The Flop House - Ep. #274 - Gotti

Episode Date: January 5, 2019

This one topped the lists of the worst movies of 2018, and it was so bad Dan barely understood what the fuck was happening, which you can tell, based on how little he can bring himself to say. Luckily, Elliott makes up for it by never shutting up. We discuss Gotti. Meanwhile, Stuart explains what it's like to play a game with Dan, Elliott starts a new podcast devoted to the human body's holes, and as always, when it comes to letters, Dan is a consummate professional. Wikipedia synopsis for Gotti Movies recommended in this episode: Under the Silver Lake Mausoleum We Need to Talk About Kevin First Reformed LIVE SHOWS: The Flop House in Madison, WI on 1/26 The Flop House in Brooklyn on 2/3

On this episode we discuss Gari Forget about it Hey everyone and welcome to the flop house, I'm Dan McCloy. Hey, I'm steward over here. Steward Wellington that is. And I'm Elliot Kaelin, Ellie Bagadona. It's yeah, from the block. Yeah. One of the boys, as you can tell from our, uh, a period appropriate uh, and region appropriate accents, we're talking about the movie Gotti today on the

flop. That's right. Cause what do we do on this podcast, Dan? Wow, we're really getting into it fast this time. Okay. Uh, we, We watch a bad movie. Oh, sorry, Dan. Should we dilly dally more? How was your guys weekend? I mean, usually we dick around a little bit. How much trampolining did you do this weekend? Because I did a fair amount. I would say I spent zero trampolining. Is trampolining like a new thing kids are doing? Yeah, yeah. It's a slang in you window for jumping on a trampoline. Oh, wow. Cool. Cool. Hey, guys, how many times did a four year old boy demand you play a Monty Python based card game in which the goal and the rules of the game are changing. And you wanna collect certain items that match a goal card

as long as that goal card is in play. This is a game that was gifted to me. I know certain people hate the word gifted that use that way, but I don't care, whatever. Shakespeare made up words all the time. Gifted to me by my wife and we said to my son, it says on the box it's for ages 13 and up. So it might be a little complicated for you.

We'll play this with you another time. Instead, my son absorbs the rules as if by us Moses almost instantly and loves the game and wants to play it constantly. And so anytime he is not like in the bath or in the car or eating, he's like, money python, money python, let's play money python. Daddy, can you guess what I'm thinking right now?

Money python. Hey daddy, I'm thinking of a game that starts with M, money Python. And we played it three times this morning. And he beats me one third to two thirds of the time we play. You can't see his camera's off, but I'm crying, right? We've said to him, we're like, Stuart's going to be very happy to play a game with you some day, Sam.

Sam is, Stuart, I've been talking to him a lot about you because he seems to grasp game mechanics very quickly and he's all about games and he actually, he, it's worrying me a little bit because he started designing when he calls a murder world where he wants to put people through what he calls games with the ultimate risk and the ultimate penalty. So I don't know.

I don't know. I started to get the tagline on the ultimate penalty. So I don't know. I don't know. I'm actually got the tagline on the box, right? And he started building a prototype with his Legos and I mean, it seems like it works pretty well. Nobody's seen the mailman in a few days. I mean, I feel like the game with the ultimate risk and ultimate penalty was already designed and it's called don't break the ice. Oh, I would think it was don't wake daddy because the secret was daddy.

He's an alcoholic. Yeah, no way. Can he write? No, no. No, no. Now in the other hand, crackers in my bed, how so bad? I've described how to play a game. Usually, shoes on the other foot for me, and I have to describe a game to you or Dan, to various levels of complaining. I don't know. I wouldn't say complaining. Maybe glazed disinterest. Yeah. Okay. And now that I'm Dan came over for a game night. Every time it was his turn, he let out the most audible sigh. It was amazing. And then he did the best out of everybody. So, you know, I mean, well, that's Dan at this

point. The sigh doesn't really mean what we think it means he's more sigh than man at this point. And the sigh is just the way he interacts with the universe. Okay, that being said, Dan, rather than give you a chance to counteract that, let's cut the shit, okay? No offense. Let's like, guys, we got real family business to deal with round here.

Real top business, because Dan, what do we do on this love pod, no stochrosstra of ours? Well, we said it already, who wants a bad movie, than we talk about it. I couldn't remember because the dilly dilly we can and we watched gotty. Uh huh. We watch.

Okay. Okay. Johnny Travolta as Johnny gotty. That's right. John gotty the Teflon Don the dapper Don Donald Duck. Uh, Don Johnson. Yeah. Well, yeah, I guess that's for you he had a penis prove me wrong to work

i got to do the math uh... you to check south now goddard the uh... the it was in the twenty eighteen hall of shame as it topped the list of many people's worst movies of the year do we feel the same way well let's just say that it was directed by e from the entourage tv show and leave it at that. That's who it was. Yes. I knew I recognized that fucking name, but I didn't know. And after many years being attached as a possible Barry Levinson project, this book was finally handed into the equivalent hands of E from

entourage, whose name I can't remember. I'm sure he's a fine human being. I don't know. But it seems like he was not as up to the task as, say, Barry Levinson. Now, let's say one thing about Gotti, this movie wants to be good fellows so badly. Like, it is, it like, it so wants to be good fellows. Everything about it is ape and good fellows. And I think it's missing out on what, just a spoil of it. It misses out on the main point of Goodfellas, which is that the mafia life is very seductive for good reasons, but it's also very self-destructive and it will ruin your life. Well, it feels like somebody watched only the like, only watch Goodfellas once while it was screening on like TBS and missed the end of it.

They watched the first half of it and then got a phone call and they were, and all they saw were helicopters and him getting a nice new house at the end of it. They watched the first half of it and then got a phone call. And they were, and all they saw were helicopters and him getting a nice new house at the end. And they were like, looks pretty cool. Cause this movie is about how the mafia life is very seductive because it's great. And sometimes you meet really wonderful people like John Gotti.

Now guys, going into this movie, what was your level of knowledge about John Gotti? I knew he was a mafia kingpin uh... okay and that was it i think i was pretty sure he was dead okay uh... yet so and steward similar yeah i mean i watch this movie with my uh... with my wife who had a much larger uh... knowledge base of john gotty having grown up and and lived all her life in brooklyn

yes now because this movie really seems to assume a very large amount of knowledge about John Gotti in his life on the part of viewer, and also a real desire to connect with John Gotti. There are scenes that come up in the movie where you're supposed to be like, oh, this is what's gonna happen. And I was like, and so they'd mention people's names and be like, okay, who? What? Like, there's a bunch of scenes where they're just mentioning the names of other real-life mobsters. And it was like, at this point, and this is what it must feel like when I'm talking about Star Wars in front of certain people, where I'm just like, oh yeah, yeah, well, you got Moma

Nadeon and you got a Ponda Bayba and they're just like, mm-hmm, syllables. Yes, that's what some of the scenes that's movie follows. Yeah, this really loves to introduce new characters. Loves it. And it's a mix of, it's a mix of that, you know, an almost William Gibson, ask Disregard to people's knowledge of the situation. And, but also there'll be scenes where they'll explain everything so explicitly that you're like, Stacey Keach, John Coddy would know the names of the five different burrows. You don't have to explain it in the greatest scene in the movie. That movie is where, say, John Gotti, well, just skipping ahead, John Gotti is plotting

to murder his own mob boss, and he's talking to the under boss played by Stacy Keach. And Stacy goes, you're going to have to have the heads of all five families and the heads of all five burrows. Manhattan, Brooklyn, the Bronx, Queens, Staten Island, John Gotti is absorbing this information like a paddermond at the feet of a jet I master. And you're like, you think you think it would be shorthand he would understand, but okay. So let's start with the movie. We open John Gotti is standing next to which bridge was that the was that the 59th Street bridge

or I couldn't record or the Manhattan bridge is to stay next to a bridge is an important detail for us to get correct or else people will disregard our opinion of the movie. I know there'll be like um that was the bridge but it looks as if he just whacked Woody Allen and Annie Hall and it's standing next to the bridge they were looking at yeah. But he addresses the camera and he talks about how he's from New York and he made it big. He started from the gutter and he made it big. And then he says, what I thought was maybe the funniest line of the movie.

This life ends. This life ends in one of two ways, Daedarin Jail, I did both. And it's like, dude, everyone does both if they go to jail. Because it's not like there's a mob boss who's been in jail for 200 years. Well, it's also like the grim reaper.

The grim reaper is not a final destination scenario where the grim reaper. The grim reaper is it's not a final destination scenario where the grim reaper wants to steal the soul of Sam the Shin Jagati, but Sam's in jail. He's like, Dast, these bars will stop my skeletal fingers. Yeah, his side keeps setting off the metal detector. So it's like taking in a cake. So he tries to sneak in his side through a cake and they're like, oh, nope, try again. Try again embodiment of the abstract notion of death and unbeam. You did not nail it. Yes, I'm yes, Dan.

Sorry. No, it's come to Sammy. It's fine. You can think of me as your son. I do kind of. I already do. It's all it's also wrong in another way, which is there's one way that life ends and it's in death. Uh-huh. Not like the other option is jail. I pick jail, wherever. Uh-huh. Well, he's, you

know, it's, he's, he's not, you know, the life, the mob life. It's when it went to 1973. And he is. And also we we we had to point out that In that opening sequence and like much of this movie John Travolta's wearing like actual close the actual clothes of John Gotty he had gotten a lot of John Gotty's actual wardrobe to wear during this film I didn't realize that his because the movie the movie it is based on the memoirs of John Gotty's son John Jr Uh-huh, so I didn't realize that the memoirs of John Gotti's son, John Jr. So I didn't realize that. So he's wearing John Gotti's suits. Is that why he felt the need to put on strangely varying amounts of makeup at different points, depending on the age he thinks John Gotti's supposed to be?

Because I just dispoiled something. He has some of the worst old age makeup I've seen in a long time. It's like he saw Guy Pierce in Prometheus and was like, I can do better. I can out do that. But he, there at John, when he's playing old John Gotti, he's wearing such heavy makeup. I thought he was supposed to be 95 years old. And then I looked up John Gotti at the end,

they say John Gotti dead at the age of 61. I was like, wait a minute, I looked up. John Travolta is older than 61 right now. So I guess they had to make him look older than he is now. So they made him look like an elderly like like like a like a mummy. I mean, I can't. So he had been, he had been like going through cancer treatment maybe. So maybe, I mean, maybe I don't, it usually doesn't make you look elderly. I don't know. It's great that there's that they go so overboard with his old age makeup. But for the actor who plays John Gotti Jr. There are the only nods to age changes are his hair is slick down when he's younger.

