The Flop House - The Flop House: Episode #29 - Step Up 2: The Streets

Episode Date: January 11, 2009

0:00 - 0:31 - Introduction and theme0:32 - 2:00 - We reintroduce ourselves, after our long winter's nap.2:01 - 33:51- In the long tradition of dance films, this is certainly one of them.33:52 - 36:40 - Final judgments36:41 - 43:25 - Letters from listeners.43:26 - 54:33 - The sad bastards recommend, New Year's special - our top five films of the year.54:34 - 55:50 - Goodbyes, theme, and outtakes

In this episode we discuss the dance film Step back to the flop house. And I say back because we've been gone for two weeks. How you doing? Stuart's here. Stuart Wellington. Hey. Stuart, Elliot Kaelin. There's a lot of Elliot K Kaylen in your ear right now.

And me Dan McCoy. And is this the first clubhouse of 2009 AD? Yeah, it is. You know, we took two weeks off, and I know that you over the Daily Show also took two weeks off. We took three weeks off. And you can get away with that, being a popular beloved program.

Yes. Do you think that we can get away with that? It's possible our fans have forgotten we exist. All right. What's what's the daily show? Well, it's hosted by golfer John Daley Okay, and as all of my dad and mom's friends think when they ask me about it and Sounds good. Yeah, they're like how's your golf game these days? No, they go. How's the John Daley show? I'm down a par I assume I'm assuming that you're currently above par far above par. Yeah, so Parza is a dream. Yeah, I got a mini golf course or

Any kind mini golf maxi golf regular regular golf. Okay, Mario golf sure we golf We golf that's what's called we golf Nintendo We golf and also w e golf which is smaller than many golf okay, I don't know that existed Well, I it doesn't yet, but I'm patenting it okay, but we didn't watch a golfing movie No sir, we watched a much more active past time and that's good. That's dance the world of dance the magic of dance Absolutely, we watched American primitive the Martha Graham story past time. And that's dance. The world of dance. The magic of dance. Absolutely. We watched American Primitive, the Martha Graham story. We watched the Catherine Wheel by directed by Twilight Thorpe. No. The company directed by Robert

Oliver. We watched a... It was just called company. Step up to the streets. That's step up to the... The number two. Yeah, yeah. Like it was called Untitled Dance Project, and then they like the writer texted the title to one of the producers, assuming they'd know that it wouldn't be the number two real like. Yeah, exactly on his sidekick. And they were like, oh, okay, step up number two, the streets. Well, I mean, you may think that prince named the movie but it's actually a sequel

it's a sequel as i gather to the film step up uh... although screenplay wasn't like kicking around hollywood for years now it's not like the unforgiven screenplay where it took twenty years to make it you know it may have been because this is an old robert town screenplay at the beginning of his career polsrader took a pass on it as far as i'm able to gather via i'm db none of the characters from the original

step up are uh... you know reprised in this film they don't repair this is the reason for that yet has the same uh... maybe it's in the break dancing tradition with breaking and breaking to electric blue where there's no carry-over there's no rush which like carry and carry to the rage carry to the rage sorry yeah the rage carry to that's more of like the rage carry to is more like evil dead to where they're just like you know that let's make a sequel but let's just remake it yeah I guess so but where would you place this movie on the

dance meter zero meaning no dancing and 10 meeting too much too much dancing So you just the amount of dancing we're talking. Yes, so what are you saying? I put this like an 8.5 yeah, wait on your scale 10 actually exceeds the how much you actually want to have yeah You want to see like a nine. Okay, 10 is like a little bit too much like nine is like a big good dinner and 10 is like Oh, oh, I ate too much. It's like big good dinner and ten is like, oh, oh, eight too much. It's like you get an A plus thus you're irritating. That's exactly. Okay, that makes sense. It's supposed to an A minus the coolest of the grades.

Sure. Yeah. Because it's like, I'm good, but I'm not so good that I can't relate to you still. Yeah, or maybe I don't need to try too hard. Yeah, that's the other one. I'm okay with passing by in the top level, but not the top top level. So you think that step up to the streets has is an eight out of a 10 meter dancing. We're out there.

So it wasn't irritating, it was almost perfect. In terms of amount of dancing. Just the amount of dancing. I'm not just a mountain, we're not talking about quality. Yeah, in terms of amount of dancing that's actually about the number of dances and length of dances. I would expect out of a dance film And can you compare it to another movie that features? I would imagine a lot of dancing so that our listeners can like understand Like a moon on Rouge sort of thing that Chicago thing. Yeah, it's it's kind of Chicago

We not as much dancing as Chicago where there's almost every scene is a dancing feel like okay if I'm remembering it correctly I'm not in amount of dancing and and only in amount of dancing I would say that this ranks above singing in the rain because and the rain ends with a huge long ballet dance that I don't want to see doesn't end with it alright that is a chunk you're thinking of american in paris yeah that's right and there's a big there's a big chunk in the middle is it like the end of uh... the uh... the

uh... tachecha katano zato each movie were all the same as one dance that's just one dancing but it it's more dancing than seeing the rain but less dancing than it to invitation to the dance the all dance movie the g Kelly did i haven't seen this number and i'm in the missing in the rain uh... not that i can remember what about what am i missing uh... like a fun like pure fun anyway

should we talk about what was in this movie please talk about the plot because uh... alley has been informed by friends that we do not clarify the plot enough up top people are to there they think it's too much of a mystery what we're talking about when we talk about uh... you know twenty seven dresses uh... you i didn't understand what was going on in the movie with all the dresses and everything you didn't cover it well enough so who wants to summarize i'll do it okay so uh... there's this girl who it is andy

yeah and she's part of it is i never caught that once it's a pernames and hour's Andy. But her friends call her D. Okay. She's a little like girlfriend's nickname. So she's part of a dance crew in inner city Baltimore and they do all kinds of wacky dance stunts. Yeah, the movie opens with them prank dancing on a subway car where member after member of this dance crew takes off their their everyday person costume and does annoying dancing that irritates people who are trying to get home from a hard day work mainly people just seems to price it's not like when i went to people are

dancing on the subway when i'm on the subway and i just trying to like i lift up my book or magazine to pretend you can't see them already ready to feeding the purpose of summarizing up that. Well, no, we're explaining. We're explaining this scene. So she's part of this dance crew, right? And apparently they are public enemies number one because of the fucking news.

