Talking Pondo: That Thing You Do! and The Hollywood Knights

 In this episode, Marty gives Clif the film The Hollywood Knights to watch and Clif gives Marty That Thing You Do! to watch.

The Hollywood Knights

That Thing You Do!

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:00

Welcome to Making Pondo and Talking Pondo. Talking Pondo is a podcast where we pick out two movies each week and talk about them in detail. Making Pondo is a podcast where we talk to people we've made films with and we discuss all their experiences on set.

SPEAKER_03 0:21

Alright, Marty, we're back.

SPEAKER_01 0:22

We're back for episode 13.

SPEAKER_03 0:26

13. Lucky number 13. Got a scorch for you today, kids.

SPEAKER_01 0:30

More than likely extended episode 13, as I suspect we have a lot to say about both these movies. Both these movies. Now, at the end of last week's episode, or whenever that one posted it, there might have been a making. Talking to the cameras, if you can see me. This is an audio format. We said this week's movies, we said this week's we said one of this week's movies was that thing you do, a pot uh exclamation point. And the other movie is Hollywood Nights, and we didn't say which version of that thing you do. We were watching. So we're watching the extended version.

SPEAKER_03 1:09

Two hours and 37 minutes of gloriousness.

SPEAKER_01 1:13

Jesus H Christ. So yeah, make sure you watch the extended version because if you just watch the theatrical version, which I had was pretty familiar with, I'd seen the the short and regular version many times, so I could kind of compare and contrast in my head. If you've only seen that one, you might miss some of the conversation today.

SPEAKER_03 1:34

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:34

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 1:35

And I j jumping right in, I to me, they're almost it's not that they're two different movies, but you lose a little bit in the theatrical release that's in the extended edition. And I know that's I mean, yeah, obviously it's extended edition, but you lose a little bit of like you lose a little bit of character tone, you lose you lose some pretty good jokes and some pretty decent scenes. Um a lot of a lot of Tina, you know, you lose a lot of Tina, you know.

SPEAKER_01 2:04

So let's uh jump right into that thing at home. Uh our two movies are That Thing You Do, Extend It Version, or the Director's Extend It Version, or Tom Hanks' Extended Version. I don't know the exact name of the movie. And then we also have the Hollywood Knights. And uh one movie is set in 1964, and one movie is set in 1965. So let's go chronological and start with That Thing You Do from 1964. Alright. How weird that we pick two movies that are set one year apart from each other.

SPEAKER_03 2:40

Yeah, I I mean I and I think honestly, other than that, and they both have really good soundtracks, that's probably about as that's probably about as many commonalities as I'm gonna find in them.

SPEAKER_01 2:50

And eras that uh you don't see a whole lot of movies about that time period. It's usually the late 60s or like an earlier, but this though for these are in a transitional period in a way.

SPEAKER_03 3:04

So yeah, yeah. I mean, I I feel like it's yeah, I feel like Hollywood nights, especially like Oh yeah. Yeah, we'll get there. So what is that thing you do first? So that's so that thing you do 1996, 1996, starring Tom Hanks, Liv Tyler, Charlize Therone, um Steve Zahn, Ethan Embry, um Jonathan Sheck as Jimmy, he's the one of the leads, and Tom Everett Scott is the drummer. There we go. Shades. Yeah, shades. Um so it's a great cast. Uh it's a great cast. And the film's about a local Pennsylvania band that scores, that writes a one-hit wonder uh type of song in 1964 and then kind of rides the takes the ride on on you know becoming star uh becoming stars and all that stuff. They meet their they meet Tom Hanks, who's the manager, who takes them to California and they become stars, and and then you kind of watch it all fall apart, which honestly I think is probably one of my favorite things about music movies. I don't really want to, I don't know that I really want to watch a movie about a band that makes it and it stays successful. I kind of want to watch it fall apart. I don't know why that is. I haven't really thought much about that, but it just popped into my head just now, like, oh yeah, I I don't want to watch, like, I don't want to watch them make it. You know, like I want to watch them get there, but then I want to watch it fall apart. Like that's like kind of I don't know. Like that's again why with the commitments is one of my favorite movies of all time. Same thing, you know.

SPEAKER_01 4:36

Uh I saw a review for this that said that this is uh like the commitment slight.

SPEAKER_03 4:42

Mm-hmm. American American commitments you could call you could easily call it that. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 4:49

Uh when I typed it in to IMDB, a title that came up was That Thing You Do With Your Mouse. And I thought that was the sequel that was never produced. I just thought that was kind of funny.

unknown 5:03

It's great.

SPEAKER_01 5:05

The internet came up with that one, guys. I I can't take credit. I'm just passing it along. So now you you're more familiar with the movie than I am overall. Uh the extended parts. The majority of it's in the beginning, right? No, it's it's all throughout the movie. I mean, as far as like these band, these it felt to me like there was extended band sequences throughout the beginning, especially of building them up, which gives you more of a feel of they've been on the road, I get it, but at the same time you get to hear that song a lot more. Yes. And so I think the extended version is really for super fans, if you absolutely love it. Otherwise, I think the theatrical is probably more of my vibe. Because it's just the because once you meet Tom Hanks and then the pacing kind of changes.

SPEAKER_00 5:58

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 5:59

And then I ultimately feel like the movie's not even about the wonders in a way, it's about these people. But, anyways, I'll let you go more with the initial breakdowns before I jump into.

SPEAKER_03 6:10

Uh, I mean, that's I basically I mean that's the movie. I mean, the movie is basically about these four kids in Pennsylvania. They start a band, they get they get um spotted by a local talent manager who puts them into some local rock rock shows. Back in the 60s, you know, the these these local towns, these small towns would have these rock and roll shows. You know, some of them were national touring acts, but some of them were just put together by, you know, you know, like in this in this movie, it's put together by boss Vic Cos, the mattress king, you know. And it's a it's just a way to sell mattresses, it's a way to sell sell stuff, right? So um they get on these small things and then they get discovered by Playtone Records, which is uh Tom Hanks is a manager for, and he signs them to a national contract and then puts them on the state fair tour, right? So now they're on back in the day, you would go, you'd get on a big bus with a bunch of other acts and you would tour the country going from state fair to state fair, you know, kind of like a circus, I guess. Right, just with musical acts. Um, and then at one point, you know, the record starts climbing, they start, you know, uh doing better and better in the charts. And then at one point they're like, they break the top 20. It's like, all right, this state fair is small potatoes, we're going to California, you know, gonna meet the gonna meet the guy who owns the record company. We're gonna, you know, we're gonna be the next Beatles, you know. Okay, yeah, trying to be the next Bru making of the next Beatles, you know, and because the Beatles are huge at that point, 64.

SPEAKER_01 7:29

That's where they really got that fashion down where you there's parts where you're like, yeah, they really got that 60s vibe where it's like the costuming and it's like it yeah, that's very good, especially for 1996.

SPEAKER_03 7:40

So yeah, as as a set piece movie, as a it they really I I felt like they really nailed the production design of it. Like it looks and feels like the 60s, the cars are all right. The especially like when you're in an appliance store and you've got all these old appliances and things, and you're just like, geez, I've totally forgotten.

SPEAKER_01 7:56

And stores were that big back then because you had the space because you look at it now and you go, look at these gigantic fucking sets. And some of it does feel kind of ultra stagey in a way, especially in that beginning part, but it's also part of you know, the artificiality of it all, the mock beatles filter that it's all going through. It's supposed to have that kind of not reality reality to it.

SPEAKER_03 8:24

I mean, there's a there's there's a scene where you know they're when they're playing the state fair right before they're getting ready to fly to California, excuse me, right before they're getting ready to fly to California, you know, they go rushing out to the car and all the fans are are trying to get to them and stuff, and that's very hard day's night.

SPEAKER_01 8:41

Like it's just very you can tell whenever they're running around or anyway.

SPEAKER_03 8:45

Yeah, you can tell Tom Hanks had a big has a big affection for that movie and probably for the Beatles in general, I would say. Um I like the shot of him driving and listening to Mr. Downtown. Early on, there's that's an extra scene in the movie where he's just guys uh guys the they they call him eerie Pennsylvania's lone beatnik. You know, he's just uh and also early on you find out in the extended version, which isn't in the theatrical, that he was in the army for two years.

SPEAKER_01 9:10

Right. And see, some of these extended scenes that convey the extra info, I'd like some somewhere in the middle that gave me these extra pieces of information, but didn't make me hear that thing you do five more times or whatever it was.

SPEAKER_03 9:26

I don't I honestly don't think the song pops up more due to the extended. If I I think the song counts the same, but it just longer the performance. Yeah, yeah, it's just more performance. Yeah, I don't think there's any more songs. The and I like I like the repetitiveness of the song. They do break it up with some other like B sides that he does, but that's why I thought the pacing of it was better and theatrical. I see, I like hearing that song so much because every version is different, it becomes more and more polished as they get like and so file until finally they're in California and the thing is note perfect, you know, and they they can play it standing on their heads, and it sounds, you know, it's it sounds like a real pop, like an actual, you know, Beatles pop song. I I kind of like that. Uh but yeah, I like I like him singing Mr. Downtown because it, you know, we you know that scene continues and we see he lives on his own, he was in the army, he's been dating for a year. You know, you meet Tina and you realize, oh, she's got his whole life planned. Like, like she's already figured, you know, oh we've been dating for a year and all this and blah blah blah. Like she's she's uh got him in her sights.

unknown 10:31

Uh-huh.

SPEAKER_03 10:31

And it all falls apart when he joins the band.

SPEAKER_01 10:33

Like she's just like, you know, that just immediately just doesn't it's exciting for that.