It's straight up when he's older and I think he has a little bit of gray on the side. It's Jay Jonah Jameson style. Yeah. Anywhere's glasses. They put glasses on it. There's a seat. So John, John Jr. is played by this guy who must be 21 years old through the home movie and there's a part the end where he's saying goodbye to his family and his kids are all like eight 10 years old

and I was like wait are these his younger brothers like all that a second he does not it looks like the are these friends of his that he brought home from school they're on a sleep over with him it was it's hilarious but and so to make John Travolta look younger when he's young John Gaudi, they just make his hair so black. It's like gravity can't escape. I like can't escape the gravity of his hair It's so black. But anyway, so it's 1973 and young John Gaudi He's heading a team for Carlo Gambino of the Gambino crime family to find a kidnapper who kidnapped somebody I guess Carlos son. I'm not sure. It's like why they choose John Gotti to do it? Who knows?

The next scene, they're in a bar, the kidnapper's there, they shoot him in the head as smoke on the water plays. How do they find him? Who knows? Who cares? He's John Gotti, he's just good at that stuff. And now he's a made man.

Cut to, he's an old man in jail. Again, looks like he should be guarding the one true grail in a cave somewhere, so that Donovan can't drink the life of eternal youth from it. Yeah, and he should just pick the right Pepsi, right? That's the thing. Like if you pick the wrong Pepsi or face melts.

I think that's how those commercials used to work. Yeah. He's recovering from cancer and he tells his son, John Jr., who again looks like he's about 15 years old, although he's playing the married father head of a mob family, not to take a plea deal because that's the coward's way out. Cut back to him. In jail, as a young dad, he won't let his son be a cop for Halloween and we get to see him and his wife.

And he and his wife are like an SNL version of a mob couple. They are, and it's his real life wife. Yeah, and that's Kelly Preston. I believe that, I believe that scene, if it was a sketch on Saturday Night Live, it would have been titled, What's a Matter With You? And they would have hosted a show from their wood-paneled basement, yeah,

about what's going on in the block in the neighborhood. But it's like the old, the Boston sketch from SNL, whether the Bostonians, is a scene of restrained character work compared to the arguments and at this point the movie is just ping ponging back and forth between the present and the and the Pat I guess the the future or the pat I mean the not as distant past and the very distant past in a way that I think it's supposed to again set up thematic Lessons like good fellows does, but instead is instead it's just, it feels like a quilt, like a crazy quilt, the craziest of quilts.

And you're talking about the Batman villain, not the hired gun card from the Doomtown collectible card game. You read my mind, soon. It's also very confusing the time jumps because there will be like scenes within like the same year where like I was watching this with a friend and she kept being like How much time has passed? How much time is bet like? Because there'd be scenes between the same year where like you have no idea and then there would be like Title cards occasionally that would tell you the year mm-hmm

But then there would be like title cards that would tell you the year and it was the same year as it was the last time they told you the year. Like there were like five ones that said 1985. I'm like, okay, great, thanks. Yeah, what is your fucking sale on 1985 title cards? Some of these 1985 title cards are just not moving the way they used to. We'll put a bulk discount on them. It's a movie that it has some storytelling issues. Yeah, Dan, let's put a positive spin on it and say that it's,

it always keeps the audience on their toes. It's a movie that challenges you to really pay attention to catch all the clues. It feels like the whole wanted portrait. And then, yeah. The keeping the audience on their toes is a good choice of words, Elliot, because it's around now in the movie where

We have a scene where the character John Travolta is talking to other Mafioso guys and they're just like standing out in the street and they're using terms that In sensed my wife Because she had to jump up stop the movie and explain to me that there is no way that Mafia guys would stand around referring to things as the mafia and specific family names. I mean, the fact that LaCosa Nostra is literally the code word for the mafia because they don't want to say mafia, that yeah, they all have the fact that the ma, it's one of the, it's like we were saying, it's a movie that will withhold special information like who is

John Gotti and where did he come from and why is he doing this but then it will spoon feed you the idea that like there's a family called the Gambino family. Okay great also we're the mob so we murder people. Yeah, they'll see stuff like oh that guy is from the Greek mafia. mafia. It's a part of part of storytelling is knowing what information is necessary and what information can be withheld and I feel like they like did the photo negative of that. I wish that when we because this this movie's on Amazon Prime, I wish that when I pressed press play a title card came up that said, wait, don't watch this movie until you receive the information packet in the mail and then I would just get like a special booklet in the mail called so you're going to watch goddy and it

would explain a lot of the things i needed to know because uh... we were watching subtitles on and that's really helped that much totally out there's a scene uh... i would want to mention very quickly my second favorite line the movie after when he names all of the burrows which is uh... john junior he's at the military academy he says a new story about his dad on the mafia for some being in the mafia because his dad is also famous always, which was true in real life too. But then it cuts to for some reason, John Gotti giving his other kids money to see a movie to get them out of the house and he goes, uh, go see that movie. You'll

love about spaghetti, meatballs. And there's just something so stupid about that one, the specificity of like, look, we got to make sure of when those what year it is So I have the ghosty meatballs, but I was like he's Italian So he's gonna think the movie is really about meatballs. Oh forget about it. Isn't that crazy? Come on like it's such a it's such a Done moment talking about meatballs Jesus Christ. I didn't know what movie So anyway, yeah, he's he's plotting crimes on the street using terms they wouldn't use. He tells some guys to stop plotting crimes for a moment

to help an old lady with her groceries. And he's keeping an eye on local businesses to make sure they're safe and supportive. He's just a guy taking care of the neighborhood. Anyway, more and more, John Jr. is getting pulled into the life. John Gotti is meeting lots of other mobsters there's a scene where he's at a disco and other mobsters are just being pointed out to him and it

feels like it's the recap at the beginning of a mob show like they were there just like remember all these guys and he's hanging out is this is he hanging out with Stacy Keach at this point. Yes, he's hanging out with Stacy Keach who is what, uh, what's his character's name? Nick or something I can't remember. But he's the, Neil, uh, he's, he's the under boss to Paul, Paul Castellano, who's the head of the family that they're in. And everyone's like, Stacy Keach, you should be the boss. You shouldn't be the under boss. Stacy Keach seems pretty happy being the under boss. But John, Goddy has a problem with the boss, Paul, which is that Paul doesn't care about family. He just cares about money. He's only in the mob for the money. He's not in the mob for all the bullshit

macho loyalty garbage that gets thrown out the window Constantly because the thing about this movie is it's like it's almost like the last samurai of of mob movies where it's like This is a group of warriors and men of honor who care only about their dignity and about each other. But then everything in the movie is about, no, they're just like violent jerks who beat people up and only want to take stuff. Everyone in the movie is, and John Gotti is like, I'm all about loyalty. Loyalty is the most important thing to me.

Now you're going to help me kill my boss or what? And uh, but uh, the, meanwhile, being a mob boss, it's not all peaches and cream. It's not all champagne and roses, guys. You know what, being the head of a violent, murderous, crime syndicate that likes to pretend to do this sort of quasi religious for journal organization, built on love, when that love is enforced mainly through violence

and money and also the abuse of Women and hatred of minorities and all sorts of things It's not all it's not all it's not all the dream It sounds like because goddy's other son Frankie is hit by a car and killed with all the subtlety of An insurance scare commercial that they show you when you go to an insurance office to get you to buy more insurance And it it almost tears the family apart and this is a real you know to real tragedy that can happen to anybody not just a mob boss And this is when we see John Gotti really come to the fore as a as a husband and as a man because even though he is Constantly gone either in jail or plotting crimes and

It has most of his interaction with his sons involves giving them money to go see spaghetti movies here. He is he is really there emotionally for his wife who falls apart and he puts his mob life on hold for a couple weeks to take his wife on a vacation and guys wouldn't we all do the same if our children were killed put our jobs on the hold for a couple weeks to take our our wives on the vacation so that they can get over it. I mean as long as we're a minute of honor then take our wives on the vacation so that they can get over it. I mean, as long as we're in a vana, then yes, of course we do that, Elliot. I guess so. And he's a made man, right? So I'm not super into the mafia stuff.

Being a made man is like being a knight, right? Oh, yeah, very much so. And similarly, in that being a knight was also gussying up violence and oppression of the week with this idea of you're doing something wholly and better, the Mafia is just like that. Yes. Only in this case. Can any made man make another person of made man

like the way at night can night and someone else? I don't think so, but I don't think it's like a vampire where you can just bite a made man, bite some made man and turns them into a made man. Although it's one of those things where, so they show a made man ceremony later on when John Jr. becomes a made man. And it's basically like they take some blood from your finger and I guess put it on a picture of the Virgin Mary and there's a candle there and they make you swear to oath and they

tell you that if you ever rat them out they're going to kill you and then they're like, now you're our brother. And we're all brothers because I don't know about you guys. We all have brothers. I don't usually enforce my relationship with my brother with threats of death if he turns on me. And you're growing up, there's a lot of that actually. Yeah.

I'm not like, my brother is getting married next year. And we've been talking about his bachelor party stuff. And I'm not like, I'm not like, David Kaelin, you're my brother. You're always gonna be my brother. But if you wrap me up, so help me God, I'm gonna like David Kaelin, you're my brother, you're always gonna be my brother, but if you wrap me out, so help me God, I'm gonna kill you, I'll kill your family, which is my family, so I'm gonna be really sad,

but I'll do it. Elliot, if you get, for, I have a little idea for your brother's bachelor party. Okay. You should get a special guest, Gritty the hockey mascot. He would love that. My brother's the kind of person where I can imagine gritty shows up at the party and then starts taking the costume off and there's a strip underneath and he's like, no, no,

put the costume back on. I want to hang out with Gritty. David would be crying because it's like finding out that Santa's just your dad. Yeah. Yeah. That was been destroyed. I mean, art dad is Santa. He's Tim Allen in the Santa World.

