Ep. #345 - Chaos Walking

[0:00] On this episode, we discuss chaos walking and joining us as a special guest, Mr.

[0:05] Chaos walking himself, Christopher Walken.

[0:08] How are you doing, Christopher?

[0:09] Having a great time, Stuart.

[0:15] So is he a robot?

[0:30] Hey, everyone.

[0:45] Welcome to the Flophouse.

[0:46] I'm Dan McCoy.

[0:47] Oh, hey there, Dan.

[0:48] It's me, Stuart Wellington.

[0:50] Back again.

[0:51] And also back again.

[0:52] I don't know why Stuart got to the back again credit, but I'm also back again.

[0:56] And so is Dan, is Elliot Kaelin, me.

[0:58] We're all back again.

[0:59] That's right. We all saw the the recording listed on our calendars.

[1:04] And we click the link for the Zoom meeting and we're back again.

[1:07] So now we're back again.

[1:08] Detective Muldoon back again.

[1:10] Uh oh. We were trying to get out of the detective job, but we got pulled back in for one last case.

[1:16] That's right. Back again is back again.

[1:19] In. Back again.

[1:21] This fall on NBC, every episode, he's back again.

[1:26] He keeps trying to quit, but they won't let him.

[1:29] Mm hmm. Sorry, Nathan Fillion is back again.

[1:33] No, man. But it's the three of us in a trench coat and with a Nathan Fillion mask on top.

[1:38] Yeah. Yeah.

[1:39] We're Nathan Fillion, which is the substitute Nathan Fillion.

[1:44] Well, we haven't missed a beat.

[1:46] OK, well, this is a podcast where we watch a bad movie and we talk about it.

[1:51] And for this episode, we all watched a film that did this get released to theaters?

[1:57] Or was this only was, I believe, released in theaters.

[2:01] But let me double check that.

[2:03] I have a friend, Wikipedia, and let's take a look what he says about it.

[2:08] Yeah, this is one of those ones that was meant to be a much bigger release, though.

[2:12] It was released on March 5th, 2021 in the United States and previously on February 24th in South Korea.

[2:18] OK. It was previously scheduled to be released in 2019, but was delayed to accommodate reshoots.

[2:24] That was a bad idea because then they scheduled it during the pandemic and it was delayed yet again.

[2:30] But it's back again.

[2:31] Well, they were doing reshoots for like two or three years, right?

[2:34] I think they started reshooting it back in like 2017.

[2:37] They actually began reshoots before they began shoots.

[2:39] That was the troubled production of the movie.

[2:41] Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[2:42] Well, I mean, this has been through a lot of I mean, let's talk about it.

[2:45] This movie is called Chaos Walking.

[2:47] Chaos Walking.

[2:49] Yeah, there's been so Charlie Kaufman wrote the original screenplay for this a long time ago.

[2:57] I presume that much of that has been or most of it, if not all, has been thrown out because he does not receive any guild credit for it.

[3:07] Probably originally, originally based on a young adult novel that was published back in 2008.

[3:13] Yeah. And then he it looks like, yeah, he probably adapted it first.

[3:16] And then a little enough is used of that, that he receives no onscreen credit since it was published back in 2008.

[3:23] Do you think that like the publishers like, well, there's this hot new bad movie podcast called The Flop House out there.

[3:29] Maybe if this does well, we can make a movie someday.

[3:32] Yeah. With every delay, they can be like, we just got to hope they keep doing the podcast.

[3:37] We got we got to hope against hope these three knuckleheads continue for over a decade to keep doing this podcast.

[3:43] Nothing better to do.

[3:44] Nothing, apparently.

[3:46] But but Doug Liman is the director.

[3:49] But the reshoots, I believe, were done by also Fede Alvarez, who did the Evil Dead remake and Don't Breathe.

[3:57] And, you know, Doug Liman, obviously of Born Identity, Swingers, Go, Edge of Tomorrow.

[4:03] You got big stars in this like Daisy Ridley, Tom Holland, Mads Mikkelsen.

[4:08] We're mad about Mads.

[4:09] A lot of talent.

[4:10] I can't believe you mentioned Mads third at the film.

[4:14] Well, I mean, he is, I would say the third lead villain, though.

[4:18] And David Oyelowo, who like is an Oscar nominee.

[4:22] Or did he win? Did he win for Selma?

[4:24] He did not win, I don't think.

[4:26] For Selma, you mean?

[4:27] I think he did not win that year.

[4:28] But but so this this this is a movie that.

[4:30] It's Disney or Revo.

[4:31] Like, it's crazy.

[4:32] Yeah, yeah.

[4:34] Although her part is very small.

[4:35] A cavalcade of talent.

[4:36] Now, there's a lot of talented people.

[4:38] It's got a great pedigree.

[4:40] And yet something doesn't quite work.

[4:44] Is this movie chaos walking or is it merely chaos?

[4:47] Boring. That's a question we'll answer today on the Flophouse.

[4:51] But first, you want to take another pass?

[4:53] You want to take another pass at that one, Elliot?

[4:55] OK, is is this chaos walking going to get a chaos

[4:58] drubbing from the Flophouse boys?

[5:01] First, a word from Syrup.

[5:03] Hey, what are you putting on your pancakes?

[5:05] Not syrup. What's going on with you?

[5:07] Put syrup on those pancakes.

[5:08] That is a huge new sponsor.

[5:10] We got the whole like just like the idea of syrup.

[5:13] Yeah, yeah. It's for the National Syrup Council.

[5:14] Unfortunately, the nation that it's the Syrup Council of is North Korea.

[5:17] So, hey, North Koreans, what are you putting on your pancakes?

[5:19] You don't have any pancakes. That's terrible.

[5:21] What a tasteless joke for me to make.

[5:22] OK, guys, let's keep going with the episode.

[5:24] Wow. OK, and we're going on.

[5:30] So, yeah, Stuart, you want to take us through this movie?

[5:32] What's it about?

[5:33] Because the title doesn't really the title doesn't really tell you very much.

[5:36] So when you you obviously you're at the movie theater,

[5:39] you have your tub of popcorn and you're like, what the fuck is this movie about?

[5:43] It's called firmly ensconced in it.

[5:44] Warm and buttery.

[5:46] Yep. And you're like, I hope nobody hears my thoughts

[5:48] because that doesn't happen in real life.

[5:50] So the movie opens with the title card.

[5:52] That is a quote that gives it sheds a little light on the title.

[5:55] The quote is, wait, I wrote it down wrong in my notes

[5:58] because I didn't want to rewind, but I have it here on my phone.

[6:01] I'm just going to vamp for a second.

[6:03] So what's up with you, Elliot?

[6:08] Is that you vamping?

[6:10] OK, I'm back in the game.

[6:11] OK, so the title, the audience will never know what's up with me. Yeah.

[6:16] The noise is a man's thoughts unfiltered and without a filter.

[6:20] A man is just chaos walking.

[6:23] And you're like you read that.

[6:25] You're like, OK, so somebody famous said that.

[6:27] Nope. It is attributed to unknown new world settler,

[6:31] a character made up for the movie.

[6:32] Yeah. Yes. And at first you see a quote and you're like,

[6:35] oh, he's talking about Twitter.

[6:36] OK, yeah, sure. Oh, oh, man.

[6:39] Who put it? Man, we're all we're all wound up today.

[6:42] So the movie opens in outer space. Perfect.

[6:45] It is a perfect place for a movie.

[6:47] I mean, if you if you expand the definition far enough,

[6:50] every movie opens in outer space because it's all on planets.

[6:52] That's true. Elliot got me again.

[6:55] So the movie begins in outer space.

[6:57] We fly on.

[6:59] You know, we get closer to the planet.

[7:01] It the card reads that is the new world.

[7:04] Twenty two. Fifty seven.

[7:06] So right around the corner.

[7:08] Yeah, this this this planet has been given the imaginative name of New World.

[7:11] New World, I guess, because the colonists in their generations

[7:15] long voyage over here were watching nothing but New Girl.

[7:18] And then they just that was all that they thought of.

[7:20] They said to honor the the sitcom that so entertained them

[7:23] during the many decades of space travel.

[7:26] They named it after that, I'm guessing.

[7:28] And I mean, I think I think the wish is that the men in this movie

[7:32] behaved a little bit more like Nick and a little less like Schmidt.

[7:35] But we'll get into that.

[7:36] So we're introduced to Todd Hewitt, who's just hunting around

[7:40] in the forest with his dog, Manchi.

[7:43] He killed some giant bugs.

[7:44] And the whole time we are hearing constant narration from him.

[7:47] But it turns out that's not just narration.

[7:49] That's his thoughts on this planet.

[7:51] Human men, their thoughts are heard aloud.

[7:55] And their head emits like like illusions or like a vapor, like a corona.

[8:02] It's like a holographic cloud

[8:04] that follows men around and allows you to see their thoughts.

[8:08] And this is Tom Holland who's playing Todd Hewitt.

[8:10] He's Tom Holland.

[8:11] And he's really breaking.

[8:12] He's breaking normal form here by playing kind of like a nervous,

[8:15] young, anxious, nebbish guy who like he's always kind of telling himself

[8:18] he's saying the wrong thing and is constantly second guessing himself.

[8:22] And true.

[8:23] I'm just going to jump in and say that one of things you figure out right away

[8:26] is that this movie is not doing a fit.

[8:28] They're trying, but they're not doing a fantastic job of representing

[8:31] at least what it is like to me to think, because most of the thoughts

[8:35] that you hear are just him stating what's going on or reacting immediately

[8:39] in full sentences to things.

[8:40] And he very rarely like his mind doesn't he doesn't have a stream

[8:43] of consciousness so much.

[8:44] It's more like he has like Joel and the bots are in his brain,

[8:48] just kind of commenting on things that happen around him.

[8:49] Right.

[8:50] I mean, yeah, the I you know, I do not presume to be inside

[8:56] other people's minds.

[8:57] I know that.

[8:59] So not like the Danzig song Possession, which is about that.

[9:03] But many people like your mastermind think in different ways.

