The Rewatchables - ‘Parenthood’ With Bill Simmons, Chris Ryan, and Van Lathan

Episode Date: February 15, 2022

In the third installment of F’ed Up Family February, The Ringer’s Bill Simmons, Chris Ryan, and Van Lathan realize that there is no end zone. You never cross the goal line, spike the ball, and do your touchdown dance. They revisit Ron Howard’s 1989 hit ‘Parenthood’ starring Steve Martin, Mary Steenburgen, Dianne Wiest, and Rick Moranis. Producer: Craig Horlbeck Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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You can find the ringerverse with Van Lathen and a whole bunch of Ringer favorites. You can find the watch with Chris Ryan. You're still cranking that out, right, Chris? Mondays and Thursdays, Bill. Thanks for your support, though. The big picture, Ringer NFL, you're on those as well. I'm on the Bill Simmons podcast.

Are you now? And coming up, you stink Buckman! We're going to talk parenthood. There's still one last frontier where an ordinary man can be a hero. Howdy, Bob? From generation to generation,

it's the greatest adventure of the mall. What we say when we see a cute eight-year-old girl walk by? Steve Martin in a Ron Howard film. You feel like you want to? throw up. Okay. Parenthood, rated PG-13,

starts Wednesday, August 2nd, at a theater near you. All right, Van and Chris are here, and it is the third installment of fucked up family February. I texted Van Lathen.

Has this series changed your relationship to your own family yet? I think it's probably changed the relationship with rewatchable's fans. I can't imagine they were pumped to see

Rachel getting married a movie that's definitely not rewatchable, but very important. Because we're doing these five films about fucked up families, and you have to hit all the things, right? Rachel getting married is the fucked up wedding movie. This is like the fucked up family, but there's hope.

They have each other. They have all these people. They have history. They have generations. And I asked Van, I texted him, what movie would you want to do for a fucked up family February? What did Van say? Parenthood.

Why? Parenthood. Parenthood. Because I've been watching it for a very, very long time, right? It's one of those old, old, Lathen family bonding movies. Not sure why. We went through a hardcore

in my family, Steve Martin face. Like, we were the biggest fans of Steve Martin, me, my mom, and my sister, maybe anyone. We watched the jerk. Yeah. You know, all of these movies. So we, and we watch it for such a long time.

But, man, this movie ages like fine wine. It's like really a fantastic film. It really is. It's my favorite one, Ron Howard movie for sure. And it's when I first met a lot of these actors, too. I agree. I haven't seen it a while, and it's not on that often. I don't know if it's not on that often because the TV show and there were two TV shows,

but the one that hit, I think, had a moment. I was shocked. This movie's 33 years old at this point. I was shocked how well it moved, how many characters they pulled in. Chris, what did you love on the rewatch? Yeah, you know, this movie is almost as old as Steve Martin is supposed to be in this movie. I loved how they were in and out with the plot lines because obviously parenthood the show

but just watching television in general now there are things that happen in this movie that would take six, seven, 12, 30 hours to get through on a television show. They just handle it. It's just efficient and it's just got a drama the story is a drama but all of the scenes and the actors

are working with comic timing. So scenes that are really dramatic and melodramatic and sense. dad will end with like a comic button at the end of it like a little really like a one liner just to kind of alleviate the pressure and the sadness of some of the stuff that you're seeing and it's the perfect fucked up family movie because being fucked up is the point it's like the whole point of this movie is like the fucked upness is is the whole point of the journey yeah and that's the beginning scene when he has the flashback to his dad basically paying an usher to sit with him at a

baseball game. And, you know, the thing that's hanging over this movie is I don't want to be as bad of a father as my dad was, which I think was a big baby boomer generation thing. I know it was for my dad. My dad's father was, you know, not a father of the year. I'll just say that. And I think my dad was driven by I want to be a much better father than my dad was. And I do think that was an 80s team. I think it's hard to, we have to mention, Van, that for this movie in 1989, we don't have internet yet. We don't have a lot of things yet. And, And some of the characters that are in this movie are just characters that we might have had versions of in our life, but we didn't get to see in movies or TV shows, right?

Even when you talk about the oldest son that Steve Martin has, who's got emotional issues, we didn't see people like that in movies. Now, 2022, Twitter, therapy, everything is diagnosed, and we know there's a hundred different variations of that character on different shows. But in 1989, there just wasn't. And it was just like the whole point is, yeah, your kids might not turn out the way you thought in whatever way and how do you deal with it? And I just hadn't seen that in a movie. So I think it's interesting that this movie delves into that because it's something that we're still trying to figure out like how to relate to kids and the movies talking about therapy and things of that nature.

But also it's like those two generations budding heads with one another, you know? Like even my dad's generation where it was like, oh, okay. well, you broke your arm, I pray about it. God will heal it. You know what I mean? And it's like now you're dealing with a kid who is full of worry, is stressed out, obviously has some anxiety issues. And you're trying to figure out how in like a contemporary setting to best rear that child,

right? You don't just tell him, hey, grow up. Remember the scene where the father, where the kid gets his money snatched from him? and Steve Martin is actually trying to console him. His granddad is saying, yo, go get your money back. You know what I mean? And knowing that life is somewhere in between the two of those things,

you can't let people bully you, but at the same time, you have to be able to emotionally, be emotionally equipped to deal with those things. That class of generations is very much what this movie was about. And on a personal note, it might not seem like it now. But I was closer to Kevin Buckman, like growing up, especially around that age, then I think my father wanted me to be.

Yeah. And so when he would watch the movie, it would be interesting because he looked at the movie. He'd be like, see? See, that's going on a little kid worrying all the time. Boy, what you worrying about? Stop worrying. But everything that happened as a kid, I freak out. Ozone layer.

Freak out. Environment. Freak out. Nuclear war. Freak out. All the time I'm like, yo, is the world going in? And my dad didn't know how I'd do it. My dad would be like, oh, yeah, one day, probably.

And I'd be like, what? So, like, watching the film for, like, my whole family, I think my parents liked it so much because they were actually going through it in real time with me a little bit. I was precocious and a little neurotic as a child. Well, and there was that sense back then that if something was wrong, whether it was with your marriage or your kid or anything, you were embarrassed about it. You don't want to talk about it. And it was like, no, no, he'll be fine. And Steve Martin's reaction of, no, he can't go to that school.

He'll think something's wrong with them. It was just interesting to watch during that prison because, by the way, really authentic. That was how people reacted to stuff back then. And then, you know, so you have the parents' relationships to the kids and how whatever their ideal is for their kid or whatever they're worried about. But then you also have the relationship of all the siblings together with the parents, which I think really works. And Chris, like in 15 minutes, I think they establish like 15 characters. Oh, yeah. By the time we get everybody together when we see Jason Robarts for the first time, we've met four different families.

we have a feel for everybody. That's about as hard to do as anything you can do in a movie. And the thing it perfectly captures, like, I come from a really small, immediate family. But I've had experiences with people with bigger families. And it's the only situation that you go into where you're like, I'm spending an extended amount of time that in any other part of life, I wouldn't like this person.

But I'm spending so much time with them. So you get the Rick Moranis characters, or you get, like, people involved in your, like, in your holiday dinners or in your Sunday dinner or just like spending a ton of time with each other and you're like, if I have my choice, I wouldn't probably be friends with this person, but that's just this cousin or this uncle. And they're always around and they're always stirring shit up. And it's got like, it really captures how family also becomes an enforced social circle. Because you know that the Buckman's just spend all the free time that they have being like, let's just like go over to somebody's house and

let the kids out. And then we'll just like kind of try to like, like, slug it out through this this Saturday. I really love that. And that's the way that they kind of, they do it in a very subtle way. Like the dinner in the beginning when they come together and then like Larry shows up, you're just like, oh my God.