It's like a story of a dance crew. Oh, yeah, they do. A dance crime. So I never really got picked up again. That dance crime story. Yeah, that's true. So her mom's dad, this is her mom's best friend. Yeah, it's like, yeah, it's her guardian. And she's like, uh, if you don't shave up, I'm going

to make you move to Texas, which obviously there's no dancing. Yeah, there's no dancing at all except for the boot scootin boogie. And she does not want to do that. Yeah. She made that pretty clear early on the film. So one of her friends is like, yo, if I be chewing a dance battle, then you're going to have to go to the Maryland School of Arts. And she's like, just like, f that dog. That's what tough dancers are always trying to get people to do. They're like, I'm gonna trick you into higher education. You got served matriculately. Yep. So, so after a few servings, she goes to the... She ends up enrolled in the Maryland School of Arts, where, of course, the teachers frown upon her

street styles, and then somehow she gets kicked out of her old dance crew. She forms a new dance crew with the nerdy kids at her school, including some of the rich white kids at her school. Who are all amazing dancers? Who are all amazing dancers in their own kind of special way and then when they try to enter the world of underground street dancing they get frowned upon and they get served pretty hardcore yeah and then they end up breaking up because she gets kicked out of school and then somehow they all come back together for the big final dance off

and then win the day and then there's making out and they convinced the head of the school who stops by and watches them dance in the rain to for a crowd of thousands. It seems that she should be let back into the school. And well, and he originally goes to the dance competition to like break it to put a stop to this. Yes. Which of course he doesn't instead he is maybe the whitest character I've ever seen in

a film. Yeah, he finds, you know, he finds- The dangerous dance, not the biggest. He is maybe the whitest character I've ever seen in a film. Yeah, he finds, you know, he finds a spot in his heart for street dancing. And once again, just in time for all the characters to pretty much start making out in the rain, which is just how I like all movies, Dan. Well, there are two strands of modern dance movies, and I honestly think that every dance movie made,

post-1980, is either one or the other plot and they haven't discovered how to work dancing into other plots and that's the footloose plot where dancing is not allowed but some rebel just has to dance. And often this rebel has been sent there from some place where there is a lot of dancing. Sure. And so they want to continue their dancing ways. Dance of Aenea, if you will. And this movie starts out, you think it's going to be that one, because there's talk of

her son being sent to Texas. That's a red herring, though. And then there's the flash dance school where someone uses their street dancing or unconventional dance skills to shake up the stuffy world of dance and that's definitely what this film is well they all on one of them glad about is that they're finally showing that uh... break dancing can be culturally acceptable dancing to

a mere twenty years after that case had been made to the general public already what i would like is that it shows that it's like a movie where like a rock star proves to a classical music conductor that rock music can be music To and it's like okay. I mean I thought that it's like 35 years ago But it's not just that it's also music or also an acceptable art form, but in many ways it's better That's well, that's the unspoken assumption that I hate in these movies where it's like old culture Boring this is the new stuff, and therefore, it is evolved into this.

Yeah, well, and you know what, in this sort of like strain of dance film, there's usually that thing where, oh, I can use ballet in my break dancing, and that will improve it. That's like that, that's their like, soft to that idea that other arts are valid. Maybe the entirety of human history until this point isn't completely useless.

If it can help me in my breakdancing. And this film breakdancing trumps it all. It reminds me a lot of the movie, for the Outliners, where the... I can't wait to hear this parallel. We're the Med students decide to figure out a way to beat death using their own brand of new science and how new science.

And how old science. Kevin Bacon's gonna kick out of school. Kevin Bacon's about to be kicked out of school. That movie stops me interesting about halfway through because it's like, we're gonna stop our hearts and then start them up again. Like that's kind of an interesting to see what happens. But the ghosts of the people you wronged in the past come and get you is not really a lot of it

Also, it's one of the really boring way to in a really boring way. Yeah, it's a horror movie where the The antagonist ultimately is shown to be trying to help like this is my least favorite type of horror I was like oh, I shouldn't have been scared all along. That's a problem with the sixth sense is wait wait a minute There was no danger ever at any point ever. That ghost was just trying to show me the giant horde of treasure under the house. For it!

Yay, thanks ghost. Now I can finally fund my unrealistic business idea. Time to build a ghost mansion. Like a beetle juicer. Wait a minute, this ghost just wanted to be famous. Let's invite other people to our ghost house. Yeah, that sounds great. That's the story of the haunted mansion. And so that's kind of what I learned about that's kind of what I learned from watching step up to the streets was that new dancing is way better than old flutty-duty ballet dancing ho-hum

Well now we've given the as the kids would say ho-hum Now we've given the overview of the rig we can circle back and get it a little more detail and yeah Certainly it's a very strange as we said beginning where the guy serves the girl into The Maryland School of the Arts. I'm just impressed. He disappears from the film. He pulls his hood, his hoodie back up over his head and walks away like a man doing. What I like, let's, we have a... Paul Hogan, not a name. The main location of this movie, which is a club called The Streets, which represents The Streets.

If I was doing the play sets for this film, there would be three of them. There would be Andy's house where she argues with the mom mom and sister figure come with that said who by the way is played by kima that or the actress who played kima in the wire which is funny because this movie takes place in bultmore so many bultmore so i like to think that the

team also came as job is is a is a is you know still a cop charm city then the second setting would of course be the school school play set, which would come with like ballet accessories. And the third would be this club, the streets. And what's amazing about it is they had the foresight to have a floor with removable panels and underneath our trampolines for debt for double awesome dance moves.

