The Big Picture - The 1987 Mega-Movie Draft With Quentin Tarantino and Roger Avary!

Episode Date: July 26, 2022

We are drafting again and we have some special guests: Quentin Tarantino and Roger Avary, longtime friends, filmmaking collaborators, and the hosts of the Video Archives Podcast join Sean, Amanda, and Chris Ryan to pick their faves and foil their pals in a draft of the movies from 1987. Hosts: Sean Fennessey and Amanda Dobbins Guests: Quentin Tarantino, Roger Avary, and Chris Ryan Producers: Bobby Wagner Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

There it is. I'm Charles Holmes with The Ringer Music Show. And I'm Cole Kushner from Dissect. And Charles and I are teaming up to create Last Song Standing,

a new show where we determine an artist's single best song by debating our way through their entire catalog. And for our first season, we're covering Kendrick Lamar. We're talking Good Kid to Pimple Butterfly,

Dan, Mr. Morale, the mixtapes, the Lucys, and the features. Listen to Last Song Standing on the Dissect podcast feed only on Spotify. I'm Sean Fennessy. I'm Amanda Dobbins.

And this is The Big Picture, a conversation show about the year 1987. We are drafting again. It's the Movie Draft 1987 edition. Chris Ryan is here. And so are two very special guests returning to the show. Quentin Tarantino, legendary film director. Hello. One of our favorite cinephiles on the planet. Joining him, his friend, collaborator, colleague, podcast co-host on the Video Archives Podcast, Roger Avery. Thank you so much. I'm so happy to be here.

I'm so happy to have you guys here. Like I said, you guys are hosting a show now. And so we're looking for a chance to do something together, promote the show. Quentin, you said, let's do a movie draft. Yeah. You pick the year. Well, it was like, yeah, you guys had listened to like one year in the 80s that you had done. And that was actually interesting because I listened to it. I've listened because I also listened to that other movie draft show

and whatever. It's always kind of, since I'm not a sports guy, it's always a little perplexing to me. And so I listened to like a couple different drafts that you guys did. And so then just for the fun of it, I did a draft for 86.

All right, just for myself, just myself. Okay, how would I do that? What would that be? I looked up everything for 86 and whatever. And then I was like, okay, I think I got a good handle on this. And so then I got in touch with you. I go, let's do it. And I think we both selected 87.

And then I didn't look up 87 at all, all right, until like earlier this week. Not this week. On purpose? Yeah, yeah. I didn't want up 87 at all. All right. Until like earlier this week, not this week. On purpose. Yeah. Yeah. I didn't want to, I didn't want to like think about it. I didn't want to,

I didn't want to literally until like about like five days before I was getting ready to do was when I first started looking it up to remind myself what movies I'd played then. And, and, and start making my list. So we wanted to do a, a year in the realm when you two were working no that's definitely

that's definitely was the time smack dab in the middle dab in the middle of the store smack dab in the middle of our movie going in the 80s i mean it's smack dab in the middle of all that so there was a lot happening in this moment this year for me was like one of the i think biggest years of my life like everything changed for for me. How so? Tell us. Um, well, I mean, in, in good ways and also in not good ways. And also, um, uh, you know, we, Quentin and I both worked at this video store, uh, video archives, and there was this collection of guys who were all, you know, moviegoers in LA and all friends. And we all went to movies together. And, um, in 1987, um, I, uh, I went on a trip to Europe and I went backpacking through Europe. And while I was away,

um, my, our, you're definitely your best friend, but one of my best friends. Yeah. I mean, we were all super, super tight. The three of us, like just movie making friends, uh, committed suicide. And I didn't know, um, until like this happened, you know, I was traveling through Europe and I was in Paris and, uh, I, I bumped into by pure chance, this French guy that I had, that I had known from Los Angeles. And he took me out with his friends. And basically we did the whole scene, the night out from killing Zoe. And, uh, we went to his we went to his house he said oh hey we have our neighbor's phone we stole our neighbor's phone and they're away on trip you can call anyone you want for free and so i was like okay i didn't know who else i could call in la at that time so i called scott i was like who can i wake up and so

i called him on the phone and i and he's like my God, Roger, I can't believe you're calling me right now. And I said, yeah, I like this phone, but I'm here in, uh, in, in Paris and told him what was going on. And the most important thing we talked about in that moment was, did you see full metal jacket yet? Like that was like a really, really important thing that, you know, it was like, yeah, wasn't it great. So we talked about full metal jacket and I said, okay, thing that, you know, it was like, yeah, wasn't it great? So we talked about full metal jacket and I said, okay, I'll call you again. You know, like whenever I was going to be traveling again for another couple of months. Well, that night he killed himself. He, uh, he was in a lot of emotional pain, obviously throughout his life. It was just

ghastly all around. Okay. I knew nothing about it. Quentin and all of our other friends were emotionally dealing with this, like in the, in real time. Whereas me, I was completely, you know, we didn't want Roger to know about it away from home. Right. This is before cell phones before any of that, you know, it's like, uh, I mean, these are the days of like travelers checks. And so I, uh, so I'm traveling around and I end up in Ireland and I try calling Scott from a pay phone and the phone has been disconnected. Actually, first I got a, um, uh, an answering machine and then eventually phone was disconnected. So I didn't know what was going on, but eventually I come back home and nobody had wanted to kind of freak me out while I was away.

And, uh, and I came back and the first thing I did was go to the video store and, and, and, um, and so the first thing I do is I go back to the video store and I see everybody and how's it going? And then, then I go home and, you know, it basically find out my mother tells me, uh, actually what happened. She wanted to be the one to tell me for whatever reason. And I fell into a very deep and long depression. One could call it just a existential melancholic period of assessment of what is reality. What is reality? Okay. But, okay. But, but the other thing though is, okay. So after you got over after that night, after, okay, now you got to get and you came over to our house. Yeah.

Mine and Steve-O's house. And he proceeded to tell us the crazy adventure that he had been on in Europe and France. And it was freaking crazy. And it was freaking crazy. And then when it was over, I go, you've got to make a movie about that. That's got to be your first movie. And that is exactly his first movie. Killing Zoe is a slightly more fancified version.

It's a little bit more of an arthouse version of it. A little bit more bank robbery. The truth is- It wasn't a bank robbery, all right? But all the other shit. The bank robbery stuff came later just out of necessity, really. But turn it into a movie. We see this in Rules of Attraction too.

There's a crazy european adventure that and in fact i took my journal from that and i kind of wove it into brett's journal and then we improv'd a whole bunch while we were over there and uh to create that sequence as well so i've been kind of exploring and you can find that phone in killing zoe as well like in the hallway in killing so there's they make a note Oh, you can call anybody you want on that phone. And so, um, so bad thing, Roger's best friend killed himself. He came up with his first movie, which by the way, and you remember the first title for it, right? The title you wanted, you wanted it to be, which Roger takes a trip. I still think it's a better title. I still stand by that title. Well,

it's a different movie. It's a different movie and maybe a movie that I'll make someday. I mean, we literally do start every draft by saying, who were you

when we were doing 87? That is the most profound one we've had by far. So then also, right after that, I fell into this deep depression and the person

that got me out of that depression was the woman who I eventually married who, like, who I met, like just basically right then. She was friend of a friend and she got on the phone with me and just begged me to come out, just get out of the house. And I mean, I was going out of the house. I was going to the dude house.

You're going to my house. I mean, the real world. Yeah. She wanted me. Smoking pot and eating Duncan Hines chocolate cake. Just wallowing in my own self misery, our shared misery. But, and so like a lot happened to me and like, and I formed a lot of my worldviews. And, you know, at that time, also, you know you know, I, um, I wrote my year in review.

Like I used to write a year in review every year and I would do thumbnail reviews for everything. And, uh, so in 1987, I pulled my old year in review off my Mac, my old power PC Macintosh and I had this little essay in the beginning and most of it is too embarrassing to read. And I've redacted most of it, but, um, I gotta say, it's not surprising that you're a podcast host all these years. Podcast host activity. Yeah, this is exactly the kind of thing a podcast host does. And so this one paragraph, though, which on one hand, it sounds ridiculous and arrogant,

but it's who I was back then. But it kind of captures that year, which is I had a great time this year compiling this data. I missed out on a lot of summer films because I was in Europe, but I tried. I saw Clockwork Orange in Vienna in German with an all-punk crowd. I managed to see Blade Runner in Madrid with subtitles. I even saw some new releases in London rather than going to the theater and seeing a play. Movies in a foreign country are a real experience. Seats are assigned like in a theater.

My favorite seats, which are the second row from the front, in the center, just happen to be the cheapest. They play music before the movie that's related to what you're going to see.

And you see about 20 minutes of commercials that are quite entertaining. This might put some people off, but keep in mind that European commercials are almost as good as the theatrical release

you're seeing, especially if it happens to be Superman four. Okay. Quentin 87. Who are you? What are you doing? I'm working at,

uh, uh, I'm working at video archives. I had, uh, uh, I think the year earlier, I had just started going out with my first real girlfriend.

So it's like, so I actually had a, somebody to go to some of these movies with, and her name is grace. And, um, yeah. And that's, that's who I was suffering through the horrible cinematic eighties. All right. Okay. Now, one of the things that's actually interesting is, um, um, yes.

I mean, you, you could not be get, this is peak video archives mania. Like we're like, well, that's what we did. We're like, you know, we, I saw four to five movies every single solitary week.

I paid to see them all. All right. I paid, I paid to see movies I didn't even like twice. Right. Sometimes even three times, you know,

and forget about all the stuff i'm watching at the store i mean it was just that was my life it was just completely my life there was no directing on the horizon at that point well aspirations but no hold on a sec hold on a sec i think you're wrong there aren't you well i'm talking about my best friend's birthday that proved out to be a fiasco all right you know so that was like okay but you're not this is not good at yeah well i had it but this is kind of the year i let go of them for a while and and also you know that's his birthday proved that no you don't have it no actually there is there you were you were wrong come on there's that one radio station scene that is so i'm not putting even this down i'm saying i spent three years thinking it was going to be something and

it was nothing. It's not too late to commercially release it. You can still do it. You can still do it. But, you know, but it was interesting kind of going through the year. I didn't go on the internet. I took my screen world, my John Willis screen world. Yeah.

All right. And read through everything. Which is like an almanac for it. Yeah, exactly. That's what everyone had. Who were the number one box office stars. Yeah. If I was going to, you know, if I rechecked anything online,

it was through FlickChart. Because I get a kick out of FlickChart. But the basis is screen rule. And so I went through that. And so as I'm going through it all, going through the different movies, I'm like, oh my God, this is a terrible year.

And it's not even so much it's a terrible year. It's not even so much it's a terrible year. It's just a perfect 80s year. It's just so fucking middle-of-the-road 80s for me. Almost better if it were terrible, all right? Because it would- Challenge you more. There would be something more substantial, all right?

But the thing that was like- Two things hit me big time. challenge you more. It would be more, there would be something more substantial, all right? But the thing that was like, well, but two things hit me big time. One is how many of these, what I think, mediocre movies

that like, not only did I see in the theater, I maybe even saw twice at the theater. I paid for every single one of them. And then how many

of these middle brow movies, which I think will be Amanda's seven, I think I talked myself into even liking them back then. Because I did talk myself into liking a bunch of stuff because I wanted to like things. I wanted to go to the movies. I wanted to have a good fucking time. You know? And I didn't over-inflate things, but I'm more inclined. I didn't even hold...

In the 80s, I didn't even hold a bad ending against a movie because every movie had a fucking bad ending. If you're going to like... If you're going to throw the movie off

because it has a bad ending, well, then you just don't like movies. You like three movies. You just don't like movies. Right. But you've said this for a long time, though, that the 80s are Right. But you've been, you've said this for a long time though

that the 80s are terrible. Okay, but here. I think the four of us think this might be kind of a good year. I'm sure you probably do. All right. And therein lies the difference between the five of us.

All right. However, I will say, okay, and again, the whole question about how you win this thing which as we've gone back and forth

there's never been a definitive let's talk about this a little I know how to fuck up other people but I don't quite know how to win you just nailed it I've picked five movies that I think define this year for me

and I made it a point actually at least four of those movies define that year for me. Yeah. And I made it a point. Well, actually, at least four of those movies defined that year for me even now. Okay. But I didn't want to disforce myself

from who I was then. So it really had to mean something to me then. Okay. So I could make that five because there's five of us. But it's really four to tell you the truth.

All right. Because you don't think you're picking from Amanda's pool. I don't think I'm picking from... Oh, I think one of them might be in Amanda's pool. Okay. I think one of them might be in Amanda's pool. There think you're picking from Amanda's pool. I don't think I'm picking from. Oh, I think one of them might be in Amanda's pool. I think one of them

might be in Amanda's pool. There's one that's in Amanda's pool. I'm guessing. I want you to really upend this. I feel like the best

outcome would be you fucking with Quentin's list. That's the draft I want to see. Okay. Well, I actually think okay.

Yeah. Okay. I think there's one she might want. Anything else would be sabotage. Okay. Okay. Fair enough.

Okay. All right. But here's the thing, though. Okay. So I broke down four. Four titles. And now where I'm coming from is, and I'm coming back to a bigger picture view. Where I'm coming from as a player is

well, look, obviously I'd want all four of these on my list, but that's not going to happen. But I'm cool that these four are, as long as these four are mentioned. As long as these four are in the game. That's the greater good. That's great.

That's great. Now, if I can get two of them, if it works out that I can get two of my four on my list, that's pretty fucking great. If I get three, I've won as far as I'm concerned. They're in life. Okay. Okay. So now, okay. Okay. Well, good. But now here's the thing though. Okay. As I'm talking shit about this year, when it comes to those four movies, there hasn't been anything as good as those four movies released since 2019. I mean, not even anywhere near as good as these four movies are.

But so you put your finger on something that we have talked about before on drafts, which is that sometimes, even if a draft is really top-heavy, that still makes it a great year. You can still have five movies that are all-time classics. Yeah. With my four movies, you cannot not say it's not a great year.

All right. Well, you're the only one saying it's not. You're the only one saying it was a bad year. I'm the one going through a screen roll. Oh, fuck. Oh, this fucking thing. Oh, that fucking thing. Oh, this fucking thing.

The funny thing is that you saw all of it. You probably saw all those movies like three or four times. Which made me even more like right I'm literally starving to death

and I paid to see this fucking thing twice you were what 10 years old I was 10 yeah I think this is when I started to become

a video store rat so I was starting to be the guy the kid who would just be in the aisles for four hours looking at a box putting it down hours, looking at a box,

putting it down, coming back, looking at a box. You'd be little Chris. There was a video store two doors down from my house called Movie People that I would go to pretty much every day. That's a cool name for a video store. What city? Philly.

When I was aware of what my dad did, so my dad was a film critic for the Philadelphia Inquirer. And he had written two years before this a book called Video Capsule Reviews, which was a great title for what this book was, which was Capsule Reviews of Videos. And there was also... Did you guys ever go to TLA in Philadelphia?

