The Flop House - Episode #365 - Ghostbusters: Afterlife

Episode Date: March 26, 2022

Jason Reitman gives Ghostbusters back to the FANS, MAAAAAN! By giving them what they want -- a comedy without jokes! We're not sure what Ghostbusters: Afterlife is, but it's sure not a Ghostbusters movie, which is weird, considering it spends every waking moment trying to elbow you in the ribs with references to Ghostbusters.Wikipedia entry for Ghostbusters: AfterlifeMovies recommended in this episode:Turning RedShiva BabyBack Street

On this episode we discuss Ghostbusters Afterlife. So fire up your protein packs and drink your Ectocoolars! Hey, everyone, it's me, Dan McCoy from the Flop-House. Hi, welcome to the Flop-House, it's me, Dan. Hey, Dan, it's me. Stuart Wellington. Oh, okay. Good. Yeah. It's me, Ellie. Kaelin over here. It seems like Dan was worried people would would were across a crowded room listening to this and didn't see him waving, waving them over for the episode. Listen to me. We're talking ghost busters over here. And I was trying to do that fun thing in a podcast where you have silence.

So people are like, did my fucking earboats break? That is fun. It's just like that last episode of the sopranos where I was like, damn time Warner, cutting off my cable in the middle of the end of this sopranos episode. But let's talk about the sopranos later. First, I wanted to mention real quick. Last week, we did our flop house virtual live show about the Masters of the Universe movie. It was great. We're actually recording this before we do that show.

So I'm just going to assume it was amazing. Thank you, everybody, for watching it and all your questions and stuff. If you missed it, you still have, and you're listening to this episode on the day of its release, you still have one day to go by a ticket to watch the recording of the show. So you have one day left to watch the recording of the show that So you have one day left to watch the recording of the show that Masters of the Universe live show before it disappears forever, back to the Disney Vault, never to be released, because the Disney people are going to be like,

what's this doing in our vaults? Throw it away. This is not a Disney product. It's not a property that we own. No, so go to theflaphouse.simpletics.com and you have one more day to buy a ticket to watch the recording of the show. In case you missed it, question is, is there anything you want to say about the future of the game? What's the next question? What's the next question? What's the next question? What's the next question? What's the next question? What's the next question?

What's the next question? What's the next question? What's the next question? What's the next question? What's the next question? What's the next question? What's the next question? What's the next question?

What's the next question? What's the next question? What's the next question? What's the next question? What's the next question? What's the next question? What's the next question? What's the next question? What's the next question? What's the those super bowl ads indicate that meadow and AJ survived the end of the series? And in fact, are driving around in SUVs?

What do you think? It's possible. I don't usually consider commercials to be canon aside from the Michael Jordan Bugs Bunny cartoon commercial and the Bud Bowl. And the Bud Bowl, which is, of course, yeah, it was athletic history. I would say my read of the sopranos finale was also that at that moment, there was a first strike from North Korea on New Jersey, and it wiped out not only all the sopranos characters, but the entire state. So that's, it doesn't fit with my personal understanding of the show. David Chase, right in and proved me wrong. Otherwise, I'm just going to assume I'm correct.

Yeah. Well, speaking of fanfiction, Ghostbusters Afterlife, this is a podcast where we watch a bad movie and then we talk about it. We're a kid in Oklahoma that watches a bad movie that talks about it. We're a character podcast. Guys, this is your new favorite character podcast. I mean, how could he not be? We never learn his real name and he talks, he's my favorite thing, which is a kid who talks like a grown-up and makes

jokes that grown-ups make and not the kids make. It was like, it was only once I realized like that he is very similar to Dan Acroid. Like not necessarily the character Ray, a little bit, the character Ray, more the actual human Dan Acroid that I realized that by the end of the movie, they were kind of deliberately doing parallels of all of the old Ghostbusters to some degree, to some degree. But to some, I mean, it mean in that there is a nerdy character, a kind of paranoid character, a character who you wonder why he's even a member of the Ghostbusters and a black character.

Yes, I get, you're right. I guess it is parallel in the old episodes. Well, I think that's about the level at which the movie operates. So, but anyway, podcast, guys, I just want to say this to screenwriters and television people out there in the world. There seems to be this idea that just mentioning the existence of podcasts is a joke in TV or movies. It certainly is when you're in a strip club and get asked what you do for a living. Well, that's a situation where it's funny to have to say podcast, but I think that a lot of shows

or things seem to just be like, ha ha, the word podcast will elicit gales of laughter from the audience. Just the mere mention that a character might have won. It's the, we're at this moment where, I mean, obviously podcasts are not at the same level as this, but like when you watch stuff from the 60s and they're like, yeah, this rock and roll music and the audience laughs because it's like, can you believe this dumb thing

that young people are into? Of course, the people who make these jokes don't seem to realize that podcasting is almost entirely the province of middle aged men. We, some younger people involved, but it's there, but yeah, I think it's just because it's a new thing that they can throw it as like a buzz word, you know. I met this, I think TikTok functions the same way. For a slightly younger generation, where is TikTok? Full of useful things like stewards, but. a lot of useful things like stewards, but yeah, yeah, and so if you lose that increases, but it's the best place to go to see Stuart in exercising to increase his butt. Is that

the way to spread the down? Yeah, like, you know, like the old rhyme, we must, we must, we must increase our butts. So it goes. So I'm going to, I'm going to, uh, I'm going to reach over Dan's body and grab the wheel of the Ecto one that he is careening off the road. So we can go back to those posters after life. I'll be, I'll be summarizing this. Now we normally watch. Now we normally watch a movie that is either a critical or financial flop. And this movie kind of wasn't either thing. I mean, I mean, we started watching it. I mean, I feel like a big reason we watch is because Dan already seen it. And Ellie and I both wanted to see it, but we have a probably a toxic relationship with

media. And the only way we could find a way to interact with it is to do it for the podcast. Right. I'll just go out and see any old junk. Yeah. I think it's, there's sometimes movies where I want to watch them for the flop house because I know I'm not going to, I'm probably not going to enjoy them. So the flop house is a good, a good excuse for me to see a movie that I'm probably not

going to enjoy when, yeah, it's like the part of my brain when man of steel came out and I was like, I guess I got to go see it even though I know I'm not going to like it. And then I was like, wait a minute, I don't have to go see it. And I never have. And it's a decision I never, I never regretted. Dan is the kind of movie goer who stands outside the theater and looks at the sack lunch poster. And he's like, how did they all get in that bag? I will say that a lot of my posters and been intrigued. Yeah.

A lot of my, um, I will say that a lot of my movie going been intrigued. Yeah. A lot of my, I will say that a lot of my movie going has to do with one me having a season pass the Alamo to not having a nine to five job at present and three being childless. So those things all together kind of Stewart for you and me a movie is something that we hope to make the time for in our busy day. And for Dana movie, something to fill the endless time. Yeah, we now in death. This vast barren landscape that he's traversing until he finally reaches the reapers humble loving embrace. Oh, yeah, it's a fill of something. Yeah, it gets to you right.

Okay, so Ghostbusters afterlife, spoiler alert. I think it's a mediocre movie. Okay, so there's it's a mediocre pointless movie, but we'll go on to it. We start off, there's a truck with a ghost trap in it, just racing through a small town. It crashes, and an old man with glasses and a beard, who we only see in shadows, but he is clearly a herald-ramous body double, is he runs into a house, he manages to try, he tries to trap a giant growling and visible demon dog ghost, which it's invisible and it's a ghost, but it still makes footprints on the ground that shakes the ground, which I thought was pretty funny. But it grabs him

through the chair, just like the demon dog arms grabbed Dana and Ghostbusters. It's the first of many times that we're gonna see something that is Just taken wholesale from the first movie much like the score which is the score from the first movie I just yeah, which is one of the best things about yeah, seeing this movie. I enjoyed listening to those tunes Except except there are a couple tunes in the movie I think the origin movie must play them four times and in this movie they play them 40 times like Do do do do do do the like whimsical like we just had a ghost about jokes. Yeah, I also like that. I do like the eerie like ghost music. Uh, yeah, I still like it. It's a great

score. It's a great score, just, uh, you know, sometimes one thing, one thing that this one is missing is the weird songs with lyric drops that the, that the ghost, the original Ghostbusters movie had like when all the ghosts get released and that like what does it like dreams? Like what's that? Yeah, it's magic magic magic magic magic magic magic magic magic. Yeah, and the, say even the day say say even the, like the movie, this movie, it's decided that its soundtrack should be all oldies. I think the most recent song in it is boredom by the Buzzcocks, and I don't, it's this movie,

okay, and here's, I'll get to problem with it. Yeah, okay, okay. There's a small town and, you know, no modern music has permeated. It's a small town. It's a small town in the year now because they have a podcast in it, but like it's this small town that's like, yep, well, there's the roller skating car hop drive through and let drive in. And here's all the oldies music.

And it's like, they have the internet. Like they look at YouTube video, like they go to Walmart. They're modern things. Yeah, spoiler alert. This movie doesn't actually feature my favorite Ghostbusters character, the city of New York. Yes. And that's all takes place in a small town, Oklahoma.

And this is an issue. I'm going to refer to this movie. I'll actually, I'll talk about it now. This movie is directed by Jason Wrightman, son of Ivan Wrightman, director of the original Ghostbusters who passed away. Was that earlier this year? Was that the end of last year? Yes, so fairly recently.

Fairly recently. We mean no disrespect to Ivan right and by doing this Jason right, and I, you know, I'm not a fan of his work particularly. So maybe some distance, but it does feel like it is. Whatever we do is fine. Cheers to Jason. Yeah. The, the, the, but that Ghostbusters afterlife is so much less in the mold of the original

Ghostbusters, even though it's repeating scenes and characters, and so much more in the mold of like, ET, close encounters, and particularly stranger things, like as filtered through stranger things, it's what I call a Kids with Flashlights movie, where kids on bikes, yeah kids on bikes, kids with flashlights investigating things, and it feels like we are in the middle of this weird

etApple struggle where Jason Wrightman is trying to overthrow Ivan Wrightman and replace him with either Steven Spielberg or the Duffer Brothers and be like, they're my real dads. That's the style I'm going in now. Well, and oh, sorry, I just went like as long as we're like pulling out and giving like the macro view, I'll let you continue. I'm sorry, I jumped in. Yeah, we're Mac machines. I do feel like I talk super slow. I was saying to Stuart. I was saying to Stuart the kids. That role machines are the best. I belong to the slow talkers.

Talkers of America. What a great America. United States. Bob and Ray. look above. I was saying to Stuart beforehand, like the weird thing about this movie is there is stuff in this movie that I like at least okay. And all that stuff is the stuff that has the least to do with the series called Ghostbusters. But the weird thing about the movie is all of its creative decisions are made because there was a movie called Ghostbusters. There was a movie that exists on its own. No, and it's there.

It does. It's similar to how like solo would be a better movie if it was not a Star Wars movie. Yes. It's to be a better movie if it was not a Ghostbusters movie because it's like, I kept being reminded of the new Mary Poppins movie where they were like, in Mary Poppins, they go to a cartoon world. We shall also go to a cartoon world. In Mary Poppins, there's a chimney suite.

