Ep.#448 - Heartbeeps

[0:00] On this episode, we discuss heartbeats.

[0:03] Uh-uh-uh. Academy Award nominee heartbeats for funniest movie.

[0:09] No. Half of that's true.

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

[0:37] I'm Dan McCoy.

[0:38] I'm Stewie Wellington.

[0:40] I'm Elliot Kalin. And, Dan, is anything special happening right now?

[0:44] Yeah, yeah. Shut up, Elliot Kalin, because I've got to talk to these people about something.

[0:47] I deserve that. I earned that. Yeah.

[0:51] It's MaxFundDrive. It's the – I mean, it just – you know, technically, it just ended.

[0:55] But you know what? There's a weekend amnesty. Shh, don't tell anyone.

[0:59] And MaxFundDrive is the one time a year we come to you and ask essentially, hey, if you like the show, why not tip us for that?

[1:06] You know, help us keep making it.

[1:08] If you spend, say, like $5 a month on a fancy coffee, maybe get some less fancy coffee and support a show that you love and has become a valued part of your life.

[1:17] We'll talk more about it later.

[1:18] But if you join now at MaximumFund.org slash join, you can safely ignore all following messages, which is a tremendous value in and of itself.

[1:30] So right now let's get back to the show though, which is we watch a bad movie and then we talk about it.

[1:35] And today we're watching one.

[1:37] Again, no Spider-Man to be seen anywhere in this film.

[1:40] I was – my peepers were peeled.

[1:43] Yeah, because we made the bold claim that there's no Spider-Man in heartbeats.

[1:47] We didn't go through frame by frame to make sure.

[1:49] We didn't check it ahead of time.

[1:50] We did not do our research ahead of time.

[1:51] And since we advertised that MaxFundDrive's theme would be no Spider-Man movies, as listeners know, we did Kraven.

[1:57] We did Venom and now Heartbeats.

[1:59] It really would have been a real kick in the keister if we were watching Spider-Man and just strolled past the camera.

[2:04] It would have been such a flophouse moment, right?

[2:07] Like a classic flophouse whoopsie doodle.

[2:10] We'd be pointing to the screen like Leo DiCaprio in the meme, but we would be unhappy.

[2:15] Yeah, we'd be texting each other, guys, I got some bad news.

[2:19] Oh, no.

[2:20] Now this is – so this movie, Heartbeats, it's been a longtime joke on the podcast because Stuart decided arbitrarily at some point that Paul Schrader had written and directed it.

[2:30] But there is a Paul Schrader connection kind of to this movie, right, Stuart?

[2:33] Yeah, so – oh, let me pull that up.

[2:36] But while I'm talking about it, guys, you know, every once in a while I'm willing to eat a little crow here and there.

[2:44] And I do watch crows.

[2:46] They hold a grudge.

[2:48] They do.

[2:49] After watching this one.

[2:50] Crows genuinely do.

[2:51] Crows will remember you and they will tell other crows about you.

[2:54] Crows are some of the smartest birds.

[2:56] This asshole ate crow.

[2:58] I mean if I ate it, it's probably not going to be chatting it.

[3:02] No, it's not going to be sending emails from my tummy.

[3:05] No, but the other crows would be like – they'd be like that's the guy that Bill went home with and we never saw him again.

[3:10] That's what the crows would be saying about you.

[3:12] Yeah, that's fair.

[3:13] So just letting everyone know, you know, I talked a big game.

[3:17] But watching this movie, guys, I think Paul Schrader didn't have anything to do with making this movie.

[3:24] I don't think he wrote it or directed it, and I was so sure.

[3:31] And, guys, I don't know what to think anymore.

[3:36] Have I misremembered other things?

[3:38] It's possible.

[3:39] First of all, I mean you did once misremember that someone ripped their own ding dong off in a movie.

[3:43] Life in America feels like the sand is like falling away beneath our feet right now.

[3:48] The ground is constantly shifting.

[3:50] That we thought was certain, but Paul Schrader –

[3:53] As the rules of society fall apart, we knew for sure that at least Paul Schrader was the creative vision behind heartbeats.

[4:00] But it turns out that Paul Schrader, who seems to specialize in stories of individual men for the most part with shadowy pasts who keep diaries and find themselves pushed to a philosophical or ethical kind of breaking point or conundrum point,

[4:17] that the story of two robots in love that wander around for a while was not a Paul Schrader joint this time.

[4:24] So what other pop culture things do I not remember right?

[4:29] Is Lord of the Rings not awesome?

[4:32] Did those nerds in Revenge of the Nerds not commit crimes?

[4:36] Well, they did commit crimes.

[4:37] They did, yeah.

[4:38] What else am I not – listeners, write in if I've made any other rootsy doodles.

[4:42] Yeah, write in because you're familiar with Stuart's brain.

[4:44] There's like 17 years of my unsalted brain on tape, Dan.

[4:49] Stuart, at least you do remember the genie movie that Sinbad the comedian made called Shazam, right?

[4:55] You remember that?

[4:56] Yeah, of course I remember that.

[4:57] Very good.

[4:58] A lot of people think that didn't exist because it's so obviously –

[5:00] I saw it in a theater with my dad.

[5:01] Exactly, and you remembered seeing it because you were like, oh, Kazam just came out and now Sinbad's making a genie movie called Shazam.

[5:08] That's why you remember it, yeah.

[5:09] Yeah, that's why – that's easily how I put it.

[5:12] Okay, so I just want to throw in a little MaxFun factoid.

[5:16] This is from MaxFun producer Marissa Flaxpart, she says.

[5:22] For years I worked as an assistant to Michael Phillips who was a producer on Taxi Driver along with other big 70s films.

[5:30] He was also a producer on Heartbeats.

[5:33] So there's only one degree of separation between Paul Schrader and Heartbeats, and I feel like you can see that connection on the screen.

[5:40] It's hard to believe that Michael Phillips, who is not just one of the producers.

[5:44] His producer credit is very prominent in the opening credits of the movie that he probably went to his old pal the Schrade and was like, hey, can you give us a little bit of help on Heartbeats because it needs your unique – some would say paranoid, schizophrenic, psychopathic view of life in this movie.

[6:01] And poker playing.

[6:02] This film – here's a question I'd like to ask you guys about this film.

[6:06] Sure.

[6:07] Is it –

[6:08] Heartbeats or something else?

[6:09] Heartbeats.

[6:10] Okay.

[6:11] Is it explicable or would you call it in?

[6:14] That's a good –

[6:16] With regards to explicability.

[6:18] I would say in terms of the plot of the movie, it's explicable.

[6:20] But in terms of the existence of the movie, I feel like that is inexplicable.

[6:24] Yeah.

[6:25] I would normally – this is normally the part of the podcast where I would be pushing you guys and be like, guys, enough silliness.

[6:30] Let's get to the plot.

[6:31] But the thing is this movie is like 75 minutes long and the plot is –

[6:35] God bless it for that at least.

[6:37] Somehow it is 75 minutes long, but yet it feels longer than any movie I've ever seen before.

[6:45] I do believe this –

[6:46] It feels like it just takes forever.

[6:48] I do believe this was cut down.

[6:49] I do believe this was sort of the producers cut.

[6:52] Did they remove the scenes of things happening?

[6:55] Yeah.

[6:56] I mean I can only assume based on the existing – the extant Heartbeats that this is one of the rare cases where the producers were correct and they're like, yes, let's just cut this to the bone and ship it out.

[7:05] This is going to be such a huge hit.

[7:06] We've got to fit in as many screenings per day as possible.

[7:09] Just cut it as short as it can be because people are just going to be – we're just going to be revolving door of people going in to see Heartbeats, leaving, getting back in line to see Heartbeats again.

[7:18] We've got to – it's going to be a moneymaker.

[7:20] Huge.

[7:21] I want to address before we get really rolling though.

[7:24] Stewart made a joke that may or may not have opened this episode about this being an Academy Award-winning picture or nominated picture for funniest movie.

[7:33] This is of course based on the actual reality that it is an Academy Award-nominated picture for best makeup, Stan Winston's makeup, and there are a lot of skilled people.

[7:42] What did it lose to, Dan?

[7:44] It lost to – oh, shit.

[7:47] You know this, Dan.

[7:48] You know this, Dan.

[7:49] Imagine a silken white ponytail.

[7:51] This was the first makeup – the first best makeup award ever.

[7:54] American Werewolf Among Us.

[7:55] Yes, sir.

[7:56] Exactly.

[7:57] Well, very deserved loss.

[8:00] In researching Heartbeats, I looked up the history of the Academy Award for best makeup, which came about after Elephant Man came out and people were like, there's no Academy Award to recognize the amazing work in Elephant Man and makeup.

[8:15] And so after that, they created this one, and Heartbeats was nominated for the very first one and lost to An American Werewolf in London, which again deservedly – and the makeup in this does not look bad.

[8:24] No.

[8:25] Stan Winston did a good job, but I mean An American Werewolf in London is one of the greatest makeup jobs in the history of film.

[8:29] Yeah.

[8:30] I would say, yeah.

[8:31] You believe that guy is turning into an American werewolf and not just anywhere.

[8:36] In London.

[8:37] Yeah.

[8:38] I am not wild about the design of these characters.

[8:42] I mean there's a certain Mad Magazine quality to it that I do like.

[8:47] They're cartoony robot in a way that ultimately is less cute than off-putting, but it is executed well.

[8:55] Yes, exactly.

[8:56] I say it's visually unappealing, but they did a good job executing it.

[8:59] Yeah, exactly.

[9:00] So speaking of visually unappealing, let's get to Heartbeats, baby.

[9:04] Okay, so the movie opens –

[9:06] The funny thing is – sorry, I just want to say preview.

[9:08] The visual is not the least unappealing thing about the movie I found.

[9:11] Okay.

[9:13] Listeners, why don't you write down on a piece of paper what you think Elliot's least appealing part is, and then you'll find out at the end.