The video store TLA? No. Okay, so they put out an amazing guide for film that was broken down way more into like German New Wave or like all the sort of film school

or sub-genres. It wouldn't just be like mystery. It'd be like 40s noir, then this, and then 70s American. So video capsule review was like the velvet underground to tla is beatles the reverse like like my dad's was just like alphabetical like tom hanks is at it again you know but the tla my dad was a good writer but i'm just saying like i don't think he was trying to blow anybody's mind and then the tla book would be like john

cassavetes for two pages and i would just be like what the fuck is John Cassavetes I'm 10 you know so I did this is when I started I think to form my own taste and the crazy thing going through this year is that for as much as I want to impress you guys and be like well obviously it's this I have some

sentimental fucking favorites from this time of like I literally watched this movie possibly 80 times in a 12-month period and racked up $37 late fees because I refused to return this movie. And so they may sneak in here in ways that I have not examined myself. It's even more challenging on the sentimental tip

for you and I, because you were a couple of years old. I was already being clowned by Quentin before we started recording for the 1992 draft at my age. And I regret to inform you that because of math, I was turning three in 1987. I just, I was. I just like really liked the idea of Quentin going up to a three-year-old Amanda and being like,

do you like Full Metal Jacket? How many times have you seen it? A three-year-old comes up to a three-year-old Amanda and be like, do you like Full Metal Jacket? How many times have you seen it? A three-year-old comes up to planes, trains, and automobiles and I roll my eyes. Jesus. Yeah, give me that. I was only five. I definitely saw planes, trains, and automobiles.

I saw Princess Bride. I saw all those movies and I loved them when I was five. So I can't, we're on solid, we're on even ground here in some ways. But it's interesting when you're reconstructing, like I've seen a lot of these movies and I too, like Chris went through the list and had sentimental favorites or movies that I've seen way more than I should have seen for the value of the movie, I guess, or the quality of the movie.

But they're idiosyncratic, like Amanda style pics of the things that I gravitated towards, whether it was at Blockbusters or in college or whatever. So I wouldn't say I have like a comprehensive, you know, encyclopedic critical knowledge

of the year 1987. I have like... You have a collection of the movies that you've seen again and again and again that mean something to you. Exactly.

So let's just, for the table. What about you, man? What about me? T-Ball, what was going on? I don't have a lot of strong memories other than just, I was just watching TV constantly. Okay. Constantly.

Television and movies and begging my parents to take me to the video store. So, and at five, which obviously leads me to the life that I have right now. But it's not, it's too early to have any profundity in my memories. It's all like, I'm just right at the starting line. There wasn't like you and your friends going to look and find a body, you know, or anything like that. That didn't happen yet. No, not yet. But soon enough.

It's interesting because there is a lot of titles that I can imagine kids like you, all right, you know, would be, have a very sentimental kind of feeling too. All right. Okay. Now I have a sentimental feeling, but it's not the normal sentiment. All right. The four,

five, the five that I think are my five, my sentimental attachment to them is because everything is sentimental in the 80s and it's all fucking crap. It's all touchstone crap. And these five movies dare to walk a completely different, fuck everybody else walk.

I thought you were going to say something really sweet for a second. It's the fact that they're so punk rock in an era that that didn't exist. That's why they were mind blowers it's the fact that they're so punk rock in an era that, that didn't exist. Yeah. That they, that's why they were mind blowers. And that's why they became video archives classics. That's what made a video archives classic,

a film that broke from the Hollywood norm of that decade and, and had a contraband kind of feeling. It's not following it's leading and leading by itself. Cause nobody else not following. It's leading. And leading by itself because nobody else is following. Yeah, yeah. Someone has to blaze the trail. And a lot of those movies, they're inimitable.

People maybe try, but the punk rock movies that you're talking about from this era were like, you couldn't do that unless you were that director. You couldn't do it unless it was that guy.

Yeah, and the way, it's the thing is like, well, you know, you read that piece I wrote about the 80s versus the 70s and the outfit piece. And it like, well, you know, you read that piece I wrote. I want to talk about the 80s versus the 70s and the outfit piece. And it's just like, you know, the most cursory example of what you were able to do in the 70s compared to what you were able to do in the 80s. It's just ridiculous.

It's right there. But then these four movies did it. And a few other ones. And a few other ones, you know. I'm nervous for you and also excited for you. Because on the one hand, defining your own victory is really the only way to win. You have your four movies. You want them.

If you get them, you've won. That's good. On the other hand. I'll never get my four. Right. Well, so then I'm nervous that it's going to be snatched away from you. He'll never get his four because he's strategically trying to take away some from me. Well, that is also important.

That's what I know. But that's my four. I know what you're up to. That's my four. That's my four. That's my four. Meeting Roger is your four. That's my four.

I know what you're up to, dude. I know why you're here. I know that you're a gunslinger and I came packing. I actually think the idea that you guys have more than four, all right, suggests, oh, hey, I actually might get my four. Well. I'm not going to get my four. All right. But it's not inconceivable I could get three.

But that would be a big deal. That would be a big fucking deal. Okay. We're going to find out very soon. I'm hoping for two. Okay. I think, you know, we usually talk about a little bit about the Oscars and a little bit about the box office before we dig into the draft. The most uninteresting subject when it comes to this year.

The box office, especially at the tippy top, is a little grim. If we hadn't done the research, I don't think a single one of us would have guessed what the number one box office film of the year was. We might have guessed what number two is. Quentin just said it when he said touchstone crap. Yeah, yeah. He actually, that's directly what he was referencing.

Referring to punk rock movies that were promote. No, he's referencing Touchstone, the company that started mass manufacturing. I'm referencing Outrageous Fortune and Three Men and a Baby.

Yeah. I mean, these were movies that are being made by silver screen partners one, two, three, four, five, and six, and they just keep cranking out movies with the same art direction.

Well, you're talking about the box episode. Look, that literally was the prefabricated time of Touchstone. In all true reality, I don't find those movies as bad now. Yeah, you look back, it's actually, I wish we had those two ones. The ones that don't find those movies as bad now. You look back, it's actually I wish we had those two. The ones that don't just die

of rot, that actually manage to be watchable 20 years later actually kind of hold up, I mean, as stupid star vehicles, but they hold up nevertheless. And especially of their time, and they kind of feel like the 80s. Okay, yeah, I mean, it's like, you know, I'm not gonna, this is not the same year,

I'm not gonna make a great the same year I'm not gonna make a great case that you know The Great Outdoors is a terrific movie but if I watch it now I'll enjoy it it's not unwatchable no it's

no I mean I'll like it if I watch it it's not a terrific movie but I'll enjoy it it's a fun movie at the risk of giving away I think some of the more hotly contested titles

there are also some pretty good movies in the top 20 here I mean some movies that we've celebrated on the podcast network maybe even on this show and not only a hand maybe only a handful of all-time classics but i don't know i i had a feeling that you were going to say what you're saying which is that this is a crap year there's a lot of populism i was happy to hear though that you didn't think it was such a bad year. Like when you look at it in totality, what do you, what do you see Roger? Well, I mean, part of it is just

that these were the movies of my youth by default. I mean, that's part of what Quentin is getting at is this is what we were stuck with. Having said that, I wish that today I would get stuck with a year that had RoboCop in it and a year that had a number of these other films in it. There's a ton of movies here that are seminal favorites by people. And if we got one of these movies this year, I think I'd be happy.

I wouldn't point at this list. I'm not pointing at the Academy. And I don't really want to just start giving everything away, but we know what the top movies are. And, uh, you know,

it's, um, to me, this wasn't a terrible year. This is a year that has a couple of my like beloved films. And I think in a, in a, you know,

speaking from a populist perspective, there's going to be tons of people who are like, this is a great year. There's going to be the predator crowd. Rather than, you know, it's rather than saying it's a terrible year. It's going to be the predator crowd. Rather than saying it's a terrible year, it's just a very indicative of the 80s.

The 80s have become the 80s. There's a changing of that. And by 87, this is the 80s. This is it. Something's going to have to happen in the 90s to stop this. And that did happen. And I was part of it yeah i was like almost like you've narrativized i have to say i like i look back on a lot of these movies fondly now partly because they're they're products of their time

and they're you can't make movies like this anymore they just they just simply won't be the same but when i look back at my reviews my capsule reviews my uh capsule review thing i hated most of these films and even some of the movies that i truly kind of love now that i would even put like on my like on my favorite list on letterboxd at one point there was a movie that it's like it's way up there on my favorite. And I looked on my review here and it was like, see. Yeah. Roger was a very, very tough critic. All right.

He was a young man in his early 20s. I was vicious and heartless. This is kind of a luxury, though, to have so many movies that are like, I think at least made with an eye towards like being viewed by people who also love movies is that you can be a prick about them. There's like so many of them you can be like nah, pass on this one but it would probably stand up against

you mentioned the 2019 drought we're kind of in. I would take a lot of these movies over anything that came out. I mean it's just so ridiculous how they don't how the movies since 2019 can't even stand up. Right. I'm sure any of our fucking lists.

So on this list of the top 20 grocers in the US from this year, only one sequel and every other film on the list is an original story. Which, if you... Well, Three Men and a Baby

is a remake. That's true. Okay, a remake. And Untouchables isn't exactly an original story which if well three minute babies remake that's true okay a remake and untouchables isn't exactly an original story yes well it's historical drama it's based on a tv show dragnet based on it i'm not trying to kick you in the shins but you're right you're right that's true okay beyond those that's a good cut but but since this this year seems like it started that that's even kind of a cool thing yeah there's so many of these become sequels there are a handful That's a good comment. But since this year seems like it started that, that's even kind of a cool thing. We have so many of these become sequels.

There are a handful of years, I think even earlier in the 80s, in which there are five, six, seven sequels on that list. For whatever reason, only one sequel is very unusual.

Oh, yeah, yeah. No, right on. That's another reason why when it jumped out to me, I was like, this is really not a bad year. Living Daylights is not necessarily a sequel.

It's a series. It's a sequel. It's a series. It's a series. It's a series. Kind of a popular one. But it is also a... Is it not an original story, though? I think it is an original story. Raw wasn't a sequel to Delirious?

They're related. Okay, I'm joking. I'm teasing. I'm teasing. I'm just questing for quality here. You know what struck me as odd? When I was looking over all of the Academy movies, not odd. It was something I became aware of was I started looking at all of the technical awards.

And then I looked at the technical awards starting in 2020. And that's when they ended the technical awards. And I started tracking all of the technical awards. I just went like through and just looked at, read up on and read what each award was throughout the decades. And I watched it go from this industry in Los Angeles and the United States of tooling and machining and making things and awards being given out for technical achievements in you know gimbal creation or in model rig devices and all these kind of innovations that were being designed and built by hand and that slowly starts to fade away as digital gradually, insidiously, cancer-like takes over and begins eroding at all of that until finally the Academy kills the award division in its entirety. And I feel the loss, actually. I didn't even know that that had happened.

Sorry. Sorry. I didn't mean to. It's a high spirited note. Bring a downer to it. But in the event that this is the first movie draft that you are listening to, here's how we do things. There are a number of categories, five categories in all or six categories in all that we are

drafting from. We randomly select the order of the draft. Randomly. Randomly selected. I promise you there is no rigging going on here. We operate in fashion which means if you start at one we go all the way to five and then five gets to pick again in round two and then all the way back in reverse order if you get first you get your movie but you don't get to pick for what nine picks or whatever yes you following roger are you with us so like let's say so like if quentin goes first and then it goes around

is the order actually it's random pick the order if Quentin goes first and then it goes around, is the order actually- It's randomized. We will pick the order, yes. Right. And then the last person that goes- Gets to go again. Gets to go again.

I got you. I'm going to read the categories before we choose the draft. Let me ask you one question because I thought, from listening to the show, I thought I knew something, but now I'm questioning what I knew. When it comes to your turn, do you have to deal with a specific category, or you pick your movie, and you decide where you want to put it? You can strategically...

Although we have had some conflict in the past about category manipulation. What does that mean? I think category manipulation is playing the game well. There's a little bit of like... I think that there in the past has been some dramas that are like,

oh, but it's quite funny if you think about it. And it's like, is it? No, I would never do it in like ridiculous, no, it has to qualify amongst one, two, or three categories

if you're going to throw it out there. I will say, Sean is not very kind if you want to move a movie afterwards from one category to another. After you've picked it for a category. Oh, no, I won't do that. I had to do it once.

Oh, no, I agree. I agree. No, that's not. Thank you, Quentin. That was a tough day for Amanda and I, but we got through it. We're going to get through this one, too. So once you choose, it's locked. It's locked in stone.

Correct. You can't be like, oh, I wish I actually had put this in Blockbuster. You can be that way, but it doesn't affect the game. You can be that way if you want. Rude to you. Correct. Get your heart out. So, six categories.

Quentin and I, we did a little brokering here. We shifted the pool somewhat. So, here are the six. One category is drama slash action. So, your dramas and your action movies can go in this category.

Don't love this. The other is, it's tough for you and a true action head number two comedy high time for comedy in Hollywood

yes in the sense that they were making them yes number three now I'm gonna explain finance by them okay

I'm gonna explain some context for number three I had originally suggested Oscar winner because there is a dearth of Oscar winners this year and I thought it would be more competitive Chris to his credit last night said are you sure you wanna do Oscar winner or there is a dearth of Oscar winners this year and I thought it would be more competitive.

Chris, to his credit, last night said, are you sure you want to do Oscar winner or not Oscar nominee? And then Quentin came in like a tornado and when he learned that it was Oscar winner

or not Oscar nominee. Because he and I are psychically connected. He threw a fit. He's like Kirk in the Kobayashi Maru. I'm going to cheat. To beat the unbeatable game. We are bending the knee. I don't like to cheat. To beat the unbeatable game.

We are bending the knee. I don't like to lose. So we're doing Oscar nominee, which widens the pool significantly. Fourth category, horror or exploitation. Do you very quickly want to talk about why we got there? I asked Roger before you got here to define exploitation. Okay, I will define exploitation.

And by the way, if I had been smart enough to bring my screen world here, you could have gone on the thing and just seen. It was hitting me. 87, I think that they were still being released in 88. But 87, one of the reasons I made a point about exploitation movies is 87 is probably the last year that exploitation movies played full on theatrically. That was the deal.

Obviously, they're coming out on video. It's the high time of video. But no, they still needed to play theatrically to not be considered a straight to video, what the fuck is this shit? In fact, in order to get an end cap or even to get into Walmart, you had to have a theatrical release.

And so frequently, an exploitation film would have a token theatrical release in major cities. And so it an exploitation film would have a token theatrical release in major cities. And so it was like a – and so what I qualify as an exploitation movie is, okay, it's an independent movie. Okay. You have independent art films. You have independent foreign films. You have independent exploitation movies. I think we know the difference between the three.

All right? It falls into that category. It had a theatrical release. But my caveat about calling something an exploitation movie is it can't have been released by a studio. Now, Friday the 13th is an exploitation movie that Paramount picked up and released. But that doesn't count. They still have the resources of Paramount behind them. So it has to be. So if Fox picked your movie up, that's not the same. It had to be you know so it has to be so so a fox picture movie up that's that's

not the same okay it had to be an independent distributor but friday the 13th is a horror movie so you oh yeah it's a horror film it's a horror film yeah so it would still be eligible but okay but okay but if it comes from one of the big five okay but like for instance as big as big of a movie as it was nightmare on street three came out this year. That's New Line. That's Exploitation House. Right. Okay. Right. At that time.

Good to know. Pre-acquisition. Not anymore. Not anymore. Okay. Well, no, they're just, it's just a shingle

of Warner Brothers. No, it's a giant octopus. Two more categories. Blockbuster is here. We just talked about some of those. The threshold this

year is $50 million. There are 20 films that earned at least $50 million in the United States. And the sixth and final category as always is wild card. Anything that could be deemed a movie is eligible in that category.

From that year. It's essentially your chance to pick one more movie that you like. How many films did you say? Six total. But how many films did you say were... 20 films are eligible for Blockbuster. 20 films. It's those 20 right there. Okay, let's get started.

