The Rewatchables - ‘Big’ With Bill Simmons, Mallory Rubin, and Van Lathan

Episode Date: January 24, 2023

Bill, Mal, and Van get their wish granted and rewatch 'Big,' starring Tom Hanks, Elizabeth Perkins, and Robert Loggia. Hosts: Bill Simmons, Mallory Rubin, and Van Lathan Associate Producer: Isaiah Blakely Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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Start from Rachel. And coming up on this podcast, Pork grinds! Ah! Big is next. For Josh Baskin, life was a little unfair. Until he made a little wish.

I wish I were big. All right, Big. It came out 1998, 35 years ago. It is our fourth installment of one-word movie month. It is a movie that I have seen an incredible amount of times. It was on all the time. It is the definition of a movie watchable.

I think it was on HBO. Basically 2 o'clock every day for 10 years. I think they just slotted in big. It was the fourth body switch movie in the span of a year, which I'd forgotten. We had like father, like son, starring Dudley Moore and Kirk Cameron. Vice versa.

We had vice versa with Judge Reinhold and Fred Savage. We had 18 again with George Burns and Charlie Schladder. I don't even think I saw that. I saw it with George Burns. I don't know if I remember that one. I watched all of these. I love body switch movies. And then Big was the fourth one.

And I remember in the moment, like, oh, there's like the body switch run, which sometimes these Hollywood would go in cycles. And this movie became a phenomenon and made a ton of money. It became a pivotal Tom Hanks movie. You got nominated for an Oscar. Yep. And it is endured and it is endured and it endured.

And it's aged a little weirdly, which we're going to get into. Not right now. We're going to get into it. It's aged a little weirdly. I'll just say I'm not sure they make this movie in 2003. It's a fair statement. Certainly not. Probably not being bad.

If they do, it's a crime story. It's an episode of SVU. Let's start with Hanks. I had Hanks season tickets. Hanks is my guy from Bills and Buddies. I've talked about this on the pod before. I don't know who else pulls off this character and makes it in a way that the movie works.

Out of all the actors we have available. And we'll go into the casting what if some of all the people. Some shocking ones. Some disasters. But this is the kind of movie. And Robin Williams was not in a casting what if, but this is the kind of movie where it would have been like, And we've got Robin Williams.

And then it's just super weird. And the movie doesn't work. Hanks is great. Got nominated for an Oscar to not win. To me, this is a, this is a Hanks, one-man show. What do you think, Dan? There is like a, there's always been something about his face that is just inherently lovable.

There's an energy from behind Tom Hanks that always comes with Tom Hanks. I remember even back when they were doing that big, remember the telethon that Kanye West. Oh, even my. Myers, yeah. Yeah. The person that they finished it with was Tom Hanks. Like, he's the one that comes out at the end because he's just simply the most beloved face in the country. He's just simply the guy that you trust.

And there's like a childlikeness to it. And especially in that era. So there are, like, times in this movie where he, like, looks at someone, like, he looks at Elizabeth Perkins, who I love. And he just, like, smiles. Yeah. He just makes a face. And whatever.

There's no dialogue needed. The fact that there's a child inside of him, it just bursts onto the screen. He's good at that. What do you got, Mal? Nobody else can play the part. Nobody. It is one of the true, true, true. You cannot make this movie with anybody else in this role.

It's not even worth considering as a thought experiment. I know we have multiple categories that talk about casting. But the movie is Tom Hanks, right? Like you can't think about Forget Josh as a character It's like to Vance point the spirit And the energy and the essence of it That child like wonder

That innocence That way that everything he does With his mannerisms with his face With his exuberance Makes you think of like What it really means to be a child And everything that you lose When you become an adult

Right? Yeah And it is like a very funny and charming movie And also in that particular way I think quite profound. I can't wait to talk about the piano and the F.A.O. Schwartz scene in particular, but that idea of like the shamelessness

of just loving what you love and how you forget to do that when you grow up. It's just something that Tom Hanks embodies so fully in the movie. It's amazing. He's by far the bravest character in the movie. Like, watching it younger, watching it as a younger person,

you're like, why is everyone, it's difficult because you've lost that thing. So I'm watching in the movie. I'm like, why is, why did it take him becoming a child for everyone to gravitate towards him? Because he's lost all of his cynicism.

And he just lives in his moment and however he feels. I'm watching him in the FAL shorts, right? And he's playing laser tag with a kid. Right. Do you know how much I would love to do it, exactly. Like, you grow up in your inhibition, stop you from doing all the things that really bring

you joy. Right. You know, he's in a room, the guy's pitching, and he feels that something is off about what he's seeing. He just says it. And that's kind of the compromise that you make to live in a civilized adult society is you stop reacting to things based upon your instinct. That's what I'm going to start doing in meetings with Bill. I'm just going to sit there saying, I don't get it. I don't get it.

What's fun about a building? He's not self-aware, right? That's the whole key to everything. Yeah, there's a curiosity to him. He's just completely authentic. Right. Like to me, this is almost a movie about authenticity. Yeah, and enthusiasm.

You put somebody in this real world. Everybody's full of shit. The person who he ends up getting in a relationship with is the most full of shit. Like, she's a climber. She's got all these qualities that you're just like, man, that's a stayway. And within a half hour being around him, all of a sudden she loosens up and she's completely different person and a nice person. Right.

And it was in there somewhere, it'd just been beaten out of her by real life. I think with Hank's. I think it's the second hardest role he ever had. Castaway is still the hardest because he's by himself and castaway for 50 solid minutes, maybe longer, maybe an hour. And that's another one where it's like how many actors could have pulled off Castaway and where we still want to be in the island with them and all the different things he does. And I actually think he's underrated as an actor as weird as it sounds.

Interesting. I think people think he's one of the great actors. But I still feel like there's not that, you know, that Daniel Day Lewis were like, man, that's the greatest actor we've had, and Pacino and De Niro and some of these other dudes. The problem for Hanks, like, just from a legacy standpoint, is his best work has been done in really commercial movies. This was a commercial movie.

This made a ton of money. But I don't think anybody else could have played this character. And actually, it would have been horrible in most of the wrong hands. And I think that's what makes him special. But, you know, he's played variations of this, right? He has Sleepless in Seattle. he has he's lost his wife right and that's another one where that could go a bunch of different ways but the way he the way he pulls that off in the movie we're like man this guy really lost his wife

like you really like believe that he's in pain he's trying to get by it um the saving private ryan guy it's a different version of the same thing right this guy he's seen too much this is he's just trying to escape this fucking hell with some sort of dignity um i really like the choices he made Really from 88 to 98, a couple stinkers, bonfire of the manatees. But for the most part, like just 10-11 movie parts that were just incredible choices. And this was probably my favorite choice that he made. So there's an underrated performance in there in the movie that, like, nobody seems to remember or care about but me. You ever see nothing in common with Tom Hanks and James Lise?

Oh, yeah. So that's Tom Hanks as a, it's a very powerful movie with, and I think it's very important to his, development as an actor, it's Jackie Gleason, who everyone who's was in the twilight of his career and life at that particular point, it's about this guy who can't seem to get along with his dad, right?

And Hanks is angry in the movie. He's angry. He's mad. He's pissed at his dad. He's unloved. And like, when I think of him, I really think of an actor of

just remarkable range. And the Daniel Day Lewis thing is different because there's this gruffness to the characters that he plays. And he inhabits characters. Yeah, and you put a guy in, I don't know, the oil barren days of 1915. Like, the movie feels different.

It feels like somebody really has to be on their shit to get that performance off. But the bodies that Tom Hanks inhabited, I mean, he went from Philadelphia to Forrest Gump in if he's not a badass, then nobody is. You know what I mean? And I think that, I think that what people might be saying about his movies

or that his movies aren't quite as serious as other high-brow filmmaking would be like besides Philadelphia. But that doesn't mean to me that he's any less talented. The funny thing, he's made some pretty serious movies, right? Philadelphia, saving private with Ryan. That's, yeah. Heavy movies. With Philadelphia, there's like, you know,

I remember watching that movie. with my mother and he's on the stand with his shirt open and she is just losing. Yeah. And just with the weight of everything that was going on. So I think he's as good as we got. Like, I mean, obviously, Daniel Day Lewis has transformed a little bit more.

Then you have Gary Oldman and guys like that, but I think Tom Hanks is right there. You know what else with him, Mal? And this is like specifically 80s and there's this whole, and I'm like in the sweet spot of the generation, but it was that he went on Letterman and Saturday Night Live and there was like a cool kids club that

He was definitely like one of the leaders of. He was an unbelievable talk show guest. He was an unbelievable S&L host. He's really funny. And that's when you compare him with some of the other great actors, I almost think that's why he doesn't get enough credit for what a good actor is because he's fucking funny. Well, there's funny scenes in this movie. Exactly.

The humor, that was one of the things that I enjoyed most about revisiting this. Because I used to watch this movie all the time when I was a kid, all of the time. And I hadn't seen it in my recent adulthood. And revisiting it was a treat in numerous respects, but I think the humor, particularly in the first hour-ish of the movie. And a lot of it is the mannerisms, the deliberate awkwardness of certain situations. Okay, but I'm going to be on top, right? But along is the physical comedy that he's willing to do. Like you mentioned, the laser tag, just rolling around on the floor using a toy car as a trench.

Or even the way when they rain across the street. and like his body's kind of rubbery the way you would be when you're 12. You're not like, you don't think you're being cool yet. And shamelessness that is very central to the text of the character that the performer also has to bring to it. And it's just wonderful. It's such a delight to watch.

If you don't think for one second that this 30-year-old man, I guess he's 31 or 32 when this movie comes out or whatever, if you don't think that that's a 13-year-old kid, the movie just doesn't work. Right. Like the movie is all about his performance. If you don't believe that when he's in the hotel room and he's so scared of people who aren't white,

I'm definitely gonna discuss that. Well, there was a gunshot. Right, right, right. And he's so afraid and he balls and gets his bed. Like, I'm like, yo, man, it was hard to differentiate him between a grown man and a child. He was really giving it. It's a fantastic performance, man.

There's a lot of, in the research, a lot of how he tried to figure out how to play this character. And you really studied the kid, David Mosco, who played Young Josh. And they even did stuff like they had that kid in scenes with Elizabeth Perkins so he could watch how the guy did the delivery and watch like eye contact and how he used his body and whether he chewed his nails and all these things. So he was really almost doing an impersonation of this kid in some ways and then weaving in the Tom Hanks thing. But yeah, I mean, you can make a case, and I'm going to make it right now, that he should have won the Oscar that year. We've talked about this in past pods, but Hoffman wins for Rain Man, which I think now we did Rain Man as the pod a while ago. And all of us agreed that Cruz is better in that movie and has a harder part and is the reason the movie works, right? I just think, looking back at this year, Hanks is the best guy.

