Blank Check with Griffin & David - Thief

Episode Date: May 19, 2019

Five months ago Blank Check began the Tim Burton mini-series. This week, though, marks a new director and a NEW mini-series with the filmography of one Michael Mann! Starting us of is the 1981 jewel stealing neo-noir, Thief. But were there literal wanted criminals on the set of this movie? Is James Cann the best at Twitter? What is Mann's top 10 Sight & Sound and is there a strange contemporary outlier? Together Griffin and David examine Michael Mann's background, the performances of Cann, Robert Prosky and Willie Nelson and spend some time on Dennis Farina's mustache.  Music: "ShortSwingwav." by Valentin Sosnitskiy. Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

I have run out of time. I have lost it all. So I can't work fast enough to catch up So I can't work fast enough to catch up. I can't run fast enough to catch up. And the only thing that catches me up is doing my podcast. What a monologue. What a monologue. I'm getting chills.

I might watch it again tonight. Yeah, you'd love this movie. Your criteria is so far up your ass, you can't see daylight. Well, you're making it sound very, like, mugsy. Yeah, right. I am the last guy in the world you want to fuck with. You want to pinch me, pinch me, but I ain't ever going to be pinched.

What are you doing in your life that's so terrific? The INDB quotes page has the entirety of the adoption agency. Oh, yeah, that's so good it's the longest quote i've ever seen from the suburbs right there's that whole thing you can grow up in a green four by four is that what he says um yeah let me look i got some abc type information for you lady i was state raised and this is a dead place i related to that oh my god what about this one i wear 150 slacks i wear silk shirts $800 suits. I wear a gold watch.

I wear a perfect, D flawless, three carat ring. I change cars like other guys change their fucking shoes. I'm a podcast. I've been in prison all right. That,

that is so good. God, if a man, if James Caan yelled that at me, I would both break up with him and have an orgasm at the same time. I'd be like,

you're, you're a problem, but also, holy shit. You're revving my engine. You're making big profits from my work, my risk, my sweat. But that's okay because I elected to make that deal. But now the deal is over. I want my podcast and I am out.

My money in 24 hours or you will wear your podcast for a hat. You're talking to me or someone else walking in this room. You're marking time as what you are. Wear your podcast for a hat. You're talking to me or someone else walking in this room. You're marking time as what you are. You're backing off. You're hiding out. You're waiting for a bus that you hope never comes because you don't want to get in anyway because you don't want a podcast anywhere. Okay?

Let's just read the screenplay. This is some of the best dialogue we've ever covered on this show. Yeah. And it makes me... He is such an underrated dialogue guy like people sort of forget that well you know what's weird about uh uh this guy who we're talking about have we set the the timer get that clock rolling baby clock in the corner ben purchased a clock ben where's what's going on with the clock you're getting tight with the clock you're trying to

pinch this clock are you sneaky and i took 10 minutes out. Oh. What? How'd you do that? Just to try and get you guys to be. No, but you see, we noticed. You think you were going to trick me into believing that we've already been talking for 13 minutes? Get out of here. Yes, I did. You trying to pinch me? Yeah, I am.

My money in one hour and 47 minutes, so you will wear your ass for a half. Okay. All right. All right. You don't have to get aggressive. Start it back up. Start it at two. I am not starting it back up. Start it at two. I am not starting it back up.

Start it at two. No. Thief. Thief. Hello, everybody. This is Blank Check with Griffin and David. That's right. It's a podcast about filmographies.

Directors who get massive success early on in their careers experience a series of blank checks. I switch the words experience and get. Fair enough. Make whatever crazy passion projects they want. Sometimes those checks clear and sometimes they bounce baby and this is of course a mini series called the cast of the pod heikins i guess i guess by default all his other titles are like one word and they don't work yeah i was kind of pitching you on uh like doing one of his tv movies like

la takedown or The Jericho Mile, but even those aren't very good. Podcast Lateral. Podcast Lateral. Pod Lateral. No, Pod Lateral Cast doesn't work. You'd have to do Podcast Lateral. The answer is we're doing the cast of the Podheekens.

I know, it's just annoying because it's like, we're Maheekens? It feels a little dicey. But here's the alternate title for this miniseries. David takes a sip. Of my lemonade. Here's the alternate title for this miniseries. Michael Mansplaining.

I mean, we are men. And you're going to start explaining this filmography hard. I guess so. This is your guy. This is your Tim Burton're going to start explaining this filmography hard. I guess so. This is your guy. This is your Tim Burton. I grew up in a dark little corner. Oh God. And you grew up.

I grew up in the city. Fantasizing about men making, tough men making tough decisions. Oh God. Men who have to make decisions that are hard. Oh my God. They got a job to do. They're trying to fight the system.

I guess so. But I look out for me. I got my skill. i got my skill yeah he's got a magic act um why do i love michael man because you love bureaucracy or you love stories about bureaucracy yeah when did it start david what was like your first couple of man films when did i become a man i'm pretty sure the first michael man movie I saw was The Insider. I was 13. Interesting. I maybe had seen, I can't remember when I saw Heat. I saw Heat around there.

When I'm becoming a teen. But The Insider I saw for Oscar purposes. This was a big movie. And I was like, oh yeah, I'm going to see this movie with this Russell Crowe performance everyone's talking about. And 99, a big year for film. I mean, that was like a year that was like an activator for a lot of people. Yeah, it's the only year we're allowed to talk about.

It's getting discussed this. There's a lot of 99 stuff going on. Yeah. And I saw The Insider and I just remember being like, well, Crowe is really good at that, which he is. Yeah. We'll get to it but also like what was up with that movie with like the weird opera score and those like long shots of him like sitting in a chair and like what what's going on here yeah who is this

guy here's the thing that i find interesting about michael man that i was thinking a lot while watching thief thief the film we're discussing today. His debut film. What Ben argues is perhaps the best debut film we've ever covered on the show. Or you're saying one of the best debut films you've ever seen. Yes. Because I'm not the biggest film buff. I don't feel like I've really visited many directors' first features. Outside of this podcast. Outside of this podcast.

Where we always covered the debut feature. Right. To my own sort of dismay but this one's good yes I loved it I think this yeah

is the best one of the the best debut this is a very Ben movie like Mean Streets is I guess the other one that comes to mind that's not a debut though

that's not a debut you made like four films before that that was his breakthrough that's the thing often you get your breakthrough movie but after you made a couple

maybe trashy movies or Mean Streets was his breakthrough. That's the thing. Often you get your breakthrough movie, but after you made a couple of maybe trashy movies. Mean Streets was his sixth sense. It was his matrix. It was the one where it connects. But here, that's what I want to go through. I mean, Bound is the other one that stands out to me. Oh, yeah. Bound.

Okay, Bound. But this is why I want to go through it. Okay. Praying with anger. Whatever. Bound fucking rules. Yeah. Right? Bound's great. Owns. Say anything. it okay praying with anger whatever bound fucking rules yeah right that was great owns um say anything a strong debut very strong debut uh who else we got here dot dot dot yeah piranha to

the spawning forget it perfect masterpiece um let's see i'm so angry that joe dante got knocked out of march madness because then we could have covered Piranha 1. I know. We could have covered all our Piranha bases. Yeah. Well, until we do our Alexandra Aja film, filmography miniseries and cover Piranha 3 That's when we're really, that's when we're really, uh, you know, uh, three years past our sell-by date or whatever.

No, no, no. There's a lot going on here. There's a lot going on here. There's some stuff going on here. Hills Have Eyes 2 is kind of an interesting film. Violent. Yeah, maybe he only made one. Go on. Yeah, I'm not sure. You know, we didn't do Spielberg's debut.

Following, eh. Yeah. You know, The Loveless, eh. You know, these are movies that are more like flavors of something cool to come later. We didn't do Verhoeven's debut. Terms of endearment. Good movie.

Yeah. That's a strong debut. So we've covered some good debuts. We have. The Iron Giant. Good debut. Not bad. Not bad.

Pushing Hands. That's more in the latter category. The Parent Trap. You know. Solid. Yeah. It's a non-base double. And then Pee-Wee's Big Adventure is a good debut.

So we've done some good ones. So is this the best one we've covered on this podcast? Maybe not. I don't know. It's not my favorite. It's definitely Ben's favorite. Yeah. It's so my kind of movie.

It's just scummy. Neon noir. If you put your hand through the air, it would come back all sweaty. it's just gummy like neon noir if you like put your hand through the air you know it would come back all sweaty

there's a film sweaty yeah like a little greasy a little gritty a lot of great jackets this is just a lot of great hand and pocket acting

which I love it is wet baby it's wet my favorite thing I'd say it's damp this is what's his name

jeez come on, David. Is it Roger or Robert? Robert Prosky. His debut film. Acting, film acting debut, TV acting debut, screen debut. No, no, no, no. He had TV credits before this. I don't think so.

Yes, he did. I looked it up last night because someone tweeted at us about, you posted it on Letterboxd, so now everyone knows we're covering Michael Mann. How dare I, honestly. How dare you? We've had a talk about this Mann. How dare I, honestly. How dare you. We've had a talk about this and refused to. Okay, alright, alright. I guess they weren't on his Wikipedia but if you go to his... He had TV credits but even then, he's 51 in this movie.

This is his first movie. His first TV credit is only like 8 years earlier. Yeah, it's in the 70s. I mean, he didn't get on camera until his 40s, essentially. The year before he had done... I did. Yeah. He had done. I was like, look, I did a deep dive into Prosky. Prosky fucking rules.

Who is the best. And I just watched The Natural, which I've never seen. Which he's incredible. Like, he's always good. Another reason. Joe Dante, we would have been able to cover his vampire character. His vampire? In Gremlins 2.

Oh, that's right. That's him. He plays a vampire late night monster movie tv host like vampire who wants to be a newscaster

and he's in broadcast news which he's really good in so good in I'm trying to think of if we've done any other proskies he's uh

oh he's in what Ben of course knows is the most quotable movie of all time Mrs. Doubtfire that's correct he's the boss in Mrs. Doubtfire the famous

oh sure scene with the two dinners at the same time he's in miracle on 34th street but offensively is not playing santa claus yeah that's weird right yeah especially because in his later years he grew a big white beard and he basically was santa claus let me tell you something kid i'm gonna get your fucking presents it's a thing yeah presents gonna bring down your chimney i'm gonna slide down that chimney so fucking hard and And those boxes are going to be there. And you better want those boxes. He's in that last action hero.

So if we ever get to McTiernan, you know. Yeah. We should get to McTiernan. We should get to McTiernan. Praski. Praski. And also, what a good name to say. Robert Praski.

I've been talking about this with you guys. His real name is like Praski's chick. You know, he's like a Polish guy. But Praski stole a good, hard name. He didn't change it to like Robert Johnson. Robert Good Actor. What if you did that? That's your pseudonym.

Robert Good Actor? Yeah, Griffin Good Actor. I was getting some Ben vibes, like I'm going to look like him when I get older. Well, I was going to say, I've been talking about this with you guys, but I'm like very uh frustrated with being uh 30 right you want to be 55 you mean like i feel like whenever the tick ends and hopefully by the time this episode comes out my show has not been canceled sure but whatever the tick ends i'm gonna be stuck in a fallow period until i start looking like dennis franz and then i think

i'm gonna pop like i just look at like when I look at like fucking Kevin Dunn and Robert Prosky and Dennis Fronsky. Prosky and Frons both came out of Hill Street Blues. So those are two Hill Street Bluesers. And people, obviously people are going to go like, maybe you should revive Hill Street Blues.

You're not a Robert Prosky type. Prosky's a pretty broad guy. Here's my argument. Okay. First of all, I think I'm going to balloon. Oh, jeez. You're going to hit 30 and then suddenly I'm 30 now balloon oh she's like you're gonna hit 30 and

then suddenly i'm 30 now 30 you just hit i think like 35 i'm gonna be like full like only like a horseshoe hair body like a dumpling protruding i'm gonna be a little pot sticker i think give me five years and i'm gonna look like a little Potts sticker. And the other thing is you go, oh, these guys, these are tough. These are tough street guys. First off, I'm downtown Griffey Nooms. I grew up on the hard streets of Greenwich Village. Okay. I know the streets.

I know streets. Here's another thing. What's the other thing with those guys? They're frustrated. They're tired. They're giving up. They're fast talkers. These are all things I got.

You know what I'm saying? And right now we're seeing them through a certain prism, which is flummoxed interns. But someone asked me recently, like, what do you want to do with your career? Like, what do you want to be doing as an actor? And I was like, I want to be like the guy behind the desk. Yeah. You want to say the mayor's on your ass. Like, I want to be the frustrated guy behind the desk saying the mayor's on my ass here's on my ass right or i pinch you you pinch me or whatever the fucking

dialogue is so i look at prosky and i'm just like god i want to look like that well in 1980 the new york times which is a year before thief okay wrote that robert prosky's performance in death of a salesman in regional theater he did a lot of regional theater in Washington, D.C. Interesting. Quote, represented a certification of the effectiveness of the American regional theater movement. I just got chills. Prosky was so good. I genuinely, I got chills.

Holy fucking shit. Not only is he good in this. Wow. If you see his performance, you'll be like, regional theater is good. Yeah. Like, you know, like regional theater is good yeah like you know like the whole thing i believe in drama as a concept it needs to be for the people can we do a prosky miniseries prosky cast proscast proscast pros nixon we bring what if you didn't come on you did it didn't you

tell me you shit heel. Talk straight to me, dick. Come on. I'll give you equity in my laundromats. Well, the other guy who has a film debut in this movie is Dennis Farina. That's right. Who falls in this category. Dennis Farina, who was robbing the set, and then they just decided to cast him.

