The Flop House - Ep.#456 - Captain America: Brave New World

Episode Date: July 19, 2025

It's a testament to how generally good (or at least passable) the MCU films have been, that there have been 36 of them released, but this is only the second one we've covered. What makes Captain America: Brave New World so (anti-) special? You'll have to listen to find out!Wikipedia page for Captain America: Brave New WorldRecommended in this episode:Dan: Jaws (1975) Stu: Hider in the House (1989)Elliott: Roman Holiday (1953)Head to squarespace.com/FLOP for a free trial, and when you’re ready to launch, use OFFER CODE: FLOP to save 10% off your first purchase of a website or domain.

On this episode we discuss Captain America Brave New World. Screenplay by Aldous Huxley. Hey everyone, welcome to the Flophouse. I'm Dan McCoy. Oh, hey Dan McCoy, it's me, Stuart Wellington. Hey Dan and Stuart, it's Elliot Kalin. Who's got the smoothest radio voice? Oh, I don't know, you're in trouble Elliot. I didn't know we were doing this.

Yeah, Dan's gonna be... Yeah, I mean, I think it's a race to the bottom for me and Dan. Bottom being the deepest voice. Elliot, there's no way you can compete. I don't know about that. Oh! We got a real... Bridge troll just wandered in.

Which one of you billy goats is gonna be my dinner? Give him some riddles to solve. This is of course a bridge troll podcast. No, it's a podcast where we watch a bad movie and then we talk about it. How do we define bad? Well a movie that was either rejected by audiences or critics or both. This one or Dan was at the bus stop and somebody was like, this movie stinks! And you're like, Jay Sherman from The Critic? Just taking the same bus as me?

Yeah, this animated character from a canceled show from 20 years ago? Or is it 30 years ago? Okay, sir, I will do the show, the movie you want me to, on my podcast. You have a podcast? I mean, he would have crushed as a podcast host. Oh, for sure. Well, I mean, all that unfettered negativity, sure. Oh yeah, yeah.

We try to be nice, even though we're a little bit negative. Do we try to be nice? I think so. I think we don't have to try, Ali, it comes naturally. Yeah, I think we try not to be as mean as we could be. Yeah. Oh, okay. And in this- In this world, mean as we could be. Yeah, that's... In this... In this world, that means nice. That's nice, yeah.

If you don't actively kick a stranger as you pass by them, you're a nice man in this world. Yeah. We watched Captain America, Brave New World, the other than, at this point, Thunderbolts, the most recent Marvel Cinematic Universe movie. There's another one coming out. Yeah, first steps, Fantastic Four,

first steps in a couple weeks. I'm probably, guys, I'm going to go out of limb. I think there's going to be another one after that. Yeah, I think there's going to be at least one more and it's going to have 400 actors in it. Yeah. I think it's bad when they're like, we got to figure out how to promote the Marvel movies

because the gas is kind of running out on them. I know, we'll just list the names of the thousand people who are in it. And it's like, I don't know if that's gonna do it anymore, guys. I don't know if just shoveling in mounds and mounds of actors into the movie, like coal into a train hopper is gonna do it, but maybe I'm wrong.

So Captain America, Brave New World, this is the 35th movie in the MCU. 35th. Some would say that's more than they should have. But maybe not me, I don't know. But you guys, I had a question for you. Elliot, you're a Marvel zombie, right? You're familiar with the Marvel universe?

I was a Marvel zombie. When it comes to the comics, I'm still a Marvel zombie. But I feel like my, whatever loyalty I had to the MCU as like a fan who's excited about things has, the Embers, it's just Embers now. You know, it's just the, you know. And Dave, you're a fanographic zombie, right? I know.

Comics wise, yes, I am a fanographic zombie. But in terms of the MCU, I've stuck with it longer than Elliot, maybe because I didn't have, you know, like the runway of knowing these characters before, so it didn't tire me out as quickly. And Stuart, you're more of a Veronica zombie, right? Like whatever Glenda is involved with. You're 100% right, yeah, yeah.

I'm like, I like to walk that thin line between horror and pleasure. So Dan, here's the question I have for you, exactly that. So I feel like, is it because, I feel there's two kinds of Marvel zombie fans when it comes to movies. The ones who are die-hard, I love these characters and I've got to support them no matter what. And the ones like me who are like, I kind of already have an outlet for this, which

is comic books. Yeah. Dan, since you're not as tied to the comics, how are you feeling about the Marvel Cinematic Universe at this stage? It's definitely my enthusiasm, which was unflagging. It was an enthusiasm for a long time. Yeah, even during some of the post Infinity War downtime, I still was like, oh yeah, but you know,

these are still fun enough. This one was the one that really, between this and Quantum Mania, I think these are, they're the two ones that really tried my patience the most. Yeah, I mean, wait, are we going with our like least favorite Marvel movie so far? Because you didn't mention my least favorite. What's that? Love and Thunder, Thor Love and Thunder. I still have not watched that.

I hate it so much. I still haven't watched, I think I've talked about this on the podcast in the past that a couple years ago I was in a very deep depression and I was like, what movie am I going to watch while I do the dishes? Thor, Love and Thunder is on Disney Plus. I guess I have to watch that. And then I was like, no, wait, I'm not going to watch it. I'm going to watch this foreign movie that I've never heard of that I DVR just on a whim.

And that movie was amazing. And I was like, I'm like, I'm not looking back. I'm never watching Love and Thunder. I don't need it, you know? And Stuart, you're a dislike of it. That movie was what, like Mr. Bean's Thanksgiving or something? Mr. Bean's Thanksgiving.

What was your? It was called El Sur. It was a Spanish movie called El Sur. Oh yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah. What was your, in a nutshell, your Love and Thunder issues? Let's hash it out briefly here.

Was it the love or the thunder? Yeah, which one was it? Which aspect? I would say it took the- Or fans, let us know if you want us to cover Thor, Love and Thunder, but Stuart, tell us. Yeah, give us a preview. I mean, I just, I feel like it, you know,

there's some bright spots. I like Christian Bale, you know? But I feel like it took the kind of like goofiness of some of the previous, specifically the last Taika Waititi one, and it just kind of like dialed the goofiness up. I don't think the jokes worked as well. It felt kind of lazy and thrown together very quickly,

which is, and or edited to pieces, which is part of the problem with this one. And it felt like a filmmaker who was stretched a little too thin, which is, I think, based on his body of work, true. Just because Taiko Atiti had signed on to roughly seven dozen projects at that time. And remember, there was the interview

that made Marvel fans mad where Taiko Atiti was like, oh yeah, I did the Thor movies for money. I needed money at the time. And people were like, what? It wasn't for love of Thor? It was like, I think there's a, one of the things that I still find hilarious that they still have to do is when

the people making these movies have to pretend that they've always been fans of these characters and they think they're super cool. We're like, well yeah, I read the comics they're based on and there's such amazing depth in the character of Sidewinder, you know? But it's, anyway, yeah, I read the comics they're based on and there's such there's such amazing depth in the character of Sidewinder You know, but it's anyway, we'll get into that Dan So Captain America brave new world had you seen Falcon and Winter Soldier?

The team had seen Falcon the Winter Soldier. I know that's a show that should have been an email, right? You know what I did not hate it as much as a lot of people did. It's not my least favorite of those things either. Well, what's your least favorite of those things? Oh, God. There's a lot of us, like, vague-booking here. Yeah, yeah, what is it? I can't, you know, the one, look, I know that it was, like, more creative, and thus I should be fond of it for its ambition,

but I just couldn't make it through Moon Knight because I was like, what the hell is happening here? Like, at a certain point. Yeah, that's fair. Yeah, but- Because I didn't see Falcon Winter Soldier, and so when Bucky Barnes, who I associate more with the fact that he until recently

was a brainwashed Soviet assassin, when he showed up as a Congressional candidate and another character was like a future congressman buckworth jay Barnes or whatever I was like what the fuck what is going on in the Marvel universe? There's the president's a hulk and buck he's running for Congress like what is this kind of amazing about like Bucky as elder statesman of the Marvel universe currently like I don't know It's I mean it works well in Thunder't know. It's, I mean, it's the kind of thing. Which works well in Thunderbolts.

It works very well in Thunderbolts. I mean, it's the kind of thing that should happen kind of naturally and organically, because Captain America is an elder statesman character. Bucky takes on some of that. He's been in a lot of the movies for a while. I haven't seen Thunderbolts yet, so I don't know. But the idea of him is,

it was more the idea of him as a congressman. I think he's really through me. That's the best part. As people have pointed out online, she'd be like, wait, didn't you kill JFK? Well, yeah, sure. But I also helped unsnap a bunch of people. So, you know.

He's got a metal arm, dude. He does have a metal arm. That was on his campaign posters. I've got a metal arm, dude. And he's pointing to you. I want you to look at my metal arm. Yeah. Yeah.

And it's it's it's drawn all super cool with a lot of lines on it like Rob Liefeld would draw. I mentioned he got he got Boris Vallejo to do it and it's all shiny and you know ripped. Yeah. And a couple of naked women are of course. He's going for the Manosphere vote. Yeah, of course. Uh huh.

Okay. So Captain, Brave New World. Now, for some reason, I watched this on Disney+, and I didn't see the opening, like, traditional opening Marvel logo. Did I just miss it? Was I, like, looking at my phone? To be honest, I hit that 10-second skip button for the production logos, so I don't... So I didn't recognize that. But I figured Stuart never stays for the end credits scene. I don't have to I didn't recognize that. But I also, I figured Stewart never stays for the end credit scene. I don't have to look at the production logos.

That's all right. That's your cool new thing. Okay, so movie opens Thaddeus Ross. Thaddeus what, Thunderbolt Ross? Thunderbolt Ross, yeah. Is now president of the United States of America. Now this is looking a little different. He's looking a little bit different.

He, the snap changed him. Well, okay, so here, let's just pull the curtain back. This is a different actor playing. Yeah, William Hurt. Passed away. Yeah, William Hurt passed away and Harrison Ford took the role. And I gotta say, I like that more than if they had

an AI CGI William Hurt, you know, walking around. I mean, I honestly like, this is a weird thing to say because I love Harrison Ford and I am usually very excited to see him in things, but I did miss William Hurt in this role. I feel like William Hurt brings a different, it's like a slightly different energy than Harrison Ford. I think Harrison Ford, you know, he's I think he's by far the MVP of this movie, but I feel like he... Tim Blake Nelson, dude. I wish they'd just given Tim Blake Nelson more to do.

