Ep.#449 - The Electric State

Dan McCoy

[0:00] On this episode, we discuss The Electric State, a movie that cost how much money?

[0:30] Hey, everyone. Welcome to The Flophouse. I'm Dan McCoy.

Elliott Kalan

[0:34] Hey, I'm Stuart Wellington.

[0:36] Hey, I'm Elliot Kalin.

[0:37] Wait a minute. You guys aren't usually in my bedroom where I record.

[0:41] What's going on here?

Stuart Wellington

[0:42] Well, Elliot, your bedroom looks a lot like Dan's office.

Dan McCoy

[0:46] Yeah, you got conked on the head with a coconut and whisked here to Flophouse HQ.

[0:52] I call it that because two of us are here, so we get to decide that this is HQ.

Stuart Wellington

[0:56] Oh, man. I got outvoted.

[0:58] It's kind of like in the video game Bloodborne where you fight those weird tall guys that have a giant bag,

[1:03] and if they defeat you instead of killing you, you wake up in their weird oubliette,

[1:08] and then you have a bunch of them.

[1:09] So that's what happened to you.

[1:10] You got bonked on the head by a guy carrying a big sack.

[1:12] And now I'm in Dan's weird oubliette.

[1:14] Okay, great.

[1:15] Get out of my oubliette.

[1:17] And if it was my oubliette, I'd call it a stoubliette.

[1:20] You would indeed.

[1:22] So do we do on this podcast.

Dan McCoy

[1:24] Specific.

[1:25] You're like a comic who was really big in like 1979 and you had one thing.

[1:31] I was still swimming in my dad's ball sack back then.

[1:35] This is a podcast where we watch a bad movie and then we talk about it.

[1:38] And as mentioned, Elliot, who normally is on the other coast, has been kind enough to grace us with his presence.

Elliott Kalan

[1:47] He was very kind of me.

[1:48] Thank you.

[1:49] On this coast.

[1:50] Thank you.

[1:50] And hang out.

[1:51] It is spring break.

[1:52] Woo!

[1:53] Spring break.

[1:54] So my family is on the east coast this week, and that means I get to see my best buds.

[1:59] And then you guys.

[2:00] Oh!

Stuart Wellington

[2:01] Boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom.

[2:03] So this is a razzing podcast where we give each other the dozens.

Elliott Kalan

[2:07] I'm going to do 11 more of those.

[2:09] Oh, boy.

[2:10] I don't have that many.

[2:11] And the price of eggs, that's the only other dozen I know.

Dan McCoy

[2:17] Electric State.

[2:18] Electric State.

[2:19] That's what we're talking about.

[2:19] Yeah, we're talking about a movie.

Stuart Wellington

[2:20] This is one of those Netflix movies.

[2:23] And it's, what, their most expensive one?

[2:27] It was, well.

[2:28] They have disputed how much it cost.

Dan McCoy

[2:30] But according to Dan?

[2:32] Well, Wikipedia, which is not obviously the most, you know, reliable source.

[2:39] But not the least reliable source.

[2:40] Not the least reliable either.

[2:41] The projected costs of this were, made it the 13th highest, most expensive movies ever made.

Elliott Kalan

[2:50] The number I heard was $325 million.

[2:53] I don't know if that's what it's worth.

Stuart Wellington

[2:54] Which they spent on, like, a bunch of songs and, like, so many fucking celebrity voices.

[3:00] I thought I was watching a fucking DreamWorks animated movie.

[3:02] I was like, what is this, if?

Dan McCoy

[3:03] Holly Hunter shows up to just be, like, a newswoman and say-

[3:08] Doing exposition.

[3:09] I am not complaining.

[3:10] Five lines.

[3:10] I mean, I assume that this is, of course, her character from broadcast news.

Elliott Kalan

[3:13] That was my assumption, too, that this is in the broadcast newsverse.

[3:16] Yeah.

Dan McCoy

[3:17] But, yeah.

Elliott Kalan

[3:18] You have to imagine that Albert Brooks' character went out to report in the field during the robot war and just got slaughtered instantly.

Stuart Wellington

[3:23] He's in this movie, too, right?

[3:25] Albert Brooks.

[3:26] He got Albert Brooks' voice.

[3:27] Is he?

[3:27] No, I'm fucking with you.

[3:28] Oh, okay.

[3:29] It seems like he should be there.

[3:31] I do like there's a baseball robot done by Brian Cox.

[3:33] Brian Cox, yeah.

[3:34] And the whole time, like, man, for some reason, hearing this robot talk, it makes me think about fucking a hamburger.

[3:40] That's because Brian Cox has these sexy McDonald's commercials.

[3:43] That's right.

[3:44] He does have those sexy McDonald's commercials.

[3:45] The way he says da-da-da-da-da-da, I'm like, man, he's taking that Big Mac to bed.

[3:49] Or, like, the Filet-O-Fish commercial.

[3:51] Have you seen that thing?

[3:52] It's crazy.

[3:52] I don't remember it offhand.

Dan McCoy

[3:53] I want to say the price tag of this movie was widely reported on.

[3:59] Yeah.

[4:00] People really talked about it a lot.

Elliott Kalan

[4:02] It was the biggest news story of the year, right, Dan?

[4:04] Yeah.

[4:04] There's nothing else going on but the electric state being expensive.

[4:07] But normally I'm not one who, like—

[4:10] Talk about waste, fraud, and misuse.

Dan McCoy

[4:13] Normally I'm not one that gets mad about the size of budgets per se.

[4:17] No.

[4:17] Like, I think that that argument is weird because it takes on this sort of moral tinge a lot of the time.

[4:23] Like, you could have done this with this money.

[4:25] Like, that money was never going to go to whatever other thing.

Elliott Kalan

[4:27] It implies that Netflix either could have made this movie or fed the homeless.

[4:31] Yeah.

[4:31] But it also forgets that a lot of people work on these movies and they have to be paid for that work.

[4:36] And Netflix would like to do nothing more.

[4:38] And I say this as a person working on a show for Netflix right now.

[4:40] Yeah.

[4:40] All studios would like to do—or networks would like to do nothing more than to not pay those people for that work.

[4:45] So you could be like, Netflix, how could you spend this much money on there?

[4:48] And they might be like, we would have loved to have spent less money on this movie.

[4:51] Believe me.

[4:52] But I do think that—

Dan McCoy

[4:53] But those pesky humans have other plans.

Elliott Kalan

[4:55] The moral question of it is always kind of a—is it a false choice?

Dan McCoy

[4:57] Yes.

[4:58] I think so.

[4:59] But that being said, I did watch this movie.

[5:01] I'm like, what the fuck?

Elliott Kalan

[5:02] How did this cost that much money?

[5:03] Well, the real issue, I think, is you watch this movie, you know how much it costs, and you're like—

[5:08] And they couldn't afford, like, ideas.

[5:11] Like, they couldn't afford, like, new stuff.

[5:13] And even the fact that—we'll get into it, but like, a lot of the needle-dropped songs,

[5:16] they're the same old songs you hear in movies all the time.

[5:18] Yeah.

[5:19] Like, the story is the same old basic story you've seen in things.

[5:22] The dialogue is super on the nose.

[5:24] This is a movie that does not trust the audience to ever put one plus one together and get two.

[5:29] It has to tell you two every time.

Dan McCoy

[5:30] Yeah, it treats you like a fucking idiot.

[5:32] And I also hate to—

Elliott Kalan

[5:34] If you're going to spend that much money, spend it on such—

[5:37] A cerebral artistic folly.

[5:40] That people are going to be like, yeah, I see why you spent—

[5:41] Make Megalopolis, where you're like, yeah, I see why you spent all that money.

[5:44] Because otherwise, there's no way this would ever exist.

[5:47] Because this is bonkers.

[5:48] Yeah.

Dan McCoy

[5:49] Well, I was going to say, I hate to sort of get mad at a movie that,

[5:53] while it is based on a book,

[5:55] and it's a book that sort of references the look of, you know, other sort of IP of the world.

[6:00] A book, a little book, yeah.

[6:01] But it's not, you know, it's not based on a big IP thing.

[6:05] But it seems like also they took a book that was more idiosyncratic and had interesting, like,

[6:12] a look and ideas and then plugged that into the most—

[6:18] Certainly, how can we sand down the edges of this the most and make it like every other movie?

[6:22] Just to make the most basic movie plot stronger, yeah.

Stuart Wellington

[6:25] So have either of you guys read the book that this is based on?

[6:27] No.

Elliott Kalan

[6:28] Well, it's based on The Great Gatsby, right?

[6:30] So I have read that, yeah.

Stuart Wellington

[6:31] The Great Botsby?

[6:32] Yeah.

Elliott Kalan

[6:33] That green light he was looking towards, it was another bot.

Stuart Wellington

[6:36] So I haven't read The Electric State,

[6:38] but I am pretty familiar with some of the artists, Simon Stalen-Hoggins' work.

[6:42] I've seen his work before, yeah.

[6:43] I'm a big fan of his, the role-playing game based on it, Tales from the Loop.

[6:47] And one of the things that I think—

[6:50] The movie really latches on to two elements there,

[6:54] which is science fiction stuff and nostalgia,

[6:57] which a lot of Stalen-Hoggins' art takes place in the past.

[7:01] But one of the things that he does is he manages to incorporate these sci-fi elements,

[7:05] but he puts them in otherwise very mundane situations.

[7:10] And I feel like the movie—

[7:12] And that adds a little bit of wonder to it.

[7:15] Yeah.

[7:15] Almost like the kids on bikes joy of being a kid,

[7:18] and all of a sudden there's a giant robot walking past your school bus or something.

[7:24] But the movie does not do any of that.

[7:26] Like, the movie is latched, like, locked in on how can we do 90s shit,

[7:30] and how can we throw massive amounts of robots in your eyeballs.

[7:34] 90s shit for a little—

Elliott Kalan

[7:35] Like, there's some—

[7:36] It's set in the 90s,

[7:37] but it never really feels like they're taking advantage of it in a way,

[7:41] like in a 90s way.

[7:43] Like, I don't know.

[7:43] It was like—

Dan McCoy

[7:44] Not enough hyper-color shirts for you?

Elliott Kalan

[7:46] But the way that, like, as much as, you know, like, Stranger Things really makes the most of it being set in the time it's set, I feel like.

[7:52] Like, it's always reminding you that you're in that time.

[7:54] Whereas there were whole parts of this movie where I was like,

[7:56] oh, yeah, this is set in the 90s.

[7:57] Like, I kind of forgot, you know.

[7:59] Yeah.

[7:59] But also that, like, the—

[8:01] Well, we'll get into it.

[8:02] But also, like, that they're, like, the—

[8:05] I think they thought there was going to be a lot more mileage in Mr. Peanut being the leader of a robot rebellion than there really seemed to be, you know?

Dan McCoy

[8:12] And the thing about the Mr. Peanut thing is the first time I saw him, I got my one, like, bit of enjoyment out of the movie.

[8:18] And then it became an important plot point.

[8:22] Like, I liked just seeing Mr. Peanut signing peace accords with Bill Clinton in, like, a Zelig, you know, Forrest Gump-style insertion.

[8:33] That was fun.

[8:34] But then I didn't need that to be more than just a one-off show.

Stuart Wellington

[8:38] You didn't need that character to come back.

[8:39] Yeah.

[8:39] You didn't need him to show up with a fucking sword cane and get in a fucking sword fight with another robot.

[8:45] Yeah.

Dan McCoy

[8:46] Let's get into it.

[8:48] Let's get into what actually happened to this.

[8:49] The electric state.

Elliott Kalan

[8:49] Yeah, tell us all about it, Dan.

[8:51] Dan's doing the summary today, so buckle up.

Dan McCoy

[8:54] Well, it's a song that has a dance to it.

[8:56] You sort of slide—oh, wait, no.

[8:59] That's a different thing.

[9:00] The 1990—

[9:01] Dan, are you sure you're not the dad of the three of us?

[9:04] No, I—you know, I just loved sort of growing into dad jokes, even though I was—you know, I don't have a kid, actually.

[9:14] Like, I liked getting to the age where it's like, oh, my habit of making jokes just to irritate people is sort of, like, understood by the culture now.

Elliott Kalan

[9:23] I think what you're finally understanding is that you don't become a dad and tell dad jokes.

[9:28] You become an older man who tells dad jokes, and you have a kid, so you have someone to tell those jokes to.

[9:33] Right, yeah.

[9:33] Because you know it's going to happen.

Dan McCoy

[9:34] When you were a younger dad—or younger dad—younger man.

[9:37] When I was a younger dad.

Elliott Kalan

[9:39] When I wore a younger dad's clothes.

Dan McCoy

[9:42] People were more apt to put up with those jokes because—

[9:47] I don't know about that.

Elliott Kalan

[9:49] Sing us a song, you're the piano dad.

[9:52] Sing us a song tonight.

Stuart Wellington

[9:55] A ball of dad.

Elliott Kalan

[9:58] Captain dad'll get you by tonight.

[10:01] Hell yeah, hell yeah.

[10:03] Okay.

[10:04] We're on the dead Easter, Alexa.

[10:07] I forgot what one of these in-person things was like.

[10:09] Yep.

[10:10] You also forgot that I grew up in the land of Billy Joel, the tri-state area.

Dan McCoy

[10:15] I'm going to take you to the magical land of Billy Joel.

Elliott Kalan

[10:19] We, dad, and start the fire.

Stuart Wellington

[10:22] He's got one of those rest stops named after him, right?

[10:24] I don't think he does.

[10:25] Really?

[10:26] But like they named all the other rest stops after celebrity—

[10:29] New Jersey people.

Elliott Kalan

[10:31] Which—well, he's more of a Long Island guy.

[10:33] Yeah, you're right.

[10:33] I'll shut up.

[10:34] Yeah.

[10:34] I mean, but it is—there are—in New Jersey rest stops, Walt Whitman has one named after him,

[10:37] and also Vince Lombardi, you know?

[10:39] Yeah, and like Jon Bon Jovi.

[10:41] Jon Bon Jovi, yeah.

[10:42] Molly Pitchers.

[10:43] I mean, there isn't a Springsteen one if only because they felt it was not—

[10:46] William Joel.

[10:46] It was not a big enough tribute.

[10:48] But he's a Long Island guy.

[10:50] He's big in New Jersey, but he's not from New Jersey.

Dan McCoy

[10:52] Okay.

[10:53] Well, this is good to hash out.

Stuart Wellington

[10:55] So the electric state, which is about Billy Joel.

[10:57] I mean, there is some New Jersey talk in it.

Dan McCoy

[11:00] Yeah.

[11:00] I'm sure there's at least one Billy Joel song that gets played at some point during this thing.

[11:05] I'm not sure about that.

[11:07] It just seems like there would be—

[11:09] Oh, yeah, the Stranger.

[11:10] Yeah.

[11:10] Let's go frame by frame.

[11:13] Yeah.

[11:13] Let's get out Jeweler's Loops.

Elliott Kalan

[11:15] It's like, is someone in the background playing?

[11:18] Let's look at the audio waveforms throughout the entire movie.

[11:24] AI.

[11:25] See if you identify any William Joel songs in this.

Stuart Wellington

[11:29] So this movie's directed by—

Elliott Kalan

[11:31] Here's a picture of Jesus with some crabs.

[11:33] That's not what I asked for, AI.

Stuart Wellington

[11:35] This movie's directed by the Russo brothers, right?

[11:36] Yes.

[11:37] And they've been outspoken in saying they think AI is great, right?

Elliott Kalan

[11:40] But when they say it, they say it so confusingly that it's kind of hard to make.

[11:43] And this movie, you would think, would be a movie making a statement about that, but it's not.

[11:48] It's the most basic kind of robots are people, too, when they get smart enough that we've been seeing in science fiction for 100 years.

Dan McCoy

[11:54] Well, it's that, but it's also an unplugged message.

[11:58] It plays both sides of the fence.

