FH Mini #22 - Prequels: What's Their Deal?

[0:00] Hey everybody out there in Flophouse land, my name's Elliott Kalin and I'm here with

[0:09] my best buds, and their names are...

[0:11] Ugh, Dan McCoy.

[0:14] Stuart Wellington, who is very impressed.

[0:16] That's right, my best buds, ugh, Dan McCoy and Stuart Wellington, who is very impressed.

[0:20] And we're coming to you not live with the Flophouse.

[0:24] But before we get into this mini-episode, you know when you can see us live?

[0:28] Saturday, February 6th at 9pm Eastern, 6% Pacific, that's right I said 6%, we're gonna

[0:34] be watching...

[0:35] We're not watching.

[0:36] We're gonna be talking about...

[0:37] Oh, re-rec.

[0:38] I put so much brain power into that voice that I couldn't fix it.

[0:42] Can I ask, before we get into this...

[0:44] Let me finish the promo for the live show.

[0:47] We're gonna be talking about the hit film Teen Wolf, starring Michael J. Fox, should

[0:51] have started Michael J. Wolf, but it doesn't, Michael J. Fox as a teenage wolf, that's Saturday

[0:56] February 6th at 9pm Eastern, 6% Pacific, only $10, just go to www.theflophouse.simpletics.com.

[1:03] We're also gonna be doing original presentations, audience Q&A, and more, and if you can't watch

[1:08] it live, it will be archived in video form for a week afterwards, if you buy your tickets.

[1:14] That's www.theflophouse.simpletics.com, Saturday, February 6th, 9pm Eastern, 6% Pacific, Teen

[1:21] Wolf time, DWT.

[1:22] And I got a tip about, I got a hot tip about that website.

[1:26] Don't put the http:// or https, because for some reason that screws it all up and you

[1:34] can't get there.

[1:35] Yeah.

[1:36] If you're an old person who still puts in the http part, doesn't just type in the www,

[1:40] just stop doing that.

[1:41] Every, all your, all your web browsers know what you're doing, they understand what's

[1:45] going on, they'll just slap that shit in for you, so just put www in.

[1:50] So Ellie, I didn't, you didn't...

[1:52] Real quick, Jordan, can you go back to when I said I was impressed and just scrub that

[1:56] shit out?

[1:57] Yeah, I have a few questions about this voice, that's what I wanted to get into.

[2:01] Now is this...

[2:02] Lay it on me, brother.

[2:03] Is this guy supposed to be sexy or is it more of just kind of a local radio DJ?

[2:11] Those are the same thing, Dan.

[2:13] Okay.

[2:14] Oh, that's pretty cool.

[2:16] What kind of car does this guy drive?

[2:18] A Camaro.

[2:19] Oh.

[2:20] Now, I assume that's because he finally divorced his wife and this is his second, you know,

[2:28] chapter in his life.

[2:29] The way he tells it, he divorced his wife.

[2:31] The way the law tells it, she divorced him.

[2:34] Oh, wow.

[2:36] You turned into...

[2:37] Anyway, guys, this is our...

[2:38] You kind of turned into Robert Evans there at the end.

[2:41] Yeah.

[2:42] I mean, we all do in the end, don't we?

[2:45] In the end, we're all just an old man who produced The Godfather lying in bed trying

[2:49] to pitch movies over the phone for that last final time.

[2:53] He also...

[2:54] I think he had a pool in his backyard and there was just grass all the way up to the

[2:56] edge of the pool, which seems crazy.

[2:59] I may be misremembering it.

[3:00] I think it's awesome.

[3:01] Yeah.

[3:02] Anyway, guys...

[3:03] It's like an infinity pool but for grass.

[3:06] Not at all.

[3:07] Guys, we're not here to talk about Robert Evans' pool or the pool at the Bob Evans,

[3:15] which I only found out later was not related to the movie producer Robert Evans.

[3:19] I wanted to talk to you today about a subject that's been on the mind of filmgoers for nearly

[3:24] a generation now or more, which is crazy, and that's the prequel.

[3:28] Now, guys, I know what you're thinking.

[3:30] You make a movie.

[3:31] It's a big hit.

[3:32] Then you make a movie that takes place after that movie that continues the adventures of

[3:35] the characters.

[3:36] Incorrect.

[3:37] That's not how we do it anymore.

[3:39] These days, they have what's called prequels.

[3:41] Now that goes before the original movie and that's...

[3:44] I just want to make sure everyone knows that's opposed to a squeakquel, which is purely a

[3:48] chipmunk space entertainment medium, a threequel, which is when there's the third movie in

[3:53] a series that takes place after but not before, or a nyquil, which is the snuffy, sneezing,

[3:59] coughing, so you can rest medicine, right?

[4:01] Peter Quill is, of course, Star-Lord.

[4:05] The movie Quills was about the Marquis de Sade.

[4:08] That's a Geoffrey Rush starrer, as they would say in variety.

[4:14] And Peekskill is a city in Westchester.

[4:20] So I don't want to confuse prequels with any of those things.

[4:25] In case people aren't familiar, there's some famous prequels out there.

[4:27] There's episode one, The Phantom Menace, which put this into my head mainly because I just

[4:30] recently watched it with my son on his seventh birthday.

[4:34] He enjoyed it, did not understand the plot.

[4:36] I didn't understand the plot.

[4:37] There were parts of it where it was like, oh, I think I understand what's going on here

[4:41] now.

[4:42] And then you've got other hits like Oz the Great and Powerful, Hannibal Rising.