That's the best performance. So we had Dustin Hoffman wins, Hackman and Mississippi Burning, Hank's and Big. Edward James Almost in Stand and Deliver, who's really good in that movie. And then the Pelley the Conqueror, Max Mencito. And there's been other ones from this year that I think if they redid it,

we've done this on past shows. But I just think, I think, oh, Malcovage and Dangerous Liaizance, which I think he wasn't even nominated for Best Supporting Actor, but he should have been involved. amount but I just think Hank should win. And it was certainly as the years passed, this became... The academy used to, up to a point to where the academy used to be like a sucker for

the kind of transformation that, yeah, you know, the whole Tropic Thunder thing didn't come from nowhere, you know what I mean? The big thing for me is, and I almost think this was sports sometimes too, when you talk about MVP, when you try to like, all right, if I switch this person with this person. when you think about most viable player you think about Yokej right now in Denver or you think about like

a group like that Lamar Jackson MVP season it's like if you sorry though if you just just grind the seasaw back from Lamar's an MVP she's her eyes are actually watering she's already emotional

but if you just switch another really good person into the part would it be the same product and the answer what this movie is no. Absolutely not. Oh, do one casting, what if now? Okay.

De Niro was supposed to be in this movie, and that was how it initially got greenlit. Makes no sense. As who? As Josh. Oh, come on. Get the fuck out of here. This was a year before midnight run.

I love Bobby D. No. Yeah, it's too late. The movie's a disaster. Yeah, like. Completely different. We all have our limits, right? It's not, you know, that's really,

Huh And also the fact that We had all these body switch movies Vice versa is kind of funny Oh, I love vice versa And vice versa I'm gonna defend vice versa Frick Savage Judge Reinhold

Freaky Friday with Lindsay Lohan Was pretty good I've never seen that Which one? I've never seen any version of Freaky Friday Weren't there two? The Lohan one's a good one That's a big one with younger people

Isaiah's seen Freaky Friday With Lynch Lowell Yeah I enjoy You know what I enjoy? Your favorite body swap movie Is Wonder Woman in 1984. They did the whole thing in there.

Wasn't there one that we're lit? Wasn't there one with Kirk Cameron? Yeah. What was that one? That was like father like son. That one was kind of crazy too. This is what I wrote about Hank's once. You have Hank's Formula One race car driver basically being asked to drive a Hyundai.

He has to make you believe that A, he's a 13 year old kid. B, it's totally realistic that this 13 year old kid has risen to a major position at this toy company, while also getting laid steadily by a grown woman. And C, at the tail end, you're devastated that it can't work out with the 13-year-old boy and the grown woman. And D, part of you is kind of rooting for maybe Elizabeth Perkins to get out of the car or go to the Zoltar machine and join him. And go back as a 13-year-old and be in his world.

The end is hard to watch. I'm just, I'm sorry, man. The end is hard to watch. I watched it. I ran it back like three times last. night. I'm like, was this this weird before? Like, you know, even Well, initially she was supposed to

actually kiss him. As a 13 year old kid. Once she knows he's 13. Like instead of on his forehead. In the script, it was like an actual like one last smooch. And they're like, it's too much. Even in 1980. In 1988, they were like, wait, this cross. Don't get Elizabeth, it's too much.

Don't kiss him on the lips. Here's what we want you to do instead. Gently tickle his neck and earloop. That part was tough. And then long watching him walk away. Well, let's, let's have the, let's have the discussion.

Sure. It is 2020. Talk about it. Like, yeah. You know, I don't know. I have a 14 year old

and a 17 year old now. My son is slightly older than the, or he's 15 now, slightly older than Josh Baskin age, but yeah, this would have been one of my first questions when he came back from his experience. Like, wait,

where's this lady? What's her address? Like, I probably want to call her. Yeah. Hey, I'm Josh's dad. Just trying to figure out what went on there. I know that he grew up into an adult and you had no idea. But you realize that everyone...

You're going to stay away from him now, right? Remember that you realize that everyone in this movie is eternally scarred in such a profound way. Right. Big two. Yeah. I can't wait to talk about the sequel. Big two begins with Josh getting out of rehab. Like, big two, Josh, first of all, Josh is like sex crazy now.

I think he's fine for like four years. He's dating seniors in high school when he's like in eighth grade and stuff. Like he's got so much swag. But then by the time he's in college, he's a mess. There's one scene here. Did you see the way and it's so odd when their love scene at the beginning? The way Josh is caressing and holding her bosoms. Right.

Like a 13 year old. Like a 13 year old would. It's over for him. He's like petting her breasts. It's a stuffed animal. Josh's done. This might be a prequel to boogie nights. Like it's over for Josh's finish.

Josh is not going to be able to do anything else. His mom is scarred because remember, there's a kidnapping subplot in the movie. I have so many questions about all of this. And then this woman, she just watched a child transform. By the way, no explanation as to why Zoltar has mystical powers. Well, yeah. This is your whole universe.

This is the magical realism of it though. Come on. I'm with it. Yeah. I love that part of it. The, uh, watching this in January of 2003 after just watching the first season of House of the Dragon. I was like, it's great to be back with Vesaris Targaryen in the form of Elizabeth Perkins where, you know, we have a whole basically like, well, Elena Valerian's 12.

That's not acceptable. but Allison is 15. I was thinking about it so much when Susan's like, so what are you? 15, 16? Like that would be completely okay. So 16 maybe. She was winning.

Like that would be completely okay. So funny. The subtitling says it groans when he says 13 groans. If this movie ended with her at the Zoltar machine, put in the thing in Geng, getting a ticket. That was the ending of this movie. Is that better or worse? Well, this is, this is a half-ass internet research thing, but did you, did you read about the alternate ending? There's all this stuff out there about an alternate ending. But it's, it's been debunked,

but say what it was. I don't think it's true. That certain markets had an alternate ending where Josh goes to class the next day or a couple days later turns around and a new student walks in. My name is Susan. And the implication is that. I wouldn't, first of all, that's so weird, bro. That's so off. That's like, that's like a weird Donnie Darko type. It's a very different tone at the end. So weird, if that happens, I've never, never in a million years.

That makes the movie something totally different. Yeah. It's like, so you're out on that as the plot for Big Ten. I'm out on that as the plot for Big Two, man. I can't wait to talk about Big Two, bigger. Can't wait until I get to sequel. Quickly. Elizabeth Perkins.

So knew her from about last night, an absolute 80s classic that Kevin her heart, of course, had to remake. Haven't totally forgiven them for that. She was the sarcastic, kind of self-destructive friend of Debbie Moore in the movie and just had one-liners left and right. And that's how we knew her. Did not expect her to be in a movie like this where, you know, She had a show Sweetside.

She's had a pretty good career. I think this was my favorite Elizabeth Perkins movie, though. I'm a stand. You're a stand. Several classics. Ever see Indian Summer? Oh, yeah. Tamakwa.

They go back to Tamakwa and all the kids go back to summer. Indian summer is terrible, but I like it. I don't understand why people don't, why people say India. It's like, big chill with a head injury. It's actually pretty good. It basically is Sam Ramey shows up in it because he's friends with the director. She's in that. He said, she said her and Kevin Bacon.

I like that one. Remember that they're both columnists in Chicago where I like her. I used to call her. I like her too. Oh, poor man's Julia Roberts. She would be in all of these romantic comedies. But they wouldn't be like, I love her. Between this and Miracle on 34th Street, she was a big part of my child.

I used to watch that all the time when I was a kid. She was a big weed. She was big on weeds, right? I never watched weeds. But that was like she had a big resurgence. You never watched weeds? I never watched weeds. I never saw it either.

I know she was on it, though. I just love that show. I said, listen, it became a love triangle with her and Claire Daines and Billy Crudup. And, you know, where my heart lies. Claire Dane's and Billy Crudoff. I'm just going to support them. I didn't feel like Weds was right for me. Robert Lojia, as the head of the toy company, this is a great Lojia one.

He's in Jagged Edge. He's in the Chicago 7 movie that HBO made, which is like one of the first great TV movies. And there's just a Lojia Sots happening right now. Scarface before this. Scarface earlier. Yeah. So I guess like the mid-80s Laudea.

He's Frank Scarface. He's Frank. Tony, did something go wrong? What happened to you? It was the, what was the brother's name? It was the fucking Diaz brothers. It was a fucking Diaz brothers. You know, we'll get him right now.

You know, Frank. This is a great performance. Piece of shit. It is. I love him. I love Lozia. There's the leaded scenes with Lozia. What's a marketing report?

Exactly. Exactly. He's so disenchanted. Susan, it's a party. Have one drink or two. Like, he's so disenchanted. He's, he's like... He'd order to double. He was ready.

Right. He's like a guy who makes toys that want... He wants children to have joy. And it's too much of a business for me. He's hanging out at F.A.O. Schwartz on Saturday. Every Saturday. He's one of my favorite bosses ever in a movie like this. Yeah.

I just love everything he does in this movie. And, you know, Obviously, the piano scene is the scene. Althimer. And that's one of the best scenes, I think, ever in a movie. Yeah. Every time I watch it, I'm in complete awe. I know what we're doing it.

We might as well talk about it now because it's like the signature scene in the movie. It's just everything about it, how organically it starts, how the people start gathering behind them. It's just like a perfect three-minute scene. It's everything I want from a movie like this. They're both. And it's a how the hell did they do it? Right. I'm even watching it last night.

I'm like, what was the choreography on this? Like, how did this happen? Long. But you're, but like you're watching them and it's, once again, when you talk about movies that really are affecting, it's not something happening for the sake of happening. This is connecting the two characters. Hey, as a kid, Josh is probably taking piano lessons now. He took him when he was a kid. Yeah.

Josh's wonder is so infectious that it makes this guy. do something that he would have never done in a million years. That's how he feels about him. And once again, it's why he wants this person around him. So he essentially turns his toy company over to him after he sees just how, like, you know, wondrous and into playing and having a good time. Must be Mallory at Grantland showed in as a low-level editor. Yeah, VP the next day.

We saw her joy and we just, that was it, turned everything over to her. Making my thoughts on championship hockey And that was it This scene is everything I would assume you would want from a movie I would say this is in your wheelhouse now This is one of my favorite scenes in movie history I most of most of the time

When you're watching this movie I was laughing I was smiling This was the one scene where I actually got like some tears in my eyes What the fuck? Very emotional Part of it is just the emotion of what you're watching The Wonder Part of it is it made me really nostalgic

Like I was thinking back to watching that with my cousins when I was a kid. And then we would go and play heart and soul on the piano. And it was a thing you wanted to try to do and try to recreate with like people that you were bonding with and loved in your life. And that the way that Josh is able to impress Mr. McMillan simply because he is not trying to, I think does get into that like larger thematic poignancy of the film, but just a pure joy. Yeah. I was thinking of you. You said wonder, right? And the first word I wrote down in my notes was wonder.

And then I was thinking of both of you, knowing we would talk about this today, but wonder, wonderment. It's a thing we love to talk about. You love to talk about Roger Ebert. And it made me think of one of my favorite lines. It's not from a big review. You're going to love this. It's from Big Roger's Phantom Menace. Oh, yeah.

This is one of my favorite things that he has ever written if you'll allow me to just read this one thing. How quickly do we grow accustomed to, wonders. I am reminded of the Isaac Asimov story Nightfall about the planet where the stars were visible only once in a thousand years. So awesome was the sight that it drove men mad. We who can see the stars every night glance up casually at the cosmos and then quickly down again searching for a dairy queen. Now, that's this scene in essence, right? Like the ability that Josh has and then Mac too, to just appreciate the wonder and life and like how rare that is and how you just completely lose for that as you grow up and become

preoccupied with like the paycheck you need to earn or the people you need to try to impress. It's just amazing. When I, in watching the scene, I was like, yo, why is this doing this to me? And I realized something. I was grieving. I was

I was lamenting the fact that that for me, connecting to that scene was like an understanding of how awesome that would be. Of like wanting to go to New York and find this mythical toy store and then remembering how it was when I finally got there and I was like 36 and it was gone.

