The Flop House - Ep. #346 - Locked Down

Episode Date: July 3, 2021

Whaaat? Our second Doug Liman movie in so many episodes? It's certainly hard to give Locked Down as much shit as we gave Chaos Walking -- especially when it co-stars Elliott's old flame Annie. Anyway, we hope you enjoy our usual shenanigans. Life seems to be looking up, right? Are we wrong?Wikipedia entry for Locked DownMovies recommended in this episode:The Neutral GroundThe Sparks BrothersThief

On this episode we discuss locked down Based on the works of John Bonjovie I Fuck No, I'm done. I'm never doing one of these again. You guys pressured me to do and wow want to do Please hold on. I feel like an idiot. Well, everybody's listening now. I feel like a fool Damn, let's do I damn what's going on Hey everyone, welcome to the flop house, I'm Dan McCoy. Hey, it's me Stuart Wellington. This is Elliot Kaelin, if you're noticing that my voice sounds sexier than usual, it's

because I have a little bit of a cold. That's right, you'll miss the evil sexy. It's Susan Sontag said, so illness is a metaphor for sexiness is more nasal sex is that equation that your question, elephant Dan boom. Okay. Yes. Yeah. For a second, I thought Kathleen Turner was guessing on this podcast.

Yes. Thank you. Stuart knows where it's at. Yeah. A warm husky tone. What do we got here? We call it warm husky. We just call it wasky.

I mean, they're usually warm. They're covered in a thick, downy coat of fur. And they have those eyes like what's the space? Like white fire, Neil McDonough. Neil McDonough. Oh, Neil McDonough, that's right. The husky of actors. I mean, why have they not made him the villain

in a fucking Anamorph's movie? I mean, they haven't made fucking anamorphous movie? I Mean they haven't made an anime movie as far as I know Wait they haven't wait Dan you could you could have finally said wake up sheeple and it would have been Got a joke in there you can use for something Elliot I think I think I went through putting your putting your book Well, I think of think I think that went through putting your putting your book. Well, my book of joke ideas have formed joke ideas. You have that book, Elliot. You actually do, but I

don't put joke ideas in there. I put ideas for other things. Okay. Like inventions. So, if they haven't made an animor's movie, we can just T. M. All this, right? Yeah. Nobody can steal it. You yet? We own animorphs now. That's the they they they they snooze and they lose. Yeah, that's You get we own animorphs now that's the they they they snooze and they lose Yeah, that's it. They slaps the most flop house flag on am or they let the back door open And I used a secret identity I called myself Edgar Allen Poe and I snuck in and stole it. Oh, that's Way to great segue Do it in such a great good way to segue into the movie unfortunately first and what do we do in this podcast? Yeah, I'm this podcast, we watch a bad movie

and we talk about it. In this case, we're watching our second Doug Lyman directed film in a row. Wow. That's not my line man. And this is officially Lyman. That's when we watched he does Lyman movies. And he did a seventh son and jumper as well.

So he's had his share of flat-house films, although he's also had a share of very good movies, like The Born Identity. So he's he's had his share of flat-house films although he's also had a share of very good movies like the born identity I like go a lot What he did as if tomorrow so yeah live die repeat who knows Now It's like a box of chocolate. You never know what you're gonna get what I would also point out is that I think a notable Presence in this movie is also the writer of

the film, which is Stephen Knight, who was the writer of Serenity and a bunch of other wacky movies, maybe which have been on this podcast. Yeah. So this is the second, is this the second night, Hathaway co-production? Mm-hmm. She must be as muse. But before people tweeted me, I might have been thinking of Stephen Knight as the, I think he may have been the writer of seventh son and i was

conflating the uh... previous flop house things that we uh... uh... looked at but i'm confused with charles are night the man who could paint through time the one of america's greatest painters of dinosaurs no probably not now but yes to you steven night uh... wrote serenity uh... one of the stranger uh... movies we've done

but he also he wrote he wrote dirty uh... pretty things eastern promises to movies i like quite a bit and he created piki blinders and co-created who wants to be a millionaire so that's the gamut of television right there you know he wrote he wrote and directed lock with tom hearty which is the movie I think that the dialogue in that movie is closest to the dialogue in this movie, I would say, which is to say overwritten, and you can agree or disagree about the times at which it works or not.

I didn't like lock as much as a lot of people did, even though it's more successful, I think, than this overall. But lockdown is the sequel to lock. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, yeah. So both that movie and this one seem to have been written on a dare. Like there's a real challenge aspect to it,

because that one it was just a guy on his phone, right? Yeah, and his car driving to try out like rectifies the situation. It was a regular Cosmopolus. And this one is a movie that was made entirely during lockdown, which is strange in that there are a number of scenes with multiple people where one person will be wearing a mask and the everyone else

would just not be wearing masks. Yes. Which threw me up until I remember, England has been relatively lax individually with that kind of stuff. I don't know if, I mean until I remember, and England has been relatively lax individually with that kind of stuff. I don't know if, I mean, I hope, I certainly hope this is true. I read that there were no COVID infections

associated with this movie, so they did a pretty good job. One would have to say it, but yeah, it is a question of like, did we need to do this? On the other hand, who knows? I mean, it's like Everest, you question of like did we need to do this on the other hand? Who knows? I mean, it's like Everest you do it because it's there. Yeah, in this case it wasn't there until they made it But you know what I mean anyway lock down should we talk about what the movie is about sure? Let's do it. Okay

The movie starts with a little bit of a misdirect as we see a hedgehog wandering around in a yard Sorry, the movie is not about that hedgehog and I I think that's why Stewart on the IMDV page it lists, it was the end of the, it's the list Sonic as being in the movie. Yes. It says Sonic and then the role is hedgehog, but I just saw a Sonic hedgehog and I'm like, what the fuck?

And then I watched the whole movie and I'm like, I didn't see that blue fucking ring freak right through the round, but he was having some of the movie, you know, cast an order of appearance. You do get Sonic first. Yeah, it's certainly possible. We've established that Sonic can move so quickly that he can go faster than your eye can follow. So there's a chance he was running around doing stuff on in the

back. I mean, he could be in any movie. That's the thing. You don't know for sure that Sonic wasn't running fast through. Shindler's list last year at Marion Bad. Any movie. He was possibly in every movie. That's a thing you don't know for sure that Sonic wasn't running fast through Shindler's list Last year at Marion bad any movie, you know, he was possibly in every movie. That's a great thing about conspiracy theories is coming up with something that it's impossible to Disprove and so you like it just feeds itself Somebody that's what that's what Elliott's YouTube channels all about Yeah, yeah, yeah, that's my YouTube channel canon where yeah, that's that's true. Uh now Yeah, yeah, that's my YouTube channel. KAnon, yeah, that's true. Now, guys, that's my challenge to fly-plow listeners. Go through every movie ever made.

Frame by frame, prove to me Sonic is not in that movie. I'm just gonna say this because otherwise someone's gonna send it to us. KAlon, how about that? Yeah, that's better. I don't. Look, I mean, I'm not saying whether it's better worse i'm just saying that i know the internet

and someone will get angry that that was less on the table fair thank you for not leaving that table instead swiping it off the table yeah crash on the floor uh... so let's forget about that headshot we don't need to know much about it we're we're dealing with paxton and linda uh... paxton played by uh... chudal edger for and uh. Paxton played by Chudal Ejafor and Linda played by Anathaway.

They are a married couple. No, they're not married. They're just in a long time. They're so long, yeah. I don't get long time. And they are in lockdown in London right after their relationship has fallen apart. We learn this as Paxton has a Zoom call with his half brother and his half brother's wife. But for a while, I thought it was his brother wife, but for a while I thought it was his brother

and his sister and then I thought it was his sister and her husband. It was very unclear to me for a while how he was related to these two, but they are played by... Do they heal? Do they heal? And Jasmine Simon, who are married in real life.

So you know that that was okay for them to be working together, because they already share a house. He is depressed, he's furloughed, he's a bit of an eccentric, but it's, which is supposed to be charming, but it comes off as exhausting. And I'm not, maybe it is supposed to be exhausting. Certainly, at the beginning, it's, it's fairly exhausting.

Yeah, by the end of the movie, I will admit I had somewhat fallen under his spell just because he is so consistent. But at the beginning, I was like, geez Louise, like come on, man, but he's unhappy because his, and he's such a charismatic actor charismatic actor like he's an amazingly charismatic actor yeah uh... his and i the uh... i have to give a lot of credit to the two main actors in this uh... who took characters that on paper should have been unbearable and yet and yet by the end of it i was like okay i don't i don't mind them so

much you know yeah i mean i do i i, I don't know whether it is the Stockholm Syndrome of Lockdown. I do grow to like them. I do find that Anne Hathaway's character for reasons of scripting is harder to sympathize with because the way it's constructed, Chewotel, G.F. Horse character is sort of the underdog, whereas Ann Hathaway, you know, is depicted as having like her Her main problem is she has such a good job and because she has such a good job She has to do things like fire people which is a miserable thing obviously She's the character. She's the character who has sold it. He'll sold her soul for material success And it's one of those things that like, in real life,

you would not sympathize with those people, but movies are constantly trying to get us to sympathize with those people. I would go a different direction in that, like, in real life, if I knew, everyone's pain is not like, we're not like putting them up against each other, right? Like, I am.

Like, well, I think- In the pain sweepstakes. As my therapist says, in the game of who suffers more, no one wins. That's a great, that's a great, wait, first off, that's a great saw movie headline. Dan, let's talk about your therapist again. What's going on?

No, I think it's valid. Like in the game, who suffers more, like nobody wins, like who's paying is worse. You know, people who have outwardly, like wonderful lives can have, you know, like paying that commiserate to like what they experience that pain as, like it is, it is true suffering that I don't want to like downplay. However, I find it, just in the context of fiction,

I find it easier in the context of fiction, I find it easier to sympathize with, like I find it easier in real life to sympathize with someone, you know, just on the basis of who they are as a person. Rather than a fiction, I'm like, geez, it's hard to get me to like, if you're worst problem is you're stuck in your like really rich apartment. That is a beautiful home. It's a beautiful house. Yeah.

