watch.

[39:55] I don't care.

[39:56] Also, that's the difference between Danielle and me, because like.

[40:00] I had not seen a movie in three years.

[40:02] I don't care if it's Minions Rise of Gru.

[40:04] I'd be like, this is amazing.

[40:06] Now Minions Rise of Gru, I love it.

[40:08] It's my favorite movie ever.

[40:09] Like just the pleasure of being there.

[40:11] I would have been like, yeah, yeah, yeah.

[40:13] Minions, Minions, do your thing, whatever it is.

[40:15] Show your banana butts and make noises.

[40:19] Their thing is showing their butts

[40:20] and making my children scream nonsense words

[40:23] for hours afterwards.

[40:24] Love it, yeah.

[40:25] This is, although I've gotten back at my kids,

[40:27] they always go, so they think the Minions sound like this.

[40:29] Kuda, kuda, kuda, kuda.

[40:31] That's what they say to be Minions.

[40:32] And I go, are you calling for a kuda, kuda?

[40:35] My favorite aria from Eugene Onegin,

[40:37] Lenski's aria before the big duel scene.

[40:39] And they go, no, no.

[40:41] And I play that beautiful aria, kuda, kuda,

[40:43] and they get so mad at me.

[40:44] So anyway, I'm fighting back against Minions

[40:47] with Russian opera right now.

[40:48] So we'll see who wins.

[40:49] You're a real gentle Minion.

[40:51] So Alfre Woodard's apartment gets attacked by goons.

[40:56] Six and Anna de Armas briefly escape.

[40:58] Alfre Woodard blows herself up

[41:00] in one of multiple last moment sacrifices to kill goons.

[41:07] To save six of all people.

[41:09] Yeah, she's saving six.

[41:10] Who's an assassin?

[41:12] Six gets picked up by Czech police pretty quickly.

[41:16] And he gets handcuffed to a bench.

[41:18] And then the hit squad arrives

[41:20] and starts blasting everyone.

[41:22] And this is one of our big, big action sequences.

[41:25] This scene is huge.

[41:26] This is a marquee action scene.

[41:27] This is a huge action scene.

[41:28] It's enormous, yeah.

[41:29] And I gotta say, guys, I liked this action scene.

[41:32] Like, I know, like, it is, you know,

[41:35] I know that Elliot has moral issues with it.

[41:38] And I wish I did.

[41:39] I wish I could just sit back and be like,

[41:40] look at it, stuff blowing up.

[41:42] But I did end up having moral issues

[41:43] with just how huge this action scene is.

[41:45] And that it's happening in the middle of a city.

[41:48] And that they are continuing the James Bond tradition

[41:51] of other cities and other countries exist

[41:53] so that Americans and British people

[41:55] can go shoot the shit out of them

[41:57] and blow people up and things like that.

[41:59] Sure, fine.

[42:00] Great.

[42:01] But also, they're fighting over nothing.

[42:03] They're fighting over the evidence that Denny is a creep,

[42:05] which we already knew.

[42:06] It's not like they're fighting over nuclear codes

[42:08] or something like that.

[42:09] Which we're only confirming with this fight sequence.

[42:11] It's not like Blofeld has a laser satellite

[42:14] that's a danger to the earth.

[42:15] You know, it's just to catch Denny.

[42:17] They do, well, that's the ridiculousness of it, though.

[42:20] Like, they do, like, they send in a bunch of cops

[42:23] and Chris Evans' team of mercenaries

[42:28] is just using sledgehammer tactics,

[42:32] just shooting up everyone.

[42:34] And this is the point at which the woman with Chris Evans,

[42:40] who you mentioned before,

[42:42] voices what I had been thinking much earlier in the movie.

[42:46] Like, what kind of covert operative is Chris Evans?

[42:50] None of his operations are covert.

[42:52] And now it's going crazy.

[42:54] And like, she's like yelling.

[42:55] She's like, you're just shooting cops now?

[42:56] And it's a nutty scene.

[42:59] And I enjoy Ryan Gosling just like being behind this bench,

[43:04] this concrete bench, handcuffed to it,

[43:08] trying desperately to get the gun next to him.

[43:12] The discovery that the gun is out of bullets

[43:15] and he has to reload, he has to get more bullets.

[43:18] It's a fantastic setup.

[43:19] And I wish this, there's a certain point at the scene

[43:21] where Ryan Gosling becomes almost an extra

[43:24] in the action scene.

[43:25] And I wish it was more focused on him.

[43:27] Because while watching it, I was like,

[43:28] this is a great setup.

[43:29] He's handcuffed to a bench.

[43:31] These hitmen just keep going after him.

[43:32] For some reason, they don't decide to come behind him.

[43:35] They only come from one direction,

[43:37] like ninjas in an 80s movie.

[43:38] Well, I think the cops are on the other side.

[43:40] I mean, that's the thing.

[43:41] Like, he is accidentally sort of protected in this thing

[43:45] while there's a gunfight all around him.

[43:45] But the idea that he has to fight

[43:47] when he is so incredibly vulnerable is such a great setup.

[43:50] But the scene is so big that he gets lost in it.

[43:53] And it's so chaotic.

[43:54] And there's so many cops getting shot

[43:56] and cop cars getting flipped over.

[43:58] And at a certain point, and there's no,

[44:01] you don't see any civilians getting shot, which is good.

[44:04] But it also, like, the place is so empty of civilians

[44:07] that it starts feeling like a hermetically sealed bubble.

[44:11] This world that only exists for action movies.

[44:13] I don't know.

[44:14] It's like, I'm torn between wanting to see a big,

[44:17] like crazy cartoonish action sequence,

[44:19] but also wanting to see it happen in some kind of world

[44:21] where I believe that people exist, you know.

[44:24] But it is a great setup.

[44:26] There's a lot of great setups for action scenes in this.

[44:28] And one thing that is realistic in this movie

[44:30] is that Jessica Henwick and Chris Evans

[44:33] and Denny Carmichael nonstop keep reminding the audience

[44:38] that their characters went to Harvard,

[44:39] which is accurate to people who went to Harvard.

[44:41] They do not stop talking about it.

[44:42] And so we learn so much more about-

[44:44] That grounds it for you.

[44:45] I feel like we don't learn that much about Ryan Gosling,

[44:47] but we find out that the villains went to Harvard

[44:49] over and over again.

[44:50] Yeah.

[44:51] Yeah.

[44:52] Well, they went to school in Boston, you know.

[44:53] Yeah, just an unnamed school.

[44:56] No, they say Harvard a bunch of times.

[44:59] Six at one point escapes onto a tram.

[45:01] You're saying like Harvard students

[45:02] when they're like, well, I went, yeah, I was in, I was at,

[45:05] I went to college in Boston.

[45:07] You understand what I'm holding down?

[45:09] He's on a tram.

[45:10] There's like goon vehicles chasing him

[45:12] and shooting all kinds of different guns.

[45:14] Anna de Armas shows up in a little sports car

[45:17] that's bulletproof and is like helping out

[45:20] and saves his bacon yet again.

[45:22] As you mentioned, there's some cute moments.

[45:25] This action sequence is at least more legible

[45:29] than the plane fight.

[45:30] Yeah.

[45:31] I also liked the bit where he's using the reflection

[45:34] in the glass to like guess where the goon is

[45:37] in the tram underneath him to shoot.

[45:40] Yeah, there's a lot of clever stuff in it.