And you know what you're thinking at home to you're like a dance with trampolines that sounds awesome I'm gonna run out and rent step out to the step up to the street step out to the street step out to Warner Step out to show. Why don't we step out to the streets tonight Step up to the streets. Let's step out to the streets. Hey, Bailey, where you going? I hear the streets is pretty good. You know, the thing about that trampoline dance

is that it could have been accomplished if they just put mattresses on the floor. It's not like they know it's not an exciting dance. It wasn't really as good as trying to get it. And it kind of would have been cooler with mattresses because it would have been like, there would have been a homemade aspect to it, like sure. Oh, okay, they brought these old mattresses

that they found to this warehouse site, and that's the that's the club like a junk man that plays like an old watch the base is just a string on a on a broom stick attached to a bucket well you don't realize is that they they actually built the club on an abandoned trampoline they discovered they were tearing up the floor. They're like, oh man, there's a trampoline there. We should just leave it. Ancient Indian moonwalk bounce graveyard. Ancient Indian trampolines. Those trampolines are actually dream catchers.

Dream bouncers. I don't like this dream. Send it away. Boy. And then they use hip-hop music to take the dream up into the stars where the angels create them. Now, let's... now the plot itself, this movie is pretty pro-forma. I think what it comes down to is the dancing. That's why you watch this thing.

A lot of classic musicals, your stair-rodgers, your gene-cally. Like, the reason you go see them is the dancing in a lot of ways more than the movie. Like, if the movie around the dancing is good, it's kind of a bonus. It's like a martial arts film exactly where martial arts film you go for the fighting or a marks Brothers movie where you don't care about the romantic leads Well, that's I would call it I would say that's a little different what you should go on there for the marks Brothers and then there are all these scenes of but in theory that movie is mostly marks brothers In theory like the romantic leads are in addition they're not yet i think what we're talking about is this movie is like a martial arts movie in that every every scene you can

imagine the screen writers like case how can i get get everybody to start dancing mhm exact like the dance the dance challenge the dance the chocolate inside of the the candy shell but the candy shell here doesn't matter It's it's what I'm guessing the high school musical movies are like but I haven't watched those yet high school musical movies are actually much more like a classic

Musical I saw the first one because I was like Sarah my wife's network curious What is this high school musical that's sweeping the nation and and tweens I don't get it all you chwing listeners to the flop house Yeah, right in and explain high school music sure if there are any and also explain right in and make us feel weird about it between Why does why in Hannah Montana is Miley Cyrus the ultra-ego of Hannah Montana rock and roll superstar But her dad is Billy Ray Cyrus country music superstar Why did she have to hide her identity yep and twilight what's the deal yeah why is wait are they are they of age they're not their high school students their high school students so they are not last time I checked vampires it was better when they had sex with people yeah let me just tell you that

yeah enough said I think we imagine the movie so you can imagine the movie the hunger with no sex in it. I can't or The little vampire embrace the vampire or embrace wait embrace the vampire. Yeah, embrace it with a little small on I'm saying and Jennifer Tilly for a second. I thought you meant a shadow of the vampire With a lot of sex. There's no sex in it for second i thought you meant uh... shadow of the vampire with the list of the there's no sex in it it's a lot of uh... i got to see that that's a movie i haven't seen a lot of time that's pretty it but anyway that what you're trying to get at was that the dancing in this was

not that it is it is very subpar like my golfing should be if i practice more now uh... one might think through elliott's uh... you know name checking of uh... gene kelly and uh... a star that he is rube keeler simply and old before his time uh... cranked and you'd be right you'd be eighty percent right

but as someone who uh... with his wife watches and unironically enjoys um... so you think you can dance partly partly because it has a lot of hot women and tights this is not good dancing you can see better dancing on any episode of the four-mentioned show the new way that we were aware of american any episode of the water you would see better dancing on this show

multi popping and locking all over the place crumpled that's a type of dancing i think here's the the problem with with a lot of the dancing and jump up to the street's second edition. It's like... You actually got the title wrong. Wow, did I? Just keep going.

Oh, crap. This is not everyone knows, I'm not a special. Okay, no one will notice. The dancing is not... It's almost not enjoyable to watch. It's not very fluid. It's, and that might be just the style of dancing. Yeah, workmen like, or it seems like you're watching stop-motion animation.

That's not a lot of care was put into. I mean, it is that style dancing. It's, it's, it's the style of dancing. The purpose of it is to show that you can show how much control you have over each individual part of your body as opposed to like using your self-evading. They don't really give it a time to be like, oh man, I'm breath is being taken away, but what the human body can do. I actually cannot apply any kind of judgment to the quality of the dancing. Other than it was awesome. I said it. The other thing about this dancing, the reason that she gets kicked out of her dance

crew is because she keeps missing rehearsals and things like that. And at a certain point, you're like, wow, these young kids are putting a lot of work into their dancing. Yeah, really organized. It really organized and really strict. And it doesn't seem like fun. It's like a movie about a young kid where sports is the only way he's gonna get out of the inner city, so every day he's out there playing

even when he doesn't want to. That's how it feels about dance. Right, but it doesn't seem to be building towards any goal. No, they're not trying to get work as dancers, you know? Well, it's not, and her stepmom or whatever's like, I'm gonna send you to Texas. It's not like she's been sitting around or sweatpants like smoking weed or something.

No, she's been practicing dance at Dan night. Yeah, she dances all the time. Like it's, it's like, Dan's is gonna get you to trouble someday. Exactly, that's the thing. It's a gateway drug to other movements. She's gonna dance her way into the prison or something. But it feels like.