[9:08] But I know that my thoughts are more in the vein of sort of a constant

[9:13] inner monologue rather than sort of like, you know, later on, he like sees

[9:19] Daisy Ridley and he's like, yellow hair, yellow hair, pretty girl.

[9:22] Like, it's all like just like little phrases.

[9:25] Yeah. It's like the dogs from up.

[9:27] Yeah. Yes. Yeah.

[9:28] Everybody. I mean, in a way, men are basically the dogs from up,

[9:31] but they're walking on two legs.

[9:33] But yeah, it's a very.

[9:34] So keep in mind, we're talking about his thoughts.

[9:35] It's very like, yeah, it's it doesn't fit the most accurate thing

[9:40] about thoughts that came to me during the movie was there's a scene

[9:42] later on where an old man is sleeping and he's just having dreams

[9:45] about baseball that are very loud.

[9:47] And I was like, yeah, OK, I buy that.

[9:49] Yeah. OK, this this I buy, you know.

[9:51] So we're introduced to this.

[9:53] We're introduced to this little world.

[9:55] He lives in a like a settlement that is I have.

[10:00] Checked but I I think uh comic artist Simon Roy deserves royalties for this because it's this like

[10:05] kind of uh, you know kind of futuristic but also like kind of uh, like old west

[10:12] Uh, it's this colony that's made up entirely of men

[10:15] We're introduced to this like

[10:17] super intense preacher character played by David Oyelowo

[10:21] Uh whose name i'm sure i'm butchering at this point

[10:24] Um, we are introduced to Nick Jonas who is doing a really good job of playing an unlikable person

[10:29] I mean, it's probably it's just it must be such a huge stretch for him, but he manages to pull it off perfectly

[10:34] I don't know enough about Nick Jonas to know if that's a solid dig or not

[10:38] I just don't know. What do you mean a dig elliot? I'm saying this honestly. I don't know what's wrong with you

[10:42] Can you see my thoughts today? What's going on? So he is playing like

[10:47] a very stereotypical though, like just like this is the bad guy who is

[10:54] a like

[10:56] uh

[10:57] You know an idiot probable sexual assaulter

[11:00] Like I like I speaking of which content warning there's a lot in this movie like about violence against women

[11:06] Uh multiple animals die. We will be talking

[11:09] So many horses die. I was like they're really leaning into the walking part of this title

[11:15] Yeah, but it is funny like audrey has gotten me into the voice shaking my head

[11:19] I'm, like I made the joke about how north koreans

[11:22] Suffer from famine and i'm shaking my head about this too. Yeah

[11:26] Watching nick jonas, uh, yeah, and this role is very very strange. It's like wait, you're supposed to be like, you know telling

[11:33] some young artists some bullshit that makes it seem like you

[11:38] Care about saving them from america's wrath. Uh as a singer rather than uh, you know wearing a big

[11:45] Duster and and licking your lips ominously does lick his lips a lot

[11:49] And also we meet uh, nick jonas's father in this movie who is the mayor of the town

[11:53] Uh mads mickelson, we love him flop house fave here

[11:57] And he's not he's he's the mayor but his name is david prentice and the town is called prentice town

[12:02] So david prentice, which is one of those great sci-fi names that you just love like george lucas must have written that down

[12:08] But like how did I miss that one? Oh, man, perfect. Oh, man

[12:12] um, and he and the mayor is kind of uh,

[12:15] You know, he he has this uh, he's almost like a father figure role model for our hero

[12:20] Uh for a brief period of time before we realize he's the baddie

[12:24] um before you before that before the uh, I mean when you realize he's a bad guy long before

[12:30] Yeah, he's played by mads. Mickelson. He's got a big scar

[12:34] And there's a cool coat and he says yeah

[12:37] He says to tom holland men need to kill and gives him a knife like so, you know, he's a bad guy

[12:42] Almost instantly, you know, but tom holland takes a long time to figure that out

[12:45] So todd, uh lives on a beet farm with his uh, two adoptive fathers played by kurt sutter and

[12:53] Returning flop house fave damien beshear. Hey

[12:57] Oh, man, we got so many names in this movie so he uh, like he wanders around a bunch, uh,

[13:04] You know, we we learn a little bit about the town and then of course

[13:08] Now we go into outer space where daisy ridley from the star wars movies comes from and she is

[13:15] Well, I don't know if daisy ridley comes from space other than again

[13:22] She's got the same accent as all the people from space in the movies, so that's a space accent. Yeah

[13:28] So she's on uh, she's on like a landing pod

[13:31] uh, and they are uh, they are

[13:34] Heading toward the they're heading toward the planet

[13:36] They we learned that the colony has been cut off from the rest of humanity for some time

[13:41] Uh that they were late in arriving and this uh, this pod is landing and as it uh gets through the atmosphere

[13:49] There's like energy wave hits the pod and all the men start experiencing the noise, which is when they're uh,

[13:56] Did I address that's called the noise the noise?

[13:58] In the opening quote it's called the noise and now you may be thinking that don't now it's

[14:03] Not as bad as if they were affected by the noid which would ruin all their pizzas

[14:06] Instead this merely makes their thoughts come out loud and they get disoriented and crash their spaceship

[14:12] this is why

[14:13] I mean, there are many reasons why we're friends, but I before you said that I in my head was thinking

[14:19] avoids the noise

[14:22] Anything that's something yeah

[14:25] Dan you can make up for it, but i've been trying my head to figure out a ridley walker daisy ridley chaos walking joke

[14:30] And I cannot figure out the math on it. So maybe you can maybe you can pick well, you know

[14:34] Let's open it up to the listeners. Uh, if there's any scientists in the audience who can make that work

[14:40] Uh, you know make this joke

[14:41] It's like in apollo 13 when they put all the pieces out and they're like we need to make this fit in this

[14:45] Here are your pieces daisy ridley chaos walking ridley walker by russell hoban

[14:50] Those are the pieces you have just figure out a joke to make out of it

[14:53] There's there's plot similarities. Just see if you can get it done

[14:56] So this uh this pod, uh quietly crashes in the forest behind todd's farm. Yes. It is quietly

[15:04] yeah

[15:05] And it raises a question because it does crash quietly and ask you a question if it's if a space pod crashes in the woods

[15:10] There's no one around to hear it. Does it make a noise?

[15:12] I don't know. It did make the movie. I mean it made the noise because that's what crashed

[15:17] But yeah, you got me. I didn't realize you were doing trick questions now. It is

[15:21] So you guys have you seen that movie noisies? It's the musical about the the guy the young guys who start a union about noise

[15:30] You know the sequel noisy's off there is

[15:35] Decibel power the more people who can yell together the louder they'll be

[15:40] Hey when you got 100 voices singing who can hear a lousy whistle blow?

[15:43] That's from newsies. Okay. Uh, so todd, I think yeah, so do you want?

[15:50] Okay, let's stop. Um, so

[15:53] Todd thinks he's chasing a thief. Of course instead he finds the crash shuttle. He goes to town. Yep. Sorry

[15:59] Sure. Yeah, just did this bother you because it bothered me

[16:03] So daisy ridley is part of this second wave of colonists that they you know, like they're like, oh they've they must be

[16:11] Excited that we're coming, you know, it's been so long

[16:14] We should have been here much earlier and she crashes

[16:17] And the first thing she does is like sneak into town like steal something and then run away from the person

[16:24] Yeah, wouldn't she?

[16:26] Like walk straight to town and just ask for help. Well, here's this is something that bothered me that I want to talk about

[16:31] Yes, which is that?

[16:32] We know she can talk. We know she can pilot a spaceship, but as soon as she lands on the planet

[16:38] She is suddenly

[16:39] Nell or what's her name from the fifth element suddenly she is refused. She doesn't want to talk multi-pass. Yeah

[16:45] Thank you. Uh lulu multi-pass you use her to get on certain toll booths. Uh, and so to get to get through the highway parts

[16:50] uh

[16:51] it's like

[16:53] suddenly she is acting like one of these like

[16:56] uh alien or

[16:58] You know savage women that you see in movies who is like

[17:01] The idea there was a video I watched a while ago online about it where the guy refers to it as born sexy yesterday

[17:06] where they're like sexy women that a man has to kind of teach how to

[17:11] Civilization basically teach how to talk and she starts acting like this and it's very weird

[17:16] So she's in a barn later and tom holland is like it's okay. It's okay

[17:19] Like i'm not gonna hurt you i'm not gonna hurt you and she's like

[17:22] It's like but I don't understand why she's not just talking to him and saying what's going on here

[17:25] I came with the other settlers. It's very strange

[17:27] It doesn't really feel like there's a scene missing where she encountered had like a very negative early encounter with some settlers or something

[17:34] Or it gets hit on the head and is disoriented. Yeah

[17:37] There yeah, coconut falls from a tree hits on hits around the head

[17:41] This new world all it seems to have is beets and coconuts and I don't know

[17:45] Bugs and big bugs and an alien race that we see once and then never again. Uh-huh

[17:50] uh, so, uh

[17:52] You know todd goes they round up a posse they go looking for her they uh, eventually what they eventually catch her right and

[18:01] uh, they

[18:03] Mads michelson takes her back to the colony and he starts

[18:07] Like he he isolates her and tries to explain to her what's going on, you know

[18:12] He explains what the noise is all about

[18:14] He explains about the evil aliens the spackle who came and killed all their women one day

[18:19] But filled all the holes in the walls

[18:21] That was good

[18:23] It does

[18:24] There was a moment where he he just he refers to the aliens as calling being called the spackle and I could see him

[18:31] I could see the struggle there. Like that's a silly thing to have to say

[18:35] But he pulled it off. He pulled it off. He's amazing an odd name for your potentially menacing alien creatures. Yeah

[18:43] Uh, why are they called that? Well, we never find out. No, we don't find out much about them

[18:48] No, the spackle are an underdefined, uh element in this scenario. I mean she is immediately suspicious

[18:54] Of them because she's talking to mads michelson. Yeah, she's mads michelson who is look

[19:00] He is fairly scary looking and uh, you know, he I don't I think it's funny

[19:05] He was in death stranding recently, which is basically a game that could have been called chaos walking

[19:10] but the uh

[19:12] So and she's in like a barn surrounded by men who are all shouting with their thoughts

