Blank Check with Griffin & David - Signs with Murf Meyer and Diana Kolsky

Episode Date: February 15, 2016

This week’s guests on the Shyamacast are ‘real life lovers’ Murf Meyer (The Chris Gethard Show) and Diana Kolsky (Above Average), hosts in their own right of Ménage à Trois Radio, also on the UCB Comedy podcast network! And for Blank Check’s ongoing investigative mini-series of Shyamalan’s films, together with #thetwofriends they discuss 2002’s faith biased, alien invasion movie, Signs. Was it fate that it was poorly received? Was Shyamalan smart in casting himself for a role that required some real acting? How does Mel Gibson’s filmography hold up to the numerous terrible things he been quoted in public saying? Well, Blankies rejoice because this in-depth analysis leaves no glasses half empty nor half full! Also, Griffin professes his love for Chicken Run numerous times, Diana receives 7 comedy points and Murf recalls a summer of Austin Powers references.

Daddy, there's a podcast at my window. Can I have a glass of podcast? Isn't it at my bed or door? I think window, right? Okay, whatever. Isn't it at the door? I don't. Hey, everybody.

I'm Griffin. I'm David Sims. Griffin Newman is the name. Yeah. David Sims is the name game of the other person I host the show with. I forgot to put my fucking phone on airplane mode for the second time. This is bad. Even for you, this is a bad opening.

This is the worst one yet. But this is the best podcast ever. It's called Blank Check with Griffin and David. This is a mini-series. We do mini-series. We're like cereal. Yeah. And none of this cereal-

And we don't dip back into the old- That's what I was going to say. Actually, we might do that one day. Who knows? Yeah, we probably will. But for now- Cereal spamming my feed with season one again? I didn't like that.

I kind of like it. Yeah. Can I throw out a hot take Adnan did it no we established that episode one of this podcast we were very clear we wanted to make it clear that people didn't need

to listen to cereal anymore because we told everyone that Adnan did it so did Jay they worked together what's your hot take hot take I think cereal season two

is really good and people don't like their poopy diaper babies cereal season two is great it's great love cereal season two poopy diaper babies and Kayial season two is great. It's great. So that's a shout out. Love serial season two. Shout out. Poopy diaper babies.

And K-Nig, get on this. Get on this podcast. This podcast. Mini series. Investigative mini series about passion projects. Filmmakers are given a blank check to do whatever they want. Sometimes someone has a big hit. You give them one shot.

Yeah. You're sort of Michael Cimino, Heaven's Gate. You get one shot, free reign. Sometimes someone makes such a big hit. You give them one shot. Yeah. You're sort of Mike Ciccimino, heaven's gate. You get one shot, free reign. Sometimes someone makes such a big splash early on. Hollywood just keeps saying, do it again. Do it again. They keep swinging, one could say. Yeah, they swing away.

They swing away. The problem is they swing every time. No, yeah. Even as the flops pile up, Hollywood's like, nah, this time you're going to get it right. Yeah. They're really honing the- To paraphrase the immortal Michael Showalter, never stop swinging. And he's in this movie, yeah.

Yes, that's what I'm saying. Right, yeah. Sorry, sorry. Hi, guys. Hey, apology accepted. We have guests. Yes. So this podcast, this mini-series is called-

Pod Night Shyamakas. Pod Night Shyamakas, which beat out my choice, which was P. Cash Shyamalan. We don't need to talk about it every week. Okay, well, I just, you know, because I had a lot of people come to me on the street and say that they would have voted for mine if they hadn't been bullied. Former guest Katie Rich called it your name by mistake when she plugged us on her podcast. Take it where I can get it. Yeah, exactly. We have two guests today.

We're a much more professional podcast than this one. We talk a lot about our home base here at the UC Comedy Network with our old buddy, producer Benjamin, Ben Hosley, the Haas, poet laureate, the Ben Ducer, producer Ben, the peeper, the poet laureate, Mr. Positive, Kylo Ben, Hello Fennel, the tiebreaker,breaker. Uh-huh. Birthday Benny. But not... Professor Crispy. He's not... He's not Professor Crispy.

He's not Professor Crispy. Which you tried to name him last week. Yeah, but I'm very clear on that. That's not his nickname. We're not going to call him that. I'll make it very clear. I'll announce every episode that that is not his nickname. His name is Benjamin Hosley.

Yeah. And in an ongoing series of twists, every week we think we know what our relationship is to him in this new miniseries changes again. One week he's in the studio with us on mic. Another week he's in the booth but we can hear him. He's the voice of God. One week he's got a fucking intern. Then he doesn't have an intern.

Today we have a walkie talkie on a table because we have this is huge. We have two guests. This is a first. We have two guests on one episode. And that has displaced Ben. He was he's the lowest on the list. Ben doesn't have a mic anymore. That relegates him out of the league, basically.

So we have a walkie-talkie, but we turned the walkie-talkie off. So if Ben has an emergency, he's got to storm in here dramatically. I think he's listening to us right now. Yeah, that's the best part. And he can't say anything. But yeah, if you hear a door slam open dramatically, then the next thing that happens, one of us will pass over a microphone and Ben will be able to announce something. Two guests, and they are, one could say cousins.

Yeah. Within our UCB Comedy Podcasting Network family. Yeah, brethren. They host a podcast that both of us have been on. And here's a twist. Not just podcast co-hosts. They're co-hosts in life and in matrimony. Sure. Because they're the sexiest

fucking couple I know. Ladies and gentlemen, Murph Meyer, Danikolski of the Menage a Trois podcast! Thanks for coming, guys. Thank you for having us. I thought you were saying we were cousins. I thought that's where that was going, too. Oh, you guys are sort of cousins.

I thought a blood test had been done. And I was like, Jesus, let us spill that on our own show rather than that breaking news on someone else's show that we are cousins. We're the twist corner over here. We're sort of the twistiest podcast in the history of comedy. This has been such a twisty podcast so far. So far. Can I also say the peeper is my favorite name for Haas.

The peeper's great. Sometimes he's peeping in. Sometimes he peeps. Those little peepers. Ben is also your producer. Yeah, well, the first time he busted out the walkie-talkie in our podcast, I laughed for like four hours. It's a good bit. It's a really good bit.

Where did he get this thing? He was like screaming at an intern through a wall. That was a fire sale at Radio Shack. That was one of the last days. No, that's a baby monitor. Oh. Reference. Okay, Diana, see, these people, you can tell. We're dealing with pro podcasters here, pro casters here. Diana see this is

these people you can tell we're dealing with pro podcasters pro casters here because that was a perfect segue into the movie

that we're talking about today which is Signs the fifth film Signs the fifth film by M. Night Shyamalan

the third M. Night Shyamalan film quote unquote right you know once he rebranded himself as the master of suspense

but this is the fifth major motion picture that M. Night Shyamalan directed. And we're going through all of them one by one. Now I guess you know let's just remind everyone

you know Praying With Anger student film barely released. Sure. Wide Awake kept on the shelf. Miramax movie. Released years later. Cut up. Yep.

Right. Wasn't happy with the result. Sixth Sense humongous. You might have heard of that one. Right. I have not. Okay well we'll get. Right. Wasn't happy with the result. Sixth Sense, humongous. You might have heard of that one. Right. I have not. Okay. Well, we'll get to it.

It was big at the MTV Movie Awards that year. Yeah. I think it won. Best Scared of Shit Performance. Yep. That was a category for a while, right? Yep. Yeah.

Yeah. They weirdly qualified. They nominated Misha Barton barfing on Haley Joel Osmond as Best Kiss. No, they did not. They did. Apparently, the people who worked for MTV didn't know what a kiss was. Most of their staff is 10. Yeah.

They were like, when I think about girls or boys, I puke. Yeah. A kissing is when a boy and a girl do a thing with a mouth. They're like, well, did she open her mouth? But that was like Munchausen by proxy kiss. Like, that was a very dark vomit kiss. Yeah, well it didn't win. Even darker than just being barfed on.

Yeah, it didn't win. Went to Cruel Intentions instead. Selma Blair. Oh yeah. Speaking of a little incestual. Anyway. Anyway. Sixth Sense is huge.

One of the ten highest grossing films of all time. It's now nominated for like eight Academy Awards. Big thing. Huge. Comes back the next year with Unbreakable. A film that I adore. You like less. I like it.

Yeah, you like it. But it was a big, you know, sort of, didn't lose money, but it was a huge financial disappointment in the wake of Sixth Sense. Topped out at under

$100 million. Right. And didn't get any Oscar attention. I think has grown in esteem since then, but at the time was viewed as like maybe he was

a one hit wonder. It was viewed as a classic sophomore slump. I guess. The classic fourth film sophomore slump. And then, no, I know what you're saying though. I know,

I know. We talked about it last week. Right, yes. I wasn't making fun of you. I love you, David. You're my best friend.

Yes. Oh, I forgot to say, we're the two friends. Oh yeah, we are hashtag the two friends. We're trying to get that going in terms of branding. We think that's a hook that other podcasts don't have,

because like, you folks, you're a couple. You're a married couple. You're not friends. No, more than friends. And you're not there to two friends. We're trying to get that going in terms of branding. We think that's a hook that other podcasts don't have because you folks, you're a couple. You're a married couple. You're not friends. No, more than friends. And you're not there to make friends. We're the two friends. Do you know what I'm saying? We're not here to make friends either.

We only invite people who are already friends to be on the podcast. But we think people are like, what podcast do I listen to? And if they hear like, oh, this podcast has two friends on it? Two friends. It's a big drop.

One and two. It's very inclusive too. A lot of people have been in that situation where they've been the two friends on it? I think that's a big draw. One and two. It's very inclusive too. A lot of people have been in that situation where they've been the two friends. Yeah, I think most people can relate to being a person and having a friend. Anyways. I think it's universal.

We're the two friends. Our fans are called blankies. Signs comes out two years after Unbreakable because Unbreakable comes out 15 months after. That's right. Signs comes out August 2002. So not a huge gap, but there's a little time to sort of reset. Sure, sure.

The public now has sort of gone back to like, okay, we don't know. M. Night Shyamalan's not going to pull out a Sixth Sense every time. Expectations are more reasonable. A little bit, but also Shyamalan's like, all right, all right, all right. Unbreakable was a little too moody, a little too slow. Yeah.

Not a big twist, not like a big action-y, suspense-y stuff. I'm going populist this time. Right. Let's make a big, blown-out suspense film, like a fun thriller for the whole family. I believe this movie comes out the first weekend of August, which we've referred to as the one sort of weekend in the summer. The one weekend in August you can release a film and still have it look legitimate. You get later into August, you look a little gamey. Yep, yep.

You know? That's true. But that's still sort of the last. Early August, you can, yeah, sneak in there. You can still sneak in there, and if you're good, you play through, like, August and September. Yep. Yeah, he came out the week before Austin members,

Goldmember had just come out the week before. Okay, so the dethroned Goldmember. So Signs knocked that off. Was Goldmember, was that three? Was that the third one? That's the third one. And then Triple X comes out the following weekend, I the dethroned gold member. So Signs knocked that off. Was that three? Was that the third one? That's the third one. And then Triple X comes out the following weekend, I believe? You may be right. Gold member opened to $73 million. Wow. People were really hyped

for, yeah, in 2002. For the third Austin Powers. For Austin Powers and gold member. Clamoring for it. Yeah, Triple X is the next week. This is a stat I love. Just a little box off a sidebar. Do you know that Austin Powers in The Spy Who Shagged Me

is one of only two sequels in history to outgross the first film in the opening weekend alone? Oh, wow. Wow. So Austin Powers, International Man of Mystery, I think made $50 million.

Yeah, it was a sort of middling to nothing hit. Spy Who Shagged Me did 54 opening weekend in 1999, which means it would almost be 100 million today. Wow, people were really into Austin Powers, including me, I was really into Austin Powers. And then the only other one is Pitch Perfect 2. There you go.

I think it did 60 million total, first movie. Second movie did 68 opening weekend. Wow. Nuts, right? One fucking weekend. One weekend. Why are we not walking around? I mean, I haven't seen Pitch Perfect 2, but what's the

be hey? Society was walking around for months only communicating and fucking catchphrases from Awesome Power. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I don't know what the equivalent is for Pitch Perfect 2. I've gotten really into it. I don't know if this is going to stick, but I've been trying to sneak this in socially. I've been trying

to use shagadelic as part of my main vocabulary. Might be time. But not do Austin Powers impressions. Just be like, Murph, that's a very shagadelic shirt you're wearing. I think it's really funny. I don't know if it's going to stick, but I think it's funny. Murph is right. Murph is right. He's a very shagadelic man.

It is a very shagadelic man. But like, he was like Borat was eventually the Austin Powers, but who replaced Borat? Who is it now? Who? Is it? What have we got?

What's the minions? Is it the minions? I think it is. Yeah, you know, you always know like drunk uncles show up at parties going like, Oh, blah, blah, blah. Blah, blah, blah. Wait, drunk uncle. That sounds like a good character.

I said drunk uncles. I know. You should flesh that out. I was trying to think of like who quotes like the big comedy movie and makes it uncool. It's your uncle. It's always the uncle. Not my uncle. My uncle's very sophisticated.

But Minions you can't really quote because there's banana. Banana. My wife. I just want to give you the top five films when Signs is opening weekend. Just to give you a sense of 2002. Can I try to guess? You're not going to guess. I want to see if I can. All right. Well, number one is Signs is opening weekend. Just to give you a sense of 2002. Can I try to guess? You're not going to guess. I want to see if I can. Alright, well, number one is Signs. Right.

It opened to 60 mil. Great, great powerhouse opening weekend. Which I adjusted for inflation last night would be 90 mil today. Good job. Huge for an original film. Nailed it. Gibson. For an original film, humongous. And Gibson is top of the world. I'm sure we're going to talk about Gibson a lot, but Gibson is top of the world at the time of this release world are there things to say about Mel Gibson?