[45:41] Yeah.

[45:42] I feel like Gosling does a pretty good job

[45:44] with the like physical performing.

[45:46] Like he has some good facial expressions,

[45:50] especially when he realized that he used his two bullets

[45:52] to shoot somebody and not shoot the handcuffs off himself.

[45:57] Yeah.

[45:58] I will say that this sequence does end in a moment

[46:02] that I'm like, what is this supposed to be?

[46:04] Where he like, he jumps off the tram,

[46:08] like Anna de Armas reverses the car level with him

[46:13] so he can jump off the tram onto the car.

[46:15] And I'm like, how is that better?

[46:19] Like it is, it's still a hard moving target.

[46:24] Like I guess theoretically it's a little less of a drop

[46:27] because it's closer to him and the crunchable metal

[46:31] is softer than the ground.

[46:32] But I don't think that like, it's like, oh good.

[46:35] Thank you for, it's not like you're like driving.

[46:37] Thank you for driving this pile of mattresses beneath me.

[46:41] He just, he still has to leap off onto a car.

[46:44] Maybe he draws energy off of the car

[46:46] like they do in the Fast and the Furious movies

[46:48] where it's like, as long as you're landing on a car,

[46:50] you're probably gonna be okay.

[46:52] Yeah, you're probably safe.

[46:53] I can't wait for the, what I hope is the next

[46:56] and final movie where it's revealed

[46:57] they live in a magic universe where cars are magic.

[47:00] And they're like, in the beginning, God created the car,

[47:03] the perfect object and all the universe came from this car.

[47:06] And they just show planets and galaxies coming out

[47:09] of the nitrous boost exhaust pipe.

[47:11] I love it.

[47:12] And then it reveals that Vin Diesel and the others

[47:16] are part of like a pantheon of,

[47:20] they're all reincarnations of ancient Egyptian gods

[47:26] who drove cars around and things like that.

[47:27] I love this.

[47:29] So Prague is now in flames.

[47:31] And it's called Fast Destiny.

[47:33] It's called Fast Destiny.

[47:33] Okay, perfect.

[47:35] Prague is now in flames.

[47:37] The six in front of the armist infiltrate a hospital

[47:41] in order to track Chloe's pacemaker.

[47:45] And then they get attacked by a knife guy assassin

[47:47] who has a very nice suit.

[47:50] Nice guy.

[47:51] No, not a nice guy.

[47:52] He's a knife guys.

[47:53] You know the deal.

[47:54] Like he pulls out like,

[47:55] he immediately whips out a little switchblade thing.

[47:58] It's like butterfly knife or whatever.

[48:00] Yeah.

[48:01] Ryan Gosling is one of the nice guys,

[48:04] but he's not playing a very nice guy in this movie.

[48:05] No.

[48:07] He's not playing that nice guy in the Nice Guys

[48:09] to be honest.

[48:10] Yeah.

[48:11] Oh, wait.

[48:12] So is the title a joke?

[48:14] No, no.

[48:15] It accidentally, the movie,

[48:16] the title was switched with that of another movie

[48:18] by accident.

[48:19] It was too late to stop it.

[48:20] There's another movie called the Bad Guys,

[48:22] which is out now, which is a children's movie.

[48:24] Should have been called the Nice Guys

[48:25] because it's for kids.

[48:26] Oh, okay.

[48:27] Oh yeah, it should have been.

[48:28] Not the Wrong Guy.

[48:29] That's got Dave Foley in it.

[48:32] No.

[48:33] And a lot of good jokes.

[48:34] And not Mr. Wrong, which has Bill Pullman,

[48:35] Alan DeGeneres, and a lot of bad jokes.

[48:37] Yeah.

[48:40] Okay.

[48:40] I hope this has been helpful.

[48:41] Yeah.

[48:42] If you have any other questions, just write to,

[48:43] what are we talking about again?

[48:45] Care of the Clop House.

[48:46] So the knife guy assassin,

[48:49] who is known as Lone Wolf,

[48:51] because he operates alone.

[48:53] He manages to steal the medallion drive

[48:55] and he runs off with it.

[48:58] So he runs back to the castle in Prague,

[49:01] or not in Prague, in Croatia.

[49:03] Ana de Armas and Six have to infiltrate the castle

[49:07] by stealing guard uniforms.

[49:10] Six rescues Fitz and Chloe,

[49:13] while Ana de Armas, as we mentioned before,

[49:16] runs around like Bugs Bunny,

[49:17] blowing up everything with a missile launcher.

[49:19] The way she runs is hilarious.

[49:21] She's got like a ninja mask on her face,

[49:23] but like a sleeveless shirt.

[49:24] And she's got just missiles strapped to her back,

[49:27] you know, rockets strapped to her back.

[49:28] And it looks like,

[49:29] I mean, it hints at a much like kind of sillier,

[49:34] looser movie that would have been super fun.

[49:38] Because it looks ridiculous, but in a fun way.

[49:40] It's such a huge launcher.

[49:43] Yes.

[49:43] Like it is big.

[49:44] It's huge.

[49:45] And she is running around like,

[49:48] not in a cool way.

[49:49] She's not running around in a like,

[49:50] she knows where everything is at all times.

[49:52] And she's like got controlled movements.

[49:53] Like she looks like someone who is hauling ass,

[49:56] desperately trying to get this done

[49:57] before someone shoots her.

[49:58] And it's like, oh, this is.

[50:00] This is just a hint of the movie that I kind of wish this one was.

[50:04] She eventually ends up getting in a battle with Lone Wolf in the ruins of the command center.

[50:13] And they're fighting over the drive, but Lone Wolf gives it up.

[50:17] And what was going on in that scene?

[50:18] Was it that he saw he was fighting her, that he stopped?

[50:21] Like he abruptly just stopped.

[50:22] I don't know that he's fighting her.

[50:24] But earlier also, like there was a moment where he's like,

[50:28] you're going to kill a child.

[50:30] And like, Chris Evans, like, don't worry about it, man.

[50:33] And like it's like it's clear that like this guy is supposed to be like he has his own code.

[50:39] But it's like he realized that.

[50:41] But like he almost he the two of them almost strangle each other.

[50:44] And then it's like, oh, because their backs.

[50:46] And this is another cool kind of setup where they're fighting back.

[50:49] Their backs are each to like a couch or something that's in between them.

[50:52] And they've got like a table, like a wire or rope that they've wrapped around each other's necks.

[50:56] And so they can't if one of them moves, it strangles both of them.

[50:59] And like it's a neat setup.

[51:00] But then it's like, oh, I didn't realize I was fighting you.

[51:03] We're cool. Forget it.

[51:04] He goes, these these people have no honor.

[51:06] And it's like, did you watch the rest of the movie?

[51:09] Like, yeah, of course they don't.

[51:10] They blew up all those buildings in Prague.

[51:12] Like, what are you talking like?

[51:13] This is new to you.

[51:14] I don't. Yeah.

[51:15] Did you realize Denny is a bad guy?

[51:17] And he's like, no, he isn't.

[51:19] Yeah, he hasn't checked out the he hasn't checked out the drive yet.

[51:22] Meanwhile, on the battlements of the castle, six and Fitz and Chloe are running away from some goons.

[51:27] But Fitz gets shot.

[51:29] He's like, I can't go on.

[51:30] I'm bleeding.

[51:31] Give me a grenade.

[51:32] And so they give him a grenade.