He just walks around and stares at people. Yeah, that's the problem with him. But William Hurt brings a certain, yeah, a certain slight over the topness to his Thunderbolt Raws. And I wish Harrison Ford doesn't really do that. Harrison Ford doesn't do that kind of like, this is just a little bigger than it needs to be. But anyway, yeah, so he's the president of the United States now, the guy who, again,

I mean, never mind. They elected him president even after he like destroyed part of an American city, but whatever. It's a... In today's world, that's... Yeah. We should not be allowed to say anything predicting, like saying what can and can't get you elected. Because we've said things on the podcast before and we've been proven wrong. That's true, that's very true. Well, I think one of the weird things about this movie

is that, and people at the time when it came out, they talked, commented on this, that like it feels like a movie from a slightly earlier political age, where the message of we may disagree, but maybe we can't, but we have to figure out how to get along, still seems kind of like a valid way to live as opposed to now where it's like, yeah, I don't, but we have to figure out how to get along, still seems kind of like a valid way to live as opposed to now,

where it's like, yeah, I don't really need to agree to disagree with the guy who's sending masked gunmen to pull citizens off the street and airlift them to foreign jails. Like, there's no, and the idea that the, and this, people said this in the reviews that like, oh, it's actually, it would be great if the president just broke some buildings in Washington, D.C. and didn't do more,'s he's a far less destructive president than he's a warmonger and a monster but He's not that bad

Yeah, warm up. We've had warm under a gun warm under God Sounds like a great a great fantasy character Yeah, just take the whole fills away from him and it'll be fine No, he hasn't more is a vague heart condition that can only be sort of cured the Hulk pills away from him and he'll be fine. No, Dan, he has a vague heart condition that can only be cured through Hulk pills. Okay. Okay, so he is the President five months later. Five months later, Captain America and his new Falcon sidekick Joaquin Torres, right? Yeah. They are sent on a mission to Oaxaca

to stop the sale of some classified material that was stolen by the organization called Serpent and their lead bad guy, Sidewinder. Are these comic book guys? So here's the, this was a reshoot thing. So Serpent is a nod to the Serpent Society, which is a group of Captain America villains that are all snake themed.

And they all have snake costumes, they all have different snake powers. And during, I think- Did Cobra sue about this or? They predate Cobra, I believe, Daniel. But the idea behind them- Wait, the health insurance? Oh no, they don't predate that, yeah.

I think they, I can't remember if they started during Mark Grunwald's run or not. But Mark Grunwald, who wrote Captain America for 10 years, and his run is really fun. It's got cap wolf in it and Captain America comes up werewolf. All the John Walker, US agent stuff that Falcon, the Winter Soldier was about it like a he's like, there's all these snake based villains, let's get them into one group and they'll treat it like it's a labor union or a business syndicate for villains. Like they each get a cut, they get health insurance through it

and Sidewinder is the guy runs it, but they all wear their snake costumes all the time. It's great. And one of the things that's disappointed to me about this movie is that it feels like, it feels a lot like it is the 90s direct to video sequel to a big budget action movie. And part of that is that the characters are rarely

in costume or doing costume things. The villains, instead of being colorful, costumed characters are instead just kind of like randos in body armor with guns. And they originally, I guess, had the characters diamond back and another one, these Serpent Society characters, and then cut them entirely out of the movie. That like, they literally shot those scenes

and then cut them out. And I think they were trying to de, maybe de-sillifyfie the serpent society, but it's like, why not? Why are we doing this? Why are we, why are we bothering to make these movies? John Carlos Vizino would have loved to have been in a cool snake costume.

I think so. And he would have done a great job with it. And he could have looked like the snake man in that anti-drug ad from when I was a kid that was so scary where the drug dealer turns into like a weird snake man at the end. But it's, it's one of those things where I think when the Marvel universe was at its best, it was like,

let's take the things that happen in the comics and that they do in the comics that in earlier movies would have deemed too silly. Let's just have them do them. Like let's just have them do it. And here, it feels like they're back in the old ways of like running away from that, you know, to the serpent society, have them dress up as snakes, give them snake powers, why not? Where else can you get that? Nowhere.

Well, I mean, one of the problems with this movie in particular is it has such a dour and serious tone. I think they're trying to recapture the winter soldier tone of like, this is really a political movie. This is serious. And I wonder. But part of what makes that fun is that you, in the middle of this serious thing,

you have Captain America and Bucky running around and doing stuff. Yeah, well, there's some fun, they're not really mismatched per se, but there's some buddy comedy stuff with Captain America and Black Widow. I wonder whether... And the introduction of Sam Wilson. Some of it is response to people getting mad about like, oh, you know, like these movies got so quippy or whatever, but like...

It's still quippy though. Like it's still a quippy movie. The character comedy is like the good stuff. You don't have to run away from like, I don't know. Let's also, like the characters, part of the issue I had with this movie, this is a larger thing, and I know we haven't talked too much about it. Sam Wilson and Joaquin Torres, they don't really. Let's also, like the characters, part of the issue I had with this movie, this is a larger thing, and I know we haven't talked much about it,

Sam Wilson and Joaquin Torres, they don't really have much personality. Sam Wilson takes everything seriously and he feels a lot of pressure. Joaquin Torres is like, he's the young guy who wants to be a hero and he's a little bit looser. He's a little hot dog, yeah. And Quippy, he's a hot dogger.

But other than that, they don't have much, and it's not till the very end of the movie that Anthony Mackie gets to give that speech about, when I'm wearing this, I feel the pressure of everybody else who worked so hard to get me to this place. I can't let them down. And I was like, that's the subtext running throughout. And I'm like, have him say that at the very beginning of the movie and then give him a little bit more personality. But instead, they play it so like serious, boilerplate kind of action movie guy that it,

I feel like I was the whole time I was like, I don't get, I don't know what Falcon's personality is. Like I don't know who he is as a character. I've liked Mackie a lot in this part, but now that he's in the main role rather than a supporting role, they haven't developed like the next level of character. What that means for him.

My favorite moments for him are when he, like he, where they give him a chance to like reveal that like yeah, he's just a regular dude where he's like man I wish I fucking took that stupid super-star Stuff's funnier does this movie set the limit set the record for the number of times they say shit in a Marvel movie It felt like every other line was like oh shit. Oh shit. Oh, that's been bullshit And it was like listeners right right in, Okay, listeners, write in. Somebody tally it up, send it in. I think you were watching the shit cut, Elliott.

Oh, that was it. Yeah, yeah, yeah. You know, I did look up the fact that, did you guys see the scene where they were just rolling around in shit? Or was that not the one that was, I didn't see, you know what, I didn't watch it on Disney Plus,

I watched it on shitfetish.com. Was that a problem? Wow, that's a very specific name. Do not try to obfuscate it at all. I just, I Googled Captain America Brave New World streaming, and that's the first link that came up, and it looked really cheap. The costumes didn't look on model.

Brave Poop World. You know what, you did say, did you mean Captain America Brave Poop World? And I said, I guess that's what it's called. You got to make sure that the links you click aren't promoted LA because Google's just doing wow Google AI said I think you'll want this and that the whole time I was watching I was like I don't want this this isn't what I like but okay I guess I'll watch all four hours of it yours you guys it was four hours long right there's four hours long yeah okay so Captain America arrives so we're still starting here

we're talking about how weird it is that our American heroes are operating on Mexican soil to deal with this issue, you know? And that, so he arrives, he like beats up a bunch of baddies, he fights like a bigger baddie and beats him up, meanwhile, walking. This bigger baddie, this was not fun and it was unimpressive and boring, right?

Yeah. Like, this is when you need a guy with a superpower, like a snake-based superpower for Falcon to go up against instead of a guy who's just slightly larger than Falcon. Like he wasn't even that big a guy, but all right. Yeah, other than like being excited to be fighting him. And by Falcon, you mean Captain America. Oh sorry, Captain America, I apologize.

I will say, I continue to be disappointed at how much the, like, I know this is the way of the future, everything, but like, the way his wings and his mask like zip on and off digitally, like it just looks, it looks kind of lame. What I read was that apparently Anthony Mackie had a lot of trouble with the mask he had to wear in Felton the Winter Soldier, and he was like,

you gotta give me, you can't put me in that again, which I understand I get it Yeah, that makes sense that I agree that like the digital wings and everything they just kind of look meh, you know I don't know. It's hard. It's hard to be excited about it. Okay I was I was less excited about this fight than I was about Carrie I always fighting Andre the giant in the princess bride Which is a great fight scene where a guy is up against a much bigger guy So like they needed to bring some of that into this scene, I feel like. Yeah. Yeah. So you should have had him fight what?

Like a human legend like Andre the Giant. If you can find another one, sure. Yeah. Yeah. I was a human legend as if he was going to fight like a legendary dog. A legendary crocodile. Yeah. And he's going to fight Cerberus. Cerberus. Not Cerberus. Yeah, he to fight... Cerberus. Cerberus, sorry. He's a legendary aardvark. He's a great fighter. He's got some controversial opinions about women.

I know, Dan, you agree with him, but no. Okay. So they succeed, but Sidewinder escapes. They manage to get this material. They head back. He introduces Joaquin to his friend Isaiah Bradley, who is the original Captain America, who was a soldier in World War I or II? So it's World War II also, but this is a character where the idea...

This is from a comic called The Truth, I think it was, that Marvel did years ago, where the idea was, much like the Tuskegee experiments and things like that, that before they used the super serum, super-sulter on a white person, they would have tested it out on black soldiers. And so there's this black Captain America, Isaiah Bradley, who received it first, and because he was a black man, was then mistreated by the government and things like that. So I like that they're bringing this character in. I guess maybe he was an archer soldier

the TV show also, I don't know. Yeah, he was. Yeah, and he brings some interest, like he adds a perspective and a genuine distrust for the US government. Yeah, the character and the actor are great. In the movie, it's another place where the film feels like terribly wishy washy in this moment

where it's like at the end where Captain America is arguing why he still puts on the suit and represents America. I'm like, I don't know, man. It seems like there's been a lot of mistreatment here that would be hard to forgive. I don't know. So they are invited to the White House, Captain America and Falcon, for their work in

Oaxaca. And he insists that he insists that Isaiah come along with them. And despite his initial reservations, Isaiah agrees to go along. They get all dressed up. They take a limo. They talk about riding in a limo and being dressed up. They arrive at the White House for this like they talk about it for a while. Stewart makes it seem like that's just... Stewart's just bringing it up as a joke. They spend a lot of time in that limo talking about, look at your suit, man. Oh, hey, we're in the limo right now.

