The Flop House - The Flop House: Episode #36 - The Spirit

Episode Date: May 3, 2009

0:00 - 0:33 - Introduction and theme0:34 -  31:12 - After a brief trip south of the border, we talk about The Spirit. The movie that manages to make superheroes dull and cleavage unsexy.31:13 - 33:24... - Final judgments33:25 - 42:27 - The sad bastards recommend42:28 - 46:09 - A little talk about ghosts and Jedi molestation, followed by goodbyes, theme and outtakes.

Transcript
Discussion (0)
Starting point is 00:00:00 In this episode we discussed the spirit. Exactly the film Will Eisner would have made, if Will Eisner was Frank Miller. Hey everyone, welcome to the flop house. I'm Dan McCoy, I'm Stuart Wellington. And I'm Elliot Kaelin. Yeah. Woo! It's the podcast where we watch a bad movie and then talk about it. And boy did we ever and will we ever? Mm-hmm, but first off Glad to see you guys. Yeah, it's been a little while. That's you too. Yeah, so I went to Costa Rica and before that Allie went to Uruguay. When are you gonna have your adventure south of the border stewards? I don't know They don't they don't like me down there. What did you do? I I don't want to go into it as something to do with marsupials okay usually those are found in
Starting point is 00:01:09 Australia I know that's did you I'm not allowed back to Australia you import an animal into a country where the ecosystem couldn't couldn't handle it like the end of this instance for the or do you just have sex with a koala I'm not deliberately to discuss my situation with marsupials but for that reason i'm not going to go southarm i say yeah by south of the board by south of the board means he doesn't go down women i don't know
Starting point is 00:01:34 well we already are swimming in the gutter we are doing we are faced first i don't know i'm just i'm looking at you as to see if to say can you believe this i'm not looking at you as to say can you believe this not to tell you it's like the movie it starts out in the sewer yeah and then it does it I don't remember yeah sure that I'm not a banana desert no that was the production logo for odd lot pictures the first scene of note is the fight between but that's not in the sewer that's in like a mud flat somewhere but it's clearly so it's really meant to be like
Starting point is 00:02:08 yeah they're they're not it's not subterranean though there's buildings behind them i'm saying that i think that's what's really shot only a sound stage yeah well it's a shot from a green screen like almost the entire i think that Gabriel mocked was fighting in raw sewage okay he personally requested it for various militia. So yeah. So what would we do? We watch the spirit. Frank Miller's will eyes nurse the spirit. It's kind of like this. The possessive on the title is like
Starting point is 00:02:39 Mary Shelley's Frankenstein or Bram Stoker's Dracula where they meant it to say, is it because is this, did they call this movie Willisers the Spirit or is it just the spirit? I call it the spirit, but I remember seeing Willisers the Spirit in earlier like press releases about it. And it was the same way that like it's supposed to mean this is the most, this is the closest adaptation you've ever seen of this story but it really means is like listen we're gonna play all sorts of fast and loosen crazy with the story yeah white's is going to be reenfield
Starting point is 00:03:10 yeah to me it to me it's not one of the best things in that movie that's true to me it's like a frank miller's plane keep away with the movie and he's like yep yep it's well i'm a movie it's his fault there's like it's it's maybe the worst adaptation of Will Eisner's vision that I can imagine since it's nothing like his style or tone or characters. You're forgetting the short-lived contract with God in 1970s cartoon show. Yeah the Saturday morning cartoon in which Jewish characters living in a tenement had had adventures yeah. Yeah, that joke was for approximately two people in the audience.
Starting point is 00:03:47 I'm pretty sure, but anyway. Yeah. Yeah, no. So it's really good. Or the Broadway musical version of Life on another planet. Nice. Yeah, this movie's really good. It was, it had a dude who, you know know the spirit who was like a crime fighting superhero type
Starting point is 00:04:06 who is uh... mirrored by his bad guy the octopus who cuz the uh... enemy of any fedora but that crime fighter is an octopus yep and he's exactly like him and he's slightly different only completely different in every way yeah he had really good costumes. No.
Starting point is 00:04:27 Unless you would like a change costume. Should we bother going over to the plot of this movie? Or I would appreciate it, Elliot, just so I could see how you might summarize it because I didn't understand much. Okay, well, we're in Central City, a city made out of CGI, which is supposed to be kind of film nori ish
Starting point is 00:04:45 except it's star from blocks and there's a lot of styrofoam yeah it looks every inch of it is super fake and artificial uh... and were introduced to the spirit a man in a suit and a fedora and a mask who uh... works with the police department solves crimes and seems to be
Starting point is 00:05:01 wolverine ish in that he can take any amount of damage and he comes back from it and his character was adapted from the popular american spirit cigarettes that right yes exactly yeah he was originally a native marina seems to be only pain either i uh... it's depends on the some part of hearts of the movie he does and some he does it like he that sometimes he shrugs it off and other times he's like like a crotch by a novelty oversized wrench. Yes, or when that sword goes through his chest.
Starting point is 00:05:28 Oh, yeah, he didn't like that. No, but anyway, he's got a mat on as the kids would say. That's really important. You'd have to be really strong to shove that giant sword because that was like a machete. Yeah. It wasn't like a fucking like a fencing so it was a very enormous.