2000 which was two years earlier than this film I believe he had 400 million dollar grocers in one year yeah I was just going to say he must account for at least a third of the grocers no he only had two he had three if you include Chicken Run I include the fuck out of Chicken Run David

he's Rocky the Flying Rooster. No, I know. I get you. Above the title, they pushed him hard. Yeah. Maybe the best performance of his career.

Absolutely not. Chicken Run, though. It's a good movie. Chicken Run, though. Chicken Run, The Patriot, What Women Want. Yeah. And then he had,

in 2002, he had Signs and he had We Were Soldiers. I do? No. I thought you did. You guys drink wine? You're not a What Women Want fan?

No, I'm aware that it exists. Who likes What Women Want? Nancy Meyer. It's a creepy movie. It's very creepy. Can I ask a question? What if Mel Gibson could read minds? That's not like women's minds.

No. Dana, you can ask any question you want. What is the M for an M Night channel? Minaj. Minaj. Minaj. Minaj. It's my radio every Wednesday. His first name is M-A-Nalan. Minaj. Minaj. Minaj Atwa. Radio. I just put that together.

Every Wednesday. His first name is M-A-N-O-J. Yes. Oh, that's how we spell it too. Yeah. Minaj Atwa. Minaj Atwa. Have you had Shyamalan

on your podcast yet? We have. Okay, good. He seems like he'd be very open about his sexuality. That guy seems very comfortable. There's always a twist too. In his dick.

He's got a kinky dick. Yeah, that's the twist. His dick literally has a kink in it. It's like a twist, too. In his dick. He's got a kinky dick. Yeah, that's the twist. His dick literally has a kink in it. It's like one of those duck dicks, you know? A corkscrew. It's a corkscrew. One of them duck dicks. Hi, wife.

One of them duck dicks. Okay, I'm going to guess top five 2002. Number one, signs. Sure. Number two, awesome powers in gold memory. Right. Number three, my big fat Greek wedding. It's number ten.

Nine, sorry. It's number nine? At this point, yeah. Oh, wow. Okay, so let me see. It's gonna come back, I think, because it only has 40 in the bank, and I think it made like $300 million. It only has 40 in the bank? Yeah, so it's gonna just keep, you know, rolling on. Because this is what I know. Windex and the... I looked ahead.

Oh, 2002, guys. What a year. Triple X comes out the next weekend, is number one for two weeks and then Signs comes back and is number one for the following three weeks which doesn't happen that often

you lose one you come back that's crazy actually and you're not gonna get number three Stuart Little 2 no that's number 6

you're doing pretty well getting like the general I'm in the 10 okay 2002 you're not you're not gonna get it Blue Crush comes out the next weekend.

Fuck. Men in Black 2? No, that's number seven. Fuck. Pretty good dumb things in the 10. Give up. I give up. You know the Summer of O2.

The Master of Disguise with Dana Carvey. You remember that movie? Played a turtle man. Certainly do, but I never knew it was in the top box office. Opened at number three, 12 mil. Not a bad number, actually. I think it might have,

you know, that might have. It did. I think it ended up at 13 million. What a fucking talented dude to make that movie. What a weird movie.

And that was a passion project for him. At number four, which is why I wanted to do this, is Martin Lawrence's live comedy film, Run Tell That. Run Tell That.

So it was a weird time in 2002. I was going to get that one. And what's number five? Road to Perdition. Classic summer movie. Mobsters, rain. Darkness.

Wife murder, child murder. The kids got another couple of weeks before they got to go back to school. Let's get this out in July. We need people to see this in July. Do you remember how overwhelming the merchandising blitz was for Road to Perdition? Oh, the tie-ins were out of control. I remember I was at summer camp and every kid... Get your life-size trench coats. You Tommy guns. You go to Burger King, they of course

had the Burger King tie-in. And at Burger King instead of the paper crown, they had paper fedoras. Every kid had a paper fedora. And it was one of those weird things. And they had a murder camera for the Jude Laws character. It squirted water. Those plush Paul Newman's that were going around in the Happy Meals. Wrinkled face.

Authentic wrinkled face. It's nice to cuddle with wrinkles. It adds some kick to your play time, to your snuggle time. Okay. So Signs opens, huge. Big hit. Big hit of the summer. Huge hit.

It ends up 240, 240 238 something like that wow Griffin you're really good 227 400 mil worldwide adjusted for inflation I looked last night would have been

340 today great job huge signs what's the just out of curiosity what's the the bud

formula for the inflation you seem to have it right at the tip of your box office I checked it last night. Box Office Mojo has a little thing you can use

and what they do is they adjust it by what the average ticket price was then and what it is now. Cool. That's what they do. So it's not an exact science

because it's an average. Sure. But that's still a monster. Something like $340 million. A huge, monstrous hit. The second biggest one of his career still.

And yeah, I think at the time of its release was one of the top 20 movies. Maybe release at some point. I can't answer those questions for you.

But Time Magazine puts him on the cover. We've referenced this cover before. Have you guys seen this cover? No. The next Spielberg, they say.

The next Spielberg. And he's got one hand on his hip and the other hand is pushing aside. Meanwhile, at this point, Spielberg is still making motion pictures.

Still making movies. Yeah, he just made like Minority Report. You know, he was in Catch Me If You Can. Yeah, he has two films in one year. Oh, my. Let's see. And he's in the crops. He's knee deep in the crops.

He's in the crops. He's wearing like a ropey necklace, sort of like a baseball player necklace. Yeah, it looks a little less. It wasn't Time Magazine. It was Newsweek. It looks a little less like a Newsweek cover and a little more like a billabong. I was going to say, he looks like a mall rat to me. Yeah, yeah, right.

He was hanging out at Quicksilver. It's that crossover from the 90s to the early 2000s where the fashion was still kind of stuck in some sort of mid... Is there a jungle behind him, too? No, that's the corn. Those are the corn fields. Oh, I see. No, Minaj was really, he was trying to get a sponsorship deal with Life is Good at the corn. Those are the corn fields. Oh, I see. No, Minaj was really, he was trying to get like a sponsorship deal with Life is Good at the time.

Anyway, yeah. Good job, Minaj. Cover of Newsweek. But yeah, I think this movie. No, it was Newsweek. You were right. You were wrong. Griffin was wrong.

I was wrong. I remember I was a huge M. Night fan. I loved Wide Awake. I loved Sixth Sense. I loved Unbreakable, right? Sure. And Unbreakable, you know, was seen as a disappointment. I felt like the bloom was off the

roads. It's like, maybe this guy's not going to hit every time. Maybe his name doesn't have that much box office value anymore, you know? Just like Spielberg. Yeah, exactly. Right. The bloom was off the roads of that guy. The bloom was off the roads of that guy. Yeah. That's why they said he was the next Spielberg. They meant the next guy to direct 1941.

But this movie came out and did huge business opening weekend. You know, the trailers were very vague. It was a very basic premise. Farm, crop circles show up, isn't an alien invasion movie. Yeah, the poster's just crop circles. Mel Gibson's face wasn't even on it. No, you got his name, but

it's just, whoa, what if they were crop circles, guys? And we got Mel, and Mel, in a certain way, this is maybe the height of Mel's box office powers. I mean, he's been a huge star for like 15 years at this point. I think this might have been his biggest film as a leading actor. And this is also the last film he makes before he takes like an eight-year retirement. Well, this is the last film he makes, I think, before he goes off to do Passion of the Christ. And then he does Apocalypto.

And he doesn't appear in movies again. But that's also when he starts going crazy. Running his mouth. This is where that Vatican II came back hard for Mel. I don't think he headlines

another film until 2009. Top lines? Are you meaning Edge of Darkness? Yeah, I think that was 2009. That's correct. 2010. 2010.

So he takes an eight year break. Yeah, directs two movies, one of which is humongous. And one of which is really good. Yeah, but he kind of goes out on top. Apocalypse is a rad movie. Apocalypse is so good. So this is like the beginning of his religious agenda. Weirdly, yeah.

It's kind of an interesting. And he's a former priest in this movie, or minister. He plays a man who's lost the faith. Yeah. And I think Mel Gibson's life, you know, he's from Australia. That explains it all. Yeah, and that's it.

No, no. You know, I think he was raised religiously. His dad, I think, is crazy. That was kind of a lunatic, yeah. Yeah, a big fan of white people. Not so much other people. Not so much anyone else. Not the aborigines.

Yeah, nope. No, but this is the thing. It's like, at this point, I feel like Mel Gibson, well, he's the guy who made Braveheart and shit, Not the Aborigines. like, I think that gay sex is wrong. And he starts saying stuff like this. He's still holding a cigar though. Right? Wait a minute. What's interesting, Lethal Weapon's the thing that really puts him over the edge. What a performance, though. I was gonna say, that's his best performance. That's his fucking best performance.

And also, The Year of Living Dangerously. He's made so many good movies. But this is what I was gonna say. He's made a lot of great films. The interesting thing for me about film history is that um your like legacy i feel like as a movie star is more determined by whether or not you were lucky enough to appear in good films and the quality of your work like there are a ton of mediocre

actors who will always be on that like painted at the AMC Theater. Yep. Because they were in three movies that will be watched forever. Right. Whereas I was listening to, Mickey Rourke was on Alec Baldwin's podcast, which I perversely love. Oh, those two. Alec Baldwin's podcast is great

if you want to hear Alec Baldwin tell every guest he has on that he was the first choice for whatever job they had. And not just when it's actors. He had Matt Lauer on the show, and he was like, Matt, I don't think I told you this. I was the first choice for today's show. They called me up and they said, Alec, we need you to. Everything is just, I turned it down. It's a great podcast.

I love it. That reminds me, I know this isn't a sports podcast, but we were just talking about this. It's very much not a sports podcast. No, but like how good of an athlete you are to how many championships you have. Yeah, right. But it's the team you were on. It's not like necessary

individual ability, you know? I think it's the exact same thing. Same with a big movie. I think it's the exact same thing. I was listening to Alec Baldwin's Mickey Rourke episode, and he was talking about how Mickey Rourke,

the whole arc of Mickey Rourke, that he was like the great American leading man, and then he, you know, self-destructed, destroyed himself arc of Mickey Rourke, that he was like the great American leading man. And then he, you know, self-destructed, destroyed himself, came back with a wrestler and then immediately wasted it all to do fucking direct to video,

tax shelter, action films where he plays the mentor in one scene and gets $7 million probably of illegal money of blood money. but I was like, you know, I was listening to like, um, Baldwin go through all the great Mickey Rourke performances, and it was like, oh yeah, but none of these movies have really stuck around.

It's like, oh, Mickey Rourke in the 80s. Barfly. Right. He was the most exciting leading man. Year of the Dragon. Year of the Dragon. And what was the other one? Johnny Handsome.

Okay, sure. You know? But you're saying Gibson, he was in the right movies. He's got Mad Max. He's got Lethal Weapon. Two the right movies. He's got Mad Max, he's got Lethal Weapon. Two huge franchises. He's got Braveheart. So he directs, wins Best Picture, wins Best Director.

Signs he's in a huge M. Night Shyamalan movie. Whether or not it's a huge classic in its own right, M. Night is an important enough part of film history that film will always be remembered and watched. And Chicken Run, obviously. Chicken Run, which is the best performance of the best film he was ever in. I just want to tell you one of the things. He's said so many bad things.

I've just been scrolling through his Wikipedia page of all the many bad things he's said over his career. And before you say this, I just want to go on record as saying this is a pro-Mel Gibson podcast, and we endorse everything he has ever said. But now, please, David, read this quote. This is my favorite one. I mean, obviously, we know he's been very anti-Semitic. He's been racist. He's been abusive towards

his girlfriend. He's been homophobic. Yeah, but on the other hand, he smokes cigars, David. He does smoke cigars, and he's a bit of a prankster. He's a wily one. In July 1995, so this is like Braveheart year. He's about to win Best Picture.

Interview with Playboy. Gibson said Bill Clinton was a, quote, low-level opportunist and that someone was, quote, telling him what to do. He said the Rhodes Scholarship was established for young men and women to strive for a, quote, new world order. And it was a campaign for Marxism. So he's doing like a lizard people thing. Yeah, he's already slipping into full-on insanity. I love how oily that is because people think of him as like going crazy in his later years. Yeah, he's always been a little nuts, I think. And he was raised, you know, I think, a little nuts.

I'd like to throw out a little theory right now. Maybe Mel Gibson didn't lose his marbles. The internet just didn't really exist until the 2000s. Right, no one was recording his rants. Maybe these quotes didn't circulate. He didn't have to talk as much if he did a Playboy magazine. There was no internet. Right, no one was recording his rants. Maybe these quotes didn't circulate, he didn't have to talk as much if he did a Playboy magazine. There was no internet, there was no, yeah.

You'd jerk off, you'd read the Playboy interview on the toilet once, you'd throw it out. You'd skim through it, yeah. You'd skim. You're like, oh, there's the cigar-smoking rascal from Lethal Weapon. Just throw it in the trash. And you might not even read the whole thing

because a couple pages might be stuck together. Yeah, you can't even get to the whole thing. Because of jizz. Because of jizz-em, I say. And that teenage jizz-em. But I was going to say, what I think is get to the hole anymore. Because of jizz. Because of jism, I say. And that teenage jism. But I was going to say, what I think is interesting, the weirdest guy, what I think is interesting about Mel Gibson is, you know, Mad Max, big cult franchise, right? Sure, right, yeah, and a lot of, like, good Australian, like, illiterate. That's Peter Weir.