[51:34] And he has his heroic he has his heroic final moment blowing up a grenade, killing two goons and briefly inconveniencing Chris Evans.

[51:42] Chris Evans, he has the amazing luck because he's the main bad guy.

[51:46] Explosions don't he's always the first one to jump out of the way of an explosion.

[51:49] And like there's a part earlier where on an arm of saves six by shooting a trank dart into Chris Evans.

[51:54] But and the whole movie, I'm like, why didn't they just shoot him in the head?

[51:57] Like, I don't understand why they that guy's clearly like a top bad guy.

[52:02] Well, I mean, she has like she has her own line.

[52:06] Now, she has her own code, too.

[52:07] I know it's true that that does.

[52:10] I mean, at that point, she is she's just been told to, like, stand down.

[52:14] But she is theoretically on the same side as Chris Evans.

[52:17] So she's like going rogue.

[52:18] Like, she's like, I got to figure out what's going on.

[52:20] Like, it makes sense that you would drink him and then like talk to six.

[52:24] I guess so. At that point in the movie, they're not Elliott.

[52:26] Just to be clear, you know, they're not playing the same characters from Knives Out, right?

[52:31] Oh, that's what it was.

[52:33] I thought they were still in the Knives Out.

[52:34] Yeah, yeah.

[52:35] Of course, you know, he's trouble.

[52:37] He tried to get her arrested, you know?

[52:39] Yeah, yeah.

[52:40] He was well, you know, she also hasn't read the that character hasn't read this script to the movie.

[52:46] So everyone else in the movie, though, because at a certain point I was like,

[52:49] why do these characters care about what's happening to each other at a certain point?

[52:53] Like, it becomes very personal between six and Lloyd at a certain point.

[52:57] Yeah. When the drive is no longer really an issue.

[53:00] When they don't really they don't really at a certain point, it was like,

[53:03] I don't know why these guys are still fighting other than just alpha male toxicity.

[53:07] Well, they're mad at each other for trying to kill each other.

[53:09] But that was all business.

[53:10] Like, I don't like it's at a certain if you're going to get mad at everyone

[53:13] who tries to kill you in the gray man assassin business, then how do you finish your day?

[53:19] You're not going to be able to like, you can't just walk away from the thing that

[53:23] I'll tell you something, though, going back to Chris Evans and the explosion.

[53:26] I'll tell you something that would have made the end of this movie

[53:30] 100 percent better if half of his mustache had been burned off.

[53:33] Oh, yes, you're exactly right.

[53:35] The rest of the movie with half of us.

[53:37] But I do like that.

[53:38] By the end, they are really calling attention to his fancy slip on shoes very heavily.

[53:42] And I and I noticed them in every shot after that.

[53:44] And what are the capri pants?

[53:46] Yep. So so at this point,

[53:50] the gray man and Chloe are escaping through them from the using the moat

[53:55] because they're in a castle.

[53:56] And Chris Evans goes chasing after them.

[53:59] And this is where we get we get a big twit.

[54:01] Like just like how a movie of this caliber has a huge twist ending.

[54:05] This podcast has a little bit of a twist ending because you know what, guys?

[54:09] I did not watch the rest of the movie from here

[54:11] because I thought we were recording an hour later.

[54:13] So what the fuck happens at the end of the gray man?

[54:16] Will you please tell me I am dying here?

[54:18] OK, tag me in, coach.

[54:21] I'll get this one.

[54:22] You rest and I'll take on the bash brothers here.

[54:25] Thank you.

[54:26] So they're they're trying to escape in the in the moat.

[54:29] I didn't take notes because I thought you were taking notes.

[54:32] The important thing is to to be clear.

[54:35] I was taking notes.

[54:36] Yeah. The important thing is that

[54:39] Lloyd catches up with six.

[54:41] They catch up to each other.

[54:42] They go into a hedge and Lloyd catches up with them.

[54:45] He captures Claire and puts a flare gun to her head and

[54:49] and and puts brings her to a hedge maze, which leads to like a little fountain.

[54:54] And at the fountain, Hansen says, I'll let Claire go if you fight me six.

[54:59] And so six to an armistice, like I've got the shot.

[55:01] And he goes, no, no, no.

[55:03] Go to the end of the hedge maze and meet the girl there.

[55:05] I'll take this guy on.

[55:06] And so they have a one on one makes no sense.

[55:08] And to him, what I wanted to talk about, because it's like,

[55:11] or hear me out.

[55:14] Shoot Chris Evans and then go get the girl.

[55:17] But he really doesn't take the shot.

[55:19] Well, but I wonder, oh, here's I'll here's where I'll defend this movie

[55:23] because you're right.

[55:23] That's exactly what they should have done.

[55:25] Two things.

[55:25] One, at this point, like you guys are saying, it's just personal.

[55:28] He's been trying to kill him.

[55:29] He doesn't like Chris Evans.

[55:31] Too early in the movie.

[55:33] He wouldn't take the shot because there was a kid possibly in the way.

[55:36] I don't think he trusts into Armis to shoot Chris Evans without hitting the girl.

[55:40] I think he just at that point, he's like, if she's in the way, I don't.

[55:44] I'm not going to let him.

[55:45] But at one point, he Chris Evans does, as we've said, let the girl.

[55:49] Yes. And then she should have.

[55:51] Oh, by then, and Armis is like, oh, to get to the hedge maze, I better leave now

[55:55] or else she's going to be waiting for the bathroom.

[55:59] There's going to be a lot of traffic in the hallways of this castle.

[56:02] Yeah, I got to get there.

[56:03] And so it's too bad you missed this fight.

[56:05] Chris Evans and Ryan Gosling have one of those fights where it's not clear

[56:10] why one of them gets the upper hand at different points.

[56:13] They just got to take turns having the upper hand.

[56:15] And then this is where his abused child training comes in,

[56:19] where Chris Evans has Ryan Gosling's face in the water of the fountain

[56:22] and he flashes back to his own father, pushing his face into water,

[56:27] telling him, I will just I will end you in the kind of stuff

[56:30] that nobody says in real life, but they say in the movies.

[56:32] And and so that imbues Ryan Gosling with the berserker faith

[56:37] and rage and the nobility that he needs to get back.

[56:40] And he's fighting.

[56:42] He's strangling Chris Evans.

[56:45] And then, boom, someone shoots Chris Evans in the gut.

[56:48] Who is it? Why? It's Jessica Henwick.

[56:51] She has decided that she is going to pin everything on Lloyd.

[56:55] And six can live as long as he goes along with her story,

[56:58] that there is a rogue Chris Evans who did all this damage.

[57:01] And it's not her fault or Denny's fault.

[57:04] And Jake and Ryan Gosling is like, I've become Jake Gosling for some reason.

[57:07] Ryan Gosling is like, yeah, OK, I'll do that as long as the girl is safe.

[57:12] So movie over, right?

[57:13] No, wrong, Stewart.

[57:15] Well, no, and he also says, I'm also losing a lot of blood.

[57:18] So if we're going to do this, do it fast.

[57:20] Yeah, it's a plan.

[57:22] He doesn't have a line.

[57:22] I like what she does.

[57:23] She goes, she goes, are you she goes, are you complying?

[57:26] And he goes, can I comply over there and then moves to a more comfortable place?

[57:30] It's great.

[57:31] Now, I got a question.

[57:32] This might ruffle some feathers.