SPEAKER_03 10:38

I and I remember in the movie, because that's another scene that they cut out is the fire extinguisher scene, right? That's not in the theatrical, right? But but you get that scene of her getting sprayed in the face with that fire extinguisher stuff, and she you you just tell her face, she's like, I'm oh, I'm over this.

SPEAKER_00 10:54

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 10:54

Like I'm I'm done with, I'm not doing this anymore. And then of course she meets the dentist, and then she's like, you know, this handsome punk.

SPEAKER_01 11:00

How much dental work do you need done anyway?

SPEAKER_03 11:02

Yeah, exactly. I'm gonna be at the dentist all day on Saturday. Yeah. Um I like the movie's very smart. Uh it's well written. Like he he hits on so many things about bands back then, like like uh they're sitting in the in the the uh cafe or the diner and they're trying to come up with a band name, and it's like how about the chord vets? You know, like the chords in our music. And and names back then were very kind of what gimmicky like that, right? Even the Beatles is a is a gimmick name, B-E-A-T-L-E-S, right?

SPEAKER_01 11:37

Um yeah, and they even mentioned that, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 11:43

Yeah, one and one awesome drummer that changes your life for the low, low price of two record needles and an alarm clock radio. I mean, that's that's a pretty good deal.

SPEAKER_01 11:52

And uh when you get to the Animal House uh American graffiti end credits, where where are they now? And ever since I heard Kevin Smith talk about how they tried to make him put those type of end credits on mall rats, anytime I see those type of end credits in a movie in the 90s, I think somebody compromised. But can you but I like those because they it is important to know where everybody is, but he I like his band that he went gold with, uh yeah, uh the herdsman. The herdsman, one of the early names. Yeah, he keeps coming back.

SPEAKER_03 12:27

Yeah, how about the herdsman? Yeah, yeah. Yeah, Jimmy, and that's the thing in the movie that you you start to realize about halfway through it is that Jimmy's very focused on Jimmy. You know, he's a pretty terrible boyfriend. Like anytime Faye's mentioned, anytime anybody brings up Faye when he's around, he never really responds or looks at her. Like all the other dudes are like, Hey Faye, how's it going? And he's just like, Yep, that's my girlfriend, that's what she's supposed to do. You know. Um, and of course, the last thing he says to her should have dumped you in Pittsburgh is a pretty shitty thing to say to anybody, but you know. Um I and I like Liv Tyler in this movie quite a bit. Um the the outfits and the hairstyles kind of suit her, I think. She seems to wear them really easily. Um same with um Charlie's Therone, too. That weird little buffant hairdo she had actually looked pretty good on her.

SPEAKER_01 13:19

Oh yeah, the the design, the production design and the costume design. Yeah, it's pretty top-notch.

SPEAKER_03 13:26

Yeah, yeah. And this is Hanks's first movie from his production company, I think, Plato, um, who went on to do My Big Fat Greek Wedding and some others.

SPEAKER_01 13:36

Um It makes total sense. And you know Tom Hanks is successful in this business for a reason. And so it would make sense that when he launches it and does this writer-director movie that obviously is very personal to him, as I'll get into later. Uh of course it's gonna be good, right? You don't you know he's not gonna fumble the ball in this one because this one it's important in in many ways. Yeah, I think.

SPEAKER_00 14:09

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 14:10

Um you know, it's got a lot of great lines in it. Um the uh when they're playing at Villa Pianos and it's dead, and they're like, you know, we came here to dance and meet girls. And you know, Steve Zahn's got a lot of great kind of just throwaway one-liners that he just gets to throw out there and walk away from.

SPEAKER_01 14:29

And you know, he does have what I think is the funniest line in the movie where he's they ask him what their influences are, and he says, Captain Geech.

SPEAKER_03 14:37

Captain Geach and the shit shrimp shack shooters.

SPEAKER_00 14:40

That's fun.

SPEAKER_03 14:41

My favorite line is when he's being interviewed at the state fair. I bet you're having a great time here at the state fair, and you know, you're gonna play for all these kids, and he goes, Oh, I'm not with these fellas. I got a pig in competition over at the livestock pavilion, and I am gonna win that blue ribbon. Yeah, makes me laugh every time.

SPEAKER_01 14:57

It's reminiscent of all the Beatles oddball interviews and the Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 15:03

Yeah, and Lenny's the fool. I mean, and he plays it, he play, you know, and Steezon plays that part perfectly, you know, and like after they finish that that ballad in Villa Piano's, he goes, Table 19, your pizza's ready. Like, I just I love that stuff. He just cracks me up all the way through the movie.

SPEAKER_01 15:21

Um I neither one of these movies to me, now obviously I have no idea, they probably both do obviously have a script, but neither one of them feel like they have a script. They feel more like curb your enthusiasm, improv on a scene, idea like this is what this scene is supposed to be, and do it, kind of. It has that kind of both this and the Hollywood nights have that kind of lived in, let's get from point A to point B. Whatever the method they were using, it benefits. It felt more lived in that way, more spontaneous, not so much like man, if that's like how it is on the page, then wow, dude.

SPEAKER_03 16:06

Wow, that's yeah, that's that's some amazing writing.

SPEAKER_01 16:10

Because it feels so opened up, yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 16:13

I love when Chad breaks his arm and then later on he comes back, you know, he shows back up in the cafe after they've already played the show and and you know, won the money and played Villa Peon. He's like, hey, and they're just like, Oh, it's who are you? Oh, it's Chad, it's you. Oh, yeah. How quickly we forget. Yeah, and that's they haven't told him this. And you can tell at that point they haven't told him you're out of the band, but he's obviously out of the band.

SPEAKER_01 16:34

It's all these little allegories about show business throughout the whole thing. It's like uh It is. There's a lot of that stuff. It's like one of these proto Entourage, but it's it's it's it's not Entourage, as I'll get into in a bit. But Clint Howard Alert. Clint Howard Alert. We saw last call saw Clint Howard briefly in Get Crazy, and now we're seeing him back in this movie as the radio DJ. Now, do you know who the other radio DJ was?

SPEAKER_03 17:04

Yeah, I I I I've recognized his face by but I I couldn't I don't can't remember his name.

SPEAKER_01 17:10

Paul Feig. Yes. Yes, yes, and the heat, and so there's your direct connection through you know degrees of separation to MST through that thing you do.

SPEAKER_03 17:24

Well, Feek's doing Marvel now, isn't he?

SPEAKER_01 17:27

I lost track of what he was doing, but did he direct Bryce Maids? Am I am I right about that? I believe he did, yeah. Yeah, so there he is back as the uh DJ at uh No, I've got the wrong guy. K MPC. The KMPC DJ. Yes, with his Dodge Rally Windbreaker. Yeah. And is that Brian Cranston? That's Brian fucking. That's Brian Fucking Cranston, yeah. It's just like that's a that's a big surprise when you see that happen. One of definitely one of his early, early parts. It gives Peter Scolari a role in it. Because they were in Boz and Buddies together. And and also he remembered who he came up with. And when you're doing this movie, uh If I'm calling the shots, I'm gonna pull all my friends into this movie. Um let's see, what else do I have here?

SPEAKER_02 18:24

For God's sake.

SPEAKER_03 18:26

He put his son in it and it didn't even get him a line. I mean, you can't give the kid a line.

SPEAKER_01 18:30

One line. Colin Hanks is so young in that movie, and you know, we see him now in like the offer and stuff all these years later, and it's like that was him and the offer, right? Yeah. Isn't he the guy who's like the asshole, but then he really just wanted to make a good movie too? Yes, yes, yes, yeah. He works for he works for Marathon Oil, you're right, yeah. And what I was gonna say is, for God's sake, tell tell people your band's name. That shouldn't be happening. I know it's a funny joke, but uh fucking Kevin Pollack should know that they're not the one-eaters by now. Somebody's the own eaters, somebody should have told him. There's there's a lot of somebody should have done in this movie, which then it would have been a different movie, right?

SPEAKER_03 19:17

Um that's an that that's an extra scene too, is uh when they're in they're in his dressing room, and then you know, and then uh they get kicked out, and Steve's on's like, we're in a frickin' bunker, nobody's ever gonna know we're here.

SPEAKER_00 19:31

And they're like, shut up, shut up.

SPEAKER_01 19:33

Those scenes seem so natural, like they belong. That's extra.

SPEAKER_00 19:37

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 19:39

So I'm definitely torn on, like I said, I'd like to see some kind of happy medium, like a because the movie's usually an hour and 45. So you got 45 extra minutes in there. If you could get it somewhere around the just a little over two, perhaps. There's probably a fan edit out there that I don't know of.

SPEAKER_03 19:56

What's the theatrical? What's the theatrical cut? What's its length?

SPEAKER_01 19:59

It's um 145, an hour.

SPEAKER_03 20:02

Yeah, that's 148. Yeah, that's that's a good, that's a good length. That's junky.

SPEAKER_01 20:07

Uh Halloween Alert, once again, Kathleen Kenmont is in this movie. She's uh one of the uh secretaries or assistants. We saw her at Halloween 4 briefly. We keep getting all these Halloween actors and movies that we cover for whatever reason. I did go down the IMDB rabbit hole for this movie ahead of time. So Reed is in it, his wife, his wife's in it. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 20:31

She actually has lines, good for her.

SPEAKER_01 20:35

Which leads to uh the best line in the movie, the keep on playing. You know, when he gets that advice from from Dude in the in the classic scene, which you know, which is probably one of the better sequences in the whole movie where he gets to meet his idol and change stories with him, which then set him up later on.

SPEAKER_03 20:57

There will be spoilers. Yeah, and the Clint Howard thing, that whole uh job offer thing, that's extra. That's not in the theatrical release.