[19:17] So I could understand why she would be a little nervous

[19:20] Uh, so of course the mayor leaves his son alone with her

[19:23] He gets super weird and then he somehow sets off a device that blows up a bunch of stuff and she escapes

[19:30] And overhears, uh mads michelson's real plan, which is of course wait for a new ship of colonists to arrive

[19:36] Bonk them all on the head with coconuts and take their ship. Yeah, I mean, I think I think kill them

[19:41] I don't know that there's just gonna be a a bonking but I mean they they don't do they clarify elliot

[19:46] I mean, it's kind of the same thing

[19:48] So maybe they don't but he sees these new colonists as a threat to his power because he seems to have some sort of horrible

[19:53] Secret that is I would I mean, I wouldn't go ahead to say incredibly obvious, but uh, certainly very obvious

[20:00] But yeah, and it makes me wonder it makes me wonder and here's here's an issue and I assume it's a

[20:05] This is not to get into some kind of critical gender theory, but it feels like this

[20:11] Story is built around a very old-fashioned structure of there's a young guy

[20:16] He encounters someone from the outside and that opens his eyes to the problems of the place that he's living in

[20:23] When I don't know why you don't just tell the story about Disney Daisy Ridley

[20:27] Like I don't know why you don't just make her the hero of this story because she's the one who's totally out of her element

[20:31] To end would not have a reason to have suspected these secrets before like I don't I don't know why we're still holding on to

[20:37] This old-fashioned framework of you need a young guy to be your entry point into this story

[20:41] Yeah, well, I mean, you know not not much of a spoiler because we were arguing to talk about the whole damn movie

[20:47] But like this movie in so much as it has something on its mind

[20:51] Seems to have on his mind like the male capacity for violence

[20:57] The way that

[21:00] The idea of being a man, you know gets

[21:04] equated to

[21:06] being violent because like

[21:10] Tom Holland keeps telling himself in his noise like, you know, be a man be a man be brave be a man like and that is

[21:16] linked to

[21:17] Mads being like a man needs to kill sometimes, you know and

[21:21] Him learning like no killing everything is not the answer like

[21:28] that you should not look on this as I

[21:32] don't I don't like to

[21:35] to argue that like what we hold as masculine is

[21:40] toxic to put it in the language of our time and

[21:44] and

[21:45] So maybe they thought that they need to center a man

[21:49] Learning that lesson and maybe like

[21:53] Trojan horse that message in for maybe men who are looking for

[21:57] an adventure story, but it does seem a

[22:01] little weird like that mean the story at this time seems a little weird for

[22:06] the reason of yeah, like should the guy be the main hero and also like it is so

[22:12] Tied to the idea of gender being a binary that it opens up problems that it does not address at all

[22:19] But well, that's a whole other issue

[22:20] But it's it feels like it's that the Margaret Atwood quote that you see all the time where it says men are afraid women will

[22:25] Laugh at them women are afraid men will kill them that it's like it's this is it's kind of like yeah

[22:30] Men are afraid women will laugh at them women were afraid men will kill them the movie

[22:33] like that's kind of like it's like someone took that quote and was like I better build a movie around that and

[22:38] They did it somehow they did it and they did so and they made it happen

[22:42] I couldn't make this damn Ridley Walker joke work. Anyway, I can't

[22:47] Move out of this quote. So you can make a boy out of pencils then pencils

[22:52] Can take I don't remember they'd make a boy out of pencils. I think you might be misremembering what happened in that movie

[23:01] And speaking of boys you can make if you make butter out of peanuts then maybe we can make a peanut out of butter balls

[23:07] And speaking of peanuts and balls, let's talk about a beet farm, that's right

[23:11] that's the farm that Todd lives at and

[23:14] Daisy Ridley's character who we later learn is named Viola as hidden out in his barn

[23:19] There's a lot of talk about beats in this movie

[23:22] Do you think that's a Twelfth Night reference the fact that she's named Viola? Yeah, maybe I think it is or yeah

[23:27] I haven't heard this much about beats since the Doug TV show. Oh, man, you guys you got interrupted that that's it. Thank you

[23:34] Well, that was a joke for my generation the Nicktoons generation. Anyway, continue Gen Z. Do not apply to that Joe. Don't worry about it

[23:41] They'll probably reboot it. Um, so

[23:44] They decide and Todd decides to protect her

[23:48] he informs his two dads that

[23:51] He is that you know that she's there because he can't hide any information because all his thoughts are read out in the sky

[23:59] so they

[24:00] His father his father played by Damian Bashir Ben

[24:05] Explains that he the that they got to get her out of there and he has to go with her and their only choice is

[24:11] To go to a place called far branch, which has there's some like dark mystery tied in there where he can't reveal that he's from

[24:18] Prentice Town

[24:20] Which turns out to Prentice Town is pretty shitty. I think we we can all agree Prentice Town

[24:24] It just turns out that Prentice Town is it has a bad reputation because they

[24:26] Because they're terrible

[24:28] A lot of people they take the paths with their clothes on and they've never taken a hot one before

[24:33] They're not very they're not maybe maybe Todd is not the best example is they're not very

[24:40] Observant because there's a there's a part where and this shows to me that they did not they weren't paying super close attention to the

[24:46] To the writing when they cast the movie afterward or not rewriting me for the cast because that heat when he finally hears viola talk

[24:51] He goes her voice is high kind of nice and I was like she has a deeper voice than you

[24:56] I know

[25:01] Because it was like this is probably a line

[25:03] Maybe it's in the original book and it's carried through all this time and nobody at any point was like, you know

[25:08] Tom Holland's voice is higher than than Daisy Ridley. It's like we should probably

[25:12] Suggested to Tom Holland. He's like, what are you talking about?

[25:21] Yeah, they're like we've already shot half the movie with his high voice we can't do this now

[25:25] There's an alternate cut that's on the DVD of him being like, oh, let me let me take you to horror branch

[25:32] so before they can leave

[25:34] The the the Prentice town posse shows up and they have to escape in a hail of blaster fire

[25:42] His father Killian is killed by evil Nick Jonas, but they get out of there. They're chased by other guys on horses and

[25:49] The first another cardinal sin of the movie

[25:53] They he rides his horse off a cliff and his horse breaks his leg and he has to kill it and it sucks

[25:59] Yeah, it sucks movie. You suck. I was like, what is this the revenant? Yeah

[26:04] so

[26:06] Todd and Viola, I mean Stuart. I hope you know they didn't really kill a horse making the movie. I'm sure no

[26:11] I mean, I checked the credits and it didn't say they said they didn't kill a horse

[26:15] So I gotta assume they didn't say they had dedicated to the memory of sparkles or anything like that

[26:19] The horse name is whiskey

[26:22] Todd and Todd and Viola form kind of an uneasy alliance because they they got to get to far branch so she can

[26:31] Call out to like the ship that her shuttle came from and yeah, I'm safe to arrive

[26:38] Just yeah, I'm a celebrity get me out of here

[26:42] I

[26:45] Was in Star Wars, uh-huh and

[26:47] And but she can't go on her own because Todd the only map Todd has is his memory of a map and I'm like

[26:53] I don't remember. I'm I have a pretty good spatial memory and I couldn't remember a map perfectly, but whatever

[27:00] So we get like a bunch of scenes of questing, you know, they're like walking around different areas

[27:05] We find out that it doesn't really ever get dark there. They go through swamps

[27:09] You get the classic scene of the of the man stripping off his clothes to like jump in some water and her like looking at him

[27:15] And then looking away and then looking at him again, just like in Pacific Rim, basically

[27:21] Or like that X-Men comic where Jubilee and boom-boom see Wolverine naked and then they like lose their shit

[27:31] No, it was a real comic like Wolverine's meditate

[27:35] I've talked about this on the podcast before longtime fans are gonna be like just quoting this verbatim

[27:39] but Wolverine is doing like, you know, like a nude meditation thing because he's you know, like a badass and

[27:45] Boom, boom and Jubilee go to grab him because you know, they have to go have a meeting or something

[27:51] That's what the X-Men do and so Wolverine like gets up and walks past them and there is a panel of both

[27:56] Jubilee and boom-boom like looking down at Wolverine's naked body as he walks past and then like a shot of them like

[28:03] Like with like sweat bubbles shooting out of their head

[28:06] Anime horny face with their eyes

[28:09] Yeah, it's wild. Uh, it real comic canon. Somebody is somebody's gonna somebody'll email you the panels

[28:28] Wolverine comma girls thirsty over

[28:31] Put it tag it and then print it out put it on your wall put a piece of red yarn between that and

[28:38] Yeah

[28:39] Yeah, so they we have a lot of you know

[28:42] They have a lot of chatting about who the real aliens are humans or the spackle

[28:46] We look we learn a little bit about Viola's background about how she's been on this college shift her whole life

[28:51] She's never seen rain before this planet sucks

[28:55] Did we mention dead did we mention already that uh that Mads Mikkelsen the story at

[29:00] Prentice town is always that the spackle killed all the women in the town

[29:03] Let's get important that that when when Tom Holland was a baby

[29:06] The spackle arrived and killed all the women in town including his mom and all he remembers the song

[29:10] She sang to him when he was a little when he was a weebab

[29:13] Yep, but he can conjure that image up whenever he wants. So it's basically like she's still alive, right?

[29:18] I mean, it's one of those things were like, you know

[29:20] I'm like, I know how kids memory works and my memory of being a child work

[29:25] He is remembering the story his dad told him about that song. There's no way his memory. Is that clear from one?

[29:30] Yeah, especially because he is remembering it from a from another outside point outside of yes

[29:38] Like rather than like maybe fuzzy images of like blurry mom face

[29:43] Yeah

[29:43] Like his memory would be his dad's face

[29:45] Telling him the story and maybe his dad would be conjuring some shit at the same time. So me actually, you know what?