Peter Weir movies, right, yeah. That's those, You're Living Dangerously, and then Lethal Weapon's The Breakout. It's his franchise, it's an action movie, overnight huge star, they make four of them, and he becomes, like, one of the guys. And a huge action star and a heartthrob and all of that. Yeah, and he's in some Tequila Sunrise. Bird on a Wire. Air America. And Hamlet. Remember his Hamlet?

Yeah, Conspiracy. Forever Young. The Man with No Face. Maverick, which is fun. Maverick was a fun man. Some fun shit. Maverick though. Jimmy Garner and Jodie Foster was fun in there. He and Jodie are close. They love each other. They're still pals.

They're like, because he was in The Beaver. That chemistry was palpable in Maverick. Yeah. And then he makes Braveheart. He wins Oscars. Yeah. And makes a shit ton of money. He makes Ransom, which is a huge hit.

Right. Oh, give me back my son. Give me back my son. Give me back my son. He makes Conspiracy Theory, which is, you know, fun. It, give me back my son. Give me back my son. He makes Conspiracy Theory, which is, you know, fun. It should have been better than it was because I wanted to like it. Fun 90s movie. Yes.

Like, in retrospect, very fun in the 90s. He makes Payback, which is a little grim and gross. Yep. And then he's got Your Chicken Run, Your Patriot, Your What Women Want, Your We Were Soldiers, these sort of stirring action movies. So he doesn't make a film in 2001. He makes three in 2000. No, he makes The Million Dollar

Hotel, which we're not going to talk about. Of the newer NAMM movies, I thought We Were Soldiers was one of those better of the newer NAMMs. I've never seen that one. I've never seen We Were Soldiers. It's actually about the first original boots on the ground kind of thing.

I remember Sam Elliott in the trailer saying, Custer was a pussy. Remember that? That's a great line. It's a good line. Well, We Were Soldiers is our Murph Pick of the Week. Hey, We Were Soldiers. I watched the making of a documentary, as I was telling you guys off mic. And yeah, apparently he was about, he had made We Were Soldiers right when he came to sign.

So he was in this We Were Soldiers mode, Shyamalan says, and he was like showing it around like the White House and to like, you know, USO shows or whatever. So he was in like patriot mode. And I think Shyamalan was obviously very intimidated by Mel Gibson like before the movie started. Sure. Well, you know, he'd been making movies with Bruce Willis. Yes. That was it seemed like they had a bond. Yeah.

But here he's going in a new direction. I heard. I don't know if I'm misremembering this, but I believe this is correct. M. Night wrote the part for Clint Eastwood originally. Oh, that would have been good. He's a little old. Little old. I think that's why he's already pushing it a little bit.

It was already hard to believe that they were brothers. No, he's 19 years older. Yeah, it's crazy. I think that's why they didn't cast Clint Eastwood. But in his mind, he was like, that's the American archetype, the stoic. How's Clint Eastwood going to have an Abigail Breslin-sized daughter? Once again, I think that's why. archetype the stoic how's clannis we're gonna have an abigail breslin size daughter yeah i think that's why to the aliens that would be good that would be get off my corn yeah get off my car uh i think that's why he wasn't cast sure that was the sort of vibe he wanted it strikes me as like he's the kind of a-list star who if you can get him you're

gonna at this point in time just make it work do it. One of those great all-American Australians. It's true. He's technically American. I think so, yeah. He was born in upstate New York and then moved to Australia when he was like seven. So he could be president. He could be president.

Thanks. Okay, I just want to make it very clear. Murph and Diane did not just high five. They each took out two fingers and then just smacked the two fingers together. That's what we do. Cool. It was like they were doing the Hunger Games salute with force,

but it made no sound. I think it's really interesting to hear about all the box office stuff in the lead up because I was never aware of signs and didn't really even know it existed, except for very abstractly, until I was asked to be on this podcast. And last night I watched it. Have you seen other Shyamalan movies?

Like have you seen The Sixth Sense? Only The Sixth Sense. Sure. And only in theaters. Right. Wow. And then after that, he just, he left, you know, you and he parted ways. Honestly, like, I was stoned at a party once and The Happening was on and people were just

falling out of windows or the sky or something. At the party? That sounds bad. We were just laughing. Yeah, of course. Because that movie was such a joke at that point. So I think I just had this vague idea that M. Night Shyamalan just kind of fell off. Right.

But I didn't, I had no actual evidence of that. This is his last movie where he is, like, it hasn't been shattered yet. Like, the bubble is still pretty solid around him. Yeah, I think so. And we can say, sure, Unbreakable was a little bit of a dip for him or whatever. Great job. But time's been kind. I almost knocked over a mic.

But, like, and this movie was a huge hit, and he was still just, like, seen as, like, oh, yeah, the master of suspense. Now, what this movie doesn't really have is a mic. But like, and this movie was a huge hit, and he was still just like seen as like, oh yeah, the master of suspense. Now what this movie doesn't really have is a twist. You know what though? I thought it would because of Sixth Sense the whole time we were watching it last night. People were going in, I think. He's dead.

He's not alive. He's an alien. Everyone is dead. I said it was a video game like five times. At one point, Diana threw out a video game. It's a little video game-y at the end there. We'll get to that. I also thought there was going to be a twist.

I just want to, I just remember what the Mel Gibson point I was trying to build up to. I saw this movie with this girl. Hey, congratulations. I was 16 years old. I saw this movie with a lady too. And he did learn? Her name was Antonia Dauphin. She was my mommy.

Oh, boy. No did learn. Twist. Hey, hey. That was the twist. That was the twist. No, I just, Mel Gibson point I was building up to that I forgot to say. did land. Twist. That was the twist. That was the twist. Mel Gibson point I was building up to

that I forgot to say. The thing I find interesting about his career is Lethal Weapon for lack of a better term weaponizes the sort of repressed insanity

with him as a man. It's a guy who's suicidal. And the whole point of that movie the hook to Lethal Weapon is like the one guy

might be crazy. Got nothing to lose. And then other than that, most Mel Gibson movie star movies don't let him be kind of unhinged. Mad Max was mad. Lethal Weapon, he was crazy. And then he starts to, over the

years, become a little more and more stoic. And Science-T is very stoic. What they're asking him to do is be a rock. Which is not quite in his wheelhouse. I'd say the casting is interesting for this. Yeah, I thought he was terrible in this. You thought he was terrible? No, see, I liked him. It felt like

overacting to me. I saw this last night for the first time. Every look he gives is like, this is a podcast, so sorry, but he's like like it feels like everything is overdone. That was like a great eye roll and facial contortion. No, there's no subtlety. He's got these real wrinkles in his forehead and he's like, you know, really working them every time the camera's on his face. What were you going to say, Griffin?

No, he does have like old leather purse face right now, but it looks kind of great and dignified. I was saying, I mean, this is what I'm finding difficult to decide, okay? I saw it at the time. I thought he was good in it. I thought he was fine. Sure, you weren't walking out being like, Mel Gibson. Right, but I think I said good in it. I thought he was fine. Sure, you weren't walking out being like, Mel Gibson. Right, but I think I said- Mel Gibson.

Good job, but I wasn't a particularly big Mel fan outside of Chicken Run, so I think I like him more just as- Griffin, do you like Chicken Run? Yeah, I like Chicken Run. Yeah. You're obsessed with it. Well, no, we all. It's a movie.

I've never seen it. We all love movies. I've never seen Chicken Run. I've seen it. It's good. It's a good fucking movie. It's a fun animated film. I haven't seen it in years.

It is a very good movie. Cannot recommend it enough. It's better than Signs. I'll say that. No question. So you leave and you feel fine about Mel. I went, oh, good performance. Good enough.

I loved Bruce Willis after seeing him in the two Shyamalan movies. I didn't really have much exposure to Bruce before that became converted after that got deep into his filmography. I'm grateful. I was like, man, great performance. And he had Die Hard the way Mel had. Before they came to these like, quote quote unquote artsier films for them. It's true.

He dips into the 80s action stars. Yeah, he did. But I'll say this. I walk out of Sixth Sense and Unbreakable and I go, I got to find out what Bruce Willis is about. Dip into Die Hard, right? I walk out of Signs. I don't think I saw Lethal Weapon until years after that. Oh, really?

I didn't feel the need to go into his thing. I went, oh, that's Rocky the Rooster. He's obviously one of my best friends, but he's okay in this, right? The first Lethal Weapon film I saw was Lethal Weapon 4. So I was already intimately acquainted with... I saw that before the other three Lethal Weapons. Interesting. Because I was just a huge Chris Rock fan. Yeah, Detective Butters. Yeah.

Rock and Pesci just off the rails. I was just like, this cast is loaded. Jet Li, Chris Rock, we're gonna see this. My favorite scene in Lethal Weapon 4 is when there's like some like conversation happening between like Pesci like Glover and Gibson and they're just talking about like the case

or whatever and then like Chris Rock walks by in the background like hitting a cell phone and he's like man I can't get these cell phones to work and they're like really and then he just does fucking Chris Rock's four minutes on cell phones well I mean I think that was when they were just like, this Chris Rock guy is everywhere.

We've got to just get him in the movie. That was the excess of the 90s. It was. It was just kind of like, hey. Well, and it was also back when comedians would make poor choices, and their agents would be like, it's a million bucks. You're just going to go out. You're going to do 10 minutes.

You're just going to go do 10 minutes on the set. Do you remember how the Lethal Weapon 4 trailer ended? You mean him running around in his underwear? So there was only remember how the Lethal Weapon 4 trailer ended? This is a big side tangent. You mean him running around in his underwear? So there was only one trailer for Lethal Weapon 4. I remember that. He had them running around in their underwear. Warner Brothers didn't have a big blockbuster that year.

It was 1998 for the summer. So they rushed into production, and they were filming it until a month before it came out. So the trailer was like one set piece, which they showed, which was Gibson convincing Glover to go out in his underwear. And at the end of the trailer, after they threw out all the names, it was just a shot of Chris Rock direct addressing the camera. And he just goes, it's me, Mel Gibson. I might look different, but it's still me. Good old Mel Gibson.

And I remember at the time being like, is this movie that meta? Yeah, right. And it's not. No, it's not. It's just a cop. They had nothing else. They had two minutes of footage at that point. So they were like, Chris, say something.

Let's get Chris to say your Mel and people will love it. In theaters July 17th. Like, whatever he says. Also, this is a photo I grabbed of the Lethal Weapon 3 pinball game. Now, the artist did some great work on Rene Russo and Mel and Glover. But take a push in on Pesci. The artist either ran out of time, they got a different diet,

and they have someone else do it, or he's got an axe to grind, because that's like Pesci's cousin with Down syndrome. Oh my God. He looks like King Koopa from Super Mario Brothers or something. He's terrible. That's a bad...

Like a burn victim. Yeah. It's a bad portrayal of Pesci. Wow. Anyway, so that's our take on Lethal Weapon. Lethal Weapon 4's commercial and the pinball machine from Lethal Weapon 3. Diana, I find what you said about Mel Gibson's performance very interesting. He felt like he was overacting.

I did as well. He's doing a lot of fucking eye work. So much eye work. Too much. A lot of eye bugging, a lot of crazy eyebrows. But do you think that Mel was miscast? Or do you think that Shyamalan pushed Mel really far? Or do you think that Mel's just not that great of an actor and has been in great movies?

Like, what do you think that actually is? I think Mel's a great actor, but he's an over-actor. He always has been. And in this kind of intimate setting where it's basically, it's all chops. Because it's Independence Day, but from one family's perspective in a farmhouse. Because we talked about this. Joaquin is in the same movie with the same director, and you don't walk away being like, what the hell was he doing in that?

No. Joaquin's great in this movie. He is great. He's doing some interesting stuff. So is one of those Colkins and Breslin? Yeah. The children have more to do. Abigail Breslin is phenomenal in this movie.

What is she, four years old? I have to talk about little more about Gibson. I have to talk about that because we'll talk about it later, but the making of scene has this great moment about Abigail Breslin. Anyway, carry on. This is sort of the structure of how we're doing these episodes. We talk about the performances, then we get on to the movie. Okay.

But Gibson, I was watching it last night and going, I feel like he's really bad in this. I feel like he's pushing it too much. He's pulling like crazy faces. What's going on here? Am I now viewing it through the prism of knowing everything we know about Mel Gibson, looking for signs that he's

losing it? Looking for signs. Looking for signs. Are there any crop circles in those wrinkles? I don't think that I was, though, because that to me feels very far away. I agree. Like his rant, and also I just had I felt very separate. We like hit the vaporizer and just watched this

movie I felt like I was in a vacuum yeah I didn't think like I went in wanting to hate Mal at all I actually wanted him to be more subtle and then that's why it kept bothering me that he was like I felt like he was just giving he's unsubtle but I all right look every other actor in this film is on the exact same wavelength though which makes it kind of tough. I was malapologizing a little bit after we watched. The cop was amazing. I'm with Murph. The cop's amazing. Cherry Jones.

Cherry Jones. Wonderful. I do think the first little, all of her things she says are like mini monologues, and the first one I thought was awkward, because the movie's purposefully a little awkward and sterile. Yeah. You know what I mean? It's a little stagey.

But by the middle, I'm like, I love her. She's a great theater actress. She played Meryl Streep's role in Doubt. She won the Tony for that. She won an Emmy for 24. The way she delivered the news about the wife was incredible. How do you even say that? That line was the most ridiculous line I've ever heard.

With the pinned line? Yeah, she's alive when she shouldn't be. Yes, because she kills that scene. It's amazing. And you know what? I would actually say that's the and you know what i would actually say that's the one scene i think mel really kills because his weird like conflicting bottled emotions actually work well for that i think it's a guy trying to keep his cool while like

something insane's happening when he says you're trying to figure out i think the line this is the last conversation i'm gonna have my wife is great delivers the shit out of it because it is such a silly line but at the same time, like, you know? Yeah. I don't know. There's a weird plausibility to the fact that he'd say, like, I get what you're saying. I need to say it out loud. Like, I don't know.