That's our dad. Yeah, when we were a kid, my dad hit Santa with his car and had to take over the role. And it was hard. It was hard growing up with our dad being so deep in the Santa life because he often wasn't there. He was with his underbosses, his copo's the elves. And he would have to plot on his list

which kids would get good presents and which kids would get whacked. And you know, that's the secret about saying on the naughty list those kids they just disappear them. Yeah. But, you know, and I wanted to be a made elf and I tried so hard and he took me side and he was like, you weak, I'm sorry, you weak, you never got you never gonna have what it takes.

And that's why it turned states evidence and why my dad's in jail. This is a mash up worthy of a Facebook promoted t-shirt. There's got to be some sort of Santa mob. Like the same way that there was that period where everyone was everyone where I was constantly seeing people wearing those looney tunes like gangster rap mashup shirts where bugs and daffy and taz we wearing a ton of rings and gold chains. There's got to be some kind of Santa mafia. Yeah, yeah, I didn't choose the Santa life, the Santa life chose me or something. Yeah, yeah, exactly, exactly.

The other thing about that, that, Lakosa Santa, something like that. You're like, or like Mrs. Claus painted up like a, like a Dio Dose Boratos lady with a couple, like a pair of nickel-plated 45s in her hands. Okay, I mean, that's a kind of different criminal organization that's not the mafia. But it her hands. Okay, I mean, that's a kind of different criminal organization. That's not the mafia.

But it's still really cool. I mean, that's, I mean, it's awesome. Oh, yeah, I mean, it's awesome. I mean, I thought we were blue sky in it right now. Oh, yeah, yeah, there are no bad ideas. No bad ideas. Dan, do you have any bad ideas? No, but I wanted to say that the other thing about that

made man, ritual, or whatever. Like the fact that they did that stuff with the blood and burning the photo I was just like I guess this is you know like based on this book that you said so this all has to be accurate But I had no idea that the mob was so silly. Yeah, yeah, just like everybody poops Yeah, yeah, just like that movie two girls one cup based on the book everybody boops Yeah, it's the mob. I mean, here's the thing.

One, anything that New York guys from the block do is inherently silly. They're the silliest of all people. And I say that as somebody who grew up in New Jersey, who lived a lot of long time in New York, who really loves those types of people. But they're very silly. But also, it's that's the thing.

It's like the mob is at heart, it's a very silly. But also, that's the thing. It's like the mob is at heart, it's a criminal enterprise, and I know I'm putting my life on the line by saying that guy, so I need you to protect me. The mob's a criminal enterprise, but they need to pretend it's more than that, or else people will just turn them into the cops

all the time so that they don't go to jail, and so they have to pretend it's a religion essentially. Now, if I was a real radical, I would say that all religion is in a sense an organized crime that guzzies itself up with silly nonsense, but I don't believe that, so I will not say it. Yeah.

Well, yeah, it's like the cult leader in Mandy, once, once is like, or a fear is punctured, his strength, he loses power. Yeah, exactly. I mean, once, once the cult leader in Mandy, he's got to gusty it up. Where else he's just a kind of, a kind of like frail, ex-folk singer

walking around with an open robe with his penis hanging. At which point are you gonna go kill Nicholas Cage's wife on his word and his say so? I don't think so. Okay, anyway, John Guy Jr. keeps falling into the life, but John Guy lies to his wife and says that John Jr.

is gonna be kept away from that life. Meanwhile, there's another tragedy. One that the movie treats as almost bigger than the death of a child, when cops wire-tap Gotti's best friend, Angelo. No, played by character actor, Taylor Vince, who's awesome. Yeah, although he's another one of these characters that showed up in the movie, I'm just like,

would you were the movie before? Yeah. Well, it's's another one of these characters that showed up in the movie. I'm just like, were you in the movie before? Yeah. Well, it's one that's there like they're like, this was his dad's best friend, Ange. Ange was his best friend. I'm like, really? Because they haven't spent any time together until this moment when he needed to enter the story. Apparently, this, apparently early on in the production, this role was supposed to go to Joe Pesci. And then he gained a bunch of weight. And he wasn't able to then they gave him a different role and he sued them and they had to pay him money. Yeah, this movie is like, wait, wait, hold on.

Hold on. I don't, the production. Wait, back back back. No, no, Elliot, shut up for a second. For once in your life, for once in your life shut up, they gave him a different role because he gained a bunch of weight. Prooote Taylor Vince is not a small man. No, no, no, no, he gained weight for the role.

And then they're like, actually, we, we got two Taylor Vince. Okay a small man. No, no, no, no, he gained weight for the role. And then they're like, actually, we got two Taylor Vince. Okay, it's not that long. It's not that long. It's not that long. It's not that long. It's not that long. It's not that long. It's not that long.

It's not that long. It's not that long. It's not that long. It's not that long. It's not that long. It's not that long. It's not that long. It's not that long.

It's not that long. It's not that long. It's not that long. It's not that long. It's not that long. It's going to be like an A-list movie with big name people in it. Then over time, and this happens to movies all the time, it just kind of like slipped through the cracks and filtered down to this netherworld where it's being directed by a guy from Entourage and movie pass is one of the big investors. Yeah. And then...

Contravolta, we have to say, big star, but he is giving one of the worst performances I've ever seen. I mean he's having fun guys, right? He is having fun. It's a thin line. He's making a lot of this thing He is so good in the people versus OJ Simpson and that performance is not that different in some ways than this one But there I think he's so good at it But he's playing this very flamboyant, strange man. And here, he needs to be playing a guy who can be taken seriously as a cunning mob boss. And instead, he's playing it like this weird

flamboyant, strange man. So if it was like, if this was a movie that was called like the craziest mob boss, and he was the mob boss, or everyone was like, can you, what's the deal with this guy? He's so weird. And that point, I mean, he's, I don't know,

John Dervolt has got a weird energy about him that I like. He's kind of, but in this one, it doesn't work. Okay, anyway. And the whole time we're watching this movie, I kept expecting Frank DiAngelo to walk in and start singing the song. It does feel like a Frank DiAngelo movie

that Frank DiAngelo turned down. Like, he's like, I've got standards. No, thank you. You know, I left my heart in San Francisco. Should I be able to be able to boom? So the cops wire tapped Angelo and on the tapes, he says things about bad things about the big boss, Paul, and also he talks about unsanctioned hits and stuff

and crimes that Paul didn't sanction. Ever, the thing that the lesson they learned from this movie is that mobsters for all their talk of loyalty and respect and honor, they're constantly pulling off crimes, their bosses did not give them permission to do. That seems to be the, the running thread and Paul wants those tapes and Goddy is like, well, we got to kill Paul. I got to save Angelo.

Meanwhile, Goddy beats a, beats the rap on a Rico case. There's a big street celebration that I think is also the 4th of July where fireworks are going off in the city streets and some cops are like, hey, we gotta shut this down. But John Addy stands up to them and the cops stand down in the neighborhood cheers because who's really in charge? John Gotti.

Yeah, the cops realize that the small folk are with Gotti. Yeah, because once you get the money, then you get the fireworks and then you get the power. Yeah, he's got the power. Yeah, good, but Gotti is just keep trying to kill Paul. And he has, meanwhile, there's another childhood friend of his who he has killed because he was an informant. But then Stacy Keach dies and Paul, the big boss, he does the worst thing, doesn't show

up the funeral. And John God is like, this is unacceptable. And it is a pretty dick move. Like, it's like if, you know, you didn't show up at the funeral of the person you're closest to because I don't remember what they said he had to do. I think he was on a boat or something or he had to, he was making, like he had to do a personal appearance on the prices right or something.

I don't know. What do you think he was that was more important than his underbosses funeral? Dan. Which guy? Oh boy. Okay. But moving on.

He had, he had Saturday night live tickets and those are, he had put so much money into those. So well, the thing is he really wanted to, he really wanted to see the rehearsal because the show, we all see the show, but the rehearsal, that's where the magic gets made. And sometimes some of the best sketches show up and then get killed. But so John Gotti, he still wants to kill Paul and now he really wants to kill him. And so this is when they pull off the one scene in the movie where I was like, oh yeah, I remember this stuff where Paul Castelano is assassinated outside of Spark's stay-house in Manhattan. Let me just say this guys. Let me just say this about Spark's stay-house. Okay. I wish at this someone who loves

stay-cousers, I have a personal favorite stay-cous that's Keens in Manhattan. I wish that sparks was up to the same level of quality that I feel the band sparks is at because I don't think it's that great a stay-cous. And if I was a mob boss I would be kind of disappointed if I was killed in front of a Spark's stay-cous. I'd rather be killed in front of Keens, Peter Lugers, maybe even Wolfgangs. Like, you know what, old homestead, the oldest steakhouse in New York.

And you know what, at a certain point, I might even pick being killed in front of a Ruth's Chris. I mean, if we're talking about chain steakhouse, is Ruth's Chris is pretty great. Yeah, or a Morton's. Ruth's Chris and Mortons are fine chain steakhouse, is Ruth Chris is pretty great. Yeah, or a Morton's. Ruth, Chris and Mortons are fine chain steakhouses. Sparks, not as crazy. So again, I just want to make it clear

if I'm ever a mob boss and you want to kill me in front of a steakhouse, please kill me. Unless it's the fact it's like you're killing me in front of a sparks because you're like, he's going to be disappointed in this steak. I want to not make him feel that disappointment. I'll kill him before he eats it. Because if I get shot in front of Keynes,

I'll be so disappointed that I'm not going to be chowin' down on one of those dinosaur-sized prime rips underneath a ceiling hung with clay pipes surrounded by old newspapers from the 19th century. You don't want to eat in a place that's with walls plastered with pictures of Don Shula and other members of the Miami Dolphins franchise. Well, no, that's why I wouldn't eat in a chula's if I was gonna be assassinated. Although chula's not the best chain steakhouse,

they're okay, they're not terrible. But I remember this being like this was a big event when it happened. This was the one time where I was like, oh yeah, here's something I know about John Gotti. Now of course, this is one of the times, this is maybe the most famous thing he ever did other than I guess dying in jail.

And this is, this is one where they go so so they go so overboard with the archival news footage. And here's one thing I liked about this movie is that they show you a lot of archival news footage of John Gotti, like just news stories covering him during the 80s. And it's like, oh, I kind of wish this was a documentary that was just like piece together from old news stories and didn't have all this other stuff. Did you guys ever feel that way? I mean, I love watching old news stuff, what do you say? I certainly felt like whenever the news reports were on, like, we're the only time to understand

what was going on in the movie. I'm like, yes, thank God. Like someone's explaining what's happening in this film. You know, thank the maker, finally. Yeah, yeah, it's like you pause the movie and it had the IMBB trivia pop up on the side. Yeah. Yeah.

