The Flop House - Ep. #361 - Accidental Love, with Matthew Silverstein and Dave Jeser

Episode Date: January 29, 2022

Here's a new one -- two of the credited writers of Accidental Love (aka "Nailed," the movie that went through so many production issues that director David O. Russell asked for his name to be removed) actually PITCHED their own movie to us to cover. That's right, Elliott's colleagues, Matt Silverstein and Dave Jeser, join us to discuss this legendarily troubled film, and they seem just as baffled as anyone about it!Wikipedia entry for Accidental LoveMovies recommended in this episode:TenebraeRed RocketDevil in a Blue DressBasket Case

On this episode we discuss Accidental Love. Also known as Nailed, directed by David O'Russell under the name Stephen Green, Dan McCoy. I'm Stuart Wellington. Hey, Dan McCoy and Stuart Wellington. I'm Elliot Kaelin and we've got some very special guests with us today. May I introduce them to you guys? Yes, please do. Yes, I wanted to get your full consent before introducing them.

I did not want to strike this surprise you with them or you just spring them on you as surprise guests. These aren't surprise witnesses, although they do have those later on. We emailed about it. Yeah. Oh, don't pull back the curtains too. So we have some special guests today. We, this doesn't have an a lot for us.

We're going to talk about a movie and we have with us the writers of the movie. That's right, joining us. You may know their work from the man's show or crank anchors or solar opposites. They created the shows drawn together and what just happened and they're currently writing on housebroken on Fox.

You could also watch it on Hulu, but it's also on Fox Monday nights. They're met Silverstein and Dave Jesser, the writers of Accidental Love, AKA Nailed, right? Hey guys, thanks for joining us. Oh, well, thanks guys. Thanks for having us. It's nice to be on a show about a movie we wrote.

And this is a podcast where you talk about the worst movies ever I didn't I didn't know the premise of the show. I feel like I've been blind Yeah, I just I told him it was more of an inside the screenwriter studio type of thing Yeah, I think this is the first time this has happened We of course Chris White's was on a mini where we talked a little bit about New Moon, the movie that we made. We talked a little bit, we had a mini where we talked to the writer of the Super Mario Brothers movie. But yeah, but we never sort of main episode where we're talking to people.

This is the first time we're really going to we're really going to be dissecting the movie with the people who. Yeah, yeah. This is all this is all on our quest to eventually have Paul Schrader on here, and then our show will immediately be canceled. What's he going to be talking about? Marmaduke? He talks about all kinds of shit.

Is that the movie? Keep climbing. No, he wrote Heartbeap, Stan. I'm sorry. The Ball Schrader was not involved with Heartbeap Stewart. I don't know why. I mean, and you go on Wikipedia now and it says Heart beeps a Paul Schrader joint which is not accurate at all. When I was watching the card counter I couldn't help but think about heart beeps the whole

time. I think that's just it is about a somewhat robotic man. I can understand that. But anyway, this isn't a podcast about Paul Schrader Dan. What do we do on this podcast? Well, we watch a bad movie and then we talk about it. And this is a movie. I'm sure we'll get into it that had all the pieces in place to be a good movie, a very fine director of films, David Russell. I mean, I've heard negative personal things about him, but I mean, as a human being, I think we can't give him top marks, but he's certainly talented filmmakers. And it's got a top notch cast full of big name stars. And behind the scenes, you've got two of the best screenwriters in the biz,

Jess from Silverstein, Silverstein and Jesser. But it went for a lot of production things. Yeah, well Matt, our career, we sort of based on the guiding principle that we want to make something that either everyone loves or hates. And I think this is another success. You don't want to make a wishy-washy movie, not for you, the two and a half star. Yeah, it was fine. You want to really want to divide it.

No, all stars are no stars, Elliot. So tell us, so I, to be so full disclosure, I work with Matt and Dave on Housebroken and they're really fantastic and both fantastic writers and great people and I love talking to them and so I was very excited to have them here when I found out that they wrote this movie and I'm curious and can you explain to the audience kind of where you were in your careers. This is 2015 and how you got involved in this movie, which had all the earmarks of a hit. Totally, yeah. We had big name stars. movie, which had all the earmarks of a hit. Totally, yeah.

We had your big name, stars. Yeah, we had just finished. We drawn together, it was just canceled. And I think, I don't know if we were doing anything specific, right? We were probably just starting to work with 20th. I think we worked on a show called Unhitched, which was a fairly brother show.

I don't think. We come off the strike, right? There was a strike, and we were in desperate need of health insurance. Oh, that's what it was. That's right. I'm sure this is the movie we ended up working on because we needed health insurance. And the movie's about getting health insurance.

The secret to how big name Hollywood people get involved in bad projects. A lot of times with actors, it's that they have a divorce they have to pay for. And with screenwriters, it's that they need health insurance. And that seems to be the constant tale. Yeah, that's right. Because we were done. Our animated shows. Drawing together, a lot of animated shows aren't

guild and drawing together wasn't, so we didn't get health insurance. That's right, and then strike came, like, oh my gosh, we need our answers. Yeah, my wife was pregnant, we told, and we needed to make a combined total, I think it was $40,000. And we said, we need to need to make a guild $40,000.

And through our manager or agent or someone, they said, oh, David O'Rossel is making movie based on Kristen Gore, Al Gore's daughter's book called Sammy Sail. And he wanted some crazier, uh, dumber writers. Now, I think that's not so smart. I'm not in the biz, so you guys can help me read between the lines. But when you say health insurance and pregnant wife, does that just mean gambling dance?

Gambling in meth. Oh, yeah. Designer drugs. So then we went and we met with him and it was great. We went to his house, which looked like a flat house, right? Like it was like, there's only like a dirty couch in a half-filled pool in the backyard and Krabby Lawmford and Cherd,

we just went outside and just started talking to him and he was in a bathrobe, at least in my memory. He was in a bathrobe. What year was talking Dave? What is it, 2002, 2004? Yeah, it was talking 15 years ago. Yeah, so this has to me like Alfred Molina and Boogie night was it

Oh, it was a little bit like that that whole vibe and so he's like listen I wrote a script for this book I'm writing it with Kristen Gorts or book Sammy Hill and we're adapting it to a movie and I'm like well Would you like me to read the book and he's like no? We don't want it to be anything like the book Let's get rid of the book and I was like well, you want me to read the draft you guys did no? We don't want you guys to read the draft. We don't want it to be based on the book or the draft we did. But I do want to do a movie about a hot girl going to Washington. And then so then we started riffing on ideas off of that brilliant idea. The original title was sexy Smith goes to Washington. I think it was. Yeah. Yeah. So that's

what we had to start with. And then I'm not quite sure how it ended up, but I think we started pitching on ideas about a woman trying to get health care in DC. And then we brought up an episode we did have drawn together where one of our characters had a brain tumor that hit different parts of her brain and activated different parts of her personality. So she was sometime a big nymphomaniac or a racist stereotype. And I think you really sparked that. And then we came up with the nail in the head and then the rest is history.

And then, uh, yeah. Because when you were, when you were on this movie, it was called nailed because it's, it, to, to give away some of the plot involves a woman who gets a nail in her head that changes her personality sometimes as opposed to that, this is a, it's a confusing movie because it's available under the title nailed on 2B, but when you watch the movie, the title card says accidental love. And so it's like, even the movie,

I guess it's a real sign that the movie doesn't know what it wants to be. Wait, I can't watch this on. 2B, I watch it on IMDbTV with all those stupid commercials. 2B also has stupid commercials. Yeah, I don't know what you're like. Oh! Oh my God.

And the other fascinating is like, where David Russell was in his career at that point, he had just, he did I Heart Huckabees. And I think there was nothing really going on. He was sort of in a lull. I guess that's why we were able to get in there. And did you, did you three kings before that as well? Well, yeah, there's a bunch of great movies.

Oh no, I guess spanking the monkeys first. Spanking the monkeys, right? Yeah. I remember getting off at the Astoria sub in Forest Hills, the Astubway station there, and there was still like 10 to 15 years later, there was still a three kings poster kind of stuffed behind a ticket kiosk thing where they're just like,

well, we can't really use this anymore, so we'll just leave this artifact forever. That's like the, uh, they're, uh, there used to be like a gas station on Broadway around Houston. I don't know if it's there anymore. And it's, or it was a parking lot. And they had a huge ad for the majestic starring Jim Carrey. And it was an enormous, standy, probably 20 feet tall of a sad Jim Carrey. And it was the and the movie opened

and closed within weeks, but that was there for it felt like 10 years like you locked by it. It was just, yeah, it was a relic of an ancient civilization. It was not the Maddie. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Look upon my works.

He was the biggest star. Yeah. He was a huge star. So do you do you want to talk at all, uh, Matt and Dave about about the conflict behind the scenes, uh, with, with this movie? Or would you rather help? Let me, uh, set you up, because, because basically it was clear with David O'Rossal. We had never worked with them. We had a great time working with them, but it was always a new idea, a new idea, a new idea. Uh, he saw the movie Monster House and that changed his perspective on the movie.

So at some point Matt and I did get a job and had to move on and left him and Kristen Gord of finish writing the movie. We had no idea if it was getting made and we heard it was. Anyway, it was years later when we got a call from the writer's guild saying, hey, there was a submission for credit for this movie. And just so you know, you are not getting any credit. And we said, well that makes sense. We had moved on in our careers. We weren't around for the shooting of the movie or the finishing of the script. So we thought, all right, that makes sense that Kristen Gore would rewrite everything we wrote because most of the stuff we wrote was about a guy

who had a boner forever and a guy who had a prolapse rectum and that stuff didn't seem like it was in Kristen Gore's world. But it was the night we got the call or the day we got the call from the guild saying, hey, if you don't put in a file to get credit or whatever it is, then you won't get credit in the movie and Matt decided, I'll actually just read this. I'll read what they submitted. And you had something like 24 hours? Yeah, I mean, yeah, they had called me like a few times and then it was literally like, yeah, like it's the end of the day today or by midnight,

if you don't file something, you can't get credit. And so I'm like, whatever, I'll at least read what they submitted. And then I read the treatment and it was a treatment that we wrote, but our names were taken off of it. So then I immediately look on my, you know, I look back at me, we're talking, it was already like three we wrote, but our names were taken off of it. So then I immediately look on my, I look back at me, we're talking, it was already like three or four years after the fact,

and I look on my computer, and I find the exact document, but with our names also on it. At which point then I was like, well, I just kind of lost my mind. And I'm like, well, now I do want credit. I don't care how shitty this movie is. I've erased my name.

I want to go ahead and, and then Dave got a copy of the script or a version of a shooting chapter or something and he started, he just sort of skimmed through it. I was like, yeah, there's, there's some stuff here that we, you know, all this stuff with the original draft. I'm like, well, fuck then, let's, let's try to get some credit. Like, at least get a story by credit, which is what we really felt we deserved because we thought we, we helped develop the story. And by the way, just as a, as a, a Koda,

we didn't get paid enough for the movie to get health insurance. If, if we did not, if we got story, if we got credit for the movie, you know, you get a certain bump, that bump would have taken a past the threshold where we would have had, you know, and in the writer's guild, you use credits.

So you basically use up credits until you can't have health insurance. So we had to use up these credits and then lose our health insurance, ultimately. But this would have gotten us back over that threshold. So you weren't just doing this for vanity. You weren't just doing this to see your name and lights.