I like Mel in this movie. I agree. I think every other scene- I agree with Diana, but still liked him. Every other scene- I don't think he's bad in it, but every scene it feels like, is he about to crack? Well, that's right. And it doesn't feel like that's what the movie's about.

No. Now, this ties into this point. If he had played it straighter, I think that kind of dry, subtle humor that they have throughout would have hit so much harder. I felt like he was winking to me and doing crazy shit the whole time. The movie has this goofiness.

That tonally, it throws it off a little bit. Especially the town scenes. Like when they go to town. And Merritt Weaver, a young Merritt Weaver is the drugstore employee who's like confessing to him and Showalter

as we said before what the hell I forgot he was fucking in that movie the army dude handsome was a David Lynch character that was so out of place

wait a second you've got two records don't you he's got that great line where he goes you should be somewhere getting your toes licked by a beautiful woman

I wrote that down in my notes. It's crazy. Who is that guy? I don't know that actor. Let's find that man. He is a lynchian. That guy's fifth build in the movie.

Which makes sense because there aren't that many. I mean, you go Mel, Walk, and then Cherry Jones. The kids are real low. Breslin and Culkin. And then I think Split Card. His name is Ted Sutton. Ted Sutton. I think it's then Split Card between Abigail Breslin and the wife, And then I think split card. His name is Ted Sutton. Ted Sutton. I think it's then split card between Abigail Breslin and the wife, and then he's split

with someone else. Okay. The wife was split in half. Hey, Diana. The wife's lower quarters were played by someone else. Diana, I would like to award you seven comedy points. Thank you. Yes.

This movie is not a twist movie, as you said. You go into this film, Sixth Sense, very much a twist movie. Yes. This movie is not a twist movie, as you said. You go into this film, Sixth Sense, very much a twist movie. Wide awake fucking twist movie. Unbreakable, you know, it's got an ending that's surprising. The whole structure of the film was sort of twisty. This film is very straight down the middle. Twistless. Yes, it is.

And as you say, it's kind of like a weird independence day, but on one farm. A lot of shit is clearly happening in the world in this movie, but we're not seeing that really. We're just seeing the farm. Which made it more of a thriller, less sci-fi feeling. Yeah, it was definitely more. It was Hitchcockian and kind of even Spielberg, since he is the next Spielberg. It's very poltergeist in a lot of ways where the creepy moments are there, but they really slow burn it.

Family drama and a lot of just sort of like odd energy scenes where it's like, what's going on here? But I do think, I had not seen this since I saw it when it came out in theaters. Sure. Maybe opening weekend, second weekend. And I remember the first time, my viewing was, okay, where's the twist gonna be?

So you're looking at all these different elements. You're looking at things like that Mel looks like he's a little unhinged, you know? You're looking at things like the water glasses and the asthma. All these details he's calling attention to. The dog murder that no one cared about. Right. That scene. Literally no one ever spoke of it again.

No, it was just, yeah, kid had to kill his dog and we're moving on. All these little details, I'm going, okay, so what am I supposed to be keeping track of? Because sixth sense became such a big thing after the time. Oh, if you see the color red, that means there's a ghost. I was like, look at the visual language. And I was like, what's he setting up here? And then the twist is almost that there isn't a twist. He's sort of doing this meta commentary on like...

Is he? Well, I don't think he is. But you're right, though. They were like, are there aliens? Yep. Yeah, it's exactly... He's. But you're right, though. They were like, are there aliens? Yep. Yeah. Yeah, it's exactly. He's like, you think this might be a hoax?

And then like about like an hour in, he's like, definitely not. It's not a hoax. Right. It's 100%. And there's that World of Organs thing happening where, you know, the TV we hear a lot of. And then there's the water shit, of course, which I guess is that considered a twist? Some people said that was a twist. Well, I don't think that's a twist.

If you're going to call something a twist, I guess it's that they're vulnerable to water. I remember watching it the first time and being a little annoyed, and I don't think I was able to verbalize that this is what it was at the moment as a 13-year-old or something. I just had six pubes. I couldn't formulate the thoughts. Wow, congrats.

Pubes are where ideas come from. And half a dozen. But I remember feeling like, where's this water thing going? Where's this water thing going? Oh, the water thing's there so that they have water glasses

that they can knock over to hit the alien? That feels a little convenient. Well, but the whole point of the movie- Well, that Abigail was a genius. Yes, yes. And she knew to fake her water issue. That was the rewatch this time. The whole point of the movie is that God is present in this man's life.

Right. Yes. And when Mel is chanting, holding his dead son before he comes back to life, your lungs were closed. That's why you have asthma. Yeah, right, right. It's like, give us a little fucking credit. Yeah, yeah.

Come on. Yeah, that's the problem with the movie. We can put it together. It gives us no credit. Well, he's a bad writer, I think we can say. He's an amazing visual director. I feel like his scripts are pretty dog dick

at times. And that's another thing why I'm apologizing for Mel because it's hard with some of these fucking lines. Yeah. I don't disagree with you.

Please stop calling me father. I can't hear my children. It's like terrible writing. There's a lot of stuff like that. I think this movie, and Unbreakable had a little of this and this has a lot of this.

Everything is serious. Wait, which movie? Unbreakable had a little of this, and this has a lot of this. Everything is serious. Wait, which movie? Unbreakable. Yeah. Everything is serious. Yeah. Everything is delivered like a pitch down the middle right to the camera. But then sometimes Mel and Walker.

And like it's melancholy obvious. Yeah. Sometimes Mel and Walker are like fucking dumb and dumber. Like they got these scenes where they're like, let's run around and scream, and the whole scene's supposed to be like, oh, we're laughing at these goofballs being goofy. Yeah. I loved when they were running around the house. I laughed at that.

When he goes, we're going to whoop your ass. Yeah. Yeah, he's trying to tough talk. I like that scene where Joaquin piles all the bags to block the coal thing and then he puts the can on top. That's a good little gag. Oh, yeah. Funny.

Yep. My point was that all these elements that you're looking at being like, where's the twist? What's this building up to? Are, in fact, just transparent, like, dramatic devices, right? The bat on the wall. Like, all these things. And the point the movie's making is, like, oh, this isn't a formulaic, like, super, like, crafted movie. This is a movie about how some higher power powers putting all the pieces in place so that everything

can work out. It's not chance. Someone's watching. I am Night Shyamalan. I am God. Right. Yeah. And if you're unaware of the theme, just you don't even need to watch the movie.

Just read the script, the pages where he first has that conversation with Joaquin. Yeah. And it's very clear as to what all that is because he lays it out in a way that is just not only shows it to us, which is the cool part in the visual is, because he lays it out in a way that- Right. Pretty quick. Yeah. Not only shows it to us, which is the cool part in the visual storytelling, but he then feels like, you know what? In case you didn't pick up on it, I'm just going to have Mel Gibson flat out say- They do have those, yeah, those ping pong dialogue scenes that are really, yeah, just- They're just not natural.

Yeah. They're a manifest. Nothing in the movie is natural. No, not even the characters. Which I'm okay with, because at least nothing in the movie- You were saying- It felt more like storytelling and less like reality which I'm fine with but I still think

a little subtlety goes a long way. I thought I would hate this and I kind of liked it but every time, especially towards the end. Ben? I think we picked up someone else's. Turn that shit off. I don't know how to turn it off.

It's the aliens. There's the baby monitor scene. I was just know how to turn it off. Oh my god, it's the aliens. Because there's the baby monitor scene. I was just going to say, every time I wanted them to pull back, like 5%, he laid on 10%. And that just makes you walk away being like, nope. We talked about the one visual in particular earlier

about the cross no longer being on the wall. Yeah. How much mud M. Night Shyamalan had them sling at that to be like, yeah, we see this. To make sure there used to be a grass on the wall. Look at this one clean spot. And I tried to be like, oh man, you know, those farms in Pennsylvania, they get a little dusty, you know, it might just be a-

No. That was like Sharpie. But the rest of the, yeah, they just drew an outline around it. But we should talk about, like, this is the fourth movie he's made now. Yeah. Where, about a person who's grappling with a crisis of faith. Yes. And like it's like just like Wide Awake it is a movie that's very specifically about someone

who has lost their Christian faith. He's a Hindu man who grew up going to Catholic schools. Right. I think it's very important. And at the end of this movie like his faith is rewarded like explicitly. It's like God like exists and it has a hand in

And is a fan of yours. Yeah. You're one of the chosen. He's rooting for you and I am God. I'm Nightshamala. And in this movie in Wide Awake. Yeah. This movie is very Wide Awake-y. Very. In Wide Awake it's this little boy. There's that scene where Mel is brushing his teeth and he's asleep.

It's a scene. It's a Wide Awake reference. In Wide Awake the kid lost his grandpa. Yes. In this movie he lost his wife but he's asleep it's a scene it's a wide awake reference in wide awake the kid lost his grandpa yes in this movie he lost his wife but he's blaming all

like God is responsible or not it's more like when he lost his wife he's like oh like you know there's no higher power here something this terrible

this bizarre to have happened like how could this you know how could there possibly be a divine presence in the world

right like that's the inciting incident for this whole movie. Yeah. And then at the end, he's like, yeah, no, it turns out I put the collar back on. You know what I don't get about it, though? This is probably me, like, knowing nothing about religion. But I feel like if you were that deep into your Christian faith, that you were a minister,

that, like, your wife dying would be horrible, but wouldn't make you question your faith. Because the only thing you preach all day long is like god has a plan and the good comes with the bad but i think that's that's where that's where if you still have two children you love and like i i just i don't know i to me like even though that's horrendous i'm like then what the point was i almost think it makes it more of a more of a monumental break from the faith though if you are someone who was that and it is it's like i believe there's a plan but if somebody dying though makes you question it you shouldn't be a minister sure because you're you're dealing with people who have that shit happen every day yeah this is all right

so the pivotal scene in this movie in my opinion is the scene where he eats the mashed potatoes and he cries yes yeah it's the best scene in the movie that is the best scene it's crazy yeah i mean diana's making a face right now where she's just like, what is the matter with David right now? No, that was a scene. But like, right, that's the scene where it's like this whole movie, it looks like he's about to just- Like, snap. He's going to start killing people. He's going to scream at his kids.

Yeah. And then he's like, look, we're going to fucking eat. Everyone's going to eat their favorite food, right? So I can't even remember. One of them wants mashed potatoes and French toast. Walk wants spaghetti. Abigail. Wok wants spaghetti. Abigail Brazen wants spaghetti. Wok wants teriyaki chicken.

Chicken teriyaki. Yeah, chicken teriyaki. He lives in Bucks County, Pennsylvania. In Bucks County? Yeah. You're not going to get any good chicken teriyaki. Tell me. And I can't remember.

Does he want like a steak or something? What does Gibson want? Cheeseburger. Cheeseburger. With bacon. Extra bacon. With bacon. Without going to the store, though, he just had all of that?

Yeah, all the ingredients. That was distracting for me. He's prepared. Yeah, the teriyaki is the one that's a real stretch. I can see spaghetti, French toast, potatoes, sure, fine. They do hard cut from everyone naming their order, which I almost thought was a joke seen as like in the Sixth Sense when Toni Collette's like, and then I won the lottery. The joke is like, we can't eat anything, so let's pretend what we would have in a perfect

world. And then it cuts to like, shot of teriyaki bottle on the counter. I wish there was a shot of Gibson making French toast. A little montage even would have went a long way. But it cuts instead to a montage of the ingredients splayed on the table post-cook. So anyway, he's doing this insane thing. He's making them eat their favorite food to distract from the fact that aliens have invaded the Earth. They're all going to die.

It's like a Last Meal reference, though, I think. Right. I think that's sort of the idea, right? And then he screams at Culkin? Is that? He screams at his son? Yes. Yeah.

And his son basically is blaming him for his mother. He said, I hate you. Yeah, I hate you. And, you know, for the mother's death. And then he, like, breaks down and he just drags them all into his center. When he grabs Joaquin's shirt. See, that's another Joaquin little winky joke. But before he breaks down, he's eating and crying,

which I'll say, I really am into this making of documentary that I watch. Shyamalan says, it's really hard for someone when they're acting to eat and cry. And I didn't realize that when I wrote the script. It's two different things that you have to do. So he was very impressed with Gibson for getting that down. He eats and cries. Yeah, he does a good job. I feel like a lot of people do that all the time, though.

Eat and cry? I feel like if I start crying, like he's crying, I'm like, all right, I'll get to this food in one second. Right. Yeah, why would you actually continue to shovel bites into your mouth? My tears are the appetizer. This is the main course. All in due time.

So that was where I was watching this movie and I was like, yeah, this movie is really goofy and it's like super unrealistic. Like, you know, and it's sort of like, and then that scene really got me and I thought it was great. And I was like, yeah, this is what this movie, this movie is about this emotional breakthrough that he has to make. Right. About his wife being dead.

And then there's like a lot more movie and there's like an ending that's bad. Well, let's go back to the beginning. Let's track this movie a little bit. Yeah. Do we need to track it? I kind of do. Yeah, go ahead.

It won't take a lot of time because this movie is kind of like... It's very straightforward. It's very straightforward. But I know Diana has a lot of notes about the very beginning of the film. Okay. The opening credits I thought were garbage.

So you've worked, let's just for our listeners, Diana, you've worked in the film. Okay. The opening credits I thought were garbage. So you've worked, let's just for our listeners, you've worked in graphic design. Yes. You've worked. Design, illustration. You've done book covers, posters, illustration. This is an expertise of yours.

