Ep #367 - The Adam Project

[0:00] On this episode, we discuss The Atom Project.

[0:04] Hey, hey, guys, it's me, Stuart from the future.

[0:07] I'm here to tell you, Stuart.

[0:08] Yeah, what's up, Stuart from the future?

[0:09] I'm here to tell you not to watch The Atom Project.

[0:14] Perfect.

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

[0:43] I'm Dan McCoy.

[0:45] Hey, I'm Stuart Wellington.

[0:48] And I'm Elliot Kalin.

[0:50] And wait, wait, guys, do you hear that?

[0:52] Do you hear that out there?

[0:54] Those trumpets across the horizon, the sound of brass bells and kettle drums on the march.

[0:59] Brass bells?

[1:00] Why, could it be?

[1:02] Yes, it is.

[1:03] Max Fun Drive is about to begin.

[1:05] Ba-ba-da-ba-da-ba-da-ba-da-ba-da.

[1:08] This is the start of the Max Fun Pledging Drive.

[1:11] When we tell you why to join Max Fun.

[1:14] The time, of course, when the shows we endorse tell you why we need your support.

[1:20] There's McElroy's and Dairy Beef and Hodgeman.

[1:24] Podcasting, podcasting, casting all the way.

[1:27] Ross and Carrie, Fanti and Tights and Fights.

[1:30] Greatest Gen, Bullseye and Feeling Seen.

[1:34] There's lots of other shows you know, but most of all these schmos you know.

[1:38] The Flophouse Boys, Elliot, Dan and Stu.

[1:41] So April 25th until May the 6th.

[1:44] Listen in, pledge your skin, join us or upgrade.

[1:48] We'll tell you more as we go on, but that's enough for this here song.

[1:51] Let's see how angry Dan and Stu I've made.

[1:54] Ba-da-da-da-na-na-na-na...

[1:58] Ba-da-da-da-da-da-ba-da-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba!

[2:00] So yeah, anyway, the day after this episode drops is the Max Fun Drive starts.

[2:05] Yeah, well, Meredith Wilson, he's got his own problems right now.

[2:08] He's dead, he doesn't have to worry about us.

[2:10] So this episode drops the day before the start of the Max Fun Pledge Drive.

[2:14] It's running from April 25th to May 6th, as mentioned in that very informative song.

[2:18] All the shows are going to be telling you why you should consider becoming a Max Fun member

[2:21] or upgrading your Max Fun membership.

[2:23] It's like a PBS Pledge Drive, without the old people sitting at phones

[2:26] pretending to have conversations on screen.

[2:28] And we're going to tell you more during the episode about why you should join

[2:31] and why it's important to us and why we love it when you join and thank you so much

[2:35] and why we're thankful to our current members and our future members.

[2:38] But at the moment, if you don't need a further sales pitch,

[2:41] just go and join now at MaximumFun.org. Please do.

[2:45] And until later in the episode when I tell you more, I've been Elliot Kalin.

[2:50] Back to you, Dan. What do we do on this podcast?

[2:52] We tell people about the – well, on this podcast – I have to correct something, actually.

[2:56] Last episode, we reverted back to talking about how we usually talk about bad movies.

[3:01] I can't believe he just interrupted himself.

[3:03] I did, but I wanted to get up front.

[3:05] We need to make it clear that this podcast is now officially about people

[3:08] giving their different takes on Topeka, whether it's a good place or a bad place.

[3:12] We voted on it. It passed.

[3:14] I mean that's – it's in the bylaws, but I mean it's kind of just, you know, it's for show.

[3:20] So mostly we talk about movies.

[3:22] Yeah, it's show.

[3:23] And guys, I've been having a kind of hard time since the last episode.

[3:26] I've been going – I guess soul-searching is probably the right term.

[3:30] Do you find it?

[3:31] I've been going on like long – I found it, yeah.

[3:32] I found it when I was standing at the edge of a pond in an artfully decorated lake in a subdivision.

[3:39] And I skipped a stone or two, and I really thought about things.

[3:43] And you know what? Topeka and tapioca are different things.

[3:46] Wow. You made it.

[3:48] I'm willing to admit that now.

[3:50] I'm on your own.

[3:51] So this is a stage where I have to make amends.

[3:53] So to everybody I've hurt with my misunderstanding, just write into Twitter at D-A-N-K-M-C-C-O-Y.

[4:02] Why?

[4:04] Stuart, I'm proud of you.

[4:05] What are they writing?

[4:06] I'm proud of our listeners for supporting us so that you can make that kind of self-realization.

[4:10] Yeah. I just don't want to blow up my menchies.

[4:13] Yeah.

[4:14] Your menchies.

[4:15] Yeah. You don't want to interrupt the flow of all your exercise videos.

[4:20] Yeah, I'm curating a specific vibe.

[4:22] A vibe.

[4:23] Squats mostly.

[4:25] Once I tried to get into Stu's menchies and I accidentally got into Stu's munchies, his collection of munchies movies.

[4:31] It took me a while to get out. It was very dangerous.

[4:34] I think there's only the one, but I have a lot of copies.

[4:38] Yeah, a big Harvey Korman fan.

[4:41] So Dan, so you said we talk about movies on this podcast.

[4:47] Yeah, yeah. We watch things that are critical or commercial flops or kind of on the borderline of such.

[4:54] I believe we agreed we'd watch a movie and then talk about it, good or bad.

[4:59] Yeah, I think we tried to simplify it. Dan slapped that initiative down.

[5:03] No, no, no, no, no, no, no. I'm simplifying it by saying, but if I say we watched a critical or commercial flop that does not impart a judgment from us up top, it just is factual.

[5:15] And then later on we will give our judgments, final judgments, if you will.

[5:19] And today we watched a movie that I think most likely would have been a commercial flop had it been released in normal methods.

[5:27] There's no way of knowing.

[5:29] Hard to say. Hard to say.

[5:31] A Netflix original film, which means that somebody produced it.

[5:34] Could have swept the nation, yes.

[5:35] People like that Ryan Reynolds. This is Netflix's new thing, which is every once in a while.

[5:42] Ryan Reynolds movies.

[5:44] Well, yeah, that's kind of their new thing.

[5:46] But every once in a while they, you know, do their version of a blockbuster.

[5:50] They throw a lot of resources, some big names at like some kind of light special effects fair, something that you can throw on and be assured that you're not going to have to think that much.

[6:04] Do you hear that? Do you hear that calliope in the distance? The special light special effects fair is coming to town.

[6:10] Yeah.

[6:13] But it's true. This was a movie that electric light orchestra.

[6:16] This is a movie that went into production or development at least 10 years ago.

[6:20] And originally Tom Cruise was going to star in this movie and then he didn't.

[6:25] And finally, Netflix swooped in to save it.

[6:27] And boy, are we lucky he did, because there's no other movie like this.

[6:31] Wait a minute. Hold on.

[6:32] There's a million other movies like this.

[6:34] Right down to the fact that it makes multiple references to other movies that are like this.

[6:39] Yeah.

[6:40] Yeah.

[6:41] They swept up the bits and pieces from manufacturing other films and they glued them together.

[6:45] Yeah.

[6:46] That is what it feels like.

[6:47] They're like this.

[6:48] This movie was made out of 80 percent post consumer recycled content from a movie.

[6:53] So should we talk about what happens in the Atom Project?

[6:56] Because the name does as well.

[6:59] The one thing I like about the name is it harkens back to 70 science fiction movies that always had like a project or an ultimatum or oversight or something or a protocol.

[7:10] But then the title didn't really tell you much about the movie.

[7:12] Final.

[7:13] Can I ask you guys a question?

[7:15] Always.

[7:16] I'm an open book.

[7:18] So later on, Mark Ruffalo's project that he's working on, is that the Atom Project?

[7:24] No.

[7:25] That's also named the Atom Project?

[7:27] I think it's also named the Atom Project after his son.

[7:29] But why?

[7:30] Because his son is named Atom.

[7:32] Yeah.

[7:33] Dan, because in War Games, the computer was named Joshua after the programmer's son.

[7:37] Because that's what you do in these movies.

[7:38] You name things after your son.

[7:40] I think because they needed to justify the title.

[7:43] It's all about sons and dads.

[7:45] He feels bad about missing his son's youth to work on this project.

[7:49] So he's like, well, if I name it after my son and people say, what were you doing this weekend?

[7:53] I go, oh, I spent time with Atom.

[7:55] They think I'm talking about my son and not my time travel reactor.

[7:58] So it's really for just his standing in the community.

[8:01] It's not really about his son.

[8:02] He just wants other people to think that he's good.

[8:04] I mean, that's why you have children, is to improve your standing in the community.

[8:07] I see, I see.

[8:08] So that you can put on Instagram how wonderful your family is.

[8:10] I've watched The Gilded Age.

[8:12] I know how shit works.

[8:14] So anyway, let's begin.

[8:15] So the movie begins with some ominous text.

[8:17] It says, time travel exists.

[8:19] You just don't know it yet.

[8:20] And it's like, yeah, because I haven't seen the movie.

[8:22] Dude, don't ding me for not having watched this movie yet.

[8:24] It just started.

[8:25] You dumb asshole.

[8:26] You're stupid.

[8:27] You probably don't even know Ryan Reynolds' character is named Atom yet, moron.

[8:31] Because we haven't introduced him yet.

[8:32] You piece of shit.

[8:34] I will say, there are parts of this movie where I was like, wait, what's going on?

[8:38] And I think it's the movie's fault for not making the information clear.

[8:41] And then the movie will suddenly drop a huge amount of information very casually.

[8:45] The movie does not really care about its plot or the information.

[8:48] The movie is a quip and 70s hit machine.

[8:53] So anyway, the year is 2050.

[8:56] And Ryan Reynolds, he's a fighter pilot of the future.

[8:59] And he has been wounded.

[9:00] He has a bullet wound in his side.

[9:02] And he's stealing a sort of super jet.

[9:04] Did you say that we start this movie?

[9:07] Yeah, does it start in media res?

[9:10] It does start in media res, very much so.

[9:12] Your favorite way of starting.

[9:14] You finally did it.

[9:15] So Dan, it doesn't start in end res, where the movie is already over.

[9:20] And they're like, what happened today?

[9:21] Let's research.

[9:22] So Dan, why do you think they play Give Me Some Love in multiple times during action scenes?

[9:27] Because it's a fucking great song.

[9:29] But is the movie about love?

[9:32] Like why that song?

[9:33] I don't know.

[9:34] No, as Audrey pointed out during the viewing of this movie, it really wants to be Guardians of the Galaxy in certain ways.

[9:43] To the point of casting Zoe Saldana in it.

[9:46] Yeah.

[9:48] But I'm not going to complain about that song.

[9:51] It's one of the things I enjoyed.

[9:52] It's a good song.

[9:53] You were able to close your eyes.

[9:55] Turn on your Ryan Reynolds voice filter.

[9:57] Pretend you're at a concert.

[10:00] that gets to me about it is that there's a certain type

[10:02] of movie where they're like, people love this song,

[10:05] it's a great song, it's full of high energy,

[10:07] we're just gonna leech off this song.

[10:09] And one of the reasons I stopped watching

[10:10] Stranger Things early on was there's an episode,

[10:13] it might be the second episode, where at the end,

[10:14] I was not feeling excited by the episode,

[10:16] and in the end they start playing Hazy Shade of Winter,

[10:19] the Bangles version of it, which is a song I love,

[10:21] and I was getting excited listening to the song,

[10:23] and I was like, show, you didn't earn this,

[10:24] this is the song that gets this credit.

[10:26] Like, that's not fair, you're just piggybacking

[10:28] on this great song.

[10:29] Hey man, take what you can get, steal it.

[10:31] Steal the energy.

[10:32] I don't like it.

[10:33] Anyway, that's true, Picasso once said-

[10:36] Something that steals energy would be a great villain

[10:38] in a Stranger Things episode.

[10:39] Yeah, yeah.

[10:40] Pablo Picasso once said, bad artists borrow,

[10:43] great artists steal from the Bangles.

[10:46] So anyway, I mean, it's not even an original Bangles song,

[10:49] they're covering a, what, Simon Garfunkel song?

[10:51] But still, I like the version better.

[10:51] Yeah, but the way they play that riff.

[10:53] It's amazing, yeah.

[10:55] So anyway, we're three seconds into the movie.

[10:57] So Ryan Reynolds is being yelled at

[10:58] by Catherine Keener over an intercom.

[11:00] Hey, come back, don't escape, it's too late.

[11:02] But he does.

[11:03] He escapes the wormhole, cut to middle school, 2022,

[11:06] and we meet young Adam.

[11:07] That's our time.

[11:08] That's our time.

[11:09] So Ryan Reynolds is playing Adam,

[11:11] and this is actor Walker Scoble as young Adam.

[11:15] And I'm gonna call them young and old throughout the movie

[11:17] to just make sure I'm not saying Adam says to Adam.

[11:19] And young Adam is, I just wanna,

[11:22] I think this actor is not, I don't wanna blame him at all.

[11:25] I'm blaming the writer.

[11:25] Yeah, we're not gonna be mad at a kid.

[11:28] The actor's just fine.

[11:29] He's doing exactly what the movie wants the actor to be doing.

[11:32] And is he the least likable young character in a movie

[11:35] since the wheelchair kid from Texas Chainsaw Massacre?

[11:38] Like, is he the most annoying,

[11:40] most grating young person character?

[11:42] Again, not the actor, but the character in a movie.

[11:45] This character's a constant quit machine.

[11:47] And I was like, it was one of those things where I was like,

[11:49] is this what I was like as a kid?

[11:51] I think it was.

[11:52] I was terrible.

[11:53] No, but like, the jokes that the kid makes

[11:56] are not kid jokes, they're Ryan Reynolds jokes.

[11:58] It's one of these things where it's like,

[11:59] okay, how else will we know

[12:01] that this is the same character

[12:04] than by making him sound exactly like Ryan Reynolds

[12:07] in the same stream of quips?

[12:09] They brought in Ryan Reynolds' script guy

[12:11] to punch up the kids' dialogue.

[12:13] And the whole time, I,

[12:15] especially after the scene with him and his mother,

[12:18] I could not stop thinking about that fucking kid

[12:20] in Wet Hot American Summer

[12:21] that like consoles the divorced Molly Shannon

[12:24] as like a little adult.

[12:26] Like I couldn't stop thinking about it.

[12:28] He definitely, he feels like a, yeah, he feels like a,

[12:30] I guess that's what's bothersome about him

[12:32] is he feels like a grown-up smart aleck in a kid body,

[12:35] the way he's written.

[12:36] And it's this kid, his only outlet of any kind

[12:39] is just these smart alecky quips

[12:41] that are written as grown-up jokes.

[12:43] And he's just a jerk to everybody.

[12:45] And like, part of the lesson is for him

[12:47] to stop being a jerk.

[12:48] But he like, I don't know,

[12:49] like there's no real moment of emotion

[12:52] in this kid character, you know,

[12:54] for the first whole of the movie.

[12:57] I kept-

[12:58] I do like when he gets beat up

[12:59] by a kid whose last name is Dollar Hyde,

[13:01] because that makes me think of a murderer.

[13:02] Yeah, I mean, that was amazing

[13:04] that they had the character's name Dollar Hyde.

[13:06] And it's like, all right,

[13:07] I guess he grows up to be Buffalo Bill.

[13:11] I guess this was before he changed

[13:13] after ingesting the red dragon, you know?

[13:15] That's the thing, like you don't realize

[13:17] is when Ryan Reynolds bullies the bully later on,

[13:20] that's the precipitating incident

[13:21] that turns him into a serial killer.

[13:23] I didn't realize this was part of the Hannibal verse.

[13:25] Yeah, yeah.

[13:26] So we'll talk more about this kid later, I guess.

[13:28] But I want to mention that there's a late,

[13:32] or maybe it'll come up later, maybe it won't.

[13:33] Watching this movie made me think

[13:34] about how much I love E.T. and what makes E.T. good,

[13:37] and what movies like this are missing

[13:39] that are heavily trying to draw on that feeling,

[13:41] but don't have the real emotion of it.

[13:43] Anyway, young Adam, he gets punched by some bullies

[13:45] and gets suspended.

[13:46] This feels accurate.

[13:48] I was constantly getting in trouble as a kid

[13:50] for getting beaten up or getting made fun of.

[13:52] Like a teacher would walk in on people making fun of me

[13:55] and be like, Kalen, get out of here.

[13:57] And I'd be like, you're in trouble.

[13:58] I'd be like, I don't understand.

[13:59] What was I?

[14:00] I was the-

[14:01] You're an instigator.

[14:02] I was the one that people were yelling Geisler's at.

[14:04] I don't understand why I was the one

[14:05] who got in trouble, you know?

[14:07] And that's Elliot's origin story.