They go to cool world. Yeah, they go to cool world. And Mary, Mary, the sex Hollywood. Yeah, Hollywood, Mary, the sex, and that. I'm fucking dead. And it's like, they had a song about Kites. We will have a song about, I think, balloons. It was like, there was no new stuff. And the thing that was always exciting to me about, as a kid about Kites, we will have a song about, I think balloons. It was like, there was no new stuff.

And the thing that was always exciting to me about, as a kid about Ghostbusters was one, it was like a movie I had not seen before. This like horror comedy that was so scary, but also like really funny. But also like Stuart was saying like, it had that New York energy, which to me growing up in New Jersey

was like a very special thing. Like I literally wrote an essay in a book called Never Can Say Goodbye, like about my feelings about how New York is portrayed and specifically ghost busters and some other movies like that. But anyway, and it feels like this one is, it is like just, it's not an, it's, there's nothing really original about it. The things that are fun about it, like you're saying, Dan, are the few like, new-ish touches. But anyway, anyway, this Ghost Monster kills this old man who's clearly Egon, but we're not,

I guess not supposed to know that. It all feels like an Ambulin movie. To be honest, it felt like that fan-made power rangers all grown up movie, like the opening feels like a fans, like Dan mentioned, like a fan fiction of a Ghost Busters, like what would have happened to Egon 40 years later? Yeah, yeah. Yeah, well, and also, I mean, I, spoiler alert, the first time I saw this in the theater, ghost busters like what would have happened to Egon 40 years later? Yeah.

Yeah. And also, I mean, I, spoiler alert, the first time I saw this in the theater, I liked it fine. Like I didn't think it was good, but I sort of enjoyed myself. It is probably, I would say it's the least successful movie with the word ghost busters in its title that exists, but I still kind of enjoyed myself watching it for a second time for the podcast. I like it felt really choppy for me and just stuff happens for no particular reason. And there's no like real

overarching story other than like let's make a bunch of references to old stuff. But I don't know about that, but it feels very rushed. Like a lot of the movies kind of builds, builds, builds, and then rushes through its climaxes. But we'll get to that anyway. Let's meet our main characters. You've got Trevor. he's kind of a teen who has no real characteristics other than being kind of a teen. That's Finn Wolfhard. You got his nerd genius sister Phoebe, who, to be honest, feels both like a character and also reminded me of a real person that I know.

So there are times where her performance felt like, oh, this, I know this person. And time for this like, I think she's a, I think she's a certain amount of grit. Like, I think she's a, for basically the lead of the movie. I think she I think she holds the together, especially for being a young actor. Yeah. She carries she carries it the best for sure. I think the problem with the character is just that like you know great to have some sort of representation of people who like have different or neurodivergent some way, but I think it is kind of a cartoon representation of people who have different neurodivergent in some way, but I think it is kind of a cartoon version of like, we have decided that we're going

to make every character on the spectrum these days for this sort of role. Well, it's a big guy, the real type character. Like she is a nerd who's awkward and has a running gag where she like can't tell good jokes, which is cliars to me because kids can't tell good jokes. That's what's funny about kid jokes. There's no kid that tells good jokes. And so the idea that she's telling these kind of like these titling jokes in a way that.

She's doing a great job for a kid. For a kid. And so, but I agree, it's kind of like a flattened version of a neurodivergent character. Anyway, they have a single mom, Carrie Coon, because every one of these movies, they have a single mom, Carrie Coon, because every and every one of these movies, they have single moms always dead.

So by the way, for me, like, I just want to say Carrie Coon can do no wrong. Like, the most fun I had in this movie is watching is I think the most fun I had was seeing the most fun I had was seeing Tracy Letts show up as a hard restore owner and imagining to them driving to the hotel at night and being like, author of killer Joe Tracy Letts and husband of Carrie Coon Tracy Lutz. So it was like, it was like, who did who did playwright Tracy Lutz have to fuck to get to this to get this role? Do you get his uncredited role in the supposed exactly like?

Yeah, to get his cameo as a hardware store owner. But anyway, they, they're, they get evicted from their apartment, even though the mom thinks she inherited some money from her newly dead father, who again, we know is Egon. Like the movie is, they will not tell us their life. They are, they are, they are, they are edging us so bad with this information. We know we're just waiting for it. They move out to his. We're going to be so surprised even though McKenna Grace is dressed as young Egon on CBS this fall. Yeah.

To the point that later on she puts her glasses up against Egon's glasses and they're the same glasses. They're the same glasses. Yeah. And so they moved to where Egon's farm was, some reveal Oklahoma. It's this little farm town that nobody lives in except for four people in the middle of nowhere. And sorry guys, I just needed to confirm this information. Did you guys know that young Sheldon has been on for fucking over six seasons? I did not know that.

What the hell? He's not young anymore. He's now nearly a children. No, no. Old is a Sheldon. I don't know. I don't know. Dan, here's the weird thing. He's actually older on young Sheldon now than he was on the Big Bang Theory. That's how long the show has been. Talk about the theory of relativity. Well, that makes that a bit... Cellativity.

It's not really what the theory of relativity is. Speaking of relativity, or rather, where that sounds like it revelations, there's a big evil prophecy. Spray painted on the fence of this creepy old farm. It's like a rundown mad scientist house. It's full of cryptic stuff and books Obviously, spray painted on the fence of this creepy old farm. It's like a rundown mad scientist house. It's full of cryptic stuff and books and like, free statues.

And that's all from the first Ghost Busters, right? Yes. And there's also like, there's also a stack of books in the living room, like in the opening of the first Ghost Busters. Yeah, yeah. It's all, it's all ghost, but it's like when people are like, oh, the prequels are great because they mirror all the stuff in the first-door-versa- trilogy exactly. And you're like, well, that's not really how,

what makes great art when you're just kind of like, mirror a thing exactly from one to another. There's an earthquake, which leads them to hide under a table, which means that Phoebe notices a dropped ghostometer that Egon dropped in the cold open. Is it a PKE meter? PKE, I couldn't remember what it was called, and I had the toy of it. I had so many ghost

busters toys as a kid. Like I was the exact right age to watch the cartoon, to love the movies, to have all the toys. I remember so well. One Hanaka, my brother, a friend of the show, a friend of me of the show, David last name with held Kaelin. He was getting the Ghost Busters firehouse set for Hanaka. And my parents, they were like, that box is too big. We're not going to bother wrapping it. And he would just sit there in the living room staring at the box waiting for the night that he could open it. I the one that's incredible. The one goes much just the way I had was the real Ghostbusters version of Egon with the blonde pompadour and the little like hard string of plastic that

would spin around when you like twirl the proton pack. Yeah, it had like a little proton stream coming out. And this is and now we get to literally the most exciting moment of the movie to me. Annie Pots shows up in the role of Ginny. And she's and she's just there to tell them that Egon died with or that her father they refused to name him. No, that for a, that Carrie Coons father has died in debt. They have no money. They're stuck here in Oklahoma. There's a lot of like, it's pretty, this whole

scene is, is pretty antagonistic. Yes. Yeah. They go to, they go to a car hop for dinner, because again, it's small town Oklahoma in the year 2021. The only place to eat is a 50s diner with with with world skating waitresses and Finn, Finn Wolfhardt playing Trevor Trevor gets a crush on is her name Lucky. Yeah. Yeah. She's a roller skating waitress who she thinks he's a dork and it turns out she's like he's 15. How old is she supposed to be like 17? I don't know. She seems very close. claims that he's 17 there. And then there's a joke later on where it's revealed

that he's only 15. Now, I thought that was a good bit. I feel like, what is this? Licorice pizza? Come on, everybody. Yeah, again. The character was instead of racist enough to be like, he's like, just do it like MJ and Spider-Man homecoming.

Like it's the same kind of like very disaffected, but still kind of into this guy for reasons that pass understanding. I mean, it's the classic thing of this guy is the main character. He's super awkward. The pretty girl has to be into him at some point because he's the, he's one of the stars in the movie. And they're not given a real reason. I was, I was waiting throughout the movie

for the scene where Trevor shows what characteristic of him makes him an interesting character and it never happens. He's such a nothing as a character. I mean, you shouldn't, like, the reason why anybody likes anybody should not have to be defined by plot reasons, like. No, but even like them, I was looking for the moment

where like he says something nice or funny or shows a talent or something that gets retention. So he's not just like a 15 year old dork. I agree in that like I think that Finn Wolfart is an actor that I think is charismatic on stranger things no matter what you think of. I know I know a lot of people are like too much nostalgia. I still enjoy it, but like I think he's a charismatic actor there whereas here he's kind of asked to do like a warmed over version of the same character, but I think he's a charismatic actor there, whereas he's kind of asked

to do a warmed over version of the same character, but without with fewer distinguishing characters. Here's what I would say. I would have really played up the fact that he's a New Yorker transplanted to Oklahoma. Shackogluck. Shackogluck. Shackogluck. Shackogluck.

Shackogluck. Shackogluck. Shackogluck. Shackogluck. Shackogluck. Shackogluck. Shackogluck. Shackogluck. Shackogluck. he's a, so New York Midwest. And so that he's a Chicago kid transplanted Oklahoma and make lucky interested in like this city kid. I would have really played up. He's a city kid. And they don't really do that because they do indicate that she like kind of has aspirations

outside of their small town. Yes. That would all fit together. I mean, really think like a why should I worry Billy Joel song? Well, like dancing on top of cars. It's an all over and company thing. Oh, okay. I mean, that's Chicago related. But yeah, well's an all over and company thing. Oh, okay. I mean, that's Chicago related. But, you know, I just like a big city. I mean, I got that big city energy, you know, like Billy Joel, I think Chicago, for sure. The Chicago's native and favorite son, Billy Joel. Yeah.

I didn't hear you say anything about Chicago. I was responding to the big city thing. Yeah. Cause we should live in here and Chicago down that he has a drive drunk more often. Yeah. I'm on the doubt. He's still Chicago. He has so many Chicago songs, you know, anyway, the, they're wandering around.

Well, and while wandering around searching for cell service in the night, Trevor almost finds the Ecto one in the garage, but he doesn't, but we know it's there. Yeah, just more that edging, right? Trevor almost finds the Ecto one in the garage, but he doesn't, but we know it's there. Phoebe just started playing chess. It's more that edging, right? Yeah. Phoebe starts playing chess with a ghost. We can figure out who the ghost is, but I won't spoil it. We'll get to it later.

But she goes from, I don't believe in ghosts to playing chess with a ghost to still not quite believing in ghosts to then believing in ghosts. Yeah. Like it's such a weird arc. Phoebe goes to summer school. She's overseen by teacher Paul Rudd, and he is showing the class 80s horror movies. I know, on VHS tapes.

I'm the thing you can't. I'm the thing you can't. Paul Rudd in this role, because I have complicated feelings, which is like, I think that we're getting kind of standard order Paul Rudd from this character. Yeah. But I like standard order Paul Rudd quite a bit.

So I still enjoyed seeing him, but I also was kind of confused by who this character was supposed to be because he seems like a slacker at the beginning, like showing Kujo to the kids. But then he's also like a really good scientist who's like really empathetic with Phoebe. Well, he's a seismologist who went through to study earthquakes and had to take a job he doesn't like as a school teacher. But you're right. I feel like every performer in this is trying their hardest with very thin material.