[9:20] Write down what you think is the aspect of the movie that I hoped when it first appeared would turn out to be a joke that would go away but does not go away and remains throughout the movie.

[9:28] Also, I wanted to mention though in this thing that John Williams also did the score.

[9:31] There's a lot of great craftspeople in addition to a great cast.

[9:34] This is something I was going to say later.

[9:36] I think the score is really good.

[9:37] It is a very good score.

[9:38] That opening song is really great.

[9:39] I think a lot of the score is fantastic.

[9:41] Yeah, it's John Williams.

[9:43] He's also – not to – I'm sure we'll talk about him at length for his, what, one scene, but veteran character actor Dick Miller is in this.

[9:52] You would know him from getting blasted by other robots in the movie Chopping Mall.

[10:00] Gremlins or shopping malls.

[10:03] So this was directed by Alan Arkish, who comes from the Corman School.

[10:06] He and Joe Dante are, you know, we're very close.

[10:08] And he did rock and roll high school.

[10:10] So that's why Dick Miller's in it.

[10:11] It's why Paul Bartel shows up, why Mary Warren shows up.

[10:14] So there's a there are moments in it where I'm like, imagine

[10:17] the better version of this movie that really takes advantage of having

[10:21] people hanging out. Yeah.

[10:23] OK, let's get started.

[10:26] So the movie opens.

[10:27] We are introduced to the crime deluxe crime buster robot who is

[10:33] tooling around the woodland, scaring animals and blasting things.

[10:38] And I think he's like listing his his abilities and talking

[10:42] shit. Like he's he's maintaining a constant monologue as a robot,

[10:47] which is always great.

[10:48] You always want your robots talking themselves.

[10:50] Yeah, I mean, well, there is sort of just constant muttering in

[10:53] this film, whether it be to oneself as a robot or to another

[10:57] childlike robot.

[10:59] Mm hmm.

[11:00] Yeah, you got to fill that space.

[11:02] If there's no like random noise, no plot, if there's no random

[11:05] noises happening, people will get confused.

[11:07] They will not think they're watching a movie anymore that they're

[11:09] looking at a painting.

[11:10] And that's not what they paid for.

[11:12] No, not at all.

[11:12] And they'll be like, well, why is this painting moving?

[11:15] What's going on?

[11:17] Those edibles kick in early.

[11:20] Time release for the funeral.

[11:21] I'm going to later.

[11:24] So we then cut and this this theme of highly advanced robotics

[11:30] amid beautiful forest land untouched nature is constant throughout

[11:36] the movie.

[11:37] So be prepared for that.

[11:38] You could say that this movie is very far ahead of its time in

[11:40] that imagery of robots in a woodland setting, which I feel like

[11:43] is 70% of the AI generated art that I stumble upon online is like

[11:49] a robot in a forest with next year or something like that.

[11:52] Yeah, like a robot drew it and I'm like, yes, exactly cool, dude.

[11:57] And the other the other AI art is always like Jesus with crabs

[12:00] around him and he's got boobs or something like that.

[12:02] There's a lot.

[12:03] Oh, yeah, okay.

[12:05] Okay.

[12:05] I'm into that.

[12:06] I mean, now you turn me around on a there's a lot of like Jesus

[12:09] blessing large praying mantises and things like that.

[12:11] So anyway, no, it is marvelous in a horrible way, like for someone

[12:16] who doesn't like AI, it's marvelous how it because it's drawing

[12:20] on sort of like these vast resources is like, okay, we'll take

[12:25] all of the most like overused themes in art and cram them together

[12:30] like art on the internet specifically and cram them together

[12:33] in a way that makes it even more inexplicable than had a human

[12:37] decided to just draw a robot.

[12:39] Yeah.

[12:41] Okay.

[12:41] So we now cut to the interior of a robot.

[12:45] What like repair facility?

[12:48] It's like a giant warehouse.

[12:49] Yeah, it looks like a warehouse.

[12:50] I think it's implied that it's a factory, but it seems like a warehouse

[12:53] or a testing facility.

[12:54] Yeah.

[12:55] Yeah, we have to like, you know, basic entry-level workman there

[13:00] right out of the money for nothing video except their live action.

[13:03] Yeah.

[13:04] Unlike everyone else.

[13:05] They're the like we have we have money for nothing guys are not

[13:10] like, yeah, that's true.

[13:12] And and these guys I don't think make any homophobic slurs.

[13:16] Unlike the guys in the money for no, that's true.

[13:18] That's a good also when you said robot repair.

[13:20] I'm like, oh man, this would be so much better movie.

[13:22] If Phil Hartman just showed up as a robot and did the classic

[13:26] jack candy robot repair.

[13:29] Yeah.

[13:30] So we have these two workmen.

[13:32] They are transporting Val a valet robot who plays the workman

[13:38] Randy Quaid and and Kenneth McMillan who I know best as the police

[13:43] officer from a from a taking pill one, two, three who goes all the

[13:46] mayors here when everyone starts booing, but you know him best

[13:49] as Baron Harkonnen from the David Lynch.

[13:51] Oh, right is how I know.

[13:53] Okay, so they are transporting Val a valet robot wearing a can

[13:58] you describe Val the robot and yeah, I mean he is in sort of a

[14:04] robot leisure suits like he, you know, it's if you wanted to

[14:09] signal like sort of 70s Square, you might put a robot in this

[14:15] outfit and he looks like Andy Kaufman only puffier because there's

[14:19] silverish robot stuff attached to his face.

[14:22] Okay.

[14:22] Yeah with eerily human looking eyes.

[14:26] Yeah, and yes, Andy Kaufman like he's the Phantom of the Paradise.

[14:30] So he is known for doing voices here picks possibly the most

[14:35] irritating voice he possibly could have done.

[14:38] It's kind of like a like kind of like a latke without like a

[14:41] specific regional accent.

[14:43] Yes, it's latke without the accent just the high pitch and this

[14:47] was the element of the movie where when it first started I was

[14:49] like, oh damn it.

[14:50] I hope this goes away.

[14:51] I hope they they screw something on the back of him.

[14:53] They're like, oh, let's fix that voice and it turns his voice

[14:54] because he just the whole movie is just I don't know.

[14:56] Why are your sensors indicating?

[15:00] What does that say?

[15:01] My data is incomplete and it's a like horrible voice ruinous

[15:07] voice now just to put in layman's terms.

[15:11] Andy Kaufman looks a little bit like the Japanese actor Joe

[15:13] Shishido who is famous for having he wanted to look tougher.

[15:17] So he got cheek implants and he makes all these gangster movies

[15:21] where he looks like a human chipmunk because his cheeks are

[15:23] so puffed out.

[15:24] That's what Andy Kaufman looks like here.

[15:25] Yeah, that's that's pretty cool.

[15:27] That's a layman.

[15:27] I think I wanted to put in terms that everyone would understand

[15:31] the actor Joe.

[15:32] So this so this robot Val needs need some repair.

[15:36] He dropped something on his foot and messed up the servos or

[15:39] some shit.

[15:39] So they drop him off on a shelf and leave him be he is they

[15:44] leave him still turned on.

[15:47] I'd be turned on if I was next to robot Bernadette Peters.

[15:50] Yeah, so yeah.

[15:53] Yeah, so they leave him next to Aqua a what a poolside serving

[15:59] robot played by Bernadette Peters with luckily with Bernadette

[16:03] Peters signature curly hair.

[16:06] But in this case, it's made of metal.

[16:07] I guess is more successful.

[16:09] This basically just looks like Bernadette Peters is a robot is

[16:12] a robot.

[16:12] Yeah, they don't put as much puffy extra padding on her face.

[16:16] Yeah.

[16:17] Yeah, less filler.

[16:20] Okay, so they meet and they I guess talk a little and like I

[16:24] guess robot flirt would how do you describe this?

[16:27] Yeah, I mean so the whole you know this this to me this movie

[16:32] in a weird way feels like the last gasp of like a sort of

[16:36] watered-down 70s counterculture of like sure.

[16:40] Yeah, like oh like we're going to understand human behavior

[16:43] through these nutty robots these childlike robots who are

[16:47] learning both the beauty and the cruelty of the world for the

[16:50] first time and so it's all sort of this cutesy like understanding

[16:55] of the way the world works humor where Bernadette Peters is

[16:59] like, oh if we were flirting you would say something like this

[17:02] and you know, I might respond like this and it's a I don't

[17:07] know as someone who like grew up.

[17:12] I'm old enough to like get the tail end of some of this spirit.

[17:15] It irritates me greatly.

[17:17] Yeah, it's very reminiscent of like 70s mad magazine or even

[17:21] like old like 2000 AD style humor with like robots shouting

[17:25] each other and blowing things up.

[17:27] Yeah, there's a except without the except there's less shouting

[17:29] and blowing things up.

[17:30] There's a little bit of that in this his name's crimebuster.

[17:32] And he's in the movie a lot.

[17:34] I think the real issue with this scene is so ideally this is

[17:36] a movie about two robots learning what it's like to love and

[17:39] have a family like that's what the movie is and you see these

[17:42] two robots.

[17:43] They instantly kind of connect and for it with each other.

[17:45] They see a rainbow and they're like, isn't it beautiful?

[17:48] I'd like to know more about that.

[17:49] And so in that first scene you have essentially seen the entire

[17:51] point of the movie and everything after that is incredibly

[17:54] redundant and I kept thinking Wally pulls off something pulls

[17:58] off the kind of the same thing of two robots falling in love

[18:00] and understanding what that is so much better and I think

[18:02] it's partly because they follow the more common.

[18:05] I guess romantic comedy thing of like one is in love with

[18:08] the other and the other one doesn't have feelings for the

[18:10] first one yet or something.

[18:11] But these characters are so instantly on board with being

[18:13] attracted to each other and then loving the natural world

[18:16] that it's like well, I kind of seen the movie like there's

[18:19] nothing for them to learn.