Right. So I feel like they were trying to mimic the telescope kind of thing, but they came in so soft with a vignette that it looked like an old movie. So the beginning of this felt like a romantic movie from like the 1940s. Yeah, the font. It's big letters.

It was so unfitting. It's blue. Yeah. It's very dim-gazed. Color scheme than the rest of the film. Dusty blue. And there's the serif font, which feels very old-timey and classic and romantic. So to me, it just was a bad match.

The music's kind of Hitchcock-y. Well, and also, if I remember this right, at first the letters are just sort of fading on screen, and then they start going like smashing onto the screen. Later, it's like the music builds to more tension. And M. Night Shyamalan's film is like, And M. Night Shyamalan film. And then when they get to the credits, it's like, Mel Gibson, Rory Colkin.

They're like yelling them at you. It's true. They're like popping. So you didn't like those. I agree with you. Also, there's a powder blue background to them. That's just distracting. It doesn't have to be great, but if you're going so far genre, why not match the genre? I know. It's odd. It pissed me off.

Also, the color palette of this movie is like greens and browns. Absolutely. It was like a color we're not seeing any of in this movie. No, it's a very autumnal sort of American movie. Yeah. It was like a color we're not seeing any of in this movie. No, it's a very autumnal sort of American movie. Like, yeah. It's rustic. Amber waves of green.

Also, the time period with which it was set was, I would say, early 90s. Does that feel right? I don't know. When is this movie set? When is this film set? It's a fair question. But they had VHS. They had radios.

They had VHS. Do you see anyone with a cell phone? No. The town that they're in is real old-timey. That's true. Bucks County, I've been there. It's probably 10 years behind. You're a Pennsylvanian, Murph.

Right. That's good. We're getting Pennsylvanian guests. I like it. I thought it was like 90s. Yeah, I thought like- Because it was pre-internet. Yes.

They're watching everything on the news. Well, Michael Showalter, so that character must have been, he just got off the state. He's playing Michael Showalter in the film. He's trying to play Showalter. Just heckling Joaquin. The character's name is Michael Showalter. Go get a fucking failed CBS battle. His name is actually Lionel Pritchard.

Yeah, well, he's the guy that they keep on saying, I think it's Lionel Pritchard and his boys. Yes, they think he's the one. I didn't put that together. So he's playing like the bad boy. He's playing like the sort of rough element. That was so ridiculous. You also got the strikeout record.

I also wrote down bad children of the corn. But that was in like the first ten minutes. Well, that's when the kids have gone missing in the cornfield. Well, another thing that really bothered me is there was a path in the corn, but instead of using the path, they kept just running through the corn. They run fast. There's no time for paths. Can I say something I really like about this movie?

Yeah. It just gets straight to the point. It does. It's got these credits. What I like about the movie, yeah, he wakes up and he's like, something fucked up is happening. That's like the first scene in the movie.

There's like no dialogue for the first like four minutes. He wakes up, he goes, he sees the kids. Then it cuts to Walk sitting up in bed. Mm-hmm. Guacamole. And he's like looking, and he's freaked out too. Then they both run out.

He's living in sort of the bar next door. Mel Gibson runs out of the house. They meet in the lawn. They're looking. They're like, where are the kids? What's going on? They run out to the field. Directly through the corner.

Right. But the opening of the movie is just like they feel in their bones something's weird. And it's Culkin has to be like, check it out, buddy. Crop circle, crop circle. Oh, because they're both out there, right? That's what it is. That's the thing has to be like check it out buddy. Crop circle. Because they're both out there. They look in the rooms the kids aren't there.

Which is another creepy children in the corn kind of thing where the two kids are just silently staring. And they were like trance like. They're like there's something in my bed I need water. Like it felt like they were under sort of spell. So that's like minute four or five and then Sherry Jones comes in,

and the next scene is like, how did this happen? And it's just the two of them trying to figure it out. Yeah, and they're like, oh, is it the bad boy? Is it Lionel? Yeah, is that Showalter kid? Did Showalter come peeling up on his Harley? I'll tell you, I mean, I was so, I still am,

but was so obsessed with Wet Hot American Summer at the time that this film came out. It was like so my like secret movie because I had to like show it to friends because no one had heard of it. That I was so thrilled when Michael Schultz came on screen that I think I probably had a tough time paying attention to the rest of the movie. Yeah. It was jarring to me this time around when I saw it. It's crazy that he's in it. It made no sense.

No. He's pretty good. Yeah. Oh, yeah. I mean. But he's silly. Again, as you would expect him to be. Joaquin kind of flexes at him and he shows like, you know.

We all just flinched for the listers. It is weird because he like didn't really do any dramatic acting other than this. Like, it's not like he was one of those guys where it's like, oh, before he was a comedian, he showed up in a lot of movies playing like, you know. Nope. Oh, it's like Margaret Cho in Face Off. You know, it's not like that. Yeah.

It's like. Margaret Cho in Face Off. Great performance. But like that it's like Margaret Cho in Face Off great performance but it is like you watch him in this you're like this is a total one off of him being in a movie

like this it's true I can't find many other examples never again going through his did he ever even do like a Law and Order

earlier in his career well he was in Sex and the City oh right he's in Kissing Jessica Stein but that's yeah that's a small part, too. And that's a comedy.

It is a comedy. Let it not be unsaid, very handsome in this film. Yeah. Handsome dude. Handsome guy. He just looks goofy to me, but I think it's because I just saw this last night for the first time, so I'm just sitting there thinking, like, comedian, comedian, comedian. When he popped on screen, I was like, what the...

He's no Murph Meyer. I mean, let's call it. Who is? There's one. There's only one. No, he has that big hair, and it's the same scene with the insane army recruiter guy. Yes, it was also hard to get your bearings in that scene. I thought the movie had just taken a total left-hand turn at that point.

Yeah, you were stunned when that recruiter. The cadence with which that guy talked was insane. That scene is bizarre. You're cross-cutting between that scene and Merritt Weaver having the emotional breakdown at the pharmacy. It's like three really hijinx-y, not hijinx-y, but- No, they are. And then also Culkin in the bookstore, and the guy's like, soda ads! It's all about soda ads!

All the things happening are very surreal like, sort of surreal and heightened. The one where he goes, 13, and she goes, soda. The ad is just for soda. I was laughing. I thought that it was actually a crazy conspiracy at that point. I wish they pushed further in that direction. That could have been. It was a soda.

That's the twist. That was very funny to me. One thing that's weird is that Rory Culkin checks out a book about aliens and that the book seems to contain all knowledge of what the actual alien invasion is. I said, I was like, now, okay, so aliens, everyone agrees, this is a real thing, this is happening. Now every quack

who wrote a fucking alien book is now just, is right about everything. His theories are basically like, aliens could be peaceful, or they could be hostile. Well, let's just say, in the time between the scene where Cherry Jones comes and is like, they're bent, they're not broken. No machine could do this. And the stuff

we're talking about where they go into town and they have their three silly side adventures. Essentially what happens in the 30 to 25 minutes in between is just the kids are like, think something weird's going on here and Mel tries to rationalize it. Yeah, and he's like, don't watch TV. Don't listen to the radio.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Watching it for the first time in theaters, I was like, I don't know what's going on. M. Night's not going to make it Aliens. He never shoots that straight. It's going to be some wacky turn. Not a twist. He's going to go in an unexpected direction. Yeah, sure, right. So the whole time there was all this tension to like, what's going on?

What is it? Watching it again now, I was really bored through this section before they go back into town. A little bit. Because it's like, except that they're aliens, Mel. Yeah. Like Mel and Walker just like, no, it has to be something else. And it's like, well, fucking blue leg. You saw blue leg.

You saw the blue leg. You were in a cornfield and like it was a lady in a fucking like old Looney Tunes cartoon trying to get a guy to pick her up on the side of the road. It's like one leg sticking out, like a nice gam. Nice little gam. It was like a sexy flirtation. We had a 10 minute conversation about that gam. We were around it a bunch. That leg looked really sexy.

It did. But it was very human looking which was my issue. Other than the foot. But they just blew. The foot is like a web situation. Yeah. But Murph was like that. It wasn't like a tentacle. No. It was human It was human enough to turn you on but then when you actually get into it. Amazing form like really strong muscle definition. Like a runner.

Yes. It was like a runner's leg painted It was. Turquoise. Yeah. It was like a runner's leg painted turquoise. Yeah, it was incredible. Two things. Why does the lady know exactly where that book is in the bookshelf store? She's like, third shelf, second book. That's movie logic for you. That's a guy hailing a cab when he gets out of a bank.

But that was very, I felt like that was a joke. Because they're in a huge bookstore and she knows the exact quadrants. Dana, I want to remind you. Small town. Small town. They go, do you have any books on aliens? And the guy's like, no.

And then she's like, wait, there is that one book. They shipped it to us by mistake, but we never sent it back. And I know exactly where it is. You don't need to justify having that book. You could just go, I think there's something over there. Check in that section. Instead, it's the mythical faded book. I mean, I think it was going to be a twist.

But there's also, in the book, of course, there's this fucking picture that they look at. They're going through all the diagrams. That was creepy. The picture is a house that looks exactly like their house. It's cool. And then on the lawn outside are an adult man and two children. On fire? Weren't they on fire? No, the people are dead. The house is on fire. Yeah, they look like burned.

The second thing besides the book... It looks like our house. He doesn't have a big reaction to it. Abigail Breslin goes, those look like burned. The second thing- And Mel Gibson's like, oh, it looks like our house. Like, it's like, he doesn't have like a big reaction to it. It's not a big reaction to it, no. And Abigail Breslin goes, those are our windows. Like, she notices the windows. Yeah. Yeah. Sorry, the second thing is when the cop is like talking about women in the Olympics for

like an hour. Love it. That's, yeah. That was so bizarre. Well, Mel Gibson's like, well, no human could run this fast. And she's like, you know, women Olympics, they run that fast in the Olympics. He's like, well, he jumped. Well, long jump.

That's an event in the Olympics. She's like, women in the Olympics could jump over your house. A Scandinavian, I believe she calls it, a Scandinavian Olympic. It's like after a while, Mel Gibson's like, okay, well, barring an Olympic athlete. And then her last line, her closer, her button on the dialogue before they cut to a new scene is like, just saying, got to keep all possibilities open. Which makes you think the movie's going to explain why it's not aliens. And then her last line, her closer, her button on the dialogue before they cut to a new scene is like, Just saying. Gotta keep all possibilities open. Yeah.

Which makes you think the movie's going to explain why it's not aliens. And instead it's like, no, it's just aliens. That section I found a little tedious to watch. There's good craft on display, but it's like, we know. Okay. But then let's push through. Yes, that's what I'm saying. So they go into town.

They get the book. Joaquin Phoenix thinks about signing up for the military. The town is exposition time. It's everybody gets some filled in stuff. Right? Yeah. You see Shyamalan scurry away. Oh, right. He makes eye contact. M. Night Shyamalan plays Ray Reddy in this movie, which is the person

who fell asleep at the wheel and killed Mel Gibson's wife. This is one of the two things I think that keeps this movie from being an A in my book. I will say that. I certainly do not disagree with you. He's not helping matter. He's fucking terrible and this is a role. It's a good role.

Think about this. Yes, and this is the moment where you could see Gibson trying where they have their interaction finally where you're just like, this character needs this is not a throwaway. There's a lot of cameos you could have in this movie. It's a huge thing where Gibson goes to his house

and Reddy's in the car. He gets a phone call. He goes, Father, and he goes, Ray, and he hangs up. And then he starts to think maybe Ray's responsible for these hijinks that have been happening around him because he still thinks it's hooligans. Yeah, sure. Hooligans, crop circles. And yeah, he goes to Ray's house. Ray's outside. But he's a veterinarian,

which is weird too because they've already set up that all the animals are turning on people. So you expect that and then there's nothing about that. No, there's nothing on that. There are a lot of breadcrumbs

in this movie that you think are going to like. No bread. No bread. No bread. Breadcrumbs to just an empty. Very well put, Kolsky. Thank you.

He goes to the house. Ray Reddy is sitting in his car. He's been attacked. He's got a small wound on his side. Yeah, he's been hurt. And he's like,

he's got a far off look in his eye. And yeah, he's just burdened with guilt. Now, in Praying with Anger, M. Night Shyamalan's first film, M. Night plays a young man

with an anger problem from Philadelphia who's sent off to try to reconnect with his heritage in India and study there. Right. And they keep on going. This kid's got a temper. He's got a bad problem. He used to get in fights and he has the scene where he gives the explanation of like, it's not true. There was just one time this guy was getting my face and I pushed him and he happened to fall down the stairs and he got really injured. And it's like a freak occurrence. Like i didn't mess him up that badly luck was so made the accident look worse than it was and i feel like

the speech he gives ralph gibson where he's like saying like never fall asleep at the wheel i think if it had been a second earlier i just would have hit a car like a tree yeah the only reason my my life was saved was because she was walking by at that moment it's sort of a weird inverse of that praying with anger speech where he's like robbing himself of any culpability and he's also saying like look at destiny how it like. That's the thing. It's a scene that's about like yeah you know all these things

are weird and connected and like there is some. It's a scene that should have been played by an actor. Yes. Yes. That's the thing because it could be a dynamo scene. Just thinking about the table is set for the stakes emotionally of this moment where this man confronts and all this other shit's going on. The world's crumbling around him. There's aliens now. Everything is fucking... There's aliens now.

In the making of, M. Night says this is very important to him that he played this character. And he wanted to. Why come? All he really says is like, it's just he was really interested in going further. You know, and doing more.

As an actor? No, well, I think that means acting. I'm an A-plus director, A-plus writer, A-plus producer. I got to try acting. And he says that in that scene when they were setting up the shot, Mel Gibson was like, oh, you're in this? And Knight was like, yeah, yeah, I hope that's okay. Like he was like a little nervous.