And then, Dan, I think what you, you may have a very good point, which is it is easier to sympathize with someone who is a real human being. And there's a larger challenge when you are sympathizing with a fictional character who has it much better than most other people. Right.

But because Anne Hathaway is great, she manages it and I'll just say it. I don't care. She made it out of the other movie. I'm like, yeah, I do want her to be happy in her life. Right. But because Anne Hathaway is great, she manages it and I'll just say it, I don't care. She may end the end of the movie. I'm like, yeah, I do want her to be happy in her life. Anyway, so worst of all, okay, their relationship is falling apart. They're stuck in this house because London just went into lockdown. The irony, of course, is that rich people, people, rich people in London did not follow the lockdown. And instead continue to socialize and get sick and do whatever. And they're

constantly getting in trouble for it. But these two have decided to stick with lockdown. They've just split up right before it and Paxton is gonna have to sell his motorcycle because without Linda's salary he cannot support this lifestyle. He's a driver of Vans because when he was a younger man in his biker days he intervened to save the life of a very small man and beat someone up really badly and went to jail and that has stained his record and this day this this brilliant life of a very small man and beat someone up really badly and went to jail. And that has stained his record. And this day, this, this brilliant poet of a man has, uh, not, has not been able to get a better job. I have in my notes here, I have no sympathy for their enormous

house and endless free time. That was just me editorializing because during the same period, they're dealing with this and they're like, how do I feel my time? I'm like, was running around after two children constantly. But that's just, that's not a deal for that. Anyway, you're like, how do I feel my time? I'm like, was running around after two children constantly, but that's just, that's how I'm gonna do that. Anyway. You're like, I'm sick of this dual-income, no kids bullshit, right? Yeah, I say, yeah.

I mean, I mean, his income is so low that it is essentially a single income household, but her income is so high that they're making essentially a deal in salary. So, but the fact that it's really the fact that they're lying around all day, I mean, I think I'll start baking bread. She's like, ugh, oh don't and I was like

Dude like I don't eat it like I go days days and days without grooming. But anyway We also learn that that's a personal choice though. That's a separate thing We learn that also that at some point in the past Linda and Paxton's sister law had a night together that Lindainda's sit that paxson sister-in-law continues to think about uh... that's just a thing that they plan to come to the league a weird little side like character peace of humor i think more than anything that's really about a much uh... paxson is heavily depressed linda catches him

he says making a joke photo detects somebody but she thinks that he is attempting to commit suicide using the exhaust of his bike. They talk about how depressed they are, the relationship. Luckily, they don't further explore his possible suicidal thoughts throughout the movie. No, it isn't.

It's much like there's a lot of television shows that start with a character failing to commit suicide and supposed to be kind of like halfway a joke. Don't like it, not a fan, not a good thing. I can't. That's way too irrevocable a thing to be like, yeah, that happened anyway, let's keep moving. Well, and they keep talking about how bad things were at Christmas, and I kept thinking that there was going

to be an eventual reveal that he had actually tried to commit suicide at Christmas. And he actually did it in his ghost now. Yes, yeah. Well, no, and that like, even this joke selfie, the reason it's extra triggering to her is that it brings back that time, whatever it is. Like, it doesn't, it's just that he's depressed enough

that she thinks maybe he could be thinking about it. Yeah, dude, what did everyone else do? It's just find a fucking meme and download it to your phone and then send it to your friend. Yeah, at least you're not allowed. I work for that selfie. For a movie, for a movie that is so firmly set in the, in the here and now, the fact that nobody uses a meme or a bit mojo or anything in the entire movie is very surprising. There's, there's almost no texting in there. Do you want, like, that little, like, hand-pounding, Skype motion to show the one point, is that thing?

Yeah, just on the screen, just on the, over the movie. Paxton, he gets into the habit of reading poems out loud to his neighbors. It's kind of eccentric thing that people were doing during the big lockdown times. And he, he stopped some teens in his yard who are revealed that it used to be like a heroin house and there's still poppies in the yard and they steal them sometimes and he decides he's having trouble sleeping and he licks one and goes to sleep

and seems to have a pretty good night's sleep. I don't know. Yeah. I don't know. He's like barf in the next morning. Yeah. Well, the sleep was great. I mean, the morning was bad.

The sleep is going on. The sleep is going on. The sleep is going on. The sleep is going on. The sleep is going on. Yeah, the morning is going. Usually is shorthand for pregnancy, but I don't think he's pregnant. No, in this one, it does not turn out that Judella Gevore is pregnant. It's a stealth junior sequel. Wow, so this is stealth junior prequel.

Oh, yeah, yeah. Yeah. Linda, she zooms with her co-workers, tells them they've all been fired, very disappointing news. Mark Gattis takes it particularly badly. Well, that was Mark Gattis. He's gotten so old.

Well, everybody has to. It took me a while to recognize him. He usually... Really? Yeah, I don't know whether he dies as hair and other things. He usually has much darker hair. And he's so tall, but I guess. He's in that move, you know,

he's on a Zoom call, it's hard to tell. Yeah, and he has a beard in this. And he doesn't always have a beard that having his performing. And glasses, it's also like he's in Cognito. And Stephen what's his name's in it? And that guy's a virgin. Stephen Merchant, yeah.

He's super tall too, yeah. So yeah, Nick Zimmer and I'll seem small. Every now and then. Yeah, that's how it works. That's, thanks Peter Jackson. That's the greatest compliment you've ever given me, Dan. Thank you so much. So what if Peter Jackson was like the computer art, the computer sizing isn't working.

We have to get Steven Merchant to play Gandalf. He's the only one who can look regular size next to Havings. I thought you were going to say if Peter Jackson was like the computer told me, tall makes others. He looks small. We ran the numbers. Yeah. Now he is the in a world before computers you had to have a cast regular height people or average height people as the hobbits and then the tallest actors you can find. So it's like

Stephen Merchant, Richard Keel, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, they're playing all the parts. Other ones. green up to the jubar they're playing all the parts. Other ones. Okay, so she has to fire all of her employees that's terrible. She's the, she is the regional head of a fashion company that seems to be owned by a larger corporation that also seems to, it's, she's in some kind of 21st century capitalist corporate stack, but she is the head of the London office, which seems to include everything from major administration to also designing the Displays at herids for their goods. She has a lot of honor plate. A lot of responsibilities on her plate. No wonder she is super stressed. Meanwhile, and there's a lot of famous people suddenly pop up on Zoom in this movie. Her co- and suddenly her boss has been stiller, and then she's

zooming with two people that she works with, and it's Stephen Merchant made Mindy Cailing, and I was like, I don't understand what their jobs are, what they do. Paxton's boss, meanwhile, Ben Kingsley, who is far and away, he was the character enjoyed watching the most in this movie. He is a devoutly, if the character from Sexy Beast was devoutly religious and ran a van company, and he's so clean again. Yes. I think this is the moment to talk about something

that we haven't talked about, but it's perhaps the most important thing to talk about in this movie is the way the dialogue is written. Yes, okay. Because it is extremely heightened dialogue of a kind that, like, it has to be a tall enough for Stephen Merchant and Marquettas to deliver. Thank you.

You know, maybe I'll tip my hand by saying, like, over time, this movie sort of slowly won me over, just so I got used to it. But like, I think- I'm so glad you said that because I was gonna say it later and I was worried this was gonna be a, what was it called, Thistle and the Barley? What was that movie that we watched?

Oh, who, yeah. Well, Dan was like, yet where Dan was like, it's a beautiful re-information of humanity. I mean, Stu were like, all what? But anyway. But I definitely, I could see myself enjoying this so much more

if I saw it as a play because it, you know, I mean, obviously because of the limited number of sets they could deal with, it has to feel like a play. It has to feel like she's talking the way it was produced. But also, it is such heightened language. And I think that Ben Kingsley is the one who can do that the best. Like, that's why his character works so well. Yeah, I feel like of the performers,

Ben Kingsley's probably takes the dialogue the best. I think Chewetel J. for does a pretty remarkable job of dealing with it. Yes. And I mean, I think Anne Hathaway brings a lot to the character, but she's given some speeches that are a little bit too much, I think. Well, and her, I think it's more that her character, I think the movie would have been, would have felt, if Chutal Ejifor was the heightened character and the other character's dialogue, most maybe not quite as heightened.

She comes off as even more of an outsider, eccentric. Yeah. But there were times when, the times when she is given kind of the plaintiffs dialogue is when she can shine through the best. And the times that feels like her character is trying to match his verbal intensity. It was like, I don't, I don't buy this character talking this way. This is not, I mean, I never really bought these characters in a relationship together. The two performers, I could see it. But the two characters, it was

like, it was basically, so people who watched our flop house pandemic live shows may remember that during one of my presentations, I pitched in an halfway movie called, called, 49th Stand, where she and Channing Tatum have a one-night stand the night before lockdown and now they're stuck in an apartment together. And this was kind of that, and I would have bought this movie more if they were people who did not have a relationship, but instead had fallen into a one night stand that was forced to extend, because they were like, their characters just never seemed to, maybe, unless they had been together for so many years that they had diverged into such different

people, which is possible, but hard for me to believe that either of them was once like a, a biker tough, you know, like a wild biker, which is what they are constantly telling you they were. But he puts that bandana around his face. I think he looks pretty tough. Like they talk about meeting at Sturgis and I was like, I don't believe either of these people went to Sturgis. I'm sorry, not the kind of biker he was,

not the kind of person she was, but maybe I don't know. It's, anyway, people change. So anyway, here's the thing. Ben Kingsley talks to Paxton, he says, he says, he says, here's the plot, Ben Kingsley talks to Pakistan. He says here's he says here's the plot gov All these department stores including Harrods where and Hathways companies Luxury stuff is yeah, they're worried about rioting because of the end of civilization So they're taking all the goods and they're gonna ship them into warehouses you are my best driver

Unfortunately because you have a criminal record, you can't do this under your real name. You wouldn't pass the security check. So I'm going to give you a fake ID with a fake name on it. And you're going to drive a real name. It's a real name. It's not. It's not. It's not. It's not. It's a very real name in that another person. As we find out later, the name is Ed Grail and Poe, which is like, it's very funny because it's like, I don't know how well known A Grail and Poe is in England, but it seems that not many people have, they don't know and real, not many people blink

and eye at it, and it also, people have the same names as famous people all the time. So he could just say A Grail and Poe, and they'd say, I don't know, and he'd go, yeah, my parents gave me that name, I hate it. It was something like that. I'm really expected that to come up, because it's such an obvious way to

just wave it away if you get into trouble. But yeah, there was a commercial years ago about for some that when one of the James Bond movies came out. Wait, was it the where's the beef commercial? Yeah, it was the where's the beef commercial. All these guys named WTB for like, hey, that's my name. There was this James Bond ad where it was regular people saying, I'm James Bond, I'm James Bond, because their names were James Bond. Like, that was their birth name. And it's like, it's not crazy that someone would have the same name as a history of a year, but he's like, oh my god, what am I gonna do, what am I gonna do. And every single person he meets throughout is like, yeah, a girl and a pose, sure, that's a real name. I've never

heard a name like that. It's not weird to me, you're using your middle name as part of your name, sure, I get it. It's skipping a little, you know, I mean, we're already there. It's giving a little head in the plot. When he learns it, you know, that's one of my favorite scenes with Ben Kingsley.