Starting point is 00:05:42 Well, but I mean, like a chopping sword and she shoved it all the way through a human body Yeah, she's not a large woman. No, and nor did you get any like she'd an 11 Yeah, she just like pushed it up there. She's like fucking Vicki from a A small wonder you know the Vicki was the robot right? Did Vicki and small wonder off and shove swords to men's chest? No, she'd be like standing there and like pick up a couch with no visible leverage and it just looks so ridiculous. Like she would tip over you and she's a robot. She's really wide or something.
Starting point is 00:06:11 I think you need to write a letter about this and send it through a time portal. And then it's taking to a count that she's very heavy as a robot. Oh, okay. She's made out of steel and also fat. So, you know, she's not actually, she's the normal size for a little girl.
Starting point is 00:06:28 Anyway, so the spirit is the protector of Central City, which involves running around on rooftops and occasionally beating up criminals. He seems to, he has a somewhat romantic relationship with the daughter of the police chief, but also falls in love with every other woman that he meets, and he's on the trail of a crime boss called the octopus played by Samuel Jackson in the widest possible way. It like the reason they had to shoot it in a CGI sound stage is so that he could not chew the scenery literally. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:07:05 There was no scenery for him to eat. That's what they have to do with that. He will or some rarely in person. But he pops up. This is here's the thing. The spirit is based on a comic book by Will Eisner, who is one of the founding fathers of American comic books, which was about this like very, this police detective who gets beat up a lot.
Starting point is 00:07:23 He's called the spirit. He gets beat up a lot. He solves mysteries, but he beat up a lot he solves mysteries but he's kind of a he's like a smart guy who also bumbles and uh... he needs more fun than anything else and it's that he would but it's not really big on like continuity i mean most of the stories well there's a certain and there's a lot of standalone stories but yeah well i i certainly i feel like towards the later uh... adventures
Starting point is 00:07:44 like willisner was more interested in testing out his theories about like what comics could be lay out than telling like a story that centered around the spirit specifically. That's the thing. He is, it started out as like a crime comic and then became just Will Eisner experimenting with comics as much as he could. But- Which was great. Which was great.
Starting point is 00:08:07 They were always entertaining. But like the tone of them was always fairly light. For the most part. Not a lot of angst. Not a lot of angst. And also the octopus, his villain, was a shadowy crime boss. All you ever saw of him was his gloves. You never saw his face.
Starting point is 00:08:21 So of course Franker recognizes this by having sammy all jackson very loudly and openly play the character first with the sombrero on his head later on he dreads dressed like a samurai later he's dressed like a nazi for no reason and he's got a huge for coat and like a fur hat on it's it's it feels like frank miller was waiting for willisner to die so that he could just do whatever he wanted with this movie. Yeah, I'd like the octopus if he was more of a closed horse. That's what he said.
Starting point is 00:08:50 At times it makes me feel like Frank Miller was, oh, like over the years he got really tired of people being like, dark nights okay, but the spirit now that's good comics and he's like secretly stewing like fuck that Will Eisner got. He's a desire of all this credit. And then finally when he gets the chances like I'm gonna make this fucking movie and he makes it as shitty as possible so that everybody's like the spirit oh yeah that's that shitty movie that nobody likes rather than the comic that I'm gonna make. Yeah well also and and let's not forget also there's the character Sand Serif the femme fatale played by Eva Mendes who was the spirit's childhood girlfriend and
Starting point is 00:09:26 then through there was some misfortune she left Central City and became the world's greatest jewel thief and she somehow mixed up in shenanigans with the octopus and scarlet joe Hanson as some sort of scientist slash henchman she's like a girl Friday to the octopus yeah who is the head of an international drug organization yet has no henchman aside from scarlet Johansson and an army of cloned buffoons yeah and you see very much of a list being close yeah it's really it's weird because it's like it's the same way that Lex Luthor and the Superman movies is like as a criminal genius but he surrounds himself with bumbling idiots you know it doesn't really make sense but anyway uh... this movie is this is a cracker jack film
Starting point is 00:10:07 uh... deftly told in that you might find it in a box of cracker jack the movie is is almost incoherent mess uh... it the pacing is terrible you kind of the it by the time when the movie was over a saying the danans to it
Starting point is 00:10:24 it felt like we had just seen the ten minute the movie was over saying to Dan and Stuart it felt like we had just seen the ten minute mini movie at the beginning of like the spirit the movie and then the real movie was going to start like this was the the adventure that bond would go on that didn't really make a lot of sense and was just a lot of stunts before the title sequence before the real movie but now is the it was the whole movie. Yeah, it was really bad. And Frank Miller has this kind of obsession with even Mendes' butt. Well, he has an obsession with women.
Starting point is 00:10:51 I mean, like, like, he, this, it's not surprising that the spirit character would fall in love with every woman he sees as the film is full of, like, obviously, like a Hollywood movie's gonna have pretty women in it, but like, literally, he seems to go out of his way to make as many women in as little close as possible throughout the entire movie. But it's like the movie is trying to have the tongue in cheek and never gets there.