He was a Chicago cop. He was a cop. He's got that push broom. You know who Farina. Des Farina, who was robbing the set and then they just decided to cast him. He was a Chicago cop. He was a cop. He's got that push broom. You know who Farina is? Oh, for sure. Yeah. Well, and in this movie, he's got black hair.

He does. Which I've never seen. I know. It's sort of weird. Because the key Farina look. He was born the year before. That's what he looked like as a baby.

That's why he doesn't have much dialogue in his movie because he hadn't learned to talk yet. No, I was going to say, the classic Farina look is, he's totally gray, but the mustache is still dark.

Right, right, right. That beautiful thing. Fuck you, fuckball. Right. The fucking shoe polish mustache. On the salt color hair. What's his story? He was born on a leap year.

God, is Dennis Farina a fucking mystical creature? Dennis Farina died at the age of 18. Born on a leap year in Chicago. Yeah, Chicago. The fourth son of seven. His father was from Sicily. His mother, a homemaker, according to Wikipedia. That's all they got.

A sausage. His mother was a nice bratwurst grew up in old town Chicago right served in the Vietnam War

yes and then served for 18 years in the burglary department of the Chicago PD right so Mann brings him on

as a consultant for this cop consultant because Mann obviously he loves the details I think even before this I think him on as a consultant for this. Yes, cop consultant. Because Mann, obviously, he loves the details. I think even before this, I think maybe for like a TV movie they made, maybe with Jericho Miles, like, you know. Sure. He was a, you know, a crime consultant.

Well, let's, we'll get to the Mann backstory in a second. You know, we got to do Prosky A, Farina B, then Mann we can talk about. Beef. He brings Farina on. God, I feel so good to not be talking about Tim Burton. Yeah, okay. That one shot early on where Khan sits down next to the guy who's fishing. And there's like a backlit shot of him, like, you know, looking out at the water.

I was like, look at this, just two people. And they're nice. It's great. And they're nice. That's not how anyone else would describe Thief. And they're nice. It's a nice movie. Nice nice. That's not how anyone else would describe Thief. And they're nice. It's a nice movie.

Nice boys. This is about nice people, right? This is a movie about nice boys. Oh, boy. I'm going to find this Michael Mann quote that I love. But he, yes, he like, you know, Danny Trejo is another example of this, where Danny Trejo was actually a convict. Sure. And then they brought him on as like a consultant, maybe for heat.

Is that possible? There's this whole world that's built around Eddie Bunker, that guy who wrote that book, who's, who's Mr. Blue and Reservoir Dogs. Okay. And like all these guys, like Trejo knew him.

Man consulted with him for the Jericho mile. Like, right. He's the guy who's sort of like, Hey, yeah, you should meet my friend, Danny. And then he's like, Oh, how you doing's the guy who's sort of like, hey, yeah, you should meet my friend Danny. And Danny's like, hola, how you doing?

You know, and it's like, wow, this guy needs to be in a movie. Like, look at him. Right, they would get these guys who had been on one side or the other of crime. And we're in it. And guys like Michael Mann would be like, I need verisimilitude.

Like, I want the details to all be right. I want the language to be right. I want it to feel right. Right, and in this movie, he just like hired thieves and was like, bring your equipment. Yeah. We're just going to use it. But then these guys would be such interesting characters that they'd be like, you know what?

We're going to put you in the movie and give you a thing to do. And, like, Danny Trejo was just a convict. He was. And Dennis Farina was just a cop. And then both of them became, like, incredible movie stars. I'm going to give you the Trejo story. He was working as a, he'd been in prison. And then he was working became like incredible movie stars. I'm going to give you the Trejo story. He was working as a, he'd been in prison and then he was working as a youth drug counselor.

Okay. And, um, a teenage patient was dealing with cocaine problems on the set of the Eric Roberts film, runaway train. There was cocaine on that set in 1985. Weird.

I don't think that this must be untrue. I'm going to call Wikipedia angrily. You're telling me an Eric Roberts film in the 80s? With who else? John Voight? Oh, boy. Sorry, what were you going to say? Have I ever told you the Eric Roberts, Burt Young story?

I don't know. I heard from like a teamster. I might save that for later in the episode. Great. And so Trejo was brought to the set. It was Heat, right? No, it's Runaway Train. Oh, Runaway Train. And Eddie Bunker, who was already working on that set,

who's another guy in an ex-con who wrote crime fiction, was like, I was in jail with you. Right. And Trejo's like, yeah, sure. And he's like, do you want to train eric roberts in boxing and he was like yeah sure and that's how he's right so trejo ended up on set set just because he was like a sober companion to the kid yes amazing exactly uh crazy right it's crazy uh farina fucking rules and i'm trying to find this man quote that a bunch of people ran when farina

died because he died tragically. A little too young. Somewhat young. 69. And it was like an embolism or something. It was sort of a freak. Not a freak, but like a very sudden death. Pulmonary embolism, as you say. 2013.

My phone is dying. My phone's at that stage where it just doesn't work. Charge it. It's not because of the battery. Oh, it's just like your phone's just too old. I'm just pushing the home button and nothing's happening. But there's this Michael Mann quote where he was like, you know, I just thought the guy was so interesting. And thank you.

Ben's handing me his phone. I'm going to try to get this exact quote because it's so good that I don't want to paraphrase it. Sure. Okay, so here's the quote. So like Mann falls in love with Farina, right? Right. And then he gives him a much bigger role in Manhunter. right and then he makes a tv show based around him crime story right uh which is good yes i tried watching it when i was 14 and too young no no way too young

it's now streaming for the first time yeah you can only watch that when you are robert prosky age right i'm getting there yeah um no it's a good show i think two seasons it didn't run very long but it's great and a lot of people two seasons, it didn't run very long. It didn't. And a lot of people credit it. And, I mean, Mann's TV work in general as sort of being the early stages of the TV era we live in now. We'll get to that in a second. Yeah.

But Michael Mann was interviewed about Dennis Farina for some profile. Because, you know, obviously he was one of his muses. And they asked Michael Mann what makes Dennis Farina so captivating as an actor. And Michael Mann's quote to the Miami Herald was, It's a mystery to me because I know him so well and I think he's so fucking ugly. When we had these casting meetings, a couple of guys would say, Well, I don't know if he's good looking enough. And there would be some women there and they'd say, Are you kidding?

To tell you the truth, I think women sense his gentleness he's a real gentle guy there are two left turns there we paused the recording for 90 seconds so i could get that because that's an incredible quote incredible quote for someone to say about their friend i think he's so fucking ugly and then i think the end of that quote he goes but i don't know women seem to like no no beyond that women like him he's like it's because he's gentle yeah not like some like that's not what i thought you were the idea that like michael mann in a casting room full of guys would be like we all agree this guy's fucking butthole he's you know he's got a face like a slab with a mustache on it got a bunch of pockmark like acne scars on his cheeks yeah and this fucking jet black bush broom um but let's

talk about michael mann michael mann's interesting because he doesn't feel like a guy who comes out of tv nobody 100 is 100 is and not only that then tv starts to follow michael mann's lead yeah for sure slowly tv becomes more and more like michael mann because like watching thief i was like this is like the kind of like template for people making like anti-hero shows now. Like tough men, anti-hero TV shows. You're right. He's an anti-hero you can root for.

Right. He does bad things. Sure. Drive 2. Drive is definitely very influential. I thought it was stylized like Thriller or Crime. But this is so much better than Drive. Yes.

I like Drive a lot. I like Drive too. I like it. I mean the other one that he Even the font selection is like The other one that Refn always cites is The Driver. Well that movie rules. The Walter Hill Ryan O'Neill movie. Which I've never seen. That movie fucking rules. But that's basically like a

silent movie. Yeah. Like this has Khan you know sort of like given a lot of character to you. Whereas like Ryan has Khan, you know, sort of like, given a lot, a lot of character to you, whereas like, Ryan O'Neill in The Driver is like, he doesn't say anything.

But that's also Gosling in Drive. Right, that's what I'm saying. That all the supporting characters in Drive talk like, talk like this. Assimilies of Michael Mann characters.

Right, but they're all a little prettier. Yes. This is the thing that I find so interesting about Mann. He is so stylized in so many ways, but his stylization is so bizarre that he is as stylized as Tim Burton in terms of what his universe is, what his aesthetics are, the themes of his work, the company of actors he uses and all of that. But it's also like the other guy I kept on thinking about watching this was Mamet.

Right. Because it's like Chicago set stuff. Right. And super verbal, like a lot of tough talk, but there's something very like flowery. Yeah. With Mamet.

Whereas this dialogue so straight, like it's so stripped. Very blunt force. It's very blunt force. And it's a lot of like, it's so stripped. Very blunt force. It's very blunt force, and it's a lot of, like, it's weirdly rhythmic. Yeah. Because they repeat the same words, like, a bunch of times in a row. It's a bunch of, like, short sentence fragments that all have the same word, like, pinch or tight, you know? Mm-hmm.

And then his look, obviously, is, like, you know, I think a lot of his aesthetic comes by accident because he likes shooting stuff at night. He does. It's very hard to shoot night on film. Right. And he doesn't want it to look over lit. So he creates this kind of neon aesthetic of what if the green glow at the bar is so bright that I can light the scene with that.

So you don't get bright white lights that take away the night vibe. Yeah. It's the reflections. It's the street signs. Hell yeah. You know, away the night vibe. It's the reflections. It's the street signs. It's the windows. It's these sort of- It's the reflection, yeah, on the puddles. Yes, that sort of stuff.

It's like, how do I get light sources in there? And how do I give them a weird- Puddles, David. A lot of puddles. Love a pud. But he comes so much out of TV, and especially in crime TV, procedurals are so perfunctory at this point. And the only style that those procedurals

have is who's the lead guy, you know? Columbo, Peter Fox gonna bring his own kind of vibe to it, you know? If it's Ironside, if it's Perry Mason, if it's fucking whoever, right? For decades and decades, it's like the lead actor kind of sets the tone, but you don't have shows

that have, you know, a real veracity. They don sets the tone, but you don't have shows that have a real veracity. They don't have a look. They don't have a different rhythm. Also, as you know, it's so much about we got to make them fast. We got to turn these things out as fast as we can. There's no time to worry about setting up a shot. I think there's one exception to that. Have you ever seen any of Johnny Staccato?

No, no. I've heard about it. Which is John Cassavetes. What a name. Show. Yeah. Right. That's like half crime show, half jazz music. Yeah, that's like the, like, 59. That's like a long time ago. He wanted to be

directing his own films. Yeah, right. And he needed money, because he would always put his own money into his movies. Yeah. So he was like, I'll take a TV job, but I'm gonna like set out some ground rules. So A, he was like, I'm only in like two-thirds of the episodes. There's like another character that sometimes alternates with him. And he's like, B, I want

a bunch of it to be like piano playing and stuff. Weird. It only ran for one season. I've never seen this. But it's like a good batch of episodes in that one season. I've only seen a handful. It rules. But I wouldn't be surprised, and this is pure conjecture, that that was a thing that man saw at a young age.

Yeah, it's not impossible. Because it feels like that sense of that show, which is also about kind of like these broken men. It's not a cop or detective showing how cool he is or how clever he is. It's not Kojak. You know, it's not Columbo. Who loves you, baby? Michael Mann probably does. But this is also about the thief.

Yes. Right? I mean, isn't it sort of a turn? Thief. He's done both sides. I think the key thing for him is he's interested in crime. He's interested in structures. He's interested in systems. He likes process. He likes professionals.

And he loves tough decisions. I mean, that's the thing. All his movies are men kind of stuck. When you're backed into a corner. Right. How do you act when you're backed into a corner? When the heat's around the corner. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, that's why, like, we'll get to Ali eventually.

Oh, yeah. We'll get to Ali eventually. Sure. But people, I think, were confused by the movie when it came out because it wasn't a conventional sports biopic. And he was like, I'm more interested in Ali as like a political figure. Yeah the tough decision points in his life. And just for context I should mention to our listeners

this whole miniseries is going to be skins we're shirtless and we will be shirtless throughout the run. What is this bit based on? We're men, man, it's a manly, manly? It's a manly manly sort of filmography. Yeah, let's play that up as much as possible.

Michael... All right. I don't know what's going on. Two and a half mans. Michael Mann. Michael Mann? You don't have to cut that. Michael Mann...

Keep it in and double it. ...was born in Chicago. Chi-Town? He was born in Chi-Town. Okay. He's a Russian Jew. Love it. His parents, Esther and Jack.

You can smell the borscht. I know. His parents, Esther and Jack. Yeah. Grocers. That's right. He went to the University of Wisconsin. Uh-huh.

And then he saw Dr. Strangelove. Proper Midwest boy. That's weird. I would not expect that that was the movie that activated Michael Mann. That-huh. And then he saw Dr. Strangelove. Proper Midwest boy. That's weird. I would not expect that that was the movie that activated Michael Mann. That's right. I think he was basically like, the way he talks about it is like, when I saw Strangelove, I was like, oh, so you don't have to make a movie for everybody? Like, you know, like, oh, you're allowed to make this?

Wouldn't it be great? Rather than like a big commercial, you know what I mean? Wouldn't it be great if Michael Mann was like yeah I mean all my comedies I've made they're all comedies I don't you guys got that right that was just a bit what is his funniest movie

his funniest movie is it heat is it collateral I think it's collateral yeah I guess like it's a lot of dialogue at least and it's at least got some odd couple energy Like, it's a lot of dialogue, at least. And it's at least got some odd couple energy, too. Yeah. Yeah.