Well, it's a dance your way into prison, the guards close, the door. There's one scene. You can get back out. There's one scene where one of the music school kids is beaten up by the old dance crew and if it wasn't for that scene you'd think this movie took place in a universe where dance where violence was entirely through dance like people only fought and killed each other in dancing and gangs and all day in Baltimore the murder

capital of America but it seems like even them beating him up fell a little bit like their dancing like there's a little too much like hopping around they snuck a little dancing into that but also without the beating up scene you'd be kind of like uh... this is a strange formula for a movie where we're asked to cheer on the snops from the rich art school versus the street dancers yet the message was very much that art school students

are are oppressed as opposed to minorities who, I guess they're only outlet is dance. Right. I mean, the only way that they may bat. We're selling heroin on the street. The only way they may that work. That's really an outlet. Is to have the leader of the dance crew just be a total dick.

He's like, what? You've been going to the Maryland School, the arts behind our back. You're out of the crew. And then he's just a jerk. been going to the Maryland school the arts behind our back you're out of the crew and then he's just a jerk every time he shows up in the movies it's amazing how uncongratulatory her friends were about her getting into a prestigious academy and maybe making a career at a for you know her one talent well you know there's it wasn't acting I'm so forth other comedy sound effects Hey, what was that what was that movie with Eminem in it eight mile? Yeah, that's what this movie was a lot like

It was a dance except for eight miles Directed by Curtis Hanson so it was a lot better than it had a director of payback. Oh, he didn't direct payback Somebody else directed payback the directed payback. Oh, geez. I don't remember his name, but I just watched the director's Ryan Hagland I think oh I watched the I watched the director's cut of that and it was a really crappy So we're not new Brian Hagland melgibs a better movie. Yeah, right. Our LA confidential. Oh, that's why I got a mixed up because of the LA confidential. Yeah, right, right, right, right, right, right, right, right, right. But a mile is like a rap version of this. Yeah, that's why I was trying to sell it, right? Yeah. And just like he they're always working on their dance moves on the subway. So it's just like rhymes on the bus. What just like heat? No, I didn't say that. Okay. It's just like they're always. Oh, okay. That makes more sense. I don't know. He it is a lot like heat though.

I was maybe because the scene where they finally the two teams finally meet up is just like when Al Pacino and Robert and Ero finally sit down together. Yeah, and there's that big automatic weapon bank robbery in the middle of this movie. That was surprising. Yeah. most entertaining part of it though and it was like thirty minutes long forty minutes exciting electric so yeah there's uh... there weren't nearly enough montages in this movie as expected there only about only about three i was really disappointed there wasn't when the uh... when the rival uh... you know the actual intercity dance crew shows up and uh... as as payback for there's payback again.

As payback for the art students, the art school students like burn on them by like putting an old fish in that one guy's apartment, they try to get back at the art school students by just like fucking up their dance studio. Yeah, spray paint everywhere. Not being taken over. I was really, really hoping there's going to be a montage. I'm cleaning up montage. Yeah, because they had like, because they're, they're, their teachers like, I expect you guys all to clean this up. Yeah. Like, that's weird. That's when everyone from

the neighborhood should pitch in. Yeah, absolutely. Just like insist direct. Yeah. Or that, that one, the main character's one inner-city friend who doesn't really go to the school, but she seems to hang out with him a lot. I think's auditing classes. Yeah, she should be there too and helping. Yeah, she is part of the problem I have Stuart mentioned some dead fish a moment ago. This bears circling back and explaining After they get served pretty good job You didn't explain it all actually After the rich kids get served. The good guys get served.

They learn that the only way to say challenge these guys to another dance to get their rep back is to prank them on video and by putting it on the internet where it will of course immediately get back to spread like wildfire. I think his name was Tuck. The biggest viral videos are the dance viral videos. So one of the times I always look at it on the internet. And they appear to get back to them within the afternoon once they post it. Well it was probably like on the dance message board.

Yeah, but what happened? The video clip was right next to the one where the monkey peas and it's a mouth You know she'll like the hand-streading popcorn on the piano But it was called OMG check out this prank dance I just spelled PRNK and the prank was done by putting on odd costumes and dancing behind the guy Well, he obliviously went about his business. business yeah and then they broke into his house and uh... just put a couple of fish in them just one there duct couple i think is that's hyperbally yeah there were two of them and you just want yeah maybe your glasses were made by double edited you might be confused by the fact that fish is both singular and plural

yeah that's it uh... I was reading a movie with a problem. They also danced a bunch in this guys apart, in his house apartment. It's really, it's one of those Baltimore roadhands. They really seemed comfortable in the space. But they must have really planned this one out. As soon as the guy saw the video, he angrily overturned his computer, smashing it, and then went over to the air duct to that the run fact fishing it he didn't smell the fish at that point he walks in when he walks into the department he says

this place smells terrible i believe he says it smells like funnions something like that or fungus something like that i think he said funnions i'm gonna imagine he said funnions in my in my opinion the real hero who is our funnions sponsorship uh... i love onions the real hero of this movie uh... is the director of the academy who seems to be about thirty years old and yet is the director of an arts academy and a dance professor

they use the director of the dance program but the f and uh... his family i guess found in the school just the fact that he fought his way to that position at such a young age i find really impressive even if he is the stern you know ultra white and he's like the brother of our romantic lead yet it's all alone at that point you know like uh... he has nobody in his life exact he spends all his time at the school it's always devoted to exactly his whole life

and he's gonna die alone and they're gonna just put a bust of him up in the hallway or something he has some sort of indeterminate European accent. I think it's just snoot. Which, he has a snoot. Open a drawer doesn't have it. It's his brother is of the people. I see.

They're separated of birth, I guess. Oh, sure. It's like a double impact offer. Yeah. Well, double impact is basically the Van Dam prince and the pauper. So yeah, I think that just told us a lot about both of you right there. What your minds went to right away.