You were doing this for your family. That was the only thing that was for my family, neither. I was doing that. I was doing that. The mass was out of spite and Dave was out of his blood first. Matt married well. He didn't need health insurance. I was having a baby. I had my metham gambling problem. So we sat down and we penned a letter to the arbitration committee, the WJ, the people

that then look a neutral party who looks at the scripts, looks at all materials and decides who deserves credit. And so then i wrote this letter that if you would feel comfortable with reading some of this letter to us i don't know if i'll do it uh... here is july 29th 2013 uh... well headie times uh... yeah all right here members of the arbitration committee

while you have most certainly read in the trades that we, Dave, Jesser and Matt Silverstein are seeking stories credit on the Jessica Beale vehicle nailed, do not be fooled. The stakes have never been lower. Even the director, David O'Russell, is refusing credit on this tasteless piece of cinematic diarrhea. Unfortunately, given the current status of our writing careers, we cannot afford to be denied the credit we deserve on any crappy movie and make no mistake. This movie is total shit. But we are responsible for at least taking half of this shit. And it's important for the world to know that Matt Silverstein and Dave Jester squeezed out a painfully large portion. Wow. Okay, so it goes on. Now, Kristen Gore believes she deserves sole credit writing because she took the biggest shit out of all of us

and get soul credit christian gour has proved repeatedly throughout this process that she is full of more shit than anybody starting with the first treatment she submitted to the committee claiming that only she in david oressel authored the treatment without us now to her credit once we reminded her, she was able to recall spending weeks in a small house with us while we wrote the majority of the treatment.

We don't hold any of that against her because people forget stuff like that all the time, especially when they erased the names of the people they didn't want to share credit with from the actual document. Wow, this is crazy that I wrote this. Ah, here's the ending. Anyhow, listen, we all spent way too much time discussing who's responsible for this movie. No one is going

to see. We really do wish we had better careers so we could distance ourselves from nailed to, but the sad fact is we can't, but all we're asking your view, dear members of this committee, is take a deep whiff of this shitty movie, and ask yourself this simple question, who shit does this smell like? And then look at our credits, or this re-read this poorly written statement, do that, and we believe you'll agree that nailed stinks like us.

God bless, mad and in-day. So that was our statement, to try to get credit on a bully, that's a giant piece of shit. And it was successful. And it's a story of triumph of the human spirit because it was successful. And you did get credit on this.

I'm just going to be polite because you're in the room, not very good movie. And here's the crazy twist, ending the big six-cent thing. I never watched the movie until yesterday to prepare for this podcast. We didn't write this movie. We didn't write it.

We definitely helped come up with the story, but we had very little to do with this movie. Well, I'm curious to hear what we're going to do for it. Yeah, I watched it last night for the first time. I'm curious to hear what you guys think, because it seemed to me that, you know, David O'Rossel jumped off the movie before they even finished shooting it. He was sick of them not giving him enough. Whatever, I don't know the reasons. But he jumped off, he didn't want credit for the movie.

Then they shot the first scene where the nail gets in her head and read and then edited it and got it out because David O'Rossel was winning Oscars by then. But it seemed to me that probably David O'Rossal, because he know he has a movie in his head, probably had an idea of how this movie would look. And then new people came in, finished it, and had no idea. Now who knows what David O'Rossal's version would've been like? But I can't imagine this is the version.

He had it in his head. And he shot those scenes. I mean, watching it, my impression was definitely that like, yeah, there was a movie in here, and then it just got rearranged by people who are like, I don't know, like we came in, we found this footage, like what can we do with it? Because like, it's a little bit like the actual story

of this movie of it's making is the fake story of the Blair Witch project, which is stumbling on footage that you then assemble into some kind of, into some kind of releaseable product. Yeah. Yeah, like it, I mean, I don't know how accurate anything online is, but it seemed to be that like there was all this stuff where like funding would fall through and then like they would deny more funding and and they wanted to fire people off of it. So by that point, David, it'll rust a little lost interest. And like there was stuff that they left off shooting, like key important stuff to the end. Because they're like, oh, if we like wait till like do the nail gun accident to the end,

they have to give us more money. And then there was like a strike and they couldn't do it. And which is very interesting. Like if you see the nail gun accident, it just seems like, and they couldn't do it. And which is very, like if you see the nail gun accident, it just seems like, yeah, like, there might as well be like a scene missing card and then put up on the screen at that point. Yeah, it's like the lap dance in death proof in Grindhouse where it's just as real missing

or was that planet terror, I don't remember. No, no, it's death proof. Yeah. So why don't we talk about, what don't we talk about with this movie's about? We talked about that it doesn't, that that Matt and Dave in a, in a, in a story of victory for all writers, I think, managed to, managed to rest their names back onto it. So what is this movie that,

that called accidental love slash nailed, that they're, that they're on? Well, we know, as we were talking about it, that it involves a woman with an ale in her head. So let's start. So the movie for some reason starts with the text a few years ago. And then it goes to a CGI map of America. And we zoom into Indiana where we meet Alice Eccle, Jessica Biel. She's a roller skating waitress at a car. Where did it takes place a few years ago in Indiana? And it doesn't mention where I'm at since I was in Indiana. Oh, yeah. Yeah. That's true. So put that under film. I was. I guess that's true. Stuart, was this a, was this an accurate representation of Indiana?

What we see on screen? I mean, it felt, I actually got home sick and I started crying. Because of all the roller skating waitresses that you specifically really are there. Yep, and classic cars. I will say I wonder whether the a few years ago, I mean, like, that's, you know, look, that's kind of a joke thing that sometimes happens where it's just like the day after tomorrow when they don't want to like set it in time. But I also wonder if like by the time this movie was released, like Obamacare had come

out. And yes, you know, Lord knows it's not the best healthcare system, but the premise of this movie, you know, was kind of no longer possible to get. Yes. So I don't know. I wonder if that was part of it. That's, that makes it, that's a very good point. That's a good point that I hadn't thought about because it does. It is, it's just a very vague, they should just put before Obamacare on the front. Yeah. But then they, but then they go to this diner with all these 50s cars and she's on Rosy. So you think it's, well, now we're not back in 1950, which is really

bizarre, but you're not. You're living, you're living in, I mean, you're, it's, well, now we're back in 1950, which is really bizarre, but you're not. You're living it. I mean, it's a sort of a historical time in American history. It's kind of like you're living in a mythic version of America. She's, anyway, she's great on her skates. She does knock a guy over. It's weird. You see a bunch of jobs of her doing really great skating tricks, and then she just bumps

into a guy and knocks them down. And it's one of the things you're like, so is she bad on her skates? I don't, anyway. It's not the thing. It's setting up the important thing that she often gets hit in the head, which we'll come into play later. Oh, right.

So her boyfriend is Scott. He's James Marsden. He's a state trooper, which you know, because he has a mustache and he always wears his uniform. And he is planning to propose her at the fanciest restaurant in town, the fancy gondola. It's called. And he got, he secured, weeks ahead, he secured the best table, the one next to the gondola,

which is suspended from ropes or chains above the ceiling. But the proposal gets interrupted by a guy using a nail gun to fix the gondola, which seems like a weird thing to do in the middle of dinner service anyway. I would recommend it as a bar owner, I would recommend against doing that while you're in the middle of a busy service. But you know, it's hard to get a contractor out. So I guess I understand. There's like, there was that movie we watched where I was at Nicholas Cage or somebody else,

they had to turn off, they had to get the lights off in a place. So they stood on the toilet in the public bathroom. Yeah, the fuse box was on the ceiling directly above the toilet and you were talking about as a bar owner that's a poor place to put your fuse box. So there's a confusingly edited accident, I'll call it, and Alice ends up with a nail in her head, but yeah, you kind of don't see it. It's all done through suggestion. It's almost like they're making the audience complicit in the act of the nail going in. Like the way that you don't see the knife go into Janet Lee and Psycho, you don't see the nail go into Jessica Biel's head. But it makes sense if that they, I guess they put off shooting that scene until the end and then they didn't have money to do it.

And so it's, you know, they, you know, they've taken a rustic ass practical effects of like, you know, like stuff squirting out of the head. Well, the sad thing is you see it or something. You know that Tom Savini, when he watched this was like, why didn't they hire me? I would have done it. It would have been great. Blood everywhere. You know, three kings had that great scene where you see it or something. You know that Tom Savini when he watched this was like, why didn't they hire me? I would have done it. It would have been great blood everywhere. You know, three kings had that great scene where you see the bullet go inside the body and what happens.

Well, that makes you think that I wonder if he had something in mind where you would see the nail going and like going to her brain, which would the whole movie is about that. So, but at the hospital, the whole sunny Chibis style. Yeah. Exactly. Yeah, exactly. Yeah, it suddenly goes to X-ray. You see the bones get broken. They go to the hospital where Dr. Bill Hader refuses to operate to remove the nail

because Alice doesn't have insurance. And while they eat hamburgers in the operating room, they talk about how the nail is so deep in her brain that it could cause personality changes and loss of inhibitions and speaking languages that she vaguely remembers from childhood. And so whenever she gets mad and then we from now on, she just speaks Portuguese. And Scott, he takes back her engagement ring and gives her his lucky eagle talent, which

is something that I was expecting her to carry through the rest of the movie and it just disappears. And I was disappointed that that was not a right. So by this point, just to be clear, he takes back the engagement ring because he doesn't want to be engaged to someone who has a nail in her head and who does not have health insurance. Like that's a deal-brainer.

The nail in the head, he was okay with because he thought, oh my God, she's on her parents' health insurance, but the minute he finds out she's not on her parents' health insurance, he suddenly takes off the ring because he can't be married to a burden. Her parents, one of whom is played by Beverly DeAngelo. She has played both though.

She's great. Yeah. She could play both parents. You think she would play both parents? So do you think they'd both be female characters or be she would be playing a man and a woman? I mean, I think she's got range, Elliot. I don't, I mean, I don't tell her to hurry, you know? Okay.

I mean, let you, let's see what the DeAngelo is. That's usually what you do in movies. There, there are, look, this movie, like we said, has been chopped up and put back together in a, in a Frankenstein shambling monster of a film. But it, it does have funny bits in it, particularly because a lot of the actors are talented comic actors. And I liked James Marsden just like constantly giving percentage chances for various things. Like, yeah. Okay, it's 60% chance we're still engaged. And there's like one point later on when one of the ones like, I don't like your numbers

or something that was very funny. But, uh, that James Marsden, I mean, he's been the saving grace of a number of flop house movies in the past. He's a really talented comic actor, not a great cyclops, but it's a hard character to do, you know,

it's a hard character to do anything with. That's what I mean, that kind of what makes his whole movie fascinating is like, the cast is insane. It's such a great cast. I mean, even, Bill Hader his whole movie fascinating is like the cast is insane. It's such a great cast. I mean, even, yeah, we, Bill Hader was the best. Bill Hader shows up. He's fantastic.

Like everyone in the house is also tracing Morgan. They're doing their best. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. We haven't Tracey Morgan says anything. I, I laugh at it just because it's impossible for me not to laugh at his delivery, even if the film around it is not holding people. That's where they kicked you out of that, they kicked you that holocaust memorial that he was doing because he was talking

about in charge of that. I mean, he was trying his best to be make it somber and you just wouldn't stop laughing. I mean, that's the one. The organizer in that case. Yeah. I don't know about that. Maybe I mean, it was called it was called remembering through our laughter, which was, which was a, you know, it was a bad idea for a Holocaust moral. Yeah.

So, Als' parents, they hold a fundraiser. This is where we meet the local veterinarian, Kristi Alley, and some of the other cookie characters in this town. There's Reverend Norm played by Kurt Fuller, who you may remember from like those busters too, and things like that. And he's a minister with a constant boner

because of a Viagra accident. And we meet Keeshawn, played by Tracy Morgan, who will later learn as a pro-lapse a-ness He's a minister with a constant boner because of a Viagra accident. And we meet Keeshawn, played by Tracy Morgan, who will later learn as a pro-lapsed A&S because of a pro-lapsed rectum from a weightlifting accident. So they are also in desperate need of healthcare. They can't get that. I remember showing David O'Rossel. Have you guys seen that image online of that weightlifter from the Olympics?