Not really a... You know who his first choice was for collateral, right? I mean, Tom Cruise, but then for the other part... We've talked about Sandler. Yeah, we've talked about it. Yeah.

It was announced as a Sandler movie. That's right. Yeah. That would have been weird. Really weird. Well, James Caan, Sandler's idol.

Yeah. You know? And Sandler, like, says this movie a lot. Kind of a tough Jewish guy. He was like, I grew up, I saw this angry Jewish guy,

and that's who I want to be. I always want to be James Caan. He tells this story on Conan's podcast, which is very good. Not that he needs our fucking plug. About working with James Caan

on Bulletproof, and he went up to him on the Universal lot, and he was like, Mr. Caan, I just want you to know my entire life, I want to be like you.

Right. And James Caan says like bad choice kid. Is James Caan basically like Slee's royalty? James Caan is fascinating because here's a movie we've never talked about before Ben's pointing to his head he's very proud that

his brain came up with that. Oh I've remembered it. He said that to me earlier and I was like you gotta say that on the pod. Here's the thing that I think is very interesting about James Caan. James Caan's father was a butcher. I like that. Slice of meat! Slice of meat!

And he went to Hofstra, but he dropped out. Because he fell in love with acting. But he was there with Coppola, right? Went to Hofstra with Coppola. And Lainey Kazan. The Wrecking Crew. It's really crazy. He's from Sunnyside. was there with Coppola, right? They were both... Went to Hofstra with Coppola. And Lainey Kazan. And Lainey Kazan. Whoa. The Wrecking Crew.

It's really crazy. He's from Sunnyside. Yeah. And he's a German Jew. He is a German Jew. Right. His parents were immigrants. Right.

Falkenstein. The thing I was going to say that's interesting about James Caan and his persona is well established at this point. And this is, in fact, 1981. He takes a five-year break from acting pretty shortly after this. This movie, I think, really wiped him out. Yeah, he takes like a, yeah.

He doesn't make a film from 82 to 87. That's right. Right? And it's Coppola's the one who brings him back. Coppola brings him back for Gardens of Stone. Yeah. Yeah. And it was a big deal that like five years later,

he was like, I thought I'm done with acting. I'm going to ride off into the sunset. Right. And I made, I was a big deal that like five years later, he was like, I thought I'm done with acting. I'm going to ride off into the sunset. Right. And I'm made. I was a big movie star. I have enough money to last me. He realizes he's broke.

Right. That's what happens. Right. Then he's literally living like hand to mouth. I think he's had two divorces at this point. No. He's become addicted to cocaine. Kicked the cocaine habit.

Wait, in the 1980s? Yes. He became addicted to cocaine? Weirdly. In Hollywood. Was he on the set of Runaway in the 1980s? Yes. He became addicted to cocaine? Weirdly. In Hollywood. Was he on the set of Runaway Train? Sorry. Go ahead.

Talk about a Runaway Train. Yeah. But he, his last movie, 1982, he walked off the set and they had to replace him with Michael Caine.

I'm forgetting, it's a thriller. His last, like, what do you mean? His last film before he went into his self-imposed exile. Oh, I don't know.

1982. All right, let me look it up. Let's see. So Michael Caine replaced him. So then he had like burned all his bridges in Hollywood. The Holcroft Covenant. Thank you. Doesn't sound like a barnstormer, that one.

Box office, $393,000. Coppola brings him back for Garden of Stone. He's only able to get one-fourth the salary he got five years earlier. Right. And they make him put up his own bond for the insurance policy because they're afraid he's going to walk off the set again. And then he kind of rebuilds himself in the early 90s. Late 80s, early 90s.

Misery, I feel like, is the big one that gets him sort of— Which he said he fought really hard for that part. Right. And no one wanted to take it because— Because you lie in a bed all day. That was his thing. He was like, every other big movie star has too much ego to take this role. Right.

And he like knew he needed it. Yeah. Yeah. And then he has kind of like a crazy 90s. Sure. Into the 2000s. And then his career is like Las Vegas. Yeah.

Wasn't he in one of the early Star Trek movies? No. No. He's not in that track. He was like the villain, I thought. No. Yeah. Wasn't he in the early Star Trek movies? No. He's not in that track. He was like the villain, I thought. No. No. Oh, God. Jesus Christ.

Oh, my God. Jesus Christ. Oh, fuck. Oh, my God. Oh, my God. What do you mean? Oh my god Oh my god What do you even What do you even A horrible thing to happen

What do you do In the wake of a thing like that I don't know What do you do Call the police Call the police Yeah Alright so just

Yeah Khan you know He's in He's in some movies Like Rabbit Run and stuff The Rain People But there are two things I want to say about him You know the Godfather Launches Khan, you know, he's in some movies like Rabbit Run and stuff. The Rain People. But there are two things I want to say about him. The Godfather launches him and, you know, in the 70s... He was in The Godfather?

Yeah, he got an Oscar nomination. In the 70s, he did, like, The Gambler. He did Freebie and the Bean. He did Funny Lady. He did Rollerball. He did a lot of good movies. He has a big run and he's, you know, an angry man. And here are the two things...

You know, he's got a lot of, yeah, a lot of fuck you energy, right? Right, right. Sort of a simmering guy. Yeah, so here are the two things I want to say about Khan that make him interesting as a movie star. One, he was one of the early guys who was like, I fucking hate this whole racket. Yeah, sure, right. Like acting's for flowers. It's all horse shit.

I'm out of here. Right? I guess so, but he also studied with Sanford Meisner. And Scott Khan, his son, of course, Dano on Hawaii Five-0. We all love him. In interviews, he always says,

he's like, my dad always does that thing, but he fucking loves acting. Of course he loves it. He dropped out of a, he was probably in butcher school at Hofstra. He was in the butchery department

or something. And he fell in love with acting. Right, and he was, you know, like, well, I just like doing the improvs because I was an angry guy. I could yell at people and all the improvs always ended in violence.

Yeah. He says that. That's the key thing about James Caan, though, which I think is really interesting. He's the annoying guy at the improv class who's like, this is a stick up. Yeah. Like every time. Yeah. You're dead.

Yeah. I killed you. You're fucking dead. Why not? Yeah. It is. Well, it is important to say James Caan never made Harold Knight

never even made a Lloyd team but what I was gonna say more importantly is I think his key movie star trait Ben's giving a thumbs up

this episode's a disaster no it's not I think the key movie star trait for James Caan is self-destruction you wanna you want me to

self-sabotaging you know what I'm saying he's this guy who like can't keep it together. Of course. I mean, of course, that is Sonny Corleone's thing. But that's the gambler.

That's this character. It's these guys where it's like whether they're on the right side of the law or not, there's a pathway for them and they don't make it easy for themselves. And that feels like...

He says Thief is his favorite movie along with The Godfather. He said Thief and The Godfather are the two best movies he ever did. But don't you think like that combined with the man thing is like this is starting to be the prototype for like 25 years down the line

like Sopranos and Breaking Bad and all these shows about these tough men with a weird element of sensitivity who keep on getting themselves deeper and deeper and deeper. My favorite thing about Thief is that it's not about a heist that goes wrong. Nothing goes wrong in Thief. He's a professional.

Like, that's it. Yeah. And then the guy's like, all right, in return for your good work, I'm ready to offer you a lucrative job. And he's like, hey, fuck you, I don't work for anybody. And you're like, Jimmy.

But that's the man thing. This guy bought you a baby. That's the man thing that becomes the cornerstone of prestige TV drama is he has like a tree on his shoulder not a chip

right here are men who are incredibly good at their jobs yeah and find a way to continually fuck themselves up

and get themselves deeper and deeper but you know he's well we'll get to it he's a little different incredibly good at very specific jobs

no I know but he he doesn't want to fuck himself up and it's the interiority of their emotional lives. Yeah, yeah,

yeah. But the Chicago outfit is so infamous for being so corrupt and so like involved in all aspects of racket in Chicago. Right. And I really like, cause I wasn't at first, I was also too like, damn,

just take the job, man. Sure. But I, you realize, you kind of realize though that the cops are in on it and it's all this kind of loop and he's getting screwed over well that's the other thing is he makes these uh uh crime movies that are not um what's the word i'm looking for um they're they're

stylish sure but they're also like really kind of like violent I'm not even talking about the violence themselves but violent in their language in their energy like they're blunt yeah yeah but they're not like lurid I guess is what you're saying no and they're not like pulpy

like he's into doing like really hard takes on pulpy material but he's like before we get off con I want to read you this from his wiki into doing like really hard takes on pulpy material. But he's like, all right, just before we get off-con, I want to read you this from his Wikipedia. Please.

Because you're talking about self-destructing. Mm-hmm. The amount of things he says he's turned down. Yes. Turned down the French connection. Mm-hmm.

Turned down one flu over the cuckoo's neck. Mm-hmm. Close encounters. Mm-hmm. Kramer versus Kramer. Quote, it was middle-class

bourgeois baloney. Oh, I thought it was baloney baloney's even funnier you're right apocalypse now because coppola was like 16 weeks in the jungle and he was like uh no yeah no thank you yeah uh blade runner love story superman i didn't want to wear the cape yeah i want to wear that fucking cape like i feel like khan is this guy where it's like a producer comes who's like great news they want you for superman you're gonna be superman you're gonna fly in the air and he's like yeah fuck you i don't work for anybody well like yeah you've seen the gambler uh a great film

written by a horrible sex criminal uh no i've seen the gambler a great film starring mark walberg thank you very much okay well the original Gambler is like the key to this like James Caan thing because he's playing like a sort of wealthy, blue blood, like Connecticut kid

who's also an intellectual and an English professor at Columbia who goes out every night and tries to ruin his life. Right, exactly. He is just, he cannot help himself.

It is a great portrayal of compulsion. Right, and it's is just, he cannot help himself. It is a great portrayal of compulsion. Right, and it's like, even when he, like, somehow wins big, he finds a way to, like, fuck it up for himself again. And the movie ends with him evening out and then going to a bar and, like, daring a guy to stab him. Right. And then he looks in the mirror and smiles.

As a sliced face. Like, he just, like, he doesn't feel comfortable being even. The guy needs to sink himself lower somehow one way or another but michael man before we lose that track and then we can talk about the fact that he's doing tv movies is so bizarre because that's like a medium where it's just like just tell the story just get it out just do it cleanly which is the opposite of what man does where he's like i really want to live in these corners. Uh, yes. Just make like clean dialogue that people can follow,

even if they're folding their laundry while they're watching the movie. And like Michael Mann movies don't work that way. You got to watch them with full attention. That is true. Cause if you watch a Michael Mann movie while you're like doing your taxes or, you know, checking your phone or whatever the fuck you do. Yeah.

You're just going to come away with being like, I don't know. I guess he like robbed a place and then he shot someone someone like i don't know it seems like nothing and the exposition no plot is so windy right right right that's like you can't just go like okay i got it he's got the job when also you look up and you're like it's a guy with male pattern baldness you look down you're like i guess is that the same guy i can't remember like it's like it's just a bunch of guys in like slacks yeah like you Like, you know, like, you know, the, the whole mob in this, right. Like, you know, what's his tenure?

It's nine years after the Godfather. Right. And like, you know, the mob there is so romantic and there's like curling cigar smoke and it's, you know, this, this brown, like candle lit. Like, and this, the mob is like, you know, it's like a guy in an office who's like, Hey, get off my ass. You know, like you might as well have gone to the DMV. I've definitely said this before in the podcast because it's one of my favorite lines ever.

But Patton Oswalt was talking about why he loves the original Taking a Pelham 123. Which is one of my favorite movies. Right. And he was like, in the remake, it's like Denzel Washington. And it, like, tells you how different our idea of a movie star has become. Because in the 70s, you go, like like there's a horrible criminal, he's holding the train hostage, there's only one man who can stop him and the camera whip pans

over and his description is it's Walter Matthau looking hungover in a cheap suit eating a stale hot dog. Wearing like a raincoat and like a weird sort of plaid hat. But eating a stale hot dog.

Yeah, no, I know. He looks like a cup of coffee. I don't know what to get right. That you threw on the track. That's the weird like contradiction with man is that like his films like don't have that romanticism, but they still end up being

really sexy. Sure. You know, like he's not going for the pulp thrills. This is a very sexy movie. It's a very sexy movie. But it's a sexy movie in that right it's like a guy who can like you know sort of precisely drill a hole and like you can kind of see him work

the crank you know and like you're kind of like look at this guy he's so good at this what he's doing. But who's the other actor above the title in this movie? Tuesday Weld. Is Tuesday Weld above the title? Yes. Who is another entirely self-sabotaging

and self-destructive person. Right. She's a child model at like six and then by ten was like getting dead drunk in bars in New York City.

You're right. She is kind of the archetype of the like child star you know gone wrong. And was like fuck it I don't care.

Was like very open about like this whole industry is full of scumbags. I fucking hate all of you. And she has another list of turning down every fucking big movie. She turned down Bonnie and Clyde. Wow. She was like, I mean, there's a quote in her R&DB where she's like, I would turn down anything that felt like it was going to be a hit.