Starting point is 00:11:18 Well, to be tongue in cheek, you have to have some sort of like rational logical basis and then you know like skew off to the side. Where is this movie like? The visual style matched the content in that the fact that it was all shot on a sound stage meant that individual pictures were very pretty but nothing had any relation to anything else spatially and likewise nothing in the plot felt like it had any relationship anything else now speaking of plot and stuff wasn't okay the octopus guy now you can correct me if i'm wrong he's in addition to being a super villain and like a master drug lord oh and also he he uh... super scientist right apparently in the in this and also
Starting point is 00:12:02 like the spirit the octopus can be injured a hundred a dozen times over and it can be killed he's a loony tunes character yeah, um and he But he's like a super genius scientist with like genetic serums and shit. Yeah, and he Injects the spirit with some kind of a serum and then himself that makes them, you know, pretty invulnerable That's the backstory, but then later on he finds out hey wait a minute if one of us drinks the blood of hercules
Starting point is 00:12:29 heracles heracles sure if one of us drinks the blood of the Greek hero uh... who apparently in this world is an actual that's the other thing is this is the movie is going along in its way and then it suddenly becomes their talking to the spirit about their plan to go we want to be a like the gods. Luckily, the gods had sex with human women and created half-breed heroes. We found the blood of Heracles, and it's like suddenly the movie has taken this left turn to a
Starting point is 00:12:55 universe where Zeus is real, and the Greek pantheon actually exists, and you want the spirit to be like, wait a minute, hold on, stop right there, okay, you're a criminal, I get it, let's hold on. So you're saying that all this time people have been worshiping Jesus or the Muslim God or the Jewish God or the Hindu gods, but really it was the Greek pantheon that was real and exists and we should be worshiping. But or even like, okay, if these guys existed, what does that mean about other gods? Is it possible that other gods like, could Thor be replied to possibly?
Starting point is 00:13:27 That's possible too. Is the twilight of the gods upon us, is Ragnarok here? Who knows? He doesn't ask these questions. Instead he just goes and goes like, what about Margot? What about, you know, Tiamat, where are they?
Starting point is 00:13:39 Yeah, where are they? Like, hidden in the bottles of the earth? Where's Baal? Yeah, absolutely. So that's really weird. And they don't really address how he figured out that the only thing that my serum needs to be 100% complete is for me to drink some Hercules blood.
Starting point is 00:13:59 And then I'll be immortal. And if anyone else drinks Hercules blood, they'll fucking explode or something. Or melt. Yeah, something like that. Somehow he knows what the drug interaction is. Like if his serum had like a little warning label, it'd be like, uh, if you add this to Hercules blood, maybe you're become a mortal.
Starting point is 00:14:16 Yeah, it's totally, it's totally that shit. It doesn't make any sense at all. But like a certain kind of movie can pull off that kind of craziness and this does not. And then, and then in addition to that, not only, not only is there this Hercules blood floating around, but the thing that ends up saving the spirit in the end is the Golden Fleece, the Jason and his Argonauts were seeking. Yeah. Not a weird. We're, we're, we're choices.
Starting point is 00:14:41 It's, but I, it's, I just, I wish I could have been working with Frank, as Frank Miller's assistant through all of this, just to see his thought process. He was like, okay, I read all the spirit stories. This is what I'm thinking. Hercules blood, golden fleas, yes, okay. Giant gun battle where he's shooting at helicopters, yes. Okay, the spirit of death is constantly trying to convince the spirit
Starting point is 00:15:06 to come with her. Perfect. Okay. You know. Okay, like an underwater make-out scene. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, with like a laser show. I'm thinking the spirit climbs out of the ocean and there's a close-up of a toy dinosaur and we hear a roar and then we never go back to that ever again. Yeah, that was strange. I'm thinking that the octopus is vain so he's always going to want to put on different outfits. A lot of costumes, right? A lot of costumes in the sewers.
Starting point is 00:15:29 Like, but also love that he has his sewer headquarters which has a dojo room and a Nazi room. Like, it's like a themed, like one of those themed hotels that couples go to. Let's try to re-ignite their marriage. Yeah. I didn't know what kind of supervillain I wanted to be, so I just had the architect put in one of it.
Starting point is 00:15:48 And that kind of goofiness could work if the movie was telling a halfway coherent story or was fun anyway. And I would have liked the Nazi scene if they had cut to shots of them like preparing, like putting on their little Nazi costumes, like okay I'm going to say this and then you do this again. And we allowed the kiddie that we're going to be. Because it was very elaborately choreographed, yeah. Yeah, like I would have much preferred that, like that a bit awesome.
Starting point is 00:16:08 I also like, the listener at home is hearing the convoluted, you know, McGuff into the story and thinking. What a Vazful of Hercules' blood you say? Yeah, that remains fluid. It's the main fluid for what, 3000 years? What was Hercules' around? All this real date I mean I guess I could call a zoo
Starting point is 00:16:27 What I love is that it's a vase that was inside of a crate And I have to assume and the crate was always on its sides So it's like you tell me the blood didn't just slash right out of that vase like I hope there was a stopper in the top of it You're something made out of fucking beeswax and human hair What do they use back back in the olden days? Before the olden days. Yeah, like way more. It was the golden age of Greece.