Where Ben Kingsley is just like so pugnaciously, like does not care. And his main problem just seems to be like, it's been laminated already. The name tag's already been laminated. They can't change it. And the thing is that he, this is like a chance for Paxton to kind of like reform himself. I guess in the eyes of God or.

Well, to chance to prove himself worthy of a promotion out of driving. To do something. He'll be working in customer service meeting with clients. And so this is a chance for him to get over the criminal ironically. He'll have to break it, break the law in order to get past the blood on his record caused by his one criminal act. If he's caught though, he will go to jail as someone who is using fraud to possibly steal things. And his boss will say, I didn't know anything about it so that's his choice the estimate meanwhile uh... limba's boss Ben stiller tell in a very understated performance uh... he tells her that

all the time for like a like a traffic thunderlaunder i want to go not you know go big with it you know go go as you know you know you know stillery loves to play characters you know actually you say like to play characters. That's a big, wild characters. You saying, like you just mentioned because I'm just understated and passing and made me reflect on him, and I'm like, yeah, that is one of the better Ben's stiller performances I've seen.

Like I do think, like, yeah, but like raining him in, like I think it's pretty good actually here. You know, it's more on the Walter Midi end of the scale than the zoom ender end of the scale. Yeah. So she realized she was like, what an amazing if he confused those characters. He made Walter Middie a Zoolander or the bad guy from Dodgeball.

Could you imagine it? I can't. No, wait. Now I'm imagining it. Yep. Okay. The mustache. Yep.

I can see. Uh, and so, uh, he says you, we need to put all our stuff in storage to Linda, uh, which is at the same, the mustache. Yeah, I can see. Yeah, it's tough. And so he says, we need to put all our stuff in storage to Linda, which is at the same stuff that Paxton is going to have to deliver later. The movie takes forever. I mean, Sean Penn would have been furious if he showed up as his Zoolander character to the set of Walter Middys. Sean Penn would have, he would have been living. Yes.

Well, imagine how Will Farrow would feel. Yeah, that's true. That's true. He's like, I'm gonna look ridiculous if I'm the only one acting at this level. Come on. And Linda reveals to Paxton that she's gone back to smoking and she kind of has, she talks about a breakdown she had

on a trip to Paris that she never told him about for a business dinner. What? I'm sorry, this is, this is one of the floweriest speeches. And I kind of just... One point she's just naming flowers. I kind of zoned out on this one. What was the kind of breaking point of that?

Well, so she's really, so she has this big dinner with the head of the company, which is not Ben Stiller, but this kind of German vaguely vaguely evil german uh... which is such a redundancy even likeable germans are still say even even bruno gans and if there's a more likeable german bruno gans i don't know them but even he played Hitler so you know but uh... about the good german i heard there was one of those i i saw movie about it i have a way is is wolfgang Puck German? Because that guy's

great. I mean Wolfgang sounds German, but Puck does not. That sounds Canadian. So I don't know. But I know Puck from Alpha Flight is Canadian. So I don't know. There's no way to find out. So she went to this business dinner and it was made clear at this dinner that she is now at the level of her career, where she can no longer close rise to the fact that she works for a bad guy who is dealing with bad people and doing things in kind of corrupt sinister ways. And the guy asks for her to come see him after the dinner and she has a break down her room and breaks a mirror and steals a glass statue and then forgets it on the channel

train. But later on, the boss is like, you know, I was going to seduce you that night, which she seems to have known. That was the night when she realized, oh, I'm not a kid who's like moving up in the world. I'm a grown up who does a bad job, who works with bad people. And ever since she's been living under that that cloud and she talks about a vision she had of some evil kind of Smoke eel that that that now follows her, you know Back in on the on the speech we got into the smoke eel so that I was confused. Yeah, yeah

That's it briefly becomes a Miyazaki movie in her mind and then and then becomes the Doug Lyman Stephen Knight joint Yeah, or the machine from Beyond. Can we cycle back real quick? Let's do it. We don't really like that. We're on a motorcycle reverse, sure. We didn't really talk about the name Wolfgang. I know it's German, but like, that's an awesome name, right?

Because it's a gang of wolves. That's a wolf badass. Wolf is a name. They saw that wolf and they raised it because they're like, one wolf is cool. Well, what about a gang of wolves? That would be amazing. That would be amazing. Yeah, no that would be wolf billion Well, that's that yesterday

My younger son who is about to turn three he had a barrel of monkeys and he oh he goes daddy There's 10 million monkeys in here, and I love the idea of this the phrase 10 million monkeys So yeah a billion wolves is almost as good as 10 million monkeys. Okay, so, so Paxton finds out the name is Edgar Allan Poe. Paxton refers to Edgar Allan Poe as a novelist and poet, which is a bit of a stretch, you wrote one novel. He's known for his poems in short story, unfinished, barely a full novel.

It ends famously ends with a scene that makes no sense. And yet it's haunting for that reason. So it's a bit stretching these, but I am a fan of a Grinnell Poe's work. His life as a person again, we got to separate it from his work, even though they are in fact inseparable. But anyway. We didn't solve all those crimes though,

if I recall from that movie we did on the show. That John Q's egg one? Yeah. Where he had a pet raccoon? That's the one. That's all I remember. But I don't even remember the crime he was solving. I assume it was a murderer. They were like copycat crimes of like post stories, I think. Right. Right. So I'm going to be co-mergers. Yeah. Something

I paid to write that good on them. They worked the system. They did. They sure did. But the cards already been laminated. As we said, he's got do it, he's worried he's gonna get caught. And his work nemesis, Martin, who's trying to get him caught and hates him, he kind of teases Paxson with the idea that he could steal the stuff he's driving. That there's really nobody's gonna know if he just steals it, no one would ever know. It's a fake name, they don't know where,

the goods are just going to warehouse anyway. Yeah, he lays out the plot again. I'm like, yeah, we know, dude. The movie is constantly telling the characters how easy it would be to steal this stuff. And it takes a very long time for them to realize that they should steal this stuff. Linda, she gets a promotion, she doesn't take it well. They say, you're going to go back to New York, you're going to get promoted. And she's like, well, I don't know if I want to do that.

And Paxton's making his deliveries. Linda reveals to Paxton's sister that Linda is the one who is buying Paxton's making his deliveries. Linda reveals to Paxton's sister that Linda is the one who is buying Paxton's motorcycle secretly to then give it to Paxton as a gift so that he doesn't, hasn't lost everything in his life when they break up and lockdown is over. And she asks his half brother to pretend it's him who's doing it so that he'll accept this bike. That is a subplot that later on, the brother does it and Linda, and Paxton sees through it instantly. There's no reason for any of it.

I don't know why it's there. I don't get it. It's like the opium scene, like unnecessary. Doesn't really do anything. Yeah. It is, I think, it is meant to be a character catalyst where Chiu-A-Del, a GF4 realizes that she now pities him, and he doesn't want to be an object of pity. He wants to be a tough jewel thief.

And the bike definitely, you know, very much represents the recklessness and freedom of their previous lives. Not just the freedom to leave the house, which he does constantly, anyway. Considering it's lockdown, he's constantly leaving the house. But also the freedom of youth and not being trapped in your jobs and whatever anyway so it's that it's a thematic thing i guess but it's uh... anyway it's a it's as triumph on the side of the bike i mean you know

well but that's a reference to the insult comic dot yeah because he get during lockdown i don't know if you know this he became kind of a national hero in eng England because he was like COVID for me to poop on and forced Johnson was like finally someone said would all Britons feel in their heart Triumph you deserve this nighting and the queen knighted him over zoom so he's now sir triumph We don't have to call next-Romarican, but English people have to call on that by law. We're also go to jail That's how it works, right? Oh, that's crazy. Did he uh when, when he was knighted, was it, did he have a cigar in his mouth or no?

Uh, it was very against protocol, but he did have the cigar in his mouth. Yes, yeah. And then he said, he said, this is an honor for me to poop on and the queen laughs so hard that they named it a national holiday. And she gave him a swan which she owns all of in England. How long? All swans, whales and dolphins, I believe, are the property of the Queen of England. So, so of England. So triumph, if I would you mean Robert Smigel, that was one of those. The weird thing is they didn't night Robert Smigel. They nighted the puppet. The puppet is

Sir Triumph. Robert Smigel remains an American citizen with no no a period or title. Yeah. The Queen kept trying to push him out of triumphs, but... I'm confused. Didn't work that. Well, she did study as a proctologist, and she was like, finally, I can get back to my true love. I don't love being a royal. I love proctology and the health of the human anus. But... That season, the crown was dope, right?

