The Flop House - FH Mini 152 - Birthday Movies

Episode Date: June 6, 2026

It's established lore that, growing up, Dan mostly got to see movies in the theater on his birthday, as a special treat. But what were those movies? And if you had limited birthday bucks (TM) to spend, were those movies BIRTHDAY-WORTHY? Subscribe to our NEWSLETTER, “Flop Secrets! It’s the best way to keep up on all things Flop House! Help support this show and unlock bonus content! Become a member at https://maximumfun.org/joinflop

Hey everyone and welcome to the flop house. I'm Dan McCoy. I'm Stuart Wellington. And I'm Elliot Kalen. We all did it. We all said our names funny. Hey, this is a flop house mini. Elliot saying bass.

Dan saying tenor? Tenor. What is it? Tenor, I don't remember. Look, Jewish people don't know that song. Anyway, moving on. I don't think anyone knows that song. anymore, although it's referenced on this show frequently for some reason.

Lost the time. This is a flop-house podcast, a podcast that is often about bad movies. We watch them, then we talk about them. But every other week, we do these minis where it's kind of more freeform. And I'm in charge this time, me, Dan McCoy. Danny's in the driver's seat. Driver Danny. We are.

Comes with all you see here. Yep. We are entering the month of June. And I know my co-hosts love it when I bring it up. My birthday is in June. That's my birth month. I refer to this before on the show. You're a Gemini, right?

Gemini, that's right. Gemini on the holograms on I. Makes sense. Yeah. How so, Stuart. You're the astrologist here. You're, let's dive into this. Well, you were born in June, right?

Yeah. You know, it's You got, there's kind of two sides Sedan. There's the outgoing side and the side that just wants to cuddle up and stay inside. Yeah, yeah, that is also called

being a human being. Yeah, sure. No, no, it's only people who are born in June. Sounds like real fire sign energy, Elliot. What's your sign? Sagittarius. Is that a fire sign? Oh, oh, oh, yes it is. Oh, wow. Well, I guess that proves it.

Anyway. Yeah. It's real, folks. Okay, boys, round them up. So back to the... What, the planets? Oh, we got what we need, boys. Swarm, swarm.

And all the planets get rounded up and thrown in jail. Back to the conceit of this many, though. I've referenced this before in the show that... That's your birthday coming up, yes, yeah. When I was growing up, my parents rarely took us out to the movies. Too expensive. At a certain point, though, all I wanted... Unlike nowadays.

Yeah, now when they're just giving movies away for free. Well, I mean, my parents did sort of claw their way up from lower middle class to upper middle class over the years. I saw it in the foods that I was fed when I was young versus how we eat now. But anyway. When they started serving you beef instead of whole grade blorp? Government blorp. This point is... I don't know why my tax dollars are going to buy in government blorp for some poor people.

Point is, at a certain... It should be going for bombing poor people in other countries. At a certain point, all I wanted to do for my birthday was to go see a movie. And sometimes this was the party that I had. You know, like my parents would take me and a few friends to a movie. I think a couple times it was just me. But I am going to quiz you on some of these movies that I recall being my birthday movies. Wow.

Okay. Because you would think a birthday movie would be like a big release. Oh, we're going to take Dan to see a big, great movie. Out of Africa. Well, I, you know, I chose what movie we were going to see. I was like, this is the one that I want to see. And my memory is not the most reliable, but to the best of my knowledge, these are all movies that I saw in the theater because it was my birthday pick.

And nobody look them up and find out that two came out in the same year. Don't Columbo Dan on this. We don't need to. And so this is structured somewhat like a game. I'm going to see if you guys can guess the movie from information I give you about each of these pictures. Out of Africa. Nope. None of them were out of it.

I still haven't seen out of Africa. Someday we will have to have out of Africa. None of us have seen it, right? And I refuse to believe it exists. There's no way it's a real movie. It was a big hit. Huge it. Yeah, I feel like we, aren't we going to do, like,

best picture winners that we've never seen or some shit? Maybe that'll be our flop TV. We got a lot of good ideas for Flop TV at Roots Ones. And we should start talking about that. We've got a set of meeting. We actually, if we're going to do it, we got to schedule it, yeah. Listeners, write in and tell us a set of meeting. Get into our Google calendar and put it on the...

Listeners, we don't want to use AI, so we need you as our agents that do these things for us. Yeah. Yeah, I'm going to see whether you can guess the movie. But then I'm kind of, I want you guys to discuss whether these movies were birthday worthy. If you only got to see a couple of movies a year, would these be films worth spending your birthday chit on? So you're like Charlie from Charlie in the Chocolate Factory. You get one piece of chocolate a year on your birthday, but it's a movie. Yeah, although.

I bet the gold makes the movie taste bad. I got to admit, I got to admit, this is how I remember growing up being, but then I was like looking at movies that were released. least in the same zone. And I'm like, oh, but I also saw that one. I'm pretty sure in the theater. So occasionally, like, there were actually... Maybe I didn't grow up in a house underneath the Coney Island Cyclone Island Cyclone, Roller Coaster.

Yeah. Maybe. Okay. So here's the first picture. It's from 1988. And the first bit of information I'll give you is the actor who plays the title character of this 1988 film gets third build. Uncle Buck.