Or or it listed what actors were playing what roles and you're like, that's who that is. Yeah. Yeah. It's it's with the archival news footage and it was a little it was a little disorienting because they do except for like one specific thing. They do make no effort to disguise what John Gotti actually looks like and what John Gotti Jr. actually looked like. So it's a little weird to see in a movie, to see those two things, to see that and then

Tervolta and his crazy makeup. I mean, to see how much fatter the real John Gotti Jr. was was a real shop. He isn't like a super buff dude. He wasn't, and apparently was not 21 years old his whole life. He didn't look. He didn't look like a high school football player his whole life or high school swimmer. I guess I thought it was a I thought it was a tin drum situation where he decided he would never he would stop aging.

That's the power of the mob. Yeah. Yeah. And also I'm never going to stop aging and my hair is never gonna change it So if we're getting taller or flatter That's the things that let's make him look older. I know we'll give him a kid and play haircut That's what I'll do it that'll really age him But it it was a little jarring to see although it bugs me when they do in movies sometimes was more jarring when they have

Fake archival footage with the actor in it But it was jarring to see the real John Gotti who just in his news footage exudes much more charisma than John Travolta exudes here. And then to see the real John Gotti junior and then see like it did feel a little bit like you were you suddenly were watching the community theater performance of a famous a famous movie or something like that. Anyway, there's John Gotti gets named the new head of the Gambino crime family.

Now he's famous, he's on the news all the time, lots more mob shenanigans. Gotti's best friend, Angelo, has tried some unsanctioned hits on Gotti's enemies and to save his life, Gotti exiles him from the family. A year later, he dies as John Gotti says a voiceover of a broken heart. Oh, so sad.

Okay, just like Queen Amadillo. Yep. Yep. Yep. They're very similar in a lot of ways. Right. He's like, you died over the part just like Queen Amadillo. And yeah, and there's also a medical bot next to him. So now, John Gotti's sitting on top of the world. He's the head of the Gambino crime family. His sons have made man. He's forgotten that his other son died. His other best friend is gone, so he never has to buy him a birthday present anymore, which is a lot of pressure to figure out the right thing to buy for a friend or a good friend for their birthday party. Or a good fella. Yeah, or a good or a good there's a scene in the movie that they're like, yeah, so and so

is a good fellow, but duh, duh, duh, and it's like, wait, you know that they didn't really say good fella, right? Like the term was wise guy, but there was a TV show called Wise Guy and that's where they called the good felt. Like, it's a movie, it's a mob movie made by people who know the mob from mob movies. But anyway, John Gotti sits down to. I mean, I expect him to, I almost expect him to call

a good feather because it's about the knowledge of fucking mob movies they have. That would be so funny. If they're all constantly bopping their heads like pigeons, trust me, I saw I had a maniacs, I know what the mob is like. And then for some reason, John Gotti sings a song with every country in the world in it.

So John Gotti sits his son down. He's got a big goal. He wants to build a nationwide mob empire that will last 100 years. And it's one of those moments that's like, okay, hold on a second. Like maybe that was his ambition, but that's one crazy. Two, it's stupid. Three, he sounds like Hitler when he says it.

And four, the movie presents it as if he's a real man of vision, and this is an amazing goal that he should be working towards. Like when in any movie has anyone ever said, I wanna build something that's gonna last a hundred years and it hasn't either one fallen apart instantly or two been evil. Yeah. Yeah, that's, I mean, when they created the ring

of satellites around the earth to prevent geostorms, it just made geostorms. So I think that was a mistake. Yeah, we all remember when that happened. Yeah. Well, they shouldn't have given the Gambino crime family the contract, rebuilding those satellites. The Geo satellites, yeah.

Yeah, because then when they took the Geo satellites down, they're just full of guys who had to disappear. This is kind of, this is kind of tough at this point in the movie. This is where I was getting kind of bored and I was like, do I have to put enough attention to this movie, or can I just sit here and unlock more characters and smash brothers? Because I'm just working on trying to get Wario unlocked. Because I kind of see a lot of...

Yeah, it's just pretty hard, right? Yeah, and I kind of see a lot of myself in Wario. Yeah, you know? Because we're both... Because you're both an evil version of someone else. Yeah, and we're both like business-minded, you know, and we both have a really recognizable laughs. Stuart, you've mentioned to Wario being a small business owner before. What is his business?

His business beat the shit out of Mario, dude. Wait. So do people hire him to do that? And it's Booman. Yeah, it's funny. You know, but guys, I think you're both going to be happy to know that I like Wario, had the professionalism to not do that and focus on the movie. Yeah, it's good. Because you know who the original Smash Brothers, the Mafia. Oh, okay.

So moving along, John Jr. gets married and he has his first dance to a song about a dad giving advice to his son. Because even John Gotti Jr.'s wedding has to be about John Gotti, which is crazy. It's the least romantic song anyone has ever danced to. Sure. He's a mental mom. There was no, uh, Frank's an actress, so. I mean, they're not going to pay for the rights for that, but they, they should have done There's no, uh, Frank Frank Sinatra saw.

I mean, they're not going to pay for the rights for that, but they, they should have done the thing that, uh, so, uh, Dan and my his friend, uh, Eric Marce-Zack once told me about a wedding he went to where the DJ said, hold on, look who's here. It's old blue eyes. And then kind of a mascot version of Frank Sinatra with a huge Frank Sinatra head walked out and was miming singing into a microphone as a Frank Sinatra song played and it was the funniest thing I've ever heard. That was incredible. I went to a, I went to a sweet 16 that was the most Bensonhurst Italian thing you could

go to and at one point the DJ said out loud, is anybody here Italian and everybody lost their mind and then the Terrentella started and I get the fuck out of the way or I'd be crushed. In the rush to the dance floor. Now you were almost and when you died to the air, autopsy report said close of death, hospitaliano. So now John Gotti uh, oh, but he's on trial for the murder of Paul and Sammy the bull, Gravano, that murderous rat testifies against him in exchange for life in the witness protection program. The movie does not mention that Sammy the bull eventually went to jail anyway for drug dealing, not the great guy that we were led to believe this man, Sammy the bull, who was a hit man. But he also, and they made a point when he was, when that character was first introduced,

that John Gotti didn't trust him. Like, it's like he had his, his, Goddysense was tingling, even though, even though his full, a Chris Mulkey was backing him up, character after Chris Mulkey. Yeah, there's actually no reason at that point the movie for John Gotti to suspect him. He didn't, except for the fact that later on, have to know that he's going to be a bad guy.

Yeah, that's called brilliant foreshadowing. So there's some unsanctioned killings as a result. John Jr. puts his foot down, no more killings. Mrs. Gotti is very upset that her son's a gangster. You said you'd keep him away from that life and so forth, but then so John Gotti goes to jail because he did it. He committed that crime. Got to got it. He got his sentence in jail and John Jr. gets arrested. And he wants to, and this is that great scenery. Says goodbye to his kids who all look older than him somehow. And, and he wants to sign this plea deal so that

he can be in jail and then get out in time for his kids to be his age. And Gotti Senior says, no, if I was you, I wouldn't do that. I want to go into that courtroom one last time and stand up to everyone. And he says and break their holes, which is a crazy way to describe it. And it's like it's such a gross way for someone to talk about like being a man and standing up from self to like, I'm going to go in there and break their holes because it's like. It's so disgusting. And it's like, you're not gonna steal that line for when you have, when you have the talk with your son.

Now, I don't know. I'm not sure which talk. Now, which, which, which, which holes are they talking about? I don't understand. Now, let's take a moment to talk about that because the human body only has so many holes. There's your, there's your no nostrils, your ear holes, your mouth hole. There's that hole.

Pizza pile, there's the holes in your eyes that let lighten. There's your pores, maybe it's time out there, pores, like covering them in gold paint, like the woman in gold finger. And they asphyxiate because the pores. And then there's the other holes there's for the front hole for urination and the back hole for defecation.

And now those holes, there's multiple uses for them. You can sometimes you're putting things in for pleasure. Sometimes you're taking babies out of them. But there's, but it takes a lot to break them. Like people put their holes through a lot of punishment for pleasure. And they rarely break and they're often fixable. So is this what the movie is about? Is this what the movie holds is about?

What you're telling me right now? Not having seen it, I'll have to assume that yes. I mean, based on this, based on the young child of the book. A young child of buffass on the box art, I think, yeah, it's about that. It's, no, I don't know if it's about a boy whose holes are broken and has to get them fixed

or a boy whose under threat of having his holes broken. But it's like at a certain point, you have to wonder what's gonna, to say break about an organic part of the body that's not a bone is weird, like those holes are soft tissue. So to say break is like, it's gross to say tear their holes,

but that's more accurate. And there's often some tearing, say, during natural childbirth, during vaginal childbirth. And that's often some tearing, say, during natural childbirth, during vaginal childbirth. And that's a natural thing that happens because babies are huge and they're coming out of a very small space. Now, to say break implies that there's a hard structure

to it, that there might be cracks or some kind of fracturing, where maybe pieces flake off or fall off. Like it pebbleizes a little bit. So I don't know what he's, is he talking about first that he's gonna freeze them with liquid nitrogen and then smash them with a sledge hair. Yeah, specifically in their whole area. Just the whole area. So he needs to use one of those little doctor hammers that used to test your reflexes so he doesn't break the whole body.

Or maybe it's a localized use of the nitrogen to just freeze that part. But it's a very good question. What holes is he talking about? And how is he gonna break them? And it's the subject of today's episode of The Flop Holes. Now, here on The Flop Holes, we talk about holes and things that people do with them. And today we're talking about breaking holes. That's right, break into electric hole elu.

And my guest today are Dan McCoy, whole specialist. Dan McCoy, whole specialist. Dan McCoy is a and Stewart Wellington who often, Stewart Wellington who often shops at whole foods. Your place for food that goes in your holes. Now guys, when I say break your holes, what does that conjure up in your minds?