Like I have a complete understanding of how each one of these characters feels about one another. Who trusts who, who kind of talks shit about the other people. And it's just like perfectly tied up. It's basically a pilot episode of a TV with a TV show within the first 15 minutes in the movie. Can I interject something about that real quick?

And that's something that struck me about this movie, too. It also harkens back to a time where, and I'm sorry to go cranky old man on you guys, where we kind of didn't expect these people to fit. We didn't expect people to fit into these neat little boxes that we had pre-constructed for them. So, like, one of the scenes early on in a movie where Jason Robards and Steve Martin are going back and forth, like, Steve Martin has had enough of his father's shit. So now his way of dealing with him, a man who he still hasn't had a couple of conversations with is he's just fucking with him now. He's like, which wedding did I get drunk at?

He was like, that was all three of them. Which one did I punch the band leader at? That was mine. You know what I mean? And he's just, he's fucking with him now. Like he's, because he's his dad. Like, there used to be a point where you had to find a way to get on with people that you didn't really kind of. kind of get on with.

And I think having these movies are like talking about these weird family creatures and these dynamics and stuff like that. It was like a, we used to celebrate the fact that you had to sit at a table with someone who you wouldn't fuck with

if they had married your sister. It was just a more interesting different look at society, I feel like. Yeah, the family thing to me is very similar to your sports team, right? Like, Chris loves the Sixers. He has to talk himself

into the James Hardin thing right now. We're taping this on a Monday. the James Harden trade, he just has to talk himself into it and hope for the best. And that's kind of what you do with your family, right? You can get frustrated.

But I know how to do that because I just talk myself into, you know what? Andre Drummond can give me 13 minutes in the playoffs. You're constantly talking yourself into positive things of your sports teams

and the same thing happens with your family. It's like my dad has this family with six brothers and sisters. There's now a ton of cousins. The cousins have kids. And it's, just this big, giant family.

And guess what? Not everybody loves each other, you know? And when they all get together, there's always like two, three stories after. And they go to the Cape every year. And then my dad tells me the stories after. I was like, I can't believe you guys all still vacation together. But it's just, it's family. You just got to, you're through it thick and thin.

I don't really understand it. But that's so weird. I remember my grandmother coming over to me and be like, look, I know you think that's your cousin, but that's not really a cousin. I mean, what you mean? Like, that's not his son. I'm like, whoa! I'm like,

that ain't his little boy. Like, I'm telling you, we can count back the months. Come over here. Is that his son? I don't think it's his baby at all. I ain't never thought. I'm like, oh, God damn. By the way, I'm eight years old. So maybe just let me play with them. All kinds of, I just, I would wonder how people, and all of these secrets

that you learn about these people, like, through that type of shit. But left it all Louisiana. I'm out here now. Well, so if you look at the family that's laid out in parenthood, there's four adult kids. There's Gil, the Steve Martin character. He's the normal son. His life didn't turn out 100% like he thought, but he's just trying to be a good dad and a good

husband and raise his family. You have Susan, the smart, pretty, driven sister who's married to the maniac who's trying to turn his third one daughter into like the all-time overachiever. and she's sneaky eating and eating cupcakes. You have Helen, the divorced, overwhelmed sister, who just has no idea how to parent either of her kids. It's just completely run amok. The horses left the barn.

And then you have the scumbag son. Chris is hero of this movie, Larry, played by Tom Hulse, who comes in hot. He's got like a Yarmir Yager kind of mullet haircut. That's exactly, Bill. You know, this is why you're the best is I've been trying to figure out what the hair, I was thinking more Richie Sambora during the New Jersey era

Bon Jovi tour. No, it's more Yaramere. You're right. It's a hockey mullet. You could see him with the hockey helmet on. He's got a gambling problem. Chris, he checks every box you're looking for from a movie character, basically.

If we're doing Deon Waiters, it's like how many 20 boxes, he checks 17 of them? Wild-eyed, losing money to bookies, bad relationship with his dad and overacting. Yeah. Lying about everything about his life

and shows up with the niligitimate son, or not an illegitimate son or a son that we don't know the history of. So we have that guy. And then the kids, there's seven kids. The overachiever, super smart little girl, which you know has not had any sort of real human interaction. You have the secretive, moody teenage boy with emotional problems played by Leaf Phoenix. We'll get to that in a second.

You have the other boy with emotional problems who needs help and they don't know how to help him. You have the comic relief dumbass little boy who's just got the pale on his head and love him. Just he slairs. Yeah. You have the middle child

boy crazy little girl who they don't really kind of run with enough. I needed like one more scene with her. You have the high school girl who's all about her boyfriend and that's her entire life.

And then you have cool the biracial son out of nowhere who ends up living with Jason Robards. So we have seven kids and then we have Jason Robards and then we have and then we have the mom.

Todd, you forgot Todd. Todd, Todd's in the mix. Well, Todd gets married into the family. So we have 14 characters that we have to deal with. And the one that they don't, the two they don't spend enough time on probably are the Robards'

wife, the mom, who I think is just kind of the beaten down. I made my choice a while ago, but every night I lie in bed and think about that I shouldn't have gotten away from this guy, has that look on her face. And then the middle daughter.

But yeah, that's, VIN, that's a lot of characters. I just listed 14. And in two hours and 10 minutes, I felt like I knew all of them. And by the way, everybody gets some run.

Yeah. Like, everybody gets some run. Like, if, if Keanu Reeves is in this movie, maybe eight or nine scenes, maybe, maybe a little bit more, a little bit left, but he gets solid run. Like, you know that guy. That guy gets an arc. It's very well done. Like, your scumbag, Tom Holst character, gets his big scene, gets a big scene where he gets to, challenge his father on the way that he was brought up.

Everybody gets their opportunity to shine in the movie. It's just very difficult to do. I don't even know if you mentioned the grandmother, Bill, but she has maybe the most poignant model. There's 15. Yeah, she's great. I should have. I forgot about her.

Yeah, four generations. Chris, how ripped off is this movie? Because I do feel like, at least with TV shows, and then they actually just make a parenthood TV show, but just the concept of family, a lot of different kids. characters, their bond is the family, but it's just going to nine directions. People are fighting. I feel like we've now seen this over and over again for three plus decades. Yeah, I think that the thing that this movie does so gracefully is it makes you feel like there's huge stakes with

nothing really that big of a deal happens in this movie. Like really, we're talking about two little league games, a drag race. Car blow job. And like a car blow job and a school play. Like, What are the major events? And an entertainer doesn't show up for a child's birthday party. These are the plot points, but this is like they manufacture so much human emotion out of it. It's an hugely influential movie. And I think the tone is the thing. It's like somehow really, really, really sweet.

But when you actually think about all the stuff that happens in this movie, it's very, very real and very dark. By the way, I think that's the point of the movie in a way. I think the point of the movie is none of this is that big of a deal. It's both the biggest deal in the world, but it's not that big of a deal. And it's kind of encapsulated in the one scene. The one scene at the end where his son runs on the stage, right, and fucks up to play. What they're doing Snow White, he starts to freak out, right? And it's Buckman's kid.

All the embarrassment, all the shame, all that's bubbling up to the top. and then he just rides the ride, right? Remember, four scenes before then, like 40 minutes before then, he was literally making his son catching a fly ball the difference between him being the valedictorian at Yale and a school shooter. Right.

You know what I mean? So think about how much he was putting on himself and his kid every single time they had a baseball game. So, like, I think the point of the most, movie at the end was, you know, rock the roller coaster. Like sometimes you're up, sometimes you're down, but this is your family. They're with you forever.

So the point of the movie is that it's not that big of a deal. Yeah. Well, I'm a, you know, obviously my kids are older now, but watching this now as a parent who's been through some of these stages, you know, like, I remember we went to Ben's end of his preschool. They had a concert. And Ben just got unhappy during the concert. and like stop singing and was like starting to throw tantrum on the stage and you're like,

oh my God, are we going to have that kid? This is the next 10 years of my life? No, first grade, he grew out of it, he was fine. But there was this moment where you're just going, you know, and then you hit these stages where all of a sudden your kid can do this. And all of a sudden you don't have to worry about this. And it really is a roller coaster in a lot of ways. So I identify with that.