You know what I mean? Like it was it was like it wasn't the same. And when I'm watching the scene last night and I'm like, why have all the scenes in this movie am I specifically stirred up by this? And I was like grieving my childhood. Yeah. It was like it was part nostalgia. Yeah.

But it was just part the fact that there are so few times when I feel legitimately enraptured by something the way I was when I was 9, 10, 11. And we do the ring of verse. I know. I'm thinking about this too. And a lot of it, a lot of what we do is the fumes and chasing the high of the first time you saw the Empire Strikes Back. Trying to recapture something that feels fleeting for the rest of your life. Empire Stairs bed is this Star Wars movie? See what I'm saying?

See how you just ruined shit? It's such a nice moment, Bill. Such a nice moment. 2009, our first golden retriever died. My daughter was four. Took her to New York City. We stayed at the Home Alone Hotel, which is right across the street from the FAA Swartz

because it was home alone and big. And that was the reason we went back. F.A. Schwartz is now gone, which is, like, kind of devastating. It was such a crucial part of that part of New York. And it really was like, Home Alone, Big, and the whole thing,

it just felt like there was so much history. I couldn't believe they got rid of it. So that was on top of everything you guys just talked about. Just like, just the fact that that's not there anymore, it's kind of nuts. It always felt like you could go in and maybe see somebody jumping around on the piano or something. When I was working at TMZ,

there's this toy store over on Beverly. You ever been there? It's like an old toy store. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. I just like, I used to just going there. and play with toys, man. It's just like, I'm a big kid. And the movie captures that very well.

For all of the, I know we've been on this for a while, but for all of the stuff in the movie that's a little bit off-kilter, the movie captures the power of innocence and childhood very, very well. It got nominated for Hanks and for Best Original Screenplay. It was written by Gary Ross and Angry Bird,

or I'm sorry, Ann Spielberg in 1985, Steven Spielberg's sister. That's right. It was directed by Penny Marshall, which was a big deal because Leverna and Shirley was a massive show and had only been off the air maybe for 10 years. But she was one of the biggest TV stars we had. Her first movie became the first movie to gross. Her first movie ever? To direct, yeah.

Really? Interesting. Sets up the reunion between Penny and Hanks and a league. Right. First female director to direct a movie that gross more than $100 million. $18 million budget made $151.7 million. It was the fourth biggest movie of 1988. Wow.

Our guy Raj did not have stars for this, but he did write a review, and he said, Big is a tender, soft-hearted, and cheerful movie, well-directed, and script, blah, blah, blah. In the sweepstakes of Generation Gap movies, you love this fan. Big is not as funny as vice versa. and Hanks does not have as much fun with physical humor as Judge Reinhold did in that movie. So I'm guessing he gave this two and a half stars. I think he might have missed on Big,

which is why it's not really on the internet anymore. Vice versa and Big are just like two completely different movies. Vice versa is not like a... There's no vice versa rewatchables happening. Yeah, vice versa. By the way, it's a difference. The movies are fundamentally different if you swap and then if like just one person just gets,

like they swap. So like there's like Swapping it, moving into a different version of yourself of your self. It's like it's totally. The Shazam. Yes.

Yes. So like the movies are that's a lot of stuff that changed because now you got to and they know that they're swapped and all of that stuff. So vice versa. That's interesting though because this was pretty critically adored. Yeah. Right. Widely.

Everybody loved it. Raj is the story guy. Something just didn't click with him. Maybe it wasn't buying that somebody just grew 20, 20 years. We're going to take a break and do this. categories. This podcast is brought to you by Carvana. Selling your car should feel like one less thing on your list. Not one more. With Carvana, it is. Just go to Carvana.com and to your license plate or VIN and get a real offer down to the penny. No back and forth, no surprises, just an experience you can

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and everyday low prices on 365 brand items. Enjoy the fresh flavors of spring. Save at Whole Foods Market. Most rewatchable scene. Josh wakes up is just great. Yeah, I have that one down.

Tremendous. Yeah. It's really funny how they have the looking down at his dick part because that would have been the first thing you're doing when you're 13 and now you're 33 you're going to check out the equipment. I love him riding the tiny bike. I like when he comes back in and thinks it's going to be right to talk about his, talk to his mom.

You don't miss me. It's Josh. Mom, I'm not growing up. I made a wish last night. I turned it to a grown-up, Mom. I made this whist on the machine. Go away. Go ahead. I turned me into a grown-up.

It was last night at the carnival. My birthday is November 3rd, Mom. I got to be in my history test. Yeah, take the birthday. Can I have anything that's in it? My baseball team is called the Dukes. I made this for you. Who are you calling?

I have a birthmark behind my left knee You bastard, what did you do to my son? I am your son, Mom. Oh, that is just impression. When he pulls out his pants to show her the underwear. Shut out to Mercedes Rule. Oh, she was great. She's like fantastic.

This dude in a giant's hoodie has just walked, a grown-ass man, walked into your crib, and it's telling you he's... What do you think the Baskin family is doing right now with this Danny Dimes, New York Giants' run? Big Ciesies. Go nuts. Well, Josh is in jail.

You know. Yeah. After his porn career, it didn't work out. Next one. Josh checks into the gross hotel room. Incredible Hank's acting in this. Really good. And they keep the one camera on him.

They never change it. It's just a wide shot of him just becoming more and more frightened. Yeah. And the way he, like, grabs the way he's sitting and, like, he grabs. And it's just like, that kid's fucking scared. And you really feel like he's 13. F.A. Schwarz chopsticks. we mentioned.

I like that they give him. He gives him the job of VP in charge of product development. Just from playing the electric piano of them. And then Josh begins to abuse his secretary. Yeah. Makes her almost immediately. Like go down and get a copy of the gym. Edit the commercials out.

So Hank said he told Playboy, I had an interview with Playboy a year after this movie came out. And he said about the piano scene. It was exhausting. We rehearsed until we. We dropped. Robert Loggia plays three sets of tennis every day, so he's in shape for it. He plays with the Diaz brothers. It was like jumping rope for three and a half hours.

Every time we did the scene, it was really hard work. And apparently they had two extras there in case they couldn't do it. And they took it really personally. And they're like, we're fucking doing this. Oh, wow. Yeah. I love it. We mentioned the I don't get it scene.

Any questions? No. Not for me. Yes. Yes. I don't get it. What exactly don't you get? It turns from a building into a robot, right?

Precisely. Well, what's fun about that? Well, if you had read your industry breakdown, you would see that our success in the action figure area has climbed from 27% to 45% in the last two years. There, that might help. It turns from a building into a robot, right? What's funny about that?

I don't get it. I don't get it. It's the bug part. Yeah, so the robot turns into a bug. The whole room's response to the bug? You've got a very good idea here. It's very interesting. A bug moves. It's got all kinds of possibilities.

And then your man is talking and you're like, no, fuck all that. Now, what kind of bug it can grab things? Prehistoric bugs. Prehistoric bugs. Like, really, bugs. So funny. These two scenes you got to put together, but we'll separate it. The company cocktail party?

Unbelievable. soon. Susan have a drink. It's great and she saddles up to him and tries to do the professional stuff. Josh's talks. I like when he's walking through. He's like, that's the guy for the meeting. Hi. He's so weird. Him eating cocktail party food, which also wins the Big Cahuna Burger Award for best use of food and drink. Niveling

the baby corn. That's honey corn and the cob is the showstopper. So funny. The baby corn and the cob is so funny. And just his reaction to the Caval. It's hysterical. The way he spits it out on the floor. And his wife's his tongue with the napkin.

Tremendous. I like when she, her line to hit on him is, I loved your ideas on the squeasy doll line. Yeah. That scene's great. And then that goes right into the limo scene, which wins the Kid Cutty Percuitive Happiness Award for Best Needle Drop as well. With the hot in the city coming out of nowhere.

That's right. Big Billy. I don't know. I'm to be honest with you. I love that. I was torn for the Kid Cuddy Award. Yeah. What do you have?

Forget me nots. When they're back in the, like, during the, because, like, they come back and they're getting it to his moment. I think the trampoline scene is legitimately, very rarely in a movie, can you point to the exact scene that somebody's character evolves and changes. Yeah. And for her, that is the moment that she, like, let's go. And just, like, kind of, forget me nots is really banging it.

I couldn't. I haven't. It's a combo. It's all the same scene. They go back. I like his apartment has a trampoline, a Pepsi machine, a pinball machine,

a bunk bed. Just delete. Gumby chair? Gumby chair is great. I'm with you on the trampoline. It was fun to watch her, be like, oh, no, I'm never doing this, too. The trampoline scene is so wonderful

because you know that when she sees it, she's like, this guy's into some weird sex stuff. Like this guy, who I assume is a 30-year-old man likes to fuck on her trampoline. And the way that he, like, takes her shoes off,

pulls her off, and then he goes and, like, reclines in the corner, and he's like, She's like, I'm not used to this. I've seen some shit in the cocaine era in New York City. We'll just sit here and the trampolino do all the work for us. This really kind of disarmingly sweet scene after that with the bunk beds where he gives her the ring.

The light compass is like here's a gluing the light go into dark compass so you don't get lost. If Josh knew what he was doing, he would be the coldest fucking Pimp ever. If he knew what he was doing, he will be the coldest to ever do it, but he's just being a 13-year-old self. He would have won Mal over, I think. Oh, boy.

With the compass, I think that would have gotten you. What is it? What are they playing? Paddle tennis? I don't know. Whatever that sport is. What is it? Paddle ball?

It's pedal ball. 1980. That was under the line. What? It was under the line. I said it had to be over the line on a surf. No, I did. Yeah, you did.

You said it had to be over the line on a serve. No, I did not. Now, give me the goddamn ball. Let's cheating. Give me the goddamn ball, will you? No. Give me the ball, you little shit. It's my sir.

Give me the ball. Give me the goddamn ball. I never said that? Yes, you did. Give me the... Give me the... Give me the ball. Give me the ball.

I think it's so funny when he won't give the ball back, and he was just like... I love him. when they're arguing about the rules. Cheating. Cheater. That seems really good. He's a cheater.

Josh makes his second wish, which ties into the ending and all that stuff, where when she shows up, she realizes she puts all together. And then the ending, which also gets the Great Shot Order Award of him walking down that street. That neighborhood is so cool. I don't know where they found that street. It's the most like fall, New York, autumn street of all time. What do you think Josh lives?

So I think they filmed a lot of this in Jersey, though some of it is in Westchester. Some of it's at Playland and Rye. Yeah, Playland is in Museum Park. Okay. But then it seems like it was almost like Brooklyn because they take, it's like early Brooklyn or somewhere. And his kid is able to come there, which his parents fucking suck. Okay. I can't wait to talk about Billy's parents.

He's able to come there every day. So it must be. Yeah, we have him coming. What's most rewatched? We'll see the piano. I think the only two things. I think you missed. Josh making his wish in the first place.