Starting point is 00:16:50 Absolutely. The age of heroes before ancient Greece. Yeah, it's like pre-troy. Yeah. But do you think that all this like information will be like sort of parceled out by the movie and- Over the length of it's running time. Instead, there was a scene in which I was like,
Starting point is 00:17:05 I turned to Ellie and I was saying, is this scene going on for 18 minutes? It really feels like this scene's going on for 18 minutes and it was just Samuel L. Jackson and Scarlett Johansson explaining precisely this. And at the end of it, I still couldn't understand what was supposed to be happening. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:17:22 Scarlett Johansson would really board in that scene. She looked bored, though. It could have been most of the movie. stand what was supposed to be happening. Yeah. Scarlett Jhanes and we could really board in that scene. She looked board drunk. She could have been acting. Most of the movie. This is, if you want to see, it's the same way that Star Wars Episode 1 is like a collection of actors' worst performances. This is that for the actors in the film.
Starting point is 00:17:36 I don't know. I thought Boston Ascariver really good performance as the leader of the Gungans. No, I don't think so. Okay, well, he's been. But I love his, you're assuming you're implying that he's a real actor playing himself as the leader of the gungans. I haven't played him like Brian Danny. And boss Nass hasn't made a lot of movie since then. Boss Nass got the Oscar from Arty. No, you know, you think of her this four night. All right. Boss Nass won the Oscar for. Rachel getting married. Yeah, right. Nobody won an
Starting point is 00:18:10 Oscar. Rachel getting married. Oh, I'm mistaken. So yeah, now the spirit. What were you gonna say? I don't know, like it was crazy. There was obviously it goes back to Frank Miller's love of Japanese shit. He let well, this is the thing you can see each of his obsessions smashing into each other in a terrible way Japanese stuff film noir women's boobs and asses. Yep Like splatters of things in images Mono blind Venetian blinds monocromwell that falls under noir monochromatic stuff Converse all stars
Starting point is 00:18:45 Which are some reason are like highlighted white on the souls the entire way the only thing that's not in it is like I Guess like cyborg Technology weirdness like stuff where people have a lot of wires coming out of some kind or yeah stuff for people of a lot of wires coming out of some kind or yeah or the same old there were but there were but no they were bald clones yeah but it's like totally a frank Miller is but I can't imagine people walking into this movie off the street not being familiar with frank Miller like
Starting point is 00:19:16 maybe they know since the the movie and walking into it and being like and just what they would what they believed was going on in this film why they thought it was happening yeah like i would have gotten mad why they thought it was happening in a sense of why is this happening to me yeah i would have crunched up my box of goober's or whatever i purchased or my nachos and uh... stormed out of your box of nachos that's what they sell right like a box of nachos
Starting point is 00:19:42 oh here i'm going here's with like liquid cheese there's two points i'd like to make one is that there's both things that are set up as if they're important but like a box of matches. Oh, here are the lane. Here's like liquid cheese. There's two points I'd like to make. One is that there are both things that are set up as if they're important, but they're not ultimately, or maybe they are. There's a lot of talk where he's like,
Starting point is 00:19:54 the ox was like, don't you want to find out who you are or what you are to the spirit? And the spirit's backstory is that he's a cop who's been killed and chemicals brought him back to life. And now he just, he's the spirit and he fights crime. Yeah, he's a cop who's been killed and accident and chemicals brought him back to life and now he just he's the spirit and he fights crime. Yeah, he's in zone of war. And in the comment like there seems to be no no question less relevant to the character of the spirit than like who are you?
Starting point is 00:20:16 Like he's not fucking Wolverine. He's just this guy who goes around and it's and fights crime. Like he's the least self reflect. He's not like the hero in the rain and hold his arms out and be shot from above saying, no! Probably not. And the other thing was something that Stuart kept ringing up, which is that he talks a lot about
Starting point is 00:20:33 like my city needs me, my city is my lover. And we never get an idea of what kind of city the city is, except it's a vaguely rundown New York in the 50s, in the 40s, in the 30s type city, Chicago-ish. Maybe there's a little bit of Newark in it. The city is incredibly bland and generic, but he talks about it as if like- It's between an ocean and a river, so it sounds like it's Manhattan. I mean, I hate to use, like, compared to dark night night or something or even Batman begins but those are both movies where they're like the the
Starting point is 00:21:07 storyteller direct like clearly makes an effort to show you the city like including like the geography of Batman to like yeah or Joel Schumacher's Batman and Robin where the city is made up of sculptures with buildings on top of their fingers. That's my favorite thing in that movie is there's an observatory. There's a huge probably 300-foot tall statue of a human being reaching towards the stars. And there's an observatory building placed on his hands. Like, how do you get into the building?
Starting point is 00:21:36 I don't understand. Yeah, you know what I mean? Yeah, you know, you get that statue's completely solid. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. You have to climb into the Bobby Yaga's chicken white house. And she flies you up there. her mord and pestle yeah but they like they like we got to take the elevator up to a cranium of the statue then we walk along the arms to get the observatory
Starting point is 00:21:54 a lot of his nose and then walk out the arms though come on where else you get to build an observatory yeah but anyway yeah like those movies they create a sense of place yeah and this movie you did none of that no um we could create a sense of place. Yeah, and this movie did none of that. No. It created a sense of place, and that place is a sound stage somewhere in Hollywood. Somewhere in Robert Eriegos' basement.