[18:20] There's nothing else.

[18:21] Yeah, what's the arc here?

[18:22] What's the arc and the arc could be them on the run but there

[18:25] it's more like them on the slow strolling amble where every

[18:29] now and then they have to get away from Crime Buster.

[18:31] It's such a it's a very repetitive movie.

[18:33] So it doesn't quite feel like a comedy yet.

[18:35] But luckily we are introduced to Catskill the comedy robot.

[18:39] Hooray.

[18:40] So this is a robot that is seated at all times, which is odd

[18:43] for a stand-up comedian robot, but that's okay.

[18:45] He's always puffing on a cigar and I think part of the reason

[18:48] that he's sitting at all times is that he is a puppet and not

[18:50] a person in a costume.

[18:52] Yeah, so yeah, that's that explains it in world.

[18:56] Thank you.

[18:57] Yeah, and this is and he's voiced by Jack Carter who was

[19:00] one of the classic old-school comics in that he told one-liners

[19:04] and hated everybody was mad at the world and hated everybody

[19:07] in real life and the majority of the jokes here.

[19:10] He tells are terrible like that's kind of the point because

[19:13] later on we find out that he is on what low power joke mode

[19:17] or something which is when that's revealed.

[19:20] I'm like, okay move.

[19:21] That was maybe the one joke.

[19:24] It did make up for all the terrible jokes that he tells.

[19:27] Yeah.

[19:27] So these three robots are sitting on a shelf and they decide

[19:29] they want to go on an adventure.

[19:31] They want to go learn more about these trees in the natural

[19:33] world Catskill.

[19:34] I guess just goes along so he can tell jokes and because

[19:37] maybe he's looking for a family to we don't know they escape

[19:40] using a robot repair van.

[19:43] The robot repairman find them missing.

[19:45] They are tasked with bringing them back.

[19:48] This conversation is overheard by the Crime Buster Deluxe

[19:52] robot that is currently being repaired because it keeps

[19:55] blowing up children or whatever like children in the

[20:00] Models in the training mode. It keeps blowing up the children targets. That's supposed to not blow up. Yeah

[20:05] It would be a more interesting and I think more it more

[20:08] Satirical movie if it was blowing up children and the reaction was not let's stop making these but wasn't I mean then again?

[20:14] That's essentially Robocop. We're eating and I kill somebody and they're like, oh we got to fix this thing

[20:18] This is a disaster PR wise, you know

[20:21] So they escape in a van. It's funny because they use sped-up footage

[20:27] Mm-hmm, right and it's funny because of course Andy Kaufman being the man insists that he is

[20:33] Excellent at driving right away and that he will not alter his driving style. Even though Bernadette Peters cast in the role of

[20:41] Wife robots essentially it's like slow down. Mm. Yeah, so that's a she is like slow down. Yeah

[20:49] Men and women and their relationships together even robots are like that, you know

[20:53] Yeah, so Charlie and Max pursue in a helicopter

[20:57] the helicopter is

[20:59] Piloted but by a longtime actress who I remember from being the woman from Martin shorts nightmare in inner space

[21:07] Yeah, this is Kathleen Freeman. She was in lots and lots of stuff

[21:12] Yeah, Richard Martin short has this nightmare that this woman like that he he's like ringing her through his checkout line

[21:20] She doesn't it's too much money. And so she pulls out a gun. Yes. Do you remember Dan?

[21:25] Do you remember the cooking show host in gremlins to microwave?

[21:29] You know and something I didn't realize till I looked her up while read about this movie

[21:33] Is that she's the she's the speaking coach and singing in the rain who's trying to get G

[21:39] Lena Lamont to talk about that without her accent. So she's great. She's in lots of stuff. Yeah

[21:45] Yeah, that's Alan Arkish that's Alan Arkish being like who's who's someone who's great

[21:48] Who's been a lot of stuff that I can bring into this, you know

[21:50] Okay, so they're tooling around trying to find these robots on the run the another great possible title for this movie

[21:59] The heart beeps is about the best that and the score are the best things about the movie heart beeps is a good name

[22:05] For this movie. Yeah

[22:07] Brain it accurately describes the movie, you know, are you against your brain in a way that irritates you like what?

[22:18] We're talking about

[22:23] This movie was called robots on the run we would not be talking about it on the podcast today

[22:29] It certainly wouldn't have sprung to my lips

[22:32] When talking about director Paul Schrader

[22:36] We would be doing an episode of about nuns on the run right now

[22:39] Yeah, if it was called robots in the run because that's what Stewart would have attributed to Paul Schrader

[22:45] The run is more like the other work of Paul Schrader I have to say

[22:49] deals with religion I guess and crime

[22:52] Yeah, the so the the the van the vent does the van break down or something?

[22:58] I don't quite remember

[22:59] But they leave the van behind and they use parts from the van as well as parts from each of them

[23:04] To create a tiny little robot named Phil that's kind of their child

[23:08] Phil does not communicate in traditional sense is more of an r2d2 sense and he's dragging like a little wagon

[23:14] Phil's voice is Jerry Garcia. It's great. It's a Jerry Garcia, but mostly it just sounds like sound effects

[23:20] So I don't know bleeps and bloops, but something must have been all Jerry Garcia

[23:26] Somebody must have been like we want to get our boy our buddy Jerry

[23:30] Garcia's altered. Let's just say that

[23:33] Guitar to make those bleeps and bloops. Maybe yeah, maybe these are jams from the Grateful Dead

[23:41] Now

[23:44] To be like well, let me play some of my hits from heartbeats

[23:46] And

[23:49] The crowd goes insane

[23:53] On the arena are like you can't play you can't play your heartbeat shit

[23:56] Cuz you people destroy the arena ripping out the seats. They destroyed the concession stand. They're killing each other

[24:02] They're just excited about blood everywhere. We got a hose it off

[24:06] Look, you can't appreciate the bleeps and bloops on the heartbeats album

[24:10] No, that's not how to experience that you you gotta get it recorded off the boards, man

[24:14] You got to get the bootlegs recorded off the boards. That's the best part, you know, they can really stretch

[24:19] I've been trading with guys and I have this one heart beeps that goes on for 17 and a half hours. It's

[24:27] Didn't realize we had the technology to capture all that audio, but I guess that makes sense

[24:32] It's a 30 cassette set

[24:36] You gotta listen it from the beginning it doesn't work

[24:46] Yeah, listen to this

[24:52] Ben Burtt, it's me your cousin Roger Burtt

[24:55] You know

[25:03] So it's getting late these

[25:06] These robots need a place to sleep because it's not safe for them to be wandering around in the woods after dark and because

[25:12] We don't need sleep then they need well, they need to be yeah, they need sleep

[25:15] I need to conserve energy or whatever. They need energy. So they go where they're gonna find some energy a bear cave

[25:22] Val

[25:24] Tries to go into the bear cave and placate the bear

[25:27] It's not happening the bear beats him up and throws him out

[25:29] And it's about to attack them when the helicopter does a pass bear gets scared and runs away

[25:35] Very fast sped up again. It's hilarious. I and you gotta give him credit

[25:39] I thought it was just gonna be sound effects and an oak on a still shot of a cave

[25:43] But no, they have a they have a bear. They get a real bear. Yeah. Yeah, they get an actual bear and speaking of bears

[25:48] I think right now would be a great time for us to talk about something that

[25:53] That is important bears are important to the world. There's a lot of

[26:00] Houses own bear

[26:06] Hey

[26:07] As I mentioned, it's max fun drive now

[26:10] Perhaps there's a slight chance. You're still unaware. What what is max fun drive?

[26:14] Well, it's the one time of year that we ask you to support the show as a member or by boosting or upgrading your membership

[26:21] Becoming a first-time member all options all shows on the network are overwhelmingly supported by listeners like you and you know

[26:29] Sure, we we run between zero and two ads on every show

[26:33] To help fill in the gaps, but it's just it should surprise no one to learn podcast ads are not a pot of gold

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[29:14] Format special episodes from shows across the network and this year

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[29:24] Running me elliot and jubin parang through a role-playing game where we're the staff of a restaurant in a busy vacation town

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[29:47] Well said dan well said I wanted to interrupt you and I couldn't because I was so riveted by your passion

[29:53] Speaking of rivets. Oh

[29:56] Let's get back to this bot movie. Oh, yeah bots, uh

[30:00] So like us, you know, they're it's it's late and they're running low on energy.

[30:05] So they're going to need to get some more.

[30:06] So their next stop is they pick up some foliage to disguise themselves

[30:12] and they sneak into a small what mountain town.

[30:16] I'm guessing somewhere in like what, Colorado or like somewhere in California.

[30:20] Right. I'm going to guess Colorado, because later the house that they

[30:23] that the party with the house of the party at it, that they get involved with

[30:26] looks like it looks like more Colorado house stuff.

[30:28] Although I'm sure they shot this in California, you know.

[30:31] So they try and sneak into the town.

[30:34] They are stopped by the crime buster who is patrolling the streets.

[30:37] And as I said before, running a constant narrative out loud,

[30:41] explaining everything he's doing.

[30:43] That's how, you know, he's it adds something.

[30:45] Can you describe the crime buster robot, Elliot?

[30:48] So the crime buster robot, physically, it looks like a Dalek.

[30:50] Like it's kind of like a squat kind of round top thing with a with a project.

[30:54] It can project kind of like a gun from its belly.

[30:57] But it's like got a hover skirt wheels type type movement thing.

[31:01] And it's always talking as if it is supposed to be like a hardboiled cop

[31:05] in a movie where it's like, I roam the streets.

[31:07] I have to keep America safe.

[31:10] Villains and criminals have are no match for me.

[31:12] They think they can defeat the crime buster.

[31:14] But the crime buster is not.

[31:16] Was that a crook? Was it?

[31:17] And he blows it up into stump with a rabbit behind it.

[31:19] I feel like, you know, I feel like it also like throws in a few like Reagan isms.