[57:33] The movie is not over yet.

[57:34] But I know. Yeah.

[57:36] But like devil's advocate, it's left in the movie.

[57:39] Yeah. Devil's advocate.

[57:40] Elliot, you are a father.

[57:43] Did this movie make you feel like maybe

[57:46] if I want my children to succeed in life, I should abuse them?

[57:50] No, you know what?

[57:51] I'm going to be honest and say it didn't

[57:53] that I've never had dreams of my children being super tough,

[57:56] cool assassins with no emotional lives and no personal lives.

[58:00] I've always wanted them to.

[58:01] Right now, my older son wants to be a Dodgers baseball player slash engineer

[58:07] and one of those more likely than the other.

[58:09] But I won't say which one.

[58:10] And my younger son wants to be a scientist

[58:12] who becomes a chocolate maker, who becomes a paleontologist,

[58:15] who is sometimes a ninja.

[58:16] And I think the ninja I have a lot of issues with.

[58:19] But but otherwise, these are life goals.

[58:21] I'm very happy because of the lack of the lack of honor.

[58:24] Right.

[58:25] Well, I mean, well, that's a very samurai way of looking at things, Stuart.

[58:28] That's the classist way of looking.

[58:29] You could say that the ninja are just those that have been deemed less less

[58:33] important than the samurai trying to defend their own in the only way they can

[58:37] by striking in the shadows.

[58:38] But, you know, that's if you want to be if you want to be a machine.

[58:41] It's a tool.

[58:44] Should we finish it? But no, it did not.

[58:46] It did not. It did not in any way make me feel like

[58:48] I should I should be a terrible person to my children, to motivate them.

[58:52] This is a small thing, but I do want to call out a moment.

[58:55] I liked, which is they have this like last fight in the

[58:59] fountain in the middle of the hedge maze.

[59:01] Yeah. And, you know, like Chris Evans at this

[59:03] point has like a couple of fingers missing and like there's like open wounds and they

[59:07] get like he's stabbed so many times. It's crazy.

[59:10] Yeah. And he goes into the water.

[59:12] Chris Evans, like clearly he's like, ah,

[59:14] he like gets this like fountain water on his wound.

[59:18] He goes, I loved it because I'm like, that's what I think.

[59:20] Every time like there's dirty water on an open wound in the movie.

[59:25] Yeah, I will say this.

[59:27] This is like if there was this is not I mean, the fight scenes in this movie are

[59:32] great, the choreographed great, like everyone's doing a great job in them.

[59:36] Like, I wish it was shot a little bit more cleanly.

[59:39] But otherwise, I just it's one of these scenes where I'm like, I'm not quite sure

[59:42] why they're fighting other than to show who's got the biggest dick in this moment.

[59:46] And that is not a reason that I'm that

[59:48] really is going to get me emotionally invested in this fight.

[59:51] You know, at a certain point, I'm watching it just for the just to watch

[59:55] the choreography, I guess, like an ice skating routine.

[59:57] But there is it.

[59:58] But Chris Evans does give little.

[1:00:00] moments of like character to it that are basically he gets it he's playing a

[1:00:03] petulant asshole so like it's easy for him to add those moments of character

[1:00:06] where he's just kind of a dick or he reacts badly things anyway so um the uh

[1:00:10] there's also a part where Ryan Gosling slams Chris Evans head into like a into

[1:00:15] a sculpted vase and it shatters and I was like wait a minute what is this

[1:00:19] fountain made of that his head just shattered it like it should be made out

[1:00:22] of concrete like this is crazy he should be dead if he hit it that hard but

[1:00:26] anyway it's a movie so uh they so now uh Suzanne Brewer Jessica Henwick's

[1:00:32] character she has taken now she's taken Claire the girl hostage and basically

[1:00:36] said I'll watch her and make sure nothing happens to her but you have to

[1:00:40] do what I say six and someone meets with Denny and Anna Darmis and Jessica

[1:00:45] Henwick and basically says I don't like what happened but I absolve you of all

[1:00:49] charges and I assumed this was the old man but maybe it's somebody else maybe

[1:00:52] it's an it maybe it's inspector general I don't know he's not named and now and

[1:00:57] Jessica Henwick says to Denny now six will do whatever I tell him because I've

[1:01:01] got this girl and the end she she's the new Denny now but at the house where

[1:01:07] Claire is being held by these gunmen who do make her lunch they don't they didn't

[1:01:11] hire someone else to come make her lunch the gunmen do it for her she comes back

[1:01:15] to her room and the record that she played two years ago when Ryan Gosling

[1:01:20] kills those men in her house to protect her it's sitting up on her record player

[1:01:25] with a note that says play me loud and she starts playing it loud that's the

[1:01:29] cue for Ryan Gosling who has escaped from the hospital bed that he was

[1:01:33] imprisoned in in one of those escapes where they don't show it they just show

[1:01:36] that there's dead or knocked out soldiers lying in hallways and his and

[1:01:40] he hit the the buckle he was handcuffed to his unbuckled because I guess they

[1:01:44] their choreography budget was out Ryan Gosling goes to the home and kills all

[1:01:48] the gunmen there and takes her away in a Jeep and that's the end of the movie

[1:01:52] the end that's the other this is a this is a part of the movie but by the way

[1:01:56] like most of the movie I was actually able to do what I was not able to do

[1:02:00] which is like turn off my moral compass I wish I could do it damn but I'm just

[1:02:05] not as sociopathic as you at the end of the film when she puts this record on to

[1:02:09] cover up the noises of these people getting shot like the camera like

[1:02:14] actually like shows her sort of pained face as she has to like her hands over

[1:02:18] ears to not hear it and I'm and I was thinking like oh what a like a horrible

[1:02:23] thing for this young girl to be involved in this trauma of like over and over my

[1:02:30] my protector my assassin protector told me to put this record on so I could

[1:02:35] ignore the screams of the men he's killing to rescue me like men

[1:02:39] potentially families and and just made her lunch yes and well that's the thing

[1:02:43] she's and the body count is enormous in this movie and there's certain points

[1:02:47] where it's like these are some of them I guess are assassins the worst of the

[1:02:51] worst they're mercenaries you know they're they're just evil people but a

[1:02:54] lot of them are also like soldiers or guys who were hired to be bodyguards or

[1:02:58] something but anyway yeah the unlike the noble assassins who save girls yes well

[1:03:04] it's like so and and when he saves her from the castle he keeps saying cover

[1:03:08] yours cover your ears because she's trapped she's genuinely being

[1:03:11] traumatized by all this violence going on around her and it's like the movie

[1:03:15] doesn't have it's the movie it's like I wonder if the movie believed in itself a

[1:03:21] little bit more like the professional which is objectively a not a like has a

[1:03:26] lot of not okay things going on in it that yeah that the fact that it was made

[1:03:31] by a creep who I think genuinely believed that in the nobility of the

[1:03:35] main character like kind of gives that movie a certain weird energy where

[1:03:41] you're like well I don't agree with it but at least I know the guy making it

[1:03:44] really does believe that you can you can be a weird you can be a weird outcast

[1:03:49] hitman who falls in love with a teenage girl like I don't think it's okay but at

[1:03:53] least I'm making it whereas this it's like a it doesn't have that weirdness so

[1:03:57] when the I can't just be like well the person making this was a strange person

[1:04:01] instead I have to be like oh regular people made this movie where this girl