Like the original, the way that he approaches the Zaltar speaks machine. And we haven't mentioned the score, but Howard Shore, I mean, who of course like Lord of the Rings fans will love his compositions for those films. The way the music changes, that's really where

the magical realism in the film enters in this kind of tingly way, the spookiness, but the possibility. I love that. And I think also just the very opening stretch where you're establishing the rhythm of Josh's life and also crucially his friendship with Billy. Yeah. I love that part.

So I think it has a lot of candidates, but this is, I think, one of the easiest, like, on the one hand, this movie has 15 rewatchable scenes. On the other hand, there's a clear winner. The whole movie is rewatchable. And you didn't even have to think about it. It's the piano scene. The only one I would jump in is the reverse. I don't get it.

Yeah. adulthood has finally lent itself to cynicism and Josh coming up with a ridiculous idea. and it's not working and it's time for him to go back to being a kid. You know what I mean? Like that's a very, that's a very powerful scene as well. Lord of the Rings,

that's a movie? So disrespectful. What's age the best? The casting of young Josh and Hanks. It's realistic that that kid grew up in Hanks. Just like the actual face of that. Is this where we talk about? David Laskol?

Yeah, he was. He came to man? engaged to Kerry Washington. Yeah. Oh, what? This is how I, this, this is, can we talk about this for a minute? The queen?

This is, the queen, Carrie Washington. Yeah. I wouldn't have her on my podcast because I wouldn't be able to handle it. This guy was, yeah. That Carrie Washington? Yeah, he was, that was her man. What? Yes.

Yes. I was like, when I was first getting the TMZ, it was like, that was a thing or whatever. And then it was, I was like, they were like, hey, that's the kid from being. I was like, what the, wow, he made. he made good. It's shocking.

Yeah. It's shocking. So she's got a type because she always liked Tony Goldman too, right? There was always rumors about... Yeah, but now it's not in the awesome why, so... Oh. Obviously.

We mentioned Hanks acting like a kid. Yeah. The nodding's good, like the quick nodding the way a little kid would. I like Susan as the ruthless career into 1980s lady who's definitely seen some things

and made some moves and kind of playing the chess board. So many people, their reaction to Josh in public is that there's something, like, deeply wrong with him. Like, he's, like, got some crazy, I don't know, mental illness or whatever. The way, it's so, like, when they're eating at the diner, he's like, he's like, gross.

He's playing with the cherry on his tongue. And the adults are just like, this guy is, we need to call the police. Right. He's like, even Billy's like, Josh, stop. He grosses to people out naked. Finley Lee. The, yeah,

it's really funny. Them cashing the $187 check. So great. Three dimes of $100,000 bill in 87 ones. So funny. I like what Josh shows Billy's office. I love this apartment. Cynthia Benson as the 1988,

12-year-old blonde ideal. Kind of like had that, the last vestiges of like the little weird hair thing, like kind of big ass hair with the Levi, the blue jacket I love. Josh on the Missy Millcarton was great. I love, this was almost a rewatchable scene, but when the mom is saying, like,

proof to me he's there. What's on to do I see as a kid, and he's like, don't you want to ask him something else? And then Hanks is just like, you could see his brain churning for like seven seconds, and he's like, oh, I got it, I got it. And then John Lovis is over his shoulder.

Like, what's going on? Waukee talkies are always great in a movie. Never used in real life, I don't feel like ever. You never had, like, I wasn't in that era. You never had like a, like a friend. And you guys, Bill, let's get a walkie-talkie and read comics to each other. Wouldn't be comics for you. What would it be like?

Sports. They're really back in the public consciousness, thanks to stranger things. Is that true? Oh, yeah. They use walkies. Oh, you know what they came back? Remember they came back? Do you consider Boost Mobile to be a walkie-talkie?

Do you consider the chirp? Remember the next-tailed chirp? You remember that? Yeah. That was kind of like a walkie-talkie, wasn't it? Now you have FaceTime. Yeah, that's true. We mentioned everything else, but so I watched all the deleted scenes as a dedicated host of the rewatchables.

There you go. And most of them were deleted for a reason, as always, with deleted scenes. There was a really interesting, I'm not sure they made the right idea or not, whether they're cutting it. So he tells her that night when he's like, I'm a little boy, I'm telling you. And she's like, okay, I don't know what you're trying to prove, but, and she goes to bed. and then the next time you see them, they're doing the presentation, you're ready to do this,

and they kind of don't talk about the night before. They filmed all this other stuff where she wakes back up in the same outfit and goes through his wallet. Right. And finds, like, a Don Mattingly baseball card. She finds the Zoltar thing, which he told her about. And she's kind of like...

Should have left it. Well, so then, the next morning, they're going to buy a newspaper or they're walking to work and they're walking by a newspaper stand and she says can you buy me some gum and she's kind of watching

and see what gum he buys and buys her gum and it's bubblelicious so now she's looking at the gum and she's just and then they go in and they had another like small scene and she's sizing them up trying to figure out

and I actually think they should have kept should have left it without a doubt they should have left. I thought it was really good and Mal says no. I'm 36 and I would chew bubble delicious right now happily. Delicious.

If I can get a pack of fruit stripes right now, I would. But it at least introduces that she heard him and she's reevaluating everything. You still have some elements of that present in the film when in the pitch meeting, it's like, a kid is going to spend 1895 for a comic book? And she's like, wait a minute. And then, of course, the hilarity of her seeing Billy. Right. And realizing, oh, this is the best friend of this actual.

child. The reason why I feel like it would have been good to having a movie watching now, these are not questions that I asked in 89, 90, 91 when I myself was younger than Josh was when the movie came out. But the reason why I feel now is because, like, we do get to some places in the movie pretty cool. Yeah. We get from having sex with the 30-year-old man to this guy as a kid. It would be good if there would have just been something extra in there for her to be like, I kind of buy it. You know what I mean? And I feel like it was. It was a good. It would be good. It would be good. And I feel like it would have rounded her character out a little bit more. You know why I think they didn't keep it, though?

Why? Because if she's suspicious that night, then she's like, let's go to bed. And now she's complicit. Yeah. I'm sure that's why they cut it. They were a test audience and some studio bigwin was like, all right, that's got to go. Right. We have to get rid of that.

Let's keep her saying that she's going to miss him and that he should call her in 10 years. But let's get rid of that. Right. I think that could have kept the Babalicious scene. At least had one little thing, so it didn't seem so abrupt when she... When she has to drive him home because he's 13 and can't drive himself. Yes. And then turns into a 13 road right in front of her.

What other one stage is the best do you guys have? Oh, boy. Well, you mentioned his adult apartment, but I just think we have to once again say, like, when I was a kid, one of the parts of watching this movie that was so fun as a kid is, like, the aspirational nature, much like with, like, a Richie Rich or a Blachie Rich or a blank check or something, right? There's that wish fulfillment aspect of, wouldn't it be cool if I just got to, like, do whatever the fuck I wanted?

And no one told me I had to, like, go do my homework or couldn't have another dessert. And so watching Josh in his apartment when he has all of the toys and all of the things that you could want as a kid, that was just one of the coolest things about this. It was, it's the dream, the dream abode. Carnivals. Now, sure. Great call. Yeah.

for the wimpy score and the big striker. He gets height shamed. He gets height shamed in line in front of Cynthia. That is worse. It's tough. It's tough. But what a wonderful place to come together. You get to be there with your family.

You get to run into your crush. You get to have great snacks with some toys. Have a magical machine turn you into a 30-year-old who gets to fuck Elizabeth Perkins. Yeah. Carnivals. Yep. Absolutely. Product placement.

Something that was that started. I had that in what stage the worst. Oh, no. It's, it's. Pepsi Bubbillicious. What was the third one? So the product place. Oh, Pizza Hut.

But this is why the product placement to me in this movie, there is a legitimate close-up shot of a Pepsi. Yeah. The Pizza Hut's there. What's a Pepsi machine? It's a Pepsi machine. And then. That's my one amendment to the dream home.

I would not have a. Pepsi machine. I would have a Coke machine. Well, that goes without saying. My whole thing was always, I was going to have. Shatters the illusion. Haven't heard Pepsi sponsor the rewatchables, have you? I was going to have orange juice on tap. I don't know why.

Oh, wow. I love it. What dream did this spark in you when you watched it? And you're like, if I could wish for something, it would be X. When you were watching this, what was the thing that you wanted? I mean, I definitely would have had some beanbags. I would have had an incredible TV, whatever the biggest TV was. Yeah.

I would have had that stand-up hockey game that they have sometimes in arcades where you turn like foosball based with the occupiers absolutely had that I would have had Miss Pac-Man I don't think he had enough arcade stuff you know the 80s was a good era for this because you had this movie

you had the toy which filled at the governor's mansion in Louisiana so when I actually visited the governor's mansion I thought there was an actual room down there for DeVeyne if we're going to talk problematic the toy is 100 times worse than big the toy the toy is problematic

You should do a whole different I thought like it was problematic when I was 12 and I saw the toy I didn't even realize It took my dad To like convince me He's like that makes sense though They would do that here

It's like why It's like Louisiana slave state They do a story about a black man Who's a slave The toy Also that prior wanted to be in the toy It was tough too When you watch the toy

If you divorce yourself away From all the problem I gotta watch it again The toy is a very funny Heart Woman movie That kid actually end up becoming Derek Diggler But the toy and then Silver Spoons, all of these kids having all of this great stuff.

I just was so salty in Louisiana. Remember the Silver Spoons was, I think, a pretty big show for like two years. But that was the front of it was like Ritchie Rich. And they had a training in their creative show. I thought that needs to come back. Silver Spoons? No, just the whole super rich kid who's, you just get, he just has a bunch of toys. He's basically James Bond as an 11-year-old.

I feel like that would work. Maybe. I mean, I don't think I don't know why the trope went away Because it used to be a big deal Rich kid who had all kinds of stuff It just don't do it no more Bring it back. Where's Netflix? Speaking of kids, I think just best friends

Your childhood best friend Like what won't Billy do For Josh? Right. Right? I mean Like getting him into the city Stealing him the clothes in the first place Helping him track down

The Zoltar Speaks machine Tireless. Tireless. And gives him the cherry from his ice cream neighborhood circulation director as a way to get the paper out on the resume. Locker combo is the social security number. And like that heartbreaking moment at the end when he says, I'm your best friend. What's more important than that? I have that as best quote. Just that time in your life where that bond was the single biggest thing in your world.

Wonderful. And you do anything. I feel like that to us about 28. I always My friends were my number one thing And then you You know what happens You know it's funny

Your own family That's what happens Yeah Everybody starts getting married off And you call somebody And you be like hey man I'm jump on the halo right now And they go

Like nah dog I got to feed my daughter You go what? But I was going to tell you Whether Cynthia Benson liked you That was a very true life thing too Everybody calling around To see if the person you had a crush on

Had a crush on you Just parking and back. It's great. I love it. The Den of Thieves Benny Hott Award for scene stealing location.

Playland. Playland? I love being a Playland. And his apartment. I think it's those three. The longs. The Denet of Four is pretty good. You're right.