And so Paul Rudd is not given much else to do other than be like you're saying standard Paul Rudd. I actually think Paul Rudd has the most understandable motivation because I too desperately want Carrie Coon to like me. Okay. Well, that'm not saying that far. Well, that's a weird thing. He said, I think Carrie Coon is so cool and she's a great actress. But in this movie, she's just kind of a dick to everybody.

She's always bitter. That's what I want. I want to be the meat of me. I will say that I think that if you see the guilty day, it's extremely good at being like kind of like a dick while still being extremely likable. I think that like when I first noticed there was a gone girl, where she was basically there to just be like, been half of affle, like you're an idiot. And I'm sure. Yeah, but she was right.

Like, like, was being an idiot of it. But I think Carrie, Carrie, Carrie is the kind of kind of woman that I was really attracted to in college, where I was like, yeah, yeah, these like a Serbic girls. And then I realized like, oh, they're very mean to me all the time. Like, it's never like, I get in good with them and they stop being like, oh, look, it always me. Look at this guy who has sense of worth. He's got value for himself. Fair point, fair point, fair point.

So Phoebe meets the aforementioned podcast that Dan couldn't wait to talk about who's a kid who has a podcast and does not have a name. He just calls himself podcast. I kind of want to point something out now. I know, I guess this is a podcast and does not have a name. He just calls himself podcast. I cut a lot of points out now. I know, I guess this is a character that's supposed to be bad, that his podcast isn't very popular, but it did bug me that he immediately starts interviewing her and he has this like, he has a microphone

and he'll put the microphone in her face, but when he asks her questions, he doesn't speak into his own microphone and it kind of blocked me. I mean, the podcasting is at the same level as the podcasting and only murders in the building where you're like, so this podcast is two minutes long. It's just you narrating first, like dramatically for short time and then that's it. That's the whole episode.

Like, wait, you can put out episodes that are that fucking short. Don't text you. Dan, don't let him know. No, no, no, no. This is going to be a whole world of fantasy Hollywood movie magic. So, Phoebe bonds with Paul Rudd over seismology. And it's really, she looks at it, she looks at it at a chart and she goes,

that's not this or this. And he goes, well, let me explain. This is like this. And this is like this. He mansplains her exactly what she just said. And just for the audience's benefit, but it's such a weird moment, because it's like, I'm supposed to like Paul Rudd, right? So the fact that he immediately tells this kid, hey, let me just tell you what you thought,

what you told me is, I don't know. I mean, it certainly helps that it's Paul Rudd though. I mean, he's a very difficult person to dislike. And that's why it's the sexiest person alive. It's just he's the, it's hard to just like. Which is interesting because if you kind of do like map this on the original Ghostbusters, he's basically the Rick Moranis character. Who, Bonnie enough was people's sexiest man alive

when Ghostbusters came out. That's who in 1984 it was sexiest man alive, Rick Moranis. But it was off of, it was off of SCTV. That was the thing that he was, it was the story of the story. It wasn't strange, true. Give me more. Anis, before we say. Yeah, they were saying I want it in a strange room. And that's more anus.

Yeah, they were saying I want it in the anus. Yeah. And that's God. The and you know the herb. The

when what people don't know was honey I shrunk the kids was originally called honey. I Rick Moranis, the sexiest man alive shrunk the kids. And so he is there's strange seismic activity in Somerville. It's bizarre. It doesn't make sense. And Phoebe says, maybe it's the apocalypse. Anyway, podcast. And over the course

of the movie, multiple times, there's earthquakes and everything shakes and we get a shot of Tracy Letz in his hardware store looking confused. And then there's a great, there's a great shot of somebody in one of the like, the small town cafe made a little tower of donut holes, just out in the open and a couple of them fall off. And I'm like, this place has seismic activity for a while. Why would you do that? It's always funny that they always got to people in the local businesses,

do you just hold it, hover their hands, hovering over things to keep them from falling? And it's like, yeah, learn your lesson. Don't stack stuff in some reveal. This is not a question. Yeah, maybe they shouldn't have that domino exhibit. No, I mean, when they, and they're, they're, they're all these signs that say, cup stacking Olympics, some reveal, 2022. It's like, oh, no, you shouldn't have it there. So podcast, he's a real like Dan was saying earlier, he's a real Dan Echroid loves ghosts and superstition and stuff type.

And he's like team for it. Like he's, he's, he's along for the ride. And that's what I'm saying. I'm not saying that. I'm not saying that. I'm not saying that. I'm not saying that. I'm not saying that. I'm not saying that. I'm not saying that. I'm not saying that. I'm not saying that. I'm not saying that.

I'm not saying that. I'm not saying that. I'm not saying that. I'm not saying that. I'm not saying that. I'm not saying that. I'm not saying that. I'm not saying that.

I'm not saying that. I'm not saying that. I'm not saying that. I'm not saying that. I'm not saying that. I'm not saying that. I'm not saying that. I'm not saying that. I'm not saying that. I will say that like the whole, the whole back half of this movie to like flash forward and give like a large of you is based around this gozer slash zool mythology. And the, the fact that the movie puts so much weight on that really punches up the fact that it's not meant to bear that weight. Like in the original Ghostbusters, it is like a couple of sentences of gibberish they toss off just so they can get to the third act. And, and one of the great things that,

the whole thing, one of the great things that the great things is how they toss that stuff off. Like they really toss it off and it's supposed to sound crazy and weird. And they, yeah, exactly. They don't go into the world building in the first Ghost Westeros is so much more about, hey, what would it be like to be a ghost exterminator in New York and so much less about gozer and all that stuff, you know, and the key master and the gatekeeper and the keymaster. But anyway, they go to the chandorm line. Apparently the miners were committing suicide. They shut it down.

And all they left behind was a huge, creepy sculpture of demons, which nobody has bothered to change. Trevor finally uncovers this decrepit act of one. He's going to fix it later. Phoebe is ghost meter lights up when she's playing chess and watching the chess pieces move on their own. And the ghost leads her to a secret kind of sliding floor puzzle in the living room that reveals a hidden apartment with a ghost trap in it. She takes it to school and Paul Rod is like, hey, cool, a ghost trap. And he shows them YouTube videos of the original ghost.

He's like, remember when there are ghosts all over the place, the A's remember the ghost busters. And I, I have to say that the single weirdest decision this movie makes is the fact that no one seems to remember that ghosts exist, despite the fact that New York was overtaken, not once, but twice with ghosts and had giant things walking around because of ghost energy. And the Stetroge liberally, the Stetroge liberally left its pedestal, walked across the harbor and up to Manhattan, and then back again, and everyone's like, I don't know, but he goes, he goes, there hasn't been a ghost sighting in 30 years, which I guess explains it away, you know, it just over. Short memories, that's the thing. Yeah, there's

the same way that people don't remember the Vietnam War because it happened so long ago. Nobody ever talks about it. We never hear about it. They open up the trap and an evil ghost flies out and goes straight to the mind, the ghost that that egon trapped and go, oh, your grandfather was a ghost buster, which the movie is way ahead of the audience's way ahead of the movie on. And this reminds me of a story that John Hodgman

once told me when he was on a TV show. And he was like, oh, the mystery on the show is really easy to guess. And the producer of the show said, we have the research. People like to guess it ahead of the show. Yeah. People don't like to be surprised.

Like to feel smart. So I feel like the movie the whole time is like, aren't you smarter than these characters? You know it's gone. You know these are ghost busters. All right, that. So I feel like the movie the whole time is like, aren't you smarter than these characters? You know it's gone. You know these are ghost busters. That's how I feel. I feel that's how I feel every time I watch an episode of catfish. You're like, dude, it's going to be a catfish and then they get there and it's a catfish

in a tank with a keyboard in the tank. And it's just typing with those whiskers and you're like, yeah, I told you. Yeah. Yeah. So, uh, it sounds like it sounds like a Miyazaki character. Yeah. My amazing life. It's tight. Yeah. Phoebe and Paul Rudd and podcast they go to her house. There's a little bit of fun with an Aztec death whistle that just sounds like a scream. Hey, is it going to be used later on? Of course it is. And Paul Rudd and the mom are instantly into

each other. The kids find a book that happens to have all the information they need about Samaritan demons and ghosts are in all that. So they all know it already. Trevor goes and hangs out with his new co-workers at the car hop at the mountain. He started working there and he had luck he or talking and then they see an evil ghost, you know, pop its head out of the mind. And Paul Rudd finds an ancient map of Somerville in the house in Carrie Coons is like, I don't give a shit. Take it. She's so dismissive of anything. Yeah. It could not be less interested. Now, here's a question I have you guys. Phoebe finds a fire poll in a barn that takes her

down to a sub basement, flavigon, science stuff. How does he gone get out of that basement? That's what I was wondering. You take a firepool down. We never see stairs and elevator. They just cut and she's not there anymore. So climb up the pole because then she is hard. I imagine. That is very hard. It's very difficult. I mean, Dan can do it because he's got amazing arm strength and core strength. Sure. Sure. I could do it. He's like, all over things. I mean, Dan feel like a gorilla. Like, he's just got big arms, tiny little legs, and like, and like, big chest. That's Dan. He's just like like in a ring of tan. Just like you said, it's all up her body. I'm like, Dan, you want to do leg day

with me? He's like, fuck that. I feel like Dan's built like ET long legs. I mean, long arms, no legs, the feet just go into his butt and long neck can extend the bisexual year. Exactly. Like an English longbowman from the War of the Roses. Exactly. Exactly. So she finds out stuff. She finds eGons, Ghostbusters jumpsuits. She finds the proton pack. There's a ghost that's kind of pushing things to direct her attention to different stuff and it teaches her how to fix the proton pack. Meanwhile, mom goes on a date with Paul Rudd seemingly in the middle of the afternoon. It's maybe it's daylight saving time and it's just lighted. Yeah, it's a first date. They're having like an early dinner, maybe I don't know.

Yeah, I can't imagine there's that many restaurants in this town, right? Probably. There is one where people wear roller skates and yep, there's a car hop and there's a sit-down restaurant that is. Yeah, one of the few chains. That's amazing for Somerville. They try out the proton pack Phoebe and podcast and they blow up some stuff. Uh oh, it leads them. I forget how to a kind of like this, basically the movie's version of slimer.

Yeah. Yeah. The ghost that much metal, much. Yeah. And he eats metal and then shoots it out of his mouth like bullets. Yes. I mean, this is one of the few times in the movie that we get a new ghost. And yet it still feels like.

And also a new ghost. It still feels like they asked Slimey to come back. And Slimey was like, I got other projects that I'm doing. And so they got his cousin Muncher. It's like sometimes they would have Tom Hanks's brother come in and be a stand in for him. And it feels like that.

Slimey was like, have my brother do it. I'm gonna tell you. Yeah. At the Slimey lives in Floridaimeer was like, have my brother do it. I'm gonna tell you. Yeah. At the Slimeer lives in Florida. That's me. Have my brother do it. But it's also, I have a question.