Bobby, let's do the draft order. I have randomized the draft order. I promise it was not rigged. I don't even know which way I would rig it if I was going to rig it. Oh my God, it's a Quentin, doesn't it? No, it goes Roger, Quentin, Chris, Amanda, and Sean. Wow. That's good.

I like that. Okay. Well. Well, well, well, Mr. Tarantino. Because I know that you have been wanting, you told me, I'm coming for you. I'm gunning for you. Well.

I'm playing this game like you're coming for me. There are games within a game. If I were you, I would play the game this way, that way too. Because you're the one I can predict. I can predict these guys I can predict everybody at this table

actually fairly well but you no no I've read your book no I've and I've read Rommel's book well in that case

well I'm and I thought like I actually was making lists of like Quentin's favorite movies of 1987 which

I'll show you later and find out how close I am. But I was thinking, yeah, he's grown out of that one. He's not going to like that one anymore. He's too close to that one. So I was going all over the place. And finally, I decided, you know what? The only way for me to win is to bend like a reed in the wind

and just make the choices that I love. This is going to be easy for me to begin. And I'm going to start with the blockbuster because to me, that's the most difficult category for me personally. And so I'm going to take Robocop. Okay. Off the board right away. And Paul Verhoeven's movie that almost needs no description. Am I supposed to? or can I just.

It's about a robot cop. It's about a robot cop. A robot cop. Stars Peter Weller doing an amazing performance. When I came back from Europe, I actually flew back to San Francisco and then drove back to Los Angeles. And I flew back and I had, you know, I was traveling through Europe. I knew nothing about what was going on. I had just been in Greece.

And so, um, I land and, uh, one of my cousins, uh, who picked me up at the airport said, Hey, I got to take you to a movie right away. I was like, really? I was like, okay, let's go. And so we went right from the airport to a little multiplex. We went in. I did not know what I was about to see. The movie started up Roboc in. I did not know what I was about to see. The movie started up.

Robocop. I had no preparation. I had not heard about the film at all. And this was the first time I saw a comic book movie appropriate, that felt like a comic book.

And it's one of my favorite films. And so I have no problem picking that movie and if I only had that film Quentin I'd be happy there you go really in the spirit of the draft question for you both Amanda I feel safe to assume RoboCop would not have been your number one overall choice no okay Chris would RoboCop It would not have. No. And Quentin would not. Okay. Are we still four for four? It's not on my four.

Wow. Okay. That's exciting. That's very interesting. It's so sad for all of you. Oh, no, no. I really like Robocop. It's not on my four. Okay.

It wouldn't have been my number one either. You don't think Robocop is like punk rock? It is. It's just not in my five. You don't think that's like Verhoeven saying, I'm going to tell you about America? Where I was coming from when it came to Robocop, I was like, I'll give that one to you guys.

I literally came up with the idea, I'll give it to Roger, I'll give it to Chris. That was benevolent of you. But you know what? That tells me that you've tightened the rope on me, though. This is cool, though. Often the times what will happen is we'll sit down, it's a year, and you can feel the tension because we all. This is cool though. Often the times what will happen is we'll sit down it's a year and you can feel the tension

because we all want the same number one and we know that number one is going to change the rest of the draft board. So it's interesting to get one. It's not in your top four.

I don't think it would have been nobody's first pick. In fact, we just had this with Inglourious Bastards. Oh yeah. That's right. Yeah, I got the first pick

and I got it. Everyone wanted Inglourious Bastards. I was so excited Yeah, I got the first pick and I got it. Everyone wanted Inglourious Bastards. Really excited. And I yelled a lot of them. By the way, I understand that the real way to win this game

is the audience votes afterwards. It's true. Okay, and I just, I completely disregard that. I put you on that, Quentin. And though Quentin, and though Quentin,

and I just want to, like, send the message out there that though Quentin is disregarding it. Chris is alike that way, all right, because he wins all the time for audience. Manipulated audience, but yes.

I'm actually just going to say that... Chris Watts out there. To the audience out there, many of the movies that I would think that the way one would win would be just by picking populist films. The most popular movies. That's Sean's tactic.

First of all, how dare you? Second of all, that's... You openly will be like, I play this game to win. Hence, I'm taking Avengers or whatever. I literally have never said that. And that's deeply dishonest. And in fact, you have adopted that strategy in recent months. Off the hook for being like Avengers is really important to me emotionally and historically.

Go through the archives. I encourage Gwen and Roger to go through the archives of my picks in recent months and tell me I'm making populist choices. Because I'm not. Well, most of the time. Well, my point being is that if it's the audience choosing. There are some. There are some. And there are some populist movies

that I like a lot. When you were on that run, when you were like, should we keep doing drafts because I just win them all the time. Was this before or after you hired the bot? I can't remember. You need to situate me.

Well, if it's the audience making the choice, then I'm making the appeal directly to the audience. Oh, I see. Smart. That one must look beyond on this episode populism because it's the 80s

and one must instead consider that Roger has the best ideas to vote Roger. So you are attempting the first ever I won for myself and I won for the audience strategy.

Correct. That's what I'm going for. Which is not feasible unfortunately for you. I'm actually just saying yeah I'm just asking people to vote against Quentin. Correct. That's what I'm going for. Which is not feasible. I'm actually just saying, yeah, I'm just asking people to vote against Quentin. My thing for the audience is I'm ignoring

all of you. Whatever you write later means less than nothing to me. Well then, that's a perfect entree to your first pick. What do you got? You're going to get one of your four. Three men and a baby. I will pick

for exploitation Evil Dead 2. Yeah. Yeah. That's tough. Good one. Damn it. That hurts.

That would have been my first pick. That was an ironic damn it. That was good though. That was good for two seconds. It took me a second. There you go.

That's a good ironic. I've never seen it but I'm happy that you got it. Yeah. And I meant that sincerely. I took me a second. There you go. Thank you. That's a good ironic. I've never seen it, but I'm happy that you got it. And I meant that sincerely. I know you did. I know you did. So,

why Evil Dead 2? Why is it one of your four? Oh, my God. God, why Evil Dead? How not? Yeah, you're not paying me to review the goddamn thing. All right?

I'm not paying you anything. I know. But you're paying Amanda. All right? We get paid to do this? I know. But you're paying Amanda. We get paid to do this? Talk to Bobby afterwards, Chris. He'll figure it out. For young guys like us who want to be filmmakers,

this is just no joke. Evil Dead 2 hit us like the way Godard's Breathless hit young filmmakers in the early 60s when they saw what could be done with nothing. And I mean, it was just not only was it one of the greatest movies I'd ever seen, I'd ever had an experience in a theater like that. It was so completely specific to Sam Raimi's visual style, which I had never seen anything like that before, even though it's practically a remake of the first movie. He just upped the game so much that it dwarfed the first movie, as far as I was concerned.

But it was like, this is possible? This is possible? This is possible. I mean, it was just, it was inspiration and creativity like beamed down from another planet. It just didn't exist. That whole concept of what a movie could be had not existed before Sam Raimi made those two Evil Dead movies. And then the fact that he just like obliterated the first one with the second one is just, forget about it. Add in Bruce Campbell's attack of the helping hand scene, which is one of the great comic set pieces of all fucking time.

I'm just, it's... It's a tour de force. It was so inspirational to, it it was like it was like inspiration itself inspiration and it was also this incredible surprise coming after evil dead because it's not what i expected you know when uh you know i had seen evil dead at filmx you know on its first screening and uh bruce camp you know, was there to introduce the film and the film was not, I wouldn't say it was really well received at film X. It was like a midnight show and Campbell got up there to talk afterwards and people started like haranguing him

a little bit and asking him like, you know, uh, why the bad acting and stuff. People just didn't get it. And it was almost like Raimi went back to the, to the mill and then reinterpreted his vision and then came back with all these, with the talent that he, he had grown into and then just fully realized his, his, his vision. And it is, it was stunning. I had never seen things like that visually on film. Absolutely. Just never seen anything like it. Like I said, this would have been my number one pick. But in part because I think I knew Quinn was going to be on this episode. Really?

Yeah. Oh, wow. I probably heard about this movie from you guys. Think about me being five years old. Robocop is an interesting one. And maybe the movie that Chris is about to pick is an interesting one too. Imagine being five years old, sitting atop is an interesting one and maybe the movie that chris is about to pick is an interesting one too imagine being five years old sitting at home seeing a commercial for those movies yeah being like i want that well also the weird thing is that some of

these movies like you watch them the first 20 times we might have seen them it might have been like so robocop's like serious right like you don't get the levels or the layers of some of these movies um i'll. So, somewhat inspired by your speech there about Evil Dead 2. I'm going to go with Raising Arizona for comedy. Coen Brothers collaborated

somewhat with Sam Raimi earlier in the end. This is kind of in the same way that you guys are talking about the inspiration you felt from Evil Dead 2. Just never knew people

could be funny in this way. Yeah, yeah. Like when I saw this movie, I think Miller's is probably the first Coen Brothers movie that I saw if I'm being real.

And then I went back and forward and everything and saw Raising Arizona and Blood Simple and stuff. But I still remember like my jaw being on the ground in the first five, seven minutes of this movie

and the Nicolas Cage monologue over all of this stuff. Pretty much almost everything I said about Evil Dead 2 could be applied to Raising Arizona. Yeah. I mean,

every single solitary fucking thing I said. I was like, these people are... Except add better dialogue. Yeah. And just like, also like the...

Yeah. The things that I found funny in Raising Arizona, which I still find funny to this day, like the way Nicolas Cage runs or like the way his stocking looks on

his face or just goodman you know like all these things i foresight yeah and foresight we released ourselves on our own reconnaissance so i still hear turn of the ride in my head yeah yeah it's just it's just one of my favorite comedies and i remember really like changing don't forget the bouquet and that beautiful and that beautiful monologue that Nicolas Cage gives and how amazingly he gives it

with the music playing over the end I cry to this day whenever I watch that a friend of mine had a conversation with Carter Burwell recently and he was

trying to learn how to compose music for films and so he had this conversation with Carter and the advice that he gave him and I don't think

he'll mind me sharing this is for your first one, just do something really weird. Like don't do something that sounds like a movie. Do something that sounds totally different. And then you'll have a signature. And then every time you go out, make something totally different. And that's, that's the sound. That's the yodeling. Yeah, the yodeling.

It's just so indelible. Okay, so I would not have guessed that that's where you went. You've opened yourself up here now. I will add one thing to this. Raising Arizona would have been my first. If I was choosing just my thing. So if you were watching. Well, no.

Even though Raising Arizona would be my first of my own personal list. Like on your list? Yes, on my list of that year. Raising Arizona would be my first. It's like, I Like on your list? Yes, on my list of that year. Raising Arizona would be my first. It's like, I figured everyone's going to want it. Right. So I kind of let it out there.

Hey, hey, hey, hey. Don't start giving us allowances already. Like, I let you win because I want everybody to play. No, not that. No, I made a choice. I could choose Raising Arizona, which is my top. But Evil Dead 2 is number two. And that fucks Roger up more.

Right. But you like him being like, here you go. Go buy yourself something nice. It's nice, though. Like you said, they are sister movies in a way because of the people who worked on them. Okay, Amanda, your first three are now off the board. You've lost Robocop, Evil Dead 2, and Raising Arizona. Don't exclude me from the Raising Arizona conversation.

Would it be your first overall pick? No, it wouldn't have. But I did rewatch it with my dad recently when I was with him, and we had a lovely time. So it was enough for me to rewatch it for this podcast. How about that? Oh, that's pretty good. Yeah, okay. I had a strategy.

I can still do the strategy. I have psyched myself out already. And Quentin has also psyched myself out already. And Quentin has also psyched me out a little bit because there's one movie that he thinks I'll want, that he wants, but now I don't know which one it is. How am I going to get it? And is this the right one?

And then Sean's lurking and there's like, and he will just take things that I love. And Sean gets the turns. Oh yeah, I know. Full metal jazz. Not for a few good men yeah exactly uh that i mean that still is really painful sound strategy so i've gone through like three cycles sitting here but i'm gonna i'm gonna stick with my strategy i'm gonna stick with my plan i know what movie i'm

gonna take i am gonna put it to the group for whether it's eligible for the horror category. I appreciate it. Would we count Fatal Attraction in horror? The last third. I would never put it in the horror section. I wouldn't put it in the, you know, I would put it in drama. You almost could, but I would not. At a video store, I would not put it in the horror section.

I'll tell you why I wouldn't is because. It's a thriller. Most of your. It is. It's a thriller that is so thrilling. It verges on becoming a horror film. It became the movie, though, that inspired the bitch from hell moniker. Yeah, yeah.

Now, what better describes a horror movie than a bitch from hell? Look, I would give it to you as horror. Having said that, though, at a video store, I would not put it in the horror category. It would never rent. It's going to rent twice as much, ten times as much. In the drama, yeah. In the drama section.

I would make the argument that... It's not a horror film. I'm sorry, it's not a horror film. The moment that she steals the kid, and then they're on the roller coaster, and then it's... I mean... If she killed the kid and then went on on the roller coaster and then it's I mean if she killed the kid

and then went on and did more killings then it's a horror movie that sounds like a good one I was almost kinda going with Amanda here until you just said that

and then go okay that's the difference between a horror film and a thriller the biggest hurdle for you in this draft is you have a pure

horror category that you have a pure horror category that you have to deal with. Yes. And so you're looking for a way out of it. Well, I'm just, I'm looking for my perfect game. And I think there's a way

for me to throw a perfect game if this is it. Okay, you know, I don't want the, I don't, I don't want. It's not,

you've got three categories you can put it in. It's not a horror. That's why I said, I came with an open heart and I asked the group and the the group said no, and goodbye to my perfect game. I will take Fatal Attraction in Blockbuster.

There you go. This is the Adrian Lyon masterpiece. This movie. That is the one that I knew you were going to fucking- Interesting. I didn't think that you thought that she was going to do that. I didn't know, and I thought maybe you wouldn't want it. Yeah, I mean, come on.

That's great. No, that's. That's great. No, that's my fucking Academy movie. Good. The only thing in the Academy that I can stand behind. You know what though?

You're a stand-up guy because you could have said, yeah, yeah, yeah, take it for a hard... That's true. You could have psyched her out and said, I'm not saying. Or you could have said

that isn't it even if it was it. You could have... Yeah, yeah, yeah. Good job. Thank you. I really appreciate the gameplay where you wanted to make that horror even though in your heart of hearts you knew it wasn't yeah but i was gonna open it for discussion if everyone there's also like different definitions of horror that is a horror story in a lot of ways but maybe

not uh genre. Correct. Correct. Okay, great. I have two picks. You guys left the fucking Stanley Kubrick movie on the table. Full Metal Jacket.

It's obviously yours. Mine. This is, I'm almost awaiting your undermining of Full Metal Jacket, Quentin,

but this is one of my favorite movies of the 1980s. I think it is actually one of Kubrick's best films. I stand by that, including the second half, which is much maligned, and I do not think deserves to be. One of the more harrowing war films ever made.

And of course, the first hour is iconic because of the drill sergeant and training sequences. I'm putting it in drama action, and I feel fucking great about it. Congratulations. Stanley Kubrick, you guys heard of him? yeah you did it wait a second I want to hear from the crowd what we think of Full Metal Jacket

I like Full Metal Jacket yeah it's good enough it's such bullshit Amanda do you like the drill I was never going for it we all know that it's no Boys and Company C Amanda, do you like the drill? I was never going for it. We all know that. It's no Boys and Company C.