Another F.O.O. Shorts looks like another planet, bro. It just looks so amazing even still. The Butch's Girlfriend Award for Weeklink of the film. This one, for me, didn't go to a character. it went to the the fucking Mel Gibson there's a whole kidnapping plot

that's just kind of glossed over and they're not trai like there's no tracer on the phone it's like he calls multiple times after the second time it's like your son's okay it's like there's going to be police there every day this is the biggest story in New York City for two months

that the fucking baskin kid got taken he's calling his writing his mother a letter Sending her letters and phone calls, torturing her. And saying, hey, this experience might actually be good for me. This poor woman is going through. She definitely should be drunk. Yeah. When she gets the walkie-talkies with the friends, she should be like nine glasses in.

Like this poor woman is going through it. That just totally doesn't work. I had this as an unanswerable question, but it's contextually relevant here because I also had Josh's family for this for the weak link of the film. Yeah. His dad. Where? Thank you. He said his father to his dad. Was he abducted as well? Was he actually abducted?

We see him at the very beginning. And then he's gone. We hear him at the very beginning yelling about the trash. Then we see him at the carnival. Nothing after that. This poor woman. He's looking for his giant sweatshirt. He's like, I know I put it right there.

There's a whole movie where Josh's dad has gone to New York with a 380. And is talking to different private detectives. Right. That's me, too. It's just a parallel movie. Trying to find his son. And he's walking by Josh on the street and not even knowing that it's him. There's a whole other movie where his dad is trying to find his son.

One of the deleted scenes is Josh's dad is in jail because he's the main suspect for the kid. No, no, no. No, it's really weird. They just, you also, he doesn't miss his dad and doesn't seem like there should be some sort of connection. and shouldn't just be the single mom, which raises a question, why I even have the dad? Right. I guess you need it for the little kid, so it would make sense why he would have a sister. But very strange.

Oh, boy. The Mallory Rubin Award for Did This Movie Need a Better Sex Scene, which by rule we have to do when Mallory is one of the co-hosts. I think we're good. Okay. Great. I think we're good with this one. What's age the worst? How bad video games were in 1988, which I can vouch for firsthand?

I played video games like the first hand. one he plays in the beginning. Like that stupid, whatever it is. A lot of texts. It's like you got to decide. Aval Wizard? Yeah. No, those games existed.

I used to play a game when you have to, I forget what it was called, but you were, you were captured by the Germans during World War II and you had to escape from their whole complex. And it was, you had to make all these choices. And they had killed. It started over at the beginning. Yeah. But Bill, this primes us for so many key elements of the story.

How open Josh's mind is to the family. to the fantastical. I'm not, I'm not killing the video games. I'm just saying, it reminded me how bad video games were. I meant Paul was literally like,

yeah. To, you know what I mean? Television was just dots moving around. Your hesitancy has cost you dearly, though. Like he's got to be ready to make a choice later in the movie. We needed a shopping scene

to explain how his clothes got better over the course of the movie. We needed a montage. We needed Julie Roberts montage. We needed Susan to take him. I longed for the, Thank you to Armani. Interesting.

Let's, we got to, now that you're a VP, we got to get you some clothes. And we needed a scene. But it wasn't. It would have been funny. He would have been measured by the tailor. He would have jumped back when the guy, like, put the ruler near him. But here's the thing, though. Five different things could happen.

He didn't start dressing better once he got the VP jump. He started dressing better once he got some ass. Right. See, Isaiah, like, he started dressing better once he got some ass. Yeah. And that. That's a life lesson. Isaiah, you, you, you realize that when you were watching the movie, didn't you?

You realized that the moment he started getting some ass. He was an adult all of a sudden. He was an adult. He became an adult. Started getting some ass and the next thing you know is Brooks Brothers. So she probably took him. She's like, I can't be fucking this. Like, what are you wearing?

Get yourself a real serious. Yeah. For what stage is the worst? With Susan, Josh is just telling her with details. I'm actually a kid. And she's just dismissing it. She's like,

I don't know what kind of game you're playing. Like if your husband Adam just one day is like, I'm a kid, you'd be like, all right, that's weird, Adam. But then laid out seven different examples of here's why I'm a kid. And they were all examples that seem realistic. Would you just brush that off? Let's spend a moment here on the one actual line of the script where Susan acknowledges everything is clicked for me.

She says, well, that explains it. Premature ejaculation. Yes. Oh. I had that question later for you, but yeah, I figured. That is definitely what it all clicks for her. Joshua isn't exactly a marathon runner. Josh, no.

Josh was super duper excited And thank God the ceilings were high in that apartment Josh Yeah Yeah Can you imagine Can you imagine No, I'll go too far

But Oh my God Wasn't Wasn't durable Sex partner Right Yeah Yeah

So they made this a TV series in 1990. Oh, I have a on pilot. It was not. No, that was the last, what stage is the worst is. Okay. There's a pilot of the show that did not get picked up. There was this whole era, and we've talked about it on the rewatchables before, where anytime a movie succeeded, they're like,

we'll make a TV version of it. And it failed every time. Yeah, that lasted. They did that with Clueless. They did with so many movies. Clueless. No movie I watched all the time. Which is why when they did it with Friday Night Lights and Parenthood in the 2000s,

people were like, that's going to suck. And then they were actually good. It was the first time. It's like a reimagining. Yeah, it's a reimagining. Well, yeah. So the office is just a Me Too situation. Yeah, that was 1988.

I know. Office politics, the kidnapping subplot, the first breast touching scene. I had to fast forward past it. I couldn't watch it. So obviously dating children age pretty poorly. The way I put it on my what's age the worst list is Susan being kind of okay with fucking a 13-year-old. It's the whole Mary Kay-Kah Terno situation. She doesn't know when she's doing it that that's what she's doing.

But at the end, when she finds out, she's like, I'm really going to miss you. Look me up. Let me tick on your neck and give you a gentle kiss on the forehead. Now, let's keep it all the way funky, all the way funky. He's 13. She's 32. In 10 years, she says it. I know, I'm just saying, in 10 years, she'll be a beautiful woman.

It's a Jason Momoa, Lisa Bonnet situation. And he'll be, he'll be ready. He'll be just out of college. Right. It's not off the table for them. In 10 years, he'll be. 10 years, he'll be. I was going to say sex.

He'll be 23 meeting his 9-year-old kid from the illicit affair that... Oh, that should have been big two. That's big two! Big two! Oh, my God. Jumping ahead to a future category. Big two. Bigger.

Like father like son. Like big two chip off the old big block. And it's like he's raising his kid. And it's like looper because he's got all of these time paradoxes. That is dope. How to consider whether to go back. to Zoltar speaks to try to get more time with his kid, but then does it open up some paradoxes? How does he navigate that exactly?

Right. He finds her and it's like, here's little Josh. This is funny. That's big news. That should have been this TV series where Zoltar is way more prominently involved than people are just passing. So many sequel possibilities for those changing. So many.

The other what's age the worst is a McMillan Toys interview and recruitment process. I have some notes for the team at McMillan on how to properly vet a candidate. And my first note is that if the candidate doesn't have a social security number properly filled out on the form, you can't hire them on the spot. Yeah. And maybe you should check to see if they went to the college. They just popped out of it. You know what you did you pledge? Did you pledge every morning? But even in that, he gets distracted by Elizabeth Perkins and that he's not able to perform his due. You know, that we've, we've joked a lot. This could be a what's age the worst. It could be a weakest link thing. I'd love a little more character development for Susan.

I'd love a little more beyond just Paul listing all of the people in the office that she had previously fucked. What is her relationship? What are her career motivations? What's her relationship with him? They have all of it in the deleted scenes. It's most of the stuff they got caught were Susan related. Could he use more of that. You know what?

It wasn't that good. It was like, oh, here's another scene where Susan's kind of a bitch at work. Wait a minute, though. But I have like Susan. Susan's dating Hurd's character. She's dating Paul, right? Yeah. There's that breakfast scene when they're in the bathroom,

listing all the toy companies they're called to see. She's giving him, he's over at her house a lot, but they're dating. They work at the same place. There's a new guy. There seems to be no barrier stopping her from taking the new guy home from a company party and then sleep.

I don't understand what their relationship was. They didn't live together, but they were definitely dating. Yeah, she returns all of his stuff and asks for a keyback. There's another deleted scene, the night before the big presentation before he tells her, they're working at the office late. She's like wearing his shirt.

And she goes down to get something and runs into Robert Lozia. And he's like, oh, Sus, I'd like how you've kind of loosened up. And you should watch these. Yeah. And she doesn't care that. So, yeah, there's a lot more Susan stuff

that they cut. Susan cut. To your point about the Woods Age to the worst with her reaction, Like if you're doing this now, which you wouldn't probably get this movie made now. But if you did, if you tried, when she goes and it's too late and he's made the wish and she realizes, oh my God, he wasn't kidding. Right.

I do feel like maybe if you're Susan, you sit down on a seat with your head and your hands for like two minutes. You're like, oh, my God. What just happened? Am I like, scrub off your skin? It's like a crying game thing. Yeah. It's like it's so nuts. It's like it's so nuts.

I have the whole last scene is what's aged the worst. Because she's so good with it. She has a tender mold. Josh, like, can you take me back to my best? Can you just give me one fucking second, Josh? Give me one more minute. Just to fucking digest this.

Am I going to jail? Like what? Right. Yeah. Let's take a break and then we'll rip through the rest. This episode is brought to you by Two Good and Company coffee creamers. Howdy Take Your Coffee Piping Hot? Ice, strong, frothy.

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I would say no. Do you have a hottest take or should we skip those? I didn't have one, did you? Not really. It was a hard one. Yeah, we'll skip it. Casting what ifs? There are so many.

Spielberg, during the split second when he was thinking about maybe directing this, he was going to do with Mallory's hero, Harrison Ford. Hmm. Why I feel like it might work. I think it could have worked. I mean, yeah, I don't know why I feel like it might work. It's just a different movie, but it's not, it's not bad. It's like too sexy then, isn't it?

Yeah. Maybe he's too. He's got a little... The girls in the office are, like, checking out Harrison. Where Harrison Ford came back after he got fucked up. He's something happened to him. Regarding Henry. Regarding Henry.

Yeah. I mean, this is 88. This is after Harrison Ford has been on soul. Yeah. Yeah. It's not... I don't know. He's too sexy.

Well, Spielberg Band Empire of the Sun. James Brooks was one of the producers. He got Penny Marshall to direct. She was supposed to direct Peggy Sue got married. Creative Differences. Francis Ford Coppola takes over. Deborah Winger was in that movie. He switched her for Kathleen Turner.

And then apparently Marshall and Deborah Winger were talking about big, maybe it should be a female instead of a male. Which they did eventually. Marshall said to the New York Post at the time, it's a little more acceptable that a 13-year-old boy has an experience with a woman. The other way it's impossible. It's Polanskyville. That was a 1989 quote.

Good for you. Wow. At least somebody in the town had their fucking eyes on the ball. Yeah. Like, good for you. So that's why Deborah Winger was not Josh Baskin. We mentioned De Niro. Dennis Quaid told Larry King once that he turned down the park and did everybody's

All-American instead. Not positive, I believe that, but maybe. Everybody's all-American, Billy Cannon. Yeah. That movie never quite landed the plane for me. Not really, but it was like for us to like see something shot in Baton Rouge. you know that it was about Billy Cannon. Interesting.