[1:04:04] is repeatedly having to go through her life being put in danger and violence

[1:04:08] being going on all around her and with only the thinnest shred of the song

[1:04:13] Silverbird as a as a force field to protect her yeah before I mean before we

[1:04:17] get into final judgments you mentioned the guy making this movie isn't a

[1:04:21] weirdo so the movie was made by the Russo brothers the who yeah struck gold

[1:04:25] with the various Marvel franchises but seem to have the various Marvel movies

[1:04:30] they made but seem to have trouble operating outside of that do you think

[1:04:36] people are just sick of them or like I want to take him down a peg or do you

[1:04:40] think that they just don't operate as well when they aren't using characters

[1:04:44] that are already beloved to the audience well I mean specifically with

[1:04:49] this movie you know when they were promoting it they said a lot of stuff

[1:04:53] that people online got annoyed at where they're like what did they say cuz I'm

[1:04:57] not familiar with that at all they were like saying like oh there's nothing like

[1:05:01] that's sanctified about the theatrical experience and and you know like

[1:05:07] honestly it's a little elitist to be like you got to see that movies in the

[1:05:10] theater and blah blah which is look if it was a genuinely held belief that's

[1:05:16] fine it's one that I don't agree with but but it's clear that it's just like

[1:05:23] they're doing this because they're promoting their big Netflix movie and

[1:05:27] they're huge beneficiaries of the theatrical experience with Infinity War

[1:05:33] and in-game and you know other of their films and it's just like I just feels

[1:05:39] disingenuous yeah yeah I think it like ticked movie people off a bit and

[1:05:44] because they have how do movie people have opinions about stuff because they're

[1:05:49] part of the Marvel machine which also people are like turning on a little bit

[1:05:53] I think that it was I think there's a lot on the Marvel machine or else it's

[1:05:56] not gonna work yeah I don't get there I I have enjoyed their work enough that I

[1:06:03] will ignore them saying some dumb things I don't have particular ill will but I

[1:06:09] I think that that has a lot to do with it I mean I wonder I mean it's I've I've

[1:06:13] I feel like I've I'm I'm always constantly working to perfect separating

[1:06:18] the art from the artist since there's so much art I couldn't enjoy if I didn't do

[1:06:22] that but I like their I enjoyed their Marvel stuff so much but I wonder why it

[1:06:27] is that like I don't know that they're they're non Marvel stuff hasn't quite

[1:06:31] hit the same thing and I wonder if it's because they are they it helps for them

[1:06:36] to be working with characters that already exist or had the bugs worked I

[1:06:39] mean the gray man is based on a novel series but I feel like they they don't

[1:06:45] really do the character building work that would make me care and like their

[1:06:49] first Captain America movie which was the first one movie was the second

[1:06:52] Captain America movie right Winter Soldier so like they didn't really have

[1:06:55] they didn't have to deal with building up who Captain America and Bucky are in

[1:06:59] their relationship they could just do the payoff of but he's still alive

[1:07:02] spoiler alert for anyone who hasn't seen Winter Soldier yet in an eight-year-old

[1:07:06] movie that was enormous and the character is a baddie and and also the

[1:07:12] character that is in the other Marvel movies they're like wait I this is the

[1:07:15] one I skipped wait a minute Bucky's in it I know he's in the later movies but

[1:07:18] yeah but I wonder I don't know enough about them as as filmmakers to know why

[1:07:23] that is but this one it's it's partly it's a movie that should be kind of like

[1:07:29] a lean fun action movie and it's big it's like a little too big for its own

[1:07:35] good it's a little too it's a little too heavy yeah I've been reading I just read

[1:07:40] another one of the one of the Parker novels the what Richard Lewis novels

[1:07:46] yep Parker Lewis can't lose novels every time I read one I get another

[1:07:50] punch on my pizza card and when I'm done I get my personal pizza but like in that

[1:07:57] in in those books we have a hero who is definitely not a hero he's a bad guy but

[1:08:04] part of the appeal of it is watching is like the the procedural element of it

[1:08:09] and like having to watch a character go through all the steps of what needs to

[1:08:13] be done to do his work and it doesn't make any kind of moral justification as

[1:08:18] to what he's doing and I feel like this movie is just like yeah he's an assassin

[1:08:23] but like he's a good guy yeah they got jokes sometimes and I don't know I think

[1:08:29] I would like it more if either it was bigger or smaller I feel like yeah yeah

[1:08:34] or darker or lighter it's so in between it's so gray it is great it's like it's

[1:08:41] like the character it the idea that he is a ruthless killer but he's also a

[1:08:44] pretty good guy if he was just a ruthless killer I think I'd like the

[1:08:48] movie more it feels like it's almost pan it's almost insulting to the audience a

[1:08:53] little bit to be like but he's good around kids so even though his job is

[1:08:57] murdering people that's why he's different than the other guys whose job

[1:09:00] is murdering people and in one where I guess the bad guy is supposed to be so

[1:09:04] bad that you're on the side of the good guy but the bad guy is so ludicrously

[1:09:09] like it's one of the it's hard for you to believe in it in a unless you're in a

[1:09:13] stylized John wick type world it's hard for me to like buy into a world where

[1:09:17] these covert operatives are just blowing up buildings left and right without ever

[1:09:22] getting called on their shit you know yeah it's not as stylish as a John wick

[1:09:25] which I think hurts this yeah I mean it's very much and it very much I think

[1:09:30] wants to be a John wick type of thing but John wick has that austerity that I

[1:09:34] think helps put across the ludicrousness of that of that movie you

[1:09:37] know I mean it started out with austerity yes it is extremely the first

[1:09:44] movie has that has that super austere way of doing it the next movie yeah

[1:09:48] bonkers and the third movie gets more bonkers but this it's like they

[1:09:53] established the foundation basically it's the same way that the Fast and the

[1:09:56] Furious movies weren't always them surfing on cars and and flying through

[1:09:59] the

[1:10:00] and stuff like that and going into outer space yeah going out of space yeah once upon a time

[1:10:04] they were just point break it's so funny it's so funny that that that when that first movie

[1:10:08] came out i remember so well people being like oh it's so refreshing to see just like a stripped

[1:10:12] down little action thriller without all the bells and whistles and they became the most belliest

[1:10:17] whistle franchise they're gonna have to go they're gonna have to drive so fast they go back in time

[1:10:24] and visit their younger selves and be like you guys gotta start learning all kinds of shit

[1:10:28] because you're gonna be flying you're gonna be doing something i feel like at this point those

[1:10:32] movies to do and you could zoom into vin diesel's blood and reveal that his blood cells are tiny

[1:10:37] cars that are driving around zoom out and reveal that this was all happening inside of vin diesel's

[1:10:42] body like you know they could do anything at this point it's amazing yeah i love it but they built

[1:10:45] to it they built to it and it works it all works yeah we're we've kind of been we've kind of been

[1:10:51] soaking in it already but we got to do our final judgments whether it's a good bad movie a bad bad

[1:10:55] movie or a movie we kind of like i think i'm the outlier here and that i have to say i i actually

[1:11:03] kind of like this i think it's too long it's it's two and a half hours long 15 minutes of that

[1:11:08] is credits but still even at that it's it's too long but yeah but i mean i don't know maybe it's

[1:11:15] just on the sliding scale of kind of mediocre action movies that we've done on the podcast i

[1:11:21] think it's near the top for me it's certainly near the top of netflix would be blockbusters