He was squatting. I don't know how the Olympics and his whole butt whole fell out of his. Yeah. Like his, yeah, his little singlet ripped, and I remember showing him that, and he was so excited. And then that's what I remember looking in a script, as soon as someone showed up with a pro-lapse rectum. I was like, Matt, we did write this. Yeah. Oh, man, Christian Gordon wrote pro-lapse rectum. We showed him that picture. That's our vision. Now, I haven't, I also like almost everybody else in the world. I haven't read the book that it's based on, but I did look up the summary and it is about

a woman trying to pass health care, a health care bill in the capital. So it does seem like, yeah, the main, the main Sylvesterine gesture addition is the, is the, is the new tone of, of, of, of, of, of, of, of, of, of, of, of, of, of, of, of, of, of, of, of, of, of, of, of, of, of, of, of, of, of, of, of, of, of, of, of, of, of, of, of, of, of, of, of, of, of, of, of, of, of, of, of, of, of, of, of, of, of, of, of, of, of, of, of, of, of, of, of, of, of, of, of, of, of, of, of, of, of, of, of, of, of, of, of, of, of, of, of, of, of, of, of, of, of, of, of, of, of, of, of, of, of, of, of, of, of, of, of, of, of, of, of, of, of, of, of, of, of, of, of, of, of, of, of, of, of, of, of, of, of, of, of, of, of, of, of, of, of, of, of, of, of, of, of, of, of, of, of, of, of, of, of, of, of, of, of, of, of, of, of, of, of, of, of, of, of, of, of, of, of, of, of a of a of a person and prolettes into it. Like she's a lobbyist in the book. Like she just like she already is a creature of Washington. I I'm glad that you explained that you did not read the script because I was like, there's not a very good synopsis of the book online, but nothing about the book seemed to sound like the movie at all. Yeah.

And I mean, like at this point, I feel like the tone of the movie is fairly wacky. And the a lot like at this point, I feel like the tone of the movie is fairly wacky and the, a lot of the like angles, like there's a lot of closeups and it's, the angles are all skew, like it's meant to be. And the music's very wacky, yeah. Yeah. It feels like almost like, I mean Tim Burtony isn't the right thing to say, but like it

feels like they're trying to like, I don't know. It feels to felt to me like someone who is trying to emulate wacky comedy, but doesn't yes, no, doesn't have a good sense of humor or understand why. And I don't know if that's what was David O'Rossel's original intent to be as wacky. I have no idea. But yeah, it definitely came across wacky. It also came across as an incredibly horny movie without ever reaching any moment of sexy.

I don't know. horny movie without ever reaching any moment of sexy. I'm trying to get Jill and Hall's bicep veins. You see later. And I'm like, yeah, serious cut to get back. Yeah, it's a really like, yeah, it feels like a, like a, a, a teenager's idea of sex too. Cause like, whenever there's a sex scene, it's like, you just see legs flinging around in the air and you just, oh, oh, oh, oh, it's like this. But we'll get to that. So they don't raise enough money.

Alice's loser, Alice's loser job, because removed swings is that nail. Kristie Ali tries to remove the nail with some home surgery. And it just causes her to get so violent that Scott finally rakes up with Alice. Now, three weeks later, don't know why we needed it to be three weeks later, but it is. Alice is watching TV and she sees an ad on TV for her local congressman, representative

Howard Birdwell, Jake Gyllenhaal, who is not yet at, he's not at Oak Cha levels of wacky Jake Gyllenhaal, but he's, he gets pretty high up. He's on his way. Yeah. I enjoy the, I mean, you know, you can tell me whether this was intended or whether I'm reading too much into the movie. But I, I do think that like, there's a bit of a slide joke in the fact that later on we will see how Jessica Beale's like lack of shame, like allows her to fit into Washington like immediately and skillfully like her shape. Her shamelessness is her success. And Jake Jell-in-Hall's character is shameless in sort of a like gormless like weak man way

whereas like very clammy handed. Yeah. Yeah. She is shameless to a good cause, but they are a good match in part because like her injury and subsequent like, you know, honestly, mental illness, like makes her fit right in. It's kind of the being there. Yeah. I guess. Yeah. But there is, yeah, the implication that to get ahead and watch it, you have to be missing the part of your brain that controls your behavior.

Exactly. Yeah. That's, yeah, this is a deep movie. That's a good point. Thank you. That's what we add into it. That's smart stuff. So representative Howard Birdwell, he elected on a platform of providing colored glues for

school kids. They need glues and more than color, and which is a funny joke. And he asks, he says, if you need help contact me. So she and the Reverend and Keisha on the Go to DC to get help with their healthcare needs. They have a brief dust up with a security guard at the Capitol building, Rakesha,

who just leaves with Keisha on immediately on a date. And I was like, oh, well, that's not gonna come back. No, it does. That's a storyline throughout the movie. It's Keisha on Rakesha's relationship. And Birdwell's aid, he won't let Alice meet with him. Birdwell's too busy meeting with house whip Pam Hendrixson, played by Catherine Keener, who's the most unrecognizable in this wig.

I there were times when I was like, I had to remind myself, I was like, this, she was, this is like, when she was in like being John Malkovich, she seems so cool all the time. And here she manages to be like, I guess, just a Washington person, like not cool. It's a very different character for her to play. But she's super talented. That's what happens. Yeah. I mean, she's giving off like Allison Janie type energy in this role.

Yes. Yeah. Allison Janie energy, which hopefully the country will be operating off of by 2050. That's the goal. That's in Biden. You'll get better. Oh, man. We got to place oil with housing jenny alia you're living in full spare time that's not gonna like you know like that

we've got you know a few more decades of housing jenny energy but got willing but i'm not being for christine baransky energy of here i mean that's also solid energy i mean if only if only we could uh... we get harness all of our uh... all of us all of our uh... talented television and film actresses gene smart could power chicago we know that and stage and stage yes and they're also stage actresses yeah

uh... anyway catholic in our she wants to she wants to gillin hall support for a bill that would build a military base on the moon and she's already gotten the support of this Girl Scout group by promising that she'll get Shakira to perform it there, Jamboree, even though that's just a lie. And this is I think where the movie kind of misunderstands comedy is that her lead aid is Paul Rubens, and he's given very little to do in the movie.

And Paul Rubens is like, he's playing maybe the least wacky character in the entire movie, which is a strange choice when this is literally be your herman running. She made me laugh really hard. He looked at camera and narrowed his eyes a couple times. If he was definitely his own, hey, can I make just a quick comment about the moon base? Sure, sure.

When we were breaking the story, I knew the Catherine Keener character existed and David Russell really wanted her to be trying to pass a bill for something really evil. And he was looking for pitches and Matt Pitch. Well, what if she's trying to build like a death star? And I think you were just sort of half joking, half serious. I know that David O'Rossel was like, that's a terrible. Oh, no. I mean, like, I literally thought he was going to throw something at me. Like, he thought it was the worst idea he'd ever heard. And so I was like, oh, okay. I mean, I don't know.

Death Star has only been up until that point. It's only been successful in movies. So I don't know. And then when he went to, we went with him to pitch the movie once we broke it out with Kristen. And it was the weirdest thing. I mean, we've been pitching, you know, to varying degrees of success,

but we're always as prepared as we can be. We had written half the outline for the pitch that David hadn't read when we went into pitch the movie. So he was reading things for the first time in front of the head of Sony, you know, even to the point where he was reading it going, oh, this is pretty good. And then he would read what we had written

or what Kristen had written. And then at some point, he said, and then they meet this Catherine, Keener character, and she's trying to get a bill going for what was it again, Matt? What was your pitch? And I was like, oh, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the star? Like I was so scared to say. Yes, the death star. Oh, my God. And he sort of went on with the pitch. And then eventually he was like, you know, he hadn't read any of the third act that we had tried to put together for him. And he was like, hey, they go to Washington. It pretty much all works out. You get it, right? And I remember thinking we were going to get, all right. Well, thanks for coming in. That was weird, but they bought the movie immediately.

Yeah. Right. In the room. He's like, well, that sounds like a great movie. Let's do it. I'm like, what? How do I? How do you do it? So we assume there be no death star. And in any of our treatments, because he was so against it, we didn't have it in. And then last night, when I watched the movie the first time, it wasn't unfortunately the

death star, but it was a moon base, which I'd like to make. A military movie. There's not that big, there's not that big a leap. I mean, they make it very clear in Star Wars that that's not a small moon. That's a battle station. But the, but it's, I mean, it's pretty close. It's not that different. So, so Paul Rubens is like, Hey, Howard, you got to find a likable ordinary person to be at this PR event tomorrow to endorse the moon base because we need to, we've got the, we've got the girl scouts on board. We need to make it look like ordinary Americans really want this moon base that can blow things up from space. And Jake general hall runs into Jessica Bale on the hallway

and he she's like I need your help with health care and he's like that's way too complicated. I'm a freshman representative. I can't do that. And she gets hit in the head by a passing eagle statue that someone's carrying and that I guess shifts the nail in her head enough that she comes, she comes suddenly uncontrollably horny. And they have such cartoonish sex in office in the capital to the, in Alice has her first ever orgasm and they're literally, she's reaching up to portraits of presidents and tearing their crutches out. Well, you know, in the, in the throes of this earth shattering orgasm, it's, it's very cartoonish. And she's like, I can't believe I did that. I blame it on the nail.

Wait, that's not how you do it all the time. I mean, the problem is my wife won't let us do it near portraits anymore because I've destroyed so many of those. Yeah, you've been, and just the cost to get things framed as fucking so expensive. Oh, it's so expensive. And, you know, and my hands get all cut up from grabbing the, for breaking through the glass, you know, and so and all that. And, and this was an important moment, right? Because they had set up Jessica Beall had never had an orgasm with her.

For James Morrison, which is not likely. It's hard to be the one. All of the mustache. Look at him. And then only when she has this horrible affliction, this nail on her head that's, you know, tearing apart her brain uncontrollably to the point where she has sex with random people in the, I guess, a hallway or a closet of frame pictures. It was hard to, it's like, it wasn't his office and it wasn't someone else's office. Nobody was like, get out.

I'm working here. It was just, yeah, like, and, and portraits of, and portraits of presidents, which this is Congress. Like, you think they'd be portraits of representatives, you know, but, you know, nobody's going to recognize Sam Rayburn's crotch. So I guess we'll Clinton up there. So you're saying Dave, sorry. No, no, that was it. That finally it was in that special romantic circumstance. She could finally feel comfortable enough to have an orgasm. Yeah, it turns, she's a very specific kink, which is it has to be in the capital building office

with portraits in it. Otherwise, yeah, with five to seven minutes of being hit in the head by a 12 foot wide statue of a golden eagle, which someone's just carrying through the halls. Yeah. And with a super cut up Jake Gyllenhaal. Yeah. Yeah. You're right. Jack. He is like, seven. I would do say a little later. And I'm like, what was he making at this point in his career? I probably too. It was like right around Prince of Persia. Yeah. Oh, really? Then that makes sense because it yeah,

because he's because he is pretty jacked in Prince of Persia, right? He's got to do all that jumping in within time. That's like the main thing of Prince of Persia does is jump. Yeah, it's all jumping the video games. Yeah. Uh, that's what the main, the main responsibilities went in, in agent times, when you were a Prince of Persia was jumping from platform to platform. That was, that was the main role. Yeah role, yeah, in preparing to become a Sultan. So she's like, I can't believe I did that.

It's this nail in my head and he goes, look, I'll put the healthcare bill as a rider on this moon base bill. You'll come speak at this PR event. This moment of crazy sex has proven to me that you are the average American that I need to get the approval of America for this. And there's a scene where Alice and the Reverend and Kishon, they also need to be sharing one hotel room. And while we learned that is Kishon did not tell Rukisha about his prolapse rectum and he does, and he wants them to help him lie to her about it. It's

a very, it's a very sitcommy storyline because it's a little like a true moment. Yeah. Um, the next day it's, wait, can I ask you guys a question about that scene. I think I saw who played the minister or the priest. A court fuller. Right. That scene, because I looked for it a lot, was one of the only scenes you actually saw his boner, not in through his pants. So this joke, we were supposed to be running around with the boner the whole time.

