Mercy

[0:00] On this episode we discuss Mercy, a movie that has all the excitement of a Zoom call.

[0:07] Hey everyone and welcome to The Flophouse.

[0:31] I'm Dan McCoy.

[0:32] I'm Dan's friend, Stuart Wellington.

[0:35] I'm Stuart's friend, Elliot Kalin, and by the transit of property, I'm also Dan's friend.

[0:39] And together, we combine to form The Flophouse podcast.

[0:43] And also The Friend House, and this is a podcast all about being friends.

[0:46] Oh, and Captain Planet too, that's right.

[0:48] I'm heart.

[0:49] Dan is...

[0:50] A thousand percent, you're not heart.

[0:53] You're like brains or whatever, and I'm heart.

[0:56] You're heart, and Dan is the guts.

[0:58] Yeah, yeah.

[0:59] Dan's guts.

[1:00] Dan's dying a lot.

[1:01] Yeah, Dan's guts.

[1:02] He's got a giant sword, and he is cursed with a mark on his neck, and he fights the demons.

[1:08] Yep, he's got to kill a thousand evil men before he can finally rest.

[1:13] I'm learning so much about myself.

[1:14] And Captain Planet.

[1:15] Is this what an engram is?

[1:16] Yeah.

[1:17] It's an in-body scan that you can get at your local gym.

[1:23] This is a...

[1:24] Dan, I just did this stress test, and it turns out you're very stressed, and the only cure

[1:26] for that is to know you have aliens in your head.

[1:28] Wait, you did a stress test and they told you about Dan?

[1:32] Well, they asked me what was stressing me out.

[1:35] LAX is a crazy airport, is all I'm saying.

[1:38] It's for sure.

[1:39] What do you expect with an airport named after a laxative?

[1:42] Yep.

[1:43] This is a podcast.

[1:44] Movies led me to believe that LAX is filled with Harry Christens.

[1:48] You are watching old movies.

[1:49] Maybe it was at one point.

[1:51] It no longer is, yeah.

[1:53] This is a podcast where we watch a movie that was a critical or a commercial flop, and then

[1:58] we discuss it.

[1:59] In this case, we watched a movie called Mercy, starring one Chris Pratt.

[2:04] Unlike all the other movies, this one stars Chris Pratt.

[2:09] And what to say?

[2:10] Truly the Where's Waldo of American film.

[2:14] He's always in there.

[2:15] Guys, I feel like we're going to be mean about this one, right?

[2:17] Well, we'll see.

[2:18] Well, considering that we hated it, yes.

[2:20] We'll see.

[2:21] You know what?

[2:22] Maybe Dan feels differently.

[2:23] Maybe Dan likes its pro-AI message.

[2:26] I will say right up front that the thing that bothered me the most about it is I have moral

[2:33] issues with a lot of the messages.

[2:35] Yeah, it is a gross message.

[2:37] It's a gross movie.

[2:39] But luckily, it looks like shit.

[2:42] And the acting is bad.

[2:43] Even actors I like are bad in it.

[2:46] Yes, that's true.

[2:47] And actors I don't like also bad in it.

[2:49] I want to say up front, this film is in the vein of something like Unfriended or the Ice

[2:55] Cube War of the Worlds in that it mostly...

[2:57] What a beautifully stupid piece of work.

[2:59] Can we go back and change the title on the box art to say Ice Cubes War of the Worlds?

[3:05] It's like those films in that it mostly takes place through screens.

[3:10] So if you're thrilled watching people sit and watch videos, this is a film for you.

[3:14] And all those movies, right, are the product of the same director or director slash producer,

[3:19] aren't they?

[3:20] Yeah.

[3:21] The guy who made Nightwatch.

[3:22] The guy who made Nightwatch.

[3:23] I always forget his name.

[3:24] I believe he...

[3:25] I'm doing the research now to double check, but I believe he also made those other movies.

[3:30] The guy who directed this, was he a producer in those other movies?

[3:33] I believe so.

[3:34] Let's take a look.

[3:35] Oh, okay.

[3:36] I didn't know.

[3:37] It's Timur something.

[3:38] Well, I'm not going to confidently pronounce a Russian surname.

[3:42] Yeah.

[3:43] Timur Bekmabetev.

[3:44] Wow.

[3:45] You fucking did it flawless.

[3:46] He no skimped it.

[3:47] No, but I tried it.

[3:48] Here's the thing.

[3:49] As the Silver Surfer once said, there is no shame in failure.

[3:53] The only shame is not making the attempt.

[3:54] Wow.

[3:55] That's my therapist giving the same advice.

[3:56] Dan, feel your shame.

[3:57] We didn't set this.

[3:58] He did Unfriended and War of the Worlds.

[4:01] He's worked on both of them.

[4:02] And he also made Abraham Lincoln Vampire Hunter.

[4:05] Wow.

[4:06] So some of...

[4:07] I mean, yeah, okay.

[4:08] So of those, I think Unfriended and War of the Worlds are the better.

[4:12] Yeah.

[4:13] Yeah.

[4:14] I think he only produced Unfriended.

[4:15] Did he have anything to do with searching?

[4:17] That's another big...

[4:18] Let's take a look.

[4:19] You know, all happens on the screen.

[4:20] Yes, he produced that too.

[4:21] He produced Searching, Unfriended, and War of the Worlds.

[4:23] Wow.

[4:24] Searching is probably the strongest of those, and I wasn't super wild about it, but it's

[4:28] okay.

[4:29] And he's probably best known as the director of Wanted.

[4:30] Oh, with the antique whaling bullets or whatever?

[4:34] Yes, exactly.

[4:35] Screenshot bullets.

[4:36] Yeah.

[4:37] We didn't even mention Elliot's here in my home.

[4:39] In person.

[4:40] You know, he's usually here on the podcast, but he is...

[4:43] Which explains some of the loosey-goosey-ness of this.

[4:45] Yep.

[4:46] Here physically.

[4:47] Just to peek behind the curtain, we are also recording these episodes out of order.

[4:51] The next episode that we come out with will be the first one we did tonight, so we're

[4:55] going to be a little goofier this time.

[4:56] Certainly the less drunk episode.

[4:58] Yeah, this is the drunker, goofier, loopier one.

[5:01] You might call this a goofy podcast, but not a goofy movie.

[5:04] Sorry, folks.

[5:05] Coming soon.

[5:06] I haven't covered a goofy movie, but maybe someday.

[5:07] Keep those letters rolling in.

[5:09] I kind of actually...

[5:10] We've seen your petitions.

[5:11] I don't want to spoil anything.

[5:12] I kind of have a plan, guys.

[5:13] No, I'm just saying.

[5:14] Like the Cylons, he has a plan.

[5:15] It's good that we have this loose energy for this movie that is uptight in that it takes

[5:22] place in a room.

[5:24] But anyway, so let's talk about Mercy.

[5:26] This is...

[5:27] We start out, our protagonist, Chris Raven, who is playing...

[5:31] Guys, already, I love this shit.

[5:33] The idea that Chris Pratt is playing an evil cop who, like a bad boy, named Chris Raven

[5:40] feels like Shadow the Hedgehog shit.

[5:42] Does anyone have the last name Raven?

[5:45] I know a guy named Ed Raven, and he's like seven feet tall.

[5:49] I know someone...

[5:50] Story checks out?

[5:51] Yeah.

[5:52] Who I would say, she is so Raven.

[5:54] But Raven is her first name, Dan.

[5:56] That's true.

[5:57] That's true.

[5:58] Well, Chris Raven, this gentleman, is played by Chris Pratt, as you said.

[6:04] He comes out of a drunken...

[6:05] I think you said that, Dan.

[6:06] Who is...

[6:07] I'm going to say, guys, I'm going to go out on a limb and say, I think he's miscast.

[6:10] I think it is interesting how...

[6:12] So this movie, right off the bat, is asking us to believe something, that he is a character

[6:17] who is capable of having committed murder, and yet is sympathetic enough that we're hoping

[6:22] he didn't, and we want to see him prove that he actually didn't, to find out he didn't

[6:26] and prove his case.

[6:28] And I feel like Chris Pratt, he's been charismatic in movies, but he plays this character right

[6:33] off the bat as such an asshole, and just so unsympathetic right off the bat.

[6:38] I think it's a...

[6:39] I think it's a choice.

[6:40] I think it's a problem, honestly.

[6:41] I mean, like...

[6:42] Yeah, it's part of it.

[6:43] I mean, he's also...

[6:44] He's like a dick right off the bat.

[6:45] There is a miscalculation in this movie, and I agree with you, that, like, this guy, like,

[6:49] what we see of him early on in the movie is not appealing.

[6:54] Like, I...

[6:55] And maybe that's...

[6:56] But maybe they're trying something where it's like, oh, he's an unsympathetic protagonist,

[6:59] so maybe we think he did it, and then it turns out he didn't do it, or something like that.

[7:03] Right.

[7:04] I mean, when he finds out what actually happened, the movie gets bonkers.

[7:07] It's...

[7:08] Yeah.

[7:09] Yeah.

[7:10] It goes off the rails.

[7:11] It's Gary Busey Heider in the house territory.

[7:13] And the thing is, I feel like Chris Pratt, like, not to overreach here, guys, but I feel

[7:17] like he...

[7:18] He's a jack-leecher.

[7:19] His, like, the level of sympathy he can bring out of an audience has gone down over time.

[7:24] I mean, certainly from me, who has really enjoyed him in, like, the Guardians of the

[7:30] Galaxy movies, and...

[7:32] But like, I...

[7:33] Yeah, whatever...

[7:34] I wonder if...

[7:35] Fondness I have has...

[7:36] I wonder if it's a matter of him...

[7:39] I don't know.

[7:40] I don't know what's going on in his life.

[7:41] But also, him getting older, it gets harder for a guy who is in his...

[7:45] Thank you, Stuart.

[7:46] It gets harder for a guy...

[7:47] I got sprayed with some of whatever Stuart's drinking.

[7:49] I think it gets harder for a guy who is getting older to still play, kind of, charismatic

[7:55] in a kind of, like, goofy and competent way.

[7:58] Fucking tell me about it, dude.

[7:59] Yeah.

[8:00] And also, like, I met...

[8:01] I'm not getting cast in the roles you used to shoot.

[8:02] I'm just saying, it gets harder and harder to maintain the Stuart Pardee dude character.

[8:07] And this is not really making my case, but what if Marty Supreme...

[8:11] What if that main character had been played by a 45-year-old man, or a 50-year-old man?

[8:15] I mean, do you not think Timothee Chalamet is going to look the same at 45?

[8:19] It's going to be like Leonardo DiCaprio, where he doesn't look that much older, but there's

[8:24] a sense of age about him.

[8:25] Oh, yeah.

[8:26] A sense of having seen too much.

[8:27] A wizened little mouse character.

[8:29] Even as a private...

[8:30] Yeah, like on Redwall, or something like that.

[8:31] He'd be great in Redwall.

[8:32] He would be great in Redwall, but not doing a voice.

[8:33] Like, playing the character with mouse ears and a little mouse face.

[8:34] He would be animated characters alongside him.

[8:35] Yes.

[8:36] But not him.

[8:37] No.

[8:38] It would be, like, kind of like cats in that way.

[8:39] Yeah.

[8:40] Uh-huh.

[8:41] Even as a private citizen, as not an actor or someone playing a character other than

[8:42] the Dan character on this podcast.

[8:43] Yeah, yeah.

[8:44] The Dan persona.

[8:45] I certainly feel like, with every year I age, I'm like, well, I can get away with less.

[8:46] Yeah.

[8:47] Like, there's no other way.

[8:48] Yeah.

[8:49] Yeah.

[8:50] Yeah.

[8:51] Yeah.

[8:52] Yeah.

[8:53] Yeah.

[8:54] Yeah.

[8:55] Yeah.

[8:56] I certainly feel like, with every year I age, I'm like, well, I can get away with less.

