Blank Check with Griffin & David - The Ladykillers with Connor Ratliff

Episode Date: September 21, 2025

We must have waffles forthwith! We must also have Connor Ratliff on the pod to talk about Tom Hanks for the first time since the completion of his Dead Eyes series! Join us for a spirited discussion about 2004’s The Ladykillers, a film that is universally regarded as the Coens’ worst, and is also the film that ended Hanks’ legendary decade-long boffo box office streak. We’re getting into defining the parameters of the world of “Weird Hanks.” We’re getting into the…uh…uncomfortable racial depictions that mar this movie. We’re getting to the “Root of the Matter,” and we’re getting Connor to softlaunch an incredible new term - “Mooseporting.” Listen to Dead Eyes Listen to the Audiobook for The Making of Another Major Motion Picture Masterpiece Watch the second David S. Pumpkins Listen to Connor talk to Bobby Moynihan about David S. Pumpkins Read the David S. Pumpkins Oral History Check out Does the Dog Die Sign up for Check Book, the Blank Check newsletter featuring even more “real nerdy shit” to feed your  pop culture obsession. Dossier excerpts, film biz AND burger reports, and even more exclusive content you won’t want to miss out on. Join our Patreon for franchise commentaries and bonus episodes. Follow us @blankcheckpod on Twitter, Instagram, Threads and Facebook!  Buy some real nerdy merch Connect with other Blankies on our Reddit or Discord For anything else, check out BlankCheckPod.com  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Blank Jack with Griffin and David Black Jack with Griffin and David Don't know what to say but you expect All you need to know is that the name of the show is Blackjack Have you all decided? Madam, we must have podcasts. We must have podcasts forthwith. We must all think and we must all have podcasts

and think each and every one of us to the best of our ability. I don't know why it went British. It did go British. Madam, we must have waft. Fuck. I remember that being like a key part of the trailer. It's one of two big touchstone comedies based on breakfast starches in their ad campaign.

That was the main push. What was the other? In real life. God, that guy. Lady Killers was going waffle forward. Dan was going pancake forward. This is maybe the worst opening of an episode we've ever. absolutely not it's a good opening but i want to i just i remember we must have can our guest do you feel

like you can do a professor no now right now i don't think i can't madam i was watching last night madame we must have podcasts we must have podcasts we must have podcasts we must have podcasts both with the fact that we can't do it proves that it's a good performance and a good movie glad we settled that thank you all for listening please remember to like i do like that you're starting off saying this is the worst episode that you've ever done this is totally stop putting it in people's Yes, what are you doing? This is completely normal for us. This episode is off to a terrible start.

I think it might be the worst episode you've ever recorded, and we're only minutes into it. And that's also a Webby award-winning podcaster saying. There you go. That's true. You know from P-Cast. A real low point for me. And the Webby's.

And the Webby's, yeah. No, no, this is a low point for the Webby's. The Webby's being like, oh, geez. You're obviously saying like, fuck, one of our winners is on some bad podcast. This is a bad day for the Webbyes. I want to say that this is maybe the best episode. we've ever done. I want to change the messaging right here. I want to say you were correct, David,

that the waffles were. It was a big thing. It was like the trailer was like, and just wait until Tom Hanks orders waffles in this funny voice. It was the push. Right. I was looking for the monologue where he tells her that they are in fact criminals. I wanted to change that criminals to podcasters.

Was not on the IMDB page, uh, quotes page, which is quite long. I think someone tried to transcribe it and fell asleep. Fuck. You. No, Griff. Griff. I don't hate this movie but let's not go to the bat saying we love this movie

You don't love it I think it's good This movie made me I gotta say A little uncomfortable watching it In 2020 There's stuff in it This movie is pretty racist There is stuff in it

I'm just gonna lead with that No I'm gonna agree with you Here's the thing When I walked out of this movie in 2004 My first two comments were That's not as bad as everyone's saying Sure followed immediately by Pretty racist

Not sure the Cohen should be just writing, I don't, when is this set? 2004, what's going on there, my friend? There was a moment, I don't know if you remember, when the Coens were getting kind of ransacked in interviews with the Oscar So White's questions. Yeah, it was later, it was later in their careers. Like around like True Grit, Lewin Davis era. And Ethan had a comment that people thought was kind of snarky and dismissive, right?

And everyone was like, classic white filmmakers upholding white supremacy, refuse to considering black characters. Everyone was like that, but they were... I'm sure there was some folks. And I just wanted to tell those people, maybe watch the lady killers and circle back and tell me if you think they should. Now, I think it's primarily a corner of characters.

Uh-huh. The Marlon Wayne's character is a giant problem. And it was another thing walking out of this movie where I was like, man, Marlon Wayne's is bad in that. And the two times I've rewatched it in the last five years, I'm just like, he was doing exactly what they asked him to do. And what they asked him to do was not great. I think so.

I don't know. It's not like, right. I'm like, oh, they have hated their hearts. I have a question, though. I have a question about how tightly scripted Marlon Waynes' character was. You always hear that the Cohen's, everyone is tightly scripted. Everyone is tightly scripted. Do we feel as if Marlon Wayne's character, if we were to look at the shooting script for the lady killers, which I am assuming none of us have?

None of us have. Don't think it's been published. How tightly scripted do you think that character is on the, on the, on the, compared to? to most common brother's characters. Here's the thing. I feel like

there might have been some improv. Interesting. Because I watch this and I think if they had just let him improvise, it probably would be

funnier and less offensive. I think this reads big time as hyperliterate, incredibly strong dialogue writers being like, how do those young black people talk?

It is overwritten, but it very much feels to me like he's trying his best to make it sound natural. And yet I was like rewatching it with the subtitles on really kind of like wrestling with that question.

And I'm like, I can see Joel and Ethan typing this out and being like, I think we've hit it, right? Game of the character is that he just says the N-word a bunch. That's one of his games, I'd say. That's what they thought was funny. Kind of. Kind of. I don't think the character has much of a game, which is almost more annoying because

the other criminals kind of do like have more of a specified bit. Sure, for sure. And with Marlon Wayans, they're kind of just like, yeah, I don't know. He's just like a loser. It's so extremely boned in. It's crazy. It's a loud, angry black man. Right. He's just bow-mouthed, you know, I guess. But he's the one who is the inside man. He keeps stressing that he is the inside man.

Well, not only are they stressing it, it is actually a fact of the text. It's what he's there for. He works at the casino, so he is the one who has access. So this is not like something that the characters are speculating. He loves big butts. He loves big. And he cannot lie. He can't lie about it.

In fact, it is sort of his fatal character flaw is when he sees a big butt. He must have a conversation with it. He's honest to a fault. We're building a good bed for me to mount a defense of this movie's okay. This movie begins with the wonderful R. R. P. Hall coming in to the police to complain about the hippity hot music. To the wonderful George Wallace.

We'd love to see him to complain about the hip-dy-hop music that, you know, her tenant is playing. And I'm like, oh, okay. So this is set, maybe, is this set in, like, the late 70s when, like, hip-hop music would have been a sort of a new thing for a woman like this to reckon with? It's set in 2004. Right. And they're listening to Tribe Cold Quest, a song that came out in, like, the fucking late 80s. Yeah, I will say, I will say, has someone who came from the Midwest. But probably the last rap album that Joel was.

It took a while for culture to... Part of the joke is... Transmit. ...is that things are on a different timetable. That, like... Yeah. Something that you hear that's like, oh, is that a new song?

And then it's like, well, it's new to her. Now, where's this set, I will also ask? Alabama? Because Bob Jones University, which, of course, is cited a lot. That's in South Carolina. Oh, okay. So it's up in the South, I guess. Okay. I mean, why not I guess? That I know.

Marlon Wayne's character, Gawain... Is his last name... It's not McKidd. It's Mek Sam. Max Sam. I don't really. Gawain Max Sam. He is, I think, the turnkey that this film is supposed to be set in the present day.

I think this is their best approximation. We have cultural references that can help us to narrow it. At this point, he is the most of his time character. Bobbitt, the Bobbitt reference is post-Bobbitt incident, post-Bobbitt shooting porno movie. Post-Frank and penis. Post-Frank and penis. And we can use that as a barometer for the rest of this podcast going forward.

Our movie's set. Pre or post-Frank and penis? Uh-huh. So what's the podcast? It's a blank check with Griffin and David. I'm Griffin. I'm David. It's a podcast about filmography,

directors who have massive success early on in their careers and are giving a series of blank checks to make whatever crazy passion products they want, and sometimes those checks clear and sometimes they bounce, baby. We're looking at what has to be

the single biggest bounce. of their career, if only because it is the only movie of theirs that really has no reclamation project. Not really. Horribly received when it came out. I was looking at the numbers, and it's like, it actually didn't lose money and outgrossed many of their films. And yet, it was undeniably seen as a huge flop, considering it was a Disney release starring

Tom Hanks. It is the film that breaks Tom Hanks's decade-long. hundred million dollar streak yeah but also we have first kink in the armor i also think we have to look at this from the point of view that as a debut film um you know every every every because it's the first film by the cohen brother it's the first film by the cone that joel cohen had a little experience under his belt do you know this weird fact then this is this is the first cohen brothers movie directed by the cohen brothers as we talked about oh right yeah yeah yeah yeah with with chris whites and and how difficult the DGA makes it to be recognized as a pair this one is the first

time a movie is directed by Joel and Ethan Cohen and it shows it shows but they're they're figuring it out like figuring it out there you can feel it in every frame of this film these these guys are like how do we do this two-headed director this is a miniseries on the films of Joel and Ethan Cohen for the first time as a team sure yeah this is the first time that that these brothers say let's direct a movie together not just like I'll direct a movie you produce Ethan's just standing back crunching the numbers just breathing down his neck

that guy loves producing what do you do anyway it's a mini series called no pod country for no cast old cast god damn it we keep getting it wrong you keep getting it wrong pod country for old cast singular sure whatever

that's what the artwork says it's official now This is our episode on 2004's The Lady Killers, a remake of 1955. Correct, the Alexander McKendrick movie. The Ealing comedy. And today on the show, returning, for the, well, the math here's a little tricky. Oh, let's get an accurate number. Connor Ratliff.

Here he is. Has appeared main feed. As himself or in... Well, who else would I be talking about? I'm talking about. Connor Ratliff has appeared main feed. I believe this is. is number three somehow only.

You appeared on a commentary episode in our Phantom podcast days, and then you did Twin Peaks the Return main feed. You've also done Twin Peaks Season 2 with us. That was on Patreon. And George Lucas appeared three times. Just

twice, I'm seeing. Just twice? I believe there was one time in studio where we had to talk with him. There was live show at the Bell House, and then you're of course forgetting denim invasion. live at the Dell Close Marathon. That's not listed on the

Wikipedia, I will say. Oh, wow. How do you change your Wikipedia? I don't know. Just saying, it's not listed. George was definitely part of it. Someone needs to list it. Hey, we got a show out. And also, both Broadway shows. That's just true. It does say in the denim invasion entry, they note

cameo appearances from Danikolsky Murf Mayor and George Chilogers. Right. Yeah. But this is right. This is true also Peter Jackson. and Sir, two characters

who then became Joe Check. Yeah, I guess one character with an alias. Sort of like Professor Dore is Yeah. Well, I guess he has

the play. Producer Ben, you were going to make a comment. The season two episode for us on Patreon was a really like big

that was that was big episode where he got a lot of new fans. So what they call a driver in the biz. It was a driver. I mean,

it was very important for me to be a part of that. It was a good one. Yeah. And if I can just digress, I know you don't like digressions, but I recently saw about half of Twin Peaks the return at the Metrograph. Right, they played it all? They played it all. I wasn't able to attend all of it. It's weird because- Were people kind of coming in and out? Like, was it a- Yeah, there was, I talked to some people who went for the

whole thing. It was two days. On the one hand, because of the sound mix, which is a theatrical sound mix, which apparently David Lynch hated the sound mix for TV because it's all compressed. So on the one hand, this is the way it is supposed to be seen. It's tinny.

This is like the, it sounded different to me. Like there were times when it felt silent at home, but in the theater it felt like, oh no, there's like so much sound happening. But on the other hand,

absolutely not the way it's meant to be seen nine hours in one day and nine hours the next day. Just absolutely. Right, the way it's meant to be seen is 18 hours in one day. It is the parts that are, but I will say this as just a follow-on comment from the season two episode, as a reward to people who liked that episode and just want a little bit more.

The Dougie Jones plot in Twin Peaks The Return, it never occurred to me anytime I saw before this, how true it is to the spirit of all the plotlines people hate in season two. It is the most little Nikki. it is the most Nadine with superpowers who thinks she's back in high school it is the most like it is just like all of those like Ben thinks he's in the Civil War

all of those things Dougie Jones is like let's do a version of the I don't think this is intentional necessarily but it's like let's do a version of this of those kind of dopey plots it's Cantobite it's like Ryan Johnson's saying we can't ignore the prequels

yes yeah there has to be something that is on the same continuum as the energy of the prequel. Yeah, like my favorite move from that being that what can we do that kind of nods to the inappropriate stereotypes but doesn't actually do anything wrong. So let's have like a little drunken leprecha in the casino. This is the one thing we can do that's a little bit like a jar jar kind of move. We're allowed to make fun of the Irish, right? Ben Hosley, Conoratlin? Yeah, I think approval. Yeah. All right. Anyway, end of that. Can I speak to Tom Hanks's streak of $100 million gross? Yes. And let's just call out the reason

Connor is on this episode is over the last couple of years Connor you started listening to the podcast again and then you'll text me at errant times and say if you ever do this or I'd love to come on to talk about this type of movie and you did a while ago just pin for me I'd love to come on and talk about

Hanks. So just let me know the next time you have a Hanks movie on the schedule and this felt like a particularly fascinating one to do you were currently wearing a big T-shirt. Right, you had your podcast good eyes well specific dead eyes. Good podcast guys got good eyes. Dead eyes. And I want to be, clarify, when you say I'm wearing a big t-shirt.

He doesn't mean I'm wearing like an oversized shirt. Like, oh, that'd be a good shirt to like go to sleep in. No, although what? It's an X-L. It's an X-L. It's an X-L. Yeah, it's a comfy shirt. Extra large.

Yeah. But it is specifically, and I love talking about Penny Marshall on the pod, Penny Marshall is big. That's what the shirt is. Yeah, that's what it is. But now, do we count that thing you do, which interrupts this right? No, that's the one qualifier. It has to be leading role.

So if you take that out, the run is from Gump to cast me if you can. There's one bump. It can go even longer all the way to League of Their Own. Yeah. But there's Philadelphia only made 77 domestic. Yeah. But if you go. Give me the streak from, because what?

I'll give you from League of Their own. That's 91? 92. 92. Okay. Penny Marshall's League of Their own, I will say. We'll have you on to talk about that. their own, sleepless in Seattle.

100,00. Philadelphia makes 77. Forrest Gump, obviously, colossal hit, a 300 plus. One of the biggest hits. Apollo 13, a gigantic hit. Toy Story, a big hit. That thing you do, we don't count, I guess. Saving Brevard Ryan, a colossal hit. Highest grossing film of its year. You've got mail

a very solid hit. Toy Story 2, matching movie. Green Mile, for a movie that long and difficult, made a lot of money. It made $130? That's right. Castaway. Humongous hit. Road to edition. I will say if I'm, you know, the seismologist

looking for the earthquake and, you know, that's where you start to be like, it makes it to like 101. It makes 104. But was even like, oh my God. For a dark movie like that. Playing a murderer in July. It did all right. In an austere period. 2002, catch me if you can. Obviously, you know, big hit

back to, and then lady killers and terminal in 2004 is where he crashes into the wall doing broad comedy for great directors. In one year, he has two movies. in a row. Because even when this bombed, I remember people being like, yeah, but he's got a Spielberg comedy coming this summer. He's going to rebound really quick. And when Terminal ends up at 70, people were like, as Hank's cooked. And I'll confess, as we're looking through those numbers,

there's something we're not even accounting for, which is when I went to see Castaway in the theater, I didn't buy a ticket for Castaway. I bought a ticket for a different movie and then went into Castaway because I was still feeling a little too salty. So you're saying that Castaway's box office is low the numbers are low there's an asterisk we have at least one ticket do you remember what you bought a ticket for instead uh i don't remember what else would have been out at that time griff um well let me let me do this math but just for listeners who don't know the great connor atliff your podcast dead eyes was about the fact that coming out of drama school you got a big job uh one episode one scene role in band of brothers an episode directed by tom hanks you were cast

the role was yours the day before they call you and say you need to meet with Tom. You need to re-audition, essentially. Yeah, I would already sign the contracts. They had cut my hair. It was ready to go. We were ready to film. He's having second thoughts. Love that we're making a revisit this yet again. I don't mind because Griffin's saying most of it, so I'm not having it.

I'm doing it really quickly. And they ended up recasting your role. You hurriedly audition. It doesn't go well. The explanation you hear from your representation is Tom thinks you have dead eyes. Before I did the re-odition, I was told this. So I went into the audition with, like, Holy shit, what do I do with this part that doesn't have a lot of dialogue, doesn't have a lot of opportunity to show off your emotional range.

You lose the part. It's an albatross around your neck for many years. It defines a lot of your sense of self and your relationship to your career and the idea of pursuing life in the arts and all of these things. But the thing you always talk about on the podcast, which is great. And people should listen to if they haven't already, is that like... And if you have apologies for all of this recapping, go ahead and hit that button that just moves you had 40 seconds.

We call it the ad break button. Yeah. That he... Should play the music under this part. Was possibly your favorite actor at the time. He's absolutely one of my favorite actors of all time. And what was so damaging about it was not just that you were fired from a big job, but that it was by someone who was one of your personal heroes,

and that it was also at the peak of Tom Hanks' undeniably, America's favorite person. He's the nicest guy in the world. We all love him. and this guy ruined your life. And so would Castaway have been the first Hank's movie that came out post-firing?

Well, when I got fired, Green Mile had just been released in England. And that was one of the things about the day I got fired walking around London and seen the poster. This giant policeman, man. I mean, he's a prison.

This true. He's just a uniform. An angelic, a beautiful portrait of a good man. Glowing. A movie that listeners get mad when I dis it. Yeah.

I think it's a very bad. Yeah, maybe give that one to watch again. I love it. Here's a little trivia cue I have for you guys. Read this sort of like, Hanks' dominant figure of the 90s, right, as we just sort of illustrated. Post the Lady Killers. It's not like Tom Hanks has ever left our life.

We love him. We can do hit indie podcasts about him, and we can have him get COVID to prove the seriousness of a pandemic. Yeah. And of very many other things. But how many movies has Tom Hanks made live action? Live action. I'm going to cut out Polar Express and the Toy Stories and all that because you know those did well.

That made over 100 million domestic. Domestic? Okay, so the first two Robert Langdon's. Da Vinci Code and Angels and Demon. Because Da Vinci Code is definitely seen as a Hanks is strategizing how to have a surefire hit. Right. What's a sort of more middle-aged starring role for him? But that is very much, I think, a post-Lady Killer's terminal move of he needs to attach himself to IP and something that could be a franchise.