Listen, I'll come out and say it. I am a Kubrick file. I consider myself a student of Kubrick. Full Metal Jacket is, like you say, it's one of his seminal films. It's a great, great movie, no matter how you look at it. It's quotable. It has everything. I let it go on this.

I decided not to... You mean you let it go as a man? As a person? As a man. As a player. I'm not going to try to kill myself to fight for this one. All of these emotional explanations of choices already. We're already deep in. We've only gone through one round.

That's a good sign. It was sort of like, is that the hill I want to die on? Quite literally, yeah. I will say one of the things that's special about Full Metal Jacket to me is obviously I knew who Stanley Kubrick was when I went to the movies and saw The Shining. But it wasn't until Full Metal Jacket that I really, really knew who Stanley Kubrick was when I went to the movies and saw The Shining. But it wasn't until Full Metal Jacket that I really, really knew

who Stanley Kubrick was. Yeah. I had seen a bunch of his other movies at revival houses by that time. So this was the first time completely plugged in to exactly who

Stanley Kubrick is. And a new one is opening. And I'm seeing it on opening night. That was the first time. Actually, the only time that ever happened. Did you live up to

that anticipation? Yeah, I did. Do you remember that time. Actually, the only time that ever happened. Did you live up to that anticipation? Yeah, I did. Do you remember that I auditioned for Full Metal Jacket? No. Kubrick asked everybody to make videotapes of themselves and he provided a scene

and then you would read it and then you would send him the tape. I never heard back. Is this the scene in the movie? No, it was not a scene from Full Metal Jacket. Okay. I have another pick. Okay, Sean.

I'm taking Predator and Blockbuster. Okay. This is a two-part pick. One, Blockbuster getting a little slim for my taste already. Two, this is a very important movie to Chris. It's a very important movie to me, but it's weird. We're allowed to share movies. When you work with Chris and you're as close to Chris as I am.

Everybody, everybody knows they're like, is that how you start? Shut the day. Boom. That's like, exactly. It is literally the meme,

but also it's like Tiernan, that's Chris's guy. You know, like you're very emotionally associated. I had my arm chopped off, but it continued to shoot an Uzi afterwards. And Predator exists to this day. We have a new Predator movie coming out

on streaming service. I saw it. I liked it. I heard it's pretty good. It was good. And that's pretty cool. You can't say that about very many movies that were released in 1987 that they're bearing sequels. Chris looks sad right now. I'm okay. You have come into my office and just reenacted Predator movies for me. I haven't seen

any of them but I've seen your performance of them. I gotta say I was surprised by your first round pick that you left Predator sitting there. I'm okay seen any of them, but I've seen your performance of them. I gotta say, I was surprised by your first round pick that you left Predator sitting there. I'm okay. There's a lot.

I have a pretty good plan. You say you're okay, but you're kind of grabbing your neck and contorted. I wish you had grabbed Predator and I could have had Raising Arizona.

Yeah. I don't think Raising Arizona would have made it back around the table. If he had not taken Raising Arizona, Amanda might have, probably not, but might have taken it.

And I definitely would have taken it. Yeah, but then I would have got Fatal Attraction. And I would have already given up Raising Arizona. So that would have worked out like a master plan. But we return to Amanda on the turn. And you could have gotten, in that world, Raising Arizona at one and Fatal Attraction on the turn. You're up again. That's true.

And I know exactly what she said. Oh, yeah, you're right. That's how that works. I forgot. Okay, yeah, you're right. You didn't take it, thank the Lord, so I will be taking

in drama action broadcast names. That's right. Of course. Yeah, absolutely. Of course I did. That would have been my next pick. Sure, I know. A theme is emerging,

or maybe it's not totally emerging, but this is quite a year for really high-strung, yuppie white women in movies. And just on all spectrum, the whole spectrum of that experience from being the side piece to not getting the guy to getting both guys to some other things

that may happen in the future. But this is a beautiful James L. Brooks movie. And one of my favorites. And I don't identify with the Jane character at all. Thank you very much. Really? That was obviously sarcastic. Oh, okay.

Come on. I got your sarcasm. Thank you. I was like, did you mold parts of your personality after watching the movie? No. Great. This is a great movie. Yeah. There was no shame in this movie. I was nervous you were you mold parts of your personality after watching the movie? No. Great. This is a great movie. Yeah.

There was no shame in this movie. I was nervous you were going to take it. When you rudely describe something as middlebrow, right, from this era, do you think of a movie like this? Do you think that this is a movie for yuppies from the middies? No, no, no. Not at all. Because James L. Brooks is, that was almost the thing about James L. Brooks when he would do Terms of Endearment and Broadcast News is it seems like the same kind of coffee table,

ordinary people kind of movie that wins Oscars, except he's got such a vaudevillian humor running through it constantly. I mean, like, you know, when I think of like the greatness of Broadcast News, the whole story works between the three. It just works fantastic. It gives you ethics on news that I never had before,

but I carry to this day. Sure. But then it has this ridiculous scene where those guys come in to show the new theme song that they want to do. Big finish! And then he spends what seems like... It's Mark Scheinman, right?

He spends what seems like eight minutes for just them riffing on the theme song. And that's just so gonzo hysterical. And funny and groovy. Big finish! I love that. Are you okay? I am. You're a little touchy.

No, no, no. You lost Predator. I'm okay. You lost Broadcast News. I have a movie I'm going to take. It's earlier than I wanted to, and I can't decide where I want to put it. But I think I'm going to go with Untouchables for Blockbuster. Okay.

So just did this on Rewatchables, so it's very fresh in my memory. I actually enjoyed it so much on this most recent viewing, just I think on its own terms. I could have put this in Oscar winner or Oscar nominee, obviously. But kind of just,

this movie rocks in a lot of ways. I think it's like, it depends on like your sort of level of comfort with Costner doing like the hayseed thing. But I thought that this movie was excellent. There's some really good De Palma in it. So I'm happy to get this.

Second best Costner movie of the year. I know Quentin is a De Palma fanatic. Were you as well? Well, I was going to ask if he messed you up at all. Were you going to pick the Untouchables? He wasn't. And what's funny is in 1987,

Quentin was like Mr. Untouchable. Oh yeah. Oh yeah. Untouchables is the movie that I liked the most then that I don't care for that much. I think you took me to it twice. Like, it was like a... I had the opposite experience of you. I screened a print of it about three years ago.

And didn't like it. And I was surprised at how weak I thought it was. Interesting. Or are you asking what I think of... Yeah, I was just curious, like, was it not an event for you? Were you in De Palma? Yeah, I mean... Yeah, were you having it on? Yeah, I was just curious. Was it not an event for you? Were you in De Palma? Yeah, I mean.

Yeah. Are you having it on? Yes, of course you were. Yes, of course. I am a De Palma fan. Was this my De Palma movie? No, but this was De Palma delivering for a studio. And when he does that, when he shows up.

This was my opening credit sequence of the year. Okay. All right. With that fucking Morricone opening credit sequence. I could listen to that. I could listen to that nine times. With that fucking Morricone opening credit scene. I could listen to that. I could listen to that nine times. I could watch that

nine times in a row. And I have watched it nine times in a row in the video store. And you get that fantastic homage to the Odessa Steps sequence. There's some really good

mammoth in here too. There's some good rat-a-tat mammoth stuff. It's a lot of fun. And then having Sean Connery you know, come back. Sean Connery. Come be a come back. Sean Connery.

Sean Connery. Well, I found the cure to the plague of the 20th century. I've lost it again. Okay. My turn. You're up, Quinn. Okay. So I could go for one that I like in a category just so I can take it off the table and know that I've got a good one for that category.

But I'm not going to do that. I'm going to go for my second in my four. Okay. And that is Three O'Clock High, and I'm taking that in comedy. Okay. So Three O'Clock High. Fuck it up, Mitchell! Don't fuck this up, Mitchell!

I think in its time, a big movie, a very notable movie. But I think it has fallen prey to not being in the traditional modes of circulation that so many other 80s comedies have been.

And so it does not have as huge... Have you seen it? No, I have not seen it. Sean, it was a flop when it came out. Yeah, it was a flop. But people liked it.

But cult status. But if you saw it. People liked it. But cult status. But if you saw it, you liked it. But the promise was, this kid is the hot new thing, Phil Joineau. And so, you know, we went and he was the hot new thing. I mean, it was the greatest, one of the greatest directorial debut I had ever seen in my life. I thought there was no way Phil Jouannou would not be the Martin Scorsese of the 90s. I mean,

no fucking way. I mean, it was... He did a Babe Ruth fucking trip, you know, fucking knocked it out of Yankee Stadium with all four bases loaded. I mean, my God, it was so fucking amazing and held up every single time.

And one of the things about it that made it so absolutely terrific, again, again, you have to remember this dog shit decade because the thing about the heartbreak of movies in the 80s is

a movie could seem sort of, a studio movie could seem fairly subversive. Maybe in the first half of the movie or the first one or two acts. Something like The Burbs. Right. It could seem like it has a little, like it's going there a little bit. It has a little bit of juice. It's not going to be the normal thing. But whatever, however, whatever trail they led you for the first two acts for that, they start cleaning up their act in the third act.

Right. And like it's, you know, 19 out of 20 movies lost their balls in the last 20, 15 to 20 minutes of movies in the 80s. If that's what you liked about them. Yes. What you liked about it was it's balls. If what you liked about it was it's, you know, it's, it's subversiveness. It's going its own way. Um, and so through the whole movie, I'm watching it and I'm like, okay, this is, this is a masterpiece, but they're never going to let them have a good fight at the end. I mean, that's not going to happen. It's going to get broken up.

It's going to fall prey to the 80s. Yeah, it's going to do what every 80s fucking movie does. And then it has one of the best fights of the 80s. Yeah. The end, as great as the movie's been, it's not, the ending is better. The ending is better. And I was like, oh my God, they're doing it. They're absolutely fucking doing it.

I mean, and that meant, in a weird way, in the 80s, that meant more than it did in the 70s. Because I expect them to fucking do it. I'm paying them the money. Do it. That's what you said you were going to do. Fucking do it. All right. In the money. Do it. That's what you said you were going to do. Fucking do it. All right.

In the 80s, when they did it, you were like, oh my God. So this movie has one critical thing in common with at least one movie that's already been picked.

Can you cite when I'm, pick up on what I'm citing? A critical thing? Like just one key, one data point. Oh, okay. No, I don't. Barry Sonnenfeld. Oh, I don't. Barry Sonnenfeld.

Oh, I was wondering. If I had to guess. In this year, here's a good trivia question for you. So in this year, he was the DP on three movies. He was the DP. He was,

I don't know if they're all going to be picked. Raising Arizona, of course. Three o'clock high. Can you name the third? Throw Mama from the Train. That's the one. Yes, yes. Throw Mama from the Train.

So who shot Evil Dead? A French guy. A French guy. Oh, yes. Throw Mama from the Train. So who shot Evil Dead? A French guy. A French guy. Oh, really? I think so, yeah. I thought it was one of the Detroit guys. Yeah, he could be French. In Detroit.

Okay, Roger, you're up. You got two picks. And I get two. Okay, so I feel like I'm only fighting against myself because the choices I'm making, I'm like, nobody wanted RoboCop. What the fuck is wrong with you people? I would take RoboCop.

You would take it. Well, if I had to. I don't know if I would take it at first. I'm at the buffet and I've got so much on my plate already. Don't complain about having the first overall pick. You're good. No, no, I'm not. Yeah, you got a great movie.

Like, one that we all like. I'm super happy. I'm just astonished that everybody was kind of humming and hawing about it. Now I'm thinking my other two choices also. They weren't alive back then. Give them a break. No, no, no. It's this thing on a comic book shelf.

All right, as far as they're concerned. First of all, how dare you? Second of all, the thing is is that you have to soft sell everyone else's pick. You can't oversell how much you wanted the thing. Now that's why Quintus already failed by identifying

that he wanted fatal attraction. Well, once you took it, then it's fine. Yeah. Is it, though? You're not playing for the people. You're playing for yourself.

Yes, I'm playing for the people. I'm not playing for the people. I play for the ovation of the people. I want you all to know when we leave here, I've won. So, I feel like I will have won by this one choice.

Okay. And I'm going to be able to make two choices that I want. And so I feel like I will have already won by the end of this turn. And I think you know what my next choice is probably. It's John Borman's Hope and Glory. Yeah. Okay. Simply the best. Which category, Roger? Oh, I'm going to put and Glory. Yeah. Okay. Simply the best.

Which category, Roger? Oh, I'm going to put it into the Academy. Okay. Probably the least canonized of the five best picture nominees from this year. And this is my dad's like one of my dad's favorite movies ever made. It's one of my favorite movies ever made. I think it's the, not only is it one of the best like autobiographical films, but as a film by a director, it's the best way to understand John Borman. You understand why the river in all of his films, why Excalibur, why all of these elements.

And he goes through and telling the story of his life, which is not just his life. He's also telling the story of, you know, England during the Blitz, you know, as it was happening in England and what this did to society, which was the war was not a bad thing necessarily for people. It was a great equalizer. Children were playing in the rubble fields and having a great time. Suddenly, nobody could get the nice stockings and clothes and everybody was getting used clothes together. And so suddenly all the classes became sort of equalized and it had all these kind of positive effects. And he tracks these positive effects that occurred during the war and how

these kind of memories, uh, collate together to make him as the great filmmaker Statesman that he is. He's one of my three favorite filmmakers. Quentin knows this. And this is easily my, well, I mean, Excalibur is my favorite film of John Borman's, but this would easily be my second favorite film of his

and is my Academy pick. Good pick. Great pick. You have another pick? My next one, I'm going to take in drama and action and I don't think anybody's going to pick this one but it's River's Edge.

Fuck. Fuck. That's music to my ears. That was my, I'm going to impress these guys. Now I'm going to fucking. That's my third. Oh, wow.

That's my third. All right. I'm stuck with two now. That's my third. Oh, wow. That's my third. All right. I'm stuck with two now. That's my fucking third. Give us a little bit on River's Edge. Okay, so River's Edge, directed by Tim Hunter, from an amazing first screenplay by a young writer, Neil Jimenez, who's since passed away.

Neil, when he sold his first script, this is a little aside uh when he sold this script he went out hiking with his friends um to celebrate and slipped and fell and became paralyzed and later made the water dance amazing i about those about which if and i just want to plug that movie because it's a sort of an undersung film and eric stoltz is amazing in the movie helen hunt is fantastic wesley snipes right wesley snipes and you can really kind of come to understand under sung film. And Eric Stoltz is amazing in the movie. Helen Hunt is fantastic. Wesley Snipes, right? Wesley Snipes. And you can really kind of come to understand what it means to be paralyzed

through that movie. And premiered at Sundance with a little film called Reservoir Dogs. That's right. That's right. And so we got to know, you know, we got to know Neil and, um, and I got to know him, uh, pretty well and largely because of this movie, because I was so crazy for this film when I saw it. And the most important element of this film for me was Crispin Glover, who, uh, you know, I've worked with now several times, um, on my work and is one of my favorite actors to work with. His performance in this is, which he tells me is, uh, you know,

very close to the script, which is almost hard to believe because he, he, the, the meter that he brings to his delivery of all of his lines, like I poked it with a stick. It's warm. Even,

you know, like everything he, like his, his dialogues are so good. And the, the, the atmosphere of the film is so good. It's shot by Frederick Elms,

who is David Lynch's DP. This is just one of the most atmospheric moody movies. It's Keanu Reeves is absolutely fantastic in this film. He has some of the great lines. He has a great insult that I've used to this day where he's talking to his stepfather. He's like, you're just here to eat our food and fuck my mother.