House to suit. Yeah. I mean, it's a nice jacket. So they arrive at the White House... You need to wear it to the White House. If you got style, you do. Yeah, that's true. That's a good point. So they arrive at the White House. There's initially some conversation that I thought was just, you know, I tossed off jokes where Isaiah's having trouble

working his phone, but it turns out that's a plot point. Captain meets with President Ross, who suggests that they put aside their past differences and Captain America restart the Avengers. And it's this like, hey, let's build bridges and move forward. Then the president gives an address where he's talking all about the giant dead eternal that appeared,

celestial, sorry, that appeared at the end of eternal. It's my mistake. You're like, I thought that was never gonna be mentioned again, but I guess. I'm kind of excited to see that. Because it's their way to get an even more important thing into the Marvel Universe, and what is that miracle mineral? Adamantium.

Adamantium, and you know, all the comic fans ejaculated when they heard that word, because they know Wolverine's gonna show up at some point. Not in this movie, but eventually. Not in this movie, sometime. He is too busy being in the highest grossing R-rated comedy of all time. Shortly after this. Yeah. What was it before this?

The Hangover Five? Exactly. No, it's the Music Man on Broadway, the film version of it. Oh, wow. That's R-rated? Yeah. Oh, yeah. Now I'm interested in seeing it. Yeah, yeah. They updated it for modern times.

So it's much grittier. There's a lot more nudity. A lot more nudity. Most shits You'll ever hear on Broadway. You know what I might have been watching the poosic man, which is on the same website Yeah, okay, so That starts with a T And that rhymes that's the rhymes with P and that stands for poop and then they're just it's then just shit play from that point

I'm gonna I'm gonna put a child protection on your laptop That's a good idea worried about you so we I'm gonna put a child protection on your laptop, Elliot. That's a good idea. Worried about you. So in the middle of this, we also learned that the thing that was recovered in Oaxaca that was up for sale, the classified material was actually some of that adamantium

that I believe belonged to the Japanese and was stolen by Serpent. So this movie is, it's trying to be mature and intelligent in making itself about international tension between America and Japan over the ownership of adamantium and this treaty that will share adamantium with all the worlds that the present has. This movie-

Because this thing appeared in the Indian Ocean and all the nations that are nearby are trying to race so that they can exploit this this what this giant alien core? This giant vibranium. Yeah and there's two things I want to bring up about this. One is the movie now the rest of the movie Ross just keeps going my treaty oh my treaty we've got to sign this treaty and it's ridiculous how often he's always talking about this treaty and the other thing is to

Clearly this should be about tension between America and China, but they do not want to insult the China They don't they want to make sure that this movie can play in Chinese theaters And so they make it Japan instead and the idea that America and Japan are racing for this thing in the Indian Ocean and China Is just kicking back me like I don't need it I don't need to extend my control over the oceans around my country no you guys handle it is bonkers it's ridiculous you know it's similar to that that Red Dawn remake we did years ago where I think was supposed to be China invade the United States and then they were like but we might want this to

play in China because there's a lot of money there so they made it North Korea instead and the idea that North Korea could land an invasion army in the United States and start Taking over the country is ludicrous. So yeah, the so it just was very It felt very cynical. So kind of like does have hoes in different area codes North Korea a ludicrous The but this was it was one where it felt I think, I assume it was in order to not annoy the

Chinese government so that they could keep sending movies to China. Of course. But it meant that this movie was attempting to do like kind of a smart thing about international politics but in a very kind of dumb, in a very dumb way. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, it's dumb and it is weird. Okay, so in the middle...

We're on the poster. Yeah, so in the middle of this summit... It's dumb, dot, dot, dot, weird. Stuart Wellington, the Flop House. And he lifts out, and? Alright. So in the middle of this summit, we hear some strains of a strange song playing and all of a sudden, Isaiah Bradley and two other men whip out guns and just start blasting. The president luckily survives,

and Isaiah Bradley goes on the lam. He runs across the various parts of Washington, DC, before Sam convinces him to give up. They're surrounded, and Isaiah is taken into custody. He is obviously confused as to what happened. It's almost like he was brainwashed. Almost. So this movie is Mr. Blue as performed by the Fleetwoods.

There's another Blue based song they could have used guys. Oh yeah, how's that go? Is there like a melody or? Just to give a dramatic reading of it, it goes, I'm blue, da bu dee da bu die. Da bu dee da bu die. Da bu dee da bu die. And I was very disappointed that they didn't go that way.

Is that the first chorus or is that the chorus or all the verses? That's pretty much, that's the chorus, that's most of the song. I mean, it does open with a spoken word intro about how this is a song about a blue guy who lives in a blue world and everything is blue. I also want to say, obviously Thunderbolt Ross

is not the most level-headed and reasonable of men. No. But I do find it kind of odd that in this world where we know about the Winter Soldier, again, bringing him up again, and how he was triggered to do assassinations, that there is so much confusion around the idea that Isaiah might have had the same thing

happen to him and so much disbelief. In a world of magic powers. Yeah. Yeah. I would point you, Dan, there's a great issue of Astro City that's about a lawyer who gets his client a gangster off of charges because he's arguing, how do we know it wasn't a duplicate from another dimension? How do we know it wasn't a clone in this superhero world we live in?

And it's a good, yeah, you should use that argument, Dan, when you're defending somebody in the Super-MC universe. Why did he not wear his magical amulet that grants him superhuman strength and powers? That's my favorite line from the recent Daredevil show. He's defending the vigilante. Why doesn't he just eat Ross the largest friend? So it's around here so in the confusion so obviously Isaiah Bradley at this point is sentenced to potentially he he might be on trial for with the death penalty They're seeing the death penalty for a second attempted assassination. They keep saying here

They are going for the death penalty. Can you get the death penalty for an attempted murder? If you fail to... I mean, in today's America, probably. I don't know what the... It just kept sticking about to me. I'm like, I don't know if I've ever heard of the death penalty for someone who failed to kill somebody else. Yeah.

But anyway. It's around now where we're introduced to Ross's head of security, Ruth Bat-Saraf, a very tiny woman who was apparently trained in the Red Rooms with the black widows. And so she is a character that, from my understanding, was edited and cut down quite a bit. Yes, in the comic books, she is a character named Sabra,

who is kind of the Israeli national superhero. And when they first started putting this movie together, I'm not sure why they chose her as a character to be in it, but there was a firestorm on both sides of the pro and anti-Israeli, pro and anti-Gaza thing. They stepped into a controversy of Snow White proportions around it. And I think their reaction to that was to,

instead of making her an Israeli superhero making her an Israeli-born Employee of the United States government who just happens to as a former black widow as opposed to a someone with Strong ties to Israel, but I always love the name bat syref because it sounds like it's like if that if Batman was an angel I mean we asked someone, you know, it's really as right? Yeah, I guess that is Asriel, yeah. Outside of... Outside of that world, I was not like... My initial, like, association with Bat is not like, oh yeah, this is like a Jewish name. It is the Bat, you know?

It was like, it was only on rewatch. I'm like, oh, of course. Yes, of course. Right, right. There's no Bat element in this. You get waiting for her to turn into a bat, but you're like, a falcon and a bat. It makes perfect sense. They're both flyers. I mean, if she turned, like morphed into a bat character, that would have been great. That would have been fantastic.

Okay. She's like... What do you say, Dan? Well, just, I understand why in this world things were changed about this character. Just as a matter of like the actress performing it. Like this is a fun character I think to me in this movie that doesn't have a lot of fun stuff. She's right. This is Shira Haas is the actress who's who you may remember her from the show. Stiezel which was my in-laws favorite show for a while.

Uh can you tell us a little bit about the show? It's an Israeli show about Jews. It's just about Orthodox Jews. My in-laws really loved it. They're watching all the time. Oh, and she was in Unorthodox. Oh, that's what I remember. Yeah, that's what you would know from Unorthodox.

Another show about Orthodox Jews. But they kind of solved the problem. That's what you would know her from is from unorthodox another show about orthodox shoes but uh The was I gonna say but they kind of solved the problem by she's a fun Performer in this but they also don't give her that much to do like there's there's not a lot of personality in this character aside from Like she seems like she's gonna be tough as nails. Yeah, she's got a sense of humor, you know Yeah, she's initially introduced as potentially a foil, but then she becomes an ally. Okay, so Sam goes to- An alloy, foil is an alloy. Depending on what it's made out of.

Sam goes to visit Isaiah in jail, and he continues his investigations. While he's driving around, he gets ambushed by Sidewinder, his car gets blown up, and then he beats up Sidewinder and wins, because I mean, it's Giancarlo Esposito great actor I'm I don't quite buy him as like as physically tough as Captain America even I mean at least in Electric State they gave him a robot body to be working through but the idea that yeah

Even if Captain America doesn't have the super soldier serum He's still got to be at least 15 years younger than Giancarlo Esposito like right They get it's it feels it feels weird to have an older gentleman as the big physical one. Now, if they put him in a snake suit, maybe, maybe snake suit. Of course, if he has snake powers, then yeah, of course, then it's a totally different story. Now, what are snake powers? Let's dig into this. Spits, ass-squeezing, mesmerized people. I mean, there's a lot of different kinds of snake powers.

So I think side this sidewinder, he could teleport, I think. Let's see. That's a snake power. Yeah, I mean, that's a terrified now. There's gonna be snakes in my shower. Snakes could just show up anywhere, Dan. That's why you got to always check your shoes when you wake up in the morning. What are the snake? I mean, like not all of them had snake snake powers.

Because like Simon's facts, powers like Victor, right? Yeah, there's there's yeah, there's um, which one is it is it king cobra? I think is there's black mamba king cobra asp. They all have different they can bite people, you know, they can squeeze people I forget people. Oh, yeah, I forget if you squeeze people right now I forget if it's king cobra the one who has a snake body One of them has like a bionic from the waist down. He's just a huge snake, you know? But like Diamondback, who became Captain America's girlfriend for a little bit, she just kind of throws diamonds and jumps around.

She's a real Black Widow, Electra type character. You know, we talk about all these body modifications, right? Where like people are getting calf extensions and things. How come nobody's just turned their lower half of their body into a snake body? Calf extinction. There was a guy for a long, yeah, you gotta be more like a, there was a guy who was trying to-

You haven't seen materialists yet, Dan? There was a guy. Extinctions? Yeah. For longer calves. Well, to be taller. Heightening surgery, yeah. You haven't, you didn't hear about this?