[31:23] But yeah, maybe that's

[31:25] this is the most this the most overtly satirical part of the movie.

[31:28] I feel like is the crime buster. Yeah.

[31:30] And this design is a it's a yes, it looks like a Dalek,

[31:33] but it's a redress, actually, of some robot that was on like a TV show

[31:37] or something that they had lying around. Yeah. Doctor Who?

[31:40] No, a different one.

[31:41] Oh, but it's a similar doctor like

[31:45] like a miniature tank.

[31:46] Kind of. Yeah.

[31:47] Mini tank. Yeah. Yeah.

[31:49] And he's all colored black and he's got a siren light.

[31:52] So they're able to they're able to use their wits

[31:54] to distract crime buster and they sneak away.

[31:57] This is one of the one of the two jokes that I laughed at in the movie.

[32:00] The one was the low energy jokes one.

[32:02] And the other was when they're all pretending to be trees

[32:04] because they've got fake tree.

[32:05] They've got trees.

[32:06] They're holding in front of them like like Burnham Wood going to Dunsinane.

[32:10] Yes. Thank you.

[32:11] That's how good this movie is.

[32:13] And the and Andy Kaufman is annoying voice in this.

[32:16] He's like, I'm a tree bot.

[32:17] I, you know, and they he and the crime buster points to

[32:21] Phil, the little robot goes, he's too, too.

[32:24] He doesn't look like a tree.

[32:25] And that's because he's a shrub.

[32:26] And I just love the idea of having to say, like, oh, no,

[32:29] he's a smaller piece of vegetation was a funny moment to me.

[32:34] Crime buster buys it.

[32:35] He buys it.

[32:36] So the and he I'm just assuming I'm going to gender the police robot.

[32:40] I mean, he's got a male voice. Yeah.

[32:42] So they they need that energy.

[32:44] And so the best place to go, they go to a 70s party.

[32:49] Fondue bowls full of keys.

[32:52] Paul Bartel, everything you need for a 70s party.

[32:56] So this is this is, you know, there's a fucking conversation pit in that bitch.

[33:00] This is one of the classic film onscreen couples, Paul Bartel and Mary Warnov.

[33:04] You make it.

[33:04] They played the blands in Eating Raoul.

[33:06] And they were together in a bunch.

[33:08] They had a cameo together in Chopping Mall.

[33:10] They had a cameo together in Night of the Comet, I think it was.

[33:13] So this is I like to believe this is just all part of the same universe

[33:16] as those movies, you know, and then doing this next.

[33:19] Look, I I don't like to assign too much blame anywhere.

[33:23] You know, I'm not I'm not pointing at any one person involved in heartbeats

[33:28] because I don't know who made which decision.

[33:30] Like I know I I've seen Alan Arkesh's

[33:33] own letterboxd review of this, where he's like, I screw this one up.

[33:38] I got the wrong tone.

[33:39] Like that was his like feeling.

[33:40] And I see what he's saying, because it's it is so like

[33:43] wistful that it becomes cloying in a way that seems weird for the material.

[33:49] But I don't think that he's at fault per se.

[33:52] I think a lot of the collaborators are doing great work.

[33:54] I think that the the the actors are great.

[33:58] What mystifies me is this screenplay and story.

[34:01] Like, what do they think they were doing?

[34:04] Like, it has no thrust.

[34:07] It's just like it has room for like, hey, now we're going to go to a party.

[34:10] But also like, well, Elliot, tell me why.

[34:16] My guess is that this is my guess.

[34:18] Not knowing much about it.

[34:19] I know that it was it was written by the same guy who wrote Quigley Down Under.

[34:22] But I don't see too much in common between the two.

[34:25] The two things.

[34:26] And went on to be like he did like Quantum Leap stuff in L.A.

[34:29] Law that he was on TV.

[34:31] Yeah. But Quigley Down Under, don't skip over that.

[34:33] Yeah, Quigley.

[34:33] I just think that his other films.

[34:35] My my guess is that this was probably originally written

[34:38] as a more satirical, episodic kind of probably,

[34:42] I'm guessing, a harder edged type movie.

[34:44] And that once you brought in and that at a certain point it was decided,

[34:48] no, we need to go for a family audience is my guess.

[34:51] We want to soften it.

[34:52] We want to make it more awe.

[34:54] We're going to bring in Andy Kaufman,

[34:56] but we're not going to have him do kind of like edgy comedy type stuff.

[34:59] We want him to maybe Andy Kaufman at that point was like,

[35:01] it's time for me to cross over and be more of a more of a big name star.

[35:05] They get Bernadette Peters, who was, you know,

[35:08] just a wistful score from John Williams, a wistful score.

[35:11] And so my guess is that they decided the tone was going to be like this is not

[35:17] this is not like an E.T.

[35:18] Yeah, that this is not the kind of movie Alan Arkish would have made for Roger

[35:21] Corman, which would have been like kind of like crazy

[35:24] and a little bit tasteless, probably at times.

[35:26] This is going to be a more Spielberg type.

[35:29] Yeah. We're learning about life and love and laughter through these robots

[35:33] who aren't human, but maybe they kind of like, yeah, right.

[35:37] Yeah. Yeah. And so and so I guess my guess is that that's it,

[35:40] is that they were like, let's not make this a low budget

[35:44] kind of kind of like a kind of like snarky movie.

[35:47] Let's make this a movie that could go for a quadrant.

[35:50] Like, let's make this a movie that a whole family could go see.

[35:52] And instead, they made a movie that nobody in their right mind

[35:54] would really, really ever want to.

[35:56] I mean, the cast and premise feels like it should be like a Jack Davis poster.

[36:01] But it's yes, it should be really wacky.

[36:03] And I mean, the pace of it is always the pace is so slow.

[36:06] And so much of it is just these characters wandering through the woods.

[36:10] And I will say that like their individual frames that look gorgeous

[36:14] and that imply a more interesting movie, you know,

[36:17] these characters just in the woods.

[36:19] But, you know, Bernadette Peters, she knows about she knows about

[36:21] going into the woods, you know?

[36:23] Hmm. Yeah.

[36:24] So speaking of gorgeous frames, the crime buster sees this party going on.

[36:29] So he forwards the river or lake or whatever.

[36:32] I thought you were going to talk about one of my favorites, Mary Warno.

[36:34] But anyway, he then blows up this party

[36:38] smashing through the walls on the hunt for these robots,

[36:42] which, of course, he is unsuccessful in finding.

[36:44] And but destroying the party completely.

[36:46] And they're like, oh, this was a great party.

[36:50] We then it's like that scene is like that scene and the things

[36:53] that Bernadette Peters is talking about as about her her jobs robot.

[36:56] It feels like that is those are the remnants of a much more

[37:00] a much more biting movie.

[37:01] You know, we're going to see these rich assholes.

[37:03] They're going to be throwing a party.

[37:05] They're going to be jerks.

[37:05] It's going to get wrecked.

[37:06] But instead, the party is kind of nothing.

[37:09] And even the damage is nothing, you know.

[37:11] And at the end, Paul Bartel's like, I thought it was great.

[37:13] Like, I'd like to. That's the only joke of it.

[37:14] You know, I noticed that this was a nice

[37:17] that they were this was a good looking movie as well.

[37:20] Like the cinematography was.

[37:21] And I just looked up the cinematographer who did a couple Altman movies,

[37:25] a wedding and three women.

[37:27] He did semi tough.

[37:28] He did the onion field.

[37:30] So, yeah, some good people working on this movie.

[37:34] Good, great.

[37:34] Yeah. Come together and make a piece of junk, you know.

[37:36] Yeah. Speaking of junk, our robots on their quest for energy and such.

[37:41] They find they find a junkyard.

[37:44] That's a perfect place to find stuff.

[37:46] So they're wandering around this junkyard.

[37:48] They come across a couple that I guess own or run the junkyard.

[37:52] That's where we get some more stars.

[37:54] We got Christopher Guest from tons of stuff.

[37:57] And Mr. Jamie Lee Curtis himself, Christopher Guest.

[38:00] His and his his partner is played by Melanie.

[38:04] What, Mayron? Melanie Mayron.

[38:06] Yeah. Who's that? Yeah.

[38:07] 30 something.

[38:08] She's also directed a ton of TV and some movies.

[38:12] And also, you might know her as being the hot cop from

[38:16] My Blue Heaven, which is what I remember.

[38:19] And I and she I had forgotten that she starred in the movie Girlfriends,

[38:23] which I recommended a while back.

[38:25] Oh, yeah. Which movie I really liked a lot.

[38:28] Again, more more talented people.

[38:30] Yeah. I just learned I just learned while looking this up,

[38:33] I didn't never realize that My Blue Heaven was written by Nora Ephron.

[38:37] Oh, really? And that her husband wrote Wiseguy.

[38:42] And both movie, both My Blue Heaven and Wiseguy

[38:46] are based on their interviews with Henry Hill.

[38:48] Yeah, I did. I didn't realize that.

[38:51] I never realized that.

[38:52] I'm like, that's why they're both Charlene's favorite movie.

[38:57] I mean, along with my cousin Vinny, right?

[38:58] Yeah, yeah, yeah. The tragic version and the comic version is really fun.

[39:02] I mean, now I want to see a double feature.

[39:03] Those two movies together. Pretty funny, too.

[39:05] Yeah, I mean, it's also hilarious.

[39:07] Yeah. The I've I've heard I've realized.

[39:10] Have I ever told my told my family's Christopher guest story on this podcast?

[39:13] You know, only if you told it to us.

[39:16] Have I ever told or no?

[39:17] Because considering how many times I've talked about actors I've seen on stage

[39:21] that my family apparently at some point, my dad's family was friendly

[39:25] with Christopher guest family when like when he was a kid and my dad was a kid.

[39:29] And whenever we would see, we would watch Princess Bride

[39:33] and Christopher guest was on screen.

[39:34] My grandmother would go, I changed his diapers.