Elliott Kalan

[11:58] Yes, it also says—it's like robots are people, too.

[12:02] Also, get off your screens.

[12:04] It's it.

[12:04] And it's—I mean, just the fact that, like, so much of this movie is built on the Ready Player One model of the future where everyone just has a headset on all the time.

[12:12] Yeah.

[12:13] But the headset means that they—it's also that movie, Surrogates, that we did with Bruce Willis many years ago.

[12:17] And we did Ready Player One, right?

[12:19] No, I've never seen it.

[12:20] Oh, wow.

[12:21] I read the book, and I said, I've never seen this movie.

Dan McCoy

[12:24] Yeah, that is one of the books I dislike the most while finishing.

Elliott Kalan

[12:28] Yeah, no, the same one.

[12:29] It was one of these books.

[12:30] Every 30 pages, I was like, I hate this book.

[12:32] Why am I still reading it?

[12:33] Yeah.

[12:33] And I was like, I've got to see if it gets dumber.

[12:35] It did.

[12:36] Yeah.

[12:37] Okay.

[12:37] So, The Electric State.

Dan McCoy

[12:38] Yeah.

[12:39] So, we start out in 1990.

[12:41] Woo!

[12:41] And Millie Bobby Brown, who has, you know, been, you know, is Netflix's house starlet.

[12:48] What else is she in?

[12:49] Well, aside from Stranger Things, she was in the two Enola Holmes movies.

[12:54] Okay.

[12:54] And then she was in some movie where she fought a dragon.

[12:56] That was also in it.

[12:57] Enola Holmes versus the dragon.

Stuart Wellington

[12:58] How old is she supposed to be in 1990?

[13:03] In 1990?

[13:04] In 1994.

[13:05] I'm sorry to jump forward.

[13:07] In 1994, she still is like.

[13:10] Like a high school student.

[13:10] Yeah, she's treated like she's a minor.

Elliott Kalan

[13:12] The first we see, it's 1990, and her younger brother, I thought, is taking a college test,

[13:17] and she's talking about, it made it sound as if she was a college student, and he was

[13:20] going to join her at college.

[13:22] Then in 1994, suddenly she's in a high school class.

[13:24] I was like, what happened?

[13:25] I don't understand.

Dan McCoy

[13:26] And also, there's something.

[13:27] Well, he was also, he's like super genius.

[13:29] But I thought she was older than him.

[13:31] Yeah.

[13:31] Yeah, but he's like, yeah, he's skipping ahead.

Elliott Kalan

[13:33] But he looks like he's like 15.

[13:35] So if she's older than him, she should be college-aged.

Dan McCoy

[13:37] Four years later, she should be in college.

Elliott Kalan

[13:39] Now-

[13:39] I was like, did she get so, did she go to jail, and then she had to go back to high school?

Dan McCoy

[13:43] Let's just be happy that they didn't de-age digitally.

[13:46] That would have been pretty awesome.

[13:47] That would have been funny, because they're already young.

Stuart Wellington

[13:49] But speaking of her appearance, like-

[13:53] Stewart?

[13:54] No, I'm just saying, it's like she has too much makeup on.

[13:57] Like, she looks too, like, she's like poreless almost.

[14:01] It looks very, it's kind of jarring in compared to all the, like, beat-up robots.

Elliott Kalan

[14:06] I certainly never, I don't know her real age.

Stuart Wellington

[14:08] I never bought her as a high school age character, you know?

[14:10] I mean, I'm not, like, being critical.

[14:13] I just feel like the choice of making her look very clean.

[14:16] But the other thing is that-

[14:17] She shouldn't look like that.

[14:18] That's what I'm saying.

Elliott Kalan

[14:19] The other thing is there's nothing about that character that needs to be that age, either, you know?

[14:23] Except that then she has to have, I guess, Jason Alexander as her mean guardian

Dan McCoy

[14:27] But anyway, she sees her brother, aforementioned brother, Christopher.

[14:31] She's watching him take a super complex math test.

[14:35] Yeah.

[14:35] Because he's a super genius.

[14:37] And outside, they run into an army dude who's like, why are you wearing a cartoon shirt with a robot on it?

[14:42] We're going to fight those robots.

[14:42] Well, the shirt has a cartoon robot on it.

Elliott Kalan

[14:44] It's not a cartoon shirt.

Dan McCoy

[14:45] I mean, I feel like-

Elliott Kalan

[14:46] Like, it's not like he didn't get it from Toontown and put it on.

Dan McCoy

[14:49] The average person probably got to parse that out.

[14:51] I don't know.

Elliott Kalan

[14:52] They're imagining he's wearing, like, animated shoes that scream when you put them into it.

[14:56] Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[14:57] Other than that, they're pretty quiet.

Dan McCoy

[14:59] Yeah, otherwise.

[15:00] A war with the robots.

[15:01] What's that?

[15:01] Well, luckily, we get a montage of various TV reports.

Elliott Kalan

[15:05] They really explain the idea of a war with robots that don't want to be servants anymore as if this is a new idea we've never seen before and we would never understand it.

[15:14] When this was handled better by one of the Animatrix cartoons.

[15:17] Yeah.

[15:18] You know, 30 or 20 years ago.

[15:19] It's-

Dan McCoy

[15:20] And I could be wrong with this, but it's my impression from reading about the book that the war in the book is never explicitly-

[15:26] You know, like, it's not, like, necessarily between robots and humans or whatever.

[15:30] It's more like the Clone Wars?

[15:31] There's just a war.

[15:32] Yeah.

Elliott Kalan

[15:32] Well, like, they just mention it and it's, you know, know about it.

Dan McCoy

[15:35] Yeah, they're just like, hey, there was a war.

Elliott Kalan

[15:37] They present in this montage the idea that the American military just cannot handle the onslaught of robots because they never sleep, they never stop.

[15:48] And when we see these robots fight, finally, they end the movie, they suck so bad.

[15:51] Yeah.

[15:52] They're so easily taken down.

Stuart Wellington

[15:53] And they don't really even have weapons.

[15:55] They just throw shit.

[15:56] They just throw, like, mail at you.

[15:57] Yeah.

[15:57] And they hit you with their fists, yeah.

Dan McCoy

[15:59] We should be clear that most of these robots are, like, animatronic style.

[16:04] Yeah.

[16:04] The idea is that they were-

[16:05] It's like the Country Bears.

Elliott Kalan

[16:06] They're descended from Walt Disney's, yeah, like-

Dan McCoy

[16:08] Chucky Chulis and whatnot.

[16:09] Yeah.

[16:10] These are not, like, kill bots from Chopping Mall.

Elliott Kalan

[16:12] They're not ED-209s.

[16:14] Yeah.

Dan McCoy

[16:14] They're not-

[16:15] They're not even ED-McClurgs.

[16:17] No.

Stuart Wellington

[16:18] Not even.

[16:18] They're not Little ED from-

Elliott Kalan

[16:20] From Grey Gardens.

[16:22] That would be so-

[16:23] Now I want to see-

[16:24] It's the electric state, but it's just-

[16:25] It's just-

[16:26] It's just-

[16:27] It's just-

Elliott Kalan

[16:27] It's just-

[16:28] Little ED and Big ED.

Stuart Wellington

[16:30] Little ED riding on ED-209.

[16:33] I-

Dan McCoy

[16:33] I-

[16:35] To Eataly.

[16:36] Elliot, the length of this info dump that you suggest, though, like, it-

[16:39] It really is true-

[16:41] It moves pretty fast.

[16:42] Well, it moves fast, but it's true that, like, this is not a complex idea to get across,

[16:46] but actually doing it in such detail over a montage made it more confusing to me than just,

[16:54] like-

Elliott Kalan

[16:54] Yeah, because you don't know what information is important.

[16:56] You don't know what you need to know, and-

[16:57] But this is a movie that is constantly explaining everything to you.

[17:00] Yeah.

[17:00] They feel like you need to know everything, and they, like, but they show you Chris Pratt for

[17:03] a moment, because you can kind of see what he was like when he was a soldier.

Stuart Wellington

[17:06] But, like, Starship Troopers has, like, a similar kind of opening montage, but you know

[17:10] what?

[17:11] Starship Troopers rules.

[17:12] But Starship Troopers are also doing it for a very specific reason.

Elliott Kalan

[17:14] There's a stylistic reason, and there's a thematic reason that they're, like, they want

[17:18] it to look like old-school propaganda to get across the idea, whereas this is just information

[17:22] dumb.

Dan McCoy

[17:23] Yeah.

[17:23] And so much of those little cuts in Starship Troopers are about tone, really, more than

[17:29] it is about the information which you get in the movie itself.

Stuart Wellington

[17:33] I really liked when Starship Troopers hit, like, Netflix or something after not being readily

[17:38] available digitally for a long time, and a whole new generation was exposed to it, and they're

[17:42] like, uh, this is pretty fascist, dude.

[17:45] It's like, uh, yeah.

[17:46] That was very funny.

Dan McCoy

[17:48] Oh, cool, cool media literacy.

[17:50] Well, I mean, it's just history repeating.

[17:52] People did not understand it the first time.

[17:54] No, at the time it first came out, they were like, we're hoping it's made of it.

[17:55] People were, like, hooting and hollering and loving it.

[17:57] I didn't.

[17:58] And I, like, I don't want to, like, fucking pump myself up too much, but, like, I was in

[18:02] the theater.

[18:02] I'm like, oh, yeah.

[18:04] This is fun.

[18:04] This is a satire.

[18:05] And, like, I'm like, I found it so baffling that it was confusing to a whole.

Elliott Kalan

[18:10] That kind of stuff happens a lot, and it's very surprising.

[18:12] Where you'll, a movie that is very clearly going for a specific idea.

[18:16] Yeah.

[18:16] That seems obvious to us, the sophisticated, you know, literary, amphibia literate types.

[18:21] Oh, thanks.

[18:21] Yeah.

[18:22] Normally you don't lump me in on that shit, but it feels good.

[18:24] But that even, that even the critics at the time will, will not get it.

[18:27] Will, like, not understand it.

[18:28] Yeah.

[18:28] You know.

Stuart Wellington

[18:29] Anyway.

[18:29] Except for Dan's fave, Armand White.

Elliott Kalan

[18:32] But it reminds me of, though, it also reminds me of, like, the Coen brothers for years kept

[18:35] getting attacked for, they hate their characters.

[18:38] They're so mean to their characters.

[18:39] And it was like, have you watched their movies?

[18:41] Like, their characters are funny, and they're in bad situations that they have to get out of.

[18:46] But, like, the idea that the Coen brothers are making fun of their characters in a way

[18:49] that is not okay or something like that.

[18:51] Yeah.

[18:51] It was a very, it always felt very strange to me.

Dan McCoy

[18:53] Um, there is some important stuff to get out of this exposition dump, though.

[18:57] Robot.

[18:58] Robot.

[18:58] Uh, we meet, uh, Stanley Tucci, playing Ethan Skate, who is the head of the company.

[19:03] Very real name.

[19:04] Uh, the head of a company called Sentry, but it's spelled, uh, with an E at the end instead

[19:09] of a Y, which was annoying to me.

[19:11] Yeah.

Elliott Kalan

[19:12] And also, it's, it's also because it's like, in the future, there will be no vowels in the

[19:15] names of companies.

[19:16] Yeah.

[19:17] And, uh.

[19:17] I guess it's the 1990s.

Dan McCoy

[19:18] So, his big innovation was like, hey, we can fight robots with robots if we put, uh,

[19:25] the brains of humans into these robot drones.

[19:29] And so.

[19:29] Not a little.

Elliott Kalan

[19:30] So, he invents a helmet that allows you to remotely control a robot body that has a little

[19:34] screen with your face on it.

[19:35] Yeah.

[19:35] Like, um, like, uh, uh, why am I forgetting this?

[19:38] Like, uh, Tom Noonan in RoboCop 2.

[19:41] You know?

Stuart Wellington

[19:41] Now, the thing is, is that, I thought the problem was that, like, the robot brain doesn't need

[19:47] sleep.

[19:47] So, like, wouldn't the human brain still need sleep when they're piloting these things?

Elliott Kalan

[19:51] And also, like, can you imagine how incredibly expensive it is to make a robot double for

[19:57] every soldier or for at least enough that are going to fight a battle with these?

[20:00] Like, there's nothing about the solution that makes any sense.

[20:03] I mean, have you seen the American military budget?

Dan McCoy

[20:04] It's bonkers.

[20:04] That's true.

Elliott Kalan

[20:05] But it's also one of those things where it's like, hey, you know what the American military

[20:07] also has?

[20:08] Planes that drop bombs on things.

[20:10] Well, that was always my.

[20:10] You don't need to fight hand-to-hand with robots.

Dan McCoy

[20:13] I know that, look, I know that for this sort of thing, you just gotta shut that part of

[20:17] that brain up and, like, go with it.

[20:19] But that was my problem with Pacific Rim.

Stuart Wellington

[20:20] I'm like, is the way to fight these monsters really to build a big robot that has to be

Dan McCoy

[20:26] controlled by two people because of some drift brain-fusing technology?

Stuart Wellington

[20:30] If this movie postulated the way to defeat the robots is by giant mechs, I'd be like,

[20:36] hell yeah.

[20:36] Little human-sized mechs?

[20:38] Hell no.

[20:38] It doesn't make sense.

Elliott Kalan

[20:39] But also, it's the same way at the end of that, the Jurassic World, was it Fallen Kingdom?

[20:42] Where at the end, Jeff Goldblum's like, I don't know if we're gonna be able to survive

[20:46] the dinosaurs.

Stuart Wellington

[20:46] And it's like, yeah, I think we could take them.

[20:48] Yeah, yeah.

[20:49] I think we can blow up dinosaurs if we need to.

[20:51] Humans make a lot of things extinct pretty easy.

Elliott Kalan

[20:54] We're privileged to the best species at wrecking other species.

[20:57] Sure.

Dan McCoy

[20:57] We're pretty much gonna end our own species.

[21:01] Body size of building, brain size of penis.

Elliott Kalan

[21:04] But yeah, so his solution is have remote control robot bodies, and that wins the war.

[21:10] And I wonder if there's a, if this was a smarter movie, I would wonder if there was some implication

[21:16] that this whole robot war was a way of his just getting his product out there and taking

[21:23] over the system.

[21:23] That would be smarter.

[21:24] And so, because then his helmets go into consumer mode, and now everyone in the world is using

[21:29] them to sit in a lazy boy chair all day with a helmet on and sending a robot out to do

Dan McCoy

[21:34] what you want to do.

[21:35] To really make it clear how this, like, helps.

[21:40] Like, they're like, they're saying, like, you could split your time.

[21:43] I guess, I guess it's just that you're considered home.

[21:46] Is that all it is?

[21:47] Yeah, it's all it is.

Stuart Wellington

[21:48] It's just.

[21:48] It's fucking severance.

[21:49] Live remotely, yeah.

[21:49] Well, no, but it's not severance.

Dan McCoy

[21:50] Like, I put down it's severance light, but I thought it was even more severance.

[21:53] No, it's severance.

[21:53] You have to go there.

[21:55] You're, like, splitting your consciousness somehow.

[21:57] But I don't think you are.

Elliott Kalan

[21:58] But no, because they, as, so the one person we really see using it a lot, there's two

[22:01] people we see using it a lot.

[22:02] Jason Alexander, who just sits in a lazy boy and has a robot go to the kitchen and get

[22:06] him things.

[22:07] And Giancarlo Esposito, right, who is using it to go out and fight other robots.

[22:11] But they seem to be totally concentrated on what they're doing.

[22:14] It's not like they can, they can't multitask, you know.

[22:16] Partly because they're wearing a big fucking helmet on their heads.

[22:18] They can't do or see anything else, you know.

Dan McCoy

[22:21] The only other interesting, important to the plot.

[22:26] I'll change that.

[22:27] Important to the plot thing is.

Elliott Kalan

[22:28] Yeah, like, just try the word interesting from the record.