[4:45] And of course, Prometheus, kind of.

[4:49] Prometheus is kind of a prequel.

[4:51] So after watching The Phantom Menace, does your son just run around the house saying,

[4:55] do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do?

[4:56] I mean, he does love that song.

[5:00] He does love the duel of the fates.

[5:01] Yeah, because it's a fucking bop.

[5:03] He did have a lot of questions about who the characters were and what was going on.

[5:06] And I couldn't answer all of them, but I will say on this viewing, and this is not what

[5:10] I mainly want to talk to you guys about.

[5:11] I was more into the character of Qui-Gon Jinn, who at the time I first saw the movie back

[5:16] in 1999 when it came out when I was just a young'un as opposed to the wizened old codger

[5:22] that I am today.

[5:23] I was not impressed by that character and I thought he was a pretty bland, boring, like

[5:28] standard noble character.

[5:30] But watching it again, it came through to me and a good friend of mine by the name of

[5:35] Dan Brooks is going to take issue with this if he hears this as he did take issue with

[5:38] me over Twitter when I said it.

[5:40] But he strikes me as this kind of like religious zealot Jedi who is so sure of his own personal

[5:45] connection with the Force and what it tells him to do that even Yoda and the other Jedis

[5:49] are like, uh, like, don't take it too far, Qui-Gon, like maybe you don't need to go so

[5:54] far with this.

[5:55] Sorry, I like that character more.

[5:57] But guys, I want to know, what are your feelings about prequels since there's been so many

[6:01] of them and the trend seems in no way to abating?

[6:04] I was just looking at the news and saw how they're finally doing that Willy Wonka prequel

[6:07] they've been threatening for so many years because that we can finally find out how you

[6:13] become a crazy person who owns a candy factory that enslaves people from a mythical country.

[6:18] So are you into prequels or are you not into prequels or are you prequel curious?

[6:24] Is the Willy Wonka prequel going to talk about how those old people got in the bed?

[6:30] Maybe that's what it's about.

[6:31] Maybe it's not a Willy Wonka prequel.

[6:32] Maybe it's a Bucket grandparents prequel.

[6:34] I'm guessing it's because they're old, Stuart.

[6:37] Yeah, but why are they all in the same room?

[6:40] Well, I guess because they're poor.

[6:42] I don't know, like, is it a physical thing that you're like, you want to see, like, whether

[6:46] they used stairs to get in the bed or whether they just, like, leapt in originally?

[6:51] I mean, it's certainly something that can get covered in the prequel, right?

[6:54] It's a rich, it's a rich text with a lot to explore.

[6:58] I mean, there's the famous, you know, obviously there's the famous Patton Oswalt routine about

[7:03] the prequels that, you know, it kind of summarizes the problems with it where it's like, oh,

[7:12] you know, you like Darth Vader, right?

[7:13] Well, what if you see him when he's a little kid?

[7:16] And it's like, well, that doesn't, that's not why we like him.

[7:20] And but Dan, I would, I would counterpoint that with two words, young Sheldon.

[7:27] People can't get enough of their favorite characters as kids or little Archie or a pup

[7:31] named Scooby Doo.

[7:32] You know, I mean, Muppet Babies, perhaps.

[7:34] Sure.

[7:35] Is young Sheldon the name of that egg with the two legs sticking out in U.S. Acres?

[7:41] It was when he was young.

[7:42] Yes, that is Sheldon.

[7:43] Yeah.

[7:44] Yeah.

[7:45] OK, well, let's let's put let's put television aside for a moment.

[7:48] I just.

[7:49] OK, thank you.

[7:50] Sorry, I can't stop talking about U.S. Acres, the cartoon show.

[7:53] It was called Garfield and Friends.

[7:55] U.S. Acres was a portion of a larger sort of combination show.

[8:01] Garfield and Friends was a thin excuse for a U.S. Acres television show.

[8:07] It was just everyone knows U.S. Acres was the star.

[8:10] Kids couldn't get enough of Horse and the Pig, that dumb duck with the with the rubber

[8:13] with the floaty thing around his waist, those sheep that had no personality.

[8:19] And Sheldon, the lovable egg that didn't finish hatching and was too busy making the women

[8:24] in his life feel like morons because they didn't know what the plank constant was or

[8:28] something.

[8:29] Am I getting my Sheldons mixed up?

[8:30] I think you're probably right.

[8:32] Yeah.

[8:33] So no, but it's sort of an adage of writing, right, that you are supposed to get in as

[8:39] late as you can to like a scene or story and leave at the earliest possible moment.

[8:47] And the problem I do with parties, the problem with prequels is like, you know, the original

[8:51] movie works because this is the story they wanted to tell.

[8:54] They figured out the moment of most effectiveness, like the portion of the story that is worth

[9:01] telling.

[9:03] And the prequel is like, OK, we got to make a movie that's probably not going to be good

[9:08] as good as that because we don't have that same sort of like pure impulse.

[9:13] And it also has to end in such a way that it connects up with what we already know.

[9:18] So the story is partially dictated for us.

[9:21] That's a very good point.

[9:22] Counterargument.

[9:23] Don't you wonder what made Nurse Ratched so mean?

[9:26] Did you guys watch that one?

[9:29] I didn't watch that one.

[9:30] No, I haven't watched it yet.