That would be wild. There's no wait. John Candy's getting third billing and Uncle Buck. Who else is in the movie? Kieran Culkin? Charles McCauley Culkin, which Culkin is in that? It's a Culkin. Maybe this will help.

When they're born, they go, it's a Culkin. Maybe this IMDB goof will help narrow things. Is it the adventures of Ford Fairlane? No, that was late right? This goof points out that unless genetics work in a special way for the title character's species, he and his mate both blue-eyed

could not give birth to brown-eyed children. So that's a big genetics goof that this picture made. So we know someone is of a different... Is it Babe? Oh, is it Howard the Duck? I don't believe that Howard the Duck had a child in the film. Howard the Duck. He did in my unofficial sequel, Howard, too.

He practiced the act that would lead to children. That's true, yeah. Let's see. No, I'm going to need one more clue. Here's a, is it a Beethoven? A dog movie. It's not a dog picture. This one might give it away.

Young Dan was interested in this movie because he saw a making of that highlighted its new for the time and groundbreaking morphing special effects. There's a big morphing scene at the end of this movie. If you don't get it from this, the last one's a gimmy. Okay, well, wait, wait, give us a moment. Give us a moment. I remember when morphing, everybody's morphing these days. Everyone's morphing these days.

That's a video that I didn't even see. I know it as a reference that you make to a video that they used to watch at the Daily Show. We used to watch the Daily Show. There was a, I forget what's saying a comic it was, but he'd do impressions of presidents. And he decided to morph together all these different presidents. And he would just start, and we just, well, the reason we watch is because his intro was so forced. he goes, everybody's morphed these days. So I thought, what if we could,

what if we, what if I morph the presents together? So we would just say, we'd just walk around saying, everybody's morphing these days. And then when Morbius came out, we were like, everybody's morpid these days. Everybody's morbid these days. Everybody's norbit these days.

Especially Eddie Murphy. Oh, for sure. So it's something where someone, something morphs or someone morphs. There's another species. What year? 1988. 1988.

1988. And I know when you say it, I'll be like, Oh, right. The title character is the third build actor. So there are bigger names in it than the title character. Not that this will help you, but this is the one that I'm more doubtful about. Like, was this my birthday movie?

I saw it, but I did see it in the theater. So let me just move on to the last one will. It's not Teen Wolf 2. The last one's going to give it to you, I believe. young Dan had a big crush on the female lead in this movie. That does not. Joanne Whaley. Oh.

Joanne Whaley. I don't think this is as big a gimmy as you think it is, Dan. She used to be known as Joanne Whaley Kilmer, someone who might also have been in this picture. Oh. That involves new morphing effects? Yeah. The saint.

All right. All right. Well, how about this? George Lucas produced. Howard the Duck. No. This is real genius? This picture is titled...

Willow. Willow. Oh, Willow. Oh, there is morphing. Warwick Davis was third bill for Willow. Oh, yeah. Yeah, I think there were other gimmee clues you could have given us. That would have made it a little easier.

He married the name of the female lead. What? He married Sorsha. Yeah. Willow. So before we decide whether this movie was birthday, I did look up what other films were in release at the time. We have red heat, big.

Fucked you. The Great Outdoors. Crocodile Dundee 2, big business, Bull Durham, Funny Farm, Rambo 3, and The Presidio. Jesus Christ. Should I have gone to see the Presidio instead? Well, that last one I think you made up. But all the others, woof. Wow.

Yeah. Sin them on. You don't remember Mark Carmen and the Presidio? Big was such a huge movie. Yeah, big. I know. I saw Big in the theaters and I think I was seven years old. I didn't see it until BHS and I think I was interested in Willow because I didn't, you know, I had not.

It's a big fantasy movie. I had not yet learned that George Lucas producing something was a bad sign rather than a good. I was like Star Wars, George Lucas. I want to see Willow. And Raiders Lost Ark you produced. Yeah, yeah. But definitely my uncle took me to that. And I guess what loved it.

But you didn't want to go see the Great Outdoors to see the on-screen debut of Annette Benning. Really? Yeah, that's her first movie. Did she play The Bear? No, she's that big steak. Okay. She was in the makeup chair for 40 hours, yeah. Which was the one where the guys eat testicles?

Is that funny farm or great outdoors? Yeah. Where he keeps eating them and then he's going to break the record. He's breaking the record. and then he turns out their sheep balls or something like that. Four stars from Roger Ebert, Funny Farm. He loved Funny Farm. Loved it.

There's some funny stuff in Funny Farm. Yeah. It's not the title. It's right there. It's not called Serious Farm. It's not Cold Comfort Farm. I mean, knowing what I know now. Which is also a funny movie.

Knowing what I know now, I guess I would have chosen big out of these pictures. I, uh, Willow. I mean, as a kid, a thousand percent I would have picked Willow. You were also like a year or two older than me. So you were, you should have been past Willow time. Our mutual friend, John Holt, when he worked in a video store, they had the Willow test, which was if people were asking whether our movie was good or not, they compared to Willow. They're like, oh, that's a little bit better than Willow. That's worse than Willow.