SPEAKER_01 21:04

Oh my god, that's so weird to I know. That's like Lawrence of Arabia without the goggles shot, you know. It's like and yes, I just compared Lawrence of Arabia to that thing to do. We we talk about movies here, you know.

SPEAKER_03 21:17

That's what we do.

SPEAKER_01 21:18

You don't have to agree.

SPEAKER_03 21:19

Let me ask you a question. Did you when you first saw the theatrical release years ago, did did Tom Hanks' character come off as homosexual to you in any way?

SPEAKER_01 21:30

Oh no. And he's yeah, I mean, outside of the some innuendo, he still doesn't come off as what you would consider that classic trope, especially 30, 40 years ago in a movie. They're very forward thinking in their way of making this film where they didn't have any stereotypes like that.

SPEAKER_03 21:47

And I think that's why I like I liked it, was because I was like, oh, okay, because and and maybe, I don't know, maybe maybe that's maybe in his mind that's how uh a gay person in the record. Business had to act back then to be able to maintain, right? You couldn't just be out.

SPEAKER_01 22:06

But also still probably still had to act that way in the early 80s when Tom Hanks was coming up and knowing people as well.

SPEAKER_03 22:15

Right, right, right, right.

SPEAKER_01 22:16

I think this movie is uh about Tom Hanks. This is he he has filtered his coming up through the show business through this Beatles pastiche type thing, I think. In a way. I think it's kind of got that little autobiographical too. Interesting.

SPEAKER_03 22:35

I caught I I caught one scene where you know the scene where they're at they're shooting Captain Geach and the shrimp shack shooters, and Tom Hanks is sitting off to the side eating shrimp and you know, licking his fingers or whatever. There's a scene where he's talking to a dude that's standing next to him and he kind of checks him up, checks him for just a second, looks him up and down, head and toe. It looks like he's kind of checking him out. And that's the only time in the movie where I can see like maybe there was a a break in the facade, right? Of that of the of the you know, of his not the actor, but the character, right? I don't know. I I but I especially Howie Long with that whole scene with Howie Long where he's like, bring him with us, and he just starts laughing hysterically. He's like, No, you know.

SPEAKER_01 23:22

Well, I think I I'm ready to get into my main thesis about the film as as I got to sit with it for a few days and think about it. I'm glad I had that time because the more I thought about it, the more ideas I started to get from subtext or as a filmmaker, and so obviously what Jimmy does at the end of the movie is very unforgivable. He's a shithead. He handled the situation so bad. But much earlier on, I'm watching the movie and I'm like, wow, this time around, I'm sympathizing for Jimmy. Fucking poor Jimmy. He has no advocate whatsoever. He can't stand up for himself because he's very smart, right? He's probably on the fucking spectrum. He's the creative genius, after all. He is the guy who wrote the songs, but he it never it's all on him, too. It's it's everybody's fault, is why the band falls apart, right? Because everybody could have done things. Like as soon as you bring in this new replacement drummer and he starts playing that song too fast, you go, wait a minute, this is my band. I am the leader of this band. I wrote these songs, this is how we're doing it. He doesn't do that because he knows it is better. I was gonna say, yeah, but if he's also young, if he's naive, right? Because they don't realize that is the better thing. I mean, maybe eventually if the character of Jimmy's ego falls by the wayside 10 years down the line, he might understand the collaboration is a better way to go, which some part of him understood that spark in the beginning. But there's also this time around, I went, wow, whose band is it? They basically give it to Guy. He's a replacement drummer, he's not even a permanent member of the band. He's suddenly the leader of the band and he's making all the decisions, and everybody's coming to him for the manager because Jimmy's so wishy-washy, but it's sad because he's that creative genius, like so many, don't know how to do the business side of it. I'm talking like of an allegory type situation. So obviously he's a shithead.

SPEAKER_03 25:36

But so when this so in the story, guy's older, right? He's a couple years older than they are. Um and and see, I it's an interesting take. I think for me, uh, with Jimmy, I think that Jimmy is lucky. And and I think, and I think that's why it's he's shitty, and I think that's why his egotism is so annoying, right? Because without the up tempo beat in Guy Patterson, he's he's an Aerie PA for the rest of his life, strumming his guitar and writing these crappy ballads, right? Because maybe that thing you do sounds like shit when you when you slow it down. It's not a good song when you slow it down, right?

SPEAKER_01 26:16

Like he'll never get to that level of peak again with that big of a hit, but he might have just crawled to his comfortable gold records he achieved on his own and been satisfied with that later.

SPEAKER_03 26:28

But they're all young, you know. I mean, I mean he but would what do you've even been discovered, right? Like I think I feel like Jimmy got lucky and kind of let his ego take over and and drive it, you know.

SPEAKER_01 26:40

I feel like Jimmy, I feel like he sabotages everything because it's the only way he knows how to get anybody to listen to him. He's so immature, they all are. So he just blows up at the end. Now you're finally paying attention to me. But nobody goes, fuck Jimmy, I'm sorry this was hard on you. We know that you didn't really fucking unless you really are an asshole, right? But I watching it this time, I thought nobody had anybody's back. It's the anti-entourage. These people are all selfish, they don't care about anybody else. The bass player, he goes off to fucking Disneyland or whatever. He don't give a fuck. He joined the military, he's done. Leo, Leo goes, gets married, he don't give a fuck about those two because he doesn't show up for his obligation. And Jimmy don't care about anybody either. And guys just left there going, what the fuck? And that's why Tom Tom Hanks is like, you're the smart one. You know. But it's almost like, oh, and then no, he's the talent. And I'm thinking, oh, is that how actors view the talent sometime that we're all just a bunch of, and you know, we are a lot of the time too. We have creative stories and shit. We all need each other in a way, but I looked at it as ultimately Jimmy and Guy, they're both talented, but I don't know if they should be in a band together because they're two obviously not. They're two different types, and it goes back to what the guy said: keep on playing. Yeah, it doesn't matter who you're in the band with. When you go to Entourage and how we like to do things, we have people that we actually stick with and we create a group and we go forward that way. This movie's more of the singularity going forward. Ah, the actor struggle, the singularity, the one-person struggle, where you don't necessarily have other people having your back. So maybe Leo and the bass player, who doesn't even have a name, just represent the people that just float in and out of the business that don't take it seriously, but you're there. I think, I think Jimmy and and what's his name, Guy. I think they're both the same person. And that person is Tom Hanks. Not in a way of fight club or anything. Obviously, they're the same character, they're different characters in the movie, but I think they represent two sides. The I want to be a serious actor, but I gotta do this goofy shit first, right? I gotta be Captain Geech and the shrimp shack shooters to pay my dues. And I've seen I gotta do my bosom buddies so I can do my Brian. He's got that look like when Jimmy's saying I quit, like he knows the like he's seen the business, right? And he's seen so many of these things happen in real life that it's like, no, no, you you pay your dues, you do the goofy shit, and you remember who you came up with, you hire Peter Scaleri again for the movie and people like that, but then you get to a point where you can do that thing you do, and now you're the one in charge of it, right? And and it's so it's like that's when I realized, oh, they're not all cold and not having each other's back, they represent different parts of of a of the singularity of a of the of an artist's struggle, basically. So it was like, oh, that's I don't know if I'm picking up on shit that's not there, but I thought it was pretty deep.

SPEAKER_03 30:05

I think that's an interesting take. I never I literally never would have come up with that. That's fascinating. Um, I mean for me it's it's I don't I don't see the depth of it in in like that, but I I I can definitely see what you're saying on some points. Um for me, it's a really fun, light movie about a bunch of kids who hit it big, and just like a bunch of kids. I mean, dude, go back to when you were 22 or 21 or 19 or 18, you know. I mean, if if you had just suddenly rocketed to fame, I mean, Jesus, dude, we had a we had a local public access television show that got us on on the cover of a newspaper, and we thought we were the kings of the freaking world. Imagine if you have a number one hit song, you know.

SPEAKER_01 30:47

See, that's that's probably why I have the sympathy for for the gym character, at least in the beginning of the movie. But he never has the backbone to stand up for himself. By the time he does, it's too late, and he's alienated everybody, he's he's destroyed everything. There's no way going back. But he was probably a shithead anyway. He probably should just worked up with it.

SPEAKER_03 31:06

He doesn't even really stand up for himself. He basically just says if you're not knowing what they want or any, yeah. Yeah, but he's basically just like, look, if we're not gonna play my songs, I'm not gonna play anything.

SPEAKER_01 31:18

Yeah, and see, it's like, no, you don't do that. You don't, you know, you should have read your contract, you know. Yeah, yeah. Or he's just like, nope. And that's it's the look of I've seen so many fucking people just flittering and out of this business, like the bass player or like Leo. And I want to do serious shit too, but I gotta do this first. It's kind of like how Night Riders was Romero's autobiography. In a way, it's like that thing you do with Tom Hanks's. And it's funny we'd watch these one week after the other because they both kind of have that are you gonna sell out thing? And so we see Romero's way of, I'm gonna keep Indy. Well, Hanks is like, I'm gonna pay my dues and be the fucking boss struggle. But it's very interesting that they lined up next to each other.

SPEAKER_03 32:05

Um, I enjoy uh, like I said, I thought the writing in it was really sharp. Um, you really get to see Lenny's gambling card playing sort of addiction kind of come to, you know, he's he's playing cards with those old men, then suddenly he's going to Vegas, and then at the end of the movie he works for a casino. Of course he does. Makes complete sense. Um, so you know, I thought that was uh great.

SPEAKER_01 32:29

Never a second thought or a message or anything. Hey guys, I quit the band. Nope, he just didn't show up.