Yeah, yeah, you can get like up to six inches. Oh, God. So Anthony Mackie is 11 years younger than Giancarlo Esposito So that's not super crazy. Yeah I guess it's within the realm of possibility that they'd be evenly matched in a fight But even without the super soldier serum I still believe that Anthony Mackey is is a is gonna be is that Giancarlo Esposito is not the athletic match I mean, I think the main thing is that Giancarlo Esposito had, you know, some weapons, some guns.

He did have some weapons. And he was shooting at an unarmed man with... No, like, here's my secret weapon, a big gun weapon. Now, if his gun shot snakes... Yeah, well, there you go. Again, that would be so much better. But they could teleport, so... Or if he threw a grenade and a bunch of snakes jumped out at you.

I mean, you know who knew this? Oh, damn it. You know who knew the power of throwing a snake at somebody? Moses. It worked then, it would work now. Throw a snake at somebody. Or if he threw some peanut brittle at him and had the snakes burst out of that peanut brittle. at somebody, Moses. It worked then, it would work now. Throw a snake at somebody. Throw some peanut brittle at him

and have the snakes burst out of that peanut brittle. Real snakes though, that thing, real snakes burst out of it. Yeah. Throw it, it's like, here's a snack. Captain America, Captain America's like, actually I'm pretty hungry. Thanks, I could use some energy in the middle of this battle, I appreciate it.

Ah, snakes! Okay, so they trace the last number that Sidewinder called to a CIA black site called Camp Echo One that's kind of in the middle of nowhere. Cap immediately recognized this as a- If you call West Virginia the middle of nowhere, which if I was a McElroy, I'd be pretty insulted, Stu. I mean, they try to play it up like the reason

why he knows it is what it is, because it's not near anything else. So he and Joaquin head down to check this place out. Meanwhile, Ross is what, flying around, he's talking to him in a place distance. He's going back and forth between here and Japan, trying to get the Japanese Prime Minister to sign on to this treaty.

Because if Japan doesn't sign on, then India and France will not sign on, I think it is. And they need, he needs this treaty. We got it. This treaty. We owe it to the world for this treaty. The treaty that will say that they will all share the adamantium. No country will have a dominant, will have a monopoly on adamantium. Yeah. He also places a call to the prison

that we'll later learn is Camp Echo One. And he's talking to the warden about whether or not their prisoner is still contained. And the warden's like, yes, of course, I'm looking at him right now. And it's revealed that he is just looking at a wall that something fishy is going on. Mm-hmm.

Okay, so Captain America and Falcon investigate Camp Echo One. They meet the real bad guy. They get into it really easy. They break in very easily, yeah. They notice that they find a whole bunch of evidence. It's like an evidence dungeon down there with a bunch of pictures on the wall.

And one of the bits of evidence ties what's going on to President Ross. And there's some weird pills, the same pills that Ross has been chomping down like tic-tacs. So this bad guy is very sloppily organized, because he's literally just left the president's medical files just out on the desk, and he doesn't need them at that moment. This is a plan that's been going on for years. He should have filed them at this point. Especially because we learned that this is Samuel Stern's the

leader is that the yeah yes in the comics he's the leader they never call him that in the movies but they should recall him from everyone's favorite MCU movie the brother are at the Incredible Hulk Ballad of Buster Scruggs everyone you know the character everyone remember the actor everyone remembers as the Hulk Edward Norton Tim Blake Nelson. And everybody who the actor everybody remembers from General Ross William Hurt. Yeah, doesn't even become the leader until the end of that movie the you know the abomination is the main villain in that. So they're paying off something that was that was put in

Villain and that so they're paying off something that was that was put in in the first years ago Yeah, so that's just good. That's just good film make that's the they planted that seed so yeah, so he's he's the they don't call him the leader, but his name he is the leader and What's his powers in the comic book? He's just super intelligent. He's he has a gamma infused brain And that's got a big old big old dome and that's why he's the Hulk's villain. The Hulk gamma made him strong but Savage and dumb it made the leader incredibly brilliant and also scheming and cunning and so he's just super smart and in the comics his head like expands like a kind of like a in the old comics his forehead just gets super tall He's just got a very tall head with a

Heard around the time in the 80s when Todd McFarlane was drawing him in the Hulk, his head started expanding in all directions like a Jiffy Pop dome. And he looks great, he's got a mustache, I love it. And here, originally I guess his look was more in keeping with the comics, but then I think people didn't like it, so they changed it to now he's got,

it looks like his head is just kinda- He's just kinda green and puffy. He's got like a lumpy head, yeah. Yeah, and his eyes are all weird, and he doesn't have a mustache. I want to address something you said just a moment ago about like him having these files just laid out. Now, I guess the idea for a lot of this is,

you know, the leader again, his power, extreme smartness, he can predict like what's gonna happen. So here's, so they stole from a different Marvel character, the Mad Thinker. The Mad Thinker is the one who's always like, there's a 95% chance that you will come through that door right now, and then a trap is, is, operator, whatever. And so they hear they have him talking about probabilities

and calculations, that's a Mad Thinker thing. That's okay, they can give it to the leader, that's fine. But I assume that- I'm not mad about it, but the Mad Thinker is, it's in his name. I assume that part of the idea is that like, these are all bread crumbs, this is all part of his name. I assume that part of the idea is that like, these are all breadcrumbs, this is all part of his plan. Which is a trope that I really have grown to dislike

because it's just, if like 90% of your movie is like the bad guy being like, I knew exactly what you were going to do and like I've led you here this whole time. It makes it... You've played into my hands every step of the way, Captain America. It makes it time to open the box, Brad Pitt.

It makes it feel like everything else has been worthless, and also it makes it feel like, well then how do you vanquish them at the end? He's been right about everything, but somehow, Miraculous, you're right at the end. But also like in Seven, something like that works better because it's a shocking reveal. You know, like normally I'm not in favor

of shocking reveals, I believe in like the Hitchcock, like well, we wanna know the things upfront so we can like have information that the characters maybe don't and that creates some suspense. But I think if it's gonna be like a mastermind like telling a hero pretty early on in the movie, like, oh, I'm masterminding everything, then it takes the wins out of the movie's sales

versus there is at least a little juice in, like at the end of the movie, the shock of being like, oh my God, I've played into your hands all along, like I thought I was doing the right thing, but it was wrong, you know? Well, I'd say there's two things I'll say to that, Dan. Which I agree with you. Number one is, Seven is just such a different type of movie

that exists in a different world. Like there's no justice and there's no heroes in Seven, which I think is how it's a super bleak movie and how you can get away with it. And it's not like we have to have to worry about the continuing adventures of Brad and Morgan, you know, in other movies. So the but I think also, I don't know, like a sequel.

It's called eight. Oh, hell yeah. They invented a new deadly sin and now the killer is back from the dead. We thought we figured out all the ways to sin. Turned out there was another one. Doom scroll. It's really cool. Yeah. Cybercrime. We thought we figured out all the ways to sin turn out that was another one doom scroll really cool cybercrime

Snyder's seven land The fucking beekeeper would show up and beat the shit out of John Doe sure but but I think also I don't you seen the beekeeper. I have not seen the beekeeper Yeah, you gotta keep those bees. I guess you know what I'm in the middle of sinners I guess I'll put a pause on that Well, you just got a time it right to a scene where they're looking at a television and then you imagine that the characters are watching Beekeeper yeah, there's a lot of television scenes and sinners yeah Yeah, so Dan, but I think you're right that like if you're gonna pull off Oh you were you were in my clutches the whole time,

and now you've got to figure out a way to escape it, that the stakes are so much higher for the filmmakers in making it like a surprise and also devastating and then finding a way for the hero to do something the villain didn't expect, but here they just don't do it. The villain just kind of starts getting bored at a certain point,

but also he says don't be boring to someone at one point, which is my favorite line in the movie. But also it's also one of those times where he was like, I knew you'd invite Isaiah Bradley to the White House. So I brainwashed him and it's like, dude, if you didn't brainwash Isaiah Bradley, Captain America probably wouldn't have investigated this. You probably would have gotten away with it.

But he was like, but I wanted you to investigate to increase the pressure on the president It would have been easier if you just didn't it in speed to when we did our speed to show where it was like Where william defoe is getting away with the jewels or whatever and then take Sandra Bullock with them? And I'm like if you didn't do that nobody would chase you you just go like white why bother you know there's literally the attention There's literally a part in this after I always sell sabotaging There's literally a part in this after you like... I always sell sabotaging.

I want to get caught. He was the main character for a while and he likes the spotlight. There's an earlier part where Cap has beaten up Giancarlo Esposito and then the leader calls him to be like, good work or whatever. Just as I expected. It's like, dude, you know where a manipulator usually lurks? The shadows. It works better that way. Well, I guess there is a feeling of like if nobody knows then what's that?

There's another Astro City issue about this point too where this guy who's called the toy maker or toy box or something He he pulls off the greatest heist and the problem is he's rich and he gets away with it But nobody knows he did it and so he goes back and deliberately gets caught so that people can know that he did it and then he escapes again. But the idea that like, how you want the notoriety, you want the reputation, which if they had built that into the leader, Samuel Stearns, I think it would have been great. I've been in this hole for decades because of, for years because of Ross. I want people to know who I am.

I want people to know the name Samuel Stearns, but they don't do that. I made him what he was. I deserve credit for all that. Exactly. I'm the man who made Thunderbolt Ross and I want people to know I'm the man who broke Thunderbolt Ross. We have a, so there's a little bit of a scene

with Cap, Falcon and the leader just yapping at each other. They do a lot of talking. And then a whole bunch of soldiers that have been brainwashed show up and we get a little bit of a battle. They try to, in the carnage, the leader escapes camp and Falcon link up with Ruth Bat-Saroff, who initially is there to maybe take them into custody,

but then she realized what's going on and they team up to beat up a bunch of soldiers. She uses her Black Widow training. Yeah. How do you guys feel about the fights in this one? Did you enjoy any of the fights in this? I found them kind of like, meh. Yeah, not really.

Yeah, I mean, I thought the, I think this one was probably the scene where they're fighting in the lab. I think the fight in the lab was kind of the most interesting because it felt like, it felt the most like, oh no, they might actually get fucked up in this one. Yeah, they're being hit with taser batons and things like that.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, force batons. I like the way they go. Am I losing my taste for like fight scenes? Is that what it is? I feel like the last couple action movies I've seen where there's just kind of like fist fighting, I've been like, eh, I don't know. And I already have lost my taste for gunfights

to a certain extent. What's happening to me, guys? Well, I think a lot of them that are done these days are pretty uninspired. I think that's a big part of it, especially with like big blockbusters do it worse than smaller movies where the emphasis is on fight choreography and stunts.