I read the Bonnie and Clyde script and I said, this is going to be a hit. I don't want to be anywhere near it. Jesus. Is that true? She's this amazing cult figure like Michael Mann found these people who like walked the walk this is crazy I'm sure you read this what she was Stanley Kubrick's first choice to play Lolita yeah and she said I didn't have to play it I already was Lolita yeah Jesus Tuesday she was like by 10 I was like a bar rat and by 12 I was dating 45 year old men. She's having like affairs with married men like on set. What a person. The first time she tried

to commit suicide was when she was 12 years old because she had fallen in love with a gay man in his 30s and she couldn't get over it. Right. Bob and Carol and Fred and Sue or whatever it was called reeked of success she said. True Grit she turned down. Sure. Like all these performances where teenagers got

academy award nominations and she was like go fuck yourself suck a lemon right but she was in looking for Mr. Goodbar which is a few years before this

got Ask An Omnination yeah which is a very dark movie yeah especially for that era and yeah shortly after this I guess she's kind of

rebuilding her career right now shortly after this she kind of stops doing movies and mostly does TV movies yeah she's in Once Upon a career shortly after this she kind of stops doing movies and mostly does TV movies yeah she's in Once Upon a Time in America that's the only other thing

I can think of her in like the 80s and there's uh she's a big 90s movie I'm forgetting let's find out she's in a big 90s movie she's in

Falling Down yeah that was it the uh Joel Schumacher joint yeah an interesting movie apparently she's also in Feeling Minnesota which I've seen but I interesting movie apparently she's also in feeling minnesota

which i've seen but i don't remember that it's also a great name but i like the idea tuesday well for sure michael mann found these actors who have the same sort of like impulses you know i do i do know like look at this cast you got like a fucking actual like former criminals and former cops 100 and some of the criminals play cops some of the cops play criminals right two totally self-destructive addictive actors and willie nelson who like never met a tax bill he couldn't pay right isn't that willie nelson's whole thing where he's like doing albums about all the affairs he had yeah and then they're like it's time to pay your taxes you made a four million dollars he's like i don't want to know

you're lying i didn't make four million dollars and everyone's like oh willie nelson he's like a sweet guy who gets high right it's like no willie nelson wrote all these like very dark albums about you know it was one of the being a too where he like shaved his beard on television for like half a million dollars because he had to get himself out of a legal hole. That's a true thing. No, it is. In like the late 90s. Yeah, right. Shaving my beard. Yeah, the IRS

seized his assets in 1990 claiming he owed them 32 million dollars, which is a lot of dollars. Now I only have 32 dollars. Oh my god. jesus christ i'm reading about poor willie i mean what a weird casting choice for this movie he released an album called the irs tapes yeah which literally was like this will go to the irs like all profits to the irs that was the way he got himself out of the legal hall.

The IRS was like, you get us one album. You're signing a recording deal with the IRS and it's not IRS records, the good thing that REM did or whatever. It's the internal revenue service. You got a one album deal. 15 city promotional tour. We're giving you 50 bucks to record it because this thing

better go in the black. Oh yeah, it's a one taker. Yeah, right. Here's a guitar, go. We get merchandise sales. We get touring. Yeah, exactly. You're going to Red Rocks for two weeks. Oh boy. Didn't pay my bills.

Anyway, right? Yes. Willie Nelson. Willie Nelson. Thief. Anyway, no, just Ebert's review. Ebert's review is very strong, right? Very positive. It gives him like three and a half. And he really likes Willie Nelson.

I think it's a very good. Yeah. Isn't Ebert's. Yeah, it's weird. Yeah. Isn't Ebert's problem. He's like not enough. Willie Nelson.

That's exactly what he says. He's like, he's so good. I want more. yeah um michael man just to give you the end of him you know he's the son of two grocers i already told you that he's a grocer's son go buy yourself a fucking grocery because i had a cabbage tell her i said fuck you he went to london what to study graduate film you know he went to uh the university of whatever go to school in london um any school primary school i went to primary school in london what i went to secondary school in london what didn't go to college in london went newcastle university getting fucking smart with me i'll'll pinch you. I'll pinch you. And he would make commercials.

Some of his friends from London, Ridley Scott, who he recently interviewed on the DGA podcast in a I don't know, an interview I can only describe as incomprehensible. Yeah, they've had him moderate. An interview I can only describe as all grumbles. For those of you who've never listened to a DGA podcast, it rules.

It's great. It's them recording Q&As after DGA screenings where one director interviews the director who made the film. Right. And there's usually some history between them, thematic link between their works, whatever it is. Michael Mann does it a lot. Right. And he always goes like, so here's my question for you. When I was making The Heat, I studied bank robbers for about 18 months.

And there was a guy I met and he got real calloused hands and he would always tell me that the key to being a good bank robber was was breaking your hands down before you even start working and then i watched in this film uh of course uh dr strange that he's got broken hands so I don't really have a question I guess I was just right? That's what all of his questions are like

he goes on a long ramble and he's like I don't know I guess that was just something I appreciated Ridley Scott is like did you have a question for me?

and Michael Mann's like no not really rich people are fucking disgusting another thing I love Michael Mann when he had to do his sight and sound

top ten list do you know this? no I can look it up, though. One of his ten. Top ten films of all time. One of his ten and far and away the most recent of the ten. A goofy movie? Avatar.

Really? Michael Mann loves Avatar. I love the Na'vi. I can't watch that shit without crying. Truly, he's like, I just, I got stunned watching that fucking thing. I don't know how you make that. Here are his ten. 10 no another one of them is so wild

oh my god really okay give me the 10 I'm gonna give you the 10 in obviousness order okay ending with the wildest okay

Apocalypse Now obvious Battleship Potemkin of course Citizen Kane Doctor Strange why not Passionate Joan of Arc

reasonable Raging Bull obvious yeah The Wild Bunch Of course You know Nice chapter

Yeah Right Avatar My Darling Clementine Okay Great movie Great western Maybe not everyone's favorite

Yeah John Ford movie Avatar Uh huh Beautiful By Alejandro Gonzalez That's right Let's see what he says about it.

Whoa. Which is not a movie I love. Gotta be honest. I've never seen it, but I don't like that guy's movies. The profound struggle through the lower depths of Barcelona street life of a human soul.

Beautiful is resplendent with grace, pathos, and love. Pure poetry. What do you say about Avatar? Let's talk Tar. Yeah, he's talking Tar right now. Let's see. Upon the foundation of an entirely invented biosystem,

Avatar is a brilliant synthesis of mythic tropes with debts to Levi Strauss and Frasier's The Golden Bow. It soars because simply it stones and transports you. What a great little thing that is i love that beautiful i love it all of these are good yeah i mean you should go check out his his list yeah um yeah he likes movies he likes movies it's it's surprising that he uh comes from the commercial world though because all those other guys are like primarily like very kinetic visual stylists.

So people always name him Ridley Scott, Alan Parker, Adrian Lyne. Right. He shoots some footage of the visual artists who then become filmmakers. Yeah exactly. All of those dudes. Yeah. Which got which aired in the news. Yeah. He divorces his first wife in

71. Okay. Got started early yeah um at the age of 14 you look probably like 28 29 yeah um hawaii 5-0 guy robert lewin is like come come come with me michael i'll show you how to make a tv show right teaches him how to make a tv show so michael man writes some starsky and hutch's. I mean, these things that are so rigid in their formula. He created a show called Vegas with a dollar sign. He worked on Police Story, which was more realistic, which is seen as sort of like an early good noir TV show. Like that.

And then he makes this TV movie, The Jericho Mile, which is a big deal. It wins awards, prison're you're saluting prison i don't know what i'm doing yes but then that gets him the the runway to make a feature that gets him thief yes the the that's impressive enough that he gets 5.5 million bucks yeah to make thief right and then what's weird is he comes back around to tv sure he sort of changes the landscape a little. After Thief, right, because Thief doesn't do that great. We'll cover this when we get to it, but, like, he changes TV a little bit.

Sure. Then goes back to features, and then 20 years later, like, the seeds he planted in television have sort of blossomed into the entirety of prestige drama. You're right. Should we do the Miami Vice pilot as, like, a bonus? Maybe we should. You know, even though he didn't direct it, but we like to do that he didn't direct the pilot no interesting don't think so maybe we do some bonuses because there's also i mean there's jericho mile and there's la takedown but la takedown as far as i am told is fairly boring interesting like if you've

seen heat right because you're kind of like oh this, this is Heat. Right. But Robert De Niro and Pacino aren't in it? Right. It's more like Lukewarm. Yeah. That's the old man in the gun. Warm. Warm? You know, because it's like, the old man in the gun is like Heat.

Except Warm. Right. Just warm and comfy. Yeah, it's a little chiller. Charming movie. Okay, so Thief. Yes. He gets James Caan, he pulls him out of the drunk tank.

Yes, he does. He pulls Tuesday Wilde out of a knife fight at a bar. That's right. Script written solely by him? Oh, yeah. It's based on a... I'm trying to tell if it's a novel or a non-fiction. It was based on a confessional novel written by a jewel thief.

Called The Home Invaders. Who was one of the uh consultants on the film right okay uh called uh john sabold and uh yeah he was an outstanding fbi yes he had fbi on set yeah yeah he was jailed later he went to jail in 95 i love that fact yeah it's a good fact now a lot of the guys like come out of TV, right? TV, hey. Right. Get the fuck out of here.

Someone like Sidney Lumet, you're like, I can see- Hey, why don't you come the fuck out of here? Yeah, why don't you come the fuck out of here? Someone like Sidney Lumet, you totally see his origins in TV. Because you're like, this is a pragmatic filmmaker. Very much so. This is a guy who adapts to the style of the material. Actor focus.

Right. Yeah, a bit chameleony. Right. And he's very practical in his sort of process and how he approaches coverage and all of that. Right. Michael Mann, it's like a TV guy and then like, here's a feature. And he's like, cool, let me just stretch out quickly. You know?

Like, this is like the kind of thing that's so unlike how any crime TV show. Jesus Christ. It's also unlike cream TV. It is. Although it's not a very creamy movie, let's be honest. It's not a very creamy movie. Yeah. Yeah, this is also just a movie where like TV is noted, you know, to death. And the TV

you know, so many people are looking at everything. Did no one like say anything? Yeah. How was he allowed to do this? Very bizarre. And I guess the answer is like, cons still pretty big at this point. Yeah, and the budget's like not that high. Right. Yeah. I don't know. I don't know know it's just kind of wild that no one was like hey could you like explain things a little more could you like you know what i mean like it just feels like a

movie where a studio would be like this is too fucking obscure it does also feel though for a long time and maybe this is sort of starting to become the end of it right right but for a long time in hollywood if you had like an okay reel right if you had made a good tv movie you had done some uh you know short films whatever it was right sure and they were like okay this person knows where to put the camera right and then you give them a script with a gun in it they'd be like here's four million they'd like give you a shot you know sure like even like cassavetes talks about that where he was just like i need to make a movie that made money so i wrote gloria because the character has a gun in it

sure and you watch gloria and you're like they gave him money to make this and he's like yeah it had like a car chase and a gun in it and it's like the most lethargic car chase of all time but there was that kind of thing where it's like even if you seemed uncommercial or the idea was uncommercial they were were like, if you have a movie star. Yeah, you could scrape together some cash. And the movie starts holding a gun on the poster. We can make it work. And I mean, the poster of Thief is this very cool silhouette.

You saw the poster, right? Of him over like the sparks flying. But it looks like a blacklight poster. It does. But there's also that poster of him pointing the gun that I feel like is all over the place. It looks very contemporary. It does. Well, this movie feels... It feels very contemporary.

This mood of this movie feels like now. The whole time I was just thinking good time. Which I know is the fluorescent lighting, but it's city-ish, kind of urban, sort of like pocket of crime crime and subculture. The other thing I kept thinking watching this movie is like, oh man, I can't wait to watch that Safdie Brothers Diamond movie.

No, 100%. Right. And obviously- I want to live in this milieu. I want to see a new movie like this. I got to see more of their stuff. You know about their new movie? No, I don't.

Oh, you don't? It's a Diamond District movie with Adam Sandler. Whoa. Yeah. And Google what Adam Sandler looks like in the movie for Ben. Ben needs to see this and he needs to react to this live on mic. Oh, boy. Ben, just don't have any orgasms.

Because paparazzi took photos of Adam Sandler and they were like, oh, is he having a midlife crisis? And they're like, no, he's fucking in the pocket. Oh, boy. Adam Sandler is unrecognizable as slick New Yorker chasing ladies in cocktail dresses. Whoa. There he is. A tucked in with a Gucci belt. From the directors of Good Times.

Oh, my God. Yes. God, him yelling. That is so cool. That's why I'm hoping that's going to be his James Caan performance. We could get them on the pod. I know that. yeah we should do that yeah i'll ask him yeah i mean that's a promise i'm making that i may not be able to bring to fruition don't catch a fucking promise your ass can't whatever i don't know um you know you think they'll want to talk miyazaki

what we already announced it all right we can do it we're allowed yeah okay um yeah also in that movie lakeith stanfield hello yeah jonah hill was gonna be in it but he was gonna be the lead which that character is even more interesting as an older guy i agree yeah as far as i know at least the old premise of it was like a jewel a diamond guy lends a really good diamond to a basketball player yes because he's like i want some you know something, I want something really good tonight. And then it gets lost. There's some kind of like, he's chasing the diamond through the city.