[14:09] Yeah.

[14:10] That's how Elliot got Joker-fied.

[14:11] Yeah.

[14:12] Yeah, that's why I'm the murderous madman of today.

[14:16] He gets suspended and we find out his mom, Jennifer Garner,

[14:19] comes in to argue his case.

[14:20] She mentions that his dad died recently.

[14:23] The dad, who we will later find out, is Mark Ruffalo,

[14:25] who enters the movie so late into the film

[14:28] that at one point I was like,

[14:29] did they hire him just to appear in some photographs?

[14:32] I mean, this is clearly another reference

[14:35] to the film, 13 Going on 30.

[14:36] I mean, another time travel classic.

[14:40] Yeah, but he's always getting suspended

[14:44] and he's depressed and he's full of quips.

[14:45] He's really irritating.

[14:47] His mom is going on a date

[14:48] and it's another one of those movie,

[14:49] Boca-Henry relationships where the kid

[14:51] is kind of like taking care of the mom

[14:54] and he has to zip up his mom's dress

[14:56] before she goes on a date, which is nuts.

[14:57] Tells her to make good choices.

[14:58] It's nuts that she forgot to zip up her dress.

[15:01] But like, unless that was the message

[15:03] she intended to send to the date,

[15:04] was like, my dress is half off.

[15:06] This thing comes off.

[15:07] And he goes, mom, you forgot.

[15:08] And she's like, oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, right, yeah, I forgot.

[15:10] Can you take care of that?

[15:12] And then as soon as she's out of the house,

[15:14] she changes into like her real dress

[15:16] because she doesn't want her child parent

[15:19] to get mad at her.

[15:21] Yeah, yeah.

[15:22] I just want to take a moment to say also,

[15:23] I'm sad that these are apparently the only roles

[15:26] that Jennifer Garner gets now.

[15:28] Yeah.

[15:29] Is like loving mom and things.

[15:30] Because as a-

[15:31] You miss her being a karate spy?

[15:33] She was so good back in the karate spy days.

[15:36] Yeah.

[15:37] But anyway.

[15:38] Did you like it more when she was a racist vigilante?

[15:41] In Peppermint?

[15:42] Much like Peppermint, no.

[15:45] Right.

[15:46] Get rid of that, please.

[15:47] That was like the end of her time

[15:48] as an action star for a little while.

[15:50] I like the tea, but not the movie.

[15:55] When the credits came up, it said,

[15:56] based on the popular tea,

[15:58] you said, I'll get finally a movie for me.

[16:00] Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[16:02] And you know, you just know that like the sleepy time,

[16:04] people were like, how did we sleep on this?

[16:06] Oh, right.

[16:09] And then they nodded off

[16:10] and were tucked into their beds by fluffy bears.

[16:15] The dream.

[16:16] Everyone wants that, yeah.

[16:17] Look, if I've learned one thing,

[16:19] it's that fluffy bears can sell me any tea they want

[16:21] and any toilet paper they want,

[16:22] and I will be buying it.

[16:23] Fuck those fucking toilet bears.

[16:24] Get them out of here.

[16:25] They're so gross.

[16:26] Yeah.

[16:27] They're constantly like staring at their shit covered fur.

[16:29] Fuck those guys.

[16:31] Yeah, those toilet bears,

[16:33] their whole life revolves around shitting.

[16:36] I mean, Dan, the older you get,

[16:38] the more that's going to be the case for you, too.

[16:40] Oh, no, thank you.

[16:41] Get those toilet bears out of here.

[16:43] Maybe it's just because I'm a parent.

[16:44] So a lot of my conversation does revolve

[16:46] around other people's pooping.

[16:47] Can you imagine how bad they smell?

[16:51] Yeah.

[16:52] So is that what that OPP song was about?

[16:54] Just smearing shit around in their fur

[16:56] with the toilet paper.

[16:57] Fuck that.

[16:59] I mean, they are a bad spokes animal in that, yes,

[17:04] the shit gets caught in their fur

[17:05] and the toilet paper is not going to clean it out.

[17:07] Yeah.

[17:08] They got to get a bidet for that.

[17:09] Or just, you know.

[17:10] A bear day.

[17:11] Yeah, they're just eating nothing but honey and salmon.

[17:13] Like, ugh, no thanks.

[17:15] Get them out of here.

[17:17] Anyway, so that's the Adam Project.

[17:20] So the night that, well, his mom is on a date.

[17:22] She says, no video games.

[17:24] And he's playing video games.

[17:25] Will these video games help him fight bad guys later?

[17:27] Of course they will, because this is a modern movie.

[17:30] Characters are not allowed to do anything

[17:31] that doesn't play directly into the plot.

[17:33] Well, also, I'm like, what the hell does she care?

[17:35] She's going off and leaving her son without a babysitter.

[17:38] Let him play the goddamn video games.

[17:40] Keep him out of trouble.

[17:42] And we're also going to find out later on,

[17:43] I'm jumping ahead slightly,

[17:45] that his dad, Mark Ruffalo, built the video game he's playing.

[17:50] Which is the weirdest thing, where you're like,

[17:53] isn't he like a fucking super scientist

[17:55] who's making time travel?

[17:57] Why is he building some shitty-ass video game?

[17:58] That's also a different type of thing.

[18:00] Yes, it's a different skill set.

[18:01] Like, he's not a computer programmer.

[18:03] And also, that kid would be like,

[18:04] no, I want a real video game.

[18:06] I don't want video game we have at home.

[18:09] I mean, he's a scientist in the way that, like,

[18:12] all the Marvel heroes are scientists,

[18:14] where they understand all of science.

[18:16] Like, science is just one subject that you know all of.

[18:19] So anyway, there's a power outage.

[18:21] He goes out to investigate with a flashlight,

[18:23] because that's what kids do in movies.

[18:24] They walk into the woods

[18:26] directly outside of their house with a flashlight.

[18:28] It's like the fucking forest moon of Endor

[18:30] right outside of this kid's house.

[18:32] Yeah, I mean, it's the Pacific Northwest.

[18:33] And you know that kid's just begging

[18:34] to find a Tommyknocker out there.

[18:36] Yeah.

[18:37] That's what he wants.

[18:39] And we learned.

[18:40] These woods are crammed with Tommyknockers.

[18:41] It's nasty though.

[18:42] You cannot swing a dead cat

[18:44] without hitting a Tommyknocker

[18:45] out in those Pacific Northwest woods.

[18:47] It's disgusting.

[18:48] I do not recommend doing that, though.

[18:48] I mean, please.

[18:49] Yeah, please.

[18:50] In that kind of circumstance,

[18:52] you should bury that kind of honors for being a hero.

[18:55] Not in a pet cemetery.

[18:56] No, no, not in pet cemetery.

[18:57] Throw it to your Cujo.

[18:59] Keep him busy while you escape.

[19:00] No matter what Judd says,

[19:02] even though he knows the ground is sour,

[19:05] he still tells you about the goddamn pet cemetery.

[19:08] Now, you're damn taking a stand on this one.

[19:11] You can bury it in Salem's Lot if you need to,

[19:13] but watch out for the vampires.

[19:15] Take a long walk over to Salem's Lot.

[19:18] And you know, so anyway,

[19:20] have you guys ever been walking through the woods

[19:22] and you're like, oh, great.

[19:23] You see a bear wiping its butt on a Tommyknocker.

[19:26] That's the worst.

[19:27] Yeah, I'm like, goddammit, these Charmin bears.

[19:31] They're just wiping their butts on everything.

[19:32] They haunt me.

[19:34] Anyway.

[19:35] Stephen King, why don't you write a book

[19:36] about the Charmin bears?

[19:40] Talk about scares.

[19:42] Yeah, and there's gonna be like 40 pages

[19:43] about how milk used to taste better back in the old days.

[19:47] The thing is that cocaine makes you very prolific.

[19:50] That's true.

[19:51] That's very true.

[19:52] Allegedly.

[19:53] Allegedly, he wouldn't know.

[19:54] He doesn't remember that time.

[19:55] Anyway, he finds, he wanders around.

[19:57] We find out he has an inhaler.

[19:59] This doesn't really.

[20:00] playing too much, which is fine.

[20:01] Actually, that's good for him to have a character thing

[20:03] that doesn't play into the plot later.

[20:04] He doesn't defeat a bad guy with an inhaler or something.

[20:06] And he finds Ryan Reynolds bleeding in his garage

[20:09] and they quip at each other for a while.

[20:11] They argue a lot.

[20:11] They're at roughly the same level of maturity.

[20:14] The amount of quipping, like it's one of those things

[20:16] where if you ever get two very specific nerds

[20:19] in the same proximity of each other and they start talking

[20:22] and then they start talking faster and faster

[20:24] and over each other, I'm like, we're about to implode.

[20:27] Like we're about to reach some weird, horrible spot.

[20:31] Yeah, that's exactly it.

[20:31] I was like, how did I walk into a room

[20:32] with two David Calens?

[20:33] What am I doing in here?

[20:34] This is terrible.

[20:35] Anyway, so.

[20:36] It is weird though.

[20:37] I mean, like the movie, you know,

[20:38] does a lot of this to sort of indicate

[20:41] how much this character hates himself

[20:44] as a result of like, I don't know,

[20:47] just, I guess, sad things in his life.

[20:49] And the fact that, like, it's not really

[20:52] that well justified why he hates himself.

[20:55] They say it's a movie that is striving,

[20:58] I'll give it points, I mean, barely.

[21:00] It's striving to be emotional later on.

[21:02] Stop talking about bears.

[21:04] Instead of talking about bears pooping on Tommyknockers.

[21:06] But it's striving to be emotional later on,

[21:09] but it doesn't lay the groundwork to earn that emotion.

[21:12] And it's like, it's one of those things where it's like,

[21:14] he's like, I'm mad that dad was never there later on.

[21:17] I'm mad that dad was never there for us.

[21:18] And his younger self is like, dad comes home

[21:19] and plays baseball with us all the time.

[21:21] Like, well, you're mad that dad died.

[21:24] And he's like, I guess so.

[21:25] And that's why I hate myself.

[21:26] But why do you, like, it's his,

[21:28] and human emotions are a mysterious thing.

[21:30] You know, they don't always follow logical lines.

[21:32] But his emotions are so all over the place

[21:35] and not drawn precisely, you know.

[21:37] And even the way he handles his younger self,

[21:40] like, I don't like my younger self.

[21:42] And if I encountered my younger self,

[21:43] I would have a lot of difficulty, like,

[21:46] not, I don't know, just being in the same room.

[21:49] But it wouldn't be, I wouldn't express it through, like,

[21:51] quips and, like, telling my younger self

[21:53] how annoying I am and things like that, you know.

[21:55] Yeah, that's it.

[21:55] Like, I, yeah, I would find it very sort of embarrassing

[22:00] to be around my younger self and difficult.

[22:02] And, like, I'd be frustrated.

[22:04] But I immediately would turn off the podcast.

[22:06] The amount of, the way, yeah, as you say,

[22:10] it manifests in him just being mean to himself

[22:12] in a way that feels weird.

[22:14] It's like, dude, you know, this is you younger.

[22:18] You just showed up here on accident.

[22:20] Yeah.

[22:21] You know, be nice to this kid.

[22:22] He takes a long time before he explains.

[22:25] Into the scene.

[22:26] He takes a while before he's like,

[22:28] oh, I'm you from the future.

[22:29] And he keeps allowing his younger self

[22:31] to believe that he's just like a drifter

[22:33] with a bullet wound who just straggled in

[22:35] and has the same watch and everything.

[22:37] But anyway, he reveals that he's the same guy.

[22:39] He's old Adam who's come for young Adam.

[22:41] And old Adam's like, I meant to go back to the year 2018,

[22:44] but I ended up in the year 2022.

[22:46] And the reason he's going back to 2018

[22:49] is kind of funny later on, but I'll,

[22:51] should I spoil it now or should I bring it up

[22:53] when it comes up later?

[22:55] I don't even think I remember why.

[22:58] He wants to go back and stop something

[23:00] that happened in 2018.

[23:01] And it doesn't occur to him to go to before 2018

[23:05] to stop it.

[23:05] He has to be there exactly at the moment that it happens,

[23:08] which is dumb, which is foolish.

[23:11] Anyway, but we'll get to the specifics of that later.

[23:12] So we find out that the time jets are coded

[23:15] to a specific user's DNA.

[23:16] And since old Adam is wounded, the jet won't let him in,

[23:19] but it will let young Adam in.

[23:20] Which seems like a weird way for this jet to work.

[23:23] Can we agree on that?

[23:25] Because like-

[23:25] No, you mean the idea that a time jet,

[23:27] a very expensive piece of hardware,

[23:29] would only be able to be used by one person ever, forever?

[23:32] Well, that, but also like if you're wounded,

[23:34] like maybe you need to get back to where you came from.

[23:38] Like I understand, I mean, maybe it's a safety thing

[23:41] to keep like a jet from crashing into the ground.

[23:43] I understand, but like, I don't know.

[23:46] This doesn't seem like a safeguard that they-

[23:48] No, it seems like-

[23:49] That would handle it in a different way.

[23:50] What it seems like is an excuse for old Adam

[23:52] to bring young Adam along with him

[23:54] on his time hopping adventures.

[23:55] But you're right, it doesn't really,

[23:56] it's similar to in Judge Dredd,

[23:58] how they're like, this gun is coded to your DNA.

[24:02] Only someone with your DNA can shoot it.

[24:04] And that's how we learned that the bad guy

[24:05] is a clone of him.

[24:06] And it's like, it seems like a lot of technology

[24:09] to fit into a gun.

[24:10] Like, couldn't you just put a lock on it

[24:12] when you're not using it?

[24:13] I don't know.

[24:14] But anyway.

[24:15] Yeah.

[24:16] But this movie, it has that 90s understanding of DNA

[24:19] where DNA is just a magic thing

[24:21] that can make all sorts of things happen.

[24:22] And also the other time element

[24:25] is that they have to wait for the ship to repair itself

[24:27] because they're like,

[24:28] we don't actually wanna worry about

[24:30] them having to repair the ship.

[24:32] We'll just say that the science is good enough.

[24:34] It'll just fix itself.

[24:35] It's fine.

[24:35] It's self-repairing.

[24:36] It can detect DNA from a distance

[24:38] without actually having a sample to look at.

[24:41] It's an amazing time ship.

[24:42] So anyway, the time jet's all busted.

[24:44] They gotta wait till it fixes itself.

[24:46] Young Adam is like, old Adam, do you remember any of this?

[24:48] And old Adam is like, everyone has a fixed time.

[24:51] They're supposed to belong in.

[24:51] And when I get back to my fixed time,

[24:53] my memories will change based around what happened.

[24:56] And they're like, good enough for me.

[24:57] That explains any loopholes.

[25:00] Old Adam was-

[25:01] This is a very hand-wavy movie about time travel.

[25:03] I feel like there are two types of time travel movies.

[25:05] There are ones that make the time travel the fun part

[25:08] and be like, let's really dig into the paradoxes.

[25:10] And then there are ones that use-

[25:11] Give me an example, Dan.

[25:13] Well, I'll tell you-

[25:14] Audrey said the same thing to me.

[25:16] Well, I'll tell you.

[25:17] This movie is-

[25:17] It's like Primer, I guess,

[25:18] or something like that. Yeah, Primer.

[25:19] This movie's on a time travel continuum

[25:20] where Primer is on one end.

[25:22] It is all about time travel conundrums

[25:24] and it does not care about special effects or action.

[25:26] And this movie is on the other end

[25:27] where it doesn't really give a shit about time travel.

[25:29] It's just about special effects and action.

[25:30] It's just an excuse to have old and young Adam

[25:34] come meet each other.

[25:35] And that's fine.

[25:37] That's probably the right choice for this movie,

[25:39] but that doesn't keep me from getting annoyed

[25:42] at how hand-wavy it is

[25:44] because without any sense of the rules,

[25:46] I'm like, I guess, whatever.

[25:48] You know, sure, fine.

[25:49] To me, it's like,

[25:50] I don't need to know the rules necessarily,

[25:51] but I want the characters to feel like

[25:53] they care about anything they're doing.

[25:55] And instead, the characters are just like,

[25:57] yeah, anyway, this bad guy's coming back.

[25:58] Bada, bada, bada, bada.

[25:59] Quip, quip, quip, quip, quip, quip, quip, quip, quip.

[26:01] Oh, we need some more plot.

[26:02] Hold on, my dad's here.

[26:03] Quip, quip, quip, quip, quip, quip, quip, quip.

[26:05] And I'm like, movie, do you care what's happening

[26:07] in the movie?

[26:07] Because I don't.

[26:08] If you don't care, I don't care.

[26:10] Does not seem-

[26:10] We don't have to do this movie.

[26:12] We can just fucking chill.