Dan McCoy

[22:31] The robots, you know, in this peace accord are sort of settled on a reservation, the exclusion

[22:37] zone.

[22:39] Out in the desert.

[22:39] And now, now having learned the basics of the world, we can play this role-playing game.

[22:44] Yay!

[22:46] Elliot, you'll be playing Millie Bobby Brown.

[22:48] Okay, great.

[22:49] And Stuart, you'll be Chris Pratt.

[22:50] Yay!

[22:50] Okay, roll for initiative.

Elliott Kalan

[22:53] So, Dan, are you Cosmo the robot?

[22:55] Yeah.

[22:55] Beep, boop.

[22:57] Voiced by Alan Tudyk.

[23:00] Oh, was that Alan Tudyk?

[23:01] Yeah.

[23:01] I mean, I can't get mad by Alan Tudyk getting work, yeah.

[23:03] Anyway.

[23:04] You guys got two dicks to support.

[23:05] You guys got two dicks.

[23:07] He's gonna buy twice as many condoms.

[23:09] Twice as many eggs for those.

[23:10] Yeah, yeah.

[23:11] Twice as many eggs to feed to the dicks.

Dan McCoy

[23:15] They're wrapping it.

[23:15] They just swallow them like a snake.

[23:17] Yeah.

[23:19] It's like the, it's like in Le Petit Prance when you see the snake with the elephant inside.

Elliott Kalan

[23:24] I see.

[23:25] With elephant inside.

[23:26] With elephant, yeah.

[23:26] It's a hat.

[23:27] No, it's a snake with an elephant in it.

[23:28] Anyway, but that's his penis, you're saying?

[23:29] Yeah.

[23:31] When you said Le Petit Prance, I thought you said it meant the little prawns for a moment.

[23:34] I was like, you mean like in Muppets?

[23:36] Yeah.

Dan McCoy

[23:36] I thought it would be funnier to say it all French-like, but I don't have a good accent.

[23:40] I think your accent's great.

[23:41] Keep going.

[23:42] So, back to Millie Bobby Brown.

[23:44] We can tell it's later and that something bad has happened because now her hair's kind of ratty and she has a hoodie on.

Elliott Kalan

[23:49] Does she wear fingerless gloves or no?

[23:51] She just has kind of like long sleeves.

Dan McCoy

[23:52] But she does have like some sort of like house arrest.

[23:56] Ankle bracelet.

[23:57] Yeah.

Elliott Kalan

[23:57] Never explained, which is fine.

Dan McCoy

[23:59] Or maybe it is.

[24:00] Anyway, her human robot foster dad, Jason Alexander, is mean.

[24:05] Best known as the voice of Duckman.

[24:06] Mm-hmm.

[24:07] And she goes to school where she gets in trouble because she's the only one who doesn't want to wear one of these neuro helmets.

[24:13] Yeah.

[24:13] Because she does not believe in doing that.

Stuart Wellington

[24:17] Yeah, because that's the thing.

[24:19] Kids don't like looking at screens all day.

[24:21] Nope.

Elliott Kalan

[24:22] But she's a rebel.

[24:23] Come on.

[24:24] It reminds me of there was a time when I was in high school.

[24:27] There was – when I was like either a freshman or a sophomore.

[24:29] And there was an older girl who I was sitting near, one in a study hall or something.

[24:34] And she took out a cigarette and put it next to me.

[24:37] And I was like, why did you do that?

[24:37] She goes, I want to see how brainwashed you are.

[24:40] As if I was brainwashed if I didn't want to smoke a cigarette.

[24:44] And I was like, I don't know.

[24:45] It's pretty bad for you.

[24:47] It feels like smoking a cigarette is what I think of as adults doing that's dumb.

[24:52] She sounds like a fucking scientist.

[24:53] Yeah.

[24:54] She does her own research.

Dan McCoy

[24:55] Yeah.

[24:56] Wake up, sheeple.

[24:57] Lungs crave smoke.

[24:59] They need it.

[25:01] So, yeah, she gets in trouble for not wearing the snorocaster.

[25:05] So, we go to a disciplinary hearing where we learn what happened, that her family died in a car accident.

Elliott Kalan

[25:11] The guidance counselor or whatever that she's talking to doesn't know this information.

[25:14] She's reading the file.

[25:15] She's like – she goes, go to the next page of the file.

[25:18] And she goes and reads parents killed in a car accident.

[25:20] So, she didn't do any research at the time.

[25:22] I should have looked at this before the meeting.

[25:25] I just read parents were – and then it went to the next page and I didn't have time to turn the page.

[25:29] So, I thought it was parents were Jamaican.

Dan McCoy

[25:33] Parents were doing great and they still are.

[25:35] Yeah.

[25:38] She wakes up in the middle of the night to find a Cosmo robot outside like the cartoon on the T-shirt.

[25:44] And she's initially scared.

[25:45] This was a cartoon that her and her brother loved.

[25:47] Yeah.

[25:47] They watched this together.

[25:49] She's scared but there's something about this robot.

[25:51] And he seems to indicate to her that maybe he's her brother somehow.

Elliott Kalan

[25:56] Now, I have some – I wanted to talk through this a little bit because I had some issues with this that I think typify a major problem I have with the movie.

[26:01] Which is that in this movie, characters don't do things because that's what their character feels like they should do.

[26:08] They do things because that's what characters do in movies.

[26:10] Yeah.

[26:10] So, she hears rattling in her trash cans.

[26:12] I live in a suburb, basically.

[26:14] I live in Los Angeles but it's a suburb in part of Los Angeles.

[26:16] And you're like coyotes.

[26:18] Yeah.

[26:18] If I hear my trash cans and I go, that's an animal outside.

[26:20] I'm not going to bother with that.

[26:21] Whereas, she immediately assumes something that she has to investigate is going on.

[26:25] She goes out with, what, like a taser or a knife?

[26:27] I can't remember.

[26:28] I don't remember.

[26:29] Screwdriver.

[26:29] She sees this robot.

[26:32] That's not going to help her.

[26:33] Screwdriver.

[26:33] The robot chases her inside and she's hiding from it.

[26:36] She's scared of this robot.

[26:38] And then when Jason Alexander comes in and starts fighting the robot, she's like, robot, we got to get out of here.

[26:42] And they're on the run together.

[26:43] And it's like, wait, there's no reason for you to investigate.

[26:46] There's no reason for you to be dealing with this robot.

[26:47] There's no reason for you to now be friends with this robot because the robot makes a hand signal that she recognizes as her brothers.

[26:53] But it's also the same thing that Cosmo the robot did in the cartoon show.

[26:56] That's why her brother did it.

[26:57] So the idea that a Cosmo robot would make the Cosmo signal.

Stuart Wellington

[26:59] And the robot can't communicate with language because it only speaks in catchphrases.

[27:06] Yes.

Elliott Kalan

[27:06] It only says what the Cosmo robot is programmed to say.

[27:09] But the idea that now she's like, I guess I'm on the run.

[27:11] I'm a fugitive now.

[27:12] Why?

[27:12] I don't understand.

[27:13] There's no reason for you to do this except that's what these movies do.

[27:16] Yeah.

Dan McCoy

[27:17] But yes, there's this fracas.

[27:20] Millie Tasers, Jason Alexander, gets Cosmo to undo the thing on her ankle.

[27:26] And they drive to the outskirts of the exclusion zone.

[27:29] And she asked Cosmo, hey, Cosmo, how'd you get robofied, my brother?

Elliott Kalan

[27:37] Dan, that was the whitest way you could have said my brother.

[27:40] Which is fine.

[27:40] Well, I meant literally, yes.

[27:41] Yeah, that's true.

[27:43] So you sounded like a narc trying to talk your way into a Black Panther meeting.

Dan McCoy

[27:48] But Cosmo can only speak in pre-programmed phrases like a Woody when people are around or Bumblebee or whatever.

[27:58] But he's able to make her remember.

[28:00] Or a real-life robot.

[28:02] Yeah.

[28:03] A normal non-brother robot would also be like that.

[28:07] Maybe it's an idea I didn't have to explain.

[28:09] But he makes her remember a doctor from after the car accident.

[28:15] And that's played by Kihue Kwan.

[28:18] Academy Award winner.

[28:18] Who is the one who told her that her brother was dead.

[28:24] So they try to find him.

[28:28] Cosmo points to a map saying he's in the exclusion zone.

[28:31] So Millie's like, how do I get into this exclusion zone?

[28:35] It seems like I'm being excluded.

Elliott Kalan

[28:37] Seems to say that people aren't supposed to be there.

Dan McCoy

[28:39] But her foster dad used to get a bunch of black market stuff that's plundered from there.

[28:44] Yeah.

Stuart Wellington

[28:45] We need like a Han Solo Chewbacca team to get him in.

Dan McCoy

[28:48] That's what we need, all right.

[28:49] Probably at this P.O. box, right?

[28:51] Yep.

[28:51] Where we'll find him.

[28:53] And he comes out.

[28:54] They get there to the P.O. box.

[28:57] And Pratt is introduced coming out of a semi-truck to the strains of Dan.

[29:01] Chris Pratt.

[29:02] Chris Pratt.

[29:03] To Danzig's singing Mother.

[29:05] And, you know, I still like him based in those Guardian movies.

[29:09] Like, you know, he's gotten annoying otherwise.

[29:12] But I have affection there.

[29:13] But he's not like the cool Danzig semi-truck guy.

[29:16] Well, that's the thing.

Elliott Kalan

[29:17] When you play Mother, literally the message of the song is this guy is such bad news.

[29:23] Tell your children never go near him.

[29:25] Yeah.

[29:25] Because he's going to bring them to do the worst things they can do.

[29:27] And then you introduce a guy who's like, you know, Star-Lord is already cut-rate Han Solo.

[29:31] And now this character is cut-rate Star-Lord.

[29:33] Yeah.

[29:33] And he's just kind of like a loser who roams around in a truck.

[29:35] And they do the joke where he tries to, he has a signal phrase that his partner is supposed to use to get him out of trouble.

[29:42] And it doesn't work the first time.

[29:43] And then it does.

[29:44] They do the same joke later with the bots.

[29:46] And I was like, you can't do this joke twice in the same movie.

Stuart Wellington

[29:49] Well, and the trouble he's in is that he's trying to sell some goods to Academy Award nominee.

[29:54] Yeah.

[29:55] Coleman Domingo.

[29:56] Yeah.

[29:57] Yeah.

[29:57] Who is wearing, you know, he's a fashionable guy.

[30:01] This time he's wearing a robot.

[30:03] Yeah.

[30:03] Wow.

[30:04] And he drives up on a motorcycle too.

[30:05] Right?

[30:06] Which I think is very funny.

Elliott Kalan

[30:07] I better be watching something like a heavy metal type movie.

[30:10] Yeah.

[30:10] If you can have a robot driving a motorcycle.

Dan McCoy

[30:12] I know he probably wasn't as big when this was shot.

[30:16] Uh-huh.

[30:17] But, like, this is, I think this was in development for a little while.

[30:20] But, like, it is wild to me that he just shows up basically to be a drone and get zapped.

Elliott Kalan

[30:25] Yeah.

[30:26] Well, it also means that he only shot his, the footage of his face.

[30:29] He didn't do anything else probably.

[30:31] You don't think he mocap that?

[30:32] I don't think he was doing mocap for the robot, though.

[30:34] But, yes, yes.

[30:35] Playing, anyway, this is also playing mother implies a tougher character than we're going to get.

[30:38] Yeah.

Dan McCoy

[30:39] But, like I said.

[30:41] What a great song.

[30:42] It's great.

Stuart Wellington

[30:42] Hard to do in karaoke.

[30:44] Warning.

Dan McCoy

[30:44] Yeah, yeah.

[30:45] Showdown with Coleman Domingo Bot and Pratt's buddy Herman zaps him with a little electrozap.

[30:52] And Herman's a robot.

[30:53] Herman's a little robot.

Elliott Kalan

[30:54] So they're a, like Stuart was saying, a Han Solo Chewbacca team.

[30:57] This is a guy and a robot.

[30:58] But people and robots are supposed to hate each other.

Stuart Wellington

[30:59] Yeah, they hate each other.

[31:00] But not this time.

[31:01] I mean, they, you know, they razz each other a little bit.

[31:03] But it's, you know, there's real love there, you know.

[31:05] Sure.

[31:06] We get a little scene of a.

Elliott Kalan

[31:07] Who does Herman's voice?

[31:09] Anthony Mackie.

[31:09] Oh, it is Anthony Mackie.

[31:10] Okay.

Stuart Wellington

[31:11] But it's like pitched up.

[31:12] Heavily modulated.

[31:13] That is the one AI they admitted to using is with some of the voice effects.

Elliott Kalan

[31:19] It's funny that they would have to use AI for that.

[31:20] Because I feel like you just use Pro Tools or something.

[31:22] Yeah.

[31:23] Yeah.

Dan McCoy

[31:23] I mean, I feel like, yeah.

[31:25] Yeah.

[31:25] It's funny that they would use AI for a lot of things that could easily be done in other ways.

[31:31] Yeah.

[31:32] Meanwhile, a Giancarlo Esposito robot.

Elliott Kalan

[31:34] Like, you could get a real kid who looks like Haley Joel Osment.

[31:37] Maybe even Haley Joel Osment.

[31:38] You don't need an AI robot that looks like Haley Joel Osment, you know.

Dan McCoy

[31:42] Yeah.

[31:43] Boy, got that movie.

Elliott Kalan

[31:44] I mean, you see, there's that part where he's chewing and it totally screws up his face.

[31:47] Haley Joel Osment could chew things.

[31:48] Just hire him to do it.

Dan McCoy

[31:49] Yeah, man.

[31:52] Real John Henry tale.

Elliott Kalan

[31:55] Sure.

[31:55] It's between a man and a human chewing robot.

[31:58] Not a human chewing, a food chewing robot.

[31:59] Who can chew this food better.

[32:01] They say that machine.

[32:02] It's Matt Sanger who does it.

[32:03] Matt Sanger.

[32:04] They say this machine can eat a whole Denny's Wonka menu.

[32:08] Matt Sanger's like, oh, I'll compete against that machine.

[32:11] No, you'll die.

[32:12] You'll die.

Dan McCoy

[32:13] Don't do it, man.

[32:14] You don't have to.

[32:14] There's literally no reason.

[32:19] I mean, we all like that this is a service you provide, but mostly because it destroys your body.

[32:24] Like, we don't need a robot to do it anyway.

[32:27] Okay.

[32:30] A John Keller Asmissita robot is on Millie Bobby Brown's trail.

Elliott Kalan

[32:34] So he was a famous general during the robot wars.

[32:38] They call him the butcher of, where is it?

[32:40] The butcher of like Schenectady.

[32:41] Schenectady, yeah.

[32:42] Uh-huh.

[32:43] And now he's like essentially a true officer.

[32:44] He killed a Philip Seymour Hoffman bot.

Stuart Wellington

[32:47] That was Synecdoche.

[32:49] Oh, yeah.

[32:50] Okay, that makes sense.

[32:50] So, and he's, yeah, he's like a little, like he's dressed up like an old-timey sheriff.

[32:56] And in his, in the study, like his office that he wears his cool drone rig, we see like trophies mounted on the wall.

[33:04] Yeah, robo heads.

[33:05] Robots he killed.

[33:08] He hates bots.

[33:09] He just hates them.

Dan McCoy

[33:11] Millie and Robo Bro are stowed away in the truck.

[33:15] They go back to Chris Pratt's black market warehouse lair.

Elliott Kalan

[33:19] Which is huge.

[33:20] Yeah.

[33:20] He has so much stuff in there.

[33:22] And it's just him and the little robot who's dealing, so I don't know how they moved all that stuff, but you know.

Dan McCoy

[33:26] Yeah.

[33:26] Time, you know.

[33:27] Yeah.

[33:27] A lot of unfunny Zagnuts arguing.

Elliott Kalan

[33:30] So, yeah, why particularly were they talking about Zagnuts?