It's okay. We see two kinds of ghosts in this movie. We see human ghosts that look like themselves when they were live. And we see monster ghosts. Which one do you become? How does that work? Like, are ghosts?

Well, I mean, is it a prep us to go? Some of us have always been a flavorful, full melange of types of creatures. They don't really seem to follow us. I always wondered like, so we're slimmer and muncher, just like gluttonous dudes who who became that or were they, because you see that. You don't have to shame them for personal choices. I mean, maybe that's just what he looks like. I'm just wondering why some ghosts look like blobby monsters and some ghosts look like decayed corpses. And then when he goes look like Harold Rammels. Yeah, exactly. Some ghosts look like how so

there's three kinds of ghosts in the ghost. The university. When he really funny though, if when he got and showed up at the end, he looked like a slimer, he's like, guists me. And he's still stepping hot dogs in his mouth and everything. I mean, but that was everybody. That's that shit. Every all goes do this. They try to trap a muncher, but he gets away.

Trevor with a little bit help from the ghost gets the Ecto one working drives around to a buzzcock song because this is what kids are into now. It's like in that first Star Trek movie when Captain Kirk is driving around to sabotage, even though that movie, that song would be 200 years old by the time of that scene. It's like, I'd be like, thank you. I gotta say, I don't know. I like it. I don't know. It's a little bit like if if we were riding around listening to, I mean, not even go for a solo. That would be really easy. Yeah. To green. Exactly. Just like a turn it up. We're driving around listening to the world turned upside down. Just like, can't get enough of it.

They on the date, Paul Rudd's like, oh, there's all this fracking that causes earthquakes and Kagan's like, I hate science because my dad was a scientist and he never paid attention to me. And you could tell that Paul Rudd is sick. Again, frankly, I'm with it. I'm with it at this point. And Paul Rood's nerds. And Paul Rood's a real fan of Phoebe's, which makes her mom like him, you know, that he

has had me to real connection with her daughter. And Trevor starts driving Phoebe and podcaster to catch Muncher. They chase him through the strangely deserted town, just blowing stuff up with the proton blaster. Yeah, they are destroying this town faster than a fucking Walmart. Yes. And they know what all the buttons in the car do almost instantly. They're like, we got to send the trap. Well, it's on wheels.

We can do the road control. And podcaster just goes to the floor of the car and starts moving dials to make a ramp, a trap door open and a ramp go down. And it's like, how long have you been in this car for maybe four minutes? Like how do you know what all these levels are? I mean, kids are pretty good with that. That's true.

I guess they love pushing buttons and things. The thing about this trap that's on like little go-car, it's not even go-cart wheels, it's a little real control car. Is it keeps pace with a car that is going full speed? Yeah, that is a fast. Yeah, it's very fast. This is toy story level speed on this remote control car. Yeah. But they don't catch the ghost, but they do get caught. Oh, no, they do catch the ghost. They trap them and then they

get trapped by sheriff, bokeh woodbind. Yeah. We would be in this role. A great actor. Star of Black Man. One sequence of the movie disappears again. Very confusing. Yeah. Oh, man, I love bokeh woodbine. He's great. He's really great. And the, I remember seeing him in was the second season of Fargo and being like, yeah, why doesn't this guy have his own show? Like he's amazing. But it turns out Lucky is the sheriff's daughter. And so they meet up briefly again. Now she knows Trevor's a bad boy because he's in jail with his sister and his sister's friend, the nerd. And they go, they lock up all the, they, they're going to lock up all their equipment. But first Phoebe uses her one phone call to call not her mom, but the, the ad from the Ghostbusters commercial

so that she can get to race dances, a cult book store. And she gets a real Dan Acroix on the phone. I do. Yeah. And he's like, Crystal. Not. Acroids waxed him. I do love that. So when she's dialing, they're playing the commercial from the original Ghostbusters movie. Yes. And even as a kid, I knew that this was like a joke. Like the commercial was a joke that it was like the way it was done. Like it was meant to be a parody of that kind of like cheapo, like a local exterminator ads.

But it's done here with this sense of reverence where it's like, oh my God, I'm seeing Jerusalem for the first time. Yeah. And that's one of the problems, one of the big problems with the tone of the movie is that the first Ghostbusters movie, certainly Ghostbusters 2, it has its big flaws, but I love some of the things that it, Ghostbusters 1, like the movie, the tone of the movie is constantly taking the piss out of the idea that these are guys having an adventure with ghosts.

Like it is, and it's that New York attitude of like, come on, kiddin' me. Like really? Come on, come on. Like that kind of stuff. And it works so well. Whereas in this, it is, yeah, it's the, everything has been burnished to a golden worshiping hue. And it's a lot of like, ah, the Ghostbusters?

Why? Noble, the Noble Champions of old, why men were men back then and women were women, like no deeds were deeds, and the characters were to be had. As soon as she got Dan Acroid on the phone, the whole time, and like, is he going to tell these kids about the time a ghost sucked his dick? Well, can we talk about, I hope not. Can we talk about the, I do not, like the conversation she has with him on the phone is the sort of conversation that people only have in movies that I hate.

I hate to break it to you, Dan. It is a movie. Yeah, yeah. But, but okay, it is bad movie writing and I hate it where the, you know, if you're calling from a jail to this ghost buster who might have known your dead grandfather who would understand what's going on in town. The amount, like you would not take the secuitous route that she takes to all of the like key information. It is definitely one of these like, she's like, hold on, I'm in jail

and like without saying who she is and then being like, you're a I'm in jail and like without saying who she is and then being like, you're a ghost buster, right? And then like listening to him talk about ghost busters and then listening to him talk about like why they had a falling out with the stuff. Without ever interjecting and like giving her side of it, like any important information. The biggest thing, the thing that he would ask is, who is this? Yeah.

And that he'd never asked that and I almost believe it because I believe that Ray stands the kind of guy who like once you get it started talking about ghosts over the F.A. That's all he thinks about but you're right it is it is the weird thing of like it's it reminds me of one of the version of that that early bothers me is the beginning of the movie 28 days later where he wakes up and he's gotten out of a coma. He doesn't know what's going on. And he goes, what happened? What happened to the world? And this one goes, it didn't happen the way they thought it would. It didn't happen all at once out in the cities.

It happened, dead at a slowly. And it's like, just tell him, dude, like, and if that happened in real life, it'd be like, there's zombies everywhere. Let me give, let me, let me do this like a news article with the most important information up top. And then I'll get into the details down at the bottom. We can circle back to the poetry later. Yeah.

Also, the other thing about this thing is where we learned that like the reason that you got a band and because it has to be a no-brains and a family. Because at this point, like we're like deep in the nostalgia. We are beyond the like movie that opens with Peter vanquement, shocking a man so we can fuck his student. Okay. Yeah. But like, they get ran to it. And what is it?

We're not even, we're not even in the movie, in the second one where the two remaining ghost busters are going to children's birthday parties and being booed because nobody likes them anymore. We're now at the part, yeah, where it's Birthday parties and being booed because nobody likes them anymore. We're now at the part, yeah, where it's like, oh, I'm talking to a holy figure. But Ray explains that Egon got all obsessed about like, oh, you know, there was going to be this apocalyptic event. And then one day he just disappeared, like taking all of the Ghostbusters equipment with him and whatever.

And they had, you know, he's like, oh, Egon can can burn and hell for all like care before he does mention also that Winston has become a global billionaire, which is a very funny. Oh, yeah, we're back to that. But it's like, it's this thing where like clearly the movie is setting it up, spoiler alert that like, yeah, you can almost write there was this apocalyptic event. He went down here to like keep an eye on it and then to keep it under control. His granddaughter finishes the job for him. But there's nothing at any point in the movie that makes it clear like why Egon thought, oh, I have to cut everyone out of my life to do this thing, especially my partners

who also fight ghosts. Well, it's not only that my partners who already helped me stop gozer. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It goes. It is coming back. Why wouldn't he go with his team that already did that once? It's, it's wild. It is a wild thing.

And it's this weird way of making like erratic behavior turn into this like erratic arguably selfish behavior seem like a selfish act. It's like that. Well, it's something, it's a way that, and this has been going on for a long time in movies especially, but in TV 2, that kind of, the world we live in where it's the kind of like QAnon, do your own research. If people tell you you're wrong, it's because you're right, and you should cut your family

out and follow the clues, the breadcrumbsrumbs movies teach us that that's the right thing. There's never been a movie that I can think of where someone is no, no, you're all you say I'm crazy, but you're the wrong ones that in movies that characters always write because narratively we we want to have a movie like narratively it's more satisfying than a movie where a guy has a conspiracy that turns out he's wrong and he's been wasting all of our time like it's so but you're's been wasting all of our time. Like it's so, but you're right, it's one of those things. Like even movies that sort of interrogate that like under the sofa like the conspiracy is

still right. It's just like the guy's a dick like. Yeah. Oh man, that's a good movie. But it's a movie where it it I mean that it is a movie where yeah, right, Egon has essentially become like a Q and on guy, but he turned except the Q is the Ghostbusters cross symbol, but like, he turns out to be right. And he was right to do all that stuff, it to cut out his family and to not, and to run off and take everybody's livelihood.

And it's, yeah, it's a very, it's, it's one of these things that like thematically is very not healthy, you know, and it doesn't really help. But it's the only way they can explain him not being around kind of. Yeah. And why and they couldn't do a story where that doesn't happen because why else would they go out to cornfields in the middle of nowhere? There has to be a mystery that has to be solved in a fall. It's just like the country bears with a muppet.

Like, well, we've got the kids have to reunite the band. They had to falling out, you know, anyway, it's just so, it's so, I'm tired of it. Let's get some stories everybody. I would say arguably if this movie had the main focus of the movie had been these kids trying to get the aging Ghostbusters actors to work together, I would have kind of liked them more.

We had the country bears. Yeah, as we all know, there's four, there's four basic universal stories. There's man versus nature, man versus man, man versus self and kids have to get a band back together. Like those before universal. And Bill Murray versus the ghost. And Bill Murray versus the ghost.

So the thing is everybody's booing Bill Murray, but he's right. Well, we'll get you. Well, we'll get you. Well, we'll get you. I mean, he, I mean, except that he will see. He, it's not like he stuck to his guns or anything. The, so the equipment is impounded. Phoebe pulls a proton gun on the sheriff, and the mom is able to like just say, Hey, stop. Okay, I'll take them home, which is nuts. That she, she pulled a gun on the sheriff and just gets to go home. And you know what? Does the mom ground them and then keep an eye on them.

No, the next day they're just out doing whatever that night. Paul Rudd goes to the local Walmart Walmart and witnesses an army of tiny Marshmallow men come to life and just gleeful to each other. No reason other than the fact that it happened in the first movie. A thing that Ray thinks about at one point. And now it's part of the movie forever. This is a sequence that I bow dislike, but also like a lot. I think it's again, if it was not, if I didn't feel like they were kind of just playing on a thing that existed, a lot of the ways they come up with for the Marshmellamen to interact

with objects are really fun. Like it's, it's, you know, picks are inventive that way. Paul Rudd looks funny like wicking out seeing it happening. I love later on, like, like in the, in the very next scene, he sees like the devil dog. He like has this ice cream in his hand. He, for a moment, he tries to say like good doggy thinking like maybe that will work and right in the middle of it, he's cut off by the dog growling and he just whips the ice cream at the dog and I genuinely laughed out loud because I thought it was played really well.