[1:11:27] for me just because it is it has a talented uh group of actors and directors doing a basically

[1:11:36] generic film this is a mild challenge but dan can you name one other netflix would be blockbuster

[1:11:44] oh sure there's the adam project okay right that we haven't covered on the podcast uh anola homes

[1:11:52] i guess kind of is that like what's the one with charlize theron where they're like immortal

[1:11:57] assassins old guard that one's rules i was thinking that's the best guard's probably the

[1:12:02] best one of those yeah that's one of the dumb action movies i think six underground is another

[1:12:08] one that we didn't do but that's all right for me this is a bad bad movie on paper like it's got a

[1:12:13] great cast there the set piece ideas are really good like but it was this is the first time i felt

[1:12:20] recently like where i was watching we were it felt there's a story that steven soderbergh tells about

[1:12:24] being on an airplane flight and the guy sitting next to him watching action movies and just

[1:12:28] fast-forwarding to the action scenes and only watching the action scenes and skipping all the

[1:12:32] talking scenes and there were times when i kind of felt like that was the experience i was having

[1:12:36] and at that point it becomes pornography more than a story like and and so for me watching it

[1:12:42] it was like the script is the or the story is so generic the characters are so generic and there's

[1:12:47] so little in between the action scenes that it felt to a certain point like um you know like i

[1:12:52] was filling up on candy you know i don't want that much can't like i like a little bit of candy i

[1:12:57] don't need to eat seven bags of candy and so at a certain point it made you know makes my tummy hurt

[1:13:02] so that's kind of what the experience was like for me but the elements are all there i just wish that

[1:13:06] they had like if they had cut out one big action sequence and filled that space with the characters

[1:13:13] doing something that that gave me a reason to to care about what they were doing that's all that's

[1:13:18] i think that would have fixed a lot for me in this movie yeah i mean i feel like uh i i mean i guess

[1:13:24] this kind of fits in a gray a gray area yeah between a movie i kind of liked and a bad bad

[1:13:30] movie because it's not like with the exception of a few like moments in some of the action

[1:13:36] sequences there's nothing particularly that felt new or original just all felt like reshuffled

[1:13:42] uh you know stuff from various action movie playbooks um and it doesn't didn't do the leg

[1:13:50] work to make me care about anything yes uh so and i mean obviously i like basically every member of

[1:13:59] the cast is is great in other things and they're not necessarily bad in here they just don't have

[1:14:05] anything to work with uh so yeah it feels like it oh sorry just to build on it it feels like a crime

[1:14:11] to me the way they used alfre woodard in this where she's so amazing and they stuck her in the

[1:14:18] black woman who's in charge of a covert ops thing role but she's like she's also playing the

[1:14:23] retired the retired former head who is now dying of cancer she gets a noble sacrifice though elliot

[1:14:30] and it gives her just like billy bob thornton gets later on yeah which is a pretty lame nobles

[1:14:35] they both had lame nobles like they didn't even kill like a named bad guy well also that billy

[1:14:40] bob thornton instead of just killing the bad guys has to get in a little wisecrack dig at at uh chris

[1:14:47] evans which gives chris evans enough time to recognize there's a grenade there and get out

[1:14:50] of the way and it's like what kind of spy are you just do what kind of hit man but that alfre

[1:14:54] woodard is given it's emblematic of like there's a lot of really great actors in this who are not

[1:14:59] given very much to do and chris evans is given so much scenery to chew in a fun way but it's like

[1:15:05] chris like quit hogging the scenery like let somebody else chew that scenery you know like

[1:15:09] give someone else a thing to do not that he's in charge of the movie or anything yeah i don't know

[1:15:14] i don't know if we can put that on chris no uh yeah okay well a spectrum of reactions this was

[1:15:21] i feel like this was uh there's a spectrum rate for me uh like the way we talked when we talked

[1:15:25] about firestarter and we were like this movie looks like cheap and it and it's very thin this

[1:15:31] movie looked very expensive it was still very thin and it was it kind of like uh but it was

[1:15:36] they both kind of felt like direct direct to video type stuff you know fair

[1:15:46] it could happen to you you're all grown up now a professional adult with diverse interests and

[1:15:52] hobbies and one of those hobbies is video games you just can't help it they're so good now if

[1:15:58] that's you we're here to tell you you are completely normal i'm maddie myers i'm jason

[1:16:04] and i'm kirk hamilton and together we form triple click a podcast about video games if you think you

[1:16:10] might be a person who likes video games we hope you'll give triple click a listen triple click

[1:16:15] new episodes every thursday on maximum fun hey kid your dad tell you about the time he broke

[1:16:24] steven dorf's nose at the kids choice awards in dead pilot society scripts that were developed

[1:16:31] by studios and networks but were never produced are given the table reads they deserve when i was

[1:16:37] a kid i had to spend my christmas break filming a psa about angel dust so yeah being a kid sucks

[1:16:42] sometimes presented by andrew reich and ben blacker dead pilot society twice a month on

[1:16:49] maximumfun.org you know the show you like that hobo with the scarf who lives in a magic dumpster

[1:16:54] doctor who

[1:17:03] let us uh take a moment to talk about our sponsors the flop house brought to you by the russo

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[1:18:47] elliot is trying to listen to something i can see i heard a child crying i just want to make sure

[1:18:51] that they're see if they're okay still you're like is it is it thank god it's someone else's child

[1:18:57] crying yeah i don't because that creates more happiness for my children there's a limited

[1:19:04] happiness yep every child that cries means more happiness for my kids

[1:19:09] hey everybody what's what's that we got a jojo jumbotron

[1:19:15] do you enjoy media do you enjoy a media that has a subversive sense of humor

[1:19:24] do you love things that are so bad they're good don't understand what rupaul means when she says

[1:19:32] a queen's look is camp then check out is it camp a podcast all about the queer subgenre of camp

[1:19:40] hosts sam and sarah a drag pro wrestler and an enthusiastic nerd and both queer discuss films

[1:19:49] tv music books and any media they think might be camp search is it camp or at

[1:19:59] is

[1:20:00] camp pod on all socials. Sam is at Reese Indigo. That's R-H-Y-S-I-N-D-I-G-O. And

[1:20:09] Sarah is at Sour Citrus Lady. That's S-O-U-R-C-I-T-R-U-S-L-A-D-Y. Bye! So search

[1:20:21] for Is It Camp on all your podcasters of choice and subscribe or follow on their

[1:20:25] socials at Is It Camp and follow the hosts at Reese Indigo and at Sour Citrus

[1:20:31] Lady. I did it guys! That was a mouthful, but it was fun. You should feel very proud. Thank

[1:20:38] you. Anyone have any other plugs before we move on to the next section? Sure, I'd

[1:20:43] love to plug that the second volume of the Maniac of New York series, Maniac of

[1:20:48] New York the Bronx is Burning, is out in a collected trade in stores now. Go to

[1:20:52] your local comic book store, find it there. Maniac of New York volume two, the

[1:20:56] Bronx is Burning, on shelves now. If you haven't read the first volume, Maniac of

[1:20:59] New York the Death Train, pick them both up. They're good. I like them. Patton Oswalt

[1:21:04] always talking about how much he likes them. Stewart thinks they're great. The

[1:21:07] thing is, the idea that my friend Elliot has made a very good

[1:21:12] comic that is a twist on Friday the 13th makes me slightly jealous, but it is good