These are so, I don't know, it's just like... I did like the fights in Love Hurts more than the fights in this one. And I did watch Police Story again not too long ago, and the fights in that are pretty amazing. Alright, maybe it's the movies, maybe it's not me, yeah. Maybe it's the pictures that got small. Yeah, pictures got small. Okay, so the three of them go to a military base

where the soldiers that we had met in the initial Oaxaca incident are holding Sidewinder. There's also, I want to point out one of the characters in here that you don't get to see much of. One of the soldiers, they just call him Dunphy. And this is clearly Dennis Dunphy, the character of D-Man, one of my favorite D-list Marvel characters. He is a guy with super strength who is, always wants to be a hero.

He was one of Captain America's sidekicks for a while, and he's just kind of a lovable lunk. And for a long time was a homeless character, like a homeless superhero. And I always wanted to write a D-Man series, and I never got the chance to. So, just want to mention they bring D-Man, they don't do much with him. But, you know. D-Man is one of those characters that is talked about by like deep cut fans who are like,

oh man, I would love to do, I feel like Marvel was constantly getting pitches from like weirdos, like weird comedy writers who were like, yeah, I got this great idea, and they're like, another D-Man idea. I pitched them a D-Man series one point where he was going to be traveling around America, dealing with the city, going to the cities that other characters don't deal with.

And the idea was that he goes to each of these cities and he finds that the small-time villains that are local to these areas are being pushed out by this kind of Walmart of bigger villains who realize if they hang around New York, they're going to get beat up by Thor. But if they go to Kansas City, it's not going to be as big a problem. And so he's got to deal with all these villains coming in and pushing out the local villains. And it would have been really fun. Yeah, it's not gonna be as big a problem. And so he's gotta deal with all these villains coming in and pushing out the local villains and it would have been really fun. Yeah, that's a good idea.

Okay, so they, while they're there, they interrogate Sidewinder, who kind of gives a little bit of background on why he stole this stuff and yada, yada, yada. Meanwhile, there is a- Once you capture somebody, they immediately will talk to you if you promise them something,

which is what we're learning. Once somebody is in a captive situation, they're happy to talk and just tell you stuff in this movie. Especially with the sense of like, I'm going to tell you this, but I'm going to escape, and then I'm going to kill you, Captain America. Yeah. Meanwhile, in the Indian Oceans, tensions have increased.

Japan is heading to the celestial, and the U.S is, including President Ross, are en route to intercept them. They launched some fighters. Those fighters are brainwashed by the leader who has snuck into a house and is calling people with the house phone. Yeah, he's still not been able to figure out

how to use a domestic phone to just kind of call fighter jets. Fighter jets and like the earpiece the president He's a genius. He's a super genius. I'll buy it. I'll buy it. Yeah, so I mean, I wish he had kind of a machine He hooked up to the phone that allowed him to do this but instead he's just talking into a regular landline phone But whatever if he had like some weird invention he made like yeah Cuz he had plenty of time to make weird inventions. In E.T., Elliot makes a more interesting looking invention out of his toys, you know, and a saw blade.

But you know, that's E.T. That's also one of the greatest movies ever made. So it's unfair to compare this to that, you know. The brainwashed pilots attack the Japanese Navy. Japan retaliates. Cap and Falcon arrive and have to try and break this up. They got there pretty fast with their little suits, right? I feel like they got to the Indian Ocean pretty fast.

They get from West Virginia to the Indian Ocean pretty quickly, yeah. On what are essentially just like gliders. That's one thing that bothered me more about these wings where I'm like, he's doing a lot of like from the ground flying in a way that I'm like, I don't know how this works. He's like a little rocket pack, right?

There's propulsion in there, there's some kind of propulsion. What bothers me more is Redwing, his sidekick, who is in the comics is an actual living bird, and here's some kind of frickin' robot that shoots lasers out, I don't like that at all. Yeah, that's not as cool. Okay, so they manage to stop the brainwashed pilots,

they manage to shoot down the missiles that have all been blasted all over creation. Japan stands down, but in the process, Joaquin Torres gets gravely injured, and they have to airlift him and put him in the hospital. Is this the end of the new Falcon? Oh no, guys. Will he survive? And are they going to kill Isaiah Bradley in the movie? I'm in such suspense about what's going to happen to these characters. So Captain goes to visit. Oh yeah, meanwhile during this whole debacle,

President Ross, while being yelled at by Stearns over his earpiece, almost gives into his rage and his eyes become red. What? This is one of those things that you're supposed to, I think, be intrigued and mystified by, what's gonna happen, but all of the advertising was about the President turns into a Red Hulk and beats the shit out of Captain America. So, yeah.

This is one of those things, I mean, this is a thing where, like, if they had had enough other stuff in the movie to make it look interesting, they should have kept the Red Hulk stuff from the ads, because that's way more interesting. I think you're right. I think they just didn't have an... And watching it, I was like, they should have had the Red Hulk stuff in the middle of the movie and then escalated it somehow from that because it's the most fun thing in the movie. And that's why the advertising was all about it.

But the whole time you're like, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. When's he gonna turn into the Hulk? When's he gonna do that? Well, if a bunch of snake guys showed up at the very end to be like, ha ha, we got you. If he was fighting snake men, I'd be like, I can wait for Red Hulk to show up. He's fighting a guy whose body is a snake's body

well, especially because the rest of the movie is this like We got a run from one place to the next place the next place to unravel this like not that interesting conspiracy like That type of movie. I was wondering you know like it works in Winter Soldier What is what makes it boring here? To just be like, we're gonna. I think there's a couple reasons why. One is, in Winter Soldier, it's just made better.

Like it's just written and directed and there's more going on. And it helps that camp is like a man out of time and it adds a little extra layer of interest for me. And I think that they did, I think if you didn't know the Winter Soldier story, then the reveal that Bucky know the Winter Soldier story, then the reveal that Bucky's the Winter Soldier is a big exciting reveal that they did not

advertise ahead of time. The character is cool enough as just a mysterious assassin that it was like, Oh, Captain America's met his match. I guess that's what this movie is about. But also I think because they made it a better job of making the character personally invested in what's going on. Captain America is the Chris Evans version of Captain America has such a strong personality.

And the idea of this character who is an optimist, a guy who is flush with the ideals of FDR's America, that he's dealing with this kind of seamier stuff or these secrets, is an interesting parallel in juxtaposition. It gets to the heart of why that character is special, that he's not a part of these things. And then when he finds out, oh, it's Bucky that's doing

this, there's a personal aspect to it. Whereas here, all the personal stakes, I mean, that Captain America's, that the Sam Wilson Captain America is that his friend is in jail, like that's something, that his other friend gets hurt, but these are not, they don't really go to the heart of who he is. And the real personal stakes are the presidents, that he's doing all this because he doesn't want his daughter to keep thinking of him as a monster. And so it was like, this movie in a lot of ways is really about President Ross

and Captain America and the Falcon are there to, I guess, push the story forward. And it feels like it's the center of the movie is not in the right place for what we're being asked for. And I think that's part of it. And also that the conspiracy is not that interesting. In Winter Soldier, it's a lot about they're covering up this thing

that's been going on for a long time. And like, it feels like the ground is really dropping out of him. Cause how long has this been going on? Whereas here it's like kind of a dumb plan. It's a new thing that the whole thing is just to make the president look bad. You know, it feels like the stakes are very, very low.

You know, I think that's my off the dome diagnosis. You guys, now it's time for your rebuttal. Tell me why I'm wrong. You look dumb. Oh man, you got me. I do look dumb. So Captain America confronts... Another point for debating Dan McCoy.

Now I feel bad. You look great. No, I look okay. He confronts the president about his ties to Samuel Stearns. He claims that the reason he takes these pills is it has to do with some kind of heart condition that is unspecified. The heart condition that can only be saved

by being a little bit of a hulk. Yeah. While he's visiting Joaquin in the hospital, we see Bucky again, who is running for office. We will later find out, I believe he wins, right? He is a Senator, right? By the Thunderbolts. Yeah.

Oh, is he a Senator or a representative? I don't remember. I mean, it doesn't matter. He's in Congress. Again, the idea that he wins after decades being a Soviet assassin is silly, but whatever. I would buy that kind of silliness. Again, look at who's...

Look at who's... Yeah, that's true. Look at who's... Thank you, Elliot. Well, actually, I think it would disqualify him that he has actual military service as opposed to many of the people in the government now. But some of them have military service. They're just bad people.

But I think I would buy that silliness more if this movie was a little okay with snake villains. I feel like if you had real snake villains, so much of this movie feels different, looks different, is cooler. I'm like, sure, Bucky Barnes is running for Congress. Why not? There's fucking snake men running around. You know, who cares?

Throw snake men in there, and honestly, if you're gonna have the leader in there, you're gonna have Red Hulk and General Ross, you should have Bruce Banner in there at least a little bit, right? Have the Hulk show up at some point, or explain why the Hulk is not involved in this story. I think they should have had Red Hulk,

they should have the President become Red Hulk in the middle, and a lot of the rest of the movie should have been the chase after the Red Hulk, and like, they gotta get him or stop him or something like that, that feels like a more fun, and the Serpent Society is trying to get him. Yeah, he's on his way to Japan, to blow up all of Japan. And the Serpent Society wanna turn him into Snake Hulk, and that's why they gotta stop him or something like that. That feels like a more fun, and the surface society's trying to get him. Yeah, he's on his way to Japan. And the surface society want to turn him into Snake Hulk, and that's why they got to stop him.

Not that it's super important, and there's probably been a throwaway. Superman is coming out, you know, he's out in theaters now, Dan, so that's super important, yeah. Uh-huh. Not that it... You meant Captain important. Yeah. Not that it's Captain important, but... Thank you. Maybe it's been addressed in like a throwaway line like where is the Hulk right now like what's he up to?

I don't mention him at all in the movie. Yeah, it's like post All the I don't know like post she Hulk what did he do because I didn't watch that either He kind of hung out and he talked to his like his cousin a little bit You know, he was like this is the deal with being a Hulk. I'm your Hulk guide, you know. Do a little like, walk like a man. That kind of a scene. Stomp like a Hulk, smash like a Hulk.