DaVinci Code is a huge hit. Angels and Demons is a very... mild hit by inferno flops we're not even talking about Captain Phillips did make 100 it made $107 million

yeah obviously wonderful performance Sully makes 100 Sully made $125 million not only are you getting this you're getting them in order

David David did you ever watch my crash cut of Sully that I gave you last time yes I loved it thank you and is there one more there's one more

there's one more there's one post and it's not a starring role Elvis oh yeah there we go in which he he noticed someone about the fair singer, Elvis Presley.

What was it? His wife? He's... He's... He's... What did you say? What else? The showman and you will play Santa Claus.

You'll sing here comes Santa Claus. A performance where the seeds are being planted in the lady-killer. I'm also gonna put it out there. I don't want to talk any more about Elvis on this episode because... I regret to inform you that's impossible. No. I don't want to talk about... I won't participate. I'm going to remove myself from the conversation.

You'll recuse yourself from the Elvis tangent. Because I will say that I'll put it out there. If Lerman ever wins one of the, I have put my name on the, that's one that I take you about free. I want to do the Elvis episode because I have a lot to say about it. So if, you know, next March, man. What's just interesting about looking at his career as I'm looking at it right now is it's like, he still makes these kind of grown-up dramas that do pretty good, like Charlie Wilson's war did pretty good. Obviously, Bridges Spies did quite well.

Kind of grown-up triples. And another one that did like, you know, the Post made 80 domestic 180 worldwide. His zone kind of becomes more, he can take a grown-up drama to 60 to 80, which very few other people can. A man called Otto made like a fair amount of money not that long ago, despite being not very good and about a man called Otto. Like, it's like, Bridges Spies, you're like, this is set during the Berlin, you know, wall. Like, you're like, oh, man to call it. about. It's like, I don't know, there's some fuck called Otto. The whole pretty grim, dark

subject matter. It is quite a dark movie. That is a movie that really, you see the star power. The star power is able, anyone else in that movie it does not make that money. Like Tom Hanks getting a man called Otto to 65 is arguably more impressive than Hanks at his peak

getting Apollo 13. That's the last time Hanks made a movie that was big in theaters, I will say, because since then, and sort of around them. Two Wes Anderson's. Well, beyond that. I want to point out. I want to point out. He's made some streaming movies.

Greyhound, Pinocchio, News of the World was sort of like, that's a pretty good movie, but that was sort of a pandemic-y movie. It was as a Finch. Because his things were in this sort of like mid-tier grown-up movie zone. With budgets, but I think Sony had both Finch and Greyhound, and like the moment the pandemic started, Sony sold both of that. To Apple. He was like one of the first guys where his movies went straight to streaming rather than

theaters holding him back. And Greyhound is pretty. Pretty good. Never seen Finch. Greyhound and Finch are both movies. I'd love to see in a theater. I really want to see it. I keep waiting for there to be a moment when some of the pandemic

streamies in particular get even the slightest stuff. I think it would be a great film festival to, for some theater do like six months of streaming. I consider doing the curated, the streamies, the streamie era. But yes, as you said, those two movies got sold straight to Apple Plus. Greyhound is still, I think, they're most popular movie ever. They're making a sequel. Yeah.

Which I'm excited for. They decide is going to stream before it starts filming. Yeah. And then it turned out horribly. News of the world was like a same-day VOD. That's a good movie. Pinocchio? Robert Zemeckis is Pinocchio, probably the worst film he's ever been in.

It's a tough movie. And since then, he's done two Wes Anderson movies, which he's excellent in both. He's got one great scene in Freaky Tales, a movie. I'm the only person who talks about it. It's a movie. I ordered it sight unseen because there was a point when I was making Dead Eyes before we got to, spoiler, a spoiler for the most recent episode of Dead Eyes, before I got to Tom Hanks and resolved everything with him.

We are now on good terms. I want to say that. Where are you've talked to Tom Hanks? We have had multiple interactions. He has been very good to me. Have you interacted with him much since you interviewed him? Yes, yes. What do you just text him?

No, no. I don't take it. I have his email, but I do not take advantage of that. I emailed him once when the episode came out, but he put me in his audio book. Oh, that's cool. His audiobook, which he wrote a novel called The Making of Another Major Motion Picture Masterpiece, it is about the fictional making of a Marvel-style superhero movie and about all the things that go on in a movie said,

there is an actor in that novel who gets fired. And you voice the actor. That's fun. I voice the actor who replaces the fired actor. And they specifically says that the fired actor has dark eyes. So his novel is very much, I feel, in conversation in some small way with my podcast. Can we pin, sorry, what the email you exchanged you had with him after the episode was released? I just want to circle back to that.

Yes, we can, absolutely. But freaky tale, like, I got into the Anna Bowden, Ryan Fleck. That I like, and it has been roundly ignored, and Lionsgate Limited put out a special VHS edition of the 4K. It's on my two watch lists. I like quite a bit. Hank kills one scene in it, and his casting is really interesting, the way they use him. It's really fun. But when I was doing the podcast,

I decided I was going to own every Tom Hanks thing on Blu-ray or on whatever format. The best format I could get them on. Don't go to explain to me. It's how I interact with this podcast. And I decided, well, this is a good news. I'm investing in, like, I think I'm going to get to Tom Hanks. It was my way of sort of manifesting.

I was gradually collecting all of his work. And I have it on this little shelf in front of my desk. I also started doing it with Funko Pops because I realized there were so many Tom Hanks, like a crazy number of Tom Hanks. Funko Pops and variance. He's kind of the anti-Griffon Newman in that sense. I did this because I thought I was going to have the podcast would go on for 10 years before I got to him. And I had this vision of touring with live episodes where the Funko Pops would be like the set.

Yes. But instead, I just have this insane wall in my apartment. It is just one of the walls of your home. It's just like five different forest gumps. Yeah. Also parts, characters that don't have a Tom Hanks Funko, but he played Walt Disney. So I have the Walt Disney. I started expanding into that, but anyway,

Freaky Tales. Wait, can I pitch something? Bring the show back and then make it about getting rid of the Funko Pops. I don't want to get rid of the Funko Pops. Yeah, see, this is that kind of like buzz killed Ben and his TV. I sort of thought that's what you were going. I think this is a weird stance of maybe you should stop buying toys. If I find out

if I find out I'm sick or something and I have a certain amount of time left, I will definitely do that show. They'll be the first thing to sell. Yeah. Well, I hope then that it doesn't come back soon. Oh, that's nice. I would love it to come back too I bought Freaky Tales

Side Unseen and I really enjoyed it Yeah, I like it a lot And I do think to bring it back to Lady Killers His performance in Lady Killers Is part of this little Corner of Tom Hanks His filmography that I think of as weird Hanks

I agree with you And it might be the first I think it's kind of the first That's what is looking at it I'm like oh his career does start to change here It is I Or he seems more interesting in taking risk.

I feel like what you're talking about, which is what I found really interesting about this era of Hanks were in, right? Which is he did some really smart like, oh, Sully, Captain Phillips, who are real-life figures. Yeah, he'll still play in every man. Like, he was doing all the forms of transportation

and the most heroic person involved in a mishap. So, like, who's the boat guy? Submarine plane, Captain Phillips, I guess, what is it? Polar Express, you got the train guy. Honestly, honestly, as someone who's now seen the movie a billion times because of my daughter, he's malevolent in almost every floor. Even as Santa Claus. Yes, it's a very strange performance. I wanted to

hear is the other film he made. Oh, sure. Remember here? Yeah. Okay. Carry on. Carry on. I had a, uh, uh, Griffin and I had a long conversation on a ferry boat right after he watched here, which I liked here more than you guys did. Yeah, I promised a lot of close people in my life that they were going to hate hear as much as I did and then had to listen to you and Alex Ross Perry and several others be like, you're wrong. Here is.

good. I don't know if I said it was good. I just felt like by the end of it, it had won me over on an emotional level. It's certainly trying to do that. I'll say I'm really considering importing that Italian 4K. They're not going to do anything in the U.S. There's a Blu-ray only. And I'm just like, am I really giving it a fair reconsideration if I'm not watching it with full pixels? Yeah, you got to see all the case. I got to see the case. To me, the apex of Weird Hanks is Cloud Atlas, because that is just both a movie he talks about so fun. I love it. Me too.

And a movie where he's getting to be six weird hankses. Nothing but big swings. The whole movie is a movie made of swings. One of the six characters is sort of a classic hanksy guy, the guy with Hallie Barry. Everyone else is Hanks being like, let me do this, let me do that. You know, like this lady killers feels like him beginning to open that tool up. It's part of, to poke around.

If I were to consider like Tom Hanks' career like a map of a theme park, like a Disney World-style map. Yes, sure. That kind of language I get you nowhere on this podcast. The weird, the weird Hanks area, the mayor of that area

is David S. Pumpkins. Like, he rules over all of the, Colonel Tom Parker and... This is great. Okay, so here's the point I want to make, right? You know what?

David S. Pumpkins still holds up. Yeah, it's still fine. I watch it like every few months. The Halloween special? That I have yet to check out. I think, here's what I think. I think the Halloween special

is a little underrated. Sure, it's certainly not over it. I think it's really slammed and I think it's a little funny. It's much like my taste take on the lady killers where I'm like, I'm not going to argue this as a masterpiece. To me, I think it's a little funny. It's crucial that there is a sort of

not very good sequel within the show to David S. Pumpkins and a Halloween special, no one remembers. That's part of being a one-hit wonder as a smell sketch. I think the second sketch was bad and was a mistake. It was definitely a mistake, but don't you think that's good? It makes David S. Pumpkins all the more special because you're like, right, this isn't something that gets to recur. They tried and it failed

I think they waited so long to do the second one I don't even remember the second one I don't like what even happens in it I think New York City is having like negative emotions and there's like this river of pink slime under the city and David S. Pumpkins has to deal with it and they let

Rick Moranis be Saved D. Pumpkins his brother yeah yeah it's like it's a jump scare attraction I don't know I'm trying to remember what the structure is I remember it was In the fucking, what's his name?

It was Jack Harlow was the first. Yeah, that's correct. And he fucks it up. He's playing the Beck Bennett sort of reaction. Yeah, and he's, but the joke is that he's into it or something. Like, they change the... Because Beck Bennett is vital to David S. Pumpkins.

Yes. Like, I am so in the weeds with David S. Pumpkins is the best line in David S. Pumpkins. Either that or Leslie Jones saying, I'm crazy. Long beat for David S. Pumpkin. Yes. Long wait.

But Beck Bennett's got Swiss watch timing in that thing, which is so key to making it work. And Jack Harlow continues to be offbeat. Well, it's interesting because you think of early Hank's S&L, and he's the king of guest recurring sketches. Because you have Mr. Short-Term memory. You have him and Lovitz as the two guys who like the creeps. And these things were Conan O'Brien written sketches. They were sort of built to recur. And then you have these classic late period Tom Hanks.

Pselled Celebrity Jeopardy, Black Jeopardy. And they are not built to repeat. So, like, when they come back, they tried, yeah. They brought that character back on the SNL 50th. And they did the same beat and it didn't get laughs. And I'm like, my guy, you're copying the same exact dialogue. People know the butt probably to get Conan to come in and write the second, the recurring one. It's even more fascinating because that was just a sketch they had that they would throw at everybody.

And everyone was like, eh, maybe. And then remember, like, Hank said, like, that he was like, Chris Hemsworth feels like a day. David S. Pumpkins. Like, I don't know if I should do this. Yeah. Anyway. They also, they talk about that, like, he didn't have the take on the character until air, that he didn't have the voice and he didn't do the pointing. I do a whole episode of Dead Eyes talking to Bobby Moynihan that if you want to go deep into the weeds on how it happened, it's right there, along with the oral history of David S.

Pumpkins, which you can find online. He kept being like, I'll figure it out. I don't have it yet. And then it's just the one moment it matters. His own face. It's still funny. It still makes me laugh. It's still funny. And the roots of pumpkins can be found in his performance in ladies. Killers, I think, in terms of, like, that is the theory I want to put out. This is the theory I want to put.

I think he's good in this way. David. This episode of Blank Check with Griffin, David, a podcast about film ographies, is brought to you by booking.com. Booking dot, yeah. I mean, that's what I was about to say. Booking dot, yeah, from vacation rentals to hotels across the U.S. booking.com.

Booking dot, yeah. Has the ideal stay for anyone, even those who might seem impossible to please. God, I'm trying to think of anyone in my life, perhaps even in this room. Ben, who's, like, what's an example of someone I know who maybe has a very particular set of demands? If you're bringing me in and there's only one other person in the room. There is one other person in the room right now.

I think this is so rude. I sleep easy. I'm definitely not someone who insists on 800 thread count sheets. No, that's an example of a fussy person. But people have different demands. And you know what? If you're traveling, that's your time. time to start making demands.

Maybe you've got a partner whose sleep light rise early or maybe, you know, like you just want someone who wants a pool or wants a view or I don't know, any kind of demand. Maybe I'm traveling and I need a room with some good soundproofing because I'm going to be doing some remote

pod record. Sure. Maybe you're in Europe and you want to make sure that's very demanding to be in Europe. You got air conditioning. Well, I can think of one person in particular although it's really both of you. You gotta have air conditioning. I need air conditioning if I'm in the North Pole.

Look, if I can find my perfect stay on booking.com, anyone can. Pooking.com is definitely the easiest way to find exactly what you're looking for. Like, for me, a non-negotiable is I need a gorgeous bathroom for selfies. You do. You love selfies. As long as I got a good bathroom mirror for selfies, I'm happy with everything else. Look, they're, again, they're specifying. Like, oh, maybe you want a sauna or a hot tub?

And I'm like, sounds good to me. Yeah, please. Can I check that box? You want one of those in the recordings, do that'd be great. You want to start, you want to be. I'll be in the sauna when we were recording. I was going to say, you want to be the Dalton Trumbo, a podcast. You want to be splish, splash, and we'll talk.

It would be good if I had a sauna and a cold plunge and while recording. I'm on mic, but you just were going back and going like, ha! Like, as I moved to the goal. Ah! These are the kinds of demands that booking.com, booking. Yeah. Yes. You can find.

exactly what you're booking for. Booking.com. Booking. Yeah. Booking.com. Booked today on the site or in the end. Booking.com. Booking.com. Booking. Yeah. This is the theory I want to put out. In the way he talked to you on Dead Eyes, right, especially about his early career and him being like a summer theater festival Shakespeare guy, you know, a guy who had ambitions, But it does seem like he is still kind of surprised he became as big of a star as he did, right? That at some point he got slotted into sort of like inoffensive leading man territory in a way that got him sitcom guest roles and then TV movies and bosom buddies and all this sort of stuff. You know, he was sort of like, I was a guy at the moment. It kind of made sense.

And then he just keeps evolving into becoming like America's truest North Star, right? and I do not get the sense that he's a guy who feels imprisoned by what the persona of Tom Hanks became everywhere I know whoever has worked with him crew and cast alike is like that guy loves being Tom Hanks like not in a self-centered way

but I have rarely see someone less burdened with their public reputation than Tom Hanks who is happy to be Tom Hanks all the time and yet I do think you sense in him a little bit in the 90s where it's like huh I'm a victim of my own success I can't quite get out of this lane. In the sense that, like, I wanted to be an actor,

and now I'm a little restricted in what I could do as an actor. Like, what is his riskiest 90s performance let's exclude Bonfire of the Vanities or whatever, like very early 90s. It's, like, it was him playing bad. League of their own is my all-time favorite Tom Hanks performance. It's the time capsule one because it has all of the ambition

and the striving of him doing something different, but it also has everything that's great about classic, Splash Hanks. Agreed. Because one of my frustrations as a fan of Tom Hanks is how infrequent. David's peeing. All right. You'll hear this.

He's going to make his own splash in the toilet. Oh, my gosh. And really project so he can hear it while he's in the bathroom. Or should this be just for us? Maybe it's just for us. Maybe let's let him catch up. And let's keep referencing back to this, but not explaining what was said. Connor, make your point.

Yeah. So, um, basically David Sims No David David S. Piscan. David S. Connor's got to make his point

before he flushes the toilet. So I think Tom Hanks I'm going to have a lot of Hank's takes in this episode but one of the things is in his own natural voice flush flush

Yeah. Fuck. I didn't make it. He's going to feel completely caught up. David, great news. Connor waited for you to Yeah, I wanted you didn't

I didn't want to leave you out of it. He thought it would be rude to keep talking. Tom Hanks, in his own natural speaking voice, especially yelling is one of, like, there's no, there might be some who are his match, but there's no one better at yelling at another person in a movie. Yelling is 90% of Woody, the cowboy. The first thing that I-

Because I are a toy. Like, that's all that stuff. Yeah. No one else is as good. It really is. And the first thing I remember him doing in a movie that really had an impression on me was the I am not a fish in Splash where he's fully naked cupping his genitals

and I was just like this guy is putting it all out there. It doesn't put it all out there though and I will call his cowardice out. He's never shown Tom? I don't think so. I mean, I haven't checked every looking crazy.

But you haven't seen Freaky Tales. No, I haven't. Maybe he hangs dong and freaky tails. You know what I said he's got a really interesting small part? It's just him standing there naked. Yeah. 60-something tall old is Tom Hanks. He just to be.

The upper 60s. 69 years old. Nice. Yeah, brother. Just turned 69. But League of their own is that perfect thing. There's no crying in bed. There's no crying in baseball.

It has that tone, that it has that timber. There's that little scratch in it, whatever, he's getting mad. Yeah. And it's, and that we are deprived of that in a lot of, a lot of his post-90s work, or mid-90s and on. He's doing a dialect or he's doing a different kind of voice. Woody is one of the rare things where you hear that Hank's voice. It's part of the juice of the Toy Story franchise becomes the one outlet for kind of a classic Hank

that's frozen in time because it's a different physical representation, but he can still give it that energy vocally. Here's kind of my master take I want to throw out, right? Big is the moment that, like, completely mints him as a star. He gets the Oscar nomination. And then infamously, he kind of like missteps for the next, Handful of years after Big. He can't quite find what he's supposed to be doing.

He stays in the big lane of like doing kind of like comedy, dromedy. Because Big is a weird example of a studio comedy that gets an acting nomination. So it's sort of like, okay, so I'm a more serious comedy star. But right, punchline the Burbs, Turner and Hoogh, Joe versus the volcano, Bonfire of the Vanfier's. Bonfire of the Vanity's is the Nadeeer because he's horribly miscast. And like... There's no bonfire in vanities. I mean, it is...

Put out that fire! You read the book and you're just like, how on... Like, they should swap him in Willis. Yes. Is, I guess, the simplest, like, solution. Because Willis is also kind of miscastle. Although he actually, I kind of like... By the time they realized that, they'd already done that one opening shot.

And they're like, I can't reshoot. We can't reshoot it. With the opening... And so, right, League of their own, which is two years later, is him hitting a reset button, taking a support. taking a supporting role. And I think in those years, people were like, sort of, does he not get what he's good at, right?

League of their own was this ingenious, like, isn't the audience going to reject you? They're starting the movie playing a son of a bitch. Didn't this just backfire on Bonfire the Vanity's? But he's really smart of, like, the motor that movie needs is, here's Tom Hanks having fun, playing washed out, playing angry, playing an asshole. But you see the Tom Hanks goodness in him,

which gives you the arc over the course of the, movie of we want to see this guy get his act together. Right? Also, there's a shift I'll point out, and I don't know where you mark this exactly, but if you were to watch, just go through his filmography, the first, let's say, act one of his film career is very horny. Horny, Horny Hanks. No, you're not wrong.