And it was sort of like on the idea that Willow was like the lowest movie that you were like the lowest movie that you were. you could plausibly recommend. Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's funny. Willow is one of those movies. I mean, Val Kilmer's performance in that movie is, like, kind of incredible. That he is like... He's great.

He's so good. I have to admit, I saw Willow as a kid. I really don't remember it very well. And I maybe should rewatch it again sometime, but I don't know. It's a... So I can't accurately judge it, you know. Let's move on to... I hope you don't get too scared by all that morphing tech.

I know the morphing will really throw me off, yeah. I just showed my younger son, Labyrinth. He had never seen it before. Oh, sick. And I remember as a kid seeing that, thinking of that CGI owl in the opening credits looked amazing. And watching it now, I'm like, this is the worst thing in the movie. Other than some of the songs, this is the worst thing in the movie, is this owl?

Let's watch the next movie. You know, this is like a seven-year span. So there's not too many of these. Sure, sure, yeah. This next movie, the first thing I'll say about it is... Willow. The German dub of this 1989 film changes the name of the baby from Oscar to Donald. Oh, this is three minutes.

No, no, this is Ghostbusters 2. This is Ghostbusters 2. Yeah, yeah. Ellie got it right away. I was going to, like, just so we have more content, I'll say that the other clues were going to be. It contains cameos from Cheech Marin, Binstein, Chloe Webb, and Bobby Brown. There's a goof listed here. the camera

Vigo is The camera that Not from Carpathia actually But from Bohemia The camera that Vinkman Obviously I would have said Name redacted

But the camera that Vinkman Uses to take pictures Of the painting A Brooks very wide Would not be appropriate For this kind of photo shoot Even though the description of the camera

says when used properly It's great It's very sharp at every aperture There are no distortion And there are no ghost Oh. And, of course, that Elliot's boss is in this movie in a small part. Yes, yeah, that's true.

But yeah, as soon as you said, he's 89, baby named Oscar. Yeah, Ghostbusters, too, yeah. Yeah, no, a classic, the Scallari brothers. Yeah, I gave him the chair. Oh, yeah. The movie that introduced me to the actor, Harris Euland, yes. It always has a place in my heart, yeah. A movie that even as, I mean, like, I'm fond of this movie.

Like, there's good stuff in it. But even as a kid watching it for the first time, the only thing I remember really making me laugh in it is when the guy says, it's like, oh, well, it's like it's my favorite show.

That and Bass Masters. Bass Masters. It's a fishing show. It goes, I know Bass Masters. I mean, I saw that. I was the right age to see that in theaters and love it.

I loved that. Yeah, yeah. I was crazy about it. And adults were like, eh, it's not that good. And I was like,

shut your mouth. And now when I watch it, I'm like, yeah, it's not as good as the first Ghostbusters. But, you know, I still enjoy it.

And here's where I get a little confused about my own memories because I, the other movies at the time, the first one listed, this was second at the box office. And it had been out for 30, I don't know whether it was 30 days or 30 weeks. 30 weeks. It seems too much. It must be second at the box. The second place is Indiana Jones in the Last Crusade, which I also saw in the theaters. So, but we also have Dead Poets Society, Star Trek 5, the Final Frontier, see no evil, hear no evil, field of dreams, no holds barred, and Roadhouse.

Oh, wow. We used to have it so good, guys. We did. We did. I mean, I think those best were- Roadhouse in theaters. Well, I don't know. Again, I don't think it's probably not weeks.

Back then, but back then movies were in, like, you could say like, oh, Indiana Jones was and was also in theaters the same time, movies were just in theaters longer back then. The runs were longer. You could have, movies would close in one theater and open another theater sometimes still. It was,

it's conceivable that those movies, you would have seen them both in theaters maybe even a month or two apart, you know. No, it must have been. There's no way we would have gone out and seen them like back to back. But I would say Ghostbusters 2

is eminently birthdayable when you're, yeah. You didn't, you didn't really weigh in on Willow. I don't think whether you officially thought that was a birthday. You want my official? Yeah, sure. Why not?

Yeah. I mean, again, I don't remember the movie. I don't remember the movie. But I think a big fantasy film that I think it totally, yeah, let's go see that for your birthday, of course, yeah. Yeah. Yeah, certainly if I hadn't seen Indiana Jones, I would pick that one. But Ghostbusters, too, I remember having a good time, even though I was like, this is a mild disappointment to me as a big Ghostbusters. It's just hard.

That first Ghostbusters is a miracle. That first Ghostbusters is so magical, yeah. The also part of the birthdayable means that you are also getting your parents to go see a thing they might normally. not see. Yeah, that's true. So Willow fits that bill perfectly to me and Ghostbusters 2 to some extent as well. Yeah, although my dad was

a Bill Murray fan so I think he probably was like, yeah, yeah, yeah, let's take the razor's edge, stuff like that. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, yeah. Here's one that I think Elliot's going to get

immediately, but we'll see. I started out with an absurd clue because of that. The perverse part of me, even if I know it now, wants to say that I don't know it, but I may not know it at all. In this 1990 movie, one goof tells us that the stockings of the lead actress keep changing color. So that's just, in case you noticed it, a movie that, again, I thought Elliot would be so intimately familiar with that I'd start off on hard mode.