Yeah, exactly. And I like that she hulks. I like it too, it's one of the better ones. I should watch it sometime. I never got around to it, but I should watch it. I'm warning you, Elliot, like the comic book, it's a comedy. Yeah. What? What? I never got around to it, but I should watch it. I'm warning you Elliot like the comic book. It's a comedy Yeah, what all these what what's the internet? We're very angry to discover

Liked it I hate it when nerds on the internet are like can you believe they did this this character and they're there are the idiots They're the ones who are unaware of I mean characters function for the past 30 years Well the idea this is the craziest thing. This is not what, I'm doing a mini in a couple of weeks, but this is not the mini that I want to do. But the idea that they're like, now we're getting a woke Superman who's like an immigrant refugee and fights for the poorest among us.

And it's like, have you ever read a Superman comic? Like this is baked in from 1938. Like, come on. My father-in-law said that on Thursdays. Like, I hear this Superman's woke now. I'm like, I fucking hope so. It's like Superman's earliest adventures were literally beating up landlords

that were overcharging people. Like, come on. Like this is, the idea that these, I mean, it's just, I mean, they don't care. It's just, they make these complaints for money because it gets attention and things like that. But the idea that like, yeah, yeah, the character was created by the sons of Jewish immigrants

who were poor in the 30s, his woke is like, can we believe it? What's going on here? This is so dumb. Anyway. So Samuel Sterns kills D-Man. So that must have bummed you out. No, I was almost as sad as when D-Man died

in the real comics. Maybe this is the crucible in which D-Man is forged and comes back stronger in D-Man. Yeah, I thought we wanted to become Demolition Man, yeah, or whatever his name is. Okay, and then after a brief conversation with Captain America, Samuel Stearns is arrested by the police because this is all part of his plan,

all part of his master plan. Meanwhile, the president is giving a press conference and people are actually like holding him accountable. What's that like? And of course, everybody starts wrestling him and he wrestles back and then he becomes Hulk. This was one of the stranger, that he's like, gets really mad and he's like,

errr, and they start grappling with him. And the Secret Service, it was weird. As soon as he turns into the Hulk, before he even smashes anything, they immediately start shooting guns at him. And I'm like, I don't know, when you're a Secret Service agent, I feel like you shouldn't be shooting at the President even when he's a Hulk. Like, maybe make him do something dangerous first, but it was very, how quickly he went in their minds from President to Hulk seemed very unprofessional for the Secret Service.

And also like, President to like, Hulk, like, guns wouldn't work on that guy either. He's the Hulk. That's true. Yeah. And also like, Famously wouldn't work on that guy either. He's the Hulk. That's true, yeah. And also like, Famously doesn't get killed by guns. I mean, I know that the Hulk is, you know, we all know Hulk smash, but the Hulk the last time we saw him did help, you know, save the world.

So I don't know. But this Hulk is red, Dan. He's red, the color of anger. Maybe this is a good Hulk, when he hulks out his clothes burn off. Did he see like his clothes burn off? Yeah, his clothes burn off. Did you see, like, his clothes burn off? Yeah, his clothes burn off. The power of the rage inside of him burns off his clothes.

Okay, so... Except for the little bit around his tush and his penis. Don't worry, that's not hot enough, you know, to get it to be burned off. No, it sounds pretty hot to me. So, the Hulk has a little bit of a rampage, he destroys a bunch of stuff around there. There's a podium in front of him? The whole time I was like, when's he gonna just wipe that podium away? Oh, there he goes. Okay, good.

And Captain America messes with him, he keeps throwing these vibranium blades out of his wings, and I'm like, those little blades have to be so expensive, right? They're like little bits of... is somebody going and picking them all up? And they stole that from Archangel. That's Archangel's thing that he does. That's Archangel's thing. Are his wings vibranium or adamantium? You know what? That's a good question. I don't know. There's some alien metal that Apocalypse uses. So they could be, who knows what they are. I'll look it up.

You keep talking about this. I'll look up what are Archangel's wings made of. Yes. Yeah, what's Warren Worthington III's wings made of? So he, Captain America leads Hulk away from people. Oh, okay. So they're made out of some kind of techno-organic metal. Oh, I'm an idiot. Okay, so he leads the Red Hulk away.

They end up in a According to according to Google It's sometimes it's described as Edmontium or a similar metal. So I think there's I think it's a I think there's a controversy Over what kind of metal is made out of? Yeah, or it could just be Google AI lying to us as it is wants to do that's also possible to it Could be at mantium. Anyway, the the point is those blades would be super expensive. Yeah. Yeah, so Hulk chases Captain America to a field of cherry blossoms

where they battle for a little while and having been playing a lot of Elden Ring lately and some other Souls-like games, this reminds me a lot of those Souls-like fights where there's a lot of dodging this wing giant guy who's swinging and occasionally blocking. I basically enjoyed this part. This is what you were asking for earlier, Elliot,

a truly big guy going up against a guy without actual powers. Yes, and I think this is, by far this was for me the most fun part of the movie, is when it's Captain America versus the Hulk, and they're at the cherry blossom, the famous DC cherry blossoms, and it's like, great, this is a cool location, it's a cool, these are cool characters.

I think they could have had, even if you're not going to ruin the excitement of Captain America fighting a really big guy, that guy in the beginning could have been a little bigger or had maybe snake powers, something to make him more than just like a dude. Thank you. But I think the, I think that this is the best part of the movie for me, is it lived, this part actually lived up to a little bit of my hopes for it,

where it's like Captain America versus this big Red Hulk, you know. I found it very distracting that his Harrison Ford's face though. Did you guys find that, even knowing he's the character? Whose face should it have? Even the Mark Ruffalo Hulk, it looks a little bit like him, but not just like him. This looked just like Harrison Ford to me, so it felt strange. Yeah, he's naturally...

It's like a lot of fan art that I've done over the years, you know? Harrison Ford... Like really strong and... Yeah, and red and veiny. And his feet are giant. Yeah, really giant feet, yeah. But in yours he's usually making love to Sonic the Hedgehog That's right. Uh-huh

He's the ball though. That's what's crazy because it really is it's sensual He does it is very sensitive the way you draw it is very sensual the way you show you watching them As Shrek holds hands with the green M&M. Yeah Are they watching through a window or from the doorway? No, no, they're sitting in twin bathtubs. They're sitting in twin bathtubs holding hands, watching this happen on a bed that's covered in cherry blossom petals, yeah.

Guys, I don't need to reveal anything, but the green M&M's on my hall pass list. Well, I mean, I feel like that's a pretty safe one for Charlene. I mean, I don't even know how you get your penis into her. She's got a candy shell. I'll figure it out. So, uh... Jeez Louise.

So we, uh... I didn't think that the Captain America Brave New World episode would somehow be the filthiest Flophouse episode in years, I think. So we get the big moment where Captain America spears the Hulk with his super strong wing and then it explodes with all the pent up kinetic energy it's absorbed. Tossing them both aside, we think maybe this has stopped the Hulk, but in fact, he is still going.

Sam gets up and he just approaches the Hulk and he convinces him that, remember you keep talking about these cherry blossoms and how you want to take your daughter Liv Tyler to see them. Let's just do this shit. And he's like, you know what, you're right. And he melts and becomes Harrison Fordy. Off-camera melts and becomes, yeah, you just see a shadow. But the president's whole motivation in the entire movie is, I need to show my daughter who won't talk to me that I'm not a bad guy.

So that's why I'm creating a treaty, that's why I'm trying to do good things, that kind of stuff. So, just get to it. And, you know, we don't really get into it much, which is odd because this would be the sort of central irony of the whole thing. She thinks he's a bad guy because he chased the Hulk,

he bedeviled the Hulk who was her boyfriend, and the fact that then he turns into a Hulk himself, it seems like that would be more hay made of that fact, but I guess they figured not wrong that like, well that happened a long time ago, people aren't really, that's not foremost in the MCU fans' minds. I think they're expecting the audiences

to connect the dots on that one. Yeah, I guess, I don't know. As Nietzsche said, if you go hunting hulks, you risk becoming a Hulk, you know? So, okay, then we got some wrap-up here. Let's see, nope, that's not the card. Wrap-up, nope, that's not the card. Okay.

It's one of those two that are the center pile. Yeah, so, Captain America goes to talk to Joaquin, who's recovering in the hospital, and he basically extends an invitation to a formation of the Avengers. Meanwhile, Ross has been interred into the Raft, the super prison out in the ocean. He gets a visit from his daughter,

he gets a visit from Sam, and we learn that there has been peace. We don't know who is the new president. Is it a Hulk? Maybe. Probably not, you never know. And then finally, in a post-credits scene which I actually watched, guys.

Look, hey, all of us can change. Some of us become hulks when they change, others of us become good pondcasters. He... It sounded like you said pondcasters to me for a moment. It just means that you're fishing in a pond. Yeah. So in the post-credits scene,

Sam goes to the raft and visits the leader who basically just talks about multiverses and this of course is when they're they're trying to bring up the idea of multiverses so that we Remember the fact that that's all they've been talking about for the last however many movies, which is I'm sure this is Stewart's little This is Stewart's little theory corner I'm sure that's what's going to happen in the Avengers Doomsday movie is that Robert Downey jr. Is coming back because in some other dimensions, Tony Stark,

he is Dr. Doom and not Iron Man. I'm 100% sure of that. If I'm wrong, I will be shocked. No, I'm sure that's the case. I mean, what he's particularly leading up to is, because I think the new Marvel stuff is based on the most recent Secret Wars thing, is this that Jonathan Hickman did,

where I think what they're doing is what they did in the comics there, where not just are their multiverses but the multiverses are starting to merge together in what are called incursions and so when two worlds are about to incur One of them has to be destroyed and in that series the secret Illuminati that's made up of a bunch of Marvel characters They start destroying the other world. They're not snakemen No, it's like dr. Strange and professor X and you know, Namor or whatever. And they start and Black Panther,

they start destroying these other worlds before they can endanger our Earth. And so I think you're right that it's gonna be some alternate world where Tony Stark became Dr. Doom. Very disappointing. I want Dr. Doom to have an Eastern European accent. I want him to be the monarch of Liberia. But maybe he will be. Maybe, I don't know. Maybe he will be doing that, you know. But I think... We can hope. When he's like, when these threats come from other worlds,

Captain America, like, I think that's what he's talking about, particularly, specifically. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. And Doom, in the Secret Wars comics, eventually Doom, like, put a bunch of worlds together into its, into a last surviving world, and I bet that'll be what they do with it. It was not a story that I loved, particularly. Let's...

