The Daily Show: Ears Edition - TDS Time Machine | Out at the Movies with Frank DeCaro

Episode Date: August 7, 2026

From the Daily Show archives, resident Daily Show movie critic Frank DeCaro takes aim at the movies through his own lens. He breaks down cinematic classics like the original Spider-Man, Gladiator, Harry Potter, Lord of the Rings, Fight Club and more. -- The Daily Show airs weeknights at 11/10c on Comedy Central. Stream full episodes on Paramount+ Follow TDS: YouTube, TikTok, Instagram, Twitter, Facebook Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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for up to 65% off and make sure you use my promo code daily so they know I sent you. You're listening to Comedy Central. Let's go out. Let's go out of the moon. The first big movie of the summer is here and it's got legs, literally. Director Sam Ramey's friendly neighborhood blockbuster, Spider-Man, has all the fun of a Marvel comic book. Without the stigma that comes with actually reading one. In this record-busting big-budget epic, nerdy Toby McGuire played.

nerdy Peter Parker, a shutterbug who gets bitten by a genetically altered spider on a class trip to the genetically altered spider place. And that spider bite causes some massive swelling. Peter? Yeah. Are you all right? Uh, I'm fine. Along with a spidey six-pack, Peter gets super speed, strength, the ability to sling webs, and a certain tingling he's never felt before. Woohoo!

Pretty soon, like any teenager, he's leaving his sticky residue all over town, and growing hair on his palm. And he's not the only one who gets a makeover. Willem Defoe starts out as billionaire industrialist Norman Osborne, but give him the wrong can of mountain dew and all hell breaks loose. Give me the promicloropor parisine. Not the promicloropor parisine. Osborne spritzer transforms him into a green goblin named Green Goblin, a supervill and bent on destroying that human post-it note, Spider-Man. This armored bitch is like Margaret Hamilton on steroids.

Of course, no spider is complete without a little Miss Muppet to sit down beside. In Spider-Man, Kirsten Dunst puts the rack in arachnid as love interest Mary Jane Watson. He saved my life twice, and I've never even seen his face. Eventually, she does get the kiss of the Spider-Man, but he's a superhero, and superheroes never put out on the first movie. So, Mary Jane never gets to be able to.

to find out whether Peter is an Eatsy Weancy Spider or a daddy long legs. Luckily, a sequel is already in the works. It's not the right time to talk about it. The bottom line, this bottom loved it. Back to you, John, my marvelous comic. Friends, Romans, countrymen, let me your rears. With my toga in a bunch and my popcorn uneaten,

I wholeheartedly bring you the first big movie of the summer. Gladiator, or what I call a hunky thing happened on the way to the forum. In Ridley Scott's epic throwback to the golden era of gay recruiting films, like Ben Hurd, Russell Crow plays Maximus, a general who becomes a slave,

who becomes a gladiator, who becomes a permanent fixture in my fantasy life. I'm a slave. What possible difference can I make? What difference? I haven't thought about Matt Damon for a week. Now, Maximus has made a mortal enemy of the backed-up commodus,

played by Joaquin Phoenix. Not only did his father, Marcus Aurelius, name him after a toilet, he tried to give a crown that was rightfully his to Maximus. You're the son that I should have had. And had repeatedly! But faster than you can say, I have come to marry Caesar, not to praise him. The evil Commodus kills Maximus's family and makes him a slave.

Bad for him. Good for the first three rows. Luckily, his agent, played by the late great Oliver Reed, who's still sexy even though he's dead, gets Maximus and he's dead. Maximus a gig playing the Coliseum. Win the crowd, and you will win your freedom. I will win the crowd.

I will give them something they've never seen before. We who are about to die of overstimulation salute you. From that on, grab your dress shields because it's glamazons and tigers and queers. Oh my. This big, beautiful sausage and pepper hero of a movie rises up to a classic showdown between Gladiator and sorry he didn't. My name is Maximus Desimus Meridius. Father to a murdered son, husband to a murdered wife,

and I will have my vengeance. I am Sperticus! Back to you, John, my Roman numero, Uno. The movie is Moulon Rouge, and I haven't been this excited since Nancy Walker directed the village people and can't stop the music. ... Director Baz Lerman's insane drag spectacular about love

in Bohemia in the infamous 19th century Parisian nightclub is like the flamboyant love child of Jean-Paul Gautier and Liberace. America, welcome to your first French pride parade. Set entirely under a gay Christmas tree, Moulin Rouge is a story of truth, beauty, freedom, and above all, makeup. Moulon Rouge, Moulon blush,

and Moulon no-clump mascara. It's the Bellapok only better. It's the Patty LeBella Pock. And what a cast. That daring young tramp on the flying trapeze is Nicole Kidman. She's a singing, dancing prostitute who wants to be taken seriously as an actress. Oops, I'm sorry. She plays a singing dancing prostitute who wants to be taken seriously as an actress. I believe you were expecting me.