When she's going to proctology school? Yeah, that was the scene where she has to cross. It's across over with the nick, right? Yeah, yeah, I can say. Not alive during the same time periods, but that's totally okay. There's the scene where John Major approaches her about forming government and she pulls that big latex glove on before she tells him, yes, he does have permission. Great scene, great season of the crown.

Anyway, Linda is like Paxton, I set up the security systems. You're going to get caught, but there is a way we can do it. You can go in and make it work. We're gonna have to break the law. If you're gonna make this delivery, then there's a scene that is also unnecessary where Linda talks to Steven Merchant and Mindy Kaling about, ostensibly the security at Harrods,

but instead it becomes about somebody's marriage, falling apart, it's just like a comedy scene. It has a comic relief. Just having a laugh, there's just having a bit of laugh. Why not? Come on, it's locked down. Give him that. That's when Linda gets her motivation to really break bad.

Or as the movie would have it, good. Linda gets a call from her boss, the big top boss from Germany, who essentially says, oh yeah, this famous diamond, it's $3 million, $3 million, $3 million diamond. Not wait, it's worth $3 million. It was a three million pound diamond. It would not be the department store It would still be at the center of the earth unclaimed because you cannot move a diamond that weighs three that three million pounds That would be crazy

This three million pounds worth diamond. They're selling it to he never names the person But he essentially makes it clear they're either a dictator or the relative of a dictator of an oppressive country I just assumed it was Kim Jong Un, but it could be anyway could be the the president of uh... is it georgia uh... with that guys particularly bad but he's it's a couple of her self it's uh... i'm not all right

uh... so she it's a the right to process what i was saying and uh... and she says well i don't think it was And she says, well, I don't know, and he goes, now that you're having this promotion, you need to, your last job here,

your last big job in London is you're gonna take this diamond, you're gonna put in a box, and you're gonna ship it to New York where it is just gonna be brought straight to a vault, no one's gonna look in the box, no one's ever gonna see it. It might as well just be an empty box that has something in it that weighs as much as a diamond

And he's trying to you know the the stick tater loves when he gets stuff stolen from him by the way I just want to mention that he loves he loves he gets he can only ejaculate when he finds out he's been ripped off So take for that what you will But no one will ever look at this diamond and if he did find out it would be the great historic asm of his life so I do with that what you and she's like well it's good to steal from bad people but I don't want to give him sexual pleasure vicariously I don't know what to do it's a real uh... it's a real dilemma you know it's a real hobsons choice but uh... it's not really I don't remember what that is so other than a delightful movie the Charles lot uh... and then he starts to come on to her resume says I was going to

seduce you and uh...'ll talk about it after promotion. She only thinks she can do his rage dance in the garden to Adam and the ants. So, Paxton comes back from riding his bike. He's high on life because he outchaced the police and ended up in a petting zoo hanging out with some goats. Yeah. Yeah, they have, they have,

they have seen, right? Yeah, they have post running from the police sex and she has suddenly surged with a desire to steal this diamond. The next morning, Linda's acting, this is the morning of the big delivery day, right? So Linda's acting weird and anxious and then she's like, okay, I admit it, here's my plan for stealing a diamond. It would be so easy. Okay, we're gonna go there. We're gonna wait until we actually have the diamond in our hands before we decide whether or not we're gonna steal the diamond.

And this is the dumbest bit of suspense they could possibly build into it. Because throughout the rest of the movie, they're having conversation with themselves. Should we do it? Should we not do it? We know they're gonna do it. There's no movie if they don't do it. What? I don't know.

It's more like a climactic than for them to be like, no, property rights are paramount. We cannot steal this diamond. The more they talked about the more I'm like, is this movie gonna end on the like, the spinning top at the end of inception type shit, where you like, is it or is it, do they get the real one or the fake one?

Yeah, does it even matter? Or are they gonna decide the last minute not to steal it, but the cops think they're stealing it and kill them. And it's like, oh, ironically, they were killed for a crime they didn't commit. And again, not a satisfying ending to this movie. It's decidedly. Yeah.

But that you mentioned in passing out, I do want to say, like, even though the way it is written, I mean, it's a little, it's a little overwritten, it's not quite like how it would really be in life, even if someone was having a bit of a breakdown maybe, but I did find it very funny. The scene where Anne Hathaway was like laying out things, but like not quite wanting to say that she wants to steal the diamond yet. And he can say, like, he knows that she's acting very strangely, but her reactions like, no, what are you talking about? You're the one who's weird. Like, I'm the guy. It is, no, I think that's a really good scene

for Anne Hathaway because she's, she has to keep swirving back and forth and she's doing a really good job of it. It is a good version of the bad scene in the happening where, where Malk World, they're like, you wanna kill me, don't you? And he goes, what? No, no. And you're like, wait, does want to kill me, don't you? And he goes, what? No!

No! And you're like, wait, does he want to kill his whole lady? Where's his movie going? Hold on, because this is not something that's been in his character. He's been a science teacher trying to save his kids up till now. But... What if the movie just threw in the fact that he was a serial killer at that moment? Like, you didn't know that you were following a serial killer, Mark Wahlberg, through the happening.

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That's not like- That's not like- That's not like- That's not like- That's not like- That's not like- That's not like- That's not like- That's not like- That's not like- That's not like- That's not like- That's not like- That's not like- That's not like- That's not like- That's not like- That's not like- That's not like- That's not like- That's not like- That's not like- That's not like- That's not like- That's not like- That's not like- That's not like- That's not like- That's not like- That's not like- killer. That seems a bit much, a bit much. Well, I don't understand human society. I mean, that is only one of many problems with the scenario that you have just briefly sketched out.

That's only one thing I'm bumping on about it. That feels like such a early-ought indie movie that makes it into theaters where it's like there's a plague, but a serial killer is on the list where it's like there's a plague but a serial killer is on the list where it's like the serial killer is the hero kind of and you're like, I guess it's basically just the minus man with a plague anyway. Yeah, there's a devil in the white city. Yeah, well the devil in the white city is not the hero. He's a very bad guy.

They never made the movie of that, did they? The devil in the white city or did they? I don't think, I mean, I mean, they probably still will. They talked about it for years, but I mean, I think the time has passed when you're gonna make a big movie about the Colombian exposition of Chicago. Like, but you know what, there'll be a lot of serious. What was the time for that?

Yeah, the Colombian exposition craze of 95. When the book came out, when the Devil and the White City came out, it was a best-selling book, but now I could see the doing it as a mini-series, but that's not going direct to theaters, you know So they both go to Harrods separately linda on his bike packed in his van This is the point where the movie feels like a commercial for fucking Harrods For Harrods and for any listeners or not. Oh, not familiar Harrods is a huge department store in in London and yeah They spend a lot of time wandering around Herod's talk about all the amazing stuff that's for sale at Herod's.

Yeah, sure. Sure. When we were in, when we were in England, what, a year and a half ago, two years ago, it all blurs together. We, we actually went for like a tea service at, at Herod's, and it was very expensive. Yeah. Yeah. That's, Yeah, that's how they do it over there. And that exchange rate, I mean, come on. I remember once being in London and my wife and I, we were just walking all day and we were so, so hot and the exchange rate was so bad that I was like, I'm just gonna get a glass of Coke.

I'm just gonna get a glass of Soda. And I paid for it and I was like, I think I just paid $20 for this plastic. This is ridiculous uh... so anyway uh... they

linda it's a surprising number of people there are not wearing masks and the security is lax linda just keeps vouching for paxton and getting him through or distracting people at the moment they're about to look at his badge but there's no way they can't see his badge nobody thinks it's a weird day anyway uh... i would like to mention that mention that she can do this because of...

In a script with many contrivances to make this heist work, the biggest contrivances that Linda has not told anyone about this, you know, like, decade-long relationship she has with Chiuotel, a Geophores character, like none of the people at work know that she even has a partner. If I had a relationship with him I would tell everybody. He's great. You'd be shouting it from the rooftops or walking into the street and declaiming it as a different poetry. Yeah. Yeah. I mean I think he'd be probably like I'm so glad you're proud of our relationship. I don't want you to refer to me as Baron Mordeaux anymore. That's a character I

played once. Not even the one that is closest to me. You weren't Baron Mordeaux and children of men? I was not Baron Mordeaux and children of men. I know the question you have. Again, I always wonder whether Sonic was in that movie and whether it was just moving so fast we couldn't see him. And I would often talk to Sir Michael Cain and say, do you think Sonic's here right now? Is this moving so fast that we can't see him?

Is there any possibility? Is there any possibility? He's together. We were wondering, and you know, for instance, when I was making the Martian, it was another one where I was like, there's a lot of sciencey stuff around here. Sonic could be hiding behind it. Is it possibly just moving so fast that he's not in it?

It was harder, again, in Amistad, harder to think Sonic might be there because it was such a brown and kind of pale palette for that movie that a blue hedgehog would really stick out. You know, I have to admit, the reason I took the role in Lockton was I saw, at first on the cast sheet was Sonic, as the hedgehog, and I said, finally, my chance to meet this adorable blur and find out whether he's already shared the screen with each other. Unless it was not the case, unless, as I was saying, who's in the movie just moving so quickly that I couldn't see him, I only have human eyes. It's all I can't see faster than a hedgehog can run, obviously. So anyway, she's never told anybody about her boyfriend. You're right, which is an enormous contrivance.

And anyway, they're walking through the tunnels at Harrods. They have a little, they have a picnic, just taking expensive food that has not been packed up yet and having a roof picnic. And she talks about how their relationship is ending because they're not wild anymore. They stopped being wild. Because this is one of those movies

that rejects the very idea of maturing and evolving relationships. It's like you have to feel the way you felt when you, 10 years ago, when you first met, it is impossible for you to. The relationship will die unless you continue to be in an unnatural state of youthful wildness. It's like what you're always saying, Elliot.