They never even except for that scene in this hotel, when they may have been sharing, he was on the bed and you saw it sort of like suddenly pushing up his side of his pants. Yes, more of an idea like that. They do love describing. Curve Roller is probably like, no, I take this role really seriously. I'm going to make sure that I have a real bone or the whole time. And they're like, don't you want to go out to prosthetic? He's like, nope, even though I'm wearing black pants, you're going to definitely be able to tell that I have a bone. I have to admit, I was distracted during the scene where they explained what like the other

main characters with medical issues, their problems were. So I spent the rest of the movie kind of like piecing it together. Well, he seems concerned about his penis. Do he like, is it like, chafed in somewhat like what is it? Yeah, it does happen to be this is quite a lot. This is like Robert Altman's images. You really got to pay close attention to figure out the story. Yeah. Yeah. Uh, so like you like how in their hotel room, she has a X ray of the nail in her head taped to the lamp. So we will always remember that she has a nail in her head. I think she wouldn't want to see that all the time. Maybe, you know, I mean, I mean, maybe it keeps

hitting the part of her brain that makes her forget that there's an nail in her head. It's like momentum. Yeah, yeah. Moment. It's, it's, it's, it's, it's tattooed across her, across her, her, her, her, her, her clavicles in backwards. It says, you have a nail in your head. So when she looks in the mirror, it says that. Yeah. So the next day, it's the moon event. Alice is get, she gives a speech that's kind of confused, but it's very passionate. She's a big hit. The moon base gets more popular thanks to her support.

Everyone celebrates with a drinking party at her hotel room. And everyone leaves so that Jessica Biel and Jake Chenle Hall can have sex again. Then it's the next day. They're doing a photo op. It's funny is that she's always, she's always got her crew of people with her like Tracy Morgan and her filler always with her

and Rikish after a certain point. And and later on Catherine Keener is like, can you tell her not to bring her crazy friends? Like, like the, uh, Well, that was that was something I remember, Matt, you and I pitch. We originally there was the other guy, uh, who was fused to his couch, a shut-in, based on, you know, all the story. And so he went with them to Washington. And wherever they were on the bus to Washington, all of a sudden in the Capitol, or at the hotel room, he was still on his couch. Yeah, we never explained, that's right, we never explained how we got there, but you'd always be there like, you know, like, like, job in the hot and his thing. Just always there in any given space.

And watching the movie, I really am upset they cut that out because that would have been amazing. I think they shot it. They just cut out all the scenes of the guy on the couch. Really? I hope that's true. That's disappointing. They figured it pushed the movie a little too far.

That was too wacky. Yeah, at least, yeah. They want to keep the more serious tone. Yeah, yeah, this is about politics. So they're doing a photo op in the office of House Speaker Buck McCoy, who's played by James Brolin. And now James Brolin's taking credit for the Moonbase Bill, which annoys Keener. And Alice learns, oh, the hell.

Did you see it was originally supposed to be James Con? It was originally supposed to be James Con. And according to Wikipedia, there was a creative disagreement about his death scene. And I think it was probably the fact that James Brolin is starts choking on a piece of a cookie and Kurt Fuller tries to give him a Heimlich. And this is the one, a few times we see his boner is the joke is that his boner keeps jabbing him, keeps jabbing James Brolin in the butt while he's giving the Heimlich. My guess is James Khan didn't want to do that. See, and that's my guess. So they're like, get me another James.

We need a James. We already started making the credits. We wrote the James part, but we didn't hit the con part. So we'll do that. And the Catherine Keener backspace. Catherine Keener, I'm plugging it was just so awkward and weird. And I know that was. So he's choking and they try to defibrillate him.

And Catherine Keener now, she's mad that he's taking credit. So she knocks the plug of the defibrillator out and he dies. Right. But it's also like, at that point he's dying, he's choking. So the defibrillator is not the thing to go to. I guess it's hard to stop, but you got to remove the obstruction in his trachea. That's what's going to save him, you know? That did, yeah.

Paul Rubin's character, you know, he's, you know, does his angry squint some more at Catherine Keener and throughout and like this is the moment where he totally loses faith with her as we see later on in the movie. Because she did murder the speaker. That's it. Yeah. But he, but he, but she didn't though. That's the thing.

Like it's like, they're trying to, they're trying to zap a man who is choking out of choking. Like, so you're suggesting that she did it because she knew the wrong treatment. You say she actually almost saved him. By the way, I think it has no basis on it one way or the other. So you're saying, it did seem like they wanted, all right, we need the joke of him getting poked

in the ass by the guy with the hard on. But we also want Catherine Keener to unplug the paddles. We did. Those two things, he can't have the same issue. No, no, no, no, we need both. We need both. The movie doesn't work that both. And Dan is having an issue with the medical factuality of the movie where a woman has nail

in her head that causes her to become an infomainiac. Yes. So, and also the girl scouts learned that Shakira was never going to come to their rally. That happens too. It's the next, it's the speaker's funeral. Of course, Alice and all her friends are there. How they got happens to. Next, the speaker's funeral, of course, Alice and all her friends are there, how they got invited to. What is a fairly sparsely attended funeral for the speaker of the House of Representatives?

The third in line for the presidency. Scott sees her on TV and he's instantly into her again. And Paul Rubens is like, I know you unplugged that to Fibrillator and Catherine Caner was like, don't ruin this day for me. And he could just kind of drop it. And Alice has mad at Howard for lying to her about putting the healthcare rider on the bill. She finds out that was never going to happen. He says, look, something dramatic would have to happen to save that healthcare bill.

So she gives up, she says, how is this for dramatic? And she gives a big and promptu eulogy where she says that she heard the speakers dying words and that his dying words were to support the healthcare bill and were against the moon base. And his widow, the speaker's widow loves it and everyone applauds and Catherine Keener is so pissed. Now her moon base is in the balance because of this this young upstart and Howard is like, I'm so amazed that you did that. I love you. I think I love you and she's like, I think I love you too. And he goes, I'm too scared to face Catherine Keener, though. And he jumps out of window and runs away. And so Alice, she decides to form an alliance with the Girl Scouts.

Now they're selling cookies to support the healthcare bill. And Catherine Keener retaliates with an anonymous smear accusing the Girl Scouts of promoting child lesbianism, which seemed like a real low point for the movie. And for the characters. Yeah, it was a strange moment, but you know, yeah, I it happened. We have to work. The news as it occurs. We can cover up with look future generations need to know about the sins of accidental

love. We can't we can't whitewash this anymore. We've had we've had to we have to show them that our gods do have feet of clay, you know, in this case. And they have a big squalgirls, girl scout, Jamboree, Scott shows up to win Alice Back. And he's like, actually the Catherine Keener put me up to it. But I'll prove myself to you by finding Howard,

representative Burdwell. So he can introduce that healthcare bill. And he finds Howard Burdwell at a kind of masculinity retreat. Yeah, like an iron John sort of, like, this was a thing that, like, I don sort of like this was a thing that like I don't feel like this was like Contemporary really at the time that this movie was made like I feel like yeah growing up and Audrey

Why he was like why is he at this thing? You know, it's one of those masculinity retreats And she's like that's a thing Well because growing up also in today's world, when you're worried about losing your masculinity, you don't go to a retreat where you go around a fire and a loincloth and wrestle people. You get really into conspiracies and you try to overthrow the government.

Like that's what you do when you're worried about your masculinity now. So you go to a, you go to a town that's having, that's having civil uprisings and you try to shoot people. That's what you do now. So I can see what Audrey was confused about it. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Wow.

That was a bummer. That's great. Yeah, it's no wrong. Hey, did I bum everybody outside about that? That's fine. That's fine. Yeah. I mean, it helped.

Does it help to mention again that Jake Gyllenhaal is completely ripped like he's huge. Yeah, this is where he's in. He's like, well, not maybe like, hell yeah, price of a mission. Yeah. And he's like, I can't go until I finish ritual fire combat with four more people and prove that I'm a man. And James Morrison's like, well, why don't you just leave

and say that you're a man. And he's like, yeah, I can do that. What did he take off of the table? So it's a trophy, he's like, I can't go unless I earn this trophy. And it's only later after he takes it, it's revealed that it's like moose testicles. That he has to.

But so first it just looks like he's grabbing like a bunch of like a couple of rotten crab apples off of the off a tail. Yeah, look like baked apples to me. Yeah, yeah, baked apples. I thought they were prunes. So this makes sense. Yeah, that would have been weird if you said prunes. Yeah, I could not mean.

Hey, helps you pass. Yeah. Yeah, at this point, James Morrison's acting because he is trying to win Alice back. And like, you don't kind of know where any of their characters are like the romance balance is kind of weird because it, I mean, it's called accidental love. I went into it assuming he was going to be some kind of romantic comedy and I feel like that's kind of how they pitched the movie at this point because the political stuff didn't quite match any. I mean, we literally have the guys here who pitched the movie. Did you pitch the movie at all

as romantic County? Yeah. God. I don't know how, what it was pitched as. Well, how was this pitch day? Was this sort of like, it was a romantic comedy. A young Anjaneu goes to Hollywood and change the world world and on her way deals with all sorts of love and romance that she's not ready to handle. I agree with you, story. It's hard to sort of see where you're supposed to come out here because neither of the men are particularly good choices in terms of who they are.

James Marston wants to like abandon her, assume that she seems like she might have health issues. Jake Jalen Hall is this sort of like calo opportunist. And in this point, the situations where you're like, are these the only two men in the world? And meanwhile, you know, she's only kind of shown to be into Jake Jalen Hall at least at first because she has a nail in her head. So, I mean, to be honest, the best partner available seems to be into Jake Jill Maunt, at least at first because she has a nail in her head. I mean, to be honest, the best partner available seems to be tracing Morgan.

All he did was lie about a medical disability that he, you know, is very embarrassed about. Otherwise, he seems like a real stand up guy who's supportive of the community. Immediately committing. No, he seems like very nice. He meets Rikisha instantly. And it's not a pleasant meeting like she's mad at them because they tried to bring a nail gun into Congress. And he instantly is supportive of her and is just like and never leaves her side and they're together for the rest of the movie.

When they when they head off in that first scene and they're like, where are you going? Where we just got here? What about our whole and he's like, oh, this is how it works in the black community. It happens really quick. We take off. I was like, what what what joke are they referencing or? Yes. Yeah, that's a I feel like that's a stereotype that doesn't exist, but they're kind of We take off. I think what joke are they referencing? Or I guess. Yeah, that's a stereotype that doesn't exist, but they're kind of wheeling it into existence.

You know how it is with us Egyptians? We love the circus. Really? Is that true? As you know, here in Japan, we're all about collecting hats. Is that something that people say about the Japanese? Anyway, Howard shows up. He says, he announces that this big gen, Alice is about to tell the, uh, Squaw girl, Girl Scouts, which I feel like the movie has a number of sins, but for some reason, the,

like, obviously they couldn't say Girl Scouts. Yeah. Changing it to Girl Squas felt, I mean, obviously it's the time and like, but it felt extra tone deaf with, I don't know, I guess it's probably because I'm watching it now in 2000-2002. I mean, look, I don't, I'm not going to mount a spirited defense of that, but I think it probably was intended as like satirical in the way that like, you know, Boy Scout organizations, you know, like, I feel like there is an element of in the past of like stealing, uh, well, there, yeah, there's an element of, and like, in summer camps and then like, like, organizations and summer camps, outdoor stuff, there's a real

history of appropriating the idea of indigenous Americans and like, yeah, but the version of the movie that we see does not make that, uh, doesn't make it that clear. Yeah, yeah. yeah, indigenous Americans and like, yeah, but the version of the movie that we see does not make that, doesn't make it that clear. Yeah, yeah. Doesn't really make it a joke and I can only blame the screenwriters in this case, you know. If it's not on the page, it's not on the stage, you know, that's just how it is. So Alice is like, we should just give up. This is never going to happen when Scott returns with Howard and Howard says, I'm going to quit

my party and introduce the healthcare bail and he kisses Alice, which really angers Scott. And they very briefly fight and then I was like, I'm sorry that I used you to bring Howard back. We use each other now. Like we're, we're Washington people and Scott walks out as the Girl Scouts all argue over which suit or is cuter. They're like, I like Howard. Well, I like Scott.