SPEAKER_03 32:36

One of my others was um the scene on the plane where uh okay, we're going to California. Here's a schedule. You're probably gonna be on TV. Now leave me alone so I can sleep. And Lenny's just he's unwrapping that piece of candy. Lenny, give me that paper. And then he's then he's starts crunching on the candy. Lenny, go go to the cockpit. Go, go ask if they'll give you. It's just he's completely frustrated with them because, like you said, they're kids, man. They're it's gotta be exhausting, you know, uh hurting those little cats like that. Um yeah, uh I love how the DJ is a huge dork, the Paul Feed character, like you know, because you rarely do do DJs like look or stu like they sound. You know, if you've ever met radio personalities, you're like, oh, that's what they look like, you know. Um it's never what you have in your head. So um yeah, it's like and and what I and what I mentioned, like with this Jimmy and Faye thing, it's like when they're at the K Jazz radio station and they're talking, guy at one point leans over right before they put his record on, he says, you know, hey, uh, I want to give a shout out to Faye. She's sick, and I hope she gets better. And Jimmy's like completely he doesn't chime in, he doesn't say anything. He should be the one saying that.

SPEAKER_01 33:55

Yeah, like that's his spectrum, you know, because he's the creative genius, but he he does has no social skills. He's Sheldon Cooper, right? He's yeah, I guess. Um everybody needs to grow up a little bit and learn that they can work with each other because they had a good thing going, and now now look what you did. Uh screw everything up.

SPEAKER_03 34:19

I thought breaking it up, I I did like the fact that they broke it up and did that again. It was very, very Beatles-esque to do that theater in the round with um uh what's that song called? Tell your mama that we're leaving. Yeah, there's a party going on that one. Um so it was nice to have a change of pace with with the song too. Um that blue spot scene later on in the jazz club is awesome. Um, that's really cool. I love it. Yeah, I love how how fanboyed out Guy is and and and Rita's trying to pick him up and he's completely oblivious. Like he's either he's either into the jazz or or into this drummer, but he couldn't care less if this girl's trying to pick him up. It's very funny.

SPEAKER_01 35:00

Um But yeah, isn't that interesting that Guy was such a powerful force going into the band that he he comes in as a replacement and he basically takes over. And this type of shit does happen. It does happen in bands. I don't know that he takes over. I mean, like early on. All the creative decisions, nobody's asking Leo or the bass player or anything, and nobody's listening to Jimmy.

SPEAKER_03 35:25

Well, I mean, I don't, I don't, I didn't I don't know. I'm not seeing that. I I mean like there's a point in the movie where he meets Mr. White, Tom Hanks' character, and he's like, well, you're gonna have signs before, yeah. Yeah, you're gonna have to sign some paperwork and all this stuff, and he goes, I don't know.

SPEAKER_01 35:39

He doesn't, but they are talking to him first for some reason.

SPEAKER_03 35:42

Yeah, they do go to him first because I think because he's the smart one, and probably because he's more approachable than Jimmy is because Jimmy's the the talent, the ego.

SPEAKER_01 35:51

He's the young Tom Hanks, actually. I think that's initially why they hired him when he kind of looked like him, he resembled him away in a way.

SPEAKER_03 35:59

Um I also like how the old drummer uh Giovanni Rivisi's character, this is a great cast, by the way.

SPEAKER_01 36:06

Just another person in the offer.

SPEAKER_03 36:08

Yeah, just a killer cast. Oh, he was so good in that. Um, but I love how he becomes, he gets the job at the store, he becomes he basically replaces Guy at home and kind of you know, he eats with the family and watches them on the TV. It's pretty funny. Um, and then you get that he in then he introduces this concierge character in the last third of the movie, and this concierge character kind of it's it it's almost like the the narrator of the fairy tale appears to a certain extent. Like you know what I mean? He's because he's moving the he's moving the story along.

SPEAKER_01 36:44

He's that's why I thought the pacing is so aware of what the characters are doing and moving them into the right places because you have all that in the last third, which works for me in the theatrical, but the extent that you have all these extra bands scenes or the longer songs in the beginning, and so by the time you get to the end and the last half hour is no longer about the wonders anymore, that stuff felt the pacing felt odd, which made me think, Oh, that's for super fans. But I hear you about that new character, even though he was one of the more interesting characters, it's like, oh, now you've hit here, and now this is the real deal.

SPEAKER_03 37:16

You're not tucked away in Pennsylvania anymore, you're out here with the actual well, and there's and since, like you said, since the band's kind of basically falling apart, they're not hanging out, they're all doing their own thing, it's like you kind of need this guy to drive the rest of the film, you know. Um one of my favorite lines in the movie is um when Faye finally tells Guy off or Jimmy off and says, you know, I've wasted thousands of kisses on you. That's a great line. Um, and then shame on you for kissing, shame on me for kissing you with my eyes closed so tight. Another great line. Um, and the you tell them, honey, I don't think that's actually in the theatrical version, the the lady who says you tell him, honey. But it's a great, it's a great line and a great moment when she leaves, you know, really good. Um the ending's a little long with the extra footage, but uh yeah, I yeah, I'm a super fan, so I really don't mind. Um and it ends on a fourth wall break, which is always fun.

SPEAKER_01 38:13

Oh, that's yeah, that was weird, huh? Uh-huh.

SPEAKER_03 38:17

That was the whole choice, the only choice in the movie where I was just like, hmm.

SPEAKER_01 38:20

I was like, What? Okay. You would think when you know, like when the monster dies, the movie's over, but when the band breaks up, the movie goes for another half hour because it's not about the wonders. They're almost like the MacGuffin of the film. It's a device to move the story along. It's really Guy's story, right? More than any.

SPEAKER_03 38:39

Yeah, I mean, he's definitely, yeah, you're definitely following that character for sure. Uh for me, this is the greatest movie about a one-hit wonder band ever.

SPEAKER_01 38:47

Yeah, and they're literally the one-hit wonders.

SPEAKER_03 38:50

Yeah, there's never there's never gonna be never gonna be a well, I mean, they're just I haven't seen one yet that's this good.

SPEAKER_01 38:56

You know, and there's still these summer tours with all these bands that have one-hit wonders that get together and play cinos and stuff. Yeah, Eve Six and all that type of thing. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 39:08

Um so yeah, so um, yeah, what are you got any other notes on it?

SPEAKER_01 39:14

Uh let me see, other than, you know. Once I realized that it's like, no, they're not, I don't think they're so much cold to each other as they're just supposed to represent. It's like when Harry met Sally, these aren't actual people, they're representations of show business types. And when I put all that together and thought, oh, it's Tom Hanks' autobiography, uh, it felt a little more warmer, anyways. A little more singular. It's certainly not about putting it's certainly not the Muppet movie about getting a group of people together and succeeding as a group. This is about succeeding, even though in God knows we've dealt with it too, people just fall away that you think are gonna be there, you know, and you have to keep on playing. You have to find other people to do the thing with that want to do the thing, you know. Here on Making Pondo next week.

SPEAKER_03 40:12

I would agree, yeah, good point. Um I would agree that uh it's probably Hanks' most personal movie. Oh, it's gotta be, I think, yeah. Uh I agree with that completely. And he's a hell of a writer. I mean, if if I believe he wrote this, he produced it.

SPEAKER_01 40:27

Yeah, he had a lot to say, and I think he got it all in there.

SPEAKER_03 40:30

He really did. And I remember when he was doing this movie, he had a national contest. Like those songs were were written, were discovered, they were sent in.

SPEAKER_01 40:39

Oh, well, that's so smart.

SPEAKER_03 40:40

And he he had a national contest. Those those songs weren't like he didn't hire somebody to write those songs, they were submitted to him and then he chose them. Which I th I thought was very interesting. Wow.

SPEAKER_01 40:52

Now it would be that AI you do. They just let AI spit out the song now.

SPEAKER_03 41:00

So it says, so here's a piece of trivia I just looked up on IMDb. It says, this is the film debut of Tom Everett Scott, who's a pretty good actor. Um Tom Hanks was initially opposed to hiring Scott because of Scott's strong resemblance to a younger Hanks. And is he finally convinced by his wife Rita to go ahead and hire him?

SPEAKER_01 41:18

Yep, and then he went on to do American Werewolf in Paris, right? Uh Big Man on or Dead Man on Campus. What were some of his other um I know there's a few others that I should be remembering, but Oh my goodness.

SPEAKER_03 41:36

Um the big ones. I'm I'm drawing a complete why am I drawing a complete blank? That's ridiculous. Uh he's been in, I mean, INDB's got him listed at 90 movies, so it's it's he's been in quite a few.

SPEAKER_01 41:56

And and they were from Erie, Pennsylvania? Erie PA, yep. So much like Night Riders goes back to Pennsylvania again. Maybe not a Pittsburgh connection, but still.

SPEAKER_03 42:08

That's another one of my favorite lines, is when the the first manager is like, I'm gonna get you on rock and roll shows in Pittsburgh and Steubensville, and and and the bass player goes, Pittsburgh, and and and uh Lenny goes, Steubensville? Like Steubensville is some sort of big big age place. Anyway, I thought that was hilarious. Uh let's see, he was in Van Wilder, that's hilarious. Um, he's he's he's worked a lot. I haven't really seen him seen a lot of his stuff though. Yeah, the interesting more prominent TV stuff. A lot of TV stuff. So anyway, um overall, this movie for me, um I think it's infinitely rewatchable. I don't I don't mind the song. I I don't I don't think that's a problem. That's not a problem for me. You know, I I don't mind sixties pop music, it's fine. The Beatles are some of my favorite stuff. So Yeah, that's not the Beatles, though. No, no, no, no, but it's it's in that vein. Um of sixties pop music like the Beatles. The Beatles were a pop band in the 60s. Um so yeah, I'd say four stars. Alright.