So yes, double impact the dance version features the one brother who's of the people of the streets and then the other brother who's kind of snooty. He would be the FBI agent character. He'd be the tango. He'd be Ray Tango. Absolutely. Thank you for it. I know it's what you were thinking almost immediately so he would be

still as just alone in tango and so he's got nothing like you mentioned a bust of him like if he does die like if he dies going to a street dancing competition get stabbed there's gonna be a portrait of him in the hallway it'll be like I'm trivialized like the bust of uh... john voids character in the brats well this is that was a symbol of his own vanity that was unirred that's what we really yeah and smash that's why it was so easy to smash because they were trying to tell us that all vanity is hollow yeah and it to live is to live for others and not for oneself

that was the set my model of the brats movie should have brought up the Brad's movie, but it's derailing. I was trying to explain to somebody recently why the Brad's movie is on the top of our scale. And I couldn't quite get it across in a way that they understood. Oh, there are two things I wanted to bring up.

One was our main character, heroin. She rallies the other people at the streets warehouse to her side with an inspiring speech sure about how dance is about bringing together all of what you got and coming together with other people which seems the exact opposite the point of dance in the movie seem to be to show off and make other people impressed at your talents and i know that it's a movie

cliche uh... so i shouldn't harp on it too much but she does manage to turn the audience from jarring loudly at her to applauding for her and following her into the rain and following her into the rain outside to watch her dance. Yeah she says that she says it's really hot in there. Oh if they're not going to let us dance in here we We're gonna go outside and dance in the rain But by that time she's won over the entire crowd. So they really could have stayed inside, you know, I think that was really calculated A puppet master rests Yeah

I knew that what that what shirts could only help their cause Wet half shirts. Yeah, she never There was it the shirts she was wearing to a certain extent would shrink. It was like the top and the bottom were going in and trying to meet each other in the middle. It's almost like a lot of cleavage more. I was like the more serious she is the smaller that that that that happens that tube touch a lot of cleavage and a lot of belly. Yeah, and by cleavage, I mean, she uh... she had a she had a fair amount of uh... i think a lot of that was c g i or something

all right let's not linger on the other thing what there's a movie poster do not that the the movie was just a close-up of a reclivage yet and i'm not called national ampune step up to the street and uh... the other thing was there's one set like looking back on it the one scene that seemed like it could

have been in a much better movie they go to the girl who's her friend who's in the old dance crew and comes and helps them out is his panic and they go to her family's house for a barbecue and it's just them kind of interacting there's very little dialogue there's them just interacting with her family

and the backyard of this barbecue. And that was like the one scene where I was like, I'd like to see an actual version of this scene that isn't just dancing where it's, you know, them meeting people from... Little fish out of water, elements. Exactly, but also like, you know, maybe they're wary of each other at first.

The snooty kids have never eaten spicy food maybe and then, you know, and then the mom dances with this other kid. I support dish. Spice so ethnic. Well, this is in bland. I think Danny brought this up while we were watching the movie, but I think what's funny about it, and I think a little bit telling about this movie is that the most sympathetic character in the character that like I like the most clearly is

the ex-girlfriend of the romantic lead the ex-girlfriend who set up to be a bitch at first. Yeah, who set up to be a bitch, but nothing she she does in the entire movie is anything other than like totally normal and like understandable. If she if she wasn't supposed to be the bitch because she's the ex-girlfriend, She would come across as the outsider girl who's trying to be supportive and make new friends Yeah, and like tags along and ultimately gets it you know into the group You know the nice girl who's pretty that you know isn't very good in social situations, but you know She's up for it. Yeah exactly. Yeah, and she ends up making out with the door First of all she ends up making out with the door before the two romantic like the yeah

and kissing which i think is interesting as well like normally they do like you know your hero in heroin kiss and then they're like let's get a laugh from the door can some other chick like the door can the hot girl i think i assume the hero and her own were always supposed to kiss as the final beat in the movie okay the screenwriter laid out his three act outlining's like act one we got to see them dancing on a subway car and somewhere in the movie. Okay. The screenwriter laid out his three act outlining. He's like, act one, we got to see them dancing on a subway car. And somewhere in the middle of

act two, she gets kicked out of school and then act three at the end. They kiss. And I'll just fill in the rest, man. With dance. With dance. I want to see the script because I imagine it just says insert dance scene. Or like they dance their different. So for step up three that girl in the door step up three the streets. I Be something else step up three of the avenues. It doesn't scan There's no pun there. No step up three to be you and me. Okay sure step up three the secret of the use Step up three. That was that was tmnt 2 also those even three was turtles in time

notice how easy it came to me they said tmnt instead of saying the full title out loud you know like those movies ruined Eastman and Lared's original vision well they'd already been bastardized by the cartoon and the archie comic you know sure their vision of getting rich quickly off of characters they created

10 noble gold so let's just go ahead and give this movie our final judgment and move on yeah what is final judgment my current affair sound effect My current affair sound effect. I'm not working on that. I guess it proved over the vacation. Thanks. So what are our categories again? Is this a movie that is a bad, bad movie?

There's no merit. Good, bad movie. You enjoy it because it's humorously bad. Or a movie that you like in some way. Steward. Turn to you. Yeah, this is a bad, bad movie. There's really nothing very exciting about it.

The dancing was subpar. Yeah, anyway, it wasn't that great now. Yeah, I was on the verge of giving it a good bad just because it sort of moves along at a good clip. That's true. Like your dance movies do. I mean, even if the dancing isn't good, there's a lot more energy in it, so it sort of, I don't know, makes the cliché

elements more enjoyable. But a really good bad dance film is a break into it. Yeah, I was going to say it's no break into it. That's the gold standard when they bring a man back to life in the hospital through dance. Yeah. If you haven't seen break into and only know it through thousands of electric boogaloo jokes, you know. Do yourself a favor and see it. Go out and rent that. So that's my recommendation. Is that a goal in Globus film? What?