You're really hoping for the emotional maturity of like a Judd Appetite movie, right? In my life, yes, that's exactly what I want. That's what I'm looking for. I want constant bits. I want my relationship to be built on constant bits Nothing else just like the KD Lang song constant bits But this is the section of the movie where I kept being like you guys are supposed to be pretending like you don't know each other

And like you're standing so close to what another in rooms You're like going and getting a picnic you're're living. Having long conversations with each other. Yeah, having a picnic. And she has to pretend this is just the driver. She hired at the last minute to help remove this stuff. And they are, they're inseparable during this time. And they're not moving anything yet. It's like, maybe she routinely takes drivers for picnics

at her ads. I don't know. But so, it's a lot of what they're doing is supposed to be cute. And it doesn't quite work for me, but I am, but at this point I was somewhat falling into the spell of these characters and wanted them to get away with this diamond, even though they ostensibly have still not made up their minds about whether they're going to steal this diamond or not. Okay, they bond through the whole time, they're revealing secrets to each other, they finally

have a kiss on the roof, and then they take the diamond, which is much smaller than you'd expect, which is always the case with diamonds. Security hands it to them, and it's roughly the size of like, what like a child's novelty eraser, you know? And diamonds are always much smaller than I think they're gonna be, and I encounter a lot of diamonds in my life. Wow.

Yeah, the diamond looks like it's the size of like, a really big almond. Yeah. Yeah. Where I really did wanna see like an Uncle Scrooge style. Oh, yes. Almost as big as your head. Like the size of a watermelon. Like you got a huge diamond. And when diamonds get to a certain size, they stop being, the value starts getting difficult because you can't sell a diamond that huge. But, you know, this one, I wish it

was just a little bit bigger. I wish it was a little bit taller, I wish it was a baller, it's that a real look at collar diamond. I wish. So they take the diamond, and now Paxton has to pull the replica from a display tank that is full of piranhas for some reason. This does not pay off his suspicions either. Those are CGI, right?

I think those are real piranhas. I think they put, they put star actor Chiuatel J.Fore's hand in a tank real piranhas. I think they put it in that. They put star actor, Chiuatel J.Four's hand, in a tank with piranhas. I mean, the thing is piranhas are not that dangerous unless they're hungry and you're backing them into a corner. Like you can be around piranhas. Or maybe not.

So it's gonna be a real dubious look. So it's gonna be a real church lady. Doesn't believe me look, okay. So he takes the diamond. They deliberate over weather to switch it. don't know and then they do it and tax and starts to get jittery that their home free now they just have to leave uh... uh... mark gattis shows up

and he says they got an anonymous tip we know it's from tax and school worker martin that the driver was using a fake name and mark at us has already called the police somebody needs a wet that dude up. What do you mean by that? I don't understand. Somebody needs to smoke that idiot. I don't understand.

Wait, I don't get it. I think Stuart wants the guy who snitch to be killed. Is that the case? Oh my God, large. I mean, he did seem to be a real asshole, but I don't know. Yeah, dude. Oh, Mark, not Marquettis. You mean Mark. No, the case. I mean, he did seem to be a real asshole. But I don't know. Dude. Oh, Mark, not Mark Gattis. You mean Mark Gattis is fine. The guy. Oh, the bad, the bad coworker. Okay. Well, him, yeah, I mean, I, if it helps you, he's not a real person. So he only existed for a moment on film. And now he's,

it completely doesn't exist anymore. So even worse than even worse than being killed, he leaves nothing behind him on life. But that But that one scene and note he will never remain in our memories So that house yeah, he exists only to be the villain in their story He's like an Aaron Burr type figure very sad actually. I mean Aaron Burr except Aaron Burr was a real person who had a life and did things in History and now the other side of his story has been told in a little play called Hamilton I don't know if you're familiar with it, but it's by the guy who also wrote the hugely successful bringing on musical so the uh that's't know if you're familiar with it, but it's by the guy who also wrote the hugely successful Bring It On Musical.

So that's what you've probably heard him for. Anyway, so he did there, right? I think he did the music for the Bring It On Musical. Hold on. Let me take a look. Maybe. I mean, I know there's talk about him doing the Fast and Furious musical with Vin Diesel. Is there talk of that?

Yeah, because Vin said he wants to make a musical. Fast and Furious musical with Vin Diesel. So is there talk of that? Yeah, cause Vin said he wants to make a musical. And of course there's gonna be the inevitable celebrity couple named Vin Manuel Miranda. Yeah, of course, but how do you do them? I guess it's the cars are in their minds. I don't know. Yeah, the major action movie series.

That's why I get most see as a musical. Like to me, I'm like, yes, natural fit. I would say I would treat it slightly. That's an opera. That's not a musical. That's an opera. I don't want any spoken dialogue. I want it all sung. It's either explosions or or loud. It's a sung through musical without it being opera. Limbo Momeranda did co-write the music in the rickshaw to bring it on musical. So my memory was mostly correct. Okay. Anyway, Mark Addis is there. He's like, the police are coming. And Donald's like, I mean,

Paxton, Donald is the guy is Mark Addis's character. I was like, oh no, oh no. And Linda, she says, hey, we're stealing this diamond. We're in love. You're gonna cover us for us because we're in love and we're gonna escape and we're gonna stick it to our bosses. And Mark Addis so quickly is on their side.

And he has a monologue about how he's been liberated by COVID and the lockdown to become this romantic free thing person and he realized they all have such terrible, bland lives. And it's so horrible. And now he's been radicalized and like goes on for a while. And it really could have done with like just a second take where they just play for comedy as opposed to this like big speech like have them make their big speech and the whole time you're thinking he's taking it and he's going to turn them in and they just like okay yeah it's fine okay I mean I wouldn't be surprised

Mark asked was like I need to do more in this movie right me a monologue where I get to show around and like throw papers and stuff it goes on for for a while, but I did like the, you know, the cap to that scene where like two-at-a-two, of course, like, we gotta get out of here and have the way his character, like knows that like, she has to let him play it out. If like they wanna get out, it was just, you know, let him have his moment. It'll be fine, we'll get out.

Because she knows also, he's just a character on a screen. This is his moment, and then again, a vent less than dust in the wind. He's just frames of celluloid that will eventually burn out like nitrate sock. Yeah, there are no small parts except this one. So let's let him have the most of it.

There are only small actors of which Mark Gattis is not one. As we've mentioned, usually tall. Yeah. You've just slumbered here. Well, these. Well, Mark Gattis talked to Tom. Yeah. In the elevator with the merchandise, Paxing is finished.

So do anything happen with the piranhas? They like dumps the police in the piranhas? No, his hand goes in the water and I assume the piranhas will then flush down the toilet and they're in the sewers of London right now. Just every now and then coming up through toilets to bite, toilets to bite people on the bum so they can look comically at the camera.

Yeah. You're like an old like it was bugs bunny or something. Yeah, on the turlits. They go through the turlits to a nice. Now those pranas are just there so that people can have banyhill type gags in their own home. So they security starts paging at growl and poe. They're like, we got to get out of here.

Oh no, they're running. It's paging. They see Steve and merchant.'s like linda and they run on the other direction and then security reaches them just as they get to the door hey you left your ID i have it for you're gonna need it when you get to the airport turns out nobody knows who had growl and poe is a stunning indictment of the british educational system that that they would i mean i guess

england has its own poems like the tone poets why that i don't know why they need to know how to go and poise but the movie certainly made it seem like someone would know who that was so there's the the the thing that stuck in my head though is that they never he never like takes the stuff he's supposed to pick up and take so they would just catch him exactly he does not do the job and he fails completely.

I guess he would just get fired from his job, right? I mean, you can't throw someone in jail for not doing their job unless their job is not murdering people. And they fail to do that and they remember someone and you throw them in jail, yeah. But you should at least. Yeah, you have to assume he's like, well, he doesn't care about losing his job

because they've got this diamond now, I guess. But I feel like if they just leave all the shit and he doesn't take it to Heathrow, they're more likely to double check it, right? You would think so, especially since they, you see them going to the airport on the motorcycle, so I assume they did send the fake diamond in the box. Yeah.

It really bothered me that he didn't complete the job because it was the most easy way for them to get caught. But look, they're wild now, they're reckless. And to be honest, movie logic, would you rather see the two of them split up and then Paxton successfully deliver a bunch of boxes of stuff and unload them in a warehouse? What do you want to see as the two stars of our movie?

Recklessly riding on a motorbike through the desert streets of London, the cold night air on their faces, realizing that they're in love again, because for this specific moment, they are once again outlaws and criminals. When they eventually have to do things like take out the garbage and cook dinner and things like that,

their love of course will crumble since it's based on moments like these, but just for that moment, isn't the movie? The movie is worth it for that, you know. And the next morning, Linda is like, lockdown's been extended, but they're together again, and she forgot it's his birthday, which I get locked down, you know,

it's hard you forget what day it is. And Paxton walks out, and this time recites a happy poem, or at least a love-based poem to the neighborhood. And as Linda beams at him from a window, and during the credits, Paxton fulfills the tea is he gave earlier in the movie and breaks bread We just watch him baking bread. Yeah through the credits because yeah a little lockdown joke That's what people do to present to him is the flower to allowing him to bake bread the flower he bought. Yeah, yeah I mean as far as birthday gifts go that's not the worst one I've ever gotten.

Well, there have been movies about people getting like hall passes on their birthday, so they can sleep with another person without guilt. This was a movie called Hall Pass. Yeah, one movie called this. Wait, I was a mission. Birthday gift. I think it was an anniversary gift, maybe. But this was a, and there was that one season of, of, of, crib enthusiasm.

They did that too. That, that, that, that, that Steve see merchants in at least one of those two things right uh... he's in the movie hall pass right yeah i don't i've never seen i don't check check the check the tapes uh... gal i was too busy watching the check new way movies to watch all pass it and just

uh... criteria blue ray of all pass and don't bother with the commentary or the behind the scenes feature at, sorry, just check the characteristics of the Blu-ray. And double check, double check the blu-ray box that you don't have the criteria in collection Blu-ray of drill bit Taylor instead. So, you know, when you're watching them so much, they get mixed up in the cases. It's amazing how Criterion stopped their life. We're not going to put out West Anderson movies anymore.