It's like they're both very handsome men. Like I get it. They're both, you know, the, uh, it's the next day. Okay, we're getting, we're in the, the home stretch of the movie. Congress has come into session under temporary speaker, Catherine Keener. She's going to be voted on. She keeps saying, remember tomorrow when you vote on the new speaker, how, how good I was. And it's like, so what? But is this, they keep acting as if it's like the first day of the congressional session, which it's,

it's not clear. It's not clear where this isn't a congressional calendar and why they couldn't just vote today on who the new speaker is. It seems like that would be the most important thing to do right off the bat. But Howard gets up and he proposes the healthcare bill, and that's when Kazrowinkiner drops the hammer. She presents evidence in the form of women that Howard had previously promised bills, introduced bills that lobbyists had given him

an exchange for sex, and she says, this must be the same scenario. And there's multiple shots as the women are walking up, it seems unnecessary of congressmen like leering at the women and being like, oh yeah, like it seems so totally. It's almost like the movie was like, we've got to show that congressmen would find these women sexy or else this plot point doesn't work.

So we got to have them all just be like, biting their knuckles and just going like, woo, you know. I do like, I do like the shots of Jake Chillinghall, like trying to make himself smaller and weasel out of it. Like he's Roman Roy or something. Yeah, and it's an odd moment too, because like I feel at this juncture,

we're supposed to kind of like Jake Gyllenhaal a bit more and and I can't expect it like the movie just presents this genuinely like gross behavior on his part and then just kind of leaves it. Well, because we're seeing we're seeing the behavior of the old Jake Gyllenhaal before he comes with Alice, I think it's what it's supposed to be. And they're reminding us that he used to be a cat and now he's a catch. From head to catch, that's my new romance novel. And then the sequel, Cat Catchers.

But it's actually about the program, Cat. It's not. Yeah, yeah. It's a computer. And of course, the sequel, Cod Catchers, it's just about how program CAD. It's not. Yeah, yeah. It's a computer. And of course, the sequel, cod catchers, it's just about how hard it is to be a fisherman these days when the oceans are depleted. So again, I don't mean to bomb us out, but. Damn you, damn you, Poseidon.

Yes. I, if only Odysseus hadn't pissed him off, we'd have plenty of fish to eat, but it goes back that far. So in it. And so everyone's like, boo, boo, then they're like, let Alice speak. Give her a chance to speak. Like it's the, the congressman really acts just like a local town hall meeting anywhere. And Alice gives a speech and then fake passes out for drama. And Congress is like, yeah, yeah, let's vote on her healthcare bill. She gives this big rousing speech

word. And they vote and it fails by a landslide and then Alice faints for real. And the gather leader did have a line here that I like to just healthcare fails just like always anyway moving on. But this is also this is the low point for everybody. Rikisha learns the Kishon line to her. The Kishon line to her about his his pro lapsed rectum and then and it really offends her that that's why he won't let her near her his butt. And she dumps him and Reverend Norman is like, she guesses what's happening with him with a, you know, like real perception.

She's like a media like, oh, do you have one of those baboon hats? And somebody ever showed her that video. Yeah. Yeah. Reverend Norm loses faith in God. And they see howards shaking hands with Paul Rubens. Oh, no. And he gives a speech recanting his support for Alice. norm loses faith in god and uh... they see how it's shaking hands with paul rubens oh no and he gives a speech recanting his support for alice

he reaffirms the support for the moon based bill and he's introducing a new bill to rename the house gym after speaker mccoi james rolin's character and alice is disgusted and she leaves and they're back the motel and she's packing up and then she hears on the tv the news announces that the bill to rename the House Jim just passed and it included a writer for healthcare for people with very specific catastrophic consequences,

which include her and all of her friends. And the anchor goes, so I guess everybody else is still on their own, which is the funny joke. And it turns out nobody read the bill that Howard submitted, except for Paul Rubens, who didn't tell Catherine Keener about it, because that's what they were really singing, can't sound. And we see Paul Rubens kind of like, he, he, he, like run by in the background, just being interviewed, which is, it's like just let Peewee be Peewee. You know, every, every glimpse we get of it. And she's like the moon base past, but it doesn't matter anymore.

And Howard scheduled for what they call a rare triple censure, but he says on TV, it was all worth it to help Alice who he loves. And Alice starts kissing his face on the TV which was it was was pretty funny where she's like trying to French kiss the television screen uh... but uh... they find out he's he's broadcasting from the parking lot of their motel and so she runs out and kisses him and all all is well we cut to a wedding for a congressional candidate, is Howard running again? Is Alice running?

Are they getting married? No. It's the marriage of Kishan and Rikisha and Kishan is running for Congress, something he never seemed interested in until this moment when we see that he's got a campaign button on him. And they get married and everyone dances through the credits. And it goes on for such a long time. We see so much dancing from them.

Halfway through the credits, there's a scene where Alice gets up to give a toast and then a champagne cork hits her in the eye. And then that scene is over. We never hear what she's going to say. And then we get some bloopers, mostly Jake Gyllenhaal's and you're like, okay, we saw them dancing. There was a mid-credits scene, pre-marble cinematic universe, I think. And then we had bloopers, the movie must be over.

No, there's more dancing. We see them dancing for a long time. And Jessica Beale has a bandage over her eye, so this is clearly in continuity, supposed to be after the scene we saw. And I have to admit, watching them dance was probably the most fun I had watching the movie. They really seem to be into dancing and having a good time for the first time. Well, that was the thing about the end. Like, oh, wait a minute.

I think I had fun watching this. Because they're all dancing. Really? Yeah. Wait a minute, they're tricking me at the end into thinking, I actually had a good time watching this. And usually I don't like credits where the cast is dancing. At the end of barben star I go to Koso Mar.

They started kind of all dancing during the credits and I turned off the TV immediately and said nope, and my wife was like, I wanted to see that. Turn it off. But with this, they really, and so did you guys like the dancing part? Yeah, I was like, these aren't bloopers. I don't want to watch this full-screen shoot.

Well, every movie we finish, I check and see if there's bloops. I'm like, yeah, the card counter. We're the bloops. I want to see, I want to see the times he counted the cards wrong. Card counter, the movie where halfway through, I had to pause it and Google card counter where the bloops. I want to see I want to see the times he counted the cards wrong Card counter the anywhere halfway through I'd deposit and Google card counter ask our Isaac sunglasses to find that they're only like $250 I can get those sunglasses And so guys did you write the part where they with the dancing was that in the original treatment? We were like 10 minutes. I think we wrote the bloopers, but now not the dancing

And we didn't really truly didn't write any of this. And so that was the greatest revelation watching this. Like, oh my gosh, we fought for credit, got it, didn't deserve it, and really don't want it. Yeah. I think you deserved that story, Mike. The story you had gotten it. That way, Mike says.

How did it feel when you realized that it was less of what you wrote? Was it like, oh, thank God, or was it like oh my god oh my god oh my god boy I felt well yeah like on one hand relieved like well. Yeah, I'm not responsible for it This garbage on the other hand I felt real stupid for It's a fair you didn't fight that hard It'd be very, you didn't fight that hard. No, I didn't.

I actually tried to, it was more about being funny with the way we were fighting for it. That was what was more fun about it. I think we heard about it for so long and I was always fascinated, but not enough to actually watch the movie. And in the way back in my head, I thought we would watch something fantastically weird.

You know, you could, I heard about the cast and I heard the stories you guys heard where they held off shooting the gondolas scene till the very end and David O'Rossel, there's something even in stuff I don't like of his. It's amazing and weird. But when you watch it and it all adds up to, I guess, Elliot put it best, watching them dance at the end was the most fun part. Yeah. It didn't add up to anything outside of, you know, just not a good movie. It makes you really one, it's one of those movies kind of like Mike Nichols making day of the dolphin.

Well, you're like, why was this the movie that this person was making? I mean, in that case, it was a contractual obligation that he had to make a movie. So he decided to make a movie about talking dolphins, trying to assassinate the president. But you wonder kind of like, what is it? Did David O'Ressle just feel like he needed maybe like a more mainstream movie after I Heart Huckabees to get back or something like that? Or is he just a guy who pinballs from one thing to another? Or what did he want to do with it?

You know, he was very passionate about this. And he had to be because they kept trying to shoot this, shut this shoot down and he kept fighting and fighting. And I mean, this is not an easy move for him to get made. So, it really was like a passion project for him. So, yeah, but I don't understand why, but it certainly was. Well, we did have one more with that. I forgot, one other fun story where we were in the development of it and we were talking to the producers with David

and the script was terrible at that point and the producers weren't happy with it. And then David sort of just got caught in quiet on the notes phone call and they're like, what's the matter, David? He goes, yeah, I don't know. You guys aren't making this fun for me anymore and when things aren't fun, sometimes I just,

I kind of just walk away and then all the producers were like, oh no, no, no, no, David, we love it. It's going to be great. Yeah, I was like, wow, that really worked and it saved the movie. So I don't know how. Oh, man. Maybe. He seems, he seems like a, a volable human being. That's some toxic shit there, dude. Well, I know that at least one half of our special guests has to leave for a family obligation. So this is probably a good time to do final judgments, do final judgments and wrap up this part.

And then you can go, but final judgments, of course, where we say whether the movie was a good bad movie, a bad bad movie or movie a movie, you kinda like, guys, I gotta say, this may be controversial. What kind of enjoyed watching this? I know that it's not good. I wish the listeners could see my face right now. It's an expression of just like, ooh, it is so chopped to pieces. Like, it is clearly looking around Dan's apartment like he lives

like this. I mean, let me give my reasons. Like it is, it's chopped to pieces. It is a hobbled movie, but I can squint and see the movie that was trying to be made. I can see that there was a talented filmmaker with some ideas behind it. You don't see a big budget Hollywood movie with stars that is about political issues very frequently. Only an enemy of the case making them. And I don't know. The parts that kind of still make it through. I enjoyed even though, you know,

it's only interesting really as a curio of something that like could have been something and isn't. But I still kind of got a kick out of it. But what do you guys have to say? You know, often that I kind of thought like when I was watching it, it did feel like a student film that had potential. Like you're like, all right,

this is not a good film, but some of the people behind it, oh wow, they're gonna go on to do great things. Not me, Dave, but the other people were wrong. So yeah. So we've got one, that's bad good, and Matt, what do you say? No, well no yours is like kind of like that, right?

My bad bad. I kind of liked it a little bit. Mine's a bad bad until the day it's gonna get the end. I'm like, oh wait a minute, no, it's good. But no, My bad, my bad. I kind of liked it a little bit. Mine's a bad bad until the day it's to get the end. I'm like, Oh, wait a minute. No, it's good. But no, bad bad bad bad bad. I think I'm going to go with bad bad or bad boring, which is the worst guy that's the worst. Yeah. That's the worst kind. I would say like, I feel like the first half was bad bad, but it was interesting.