[9:31] I find I as much as I love the performers involved, I find I have no I've never needed

[9:37] to know the back story of Nurse Ratched who and I am insulted by their portraying her

[9:41] in the ads as like a Michael Myers type figure, as if she is like a horror monster, like an

[9:47] iconic horror monster, because I've never thought of One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest

[9:51] as like a monster movie or like Nurse Ratched in that movie is so like there are moments

[9:57] in the movie where I'm so sympathetic to her because she

[10:00] Just trying to keep a lid on this place and a guy who is pretending that he belongs there

[10:04] But doesn't it's causing all sorts of trouble

[10:05] I know I'm not supposed to like her because she's a symbol of a system

[10:08] But so the idea that it's like now you're gonna find out why why she's so screwed up and I was like

[10:14] How she got so twisted how she became the Joker. Yeah, she's not Freddy like so how did that guy become the Joker?

[10:20] Uh, I think he did a stand-up set and everybody said it was bad and videotaped. Yeah

[10:27] Yeah, that's right now Danny you make you're right because when I finally watched Joker

[10:30] That was the problem that the I was I didn't like it very much and then at the end when he's finally the Joker

[10:35] I was like, okay, I cannot wait to see him do some Joker stuff and then the credit started and I was like, oh, right

[10:40] I forgot I forgot they already did the good part of this

[10:50] Yeah, I mean I feel like I was really hoping he was gonna start delivering like packages

[10:55] bows that say like from the from the Joker to the mayor of Gotham and the mayor's like I should open this and he opens

[11:02] It and explodes or something

[11:03] Yeah, I mean, that's what happens in Batman things. Yeah, I mean, so I looked through a list of prequels and I could find

[11:12] How many good ones? Yeah, five ones that I thought were

[11:17] Wow at least worth something look like people can disagree on their merits

[11:22] But and then I have a question for you if this movie is not on the list

[11:26] But and I'm sure and I I think that what kind of unites them all is they're not

[11:32] sort of

[11:33] Traditionally necessarily what you would think of as prequels. Maybe I would say one of them is

[11:41] Solo

[11:43] So there's interesting. So I've got Twin Peaks firewalk with me, which is a prequel to the television show Twin Peaks

[11:50] So it's a little different Dan. I'll quote you. You said set aside television. Let's set it aside, baby

[11:55] Then you've got

[11:57] You've got of course Temple of Doom which has many problematic elements

[12:02] But it also has many like exciting set pieces. You can feel about it. However, you feel about it like it or dislike it, but I

[12:11] Think it is a prequel with merit, but it works because it is like

[12:16] Barely a prequel at all. It's just one in a series of Indiana Jones movies

[12:19] The only reason you made a prequel is because they're like, oops

[12:22] Well, we made him into like kind of a nicer guy at the end of Raiders and we don't want that to be true

[12:30] So I guess we have to set it before Raiders

[12:32] But then that doesn't make any sense with Raiders because by the time Raiders comes around he's already seen supernatural shit go down

[12:38] So he shouldn't be so like like wait a minute. The Ark actually has power

[12:44] Religious I have power how many how many times did Scully have to get?

[12:48] Knocked in the head by an alien before she was like, you know what?

[12:51] I think there might be aliens around that was a huge problem with the show

[12:55] Now the I was wondering if you were gonna mention

[12:59] Temple of Doom since I think many people don't even know it's supposed to take place before the other

[13:03] Yes, like you could you could watch those movies and think they happen in order because he's in the first movie

[13:09] This amazing arc second movie in between you have to assume he got hit on the head with a coconut one of his adventures

[13:15] Third arc, of course

[13:17] he would be irritable and distracted because he's with his dad and there's nothing more irritating and distracting than having to spend a

[13:22] Go on a trip with your dad

[13:23] That's not to a civil war site

[13:25] Because when you go to civil war site with your dad you have a thing to talk about the Civil War and you don't have to

[13:30] Talk about anything else in your life and it really helps to make the weekend go by that's what that's

[13:35] That's why some people get into sports. I've heard

[13:39] Yeah, I the thing about Temple of Doom is you can correct me if I'm wrong, but there's a scene where

[13:46] Indiana Jones

[13:47] Encounters a snake and he's like a snake. I've never seen one of these before I do not like it

[13:52] And that's why he doesn't like snakes and Raiders of the Lost Ark. No, that's well

[13:56] That's no, that's actually a The Last Crusade. You see that but wait. Oh

[14:01] When he's a kid, you know what? I can't believe I just plagiarized a joke from a movie

[14:07] Here's the thing though

[14:08] there's the scene in Raiders of the Lost Ark where he shoots the swordsman and then in Temple of Doom he goes for his gun and

[14:14] It's not there and it's like is there a motive? Are you supposed to believe that in Raiders of the Lost Ark?

[14:18] He went well, this didn't work last time, but I'll check and see if I have my gun on me

[14:21] I do. Hey, it was a good idea. No, I think you're supposed to believe I mean, I mean, obviously

[14:27] It's just a callback to the film that happened later chronologically, but earlier and in

[14:33] actual release, but I

[14:35] I think you're supposed to think if anything that in between times he was like, oh, I won't make that mistake again

[14:41] I'll always have my gun with me because I like to think as he's watching the swordsman. He's thinking in his head

[14:46] He's like, okay gun. I'm gonna reach for you

[14:49] You better be there you have let me down a number of times in the past when you have not been there

[14:54] That's partly on me

[14:55] Yes, because you're an inanimate object and it's kind of on me to keep you strapped to my thigh

[14:59] But that's also on you because you know what when there were only one set of footprints

[15:03] It was me carrying you because you're a gun and you don't have feet. So let's hear that unless unless his gun is Megatron