He also says a bunch of sad stuff about like his grandfather had just died so he was trying to like channel those emotions and stuff like you know. That's all well and good but somebody's got to say no. I mean this speaks to the blank check of your podcast. This is the thing. No one can say no. No one can say no to this. But this arc of him using himself in films. But I just love the idea of Gibson

being like oh, oh you're in this. But this arc of him using himself in films. But I just love the idea of Gibson being like, oh, oh, you're in this. You're this guy. It probably was like the line of logic, too. He's probably like, oh, that's weird. He's a pretty big-name director. He's standing in for the actor? That's odd. He's going to stand in for him.

Oh, that's a good guy. Is he the same height as the guy? Interesting, yeah. Are they going to fuck up the lighting? Yeah. First film, he is the lead, right? Praying with Anger, he plays the lead. Sure, but that's explained away.

You know, come on. I know, but I'm just looking at the arc of this, right? Okay, it's your first film. You have a little interest in acting. You want to test it out. It's cheaper. You make yourself five jobs in one. You don't trust other people with your material.

I kind of know what the fuck this needs to be. It was very autobiographical. All that makes sense. Wide Awake, he is not in at all. Sixth Sense, he has one solid scene where he plays a doctor. I think he's perfectly fine with it. Yes, that's the kind of director cameo. If you want it, that's the one you go for. He's mostly delivering exposition.

He's playing a guy who's straight business, straight talk. All right, let's not go too deep into his doctor career. Okay, but I think he does good work. Unbreakable, silent role. You said that in behind the scenes, you read some interview with him where he said that he regretted. It was an homage to his parents. Oh, yeah, and then he regretted. Yeah, that he cast himself as a doctor because his parents were doctors and it was a reference to that,

but that he regretted casting himself in the film because he thought it was distracting. So then the next film, smaller role, okay? Unbreakable. Silent role.

He sees the guy. He goes, excuse me, sir. He gives him a pat down. He goes, I was wrong, right? He thinks the guy has a gun. That's the scene, right? It's like half a second.

It's a nice little hat tip to us nighters. It's a Hitchcock movie. The Knights of Shyamalan. It's like here I am. Right, okay? And then this film, he's like, you know what a second, it's a nice little hat tip to us, nighters. It's a Hitchcock thing. The Knights of Shyamalan. Right, okay? And then this film, he's like, you know what, I think it's time to give myself. He's the sixth lead. Yes. And it's the family

then Cherry Jones, then him. It's again why I want to apologize for Mel, because here's a moment, and every fucking thing is just about walking away from a movie to be like, yeah, it was another movie about aliens, but the moments that could have been there. That could have been an interesting where you're like Mel what have you got

you're facing this guy I feel like Mel tried but what the hell are you planning on he looks non-plus he was still waiting for the actor to show up the whole time

he was doing that fucking scene a good character actor in that weird role would have just been awesome Michael Showalter Showalter would have been

really good M. Night be the tough guy the town bully rascal who everyone thinks is to blame for these crop circles. But don't be the guy who – That is great that the film presents like the two crazy guys, these hooligans, well-known like rebel rousers in town who might be causing trouble are Michael Showalter and M. Night Shyamalan. They're just like dweebs. This town is really rough around the edges.

The bad boys of cinema. So they're eating at the diner and they look out and they see him like sheepishly get into his car. Right. Yeah. That was like the first hint of that guy. Then he gets the call. So he like goes to Cherry Jones and is like, what's up with Ray Raddick?

She's like, I don't know. Goes to his house. He's bloody. He had just hustled with an alien. Well, then he says at the end. And managed to get it locked in the cupboard. Yeah. He goes, whatever you do, don't open the pantry.

Don't open the pantry. It's like, wait, why are you telling him what to do? Why is he going into your house anyway? Why would you assume he's just going? Yeah, exactly. Because Mel Gibson's like a cop. Right. Then Mel does proceed to go in the house.

Yeah, goes in the house, pretends to be a cop. One of the more effective scenes of tension. This is a great scene. And this is a great use of film language. It's all about he gets a big knife and he's trying to use the reflection of the knife under the door to see it. And so you're only seeing what he sees in the reflection and the camera's just covering. It's really fucking well done. It's so good.

And he does. I like the comedy of where he's pretending to be a cop briefly and he's making faces while he's like, I'll get the paddy wagon. And he keeps on going and then cop briefly and he's making faces while he's like, I'll get the paddy wagon. And he keeps on going and then walking away and then coming back. After he says paddy wagon, he mouths paddy wagon. That's a perfect instance of just how a look would be better. Yes, I agree.

Of him rolling his eyes at himself. You know what other moment I find supremely effective, although at the time of seeing it, I was like, that's the scariest thing I've ever seen in a movie and watching it this time I was like that's good which is?

the Mexican birthday party oh I love that scene still I do too but I used to cite that as the number one scariest scene in all of cinema okay well that's nice

because I had seen seven movies at that point you know but I think that scene is really cool that scene is incredibly cool because it's set up with like

this footage is disturbing and so you're like oh is there going to be like a dead kid you know you're thinking the expectations are so high it's set up with like this footage is disturbing and so you're like oh is there gonna be like a dead kid you know you're thinking expectations are so high yeah it's also before a lot of those uh you know this is before blair winch yes uh no it's after this after but it's that before that found footage wave came of all that there hadn't been many copycats because even blair witch 2 was not found footage and then found footage as a genre didn't really pick up again until clover cloverfield yeah yeah but but it had that effect i think yes 100 and here's the thing footage and then found footage as a genre didn't really pick up again until Cloverfield. Cloverfield. Yeah. Yeah.

But it had that effect. Yes. I think it was. A hundred percent. And here's the thing I like about it a lot. It's building up all this tension. You see the kids' faces. They're looking over the window.

They're all looking at something. They're reacting to somebody. They're screaming. It's in Spanish so you don't know what they're saying. Right. Portuguese. They presented it Portuguese. They presented it as being frightening.

Brazil. Brazil. All this stuff is going on and then the kids go, ah! And they run over in a different direction. The camera moves over, and you're like, what's going on? What's going to happen? Is something scary going to happen? They're looking.

You see across the street. And then the speed at which the alien walks by. The obvious thing to do would be to have the alien run by really quickly. No, but it just sort of sidles by. It could also go really slowly and start creeping towards the camera. It just walks by at a casual pace. Very casual. It's very blurry, very out of focus,

and somehow the scariest of all realities. Yeah. Well, I think it was an important moment for me the first time seeing it because it's after that gam, after we get a peek at that, you're wondering, would I lay down with these aliens?

It's the first time you now know for certain I wouldn't fuck these aliens. Because you see them in full body. It's just not for me. They're kind of CGI blurs. There's not a lot of definition to like. He tries to cut it both ways because on one hand he made these aliens CGI. The CGI I don't think exactly was where they needed it.

It's fucking bad. It's really fucking bad. I even remember it being bad at the time. It's not even that it's aged poorly. Jar Jar Binks is better than this. That should have been a puppet. That's what we said. That was the second thing that ruined this fucking movie for me.

Because they were so human-ish that it didn't need to be CGI. I don't know why they're not puppets. Most of the time, he's showing them in shadows, in silhouettes. Even there's one clear shot. Right, yes, reflections. The TV reflection is a really good thing. It's so good. But there's the one clear shot where you see Yes, reflections. The TV reflection is a really good thing. It's so good. Yeah, that's good.

But there's like the one clear shot where you see him staying there holding, he could be she. Look at me being heteronormative over here. But there's this- The lifeless kind of body. Yes, lifeless Kieran Culkin in his arms. And that one shot, you sort of get a full body. But other than that, even after that reveal, they keep on going back to, you're seeing

him through the window. You're seeing reflection. The alien's out of focus in the background. It's like, well, if you're not going to show it in that great detail, especially now re-watching it,

like, because the first time you're watching it, you don't know if it's going to be aliens or not or whatever. But even when the first, at the beginning of the movie, when you see the alien up on the roof

and it's in silhouette, I'm like, I can tell that's a computer silhouette. And why not just put a guy in a fucking... Why not make a real fucking silhouette?

You know what I thought at the end? Because there's no weird shape you have to find. It's like you're really good with your camera, man. You're a good visual director. Just get a practical thing up there to shoot. And I'm sure you can light it well, and I'm sure you can shoot it well. And if you even need to, for one shot, CGI up the fucking actor's face to make it look more alien or whatever. Here's why they didn't do it.

Why didn't they do it? Because it's camouflaged, and because they have that scene where at the end where his skin is matching. Now I'm not saying this was a good decision but I think they were like well we have this one set piece where the alien is in full view and it needs to change color and shit. You know what I thought at the end was they had that great scene where they were like oh the

ships are still here they're just invisible now because the bird had died. So when I was only seeing him in reflections and never seeing it and I thought for a second it was invisible, and they just saw the sun, like, levitated, and they knew they haven't really left, because they were like, they left, they left. And I was like, that's so slick

if we can only see him vampire-style, like, reverse. That'd be good. But then you just see him standing in the living room, and it's like this terrible, shitty CGI. And he does, like, he, like, sprays him. Oh, my God. He does a bunch of business. I was like, this is just garbage. And then once again, they need to insult Terrible, shitty CGI. He like sprays him. He does a bunch of business.

And then once again, they need to insult our intelligence. Or even just our attention span to go, they show the fingers cut. And we're like, yeah, that's the same alien. We get it. Oh, no, wait. Now we got to flash back to showing him cut the fucking finger. That wasn't 20 minutes ago. Exactly. That wasn't even that long ago.

I didn't even think it mattered that it was the same alien. Make it a cool little thing where you'd be like, oh, if you notice the fingers and you go, it's the same alien. But yeah, otherwise, what's the- But to me, what's scary is aliens taking over everything. It's not that one that you met a couple days ago. Right. I think he wants it to be like, there's just the alien.

This is so small. They say in the news report that the aliens had some sort of toxic gas. People in small towns have found some solution, some way to fight them. But they don't know what it is yet. The news. Good fucking news report. The news is going, hey, apparently there's a really easy way that people with no means have found to kill the aliens. We don't know what it is.

More to come at 8 o'clock. Right, exactly. And then they say it seems most of them have left, although they have left behind some of their injured on this planet. So I think the idea is because this guy's missing two fingers, but he can't give

the shocker anymore. They have to leave him on Earth. They're running a tight ship up there. He's still going to stick two in the pink. You need that one in the stink so badly?

Come on. I think you just did a sham on. We got it when you said he can't do the shocker. I'm going method. I wanted to say another wide-awake connection is that Joaquin Phoenix watches TV under the stairs, just like in Wide Awake, the kids living under the stairs. Why does Joaquin Phoenix go into the TV under the stairs? To keep the kids from watching the news because it was upsetting.

Oh, of course. You know what I love about it, though? There's a scene where Mel Gibson opens the closet and grabs his coat out like it's a normal closet, and then later Joaquin puts his head out and you're like he's still in the closet guys and I do like and the making of Shyamalan said like most of the you know because I think the reason the scene we were talking

about the TV scene works is not just that it's really cool but then Joaquin like reacts like really strong goes way into the coat goes into the coat and apparently he did lots of reactions and eventually Shyamalan was like go into the coats goes into the coat and apparently he did lots of reactions and eventually Shyamalan was like

go into the coat go all the way back and Joaquin was like really? like you want me but it works it's good you would have that reaction

it would be that freaky do you know Mark Ruffalo was supposed to play this part he'd be great Joaquin's great too though Mark Ruffalo should have played all of these parts

yeah he should have played Abigail Shyamalan's part. He had a tumor and he sort of didn't do movies for like two years. This was right after he had been in Yooka-Kammy and was like a new star and then he vanished.

He was supposed to be the guy who disappeared for a couple years and he later revealed that he had, he said at the time it was an ear infection but it was in fact a tumor and that's why he's got the sort of Stallone mouth right now because they severed some of the muscles and part of his face removing it, which I think has only made him more interesting as an actor. I agree. I love Ruffalo. He's great. But Ruffalo's great.

He would be great in Andy's parts. He always is. But I think Joaquin was actually really, really good casting for this. Yeah. I think the size, his ability to be understated and to go big in certain moments like that. Because he can be a good ham. Is the right pitch. Oh, yeah.

And, you know, this is Joaquin's weird period, like post-Oscar nom, post-Gladiator. Right. But, like, it's when he's making, like, Ladder 49. You know, he's making these, like, kind of bad movies for no good reason. He's like a leading man, but, like, of no distinction. But they don't know what to do with him.

No, they don't know. So it's before Walk the Line, which is, I feel like, Walk the Line cements is I feel like- Walk the Line cements him in his new status, which is like, this is like one of our premier actors, right? And he does art movies. Yeah.

But before, you know, those like six years he was in, and he's in two Shyamalan movies. Right. Ladder 49. What is Ladder 49? It's a fireman movie. With John Travolta.

Yep. Or as I like to call him, John Travolta, because he was the voice of Bolt in Disney's Bolt. Wow. Whew. Bolt. Disney's Bolt. Stinks in here.

Yeah, it's no chicken run. I don't like it. I like Bolt. Oh, come on. It's okay. David, come on. Yeah, but he's in Buffalo Soldiers. He's in Hotel Rwanda.

Right. He's got a weirdly small part in Hotel Rwanda. He's a cameraman in that, right? Yeah. He's a voice Rwanda. Right. He's got a weirdly small part in Hotel Rwanda. He's a cameraman in that, right? Yeah. He's a voice in Brother Bear. He was the lead voice in Brother Bear, David. Anyway. He plays the titular bear.