Dan McCoy

[33:33] Just because.

[33:34] It's a fun name.

Elliott Kalan

[33:34] Yeah, it's a fun name.

Stuart Wellington

[33:36] There's a bit where they have a wall of Billy Big Mouth basses that are motion activated.

[33:41] Well, that's, that.

Dan McCoy

[33:42] Plays into the plot.

[33:43] That is at least used as a plot element.

[33:44] It's true, yeah.

[33:45] Yeah, the motion detectors on the Billy Bass alert.

[33:48] Mm-hmm.

Elliott Kalan

[33:48] Just like in Dan's favorite show, The Sopranos.

[33:51] Yeah.

[33:52] I mean, you said that as if that was a weird thing to have someone's favorite show.

[33:55] Because it is a great show.

[33:55] Dan's never watched The Sopranos.

[33:56] Have you never watched The Sopranos, Dan?

Dan McCoy

[33:58] I watched, I've watched the pilot.

[34:00] Obviously not from New Jersey.

[34:02] Mm-hmm.

[34:02] I watched The Pilot twice and both times.

[34:04] Oh, you forgot there's more episodes.

Elliott Kalan

[34:07] Yeah.

[34:07] You don't have to keep watching The Pilot.

[34:08] You can put one episode, too.

Dan McCoy

[34:09] This was great, but there's no more.

[34:10] What's funny.

[34:11] So I recently.

[34:11] It didn't really hook me either time.

Elliott Kalan

[34:13] You need to give it a couple episodes, I think.

[34:15] But that, I mean, it's a really good pilot.

[34:16] But watching it again, it feels like an old TV pilot.

Dan McCoy

[34:19] It does not feel like the kind of show it would become, you know?

Elliott Kalan

[34:22] Yeah.

[34:22] Or that others, but it's a great show.

[34:24] Yeah.

[34:24] You gotta watch that first couple seasons.

Dan McCoy

[34:25] No, that's what, I mean, I'm sure I would like it if I gave it a chance.

[34:28] Because the exact same thing happened to me with Mad Men, where I like,

[34:32] watch the pilot, I'm like, I don't like this.

[34:34] Like, it seems like really easy with all these, like, it used to be this way.

[34:38] Yeah.

[34:38] And then I gave it a fuller chance later.

[34:40] I'm like, oh, it gets out of that really quickly.

[34:42] And it just becomes a good show.

[34:43] It does.

Elliott Kalan

[34:44] And I feel like that first season of Mad Men's probably the weakest.

[34:48] I think so, because so much of it is about,

[34:50] are people going to find out who Don Draper really is?

[34:53] Yeah.

[34:53] And once they dispense with that, it just becomes a show about these characters.

[34:57] And by the, yeah, second, third, fourth season.

Stuart Wellington

[34:58] And the secret pregnancy thing is kind of weird.

Elliott Kalan

[35:01] And once it gets a little less soapy.

[35:03] Yeah.

[35:04] And then it becomes so much better.

[35:05] The same way that, like,

Stuart Wellington

[35:05] Once the characters are established and the whole point of every episode is not the plot,

[35:09] but what are the, let's do odd pairings of characters.

[35:12] Yeah, exactly.

Dan McCoy

[35:14] Anyway, by this point in the movie we're talking about.

[35:17] You got to watch at least the point where Pete goes, not great, Bob.

[35:20] It's just one of the best lines of the whole show.

Stuart Wellington

[35:22] At that point, it was Vincent Carthizer shaving the front of his hairline so that he'd have a bald spot.

[35:27] I don't remember.

[35:27] Which is incredible.

[35:29] Like, that is such dedication.

[35:30] Yeah.

Dan McCoy

[35:32] So, our heroes are together now.

[35:36] Yeah, I know.

[35:36] We want to talk about better things.

[35:38] Yeah.

Stuart Wellington

[35:38] But we can talk about better things featuring Mikey Madison, the Academy Award winner.

Dan McCoy

[35:44] So, there's some, you know, argument between Chris Pratt and Millie Bobby Brown about whether he's going to help her or not.

[35:51] It's all, like, standard issue.

[35:52] It's so pro forma.

Elliott Kalan

[35:52] It's like, there's no reason for him to help her, but except that in these movies that character ends up helping the other character.

[35:58] They do have a moment.

[35:59] They have one conversation later in the movie that I really liked a lot.

[36:02] But until that moment, it's a lot of like, but I'm the, I'm the loner rogue rebel who doesn't, who doesn't care about it, doesn't stick his neck out for anybody.

[36:09] Well, time for me to help you right away.

[36:11] Yeah.

Dan McCoy

[36:12] So, but this is interrupted by the arrival of.

[36:16] Much like the girl.

[36:17] Girl interrupted, yeah.

[36:19] John Carlo Bob.

Elliott Kalan

[36:20] So, has that girl ever stopped being interrupted?

[36:22] Or the Dan being interrupted.

[36:24] Dan interrupted starring Winona Ryder as Dan.

Stuart Wellington

[36:27] Oh, wow.

[36:28] Dan's like, I do think I want to sleep with myself.

Elliott Kalan

[36:30] Or maybe it would, maybe stars Dangelina Jolie.

[36:33] Hold on.

[36:33] Oh, yeah.

Dan McCoy

[36:34] I thought she was a star.

[36:35] She's inhabiting me.

Elliott Kalan

[36:37] So, that's your fantasy?

[36:39] Yeah.

Dan McCoy

[36:40] Yeah.

[36:40] It's like the sex of the mind.

Stuart Wellington

[36:42] That's a working David Cronenberg movie title.

Elliott Kalan

[36:48] It certainly is.

[36:52] No, you.

[36:53] Throw crime in there somewhere.

Dan McCoy

[36:55] There is, there is no reason for Pratt to help her.

[36:58] So, of course, John Carlo drone has to show up to provide some sort of motivation.

[37:03] He's with the Robot Deactivation Task Force.

Stuart Wellington

[37:06] I like his little gun.

Dan McCoy

[37:09] It's like super powerful.

[37:11] I think that's kind of cool.

Elliott Kalan

[37:12] Yeah.

[37:12] I think there's something, I mean, he's supposed to be a baddish guy right now.

[37:15] So, it's okay.

[37:16] The fact that he is literally risking nothing in these scenes.

[37:19] He's just a robot, you know?

Dan McCoy

[37:21] Pratt tries to do the same.

Elliott Kalan

[37:24] How come the soldier robots never rise up and try to take over?

Dan McCoy

[37:28] Well, they're just drones, right?

[37:29] They don't have AI in them?

[37:31] Yeah.

[37:31] Okay.

[37:32] They need our human consciousness.

[37:34] That's fair.

[37:35] Pratt tries to do the zap, electro zap trick again with Herman, but-

[37:40] Does not work.

[37:41] He shields himself.

[37:42] Yeah.

[37:42] Shields himself.

[37:44] And Yarnels himself.

[37:45] There's some destruction, but they finally escape, caving in the hideout on top of his drone,

[37:52] which both destroys Pratt's home.

[37:55] So, I don't understand why he's not really mad at Bobby Pratt.

Elliott Kalan

[37:58] He's like, well, you wrecked all my stuff, so I guess I got to help you now because we're

[38:03] on the run, I guess.

Dan McCoy

[38:03] Well, they're trapped in the exclusion zone now.

[38:06] They're trapped on the bad side of the wall, I guess.

[38:08] That's a death sentence.

Elliott Kalan

[38:10] Yeah, because there's scavs running around.

[38:11] There's scavenger robots.

Dan McCoy

[38:12] Which are explained in detail.

Elliott Kalan

[38:14] Ugh, they spend so much time.

Dan McCoy

[38:16] So, Herman, who is like this construction robot, fits himself inside a much larger robot that

[38:21] looks exactly like him.

[38:22] Kind of like it.

[38:23] Yeah, that part's kind of cool.

Elliott Kalan

[38:24] I mean, to be honest, I thought I was going to hate this robot character.

[38:27] He's pretty fun.

[38:28] Yeah.

[38:28] He gets some good lines.

[38:29] He does some neat stuff.

[38:30] Yeah.

[38:31] Anthony Mackie's performance is fun, you know.

Dan McCoy

[38:33] So, they go across the exclusion zone in a van that Herman's carrying on his shoulder.

Elliott Kalan

[38:39] This is one of the dumbest, another one of these dumb moments where it's like, hey, what about

[38:44] that van?

[38:44] The engine doesn't work.

[38:45] Well, what if that robot can carry us?

[38:47] If you're implying that he's going to, if you're suggesting he's going to carry us in

[38:50] that van, it is not going to happen.

[38:52] Cut to him carrying the van.

[38:53] It's like, why was he arguing against it?

[38:55] Why did he change his mind?

[38:56] It seems like a good idea.

[38:57] Don't understand.

[38:58] Doesn't matter.

[38:58] It's just there for the cut joke, which doesn't make sense, you know.

Dan McCoy

[39:02] We get a little Pratt backstory.

[39:04] He was rescued by Herman during the war.

[39:06] A flash brat.

[39:06] Yeah.

[39:07] He became an outlaw because of their forbidden robo-human connection.

Stuart Wellington

[39:12] Guys, it would be, I would like this way more if we found out they were lovers.

[39:17] Which we could kind of imply at the end.

Elliott Kalan

[39:19] Yeah.

[39:19] Oh, okay.

[39:20] Pratt does have that line where he's like, I think I might like you as more than a friend.

[39:23] He goes, I love you as more than a friend.

[39:25] But that never has followed up.

[39:26] But I would like it if they were lovers.

[39:27] Yeah.

[39:27] That'd be great.

[39:29] The best part of the Rebel Moon series is that the bad guy is in love with a tentacle monster.

[39:34] Yeah.

[39:34] Hands down.

Dan McCoy

[39:35] Meanwhile, Stanley Tucci is hanging out in VR reality.

[39:38] He's just going all around Italy trying.

[39:40] I have to add him to reality.

[39:41] He's like 18 machines.

[39:43] VR.

[39:44] VR reality.

[39:45] What the hell's wrong with me?

[39:47] In virtual reality with his dead Italian mama, but it glitches and he calls his underlings.

[39:52] What's wrong?

Elliott Kalan

[39:53] One of two times in the movie that you hear him say stuffed peppers.

Dan McCoy

[39:58] Why is my fantasy of my mama still being alive, feeding me, cannolis, glitching out?

[40:05] And that's because Christopher has somehow neurologically escaped his robo-body and he is powering this via question mark, question mark, question mark.

Elliott Kalan

[40:15] So all of – we find out that the entire neuro-helmet center system, which encompasses the entire world, is entirely flowing through Christopher's comatose brain.

[40:25] Super brain, yeah.

Dan McCoy

[40:26] Yeah.

[40:26] We don't get all the details about it, but that's what happens.

[40:29] Yes.

[40:30] It's because he's got such a super brain.

Elliott Kalan

[40:32] His super brain allows them to do all this computing power.

[40:35] Yeah, yeah.

[40:35] But it's also like, well, if the human brain has that potential, maybe we don't need computers.

[40:40] Yeah.

[40:40] Maybe we don't need robots to do stuff.

[40:42] I don't know, but –

[40:42] I mean, it reminds me a lot of how –

[40:45] Just take that limitless road.

Stuart Wellington

[40:45] It reminds me a lot of how in the 41st millennia, humanity is only able to travel through the stars due to the light of the Astronomicon, a psychic beacon projected by the god-emperor of mankind.

[40:58] And it flows from his magic brain, similar to Christopher.

[41:02] But the only reason he's able to stay alive is by drinking the souls of a thousand psychers every day.

Elliott Kalan

[41:08] He is telling the truth.

[41:09] He is telling the truth.

[41:09] That is what happens in the 41st century.

[41:10] Much like how in the far future as well, mankind can travel through the stars by folding space.

[41:16] But the only way to do it is with a human brain that has been suffused with the spice melange, which gives them the ability to do it.

[41:22] The human brain is an amazing thing.

Stuart Wellington

[41:23] And it mutates the person too, right?

Elliott Kalan

[41:25] A third stage mutation is quite something to see.

[41:30] Okay.

Stuart Wellington

[41:30] Do you have any science fiction you want to talk about?

[41:33] Must involve brains.

Dan McCoy

[41:34] I'm reading The Star is My Destination right now.

[41:37] That fucking shit rocks.

[41:38] Yeah, it does rock.

[41:39] And it's about brains.

Elliott Kalan

[41:41] Well, yeah, I guess so.

[41:42] Kind of.

[41:42] They teleport with their brain.

[41:43] They jaunt around.

[41:45] He gets smarter, yeah.

Stuart Wellington

[41:45] He gets smarter.

[41:46] That's the thing.

Dan McCoy

[41:47] I haven't gotten to this smart name yet.

[41:48] It's not like Donovan's brain, though, which really is about a brain.

[41:52] So meanwhile, Giant Herman gets toppled by a bunch of animatronics from Maul, an old Maul.

[41:58] And they're taken prisoner by Perplexo, a magician robot done by Hank Azaria.

[42:04] Yeah.

[42:05] Who takes them to their leader.

[42:06] That's a professional voice actor right there.

[42:08] Can't go wrong.

Elliott Kalan

[42:09] You can tell the difference between a celebrity cameo robot voice and Hank Azaria doing it.

[42:14] Hank Azaria's a master.

[42:15] Yeah.

[42:15] He gets so many more notes out of that equipment than anybody else does, out of that instrument.

Dan McCoy

[42:20] They take him to Mr. Peanut, their leader, who's pretty nice to them.

[42:24] Is that Woody Harrelson or Matt McConaughey?

[42:26] Woody Harrelson?

[42:26] Yeah.

[42:27] Okay.

[42:27] Oh, really?

[42:28] I don't know how I missed that.

Elliott Kalan

[42:31] Well, because the voice was coming out of a big robot peanut wearing a monocle and a top hat.

Dan McCoy

[42:35] Well, because what happened is-

[42:36] I thought it was probably a real peanut.

[42:38] Hell yeah.

Elliott Kalan

[42:38] That was what happened.

[42:39] It is a little offensive they didn't get a peanut to do the voice.

Stuart Wellington

[42:42] So, Char and I were watching this movie together.

[42:45] I feel bad for her, but she was like, I'm interested.

[42:48] And then I'm like, whoa, bad luck for you.

Dan McCoy

[42:51] You chose wrong.

Stuart Wellington

[42:53] As she turned into a corpse and then dust.

[42:56] Yeah.

[42:57] Anytime there's a movie that features voice acting, she's always like, who's that?

[43:02] Who's that?

[43:03] I'm like, okay, I'll pull up IMDb.

Dan McCoy

[43:08] Yeah.

[43:08] That comes in the form of Audrey saying, I've seen them before as we watch one of her numerous mystery shows.

[43:15] I'm like, well, I'm only half engaged by what's happening, so I'll play IMDb.

Elliott Kalan

[43:19] You're like, that's Benedict Cumberbatch.

[43:20] He's the star of the show.

[43:21] He's in every episode of East Sherlock Holmes.

Dan McCoy

[43:23] I wish you didn't have that 50 First Dates disease.

Elliott Kalan

[43:27] I'm sorry.

[43:28] This is the hardest part of my job.

[43:30] Your wife has 50 First Dates disease.

Dan McCoy

[43:34] Here's a DVD copy of 50 First Dates.

[43:36] We recommend this to everyone to watch.

[43:39] Only informationally, not for entertainment purposes.

[43:42] It's just the best way of getting across the idea.

Stuart Wellington

[43:44] When my parents got a Blu-ray player, that was the first Blu-ray they got.

Dan McCoy

[43:50] I have terrible news about your parents.

Stuart Wellington

[43:53] That would actually explain a lot.

[43:56] Based on the fact that I hear the same fucking stories all the time.

Elliott Kalan

[44:00] Oh, fuck you, Dad.

[44:04] Sean's like, at Stuart's parents.

Stuart Wellington

[44:06] Wow.