[15:10] Yet Megatron does have feet. So it could be the giant set of footprints behind

[15:15] Megatron sometimes carries people so Dan, what other prequels would you say are good quills? Okay, so

[15:21] But besides pre Larson, it's short for prequel Larson. So this is gonna be another sort of

[15:27] A

[15:28] Controversial one, but one that wait Dan before you're gonna say pre Fontaine that is not a prequel to the movie Fontaine

[15:35] The biography of Joan Fontaine

[15:38] Exactly. Um, there's another controversial one

[15:42] Buckle my seatbelt Prometheus. I like but that again not a typical prequel like the stuff that

[15:49] is a direct prequel to

[15:52] Alien is the easily the weakest stuff in the movie. I think it is. It does very much feel like a movie that is

[15:58] Intending at the stop to not be a prequel to alien and then at some point during the process

[16:02] the ghost of alien possessed it and was like no you're my prequel now and

[16:06] kind of tried to force it into being a prequel like a if you've ever had like

[16:11] Like it's like you have two plugs that need to go together

[16:14] But you don't have a socket to connect them and you have to go out and buy one of those plug to plug

[16:19] Just where things were just two sockets on

[16:22] Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Thank you. Hey, that's like that's what Prometheus turns into. Yeah. I mean, I'm I feel like there's a chance

[16:28] I've already talked about this, but I when I saw

[16:31] Prometheus in the theater. I saw it at the Battery Park Theater on a matinee. That was my favorite matinee theater and all in

[16:37] New York, it was great. It was always empty during the day during the week. Oh, man, I miss it

[16:42] I miss going to the movies what's going on with this world, but I was watching I remember

[16:49] being kind of bummed because I went in hoping it like with my brain set on I'm watching a prequel and

[16:56] I I didn't like it as much and then when I I end up revisiting it

[17:01] I don't know cuz somebody said I should watch the like a different version. I don't know

[17:06] Watch the DVD or blu-ray and watching it out watching a second time revisiting it

[17:11] I liked it much more like I feel like all I had to do was have that brain shift and be like, oh, I'm out

[17:17] I'm watch. I'm not I'm not watching just an alien prequel. I'm watching this weird movie where two aliens have sex at the end

[17:25] Yeah, okay. So and all of these again

[17:28] I'm sort of grading on the curve of prequels not being that good in the first place. Well, that's the trouble with the curve

[17:34] Yeah, but I also I've got Monsters University on here, which I like don't think it's I have to say

[17:41] I saw that in the theaters and I did not like it

[17:43] I watched it again recently with my family and I liked it a lot more. Actually, it really worked for me

[17:48] Yeah second time

[17:49] I think that's the closest thing to a traditional prequel I have on this list because it is very much like

[17:54] How did these two characters meet and become friends?

[17:57] but I think it works again by being not a traditional prequel in that it sort of

[18:02] Just takes the characters and like okay, they're in this other movie before now

[18:07] We're just gonna put them into a college comedy, you know, like they just switch genres on the film

[18:14] to some degree

[18:16] Now and the other one I have here

[18:20] Only half a prequel, of course Godfather 2, but that again

[18:27] It doesn't like it doesn't feel like it's on lists of prequels

[18:31] But doesn't feel like one to me because it you know

[18:32] half of it is a prequel half as it of it is a continuation of the story of the Godfather and

[18:40] The sequel yes, it's a prequel sequel and the whole point is to you know draw

[18:47] parallels between

[18:49] Stuff that happened in the past and stuff that's going on in the in the present of that movie

[18:55] So it sounds to me like you're what I'm getting from you is you don't love prequels that much from all these non-traditional

[19:01] Prequel choices. So here's my question

[19:04] What is a movie you would like to see a prequel for what movie?

[19:08] Have you watched really like, you know, it'd be more interesting to me how these characters got together. Oh

[19:14] Wow, oh man, because I'll tell you what I have a serious answer to this and a joke answer

[19:21] Okay, I want to hear one of them, but don't tell me which it is

[19:25] Okay, and I'll tell you the so my serious answer is I would actually love to see a I wish they had made a thin

[19:31] man prequel where we could see how

[19:33] Nick and or Charles met because I think that would do it to see them kind of discovering in each other that they have a

[19:39] Worthy kind of like partner slash verbal opponent would be very exciting to me

[19:43] My joke answer is twins and you finally get to see the experiment where they're just assembling the team of guys

[19:49] We're gonna I guess all contribute some sperm to make up to make a perfect man and you see them discarding it ends with them

[19:56] Discarding the baby Danny DeVito, which means that it's a prequel to Batman returns

[20:00] which opens with a baby Danny DeVito being discarded.

[20:03] Alternately, you could combine those movies

[20:05] into The Twin Man, which is about twin detectives

[20:08] who are married to the same woman,

[20:09] which I could also call Dead Ringer's PI.

[20:12] So having bought that time for you guys,

[20:14] what prequel would you like to see?

[20:18] Welcome back to Fireside Chat on KMAX.

[20:21] With me in studio to take your calls

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[20:28] Go ahead, caller.

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[20:39] Every week, myself and I'm Morgan Rhodes

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[21:57] Wow, it was Jordan Jessy Go.

[21:59] Jordan Jessy Go?

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[22:56] You've all seen webspots, webspites.

[23:00] You might have seen webspites,

[23:01] but you've definitely seen websites.

[23:03] And Squarespace helps you

[23:05] by giving you beautiful customizable templates

[23:08] created by world-class designers.