Starting point is 00:22:12 But it's like, and the movie opens with him talking about how important his city is and how much he loves it. And that's kind of like any time a movie begins or any kind of story begins, and they're like, this person is the most important person in the world. This guy is gonna go to feed the emperor in a couple of years,
Starting point is 00:22:27 because he's prof-seed to be an awesome Jedi. Like that type of bullshit, where as soon as somebody tells you somebody's important, you don't care about him anymore. Yeah. Well, because you want it to be proven to. It's the same way that like,
Starting point is 00:22:39 we saw the trailer for Crank 2 was on the DVD before this. Okay. And it shows a character tells a joke and then it cuts to a shot from a different scene of a different character laughing. And my reaction to that is always like, fuck you, I don't need to know to laugh at your shitty joke.
Starting point is 00:22:53 I get it, it was supposed to be a joke. You don't need to cut to a character laughing to tell me it was like. I'm supposed to laugh along with this guy. Yeah, exactly. It's the same way, like, if a character in the beginning of the movie is telling you like, oh, this city means everything to me. It's like, well, you know character in the beginning of the movie is telling you like, oh this city means everything to me
Starting point is 00:23:05 It's like well, you know if you don't show me it does then I don't care It's not gonna in any kind of a work of fiction They try and show like a character who's like a painter and they're like this guy's such an amazing painter You know, it's not that great or like that movie lady in the water where I'm like shy I'm alone plays a writer who writes the most important plays the greatest writer in the world Yeah, that type of bullshit, but it's it's just like the we never see the spirit like it I wish that I wanted there to be seen were like the spirit like picks up a piece of litter and throws it in the Arvaj canter's like not in my city or like does or like caresses a building and be like it was built in
Starting point is 00:23:41 1923 by such and such brothers like that he just shows some interaction with the city he lives in like some interest in one scene i think where there was an interaction with the public like one scene where he like saw like a kid on the street my there's two he talks to kid on the street and there's one reason hanging by his coat off of all right a gargoyle and the people on the street are like that guy looks like a jerk what an idiot job job job job is like i thought you were the hero of the city like you can you were the hero of this city. Like, you can either be the hero of the city that everyone loves,
Starting point is 00:24:08 or you can be the pathetic, like, spider-man type hero that everyone hates even though he saves their lives. Like, can't be both of them. Yeah, and like, everybody's attitude doesn't change until his pants fall down around his ankles. And then these women immediately start like fucking creaming their genes over it. Like I don't know, but like a dude in his boxers, I don't think that's going to get him hot, especially when he's hanging for his like almost dying.
Starting point is 00:24:32 That might not be the most accurate reading of this scene. But it's also, that was a great scene because he's hanging from this his overcoat and his overcoat must be 50 feet long. Oh, it's huge. It's ridiculously, it's like his spawns cape on his back you know ridiculous you mean the hell spawn the character created by a top yes of course yeah I can't remember the character the characters real name in that series I don't remember he's now he's talking about spawned joes
Starting point is 00:25:00 i remember that was one of the few the few comics for a i read i started a red it as a kid and spawn Comes back to life after being dead and he turns into human form and he's a white guy in human form And he's going I'm black. I'm a black guy I'm not a white guy and as a kid being like this I just remember being like this is a strange thing to have the have the character have to go through that He was black in his previous life, and now he's a white guy like it to me it felt like something that could only be written by a white guy yeah probably something that like the only way you can really understand race relations
Starting point is 00:25:34 is through the like the vision of a white comic book artist you ever see like this for the short period that like HBO had that cartoon version of spawn. Yeah. Like the antros with Todd McFarland. He was sitting in like a dark room. Yeah, he didn't know me. Like he was the grisiest, like doucheyest guy you could imagine. I mean pretty much how you might imagine.
Starting point is 00:25:57 My character spawn is a dark vision. It reminds me of the old Rob Lifeeld Levi's Jeans commercial. What? You never saw that? Look it up on you too. Look up Lifeeld on me. yeah dark vision uh... it reminds me of the world reply felt the vice-genes commercial what you ever saw that so i don't know if you look up like a little more mad he it's him when he was doing x-force and he said thing about how i'd rock comics in my five o one genes and he draws a superhero version of the camera man interviewing him
Starting point is 00:26:19 and it's a guy with a camera on his head and huge shoulder pads with enormous spikes coming out of the and it's like well that's a rod life on character. Where's this metal arm? And a bunch of really small unnecessary lines all over everything. And put some pouches on his on a belt around his thigh. Yep. Rod Lifefield had this amazing ability when drawing like male figures to always make their crutches look like it's just a bunch of lines radiating from it.
Starting point is 00:26:44 Like that is like the horizon. That's where everything emanates from. It was basically just trying to fill the space between the enormous thighs of whatever character is wrong. Which would dwindle down to their tiny calves and non-existent feet. His was a world where mist, foot level mist, existed everywhere. So many skills and abilities. So it was it was sad to see this was like it was weird to see a movie like this where it was made written directed by a man who has been in
Starting point is 00:27:09 comic books since the 80s and seemed to have been it was as generic and hacky a piece of work as could have come out of any movie produced we would never seen. Except that it was except that it was in Frank Miller style take his particular interest. But also it's simultaneously with that and the most it used to be credit film. It's the thing like in terms of plot, it is the hackiest, most generic thing. But in terms of visuals, it could only have been Frank Miller with no supervision whatsoever.