[44:06] He doesn't listen to this shit.

[44:08] No.

[44:08] Wow.

[44:09] Neither do my parents.

[44:09] It's okay.

Dan McCoy

[44:11] Weirdly, mine do.

[44:12] Dan's parents love it.

[44:13] They're very supportive.

[44:14] I flew home one Christmas and got in the car.

[44:17] And, you know, as you turn the car on, the radio comes back on.

[44:20] And my voice came up as they had it plugged in.

[44:23] And I'm like, oh, oh.

Elliott Kalan

[44:24] You're like, Mom, Ted, get off my ass.

[44:26] Stop being so obsessed with me.

Stuart Wellington

[44:27] Yeah, yeah.

[44:28] They're like, Dan, could you explain to us what a wormy boner is?

Dan McCoy

[44:33] It's very sweet of them.

[44:34] But also, I say terrible things here sometimes.

Elliott Kalan

[44:37] Yeah.

[44:37] Well, they see the dark side of you.

[44:38] So anyway, they find them all.

[44:39] There's all these animatronic robots there.

[44:41] Mr. Peanut's the leader.

[44:42] Yes.

Stuart Wellington

[44:43] And it's like a post-apocalyptic mall where a bunch of robots hang out.

Dan McCoy

[44:47] Yeah.

[44:47] Yeah, basically.

[44:47] And I was going to say, Mr. Peanut is surprisingly nice to them considering, you know, they just

[44:51] had a war.

[44:52] And they, like, all the robots were shut up.

Elliott Kalan

[44:54] He's one of those freedom fighters who just wants the best for everybody and wants to live in coexistence and peace, you know.

Dan McCoy

[45:00] We get a pretty non-essential flashback to Millie and her non-robot brother where she convinces him to stay in college.

[45:09] And it just sort of shows that they had a strong bond.

Elliott Kalan

[45:12] They need it so that later, when the movie tries to hit a high peak of emotion to an instrumental version of, what is it, Wonderwall?

[45:19] Yes.

[45:19] That you as the audience are going to dissolve in tears because you know how much a sister and a brother love each other.

[45:23] But it gets into the Folgers Crystals sister brother territory where it feels like they are in love.

Dan McCoy

[45:29] Yeah.

[45:29] There's a little of that.

[45:31] In the present, Robot Brother projects Cosmo cartoons like the ones they used to watch together to, you know, create a link between the two.

Elliott Kalan

[45:39] And that somehow all the other robots are in awe of the magic of this cartoon being projected as if they're cavemen.

[45:46] Cinema.

Dan McCoy

[45:48] So there's a Postal Lady robot who's Penny Pal.

[45:52] Jenny Slate does that voice.

[45:53] Oh, yeah.

[45:54] She delivers a letter that Dr. Amherst left for Christopher.

[45:58] That was the doctor from the flashback, right?

[46:00] Yes.

[46:01] In case he showed up, he had left this letter.

[46:03] And Mr. Peanut takes pity on them and offers to help them get to the doctor without getting killed by these scavengers.

[46:09] This is also where we meet Pop Fly, the aforementioned Pop Fly, with the voice of Brian Cox.

Elliott Kalan

[46:14] He is a robot baseball player who has an infinite supply of baseballs that he can spit out of his mouth.

[46:20] He's a funny character.

Dan McCoy

[46:21] And, yeah, he brags about killing scabs with his bat, scavengers.

[46:25] Yeah.

[46:25] So now we have our team.

[46:28] This is our core team.

[46:29] Yeah.

[46:29] We got two humans.

[46:30] We got Cosmo.

[46:31] We got Herman.

[46:32] Penny Pal.

[46:33] Pop Fly.

[46:33] And Mr. Peanut.

[46:34] They all go out.

Stuart Wellington

[46:36] It seems like a real abdication of Mr. Peanut's responsibility for him to go out on this field mission.

[46:40] Well, if they leave, nothing bad will happen to his little mall friend.

[46:45] Yeah.

Dan McCoy

[46:45] Also, reading that sentence made me feel like I'm on truth.

[46:49] Yeah.

Elliott Kalan

[46:50] This movie is so much less fun than that sentence makes it seem like it should be.

Dan McCoy

[46:55] So they're beset by scavs in this abandoned carnival.

[46:59] And those are frightened away by the sounds of Marky Mark and the Funky Bunch's good vibrations.

[47:04] And our hero team fall into a trap door where they meet Dr. Amherst.

[47:07] Yeah.

[47:08] Yep.

[47:08] That's all true.

Elliott Kalan

[47:09] Who's just lurking around like a regular Phantom of the Paradise.

[47:12] Yeah.

Stuart Wellington

[47:13] It would have been cool if he had like a little helmet or like a half mask.

Elliott Kalan

[47:16] I mean, every other fucking character in this movie has a helmet.

[47:18] Why doesn't he get one?

Stuart Wellington

[47:20] Now, this character was originally supposed to be Michelle Yeoh.

[47:24] And she had to drop out for something else.

[47:26] Probably the Star Trek movie that we did.

[47:27] Yeah.

Elliott Kalan

[47:27] So they said, who else is in Everything Everywhere all at once?

[47:30] Yeah.

Elliott Kalan

[47:30] That's kind of what it feels like, right?

Dan McCoy

[47:33] So between Dr. Amherst and essentially robot Dr. Amherst, a computer that he has converted into him, sort of.

[47:43] Between the two of them, they explained that Christopher has a special brain that allows blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, neural helmets, blah, blah, blah.

[47:52] I wish that's the way they had done it in the movie.

[47:54] Since he was in a coma, they just told everyone, hey, he's dead.

[47:57] So we can use this juicy brain to win the war.

Elliott Kalan

[48:00] I will say, I did feel really, it made me feel very happy that he is the actor who is now at the point in his career where they're like, who's hot right now?

[48:08] Throw him into this movie.

[48:09] You know, like every act, I feel like there's a lot of actors where it's like suddenly they're in everything.

[48:14] And I'm like, okay, good.

[48:15] If he's that actor for a little bit, that makes me very happy.

Dan McCoy

[48:17] No, I'm glad about that.

[48:18] I wish that more of them seemed to be like things that were getting good reviews.

Elliott Kalan

[48:22] Yeah, I mean, he's mostly in, I think that he's going to be in a lot of junk for a while.

[48:25] But he brings a real soulfulness to this part.

[48:28] That's like the curse of a supporting actor or actress thing, right?

Stuart Wellington

[48:31] Is that they make nothing but stinkers after it.

Elliott Kalan

[48:34] But yeah, pretty much.

[48:35] I mean, that was Cuba Gooding Jr.'s curse for sure, you know.

[48:37] And Heath Ledger.

[48:39] Oh, no.

[48:40] Oh, wow.

[48:40] And wait, but also, what did we, what's her name?

[48:42] Who won for West Side Story and was just in?

[48:45] Ariana DeBose.

[48:46] Yeah, yeah.

[48:46] Was just in, what was the dumb movie that we watched?

[48:49] Oh, Craven.

[48:49] Craven, yeah.

Dan McCoy

[48:52] Yeah, he's just inherently likable on screen.

[48:55] Yeah.

[48:55] He's a good presence.

[48:56] But so anyway, Christopher woke up.

[49:00] I thought you were going to say Christopher Walken.

[49:01] Christopher Walken.

[49:02] I'm like, I don't remember him in this movie.

[49:04] Christopher Walken walked in.

Elliott Kalan

[49:06] Bots everywhere.

[49:07] When I fought the robot war.

[49:12] Actually, he should be the robot, to be fair.

[49:14] It would be awesome, yeah.

Dan McCoy

[49:14] I was scared of these bots.

[49:16] I put googly eyes on them.

[49:18] I love Woody.

[49:18] Like, I love Woody Halston.

Stuart Wellington

[49:20] Where's your helmet?

[49:21] But if Mr. Peanut had been Christopher Walken, I don't know, four stars.

Elliott Kalan

[49:23] That would have been great.

[49:24] Yeah.

[49:25] I think they went with a southern voice because he's Mr. Peanut.

[49:28] But I wish they'd gone for more of either a robot voice or a more urbane voice.

[49:32] He wears a top hat and a monocle.

[49:33] The whole point of Mr. Peanut is he's a sophisticated man about town.

[49:36] Yeah.

[49:37] Which, I know Woody Halston is not a dumb guy, but that's not the feel I get from Woody Halston's voice.

Stuart Wellington

[49:41] And there's something about the design of this Mr. Peanut robot.

[49:45] That's grotesque.

[49:46] Yes.

[49:46] Well, part of it is that when his mouth moves, it's like it's a rubber mask.

[49:51] Yes.

[49:52] There's no, like, it's not like it's a metal thing.

[49:55] Yeah.

[49:55] So it's just kind of weird.

Elliott Kalan

[49:56] It does look like they, he's the one robot where, yeah, it's supposed to look like a human face that was turned into a peanut.

[50:03] Yeah.

Stuart Wellington

[50:04] I wonder if the Planters people were like, no, we need him to look sexy.

Elliott Kalan

[50:11] That's his whole brand.

[50:12] His whole brand is that he's a sexy peanut who died and came back as a baby.

Dan McCoy

[50:16] Can we put go-go boots on?

Elliott Kalan

[50:20] What is this bikini bottom?

Stuart Wellington

[50:22] He doesn't need a top.

[50:23] Yeah, yeah.

[50:24] We want his legs to look super fucking skinny.

Dan McCoy

[50:32] So we were right in the middle of this boring exposition.

[50:35] Put a garter belt on him.

[50:36] Sure, yeah.

[50:38] The point is Christopher woke up and when –

[50:41] I thought you were going to say Christopher Walken.

[50:43] Point too.

[50:44] If only did the voice of Mr. Peanut.

[50:49] When Skate wouldn't let the doctor to free the awakened Christopher, he made it so his brain could connect to the outside world.

[50:58] Although later on, like, it seems like Christopher, you know, couldn't survive without the machine that he's on anyway.

Elliott Kalan

[51:06] Well, his body can't survive, but his brain has been able to escape the mainframe into a robot.

[51:12] Okay.

Dan McCoy

[51:12] Because I was, like, confused all of a sudden.

[51:13] I'm like, well, wouldn't he be able to, like – I guess freeing him would just be the equivalent of, like, hey, we'll set you up with your own drone and, like, you'll live in this pod or something.

[51:23] Yes, exactly, yeah.

Elliott Kalan

[51:24] I mean, I don't know why they didn't do that.

[51:25] Yeah, keep him happy.

[51:27] Anyway.

[51:28] Then you've got – if they had done it that way, you had two sides of Christopher.

[51:33] There's the good side that is trying to stop things, and you've got the bad side that has, like –

[51:36] Two sides of Christopher.

[51:37] That they –

[51:38] The Jess Franco movie.

[51:39] Well, that they're keeping happy with, like, some kind of sex bot drone that he can control.

[51:43] Yeah.

[51:43] And it's like Tetsuo when he becomes a cult leader, and it's just like –

[51:46] Yes.

[51:47] That version of Christopher is a bot that's just popping pills and just being brought women.

[51:51] Like, I don't know.

[51:53] Let's edge this movie up, you know?

Dan McCoy

[51:57] So – what the hell am I talking about?

Elliott Kalan

[51:58] So they found the doctor.

[51:59] He tells them, hey, your brother's brain is being used to run all this stuff, you know?

[52:02] Yeah.

Dan McCoy

[52:03] Uh-oh, there's a robot sheriff at the door.

[52:05] And –

[52:05] And John Carlo –

[52:07] Robo Lobo.

[52:08] John Carlo bot shows up, and Mr. Peanut fights him, allowing the others to escape, but they're attacked by a drone army immediately.

Elliott Kalan

[52:17] And Peanut gets his hat blasted off, but then later he has his hat again.

Dan McCoy

[52:20] Yeah.

[52:20] I mean, they must have repaired him.

[52:22] But, like, he is kind of disturbing.

[52:23] He gets his hat ripped off, and he's got, like, frying brain circuits up and up.

[52:28] And then Tucci shows up as a drone.

Elliott Kalan

[52:31] Tucci sounds like – I mean, it's his real name, but it sounds like another cartoon robot character.

[52:36] Yeah.

Dan McCoy

[52:37] Tucci drone flies down and kills Dr. Amherst over the objections of Giancarlo Esposito, who only kills metal, he says.

Elliott Kalan

[52:46] He then takes the longest possible time to decide that Stanley Tucci is a bad guy.

[52:50] Yeah.

[52:52] Also, I was unclear the entire time.

[52:54] So Giancarlo Esposito's character works for the government in shutting down robots, right, that are out of the exclusion zone.

[53:01] After a certain point, Stanley Tucci's like, hey, let me get in touch with you.

[53:04] There's some robots you should take on.

[53:06] And I want him to be like, yeah, that's my job, dude.

[53:08] I don't need you to motivate me.

[53:09] But instead it feels like now he's working for Stanley Tucci.

[53:12] What is he doing for him that is any different?

[53:15] That he's letting him get into the exclusion zone to kill another robot?

[53:17] Yeah.

Dan McCoy

[53:17] It's – they do address this.

[53:20] I don't think it's like super – I don't think it makes sense if you really think about it that hard.

[53:25] But like because of the accords, it would be he can't go in and just like get these guys.

[53:31] So why does he want to go in so badly and get these guys?

[53:34] So he's employing someone so that he has like a bit more distance from –

[53:37] Well, I know why Stanley Tucci's doing it.

Elliott Kalan

[53:38] Okay.

[53:38] I don't know why Giancarlo Esposito is now acting like he works for Stanley Tucci.

[53:41] I think there was some motivation.

[53:42] Blast and brats, dude.

[53:43] But he doesn't need his permission to blast bots, right?

Stuart Wellington

[53:46] That's true.

[53:46] But maybe – but like this allows him to get into the exclusion zone.

[53:50] I guess that's true.

[53:51] Yeah.

[53:51] Where he gets Max Bot Blastin'.

[53:53] Max Bot Blastin' is a great name for a character.

[53:58] Hey.

[53:59] Like a robot porn actor.

Elliott Kalan

[54:02] It's like Magnus Robot Fighter, but instead of fighting the PSX with him, Max Bot Blastin'.

[54:07] We need something with more power.

Dan McCoy

[54:08] We need to get Max Bot Blastin'.

[54:10] Only he can give us a robot orgasm.

Elliott Kalan

[54:15] My name was – I grew up Max Blastasorian, but, you know, I'm going to change it to Max Bot Blastin'.

Dan McCoy

[54:20] Yeah.

[54:20] Robo LS Island, yeah.

Elliott Kalan

[54:24] Robot Statue of Liberty holding up a circuit board or something.

Dan McCoy

[54:27] The bots go back to the mall, which has been raised in their absence.

[54:31] It's all burnt up.

[54:31] Oh, they put it and they made it higher?

[54:33] Yeah.

Elliott Kalan

[54:34] If only.

Stuart Wellington

[54:37] Raised up to robot heaven.

Dan McCoy

[54:40] Meanwhile, Cosmo –

[54:41] The heavyside lair for bots.

[54:42] A handcuffed Cosmo is led through Sentry in cuffs to see himself in flesh form in a medical pod.

[54:50] In a meat suit.

[54:51] Yeah.

[54:52] Giancarlo Bot is mad that Tucci had him hunting a human boy and they have a boring moral argument.

[54:58] It's very boring.

[55:00] Pratt gives Millie a little pep talk, says he'll help her try to break into Sentry.

[55:04] That scene I liked a little bit.

Elliott Kalan

[55:05] I felt like there was some writing here that I liked more than I thought I was going to.

Dan McCoy

[55:08] Yeah.

[55:08] I mean, it doesn't really –

[55:10] It doesn't make sense.

[55:11] Yes.

[55:11] That's the thing.

[55:12] Like, she asked this question, like, when did you stop being a jerk?

[55:14] And he says, like, I'm still a jerk.

[55:16] I got a haircut.