We're going to take a break. When we come back, we're going to, decide if this was Ron Howard's best movie ever. 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,

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Visit Carvana.com to sell your car today. Parvana. Pick up fees may apply. All right, Van. Ron Howard's best movie ever, Parenthood, make the case. Okay, so Ron Howard's fantastic. We all know this, right?

We all know that Ron Howard has got movies. If it's going to do a Ron Howard top five-ish list for me, I'm not going to do all of them. It would look like night shift. It would look like a beautiful mind. It would look like Apollo.

It would be parenthood. Then you can throw, what, Cinderella Man in there? Like, name another one that you guys were throwing there. Backdraft. Backdraft, okay. I told you guys a story, and everybody's going to remember this.

I don't like Backdraft. I did a movie. Look, seriously. I did a movie down in Baton Rouge, and I was talking to all the firefighters that were on the film, the EMTs and stuff, and I would mention Backdraft, and they would just fucking destroyed Backdraft. They hated it. That's not how fire works.

I'm like, all right, cool, bro. But to me, when you look at Ron Howard's movies, the criticism is he can sometimes be a little heavy-handed. sometimes the movies have a TV-esque feel to them a little bit. This to me is a grounded ensemble comedy drama that if made today, I think would be made with a different tone, but would be critically lauded all over the place. I think I disagree. I think Twitter ruins this movie completely.

I think the movie would be different if it were made today, and I think that Twitter would be different. I think there are a lot of things that are in this move. Like, for example, one thing that's definitely not this movie if it's made today, cool is definitely not biracial if they made this movie today. Because there is a little part. Zero percent chance. Zero.

Because there is a little part of that that makes Larry, they do kind of use Cool a little bit to make Larry seem like a more tawdry, shameful character that not only did he go away and have a son, but he went away. A random black woman. Well, and you get to Jason. The Jason Robards look at his face like, wait, what the fuck is going on? Whoa, yeah. You know what I mean?

So, but when I look at the film, I think you get top-notch performances from everyone. I think the script by Bobbillum and Dell is perfect. And I think as a director, he's had more to do. But I think it's so easy to fuck this movie up if you do too much. But Ron Howard was in his bag. It's affecting. It's full of emotion. It's full of incredible acting performances, like I said before.

But by the end of this film, you are ecstatic for this family, that they have a brief moment of peace and understanding. I can't think of a Ron Howard film to where I've connected, gravitated towards, and understood the characters as much as this one. He's made a lot of good movies, but I think in a way, this is the best one that he's made. And I feel like in a lot of ways, it's for me, most enduring. He's just a really good director. I group him with

like Rob Reiner. Yes. And maybe like Barry Levinson to some extent where it's just like, it's just a safe pair of hands. It's just going to be like the characters are going to be well drawn. There are going to be moments of levity. They're going to be moments where you feel your heartstrings getting tug. And he can do almost any genre. I mean, he can do a sci-fi adventure. He can do a family movie. He can do a comedy. He can do like a really like, you know, like those early comedies that he made, some of those early movies he made with Michael Keaton are pretty edgy. You know what I mean?

Yeah, sure. To look at them now. And then, you know, he kind of just moves into, I do the blockbuster. Like, I can come in and bring a blockbuster in on time, like, once he starts doing, like, angels and demons and stuff like that. But I just, like, if you group those three directors together, if you just had the, like, 80s and 90s safe pair of hands directors, they've probably made, like, 10 rewatchables, you know, between them.

So, like, what does that mean? That means that, like, they made. movies that keep delivering over and over again. Yeah, it's like Rick Adelman. You give him the car case to a playoff team and he'll turn them in a championship contender, but I'm not sure he can win the championship. I don't know if he's making Godfather too, but like he's making... Beautiful minds the closest to a great movie.

So my Ron Howard Mount Rushmore is a little different, I think, than your guys. So I have this on it. Night Shift is just... Great. You guys say the word. Anniversary is coming up. Bill, you say the world. Love brokers.

So I have night shift. I have Rush. I loved Rush. Really? I thought Rush was fantastic. I hadn't seen it until you told me to watch it. I really had never seen it until you told me to watch it. I watch it.

It's cool. It's a good movie. Did you try to get like a rush week going during Grantland? Like were you just like what can we do to celebrate Rush? I did write a Rush column. That's right. So I would have. rush night shift,

parenthood. And then for me personally, from a rewatchable standpoint, probably ransom over Apollo 13. Apollo 13 annoys me. Dude, you're out of your fucking mind. I know I'm out of my mind. I know.

Like, what's, what are you talking about? Yeah. Like, why? Why does it annoy you? I like it. I think I've seen it too many times that I've hit that point

where I watch it and I'm not watching it and enjoying it, but I'm more nitpicking it and being like, ah, why'd they do that? The wife character is horrific. Like stuff like that. beautiful mind's not a movie i'm gonna like hey i'm gonna fire this one up but that's the best

movie he's made you i'll be honest with you i don't like it i don't like it either apollo it's so much better than beautiful mind i'm gonna be rude with you in order to like have your integrity and be objective i mean obviously it's the movie that he was most lauded for you so you have to have it up there i don't like that movie that much i've seen it once it's on the theater i've never watched it bill do you like the paper do you like the paper so the Paper to me is like a class. This is why I used the Rick Adaman analogy for Ron Howard because I think he's been handed the car keys

to a couple like incredible ideas that didn't get taken home. And I think the paper is the number one example. That movie should have been amazing. And I actually like it. I think it's fun to watch it. But it doesn't get there. But he had every piece.

He had all these actors at the perfect point of their careers. He had a really good story. He had catching newspapers kind of at the perfect time where you would want to make a newspaper movie right before the industry is about to change. Newspapers probably still really mattered the most, 1994-95 range. I never thought it got there.

But I do think he's had really good taste with actors his entire career. He's had a good sense of, I'm going to move toward this guy. I'm going to move toward, oh, I forgot Splash. Splash is my fourth. I have night shift, splash, rush, and this one. But over and over again, he was able to align. with these actors, as the arrow was pointing up, which is funny because we were talking last week about Jonathan Demi, same thing. He catches Michael Keaton early, catches Tom Hanks early,

catches Russell Crow at the absolute perfect time. He gets Steve Martin during this Steve Martin Renaissance from 86 to 92, three amigos rocks in, planes, trains, automobiles, dirty rotten scoundrels, parenthood, my blue heaven, LA story father of the Brad Grand Canyon, where he literally ages into kind of that dad part of his thing at the same time. But, I just think he was just really good at aligning with people. Like Mel Gibson, Ransom. Van, do it. Mel, why?

Why, Mel? Why? Why? Why? Why? It's such a good movie. Mel. Why? God, Mel. What the hell? Mel, why'd you do it? I have to throw in one honorable mention for a movie before I forget. Let's do it.

Gung-ho. I love that fucking movie. Like, you know, like, you know. Like, I, I forgot that he did that. I'm looking at his photography right. I, I don't, I haven't seen the movie in a while. I don't know if it's canceled now. Why would it be canceled? I don't know.

I haven't seen it. I just, it's, it seems like the kind of movie that people would just get mad about for no reason. I think there are cancelable scenes in there probably. I'd have to see it again. But I think when you re, when you re-litigate the 80s car boom and American manufacturers against Japanese manufacturers, I think it's still pretty, I think it's okay. Yeah. So one last thing on Ron Howard.

and I'm older than you guys. Happy Days was the biggest and most important sitcom of my childhood. I mean, it was, when you look at the numbers, if you just go back and look at the TV ratings for, you know, the 70s, and they're way out of whack, but like, you know, the top eight shows were all bigger than the Super Bowl last night. Happy Days was like 35 million people week watching Happy Days. That's so nuts, bro.