I just wanna get your first impressions. Why did Dan look at me? Well, I mean, I feel like I we've already kind of covered what I get in my head. I get like a guy with a big sledgehammer kind of just like cracking it into someone's butt. Okay. And now this, this, now the butt already has a crack in it. This is, this is creating new cracks or different cracks. How does this work exactly? It'd be very extreme in your detailing. It's more about shattering the pelvis, I think. Okay, now you're talking about that.

Okay, so Stuart, now your experience with holes is a little different. Whole Foods is a chain of grocery stores owned by the Amazon company, which also distributed Gotti, the film we were talking about earlier. Now, if you were saying break whole foods, would that mean like what to?

Literally demolish a storefront, or is he talking about driving the company into bankruptcy, which would be hard to do since Amazon has such deep pockets. What do you think, Stuart? Yeah, I mean, I think that's a tough one. I think putting a second crack on a butt... kind of like a madman's gambit i think i think people haven't considered horizontal as a possibility ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha fold the graph paper it might work that way. We'll find out. Great, now let's, while we give Stuart some time, let's go to our next segment, the flop hole recommends

where we recommend movies or books related to holes. Now of course, I'm gonna recommend Disney's The Black Hole, the story of a spaceship that literally goes into a person's butt and finds a portal to hell. Wait, is that what happens to the movie? There's also a lovable robot and also kind of a mean robot and I guess they all fit into somebody's butt. Now my run or rock recommendation is of course

the movie, Holes, starring Shiloboff, which I haven't seen, but I have to assume is about a boy who's either has a broken hole that he needs to fix or is in danger of having his hole broken. Do you guys have any recommendations for the recommendation segment of the flop hole? I'll recommend Ace and the Hole, starring for Douglas, originally called the Big Carnival'll recommend Ace and the Whole, starting from Douglas,

originally called the Big Carnival. It's a very cynical. It's very cynical. It's very cynical. It's very cynical. It's very cynical. It's very cynical. Examination of how the media can drum up a story.

Now, it's also, it's about someone who gets trapped in a collapsed mine, which is literally a broken hole in the earth, right? That's a good point. I'm gonna recommend the whole nine yards, which is literally a broken hole in the earth. Right? That's a good point. I'm going to recommend the whole nine yards, which I think is better than it's equal to the whole ten yards, which I mean, those still appropriate for this segment didn't come to mind first.

And now it's time to turn to our sponsor, a responseer tonight by a wholebuster, which is it's both a video store that only has movies about holes and also a place to go to get your hole busted, which hole do you want? How much do you want it busted? That's up to you, holebuster. Now turn it. I want to scale one to 10, what's the problem? What do they have different face images

to represent the amount of busted? No, I can't say I've never been there, but I'll just say holebuster. Go there, you you know, I'll just say wholebuster go there. You get 10% off with the code flop and wholebuster. Bustin makes you feel good. Now, turning back to Gotti, John Jr. He signs the plea agreement. John Gotti, he doesn't want to leave jail.

He fights his cancer in jail. He refuses a pain killing coma. And also when a priest comes to administer last rights, he waves the priest away as if to say, no, I like being a mobster more than I like the grace of God. And more than I like going to heaven. I'd rather go to hell a mob boss than go to heaven kneeling at the feet of that whole God.

And so, okay. And now here's another sponsor for the flop hole. The whole earth catalog. Now, the earth has a hole in it that leads to Palusadar, a headland of dinosaurs. You might want to order something from there, the whole Earth catalog. Now John Gotti dies and it's all over the news. And again, this is when I learned that John Gotti was actually younger when he died, the John Travolta is now.

And yet they caked John Travolta with enough makeup. He looks like a little big man in the at the end of his life. And we see period footage of John Gotti's funeral and a lot of local MOOCs talking about how John Gotti was so great and he kept a neighborhood safe. The point at which I was like, he's dead. Why is in the movie over? Nope, it just keeps going. But like, man, like people, like people at the time walked it like, they, I mean, they showed archival news footage. Like there were riots when when Goddy was put in jail. People were walking around wearing free gun, John Gotti. Sure. I wish it was gone. Johnny. That would have been better. Or John Gandhi,

who he was a mob also believed in nonviolent crime. I think you're only allowed one crazy digression per 20 minutes. So you can. All the time alright fair point my role officer is taking his head agrees with you yet uh... so john john june is still on he goes on trial even though he signed a plea deal they never really explain what happened there but i guess it's that the government is like going after him with case after case and charge after charge to oppress him because the government just hates goddys you read you look at the oppressed cases in American history and you've got, of course, slaves, Native Americans, different types of worker, and of course, the Goddys, among the most

oppressed by the government. And John Godd, and Mrs. Goddys puts on this, she finally has her big scene where she yells in the court about how this is crazy. Stop harassing him. But we've seen him do crimes, guys. Yeah. Yeah. He's done a bunch of crimes. It's not like he's got a criminal.

He is a criminal, but he gets acquitted. And there's some end text stating that the government kept going after the goddess and they released hundreds of killers to get their testimony to put John Gotti Jr. and John Gotti in jail. And the implication is that the government so hated these two guys that unleashed a wave of monsters in exchange to try to capture them. That it was literally a case of, we got to catch these two rats.

So I guess we'll have King Cobra's all over America in every bed, biting our children. And then we cut to John Gotti again in front of that bridge and he goes, if you live to be 5,000, you'll never see another guy like me. And it's like, dude, I've seen so many guys like you in the movies, in the White House, in the state I grew up in, like the movie really fails to date across what was special about John Gotti. So guys, what do you think was special about John Gotti that they decided to make this movie about him? Uh, his air? I mean, he's, I mean, he's a big, uh, larger than life. He was a larger than

life, like actual organized crime figure who captured the public imagination. I don't, I mean, he was on the, he was on like major news publications covers, like he was on this. That's true. That's why they made a movie out of them. That's true. He was one of the... He was the bachelor for one season too. It's kind of weird though, because I'm assuming his family had a lot of input in the making of this movie. It actually kind of reminded me of another biopic that Dan and I watched recently, Bohemian Rhapsody, which was clearly like deeply

influenced by the surviving members of Queen, so it like landed out all the possible drama and painted all those characters in a very specific light. And it's very much an advertisement for in this, like that was an advertisement for the music of Queen. This is, I guess, an advertisement for, I don't know, the Mafia. I guess so. Yeah. And they're both movies like Built Around One specific performance, you know, John Travolta in that old age makeup wearing John Gotti's clothes, Rami Malik in his makeup wearing Freddie Mercury's mustache and teeth.

Yeah. Giant. Big horse teeth. Yeah. So did they dig up Freddie Mercury and take off his mustache and his teeth so that Romney Mallick could use them in the in the part. No, he had to break into the rock and roll hall of fame and Yeah, I was a Hike I forgot now there's a movie rock and roll heist. I mean, that's isn't that like the picodestine the the tenacious team movie

I guess it is yeah, I think maybe you're right. I guess this is the point at which we do final judgments usually. Yeah. Yeah. It is. I mean, this movie, it leaves me so exhausted. Why break the chain? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Good bad movie or bad bad movie or movie kind of like the question. Will the circle be unbroken as I asked and Dan says, no, it will not be. we will do final judgments. So I'm gonna go first. I'm gonna say this was it had so much potential to be a good bad movie because there's so much wacky stuff in it, but it just it just pounds you down. I would say the first half of this movie is like good bad and by the second half you're just like I don't know. It's just scenes being thrown at you and there's no it's hard

to understand what's going on. And it really gets to the point, like, it just takes it so much for granted that the audience is on John Gotti's side from the beginning, that he doesn't have to win you over. He's such a lovable character. And it's, you know, the one thing they're missing is I guess like the Pope canonizing John Gotti at the end. But it's, I would, but I would say bad bad it. I wished it lived, it like lived up to the hype of being a really bad movie, but it didn't live up to the hype of being the most fun bad movie of the year. Guys, what do you think? Was it supposed to be the most fun bad movie of the year?

Was that the word about it? I don't know. Uh, because I, yeah, I think it's bad bad. I think that the John Travolgerves performance is comically over the top. I think that there's so many funny things that like they're like these crazy needle drops all the time in the movie. There's so many like music cues. They have all these pop songs that don't really relate to what's going on on his camera.

Yeah, and just I mean the lines like you say are so stupid from time to time. But I the fact that I just couldn't follow a goddamn thing means that I just can't recommend it at all for like a bad, bad movie. Yeah, that it like that movie. That it manages to, at the same time, give too much and too little information. Yeah. Yeah. By the end of it, you're like, you're struggling under all the facts they've given you.

And yet you have no idea what any of them mean. Yeah, no, I actually think you have the right of it, Elliot. I think the beginning feels like a good bad movie, and then, as I said, it makes you long to go and grind out some more characters on super Smash Brothers Ultimate. Maybe I would say watch it until Angelo dies. Maybe until the exile Angelo because there's the funny part where he exiles Angelo and then Angelo leaves the kind of dank social club that all

the mobs just hang out at and they just all look away from him as if they can't see him. And it's very funny that it's like the the ultimate mob punishment, the cold shoulder. Yeah. He walks out and they react like John Cena's waving his hand in front of his face. Yeah. Hey, Max Fun listeners. Have you been listening to Max Fun for a while and you've just been wondering, where's the new Flat Earth podcast to keep hearing about?

Well, here it is. We give you all the facts on NASA's lies and how we know that the Earth is actually flat. Just kidding. This is Ono Ross and Carrie and we join fringe religious groups. We undergo alternative medical treatments. And we hang out with people like 9-11 Truthers, Flat Earthers, we find out why do people believe strange things? We join them and we tell you all about it. We have a lot of fun, we make a lot of friends. Yeah we do, we join the Mormons, we join the Scientologists.

We got acupuncture, we got firecup, we got ear candled, we've done it all and we're gonna keep doing it all. Why don't you check out Ono Ross and Carrie at maxmomfun.org. Hi this is Rachel McAllory. Hello, this is Griffin McAllory. And this is wonderful. It's a podcast that we do as we are married, and how's the ad going so far because I think it's going very good.

We talk about things we like every week on Lensays. One time Rachel talked about Pumper and Nickelbread. It was so tight you cannot afford to miss. Chard talking about this sweet brown bread. We also talk about music and poems and, you know, weather. There is one called weather. One time Rachel talked about Baby Beluga, this song for like 14 minutes and it just really blew my hair back.