Is that from the goal in Globus company? Oh, I don't know. Well, if it is, it's the best movie they ever made, except for Jim Cotta. And yeah, I think I'm going to agree with you guys. I kind of want to give it a better grade because you can... It means well and it didn't take up too much of our time but it is a bad there are better versions of it so I have to say it's a bad bad movie there wasn't there wasn't any anything that is going to live past this moment of us

talking about it yeah it will not I will not remember it on the other hand when historians write the story of the flop house of the oral history of the flop house we have not been able oral history of the flop house, we have not been able to find any record of this movie. When James Lipton mentions this episode, we made up. When, uh, far in the post-apocalyptic future, where Skulls sit around the fire,

singing tales of the flop house to the younglings. Like Skulls? The Skulls. Like those, the northern, the... I was imagining... Skulls, skulls. When, when, when animated and skulls the skulls like those the northern When when animated robot skulls In the future When the movie the skulls Turned a fire and Joshua Jackson tell stories of the vlog house and

Crank teen Nelson shows a bad guy again. Oh, what a career Craig T. Nelson's had from action jacks into flesh Gordon to coach to the skulls. To Turner and Hooch. To Turner and Hooch and to the Pixar films. Yeah, talented. So before we get on to our recommendation for- Started as a voice actor and it as a voice actor. Well, our special this episode recommendations segment-

Our New Year's recommendations.. We get to that. I have some emails and letters. We get letters. We get lots and lots of letters. How are you going to get sued by Paul? The first one actually is completely just waxing our own car. This is from Alex last name with Hell. It's a way to see the latest. We're helping to keep it safe from water damage. It says, just wanted to say thanks for all your work on the podcast. I absolutely love the show and look forward to every episode.

Ziggy Link brought me in. A Ziggy Link. Oh, watch Ziggy Link, huh? Like we've done so many Ziggy Link brought me in. A Ziggy Link. Oh, watch what Ziggy Link, huh? Like we've done so many Ziggy things. We've been tight cast already as the Ziggy podcast. I'm getting so angry at someone who wrote a nice letter to us. I think you're more mad at Dan. Z cast.

And I've never left. I'll try to keep spreading the word voting on podcast, LA, et cetera. Thanks again, and please keep it up. The show is really the best hour of comedy out there, not including the view. Those bitches. Nice. What do we have to do to take them down? So is there a... That was a bet we need a sassy black lady.

Is there a... is there like a Ziggy fan page or something? I hope so. Then I want to find it. We got a... We were a brief... We were a brief zixation. Yeah, it was a zixation. Wait, wait, what? He took the world by his storm. Zigs storm. Yeah. Okay, I don't know. Let's move on. I want to say they mentioned all the work you do. I want to briefly make sure the audience knows that Dan does basically all of the work. That's true.

When it comes to making this, he owns a a record equipment he fixed he he gets the movies first watch and he edits this and uploads it and sometimes he throws away my empty beer cans that you leave and steward just brings kind of like his wit and i bring kind of the spark and the publicity value that brings people to us through ziggie links but uh... i think with his right and is must-tash he also has a uh... inexplicable charm that the lady's like, I think it inexplicable is the best thing. Can I be explicated? All of the female fan mail seems to

center around the steward. What about that girl who likes Elliot? Oh wait, that wasn't really. No, that was, that was because- We won't talk about that later. Oh, we won't talk about that here. We will not It was completely unrelated to this Lorex I am the Lorex I keep my secrets from the public So from Matt last name with held hey did you guys ever think about doing a live show where you comment on a movie mst3k style i'd see it so that's one audience member we have maybe he can rent us a theater sure if you want to produce that show then and and publicize it

pay uh... any uh... you know copy right uh... well we have to do say if we have to do it uh... erect used did and call it a class instead of a show and then it and people pay tuition and then it's okay. Really, was that the reason why that happened? We should be talking about that. We should be talking about this.

No, not only, not only air, but that's why he called it that. I think what actually happened was it was so small scale that it was not worth the trouble. Yeah, we're referring to a show that a friend of ours used to produce that was along the same lines, a live theater show but no one came to that so i doubt you'll see alive

flop house anytime well but it would be but thanks for the suggestion uh... james and last name with health said i had to go to work germany per work and they had the same in flight movies on my departing and returning flights that's the story of why i watched meet day of starting eddie Ouch. It would be perfect for review on some future episode of the flop house. I swear 75% of the film is shot on a set that looks like a bad mouthwash slash toothpaste to add. This movie is a real gym and a mind-blower. Hmm. We might have to do that one then. It's an Eddie Murphy movie though.

I don't know. I'm I'm I think we managed to skip Norbit so we may have to do meet Dave. I'm putting on my list with seven pounds and Underworld rise of the lichens must do list I don't think about it and the spirit when it comes to the spirit certainly so this is actually from my Sister-in-law and sort of my brother, Marina and John last name with hell. I think you probably guessed the last name. The way you said that it was as if she was your sister-law and kind of sister-in-law and kind of your brother, the same person.

She wrote the email. I don't know that my brother actually had any hand in the writing of the email, but it says, dear floppers, you asked for a gift for the holidays and sent your gift to us as free so is ours to you now she's gonna make a correction in this email but then she makes an error shortly thereafter so let's see if you can pick up on

the error that she makes and you at home you'll play this game too Elliott mentioned in last week's podcast that hams conread was a star in Casablanca of course i met mad imagine that elit mean meant poll and read are that is what i meant and i got hams con red light is also in that film that's why i got a mixed up however it got us thinking that hams con read perhaps best known for playing captain hoax voice in disney peter pan

and narrating the grinch movie might have been an excellent choice in the film is lasla or even rick and here she does a little playlet that I Won't read because it would require me to do the voice of Hans Conn read I don't know if I can do but that's her little correction now. Did you get the error that she made? I told it in yes, I wasn't paying attention That's right. I was I was busy Fragulating myself for getting the names mixed up. That's right. Boris Carloff was the narrator for how the Grinch stole Christmas.