I mean, let's go through it. So the opening of the movie is very much like what Refn is pulling from in Drive. This opening like wordless, sort of just tangerine dream, pulsating score, dark streets hard turns

and Willie Nelson and Willie Nelson I think I wrote cracking the safe wet and shady and we got someone else in this cast uh Nelson Farina

oh Baluch Baluch who somehow has less hair than ever in this one did he get it back i don't know yeah i don't know who he had i don't know he's got a weird bouffant going on belushi with a shirtless scene a shirtless beach scene yeah that's what michael mann will give you yeah who's the female lead tuesday well they dragged her out of a heroin clinic yeah okay well is there like you know someone can like wear a bikini sure belushi put will give you. Yeah. Who's the female lead? Tuesday. Well, they dragged her out of a heroin clinic. Yeah. Okay. Well, is there like,

you know, someone can like wear a bikini? Sure. Belushi, put this on. I just, I just imagine it's like, so Michael,

we're giving you $6 million. Let's go over the list of things we need. Big start. Yeah. I got a big start. Yeah. Guns,

crime. Got that. We need a topless scene. We need some primo tits in this movie. And he's like, so just all you're asking for is someone topless with big tits? No further questions. he's like, so just all you're asking for is someone topless

with big tits? No further questions. Cool. Jim, take it off. Oh, boy. William Peterson is in this movie?

Billy Peterson? Yeah, he's a bartender. There's another person who like, I'm trying to remember who showed up in the uncredits where I was like, oh, that was them

in an early, almost unrecognizable role. But, Belushi, this is his first movie. Belush? Belushush he's coming out second city chicago theater scene he does this movie before he does two seasons on saturday night live right that's crazy i was trying to find out what his parents did they're albanians yeah but i don't know if they were like grocers or butchers you know they definitely are from chicago no question i think they were meat people.

They're in meat. Right. But it's kind of interesting that you're like, oh, here's John Belushi's younger brother, right? Has Belushi not died yet at this point? I wouldn't have thought so. Belushi died in 82. Wow. Very soon after.

Very soon after. So at this point, there isn't that like, fuck, we need someone to replace John Belushi. Right, right. And it's like, look, here's John Belushi's little brother. He's a pretty good character actor. Which is what Belushi's ceiling, Jim Belushi's ceiling has always been. Yeah. Like, putting

him in SNL was a disservice to him. He couldn't handle that. Right. He wasn't very good. And making him, like, a leading man. Making him a leading man who has to, like, you know, you know, cross his arms and, like back to back with someone on a poster no he's good as like a little color on the side canine right the dog crossing its arm uh the dog i guess has its paw on belushi and right it's just interesting because he's so

good in this then he largely sucks for the next 10 years with occasional bright spots right and i feel like recently he's moved into a really good zone where it's just like you know like him and like show me a hero oh great oh so good in that james watched show me a hero and was like there's this guy in it and i'm watching i'm going like who is this actor they found who looks so much like jim belushi because he couldn't believe that jim belushi was giving that good a performance um that's yeah no i mean that's the thing yeah he's actually kind of unrecognizable in showing me he's like fatter like he and he's he looks great in the ghost writer he's totally bald he's got like daddy warbucks he's he's not bad in that he's not bad in that um he was in that

show the defenders with um jerry o'connell Right. He's apparently he's in. Oh, he was in Twin Peaks. He was in Twin Peaks. Which he was so good at. Right. Like he's a good character actor. He played a character called Humpty in Wonder Wheel. Right.

He's good at playing like pills. Yeah. Assholes. Sticks in the mud. You know. Fat cats. And like you watch him in this. He's a good fat cat.

This is a totally promising early performance. And then he becomes the butt of everyone's jokes for a decade. Right. Then sort of flounders for five years

and then does the worst sitcom ever for 28 seasons. Where he's married to Courtney Thorne Smith, right? Right. Is that the one? Right. The sort of apex

of totally unappealing guy has beautiful, incredibly tolerant wife sitcoms. And it's like one, yeah, it's one of those things where you're like,

you don't think, I've never watched a full episode of According to Jim, but I feel like they can't leave the house. Yeah. Like if they open the door,

they would just, it would be a void. Exactly. They would just hear screaming. Yeah. He's like, all right, I gotta go to work.

And he just walks into the next room and then just stands there. Yeah. He's like, all right, I got to go to work. And he just walks into the next room and then just stands there. Oh, interesting. Oh, apparently in the show, according to Jim, he's a big fan of the Chicago Cubs. Have you seen someone? I think it was like ClickHole, but it was like the top 28 times. I really want to challenge myself in this.

What was it? Go ahead. I think it was someone did a listicle that was top 28 times Jim Belushi has performed Sweet Home Chicago. And it's like 28 separate YouTube videos of him performing Sweet Home Chicago at different live events. Because that's the other thing.

He starts to do Blues Brothers with Ackroyd and everyone's like, we don't want that. Stop trying to be John Belushi. Be Jim Belushi. There's such a clear line. You're absolutely right. That's. Exactly. Be Jim Belushi. Right. There's like such a clear line where like. You're absolutely right. That is, that's the advice. Right.

Be Jim Belushi. Right. And Thief, this is good. This is Jim. This is Jim. According to Jim. According to David, this is good. Yeah.

So they, all right, they Thief, they do Thieving. Right. Do some nighttime Thieving. Thief good. They drill. Right. Into a safe. Yes.

We just watched Ant-man uh-huh which has a lot of safe work yeah and this makes ant-man look like some you know baby garbage like this is like no here's how you work a fucking safe no i agree you know this is like the time like the and no point does anyone shrink to ant size for example in this movie and this for example in this movie no that does not happen exactly but tradition of the brand name of the door. I love that. It's a thingy-majig and he's like, fuck is a burn job.

To me with shady stuff, when they talk about it, you know what I mean? They have meetings about it. It's a Walensky jacket. I love it. They just have bratwurst in their shirt. Yeah.

And just the amount of like sparks in this movie. So many sparks. So many sparks. The drill they're using. He has a meeting at a fucking scrap yard or some shit. Yeah, he does. The drill they're using is a real piece of thief equipment.

Right. That one of the thieves on set brought. Right. For thieving. Right. Thief. Thief. So he gets a bunch of diamonds. he gives the diamonds to his fence joe gags oh this guy

this guy this guy i mean he's like various ovals sort of arranged all these guys the old guy he sees later like all these little one scene like expert guys right are just like so such good color uh he is so good who is joe gags uh hal frank oh how frank um he gets murdered off screen right joe gags doesn't make it right so frank james khan has to go to the mob and be like hey where's my fucking money right like that's that's's his move. He does this by going there and pointing a gun at the guy and saying pay me now. We should say where he goes. It's a business that we all

know that exists. Plating. And she goes, what are you here for? He's like, I gotta talk about some fucking plating. Yeah, I gotta get some plain dumb. I got some bad plating and I need to talk to somebody about it. He told my farts. Fuck you. A taglia. Who's basically like, I don't know you.

Fuck you. And he points the gun at me. He's like, I guess I know you. Okay. Then the best thing is that he walks out of the office, closes the door behind him and keeps the gun up just to scare everyone else in the office. To scare the door. Yeah.

A bunch of receptionists. So Prosky. Gets referred to Prosky. Leo. Who's in charge of the outfit, right? Yeah, he runs the city. He's a fence. He sells your fancy diamonds, right?

Meets with him. He's got aviator glasses. Not even sunglasses. Aviator glasses. So good. Prescription aviator. Also, another little thing in this first robbery, you notice him throwing the jewelry and just going for the packs.

And that's the start of the specificity of how much of an expert this guy is. God, you love this movie? I fucking love it. Because he's a pro. He's a pro. He's a professional. He's a pro. He's there to get what he's there to get.

Yep. He's not going to get distracted by shit. Have you seen Triple Frontier yet? No. You kind of like it a lot, right? Mwah! What a good movie. Because that's a movie about you're there to get what you're there to get.

And then you're like, fuck, there's also this. I want it. You know, what do I do? You know, that. And then how that dooms you. It is crazy that that movie came so close to being made 10 years ago. The first thing post Hurt Locker with Will Smith, Tom Hanks, and Johnny Depp. Would have ruled. Would have ruled.

But this version's great too. I mean, Affleck is just what's the magic of that movie. He's owning the sad, right? Have I told you my opinion on it? When they offered him the role, he 100% was like, I am insulted, but I will accept. You know what I mean?

Where he reads the part, he's like, you want me for that guy? We want you for that guy. Fuck you. It's the same? we want you for that guy. Fuck you alright sure let's do it I'll be good at it it's the same thing as like the Jim Belushi thing all these things we're talking about where we're like there's so many actors like that where it's just like there is some innate quality to them that can ruin 98% of

performances but if you cast them properly it becomes such an asset to you. Like it's such a similar thing with like Affleck in Gone Girl. Okay. They announced he was doing that, and I was like, fuck, why is David Fincher making Ben Affleck the lead in his movie? And then you see it, and you're like, that fucking worminess. Yes, right, yes.

It's that weird thing, that insincerity to Ben Affleck, where you're like, this guy feels like he's not trying hard enough. Like, his smile, I smile i'm like not buying it and then gone girl it's just like such a fucking asset you know like when you watch miss batman you're like this is uncomfortable if you put him in triple frontier you're like well yeah the guy's a mess exactly triple frontier is about a guy who was good and now can barely flip a house in like suburban miami or whatever right he shouldn't be Batman. Right. Like Batman should have his shit together. Right. I guess he could be Batman who can't flip a house.

Right. But like, I don't know if that's going to open, you know, your movie like to 185. He could be a Batman that vapes though. He could be a Batman that vaped. Yeah.

But it also feels like. Instead he's a Batman that vapes when they call cut. Right. I mean like that's sort of the vibe of that performance. But it was like, oh, this is like a badass Batman whose face also weighs

45 pounds. I mean Man in Affleck This guy is depressed. Man in Affleck should. He's not depressed at all. Get Man in Affleck together. If Man's gonna make

another movie. Yeah but a weasel. Yeah the weasel. The weasel. Weasel. Weasel. Anyway Prosky's like

I'll hire you. Make you lots of money. God, and such good dialogue. This scene is so good. It's all good dialogue. It's just like jewel cut. And I just love all of Khan being like, okay, well, I only do this. And, you know, I'm not going to do that.

Yeah. Right. And you're going to pay me then. And Prosky's like, fine. Fine. Yeah, he's not not gonna do home stuff right you know he's not gonna like uh burglarize uh you know residential like he's very specific so much of like the stylization of his dialogue is taking out filler words i mean a using all

this lingo right lingo of like words we all know but you haven't heard them apply in things like this and just like ron pratsky like in things like this. And just like, we're all Protsky, like pointing out, like James Cohn saying like, you got pressure. You know? And you're just like, why is that so cool? Well, so he meets Protsky,

that character. He meets Protsky, but he's kind of like, I'm going to do one big job for you. You get me a big score. Right. And that'll be that. Protsky's like the industry.

And he's like, look, there are a lot of benefits to working for me. Mental, dental. Right. Yeah. Because Cohn, all the stuff he's like look there are a lot of benefits to working for me mental dental right yeah cause Khan all the stuff

he's been stealing right I can buy you a baby it ends up with Prosky right he knows like that it's

being channeled to the he's the fence anyway he's like right I sell your shit I'll sign you classic 10%

agent commission right right um but then and Frank's like I don't know right

you know I'm not sure about this well cause there's the other thing that's going on which is when he goes out for lunch urgent commission. Right. Right. But then, and Frank's like, I don't know, right? You know, I'm not sure about this. Well, because there's the other thing that's going on, which is when he goes out for lunch with the Eggman

earlier in the film, it's at his usual diner he goes to where Tuesday Weld works the desk. And he asks her like, hey, are we going to go out tonight?

Right. Like, they have an ongoing thing going on. But it's just a thing. He's made the plans with her and now he's having the Paratsky meeting. Right. So he's having the Paratsky meeting.

Right. So when he leaves the Paratsky meeting, he's been standing around for two hours straight at a jazz club. She's not having it. She doesn't like him.

Yeah. Oh, well, that's his club. It is his club. Now, I just, I wanted to ask something because I wonder about if you guys picked up on this. Do you know why

he has the two businesses that he has? It's where he, like, cleans his money, right? Yeah. I just wanted to make sure you're crime boys. Yeah. Well, I mean, let's not indict us here, but yeah.

So he also, he has this big scene with Tuesday. He has this big series of scenes with her, right? Right. Which is sort of his like, maybe I want to settle down. Maybe, you know, because he's already gone to see willie nelson he's gone to see willie nelson they've had a a conversation inches from each other's face through a prison window willie nelson's doing this really his eyes keep on like darting back and forth it's all his eyes they're so good yes i did and they're very like they're very black

right and at first i was like is he reading off of cue cards? Maybe. Like, it was so specific what he was doing. But then the rest of the performance, it doesn't feel like that. It feels like it's this very interesting, whether he was conscious of doing this or not, it's a really interesting way to show someone's vulnerability in a scene where they're trying to act calm. Because this whole thing is being friendly and light and like, I'm'm doing okay but you can tell the guy's miserable and he's like having a nervous breakdown right and he's got a terminal illness and he doesn't want to die inside

yeah all he wants to do is get out that's the thing he knows he's dead right but he if he could only just die like out of prison but james conn starts telling him about tuesday well because you get the sense that james conn's got no one else to talk to. Right, right. His only friend who he can actually talk to is in prison. So when he goes to see him, he's like, let me tell you about this girl I'm seeing. He has no life outside of his profession.

He's got no life. But it makes it clear he's saying to Willie Nelson, he's like, I need your advice on this. Do I tell her or not? Right, right, right. Because Willie Nelson asked him about his wife. That's the thing. He goes, how's your marriage going?

He's like, it's done. He goes, why is it done? And he goes, she was getting suspicious of everything. She didn't figure it out. What did she think he was? She thought he was having an affair. Yeah, that's it. She was like, I could see you were hiding something.