You know, there's something special about a comedy that is made wrong by somebody like David O'Rossal who doesn't seem to understand or whoever else took over who doesn't seem to understand, like, you know, comedy. Despite having a lot of talented comedians involved, but then I guess it got kind of bogged down my lost interest until the dancing, of course. But then I guess it got kind of bogged down my loss interest until the dancing of course, and then I was back in. So bad, bad, baby.

Yeah, I'm gonna say, bad, bad, bad, bad. I agree that it feel, I think I would be more, I would be more merciful towards it if it was a student film. Like it feels like an unfinished student film, but it's not an unfinished student film. It's very much a movie that was made by professionals. And there's just like, I think it kind of gets less and less

interesting the more it gets into politics and Washington and things like that. And there's a, I mean, if the movie can't pull off someone not wanting to get the Heimlich because they keep getting poked with a boner, then I don't know. What are they doing? Why, why, why, why are we even here?

It's like a, it feels like a, yeah, it just kind of doesn't know. It doesn't know how to tell the jokes that it's, that it's trying to tell. And it does feel like a movie that was not finished. Like it looks really weird. It looks like it wasn't, it wasn't finished. Like it wasn't color corrected or anything like that. But it's uh... so i'm gonna say bad bad but i'm gonna say

good good to our guests and like it's like it's you are the dancing at the end of the day and now this is the dance yeah now it's the dancing part uh... but it's it's yeah it's rare when you watch a movie a movie and the best part of it is the cast just just having a ball afterwards at what I assume probably doubled as the rap party because the funding was so low, you know. Yeah. Well, I'm glad you guys, you see them dancing.

I'm sorry. I was like, do you see them dancing together and their show and like Jessica Beale and Jay Jolonghall show chemistry dancing together that they don't show throughout the rest of the movie. Like you're like, and like James Mars and the rest of them, like, it's like, oh, they really seem to like each other when they're, when they're just dancing, when they're not playing the characters, you know, but Matt, what are we gonna say? No, yeah, it doesn't feel like an ensemble of like, like friends.

And you feel like, well, this is a great party. It's gonna be a fun time. And, but it's not, it's, it's, it's terrible. But I'm glad you guys made me watch it. That was really, and now I got a second time. But it's not. It's it's it's terrible. But I'm glad you guys made me watch it. That was really and now I got to say that's I disagree with you on that one. I'm happy to podcast. I'm happy to stay on for as long as you want. I'm very glad at the time my wife did. Welcome to our lives. 14 years of my life. Yeah, that's our life. There are times when I look at, I keep a list each year of the movies I watch that year

and the times I look at the list and I'm like, oh, like, why did I fight? I spent so much of my life watching garbage. I'm sorry that the money in personal fame isn't enough for you. For you, Elliot. Wow. I'm just saying it's a high-spinning thing. I just remember thinking of myself, I texted you, Matt. I'm like, I could be in bed right now scrolling

through nonsense on Instagram. I'm like, I'm like, I'm thinking myself. Instead, I'm watching this movie. I fought credit for it that I thought would be interesting. I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like,

I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, feelings about animals that we just got to share. On just the zoo of us, your new favorite animal review podcast. We're here to critically evaluate how each animal excels and how it doesn't. Rating them out of 10 on their effectiveness, ingenuity, and aesthetics. Guest experts give you their takes, informed by actual real-life experiences studying and working with very cool animals,

like sharks, cheetahs, and sea turtles. It's a field trip to the zoo for your ears. So if you or your kids have ever wondered if a pigeon can count, why slots move so slow or how a spider sees the world, find out with us every Wednesday on Just the Zoo of us, in its natural habitat on MaximumFun.org. Listen and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts. Sunwell, the kids are all in the same room. The kids are all in the same room. fun.org. Listen and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts. Somewhere between science and superstition, there is a podcast.

Hello, your daughter doesn't say she's a demon. She says she's the devil himself. That thing is not my daughter. And I want you to tell me there's a show where the hosts don't just report on French science and spirituality, but take part themselves. Well there is and it's Ono Ross and Kerry on Maximum Fun. This year we actually became certified exorcists. So yes, Kerry and I can help your daughter. certified exorcist. So yes, Carrie and I can help your daughter.

Or we can just talk about it on the show. Oh no, Rolson, Carrie on MaximumFun.org. Everybody, I've got some exciting news for you. Now that we're done talking about AccentralLove aka Nailed. That exciting news is that's right, the flop house is coming back live again on your computer screens just like last year. But again, it's been a while. You haven't seen us in a few months. So it's time for us to show our pretty faces to you and remind you that we are aging somewhat. We're going to

be doing it. You get to see Ellie. It's garage again. Yeah. You get to see my garage again in my big bulletin board with new things on it. Hopefully, and not the same Super Mario Brothers page that's still up there on the bulletin board. We're going to be doing a live show online, not in person, but online Saturday, March 19th at 9 p.m. Eastern, 6 p.m. Pacific. We're going to be talking about, I'm very excited about this one, Masters of the Universe. That's right. The He-Man movie with such big stars as Dolph Longrinn, Gourney Cox, and Billy Barty, and Frank Langella. I should, I was so excited about Billy Barty that I mentioned him before, Frank Langella. But this is a movie that I have not seen since I was a kid. I have very few memories of it,

except that at one point they eat chicken and are very excited to see it with these guys again. So is that the origin of your chicken love in a like a last crusade sort of way like all in one day, you know, you like fell into a, a, a vat of chicken chicken and watched masters universe. That's right. And this was screening somehow inside of that of chicken. I guess they, they used it to keep the chickens sedated. You were going to, you're going to drown in the chicken and then spider man saved you. What are other things that like likes? I know you saw dinosaur. Yeah, dinosaur.

Yeah, and then you were a total movie. Exactly. It all happened that one day was a big day. Let me check my diaries. You have it all checks out. So that's Saturday, March 19th at 6 p.m. Pacific, 9 p.m. Eastern, or rather 9 p.m. Eastern, 6 p.m. Pacific. We're going to be talking about Masters of the Universe.

It's one of our live shows. We're going to have PowerPoint presentations. We do at the beginning that are exclusive to this show. We'll never do them again. We're going to have a live question answer afterwards where you can write your questions into the chat box or whatever and we'll read it. We'll try to have some audience polls in the middle of it. Lots of fun stuff. We'll get you involved. You make the call. You'll be on the show somewhat. And as always with these shows, if you can't make it to that date, if you buy a ticket, you'll have access to a recording of the live show for a week afterwards. So let's

say you live in a part of the world where Saturday at 9 p.m. Eastern is not the easiest time for you to get on your computer and start watching something. Don't worry, get a ticket, it's only $10 and you'll get a week's worth of access to the recordings. So you still get to watch it. So it's Saturday, March 19th, 9 PM Eastern, 6 PM Pacific, the Flapp House is going head on into Elder Millennial nostalgia with masters of the universe, the movie, and it's only $10. You want to buy a ticket? I know you do. Go to theflaphouse.simpletix.com. That's simple TIX, the flaphouse.simpletix.com, or also tiny url.com slash flap house live live those are the two links go to them and

Buy a ticket. Why not it's gonna be fun. We'll be there. Yeah, why not give me one reason why not exactly I couldn't hear there Wasn't there's none so we'll be there. I hope you will be to Saturday March 19th 9 p.m. Eastern six percent specific But you will have access to the recording for a week afterwards. Thank you. We got some sponsors. The flop house is overwhelmingly kept in business by the contributions of listeners like you, but we have some lovely advertisers, including Stitch Fix. Your style is it one-size-fits-all. It's about what suits your body and what suits the moment. So why not shop at a store that is personalized to your size and style. Stitch Fricks freestyle is your trusted style destination where you can discover an instantly-by curated items based on your style, likes and lifestyle. Whether you're looking for a brand you love or to try a new one at Stitch Fix freestyle. You can shop over a thousand

brands and styles personalized to your size and fit. Plus, there's no subscription required. They offer free shipping returns and exchanges. You know, I used Stitch Fix freestyle. The shirt I'm wearing. Oh, I was going to say a lot of things, I was going to mention it looks really nice. You're sure. Yeah, you know, we can't all be a Stewart Wellington who used the pandemic to get more into shape in my personal experience. I got less in shape and I needed some new clothes to fit my new body and fixed fixed freestyle really helped me out on that.

I appreciate it. I mean, I also needed new clothes. Yeah, I needed to do this. I also had a new body. You saw all my shirts got ripped off. That's true. It's true, it's a new honor body. Yeah, because your muscles were just busting through the seams.

Yeah. There was a stitch that needed fixing. Blow in the crotch at all my pants. That's because that lady popped the button off of it with her stiletto heel. But anyway, let's get started with stitch fix today by filling out your style quiz at stitchfix.com slash flop house. That's stitchfix.com slash flop house. Just try stitchfix freestyle stitchfix.com slash flop house.

This podcast is also sponsored by BetterHelp Online Therapy. We talk about BetterHelp a lot on this show because they sponsor us. And let's talk about some of the stigmas around mental health. A lot of people think that it is something that you only need when you are falling apart. You should wait till life is just completely unbearable and you are bursting at the seams like stewards clothes. But that's not true. The therapy is a

tool that you can use any time in your life. You can use it before things get worse. I call it preventative maintenance. That's what they call it in the military. And it can help you avoid getting to the place where you feel like you're unbalanced and things are falling apart. I'm a big believer in therapy. I've used it a lot myself. It's a special time for me to focus on myself and have someone else there to bounce ideas about myself off of or just to listen to me because growing up or growing up in a house full of Jewish people, I was not listened to often because everyone was always talking all the time. And now as the parent of two young boys,

I am also not listened to ever at all by anybody. Anytime I try to read a historical plaque to them, they just walk away. They will not listen. So try it out, better help. My could be you. You do in your therapy session. So you read your therapists

of my several historical plaques. I've taken pictures of the historical plaques my children would listen to and I just read them to him. And he goes, oh, interesting. So therapy, it's a useful thing for whatever you need to, either whether you're just tuning yourself up, whether you need space to talk out, just the things you need to talk out to get out the emotions that you don't have an outlet for, or just to spend time focusing on yourself, which is valuable to all of us.

We're living in the end times of civilization. Things are rough. Why not take some time for yourself? Maybe better help is your way to do that. It's a customized online therapy that offers video phone or even live chat sessions with therapists if you don't want to be on camera, which I know I sometimes feel like.

It can be more affordable than in-person therapy. You can be matched with a therapist in under 48 hours. Try it out with the person they match it to. The first time might not be the right person, so you might try it out again. That's the thing with therapy. Sometimes it takes time to find the right therapist relationship, but when you do, it can be really, really rewarding.

And something that just helps you when you need the help. Give it a try. CY over 2 million people have used better help online therapy. And because this podcast is sponsored by BetterHelp, Flop House listeners get 10% off their first month at BetterHelp with go to betterhelp.com slash flop that's B-E-T-T-E-R-H-E-L-P.com slash F-L-O-P. For 10% off your first month, try it out. See if this is the way that therapy is right for you. And maybe it'll help you to get to a place where you are finally saying, hey, I don't mind that we're in the end stages of civilization anymore because I'm doing okay.

And what's that? It looks like we have a jumbo drone. And this message is for Clara and the message is from Derek. You're a real Bobby dazzler and I can't think of anyone else to flee a foreign country before their borders close with than you. I'll never kick you out of bed for eating crackers, no matter how much bedroom, honey, and crumbs you get on the sheets. You want to wistfully look at me through a window and be my top pocket, fine and matrimony

forever? Was that a proposal? It might have been a proposal. I hope that I I hope that I did it right then. Yeah. Yeah. You got to write in. Let us know how that was. Right in the or a Clara out there. Man, there's the other Derek, a real minefield. Right into Stuart Wellington ruin my relationship. Care of flop house if that's what happened or right into Stewart Wellington made my dreams come true care of the flop house if you want if you want Stewart to make your dreams come true. Uh, wow.