Idolizing the Fonz and Ron Howard was the star. of the show. That's how we knew him, but we also, the previous generation, knew him from the Indy Griffith show. So he was, you know, as I'm growing up, one of the most famous TV actors ever, because he's on two of the biggest comedies we ever had. He leaves happy days. And when he let, it was one of the first times somebody left a show that I liked. And it was kind of like, fuck you, dude. What do you? How dare you leave my show? Fucking asshole. What are you doing? It's like, he's going to go make movies. Like, fuck this guy.

He's going to direct movies? Oh, really? And then he made night shift. It's like, oh, awesome. Ron Howard. Then that was it. But, you know, it's been said a million times. Bill, were you a big American graffiti guy?

It was a little before my generation. But a giant movie. I mean, really influential in the whole thing. Were you? I'm more diner than American graffiti of those kind of like that ilk of, but American graffiti is obviously hugely important. And he's just like, you know, happens to be the lead in that, you know? Like my parents.

we would like, we would watch these movies and they would call him everything except for Ron Howard. Dobey, yeah. They'd be like, Opie, directed this. What was his name from, it was Richie, right? Richie Cunningham, yeah, Richie Cunningham. Richie Cunningham, yeah,

Richie Cunningham, he's making movies now. Richie Cunningham directed this. They'd call him everything except for Ron Howard. Like, he didn't become Ron Howard to me, I think, until after Apollo, like Apollo, because I didn't know because he was Opie and then he was Ritchie Cunningham. Well, think how hard it is for shows that we've loved just in the last, like, 20 years.

Like, think how hard it is just to accept anyone from the wire in a different role or anyone from Oz or anyone from the Sopranos. You know, like somebody like Michael Pirioli, who I think is a really good actor. It's like Christopher kind of consumed him. There was no way to even see him. The next season of White Lotus, it's going to be like so funny to see how people react. See Christopher. Yeah. Gandoffini. Now, Gainofini died before I think he had that next. stage of his career. But I couldn't see Gandalfini in anything. I just, he was Tony

soprano. And I think it's weird to say this about Happy Days, but it was just impossible to think of Ron Howard as anything but Richie. And I think he may be realized that. It's also funny, like when you're watching Rested Development and his narration comes in to think about like, oh, this is the guy who directed Ransom is just narrating Arrested Development. Chris, I like your safe hands thing. I think there are, that would be a good, that would be a good big picture podcast, like the Safe Hands Hall of Fame or something, where it's

like, these guys, they're not, it's not Scorsese to do and Raging Bull, but you just kind of want to give them the car keys and let him take you for a little two hour drive. Because I think the Rob Ryan or Ron Howard thing is perfect. You could probably have switched those guys for, I don't know, eight of the movies either of them made, right?

Did Rob Reiner's the highest of Rob Reiner's peak ever hit anything like what Scorsese or PTA or Fincher. But no, but that guy directed Stand By Me and a few good men. Yeah. Like, not bad. But I feel like Ron Howard also maybe could have done a few good men

and done it really well and done a good job with it. And I think Rob Reiner easily could have directed him. He got him aligned for like coming in on solo, but it's like when they decided they didn't want the guys Lord Miller to direct solo anymore, they were like, let's get Ron Howard because we got to finish this movie. The reality is that

I say this, and I've been saying this around town a lot, getting me kicked out of Star Wars circles. Solo is a perfectly adequate, serviceable, decent Star Wars film. It got destroyed. But now in retrospect. Now in retrospect that we've had a little bit more time, solo's fine. Solo's a lot of fun.

I love when Van pulls the year out, I was saying this around the town. Yeah. I love when you go Hollywood on us. Around the town. Speaking of around the town, very few screenwriter at Tandums that Chris Ryan loves more.

My fucking hitters. They never miss. Lowell Gans, Bob Blue Mandel. Nobody gets plot, character structure. We talked about them when we did city slickers. This is probably their...

It's like if you had Fitzgerald and Hemingway writing your script for you every time out. So in the research, the movie came with Ron Howard, those two, Brian Grazer, all just saying we should make a movie like basically the odd kids at that point

there's probably a movie here with these kids and then Gans and Mandel figured they figured it out but it just came from that hey there's not really been a movie about a bunch of people who have kids we should try to figure that out and they do it and they do it really well two people nominated for Oscars

Diane Weist Randy Newman hell yeah we'll talk about Randy Newman later in Apex Mountain $20 million budget made $120 million. Steve was the man at this point. He was the man at this point, Steve Martin. But didn't they do, something weird happened where it was like at 98,

and then didn't they like re-release it so that it could get over 100 or something like that? I thought I read about that. Yeah, they did a re-release when they got some of the Oscar stuff. There's also a really weird story about, I was going to do this in half-ass internet research, but I'll just do it now. So Bill Carter wrote, so Parenthood was made into a TV series immediately. Movie comes out in 89. They make the movie in the TV show in 1990.

Bill Carter in New York Times, after, got canceled after 12 episodes. He wrote, even before Parenthood was released as a movie, NBC decided to make it into a television series. The network saw a rough cut of the film and was convinced that the movie presented a perfect formula for success on television, the multiple family comedy, covering themes both funny and poignant, with well-drawn characters ranging from toddlers to grandparents. And the whole piece is about, no, we were wrong. People didn't like this. They didn't watch it. Now, it had a weird cast.

It was like David Arquette, a couple people, but the kid, the Leaf Phoenix character, Leo DiCaprio. So he's the kid for 12 episodes. But it ended this weird boom. Chris, I know you remember this. The late 80s TV shows based on movies that all bombed. Ferris Bueller, Baby Talk, Working Girl, Uncle Buck, dirty dancing, where they were just like, let's turn that into a thing.

So then, 20 years later, they do it again, and it's a really good show. Did you guys watch Parent of the TV show? I thought that show was good. The first couple of seasons I did. Yeah, I was like, I did three seasons of it. Van? A little bit, not that much. I don't, I, because of that run that you, by the way, I know that run.

I can't do. You can't do the conversions. can't do it. Even Friday Night Lights can't really do it. I know it's a great show that people love it. That's a mess.

I know. That's, oh, Ben. Ben. He's being vulnerable, Bill. Van. Bill.

Bill, Bill, look, see what. Ben, why? This is why people don't open up. I've watched a little bit of the Friday night lights. But I have, but like,

remember, I remember. The movie's incredible. I'm with it. I remember on that Ferris Bueller's day off show, right? All that Ferris Bueller, they had like Charlie Schlatery or whatever. name as Ferris Bueller.

There was a scene that was so fucking hack that I was angry. He goes, look at this. It's a poster of Ferris Bueller's Day Off. It's got, what's his face in it? What's his name again?

Broderick, Matthew Broder. And he goes, look at this. Matthew Broderick as me. It doesn't really work. Blah, blah. I'm like, yo, man, what the fuck is going on? This is why this guy didn't have like it was so hacky. The Clueless had a show.

did this a lot and it just never worked for me. Never worked. I just Friday Night Lights is an outlier. Anderson's in Ferris Bueller, right? She is. Yeah. I think the reason Friday Night Lights works is it was same premise completely different show than the movie. It's really like it's two

different things. All right. Roger Ebert, our guy, who is on an all-time hot streak on the rewatchables with movies we're doing. How did you feel about Rachel getting married? He loved it. Four stars. Also four stars for Parenthood.

Yeah. A delicate balancing act between comedy and truth. A movie that contains a lot of laughter and yet is more concerned with character than punch lines. Yeah. Keeps going. Raj, loves character.

All right. Let's take a break and we'll do most rewatchable scene. All right. Most rewatchable scene. I have a bunch of them. Just quickly, the opener with Steve Martin putting everyone in the minivan and the kids keep coming out, they drive home, the little naked kids wearing a holster.