SPEAKER_01 43:22

I'm saying three. It's leaning towards the three and a half, but I I I like it.

SPEAKER_03 43:31

It's a good movie. It's hard, it's hard not to like it. I mean, I can see I can see if you hate the music or whatever, that makes sense. But you know, my wife hates this my wife absolutely hates this movie. And um I mean she loathes it. No, she hate and she hates it because of the music, because of the song. Um and I just you know, she and she thinks it's she says it's a dumb movie. And I'm like, it's not, it's not a dumb movie. It's actually a pretty smart dumb movie.

SPEAKER_01 43:58

It's a lot of things, but it's actually a A very smart movie, I think, because it's got a lot of subtext to it. Agreed. Agreed.

SPEAKER_03 44:06

All right, so three three stars and four stars.

SPEAKER_01 44:09

Now on to that's why one last thing is that's why I said that uh uh when Tom Hanks was gonna come out with this as the first one, that it was like, well, this is very important, and he's learned so much that of course all that is in there, and it's just so airtight, so then he can go on to do he's finally can be the Jimmy. We can do your stuff now, Jimmy. You know, we can do we can do the serious stuff that you want it to. It's just like Robin Williams, right? He was ju wasn't he Juilliard trained actor, and they always gave him all these goofy roles because he was Mork, but he could actually do the drama stuff, but you have to pay your dues. It's so crazy.

SPEAKER_03 44:52

I've heard it said that it's it's much easier to turn a comedic actor into a dramatic actor than it is to turn a dramatic actor into a comedic comedic actor because comedy is about timing, and timing is something that it's very hard to teach. Timing's a timing is kind of innate. You either have timing or you don't, right?

SPEAKER_01 45:08

Um, I think the next movie has very good timing.

SPEAKER_03 45:12

The next movie's got some pretty decent timing. Um I had a I had an interesting watch of this, and uh I came away with it, I came away from it feeling a lot different about it than I have in the past.

SPEAKER_01 45:26

Okay, you're you're the reason I even know this movie exists.

SPEAKER_03 45:30

Really? Okay.

SPEAKER_01 45:31

You were talking about it, and then I finally saw it on cable in the mid-90s.

SPEAKER_03 45:35

This is my dad's favorite movie. One of my dad's absolute, not his favorite favorite, but one of my dad's absolute favorite movies.

SPEAKER_01 45:41

Michael Jackson said this was his favorite movie too at one point.

SPEAKER_03 45:44

You're kidding me.

SPEAKER_01 45:45

Yeah. That's hilarious. And that is the Hollywood Knights from 1980. Hollywood Knights.

SPEAKER_03 45:51

So the Hollywood Knights uh is basically uh about a uh Hollywood Knights is uh a car club in Beverly Hills, and they raise hell on Halloween night on the last night of um that a drive-in called Tubby's Drive In will be where they where the car club hangs out basically. And so it's being shut down. The Beverly Hills uh Association is gonna close it down because the knights are a terrible blight upon the city, and and uh and so this is the last night of Tubby's Drive-in, the last night that the knights will hang out there, and it's Halloween night. Yeah. Uh so it's a bunch of things all happening on that big night.

SPEAKER_01 46:28

So Halloween 1965. The wonders have come and gone, and now Tubby's drive-in is being torn down. Is um wouldn't that have been something if the dedication that the pledges had to go make was that thing you do?

SPEAKER_03 46:44

Right. Oh, that's oh, speaking of which, just real quick, that's one of my favorite, that's one of my absolute favorite things about so Playtone Records made my big fat Greek wedding. And during the wedding scene, right, when they finally at the end of the movie, when they finally get to the wedding scene, the song that they're s he's singing is uh My Only Dreams. It's Jimmy's ballad that he that's the B side of that thing you do. Oh, nice. And it's being sung by a Greek band. So it's it's just like it's just this perfect little just little hidden gem in there anyway. We only got one take of that. Can I can I get another take at that? Can I get another? No, I think it sounds fine just like it is. So this is so this is okay, so to start off, this is basically Animal House meets American graffiti.

SPEAKER_01 47:34

Yeah, oh yeah. And we're right after it too. And and we're in a pre-porkies world, too.

SPEAKER_03 47:40

Yeah, this is this I don't think you get Porky's unless you have movies like this, honestly. So um, yeah, so directed by the city.

SPEAKER_01 47:54

I call it the B side of American graffiti.

SPEAKER_03 47:57

Yeah, it it is definitely the B side of American Graffiti. So um written, directed by a guy named Floyd Mutrux. Um he was the executive producer of Dick Tracy. He also wrote American Me, Blood In, Blood Out. Um Odd, right? Yeah, he's he's written some uh he wrote Tulane Blacktop, although he's uncredited. Um he was an actor in a few things, so he's definitely been around. He was an actor early on, and then he moved into kind of writing and getting behind the camera. Um wrote the story for Mulhulland Falls. So, yeah, he's interesting career on the with that guy. Hollywood Knight seems to be a very weird standout in his career.

SPEAKER_01 48:36

Yeah. I remember I listened to the commentary years ago where he's he's on it, and the thing that stood out the most was at the end where he was like, he said something like, and you know, it's good to look back at that time, but let's hope that that never happens again. And I think he was referring to all the the strife and the Vietnam and all that, you know. It's like interesting, and that thing you do, we don't have any real hand. I mean, you get the little dude signing up for the military, right? But by the time we get to the next year, it's like, oh, nothing's gonna happen to you.

SPEAKER_03 49:08

You're just gonna go over there. Oh, dude, that scene where they're talking is like, oh, they're just sending over advisors, I'll be fine. I don't think I'm going over. It's like you're you're not coming back. I'm not coming back, because probably um so there's a so there's a summer school uh crossover here. Oh um, Lei French Lee French, who plays Mrs. Friedman. Um, she was in she's a student in summer school. Oh wow. Yeah. How does that how does that work? I don't know, but she's credited as a student student in summer school on IMDB. I so I need to so now we need to go back and watch summer school and pick her out. So that's pretty crazy. Mrs. Friedman, she's the one who hated the the night. Yeah, yeah. She's also in uh she's also a prehistoric cave woman in History of the World Part One.

SPEAKER_01 49:58

Oh my god, I think I know who she is in that movie. One day we'll probably get to that one.

SPEAKER_03 50:04

That was the year after this, so so I caught a weird issue, and I'm not sure if it was just the copy I was watching, but at about eight minutes and 51 seconds in, there's a weird audio issue for about three seconds. Um, the the two cops are arguing about the Lawrence of Arabia lyrics. You know, I know somewhere somebody wrote lyrics for Lawrence of the Arabia. I'm pretty sure, you know, and and under that you can hear for about three seconds, you can hear Michelle Pfeiffer's voice say something like, Oh, come on, blah, blah, blah. And then it stops. And I was like, I wonder if that's just a bad, you know, just a bad post.

SPEAKER_01 50:42

This movie is full of bizarre sound mixing and really art. It kind of works in this weird ramshackle post-nashville world where you can do a movie like this, but I I bet you that's probably like a a weird snap that's a good thing. Now you have a clear copy, you can make that out. It was wild.

SPEAKER_03 51:05

But yeah, you know, and I noticed that like there's a lot the I I have the same no, the audio on it is just kind of weird in general because it's like at s at certain times they're trying to create this echo effect, this this um you know, uh big space kind of effect, and it sounds crazy, and then they'll cut to the radio, and the radio's nice and clear, and then you you'll hear somebody talk, and it's in a real weird booming voice, so it's obviously ADR. It's really strange.

SPEAKER_01 51:33

Um any other movie I probably wouldn't like it, but for some reason it works. I could just listen to this movie and not see it and know the jokes and the beats because the whole thing is like it works, yeah. To me, the music and the sound effects work better than American Graffiti does. At least as far as like which one, if you said which one you want to watch right now, I'd probably say I'll watch Hollywood Nights again. Nothing against American Graffiti, but is there just something it does seem like the audio is a little more dynamic, yeah. It's like a perfect 45.

SPEAKER_03 52:06

You know, I can keep playing it over and over again. Um, so short hair, long hair, it doesn't matter. Michelle Pfeiffer is gorgeous. That's uh that's just uh that's a good-looking woman. That is a stunning, stunning, and she's just beautiful in this picture.

SPEAKER_01 52:19

Pre-Scarface, pre-Crease 2. This is very early.

SPEAKER_03 52:23

Very early, very Danza. Yeah, this is the Nexus movie. Hold me closer, Tony Danza. There's Tony Danza, you've got Michelle Pfeiffer, you've got Robert Wool, you got the dude, you got the dude who was the detective on Alien Nation.

SPEAKER_01 52:38

Oh, Gary Graham, Rust and Peter, you know. I got to meet him once up in front of you. And I told him that I liked him in this movie. So cool. Yeah, and then expectedly uh left us. I remember him as the Alien Nation, the TV show. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 52:54

Stuart Pankins in this.

SPEAKER_01 52:56

Oh, yeah. You don't get enough Stuart Pankin. Can't get enough Penkins. You really don't. I remember not necessarily the news today on HBO. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 53:05

Um, but yeah, so it it's it's a good cast. Um one of the uh one of the doo op guys, uh there's the um I can't remember T C Clark, I think his name is, but he's in a bunch of other films. Like he he goes on to do a bunch of other work. Um the guy who plays Bimbo.

SPEAKER_01 53:27

Oh he's in some of those kinds of movies, right?