80s Hanks is pretty horny. 80s is so horny. Volunteers. Yeah. I mean, Dragnet, he's all over, Accord, nothing. Yeah, I remember a shot from volunteers. I remember a shot from volunteers where he's like having sex with someone in like the dorm room and it's on simulating. It's just like, yeah.

Yeah, there's just so much stuff that you don't, if you start watching from like big on, you don't find it as much. No, no, because he becomes like America's old oak tree, right? Yeah, he doesn't have a lot of on-screen sex. George Washington of cinema. And then the other thing is you're calling out dialects, but I'd argue like 90s, early 2000s, he's basically. always staying within 10 degrees of his home-based voice, right? Yeah, yeah. Like, it feels like there's this conscious thing of, like,

I can do a little bit of a dialect, but if I try to sound less like Tom Hanks, the audience is going to reject it, and you'd see him do talk show interviews, or you'd see S&L, which I'd argue is actually the starting point of weird Hanks, where, like, once a year, once every other year, he comes on, he's a great host,

people are like, man, he's so gay, he can play all these different characters. And then people in the movies are like, but don't get too far away from that. I'm going to open the dossier. Then catch me if you can, he's doing a big swing Boston accent, and people are sort of like, huh, that leads to Lady Killer's Terminal.

And as you said, Polar Express, which is a big hit, but all three of those movies are 2004, Polar Express is him trying to do weird hanks in a movie. Sure, sort of. I mean, sort of. It's part of why the performances don't work in my opinion. I mean, the hobo especially and stuff like that. What's up?

I'm going to open the dossier. And then from that point on, it's this balance between him finding sturdy adult fare and opportunity. for weird Hanks, but it does feel like when he's doing shit like saving Mr. Banks.

He's a little, he's phoning it in and something like saving Mr. Banks. I think he's not bad in it and that's another one that makes like 80 or 90 or whatever. That's him like putting the twinkle on autopilot.

Yes. Taking a nap. It is him feeling still, I got to represent some idea of what Tom Hanks is. I would argue in the last five or 10 years he's like, I fully do not give a shit anymore.

Yeah. And he doesn't do any calculation about like, is it beneath me to do one scene in freaky tales. The West parts aren't as big as you would imagine. He loves doing the Westards. And like, when I interviewed Wes Anderson, it was so obvious.

I think I said this one, like, how proud Wes is that Hanks came to set. And Wes is like, look, this is how we do it here. There's no trailers. We all live in the hotel. We all eat dinner together. Everyone is on set at all times. And Hanks was like, this rocks. I wish everything was like this.

And apparently can just sit down in a chair and go like this. Like, just go to sleep. But he's so good in those movies I still think he's concerned with boomer representation Like here, that's a boomer movie Greyhound boomer Like he's still like out there being like

Don't worry, the boomers have their man on screen When he's the guy When he's the guy When he's trying to mount a movie under his name But I feel an energy from him showing up for literally one scene in Phoenician I'm such a great scene Feeling so freed

The Phoenician thing strikes me Definitely also as him just being like I really enjoy Detroit, Sydney. Like, I like going to that vacation. Also, I want to play. I just want to act. I want to not feel burdened by my reputation.

I am so excited that possibly that he might be part of the ensemble in all future West things. And eventually, like, we'll get our Steve Zezoo. We'll get our. West will do a movie that'll be like, let's give Hanks a really, like. The thing with Del Toro, where it's like, West keeps seeing him. Yeah. And it's like, I keep thinking of you as like Aristotle or Nasus. And Del Toro apparently was just like, I could do that.

All right, like, hold that thought. The last thing I'll say is that I had a thing, and this is something I never, I always had it in my back pocket as like, oh, we could do a Dead Eyes episode that'll sort of explore this, but I never really talked about it because we never got around to it. And it is that the lady killers, see, I'm tying it back in here, the lady killers lands in an era where I had this observation about the movies that Tom Hanks was doing and why he was doing them. And it was frustrating to me. Connor take, and it's the main reason I wanted to make sure you're on this episode, because this is a great example of it. Well, the pre part of the take is I always felt like the best Tom Hanks movie that Tom Hanks never made was the Truman Show. Sure. Because I always felt like Jim Carrey was too weird to be playing, and the way he plays it is like a weird guy.

And I'm like, that movie, I think, makes more sense to me if it's, it's like the ultimate Tom Hanks movie. I'm just a normal guy and then I find out this neighborhood is a TV show as opposed to like, hi, I'm the guy who lives in the neighborhood. And it's a TV show. What are these cameras doing here? But I say that as that I always wish that was a Tom Hanks movie. I started looking at this period of movies where Tom Hanks would show up in the movie after the one that would have been the slam dunk. Meaning he sees Shawshank Redemption. He's like, I got to do a film like that.

What's that guy's next movie? What's Frank Deribon's next movie? I want to star in it. It's the Green Mile. Everyone's less favorite of the two. But so. Still a good movie, but it's not Shawshank Redemption. And you're like, and you're like,

like Hanks could have played Andy Dufrain. Like, that was too risky a move for his startup. Then you have American Beauty, American Beauty, which I maintain, even before all of the Kevin Spacey news, I maintain

that that movie is far more subversive if it was Tom Hanks playing that role. I think the whole movie works better because Kevin Spacey, even just his cinematic history, you're like, if he's not cutting off Gwyneth Paltrow's head, he's a good guy. Like, the bar is so low for...

Spacey was always a slime ball. That was his thing. Whereas, where you back to working. Tom Hanks playing that role, I feel like would be like, oh my God, he's like really going through this midlife crisis. It would have an American Beauty, that movie would still have some juice. Tom Hanks, jerking off in the shower, which is the start of American Beauty, would actually, like, sort of throw audiences out of their seat.

And when I picture, like, the comedy part of... But it's actually not possible. Like, that movie couldn't be made. I'm serious. It would be too shocking. Even a DreamWorks... It would have been... I think it would have been a great movie

and the ending would have made sense. Him being like, I don't, this isn't who I am. The decency of that last scene and the tragedy of that movie would have felt, like, I don't disagree with you. I'd still be crying about that movie

if that was a Tom Hanks movie. But then he shows up for the next Sam Mendy's film, Road to Perdition. Which he's good in. He's good in it. But when I think of what the Tom Hanks American Beauty would have been, I would have been like,

that would have been a movie that actually said something. Whereas when you cast America's favorite like sociopath as the main guy, you're kind of like, uh, okay. Right. I hear you. I hear you.

And then you have George Clooney doing O'Brother or Aren't Thou kind of making the Coen Brothers like movie stars can star in Coenbrother movies. It has to be the thing that Hanks is looking at that gives him the security. Being like, why can't I do that? I can do this right. Yeah. And then you have this movie that has like T-Bombernet infused soundtrack. We're going like Americana like.

It is the closest. cousin to a brother in their filmography. And you could always feel this thing of like someone does something and then Tom Hanks will be like I want to be in that next person's thing and it always ends up being a little bit like it's not quite the thing. And what

is the movie that the Coens make right after Lady Killers? Three years later but their immediate following film. No country for old man. Correct. Like this is the other part of your argument I like is sometimes he's a little early. Right. He's thought of the person to collaborate with but he's picked the wrong thing. They're at the

wrong point yeah because any like he is still primarily a filmmaker first actor i weirdly can imagine tom hanks in any of those three roles in no country for old men like there's a version of that movie i don't know if which of those is the best and it's hard to picture anything in that movie changing in such a drastic way and not feeling like a diminishment but it is there is part of you that has to feel like oh i do this movie and then their next one is the one that like and if they announced tomorrow that the Coens were reuniting and making a neo-Western and Tom Hanks was one of the three leads, I'd be hootin and holler it. If the implication was that Hanks was going to be in a Cohen's movie in that mode at his current age, that's the other thing is he's got

just like so much innate gravitas now that he can throw out. The Lady Killers, of course, is an Ealing comedy directed by Ealing Legend, Alexander McKendrick. Have you guys seen the Lady Killers, 195. I, in fact, rewatched it last night. And how'd you find it? I like it a lot.

It's not my favorite even comedy. Me neither. But it's totally good. Now, both of you have... And it has Alec Guinness doing this shit, you know, better than anyone can do it. Alec Guinness, who is one of the sort of 10 guys, I think, can make the argument

for the greatest screen actor who ever lived. No offense to Tom Hanks, who I like a lot. Well, the thing that's impressive with Alec Guinness, it was how versatile and community. Eelianic he was, while also being able to do a really incredible home base performance. Right. And also, he could sword fight like nobody else. He could do everything.

Take that car, Fader. Yeah. Oh. I only saw the original lady killers. David's doing some lightsaber fight. I'm doing OB-1's very forced lightsaber stuff. I only saw the original lady killers last week, and I watched it in preparation for this episode. Do you like the Ealing comedy?

Do you have a base on the Ealing comedy? I was a lot of those when I moved to England. I don't have more of a relationship to British culture than I do. So I'm kind of looking to you for a little. little bit of understanding on the original. I haven't seen. I don't know if I've even seen any other Ealing comedies.

You ever see a kind of hard? I lived in England for a while. I went to school in England. I didn't see any of the carry-on films and I didn't see any of the Ealing comedy. The carry-on films is one of those things which watch Carry-on camping or something and like, you're fine.

The rest of them the exact same fight. It's an easy weekend. It's just 47 movies to know. What is Carion? They're the epitome of like old-fashioned British comedy, which is basically like, you know, it's a bunch of situations happening. I want to light the fire.

And it's always like a lot of like, oh you know like and like someone's top flies off and everyone's like oh but they were also they were like the early british equivalent of like the friedberg selzer like date movie epic movie where you're like three these are coming out how do they turn them out so quickly you know and there's a posh guy who goes like eh you know it's just it's the epitome of like corny 40s before i want to like the fire for the blankies on the patreon this sounds like a great patreon yeah it only takes all of the carry on every year for decades there'd be like three of them and they were like Kevin on receptionist

carry-on shoe salesman carry-on ancient groves it does speak to the sort of British tradition where

their dedication to like a ceremony is that if like you accidentally make something like a carry-on

movie then you have to keep making them it has to take the piss out of every single thing before

the series can be retired so the Ealing comedy's Ben just to give context for listeners as well

sophisticated counterpoint it's sort of post war there's Ealing Studios, which Ealing is a neighborhood in West London, like that produces a lot of films that I really think epitomize Britain after the war, this kind of like chipper, sort of mordant, like, it's, they're very sweet, but they're a little dark, and like whiskey galore, kind hutch, and cornets is obviously a famous one. That's the one where Aliccanus.

The one I like the best, although I have not seen many of them. Alecannis plays a bunch of roles. I highly recommend to anyone the Lavender Hill Mob, which is amazing. movie really, really funny with Alec Innocon. Aliciniscis isn't a ton of them. A man in the white suit, Barnacle Bill, the Lady Kill, you know, there's lots of them. They tend to be, you know,

funny, but kind of dark comedies. And the Coen Brothers, what I want to know is what's their relationship to it. I guess a remake of the Lady Killers had been sort of at Fox

since the mid-90s. At Disney. At Disney. At Disney. It's like perfect sense as a title to remake. There is a sort of just like simple logline for this movie. And especially because I think it is it is kind of seen as one of the canonical classics in British comedy. And it has a sort of simple setup of like a bunch of criminals are trying to get one over on this old lady and like she somehow is indestructible. But it's not as well known here in the States.

No, but it's a piece of IP and Disney had it. They have this. We got this. We got the lady killer's IP. I guess they bought it in some way. Robert Harling, who wrote Steela Magnolia. Steela Magnolia. Take them.

In 1998, it was announced as the writer and director of a Touchstone Lady Killer's remake that was going to take the original London setting and bring it to the big, easy, Nalans. And yes, this cup of tea was going to turn into a pot of gumbo. Snowgators. They're what?

Sorry. Harling leaves the project. and on comes Barry Sondonfeld, the Coen Brothers cinematographer of Yore. Get out of here, Harling, Barry's here. Who had just made Wild, Wild, Wild, Wild. It's a bit of Wild Wild West. And Wild Wild West had not done very well.

Nonetheless, he is prepping Men in Black 2. He's also prepping Big Trouble. He's the one who brings in the Coen brothers to polish the script because he's their old pal. It was a writing assignment. They'd obviously, the Coens, had an English father. an American citizen who joined

the army and like but he was born in Britain or something like Edward Cohn is the guy and Joel and Ethan had written together before. They never directed a movie together. They've been writing together. They're as a writing team. They've grown up with the Ealing comedies and

they love them. This is not a situation like true grit coming up where they're like, fuck that movie. They have plenty of reverence for the lady killers. Yes. But also as we've said before post Big LaBoubous which was really like a kind of knockdown moment for them, they start taking four higher writing gigs

in a way they hadn't before and being like, you know what, sure, we'll polish a script, we'll do a pass, we'll like on assignment adapt your material. This was straight up just a gig for them. Now, can I jump in for a second because this is not in the dossier, but I cross-reference with JJ.

My friend Barry Josephson, producer of The Tick and Disenchanted. But end of this. He was Barry Soninfeld's producing part. I think it's a little bit more of a title than when I talked to him about it, he was not a very hands-on producer on this. But he would have been had Barry directed, it wouldn't assume. Exactly. So he was developing it with Barry Sondonfeld for a very long time.

He teams up. This is the first time that they teamed up as the two Barrys. So he had been the head of production, I think, at Columbia Pictures. And then after Men in Black is delivered, he's like, this guy is going to be on such a hot streak. I'm leaving my position and going into business with him as a. producer, and then they proceed to make three shitty movies. Wild Wild West, big trouble, and, uh, I guess that David listen. So the wheels are already kind of coming off the wagon at this point.

Also do the, the pilot of the Warburton, uh, tick show together. The thing that Barry told me that is not on the record anywhere, but he said I'm allowed to share here. Go ahead. Was that the Sonnenfeld. Uh, go ahead. Cohen's scripted lady killers was meant to be a vehicle for Nicholas Cage. I think I might have said this in the.

Raising Arizona episode? It could see that. That makes sense. He drops out of it. I want to say maybe to do adaptation. I mean, it's sort of the Nicholas Cage era of, like, him doing like family man and weather man, like these sort of like comedy. I can see that he would seek this out.

But Nicholas Cage is a star who even though he had become a little broader. Realizing he did a lot of movies about men. He loves men. Yeah. He was kind of the original manosphere. Right. Yeah. I'm sorry, the menosphere.

But he makes sense as a guy who had become such a big star, and yet, being weird was part of his brand. And if he had shown up with weird teeth and weird facial hair, doing a voice in this movie, people wouldn't have been like, absolutely not my Nick Cage, right? Cage drops out for some other project. I think it was adaptation. And when that happens, Sonnenfeld's like, I really just wanted to do it with Cage. If he's not doing it, I'm not interested. And that's when the Coens get the call up. The way the Cohen's described adapting the film, they say it was fun to desecrate it, essentially.

This is Joel, frankly, the idea of despoiling a work of art kind of appealed to us. So they're sort of having fun mucking around with a class. Part of it is they're writing it, assuming they're not going to direct it. So they're like, who cares to a certain degree? Probably a little bit who cares. They have the, you know, the original, the lady is a stereotypical old lady. She's a genteel English lady, right? And they were like, we want the lady to be more of like a kind of rock of faith type, like more of a sort of tough old broad, right?

And so they have this idea of the sort of Southern Baptist black woman. And this, you know, similar to intolerable cruelty, which we just discussed, starts as a writing job. So yes, maybe their passion for it is not as initially intense as some of their projects. Look, I think they liked the idea of doing it. It doesn't feel like a movie they would have strategically developed. from the ground up to direct. Once Barry drops out, they decide they want to do it. It's not like they got forced into it.

No, no, it was their choice. But this is that era. It's the two movies in a row that feel like things that were for higher jobs, at bigger studios that could be seen as broader, more commercial plays that they decide to direct themselves. The third movie in this trilogy that never comes to pass is their Gambit remake, which they had similarly written on assignment. You ended up making that? I think it's Michael Hoffman. That sounds right. Made it with Cameron Diaz and Colin Firth and Alan Rickman

is an ultimate movie that doesn't exist, but is a movie that kind of... It did make a name for herself out here. Just to complete both the New Orleans and the gambits. Well done. 100 Flaming Carlin. They claim, and perhaps they're correct, that this is the first IBS movie.

They're kind of proud of how low brow the humor is. Here's my big take. At a certain point, they're like, we're doing like loser Ocean's 11. We're doing like an Ocean's 11 where everyone an idiot. This movie feels to me, it finally hit me last night. This feels like if the Cohen brothers had directed a happy Madison movie in this era. And I think to a lot of people, that sounds like an absolute nightmare. And it's a cross-section of two things I like that

even if I'm like, this is not the best use of anyone's time, I'm kind of happy it exists. But absolutely, like the amount of shit jokes in this combined with everything else. Well, especially the fact that the, the IBS runner in the movie. And it does run. It does it ever. J.K. Simmons's character, to be clear, is the... It all just builds to a very quick sort of bait and switch gag, which is you think he's having a bowel movement, but he's being killed. It doesn't actually really impact the heist,

which is sort of your expectation, is that... The heist in general is not that important in this movie. It's funny, actually, though. You're right, though, because it's like, they keep setting it up as like, and here's another ticking bomb. Right, right. That's a complication. and it like goes off twice

but neither time in a way that actually causes problems. He both has to shit when they're on the riverboat and he needs to shit when he's in the tunnel. But like whenever he needs to use the bathroom when they're actually in the casino, you feel like, oh, they're going to get caught.

Nothing goes wrong with it. There's a lot of, sort of the way that like Lobowski keeps defying your expectation of how one of these things is supposed to go. Like how the way things go wrong will frequently be like, well, that's not the way I expected it would go wrong. And there's a lot of things like that in this.

They set you up to know how things will go wrong and then they kind of don't happen. Yeah. And I think that, I mean, that's one of the reasons why I think a lot of people initially were not satisfied by the Big Lobowski because they're actively sort of defying the thing that we know will satisfy an audience, which is you set something up and then you pay it off. And I think they're enjoying that. And I think they also do that. that in like the man who wasn't there. There's a lot of like the co-brothers like doing that thing which is like you think we're going to do this because they know how to set up a joke and I think there's a part of them that likes like we're going to set up the joke and then

tell you a different punchline at a different time than you're expecting and you'll never get the thing that you were expecting. Now that having been said when they do that in a drama generally I think people receive it as oh it's kind of a profound statement on the unknowability of life right and the lack of control these characters have. When they do it in a comedy, there is often this response of, so they're just fucking with me. None of this matters. You know, I feel like there's this kind of knee jerk that Labowski got of just like,

oh, so they're just like fucking around. This whole movie's a lark that I think then gets filed under people's like, are these guys arrogant? The Coens, while they finish their script and decide to take over the director's chairs, realized Tom Hanks is their first choice. They approach him. Tom Hink's It should have been Foghorn

Lakehorn Yeah they He turns out He's just a cartoon Foghorn did test though And that's when they realized He was just a cartoon Also I believe this was

What this was after back in action It was so his box office He was poisoned At this point Foghorn Leghorn in the early 2000s Hollywood was like We are not in the Foghorn Leghorn business anymore

People forget How much the failure of Looney Tunes back in action At the box office got pinned on Foghorn Which I don't think it's fair Because he's not Which I say, I say that's not fair to popcorn. Yeah, I'll say, I say.