[1:21:18] enough that I get over my jealousy almost immediately. Oh, thank you, Stu. I

[1:21:23] appreciate that. Just clicking buy now, and he's not buying your book. He's

[1:21:31] buying some socks, a hat. I am buying your book, although on a major commerce

[1:21:42] website that I won't mention. Excellent. There's no image available for your

[1:21:48] cover. Oh, if I click on it, I see it. Oh, wow. This is all fascinating content. Some

[1:21:54] sliver, sliver, sliver sleuthing. You drool all over your computer, yeah. Yeah, while we're

[1:22:03] plugging shit, you know what? In addition to being a super fun, cool podcaster, I

[1:22:07] also own a couple of bars in Brooklyn. One is called Hinterland's Bar, the other

[1:22:11] is called Minnie's Bar. You know what? If you're in Brooklyn and you need to wet

[1:22:14] your whistle, go to one of those bars. Hinterland's Bar, Minnie's Bar. Why not? If

[1:22:18] it's Hinterland's, I might even be there. Dan might even be there. Minnie's is a

[1:22:24] little further away, but he still might be there. Still, possibly. Dan, help

[1:22:28] them out. Come on. It has happened. Let's move on to letters from listeners,

[1:22:34] listeners like you. You write them, we read them. This one is from Timothy

[1:22:40] Greenwood. Not the other way around. We're not writing anything for you to read,

[1:22:43] except it, unless it's Maniac of New York. Yeah, yeah. I write that. That's true.

[1:22:49] This letter, well, we've all certainly had a wonderful time discussing

[1:22:54] slash debating the merits of Kansas's fifth largest city, Topeka, but the time

[1:22:58] to get serious has come upon us. It's time to discuss somewhere else, a place

[1:23:03] known for the world's smallest natural waterfall that claims the director of

[1:23:07] Purple Rain amongst its residents, that boasts the writer of Captain America,

[1:23:11] Symbol of Truth, Tochi Onyebuchi amongst its former residents, the birthplace of

[1:23:19] the Eddie Current game call. What? The place where Amy Archer Gilligan, the

[1:23:24] inspiration for Arsenic and Old Lace, may have claimed her first victims. That's

[1:23:28] right. Time to talk about Newington, Connecticut. Please feel free to commence.

[1:23:33] Warmest regards, Timothy, last name LaPelle. Well, it seems like you've covered all

[1:23:37] the bases. Yeah, I don't know if there's anything more to say about it. I think Elliot's sharpening his

[1:23:41] knives over there. He can't wait to dig in. Mm-hmm. I'm sad. I'm sad. I'm sorry if I

[1:23:48] mispronounce anything. I'm sad about it, too. I'm sad just in general, but I'm sorry about that.

[1:23:55] Wait, Newington, Connecticut. Yeah, okay. New-ing-ton. That's a ton of Newings. I feel

[1:24:04] like it sounds like a made-up town, but thanks for writing in. I'm sure we're

[1:24:09] gonna do some research and roast the fuck out of it on our next mini. That's

[1:24:12] Dan's next mini called Newington. Where is that? Who cares? Of course, the thing is,

[1:24:19] this writer didn't give us their opinion of Newington, right? That's true. They

[1:24:27] don't want to pre-discriminate the jury, prejudice it.

[1:24:31] You do bring up a good point that the construction of a Newington sounds like

[1:24:36] someone is just sort of like, as they go along, be like, uh, it's New-ing-ton.

[1:24:42] Connecticut. There's too many things going on there. Is that really where you're from? Can you tell me the

[1:24:50] name of it again? Yeah, well, why don't you read it back to me and I'll tell you if

[1:24:53] it was right. This letter is from Stephen, last name withheld. Stephen Hawking.

[1:24:59] I've been following some of Stuart's exercise journey via the

[1:25:06] clock app. Cool, who hasn't? But I'm curious. It's America's journey at this

[1:25:12] point, yeah. Have we done this already? Share a workout routine? Have you

[1:25:17] talked about this on the podcast? A workout routine he's found the most

[1:25:21] useful. I've went from high movement teaching job straight to a desk job and

[1:25:25] desperately to kick off my own exercise journey. So any tips would help?

[1:25:29] I don't know. I'm always happy to talk about working out because I don't do

[1:25:35] anything else because I'm pretty boring. But let's see. For me, the thing that

[1:25:41] kind of started my journey was throwing out my back at the start of the pandemic.

[1:25:45] So I started doing a lot of core strength. It was mainly lower back focus.

[1:25:51] So I did a lot of core strengthening stuff. So like leg lifts, reverse

[1:25:55] leg lifts, some bridges, bird dogs, dead bugs, squats, and

[1:26:06] supplementing that with stretching for about at least 30 minutes every morning

[1:26:11] with a lot of leg and back stuff. But then since then, I started going

[1:26:18] to the gym when they reopened. And I have a trainer that I like a lot and

[1:26:21] I'm doing a lot of strength training. So I do a four-day-a-week upper-lower split,

[1:26:27] two-leg lower body days, two upper body days. And those upper body days

[1:26:32] are a nice mix of push-pull exercises. And I like it so far. I

[1:26:39] never thought I would like weightlifting. I don't know why. I

[1:26:44] didn't know how to use the equipment and I didn't want to ask anybody. So it wasn't

[1:26:54] until I got a trainer who gave me some direction that I felt comfortable with

[1:27:00] it. And I fucking love it. There's something so

[1:27:03] satisfying for me. Some people, when they work out, really like variety and

[1:27:09] they like to do a lot of different things. So they take their mind off the

[1:27:12] fact that they're working out. Me, I like to do the same shit over and over and

[1:27:17] over. So I like to see slow, steady, generally slow and steady, small

[1:27:24] improvements in the amount of weight I'm lifting and taking breaks and listening

[1:27:29] to music and just keeping track of my progress. And I find that really

[1:27:34] rewarding and it has made exercise really fun for me. So that's it.

[1:27:42] So that fulfills the educational content requirement of this. Now we can send it

[1:27:49] through the mail immediately. The government's been cracking down on us.

[1:27:52] Let's make some recommendations of movies that people should

[1:27:58] watch instead of this and then put a bow on the whole thing. My recommendation is

[1:28:03] I recently re-watched Lilo and Stitch from 2002. I don't know, I've had an

[1:28:10] itch to see some Stitch. I don't know why.

[1:28:14] Dan, why are you saving gems like that for the end of the show?

[1:28:18] Yeah. I don't know what it was. I've been wanting to re-watch it. I

[1:28:25] remembered liking it at the time. You know, the 90s Disney Renaissance had

[1:28:31] passed and they were kind of like at a point of, like at a crossroads trying to

[1:28:36] figure out. They were having some not that successful movies and Lilo and Stitch

[1:28:41] came out, tried something a little different and was their most successful

[1:28:45] movie in a while at that time, you know, after having that dip. And I like it

[1:28:54] because it's a contemporary story. You know, it's not like so many Disney

[1:28:58] movies are not contemporary. I like that the look of it is kind of this

[1:29:04] beautiful watercolor look that you don't see a lot. There's a lot of

[1:29:08] character comedy, like just like the kid acts like a real little kid and there's

[1:29:13] a very sort of Calvin and Hobbes quality to the relationship. And also,

[1:29:17] you know, as Audrey is, you know, her family's from the Philippines, this is

[1:29:24] about Polynesian sisters in Hawaii and sort of, you know, obviously not the

[1:29:34] same, but Pacific Islander culture. And it's good to see that in Disney, like

[1:29:40] years and years before Moana was a sparkle in anyone's eye. And so it's a

[1:29:48] movie that I think has gotten a cult following as much as anything from

[1:29:52] Disney, one of the world's biggest conglomerates can have a cult following

[1:29:56] over the years, but it's still a little.