SPEAKER_03 53:30

Yeah, he's in a bunch of Ernest movies. He's got a very interesting name, too. Yeah, I think so.

SPEAKER_01 53:37

Yeah. What's his name?

SPEAKER_03 53:39

Harlan. No, it's like a it's a really strange.

SPEAKER_01 53:44

Galen Sartain.

SPEAKER_03 53:45

Galen Sartane, that's it. Yeah, it's uh and apparently he's a writer, too. Which I didn't know.

SPEAKER_01 53:52

He's one of those classic character actor types.

SPEAKER_03 53:55

He's a great character actor. That's honestly some of my favorite actors in the world are character actors. I love, I absolutely love character actors. Um yeah, he's he's been in 72 movies. It's that's uh pretty impressive stuff.

SPEAKER_01 54:09

Interesting that and we do this time and time again. We dip into these genres, but we don't dip into the big mainstream one. We go in the back door, so our first weird, like close to teen sex comedy, American graffiti, animal house derivative is the Hollywood nights. Is the Hollywood nights, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 54:27

Yeah, and it it and it has all those characteristics. Um, it's got it's got you know, the the the nudity in the movie has absolutely no reason to be there. Oh, yeah. It's completely it's completely gratuitous. Um, it's it's ridiculous high jinx. Um it's a it's a com it's a teen comedy, you know, it's jerked right right directly right at that teen market. It's just it's got all those things.

SPEAKER_01 54:54

But they're trying to do that American graffiti thing where it's a a and even this this leads to things like fast times, you know, where it's like the ensemble cast, and like I've mentioned before, you have five or six different stories that if you did them by themselves, they wouldn't be interesting. But when you stack them all together and you flip back and forth between them, you got a movie. And that's what you have here. And I feel like this is what you get stuff like this after American Graffiti in Nashville and the like, of just the these expansive mash, even you know, you want to go back that far to where it's like atmosphere movie.

SPEAKER_03 55:30

Yep. Um Jackie Stewart makes a cameo in it. He's a really famous British race car driver. You know, the scene where uh that kind of makes sense. The the scene where the dude's like, hey, this James Dean drove one of these, he had two of these, that that and the and the guy's standing there talking about how they handle, that's Jackie Stewart.

SPEAKER_01 55:47

Now though those storylines are direct American graffiti storylines, the drag racing storyline. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Complete big time. Yeah. But in other ways, it's not just American graffiti, it has you know other 50s and 60s nostalgia mixed in it too. It's one of these, like, we're right on the border of things changing type movies, which I'm fascinated with. So well, anyways, go.

SPEAKER_03 56:12

No, no, it's it's um uh it's a great cast, a lot of solid actors. Um Art LaFleur is in this movie also. Art LaFleur is a great character actor, and Art LaFleur and um the guy who plays Bimbo, I just can't remember his name, uh, Gaylord, um, they're both in the replacements. So they're in so they're actually in another movie together, which is that Canor Reese football movie. So um oh, you also get Joyce Heiser in this movie. She's one of the Ironbox twins, she's in just one of the guys. Um, so it's it's just there's a lot of 80s stuff going on in this movie. A lot of a lot of that stuff. I really enjoyed it.

SPEAKER_01 56:48

Um, my question was how the fuck is Mike Binder in this movie? He's one of the pledge people, he's the director of Indian Summer. Best known to most people, the director of The Upside of Anger, the guy who went to summer camp with Sam Raimi. Yep. Talk about a hub movie, and then there's freaking Mike Binder in this movie. Yeah, crazy. That's hilarious. That's hilarious. Yeah, he brings us Camp Tomaqua many years later.

SPEAKER_03 57:18

Um, it's got a pretty good soundtrack, too. I mean, I I don't mind that soundtrack at all.

SPEAKER_01 57:28

One degree. Oh, yeah, the soundtrack's great. That's why it couldn't come out on video for the longest time. You could only catch it on cable like heavy metal, another Columbus and Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 57:39

That's one of my that's one of my notes was you know, I wonder how hard it was to license all this stuff, and if they probably just licensed it for the film and had a hard time doing doing other rights because you know that's a whole mess. You know, you know, you know how that is.

SPEAKER_01 57:53

And you do get to hear the Hollywood Knights song two times in a row, so it does have a little similarity. Yeah, and it's two different versions. Yeah, two different versions, yeah. And I love where it kind of skips like a piece of the song.

SPEAKER_03 58:04

It does skip. I'm just um what's up with the okay, so one of the weird point parts of the movie, what is with this 12-year-old kid running around smoking and skateboarding?

SPEAKER_01 58:15

Oh, yeah, he's he's the upcoming next generation, right? The here comes the late.

SPEAKER_03 58:19

Well, the upcoming next generation is is on the is is on the initiation. They're they're they're they're out there naked the time.

SPEAKER_01 58:26

After the car people from the last vestige of the 50s are gone, here comes the mama and the papas and the surfer people and the next generation of the hippies coming in. He represents the first of that. Like when we used to see 14-year-olds with Rage Against the Machine shirts at D PC, he's that kid. To me, anyway. It's just these little sequences, like I was saying on the other movie, as well as this one. It almost feels like there wasn't a script, but here's an idea. Now take us there, you know.

SPEAKER_03 59:07

There is a lot of bear man ass in this movie. Oh, way more than female new. There is so much bear man ass in this movie.

SPEAKER_01 59:17

See, people they haven't seen these movies in so long. They think it's nothing but boobs, and it's like, yes, there are boobs in the movie, but there's more male butts in these movies than anything. So much more, so much mooning. The same mooning twice. Like it's just a corrupt zoom in. We also we also forgot again in the same contorted manner, you know. We also got forgot Fran Dressers in this movie. Fran Dresher, who now is the head of the uh head of SAG film.

SPEAKER_00 59:48

Yep. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 59:49

Wow. Do you know the nanny do you know the nanny has been remade in uh in like 20 different countries? They have their own versions of the nanny. It's gone long insane.

SPEAKER_01 59:58

They had to kind of their own storylines for the last couple seasons because they had run out of stuff to adapt. I believe it. That's insane. Um you know, I I rewound it a few times. I think E.G. Daly is in this movie. I think I think she's one of the waitresses at Tubby's wearing the frenzy boots. You can see her face a couple times and she talks briefly, and then it's just like, oh, that's so her voice. And I could be wrong, she's not credited. But if we ever see her again at a con, I'm totally asking her we gotta ask her Hollywood nights, because yeah. I should do a screen grab and send it to you and see what you think.

SPEAKER_03 1:00:38

I I love that uh Stuart Pankins' character is going to accept a$500 scholarship, and his mother's like, that covers a full year of tuition. I'm just like, good God, man. Wow. Back in 65. Uh please don't hurt me. I think I'm a bleeder is one of my favorite lines from that. And uh way before something about Mary. Yeah, I've used that line myself to diffuse situations. It's pretty funny.

SPEAKER_01 1:01:04

I like how when they when they you know they capture him to do their things, they didn't even have to put him in the back of the car. He was he's already going along with them, you know.

SPEAKER_03 1:01:14

Yeah, but the by the second time it's like, is that you, New Bomb? Okay, right. They give him a beer and they put him in the yeah, they give him a beer and they put him in the back of the wagon.

SPEAKER_01 1:01:20

Go back to the Marx Brothers movie almost, you know, and it's like, oh, so they're not making fun of the nerd or whatever. He he immediately becomes part of the team. He Ellie gets the jacket at the end of the movie.

SPEAKER_03 1:01:31

Yeah, he does. He gets to join the he gets to join the club and be cool. Um these people, these characters are all over the place in this film. Oh yeah. Like, like continuity is a just it's just don't try not to think about it if you're watching it, because like at one point, that 12-year-old skateboarder kid is hanging out in the parking lot with the knights, and then in the next scene, he's in the gym watching the cheerleaders without her pants without the panties on. Right, you know, uh, and it's like, where is this kid at bending space and time? What the hell is going on here? Um, I used to think farting to Valari was the funniest thing. Yeah, I used to think that was the highest comedy. Like there was never never anything was ever gonna be funnier than Robert Woolf farting to Valaria.

SPEAKER_01 1:02:17

It was and you know why, you know why it still kind of works to this day is because if you were there and you were in high school and somebody did that, that would have been the funniest thing. And you don't get moments like that in movies, you know. Now it would be that's so trite and stupid, but back then nobody had farted into a mic in the movie until 1980, right? So for those circumstances, you know, if you read that on boring ass auditorium and somebody did that, it would have been the fucking highlight of the semester.

SPEAKER_03 1:02:50

But I know what um TK Carter, the the guy who played who played who's one of the duo op singers, he plays Bill Cosby in Badass. Yeah, that's that's what I remember seeing him from. I was like, I've seen him before, and I looked him up and it was oh, he's Bill Cosby in Badass. That's badass. Um, and he was he was also in The Thing and Dr. Detroit.

SPEAKER_02 1:03:12

Ooh.

SPEAKER_03 1:03:12

Yeah, yeah, a couple of good crossovers there. Oh, and here's a weird credit. Probably the weirdest IMDb credit I've seen. Chris Tucker's dialogue coach for Rush Hour. Wow. Yeah. So oh, that's another part of this movie that's uh very weird. It's like it it is very true to the fact that like in the 60s, just drinking, driving around with an open beer, yeah, not a big deal. Nobody really, you know, eh, you know.

SPEAKER_01 1:03:47

We haven't discovered weed yet until we go to the boardwalk. I mean, yeah. Oh, it's always been there. But that's where it's sort of to become a little more mainstream, right? Right at that, you know. I like that scene where they they get them baked before they take the the request, you know. Yeah, yeah, that's a good scene.