But it was also angry. The fact that they had to have a devil dog back in the middle. In marshmallow, where it's like when they were making the first ghost busters, it's not that they were like, well, we need a marshmallow man because the because the ghost breakers had a marshmallow man, like come up with some new things, like ideas, you can come up with new ideas, Hollywood. But I did like that. One thing I didn't expect to pay off was earlier on, they're testing the proton traps or whatever and it blows out the windshield of Paul Rudd's car.

And when he's running from the devil dog, he tries to escape by jumping through the windshield, the open windshield. He's like, okay, that was a good payoff for that. I got that that happened. So he gets chased by the demon dog. We know what happens to him because the same thing happens to Rick Moranis at tavern on the green in the first movie is he is going to get captured. The kids are planning together in town.

I don't know why they're not grounded since they blew up a big portion of the town the day before. They all go explore with their flashlights at the chandour Mine Lucky, who's like a local historian, I guess, is talking about how Evo Shandour built the whole town. And there they find a huge sculpture of people worshiping Gozer, and that's when Lucky learns Trevor's 15. And they find, in a glass coffin, the embalmed body of Evo Shandour.

So hilarious. And they find a timeline of years listed, and it's like 1984, 2021. And it made me so mad, because it's like guys, it's like, where happened? Where's the year that I was born? Where's that, yeah, exactly.

Well, but also like what we learn is that Egon set up automatic blasters all around this pit that Gozers trying to come out of to keep gozer tamp down. And it's like, well, if gozers always trying to come out of the pit, what do the years mean? Like, what's the point? And there's no, it's pointless. Phoebe goes, it's a countdown. It's like, it's not a countdown. The numbers are going up. Like, it's, it's a timeline. Like, it's anyway. And then podcast goes, you mean like a prophecy? And it's like it feels like he is correcting the script at that moment. And they just left it in, you know.

But there's this burbling sea of lava souls and it starts bubbling up in these automatic proton pits. So it's causing me earthquakes. Yeah, that's not for acting. Fracking still cool guys. Yeah. Just as RuPaul. Like mom fracking still cool guys. Yeah, just ask RuPaul. Carrie Coons maybe while looking for her kids who have a Carrie Coon. I keep calling her Carrie Coons. Carrie Coons who possibly while looking for her children who should be grounded again, they blew up half the town. She goes down that fire poll into the basement and she sees a wall of photos and articles about her. It's okay that her dad abandoned her because he paid attention to her from afar. Yeah, He follows her on social media.

Yeah. Yeah. You did the least he could do to have some interest in her. Just take pictures over to the wall. Then a demon dog jumps out of her and the kids come up and she's like, like movie, are you going to make Carrie Coon into like a sexed up ghost demon dog lady? Because that's going to make me act up here. Guys, not only are they going to do that, she's going to repeat lines of dialogue from

the first movie and she's going to wear the same dress that's the Gourney Weaver War in the first movie when she, when she turned into Zool. It was like, it's just so frustrating. At this point, the movie is now headlong Russian movie. Yeah, I was from the first. I would say that there's, there is stuff I like in the first couple acts and then the third act just becomes desastrously like beholden to previous Ghostbusters lore. But anyway, they, they, they realized that, um, that the, uh, that, this farm, it's not really a farm.

It's a huge proton defense trap or whatever that's supposed to trap, gozer. There's a earthquake. Oh no. And, uh, it's, there's just a trap Gozer. There's North Quake, oh no. And there's just a lot of dumb stuff where they're like putting the other clues that don't make any sense. They suit up in Egon's jumpsuits, which are a little big on them,

but not as big as they should be. He was a tall thin man and they are like children. And they're like, we got a lure Gozer back to this trap. Meanwhile, just like in the first movie, mom and Paul Rudd are going to make out because that's how you open that because that's how the key master a little bit more than make out. I think yeah, at least in my man's care, the gatekeeper and I'm just saying what we, I will say in the first move.

Well, here's the things. It's really it's arguing. There's we don't see penetration. Yeah. And I don't see it. We're going to only, you know, what's on screen is what's tech. So we can't really assume. This is, this movie is so, in the first Ghostbusters, they make it so much clearer that like there's

going to be a sex act between Rick and Rannison's Gordy Weaver. And when Gozer shows up, there's something also kind of sexual about her. And here it feels like they tamped that down quite a bit. Like, there's just not that same adult in her. Yeah. Well, and obviously, like, obviously I love the sequence where Peter vanquen shows up at Dana's apartment, expecting to take her on a date, but she's possessed by Zool. And it takes him like at least half that scene before he it comes to terms with himself that they're not on a date. No. And I kind of wish they played like, I feel like a lot of things in this movie, like I kind of wish they played the sequence where the kids come home and find their mother possessed.

I wish they'd played it for laughs a little bit more. And like, this movie plays very little for the laugh. I mean, it's funny when all of a sudden things start going wild and she just jumps out the window awkwardly, like, that's fun. Yeah, I think it's, they're playing it jumps out the window awkwardly. Like, that's fun. Yeah. I think it's they're playing it for not the kind of laughs. It's well, they're not playing it for like comedy laughs. They're playing it for wise cracks in an action or adventure with laughs, which are like not

the same. Like, there's a moment in one of my favorite moments in the first Ghostbusters and one of you, and they play this piano key thing in the opening credits. It's when Bill Murray walks into Dana's apartment the first time and he goes, did it, did it, did it, on the piano, he goes, they hate that. And it's such a funny like dumb throwaway thing. And there's nothing at that level. There's nothing that feels like a moment that someone came up with a thing on the spot

and say, maybe there's ad-libbing in it. I don't know, but there's, you know, we didn't, Bill Murray shows up. I think that some of that is ad-libbing, but it feels so wrong for the movie that has been established by that point. And it feels like such Bill Murray autopilot too. Yeah. It feels like he's, he's just kind of doing Bill Murray the same way everyone else is just Paul Rudge, doing Paul Rudge, you know, anyway, to make a long story short, they got to get

their stuff. Tracey Lester. Just doing Tracey Lester. I mean, Tracey Lester's just just sit there right in killer Joe and. Well, Augusto Sage County, it in it up. Yeah, he's totally. Yeah, that's all he's he's just he's just publisher in little womening it up and just dad and lady birding it up.

Closing move. Yeah, the kids, they got to get their equipment out from the police station. They let Muncher lose. He eats the cage that the equipment is in. They used Muncher a great. I do. I do love the bit that Muncher eats a medal. He doesn't need to eat the medal to escape because he then just goes right through the ceiling. Yeah. He just likes eating the metal. He's a bit. He little metal. He loves you. He's just like me. He's doing. He's doing. He's doing. Like, you let me lose. I'm going to jump some fucking metal. Metal. Yum, yum, yum. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It's me and real stupid Elliot.

They go to the mountain. The adults turn into demon dogs just like in the first movie and goes or shows up and Evo Sandor revives. It's JK Simmons in a in a cameo. He wasted role. Well, that's the thing that was fun. I did think it was funny to get a star that big for a role where he says to those where he says, now we can rule the world and goes or just tears his body and half and the end of him. Yeah, where he looks at his costume and he's like, I got to wear that crazy mustache. You better kill me fast, baby. Get me out of there right away. And all these go shows up all over.

And this part feels, this is the part that feels very rushed where the movie is almost like you saw the first movie. You know what's happening. Come on. Okay. Demon dogs goes everywhere. Dada Dada. And they don't play that song like match. It's magic, magic dreams when all the spirits are playing out. That's a bummer. Yeah. Gozer shows up looking the same as in the first movie, but a little bit like like the costume is made out of sculpted plastic instead of out of like lace, you know, or bubble or vastly, yeah, vastly. And it feel it was one of those things where it's like gozer's look in Ghostbusters is so 80s.

This kind of like semi androgynous kind of like sexy tough. That's a good, make-up painting. Yeah, like a neck. Exactly. Or there's like something very anhylenics about her, like she looks like a 80s room model. So to see her showing up in this movie in Oklahoma feels so strange and it's like, come up with a new gozer, like just do it, you know?

In the first movie, it was, she was a lady and then she was a big marshmallow man. Like she can be anything, use your imagination. No. No. No, okay, sorry, you're right. No, no imagination. No imaginations allowed. Phoebe distracts Gozer with jokes or the running gags about the home movie is that Phoebe is always trying to tell jokes.

Again, like I said, I did. She does a great job telling them. I didn't mind this choice to have her like that. She showed up and she got to do the thing that's all gardens of the galaxy moment. Yeah, it's fine. It's very the only thing I don't like about it is it immediately undercuts the threat of the bad guy which if it's a movie where it's good posters dude. Well, but that's thing, but that's a Ghostbusters thing to do. But up till now this movie has not been very Ghostbusters. In tone, it's like it's been the same plot beats, but with a different tone. And so it's like, yeah, I'm like, well, she just toured JK Simmons in half. So why is she just sitting there listening to these joke book jokes? And I'm of you. You've seen that dude's fucking workout pics.

The day I learn fucking jack. Yeah, that's when you're tearing JK Simmons, that's real muscle. You're tearing like that to tear. And they don't give you whiplash. Okay, what I said, because he's in the movie. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, because he's in the movie whiplash. Yeah, you'll be the Ricardo's after that one. The Ricardo's are you anyway. way. In Russia, regardless, are you? So they put a trap under Zool and they capture it and that saves mom and it takes away half of Goser's power or something. They're kind of making up rules. Yeah. And the keymaster chases them and their mom is like, I'm really impressed. And it's from this point in the movie that the

mom is just kind of like, you kids are saving the world, I'm on board. Sure, ghosts, okay. Like she doesn't, did she just kind of rolls with me? She's holding up to her. Remember that ghosts exist, Ellie? Yeah, that's true, that's true. And they go back to the farm, ghosts are kind of like only half powerful.

There's lots of tiny marshmallow man, and he's like cast busy. Thing where like, so Egan has rigged this farm to be a big trap. And I do have to say this is a moment at which I'm like this is a big budget would be blockbuster movie. I don't think everything has to be big. I think that the idea that everything has to be big is kind of a problem in blockbusters. However, it is a little weird that the first Ghostbusters ends with a giant

marshmallow man like walking down the middle of New York. The second one ends in like the Metropolitan Museum and the, and you know, Stagia Liberty comes down. And this one, the climax is like, oh, we're on a farm. Like here we are on the farm and goes. It's a little different to the farm true. I mean, the thing I was you had hoped that there would be like a giant. I don't know like a like a windmill. Yeah, like you know, they could throw in some, they could throw in some of them. Uh, fucking donkey. Ho day jokes.

The kids are at that windmill and goes to go fly. Yeah, kids love servant days jokes. Yeah. Uh, but the thing is this movie's budget was not that big. According to Wikipedia, it was a $75 million budget, which for a movie like this is, I mean, that's, that's what a quarter what you would spend on a Marvel movie, a fifth of what you would spend, you know, at least. So, but at the same time, it is, that's only like, that's only like five cool as ice is right there.