[39:37] And I would be like, I would be so confused because I didn't really

[39:40] when I was young, I didn't really understand what she was saying.

[39:43] I would imagine a grown Christopher guest having his diapers changed by my grandmother.

[39:47] Mm hmm. But apparently I have no idea like how they knew each other or what happened,

[39:52] why why the families are not still friendly.

[39:54] But knowing my family, there must have been some falling out of some violent kind.

[39:58] But but.

[40:00] That's a story I don't think I've ever told

[40:01] about my grandmother changing Christopher Guest's diapers.

[40:03] I assume when he was a baby.

[40:06] Well, you're about to have to change your diapers

[40:08] because CrimeBuster shows back up and he starts blasting.

[40:12] He starts blasting everything, setting things on fire,

[40:14] shooting things with his machine gun.

[40:16] Things are looking grim.

[40:18] But our two junkyard operators jump on

[40:20] and deactivate that bot.

[40:23] It's pretty exciting, right?

[40:24] This is a pretty cool.

[40:25] This is one of those action sequences

[40:27] where you never see the attacker

[40:31] and the victims in the same shot.

[40:33] Yeah.

[40:34] No, I, yeah, not particularly exciting.

[40:38] I am taken by Guest and I forget her name, sorry,

[40:41] as this like sort of hipster junkyard couple.

[40:43] Yeah.

[40:44] I'm like, I don't know what their story is,

[40:46] but they just like seem to hang out and be cool

[40:48] and probably have a bunch of sex.

[40:49] I don't know if it's cool.

[40:51] And they're actually cool, but they also,

[40:52] they speak in a very flat, emotionless way.

[40:54] And I wondered if they were trying to make some point

[40:57] about these characters are kind of,

[40:59] in some ways as robotic as the other,

[41:01] as the robot characters.

[41:03] But there is one shot.

[41:05] Or show that they might be,

[41:07] since they speak in a kind of robotic way,

[41:08] maybe they might be able to connect with these robots.

[41:11] Yes, exactly.

[41:12] They're certainly rational and logical,

[41:13] the way that the robots are.

[41:15] But these characters kind of like,

[41:17] yeah, they kind of come out of nowhere,

[41:19] solve the problem, and then that's it.

[41:21] Disappear until they're needed to solve another problem.

[41:24] Yeah.

[41:25] There's one really cool shot

[41:25] where they're on top of Crimebuster

[41:27] and they're spinning around

[41:29] and the camera is on Crimebuster also.

[41:30] So you see like the background moving around them.

[41:34] And that shot is very quick.

[41:35] And I don't know if they go back to it.

[41:37] And I was like, movie?

[41:38] That was a cool shot.

[41:39] Show it to me again.

[41:40] Yeah.

[41:41] So with Crimebuster defeated,

[41:45] our robots began the long march back, I guess.

[41:49] I have trouble understanding

[41:51] all of their motivations in the film.

[41:52] It's the same plot.

[41:53] But they're traveling through the woods again.

[41:55] They had to leave the factory to go to the junkyard.

[41:58] They didn't find what they wanted in the junkyard.

[41:59] Now they have to go back to the factory.

[42:01] So Fury Road basically stole the plot structure

[42:04] from Heartbeats.

[42:05] Fury Road, yeah.

[42:06] You leave a place, you go to a place,

[42:08] you find we didn't have what you need there,

[42:10] you go back to the first place.

[42:11] That's Fury Road.

[42:12] I feel like we,

[42:13] I bet there's probably a bunch of other similarities

[42:16] between Fury Road and Heartbeats.

[42:18] Imagine George Miller and Brennan McCarthy

[42:20] were just watching Heartbeats over and over again

[42:22] while they were planning Fury Road

[42:23] over that 20 years, you know?

[42:25] They need to go back to the factory

[42:26] because they're running out of power.

[42:27] What confuses me then is at the end of the movie,

[42:30] spoiler, they're happily living in the junkyard.

[42:33] And I'm like, okay,

[42:34] well, what about the power in the future?

[42:35] Like, what's the story here?

[42:37] Oh, Dan found it.

[42:38] He found the soul goof of the movie.

[42:39] Yeah, right?

[42:40] Go to Red Letter Media and listen to Dan on this one,

[42:43] you know?

[42:44] Well, I think that once they've gotten their power,

[42:47] maybe the junkyard got the power stuff they needed.

[42:49] So this is where the heart of the movie really comes in.

[42:54] Yep, our robots are starting to lose power.

[42:58] They realized that Phil,

[42:59] they thought Phil's battery would have more

[43:02] because he doesn't need as much energy

[43:03] because he's just a little guy.

[43:05] Turns out he needs just as much as everyone

[43:07] and his power is very low.

[43:08] He's gonna die and they don't know what to do.

[43:10] And then before Val and Aqua can decide,

[43:14] Catskill swaps batteries with him.

[43:16] He's been conserving power this whole time,

[43:19] again, by telling low energy jokes.

[43:22] So Catskill, they just like leave him in the woods

[43:25] and they continue traveling.

[43:27] And then Aqua's power runs out.

[43:30] I feel like this is when the movie goes

[43:31] from cloying to maudlin in these sequences

[43:34] where the characters are dying in front of us

[43:35] and they're lying to each other

[43:36] about how low their battery is

[43:38] because they don't want each other to worry about them.

[43:41] I love that they're like,

[43:42] we didn't think Phil needed as much power.

[43:44] And it's like, well, Phil is literally

[43:45] pulling all of your junk.

[43:46] Like he's literally carrying everything, but okay, sure.

[43:51] I mean, yeah, that's the data.

[43:52] These are the experiences they're learning, Elliot.

[43:55] This is why this trip is so important.

[43:57] That's why we have to make a movie of it.

[43:58] Well, I don't know anything about that.

[44:00] You're right.

[44:01] Well, I mean, well, that's the,

[44:02] so the thing is what I didn't like

[44:03] about this movie here too is that

[44:05] we've had this before,

[44:06] the Flophouse movies,

[44:07] where it is playing on a real emotion,

[44:09] but it's doing it badly.

[44:10] But I can't help to have that emotion triggered in me still.

[44:13] The idea, there's a lot of it,

[44:14] which is just them walking,

[44:15] talking about their anxieties for Phil in the future

[44:18] and wanting to prepare him for the world

[44:21] and wanting to make sure that he's healthy.

[44:23] And it's like, yeah, that's the conversation

[44:24] I have every single day with my wife about my children.

[44:27] And I don't like that the movie is like

[44:29] trying to get me to cry by having two robots do it

[44:32] in a very boring way.

[44:33] And I can't help that it does make me,

[44:35] it does make me think about those things

[44:37] in a way that makes me feel those emotions.

[44:39] But I wanna be like, movie, you didn't earn this.

[44:41] Like this is, you're not getting this on your own.

[44:43] This is like a commercial for cotton

[44:45] where it shows a guy like watching his daughter grow up

[44:47] and then get married where you're like crying

[44:49] and it's like, but I don't care about cotton.

[44:51] Too much cotton.

[44:52] It's where I'm just making a sandwich

[44:54] and my daughter's like, daddy, I'm dying.

[44:57] No time.

[44:58] Sorry, just mayonnaise and mustard, I can't.

[45:00] Goodbye, daddy, I'm done here.

[45:02] That's the best line of the whole thing.

[45:04] She goes, bye, daddy, I'm dying.

[45:05] And he just shrugs.

[45:07] Oh, what a great sketch.

[45:08] If anyone doesn't know what we're talking about,

[45:09] the Mr. Show sketch about mayo stirred and mustard A and A's

[45:12] and how the time-saving condiments

[45:14] that are not taking up too much time.

[45:18] So funny.

[45:19] The guy can't go to his daughter's graduation

[45:20] because he's making a sandwich.

[45:24] Oh man, that's good stuff.

[45:26] So we have this final moment,

[45:28] both Val and Aqua run out of juice.

[45:31] Val is reaching toward Aqua

[45:33] and then they both are frozen in a beautiful field.

[45:37] Although he's reaching towards her

[45:38] while literally being like, nope,

[45:40] I wish to talk to you about one last human thing.

[45:45] What is your understanding of the emotion?

[45:50] He's talking about love, people.

[45:52] He's trying to say love, but it's so sad, Dan,

[45:54] right as he's about to say it,

[45:55] because he's fumpering so much beforehand.

[45:58] It's just like in movies

[45:59] when someone is being wrongfully arrested for a crime

[46:01] and they're like, but you gotta understand.

[46:02] No, no, but just let me tell you,

[46:03] but just give me a minute.

[46:04] It's like, well, use this time

[46:05] to say the thing that you need to say.

[46:07] Don't preamble it so much.

[46:09] Dramatic tension, Ellen.

[46:11] You should have learned that shit in screenwriting school.

[46:13] Yeah, right, I went to screenwriter U.

[46:15] I did go to NYU for screenwriting

[46:16] and they should have taught me that, yeah, yeah.

[46:17] So our robot repairman show up, they load them up.

[46:22] They see Phil, the little robot, hanging out

[46:24] and they're like, fuck it, leave him out here.

[46:26] Is that part I like to,

[46:28] Kevin goes like, they said three robots,

[46:30] we're bringing back three robots.

[46:31] We're not touching the fourth robot.

[46:33] So they take him back

[46:36] and then immediately we get a little bit of a,

[46:39] we just get like a voiceover

[46:41] where they talk about how the robots,

[46:44] they rebooted them a bunch of times.

[46:46] They kept messing up.

[46:49] They kept malfunctioning.

[46:50] And so they just threw them away.

[46:52] And so we then see a little,

[46:54] we get a little happy ending in the junkyard.

[46:57] Val and Aqua are dressed differently, but restored.

[47:03] Nerds, these lovable junkyard nerds.

[47:05] And they have this weird little robot family,

[47:08] including a new addition, Dan.

[47:10] Yeah, a little like robot girl robot.