Jared Russian, who plays Billy, told the New York Post that he also read with Richard Dreyfuss and Sean Penn, who are auditioning for the Josh Basketroll. Sean Pan and Josh Basquin. Can you imagine? Jesus. Can you imagine Sean Pan in this movie?

Chirvota really wanted to play Josh, but was at an all-time career slump in the studio's like, fuck that. No way, John Chavolta. I think he would have been okay. Not as good things. I think Chibolta would have been okay. He could have done it.

Like he, he's got like a, this sort of ingenious dumbness about him sometimes in these movies that might have translated. But I think he could have done it. He maybe would have played it like Vinnie Barbarino. I can't believe I'm 13. Whoa. The Ruffalo Hannah Rubinick Partridge overacting word. The guy at the cocktail party, the guy she was sleeping with.

Yeah, Paul. The guy's a goddamn knockoff artist. What you mean? Amphibian? He takes 10,000 G.I. Joe's. Slaps some bills on on webs their feet. All of a sudden, he's more drunk than anyone in the history of a cocktail party. Except for the guy across the table who just passes out.

It's like, really? That's going to happen at the McMillan cocktail party at like 8 o'clock at night? The guy who plays Paul. What's his name again? John Hurd. He plays an asshole in movies as well as anyone. I mean, of course, he's to. He's the dad in Home Alone.

Yeah, he plays an asshole. He's done a lot of good stuff. He's not the best that guy of actors. I miss those guys. He's not the best that guy at this movie. That award goes to James Eckhouse, the dad from 902 and O. That's what I had. Yeah.

Interesting. That's what I was. Yeah. Best that guy. Three years later, he was doing the slow turns with his arms around his waist. When he popped in, I was like, yo, where do I know that guy? Yeah. I'm like, where?

It's a big run for him because he was also in cocktail that same year. who's at the bar in cocktail. Dan Waiters Award is loaded. Is Robert Loge eligible? No. I don't think he's either. Mercedes Rule also not eligible. I think this is an easy one.

I had John Lovitz. Me too. Yeah. First thing I rode down. One of his lines in this movie is smell my neck. Yeah. Can I give you a couple more candidates? Toothless Hotel Clerk?

Oh. Yeah. I mean, he's missing like 60. He's got the, like, his whole. Yeah. whole fronts is fucked up. Yeah. Josh's secretary, the embattled secretary,

who's got to cut out commercials. I enjoyed her. Oh, she's from, um, 70s show. Yeah. Yeah. And then, uh, pizza maker guy. It's a great job by him at the birthday party. Oh, yeah, with the, uh,

with the dough and it's like that guy. Be right, it's Levitz. This was a, the peak of the Lovitz-Hank partnership because Lovitt, Lovitts and Hanks were on S&L. They had a whole bunch of bits that they used to do. They, uh, the guys hitting at the crews hitting on women.

Do you remember this stuff? I mean, it was a long time ago, but yeah. I love John Lovitz. Me too. Recasting couch? I don't know. I don't know if I would touch this movie. No, I think everything's perfect.

I was for certain. Is there a character that didn't work? I don't feel like that maybe the dad either get rid of him or get a real actor so he can have some scenes. I could tell you what he looks like. Like literally. I couldn't, I don't even remember what he looks like. Like, I don't know.

I think everything is casted pretty perfectly. That's where I landed. The half-ass internet research. A couple, most of the deleted scenes are bad. There is a scene in there when Josh and Billy go shopping for his tucks. There's a scene when he calls his mom from the hotel payphone, which is outside, a second time just to hear her voice and some other stuff. But really, the only big one was that Josh's wallet. The Zoltar speaks fortune teller machine.

Fictional or not fictional? I'm going to go not fictional. Invented for this movie, since copyrighted, now available to purchase. In San Antonio, one of my first Instagrams, I think, in 2014, we were all in San Antonio, and they have some attraction where you climb some tower. I forget what it's called. Interesting. There's me in house and Jacko and Rembert.

And they had a Zoltar machine. and put the thing in. I was like, is this the real? No idea that they just like... What year is this? 2014. I think I know what you wish for. What did I wish for?

The ringer. I wish to get suspended by ESPN. Mentioned Hank's copying David Moscow, the future Carrie Washington, Mr. Here's a good one. Josh's baby sister in the movie. Not in the credit. To this day, nobody knows who played her

and what her identity was. It's a complete mystery. She's not in the credits, and nobody knows who the actress was, I guess. Interesting. Yeah, I thought that was super weird. You didn't have to. Was it just someone's kid?

Yeah. Who was making the movie? It's unclear. No record of who it was. The shimmy, shimmy cocoa bop was Tom Hacks' idea because his son had learned it at Summer Camp. The Yankee game, they went to, July 1987,

Tim Stoddard pitched day Anheel Salazar with Bo Jackson leading off first base. Wow, wow. Royals Yankees. Wow. Oh, this is in deleted scenes. There's a scene with Billy and his family

and Francis Fisher is Billy's mom and he has not completely dysfunctional family. And then they made, do we mention this? They made the walking piano. The walking piano up to that point was like half the size. And they actually made a new one.

that then stated F.O. Schwartz. Great ringer feature on the piano. Yeah, way back, what, four years ago? Yeah. Apex Mountain. So not Tom Hanks, but 80s Tom Hanks. I feel like there are three Tom Hanks. Like there's four Michael Jordans.

There's been three LeBron's. Okay. And there's three Tom Hanks. This doesn't undermine the entire concept of Apex Mountain. I'm just saying I want you to think of Tom Hanks as three different human beings. So then what you have is. is this is the apex of the ascension of Tom Hanks. 90s, Tom Hanks starts with League of Their Own

and goes all the way through Castaway. And then we have 21st century Tom Hanks. It's not a mountain, it's a mountain range. Michael Jordan, there was 1.0, 2.0, 3.04. Right. LeBron, there's probably a 3.0. So then it depends on your level of success. You get multiple apexes is what you're saying.

Yeah, when you become Tom Hanks or Michael Jordan, there's multiple apex mountains. Which apex are you on? There's three mountains. I'm on like 5.0. It's like fucking cranking. I'm still looking for my first. But I guess so, but two Oscars back to back though.

This is your first apex mountain. You're fucking crushing it right now. Oh, thank you. Yeah. This is great. It's so nice to be along on the ride with you. Appreciate that. We got more good stuff coming.

This is your fucking mountain right here. Jesus Christ. Mr. Holland's opus. This is your opus, Mr. Rowland. This is your opus. Yeah, I got it. Yeah. I get it because like,

This was kind of his huge big, you know, Tom... He needed this. It wasn't 100% happening the way we all wanted to happen until this movie. He goes on to become... Is Tom Hanks' run? Is he the biggest movie star of all time? I think he's the biggest modern movie star. Yeah.

I mean, certainly the most successful. I'm talking about just like, just racking everything is off the chain, $10, $12, $200 million. Bogart has a pretty crazy run. Yeah. Go back. Most famous movie of one. all time, show like that.

Yeah, okay. No, I'm with it. But I look at guys like Hanks and Robin Williams and then like cruising. The problem with Hanks is he never had the, like, what are there, seven, eight of the great movies of all time? Mm-hmm. I mean, was never really in any of them. He's never, he's not in any of the movies.

He doesn't have a godfather. He doesn't have a Jaws. He doesn't have. Toy Story. Right, but it's his voice. So yeah, so Toy Story might count. So if we count Toy Story, then that's it. So that, so that was the one he needed, I guess.

This is going to sound stupid. But you don't consider Forrest Gump to be just the way Forrest Gump had like culture. The Oscars heard it for, we talked about this when we did the pot. The Oscars made it like the dummies voted for Forrest Gump for the Oscar. And Shawshanker Pulp Fiction should have won. And there was a weird backlash that came from that. I just can't remember a movie that had people in its clutches for. Oh, it's an amazing movie.

We did that with Fantasy, who as you know is a complete cyborg. like an absolute AI artificial intelligence human being and he fucking loves Forrest Gump Like if you that movie If you can get fantasy with a movie like that You did a good job Elizabeth Perkins apex mound

Absolutely absolutely Absolutely Lodzia no I don't know what is Apex Mountain is But I think the Diaz brothers are probably involved The Diaz brothers Maybe maybe Independence Day Oh yeah

That was big Logia A lot people to Lodia's Independence Day General dude Mr. President. Yeah. At the time it takes to kill an American city, 37 hours.

It's going to take the aliens 37 hours to the destroy the world. Are we that stupid? Toy companies? In a movie? Oh, man. Wow. Is there a better toy company

in a movie? The McMillan Toys? I feel like it's the peak. Oh, my goodness. Playland is a movie location. No. You know why? Toy companies in the movie just fucked me up.

I think that's true. Yeah. I think it is true. Playland is a movie location. The answer is no. Because the apex was a year before when Glenn Close took Michael Douglas' kid to Playland, grabbed her ass from school and brought her to playland for a day of amusement park stuff. Boiled the rabbit.

And then told her not to tell anyone. Altimer. Yeah. Did you do that one with me? Yeah. You did, right? It was me and Wesley? Yeah.

What a fucking. God damn, we've done a lot of rewatchable. Crazy. You want to be in the re-fatal attraction? I would love to. That was a great one. It was a great one. Body Switch movies.

Yeah. Probably, but I do think there's a Freaky Friday. Right. Like a freakie, the remake of Freaky Friday, the first week. The Lindsay Lohan one, I think, is a pretty big deal. It's certainly in the Mount Rushmore for body swap. Yeah, definitely. And 13.

13 going on 30 is another one that I think has really got a lot of momentum. I don't know if this can be considered traditional body swap. Yeah, maybe it's not. Good point. Yeah, because I mean, swapping into another version of yourself is a subgenre. Yeah, it's a body swap.

Yeah, it's body swap. How about Mark Gastino jerseys? Could. It's never been better for the Mark Gastonore jersey. The Gassano girls, that whole era. How about the 1988 Subaru XT6 of Susan's car? That's right. Very kind of creepy.

Kind of fit in with if you want to go down the road with Susan kind of creepy. Missy Millcartons, no. Zoltan machine 100%. The height marker for amusement park rides is the last one I had. I'm trying to remember if it's been used better in a movie. This is really good.

I mean, it's the exciting incident. It's the whole... What's funny is they still have them in amusement parks, which makes me laugh. It's a safety progression. Yeah. Even on the dark roller coasters, like the ones where you're not going around, you still can't,

like, you can't fucking ride star tours if you're not a certain height. I'm like, why? You're sitting down. Best racehorse name, Zoltar? Zoltar speaks. Zoltar is what I had. Zoltar speaks.

Let's do it all. Picking Nits. All right, I have some good ones for this. A rich text. For a movie that we love. I was really skipping ahead. I was so excited for this part of the pot. But they really clean out an entire carnival in like six hours.

They go to the carnival the night before. It's this huge, giant carnival. He rides his bike down there at like 7.30 the next morning. It's gone. There's not a sign of the carnival. Can I be real with you? You'd be surprised. Just the litter.

Seven hours? But none of the machinery. You'd be surprised. Not one person's still like, oh, you got two more things left. Like somebody's there. It's like, that's it. It's just gone. There's no memory of the carnival.