Only Owen Wilson movies. It's realized that's who they were following all that time when they were putting those Criterion sets up. So yeah, but she was giving me the permission to bake bread without her making them. So that's locked down. The story of our lives. And a guy locked down. Well, let's do final judgments about whether we...

I think it's a good bad movie, a bad bad movie, or a movie we kind of liked. As I teased before, the movie broke me down over the course of it. Like, I don't know. I mean, one me over is another way to say it. Yeah, it won me over. Well, I do think it broke me down to a little bit because it constructed a barrier to itself with a lot of the dialogue, I think.

True, true. And the, I was trying to think of like, why it didn't always work for me because I like it when a movie gets heightened Like why does everything have to be totally realistic? I don't think that but I think that maybe it's because The way it's directed doesn't necessarily reflect that like it is to me a bit of an uneasy mix of like sometimes I'm like, oh, this is great interesting dialogue and sometimes I'm like, oh god, movie, what's the fucking you doing? Yeah, um, and also like I find it as I said early easier to sympathize with a man who like

Made a mistake earlier in his life for good reasons and now has been punished for it all his life and looking for a way out then like Uh, the character of Linda is more like where it all is life and looking for a way out, then the character of Linda is more like, how Linda got her groove back by stealing a diamond. Just vague dissatisfaction with life. I'm not saying that's not something that is worth being concerned about, but also, I don't know, I had a good job during lockdown,

so I don't think I would make a movie about how hard I had it during the lockdown because everyone else had a much worse time during lockdown. You know, it's kind of like, it's hard to, I don't know. Her, her, her, but she's in halfway. I love in a half a way. So over time, I loved her too. And yeah, I think I had fun.

I kind of like to. This is a movie that at first I was like, is this gonna be like a life itself type movie that takes itself so seriously and is so much about how we live and relationships and all that stuff that it becomes unbearably hilarious. And instead, I think part of the issue is that it is so much, it seems at first like it's gonna be a movie

about how we live now and the experience of the pandemic and how it broke us down and the heightened Dialogue does not play well with that. Yeah, it's like but by the time you get I would say halfway through where it certainly two thirds The way through and it's like oh no, this is like a glossy goofy movie that just happens to be set during lockdown because that gives the premise Like that creates a heist that's hard to do Then I was like okay movie, I'm with you. So I actually came to like, I kind of liked it too. It was the beginning of it though was unpleasant going just because for that reason, I was like, is this a movie that's gonna tell me how I'm supposed to feel about this thing I just went through?

Yeah. That I do not need this movie's help in processing. But once it came clear that that's not what the movie was, I was like, oh, okay. I feel like that's the fear of a lot of various pop culture trying to tackle the pandemic, like fear of that, like the inevitable season of some television show that is set during the pandemic.

People don't necessarily want to be reminded of it. And also, like you said, I think it's such an easy trap to fall into, to be like, this thing is meant to give us a chance to like process life. Or like, yeah. But no, I mean, I think, I would say, I agree with both of you, the movie kind of won me over. It is, it is very overwritten yes or what is just a goofy movie yeah it it's not the goofy movie again I have to clarify that

every time I bring that up let's make it clear yeah if anyone is watching this thinking it is the goofy movie starring goofy and his son goofy I don't know it was Max it is not that this is locked out starting yet and i would like to work it's also not lock out a gay space jail star and i peers and make you grace uh... the uh... but uh... i think it was a little bit too long like this movie is pushing two hours and you could trim out half an hour that under no circumstances trim out ben king's late he's a treasure i love him

and fact find a way to put more of him in the movie i don't know yet to be honest if it was about the guys who worked at the van place and Ben Kingsley having to like run these, these like borderline criminals and malcotents who during, during, and they're the only people who can go out in public because they're essential workers that and like all of society is hinging on these kind of like outcasts and losers. That's a, that's like, it's like the Teeny Show taxi, except they're the only ones allowed to leave the house

because of a pandemic. That sounds like a pretty movie. That sounds great. But yeah, I think once it became clear how little this movie had on its mind and how unambitious it was going to be, I liked it much more. Yeah, well also I wonder,

because this movie got at best pretty mixed reviews when it came out, which is why we thought it might be interesting to talk about, but like, it, we were wrong. No, no, I was gonna say, like, if we had watched it, when it came out, which was, you know, back in the winter, I wonder whether we would have liked it less for some of the reasons you're talking about of like, it feeling so new,

whereas now, like, even this movie, which was made so recently, feels like a time capsule instead of something that like, we have to be mad at, you know, because it's like, what we're experiencing. Like, I don't need to see like Terence Malik's version of like a lockdown movie. Like, no thank you, sir. But for us living in the United States right now,

at this moment, it does already feel like a period piece, which is really interesting. And you're right, if we were watching it, while, if we were watching it in January, and still being like, I don't know when we're gonna get, like, I don't know when I'm gonna get vaccinated like I don't know when I'm gonna get vaccinated, like when is this gonna end? I think it might have been more unbearable.

Yeah, I'd be more like, I'd be like, fuck you movie. I mean, as it is, I was already like, masks. Why aren't you people wearing masks? And Trudeau, of course, just putting like a bandana around his face. And I'm like, what are you doing, man? Like, that's not good enough.

But. And I did post a screenshot on Twitter, but I do like that when he's waiting in line to get stuff from the grocery store And a guy walks by carrying a bunch of toilet paper and Chiuotel J4 goes, oh, how many asses have you got? Like it's great good stuff Hi everybody, my name is Justin McRroy. I'm Sydney McElroy. We're both doctors and- Nope, just me.

Okay, well Sydney's a doctor and I'm a medical enthusiast and we create solbos and some idol to earth misguided medicine. Every week I dig through the annals of medical history to bring you the wildest, grossest, sometimes dumbest, tales of ways we've tried to treat people throughout history. And lately we do a lot of modern fake medicine because everything's a disaster, but it's slightly less of a disaster every Friday. Right here at Maxblemfund.org as we bring you solvones and middle to your world, misguided

medicine. And remember, don't drill a hole in your head. Welcome back to FireSide Chat on KMAX. With me in studio to take your calls is the dopest tool on the West Coast, Oliver Wong and Morgan Rhodes. Go ahead, caller. Hey, I'm looking for a music podcast that's insightful and thoughtful, but like, also helps me discover art

and how it's been I've never heard of. Yeah, man, it sounds like you need to listen to Heat Rocks every week, myself, and I'm Morgan Rode and my co-host here. Oliver Wong talked to influential guests about a canonical album that has changed their lives. Guess like Moby, Open Mike Eagle, talk about albums by Prince, Johnny Mitchell, and so much more. Yo, what's that show called again?

Hate Rocks deep dives into hot records. Every Thursday on Maximum 5. Well, let's take a moment to say thank you to our sponsors. The Flop House is in line share supported by listeners by you, but we also have some great sponsors. And this week the FLAB house is brought to you in part by Squarespace. With Squarespace, you can turn your idea

into a new website. You can blog or publish content, sell products and services of all kinds, and much, much more. And Squarespace does this by giving you beautiful, customizable templates created by world-class designers, everything optimized for mobile right out of the box, a new way to buy domains and choose from over 200 extensions and free and secure hosting.

So head to squarespace.com slash flop for a free trial, and when you're ready to launch, use the offer code flop to save 10% off your first purchase of a website or domain. Hey, Dan, I had an idea for a website, and I was wondering if Squarespace might be able to help me with it. Lay it on me, brother.

Okay, I wanted to use the power of machine deep learning, like computer deep learning, and to really to cycle through images fast and process those images to find out if Sonic the Hedgehog is running through these movies real fast. So I wanted to start a website called sonic upload question mark dot com, question mark is spelled out. Sonic upload question mark dot com.

And it's a place where anyone can upload any footage and a computer algorithm will then process that footage and detect whether or not there is a hint of blue blur or perhaps the glint of a ring being taken or a sneakers, just like a little glimpse of sneakers, to see if Sonic was there at the time just running fast and we can see. Now, I know Squarespace can't help me with making that computer algorithm. That's the big hurdle, the one that uses deep process learning to find those images.

But can Squarespace help me make a site where people can upload stuff to? They certainly could help you create a site, you know, host your idea. Yes, the algorithm, I think, might take a little more programming. I'm a little concerned that if you have it, if one of the markers you're looking for

is simply sneakers, you know, there are other, like the flash, you might capture in that situation. I mean, the flash doesn't wear sneakers, you were supposed. Yeah, you also, you are other, like the flash, you might capture in that situation. I mean, the flash doesn't wear sneakers. Yeah, you also, you might accidentally catch the cast of the movie sneakers. That's a good point. I should make sure that it says like H, H ref equals sneakers, but then not equals Robert Redford, Dan Acroid,

the other match. That's a good point. Straight there. What's the other one? there What's the Straight there yeah, yeah, Michael straight there. Yeah, Michael straight there. Yeah, yeah Poor day Rippin Phoenix Yeah, yeah, that all the stakers yet Mary. What a great cast that's McConnell. She's

Bill Sanders and Ben Grimsby Grimsby from that's when Ben Kingsley's a bad guy, Ben Grimm's pee. Yeah, sure. Okay, we also have another ad. This is a paid advertisement from Better Help. That's H-E-L-P. Better Help. Look, we're all dealing with... This is a good episode for this one

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really vital and necessary at different times in my life. Dan mentioned he's in therapy already, this episode earlier. Yeah, man. Dear Lord, I should have been doing it much earlier and taking it much more seriously. Even if you don't have what you feel like, yeah, even if you don't have what you feel like, yeah, even if you don't have what you feel like is a problem

that is, you know, dangerous or worrying or anything like that, just to have the time to be able to deal with yourself and to talk about the things that are important to you without judgment from another person and really have that space to be comfortable with expressing yourself and the things that you feel like you can't express in other situations. Therapy is supremely valuable for that and it's just something that I would recommend. So why not try Better Help?

Plus, Better Help is way more affordable than in-person therapy, but they say it can be just as effective. See if it's for you. So the podcast is sponsored by Better Help and the Flop House listeners get 10% off their first month at betterhelp.com slash flop. That's better H-E-L-P as in peter.com slash flop. That's H-L-E-L-P as in psychologist.com slash flop. Is that helpful?