[29:51] That's what it is. It's a memory of seeing his dad remembering it from his head. We guys we fix the plot hole

[29:57] It's not a plot hole. He's remembering

[30:00] that one up he's remembering his dad's noise yeah call it don't call the

[30:03] spackle we did it already we don't we don't need them to fill that one in uh

[30:07] and there's a moment where tom holland is obviously infatuated with uh daisy

[30:11] ridley's character and he even has like an imaginary makeout session with her

[30:15] which is creepy and would be creepy if that happened so i don't i think don't i

[30:19] mean it'll give me the noise power no i think i think the way the movie

[30:23] handles it is i don't like that there's a it's kind of a fake out where

[30:27] she kisses i don't think the movie handles that wrong i don't well they

[30:31] she kisses him and then we learn that it was actually a noise image but

[30:34] the way he does it is not creepy he's a young guy like young guys have those

[30:38] thoughts it's not like he is he's not creeping on her

[30:41] and the movie is making it clear like that's an embarrassing thought for

[30:44] someone to see so i don't think it was it wasn't that creepy you know i mean

[30:46] i'm just creepy in the sense that i think all

[30:48] teenage boys are creepy and to imagine seeing all the thoughts would be

[30:51] horrifying yeah well that's the purpose and the

[30:54] purpose of the i mean the point of the movie is

[30:55] men's thoughts are horrifying and we shouldn't see them ever exactly that is

[31:00] that is the uh mission statement of the film i mean and why do why do i gotta

[31:04] see it in a movie i had a whole season or so of herman's head

[31:08] to watch yeah

[31:11] well there were four people in herman's head there was lust someone else

[31:15] another thing and i don't know what the other thing uh there's like a nerdy guy

[31:19] there's a big slobby party guy there's a lady there's like the hippie lady

[31:24] and then there's one other and one that i forget uh maybe more like a business

[31:28] was not in the end your your lee smith was a was the secretary where he worked

[31:32] right i believe that is true okay i guess i'm gonna have to go back and

[31:35] review herman's head james gonna get more emails

[31:38] uh after this episode because of that so they head comma herman's

[31:42] so they find a uh they find a spackle village

[31:45] uh and they try to avoid it and then they of course get

[31:49] attacked by a spackle dude who kind of looks like uh

[31:52] kind of like a gray like a tall muscular gray alien but

[31:55] like all like i don't know like oily and it's only got one arm

[32:00] and it's only got one arm but i don't know his whole story maybe they all have

[32:03] only one arm or maybe like it looks like it was maybe you know

[32:06] they in enough in a conflict between the

[32:09] spackle and these colonists yeah maybe lost maybe you kind of have

[32:13] to read that into it it's it's another one of these things i remember like with

[32:16] cowboys and aliens where it was like this is an intelligent sentient alien

[32:20] being but because it is not human it wears no clothes and looks like a

[32:23] monster and acts like a monster you know it

[32:25] doesn't doesn't attempt to communicate doesn't he doesn't move or or act like

[32:29] it's thinking you know it's just it does have

[32:30] but it does have the noise around its head uh and it seems like

[32:34] it seems put off by the fact that daisy ridley's character does not have the

[32:38] noise yeah because at first he starts beating

[32:40] the crap out of tom holland and then tom holland starts knifing it

[32:43] uh and it's pretty brutal um and then daisy viola convinces him to not kill

[32:48] the spackle who then just leaves and then that story's done

[32:51] uh but he learned that you know you can't just kill everything which is

[32:55] a very important lesson to learn if you're running around with a fucking

[32:57] knife yeah of course yeah uh so of course

[33:00] shortly after they find another settlement that's right we get to far

[33:04] far branch and it's way nicer like they have all kinds of animals

[33:09] it's hanging around playing music it's great there's men

[33:12] and women and kids it it looks much nicer

[33:16] the man is a woman which really throws off tom yeah played by cynthia revo she's

[33:20] great and then of course ray mckinnon shows up and i'm like

[33:22] that's what this movie needed it's like a western ray mckinnon's in every

[33:25] fucking western now right yeah it is very much like a western i mean

[33:30] which makes sense because there's a movie about

[33:33] colonists and i just want to you know in the interest of

[33:37] saying some things i liked about the movie i i think that the the look of the

[33:41] movie i enjoyed it doug lyman i think in general is good

[33:46] at providing something with a stylish look without being aggressive

[33:52] about it without being like stylish in quotes where

[33:55] it all has to be assaultive like this alien world

[33:58] looks different enough to seem like you know it's uh another like unpleasant

[34:05] to live in for humans planet but it is basically

[34:08] also just a physical space that you that looks not unlike earth

[34:15] it just looks like a frontier somewhere yeah and i i like that

[34:19] i would say the only real design misstep is the the aliens themselves which are

[34:24] are as you said yeah but everything else like i like the like

[34:28] the mixture of high high tech low tech stuff

[34:31] uh and there's some pretty shots like it's like

[34:34] i like pretty wilderness shots yeah it's i mean it's hard not to it's hard

[34:39] to look at greenery and forests and not and not find it

[34:42] pleasant you know it feels and it feels tactile it doesn't feel like it's all on

[34:45] a green screen they do a good job with the design of it

[34:47] looking like a place where people with technology showed up

[34:50] and then had to make do either with what they'd brought with them or building

[34:55] new things that they didn't have all the resources for and like it looks

[34:58] like a place that started with technology and

[35:00] has had to fill in the gaps that we didn't have and the amount of work for

[35:04] the visual artists to be going in there and adding those like

[35:08] the noise to every man in a shock like that's a lot that's very impressive

[35:13] that's yeah they did it i mean it is and it is so much you know i don't think the

[35:16] movie is totally successful if they do so much

[35:18] it's so much more worthwhile the work they're putting it in than

[35:22] in the aquaman movie per se where they must have had

[35:25] hundreds if not thousands of hours of digital artists making their hair and

[35:28] capes look like they were waving in water

[35:30] and i was like this is a this is a real waste of i mean i'm glad people got paid

[35:33] to do this work but it's a real waste of effort when

[35:36] this whole movie could have been set on land

[35:37] just as easily you know but instead everyone's hair had to be constantly

[35:41] waving i would argue i would argue the premise

[35:44] of an aquaman movie i guess what i'm saying is i'm

[35:47] questioning what are they going to call him

[35:49] landlord i guess i'm yeah i'm questioning the premise of making an

[35:52] aquaman movie in the first place i guess it really comes down to

[35:55] yeah okay so uh let's see i just i wanted to

[36:00] mention that stewart yes uh ray mckinnon does have to be in

[36:03] every western now it's called the lucaskew doctrine

[36:06] there's one actor who has to be in every western during a period lucaskew was

[36:09] that for an earlier era and now it's ramekin and i

[36:12] can't wait to see who it is next yeah so uh despite uh todd is allowed to

[36:17] stay even though he's from prentice town uh but he's not really accepted you know

[36:21] there's uh some grumbling uh but he's not hung on

[36:24] sight uh but they can't contact the ship from

[36:27] farbranch because they uh they dismantled all their far-range

[36:31] communication uh equipment so they are informed by uh the

[36:34] mayor that they have to go on to another settlement that's right

[36:37] there's more settlements on this time on this planet

[36:40] they have to go to a place called haven uh which

[36:43] they should be able to contact the ship from there

[36:46] uh we get a little bit of downtime uh viola reads todd's mom's journal to him

[36:52] which real reveals the tragedy of prentice town we find out what really

[36:56] happened who wants to elliot i think you're champing at the bit here to tell

[36:59] us what actually happened apprentice uh what actually happened was uh mads

[37:02] mickelson and david yellow uh riled up the men and

[37:06] because uh for their reasons that uh to the wild up the men and convince them to

[37:10] kill all the women uh mads mickelson because he was ashamed

[37:14] of the things that people of women seeing the way he thinks

[37:17] and david yellow because he's the kind of poorly characterized religious

[37:21] zealot who only thinks in terms of firing brimstone all the time like his

[37:25] thoughts are constantly like a martyr is needed blood for the sin

[37:30] fire and it's like does he never think like i have to use the bathroom i'm

[37:33] hungry now is he from a resident evil video game

[37:37] i will say that like i yes he's he's a he as a character he is a mystery

[37:44] until sort of like his final scene like i think he snapped into focus for me a

[37:48] little bit more later where like you know part of the thing with the

[37:53] the noise is he like could not distinguish it from the

[37:59] voice of gods like and he could hear the voices of the men

[38:05] the women had no voices so he says like oh like you know to him

[38:11] they had no souls and it's a case of like i think we're

[38:16] meant to believe that because of the shame of women being

[38:21] able to keep their secrets and men's horrible

[38:24] thoughts on display all the time like the the

[38:29] the madness of society breaking down and the difficulty of this hardscrabble like

[38:34] colonist life like turned him towards uh you know even

[38:38] greater zealotry no but i think it's like i would buy that character

[38:42] if he was an outcast from the village because he is so off-putting and so

[38:46] insane that he should be rorschach basically he

[38:49] should be someone who is on the fringes of this community

[38:51] but he seemed but everyone kind of like even though they're kind of afraid and

[38:55] annoyed by him he seems to hold a still a level of

[38:58] authority in the village that he's not dismissed and it was like i

[39:02] don't i don't buy that character being non-stop religious violence in his

[39:07] mind that he is shouting at the world and everyone just being like

[39:10] oh preacher yeah preacher what should we do okay preaching there's definitely

[39:14] times where he's like leading groups of men and it doesn't

[39:17] like you get the feeling obviously from the todd character that

[39:21] i mean he mentions multiple times that nobody nobody needs a preacher anymore

[39:25] yeah yeah and like and obviously uh mads mickelson seems to

[39:29] keep him at arm's length but i i agree with you elliott

[39:34] i wonder if the idea is maybe that he was at one point

[39:37] more useful to mads in like sort of keeping his power and they were

[39:42] now they're bound together by like sort of the sin of what they did

[39:45] killing all these women i don't think we actually got into the fact before

[39:50] or at least we didn't dwell on it that uh uh the the thing that makes the mayor

[39:54] special is he can control his noise very well like he

[39:58] cannot let you know he doesn't

[40:00] not let people into his thoughts and he seems to have

[40:03] sort of mastered it enough that he kind of can control other men's thoughts like

[40:07] his thoughts are so strong that they can overpower others

[40:10] he's like the shadow

[40:12] yes yeah exactly uh... and there's a hint that he recognizes in Todd

[40:17] that same

[40:19] level of ability like Todd does early in the movie Todd gets Nick Jonas to

[40:23] back off by imagining a giant snake lunging at Nick Jonas and it's so real that Nick

[40:27] Jonas gets out of the way and Matt's like good good use of your noise Todd and it's like

[40:31] it's a terrible Mads that's not a good impression I apologize Mr. Mickelson

[40:36] Gotham City will be proud of you

[40:38] aww batman it's me Mads Mikkelsen also a vampire

[40:43] well this is my design

[40:46] I don't know why is he revealing the fact that he's a vampire makes him susceptible to

[40:50] anti-vampire weapons and I'd like to play against the type people think of me as just a

[40:55] great actor but I'm also a vampire and people don't know that and it explains why I don't go out doing

[41:00] today very much

[41:01] this is Elliot's demo reel to be a guest on what we do in the shadows

[41:05] yeah yeah to be a guest on what we do in the shadows as the jewish vampire trying to hide

[41:09] the fact that he's jewish but it keeps coming out

[41:11] uh... so uh...