Yeah. The daughter throws up just that whole, like, what it's like to have kids at that age. Loved it. I don't know if we get away with the little naked kid wearing a holster now in 2022. I feel like that would be like a three-day. Yeah, I feel like, I feel like. Bill, you are. You're so.

You're so gun-shy. Like, Bill, Bill, what's going on? Bill. Bill, we have to get children. You, you, Bill, you really are. I'm not touchy. I'm not touchy. I think cancel culture has finally gotten the best of you.

I think cancel culture comes for that scene. naked kid holster perphalia that people go nuts no it's fine I'm like Bill you're so all right you watch

I'm telling you next we watch Billson is Info Wars it's also like you're having like this straw man this is like Nick right

getting mad at people getting mad at LeBron it's like I can't people are mad about the naked kid

the holster it's like nobody I'm so sick and tired of people not giving LeBron James is due what are you talking about Nick come on man

nice haircut Next, next scene. Larry shows up for dinner and tries to sell everyone on hydroponics. What's a deal, son? What do you have going? Has anyone heard of hydroponics? Well, that's great, Larry. Hydroponics is the growing of plants without soil.

It's very exciting. What are you using coarse sand or suspension hydroponics? I don't... Hey, there's a guy with glasses and a lab coat that makes that decision. I make the deal. Chris, we've been doing this for five years. You love nothing more than when somebody tries to sell somebody in a movie on some random fucking weird thing that... Ten years for now, this is going to be people trying to sell people on Bitcoin in a movie.

Oh, absolutely. Remember that? That Bitcoin era? Your NFT cousin? Yeah, Larry would definitely show up and be like, as soon as I remember my Coinbase password, I'll be able to pay back that. What was hydroponics? it was like being able to grow stuff that outside of soil, right?

Isn't it like you're just like, yeah. I loved it. Next one, the principal tells Gil and his wife that Kevin needs a special school. Not the most rewatched to see in the movie, but she smoked grass. It's really,

really well written. Steve Martin's great in it. I like how he turns on his wife. It's just really well done. All right, now we're getting to the good stuff. The entire birthday party sequence. Cowboy Gill.

I was about, like, Cowboy Gil's fucking hysterical, bro. I didn't like the look on his face. It was like this. So I killed him. I blew a hole in them. This bed. Actually, it was about this big. You know, when I think about it, that hole was about this bag.

We get Cowboy Gil. We get the kid with the pale on his head just bagging the wall. We got Grandma and Hailing Helium. And we get the same. talking about blowing Rick Moranus on the highway. It's just, just. Don't forget, we get a real, real heat check moment from the stripper where she was like, yo, cop with dad showed up in the lodge and they beat him severely.

Why would they beat them up? Because they were expecting a stripper. I know. Why don't they just call the company and be like, yo, y'all sent the wrong guy. Why they had to fuck over them? Like, I don't get that. That's a pretty big screw up, setting the stripper and cowboy gill in two different directions. From like parenthood through rounders, there is this like kind of depiction of VFW lodges where it's like, if you say one wrong thing, you just get a shit kicked out of you.

Maybe it's still that way. Next one, Helen breaks into Gary's room. It's the back to the future tape. But no, it's not. She's watching it. They walk in on her. And then Todd, Keanu Reeves, has the talk and then explains that he was slapping the salami. A few months ago, Gary got his first boner.

You know what that is? If memory serves. Oh, great. Anyway, since then, he's been slapping the salami. No offense. No. Apparently, he's going for a while. world record.

What of the funniest analogies. I love when the grandma comes in and is like, what channel is this? That whole sequence is great. This is a small one, but Gil and his wife after the kid has the chili meth on and they're in the garbage looking for his retainer.

Yeah. Yeah. And Steve Martin's having a moment. It's like, you know, when your kid is born, they can be perfect. You haven't made any mistakes. yet. And then they grow up to be me.

Yeah. It's like, ooh, all right. This got deep. Robart's asking his son for advice is great. And you know, it's not like that all ends when you're 18 or 21 or 41 or 61. It never, never ends. It's like your aunt Edna's ass. It goes on forever and it's just as frightening.

It's true. There is no end. end zone. You never cross the goal line, spike the ball and do your touchdown dance. Never. I never should add four. Yeah. It never ends.

There is no end zone. You worry too much. You always did. That seems awesome. Robarts. We'll get to him later. He's fantastic. Well, the most famous scene from this movie, the big little league dance.

Uh-huh. Mm-hmm. I think that's the best moment of Steve Martin's career. Really? I think that, yeah. Steve Martin's Little League dance? I think him for that, like 40 seconds, that to me is like exactly what he was, why he stood out, how funny he was, how his body, how just his, the way he could use his body was unlike really any comic I can remember. And I think he's the only one who could have pulled that off the way he pulled it off.

I'll be honest with you. So a couple of things I like about that scene is number one. The first thing he does is turn to Clint Howard and be like, yo, fuck you. Like the first thing he does is Ah, he caught it, my son, after your son almost messed the play up. And then secondly, we talked about this a little bit earlier,

but Jesus Christ, if you don't feel good for that man and his son right there. Yeah. Like, the boy caught the ball. He's going to be happy for at least a couple of days. It just, it feels like so much was being put on it.

And then the wife, even after that, as, yo, like, you can't let catching one little, one fly ball in a little game be this much of your life, but it is. It's such a great encapsulation of like the difference between Martin and Steenbergin where they're like, you know, sometimes he'll miss. It's going to be okay. Like sometimes he won't, you know, like. Right. Well, that's my winner. We'll keep going.

There's two more, but that stretch of the Robards speech right into the Little League game is my favorite part of this movie. The grandma's roller coaster ride story shouldn't work. But I don't know. It's good. Well, Craig, play Grandma's speech. You know, when I was 19, Grandpa took me on a roller coaster. Oh. Up, down.

Up, down. Oh, what a ride. What a great story. I always wanted to go again. And, you know, it was just interesting to me that a rye could make me so, so frightened, so scared, so sick, so excited and so thrilled altogether. Some didn't like it. They went on the merry-go-round. That just goes around.

Nothing. I like the roller coaster. You get more out of it. the difference to the merry-go-round in the roller coaster it's corny and then they make fun of it yeah and that's why it works yeah she's so brilliant why she's sitting in our neighbor's car yeah steve martin doesn't like the speech that's why it's good and then steambergen's just like she's a very wise lady or whatever it's it's perfect that they they don't immediately say like oh of course that's the metaphor for life you know it's like they it takes them some

while to arrive at that Last one for me is the You know I love montages The heartwarming montage in the hospital Everybody in a better place It shouldn't work It should be courteous out It's pretty good

Rojard smoking in a waiting room Ahold of babies Right It's pretty good Van what was your most rewatchable scene Okay so there's a couple Number one We haven't talked enough about Diane Weiston

This and the scene Where she is going through the pictures This is perfect of what... I have this. Of what Todd and her daughter have captured on the camera.

She is in her fucking bag. Like, she is playing that perfectly. She is concerned. She's livid. She's impressed. She, like, she's all... She's like... Such...

I love watching her just go through the pictures because she's... Every single picture is... Oh. The two, my two favorite parts in that scene, one is when, uh, Julie's like, I'm going to leave before we say something we regret. And she's like, do you mean you're not going to regret the vibrator thing? And then also when Flinton's leaving and Phoenix comes in and she's just like, I'm leaving the house. I'm, I'm moving out Gary.