So check us out on maximumfun.org. It's a cool podcast with chill vibes. Amber is the color of our energy. Is what all the items reviews say? They will now. There's no sponsors this week, but we do have a jumbo tron that I don't like to read. And it goes a little something like this. This message is for dad. Do you want to, do you want us to leave the room because I know these so little Dan Reads

are the very popular? Yeah, people love him. Okay, sorry for interrupting. I mean, this is a jumbo tron, so I don't think it works that way. Okay, cool. You're not gonna take as much liberty with the text. Yeah.

Not gonna spend as much time being a self-deprecating lovable teddy bear in this one. Yeah. This one's for dad, which is very not specific. I feel like. I mean, for one person, it's very specific. Yeah. Yeah.

I like how Dan was like, I'm not gonna do this the way I do a solo ad read and then immediately started going, going after the subject of this. What I assume is going to be a heartfelt jumbo trot of its to dad It's yeah, well, I just you know, I want to make sure it gets to the right person and I don't know if dad's the most clear but I assume that from the context of it It's the same way that when my family gives me a father's day card. It just says to dad It doesn't say like to Elliot Kaelin the dad of these children with our fingerprints and the birth certificate stapled

to it. Yeah, yeah. First of his name. This is. Yeah, they don't print out my ancestry.com tree and my 23 and me results to make sure it goes to the right dad and you're twinning celebrity. Look alike percentage. Oh, any decent. Uh, excuse me, I don't, I would be honored to be any decent's twin. So this one's for Dan. The man's a national treasure and a Beatles expert. This is a from Parker that that narrows it down. Yeah, yeah, sure.

And Parker says, Dad, first of all, thank you for buying the Elliott's book. I can't wait to read it with you. In my first six months here on Earth, you've exposed me to a lifetime of podcast content, but I can tell that Stuart Dan and Elliott make you LOL the most. Since I'm a baby, I don't get why it's funny, neither does Mom, but it makes me happy to see you. So that's interesting. Well, I applaud Dan for not reading that in Dan's like affected baby voice that he does. Yeah. As his character, baby boy Dan McCoy, is that an L audition piece? Yeah, where he's like, quick, I gotta get into makeup and then

smears jam all over his lips. That's what babies look like. Well, they're getting hands all over their lips. Yeah, okay. Well, that was the whole message, Dan. Yeah, that's it. That's a very sweet message. That's adorable. How nice.

And I'm impressed that this baby could handle the Max Fun Jumbo-Tron interface, not because it's difficult, because the baby is so young. I think we have a genius on our hands. Yeah, so we've got some live shows to promote, right? Let's do it. We got two live shows to promote.

Oh, you've heard us talking about how on January 26th will be at the University of Wisconsin Madison in beautiful wet Madison, Wisconsin. Saturday, January 26th at the Wisconsin Union Theater, Shannon Hall, I believe, is the location. We'll be talking about Venom. That's right. My favorite Marvel character, circa age 13, got his own movie.

I still haven't seen it yet. He's going to talk about it. I think Venom is kind of like the John Gotti of Marvel heroes. In that he's a lethal protector, I guess so. And because John Gotti was covered in a symbiote from outer space. Yeah, John Gotti was that huge tongue that people on the internet find sexy for some reason. I can explain the reason if you want the reason. I get the reason, but he has, John Gotti is very similar to that. I mean, that Eric Larson also did not like drawing John Gotti and decided to make him as

monstrous and crazy as possible. Oh, hence the long tongue crazy as possible. Oh. Hence the long tongue and the teeth. Okay. It would take, it would take a young Mark Bagley to reassert that Venom is not just a slobbery monster drool creature. Okay. Now, we have a new show to advertise.

Guys, can we talk about it? Dan, can we say it? Yeah. Uh, I guess wait. Yeah, I'll allow it. There's nothing in the rule, but it says he can't promote it. Okay. Uh, I guess wait. Yeah. I'll allow there's nothing in the rule that says he can't promote it. Okay. That's right. Boys. We're going back to our old stopping grounds of the bellhouse, Brooklyn, New York, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, bellhouse Sunday, February 3rd. That's right. Super bowl Sunday. We'll be talking about,

or can we say the movie or no? Uh, we, yeah. Let's say the movie. Yeah. So we'll be talking about I think what the happy time murders. That's what we decided on. Yeah, so football themed show Super Bowl Sunday. Hey, do you guys hate football like I do come to the one guaranteed show my brother won't be at Sunday, February 3rd at the bellhouse in Brooklyn, New York. I mean, just based on law of averages, even if you like football, it's most likely that your team isn't in the big game. So why don't you come watch us instead. That's true.

And guys, I'm going to have a little extra pep in my step because it's going to be the day after I celebrate my grandmother's 90th birthday party. So watch out. I might be a little hungover. But that's okay. Super Bowl Sunday, February 3rd in Brooklyn and January 26th in Wisconsin. Get your tickets to those ones. The bellhouse ones, the tickets might not be available yet,

but hopefully they will be soon. Yeah. And do you want, do you really want to just go along with a fucking crowd? Do you like football that much? No, you don't. You're just going to watch a Super Bowl because that's what everyone in the US is doing.

But Dan, well, why? Wow. Okay, one, one, it's an American tradition. Everybody loves it. Two, there's always the chance that it'll be like my favorite Super Bowl, that year when the lights went out and half the stadium and they had to stop the play, but they kept broadcasting it. And it was just confused football people wandering around in the dark, wondering what was going to happen next. That was my favorite

football game of all time. It was so real. The, uh, can we announce the, yeah, I don't, I don't know, I'm asking, um, Daniel out this out of them wrong. And Dan and I are gonna be guests at another show at the Bell House. On Saturday, January 12th, we're gonna be guests on a live Ono Ross and Carey show. Oh cool. Hopefully we're gonna get electrodes attached

to some part of our bodies. One of your holes is gonna get broken. Which one? And how? Yeah, you got to show up for Bill has to find out. Yeah, they haven't told us exactly what crazy experiment we have to take part in yet. So yeah, I mean, I hope they don't tell me until I literally walk out in front of a room full of people and then I go, oh, go, go, go ghosts.

And then those come and tear my body apart. That's what you hope for. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So that's your best case scenario. It's good. That's what you hope for. Right. Yeah. Yeah. So that's your best case scenario. That's case scenario. Okay. Interesting. So we got those live shows. Guys, let's move on to the next segment, which is letters. All right. Thanks for telling me. Oh, wow. Thanks for keeping your foot on the gas here, Elliot.

Yep. Let me pull up the letters. Well, Dan's doing that. Hey, Elliot, what's going on with you, buddy? You watch any new TV. You see that Roman off. Take that line. I had it right here. I saw a little bit of Roman off. I've been watching that haunting of Hillhouse show. And it was, it's very spooky. And you know what the spookiest thing about it is, Carl Gagino just does not seem to age. It's amazing. Is she a ghost? I don't understand it.

Yeah, is she playing to play John Gotti Jr. and an upcoming biopic? I don't know. Maybe that's a weird leap. She's playing Joan Gotti in the gender swapped version of Gotti. Lord Joan Gotti Jr. in this case since that actor didn't age. Dan, let's power forward. Okay. Football.

It's a basketball. I was trying to relate it back to the Super Bowl. You did a great job. You did a great job. Thanks. This letter is from someone that I didn't, I don't have the name. So I apologize that I do not have your name. I hope that you will still enjoy hearing your letter

right on the air. As always, five star community outreach and customer service courtesy of the fly pass. This letter is from anonymous. So make sure that you're wearing some kind of cool V for Vendetta. Nice. Or writing the novel primary colors, a Romana clef about the Clinton campaign.

Now, nobody, the flop house really knows how to make its listeners feel special. Okay. Moving on to the letter from anonymous. Yeah. My wife and I recently watched Hitchcock's 1937 film, Young and Innocent, a crime thriller in which the daughter of the local chief constable risks it all to prove the innocence of a man she's only just met.

We were really enjoying the performances and the cinematography and the effects were impressive. At the end though, things got a bit weird. The climax of the film. Are they going to talk about the black face stuff at the end? Elliot, don't fucking spoil the letter. Okay, sorry. It's the climax of the film. Hey, I don't know. Hey, if I knew who wrote it, I'd be worried about offending them,

but it's just an anonymous letter that a bird dropped in your lap. Thinking that your head was a rock that it could break open the letter on and to eat it sweet meats inside inside it is dropped it on you. The climax of the film takes place in a hotel restaurant with a crowded dance floor in live band. The heroin and her companion are searching for the man they believe to be the killer who they know as a twitchy eye. We're treated as some dramatic irony is the camera mood makes a very slow push in across the dance floor to the band to close up with the eyes of the band's drummer which we see

to be twitching. This is all very tense stuff and great filmmaking. Or at least it would be, if not for the fact that halfway through the push in, my wife and I realized the entire band, other than the white singer, was white guys in blackface. Holy shit, we both explain, explain, exclaimed. And basically lost it. There's a holy shit we explained.

Some shit is holy. If it comes out of a saint, maybe, or the Dalai Lama, we've finished the move. We've finished the move. They'll be stuck in a reliquary and then sold off by a traveling, you know, Giga salesman. Yeah, Giga. And when the new Dalai Lama is born,

they hold out poop from three different people, one of them, the old Dalai Lama, and then two random strangers. And the child must reach out to the poop that belonged to him in a previous life. Mm-hmm. Dan, continue with the letter. We finished the movie after a bit,

but it kind of spoiled the mood. It's something like this ever happened to you. Can you think of a time when our older movies seemed timeless right up until it really, really wasn't? People on flopping in the free world, ROCK and the USA. Now, I'm gonna say one, this happens in a ton of old movies. But that part doesn't really bother me and I'll tell you why.

One, the audience is not, the audience of the movie is not supposed to be enjoying that those people are in blackface. To me, it is a moment in entertainment history from England in the 30s when blackface was common, but the, but you the viewer are not supposed to be like, I love it. This is great. This is the villain of the movie is in disguise as a performer in blackface. And so I don't feel like the movie is saying this is a fun thing that everyone's going to enjoy as opposed to say a day at the races, which is an okay Mark's Brothers movie. It's not one of their best, but it's okay until

the big number where they're dancing and singing with the village full of black people that suddenly appeared out of nowhere behind and they're all talking in dialect and the marks brothers for a brief moment, try to hide by putting grease on their faces so they are in black face and it's like that's supposed to be a funny moment. It's supposed to be something that the audience is amused by and that doesn't work for me. But something like the scene in young and innocent, I don't think the audience of the movie is supposed to be like this is hilarious that they're in blackface. I think it's more of a it's a detail that's meant to help disguise the identity of the real criminal that much more.