1990 movie. Yeah. The stockings of the lead actress keep changing color. Mm-hmm. I know. I don't know it. Intimately enough, I guess. Here's one.

Here's something that'll heat things up. It really makes me look badder after I knew a movie just from the name of the baby that was in it. When the redacted store pots and pans of steel in the microwave, they turn it on and it explodes. There may be sparks that's both, but a microwave. Yeah, this is Grimlins, too, the new batch. Yeah, of course. Yeah. When the goofy one, I forgot his name was going, ho, ho, ho, ho, ho, and just throwing them in there.

Yep. Is that Lenny? Lenny? Yeah, that's Lenny. George is the other one, yeah. I threw this in just as an extra because I knew you would get it by this point. This is a little trivia.

The only adults, the Grimlins, don't attack are Grandpa, Fred, and Mr. Katsugi, and Grandpa Fred doesn't seem scared of the Grimlins. This would have been... He interviews one of them, live on television. Yeah, this would have been partially explained had a deleted scene been kept. And this scene, Grandpa Fred initially thinks that the Gremlin's are some puppets introduced by his studio and carries on presenting.

He improvises and presents his show as Grandpa Fred and his friends, which the Gremlin's like and turn to face the camera alongside him. Oh, I mean, it's too bad they didn't keep that in because otherwise, I always wondered that because Gremlins 2 is such a tight puzzle box. All the logic tracks. It's such a logically rational movie. Yeah, yeah. When I was watching the movie, I was like, this one thing doesn't make sense. What is this more Gremlin? In this movie, Leonard Moulton

reviews the first movie and then the Gremlins kill him for doing it. I buy that. That's believable. I love that movie so much. Hulk Hogan stops the Gremlin. Now, when I saw it, Hulk Hogan was not in the theater with me and yet the Gremlins continued to play the movie anyway. Yeah.

The theater usher is clearly independent filmmaker Paul Bartel. And yet, you know. Clearly, clearly this movie was birthday worthy, but just for fun, I'll tell you what else was in the theater around this time. We had Dick Tracy, Robocop 2,

Total Recall, another 48 hours, the forgotten picture of Betsy's wedding, Back to the Future Part 3, Pretty Woman, Bird on a Wire, and The Adventures of Milo and Otis. Oh, that's a rough one. You should have taken your ass to Milo and Otis.

Yeah, because you like to see, gets killed right off camera. What are those adventures? What are they? Have you never seen the adventures of Milo Notas? No, I never saw it. I was not a fan of the genre of like real animals are on an adventure. Yeah.

That was sort of... You're like homeward bound, go wherever you want. I don't care. There's some good movies in there. You got some total recall. Yeah. No, I mean... Et cetera and other...

At all? No, I mean, like there are. The other ones are less... appropriate to my age at the time. Yeah. But of course, yeah, I think we can all get Gremlins, too, as a movie that should be watched by everyone on every birthday. Yeah.

Yeah, that's a birthday movie this year. Yeah. Yeah, a national holiday where we all just watch Gremlins too. I would love it, yeah. Okay, well, here's people who don't like Gremlin's too, but I don't want to know those people. No, I do not want to know those people, yeah. I'm just sad for them, honestly.

Yeah, like, what do you enjoy from? Yeah. Uh, okay. Birthday movies. Well, is this batch not new enough for you? Is that your problem? Yeah. Yeah.

So, birthday movies. So this is 1991. I just like it when a new sky rise that's high tech doesn't have problems with it. Yes, Elliot, you have caught onto the pattern. I am going chronologically. Okay. Did I say sky rise? The shadow.

Yeah. This 1999 picture. So not the shadow. The woman playing the mother is only 10 years older than the actress playing her daughter. Again, starting off on hard mode. Yeah. Not necessarily because you'll know it, but because there was a lack of material for this one.

There's a woman and her daughter, okay. Mm-hmm. So, yeah, just keep that in your back pocket. Mommy dearest. Yeah. I went to see a rep screening of Mommy Dearest on my birthday because I was a young John Waters. Oh, you wish.

So, okay, here's a goof. Here's a goof about this movie. Yeah. Let's hear it. One cannot make any sound when choking because the foreign body, in this case, the piece of meat, is stuck in the trachea, which is the air pipe. So air cannot go out. Hence, choking to death is silent. So that's a real big goof.

So someone chokes on some meat, but they're making. I mean, that's true. If you think someone's choking, if you ask them, are you choking and they can say yes, they're not technically choking, right? Like they should, if they can't answer, then they are choking. Yeah, that's just a little helpful hint From Surgeon General, Flop House Surgeon General, Ellie Kalin. PSA. Yeah, Dan is the Flop House Postmaster General

and Stewart is the Flop House Party General. Oh. Yeah. Yeah, if you have any guess. I think you're going to have to go on to the next one. Okay, do you have any ideas? These are tough. This is a tougher one.

It's almost like he's making it difficult for us. The actor who played the title character gave an interview to Entertainment Weekly Uncle Buck. Where? out of Africa It's not Uncle Buck Where he stated that he and his co-lead

Quote Didn't get along on the movie particularly But it worked for the movie I mean I drove him nuts And he encouraged me to drive him nuts What about Bob? What about Bob?

