Blank Check with Griffin & David - Starship Troopers with J.D. Amato

Episode Date: February 18, 2018

J.D. Amato (The Chris Gethard Show) joins Griffin and David to discuss 1997’s bug war sci-fi, Starship Troopers. This episode is sponsored by Serial Box - False Idols.

This is for all you new people. I have only one rule. Everybody fights, no one quits. If you don't do your job, I'll kill you myself. Welcome to the podcast. Welcome. Rico's podcast. Rico's podcast. Hello, ladies and bugs. I am Griffin Newman. Oh, I'm David Sims. It's a blank check with Griffin, David, or hashtag the two friends. It's a competitive advantage. It's a thing other podcasts don't have going for them.

And we promised ourselves, us two friends, that no matter what happened, we'd be two friends forever. Wherever we end up in this galaxy, in this bug war, we'll be friends forever. Even if we're on Klendathau? True. This is a podcast. Interesting reply. True. True.

This is a podcast about filmographies. Would you like to know more? Yes. Yes, I would because I'm a connoisseur of context. Click yes. Bink. It's a podcast about filmographies. Directors who have massive success early on in their careers and are given a series of blank checks

to do whatever crazy passion products they want. Sometimes the check's clear and sometimes they bounce, baby. Would you like to know more? Yeah. Click yes. They're doing their part. Are you? Are you?

Listening guarantees citizenship. This is a... Griffin's not happy with me. I'm so happy. David's the one. He's been furious. He's been throwing tables since we got here.

Yeah, I need to get into that in a second. You can't really throw these tables. I could angrily raise it and lower it. You brought your own little table in. Whoa, they raised?

Oh, yeah, yeah. This is our new fancy studio. I think you got the controls. Yeah, there you go. Damn, we're going up. We got the high ground now, David. Yeah, we're going down. You got the high ground now.

Are you listening at home? The table was slightly raising and slightly lowering. Difference of an inch in either direction. This is a miniseries about the films of Paul Verhoeven and Hollywood, and we've gotten to that point. We've crossed that threshold. The titular, the namesake for our miniseries, the inspiration. This, of course, is PodShip Casters, and we're today talking about Starship Troopers.

Yes, my favorite Paul Verhoeven movie. Not to spoil my end of series list, but this is the one for me. It's a very boy pick, I'll admit, but I love this movie. You are a boy. It is a fact. Fact.

I feel like we need to get our energy up. Should I be mean again? You were very mean. Let's get this out there. Our guest has already talked on mic. Yeah, I've been holding back because I haven't had the intro yet. Hold him back.

But I got a lot to say. He's a great friend of the podcast, of myself. Of me? A listener favorite. I consider you a great friend. I consider you a great friend. I consider you a great friend until there was this beef

between us. Well, that's what we need to talk about. I didn't want to put words in my mouth. Words in mouth. Yes. You know I'm from the Chris Gathard show,

My Brother, My Brother and Me. Cop show. True. True. True. Fact. Would you like to know more? Yes.

Such as his name well but first of all what people know him best from oh of course his episodes such as digital filmmaking from attack of the podcast

classic speed racer bing war of the worlds bing there's one other one no I believe that's the three no that's it

yeah this is his fourth appearance fourth time's the charm and I'm I'm coming at you Emily Yoshida I'm coming at you, Emily Yoshida. I'm coming at you.

Richard Lawson. Richard Lawson. That's the only competition. Those are the big shots. Those are the heavy hitters. No one else has done more than two, right? I'd have to think. I mean,

Conor. I mean, depends on how you think about Conor. Conor's only on one episode. George Lucas was on five episodes, though. And you know,

if you count the live appearances, then the Black Men in Kent jump in Hollywood. Bray and James. No, all of them have now done three. Because they all did individual episodes with us and they've appeared as a group twice.

No, because Gerard didn't do the live show. Oh, that's right. It was only James and Bray. Okay, fine. All right. Well, two out of the three. Well, this is such a great way to hook listeners in. Ladies and gentlemen, J.D. Amato is on the show today.

I'm J.D. Amato, and I love movies. I love movies. See, J.D.'s coming in with this real positive energy. Blankies out there. If you're listening, what I want you to do, put those headphones on, act like you're on a phone call, and I want you to say out there, if you're listening, what I want you to do, put those headphones on, act like you're on a phone call, and I want you to say out loud,

wherever you are, I love movies. Now, don't shout it. That's embarrassing. No, yeah. Say it in a normal tone so people might think you're on a phone call.

And if you're a fellow blankie out there who sees that, you hear someone else say, I love movies, come up and you go blanket and they put out your hand and they go thank it and then smack their hand like high five. Cool.

So that's how you guys are going to sort of say hello in the wild. Blanket thank it. Blanket thank it. He's doing kind of like a sideways high five. I love movies. Guys, I love movies. click click he's doing kind of like like a little sideways yeah high five I love movies

guys I love movies before I watch a movie I say out loud I love movies thank you and at the end of the movies I say thank you so you say it twice

thank you twice yeah I say thank you for it coming and thank you for it going and then you take the disc out of your player and you go blanket thank it

and you slap it across the room yep and if you've ever been to my apartment it's just a sea of DVDs and Blu-rays that are scratched and broken. So I just wanted to get into this and just say that we've been at the studio for about an hour now.

You have been here the longest of the three because you were here when I arrived. Well, you got here with Producer Ben. Right, because Producer Ben and I got coffee ahead of time. What's that? Mr. Positive. He's doing Producer Ben and I got coffee ahead of time. What's that? Mr. Positive. He's doing the voices. Tiebreaker, Finest Film Critic,

Silken Wet Benny, White Hot Benny, Dirt Bike Benny, Puckmaster. He's not Professor Crispy. He is the meat lover. He is the fart detective. He's graduated certain tells over the course of different miniseries, such as Kylo Ben, Producer Ben Kenobi, Ben Knight Shyamalan,

Say Benny Thing, Ailey Benz with a dollar sign, Ben Sate, Warhaz, Purdue or Bane, and Ben 19, the Fennel Maker. Yes.

I think I got Ben Dusser in there back in the day. You did. That sounds right. Oh, and the other one you got in was Prodoer. Right. Because that was the typo on TCGS where you said it wasn't a typo. I was you got in was Prodoer. Right. Because that was the typo on TCGS, where you said it wasn't a typo.

I was saying you were a Prodoer. Right. Yep. Those are great titles. Those are great titles. They are. I like Ben Ducer, and I like Prodoer. I don't know if I'm a fan of the Fart Detective or the Meat Lover, but hey.

Whenever Griffin does that, it reminds me that you are an actor that can memorize things and you have like a memory palace in your head for all those names because I don't know how you can remember all of those

there's some I forget sometimes but yes it is my job that's always the thing that people when we have guests on the show first time guests

they always go oh I always assumed you were reading that off the list no I have to remember things that's why they pay me Griff City does it

off the bone okay let's get into what happens here Griff City does it off the bone. Okay, let's get into what happens here. Okay, so I was here before. The great fight. Hashtag the great fight. I was here before anybody. David walks in, clearly stressed out. Yeah.

Give him a big hug. Yeah. He sits down, flips up his computer. I had a little work to do. Declares that he has to do some work. I had to. Which is fine. Just a second of work.

And what else does he flip out? A sandwich from Pratt. Yeah, a big old sandwich. So this is what we really have to talk about. This is what. I have to. Which is fine. Just a second to work. And what else does he flip out? A sandwich from Pratt. Yeah, a big old sandwich. So this is what we really have to talk about. This is what we really have to talk about. Let's put a bookmark on that.

We'll get to the sandwich in a second. So then, Ben and I are like having this like whispering conversation. We were just chatting. It's nice.

David keeps asking questions and then when I answer, literally says, shut up, I have to work. Shut up, I have to work. I have to work I have to work I'm responding to questions that he is asking to the point that I physically relocated myself next to Ben

said David would stop asking questions and then telling me to shut up it was insane I'm real fun I'm a real fun guy and then Griffin was texting saying I'll be 15 minutes and then David sent the classic running 15 minutes late text which means Griffin's rolling in half an hour late. Well, but here's the thing I need to reveal now.

David texted me and said, hey, Griff, can you be 45 minutes late? And I said, I would never do that to my best friend, Jay DeAmato. And he said, I got this fucking sandwich to eat. I got this piece to file. This guy won't get off my fucking back. Is the gall to answer questions I ask him give me 45 minutes of wiggle room? And if I could paint a picture of everybody. And I said

make it 30 and it's a deal. So David is like. It was the great compromise. The great compromise. David is clamoring away at the keyboard. Click, click, click, click. With stress on his face. He finishes it and then immediately unwraps. I'm not gonna. Unwraps and devours

a sandwich. Really good sandwich gotta say. But he eats it like conehead style where it's like he just shoves it into his throat.

And I think the first non-stressed work David thing that happened was he went that was actually a good sandwich. Good sandwich.

David's a connoisseur of sandwiches. I actually am. Gotta be honest. I'm not being facetious here. You love sandwiches. It is. If I was a connoisseur of sandwiches. I actually am. Gotta be honest. I'm not being facetious here. You love sandwiches. It is. If I was a connoisseur of anything,

I guess sandwiches is a top five thing. And you seem surprised by this sandwich because it was sort of a pre-prepared, on the rack, take and go. It was a Pret sandwich. Pret sandwiches are usually, it's like, well, you know, it's fine. I am nourished now.

You know, it's sort of the most you can hope for usually. But you crack the code. That's the one I always get, which is the chicken Caesar with bacon. On a nourished now. It's sort of the most you can hope for usually. But you crack the code. That's the one I always get, which is the chicken Caesar with bacon on a baguette. There's something about their bacon, the weird little dry strips of extremely frighteningly red bacon that

doesn't taste exactly like other bacon, but it does taste great. Well, it's like Taco Bell. If I want Mexican food, I don't go to Taco Bell, but when I want Taco Bell, I go to Taco Bell because Taco Bell tastes Like, if I want Mexican food, I don't go to Taco Bell. But when I want Taco Bell, I go to Taco Bell because Taco Bell tastes great. Sure. It's not Mexican food.

It's whatever it is. Yeah, and this sandwich broke David from the spell. Yeah. It did. You were in a mood and now it's the bright, joyous, happy friend David.

Except he said shut up again right before we started listening. That was a joke. It was not funny, David. No comedy points. I'm J.D. Amato and I love movies. I'm Griffin Newman and I love movies. I'm Griffin Newman, and I love movies.

I'm David Sims, and I love movies. I'm Ben Osley, and I think movies are fun. Okay, and I'm pointing at J.D. right now. Blanket? Thank it. You hear that crisp slap? Now that no one's listening. Yeah, this is the last episode.

What's up with you guys? Listen, when you see my name pop up, you know we're getting into it. You smash that download button. so now that crisp slap now that no one's listening yeah this is the last episode listen when you see my name pop up you know we're we're getting into it you smash that download button we're gonna go through it times you gotta smash that download button

we got two pages of cleanly written notes two pages of A4 but it's the A4 has been flipped or no what's happening here

yeah I do listen I'm a filmmaker I work in the industry and so all of my everything I do is widescreen. Sure, sure, yes. My paper is in a widescreen aspect.

These are letterbox notes. Not letterbox notes. These notes have been letterboxed. They've been modified to... I write my notes in 185. I was about to... Yeah. With our favorite guests, we try to have a policy of not having anyone on two

miniseries in a row because we like to build anticipation, variety, and all of that. And both Richard and Emily had done Bigelow episodes. Right. And you came to me and you were like, you know, I didn't get the call. And I said to you, it's because. it's because it's also been a long time it's been a while it's been a while the song, Dave was doing the song

right and so you were kind of like I was like let's get it going and I said look the reason I didn't even ask you for a Bigelow because we had already decided and I said I know what you're going to want to do. And I told you Verhoeven, and you got so excited. We were at the Union Square train station.

You started yelling shit about how you were going to beat Emily and Richard. Yeah. He was hostile. He was slamming them. I want us all to be friends in the Blinky universe. Those idiots, they took a Bigelow. They didn't know what they were turning down. Those jerks.

I mean, they fell for Hulk Lion Center. They're talking about the loveless. No spoilers, but I mean, Richard and Emily have good shit coming in the future. Because, I mean, they are the ones we think about in advance. These three. Yeah, those three. Yes, that's what I'm saying. Right, right.

Everyone has good stuff lined up. I'm saying, like, some people were sort of like, oh, maybe we should talk to them about doing an episode sometime. Richard, Emily, and JD were like, oh, we're doing this director? You know, Richard would be good for it. Yeah, exactly. But this was, I did you a kindness. I said, I'm not even going to have the Bigelow conversation with you

because I want to let you be the one of our fan favorite regulars who gets a Verhoeven. Listen, I don't have much to talk about the Hurt Locker. The K-19, the Widowmaker. Listen, don't have much to say about it. We're talking about Paul Verhoeven over here. We're talking about Starship

Troopers. We're talking a film on the precipice between practical and digital effects. We're talking about a film that's had the greatest turnaround and critical response, perhaps in the history of film. It's possible. effects oh yes we're talking about a film that's had the greatest turnaround and critical response yeah perhaps the history of film very well possibly yeah it's possible think about another what's another movie that critics hand as much then we're like actually verhoeven maybe nailed well you know it's like you always read like vertigo was poorly received you know you know

there's always those sort of classic uh like right tales of, like, oh, Vertigo got bad reviews when it came out. Now, Vertigree is, like, you know, Consensus, like, one of the great films. But I wasn't there. I don't know what kind of reviews Vertigo got. I was there for Starship Troopers. I also, what I think is interesting about the Starship Troopers turnaround is something like Vertigo where it's like, oh, it's like an effective Hitchcock thriller. And then people realized it's high art, but it was always kind of like a populist favorite. Starship Troopers was like viewed as a failed populist movie.

People were like, that's an action movie for people with bad taste. Right. Who don't like good movies. And then it became like, wait a second, it's high art. I would also like to point out, you are listening to a podcast right now where we are making equivalencies between Vertigo and Starship Troopers. 100%.

100%. We love movies here. We love movies here. Blanket. Thank it. Sort of far from each other, but we gave it a shot. It was more of a

traditional high five than the side flat. It's kind of a diagonal high five, like sort of like an X with our hands. I'd stand behind that until the end of time.

Ben's like so uninterested. Yeah. Wait, Ben's already shaking his head, putting his hand in. He looks tired. No,

it's fine. It's just, I, we're like almost 15 minutes in. And? And we're, We've said the title of the movie.

We've said the title of the movie once. So, okay. You're right. What are you complaining about? Hands up. Hands up. You're right. What are you complaining about? Hands up. Hands up.

You're right. Okay. I do think there is a lot to talk about. When you bring me on a podcast, you know what you've signed up for. That's true. Well, Jesus, remember the fucking War of the Worlds podcast where we went down some rabbit hole. I can't even remember what it was about. And then the recording had gone wrong and we had to stop.

What was it? That was a serious crisis we averted. It was we had to stop. What was it? That was a serious crisis we averted. It was the career of McG. Yes, it was. We did like 45 minutes of the career of McG. It wasn't that long. It was like, but we had been, I think we'd been talking for a good 10 minutes about it.

And we were so deep. We were way too deep. And there were all these like semantic arguments happening over like the exact arc of McG's rise and fall. And that was, Ben was sick. There's a thing where almost every time you've been on the show, Ben has been sick for that. That's true. Oh, that was.

And we forced the intern. And then you had to re-record the. Ben was fully out of the office that day. There was an intern mixing it for us. Also, are you guys aware that the podcast was actually longer? Because after the fact, do you even know about this?

Yes, I know about this. That you recorded a new segment which Ben placed in. Yes. Yes. Do you know about this? Remind me. I've listened to the episode.

There is a sub-podcast in your podcast that was me reflecting on something I said. Oh, yeah, of course. A secret defense. A secret defense. Because you guys, I felt like you peer pressured me There is a sub podcast in your podcast that was me reflecting on something. A secret defense. I felt like you peer pressured me into being negative. They really did.

If you listen to it, it is insane. Just say it, JD. The extent to which you jumped on. I'd say it was less peer pressure, more just an assumption. Alright, guys. We are now discussing tangents. We are on a tangent about prior tangents that we've had on this podcast. I'm so sorry, listeners.

So I'm going to pull us out of that. I'm J.D. Amato, and I love tangents. Can I just tell one story about J.D. and podcasting? Okay. Is it a short story? It's short. I genuinely was like, I should say no to this. It was almost a no.

It was almost a hard no. Because, you know, I listen back to our episodes. Yes. And I listen back to them again. Like, I listen to our podcasts all the time. Yeah. And it's sometimes I shock myself when I'm listening back where you're like, can I just say one thing?

And I'm like, David, why do you say yes? And I'm like, yeah, sure. And I'm like, why do I even? Anyway, go on. You're the lead character in a horror movie. Also, I'm going to David, why do you say yes? And I'm like, yeah, sure. And I'm like, why do I even... Anyway, go on. You're the lead character in a horror movie. Also, I'm going to give you a table of contents. We're going to get in and talk about the practical effects of this movie. We're going to get into the technical stuff. I want to talk technical stuff about this movie.