[47:14] Little girl robot, yep.

[47:15] And that is the end of the movie.

[47:17] Are they grilling?

[47:18] Am I imagining that?

[47:19] Were they, was it, I feel like the idea is that they now have

[47:22] What are they like grilling,

[47:23] like little batteries and stuff like that?

[47:23] I don't know, it's like batteries not included, you know.

[47:26] The ideas I guess they have now,

[47:29] this like suburban, you know, lifestyle at the junkyard.

[47:32] Yeah, they're sitting in, you know,

[47:34] like outdoor furniture, on some AstroTurf.

[47:37] You know, I can't remember whether it was literally a grill,

[47:39] but they're definitely in grill formation.

[47:41] Thank you, thank you for giving me that much.

[47:46] So that, yeah, that's heartbeats.

[47:47] That's heartbeats, baby.

[47:49] Stuart, luckily, no mid-credits scenes.

[47:52] Good, because I turned that shit off.

[47:54] And no Spider-Man, what if at the last minute

[47:57] in the credits, suddenly they were like,

[47:59] it's like Spider-Man showed up.

[48:00] That would be, we were like,

[48:01] suddenly Andy Kaufman's character, Val,

[48:03] like goes through a multiverse warp

[48:05] and ends up in Spider-Man's world.

[48:07] I was, the whole time, every time it cut

[48:10] to Catskill saying a joke, I'm like,

[48:13] if he does something J. Jonah Jameson style,

[48:16] I'm gonna be in deep water.

[48:18] Yeah.

[48:20] So now is the part where we make our final judgments.

[48:24] Is this a good, bad movie, a bad, bad movie,

[48:26] or a movie we kind of like?

[48:28] And I'm going to call this a good, bad movie

[48:31] with an asterisk, which is, the asterisk is,

[48:34] Hey, Obelix.

[48:36] Obelix is there too?

[48:37] Yeah, he's far in the back.

[48:40] Ready to spring into action if needed, though.

[48:44] Yeah, I feel like Obelix is usually on point.

[48:47] He's usually someone you can rely on for that, yeah.

[48:50] Obelix, you stay back, but when I need you,

[48:54] you spring into it, and Obelix is like,

[48:56] oh yeah, definitely, yeah.

[48:59] No, this is a, I'm saying that because

[49:02] this is not a good, bad movie in the sense of like,

[49:06] I think you're gonna laugh and be like,

[49:08] if you got together with friends, like,

[49:10] oh, this is so wacky how bad this movie is.

[49:13] We're all having fun.

[49:14] As we said, it's slow and maudlin,

[49:19] but I'm gonna call it a good, bad with an asterisk

[49:22] of it is so fascinating if you are interested

[49:26] in real megaflops.

[49:29] It is fascinating to watch a movie

[49:31] that has so many talented people doing good work

[49:35] in their fields and it all adding up to something

[49:38] that you can't understand why anyone ever thought

[49:41] this should be made or put on screens.

[49:45] So from that perspective, I think it's kind of interesting,

[49:49] but yeah, don't go in looking for like bad laughs

[49:53] or something necessarily.

[49:55] Or even good laughs.

[49:56] Yeah, I mean, this is definitely, I'm with you.

[50:00] is a good bad movie in the sense that it's like there's something fascinating about it

[50:03] and it is like part of bad movie history so it's it's kind of worth it in that regard

[50:09] but it is also pretty boring yeah well you're in and out in like 70 minutes at least yes

[50:15] that's oh that's essential that's that's why I would call it a bad bad movie for me is

[50:20] because it's a I think it's worth watching a couple clips from maybe if you watch the

[50:25] first eight minutes of this movie right you you've got it except for just imagine those

[50:30] same characters wandering through trees for forever I think it's I thought maybe it was

[50:36] just the mood I was in while I was watching it but I found I took no joy in it for the

[50:40] most part and I just found it so endless and so kind of dull but it's like normally when

[50:47] I'm feeling bad or when I'm feeling disconnected from the world I turn to cinema to kind of

[50:52] raise my spirits and I feel bad that LA had to do that with heartbeats I think I think

[50:57] yeah I think it's also partly that so where I am in my life right now I'm very my work

[51:01] has kept me very busy I have to watch the movies for the flop house and it means that

[51:04] the flop house movies to non flop house movies ratio in my life is maybe the lowest it's

[51:08] ever been in terms of if you were non flop house movies that I'm watching and so maybe

[51:12] it's just that there were there wasn't enough time between flop house movies and between

[51:16] me having to watch this and then watch the next flop house movie fortunately you texted

[51:21] us and like it sounds like you're really enjoying this next one we're gonna watch so

[51:24] well no well what's funny is the next movie we're gonna watch which should we mention

[51:29] what it is or yeah we can do it next next episode not I mean next episode is a mini

[51:33] but the one after that we're gonna be talking about the movie the electric state and I've

[51:35] started watching that and it is almost the opposite of this and that it's also about

[51:38] robots it also is trying for emotions that it is not achieving but there's so much stuff

[51:43] constantly being thrown at your face where it's like the the opposite of this and they're

[51:47] not taking the time to set up very much you know whereas this movie feels like it's all

[51:52] set up and kind of waiting for the big scenes to start so I gotta watch a good I gotta watch

[51:57] a good movie about a robot that falls in love after this are there any uh well maybe we'll

[52:02] talk about that specifically yeah maybe we'll talk about that in next week's mini so let's

[52:07] not let's not discuss that now but I'm gonna give it a bad bad but certainly it is a fascinating

[52:12] bad bad uh well I'm gonna take another uh break here to talk a little bit more about

[52:17] MaxFunDrive specifically bonus content thank you gifts um you know the model is basically

[52:23] we try and make as much as we can just open and free for everyone with the hopes that those who

[52:29] love it will help us sort of uh fund it after the fact uh which is a very optimistic thing that we

[52:36] still believe in but uh but there's also thank you gifts we also recognize that people like to

[52:42] be recognized they like to get something they like to hear us say thank you and the uh at the

[52:47] first level the five dollar month level there is of course that bonus content a library full of it

[52:53] from every show on the network it's got to be pretty huge over the years and you get an access

[52:58] you get access to the whole library across the network when you join at just five dollars a month

[53:03] or more that's right the best thank you gift is at the lowest level uh again our uh bonus content

[53:11] this year is called slop tales it's an rpg created by stewart with soundscapes and fantastic

[53:16] original music contributed by alex smith our producer and uh it's got me elliot and a favorite

[53:24] guest jubin parang playing the staff of a beach town restaurant on memorial day weekend

[53:30] and we're both trying to create and then diffuse some wacky shenanigans um if you join or upgrade

[53:38] at the ten dollar month level you get our enamel pen or the enamel pen for the show of your choice

[53:44] ours this year features uh mads mickelson with slogan mad about mads um and this is a just a

[53:52] side note if you're already a member and you want a pen or you want an extra pen or several extra

[53:58] pens there will be a post drive pen sale with all proceeds going to the transgender law center

[54:04] at the twenty dollar a month level you get a beautiful beach towel with max funds unofficial

[54:10] squirrel mascot nutsy and a unicorn it looks like a beautiful neon dream of the 80s and of course if

[54:17] you are rich uncle penny bags from monopoly they're even more extravagant gifts at even higher levels

[54:23] and all the gifts stack so if you join at a higher level you get every gift from the lower levels as

[54:29] well so will you please join us as a member max fund membership costs less per year than that

[54:35] streaming service that frankly come on you're paying for it you barely use it anyway so why

[54:39] not consider supporting us where you know the pledge you give goes directly to us or the worker

[54:44] owners of the network and make sure we can keep this silly thing going it's a show i know has

[54:49] given me comfort i know from uh letters is giving a lot of you comfort so i'd like to thank everyone

[54:55] who supports already and to ask anyone who's on the fence to go to maximumfund.org join right now

[55:03] and put your money where your heart is but now back to the show let's see the last thing we did

[55:09] was final judgments which means letters wait dan first i have a correction for earlier in the movie

[55:15] yes please not early in the episode not while i it's not that i wasn't listening to you i was

[55:19] listening to you very closely and i'm wondering when is max fun and nutsy finally going to make

[55:22] it official you know that's but also according to imdb this movie was shot in new mexico oh

[55:29] oh that's beautiful that's what we're seeing in it it's not all desert dan i know you're saying

[55:32] it's all desert i think there's more to it yelling at you beforehand like no stewart it's all desert

[55:37] i'm like no dan there's there's a variety of ecosystems there uh something else i want to

[55:42] mention here is uh so heart beeps stan winston uh this is a stan winston story that was in the

[55:47] trivia here is that um he uh he had done the the tin man for the whiz and that's why he got this

[55:52] job because he was the new turns turn someone into a robot thing and he was this kind of gelatin

[55:57] application that kept melting in the sun and made him really stressed out and frustrated and

[56:01] bernadette peters had to calm him down and then afterwards he saw a making of documentary of the

[56:06] dark crystal and it got him very excited about using puppet technology and kind of uh to articulate

[56:11] characters rather than makeup on people and that must have led to the terminator which is a it's a

[56:16] puppet rather than a a person in a costume so maybe we have his bad experience on heartbeats

[56:22] to thank for one of the great movie robot designs yeah you know and also jim henson's work every

[56:28] piece of our life you know helps create the the puzzle that is ourselves i don't know that's true

[56:38] that piece of wisdom is worth joining or upgrading your membership that's for sure

[56:43] um so for the this first letter is from davison last name withheld who writes

[56:50] uh i'm listening to the back catalog normally i listen to npr's background noise while i'm

[56:55] working but you know i can't right now without hyperventilating yeah i typed tom brokaw dune

[57:02] into google to see if tom brokaw was actually known for his affection for dune or if this was

[57:07] completely imagined by elliot i thought you'd appreciate the results and of course i uh texted

[57:12] you guys this a while back and i put it up on the flop house instagram as a real uh so if you want