[23:10] Everything optimized for mobile right out of the box.

[23:13] A new way to buy domains

[23:15] and choose from over 200 extensions.

[23:18] Free and secure hosting and much more.

[23:21] Now, at this point in the ad,

[23:23] probably if it wasn't me solo,

[23:26] Elliot would jump in and say something like,

[23:28] oh, Dan, I got an idea for a website, see?

[23:32] That's the way Elliot sounds.

[23:34] I got an idea for a website.

[23:36] Can Squarespace help me?

[23:38] And I'd say, yep, yep, probably, Elliot.

[23:40] What is this?

[23:41] And he'd be like, oh, I got an idea.

[23:42] It's like balloonfarts.com.

[23:45] It's an enthusiast website

[23:47] for people who like to make that little squeaking noise

[23:50] with a balloon when you let the air out.

[23:52] I'd be like, okay, great, great.

[23:54] Let me get through this ad, Elliot.

[23:56] Call to action, here it is.

[23:59] Go to squarespace.com.

[24:00] It's not squarespace.com.

[24:02] Squarespace.com.

[24:05] We love our sponsors.

[24:06] Let's get it right.

[24:08] Squarespace.com slash flop for a free trial.

[24:12] And when you're ready to launch, use the offer code FLOP

[24:16] to save 10% off your first purchase of a website or domain.

[24:21] Great job, Dan.

[24:23] Oh, you really messed up that one.

[24:25] Thanks, thanks.

[24:25] Thanks, imaginary Elliot.

[24:27] And now, back to the show.

[24:30] I'm gonna go back and answer your previous question

[24:33] because I didn't get a chance on prequels I actually like.

[24:36] And I'm going to ruffle Dan's feathers here.

[24:39] So maybe we'll get a Hollywood horror monster,

[24:42] Nurse Ratched in there to sedate Dan

[24:44] so he doesn't flip out.

[24:46] Because I'm gonna talk about TV, that's right.

[24:49] I'm gonna talk about Better Call Saul

[24:51] because I think Better Call Saul is a prequel that works.

[24:53] Part of what makes it work

[24:54] is that they have all these great flashbacks

[24:56] where Bob Odenkirk's supposed to be playing

[24:58] like a 20-year-old version of himself

[25:00] and he just combs his hair forward and it's so awesome.

[25:03] It's like Mank, the TV show.

[25:05] But it's-

[25:06] Where in Mank, he's, did you guys watch Mank?

[25:09] Or no?

[25:09] I have not watched Mank yet.

[25:11] Oh, because the single funniest moment

[25:13] in all of movie going, a movie watching for me of 2020,

[25:16] this makes it the funniest movie of 2020,

[25:19] is watching my wife's reaction

[25:21] when at one point Gary Oldman says,

[25:22] I'm 44 years old.

[25:24] And she went, what?

[25:25] Because he's a man in his mid-60s

[25:28] who's playing this character.

[25:30] My funniest movie moment in 2020

[25:32] had to be a line in Inception

[25:36] when Robert Pattinson explains the stakes of the movie.

[25:40] He's like, and if this happens,

[25:43] the entire universe will be destroyed.

[25:45] And Elizabeth Debicki looks at the sky and goes,

[25:49] including my son.

[25:51] What movie is that in?

[25:53] That's in Tenet, my mistake.

[25:55] Did I say Inception?

[25:56] You did, it was very-

[25:58] I was like, I didn't even remember

[25:59] that Robert Pattinson was in Inception.

[26:00] It was alarming and confusing.

[26:01] I thought I phased into a parallel dimension.

[26:06] That would be pretty weird though, right?

[26:08] I must've incepted myself.

[26:10] What a disappointing Mandela effect that would be.

[26:13] But again-

[26:14] I slipped into a parallel dimension

[26:15] where Inception and Tenet just had different names.

[26:17] Again, Better Call Saul is a different kind of prequel.

[26:22] They're like, okay, here's a side character,

[26:24] an interesting side character.

[26:26] We haven't told his story yet, really.

[26:28] So let's go back and see what his deal is.

[26:32] It's more of like, yeah, it's in that spinoff vein

[26:35] of a Frasier, even though that's going forward in time.

[26:38] It's just like, okay, well, this is a character

[26:40] people seem to like.

[26:41] What's his deal?

[26:43] Wouldn't it be weird if Frasier was going backward in time,

[26:45] like in Tenet?

[26:47] Or Merlin?

[26:48] It's like Time's Arrow.

[26:50] There's a homunculus in Frasier's head

[26:52] that is experiencing Frasier's life backwards.

[26:55] Oh, wow.

[26:57] Yeah, I mean-

[26:58] Spoiler alert for the Martin Amis novel, Time's Arrow.

[27:01] I feel like, I think you're right.

[27:04] I mean, I feel like Better Call Saul also,

[27:06] still falls into the various traps of prequels

[27:09] where there's a ton of moments

[27:11] that feel like they're thrown in there

[27:13] just because you're a fan of the original work

[27:15] and you're like, oh, this guy's important

[27:17] because I know he's important.

[27:19] Although they don't do a ton of stuff where they're like,

[27:22] this guy's gonna be important,

[27:24] so we have the prophecy of why Slip and Jimmy

[27:28] is gonna become Saul Goodman or something.

[27:30] Well, that's the thing.

[27:31] Like, I love that show.

[27:32] I love all of it, but I get much more frustrated

[27:35] with sort of the drug plot side of the show

[27:39] because I'm just like, if this was a show on its own

[27:42] that didn't have to link to Breaking Bad,

[27:44] this wouldn't be here.