So, Hanks, obviously, is not that drawn to were remaking the Lady Killers, but loves the Coins, had never met them, likes their movies, really likes Raising Arizona, Blood, Simple, Fargo. And has every reason at this point to trust that this will be a fantastic film. They have a great track record. He's never seen The Lady Killers. He says he's probably seen Kind Hearts and Recorn. but that's it.

So he doesn't have a big grounding for the Ealing comedies outside of reputation. He doesn't watch it. He doesn't want like Alec Guinness entering his brain.

They do style him fairly similarly. I mean, they come up with an American-ized Colonel Sanders-fied version of it, but the paleness and the red around the eyes and the teeth,

clearly the Coens are latching on to some element of this character looking sickly and like a zombie is part of. I also think, though, I think it was a

good impulse. Sometimes I think like the danger is that you'll accidentally do something that's stealing without meaning to because you'll just have parallel thinking. I do think if it would be if you were just watch a bunch of scenes, just scenes of the character and put them in a mix with a bunch of other scenes, I don't think you'd be like, oh, those are the, those two are the same character in two different movies. Sure. He invented a whole backstory for him of like he's on sabbatical from some university because there was a sexual harassment lawsuit and he's a boy. You know, like, Hank gets to work figuring out who door is. I love that none of its explain.

I think the Cohen's kind of just let him do that. And his first trip to the Cannes Film Festival is with this movie. And it plays at the Cannes Film Festival after it has come out in the United States and flop. Yes, because it came out in March in the U.S. And so March or April? Yeah. And it wins. the jury prize for Irma P. Hall.

It's a very, it's a special award for Irma P. Hall outside of the two acting awards. That they, it's the Tarantino jury. The Cannes Film Festival, Ben, usually just gives out two acting awards, gendered, right? And it's just, it's two performances, male and female. They gave a special award created just for this extreme circumstance, handed out by Quentin Tarantino to Irma P. Hall in this movie. six weeks after it flopped.

It's another can triumph for the Coen Brothers. Is Samuel Jackson in Jungle Fever the only other time that happened? I don't know. It's a time that it happened. I don't know. I don't know how you see it. But his memory is that he had a great time at Cannes with the Lady Killer. Big standing ovation. Everyone enjoyed it. Makes sense. This is the kind of movie French people.

Like, yeah, this is what America's like, right? And then he's like, and then the next year, I went with the Da Vinci Code. And obviously, we had a giant reception and, like, you know, red carpet and all that. But by the time the movie was over, he was like, the theater was half empty. And he's like, obviously that movie made a billion dollars or whatever, but

like, I had a better time. David. Okay, okay. I'll be quiet. I'm used to it. Producer Ben is sleeping. Oh, hazy boy is getting some Zeezy, Zee, Zee's with multiple dashes.

What's he sleeping on? He's sleeping on one of the new beds we got from Wayfair for the studio for our podcast naps but this is a big opportunity for us we get to do the first ad read for Wayfair on this podcast no no Griffin you're clearly not listening to past recordings Ben did a Wayfair ad for us recently you listen to past recording yes sometimes that's psycho behavior it is look he did that when we were sleeping look apparently we need to talk about how when you hear the word game day you might not think Wayfair but you should Because Wayfair is the best kept secret for incredible and affordable game day finds.

Makes perfect sense to me. Absolutely. And just try to, David, just if you could please maintain a slightly quiet, we don't have to go full whispered. I just want to remind you that Haas is sleeping. I mostly just think of Wayfair as some, a website where you can get basically anything. Yeah, of course. But Wayfair is also the ideal place to get game day essentials, bigger selection, curated collections, options for every budget slash price point.

You want to make like a sort of man cave? Your style, he's David. Okay, fine, okay, all right, sorry. You know, Wayfair stuff gets delivered really fast, hassle-free, the delivery is free. If you, for game day specifically, Griffin, you could think about things like recliners and TV stands, sure. Or outdoor stuff, like coolers and grills and patio heaters. David, that's, you know, that's all on winter months. David, you have like basically a football team worth of family at home.

You got a whole team to cheer up. This is true. You need cribs. Your place must be lousy with cribs. I do have fainting beds. I have cribs, sconces, shays lounges? I'm low on sconces. Maybe it's time to pick up a few game-day sconces.

This is the kind of thing that would make your home team cheer. Look, I'm just going to say that Wayfair is your trusted destination for all things game day. From coolers and grills to recliners and slow cookers, shop, save, and score today at Wayfair. dot com. That's W-A-Y-F-A-I-R-com, Wayfair, Every-Style, Every Home. David, there's only one shame to this ad read. Don't wake, Ozzy. There's only one shame to this ad read that I didn't find out about this in time before I already purchased, coolers, grills, folding chairs, patio, heaters, recliners, barware,

slow cookers, sports-themed decor, merch for my favorite teams and more. If only I knew. Cleveland Browns, of course. Vonte Mac, no matter what. I'm brought you back, no matter. Okay, that's the end of the app. Bye. David, yes.

This episode is brought to you, the listener by Mooby, a curated streaming service dedicated to elevating great cinema from around the globe. From iconic directors to emerging outtors, there's always something new to discover. With Mooby, each and every film is hand-selected. So you can explore the best of cinema streaming anytime anywhere. And here's a hand selection. Here's a spotlight.

Nothing more to discuss here. Everything's, wait, wait, what's up? What? David, I've turned the spotlight on. I've put my glove on to select by hand through the creak of the door. We have three different visuals going on here. The glove to handpick. Oh, of course.

David Mussolini, colon, son of the century. It is, look, it's an exciting project, but it's really funny to be like, guys, Mussolini! Here's what's funny about it, just to peel back the curtain for a second. We get like messages that are like, hey, you guys good with this ad. Yeah, here's the copy for the ad. And as shorthand, it was texted to us as you guys good with the Mussolini ad. And I was like, Mussolini sponsoring the podcast. What do you mean?

To be clear, we decry Ilduchet Mussolini, Benito Mussolini. Benito Mussolini, the terrible dictator of Italy. But we celebrate Joe Wright and his newest project. The filmmaker Joe Wright in quotes, Musilini, colon, son of the century. An eight episode series about Mussolini's rise to power, and I will say not to sound

like a little nerd over here, but it is actually very interesting to consider Mussolini's rise to power in these times. You know, he was sort of the original fascist and the way that he sees power in Italy is

unfortunately something we should probably have on our minds right now I'm not trying to be a loser right now you sound like me right now this is the kind of thing I say it's a very interesting part of history and I feel like because you know other World War II things

became whatever the history channel's favorite thing you don't hear quite as much about wrestling these guys no you're right unfortunately sadly tragically frighteningly he's not a hugely this is a hyperrelevant time and this is a theatrical hypervisual tour to four starring Luca Marianelli

Martin Eden himself. Remember that? A beloved member of the Old Guard, a movie I Love, an episode that people considered normal. Let's not litigate everything. Checking notes here, great. Critics are calling it a towering performance

of puffed up vanity. It features an era-bending score by Tom Rollins of the Chemical Brothers. Imagine Techno Beats scoring fascist rallies. It just sounds kind of Joe Wrighty. It does. Joe Wright, you know, he won't just do a typical costume drama.

He likes to, you know, think about things in a different way. You've got futurism, surreal stagecraft, cutting edge visuals. Guardian calls it, quote, a brilliantly performed portrait of a pathetic monster. It's part political, burlesque,

part urgent contemporary warning about how democracies fall. This is heavy ad copy, guys. Usually it's kind of like, hey, shorts, you know, you use some big words. A gripping, timely series, the Guardian. Remarkable, The Telegraph. A complex portrait of evil, financial times. Yeah. No,

it's uh joe right uh one of the one of the scariest people i ever interviewed i've told you that's right he was he was he knows he's kind of a cool guy also that's i guess that's all right he's certainly gotten interesting he's very interesting and he's made some great movies and he's made some like big swings that didn't totally connect totally that's really interesting he actually is a blank check filmmaker unlike a lot some people that gets suggested you're like sure doesn't fit the model this one does this one does look just stream great films at home you can try movie for you for 30 days at movie.com slash blank check.

That's M-U-B-I-com slash blank check for a month of great cinema for free. You can watch Mussolini or you can, you can watch not Mosulini things. Yeah, they got lots of movies. I got a lot of things. Bye. Marlon Wayans

begged to be in this movie, he said. You know, he said, I begged and pleased. and hit the casting couch, and I did both of them. J.J. Note, Jesus. He hit the casting couch. Marlin's quote that I'm sure

is meant to be a joke, and thank God, J.J. editorialized to let us know that he does not approve of that joke. You know, he basically, you know, Marlins, like, I watched all their movies. I found, you know,

I sort of get the kind of, like, cartoonish, Bugs Bunny energy. I jerked off Ethan, then Joel. See, this is why I do think that there is... Did it kind of 1906. When I hear that, because that is a Marlin original joke, I detect some of that voice

in his character in this movie. Yeah, it's an interesting question. I mean, Marlon is so interesting. I think he is such a powerful performer and there is the swing between his own projects which are not always exactly my cup of tea but I can't deny he is like very engaging on screen. And then anytime he like hands himself over to a director

and is like, I want to do your thing, I think he's kind of incredible. Okay. Like he's great in Requiem. He's good in Requiem. I don't like that movie. I don't either, but I think he's great. Wait, for a dream?

Yeah. Yeah. Be excited. Be, be excited. Everyone in that movie is just dialed to 5,000. He's horrendous in... It ends so badly for some of those characters. But I'm not counting that as a real director's movie.

Can you find some of the characters in that movie, it ends badly for them? Yeah, they don't have a good time in that way. That's my take on that movie. A lot of those characters meet a bad end. I loved him in air. I think he's great in the air. I liked him a lot in On the Rocks. Yeah, I thought he worked in that.

On the Rocks would mostly my takeaway was like, God, he's still hot as fuck. This is the other thing. Marlon Williams is so handsome. He's a really good looking guy. And he's aging impeccably. And it's not like Sean isn't handsome. Sean's also good looking. But Marlins, equally has.

Yeah, yeah. But obviously, he doesn't do a lot of what we're talking about. He largely is in other stuff. I think he's really funny in Norbert. He is really funny in Norbert. I also think he's good in GI Joe. Is he? I think he's kind of good.

Is he? Are you just saying that because that's the other one? I think he's kind of good in G. I don't remember him being much of anything in that movie. Wallace Whipcord weems? That's who he is. The Wallace Ripcord weems. Nobody in that. Everyone feels, I enjoy that movie okay. Everyone feels a little lost in it.

It's a lot of garbage. It's so silly. Yeah. It's one of the silliest movies ever made. I've never seen any of them. Silly. There's just two. No, there's three.

Oh, no, there's three. You're forgetting. You got the origin of snake eyes. I don't think I, I think I tried to watch that one and couldn't even finish it. Here's the thing about it. It's not very engaging. No. It is a classic like Pat and Oswald joke. You know that guy's snake eyes? Oh yeah, with the mask and he doesn't talk. He's so awesome. Here's a movie about who he was before he got the mask. What he used to talk a lot. Bad happened to him involving dice. Wayans decides his character's the audience's point of view.

I guess I can kind of see that. I don't really know. Only in the sense that he's the only person who feels. Yeah. And he's in a modern world. I also think that's a helpful thing for an actor to have speaking to a point we made this is a quote from Joel Cohen Marlon was funny as hell and he improvised a lot of that stuff well well well we were telling Marlon well well I say it does

seem that Marlon improvised a few of the lines in the movie and we shall get waffles maybe I just need to be in the movie because I was box office poison at the time we were telling Marlin I was blacklisted I say really be given a writing credit because of what he does in some of those scenes he was great Irma P. Hall

kind of one of of those, like, you know, actors with a million credits. But much like, what was the name of the woman in the original Lady Killers? She only started acting in her 50s. Right, right. And then that was her first major role. She wins the BAFTA for Best British Actress and dies two years later. Kate Johnson.

Her only above the title role, Irma P. Hall, similarly, I think, doesn't have her first screen credit until her 50s. Yeah, she's got like a couple things like back in the day. but Roos really, I think, properly starts acting in the late 80s. She's very good in the film A Family Thing, which she got like some critics notices for. I didn't realize at the time that that was the same actor when the Lady Killers came out.

Her performance is so different. She's a, I think, generally. Yeah. Anytime you see her in a movie, you're like, right, this is like a very, very good character. And just the briefest of moment to lament the loss of Billy Bob Thornton as a screenwriter because there was that era where he was writing a bunch of movies And I felt like a family thing was my favorite thing he wrote.

He also wrote movies that were about like real life in the South. And it was like, oh, yeah, this guy has like some grounding on that. And now he's like a, he's all right now he puts it all into his song. Could I just give a really quick run down because I think it's interesting? She was a high school teacher. She taught languages, right? Then she got a side work during the summer as an interim publicist on an independent film that was filming in Dallas where she lived. It's called Book of Numbers.

It's sort of like a early somebody's crime movie. The director saw her do a poetry reading and was like, let me give you a little role in this. She kind of gets the bug. But then she basically is like, I like acting. Let me start a local theater company. So she builds a very successful and I think still existing to this day theater company and then does little roles on the side. She doesn't full time act. She's 90 years old.

She's still alive. She doesn't full time act until 1984. Yeah. And then. At which point she's like. 50 years old. Apart from a family thing, which I do feel like was her first

sort of quote-unquote breakout. Soul Food. She's in Soul Food, which is a very fun movie. She's in, she's apparently the Grandma in Steel. We're gonna watch Steel one day. We are the Friends of Superman Patreon series.

Right. I remember her in the, in the Clinneyswood Midnight and Garden of Good Are You, which is not one of Clint's best, but it's okay. She's in Beloved. Which we covered, I don't remember. No, I think it's a pretty small role.

Patch Adams. She's in Patch Adams, which I have seen. Your favorite, movie Bad Company. That's a tough one. What's she in that one? She's pretty far down the cast. She is Jamie Fox's mom in collateral the same year as this. Am I correct about that? An incredible performance. It's the same year. It's the sort of the fall, you know, when this is coming out in the spring. That's a great scene because that's the scene where she's Vincent's so nice to her in the hospital bed and she's going like, oh, my son, this and that, you know, he has his own limo company and Vincent's realizing like what a loser, Jamie Fox is. All the autographed photos on her hospital room. And like the whole dynamic.

of the movies start to ship, but, like, crews and her are so locked, they're so good in that scene. She's great. And, like, since then, I feel like she's done a bunch of stuff. She's been retired for 10 years. At 80s, she steps away.

She did the Werner Herzog doubleheader. Yeah. My son, my son, and bad lieutenant. She's quite good, bad lieutenant. Yeah. She's a great actor. She's incredibly. The Cohen's founder through casting.

They saw her almost immediately. She was, like, the first person walked through the door. They were like, she rocks, but let's see some other people. And they were like, I do feel like she's the undeniable juice of this movie I was talking to Barry about it

and he was like by the time the Coens took over they handled their own shit so we were not very involved but he was just like she's just undeniably we would watch the dailies and be like this is a home run because of her her quote it was a wonderful experience working with Tom Hanks

we bonded I bond easily I guess I say that I have all these god children God sends them to me and he's become one as well as the Coen brothers. Film was shot in Mississippi, carried a budget of about $35, $40 million. They built a lot of sets. Everyone had a good time.

The Coins had final cut. They turned this movie in. That was what was released. Absolutely feels like a final cut movie. It does not feel like it has odd rhythms. Yep. You know, it is not playing the conventional studio comedy game. And Joel Cohen has this idea of like,

let's try to combine gospel music and hip-hop music for the score and for the soundtrack. I think the soundtrack is incredible. The Burwell score is very interesting, I will say, yeah. And there are the multiple uses of, what is it, Trouble of This World. Yeah, the hymn is called or sort of, yeah, trouble of this world. You listen to this often? Ben, I swear to you, I bought the CD at the time. It would be a CD.

I would carry up. Absolutely. It's a good-ass soundtrack. Virgin Megastore. You are such a weird person. Guys, it's a B-minus. I will not,

I will not stand here and let Griffin be bullied for this. I do not think it is weird. He bought the CD. I do not think it is weird. Griffin, Griffin, look at me. Look at me. Look at me.

You are normal. Thank you. You are a normal. Normal person. Am I big and cool? You're big and cool and cool and normal. And normal. And cool and cool and tough and normal.

Thank you. All right. It's a good CD. If they were released it on vinyl, I'd buy that shit again. Record store day, limited color, right? I'd buy the shit out of that. You'd be lining up. You'd be lining up at Rough Trade in Manhattan.

Yeah. Now, realistically, what I'd be do is I'd be texting Connor and saying, hey, are you lining up at Rough Trade? Yeah, that does sound like a Griffin. I do usually text to you the morning of record store day and go, are you lining up? I just want to, because I don't think there's anything in the dossier. There's a song I like by the band Lush, the UK band Lush. They had an album in a song called Lady Killers. Okay.

And I really like that a lot. Is it inspired by the movie or is it just... No, not at all. You're just bringing it up because it doesn't. Is it them confessing to a horrible crime? No, I'm on my... I'm on my... It's a point of view song.

It's a character song, a la. Randy Newman, sort of... No, I don't think it is. Actually, it's a stretch now that I remember the lyrics. But it is dealing with a type of problematic man. But I think you're right that it was part of the calculation for this movie, especially them working at Touch on again. We're getting T-Bone Burnett back and we're going to do an unconventional soundtrack.

Because T-bone first consulted on the... Big Babowski. Oh, oh, right, yes. He, like, put that, because that's why that has a really cool soundtrack. And then, oh, brother, aren't thou, was the soundtrack's more successful than the movie. And Lady Killers feels very much like, we're going back to that, like, we're going to surprise bestselling album. And, in fact, it sold one copy to Griffin Newman, full-priced Virgin Megastore.

I am in the Discogs app now. I know, because I'm almost positive. No, no shade to JJ, but I'm almost positive. He did not go deep on the soundtrack release formats in the dossier. Am I wrong? Am I wrong? Is there a vinyl? No, there are five CD editions.

Europe, Mexico, Canada, the U.S., and then another one that seems like it almost might be unauthorized. No, it was a reissue. It was a reissue. But unknown year when it was reissued. I didn't buy the reissue. I got the original. And it is, hold on, I want to see how available it is. There are 76 versions of it, copies of it available on Discogs.

I'm going to get it. So, the film is a contemporary story somehow. Say that with your full chest. About a lady and widow named Marva Munson. She's got a big picture of her lost or former husband. It's a big, storges move, all the other... Yeah, the portrait changes, which does... Ninochka does that with Lenin, I want to say.

But I think there's at least one. Sullivan's Travels. There are a couple Sturgis. By this point, you know, it was done on the Beverly Hillbillies, the TV series where Mr. Drysdale had a portrait of his dad and it would always change its reaction. I want to say it is a bit that I

always like. Portrait responding with faces. Yes. So she's got a house and she rents it to having complained about her former tenant playing Hibertie Hot music to the great George Wallace. rents it to a classics professor named Goldthwaite Higginson Dorr.