She thought I was having an affair, and I thought it was better to just accept that than correct her. So he lets her get away. And he's got this sense of like, maybe I should start the next relationship on a right foot. Yeah. So he shows up late to this Tuesday Wild thing. She's mad. She's mad. Guys are trying to break them up

thinking that he's given her the business. Yes. But he flashes the piece. He is being a jerk. He is being a jerk. Sure. He's a jerk. This is a different time.

Right. Well, also, he's just a jerk. He's a jerk. Like, he's the kind of guy who like snaps his fingers at a waiter. You know, like, he's too much all business.'s a jerk. He's the kind of guy who snaps his fingers at a waiter. He's too much all business. You know the original title of this film? Oh, I do. What the fuck is it?

The Jerk. The original title of this film was Violent Streets. Bad title. I know. You know what's a good title? Thief. Thief. Thief.

I'll pinch ya. But then this great scene where he's in the car with her. When he says I'll pinch ya, he's just going to pinch him. Give him a little pinch. God, pinch is so good. It really is. The first time they said it, I was like, ooh, I like it when they say pinch. Right.

What's going on? And then I was so satisfied that they say it 45 more times. Yeah, right, exactly. That it wasn't just- Man was like, oh, you like that, huh? Right. Like, his movies establish their own vocabulary. Yeah.

They have this, like, street dictionary that they're using. They always do. And I mean, that's the thing that he really goes all in on in some movies where people are like, excuse me, can I, can someone just tell me what's going on? Like, I mean, that's cause that's the Miami Vice thing where the first 20 minutes, no one says a word anyone can understand. Yes. It's all like your op sec is blown, you know, all that stuff.

And then in 21, he says, I'm a fiend for Mojitos. Hell yeah. And then we're all like back on board baby yeah um but I love this scene in the car where he's like fuck

am I gonna have to do this right like I want her to put it together and he runs down that whole thing yeah don't you know who I am

look at my clothes this and that but it's also cathartic for him right he's like I'm a fiend look I'm saying it he's being

honest with a woman for the first time in his life so then they have the great scene at the diner and he talks about how he learned to just not care anymore and how he just became invincible that he's just a man great story who gives no fucks that that whole story though and like um that is such a guy thing too it's his magic his magic. Of, like, your war story kind of moment, you know? I loved it. Well, and this is such a classic, like, acting class monologue, right? Especially for anyone who wants to be, like, a tough guy or a broken guy, right? And you go, like, there are two things.

One pitfall is oversell it. You sell it like it is a dramatic monologue, right? The other pitfall is you want to make it so offhand that it feels completely unspecific. Yeah, you need to compel people with this, right? You can't just do it like, yeah, I guess I'm a thief or something. He's doing this magic trick where it's just like he's like tossing everything off over his shoulder. But you actually see in his eyes like the experience. You see that he's living through the memory.

And he's making enough weird physical choices with his body language, but he keeps on kind of, like, scrunching away and, like, looking over his shoulder and, like, tossing things off. But it's so compelling because you see the vulnerability underneath the story. I am a true blue kind of a guy. Yeah. I've been cool. I've been cool. And he's got that great, like, pretty subtle scar on his jaw.

Right, right, right. Like, that's the man thing. Like, you don't give him like a paul mooney scar you give him like just a little bit of like you know what else he's got though what a vision board well yeah this is one of the craziest things in the movie it's like a weird collage he has like the secret right with like willie nelson's on he's like sitting in the junkyard he's such shop. He's such a weirdo. Where Del Close is one of the mechanics. Really? Yes. In Chicago. Who, by the way, was never on a Herald team.

But, taught the Herald. Never on a team. Made the teams. Never was on them. He sits down on like, I don't know, like a fucking milk crate or something. Opens up his wallet.

And I was like, this is the most man thing in any movie ever. It's just a man sitting down on garbage looking at his wallet. He just takes out. He has 300 credit cards. The most generic brown bifold wallet. He's got 27 credit cards on each side. He has 6,000 in cash. Right. And then he unfolds a fucking

vision board collage. That's crazy. I mean, this is my life right here. It's such a man thing of like these men. Right. I got a picture on my wall of what I want my life to be. Exactly. They're like, I have one feeling. It's this picture. I allow myself one feeling

and it is this. It is a dream that I allow myself one feeling, and it is this. It is a dream that I will never achieve. Instead, I murder. It's like always that. I got myself a glue stick, some crafting scissors, and I made myself my one feeling. You imagine making a vision board. She asks him. She goes, what did you do?

Cut the newspapers, whatever. I made this collage. It's like a player. Willie Nelson. A picture of two kids. Willie Nelson as a guy called Okla. Right. But his real name.

His real name's David. That is my favorite scene. Yeah. Is they want a baby. Yeah. They go to the adoption agency and James Caan doesn't acquit himself great by being like, I'll take whatever garbage you've got. I'll say this.

The Tuesday World character is kind of underwritten. And by kind of underwritten, I mean fully underwritten. Sure. I mean, but she brings a lot of character to it. Everyone's pretty underwritten. Yes.

Yes. But what's interesting is that once he fesses up to her, she's a hundred percent in because they're both broken people. The guy she didn't want to get involved with was the guy who was hiding stuff from her.

she thought he was cheating on her or just like, you know, going around town, you know, or just that he was emotionally unavailable or any of that. But the second that he's like, I'll tell you who I am.

Well, she was in South America with him. I think she sort of eventually came aware that he was a drug dealer. Sure. I think that she, my understanding, I only saw this once, but my take was that when she sort of explains her backstory, she knew kind of that he was a drug dealer. She was like, what have I got myself into? And then she ended up penniless in Bolivia. Right, right. Fair enough. right she she gets it right um but but yes this idea that like you don't have the scene of them saying like we want to have kids they they cut all those scenes out but you

see them moving into the nicer house you see them going to the adoption agency and this idea that like you know his new attitude of just like i I don't care anymore. He puts down his prison stint as part of his employment history. Right. On his application. Right. Right. I mean, he did work in prison. Right.

And they're like, we're not going to give you a baby. And he gives the whole speech about how they're from the suburbs. And he grew up in the system. He did grow up in the system. He knows what it feels like to be the kid that no one wants. He's basically like, I'm doing you a service. Give me the toughest kid you've got. I'll handle him.

And they're like, sir, please leave this office. He also does say a bunch of racial slurs. Sure. Yeah. I mean, which is one of those things where you go like, this is uncomfortable. But also, this is how these shitty people talk. Like when Robert Prosky throws out like three slurs in one sentence i'm like i don't question that the real guy would do that well also that's when he's in like full tough guy fuck you mode

i'm throwing you in jail you know what i mean where he's like you have crossed me you brought a piece to his house which i also i also think that high level criminals are all very racist yes of course because they they see people as like piles of money vice. And the other thing is that they're like, they look at everyone as tribes. High-level criminals are like, you can't trust them. They're our allies. They stereotype everyone because they view each person as being part of a different

manufactured team. But in man movies, often, the character you like is the guy who's like, I like professionals. That's what I like. The only thing I believe in is doing your job well. Exactly. It's the epitome of a I like professionals. Yeah. You know, that's what I like. Right. Right? I mean, the De Niro character- The only thing I believe in is doing your job well. Exactly. Is the, like, epitome

of a Michael Mann character. Right. Right. But, of course, so they can't buy a baby. They can't adopt a baby, so they buy a baby. Right.

Robert Protsky offers him a baby. And I love his take on the scene where he's like, what am I, come on, ask me for things. I've got babies. I'm your friend.

I work with you. How many babies do I have? I take care of people. I just had a baby. Right. Don't go around asking other people for things. I've got babies. I'm your friend. I work with you. How many babies do I have? I take care of people. I just had a baby. Don't go around asking other people for things. I can figure it out. And he's really throwing the fatherly vibes. Right.

He is. But of course, as he's going to reveal later, that's all just ways for him to get his hooks in you so that if you'd fuck him, he can be like, I'll take your baby back. Right. And he's like, where do you get the baby from? That baby's an escrow. And he's like, mothers need money. And James Cohn's like, whoa, whoa, whoa.

And he's like, hey, don't hold against the kid that the mother's an asshole like you're doing them a favor you're helping the kid if the mother's willing to sell their kids and they shouldn't be raising them so why not have them go to a house that wants them right and i just love that that scene in the chinese restaurant where they don't have a name for the baby yeah and she says to him like well what about okla like you know Khan, like, allows himself to smile. Like, where it's like, oh, I never thought of, like, that. Naming him after my friend. That's nice.

Right. I like that. Right. And he's like, actually, his name isn't Okla. And you're like, no shit, his name isn't Okla. Yeah, his name's David. David, that's my name. That's a crappy name.

Wow. I have a diarrhea name. His name was a Mr. Diarrhea a mr diarrhea pants actually that was his given name but there's also of course wade is like good good name good name mr diarrhea pants before this the cop pulls him over yeah what's his name commander lucio or whatever he's the guy who's actually a a criminal right uh in ir. He's a real dirty cop. A thief-er. Yeah.

He makes Pigpen look clean. I don't know, Urizi maybe? Pigpen. Well, I think we're getting a little ahead. Of what? Well, we have to set up that. We're pointing the clock, Ben. I just wanted to say that we have to set up that he's now on board and he's getting information.

Working for us. He's like, we're getting to the job. He's casing the joint. Yes, he gets a job. He's casing the joint. And he's gotten on board and he's getting information. Working for us. He's like, we're getting to the job. He's casing the joint. Yes, he gets a job. He's casing the joint. And he's gotten Willie Nelson out. That's another great scene. Yeah, he gets Nelson out.

Where the lawyer and the judge are negotiating with their fingers. Because then at the same time, the police. That's so good. On their cheeks. Oh, yeah. And I need six grand for Earl Warren. What's this guy trying to do? Pick his nose?

And then the guy behind him is like, yo, you get me a mink coat? So that's James Caan's thing. He's like, fucking everyone's asking me for everything all the time. How does everyone in this town know I'm working for you? Right.

And he's like, how do you know I was trying to adopt a baby? And he's like, because this person told this person that you said this to them. They saw you there.

I love it. It's all connected. And this fucking cop is like, look, I know what's going on. And James Caan says, if you want to pinch me, pinch me. Right.

Right. That's one of his best lines. Like, shit or get off the potan says if you want to pinch me pinch me right right that's one of his best lines like shit or get off the pot what do you want to say Ben about the job you were talking yeah no I just I just said that

in the plot yeah he has already started to begin doing the process of figuring out how he's going to achieve he's doing reconnaissance

yeah he's doing reconnaissance forearm and then there's a fifth alarm and I just love that they really set that up of figuring out how he's going to achieve. He's doing reconnaissance. Yeah, he's doing reconnaissance. He tops that old guy. Form arms. Yeah. And then there's a fifth alarm. And I just love that they really set that up in such a clear way that you can follow along

when he's going through the steps of figuring out how he's going to achieve this. Yeah. Right, because it's not like an Ocean's Eleven heist. It's like they're showing you all the things he has to prepare for. The wiring, the, the, the schematic of the lock

and like, what like different parts of the lock he has to like eliminate. So that when he actually gets to the heist, there's like no dialogue for 10 minutes

because they've already explained all the different stages. So into it. Yeah. And it's a burn job. It's a burn job. They need a thermal lance in one of those.

Yeah. But yeah, where do they go to the beach you know there's a lot of time spent while they're trying to figure out you see Belushi tits trying to figure out

that fifth alarm right you know the Mexico whatever the passcode is well they figure out that then you know it's like

they can kill the wiring but for the fifth one it's like this closed basically like closed like intercom system with a passcode right he bugs them and i love all that stuff i love analog just all the analog thing yeah

the briefcase and they're like the walkie-talkie and the tape recorder shallow focus close-up you're just like one belushi eye and they're like diverting like grounding wires electricity and it just all looks i mean like it would really be real. It was all wired. Well, that's the other thing. He unscrews the phone from his wall at his house, sees the trip, runs the water, tells Tuesday, well, we're bugged. Right. Right.

And then that's the other thing where he goes into Protsky, right? And he's like, this is the bug they wanted me to find. Right. This is the one I wasn't supposed to find. Right. This is the one I wasn't supposed to find in the car. Yeah, Snow, I love it. He knows that like,

it's all, he's part of the whole system now. He's functioning independently, but now he's in this world of everyone shaking hands with everyone else. It's so funny that this is his first movie

because, right, you could take it as like a movie director makes later in their career where they're like, yeah, don't join up with the big shots because all they'll do

is control you you know and also his next movie is like a B-horror film which is how most directors start before they get to make the film with their own interest

his next movie is easily his most baffling movie it's the only one where you're like Michael Mann made this? you'll see it it's crazy but it is one of those things

where so many surprising directors started out in horror because it's like they'll give you a budget you get in you get out it's weird that directors started out in horror because it's like, they'll give you a budget, you get in, you get out. It's weird that he follows Thief with like, here's like a Nazi monster movie. Yeah, it's some, you know, Nazi ghosts. Watch out.

Ian McKellen's there. Hey, fucking pinch you. Fucking Nazi ghosts. Fucking Nazi ghosts. Go get me some bike uppers. They got pressure. ghosts. Fucking Nazi ghosts. Go get me some light uppers. Pressure.

Trying to think of forgetting everything before the job. Yeah, I mean, I think this is pretty much the job. Yeah, they burned themselves. Willie Nelson gets out and he dies. Yeah. That's sad. Right. Okla. It's a pretty great James Caan scene of just, oh wow, this guy truly does not know how to process emotions. Right.

Like he just kind of shuts down. Probably shouldn't have a baby. Probably shouldn't have a baby. They get the money. It works. I mean, it all goes fine. Yeah. They get the $4 million in diamonds.