Sounds like a very Jonathan Hickman story. It's a very Jonathan Hickman story, yeah. Let's do our final judgments on Captured in America, Brave New World. Is this a good, good, and mad movie? A good, bad movie. A bad, bad movie. This movie's good and mad.

I mean, it's got a red hulk in it. Or a movie we kind of liked. Here's the thing, I saw this in the theater. Even though I had heard it was not that great, but I am that bought into seeing these things that I went out, I had a little movie pick me up, and knowing, walking in, that it was not gonna be that great,

I kinda liked it, just cause it was like, well, yeah, I'm seeing some of my old friends again, they're doing stuff. Re-watching it at home, it was a real slog, but I don't think any of us in this world, Re-watching it at home, it was a real slog, but I don't think any of us in this world, other than bad movie podcasters, are gonna make the choice to watch this movie twice. So I'll still, I have to go with my initial assessment

that it's a movie I kind of liked, but it is near the floor of these movies for me. Yeah, I think that's right. I mean, I think it doesn't help that this is part of a number of movies that I've watched recent, like recent action movies where they have, where the president is involved in some kind of action or something,

whether the president is like Viola Davis or the president is John Cena or the president is a Hulk. In all these cases, I'm like, I would rather that president be my president. And I, yeah, so, but yeah, I mean, I feel like of the Marvel movies, this is probably the one that has felt the least, like this one has felt the most joyless of all them, maybe.

I think partly, you know, it obviously was edited to death and it just doesn't feel like, it doesn't feel very fun. And despite the fact there's a giant person and a Hulk running around, it doesn't feel like, it doesn't feel very special. Like there's no special moments. And they ignore kind of one of the key tenants of these Marvel movies, which is one of the things

that's been so successful is leaning into, keying into what makes a character a certain amount of wish fulfillment for a person. Like Thor is like a big, dumb, strong guy who gets to kind of do whatever he wants and have fun. Tony Stark is the smartest man of the room all the time, that sort of thing. Captain America is this guy who's out of time

and is also like super strong and like is super capable of doing things. And I feel like Sam doesn't, they don't do enough stuff to make him fun, like to make him the lead. And I think there's space there. I mean, we've talked about how, like I think if they leaned more into the fact

that he's just like effectively a regular guy in this crazy world and he's just doing his best is that's a much more interesting take on the character that they could lean into, I think more. But yeah, this is, I would, it's tough to say, I guess this is a movie I kind of like because these things are all like fine. Like the base level of quality is higher than a lot of things we watch.

And it wasn't quite as... It wasn't the, like, visual mess that Quantumania was. So I guess it was fine, whatever. Yeah. I mean, I would call it... A rousing endorsement. I would call it bad, bad, but kind of for the same reasons. I find it kind of bland and just kind of functional and kind of dull. And it is the, I think the Marvel movie that made the least impression of me.

Say what you'll about Quentin Potemania. We did the whole podcast about it. It at least made an impression on me. Whereas this one, it was like, all right, yeah, they made this. Yeah, like this happened. And it feels like it is a almost, even as they're making it, it feels like they're not trying to make it

more than unforgettable, or more than forgettable. It's the 35th one. Like at a certain point, I feel like this is the point where if I was a Marvel executive or a Disney executive, I would be like, okay, I think we're running out of special. So let's like take five years off from making these and then we can come back

with something special. You know, it's not if you watch it, it's not like it's a, it's a terrible worst movie ever made or anything, but it just kind of, while you're watching it, you're like, all right, like I don't really see the purpose for any of this other than to keep, keep the brand going. So I'm going to say bad, bad, but it's not. But I've seen worse bad bad movies than this one. I've seen worse raves. Elliot of the Flophouse.

Are you a celebrity? Are you searching for meaning, connection and a little levity these days? Hi, I'm Kumail Nanjiani, actor, writer, and yes, a celebrity too. And I've got four words for you. Bullseye with Jesse Thorne. Are you tired of junkets? Red carpets? Sick of the endless spicy snacks you have to eat? Do you want to connect with someone who gets your work and laugh with you a little? Join me, Andre 3000, Tom Hanks, Tina Fey, and many more and become a guest on Bullseye with Jesse Thorne

from NPR and Maximum Fun. Walking About is the podcast about walking. It's a walkumentary series where I, Alan McLeod, and a fun friendly guest go for a walkabout. You'll learn about interesting people and places and have the kind of conversations you can only have on foot. We've got guests like Lauren Lapkus. I figured something out about this map, like how to read it. Betsy Sodaro. I had no clue. That's awesome and nuts.

John Gabras. This is like great first date for like broke 20 something. And more. Check out Walking About with Alan McLeod on Maximum Fun. The Flophouse podcast is of course mostly supported by listeners like you who are members at MaximumFun.org. But Stuart, I believe you have a sponsor to tell us about this week.

Yeah, and to lead in, I'm gonna mention that in addition to running three different bars here in Brooklyn, my wife is in the process of opening up a fitness studio called Jiggle Studio. You can follow our progress on Instagram, Jiggle Studio BK. But the process of setting up a small business and running it and doing all that stuff is really challenging and tough.

But with the help of Squarespace, our sponsor, it can make your life a little bit easier. It's a easy way to set up your own website and use that website to invoice people, to make money, to sell products, provide receipts, as well as a number of other management tools, whether it's scheduling, et cetera, et cetera. And the user interface is really easy, even if you do not have that kind of design background and you are a small business owner who's just trying to get your website up and running so that you can open your little gym.

So if you are ready to take the plunge, why don't you head over to squarespace.com slash flop for a free trial today. And when you're ready to launch, use offer code FLOP to save 10% off your first purchase of a website or domain. We've got a bit in the way of show news, but before I get into that, Ellie, do you have any personal plugs you want to do? I've always got personal plugs. You know about me, I love to plug things and I love to unplug them, but today I'm going

to plug them. And it's the same stuff that you know I'm always talking about. Go to your comic book store once a month and pick up Harley Quinn from DC Comics. I've been writing it and I've been having a ball writing it. Go to your podcast feed when you're done with this episode and maybe check out Clueless on the Smartless Network. That's the puzzle podcast that I host. And of course, there's my new children's book, Sadie Mouse, Rex the House.

Go to your local independent bookstore and pick up a copy of that. It's a great picture book for kids. It's really fun. Kids love it So those are a bunch of things and I've got my I got a book coming out in November We'll talk about that more later in the year until then here are your assignments go buy Sadie Mouse wrecks the house Go pick up Harley Quinn in your comic book store and don't pick a her up just pick up the comic book that she's in and then take it to the register and then buy it and read it and Go listen to clueless when you're done with this. Dan, what about you?

What do you got to say? Elliot, your first trade paperback of Harley Quinn is gonna be out towards the end of July. Oh, is it? Oh, you know more about this than I do, thank you. Well, it was because I've had it pre-ordered for quite some time, because I can never remember to go buy

individual issues of comics. It's really hard. I've been recently doing it for both Elliot's Comics and a friend of the podcast, Xander Cannon's new book, Sleep, and it's tough for me to get back in the habit. Yeah, that's hard, and I don't like reading them digitally, so I was just waiting for a way to see what I've been hearing about from Ellie at all these low, these mini

months and finally I'm going to get to dig in. You're right. It comes out July 29th. That's Harley Quinn volume one destructive comics and it collects what the first, it's 152 pages according to this, it collects the first six issues of my run. So you'll be introduced to Harley's new world of throat cutter hill. That's the neighborhood she's in and some of her new characters that she's dealing with. There's a couple of new villains in there that are really silly.

Are they snake men? I've got to get a snake man in there. That's what I should do next. Yeah. Yeah. Yes. That comes out the end of July Harley Quinn volume one destructive comics and the issues come out once a month.

Yeah. Well enough about Elliot. Now, I'm going to make a... Well, it's one third still about Elliot. I want to mention that Flop TV, Season 3 is officially coming. We've been talking about it. Flop TV is back. We're going to be streaming six episodes

once a month from September through February of next year. First Saturday of the month, September through February. And we'll be in our usual time slot, the first Saturday of the month at 9 p.m. Eastern, 6 Pacific. And this year, the Flophouse is going back in time, not literally, although God knows, wouldn't that be nice? No, this year, the theme is Flopster Peace Theater, and we'll be covering significant bad movies decade by decade, starting in the 2000s and working our way back to the 1950s.

So. Almost like a what if the Flophouse had existed when this movie had existed. Yeah. We're gonna be going back. What's on the menu in September? We'll discuss 2002's mega flop, The Adventures of Pluto Nash.

I'm genuinely very excited about talking about this one because I cannot believe this movie exists. I've been thinking about it ever since it first came out. I've never seen it, I'm excited. I've never seen it either. In October, we'll discuss 1998's Jack Frost. That's not the campy horror movie, it's the one where Michael Keaton dies

and becomes a snowman. He's also a jazz musician and becomes a snowman. He's also a jazz musician. November, coming in just under the wire for the 80s, will be 1980s Xanadu, which is, spoiler alert, actually a pretty fun movie. Silly movie. December's film will be a big movie in Flophouse lore. It's a 1974's Zardas. This is going to be an interesting one for me because there's a lot in Zardas. This is gonna be an interesting one for me because there's a lot in Zardas that I like so get ready for it. In January we're gonna discuss the movie that helped kill old Hollywood, 1967's Dr. Doolittle and in February we're gonna round everything out with one of the Mountain Rushmore

bad movies, 1957's Plan 9 from Outer Space directed by Ed Wood the bad movie auteur who had a biopic made about him when Tommy Wiseau was still selling a regular blue jeans tickets will not be on sale until July 26 but I'm going to put the link in your brain now so you can bookmark it or maybe you're listening to this in the future but But when you can get tickets, go to theflophouse.simpleticks.com and that's Tix, T-I-X. Just like last time, show ticks for individual shows will be $7 or you can get a whole season pass for $35, which is the

equivalent of getting one episode for free. So you mean we're giving away an episode to people by the season pass? What are we doing? Are we crazy? We're essentially giving away an episode for money. So come the sale date in late July, that link again is theflophouse.simpletext.com.

We hope you'll join us. And really quick, I also wanted to mention that some listeners have set up a Flophouse Discord. I've mentioned it briefly in passing before, but I want to try and shout it out more regularly. If you're sick of some of the poisonous social media sites out there, but still want to connect with other podcast listeners, you can go to

http://, or colon slash slash, you know that part. I don't need to say it. You know, yeah, I think people are ready for it. Lastnamewithheld.com, lastnamewithheld.com, and join up and chat with the lovely folks that hang out over there. So that's that. That's that. Let's get on to some letters from listeners. And just as soon as I open up the separate email that that stuff is in.