It just happened. Everyone just went to bed. What if 20 workers working in five in the morning trying to get this carnival out? You know, what's funny is like, sometimes I pass by like the smaller. Because growing up where I did, there's no neighborhood carnivals. Yeah. You know? But I see it.

here in LA. Yep. And you see them set it up, you drive by, and you see people hang out for a couple days, and you drive by one day and it's gone. I don't know. Got to get to the next location. Yeah. Josh just immediately gets a job.

It made me think, like, my son's two years older than Josh, and I think he would eventually figure out I need a job, but not 48 hours into the experience of now being a 31-year-old man. Right. It's a little abrupt. I think there's a couple days where he's just watching TV in his room and needing Cheetos before he's thinking about. He needs a distraction. He's scared. Life at the St. James is not to his liking.

Fair. Susan pulls Josh out of the party after he almost chokes on caviar and spits it out right in front of her. Yeah. They go to a limo. He acts like he's just overdosed on sugar and is like having a five-year-old kid. Yeah, playing with everything. She sees his apartment, which is just completely insane for 90 different reasons.

she lies in the bottom of the bunk bed gives him the fuck me eyes he jumps on the top of the bunk bed and goes to bed and then she's like when's our next date yeah what's next for us

it would have been going back to office like yo we need to send the FBI who do we know like who do we know the Manhattan the Manhattan Field office something's not right about this guy

like we need somebody She's at work. And somebody's like, so how to go last night with Josh? She's like, well, a little weird. Mentioned the phones being tapped in Mercedes-Ruelses' house. It's just 100% of the time.

Those phones are tapped for months. I would say they give up six months in. But if he's repeatedly calling, the investigation's ongoing. This is a tough one. I didn't know this until I did the research. His idea of robots that turned into giant. Insects was actually something that actually existed called the insecticons,

which was from the Transformers toy line that was released in like 1985. So Josh is a plagiarist. We learned that. I stole the idea. Billy's parents. Yeah. This is just, I mean, we already talked about where is Josh's dad and where does he go. But Billy's parents are okay with him going to the city basically every day.

Our guy is filing forms in triplicate. Chase down Zoltar speaks. And not just that. It's not just that he's out traveling into the city doing whatever he wants. He's, when Josh asked him how he's going to explain it, he says, I'll tell him I made the basketball team. Well, folks, we've seen Billy on the basketball. So his parents know nothing about him. That's what we have to deduce for that.

If they would buy that line. I think that's why they had it. The family's such a mess. There's like six kids that maybe that's why they do it. Billy said, Billy said I got to be home about 10. You can tell me Billy gets out of school. 3 o'clock 345 Billy's hooping

Who is Billy Was Billy in the G League? Like Billy is Boothin Until 10 o'clock at night He's hooping in Delaware Yeah he's coming home Every

Like that just looking at it It's crazy Billy's all over the place man And wouldn't the police follow Billy once Be like hey man This kid Billy He's going to New York Like I wonder

Josh's captors Might be enticing him That's a good one investigating. It's the worst investigation about that. They investigated for one day. They're like, oh, he's gone. Well, probably never come back.

Josh's dad. Just the one-time glimpse and that's it was pretty crazy. What else do you have? So, Josh, in essence, makes a ransom call from his cubicle. Everybody is listening. We know this because the John Lovitz character and other surrounding members of the McMillan data entry team look at him. look at him in turn when he's singing

so we can tell they're paying attention but they hear things like you're going to get him back just the way he was and don't alert the authorities or take note of it in any way. What is wrong with everybody who works at McMillan? That is just astonishing stuff. Also, this is maybe the germaphobe in me. I don't care how scared

12 year old at the time, Josh Baskin is his first night at the St. James when he hears the gunshot and he hears people yelling. If you're putting down a $10 deposit on sheets at an establishment, you put a pillowcase on the pillow before you curl up with it and cradle it to your face. At the same time, he's like a 13-year-old, right? But, oh, my God, it's so gross when he just lies on the bed.

No! Terrible! It's the most harrowing scene of the movie. Okay, I'm curious to gauge your take on this, because this was something that Adam and I had a little bit of a debate about when we were re-watching this at home. before he told you he was really 13 years old. He thought it was absolutely unbelievable that Josh's mom wouldn't have recognized her son grown up.

I disagree. What do you think? What do you think of this? So I asked my wife and she just, her point was I would have wanted more information before I just ruled it out. More information than him wearing your son's underwear. Well, the mole, I would have been like, wait, you have a mole? Like, she said she would have like four more questions before she chased them out of the house. Wait, but are we considering the shock of like a grown-ass man?

Right. Just walking into your crib. Right. She thinks it's a home invasion. Yeah. She thinks he's a kidnapper. Yeah. Like, I think the second or third day, you may be like, yo, who's that guy?

Right. Grown up guy and he had the mole. And he had the mole. And he's wearing my husband. Giant sweatshirt Before my husband disappeared. It was like before you, before he was abducted.

It's interesting. Yeah, it is. It's worth Molly. This is a very small one, but when Billy is cleaning up his room and tossing everything that reminds him of Josh, he has on his bulletin board

a Battle of the Bat's Mets stick it to the Cubs sign. Established canon that he's a Yankee fan. Why does he have a fucking Mets sign in his room? There's a lot of... What is this? I had this improbably and answer the questions. I'm not disqualifying.

Let's do now. There's a lot of sports bigamy in this movie. It's got the giant sweatshirt, but he's also has the Jets jersey she wears. There's Yankees-Met stuff. I think Josh is just a fucking sports bigamist. He just wanted to root for all the New York days. And it's just bled into Billy's life. All right.

Well, that's it. So you've mentioned the phone tapping and some of the 1988 specifics of how an investigation would go. I'd like to ask you about the equivalent of leasing an apartment in Soho. How is Josh doing this? So a lot cheaper back then. But, but, okay, so he's on his VP salary. So he's got like a shit ton of money, right?

They just give him, what does he do? Hand over a wad of cash for a loft? My question is, how is he's hiding all of the equipment? I don't know how he's getting paid because his fucking social security number. This is a thing. They're giving you a paper check. Okay. McMillan, not really on top of things.

It's a really, it's, I'm telling it's realistic in the 80s. Oh, okay. To be able to lease an apartment without proof of identity or a bank account? That part wasn't as realistic. Right. Also, like, how would he even know how to do that? He would need help from some. I didn't know how to do that when I was 24.

I barely knew. I'm afraid Billy for that. You think there's anybody at McMillan that is helping Josh get in an apartment? You think that maybe McMillian, you don't think it's the McMillan people? Maybe the McMillan of it all? No, it's definitely all. Billy was prepared for adult life. They weren't expecting us to see this movie for 35 straight years.

They weren't. I started to have some questions after a while. I wonder if Billy is actually a grown person. Bill is a 35-year-old. Yeah. That's the prequel. Sequel, Prequel, Prestige TV, all black cast are untouchable. This could go in a lot of directions.

All black cast is out. Sequel. Sequel for sure. Sequel, where that goes. Yeah. Bigger. So many possibilities. We already talked about the possibility of him discovering that Susan had his child. Okay.

That's one direction. I mean, that's the best one so far. What about? Susan just going back as a 13-year-old girl. That one I'm out on. I don't like that one at all. I think that was interesting. I give it 20 minutes.

I'll watch that one. I'm not trying to see how they did it. I think that one's interesting. That's the Susan. You mentioned the FBI. Susan going back as an actual, Elizabeth Perkins was 28 when she made this movie. So as an actual adult going back and saying,

I just have to change my entire life so I can continue to be in a romantic relationship with this child. Big two. Simi-colon, where's Susan? Like, that's the name of the movie. big too. Where's Susan? Can I play this out with Susan? Please.

In her defense? Sure. Maybe for you, the jury. She falls for this 31-year-old childlike. Admittedly immature guy. But he is a 31-year-old man who is definitely not a kid.

And she connects with them in a way she's never connected with anybody before. And now he's gone. Yep. And you could convince him, yourself if you're her. To go to therapy and or turn yourself

into the authorities. Other than those options. I'm saying for the sequel, she's like, this is my soulmate. I just happen to meet him 20 years later now. So I'm going to go back and I'm going to age with him

so when he's 31, I can be 31 with him and we can have our love. Do you guys ever see, remember Benjamin Button? Oh, sure. Yeah, yeah. At the end of the movie. Right. Benjamin Button.

Where she's pushing the fuck. fucking stroller. I'm at the arc light. I was at the arcline. I was like, yo, what is this fucking shit? It's getting weird.

I didn't like that movie. One of the many problems with that idea. Yeah. I just want to be with Josh when he is, here's part of my pitch for Bigger. When Josh is actually 30. This is a tragedy. Bigger is a Shakespearean tragedy

about Josh realizing that he can never again achieve the success that he can never again achieve the success, he managed to attain when he was a 13-year-old. He is in a pit of despair and existential dread for the rest of his life. Yeah, because he's, because he even goes back to McMillan. But now John Hurd's characters, the CEO. There's no McMillan. They went bankrupt because of the electronic comic book idea,

which is basically a computer for $18. McMillan is, McMillan is oldest shit and Josh is trying, Josh shows back up again. He hasn't aged today. Because remember, Josh is going to grow up into this person. So at some point... Maybe not.

He might grow up into being a fucking asshole. No, no, no, no. I mean, he's going to look exactly like this guy. He's going to look like that. He's going to look like that. So there's going to be somebody somewhere who's going to see him. I still want to do big the hunt for Josh. A completely separate story about his dad.

The dad's gone. He's on the streets. It's like George C. Scott and hardcore. Just looking for his... This combines so many different categories. This is where you can bring in Wayne Jenkins. Wait, we're not at Wayne yet. It's all connected.

I had some more sequel questions for what we want. So, you know what? I'll do it in unanswerable. It's time. Better with Wayne Jenkins, Danny Traill, Catherine Hahn, Steve Bishamie, St. Jackson, J.T. Walsh or Phil Baker Hall. You could have J.T. Walsh in the John Hurd part.

Oh, J.T. Walsh kills that. I love J.T. Walsh. Danny Treo kills Danny Treo as the the clerk at the St. James. Oh, good call. I feel like Mal wants to do Chris Ryan as Wayne Jenkins in Big.

I feel like it's brewing in the coffee pot over there. Miss Baskin. Took the Amtrak up from Baltimore. Local authorities. Doesn't seem like they're on top of things. Didn't know that we had Super Kids. Out in the wild Super puberty

We'll go find your son ma'am Got to have Wayne Jenkins in this movie Wayne Jenkins just should be in every movie You know I just thought about With Josh the sports big of me Wasn't Bernard King on the Knicks at this point It's a little late

The Knicks are in a dark spot Rick Patino shows up this year When he's doing the skis aren't cool in anyway When he's doing the scoring thing He's talking about Larry Byrd Yeah. The next one cool. That's right.

Algebra. That's a great scene too. Just one Oscar who gets it, Hank's. Without question. Unanswerable questions. I have a bunch. We almost should do it.

We almost should do for that category. We should do outside of Hank's who gets it because it's so on the nose. I think you can make a direct, like an argument that if it's not Hank's Penny Marshall. Yeah. Or screenplay. And they were nominated for. Yeah.

Yeah. And the movie is so well-paced, man. Yeah. It is. Unanswerable questions. What happened in Josh's apartment? Yeah. So if you're talking about, all right, they find, they find the kid, he's back, him and Billy are buddies again.