Oh okay Pew Pew Pew Pew Pew Pew I was gonna say Dutch I'm just gonna I'm gonna give you this last goof Because I find it funny Yeah

When When The title question is never answered. When Richard Dreyfus' character breaks into the store to get a weapon to kill Bob, he rejects a gun as, quote, too messy. However, the explosives he picks likely would have been just as messy, if not more. Got them. Good goof. Solid goof. Solid goof.

Yeah, where were the screenwriters on that one? Yeah, I got a fact check. The other movies and release, and again... What about Bob's another one? I remember very little about, even though it was when we watched multiple times when I was a kid. So the other movies and release, and I might have even gotten this one wrong because I, like, I saw, I also saw Robin Hood Prince of Thieves in the theater. That's a birthday movie. Yeah, for sure.

I, it may have been my birthday movie. I don't know. City Slickers dying young, the Rocketeer, Backdraft, Jungle Fever. Wow. Don't tell mom the baby city's dead. Babysitter's dead. The baby city. Baby city is dead.

Tell mom, baby. Baby city has been destroyed. It's been wiped out. God knows and stepped on the baby city. Oh, no. It had so many years left as a city. What's a town but a baby city guys? Yeah, that's true. Yeah.

Soap Dish, Thelman Louise. I just remember. Wow, talk about two movies that would be an interesting double feature. This little kid wasn't watching Thelman Louise. It may have been. But like soap dish I saw in the theaters. That's wild. I must have been nine or ten years old.

I definitely saw... I did not understand of it at all, pretty much. I could be wrong, but I very much feel like I saw Robin Hood Prince of Thieves either at my birthday or someone else's birthday. Probably. I definitely saw it as someone else's birthday. That is a birthday movie. It's a quintessential birthday movie.

That is like not to be, like, women or people of all genders can enjoy Robin Hood Prince of Theathes, but that is a very, like, young boy birthday movie. pick. It's got laughs. It's got action. Now, I keep saying, oh, I saw this thing in the theater. I should mention, I should point out, not to lord my economic stability over Dan's as a kid. But my family was the exact opposite where we went to see everything.

Like, we were constantly going to the movies as a family. So I saw so much stuff where I'm like, why did I go see that in the theaters? Oh, my family just was going to the movies. And so that's why I saw soap dish in the theater, having no interest in it, not understanding it, not liking it. Well, would you say, what about Bob's birthday worthy? Because I remember this one sticks in my head because as a child at least, I was very disappointed in what about Bob because it was not the Bill Murray character that I liked. Yes, it's a different kind of Bill Murray. Cool above it, Bill Murray, who is like quipping on the side.

I didn't like this guy who's being an irritant and ruining a man's life. I found that very stressful. But I could see you being like, oh, I want to see the new Bill Murray movie for my birthday. Like, that makes perfect sense to me. And you're like, my dad likes Bill Murray, so I want to take him to this. Yeah, I want to do something nice from my dad. That was definitely foremost in my mind as a child. This was the period, I mean, that's very sweet.

This was the period when my dad looked the most like Richard Dreyfus in his life. There was a period where the family joke was, oh, Richard Dreyfus is actually my dad, like under an assumed name because they looked so similar at the time. And this was the, what about Bob is the peak of, if you want to know what my dad looked like in 1991, watch What About Bob? And look at what your drive is. So did you enjoy seeing your dad driven mad? Who wouldn't?

I feel like, again, you're the opposite. You wanted to make your dad happy. And I was like, how do I drive him to the brink of madness? Can I play with madness in regards to my dad? Yeah. International Waters is back, baby. Do you like fun, silly conversations? Do you like fun, silly conversations?

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You just got to use there. What you see is what you get a drag-and-drop interface. So, if you're interested, head to Squarespace.com slash flop for a free trial. And when you're ready to launch, use offer code flop to save 10% off your first purchase of a website or domain. Um, let's, uh, let's move on to a next movie from 1992. Uh, out of the four films featuring this continuity of this character, the 92 installment is the only one with credits without the character's logo. So there you go. Uh, a little bit of boring trivia for you.

Four installments with this character. Mm-hmm. Uh, well, this sort of like general continuity of the character. Oh. James Bond. Is that James Bond? Here's one that you'll enjoy because it's the rare incorrectly regarded as goof. Okay.

IMD's best category, incorrectly regarded as goof, people bending backwards to justify various things. When Redacted plays the CD, just for fun, he scratches it back and forth like a record a few times. And it sounds like record scratches. Although the technology to do so in real life was not invented until much later. Redacted as shown having several pieces of advanced technology that were impossible for the time. So that was not really a goof guys. He just had advanced technology that could scratch CDs.

Advanced technology. For some reason. He thought it might be useful to do that. All right. Now I'm thinking it's not... Scratching CDs. Now I think it's not James Bond because I don't see James Bond scratching a CD like a record for a goof.

Those have been pretty cool, but... Yeah. Four, there's four movies in this version of the continuity of this character. Yeah. Is this a, is, is this a, is this? And the weird thing is, like Batman Returns, right? It is Batman Returns. Oh, okay.