Okay, I've got it. Dan, someday I want to introduce you to a new thing called tabs. Tabs? Is that multiple cans of tab cola or whatever? That's exactly what it is. It's keeping your energy up so you can open those emails faster by drinking multiple cans of tab So this is by tab hunter this email When a date with tab Hamilton is from tab Hamilton

What I say well, it's a tad have what then nobody should be tab. Tab Hamilton This was he the one who must die or was that somebody else who must die? John Tucker must die. John Carter. John Carter must die. No. Get Carter must die. Win a date with Michael Clayton.

Spencer Last Name Withheld. Gifts. Writes us to say, Dear Peaches, I was digging in my garden catching up with the Heart Beeps episode, when suddenly I heard the three hosts talking about Tucson, Arizona. Here's the thing. My office in Ohio closed down recently, and I lost my job, so my wife and I had been discussing

moving back to our hometown of Tucson, Arizona. I'd applied for dozens of jobs and had a few interviews, but hadn't heard back in weeks and was starting to feel discouraged. And now there I was, shovel in hand, podcast in my ear, hearing Dan Stewart and Elliott literally say, go to Arizona, go to Tucson, Arizona. Welcome to Tucson. What a strange coincidence, I thought to myself.

I hope that's a sign. And guys, I swear with Chrome as my witness, not 20 minutes later, I got a phone call from HR offering me a job and a relocation package to help me move back to Tucson, Arizona. So my question is, when you guys are weaving the dark tapestry that decides my fate, are you aware of the decisions you're making

and how it affects me or am I just one thread in the cosmic forces that flow through you? Are we the three spinners? Yeah, thanks. Keep on flopping Spencer last name with hell one spins one measures one cuts. Oh wow. Yeah No, no, you have to measure twice cut once. That's oh, oh two of them measure and then one of them cuts. Yeah Exciting story. I hope you have a lovely time in Tucson, Arizona. I hope so, too. There's a...

You know, I wonder what other lives were affecting. It's just like when a butterfly flaps its wings in Peru and suddenly Japan goes for that adamantium island and gets into a war with the United States or whatever. If your life has been affected by the Flophouse in a strange, mysterious, and perhaps diabolical way, please write in and tell us about it. Yeah. And then we'll submit it to Unsolved Mysteries. Yeah.

And say what, it's been solved? I don't understand. That show's so fucked up to watch now because you're like, did they ever catch those fucking guys? It's been like 30 years. Are they behind me right now? This is a letter from Anne Maria. Anne Marie's, last name with health. It sounded like I said Anne Maria briefly,

so I had to- I thought you said Anne Marie. Yeah. No, it's from Anne Marie, last name with health. Dear OPs, I'm happily and unexpectedly pregnant after years of infertility. Congratulations. Yeah.

For whatever reason, I haven't been able to listen to anything except the Flophouse since I found out. Relisting to old episodes, I heard a pre-parented Elliot say she assumed that regardless of how cool a parent he is, their kids would think they are a loser. Prediction come true. That prophecy has been fulfilled. That was the next question, has that prediction turned out to be true?

She also asked, what movie should I watch to prepare for being a parent? Most importantly, what the hell do I name a boy? Thanks. Love, Anne-Marie. I mean, you can name a boy whatever you want. That's the great thing about names is there's no laws about it. Deathstalker, Cyberman. Deathstalker 2. Deathstalker 2, Cyberman. Barbarian Queen.

Cyborg 2. All great names for boys or girls, to be honest. Megatron. Dan tipped me off not about the letter but about the question ahead of time and I'm thinking What is a movie to watch to prepare you for parenting? And I honestly there's only two I can think of and those movies are gremlins and gremlins to the new bag Like the sheer feeling of being overwhelmed in the chaos of a little thing

Demanding your attention and breaking stuff and making a mess like that's that's but then you love them, just like in Gremlins. And they do funny things that are unexpected, like in Gremlins 2, and in the first Gremlins, to be honest. So I would watch the Gremlins movies to prepare for parenthood. Yeah. That's good advice.

Dan, do you have any parenting advice? I've tried to avoid it mostly. Mostly? So do you like, every now and then you like do a day of parenting somewhere? I, you know, I babysat people. I don't know. People? Yeah, people.

I put ads on Craigslist. It's like House of the Devil. Do people want to be babysat by me? Dan, I know a website you might want to go to. Yeah. Hey, let's recommend some movies. Movies that are good for kids. I think that's a good one.

I think that's a good one. I think that's a good one. I think that's a good one. I think that's a good one. I think that's a good one. I think that's a good one. I think that's a good one. Dan, I know a website you might want to go to. Yeah. Hey, let's recommend some movies. Movies that might be a better use of your time. Why not?

I'm going to go out on a real limb here. I'm going to recommend... You're in shaky territory, Council. I'm going to recommend an unknown, tiny little movie called Jaws from 1975, which I recommend because... It's the 50th anniversary. It's the 50th anniversary, but also just recently, Audrey watched it for the first time after several times of me suggesting,

hey, you wanna see Jaws finally? And it's funny, she's like told me that like multiple people have come up to her to be like, so how'd you like Jaws? Because I had told them that she was finally watching Jaws. It's just like, stop telling people that I finally watched Jaws. But I was just so excited for someone to experience Jaws who had not seen it. And she loved it. Like, you know, seeing Star Wars late in life

after having no particular knowledge of Star Wars and like being influenced by all the things that came after Star Wars, she was like, yeah, this is fine. She didn't like make a dent, but Jaws still has its power. And I don't know, like scene by scene, it's, you know, one of the most entertaining, if not the most entertaining,

just in terms of like just fun storytelling right up at the top of the mountain. So if you haven't seen it in a while, watch Jaws. Yeah, if you like movies, watch that. So I'm gonna recommend a movie that is held in almost as high esteem, and that is- that was the center. Gary Busey's Heider in the House.

And there's the punch line. Dan, have you seen Heider in the House? I don't think I've seen Heider. It's kind of like Parasite for Bad Movie Sickos, where Gary Busey plays a, let's say, kind of weird dude. Let's call him a hider. Who finds a mansion that's being renovated and he climbs up into the attic and he makes himself a little hideaway in there. And he sneaks out every once in a while and he tries to integrate himself in the family

who are played by Mimi Rogers and Michael McKean. This is a movie that I feel like we, I'm recommending it now partly so that I can put it on our radar so that we can do it for the podcast sometime, because it is a blast. Looks like it's available on both Tubi and YouTube in full. Yeah. Yeah. Two thumbs up. Mark of quality. This was recommended to me by Flophouse friend,

Steve Kostanski, who watches it who watched it while he was working on, I'm guessing, heads exploding or something in his workshop. I'm looking at, Stuart, now I'm excited about it. I'm looking at, in the Wikipedia entry, it says production, that they brought in a psychologist to make the Gary Busey character as realistic as possible. Apparently, it says, after meeting with the psychologist, Gary Busey was excited, saying it was in a NAR film he explained that NAR meant no acting required Gary said I am the character

I'm also gonna make an older movie. No one's recommending new movies today, which is great. That's fine with me I haven't gotten to watch a lot of movies lately because I've been so busy and I had to watch Captain America brave new world for some reason But you're like halfway through sinners, right? I'm like I'm like a little bit less than halfway through sinners I'm enjoying it so far But my wife and I we had some time together recently It was great and we got together and what she said I want to watch a black and white romantic comedy And I said, let's see what's let's see what's available right now and we watch Roman Holiday

Which both of us had seen but hadn't watched in a long time. It's so great. It's such a great movie. It's so charming. It feels so effortless and so fun. And it's a movie that the stakes are incredibly low. The stakes are, will this princess get caught

for running away for a day to have fun in Rome? Will the reporter be revealed as a reporter and not just some guy who's showing around Rome for the day. But it's so effervescent, you know, it's so fun to see them actually in Rome. The comedy is funny, the romance works really well. The ending is, I love like, and Audrey Hepburn's so magical in it, Gregory Pack is great in it.

William Wyler, William Wyler directed it, which was not a surprise because he's one of the all-time greats. But it's just a, and the new new version of it at some point in the past They updated the credits so that Dalton Trumbo who had been blacklisted at the time is now credited in the movie for writing it And coming up with the story, so I'm happy to see him getting the credit he deserves for it But it's just a really fun movie. It's so worth watching if you've never seen it and you want to see a romantic comedy that's just kind of like charming all the way through,

then Roman Holiday is the one I will recommend to you. Yeah, it's fun to see, why can't I remember his name, Gregory Peck in a role like that, because like I love Gregory Peck, but he has like this sort of like stiff energy, but it plays so beautifully off of like Audrey Hepburn's just total lightness.

It's really fun. It's one of these things where this and this is was Audrey Hepburn's first American movie. I think she had been in in she had performed in other countries, but just like seeing the the newness of her comes across so excitingly in the movie. This movie is 72 years old. And when you're watching it, you're still feels like someone new being brought into film in an exciting way. So it's really good. This movie is 72 years old and when you're watching it, it still feels like someone new being brought into film in an exciting way.

So it's really good. And yeah, Gregory Peck playing like kind of a, he's not a slimy character, but a less ethical character than you would usually see him in, other than like the boys from Brazil where he's playing a Nazi, you know. But in most of his movies, he's more of an upright character. So it's just really fun.

Also to see like how little Audrey Hepburn is and how enormous Gregory Peck, just the scale that their physical bodies are at, it's like, I don't know, there's just something, there's so much fun in the movie. So that's Roman Holiday. Not to be confused with Roman Mars, my co-host on the 90% visible breakdown,

the power broker, still available, you can still listen to it. You got there before I could. I think. Well, thanks everyone for listening. The Fluff House, of course, is part of the Maximum Fun podcast network. Go over to MaximumFun.org, check out all the other

great podcasts on said network. They've treated us very well over the years. Why don't you treat them well by checking out a new show? Thank you to Alex Smith, our producer. He goes by the name Howell Doddy. That's H-O-W-E-L-L-D-A-W-D-Y. And check out his music and his Twitch streams. But for the Flophouse, I've been Dan McCoy. I've been Stuart Wellington. I'm Elliot Kalin. Bye. See you.

Alex, I hope you enjoyed all the arguing. What I love is Dan is the one who's being sincere. The the two of us are also like poke poke poke tease tease tease. It's all facetious but Dan gets real mad. Uh, that's the way it works. Um, okay.