So then lucky becomes the new gatekeeper goes back and full power, but uh oh, who's going to show up and save in the day. It's, that's right, the original ghost busters. And I got to be honest, I could not have been more dispirited by seeing these three original ghost busters. And it explodes. Elliott, I could not agree with you more. I found myself saying something to myself that I would never think I could not agree with you more. I found myself saying something to myself that I would never think I could hear the words coming out of my mouth, but I was thinking the problem with this Ghostbusters movie at

this point is that Bill Murray is it? Yes, yeah. Go away. When you say the original Ghostbusters, do you mean that a rangitang shows you? No, I don't mean the real Ghostbusters. I don't mean those guys. I mean, theutan shows? No, I don't mean the real ghost busters. I mean the real ghost busters. I don't mean those ghost busters.

Yeah. The, you're not the orangutan. Now I will say the road around it a gelopy. Yeah. It would have been fucking crazy if they, if instead of, instead of, well, yeah, they had, they had two crazier options, which would have arguably been better. One is, of course, yes, that a rain of tangy and some guys in a gelade showed up. The other one is if the, like, the smoke clears, and it's the animated

versions of their character, the animated show. Like that. I would like to see the whole doing the voice of Winston Lorenzo music back from the dead doing Bill Murray's right. That's right. That's right. That's right. That's right. That's right. That's right. That's right. That's right. That's right. That's right.

That's right. That's right. That's right. That's right. That's right. That's right. That's right. That's right.

That's right. That's right. That's right. That's right. That's right. That's right. That's right. That's right. That's right. That's right. of, okay, you are going to do this with a new generation. And now they are, the old people are stealing it back, combined with all the stuff of that moment in the Force Awakens when Han Solo shows up and he's wearing the same vest. And it's like, you're an old man.

Don't wear the same clothes you wore when you were in your 20s. Like, come on. Like, get in clothes. Guys, my brain is big enough. I can understand that he might change clothes. Yes. He changes clothes in the original series. He wears different stuff sometimes. He wears that vest. The outfit he wears the

first hour, he doesn't wear it again in the other movies, but I guess it does. Those bussters after life, I feel like up until this point, you can kind of enjoy it, you can hate it either way. You have to admit, as soon as the original Ghostbusters show up, the movie grinds to a halt. Yes. And it's like, go. I'll mention that's the build up. And it's like, gozer is this huge threat.

She's going to destroy the universe. It's terrible. Wait, she's going to stand there and watch the Ghostbusters banter over a little bit. Do a little. But that's the only thing that's also part of the thing. She says, are you a god? This time, Ray gets to say yes. And it's like, goes, are you met these guys before?

Like, you know them. I wish, I wish it was like, I wish she said, are you a god? And then she goes, wait, are you the ghost buzzers? Wow, you're old. How long was I in that pit for? You look old. You're very old now. Yeah.

So she blasts. And it looks like everything's over. Phoebe starts blasting with a gun at this point I turned to Charlene. I'm like, fucking ghost e-gons going to show up. And you know what? You know what? He does. He does.

Ghost e-gons shows up. Like it fucking sucks. It reminds me how terrible the fucking entertainment complex is and how you are nothing but content. It fucking blows. Well, Harold, Harold Ramas gave us so many great things. Like, I kept thinking while watching his CGI ghost, which I must say is one of the best CGI recreation of a person that I've ever seen. It looks great.

I think it's lit dimly in it, you know, but I was watching it. And it's like ghostified, yeah, yeah. And it's ghostified, but I was like, he gave us Groundhog Day. Like, can we just let him sleep in peace? Like, do we have to dig him up for this movie, you know? Here's the best thing I can say about Ghosty, he doesn't talk. That's true. He does. He's show up and smile, but typically. But that's the funny thing is because then he has to like have a has to have a touching moment with his daughter and

grandkids and he's kind of nods and winks at them. And I appreciate that they didn't go to the trouble of like that they just like I'm glad they didn't take his old dialogue and like re-edited it so that he would say something

but like it's very weird. And he's like, oh, this is some extra footage that was child on the set of Knocked Up. Bye everyone. Yeah. Yeah. Anyway, he shows up and helps.

They're all Zappin' Gozer and then Gozer, they disintegrate Gozer. That's what goes as defeated. Now, there was also a moment where I'm like, okay, well, these traps are sucking Gozer and all the other goes away. Maybe they'll suck egon away too. And there'll be this like noble sacrifice element. No, no, no, no, look at this fucking

ghost. He just hangs out. Yeah, he just hangs out and has a moment with every single character where they say something to him and he nods. And like, and he hugs them. And there, you know, there might be some folks who watching the movie are like, look, I needed this closure with the world ramus in my life. And I'm sorry if we're making fun of it. But it really fucking sucks to me. Yeah, I would, you know, I would look at, I would love if Ghost Hill ramus showed up, gave me a hug in a wink. But as someone watching a movie, I was like, this seems disrespectful. Yeah. And it feels, it feels, I'm sure they meant it with, and then they dedicate the movie to him at the end.

So I'm sure they meant that the filmmakers, I'm sure, I mean, the movie is produced by Ivan Wrightman, like he spent a lot of the end of his life trying to get Ghostbusters back up off the ground. I'm sure they meant it partly to make money off it because it's IP, but also partly at a real heart. But it does come off as, it does come off as extremely, like tasteless to me,

from the moment the old Ghostbusters show up. It feels like you are, and I know Dan Acroid's whole dream is to bring Ghostbusters back. But even seeing him in a Ghostbusters costume, it feels like, all right, you have a gun pointed at the head of Crystal Head Vodka bottle,

and you're threatening him to put this old jumpsuit back on. Yeah. So, it ends with, so Egon dissolves away back to heaven. bottle and you're threatening him to put this old jumpsuit back on, you know. Yeah. So it ends with, so Egon dissolves away back to heaven. And it ends with the Ecto one driving back to New York. Is it? It looked like New York. Yeah.

Yeah. I do. York. Okay. And we get the Ray Parker Jr. song. And then the Ghost Busters theme song, which they've held back on this whole time. Then we get some credit sequences. Okay.

At the end of the, at the end of the first part of the credits says, and Sigourney Weaver, and you're like, Sigourney Weaver wasn't in this movie cut to mid credit scene. Sigourney Weaver is giving Bill Murray that psychic test from the first movie and just shocks him a couple times. Like it's just banter. There's no reason for it. I will say once again, it highlights Sigourney Weaver looks incredible. Well, and highlights that they, the two of them still have a lot of change. They're both Christmas. I, you know, I know from, look, I'm getting this, you know, third hand from the Blank Check

podcast about Ghostbusters afterlife, but, you know, they have researchers. They, they, they, they, they, they, they, they, they, they, they, they, we should get that. They said that, they should be smarter. I remember them saying that like one of the big things that Bill Murray like was like, finally, yes, I'll do this is like, yeah, but if I get to work with Sigourney Owen, like, yeah, yeah. And like they seem to have a genuine friendship and joy.

What I will, can I complain about the scene real quick? Yeah. So, and then I'll say what I was going to say. So in this sequence, it's, they're basically doing an inverse of the sequence that I mentioned before in the beginning of the first Ghostbusters where Peter van Gman is being a real shipbag by a lovable shipbag by shocking one, a male student so he could try and sleep with a female student. And they're so hard that, but chewing gum flies out of his mouth.

Yes. And it reminds me of in the Watchmen TV series where they're trying to like backtrack and point out all the things that Ozemandius did wrong. And I'm like, yeah, I get it. Like you don't have to, I don't know why you have to apologize for the original thing.

Like it sucks. Like things can be bad. I don't know. It's such fucking baby level morality. I was kind of have to make it right by punishing him 40 years later for the thing that he did that we knew was bad in the first movie. That's a thing. So I will say this this scene has it has all the kind of tossed off casualness of a scene

that's shot for like a charity event. Yeah. With the reprisings. And I think it kind of works better because it's for it. Yeah. But that's the end of that scene. I mean, I do like to see both of them. I just wish that it wasn't some kind of weird bullshit. Yeah. Then we get the more inexplicable end credits mash-up of scenes where it starts with a scene. It's a unused footage. Unused footage of Janine and Egon from the first movie where she's giving him like her lucky coin

And then it and then it cuts to her now with that lucky coin in her hand and she's not talking about Egon though she's meeting with Winston at the at his office building Because he's a billionaire now Yeah, it's the story of the coin Yeah, and Now it's like setting up Winston being like he has this speech which is unconnected with anything else in the movie. And look, I appreciate it just in the sense of like Winston obviously is kind of an underserved character.

So it's nice that they're like, they're going to like, I don't know, add to continuity. Like, oh, by the way, Winston went on to be a billionaire. Like that seems like they're like, he'll feel guilty feel like, oh, Winston kind of got short shrift. Well, let's just say he's a billionaire, but then seems like maybe they're setting him up to be like Charlie of a new Charlie's Angels Ghostbusters situation where he's like a money man. That he's been, he's been paying the rent on Ray's store, but also that he is, at early around Ray was like, uh, some big business bought up all of lower Manhattan and they bought and we had to sell the firehouse

and you reveal that and it wins to talk about like, you know what, I'm maybe a billionaire now, but I'll always be a ghost buster and then you see that he has bought the old firehouse and they bring the Ecto one back to it and he's like, yeah, the old place and then you go down to the basement where the old ghost containment tank

still has its light blinking on it, and they're like, guess what? There's still ghosts in this building. But it's getting the warning light where you're like, so wait, they just were like, fuck it. We lost the lease. I guess we'll just leave this. Yeah.

So we'll have some of those things. Slap some putty over that crack and like leave the ghost in the basement. The landlord will never know. The thing is, I thought they're bored at a firehouse in the first movie. Wasn't the whole thing that Ray like cashed in his, his, his, uh, mortgage. Yeah. Yeah. So it's like the idea that like, yeah,

lower man hat and they bought it all up like you own your building. You know, that's why cats is Delhi still exists because they own their building. That's what, but anyway, that's, that's a a little bit of if it was a New York set movie, they would have gotten that right because that's a New York thing. But it was weird and it also like, it's it feels a little bit like they're putting their foot in the door and they're like, in case you guys would be interested, we could bring the old guys back for another movie maybe. Yeah, it feels like this movie is really going out of its way to make no creative decisions. It is like Ghostbusters Plus Stranger Things equals this.

You know what, it's a new generation, but it could be the old characters. That's a thing. This is the kind of story we're telling now, but maybe we could tell the old story. I have no idea. I have to tell you right now, they're leaving the door open for a sequel. I have no idea what that sequel would look like. This movie is other than that last scene being like we could have a sequel if you want it, there's nothing that indicates what that sequel would be.

Trevor's going to Pratt. It's the summer. Phoebe goes to visit it. Mm-hmm. Yeah, that's probably it. I mean, but I will say that like, I kind of like that about it because if there is a sequel to it, I want it to be something where I don't know what it is

because this really, I knew every step of the way what was gonna happen and that was really annoying to me. Yeah. And less what it is is the Boogie Man story arc from the Real Ghostbusters cartoon, which was very scary to me as a kid and I'd like to see again, just so I could remember it. No, I want them to do the Real Ghostbusters storyline, either one, the one where they're

on a subway train and all the graffiti comes to life, which I guess the trains are cleansed now, so you can do that. Or the one where they're in the museum in natural history and spirit start to come and there's a dinosaur skeleton walking around and Winston has to get in touch with his African ancestors to undo it all. And there's a moment where he's going back in time becoming his ancestors and he's briefly a sharecropper. And it was like, this is heavy stuff for the Ghostbusters cartoon to be able to be dealing with.