I never really liked Nicole Kidman before this, but she's fantastic. It's amazing what having a heterosexual partner can do for a girl. Make men believe what they want to believe. Especially when it's Ewan McGregor as a love-struck poet with a weakness for sappy 70s pop. There's no mountain to hide. Oh, finally, a peaches and herb for my generation. I loved it all.

It's the first movie in ages that lays bare the basic truth of show business. Behind the glitter, there's more glitter. You know what I always say. Gitch, getcha, yeah, yeah. Exactly. Back to you, John, my courtesan of current events. Hold on to your pointy hats, kids, and keep your magic wand inside the vehicle at all times.

It's Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone. Yes, the book your friends pressured you into reading has finally been made into the movie that Warner Bros. is pressuring you into seeing. And from what I'm being told to say, it's destined to be the motion picture event of the year. And the motion picture franchise of the next decade. And what kid doesn't look?

doesn't love a franchise. In this magical coming of age tale, a young orphan named Harry finds out he's a wizard. Why am I telling you this? We all know the story. The real question here is whether the movie stays true to the book. So let's see. You're saying it rolling, Harry heard Hermione snap.

It's Linguardium Leviosa. You do it then if you're so clever, wrong snarled. Now that's magic. Actually, the movie was a lot like the book, only longer. In Godlaviosa. I think we're going to need another feather over here, Professor. Wait, I don't remember reading that. That must have been one of the unique contributions of Director Chris Columbus.

He's the subtle craftsman responsible for such art house favorites as nine months, Mrs. Doubtfire, and Home Alone. And with Harry Potter, Columbus doesn't miss a beating. Ouch! That was poorly conceived. As for the rest of the book, I mean moving, almost nothing got left behind. There was Fluffy, the three-headed dog. Oh, bitch, bitch!

There's Hagrid the giant. You're a wizard, Harry. Ah! Yoko Ono called, she wants her hair back. Oh, and also Jean Shallott called, and Macy Gray. They all want their hair back. And of course, there was plenty of flying around on broomsticks.

But not before you've learned properly. Stick your right hand over the broom and say up. Now, once you've got hold of your broom, I want you to mount it. Honey, please, it's not as easy as you make it sound. So which is better, the book or the movie? Hmm, difficult. Very difficult. In the end, it doesn't really matter. The phenomenon of Harry Potter is just what this country needs

to get us to turn off that dreary old CNN and finally switch back to E, where everyone's happy! She needs to sort out her priorities. Back to you, John, my huggable muggle. Either in or you're out, right now. Well, I'm out, but you knew that. When it comes to remakes, Hollywood's attitude seems to be, if at first it succeeds, try again anyway.

Filmmakers can't seem to resist the urge to take great old movies like Psycho and turn them into crappy new movies like Psycho. But director Steven Soderberg has a better idea. Don't remake good movies, remake bad ones. He's found the perfect candidate in Ocean's 11, an old rat-pack clunker about a Vegas casino heist. His sexy remake is the shiniest sleekest star vehicle

to hit Las Vegas since Liberace's rhinestone Dusenberg. There are more celebrity hunks here than a Jennifer Anderson's last fondue do party. Clooney, Pitt, Damon, hey, who invited Elliot Gould? And why is he dressed like Ron Jeremy? The target of Clooney's big con is casino owner Andy Garcia, and he's not happy about it. Congratulations, you're a dead man.

Congratulations, Jimmy Smith's wasn't available. Rounding out the cast is glorified Kino girl, Julia Roberts, as Clooney's ravishing ex-wife. She's been smoking Garcia's coheba while her ex was in the pokey. But Clooney wants her back. Now they tell me that I paid my debt to society. Funny, I never got a check. As far as I'm concerned,

Clooney's debt to society was paid when he played Batman with rock hard nips. Ocean's 11 is a delicious change from Soderberg's last two films, the very important traffic, and Aaron Brockovich, the Victoria's Secret version of Silkwood. Ocean's 11 might not be the Academy Award contender

those films were. But it's sure to snag the best glute honors that Elton John's next awesome, Oscar party. Exactly. And who knows? With so many bad movies out there to remake, maybe Ocean's Eleven will be the beginning of a trend.

I can see it now. Ang Lee's Roller Boogie. Back to you, John, my ace in the hole. Finally, a movie that's perfect for the holiday season. Lord of the Rings, a three-hour epic about returning bad jewelry. Kiwi Autour Peter Jackson has turned the first book of J.R.R. Tolkien's Nerd and Sorcery Trilogy, into a sprawling epic with more hairy men in it than American Bear magazine. I read it for the pictures of naked hairy men.