Let's talk lenses. Ben will tell you, I was looking up specs on the film stock for this film. We're going to get into all that. Sure. What's the JD story? What is this? So Talking TCGS, which is the podcast Riley saw.

This is a very quick story. This is a quick story. Where we all met. Yes. That's how I met Ben. And you were a guest host on that show. That's how I met you. He had long hair.

Yeah. David A plus Sims. And wore a lot more tie-dye shirts. And had just gone through a breakup. Oh yeah. You were in a I was in a place. You were in a something I could kindly describe as a broom closet. I mean, you know, I've seen bigger broom closets. But this was, Ben

came on to that show maybe around episode 20. Sure. We had producer Evan at first. And the first episode we did, and it was you guys at TCGS were making the pilot for Comedy Central. So you knew you were going to go off Eminem for a little while. And we had this idea to do a podcast to keep fans engaged on a weekly basis. Sure. No one knew if anyone would listen to it.

Riley and I record this episode where Geth is the guest. And within 12 hours, we had 20,000 downloads. Right. It was this insane. Are you telling a JD story? You're just recapping the TCGS. I'm telling it. So, all right.

Hey, connoisseurs of context. Yes. No, that first episode had like, he's on our side now. We got him. When we were at your dad's NYU class,

you recounted the history of talking TCGS. No, but I'm about to tell an anecdote. You don't know. Okay. That first episode had like 40,000 plus right yeah yeah i know we were like number 18 on the itunes comedy charts it was really bizarre and then i said jd oh ben's telling me to stretch for time okay we asked jd hey you're the logical person to have on as a guest for episode two and jd said i'll do it one demand it has to be longer i thought the first episode was i remember that you discuss it on the podcast yes on your obsession with extremely long

podcast i think podcasts need to be long people are listening to this because they want they want to hear us talking and now there's people listening right now that are furious and they're like no get to the movie why are you doing yes there are which we're going to do that. We're getting there. I love movies. What's yours? Blanket. So JD said, I'll do episode two. Why am I getting so mad? I'll do episode two

as long as it's really long. And so we did like a two and a half hour episode. It was very long. That we released as two parts. It was split up. And that episode did 8,000. We lost like 75%

and we never recovered. Right. Yeah. I mean, look, the first and we never recovered. Right. Yeah. I mean, look, the first episode, Chris Gethard was your guest. That was probably always going to be your biggest draw. Hey, hey, hey. I mean, no offense to JD. I think he'd agree.

What, that I'm not as big of a draw as someone who his whole career is being a draw? He is. But that is, that's sharp. That's like Hulk 2003 levels of second week drama. It was is, that's sharp. That's like Hulk 2003 levels of second week drama. It was. It was. Yeah.

We kind of, we strange magic that shit. Listen, if I can be the strange magic to your podcast, I'm all about it. Now you're a Raven's Blue. Caravan of courage right here.

Would you say that there's a strange magic to the appeal of Starship Troopers? Yes. Just like anything. Starship Troopers is a movie that for my

entire life since it's come out, if it pops up on TV, I will watch it to the entirety. And often, if it pops up on TV, I will just go find the movie on Amazon or somewhere and just start it from the beginning. Yeah, well actually, because it's actually crazy how many more times I think I've seen

the like 20 minutes on of this movie. Like when I'm watching it from the beginning. Yeah, well, actually, because it's actually crazy how many more times I think I've seen the, like, 20 minutes on of this movie. Like, when I'm watching the beginning, I'm always like, oh, yeah, I always forget it begins in media rest

because I don't watch the beginning as much because I always do, like, stop on HBO or whatever, and I'm like, oh, Star Trek Cooper's on. The fascinating thing

is this movie comes right after Showgirls, which is, like, his biggest flop. Yeah. And it feels like him being like, fuck, I need to make

another RoboCop. Right. Yeah, sure. And he doubles down on all the RoboCop stuff and goes even like, fuck, I need to make another RoboCop. Right. And he doubles down on all the RoboCop stuff and goes even further. But the beginning is very similar to RoboCop starting with the news broadcast, except it's starting with like fucking propaganda films. Right.

And it goes longer into it. Right. And I feel like... One also is written by Ed Neumeier. Right, all of that. Yeah. Getting Tippett back on board. And it is...

Well, no, just Total Recall is sci-fi as well, I guess. I was going to say it's his first sci-fi. So in preparing for this podcast today, I also watched Death From Above, the making of Starship Troopers. Is it on the Blu-ray

or anything like that? I have no idea. I found it online. But it's like a 45-minute documentary about the making of. And I want to say there is a very funny thing. And this is just,

I have no proof of this. It's just, it feels like they interviewed Ed Neumeier two different times. One, which he's like, so the original, the book, and he starts talking about all the things. And then the other, it feels like he had just taken cocaine right before. Because he's like, we got

bugs! We got bugs and they're fighting people and I don't really care and we're doing this. It's like like insanity. You okay, Ed? I think he's one of those guys we've talked about that even in this miniseries that he kind of fell down a cocaine hole for like a decade.

He's talked about how the success of RoboCop. I believe we talk about it on the RoboCop episode but let me just recap for you at Neumeier's entire filmography. RoboCop. Huge. 1987. Starship Troopers

1997 I think in between he just kind of did coke excuse me I have more oh we learned something today about him also

let me let me now I want to go to IMDB to just make triply sure that I am correct he directed the direct-to-video sequel

to this three and Phil Tippett Phil Tippett I think Tippett, I think, did two and he did three. Right. But he's written all of the direct-to-video Starship Troopers.

He wrote, so after Robocop, Yeah. He also wrote a TV movie called Rat Bastard that I assume is a pilot that didn't get picked up. Rat or Rap Bastard?

Rat. Okay. Anyway. Starship Troopers 2 Hero of the Federation written by Ed Neumeier. I believe you're correct that Tippett directed it.

Special effects master. Phil Tippett. Yeah. Yeah. Anaconda's colon The Hunt for the Blood Orchid. He wrote that.

But he didn't do the first one. No. No. No. That was who is that? Was that Zsa Zsa? The fact that you're trying to

pull the writer of Anaconda. It was a joke, JD. The writer of Anaconda was Hans Bauer, Jim Cash, and Jack Epps Jr. The three friends. Neumeier directed Starship Troopers 3, right? The Journey Home. Then he writes and directs Starship Troopers 3. Which brought Johnny Rico back.

He got Casper Van Dien back. Casper Van Dien. Correct. And he also wrote, because that's what we were talking about, is that Casper Van Dien isn't in 2 when I think Casper Van Dien's like, what are you talking about? No, I'm not doing a DTV movie. I'm an actor.

I'm in Sleepy Hollow. What are you talking about? And then by the time 3 rolls around, they're like, Casper, it's Ed Neumeier. Yeah, sure. Whatever. Because they just do it. The fans will like it. You'll get back. It could be the big thing. it about and then by the time three rolls around they're like casper it's ed newmeyer yeah sure whatever yes they just do it fans will like it you'll get back it could be the big thing the big thing now here's my other question yeah did he have anything to do i think he he's credited on the robocop remake not just as like the robocop remake are you sure it's not story by characters created by something no here's No Here's what IMDB says

Joshua Zetumer wrote it Yeah With And Edward Neumeier and Michael Miner And then below that Edward Neumeier and Michael Miner Again

1987 motion picture Weird Interesting So I don't know I don't know what happened there Ding dong Ding dong Griffin

Ding dong Just grab the door Okay sure Hello uh griffin just grab the door okay sure hello i bet you know who i am uh are you i think i do but we have such a thing where i always guess wrong but i'd love you to introduce yourself a couple guesses i am wearing a parka so you can't see me so if you guessed incorrectly it wouldn't be that embarrassing no i just need you to tell me take one guess no who are you the tricks rabbit see no way i was ever gonna guess

like i don't know paul Lind? Like, what are you? No, I'm pretty sure this is what the Trix Rabbit sounds like. Okay. What's up, dude? Usually you like to eat cereal. Yeah. That's what I'm hearing here. I heard there was a cereal box here.

Oh, no. Oh, okay. All right. All right. No box of cereal? Just take a seat. You're going to need to be sitting down to hear this. Okay.

Okay. You sitting down? I'm sitting down. So Blank Check is sponsored by C be sitting down to hear this. Okay. Okay, you sitting down? I'm sitting down. So Blank Check is sponsored by Cereal Box and Adaptive Studios. Okay. But that's, it's a totally different thing. But let me pitch you on it.

It's not food. Sure thing. Okay, False Idols, it's a new cereal from Cereal Box who are sponsoring the show. We talk about like oat pieces, marshmallows, what kind of makeup? Well, NPR called Cereal Box the HBO of reading. Oh, wow. Adaptive Studios is this entertainment studio. They reimagine how film and TV and digital projects are developed and produced and distributed.

And Cereal Box brings you these stories written by best-selling, award-winning writers like in teams. They write these things in teams like a TV writer's room. And they release new episodes of a cool story every week. Oh, wow. Ding-dong. What's up? Hold on. Let me get the door.

Ah. Have you seen those children? Are you... They're after me lucky charms. I heard there was a cereal box in here somewhere. Is there a cereal box anywhere on the premises? We're gonna... Okay. Hey, take a seat.

Oh, look, it's the trickster rabbit. Nice to see you. Nice to see you too. Let me tell you about false idols. Okay. So in this cereal, and by cereal I mean serialized story. Oh, you still got my attention. FBI linguist Layla L. Deeb is a deep undercover posing as an heiress in the

Middle East. And she has to infiltrate the highest echelons of society to trace priceless relics from their millionaire owners back to illegal digs and the terrorist groups profiting from their sale. You guys hooked? Yeah. Wow. All right. Can't believe it. That sounds exciting.

She's got a troubled past. She's got growing feelings for an art dealer's son. And there's a terrorist plot that she has to decide where her loyalties lie on either side of oh i don't know i just broke out of jail i need some cookie crisp where's the cereal box not like count chocula oh you know chocula he's right outside i can bring him in. Oh, blah, blah, blah. Where is the cereal box? All right. Well, here's the cereal box. It's an app.

You can switch from listening to reading in one click. So you can be listening to the show and say, you know, now you're in a place where you can't listen anymore. You can switch. Like inside my coffin. You can just switch and read the rest of the thing on your phone. Oh, I like adaptability in my media, chocolate. There's new episodes every week.

You can read or listen at no extra cost. And False Idols will be released as a print book in early April, and you can preorder it. Oh, wow. That's really exciting. This is me, Griffin. Hey, Griffin. How you doing?

There's a lot of people in the studio right now. Yeah. We have four serial characters sitting on top of each other. Well, I did tell them to take a seat, so they took the same seat. So Blank Check listeners can get the series now with a 20% discount on the first season of False Idols today. Oh, wow. Yeah, go to SerialBox.com slash Blank Check.

That's S-E-R-I-A-L-B-O-X.com slash blank check. You check to make sure that the box is blank. No, my friend. My, sorry. My count. Thank you.

Chocolate. Cerealbox.com slash blank check. You go to the redeem page and you use code check18 to get a 20% discount on the first season. Ding dong.

No. Hold on, let me just get it. No, no, no, no. Keep the door closed. 20% discount on the first season. Ding dong. No. Hold on, let me just get it. No, no, no, no. Keep the door closed. It's me, the Quaker Oats man. I'm looking for my children. Yeah, get them out of here. They're his children?

Yeah, well, I guess they fall under the Quaker Oats post family. He's married to the post person. Oh. I don't know. I think this all tracks. Get out of here. Don't you love it when we do an ad

for different products in our ad for a product? Get out of here. They weren't advertising it when we do an ad for different products in our ad for a product? Get out of here. They weren't advertising anything. They were just speaking their own truth. Blank Check listeners can get the series now with a 20% discount on the first season of False Idols today. Head to cerealbox.com slash blank check.

That's S-E-R-I-A-L-B-O-X dot com slash blank check. Or you go to the redeem page and use the code check18. Ooh, that sounds good. Booberry, get out of here. It did make me realize Flesh and Blood is the only one of the Hollywood Verhoeven movies that doesn't have

a sequel of some sort. And Verhoeven hasn't done any of those sequels himself. But they're two direct-to-video hollow men. There's a Total Recall sequel? Oh, you're right. I'm sorry. There is a remake, of course. And for all I know, there is a direct-to-video.

I don't think there is. There's Showgirls 2, Pennies from Heaven. There's Basic Instinct 2 starring David Morrissey. Risk Addiction. Weird. Starring Nottingham Forest football player Stan Collymore. Who is the most remade and sequel director? It might be him.

Is it perhaps Verhoeven? I don't know. But they just know. I mean, because like Wes Craven, I don't know. It's got to be some horror guy where it's like there are 14 sequels. It doesn't matter.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, or if we're talking direct-to-video, then Lucas takes the cake because of the amount of Star Wars properties. But the thing that's interesting with him is that literally everything Verhoeven launched either resulted in a remake, a sequel, or both. Right. Other than Flesh and Blood.

Right. It's almost like less in the number of them and more in the different franchises. Right. That's what's impressive to me. Yeah. Okay. So let's do some—oh, you're taking the headphones off. Oh, boy. So, and you can probably help me out here, J.D.,

because if you watch this documentary. Yep. But apparently the film started life as a script called Bug Hunt at Outpost 9. Yep. Which is a great name for a script. They should have kept that. Someone points out, is it, did Neumeier write that? Neumeier, I believe,

wrote that. Okay. And they were gonna make that. And then someone points out to him, like, yo that? Neumeier, I believe, wrote that. Okay. And they were going to make that. And then someone points out to him like, yo, this is similar to Starship Troopers. Yes. The book. And then the story is that Neumeier read that growing up and thought it was cool and was like, yeah, we can do it. And then Verhoeven started reading it and immediately-

Hated it. Hated it and stopped reading it like threw it in the garbage two chapters in this is fascist garbage after famously throwing the Robocop script into the garbage like two chapters in

he now throws the Starship Troopers novel saying it is very boring and very right wing yes yes and it was sort of that thing of like

it made him bored and depressed sorry that's the exact quote which I think is really funny and so they've made the movie loosely based And it was sort of that thing of like... It made him bored and depressed. Sorry, that's the exact quote, which I think is really funny. And so they made the movie loosely based on the book. But they optioned the book. You know, they make it official.

The title had some value. Right, exactly. Good title, too. Good title. Yeah, great title. I mean, Bug Hunt and Outpost 9 is good, too, but... But Bug Hunt and Outpost 9 would have almost for sure been like a directed video. It sounds like an Ed Wood movie.

Sure. Yes. For Starship Troopers. Hey. You're going to watch it. And they get a big budget. Crazy budget. $105 million.

Did your thing include the famous, which I've referenced before, like visual effects reel? The documentary? Visual effects reel. There's like a famous story about, like, they got the funding from, is the studio Disney? I think it is. It's Touchstone and Columbia. Yeah, because TriStar is, well, right, yeah.

I'm going to say something that's going to sound like a joke right now. What? I'm suddenly feeling incredibly sick, so I'm going to run to the bathroom for a second. Okay. I think it's the JD Amato bump. How sick are we? Are we talking nauseous?

I feel like i might puke okay give me a couple minutes jd and i are gonna go talk it out uh you want to stop the recording no let's keep talking okay i take pee breaks all the time now i have to like pure all my hands oh because you were touching him i gave him that high five ah it's true i haven't touched him no but you touched weed oh i guess so well i'm not worried about those kinds of vectors anyway here i've told griffin this a million times anyway you jd you look very alarmed why griffin gets so sick suddenly gonna have to say it's your fault okay uh that there was a visual effects reel which i believe they use in the movie or at least they adapt in the movie of the bug killing the cow.

Oh, interesting. You know, like the cow walks into the lab. Right. And then the weird bug thing, the one that's sort of the walking mantis thing, rips the cow apart. Right. And then Paul Verhoeven walks out on screen

and goes, please let me make this movie. Interesting. Like the sort of visually impressive effects and the, you know, the gore and the sort of like, oh, it's Paul Verhoeven, he's back at it, was enough to convince them to greenlight this movie for like $100 million. That's so interesting.

I did not hear that. So this was... I remember reading that in Empire Magazine. this movie for like a hundred million dollars. That's so interesting. I did not hear that. So, this was, I remember reading that in Empire Magazine. So if that's, it's not true, then it's Empire Magazine's fault.

This was one of the largest scale in terms of amount of work to be done. Yeah. Miniatures, visual effects film

of all time. The amount of things they had to make because every, all of the spaceships, all of that's practical of things they had to make because every all of the all the ships all of that's practical. Right. And they had some

all the bugs there is some version of them right? Like there are physical versions of all the bugs. There's physical versions of all the bugs and they also

did the first like because this was right around Jurassic Park era and so that was the first sort of proof concept that you can have these CG creatures.