SPEAKER_03 1:04:05

Um, I it's weird how everybody calls it vietnam. Like they have this very weird way of pronouncing it. Um yeah. Don't drink the punch, Marty. Whatever you do. Does have a little bit of whang to it.

SPEAKER_01 1:04:22

That's one, that's a line I go back to over and over again. But he goes, good though.

SPEAKER_00 1:04:28

Can I have some more?

SPEAKER_01 1:04:32

Um yeah, continuity, right? They hear, and then somebody beat in the fucking, you know, the when the cop recounts everything that's happened in the movie, and then they look at each other like, oh, like we drank that shit. And then later she's like, they don't seem to know that the spike was punched. The the the punch was spiked, yeah. You know who I'm talking about. The ones whose clothes keep magically popping off whenever they get this guy. This is Friedman and Nevin.

SPEAKER_03 1:05:00

Heavens and um, the one-armed violinist gag. I'm pretty sure I've seen that gag before. Oh my lord. Yeah. Uh pretty sure I've seen that gag more than once.

SPEAKER_01 1:05:10

Some guy went up on stage and put his finger where his dick was or something. I'm like, wow, this cop is really telling us everything that's happened in the movie. We just walked in.

SPEAKER_03 1:05:21

The only the only real thing in the movie to me, like the movie's just fluff. You know, it doesn't, it doesn't, it's not doing anything. No, right? It's not and the only real thing in the movie, the cleanest part of the movie is is Jimmy going to Vietnam and that that story. And uh it's actually the only real thing in the movie.

SPEAKER_01 1:05:41

Yeah, you gotta have that gravitaze. You know, we're the older car club people, we're serious now. They're the young still crazy over there. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 1:05:49

Yep.

SPEAKER_01 1:05:50

Yeah. Um which doesn't almost feel out of place, but if you didn't have it, you'd have no grounding at all.

SPEAKER_03 1:05:57

Exactly. That's what I mean. It would just, yeah, you'd have. You gotta have the kind of the the the north and the south of it, right?

SPEAKER_01 1:06:04

But this is more about just laughing at various gags if that was enough to get you through. I don't think anybody's thinking more than a drive-in movie for this.

SPEAKER_03 1:06:14

Yeah, it's um it it and it's perfect yeah, I would say it's a perfect drive-in movie. Um so many food jokes. This is back when when the con there's a s you know that I I don't find food fights funny, I don't find you know, people I I don't really find that funny. I never have. I find it kind of gross, actually.

SPEAKER_01 1:06:34

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 1:06:34

Um and so, you know, and I've never seen anyone eat and get food on themselves like like the that Bimbo character does.

SPEAKER_01 1:06:42

Oh yeah, it's just all over the place.

SPEAKER_03 1:06:44

It's just all over the place. Those guys are constantly covered in food.

SPEAKER_01 1:06:47

I do like when he can't get out of the bathroom, though. He really sells that doorknob bit.

SPEAKER_03 1:06:52

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:06:53

And then he falls into him.

SPEAKER_03 1:06:56

And him shooting the doorknob is just, I mean, oh my god. Ridiculous. Yeah. Um yeah, the the nerd getting to join the gang at the end and and him abandoning his puffer, all I could think of was like, yeah, who needs a who needs medic medicine when you're in a cool gang? If you're in the cool gang, you don't need medicine, right?

SPEAKER_01 1:07:16

He's basically saying, I knew it was a placebo all along. He was pretending. So when we reached the end of the 70s, we were reaching the end of that 50s resurgence craze, after Happy Days, Buddy Holly story, uh uh Shah Nana. And so now we get this interesting take on we've moved all the way up to 65, and you have this last piece of I mean, obviously car culture goes on, but they feel almost like 50s throwbacks, like the world has moved on beneath them, and they aren't even aware of it yet. But this is the last night before everything changes. I really like the movies where you're right, it shows you that last day before everything switches. Uh, it's much like like a serious man or inside Louan Davis or Get Crazy or even Everybody Wants Some. It's it's a movie about a time period ending and a new beginning and those who struggle against it. It's why road work is my favorite Stephen King story. It's kind of long along that. I like I like the these transition things where it's both scenes happening, both time periods are kind of coexisting together before one just wipes out the other. And it's it's I always find that that stuff so interesting.

SPEAKER_03 1:08:45

Interesting. Yeah, I can see that.

SPEAKER_01 1:08:48

Obviously, there's not a whole lot of weight to the movie, but there's that kind of like, oh yeah, the world's moved on past the Hollywood nights and stuff. We're dealing with Vietnam and shit, and and there's Robert Rule still fucking sitting at Tubby's, you know, he doesn't know that tomorrow is a a whole different world and what lies in store for these characters type of things. Yeah. Yeah, it's a pretty think later movie from before he made movies, right? It's that kind of that scatter shot, you know.

SPEAKER_03 1:09:22

Well, I just I remember finding this one on cable as a kid, um, late at night, and and uh probably Cinemax or HBO or something like that, and just really laughing my ass off, you know. I I was really into I was really into those comedies at the time that stuff was coming out. Animal House and this type of caddyshack as a kid was one of my favorite favorite movies of all time.

SPEAKER_01 1:09:45

And when you when you judge this against those of its own ilk, this one this is in the top half of those type of movies, easily, I'd say.

SPEAKER_03 1:09:56

It's definitely a little brain dead. Oh, of course, and it it it just lacks any real story, like it just kind of wanders around. It's funny, and it's and it's it's and I I like the actors in it now, that type of thing. The cars are gorgeous. Um but it's just I I I I came away from it going, boy, I you know, I I I watched this is not a movie I'm gonna probably watch a lot in the in the future. It's just I loved it as a kid, and I loved it in my 20s and 30s, but uh I've gotten to the point where it where I look at it, I just gotta go, you know, it's it's not doing much.

SPEAKER_01 1:10:34

You know, it's not really doing much. That's why I think it's a drive-in movie. You don't have to pay much attention to it even for it. I think it's a perfect drive-in movie. Yeah. Uh let's see, what else did I think it predates Porkies? And it even has Eric Christmas in it, apparently. And Eric Christmas is the principal in Porky's, so apparently he's in this movie somewhere, so I guess there's a direct connection. But it's like movies like this and things like Fame, when you put those together, you get the Hollywood nights, and or no, you don't you get Porkies. Because remember, in Fame, they're peeping through the damn pipes, and that's a year before Porky's was made. And everybody thinks Porky's did that first. No, Porky's is the amalgam of a lot of movies that came before, but we'll get to that discussion on another day. That's a heavy one, that one. Uh, the Hollywood Knights, it's broken and ramshackle, but it kind of works. That's what I like about it. You know, it's so early in the 80s, 1980, that was probably shot in 79, that a lot of the gross, mean humor, like peeing in the punch, if you did that in the late 80s, I would be like, oh, this is just mean and distasteful. And for some reason, it's so stupid in this one that I can still laugh at it. Of course, the older I get, the more grossed out I get by it.

SPEAKER_03 1:12:04

Yeah, but it it does, it does for some reason feel a lot less more harmless.

SPEAKER_01 1:12:09

Yeah, I think it was the shock value of the and then I forgot about it because I've moved on to the next gag. You know, it didn't sit with me while I was now I'm thinking, oh god. But it was their last night to fuck with them because they were tearing it down. They'd already lost bleak 70s ending, right? And so all they could do was just fuck with them one last night, you know, and make everyone before one more time. Uh there's a band called the New Bomb Turks. Yes, there is. Yep.

SPEAKER_03 1:12:43

It's a I mean, from what I understand, it's a it's a cult movie. It's got a fan base, it's got people that really enjoy it. You know, I I I enjoy it. It's just it's not one, like I said, it's I think it's aged on me a bit. Um, and uh, or maybe I've aged on it, you know, and and kind of moved past it, but uh it's it's still you know, if you drag it out of the closet every four or five years and watch it, you're probably gonna really enjoy it.

SPEAKER_01 1:13:08

Right. I I look at it as the raunchy follow-up to American graffiti, uh, you know, that late 50s culture merging into the late 60s, and then it you know how there's a more American graffiti? I feel like this goes like in the middle between that. Like that one feels like it's the time period af just slightly after this, where they're actually at in nom and it's the after. But and what do you think? Is this a more interesting movie than more American graffiti? I seem to think it probably is, because that one was okay.

SPEAKER_03 1:13:44

It it's it's definitely the it's definitely the brain-dead cousin of American Graffiti. You know, it's it's the it's the one that was eating lead paint chips during kindergarten and stuff, but it's still really funny, and it's uh it's got some like I said, it's a Nexus movie. I love a Nexus movie. When you see a bunch of actors that went on to do other stuff and they're all in one movie together, that's a lot of fun. I really enjoy that.

SPEAKER_01 1:14:07

Yeah, I watch this all the time in the mid-90s when I finally found it. But that's when I started rediscovering things like Porkies and a lot of these other ones, where it's kind of like how we've just rediscovered the Manhattan Project and we've just been watching Real Genius all these years, and now it's like, oh, these are the other movies of this genre, and so I can start filling that out, you know.

SPEAKER_03 1:14:27

Right, yeah, that's a good point.

SPEAKER_01 1:14:28

Um my favorite oh, go ahead. Go ahead.

SPEAKER_03 1:14:31

No, I was just gonna say, I I I kind of like I said, I grew up with the movie. I've I found it as a kid and grew up with it.

SPEAKER_01 1:14:37

So I remember I had a national lampoon from that year, and it had a big like two-page ad for Hollywood nights like the car and like that because they were really trying to play.