[26:13] I can turn you off.

[26:14] Yeah, we can just sit here quietly.

[26:17] Just do the chill part of Netflix and chill.

[26:18] We don't have to do the Netflix part,

[26:20] but when I'm watching a movie like Horse Feathers,

[26:23] it's like, yeah,

[26:24] I just wanna see the March Brothers run around.

[26:25] I don't really care how this college works.

[26:27] When I'm watching a time travel movie,

[26:28] like where I'm supposed to feel for the characters,

[26:30] then I want the characters to feel like they feel.

[26:33] Anyway, they're gonna feel like they feel.

[26:34] Old Adam's about to have some feels.

[26:36] He's staying in the garage

[26:36] and he looks at this photo of a lady.

[26:39] It's kind of in a piece of glowy glass,

[26:41] which is funny to me

[26:42] because it's like-

[26:43] In the future.

[26:43] In the future, photograph technology is more cumbersome

[26:46] and less convenient than it is now.

[26:48] Oh, I thought that was just his phone.

[26:50] I was like-

[26:51] No, it's a photo of his wife-

[26:52] It makes much more sense if it was on his phone.

[26:54] Embedded in a piece of glass.

[26:56] You know, it's not on his phone.

[26:57] It's embedded in a piece of plastic

[26:59] and the colors are all wrong.

[27:00] Like the colors are all kind of tie-dye.

[27:03] It looks like something he got

[27:04] at the low special effects fair, you know?

[27:08] So, whatever it was called earlier.

[27:10] So-

[27:11] I would love a sci-fi movie

[27:12] where a guy in the future is like,

[27:14] well, like where Ryan Reynolds from the future comes back

[27:17] and he like has his phone.

[27:18] He's like, I can't connect to any of the internet.

[27:21] I'm like detoxing from this internet addiction I have.

[27:26] You're still using Wi-Fi?

[27:28] Oh, gosh.

[27:29] Adam's mom comes home from her date.

[27:31] Young Adam's kind of rude to her

[27:32] and old Adam watches this in anguish.

[27:34] Oh, how could he be so mean to his mom?

[27:36] Next day, mom goes to work

[27:37] and young Adam talks about how impressed he is

[27:39] that old Adam is so built.

[27:41] When does he get these muscles?

[27:42] And when does he start getting laid?

[27:45] That wasn't in the original script.

[27:46] Ryan Reynolds had that when he got attached.

[27:48] And old Adam, he gives young Adam a tough talk

[27:51] about what a jerk he is to his mom

[27:52] and how he's gonna really regret that later on.

[27:54] And they dress up old Adam in their dad's clothes

[27:57] and they go out for supplies.

[27:58] And this is one of those scenes where like

[28:00] young Adam pals around with old Adam

[28:02] and there's no reason for him to be there.

[28:04] Old Adam goes into a store.

[28:05] He goes, do you have any,

[28:06] young Adam, do you have any money?

[28:07] And then he goes into a store

[28:08] and young Adam just hangs around outside.

[28:09] And it's like, okay, I guess he,

[28:11] I don't know why he came with you.

[28:13] I guess he's just there for bullies to beat him up

[28:15] because who's there?

[28:16] Uh-oh, it's the bullies.

[28:18] And old Adam is like, young Adam, they don't wanna fight.

[28:20] So you're gonna psych them out

[28:22] and then you're gonna punch them in the nuts.

[28:23] And young Adam's like, okay, I'm gonna do it.

[28:26] And then he gets beaten up.

[28:27] And old Adam is like, you had to be beaten up.

[28:29] It'll help you become a strong man in the future.

[28:31] And then old Adam goes to bullies and goes,

[28:33] I'm creating a time conundrum here.

[28:35] But if you ever beat up young Adam again,

[28:37] I'm gonna beat you up.

[28:38] But it's like a long, it's a quippy way of doing it.

[28:41] He's like, now you're peeing yourself, aren't you?

[28:43] Wow, you're a real gusher.

[28:44] Anyway, so like, it's not really scary or intimidating.

[28:47] He's just a bigger guy.

[28:47] Is that why they're called gushers?

[28:48] Also.

[28:49] Yeah, gushers fruit candies are full of pee, yeah.

[28:51] They're full of urine.

[28:52] Well, the original ones were.

[28:54] And then during the testing,

[28:55] they were like, people love the outside.

[28:57] They don't love getting the hot splash of acidic pee

[29:00] when they bite into it.

[29:01] It's more of a niche audience.

[29:03] And they go, what if we put fruit juice inside?

[29:06] Well, we already made the commercial.

[29:07] Take a look.

[29:08] And in the commercial, kids' heads turn into gushers

[29:10] and then pee spurts out.

[29:11] And they go, well, we're gonna have

[29:12] to make a new commercial.

[29:13] Like we can't sell people candy with pee.

[29:15] You like the drooping Bob Gugioni Jr.

[29:19] Yeah, Bob Gugioni was sure that was the future of candy.

[29:23] Nothing like poop and pee podcasting.

[29:26] Please support us, Max Fondra.

[29:27] No, please support us.

[29:29] How else would we continue to do our research

[29:30] into the strange obsessions during the 80s

[29:33] of penthouse founder, Bob Gugioni,

[29:35] who at a certain point was convinced

[29:36] that cold fusion and golden showers

[29:38] were the future of America?

[29:41] Speaking though, to get off pee for just a second.

[29:46] This is infuriating for a couple of different reasons.

[29:48] Number one, as you say, first he's like,

[29:50] you had to be beaten up.

[29:52] And then he keeps the bully from ever beating him up again.

[29:56] So it's like, what, what were you just saying?

[29:58] You just contradicted yourself.

[30:00] within the minute, but also it's one of these time conundrums, like what I'm talking about,

[30:09] like the fact that this movie doesn't seem to care about time except for when it decides to,

[30:15] except for at this moment, he's like, you always had to be beaten up, we can't interfere with you

[30:19] getting beaten up. It's like, I don't think so. If we change a single beating, it could ruin the

[30:26] future. It's also one of those movies where people are like, we can't do anything to change the past

[30:31] and then everything they do to change the past makes the future immeasurably better.

[30:37] So young Adam, he shows, he finds the picture of that lady and old Adam says, that was my wife,

[30:42] Laura, but I don't have her anymore. Old Adam goes to a bar because if you're trying not to

[30:47] change the past, you got to get drunk and old Adam finds and young Adam's mom shows up and old

[30:54] Adam reassures her that her son will stop trying to be a jerk someday and will really care about

[30:59] her and how he really misses their dad and young Adam needs to know that mom hurts too. And it is

[31:04] really starting to edge into mom falls in love with her own son from the future territory.

[31:11] Is your name Calvin Klein? Feels like they're about to start making it.

[31:17] But luckily, Ryan Reynolds, I think sensing that that is going to happen,

[31:20] walks out of the bar and she chases after him, but he's gone. But meanwhile, we've got real

[31:25] trouble right here in River Time City. A time jet lands. Who's in it? Catherine Keener. That's

[31:30] right. The evil queen of the future, Maya Sorian, a character whose name they just start using in

[31:35] the middle of the movie. And I was like, wait, who are they talking about? Also, they talk about

[31:39] Sorian all this time. I'm like, oh, God, like the future. Everyone has these like stupid,

[31:43] so cool name, stupid like sci fi names. But then like she's a character back in this time

[31:50] as well, obviously. And we meet her as like a relatively normal person. And I'm just like,

[31:56] but your name still. Yeah, I mean, I was lucky enough. I was watching with the subtitles on.

[32:02] Otherwise, I would have heard the name Sorian. I'm like, this is going to be this sick ass

[32:06] dinosaur. Yeah, she's well, ethnically dinosaur, but culturally not. That's the thing. Yeah. But

[32:12] yeah, it does. You do think it's going to be a dino person from the future, but it's not.

[32:16] Sorian Sorian and her and her henchman Christos have come in from the future with a bunch of

[32:23] armored stormtroopers. Oh, and old Adam, he explains the young man about his wife,

[32:27] Laura. They were both pilots. She died on a time jump to twenty eighteen.

[32:32] And that's why he's trying to get to her there. And he thinks maybe Sorian had her killed

[32:35] because she knew too much about Sorian being an evil warlord of the future. And old Adams

[32:40] tells young Adam that their dad invented time travel. It's the Adam project. And that moment

[32:45] when he goes, our dad invented time travel, it was like you didn't even lay the groundwork that

[32:49] your dad was a scientist yet. Like the movie is so it feels like the movie is just making it up as

[32:54] it goes along. And like everything is so incredibly convenient where it's like by the end of it,

[32:59] you're like, wait a minute. So the two time travelers are married. Their dad invented

[33:03] time travel. Their dad's the time travelers wife. Their dad's business partner is the evil villain

[33:08] of the future. Like, yeah, it's getting to a he didn't he didn't become a time traveler directly.

[33:14] No, he he like flunked out of college and then became a pilot, went to the Air Force.

[33:20] Yeah. And then they're like, you know what? There's why not? There's opportunities in time

[33:25] traveling. If I look up my old pal Sorian, my business partner. Yeah. I mean, it is it's a

[33:31] rise of Skywalker. Don't worry. You know, there's only one important family in the universe type

[33:35] thing. Yeah. But anyway, I mean, to be honest, nepotism is the only way Ryan Reynolds is getting

[33:40] into that pilot program because he's one of these every movie has. Have you seen him?

[33:44] I mean, it's incredible. But every movie has this pilot where it's like, you know what? He doesn't

[33:50] follow any rules. He's not look smart, but he's a damn good pilot. And when you look at pilots,

[33:55] they all have college degrees. They're all very well. Like that. I mean, pilot Ryan Reynolds is

[34:01] supposed to be smart, although the movie like forgets it at a lot of points. Like,

[34:05] I think that he's also supposed to be, you know, Mr. Science, the science, although they

[34:11] his life of a lifetime of drinking beer has made him less intelligent.

[34:15] Yeah. Yeah. Bottery has made him has given him a non-sciencey thinking disease. But if you've

[34:22] ever said I think if you think they had him grow a beard so that people didn't confuse him with his

[34:26] younger self, well, he's got those boys good looks, you know. And I think at the end, I think

[34:35] they de-age him a little bit for a scene at the end. I'm not sure. But I was reading the I was

[34:40] reading the information about this later. We'll see young Catherine Keener. And I was reading

[34:43] a thing where on IMDb they go instead of using de-aging technology, they used deep fake technology

[34:49] to create the young Catherine Keener. And I was like, I don't know that we should be pouring

[34:53] money and resources into developing that technology. I don't know. I think Maya Sorian

[34:58] is going to find a way to use it to take over the world. But anyway. Yeah. So anyway, they

[35:04] they don't have time. So now Netflix can just put Catherine Keener in every fucking movie now,

[35:08] right? Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I wouldn't complain. I wouldn't mind that Catherine Keener is great.

[35:14] I mean, she was in she was in Nailed Slash Accidental Love and she and she was still

[35:18] pretty good in that. True. So the I remember I think the first time I ever saw her in a movie

[35:24] was being John Malkovich. And I just remember being like, I think this is the coolest actress

[35:27] I've ever seen. Like, yeah, she's just so amazing in that movie. And so these armored troops attack.

[35:33] They don't have time to die. We don't have time to digest the knowledge that their dad was a

[35:36] time traveling inventing scientist because the armored troops attack. Old Adam fights them a

[35:40] while. He's a master of hand to hand combat, as all pilots are. I use lots of future weapons.

[35:45] Yes. Take a moment to talk about his fighting, because I feel like among the many things wrong

[35:52] with this movie, this, I think, is it is a big flaw, a big problem, like because he fights as

[35:59] if he may as well be like Black Widow. Like he is. Yes. Superhero level fighting. And for the movie,

[36:06] they're trying to make this kind of, you know, sci fi throwback comedy, heartfelt family

[36:14] reuniting thing. Like it would be so much better if like, yeah, he can be good at fighting. He

[36:19] should not be like super level fighting. He should use his smarts to outwit these guys rather than

[36:26] like, you know, kung fu or. Yeah, exactly. He should be like me at the beginning of playing

[36:31] Jedi Knight Fallen Order rather than me at the end of playing Jedi Knight Fallen Order. I assume

[36:36] that's true. There's an old there's an old adage that I think of superhero comics that's mostly

[36:42] been forgotten in a lot of ways, which is that the villain should be more powerful than the hero.

[36:46] It means a lot more when the hero defeats the villain who is more powerful. What about a racer,

[36:51] dude? Arnold Schwarzenegger fights old James. That's what I'm saying. It does. Well, he fights

[36:58] a croc. A giant crocodile is tougher than Arnold Schwarzenegger, except that he says

[37:02] your luggage and he shoots him right in the mouth and kills him. But but like the only weak spot,

[37:06] this is what but I feel like a lot of action in a lot of action adventure movies. Now,

[37:10] the heroes are so good at everything that it's never really in doubt that they're going to win.

[37:16] And you start feeling bad for these nameless stormtroopers who are getting killed left and

[37:20] right by heroes integrated with a bullet wound is fighting still like an amazing guy. And it

[37:24] reminds me of like what's one of the great things about Indiana Jones is that Indiana Jones knows

[37:29] just enough to get himself into trouble that he can barely get himself out of like he is just a

[37:34] good enough fighter to be facing. He has it's the Peter principle where he has reached the level of

[37:39] his incompetence like he is. He's good enough to get to the place where he is in real trouble.

[37:44] And I feel like in movies now, most of the time, the hero never reaches that point where they I

[37:48] feel like they're in genuine danger, you know, where they have to push themselves harder to do

[37:52] something. It's just so easy and everyone's so so slick at it, you know. And so let's talk about

[37:57] some more things. So he's got he's got this crazy lightsaber thing that allows him to do some kind

[38:02] of A.O.E. slam attack that just does no damage to his companions, only to enemies. I mean,

[38:07] it's a pretty good amount of the weapon knows who is your friend and who is not. And it blows your

[38:12] enemies back. It's a pretty good who's probably bones would be liquefied by the shockwave of this

[38:17] thing. He's not wearing armor. He's fine. I assume it was the armor that it targeted somehow,

[38:22] but it is dumb. Sure. Specifically, his bones would be liquefied, not turned into dust where

[38:28] all the future people are turned into dust, because if you're killed in a timeline that is

[38:32] not your specific timeline, you you turn it you poof into a cloud of dust like you're one of the

[38:36] many vamps that is killed by Blade. But it makes me wonder, like, I love that, you know, about,

[38:41] you know, about Infinity War and yet you are not going there for disappearing into dust.

[38:45] You're sticking with Blade. Do you think he's seen Infinity War? He knows there's a more recent

[38:51] turning into dust reference. Do you think if Ryan Reynolds like bled out from that stomach wound,

[38:56] all of a sudden he would just pop to dust? I think so. I think he would turn into dust like

[39:01] Michael Jackson in the Remember the Time video. That's right. I'm going to an older reference

[39:05] than Stewart's. Dan, find an older reference than that of someone turning into dust. I mean,

[39:09] the only one I have is Buffy. That's also vampires. Does he turn into dust after he sings

[39:13] a song about how he used to bang the king's wife? Yes. Or is that before? I think he comes from dust

[39:19] from dust. We come from dust and to dust we shall return. So he comes from dust. He sings a song

[39:22] about how I used to bang your wife and they disappear. Oh, man, they dips. Whatever, man.

[39:28] Yeah. Yeah. He's anyway. So so they're fighting, fighting, fighting. They fight. They fight. They

[39:34] fight and fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight the Adam Project.

[39:37] And who's going to show up to save them when Christos starts beating on old Adam? That's right.

[39:43] Laura's back. How she knows that at that exact moment they need help, why she didn't show up

[39:47] before then doesn't matter. We don't know. It's for maximum needle drop because that's when the

[39:52] song starts playing. And it's what Led Zeppelin song that starts playing there. And and so they

[39:58] run off to get she's shooting guns because of.