Elliott Kalan

[55:17] He goes, when did you stop being an asshole?

[55:18] He goes, I still got a haircut.

[55:19] I like those two lines.

[55:20] No, it was great.

[55:21] But the scene does not – I mean, the movie doesn't deserve them, you know?

Dan McCoy

[55:24] Yes.

[55:25] No, like, I don't actually know.

[55:26] Like, her question still stands.

Elliott Kalan

[55:28] Yeah, I don't know why he changed his mind.

[55:30] I don't know why she's listening to him.

Dan McCoy

[55:33] Yeah.

[55:33] But it's sweet.

[55:35] We'll take what we can get.

[55:37] Fortunately, they have essentially a robot version of Dr. Amherst still, even though –

Elliott Kalan

[55:42] The computer that you mentioned, yeah.

[55:43] Yeah.

[55:43] Same voice.

[55:44] So he's still getting paid.

[55:46] He's got glasses on the screen, yeah.

[55:47] Yeah.

[55:48] He's got the codes.

[55:49] Do you think the actor stops getting paid if the character gets killed?

[55:51] Yeah.

Stuart Wellington

[55:52] That's why Richard Jenkins made no money off of Six Feet Under.

Elliott Kalan

[55:57] We wish we could pay you when your character said the whole series.

Stuart Wellington

[56:01] Yeah.

[56:01] Same thing with – what's that?

[56:03] Bruce Willis and the Sixth Sense.

[56:05] And Paradise.

[56:06] Yeah.

[56:07] Bruce Willis and the Sixth Sense.

[56:08] Like, we can't nominate you for best actor because you're dead.

Elliott Kalan

[56:12] He didn't know – they shot the movie in sequence, so he didn't know he wasn't getting paid to the last scene.

[56:16] Yeah.

Dan McCoy

[56:16] Hey, that's how you do it.

[56:18] So there's an orchestral version of Don't Stop Believin' plays.

[56:22] Yeah.

[56:23] As submarines approach Sentry.

Stuart Wellington

[56:25] The fucking music in this movie sucks so hard.

Dan McCoy

[56:28] It sucks horrible, yeah.

[56:29] It's terrible.

[56:30] And it gets worse as it goes along.

[56:31] It does get worse as it goes on, yeah.

[56:32] I am not the sort of person who's, like, usually mad about needle drops, like, unless they're, like, the most –

[56:40] Unless one of your friends has a heroin habit, in which case you want them to drop that needle.

Elliott Kalan

[56:44] Mm-hmm.

[56:44] Yeah.

[56:45] I mean, I just –

Stuart Wellington

[56:45] Just not into their arm.

[56:46] I don't –

[56:47] Needle Recycling Band.

[56:48] Yes, yes, yeah.

Dan McCoy

[56:49] I don't need to hear, you know, I feel good again.

[56:52] I don't need to hear Bad to the Bone.

[56:54] I don't need to hear –

[56:54] I would love to hear I feel good again.

[56:56] Hallelujah.

[56:57] Hallelujah.

[56:57] I never want to hear it again.

[56:58] Bad to the Bone.

[56:59] But also, like –

[57:00] Hold on, I'm coming.

[57:01] Like, things that are, like – have been, like, turned into cliches.

[57:04] But here, like, at the beginning, it's like, oh, you know, normal, like, dumb needle drops.

[57:09] It doesn't make me too mad.

[57:10] But then by the end, it really ramps up into –

Elliott Kalan

[57:12] I think doing the orchestral versions really brings it to a new level of stupid.

Stuart Wellington

[57:17] Well, it's like how – what is it?

[57:20] The Sons of Anarchy show would just constantly do, like, slowed down versions of, like, alt-rock songs.

Elliott Kalan

[57:26] Yeah.

[57:26] But there's a certain kind of director that loves to use pop music in their movies.

[57:30] Martin Scorsese is one where, for the most part in his movies, I think he's also looking for songs that you might not associate with what you're seeing or songs that, like, maybe you haven't heard that much or that means something to him.

[57:41] And I feel like in this movie, the rule was we can only use songs that have appeared in other movies within the past three to four years.

Dan McCoy

[57:48] No.

Elliott Kalan

[57:48] I do not want the audience to be shocked out of their seats by hearing a song that they don't immediately recognize, you know.

Dan McCoy

[57:54] If it was an AI – if the music supervisor was AI, I would not be surprised.

[57:59] That would be –

Stuart Wellington

[58:01] Yeah, the music supervisor is, like, the shittiest touch tunes in a fucking college bar.

Dan McCoy

[58:07] But anyway, we get this orchestral Don't Stop Believing, Submarines Approach Sentry, Stanley Tucci frowns at some monitors, then Breaking the Law kicks in.

[58:16] Just for – we don't get enough of it, you know.

[58:18] A giant Herman throws cars from the parking lot.

[58:20] There's a bunch of fighting that won't describe.

[58:21] Having said that, the meal drops suck.

Stuart Wellington

[58:23] Breaking the Law is a great song.

[58:24] I'm not saying – yeah.

[58:25] I mean, the thing is that – the problem is that, like, even a song like Mother or Breaking the Law, like, it's – when it's applied to this specific context, it sucks.

[58:36] Yeah.

Elliott Kalan

[58:36] They're not doing anything good with it.

[58:37] Yeah.

[58:38] Although they are breaking the law.

[58:39] It is against the law to pick up someone's car and throw it at a building.

Stuart Wellington

[58:42] It's true.

[58:42] Is it legal for a robot to do that?

[58:45] Let me look at the rule book.

[58:46] Let's take the rule book.

[58:47] Hold on.

Dan McCoy

[58:48] Oh, and the –

[58:49] Oh.

[58:49] And the – what the –

[58:50] This is weird.

[58:51] It says law N.A. on account of why would we write it.

Stuart Wellington

[58:56] I was excited to see that there's – that the, what, scientist who gets the car thrown at her is Patty Harrison.

[59:03] Oh, really?

[59:04] Yeah, that's right.

[59:05] Yeah.

[59:05] That's cool.

[59:06] Yeah.

[59:07] It was –

[59:07] Super funny.

[59:08] There's a few – yeah, a few people got paid that I'm happy about.

Elliott Kalan

[59:11] I'm never – I'm never – like, I'm never unhappy with someone – with someone who is good, gets paid to be in a movie.

[59:16] Yeah.

Dan McCoy

[59:17] Amher Spot has stuck in, disguised as a regular computer, with Millie Bobby Brown hidden inside him, and they find Christopher.

[59:26] Outside, the tide is turning against the robots because Tucci has used the clever strategy of having a bigger mech than had previously been used.

Elliott Kalan

[59:35] This is so dumb.

[59:37] Like, the idea that these drones were the only thing that could stop the bots, but now the bots are totally kicking the drones' ass.

[59:44] You know what would stop them?

[59:45] One giant one.

[59:47] And it's like, why is nobody using bombs?

[59:49] Like, why is – I don't understand.

[59:50] Why is nobody –

[59:50] Yeah.

[59:51] Yeah.

[59:51] And that – also that –

Stuart Wellington

[59:52] They even, like, developed, like, small EMP technology or something.

Elliott Kalan

[59:55] Yeah.

[59:56] Yeah.

[59:57] I know.

[59:57] Just – but also the – that, again, there's no – it's one of those things where, like, all the robots that are – it's all just robots fighting.

[1:00:05] But half the robots, if they get destroyed, they're dead.

[1:00:07] And the other half, if they get destroyed, it doesn't matter.

[1:00:10] Yeah.

[1:00:10] You know, the other – the person controlling it is fine.

[1:00:12] And it's a – that should raise the stakes for our heroes.

[1:00:15] Yeah.

[1:00:15] But instead, it just makes everything feel a little bit more meaningless, you know?

Stuart Wellington

[1:00:18] Yeah.

[1:00:18] There wasn't even a moment where it looks like they're – the robots are winning because they killed a bunch of the drones.

[1:00:23] And then, like, we see the same pilots piloting new drones coming and running out.

Elliott Kalan

[1:00:27] Oh, that would be a great moment.

[1:00:28] Yeah.

[1:00:28] They didn't do that.

[1:00:29] I mean, because the – I mean, the pilots piloting the drones are treated as drones.

[1:00:34] Yeah.

[1:00:34] They're treated as nobodies.

[1:00:35] And if it was a smarter movie, it would be like, oh, you become – use a drone, you become a drone.

[1:00:40] You know, that's how you lose your individuality.

[1:00:41] Yeah.

[1:00:41] Which is kind of the message they're trying to do later when they're saying, turn off your helmets.

[1:00:46] But I don't know.

Stuart Wellington

[1:00:47] And the big drone, what, like, blows up Herman's, like –

Dan McCoy

[1:00:51] His big body.

[1:00:52] Big body.

Stuart Wellington

[1:00:53] And then his, like, second big body because he has – it's like a nesting doll of robot.

[1:00:56] He's like a Matryoshka doll.

[1:00:57] Yeah.

[1:00:58] Yeah, yeah.

Dan McCoy

[1:00:59] But – so in the midst of all this robot carnage, Esposito has a change of parts.

[1:01:05] Starring Woody Harrelson as robot carnage.

[1:01:07] Because of all he's seen, he tells Mr. Peanut where to find Stanley Tucci in non-drone form, in flesh form.

[1:01:14] Just human meat form.

[1:01:16] Millie and her brother talk inside her brother's brain.

[1:01:19] He tells her there's no way to disconnect him without him dying.

Stuart Wellington

[1:01:21] Real quick, robot carnage would be, like, computer virus or something.

[1:01:26] Oh, yeah.

[1:01:26] Because they're all named, like, toxin.

[1:01:27] Yeah, it's all toxin or virus or phage, yeah.

Dan McCoy

[1:01:29] So Christopher says there's no way to disconnect him without him dying.

[1:01:33] And he says, go ahead and do it.

[1:01:36] That's going to be the big triumph.

[1:01:37] They're going to pull the plug because he doesn't want to be their robo-battery for the next hundred years.

Stuart Wellington

[1:01:42] And luckily there's just, like, three buttons you hit that are, like, turns it off.

[1:01:46] Very easy to disconnect him.

Dan McCoy

[1:01:48] Yeah.

[1:01:49] Robo-pro.

Elliott Kalan

[1:01:49] So this really counts as a dumb adaptation of that Ursula K. Le Guin story about the city that operates on the mistreatment of one child.

[1:01:58] And that's what its good fortune is based on.

[1:02:00] And some people walk away from that, you know?

Dan McCoy

[1:02:02] Yeah, those who walk away from something.

Elliott Kalan

[1:02:04] I couldn't remember the name of the place.

[1:02:05] So she should sue them.

[1:02:08] Yeah, yeah.

[1:02:08] I mean, she's not alive.

Dan McCoy

[1:02:11] No, her state.

[1:02:11] She's also amazing.

[1:02:12] Yeah.

[1:02:13] Yeah, the best.

[1:02:15] So.

[1:02:15] What's that K stand for?

[1:02:16] Herman.

[1:02:17] Cool.

[1:02:17] Cool as hell.

[1:02:19] Herman dies while the others are arguing inside Christopher's brain.

Stuart Wellington

[1:02:22] She was sponsored by them.

[1:02:23] She was sponsored by Cool Sigurus.

Dan McCoy

[1:02:25] This argument over whether she's going to kill Christopher takes way too long considering we're already 105 minutes into this movie.

Elliott Kalan

[1:02:33] And you know it's going to happen.

[1:02:35] They're not, yeah.

[1:02:35] But they really, they draw it out for a long time.

Dan McCoy

[1:02:37] Yeah.

[1:02:38] Pratt is sad because despite them winning, Herman has been blasted and he confesses possible romantic feelings.

[1:02:47] Guys.

[1:02:47] What, what, what, what?

Stuart Wellington

[1:02:48] But so when Herman gets blasted, we've already seen him nesting doll down.

[1:02:54] Like immediately I'm like, there's just a little one inside his head.

Elliott Kalan

[1:02:57] There's no way this movie is going to let that character die.

[1:03:00] Even though that would instantly make the movie better, more interesting, more meaningful.

[1:03:05] I don't know.

Stuart Wellington

[1:03:05] I think having a tiny little guy trumps that.

Dan McCoy

[1:03:09] That's what happens.

[1:03:10] Another smaller Herman pops out.

[1:03:12] A little bitty one.

[1:03:13] Yeah.

[1:03:13] A little guy that can perch on his shoulder.

Stuart Wellington

[1:03:16] I wish his voice was also pitched even higher.

[1:03:21] That would be really funny.

[1:03:22] When he's in the big suit, he should have a super low voice.

Elliott Kalan

[1:03:24] Yes, that would have been really funny.

[1:03:25] He pops out of Herman's head.

[1:03:27] Yes.

[1:03:27] Oh.

[1:03:28] It all comes together.

[1:03:29] There's a little man inside there.

[1:03:30] And you know what?

[1:03:31] Now there's only one of him.

[1:03:32] So he's like Herman's Hermit.

[1:03:34] Uh-huh.

[1:03:35] Wow.

[1:03:36] There's probably another one inside.

[1:03:38] Yeah.

[1:03:39] I don't think so.

[1:03:40] What is it?

[1:03:41] There's nothing else belongs to Hermits except Hermits and heads.

Dan McCoy

[1:03:43] Yeah.

[1:03:45] What happens?

[1:03:45] We get another dump of news clips showing that Skate was held to account.

Elliott Kalan

[1:03:50] A dump of news clips is the correct plural.

[1:03:53] Like a murder of crows or pack of lions.

Stuart Wellington

[1:03:54] I feel like this wrap-up was like somehow dumber than the rest of the movie.

Dan McCoy

[1:03:59] Maybe.

Stuart Wellington

[1:04:00] The way they're just like, yeah, and the bad guy.

[1:04:03] And everything.

[1:04:04] And everybody now hates this technology that everybody uses.

Elliott Kalan

[1:04:08] They're like, the technology that ran the world is over.

[1:04:11] There's chaos.

[1:04:12] People are going outside and enjoying themselves.

[1:04:15] Like, no.

Dan McCoy

[1:04:16] And everyone got ice cream.

[1:04:20] And Millie Bobby Brown, at this point, during an orchestral version of Wonderwall,

[1:04:24] Yeah.

[1:04:25] Millie Bobby Brown delivers a sermon to you, the viewers of the Electric State, telling you

[1:04:30] to turn the Electric State off for fuck's sake.

[1:04:32] Go hug your loved ones.

[1:04:33] Tell me that two hours ago.

Elliott Kalan

[1:04:35] Also, she's like, stop using your helmets.

[1:04:38] Like, I thought the helmet system got fucked up.

[1:04:39] Like, why are you telling people this?

[1:04:41] Yeah.

Dan McCoy

[1:04:41] I didn't like this movie before, this part.

[1:04:43] But this was the part that made me angry.

[1:04:45] Now I love it.

[1:04:45] Maybe I want to throw something at the television.

Elliott Kalan

[1:04:47] Well, this feels like Sucker Punch, where Sucker Punch is two hours of like girls in miniskirts

[1:04:51] fighting each other and fighting monsters.

[1:04:53] And at the end it's like, don't you love this, you sick fuck?

[1:04:55] What's your problem that you love this movie?

[1:04:57] He's like, I didn't make this movie?

[1:04:58] You put her on screen, dude.

[1:04:58] Michael Hanukkah made this movie?

[1:05:01] Michael Hanukkah?

[1:05:02] Yeah.

[1:05:02] They only had enough torture porn and uncomfortable stuff for one night, but it lasted eight nights.

[1:05:07] We've been through this before.

[1:05:09] You made fun of me for this.

Dan McCoy

[1:05:11] It's how his name is pronounced.

[1:05:12] We looked it up.

[1:05:13] Yeah, that's true.

[1:05:14] Anyway, finally, the last image of the movie.

Elliott Kalan

[1:05:17] Last sandwich of the movie?

[1:05:18] Last sandwich.

[1:05:21] On the left.