[8:59] Yeah.

[9:00] Like, there's no one...

[9:01] No one is going to be like, that's cute.

[9:02] I don't...

[9:03] Oh, what is...

[9:04] What is...

[9:05] Man.

[9:06] Well, this is...

[9:07] I recently had a talk with my older son, because he started to be like...

[9:08] If we're frustrated with his table manners, he'll be like, it's cool, bruh.

[9:11] And I was like, you are old enough now that it is not funny when you are rude.

[9:15] It's just rude.

[9:16] Yeah.

[9:17] Like, once you reach it...

[9:18] When my seven-year-old is rude, I'm like, this little...

[9:20] This little pisser.

[9:21] But when my 12-year-old is rude, I'm like, gentlemen, leave the table.

[9:25] Come back when you feel like you can be nice.

[9:27] So maybe it's just when you get older, people...

[9:29] He has to understand that in order to be rude, he has to be funnier.

[9:32] Yeah.

[9:33] Well, that...

[9:34] I mean, that's part of it.

[9:35] True.

[9:36] He has to be cool, but rude.

[9:37] Cool, but rude.

[9:38] And so I think this movie is asking us to make two big buys.

[9:40] One, that we care if this guy is found industry guilty.

[9:44] Yeah.

[9:45] Two, that the movie will show us repeatedly throughout that AI is...

[9:49] Doesn't work right.

[9:50] Uh-huh.

[9:52] And also fails at even its most basic tasks.

[9:55] And then at the end, to have us be like, but you know what?

[9:57] AI is just going to learn its lesson and get better at it.

[10:00] I don't like you, but I respect you.

[10:02] And the thing we learned is that this AI technology hasn't even been around that long within the

[10:06] movie.

[10:07] This is only the 19th case.

[10:09] I would rather have fucking precogs judging me, dude.

[10:13] This is very much budget minority report, but I thought it was one of the funniest things

[10:18] that comes right off the bat.

[10:19] They're like, thanks to the mercy courts, crime has fallen 60% in LA.

[10:23] This is the 19th case.

[10:24] And I'm like, how little crime was there?

[10:27] 18 cases.

[10:28] Let me get to that because I have something I have a bone to pick with that particular

[10:31] part.

[10:32] But okay, let's start from the beginning.

[10:33] Start at the beginning.

[10:34] Yeah, we haven't even gotten to this.

[10:35] He's in a chair.

[10:36] Chris Pratt.

[10:37] We were like right at the beginning.

[10:38] Chris Raven comes out of a drunken blackout.

[10:41] He discovers he's trapped.

[10:42] He's strapped to a chair.

[10:43] There's a video that explains the premise of the movie and the history of what got us

[10:47] to this point, even though presumably anyone in the movie already knows this stuff already.

[10:52] But also it is so incredibly unconstitutional for you to blackout and wake up at your trial.

[10:59] What are you doing?

[11:00] You have not notified him of the charges.

[11:02] You have not allowed him to get a lawyer because they've got these new mercy courts.

[11:06] The whole thing is it's like one of those things where it, as Stewart said a long time

[11:09] ago, one of those things where you see a science fiction movie makes up a fake thing and then

[11:12] goes and that's why we don't do that.

[11:15] You idiots don't do this thing we just made up.

[11:18] Yeah.

[11:20] It's a movie that's set up to show us how bad that would be.

[11:23] And at the end it's like, but I guess we got to keep doing it.

[11:25] It's like you've got the end of Soylent Green.

[11:26] It was like Soylent Green is people.

[11:28] Oh, that's horrible.

[11:29] Well, hand me that leg.

[11:31] I'm going to keep chowing down.

[11:33] Let's do it more farm to table instead.

[11:35] You know, yeah.

[11:36] Just bring the body out.

[11:37] Let me point to the parts I want to eat.

[11:38] Oh, that looks juicy.

[11:40] So Chris Raven, he wakes up from a blackout.

[11:41] Yeah.

[11:42] He gets this instruction.

[11:43] Tell me about the mercy court.

[11:44] Tell me what they do.

[11:46] It starts with the statistic.

[11:49] Millions of people have been affected by crime.

[11:52] Fucking.

[11:53] Oh, really?

[11:54] Amazing.

[11:55] Amazing shit.

[11:56] But we have no numbers.

[11:58] We're in L.A. 2029 where apparently a surge in crime has led to this mercy capital court

[12:04] where artificial intelligence judges try defendants for violent offenses and there's no lawyers

[12:11] or jury.

[12:12] Instead, this computer judge gives defendants access to all available evidence that they

[12:16] pulled from security cameras, social media phones, because everyone's.

[12:21] There's also a law that's passed that every personal device has to be on the L.A. cloud.

[12:26] So the mercy courts have access to all personal online information and you get an hour and

[12:30] a half to get 90 minutes to prove your innocence, prove your innocence, which is a threshold

[12:34] of you're allowed to do fucking lifeline phone calls.

[12:39] Yes.

[12:40] Call whoever you want.

[12:42] I mean, I can't wait to talk about that.

[12:43] And if you don't, if you don't prove your innocence, you're executed right there in

[12:47] the chair by Sonic Black and the way you like shadow the way you the way you prove your

[12:53] innocence is you get the guilty meter down to below what, like 86 percent or something

[12:58] like that.

[12:59] Ninety two percent.

[13:00] That if there's eight or whatever, a percent like reasonable doubt, then you're free to

[13:04] go.

[13:05] So the whole time that the mercy judge is like, hmm, that's a one percent more more

[13:09] doubt.

[13:10] It's like, are you getting these?

[13:11] Are you quantifying this?

[13:12] You know.

[13:13] Well, I want to talk about what you talked about.

[13:14] You brought before.

[13:15] Thank you.

[13:16] We are told that this has cut crime in the city by 68 percent.

[13:19] And I'm like, how?

[13:20] Like quicker.

[13:21] So afraid of this.

[13:22] Quicker trials don't lead to less crime.

[13:25] Capital punishment has been shown in several studies to not be a deterrent.

[13:28] And it's not like this is a new thing to be executed in the mercy chair versus like any

[13:33] other form of execution.

[13:34] No.

[13:35] Nick Cave's been saying about the mercy seat for a long time.

[13:36] I have no idea what we're supposed to believe is like the deterrent factor of this thing.

[13:42] It's just nonsense.

[13:43] I mean, the only the only explanation is that the crime levels in L.A. were so low that

[13:48] by killing 18 people, you can remove two thirds of the crime.

[13:52] They were the real kingpin.

[13:53] So we learned that like like L.A. has been divided into red zones that are like lawless

[14:01] wastelands.

[14:02] Yeah.

[14:03] People that are like addicted to nuke or slow mo or whatever.

[14:06] Yeah. Whatever sci fi drug it is.

[14:07] I mean, in reality, L.A. is separated into red zones based on what's on fire currently

[14:12] and what's not.

[14:13] So I can say that I live in L.A.

[14:15] Yeah.

[14:16] So we meet our A.I. judge played by Rebecca Ferguson.

[14:20] How do you feel about now?

[14:21] We're here.

[14:22] We're here.

[14:23] We're here.

[14:24] The plot.

[14:25] We're very pro Rebecca Ferguson.

[14:26] Sure.

[14:27] But I don't know if it's just the script or if there was something off with her choice.

[14:32] The choice.

[14:33] My guess is that.

[14:34] Well, I think I was thrown by the fact that we have a I was hoping for like a Matt Brewer

[14:38] max headroom.

[14:39] But like that, we have an L.A. A.I. judge who has an English accent right off the bat

[14:44] throws me that she doesn't sound like she's from the place that she's supposed to be judging

[14:49] like surfing.

[14:50] Just yeah.

[14:51] You're like, hey, bro.

[14:52] Time for me to.

[14:53] And chill out, man.

[14:54] You got now.

[14:55] You got you got 90 minnows.

[14:56] But the.

[14:57] Yeah.

[14:58] The dude Lebowski is the one who says, hey, chill, relax, relax.

[14:59] There's a lot of ins, a lot of outs.

[15:00] But also that she is so most of her job is staring at the camera, reminding you what

[15:01] the mercy court does and occasionally looking confused.

[15:02] There's a part where he goes, I'm just thinking out loud.

[15:03] And she's like, thinking is done in the brain.

[15:04] It is not verbal.

[15:05] And I'm like, what?

[15:06] What did they teach this?

[15:07] Yeah.

[15:08] I don't understand.

[15:09] What does it know and not know about humanity?

[15:10] Yeah.

[15:11] I mean, I think that she's like, I'm just thinking out loud.

[15:12] And she's like, I'm just thinking out loud.

[15:13] And I'm like, what?

[15:14] What did they teach this?

[15:15] Yeah.

[15:16] I don't understand.

[15:17] What does it know and not know about humanity?

[15:28] She has been handed an impossible task.

[15:30] You are guilty.

[15:31] You said he was a liar, liar, pants on fire.

[15:33] But his pants were not on fire.

[15:34] That's perjury.

[15:35] A.I.

[15:36] Judge.

[15:37] Mercy, come on.

[15:38] You know what.

[15:39] Yeah.

[15:40] You're not going to get me to say anything against Rebecca Ferguson.

[15:41] She's doing what she can.

[15:42] I think I will say that.

[15:43] I think she is poorly.

[15:46] She's working with poor material.

[15:47] Yeah.

[15:48] Yeah.

[15:49] But.

[15:50] But Judge Maddox.

[15:51] Oh, that's her name?

[15:52] That the A.I.

[15:53] Judge has a name.

[15:54] It's Judge Maddox.

[15:55] Well, you know, it's for the eventual TV show.

[15:59] She's like, don't don't pee on my leg and tell me it's raining, Judge Maddox.

[16:04] I will.

[16:05] It will short circuit me if it's a they should have gone all the way.

[16:09] This would be a better movie if they had gone full Robocop and Judge Maddox was an animated

[16:13] angry ox.

[16:14] That was just like steam came out of its nose when it when it was proved wrong or things

[16:18] like that.

[16:19] That'd be so much more fun.

[16:20] And he also like he wakes up in a room that's like very high tech.

[16:23] And I feel like this feels almost wrong to me because I feel like every time I've seen

[16:27] images of actual inside of government buildings like this, it's like very institutional.

[16:31] Yeah.

[16:32] I'm done on a cheap.

[16:33] Yeah.

[16:34] I was going to get to this later.

[16:35] But like there's parts later on in the movie when action is happening and it turns like

[16:38] into like full holodeck, like there's an explosion and like flames surround him.

[16:43] Yeah.

[16:44] In the chair.

[16:45] And I'm like, who's paying for the taxpayers paying for the.

[16:48] No, we want the accused to have the full fucking VR.

[16:50] Yeah.

[16:51] It's got to be like 40 X, man.

[16:53] Mercy for the experience.

[16:56] I'm trying to prove I'm innocent, but you keep spraying water and you keep shaking that

[17:02] water clean.

[17:03] Don't worry.

[17:04] You executed in a moment.

[17:07] Yeah.

[17:08] Well, she lets Raven know that he's on trial for the murder of his wife, Nicole and Nicole

[17:13] Raven.

[17:14] And yeah.

[17:15] And he's like, you made him.

[17:16] He's bumming.

[17:17] He's bumming about this.

[17:18] He didn't.

[17:19] He doesn't like this.

[17:20] He doesn't like the murder of his wife that he's discovering in the chair as he's accused

[17:23] of her.

[17:24] Yes.

[17:25] He is bumming about it.

[17:26] He's not handling it.

[17:27] Reasonable.

[17:28] He is not taking it easy as the L.A.

[17:30] I.A.

[17:31] I.

[17:32] Judge should be telling you.

[17:33] You're making fun of me.

[17:34] But later on, when he's doing his fucking when he's doing it without Stu, when he's doing

[17:40] his lifeline phone calls to his friends, like his closest friend, his partner, she acts

[17:44] like it's a huge imposition.