Mm-hmm. The burning, the sparks, that's all great. Like, right. The movie, you feel like this could be the triumph at the end of the film. Right. Like, I paused it and I was like, wait, there's 30 minutes left?

Sure. The, uh, when they're breaking the safe, it made me think of the dentist. Because, like, one guy's the suction, he's, like, you know, spraying.

Right, right. He's the hygienist. Yup, and then you have the dentist operating the, you know, precision, and then you have the assistant sort of just helping out.

They let you pick cinnamon, bubblegum, or mint. Yup. Uh, precision, and then you have the assistant sort of just helping out. They let you pick cinnamon, bubble gum, or mint? Yep. Remember when that was the exciting thing about going to the dentist? This is the only place where they got bubble gum toothpaste? I remember that about the doctor. I always hate the dentist. Fucking dentist.

That makes no sense, though. I mean, that's usually because all Americans, people who grew up in America. Yeah, people are fine with dentists. In England, obviously, like, dentists. In England obviously like dentists have a bad reputation. Are we forgetting something from earlier in the episode that was revealed? I don't know. Did it come up? No.

I'm the last guy you want to fuck with. I'll pinch you. The cops getting out the thermos. I remember that scene. That's really funny. The scene with the cops when they take them in and they're all around them and they're like you've gotta pay us yeah that was a little weird and they just keep on bringing another guy and they're like how about this guy he's real good at punching

the punching isn't great no but it's the james gun no and the other thing is the the gunshots at the end like the squibs are like oh i kind of love that though he loves that he loves those slightly unreal they're very unreal yeah yeah and now with all the slow motion i love that like because this miami vice kind of ends that way too with the final shot where you hear the bang and then you see the guy's head explode and then you kind of hear the bang you know what i mean like it's a good thing you brought up because we'll never talk about miami vice on this podcast right even though we're doing michael man and he they do the job he goes to leo he's like where's my money he's handed a small envelope right and he's like the rest of my money the great news i'm giving you 10% of a shopping center and I asked it

no he's literally like he's like I know that's what it is I've set up an S-Corp for you he starts talking about S-Corps I'm like has this guy

gotten a legal zoom or something Jesus and Leo's I mean Frank's just got that whole thing where he's like I can see your money

is in my my money's in your pocket which is the yield of my labor yeah my sweat right and Leo's like join is the yield of my labor yeah my sweat right and leo's like join a union it's rude i want my end um and frank wants his end and and you know what's interesting is and has two meanings here uh his back end of their financial agreement but also he wants an end to his career as a thief. Thief. You're looking at me.

I wanted you to say thief too. Protsky leaves it at, you know, how dare you bring a piece into my house. Yeah, well, I mean, gun. I mean, gun. I keep saying gun. Yeah. Con. Con. Frank. Yeah. He maybe could not react to every, like, speed bump in life by pulling out a gun and

pointing it at someone's head. I hear that. But he goes home to Tuesday Weld and he's like... Problem solver. He is a problem solver. He's like, pack it up. Get out of here. Here's the plan. Fuck you. 20 the first month, 25 the second month, 30 the third month. He's a little upset that while she was sleeping, he woke her up in the middle of the night and told her,

you're not my wife anymore. I will never see you again. Take the baby and leave. Right. And she's like, I love you. I'm in with you on this. Right. And he's like i love you i'm in with you on this right and he's like i understand that and that's why this much money is going to be delivered to you and i will never see you again now get out of here i'm gonna blow that house and she has the great line where she's like this isn't some erector set where you can like take apart the pieces put it back in a box right well that's a great line he says i'm setting some c4 right yes exactly no but that's

it right you know the heat's around the corner right so then he explodes every place he's ever That's a great line. He says, Michael, I'm setting some C4. Right. Yes, exactly. No, but that's it. Right. You know, the heat's around the corner. Right. So then he explodes every place he's ever been to. And they, um,

his home, his businesses, his high school, his local pharmacy. I'm blowing up my dry cleaner. They know too much. They know I wear slacks. Expensive slacks. Yeah. My silk shirts yeah my silk shirts um one of these explosions they

did not intend to blow up the building but they damaged the building so hard that the building had to be demolished really yeah yeah they like built like a false front that they were gonna blow up but they blew it well well which is punching on that explosion in particular. Those are some good explosions. I mean, they really blew those things up. Has Belushi already died at this point? Yeah, they shoot him with a shotgun. Right.

He goes, they're setting him up. They're holding Belushi in the back of the car shop. And then Belushi dies quite a death. He's brutal. Right. That's when he goes into overdrive mode. That's when he goes into his evolve. That's when it's like over.

They feed his body to something. They put him in a tank. Yeah. And they talk about how, do you want to end up at someone's burger? Right. And I just really like that. I think it's a deep prior, right?

Yeah, he says you're going to be fed to people in wimpies like the next day. Right. Leo suddenly just unleashes a monologue that's like insane. Yeah, we have a new

special menu item. Belushi nuggets. Fried Belushi sandwich. It's a pickle, slice of tomato, two leaves of lettuce, and a hunk of fried Belushi.

Between two brioche buns. He is full of brioche buns he is full of bologna he's full of bologna no you gotta put it on like whack or whatever right like you know you gotta put him on like a a good American bun it's a submarine

yeah put him on a Kaiser roll yeah potato roll yeah and then Frank goes to Leo's house and I remember the first time I saw this movie which is years ago um you were four or five right yeah exactly this was your fifth birthday

party daddy i want to watch thief imagine showing this movie to a child i i'll tell this i mean this guy seems stressed out my brother james's uh what would have been ninth or tenth birthday party was watching Ali with his friends. So you've mentioned that, right? Because he loved boxing so much. He loved Ali so much. Right. So my brother James's birthday was James watching Ali for the fifth time and a bunch of kids on their Gameboys.

No kidding. And he was just like, oh my god, Marvin Peoples was so good in this. And the kids were just like, I want like fucking Marvin Peebles was so good in this. And the kids were just like, I want like fucking gushers. What is this party? He didn't even have gushers? He didn't even have gushers.

No, he blew it. Maybe a pizza pie. I love a gusher. No, I just thought at the end, the first time I saw it, I was like, okay, Frank's gonna die. You know, this is it. This is his blaze of glory. Right. You know, maybe he'll get through Farina. Right.

But he's not getting through everyone. Right. But he gets through everyone. He gets through everyone. He shoots them all dead. I find that. And then he puts his gun away and he's not getting through everyone. Right. But he gets through everyone. He gets through everyone. He shoots them all dead. I find that. And then he puts his gun away and he's like what a day.

He shoots them all the way to death. All the way dead. Yeah. I find I guess it's justifiable that the cops are protecting the house.

But I just find it really weird that all the mobsters like the mobsters are like hanging out and like asking if the other one wants milk. Yeah.

That was weird. Right. It's very weird. Yeah. Farina's got a big coat on. His coat is so broad he almost looks like David Vernon. Stop making sense. He's got this big black boxy coat. He's a boxy boy. It's filled with squibs. He dies all the way dead.

And then James Collins just kind of walks off with his hands in his pockets. Yes. That's what I love. Yeah. Where it's like, I feel like 95% of these movies would end with him dying. I mean, obviously the classic Hollywood movies would because like crime has to pay. Right.

And, you know, and you'd be like, well, you know, he won some and he lost some. And that was how it goes. He sold his score, but he didn't make it out alive. But in this, like, it's so much better because he's just sort of cursed with like, what are you going to do now? What are you doing now? you murdered like 10 people in one night yeah you were not nice to your wife and your son you're never gonna see you lost one baby yeah um could you imagine what it'll be a field somewhere else the the woman at the adoption agency would have with this might be like yeah well you know thank you you're right right do

you remember that guy last week was so mean so upp was so uppity, like I was judgmental. He asked if I was from the suburbs. Wait till you hear this. Guy leaves the kid, murders like 10 people. And he burnt out like half the city. He blew up everywhere. He blew this place up because he came here once. He made me look like a snob. He tried to make it sound like I was a snob.

Oh boy, Frank. Frank. What a movie. Frank Thief. What a good movie. Frank G. Thief. Isn't that a good movie, Ben? It's a good movie frank g thief what isn't that a good movie it's a good movie it was an outstanding movie i'm so so happy uh i got to experience you know what's the most annoying thing about this movie what it was nominated for a razzie for what this is gonna hurt you you're gonna be upset we're score yeah that's just rude that was

voted at a time where now this music, again, is so in vogue. It feels right. I know. I guess back then, people were like, oh, corny, electronic music, lame. People weren't super into the Tangerine Dream scores. There was shit like Legend where they took it away from Ridley Scott and had Tangerine Dream recorded, and everyone was like, what the fuck is Tangerine Dream? Oh, I mean, I love the, you know, the Sorcerer.

That's an incredible score. I love those scores. Were you able to find Box Office for this movie? Not really. Interesting. Box Office Mojo's data only goes back to 1982, the year before this year. Okay.

The numbers... I forgot that Near Dark was Tangerine Dream 2. Yeah, yeah. Oh, sure. And the numbers i forgot that near dark was hand dream dream too yeah yeah oh sure uh and the numbers has box office data but it's like incomplete oh and so like you can't but i'm gonna give you well first let's do 1981's top five movies okay i was gonna suggest that yes let's do that i'll tell you what was number one the week this came out it was um omen 3 the final conflict okay uh the one with sam neill where he's like running for president when he's grown up damien yes yes okay um that's the fifth highest grossing film i 81 no that was number one oh when this came out that movie made a cool 20 mil. Thief made

let's actually 11 million dollars at the box office. That's better than I thought. Yeah. Adjusted for inflation is 37. Yeah.

You know. Not hurting anyone. And Jerry Bruckheimer produced it. That was the other thing I was very surprised to see. Young Bruck. As a yodic.

And what else was I going to say? Yeah. It came out you know the Postman Always Rings Twice had just come out. The Bob Raffleson. Yeah.

And we've also got something called Eyes of a Stranger. Don't know that. All right. So the number one movie of 1981 made $212 million in 1981. In 81. So adjusted, that is $700 million. Raiders of the Lost Ark? Correct. Steven700 million. Raiders of the Lost Ark? Correct.

Steven Spielberg's Raiders of the Lost Ark. A lot of money. That's a lot of money for a movie to make. Pretty good movie. Pretty good movie. The best one. I love Last Crusade. I haven't seen that one in a long time.

I guess maybe we should do those for our franchise. Yeah. I like that one because it's kind of like a Buster Keaton movie. It's a Buster? It's a Buster. It's very hijinx-y. It is. I love all the hijinx-y. But I think it's well orchestrated physical comedy. Anyway, so that thing just made more than anyone ever dared make.

Right? I mean, that's just beyond all measure. Was it number one of all time at that point? Did it topple Star Wars or was it like number two? No, it didn't come close to toppling Star Wars. Let's find out though all-time domestic star wars has had already had a couple re-releases i know but star wars you know the thing about star wars is that it made let's let's yeah it made 307 wow in 77 wow wow wow which is adjusted as 1.2 billion domestic. You know, it's like, there's nothing like Star Wars.

No, there's nothing like Star Wars. All right. Number two, though, because this is where it gets interesting, is not a franchise movie. What was the final gross? $119 million. That's a big gap. Almost $100 million less. Right.

But still, I mean, a colossal hit. It's not a franchise movie. No. Pointedly. But, you know, it is colossal hit. It's not a franchise movie. No. Pointedly. But, you know, it is a family movie. It's a family movie. It's got family members in it. It's got family members? It's got real family members? Yes. Is it

On Golden Pond? Oh, yes it is. What a hit. Mark Rydell's On Golden Pond, the most boring movie ever made. What a massive hit. Which won a shit ton of Oscars. At least three, I think. Right. It was the only year where the Oscars gave out an award for best movie ever.

Actor, actress, and screenplay. Yeah. Henry Fonda, Catherine Hepburn. You got Jane Fonda. The old fart. I've never seen it. Isn't it just like a bunch of people at like a lake house? I have no compulsion to watch that film.

On Golden Pond. We'll do a Mark Rydell series eventually. What else did he make? What did he make? I don't know. Maybe like Neil Simon. He made Neil Simon. He made The Rose.

He made The Rose. He made For the Boys. Yeah. He made The River. He loves that. With Mel Gibson. Yeah. You know, The Fox.

He's very good in Long Kiss Goodnight. Not Long Kiss Goodnight. I'm sorry. Long Goodbye. Oh, yeah. He's very good in that as like a mobster. Yeah. All right.

As an actor. Number three is a sequel. Number three is a sequel. It made 108. Is it a Star Trek? No. Interesting. It made 108 and it was a Star Trek? No. Interesting. It made 108 and it was a sequel.

That's right. There aren't a ton of sequels at this point in time. No. You know what else it is? Well, I would give it away. Fuck. I would give it away. I would give it away?

Give it away, give it away, give it away. It's the kind of movie they make all the time now. Oh, was it? Back then, still a novelty superman 2 superman 2 superman 2 dick lester richard lester director picture of a hard day's night and the director of superman 2 and the director of superman 2 which is okay i like superman 2 a lot you know it's god i like it a lot uh it's silly yeah superman 2 is pretty good it's it's got uh superman lois lane flocking they do they do uh that's the one where he no the first one's the one where he Yeah Superman 2 is pretty good It's got Superman and Lois Lane Fucking

They do They do That's the one where he No the first one Is the one where he flies backwards And resets them Yeah that's the first one Number four

Second one he fights The evil version of himself Right there's like No that's the third one Fuck I get him all the time That's Red Kryptonite Right The second one's odd

Right Neil Right Third one's a comedy I'm kneeling for the listeners Number four Number four is a. Number four is a comedy. Number four is a comedy? Big comedy.