Here's the skinny. An unassuming fuzzy-footed hobbit named Frodo inherits a ring which on the wrong person's pinky has the power to destroy the world. At least that's what his accessory's conscious friend Gandalf tells him. In the common tongue it says one ring to rule them all. One ring to find them. One ring to bring them all and in the darkness, fight. And one ring to tell the world when you graduated from Sunni Binghamton. Leading the Ubercast is Elijah Wood,

who spends most of the film looking like he just stepped out of a keen painting. So Frodo and his Middle Earth rat pack must save the world by taking that bitch of a bauble back to mortar and tossing it into the fires of Mount Doom. Luckily, they've got more up their sleeves than when on a rider at Saturday. You have my soul. And you have my book. And my...

I brought Madlibs! Lord of the Rings is a classic tale of the endless struggle between good and evil, and your ability to keep a jumbo-died coke in your bladder for three hours. The good news is that Jackson never lets all this razzle-dazzle get in the way of the story, which is no small feat given the fact that it has more characters in it than the Bible. I wish the ring had never come to me. I wish none of this had happened. Kid. Save that speech for 30 years.

years from now. When you're still signing pictures, thanks Frodo. Back to you, John, my tiny adventurer. Unfortunately, no one can be told what the Matrix is. Sure you can. The Matrix is this big, loud computer thing. Everyone wears Comte de Garcin for day and helmet lang for evening. Stuff blows up. It's fun. But the most unbelievable thing is this. It's a hit movie starring my next husband, Keanu Reeves. Whoa.

Okay, there's no ring. We're doing. friends. In my mind, my unwashed buddy Kianu plays a computer hacker who teams up with Larry, sorry, Lawrence Fishburn. If you ask me, it's a love story. And don't it make my software hard? Have you ever had a dream, Neo, that you were so sure was real? What if you were unable to wake from that dream? Well, I'd be Merv Griffin in a caftan then, wouldn't I? Anyway, it seems that evil robots have taken over the world and trapped all of us in a computer program. And Keanu Reeves is the only hope for mankind. Whoa. Exactly. But this digital dilly bar is not as dumb as he looks. He's got Larry, Lawrence, as a mentor, and they've enlisted the help of a but glamorous man-servant named

Trinity. Now, there's a three-way, threesome. Damn. In a scene that will have David Caradine spinning in his grave someday, Keanu and Larry, Robert Lawrence, hide their bananas and pajamas and put him a cung back into the foe. So there's more fighting and stuff, and the big, bold one gets tied up and tortured, and they don't even let him enjoy it. You're a plague, and we are the cure. Sir, I've seen the cure. I dressed like the cure my entire freshman year, and you, sir, are no Robert Smith.

Even so, I love this movie. It's got everything I like, sleeping lesbians. A little tie-bow for your midsection. Summer's coming. And hold on to your pause button. It's got Keanu in a position you've never seen him in before. Oh, I think I just downloaded. Back to you, John.

Silly host. Matrix are for kids. Well, surprise, surprise, surprise. The coolest movie of the summer is more than just a blockbuster. It's a diversity training video. In director Brian Singer's multi-culty take on the Marvel comic book, Mutants are here, they're severe, get used to it. You know that skinny goth kid you gave a wedgy to in the fifth grade for wearing black nail polish?

Well, check out his manicure now, frat boy. That's Australian hunk Hugh Jackman, who from now on I'll be calling Huge Ackman, as the Ginzo-Toting Wolverine. He's the breakout star of X-Men, and he looks just like Dirty Harry, Only really dirty and really hairy. Wolfie shows up at Patrick Stewart's school

for gifted suburban children, and slumming Shakespearean actors, and learns that Leafy Westchester County is crawling with mutants, and not all of them are running for the New York Senate. There are good mutants, and bad mutants. And they square off in a giant super rumble for the fate of the planet. Don't worry, they only fight each other, like the mafia, or fashion designers.

This is the stupidest thing I've ever heard. Half the dialogue in X-Men sounds like it was ripped right from my high school diary. The first boy I ever kissed, ended up in a coma for three weeks. Wow, mine just ended up in detention. You know, people like you are the reason I was afraid to go to school as a child. You'll never call her Smurface. again. You homo sapiens and your guns.

I heard Ian McKellen give that same speech at the March on Washington. In that outfit. I liked X-Men because it lets all of us get in touch with our inner mutant. If it had been called Triple X-Men, I'd still be at the theater right now, with my hand in someone else's popcorn. There's only one thing I would have done differently. What would you prefer? Yellow spandex? Yes, yes!