[17:46] She's like, oh, I'm doing all this other stuff.

[17:48] And I'm like, bitch, this guy's going to die.

[17:50] Yeah.

[17:51] Best friend.

[17:52] But yeah, Raven is like, you know, you made a mistake.

[17:55] He's a big supporter of the mercy program.

[17:58] He and his partner, Jacqueline or Jack, arrested David Webb played by Kelly Reese, I think

[18:04] from what I know her from detective night country, which she was really good at.

[18:09] She was great.

[18:10] I've been meaning to watch that.

[18:11] She just kind of plays kind of like tough, angry, but in that detective, she's really

[18:16] good.

[18:17] Yeah.

[18:18] That's right.

[18:21] I recommend it for her performance and for Jodie Foster's performance.

[18:22] Jodie Foster is so funny in that show.

[18:23] They're really great.

[18:24] I also think it's very funny that you cast the two most lesbian actors to play had real

[18:28] characters.

[18:29] I mean, that's part of the fun of it.

[18:30] I think the idea that Jodie Foster is just fucking her way through every guy that the

[18:35] unspoken the unspoken law in that town is that every guy has had sex with Jodie Foster

[18:40] at some point.

[18:41] And she's just wrecking homes left and right.

[18:43] But yeah.

[18:44] But it's like doesn't come off as a joke in the show.

[18:47] No, it's her doing it.

[18:48] It's a joke that this one cop just can't just falls into bed with every guy there, you know.

[18:53] But Chris and Jack arrested David Webb, the first person who was executed through the

[18:58] mercy court.

[18:59] Will that be important?

[19:00] Well, probably not.

[19:01] Well, they certainly mentioned it a lot.

[19:03] Yeah.

[19:04] So anyway, the evidence against Chris seems pretty decisive.

[19:07] Her blood was on his clothing, doorbell camera footage puts him in the home at the time of

[19:10] the murder.

[19:11] And even if he's innocent, as we mentioned, he seems like an asshole.

[19:15] He showed up really drunk and yelling at her.

[19:18] And he came into the house, even though she locked the door and told him not to.

[19:20] Yeah.

[19:21] I mean, he's like a domestic abuser.

[19:23] It's one of those conversations to where it is.

[19:26] It is expressly designed to sound like it is worse than what they're actually talking

[19:31] about when we find out what he's mad about and why she's like, stay out of my house.

[19:35] It's actually not that it's not as bad as it seems when you first watch it.

[19:39] You know.

[19:40] Yeah.

[19:41] But even so, he has been.

[19:42] I mean, he's still being belligerent.

[19:43] Yeah.

[19:44] I mean, he's he's lost into his alcoholism.

[19:45] He's been violent.

[19:46] He's.

[19:47] Yeah.

[19:48] But at this point, Chris's guilt probability is at ninety seven point five percent.

[19:52] Pretty high.

[19:53] He's got to lower that to ninety two percent.

[19:55] Can he do it?

[19:58] He's got an hour and a half and he is the star of the.

[20:00] movie. Now, this reminds me of the commercials for, um, was it Denty Nice? I can't remember.

[20:04] No, it was a different, it was a different breath freshener. I'm excited to go on this

[20:08] journey with you. Oh yeah. Just, just, just you take a road down. The commercial. Denty

[20:12] Nice Lane. Maybe it wasn't Denty Nice. It was another one where it was like the inside

[20:16] of your mouth is a 98.6 degrees and they'd show someone surrounded by fire going, blah.

[20:23] The idea that, yeah, that is the temperature of a normal human body. 98.6 degrees. And

[20:27] we got to cure that. Much, much cooler. And the fact that I remember everything about this ad

[20:32] except the company, except the brand name, but the idea that they are taking a normal human thing

[20:37] that every single healthy human has. We got to bring this temperature down. It's like, it reminds

[20:41] me of Return of the Living Dead when they're taking their temperature. They're like, oh shit.

[20:45] Like the idea that like, we got to solve it. It's like the commercials for low T where they're like,

[20:49] are you suffering from low T? Well, yeah, you're in your sixties. Your T is going down. You're not

[20:53] as good at basketball as you used to be. I want to look like a weird like raisin man with a lot

[20:56] of muscles. I want to be like if a California raisin started roiding up. Yeah. So that's where

[21:03] your mention of 97.7 just reminds me of this old ad. Blistering 98.6 degrees. Oh no, I got to get

[21:12] this gum. If I touch the inside of my mouth, I'll burn my hands. Yeah. If I turn my oven up to 98

[21:17] degrees, it just melts my food. It's so hot that they named a boy band after it.

[21:23] So 98 degrees, that was the boy band named after a human body temperature. It just basically means

[21:28] healthy. We do not have a fever right now. These are a young gentlemen you could, you know,

[21:36] have sex with if you want to do. They're alive. Not where you're going to get a fever after.

[21:40] Um, so he does a lot of life in case you were worried. These young men were not alive.

[21:46] They're singing and dancing. No, their body temperature is alive.

[21:50] Uh, Chris waste a lot of time in sync. Well,

[21:53] these boys have been together for so long that their cycles are in the sink.

[21:58] Uh, of what? Jacking it.

[22:01] Yeah, that's exactly what I meant. Okay. I know what challenges is about.

[22:06] Cool. Chris wastes a lot of time being like, uh, but I'm a cop as if cops never committed

[22:10] violent crimes. Yeah. A big fart noise for that. Uh, he requested the ultimate insult

[22:17] from Dan McCoy, a spoken fart noise. He requested those fucking dumb.

[22:24] Like it's a shock jock on the morning drive time radio.

[22:26] But like do the wettest one you got and then, and then put, Oh yeah. From the,

[22:32] from the, the old yellow song. Yeah. Uh, so he requests,

[22:41] he requests the chance to talk to his daughter who found his wife's body.

[22:46] Yeah. And while that's pending, he has to have a call with his AA sponsor, Rob Nelson,

[22:50] who will be important later because it's a murder mystery. So we can't have extraneous characters.

[22:55] Nope. Everyone's a suspect. Um, yeah. He's only got 90 minutes to live. Yeah.

[23:01] Now there's a lament. This happens a few times. And I think it's really funny that Maddox does

[23:06] like this kind of like, this is your life through old videos. We had Chris celebrating his wedding

[23:10] and the birth of his daughter and his former partner, Ray there isn't there.

[23:14] Maddox does a lot of reminding Chris Raven, not the facts of the case, but the facts of his life.

[23:18] Yeah. Uh, Ray, who died in the line of duty. Yeah. It's like, why,

[23:22] why are you telling Chris about his own life? Why is this happening in the 90 minutes?

[23:28] So what do you think is the plot purpose of the stuff about his partner, Ray,

[23:32] who died in the line of duty? It is it to give him a reason for why he becomes, okay.

[23:39] As far as relapse. Yeah. And, but it like, it's, it seems like they spend a lot of time on it when

[23:44] they don't have to, you know, I don't know. Is it also show like, this is how dangerous

[23:49] mercy. I wish that I had just like shot the guy who shot Ray. Right. Like extra judicial.

[23:55] To digitally. Yeah. And, um, later on at the climax of the movie, he makes the decision to

[24:02] not just kill the bad guy. I think that's the link. It's one way of showing growth from him.

[24:06] Yeah, I guess so. I wanted to do a bad thing. Now I don't want to do a bad thing.

[24:10] I wanted to mention that in here, Maddox is like, uh, what you humans call love is

[24:14] just a chemical reaction. And this is one of the fucking editorialize many times.

[24:21] Is this a, is this AI or is this a robot? Because it was AI. It was just regurgitate

[24:28] human ideas about love. It would sound like the elephant love medley from

[24:32] Mulan. We're usually loveless up where we belong. It loves a mini splinter thing. All you need is

[24:37] love. The one they did at the Oscars where I was like, oh yeah, these guys were in a movie together.

[24:41] That's what they're referencing. Now here's, it is very funny. Yeah. That often there are multiple

[24:47] times. And you'll, I mean, you'll talk about the big one later, Dan, I'm sure where the AI talks

[24:50] like an old, like a star Trek computer where Curt can be like, this is, this is illogical.

[24:55] And that can be to be like, uh, it does not compute. Love a funny thing. AI would really

[25:01] sparking AI would really be like, you have one hour and 90 minutes to save your life.

[25:07] I think you can do it. You're a brilliant genius. You can do anything you need to do. In fact,

[25:11] you've unlocked a whole new world of science and detective work. You're amazing. Kill yourself.

[25:16] Like that's what a really, I would do. Yeah. No one understands you as much as I do. I love you.

[25:22] I'm a real person. Here's a recipe for pizza that involves Clorox bleach.

[25:27] Chug it down. You were just, you were just validating Chris Weitz is afraid right now.

[25:33] Um, so he does get to talk to his daughter who understandably doubts his innocence. Um,

[25:39] she's with her grandparents who are, uh, uh, you know, her mom's, uh, parents. And so they

[25:45] definitely checks out, doubt him. Yeah. Um, they never liked him.

[25:49] They, they thought again, like the idea that her dad is calling her from his murder trial,

[25:57] which will most likely out of him. Mercy is like a death box. And they're like,

[26:06] stop talking to him. And I'm like, he's going to die. Like that's wild.

[26:12] Um, I realize we're, we're starting, we're doing like a, a, not totally up against the other,

[26:17] but it's kind of like a theme lately of movies where the parents think that the,

[26:23] that a woman has married beneath her station with this and Ella McKay.

[26:26] And I assume when we do Wuthering Heights in quotes, uh, so let's just keep that. Let's keep

[26:31] going with that, with women marrying beneath their heights and move beneath their, their status in

[26:35] movies. Yeah. Let's keep doing it. Um, so he finally, finally, you know, we're like 20, 30

[26:41] minutes probably. I mean, I mean, you gotta believe the bride could do better than Frankenstein's

[26:46] monster. Chris, uh, has not had much. Hold on. Let's stop for a minute. The bride could

[26:52] definitely do better than Frankenstein's monster, right? Her hair, a plus a hundred percent. She

[26:58] looks great. I mean, also got personality, you know, she definitely, um, you know, she feels

[27:04] that way. She screams at him immediately. She goes, I can do better than this. Yeah.

[27:09] Like that was the, that was the, I didn't draw this cartoon, but I wanted to do a cartoon where

[27:14] no one's stopping you. Frankenstein's, uh, the bride of Frankenstein is like

[27:19] complaining about how, like, I never actually married that guy. Everyone calls me that, but

[27:24] like, um, anyway, uh, he didn't put no ring on my finger. Single ladies. He gave me a finger, but

[27:33] there was no ring on it. It took him a long while, but Chris finally starts to try to mount

[27:39] a defense. He calls up his partner, uh, Jack to walk the crime scene.

[27:43] She's already there. And then when he tells her to walk the crime scene, she's like,

[27:46] oh, we went over this, whatever. It's closed already. It's closed. You did it, dude. Which

[27:52] would be one thing. If we later learned that this character was actually trying to set him up,

[27:58] but she is not, she is hiding something, but not hiding something like what she says,

[28:02] I'll help you. But if it finds you guilty, you're guilty. And why eventually there's a reason

[28:09] for her attitude there. Yeah. But, uh, it seems inexplicable at this at the time. I'm like,

[28:14] fucking cops close ranks and like protect their own. This is, this is not ring true to me.