[40:00] course she's also a super badass fighter. They run off together, there's a time jet

[40:03] car chase, blah blah blah, explosions, soldiers on hover pads. It's a real

[40:08] indoor speeder chase scene. And you said you mean indoor like the end or the

[40:14] planet. Not indoor, like it's an indoor speeder chase because they're outdoors the

[40:18] entire time. It is it is it is clearly meant to evoke the speeders in in Return

[40:26] of the Jedi. Maybe it's maybe it's because we just saw Masters of the

[40:28] Universe, but I think it might be meant to evoke the armored stormtroopers on

[40:32] floating mods in Masters of the Universe. I think you're right actually. And IMDB

[40:37] gives the credit they say it's meant to evoke the Back to the Future part 2

[40:40] hoverboards. So they're stealing from a rich stew of references from

[40:45] the 1980s. So they go to Laura's shack, not a love shack, she's there

[40:50] by herself, where she's hidden a lot of guns. Well it becomes a love shack briefly. I do

[40:54] love that she's been on this earth for four years at this point. In this

[41:00] time yeah. In this timeline and she has managed to like her hideout is this like

[41:05] super amazing view Airbnb Instagram shack. Like the perfect place like man let me

[41:11] move there. Yeah well you know she bought it when when she bought it she appeared

[41:16] here in 2018. Four years ago oh yeah. Four years ago she goes I know there's a housing

[41:20] recession coming, I know COVID's gonna hit, I'm gonna buy a real estate while

[41:24] it's good. And I know values are gonna skyrocket. So that's her

[41:28] retirement package I guess. But yeah it's a beautiful house and she says look we

[41:33] know I know that Sorian went back in time to this year to get to 2018 rather

[41:37] to give control of the time machine technology to her younger self. And she

[41:42] gave her lots of knowledge about companies to invest in to become a

[41:45] billionaire so that she could fund time travel technology, steal the technology.

[41:49] Yes it's all Sports Almanac stuff. They could give it to Mark Ruffalo or they

[41:54] could take it from Mark Ruffalo and win the future. And Laura's like I went back

[41:57] to investigate I did survive an assassination attempt but it trapped me

[42:00] in the past. And they do it while young Adam strolls around the beach and then. I

[42:06] thought it was wild I mean like I understand like he thought she was dead

[42:10] as he reunited with his wife like they're gonna want to do it which is

[42:15] what they do. But I also but I still thought it was wild that they just let

[42:20] young Adam wander around where he could easily be killed by the bad guy. Or by her own

[42:26] security devices which as we learn are all around the house. The thing is that in

[42:31] 2050 Dan parents let their kids just go outside and play. Yeah so they just have

[42:35] different values. Well you know Japan is the wave of the future and Netflix also

[42:38] has that show from Japan where toddlers go out to run errands. So in 2050 America

[42:43] is there too where kids are just allowed to wander freely you know. This I haven't

[42:48] watched that. Every time I open up Netflix it starts pre-playing that two-year-old girl

[42:52] going on an errand and a guy going like what are you doing today? And the

[42:56] narrator is uproariously laughing at the idea of a person talking to a two-year-old.

[43:00] It makes no sense to me. I don't it's a I don't understand the joke. But anyway

[43:03] maybe I have to watch the show I guess. They do it they do the thing I hate

[43:08] movies where they're making out furiously and they stop to say hi to

[43:10] each other. Fuck that nobody does that that's stupid. Anyway have you guys ever

[43:14] stopped sex in the middle to say hot to look into the eyes of your partner and

[43:18] then say hi? I do all kinds of shit. I'm not I'm not a big fan of the romantic

[43:31] sexual high in the middle of lovemaking. Yeah I wouldn't say that. It is a process in

[43:38] order to create a child. Yeah and I should and I should already know this

[43:42] person. But no I think it's I just I've never found myself it just seems

[43:46] cloying to me in the movies. Maybe it's what it's missing from my love play. I'll

[43:51] try it tonight. I'll try stopping in the middle and I'll say hi. Never say love play again. Okay well I'll stop in the middle of my. It's like that James Bond movie never say love play again. I'll stop in the middle of my sex

[44:06] venturing to say hi. I imagine you with a walking stick and a backpack. A rucksack. Yeah a rucksack filled with Popeye's chicken. I put the lust in Wanderlust. And for the additional protein to help keep him charged. Well I mean the thing is this is what Sting doesn't tell you about his

[44:24] tantric lovemaking is that you need to eat part of the way through. You're doing it

[44:28] for hours. You're gonna get hungry and that's why I always keep a box of chicken

[44:32] next to me. Yeah yeah and we're so we're like or at the very least trail mix. At

[44:36] the very least shove some trail mix in your mouth. Mid thrust. Anyway so this is the maximum

[44:40] pleasure drive I should mention. So Laura Laura tells old Adam to go back. You've got to go

[44:45] back and stop this time travel from being invented. And old Adam's like but that means

[44:49] we'll never meet at the time travel academy. And Laura goes it's got to be done. We just

[44:54] had amazing mind blowing. We said hi to each other in the middle sex. But that has to be

[44:58] sacrificed for the future of the future. And guys on that cliffhanger are they going to

[45:03] go back into the past to stop Zorian. Let's talk about the max fun drive again. And now

[45:08] as we mentioned earlier what is the max fun drive you're probably asking. Well that's

[45:12] the time of year when we the hosts of your favorite maximum fun shows and also the other

[45:16] maximum fun shows that are not your favorites. We take a moment to say hey thank you for

[45:21] supporting us. We couldn't do this without you and we need your help to continue. This

[45:26] is the one time of year where we as a member supported network take time out of our shows

[45:31] to say hey we're glad you're members. Here's how you can be a member if you're not a member.

[45:37] And you know what I'm just going to put it all out there on the table. This podcast started

[45:40] as a hobby but each of us hosts has had at different times the past couple of years a

[45:45] time when this was our main source of income. This is no longer just like a thing we do

[45:49] for laughs. And if we get a few dollars from it we're like that's amazing. This is great.

[45:53] This is something that's become a real part of our lives in a very real sense but in a

[45:58] good way too not just in a we need money way which is why we're extra thankful. We

[46:02] extra need the money but we're extra thankful for all of you who have been pledging in the

[46:06] past and we're extra hopeful that more of you will join or upgrade and pledge now. Dan

[46:11] what were you going to say? No I just want to say like yeah the gratefulness but also

[46:15] like I do need I really need the money. Dan why are you gripping my arms? You're leaving

[46:22] a mark. I've done a little freelance work here and there but this is currently my

[46:28] income so please if you like me in any way you know maybe support the show. Dan said to me years

[46:36] ago I said Dan what's your ideal job and he goes I guess if I could do the flop house as a full

[46:39] time job and maybe you were holding a monkey's paw because you got that wish but not in the way

[46:43] you intended. So anyway continue your pitch. Thank you. We're going to just say will you

[46:49] please join us as a member? If you're already a member will you please consider upgrading? And

[46:53] you can join, upgrade, you can boost your membership or you can buy a gift membership.

[46:57] A gift membership. I said gift membership but I meant gift membership. A gelfling membership.

[47:03] A gelfling membership. You can buy a gift membership for a friend or even an anonymous

[47:06] max funster who can't afford a membership themselves. They don't have to be a gelfling

[47:10] but they can be. Just go to maximumfun.org join. Again that's maximumfun.org join. Membership

[47:16] start at only five dollars a month and right at that five dollars a month you get access to all

[47:20] of our bonus content. We've got a lot of bonus content over the years. This year we've got a

[47:24] very special one. Listeners may know that we were running some brackets online so that you the

[47:30] listeners could vote on what movie we would do a full length audio commentary for. Well we did it.

[47:35] We just actually recorded it a couple days before this recording. So much fun. It was so much fun.

[47:39] We recorded a commentary for the movie Cats. We brought in our good friends Natalie Walker and

[47:43] Jenny Jaffe who joined us for that episode. They joined us again for it and it was so much fun

[47:47] to re-share Cats with them and we know you're going to enjoy listening to us

[47:51] giddy over so many moments in that movie. I gotta say, you know, over here on the east

[47:55] coast of the Flophouse, Audrey got some great video of Stuart and me and Natalie

[48:02] watching the movie with our headphones on and reacting to it. Particularly Natalie's excitement.

[48:11] Not to spoil it but there's a moment where Natalie remembers that Skimbleshanks will

[48:14] come up later in the movie and her delight is infectious. But I will share a few of those

[48:20] videos on the Flophouse Instagram and Twitter and such. But we've also got years of other bonus

[48:25] content. You've listened to it. We did some special episodes about TV shows. We played a

[48:29] number of role-playing games that Stuart led us through. I think we're going to do some more at

[48:32] some point. We might. We'll definitely do some more at some point. There's hours and hours of

[48:36] bonus content that you will have access to in addition to this year's new bonus content,

[48:39] the full-length Cats commentary. Now as we said, some of our members can afford more than others.

[48:43] That's where those gift memberships come in. With a gift membership, you can help someone else gain

[48:47] access to all that great content while also getting that amazing, warm, smug feeling that we all love

[48:52] that comes from helping someone else and being like, yeah, I did that. They owe me but they'll

[48:56] never find out why. And if you buy a gift membership, does the recipient get that bonus

[49:00] content? Yes, they do. So thank you so much everybody for joining. And the most important

[49:06] thing is knowing that we need this money and also that we appreciate that you're giving us this

[49:10] money, that you're supporting artists like us that you like. But in addition, wait, is there

[49:15] more than the bonus content? That's right. We've got a couple of go-go-go-goals. That's right,

[49:19] not go-go-go-ghosts, but go-go-go-goals. Don't be afraid of them. And if we reach 1,900 new or

[49:26] upgrading members, and again, we're thankful to all of our members who stick with us even if you

[49:30] don't upgrade. But if you do upgrade or you join with us, if you have 1,900 people, we will do

[49:35] another one of our kind of raffle drawings. We did these last year, I think. We'll do another

[49:39] raffle drawing where we'll pick random names from our donors, from our pledgers,

[49:44] and you will get a special giveaway from one of us. I'm going to give away some signed Maniac

[49:49] of New York comic books like I did last year. You guys, what do you plan on giving away?

[49:54] Last year I did drawings. I was kind of open, I said, of a character.

[50:00] You want, I, I'm going to this year, I think I'm going to be like, if, uh, if

[50:04] there's a movie, if there's a movie, you like a particular movie that you like

[50:09] your favorite movie, I'll do a drawing of a scene from it or a character from it.

[50:15] And, uh, make it, make it thematic to the flop house.

[50:19] Uh, and those will be Dan McCoy originals.

[50:21] And you heard him, you Sonic pregnant, the movie,

[50:26] and I think I got some merch.

[50:27] I own a couple of bars and all those bars have merch.

[50:30] So something might come your way.

[50:32] So you get some special personalized stuff from the flop house.

[50:34] It'd be great.

[50:35] That's if we reach 1,900 new and, uh, upgrading members, we'll have a raffle

[50:39] of all our donors and we'll send those out.

[50:42] Uh, goal two, there's another goal.

[50:44] If we reach 2,300 new and upgrading members, that's only 400

[50:47] the more than the previous goal.

[50:48] We're going to do another movie commentary.

[50:50] That's right.

[50:51] It's going to be, was this, I think this was the second place winner,

[50:53] the runner up in the, in the brackets.

[50:55] Country bears.

[50:56] That's right.

[50:57] We'll do a full length country bears, audio commentary that you can, you know,

[51:01] just play it while you watch the movie and it'll be hilarious.

[51:03] I mean, for a second, I saw Elliot's face and I thought he was about to say

[51:06] food fight and it would have crushed me.

[51:08] Well, well, I don't know, Stu, because here comes goal number three,

[51:11] goal number two, if we reach 2,300, we'll do that country bears commentary.

[51:14] Goal number three.

[51:15] If we reach, if we, if we, if we reach 3,000 new and upgrading members, we are

[51:23] going to do quarterly movie commentaries every three months for the year.

[51:27] We'll do a movie commentary.

[51:29] You know, one of them's going to have to be food fight.

[51:31] Sorry, Stu, it's going to happen, but only if we reach 3,000 new and

[51:35] upgrading members, torture Stu, show him your love by torturing him with food fight.

[51:39] So please go to maximumfund.org slash join right now.

[51:42] Don't wait to do it.

[51:43] Do it right now.

[51:43] I'm going to have another pitch for you in a little bit, just in case you forget,

[51:46] but please join right now.

[51:48] Maximumfund.org slash join.

[51:50] And we now return to the Adam project already in progress.

[51:52] So Dan, for anyone who, uh, was, is going to pause the tape to go join at

[51:58] maximumfund.org slash join, can you please explain where we are in the Adam project?

[52:02] Uh, well, we've, uh, learned that Zoe Saldana is, uh, still alive, but not,

[52:08] not for long, or did we do that part yet?

[52:13] No, we didn't do that part yet, but she, and, uh, and the Adams are

[52:16] going to go off and, uh, fix history.

[52:19] And I gotta say, I texted you something to this effect, but like the first act of

[52:24] this movie is, you know, junk food, but I wasn't minding it that much.

[52:29] Like, uh, I was like, uh, this is not such a great movie.

[52:34] Like I don't enjoy the constant stream of quips back and forth, but there's a

[52:40] certain charm to Ryan Reynolds, like just bumming around with his younger self, uh,

[52:47] in his life that the, that once the plot of the movie actually kicks in, I feel like the

[52:53] quality of this film drops precipitously.

[52:55] I feel like as soon as any action happens, I lose any interest in what's going on in

[53:02] this movie.

[53:03] And that's where we're at, where the action starts.

[53:06] Thank you so much for that update.

[53:08] And also that personal story about how you feel, I think that's really lovely.

[53:12] Yeah, it really makes it, it brings it home.

[53:14] So, okay, uh, they go off.

[53:16] So the baddies, they show up, uh oh, they found Laura's survival shack and she's like

[53:20] old and young Adam leave, save the day.

[53:22] And while she becomes a quipping badass and is just like, boom and stuff blows up and

[53:27] you know, whatever.

[53:27] Uh, eventually the young, the Adams, uh, jump back in time, uh, in the jet.

[53:32] And then Sorian kills Laura.

[53:33] She just shoots her with her jet lasers.

[53:35] Uh, the Adams get chased by Sorian and Christos.

[53:38] And I couldn't tell here if this, they had already jumped back in time or not.

[53:41] Uh, but they pull some fancy maneuvers to hide and then they jump back to 2018.

[53:45] So I was like, Oh, I guess they didn't jump back yet.

[53:47] Okay.

[53:48] Um, the important thing is they jump back to 2018.

[53:51] They go and audit their dad's class at college.

[53:53] And we see that Mark Ruffalo is one of those cool professors who is pretty quippy with

[53:58] his students and only talks about the most broadest principles of the subject.

[54:02] There's all these equations on the board behind him.

[54:04] And he's just like, Hey, the thing about physics is you'll never see the end of it.

[54:08] You're going to do your work and future generations will build on it long after you're

[54:12] dead.

[54:12] Anyway, that's my time.

[54:13] Got to go, everybody.

[54:14] I'm getting the light.

[54:15] Yeah.

[54:15] That part also annoyed me because he's like, he's like giving the message.

[54:19] He's telling them like, Hey, don't be afraid of failure.

[54:21] Like failure is good.

[54:23] You're not going to get anywhere without failing first.

[54:25] And I'm like, this is a great message.

[54:27] Mark Ruffalo that absolutely would not be taught in the middle of like a math class.

[54:32] No.

[54:32] And then he says, he goes, as the Romans said, it's later than you think.

[54:37] And Ryan Reynolds goes, actually, that's from a song.

[54:39] And he's like, well, it is from that song.

[54:41] But the Romans said it first.

[54:43] So it's every dad's dream of their son trying to correct them.

[54:45] And then them double correcting their son.

[54:47] Yeah.

[54:48] When it happens, it's a sterling thing.

[54:51] They walk in and see their dad.

[54:54] And there is, I feel like it felt like five minutes of just shots of their faces and like

[55:00] music swells.

[55:01] And I'm like, who loves their fucking dad?

[55:04] Well, but they needed all of those shots back and forth, because that's how like Mark Ruffalo

[55:10] like immediately instantly.

[55:13] These are both his son.

[55:15] And it's crazy.

[55:16] It's like if you ask, I spend a lot of time wondering, what is my what are my kids going

[55:20] to look?

[55:20] What my son's going to look like when they're older?

[55:22] Because I wouldn't have guessed that my son looks my older son would look the way he is

[55:26] now when he was a baby.

[55:27] Although I have to admit, he looks just like his grandfather when his grandfather was a

[55:30] kid.

[55:30] So that was kind of a gimme.

[55:32] And and the younger one looks like I looked when I was his age.

[55:35] But it's like, I wonder who what kind of person is he going to be?

[55:37] What is he going to look like?

[55:38] And yet, if you look at everything, no, no, yeah, you got to learn that lesson.

[55:43] They are in my family.

[55:44] We're a family of famous models, too.

[55:47] Yeah, the famous Modeling Academy.

[55:50] That's all.

[55:50] It's family.

[55:51] Yeah.

[55:51] And if my if my son is a grown up walked up to me, I wouldn't be like, Sammy, I would

[55:56] be like, who's this man?

[55:57] What's going on?

[55:58] I don't know who this man is.

[55:59] Can I help you?

[56:01] Guy Lombardo.

[56:03] Because because because he has the same musical interest as the characters in Guys and Dolls.

[56:08] Yeah, but the so that he immediately goes, you're Adam, aren't you?

[56:13] This is about time travel, isn't it?