[1:05:21] That's my ears.

[1:05:22] That's not Dan.

[1:05:23] That's my ears.

Dan McCoy

[1:05:24] Cosmo is in a dump.

[1:05:26] The Christopher Cosmo.

[1:05:28] It's called the Electric State.

[1:05:31] But, you know, we see in a puddle that a dog is drinking from that he's gotten up, suggesting that maybe Christopher lives on in some form after all.

[1:05:40] And Yoshimi battles the pink robots plays as I think about battling some pink Russo's.

[1:05:47] And there we go.

[1:05:49] That's it.

[1:05:50] We did the whole movie.

Elliott Kalan

[1:05:51] So they just did a search for songs with robots in them.

[1:05:54] And you know what song they didn't do?

[1:05:55] What?

[1:05:55] Mr. Roboto.

[1:05:56] I'm kind of surprised.

[1:05:57] Yeah.

[1:05:58] That is weird.

[1:05:59] Now, if it was all needle drops with songs with robots in them or robot stuff, it was Mr. Roboto, our friends Electric, that kind of stuff, then I'd be like, oh, you know what?

[1:06:07] This is kind of dumb, but it's okay.

[1:06:08] You know?

[1:06:09] At least they're all themed robots.

Dan McCoy

[1:06:11] Hey, guys.

[1:06:12] Let's do our final judgments.

[1:06:13] Sure.

[1:06:14] Well, we loved it, obviously.

[1:06:15] Whether this is a good, bad movie, a bad, bad movie, or a movie that we kind of liked.

Stuart Wellington

[1:06:20] Yeah, how do we feel?

[1:06:21] This is the unofficial bot month or whatever.

Elliott Kalan

[1:06:24] Yeah, we went straight from movies without Spider-Man to bot month.

[1:06:28] We transitioned into them, yeah.

Dan McCoy

[1:06:29] Bot month.

[1:06:30] Na, na, na, na, na, na, na, na, na.

Elliott Kalan

[1:06:33] The voice cracking while he did it was icing on the cake.

[1:06:36] Yeah.

Dan McCoy

[1:06:39] Yeah, I didn't like this movie.

Elliott Kalan

[1:06:41] Really, Dan?

[1:06:42] You talked about it for a while.

[1:06:44] Yeah, you took a really exhaustive note of the movie you didn't like.

Dan McCoy

[1:06:48] Likely story.

[1:06:49] It's just, it's, it did make me curious.

[1:06:53] Like, I went in search of stuff about the book because I was curious.

[1:06:57] And the book sounds interesting.

[1:06:59] The book sounds, like, sort of haunting.

[1:07:01] And it's vague about what happens.

[1:07:04] And it's sort of horrific.

[1:07:05] All the things that this is not.

Elliott Kalan

[1:07:07] Maybe for the first time in cinema history, a movie was made out of a book.

[1:07:10] And they failed to capture what was special about the book.

Dan McCoy

[1:07:12] Yeah.

[1:07:13] Well, this is, like, so antithetical to what it seems like the book's vibe is.

[1:07:17] Like, there's nothing disquieting about the movie.

[1:07:19] No, you would think the book was Ready Player One or something like that.

[1:07:22] Yeah.

[1:07:23] But, yeah, I thought this was just your standard boilerplate nonsense.

[1:07:29] Elliot?

Elliott Kalan

[1:07:30] Yeah, I also felt the same way.

[1:07:31] I thought it was a bad, bad movie.

[1:07:32] And it felt very, for that reason, it felt very generic and very kind of, like, default setting.

[1:07:37] I will say this.

[1:07:39] It looks pretty good.

[1:07:40] The effects look good.

[1:07:41] They clearly spent a lot of money.

[1:07:42] There's some performances in it I like.

[1:07:43] But overall, from the writing to the way the action scenes are done to the music choices, it just feels very like, it feels like they're working off a recipe.

[1:07:54] Yeah.

Stuart Wellington

[1:07:54] Yeah.

[1:07:55] Yeah.

[1:07:55] And after, like, I don't want to, like, start drawing correlations to the Russo brothers' other work.

[1:08:01] But it feels like that they, I guess I just have to assume that a lot of what made their pre, like, their successes comes more from, like, pre-established, like, characters that we already like.

[1:08:15] We already have, we're invested in these characters so they don't have to worry about doing that work.

[1:08:20] And when they do have to, when they have to try and make us care about these characters, like, I don't, I can barely remember one thing about any of these characters.

[1:08:30] Um, what's next?

[1:08:32] They definitely have strengths.

Dan McCoy

[1:08:33] And I feel like this movie does not play to those strengths.

[1:08:35] Bad, bad.

[1:08:35] Bad, bad movie.

[1:08:37] I know what's next.

[1:08:38] This podcast.

[1:08:40] Oh, this podcast is next?

[1:08:41] The one you're listening to right now.

[1:08:43] This podcast is brought to you in part by Squarespace.

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[1:09:41] And now.

Elliott Kalan

[1:09:43] Actually, Dan, can I plug a couple things?

[1:09:45] Sure.

Dan McCoy

[1:09:45] Plug the labels.

Elliott Kalan

[1:09:46] I just want to plug a couple things on my own.

[1:09:48] One of those is, as I've said before, I write the Harley Quinn comic book for DC Comics.

[1:09:53] It comes out once a month.

[1:09:54] I'm going to be writing it for a little while longer, which I'm excited about because I like writing it.

[1:09:58] And it's a fun, funny book.

[1:10:01] Very few multi-issue storylines.

[1:10:03] You can pick up an issue.

[1:10:04] You can read the story.

[1:10:05] You put it down.

[1:10:06] Of course, plot threads continue from issue to issue.

[1:10:08] But I'm trying to stay away from too many multi-issue stories so you can have a satisfying experience every single time.

[1:10:15] At the same time, this episode's coming out in April.

[1:10:18] At the end of April, April 22nd, my new picture book comes out.

[1:10:21] It's called Sadie Mouse Wrecks the House from Harper Kids.

[1:10:24] The artist on it is Tim Miller, who did Horse Meets Dog with me.

[1:10:28] And I think it's super fun.

[1:10:29] It's about a girl, Sadie Mouse.

[1:10:31] She is the good mouse in the family.

[1:10:32] She always has to do all the chores, and she's tired of it.

[1:10:34] So she's going to be the bad mouse and do those chores as destructive as possible.

[1:10:38] And it's a super fun book.

[1:10:39] So it's called Sadie Mouse Wrecks the House on bookstore shelves, April 22nd.

[1:10:44] Pre-order it now if you want to through your local independent bookstore.

S4

[1:10:52] Dr. Game Show is a podcast where we play games submitted by listeners with callers from all around the world.

[1:10:57] And this is a game to get you to listen.

[1:11:00] Name three reasons to listen to Dr. Game Show.

[1:11:03] Kyla and Lunar from Freedom Mame.

S5

[1:11:06] Dishes, folding the laundry, doing cat grooming.

S4

[1:11:10] Okay, thank you.

[1:11:12] Great.

S5

[1:11:13] Oh, things you could do while listening.

[1:11:15] Yeah.

S4

[1:11:16] I love that the read, I'm like, why do you listen to this show?

[1:11:19] And Lunar's like, dishes.

[1:11:21] Fantastic.

[1:11:22] Manolo.

S5

[1:11:23] Number one is that it'll inspire you.

[1:11:27] You're going to be like, oh, I could do that.

S4

[1:11:29] That's all we have time for, but you'll just have to find Dr. Game Show on Maximum Fun to find out for yourself.

Stuart Wellington

[1:11:38] And who doesn't?

[1:11:39] I mean, some people probably don't.

S5

[1:11:41] Okay, but a lot of people do.

[1:11:43] So say you're one of those people and you feel like you don't really have anyone to talk to about the games that you like.

[1:11:48] Well, you should get some better friends.

[1:11:50] Yes, you should get some better friends, but you could also listen to Triple Click, a weekly podcast about video games hosted by me, Kirk Hamilton.

Stuart Wellington

[1:11:59] Me, Maddie Myers.

S5

[1:12:01] And me, Jason Schreier.

[1:12:02] We talk about new releases, old classics, industry news, and whatever, really.

Stuart Wellington

[1:12:07] We'll show you new things to love about games and maybe even help you find new friends to talk to you about them.

[1:12:13] Triple Click.

S5

[1:12:14] It's kind of like we're your friends.

[1:12:16] Find us at MaximumFun.org or wherever you get your podcasts.

Dan McCoy

[1:12:20] Let's answer a few letters from listeners.

[1:12:25] Listeners.

[1:12:25] Like who?

[1:12:26] Like you?

[1:12:27] Me?

[1:12:28] Yeah.

[1:12:28] Well, I mean, you're currently hosting.

Elliott Kalan

[1:12:31] Oh, so we're not answering letters from listeners.

[1:12:33] We're currently hosting the show.

[1:12:34] No, no, no, no.

[1:12:35] Dear Dan, how's it going?

[1:12:37] Pretty good.

[1:12:38] Thanks.

[1:12:39] It's good to see you.

[1:12:40] I didn't finish.

[1:12:40] Love Elliot.

[1:12:41] Thank you, Elliot.

[1:12:43] This is from...

[1:12:43] P.S.

[1:12:44] Stuart, how's it going?

[1:12:46] Pretty good.

[1:12:48] All right.

[1:12:48] So we finished this segment, right?

Dan McCoy

[1:12:50] Yeah.

[1:12:50] That's it.

[1:12:51] Lettuce from listeners.

[1:12:52] We can pick it up.

[1:12:52] Lettuce from listeners.

[1:12:54] This is from Mac.

[1:12:56] Mac.

[1:12:56] Mac Tonight.

[1:12:57] Famous for his giant crescent moon-shaped head.

[1:12:59] You know what?

[1:13:00] The person made a guess.

[1:13:02] It said Mac, last name, the knife.

[1:13:04] Oh, okay.

[1:13:05] So they guessed the thing.

[1:13:06] That it said Mac.

[1:13:06] Play on.

[1:13:07] Yeah.

Elliott Kalan

[1:13:07] Yeah.

[1:13:08] I know him by his German name of Mackey Master.

Dan McCoy

[1:13:11] Mac says, hey, peaches.

[1:13:14] I consider myself a Quentin Tarantino fan, but unlike most Tarantino fans, I don't like Reservoir

[1:13:20] Dogs because I didn't like the infamous ear scene.

[1:13:24] It was too gruesome for me and took me out of the movie.

[1:13:26] Do you have...

[1:13:27] The camera pans away.

[1:13:29] Yeah.

[1:13:29] I mean, the anticipation.

[1:13:31] Your brain supplies.

[1:13:32] The camera does pan away.

[1:13:34] Do you have an example of a movie that you would have otherwise loved, say for one scene, that you wish was cut or different?

[1:13:45] Yeah.

[1:13:46] I mean, there's like sort of easy like 80s, you know, like stuff that was like insulting shit that I wish wasn't in movies that I otherwise liked.

[1:14:00] Like either The Monster Squad or Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure.

[1:14:05] They both have like gay slurs in them.

[1:14:08] I would love to just not be there, but that's not a whole scene.

[1:14:12] There's stuff in a movie that I know Elliot doesn't like at all, but like in Licorice Pizza, I don't know.

[1:14:19] I don't know what like the racist like character played by John Michael Higgins is doing in the movie at all.

[1:14:27] Like it's the one element where I'm like, I don't even understand.

[1:14:32] And so I would love for that to be excised, but...

Elliott Kalan

[1:14:35] I get that.

[1:14:36] I mean, there's a lot of movies that I love where there's a scene that I don't...

[1:14:39] My favorite movie of all time, The Taken of Palomone 2-3, has as similarly as that scene with Walter Matthau being insulting to the Japanese subway guys.

[1:14:46] Yeah.

[1:14:46] I wish that scene was not in there and something else like it was in there, you know?

Stuart Wellington

[1:14:49] And I think your second favorite movie of all time, The Kingsman, has that weird anal sex bit at the end.

Elliott Kalan

[1:14:54] Yeah.

[1:14:54] That is my second favorite.

Stuart Wellington

[1:14:56] For the record, my second favorite movie of all time is Shadow of a Doubt.

Dan McCoy

[1:14:59] I mean, they both seem into it.

[1:15:00] I don't understand what the...

Stuart Wellington

[1:15:01] It's just kind of weird that that's like...

[1:15:03] It like commodifies it.

[1:15:05] It's transactional.

[1:15:06] It's kind of weird.

Elliott Kalan

[1:15:07] But there's a...

[1:15:08] There are definitely...

[1:15:08] I was having trouble with this question because there are movies, I think, that have a scene of...

[1:15:12] There's a lot of movies that have a similarly to the letter writer, Max Knight, a scene of violence that I find goes too far for me.

[1:15:19] Or that makes it like the...

[1:15:21] Makes me uncomfortable in a way that the rest of the movie doesn't necessarily.

[1:15:24] But I'm having trouble thinking of specific ones right now.

[1:15:27] There's definitely like...

[1:15:28] There's lots of movies.

[1:15:29] I mean, there's so many old movies I love that have a scene in it where it's like,

[1:15:32] Oh, that's...

[1:15:34] I'm racist.

[1:15:34] I don't like that.

[1:15:34] Or, oh, that line I don't like.

[1:15:35] But I feel like for the most part, when there's a scene in a movie that is just out of tone brutal,

[1:15:44] then that often gets to me.

[1:15:45] Although that being said, then sometimes you have a movie like The Silent Partner where there's a murder scene in that

[1:15:50] that is so much more brutal and intense than I expected.

[1:15:52] And it is great.

[1:15:54] It's an amazing scene.

Dan McCoy

[1:15:54] Well, because it suddenly like shifts the movie into a different gear, I think.

[1:15:57] The movie becomes so much harsher.

Stuart Wellington

[1:15:59] Yeah.

[1:16:00] I mean, I think it's like last year, I would say probably the horror movie that stuck with me the most from last year was Smile 2 of all things,

[1:16:07] which is not a movie that like I like that much, but there was some like genuinely interesting stuff in it.

[1:16:15] But there was just so many rug pulls and it's such like a...

[1:16:18] Like it's such just like a mean-spirited movie.

[1:16:21] I had trouble like really enjoying it.

Dan McCoy

[1:16:24] There's too many rug pulls at the end.

[1:16:25] I would argue that like the mean-spirited in that movie feels so sort of Sam Raimi-esque almost where it's like...

[1:16:35] Well, like a drag me to hell type thing.

[1:16:36] Yeah, like the fun of it is like I'm going to be just like more mean than you expect with this tone.

Elliott Kalan

[1:16:43] It is some of the fun of drag me to hell where she really doesn't deserve to be dragged to hell.

[1:16:47] When you think she's figured out, it's like no, you didn't.

[1:16:49] I get it.

[1:16:50] I get it.

[1:16:51] Speaking of Sam Raimi, I think a lot of people feel this way about the tree scene and Evil Dead.

[1:16:55] You know?

[1:16:56] It's like that just goes a little too far, you know?

Dan McCoy

[1:16:58] Sophie Last Name Withheld writes,

[1:17:00] Hey guys, there's a fairly well-known term in film criticism, the idiot plot, where the plot only works if every character is an idiot.

[1:17:09] I was considering the idea of a genius plot, where the plot only works if all or at least the pivotal characters are geniuses in a way that's equally as infuriating to watch.

[1:17:19] Can you think of any examples?

[1:17:21] Love your work, et cetera, et cetera.

[1:17:23] Goodbye from Aoteora, New Zealand.

[1:17:28] Oh.

[1:17:28] Sophie Last Name Withheld.

Elliott Kalan

[1:17:30] This is more a scene that I feel like, maybe it's not the exact same thing.

[1:17:34] There's that stupid, dumbass scene in the Now You See Me, Now You Can movie.

[1:17:37] No, no, no.

[1:17:38] Where they're flipping that card with the mic and it's like this scene only works if they are the most amazing magician, like cool people in the world and it's so stupid.