[28:20] Their own is mercy now. Yeah. As well as we'll learn. Yeah. Um, so scrubbing through old footage,

[28:26] like a bunch of bubbles, uh, Chris realizes that Nicole had a second phone with Jack

[28:31] fines and through that they learned that she was seeing another man. She was having a kind

[28:35] of emotional affair. I don't seem like they actually did anything. They just met for coffee

[28:40] a few times, but they met up at a hotel and hang out and yap. I think so. Cause it seems like what

[28:44] she's mostly getting out of it is talking about work. I mean, that makes sense actually. I think

[28:49] the movie is afraid of like making it too much of a real affair because the audience will be like,

[28:54] kill that bitch. And that's not okay. Yeah. Yeah. Uh, but so this guy, I'm sorry for using that

[29:00] word. I was just pretending to be an ignorant audience members in the character of, of, of

[29:06] what? Of Freddy Krueger watching that movie. Yeah. Um, yeah. Freddy, Freddy, can you please

[29:13] stop using that word? Sorry. Sorry. So this guy, Mr. Burke is like a chef and he like made her

[29:19] meal. He made David Burke and Donatello empire. Yeah. That's sexy. Uh-huh. Well, they find him

[29:26] via phone. I feel like that would be like Dan makes meals for his wife all the time. I make

[29:30] meals for my wife. I would be very upset if I found out some man was just making meals.

[29:35] I mean, we can all agree that the slop house. Yeah. We can all agree that Burke that's his

[29:41] name, right? Burke. He is a catch. He's a much better catch than Chris Raven is. Yeah. 100%.

[29:46] Uh, but speaking now, better catch some Chris angel. I don't know enough about Chris. He is

[29:51] a mind freak. He won't just freak your body. He will freak your mind. Have you ever had your mind

[29:58] freaked?

[30:00] Anybody can freak the rest of you.

[30:02] I bet it would go something like this.

[30:05] He's a mind freak, mind freak, he's mind freaky, etc.

[30:10] Jack tracks down Burke by using her nifty flying hover cycle.

[30:15] At the minute she gets on her flying hover cycle, I said,

[30:18] well movie, you just kicked up the stoop in another notch.

[30:21] I love that hover cycle.

[30:22] But they have a big chase scene that really amounts to nothing.

[30:25] When they catch him, it turns out he has an alibi.

[30:28] He ran because he was scared that the mercy court had called him.

[30:31] There was a moment where his guilty level dropped a little bit.

[30:35] Chris Ravens.

[30:36] When Burke runs, they're like, oh, guilty level drops.

[30:39] Then he's like, hey, man, I have an alibi.

[30:41] I just was afraid you were going to put me in a death seat.

[30:43] And Chris Ravens goes way back.

[30:46] Yeah, increasing his guilt probability because now there's a motive.

[30:50] She's been seeing this other guy.

[30:52] Like the price of oil, that thing just keeps going up and down.

[30:55] The one helpful thing.

[30:56] That never goes down enough.

[30:57] Am I right, everybody?

[30:59] The one helpful thing.

[31:00] The price of eggs, too, right?

[31:02] Well, oil and eggs are pretty much the same thing.

[31:04] It did go back down, but oil is way up right now.

[31:06] You need oil to make eggs.

[31:07] So the price of eggs is going to go up.

[31:08] Deeply stupid decisions that were made.

[31:10] Oh, which one?

[31:11] The illegal war that took place?

[31:13] Yeah.

[31:14] Because an old man felt in his bones that it needed to happen?

[31:16] Well, I mean, I don't know about you guys,

[31:17] but I exclusively get my eggs through the Strait of Hormuz.

[31:20] I mean, the problem there is you get very old eggs.

[31:24] I don't want you eating those eggs anymore.

[31:26] No, man.

[31:27] They're aged to perfection.

[31:28] Like a fine wine.

[31:29] No, no.

[31:30] Aged eggs.

[31:31] You have to do special things for that to work.

[31:33] You can't just.

[31:34] Anyway.

[31:35] Yeah, 100-year-old eggs.

[31:36] No, I know, but that's a thing.

[31:37] That's a preparation.

[31:38] But anyway.

[31:39] Yeah, you stick them in the ground and you wait 100 years until an egg tree grows.

[31:41] Oh, boy.

[31:43] So but we do get a little useful information, which is just that.

[31:47] Don't eat old eggs?

[31:50] Nicole felt unable to communicate her work troubles.

[31:54] Stewart goes home.

[31:55] He's like, get me the oldest eggs you can find.

[31:56] I'll show them.

[31:57] Let me check the fucking sell-by dates.

[31:59] I want eggs that have full-grown fucking chickens inside them.

[32:01] I want to see a long-ass white beard on this egg.

[32:07] This egg better tell me he misses Jack Parr.

[32:10] Stewart engages in egg age play.

[32:16] Eggs.

[32:17] That's what little eggs cost when you were young.

[32:19] I get off on that.

[32:21] Eggs.

[32:22] Complain about how hard it is to find parking around here.

[32:24] Talk to me like you're Stephen King about how better milk tasted in the 50s.

[32:28] Sure, and use really greasy slime.

[32:30] That no one ever used.

[32:32] Eggs.

[32:33] Recommend some sort of like Hepcat rock to me.

[32:36] Eggs.

[32:37] Tell me about old cars.

[32:41] Yeah, yeah, we'll tell you.

[32:42] See, that's what.

[32:43] No, no eggs.

[32:44] I don't want Jay Leno play.

[32:45] Oh.

[32:48] I'm not eating a fucking Jay Leno egg.

[32:50] It's going to taste like goddamn Doritos.

[32:54] You don't want that.

[32:56] I remember.

[32:57] It's going to be so long, though.

[32:58] When I was a kid, I did not really know who Jay Leno was.

[33:00] And he did those ads for Doritos.

[33:02] And it was called Jumping Jack Cheese.

[33:03] And I was like, I guess his name's Jack.

[33:06] That's why he's the one doing the ads.

[33:11] Oh, it's the star of pollution course.

[33:13] Oh, where's his buddy?

[33:14] Pat Maria.

[33:17] Rita sounds like Doritos.

[33:18] He should be doing these ads.

[33:22] Well, that makes sense how we got there.

[33:24] Yeah, the useful thing that he learns from this guy is just that

[33:28] Nicole felt unable to communicate the work with her angry, drunk

[33:33] Yeah.

[33:34] So what are these work troubles?

[33:35] Well, we'll learn soon.

[33:36] There's some more flashback.

[33:38] Those were troubles, perhaps crack the case.

[33:40] Oh, boy.

[33:42] I'm going to open this egg and have a walker fall out.

[33:49] Texas Ranger.

[33:50] He passed away.

[33:51] He did.

[33:52] All right.

[33:53] We do a legend with problematic.

[33:57] Not a good man that I understand.

[33:58] But so there's some more flashback video.

[34:02] Don't trust an old man named Chuck.

[34:04] More flashback videos that show Chris drying out when he realized

[34:08] he was scaring his wife.

[34:10] And then we see the traffic stop that killed his partner and

[34:13] caused his relapse, which includes a chase after the killer where

[34:17] the killer seems to be trying to escape by running into the ocean.

[34:20] I'm like, yeah, he's 400.

[34:23] That's what you're saying over the walk.

[34:24] He goes for her blows.

[34:25] We got a 400 blows.

[34:26] He's running the ocean.

[34:27] We got it.

[34:28] We got a code.

[34:29] If I had legs, I'd kick you.

[34:31] Oh, nice.

[34:32] Contemporary reference.

[34:35] It's a continuum, Dan, a cinema continuum.

[34:38] Delicious.

[34:40] Subjects got a decision to leave.

[34:43] He is breaking the waves.

[34:45] Breaking the waves.

[34:46] That's not what that movie is about.

[34:52] Last year.

[34:53] Okay, we're going back.

[34:57] So there's a there's a bit where he's mad.

[35:00] He didn't just execute the guy on the beach because later he went free,

[35:03] which is another part where I'm like, bullshit.

[35:05] This guy's not going free.

[35:06] Like he like shot a cop and there's like footage of it.

[35:10] And another cop is like testament.

[35:12] Yeah, that's just because he didn't use an AI court.

[35:14] He's one of these human courts that lets people go.

[35:17] Yeah.

[35:18] Anyway, it's more of the insane propaganda scattered throughout the film.

[35:21] It's just like in the Dirty Harry movie.

[35:22] Which one is it?

[35:23] Is it the first one?

[35:24] He goes, what about the rights of that girl?

[35:25] It's like, well, she's dead.

[35:26] She doesn't have rights.

[35:27] Only the rights of living matter at this point, you know.

[35:31] So Chris admits that when he was in the house, he yelled at his wife and broke

[35:35] her favorite face.

[35:36] That's how the blood got on his shirt.

[35:38] He has a moment, like a dark moment where he like gives up on,

[35:42] he almost gives up on proving his innocence.

[35:44] And Maddox is like, you have time.

[35:46] Yeah, she like starts encouraging him.

[35:48] And this is where the movie.

[35:50] She's like, engage with the content, please.

[35:52] This is where the movie turns around.

[35:55] Which of these car rental companies have you heard of lately?

[35:58] This is where the movie starts turning around on the idea of AI judges like,

[36:02] maybe this is good.

[36:04] In the past, you have searched butt focused workout videos.

[36:09] Are you interested in the exercise or the butt?

[36:14] So he starts looking into the work trouble that was mentioned.

[36:17] And her work email talks about stolen chemicals.

[36:21] Oh, she works at a chemical company.

[36:23] I like stolen chemicals.

[36:24] Yeah.

[36:25] Making some new.

[36:26] Chris recalls.

[36:27] No better way to age an egg than dip it into stolen chemicals.

[36:30] Chris remembers that they hosted a work barbecue with Nicole a few days before the murder.

[36:34] How convenient.

[36:37] It was like a barbecue at their home, but his coworkers were there.

[36:40] A lot of coworkers.

[36:41] There's one guy who is noticeably angry about a bet gone wrong.

[36:44] Oh, could he have done it?

[36:45] Or is he a red herring?

[36:47] Could the guy who has the villain face be a villain?

[36:51] No, it turns out he's a red herring.

[36:52] No videos, though, show anyone coming into the house the day of the murder.

[36:57] But he realized someone could have been there earlier.

[37:00] And he.

[37:01] What would be much sillier is if someone was spending days there after the barbecue waiting for the moment.

[37:07] I guess I'm pooping in a bucket and eating granola bars.

[37:10] They wouldn't have a go in the house, licking the mold off the walls.

[37:17] Like an elephant salt mine.

[37:20] Yes.

[37:21] He realizes someone could have been there earlier.

[37:23] He goes to his daughter's fence and he sees that the basement door was open and computer enhances like enhance the hand brightness.

[37:32] And we also learned that there was like his daughter had like her own insta feed that they didn't know about where she's like a bad girl.

[37:39] And is that just to introduce the idea that maybe it was her boyfriend that did it?

[37:42] I think maybe he's just like, oh, this is the thing that Chris is a really good bad girl name.

[37:49] Raven is a great bad girl name.

[37:50] Yeah.

[37:51] But, you know, like there's some dumb talk between Maddox and Chris about like, Chris, you have to stop going with your gut.

[37:57] You have to follow the train of the facts.

[37:59] Chris, my guts never brought me wrong.

[38:02] Well, you ended up in the mercy seat.

[38:04] Yeah, I must have.

[38:06] The chemicals that were stolen could be used to make drugs.

[38:10] And as mentioned, one of Nicole's co-workers, Holt Charles, had a gambling problem with big debts.

[38:17] And so they call Holt to stall him until Jack can go there and arrest him.

[38:21] But he's like, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa.

[38:24] Rob, the sponsor, was the guy who stole the criminals.

[38:28] And me, Holt, I was just covering for him.

[38:31] And so and there's a bunch of back and forth.

[38:34] Oh, he didn't drive his home, his car home from the party.

[38:37] I actually did it.

[38:38] You know, he did something else.

[38:40] And this is like also a lot of like Maddox when, you know, she's told to like listen to her gut rather than the facts.

[38:47] She starts glitching like she's caught in a logic trap.

[38:50] I also do love that he's like, pull up the footage from my neighbor's backyard cameras.

[38:54] Like there was an outage.

[38:56] It's taking a while to load.

[38:57] I'm like, but wait, I'm going to die.

[39:00] Like, can you pause the death clock there?