She discovers him on her front lawn chasing a cat up a tree. I love it as an immediate save the cat subversion of we're seeing the worst character in the world ostensibly saving a cat as an introduction. Like it feels like they're rebuke

to the sort of idea of schematic screenwriting. Right. Yeah. But it does immediately endear him to her. and then he sweet talks her. He is the most flowery speaking man in history.

Yes, he is a molythous, you know, he's ten words when one could do. He looks like Colonel Sanders was sepsis. And he ostensibly wants her seller, her root cellar, to rehearse music in with an ensemble of weirdos. Church music of the Ur-Cola or a cocoa era. And he says Rococo like 400 times. And every time I find it funny, be minus. For sure.

And she is mostly concerned with God and what's it called the university? Bob Jones University, a real university, of course, which is like a very Christian university. She sends them $5 a month. Right. She's on their plaque. And I think one of the more subversive jokes in the movie is the fact that you have this character that you are rooting for, who is a well-intentioned person. And the her monthly donation. ultimately, any windfall that she gets at the end of this movie is going to go to this institution

that has a history of racial segregation discrimination. It's not a great university. But that's the joke. Like that's the joke. Oh, yeah. Which I actually think in 2025 is a joke that plays really interestingly because there's so much of the kind of like, I didn't vote for this. There's so much of the sort of like people who like you're, we've had a decade now of

trying to like parse the intentions of voters. And like, are there good people who vote for? for bad people and then bad things happen and they didn't mean that the fact that you have a hero of the movie that at the end is going to be like, oh, good, I can donate them to this. That's the win. Poisonous.

Like, it's a very, it's as dark and ending as the Corn Brothers have had in terms of like what looks like a sunny win for a good character is like, oh yeah, but the money is going to go to this group that as of 2004, I know that, I don't know that, I know that there have been like some shifts. I don't know how meaningful, but at the time. Yes, I don't want to get sued by Bob Jones University or whatever.

Oh, you don't want to get sued by them? I don't know. They feel like... All right, well, then bleep me. Bleep me. Bleep me. I just want to call it out what I said. If what I said was too hot for this podcast...

I get your gag of like... They have controversies. Yeah. I just want to call out. The original Lady Killers has the same exact kind of narrative bookend of opening with her, going to the cop, saying something that they kind of dismiss is a little crazy. and ending with her going in and confessing and offering to give them the money

and then being like, this woman's making stuff up, why don't you keep it? Right? It's got the same thing. The Coins add the idea of specifying where the money would go in such a specific way

that's seeded from the very beginning of the movie, which I do think is smart. Like at the end of the original, she's just sort of like, oh, I guess I'll... Well, we see her give money to like... A panhandler.

Yeah. The implication is like the money is going to go to a, you know. She'll be very generous. She'll be generous and kind because she's a nice lady. But you have this idea of this woman who doesn't have much already giving whatever she can to Bob Jones every month. It's the other thing I like is like the character is funny in the original lady colors, but the bit there is more this woman is incredibly oblivious. It's all going on under her nose. She's doughty.

Yes. I like that R. She's active. I like that she's active. It's a great performance in my opinion. and it's kind of like, to me, sort of the reason to recommend the movie. My big problem with this movie

is that it feels kind of lifeless and low energy, which makes no sense to me given the tone and like how heightened the performances are and how silly everyone is. I find it kind of dreary to watch. I want it to be like really goofy, really loony tunes. And instead, it's not.

And at the end, it kind of picks up the pace a little bit. Stuff's finally happening. People are dying. but a lot of it is just them sitting around. One thing I had forgotten is that the, in my memory of, I've seen the movie twice, once when it came out, and then once recently for this.

It's not only watch it all the time. I think I've seen it four times. It's a lot of time. My memory of it was that the runner of throwing the bodies over onto the barge happened over a longer period of the movie. It's all bundled at the end of the time. It's like, that doesn't.

They have the barge before then, I guess, is sort of a... see the barge, but I'm like, the movie was almost over and they had yet to dump a body and I'm like, oh, I remember it being spread out a little bit more. But that is structurally exactly how the Ealing one works as well. I think this

movie, I like this movie. I think it's the worst Coen Brothers movie. Inarguably. I think inarguably. I think there's probably some people out there who'd say a pick and tall of cruelty. And to all of those people, I go rewatch it. You're wrong about that. I think

Buster Scruggs kind of has a muddled reputation, but I really like that movie. That's partially Netflix and partially just omnibus stuff. Intolerable cruelty, the last solo film that Joel Kohnsonson. Well, no, no, no, Joe McBeth.

That Ethan. Yeah. No, it's Joel. Joel, until Macbath. Right. It was funny that in the interviews, he was like, yeah, since intolerable, I've been looking for a project that really found me, you know. That's part of that Joel didn't direct a movie

for like 20 years. Yeah. But I do feel like it's their work. movie. But I also feel like, I had this thought about it that if this movie hadn't been released, let's say that they, the Disney looked at and said, we're going to, we're going to Zaz love this. We're going to take the tax right off. We're never going to, no one's ever going to see this. Imagine we had spent the last 20 years, just please release the lady killers. Why, they made a movie with the con brothers made a movie of Tom Hanks. It's a remake of this classic movie and it's just

hasn't been released. I think if we saw it now, we'd be so excited by all the the things that work in. I'd be like, why didn't they release this at the time? It's not perfect. But it's, you know,

I think there's a feeling. Some things people might bump up against it. Sure, sure. There are bumps. I'm not denying the bumps in this movie. But I do think that in the same way, I think a lot of the things that don't work in this movie are built into things that also kind of don't work in the original.

I'm a little inclined to agree with you. I've always been, said with no disrespect, a little perplexed by Lady Killer seeming is like one of the ten greatest British comedies of all time. I would not put it above other Ealing comedies. To me, it's a sort of like middle Ealing comedy. I just feel like I often see it cited as like perhaps the pinnacle of the Ealing era.

To me, there's something about the way the story is structured that makes it feel like this trifle, this minor sort of little story. It's not told with satisfying beats. I think there are things that Combrothers actually improve in the sense that I think the original heist doesn't feel as interesting to me as the heist in this movie. The original heist is really uninteresting. And it kind of, in this movie, they need her house because it's crucial to the heist. It's another thing I like.

In the original, it's sort of a just a happenstance thing, you know. I mean, they're like near. They're near, but they could have, they could have, it's just bad luck that they ended up in this lady's house. They could have done it in any number of places. and I think there are certain things that feel a little bit more interesting to me when I was watching the original Lady Killers, everything that was

a little different about the heist in most cases, not every case, but in most cases I felt like the Coen brothers had made it a little bit more interesting on the heist level. Yeah, and then the original film, it's sort of just, what a weird house you have, there's sort of

transients who seemingly are going to only rent the room for like two days a night. The original film takes place over only a couple of days. The original is really concerned with Guinness, you know, playing this character. They move in. Like, you know. Right.

They do the string quartet stuff. They do the heist. Right. And then they try to get out and they're immediately kind of like hot and busted. This film does the sort of Ocean's 11 parody of they need to be here for the perfect plan, which we'll talk about. Bring in their team. Everyone has a role to play. But they're going to be here for weeks, if not months, planning this.

So, like, Marlon Brayne Waynes is the inside man. J.K. Simmons is demolition. Zemah is the tunneler because he's from the, he was in the Viet Cong. Yeah. What does Ryan Hurst do? He's just, like, the muscle. He's the brunt. Yeah.

Yeah, he's the muscle. And of course, yeah, Mountain Girl. Played by the great Diana, Diane Delano. Who just passed away. Oh, that's sad. She did just die. Yeah. At the age of 67 of cancer, that's so sad.

It's very sad. I loved her on the show popular. It's such a weird reference. Mountain Girl. It's like pulling from Electric Kool-Aid acid test Oh, that's... Jerry Garcia's ex-wife, Mansing Crawl.

I mean, that's a very Coen Brothers reference. Well, it's a guy... This movie is modern, modern. It's another thing you're like, grateful to... Like, that's why, right,

because there's the bit with Greg Grumberg where they're on set, you know, to introduce J.K. Simmons' character. And you're like... Dog food commercial. We're on a movie set? Like, that doesn't feel right.

Like, again, this feels like it's set in the 50s. It is a thing I kind of like about this movie is that the team, is made up of five guys who seem like weird out-of-time cartoon characters and you have these moments where they have to interact

with the outside world and you're like, oh, even within this movie they are strange. David? Yeah. I have a genuine question. What's that?

This isn't a bit. It's an ad read but it's not a bit. It's a genuine question. I'm listening. Why do they call it cuffing season? I've never known. No, I'm a genuine question.

I've never known and I've been too afraid to ask and this feels like a safe space. The idea is, yeah, Maybe you've had a fun, sexy summer, but now the fall's rolling in, the winter's going to come, and you want to cuff someone, like put a little handcuff on them, the idea being like, you'll want someone to snuggle with in the cold months. So you settle down with someone for a bit. That's cuffing season. Can I be very honest with you?

Maybe, you know, come summer again, you're going to be wild and free again. This is how the young people exist. Can I be radically honest with you? Go ahead. This is not a bit. Yeah. I have always assumed that it was like, oh, in the summer, you're like having me. fun, you're wearing short sleeves.

Sure. And then in the fall, long sleeve sweaters, you got a cuff on. Cuffs are on your sleeves. And the second, the cuff of a sweater is on your arm, you're like, I guess it's time to find a partner. Yeah. It's a lot more hostile that it's about handcuffing. But I like to focus on the joy of short sleeves. Because here's the thing, David.

Yeah. I don't like my arms. Oh, you don't like to look at them? It's, we're in right now. We've been in an extended wave of summer heat. Well, people have noticed that my forearms are very hairy like Popeye. And then the hair stops right about the elbow. I suppose that's true.

And my skin is very pale. So if I'm wearing a short sleeve shirt, you see this really naked baby flesh here. I love when I can put a sweater on and start my cuffing season. Okay. So you need... Where I hide as much of my flesh as possible. Right. You need a shirt cuff or a sweater cuff.

Yes. And quince is the perfect place to go for your fall and winter essential. What's this guy wearing right now? What? It's a bit of quince. I'm wearing a quince. A bit of quince. But you know what?

I am in my sort of Quince summer ensemble. It's a bit warm today. And I am looking forward to breaking out the winter pieces. Of course. I mean, Quince has the kind of fall staples. You wear nonstop like the aforementioned Mongolian cashmere sweaters starting at just $60. They're super soft. 100% cashmere.

Their denim is durable. And it fits right. And their real leather jackets bring that classic clean edge without the elevated price tag and bad boy status included. What makes Quinn's different, David? Well, they, of course, partner. directly with ethical factories. They skip the middleman. You're going to get top-tier fabrics and craftsmanship at half the price of similar brands.

And what makes this night different from all other nights? Look, what makes this shopping cart different is that I can just fill it with polo shirts. That's what you can do. I love those. You like showing off the guns. Well, that but also it's just I like something that's sort of like smart casual. I can wear it to the office. It's no big deal.

And I'm saying like, give me a light sweater. Let's hide the contours of my body thoroughly. Something I am thinking about for this winter. I might get some Quince bedding. I need new bedding. Some of my current betting is getting a little worn down. And I was thinking about, because Quince has got betting. So I'm going to take a look at that.

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Go to quince.com slash check for free shipping on your order and 365 day returns. That's Q-U-I-N-C-E.com slash check. Free shipping in 365 day returns. dot com slash check so cuffing season's like a ball and chain thing it's like locking it down temporary the idea is like for the winter months you might want to lock someone down i think it's a little intense i think that i'd rather focus on the cuffs of the sweater i'd rather focus on the cuffs of the sweater i'll also say that you talk about people's cohen brothers journey we haven't gotten into that oh my my carner toss your con brother you're a little

older than us so you you you have a different one of the The first Coen Brothers movie I ever saw was raising Arizona. I was taking a college credit course when I was in middle school, where in the summer I'd go and... You were taking college courses in middle school? I don't know why I did this exactly, but it was a thing... Which college? I think it was North East Missouri State University. It might be Northwest.

I can't remember. But it was a thing where for a few weeks you'd go, you'd stay at a dorm and you'd take one college class. I'd do this for two summers. And one of the summers, the class was creative writing. Looks like it was Northwest. There is no Northeast. Oh, boy. I've been in a while you really

I've narrowed you to the whoa Oh man People warn me about coming on this show That's a bit of a gotcha podcast But I have been got This is like when right The presidential debate with a live fact check in Oh shit here I am

I'm gonna have to stop you there David and his infamous laptop I can't get anything past you guys The teacher of this class showed us a series of movies And when I think back to the movies he picked I'm always kind of impressed that this guy had like,

they were interesting things to show us. He showed us Raising Arizona. He showed us radio days. He showed us true stories. Sure. Great movies all in similar. And they're all kind of in that time period, like just to get like a young mind

thinking about how you can tell certain. And like unconventional comedies. Like they're different ways to be funny. Yeah. And Raising Arizona was by far the one that I was just like, this movie is so funny. And like I've seen that. there's a clip of Tarantino talking about Raising Arizona

and talking about how it was filmed. And the feeling at the time being that, like, all movies will be filmed like this from now on because there's, like, someone figured a new way to film, like funny chasing. But it's what everyone who tries to do it learns. This is so fucking difficult. Yes.

Yeah. That's a movie that has a lot of energy, I would say, a comedy by the Coen Brothers is sort of madcap about a bunch of dirtbags that has a lot of energy to it. Yes. A camera is electric. It's just, but I always think

about the Coen brothers, their movies as their first two movies laid this template down, and I think of this spectrum, Blood Simple is at one end and Raising Arizona's the other, because it's hard to think of a one-two punch from any filmmaker. They are showing you everything they got with those first two movies.

And we will exist between these two poles, which are wide poles. Raising Arizona feels like the people who made Blood Simple should have failed at trying to make a Raising Arizona. It feels like you can't, no one can make both kinds. Or vice versa. Like Blood Simple's a failure, And they're like, you know what we should do is comedy.

And every movie of theirs, I feel like, is on that spectrum. And Fargo being one that lands sort of almost perfectly in the middle, that it's like a blood symbol that's also got this crazy. You're absolutely right. It's why it's their definitive film. And another crazy thing is if you love Blood Simple, if you're like, this is what I want from the Common Brothers, you have to wait until no country for all men before you really get another movie

that fully bites at that apple. right like yeah i mean your jam is blood simple you go to raising irsson you're like that's not what i wanted a man who wasn't there a little bit a little bit more of the kooky raising arizona aspect even like miller's crossing has a little bit more of the crazy camera work a little there's like no country for old men is the first movie that feels like it's a proper follow-up to blood simple lady killers is closer to the raising arizona side but it has as that sort of like darkness and crime and and also a little bit of like the world of Blood Simple feels like a cruel world, a mean.

There's something mean. There's something really, there's a mean streak in the lady killers. Yeah. That keeps it from, that I think when it works, it's great. But I think there's a lot of places where the mean streak. And I'll start with like, I went to that website, the very helpful, does the dog die? website for the lady killers because I genuinely wasn't sure

whether the dog had died in this. The dog or the cat? The dog at the beginning on the commercial. Oh, yes, yes. And it says it's implied the dog in the commercial filming

dies of suffocation approximately 15 minutes in. And then there's another comment saying the dog is, during filming an ad, the dog is made to wear a gas mask that suffocates him. He has shown dropping into unconsciousness.

Then someone tries to resuscitate him. You see his tongue hanging out. But it's like, that's a joke in the movie that feels to me like mean in a way that it doesn't doesn't buy you much. There are people

like Ben Hosley. You kill a dog within 15 minutes in the movie. You've put like a boot around your car tire. It's a tough thing to ask of an audience. Yeah. It's just immediately putting you in a bad head. I fucking hated that part. Yeah. Maybe Matt. Yeah. Like if you're doing it how do you feel about John Wick?

It's what the movie is about. That's the engine. You're okay when you're like as long as this movie takes it as seriously as I'm taking it. One dog dies and 100 people die in response. Yeah, and it was justified. Exactly. When I for a hundred thousand eyes. It used to be justified. Whereas the implied

comedic death of the dog on the commercial set. Well, it has no barrier of the plot whatsoever. Right. It's used as a storytelling tool to communicate to the audience. He's bad at his job as props men. Movie sets are not well run.

And I would say arguably, if you're like, well, we need that moment to indicate to the audience that J.K. Simmons character can be kind of sloppy. Sloppy. Like, bad instincts. It is literally the thing you learn from that moment is the thing you learn from literally every other thing he says or does in the movie. Also, by the way, the introduction of the moment is, so J.K. Simmons is introduced working at dog food commercial that is directed by Greg Grunberg and Bruce Campbell appears silently as the Humane Society rep.

just always love when the cones threw Bruce in there yeah but he the dog what is it the collar is the prop

that they're having an issue with we have to move on from this scene that does not matter no it is important it is an encapsulation the mean spirited aspect of the movie

I will also say there's another question on the site I'm gonna finish my point on this I must I must they go hey can you fly in a new collar and instead J.K. Simmons

puts a full fucking like World War I gas mask on the dog. And Grungberg's like, the fuck are you talking about? This is scary. They need to see the dog's face. The dog needs to eat the food. And he's like, well, it's always an interesting take. We're already communicating he's bad at his job by him not thinking through it creatively. And then while they're having the conversation the dog dies, which is just a heightening of he's bad at his job that leaves a bad taste in people's mouth. I do think that's important to the like, there is

nothing game by killing the dog. The story beat is already accomplished by him just having the bad creative instinct, and it is in line with what this movie is doing, which is, as you said, just kind of like unnecessarily mean. One of the other questions that I really like the answer to on is, does the dog die? It doesn't have to do with the dog, so it is a new point. We're starting fresh. Is someone gaslighted? Someone has continually lied to throughout the film, but I don't think it is gaslighting,

is the response. Interesting. How do we, that's a fine hair to split. It's a really fine air. We have talked about it before, David, on this podcast, Blank Check. Griffin and David. But I think in the 80s and especially in the 90s, it kind of tapers off in the early 2000s. There is a run of people attempting the like pitch black dark murder comedy, big studio comedy with movie stars, making a movie that feels kind of to its core evil

and is about people trying to kill each other to get ahead, to pull off some con, to cover their tracks or whatever, that almost always plays like a fucking lead balloon with audiences. Lucky numbers is one that we talked about, and I think in that episode we talked about other movies that fit into the very bad things is another one. It's the meanness. There's a, like, the degree of how funny you have to be to overcome a certain level of meanness, it's just like, it's, I was think of it in terms of, because I think about this in terms of like performing improv as well, where if you want to do a scene about certain things,

it's just like at Chucky Cheese, the, or at any carnival where you have tickets. and prizes that it's like some things like well that's a million tickets right and there are certain things where it's like if you're going to make a joke about this thing you need to hit the jackpot yes you better have a million tickets worth of funny in this joke or else you're you don't have enough it's the same thing with this movie using the n word twice in its first two minutes yes marlin wands is basically pretty much every single fucking line that that guy says in the movie you're kind of like all right and it's like not that funny i if that's just funny i will forgive someone But he is the least funny part of the film, undeniable.