Is that a helpful for the P sound? Do you use that word? No, you did a great. Thank you. Thanks. So let us move on. Shall we? The letters letters from listeners. Listen like who? Like you.

Okay. This first one is from I don't know whether it's Jillian like Jillian Anderson or Gillian like our pal Gillian Flynn, but it is one of those last name with held I apologize Damn, it's either Jillian Anderson or Gillian. I don't think I will I don't think I mean It would be one of them. Well, but yeah, is it Jillian Welch? True is it and Jillian is it it, that's a left field choice. Is it Terry Gillian? It could be straight enough. Straight enough Terry Gillian, something such an old.

Stop being such an old man, get younger. Get younger. Uh huh. Yeah, what about a show where Terry Gillian pretends that he's younger and interns at a magazine or a publishing house. Amazing. What a niche. The adventure. There's a lot more. Yeah. They're like, wow, for a millennial, you're you sure complain about cancel culture a lot. All right, well, anyway, this letter goes as such a Dan.

Next time Elliott makes fun of your regional accent, feel free to belligerently claim that you and Abraham Lincoln would have had the same accent. Both of you being sons of Illinois. Raisin Kentucky, I'll just interact. We can't let me make some of the former president's accent there's no way he can dispute this claim considering only can't died a dozen years before the for the phonograph was invented so i don't like watching movies which makes your podcast perfect by the way

but i love reading books recently i read powers of Darkness by Vladimir Asminson. It is the Icelandic translation of Dracula by Bram Stoker, but the translator decided to rewrite the story. It's faster, more erotic, and Dracula is much scarier slash grocer. I find it a better version than the original. It made me think what movie would be better if it went through a fan-fick transformation? And that's from the G.I.R.G. I mean, unfortunately, I'm listening with him.

Thank you, Jillian. Unfortunately, a lot of our major movie franchises do seem to be going through fan-fiction transformations, which are not fully helpful for them. But I see what you're saying. I see what you're saying. I'm not a huge fan of the fans called a shots philosophy. But guys, what do you think?

What's something that could have used a little bit of a fan fiction filter? Well, not as they say. Well, not as they say. Shades of Grey, because they already made Twilight. I would say in the MCU, the Marvel movies, there was a popular fan shipping between Captain America and Bucky. there is a there was a popular fan shipping between captain america and buckee and i think i think the later captain america movies would have benefited from a romance between those two hunks

mami i think in general any of these uh... these these these fan properties yeah let's have uh... they just have more of the characters just having sex with each other a lot certainly i mean the marvots could do with some more kissing right Sex you out like Thanos doesn't even kiss this fucking infinity gems or whatever man. He loves this If I that if I had that cool glove I mean kissing that shit all the time Hard not to we very hard not to sure I guess. He's hard not to.

We very hard not to. Sure. I just had a couple of jokes. I don't really have any good answer to this. Tell us those jokes. No, I burned them already. Okay. Hey guys, I watched.

This is unrelated. Wait, is this, is this, hey guys real? Or is this, hey guys like an intro to a stand-up bit? Hey guys, some weird stuff happened the other day. Wait, is this, is this hey guys real or is this a hey guys like an intro to a standup bit? Hey guys, some weird stuff happened the other day. I was watching this This movie and I just had a question that I wanted to ask you. I'm gonna write into the mailbag Can I can I have another I have a story I want to go with the so the thing about on the subject of like fan fiction stuff. I just recently watched

Ready Player One wise doing my work at this week. It is way too long, do not recommend. But, and it's chocked, it's filled to the brim with movie references, but weirdly enough, it was not the two most, it didn't rank in the top two most surprising movie references I saw in pop culture recently. Number two, of course, being I wasn't expecting

the first episode of Loki to feature a scream reference, which is nuts. And I certainly, number one, of course, is in the Heights wasn't expecting a usual suspects reference at the end, but you know what? Thumbs up. I mean, and also the Hamilton Hold music in one scene when Hamilton was written after in the Heights. What's going on? I mean, I feel like the usual suspects, not, is even weirder, because the whole time you're like, wait, did Ustnavi, is he like tricking these kids? I mean, he is tricking those kids kind of,

but while he's tricking the viewer, but. Yeah. Dan spoiler alert, there's a trick in the Heights. No, I stand in the Heights. It's, yeah, I like it. It's good. No, wow. That's what I take. What, I understand the heights. Yeah, I like it. It's good. No, wow. That's what I take.

What, four star review from Dan? Yeah, around there. I'd say, yeah. OK. I would say, I would say, wait, before Dan gets into his story, he was going to tell before. If he still can tell it, I would say, I like fanfiction as a thing from fans.

I guess what I don't like is, I like it. What I like about fanfiction is when someone with passion for a property decides, I'm going to take it, and I'm going to make is when someone with passion for a property decides, I'm gonna take it and I'm gonna make it my own and put my spin on it. I don't like the version of it, which is the fan crowdsourced version, where there's like a big campaign to make something

as kind of same same as it once was, without a lot of changes. So you like it when they do a new twist on a character, like in Ready Player One, when the iron giants running running around transform its arm into like a laser blaster and start shooting that he loves it. I mean that's not a new twist on the character. He does that at the end of Iron Giant. I mean it's part of the choice the character makes is to stop shooting things in the laser. That's one of the things that's so beautiful about the movie. But more the way that in my mind something like the last Jedi was in a way a fan fiction

Star Wars thing was I'm going to takewars and I'm gonna do the Ryan Johnson version of it and the Latin the rise of Skywalker is the opposite version where it's like vote on which character you want to see die and then come back again okay everybody the tally is in you know tell you get the McDonald's burger of franchise movies but uh... for it can that that that monkey monkey I don't know how to get it can that that that monkey monkey

i don't know how that that welding chip and bob ufrick snuck into that to that movie but they made it they made it with wild i guess uh... so i'm gonna say you know what the letter mentioned Dracula it's hard to think the universal monsters are exactly it that's the kind of thing that that should have some sort of like strange individual take on it you know that's what i want to say. Yeah, you're disrespect the universal monsters

You know what? Hey, keep the universal monsters weird everybody of all these universal reboots, you know largely unsuccessful like I think invisible man is the most one like that's the transformative one That's the one who's like okay, let's use this as an inspiration You know, like that's take the theme. Let let's do it, perhaps in a better way. You know, I, the feels like timely, exactly, sadly. I'm realizing, I'm realizing now that I started, as a thought experiment, I started coming up with this the other night where I was like, what if they rebooted Forest Gump for my generation?

What would happen in it? And the first thing was young is that Nirvana is staying over at young forest gump's house. And young forest gump has like thick braces and mumbles and critical bands like, I like that. That's how I'm going to sit for now on. So that's, and I was like, okay, obviously he would accidentally hold the door open for the Columbine shooters when he's a teenager. And like, he's going to have, he's going to, he's going to have a start up at some point. Like, I was just trying to think of the other things he could do, you know? yeah, he gives Zuckerberg the idea for Facebook. Yeah, yeah, he's like he like he's like looking at a book

And be like oh this would be easier to read if it was made out of faces and Microsoft is like hall like that kind of garbage Yeah, I like this bit For its own merits and also because it's kind of like the flop house version of the Mubimbaam thing where they're writing new lyrics to Weed In Start the Fire. Yeah, there you go. Yeah, exactly. Like he's, he gets a job as a stock trader and hits the wrong button and there's the 2008 crash and that kind of like Fars Gump's just doing all this stuff, you know. You know that he like, he needs to, he needs to use the bathroom at the capital building so he walks through a door he's not supposed to and suddenly it's January 6th and

insurrectionists are, are flooding in. I guess one thing is far scum only makes bad things happen in this version with the exception of helping him. He's a random lag type figure. He's more of a Randall flag chaos truer. Yeah. Pardon me. So the thing I just randomly decided to ask you about. So I saw on Twitter Matt Solar Sites was going to be hosting a screening of Mad Max Fury Road preceded by the Chuck Jones short What's Opera Doc? Yeah, because I saw that he was selling books out of his garage over and over again. I get it Matt Solar S sites on my book from you i don't even know what your referencing

uh... he promotes he promotes his uh... his ebrotes is online store a lot i'm sorry well uh... so you know i have to see center uh... went there i should tell i want to tell the audience like i already texted you guys but i want to tell the audience that like the i've seen center they had like this thing like thanking everyone for coming back to the movies and it would be like, you know, Spike Lee would come up

and be like, thanks for coming back. You know, nothing like seeing a movie in the theater and Miranda July would say the same thing. I wish I was doing the right thing. I wish I was there instead of in my bathroom, which is like a thing she said. And then like the only people who mentioned their project was David Fincher and Amanda Seafried and Gary Oldman came up and are like, from the creative team behind Mank, thanks for coming

back to the movies. I'm like, oh man, if Ellie was here, this would really gank his Mank crank. It's a real Mank. It's a real Mank. Yeah. But no, I saw the screening and it was great, obviously. Still both wonderful films. So is this a section where we do hot takes?

No, I was like, is there, is Mad Max Fury Road as to Metalheads? Is it the most metal movie or is there a metal movie do you think I mean heavy metal it's right in the title yeah it's true yeah true but it's it's I mean but heavy metal has this weird strain of like national impune style hippie yeah humor right true I think it's hard for me to think off the top my head of another I mean like I guess you talkuVe is more punk than metal, right? Yeah, like Valhalla Rising, I think, is basically a Black Metal music video.

Yeah, I think those two are pretty, I mean, the fact that Managed Fear Road literally has a guy just shredding away on a guitar on a huge truck in front of a wall of amps, and there's fire coming out of the guitar. That's pretty, yeah, but valorizing is pretty metal too. I mean, those are both movies that also, like, you don't, you kind of don't need any dialogue. If you just, if you just play it with a score, it's still great. Yeah. And you know what's going on because they're made by, well, certainly Mad Max is made by

a visual genius of a director. Yeah. We do have one final letter. It's from Mike Lasting with Held. After referencing it in your Jackie Chan episode, I looked up the letterbox reviews for the great bikini off-road adventure. I think you'll be happy to know that most of the reviews

for the film reference the flop house in some way or another as the reason for watching it. Which means when Elliot sits his children on his knee, which leads me to my question. This is my legacy. And I thought your legacy was one panel about Soron and Spider-Man. No, no, no.