But this is four years after Jurassic Park. this movie comes out four years after right yeah go on sorry but so it was sort of the first time that someone i mean there's been other movies but they had such large scale sort of set pieces that they didn't really have techniques to combine both the practical and the digital elements. So they had to like do a bunch of insane stuff. And so the film straddles the line in a very Verhoeven way between these like

cutting edge digital stuff and this like awesome, cool, top of the line practical stuff. Well, there's actual matte paintings in this movie. No, which are amazing. So we talk on our Total Recall episode about how that is like the peak,

the absolute peak of like practical effects. Right. Because it's like coming right near the end of practical effects. They can do so much and they're trying like everything. Yes. And all of those companies that do it

are up and running. Right. And it's all like, yeah, yeah, yeah. And they're like breaking barriers. Stan Winston is a god. Yeah. And then of course, I'm sure you've heard you know the famous i think it is stan winston's story on jurassic park where he looks at the cgi uh recreation of the t-rex and he says i am extinct right like that's the joke exactly so i don't think verhoeven's worked with cgi before right

because in between total recall which i guess Recall probably has a little CG, like very, very basic, but not really. Right. Because that's like a matte painting heavy movie. He made Basic Instinct and Showgirls, which are not effects heavy movie. And that actually... And this is funny,

it's funny because Hollow Man also has incredibly groundbreaking... How are we doing? Griffin came back. Griffin Barf Report. I just puked a bunch. back. He's got a big smile on his face. I just puked a bunch. Great. Wow. So just confirm.

I feel okay. I think it was just food poisoning or something. David, okay, JD's moving away. He's sort of in a horseshoe movement, kind of like a pincer crab. But this is less, I think, a defense of let me keep myself healthy and more a you might be the one. You have yet to record an episode where one of us hasn't gotten sick

I know actually it's a little alarming wait you're putting me it's been been up until now Ben's been sick all the time so and today he's healthy so it looks like we remember Ben had like the flu yeah like it does didn't talk except right at the end he was like

hey guys right now war of the worlds you literally were sick and did not show. The intern did the recording. And then what was digital filmmaking? Was Ben sick? I feel like almost the entire Star Wars run,

you were hungover. You were always just like, what's up? I'm also shocked at Griffin's attitude right now. If I just got physically sick, I would be like, game over, I'm out. I'm not like that at all. If I puke, usually I feel great. Now, I do worry maybe I'm going to feel bad again.

Sure. But right after I throw up, I'm like, okay, quit. I might take another puke break. I used to be like you, but this is also the actor in me. It's not just the memorizing the whole list of things. I've had that happen where I've had to puke in my trailer and then go out and do takes. This is insane. And I have to act like nothing happened.

J.D., who I consider a pretty unflappable dude, seems a little flapped. I'm flapped by this. You're flapped. You're severely flapped. So what have you eaten, Griff? I ate poutine at a bar last night. I mean, the culprit's pretty clear. There's a straight line here. Pardon the pun,

but good gravy. Well, I think the issue was bad gravy. What are you doing fucking eating poutine? It was a good bar, and so I don't want to drag their name, but it was a bar where I thought, I think I can trust the poutine here. If I told you the place, you'd be astonished that the poutine would

cause this to me. This whole thing has flapped me. He's flapped. I'm fully flapped by this. Folks, he's flapped. He's been flapped. Ben, I'm sorry that I impugned you about being hungover all the time. Did you want to say something? JD's moving further away. Just hang with me over here. I'm going to be on David's side here.

Yeah, I don't know. I wasn't always hungover. Maybe I was quite often. I think Griffin's right. You were also a little sick of us. I was sick of you guys. I was working in a closet and then I also, at that time, was living in an apartment, a windowless room,

so I essentially went from one closet to another closet, so it was not a great time in my life. It wasn't a great time in your life. You're't a great time. You're doing great these days. I'm doing good. I'm wearing a sharp cardigan. I'm looking good. Feeling good. Ben's looks recently.

I keep meaning to do a slideshow because I got to take a picture of him today. His fashion's been on point. But also, Ben, you have said that this is the year of positivity for you. Oh, for sure. You're going to be positive, Ben. Positivity? Mr. Positive. Yeah. Yeah, for sure. You're going to be positive, Ben. Positivity? Mr. Positive. Yeah.

Yeah, I'm turning it around in 2018. Ben seems like in a real positive place. He's in a great zone. One thing, I just want to pause the podcast to tell you the Annie nominees for Best Animated Feature. You'll probably be interested too, JD. Okay, good. Okay, this is coming out in February.

Just a sort of reset. Uh-huh. Captain Underpants. Cool. Cars 3. Coco. Yep. Despicable Me 3. Boss Baby. sure uh huh Captain Underpants cool Cars 3 uh Coco yep Despicable Me 3

uh Boss Baby if they nominated just the first 30 minutes I would sign off on that they did not clarify whether or not it was just

now they also congratulations to Coco yeah Coco's got that one lined up what's annoying to me is that the Annie's also have the like

best independent animated features come on guys cause Breadwinner everyone says that Breadwinner movie is good. Good movie. I haven't seen it yet. I like it a lot. Anyway. Breadwinner could have been a trophy winner.

Number two, sorry that you're barfing, Griff. Also, happy birthday. Oh, thank you. Yes, this episode's coming out on my birthday. Oh, yeah. Yes. I'll be a beautiful, bouncing 29 years old as of the day of this release. Beautiful barfing 29 years old. I'll be barfing all 29 years old as of the day of this release. Beautiful, barfing 29 years old. I'll be barfing all over the place at 29.

Guys, just for the people at home, can we stop talking about how sick Griffin was? I think it's more for you, though. You're saying it's for the people at home, but I think it's for JD. It's for me. It's definitely for me. But I know there's a couple people at home right now that are like me that are like, I don't want to listen to this. I don't want to hear about it. I think we're establishing an interesting B-plot to this episode. I agree. Definitely. But let me just catch you up on what JD and I were talking about while you were this. I don't want to hear about it. I think we're establishing an interesting B-plot to this episode. I agree. Definitely. But let me just catch you up

on what JD and I were talking about while you were out. Yeah. Thank you. If you can restate it word for word. No. But we were basically talking about the mix of practical and visual effects here.

Now, I was talking about how Total Recall, practical effects. We talk about it on that app, right? Yeah. The king of practical. This is his first visual effects heavy movie

since then. Uh-huh. Because Showgirls and Basic Instinct are in between. And Hollow Man's a very CGI movie. Well, I was talking about,

yeah, that's coming up. But so this is him, he's like, he's got many more tools in his toolbox. Yes. But JD is impressed by the mix.

Because, as David said, he believes this is the first Verhoeven movie where he's had to use CGI yeah yeah for sure

and it was interesting because I've read if you don't count the TV edit of Showgirls oh boy CGI bras right the CGI bras I don't know if those

you know at a cursory glance I'm not sure if those were CGI they may have been a cell GI yeah woolly woolly yeah but there were

these interesting articles I was reading from like the late 90s when this movie came out. It was basically like the effects team giving interviews within the industry

about how they did this stuff. This film was nominated for Best Visual Effect at the Academy. They brought in a lot of their post team after they had already shot all of their practical stuff.

Interesting. Which in the world of filmmaking you would never do. You always say post production is pre production. So if you're doing

effects stuff you have to bring them in from the beginning for pre-vis otherwise you're going to have a hard time. Right. And they had a hard time.

Yes. I'm sure they did. God. For example there was one shot in the film where they start way outside the

Roger Young which is like the big giant spaceship. Right. And we outside, way outside the Roger Young, which is like the big, giant spaceship. Right. And we zoom through space to the Roger Young and then sort of track

around the front of it and then push in closer and we see inside of it Carmen Abana is hanging out in the whatever. Mm-hmm. They had shot that plate

Mm-hmm. of the, you know, her in the, in the driver's seat or whatever before they had built the models or done any of the CG stuff.

So they had to basically, like insane, I want to get into more detail about all the stuff they did. Please do. Yeah, we got loads of time. Loads of time. Griffin, you're just-

I might take a couple of puke breaks, but otherwise we're good. Yeah, exactly. So they had to build one model. So the Roger Young, those models, they were 18 feet long. 18 feet for the main ship. When you watch Starship Dippers, know that an 18-foot version of that ship existed,

and they made multiple of them. And let me just mention, like, not only do effects-driven things, or even a non-effects movie that has a big effects sequence uh will they have the special effects team working on previs in development meetings all that sort of stuff but there will always be a person from the special effects team on set when you're shooting stuff right to say don't do this way it helps me if you need this there was a guy in the tick who always had his bag with his balls. You know what I'm talking about.

The balls that you need to plant up to get the reflection of the light. Here's what's interesting. This was, so that's what Griffin's was called

HGRI Global Illumination. Wazballs. We had Wazballs on set all the time. And this film was before the global illumination technology really existed. Interesting.

So, okay, what that is is when you have live action elements and you want to put CG elements in there. I believe you talked about this a little bit

on the episode too. Oh, I think I did. I think I did. Because it was around a similar time. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So it's a similar thing. You have to get

the lighting all right. Now, this was before then, so they would have to just mimic the lighting. They couldn't do the HRI illumination process because it really didn't exist yet. So what they're doing was just trying to match the lighting

as best they could by like taking really good field notes and measurements. And they would have a like a gray sphere that they would shoot just for like harshness of light and exposure and things like that. But they wouldn't have the mirror ball

that would get you all the information immediately. And it's also the number one thing that sells the integration of those elements is lighting, whether or not things look like they're in the same space. I mean, with that all said, I mean, the visual effects are incredible.

That's insane. Because I mean, they're good anyway. Right. But when you think about like, if they were all Monday morning quarterbacks, that's incredible. Exactly. And then there's, so, like,

this is also before processing power has gotten so intense. So, like, I was reading some articles and they're saying that, like, certain frames of it, as they'd start running right out, would be 36 hours of rendering for a single frame.

Wow. And so what they started doing is they developed a sprite technology. So, like, when you think about video games, you know, like sprites, like, this is exactly the truth, but like Mario is a sprite. Mario is actually like four sprites technically, but like Mario is

like a sprite, which means he's something that's pre-rendered, the computer knows what it is, and they're just moving that around the screen. So what they did is they took 360 views of all of the bugs and rendered those out as individual sprites and then created this algorithm to pop those in so they didn't have to render those

with the lighting effects. That's really fucking smart. So in the background, you'll see a lot of those bugs are these pre-rendered sprite versions of them. And the hero ones that are in the foreground are individually rendered and stuff like that. And that got the render times down.

But it was like, they're learning all of this stuff on the fly in a movie like this while also building these crazy models and these models are huge like massive right

for the ships and for the bugs and all that stuff yeah yeah yeah just because we build them small it doesn't look real right

right so like and the fineness of detail being able to have it be dense enough right right yeah you got your

specular reflections you got your diffuse your specular reflections, you got your diffuse, which your specular reflections, when you make things small, you're going to notice it, which is the deformations in the surface will reflect light in certain directions. And if you work on a small scale,

Totally, totally. you're going to notice the materials. I was just about to say that. That happens to me all the time. You're going to notice the materials reflecting light in a different direction, which is why when you look at like a tiny little snow village

or a little mini train set, the light looks different. It's because it's bouncing off of things that are meant to have a more stable surface because it's so small that light bounces differently. See, here's what's kind of really telling to me, okay? And I understand they're movies of different scales and sizes and ambitions in terms of what technology they're trying to push. But I know. What's going on?

Keep talking. Keep talking. Because we got to do this movie. Keep talking. Keep talking. I was just looking at the run time. The thing that I find interesting is as opposed to...

Are we four hours long right now? No, keep going. Barf man. As opposed to... This is so weird. I don't know. What the fuck is going on here? Nothing. You just... Ben and I exchanged a glance. as opposed to this is so weird I don't know what the fuck is going on nothing

you just Ben and I exchanged a glance and now Griffin's losing his goddamn mind Ben's Ben's

putting a finger to his lips okay the thing that I find interesting is whereas Attack of the Clones you said the thing that's crazy about that movie

is they were trying to do things that they had never been done before they were ahead of the technology in terms of their ambitions and they had to make up solutions on the fly. That movie's more difficult because literally every single shot was something like that. That was insane that they did that.

And this movie has practical elements. Yeah. And physical actors existing on sets and all of that sort of stuff. But how well he pulled this off when it was a similar kind of process, I think, speaks to, I don't know, he's a guy with high standards and he hired really smart people and he took the time

to make sure they figured it out even if it wasn't the right workflow. Because what year was Attack of the Clones? 2002. Five years after this. Right, which, think about that. Right. That's insane.

And Verhoeven worked with the masters of practical effects. Mark Sullivan, the guy who does all of the matte paintings, is like one of the best matte painting guys like in the world. And so they did, he did physical matte paintings where they built miniatures, took photos of that.

He did matte paintings based on those miniatures and then they like composited elements. So this is like the height of practical and digital sort of combining. Yeah, Phil Tippett worked on fucking like Star Wars. Like he did like the Rancor and shit. You know, it's like you height of practical and digital sort of combining Phil Tippett worked on fucking like Star Wars like he did like the Rancor and shit you know you're looking at the people who are real like artists in their fields

so this movie starts with a propaganda recruitment video which is insane because the whole film is bookended as though the whole film is a propaganda film this is his triumph of the will and literally stealing shots bookended as though the whole film is a propaganda film. Correct. Yes. This is his Triumph of the Will.

Correct. He and literally stealing shots from Triumph of the Will. Yeah, he studied Triumph of the Will extensively for this movie. And of course the uniforms of the what are they called? SS. The Federation. Federation. Yes. I thought you were trying to remember the word Nazi. No, I'm aware.

It's really easy to forget that word these days. They're so off the brain, you know? The uniform of the Federation remodeled on Nazi uniforms. Which is the thing, like when this movie came out, people said like, oh, this movie is so dumb. These idiots accidentally made the costumes look like Nazi costumes. Like people literally said shit like that. I know.

I know. And it feels like a straw man argument where we're like saying that people didn't get the movie, but that genuinely was. Google it. Find the fucking reviews. I know. I know. And it feels like a straw man argument where we're like saying that people didn't get the movie. But that generally genuinely was. Google it. Find the fucking reviews. They were like. I know.

It's fascinating that this movie like is this sort of litmus test for whether or not you have an interesting brain. Because if you sit there and go like this is weird. Let me figure out what he's trying to say as opposed to this is weird. He must be an idiot who doesn't know what he's doing. And at the time everyone wrote it off as he's an idiot why are these performances so over the top why are white actors all playing people from buenos aires right why do they look like nazis and and also i think just i mean like you read like the ebert review or janet maslin's review in the times and it's like this is just like a dumb jock movie for boys. Like this is just for like 12 year olds. Right. And it's like,

you can see, obviously if you sit down and watch this movie, that is wall to wall, gory violence, you know, giant guns, nukes, and like explosions.

Yeah. So this sort of like a kind of very casual nudity. And of course an ensemble of actors who are largely like fucking Barbie and Ken dolls like H-list like how low can we go you know like and Verhoeven absolutely anonymous actors or

like kind of like vaguely washed up actors like Dina Mayer who are like basically sort of in a schlocky zone she's washed up after two movies but actors who don't leave much yeah Ruma Clan after two movies. But actors who don't leave much... Yeah, Rue McClanahan rules in this movie. Actors who don't leave much of a thumbprint. Yeah, and Verhoeven purposely

wanted to cast the youngest actress he could. Yeah, he wanted kids. No diss to Rue McClanahan, by the way. No, she rules in that. They look like kids is a stretch for Casper Van Dien, because that man... No, what we're saying is he wanted to cast kids. He wanted to cast 15 kids he wanted to cast

like 15 year olds and they were like no fucking way and so then instead in all these interviews he talks about like everyone was

basically appeared on like Dawson's Creek or whatever he was like let's just get the cast of Dawson's Creek Casper Van Dien was a total unknown

which is crazy he had never been in a movie all of them had been on Beverly Hills 90210 right I think he used that as yes yes he hit he was he was ty mooney on one night to love like one life to live sure and then he was in beverly hills 90210 he was 29 wow and apparently i mean really the age of me on

the day that this episode releases he he certainly looks 29 yes And the story was that he came into the interview the audition and he had a background. He went to military school. And so he took a rifle and started doing like military, that kind of stuff and talked about his, you know, beliefs

and all that stuff. And Verhoeven was like, yep, this is him. Yep, this is the guy. Then he went on to be the lead puppet in team america he is one of the most artificial looking man of all time he just has this weird genetically perfect symmetrical area like he was drawn with a set square right does look like the puppet from team america 100 isn't he now weirdly like aristocracy through marriage? I believe he married a princess. Catherine Oxenberg, the daughter of Princess Elizabeth of Yugoslavia. Thank you.