Food eater. Motherfucker. Food eater. I just loved it. So this movie, I must've seen this movie 10 times that year. I went to the theaters again and again. I bought this movie on VHS. I bought it on DVD.

I bought it on LaserDisc. This is like a critical movie for me. This is an important film. It's a movie where you have a bunch of teens coming together and it takes place I think in Stockton or Sacramento where Neil was from, based on a true story. This is a wonderful

movie. I encourage everybody, if you haven't seen it, to see this film. Quentin and Chris have been completely foiled by this selection. Not foiled, but my little trifecta that I was hoping for is no more I just want to say that I am so excited to have three

that I absolutely wanted right now so I'm feeling pretty good by my definition you have won the game I win we all win we're not done yet this is a really, really good movie. This probably wouldn't be on my seven list

if I was just making a list of seven. But I want to use it for this category while it's still on the table. And that is Wall Street for Academy. So, of course, Michael Douglas won for Best Actor this year for his performance in the movie. Was Oliver Stone someone that you guys cared about at that time in the video store? Were you excited by new Oliver Stone movies?

Yeah, I was definitely excited by new Oliver Stone movies. Because, you know, we saw Salvador at the theater. Like, wow, this was fucking amazing. And then we saw Platoon. And we ran out to see. We're renting the hand. Yeah, yeah, exactly. I saw it at the hand of the theaters when it came out.

But no, no, we were, I mean, we all had our little problems with him and everything, but no, he was a really exciting dude. Yeah. And frankly, as time has gone on, as time has gone on, I think like his best movie is is jfk all right but uh yes thank you it's a it's a fucking do i fight for no but just we we did an entire podcast about so i think i killed in a fuck mary kill game i think i killed wall street did i not i'm not a i think so i think i fucked it unfortunately it's a weird sentence to say out loud yeah but along with along with uh uh jfk

and uh on any given sunday uh wall street is probably my favorite not so much the third act again where now now he's got to drop dime and gordon gecko and gordon gecko has to go to jail when we don't want him to go to jail you know but that whole first half especially charlie sheen working himself up into the room. Yeah. All right. Where he could actually make the pitch. Well, that was me hoping to get in the room one of these days and make my pitch and make my dreams come true.

And also, Stone was making like somewhat autobiographical movies in a way. I mean, between Platoon and Wall Street, they're both about him. And Charlie Sheen's playing him in both. And Michael Douglas and Gordon Gekko is just a fantastic character every time he opens his mouth. Greed is good. Yeah. We've been quoting it since then. That's a big one.

Off the board. Chris, are people just grabbing left and right out of your soul here? No. Wall Street, I wanted. River's Edge, I really wanted. But it's on me for not picking them. I'm going to grab grab in drama action here i'm gonna get lethal weapon uh which is one of those sentimental favorites i mean i know

compunction about being like i like with weapon a lot but was one of the first like quasi adult movies that i think i started watching and also is kind of really fucked up when you think about it because there's a lot of stuff in lethal weapon that pretty, I don't know if transgressive is the right word, but it was like, there's like a movie, the more Shane Black version of that movie that's like Vietnam guys who are really screwed up and dealing heroin in Los Angeles and this suicidal cop who's out on the mission of one to get him with his partner. So it gets a little bit more Hollywood towards the end with the martial arts fight in the lawn and everything. But I really still love this movie. So I'll go leave the weapon. It's Hollywood,

a little bit Hollywood at the end. Yeah. But it has that one moment that I hadn't yet seen in a movie when Mel Gibson is being tortured. Yes. And then suddenly he's like, I'm going to fucking kill you.

Yeah. And you're like, one, how are you going to get out of the situation you're in? And then he does it. Yeah. Right. James Bond never said that. It's when he's like, I'm going to fucking kill you. And you're like, one, how are you going to get out of the situation you're in? And then he does it. Right, James Bond never said that. It's when he's being electrocuted. I'm just going to fucking kill you.

Great pick. True to your spirit. This is quite a year for your kind of movie. Sure, yeah. I didn't have any problem. I have a pretty long list here. Okay. Amanda, you've got a very good slate so far.

I'm still going. Okay. My next pick was also I'm still going. Okay. My next pick was also part of my plan. Yeah. I was nervous that other people would want it, but maybe in retrospect that was, you know, thinking too highly of all of you. It would also, if we had done Oscar winner,

it would have played a crucial role. But I still am an Oscarcars oscar nominee taking moonstruck yeah uh which norman jewish yes and you know i am historically the the romantic comedy person though and this is often called a romantic comedy but to me it's just a really romantic movie that's also very funny yeah um but why does it defy the historical definition of the 80s, 90s rom-com then? Well, it's before when Harry Met Sally. And for me, when Harry Met Sally ushers in that like new era of the pretty strict two people who aren't together at the beginning of the movie for whatever reason or are opposed and then hijinks and they wind up together. And I guess Cher and Nicolas Cage are sort of opposed they get together

pretty quick but not really not not not in romantic comedy terms no and and and the meat and what's so exhilarating about the movie is like that opera scene when they go and their actual their togetherness they're kind of like the i was like i remember watching and being like oh this is what happens when like grown-ups like fall inups fall in love. And it feels that really high-stakes movie romanticism that I associate with old movies from the 40s and 50s. So I just also have to say that Nick Cage in this movie, an incredible performance, but whew! I just said, formative, formative.

Even without the hand and everything ensorceling yeah no I mean he's making it work for him um yeah I love this movie okay

I knew you were going there yeah I could have predicted that sorry you know no no shame no shame know thyself

know thy podcast partner uh I have two picks two picks are you feeling as cocky as you were the first time around well how could you feel any more cocky as you were the first time around? Well, how could you feel any more cocky

than I got the Stanley Kubrick movie? At five. At five. Yeah. You crazy people. I got to go a little left and a little right. Little right,

horror exploitation. I'm going near dark. Oh, fuck. You heard the ear. It's a fucking great pick, man. From Quentin Tarantino. This is Catherine Bigelow's vampire movie. I don't need this one, but I wanted it.

This is one of the best vampire movies ever. This features one of the all-time best vampire kill sequence movies. Yeah, yeah. The infamous bar fight. And it's just a magical, ethereal, gorgeously filmed, incredibly performed, amazing mix of fantasy, romance, gore, action, and... Incredible Paxton.

Is it Kevin Bigelow's best movie? No, but that's... It might be. It might be. If the third act delivered, it would absolutely positively be her best movie. It's pretty close. It's in the conversation. I will say that the bar scene is her best movie. It's pretty close. It's pretty fucking close. It's in the conversation.

Actually, okay, I will say that the bar scene is her best scene. Amazing scene that no one can ever recreate. I challenge

both of you. I hate when they don't shave. And features I think maybe my favorite Paxton performance. I would go for that as well. So, that's in horror exploitation. And a true, is this an exploitation movie? I would go for that as well. So, that's in horror exploitation. And a true...

Is this an exploitation movie? I guess it's definitely a horror movie. It's released by a studio. No, it was released by Dino De Laurentiis' studio. That was a studio. That was a studio. But is that considered... That was considered then at the time. They were spending the money.

So, it was like, you know, raw deal is not an exploitation. Like Canon or something. Okay. Okay. They released Blue Velvet. That's not an exploitation movie. Right. Okay.

Okay. I have one more. They had a prestige that Canon didn't have. Right. So my remaining categories are Oscar nominee, which is. Oh, so you get to go twice again? I do.

All the way back around. Wow. Oscar nominee and what else? So only the you get to go twice again? I do. All the way back around. Wow. Oscar nominee and what else? So only the first and the last guys get to do that bullshit? They get to do the turn. Oh, okay. Yeah. I mean, especially with a five-personer,

two, three, four is a tough spot to be in. It's not as ideal. I'm going Oscar nominee. Now I'm taking Rob Reiner's The Princess Bride. Now, this is a need pick. Don't...iner's The Princess Bride. Now, this is a need pick. Don't, don't.

I love The Princess Bride. Okay. I saw it at a very young age and grew very attached to it for obvious reasons in part because I was a huge professional wrestling fan

and there he was, Andre the Giant on the big screen. Cary Elwes, one of the great wrestlers. Cary Elwes is okay. Mandy Patinkin is fantastic. Yeah.

She's fabulous in this movie. Robin Wright who doesn't fall in love with Robin Wright when they're a young boy. And it's a beautiful movie and it's a movie

that I think knows more about itself than I realized at the time. It is more it's obviously William Goldman with the script

and based on his book and it is a more self-conscious self-aware movie oh yeah when I was nine and I saw it I didn't get that

you think it's like this is I was like is this the first fairy tale yes and it's not that yeah but that framing device is also what taught assholes like us

to comment on movies like this in real time exactly the Fred Savage and Peter Falk kind of explaining the story to the grandson

I love this movie and it was nominated for very few precious, few Academy Awards, but it was nominated for Academy Awards. And since we changed the rules, I get it in this category. So Amanda, you're back. I won.

That was on my backup list. I'm a little annoyed. I'll be honest, but you know, you win some, you lose some. It wasn't, it wasn't the first tier, though.

So should I be strategic? I think I need to be strategic right now because otherwise I will end up reading Wikipedia summaries on this podcast. I prepared exactly one horror exploitation movie that was not Fatal Attraction. Okay. I don't think, well, has everyone else picked a horror exploitation movie? No. Nope. And I guess no one has, has everyone else picked a horror exploitation no nope and i guess no one has not everyone has picked the comedy no one else is going to take this movie but i'm just

going to get it out of the way now i will be i will be taking the lost boys i was going to take lost boys no i was because it's also when you're a kid yeah and you see lost boys and you're like same with princess pride you're like you mean I could hunt vampires and read comics and they'd make a movie about that? That would be awesome. Sure. I didn't have the same experience when watching it. In fact, I think I finally saw it because. No, I did not feel that way when I watched it.

So you didn't want to be Corey Hayden or Corey Feldman. But I appreciate you backing me up. Did I want to know more about Jason Patrick? Sure. And I guess Kiefer Sutherland. And also if you... The shirtless guy playing sax, you know? Obviously.

If you like think of this movie as, you know, an important event on the path to the People magazine story about Julia Roberts calling off her wedding to Kiefer Sutherland and then going to Ireland with Jason Patrick, you know, it's which is if you haven't thought that was Flatliners. Is that what this was? It was Flatliners, but they were friends on Lost Boys. And it's cited in the article, which I read again this morning. I just if you guys need to kill five minutes, really recommend it. Tremendous journalism. Never forget that Kiefer Sutherland

wanted a Thanksgiving turkey wedding cake. It's a real detail in it. Anyway, I'm taking The Lost Boys. And there we go. I'm proud of you. You made it through this category. Yeah, I did it. You did it.

I'm actually glad somebody picked that because Steve-O was such a big Lost Boys fan. But it's also funny because it's like, you know, Sean picked the young vampire movie with fucking balls. It has one of the greatest murder sequences right in the middle where it's basically the Manson family comes into the bar and slaughters everybody. And you picked the tiger beat. You're ourselves. It's a fun movie to curl up with on a rainy day was

the late Joel Schumacher was that a person you guys cared about did he do anything for you obviously a stylist and a genre hopper who had a big career

after this he kind of was like the studio guy who would make kind of very safe dangerous movies right that's actually

not a bad way to describe him it's like St. Elmo's Fire is an emotional movie but it's safe he was a really nice fellow he was a super nice guy

but the thing is in the 80's before I actually really when I only knew him via watching his movies we used to make fun of his style but it was style nevertheless that I appreciated watching his movies. We used to make fun of his style, but it was style nevertheless

that I appreciated rather than just boring cinematography. I mean, it doesn't make any sense that a medical school in Flatlighters would be housed in the dustiest, what seems like Roman catacombs. But it sure made a hell of a lot interesting,

better looking movie. It looked cool. It looked fucking cool. He was an art director. It looked cool. Always had great costumes. Always had great art direction. And he kept inappropriately

making his movies look cool even though they really shouldn't have looked like that. He did add nipples to Batman. I don't know about that. It's true. I will also say that the Santa Cruz setting

for Lost Boys was like when I was... That loses a point for not calling it Santa Cruz. Yeah. Because it's the serial killer capital of the world. Santa Maria.

Is that what they call it in the movie? Yeah, it loses a point. That's weird. But I'm a big Santa Cruz fan as seen from my banana slug shirt. In Pulp Fiction. That's right. See slugs. as seen from my banana slug shirt. Yeah.

In Pulp Fiction. That's right. See slugs. Okay, Chris. So you're up. So I have Oscar

and horror left, I believe, and Wild Card. I'm really split on the two Oscar movies I have left in my head. Talk it out.

I believe Quentin is also shy an oscar movie no no you got yours oh didn't i say wall street oh you're right wall street my apologies i'm happy with my so we all have an oscar film at the moment except for chris yes okay um i'm gonna take empire of the sun an oscar movie okay uh so probably i think one of the most amazing child performances i've ever seen by christian bale on malkovich in this movie is one of my favorite spielberg performances and i think that the people's relationship to this movie has gone up and down over the last couple of decades sometimes it's like fashionable to be like this is secretly like the best spielberg and then i think there's like a correction for that. It does have five or six incredible,

incredible sequences. Great set piece. Yeah. The, the, the bombing run on the camp, the kid saluting and singing to the sparks flying all over the runway. So I'm going to go with that for Oscar nominee.

Good pick. It's probably like most people's 14th favorite Spielberg movie. I wouldn't say that for me. I said most people. Okay. Yeah. Don't worry.

Oh, no, I don't. That's the thing is it goes, I feel like that had a little while there where it was like, this is the serious Spielberg. Maybe that was before Munich and kind of like the run

that he went on or Saving Private Ryan run that he went on. But like, I feel like people really loved this for a while. It felt like it was the high end credibility movie

between the Indiana Jones films. You know it was sort of like it was the Oscar fair movie but then ultimately didn't get nominated for any of the top end Oscars. You know it was only like

John Williams and Art Direction things like that. It's interesting. I'm actually curious about seeing I haven't seen it since it came out. I'm actually interested

in seeing Empire of the Sun. So yeah. I think I curious about seeing, I haven't seen it since it came out. I'm actually interested in seeing empire of the sun. So yeah, I think I would really like it. And I think it would like it more than I liked it when I first saw it. When I first saw it, I liked it, but I equated it more to like a search of Leone movie, like once upon a time in,

in a holiday, I mean, once upon a time in, uh, the West. Cause to me, and I appreciated this. I also thought it was negative. It just seemed like it was a bunch of cinematic set pieces strung together.

And so you just kind of go from set piece to set piece to set piece. Now, if you were really involved in that kid, you would probably feel differently about it. And I actually think I might be more involved with the kid now than I was. I think I might have been just a little bit too looking at the craft. Right, right. But I was pretty blown away by those set pieces. Yeah, and it's, I mean, I think it actually... But I always, I did manage to reduce it in my mind because of that.

Yeah, and it has like a, it's, Tom Stopper adapted it from a J.G. Ballard novel, autobiographical J.G. Ballard novel. So it's got like some really, really good dialogue in there too. The Malkovich, Ben Stiller characters. No, I'm really curious now actually about like, I do want, I've been wanting to see it again, but now I really want to really,

I can believe what you're saying about Malkovich being one of the top of Spielberg's canon. He's awesome. I'm really looking forward to seeing that again. Time to program it at the new Beverly. I actually own a print of it. That's easy enough for us to do. Very good. Quentin, you're up. Okay.

Okay, so now I'm not really playing with you guys anymore because I don't think you guys are trying to get any of what's ever left on my thing. And I'm not trying to get your shit. So what I have left is drama, blockbusterbuster and wildcard.