What do you guys think? I mean it's still I mean you still have a reaction to it as in a modern puer though like I guess so but it doesn't ruin the movie the like the movie doesn't feel tainted to me in the way that other movies do for that there's there's a I forget which Fred Astaire movie it is there's one where he does a dance in blackface as a tribute to billbo jangles robinson and it's and it's a really beautiful dance but it's very hard to get through the path fact that he's doing it in blackface but even there he's doing it not from a point of view of this is hilarious or like I'm doing an exaggerated cartoon version, but even there he's doing it, not from a point of view of this is hilarious, or like I'm doing an exaggerated cartoon version

of a black man, that one's more complicated and complex to me, but it's like, so many times in old movies where you have to be like, okay, I don't like this, but that's either from the time, but there are other times when you're like, this is not okay at all still, and it shouldn't have been then, but I don't know, it's so complicated, guys.

But what's the, the other day, the other night I was at the bar and after RuPaul's Drag Race finished up, I was about to turn the TV off, and then VH1 started playing pretty woman, so I'm like, I'm leaving the TV on. And then as pretty woman was rapping up like,

big mistake, huge. And I was gonna turn the TV off again. And it was dirty dancing. And I'm like, oh, I'm definitely leaving the TV on. And then I was about to turn off the TV again at like two in the morning. And then 16 candles came on. And 16 candles is a movie that like,

I on tape is a kid and I watch so many times. And I haven't seen it in years and I know it's terrible. Like I know that like the there's so much gross shit and the the the long duck dong characters so horrible like it's terrible but I don't know I watch the opening credits I'm, I still like the opening credits. And then the rest of the movie I just turn off, because it's horrible. I mean, you hit my go-to Elliott with Day of the Races, so.

Day of the Races. There's a lot of movies like that that I really like, but then they misshandle ethnic characters. I mean, I've mentioned once in a live show that like, I love Westerns, but every Western I watch, I have to deal with the fact that it is about the elimination and demonization, usually of another, of an entire type of person, unless it's one of those Westerns they made in the 60s where they're like, uh, well, we'll tell things from the native point of view, but we'll still kind of say it was a good

thing that, that we settled the West, but There's I was watching music man with my son recently as he called it It was a four day movie because we're not gonna let him watch a movie that long all at once So took him four days to watch it and I love that movie But there's a scene in it where they have the song Shippupi, which is maybe my least favorite song in the whole movie Partly because I don't like the term Shippupi. I don't understand it and it doesn't sound good to me. My son loves it because it's now he has a sanctioned way to say the word poopy, is if he says Shippupi.

But the whole song is about going after a girl who's hard to get, because she'll relent eventually. And there's one verse in it where it's like, give her a pinch when she is and look in, get a pinch back and that's fancy cooking. And it's like, I don't approve of just going around pinching girls when they're not looking. So that's one of those moments where I was like, but my son was so distracted by the word Shippupi that he didn't care what the actual song was about. So that was fine. Yeah. Moving in us with another letter, letter Dan maybe one with a name attached

Yeah, sure, okay, this one is Jane Wait, hold on no wait, this one's from Landon. Okay Dan, let me explain don't need to explain how letters work Let me explain, don't need to explain how letters work to you. Yeah. I like the idea that I somehow mistook the word land in for shame. Two most different names. No, this is from land and last name withheld who writes, I absolutely love slapstick and physical comedy, a la Chaplin, Keaton,

Carrie Grant, straight through to Steve Martin, John Ritter and Melissa McCarthy. However, I find these types of movies, lesser quality ones anyway, are often played with unbearable characters, character tropes, archetypes, stereotypes, and just downright unfunny characters that immediately make me furious. For instance, any low-ranked version of a Jerry Lewis character or the entirety of the 1967 version of Casino Royale? Are there any types of characters that drive you, Batti? Love always land in last name with help. And there's one like we're not just talking about comedic characters. I don't think I think it's open to everything, but there's one that really bothers me and that's the overbearing mother

archetype. Like I just don't find that funny at all. But, but Dan, your favorite movie is Where's Papa? I just like gorillas. I mean, it's not a real gorilla. Well, it doesn't matter. You can pretend it is all you want. No, I just find it upsetting. I find the upper-bearing mother character upsetting and unpleasant and I don't find anything

funny about the way that these characters often seem devoted to ruining their children's lives. Pardon me. I just find it very bothersome. And of course, any, I don't like sort of like the sassy black character because I find it very uncomfortably racially tinge. You prefer black characters to know their place. I'm not talking back. No, that's not it. I just like, and in like, in all white movie, when they like turn to like the black characters

it just like say something snappy and like, I think that would probably apply also to the one gay character in another wise straight move. Yeah. I'm guessing too, right? Where it's like your job is to be the jester. Your job is to do the comments that make everybody laugh, and you have no interior life, that kind of thing. Exactly. Yeah, and yet you love the mannequin movies.

I just like the starships. He likes magical necklaces. I mean, what about like this. He likes, he likes magical necklaces. I mean, I mean, what about Rabin Granny? Do you like Rabin Granny? When like a stuffy person says something in slang. Oh, that's now you're to hit on my least favorite comedy trophy. I mean, we, I didn't expect them to sound like that.

I mean, we've talked about a million times, but I think, I think we're all quite sick of the like, like the nagging girlfriend or bitchy ex-wife character. All the characters that Judy Greer seems to be forced to play. Unfortunately, she's so much better than that. And I'm gonna go with the, this is a character type that I guess starts with what like Bill Murray, but has become kind of in

a different way Chris Pratt's big thing where it's like the hero who's kind of a jerk to everybody but it's supposed to be charismatic and is really incompetent and really foolish and yet he's the hero that everyone's supposed to love and another character is always pulling their bacon out of the fire. But they, but the other character is not the hero of the movie. Instead, the guy who's a jerk who can't get his act together is the hero. And you know, of course, I, I character trope that I will never get sick of is the medical examiner or coroner who is always eating a sandwich on the job.

Hollywood, if you ever need somebody to play that character, I would love to do it. Thank you very much. I mean, that's lovable. The thing that it really points out is the lack of workplace labor regulations for coroners. They don't get a lunch break. They gotta work straight through the day. Oh wow, they're like video game developers.

Yeah, exactly. They're like video game developers. Yeah, exactly. They're working 80, 90 hour weeks so that electronic arts can get that game out on time or that autopsy. And it's just not fair to them. Yeah. I keep putting the phone down in between these letters and I shouldn't because I just keep it open. Yeah, can we talk? Do we have another layer that's going to bring up negative stuff? Yeah, do we have another letter that has to involve us grandstanding about things that we feel better than? No, we've got a fun letter to end on. It's from Shane last name with help,

a four-minchin' Shane. Oh, yeah, I've been looking forward to his letter. Hey, hi guys. You all mentioned. Hey, Shane. been looking forward to his letter. Hey, hi guys. You all mentioned. Hey Shane. You all mentioned piranha 3D. Yep. I was in that when I was 16, uncredited background, not even an extra, just sort of wandered

onto the set. Cool. Some trivia about the shooting location. There was a huge die off of carp that summer due to a carpal specific herpes going around in the water and everything in the whole area smelled like dead fish rotting. The boat and one of the caverns is still intact and sitting on my old boss's property. I tried to get into the movie as a stunt performer by waiting outside the director's office and

doing flips when he would come out for a cigarette. That didn't work. Like that moxie though. Years later, I ran into the director at an Irish bar in Tempe, Arizona. He gave me his card and I lost it. I'm also friends with someone high in the hole. Is that that Irish bar in Tempe, Arizona that, oh, fuck, what's that, Rother? There's this like author who writes these fantasy books about a fucking druid who lives

in Tempei Arizona. And that he's always hanging out at one bar that actually exists. And it's the weirdest fucking thing. Okay, go Dan. I don't like this question that cannot be answered. Somebody will write it. Yeah, yeah. So it was sure you were I would know about someone who writes the books about book about druids in tempi Arizona. But here's the, I think here's the cautionary tale of this letter and knowing it hasn't finished yet, is when someone gives you a business card you wanna hold onto, don't do any flips

until you put it on your nightstands or maybe in your files, because I have to assume he did a flip in celebration and it fell out of his pocket. Yeah, yeah. Or because Bizzoucajou did something hilarious. Yeah, and he just flew backwards with the contents of his pocket,

spilling out everywhere. Uh, he finishes the letter. I'm also friends with someone high up in the local water department who said it might not even have been herpes that killed those fish. But I forget what his findings indicated it was. Guys, that sounds like we got another mystery on our hands. Book us some flights to wherever they shot that. I think we got a lot of leads here.

We got more information about this book series. Do we're talking about? Well, we got to we clearly have this piece thing that I feel like was was was some like false lead that David Kekner created. So that we get we've free was not pinned on him. We've clearly got to start at this Irish bar in Tempe, Arizona. And then eventually get back there. We've got our team. Now, I'm the, I'm the stealth guy because I'm short and I'm small. So I can hide in the shadows. Stewart, you're obviously the muscle and also the face.

Dan, you're a herpes expert for obvious reasons. We're going to have to solve the problem. What's killing carp in this unknown lake. Dan's our tech guy, right? Because he's good at handling the emails. Now, now, now, when you're trying to sell this pilot fish herpes detective? Yeah, it was called fish herpes detectives. It starred us, but we also had like a cute kid that we had to adopt and went with us. And the kid had a funny list. So it would be like

hopeies. And we'd have to try to hide what herpes was because they're not ready for that knowledge. Now, here was the problem that a lot of the networks had with it. One, the word herpes in the title, but I stood firm on that. That wasn't going anywhere. Two, the budget I was asking for of $20 million in episode just for the three of us, not counting production costs. The rest would be kind of on a shoe strength. And three, that we were going to investigate one specific fish herpes mystery, but never

solve it, but the way Twin twin peaks was supposed to be done And also I was gonna try to get the log lady back out of retirement so that she could be a main character on the show Maybe even the villain who knows but We it was hard to secure her involvement to get her attached again herpes in the title not huge and at the time a lot of the networks And we're not buying fish shows anymore because fish police was such a big disaster and I was like that was a long time ago people are ready for fish shows remember fish the spin-off from Barney Miller and they were like no we don't know what remembers I feel like tons of people are ready for fish shows I mean they play like multiple nights around New Year's

even Madison Square guard right but you're laughing, Dan, guys. So Dan, is that the end of the letter or was there worth? No, that's it. I'm just a fun story about Ron 3D. Yeah, it was great. That was, well, that's clear of how. Thank you for clearing our palette from all the, from the very serious letters that came before.