Big comedy? Stir crazy? No. One star. How do you describe this movie? It's an epic. It's an epic? No.

Or like a... Is it a period comedy? Oh, I'm looking at the wrong one. This is a fucking movie that I love. Oh, see, I didn't know you loved this movie. This is a real Ben character-driven movie. Interesting. It's one comedy star?

Yeah, one star. One star. And I guess this is his big movie star break. I mean, he's a big deal, especially in his home country. In his home country? But I feel like this is the beginning of him as a movie star. In his home country? No, I take it back. It's not. I take it back. In his

home country? Is it an English-speaking country? It is an English-speaking country. Is he from England? He's from London. Is this Dudley Moore? Yes. Is it Arthur? It's Arthur. So what, 10 had come before this? 10 is in 79. I forgot about that.

For some reason, I thought 10 was after. I mean, he'd done the movies with Peter Cook like he'd done Bedazzled. Yeah. But yeah, no. Right. Tuesday Weld was married to Dudley Moore. Oh, really? Is that right?

And they said, what do you think of Dudley Moore? And she went, he's an asshole. Dudley Moore had four wives. Yeah. One of them was tuesday well yeah you're right 75 to 80 so they just they were on the rocks at this point dudley more was kind of the reference yeah no we got it we gotta go uh wow you didn't like that no i didn't uh you didn't like that not at all okay dudley more was kind of the pete davidson of his time you mean where like everyone's like how does this guy keep landing these ladies?

Right. Yeah. And especially like Dudley Moore was like shorter than me. He was a short man. He was a short man with a bulbous nose. But you know, everything about, um,

you know, um, Peter Cook and Dudley Moore is always like that. Dudley Moore was kind of like, yeah, all right, whatever, mate.

You know, and Peter Cook's like, fuck you. I'm seething with rage. It's very weird that he just became like a total leading man in the 80s. Right. I don't know what to tell you. Yeah.

Dudley Moore. Arthur. That's number four. Take responsibility. He's drunk. A big inspiration for me. What was the epic you were talking about, Ben? Number five?

Number seven? Six. Six. Oh, yeah, yeah. Right. The Cannonball Run. Oh. Big epic. It is. All kinds of giant movies. Okay. Number five. number seven oh yeah yeah right the cannonball run oh big epic it is all kinds of

number five what's number five it's a comedy it's with a star you love a star I love one star I mean it's got other guys I was gonna say it has the best opening yeah I mean it's the classic freaks and geeks

no one can tell you what happens in the second half of stripes that movie essentially the best opening. Yeah, I mean, it's the classic Freaks and Geeks that you and I always talk about. The first half. No one can tell you what happens in the second half of Stripes. That movie essentially ends after, and that's the fact, Jack, you know, when he does,

when they do their test. Then when it becomes about the SUV, right? Yeah, no, the armored vehicle. Right, right. Then it's just like,

what is this movie? Yeah. Is that a Remus? No, it's a Reitman. It's a Reitman. That was the big thing was Reitman had sold's a Reitman. That was the big thing was Reitman had sold it as Cheech and Chong

go to the army. Right, right, right, right. He was trying to direct more. It was sold as a Cheech and Chong movie then Cheech and Chong dropped out. Right. He had it set up

and he was like, could I rewrite it as a Bill Murray movie? Bill Murray was like, I don't want to do it. And he was like, what if I cast the other guy as Harold Ramis? Knowing that Bill Murray loved Harold Ramis at that point in time. Bill Murray was like, I don't want to do it. And he was like, what if I cast the other guy as Harold Ramis?

Knowing that Bill Murray loved Harold Ramis at that point in time. And he was like, Harold will rewrite it for you and Harold will be the other guy and you'll have fun because you'll play with Harold.

Right, right, right, right. So it was like, Harold Ramis became a movie star. This biggest hit of the year. Because that was how they could get Bill Murray to agree. Wow.

But some other big movies, Cannonball Run, Chariots of Fire, the Best Picture winner, Free Your Eyes Only, with the Bond movie. The Four Seasons. With Alan Alda?

Alan Alda picture. What is that? Alan Alda directed like eight movies. It's about a hotel or something. I don't know. It sounds like

California Suite. Another Alan Alda. Maybe, yeah. Maybe it's not about it. Maybe it's about, it's a romance or something. Who is it? Him and Carol Burnett?

Him and Carol Burnett. You know what? What? They're an upper middle class married couple in New York City. Wow. Knock me over with a feather. With an old feather?

And they take some vacations. It's set during four vacations. Oh, wow. Four seasons. So you got Len Cariou, Rita Moreno, Sandy Dennis. Could you imagine

how hard they would drag that movie today? Alan Alda's kids play his kids? Alan Alda was like, so I'm making a movie about white people going on vacations.

I cut out all the things in between the vacations. I gotta see this thing. It says four vacations with none of the filler of them having responsibilities in life. This thing was nominated

for four Golden Globes. My Alda impression's really bad. Another one that a lot of people do. I know. Or at least he's got an inimitable voice. But I found a new keeper today. What was that? Willie Nelson. Yeah, your Nelson's great.

What was the thing I was going to say about Alda? Sag Magazine. I don't want to brag, but... Sag Mag? Sag Mag. Is this a Sag Mag brag? Yeah. The Screen Actors Guild Magazine, I don't want to brag, but... SAG Mag? SAG Mag. Is this a SAG Mag brag? Yeah. The Screen Actors Guild Magazine, which...

Did you do that, Ben? Okay. The Screen Actors Guild Magazine, which is one of the best magazines to line the bottom of your pet carrier with. Sure. I just have this one issue in my apartment that I haven't thrown out for some reason that's just sitting on my table. That's a cover story on Alan Alda because I guess he

won the Lifetime Achievement Award. And the headline is, Alda Way. Alda Way. And every time I'm cleaning up my apartment, I'm like, I just can't do it. I can't throw it out. How do you get rid of that? Alda Way. Well, that was the ninth highest grocer

of this year. He's a big star. Over Time Bandits, over Reds, over The Fox and the Hound, over Excalibur, over The Great Muppet Caper. You know, there are some big movies here. You know, there was like- Over Halloween 2, Escape from New York. There was a thing where they like quiz children and more children recognized Alan Alda than they did Jesus Christ.

I swear to God, this was like a real thing that happened in the 80s he was so big alda it was the biggest tv show right i mean yeah he went all the way now he's like a guy who can play like the manager of the insurance agency who tells a guy to do one thing and then isn't in the movie again right and somehow was third built right you know uh alan alda's like uh books all have amazing titles he's written a bunch of like just like stories for me in show business books. Never Have Your Dog Stuffed. Right. One of them's called I Shouldn't Even Be Doing This.

Or no, that's Bob Newhart's book. Things I Overheard While Talking to Myself. That's it. And the new one, If I Understood You, Would I Have This Look on My Face? Yeah. All lightly amusing titles. Just very lightly amusing. We we gotta do an alda series he made four movies alda's going in march madness next year yeah we're putting him in four

only four joe tinian what was that thing called the politician the seduction of joe tinian he only wrote he only wrote that okay uh that's a schatzberg movie okay sweet liberty uh-huh with uh michael came to shell pfeiffer, Bob Hoskins. Sounds good. Huge store, Alan Alda. And then A New Life. Yeah. With Anne Margaret.

Yeah. Okay. Sure. And I guess, oh, and the last one was called Betsy's Wedding. Molly Ringwald,

Allie Sheedy, Madeline Kahn, Joe Pesci, Anthony LaPaglia, Catherine O'Hara, Burt Young, Joey Bishop? You know what's interesting?

Oh, we just ran out of time on the clock. Wait, but it doesn't look like the Joey Bishops in this movie? Clearly, it's furious. Alan Alda is like if Chris Pratt left Parks and Rec and became a major A-list movie star through doing mild middle-aged relationship comedies.

That was a niche. Betsy's wedding was inspired by the marriage of Alda's daughter. Oh, that's lovely. This is good Michael Mann content, right? Yeah. I'm going to run it back around. Okay? And I think this has been a gentleman's start to cast the

Podheekins. Right. Colon Michael Mansplaining. Yeah. James Caan is on Twitter. I did not realize this. He seemed like someone who would not be on Twitter. Okay?

Certainly. So then I looked at his account. He has 8,000 followers. He's verified. It's him. Right. How's James Caan on Twitter? Less than 10,000 followers. And like all his tweets were in like the last couple of weeks.

So I was like, did he just join? No, he's been on since 2013. He just takes years long gaps in between tweets. Can I read you his first couple tweets? Can I tell you something? What? It's his birthday today. Today's his birthday?

Happy birthday, James Caan. I just went to his page and the balloons floated up. You know how they do that on their birthday? On the day we're recording, it is James Caan's birthday. I just want to read his earliest tweets, okay? Yeah. August 15th, 2013. There's nothing more boring than an actor talking about acting.

Period. End of tweet. Period. Wait, he wrote those things out? Right, okay. Next tweet, a month Wait, he wrote those things out? Right, okay. Next tweet, a month later, September 17th. Don't run after a bus, there'll be another. And don't ever eat fried food.

Thank you, colon, Mel Brooks. Not colon, comma. Thank you, Mel Brooks. Okay. Period. End of tweet. Right. Period. He likes this end of tweet sort of format.

Watch hashtag back in the game tonight at 8.30 on ABC. I forgot. I think I reviewed that show. That was a sitcom. It's where he's like an old baseball coach who manages a little league team or something. Right, yeah. It was like someone has to like, yeah, whatever the fuck it was. He used to coach the big leagues or whatever.

Now he's like with his daughter. But this tweet is, watch hashtag back in the game tonight at 8.30 on ABC. It's very funny and I need the money. End of tweet. Jimmy! Next tweet, September 4th, or October 4th.

On my lunch break on hashtag back in the game while cutting a sandwich, my knife struck something hard. Dot, dot, dot. It was my thumb. Period. End of tweet. Period.

Is James Caan the best at Twitter wait wait wait i'm now i'm looking did you see uh 11th november 2013 go to that one uh just a couple up abc has decided to can us i will speak to you from somewhere else down the line end of show end of tweet has anyone used twitter better than this? This is amazing. Then almost a year later, August 27th. Hi, I think I'm still here. End of tweet. Jesus Christ. Then he doesn't post for another three years. February 2017, my youngest

son, Rich Homie Khan, senior season. End of tweet. He's posting just a highlight reel of his son. Then he retweets his own post. Rich Homie his son then he retweets his own post rich homie khan then he retweets other people posting it and then doesn't post for another two years right until this february hi end of tweet period march 6 rainy day in la mood end of tweet it's just a photo of james khan looking handsome at a young age and now he's posting a lot of pictures like now he's going down memory lane.

He's posting an Al Hirschfeld that he's in. Some rollerball. We've got a misery gif. Brian's song, hashtag Brian's song. What would be your first thought if you showed up to a wedding and saw me standing up there officiating the ceremony? Hashtag, that's my boy. Just a production photo from Adam Sandler's

That's My Boy. Fingers tired. End of tweet for today. So yes, James Caan is the best at Twitter. Anyone's ever been at Twitter. He posted a picture from Thief saying, Willie, my dear friend. That's pretty sweet. And these are all, now we're just

reading things he's posted in the last three weeks. Now he's active. One with Pacino and De Niro.iro now he's tweeting up a storm he's retweeting people's birthday wishes there's a gif of him getting ready to beat the shit out of talia shire's husband and the godfather where he like throws the stick at him he literally has posted like 40 posted or retweeted 40 different things in the last hour i know it lasts four hours wait really oh yeah he's just gone wild he's gone wild in the last four. I know. It lasts four hours. Wait, really? Oh yeah, he's just gone wild. He's gone wild in the last four hours. Yeah, he really has. Well, it's because it's his birthday. He's responding

to like every birthday tweet. Right. Okay. Tweet at him! Well, no, here's what I'm gonna say. When this episode comes out, I'm gonna tweet at him. I'm gonna wish him a happy birthday. Thank you. From the bottom of my heart. But when this episode comes out, I want all the blankies to tweet at James Caan telling him

to signal boost our episode. Sure. Because he seems to be quick with the retweets. He's happy to signal boost. I mean, I got to be honest, he has less followers than the Blank Check podcast accounts. I mean, Ange could maybe punch up his account a little bit. I mean, no offense to him. I'm just saying.

He could use an Ange. He could use an Ange. Hey, and on that note, thank you all for listening. Could we share final thoughts? Final thoughts and rules. He's so fucking good. Yeah, movie fucks. Con runs the jewels.

Con runs the jewels. Oh, that's why I wanted to share final thoughts. Con runs the jewels. He's punching David. The craziest thing is, this might be one of my least favorite Michael Mann movies. Yeah. That's the thing that's insane.

That's why I wanted to do this guy. Yeah, you love this guy. I love this guy. You love this guy. Yep. Con, run the jewels. Don't pinch me. Thanks to Andrew Goodall for her social media.

James Conn, you should hire her. Thanks to Leigh Montgomery for her theme song. Joe Bowen, Pat Reynolds for her artwork. Go to blankies.red.com for some real nerdy shit. Go to TeePublic for some real nerdy shirts. Remember to subscribe to Blank Check Special Features on Patreon. Hell yeah. And it always.

And it always. And it always. And it always goes. And it always goes with me saying, and as always. Right. I'm Willie Nelson. Thieving your jewels. Don't want to die in prison.

Also don't want to pay my taxes.