SPEAKER_03 1:14:49

My uh my stepsister had it, her her boyfriend. Uh this was back when, you know, top loading VCRs, but her boyfriend had uh this first dude I ever knew who had, you know, would record stuff off a cable on a VHS tapes. And so he'd have, you know, he had Hollywood nights on a VHS tape, and so I could watch it whenever I wanted.

SPEAKER_01 1:15:08

Yeah, I had my full frame taped off of Showtime or whatever it was, and then the DVD finally came out, and then I watched the trailer on Plex, and the trailer it had scraped, so this the trailer was HD, and so it's like, oh, what interesting to see what this movie looks like in high definition. It's a little cleaner, but the version I watched was just the DVD copy. The one I'm familiar with and enjoy. Uh, my favorite scene in the movie that I probably thought was the funniest was the I'm glad I came. Yeah. I'm glad I came.

SPEAKER_03 1:15:43

I'm glad.

SPEAKER_01 1:15:44

You know what? I'm glad. You're so immature.

SPEAKER_03 1:15:49

Did you come a little? A little? You either did or you didn't. A little.

SPEAKER_00 1:15:55

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:15:56

And uh my last uh real note on it is uh and the captions cleared it up for me, and obviously the person that's saying this, but before they put in the eight-track tape, and it's the mama and the papas, and they Tony Nancy. You already know what I'm saying, right? It's Tony Danza yellow. That's what it sounds like the guy's saying. That's Tony Danza yellow, but apparently it's Tony something else yellows.

SPEAKER_03 1:16:25

Tony Nancy, I think, is that's actually and he plays himself in the movie, so I think he's I think he's an actual car guy.

SPEAKER_00 1:16:32

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:16:33

And so for years it was one of those misheard he just fucking called him Tony Danza in the middle of the movie. Hold me closer, Tony Danza.

SPEAKER_03 1:16:44

Tony Nancy, yeah. That's his that's the dude's name, Tony Nancy.

SPEAKER_01 1:16:47

Hilarious. Now I know the movie's probably not really any better than two stars, but I like it, and I'm judging it based on the other movies in its genre, so three and a half.

SPEAKER_03 1:17:01

Okay. Um, yeah, I mean, I think it's probably a solid, for me it's a solid three. Um, I like it. I I don't think it's a well-made movie. Oh, it's so flawed, but it's a it's it's a polygram film. It's it's pretty indie. Uh, I mean, you could tell they had a budget. You know, getting all those cars, getting all that music, all that stuff put together wasn't wasn't cheap. Um, but it feels like an indie film and it looks like an indie film. Uh, and it just it it just lifts so much from American graffiti that's they're a lot. You know, it's definitely it's definitely American Graffiti meets Animal House.

SPEAKER_01 1:17:37

Boom, there's your movie. The first ones after that that then creates some things of its own that gets pulled forward for other movies. Yep. Yeah. We go further into the actual 80s teen sex comedies, and this one it counts because it's 80, but it's so on that cusp that it's not only is it about a time that's switching, it was made during a time where things were switching. So it I mean, it feels like an 80s movie to me.

SPEAKER_03 1:18:03

It feels like an early 80s.

SPEAKER_01 1:18:05

It feels more 80s than stuff. It feels 82, 83 to me when I when I was like, like there's that last little piece of that 70s hanging on, and I feel like that's that 50s nostalgia, you know.

SPEAKER_03 1:18:15

Yeah, maybe it but it to me it feels it feels solidly in the 80s genre at that point. Yeah, like just yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:18:22

Anyway, so yeah, three stars for me. Nice. Our first venture into that genre. See, you can have an actual discussion about what people think are just you know softcore skin flicks. No, there was a reason these movies were popular at the time. People turned their brain off and just laughed. Nobody really went into these things expecting high art or a redeeming message. And yet sometimes they got one anyway.

SPEAKER_03 1:18:48

Sometimes you did, but yeah, for the most part, I mean you go to you go to watch a movie like this and you just you just turn your brain off and you just laugh at it and and try not to think too hard about it because they because they sure didn't when they were making it. You know, I mean they they didn't no nobody was really super worried about whether I mean obviously the script had to had to you know make chronological sense and so on, but I mean that fight between Tony Danza and Michelle Pfeiffer is like that's just some bad dialogue. Oh yeah. It's just bad, and you can tell that they're both searching for the emotion of it to keep the scene going because they don't they don't have the words, they're not they're not given the lines to to do it, and it's just what do you want me to do, huh?

SPEAKER_01 1:19:30

And it's just like oh once again, attacked on romantic subplot, much like bottle shock doesn't really go anywhere, but without it, the pacing is weird. So yeah. Here we are again.

SPEAKER_03 1:19:42

Here we are again.

SPEAKER_01 1:19:44

Okay, well, we've certainly taken up enough of your time today, listener, but maybe we'll take up even more time next week, okay? Because that's right.

SPEAKER_03 1:19:53

That's right.

SPEAKER_01 1:19:54

This pick when he when Cliff decided to throw that thing you do at me, it changed it changed my lineup again. You know, I I had ideas for what were coming, and they're still coming because some of these things have to come this season, as far as I'm concerned. But other things get moved around because other things are more relevant now because of the conversation we just had today. It makes more sense to talk about the movie I'm gonna mention here in a minute than to do it six months or a year from now. Now, another movie came up first where I had planned for roughly maybe season three, and that skyrocketed up really quick while I was watching that thing you do. But after uh having both of these movies sit in my head again for another week, I realized there really was only one movie to have you watch next week, and it wasn't even on any of my lists. See, these things can happen.

SPEAKER_03 1:20:47

You are thinking way too much about this, but I love it.

SPEAKER_01 1:20:51

I love it, I love it. I'll be like, what do I pick? I've narrowed it down for myself. Your film next week is Hold Me Closer, Tony Danza. It's almost famous, the untitled version. Because we went through that thing you do, and so now we're gonna have another look at music and the show business life joining the students on the road. I thought about it, and it just made the most sense to me to have you do that one next. So we are hitting Cameron Crow for episode 14. Almost famous, huh? The untitled long version, a version that I actually think the longer version really does add a lot to the movie. And probably still has a few bloated musical numbers added on as well, so that'll be fun to read some sweet water here.

SPEAKER_03 1:21:43

Well, and that god, that that un that untitled version is like three hours long, right? Yep, another biggie. Oh, dude. Okay, I'm gonna have to set aside some time for that one.

SPEAKER_01 1:21:52

Pulling that meditate off, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 1:21:54

I I'm I'm I'm a fan of that movie, so it'll be an easy watch. Um, I'm going to give you um so I'm I'm I'm really struggling right now between two films that I want to give you. One is another playtone feature, uh, and the other one is a movie about making movies. We're both kind of in the same yeah zone here. Um I want to make a movie, you know, or I I I love movies about making movies. It's it's much like movies about bands and things like that. I, you know, uh Living in Oblivion is a good example. Um, the early Peter Dinklage film with Bushimi. Yeah, there's tons of others. Uh, The Player is a great one. I just love movies about making movies. I think they're a lot of fun. It's cool, it's a real cool insight. And I I you and I have talked about trying to write something like that ourselves. Yeah. It's a cool fun genre. So I'm gonna give you a film called Um, and I guess this isn't really really about making a movie, but it's it's that's the premise of it. Uh, I'm gonna give you a film from 1941 called Sullivan's Travels. Wow, you're going way back. Uh it's an indie, it's it's an indie film um made by this guy, um Preston Sturgis. He wrote and directed it. It's got Veronica Lake in it. Um brought so that's an early bombshell. Uh it's about a guy, it's a comedy romance about a guy who uh sets out to experience life as a homeless person in order to gain the experience for his next movie. Hmm. So um I'm I'm I'm looking forward to it. I've never seen it. Oh this is your blind pick. This is my blind pick. Yep. This is my blind pick. Oh, but you're not requiring me to do another blind pick. No, nope. I guess that's this is my blind pick. I've never seen it, so uh it should be fun. I I'm I'm this will be the first one that you and I have gone into that we've never seen it, so I thought it'd be kind of a fun thing. It was either that or my big fat Greek wedding. And I went with Sullivan's Travels because you know, again, thinking of tie like you like you're trying to tie things together.

SPEAKER_01 1:24:08

Well, I mean, this looking Sullivan's Travels, uh Rotten Amato uh Critic Score, I think that's the critics, it's a hundred percent. So should be a good movie. People like this.

SPEAKER_03 1:24:20

The the critics are I mean the audience is 89, so people obviously that's the reason I picked it as as I was going through, you know, I do these collections where I kind of you know go, you know, I go buy films that are part of different collections, like again, uh making band movies, and then I I hit this genre of oh I I love movies about making movies, I'm gonna start collecting those too. So um, and then I came across this one I was during my research, and it looked great and it had great reviews, and I and the the synopsis of the movie looks like it's gonna be really good. So nice. Yep.

SPEAKER_01 1:24:55

Apparently it's a criterion film too. So I do believe that's our first movie from the 40s. I think so. So you beat you beat me to the 1940s. I don't think we've done a movie from the 50s yet. Nope. And I don't think we've done it from the 60s yet either, have we?

SPEAKER_03 1:25:12

I don't believe so. I don't think we know I think the 70s is far back, uh other than Animal Crackers is as far back as well.

SPEAKER_01 1:25:20

But anyways, so that'll be uh next week. All right. And might be another supersized episode, depending on how much we have to say about uh almost famous, you know.

SPEAKER_03 1:25:30

I I I get the feeling you're at it's gonna be like a two-thirds of the the episode will be almost famous, and the other third will be Salvage Travels, because it's just a lot. That's a big it's a big film, there's a lot to talk about. All right, Marty. Well, until next week. Awesome. See you then. Later. Later.