We might have to have a discussion with Dan about maybe just having one feeling bad about types of people letter per show. Yeah, I mean, it's called like a shit sandwich. Okay, where you have bread and shit and bread. Okay, sorry. Let's time let's have. Yeah, but you wouldn't want to help me out that much. But you wouldn't want the other way around, dude.

It's not like a double decker or whatever that thing is. The double d... It's like a double dash. I got a choice. I got a choice between one of them. So we say, yeah, yeah, yeah, you have to choose the ball. It's like choosing the ball or the sword and lone wolf and cup. Okay.

Yeah, or the lady or the tiger. Keeping in mind that the lady is a lady that you don't want to talk to. Nope. Okay. Like someone of the DMV or what? A lot of fine people work at the DMV, but yet she does work there.

Yeah, her name is Sherry, she works at the DMV. Okay. So now's the last segment on the show. This crazy show of ours. Dan, when was the last time you went to the DMV? I don't know. Okay. Uh, uh.

Last time I went to the DMV, the lady who was handling my case was delightful, super professional, and it didn't take very long. California DMV asked for, uh, I forgot her name, but she was really good. Okay. She was the one, you know you're in good hands when the person who's handling your case is the one everyone else is coming over to ask questions about forms they need. Okay. She was the one, you know, you're in good hands when the person's handling your case is the one everyone else is coming over to to ask questions about forms

they need. Yeah. And she has the answers. It's like, I'm in good hands. This is the expert. Okay. Well, thank you guys for schooling me about my stereotypes. Okay. DMV. You'd think since the first two letters were literally about stereotypes, you would know not to step in. I would think you would like the DMV because it could be like those letters could stand for Dan McCoy vehicle, you know. They could. That's factually true. Or Darth Murray Vader, since Murray is Darth Vader's middle name. But Dan, I know your stereotypes about the DMV come from patty and Selma on the Simpsons by far the most offensive stereotype on the Simpsons that these two ladies who work at the DMV are very of the show is where we recommend movies that we saw that you should watch instead of Gotti. Please Lord watch anything except instead of Gotti. Yep. I saw two movies last night both of which I enjoyed. Gotti. One was under the silver lake which has not been released here yet, but I have friends who had not said said friends had access to a French DVD.

Oh, I know the friend. So it's the follow up from the guy who did it follows. It's a. So this is what follows it follows. Yes. Congratulations. If I were there, I would have high-pitched. Yeah, put a, put like a zinger sound effect in there. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah,

yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, stoner LA mysteries like the Longodbar or Diggle Bowsky, but it's much more absurd and weird and not so much more than either of those films. It's about an unemployed guy played by Andrew Garfield, who there's a woman who goes missing in the middle of the night, who he had a moment with and he wants to find her. And he sort of becomes convinced that there are all these hidden signals around him. Like that. These messages that I mean, it's all it's about the interconnection of all things, except for like everything that he every clue that he follows up on is totally absurd.

And should not lead to him solving the mystery, but somehow does. Spoiler alert. Sorry. And so I watched it. I wasn't even released yet. Yeah. And I saw, I also saw a mausoleum, which is a great bad movie about a woman who's possessed by a demon after she goes into a mausoleum and that's shown by her eyes turning green and her doing like crazy things with her brain

powers. Sounds awesome. Talking about stereotypes, there is a very like menstrually like lady housekeeper who gets scared of the supernatural thing in the middle of it. So that's kind of weasy, but the rest of it. And mausoleum would hold up. But the rest of it is like so bad and funny and so of its time and There's just like there's a twist ending at the end that is completely nonsensical

In the most delightful way. So if you're looking for a bad movie to watch, I say, Mosley, awesome. I'm gonna recommend a movie. I, after seeing you were never really here earlier this year, I've been slowly dipping back into Lin Ramsey's catalog and I'm gonna recommend we need to talk about Kevin, spooky little joint. Starting, uh, during Tilda Swinton, John Stirling, that's the poll, that's the poll quote on the poster, a spooky little joint.

Uh, yeah, I thought it was really fun. Um, it's, uh, I think it's a great little horror movie about an evil kid. Uh, it's shot beautifully. It's, uh's built around an incredible central performance by Tilda Swinton. And yeah, I mean, it's it bounced around in time. It it postulates a universe where Tilda Swinton and John C. Riley are married, which I love that idea, although I don't know if I feel like their child would be even more alien than Ezra Miller, but who knows.

Yeah, I like it. I also really, my big, my favorite thing to do is to watch movies that illicit strong reactions on IMBV user reviews. And we need to talk about Kevin is very much like that. Apparently people thought it was based on a true story. Now, I mean, it's it uses a couple, the movie uses some kind of on the nose music cues, but it were, I don't know, whole thing works. I like it. Watch it. Spooky kid. Spooky little joint with a spooky kid. Yep. I'm gonna I'm gonna recommend a movie that's also, well it's not spooky at all but it is haunting. Oh

I'm gonna recommend the movie first reformed. Paul Schrader's movie with Ethan Hawk about a priest who is a at a not priest, a reverend, sorry, a reverend at a down point in his life. He is too much into alcohol and he gets wrapped up in the life of a married couple where the husband is pretty much on his way to becoming an eco terrorist. And in a lot of, now the last Paul Schrader movie I tried to watch for this dog eats dog. I could not get through. But this movie I found super spellbinding and just like really disciplined and restrained in a really great way. And it feels like it's his take on Ingmar Bergman's Winterlight, which is also about

a religious leader who gets traumatized basically by his experience dealing with a man who is in crisis because of larger world issues that he really has no control over and suffers because of that loss of control. But at the same time, it's also like a companion piece to taxi driver in the way that Ethan Hawkes character develops over the movie. They're both about men who get very intimate looks into people's lives,

but have found that they can no longer connect with the world anymore. And as a result, they become radicalized in different ways. Only this one, the thing that's radicalizing him is like a real problem, which is the destruction of the environment. But I thought that Ethan Hawkes really great in it. Cedric, the entertainer has a role in it,

and he's really great in it. And I've just found it to be a really powerful, affecting movie. Don't watch it looking for a good time. But at the same time, watch it. Yeah, watch it. We need to talk about Kevin for that. Yeah.

But it's one of these movies that came as close as I can think of to an American take on what is usually a very European type of movie, something that's grappling with religious issues in a serious way, grappling with larger forces and the way that individuals can or cannot influence the world around them in a larger way. And I just thought it was really, really well done. So first reformed. Yeah, and that's like, that's being talked about for award seasons, right?

I mean, it's one, it went once in independent spirit awards and some critics choice things it was nominated for, but I think it should, I would love it to win some awards. I think it's a really great movie. And it's the kind of movie that would be easy to dismiss as, I don't know, either two, this is two boring or two depressing or two serious or two bleak, like I don't care, but it's just, I found it really like powerful and I, there was never a moment where I was bored with it, even when the movie was moving at its own pace.

So try it out. First reformed. Ethan Hawke. You love him. He's handsome, right? Mm-hmm. So, Edward the entertainer, he's hilarious. I mean, the party's playing is not funny, but he's very good at it. So three movies you can see and one movie you can't see. Uh-huh. Yeah. Oh, Dan was just dangling that one in front of you to show how cool he is. Uh-huh. Now what do we do, Dan? Now we say, get the fuck outta here.

Wow. Well, like a ranking was not done. Where was that accident earlier? Dan, you had so much opportunity to do your, your, your bridge and tunnel guy accent and you just didn't do it. Dan, I need to ask you a serious question. What's the matter with you?

No, no. No. No. No. Marone. Oh, wow. Really, really, really buried the lead on this one, no. No. No. No. No. No. No. No.

No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No.

No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No.

No. No. No. No. No. No. I want to applaud my own restraint for not going into a long digression and where I was like a Jersey guy talking about how great God he was. So thank you to me, Elliott, for not doing that. Instead going with the much more profitable holes, Tanshit. Yeah, I love the idea that Elliott is congratulating himself on restraint. So before we go, as always, check out MaximumFund.org for a bunch of other great shows podcast. Do you like podcasts?

You're listening to one right now. Why not try? I mean, you, we don't know what your reaction is to this. You may hate it. But also, if you like the show, give us a review on iTunes, tweet about us, you know, tell your friends, tell your family, introduce it to the made men and we're women in your life. Let's be, it'd be really funny if they wanted

Gotti to be more of an accepting movie so they're like, you're now made man or woman. As the case may be, but yet, tweet about us, Instagram about us, Facebook about us, leave a review on iTunes or wherever you listen to podcasts the flop house as Jan mentioned it's a production of maximum fun go to a maximum fun dog for other great podcasts. There's lots of great I need to repeat it. I cover all this stuff under mine at this point Once again get the fuck out of here forget about it my own

I And I'm Dan McCoy I'm Elliott0. I'm Elliot, Kaelin, and I'm Stuart Wellington. I guess we're ending this thing. Goodbye. [♪ OUTRO MUSIC PLAYING [♪ Now, here's the thing about Homo Lone. He also had that neighbor, the scary old man with the snow shovel, who also could have come over and helped him at any time.

Instead, it was just kind of waiting outside like a century, like as in the Judas Priest song The Sentinel, just waiting for someone to come by so he could hit him with that shovel, right? Yeah. But maybe Kevin McHale start put some sort of supernatural word on the house that would only allow the wet bandits in but would bar entry for any other adults. Maybe thought of that? I think that's certainly possible. I mean, I don't know it's in their basement.

They already had all those cardboard cutouts and stuff. They probably have some kind of books on esoterica. Maximumfund.org Comedy and Culture, Artistone. Listener supported.