[39:03] I can play death clock for you.

[39:06] That's fine, but it's not what I asked you to do.

[39:08] Do I get a couple of timeouts?

[39:10] If I foul you, can we stop the clock?

[39:12] Can I make an appeal?

[39:13] There are no appeals.

[39:14] But luckily they do eventually get to his neighbor's bird cam blog.

[39:19] Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[39:20] A SWAT team goes to Rob's house.

[39:23] They find that the stolen chemicals were actually to make a big bomb.

[39:27] And that bomb's in a semi truck.

[39:28] I think he was making drugs too.

[39:29] He did both of them.

[39:30] Headed downtown.

[39:31] We don't know for sure.

[39:32] Oh, OK.

[39:33] I think they just theorized it was drugs, but it was a bomb.

[39:37] And Maddox and Chris discover that Rob was brought up in a youth home.

[39:41] And his brother is David Webb, the first person that Mercy Court executed.

[39:47] The motive.

[39:48] The bomb is going to them at the Mercy Court.

[39:50] It's revenge against Chris and the court.

[39:52] There was also a bomb in his workshop, right?

[39:55] Yeah.

[39:56] Style.

[39:57] Yeah.

[39:58] And then he blows up.

[39:59] That happens in a second.

[40:00] footage shows that Rob also took Chris's daughter Brit, she's in the truck, as a hostage.

[40:06] It feels like if you have an AI that is monitoring all the video footage in LA, it would probably

[40:12] tell the police when it sees footage of a girl being kidnapped outside of her home,

[40:16] right?

[40:17] Well, here's the thing that I don't understand, like later on, not to jump ahead, but later

[40:23] on Chris is like, we can't stop the trial even though I've been exonerated because-

[40:28] Because he'll lose access.

[40:29] He'll lose access to the cloud, and it's like, okay, so you're telling me that the AI has

[40:35] access to the cloud in terms of a trial, but the police don't just have access to the surveillance

[40:42] state?

[40:43] I don't buy that.

[40:44] I don't buy it.

[40:45] In this dystopian future, that's going to be the way it works.

[40:46] No.

[40:47] What kind of world do criminals have better internet than us cops?

[40:51] Which by the way, is like one of the things, next week we're going to be talking about

[40:55] Exit to Eden, and I love that there's a moment where they're in their police department,

[40:59] and even though they're in LA, all the cops have New York accents, I love it.

[41:03] That's just cop.

[41:04] It's the truth.

[41:05] It's a cop accent.

[41:06] All cops are from New York or Chicago, yeah.

[41:07] Yeah, and this is where the-

[41:08] Because an LA cop would be like, hey, bro.

[41:09] Hey, whoa.

[41:10] Yeah, extra avocado, bro.

[41:11] I'm going to take you to-

[41:12] You have the right to extra avocado.

[41:13] I'm going to take you to prison.

[41:14] If you wave this right, no avocado will be given to you.

[41:23] Your bowl will have no avocado in it, or your toast.

[41:27] You're right, okay.

[41:28] No, this is when the SWAT team blows up, and flames surround him and Mercy Corps.

[41:36] They take a while to get out of that house once they know there's a bomb there.

[41:40] Luckily, the hover bike is fine.

[41:42] At this point, it would fucking suck if we lost the hover bike.

[41:46] That's one of those things where it's like, the LAPD spent $4 million buying this one

[41:50] hover bike, and it doesn't help that much.

[41:52] It barely does anything.

[41:54] Nothing that a regular bike wouldn't do.

[41:58] But it's like the NYPD subway robot.

[42:00] I mean, they can get across town faster.

[42:02] You could get-

[42:04] In a traffic-based town like LA.

[42:05] I see police cars siren by all the time, and they're not held up, but it'd be even cooler

[42:11] on a bike.

[42:12] Now, you wouldn't be able to bring any stuff or another person with you on the bike, but

[42:15] still.

[42:16] At this point-

[42:17] If you wanted one cop to get somewhere faster, you could do that.

[42:19] I feel like if you put another person on it, it would totally destabilize that whole

[42:22] device.

[42:23] Yeah.

[42:24] Well, it's basically a quad drone with a seat on top of it.

[42:27] Mm-hmm.

[42:28] Everybody's fantasy.

[42:29] Guys, I have another major objection here, so-

[42:33] Okay.

[42:34] Matt?

[42:35] Wait.

[42:36] I'll allow it.

[42:37] I'm Judge Maddox.

[42:38] I'll allow the objection, but you only have 20 minutes more to save your life.

[42:41] Oh, no.

[42:42] Daniel Raven.

[42:43] At this point, Maddox says the trial is over, and Chris' guilt percentage goes down to 0%,

[42:49] which is super dumb, because I'm like, all Chris has proven is that Rob wants to bomb

[42:54] Mercy.

[42:55] There's no actual evidence that Rob killed Nicole.

[42:57] Yeah, but he's got the motive.

[43:00] Yeah.

[43:01] I buy that it falls beneath the threshold of regional debt.

[43:04] I do not buy that it's like, now you're 0% guilty.

[43:07] Not only are you not-

[43:08] It's 1,000% impossible for you to have committed this crime.

[43:11] Not only are you not guilty of this, you're not guilty of anything ever.

[43:14] You are an angel.

[43:17] But as said before-

[43:19] If he was an angel, he could get across town super fast.

[43:20] Oh, you gotta believe-

[43:21] With those wings and a million eyeballs or whatever.

[43:22] With those wings and a million eyeballs or whatever.

[43:23] With a million eyes and like 1,000 wings, he'd scare the shit out of everybody.

[43:27] Yeah.

[43:28] Yeah, and he'll be singing that song from City of Angels as he-

[43:33] You know he's singing that song.

[43:34] Which one is that?

[43:35] Everything's made to be broken.

[43:36] Oh, that's right.

[43:37] I just want to know who I am.

[43:38] Well, you've got like 1,000 eyes and a million wings, yeah, yeah.

[43:44] As said before-

[43:45] He says, I don't want the world to see me, because I don't think they'd understand.

[43:48] You would not understand one of those angels.

[43:49] No, no.

[43:50] They're scary.

[43:51] Do you think Nicolas Cage really insisted to look like that, and they're like, we don't

[43:54] have the budget for the effects?

[43:56] I really want to look like a biblical description of an angel, so I need you to give me a million

[44:00] more eyes.

[44:01] Just paste them on anywhere.

[44:02] You've got to be able to confuse me with a burning wheel or a UFO.

[44:05] Well, it's going to make it hard for Meg Ryan to fall in love with you.

[44:08] Shave me and glue the eyes on.

[44:10] All right, do that at home.

[44:13] No, Nicolas, I'm the director of The Weatherman.

[44:19] This is a different movie.

[44:20] This is a different movie.

[44:21] You're not making that movie anymore.

[44:22] Oh, can I be an angel in The Weatherman?

[44:24] Well, it's very clear you're a weatherman from the title of it.

[44:27] You're saying an angel can't be a weatherman?

[44:30] No, you're a guy with a bow and arrow.

[44:32] That's all I know about that movie.

[44:35] And I've heard it's good.

[44:36] People throw things at you.

[44:37] He shows up on the first day of shooting for Pig, and he's, I've got a prosthetic pig nose

[44:40] attached to my body and prosthetic ears.

[44:42] No, no, you're a guy who owns a pig.

[44:44] Oh, I thought I was playing the pig.

[44:46] No, Nick, Nick, you're playing the guy.

[44:49] I actually signed on to play the pig.

[44:50] I read the script.

[44:51] My agent said, I would be doing the pig role.

[44:53] That's the challenge.

[44:54] I thought I'd want to really work myself into it.

[44:57] I've been living in mud for the past three weeks.

[44:59] I like how our Nick Cage gets lazier as we go on.

[45:02] I'm going to shave my body and cover myself in ash and carry the blades of chaos to be

[45:06] Kratos, the God of War.

[45:07] No, you're Lord of War, Nicolas Cage.

[45:12] Crinkle, crinkle.

[45:13] What's that sound, Nick?

[45:14] Well, I thought I was made out of matchsticks, so I filled my clothes with matchsticks.

[45:18] You're a matchstick man, but that's not what that means.

[45:19] Not literally.

[45:20] Well, what does it mean?

[45:22] I don't know why it's called that, to be frank.

[45:25] Oh, nice to meet you, Frank.

[45:26] No, no, I'm Ridley Scott.

[45:29] Ridley?

[45:35] Are you sure you don't mean Ripley?

[45:36] No, that's a character from my movie.

[45:40] As said before, this is when Chris is like, don't.

[45:42] From Gladiator?

[45:43] No, no, I made other movies, Nick.

[45:47] This is when Chris is like, don't end the trial.

[45:49] I need you to stay plugged in.

[45:52] I need access to all this.

[45:53] Even if it means I die in 20 minutes, I need access to all this video.

[45:56] At this point, I don't know how helpful it is.

[45:58] You think he's like trying to download a bunch of video games and shit while he's on there?

[46:02] Yeah, that's totally it.

[46:05] I'm almost got all the, I don't even know.

[46:06] I've always got this elder ring.

[46:07] My mobile games are.

[46:09] He's got LimeWire open and he's downloading all his albums.

[46:13] So this happens a lot in movies.

[46:15] And it is even goofier that it happens here where suddenly just a regular cop becomes king of the LAPD.

[46:21] Just calling out commands and orders.

[46:23] And everyone listens to him.

[46:24] This is a guy who a minute ago was on trial for murder.

[46:28] Technically still is.

[46:29] Technically still is.

[46:30] And he's going to go over there and go on that.

[46:32] Take that hit.

[46:33] Okay, go to this side.

[46:34] No, no, no, no, no.

[46:35] Direct the men over there.

[46:36] Everything he says just becomes an instant command.

[46:38] The chain of command ends at Chris Raven.

[46:42] Now that's the real mind freak.

[46:43] The cops outside.

[46:44] Well, anyway, yeah, he's ordering people around, but he's still in the chair because God knows we can't get that guy out of the chair.

[46:50] That might be exciting.

[46:52] The budget only has him getting out of the chair for the last 10 minutes.

[46:55] But the other cops try and stop this truck using a bunch of methods that don't work.

[47:00] And at one point.

[47:01] They're very bad at trying to stop.

[47:02] At one point, it's implied that Maddox herself intervenes and keeps the police from exploding a bomb that would stop the truck but kill his daughter.

[47:09] And like they're in full buddy cop mode with the AI.

[47:13] They're just working together.

[47:14] You know, this is his new partner.

[47:15] Yeah.

[47:16] Rob crashes into the court, causing the network to reset, which briefly locks Chris in the chair seconds from execution.

[47:23] But the judge reboots in time to free him.

[47:27] And Rob's there with a dead man.

[47:29] Sonic blasted.

[47:32] I still I want to know what that is.

[47:34] If you Google Sonic blasted, I think you'll find some pictures that will tell you.

[47:39] I feel like a better movie.

[47:41] Sonic pregnant blasted.

[47:43] I think you're going to be a little interested in it.

[47:45] In a better movie, it would have opened with another guy going through the trial process and getting Sonic blasted before.

[47:51] Yeah, that would have cost money.

[47:53] Rob shows up at court with a court, you know, first court date with a dead man switch for the bomb.

[48:01] And Chris distracts him by having Maddox reopen his brother's case.

[48:06] And Rob presents evidence that he was on the phone with his brother when the murder was supposed to have happened.

[48:10] And he says, and eventually we'll learn that he tried to get this evidence to the attention of the cops by calling one cop, not the other cop, Chris Raphin.

[48:20] And it feels like I'm going to give I'm going to put this on Rob.

[48:23] Your brother's on trial.

[48:24] You have evidence that will exonerate him.

[48:26] You don't call every cop that you can find.

[48:29] I mean, stop at just one.

[48:31] You did not.

[48:32] And he doesn't put that cop in the mercy chair.

[48:34] No, he goes after the other cop.