Look, if you're going to use the N-word in a movie, and it's written by you guys, like Joel Cohen and Ethan Cohen, that's what it says, I, unless it really, really feels like, yeah, this is part of the story and I'm just going to think about you guys writing that on your computer. Undoubtedly. Because the thing we don't know. And then, like, talking to whoever about how to deliver the line or whatever. And even if it is a scenario where... I'm the thing you can't use...

I'm like, I'm not trying to be some police in here. I wasn't asking to. I was don't if you thought I was about talking. use the word. I'm not. No, I wasn't. The, the, you know what to go all Michael Richards. The shooting, the shooting script, if we imagine that it's just like, this was word perfect, that they did no for note. But even if, if I was making a movie and someone improvised and they use the end word a lot, I would still be editing that movie knowing that, like, people don't know that.

They're going to filter it through me. Not like a little warning comes up on the screen saying, Joel and Ethan were just including some pretty free taste. He improved that. He improved that. Yeah. I do want to say one more thing just because it amuses me from does the dog die.com. There is the, and it does relate to the dog, but I... Conner's turning around.

This is the best episode. I am confident that you will, on some level, appreciate that I included this. One of the questions is, is there dog fighting? And the answer is, a dog is dressed as a war? World War I Soldier, but does not fight? That's really good. Ben, I want to say, I want to ask something of Ben. The main archetypes of the gang in this film are transmuted from the main archetypes

of the British film. But the characters are transformed pretty substantially. Do you want to wager a guess who played in the original the role that Martin, Marlon Waynes plays in this film in 2004? Wait, what? What do you? Marlon Wainter. Who played the British version of Marlon Wayans in the original?

And how much are you willing to wager? He's probably willing to wager nothing. I've got to wager nothing. I don't... Mr. Bean? I don't know. Peter Sellers. That's kind of close.

That was really close. Mr. Bean of his day. Isn't that wild that in that movie, it's Cockney Peter Sellers? It's not wild. That's what do you mean? That's like totally... I mean, obviously Peter Sellers Rickett,

but he's an Ealing standard guy. Like, that's the guy. Griffin, I'm going to take to his side on this. That's wild. That's the backwards. That's the backward. I'm sorry. The wild part is,

who's our general. generations, Peter Sellers. And, like, I don't dislike Marlon Ryan. I like him a lot. But I think he's whatever. I mean, I was going to say he's not pitched right, but I don't know that anyone's pitched totally right in this movie because I really think it needs to be actually sillier. This is my thing, though, okay?

So, like, I cannot deny your truth, right? And I know that I'm Bernie Sanders nightmare. I'm in the 1% on this movie. I'm up against the wall, right? And it feels a little bit like. Funny, 500 comedy points. I'm granting them to myself and taking out a loan.

Redistribution of wealth. Yeah. After a Marty Sanders joke. It's a more extreme version of what I felt like on our Johnny Dangerously episode where I'm like, I watch this and I laugh. But Johnny Dangerously is 10 times the movie.

I agree. I agree. That's a pretty enjoyable watch. And I know the defenders, it's a much larger group on Johnny Dangerously. It felt like that was a 50-50 split on this podcast, but also in our listenership, right? This, I'm firmly Bernie Sanders' nightmare, the 1%.

But I feel the same way where I watch this and I'm like, I like the energy of this. I'm laughing at this. It doesn't all work for me. There's a ton I bump on. What's the funny parts to you? I laugh like once a minute while watching this movie. I chuckle. Name a moment.

I'm not kidding. No, you do. Once a minute? I watched this yesterday. I went like this. Once a minute, I went like this. I did a little piling to myself. What's the funniest part of this movie?

What's the funniest thing that happens in Joel and Ethan Cohen's the lady, Killers, their debut film. The funniest thing that happens, number one. Yes. J.K. Simmons' face, when he needs to poop. Sure, that's kind of funny. Every time, every time that Tom Hanks and Irma P. Hall are engaging direct with each other, I am, I am locked in, I'm enjoying it.

Are you laughing? No, but I didn't claim. I'm not a 60-second man the way that Griffin is claimed. You're not engaged. I'm a one-minute man. I want that on the record. Not just a one-minute man, an every minute man. And every minute man.

That's a very different distinction. I'm every minute. Can I confess to a thing that made me laugh and it ties into a thing that is problematic about the film and that you don't like about the film? When I believe that Marlon Wayans uses the N-word addressing Stephen Root and Stephen Root's reaction to that, I thought that was fun. I think Root nails the discomfort. of that scene quite well, because Stephen Root is a Swiss Army knife. That guy can literally do anything.

Talk about an ultimate when is that guy bad. That guy always nails it and he is one of the ultimate he understood the assignment actors where it's like knows what movies in, knows what size the role is, knows what needs to be accomplished

in that scene. Can I tell a blind item thing? I think I can't talk about, but it's Stephen Root related. Please, let's get to the root of the issue. Oh, a new segment on the show? The root of the issue. The root of the issue?

Do we have any play-in music for that? Yeah, Ben. Ben. Drop the road of the issue, theme song. Who is the guy in office space? King of the Hill and Josh Waltz, too. I don't know his name, but I know his face. But his name is Stephen Rowe.

And that's the word of the issue. Okay, we just heard it. Great. I love it. So every time we do this, and I'll come back to do this segment. We should press that on vinyl. Oh, limited edition. Rood could do it.

Stephen Rood's character from my brother could do it, press it on vinyl for. He goes, blind man, singing it to the can. Yeah, all right. I worked on a thing. I can't talk about it. So I've got to be very careful here.

Oh, my God. All right? This item is as blind. A Stephen Rout's character and O'Brother, Routherst. It truly is. Oh, classic, Root of the Matter. What is this thing we called?

Root of the Matter. But maybe it's Rue of the Matter. Because Rood of the issue makes it sound like there's an issue. Can we get a remix for the newly titled Root of the Matter? I told you at the phone. I know I'll tell you again

Stephen Rood is a god of own men I'm telling the truth I don't mean to flatter He's the number one character actor That's the rude and I'm nodder Ooh, that is tasty I like that, press that on vinyl Press it on vinyl, record story day single

Limited. What color do you think? What color? Beat root red Beeproot, there you go What's the thing? I was on, I can't tell you what the thing is I signed documents. What's the fucking story?

He's trying to get me. I'm going to leave this podcast 20-eat University. There we go. I was on a call sheet and I know, which is a thing in the industry. We all know what a call sheet is.

I was hoping, I was talking to your least informed listener. Keep going. And were you number one on the call-chew? I know there's one person out there who's thinking, I can't keep up with this podcast. I don't, low. Low, sure.

Double-d-d-d-d-jee's. I don't remember. I just remember being on a call sheet and noticing that Stephen Root was also on this call sheet, being very excited. I can't tell you how this. this thing was made, where it was made, but I wasn't... If you want to know how this thing got made, you could listen to how did this get made.

I was in a situation, though, where I could hear him in the next room, and I heard Root at work, and it was really thrilling. I never saw him, but it was, it felt like, oh, I've really arrived a moment. I also put myself on tape for a role that I did not get in the movie Paint. Paint? Oh, the Owen Wilson? Yeah. And I believe Stephen Root got that role. He's in a film, yeah.

You can never feel bad about losing a role to root. No, it actually feels good. It feels like whenever someone like that gets a role that you, I just feel honored that there was even a point where they were like, we're looking at other people. I was running on the same route as Root. I was on the Root Root. Is this story, has it happened yet?

Is it done? It was good. What do you mean? Okay, great. So moving on. I never said, did I say it was a story? It so was a blind item. Yeah, it was an item.

And we got to the root of the matter. Let's just pause for the outro. Oh, shit. It's a great. It's a great B-side. So, what's the show? thought about they need to tunnel into this vault from

a river side river ironically the value of this house is that it has a root seller Root Cellar Yes it does it does And there's a riverboat casino in this territory casinos cannot operate on land They have to operate on the water

maritime law but they have an underground on land vault where the money goes every night before they lock it up And the door is impenetral, but if you were to dig through the back wall in this house is the closest, you could go in. Marlon Waynes is their inside man. The idea is that much like the movie, Inside Man, they can break down the wall and repair it so that it looks like the money magically vanished and no one was ever the wiser. A little spoiler for a, if you don't like spoilers, get out now, jump ahead, 40.

is this is pre-inside man the Spike Lee movie and it kind of is the same Yes it is a little bit It's a similar I want to point something I'm looking at the Wikipedia page for this movie

This is a four-paragraph plot description The first two paragraphs I would say are 80% of the movie Which to end The final Long paragraph essentially Is the climax where everyone dies

Spoiler alert Everyone but Irma P. Hall meets their end Grizzly end Kind of speaks to me to how like there's not much once they've sort of begun their scheme there's not much happening

the original film is 90 minutes long this film it's 104 and uh shouldn't be it should be more like 90 yeah um so this film's but it wasn't made in the 90s it wasn't made in the 90s it was made in the early 2000s uh this one's about 15 minutes longer than that one right

I was uh watching the original last night uh the the old lady catches them at the exact halfway point. And that movie has much less of a planning the heist. The heist takes a while thing. It's like they show up. They basically do a robbery of an armored truck.

They just block a street. Yeah. They block a street and are pretty lucky about nobody sees them. It's like a quick hit job and then they're ready to immediately run out. And it's the same gag executed in a different way where the money flies all over the place. And she goes, where did this money come from? And they try to come up with an explanation, a lie. she says you've got to go return the money

and then they all decide to take turns one at a time killing her. But it's at the halfway point 45 minutes that she catches them. And even then, I still think it takes another 15 or 20 minutes before the first attempt is made.

So the original structure the same way proportionately in the lady killing chunk of it is only the last 25% of the phone. And it's the same thing where it's the repetition of the death. They do their own thing with throwing the bodies over

train track that's similar with the garbage barge in this movie. But I'm just saying that's from the material. Yeah, sure. I think this movie... You guys, I don't like that movie that much. So that's not really a... I'm not a big fan of the 50s lady... Now I got you.

You didn't get me. I've seen that movie like once on TV. I got you to trash the Ealing movies from your beloved homeland. It's not a movie. The defense of this movie can't be like, oh, well, the original isn't that good because I'm like, well, then fucking don't make it. But I think a bunch of listeners are going to be like, What are these guys dismissing the original?

The original is incredible. And I think the original... I think we're in a minority here. I think the original was used as a cudgel to beat this movie with when it came out. The problem with this movie is this movie. This movie is not very good. I'm sorry, guys. I think it's pretty good.

Here are things I laugh at. Five out of ten. Maybe. I think it's a six. I think it's an ultimate gentleman six. And a rude man, seven. To me, it's a... I'm very politely extending the five because everyone tried.

I think it's a... a B-minus, can I make a couple little cases for it? And just explaining what I like about. Honestly, yes, because we're wrapping up soon. Oh, what? This is the first I'm hearing of this. Yes. I'm letting you guys know. And I want to talk about Hanks' performance a little bit more, because I like

it. I like it. Anytime he has not just because we're friends. A continuous paragraph of dialogue, I laugh at at least one thing he said. I think that stuff's pretty funny. I think that is the exact kind of language stuff that I think the Coins do better than anyone else on the planet is people getting caught in circular monologues

that have jokes nestled within jokes within jokes and then the character reacting the outside being like, I have no idea what the fuck you just said. I do think it grinds the movie to a hall. It's kind of, it's funny to watch him do it. He's having so much fun and I do appreciate watching him have fun.

And he's unencumbered. You feel him for the first time in 15 years being like, I can do anything. But it does grind the movie to a hall. It's sort of like, okay, let's stop and watch this funny thing sort of happened. And I would say that is both part of what's wrong with the movie and it's also so

intentional in the sense that like you not liking it is different than them like fucking up that part of part of what doesn't work about this movie is that it's a it's a very minor kind of movie it feels like this is this is my least favorite defense of a movie this movie no but it's like you have to acknowledge the most I can defend this movie is still like I think it is a well

executed unimportant losing. This is the George Luggest thing where suddenly George Lucas is in the corner he's like, Star Wars is for children and nobody needs to like it. Like, I'm like, okay, all right, George. But I'm also... This movie is pointless.

It's fine that it's bad. No, that's not actually a defense degree. No, what I... No, I'm not saying that's minor by design. I'm saying that... Yeah, that's sure. Because I'm also defending the movies saying it is undeniably, in my opinion,

their worst movie. But I also think as low points to filmmakers go, there's still so... There's no defense that this is a great low point to have. There are a lot of... No, no argument. There are a lot of low points for filmmakers

where I'm like, I just wish they hadn't made that movie. And with Lady Killers, I don't wish that they hadn't made this movie. I'm glad that it exists. This is going to be one of our longest miniseries ever, right? It is over 20 films, including the films directed by Joel Cohen Solo, Ethan Cohen with his wife and Joel and Ethan together, right? Of which this is the first. They're figuring it out, man.

But this is the lowest point. Babes in the woods. And I think this is pretty high for the worst film in filmographies that we covered on this show. As far as reclamation goes, when this movie came out, I fully was, I know you've talked about this before, I fully was of the belief that they had lost their ability to make movies and that they were on a decline that would never stop. This was a, they are cooked. I wouldn't go so far as are they cooked, but it's the closest. I think the fact that this and Teller Cruelty were both disliked and were both seen as them attempting to go more mainstream. Mainstream with a big star and both times the reaction from the general public is negative.

Not only do we not like what they're making, but it seems like they've sold out their own values and now I guess they're just looking to get assignment jobs. I think people were like, well, they're done. The fact that it's like three full years before no country and it felt like it kind of came out of nowhere. I feel like I'm I when I watch it now I feel like there's pleasure to be had in another crazy Cohen Brothers movie that has its own specific thing I don't like the mean spirited aspects of a lot of it there's a lot of things in it that don't work I think the structure of it veers intentionally away from satisfaction in places yeah except for right at the end I do feel like well okay so my I think it is satisfying to watch all these guys get killed I think in that sense the movie is it's somewhat so let's talk about it is smart yes so like um you know they get rumbled they decide they have to kill irma p hall first tom hanks tries to win her over which is a pretty fun scene and i that's one of my favorite beats and the thing is when he's like i'm just going to and you're sort of watching him almost you know knock her down by the way i'm sorry to circle back to your question of what is the funniest part of this movie i can

tell you what i think the funniest part of this movie is the question and it's the scene that almost for me represents it's key value irma p hall trying to get george Wallace to meet the professor and Tom Hanks is alluding him and George Wallace increasingly thinks George Wallace plays a sheriff who basically is only sitting in a chair this is an imaginary figure right she's an old lady who's lost her mind and she clocks that he's hiding under the bed and Irma Pah has this conversation with Tom Hanks under the bed where she's giggling and going professor why are you drinking tea under the bed and George Wallace looking at her like this is like a weird right that's pretty funny down for a woman to have and him just

making the shush finger under the bed, I just find everything about that seem funny. I think we should maybe call back something that came up in the Johnny Dangerously episode, which is that I would say drop the N.Y. And it's fun. I'm giggling. But that is, I think, it's something

we really hit on in that Johnny Dangerously episode where it's like, right, do you find something kind of fun versus actually funny? If you don't find this movie funny, there's nothing I can say to convince you of its value. I can see that that is... Most people did not, obviously. I want to this, and no disrespect intended.

I've lived in New York for almost a quarter of a century. I will never drop the NYU. That's a good point. Thank you. And thank you for saying that. And you know what? Zoran Mamdami is happy that you're going to stay here. Our future wonderful mayor. Yeah, I'm going to... This point is he a mayor? Oh, boy. Let's hope so.

Anyway, Lady Killers, yeah, like, look... The first half the movie is the heist planning into the heist and then, right, an explosive goes off that throws the money all over the place and she walks in. So, they think she's going to be a church. She comes home early to make tea.

The deaths proceed in this order. The first is Marlon, who is almost happy initially to kill her, but then flashes back to his childhood and his own mother. Who used to sit in the living room in the same way. Right. And realizes he can't do it. And I'm sorry, just to circle back briefly, Tom Hanks first tries to sell her a load of bullshit.

She doesn't buy it. Yeah. Unless she almost buys it. He's like, we're barely, we're just affecting. Well, no. First, he says, Everything you saw was a misunderstanding. The money was flying because he doesn't believe in banking, this and this and that.

And that's one of my favorite moments because I feel like both of those characters have to operate at a higher level of intelligence because it's like, I don't buy this. And he's like, oh, I have to make my lives better to fool this lady. It is my favorite Hank's performance moment, which is in that scene when he finally goes, like, let me level with you. We are not musicians of the Rococo era nor any other era, right? We are criminals. and in one sustained shot, the light behind Hanks' eyes goes out. All of the effort he does to play charming,

when he hits the word criminals, he starts looking evil without doing anything demonstrably huge on his face. And establishing the importance of eyes in film acting. They've got to be alive. Got to be alive. But then he admits to her, this is what we did because of the insurance policy.

It's not like anyone lost their money. It's $1 added onto everyone's plan, and we could cut you into this and give you money to donate to the, Bob Jones University and she says it's not right she almost gets there almost yeah and then she gives up we're going to watch to the station and you're going to hand the money back i like thinking it's never occurred to me that that moment where tom hanks literally like drains the life from his eyes it was that he maybe thought back to my band of brothers audition tape and thought like i saw an actor

do something once if i can pull it off in this moment then maybe we got moving it truly is he goes Connor mode so marlin is flashes back to his mother yeah He's trying to shoot her with a handgun and a pillow. And so then he comes back and gets shot in a struggle with J.K. Simmons. With pancake. Pancake has been angling for a bigger cut. A, he brings Mountain Girl into the arrangement, which was not agreed upon. She enters the circle of trust, and they agree that she's going to have to split his share.

But then he also loses his finger. An explosion wants workman's comp. It's not granted it. J.K. Simmons, of course, at this point, he was just such a reliable. It's their first film with him? Yeah, but I mean, like, in any movie. The same year as Spider-Man, too. Right.

I love his character. I love his mustache. I love his repeated. The Coen Brothers sort of cycle repetition of both images and dialogue and, you know, I like the rhythms of Coen Brothers films. The way he keeps going, just a trial balloon, pitching bad ideas. Easiest thing in the world is another good runner. Yes.

But then he, yes. struggles with Marlon Waynes as they get into a fight. They've been bickering the whole time. So, Marlon dies. They throw him on the barge and we're like, okay, now we are in the people get thrown on the barge.

Like, you know, this is the thing. Right. Then Zima is up next. Another thing that makes me laugh every time he swallows the cigarette. Well, it only happens once or twice, right? He hides the cigarette, is what you're referring to. And then he's able to kick it back out.

Which is great. Zima is the best part of this movie. But he dies because he swallows the cigarette. He's startled. No, what happens next is a pancake tries to escape with the money and Zemaw kills them. And then he tries to kill her.

But he's startled by a cuckoo clock, swallows his cigarette, falls down the stairs. Pancake tries to escape while the rest of them are disposing of Goyne's body. There's a gag that I didn't remember noticing the first time, and it feels like the type of gag. It didn't make me laugh. It's a little mean-spirited. But it felt like the type of thing that's like,

I bet the Coens enjoyed this detail, which is that when J.K. Simmons and Mountain Curler both killed, so they have two bodies to dispose of, and you see them holding these legs with boots and pretty hairy legs, and you're like, oh, that must be J.K. Simmons. They dropped the body,

and then you see the next body, and the legs are even hairier. Yes, yes. The Zemaw one is the one that is, I think, is good because it's physical humor that's part of the story. It's part of the house they're in. Marlon Wands one is kind of an anti-climax. The Ryan Hurst, the character we ever mentioned, because he's not that

interesting. Although I do think it's a good performance. And after this, he becomes like... He's the sons of anarchy guy. Right. And he was on Walking Dead. Like, he becomes after this exclusively, like, big, weird, beardos, soulful, haunted men. He basically has a change of heart and is like, actually, maybe we should turn ourselves

in. Which is the same thing that happens in the original. That one round... Hanks, fails, shoots himself by mistake. I think it's a good gag. It's not bad. Basically, it works. And that he basically, right, just immediately falls over, yeah.