Correct. Yeah. Okay. Now here's the thing. Here's where you're crazy. Like a Fox. All right. We're like,

Oh man, see Quinn, you're already fucking up the game. All right. Because you're letting Amanda know that that bothers you. And you're letting him know that that bothered you. And you're letting him know that it bothered you about near dark. Okay.

No, no, no. Look, I would have liked to have gotten three. All right. Of my four. All right.

To be sure. But I didn't expect to get that. Um, I can close. Uh, um, but again, as long as these movies are mentioned and they're on the table and they're

officially in the thing, I'm happy. Okay. So now I can actually pick some really cool, groovy stuff that like nobody's fighting for. Yeah.

All right. That can actually help really juice up. Yeah. And that's part of the mission I feel like of the show that you guys are doing too. And that is how you win.

So, Ben, under, yeah, I'm just going to go, okay, because no one's going to pick my blockbuster. All right?

I'll be surprised if anyone does. I almost hope somebody does, because I feel like I'm all by myself. All right. Okay, so for drama, I am picking Abel Farrar's China Girl. I did. This did come up yesterday.

Oh, it did, huh? Yes. Oh, so China Girl had at least a little a glimmer of recognition oh yeah yes

Chris and I have both definitely seen it so not one of my favorites of Abel's but I'm the floor is yours well here it's interesting

about that okay I mean it's it's not as actually I do think it's more entertaining than the Bad Lieutenant but okay it's not the

it's not the well I think it's easy to be more entertaining than the Bad Lieutenant but okay it's not the it's not the well I think it's easy to be more entertaining than the Bad Lieutenant I don't think that's a bold statement well it's entertaining

in the feel bad way yes exactly but I actually think Chattagirl is just entertaining and actually I think you would like it

if you haven't I haven't seen it I think you would like it it's pretty much West Side Story. All right. But like like an Able for our street version of West Side Story. But the thing about it was, yes. OK, it's not going to compete with King of New York.

It's not going to compete with the funeral. It's not going to compete with Bad Lieutenant to some degree, even though I think he can compete to some degree. But the thing is, I was a huge April Farrar fan from having seen Miss 45 at the theaters. And so, again, talking about a guy, well, this guy's going to be the Scorsese. And I truly believe that. And so I followed April Farrar with all of his movies that played at the theater. So I saw Fear City when it came out. I watched his Miami Vice episodes because he did them. I watched his crime stories because he did them.

Hell yeah. All right. When he did that TV movie with Ken Wall, The Gladiator, I watched that because Abel Farrar did it. And so I watched all this stuff and he had never, he had never moved past Miss 45. He was still the same guy would promise. And he was still working on bigger budgets and doing good, but he hadn't, he still hadn't

gone past Miss 45. That's still the best thing. And so when I saw China girl, when it came out, I think I think I etched it as like the best of that ilk, still not surpassing Miss 45. And then when he did King of New York, forget about it. That was the one I was waiting for. We once did a two-hour podcast about that show. Which you said is one of your favorites.

One of my favorite movies of all time and one of my favorite episodes of all time. But six years ago, I watched China Girl. And it blew me fucking away. It was so good. I go, wow, I was so into this guy that I actually wasn't giving him enough credit for what he was. I was thinking about what I wanted him to do.

Yeah. And not exactly what he did. And what thinking about what I wanted him to do. Yeah. And not exactly what he did and what he did in that movie is really terrific. And, and that's him using James Russo at the time that it looked like James Russo could, could be the man. Yeah.

This is one of your guys. He could be the man. And I actually think this is his best starring performance, like by far. He's terrific in the film and him and Caruso, you know, I don't care for that kid in it, but the guys in it are fantastic. R.I.P. to that kid.

Poor kid. The kid's like, Quentin's talking about me. Oh, man, you were Quentin. Oh. I'm never going to like the cute boy, all right? That's the star of any of these.

It's not his fault. I want the, I want, yeah, I probably like him now. Uh, but you know, but the use of the music,

the whole way, the, the way that they cleverly rewrite West side story to be Chinatown, the whole canal street, little Italy versus Chinatown. And then the violence in it was off the fucking chain. There's this one sequence in the middle where all of a sudden, like the Italian guys just show up in cars and just start kicking everybody's ass.

And it just, whoa, it took me by surprise. I completely forgot about that scene. That grabbed me as much as any violence in King of New York because it was so unprepared. It's just a, it's a solid, solid movie. Really good, wonderful movie.

And again, it's also, it's another great Nick St. John screenplay. There's Abel Farrar with Nick St. John and then there's everything else.

All right. And that's a perfect Farrar, Nick St. John, you then there's everything else. That's a perfect for our Nick St. John their journey, their story. Not surprised you picked that one. In fact, you called it yesterday. We were trying to decide when we were talking about

what counts as an exploitation movie or what would go here and what would go there. The drama action thing, it didn't throw me off, but it's an interesting wrinkle to have those two combined. Is it me again? You got two more, Roger. So, I'm sitting here and, have you already done horror? Yes, I've even done two.

Um, wow, so you're not going to pick it. Oh man, if you fucking pick this. Well, the wild card is still in the pool. Well, no, no, no. Like, it's funny, because in the horror section, I want to pick a horror one right now. And I have several that are, like, my section I want to pick a horror one right now and I have several that are like my favorites

it's a pretty cool year and then I have one that I don't know that I could call it my favorite but I respect it so much that I almost

on principle need to say it ahead of and then also I thought you were going to say it because I think it is one of the movies that just went balls out and did its own thing and that was clive barker's hellraiser oh good choice that's a really good choice not what you're going for now what i was going for but i got really nervous there for a second no that's a really good choice i mean just

rewatch this like within the last 12 months and it split my head open yeah it's crazy how intensely committed it is to its thing and how grotesque it is and and the world that it creates which is uniquely its own and um and that we're watching the emergence of this author director uh who's coming out of the gates so strong yeah and um with an amazing unique completely like something i had never imagined a true nightmare on, uh, you know, put onto film in front of me so much so that it just made me feel like a

fever dream. When I watched it, I wasn't sure that it was a pleasurable experience watching the movie, but I love the film and I respect the movie. And I, and I like, I look at it as this movie that came out that was like this little tiny movie and how many sequels did they do

of that but okay but when you look at all the provocateur directors out there making stuff like Paul Verhoeven making Flesh Plus Blood or we can just keep going down the Catherine Bigelow doing Near Dark

you can come up with six or seven provocateurs out there doing their, you know, Adrian Lyne doing Nine and a Half Weeks. And they're all chastised for doing it. None of them find success except for Clive Barker. The film's a smash. Why? So was that because he already had a reputation as an author and so it was understood that the level of viscera and grotesquery in this i'm not even sure a lot of people knew him as an author yeah i i i this movie really kind of comic books horror film horror people knew him because

of the stephen king quote yeah all right you know um uh but this really made his name i think it's just frankly to tell you the truth i think it's just, frankly, to tell you the truth, I think it's just, one, he made a good movie, and New World knew how to sell it. Yeah, they knew how to push it. I think they knew how to sell it. They put Pinhead on the cover. It looked really fucking cool,

and they probably just picked the right weekend. Now, I have to tell you, I struggled with this because the movie that I actually kind of, the more pleasurable film for me was the hidden. Yeah. I figured as much Jack shoulders. Yeah. And,

uh, and so I went back and forth, but I finally decided, no, if like, uh, if, if,

if I had to make Sophie's choice and one had to die to history, you know, it's the, uh, the library at leads is on fire and I'm throwing the great manuscripts out the window, which is what actually happened. Um, you know You know, that might be the one that I grabbed instead

if I had to make a choice between the two. Because, I mean, well, because. Okay, so my next category is comedy. And this is actually like the hardest one for me to choose this year for some reason. I mean, especially with raising Arizona, um, off the table, but inner space by Joe Dante.

Oh, that's a good one. And so inner space is one of my favorite comedies of all time. I think Martin short is amazing in it. It has some, well, and it was an Academy nominated film as well. Uh, it, uh uh visual effects for visual for

visual effects i still have the cinefex for it you know the magazine and uh because i used to study how they would do effects like this this is pre-cgi and it's all about it's a comedy about shrinking dennis quaid and a little ship and putting him inside of martin short and having martin short running around trying to get him out of him and thinking that he's crazy because he's speaking through his ear canal and stuff like that. And it is, uh, I mean,

from Joe Dante, who is beloved by Quentin and I, I mean, at least I think I can say that, um, beloved by the two of us. And this is Joe Dante strong, you know,

for me, and this is Joe Dante firing on all cylinders and working with all the resources of a studio, all the backing of his powerful friends. This is the whole Spielberg protected me throughout the production of this whole movie. Everything is there. The big gorillas are there letting Joe Dante do Joe Dante. And I love Joe Dante. And so again, this is, so I'm delighted to be able to have Interspace. Great movie.

Definitely was on my list for comedy. And it's because, and we saw it that year as a date film. My wife's, one of my wife's favorite films. Oh, it's Meg Ryan, Dennis Quaid. That's where they met. Yeah. That's where they met.

Okay, Quinn. I am going for box office. I am picking The Secret of My Success. Speak on it. I like The Secret of My Success a lot. I think I saw it about three times when it came out. I don't think I've seen it three times in my life. Yeah, I saw it three times when it came out.

I haven't seen it since. You have to remember, in the 80s, we would do that. We would go see every movie. Helen Slater is in it. Richard Jordan is the bad guy in it. Well, one, I liked it. I thought it was really good. But I liked Michael J. Fox at this point in time.

Oh, I mean as his comic leading man persona. The reason I went and saw it and the reason... One, I actually thought it was just a really funny movie. I thought it worked really, really... This was a really good version of a studio comedy. The reason that I was excited about seeing it

initially, and then that part I liked so much that I wanted to see it a second time. Then I think it just ended up saying it a third time, um, was the only editor who I would go see a movie because an editor edited a movie was Paul Hirsch because Paul Hirsch was Brian De Palma's editor. And they, uh, you know, uh, De Palma did, uh, these two, uh, sixties comedies, greetings and high mom with his brother, Charles Hirsch.

And that's where he met Paul. And then they literally worked together on everything that they did from, he did from the late sixties through the seventies. Uh, they didn't work together on, on dress to kill because, uh, uh, uh, he got hung up on another movie Hirsch, but they got, got back together on blowout and then they kind of broke up. The movie he got hung up on was movie, Hirsch. But they got back together on Blowout, and then they kind of broke up. The movie he got hung up on was The Empire Strikes Back. Okay.

On another movie. He's doing some other piece of shit somewhere. Yeah. I didn't say piece of shit. I know. That's a very famous sliding doors moment. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So he got hung up on some other film. Paul Hirsch has written a great book. If people want to read

a good book by an editor. Long time ago in a cutting room far, far away. Very good book. The fact that he would, it's disrespectful that he would reference Star Wars

in the book of his life when he's a diploma man. How dare he have reference Blowout in the title of his memoir. At least Carrie. I mean, Jesus Christ. Okay, anyway.

Shower scene. How to cut a movie. But then after Blowout, they split up for like a period of time, and then he became Herbert Ross's editor. And so, like, I'm the person here who saw Footloose on opening

day because Paul Hirsch edited it. And by the way... You are definitely the only person here who did it. And by the way, you're definitely the only person here that did that. And by the way, if you're going to go see a movie because Paul Hirsch edited it, Footloose is a pretty fucking good movie to see. There's a lot of good editing going on in that film. Dance Sequence is amazing.

And same thing with Secret of My Success. It's a very edited movie. It's a lot of fun. It played like a late 60s movie, an 80s version of a late 60s movie as opposed to an 80s version of a 70s film. It's just really fun. And the other thing about it that actually,

that really kind of made it work for me is there was a comedic actress at that time, but she ended up not doing as much as she should have, but she had a little bit of a moment. Her name was, I believe it was margaret whittington and uh she had a really nice part in uh best of times which i'm a huge fan of best of times but she had popped up in here and she popped up in there and critics like knew who she was oh hey she's one of those gals that really livens up a movie and she had her best part in the secret of my success because she plays the big boss's wife.

The one who's like, looks like she's gonna fuck the kid, Michael J. Fox. Because he's gotta, it's his job to drive her around for a while. She's gonna seduce him.

And that sequence is the best sequence in the film. But it's also really, it was also exciting to have, see Margaret Winnington have that big of a role

after all these really nice comic performances leading up to it. Now she's actually one of the pivotal characters. And she kind of ends up taking over the movie by the third act,

which was really cool. Fox's first movie after Back to the Future. And I feel like people don't really remember that Michael J. Fox was the most bankable person in Hollywood

for three years there. He's like the fourth or fifth biggest movie of the year. This movie made $112 million at the box office, which at that time was extraordinary.

Good pick. You've picked a couple of movies that I never in a million years would have guessed that you would pick. Chris? What's the other one? Three O'Clock High. I don't think I would have picked,

but I like that pick a lot. Chris, you're up. Horror. I'm going to go Prince of Darkness. Yeah. John Carpenter. If you read the description of this movie, it seems like an Alex Jones rant,

but I promise you, it's like a green goo that is Satan. Jesus is a space alien. You know, it's like, yeah. And like haunted homeless people walking the streets and bugs. Yeah. Yeah. So the part of Alex Jones, it might be correct. Yeah, right.

Exactly. So this is got to get Amanda to watch this movie. This is Donald Pleasance. Victor Wong, right? Alice Cooper plays the aforementioned homeless person. Just a truly, truly gonzo sci-fi horror movie. It's actually not that gonzo. I guess it is pretty straight.

I just mean like the plot. The story goes that John Carpenter, after whatever movie he had just finished, took some time off and checked into some classes at UCLA and started studying quantum physics and quantum mechanics. As one does. And apparently got really into it. And out of those classes or that class, apparently, came two films, Prince of Darkness and They Live. Oh, yeah. Both of which were about perception and the nature of reality and the mutable forms of

reality. And the ideas in Prince of Darkness that somebody's trying to send a message from the future using tachyon beams, but there's no receiver in the past. And so the receiver becomes dreams and they're trying to warn people and that everybody's getting these dreams and they're thinking about it like a kind of supernatural event. But in reality, they're trying to be communicated to. That in itself is super compelling. I find this movie to be one of the scariest movies. And I think, did I mention this earlier? I showed this movie to my daughter

when she was way too young. We were talking showed this movie to my daughter when she was way too young. We were talking about movies I showed my daughter when she was way too young. And I was like, oh, here's a good horror movie for you. And I put it on

and I think it scarred her. Seriously. I mean, the swirling green orb visual. And then the third act is Gonzo. I mean, the face being torn off

of the girl on the bed. I mean, it's a very intense movie. It freaked me the fuck out when I saw it. One of the best uses the bed. I mean, it's a very intense movie. It freaked me the fuck out. When I saw one of the best uses of Los Angeles that I cannot believe downtown. I cannot believe that, um,

that no one had used that little church in downtown LA, which is right next to MoMA. Um, I just can't believe no one had ever used that, that John Carpenter, you know, he's, he's the greatest,

he does the greatest use of Carpenter, you know, he's, he's the greatest, he does the greatest use of LA. Like, you know, all of the escape from New York locations, the, you know, that are shot in LA, Halloween,

this film, Prince of Darkness. I mean, this guy knows how to, how to utilize Los Angeles and things. Except for escape from LA. Well, yeah,

which was probably shot in New York. Which makes you want to escape from LA. I'd make no excuses for anything, you know, from Memoirs of an Invisible Man on. We just...