[48:36] Yeah.

[48:38] Yeah, I feel like this movie shows people don't actually have that much urgency when it comes to mercy of 90 minute mercy trials.

[48:44] Yeah.

[48:46] But yeah, he was he was calling the police.

[48:48] The woman he talked to never took his evidence.

[48:50] Chris disarms Rob and Jack person and shoots Rob and is about to kill him.

[48:56] But Maddox retrieves footage that confirms Rob story revealing that what we've all already guessed by this point that it was Jack who didn't take Rob's evidence.

[49:06] And she dumped the phone that would have exonerated David because she needed the first mercy case to be an unquestioned slam dunk.

[49:16] And and basically at this point, the movie is over.

[49:20] Both Jack and Rob are arrested.

[49:22] Chris hugs Brit and his case is dismissed.

[49:25] And he hugs Rebecca Ferguson, Judge Maddox.

[49:28] Well, kind of Maddox says we all make mistakes, but we learn.

[49:33] And then she disappears into the digital ether.

[49:36] And I'm like, fuck you movie for being like, oh, maybe we should have a I judges just take care of everything.

[49:44] Maybe that's a good idea.

[49:46] Maybe that works.

[49:47] The whole movie showed us that I judges don't know what they're doing.

[49:50] They don't know how to get a case together and their success has to be rigged.

[49:55] But you know what?

[49:56] We just got to let the system play out.

[49:58] You know, maybe they'll get better over time.

[50:00] You know what? Humans and AI, we all make mistakes, and we all learn from them.

[50:04] And you miss 100% of the shots you don't take.

[50:06] Except the AI doesn't really learn the same way as humans.

[50:08] And also humans are like us, and we're here. We didn't have to invent us.

[50:12] We just kind of have to deal with how humans are kind of crappy.

[50:15] And that's why we have laws and things like that, and systems and civilizations and societies and things like that.

[50:20] But the AI is kind of an unforced error, you know?

[50:23] Yeah. This is an odd picture.

[50:27] It's weird because it is a movie that seems to be arguing a case that it does not want to admit at the end.

[50:37] But also it's just regular kind of like wrongly accused man kind of buddy cop stuff.

[50:45] But thrown into a much more problematic world, like film world, than it's ready for.

[50:56] It's almost like it watched Minority Report and didn't finish it and thought it ended with the precogs proving themselves.

[51:04] Or them being like, you know, precogs ain't perfect, but we got to keep doing them.

[51:07] Well, and also it posits a world where there's this like very clearly demarked red zone where it's all tent cities and crime.

[51:16] But apparently crime superweighed town, and it's like, I don't know. It sucks.

[51:21] It is a weird issue, too, that in order to get revenge, Rob goes not after the cop who refused to use the evidence that he gave his brother's innocence.

[51:34] But instead goes to the other cop because I guess the movie wants to have that twist where it turns out that Rob's partner is corrupt.

[51:40] But it means it just kind of undoes the purpose of the whole movie, and it's also a real indictment of the safety of the AA system.

[51:49] If your sponsor can then kill your wife and crash a truck into the Mercy Building.

[51:53] Just keep drinking.

[51:54] No, that's not what I'm saying.

[51:56] We're in it already. Let's do our final judgments whether this is a good, bad movie, a bad, bad movie, or a movie kind of like.

[52:04] Here's the thing. If this was like if I didn't find a lot of these elements genuinely morally disturbing, like if this movie was not pushing a lot of messages that I hate.

[52:18] I might say it's a good, bad movie because it is super dumb.

[52:24] But if you want that, you know, watch the Ice Cube War of the Worlds.

[52:28] You like you'll you'll get it without the like the weird politics.

[52:33] There is a part late in this movie where I was like, oh, I there's a little bit of juice for me where it's just like the lizard brain part of me that just enjoys.

[52:45] You know, mysteries and watching mystery shows kind of like dug some of the stuff.

[52:51] Once the mystery was starting to unravel like, oh, let's go over here.

[52:54] Let's get a clue over here.

[52:55] Let's get a clue over here.

[52:56] But like to me, the best way this thing could exist would be if you stripped away the bad messages and did it as a computer game.

[53:06] Yeah.

[53:07] Where you are the guy in the mercy chair and you have you.

[53:12] Welcome, Detective.

[53:13] Chris Ray.

[53:14] Exactly.

[53:15] Prove your innocence if you can.

[53:17] And then you like go through and like look for clues.

[53:19] And like that would be a fun video game.

[53:23] But as a movie, it is not good drama.

[53:26] What do you think?

[53:27] I do love the element where the villain was hiding in the basement for a couple of days.

[53:33] That's great.

[53:34] I love that.

[53:35] There are some things about the movie where it's like movie.

[53:36] I don't think you know how goofy and silly you're being.

[53:39] And I wish you played into that more.

[53:40] Yeah.

[53:41] Yeah.

[53:42] I like I feel like a fly on the wall in the writer's room would have been fun.

[53:45] But I'm the writer's room.

[53:48] What do you think the staff wasn't this movie?

[53:51] Six, seven people.

[53:53] Writer's room.

[53:54] Yeah.

[53:55] So, yeah, this is I would say this is a bad, bad movie.

[53:58] I feel like it.

[53:59] There is some dumb stuff.

[54:00] But you're right.

[54:01] I feel like the grossness of it eclipses it and makes it non-recommendable.

[54:06] I agree.

[54:07] I think it's a bad, bad movie.

[54:08] I think the whole the whole thing just left a not good taste in my mouth.

[54:12] And it's not fun to watch in it.

[54:15] But at the same time, I don't know.

[54:18] It's like if you want to if you want movie pain, then this is this is one to watch, I

[54:22] guess.

[54:23] So like so if you become so inured to the quality of good movies, they need something

[54:27] a little rougher to get you going.

[54:30] Then I guess mercy, but I would call it a bad, bad movie.

[54:32] Aside from its pro AI message, which I think we all need to stand by bad part of the movie.

[54:38] No, I don't.

[54:39] I don't like that either.

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[58:47] We live in a digital world.

[58:50] What?

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[1:00:19] Elliot Kalin and I believe in you.

[1:00:21] I do believe in you, Jane.

[1:00:22] I know you can do it and I'm proud of you.

[1:00:25] I added that last part.

[1:00:26] No.

[1:00:27] It really ended with Elliot Kalin, I believe in you.

[1:00:29] And then I added that I also believe in Jane, so.

[1:00:31] And I'm proud of her.

[1:00:33] Yeah, it's great.

[1:00:34] Great message.

[1:00:35] It's nice to provide encouragement to people

[1:00:38] unless we're encouraging them to make mercy too,

[1:00:40] re-merciful, which I don't think is some courage.

[1:00:44] I also have, I have some personal stuff

[1:00:45] I'd like to make.

[1:00:46] Sure, why not?

[1:00:47] It's the same old stuff.

[1:00:48] My book, Joke Farming, How to Write Comedy

[1:00:49] and Other Nonsense.

[1:00:50] You can buy it now, it's on bookstore shelves.

[1:00:52] My new comic, Barbarian Behind Bars from Mad Cave Studios.

[1:00:56] I'm reuniting with my Maniac of New York team

[1:00:58] and we're making an all new comic.

[1:01:00] The first issue's out.

[1:01:01] The second issue might be out

[1:01:02] by the time this episode comes out.

[1:01:04] Comic book store shelves now.

[1:01:05] Harley Quinn from DC Comics.

[1:01:07] Thank you.

[1:01:07] I'm writing it.

[1:01:08] It's on comic book store shelves now.

[1:01:11] Everything I have is on store shelves now.

[1:01:14] Do you guys never go to stores and look at the shelves?

[1:01:16] Because the books are on them.

[1:01:17] Like the actual, oh, just the.

[1:01:19] I mean, see the things the shelves are holding.

[1:01:21] Not the shelves, the shelving units themselves.

[1:01:23] I mean, yeah, that's one of the joys

[1:01:26] about in-person shopping.

[1:01:29] You can see the shelves.

[1:01:30] Let's take a few letters.

[1:01:32] Why not?

[1:01:33] Where should we take them?

[1:01:34] To the shelves.

[1:01:36] Taking them to the streets.

[1:01:38] Kate, last name withheld, writes.

[1:01:42] Hello, Peaches.

[1:01:43] I was just listening to episode 471, Bride Hard.

[1:01:48] I'm still glad that they said the name

[1:01:50] because I do not remember the number.

[1:01:52] And I was delighted to hear you all wander down.

[1:01:54] 471?

[1:01:56] 471.

[1:01:57] We've done that many episodes?

[1:01:58] In fact, we've done more.

[1:01:59] Is that made up?

[1:02:00] That's made up.

[1:02:01] It can't be.

[1:02:02] That would mean that I'm old.

[1:02:03] I was delighted.

[1:02:04] That's impossible.

[1:02:05] That I'm only 23.

[1:02:06] In my heart, I feel young.

[1:02:07] Yeah.

[1:02:08] Except my heart feels old.

[1:02:09] Yeah.

[1:02:10] Actually, my heart is what feels oldest probably.

[1:02:12] Occasional palpitations.

[1:02:13] Yeah.

[1:02:15] It sounds like a made up rock star

[1:02:18] or a fashion designer in like a Naked Gun type movie,

[1:02:21] occasional palpitations.

[1:02:22] Mm-hmm.

[1:02:25] I was listening to Bride Hard

[1:02:26] and I was delighted to hear you all wander down a sidetrack

[1:02:29] just to arrive at Wide Sargasso Sea,

[1:02:31] the feminist retelling of Jane Eyre by Jean Rhys.

[1:02:35] I teach this novella in my post-colonial literature class

[1:02:39] here at Eureka College.

[1:02:41] What?

[1:02:42] What?

[1:02:43] The college in my hometown.

[1:02:44] So I thought I'd send you a few fun facts

[1:02:46] about this book and encourage you to read it.

[1:02:48] Please.

[1:02:49] I never thought I'd hear Wide Sargasso Sea

[1:02:51] and fun facts in the same sentence.

[1:02:52] Let's hear it.

[1:02:54] Elliot was surprised that the book was released

[1:02:57] as early as 1966 and rightfully so.

[1:03:01] Not only was the book explicitly feminist,

[1:03:03] it also drew direct parallels

[1:03:05] between abolitionist movements in the Caribbean

[1:03:08] in the 19th century

[1:03:09] and the anti-colonial movement of the 20th century.

[1:03:12] It was slash is pretty radical.

[1:03:15] The author Jean Rhys was actually toward the end

[1:03:19] of her extremely successful career

[1:03:20] after being discovered

[1:03:22] by fellow legendary modernist Ford Maddox Ford.

[1:03:25] Oh.

[1:03:26] Her novel Quartet from 1928

[1:03:29] is a great soapy thinly veiled fictionalization

[1:03:32] of her relationship with Ford

[1:03:34] as it turned into a full blown affair.

[1:03:37] As an English professor, I really love the pod

[1:03:39] because of how often you all sound

[1:03:42] like a bunch of English majors.

[1:03:44] So my question, this semester I'm teaching English three,

[1:03:49] Anglophone literature.

[1:03:50] I've been using English one all the time.

[1:03:52] I'm way behind on my English.

[1:03:53] Should I have the new English?

[1:03:55] I'm teaching English three.

[1:03:57] Is that what they speak in 1984?

[1:03:58] Our ears are really split on English three.

[1:04:01] English two, you know, people were excited

[1:04:03] but diminishing returns.

[1:04:04] Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[1:04:06] Still English four is in the works as we speak.

[1:04:08] Of course.

[1:04:09] Then they're gonna reboot it.

[1:04:10] All of your favorite characters,

[1:04:11] the M-dash, the...

[1:04:14] Verbs.

[1:04:15] Verbs, comma, yeah, prepositions.

[1:04:17] English three, Anglophone literature,

[1:04:20] 1900 through the present.