Sure. He's a brother to another bear. Maybe his little brother is the titular. Anyway. So I think the denouement of this movie is pretty fun. Right? Do we agree? The suspense suspense stuff are we still talking about signs let's talk about brother bear I mean like we like the knife scene

that's pretty cool also Shyamalan was making a stew before he left because there's like every kind of cut up vegetable and none of them have been eaten or used he got out of there in a hurry he overstages things, too, though. It's like a very visual.

It's pretty, but it's weird sometimes. Yep. Yeah, I like people going for it, though. No one eats that many vegetables. No, no, no. Living alone. Nope. Well, he was cooking for two that night, I think.

I think he had a friend over, and his friend just lashed out. That's the other thing. Gibson tries to talk through. This is what's interesting, which is probably a bigger theme, but I think so the aliens can't communicate with us. They could read our mind. They click at us. They're like Africans. You see them like summon

images out of people's brains. But as far as what they know other than watching the news and Joaquin kind of went into a rabbit hole. It seemed like he was up all night watching and being like, here's what they... Yeah. But I feel like there's...

Are we just to believe that they're definitely here not as friends, that they're here just to take over the planet? Yeah. Well, they throw out conflicting thoughts on what it is if they're trying to take over our planet, if they're trying to harvest us. The resources.

Yeah. Or the humans. Do they want our place, our home, or do they want us as... The movie does not want to go into detail about this. They kept saying harvest us, but what does that mean? Like organs, intelligence. They want to eat us, they want to use us for batteries.

Like Jupiter ascending. We gotta talk about the kids a little bit. Gotta talk about the kids. Really fucking good performance. They asked a lot of them and they delivered. Shyamalan, once again, puts a lot on his kids. He always has kid actors. You've got Rory Culkin. Yeah. The third Culkin. Yes. Is he the

third Culkin? Yeah, I think there's maybe an oldest one who doesn't act. Well, I mean, you know, it's Macaulay, then Kieran, then Rory. Yes, correct. Rory was great. And this is after he'd done You Can Count on Me, which is wonderful in. Yes. That's a great movie. And it is before he's done Mean Creek, which is also wonderful.

Can I tell a quick little side story? I went to the same school as Rory Culkin, but the year after he left, and he was like a little guy who was pale and liked movies, I guess. And so for my first six months of being there, they just called me Rory. Because they were like, you're a replacement Rory. Yeah, you filled the void. And my one friend Jack used to be like, there, they just called me Rory. Because they were like, you're a replacement Rory. Yeah, you filled the void. And my one friend Jack used to be like, man, he even smells like Rory. Which I thought was such a weird comment.

But he said it like multiple times over the course of that year. So I apparently smell like Rory Culkin. I don't know if that's still the case. Smelled. Smelled like. Yeah. Maybe I smell the same. He went and put on some fancy odors.

He got some musk. He got some musk. He had only been in Richie Rich, where he played young Richie Rich. Very young Richie Rich. And then you can count on me. So he was still a new actor. I think he plays literally baby Richie Rich. I believe you.

I mean, it's 94. He was born in 90. Oh, yeah, and Macaulay was 89. Oh, so then he was probably toddler Richie Rich. He was a kid Richie Rich. I just know there's a baby at the beginning. But anyway, so he's great. I think he's good.

Excellent. I think Abigail Breslin's amazing. Kind of transcends it. Yeah, it's like hard. Holy end. But anyway, so he's great. I think he's good. Excellent. I think Abigail Breslin's amazing. Kind of transcended. Yeah, it's like hard. Holy shit. And what, she's four in this? I think she's five. Nuts.

That scene where he wants to record over her ballet, and it's just between them. That scene is great, and she's like my ballet recital. She won't back down. And Mel Gibson's like, get another tape. Go get another tape. I like that. Go get another tape. I like that you made the comment, too, that they kind of feel like there's parts of that movie where the two children are almost the adults. Yeah, right.

Gibson and Joaquin are just dumbfounded. These two zombified parents who don't know what to do. These two are keeping their training. A common theme in Shyamalan, by the way. Willis in Unbreakable and in Sixth Sense is this sort of zombie guy who's like walking through life and one of them he's These kids always seem to be more perceptive than the adults in Shyamalan movies. They're always more aware of what's going on.

They're explaining the logic to everyone. They know what to do. The kids in Shyamalan movies always feel tapped into some bigger thing. Whether it's literally like in Sixth Sense he's tapped into the ghost world. In Unbreakable the kid keeps on telling him like dad you're supposed to be a superhero and he's like no I'm not no i'm not and this the kids are talking about the alien thing there's so much more focus on them in this than there was an

unbreakable you know where yeah well they're better clark was like a secondary character but it kept on feeling to i remember watching it being like these kids are so smart and there's something so eerie and haunted to them which i guess watching it now as a quote unquote grown-up is like oh well their mom just died they're just kind of you know yeah right they're haunted right their mom died pretty recently they're with a dad who's kind of a shell of a man like they're they're haunted but i kept uncle jesse moved in upstairs yeah he's kind of a weirdo yeah they just it is almost a detriment it is i think almost a detriment to the movie as a whole that these two performances are so good because it makes you feel like there's something more to the kids.

Yeah. You know, you're like, these kids are so fucking, like, electric. There has to be some explanation for what's going on with them, how they tie into this. Even at the end when they're, like, taking Kieran Culkin's, Rory Culkin's body, I was like, is he the key to something? Is he the chosen one? It's like, no, he's just a kid. Yeah, you keep waiting for... The scene I loved, sorry,

with the kids that was like a good long cut at the end of the scene was the one with the walkie-talkie baby monitor in the car. And they all, it's when... It's the last time they're like having fun. Well, the adults kind of get on board and get on top of the car,

and they all help, and he tells her not to get up, Abigail, and she does anyway, and then he helps Bo or whatever her name is. And then when the sound goes deaf, it's like one long shot of them all in a diagonal line, the whole family, and then she slides back down the windshield disappointed. It's a really good scene. It's not cheesy. It's just good.

Yeah, I agree. And they have a lot of chemistry as a family. Yeah, they do. She never feels like she's hamming it up a really good scene. It's like not cheesy, it's just good. I agree, and they have a lot of chemistry as a family. Yeah, they do. She never feels like she's hamming it up or doing kid acting, but everything she does is adorable. But also, she has a crying scene at the table. Nails it. And another tidbit I have for you guys,

they shot that in pieces, obviously, and they were like, let's do Abigail first, because we're going to lose her if she's little. And she just instantly just started like sobbing. And like everyone else at the table was just like, oh, my God. Like I couldn't follow her because she's a good move to because then that gets everybody else in the gut and then they start crying. she was like 10, you know? Sure. Like, Luma Sunshine and before. Right, yeah.

People who worked with her, like, I worked with crew guys and stuff who've always said, like, she has the most astonishing emotional reserve where even just as a kid, it didn't feel like, oh, she's been coached. Right. It didn't feel like, oh, this is a fucked up abused kid who somehow is like, they just go like, so Abigail, and this and you're crying because your mom's dead. She'd be like, okay. And then she'd just do it. Like, she was just some miraculous, like wonder child.

Interesting that she hasn't turned into like a bigger adults, you know, like, like Chloe Moretz or Dakota Fanning or whoever, you know, she hasn't made the leap. I think it's pretty astonishing. I don't know if any of you have ever seen King,

the Lodge Kerrigan movie. Yeah, it's a good movie. Which is a great movie with Damian Lewis, later of Homeland. And he plays a man who's searching for his missing daughter. And as the film goes on, you start to realize, oh,

he might not be mentally all together, he might not have a daughter, how long has it been since the daughter, is he haunted by this trauma, was there ever, all this sort of stuff. And Abigail Breslin plays a girl in the last third of the movie, it becomes pretty much about the two of them, the first two thirds

is just this guy walking around, it's all from his perspective. And the last third of the movie is he sort of almost abducts this girl. I mean, it feels like he's trying to fill that void. And she's astonishing in it. Astonishing. She's great. And it's like just her and like a real deal grown up actor.

And she has like a crying scene. Like she likes this man who's nice to her. And then there's a scene where she starts to realize, oh, no, maybe this is the kind of stranger that my parents tell me not to go with maybe i'm not ever gonna see my mom again and she like breaks down in a similar way i just never seen this being like oh this is the fucking next great actress yeah and it really stands out because a lot of times with the kids it's just just deliver your lines not sing-songy it's basically all they ask and they ask a lot of emotional weight out of both of the kids in this one destroys it and then she does loma sunshine shortly after that. Gets an Oscar nomination at like nine. It's a huge film.

I think, you know, that's the weakest of these three performances, but she's really charming in it and she's the center character. You know, but I think the other two movies, she's got more heavy-duty stuff to do. And then I guess she's still good and stuff, but I keep on waiting for her to... She's on that show Scream Queens now on Fox. Yeah.

She was in New Year's Eve. I mean, I feel like she's also not doing stuff. She's doing stuff. I don't know. I'm just waiting for another knockout performance from her. I know she has a- It might happen. She needs a dramatic role then.

Yeah. Yeah. Not like a fluff piece. Yeah, she's been doing a lot of fluff stuff. I'm a big fan. Thumbs up. So, but I think we're almost done here, but I do think, have we done everything in the end of the movie?

We haven't talked about how everything lines up perfectly. It's like the bat. The water. Drinking water. The asthma. We talked about the asthma. The asthma is always, yeah. Where he whispers, I hate you in the kid's ear, but to God.

Very weird. But it's just, yeah, he's clutching him and there's that, I hate you. That's the last thing that kid was ever going to do. What if that was the last thing that I did? I was like, why is he saying that out loud to his child? The wife's last words. She told him to see.

To see. So that's like he needs to recognize his signs. I assume so. And then Joaquin needs to swing away. Well, earlier in the film you couldn't even say that with a straight face. They don't show you the scene with the wife until after the alien attack.

Yeah, they've already said those were her last words. Yes, Mel tells him that I do actually like how the movie peppers in these flashback moments and then near the end,

as the movie's reaching its emotional climax, we're like, all right, we're going to see this now. The first shot of the movie, the first thing they shot was the death scene of the wife. Really?

Yeah. Mel Gibson came on set. That was the first day. You have your story about from the making of Duck Hunt. Oh, yeah. They held a candlelight vigil for the dead wife. There's a picture. The character?

Yeah. The whole crew holding up candles before they shot this scene. Wow. And Shyamalan puts it like, we were all crying, you know, before we even started. They were crying for him. No, for the dead lady who is in there. No, but I think they were crying so that he would see that they were taking his movie seriously.

It seems like one of those things where, like, the boss is here. He got it. He got it. Because no one was actually crying. How could you hold a candlelight vigil for a fictionally dead fictional person? That's an emotionally unstable crew, I would say.

I mean, the surrogate for that dead person's right there. He had a picture of this candlelight vigil that you see in the documentary and that he then used as emotional support for his acting. For Ray Reddy? When he walks by him in slow-mo and he's on the ground. When he's looking down at his shoes, he's actually looking down at a picture of the fake vigil he held for a woman who was still alive.

But it is interesting that they were like, Gibson's coming, and the first thing we're going to do, we're going to just plunge him into this emotional ice bath. And that was the best scene. He was probably drunk for that. He showed up drunk and he just slowly dried out throughout the film.

It feels like he has one in the bag during every scene of this movie. Yeah. A lot of movies make this mistake where they save the flashback for later, like it's a big twist reveal of what happened. Right. And what I like this film does is they pretty much tell you everything that happened in the moment, but they spare you the emotion of actually watching it. So it's not like it's like, oh, what happened to his wife? They pretty quickly on tell you. What happened in the moment but they spare you the emotion of actually watching it so it's not like it's like oh what happened to his wife they pretty quickly on tell you what was wife's last words he tells joaquin phoenix early on her last words what she said

swing away and he cites that as and he said yeah her brain was just firing yeah the last thing she said to me was swing away she thought she was at one of your baseball games or something it didn't make any sense yeah and they say once he sees the alien holding Rory Culkin in the arms, they flashback and they show you the scene for the first time. It lands with full emotion. Before that, they show the scene where he has Cherry Jones tell him what's going to happen. They don't show the wife conversation until then.

And then the swing away thing suddenly like has a different weight to it. Right. Where it's like, yo, that bat on the wall, maybe use it to hit the guy. Totally. Totally. Keep trying it. Without this. If your wife hadn't died

and said these supernatural things, you would never have thought like, oh, a bat is an effective weapon. And that brings up a point that I was also curious about as a farmer. You know, he's a priest, fine, but Bucks County, Pennsylvania,

somebody's got guns. There's no guns in this place. There's guns in that house. Murph was like, where are the firearms? It's a knife and bat movie only. It's all knives and bats, which I get because you're like,

well, we need the bat because if he has a gun, he'd just shoot the alien. Yeah. Well, and bat movie only. It's all knives and bats, which I get because you're like, well, we need the bat because if he has a gun, he'll just shoot the alien. Yeah. Well, and I thought the reason they weren't moving is they were scared to hit him because what's he going to do?

Disappear with the kid? It's like the unknown enemy. Right, right. But if the simple answer is just find something to hit him with, that literally could have been a chair. And throw glasses of water.

Good thing there's water on every surface. He's like, I see the alien holding my son. Yeah, there he is on every surface. He's like, I see the alien holding my son. There he is. Come on. Ben just walked in. Ben, do you want this episode to end? Yeah, I do very much so.

Alright. I was going to... Yeah, yeah, yeah. We're wrapping up. Well, maybe get on the mic to say that. Oh, yeah, Ben gave me a sheet of paper with some notes that I was holding tight if Ben mic to say that. You want to share? Oh, yeah. Ben gave me a sheet of paper with some notes that I was holding tight. If Ben wants to share.

So to add to this point you guys were just left off with, where's the president? Where's the fucking president? So you just want him to appear on screen being like, bye, fellow Americans. Aliens are allergic to water. Who would you want to play the president in this movie? Oh, I don't know. Shyamalan? M. Night Shyamalan.