And Gary's like, Gary's like, okay. And she's like, see, you've upset your brother. Right. And she's, uh, and she's, she's so, oh, she's so great this movie. so on Gary. Hi, Gary, because she thinks Gary's on dope. Yeah. So she's always trying with Gary. And I'll just say the two other things for me. One, the scene with Larry and his father is

very watchable for me. It's one of the best things in the movie because you see why Jason Robbins has a soft spot for Tom Hawks' character. He's the only one that bought into the shit that he was talking about. Like he bought it. He bought into it. Like he listened. His dad sees himself in the son, even though the son is a fuck-up, he is trying to be the man that his father told him to be, whereas the, like, Gil is trying to be

everything but that. He's trying to be everything different than his father. Larry is trying to be his dad. He just doesn't see it. Little does he know in his mind that Gil is really more like him than Larry is, but whatever. So when you see him, he goes, no, no, no, no. Remember. what you told me. This is what you said to do. You said, make your mark. Take a wrist. Don't do what gills you. You told me not to be this. And so I'm doing this. And it's Jason Robards and his like his idea of life what he thought was supposed to be staring him right back in the face. I love that scene. And just to be honest, we do the vibranes scene is fucking hysterical. That's a hysterical moment. As a kid, I didn't know what that was. Like I, like when that came

out, there was a long time. Like my parents, I didn't know what the vibrancy was and we'll get to the blow. thing. I didn't know what had happened. My wife was just telling me like the funniest story about seeing this movie when she was like, you know, 11 years old and having like 45 questions when they got out of the movie. It's just like, what's slapping the salami?

Why was he so tense? What happened in the car accident? Oh, man. I didn't know any of that. I'm like, when she came out with that thing, I'm like, what is that thing? But they just ignore me. They didn't even answer the question. And so I didn't even get the joke, yet

it's still, it sure was. It was big. Having a good time. I had the photo scene in What Stage is the best, but that's right. I shouldn't put that in rewatchable because it was long enough. So, Chris, you have the photos as your most rewatchable or you have the literally game or what? I have the second baseball game because it's Robards and Martin, and then it's like, it's the... That's mine too.

I also really, really love, just as a scout, as a guy loves to crush tape, Matt's ability to explode from first base and get into the outfield that quickly is just really, really, intangibles, you know? I was going to do this in picking nets, but let's do it now.

That pop fly is up for 15 seconds. That's the biggest pop fly. Like, if that's in Tampa Bay, that hits the, the roof in the Tampa Bay dome. It's up there long enough

for the first basement to run 100 feet and collide into the right field there. That kid, the pitcher throws like 32 miles per hour and the kid with the bat hits like he has like a pair

of twizzlers for arms. And that ball fucking sky. like Dave Kingman got a hold of it. It is unbelievable. Matt is not like a John Olerud either. He's not like a wiry, like quick twitch first basement. He's more of a Mark McGuire.

No, John Crook. He's young crook. I don't think he's going to make it out there. I had in for what stage is the worst, but I'll just do it now. All the baseball scenes in this movie are just terrible. Like the opening montage of the Cardinals and in the research it said apparently

the runner they hire. pulled his hamstring because they did 12 takes. So that's why he's running so slow on that nostalgia montage. But that scene, like, it's just terrible. It doesn't look like a baseball game. And then the Little League stuff was pretty easy to kind of get half decent. So, yeah. What stage is the best?

Lee Phoenix. Yeah, let's talk about it. Yeah, of course. Yeah. But he became Joaquin, like, I don't know, mid-90s, but he went through a stage where he decided his name was Leif. I did feel like something good was going to happen for him after this movie, but at the time, watching it in the moment,

it's like, that's River's brother, because River was a thing at that point. He was, Stand By Me, made River a guy, and then he'd been in some other stuff. But then Leaves really good at this movie. You're not surprised that he's going to win an Oscar someday watching him in this movie. When he calls his dad, Jesus, bro.

He's out of hand when he calls his dad. Like the reaction, he gives when he, and you don't hear the dad talking, but when he's like, maybe I could come live with you for a while. And, like, he just, like, his face just breaks for a second. Like, he starts to cry. I'm like, how did, how is this kid this emotionally intelligent at this age to be able to do this? Every scene he's in and then how his demeanor changes in the last third movie.

But it's really like a great performance. I had forgotten how good it was. Didn't know it was him till after Gladiator. Wow. I didn't know I did remember He changed his damn Yeah

I didn't know it was Didn't know it was him Until after Gladiator So my sister goes That's that's a little boy From parenthood I'm like that guy Like River Phoenix

Yeah it's like That's a little boy from parent I'm like oh I did not know It was him till after Gladiator seriously Didn't know Fantastic performance

In this movie You know what else Age the best Something in this film So Kanye West has a song where he goes, he got his new wife. Now you're Jennifer Aniston.

He got that from parenthood. You know, like, like, there's a song called, One of the song called Gone on Late Registration. Yeah. Nobody catches that where he goes, he's with his new bitch. Now you're Jennifer Anderson. Like when she says he's with his new wife and his new family.

Oh, interesting. I never caught that. That's a good one. Like, absolutely. Like that little thing is like, Yay put that in there. He's got that from parenting. I got it immediately.

I'm like, y'all, I'm in a car with my homie. I'm like, y'all, that's from parenthood. Shut up, man. Turn that shit up, bro. What do we eat it? You know what I'm saying? They didn't have no clue. They didn't see parenthood, always.

Well, the Lee Phoenix piece. There's a three part would say it's the best here. The one is that. Two is Keanu. Keanu. Just like, just so fun to see him like this early Bill and Ted stage before he transforms his speed. But also, and he's good in this too.

Like for what that part was, I thought he kind of owned it. You can see how in the TV series they give the same part to David Arcan. And it's like, oh, now we're going in the wrong direction. Oh, he was taught, yeah. Yeah. But then the third piece of this was Keanu and River Phoenix made that movie with Gus Van Sant. And he was, they were kind of all in the same group together leading to the Vipro Quote. But this does feel like a weirdly like an error.

Like Phoenix, Keanu. Yeah, like, Martha Plimpton was dating River Phoenix. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And there's like just a lot of cross-pollination. She's incredible in this too. She is. But then on top of it, the fact that we have Phoenix, who's now one of the, I think, biggest dramatic actors we have, Keanu, who's still one of the, an A-list movie star all these years later.

And that just to watch them be buddy-buddy in this movie as like big brother, little brother is pretty funny now. Yeah? All these years later. The thumb trick has aged the best for me. I still love it. I stole it, used it. Never ceases to crush little kids every time.

They see the thumb trick. Oh my God. They love it. They love it. They love it. They can't handle it. Grandma and Hailing Helium is so fucking funny. I'm in general pro any scene where a character

in Hale's Helium is just always going to make me laugh. It's always too scared to do that. So there was a little Lee Phoenix, Leo DiCaprio kind of rivalry going on here back in the day. Leo went for this part, didn't get it. Leif got it. Then Leo went for some other parts. Leif soon to become Hakeem. He didn't get it.

Wachine, not Hockeen, I know, I may go that. That would be amazing. If you'd name yourself, Jo Kipinoa. Joe Kipnawa. Yo, he's Hakeem, Phoenix. Hakeem. Starting at center. Hakeem, Phoenix.

From the University of Houston. But so, so then Leo kind of market-corrected Phoenix the other way. And then Phoenix fought back. And then, you know, then they both kind of kicked But there was this run there where they were going for all the same parts. I didn't realize that. And Phoenix, there's some stuff on there in the research that about where he really measured himself against Leo.

Like, I think he knew pretty early, like, this is the other guy who's pretty great. And that was it. Gary's room is great when she breaks in. I'm not even talking about the porn tapes. Just what a complete, it's like your way. My son's room is probably 12% as bad as Gary's room. And it's like a horror show when we go to in there. Gary's room is like, oh, my God.

Does Ben have any security? Like, does he have a lock on the door? Does he ever lock you guys out? Like, are you ever? He definitely locks the door. Yeah. But his room is not like that. My wife would just to like to read.

Not allowed an actual lock. Yeah. We're allowed to go in his room if he's not there. Okay. But see, here's the thing, though. My parents also, they would raise children. They would use the TV. Okay?

To raise us. Like my parents would do this, black parents. They would look and it would be like, something would happen on a show, on a movie that I didn't even do. I didn't do it. The fucking movie character did it. They would still get mad at me.