[1:30:00] radar. And I think it's just a lot of fun. So that's I never I

[1:30:05] never saw it when it came out. I feel what I feel like it came

[1:30:08] out when I was past the age where I was seeing children's

[1:30:12] movies often. Well, 2002. So I was 22 years old. Yeah. Um, and

[1:30:20] it wasn't like any reason to get but for whatever reason, I've

[1:30:23] never gotten around to checking it out. And I feel like I keep

[1:30:26] meaning to you. And people seem to really like it. I feel like

[1:30:30] it's got I don't know if I think it's fair to say it's gotten a

[1:30:33] little bit of a reevaluation. But yes, kind of it has and

[1:30:39] maybe maybe I'll maybe I'll give it a shot. It's a it's also 90

[1:30:43] minutes. So it's, you know, love that big commitment.

[1:30:47] LA you got something in the pipe. I do. I'm going to

[1:30:50] recommend a movie a kind of a fluffy kind of little movie

[1:30:56] from 1937 called the man who could work miracles. It's a

[1:30:59] British movie that stars Roland Young and a bunch of the people

[1:31:05] Ralph Richardson's in it. Ernest Thessiger, who played Dr.

[1:31:08] Pretorius and Bride of Frankenstein, he appears in it.

[1:31:11] And it's directed by a guy named Lothar Mendes, which Mendes

[1:31:14] which I only bring up because Lothar is a fantastic first

[1:31:16] name. But it's based on HG Wells story. And it is and he worked

[1:31:23] on the script. And it's just about this guy who, for some

[1:31:27] reason, the the eternal gods of the universe decide to give one

[1:31:31] man the power to work miracles, essentially, whatever he wishes

[1:31:34] for happens, and they want to see what's going to happen to

[1:31:37] him. And he starts out with very modest ambitions and his he and

[1:31:42] very much influenced by the people around him telling him

[1:31:44] what he should do with his power. And eventually he goes a

[1:31:46] little overboard with it. And it's a movie that I found very

[1:31:50] like, kind of quaintly delightful. It's like a quaint

[1:31:53] little British movie, like kind of fantasy movie that sometimes

[1:31:56] kind of silly, and sometimes takes itself a little too

[1:31:58] seriously in the way of like, thinking it's making a profound

[1:32:01] message. But overall, I thought it was just fun. So that's the

[1:32:05] man who could work miracles. Stu, what about you?

[1:32:08] I'm gonna recommend a big movie that you've probably already

[1:32:11] heard about, but I think I would like to throw my hat and

[1:32:16] say it is definitely good. I'm gonna recommend Nope, Jordan

[1:32:19] Peele's latest movie. It's, it's a lot of fun. It's different

[1:32:25] than his other two. But he gets some great performances. I don't

[1:32:31] want to go too much into the plot. But the movie manages to

[1:32:35] be both disturbing and like touching at times and it's fun.

[1:32:41] And again, not to go too into the plot, but Dan and I are both

[1:32:44] big fans of this movie in part, I think because we're also big

[1:32:47] fans of a little movie starring Kevin Bacon and Fred. What's his

[1:32:52] name from Fred Ward? Yeah. A little movie called Tremors. So

[1:32:56] if you like Tremors, and you haven't seen Nope yet, why don't

[1:32:59] you go check out Nope? Why not? It also does feature a character

[1:33:03] doing a fucking Akira motorcycle slide, which it's going to be

[1:33:07] hard for me not to like you movie. So so give it a shot.

[1:33:11] Again, Nope. Well, that's it. It's been a while since we've

[1:33:16] said this. But if you have a moment, maybe go to iTunes, leave

[1:33:21] a positive review to help us spread word about the show. If

[1:33:26] you if you want to leave a negative review, maybe put that

[1:33:28] energy into meditation or painting, fixing your

[1:33:32] relationships. Anything other than anything other than leaving

[1:33:35] a review. Don't put your energy to that. Yeah, we just have a

[1:33:38] positive review just for the the self control I showed in not

[1:33:41] doing an Abbott and Costello title style routine, in which I

[1:33:45] asked Stuart if he wants to go see a movie and he says Nope.

[1:33:47] And I go, Oh, so you don't want to see a movie? He goes, Yeah,

[1:33:50] I want to see a movie. Okay, which movie you want to see?

[1:33:52] Nope. So I thought you said you did want to go see a movie, but

[1:33:54] you don't want to go see a movie. I want to see a movie.

[1:33:56] What movie? Nope. Okay, so you don't want to see a movie. So

[1:33:59] anyway, so if you appreciate us not doing so, thank you. So if

[1:34:03] you want to thank us for not doing that bit, then go ahead

[1:34:06] and leave. It's great that LA did the whole bit by himself

[1:34:08] because I'm sure that if we try to do it together, we would have

[1:34:11] just **** it up. Yeah, certainly without pre pointing. If you

[1:34:18] want to follow the us on Twitter, we're at the flop house

[1:34:21] pod. And we're also at the flop house podcast on Instagram, a

[1:34:26] few extra letters on the end of that. Our home is a flop house

[1:34:33] podcast.com. If you want to check out that site. And as

[1:34:37] stated before, we are part of the maximum fun network. They

[1:34:40] are at maximum fun.org. They have a ton of great podcasts.

[1:34:45] I'm sure there are other ones you would enjoy if you give them

[1:34:48] a try. And lastly, thank you to Alex Smith is at Howell Dottie

[1:34:54] on Twitter. Thank you for retweeting the news about Kevin

[1:34:59] Smith's continuing horny relationship with his wife. It's

[1:35:03] you know, it's inspiring. Alex also retweeted that video of

[1:35:07] you performing in hair because in the background, you can kind

[1:35:11] of make out Alex's it was playing guitar for the band on

[1:35:14] that performance. Uh and you can kind of see a little Alex uh in

[1:35:18] the back. Uh rewatching that, I **** love that **** seeing Dan

[1:35:22] with his hair and oh man, I love it. Two thumbs up. If you

[1:35:25] want to see like a 45 second clip of uh me singing the title

[1:35:30] song from hair, you can go check that out at our our

[1:35:34] Twitter. Um but anyway, thank you for uh being here for the

[1:35:39] podcast, for the flop house. In fact, I've been Dan McCoy. I'm

[1:35:43] Stuart Wellington. And I'm Elliot Kalin. Bye. Bang.

[1:35:47] Shorter than the Gray Man. We did it guys. Boom. Finally, we

[1:35:51] finally managed to do an episode that's shorter than the

[1:35:52] movie.

[1:35:56] More like the board identity. Am I right?

[1:36:07] Okay.

[1:36:11] Alright. Um and I think you can top that **** Top that ****

[1:36:15] No, that was great. No, that was great. That's perfect.

[1:36:18] Untoppable. Untoppable. Um. She's live, damn it. Let's do

[1:36:23] it. It's a miracle. Maximumfun.org. Comedy and

[1:36:28] culture. Artist owned. Audience supported.

Episode #377 - The Gray Man

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