Starting point is 00:27:41 I mean, there are two shots in particular of just total weirdness that I enjoyed One of a of a tiny head a top of foot just hopping around and another one a shot of a porcelain sink where a kitten had just been dissolved And for some reason the eyes didn't dissolve and so two eyeballs are just slowly sliding down the side Those are two things that you know, I'm glad I've seen now that I saw the spirit. Yeah, I mean, I think you're right. He's created a movie that only somebody who has this complete like no holds barred love of Frank Miller, like somebody who will love Frank Miller no matter what when his works. This is a movie that only somebody like that could really enjoy. Yeah. Or possibly an insane person. Good, good, like this movie. It just didn that could really enjoy. Or possibly an insane person.
Starting point is 00:28:25 Good, good, like this movie. It just didn't make any sense. Yeah, they're like crazy shit. I like crazy movies that don't always make sense, but it was never fun. It was always a chore to just try to decipher it. I mean, if it was sold to you as an art film rather than an narrative film,
Starting point is 00:28:43 maybe it wouldn't be so frustrating. Well, in the same way as I said, if I know who killed me had been in Italian, instead of English, people would have been like, oh, what a haunting film. You suck colors. I know the plot doesn't really make a lot of sense, but the way he splashes color in the frame and...
Starting point is 00:28:57 And the glass knives. Glass knives and... The robot hands. Yeah. You don't see that in American cinema now, baby. And Crab Man playing a doctor. So good. and the robot hands. You still don't see that in American cinema now, baby. And Crab Man playing a doctor. So good.
Starting point is 00:29:08 But yeah, it's, this is, if it was sold to me as like a non-film Fantasia on the images of Frank Miller, then like maybe. Yeah, but you still wouldn't want to watch it. You might want to, you know, you would go to a gallery where it was being projected on a wall. Yeah, yeah, and watch five minutes of it. Well, I feel like when they used to do music videos of songs in movies and they'd show like lots of little clips of the movie. And I always felt like they were doing the movie a disservice by just showing like little pieces of footage. This, that would be the best way to see this movie.
Starting point is 00:29:41 It's like a music video for like, for like hopefully with a rock song that has the spirit like yeah I don't mashing pumpkin song yeah exactly like this mashing pumpkins are playing a song with it's called like spirit of the time or something like that and it's and you like they're rocking out on top of a building or something and then there's just clips of from this movie you'd be like oh I wonder who directed this music video on the wall of the this music video yeah or sometimes like that sometimes project in the sky yes I was like Evan Essence that would be like projected on the lead singer of Evan Essence yeah like on our bear midrift I don't really
Starting point is 00:30:18 know Evan Essence that well it's got a female singer just imagine imagine like, or if it was, you know, a blues traveler. Just a very similar. It's imagine any generic rock band with a female singer that you might be on the soundtrack to say Daredevil. Okay. Oh, and the music, the music and the song is some part that goes like, do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do Yeah, I feel like a sense we're sort of back from vacation in a way sure we should ease into it and not force ourselves okay, we can move along and more stuff about something but we gotta do the ratings right yeah, we gotta rate this film we gotta say who is a good bad movie big twist I think bad bad movie standing for the podcast or a movie you kind of like Stewart Yes, more of a movie that you kind of like Stewart. I didn't like this movie at all. Although
Starting point is 00:31:32 There were a lot of pretty girls in it and a decent shot of Ava Mendez's ass But not not worth the price of admission or the time spent Yeah, you know what? Like the movie frustrated me because I kept wanting it to make sense and I wanted like one shot to relate to the shot that followed it and Stuff like that, you know little stuff, but um in terms of just moving on along at a good clip It was okay, and there were some visuals, but Overall like I just don't I don't find anything about it like laughable enough or compelling enough to give it more than a bad, bad movie.
Starting point is 00:32:08 Yeah, I feel kind of the same way. There were a lot of shots in it that were very pretty or kind of neat effects, but yeah, it was not fun to watch and it was hard to make fun of it because there was just not a lot there a lot of the time. As crazy as whatever was like, as crazy as scenes where Samuel Jackson is dressed up like a Nazi and he is talking to a guy strapped in a dentist chair and then a belly dancer
Starting point is 00:32:34 comes out with a huge sword, like it just wasn't, it was just done in a way that made it all very stale. Yeah, and like, and on that note, the one of my problems with movie is that at no point you ever genuinely feel there's like that anybody's in trouble. Like nobody's ever in trouble. Yeah, because it's all cartoons and the characters are all whispering their lines and it's shot, you know, like, I don't know.
Starting point is 00:33:03 There's not shot or done in a suspenseful way. Yeah, there's no suspensive at all. Mm-hmm. And things that would seem fun or quirky in another movie come off as like, irritating almost in this one. So. So we'll leave it in the toilet
Starting point is 00:33:21 that the octopus smashed the spirit with. And move on to movies that we actually like yay that we stuck that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that I'm sorry. I, you know, I think that our listeners like mouth music less than you might have had you. I don't know. Only one way to find out. B McFarron. Who is this? Bobby M.