But it is weird because as soon as the old guy show up, it feels like all the characters that we've been following before are just forgotten. Yeah, which is very strange. We're not going anymore. Let's quickly do our final judgments and then move on to other things. Is this a good bad movie, a bad, bad movie, a movie kind of like, here's the thing, like I gotta say, I kind of enjoyed a lot of this movie

just because it doesn't hit the Ghostbusters nostalgia buttons. Every Ghostbusters nostalgia button, it tries to hit it like trips over itself and falls down the stairs trying to push that button. But it's hitting buttons for other types of media that I have enjoyed. Yeah, like, well, like, kids on bikes, and I like Carrie Coon, I like Paul Rudd, I like McKinnegrace for his one inexplicable scene. I like Bokey Woodbine. I think they're all good.

Like there's stuff in it that I like, I would say this is a perfectly fine movie to fall asleep to on TBS. I will say, as I said before, it is the least good movie with ghostbusters in the title. Like if you want a good ghostbusters movie, just watch the first one. If you want like passively like good fun ghostbusters movies, watch ghostbusters movie. Just watch the first one. If you want like passively, like good fun Ghostbusters movies, watch Ghostbusters 2 or the

Ghostbusters reboot. But this one, whatever, you know, like again, fall asleep to it on TV. Well, the thing about the thing about the thing about that Ghostbusters is that Ghostbusters seems to understand that it's a comedy. Yes. And while I don't necessarily think all the jokes work, there are some, I laughed poor in that movie on this one.

Yes. Exactly. I think the, I agree with Dan that this, I don't think it's quite good, bad or bad, bad, and I didn't like it. This is a kind of a mediocre movie. And it is a movie that what really bothers me the most after I have complained about it for like an hour now, at least.

What bothers me the most is the first Ghostbusters movie, it feels like you are watching a movie that a crazy person had to make and pushed through for years. And you did because Dan Acroid is a guy who's obsessed with ghosts, his family has been in the ghost business for a hundred years. And he had to make's obsessed with ghosts. His family has been the ghost business for 100 years. And he had to make this comedy about ghosts and he made it and you can feel his kind of

anti-obsessive energy throughout the whole movie. This feels like it is a movie that was not made through it like a real overarching creative need. It was made because there's money to be made off a Ghostbusters movie. And they kind of, it didn't have that creative vision or that imagination or that freshness or that, you know, snap to it or funniness or New York or anything like that. It's a, it's, but it's a fine movie.

It's a fairly, it's a, it's a, just, you know, mediocre movie. Yeah, there's not much actual personality in it now. And if I didn't have affection for the original Ghostbusters movies, I would be like, whatever, you know, because it's fine. I will say to that end, Audrey gave me permission to say this, like she has not really watched the original Ghostbusters movie. She has no social ghostbusters. So when she went and saw this with me and our friends, like she was like, oh, that was fine. And I do think in a weird way, me and our friends, like she was like, oh, that was fine. Like, and I do think in a weird way, despite it being so painfully beholden to old ghost busters, it plays better if you

can just divorce it from ghost busters. And you're if, because if you, well, if you haven't, if you're not super familiar with the old ghost busters, you don't know how beholden it is. Yeah. Yeah. So speaking, so the original beholder Stewart, what do you think? Yeah, I mean, this is tough because it's like, there's parts that I like and I like a lot of the performances, but there's, it's fairly hollow. It's kind of, it's pretty bland.

But it's, I don't know, like it's, it's, it's one of those weird movies that hovers between a movie I kind of liked in a bad, bad movie. And that it's, it like, there's just not that much there. And it clearly, whether or not it was meant to be like a loving tribute, it turns into a weird cash grab

that's trying to reboot a franchise that, I didn't, going into it, I'm like, I don't care that much about Ghostbusters, right? Like, I don't care that much about the lore, but the movie's like, remember this, remember this. And it just sucks. So it says, you must remember this. I'm not into it. Yeah. A ghost, a kiss is just a kiss, unless it's on your penis from a ghost. Uh huh. Which if they did at least mention that, it would, that would have tied everything together. So let's move on to sponsors.

You know, the flop house is sponsored in the largest part by listeners like you, but we do have some advertisers, Elliott. I believe you're up first. That's right. The flop house is in part sponsored by BetterHelp Online Therapy. That's right, this podcast is sponsored by BetterHelp Online Therapy. You know what, relationships take a lot of work. We wanna do what's best for the people that we care about. We wanna help take care of them, but we have to take care of ourselves too.

That's something that's really important and it's very easy to forget during times of troubles, times of disappointment or depression, or just times when you're too busy and you feel like you don't have that time to spend on yourself. But you need to take that time to spend on yourself. One of my new years resolutions this year was to do exactly that, was to find that time

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So check out the Plus Platoon everybody. Check it out. Check it. I'm a psychic. My name is Psychic Carrie. I'm Ross. Oh, what a pleasure to meet you. Of course, I knew your name was Ross, as I'm a psychic. My name is psychic. Carrie. Yes. Oh, what a pleasure to meet you. Of course, I knew your name was Ross as I'm a psychic. But please take a seat. Well, I was hoping we could talk about my podcast. Yes, I know. It's called Oh no Ross and Carrie. Yes,

we investigate from science, spirituality, and claims of the paranormal. You took the words right out of my mouth. Yes, this whole podcast, it sounds like it's been a real challenge for you lately. Actually, it's a lot of fun. Yes, exactly. Because it's so fun. I don't know how you do it. This will be $75.

Okay, that seems fair. Oh no, Ross and Carrie. At MaximumFund.org. You knew it was a dot org. I have a gift. Schmanners. Now, definition. Rules of etiquette design not to judge others,

but rather to guide ourselves through everyday social situations. Hello internet, I'm your husband host Travis McAroy. And I'm your wife host Theresa McAroy. Every week on Shmanners, we take a look at a topic that has to do with society or manners. We talk about the history of it. We take a look at how it applies to everyday life, and we take some of your questions.

And sometimes we do a biography about a really cool person that had an impact on how we view etiquette. So join us every Friday and listen to Shmanner's on maximumfun.org or wherever podcasts are found. Manor Shmanner's, get it. Hey, let's go into letters. Why not?

Let's treat ourselves. Yeah, this first letter is first. Let's dig in. You only have to life once. You know, letters from Craig last name withheld. Team Ryzen. Craig T Nelson, I got to apologize Craig. I feel like I've been a little extra spicy this week.

I don't know if it's, guest busters, I don't know if it's. You're apologizing to Craig T Nelson. I'm going to apologize to Craig T Nelson. He seems sensitive. I don't know his full chart, but I guess he's got a lot of water in there. You don't need to worry about it. Particularly. Hey, this is from Craig last name with hell. He writes, hello, he knows, I was listening to Friend of the Pod, Matt Cawse's comedy album, insert plug here, great comedy album, check it out. It's available wherever you get those kind of things.

What's the title of that comedy album, Dan? Sam, hold on. It's something about little friend. Let me look it up, Matt. No, no, I'll look it up, Dan. You read the letter, I'll look it up. Comedy album. Well, it seems like you could have done this part if you're asking me the question.

Well, what I really wanted to do was have you admit on your little guy? It's called Who's My Little Guy. It's very like it's got a cute cover of him talking to a tiny version of himself. Anyway, I was listening to Friend of the Pod, Matt Klopp's comedy album Who's My Little Guy, and heard Dan's trademark laugh. This immediately transformed the rest of the album into a floppus universe property. I imagine that when Matt stepped up to the guests, I imagine that Matt stepped up to guest on a live show when Elliot and Stuart couldn't be there,

but Dan got too high and just left throughout. Has Matt ever been on the show? Matt's been on the show. He was way back in the day. But not when I was he was a replacement for me, I think that may be the case. This is funny though, because I remember Ellie when I was out visiting you in LA, Adam Lowe at maybe I think it was when I was visiting Ellie, Adam Lowe, an armutual friend, a former producer at the Daily Show. He was like, oh yeah, Dan, your laugh is all over that. I was like, I was listening to Matt Koff's album.

I'm like, well, there's McCoy. That's really funny. But Craig asks, what familiar site or sound encounter in a movie flooded your mind with thoughts of another film, Craig Lasting withheld. And I'm gonna, I don't have a film, but I do have like, I saw this in a movie and I'm like, well, I know these places. It was funny. There was a weekend where I had gone to some sort of like upscale Russian baths type place in Manhattan. I know where this is going. I'm not really sure. I can't remember the name, but like I've been there. You never thought it could happen to you. And then I went to the

I went to the, the right me, Silver Award, that same weekend, I went to the right, writer skill awards. I forget which venue it was. Maybe you can help me out, Elliot, but my point was, yeah, I think it was the Edison Ballroom. I went to these baths, I went to the Edison ballroom. And then very shortly thereafter, I saw John Wick, where a shootout starts in the baths and then goes upstairs, which in the world of John Wick is the Edison ballroom. And I was like, I mean, it's just at both of those places. They're not connected at all. John Wick is following me. Yeah. And lie.

I had, I had a, I have a similar thing. It's not reminding me of another movie, sorry, Craig T. Nelson, but there's two movies that, that one that I love and one that is terrible that both, when I saw them, I was like, I know those places. Similarly, one is the movie, The Landlord, The Halle Ashbury movie with Bo Bridges, which is a fantastic movie and was shot in Parkeslow, Brooklyn in the late 60s. And until recently, there were a bunch of locations in it that you just see very briefly that were things I saw, you know, every day walking around the neighborhood. And it was just very exciting to

see those places and be like, oh, that's what that was. The other one similarly is a bad movie called Robot in the Family, Strain Joe Penteleano and John Riz Davis. And this terrible movie, I was watching it years ago with friend of the podcast Eric Marzazak who was on talking about the years, not too long ago, talking about the years when we used to sit and watch bad movies. And so much of that movie takes place in the stretch of antique stores in Manhattan

between 14th Street, on Broadway, between 14th Street and like 8th Street. And it's this stretch that I walked pretty much every day when I was a student at NYU. And so I just have this fondness for this movie because I'm like, oh, this movie's terrible, but like, I know all those stores. Like I've walked by them so many times.