[56:15] And it's so funny that the movie is like, whatever.

[56:18] Who cares?

[56:19] Like they just pick it up.

[56:20] We don't want to waste time confusing or convincing him.

[56:23] And they do.

[56:25] What is the funniest thing to me in this movie, which is they're walking across the campus

[56:30] talking very loudly about how they're from the future and how time travel is creating

[56:34] all these paradoxes.

[56:35] And then they start punching each other in the face for some reason.

[56:38] And nobody on the quad notices, cares, listens.

[56:42] If if my professor was walking around having a loud argument with someone and then they

[56:46] started punching each other, I would at the very least run over to see if he was OK.

[56:50] Yeah.

[56:53] Get that shit, send it right over to what is New York?

[56:56] You'd upload you upload it to YouTube with it with the title.

[56:59] This professor, this professor met his son from the future and you'll never guess what

[57:03] happens next.

[57:05] It's also this case of like Mark Ruffalo immediately is like super principled, can't mess with

[57:13] the time stream.

[57:15] Yeah.

[57:15] Arguing does not let any word in edgewise at first.

[57:20] And then but then which like, OK, fine, it feels contrived, but fine.

[57:24] But then as soon as he learns what the future is like and what's going on, he's still like,

[57:31] yeah, but we should probably just let it happen like that.

[57:34] Reminds me, there's all these stories where like someone goes back in time and kills Hitler

[57:38] as a child and then an even worse dictator arises.

[57:41] And it's like, hmm, I kind of get what you're saying.

[57:44] But at the same time, I don't really think there's anybody worse than that.

[57:47] Like this seems like an unlikely this is an unlikely argument for not killing Hitler.

[57:52] So when they're like, hey, your boss went back in time and became Hitler and he's like,

[57:56] we shouldn't change anything.

[57:57] It's like, I don't know.

[57:59] It's a worst case scenario.

[58:03] If you go back in time to kill Hitler and then a worse guy comes, I think the answer

[58:06] is really clear.

[58:07] You just go back in time, kill back, go back and kill that.

[58:09] Yeah.

[58:09] My best thing about time travel is that you kill as a baby.

[58:13] Here's the secret.

[58:13] Here's the look.

[58:14] Here's the secret to anyone wondering.

[58:16] Everyone started as a baby.

[58:17] You can always go back to when a bad guy was a baby.

[58:20] There's no bad guy that that Benjamin Button came out as Hitler.

[58:23] They are always a baby first.

[58:24] Elliot.

[58:24] Also, I now I want you to write a book.

[58:27] But it's like a like, you know, one of those like gift books that just have like,

[58:32] like, like, I don't know, like a deep thoughts or whatever.

[58:35] Unlikely reasons for not killing Hitler.

[58:39] One of the unlikeliest reasons.

[58:42] It's also it always bugs me when they go back to kill Hitler in stories and he's a baby

[58:46] and they're like, I can't do it.

[58:47] It's not fair to kill him before he's committed his crimes.

[58:49] It's like, uh, do it.

[58:51] Like, come on, everybody.

[58:52] Like, he's got the mustache.

[58:54] You know who he is.

[58:55] He's a baby with a mustache.

[58:57] He's not going to change, right?

[58:59] This isn't Minority Report where we're guessing at what the future is going to be like.

[59:03] He had free will.

[59:04] He used it in the worst way possible.

[59:06] Let's just take him off the board, shall we?

[59:07] So I guess I'm saying is if you if you have a time machine, you're thinking about killing

[59:11] Hitler, but you're squeamish about suffocating a baby.

[59:14] Tag me in.

[59:15] Send me out.

[59:16] I'll just go do it.

[59:17] That's fine.

[59:18] You know, if they if you're worried about changing the future for you, I will.

[59:23] Yeah, just yeah, exactly.

[59:24] Look me up.

[59:26] This is why I should get on TaskRabbit.

[59:27] I'm not on it, but I should get on it and I'll and I'll say skills killing baby Hitler

[59:32] and then nothing else.

[59:35] Anyway, so they're talking to him and he feels guilty about creating the technology that

[59:39] Sorin uses to become the future Lady Hitler.

[59:42] But he's like, hey, but you guys need to leave.

[59:43] We can't have any more time conundrums.

[59:45] And old old Adam really resents dad and young Adam just wants some time with him.

[59:50] And and dad is like, no, we can't do it.

[59:52] And don't tell me about when I die.

[59:54] And this is when I was like, why didn't they go back to before Sorin showed up?

[59:57] Why did they go back to the year that she showed?

[1:00:00] It doesn't really, again, go back to when Sorian was a baby and take care of it.

[1:00:04] Yeah, go back when there isn't a ticking clock.

[1:00:06] Like when you have a little bit more time, you can deal with this shit.

[1:00:10] Old Sorian visits Young Sorian and Young Sorian is like, I'm feeling kind of weird about all

[1:00:14] the stock tips you've been giving me.

[1:00:16] And Old Sorian's like, well, that's too bad because we need to go kill a kid.

[1:00:19] So drink up.

[1:00:21] And so Young Adam and Old Adam have a heart to heart and Old Adam's like, I'm mad that

[1:00:26] Dad was never around.

[1:00:27] And Young Adam is like, Dad was around a lot.

[1:00:29] You're mad that Dad died and you're remembering it was worse than he was.

[1:00:32] So you feel less sad about it.

[1:00:34] And it's easier to be angry than sad.

[1:00:36] And that's what I'm learning.

[1:00:37] And Old Adam is like, hey, you're right.

[1:00:39] He's wise beyond his years because he's met himself from the future.

[1:00:42] And Dad is anxious about his sons.

[1:00:44] So the next day he talks to Jennifer Garner about it.

[1:00:48] And she's like, hey, you don't need to be a perfect dad.

[1:00:50] You just need to be there for your son.

[1:00:52] And the mom, who has not been quippy up to this point, is extremely quippy here.

[1:00:56] And I'm like, oh, that's where he gets it.

[1:00:58] I understand the old old and young Adams.

[1:01:01] They go to the Sorian headquarters to blow up the time reactor.

[1:01:05] It is weirdly deserted.

[1:01:06] Nobody seems to work there.

[1:01:07] Maybe they went on Yom Kippur.

[1:01:09] I don't know if there was Christmas or something like there's nobody there.

[1:01:13] You know, they they got Cesar Chavez day off.

[1:01:15] Great. OK, good.

[1:01:16] There's nobody at work today.

[1:01:17] And but the bad guys show up from the future.

[1:01:20] Young Adam, does he use his video game skills to pilot a drone to blow bad guys?

[1:01:24] You bet he does.

[1:01:25] Does it hit him at any point that he is murdering people?

[1:01:27] And their blood is on his hands or their dust?

[1:01:29] Nope. That is one of the wild things is how quickly they escalate

[1:01:34] to like just straight murdering.

[1:01:35] No, no. Denise Richards is one of the wild things.

[1:01:38] That's true.

[1:01:39] She is one of the wild things.

[1:01:40] Wait, so the movie where the wild things are.

[1:01:42] Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[1:01:43] That's OK.

[1:01:44] So the movie and book where the wild things are is about a kid going to an island

[1:01:48] where Neve Campbell and Denise Richards live.

[1:01:50] That's correct.

[1:01:50] And Kevin Bacon's dad.

[1:01:52] And then the wild rumpus.

[1:01:53] OK, so the wild rumpus is very different than I thought it was.

[1:01:57] That is some very erotic rumpus.

[1:01:59] He's so funny.

[1:02:00] Maurice and why are you looking at me?

[1:02:02] You know, more like you haven't seen.

[1:02:05] Well, yeah, more.

[1:02:06] Maurice Sendak is talking to is talking to his publisher and they're like,

[1:02:09] you got to change the scene where this kid pours champagne all over

[1:02:12] Denise Richards breasts like we can't have this.

[1:02:14] And he's like, but I was going to work with the Gushers people.

[1:02:17] We had a big contract.

[1:02:19] Anyway, so they're at the HQ and it looks like old Adam

[1:02:24] is going to be killed when a car sideswipes him and and smashes

[1:02:28] into another car, thus causing the bad guys to disappear.

[1:02:31] It's Mark Ruffalo.

[1:02:32] That's right.

[1:02:32] Dad showed up at the exact moment he needed to be there.

[1:02:35] Yeah, killing people.

[1:02:37] Everyone does.

[1:02:37] People think they're there.

[1:02:39] Look, they're a family.

[1:02:40] They're in love and they kill people.

[1:02:41] And there's also a moment when young Adam used the drone to blast some baddies.

[1:02:46] And again, blast them with an attack does not hurt old Adam at all.

[1:02:51] Doesn't touch him. Just kills only baddies.

[1:02:53] It's pretty impressive.

[1:02:54] And young Adam says, I'm definitely keeping this when this is over.

[1:02:57] And it's like, wait, you're keeping a drone you use to murder people.

[1:03:00] That's not OK.

[1:03:01] That's not something you should have.

[1:03:03] You're a kid.

[1:03:04] Nobody. I mean, adults shouldn't have that.

[1:03:06] As The New York Times made clear in a in a special report today.

[1:03:09] Thank you, boy. Yeah, makes me very unhappy.

[1:03:11] But anyway, the but anyway, dad shows up and he's like, look, as a team,

[1:03:14] as a family, we're not going to we're going to destroy the hard drive

[1:03:17] that has the only copy of the time travel algorithm on it.

[1:03:20] That's what's going to save the day.

[1:03:22] But while they're there, Sorian shows up old and new and they demand the drive.

[1:03:27] And old Sorian ends up holding a gun to young Adam's head.

[1:03:30] But young Adam in a OK, it's like he hits her hand,

[1:03:35] which causes the gun to fire and the reactor is a magnet.

[1:03:39] Oh, I forgot to mention the reactor.

[1:03:41] They're in the reactor room and it has a magnet capability.

[1:03:44] But the man only pulls things that are necessary for the plot.

[1:03:47] Yes. Pulled.

[1:03:48] So, well, or at the exact moment it's necessary.

[1:03:52] So like the buttons on people's clothing get pulled off and pulled to the magnet

[1:03:56] zap style, but then she's holding a gun, she fires a bullet

[1:03:59] and the bullet gets pulled by the reactor to hit her young self.

[1:04:03] And it's like, I don't know why the gun was never pulled by the reactor.

[1:04:05] It's full of metal.

[1:04:06] And Mark Ruffalo later is like, I knew those guns had those bullets

[1:04:10] have a metal core.

[1:04:11] And so the reactor would pull it once it was fired.

[1:04:13] It's like, wait, so the reactor didn't know there were bullets in there

[1:04:15] until they came out of the gun.

[1:04:16] That's the thing. There are magnets work.

[1:04:18] There are non-magnetic metals, but the fact that there was a magnetic

[1:04:22] bullet in there, if it was if it was powerful enough to change

[1:04:26] the course of the bullet, like wanted style.

[1:04:29] Yeah, it should have pulled the gun away.

[1:04:30] And he's like, I knew there I knew the reactor would pull the bullet

[1:04:32] to exactly where a young Sorian was standing, too, which is nuts.

[1:04:36] And it was also it takes it.

[1:04:38] So young Sorian, you can tell is very is not OK with all the gun

[1:04:43] shooting that old Sorian is doing.

[1:04:45] And I expected there to be a moment

[1:04:46] where a young Sorian jumps in the path of that bullet.

[1:04:49] Yes. And sacrifices herself on purpose as an as a definitive

[1:04:54] like on purpose.

[1:04:56] What's the word I'm looking for?

[1:04:57] Yeah, the opposite of an accident as a deliberate act is

[1:05:01] as a deliberate act to save the future.

[1:05:03] But instead, she's just standing in the wrong place at the wrong time.

[1:05:05] It was like, oh, OK, so Catherine,

[1:05:07] you're a fake Catherine Keener didn't get her hero moment.

[1:05:10] And the Sorians disappear.

[1:05:12] It cracks the big electromagnet reactor even more.

[1:05:15] And metal stuff is flying everywhere.

[1:05:16] Of course, they're going to have fights and their weapons

[1:05:19] do not get pulled over to the metal stuff.

[1:05:21] Only the bad guys armor gets pulled over.

[1:05:22] Wait a minute. I got a question about this.

[1:05:24] So if young Sorian dies and then old Sorian dies immediately.

[1:05:29] Yes. Like time.

[1:05:30] But your but your memory doesn't change until you go back to your own time.

[1:05:34] Yeah. You got to go back in time.

[1:05:36] No, but well, wait, shouldn't wouldn't it have worked the same way?

[1:05:39] Wouldn't she have been fine until she went back to her own time

[1:05:42] and then she would have died?

[1:05:44] Yeah, I think so.

[1:05:46] So that's not what happens.

[1:05:47] Yeah, I think you're right, but that's not what happened.

[1:05:49] And there's a there's a lot of the oh, you know what?

[1:05:52] I skipped. I skipped ahead past all the fight.

[1:05:54] Anyway, there's lots of fighting and blah, blah, blah.

[1:05:55] And that stuff happens.

[1:05:57] And yeah, the dad acts like he knew it was going to happen.

[1:05:58] They all Christos dies.

[1:06:00] Yeah, I skipped over the fact where young Adam does a superhero

[1:06:04] landing with his with his lightsaber and all that.

[1:06:06] Anyway, Christos dies.

[1:06:08] They all run from the reactor just as they escape, just as it explodes.

[1:06:12] And they're fine.

[1:06:13] Yeah, they run behind blast proof doors.

[1:06:16] And it's one of those where his dad is like, if this thing explodes,

[1:06:19] it'll kill every living thing within 100 miles.

[1:06:22] Once they're outside those doors, everyone's fine.

[1:06:25] So I guess he was just he was like me when I tell my children, don't jump on

[1:06:28] on the top of the bunk bed because you'll fall off

[1:06:30] and your head will crack open and you'll die, which never happens.

[1:06:33] He was just exaggerating to scare his kids.

[1:06:36] They've saved the day.

[1:06:38] Young Sorian, rather than saving the day, herself has just been

[1:06:40] a innocent bystander to a magnetized future bullet.

[1:06:44] And dad says, hey, I know I could tell in your face from your faces

[1:06:47] that I'm dead where you come from.

[1:06:49] Don't tell me how or when I die.

[1:06:50] It's not I don't need to change the future anymore.

[1:06:52] I love both of them. I'm proud of them.

[1:06:53] Hey, let's play catch until you go back to the future.

[1:06:56] Yeah, I want to say sorry.

[1:06:59] I like I I OK, I was actually kind of moved by

[1:07:04] when Mark Ruffalo because he's Mark Ruffalo. Come on, guys.

[1:07:06] Yeah, he's a great actor.

[1:07:08] He's a great actor. Yeah, he's in the cut.

[1:07:10] Until until until we find out something terrible about him,

[1:07:13] I'll just praise him and say he's a great actor.

[1:07:14] You know, yeah.

[1:07:15] Kept telling Ryan Reynolds, hey, you know, I love I love you.

[1:07:20] I love you. You're like you've always been special to me.

[1:07:22] I love you.

[1:07:22] Like he says it over and over again.

[1:07:24] Yeah. In a in a way that like I found generally moving

[1:07:27] because it actually made sense that Ryan Reynolds,

[1:07:31] quippy Ryan Reynolds would need that much to break through.

[1:07:36] Yeah. To like to get the inner core.

[1:07:39] But then to the to the pee inside the gusher. Yeah.

[1:07:42] But then they're like, oh, what do we do until we go back?

[1:07:45] And I'm like, fuck you, movie, because I could see what was coming.

[1:07:47] And yet, sure enough, they're going to have a catch.

[1:07:49] And I I the movie's obsession

[1:07:54] with father son catch as like the one thing that it is such a cliche.

[1:08:00] It is. Think of another goddamn thing.

[1:08:03] I'll tell you this, Dan.

[1:08:03] Many fond memories of my father.

[1:08:06] I have some less fond as, you know, anyone who has a family understands.

[1:08:10] But none of them involves a goddamn catch.

[1:08:13] Like, find something more interesting.

[1:08:15] I'll say I'll say two things, Dan.

[1:08:17] One is agreeing and was disagreeing.

[1:08:18] First, the disagreeing.

[1:08:19] When I play catch with my son, it's pretty special.

[1:08:21] It's like there's a moment when you and your child are

[1:08:25] in tune in a way that's beyond words.

[1:08:27] You are just physically moving kind of in a way that is in rhythm with each other.

[1:08:32] You have to cooperate for this thing to work.

[1:08:34] You're not competing.

[1:08:35] You are. It's just total cooperation.

[1:08:37] And it's and you don't have to say anything.

[1:08:39] And you're just kind of like merging on a on a soul level.

[1:08:42] It is very special.

[1:08:43] On the other hand, if you're going to make a time travel movie,

[1:08:45] don't put baseball in it because frequency exists.