Now it's possible she was talking about Halloween as Grinch night, which was narrated by... Did you mention the Grinch in the letter? Conry. I can read that email. But she says the Grinch movie. Now she may be referring to the Ron Howard movie, but I don't believe that that had a narrator and I don't believe it was Hans Connry.

Maybe. So Jim Carrey in that. So thanks for the correction. However, we can turn it right back on you and say that you were thinking of Boris Carloff. That's true, and he won a Grammy for that. Yeah. And I apologize to everybody. I've been getting a lot of names wrong.

Yeah. This one I got too, I need more sleep. You got to pull together, dude. You got to pull together, dude. This turns into a flop prevention. You're making us look like shit. Sorry. Well, thank you for knowing the difference between Hans Connryd and Paul Hanryd.

Yeah. But Connryd Vite is in that movie. Let's just move on. Yeah. Let's gloss over Elliott's shame. Wow. He's a glaring shortcomings. Sure We're going to do instead of our usual recommendations

Because it is a new year. We're gonna talk about our five favorite movies. We saw that came out in the past year and Before we get into it, I just want to give the caveat that we're not professional critics And so we have not seen by any stretch all of the major films that were released this year. Let alone the minor films. So these lists are basically worthless. They're worth what we put into them. Yeah. They're a picture into our worlds. Yeah. Exactly. A window. A film that we get great as they might be. These are the ones we liked. Does anyone want to step up to the streets?

I'll try the first time. Well, I want to say, and no. Conveniently, after this movie, I had to amend my list. To add step up to the street, said it. Yes. And number one. Wait, I'll go, okay, I'll go first. You guys are looking at me.

Yeah, as Dan said, I have not actually seen that many movies. So if there's something that I forget, you don't slap your forehead and go, oh god, I forgot that, because I probably just haven't seen it. These are no particular order. So I put Wally on there, because it's great. Yeah, I don't think I have to explain why Wally is really good. I put the Dark Knight on there. Wally is really good. I put the dark night on there dark night is really good

Once again, it will I mean, I don't it's one of those things where right I thought it was kind of a no-brainer I didn't have to get one new one was the most popular film of the year and the second highest grossing film ever Now I'm getting into the first highest grossing experiment. I'm still still Titanic Never now now I'm getting into first highest gross. Inspiratory. Still still Titanic. Real I'm grossing. Yeah It's a disappointing. I wanted to change every year. Yeah, so maybe we should do something about that It's gonna see dark night a million times Well, it's that's past that because it's a new year, right? Although it's been re-released in iMacs

I'm saying the total the highest grossing. Oh, okay. Let's go see that If you really want to If you really wanted to roll up $12 on that he could or $12 million yeah, we're gonna have to see a million to I yeah, that's the $12 million is not gonna change that record We're gonna have to see it 20 million times each. Okay. And that might not even do it. Uh, Jesus.

I don't know if I have enough time to do that. You better make time. Okay. Do you care about this? Or maybe I could run out the entire iMac's movie theater a million times. That would be a time saving measure. Yeah. Yeah.

And it would also be fun because I could like run around. It'd be like a like a toys or a Shopping Spray. Yeah, like when Nickelodeon used to do that? Yeah, absolutely. Okay, so, okay guys, stop interrupting. Now, actually, the next couple probably need a little bit of explanation. The next one is Funny Games, the remake of the German original. I mainly put that on there because I really enjoyed it and and because I watch a lot of movies this year like them and the strangers and

a couple others that I thought were very similar but funny games managed to accomplish like a creepiness and also a voyeurism feel that I think the others weren't really capable. So, funny games, great. I picked Let The Right One In, which has got a little bit of buzz nowadays. It's a great genre movie. And, you know, I just really love vampires, so I picked that one.

And finally, I picked, I'll just say number one movie the year for me was pineapple express Maybe it's cuz I Heart Seth Rogan or something, but it was it was goofy and action movie enough Yeah, I just really like it. So I feel I'm seeing it. Yeah, it's really good. It just came out on DVD today And I haven't bought it yet. Oh wait, I just dated our podcast. Yeah, when people listen to this in 20 years They won't be able to get over that We've been thinking about posterity a lot in this podcast and I haven't bought it yet. Oh wait, I just dated their podcast. Yeah, when people listen to this in 20 years, they won't be able to get over that. We even think about posterity a lot in this podcast.

I know. So yeah, I have a top five that is basically, I would say a three-way tie for first and then a couple other movies I like. And so the other movies I liked were. Are you going backwards? Yes. You started the bottom work your way. Oh I didn't do that. Okay. It's okay. You can do it however you want. For getting Sarah Marshall. I thought that that was a very... It did pretty well the box office but it was sort of

overlooked I felt like at the time. It sort of felt like an also ran comedy. I think people were kind of apatowed out. Yeah, but I think it's actually one of the better ones. There's certainly more penis in it. Sure. If you... The cold-y stamp of approval. You've got a thing for Doey Tall Guy's penises.

He's up, dude. Doey. He probably works out more than me. I can guarantee that. He's a Doey guy. He's also much more successful, but I think it'll take that. Okay. Burn after reading. Again, a film that I thought people sort of just dismissed, but I really laughed at that movie a lot. That I think we'll find its audience someday, but hasn't yet.