So it was like any, I wonder if that robot still lives in that area. Maybe any day I could have walked by that robot in that movie. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, so just you see it, it's fun to see a movie that's shot in a place that's not, I mean, you see a movie that's shot like, you know, famous location and you're like, you know, that location, but when it's shot in a neighborhood that you know well from your own life, you know, it's exciting. Yeah. Like what in the company, a man and that, that guys other movies that were all shot in my hometown for waiting to hear. Neil Le Butte. Yeah, Neil Le Butte. Um, you know, I, I was going to say, I feel like I have this

more often with music where I'll be listening to like songs and it'll make me think of other songs and I'll just go listen to them. But I actually want to talk about something else entirely, which was Dan's laugh, because the other day we were Dan and I got the host a screening of Coolas Ice that I mentioned earlier in the episode at the Nighthawk Cinema. It's great if you get a chance to go support the Nighthawk. And Dan had never seen Coolas Ice before, and I'd only seen it once when I was much younger. And it was so much fun to watch this movie with Dan sitting next to me when he would, I would get to listen to him crack up

at all the silly bullshit. And it was really fun. So I kinda, yeah, that's, there's a recommendation for Dan's laugh. Watching a bad movie with friends, which is kind of the premise of the whole. It's great, but, uh, no, that's, but if you haven't seen Cool size in a long time, get some friends together.

Watch that shit. It's a lot of fun. A lot of fun. Um, Aaron last name with held rights, our second and final letter of the evening. Aaron sort of was. It's, it's, dear flop house probably not. Probably not. It's probably not. It'shose. It's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's,

it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, to set the scene for my question, you should know I'm not a movie aficionado by any means. I frequently confuse actors slash actresses, I never pay attention to who directed a film, and before listening to your podcast, would never have given any thought to the impact, an actor versus writer versus director versus editor has on the end product. Basically, I'm a mindless media intake machine. I have a three-year- old who's starting to watch shows

and movies with me. I have a guilt around putting her in front of the TV. So I tend to comment a lot to try and keep her thinking and engage. It's usually simple things like, where do that bear go? Or what is that silly girl doing? Or that was funny. My question is, am I training her to be...

All of that could apply to the shining. I assume that's what you're watching. or that was funny. My question is, am I training her to be... All of that could apply to the shining. I assume that's what you're watching. Yeah, the shining. My question is, am I training her to be one of those horrible people who can't shut up while watching things? What are the qualities of a good movie watcher that I should be instilling in her? Thank you, Aaron Lasting with help.

I'd like to start off by just swaging some worries here. I think this sounds like good parenting to me. I'm not a parent, but engaging the kid, you know, like talking, making sure that there's guidance with the media. I don't think you have to worry. Like later on, maybe be like, okay, some people don't like to have people talking during the movies. We got to keep quiet in this situation.

But right now, I think you're doing just fine. What do you think, though? Yeah, I agree. I think that the main thing to, too, it's especially difficult during these COVID times where young kids are not really going to the movie theaters as far as I know, because at least my three-year-old is not because he's not vaccinated yet, and I don't want to risk that. But my older kids, and there hasn't been any Lars von Ty releases. And he's not interested until Lars, as he calls him, as until Lars VT has got a movie, Uncle Onki Lars, but I have taken my older son

to the movie theater and basically what I want to instill in him is, I mean, when you're at home, do whatever you want. We'll watch you talk. All bets are off. Do chores, do the dishes maybe, while you watch it on iPad. I think that's fine.

But when you're in a theater, just remembering that there are other people in the room and you don't want to impose yourself on their experience. So as long as you're not bothering them, you can kind of go ahead and do whatever feels comfortable to you. You just want to remember there's other people in the theater. And that's kind of all-indictive.

It's all about reading the room, literally. Yeah, I feel like me and you got a tin-coulder in the movie, make sure, try and sit closer to the aisle. So you're not block-name buddies here, because I'm also a large imposing man with these broad shoulders that I'm cursed with. And so the closer I sit to the aisle, the less I'll block people's view of the screen

so that I don't disrupt anybody's appreciation of Johnny Knoxville and the gang's hijinks. You don't need to be pitch silent during a, like, as opposed to pitch perfect pitch silent during a movie because sometimes part of the fun of you do have to be pitch perfect. You do have to be pitch perfect if you're going to sing along. It has to be pitch perfect too. I mean, if you're seeing the pitch perfect movies, uh, is is you want to be the reason you would go to see it in the theater is to share that experience with other people, with a crowd of people. And so like, if you're reacting to something, it's okay to have an audible reaction.

And sometimes that makes it a better experience. Like, there's, it's so one of the things I do miss is going to a movie and hearing people go like, oh, when a thing happens in a movie that or is exciting or unbelievable or everyone laughing at the same time, you know, that kind of thing. The first time I went to a movie after the first time after like the COVID lockdown, we went and Charlene and I went and saw nobody. And that was the big thing was hearing people react to like Bob Odenkirk beat the shit out of dudes. Yeah, or like the, a comedy movie is more fun when you're in a crowd that is laughing at it, you know.

Like aforementioned check ass. I also would like to say, you know, beyond just like taking it from a moment for a moment, beyond sort of just politeness and etiquette stuff since the letter writer kind of went out of their way to say, like, oh, I don't know this or that thing about movies. I don't follow directors. I don't follow actors. I think that for a beginning film goer, the best thing to think about is just like, what is this trying the movie trying to do? Like, let me engage with the movie on its own level. Like, what is the movie trying to do? How does it do it?

Like, that's still a little complex for a child as young as we're talking, but I think that's kind of the most basic level to engage with the movie. I don't know, I don't know about that. I think that that's, if you wanna be an aficionado, like she's describing, I think that is true,

but if you just want to be a movie enjoyer and you don't want to weigh yourself down with that stuff I think all you need to be aware of is am I liking this movie or am I not liking this movie and that's it like you that's I feel like if you're reviewing the movie you owe it to know what the movie is trying to do but if you're just there to see it then you know you're there for. I agree with you on the most basic level of just like, hey, if you just want to have fun, you know, I know girls just when I have fun, Cindy Lopper told me about it. I don't want to have fun too. And everyone else on the every other point on the general like fun is one of the top two

or three things you can have. But I like, if that's all you care about, sure, yes. I was just taking it beyond that. If we want to move it into like becoming a budding like movie person, I would say like figure out what a movie is doing and try and like meet the movie where it lives rather than you imposing like your own thing on a movie that which is also valid, but just be aware of it. But that's for further down the line. Yeah, yeah, sure. Um, hey, hey, you know what?

What? We all love how that's your all purpose segue for it. Sigma just. Hey, hey, guys, hey, I don't know if you noticed, but I'm in the room. Hey, buddy, let me tell you a thing. Uh, the next thing we do on this podcast usually is to recommend a movie that we liked. So what are we doing instead? Can you say usually that's what we're doing today? We're doing our usual. We're still doing it. Okay.

Oh, okay. We are doing the usual thing. Okay. Great. I, you know, to start off, yeah, I would certainly recommend just cool as ice if you haven't seen it. Yeah. If you're a person who listens to our podcast, you'll probably enjoy it. See it with a bunch of people. Don't see it alone. No, but I mean, you're right. It is one of those kind of movies where it feels like like party wants to be like, this is a dumb, bad movie. But if somebody had tried to make a comedy like this, they couldn't have done it.

That was my exact feel. Like, my take on Cool as Ice is like, this movie is basically the same as Zoolander. Like, it was a movie about a dumb narcissist who like everyone else treats as if he's like a dumb narcissist, but he's still kind of likeable. He dresses like the only difference is intent. Like one movie is trying to be a comedy. The other movie is like, I guess also kind of trying to be a comedy, but not the same way. Anyway, but what I will recommend is turning red. The Pixar movie, it's on Disney+.

I would have recommended it too. It's great. It's a real delight. It's, you know, it's a movie that is a a maybe a weird thing to say about a movie about a young girl who turns into a giant red panda the strong, the strength of it is how realistic and well observed it is it just seems grounded in real sort of younger teen lives in a way that Pixar hasn't done before, and it, you know, concerns itself with issues of like puberty in a like a much more like straightforward way than I would have expected. And it has a lot of cultural specificity about, you know, this character who is a young Chinese girl living in Toronto. Yeah, and location specificity. And, man, I just love the fucking, the character design of the

friends is so great. It's so awesome. It's really great. You know, if you've, if you've become maybe slightly disenchanted with Pixar, like, I think that they've had some great stuff, but it's not been like the series of like home runs that it was maybe at its height. Like this is one you shouldn't miss. It's, yeah, it's, it's so fun. It's so great. I'm going to recommend, I was, I was also going to recommend that as well, but that's fine. I also, I'm going to recommend a movie called Shiva Baby, which is another coming of age story similar to Ghostbusters. Man, we're on a tear here. I hope that one

cute. I don't really have a coming of age movie, but I can, I can throw into that framework. If you want, uh, Shiva baby, I'm going to recommend because it's both a good movie and it was shot only a few blocks from where we're Dan and I are sitting right now. It is about a young woman who attends the Shiva after a funeral and she has to see her parents who we learn is kind of like our paying her bills, but then at the Shiva, she also runs into one of her sugar daddies who is also paying her bills. And her only like port, her only friendly face is an ex-girlfriend. So it's this really interesting little, almost like a like a one location play where we're seeing this woman have to deal with the kind of various identities that she kind of has and also the

way that she exists in that like weird space between being a child and also being an adult and being a sexual being and also being a child. It's great. And it's also like 80 minutes long. So it's great. Perfect. Speaking of movies that are 80 minutes long, actually this one's about 85 minutes long, the cut I saw of it. I want to recommend an old movie. You know it, I love old movies. This is the movie Backstreet from 1932,

starring Irene Dunn. And it's the story of a woman's life starting in the early 1900s and going up to the early 1930s. As a young woman, she falls in love with a man who is already engaged to another woman and kind of allows herself to be termed into his mistress, not meaning for that to be the case, but that becoming her life.

And it follows as she kind of gets carried along by him and constantly persuaded by him to come back to him when each time she thinks she's going to escape and become, you know, quote, unquote, respectable woman, and how her life kind of becomes twisted around his. And it's a very kind of old fashioned melodramatic movie, but I loved Irene Dunn's performance in it. And I found it to be a very, in some ways, very clear-eyed movie about how complicated human love relationships can be, you know, and it was not the kind of movie that held this main character up for

shaming or dishonor or anything like that. Characters in the movie do, but I feel like the film is always with her. And I just thought it was a very melodramatic, in a fun way, but also a very kind of surprisingly mature look for 1930s movie at that kind of life of adultery and also to a certain extent being the kind of prisoner of another person's emotions. So that's Backstreet from 1932. Well, guys, we did it the afterlife. We crossed over.

You came back. We reported. Thank you for listening to the Flop House. If you have a moment, go to iTunes and leave us a review that helps spread the word about the show. It really does. Follow the Flop House pod on Twitter and the Flop House podcast on Instagram. And if you're over YouTube, we put up some videos from time to time

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Until next time, I have been Dan McCoy. I've been Stuart Wellington. I've been Elliot K Kalem reminding you that if you're listening to this on the day of release, you can still have for one day a chance to download our Masters of the Universe show from last week. That's the flop house dot simple takes dot com. And otherwise just saying goodbye. And I hope to see you here again, but not literally see you because it would mean you're in my house. And that would be creepy. I don't know you.

One, two, three. What fun. Three Ghostbusters movies. Actually, technically there's four. I'm looking forward to talking about all this stuff with just my two buddies. Two buds, no guests. Let's, this is great. two buds, no guests, let's this is great. easy easy peasy easy peasy and dilemma and squeezy maximumfund.org comedy and culture

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