I'll tell you what, if I ever see a lock on a door in this motherfucking house. You're like, what are I there? I'm like, yo, what's the other? See how she's talking to her mama? I bet not in my motherfucking.

life here you speak to me like that. I'm like, yo, first of all it's not even real. Secondly, I didn't do anything. Yeah, I'm just sitting here. How far out genre-wise would they go with that? Like, would it be like watching Last Starfighter? And it would be like, if you ever go into fucking space,

I'm going to be, I'm going to be honest with you. I'm going to be honest with you. God rest, God rest my father's soul. Me and my father are watching the Empire Strikes back. Okay? We're watching the Empire strikes back.

Darth Vader is talking to Luke Skywalker and he says, we could actually rule the galaxy together and overthrow the emperor together. He has foreseen it. My father says Luke should actually go with him right now because that's his daddy and he should do what his daddy says. I'm like, yo, my G, are we watching the same movie? Right. Like, are we looking at the same thing?

Like, he didn't cut this man's hand off. First of all, how does he even notice is that? But my dad's like, uh-uh, don't you ever disobey me, boy? If I say, come with me and we're going to take over the galaxy together, that your best bet, as my son is to come with me, and we're going to take the galaxy over together. I'm like, this guy's fucking out of his mind. But he just, that is the thing. That's a true story.

Well, you know what's crazy about that story? The exact same thing happened at Donald Trump's house. Shut up. And the sun, and the sun went. Sun went with a... Morewood's age the best. The concept of Todd, every parent's worst nightmare

for their daughter's boyfriend, but then he turns out to be okay. He's all right. It turns out of a good positive story. First half of him, like, oh my God, my daughter's going to marry this guy. Jesus.

We mentioned the scene where Phoenix calls his dad who doesn't want to live with him. It's just such a well-acted scene. The scene where Helen discovers the nude pictures was a real thing that happened to producer

Brian Grazer I'm sure like that's a tough one people from producer Craig's generation that's wild in the 80s too you have to pick up your photos

yeah you have to be really into documenting your sexual acts in the 1980s to like go through with it the fucking

the guy who developed the pictures got to see him yeah you're really out there the Cures Boys Don't Cry poster in Julie's room

I really respected and enjoy it it was great to see it the tense face I actually got mild out of this in the early years of my sports column about different people

who seemed like they were self-combusting and it would be like the making the face like the little kid in parenthood. That face he makes is like a specific face and you can kind of see it in sports sometimes, variations of it. Sean McVeigh was honestly kind of making it the first quarter of the Super Bowl last night.

LeBron made it a couple of nights ago, down three, go to the free throw line with three free throws. Fucking tense face. I saw it on his face. How about LeBron the entire 2011 finals. It's the Dallas.

Right. He tense face the whole time. The last one I have for What Stage is the Best. I kind of always liked Harley Jane Kozak. Awesome. Never quite made it. What else was she in? I was thinking about that when I saw, what else does she do?

Well, she was Helen and when Harry met Sally. Oh, yeah, that's right. She sure was. Which leading to the Billy Crystal scene where he's like, and then you're saying it's, Sir, the French out top, in front of Ira! She was the guy who was, or the lady who was at Ira. But yeah, Harley Jane never told her how before.

Any of the What Stage is the best for you guys? I like how they talk about money in this movie and about how like almost everything has to be paid for. And it's not like, they don't hit you over the head with it, but like Larry's debts, all the stuff with Steve Martin and his job. And how he's like, I guess I'm going to have to get a second job if we're going to send Kevin to private school. Harley Jane Kozak being like,

I can do summer school so now we can afford to go on vacation. It's just like that doesn't really happen in movies and TV shows as much where they're just kind of like like, they're like, don't worry about it. They're just going on vacation. Like if you watch modern family,

they're always just going on vacation. But like in this- Money has no object. It's like they actually have to pay for this stuff and it kind of makes it a little bit more relatable. Roadhead. Roadhead is age really well. I thought we were saving this for a past man.

Yeah, I thought, man, you're stepping on that. an apex mountain. I'm so sorry. We'll get back to that. What's age of worst? The baseball scenes mentioned. Todd's racing career

kind of gets shoehorned into this movie out of nowhere and we have a whole weird race scene. It's the worst part of the movie. They have to have something dramatic happen at the end of the movie. Have them be more injured. It's like he's not really injured.

He just climbs out of the car and then they're like, yeah, come back next week. He gets a job out of it. Yeah. So, I mean, the movie, the end of the movie, if you're going to nitpick, the end of the movie last 20 minutes are tough.

Yeah, yeah, a little bit, a little bit. A little bit hyper rosy, a little bit, you know what I mean? So he crashes, he's okay, and he gets a job out of it. Everything is just working out for everybody. Chris Lowell, Gans, and Bob Lou Mandel, your heroes. Yeah.

They kind of needed a closer. They needed Marron Rivera to come in for the... They need Bill Goldman to just come in and be like, here's the third act, guys. Because city slickers, same thing. Right. Where it's kind of like, oh, Jack Palance is gone.

What are we going to do? do here. Oh, now we got a ring. Also depends on, you know what they could have done. They could have killed Grandma. And if they would have killed grandma, that would have given you a funeral scene to get out on and everybody's together. But that's not what they did. They ended

the movie with birth and not death, which was a much more rosier way to end up the film. Probably why it's rewatchable. Right. Why is rewatchable, right. They could have killed Grandma and had her tape to the top of the car, like in National Impun's vacation, but they didn't do that. The

just what's age of worse, just the school's handling of Kevin's emotional problems would not be how they handled it 2002? Were they like, they like jump, ambush them with a therapist?

Yeah. Coming in from the other door is the therapist you had secretly observed. Your kid sucks and it costs us too much money and we have to get them out. They expelled him.

Yeah. Can you imagine? Like they expelled him basically. You can't come back to school because that's nuts. You can't, I think that was rich even for then, man. Tell me if I'm wrong. But that's a tough one right there.

I texted you guys. If they made this movie now, the kid with emotional problems and the tense face would cause a three-week riot on Twitter. And I stand by it. I think it would be think piece after think piece of how badly they handled it. Speaking of badly, things that would never happen now, the worst case of their dream sequence of the kid on the tower shooting everybody. There's also a random throwaway line where Harley Jane Kozak. is like, we really fell behind because of the bomb threat. Like, she just casually jokes about a bomb threat at the school.

I was like, what is happening? And that's when Miranda comes in to sing. It was, I will say in the 80s, there was the tower shooting thing was actually like a motif for a few years. They did it all the time. Yeah. Like, we, even in college, like, we had a tower at Holy Cross and we'd always be like, oh, that kid. But now it's, that motif's gone. And full metal jacket, the drill star, sorry.

Braggs on how well the guy shot saying that he was an ex-marine. Yeah. Yeah. That's gone. Thank God that whole motif has gone away. Yeah. Lee Phoenix has aged the worst. That's just weird.

I feel like they should go back and digitally change it back to Joaquin. So people would know that. If they were going to recut like a re-release trailer, he would be, it would be like Academy Award winner, Waukeen Phoenix and Steve Martin. I mean, they could do the trailer and put all the people in and people are like, holy shit, all these people are in this movie. Jesus. Yeah.

Fantastic guys. Very small Wood Sage is the Worse, but Tom, Tom Hulse gets thrown out of the limo. I love that scene. Really bad stunt man. Wait, is dinner ready?

There's an obvious stuntman and the rollover close up and he's like, here's dinner ready. Bro, that scene is hilarious. So do you want to talk about Larry as a gambler now? Yeah, let's do it.

That was going to be the last Woodstage is the worst. Oh, I got to say cool. the cool thing that happened earlier. Yeah, yeah. We cover cool. It's got to be mentioned again. Yeah, that was rough.