[1:08:47] And it's a much better movie.

[1:08:49] And if you watch a time travel movie, there's baseball in it.

[1:08:51] You go watch frequency. It's a much better.

[1:08:52] Or if you want to have a much better movie about dads.

[1:08:55] If you want to make a time travel movie, go to Field of Dreams.

[1:08:59] You don't need to bring time travel into it.

[1:09:00] At least that's a movie about baseball.

[1:09:02] So it makes perfect sense.

[1:09:04] Frequency is also a movie about baseball.

[1:09:06] But still, the it's about dads and also dads.

[1:09:08] There's better.

[1:09:09] What we're saying is there's better dad catch movies.

[1:09:11] So stop doing. Yeah.

[1:09:12] And so but what's well, it's also one of things where it's like,

[1:09:15] well, old Sorian disappeared as soon as young Sorian died.

[1:09:19] You two will eventually fade away into your proper times.

[1:09:22] We don't know when that's going to happen.

[1:09:23] I guess we'll kill some time.

[1:09:24] So they play catch until they fade away.

[1:09:27] Yeah, they suddenly disappear.

[1:09:28] And I thought it would be hilarious if that's what killed Marlowe.

[1:09:31] You had a heart attack.

[1:09:32] So we both disappeared from the shock of it.

[1:09:36] I love that because then it's a time paradox.

[1:09:38] You know, that's great.

[1:09:39] What came first?

[1:09:40] The chicken or the chicken dying of a heart attack when it's egg disappeared.

[1:09:44] Old Adam tells young Adam, hey, give mom a hug for me.

[1:09:47] Now we go back to young Adam.

[1:09:48] He gives mom a hug, a big hug.

[1:09:50] And she's kind of surprised for it by it.

[1:09:52] Then we're in the future.

[1:09:54] Adam is at a space lecture.

[1:09:55] And Ryan Reynolds, when Laura walks in and sits next to him.

[1:10:00] They immediately start quip flirting and he says,

[1:10:02] hey, you're in the wrong room, in the wrong building.

[1:10:04] I'll walk you to where you're supposed to go.

[1:10:06] And she goes, are you sure?

[1:10:06] And he goes, I've got time.

[1:10:08] And they get up and leave.

[1:10:09] Are you telling me this movie

[1:10:10] does the ending of Irreversible?

[1:10:12] Not exactly.

[1:10:15] Basically.

[1:10:16] I don't think we uncorrect.

[1:10:19] I don't, on a very technical level, maybe.

[1:10:22] But it is, that is the one constant in the universe

[1:10:25] and on all timeframes is that Laura and Adam

[1:10:28] will fall in love with each other.

[1:10:30] And he's a student and she's a guest lecturer.

[1:10:32] So I guess it's implied that there's

[1:10:34] an age differential there, but I don't know what it is.

[1:10:36] I guess he went to school late in life.

[1:10:36] He's also wasting her time with so many quips

[1:10:39] when she comes in.

[1:10:40] Before it says that she's a guest lecturer,

[1:10:42] I'm like, she's trying to listen to the fucking thing, dude.

[1:10:45] She's here to get educated, anyway.

[1:10:47] Yeah.

[1:10:48] Bits, dude.

[1:10:49] Yeah.

[1:10:50] Yeah, stop doing, but he can't stop doing bits.

[1:10:51] And that's the Adam Project.

[1:10:53] The project to create a man who's all quips and bits

[1:10:56] and doesn't know what feelings are.

[1:10:59] So that's, yeah, that's the Adam Project.

[1:11:01] Guys, how do you feel about it?

[1:11:02] What's your final judgment about it?

[1:11:03] Final judgments, where we say whether this is

[1:11:06] a good, bad movie, a bad, bad movie, or a movie we liked.

[1:11:11] Like I said, during the first part of the movie,

[1:11:15] I kind of thought like, okay, this is junk food,

[1:11:20] but junk food has its place.

[1:11:21] Like, I don't love it, but I could see this being like

[1:11:26] an amiable time waster, let's call it.

[1:11:28] Sure, yeah, yeah.

[1:11:29] But then, as soon as the plot kicked in,

[1:11:33] I'm like, I do not care about any of this.

[1:11:35] And part of it is because, as Elliot says,

[1:11:37] the movie doesn't seem to care.

[1:11:39] Like, I think people misunderstand the idea of stakes,

[1:11:43] where they think like, oh, you know,

[1:11:45] your movie has to have stakes,

[1:11:47] and the makers of the Adam Project would be like,

[1:11:50] oh yeah, like, we're saving the whole world.

[1:11:52] We're saving the future.

[1:11:53] We have, you know, like, we have high stakes,

[1:11:57] but it's not that.

[1:11:59] I mean, don't put it too high, I'm short,

[1:12:00] I can't reach him.

[1:12:01] Oh, God.

[1:12:03] No, it's a good way to kill giants.

[1:12:04] It has to be a thing that you're making a connection to.

[1:12:10] Like, it has to feel real,

[1:12:13] and that's what this doesn't have,

[1:12:14] and what makes it ultimately just kind of boring noise

[1:12:19] in the background.

[1:12:20] So I'm going to say, you know,

[1:12:23] I kind of liked it at the beginning,

[1:12:25] but ultimately, bad, bad.

[1:12:27] Guys, I think I've reached my fill of Ryan Reynolds.

[1:12:32] Yeah.

[1:12:32] I don't think I need any more.

[1:12:34] It's always-

[1:12:35] I don't see him doing,

[1:12:37] I don't see him doing a project

[1:12:40] where he doesn't just do his thing.

[1:12:42] Yes.

[1:12:43] And that's fine, man, if people like it,

[1:12:45] but that's not my bag.

[1:12:48] It's always disappointing when you reach that point

[1:12:50] with someone who you genuinely kind of like

[1:12:52] for a little bit,

[1:12:53] and then you've seen what they can do,

[1:12:55] and you get kind of tired.

[1:12:55] I feel like, I was thinking about,

[1:12:57] I was like, I didn't always not like Chris Pratt.

[1:13:00] Like, when he was on Parks and Rec,

[1:13:01] I was like, there's a reason this guy

[1:13:02] is a breakout performer on this show.

[1:13:04] And then he just does the same thing over and over again,

[1:13:07] and you're like, okay, I've seen what he can do,

[1:13:08] like, I'm done, I'm over it.

[1:13:10] I feel like, yeah, with Ryan Reynolds, it's similar.

[1:13:12] And he's a weirdo.

[1:13:13] And he's like-

[1:13:14] Well, this was before his weirdo stuff came out.

[1:13:16] But Ryan Reynolds, who I don't know if he's a weirdo,

[1:13:18] it's like, we've seen what he can do,

[1:13:20] and he just keeps doing it.

[1:13:21] And it's like, all right.

[1:13:22] And yesterday I was talking to my buddy Alejandro Arbona

[1:13:25] about the movie, The Lost City,

[1:13:27] a movie I have not seen,

[1:13:28] but the trailer looks very amiable.

[1:13:31] But apparently there was a point

[1:13:32] where Ryan Reynolds was attached

[1:13:34] to play the Channing Tatum character.

[1:13:37] Oh.

[1:13:37] And I could only imagine, like,

[1:13:40] that would automatically change, like,

[1:13:43] Channing Tatum's, you know, like, goofy charm

[1:13:45] to, like, this wisecracking asshole character,

[1:13:49] and make a movie that I would definitely

[1:13:51] not be interested in seeing.

[1:13:52] Yeah.

[1:13:53] Yeah, this is a movie that, it kind of,

[1:13:56] it's not, I didn't like it.

[1:13:57] It's not a movie that reaches kind of, like,

[1:13:59] completely bad, bad status for me,

[1:14:01] because it's such, it's like just such,

[1:14:03] maybe it does.

[1:14:04] It's candy.

[1:14:05] It's candy.

[1:14:06] It's slick, disposable candy.

[1:14:07] It never, it's never really trying that hard

[1:14:10] to be more than it is,

[1:14:11] which in some movies is a strength,

[1:14:13] but in this, it just kind of feels

[1:14:14] like a movie that's on autopilot.

[1:14:16] No pun intended, because he's a pilot.

[1:14:19] No, I think pun was definitely intended.

[1:14:22] But the sheer volume of quips just is so.

[1:14:25] If you want it.

[1:14:27] Yeah, thank you, yeah.

[1:14:28] The sheer, I did intend it.

[1:14:29] The sheer volume of quips is so deafening

[1:14:32] and so stultifying.

[1:14:33] And I guess what I was talking about earlier

[1:14:35] when watching this movie,

[1:14:36] and we think, around the time he's walking

[1:14:37] through the woods with a flashlight,

[1:14:39] it made me think about E.T., he does that.

[1:14:42] He walks into his backyard,

[1:14:43] which is a cornfield, inexplicably,

[1:14:44] with a flashlight, or a weed field or something.

[1:14:47] And why do I like that movie so much more?

[1:14:49] And it's like that movie takes its time in certain ways.

[1:14:52] It has a sense of life to it.

[1:14:53] You see the characters interact in ways

[1:14:55] that feel like real people

[1:14:56] that don't necessarily have to have a plot.

[1:14:59] When you see Elliot's older brothers

[1:15:01] playing Dungeons and Dragons,

[1:15:03] it's not like, oh, these are the skills

[1:15:04] that are gonna help them out with the bad guys later on.

[1:15:07] It's just a thing kids do.

[1:15:08] When you see young Adam playing video games,

[1:15:11] you kind of know, because it's that kind of movie

[1:15:13] that he's gonna use those skills later on

[1:15:15] to pilot a drone that murders people.

[1:15:18] And it's a movie that is so on autopilot

[1:15:20] that when it's dropping plot exposition,

[1:15:23] it's just kind of, oh yeah,

[1:15:24] what did we forget to mention?

[1:15:25] There's a bad guy.

[1:15:26] Anyway, there's a bad guy.

[1:15:27] Anyway, moving along, dah, dah, dah, dah.

[1:15:28] And so when it does reach for an emotional height,

[1:15:31] it almost feels a little insulting.

[1:15:33] And by the end of the movie,

[1:15:34] it's being so kind of slapdash and goofy

[1:15:37] in a sloppy way that it's almost like the movie is like,

[1:15:42] you'll watch any crap.

[1:15:43] Just, let's shove it down.

[1:15:45] You're watching.

[1:15:45] Enjoy your slop, piggies.

[1:15:47] Exactly, yes.

[1:15:48] And I'm sure the people making it were trying really hard.

[1:15:51] I'm sure the performers were trying hard.

[1:15:52] Whoever, the writers, I'm sure were just trying

[1:15:54] to get maximum jokes and maximum fun into it.

[1:15:57] But it all comes together as this,

[1:15:59] yeah, it's kind of like a generic slop stew

[1:16:01] that they're just gonna like.

[1:16:03] That's what they call them, generic slop stew.

[1:16:05] Hey!

[1:16:07] It's like it comes in a can from Repo Man

[1:16:11] that just says movie on it,

[1:16:12] and you just open it up and pour it

[1:16:14] in a big chunk onto a bowl.

[1:16:15] So I am gonna say bad, bad.

[1:16:16] You know what?

[1:16:17] I am gonna say bad, bad.

[1:16:18] But you know what's not bad, bad, guys?

[1:16:22] The feeling of being part of the Maximum Fun family.

[1:16:24] Hey, let's talk about the Maximum Fun drive

[1:16:26] for one more time.

[1:16:27] How about that?

[1:16:28] So the thing I love most about doing the Flophouse,

[1:16:30] other than being able to consistently pay my mortgage

[1:16:33] and keep a roof over my head every month,

[1:16:35] is that it gives me a reason

[1:16:37] every week to see my best friends

[1:16:38] and to talk to them about stuff like The Atom Project.

[1:16:41] Every week I get to see my best friends

[1:16:42] because we're recording this podcast,

[1:16:43] and that means so much to me.

[1:16:44] And the thing that I'm most proud of about the Flophouse

[1:16:47] is the community that's built up around it.

[1:16:49] There are people who have become friends through the podcast.

[1:16:51] There have been romances that blossom

[1:16:53] because of the podcast.

[1:16:54] And it's inspiring to me

[1:16:55] that in this time of strife and division,

[1:16:57] something as objectively stupid as this podcast,

[1:17:01] where we did a lot of jokes about Gushers being filled

[1:17:02] with pee and bears pooping on Tommyknockers,

[1:17:05] can bring people together in a community-minded way.

[1:17:08] I just want to break in.

[1:17:09] I know that there was a baby that was adopted

[1:17:13] through a connection made through the podcast,

[1:17:15] and I find that very touching.

[1:17:16] I've seen pictures of this adorable little kid.

[1:17:19] And yeah, it's so nice to know

[1:17:21] that there are people out there who, I don't know,

[1:17:23] just because we made fun of some movies,

[1:17:27] have had their lives improved in some measurable way.

[1:17:32] It makes me feel, I don't, it's, you know,

[1:17:35] it's having, it's a wonderful life in real life, you know,

[1:17:41] to feel like, hey, you know,

[1:17:44] this dumb thing has mattered in some way.

[1:17:46] Yeah.

[1:17:47] The good part of it's a wonderful life,

[1:17:47] not the bad parts.

[1:17:48] Yeah, not the part where we're in Pottersville.

[1:17:51] Yeah, yeah.

[1:17:52] Although Pottersville looks like fun to visit, you know?

[1:17:54] There's an article that I think was in the New Yorker

[1:17:56] years ago about how Pottersville is the fun place.

[1:17:59] And Pottersville is actually better than Bedford Falls.

[1:18:01] But anyway, I want to say the community

[1:18:03] that's built up around this podcast,

[1:18:07] much like a town that builds up around a shrine

[1:18:10] to a miracle that never really happened,

[1:18:11] is something that really touches me.

[1:18:13] And I think about it a lot,

[1:18:13] and I'm very both proud and grateful for it.

[1:18:15] And we've received a number of private messages

[1:18:17] over the years from people who have found solace

[1:18:19] or hope from the Flophouse.

[1:18:21] At times they really needed it.

[1:18:22] I think the podcast has functioned for each of us

[1:18:24] in that same way.

[1:18:25] It's kind of given us solace at times

[1:18:26] and helped keep us going.

[1:18:29] There was a story that I won't get into too much

[1:18:30] because it was a very private story

[1:18:31] about someone who, at a very, very,

[1:18:34] very difficult time in their life,

[1:18:36] found themselves kind of sparked to go on

[1:18:40] by a letter song that I did,

[1:18:42] which is an awesome power that I do not take lightly,

[1:18:44] but I will abuse as much as possible.

[1:18:46] And so Maximum Fun-

[1:18:48] Well, fine, you can keep singing, Ali.

[1:18:50] I'm gonna, Dan, it's a responsibility that I have to do.

[1:18:52] Look, I'm like Spider-Man.

[1:18:53] If there's someone out there that can be helped

[1:18:55] by a letter song, I have to do it.

[1:18:57] So Maximum Fun, they helped us get some comments

[1:18:59] from listeners about what the show meant to them.

[1:19:00] And I wanted to read one.

[1:19:02] We might read some other ones, another Pledge Drive ones.

[1:19:05] This is from Claire, last name withheld.

[1:19:07] And she wrote to us about dealing with chronic illness

[1:19:09] and how it left her stuck in kind of hospital rooms

[1:19:12] or at home far more often than she'd like to be, obviously.

[1:19:14] And she said,

[1:19:15] Lucky for me, you don't really have to exert yourself

[1:19:17] much at all to listen to you three

[1:19:18] eminently cultured gentlemen talk about bad movies

[1:19:20] like Ouija for literally longer than the movie's runtime.

[1:19:23] Parentheses, shout out to the best of us, Hallie Haglund.

[1:19:26] I spend so much of my time stuck someplace

[1:19:29] and usually alone, but your podcast has brought me

[1:19:31] the company of friends to pass the time

[1:19:32] and stories to help me escape my,

[1:19:34] shall we say, inconvenient circumstances,

[1:19:36] which can sometimes weigh on me heavily.

[1:19:38] Movies are my lifeblood and I love sharing

[1:19:40] the bad movie loving experience with you

[1:19:41] in my own little way.

[1:19:42] Thank you all for continuing this journey

[1:19:44] into just the worst cinematic forays of all time

[1:19:46] for all these years.

[1:19:47] I truly am grateful for what you have given me.

[1:19:49] And we're so grateful to hear things like that from fans.

[1:19:52] It really means a lot.

[1:19:53] She then went on to say that she went to one

[1:19:55] of our live shows once and was hoping

[1:19:57] to get our autographs, but we left too early.

[1:19:59] So I'm really sorry.

[1:20:00] about that, and if you're gonna go to another one

[1:20:02] of our live shows someday, DM me,

[1:20:03] I will make sure to stick around and say hello afterwards.