[41:13] yeah he's uh... so

[41:15] he's got that but

[41:16] he's got this uh... yeah he and Todd are special in that they're a little bit better at controlling their

[41:19] noise but Todd is

[41:20] his leaks out because he's young and then he just always goes back to going

[41:23] I'm Todd Hewitt I'm Todd Hewitt I'm Todd Hewitt yeah which is a very suspicious thing for him to be thinking

[41:28] like what are you hiding boy I'm Todd Hewitt I'm Todd Hewitt hmm you seem to be saying your name

[41:33] to yourself a lot is something something wrong

[41:37] do you forget your name

[41:39] so before they can head off to Haven a posse from Prentice town arrives at Farbranch

[41:45] uh... and they got their big laser blasters and they got a bunch of guys uh... and

[41:49] you know there's a standoff

[41:52] but Prentice manages to start convincing the locals to just let him grab the grab

[41:56] uh... Viola grab a girl

[41:59] uh...

[41:59] a guy tries to to kidnap Viola but she saves herself she doesn't need Todd to

[42:05] help her

[42:05] uh... and then the two of them sneak off and hide in a barn for a little while

[42:10] this movie loves hiding in barns

[42:13] uh...

[42:14] uh... Father Ben who has been forced to come along is

[42:17] then forced to convince Todd to give over

[42:22] Viola to the mayor

[42:24] uh... Ben goes out and makes it appear he uses uh... a handy illusion to trick

[42:31] the mayor for a second

[42:32] uh... giving Todd and Viola enough time to escape

[42:37] but not enough time because the evil preacher chases them there's a river

[42:41] chase

[42:42] uh... Manchie the dog who we have at this point come to love

[42:46] uh... is uh... joins them on a riverboat and then uh... in the in the scuffle

[42:52] on like a little rowboat it's not like a paddle wheel riverboat but they're not riverboat gambling

[42:56] it's not paddling

[42:57] oh man I bet they were

[42:59] I just changed my name to Mark Twain

[43:01] we're on the run we gotta hide our noise

[43:04] the game's faro boys and girls sit down take a look please

[43:09] belly up to the table

[43:11] that'd be great

[43:13] unfortunately that doesn't happen which would be great nope the worst thing in

[43:16] the world happens

[43:17] the evil preacher uh... slowly kills this dog that we love

[43:21] and it sucks

[43:22] and I do not like it

[43:25] okay so uh... then they escape

[43:27] and uh... they find uh... they find the generation ship this massive ship that

[43:32] the original colonists came on it's uh... crashing like half buried in the

[43:35] earth

[43:36] and Daisy Ridley's like huh

[43:37] leave it to me I'm an expert at exploring old ships

[43:41] uh... and then

[43:43] uh... reminds me of Jakku in an asterisk this is a reference to a character she played in a different movie

[43:48] uh... so they find the long

[43:51] that's a synergistic stand

[43:56] so they find a long-range comm unit but they need to reconnect the antenna

[44:00] so of course they need somebody to do some climbing

[44:03] and Tom Holland's like hey that's my expertise I have a character who climbs a lot in another movie

[44:09] so he climbs around like a spider

[44:11] that's a little hint of what I was referencing

[44:14] they're like what skills do we each have in Disney owned IP we'll use both of them in this scene

[44:21] so they uh... he climbs up there and reconnects the comm unit meanwhile the

[44:26] posse from Prentice Town show up and surround the the crashed ship

[44:31] uh... the

[44:32] uh... Prentice starts uh... starts trying to coax uh... Todd out

[44:38] uh... by threatening his father Ben who has been beaten and dragged along

[44:43] uh... and the preacher

[44:45] sneaks aboard the ship and starts attacking uh... Viola

[44:49] uh... but then uh... Viola uses some of her fancy equipment and totally roasts him

[44:55] hooray

[44:56] but also this is a scene where like I found this honestly kind of interesting because you can

[45:01] you can hear his noise and it's clear that like

[45:04] whether or not

[45:05] it's conscious thought or or like his like the truth sort of like coming out

[45:11] from his brain but like

[45:12] he knows that

[45:14] killing all the women

[45:16] was an evil deed that like that he

[45:19] did this horrible thing and

[45:22] he wants her to kill him he's attacking her not to kill her but so that she will

[45:27] be forced to kill him too

[45:29] as as a as a form of repentance or penance you know yeah

[45:32] and as the as the Mamas and Papas said uh... you know the preacher likes the cold

[45:36] and this preacher probably does because he burns to death

[45:38] so

[45:42] oh yeah that's a little easter egg I'll put another piece of yarn from

[45:46] yeah so if you can print out the California Dreamin'

[45:50] print out the California Dreamin' I guess single cover and put that with

[45:53] with yarn attach that too yeah

[45:56] uh... and outside the ship

[45:57] we got uh... Todd confronts Prentice uh... Father Ben gets shot and killed

[46:02] uh... Todd gets shot

[46:04] uh... and then the fight there's a lot of like conjuring illusions it's very

[46:08] mysterio versus spider-man

[46:10] uh... everyone is using their illusion

[46:13] yeah that yep

[46:14] one and two

[46:15] two illusions at a time

[46:17] uh... and

[46:19] they you would almost call this a civil war

[46:21] the opening track on use your illusion too

[46:24] if you don't use your illusion you'll lose your illusion so that's the problem

[46:29] we have a spaghetti incident

[46:33] Chinese democracy?

[46:36] so uh... no that's all lies uh... okay so the uh...

[46:40] so you're saying that

[46:41] using the noise they both have an appetite for distraction

[46:44] uh... oh no

[46:48] that's going to confuse someone so much who has no

[46:50] uh...

[46:51] uh... versing I mean if they're not familiar with GNR then they can

[46:55] figure it out themselves you know I mean we talk about the the music video from

[46:59] november rain like every other episode right and that fucking dude who dives through the cake

[47:03] what's going on he hates cakes he's done that he does that at every wedding you know that guy does that

[47:10] they're like don't invite him he's going to dive through the cake I promise I won't do it this time

[47:14] bring out the first bring out the decoy cake so he'll dive through it then we'll bring out the real cake

[47:20] yeah yeah

[47:21] I have to invite him he's my brother

[47:23] yeah sadly he died while diving through a king cake and the baby cut right through his body

[47:28] what happened was the little baby figurine just split him in half like uh... like uh...

[47:32] who's

[47:33] who's razor hat is that in Mortal Kombat

[47:36] uh... Kung Lao

[47:38] Kung Lao yes or like the thumb from uh... Takeshi Kitano's character from Johnny Mnemonic

[47:43] depending on what reference is better for you

[47:46] which which reference will

[47:47] better get across the idea of a guy diving through a cake and a tiny baby figurine cutting him in two

[47:52] a monomolecular tiny baby slicing a man in half as he dives through a cake

[47:58] in a New Orleans themed wedding

[48:01] when it's raining

[48:02] yep okay so uh... Todd conjures uh... a greek chorus of women

[48:07] berating Prentiss

[48:09] and then Viola shows up uh... the real one shows up and blasts him with a pipe and

[48:13] knocks him down a hole

[48:15] the end

[48:16] the ship arrives the posse runs off

[48:19] Todd wakes up from his injuries climbs out of his back to tank he's on her ship

[48:24] and the new colonists are gonna stay movie over I did it

[48:27] perfect score for Stuart

[48:29] and what you did a great job and one thing I want to mention is that

[48:32] the movie

[48:33] does not have them kiss at the end

[48:36] at the end there's still that kind of hint of like maybe they like

[48:40] each other now but it does not go all the way to have them

[48:42] suddenly be in love after several stressful days together which I really appreciated

[48:46] yeah that was a good choice by the movie

[48:50] who knows maybe but who cares on the other hand and then Stuart do you want to

[48:53] summarize the ten minutes of end credits that follow

[48:57] uh... I wasn't paying attention but I wasn't paying that close attention

[49:00] because I was just looking again for that the no horses were I mean you can summarize them by a bunch of

[49:04] words went by

[49:06] yeah but it's just one of those things I was like okay there's still some of this movie

[49:09] left right and it cut to black and I was like

[49:12] I just so I could see on the timeline

[49:13] on the screen that there was a lot there were ten minutes left and I was like wow

[49:16] that's a lot of credits I mean but that's the visual artist working on the noise I guess

[49:20] it was a big movie

[49:21] and there was a ton of reshoots so I would imagine

[49:24] that were spread out over because they were and it was shot on location and it was shot in

[49:27] a lot of the reshoots were done in Atlanta too so I imagine a lot of

[49:30] different people got a crack at this thing

[49:33] yeah that's true

[49:34] so guys final judgments is this a good bad movie a bad bad movie or a

[49:41] movie you kind of like I this is a tough one and I'm gonna

[49:45] get a little controversial here

[49:49] I kind of like the movie

[49:50] we talked about it

[49:52] there's a lot of flaws there are even more flaws the more we talk about it

[49:57] uh... I think the biggest problem with it

[50:00] It is a potentially very interesting idea that has been flattened out into a pretty

[50:07] standard YA screenplay, and I am very curious what the Charlie Kaufman version of it was

[50:14] before this version came out.