[57:19] to check it out you can look at it over there but it is uh ai uh incorrectly identifying tom brokaw

[57:27] as a long-time dune fan who has talked about his love of dune on the show on the show yeah yeah

[57:34] so if you want you know even more proof of something you should already know that ai is

[57:39] stupid and should not be being forced into every corner of our lives there you go but uh

[57:46] it reminds me dan wait dan of an ai story i read recently that i forgot where the guy lives and it

[57:51] may be i think he might be dutch i'm not sure but this guy on a lark asked the ai to tell him about

[57:56] himself and the ai hallucinated the story that he had killed his two sons and the guy was very

[58:01] unhappy about it dear lord so do not trust anything a computer tells you because the computer

[58:06] maybe it's maybe it's in low energy joke mode and it's just going to tell you something wrong

[58:10] you know what's the chance you think that uh somebody has been like hey hey tom i saw something

[58:16] about you on the internet that you love dune the best thing is a chance there's a chance the best

[58:22] thing would be if somebody was like i saw online tom that you love dune and be like oh i've never

[58:26] read it and then he reads it and he loves it and then he comes on the podcast for real to talk about

[58:31] how glad he is that we introduced him to it that would be a dream come true so if you read dune

[58:37] because of our podcast and you loved it please come on the show we would love to have you yeah

[58:41] um anyway the the the letter continues though instead of reading further to try and figure

[58:46] out the truth i decided to write the peaches with a question oh has there ever been lore

[58:52] or legend related to a film that influenced your feelings for that film and upon learning that

[58:57] lore or legend was untrue change those feelings i'm thinking about stuff outside the actual

[59:03] content of the movie so ding dong ripping off would be excluded as an example sincerely davidson

[59:10] last name unload that pistol i was now um i uh i mean obviously the uh the ghost and three men

[59:19] and a baby like when you found out it wasn't a real ghost yeah like this movie isn't as scary

[59:24] as i thought it was yeah before you were terrified to make me see a ghost

[59:31] um yeah i'm trying to think about this i don't think i have one about movies but can i talk

[59:37] about one that's not a movie yeah sure yeah why not i think the this learning the true story of

[59:41] the winchester mystery house uh really uh it changed my attitude about it for those who don't

[59:47] know the winchester mystery house it was uh built by the widow of what the the winchester from the

[59:53] winchester firearms fortune and i'd always grown up with the story of it being deliberately built

[59:58] as like a weird maze with clothes

[1:00:00] loosed off staircases and doors that go nowhere

[1:00:03] and windows that are all bricked up

[1:00:05] because she was trying to keep the ghosts

[1:00:07] of those killed by her husband's guns to get to her.

[1:00:11] And then years ago,

[1:00:12] 99% Invisible did an episode about it

[1:00:14] where they're like,

[1:00:15] she was a pioneering female architect

[1:00:16] and there was an earthquake and half the house fell down.

[1:00:18] So they just had to very hastily put new walls up

[1:00:21] and things like that,

[1:00:22] where they changed this

[1:00:23] because they made an addition to the house.

[1:00:24] And it really made me kind of upset

[1:00:26] that a very non-supernatural,

[1:00:29] very real explanation for why a house was kind of weird

[1:00:32] had been turned into this story of an insane mad woman,

[1:00:35] you know, who was paranoid about ghosts.

[1:00:38] And it made me look at it differently.

[1:00:39] Made me kind of sad, you know?

[1:00:41] So I hate to bust everyone's bubble

[1:00:43] about the Winchester Mystery House,

[1:00:44] but you know, it's not really a ghost thing.

[1:00:47] Dan?

[1:00:47] Yeah, I'm trying, I'm really trying to think.

[1:00:50] I'm not, the only ones I can come up with

[1:00:52] are ones that are actually true

[1:00:54] that have enhanced my enjoyment,

[1:00:57] like how everyone had dysentery on Raiders of the Lost Ark.

[1:01:01] So Harrison Ford's like,

[1:01:03] look, can I just shoot him in the scene?

[1:01:05] Made a better scene.

[1:01:07] So I apologize, but I thought that was an interesting

[1:01:12] misuse of technology that I wanted to pass on to everyone.

[1:01:17] Tom Brokaw, as far as we know,

[1:01:20] it's just out of Elliot's beautiful brain.

[1:01:23] Yeah, don't even, I wish I could walk my way

[1:01:25] through the thought process of it, but I can't.

[1:01:28] That's it.

[1:01:30] I started it.

[1:01:31] Okay.

[1:01:32] Well.

[1:01:34] Check the tapes.

[1:01:34] It all gets merged together over the years.

[1:01:37] It's a collab, yeah.

[1:01:39] Ethan.

[1:01:40] Yeah, but I certainly stole it from you.

[1:01:41] You can't deny that.

[1:01:43] Ethan, last name withheld, writes,

[1:01:46] a few years ago, I worked in Berkeley, California

[1:01:49] at a nonprofit.

[1:01:50] One weekend, my coworkers and I drove to Lake Tahoe

[1:01:53] for a camping trip, but when we got to the campsite,

[1:01:56] the air quality was dangerously low

[1:01:58] due to a wildfire in Yosemite to the north.

[1:02:01] So instead of hiking, we went straight into our tents.

[1:02:05] I was with my Ugandan coworker,

[1:02:06] who I only kind of knew at the time,

[1:02:08] who proceeded to pull a laptop from his bag

[1:02:10] and asked me if I wanted to watch a movie.

[1:02:12] I asked him what he had, and he was very excited

[1:02:14] and started playing Morbius.

[1:02:17] It had to be the weirdest movie-going experience

[1:02:20] of my life.

[1:02:21] I'm curious, what's the weirdest movie-going experience

[1:02:23] you've had slash the weirdest place you've watched a movie?

[1:02:27] Keep on flopping around the theaters, Ethan.

[1:02:32] I don't, like, this isn't by any means particularly weird,

[1:02:35] but I did think of how, you know,

[1:02:40] around my 40th birthday, my friend-

[1:02:44] Happy birthday, Dan.

[1:02:45] Well, thank you.

[1:02:49] My friend, John, was like,

[1:02:51] oh, it's also my 40th birthday.

[1:02:54] We should do this thing that Stuart was talking about

[1:02:57] with our friends who run a travel agency,

[1:03:02] which was to take this cruise to Alaska.

[1:03:05] I had never previously had any interest in cruises,

[1:03:07] but I'm like, oh, Alaska, that's neat.

[1:03:09] Yeah, but you love the movie Cruisin'.

[1:03:11] I am cruise control, B2 cruise control.

[1:03:15] Dan, Boat Trip, you were like,

[1:03:16] finally, by chance, we've got the story of Boat Trip.

[1:03:19] Possibly the most unpleasant thing

[1:03:21] we have ever watched for the show.

[1:03:23] It's certainly up there, that's for sure.

[1:03:25] But I do remember being on this cruise at that point,

[1:03:30] single, alone, with three other couples,

[1:03:33] and the others were doing something else.

[1:03:35] Sounding a lot like Boat Trip.

[1:03:37] I don't know, but I was up on the top deck

[1:03:40] in the sprinkling rain because there's a movie playing,

[1:03:43] and it was the Alisa Vikander Tomb Raider.

[1:03:46] Ooh, cool.

[1:03:48] I sat up there watching, mostly alone.

[1:03:52] But I kinda liked it, I kinda liked that movie.

[1:03:53] Yeah.

[1:03:54] Do you guys have things that this brings to mind?

[1:03:57] I mean, I feel like I've only ever watched

[1:04:00] one movie in its entirety on my phone.

[1:04:04] Really?

[1:04:05] Yeah, I know, I don't watch,

[1:04:07] like, I don't know, maybe I do.

[1:04:08] But even if you're flying somewhere?

[1:04:10] I'll watch it on my laptop.

[1:04:12] Okay, okay.

[1:04:12] I'm not gonna watch it on my phone.

[1:04:14] All right.

[1:04:14] I want the slightly widescreen experience.

[1:04:20] But no, I watched this Australian thriller,

[1:04:23] Hounds of Love, which is terrifying,

[1:04:25] and I watched it on my phone,

[1:04:27] and I'm like, I think I was watching it in bed,

[1:04:30] and my wife was asleep next to me,

[1:04:31] and the lights were out except for my phone.

[1:04:33] I'm like, this is extra scary.

[1:04:35] It's like the movie is calling me.

[1:04:39] Because Charlene could wake up at any moment

[1:04:40] and say, turn that off!

[1:04:41] Turn that off!

[1:04:42] That's what I'm scared of.

[1:04:43] That's what she said.

[1:04:44] I don't know why.

[1:04:45] When I watched the movie Mandy at Home,

[1:04:48] the scariest thing about it was

[1:04:49] worrying that my sons would wake up

[1:04:51] and walk into the room at any moment

[1:04:52] while I was watching it.

[1:04:54] Dad, why are you masturbating?

[1:04:56] To that goblin!

[1:05:00] Can I have a cheddar goblin at our house?

[1:05:02] No.

[1:05:03] I didn't have too many weird moviego experiences,

[1:05:05] but it did make me think of years ago

[1:05:07] when I attended the New York premiere screening

[1:05:10] of Birdemic, which was a movie that

[1:05:12] friends of mine had been like,

[1:05:13] you gotta see this movie.

[1:05:14] If it ever comes to New York, you gotta see it.

[1:05:17] The director of the film and the two leads

[1:05:19] were there at the theater,

[1:05:21] and the lead actor in it,

[1:05:22] I mean, he's not a professional actor,

[1:05:23] the lead guy in it was so stoked,

[1:05:25] he was so excited,

[1:05:27] and the director was so excited

[1:05:28] he had brought either a taxidermied bird

[1:05:31] or a fake bird with him,

[1:05:33] and the lead actress, you could tell,

[1:05:35] knew exactly what this movie was,

[1:05:36] knew exactly why we were there,

[1:05:38] and she just goes, before the movie starts,

[1:05:40] she's like, just take it as we meant it,

[1:05:44] or something like that.