And then, uh, Dorr thinks he's gotten away with it, he's going to take all the money and then gets clocked in the head with a, uh, you know, gargoyle with a raven on top. He loves a girl in Poe, and the gargol is the opening shot of the movie. And he, uh, breaks his neck, classic Gwen Stacy style. And the anti-climax aspect of it, which also comes from the original, which is that these things sort of happen and are like, oh, they sort of just like, one dies, then the other.

The problem kind of completely solves itself. You have, like, a villain, a comedic villain who's set up in both versions where you're, like, sort of waiting for him to do the villainous thing. He's presented as a criminal mastermind. In both cases, you're like, is this guy just a total blowheart? In neither movie does that character ever truly, you never see him actually, like, kill somebody in a way that feels like, oh, this is the moment we've been waiting for. In the Ealing one, there's the bit with Herbert Lom where he's crowbarring the thing.

So he'll... The fucking ladder. That feels like the closest to him sort of screwing a guy. But in this one, it feels like Hank's going to have to

kill the strong, dumb guy, and then he doesn't. And it's like, oh, I didn't have to do that beat that we're sort of anticipating from the beginning. But he's just immediately... And then we're thinking,

oh, now we're going to see he's going to have to do the killing and then the movie takes care of it before you ever have to have a scene where he tries and fails to kill. Yes. Yeah, you know, it's all right.

Deacons popping off at this point. I would say it looks pretty good. A couple things here, okay? First of all, I just think this movie looks incredible. Yeah, it looks good. I think, like, if we're not viewing this through the prism of the Cohen Brothers filmography, which I know is the main exercise of the show, and we're thinking, like, this is just a touchstone comedy that is released in April.

I do the mental exercise of watching this movie of being like, what if this was directed by a first-timer? Because, of course, it is? It is. What if this came out of the blue and it was like, oh, it's directed by some guy who did commercials before this. I do think I'd be like, that movie isn't great,

but who the fuck directed this? It is like so well constructed. Obviously, you think it's lifeless. I think it's got energy. Not lifeless, but low energy. Every time it does one of the like trouble of this world montages, I'm really kind of like in on the kinetic energy

of the motion of this movie and the way it uses the music, the look of it, the performances, the styling. Like, I think on a basic craft level, it is not like markedly. a step down from their best work. You could just say all of that craft

is applied to something that is less worthy of their craft than most of their films, but it's not like they have a film in their filmography where it's like, that's a complete fucking drop at the ball, fart. It's incompetent. It is lacking identity.

I think this movie benefits from going into it. I think everybody who watches it at this point, I think it's to the benefit if you go in with a feeling of like, this is their worst one. Absolutely. Lower your expectations. You gotta watch it that way.

And at this point, we also don't have to watch it with the fear of like, oh, fuck, have they lost it? And it's like, hey, guess what? Right after this, they won Best Picture. They've continued to make great films. This wasn't the end of a golden age for them. This just becomes a weird blip. And there are things they do in this film that it's not like they just made a film.

It's like, well, it's like a bad version of this other film of theirs. There are, the things that I find pleasurable in this. movie aren't just things where I'm like, oh, I could just go watch Bart and think again, and I'll get that out of it. And I know you like Burn After Reading less than me, David. That is a movie I love. But Burn After Reading is actually weirdly similar to this one and feels like a much better version of this, even down to like the comedic deaths and the misunderstanding and all of

that. That movie, I would argue, has a point of view that this film does not have. I, well, I tend to think. Yeah, I think that movie has more, right, more driving its tone. It has, yeah. It has ideas in it. that relate to the way that Joel and Ethan see the world, whereas this is a comedy about comedy.

Like, it's not actually about me. I'm going to push back on that slightly and say this, because I always tend to think of their next film as a trilogy, their next three films is a trilogy of sorts, because I always feel like no country for old men is about this sort of, it's the drama version of like there's an evil, there's a darkness in the world, and we're going to look at these systems that are trying to deal with it,

but ultimately, like, can they? Maybe they're not built for it. Burn after reading always feels to me like the comic, B side of no country for old men, the same world, the same fucked up systems, but instead it's all these ridiculous bureaucratic fools that are sort of, they don't even know what's going on. Both movies end with a similar thing, which is like, I don't know what's going on. And maybe none of this matter or meant anything.

And then a serious man sort of like in a, takes an even like broader view of like the universe in a way. And now I'm sort of for the first time thinking of lady killers as being sort of like a pre like those four movies because there is a worldview to this in the sense of you have a main character who is put forward as like a smart person who is well-intentioned but in this world where you have these like bad men who are trying to do something she's ultimately going to like get this windfall of money at the end and donate it to and I pray their lawyers aren't listening Bob Jones universe

This is a comedy podcast in many ways I gotta be allowed to joke and riff comedy's about pushing boundaries sometimes we miss Please do not sue this Please don't sue us And if you want to sue us

I want to sue us I want to remind you That the opinions expressed by Conner Ratliff do not reflect the opinions of blank check podcast or blank check productions overall They are the opinions of one individual Please sue Conner Ratliff But don't

But don't But don't sue him But if you're going to sue us, sue him. But I do feel like that is a subversive ending at the beginning of a series of, I think the endings of the next three Cone Brothers movies are all these like, oh my God, that's the way to end a movie. And I love the fact that this kind of like broad Disney comedy ends with like a happy ending that also has like, if you know where the money is going,

this is a movie about a bunch of criminals who all die and the money ends up going someplace. That is not a ultimately like a happy ending. No. I also, it is a funny thought experiment to consider if Barry Sondfeld had made this in 2004 with Nicholas Cage. I don't think it would have been a big hit. But I do think people would have been like, kind of an upswing for Barry Sondonfeld versus where it was at with the Cohen's. Like if he had made. But this movie wouldn't be very good if Barry Sondon made it, like even compared to the Cohen version. But I also think it would have been a little similar. Of all of the films they made with Deacons, this is the one that feels the most Sonnenfeldy to me. It's true, but I just want to point out to you this thing in Barry Soninfeld's career where after Get Shorty and in Black, he makes absolutely abhorrently bad movies. I agree. And so it's sort of that thing of like maybe he just didn't know how to make a good movie anymore.

But this feels like the kind of film he should have been making. That having been said, Big Trouble feels like him trying to get Shorty again. He couldn't pull that off. Can I ask a question? Please. One of the things, one of the questions on does the dog die.com says, good, good, good, no, no, we got to answer. I want to get out of here. David, we've got to answer.

If I, I'll tell you this, if I don't say what I'm about to say, your listeners are going to lose it. Connor, you're saying. Because they'll always wonder what was it. You're saying it right now and also I have to do a merchandise spotlight. Connor, go on. The question under the, under the category fear, it says, are there ghosts? And the commenter says, no ghost appears, but I am pretty sure that all of the stuff happens because of the ghost of the lady's dead husband.

I like this. His portrait also continually changes throughout the movie and there are flickering candles. This movie has good, go, goes. What's the merchant in his part? It's a fortune in a spotlight. First, you've got to say the sentence properly. David, your alma mater, the AV club,

that has now gone through many different hands of corporate ownership and is a website that is like fucking nerfed to death and trying to read archives of the AV club is a headache, especially any article that originally used to have images. they would do a yearly feature. Do you remember Swagology?

A feature I loved when I was young that was in an era before social media where people share this stuff all the fucking time, the AV Club once a year would do a roundup of all the promotional items they had gotten from studios for TV shows and movies, new releases, and they would rate what's the best

and what's the worst swag we got. And in 2004, they referenced that the fine folks of Walt Disney Pictures sent them a lady killer's branded waffle iron. To your point about the waffles being the main hook of the marketing. I think it's because, by the way, that scene in a microcosm is what in theory the comic juice of this movie should be,

which is this guy acts like this and has to confront the real world being like, why are you talking like that and why are you dressed like that? The inherent comedy of him ordering waffles at the Waffle House in a way that no one understands. I'm not finding a single thing about this on the air. I was doing such deep Googling. I found them referencing it in a later Swagology.

I have been looking for years to find one on eBay. I've never found an image of one. I remember there being one at AV Club at the time, but in their 2009 Swagology, they talk about getting swag from Gordon Ramsey's Hotel Hell and Kitchen Nightmares, and they say this will go in our pantry right next to our Lady Killer's Waffle Iron. It exists, and if any one of our listeners can find one or send me, one, please, please.

I need to know I'm not crazy. Can I just hop on real quick? I know that Griffin put out the offer first. If anyone has one, please send it one his way. If someone has two? Yes. I really love that second one. I don't want to rain on Griffin's prayer.

Someone's like, I got two of these. When we're going to do? He needs it for his handswall. First in the box office, Griffin, is opening number two to $12 million. It ends up making $30? It made domestically. It made $30, how the numbers? Nine?

It cost like 40. About 35 to 40, yeah. Which is pretty crazy considering that Hank's probably got 20 or close to. There's no way he got 20. What do you think he got? 10, 15? A lot less. My man took a haircut on this one?

100%. I'm sure he was way below his court on this. And how much? It was under 40. It made 70 something worldwide. Yeah, it probably, you know. And how much money were they, how much money were they stealing in the heist in the, from the casino? That's a great question.

In the original, it's $60,000. I'm guessing it's like $600,000 in this. I don't know. Yeah. Because I'd love to know how much more money the movie made than the heist was. Quite a bit. That'd be like a fun segment. Number one at the box office is a sequel.

Okay. Sort of a family, I guess. It's a family-adjacent movie. Sort of genre. I'm sure you were there opening weekend. 2004. Is it live action or animated? It's live action with some animated characters.

You say I was there opening weekend derisively. That means, of course, it has to be Scooby-Doo to Colon Monsters Unleast. It is one of my favorite subtitles. but it is also one of the worst titles of all time. Now, because they should have done Scooby II, Scooby-T-O-O, Scooby-Doo. There's so many opportunities there and they whiffed on all of them.

Scooby-Duby-Duby-Doo. Scooby-Doo B-2. Scooby-Doo-Doo B-2. Any of these they could have done, and they did not. It's just called Scooby-Doo, Numeral 2, colon, Monsters Unleashed, a movie with a great premise and terrible execution written by James Gunn. Um

Scooby-Doo too opening to a healthy $29 million for a movie that bad But the first one came out in the middle of the summer And opened to like 55 It was the biggest opening weekend Warner Brothers it had Yeah I mean I think it

This one's the whole cast talks about That they felt like they dumped it Coming off a big hit Yeah Yeah And it ends up at like 90 Um It ends up at 84

It does like half of what the previous Yeah Number three at the box office This is the actual box office success of this era, this moment. I believe it's called The Passion of the Christ. That is correct. In five weeks, of all times. In five weeks, it has made $315 million.

And same. Number fourth, box office, is a collabo between the two most recent people to be involved with Superman. Oh, it's Dawn of the Dead? Yes. So Gunna has two movies in Peter's same time. Zach Snyder's Dawn of the Dead, which has a 60% drop after being number one last weekend,

but nonetheless, a decent hit. Yes, in a good movie. Number five of the box office, probably drawing a lot of fire away from Tom Hanks, sort of having a bit of a flop on his hands. Someone else's flop and harder? Is a huge flop. A notorious flop?

I would say somewhat notorious. Directed by someone who's been on this show multiple times. Who's been a guest on this show? Two times. Two-time guest. A two-time guest directed a huge flop. It's him swerving to a more sort of like a kind of grown-up type movie. Doesn't work.

Is it in good company? No. That's a good movie. Yeah, that's what I'm confused. Oh, and that was also Paul Solo, right? I believe so. Yeah, okay. No, it's, but it's more, it becomes a, it's not a particularly big hit, but it's,

gets a lot of press because of the star and another of co-star and the press around them at the time, unrelated to this movie. Was there a romantic entanglement? In 2004, and they were swinging serious. It's more grown-up. It's a comedy, light comedy. Yes. The film is called Jersey Girl.

Yes, Kevin Smith's Jersey Girl. Not a bad film at all. It's totally fine. It is so much better than its reputation suggests. I do believe... Hammered by the press. He at his Atlantic Smartcastle Theater

that he owns New Jersey, I think they have once or twice in the last couple of years done secret screenings of his director's cut that I've heard is quite a bit better. That is a movie that obviously there was a lot of Weinstein panic cutting around J-Lo

after Gile bombed where they were trying to hide her in the movie. But either way, she dies in the first act. Anyway. Not a bad film. Number six of the box office is Taking Lives. That's the... Angelie J.J. Caruso?

Yeah. Not a good movie. No. Number seven is Starsky and Hutch? Yeah, really kind of not a good movie. What a terrible movie. I remember. Skates along. Right. It's got a couple of moments.

I do remember there was a point where I was checking out movies from the New York Public Library when I realized you could check them out on DVD. And that was a movie that had such a long waiting list that you would never be... It had, like, hundreds of holds. That's so funny. So it's like, oh, you'd never be able to get Starsky and Hodge from the New York Public Library. They just didn't have enough copies to meet with the man for people who wanted the movie for free. Todd Phillips did an interview when that movie came out where he was like,

we're not trying to do like a parody of the original show. We're not trying to do a Brady Bunch movie thing. Our pitch was like, this was the original pilot for Starsky and Hutch, and the network said, can you make it 10% less funny? And then I remember seeing the movie and going, that's exactly what it is. And that's a weird thing to aim for. That's not weighted. but it was a solid hit.

It did well. Number eight of the box office, a bit of a, well, it did okay, but a bit of a flop. The Vigo Mortensen film Hidalgo. That's a big flop. Well, how much money do you think it made, though?

It cost over $100 million. It was an expensive movie, but it made $70, which is like, you know, it's like... Big flop. Number nine of the box office is a film about a window.

I'm seeing here that it's a secret window. Okay, let me guess what this is. Give me a hint. Who's the lead actor? Johnny Depp. Fuck, is it based? on the work of a famous writer. Probably.

Stephen King. You're fucking up my bed. It's a secret window. Number 10 of the box office and people forget how early this day. I'm counting that as a win that I got that one correct because I would have if David hadn't spoiled it. I got you. Number 10 of the box office, people forget how early this film came out in the year. Eternal Sunshine of a Spotless Mind. Yeah. Which of course goes on to win an Oscar.

And number 11, opening just below all that, but a film will cover on the box office one day. The Ernest Dickerson film Never Die Alone. It's like, what if DMX is the lead rather than kind of like the off ball. Well, but the movie opens with DMX's death, and then it's David Arquette investigating the life of a guy via flashbacks. So did he die alone?

I think he did. And David Arquette turns to the camera at the end. He's like, and that's why you should never die alone. It's an interesting movie, it's a pretty good film. Cool. I remember going to see it with my friend in high school and being like, oh, this is going to be like exit wounds,

like DMX just like being a badass, and then it's kind of a character study. Fascinating. All right, I'll check out Never Die Alone. Save it for the series. Maybe I will. He actually is. quite a lot of movies. It might be tough. Ernest?

Yeah. I did a count recently. It's doable. I think some of them are TV movies. Yeah, I circle back. I always check the viability of a Canada. Okay. Connor, do you want to leave us with any final Tom Hanks' thoughts? Because I feel like we didn't discuss his performance enough. David was rushing us along. We talked about Tom Hanks for

a fucking hour. He's been committed to the idea of this being the worst episode ever. I want to go see the gay movie. I have to go see a gay movie. You have to go see a gay movie? What movie? Yeah, it's the one where they kiss. Oh, that one. I think, is that who it is? I didn't realize there's an artificial

shot clock on this movie. On this episode, yeah. Do we think that Pickles is the descendant of Ulysses from inside Lewin Davis? He's talking about animal. David's leaving the room. He doesn't want, he says, David's scratching his body,

slaying in the bathroom door. He was off mic. He said he's talking about animals. As if that was somehow, did I miss a memo? We're not allowed to talk about. And I just want to make it clear that he said this. As he muttered this, he stood up and scratched his

But no wonder he got so, I didn't realize there was a no talking about animals rule in the podcast. I am so sorry that I violated that. Obviously, the dog stuff I really like. Connor, it's not your fault. I shouldn't have brought it. That's why he got so mad every time I mentioned that website. He sent us an inner office memo recently. No more animal talk. Hereby forbidding animal talk from the podcast. Also, no poppins. Do you remember no poppins? Do you get the joke I'm making? No poppins. Mary Poppins? There was a Steve Harvey sent out a memo to the entire staff of his talk show. and the first thing on it was no pop-ins. Do not let someone come

visit my dressing room before a show, but he described it as no pop-ins. It sounds like something that Mr. Banks would have set. Yeah, absolutely. We gotta save that guy. There's no record of this waffle iron on the internet. I know. I had to do such

deep Googling to find, I will screenshot it up, and we will post on social media, the AV club right up that still acknowledges it, but I searched really hard last night to find the proof because I was like am I imagining this? We gotta get two of these. We gotta get

two. I'll be so sad if we only ever find one for Griffin and then I've just left with... Connor, it was a delight having you. Connor triples is best. Maybe we should get three. No, triples is best. Oh, sorry, I accidentally felt like we're about to wrap up the episode. That's a weird energy floating around here.

I have so much more to say about the lady killer that didn't enjoy it. David, what if we only talk about humans? Can we keep the episode going a little longer? Just keep talking. He needs to go to his screen. I'm going. We just keep talking. You guys have fun. Connor, it really is so much fun. I'm so, thank you for having me here. I want to deliver you a true compliment.

Sometimes I'm coming to this show, you know, we got a podcast scheduled. Maybe we have some guests that I don't know, and there's the slight nerves of like, what's that going to be like, right? You coming on this show, I truly was, like, walking into the studio, like, I'm going to have a good time this morning. Did you have a good time? Absolutely. That's a lovely compliment. And he hasn't given a compliment in a decade to anyone.

I keep him close to the chest. Can I? I actually have a bunch of letters that on my death will be released. that are compliments for every flowery compliments. That's a nice thought. Ben, you're a good listener. You're right. It's like, that's the full letter he waited until his death.

You couldn't say that? Can I put that compliment into my press quotes and say it's from the Atlantic? Absolutely. All right. I'll see you later. All right. See you later. Truly lovely to talk to.

Too bad I don't like this movie. I wish I liked it a little more. That's a great wish. What if that came true? What a waste of a wish? That seems like a gigantic waste of a wish. My stance is, I give this film barely a pass-in grade, which means to me they have never made a truly bad film, but this is their absolute worst movie. Yeah, I've seen four times.

I would love it if like the Blue Fairy from the Zemeckas version of Pinocchio came to you tonight and was like, your wish is granted, you now like the lady killers. I'm like, great. No more with three and a half stars. No more wishes. My girlfriend and I were watching the Ealing movie last night, and she was like, and everyone hates the Cohen one. And I was like, yeah, let me just show you the opening scene of what Hank. does so you can see how weird it is. I want to know what she thought.