[50:17] But Mads Mikkelsen is great, the stars, the roles they're playing, not particularly deep,

[50:26] but Daisy Ridley and Tom Holland are extremely charismatic people, and it was fun to watch

[50:31] them.

[50:32] I liked the look of the movie, and I liked that it tried to have some ideas, and tried

[50:37] to be saying something about something.

[50:40] The novels won a shitload of awards.

[50:42] Yeah.

[50:43] I just think it's...

[50:46] But it is like...

[50:48] It does feel like it could be kind of a mid-level sci-fi series, as much as a film.

[50:56] I don't know.

[50:58] I marginally enjoyed it, just because I think it looked kind of neat, and went down easier

[51:04] than I expected, but I wouldn't recommend it, necessarily, for anyone.

[51:08] I don't think it was...

[51:09] I think it was neither good, bad, nor full-out bad, bad, but it is very...

[51:14] It feels very generic to me.

[51:16] It feels like they did take...

[51:17] They were like, what's the one gimmick of this thing?

[51:23] And now, like you were saying, they just kind of got compressed into the same kind

[51:25] of old structure that you've seen in a lot of movies, and you kind of know where it's

[51:30] going all the time.

[51:31] And it even...

[51:32] It looks very...

[51:33] The way it's shot looks very Hunger Games-y at times, and it's a...

[51:37] It was the movie where I was constantly waiting for the moment where it was going to surprise

[51:42] me in some way.

[51:43] And so, it didn't strike me as bad, but I did find it dull, because it was...

[51:49] But if you haven't seen a lot of these movies, then go ahead.

[51:53] If you've seen a lot of these movies, then you're going to be...

[51:54] Every beat of the way, you're going to kind of know what's going to happen, but maybe

[51:57] this is...

[51:58] You've never seen a movie before?

[51:59] Go ahead.

[52:00] Watch Chaos Walking.

[52:02] It'll surprise you.

[52:03] It's going to blow your mind if you've never seen a movie before.

[52:04] Yeah.

[52:05] Yeah.

[52:06] Yeah.

[52:07] I mean, it's...

[52:08] I feel like...

[52:10] I guess when it actually started moving...

[52:11] Like, obviously, I've already mentioned there's a few things that the movie does that I could

[52:14] not...

[52:15] I don't enjoy at all, involving animal death.

[52:17] You don't enjoy seeing dogs drowned.

[52:19] Exactly.

[52:20] I don't enjoy that.

[52:21] Okay.

[52:23] I can disagree.

[52:24] No.

[52:25] I don't like it.

[52:26] Good save.

[52:27] So, I feel like once the movie gets going, and I had to take fewer notes, I found it

[52:33] to be more enjoyable because I was actually kind of just watching the movie and stuff

[52:36] was happening, and it's like it's...

[52:38] The locations are beautiful, and the performances aren't bad, and I like at least some of the

[52:44] design decisions, but that first chunk is fucking the labor that goes into trying to

[52:50] explain the setup.

[52:52] I feel like you guys hit it on the head when you were saying that if you focused on the

[52:56] Daisy Ridley character at the start, and you saw it through her eyes, her perspective is

[53:00] so much more understandable.

[53:03] So if you showed that through her, it would make way more sense.

[53:09] It would feel a lot more fleet.

[53:12] And I don't know if it's just because I'm thirsting for weirder sci-fi, like something

[53:17] like Raised by Wolves, where this feels just kind of bland, maybe my taste buds have been

[53:25] so desensitized by stranger offerings.

[53:28] Well, with this many talented people on it, you're expecting something that's more than

[53:34] just kind of like the same old, and it feels very same old to me.

[53:39] I think there's a version of this movie here.

[53:42] This is our new segment, MovieMD, where we're going to fix it, we're going to doctor up

[53:48] this movie.

[53:49] I think because I know that it is a lot of people grow up in systems where they don't

[53:53] recognize the sin inherent in the system or the lies being told to them until they're

[53:59] older, because you only know what you grew up with.

[54:01] I feel like every generation has this moment where they're like, hey, wait a minute.

[54:08] Capitalism's not good for most people.

[54:10] And then the next generation has to figure that out again, because it's so baked into

[54:13] the way we live.

[54:14] But the town is so obviously sinister that for Todd not to recognize it is ridiculous,

[54:22] for the audience to buy.

[54:24] It's like in real life, I would buy it.

[54:25] In a movie, it's hard for me to buy it.

[54:28] And so there's a version of this movie that starts with Daisy on the ship, and they're

[54:32] talking about how great this place is going to be that they've been journeying to for

[54:35] decades.

[54:36] She talks in the movie about how my grandparents got on the ship, and my parents, and I was

[54:39] born on the ship, and they told me we're leaving for a better life, and they're telling

[54:42] her how great this place is going to be.

[54:44] It's basically, this is the American tale version of it, I guess.

[54:46] And she crash lands on it.

[54:49] She does not know what the noise is.

[54:50] She's being confronted by guys whose thoughts are screaming at her all the time, and she's

[54:53] got to figure it out.

[54:55] And she kind of has to team up with this kid who's well-meaning but kind of slow when it

[55:00] comes to figuring out what's going on around him, who's just kind of oblivious to anything

[55:05] outside of his own head, because he's a teen guy.

[55:07] Why are you pointing at me while you're saying that slow part?

[55:11] Maybe he's painting miniatures a lot.

[55:13] Maybe he's got a cat named Muscles.

[55:14] Sounds cute.

[55:15] That's a version of the movie that I think would be more interesting, but it's just not

[55:22] the version of the story that they're telling here.

[55:23] Instead, they go in a more traditional path.

[55:28] So I guess I didn't come up with a ... Yeah, it doesn't really fit our categories.

[55:32] There's elements that I kind of like, but also I guess it would be a bad, bad movie.

[55:39] So was Chaos Walking chaos watching?

[55:42] No.

[55:43] Or are we chaos balking at the prospect of recommending it?

[55:49] I mean, we are chaos balking.

[55:51] I don't know why you're asking that question.

[55:53] Dan, give us a chaos walking pun or play on words.

[55:56] Chaos stumbling.

[55:57] Okay.

[55:58] Yeah, that's your review title.

[55:59] Well, that was our ...

[56:00] Took an hour, but we got there.

[56:01] I mean, I had it before.

[56:02] I just didn't think it was worth saying.

[56:03] Yeah.

[56:04] Guys, let's just end our regular segment, Chaos Talking, where we talk about the movie Chaos

[56:05] Walking and move on to the next segment.

[56:06] I'm going first.

[56:07] It's me, Jackie Kashuk.

[56:08] Man.

[56:09] She's always this bossy.

[56:10] Hi.

[56:11] I'm Lori Kilpart.

[56:12] We're a bunch of standup comics, and we've been doing comedy like 60 years total.

[56:13] We've been doing a lot of comedy.

[56:20] And you could listen to it and learn about comedy, and learn about anger management and

[56:43] all the things.

[56:44] And Jackie is married but childless, and I'm unmarried but childful.

[56:49] So together we make one complete woman.

[56:53] Is that just what that one's going to end?

[56:57] Yeah.

[56:58] Yeah.

[56:59] And we try to make Kyle laugh just like that and say, oh my God, every episode.

[57:02] It's a good job.

[57:04] Jackie and Laurie Show, Mondays, only on Maximum Fun.

[57:09] We are the host of My Brother, My Brother and Me, and now nearly 10 years into our podcast,

[57:15] the secret can be revealed.

[57:17] All the clues are in place, and the world's greatest treasure hunt can now begin.

[57:21] Embedded in each episode of My Brother, My Brother and Me is a micro clue that will lead

[57:25] you to 14 precious gemstones all around this big, beautiful blue world of ours.

[57:31] So start combing through the episodes.

[57:33] Let's say starting at episode 101 on.

[57:36] Yeah, the early episodes are pretty problematic, so there's no clues in those episodes.

[57:41] No.

[57:42] No, not at all.

[57:43] The better ones, the good ones, clues ahoy.

[57:45] Listen to every episode repeatedly in sequence.

[57:48] Laugh if you must, but mainly get all the great clues.

[57:52] My Brother, My Brother and Me.

[57:53] It's an advice show, kind of, but a treasure hunt mainly.

[57:56] Anywhere you find podcasts or treasure maps.

[57:59] My Brother, My Brother and Me.

[58:00] The hunt is on.

[58:04] The next segment is a quick word from Squarespace, one of our sponsors for this episode.

[58:12] With Squarespace, you can create a beautiful website.

[58:16] Put your cool idea into a nice site everyone can see on the Internet.

[58:22] You can blog or publish content, sell products and services of all kinds and much, much more.

[58:28] And Squarespace does this by giving you beautiful, customizable templates created by world-class designers.

[58:34] Everything optimized from mobile right out of the box.

[58:38] A new way to buy domains and choose from over 200 extensions and free and secure hosting.

[58:45] So go to squarespace.com slash flop for a free trial and when you're ready to launch, use the offer code flop to save 10% off your first purchase of a website or domain.

[59:00] So, Dan, I had an idea for a website and I was wondering if Squarespace might be able to help me with that.

[59:05] What a pregnant pause right there.

[59:08] Okay, now we saw the movie Chaos Walking.

[59:10] We know there's a problem guys are having where people can hear their thoughts and it's called the noise.

[59:14] It's a problem that we're all having these days.

[59:15] Everybody's going through it.

[59:16] At the same time, look, kids need toys and we don't want to make them out of plastic anymore.

[59:24] We want to make them out of biodegradable materials.

[59:27] So I wanted to start a website where we could hire people with noise problems and harness their ability to come up with new ideas to then design toys to be made out of more biodegradable organic products.

[59:40] And so that's my website, www.noiseboyssoytoys.com would be your place to get toys made of soy made by boys dealing with noise.

[59:50] Now, I know what Sparks once said, noisy boys are happy boys.

[59:53] So who better to design the soy toys that our kids need than noise boys?

[59:56] So noiseboyssoytoys.com is your place to buy soy based toys.

[1:00:00] made by boys dealing with noise. We're giving them something to do to take

[1:00:03] their mind off of the noise. And we're making better toys out of soy.