[1:05:45] Like, just take it as it is.

[1:05:47] Like, there was a,

[1:05:48] it was, and it made,

[1:05:49] there was this sudden moment where

[1:05:50] the whole audience kind of felt bad,

[1:05:51] I think, that she was like,

[1:05:53] I know why you're here.

[1:05:54] Like, you think this is garbage,

[1:05:55] but then once the movie started,

[1:05:56] it was, well, actually,

[1:05:57] then they played the trailer for Human Centipede,

[1:05:59] which none of us had seen before,

[1:06:00] and everyone laughed their way through that,

[1:06:01] and then we watched the movie,

[1:06:02] and once the movie was on,

[1:06:03] it was, you know, nonstop laughter.

[1:06:05] Human Centipede was a palate cleanser.

[1:06:08] Exactly.

[1:06:10] Okay, well, let's move on

[1:06:12] to some recommendations,

[1:06:14] movies we've seen recently.

[1:06:17] Have you seen this Heart Beeps movie?

[1:06:19] Beautiful.

[1:06:19] Oh, yeah.

[1:06:21] Oh, man, I feel bad.

[1:06:21] Elliot hasn't watched any other movies.

[1:06:23] No, I've only seen Heart Beeps,

[1:06:25] so I have to recommend it,

[1:06:26] so I guess I'll just say,

[1:06:27] it's good, because you can just get up

[1:06:29] and go do something else and come back.

[1:06:30] No, I'm just kidding.

[1:06:31] I do have a movie to recommend.

[1:06:33] You know what?

[1:06:33] I do recommend a new movie that's in theaters.

[1:06:37] I saw it just recently,

[1:06:39] Black Bag by Steven Soderbergh.

[1:06:41] Okay, a spy movie.

[1:06:43] Yeah, and I'm recommending it in part because-

[1:06:46] You love bags.

[1:06:47] Very few people seem to be going to see it,

[1:06:50] and my friend Kevin joked on his Letterboxd review

[1:06:55] that it must be people confused,

[1:06:56] thinking that, like,

[1:06:57] oh, Steven Soderbergh retired already.

[1:07:00] Oh, wait, no, it's actually Matt Carman,

[1:07:01] our friend, replying to Kevin.

[1:07:02] Anyway, point is, someone who we know-

[1:07:05] There's a weird thing where Steven Soderbergh

[1:07:06] is coming out with more movies at a faster pace

[1:07:08] than I think he ever has before,

[1:07:09] and yet it somehow seems like

[1:07:11] he has not made a movie in years,

[1:07:12] maybe because of the way they're being distributed.

[1:07:14] A lot of them went to HBO.

[1:07:16] He had that deal with HBO.

[1:07:18] Yeah.

[1:07:19] Yeah, I think part of it is

[1:07:22] where those movies can find homes now.

[1:07:25] Part of it is he has made a lot of them,

[1:07:29] and he continues to do it with great craft,

[1:07:32] but I think the fact that he's prolific

[1:07:35] makes it seem less special, maybe, when we compare-

[1:07:37] I think that's exactly right, yeah.

[1:07:39] But this is another great piece of craft from him.

[1:07:45] Fassbender and Blanchett play hot spies

[1:07:48] because that's the only things that they can play,

[1:07:50] but it's funny.

[1:07:52] It's like a, well, it's a Le Carre-style spy story,

[1:07:56] but they are gorgeous, hot people at the center of it,

[1:08:01] so it's a weird sort of complex-

[1:08:02] Which is very not Le Carre, yeah.

[1:08:04] Yeah, it's usually 60-year-old balding men

[1:08:08] in an office somewhere-

[1:08:10] Smoking cigarettes.

[1:08:11] Pasty from never seeing the sun,

[1:08:13] but I think in this movie,

[1:08:18] so much of it is about their marriage

[1:08:20] that it helps that they're both smoking hot people

[1:08:24] because you're led to believe throughout the film,

[1:08:27] you're like, okay, well, can they trust one another?

[1:08:28] They're both in the spy business.

[1:08:31] It's a case in which one of them

[1:08:33] has to investigate the other,

[1:08:35] and you are wondering, is the trust

[1:08:39] that they've built up real or not?

[1:08:41] And that's kind of the central metaphor,

[1:08:45] spy business as marriage,

[1:08:47] but the spy business is all really well put together

[1:08:50] and sharp and entertaining,

[1:08:51] and if you want movies that aren't just

[1:08:56] some IP being recycled,

[1:08:58] then maybe go out and-

[1:08:59] Go see some solid adult fare.

[1:09:01] Yeah, yeah.

[1:09:02] Yeah.

[1:09:04] But I think we've been trained not to is the problem,

[1:09:07] but I would recommend it.

[1:09:09] Stuart?

[1:09:09] I'm gonna recommend a little short movie

[1:09:12] since Heart Beeps was a short movie.

[1:09:13] I'm gonna recommend a movie from last year

[1:09:16] called Rap World.

[1:09:18] It's a hot 55 minutes.

[1:09:21] It's available- Wow.

[1:09:22] On its entirety.

[1:09:22] Not even feature length, wow.

[1:09:25] It's available in its entirety on YouTube.

[1:09:28] It's a film by comedian Conor O'Malley,

[1:09:31] and it is about a group of friends

[1:09:35] shot very like cheapo documentary style,

[1:09:41] mockumentary style about a group of friends

[1:09:44] on one night in 2009 who are living

[1:09:48] in Tobyhanna, Pennsylvania,

[1:09:50] and they are attempting to make their debut rap album,

[1:09:59] and

[1:10:00] over the course of a single night and obviously hijinks and setbacks occur and

[1:10:06] also it was it's it's very funny it's edited really well there's a bunch of

[1:10:12] great little performances Sarah Sherman from Saturday Night Live's in it for a

[1:10:15] little bit Connor O'Malley's very funny everybody's great one of the guys who

[1:10:21] keeps in over the course of the movie keeps sending these like kind of

[1:10:25] deranged FaceTime videos to a girl he's interested in the way that he speaks

[1:10:30] sounds so much like my younger brother that it is incredibly triggering for me

[1:10:35] and it was very both hard to watch but also kind of impressive that he manages

[1:10:40] to capture a very specific type of Midwestern slang speaking so yeah rap

[1:10:47] world check it out it's really funny I'm also gonna recommend a short movie but

[1:10:51] not as short as rap world I'm gonna recommend a movie from 1969 called the

[1:10:55] comic it was directed by Carl Reiner and stars Dick Van Dyke and it tells the

[1:10:58] story of a silent film comedian who's basically a big jerk who makes his

[1:11:03] career in silent film and then when he reaches a certain age his alcoholism and

[1:11:08] his mistreatment of others gets to him and the first hour of the movie when it

[1:11:13] shows him making his way in silent film and mistreating people is okay although

[1:11:17] showing it really shows how well Dick Van Dyke would have done as a silent

[1:11:20] filmmaker in the 20s because he's very funny in it but then the last half hour

[1:11:24] when he is a an old man living a very boring unpleasant like unsatisfying life

[1:11:29] is I find parts of it so funny because it is like it is it's so bleak and it's

[1:11:35] just gonna like him as an old man sitting in a small apartment watching

[1:11:38] TV while he's eating and there's something very funny about it after the

[1:11:42] after the bigness of his life before then and so I think it's not it's not the

[1:11:48] greatest movie I didn't I didn't really love it the way I was hoping to but

[1:11:51] there's a lot of moments in it that I really liked a lot and so I'll

[1:11:55] recommend the comic which I believe may also be on YouTube in its entirety you

[1:12:00] know not necessarily legally but I think I might have watched it on to be or on

[1:12:05] YouTube movies I can't remember anyway it doesn't matter and I have one final

[1:12:10] recommendation which is that if you've never been a max fund member try it out

[1:12:16] at just $5 a month enjoy that bonus content if you're already a member and

[1:12:21] you'd like to support a little more we would certainly appreciate you upgrading

[1:12:24] your membership or even boosting by a few dollars per month or so if you are

[1:12:28] able to do so please do so now though before you forget at maximum fun org

[1:12:34] slash join and most importantly thank you to all of our members thank you for

[1:12:40] listening we cannot make the show without you and we are so grateful for

[1:12:44] your support and we're also grateful for producer Alex Smith you know him by the

[1:12:50] name Howell Dottie on the internet check his stuff out as well check out the

[1:12:57] maximum fun family of podcasts at maximum fun org while you're joining and

[1:13:02] thank you for listening I've been Dan McCoy I'm Stewie Wellington I'm Ellie

[1:13:08] Kaelin saying thank you listeners but especially thank you members okay see

[1:13:14] you next time bye

[1:13:26] too hot for TB that's tuberculosis um great great they send you to a warmer

[1:13:33] climate they'd say they'd say go to Arizona it's too hot for TB Tucson

[1:13:38] Arizona all right now we're starting welcome to Tucson Arizona we actually

[1:13:43] don't say Arizona but a lot of people think we do

[1:13:51] music of the night it's mostly you know a desert creatures buy some turquoise

[1:13:58] jewelry while you're here people say why did you go to Tucson where it's sunny

[1:14:03] all the time and I remind them they also have night in Tucson

[1:14:09] on the name of my vampire novel and they say don't they have two sons they're

[1:14:13] like no a common misconception it's actually the same fun son that goes

[1:14:19] around I think Tatooine I don't remember Tatooine would be very bad for a

[1:14:26] vampire but you see there is a sunset cuz Luke stares off into it longingly as

[1:14:31] he dreams of joining the Academy and leaving this mud ball sand planet I love

[1:14:36] how it occasionally drifts into father Guido Sarducci he was a vampire right yeah

[1:14:42] he was a vampire yeah top fam okay let's do this maximum fun a worker owned

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Ep.#448 - Heartbeeps

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