Because technically those first four movies are all supposedly in the same continuity, even though they're wildly different in style. They're incredibly different. You have different actors playing Batman at different points. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I mean, they're all now in the, they're all now in the DC continuity, right? As of the Flash movie. Oh, right, right.

Yeah. But, yeah. So what a clue did you have for Batman returns? Well, I did have one more that was a gimmie that I just thought was fun. You're like Danny DeVito plays the penguin in this movie. It is penguin related. It is the trivia here is the production. Paul Rubens playing the penguin's dad?

No, no. I mean, well, he did, but that's not the... The production wanted to use king penguins, but the only tame ones in captivity were at a bird sanctuary and the Katswomen. deep in the English countryside. So the birds were flown to the states in the refrigerated hold of a plane. They were given their own refrigerated trailer and swimming pool with half a ton of fresh ice every day and had fresh fish delivered daily straight from the docks. Even though the temperature outside frequently topped 100 degrees,

the whole set was refrigerated down to 35 degrees. The birds also had an around-the-clock bodyguard. The birds clearly enjoyed the experience as, following their stint in Hollywood, most of them had made it and produced eggs the sign of a contented penguin. Oh. So that was a penguin vacation for these penguins. That sounds great.

I mean, if anything, that movie is worth it so that those penguins had a cool vacation, unintended. Also, the fact that it has probably two of the best supervillain performances of all time. In Christopher Walkenaz, Max Trekk, and that one guy who plays his son. Dad, save yourself.

I think that that, That trivia fact was written with a hint of like, can you believe they did all this for penguins? That's the least of what they should have done. I'm glad they took care of those penguins. Yeah, they should treat the penguin actors well. Treat the penguins as living things, yeah, that have specific needs.

So, Dan, what did you think about Batman Returns when you saw in the theaters? I loved Batman returns. I mean, I did, I do think that at the time I was a bit confused at it compared to the first Batman, which is like, Still Tim Burtony, but a much more straightforward take on Batman. This one is much more, it stops being a Batman movie for big chunks of the movie. Yeah.

Yeah, I was a little more mixed as a kid, but like Gremlin's too, where as a kid I was a little more mixed. Like I thought this was like kind of like a funny horror movie, not a like a cartoon come to life. I've only come to love it more and more over the years as I've grown used to what it is. So when I first saw Batman Turns I was like, I think it is birthdayable for sure That Batman was a huge movie You're gonna see the sequel Batman Returns

I remember seeing it and being like That was, I didn't, it made me really uncomfortable It was like this is darker and weirder Than I expected But I have come to like it more and more As time goes on I still don't like that Batman Just is shooting people

In the beginning of the movie But I do like But as opposed to Gremlins too Which I loved from the moment it started You know And you like it when when Gremlin shoot people on Gremlins too I mean, the thing is,

Gremlin's or villains. So, yes, I do like it when they shoot people. But Batman is a hero, so we should not shoot people. Especially when his whole thing in the comics, or one of his whole things is, I don't kill, I don't use guns. Like, at this point,

that had been established for, I think, 30 years at least, you know, so. Maybe I'm wrong about that. Maybe I'm wrong about that. But that's okay. I can be wrong about things. I'm not perfect. Just for context,

because I think it's kind of fun, the other movies that were big at the time. Yeah, well, what you have seen, yeah. We had also in the top 10, Sister Act, Patriot Games, House Sitter, Lethal Weapon 3, Far and Away, Insino Man, Alien 3, Class Act, and Basic Instinct. Now, most of those I did not see in the theaters, yet somehow far end away I saw in the theaters. My dad wanted to see it so badly. Really?

Because he wanted to see a historical drama. He was like, a drama about the land rush, yes, I want to see this. And we went to go see it. Ron Howard? Please. Yeah, I feel like, I don't think I saw very many of those in the theater, which is weird. I definitely saw Sister Act in the theater also. I weirdly saw Alien 3 in the theater, even though it seems like I still would have been kind of young for it.

But I did. I was obsessed with Alien 3. I didn't get to see it in the theater, but my parents saw it. And they were like, okay, you can rent it when it comes out. So I was like counting down the fucking days. I had like the Alien 3 trading card. I was like super into it. Yeah.

That was a little disappointed when I saw it eventually. Yeah, I was. Yeah. I still liked it, but was a little disappointed. It was one of those like, I like alien and aliens so much. Like, I have to like Alien 3. Yeah. But that's hard because it's, I mean, Alien 3 has, it has its ups and downs.

But like, to be coming after Alien and aliens, like, how do you follow that up? Yes. That's almost impossible. Okay. This is one that I think you're going to get almost immediately. What year is it? 1999. Jurassic Park.

Yep. Come on, man. What else are you going to see for your birthday in 1993, dude? Come on. Yeah. A summer movie in 1993? Are you crazy? Mostly, the biggest movie in the world, you're finally getting at to see realistic dinosaurs on screen.

It's your birthday. You're a young man. Yes, of course. This is what you're seeing. I'm just going to give the, you know, these were kind of... No, I went to see Rising Sun for my birthday that year. Like, what are you doing, Dan? These were kind of boring ones because I knew that you would immediately get it, so I'm just going to give you that little extra.