[1:00:08] So, Dan, you think Squarespace will be able to help me with this website?

[1:00:10] Now, keep in mind, I don't have the company yet, but I want to set up the site so it's ready

[1:00:14] when I finally get the ability to make toys out of soy.

[1:00:16] I think they will. Elliot, you broke up a little bit.

[1:00:19] I think you said something about Sparks. Did you say something about Sparks?

[1:00:22] I did. I said that.

[1:00:22] I'm going to see that at your right documentary on Friday. I'm very excited.

[1:00:29] I think I'm going to be seeing it this weekend, too.

[1:00:30] It's the movie I'm most looking forward to this year.

[1:00:32] But, yeah, because Sparks, as you know from their album, Terminal Drive,

[1:00:37] on the song Noisy Boys, they say noisy boys are happy boys.

[1:00:40] So who better to design the toys of tomorrow out of soy than boys with noise?

[1:00:44] That's noisyboyssoytoys.com.

[1:00:47] Oh, you know, thinking about it, this podcast is coming out on my birthday.

[1:00:51] So I'd just like to extend to you the chance to say happy birthday to me, guys,

[1:00:57] if you wanted to.

[1:00:59] It's not your birthday when we're recording this.

[1:01:01] No, but the podcast is coming out on my birthday.

[1:01:04] So maybe...

[1:01:04] Yeah, I mean, I'm going to do it, Elliot. I'll do it.

[1:01:10] Okay, so happy birthday.

[1:01:14] Happy birthday, Dan.

[1:01:15] Thanks. Thanks. I appreciate it.

[1:01:17] Hey, Dan, happy birthday when this is released, but not when we're recording it.

[1:01:21] Oh, wow. I appreciate it.

[1:01:23] Keeps a foot on bass there. I like it.

[1:01:25] Stuart, I think you have another message from a sponsor.

[1:01:28] I have a word from another sponsor.

[1:01:30] So, Dan, was that an ad for your birthday?

[1:01:32] Yeah, that was a little plug for my birthday.

[1:01:34] Okay.

[1:01:36] Yeah, just drop the cash app after the episode.

[1:01:39] Jordan, put that birthday noise sound effect in here.

[1:01:42] I was sort of hoping nobody'd even remember my birthday.

[1:01:47] I don't know what it is.

[1:01:48] Is that like a noise maker? Is it the whole song?

[1:01:52] Who knows?

[1:01:53] So, hey, everybody.

[1:01:56] Support for The Flop House is brought to you by Manscaped.

[1:02:01] Manscaped is dedicated to being the best in men's below-the-waist grooming.

[1:02:07] And Manscaped just launched their new fourth-generation trimmer, the Lawn Mower 4.0.

[1:02:13] And, oh, boy, I've been making some use.

[1:02:16] I'm sure Dan's going to be updating The Flop House Insta with all kinds of pics.

[1:02:21] But, so...

[1:02:23] Yep, it's going to happen.

[1:02:25] It is a sleek, well-designed, and optimized trimmer.

[1:02:29] It makes shaving time much easier.

[1:02:33] Having used a variety of different trimmers over the years,

[1:02:37] this one is by far the best I've used.

[1:02:40] There is some interesting topography down there.

[1:02:42] And I found it to be very...

[1:02:46] Not including geometry, sorry.

[1:02:50] Geographies.

[1:02:51] Non-Euclidean geography, too.

[1:02:52] That works, yeah.

[1:02:54] And also, I can't stress enough, there's also the area that I'm shaving,

[1:03:00] because I'm going to talk about my experience with it, the area that I'm shaving.

[1:03:06] When I'm shaving, I don't have a lot of natural light going on down there.

[1:03:09] There's a lot of shade being cast.

[1:03:12] You don't have a ring light?

[1:03:13] I don't think a lot of people have a lot of natural light around their genitals, Stuart.

[1:03:18] Wait, Dan, are you saying the sun doesn't shine out of your ass?

[1:03:21] Okay.

[1:03:22] So, one of the great features of this new trimmer is that there's a built-in LED spotlight,

[1:03:30] which, I can't stress enough, is very, very useful.

[1:03:35] And it also has a travel lock, so that your trimmer doesn't just turn on in your bag

[1:03:39] when you're traveling around with your trimmer.

[1:03:41] That would be embarrassing.

[1:03:41] And waste all your precious bat...

[1:03:43] I don't care about the embarrassment.

[1:03:44] I just don't want to waste all my precious juice.

[1:03:47] So, why don't you clean yourself up?

[1:03:50] You deserve it.

[1:03:51] You deserve it.

[1:03:52] It's great.

[1:03:54] With a Manscaped trimmer today to make your me-time the best time.

[1:04:00] Yeah.

[1:04:01] Oh, Dan, have you been using your Manscaped trimmer?

[1:04:04] Without going into too much detail, I have, in general, avoided doing too much

[1:04:12] trimming in the past just because I find it ends up being tremendously itchy.

[1:04:17] And I've not had that issue with this product.

[1:04:21] So, I assume it's some sort of miracle design that keeps you from itching.

[1:04:27] That's it.

[1:04:28] Hey, no, it's all good info.

[1:04:30] So, you can get 20% off and free shipping by using the code FLOP over at Manscaped.com.

[1:04:36] That's 20% off and free shipping at Manscaped.com using code FLOP.

[1:04:42] Unlock your confidence and always use the right tools for the job with Manscaped.

[1:04:48] And, Elliot, I think you have a Jumbotron.

[1:04:51] I do.

[1:04:52] I've got a Jumbotron.

[1:04:53] Here we go.

[1:04:54] Fake Presidents, a podcast that looks at fictional U.S. presidents from pop culture to see just how

[1:04:59] much fiction there really is.

[1:05:00] Hosted by a former political consultant and a former speech writer who do like talking

[1:05:04] politics.

[1:05:04] They just don't like talking actual current politics.

[1:05:07] In other words, it's for Flophouse listeners who wish Elliot would share even more presidential

[1:05:10] trivia while deconstructing the politics of films like Dave, Air Force One, and of

[1:05:14] course, Machete Kills.

[1:05:15] Just look for Fake Presidents wherever you get podcasts.

[1:05:18] We're the only show with that title.

[1:05:21] I'm glad that they pointed that out.

[1:05:22] That's very helpful.

[1:05:23] Sounds like a fun podcast to me.

[1:05:24] I'm looking forward to checking it out.

[1:05:27] So, let us return to the non-sponsor related portions of our show with everyone's favorite

[1:05:36] segment is what I'm going to claim is true.

[1:05:39] Letters.

[1:05:40] That's a big claim.

[1:05:41] A big, big claim.

[1:05:42] Yeah, it's probably untrue.

[1:05:44] But you're hedging it.

[1:05:49] Okay, first letter.

[1:05:51] Yeah, I made a bold claim.

[1:05:52] And then I immediately just backed off.

[1:05:54] Yeah, yeah.

[1:05:55] This is from Juniper.

[1:05:56] Last name withheld.

[1:05:57] Love the name.

[1:05:59] And this goes, Howdy, peaches.

[1:06:02] Hey, I was just taking a listen to one of the episodes in your back backlog where Dan

[1:06:08] said that Stuart was yammering like a yam.

[1:06:33] I immediately had a laughing fit at my desk that lasted for at least a full minute.

[1:06:37] I assume complete with laughter after shocks or laughter.

[1:06:41] Shot still hurts to hear us when I thought about it in the car hours later.

[1:06:46] And even when I write this letter, my question to you three is this.

[1:06:50] What is the most simply inane line or moment in media that sent you into such an episode

[1:06:56] of disproportionate laughter?

[1:06:58] Keep it yammy.

[1:06:59] Here's always Juniper.

[1:07:02] So an inane line that sent you into hysterics.

[1:07:07] Juniper yammy sounds like the name of a character from that was an Amazon show or Netflix show

[1:07:12] where it was like a murder mystery among fairies and elves.

[1:07:15] Was that show called Carnival Row?

[1:07:17] Carnival Row.

[1:07:17] Yeah.

[1:07:18] Juniper yammy.

[1:07:19] Well, this isn't exactly an inane line, but I think but I said, I think on the podcast,

[1:07:24] I've said it on Twitter.

[1:07:25] The biggest laugh that a movie got out of me in 2020 was the moment in Mank when he

[1:07:29] said, I'm 43 years old.

[1:07:31] And I went, what?

[1:07:35] It was I'm seeing my wife's reaction.

[1:07:37] That line.

[1:07:37] It was hilarious.

[1:07:38] But I will say the other bit that my big laugh line of 2021 is Rebecca Hall saying Kong bows

[1:07:43] to no one in Godzilla vs.

[1:07:45] Kong because it's just a very silly line.

[1:07:48] Oh, man, I don't know.

[1:07:50] I mean, just for like like I don't know if I would call it an inane line, but just the

[1:07:55] constant mentioning of official couples and barb and star is the funniest thing I've heard

[1:07:59] in 2021.

[1:08:01] But then I would say for like an inane line, there's that line.

[1:08:04] I mentioned it before, but that line in fucking Tenet, where after having the reality that

[1:08:10] playing around with all this time shenanigans could lead to the destruction of the universe,

[1:08:15] that beautiful giraffe turned into a woman like last unicorn, Elizabeth the Bikki leans

[1:08:21] back and says, including my son.

[1:08:25] It was so fucking silly because it's like, you know, shit, dude.

[1:08:29] So if we're talking about bad inane lines, then similarly, I think that ready player

[1:08:34] one where he's upset that the villain has killed his mom's sister rather than just

[1:08:41] saying his aunt is a pretty good one.

[1:08:45] But well, that's like the line in the happening where John Leguizamo goes, I'm on a train

[1:08:51] going to the town of Princeton, which is like if these people live on the East Coast, they

[1:08:55] know, for instance, a town like I don't know why he had to explain that the train doesn't

[1:08:58] stop at the college.

[1:08:59] Is that what you're telling me?

[1:09:00] Yeah.

[1:09:02] But in terms of like more like deliberately inane, like a funny line that is that I am

[1:09:10] shocked at how funny I find it just because it's so stupid.