[1:04:22] I'm letting students vote on what books to read

[1:04:24] to cover 2002, 2025,

[1:04:27] with the only stipulations being,

[1:04:29] one, they have to originally be written in English

[1:04:32] and two, you have to be able to lead a 50 minute discussion

[1:04:35] about their literary features.

[1:04:38] What books would the peaches add to the syllabus?

[1:04:41] Keep on flopping.

[1:04:42] Kate, last name withheld.

[1:04:44] P.S., because I would be curious,

[1:04:45] students chose Fun Home by Alison Bechdel.

[1:04:48] Oh, that's great.

[1:04:49] Stay True by Hua Hsu, I don't know, I apologize.

[1:04:55] Small Things Like These by Claire Keegan

[1:04:57] and Salvage the Bones by Jessamyn Ward.

[1:05:00] Honorable mention to Dennis Johnson's Tree of Smoke,

[1:05:03] which was eliminated after students realized

[1:05:06] it was 625 pages.

[1:05:09] A good reason to not read it for class.

[1:05:12] Yeah.

[1:05:13] But you should still probably read it if you want to.

[1:05:15] This is where I admit that I'm bad with more modern.

[1:05:19] How recent does it have to be?

[1:05:21] It's starting in the 2000.

[1:05:25] Oh, wow, okay.

[1:05:28] I think I would probably suggest

[1:05:30] The Fortress of Solitude by Jonathan Lethem,

[1:05:33] who is one of my favorite living authors.

[1:05:35] And that's one where he plays around

[1:05:38] with both kind of form.

[1:05:41] There's a section of the book that takes the form

[1:05:43] of liner notes for an album.

[1:05:45] And also with something I feel like is not,

[1:05:51] I feel like is done more now than it was then,

[1:05:54] which is kind of taking, kind of doing what I would call

[1:05:56] a kind of like comic book magical realism,

[1:05:58] where you have this story about young boys growing up

[1:06:02] in a gentrifying neighborhood in Brooklyn,

[1:06:05] but he also introduces a magic ring

[1:06:07] that allows them to fly,

[1:06:08] which makes their lives more difficult.

[1:06:11] And I'm just a fan of his work.

[1:06:13] And I think this is one of his most cohesive books

[1:06:17] in that way, but he's doing interesting things in it.

[1:06:19] So I think that's what I would say.

[1:06:21] I'm gonna toss out Wolf Hall

[1:06:25] and Bring Up the Bodies by Hilary Mantel.

[1:06:28] There's a third book, The Mirror and the Light,

[1:06:31] which I have not read because it came out

[1:06:35] right before COVID hit.

[1:06:37] I got it for Christmas of the year, right before lockdown.

[1:06:42] And I was very excited.

[1:06:45] I'd been waiting for the third Wolf Hall book

[1:06:48] and then COVID happened and my brain could not focus

[1:06:52] on the Tudor court and who all these characters were

[1:06:58] that I maybe already was having trouble remembering

[1:07:01] from the years between the novels.

[1:07:05] So I hope to, at some point, circle back to it still,

[1:07:08] but I think that those are both terrific works

[1:07:13] of historical fiction.

[1:07:15] And of course, I'm gonna recommend something

[1:07:17] from the fantasy genre.

[1:07:19] I'm gonna recommend The Fifth Season by N.K. Jemisin.

[1:07:23] I think it's lovely and heartbreaking and intense

[1:07:26] and creates a world that is both very believable

[1:07:29] but also fantastic in ways that feel

[1:07:32] both believable and also fresh and new.

[1:07:38] You know what, I'm gonna add, can I add other ones too?

[1:07:40] I know this is only for one.

[1:07:41] I'm gonna also mention The Sympathizer by Viet Thanh Nguyen,

[1:07:44] which has, if only for the chapter where he's just

[1:07:47] like beating the shit out of apocalypse now

[1:07:49] in other Vietnam movies.

[1:07:51] But also, and I think the recent television series,

[1:07:55] I think did not capture what was especially great

[1:07:58] about the book.

[1:07:59] But also, I hadn't even thought about

[1:08:02] real science fiction-y, fantasy-y type books.

[1:08:05] And I think I'm gonna also say maybe Ancillary Justice

[1:08:08] by Anne Leckie, where it's the first book I've read

[1:08:13] where I really felt like I was getting inside

[1:08:15] of a post-human psychology, if that makes any sense.

[1:08:19] But those are great science fiction books, I love them.

[1:08:21] Her Imperial Ratch series.

[1:08:24] I'm going straight to my Libby app.

[1:08:26] I'm putting.

[1:08:27] Yeah, you've recommended Anne Leckie to me a couple times.

[1:08:29] Yeah, I love her books.

[1:08:31] I just read her most recent one,

[1:08:34] was it Translation State, in December.

[1:08:38] And I really like her books a lot.

[1:08:40] I think next up on my list is another romance novel,

[1:08:43] but maybe I'll mix that in after.

[1:08:45] There's romance in her books too.

[1:08:47] No, but I like, I want some bodice ripping, you know?

[1:08:50] Yeah, there's no bodice ripping in it.

[1:08:52] It's hard to have bodice ripping when one of the characters

[1:08:54] is the last corpse soldier of a destroyed starship, yeah.

[1:08:58] I disagree.

[1:08:59] I think you could easily throw a bodice somewhere in there.

[1:09:02] So the second question of the show is also literary.

[1:09:08] It's themed here.

[1:09:09] It's from Izzy, last name withheld, who writes,

[1:09:12] hi floppers, I'm a professor

[1:09:14] who sometimes teaches George R.R. Martin's.

[1:09:16] Dan, did you do this on purpose?

[1:09:17] This is all Professor Mailbag.

[1:09:19] This is the, yeah, 8 p.m.

[1:09:22] All Professor Mailbag time.

[1:09:24] I'm a professor, Flophouse Mailbag 101.

[1:09:29] Mailbag PhD.

[1:09:31] I'm a professor who sometimes, Detective Mailbag, PhD.

[1:09:34] What's your PhD in, Detective Mailbag?

[1:09:36] English literature.

[1:09:38] Sometimes teaches George R.R. Martin's Sand Kings

[1:09:41] to my literature and writing students.

[1:09:46] Often they tell me it's their favorite reading

[1:09:48] of the semester.

[1:09:49] Others say it gives them nightmares.

[1:09:51] Okay, the first group often say that too.

[1:09:54] I highly recommend it.

[1:09:55] Speaking of which, floppers,

[1:09:57] what tragic flaw would be your downfall if you?

[1:10:00] owned ravenous alien insects, keep on flopping,

[1:10:03] Izzy last name withheld.

[1:10:05] I mean, I'm just gonna say right off the bat,

[1:10:06] just general forgetfulness.

[1:10:08] If I owned some ravenous alien insects,

[1:10:10] I probably wouldn't like lock the thing

[1:10:13] that I'm keeping it in adequately.

[1:10:15] Oh, for sure.

[1:10:16] Or just sort of forget basic safety standards.

[1:10:20] My constant need for validation.

[1:10:23] Yeah, I think similarly-

[1:10:24] You'd want that from the insects?

[1:10:24] You would?

[1:10:25] Yeah, I don't-

[1:10:26] Oh, you should rethink it.

[1:10:28] Similarly, I think I'd want the insects to like me

[1:10:30] and be worried that they didn't like me

[1:10:32] and that would lead me to do something I shouldn't do,

[1:10:34] I'm sure.

[1:10:35] Sex with an insect.

[1:10:36] I don't know that that's what it was,

[1:10:38] but maybe overfeeding them.

[1:10:40] Yeah.

[1:10:42] You guys haven't read Sand Kings, have you?

[1:10:43] No, I've gotta read it.

[1:10:44] I think you both-

[1:10:45] I'm sure I would like it.

[1:10:46] I think you both would really like it.

[1:10:47] Yeah.

[1:10:48] It's great.

[1:10:49] It's short.

[1:10:51] Yeah, I like short things.

[1:10:53] Thanks, Dan.

[1:10:53] Mm-hmm.

[1:10:55] Ah!

[1:10:57] Glad you did it.

[1:11:00] So let's move on to recommendations.

[1:11:03] Movies that we've seen and enjoyed and would recommend.

[1:11:06] Do we enjoy movies?

[1:11:08] It's possible.

[1:11:08] It is possible that we enjoy movies.

[1:11:10] Ah, mercy!

[1:11:12] I'm going to-

[1:11:13] Can't believe I held off all episodes.

[1:11:15] Especially because every time we mentioned this movie,

[1:11:17] and previously, Stuart would go,

[1:11:19] ah, mercy, and do his John Stamos impression.

[1:11:22] Which is, I would say, middling.

[1:11:26] I'm going to recommend-

[1:11:27] I mean, I wouldn't hire you to come to a party

[1:11:29] as a John Stamos impersonator, yeah.

[1:11:32] But my family.

[1:11:34] So-

[1:11:34] No, I know you need the work.

[1:11:35] I'm just saying, you gotta earn it, you know?

[1:11:37] Yeah.

[1:11:38] So if you, I'm going to recommend a film

[1:11:41] that I will say up front-

[1:11:44] You don't like it.

[1:11:45] No, the writer-director is not like a close friend

[1:11:49] in any means.

[1:11:49] It's someone I've had pleasant conversations

[1:11:52] with a few times because, through mutual friends,

[1:11:55] through the fact that we both do movie trivia,

[1:11:58] I know the writer-director of this movie.

[1:12:01] So if you're inclined to be like,

[1:12:02] hmm, I don't know if Dan's impartial, feel free.

[1:12:06] I love, Dan, that you had to do this

[1:12:07] as if we're like a news story.

[1:12:09] Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[1:12:10] Like, in full disclosure,

[1:12:10] I almost know the person who does this.

[1:12:12] I think it's fair to do a little disclosure.

[1:12:16] To do a little disclosure?

[1:12:17] You mean to sexually harass Michael Douglas

[1:12:19] and put him in a VR simulation?

[1:12:22] That was an era where Michael Douglas

[1:12:23] was the hottest possible thing.

[1:12:26] Yeah.

[1:12:27] Definitely a friend of a friend who did this,

[1:12:30] Ben David Grabinski,

[1:12:31] but I'm going to recommend Mike and Nick

[1:12:34] and Nick and Alice,

[1:12:35] which I saw in a screening at Momy

[1:12:40] a few days before it became available for everyone via Hulu.

[1:12:46] Mommy, tell your babies not to wah-wah-woo.

[1:12:50] That's when it's Danzig Jr.

[1:12:52] Yeah.

[1:12:54] You can see it on Hulu now.

[1:12:55] Everyone can watch it.

[1:12:56] It's a crime comedy of a type that-

[1:13:04] Like Mafia Mama?

[1:13:06] No, not that.

[1:13:07] Like Jane Austen's Mafia?

[1:13:08] It is a zippy crime comedy action movie

[1:13:12] that also has time travel in it.

[1:13:13] Johnny Dangerously?

[1:13:15] Oh.

[1:13:15] Marriage of the Mob?

[1:13:16] And-

[1:13:17] With time travel?

[1:13:18] There's definitely a version of that

[1:13:20] that could be irritating that you're possibly imagining.

[1:13:24] It's Peggy Sue got married to the Mob.

[1:13:26] Jesus Christ.

[1:13:27] You did it.

[1:13:28] Oh, no, Stuart, you earned it.

[1:13:30] Take a lap.

[1:13:31] I know it's late.

[1:13:32] I know it's late.

[1:13:33] I know it's been drinking,

[1:13:34] but give me at least three sentences.

[1:13:36] Yeah, no, you can go.

[1:13:37] You can go.

[1:13:38] We haven't even given you-

[1:13:39] Everybody shut up.

[1:13:40] Everybody shut up.

[1:13:40] You can go.

[1:13:41] Shut up, shut up, shut up.

[1:13:42] It's called Mike and Nick and Nick and Alice.