However, they are divorced. Sorry about it. Casper Van Dien, who was born in Milton, Florida. His father, as you say, was a fighter pilot. Casper Van Dien Sr. His mother was a nursery school teacher. He is descended from an old Dutch family. He moved to

New York long ago. They carved him out of wood and then a fairy came and blessed him and turned him into a real boy. And that's the Casper Van Dien story. That is true. They prayed for a son. You know, his most notable, I would say his most notable role post uh starship troopers is the that he was cut out of the rules of attraction where he played patrick

oh right yes i forgot about that um yeah apart from that he is in sleepy hollow which he was like you know he's probably like the seventh lead i guess he's sort of like some big scenes but i remember them positioning as like maybe catherine's going to continue to be in big budget movies. Even if not as the lead, he's like a steady guy. He was also in Tarzan and the Lost City, which was a little more his speed. Yes. Yeah, the problem is he is... Which was just like

a sort of vaguely cheapo Tarzan movie. He's too classically attractive in an unsettling way. He's sort of in that Dolph Lundgren universe where he's just sort of frightening and a little Nazi-ish.

There's an unpleasant value element to him. He's severe. No matter how good an actor he is, you'd look at him and be like, ooh. It's creepy. No offense to Casper Vindian.

I don't think he's a particularly good actor. I think he's fine. I think he suits this movie pretty well. Verhoeven has claimed, as of late,

to critics that he somewhat purposely cast people that weren't great actors. Or that their look was more important than their acting ability. I think it's very clear that from the young cast, you watch this and it's not surprising Neil Patrick Harris is the only one who went on to have a real career.

Because you see the way he plays the intentionality of being beaten down. Well, Amy Smart's very much of... She looks like a Barbie doll. She's like, hey. She just sits there. Just friends much? No, but Denise Richards, Casper Van Dien,

Dina Meyer, Amy Smart, the dickhead who's Denise Richards' superior. Patrick Muldoon. Yes. They're all sort of very much of a piece. They're like models. They're little puppets that Verhoeven's controlling. Patrick Muldoon had never been in a movie before.

Dina Meyer was in two movies. Can you name them? No. Well, one, she's in Johnny Mnemonic, which she... I mean, look, no offense to Dina Meyer, but she kind of ruins. Okay, wow. She's sort of the big problem withonic which she I mean look no offense to Dina Mayer but she kind of ruins okay she's sort of the big problem with that movie

I mean an otherwise flawless movie that no one has any objections to sure which was like her big breakout role but she's pretty bad

and then she was in Dragonheart oh yeah remember Dragonheart yes but I agree with what you're saying Ree Verhoeven

casting for Look because like Patrick Muldoon's a great Dragonheart though. Sean Connery. Sean Connery voices a dragon. Dennis Quaid. And then Denise Richards,

the same, like obviously Denise Richards has this sort of like, has this kind of otherworldly like, you know what I mean? Like her face is so angular and like her eyes are so bright. She looks like a drawing of a sexy lady

more than like a real person. Which is fitting because movie opens on this. We are seeing this propaganda film. From a computer screen because you see drop down menus and clicks. Right. Right. And it's, you know, service guarantees citizenship. I like how that's just sort of dropped in though.

There's lots of other talking about service guarantees citizenship. Sorry. I like how that's just sort of dropped in though. Like there's lots of other talking about service guarantees citizenship and you're just probably like, you know, you might not quite think about what that line means instantly. It's such a funny line. And if you listen to the opening propaganda stuff and trickled throughout, they set up that basically humans have traveled to different planets to start mining and they accidentally stumble on this planet with bugs and instead of turning around they've tried to set up

encampment there and the bugs are fighting back and so now they're mad at the bugs but it's very much like we attack them but they were not being told that they are the indigenous people there's only the one time where the newscasters like some people say that attack them. Right, but they were not being told that. They are the indigenous people. Right, exactly. Yes, 100%. There's only the one time

where the newscasters, like some people say that, you know, live and let live might be better and like we might have, it disturbed the buzz. That's the whole point.

And that's when Johnny Rico says I'm from Buenos Aires and I see Killamon. Right, the movie functions as propaganda to not give you the counter argument. You have to read between the lines

to understand what's actually going on. So the first image we see is all this stuff and then we see our boy c van d johnny rico johnny rico yeah get bugged right in the leg sure we see all this chaos uh it's some sort of like propaganda it almost looks like propaganda gone wrong because like you know war is unfolding and it's right battleground footage here's uh something I want to say about this. And then we go to one year earlier.

Then we go to one year earlier. I don't like that we see the battle going wrong at all. I do. I don't because I really like how horrifying the battle is when it happens. Yes, I agree. I just don't think we need to see it at all. I love how scary it is when it actually happens. But I do think...

I mean, I like the propaganda video, like, open with that. I do think it's almost like Verhoeven setting up his thesis sentence, though, where he's like, it's about how it's this, but it's really this. Agreed. That's what I like about it. I think you're right. I just don't think he needs to do it yet. I think you're right. He doesn't need to do it,

but I bet he would have been afraid that people would have just bought in that this whole thing was propaganda. Exactly. That happened anyways. It doesn't matter. that this whole thing was propaganda. Exactly right. That happened anyways.

It doesn't matter. I want to say, Denise Richards was in Lookin' Italian. I don't know what that is. We're the ones holding the podcast up. The American crime drama film starring Matt LeBlanc that we mentioned on our Lost in Space episode, Lookin' Italian. Not to be confused with too many Italians.

What you dreamed was the title of the Dark Knight Returns no it was 10 years but more Italians was the anyway

I can't believe the way he's slowing down the podcast I know it's insane telling us to shut up going on these side every I don't care about

looking Italian every podcast fan every blankie right now just they just slam the brakes on their car freaking out at how amazing that coincidence and then they all went i love movies blanket i'm not touching you

good callback all right so yeah we come to casper all right so one year earlier the other thing i want to say i like about this okay is because all the actors are so generic looking i think if you were watching this for the first time... Which I did, and I did what you're about to say. You wouldn't even necessarily piece together that was literally the footage from later in the battle. No idea. You have no idea that's the hero of the film.

Right. Yeah. I don't agree with that. Watching it this time, and I've seen the movie five times, went, oh, right, that is Casper Van Dien, right? It's shaky. The guy looks like a fucking doll.

He's got a helmet on. I just... I think it feels like random fight footage at that point. I know you guys want to make my point, and now I make my point. Also, I like a fucking doll. He's got a helmet on. I think it feels like random fight footage. I know you guys want to make my point. Also, I'm sorry, Ben. I gotta just dial it back one further. Real great classic white text, black screen title. Oh, lovely. Practical.

Not too fancy, which is what I love. Which is the same thing he does in RoboCop. At the end, Kurt's a RoboCop. He has tons of purposely crappy digital text for all of the propaganda stuff but that is like pristine

practical you can see it flittering in the the grain of film and like that's the ellipses around his movie like he's like every other piece of text

you're gonna see is within the body of the film supporting the idea of what the movie is right arguing against technically exactly alright so okay so the first Steve Andy gets shot in the leg of what the movie is arguing against technically. Exactly.

All right. So, Steve Andy gets shot in the leg. The first chunk of the film. Jesus Christ. Shushing. Unbelievable.

Jesus. Wow. Oh my God. I'm sick, David. Why are you being so hostile? I'm sick. We're an hour in. We've discussed

the opening scene of the film. Yeah. Mr. Too many Italians. Tooians too many no it wasn't it's look look at italian looking with an apostrophe italian you also walked us you've been walking us through the careers of so many people via imdb that's my fucking job people love it when i do that i never even got to say my point which is i think weirdly dina mayer uh yes it doesn't doesn't...

I don't feel like she has the look that a lot of the other actors he casts does. No. She's like... She doesn't have that sort of like living doll look. Yeah, she's sort of an interesting looking person. She's got the curly hair. So I don't know why he cast Dina Mayer. She's flinty.

She is flinty. I agree. She's pretty... Yeah, she's pretty... This is her best performance. We're talking about character Dizzy Flores. Yes. flinty. I agree. She's pretty, yeah, she's pretty, this is her best performance. We're talking about the character Dizzy Flores. Yes. Isabel Dizzy Flores. Um, anyway, so the

first chunk of the movie is high school. Right? Yes, but I just have to say, one of the first things we see, one of the first things we see is Casper Van Dien drawing a picture and he's too good at drawing. Yes, correct. And it's annoyed me since I was a kid. That program he's using,

whatever it is, it's like a futuristic Etch-A-Sketcher, right? Like, it's so weird. Because he draws him and Carmen and then animates them kissing. He does a little gif.

But here's my, and then in five seconds, she colors both of them in and then animates her blowing bubble gum in his face in a way that I'm like, in the future everybody is this like, who are you, Texan?

Maybe the program's doing most of the heavy lifting. Maybe it's sort of like it makes you a good drawer, you just do the basics and it just kind of... It's like a bitmoji. Yeah, it just kind of does it all for you. It has like pre-vis... It is the future after all because i mean like okay he's good at drawing but i don't know if those two drawings really

look like casper van diem and denise rich they kind of just look like boring people right so at high school these 30 year old actors are in high school so what do they do in high school johnny's dating carmen abanez yes they're in buenos school Johnny's dating Carmen Ibanez they're in Buenos Aires Argentina which we see nothing of it's just skyscrapers and mansions it's been completely homogenized future ball seems pretty chill

Ben's really excited to talk about future ball we'll get there 30 minutes from now Johnny Rico's bad at math Carmen Ibanez is not bad at math. His friend Carl fucking drags him. Yeah, puts his score on the big board.

Yeah, in the future, when you try to figure out your grades, you go and type into a computer screen in front of everybody, and it comes up as a, like, 116th quadrant of the screen. Right. And then anyone can access it it maximize it into the full image full frame uh his best friend carl is played by neil patrick harris and what is set up at the beginning of the movie just seemed like oh the funny best friend comedic relief character and it doesn't function that way at all which is a thing i love that this movie yeah he doesn't

function but you have this scene at the beginning where he's trying to make himself a psychic because that's the thing that that the federation needs so he's doing to make himself a psychic because that's a thing that the Federation needs. So he's doing tests. You mean Johnny Rico is? Yes. Carl is a psychic. You mean Johnny Rico's trying. He's practicing. You said trying. But he's also training Casper to be a psychic. Well, it's because Casper's

not good at math. Okay, so he won't do that. Could he be a psychic? No. Doesn't seem like it. Can't even guess the cards. Yeah. And Carl's like... He could be an animator, but seemingly he doesn't want to go down that career path. No. Military does need animators. Yeah. Right. You could be the sky marshal of the animation department. Someone's gotta be animating your private

snafu shorts. And at this point, the A-plot is at... That's a good pull. Two people are gonna like that a lot. Two people are gonna like that a lot. When do you need to barf again? Four hours from now. So by the time we hit the third scene, I'll need to barf again. Oh, good.

So, what was I going to say? Oh. Yeah, high school. I love how absolutely fakey this all is and how old they are. The A-plot at this point

is that Johnny Rico has yet to, you know, What's he going to do? Where's he going to go to college? Make it with Carmen. What's he going to do with his life? No.

The whole thing is like they haven't had sex yet. Do they never have sex though? No, because he's like, you haven't done it do? Where's he going to go to college? What's he going to do with his life? No. The whole thing is like they haven't had sex yet. Do they never have sex though? No, because he's like, you haven't done it yet? He's like, no, or tonight's the night or whatever. It's like a very classic. Right, right. It's high school.

The prom is approaching, all that. Dizzy's got a crush on. She's crazy about him. She's in love with him. On Johnny Rico. And he hates it. How dare she like him? And Neil Patrick Harris is like, I can read her mind. Yeah. Yes, like him and Neil Patrick Harris is like I can read her mind

yeah yes he is Neil Patrick Harris also has a little monkey meanwhile meanwhilest Michael Ironside yep

the great Michael Ironside who you know he used so beautifully in Total Recall a method actor who spent two years killing bugs

in order to prepare for this role chopped off his own arm. Just squashing bugs left and right. Here's a real fact. Yeah. When they shot all the scenes with him with no arm, they had his arm out and had a fake arm on there and then had to go through and digitally paint out his real arm. That sounds fucking hard.

Yeah. Harder than just like put your arm behind your back and shoot behind you. Yes, 100%. Yes. So he's this guy who sort of, what is he, their math teacher,

science teacher or something? No, Rue McClanahan's the anatomy teacher. Right. Where they do the bug anatomy. Yeah. I think he's like the

civics teacher or something. No, right, he's like the civics teacher. He's home ec, right? Yeah. There's a scene where Michael Ironside goes, today we're baking cupcakes.

Yeah, he like puts a stick blender onto his arm here's how to make a bed what's the difference between citizenship and civilians also how many eggs does it take to properly what's the difference between venetian blinds and um so he's he's their teacher yeah and he's been damaged by this war yes um but he still is sort of like trying to instill an idea of uh 21st century patriotism and all these classes are like uh are full of propaganda like every class is steered towards this bug war and and kind of throwing the import of this war onto all of

their students to develop a pipeline where all of them feel like they need to be citizens versus civilians and the difference is that gone now what were you gonna say well he in his first line i think in the whole movie he says like all right let's sum up the history yes and then he says like i'll read this the social scientists of the 21st century brought our world to the brink of chaos. So basically it's like democracy is now regarded as this like, ugh, those guys. What an idiotic idea that was. Luckily, there's no more democracy. Phew.

Right? Like that. We got pesky. Exactly. We barfed that out of our system. Much like I barfed out my poutine. I hate this. That's why I keep

picking it back. I know. And so now we're in this perfect new system where if you want to be able to vote you have to

serve in the military and fight bugs. And I'll do the same with you. Well my mom said violence doesn't solve anything. Really? I wonder what the city founders of Hiroshima

would have to say about that. Then Carmen Abaddon raises her hand and she goes they wouldn't say anything because they're all dead. Hiroshima would have to say about that. Then Carmen Abaddon raises her hand. She goes, they wouldn't say anything because they're all dead. Hiroshima was destroyed is what she, and he says, my favorite. My line's better. Yeah, true.

He says, my favorite line in the whole movie. Correct. Naked force has resolved more issues throughout world history than any other factor. The contrary opinion that violence never solves anything is wishful thinking at its worst. And what I love about this is the shit he is saying is so frightening. But the movie is sort of like, you know, this is the nice teacher. He's the fucking Dead Poets Society guy. This opening section of the movie does have the aesthetics of Beverly Hills 90210. Yeah, absolutely.

I mean, just even the lighting, their performances. It's like a 1950s high school romp. Yes, correct. It's like he's in this propaganda story. Right. The Mr. Chips who gets Johnny Rico to serve his planet. Right, he's looking for the purpose. Aspire to a higher cause.

Right, yeah. Because this movie, or this whatever, Triumph of Will movie within the movie, is like from lump and clay you know not good at math like not a psychic yeah good jawline good booming voice this like this guy gets turned into like an icon of the federation like a perfect soldier right and uh this is this is like the seed being planted yes meanwhile mike arlenside's basically like violence is the only answer to anything. Yeah,

naked force. But he's like the Frederick Zola character. Right, right. You know, he's the guy that this movie is like canonizing as like the aspirational figure of the Federation.

And he's so good. I mean, you're into it. You love Michael Ironside in this movie. Yeah. Right? And then we fast forward to prom.

Prom. Prom. Here's a fun fact. Growing up, on my little, wasn't even, it was like an MP3 portable player you could hold like eight songs max on it one of the songs that i got illegally via napster yeah was i have not been to paradise by zoe zoe polidorus daughter daughter of the she plays like electro violin or like it's like this weird

electro band and she plays a sort of a version of I Have Not Been to Oxford Town by David Bowie but the lyrics are I Have Not Been to Paradise. Yeah.

And I always I had that on my thing and I would listen to it because I like Starship Troopers. I like Starship Troopers too. She's now a composer for Z-list animated movies. Yeah.

If you look up her like the hero of color city that owen wilson movie where he played a crayon i do not know about that film that was inexplicably released on like a thousand screens wait i've never i swear to god there's a hero of color city where owen wilson plays a crayon and zoe paladors did the score and that movie got a wide release christina ricci is yellow. Hey. Rosie Perez is red. Owen Wilson plays a fire-breathing dragon? I thought he was a crayon. He's not a crayon?

No. Oh, wow. Okay. I have the unfortunate. Wayne Brady is blue. Yeah, that makes sense. Yeah, of course. He was born to play.

Well, he's fought depression. He's talked about very openly his struggles with depression. Fair enough. Yeah. If you click on blue it gives you the Wikipedia entry for the color blue that was a joke by somebody

what was? that someone had to put that in oh the Wikipedia yes someone had to do that a wicca comedian was the one

who made that alright so anyways they're all outside of color city they're trying to get to it basically the mailman is like, I don't know how to get there. God damn it, JD.