And then the three-way tie for first, Wally, the dark night, and Rachel getting married, you know, not really surprising all films that got a fair amount of critical claim, you know, obviously two or blockbusters. But if you haven't seen Rachel getting married, as well like the second highest grossing movie of all time now. After Titanic. Yeah. We're gonna have to rent out an iMac's theater. Get that over the top. Twenty-Zillion on iMac's theaters. Rose Mary DeWitt is now America's biggest star. But I also just wanted to like quickly run down not saying anything about them, you know, a bunch of sort of honorable mentions. Also rants. And that's Teeth and bruge Be kind rewind the signal the bank job

Doomsday iron man red belt pineapple express tropic thunder slum dog millionaire bottom of solace and milk so you're just making Amokery of the entire idea of a top five list I didn't say anything just a list of like movies you like. I'm running down. I wouldn't I would have made a much more extensive list then. Uh, oh, he says the guy who has actually six in his top five. Well, not to spoil anything. Watch out. Yeah, that's true. I'm gonna go from the top down. Huh. Starting with number one. Yeah, although these are not. No, it has no conception of suspense. These are not really in any particular order per se. The ones at the bottom are really more the ones that are in a specific order So that's what I want to go. Okay, so I have a couple of these are movies that I've mentioned on the podcast before

the fall which I Watched more times than any other movie this year and really loved it and I've talked about another podcast So I won't go on about it again Sinecta Key New York which was the one of the few movies I saw this year that really felt like it was a personal vision that was pro-don screen. And I thought there were some very funny moments in it and some very good scenes in it. And after it was a movie where after when I left the theater everyone else was depressed and I felt great, which is an awesome feeling, then Wally in no particular order,

because as you guys implied, it's basically perfect. There's almost nothing you can complain about about Wally until the end credits roll and that Peter Gabriel song starts. And then it becomes the worst movie ever made. But until that moment, it's like under pressure. And even the short that comes with it, which is called Presto, I think it's like it's like and even even the short that comes with it which is called my best of favor is fantastic and it's such an improvement over

like a bound in the short for the incredible which is terrible wait I didn't want to watch the short I got a all the short press to about the rabbit and that's really good the thing about that that Peter Gabriel credits sequence is that it made me think of the abber rich and he children and beyond thunder down like the stories of them telling about max the wanderer makes sense. But like Pixar seems to be the only people in Hollywood who know how to do solid story structure and characters developed through action instead of exposition and they wish they

could hold like a seminar for everyone in Hollywood. Yeah, you would think right? You would I would I would imagine in Hollywood a bunch of dudes are just should be calling them and saying hey, how do you actually make a movie? Yeah, I don't know what's the and Disney is that for they made that thing like Pixas always successful and must be because kids don't want to see 2D animation no more and it's like no because they they tell the best stories in the world like you know Disney was also run by the little rascals oh it was the balry boys hey guys we got to get more like Pixar oh boy some guys could live like this you know number four here I have a tie between milk and the dark night they They were both... So similar. Well, they're both movies that were really well done

and really well made and kind of embody this art, somewhat timeless, but also embody this kind of political moment in some ways. And they both have their flaws and in structure and length, but they have one amazing performance that kind of ties them together. And milk, there's two actually. There's Sean Penn as Harvey Milk, who matures so believably throughout the film.

And Josh Brolin as Dan White, which is an amazing performance. The way they handle him is so complicated and so rich when they could have very easily made him like a very cardboard crazy guy big it and it's really to the movie's credit makes it a better movie and the dark night of course is Heath Ledger who when he died people are like he played the Joker and it made him crazy and it was like I don't think so and then I saw his performance I was like yeah that's exactly what happened is he played the Joker and he went crazy and took drugs to go to sleep and died it's just such a fantastic performance and you know, I like it a lot.

And my fifth funnel one is a Guy Madden's movie My Winnipeg, which came out this year and is a very small-scale movie, even for him, who makes movies in warehouses basically. And it starts off being this kind of like, almost like a John Hodgman movie, like the form of fact went entirely made up with tiny bits of reality tied with like these huge jokes and like bizarre situations. And it takes a strange turn into a very personal kind of attack on the NHL, which Guy Madden seems to see as responsible in some ways symbolically at least for the relegation of win-a-peg to like a boondock city and kind of the end of

his father's career in hockey as the manager of the local win-a-peg maroons and it becomes it gets very emotional from that point i like it a lot so in what guy madden has accused a lot of of too many levels of irony between himself and the work. And here I think he, you can't really accuse him of that. So those are my five and a half favorites, because I had six on there. Nice. Well, we've all had a good laugh tonight. But every delightful episode of the flop house must some time come to an end.

Like now. Yeah. It abruptly cuts off. Sure. LITLITLITLITLITLITLITLITLITLITLITLITLITLITLITLITLITLITLITLITLITLITLITLITLITLITLITLITLITLITLITLITLITLITLITLITLITLITLITLITLITLITLITLITLITLITLITLITLITLITLITLITLITLITLITLITLITLITLITLITLITLITLITLITLITLITLITLITLITLITLITLITLITLITLITLITLITLITLITLITLITLITLITLITLITLITLITLITLITLITLITLITLITLITLITLITLITLITLITLITLITLITLITLITLITLITLITLITLITLITLITLITLITLITLITLITLITLITLITLITLITLITLITLITLITLITLITLITLITLITLITLITLITLITLITLITLITLITLITLITLITLITLITLITLITLITLITLITLITLITLITLITLITLITLITLITLITLITLITLITLITLITLITLITLITLITLITLITLITLITLITLITLITLITLITLITLITLITLITLITLITLITLITLITLITLITLITLITLITLITLITLITLITLITLITLITLITLITLITLITLITLITLITLITLITLITLITL You know Charles has done with no hair as he always never had. But that's that even though he had no hair. I am also talking about things. You know he got arrested for manslaughter. That's where he became an actor after he spent time in jail for manslaughter.

I wonder what type of for a person to get into slaughter. Well it sounded like it from whatever it was. It sounds like it was like a drunk fight that went wrong and he accidentally killed some. I mean that's why his manslaughter was next to him. And that's why he got his punishment. He had to start in Mimic with Nero-Sorvino. A Guillermo D'Otoro movie. Yeah, actually it's not as bad as you would think.

No, I think Guillermo D'Otoro had to the director for community service for something.