This is my legacy that I shared this with the world. Which leads me to my question. In your illustrious careers, do you think there are other films that you've brought into the cultural zeitgeist because of the podcast other than the great bikini off-road adventure of course well I mean of course you know I what why are you looking at me Dan I think there's a highly on official trilogy and that it leaks it's a trilogy in your mind. Well, it is.

It is. Yeah, I mean, if you go to the Wikipedia pages for Castle Freak, Head of the Family, or the Invisible Maniac, they all have links to the other movies. Or if you look any of them up on Amazon, they also say customers frequently purchase these with this. Yeah. Because I recommend those movies many times on the podcast, if you're a new listener. Yeah, watch them. They're great

Yeah, I think I get a lot of people tweeting at me that they watch the take of Helen 123 Because I recommended it and I got it to someone at on Twitter Just recently they watch the gunfighter because I recommended a while ago, so you know as long as we're as long as we're bringing great movies Like Castle Freak the gunfighter and the great bikini off-road adventure to the discerning views of those who might otherwise recommended a while ago. So, you know, as long as we're bringing great movies like Castle Freak, The Gun Fighter, and The Great Bikini Offroad Adventure to the discerning views of those who might otherwise miss them, I guess we're doing the Lord's work. Yeah, and I just want to highlight, folks who have come to the live show where I've done, there's one presentation I've done that references uh... references this so those folks will know this already but uh... news

to most if you go to the bikini car wash company i am db page under the trivia some soul has written daily share writer and podcast host dan Mchoi list this motion picture among one of his favorite movies uh... i don't know if that's entirely accurate, but I mean, people would know better than you, Dan.

If you don't know if it's accurate, I'm going to have to take in a face value. Yeah. That's my legacy to the world. Yeah, I think Dan, there's worse legacies. Are there? Hold on. Yeah. Wait, are there? Hold on. Yeah.

Yeah, sure. So this is the final part of the show where we recommend movies, movies that, I don't know, we like to lock down, okay, you can watch these ones too. Why not? Sorry, I was pulling up, the thing I want to recommend is a film called The Neutral Ground, which was actually made by someone who works at the Daily Show. CJ Hunt is one of the field producers, the people who are in charge of the remote pieces on the show. And a while back, he decided he wanted to do a documentary

inspired by the amount of sort of controversy there was over the removal of Confederate landmarks and in New Orleans and how long it took after they went through that they should be removed for any action to actually be taken. And then, you know, as anyone who has been in America or witnessed America over the time, like he kind of got caught up in a larger story about how, you know, after periods of maybe greater racial progress, we find ourselves in periods of racial regress where white supremacy is, you know, bafflingly and sadly on the rise and you know, like perhaps as a reaction to, or almost certainly as a reaction to the fact that, you know,

people are getting human dignity for the first time, maybe, and others do not care for it. But there's that, and there's also just the story of how the Confederacy sort of lied after the the war like told its you know descendants a great lie though the wives of the Confederates soldiers who died sort of taking upon themselves to rewrite the history of the Confederacy and of slavery in a way that you know he goes and he talks to these people and they have this horrible naive ignorance about the world that is basically a brainwashing that has been sold them. And so it's a very interesting story.

And I- Sounds like a laugh right. Well, the thing is it actually is because he's quite funny and There's a lot of it that you know has the vibe sort of old-style daily show Field stuff, but also a lot more Ernest because CJ himself he's half black half, and his father is sort of very attuned to like, and very enraged about the erasure of America's racial history, and they have conversations about that.

And it feels very honest as well as being funny. But I texted him, I asked him where it could be seen since it's mostly still on festivals right now, but it will debut nationwide for free on PBS on July 5th. And if you're in LA, there's limited screenings at Lemile Glendale, is that how it's pronounced? Lemile, Lemile, Lemile, Lemile, Lemile Limily, Glendale, July 2nd through 8th. And if you want to look it up, there's neutralgroundfilm.com and at it's not neutral on social media. You just wanted to get it like an extra plug

because it's not something that I think we get to see a lot of other lives. Mm-hmm, I think that's great. Speaking of documentaries, I wanted to recommend a documentary too guys. Wow, check new wave has documentaries. What? I'm take, I took a brief break from check new wave movies. I'm currently in the middle of watching all my countrymen, all my good countrymen.

Anyway, but that's nothing we can recommend tonight. There are other check new wave movies that I will recommend in the future, but I decided to take a break from those and go to the actual movie theater and see an actual movie. The first time I've seen one since I saw once upon time in Hollywood over a year ago. Anyway, this was the movie that I was looking forward to the most this year and it did not disappoint me. That's right. The Sparks Brothers. Some listeners may know that the Sparks is one of the Sparks. Well, forget it. Take away my fan card. Somebody may know that. Yeah, yeah, name five of their songs. Yeah, I mean, I can name a lot more than that.

Yeah. Fit, you want some of their most recent album or the oldest one anyway. So the, some people, the listeners may know that sparks is one of my two favorite bands, what's the other favorite band, you'll just have to guess. But it's not a band that sounds like sparks. But they had this documentary made about them by a great, they cooperated with it.

There's a lot of information about them that I was not familiar with and a lot of old footage of them that was really great to see. And even if you're not familiar with the band, which is possible you're not, because even though as the movie talks about, they have 25 albums from about 50 years of recording, but they are still not a band. This is particularly well known. And my wife's parents were in town when I went to see this, and they were like,

oh, is that a real band? I thought it was a movie about a fake band, which seems to be what a lot of people think. No, it's a real band. It does a really good job telling their story and kind of explaining why they're interesting. This band based around two brothers who have essentially been operating as a sort of pop music art collective for the past 50 years.

And it was really, really good. I liked it a lot. And this will not probably attract other people to it, but at the very end there's some footage from a spark show I went to in November of 2019 here in LA and it was very excited. It was a nice reminder of good memories and the person I went to go see the movie with a former flop house guest Brendan Haye. I also went to that concert with him so you can go see this movie and when that part comes up at the end imagine me and Brendan watching the movie and remembering this great concert that we went to. Yeah, inception. Yeah, exactly. Yeah, we also than we also. So that's that's the Sparks Brothers in theaters now. Yeah, exactly. Yeah, wheels of the wheel. So that's the Sparks Brothers in theaters now. Yeah, I just wanted to do a test. I only knew a couple of Sparks songs,

but I went to see it because it looked interesting and had a great time, and I took some birthday money to buy the soundtrack. So now I'll listen to Sparks in my own role. You didn't just go ahead and buy all 25 albums. Yeah, it seemed daunting from the scope of that documentary. How much stuff is out there? So I was like, I'll just take the ones they played for me.

Just go back into a full discography. That's what I did within Slave to about a year ago and just go to the beginning and work your way up. So I am not going to recommend a documentary. I'm gonna recommend a Heist movie, which is thematically appropriate, because we review the Heist movie everybody. So I get extra points.

I'm going to recommend the major motion picture debut of the best man of the movies. That's right, director Michael Mann, his debut thief starring James Khan. It's great. I've only recently got around to watching it and watching it, I'm like, oh yeah, this influenced a ton of movies. It's got a wonderful score, it's on HBO Max, it's beautiful, it's rainy, it's a very Chicago-y movie, it's probably the best movie featuring Jim Balushi. Let's see. Yeah, check it out. James Con wears the hell out of some pants in it. Thumbs

up, thief. I mean, thief is a great movie. James Con's pants, I don't know if they're like that. Man, you gotta watch that movie again. Yeah, you know how they say you gotta watch it once for the plot twice for the pants. Yeah, there's a scene There's a scene that movie where he's on a date and he shows the woman is on date with like a pick a collage He made of kind of like his his vision of his life and it is frightening and it's the one it's the moment The movie where you're like lady you got to get away from this guy right now. I know he's the hero of the movie, but still Yeah, I was when during that scene, I'm like, what am I supposed to be feeling? Oh, I'm scared for her.

Confused. It was great. Yeah, what a great movie. Yeah. Well, that's the end of this episode. But before we sign off, I want to say an extra special thanks to our producer, Jordan Cowling, who will be leaving us after this episode, not because we want her to, but because she's

going on to bigger and better things. So thank you so much for taking a lot of burden off my shoulders and doing it way better than I ever did in doing the production stuff. And generally being more pleasant to deal with than Dan. No, no. And not responding to texts with things. Certainly more poochy, hostile, hard to tell. Yeah, she, I mean, Jordan, you're, Jordan, you're listening to this, but you're, you became a real part of the Flophouse family, and we're going to miss you.

Yeah, we'll miss you a lot. Thank you so much. We're lucky that we got the time we had with you working with us, and I just wish it could have been longer. But good luck and best wishes from us, the Floppers. And I'm signing this on a photo of the three of us. Johnny K. Just style, yeah. Well, go to Max Flophouse gloss. It's not a glossy photo. It's a Polaroid. There's not a lot of room to write on it. So I really covered up most of the picture.

Oh, man. That's a shame. Uh, hey, if you like podcasts, uh, good news. We're part of the whole network of them. Go over to the last one. Good news even listening to one. Boom, you got, gotcha. You got flopped. But, uh... Twist ending, this is a podcast the whole time deal with it. If you liked this episode, tell your friends, uh, get the word out. And, uh, as always, thank you for listening. For the floppice, I've been Dan McCoy. I've been Stewart Wellington.

And I'm Elliot Kaelin, that's right me and goodbye. Man, I would love the twist of a movie. Basically, the movie just be like, hey, fuck you, I twisted you, I gotcha. For the movie, says that. Yeah, like, like, like, immediately as soon as the twist happens, just like freeze frame and like zoom in on the character's faces. So...