We're just going to summarize who are Color City very fast. All of the Krans believe that the whole world should be their color. So they're mad at each other. It turns into a rat race, Amy Smart, kind of battle. It's sort of. So they're mad at each other. Yes. And so it turns into sort of like a rat race,

Amy Smart kind of battle. Reprising her role. It's sort of like, which crayon is going to get to Color City soon enough? Steps in. Okay. Big dragon. Anyway, so after prom.

David, you brought this on us. This one I didn't bring on. I was going to keep it moving. He brought up the crayons. I assumed we all knew the hero of Color City. So, is there... The hero is... Is there anything else? I mean, we got... Well, there's the crayons. I assumed we all knew the hero of Color City. The hero is yellow. Is there anything else? There's the future ball.

And the rivalry with Xander. Patrick Muldoon's hair is like he has frosted tips, but they haven't been frosted. But they're separated. He's got the weird spiky haircut.

Yeah. Wait, Ben Dave Hosley, are you going to play the theme right now for the Ben's Future Ball segment? Did my mic just go out? No. I'm hearing you fine. Okay.

Yeah, sure. Okay, so here we go. I love Future Ball. It looks super chill because football in the future is now kind of toned down a little bit and it's a lot safer. They play it indoors

and it's fun. And it's like basketball. It's really interesting that you call it chill though. It doesn't seem chill. It's chill, David. It's so chill. Is this still the theme song? Yeah. Great theme song. Thank you, Ben. The theme song is the whole segment. Blankies, great theme song. These are the lyrics to the theme song.

Yeah, the theme song's the whole segment. Blankies, if you guys want to turn that into your own original song, those are the lyrics. Tweet them to at David Sims. Can I just read something quickly? Yeah, tweet them to at David Sims, definitely. That's the one to tweet to. 10.14 a.m. This is like D.L. Sims or something.

What are you talking about? D.L. Hughley? 10.14 a.m. this morning that we're now speaking, J.D. Amato sends the text, crazy that today is the day we record the podcast episode that changes the world. I just want to restate that right now. What did I reply with?

Podcast guarantees citizenship. That's right. And J.D. responded, do you want to know more? 10 comedy points to everyone. Griffin's whole contribution was running 15 behind correct and throwing up when he got here

yes I'm doing great also I'd like to point out we talked about this a little before the podcast future ball seems like football but they made a couple

XFL style rule adjustments yeah one rule that they seem to have changed which sort of confuses me is in football when the clock runs out,

you can continue play, and it's sort of like, uh-oh, whatever happens. Until play ends. Until play ends. In Future Ball, it is implied through the filmmaking that when the clock runs out, the game is just over, which is why... Everyone just walks immediately off the field.

Yeah, C. Van D does his flip and puts it into the end zone. Yeah. And from that, like, we see the clock tick down, and it implies that that's not how the... So I'm just sort of wondering why Future Ball has that rule. We'll never know. What is the answer? Number one guess, Paul Verhoeven doesn't really know much about American football.

I think the answer is that Ben's the commissioner of Future Ball, and he's yelling, keep it moving. Enough of this already. So they all sign up for the military. Yes. Carl signs up to be like, I guess he wants to be an intelligence officer. And they put him in R&D. But he gets, what's it called?

No, it has a cool name. Games and Theory. Games and Theory, where they're like, which basically means he's a member of MI6 or the SS. Carmen's very focused on the idea of being a pilot. So she gets to be a pilot. Johnny Rico's parents hate that he's thinking about joining. Johnny Rico, who is rich, we see, like lives

in splendor and he got into Harvard. And his dad's going to send him to Zagma Beach. Right, which is like some space beach. I've always wanted to go there. It's on the outer ring, Zagma Beach. Right, he says it with appropriate longing. But his parents dismissively tell him, you're only joining because

you want to see her, you know, She's going to look good in a uniform. Which is true. Right. I mean, that is the movie's And immediately they get separated. Immediately they get separated because he gets just picked to be a grunt. Mobile infantry. And I love that the guy behind the desk is like,

mobile infantry made me the man I am today and he's got a robot arm and no legs. It's a very Paul Verhoeven joke of like, mobile infantry made me the man I am today and he's got a robot arm and no legs. Yeah, he rolls out. It's a very Paul Verhoeven joke of like, Mobile Infantry made me the man I am. And then it pans down to his no legs and his robot hand. And that is, of course, Robert David Hall from CSI, who is famed for only having one arm and he's missing an arm in both his legs.

Should we go through his filmography? Yeah, please do. So, Selected Filmography includes The Littles, which was an animated television series. He was in three episodes of L.A. Law. Oh my god, Adventures in Color City 2.

The markers are here. 326 episodes of CSI. What does he play? You've never seen CSI? No, I What does he play? He's like the, you've never seen CSI? No, I don't think I've ever seen an episode. He's like the,

like the lab guy. You know, he's like the guy in the lab. But you'd always, you know, you'd watch it with your uncle or whatever. And he'd be like, fun fact about that guy,

missing three of his limbs. Well, my uncle doesn't even own a TV. It sounds like you watched it with your uncle. Correct. Yeah. I've never watched it with your uncle. Don't make these assumptions.

He's a fun guy to watch procedural television with. What other films have you watched with your uncle? Films, very rare. Usually it's TV. Nice. But you know what? We did watch Howl's Moving Castle together, and he was baffled.

Yeah, please tell me more. And he was like, Oh, David the Baffled Boy. No, he's American. He's an American I don't know if anyone knows but I didn't bring it up

I just imagined it doesn't sound like I brought it up does it maybe maybe a little bit maybe you're trying to get us maybe you're patting us

into saying you want us to bring it up David's got a smile creeping across his face because he knows it's sort of true so after the recruitment process comes the next part of any great you want us to bring it up. Dave has got a smile creeping across his face because he knows it's sort of true. So after the recruitment process

comes the next part of any great military film, right? Boot Camp. Boot Camp. Yes.

With? Oh, Clancy Brown. Clancy Brown. Mr. Krabs himself. The best. Yes. Playing

Sergeant Zim who has my favorite line in the book. Oh, I looked it up. My favorite line. This is my favorite line in the book. If you wanted to teach a baby a lesson, would you cut its head off? Of course not.

You'd paddle it. There's circumstances where it's just as foolish to hit an enemy city with an H-bomb as it would be to spank a baby with an axe. I've just always thought about that line. That's in the book. This is probably where

Paul Verhoeven's throwing the book in the trash. Yeah, he's like, I'm done with this. Yes. Now, in making this movie, they had Dale Dye come aboard.

Who's that? Dale Dye is this guy that runs this company. Oh, sure. I see him. Yeah. He's a tough army man. Yes, and exactly.

That's him. You know what his nickname was, right, when he was in the troops? tough army man yes and exactly that's him you know what his nickname was right when he was in the troops uh the friendly man who's nice the hero of color city continue and uh dale does in the movie actually is he he plays the uh like top top general guy who gets removed from his podium oh sure oh yeah interesting role for him to take because that guy kind of is the you know the screw-up he's the but anyway sure and so they'll die he takes the whole cast of wyoming for like it's like something like 11 days and they go through a whole boot camp with with the main cast um but they also he took two of the like so he hand selected all the extras i believe and he took two of the extras and had them come to the boot camp and then they became like platoon leaders sure so during the movie

and it's very funny in this behind the scenes documentary um what's his name bucey jake bucey he was like it was crazy and then you know we came back and we had to be among all these civilians and we were just like we've just been through a lot. It's like, they all felt like they're in the military. And these two extras, they became squad leaders of the groups of extras. So they were sort of directing background. Yeah. Yes.

And so there's like stories from the set where all the extras would be in formation, like jogging to meal breaks. That's so crazy. And these extra leaders would be like, let's go. Like yelling at them as they jogged along sure

and so apparently the entire set just felt like a military thing love it because of this and this guy the entire movie if you see the behind the scenes stuff

he's like directing next to Verhoeven like yelling at people giving them direction like I will say he sort of directed that whole like the scene

where they all take the oath together right like you see in the behind the scenes thing this Dale Dye guy yelling to everyone there like this is your oath you must did it like going nuts that stuff is really well done I love it

this is also boot camp we meet our good friend Ace Levy the wild man oh what a wild man he is the palest citizen of the federation yet yes he played a lot of uh weird albino guys i feel like i've seen a couple movies where jake bucey they just lighten his skin tone half right and uh yeah but he's he's a very pale man who looks like his father gary bucey uh yeah i think of him what the other big jake bucey role i think of

is the terrorist in contact what What else is he in? Right, which he's albino in that. Am I wrong? Right, that's the one I'm thinking of. I think that's what they're leaning on, yeah. But he's also, he's the killer in The Frighteners, a movie I always really love. Yes, yes. He was in, of course, we all remember the sitcom Shasta McNasty. Right.

Which he starred in. But this was a period where he kind of was being tapped as a guy, but he was playing a lot of heavies and psychos. Yeah, it's... And then this was trying to position him as, like, the fun psycho. Like, he's the fun, loose cannon, wild card guy. Like, in a more conventional movie,

this is the character that 10-year-olds like. I guess so, but I think it would be also easier, easy for, in this movie, him to just be the bully. Yes, because he starts

the bully as he cuts in line. Yes. This is the first time we see Casper. Eh, Rico, I like you. You know, like, immediately the tension is broken. Yes. line. Yes. And then he's just like Casper. Rico, I like you. You know, like immediately the tension is broken. Yes.

Yes. Yes. True. We see the scene which is very Verhoeven where Zim is like starting the boot camp.

He's like, who here thinks they can take me out? Right. Yeah. And like some big corn fed guy is like, I think I might be able to.

Yeah. I think maybe I could, sir. And then that guy comes out. Zim breaks his arm and it's like this very visible break fed guy is like, I think I might be able to. Yeah. I think maybe I could, sir. And then that guy comes out, Zim breaks his arm and it's like this very visible break. It's like very violent, very fast. And like a wet wound around it too.

Like he's bleeding and his arm is completely thrown out of whack. Right. And then Zim just like, medic. Yeah. Which is great. Then Dizzy shows up. And then.

Saying, I heard this was the best. Right. And he's like, it is. And CVD flips out because he's like it is and cvd flips out because he's like he's like you're just stalking me right get off my even though of course he's pulling the same move about with you know trying to chase carmen around the galaxy come on right

um yeah but and she actually lands a couple kicks on but then she's in before he takes it down yeah then nothing's broken of her no no uh there's also the scene Maybe her heart maybe her heart is broken. There's also the scene where he throws the knife at Jake Busey's hand. That's one of my favorite scenes. It's pretty great.

They're in boot camp and he has this moment where Jake Busey's like why do we gotta learn all this knife throwing stuff? Like listen it's a nuke war. You press the button

or you don't. Don't bring a knife to a nuke war is a great line. Pretty good point by Jake Busey because I don't any uh knives being thrown later in the movie then zim is like put your hand on that wall and he does he throws a knife through it and he's like your opponent your enemy cannot press a button if he does not have control of his hand well that's

a thing i love about this movie is they make it clear that they're like healing technologies really advanced right so he can really fuck you up right so there's a lot of like really aggressive abuse at boot camp because it's like

well as long as you're not on the battlefield we can throw you in the back of a tank for like a couple days but there's one

thing they can't fix the guy getting shot in the head you're donezo yeah that's pretty gross too no back the tank

for that no and that's when it starts the movie starts getting very violent here yes

yeah like we're seeing people's heads starts, the movie starts getting very violent here. Yes. Yeah. Like we're seeing people's heads explode. And the movie starts feeling a lot like, Robocop. Like Robocop, but also simultaneously, and obviously along with this propaganda stuff,

but the way they present characters, the moment with the helmet not working and all of that feels very like 1940s, 1950s American war movie. Sure, of that feels very like 1940s, 1950s American War movie. Sure, of course. Where it's like, oh, look, these three friends who get sent off

to different parts of the war and all meet their new friends who all die around them. And then they're reunited at the end. Right, right. Except by the end of it, they've become fascists. Yeah.

Well, yes. Dean Norris almost kicks Casper out of the military. True, Dean Norris, he'sper out of the military. True. Dean Norris, he's in Total Recall. Flappyface in Total Recall. So another Verhoeven favorite. He's bringing a lot of his guys.

And Quatto's in this too. Yes, right. He's the one who's going crazy on the base, right? On the military encampment. But that's, I saw Verhoeven do this Q&A after RoboCop, and he was going to do a Starship Troopers screening right afterwards. And he said, my whole thing with Starship Troopers, which I want to see if I could do a dual narrative,

if there were two narratives at the same time. And the one narrative on the top is, okay, here are these very, very good-looking, sexy young people, and they are friends, and they like each other, and they are going to go off and fight bugs and try to get back together and the other narrative is they are all fashion so one way that he reinforces the first narrative is the group shower scene yes uh which is doubles as a scene where they all kind of explain like their basic motivations for being in the military feels very 1940s right except like their boobs and d the fascism. It sets up the fascism too because the one person's like,

oh, I want to have kids and it's easier to get a license. I love that line. It's easier to get a license if you're a citizen. But also he said that he felt like people didn't get the locker room scene

in RoboCop. So he needs to double down to show like, she doesn't, sexual harassment doesn't exist anymore. And the famous sort of story of the making of that is...

He is nude while he directs it. The actors would not do it. And then he agreed that both him and his DP would get naked. And weird thing that I learned, that his DP grew up in like a nudist place. And so Verhoeven was like sort of on the fence about being naked. And then his DP, what's his name again? Giostvocano.

Yeah, Giostvocano. He was already like. He was like naked the moment it happened. There is a funny thing. I mean, there's like a double standard thing here because, of course, like you're seeing a lot of breasts and there's not a dick in sight. And they even do some very careful Austin Powers blocking where there's a moment where deep in the shot

and part of that is like, okay, we're at medium shots we're above the waist, whatever. But there's a part where in the deep background you see Ace Levy and he the bar for the shower. They're basically blocking his lower half.

See, nudity's fine everything's fine just boobs no wieners you're not gonna get a peek of the peen in this movie boobs and butts and getting a peek

of the peen yep this is true but everyone's talking about what drew them there and Dizzy kind of she outs Johnny Rico

here for a girl Johnny Rico gets upset Mucy's like was it was it you and she sort of goes like hmm yeah I do think this is an example of a scene that is like upset. Busey's like was it was it you? She sort of goes like hmm.

Yeah. I do think this is an example of a scene that is like very winky winky dialogue very like

presentational information. Right. And it feels like a propaganda film and it feels like one of those scenes that

in retrospect was like Verhoeven very clearly being like, yeah, this is 1950s because we were like, so what had you sign up? And someone's like, I'm here because of this. I'm here because of this. I'm career all the way. Right.

The scene is almost a satire of the scene in an ensemble movie like this where everyone has to give 2% shading to their character. Exactly. So you care about them when they're on the battlefield. But it's so transparent and so overly done. So after the shower scene, there's the live fire incident where the guy you're gonna have to say that in every paul verhoeven movie after this pretty much uh the guy gets his head blown off um rico gets flogged yeah which is again not a scene that is played for not violence no you're you're missing a big scene though which. Which? Which is Carmen breaks up with Rico over video conference. Yes, Carmen sends him a CD-ROM Dear John letter.

A Dear John CD-ROM. Right. And Ace Levy, we see that he plays the fiddle. I mean, Ace Levy's neon green electric violin. Electro fiddle, yeah. Which he plays then and he plays later after like- He only plays it later. The first time he's got a real wooden fiddle they upgrade him in the later celebration scene

right I command that you party it's just wild but anyway you're right yes yeah Carmen breaks up with him with the sort of like

the first the shot of her next to Jupiter yeah it's so weird so weird and everyone's going like woo and then there's the moment

where they all realize it's a break up video and they back the fuck off yeah yeah because she's now gotten matched up with dickhead McGilligutty.

Yeah, that's true. There are some brief scenes with Carmen like learning to fly. Her and Amy Smart and this guy who had been creeping on her at the death ball game. Xander. Is now her superior

is the one who has to teach her how to fly except she's pretty much got it. Yeah, she's got it. She's a pro. She's got a knack for this. Right. Yeah, she doesn't really have a lot of like conflict to overcome.

She's just like really good at being a pilot. Yeah, and this guy is into her. Right. Yeah, she doesn't really have a lot of, like, conflict to overcome. She's just, like, really good at being a pilot. Yeah, and this guy is into her. Right. But sort of respects boundaries. Yeah, they don't get together. A little bit.

He's a creep, but he also is, like, he has that shitty, like, she'll come around eventually kind of arrogance. Right. But, so, after the live fire incident

and the flogging he goes out he's gonna wash out so he goes to Skype his parents goes to Skype his parents and then what's that in the background

oh my god it's getting dark we skipped over earlier Ed Neumeier is executed the writer of the film oh oh he's the

he's the guy the murderer in the propaganda video in the propaganda video. In the propaganda video, who it's like, watch the execution live tonight, all networks, 6 p.m. We missed another thing, which is, Johnny Rico is reprimanded by a public flogging. Yes.