[27:45] This is the stuff that doesn't feel.

[27:47] Well, that's like, I have that,

[27:50] I mentioned Solo earlier.

[27:51] The things I like in Solo

[27:53] are the things that are not Star Wars reliant.

[27:56] And if that movie didn't have to serve as Star Wars stuff,

[27:59] it would probably be a stronger, more fun movie

[28:02] if it didn't have to explain how the nickname Chewie

[28:05] came from the name Chewbacca

[28:06] as if that needed an origin, you know?

[28:10] I wanna tell you guys about the,

[28:12] so Elliot, I don't have a good answer for your question.

[28:15] My joke answer was gonna be like,

[28:17] I wonder if there's a,

[28:18] if we can make a prequel to Dawn of the Dead,

[28:21] some sort of Night of the Living Dead.

[28:23] But anyway,

[28:26] I wanna talk about the weirdest prequel that I've seen.

[28:30] I showed it recently for a bad movie

[28:33] online viewing thing I do with friends.

[28:36] Cruel Intentions 2.

[28:39] Now this was, this has an interesting provenance.

[28:44] They were gonna make a TV show,

[28:47] a spinoff of Cruel Intentions,

[28:50] a prequel TV show called Manchester Prep.

[28:54] And this was gonna be on Fox.

[28:56] And it didn't get picked up after the pilot,

[28:59] so Roger Cumble did the old Mulholland Drive

[29:04] and turned the unused pilot into a movie.

[29:08] It's a similar result, right?

[29:10] Well, I mean, oddly, one of the things that was-

[29:12] It also won at Cannes.

[29:16] Cruel Intentions 2 did win at Cannes.

[29:18] And well, like a gratuitous lesbian nude scene

[29:25] was slipped into the movie once it became a movie.

[29:29] So there are-

[29:30] I like you saying slipped in,

[29:31] it makes me imagine that the movie was screening

[29:35] at a theater and a guy, a shifty guy in a trench coat

[29:37] just kind of like sidled up to the screen

[29:38] and it's gonna like throw something onto the guy.

[29:40] Well, I mean, it is one of the funniest things

[29:42] about Cruel Intentions 2 is like most of it plays

[29:45] like this, what it is, like a bad 90s pilot

[29:49] for a Fox TV show.

[29:50] And then they will throw in like a few scenes

[29:53] that are so ridiculously more sleazy

[29:56] than the rest of the movie that you're like,

[29:58] okay, well, this was the-

[30:00] that was added like there's like i mean clearly in certain cases if it's like stuff that they

[30:04] couldn't get away but it's like the tone shifts so radically and because it is like a uh prequel

[30:11] they have to end like it's one of these sequel slash prequels where it's just like they've just

[30:16] remixed the actual elements from the original story like up to a certain point cruel intentions

[30:22] too is just cruel intentions done beat for beat and then at the end they have a a weird uh sleazy

[30:30] twist so that he can be in the same place where he is at the beginning of the movie cruel intentions

[30:36] i forgot to mention amy adams is in it a very young amy adams so okay i don't know why that

[30:42] was necessary to mention because it's so weird to see this anyway you know it's fun to see a

[30:48] picture elliot it's fun to see great actors in their early roles oh okay look we've all seen

[30:55] we've all look if forever every jake gyllenhaal has his bubble boy you know everyone's got to

[31:00] start somewhere although i guess he started with city slickers who was it was he was he jack palance

[31:06] he was gyllenhaal he was in the makeup chair as a kid for 10 hours every day to look like

[31:11] you know he's he's billy crystal's son in uh city slickers like one scene okay i i'm gonna i just

[31:18] thought of something but uh what about ginger snaps three i thought that was that's a prequel

[31:22] right it takes place in ye olden times and i remember liking it i i like that movie it's it's

[31:27] kind of a prequel it's like not the same it's not like here are the same characters it's like here's

[31:31] the same actors in a similar dynamic in the 18th century yeah yeah i guess you're right i think

[31:38] this is partly because i saw on twitter there were there was a little bit of commenting uh this

[31:42] also partly put into my head about uh the concept that after hours is a prequel to home alone

[31:47] because john herd and katherine o'hara who play the parents in home alone are both in after hours

[31:52] and that maybe this is how they met in downtown manhattan and then they like settled down and had

[31:56] all their kids and forgot their son and i was like oh i love the idea of this being of these movies

[32:02] being connected somehow because it's also such a stunning indictment of the people who were part

[32:07] of that scene who have since sold out and become you know just live in a big house in chicago

[32:12] yeah whoever it is over there you know and are are so obsessed with their flights to paris that

[32:17] they forget their own son also we watched home alone recently and uh it was the first time i

[32:22] think that my son had ever seen a movie where the word ass was used and he was like what

[32:28] it's like what is this word yeah pupils dilate full requiem for a dream montage style

[32:34] oh uh but guys so i wanted to pitch another prequel idea to you obviously you guys loved

[32:40] my twins prequel which is called uh parent island and you loved my uh my my mashup the twin man

[32:49] uh twin detectives married to the same woman who solved crimes uh i was thinking what if we

[32:54] revived the look who's talking series with a prequel called look who's not talking yet which

[33:00] is about the adult cast members when they were children they're not old enough to have children

[33:06] but when they were kids so we see how they got to the place that they end up now obviously christy

[33:11] alley and john travolta they don't know each other when the movie look who's talking starts