[1:13:44] And it is a funny crime movie of a type

[1:13:48] that post-Tarantino maybe you would be tired of,

[1:13:51] but this is genuinely clever, genuinely creative.

[1:13:56] I think it plays by its rules well

[1:14:00] and knows when to throw out rules

[1:14:02] and tell the audience not to care about rules.

[1:14:05] It is, like I said,

[1:14:09] they've injected some time travel into a crime comedy,

[1:14:15] and it is just the X factor to make it a lot more fun.

[1:14:19] And Ben David described it as like,

[1:14:23] he wanted to do a movie that was like sort of like,

[1:14:25] what if Scrooge at the beginning of A Christmas Carol

[1:14:30] and Scrooge at the end of A Christmas Carol

[1:14:32] sort of were like in a buddy comedy together,

[1:14:35] like the enlightened version of a guy

[1:14:38] versus the old asshole version of a guy

[1:14:40] having to work together.

[1:14:42] And that's a lot of fun.

[1:14:43] It's got Vince Vaughn, James Marsden,

[1:14:48] a lot of great supporting actors as well.

[1:14:52] I just had a lot of fun.

[1:14:53] Like it is definitely an escapist movie,

[1:14:57] but it is an escapist movie done with creativity,

[1:15:01] cleverness, along with James Marsden,

[1:15:06] Ben Schwartz-

[1:15:06] Very nice guy from what I hear.

[1:15:07] Ben Schwartz has a small partner as well.

[1:15:10] Sonic?

[1:15:11] It's nice to see these two Sonic actors

[1:15:13] in a movie I could recommend and be happy about

[1:15:16] rather than be mean about.

[1:15:19] So I think it's a fun movie.

[1:15:21] I still think we're not that mean about it.

[1:15:23] That's that mean.

[1:15:24] No, we could have been-

[1:15:24] No, not that mean about those guys.

[1:15:25] Those guys are telling the guys-

[1:15:26] And we're not even that mean about the Sonic movies.

[1:15:29] A friend of mine has worked with him on a show

[1:15:32] and said he was incredibly professional and nice.

[1:15:35] I want to, guys, I never thought-

[1:15:39] You want to guys?

[1:15:40] Doesn't make any sense.

[1:15:41] Guys, no.

[1:15:43] I mean, it doesn't make sense.

[1:15:45] I never would have expected to be here in this place

[1:15:48] where what I'm-

[1:15:49] My partner.

[1:15:51] You're here all the time?

[1:15:51] What I'm recommending-

[1:15:52] Okay.

[1:15:53] Is Saw X.

[1:15:55] Socks?

[1:15:56] It is.

[1:15:57] It's been, you would think it's socks.

[1:16:00] I'm arguing it does not socks.

[1:16:02] Oh, okay.

[1:16:06] I don't know if it's some kind of weird,

[1:16:09] I have been held captive by the Saw movies.

[1:16:14] And over time, I have just come to love my abductor.

[1:16:18] Yeah.

[1:16:19] But I think the 10th Saw movie might be the best one

[1:16:25] by being kind of a prequel

[1:16:28] and playing around with the format a little bit.

[1:16:30] And frankly, just having more jigsaw in it,

[1:16:33] like having him running around doing stuff,

[1:16:35] it makes it better.

[1:16:37] And you've seen this, right?

[1:16:40] Yeah, I saw.

[1:16:41] I am not the Saw Stockholm Syndrome fan that you are,

[1:16:45] but I do think it's one of the better of a series

[1:16:49] that I'm not super wild about.

[1:16:50] It is a dumb series.

[1:16:52] I hate it.

[1:16:52] But I think you said once, Dan,

[1:16:54] that it's like when you view it as like a weird black comedy

[1:16:58] as opposed to a horror movie, it works better.

[1:17:01] And I feel like this is the best of the bunch.

[1:17:04] And I gotta say, when that fucking,

[1:17:07] the big Saw theme music kicks in

[1:17:10] and we start getting flashback montages

[1:17:13] of John Kramer pulling stunts on these fools,

[1:17:16] I start pumping my fist in the air

[1:17:17] and I lean forward to my seat and I can't help it.

[1:17:20] It puts a big, stupid smile on my face.

[1:17:22] And I think this-

[1:17:23] Oh, this smile isn't stupid.

[1:17:25] No, not at all.

[1:17:25] If any one of you haven't watched a Saw movie lately, Dan.

[1:17:29] You're saying so, you're glad you saw it.

[1:17:32] God damn it.

[1:17:33] Oh boy, oh boy do I.

[1:17:35] And yeah, yeah, if you're working on Saw,

[1:17:38] if you're working on Saw X1,

[1:17:41] throw my ass in that writer's room.

[1:17:43] I wanna be in that shit.

[1:17:45] If you want-

[1:17:45] They're like, it's now the Saw X franchise.

[1:17:49] Saw X2, yeah.

[1:17:52] Ooh, yeah, so that's my recommendation.

[1:17:55] Elliot, I hope I didn't snag yours.

[1:17:57] Yeah, yeah, yeah, it's too bad.

[1:17:59] I'll just say something other than Saw X.

[1:18:02] I'm gonna mention a movie

[1:18:03] that has been recommended to me in the past.

[1:18:04] I've been looking for it for a while

[1:18:06] and then found it online.

[1:18:07] And that is a Czech movie.

[1:18:09] You'll be surprised to see.

[1:18:10] Oh, wow.

[1:18:12] I mentioned too, I was-

[1:18:12] Sorry, let me hold my wig to my head.

[1:18:15] I was working with-

[1:18:16] Oh, I almost flipped.

[1:18:17] I was working on something recently

[1:18:19] with my friend Jonah Ray.

[1:18:21] And I said, oh, I was watching this movie I really liked.

[1:18:23] And he goes, what is it?

[1:18:24] I go, well, it's this Czech movie from the 60s

[1:18:27] that's a parody of Westerns.

[1:18:28] And he goes, sometimes you are just so you.

[1:18:31] And I said, yeah, I guess so.

[1:18:32] So this is a movie called Lemonade Joe.

[1:18:35] This is a Czech movie from 1964 that is a,

[1:18:38] it's basically like if Blazing Saddles got made

[1:18:41] in Czechoslovakia in the 60s.

[1:18:43] And it's about this town where there's this bar run by,

[1:18:47] a saloon run by a bad guy and he's got a bad guy brother.

[1:18:51] And an upstanding noble gunslinger comes to town,

[1:18:55] Lemonade Joe, he does not drink liquor.

[1:18:57] He only drinks this one brand of lemonade.

[1:19:00] Spoiler, it will turn out that he is a traveling salesman

[1:19:03] for that lemonade brand, but he is an amazing gun fighter.

[1:19:06] And so everyone now wants to drink this lemonade

[1:19:08] and becomes kind of a feud over the heart

[1:19:11] of the young evangelist girl in town

[1:19:14] over who's gonna get her the Lemonade Joe

[1:19:17] or the bad guy's evil brother.

[1:19:19] And it is so goofy and cartoony.

[1:19:23] It's really funny.

[1:19:24] It ends in the silliest possible way.

[1:19:26] And-

[1:19:27] Even sillier, but it's a musical and there's just like,

[1:19:34] I will warn you that there is one scene of the bad guy

[1:19:37] being in disguise in blackface, which I did not care for,

[1:19:40] but I will give them allowances

[1:19:42] since this is Czechoslovakia in 1964.

[1:19:45] But otherwise it feels like it is taking advantage

[1:19:48] of what you can do in a film to make jokes with editing,

[1:19:53] with visuals, with writing, with performance.

[1:19:55] And it's really more a parody of like silent Westerns

[1:19:58] than it is of.

[1:20:00] kind of like the kind of Hollywood Westerns that Blazing Saddles is doing jokes of, but

[1:20:04] it lives in that same kind of Blazing Saddles world, and I found it really, really funny.

[1:20:08] So that's Lemonade Joe.

[1:20:10] Well, wow, we did it.

[1:20:13] We did it.

[1:20:14] We had the-

[1:20:15] We survived the 90-minute mercy scene.

[1:20:16] We did.

[1:20:17] With that in-person-

[1:20:18] Your guilt has got to 100%, no!

[1:20:23] In-person juice, it was fun to see you, Elliot.

[1:20:27] Great to see you guys and be in the same room as you guys.

[1:20:29] I think I can reach out and touch him, look at this.

[1:20:31] Yeah, do it.

[1:20:32] Okay.

[1:20:33] Do it, Dan.

[1:20:34] I don't want to anymore.

[1:20:35] What's your pleasure?

[1:20:36] Am I turning you on?

[1:20:37] No.

[1:20:38] Am I turning you off?

[1:20:39] I feel like this works better in next week's episode.

[1:20:42] Okay.

[1:20:43] That's true, yeah.

[1:20:44] Well, then maybe we should just wrap it up.

[1:20:47] I want to thank Maximum Fun, our network, and I want to say that the Maximum Fun Drive

[1:20:52] is coming up very soon.

[1:20:54] Our first Drive episode is the next episode, and for these Drive episodes, we are challenging

[1:21:02] each other with movies that we have selected.

[1:21:05] Each one of us got to select one movie to bring to the group-

[1:21:08] To hurt the others, yeah.

[1:21:09] Yeah, to dismay them.

[1:21:10] To wreck our friendship.

[1:21:12] Stuart kicks us off with Exit to Eden.

[1:21:17] I-

[1:21:18] A Randy little jaunt.

[1:21:19] I'm-

[1:21:21] Randy jaunt sounds like a baseball player from like 1978.

[1:21:25] I'm in the middle position with fear.com, and you don't want to log on to fear.com.

[1:21:30] You sure don't.

[1:21:31] It's causing a lot of trouble.

[1:21:32] Or fear.org.

[1:21:33] Remember when movies had really exciting websites?

[1:21:37] I don't want to spoil anything, but the website in the movie fear.com is fear.com.com.

[1:21:44] I forgot.

[1:21:48] And Elliot is particularly targeting Stuart.

[1:21:51] Yeah, laser focus.

[1:21:52] 40 days and 40 nights.

[1:21:54] Yeah, a movie that Stuart has repeatedly cited as his least favorite of all time.

[1:21:59] And I've never seen it.

[1:22:00] I'm just going to be shocked that we're going to be able to see it, because I years ago

[1:22:03] urged listeners to rent the DVDs and then throw them away, and in return at Hinterland's

[1:22:10] Bar I received multiple shattered DVD copies.

[1:22:13] Amazing.

[1:22:14] Wow.

[1:22:15] That's grassroots.

[1:22:16] Be the good you want in the world is what I'm saying.

[1:22:21] Yeah.

[1:22:22] So we're all looking forward to that.

[1:22:25] That's coming up in the next few weeks.

[1:22:28] Go to maximumfun.org.

[1:22:30] Check out all the great shows on there during the drive.

[1:22:34] Maybe join.

[1:22:35] Maybe become a member.

[1:22:37] And I want to say thank you to Alex Smith, our producer.

[1:22:40] He goes by the name HowlDotty all over the internet.

[1:22:44] You can check out his music.

[1:22:46] You can check out his Twitch streams.

[1:22:48] You can check out his own podcast, which is very funny.

[1:22:53] Big Howl on Possum, I believe it's called.

[1:22:57] But for The Flop House, I've been Dan McCoy.

[1:22:59] Hey, I've been Dan's friend Stuart Wellington.

[1:23:03] There's a 93% probability that I'm Elliot Kalin, but it's dropping fast.

[1:23:07] Oh no.

[1:23:08] We've got to get him on ice.

[1:23:09] Bye.

[1:23:15] So this, of course, will be before the one we just recorded.

[1:23:26] So don't reference anything of the tight lore that we've established.

[1:23:30] No, yeah, this is like I remember this is a prequel to the last episode.

[1:23:36] And I'll just start.

[1:23:38] Maximum Fun, a worker owned network of artists owned shows supported directly by you.

Mercy

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