Start after Memoirs of an Invisible Man. I know, I know. I need to revisit Memoirs of an Invisible Man. I'd start after. But that feels like something happened there.

First of all, vampires rules. I encourage you to give vampires another try. I love it. I never gave it a first try. I love it vampires rules. Yeah. I encourage you to give vampires another try. I love it. I never gave it a first try. I love it.

Chris loves it. I like it. Like Ghost of Mars even. Yeah. Ghost of Mars less so personally, but isn't it kind of like, I've heard Ghost of Mars is like, okay,

nothing can be as bad as Escape from LA, but I've heard Ghost of Mars gives it a chance. It's Ice Cube fighting zombies on Mars. Yeah, that's bad.

Yeah, that's bad. I enjoyed it. I talked to Carpenter on this show last week and I posited to him that Prince of Darkness is his most underrated movie

and he agreed. So, here we are talking about it one week later. So, did you choose that? No, I got that. Oh, okay. Sorry, I jumped on his thing

and started talking way better than I could. I totally forgot. I forgot. I was so happy. It's your turn now. All right. He talks so much.

I'm actually so happy I'm actually so happy that he picked it Chris took my pick do you do you in your heart of hearts right now

are you like I'm kicking these guys asses like when when this goes up for a vote and I will just annihilate people with the simplicity

and thoughtfulness of my choices everyone's voting for me I'm staying focused okay it's not ever so sober this is everybody has a pretty fucking amazing list it's a good movie year Quentin and thoughtfulness of my choices. I'm staying focused, okay? It's not ever so sober. Actually, everybody has a pretty fucking amazing list.

It's a good movie year, Quentin. That's what we're saying, man. There's some good stuff here. Nobody has a bad list. Nobody has any compromises. I mean, I'm actually picking stuff that I don't think everyone, but I'm happy with it. Okay, okay.

Well, you've got two more to go. I have two picks. Okay. So where are you going to play Planes, Trains, and Automob it. Okay. Okay. Well, you've got two more to go. I have two picks. Okay. So where are you going to play Planes, Trains, and Automobiles? Okay. Which category are you going to put that in? I am picking in comedy.

Okay. To continue, I guess, really to conclude my dissertation on having it all and Reagan-era anxiety. Obvious. I will be taking Baby Boom. Of course I will.

Directed by Charles Shire, but written with Nancy Meyers. Oh, you will live by her view. Let her do her thing. Let her do her thing. I will cue you, Roger. I will cue you. I will cue you.

Let her do her thing. I will cue you. Yes, Quentin. No, I know what's coming. I mean, this movie's a mindfuck. It has all of the nancy meyer stuff as a nancy meyer's devotee which i am my wife is a nancy meyer of course but you know it has the sam shepherd it has the you know cottage core 30 years before like people are

interested in that um i tale about small business sure getting away from it all exactly and you know a young professional woman just like figuring it all out the pain of home ownership being shoved out by james spader uh which you know haven't we all had that experience especially in the 80s yeah but it is really interesting i mean first of all i watched it this morning and as the mother of a five-month-old some of the baby stuff i was just like i have to fast forward I have to fast forward. I have to fast forward. I'm not watching this right now. This is too soon. But if you watch this as a child, as a woman child of the eighties, and then watch the concept of like the working women and having it all and everything that's, it's really upsetting as well as being also like really fascinating. And you just, I watched this movie and watched someone kind of dissecting my brain and all of the things that I've internalized and then sort of followed or not followed, etc.

It's a weird, it's a powerful movie. How about that? Yeah. We talked about it a couple of years ago. Yeah. I like it too. It's also, Diane Keenan is hysterical and it it's very funny and who among us would not want to live in vermont with sam shepard so i don't really like it that much in her work so you want to

read your okay let me just let me just preface this set this up a little bit okay roger used to write these year-end reviews these capsule reviews over the course of the 40 years or whatever since you wrote this this is the only one I remember and I quoted it a couple of times he goes oh yeah yeah

no I have the review and he dug it out okay so this is the only the main quote from here I've remembered for 40 years give context I'm only gonna give

the main quote yeah okay how old were you? And we know where you were in your life, but this, because I would say that this was a film made for you. I was 22. Yeah.

22, working in a video store, living in Los Angeles. Single? Yeah, single. Well, I mean, single at the time, but later that year, I would meet the woman who would become my wife.

So, fire away. D. Baby boom. I saw it on 11-26. It is a no recommendation. D. I say some shit about the Shires a little bit here,

which I didn't really want to get into about them pounding out another unwatchable piece of drag. Um, did you see this on Thanksgiving? I, uh, I talk about, you know,

they're, uh, flat and one-sided characters and the aimless and boring plot. And then I sum it all up by saying, it looks like the film stock was dipped in piss. I hated it that's i have remembered the film stock soaked in piss quote yeah for 40 years processed and every once in a while i'll see a movie they go oh this is kind of got the baby

that's become like this is definitely but this baby movie. That's become like, this is definitely, this is definitely, there's piss in the lab on this one. Yeah, we frequently would talk about them, oh,

they must be processing that movie in piss like after I wrote that review. It became a thing. I'm up. Sorry. Sorry,

I didn't mean to go too hard. This was me at 22, by the way. It's a very valid response to a very specific movie. I will also admit that I didn't mean to go too hard. This was me at 22, by the way. It's a very valid response to a very specific movie. I will also admit that I don't remember the plot of the Carpenter movie that Chris already picked. So, you know, our brains process things differently. I have comedy and I have wild card.

And I don't totally know what to do. How do you have two picks and I only have one left, right? Yeah, because we have not gotten all the way back. I'm last. These will be my last two picks. He gets his last two. Now there's the head and the heart. The heart wants Spaceballs.

The head wants Withnail and I. There's no way I saw Withnail and I until I was 15. Wait, which one's the head? Which one's the heart? The head is Withnail and I. The heart is Spaceballs. Spaceballs, I probably saw that in like 1988.

Which one is the dick? Spaceballs, I probably saw that in like 1988. Which one is the dick? This is like when you didn't... Spaceballs. She's right. You should... Spaceballs. That kind of tells you

in the title which one it should be. I don't know if I've ever drafted a Mel Brooks movie on this show. Because I don't... There are not as many

great late 90s to early 2000s Mel Brooks movies. So I'll take Spaceballs and comedy. Great. Good. I fucking love Spaceballs. Good. Come on.

I had a guy describe to me something and I thought it was one of the funnier things. And I barely know this guy. But it was one of the funnier analogies of a movie I'd ever heard. Where he's probably about your age. And so he saw Spaceballs before he saw star wars yeah so he saw space balls like like a bunch of times on cable television and then he got around to

seeing star wars but no no his response was what the fuck is this boring piece of shit this is just like Spaceballs except it's boring and it's not funny. I mean, there's a case for that. As we get more and more Star Wars stuff, maybe we're learning

there wasn't as much meat on the bone as we had hoped. Spaceballs is great, though. It's like, I think it's now classic Mel Brooks. I don't know if it was considered that at the time.

No, I don't think it was considered. It was really popular, though. It was really popular amongst, you know, amongst the dude crowd. Right. And amongst kids. Amongst the film stock dipped in piss. Space policies.

No, no, no, no, no, no, no. Not the film crowd. No, like, surfers like Space Polo, right? The Manhattan Beach crowd like Space Polo. But also kids like Space Polo. It's the kids' movie. Yeah Spaceballs. It's the kids movie. Yeah, yeah. It's the kid movie.

It's what dragged me into his movies. That, you know, Mel Brooks. The other ones are a kids movie. Crying in Moranis in this movie. Just like dying at him.

Yeah, he was hilarious. And Mel Brooks is hilarious in this movie as well. Okay, so that's that. I have Wild Card. I feel kind of stumped because I feel like

I played the genre game well that I wanted to but now I don't card. I feel kind of stumped because I feel like I played the genre game well that I wanted to, but now I don't know. I'm going to zag. I'm going Prince Sign of the Times. One of the best concert films of all time. A film that I don't think I realized

was made because that album was bombing and it was in an attempt to supercharge it and get audiences to care. Can you imagine there was a time when they were like, oh God, this album's flagging.

We better make a feature film documentary about it. In fact, they did that. Yeah. The actual Prince performances in the movie are unbelievable. It is him at his apex, at his greatest strength.

And nevertheless, Sheila E's drum solo almost steals the show. It is. It almost steals the movie. The movie feels designed that way. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. But I just watched it

on Peacock the other day and I was like, take me away. It's a crisp 85 minutes. It features all the hits from that album or non-hits as it were. In fact,

this film was also not a success at all. And which is weird to imagine a world in which Prince is moving out of fashion. Yeah. Within just a couple of years,

he'd be making the Batman soundtrack for fear of loss of relevance. Yeah. But this is an incredible movie. And if people have not seen son of the times, check it out. And that's, it feels like a reasonable wild card. Yeah.

That's a great wild card. No, that's a great wild card. Okay. Amanda, your last pick. Okay. Bobby,

I don't legally know whether you're going to be able to do this, but I'm going to need you to give me the music cue. While I teach dirty dancing at Wal-Mart! Yes! I did it! My perfect game!

I'm so happy for you. Was this what you were like, this fucks me up to not get Fatal Attraction in Horror is I might not be able to get Dirty Dancing later? I would have tried to get, to do Fatal Attraction in Horror, put Dirty Dancing in Blockbuster, and I think get Princess Bride,

but he might have taken Princess Bride for me. Yeah. But that would have been like the true... And Dirty Dancing also was an Oscar nom because of Time of My Life. It was a winner even,

so that was my backup before we changed the category. Whatever. I mean, Dirty Dancing. All time. I was on a plane recently, watched it without sound, and I just watched

Patrick Swayze's pelvis move. That is cinema. Thank you. It's the reason movies were made. Yes. Invented. They are doing a gritty sequel to this film.

Well, they already did it. As a TV, I think a TV experience. Yeah, they made a sequel. You don't mean Havana Nights? Yeah. Yeah, right. That's right.

That was very gritty. We have three picks left total in this draft. We've crossed the two-hour mark, which is extraordinary. Try and keep it quick. Fire away. Wild card. There's a lot of different ways I could go. I'll save

some of these for the sort of honorable mentions after the fact. I just have to shout out a movie that rocked my world when I first saw it. I think I saw it later in high school. It was basically like, I got into The Clash, and so I was like, there's this Alex Cox movie called Straight to Hell that Joe Strummer is in. I had no idea what it was like there's this alex cox cox movie called straight to hell that joe

strummer is in i had no idea what it was i i guess this would have been the mid 90s when i finally saw it but this movie is fucking crazy it's about dick rude sy richardson and joe strummer and courtney love they rob a bank and run away to mexico and stay in a town that is occupied entirely by the pogues the irish man everybody is quote unquote addicted to coffee and they're always drinking coffee which is like not very thinly veiled and there are real there's really no plot to the movie it's just people running around the desert shooting guns at each other. And then there is a long sequence, one shot of the Pogues singing Danny Boy before the final shootout that I will never forget. So I just thought I'd throw it out there.

It was one of these video store movies where guys were just like, well, if you like The Clash, you should check this out. So I just throw it straight to hell in there. The movie was shot by Tom Richman, who shot my first film, Oh, no way.

Killing Zoe. And it was one of the reasons I hired Tom. I mean that and his work on Chocolate War for Keith. Oh, I love Chocolate War, which is, uh, some of the best indie photography of that time period.

And so, yeah, I like, and it's also shot in scope. Yes. It's a scope film. It's kind of a spaghetti Western tribute. Yeah.

Last pick one. Okay. It's a scope film. It's kind of a spaghetti western tribute. Last pick one. Okay. You didn't fuck me up by taking Hellraiser. Oh, good. Actually, what you did is I had an idea for Wild Card, and I was just starting to question maybe I might switch it to Hellraiser. All right. So you actually made me stay, keep pure to what I decided I wanted to use for Wild Card if everything played out the way it did.

My choice for Wild Card is, I think, the first foreign language movie on this list. And this is an anthology i think it's a danish film and a danish anthology film based on the writings of charles bukowski called love is a dog from hell yes and i'm choosing this the same year that barfly came out which i love barfly and i could choose barfly yeah but i choose love is a dog from hell and the reason i choose love is a dog from hell and the reason I choose love is the dog from hell is because it's a it's an anthology film I don't even really remember the first story even though it's not bad I just don't remember it and I don't really when I have an idea of what happens in the

third story and that's the one that's the most based on a Bukowski piece, it's all about the middle story. It's the middle story. The middle story, because it follows this guy in his life. So you see him when he's a boy, you see him like when he's a high school student, like at his prom. And then you see him as he's like a man, he's a cab driver,

you know, 10 years later. So the thing about the middle uh, uh, the middle story is he arrives at his prom and yeah, he seems like, you know, not a great, not a gregarious kid. He's part of one of the, the, the shy boys in school, but it so happens that on the night of his prom, he has come down with terrible, terrible, deliberate, deliberating, debilitating acne. And as bad and terrible as it is, it's still real. It's not like he's got a weird disease or anything. He just, the worst outbreak that you could possibly have, he has.

And it's prom night. And it's, none of it looks made up. I mean, it looks like a kid who's just, just. Exploding in the face. Explode, All right. And the thing that's so heart wrenching about it is it looks so real as grotesque as it is. We've all seen kids like this and he's not going to be like this for the rest of his life. He might probably was like this for about a year and a half.

All right. But it's the way it's enough. It's enough time to. And he's like, why did I even go to this fucking thing? And he's in his little powder blue tuxedo. I'm acting for Amanda right now. I know, it's really working. I'm gearing it right towards her.

And he's in his powder blue tuxedo. And everybody else is having a magnificent time. He truly feels like a monster. And Pauline Kael reviewed the movie, and she described it perfectly. She goes, it's as if his own skin betrayed him. He's been betrayed by his own skin. That's how out of it he is.

And without ever making a big deal about his life beforehand or anything. You can tell he has a crush on the homecoming queen kind of girl. And he wanted to ask her for a dance, but he can't. He feels he's hideous. And so he goes into the bathroom and in a fit of violent rage and contempt on his own self, he starts popping the pimples and they start bleeding and then

he starts taking some toilet paper and kind of covering his face and trying to help himself out. And then all of a sudden he emerges from the bathroom and his entire face is wrapped up in toilet paper and his hands that have acne are all wrapped up in toilet paper, but he's cut out a little holes for his eyes and a little hole for a mouth. And so now it doesn't look like he has acne. Now he just, he looks like a mummy. All right. He looks like a kid, you know, a kid who's hurting. Yeah. And in a face completely covered with toilet paper, he walks up to the girl and he asked her to dance.

And she says, yes. And I'm going to start crying just saying this. As they dance, they play that 70s remake of Love Hurts. And she gives it to him. She gives him the romantic dance that he wanted. And it's just, it's one of the great short films I've ever seen in my life.

Who directed this? I'm not sure. It's some, I think it's a Danish fellow. Don't look it up. We'll find out later. Dominique Derudere. And I have not heard of a single person

in this film and I certainly have not seen it. How did you see this movie? It played theatrically when it came out. This was in theaters. And it was released in England.

I picked up the video of it in England. It was released in England as Crazy Love. Yeah, I see that. And it has the dance on the cover of it. But, no Yeah, I see that. And it has the dance on the cover of it. But it blew me away.