[33:15] so there's going to have to be some way to explain how they don't know each other at the end of the

[33:18] movie easy how do you how do we do it how do we put how do we thread that needle uh well one of

[33:25] wait okay memory wipe yep coconuts those droids get wiped that's the thing that's the thing they

[33:36] were at his wedding yeah now elliot look i mean that's that's there's there's memory wipes and

[33:43] there's rudeness and not remembering when you're one of two guests at a very private wedding look

[33:48] who's not talking yet now the question i have about this is so are the travolta and kirstie

[33:55] alley babies not talking in they're not babies no they're kids they can talk but their children

[34:02] can't talk because they're not born yet because they're in the future okay so here's another

[34:07] why do you have to go all the way back to when they're kids can't they just be the adult characters

[34:12] before they meet them moments before like yeah i mean like i guess travolta is not the dad it's uh

[34:20] he's just the it's the other guy no but okay so fine we'll have kirstie alley and john travolta

[34:24] in makeup to become to look like kids that's the thing because we got to get those star names in

[34:29] there uh i don't know i mean i feel like kirstie alley i guess her name is uh on twitter a lot

[34:35] lately for necessarily good reason might be a problem okay well then you know what then i

[34:40] forget forget look who's not talking yet do you guys remember the movie i think it was called did

[34:44] you hear about the morgans uh what if what if we had a prequel that showed you what happened to

[34:48] the mortals i got i got a good idea for a prequel how about this one you ready it's gonna be a hot

[34:55] one good news mom the babysitter's alive now that's what i'm yeah that's a great and again

[35:04] you'd have to kind of ease over the fact that they this is the second time they're hiring the

[35:08] babysitter and she died maybe maybe she was in a horrible accident that's why they don't recognize

[35:12] her i don't know but but that's the kind of thing i'm looking for yeah yeah is is that kind of where

[35:16] we can take an old piece of ip and really revitalize it by going back in time and seeing what

[35:21] it was like before and you'll have to get all the all the characters back so like josh charles will

[35:26] be in there for some reason yeah still work company yeah oh yeah david coveney was in there man he was

[35:33] cool uh man are we gonna digitally dh them like the irishman i don't that's the part i'm not sure

[35:39] about the to gain i don't know i mean i've as i said i think if you just brush their hair forward

[35:47] yeah saul style better call saul style uh like you could do a prequel to um like the 10 commandments

[35:54] that's just called eight commandments and it's about god figuring out what those last two

[35:57] commandments are going to be and i what i like about is that you're also leaving the door open

[36:01] for a sequel to the prequel nine commandments exactly we gotta build in we could do a

[36:08] cleo from three to five really dig into what happened earlier in that that day

[36:16] uh you could have uh the the fast and furious prequel could be faster the movie

[36:22] let's pick it up next time yeah you could do the uh the prequel to january man december man

[36:29] just it's called december of the previous year man you gotta clarify thank you

[36:34] yeah yeah yeah my idea was stupid thanks for fixing it no no yeah there's the prequel to

[36:38] kindergarten cop preschool cop um and the prequel to cop and a half just one cop hold on i don't

[36:46] think i don't think just because it's a prequel to kindergarten cop he has to go to an earlier school

[36:53] so how is it a prequel dan if it's not he would be younger and maybe yeah yeah yeah that prequel to

[37:03] to stop her my mom will shoot stop her my mommy will shoot

[37:09] it's called it's called stop on my mommy will shoot it's in a baby voice yeah yeah

[37:15] okay yeah uh then of course there's uh you know the prequel to um oh boy what are some

[37:22] other movies that exist that have titles most of them the prequel to king kong prince kong

[37:30] which is about how prince kong game of thrones his way to the top is there a white album of uh

[37:36] of movies you know how uh i don't understand what you're at the movie has no title in the forest

[37:44] will anyone go see it no is there a title this movie is there a is there a movie with

[37:51] whose title is a void rather than i mean there's a movie i mean there's a movie called the last

[37:58] movie and you can make a prequel to that called still got one more movie left in me

[38:02] the penultimate movie um you could do let's see uh i guess the prequel to hot dog the movie would be

[38:12] ground up pig in the movie and it's before they put it in the tube

[38:21] that's that that's the tagline actually did you ever wonder what happened before the casings

[38:27] here's how the sausage really gets made uh did you guys did you guys suggest this one uh the

[38:33] the prequel to nine and a half weeks uh uh nine weeks

[38:38] and they just really added that last half a week for the movie you guys say that one yet

[38:44] there's the the prequel to the nicholas cage through an eight millimeter which is called seven

[38:48] millimeter um yeah you know the dad dan oh i was just gonna say that the writer of hot dog

[38:56] the movie went on to be the director of hamburger the motion picture i mean he's

[39:04] stuck with what he knows that seems like a pretty clear career progression yeah although i mean it's

[39:08] weird and then he ended up he ended up running taco the series right yeah yeah he was involved

[39:16] in uh the meatballs series too yeah yeah and the pizza concept album sure is that where you just

[39:25] put a pizza on the turntable and put the needle down that's the concept it was real it was real

[39:32] john cage type stuff very avant-garde yeah the concept of course he went on to work went on to

[39:38] work with meatloaf a real person whose name sounds like food was a pizza on a turntable

[39:43] was that something gremlins did or 16 candles did well when a pizza's on a turntable you can

[39:48] eat pizza anytime so oh yes you're right that's what the old ad said that's what the old adage says

[39:57] yeah

[40:00] I think we've I feel like we've really answered a lot of questions about prequels tonight