Yeah. You can get up on the jumbo tron by going to maximum fun.org slash jumbo tron where you can get a personal message for $100 or a promotional one for $200. Dream is coming true via Stewart, not guaranteed. But Stewart and Elliott, do you have anything you want to plug before we get back to the meat of the show? I have a couple of bars, hinterlands bar and minis bar. You should go support them and check them out.

If you are comfortable going out in New York City, that is. And my new series of maniac of New York comics is on store shelves now. That's maniac of New York from aftershock comics. Ask for it by name. If your comic local comic store doesn't have it, ask them to order it for you maniac of New York from aftershock comics. Okay, well now let's roll right into letters from listeners. Like you, like you sometime me, but I'm not, I mean, I'm listening right now, but I'm

not, I'm one of the co-hosts. I'm not a listener. Yeah, you could write a letter if you really wanted to. I know. I'm the voice to be fucking. Okay, maybe yeah, this is my, this is my chance to finally express my opinion on the show. Dear Dan and Stewart. Hey, it's Elliott, your friend.

How are things going? So I've got some bad news. Maybe I should tell you later. This doesn't seem like the best time. So expect another letter from me, where that's more on topic. But I do have a question. I do have a question. What's your favorite thing about working with Elliott?

I hope it's something good. Love, and love the show. Keep on flopping, love Elliott. You know what, my favorite thing about working with Elliott is I know that if I find myself at a loss for words, which does happen frequently, I can count on Elliott to plug that hole in the seeking ship. Oh, wait, it looks like you've got a good thing. Yeah, wait, wait, we got another letter.

It looks like, dear Dan, hey, it's Elliott again. I think what you said, and while it was phrased as a compliment, it, we got another letter. It looks like a dear Dan. Hey, it's Elliott again. I heard what you said. And while it was phrased as a compliment, it was kind of a dig. I don't know that I really appreciate you're talking to me about me that way. I mean, it makes sense because I've spent many years insulting you on the podcast,

but it still seems a little bit like you, you was kind of a bad-handed compliment. Was I reading too much, wait, the letter is not overdone. Was I reading too much, was I reading too much into it? Again, let's make those plans. So I can tell you that bad news that I have. David keeps, keep on talking, stay cool. Have a great summer. Love Elliott. No, I know, Elliott, I, this now we're getting into real, real stuff here. I know I, as is often the case with me who is maybe a kindhearted man who doesn't know how to express

such things and often is rude accidentally, I genuinely appreciate the fact that I know that I you always have my back both both as a friend and on the show with some sort of He did to describe it as a hole in a ship and then when he can't talk, you're sinking and you saved his life. Oh, with your constant never ending babble. Yeah, wait, we got to know the letter coming in. Hold on. Dear Daniel Kirk McCoy, our client, Elliot Kalin, has decided not to bring action against you after hearing your recent explanation, though he was, has initiated legal proceedings against you on charges of slander and defamation. He has decided

after remembering your friendship not to do so. Please consider this a favor he has done you. You now owe him a favor in a very legally binding sense. Oh wow. Since you're the lawyers love the law offices of Kalaelin, Kaelin and Kaelin. So, yes, P.S. we are not related to Elliot Kaelin and therefore it is still ethical for us to represent him in court. Oh, well, I was worried. So, Elliot, I haven't been able to give you a compliment yet. But before I do that, I'm going to need your birthday, the location of your birth, and the time you were born. Um, it seems like a lot of, a lot of information.

Uh, I just put that on the podcast. Well, uh, Stuart, I'll give you that information later so that I guess you can have access to my, access to my bank account. Uh, and Dan, what's our other letter? Are there any letters that are not for me today? Uh, we have a couple of them. This first one's from Kevin Lassing with Hald, who writes, Hey, VLOppers, I know it's a, uh, become a popular cliche to complain that Hollywood doesn't have

any original ideas anymore. Does it ever, even though I think people have probably been saying that since the concept of Hollywood became a thing, but as tries it sounds, I've been thinking lately about films that have potential to be good, but suffer too much from their connection to the source material. potential to be good, but suffer too much from their connection to the source material. For example, I think I would have enjoyed the movie Joker a lot more if it had been the story of a failed comedian dealing with a murderous trauma-induced mental illness and didn't also have to carry the burden of the Joker mythology. Or in a different vein, I would have found the greatest showman, a more appealing, more appealing as a ambitious musical about a fictional circus manager than a biopic about terrible human being PT Barnum. Plus, the creators could likely have made more interesting choices

without them feeling out of place. I'm curious, do you all have movies that you wish have been disconnected from the larger stories that inspired them? Thanks for considering Kevin last name withheld. One thing that came to my mind is a movie that I'm sure that we will cover on the podcast at some point. Ghostbusters Afterlife, which I saw because my friends were like, you want to see Ghostbusters Afterlife? Yeah, whatever. I'll do whatever dumb thing. And, um, well, thanks for providing that backstory, Dan. It was an amazing tale.

I'm just so glad we could hear that story of tragedy and trying against the odds. I mean, I think it would be slightly unusual that I ran out and saw a ghost monster to afterlife with a I would say it falls really within your demographic. That's someone who grew up watching Ghostbusters. Yeah, but I knew I like the, the like the the I would just say that the trailer contained nothing that appealed to me.

But I remember talking to you once and you said, you know what was missing from Ghostbusters cornfields. I wasn't said in New York because I want to know what cornfields and we feel. But they kept the they kept the arena tan Ghostbusters right? That's a different They kept the arena tan Ghostbusters, right? Yeah, that's a different. That's the original. So you're saying it's based on the original original Ghostbusters. Yeah. There's two guys in the arena.

No, I, this is a weird thing to say for a movie that is so much fan service, like it seems like without the connection to Ghostbusters, there's no movie left. But the stuff in it that I enjoyed had nothing to do with Ghostbusters. There's no movie left, but the stuff in it that I enjoyed had nothing to do with ghost busters. I mean, particularly also, there's a whole nother level of poisonousness of like it coming after the female lead ghost busters and all the like, I'm giving it back to the fans bullshit, which is like, you know, it's a, it's a, it is categorically a worse movie than the ghost busters that was all women. But the parts of it that were not Ghostbusters, I kind of enjoyed as like, oh, this is an attempt to do like an Ambulin

style movie. And I like Carrie Kuhn a lot. And I like a McKinne Grayce, the young actress who plays Egon's granddaughters. Very good in it, I thought. And there's just stuff in it that I'm like, wow, if this was unburdened from being a Ghostbusters movie, I could see myself enjoying this. But the fact that it is a largely humorless film that is based on a straight up comedy is really a tripping point.

But what other ones do you have? I would really, which space seeing it, I haven't seen Ghosts for Staffs of Life yet. And I would really like to do it for the podcast at some point. So we'll see. For me, I think I've talked about this on the podcast before I think that the movie Solo from, this is the movie Solo from 2018, a Star Wars story, not Solo, starring Mario Van Peebles from 1996, that which is not connected to a previously existing, oh no, it's based on a novel, I guess, which is a great movie, that the movie,

solo, a Star Wars story, that I would, I think I would have enjoyed it more, and I think people would have liked it more if it was not a Star Wars movie. If it was, because then it becomes just kind of like a fun science fiction adventure movie, and you don't have the worst parts of it, which is explaining how he got the name solo, explaining where his jacket came from, explaining how Chewbacca got the nickname Chewie.

Like you know, it's like a, all the reasons they made the movie were, I'm pretty sure the pitch was, we finally get to find out where he got his name. Yeah, it's like it was solo's a weird name. Well, how did he get that? It's like. Yeah, it's like it was so was a weird name. Why did he get that? It's like, yeah, it's still with normal style names. Yeah, we can finally explain how Dengar, or Salacious Crumb, or Greedo got their names.

Like it's, but, we'll see Greedo is greedy. He is greedy. That's good. That's Italian. And Rodians are named for the trait they'll probably have when they grow up. So the same way that the lost Mark's brother.

The same way that look is not lost. He was shot. That's why he wasn't any of the movies. He was shot by Han Solo. But it's a, it feels like it's a fun movie that only suffers from comparison and connection with the other Star Wars movies. And I'm sure that I'll feel that way about some Marvel movie that comes up someday where I'll be like, I kind of wish this wasn't like a Marvel connected movie. You know, it hasn't happened yet, but it will. Stuart, what about you?

I mean, I don't think I really have much to add to it. I mean, I feel like Solo's such an obvious example, but like, I feel like for the most part, I would prefer more sci-fi properties that aren't tied to an existing property. You know, like star like sci-fi movies and shows. Well, I would say like it's and you I'm sure you'd probably be okay with like an adaptation of a book. Just not a not a show that is tied into like a large universe of preexisting films, you know, yeah,

or TV shows. Yeah, I don't need it. I'd rather watch something like fucking raised by wolves that wacky sci-fi really got show that's basically like a like a heavy metal comic come to life than you know something that's, you know, Star Warsy right now.

Yeah. I have, this is the one I thought of, which is weird because I really enjoyed this movie. Did you guys see rampage? No, I didn't see it. I remember the game very well. I remember the game very well. It got me on a plane.

Oh, it got me into the theater. My son and I loved it. It's a lot of fun. But I was randomly talking about this before you guys told me about this letter. The beginning of the movie is the rock who is very anti-social, doesn't go out, doesn't have friends, doesn't want to date, but mostly because he's really close to his favorite gorilla. And he doesn't eat at night time, he doesn't want to go home, he only does whatever he has to do and then comes back to work to hang out with his gorilla. And that's sort of

the little through line, it's not until the end and he makes a friend. It's not really a romantic connection, just any friend. But the beginning of the movie is so fun because people are pushing him to go have a social life. And it's the rock and he's not made up to look less like the rock. He's good looking, he's charming, he's super charismatic. He's super sexy, but the only friend he has is this gorilla. There's this gorilla. That's the only one he can connect to. He really has to get back early in the morning so we can hang out with

his gorilla. And my son and I were joking, it would be really fun to watch a movie about if you got rid of the rampage part where ultimately him a giant wolf and this other creature took down the city. If it was just about like a you me and you preree, him, Skervilla, and the new girl in his life seem like a much more, a much funnier, more original movie. If you could just shed the whole, we need to destroy buildings with giant animals. So when you watch the movie, I highly recommend if you don't. Just I think that's another option. Another direction the movie could have gone that we would have liked. I feel like that's the kind of direction like if they had made that movie in the 80s when they're like,

we don't have the budget to destroy a city, but we do have a budget to hang out with. Well, it's like how the original, the Tim Burton Batman movie, every time I watch it, I'm like, I forgot how much of this movie is the Joker just watching television and getting mad at the television.

Like there's a lot of that. And it's fun to watch characters hang out sometimes. Yeah. Uh, this last letter is, uh, it falls under the, the, the correction house, uh, side of letters. This is from Joseph, like, a task. What did I say wrong about? No, it's not, it's not you. I think it was me. Because I often, I often get minor things wrong about like, Star Wars and people are like, excuse me, actually, and I go, I'm the one who's supposed to do that. I don't like it being done to me. Uh, so this whole podcast has been an elaborate way of teaching you.

Ellie, we got to keep doing it because I still have not learned my lesson. Uh, not sure if David's jurisdiction extends to obscure non-American, hyperregionally specific sports, but I believe the peaches may have misidentified the sport being played in House of Gucci. No, you're afraid, no, no, you're afraid to what David Kaelin is the David their time at, right? Yes, yes. Yeah.

Not, not, not I guess today, not I guess today, Dave Jester, but my brother sports fan, David Kaelin. Got it. Yeah. While rugby is a very physical sport, you're not allowed to just brawl in order to clear a path for the ball to be carried. A sport where this is allowed is Calcio Fiorentino or Calcio Storico. Normally translated as historic football or Florentine kicking game, I like that. The game is basically now-

That sounds like the bootleg version of football that you would buy at a boutique. There's a Florentine kicking game. Yeah, well I go, no, grandma got me the N64 tape of the year- I wanted the Super Bowl and she got me Florentine kicking games. You couldn't tell the difference.