[1:20:06] I feel so bad about that, but it means so much to us

[1:20:08] to get letters like that from our fans.

[1:20:11] It's really exciting to know that we've connected

[1:20:13] with people, and people we otherwise never would have met.

[1:20:16] To me, that's the magic of being an artist of any kind,

[1:20:18] is when your work connects with somebody

[1:20:20] who otherwise would not be a part of your life,

[1:20:22] and whose life you otherwise wouldn't be a part of.

[1:20:24] And podcasting is especially special

[1:20:25] because it's such an intimate medium,

[1:20:27] that even though I'm talking to Dan and Stuart,

[1:20:29] I'm also talking to you, and even though

[1:20:31] you can talk to me, I won't hear you,

[1:20:33] because I'm already recorded.

[1:20:35] But in a way, I will hear you if you reach out to us.

[1:20:37] But you can build an Elliot doll.

[1:20:39] Yeah, or a mashed potatoes, Richard Dreyfuss it,

[1:20:42] make an Elliot out of mashed potatoes,

[1:20:44] talk to it, and go on a journey to meet me,

[1:20:46] which would be weird, don't do that.

[1:20:48] And so now that I've, I've had so many of these experiences

[1:20:52] where people have reached out to me,

[1:20:53] and just talked about how much the podcast meant to them,

[1:20:56] and it's really lovely.

[1:20:57] And so now that I've plucked your heart strings,

[1:20:59] it's time to pluck those wallet strings again,

[1:21:01] and say, hey, when you go to maximumfun.org slash join,

[1:21:05] what do you get for your membership?

[1:21:06] Well, I'll just talk very briefly about it,

[1:21:08] because I don't think you're interested in this

[1:21:09] because of the stuff you get.

[1:21:11] I think you're interested in it in the stuff you can give,

[1:21:13] which is namely money to us in exchange for podcasts.

[1:21:17] So, you know, the bonus content you get

[1:21:20] starting at $5 a month, you get all those many hours

[1:21:22] of bonus content.

[1:21:23] And again, if we reach our new membership goals,

[1:21:25] you're gonna get even more.

[1:21:26] The floodgates will open of content.

[1:21:28] At $10 a month, you get your choice

[1:21:30] of Maximum Fun podcast patches.

[1:21:33] This year, we're giving out patches for all the shows,

[1:21:34] and the Flophouse patch is really nice.

[1:21:36] It's the house cat himself bursting through the patch

[1:21:39] with his baseball cap backwards on his head.

[1:21:41] He's got a big old smile on his face.

[1:21:42] I love it.

[1:21:43] It's my favorite of the patches.

[1:21:44] I'm a little partial though.

[1:21:46] But there's other gifts.

[1:21:47] At $20 a month, there's the Maximum Fun rocket hat,

[1:21:51] or the Maximum Fun creativity pack,

[1:21:53] which is a bunch of art supplies and things.

[1:21:55] At $35 a month, there's a Maximum Fun messenger bag.

[1:21:58] And another way to get involved

[1:21:59] in that Flophouse Maximum Fun community

[1:22:01] is if you're at $100 a month, you get HQ access,

[1:22:04] which gives you exclusive quarterly virtual hang time

[1:22:07] with Maximum Fun hosts and staff,

[1:22:08] and you get your name engraved on a plaque,

[1:22:11] which will be at Maximum Fun HQ forever.

[1:22:13] That's right.

[1:22:14] If you've walked past a wall in a synagogue

[1:22:16] or National Park and see the name engraved on a plaque

[1:22:20] and said, I want that, well, now you can

[1:22:22] for $100 a month at Maximum Fun HQ.

[1:22:24] So we're just gonna say,

[1:22:25] will you please join us as a member?

[1:22:27] If you haven't joined us yet, please join us as a member.

[1:22:30] Or if you have joined us, please consider upgrading

[1:22:32] to one of the higher monthly membership levels.

[1:22:36] Or if you're already a member

[1:22:38] and you just wanna keep it going,

[1:22:40] we thank you for that too.

[1:22:41] We really appreciate it.

[1:22:42] We want new people to come in.

[1:22:43] We want people to upgrade their membership.

[1:22:44] But don't think we're giving a cold shoulder

[1:22:46] to those old standbys who have been with us all this time.

[1:22:49] Thank you for being a friend.

[1:22:50] Down the road and back again.

[1:22:51] So that's Maximum Fun.

[1:22:52] I'm literally putting food in my mouth.

[1:22:53] Thank you.

[1:22:54] Yep, right now with your hands.

[1:22:58] And for $200 a month, you get to go to Dan's house

[1:23:00] and put food in his mouth.

[1:23:01] Anyway, I get in touch with him personally about that.

[1:23:04] So that's MaximumFun.org slash join.

[1:23:06] MaximumFun.org slash join to help us continue

[1:23:10] this Flophouse community of love and dumbness

[1:23:15] that has brought so many people together

[1:23:17] and into our lives.

[1:23:17] Thank you.

[1:23:19] Yeah, and so we do have a couple of sponsors.

[1:23:23] Normally during Max Fun Drive, we don't have sponsors.

[1:23:25] This is kind of an odd situation.

[1:23:27] This drops right before the drive, so.

[1:23:29] It's a loophole.

[1:23:30] It's a loophole.

[1:23:32] Loophole the third.

[1:23:34] But I'd like to talk to you briefly about Squarespace,

[1:23:39] which is a service you can use to build a website,

[1:23:42] put together a website.

[1:23:43] It will help you build your brand,

[1:23:45] grow your business online.

[1:23:47] You can stand out with a beautiful website from Squarespace.

[1:23:51] You can use it to engage your audience,

[1:23:53] sell anything, products, content, your time,

[1:23:56] whatever you like.

[1:23:58] I have used it to self-promote.

[1:24:02] I have my Squarespace website, DanMcCoyWriter.com.

[1:24:08] DanMcCoyWriterDie.com?

[1:24:10] Well, that also exists now.

[1:24:12] Thank you to whoever bought that

[1:24:14] and put up a stock photo of a man on a motorcycle

[1:24:19] with my face over it.

[1:24:21] But yeah, every Squarespace website and online store

[1:24:26] comes with a suite of integrated SEO,

[1:24:29] that's search engine optimization features,

[1:24:32] and useful guides that help maximize prominence

[1:24:35] in search results.

[1:24:37] You can sell your products on an online store,

[1:24:39] whether you sell physical or digital products.

[1:24:43] Squarespace has the tools you need

[1:24:45] to start selling online.

[1:24:47] And all of Squarespace's websites

[1:24:50] are optimized for mobile content.

[1:24:52] Automatically adjusts so your site looks great

[1:24:55] on any device, which is very important

[1:24:57] since most of us are staring at these things

[1:24:59] on our phone these days.

[1:25:01] Head to squarespace.com slash flop for a free trial.

[1:25:05] And when you're ready to launch,

[1:25:06] use offer code FLOP, F-L-O-P,

[1:25:10] to save 10% off your first purchase of a website or domain.

[1:25:16] Hey guys, it's me, Stuart Wellington.

[1:25:18] And you might not know,

[1:25:19] but in addition to being a himbo podcaster,

[1:25:22] I also own a couple of bars.

[1:25:24] And owning a bar, a small business,

[1:25:27] but specifically a nightlife business at this

[1:25:30] now and forever is a stressful job.

[1:25:34] There's your normal stress of day-to-day ordering

[1:25:38] and staffing, et cetera, et cetera.

[1:25:40] And then you have your, let's say abnormal stress

[1:25:43] when a bartender calls you at 1130 at night

[1:25:45] because there's a person in the bar

[1:25:46] who is being very threatening and was refusing to leave.

[1:25:49] And so you have to go down and then ask that person

[1:25:52] to leave and he's very threatening and he calls you a bitch,

[1:25:55] but you have to watch him, make sure he gets on a bus,

[1:25:58] et cetera, et cetera, that sort of thing.

[1:26:00] And so-

[1:26:01] For example.

[1:26:02] For example, just to get pulling something out of the air.

[1:26:05] But because of that, my life has a fair amount of stress.

[1:26:07] And one of the things that's been helping me is therapy.

[1:26:10] Now, this podcast is sponsored by BetterHelp

[1:26:13] and BetterHelp is one of the options you have

[1:26:15] to find therapy online.

[1:26:18] Now, BetterHelp is customized online therapy

[1:26:21] that offers video, phone, and even live chat sessions

[1:26:24] with your therapist.

[1:26:25] So you don't have to see anyone on camera

[1:26:27] if you don't want to.

[1:26:29] And it's often more affordable than in-person therapy.

[1:26:33] So if you've been considering therapy,

[1:26:35] you're looking for a way to de-stress your life

[1:26:38] by talking to somebody, this might be a good option for you.

[1:26:42] So, Flophouse listeners get 10% off of their first month

[1:26:46] at betterhelp.com slash flop, F-L-O-P.

[1:26:51] That's B-E-T-T-E-R-H-E-L-P.com slash flop.

[1:26:57] ♪♪

[1:27:02] Max Fund Drive 2022 starts in just one week.

[1:27:06] Monday, April 25th.

[1:27:08] We'll have exclusive Max Fund Drive gifts,

[1:27:11] awesome episodes, bonus content, and you know what else?

[1:27:15] You'll just have to tune in.

[1:27:17] We have some tricks up our sleeve.

[1:27:20] Sleeves?

[1:27:21] Tricks?

[1:27:22] Is it plural?

[1:27:24] We'll catch you next week,

[1:27:25] the greatest time to support the podcasts you love.

[1:27:28] Max Fund Drive starts on Monday, April 25th.

[1:27:31] Don't miss it.

[1:27:37] If you're sick of constantly arguing

[1:27:39] with the people closest to you about topics

[1:27:41] that really aren't going to change the world,

[1:27:43] we're here to take that stress off of your shoulders.

[1:27:46] We take care of it for you,

[1:27:47] and we got this with Mark and Hal.

[1:27:49] That's right, Hal.

[1:27:50] If you have a subjective question

[1:27:53] that you want answered objectively once and for all time

[1:27:57] for all of the people of the world,

[1:28:00] questions like, who's the best Disney villain,

[1:28:02] Mac or PC, or should you put ketchup on a hot dog?

[1:28:06] That's why we're here.

[1:28:06] Yes, I get that these are the biggest questions of our time,

[1:28:09] and we're often joined by special guests

[1:28:11] like Nathan Fillion, Orlando Jones, and Paget Brewster.

[1:28:15] So let Mark and Hal take care of it for you

[1:28:17] on We Got This with Mark and Hal weekly on Maximum Fun.

[1:28:21] Let us move on to letters from listeners.

[1:28:27] Listeners like you write in and we answer it.

[1:28:31] That's the premise.

[1:28:32] Anyway, this is from Damian and Danny,

[1:28:35] last name with L, Damian and Danny.

[1:28:39] I love that Danny's describing something

[1:28:41] that has been going on for hundreds of years,

[1:28:43] that people write letters to each other

[1:28:44] and then they get rid of it.

[1:28:45] And as if it's like, okay, are you going to buy this?

[1:28:48] Do you get this?

[1:28:50] Like, are you with me?

[1:28:52] Do I need to slow down a little bit?

[1:28:53] This question is for Stu.

[1:28:57] Wait, that's me?

[1:28:58] Oh shit, okay.

[1:28:59] You ready?

[1:29:00] Let me put my phone down, okay?

[1:29:01] Let me disclose all my apps, okay?

[1:29:04] Let's, I guess let's do this.

[1:29:06] My son, parenthesis.

[1:29:08] Should I be wearing shoes?

[1:29:11] You are barefoot that I didn't notice.

[1:29:13] My son, parenthesis 12, and I, parenthesis old,

[1:29:17] are big fans of the podcast.

[1:29:19] We are just beginning.

[1:29:20] Are those their names?

[1:29:22] Yeah, it's Damian and Danny.

[1:29:24] Oh, right, right, right.

[1:29:26] They're big fans of the podcast.

[1:29:27] We are just beginning our Warhammer 40K journey.

[1:29:30] Hell yeah.

[1:29:32] I loved your Warhammer mini.

[1:29:34] We wondered, what is your main army?

[1:29:36] What model paint job is your favorite?

[1:29:39] And do you have any advice for a new Blood Angels,

[1:29:42] parenthesis my son, and new Chaos Marines,

[1:29:44] parenthesis me, army?

[1:29:46] Oh, wow, there's multiple questions.

[1:29:50] You don't have to show it to me.

[1:29:51] I know all about Blood Angels and Chaos Space Marines.

[1:29:54] Forgot the questions.

[1:29:55] You got goodies and baddies.

[1:29:57] Well, I am a longtime player.

[1:30:00] space orcs. I used to have a huge army of space orcs.

[1:30:04] They are a they are similar to sports.

[1:30:07] They are a alien race of fungus monsters

[1:30:11] that fly around in in a massive

[1:30:15] cobbled together spaceships, and they drive around and cobble together

[1:30:18] dune buggies and they blast these Marines and they like to fight.

[1:30:21] They're great.

[1:30:23] I even have a space or tattoo.

[1:30:25] And but I gave that army away some time ago,

[1:30:28] and I recently started a new army of gene stealer cultists.

[1:30:33] Now, before you answer, Elliot, no, they do not take people's denim.

[1:30:37] They steal your genes that make up your DNA.

[1:30:41] They are they are human alien hybrids that worship alien masters

[1:30:45] and wish for their alien masters to arrive from their from the stars

[1:30:48] to liberate them from the evil oppressors of humanity,

[1:30:52] only to find out that when those aliens do arrive,

[1:30:54] they just devour the entire planet whole hog, including their cultists.

[1:30:58] So it's great. It's hilarious.

[1:31:00] They're great.

[1:31:01] They used to ride around limousines.

[1:31:02] They're all bald and weirdos. They're awesome.

[1:31:06] And I've been painting them.

[1:31:07] And I think my favorite in that batch so far is I painted my color morph,

[1:31:11] which is like a little gunslinger.

[1:31:13] He's like a little revolutionary gunslinger.

[1:31:15] He's got three arms.

[1:31:16] And that's a lot of guns.

[1:31:17] That's 18 guns, you know, like there's six guns, but there's three of them.

[1:31:22] So I like that. I like that a lot.

[1:31:24] And for let's see, you know, it's done is not six guns.

[1:31:27] What? Never mind. Never mind. Forget it.

[1:31:30] Never mind. It's not.

[1:31:31] I didn't know this was a math podcast.

[1:31:33] So let's see for blood angels.

[1:31:36] So the blood angels are space marines.

[1:31:38] Of course, they are the the children of sanguineous,

[1:31:41] the emperor's most beautiful and greatest of all his primarchs

[1:31:44] laid low by the the arch heretic Horace.

[1:31:47] But the blood angels are suffer with a curse where they momentarily are

[1:31:53] caught up in the rapture of sanguineous is dying moments.

[1:31:57] And that gives them a blood rage, basically turning them

[1:31:59] into space marine vampires.

[1:32:01] And they I don't know.

[1:32:02] So a lot of close combat troops, I think, because, you know,

[1:32:05] so they can take advantage of all their little bonuses for being vampire men.

[1:32:09] And then for this, what it's like when I sing a song, Dan,

[1:32:14] well, similarly, it's the only time I can speak quickly.

[1:32:19] And then for cast space Marines, I mean, I don't know,

[1:32:21] just get a lot of dudes with spikes, man.

[1:32:23] I love I love the weird like the like I don't even know

[1:32:27] the ones that look like spider walker things with all kinds of gun pods on them.

[1:32:31] Those things are awesome.

[1:32:32] Check those out.

[1:32:34] I don't know.

[1:32:34] I'd go with all the weird cast space marine stuff.

[1:32:36] OK, that's it. I answered.

[1:32:39] OK, this second question is not about Warhammer, so you can relax.

[1:32:45] OK, and I can take my shoes off again.

[1:32:48] Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[1:32:51] This question, this is from Caroline.

[1:32:53] Last name withheld in the city.

[1:32:56] Just in time.

[1:32:57] Caroline N.T. City.

[1:32:59] Just in time for the third annual Flophouse Catstacular Catstravaganza.

[1:33:06] Again, if you want that cat's commentary,

[1:33:09] be a member of Max Fun.

[1:33:11] I want to ask movie musical questions.

[1:33:15] Number one, what are your favorite movie musicals,

[1:33:18] both classic and modern?

[1:33:20] And number two, given the timing of its release, do you think cats

[1:33:24] is actually one of the four horsemen of the apocalypse?

[1:33:26] Happy holidays and fingers crossed to be one of the catsmen of the two

[1:33:31] four horse cats.

[1:33:32] I have honestly had the thought, like, did I experience too much joy

[1:33:37] watching cats? Is that are you to blame?