[40:03] Uh-huh, I think we finally like I feel like prequels are a big part of movie discourse

[40:08] And I think we finally closed the book on them

[40:10] I think we gave the definitive answer that everybody's been looking for until

[40:15] We look at the previous book and we start we have the prequel

[40:20] Okay, I like it. Mm-hmm. No, it's a someone

[40:25] Someone at on Twitter they once asked me they said have have they ever made a prequel to a movie that didn't exist yet and

[40:32] Which is just a movie and I feel like that's how distorted the conversation has gotten is that now the kind of assumption that you can

[40:39] Have a prequel to anything is you know, he's troubling kind of

[40:43] Every one of our episodes in sort of with a prequel like a regular full episodes when there's an outtake from the beginning of the show

[40:52] Appended. Oh, no weird. I feel like I feel like Guy Ritchie's rock

[40:57] What is it rock a roll up felt a little bit like a prequel to a Guy Ritchie movie that hasn't been made yet

[41:03] Hmm fair fair. It's not an adaptation of the Judas Priest album of the same name

[41:07] I don't think so, but I'd have to look at the liner notes

[41:11] of the movie in the sense that like the movie felt like it felt like I was supposed to know these characters and it felt

[41:17] Like the whole time it was building up to something that you never really get to

[41:21] So the whole thing just felt like a like one set up. Oh

[41:25] You didn't see that. Okay, so you didn't see the director's cut which ends with those characters

[41:30] It's revealed that they're the characters from the big chill. Oh

[41:33] Interesting. Mm-hmm. It's a prequel to that rock a roll is a prequel to the big chill. Yeah, okay

[41:38] That makes sense, which itself is a prequel to the 2016 election of Donald Trump

[41:44] Who because you got to assume a lot of the people in the big chill would have gone on to vote for him as their

[41:48] Minds were destroyed by social media. The big deal is a movie. The big chill is a

[41:53] My parents had the movie poster for the big chill in my basement and I saw I looked at that poster

[41:59] Basically every day growing up. Yeah, and I've never seen that movie. I mean, it's just boomer nonsense

[42:06] it's it's it's fun enough because there's like good actors in it, but it's one of those movies that like I

[42:12] Liked okay, I like better as a kid, which is weird because it's like all about people

[42:19] You know like been disillusioned for life coming back together, but now I

[42:24] associated so much with like that generation that like dominated movies for so much and

[42:31] You know guys what will be our so it's like it's like that like everyone younger than us is annoyed

[42:36] That it's just like navel-gazing a bunch of people. Well, we had we we we had our big chill

[42:42] Unfortunately, it was chill factor with Cuba goody-junior skeet Aldrich

[42:45] Yeah, but uh, you know where they had to keep that that explosive cold or it or it so he gets an ice cream in

[42:50] I feel like I feel like the generation like immediately preceding us. It was something like beautiful girls or some shit

[42:56] Yeah, it was or like reality bites. Yeah, like that was that was right before us and the one for us is probably gonna be

[43:04] Avengers endgame. Yeah, like that's probably our generation's big chill

[43:11] Dan's racking his brain. He's like what what movie speaks to our culture at the best and it's Avengers endgame

[43:17] Obviously, it's got to be Avengers endgame because that moment when everybody comes back and they're like, I'm with you cap

[43:22] I don't know that that really spoke to me as a as a what's our generation like older Millennials?

[43:28] You're an older millennial. I am a younger XR. So

[43:33] And I'm on the cusp, baby, yeah Stuart is racer X who secretly speeds brother

[43:39] Well guys, I think we've talked out prequels well enough. I think this is a good question for our audience

[43:44] What do you think is the big chill of now?

[43:48] What's the movie where it's a bunch of people who are approaching middle-aged just kind of yammering on about their own selfish garbage

[43:55] Just until they're tired of it, you know in a house together morning Kevin Costner

[44:02] What's what's the modern version of that?

[44:04] Let us know talk to us on Twitter

[44:05] And if you'd like to see us talk about Teen Wolf, which will be somewhat more organized than this discussion

[44:10] Just join us Saturday, February 6th at 9 p.m. Eastern 6 p.m. Pacific

[44:14] We're gonna be selling tickets right now when you listen to this just go straight there at

[44:19] www.theflophouse.simpletics.com

[44:22] Don't bother with that HTTP garbage. That's for big chill old people. Yeah, just put in

[44:27] www.theflophouse.simpletics.com

[44:29] The price is only $10 or as much as you'd like to spend above that

[44:33] But you don't have $10 is the minimum you cannot spend less than that and we're gonna have all new presentations

[44:38] We'll be answering audience questions

[44:39] And again, we're gonna be talking about the big chill of our generation Teen Wolf the movie that that perhaps branded itself more on American

[44:47] Pop culture than any other film about a basketball-playing werewolf prove me wrong Dan prove me

[44:53] There is a more dominant film about a basketball-playing werewolf. I don't think there has been one

[44:58] Do you guys have anything else you want to say before we say goodbye to our gentle listeners? No, let's just do it

[45:02] Okay for the flop house. I have been Elliot Kalin. I've been Dan McCoy

[45:07] Hey, it's me Stuart Wellington. Welcome to the flop house. Oh god. No, no. No, he's doing a prequel

[45:13] He's trapped in a prequel. Oh, no

[45:16] You

[45:21] Maximum fun org comedy and culture artists owned audience supported

FH Mini #22 - Prequels: What's Their Deal?

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