Starting point is 00:34:08 Ferrin at Akapella. Matt. He probably was not involved with Akapella. No, he's too big for that. Yeah. He actually probably snapped up Akapella.com. So yeah, what movies do you recommend? Wait, am I recommending first?
Starting point is 00:34:24 I'm not. I'm first? Yeah, I am. Oh, cheese and tomatoes. I... It's for your talent, I believe. I wasn't gonna... I was originally gonna recommend a different movie than recommending now, but I figured it's a comic book movie we were watching. I'll stick with the theme, and I'll recommend a documentary that I saw recently called Confessions of a Superhero which I
Starting point is 00:34:49 think is available through Netflix only possibly and is about it was lent to me by my coworker white snack the daily show John Stewart who has a looped-proper who has a Luke Cage story out in a Marvel comic out now he let me this movie about and it and it follows three of the people who dress up like superheroes on Hollywood Boulevard, outside of Man's Chinese theater, and take pictures, I guess four people. I'll write about this.
Starting point is 00:35:15 Yeah, it takes pictures with tourists in exchange for tip money. And it's one of these movies that like, it starts off and it's like, isn't these characters, aren't these people nuts? But then it wants you to see kind of the inner nobility about them that they're just trying to make their dreams come true. But it's still dancing around to the fact that these people are much crazier than the
Starting point is 00:35:36 movie kind of wants to admit. But it was the people that are pretty interesting and it was well done and you know, it was entertaining. The only thing that's bad about it is that it's like Morgan Spurlock presents confessions of a superhero so there's like a five-minute like a bit when it starts of Morgan Spurlock in a Superman costume like or superhero costume walking out of a phone booth and being like we all want to be superheroes here's what I like a lot about this movie I'm Morgan Spurlock of super size yeah and I fast forwarded through that because I don't really care what he has to say about the movie. Is the
Starting point is 00:36:07 movie narrated by Werner Herzog? No, there's actually no narration. That'd been awesome. Where they see heroes and fantasy, I see nothing but death and despair. Oh, man. My Werner Herzog was more of a normal Schwarzenegger impression just then. A very cerebral short. But I actually enjoyed it a lot and I thought it was very good. And I'll never think about weirdos dressed up in costumes the same way again. Speaking of Terminator, I watched Terminator again. You know, I'm a short-snaker, the Terminator. I watched Terminator again.
Starting point is 00:36:42 I didn't remember that it had so many lasers in it. In the flashback, yeah, or the flashback. Yep. That's a movie that always. I thought I was going to sag into a record recommendation. No, there's just a ton of lasers in it. That's a movie that always surprises me with the fact that there's a nude scene in it. Yeah, I kind of never remember until I'm watching the movie. Well, because you only, also because you only remember the later, at more angular Linda Hamilton. The best thing about that nude scene is that when I was a kid watching it,
Starting point is 00:37:15 I remember watching that nude scene with like a friend of mine, and we were like sitting around giggling because we thought it was hilarious. And my mom got really mad at us and made us turn off the movie. And it wasn't because we were watching how dare you laugh at the beautiful act of love making it. That's the thing. It wasn't that we were watching a new women's life. Or that we were laughing at like, you know, like the act of sex, but she like tried to justify it like, you know, they love each other. They're like, they're making a better future. And after like at the time, I was like, yeah, mom's not being mad at me but like
Starting point is 00:37:46 that was a pretty hilarious way to justify her being mad at her. Man it was pretty good. They're love saving the future. But it's true that it did. I'd have sex with Michael being to save the future. Sure. So if you're listening Michael being mad. And you have a rational reason to just have to, you just have to show up and basically tell Stuart that it's the same the future I come with you if oh man, I'm trying I can't make it. Okay, so recommendation I Think I'm gonna recommend a movie that I don't think I've recommended before But I might have mentioned it's a Stewart Gordon movie
Starting point is 00:38:25 director reanimator stuck Castle freak from beyond from beyond absolutely and it's a movie called King of the ants It's a movie It's a little different than some of his other movies because there's no monsters in it Wait, there's no like ant king no no there's no and king in it uh... what are the words in it though and she's in a lot of monster movies well i come here now and she's naked in it carry words naked but i'm
Starting point is 00:38:52 and every carry were from basically the uh... basically the primate it's a thriller where you have uh... kind of a down as luck guy who's you know barely making ends meet and he ends up taking a job to kill somebody. And the person just happens to be Ron Livingston from office space, so that's funny. And he ends up, you know, accepting this job and going through with it and having to kind of like live with the guilt and having to live with the fact that the guys who hired him to kill this guy kind of want him out of the picture at the same time.
Starting point is 00:39:27 So yeah, it's interesting. It's an end 100% great, but I think there's definitely some really good stuff in there. So I'm kicking the ants. Okay. Well, I haven't seen a lot because I was in Costa Rica. We get it. All right. But I do. Do do not have tropical vacation
Starting point is 00:39:47 i did uh... watch the movie apple is uh... actually in casterica on my ipod and the way it was meant to be seen the sweeping western vista i met the hb o first look making a way the director tried something new with apple is a to film a movie for iPod screens in other countries uh... now i watch with apple who shot i'm really trying to take the western and bring it to a new play that's what he does sounds like when he's off screen i see actually i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i suppression. When I was making Apple lose so all decided but Apple's in pairs. I watch half of
Starting point is 00:40:28 it literally in a hammock so the way it was meant to be speaking. I recommend that for anyone who wants to get a good way of watching a movie recommendation or Apple is so so your recommendation is hammocks. Yeah. Going out of the hammock district and get yourself a hammock.