[1:33:39] Yeah, that's what did it.

[1:33:40] Yeah. Yeah.

[1:33:42] The world's your fault.

[1:33:43] Fun on its axis.

[1:33:47] You know, I, I.

[1:33:49] Dan, let me let me reassure you.

[1:33:50] Yes, that is exactly what happened.

[1:33:52] Yeah, we live in a Dan centric universe and you're to blame.

[1:33:56] OK, well, that is what caused Armageddon.

[1:33:59] That was the end of the world caused by Dan.

[1:34:01] Distressing and comforting.

[1:34:02] So there's that there's that hit Aerosmith song and Armageddon.

[1:34:08] Yeah, I don't want to miss it, Dan.

[1:34:10] Yeah, I, I, I'm a big fan of

[1:34:16] the music man, mostly because Robert Preston is so charismatic

[1:34:21] and good music, Dan, in that and the music's good.

[1:34:25] I saw I saw the Broadway revival just recently.

[1:34:30] Hot takes fresh off the book.

[1:34:32] Yeah, let's hear it. Let's hear it.

[1:34:34] Tear them up.

[1:34:35] It was fun to have Natalie for the commentary

[1:34:37] because she'll be glad to talk Broadway with you.

[1:34:40] But yeah, I did like Hugh Jackman.

[1:34:44] You know, I love the huge act, man, but he didn't really bring the charisma needed,

[1:34:49] which it's it's it's odd.

[1:34:50] It's like a don't you say do not say a word against Sutton Foster.

[1:34:54] Sutton Foster, however, boy from a plus.

[1:34:57] Sutton Foster's amazing.

[1:34:59] She's great.

[1:34:59] So you're saying Hugh Jackman was not sure of younger Sutton Foster was amazing.

[1:35:03] Tell me something I don't know.

[1:35:05] But if you want to just just go to the just go to the movie.

[1:35:10] It'll also help you excuse some of the elements of music, man,

[1:35:13] that haven't aged as well,

[1:35:16] knowing the time that it was made rather than watching a modern revival.

[1:35:21] You know, I I'm pretty boring.

[1:35:23] I love the movie of Little Shop of Horrors.

[1:35:26] I think that that is that is boring, pretty perfect.

[1:35:30] Well, I'm just like, I'm not I'm not surprising anyone with any of this

[1:35:35] is what I'm saying.

[1:35:35] But what do you well, there might be somebody who is not taking the plunge

[1:35:39] and watch Little Shop of Horrors.

[1:35:40] Yeah. Hotter take or do you?

[1:35:42] I don't have a hot take at all.

[1:35:43] I mean, classic classic musicals.

[1:35:45] I've got a real it's a real murderer's row of the best singing in the rain.

[1:35:49] Amazing. Wizard of Oz.

[1:35:51] Amazing. Top Hat. Amazing.

[1:35:53] And then you've got I'm a big fan of the Busby Berkeley musicals,

[1:35:56] not always because of the stories, but because the musical numbers are so

[1:35:59] fantastic. But two movies that I genuinely I like the movie a lot.

[1:36:04] I'll just say I love them. I do.

[1:36:06] And the numbers are gold diggers of 1933, which is astounding.

[1:36:10] And it has some of his greatest work and it has.

[1:36:12] And otherwise it's like the whole movie is kind of like sex in the city.

[1:36:16] Nineteen thirty three. But with musical numbers and the movie Dames,

[1:36:20] which is a less well-known movie with Busby Berkeley numbers on it,

[1:36:23] but also a really funny movie and modern musicals.

[1:36:26] Well, I'll tell you what what connotes a modern musical.

[1:36:30] There's a like I'm a big fan of Inside Llewyn Davis,

[1:36:33] which is not what you consider traditional musical.

[1:36:35] But it is a movie that is punctuated by music that is expressing emotionally

[1:36:39] a lot of the times what the characters are into.

[1:36:41] And it's got that hilarious song about the guy who doesn't want to be an astronaut.

[1:36:45] And I enjoy it's not as great as the stage show,

[1:36:48] but I enjoyed Tim Burton's Sweeney Todd movie.

[1:36:51] And it's a I didn't see the stage show of it, which was based on a movie.

[1:36:57] But the movie once I remember really liking a lot, which is a it's got music

[1:37:01] in it because it's about musicians again, like Inside Llewyn Davis.

[1:37:04] But I remember finding that very emotional when I saw it.

[1:37:07] So there's some modern ones that I liked for another modern musical.

[1:37:11] I think this fits is the Takeshi Miyake movie, Happiness of the Katakuris.

[1:37:16] That is a musical.

[1:37:17] Yeah, which is about a family that moves to the country to run a like an inn

[1:37:23] and their patrons all begin to die.

[1:37:26] It's it's fun.

[1:37:28] And according to my little phone here, available to watch on Tubi.

[1:37:32] Hell, yeah, I mean, you should have said my little phony Tubi is.

[1:37:37] Look, Tubi should advertise with us.

[1:37:38] They're they're an amazing.

[1:37:40] It's like their library is astounding.

[1:37:42] Like it's just an astounding platform.

[1:37:44] So, you know, hey, let's move into the final segment.

[1:37:49] Other than I assume a little reminder about the drive, the final segment

[1:37:54] where we recommend a movie, something that, you know, might be a better use

[1:37:58] of your remaining hours on this earth than The Atom Project.

[1:38:03] Dan's about to say Morbius and it's going to flip my lid.

[1:38:07] No, no, no, I

[1:38:09] I'm not going to say anything surprising.

[1:38:12] I might say, in fact, one of the least surprising things, which is I saw

[1:38:16] recently everything everywhere all at once, which currently has the distinction

[1:38:22] of being the highest rated movie on Letterboxd.

[1:38:26] Wow. And they're just making up a words, huh?

[1:38:30] It's it's great.

[1:38:32] It's a great movie.

[1:38:33] I don't like to check out Lights Camera Jackson over.

[1:38:36] I don't know.

[1:38:37] He did not like it.

[1:38:39] And like it's just another reason not to like that kid.

[1:38:42] But anyway, I mean, he's like a grown man now, so we can be me.

[1:38:45] Yeah, I guess.

[1:38:47] Yeah, well, I'll actually stop me from being mean.

[1:38:51] Oh, it's like we're all at once tweet.

[1:38:54] Yeah, you don't need to.

[1:38:55] There's no point. There's no point.

[1:38:56] You have a podcast. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[1:39:01] Yeah, no, I don't I don't know what to say about that.

[1:39:03] Has it already been?

[1:39:04] It's just, you know, it is a maximalist movie that starts

[1:39:09] that works as well as it does because it grounds everything in real

[1:39:15] human emotions in a believable family, like everything goes back to the family.

[1:39:20] It's interesting to me to like, even from the first scenes.

[1:39:25] You know, with everything that goes weird and bizarre and wacky later on,

[1:39:32] it feels so real and you believe this family, a small thing, but like

[1:39:38] the characters, you know, Audrey's Filipino and, you know, listening to her,

[1:39:43] talk to her family, like she'll switch in and out of Tagalog.

[1:39:48] To English, sort of seemingly at random to me.

[1:39:51] And similarly, like this is an immigrant family that, you know,

[1:39:55] switches back and forth from English to Chinese.

[1:39:56] It's like a very small touch that feels very real.

[1:40:00] very real to me. And then, of course, everything gets very nutty as it goes along. And the

[1:40:09] thing that I like about it is the movie's commitment to taking absurd things that are

[1:40:13] funny and then pushing past that into a point where suddenly they're very moving. Yes. And

[1:40:21] it's it's just kind of an amazing trick that it pulls off. So it's such an amazing magic

[1:40:27] trick. The movie manages to pull off. And of course, Michelle Yeoh. Yeah. Just Jamie

[1:40:33] Lee Curtis. Yeah. Yeah. It's so great. We're not breaking any news that Michelle Yeoh and

[1:40:39] Jamie Lee Curtis are great, but they're they're fantastic. So that's my recommendation, Stuart.

[1:40:45] You know, I am going to make I'm going to make a recommendation of a movie that I'm

[1:40:48] sure we've mentioned like a million times, but I saw it for the first time in the movie

[1:40:53] theater recently. And it was it was a movie. I'm recommending Akira the what is it? Nineteen

[1:40:59] eighty seven. Katsuhiro Otomo movie animated movie, I think. Eighty eight. I think you're

[1:41:04] right. It's eighty eight. And it's a movie that I've seen many, many times. I own multiple

[1:41:10] copies. I own multiple versions of the manga that it's based on. And but watching it in

[1:41:17] the movie theater was so incredible because I'd never seen it that way. And the score

[1:41:22] is so beautiful and huge. And getting to see it on the big screen, you get to really see

[1:41:27] all the like beautiful little moments in the animation. Every single shot has something

[1:41:32] new to find in it. It's got so much motion. I mean, like the first like five minutes,

[1:41:38] five to ten minutes is basically just as like nonstop as the first five to ten minutes of

[1:41:43] Mad Max Fury Road, like that kind of level of adrenaline. And it also manages to condense

[1:41:49] what is a massive epic story from the in the manga to it keeps a lot of the same elements,

[1:41:56] but it also makes it weirdly more personal and focuses it on the relationship between

[1:42:02] Tetsuo and Kaneda. And yeah, and it it also like brings in new ideas and elements about

[1:42:10] like puberty and masculinity and all that kind of stuff. It's yeah, it's it's a great

[1:42:16] movie. If you if for some reason you haven't watched this movie yet and you are interested

[1:42:21] in a big sci fi movie, I would totally recommend it.

[1:42:25] And I'm going to recommend a different Japanese movie. What? What's this all about? This is

[1:42:31] a movie called Fighting Elegy from nineteen nineteen sixty six. It's known by some other

[1:42:37] titles, too, but Fighting Elegy is the one I saw it under. It's directed by Seijun Suzuki,

[1:42:40] who you may know as the director of Branded to Kill and Tokyo Drifter. There's a couple

[1:42:46] movies of his that have kind of broken through to more general film knowledge. But it's the

[1:42:52] story set in the 1930s of a teenager who lives at a he lives at a boarding house, was boarding

[1:43:00] at a family's house and going to a military themed kind of they call it a middle school

[1:43:05] in the movie, but it's more of a high school. And he has a crush on his landlady, his daughter.

[1:43:11] And they're all very devout Catholics. And he feels guilty about the feelings he has

[1:43:14] about her. And the only way he can channel it is through this kind of fighting club that

[1:43:21] that he and his and the other kids there set up. And it's not like Fight Club where they

[1:43:24] like get together and beat each other up. This is a club where they are trying to train

[1:43:27] themselves to be ultimate warriors and they get into fights with other fighting clubs

[1:43:32] and they are ridiculous, like they're not good at it. And although sometimes they're

[1:43:36] pretty good fighters, but the the the character is so funny in a way that I didn't expect

[1:43:41] going into the movie and is so like this innocent who is finding that the only way to channel

[1:43:47] the emotions he feels because he can't quite express love or lust in a way that he thinks

[1:43:51] is acceptable is through ever more elaborate kind of like military themed either discipline

[1:43:59] or fighting or things like that. And but it's a funnier movie. That sounds there's

[1:44:03] a scene where he's so he sees the landlady's daughter playing piano. And that night he's

[1:44:08] so turned on that he has to masturbate by playing the piano with his penis. Oh, no.

[1:44:14] And we've all been there. Right. And as soon as he's done, he turns and sees a cross hanging

[1:44:18] on the wall and he's like, oh, no, what have I done? He feels so guilty. And the movie

[1:44:23] takes out. I'll spoil something and say the movie takes in a very abrupt turn for the

[1:44:28] serious at the end. It's leading up towards a real life event in Japanese history where

[1:44:33] members of the military tried to overthrow the government in the mid 30s and and eventually

[1:44:38] leading to, you know, the major military crimes and disasters and mistakes that Japan makes

[1:44:44] going into World War Two. But up until that point, there's like a a real funny lightness

[1:44:49] to it that I could really relate to as like a confused adolescent. But at the same time,

[1:44:53] it feels both universal and very much of its time in a good way. And like if you want

[1:44:58] to see a movie where it's a teenager grappling with his emotions, but there's also a scene

[1:45:03] where his friend roller skates into a principal's office and shoots everybody with peas with

[1:45:07] a pea shooter and then roller skates out again. And that's how he saves him. This is the movie

[1:45:13] for you. So it's called Fighting Elegy. The title makes it sound more serious than it

[1:45:18] is. Look, it's serious at the end. But I liked a lot. Fighting Elegy. Well, that's we did

[1:45:22] it, guys. Three recommendations. I can't think of anything else that needs to be done.

[1:45:27] Well, I think it all makes sense. Makes sense. We finished out the episode. But one more

[1:45:31] thing. The Max Fund Drive starts on April 25th, the day after this episode comes out.

[1:45:36] So I've got some questions for you. Does it mean something to you to have the freedom

[1:45:41] to do whatever you want with the show? Because we own it and we're supported by our fans

[1:45:46] and we don't have to answer to any bosses or big networks or anything. What does that

[1:45:49] mean to you, Daniel? I mean, it is it's it's it's amazing. I have worked on things that

[1:45:56] are not personal to me. And it is wonderful to have a thing that we do together that is

[1:46:01] exactly as specific and silly and dumb as we like to do. And to know that people also

[1:46:08] like that makes sense. Makes sense. Yeah, makes sense. I just one more thing. Stu, do

[1:46:13] you feel it's important to support artists that you enjoy? Yeah, I mean, you know, I

[1:46:18] do. I love supporting small local creators on all levels. Sounds weird. Yeah, I was hoping

[1:46:26] for something a little bit more heartfelt, but that's OK. Makes sense. Makes sense. I'll

[1:46:30] ask myself the next question. Elliot, as as Colombo, has this show kind of helped other

[1:46:37] people in a way that membership makes possible? Yeah, I was talking to Mrs. Elliot as Colombo

[1:46:42] the other day and she was pointing out to me that, you know, it's just amazing that

[1:46:46] so many people get so much from this show. We as the hosts get so much and we're so thankful

[1:46:51] for all the people who make that possible with their memberships. It's there. Sounds

[1:46:54] like Stallone that really keeps the lights on. All right. I'll drop the X, then I apologize.

[1:47:01] Anyway, it's hard to do it for a long time. So anyway, yeah, we just we really appreciate

[1:47:06] your support. I want to restate some goals and some rewards. There's all the Max Fund

[1:47:10] stuff at five dollars a month. You get the bonus content, ten dollars a month. You get

[1:47:13] the patch and for each higher level, you get other stuff. Our specific show goals, if we

[1:47:18] get nineteen hundred new and upgrading pledgers, we're going to have those giveaways, comic

[1:47:23] books, drawings, bar shirts, all sorts of stuff at twenty three hundred new and pledgers.

[1:47:28] We're going to do that. Country Bears commentary, full length audio commentary for all of the

[1:47:31] movie Country Bears. And if we reach three thousand new and pledging members, we're going

[1:47:37] to do quarterly movie commentaries, one every three months. You know, one of them is going

[1:47:42] to be food fight. So watch out. Most of all, we want you to join or upgrade your membership

[1:47:49] or continue supporting us if you already are, because it means we can keep bringing you

[1:47:52] the show, putting out this dumb podcast about stupid movies. It isn't how I thought I'd

[1:47:56] be helping the world, but it's kind of what we fell into. So please do what you can to

[1:48:00] keep the lights on in the Nicolas Cage burning. Please consider joining, upgrading, maybe

[1:48:05] giving someone a gift membership. I think it'll make their year and it'll make you feel

[1:48:09] a little better. And in the karma police will look on you kindly for it. So a sincere, very

[1:48:14] heartfelt, very grateful thank you to all of our members and to all of our future members.

[1:48:19] Thank you from the Flophouse. Join us, won't you? At Maximum Fun dot org slash join again.

[1:48:25] That's Maximum Fun dot org slash join. And because we've said so much, I won't go through

[1:48:30] our whole spiel, but I will thank Alex Smith, our producer. You can find him at Howl Dottie

[1:48:36] on Twitter. He's got his own podcast called Fast Track. He does a show on Twitch with

[1:48:42] a giant possum. So if that interests you, check it out. But I'll just say thank you

[1:48:49] for listening. For the Flophouse, I've been Dan McCoy. I'm Stuart Wellington. I'm Elliot

[1:48:54] Kalin. On this episode, we discuss the Adam Project starring Adam Scott. No, Adam Carolla

[1:49:09] driver. No, they don't usually name movies after the actors names. Starring Adam and

[1:49:16] Eve. Adam. Adamantium. Should we do a different one? Yeah, maybe. Maximum Fun dot org. Comedy

[1:49:29] and culture. Artist owned. Audience supported.

Ep #367 - The Adam Project

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