Which you know that fucking Verhoeven loves, that he got the most Aryan guy in the world getting whipped by a huge black man. Right. The movie very pointedly is just like fuck everything. Yes. But now he wants to go home to his parents they go of course honey wait what's that shadow

boom Buenos Aires is gone. They fired an asteroid at them. What were you pointing at me for? Your Ace Levy line. What about my Ace Levy line? It's funny how they always want to be friends with you after they tear your heart out. Rip your guts out or whatever. Rip your guts out, yeah. So now Johnny Rico, he's got investment. Yes, right.

Because it's now, it's about revenge. Because his parents, everyone he knows dies. Yes. On the video conference where he tells them he's coming back home. He's from Buenos Aires and he says, kill them all. Now here's the thing I think this movie does. I'm from Buenos Aires and I say, kill them all. Now, here's the thing I think this movie does. I'm from Buenos Aires and I say, kill them all. Really interesting narrative.

We have this scene where Dickhead McGillicuddy is helping. Xander. McGillicuddy. Xander McGillicuddy. Xander McGillicuddy is helping. McGillicuddy. Xander McGillicuddy. Ben just seems, we're an hour and a half in just FYI.

Okay, cool. So we only have two hours left to go. Ben just seems, we're an hour and a half in, just FYI. Okay, cool. So we only have two hours left to go. He's helping her steer the ship, and they start scratching against the top of that asteroid. They're trying to.

There's an asteroid incident, and right, they have to get out of the way. It knocks out the communication tower. Yeah. Right. Which, just so you guys know, the asteroid was a co-production between ILM and Thunderstone the sony effects department and they had different asteroids you actually see it change slightly and some of them look better what's your point about the asteroid well so they're trying to to uh you know disrupt the

trajectory of this asteroid right roughly that's what they're doing but in the process she nicks it no no the asteroid is thrown at them and they have to get out of the way. Right. And it knocks out their comm tower. Right. The bugs shot the asteroid at them. The bugs have shot the asteroid at them. Well, but have they? Yes, that is the question. We are told the asteroids are being fired by the...

The movie is propagandizing us because it's saying there's no evidence. There's no visual of them loading an asteroid into the gun or whatever. But now there's justification for war. The bugs did this. We have to go get them now. there's no evidence. There's no visual of them loading an asteroid into the gun. But now there's justification for war. The bugs did this. We have to go get them now. There's no question. And there's that in the early propaganda video where they're like,

well, there's an asteroid field around their planet, so that must be it. And they never explain how the fuck would an asteroid come from one side of the galaxy to the other. Oh, they use their bug goo to shoot an asteroid. It makes no sense, but the movie never gives you any rebuke of that. And they do sort of hint at the fact that maybe this is just not related.

Yeah. No, they hint at it. That's my guess. And so, finally, like, halfway through the movie, I guess, like, probably an hour in, is the invasion of Klendatho,

which we saw right at the beginning of the movie. Clancy Brown rips up his resignation. Yeah, it doesn't look like your signature to me. And now he's all fucking in.

Johnny Rico is from Buenos Aires and he's here to get locked. Yes. Exactly. And they invade Klondathau and it is a total disaster. It is horrifying.

And what I like about this scene is that it is not played for laughs. It just sucks. And like all these characters that we came to know just start getting killed.

Yeah. Just like right away like a nice red-headed lady who wants the kids. She gets like ripped apart and the guy with a little mustache. You know, like yeah.

Right. All these sort of background. And this is when Johnny has his big heroic sort of moment on the tanker bug, right? When he gets on the back of the bug.

No, no, no. No, that comes later. No, that's later. There is no heroic moments in this one. Right, right, right. This one's all just at night. They're losing and they run away. It's at night. Johnny gets, as you said earlier, he gets bugged

in the leg. Right, so they gotta throw him in the tank for a couple days. And he's reported killed in action. But it's just a disaster. But Carmen is heartbroken. True. She's sad. She looks it up on the on the grade screen they have the sort of same technology that

the Rebel Alliance the Luke Skywalker yes yeah and what I love that though where it's like after that

10 minutes of sustained horror and it's like he's KIA and Carmen is sad I mean not yeah Carmen yeah yeah then you cut to him

in the Bacta tank getting his like leg rewritten. Yeah. And Dizzy and Ace, oh, look, you're dead. They're like, oh, you're dead, ha ha. Like thumbs up.

And she like kisses the tank and is like, how are they not just like completely shell shocked? Right. And then they're also like, only three days left. And I was like,

my God. Yeah, he's in there for three days. And he seems awake. But that's his weird strategy of these movies. Like all the action sequences are horrifying and the rest of the movie,

they're completely unaffected by the horror they've witnessed because the film has to function as a recruitment video. I mean, I think, you know, at the end, after Michael Ironside dies, you know, he's shaken up

and he's mad and he gives Carmen attitude. Remember that? They certainly get more stripped down. There's certainly, there's that concept of the, like, the infantry have to see the battle and the sky.

And when the three of them are reunited, they're all kind of... They're all bloodied. He's cranked down their charisma even more from their neutral. Well, Neil Patrick Harris, I feel like will get to him. I was going to say, he's the one guy who I think actively plays the sort of

trauma and the deadness behind the eyes and all that. The other guys are just kind of doing less. He's a better actor. He's a much better actor. He does that really well when you get him reunited with them at the end of the film. Okay, so he gets out of the tank. His leg is good as new. Right, so what comes right out?

I think that's the fight. This is the fight next. The fight where he fights with. Xander, but that's very brief. More importantly, it's that they get assigned to the Roughnecks. Most importantly, they all get tattoos that say death from above. Oh, yes. True.

Right, and they get assigned to the Roughnecks, and this is when he meets Sugar Watkins, everyone's favorite character, Sugar Watkins. Played by Seth Gilliam of The Wire. My brother. Great actor. My brother, Jamesy, who loves The Wire. I Seth Gilliam of The Wire. My brother. Great actor. My brother Jamesy, who loves The Wire. I still have never watched The Wire. I know I'm a bad adult.

But he tried to sell me on watching The Wire, where so many people had unsuccessfully tried to go, well, it's this good, it's, you know, all of this, it represents the world. Right. James was like, Sugar Watkins is in it. You would love it. And you were like, mmm. Was the closest I've ever come to watching The Wire was knowing Sugar walk-ins was part of the cast yes yeah yeah um but the

roughnecks is the the baddest group of mobile infantry on this side of clan dathu and they would die for their leader don't say anything bad about him who is it i hear i and even c van d says like he's like i heard your leaders are hard-ass. He gets punched in the face. Yeah. By a woman. Yeah. And she's like, she's like, he saved my life. And then everyone's like, he saved my life too.

My life. And then, okay. Everyone stands saluting. Here comes the guy down the aisle. It's our old buddy, Mikey Ironside. New metal hand. Yes. He's got an iron side.

Yes. And he's now rejoined the battle yes uh he and he's only got one leader of the roughnecks one rule everybody fights nobody quits if you don't do your job i'll kill you myself we're the rough we're the roughnecks whatever his name is roughnecks rico's no no no oh oh at that point they say I believe his name is yeah they become Rico's Roughnecks later

that's the arc of the Roughnecks so we saw earlier the invasion of Klondaffow which is the bug home planet yes then we see them go to planet P

which is the the one that I think I know where it was shot it was shot in the Badlands of Wyoming okay you know the badlands of wyoming okay uh you know the crazy sort of desert-y mountain-y place yeah so this is the only time

we actually do see the bugs are on other planets you know what i mean like yes and there is this sort of vague notion that like the bugs have colonized a lot of worlds and the humans want to colonize the galaxy you know what i mean it's like so maybe that's the actual issue here is like both civilizations have sort of expanded maybe the bugs more naturally or maybe you know this movie's about a real estate battle because we see the the mormons uh tried to found like new joseph smith land or whatever and they all get like ripped to shreds right uh which is shown to us so it's like they're trying to reinforce like don't break the rules right you'll be bloody corpses um anyway just some world building shit and then they get to

clandestine no not clandestine no p plan a p i'm sorry and that's where uh that's where the um you know the what do you call tank bug or whatever The big, that's where he has his big, big moment that they could obviously then put on every TV station. And then, well, and the appearance of the tank bug was like, that was like the money shot in the trailers. Right. And it like shooting the flames and all that.

And then you see the movie and it's, yeah, right. And the movie you see it and it's like, oh yeah, the flames like burn people in half. Right. Absolutely terrifying. And you see a lot of's like oh yeah the flames like burn people in half yeah terrifying absolutely terrifying

and you see a lot of the aftermath of the bodies like these sequences end with some sort of triumph at least a momentary triumph and then you're like reinforced with like hey look

look at these decapitated right they show you all the dead bodies burnt split always that's what yeah yeah that's right

yes right yes and for every like Rico Johnny Rico that's putting to back the tank. Yeah. There's just like hundreds of bodies strewn about. Yeah. In fact, like.

Yeah. Carmen says like they there's so few wounded. It's all. They're almost all dead. Everyone's dead. And then like, yeah, they walk earlier. Carmen walks through like the like hospital wing or whatever. And it's like people without limbs screaming as blood flies everywhere,

and she seems unfazed by it. Yeah, because they love killing bugs. They're happy to be citizens. So Planet P is where they come upon the outpost thing. Yeah, the outpost that's been swarmed. Which is one of the great scenes, action scenes, I think, of all time.

It's so good. It's like the tower defense. Right, it's Helm's Deep before. I'm going to jump back in time here and say this. I spent a lot of time as a young child over at my buddy Mike Hart's house. Love it. Playing StarCraft 2. StarCraft 2, not StarCraft 1?

No, StarCraft 1. I'm sorry. StarCraft 2 came out when we were grown Starcraft 1 I've never played Starcraft 2 it's good but I used to play a lot of Starcraft 1

on Battle.net there was a you could create custom games one of the custom games was called Starship Troopers and it was this scene where you were inside

a thing the Zerg in Star Trek are very bug like they are they're the same thing not to be confused with the evil Emperor Zurg

from Toy Story 2. Nothing but respect for my Zurg. Well, I don't know at first with that. It always bothered me if they called him that. Yeah. Really?

Oh, because Starcraft got it first? Yeah, it was weird to me. But did they? Because isn't Emperor Zurg mentioned in the first one? Starcraft the video game came out. I protect the galaxy from the evil Emperor Zurg.

But let's do the math on this. Starcraft the video game came out in 1998. Wow, it looks like their faces are red. Wow. It looks like Ben's face is red at Fury for how long this episode is. Too long. Ben looks like a man who's walked a thousand miles.

Ben, any intermission thoughts? Intermission thoughts? Now that we've hit the exact middle of the podcast. We're just going to hit a quick intermission. Okay, yeah. Sure, sure, sure, sure. Let me take a look at my notes. What do I got here?

Oh, hey, we forgot this. There's the best line reading of the movie. You're going on vacation. It's the following as it's done. That is a great line. I really like that. Oh, we're coming up on my favorite line. What's that?

Please tell us. It's once they're exploring the outpost and they realize what the bugs are doing, they find a hole in a man's head. They do.

Not only do they find a hole, but then Michael Ironside sort of like brings the man's head over and is like, what does this look like to you? Puts his head inside the hole. No brain.

No brain. Confirms the lack of brain. And then says the line that is one of the greatest lines in cinema history. Yep. They sucked out his brains. Yep.

They sucked his brains out is the exact. They sucked his brains out. Hey everybody, J.D. Amato here just jumping in for a minute. Back in the War of the Worlds episode of the podcast,

I did an interruption like this in order to provide some subtext and the Benducer was kind enough to let me do that again. Coming up, I'm about to do a Quado impression. And something you need to know about this episode is that from time to time, I'm reminded the fact that earlier in the episode, Griffin threw up. So anytime I do a Quado impression or anytime I just don't seem totally locked in, it's because what I'm really thinking about is the fact that Griffin threw up. And I'm wondering, is Griffin okay?

Am I going to get sick? How come Ben and David aren't freaking out about this? And I'm just sort of in my head. So I just wanted to apologize. I've been thinking about it for the past couple weeks and feeling bad. And it felt better to let you guys in on the subtext and let you know that I was in my head. I'm not like a total germaphobe, but the fact that Griffin threw up did sort of rattle me. And I figured it was just better to be honest and let you guys know so

anyways sorry for the interruption back to the episode now you know this is also the scene with Marshall Bell as the general of the outpost who's gone mad he's hiding in a closet or something yeah and this is the scene where he's also hiding his quaddo under full

armor yeah he's hiding a his Quado under full armor yeah he's hiding a Quado yeah Quado's like you must defend yourself what a great tangent from just a couple

of pros anytime I'm here anytime you need me throw it at me I'll give you a nice warm tangy

we're gonna step aside here for a quick podcast it's called the two Quados it's me Quado and it's me, Cuado. And it's me, Cuado.

How are you today? I am well. How are you? Now, a brief podcast message from audible.com. Do you like audiobooks? If so, go to audible.com and use the promo code QUATO. That's Q-U. Our guest today is Nikki Glaser.

I don't know. She's a good podcast guest. She's been on a lot of podcasts. Dude, you're Nikki. No. Hello, I am Nikki Glaser. Come on, Nikki, jump in. Come on, Dave, dude, you're Nikki. Hey, it's me, Nikki Glaser. Not bad, actually.

Not bad. Not bad. What was your show called? TMI. NSFW, Not Safe for Work, wasn't it? I mean, you know, never forget Nikki and Sarah Live, great TV show, great correspondence on that one. Yeah, I forgot you were a correspondent on that.

I was. I was. Not safe. That was supposed to be the big one. Weird career. I remember when you were on that, you were corresponding on that. I was. I was. Not safe. That was supposed to be the big one. Weird career. I remember when you were on that you were like, yeah, we're going to ride

this train all the way. I thought I was going to be. And you did. You rode it all the way. Like, you know. Yeah, four segments over two seasons. It was a big get.

So what's, it makes sense that aliens, right, in this movie, that they're bugs right because like you know that whole dumb

like you know like notion that like aliens are just like humanoid big like headed creatures bugs make sense because bugs

kind of look extraterrestrial sure they're gross and they're adapted to live in environments we don't understand they lack

empathetic faces and it would make sense that they would thrive. Yes. Can I level a complaint? Please. It's a design complaint with the bugs. Oh. This is the same design team

that did Tremors and Tremors 2. Okay. And if you look up the walk and bugs in Tremors 2, I feel like they kind of reused their feel like they sort of reused the aesthetic. Wow.

I can see that. Here, let me try to find it. What should I look for? Tremors, Monster. Tremors 2. I'm going to read a quote while you're doing this. Michael Ironside, who had read Starship Troopers, when Verhoeven...

Yeah, you know, a little bit. It's got the same peak. Yeah. I just found this and I want to read this. Michael Ironside, when Verhoeven asked him to be in Starship Troopers, was like, why would you make a fucking movie out of Starship Troopers? I read that book. That's like fascist bullshit.

And Verhoeven's response was, if I tell the world that a right-wing fascist way of doing things doesn't work, then no one will listen to me. So I'm going to make a perfect fascist world. Everyone is beautiful. Everyone is shiny. Everything has big guns and fancy ships, but it's only good for killing fucking bugs. That's great great line right i mean yeah i i love him and i

love this movie i do too so uh they now know that the bugs there's a brain bug they get they get your brain they control you and it turns out the stress signal was false the bugs made them do it remote control right but more, in this tower defense, two people die. Yes, they do. Number one. Rat check. Ironsides. Who kills him? Earlier in the film, CVD, Johnny Rico. Because earlier in the film,

he watches someone suffer. Someone gets captured by a bug. Don't let me do that. Shoots him to spare his life. Promise me that you'll kill me. CVD does it. Kills him. He's fucking axed off. Yep. And CVD, he hesitates, but he takes the shot.

Which was always a question to me. Because it's pretty clear they have this thing that basically, rewrite your legs. Yeah. So the fact that he's like, no, kill me now. Sort of feels like, this seems survivable, man. Yeah. It's possible. I guess so.

He's bleeding. Yeah. I don't know. I think he's worried about what's going to happen next. I think that's the bigger I guess so. He's bleeding. Yeah. I don't know. I think he's worried about what's going to happen next. I think that's the bigger thing.

He shows his fear in that moment. Yeah. He's worried about the brain bug. He was presented to Rico as like unflappable.

You know here's a fucking hero. It's quite a moment. And in this moment he's like I don't want to be in this world anymore. Right.

And then the thing that sort of sucks him down is this one of the bugs that comes you know the ground bugs. Sand bugs. Sand bugs come out and

our friend Diz launches a grenade right into his beak blows that thing asunder now let me ask you a question do you think past and future guest Emma Stefanski

loves or hates this movie I'm sure she loves this movie a lot of bugs but also it's very anti-bug yeah but I think as long as there are bugs she's on board.

Secretly kind of pro-bug. Because she can like the bug. Yes. You know, even if the movie doesn't. Sure. She's a big bug fan. Loves bugs. Loves the bugs.