When Newman gets spit in the face. We got a goof here. Dinosaurs are not actually alive anymore. Hammond has a pronounced Scottish accent at the start of the film, which deteriorates markedly in just a couple of scenes by the end of the film. He has an upper-class English accent. This is something that I have never noticed in Jurassic Park. Is this true, Elliot? I, to be honest, I will have to pay closer attention.

I think I just, I'm so keyed in for dinosaurs. I'm not really paying that close enough attention to Richard Attenborough's performance, you know. I think it, you know what, but I bet it's, I bet it's by the end, I think his accent has become more like elegant, more than the final. So I think that might be true. That might be true. Yeah. This is a movie, like, I know that you adore it. Like, as a kid, like, I had just read the book and I loved.

I loved Stevens Spielberg movies. I loved Jaws a lot. And I was a little disappointed by Jurassic Park because I didn't feel like it had like the elegance of like some of that. I think that's true a little bit. I think Jurassic Park, if it wasn't for the effects, would not stand as high in Steven Spielberg's, you know, filmography. But like, I think you just can't,

you cannot overestimate the power of a movie showing you cannot see in any other way. That the only way you can ever see this is through a movie and to see it in a movie and feel like I'm seeing it, like it looks so real. And then we watch, it's one that my kids both like. Truly like the first time. Yes, for the first time, like for the first time, not just in movies,

for the first time in human history, you are seeing what it would look like if dinosaurs were living now. You just can't, it's something like I can't overestimate how amazing that is. Even though the movie itself, yeah, it's not, like there are sequences that are fantastic in it. But it's not, it's not E.T.

You know, it's not Raiders, you know, but it's still. But I mean, I saw that movie. I saw a sneak preview of it the night before it came out. So I saw it, it was an 1145 screening the night before it came out. Then after school the next day, I went to see it again. And then I think I saw it. I don't know how many more times in the theaters.

Like, I just couldn't get enough of it. Mr. and Mrs. Kalin, your son hasn't been in school all year. Well, that was like me. I remember going on a birthday party to see like a morning screening of Last the Mohicans. And then I went again later that night because I was like, this movie fucking rocks. Huh.

I mean, like, I, I, a lot of people love Last Samo Hikens. I saw that as an adult and I was like almost immediately bored by it. Yeah, I mean, I was a kid looking for battles. Yeah.

They served them up. The, I mean, Las Zohen's, I think as a kid, I found it very boring, but as a grown up, I think it's really good. But, but yeah,

but yeah, I just, I, but I totally get, you seeing it, you don't have the same connection to dinosaurs necessarily that I have. Yeah, I think that was a big part. That this was like, there was one, as I've said this many times to my family, there's one thing I hope I live to see. And that is real proof of extraterrestrial life somewhere in the universe. Like, I don't think I will live to see that, but I want more than anything else.

And like, next to that would be to see a dinosaur. Like, I know I'm never going to be able to do that. And so this is the closest I'm going to come. So you're hyped for Disclosure Day, I'd imagine. I've been, again, that's not, I've seen movies with aliens in them. Like, to see a movie about aliens is not as exciting, because I've seen that before, you know. But have you seen a movie about disclosing that aliens exist?

There's so many billboards about that in L.A. And I keep, and the font looks just enough like the font in the disclosure poster, that I'm like, is this about aliens sexually harassing Michael Douglas? Yeah. What's going on? You know, early reviews have been very positive. And I believe it because it's Spielberg, but like, man, those trailers do nothing for me.

The, like, one shot of the car bursting through a house, I'm like, okay. Yeah. For some reason, there's like, as we got closer to the present day, records got spotier on the two websites I was checking. I only have the top five for this. But, of course, Jurassic Park topped the weekend. And then we've got last action hero. Really the highest grossing movie of all time? to that point.

Last action here. That's an underrated movie. That's a fun movie. That's a fun movie. That's an underrated movie. That's a fun movie. Wait, did you say Unforgiven? Unforgiven.

Unforgiven and sin of a woman. Send a movement, I don't like that much. But the rest of those are those are really good. Yeah, it's a fun weekend. I don't like, I don't like sent a woman's record message, which is never rat. I know. Well, this is ridiculous.

I'm like, what the fuck are you talking about? The fundamental flaw with that movie is that Chris O'Donnell's character and Philip Seymour Hoffman should have been swapped. Yes, they should have been swapped, yeah. Yeah. Okay, we've reached the end. This is the last movie. Also, Al Pacino plays it a little subtle.

This is the last movie. But I appreciate you going on this journey with me. It's like you, it's like even though I didn't know you as a child, you've joined me on these birthdays. I wish. I wish we could have, yeah. But as adults, this would be weird. Yeah, that'd be weird. Yeah.

In this 1994 film, the female leads, the female leads gracelessness in the film stems from the first scene she shot. When she waited for the title character to help her down, instead he took her parasol and walked away. She tried to get it down alone and flopped the ground. The director liked it so much that he kept it in the film

and staged more scenes of her stumbling, being dumped through windows, etc. So we got a parasol. What the mummy? Parasol. By the way, the mummy is a perfect birthday gift. No, it's a birthday gift. It's a perfect birthday movie.