[1:09:13] I always go back to the classic look around you where they just go, thanks, ants.

[1:09:19] Thanks.

[1:09:21] Which is, you know, just an encapsulation, I think, of the Flophouse's ethos when it

[1:09:27] comes to words.

[1:09:28] Yeah.

[1:09:31] You mush them around in your mouth, they come out different.

[1:09:36] Anyway, so this second and final letter is, oh, it's a lot of wordplay as well.

[1:09:43] This is from Josie.

[1:09:44] Last name withheld.

[1:09:46] Josie N.T.

[1:09:47] Pussycats.

[1:09:47] Yeah.

[1:09:49] Josie writes, just wanted to say that a group of my eighth grade students is reading Dune

[1:09:55] for a student led book group.

[1:09:57] I told them about the Dunies and McDoodles.

[1:10:00] menu items, and they got inspired. Here are some of their ideas.

[1:10:05] Fremenem's chocolate-coated bite-sized candies.

[1:10:10] Binet and Gesserit spice cream on a harcone.

[1:10:15] The problem with Benemem's is it's full of pee.

[1:10:19] You got Junior's Mintats.

[1:10:23] Pumpkin Spice Latte.

[1:10:27] And Thopter with cheese.

[1:10:32] I think somebody on Twitter already mentioned the Gurney Haddock.

[1:10:37] Yeah, I think Josie got on Twitter, and I think it was

[1:10:42] maybe them who tweeted some extra ones after.

[1:10:47] But this is the mother load of Dune items.

[1:10:52] You can reach out and connect with people who are also amused by the idea of

[1:10:57] Dune-themed menu items at a fast food restaurant. That's the power of the Internet.

[1:11:02] It almost makes the destruction of democracy worth it, that the Internet has made such a thing possible.

[1:11:07] So thank you, Tim Berners-Lee. Is that who I should be giving thanks to for that?

[1:11:12] I guess. But hey, there's one more segment on the Flop House, and that's where we recommend movies.

[1:11:17] If this was a centipede, this would be the butt segment.

[1:11:22] Because a normal centipede is made up of three segments.

[1:11:27] It's called a butt, the head, and letters.

[1:11:32] Somebody's been watching Wild Kratts, the PBS animal show.

[1:11:37] The centipede has three segments, head, letters, and butt.

[1:11:42] Thanks, centipedes.

[1:11:47] What if we had a centipede's letter powers? What if?

[1:11:52] I would like to recommend...

[1:11:57] I had the first in-person hang with some vaccinated friends to watch a movie.

[1:12:02] In the world? Yours was the first one?

[1:12:07] Not the first of everyone. The first time since quarantine that I got together with a group.

[1:12:12] Did they show you their vaccination cards or their Excelsior pass?

[1:12:17] I guess they did not, but I am vaccinated.

[1:12:22] So they're just taking their lives into their own hands if they're not.

[1:12:27] But they all claim to be vaccinated, and we watched the movie Polyester, the John Waters film from 1981.

[1:12:32] Our friend Kevin, who was hosting it, had found enough Odorama cards for all of us to scratch and sniff at the appropriate times during the movie.

[1:12:44] They instruct you at different times during Polyester.

[1:12:49] I remember watching that movie on TV when I was too young to really fully understand what the movie was doing.

[1:12:54] And the part where they're explaining Odorama in the beginning, I was like, what?

[1:12:59] Did I get this? Was I supposed to get this? I don't understand.

[1:13:04] Should I stop the movie? Should I scratch the TV screen?

[1:13:09] Should I just smell the things that are around me at the moment?

[1:13:14] But I thought I found it so funny.

[1:13:19] Prior to that, I had only seen John Waters movies from Hairspray onward.

[1:13:24] And I've still not seen any of the truly transgressive ones, I guess.

[1:13:29] But Polyester is kind of an in-between movie, and I found it so funny.

[1:13:34] It is kind of in the form of a parody of a Douglas Sirk-style melodrama, a woman's picture, a weepy of the 40s or 50s.

[1:13:39] But it also is just kind of an all-out assault on suburban life.

[1:13:55] And it was funny to me. I was thinking about it.

[1:14:00] I'm like, OK, you watch a movie from Hollywood that sort of takes down suburbia or whatever,

[1:14:06] and it feels sort of gross and smug because it's like, you know at some level,

[1:14:11] this is the wealthy making fun of this in their satire.

[1:14:21] Whereas watching Polyester, it comes from this very obviously queer kind of punk energy.

[1:14:26] We may have affection for what we're satirizing, but we're also extending a middle finger at so-called polite society

[1:14:39] that would exclude us and make us feel lesser.

[1:14:44] And so even though it's a very mean movie in that way, in the way it really makes fun of everyone,

[1:14:49] it is full of joy because it's like, fuck you guys for making us outsiders.

[1:14:56] It was really, really, really funny and a lot of fun.

[1:15:26] It takes place in a high-end girls boarding school, and it's a bit of a ghost story.

[1:15:38] It also borrows a lot from Giallo, which I find more and more that I love movies that are inspired by Giallo,

[1:15:47] as opposed to actual Giallo, but that's something I'm going to have to take up with my therapist.

[1:15:53] I don't want to talk about it too much because there's a mystery involved,

[1:15:58] but it's gory and funny and it looks interesting and the music's good.

[1:16:08] It's fairly light, but I like that kind of thing every once in a while.

[1:16:14] I'm going to recommend a movie that, hey, if people have been listening to these episodes in order,

[1:16:21] they can probably guess what country it came from and what film movement it was a result of.

[1:16:26] Which wave was it? Was it the old wave?

[1:16:32] If you're guessing it was an old wave, you're wrong.

[1:16:37] New listeners will not know that this is the Czech New Wave.

[1:16:46] I've been going through the Criterion Channel's Czech New Wave collection,

[1:16:51] which is a fair number of movies, and I had seen probably about a third of them.

[1:16:56] It's like an 18 movie collection or something like that, and I'd seen like a third of them.

[1:17:01] I'm almost done with them.

[1:17:07] It's two Fast and Furiouses, basically, of movies.

[1:17:12] In a more metaphorical sense, it's worth many, many, many more.

[1:17:17] It's worth billions of saw movies, yes.

[1:17:22] We're going to be surely reaching the end soon of my Czech New Wave recommendations.

[1:17:27] I have one today. I have another one I'd like to recommend in the future.

[1:17:32] Bidding a fond farewell to the Czech New Wave in probably another couple of episodes,

[1:17:37] but today I want to recommend another one.

[1:17:42] This is the movie The Joke. It's directed by Jaromil Jaras, and it stars the actor Joseph Sommer,

[1:17:47] who plays a supporting role in my favorite Czech New Wave movie, Closely Watched Trains,

[1:17:52] which is one of my favorite movies.

[1:17:58] Or maybe Intimate Lighting. No, Closely Watched Trains or Fireman's Ball.

[1:18:03] Those are the ones I recommend if you start with, but if you've seen those, why not try The Joke?

[1:18:08] It's the story of a man who, while he was a college student, it was still during the kind of Stalinist era,

[1:18:13] and after making a sarcastic reference to Trotsky on a postcard,

[1:18:18] he is kicked out of the Communist Party, kicked out of college,

[1:18:24] and now he is a man basically in middle age who has decided he's going to get revenge

[1:18:30] on the guy who presented the motion to kick him out of the party in college

[1:18:35] by having an affair with that man's wife, and things do not work out the way he thinks they're going to.

[1:18:40] And there are parts of it that are really funny and parts of it that are just kind of strange,

[1:18:45] but by the end of it, there was a certain feeling of like the futility of revenge,

[1:18:50] or just how if you're in a system that stamps you as an outcast, young,

[1:18:57] you can never really fully shake that branding even after other people have stopped treating you that way.

[1:19:02] You can't shake it from yourself, and I thought it was really good.

[1:19:07] So it's called The Joke. If you have a Criterion Channel, it's on there.

[1:19:12] You might also find it elsewhere, but it's yet another Czech New Wave movie.

[1:19:17] Like the bargain bin of a rest stop or something.

[1:19:22] Yeah, if you stop at a rest stop on the highway, you look at the DVDs available,

[1:19:27] you'll probably find The Joke in there. It's from 1969. It's based on a Milan Kundera novel.

[1:19:32] It's in the Czech New Wave section.

[1:19:35] Yeah, it's probably on one of those discs that has a couple of different movies on it.

[1:19:38] It's got me, myself, and Irene, and the commuter, and this.

[1:19:44] So I'm just going to remind people of the original slogan of the Czech New Wave

[1:19:48] when it was first being brought to the United States in the late 60s.

[1:19:50] Czech, Czech, Czech, Czech, Czech, this new wave.

[1:19:52] So that used to play on the radio and on television.

[1:19:54] So go ahead and check this new wave film, The Joke. Thank you.

[1:20:00] I didn't know you could do it, but you did it.

[1:20:02] Thank you.

[1:20:03] Thank you, guys, and thanks to our listeners.

[1:20:06] Thank you to Maximum Fun.

[1:20:08] Go to MaximumFun.org to check out all of the other shows on the Maximum Fun podcast network.

[1:20:16] The network that we are a part of provides us with great support.

[1:20:20] I'm sure you'll love other shows there.

[1:20:25] Be in the biz, Jordan Cowling.

[1:20:35] Thank you to her.

[1:20:37] But for now, for the Flop House, I've been Dan McCoy.

[1:20:41] That's right.

[1:20:42] I'm Stuart Wellington.

[1:20:43] And I'm Check New Wave fan, Elliot Kalin.

[1:20:46] Hey, keep floppin' and keep checkin'.

[1:20:49] Bye.

[1:20:55] Oh, boy, someone's got something in mind.

[1:21:05] Oh, man, who put a nickel on me?

[1:21:09] We'll have some chaos walking today.

[1:21:12] Oh, v'laicht.

[1:21:13] It's the chaos.

[1:21:19] MaximumFun.org.

[1:21:20] Comedy and culture.

[1:21:22] Artist owned.

[1:21:23] Audience supported.

Ep. #345 - Chaos Walking

Chapters

Transcript

Description