I love the bugs for her. Nice shout out of Emma Stefanski's Bug Love, which is an upcoming podcast on the Audioboom Network. Emma Stefanski's Bug Love. Ben's producing it, right, Ben? No. Hey, Ben, would you say that you're into our antics today? audio boom network. Emma Stefanski's bug low. Ben's producing it. Right Ben? No. Hey Ben would you say that

you're into our antics today? Yeah it's fine. Would you say that you're having it? Are you having are you having any of it?

I'm having some of the antics. What percent? Percentage wise? Oh here we go. I don't know. Let's see. If I'm thinking about

it as a pie chart I'm going to say like a slice of just one slice so there's been a lot of 15 you know maybe there's been a lot of action today yeah there has been a lot of action but it's a lot of me taking notes being like well you're gonna have to cut that down and yeah it's like you're talking off cut that down yeah what are you talking what's getting cut down slow it down stretch it out baby let me know we can do it we can do a tighter version of whatever the yeah i can do another take.

I'm an actor. You know what? Let's do another take of the Wado thing. Or no, Quado. Quado. What if it's Wado and Quado? That's take two. Okay.

Okay, ready? No, Wado and the two Cuados. We're both Cuados. You're Wado. No, I'm not involved. Remember, you're going to be Nikki Glaser. You're the host now. I'm Wado.

Here with my two Cuados. Cuado, how are you doing today? Hey, I'm fine. I'm Cuado. Hey, other Quado, how are you doing today? Hey, I'm fine. I'm Quado. Hey, other Quado, how are you doing? I'm doing okay. Oh, Italian Quado. Of course.

Yes, you know that. We've done this show together for years. Now, here's one question. Italian Quado and Wario, not very dissimilar, right? It's a B, a Quado. Same basic DNA. Yeah, Quado is a different character. Like, if Quado is Italian, he's just Wario. Correct. All right, good. Thank you. dissimilar right it's a b a quadio same basic dna quadio is a different character like if quaddo

is italian he's just wario correct all right good thank you quaddo wado wario and that bit and that sums up today's podcast of too many italians quitario excellent 500 comedy points you brought it around jd wow what a wonderful episode here ben We need some take twos on. Can our promo code for all future ads be Quattario? But we don't tell them how to spell it, and if you get the spelling right, you get the discount, and if not... But if you spell it wrong, the wrong versions, actually add more money. Yeah.

It's more expensive. You have to pay for the discount that others are getting. You have to pay the difference. That would probably be a net profit for the companies. They'd probably be into that. I mean, look, our listeners love Russian roulette. That's what we're selling them right here. What do you want to take two of? What else do I need to take two

of? More table raising. Okay, do you need a puke again? That was good. Oh, wow. JT just went low. No. They went high. See? We just learned a lot there. Optical illusion. They went high. You thought we went low. No. Oh, they went high. See, we just learned a lot there. They went low. Optical illusion.

They went high. You thought we went low. So after Dizzy dies, I'm sorry, but we have to finish. It's crazy. I just need to puke five more times. Please do.

Remember that? Remember when I puked in this episode? Yeah, it was wild. It feels like it happened a thousand years ago. Can I get another take

at that, Griffin? No. It feels like it happened two thousand years ago. Can I get another take at that, Griffin? No. It feels like it happened two miniseries ago. Yeah, that's how it feels. That's correct. That is how long ago it feels. Can I point this out?

It happened during the fucking Eisenhower administration. On the 12-hour day subreddit. Yeah, right. Your 12-hour podcast. Let's shout out the podcast where every episode's literally 12 hours long.

Yeah, and you get how that happens now. There was someone that was, someone was like, oh, if you like this, you should listen to Blank Check. Okay. And then some respondent was like, no, it's too negative. I tried, and they're too negative about

movies. This has been a very positive episode. We fucking love movies. We're negative? I think this person just maybe listened to a negative episode. Sure, if you listen to the fucking Elizabethtown episode only. We, on the balance, talk about a lot of movies we love. And even when we talk about movies that are bad, we cite a lot of things we like about them. Agreed, yeah.

I don't think of this as a particularly negative podcast. Something good in every movie. Yeah. I love movies. Hey. I'm not touching you. You threw up two hours ago. You threw up in the last few you. You threw up two hours ago. You threw up in the last few days.

You threw up. Time is now a flat circle, but it was definitely somewhere on that circle. You threw up 45 minutes into our podcast, and that was two hours ago. Sure. So Dizzy is dead. Dizzy dead. She doesn't come back. No, but also.

They bury her. I'm sorry. They space bury her. They had a little bit of space. Michael Ironside demanded that they have a party. It's an order that you have fun. He brings out kegs. He brings out a neon green space fiddle.

He does. And he finally gives some worthy advice to Rico. And he has some space balls that he gives out to people. He gives out some space balls. Some future balls. Some future balls. But he also says... He's like, Dizzy likes you, balls. Some future balls. Some future balls. But he's like,

Dizzy likes you, like essentially, you know, don't pass up a good thing. So he goes, they're going to start having the sex and then Ironside comes in and he's like,

ship up, shape out, 10 minutes from now and then he sees her under the blanket, goes, make it 20. You're putting too much

reprieve on it. He's pretty, he's pretty, make it 20. Like he just sort of like sticks to it it. He's pretty, he's pretty, make it 20. Like he just sort of like sticks to his. There's the moment I love where she comes out

and they look at each other and he goes like, yeah, I can get it done in 20. It's like, of course, you dumb teenager. You can get it done in 20.

Casper, the friendly ghost. You can get it done. Yeah. So is this implied that this is him losing his virginity because he and Carmen

never slept together? Did you know that Casper Bandian's first credit is the direct-to-video fantasy comedy Casper colon A Spirited Beginning? Really? Yes. Isn't that weird?

Do you know that Casper Bandian is the CEO and founder of Casper Mattresses? Don't say that, Griffin. They actually should. I can say whatever they want. They should sponsor this episode. No. They should. Ben, get him on the horn.

We're recording this months in advance. Right now, if Ben has done his job, we're going to cut to a Casper mattress ad. Okay. If Ben did his job, we just had a Casper mattress ad. I'm from Buenos Aires and I love affordable mattresses. They sucked their brains out of a box the size of a mini fridge. It's me, the 40-year-old Casper Van Dien. All right.

Do your job, Ben. You know what I needed after Starship Troopers 3 didn't take off? A good night's sleep. Okay, shut up. Hey, it's a callback. It's a callback. It's a callback. So what part should I pass along to Casper?

We have to finish this fucking episode. Should it be the marker part of the podcast? That's like one of the highlights? You mean the crayon. And tell them it's a hot one. Send them the part where I go puke too. I've recorded some field audio from the bathroom. Just send them that.

Send them the part of the podcast where one of the hosts leaves to throw up. I will say. Do your job, Ben. Poutine. Bar poutine. I will say. J.D. What a bad episode. Here's the real. Where did you have the bar poutine? I'm not going to say because I don't want to

sully their name. It's a good bar where I do a lot of shows. And if you live in New York you can probably discern alright look we're just gonna finish the episode Dizzy's dead she gets a funeral Dizzy's dead there's so much

no there isn't there's just one sequence left I would say the thing that we did kind of pass over is that while this fight is happening there's also all this stuff in space yeah and I think one element that's cool is that you have a bug that while this fight is happening, there's also all this stuff in space. Yeah. And I think one element that's cool is that you have a bug

that actually can produce a missile. Yeah, shoot. It farts into space. It farts into space like lasers. Yes. That shit's cool. I like that. I like that stuff.

That giant space. That's a part of the whole Planet P sequence where it's like we realize they saw us coming. That's the brain bug sort of thing. The space a part of the whole Planet P sequence where it's like, we realize they saw us coming. You know, that's the brain bug sort of thing. The space ballet with all the ships, those are all miniatures

or quote unquote bigatures. Those are all They're really cool. giant ships that they're animating around each other. Hashtag bigature. Hashtag bigatures.

But no, I mean, there's only one last sequence which is the brain bug. Well, they've reunited now. The three of them have reunited on like

a space base. Well, Carmen and Xander rescue the other guys from the tower defense. And Xander becomes wise to the fact that Rico's the one who led this mission, so he's still alive. And he says to her... He tells her about it. They reunite. But now Rico's like, pilots.

Right. He's like, we do the dying. He doesn't have emotions anymore. He's pretty sad. I mean, it's a sad moment. Dizzy gets impaled. Right. You know? Right. He's dead. He doesn't have emotions anymore. He's pretty sad. I mean, it's a sad moment. Dizzy gets impaled. Right.

And Ironside gets bisected. And Neil Patrick Harris looks genuinely broken. Well, right. Then he, right, because he shows up and he's the one like,

look, I have to make these decisions every day where I send people off to their death. And this is also a moment that is like a very clear move.

He walks in and like a Gestapo SS. He's now wearing a black uniform that is like dark very clear he walks in and like Gestapo SS he's now wearing a black uniform that is like dark bags around his eyes and it's like a black duster it looks like the SS like uniform and you realize

like oh this has been one year since that scene where they literally put their arms around each other and go like we'll be friends forever promise no matter what happens wherever we are in the galaxy and he's got no laughs about him. No. And even Johnny Rico is like, they're upset that they're going to be sent back in

possibly to die, and he's mad. He's like, this is the decisions I have to make every day, and it's clear that he's seen some shit in the past year. And even when they say, look at us,

the three of us back together again, it's so joyless. Yeah. There's no emotion. He's really good in those final scenes. Really good. His eyes do look like all sunken and kind of haunted. And he's like talking fast in a way.

Right. He's like divorced all emotion out of his life. It's clear that like the past year of his life has been sort of a living hell of having to make these impossible decisions. It's a very canny performance because he's got to sell a character arc that's happened entirely off screen for the last hour plus. And he does it just from his body language. And this was his sort of...

This is the beginning of his comeback. Of the slow burn. Because obviously his real comeback, would you agree, is Harold and Kumar, right? No, his real comeback is Undercover Brother, which tees him up for Harold and Kumar. He's fucking great in Undercover Brother. But that's where

people are like, oh yeah, Neil Patrick Harris seems self-aware. This seemed like a reclamation project when Verhoeven put him in that. This is 97. Undercover Brother even isn't for another five years, and Harold and Kumar's two years after that. He starts doing a lot of musicals. Yes. He starts appearing, he was like a replacement cast member in

Rent in 97, so around the same year, I think on the tour he did Sweeney Todd in San Francisco he did Proof he starts like Assassins isn't until 04

Assassins is 04 so that was like part of his whole like Neil Patrick Harris is back baby yes because How May Your Mother is 05 I think

yeah do you know what they called him on set when they were filming of Starship Troopers yeah what Doogie Himmler

it's pretty funny truly it's true yeah I think that's really funny I give the entire cast and crew of Starship Troopers 10 Yeah. What? Doogie Himmler. That's pretty funny. Truly. It's true. Yeah. I think that's really funny. I give the entire cast and crew of Starship Troopers

10 comedy points to divide amongst themselves. You know what? I should be more generous. 5,000 because it's a large cast and crew. Good job.

Thank you. So, final sequence. They go down to this planet where they hear there's a brain bug. A brain that's

controlling all things. It looks like a nutsack. It looks like the thing that Anakin and Padme. It looks like a nutsack. It looks like the thing that Anakin and Padme ride in Attack of the Clones. Right. The big set piece is that Dizzy and McGillicuddy,

no, Carmen and McGillicuddy, they're shooting from the skies. The Roger Young explodes. They escape last second. They try to land. Instead, they puncture through the mountain, and they're in the center of the bug land. Yeah.

Right. And they get bugged in the shoulder and dragged around. Carmen gets bugged in the shoulder and then Xander gets bugged in the head.

He gets brain bugged. That's another cool practical model. Oh, man. His head getting sucked dry. Yes. That's really good. Which is very Total Recall.

It's like the opposite of the eye bug kind of Mars head stuff and the like brain bug is a practical bug although there are CGI versions of it

right cause like the one where they're like in the propaganda film when it has to walk and shit yeah well sure

but there's also the propaganda film where they're like sticking things inside of it that's definitely a CGI bug cause it's got the weird like shimmery skin

but the close ups to the face are like this disgusting gooey thing that this knife thing comes out of. Yeah, that sucks your brain.

And it sucks his brain and it is like traumatic to look at. It's messed up. Carmen cuts it off. Carmen chops it off with the knife which, hey,

the knife came in use. Brought it to a nuke fight. You're right. Look at that. I take it back. I take it back. Sorry. It's aought it to a nuke fight. You're right. Look at that. I take it back. I take it back. Sorry. It's a full thing to call back.

No, you're right. Sorry, Sergeant Zim. Sorry. I just wanted to apologize to the right person. Yes. Apology accepted. You're not Sergeant Zim. Well, I'll extend it to him.

Sergeant Zim doesn't need your apologies. No, he's here. Hey. Because they, so Rico and his so, Rico and his gang, Rico and his gang, they rescue, Carmen. They rescue Carmen.

After Rico gets like a, use the force moment. Yes. Yes. That we are, Maybe that, psychic training, paid off.

Maybe, or maybe it was just, Neil Patrick Harris like, We learned later that, Neil Patrick Harris maybe told him. Right. They go back in. They rescue her,

who heroically, sacrifices himself. No. Who? Sugar Walk. They rescue her. Who heroically sacrifices himself? No. Oh, Sugar Walkins. Our boy, Sugar Walkins. Right. Hero of the movie.

Sacrifices himself. Best character in film history. This is the moment that always watches movies. What's one thing he does? Sacrifices himself.

True. Growing up, it always was weird to me. It bothered me is that it feels like our heroes save the day they find the brain bug she cuts it off they come out they're afraid and they come out to everybody cheering and running right and they're like what's happening and they're like we caught the brain bug

right and so they've run around and who caught the brain bug our boy zim private zim yeah he accepted an emotion to get into the field. Yeah. But there's the great moment where Neil Patrick Harris puts his hand up to the bug and shouts exuberantly. The final triumphant note of the movie. They're afraid and people cheer and they fully dehumanize this enemy. They're getting their rocks off on the idea that they are harming these things. Soon we will understand the bug. And Carmen, C. Van D, Busey,

none of them get the accolades. It's just sort of like, that's part of your duty. Not to get too heavy, but that was a whole big part of the propaganda machine of the Holocaust was the Nazis going like, look, the Jews look worse than us.

They're fucking disgusting, which is how they teach all these students about bugs in the class, going over how revolting they are, their processes, all of this, and then getting that hatred to a level where people actually get off on the idea of, like, look at them crying. Look at this bug that's

afraid, you know? It's like a really chilling ending. It makes me laugh a whole lot. They have that thing where there's the kids stomping on regular roaches which is like messed up these aren't even bad guys

they just look like the things you hate but just get everyone into a mode of hating the very look and feel of these things whatever size they are whatever their motivations are

you know what I gotta do what merchandise spotlight okay I'm glad that it's not puke what is I thought that's what it was going to be. Oh,

no, no, no, no, never again. Last line of the film is, in big text,

it says, they'll keep fighting, next page, and they'll win. And that's how the movie ends. Yes. Because it shows like, propaganda footage.

Well, it's like, you could be like, Amy Smart, and you see Amy Smart, or her captain, Denise Richards. This whole movie was an ad. It was one big ad. Right, you could be like Amy Smart and you see Amy Smart or her captain, Denise Richards. This whole movie was an ad.

It was one big ad. Right. You could be like Ace, you know, who's like running, you know, or, you know, Roughnecks leader,

Johnny Rico. And he's like, you want to live forever? Like he's a... You could be like any one of your five favorite characters in the history of film.

Or you could be like Neil Patrick Harris, you know, and you see him. Yeah. And then they'll keep fighting and they'll win uh so this movie had an extensive toy line which is weird because it's rated r and it's about nazis it's super violent but i think from the moment they signed on to make this movie they

were like soldiers fighting bugs action movie about bugs right how could it not be a merchandising and the 90s were the one decade where like happened, where fucking Terminator 2 had an extensive toy line. RoboCop had toys. But this one's very, very bizarre because the characters in the movie, the human characters, kind of are just action figures. They're just blank things that a kid holds up in relation to the bugs.

And they made all the bugs in different sizes and remote control ones and ones that were like micro-machines where you got little tiny like centimeter humans. Oh, I have really, I have an interesting factoid. Not for now. Okay. Finish this right after. They're made by Galoob, which is one of those great companies that got gobbled up by Hasbro.

There used to be like a bunch of great like Kenner and all those companies that all got absorbed. But the thing I really like about the toy line, they made a lot of the humans, which is weird. Because the human characters aren't like characters that kids would love. But they do look like dolls. They do. But they also look like dolls. They do. But they also redesigned all of them. Like the armor in the movie

looks rad, but it was one of those things where they were like, we got to make it look more toyetic. I remember there being like a Johnny Rico Barbie kind of character

that had like hair. I don't have that pulled up here. What have you got pulled up? Because you know what this episode isn't? Short. I know.