Someone's got a birthday? Give them a mummy. It's already wrapped. Just give them a mummy. It's already wrapped. It's wrapped. Yep. Don't unwrap it, though.

Don't unwrap it, no. No. Comes in the gift box. Here's something that might help you out. I'm going to need one more, yeah. Anachronism. Okay. The playing cards,

user of the tournament, have rounded corners as modern decks do. Yep. It's Maverick. Oh, yeah, Maverick. I like that one. There you go, yeah.

And this extra bit of... Are they saying those those playing cards are too modern? They wouldn't have had rounded corners. No, they would have straight corners. This last bit of goofery, I liked, and it's actually, it makes a good point.

In the final hand... Sometimes goofs are right. Dan, Dan, he gets mad at goofs when they're wrong, but he'll give him credit when they're right, you know? No, it's true. This one... Makes a good point. In the last hand, the dealer, who was in on it with Angel,

swaps out the shuffled deck with a stacked one to give Angel a small, straight flush. However, that would work only if the other two players had really strong hands, but not as strong as Angels. Commodore had four of a kind, which fits, but stacking the deck in such a way that Maverick gets a royal flush in the same hand makes no sense. And that is true. but so the ghost of William Goldman

please come and answer for your crimes I mean of which dream catcher would be the main one right? Yeah, that's a distance second Very distant. Okay, so what were some of the other

movies against Maverick? This was one I did not see in the theater. I saw it on video and I remember I think watching it twice I really enjoyed it. I really enjoyed Maverick. I saw in the theater also and I really liked when I saw. And I remember this was one of those movies where

it was not a big hit. It was like, it did well, it was a hit. But it was, but I remember people being like, eh, that wasn't so good. And I was like, really? I really liked it a lot. I haven't seen it in years. It's just like a farm like light comedy. You know, like obviously Mel Gibson is hard to watch these days. But, you know, Joey Foster. Yeah, that's going to be a tough one for me to revisit without watching it.

James Garner always goes down easy. James Garner is so charming. Jody Foster gets to do comedy, which he rarely gets to do. And she's funny. Which is too bad because Jody Foster is so funny. Joey Foster can be a very funny performer. I wish she got to do comedy more often. But yeah, for some reason, and I looked on various sites,

but for this date, my sources only gave me as other movies, the Flintstones and Schindler's List. So the real gamut there. Again, both movies I also saw in theaters, but yeah, I think Schindler's list is not really a birthday, really a birthday movie. No, I don't think so. I think that might make you a little sad on your birthday.

I feel like going to see that on your birthday is a bit of a Shonda, right? I mean, the opposite of the Shand, it's a mitzvah. You know, you're remembering those who we've lost on your birthday, but it's not a fun thing to do, you know. Yeah. But at the end in the Flintstones is, yeah. I've never seen the Flintstones movie. Is it something I should watch?

I haven't, I've not seen it since I saw it in the theater as a kid. Do you like corporate entry? Yeah, it's another, it's like, here's a movie about cavemen. And they live alongside dinosaurs, but most of the movie is about who's going to get, control the corporation. And it's like, who cares? There's so many of those movies.

Who's the evil guy, Rob Lowe or some shit? It's Kyle McCleck. Kyle McLaughlin. Kyle McLaughlin. Yeah. Does he do anything that's like psychosexual? Not in the Flint's. I mean, he does have like a secretary that he's having a sexy relationship with.

Yeah, the Hallie Berry character. She's playing. She's playing Sharon Stone. Like, I think that's the name that they gave her. That's the joke. That makes sense. Yeah. Um, I mean, it's a movie that, like, has amazing production design, but it just, like, fails at understanding what anyone might want to see in a Flintstones movie.

It is not a, it's just not a very, it's just not a very funny movie. And I mean, the one joke that I remember from it is there's, they're all these kids playing at a playground. And then a tyrannadon, you see its shadow swoop by overhead and everybody runs away. And then just a huge, enormous amount of bird shit falls on the playground. And, like, that's the joke. That's it. You know, that's the level of the movie. So, and that's the one joke in the movie that was funny enough that I remember it.

Yeah. Well, thank you for going on this birthday odyssey with me, this remembrance of things passed. This has been the Flop House podcast, a podcast about movies, usually bad ones. We're on the Maximum Fun Network. Go to Maximum Fun.org to check out other great shows in the network. Check out Howell Dottie. Just try and figure out how it's spelled and Google it, and you'll see what our producer Alex Smith is up to.

A lot of fun stuff. You'll enjoy that as well. But for this Flop House Mini, I've been Dan McCoy. I'm Stuart Wellington. And I'm Elliot Kalin, wishing Dan a happy birthday in the future and a happy many birthdays of the past. Oh, thanks. No, that's pretty sweet.

And many birthdays in the future, too. I'm not saying this should be the last one. God will. So let me, let me, let me, let me, let me, Don't cut that out, but let me say this being better. And I'm Elliot Kalin, wishing Dan McCoy many happy birthdays for those we've missed and those

yet to come that we will celebrate with him. Oh, an excellent toast. Thank you. Maximum Fun. A worker-owned network. Of artists' own shows. Supported. Directly.

By you.