And it's actually one of my favorite Pauline Kael reviews of that era is her talking about that metal story. Tough act to follow here with your final pick, Roger. Quentin, you surprised me, which is a wonderful gift to receive at a person my age. I assumed you would pick A Better Tomorrow 2 at some point receive at a person my age. I, uh, um, I assumed you would pick a better tomorrow too at some point, um, or something else,

but you didn't. And so, um, I, I, I was thinking about picking it, but the fact of the matter is there's, there's like a whole bunch of other movies that I kind of wanted to go on

here and I'm going to leave some, I think for the honorable mentions, but I'm going gonna pick one mostly because we brought it up earlier I'm gonna pick Babette's Feast I thought about this as you know the Academy movie this was the Foreign Film Academy Award winner of that

year this is it's a weird movie for me to pick I'm a vegetarian and the meal that they make in this film is, you know, tortoise and, you know, rabbits. And they're, you know, chopping them all up. By the way, My Life as a Dog should have won for foreign film.

They got ripped off by actually getting all the other good nominations. My Life as a Dog is a great movie. But Babette's Feast, Quentin, is not just about making the meal. I mean, I'll set it up a little bit. The movie takes place during the Terror, which was the terror in Paris at the end of the 19th century. And so it's like 1890 or so, or 1897. I can't remember the exact year that it takes place. But somebody is fleeing Paris.

This woman is fleeing Paris. She used to be a chef and she becomes a, you know, she's through a favor of a friend, found a place in Denmark where she can hide. And what's happening in Paris is all the bourgeois are being killed. All of the, anybody who is an artist or represents money or the old establishment, they're all being killed. They're all being hunted down. It's like, it's the terror. It's the terror, yeah. And so she's fled and she is the greatest chef in all France.

And she goes to this place, this little village of, I'm thinking they're Calvinists or Lutherans or something. These Protestants living in Denmark up in the middle of the icy North. And she's there to become their servant. Protestants living in Denmark up in the middle of the icy North. And, uh, she's there to become their servant. And these are people who they eat, you know,

cod boiled cod and potatoes every day. In fact, um, uh, and so while she's there, she just kind of becomes this humble servant, silently hiding away the artist that she used to be. And that's what the movie is about.

That sounds actually great. The movie is not about the meal. It is about the meal. Well, it is about the meal. It is about the meal. And the movie becomes about her, like she receives an inheritance. The terror has ended,

but now she's settled into her life and she's received this inheritance money that's come and the terror is done. And she's like, what am I going to do with this? And she decides to put on one great meal the way she used to. That's really fantastic. That that's, you're talking,

I've never seen Babel's Feast, even though I know about it, you're talking me into seeing it right away. The irony of it is that she's cooking this meal. She's the greatest artist in all France, the culinary artist. And she's cooking a meal for, you know,

Lutherans, for Protestants, whose whole agenda is in order to respect God, we do not embrace luxuries. Yeah. And frivolity. Salt. Salt. You know, and everything must be bland. Everything must be simple. And they're living in this bland and simple environment. And what the movie becomes is about, uh, I mean, I'm almost going to cry thinking about it.

It becomes about the triumph of the spirit of the arts over austerity and over, um, over minimalism. And I think it's just one of the most, um, uh, soul enriching films. And I think it's really the key to why it won that year. And we also have to remind everybody, this movie was a freaking phenomenon in Los Angeles and probably in New York as well. When it came out, when this movie was being shown, you know, prior to the Academy Awards, you could go out and have Babette's Feast and then see the movie as well. Yeah, they were doing that. Yeah. And so you would go out and eat tortoise soup and, you know, whatever else that they were serving and then go see the movie. The movie was a phenomenon.

And though it has subtitles. Yeah. We were busting Chr Chris's balls earlier. Yeah, earlier. Unfairly. It was an easy joke. I make no apologies. And so that's going to become my wild card pick.

I actually wanted it for my Academy pick, but I had to get Hope and Glory. Yeah, exactly. I can assure you that this is the first time in the history of the movie drafts that two Danish films were selected in wild card

at the end of the draft. Back to back. Yeah, back to back. No, I was feeling the Danish love. That was pretty good. Well, actually, we just watched a Danish movie.

Yeah, we did. So maybe that's factoring into it. Let's do a speed round of honorable mentions. Sure. Quickly. Amanda, what's on the board here that you're surprised didn't go, that we got to mention? I don't know if I'm not surprised about these movies, but some backups that I had in my pocket.

Can't Buy Me Love. Yep. Classic. Less than zero. Yeah. I thought, given okay that was the relationships and the experiences that was

that was gonna be my other wild card choice and I thought you know what because of my background because I've worked with Brett because we

because we're friends with Brett Brett Brett Brett you know it's that you would not choose his most compromised well

here's the thing is I you know you go back into my reviews and this was like one of my most hated movies of that year yeah okay cut to around the year 2000 i'm re-examining the movie because i'm making rules of attraction and i start watching it i'm like well this isn't as bad as it was back then this is actually pretty good in fact the cinematography in it is so good um and i think it's ed lackman actually who's the the dp of the film it's so good that i actually asked robert brinkman

my dp to like study the film because i wanted it to look the same like it looked like you know the colors were going to slip off the celluloid you know it was like kind of shiny and like bright and highly designed the movie has a uh less than zero it was like kind of shiny and like bright and highly designed. The movie has a, Less Than Zero has a beautiful, beautiful, look, and Marek Koniewska

I think was treated highly unfairly, especially by me, on the release of this film. What else is on your list? No Way Out. Yeah. Yeah, I thought about it.

Yeah, I thought about it. Yeah, I thought about that too. Again, to your point about Hollywood films, that's a very mean spirited Hollywood film that for the most part really follows through on its mean spiritedness. So it doesn't happy ending its way out of

things. What else? I think that's it. Okay. Ciara, what do you want to mention? To all mention, one is Meituan, which I thought about putting in three different categories, four different categories here. It's John Sayles' movie about a coal miner strike in West Virginia. Chris Cooper, James Earl Jones, both astonishing in this movie. Mary McDonald's really good in this movie.

And the Haskell Wexler photography is really awesome in this. And the other one is Extreme Prejudice, which is a Walter Hill movie with Nick Nolte, Michael Ironside and Powers Booth, which is like really my urtext, I think. As I told Chris last night, I'd never seen Extreme Prejudice before until last night. Oh, really? And it's pretty knocked out. I was really impressed. I don't know how it got past me, but I could see how at the time it would be just another Walter Hill shoot them up. Wild Bunch homage. I'm kind of happy with be just another Walter Hill, shoot them up. Wild bunch homage.

I'm kind of happy with that back then. But I, I enjoyed it. Um, Quentin, anything you wanted to mention? Uh, oddly enough,

most of my, uh, ones, uh, that like, I guess haven't been mentioned by people were discussed about most of my stuff fell into horror and comedy. Alright, so

I won't mention The Hidden or anything because you mentioned that before. But like Hello Mary Lou Prom Night 2, I'm a big fan of that one. I actually think that's a really cool film. I would never choose this, but in making a thing of exploitation movies, I'm actually a fan of the Garbage Pail Kids

movie. Also in my zone when I was five years old. of exploitation movies, I'm actually a fan of the Garbage Pail Kids movie. Yeah. Also in my zone when I was five years old. Yeah, I know. It was like, well, the one with the black leather jacket reminded people of me.

So when they would put it on at video archives, hey, that's the Quentin one. But amongst the comedies and everything is, well, comedy in action, I'm surprised, but I didn't feel like, as similar as it was, and everything is, oh, well, comedy in action. I'm surprised,

but I didn't feel like, as similar as it was, I didn't feel I had that much of a connection to it. Jackie Chan's first play story is that year. I'm actually a fan of Robert Benton's Nadine with Kim Basinger

and Jeff Bridges. And if things had gone differently, I could easily pick Ishtar as my comedy of that year. It was my backup for Wild Card. If I didn't take the Prince movie, I would have taken... I mean, you know,

the Ishtar is actually good. It is a little bit tired at this point, but it is actually good. And then one other one that could have fit in as a Wild Card if I needed a precedent of service would be Sammy and Rosie Get Laid. I don't know that.

What is that? Oh, that's that was Stephen Feer's follow-up movie with that guy Harish Kafadar or whatever his name is. The guy who did

My Brilliant Laundrette. It's pretty much his follow-up to My Brilliant Laundrette. Roger, anything else you want to shout out? I'd like to shout out The Stepfather

which which to me was notable. I mean, one, because as a thriller, it's just a great little smart thriller. But what was remarkable about the movie is that how good the performance is when there's this line in the film where the stepfather says, and I don't feel bad about saying it because it's my whole point of making this note he says um who am i this time and it's on the

poster it's in the ads it's on the trailer no it's it's it's an important part of the film because it's it's a critical moment in the movie because it has him staring in the mirror in the poster and it says who am I this time and you have no idea what the fuck that means and like it's a very confusing thing to use as a tag phrase but by the time you get to the last 20

minutes in the movie and he says who am I this time it's chilling it really like it like it sends a and partly because you've heard it before because it was on the poster it sends like an electrical shock to the audience and what was bizarre is that's what that fucking means

and it really was like an electrical shock and so that was like an exciting thing I wouldn't have ever chosen that movie I kind of feel like I wanted to mention White of the Eye the Donald Camel film I'm kind of a like I wanted to mention White of the Eye, the Donald Camel film. I'm kind of a Donald Camel fan. Yeah, yeah.

And I knew him a little bit. And this was sort of, I had kind of forgotten about Donald Camel, to be honest. Then saw this movie and was like, wow. I mean, I was like a Demon Seed fan. And so White of the Eye is- eye is a good serial killer movie before that there was before there was a zillion serial killer movies out there it's a really smart serial killer movie and so and then and taught us kind of how to use like fucking steadicam for the first 20 minutes you want to get things going all right yeah get a steadicam follow that

chick in the room it was a really fine film. And then, uh, did you pick Walker? Was that one that you, I just mentioned it. You just mentioned it. Yeah. Which I,

I, I like Walker a lot. I mean, I actually don't like Walker. I hated Walker when I saw it. I think Walker was a massive lost opportunity for one reason. One, there's a great movie in Walker,

but then Alex Cox, like he, it's like you can't resist going surreal and he doesn't have to. Yeah. He's already making the point by having William Walker take over Nicaragua as a mercenary back then. And he had already taken over Sonora, Mexico,

I think before that and go down and that's already making the point about American intervention, interventionalism in Nicaragua. Right. He doesn't have to have them reading Time magazine or having helicopters landing. By the way, this is... Bullshit like that. This is exactly the drive home.

From 1987 when we saw Walker. Well, it seemed like he had something to say at the beginning, but then it all came about eating Big Macs and drinking bottles of 80s Pepsi-Cola. And you're right. You're really right, though. You're right. I'm glad you can have that 35 years later. I just look at Walker as this amazing lost opportunity

to tell the story because Ed Harris is amazing in this movie. Marlee Matlin is also fantastic. There's so much. And it's got all that Alex Cox stuff that you were talking about earlier. Yeah. All the craziness that he loves, but like we're straight to hell

because it had no script. It's just like, let's run around. Yeah, they just went to the desert with tax shelter money and shot a movie. Walker had a little more structure than that, but if he had just played it straight.

Yeah. If he had just not it straight. Yeah. If he had just not been such an indulgent filmmaker. Okay, let me ask a question. This is your thing to wrap it up in the, okay. This is my thing on the show.

Podcast that I host. No, no, I know. I know. So I'm not trying to. He's segueing to your conclusion. No, I'm not trying to intrude.

Okay. This has been Roger Avery and Quentin Tarantino's Big Picture. Thank you. You're like a fox in the hen house. Okay. This has been Roger Avery and Quentin Tarantino's big picture. Thank you. You let a fox in the hen house. Yeah, exactly.

I knew what I was doing. So, let me ask a question from everybody. What's a movie you really, really wanted on your list that you didn't get that somebody else got?

Gosh. Weirdly Lost Boys. Evil Dead 2. Yeah. Princess Lost Boys. Evil Dead 2. Yeah. Princess Bride. Princess Bride. Raising Arizona. Yeah, I could go with

Raising Arizona also. Raising Arizona and Evil Dead 2 would have been... I think Raising Arizona. And what about for you? Okay, well, in a strange... I didn't think I was going to get Raising Arizona.

So I kind of threw that to the table. So I didn't think I was going to get it. You let me have it. Obviously, you took Near Dark. It's not even part of my four, but it's definitely a Quentin film. All right.

And so that's the only one. Not today, it's not. It's a Sean film today. Yeah, that's the only one that stings a little bit. I'm going to recap the picks that we've made. We have not talked about The Last Emperor at all. It won nine Academy Awards, including Best Picture, and we completely ignored it, which is fine by me.

Here is how we drafted. I'm going to read by category. In drama or action, Chris Ryan got Lethal Weapon. I got Full Metal Jacket. Amanda got Broadcast News. Quentin got China Girl. Roger got River's Edge. In comedy, Chris got Raising Arizona. I got Spaceballs. Amanda got China Girl. Roger got River's Edge. And comedy. Chris got Raising Arizona.

I got Spaceballs. Amanda got Baby Boom. Quentin got Three O'Clock High. Roger got Inner Space. Oscar nominee. Empire of the Sun for Chris. The Princess Bride for me. Moonstruck for Amanda. Wall Street for Quentin. Hope and Glory for Roger. Horror

or Exploitation. Prince of Darkness for Chris. Near Dark for me The Lost Boys for Amanda Evil Dead 2 for Quentin and Hellraiser for Roger What a category Loaded category Yeah

Blockbuster Untouchables for Chris Predator for me Fatal Attraction for Amanda The Secret of My Success for Quentin and Robocop for Roger and for Wildcard Straight to Hell for Chris

Prince Sign of the Times for me Dirty Dancing for Amanda, Love is a Dog from Hell for Quentin, and Babette's Feast from Roger. I will say the four men picked true wild cards. As opposed to, okay, let me get rid of the big ones. That falls into my flower-scented potpourri. In your defense,

that's a sound strategy to take a heavy hitter in welcome. I absolutely smashed this. Yeah. Just so you guys all know. It's absolutely what I wanted. She's driving home

with the window down. Perfect. Yeah. Yeah. And also, it's like what happens is usually there's a lot of arguing in the room about the order in which things were picked.

And then afterwards, when you look at the totality of what you've picked, it feels different. And Amanda walked out with. Yeah. All of them. I did. Yeah.

I'm happy for you. Thank you so much, Sean. Quinn Tarantino, Roger Avery. This was unbelievable. I walked out with all of them also. Yeah.

I think that that's the thing. It's a benevolent year. I just want to remind the audience of who loves them. And it's Roger. So, if, I would have fucked Amanda's shit up so much

if she hadn't have picked Fatal Attraction right when she did. Okay, thank you. Yeah. Well, you know. You could have gone with that at number two.

The second overall pick you could have won Fatal Attraction. No, no, no. She took it. She took it before I had my number two. No, your first pick at number two. No, no, no, no. I took it. She took it before I had my number two. No, your first pick, the number two.

No, no, no, no, no. I'm not going to. No, I'm going to. No, I'm going to fuck him before I fuck her. Thank you. That means a lot to me. I'll put that on a bumper sticker.

Guys, thank you so much. Listen to the Video Archives podcast. Listen to the big picture. Thanks, Quentin, Roger, Amanda, Chris. This was a lot of fun, guys. Yeah, thank you so much. And I have to say, I was actually proud of that list podcast listen to the big picture thanks quentin roger amanda this is a lot of fun guys and i have to say i i was actually proud of that list when you read them at that yeah we did well really good last nothing to be ashamed of 1987 is a good year thank you to our producer bobby wagner for

his production work on this episode we'll see you later this week chris and i'll be talking about the gray man among other things. See you then.