Starting point is 00:40:44 I guess that's what I want to do That's another you guys both recommend movies and I'm like hmm well coca-cola's a great soda I just really enjoy their product now you're ruining the joke when you later on try and do that Yeah, oh man, and I forget to do it about Appaluchit. Do you like or not like well? You know at the time when it was When it was being Reviewed when it was in theaters like everyone was sort of like well this movie is fine but it doesn't break any new ground and then i
Starting point is 00:41:11 i watched the movie and like oh this is great this movie doesn't break any new ground it seems like classic western you know and that and at heros and vego mordensen are both great like western uh... style actors. Like, it's good that they're getting a chance to do a movie like that. And it's got a lot of...
Starting point is 00:41:30 Jeremy Irons is good in it too. Yeah, Jeremy Irons is in it. Timothy Spal was in it. We're in A.C.L. later. Yeah, she's the one week link. But Lance Henrich's in is in it. Oh, yeah. That guy who was the coach and major league is in it
Starting point is 00:41:47 I would like that like really like weird voice. Let's just say Dennis Farina. Okay It's playing it's not him but sure But a guy with a really weird voice Peter Laurie. Exactly. It was Peter Laurie Peter Laurie's corpse so I just liked it because it was a nice basic western. Sounds very nice. Yeah, there's kind of, there was a time when you could make... Cannot mix. ...when you could, there was about a 30-year period when you could just make westerns, actually more than that, I guess. We can't silent, silent movies.
Starting point is 00:42:19 Like, you could just make westerns that didn't have anything special about them, but now it's too bad that every time they make western, they feel like there has to be like a gimmick in it. You know? Been there, done that. Yeah. Hankshoe. Oh no, we got the dreaded Hankshoe. Yep.
Starting point is 00:42:35 It's not like it's like romantic comedies, I think, are the same way probably. Yeah, they don't make too many romantic comedies that are just like funny movies about two people falling love They have to have like a gimmick or a or a thing or a cool like Madden Conne has Visited by ghosts that tell them what that's that's something that I've only seen the posters and a little bit of the commercials for that movie ghosts of girlfriend's class And it's like every time I see it and I go in this movie just Matthew McConaughey play a serial killer
Starting point is 00:43:03 Like he's being haunted by the girlfriend he murdered? Because I don't know how you would get those. How likeable Matthew McConaughey is. I don't think he could act his way out of that. That predicament. I also think it's funny that it's basically... It's like a romantic comedy version of Kiss the Girls. There's something else. But I imagine it's the same story as this one episode
Starting point is 00:43:24 of the Sophcoir P porn show erotic confessions in which a man is visited by this on christmas by the spirits of girlfriends he is broken up with so that they can help him for repairs relationship with the wife and that involves him having sex with all of them sounds like a movie what's a tv show and it was terrible
Starting point is 00:43:42 so we've got to this that's what this movie is about his past girlfriends coming back to help him become a better boyfriend. So he doesn't have sex with him? That I don't know. It's like the dream sequence in Ghostbusters, you know? The Ghost does all the work. It's funny that, yeah, I guess. It's funny that by far quite bought that scene. Well, it's a dream sequence.
Starting point is 00:44:02 Also, it's a deleted scene from a cut segment where they go to the Museum of Natural History and a ghost from the Museum of Natural History is involved in it. But they were like, we're cutting this, but we got to use this footage somewhere. Let me tell you, was the Museum of Natural History portrayed realistically in that? Or is it like night in the museum where it's late It's like they never even been in the museum in this right this axe again. I'm just very mad about it I'm not looking for tonight the museum to I assume night of the museum to will be at the Metropolitan Museum of art It'll be like the Mona Lisa being there instead Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha a go-job yeah well uh... a gbj it's almost as good as a force job that's when you go for a jet i
Starting point is 00:44:47 she could be doing from across the room like if you're at a party or something uh... and no one knows exactly if you're dating marriage a then you are in luck that became a weird i didn't know that that was control it depends on how much how much training they've had you know that like if they're not even like a young could be that i don't do that. I know. They wouldn't want that to happen.
Starting point is 00:45:06 That would be disgusting, a youngling, yeah. That was, and that's how you like, is that illegal and imperial or a public society for, like, for, if you're a Jedi to use your abilities to jack somebody off? I don't know. That's a good question. So that's what we thought about the spirit. For the flop house, I'm Dan McKinley. We haven't even, we haven't, we barely cracked the surface of the Star Wars 6, pantheon.
Starting point is 00:45:28 Oh, I'm steward Wellington. I'm Elliot Kale and I guess. Good night. Yeah, like, is that illegal? Can you be like, hey, this dude, you use the force on my weiner? You're like... My city screams after watching this period. Hey! My city's made out of CGI.
Starting point is 00:45:59 My city is a first name, just a small town girl living her lonely life. I just don't know that I'm rock man, it's totally fun to sing. I'm sure. city as a first name, just a small town girl living her lonely life. I don't know that I'm rock band, it's totally fun to sing.

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