[1:17:47] It's so totally removed from reality.

[1:17:50] Good movie.

Dan McCoy

[1:17:51] I was going to mention the Now You See movies, which absolutely do not work unless everyone in it is like a robot program to understand every possible move that anyone could make.

[1:18:03] Yeah.

[1:18:03] But I do think that somehow it also shoots the moon in terms of stupidity where I start liking that about those movies.

Elliott Kalan

[1:18:12] Yes.

[1:18:12] I think, but that's, I guess that's what it is.

[1:18:13] A movie where you reveal that the characters have kind of like seen through every angle and were never in any danger or they always were going to pull it off.

[1:18:21] Like that's, as opposed to something like a movie like The Hot Rock or something where it's a heist, but they keep screwing it up, you know?

[1:18:27] Yeah.

Dan McCoy

[1:18:28] I feel this way often about like mastermind serial killer movies.

[1:18:33] Yeah.

[1:18:33] It's like, I was 12 steps ahead the whole time.

[1:18:36] Like, wait, how would you know that any of this was going to happen this way?

Elliott Kalan

[1:18:39] It's the plot version of when a character has to be in exactly the right spot for a cool move to take flight.

[1:18:45] Yeah.

[1:18:45] In First Blood, when he makes himself look like a tree and it's like, oh, it's a good thing that the deputy walks right by that tree.

Dan McCoy

[1:18:52] Or there's like the, which was the James Bond movie where like the train crashes through the wall in exactly the right place.

[1:18:57] I'm like, how?

Elliott Kalan

[1:18:58] The one with Javier Bardem.

[1:18:59] Which one is that?

[1:18:59] Yeah, Skyfall.

[1:19:00] Yeah, yeah.

[1:19:00] He timed it.

[1:19:01] He timed his escape from the courtroom exactly so that that train would get, yeah.

[1:19:05] I mean, that was also during the long period where every bad guy wanted to get caught as part of his plan.

[1:19:10] It's like, you know what?

[1:19:11] It's easier to pull off a plan if you're not in jail.

Stuart Wellington

[1:19:13] Why don't you come up with a plan that doesn't involve being taken into custody?

[1:19:15] Guys, at this rate, I don't think we should capture any bad guys.

[1:19:19] They just want to get caught.

[1:19:20] They all want to get caught.

[1:19:22] It's just playing into their hands.

Dan McCoy

[1:19:25] So let's get on to recommendations of movies that we've seen recently.

[1:19:32] Okay, I'll do it.

[1:19:33] Okay, well, why don't you do it first?

[1:19:35] Sure.

Stuart Wellington

[1:19:35] Oh, hell yeah.

[1:19:36] I'm going to recommend, you know, like a big action adventure movie.

[1:19:40] A lot like Electric State, I'm going to recommend Lynn Ramsey's Morvern Kaler.

[1:19:48] Yeah, there are a lot of robots in Morvern Kaler.

[1:19:51] I just got around to watching it, and it's really beautiful and sad.

[1:19:55] It's about a young woman in Scotland who wakes up on Christmas morning to find that her live-in boyfriend has committed suicide.

[1:20:04] And she then spends the rest of the movie doing everything possible to avoid dealing with that grief.

[1:20:11] And it's like, I feel like it's a really interesting character portrait.

[1:20:16] It's an interesting portrait of two friends.

[1:20:20] And it also uses music so beautifully, and it feels almost all diegetic.

[1:20:27] That's diegetic or diegenic?

[1:20:29] Diegetic.

[1:20:30] Yeah.

Elliott Kalan

[1:20:30] When it's coming from within the scene.

Stuart Wellington

[1:20:32] And I feel like Lynn Ramsey seems to have a talent with using audio in her movies, and I think this is a perfect example.

[1:20:42] It's great.

Dan McCoy

[1:20:43] Yeah.

[1:20:44] She is one of my faves, despite never making a movie that you would call a feel-good picture.

Elliott Kalan

[1:20:52] Yeah, you never throw them on just as comfort when you're sick.

Stuart Wellington

[1:20:55] I mean, that was the thing.

[1:20:56] I was sitting on, I had borrowed this Blu-ray, the Fun City Editions Blu-ray from one of my bartenders, Margaret Barton Fuomo, who is a film critic.

[1:21:05] And she actually has an essay in this DVD copy.

[1:21:09] And I borrowed it from her like a year and a half ago, and I was like, okay, I think I'm in the right place emotionally to watch this.

Dan McCoy

[1:21:17] I think I, Morbeth and Kyler, though, I do think is weirdly like the closest she's come to a comforting movie, just because the vibe is sort of cool.

[1:21:25] Yeah, she did Rat Catcher too, right?

[1:21:27] Yeah.

[1:21:27] Yeah, Rat Catcher is bleak.

[1:21:29] Yeah.

[1:21:30] I turned that, I was like, oh, you know, like Audrey's going out this afternoon.

[1:21:34] Let me pick a movie that I've never seen before off Criterion.

[1:21:39] Let me like do, like see a good movie for a chance.

[1:21:42] Yeah, yeah.

[1:21:42] And then like Rat Catcher, oh my God, why did I?

[1:21:44] Yeah, yeah.

[1:21:45] It's a pleasant Sunday.

Stuart Wellington

[1:21:46] It's a movie where you're like, why couldn't there just be a killer kid with a bow and arrow?

Elliott Kalan

[1:21:51] So I wish they were fighting a robot Mr. Peanut.

Dan McCoy

[1:21:54] I'm going to recommend a movie I watched today, just before we all gathered together.

[1:22:01] Well, Dan, when I walked in, you were watching Daredevil Born Again.

Elliott Kalan

[1:22:03] That's not a movie.

Dan McCoy

[1:22:04] No.

[1:22:04] Well, and I also was more dozing to it.

[1:22:07] But I watched The Rule.

Stuart Wellington

[1:22:10] I do got to say, one thing I like about Daredevil Born Again is it does feature a courtroom scene where he's like,

[1:22:16] the defendant, and the defendant wasn't wearing his magical amulet that gives him increased strength and power.

[1:22:23] I'm like, hell yes.

[1:22:24] This is what I want out of this show.

[1:22:25] A courtroom where they talk about this shit.

Dan McCoy

[1:22:28] Yeah, I watched The Rule of Jenny Pin.

[1:22:32] Oh, how's that?

[1:22:33] It's good.

[1:22:34] It just showed up on Shudder after like a small theatrical run.

[1:22:39] It's a New Zealand horror movie that stars Jeffrey Rush and John Lithgow.

[1:22:44] Oh, that's the one you're talking about.

[1:22:45] Casanova Frankenstein.

[1:22:46] Yeah, yeah.

Elliott Kalan

[1:22:48] Best known for his role as Casanova Frankenstein.

[1:22:51] Finally, Casanova Frankenstein and Dr. Lizardo are in a movie together.

Dan McCoy

[1:22:56] It's about Rush plays a, you know, he's a judge who has a stroke and has to go live in assisted living.

[1:23:07] But he still, you know, has all his like mental acuity.

[1:23:10] He's just, you know, his body's not working well.

[1:23:13] He needs help.

[1:23:14] And he's a very like dignified man and kind of a dick.

[1:23:20] So like having to live there is hard on him.

[1:23:24] And he discovers that sort of everyone there is being terrorized by John Lithgow who has this doll, this baby doll puppet that he goes around with.

[1:23:37] And he's just a bully to all these people.

[1:23:40] And it's, you know, but it goes beyond bullying.

[1:23:43] He's a sort of a sadistic evil man.

[1:23:46] And it's about their falling in love.

[1:23:50] It's about a battle of wills.

[1:23:52] And it's kind of, you know, the modern, not female led version of a baby Jane, whatever happened to baby Jane style, like hagsploitation, as they call them, picture.

[1:24:08] And, you know, Rush and Lithgow are great.

[1:24:12] It's just a lot.

[1:24:14] If there's both elder abuse in it and.

[1:24:19] Keep talking.

[1:24:20] And.

Dan McCoy

[1:24:21] Joe Bo Briggs over here.

[1:24:22] Senior foo, geezer foo.

[1:24:25] I'm warning people that like I'm warning people that there are things in it that like might disturb beyond like the regular horror thrills.

[1:24:34] There's that.

[1:24:34] There's like an attempted sexual assault that, you know, gets, you know, gets thwarted.

[1:24:43] But there are things that in there that might bother you if you if you're if you know that they're going to bother you.

[1:24:48] Don't watch it.

[1:24:49] But otherwise, it's it's good.

Elliott Kalan

[1:24:51] I'm going to recommend a movie that's not very easy to find.

[1:24:53] I wonder if I've recommended before.

[1:24:55] I don't remember.

[1:24:56] But I saw a little bit of it today.

[1:24:57] And that is The Clock by Christian Marclay.

[1:24:59] This is a movie I've not seen all of because if you're not familiar with it, I'll tell you it is a 24 hour long movie.

[1:25:04] It is a super cut of scenes from movies where you can see a clock in them or the time is mentioned.

[1:25:12] And it is synchronized with the time you're watching it if you see it in a museum.

[1:25:16] So the movie functions like a clock.

[1:25:18] And the way that the clips are put together is really masterful at times.

[1:25:22] And it creates this sort of idea of kind of a movie universe where all these movies are kind of happening at the same time.

[1:25:28] And it's this massive variety of different movies that with different fields about them and different tones.

[1:25:34] But it's 24 hours.

[1:25:35] It's 24 hours.

[1:25:36] So I've only ever seen at most like an hour and a half of it.

Stuart Wellington

[1:25:38] I was going to say because like you never have time to watch shit, dude.

[1:25:41] How do you watch this thing?

Elliott Kalan

[1:25:42] It's also an art piece.

[1:25:43] So you have to go to a museum to see it.

[1:25:45] Like you can't get it at home.

[1:25:46] And so I was at the Museum of Modern Art today and it's playing right now.

[1:25:49] Because your kids were like, I want to see this, daddy.

[1:25:51] Well, what's weird is – so my younger son really wanted to see Starry Night, which they have at Museum of Modern Art.

[1:25:56] He was surprised it was so small.

[1:25:57] And the clock was playing.

[1:25:58] I'm like, I really want to see some of this.

[1:26:00] Like I've only seen a little bit of it.

[1:26:02] If we're there and there's no line, we got to see some of it.

[1:26:04] My kids were like, ugh.

[1:26:05] My older son got really into it.

[1:26:07] And so it was – there's something kind of – it puts you almost in a trance in a way.

[1:26:11] You could – I could easily have seen the two of us sitting there for 10 hours if we had had the time.

Stuart Wellington

[1:26:14] And were you guys pointing at the screen to point at the clock each time like the Leonardo Capriot mean?

[1:26:18] Yeah, exactly.

Elliott Kalan

[1:26:19] That's where the clock is.

[1:26:21] But it's a – but if you ever get the chance to see it at a museum, try to see it any time of day.

[1:26:26] I hope it someday is available in some way for home viewing so I can see the middle of the night parts.

[1:26:31] Because part of the fun of it is that because you're seeing scenes from throughout the day from different movies,

[1:26:37] time of day affects what the kind of content is.

[1:26:39] So like we saw a lot of stuff today where there's people getting up and going to work, you know?

[1:26:43] Yeah.

[1:26:44] But at night I've heard there's a lot of like dream stuff and strange things.

[1:26:47] But around like 5, 6 o'clock there's a lot of characters having dinner.

[1:26:50] So it's a – you're seeing scenes that are set at the time of the time where you are.

[1:26:55] The funniest thing was walking out of it and my son goes, what time is it?

[1:26:57] I'm like, oh, it's 11.17.

[1:26:58] We just walked out of the clock.

[1:27:00] That's a good show.

[1:27:00] But if you get the chance to see The Clock by Christian Markley, I highly recommend it.

[1:27:03] It's a really fantastic experience.

[1:27:06] And not one that's easy to get because the museum's got to own this piece and then show it, you know?

[1:27:10] Mm-hmm.

Stuart Wellington

[1:27:12] Yeah, it's a good thing that HBO Max doesn't have that because they just shelve it forever.

Elliott Kalan

[1:27:17] Well, HBO Max had it.

[1:27:18] They would cut it up into like 15 pieces.

[1:27:21] Then they'd take at random 10 of them away.

[1:27:24] The way that – I mean now HBO Max has no Looney Tunes on it at all basically.

[1:27:27] But at one point they had like – they had so many Looney Tunes and then they were like, eh, we're just going to take away the later seasons.

[1:27:33] It's like, well, you know that these are the classic ones from the 50s, right?

[1:27:35] Like now all we have is the early ones from the 30s with Egbert and Porky Pig before he was a character.

[1:27:40] Yeah.

[1:27:41] Anyway, HBO Max, put out the clock so I can see the whole thing.

Dan McCoy

[1:27:48] Hey, this was the first full episode post-Max Fun Drive.

[1:27:53] We did have a mini.

[1:27:53] But I just wanted to say thanks to everyone who supported us.

[1:27:56] I'm glad you just appeased the straw man who was like –

[1:27:59] Actually, Daniel.

[1:28:00] Yeah.

[1:28:01] I had no lister in my mind.

[1:28:05] I just said it for accuracy.

[1:28:07] This is the first full episode afterwards.

[1:28:11] Thank you to everyone who supports the show.

[1:28:16] I was worried about this year because the world is scary in so many other ways.

[1:28:21] So it's easy to be anxious.

[1:28:22] What's going on?

[1:28:23] But y'all really showed up.

[1:28:24] Thank you.

[1:28:25] Thank you to our producer, Alex Smith.

[1:28:29] He goes by the name.

[1:28:30] He also knows him.

Elliott Kalan

[1:28:32] He knows the name he goes by.

Dan McCoy

[1:28:34] He goes by the name Howell Donnie.

Elliott Kalan

[1:28:36] They said the shadow knows Evil Luke's in the hearts of men, but does he know his own name?

Dan McCoy

[1:28:41] Do any of us truly know our own names?

[1:28:44] Oh, yeah.

[1:28:45] Makes you think.

[1:28:46] Rumpel Silskin knows his own name.

Stuart Wellington

[1:28:48] And he hopes nobody else does.

[1:28:49] Because bitches are always saying that shit to him and he's like, damn it.

Dan McCoy

[1:28:52] Mine's Dan McCoy.

Stuart Wellington

[1:28:54] Mine is Stuart Burlington.

Elliott Kalan

[1:28:56] Now imagine Rumpel Silskin tweeting, he's like, the moment when she realizes your name.

[1:29:02] And I'm Elliot Kalin.

[1:29:03] Thank you, MaxFun listeners and members.

[1:29:06] We really appreciate it.

[1:29:06] Thanks for listening to us talk about nonsense.

[1:29:09] Bye.

[1:29:10] Bye.

[1:29:18] This is a, we'll get into it.

Stuart Wellington

[1:29:20] It's not a very good movie.

Elliott Kalan

[1:29:21] It's a bad movie.

Stuart Wellington

[1:29:22] I had to text Mantsinger and let him know that we watched it.

[1:29:25] And he was proud that we followed up on his.

[1:29:29] And his demands.

Dan McCoy

[1:29:31] Now that we've given in to him, he knows it will capitulate.

Stuart Wellington

[1:29:35] Yeah, he's got a one-way ticket to Flophouse Control.

Elliott Kalan

[1:29:40] Yeah, but he's not long for this world.

[1:29:41] Because they're going to have a, like a, some kind of like Smurfs, Denny's meal.

[1:29:46] Where it's like a thousand different blue pancakes.

[1:29:48] And he's got to eat them all.

Stuart Wellington

[1:29:49] It's funny that my two friends with the tenderest tummies are the ones who do those things.

[1:29:57] Maximum Fun.

[1:29:58] A worker-owned network.

S5

[1:29:59] Of artist-owned shows.

[1:30:01] Supported.

[1:30:02] Directly.

[1:30:03] By you.

Ep.#449 - The Electric State

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