I just want to read these names because they also add on to all of them like titles to make them sound more exciting uh so there's a toxic raider ace levy right in his uniform of course in that famous scene where he raids toxic waste bright green they like made up different fucking outfits bug thrasher carmen ibanez firestorm johnny rico mega marauder johnny rico cyber commander sugar walkins and then jetpack ace levy they all have like uniforms equipment or titles that don't actually relate to the movie that's i mean classic classic classic toy line classic toy line done for a super harsh fascistic r-rated film the film. The film? Was there a video game,

Griffin? Definitely. I never played it, but there definitely was one. Yeah, I mean, this is like a, this is a video game,

essentially, in movie form. Right. But I would be interested to play that. There was also Roughnecks, which was like the adult animated series.

Right. Yes. There have been a few video games, and a pinball machine. Oh. I remember the pinball machine. There's a film called Terror and Ascendancy.

Good title. Sorry, game. Oh, yeah. Sorry. But the film came out. It did come out. Okay. Interesting.

November 1997. Uh-huh. Was not particularly well received. No. And of course, you know, worth noting, this is the post-Showgirls movie. Right. So. A lot at stake.

Yeah, but I think also, Verhoeven now has a very, very tarnished reputation. Yeah. And people are, their arms are crossed already. Exactly.

That's right. That's what I'm trying to say. I think their hope was that he'd have another straight down the middle box office hit at the very least. It opened very big and then dropped really hard, right?

Well, let me see. I think its opening weekend was big and it has substantial drop. 55% drop. Not crazy. Didn't make it to 100. No. It opens to $22 million. Oh, I thought it was a bigger opening.

No, I mean, it's pretty good for an R-rated movie in 97, though. I mean, that's the equivalent of of why are you looking ben of a 42 million opening now so you know not great but the budget would be close to 200 now well would it yeah i guess it might this was also quintessential dhs rental yes it was no for sure i mean the film had a long life and like early days of dv, this was one that was like, oh, this is like reference quality. You see how much better DVD is? Right. It made 54 domestic, 121 total.

So, you know. Yeah. It lost money. It lost money. Well, you know, maybe not a calamity, but a box office failure. Wasn't it only like $100 million?

Yeah, but you need to make more than just over the budget worldwide. They made it back eventually through everything else. Yeah. They definitely wanted this to be much bigger budget worldwide. They made it back eventually through everything else. They definitely wanted this to be much bigger than that. They wanted this to be huge. They did, but at the same time, they released this hyper-violent R-rated movie.

I mean, I guess they're hoping for a total recall situation, but that movie starred Arnold Schwarzenegger. This movie stars Casper Van Dien. And they released it over Thanksgiving. They did. I mean, a couple weeks before Thanksgiving, but yes. All right, so number one at the box office starship troopers okay number two jumping from number 15 as it goes wide oh wow a beloved comedy figure finally gets his movie bean how did you know

it's amazing i'll tell you why because i was distinctly in the other day in the shower thinking about the fact that they platformed Bean. I remember that vividly. The platforming of Bean. I don't know what's weirder. That Bean did well or that they platform released it. So Bean, do you want to tell me how much Bean grossed in the United States? 50? 45.

Do you want to tell me how much it grossed worldwide? 150? $251 million. Mr. Bean on every international flight it's what they play because it works in all languages. Of course. And you know, the sequel, the long delayed sequel, Mr. Bean's Holiday, the disparity is even greater because it's like 20 domestic, 250 worldwide. It was 33 domestic, 196 worldwide. It made 14%.

Then America dropped the ball on Johnny English. Johnny English is huge in England, though. Oh my God. Didn't they just announce they're going to do a third one, I think?

I wouldn't be surprised. I mean, like, Rowan Atkinson is like, I'm trying to think, like, what's like the most famous comedy person in America?

Probably Jake Busey. It's just like, and he can do no wrong in Britain. I just love that he takes 10 years between each entry in his fucking chills out man chills out okay um being platform is number two how do you feel about because you like earnest i feel like you like a lot of the 90s sort of uh i broad child comedy you know sort of genre well i'll take offense that because earnest isn't broad earnest

is actually a very specific film subtle nuancetle nuance characterization. Subtle nuance, okay. The humor can be a little broad. I don't mean that in a bad way. 100%. Mr. Bean, I love the classic stuff, the BBC stuff, all that stuff. The movie demystifies him

a little bit. Always, they try to add story. Here's what I honestly think. The best Mr. Bean stuff is sort of like Jacques Tati in the sense that it's just like a meandering.

Right. But that's what the sequel was trying to be, right? But the sequel's just like he goes on holiday. But that's what the sequel was trying to be. But the sequel is just like he goes on holiday. Isn't the first one like, this is my uncle, this is my brother with Peter McNichol and it's like there's this whole thing with Whistler's mother, the painting.

It's like there's like a narrative arc to Peter McNichol's character. It's like not what we want. And the daughter has a narrative arc. Remember because there's the boyfriend with the motorcycle I saw that film in theaters I don't remember it very well

yeah we just just send Mr. Bean to the beach and have him put on a funny funny bathing suit in an embarrassing way and God knows what's going on with him and if you want to make some money

domestically platform it very true you gotta platform it number three yeah falling from number one the previous week okay

in its fourth week of release is a horror film it was number one three weekends in a row 1997 oh halloween h2o no interesting but so it ran the table in october correct it's not scream 2 no but you know it is a you know it's kind of a sister movie To those movies I guess I still know what you did last summer? Correct It's just

Oh the original The original Okay I know what you did last summer Starring Jennifer Love Hewitt Ryan Phillippe Sarah Michelle Gellar SMJ

Freddie Prinze Jr. FPJ I just love the three of the four Have a Yeah Three names Three Sort of three names.

Ryan Phillippe looks like a dickhead. Yeah. He looks like a goddamn idiot, which is a movie about a fisherman with a big old hook. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Casper Von Dan.

Number four is, why do I feel like we've talked about this movie before? I like this movie. Interesting. Is that a clue or is that a surprise? Slightly. I don't know. Interesting. Is that a clue or is that a surprise? Slightly. I don't know. Horror film, but sort of like a classy horror, I guess, starring a

very famous man. Classy horror with a famous man. A couple of young ingenues. Is the whistle a clue? No, I'm trying to figure it out. Hellraiser 4, Hellraiser in Space. No, no, no. It's an original film. It's very classy. If you remember, it's a classy act.

How would you describe this film? I mean, I can tell you more, but it would give it away. It's a very classy actor, but he doesn't usually do horror films. Well, he's done it all. This is the kind of leading man where he's nuanced. That's a note of sarcasm. Take that with a grain of salt. Okay, so this guy's kind of...

He's running wild. He's running absolutely wild. Where is he at in his star arc at this point? Like his third or fourth wave at this point. You know, he's an Oscar-winning veteran. Okay, his third or fourth wave. He's old at this point? Pretty old.

I don't know. He's probably in his 50s or 60s even. No, probably 50s. He's already won that Oscar. It's a classy horror movie. He's probably in his 50s or 60s even. No, probably 50s. He's already won that Oscar. It's a classy horror movie. He's playing a biblical figure. I don't think it's classy, but it thinks it's classy. He's playing a biblical figure?

Yes. This is true. This is true. What fucking movie is this? All right. Well, let me give you a further clue. Okay. It's also a legal drama.

So it's sort of like a horror legal. Oh, it's The Devil a further clue. Okay. It's also a legal drama. So it's sort of like a horror legal. Oh, it's The Devil's Advocate. Yes. The Taylor Hackford joint starring Keanu Reeves, Al Pacino, and Charlize Theron. Of course Ben likes that movie. What are you talking about? It's a little bit surprising. I don't know.

What even is that movie? I don't remember it at all. Al Pacino plays the devil. But he's a lawyer. And he's a lawyer. And Keanu Reeves works for him. He's the devil's advocate. Right, right, right, right, right.

Number five is a film that was banned in China. Banned in China because? It is set in China and has some things to say about China. Anne and the King? Nope. I don't know if Anne and the King was. That's set in Siam. That's set in Thailand.

Seven Years in Tibet? Nope, but good guess. Same vibe. Yeah, I'm trying to think along those lines. 1987. Oh, Condon? Nope. It's a hard movie to remember this movie.

And it was banned in China. You know the other things that could get you banned in China are depiction of ghosts and mixing live action animation? Yes. Do you know hybrid films are banned in China because it's unnatural. Right. To have Michael Jordan and Daffy Duck on the same screen. Crimson Peak, I believe, was banned in China.

Too many ghosts. Ghostbusters, banned in China. Even if they're funny ghosts, mm-mm. No ghosts. No good. Very bad. Don't do it. You know China has this thing

where they only import like eight movies a year. That used to be the thing. It's gone up. They've now raised it. It used to be eight. Now it's a lot. Now it's more. Right, but still you'll have movies that. That used to be the thing. It's gone up. They've now raised it. It used to be eight. Now it's a lot. Now it's more. Right, but still you'll have movies

that try to appeal to China in it. To get in there. Like what was recently, oh, The Martian. They do it all the time. Yeah. China has a big role in The Martian. There's so many examples of that

in modern Hollywood. Coco's done crazy well in China. It's going to probably be like the biggest animated film ever, American animated film ever in China, which is astonishing because the skeleton thing is really close to the ghost. I's going to probably be the biggest animated film ever, American animated film ever in China, which is astonishing because the skeleton thing is really close to the ghost thing. I was going to say, it's basically about ghosts.

People are trying to figure out how the fuck... But it's a spirit world, so I guess... And the sense of family and tradition. Okay, wait, so this is... Jesus Christ. You may maybe have never heard of this movie. I don't know. I probably have not. It stars a very famous hunk who is now sort of in his like sexy gray hair phase but he

was an early gray hair it's not the connery one no connery what's that one uh oh no that's japanese the empire uh rising sun yeah um that movie is racist yeah right uh i was trying to think of movies that people wouldn't like this movie is banned in China because it's like critical of the Chinese government. It's a mystery thriller. It's directed by John Avnett. Who's the actor? Richard Gere. Oh, Infernal Affairs?

No, that is a Richard Gere film though. I'm not going to remember the name. Red Corner. Yeah, no, I literally would never have gotten that. Wow. Corner. Yeah. No, I literally would never have gotten that. Wow.

It was shot in Los Angeles using elaborate CGI sets to create China. I bet that holds up really well. Okay, so Red Corner. The movie opens and we find Richard. No. He's a red crayon. He's a red crayon. Red Corner was not a big hit considering all the brouhaha.

So we've also got Boogie Nights. Oh. We've got Eve's Bayou, which is a classic. Kiss the Girls. Start of a major franchise. That's true. Alex Cross.

Fairy Tale, A True Story. Oh yeah, you don't remember that movie? Is that an animated film? No, it's a live action film about these photos that were

faked of girls interacting with fairies that went viral in the newspaper at the time, but the movie posits that it was real. Gattaca. Harvey Cattell plays Harry Houdini. I liked that movie a lot as a child. Full Monty. Harvey Cattell plays Harry Houdini.

What's his name? I say Cattell. I say Cattell. Cattell. I think he would say Cattellini I say Keitel I say Keitel I think he would say Keitel and I say Keitel Oh cool Qcard Keitel I'd like to share a final thought if I may I think we should wrap up this podcast I don't know I mean let's not rush anything Yeah

So you know the running kind of Theme To my commentary is I like things wet. This is true. You like a slick flick. This is a no-bits podcast. I really do like when movies are wet. I think it's cool.

I think it's an added feature. It's like, why just have a dry scene? Make it a wet scene. It's obvious. But I want to point out in this movie, I think it's got the best slime. Hands down. So many varieties. There's like orange slime green slime yellow slime so sticky it's just visceral so i just want to say this because you know i'm always

like trying to tell hollywood what to do yeah you know yeah so cgi or no cgi i don't care i just want some slime in it okay some real practical. I want you to get your actors all greasy and gross and nasty. That's my two cents. That's Ben's slime corner. Ben's slime corner is done. We did the quaddo, the two normal quaddo breakouts.

That was great. I'm spinning off. I need actually a do you mind just a third take? A take three. Sure. Any notes on this one? Do it. Make it longer. Okay. So this is Watto with two Quattos and Wario, right? And Nikki Glacier too, which David, he'll be doing double duty.

I'm doing triple duty. I'm Wario as well. All right. Great. And okay, go. This is the Quintario show With me, Wado Two Quattos, Wario

And special guest Nikki Glaser Today we are talking About Starship Troopers The film opens On a propaganda film And we see Casper Ventian get bugged in the leg.

That's been our show for the day. Sorry for not having enough time to get to our other guests. This is me, Nicky Glazer. And this is me, the normal sounding Quado. How are you doing normal Quado? And I'm a Wario. I'm gonna

win. Not today. I beat you. The show is over. That was Nikki Glaser saying so there they all are. Hey, let me Wado finish up the show. And I'm Nikki Glaser saying that that was

the normal sounding Kato saying that was Nikki Glaser saying so there they all are. Okay, I get it. Will you please let Wado finish up the show? Thank you all for listening.

Please remember to rate, review, and subscribe. Go to blankies.reddit.com for some real nerdy shit about Blank Check, a different show. This show is

called Quado. Quatario. Thanks to N for Gudo for social media for Blank Check. Thanks to Joe Bowen and Pat Reynolds for artwork for Blank Check. Thank you to Leigh Montgomery for for artwork for Blank Check. Thank you to Leigh Montgomery for theme song

for Blank Check. Quado, do you have something to say? I have a great factoid. Oh, this is J.D. Quatar. Say your fucking just. Let him have the factoid. I got a factoid that's good here. One of my favorite.

Don't look at your weird future watch. It's two hours, 15 minutes. Damn. Play it at double speed. that's good here. One of my favorite, don't look at your weird future watch. I literally look at my weird future watch. It's two hours, 15 minutes we've got. Damn. Play it at double speed. Okay, here's a factoid. Here's the thing that I love.

I'm JD Amato and I love movies. JD Aquato. Here's the thing that I love about movies. When they use props from one movie in another movie.

Yes. These suits for this movie were reused in Hollywood forever. Okay? Indeed. I haven't heard that before, yeah. There is an entire Power Rangers series, which is Power Rangers Lost Galaxy. He's reading off of notes right now.

That uses the exact costumes of the Starship Troopers as their main soldier things. Then, Firefly, one of the things, uses repainted versions of these exact costumes. The 2001 Planet of the Apes uses these costumes. The Starship Troopers props

are used forever and ever and ever. They're still around somewhere being used in movies for something. I love movies. I love when props are reused. Also, you're giving me Ernest Scared Stupid. That's a reuse of the clowns from Clown Clowns from Outer Space. Hells yeah.

Look it up. Okay, more slime and should we wrap it up? Yes. Do you want to? No. Tune in next week For an episode On Hollow Man

Yeah With a special guest Alex Ross Perry Yes And as always Well thank the guest Wado Don't be rude David never got around

To saying that This is his favorite Verhoeven movie You queued it up In the beginning You're like I'll talk about that later You never did

No no We're gonna talk about that later. You never did. No, no, we're going to talk about that next week. I mean the rankings. We'll do our rankings next week. Okay. But it is my favorite Verhoeven movie. Okay, what are you on?

This is my least favorite podcast. No, I'm kidding. This is the best one. This is the number one best one. I'll see you guys in the subreddit. Yes. Are you in there?

I go and learn. Drop your username. Do you have yeah my username is JD Amato oh cool that's gonna be hard to spot he's a real

eagle eyed listeners yeah we can go talk about the tech stuff we'll talk about the film stock we'll talk about all that in the subreddit okay Wado take us out

and as always this is going to sound like a joke right now but I actually feel really sick I think I need to go puke go

I'm J.D. Amato and I love movies I had a dream last night where my sister was making me play a board game where ghosts were summoned

and they had to answer trivia and you had to bet on which ghost you thought would have the answer but were there real ghosts? they were real ghosts but they had to answer trivia and you had to bet on which ghost you thought would have the answer. But were there real ghosts? They were real ghosts, but you had to be sort of nice

because they came with, they had a lot of baggage. And then there was a lot of waves. That always happens in my dreams. I don't know why I decided to bring that up right now. But I just remembered that. Shut up, JD.

Okay. I need to talk about something once we get going. David's been a little sassy today. That chicken Caesar sandwich got me feeling all cocky. It's got some spice in it today. Yeah, I know.

Okay. Hey, shut up, David. Yeah, enough with the sandwich. Shut up, David. Some of us haven't had lunch yet. Yeah, David, shut up. Well, you should have had lunch. In the first 20 seconds

of being a guest on this podcast, I was told to shut up. Yeah. Jesus Christ, David. You've been here for an hour, JT. Yeah, we'll get into that first. Blame David and the sandwich. Wow. I was going to get here on time, and David said, leave me a little buffer so I can eat

this sandwich. Yeah, that's what happens. David broke down how late you are normally. Never. Okay, ready? Yeah. Ready. Ready.