But I'll wait for the sequel. Back to you, John, Mom. Wolverine in sheep's clothing. I think you've found something. A 2,000-year-old condom. Oh, it must be a Ramsey's. Actually, this is the mummy. The movie I wanted to review last week,

but they made me sit through the Phantom Menace instead. We are in serious trouble. Oh, my little Baba Ginoosh. You may be number two at the box office, but you're still number one with me. That's Brendan Fraser, the hottest Egyptologist I've ever seen. How'd you like to get him caught in your sarcophagus? This just keeps getting better and better.

Brendan is involved in a giant pyramid scheme with some girl in a picture hat and her brother, who really needs to come out of the crypt, if you know what I mean. Oh no, no, I don't know to steal from a partner. Partner? Is he the Queen of Denial or what? Anyway, this Gleeson threesome find themselves hot on the trail of some Egyptian booty, and I don't mean Cleopatra. Before you can say, what's Sphinx in here?

They accidentally wake up Imhotep, an evil priest who's been sleeping for 3,000 years. Oh! about morning breath. Just be glad we didn't have to watch him scratch and tinkle. Ugh! Robbed of his beauty sleep, Curly launches the plague of the month club. Locusts.

Scarabs. And a desert storm that really blows. He even trashes his hotel room. And take it from me. There's nothing worse than getting sand caught in your keyhole. No! Read from the book! Or the script.

But hey, so it's not Raiders of the Lost Ark. It's not even a bangles of the book. video. But the mummy has everything I need. Once you've seen Brendan Fraser's Fertile Crescent, you'll scream, I want my mummy. Back to you, John. Let my people go-go. Stick your

up her ass, you mother- fucking worthless. Well, somebody's been listening to the new M&MCD. Actually, this is the new and improved Exorcist. And trust me, among horror movies, this is the real Slim Shady. 11 minutes

longer, and just as delicious as any well-built 27-year-old, it's heaven when every other movie this ball has gone straight to hell. What's that? You keep it away. In a movie which today would be called Touched by a Devil, Satan gets chummy with a 12-year-old Muppet, moves into her mother's tastefully appointed house in Georgetown, and starts rearranging the furniture. My bet isn't shaking that much since I bought Top Gum on DVD. Faster than you can say, young lady, what are you doing with that crucifixie?

Old Scratch's new roommate is getting in shape for eternal damnation. She took the bronze and floor exercise with that one. What is what happening? She may be Satan's daughter, but her abs are rock hard. Finally, Little Regan is strapped down with two guys in black hovering over her bed. Well, we've all been there. The response, please take it. In the end, Max von Sito gives the devil a thorough ass whipping.

He's great. But for me, the exorcist is all about Jason Mee's. Miller as Father Karras. Let me tell you, if the priests in my parish had been this hot, I wouldn't have outrun them. What a kick to revisit this potent shock tale about a little girl possessed by more demons than Whitney Houston. And after all this time, I'm happy to report

it still scared the pea soup out of it. And that was just for Ellen Burstyn's wardrobe. Even though these clothes are back in fashion, Hollywood movies this good just aren't. And that sad fact makes my head spin. I'm not popular at the gym for nothing. Back to you, Captain Howdy. First rule of Fight Club is, you do not talk about Fight Club.

I'm Frank T. Carroll, and I'm here to talk about Fight Club. Brad Pitt and Ed Norton star in a brutal love story about male bonding, urban terrorism, and the death of personal hygiene. Whoa! I love this movie, and I want that coat! Here's the story. On their first date, after a couple of dairies, Pitt and the Pendulists head out to the parking lot and spend the... the next two hours pounding each other. This is crazy.

You want me to hit you? Yes, because you dumped Gwyneth for my least favorite friend. Whoa! I love that coat! Well, before you can say we got the beat, every guy in town wants to join the Buena Fista Social Club. Fourth rule, only two guys to a fight. Party pooper.

Sixth rule, no shirts, no shoes. That's more like it. Just to fight any celebrity, who would you buy? The guy on that sign. Just when this movie is becoming the best. Best gym class fantasy ever. Here comes Helen Obama, Carter. You're not into, are you?

No, God, not at all. Me either. She looks like she just took the bus here from 1983. Helen is not the only girl in town. Get this. Meatloaf is cast as Anna Nicole Smith. This guy's got a pair of hooters by the dashboard light. So what did I like about this movie? Well, two of the biggest stars in Hollywood channel their urges,

which are perfectly natural. If you're me... Not hurry. Back to you, John, my little raging... bowl. Explore more shows from the Daily Show podcast universe by searching The Daily Show, wherever you get your podcasts. Watch the Daily Show weeknights at 11, 10 Central on Comedy Central,

and stream full episodes anytime on Paramount Plus. This has been a Comedy Central podcast. Real Canadian Superstore has everything you need this back-to-school season. Save on lunchbox savers like Ziggy's sliced deli-meat products for always 375. And get life brand pure Vita shampoo or conditioner for 8. $8 each. At Real Canadian Superstore, when you're ready, we're ready, with a whole world and more.