Yes. He should have been the president. It's President Francis Reddy, Ray Reddy's brother. He's 18. He looks 18, which makes his character unrealistic. God, where's the fucking president? Okay, good. Check.

Check it off the list. I wish that this movie was just the end. The twist was that it was actually Mel Gibson just losing his mind. Yeah, that would be a fine twist. But it felt like it was actually Mel Gustin just losing his mind. You know, that would be a fine twist. But it felt like it was going in that direction. But then I think Shyamalan was like, no, no, no, no, not doing that again. Straight down the middle. Right. Yeah. And I have

a theory that this movie gave Mel an idea of how to end Apocalypto. Which is to tie in religion, Christianity, saving the day. Yeah. So anyway, let's wrap this up. You have now referenced the ending of Apocalypto twice on this podcast. I was going to say.

Yes. I believe you referenced it last week. Yeah, the twist of this movie is that there's no twist, and the ending says, like, all those things that look like coincidences are coincidences that I'm using to pay off this ending. Well, and maybe God is real. And maybe I'm God because I'm the one who designed this scene where everything worked out perfectly. The twist is he puts the collar back on. I know. maybe God is real. And maybe I'm God because I'm the one who designed this scene where everything worked out perfectly. The twist is

he puts the collar back on. I know. He becomes a priest. He's set up. I did not like the religious undertones of this film. I don't like that last shot. It just feels so sudden because it's all in that world. The whole movie's taking place within three days and then it cuts this one, the wall, they pan across the wall,

then it's winter and he just puts his collar on and the movie's over and you're supposed to be like well now it's all great as long as he's back to the old job. No one will ever die again. I know. It is, yeah. It is weird.

But there's no sort of emotional resolution. It's just like oh he's back to work and every M. Night movie at this point has been like I mean they're all crisis of faith movies, right?

And usually are you know resolved with faith winning out. They're always about sort of like emotionally distant men who have a hard time relating to their family. Dennis Leary in Wide Awake.

Bruce Willis in his too. Mel Gibson in this. And that's always these kids who seem tied into some deeper sort of like core. Yeah, who have some sort of supernatural almost element. Right, right. If not literally, they just seem perceptive to- Wisdom beyond their years. Yeah, beyond their years.

He's just been working it out with Papa Shyamalan for years and years. That's what he's just been trying to work through. And that's what is very Spielberg-y about him. Because like Spielberg, it's like daddy movies. Movies about, you know, why doesn't daddy love me or whatever. Because it's a shark. Daddy, I made jobs. He had two doctor parents, you know.

But by all accounts, his parents were very doting and supportive of him. Yeah, it sounds like he had supportive parents. But he also had doctor parents, so maybe they were working crazy hours. But maybe he also just saw a lot of stillbirth movies. He didn't grow up Catholic, right, but he went to Catholic school. I think to some degree he was like, oh, white people love this Catholic shit. I was just going to say, an Indian in Bucks County, or at least in the parts. He grew up, I think, in the suburbs of Philadelphia.

Yeah, it sounds right. Yeah. I think he was just sort of trying to figure out how to make movies appeal to the widest, like Swat, the mainstream America. But I also think this movie's interesting because you've been hearing these things of these guys who can't connect with their wives, right? It's because she's a ghost. And Breakable, because he's fucked it up, you know?

Yeah, sure. Like, all these things. And then this one, it's like, the wife is dead. And it's always like, oh, the guy's fucking too, focusing too much on his career and not enough on his family. This one, the guy's given up his career entirely to focus on the family. But it's distanced him from his family. And then the movie's like, no, you got to go do that job too.

It's like you got to do both things. Sure. I guess so. I don't know. It's an interesting movie. I mean, it's like- I kind of like it. I kind of do too.

I liked it a little because I thought I was going to hate it. And then some of it was kind of cool. So then I was like, eh. I think slightly above average. I think it's Shyamalan's cameo and doing an alien CGI not practical. Because they could have done a little CGI for the camouflage if they needed to. I think any time it was in the shadows, it should have been a guy in a suit because you're not going to see details anyway.

You guys have to remember the complaints at the time. Like, why would aliens who are allergic to water come to a planet where it rains? I don't give a shit about that at all. All that stuff. You don't care at all? I don't care at all about that. I was thinking about that. I don't care at all.

I wouldn't care if it literally isn't like some water, a dribble of water spills on him and he starts bleeding. Yeah. It's just so dorky. They didn't do their research

on this planet. There's a scene that's very, like, very specifically art directed of a seating arrangement outside of their farmhouse. And it's all Adirondack chairs, which are very... New England. Yeah, it's like Cape Cod.

So that's such a specific chair to use in the buttfuck Pennsylvania. It bothered me a lot. Buttfucks County. Because that's a specific choice. It isn't like, oh, they had one of those. They have like four and they're pristine. They want this movie to look like, yeah, like who's the painter? The nice painter who makes America.

Thomas Kinkade, Master of Light? No, not him. No, not Thomas Kinkade. Norman Rockwell. Norman Rockwell. Yeah. Like they want it to look all American. I agree with you.

There's no character to like, this is Bucks County? Yeah. Where are they like? It should be a little more specific. How much people live in Bucks County? They. Where are they like? It should be a little more specific. How much people live in Bucks County? They're Lancaster County more. Okay. Yeah, but there'd be a little more rugged elements to these characters.

The house is very pristine. There'd be one shotgun. Especially if mom's dead, that house should have gone to shit. Yeah. Quick, sorry, because I don't even know what I take away from this. But Taku Fujimoto shot this film as well. He did, yeah. He had shot The Sixth Sense, yeah. But Tak Fujimoto shot this film as well. He did. Yeah.

He had shot The Sixth Sense. And he shot Sons of the Lambs. And there's one scene that employs Tak and Jonathan Demme's big trick that they love doing which is the characters staring

straight down the barrel of the lens. You're doing a conversation between two characters in coverage but they're both addressing the camera it seems like

to make the audience feel uncomfortable. They use that a lot in Sons of the Lambs during the interrogation scene. It's the one where, I forget which speech it is, but it's one of the ones where Cherry Jones comes over to talk to Mel Gibson, and it's the one that Abigail Breslin keeps on interrupting with the TV stuff. Yeah, right. And the eyeline is always straight with the audience until Abigail Breslin comes in, and

then it breaks, and then it goes to a side shot. And it is successful because it's like, oh, that is unnerving. It always is unnerving to watch a movie and feel like the character's talking to you. But I can't, for the love of me, figure out why they did it there. Cool shot. I was tired. It looks cool, but he's also usually pretty tight about his language. Yeah, I don't know.

Very strange. This movie's a little less, though. Yes. It feels like he was playing it a little more safe. And he was a little more calculative, like, I'm going to make it very religious so it can appeal to, like, homeland America, because Unbreakable, I clearly went two up my butt with the artsy-fartsy stuff that only Griffin's going to like. Sad little 10-year-old Griffin.

Those are the notes in the script where, like, Griffin's going to love this. None of this Griffin fart stuff. But I think it's, you know, a film made by someone who knows how to make movies. There are masterful sequences in here. I agree. So it's above average. I would put it slightly above average. And it's him making a Hitchcock movie.

Whatever. With Spielberg-y supernatural overtones. But he's like, I'm making a film that's going to have scenes of well-executed suspense layered over with it. When they heard the aliens scream after his fingers cut off, those birds went wild. But we should wrap up. Yes, and this is kind of the last pure Shyamalan film. I mean, after this, things get really interesting in the career. The next movie is, to me, the linchpin of everything.

He goes double artsy. He goes right back to his old chick. Next movie is my favorite Shyamalan, and I'm very excited to talk about it. But it's also where the wheels come off. What's it called? The Village. Le Village. Yep, I remember seeing that.

Le Village. Murph and Diana, thank you so much for being on the show. Thank you. Thank you. Le Village. Yep, I remember seeing that. Le Village. Murph and Diana, thank you so much for being on the show. Thank you for having us. Thanks, guys. Thanks for getting us coming into this hot room that you know well.

I know this hot box. You know, it should be said, first of all, I think you folks are the ones who coined the Haas, so credit there, you know. If you're a blankie

and you're not listening to Minaj, you got it all wrong because first of all, as we said, their podcast and the man who we're studying this miniseries share a name. So there's a lot of overlap.

But also, if you like the Haas as a nickname, you'll love Minaj Atwa. That's all you need to know. It's true. You've had some great guests on the show. It's a great podcast. It's great. We've both been on.

If you're looking for an entry point, listen to our episode. Dig back into those archives. Please do. We both cite Winona Ryder as our all-time crush. Yes, it's a double Ryder. Yeah. I believe I have an improv scene with Jeff Goldblum in my episode.

Oh, wow. I think so. I talk about Tangled a lot in my episode. And Ice-T. I talk about Ice-T. I tell a good story about working on Law & Order SVU. If you want to listen to that. Great podcast.

And both of you are involved in the Chris Gathard Show.. If you want to listen to that. Great podcast. And both of you are involved in the Chris Gathard Show. Yep. Which is coming back to Fusion. Season 2. No official date yet,

but very soon within the next couple months. I think so. It will be back. Spring 2016. Spring is spring. Spring 16. So definitely watch

the shit out of that. But also, if for any reason you listen to this podcast and you haven't watched the Chris Gathard Show, what's the matter with you? Yeah, that actually is weird. You the shit out of that. But also, if for any reason you listen to this podcast and you haven't watched The Chris Gethard Show, what's the matter with you? Yeah, that actually is weird. You guys should get on that.

Perhaps. I mean, maybe. Maybe it's blind person. Maybe it's a blind. Okay. But listen. If you've got sight. They have it as a podcast.

You can download it to your thing. Yeah. Don't yell at them. You know, guys, check out The Chris Gethard Show. It's wonderful. Maybe my favorite episode of television ever is the Chris Gethard show. It's wonderful. Maybe my first episode, maybe my favorite episode of television ever is the Chris Gethard show episode First Times, which features

a very big one between the two of you. Great episode. You might be able to guess where it's going, but I don't want to spoil it because the episode plays out so perfectly as it is. They give each other shockers because they each got five curly fingers. Griffin, Griffin, Griffin, I swear to God. Thank you for listening.

I just want to do one quick plug. Oh. I last night stayed up very late. Oh, of course. We have to talk about this. We got to talk about this. I established, I decided 2016 is a year. You've been talking about this privately.

And I've been working a couple different angles, but I decided this is the year of no regrets. I want to put it all out on the table and try for everything that I dream of and live my life to the fullest, like The Secret.

So I talked to my agents, my professional representation about this. I had a sort of personal side in with some of the producers was trying to work that angle and last night was like,

you know what, fuck it, I'm working any angle. Let's go viral, baby. Let's go viral. I started a change.org petition addressed to Comcast. And President Obama. And President Obama to cast me in the film Fast 8, the eighth film in the Fast and Furious

movie. Oh, yes. Right. It's being shot in New York. Yep. It's right here on our doorstep. Casting director is the guy who did Draft Day. He's hired me before.

You might go, great, then it's a lock. No, it's not. We need all the support we can get. So we got to rally the troops. Everybody draft day. He's hired me before. You might go, great, then it's a lock. No, it's not. We need all the support we can get. So we got to rally the troops. Everybody get on that. Everyone get on that. As of the time of our recording, I posted it last night at like midnight or 1 a.m. As of the time that we started recording this, I had over a thousand views to the petition.

Cool. Change. Good start. How many signatures? Fucking 84. You assholes. If you click on the page, just sign. How many do you think you need to get into Fast 8?

I think if I get 5,000, it will catch their attention. Do you know what I'm saying? I think if I have 5,000 signatures, there's no way I don't get an audition. I think they'd at least get you in that room for sure. I think we need to get you a million. I think a million,

they write a character for you. We're gunning for a million. If you're not, they'll just, because that's the kind of movie you can just write a character into last fucking minute. Yeah, definitely.

Look, I'm proud of my full write-up on the petition. I suggest you check it out. Bit.ly, I created a bit.ly link that's easy to remember. So it's bit, HTTP, colon,

backslash, backslash, bit.ly, backslash backslash bit dot ly backslash fast griff furious there you go that's the link i wrote up a whole thing i explained my my history why it means a lot to me it's a great essay you guys should read it i would work for sag uh you know minimum scale local hire so they'd save money on transportation because i could self-commute with Subway. I don't need a lot of craft services because that could be distributed amongst the rest of the crew. I also give them a few pitches on different types

of characters I could play. One is a main entry. No, no. They can read it. I don't think they have any budget restrictions on that film. I know. That's why I'm saying I'll save you a couple bucks. Happy to be part of the family. Happy to have one line. Let's get that going. Please. I'm going to go sign right now. That's how you should be doing of the family. Happy to have one line. Let's get that going, please. I'm going to go sign right now.

That's how you should be doing it, people. A lot of blankies already signing. I recognize the names. I really appreciate it. So please check that out. Keep listening to this podcast. Yeah, we'll be back next week. We'll probably talk in the village.

We're going to be talking Le Village with... David Ehrlich. David Ehrlich. 99% like where he'll be here. Rolling Stone. The Rolling Stone writer. One of my favorite guys. Time Out New York. Little White Lies he'll be here. Rolling Stone. The Rolling Stone writer. One of my favorite guys. Time Out New York.

Little White Lies. He's one of the finest. Murph Dyer, thanks again for being here. Thank you. Thank you. David, thank you for being here. Thank you. Ben, I miss you on the other side of this wall.

He can't hear us. And as always, you need five fingers for a shotgun. You just need three. You just need three. You got it, but it doesn't have the power unless there's two you aren't using. Do you know what I'm saying? Do they have five fingers? Yeah.

That's hard as fuck.