And I put it on and she goes like, this is funny. I like this. And I was like, right? I'm going to take a shower, but if you want to keep watching, feel free. I go take a shower. I come out. I'm like, what do you think? She was like, um, I like parts of it. And I was like, really, it's lost you. And she was like, I'll admit

after two minutes of you in the shower, I started checking my phone a lot. And I was so ready for her to back me up. And she immediately was like, I kind of get what other people are saying. Yeah, I would know. It's not a movie I would ever fight with someone's like, I don't like it. It's not like, I'm going to convince you. No, I did not break up with my girlfriend on the spot over this.

That would be weird. But I do find pleasure in the things that work in this movie. I do as well. I'm pleasure in so much stuff and I love all you guys and I'll see you on Thursday. All right. Did we get any of that on my... We'll see. He was projecting.

I like the way that feels when someone leaves a podcast, you hear them go away. It makes you feel like you're really in the space. I mean, now we can actually get to it. It's like every now and then when you're in a movie theater and they make a really bold choice about having a sound happen in the back corner of the theater. And it pulls you out of the movie in a way that you're like, that's a big choice. These are the reasons I love this show not being on video. Do you know what I'm saying?

They're sort of like theater of the mind. And like you heard David get further away from the mic and then a door shut, the flush of the toilet. I'm kind of thinking maybe to mirror the movie, one of us should each get up and leave. Oh, it's like he went on the barge that him leaving there was the first one. Let me make sure my devices are synced in terms of Disney emoji blitz. Just if I'm going to leave abruptly, I have to, yeah, camera a good place. I'm in a really good place, actually. I really feel like, and I hope that people have enjoyed, because I know that sometimes

listeners, they're like, oh, well, I'll enjoy the movies that I like. But it's actually sometimes that's not the case. Sometimes it's more fun to hear people talk about a movie where there's a little bit more interesting stuff to chew on because some Coen Brothers movies, like I text you at one point, and I said, I don't want to do Lady Killers anymore. You really want you to do Barton. Barton Fink, because Barton Fink is not just my favorite Cohn Brothers movie.

It's one of my top four favorite movies of all time. And we had literally, like, just promised it to Whites the day before you texted me that. And I was just like, he wants to do it for a lot of reasons. He feels really strongly. We feel really strongly. I'd still love you to do Lady Hill. It makes, and it makes sense for me to do this one, given all the dead eyes crossover and it's everything. And he's stealing your moves in this movie.

Oh, yeah, my dead eyes move. But, like, Barton, I just saw a quote about Barton think in that new John Goodman interview that's out and where he specifically said he wishes he could go back and redo some things about Barton Fink. And I'm like, what on earth could you be talking about? Look, we've been doing a lot of Goodman this year. And he, I say this all the time. No actor of his stature is more publicly self-critical than Goodman.

It is incredible how unsatisfied he seems to be with ever. everything he's ever done. And I'm like, that's a guy who is so natural, makes it seem so effortless, and always hits for me. And he's like, I watch Barton Fink and I, like, shudder. As much... I think I fucked it up. Oh, no, he's perfect.

It's crazy. There's one part of that movie that I don't like. Can you guess what it is? No, but I just had a big thought. Tell me what it is. There's one scene that I bump on. It just feels a little bit like... always feels a little out of place to me.

It's the part where he's at the USO dance and he's doing his like silly dance. Oh, sure. And yelling at people. And there's something about it tonally that feels like it's from another movie. And every other scene in that movie feels perfect to me. And that one scene,

I always, whenever I get to it, I'm always like... I like the sailors fighting with him, though. I know what you're saying about the dance itself. Yeah. There's something about it that seems a little bit too... Like, it looks like a scene that if you saw it as a deleted scene,

you'd be like, I know why that didn't make it. it in. It kind of doesn't... I had a humongous thought just now. This all just came together for me, and I can't believe David's not here to hear this. And I hope he never hears it. I want to make it clear. I hope he never listens back to this episode. For everyone on earth

but, David. And if you're listening to the show, never and you meet David, or you already know David and you see him again, never repeat this to him. But maybe say, I know something from the podcast that you don't know. Here's my big thought. I refuse to explain it. Yeah. Would this movie work better with John? Goodman in the Tom Hanks part.

I was literally, that was my next point I was about to make that Hanks is kind of doing a Goodman performance in this, right? In terms of like the bigness. And like much as I enjoy Hanks' performance in this, to imagine John Goodman in the role is to imagine an effortless seeming performance. And John Goodman's kind of better at like charming menace than anyone? Mm-hmm. Like he would know how to make this character scary and funny at the same time.

I think you would be more genuinely scared for, Irma P. Hall's safety if it was John Goodman. And I think when he dies at the end, you'd be like, yes, we did it. Like, you'd feel a relief that he had been wiped off the board. Goodman in this would kind of, Ben, if they don't kill the dog and it's Goodman. And Goodman is doing foghorn, leghorn. I would like to see that. I would like to see that.

It's hard for me to say that I, I would maybe, maybe like it. Is there anything you liked about this movie, or was it like a total? You liked it when it was over. You like the tunnel. A big part of the movie. Huge part of the film. I like the tunneling. Is it a maw with a cigarette?

That's quite impressive. That's a good part of the trick. Were you amused when he was hiding under the bed and she was saying, what are you having tea under the bed for? It's just a funny thing for someone to witness and imagine that this old lady has an imaginary friend named the professor who drinks tea under the bed. And to imagine that Tom Hanks hiding under the bed and getting caught under the bed would still work. Right. And that he's shushing her, right? And that in her mind, she's like, this is funny

that he's playing this game of saying shush. That he thinks he can get away with it. It's a great scene in which each character is kind of correct about what's going on. Like, they always have their own version of what's happening. And it leads to the ultimate victory of them not taking her credibly when she confesses and offers to give them back the money, which then leads to her giving all the money to Bob Jones University.

And Conner, is there anything you want to say about Bob Jones University on the record that is your viewpoint, not ours. I don't know a lot about them. Everything that I've heard has been unimpressive to me. And if that's a crime, throw me in prison. Okay, Ben's going to leave. That's kind of a little too hot for him. And, of course, I hope that my big, big hope always,

and I tweet about it every few years or post about it on social media, that the one sequel, the Coen brothers claim they're going to make. Old Fink. Old Fink would rule. It's the best thing they could reunite to make now that they're in this extended

rum spring of working with their wives and not with each other. And the last I heard of it was them saying that they thought that Tertruro was aging better than they had hoped.

We're past the age because they wanted to be Barton Fing in the Summer of Love. We're past the age chronologically where that should have happened. But I think they want their idea of what John Truturo

as an old man is still the guy's ageing great but he doesn't look young yeah and I think you know that's what the movie magic I want to see what the Fink hairdo in the late 60s is I can only imagine the Fink hairdo in the late

60s I you know basically I just can't believe the Dial of Destiny beat them to it we already got old Indiana Jones before we got old Fink old Jones yeah and I and I don't even worry about

like Barton Fink is a movie that just means so much to me it captures so much it's a movie I think about constantly and I'm not scared whether old think is good or bad because I'm not one of those people who thinks like oh it gets ruined if you don't like I don't I never think that way because I always

You never think that way that's not how I think that way that's not how I think it's not how I think I always prefer the notion of like just try it try to do the thing if you have the idea if you have have the impulse and if it doesn't work out no slate off the original

it's the same way that like that that's ultimately I know David really hated the argument of that we were I don't remember exactly what he was objecting to but when I think about lady killers and what works about it and what doesn't I always just land on the side of I'm glad they tried this

because especially now knowing it wasn't a dead end for them well especially now talking in terms of moose porting because we're going to introduce the concept to Mooseporting this late. Well, all right, because I haven't said this on the pot. I've only just said this to you in person, right?

Correct. This is a great, great place to introduce it. So with the recent passing of Gene Hackman, I had never seen the movie Welcome to Mooseport. Yeah, let me make clear as well. My father had prostate surgery on the day that Gene Hackman died. I was in the hospital waiting room for him to be released, and you called me, and we,

you pitched the idea of moose porting to me on the day of Gene Hackman's death. The body, I was going to say the body was still warm, but of course, when they discovered him, he'd been dead for a couple weeks. Yeah. But this is the context in which I received the idea of moose porting for the first time

is hospital waiting room. All right. And it's as good a place as any to receive this idea. So if you're listening to this in a hospital waiting room, congratulations. You're pulling the same classic move

that Griffin did. If you're near hospital, we don't want people overcrowding the waiting room. of hospitals. But if you're near a hospital, you see the waiting room is basically empty.

Maybe walk inside, listen to the Zespart. Or hit-paw- hit-paws go. Well, we also don't want people draining the Wi-Fi from people who need it. Only sign on if you need it.

I had never seen Welcome to Mooseport. When it came out at the time, it was poorly received, and I just didn't see it. I didn't see it. But I always thought, I will see it eventually. And then eventually it became

sort of canonized as Gene Hackman didn't make any more movies. People were like, I can't believe his last movie was Welcome to Mooseport. It kind of has this reputation of like, I can't believe.

He lived for another 20 years, and Welcome to Mooseport remained his final film. And so he died, and I thought, you know what, I should see Welcome to Mooseport now. And it occurred to me that maybe I will enjoy it more because now I have a different context. Maybe I will appreciate. Now that there aren't going to be any new Gene Hackman performances, I will just appreciate aspects of it that wouldn't have been as enjoyable to me back when it originally came out. And I did watch it, and there were a few things I really did enjoy. And I do think it was enhanced by just appreciating seeing him. Now, by happenstance, the day you're pitching this to me, the day of Gene Hackman's death,

I had watched Mooseport for the first time within the two weeks leading up to that. For whatever weird reason, I got on a run of watching Donald Petrie films. Donald Petrie directed Welcome to Mooseport. He directed the McCauley Calk and Richie Rich. He directed the first Miscaniality. Wow. You filled up a whole dish. And there was another,

there was another Petri I watched. For some reason, I got in a Petrie run. And I was like, Oh, you were filling up your Petri Day. Right, I was like, Petri is kind of an interesting Journeyman comedy filmmaker who had some big hits and some big misses,

but never really had a defined identity, right? And I was like, maybe it's time to watch Mooseport. And I watched Mooseport, and you were pitching moose porting to me. And I thought the framework you were pitching was specifically watching a movie that was disregarded at the time because of the context

in which it was released that now with some distance plays a lot better removed from that burden of however, whatever was held against it at the time. And I said to you,

and you said, I think it should be a thing that we start doing and calling moose-porting. That moose-porting should be the verb for going through that process of reclaiming a movie

that was a victim of circumstance and timing. And I said to you, Connor, I have watched this film in the last two weeks, and it is not very good. good. I do not know how much of a bump you're going to get from rewatching it in the wake of his passing. And you said, then maybe moose purting is just the term for filling in a gap in someone's

filmography after they die. And since then, I feel like you have morphed it again to just be filling in a gap. Well, it's specifically a thing you, it doesn't like going back and seeing an old Orson Welles movie, something that came out before you were born. That's not mooseboarding. It's something that you could have gone to see at the time. You passed on it for whatever reason. you missed it. You maybe didn't even know it existed. And things kind of dismissed with a shrug. Lady Killers is the kind of movie

that a lot of our listeners might be moose-porting. A lot of them will be moose-porting. I also say this. I want to clarify, it's not, I just said something and I realized, no, that's not moose-porting. If you didn't know that a movie existed, that's not moose-porting.

It has to be something that you actively, like, knew it existed, didn't see it. Never bothered to watch it. And then you go back. But you were making an... I recently moose-ported the movie, It's Pat. And I realized that

a lot of the well it's better than its reputation certainly there's a lot to recommend we don't have time for that right now no that's its own episode

but I realize there are a lot of SNL movies that I didn't see in the 90s oh so you're doing a big SNL was corn heads I never saw

Stuart saves his family I really like I never saw night at the Roxbury I never saw superstar there's a lot of rocksberries

never saw the ladies man on fire yeah any of those movies if I saw them now they let's say they're all C-minus there still might be a part of me now

that is nostalgic for that era of comedy. We don't get that kind of character comedy. The last SNL movie was McGruber, which is now 15 years old. And that was itself the first one in about a decade. If you go see a movie like that in the theater when it comes out

and you think it's 25% funny, you still feel like, 75% of that was not worth it. Now, in my dotage, as I near my 50th birthday, congratulations. It may, well, I haven't got there yet. Okay, humble brag.

I think I might, those are examples of movies that are, they are on deck to be moose-ported because I think at this age there are certain things that even if I don't love them, even if I don't really like them, there'll be an element of appreciation that wouldn't have been there in its original context. I feel that way basically now whenever I watch any studio comedy because we never get them anymore and we never get them theatrically.

And any time I watch a true, pure theatrical comedy starring real comedy stars that has like production value and any degree of craft behind it, I'm just like, this is automatically gaining another half star for me just because we're living in a vacuum of these types of movies. And I would say in an era now where we are awaiting, will the Coen Brothers make another movie together? I think Lady Killers is an ideal Mooseport because there's a limited number of Coenbrother movies.

If you liked the other ones and you haven't seen this one, you're also getting to see Tom Hanks and these actors in this era. Yeah. And no matter what, they're not making 2004-era Tom Hanks movies anymore. They don't, he's older than that.

This is a movie worth moose-porting. Well, they did with here. They are kind of making... But I think even if you dislike this movie as much as David and Ben did, I think this is a film worth moose-porting and hopefully moose-porting within the context that we're helping to provide

of how strange it was that everyone made this movie and how it's at kind of a fulcrum point of career best work for everyone involved on either side of it. But it's interesting that they all met in this middle fallow sort of, they met, they met briefly in a pit and then all climbed out of it. And I also think, to be honest, the one thing that I would definitely say about this is I don't think that you could accuse this movie of like, well, this is the Coen Brothers just phoning

it in. It is not a phone in and it's not anonymous. It is, they are trying some things. Not all of those things work. But it's clearly built around things that they personally find. funny and repeated themes and visual ideas that are throughout their entire filmography. And sometimes, honestly, like, when you really like an artist, their flawed deep cuts

sometimes are more more interesting to revisit than some perfect movies that you, there are some movies of theirs that I've probably seen so much. This is the value of mooseboarding. Yes, this is, and moose porting is also great as you get older because it is a form of time travel. it is a way of revisiting things that you... It's like a butterfly effect.

You watch it and you imagine how would my life have been different if I had seen this in theaters at the time? Because you have to... You can only moose port a movie that you were aware of when it was on first run. Charles Dickens knew about moose porting

in a way he may have invented it with a Christmas Carol because... Christmas Carol is kind of the ultimate tale of Moose Porter. Ultimately it's like, you know, there's some stuff that you missed Ebenezer and he's like, I've seen some of this. Like, you haven't seen this?

You haven't. And he's like, this hits different for me now. Port past, Mooseport yet to come. Yeah. Conner. Spirit, please. No more moose porting. Connor, I have a podiatrist appointment.

But I'll, of course, just let you keep going. Oh, you're going to go? Well, is there anything you want to plug? So I'm going to. Okay, is there anything you want to plug? Oh, um, Connor Ratliff presents the acting class. Incredible show. Griffin has appeared on a couple of...

Twice now? It's a one-person improvised show. Occasionally I have a guest. Join me in my one-person-in-per-in-profileged show. Did the great Jeff Heller recently? It pretends to be an... It's a one-person improvised show that pretends to be an acting class.

You do them live, you've been doing them in New York, you've been traveling a bit with them, but all of them go up on YouTube eventually? Most of them. And what I would ask people is, please subscribe to the YouTube channel because it is the thing that I want to... I'm going to give it another year

and see if I can build it. It's an incredible show. I cannot endorse it enough. Everyone I know who has seen it is blown away. It is the kind of thing that I think only use. can do and is a perfect vehicle for your unique mind. And I would like it to eventually be a thing

because it's basically like a talk show where I make the guest improvise when I have a guest. And I really like the idea of it I sort of want it to be like hot ones without the wings or the sauce. It's just what's left? I will say

also by the time this episode comes out, it will be close-ish to us doing the first George Lucas performances. Lucas Talk Show in a little while near Comic-Con, and I believe we have some New York show date set, we'll put the information in the episode description. Are you allowed to plug the Stitch comic?

Oh, yeah. James III and I... Past and Future Guest, friend of the show. Have written a series of eight issues of Stitch comics that Dynamite Comics is putting out from... So we're writing official Disney comics, and basically these are comics in which Jumba... he's in danger of losing membership

in one of his evil guilds and that's where he has his dental plan. And so he has to come up with a series of inventions to try to gain enough points so he doesn't lose membership in this evil organization. It's a really funny idea. And in each issue, he has a new invention

that could be used for evil. Stitch usually does something that will then send things in a chaotic direction. And I think they're turning out really funny. I've seen the first show me a couple pages. They were really funny. The first two issues with the art back and it's really good. So please check those out. I think the first issue

is out in early August, and then monthly for eight months or whatever. Connie, thank you for being here. I love you. Thank you so much. I'm going to wander away. Okay. Yeah, and I guess I'll just figure out how to end the episode. Going on to a barge of garbage. Yeah, right, garbage.

Of course. No, thank you. Thank you for being here. Talk to you soon. I love you. I guess it's just me left alone with my Lady Killer's thoughts. It's like a six out of ten. I acknowledge there are a couple major strikes against it. So it's bordering on being like a 5.9, but I give it the six.

I prefer the sound of a B minus over C plus, even though I guess both are passing grades. Just getting into C territory, even if it was a passing grade, always felt like I can't hold my head high versus anything with a B. I'm like, look, it's more good than bad. Rotten Tomatoes, 60% positive reviews.

This is the cutoff. I think this movie ended up at like 44. I think that's rude. It should have been 60. Right there, 60. It should have been barely fresh. Or if it were rotten, it should have been like a 59. Should have been a pretty high rotten or very low, fresh.

It's not a great film. It's deeply flawed, but I think compared to a lot of the worst movies we've covered on the show, pretty good standing of this is your worst film. especially for how many films they've made. Tune next week for No Country for Old Men, a movie I don't think we'll argue about a lot. It's pretty fucking great. Best Picture.

It's not racist, which is definitely a feather in its cap. And as always, I think I'm just going to go jump on this garbage barge. Ride it all the way to my podiatrist appointment. Blank Check with Griffin and David is hosted by Griffin Newman and David Sims. Our executive producer is me, Ben Hossley. Our creative producer is Marie Barty Salinas, and our associate producer is A.J. McKeon.

This show is mixed and edited by A.J. McKin and Alan Smithy. Research by J.J. Birch. Our theme song is by Lane Montgomery in the Great American novel, with additional music by Alex Mitchell. Artwork by Joe Bowen, Ollie Moss, and Pat Reynolds. Our production assistant is Minnick. Special thanks to David Cho, Jordan Fish, and Nate Patterson for their production help. Head over to Blankcheckpod.com for links to all of the real nerdy shit.

Join our Patreon, Blank Check Special Features, for exclusive franchise commentaries and bonus episodes. Follow us on social at Blank CheckPod. Subscribe to our weekly newsletter, Checkbook on Substack. This podcast is created and produced by Blank Check Productions.