You still got John Nedd, not at the. Oh, rest in peace. There's a yearly tournament between the four quarters of Florence played in Piazza Santa Croce. I think that might be what they were playing, but I'm not sure. For Elliott who has stopped listening by now, the sport has a comics connection. Megaton from the comic bitch planet is based on the game. Joseph West.

Oh. So there you go. You. Why why does that about a writer assume Elliot stop listening? Is that a thing on the podcast? You often know I mean, just it was a correct assumption because I don't really, I just don't not that interested in sports and didn't really need to know. But, but I'm glad that they brought me back. That was when I heard my name again. I said, huh? What? And I stopped thinking about. I stopped thinking about, I stopped to stop thinking about a cowboy riding a dinonicus

across the, across the American desert being chased by other cowboys that are riding like, you know, tarant sources. Yeah, talk about a real blood maridian. Well, now, there's no dinosaurs in blood maridians too. What? Wait, for real? Yeah, you gotta reread that book. I think you were imagining them riding dinosaurs,

which is not in the text. I mean, maybe you could bring it in your adaptation. I think this is why Carson McCullors has been, has been denying your, your attempts to adapt into a screenplay every time you hear such. Who's Carson McCullors? Oh, sorry. I meant, I sorry, it meant Cormac McCullors.

Sorry. Did he write the book I read? No, no, sorry. You know what it is? Is that Carson McCullors is blood and ready and a different book is a, is dinosaurs and Cormac is dinosaurs and Korma as we established in a previous episode Korma from Carthus is all about freaking people out doing the real fuck. It's twisted fucked up shit on you all norms.

Yeah. Let's move into the last segment, which is of course recommendations of films that maybe you should watch instead of the one we watched for this podcast. Although if you watch, if we watch the one that we watch today, Dave, do you get residuals still for it? Oh, I can't imagine. In the end, when we finally did get credit, the production company had gone bankrupt. So we never quit. We never got the credit. We needed for health

insurance. So I can't imagine I make any money. But I you might be able to maybe there's something legally where you can assert ownership of the rights and how you can own the movie and do what you want with it. And that's a great idea. Would you guys help me edit another version or maybe or just an hour and a half of dancing. We just pour through the unused, the unused dancing footage and see what we can cobble together. We open, we open on dancing, accidental dancing. They're dancing and then it says, you're probably wondering how we got to this dance. Well, let me explain.

And then it just cuts to more dancing. It's cool. I was a good idea. Let me explain and then it just cuts to more dancing. It's cool. I was a good idea. So for my recommendation, I'm going to mispronounce some more Italian words and say that I watched a 10-a-brae recently on shutter. And you know, I, I'm coming around on, like Italian horror, I'm up and down on, for some reason, the illogic and strange plots bother me more in supernatural horror, but jellos where it's just a slasher who done it, I find that I'm fond of them. And I guess, you know, as a brine to

palm of fan, it's not weird that I would like just like sleazy, weird murder mysteries. And Tim Ray is really over the top one where it's like, it just seems like Argento is fucking around and being like, let me construct a bunch of elaborate thriller sequences just to show off. And I said, the one that's one side out and somebody kills somebody with a flute. No, it's not that, John Saxon is in it. He's got the main characters like the,

the main character is a book author, writer of thrillers who then gets involved in murders in Italy where someone is doing copycat stuff. And I don't know, it's just, it is one of these movies that is just absurd plotting thriller set pieces and sleaze. And if that's your kind of thing, it's fun. It's true what you got. I'm going to recommend a movie that I don't know that's up for a couple of awards right now. It's the new Sean Baker movie called a red rocket.

It's kind of follows along Sean Baker's movies that are like kind of, I feel like they kind of walk the line of exploitative. And it is about a down on his look porn star, former male porn star who goes back to the small town in Texas that he's from. He's at a very low point and he has to hustle his way back on top. And he is a, like a shitty, scheming hustler character, but there's also a certain amount of charm and charisma to him. And he also runs around. You get to see his giant, don't flop and it has probably the single best use of the one song that's featured in the movie. So I totally recommend it for that. But it is like, it's a difficult,

it can be a difficult movie to watch, partly because I mean there's a certain amount of grooming and sexual creepiness between an older man and a younger woman. But I found it to be a fun and like tense movie. I'm going to recommend a movie. I've been on a little bit of a Denzel Washington kick lately. And why not? Because he's great. And I really enjoyed his Macbeth movie that he made, which is called Denzel Macbeth. And I thought that's not the movie I'm recommending tonight, but I did like the tragedy of Macbeth a lot.

And I did find it amazing that the Macbeth movie was the movie I felt had the fastest and briskest pacing of any major Hollywood film that I saw released this year that is like, I'm like, this new James Bond movie is almost three hours long. Well, let me see how long Macbeth is. Now in 40 minutes, fantastic. Oh, slam dunk. But I recently watched the first time, Devlin Blue Dress, the mystery that he did in the mid 90s,

based on the book My Walter Mosley. And I'm recommending it even though when I worked at Barnes Noble, Walter Mosley came in and was very rude to me once. But that's a story for another time. But it's set right after World War II, and Denzel Washington is Easy Rollins, the guy who's just lost his job for talking back, which he's, people don't want him to do, because he is a black man in the 4840s in LA. And he gets caught up in a mystery that kind of leads him to becoming a detective, even

though he wasn't one before. And the mystery itself is like, fine, like it's okay, but Denzel Washington's so good in it, and the atmosphere of it is so great, and the performances are so great. They do a great job of making like, I feel like in the early 90s, in the mid 90s, they were still doing like period films where they went all out with like the sets and the costumes and the cars in a way that felt very real and He's and it's it's just a really the atmosphere of it's really fantastic and Don Cheetle is a place of supporting role in it as Easy's friend mouse who is a very casual psychopathic murderer He's dead. He's devoted to his friend, but he's kind of quick to kill and John T.

Don't you feel is so good in it. Yeah. And it was just a performance of his I hadn't seen before and they're both kind of a breakout role for him too. Like even though that movie was not a huge like box office success. It was only though. It was one that like really catapulted him to bigger things.

I feel like watching you're like, why wasn't this a bigger hit and why didn't they make like five or six more of these? Yeah. Well, you can tell that the plan seems to be like we're going to make an easier-all-in series now. But I think the real problem is that the mystery at the heart of it is not the most compelling, interesting mystery. But you want to spend time with these characters and seeing Dense Aussian playing this character is just like really entertaining

and affecting. It's worth watching for the performances in the atmosphere and just don't worry too much about. The plot is fine, but it feels like one of many movies I've seen where they're kind of going for Chinatown and the story is just not up to Chinatown level. You know, like Motherless Brooklyn is kind of like that too, where they're like, this is gonna be the Chinatown for New York and the highways and the expressways. And it's just like, no, it's not,

but like this isn't as good as Chinatown, but Devlin Blu-Dress, I really enjoyed a lot. Dave, do you have a movie you'd like to recommend? Well, obviously, if you want to watch a rampage, for sure. But at least the first 10 minutes of it. At least the first. Another movie that I recently rewatched, you guys are probably, if you're old, horror movie buffs.

I watch right when, you know, like a video stores at first opened up and our parents like, go get whatever you want. And I watch an old, it was a 1982 horror film, Basket Case. Have you guys seen that movie? Oh, sure. Oh, yeah. And it, well, first of all, I watched it, I guess was a 1982 horror film, Basket Case, have you guys seen that movie? Oh sure. Oh yeah. And it, well first of all, I watched it, I guess I was nine or 10 years old,

which might be too young. And it always- For the movie, the movie where a monster twin is killing prostitutes. Yeah, not raping and killing prostitutes. Oh, right, right. The opening scene is them sort of cutting him off of this side. And it wasn't till recently,

as much as that movie seeped into my nightmares and subconscious for years, I had a cyst removed that was determined to be a dermoid cyst, which is the process of the egg splitting. When you're born, one of them, it almost turns into a twin, but then can be absorbed by your body. So I had one living right over here, I guess,

and I had it removed. And that was exactly what that movie was about. Was that twin obviously grew a little bit more like Quato off of his body was a little bit more than you. A little bit more than you. Yeah. So you're saying you what, so with, you were like basket case, huh?

Well, there, but for the grace of God, like that could have in my story. So what's years later, huh? Well there, but for the grace of God like that could have in my story So what's years later when I got when I had the dermoid cyst and then it came back You know, I had forgotten about it for years that it really so maybe this is more of a movie that you should watch if you want to get to know me Really? What my story could have been but Yeah, and my my kids think it's so funny that I had my twin brother or sister living in my head. And now that I've watched that movie again, it really speaks to me about what could have been,

if I had, if my brother or sister had only grown a little bit more. But I love that movie. It's the first real twisted, poorly conceived. And it was a lot of bad stop motion. It's a movie too. And if you, and it's a lot of it is shot in 42nd Street or in the Times Square area in New York at the time in the early 80s, late 70s.

And it's like. Flaw on Grimey, New York. Yeah. If you want to see the New York that everyone's nostalgic for when it was when it was when it was when it was just like gross and crimey and grimeimy than basket basket case is a good place to go for it. Crimey and grimy. Crimey and grimy is also a children's story that I'm working on where it's a it's one one kids just always dirty and the other ones always committing crimes. Well, before we sign off, I'd like to thank our guest, Dave Jester. Do you have anything you want to plug?

I think Dave may have frozen. Hold on. No. I think he's having internet problems. Well, I'd like to say thank you to our guests, Matthew Silverstein and Dave Jester. I would say to our listeners, if you have a moment, please go to iTunes and leave us a review to help spread the word about the show. You can follow the FlophousePod on Twitter and the Flophouse Podcast on Instagram. Apologies for the difference. And you can go to youtube.com, slash the Flophouse Podcast. You have a third option to see our YouTube channel.

If you would like Flophouse merch of any kind, if you go to Flophousepodcast.com and click on the Merch tab, that's where you can find that. We're a member of the Maximum Fun Network. Go to MaximumFun.org to check out all the great podcasts on the network. Thank you to our producer, Alex Smith. He is at Howell.y on Twitter, that's H-O-W-E-L-L-D-A-W-D-Y, Howell Dottie on Twitter that's H-O-W-E-L-L-D-A-W-D-Y on Twitter to see what else he's up to. We had briefly lost Dave off of the call earlier.

Just because of the internet. Not just because of the internet internet but now that he is back I just wanted to ask is there anything you would like to plug before we say our absolute final sign off. I just like to say that for about five seconds there my biggest nightmare came true where I shared the most deepest most personal intimate details about my physical repulsion that lived inside of me. And I thought you guys cut me off. I know. Cut you off like you were a germoid cyst. Yeah, you're like, kill the sassholes, my finity this. Get it out of here.

It's disgusting. Who is this freak that you brought up to? I got that. So any time you want to come on and tell us stories about gross things that got cut off of you, please do. Yeah, we really appreciate it. No, I have nothing to plug. Watch. I guess house broken. Um, and, and, uh, you guys are all awesome. Uh, this was so much fun. Thank you for inviting me. Thanks so much for being

on the show. It was great. Yes. Thanks for being on the show. Thank you to the audience for listening. But until next time, I've been Dan McCoy. I've been steward Wellington. I'm Elliot Kaylen and joining us has been Dave Jester and also Matt Silverstein. But he had to run. Bye. One, two, three, four, five. Excellent. Very nicely done. OK, we did. Very nicely done. Now record. Oh, no. No, no.

No, Dave, you should all vote for this. OK. The three stooages make a podcast. So we start recording after we finish. No, you get knocked ahead. What? OK. Maximumfund.org.

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