About three weeks then they're like, hey, should we go to New York City and go to your old apartment? Right. We can play with all the games. Like, they're definitely going to hang out in the New York City Department. Without a doubt. Until the locks get changed. You know, my unanswerable question was, what happens to Josh? We just swapped it for another missing persons.

Josh is gone. Adult Josh Baskin is gone. I have this in next day. Oh, that could be the sequel. What happened to Josh? Don't Josh Baskin is going. A high-ranking VP. I'm excited to talk about this.

Think about this. Yeah. They think Josh went off and did something crazy to himself. A high-ranking VP at McMillan Toys has never been seen again after a pitch at McMillan went wrong. But, Van, let's play it out. I had this is, this is for the next day award. All of that happens. McMillan Toys files a missing person report.

Right. A photo of Josh. Company party, there are pictures. gets on the local news. Josh's mom sees it and says that's the guy who kidnapped my kid. Adult Josh ends up on a watch list ruining young Josh's life

because he will age into a presumed sex criminal and kidnapper. You're missing a crucial piece to this. What? Who saw adult Josh before he went missing? His mom. Susan.

Who was with him? Who chased him out of the meeting? The next day, Josh is gone. Right. He's gone the next day. And then they're like, hey, Susan, what happened to Josh? And she's like, geez, I don't know.

I don't know what happened to him. Either that or she ends up like fucking Sarah Connor trying to tell everybody what the truth is. And nobody will believe her. And they have her committed like for years and years until Josh comes. But she probably goes to jail. The Josh Baskin paradox. The Josh Baskin Paradox. I think Logia goes and he's like Susan's going to jail.

She killed Josh. This is like the adult Josh ending up as part of a public investigation. You know the. stretch where he goes back and he's retracing his steps, revisiting all these places that he misses. Mrs. Kaplan, she makes a call to the authorities. That guy, who I just saw in the news, was standing there for 20 minutes watching my class take a school picture. Yep. That part was a little creepy. I forgot to mention that part, the picking nits. It's like, hey, who's that adult male? A nice outfit just watching our school picture. You mean creepier than him

sneaking into a school? and accosting Billy He was crying and crying Would Josh's idea for the comic book actually worked? How did that play out from McBill and toys?

I mean it like it I mean that seems to think that was going to fail. Well, I just think the price point is off. He's basically talking about pretty advanced computer chip tech for the Choose Your Own Adventure Electronic comic book line.

There's no way they're going to be able to make it affordable. Yeah. They're saying that costs $7 to make an 18. 95 to sell. I just have some business model questions. That's all. That's all.

Can we walk through Susan's next like five years? Are we done with unanswerable questions? No, as part of an answerable questions. What do the next five years look like for Susan? Dude, drugs probably. Like, can she have another relationship with anybody? No, bro. She's fucked for a while.

This is done, right? It wouldn't matter who it would be. Think about what just happened. Like, think about what's happened. First of all, she thought she found the man of her dreams. She was 13 years old. He turned it to a kid. What does that say about her?

What does that say about her? Number one, like, is she... Did she miss the signs? Is she secretly a pedophile? She knew the whole time. She's in a dark. She's therapy every day. She's in love.

She has to decide. Does she tell her friends? No. No. Can never tell anyone. But women always have one friend. They're going to tell anything to. Can never tell anyone.

She never tells anyone. Susan can never tell a single soul. But you're so about this. But here's the thing, though. And you have to, and you have to remember. She carries that with her forever. It eats her from inside. You have to remember.

Everybody in Susan's life, remember, she's with him, with everyone in the middle and toys. They know what's going on. But then. Yeah. They took him to do a dinner with all the friends. Was that a dinner party? Yeah.

And the friend is looking at Josh. He's wonderful helping a kid with Larry Bird, algebra, stuff like that. They're going to ask where he went. What's wrong with you? Why are you down in three bottles of two buck chuck a day? The entire thing that's going on. It's like, it's just-

You're smoking seven packs of cigarettes a day. Just ripping marble reds, left and right. You know what I mean? Because of what's going on in her life. And then we mentioned that Josh definitely by the time he's 18, he's done it all sexually. Josh is out of here.

He's dating like a 30-year-old waitress out of Hooters. Yeah. Probably doesn't go to college. Josh, it would take a lot. I'm just speaking. It will take a lot for Josh not to be an asshole now. Like, he's like, it's good, Josh is going to have to,

Billy's going to be very important in Josh's life now. Like, Josh, you got to relax. Also, do we trust Josh and Billy to just keep this secret between them? That Josh grew up and had sex with a coworker for four weeks. They decide to keep it secret. Little kids can't keep anything secret. There are a lot of things in their life now. Like, what all the money?

You mentioned the apartment, but just all the money that Josh has from his six-week stint is VP. What's he going to do with all the money? They're going to be shelling that out at the next carnival. People are going to start asking questions. Well, it's only one paycheck because it's been six weeks. He got promoted halfway through there. That's got at least be 30 or 40 grand, though, right? He's a V-P.

Let's say he's making $100,000 a year. You get paid every two weeks. There are a lot of expensive toys. He could have definitely bought some baseball cards. How much money do you think he was? That's $100,000 a year job right there? Why do I think he was more like making like... Maybe 200.

Maybe you're right. Maybe it's more than that. So many questions. Another unanswerable question. Is there a darker version of this movie where Josh, once he gets the toy company job, this is mid-80s, cocaine era in New York. Josh goes cross the rails fast. It's like, try this, Josh. It's like less than zero cross-and-big.

I like this. Josh is just off the rails quickly. Billy suggests when they leave the birthday dinner, let's go get some beer, let's go get some dirty magazines. Yeah. And Josh is like, no, I have to go Have a date. Meet my soon-to-be-ad girlfriend. But he never really dabbled.

That's kind of like the amazing thing about the story. He doesn't really do anything forbidden other than everything that happens. Just eats like sugar and pizza. Yeah. But also the people around, think about it, man. Ludes. Think about that party. How that party would really be in the 80s with all of these like big financial tightness.

There's so much cocaine. Loots. There's- cocaine. It's next to each other. It's going on. Literally Patrick Bateman is like coming to the party. It's the whole nine.

Well, he doesn't know what anything is, right? He doesn't know what the caviar is. He doesn't know. So what could have happened is that he thinks it's like he sees a bowl of cocaine. He thinks it's like powder sugar. Yeah. Put it all over his funnel cake. Exactly.

He's fucking, he's high as shit. Right. You know what I mean? It's like the Prague episode of season one of succession all of a sudden. Great. I hope you don't die. Unanswerable question.

And just wait a minute. Josh, Josh, you have a problem. Don't fucking tell me I got a problem. I can stop anytime I want. I'm changing me with toys forever. This thing makes me want to fly. The, let's say the mom finds out about Susan.

Could they bring up criminal charges? I think Susan would, I mean, yes. But then I think Susan's defense would just be, I didn't know at the time. And that's why the what's age the worst is her reaction to finding out, right? Right. Because she loses the ability to say, oh, boy, this was, yeah, I recognized. Josh is 13.

He's wrong and unacceptable. He's 12 when they meet. He's 13 when they start a romantic relationship. I have the age of consent for New York in 1988, 15. Jerry Seinfeld. That's what it was. 15 years old? I'm just telling you.

That wasn't the research. I'm still under. Still under. Bill, I know you take your research for rewatchables really seriously, but there's two people who love you. We're going to recommend you not type what is the age of consent in blank in your local search history. Never type that into your computer again. Can I just tell you? It's research from a mailback column from 15 years ago that I did. Somebody asked. So I didn't, I didn't need to research it again. I would have been nervous about it. Yeah. Somebody sent me an email of mailback question.

Should Elizabeth Perkins have faced statutory rape charges in big? And I answered it for two paragraphs. You can't, that can't, those wouldn't stick, though, right? How's she got to know? He's working at McMillard Toll he's vice president. How she's going to know? She's not going to know. What did you have for an answerable?

No, you had anything? I'm curious how many other people have had wishes granted. That's what I was going to think. That's the power of the Zoltar. That was one of my takeaways is that it's crazy that this wasn't a TV series where every episode somebody had a wish granted. random from Zoltar. Now, a lot of people never bother to walk over into the dark corner of the carnival

to bang on the unplugged machine. Not everybody believes. It looks like the devil. Yeah, devoted themselves to the cavern of the evil wizard believes that magic is possible. But surely someone else has tried. Any other in answer to us? Do you guys think that Josh went on to invent YouTube and highlight reels? He's like, uh, Miss Patterson.

and just the part of the Super Bowl that I want. And here's how you should title it for the algorithm. Now I'm rich. I actually think there's, we were joking about how it would have gone bad for Josh. I think it actually might have gone amazing. I think he had some incredible reps as a 13-year-old. He's so far ahead of the life experience he had.

It's so far ahead of everyone at his age. How does he, how does he like reintegrate? It's a 13-year-old life. You know what I mean? It's like. Does he go back to the toy company and be like, hey, so crazy story, but long story short. When he's, when his mom is Josh, right here to be in my job back. Like when his mom is fixing his food, right, Josh is eating.

She brings him an apple juice. Josh looks at her and be like, yo, do you have a pino? Right. Like, you know what I mean? Like, you know, it's like, how does Josh, Josh has been an adult for a little while now. He's been doing all the best adult stuff. But he hasn't, right? Because even like when Susan goes over and she's like, do you have?

have a glass of wine. And the beverage we've heard him mention is asking for a milkshake after he had the caviar. That's very true. But like post dinner party, when they're at the dinner party,

it seems as it's true, he's folding into adulthood a little bit. That's true. Now he's got to go right back. We got to wrap up. So let's go piece of memorabilia you'd want from this movie. Yeah.

Or Zoltar speaks. One or the other. I would want the Zoltar machine. The original Zoltar machine? It's a toss-up. Those are two great ones. If I ever get to the point where... Third Apex Mountain.

Third Apex Mountain, I would love to have... I went there to the FAA O'Sourst to see if they had the piano. I would love the piano. Second Apex Mountain is going to be when Vance like, look... We're going to remake that Whitney Heist a movie again. Let's do this correctly. Don't get me started, bro. Let's do this correctly.

This should have made a lot of money. Let's pretend this one didn't happen. Shout out to everybody involved. Don't get me started, bro. Coach Finstock Award for Best Life Lesson. Boy, were there some life lessons in this one. They were. Here's mine.

If your boyfriend tells you he's actually a 13-year-old and you're driving him back to his house, don't play with his ear, neck, and head as you're saying goodbye. Would have been mine. That's my life lesson. It's a hands-off situation. Immediately start treating him like you're his aunt and he's your little nephew that you just took to the ball game.

And that's your relationship from that point on, would be my life lesson. It's a good one. Yeah. Thanks. I'm telling you, there's a dark version of this where...

It's like a Mary Kaye Laterno. There's a dark version where he's playing baseball. She's got some magdoll in 2020. She's hanging out of the games. It's a whole Shulis Joe Jackson scene from 8-Man out.

You know what I mean? Who won the movie tell me? Of course. There you go. Really we want. Really we want. It's a great movie. I had a great time talking about it.

Delightful. It was a really fun. podcast that was produced by Isaiah Blakely and we will be back next week with the end of one word movie month a movie no video guess

so there you go see you next time