Yeah, Larry's gambling. I'm not saying he needs to sound like Warren Sharp, but I think like having a character or an actor or whatever, and Tom Hulse is a great actor, he's amazing in Amadeus, he's got to like have a little bit more of a facility with like, does it, do I at least seem like I've ever watched sports on television? Do I even know? This is a late 80s thing, though.

People didn't really understand gambling back then. There was barely any dialogue about it. So they would sprinkle it in. It was just like this bad thing people did when you lost your money, but they didn't know how to talk the language. You know what I mean? Still, the way that he talks about the Super Bowl with his dad.

Yeah, that's right. Did you see the Super Bowl? Oh. I will say that like at this, I will say, I will say that at this point, though, the only thing that I knew about gambling was that Pete Rose. That was like, at that point, like, in life, the only thing is my daddy said the best hitter ever was a gambler and then that was bad.

Right. So it was, yeah. So it was like, it was like, it was Pete Rose or something. But I just, it doesn't sound like anybody, like when he's just like, usually they're not that close. And usually the favorite covers, the point spread. It's just like, yeah, man. It was tough. Right.

It wasn't really until Brandon Walsh developed a gambling problem on 902 and O that we really learned properly about gambling. That's where family. The dude's got the idea for fandle. Yeah. Okay. Casting what ifs. Oh, wait. Can I say one more thing that age the worst?

Yeah. It's just Steve Martin's not 35. I looked that up. I had that in nitpicks. You want to do this now? It's fine, but he's just not, he does not look like he's 35 years. My biggest nitpick in this movie is he's 44 in this movie and actually seems older, playing a 35-year-old.

And I think he's actually miscast as great as he is. So I'll jump in on this. So Kevin Buckman is nine. So if he's 35 and Kevin Buckman is supposed to be graduating college, that's what? 14 years from then. So he's 50 and he's already got a cane. Yeah. Like, you know what I mean?

He's 49 or 50 years old. I'm doing a math in my head. I'm like, oh, say it's 15 so years later. He's already got a cane and he's like all elderly like that. he's 50 years old. Fucking the Rock is 50 years old. You know what I mean? Like I know 50 year old guys.

That's not how they look. It's interesting. There is, I actually think it was a talent pool thing. Because you think about it, like Hank's, Keaton, all the guy, Costa, all the guys from that generation are too young to be in this movie. Martin's too old to be in this movie. But there's nobody kind of between those two worlds. The only one I was thinking was maybe Dan Aykroyd would have been the right age. Dan Aykroyd or Bill Murray.

Bill Murray's got too much of a darkness, I think. He's not going to always... Yeah, he's too... He's too cutting. Dan Aykroyd, maybe, but he just... We never saw him really succeed in a movie like this. And I don't know. I go through it.

I couldn't really think of somebody else. So I think... I just think they should have made his character older. I think that was the mistake. Yeah, what's the point? Yeah, why not just make him old? Just say that he's 42. It makes the fourth child when she gets pregnant at the end. It makes it, if he's like 40-something,

it's like, oh, man, we're going to have another. like now, like this late in life? It's a script writing her. Casting What Ifs, it was really hard to find info on this. Every person was rumored to be Gil Buckman. The only other interesting one was Robin Williams. And I think that he could have been the right age for this. I think he could have pulled off his version of the Little League scene.

He could have been poignant Robin Williams. But I can't imagine like Jason Robarts as his dad would have been weird. I don't know. Jason Robarts and. Steve Martin, he looks like his dad is... Yeah, they kind of feel related. Yeah.

Anyway, best that guy, aka the Joey Pants award. So it's either the grandmother or it's Harley Jane Kozak. Chris, are we the only ones who know that her name is Harley Jane Cozac? I think because we keep saying it,

it's Harley Kozak and their credits. But yeah, she's in the Dana Wheeler-Nickleson Three-Ame Hall of Fame for me. Yeah. I'm going to give it to her because she was also Helen and Herat and her in this year.

The Vincent Hanna, give me how you got a word for overacting. Who would you have for this? I kind of... I think Clint Howard after the first game

when he's like, he had no business. There's no business being out there. He's sounding he's calling into Justremski and threatening to like throw himself off the Verrazano Bridge if they don't fire Aaron Boone.

Later on New York, D. York, I'm going to talk about the first basement. He's the only player you got. We're talking about fucking nine-year-old kids, you By the way, that's another like small baseball nitpick. If he's the best kid on the team, he's not at first base. He's not at first base.

He's either pitching or is a short step. But to be fair, I think that Lou, who Clint Howard plays, has a beef with Gil because Gil's like, let's put Kevin at second. Yeah, that's, it's bad. Kevin's got to be in Redfield. No, but no, but you guys remember what happened. Yeah, because Gil hurts the kid, but he's got to just turn to his left fielder and be like, good man, I'm going to need you to move to second.

You got to make decisions. Those are the adjustments you got to make as a manager. Come on. Come on, go. The Judd Nelson Award for the person who seems like they might be in a completely different movie, named after Judd Nelson's award-winning performance in New Jack City when he's just in a completely different movie. Keanu's like in his own movie a little bit here. He's kind of like his race car driving career.

And I don't really understand his backstory or what he's doing. So I actually wanted to give this one out. We don't always give this a word out. But I do feel like Keanu is in a slightly different movie than everybody else. But I'm fine with it. I enjoy it. Yeah, it's Keanu or I would give it to Hulse. Only, okay, so Hulse is in the right movie,

but I want to see the movie of him tall in on down to Chile. Oh, yeah. Escape the Gamblers. He never makes it to the airport. I don't think he gets there. Because Robarts is like, yeah, you're never going to see him again. He's like, bro. Think about that.

He's like, my dad's gone. Yeah, he left. Are we ever going to see him again? No. To a kid. Are he ever, is he coming back? Nah, he's never coming back. Like, that's the last of it.

Chris, do you think he maybe started a business with Lester from Casino or no? Hydroponics. Yeah. Dionne Waiter's Award are nominees. I'm not positive Kiano should be eligible. I think he's into many scenes. So to me, it's Clint Howard or grandma. I also want to nominate Dennis Dugan as Gil's boss.

I think that's the winner. That's what I have. Yeah. On the, like, he's doing, he's doing the, like, the Peloton, and he's just like, I own date. Like, who's the guy who's the guy who is? He's, first of all, he didn't, so he's doing his workout during his work time, which I get, that's fine.

He didn't change. He's going to get sweaty in his Brooks brother's shit. fuck it that's who I am and then secondly he's telling this guy I own the guy he's being a prostitutes in his man has a family and he's talking to him like that's fair shit I don't even know if he has kids I don't even know if he has kids the best is when he gets off his uh his walking machine and he's he lights a cigarette immediately immediately

he starts smoking that's fair he gets it recasting couch I'm putting Kathleen Turner in the Harley Jane Kozac part all due respect to Harley Kathleen Turner Right age Brings that kind of She must have been a smoke show Five years ago

But now she's a mom And she's trying to get A Rise out of her husband Talking about how she used to blow him in the car And I think Kathleen Turner Just crushes that part Just crushes it I think she does

But I think I think she's maybe She was Kathleen Turner had a real sexy That's what I'm That's what I'm looking for No that's what I want

from that part. I want the, I want the sexy part. Wasn't Kathleen Turner in 1989, like a much bigger star than that role would be? Yeah, for sure. She was big. She was huge. That's fantastic. Listen, that's semantics. We get her in there. It's like, Dan, you're filming five days on set. You're in and out. I think it could have worked. All right, we're going to take a break and then we'll rip through the rest of the categories. Half-ass internet research. The porno tape that Helen discovers in Garris Closet was Wet Wilder Ready.

Nope. What? That's what it's saying. It was actually Blonde goddess, the 1982 classic apparently. The clip shown from the first scene was a parody of Indiana Jones. We had the adventurer Louisiana Smith attempted to rescue Jungle Jane. That was the plot of Blonde Goddess.

At least Gary likes the classics. Oh my God, Louisiana Smith. Jesus. Diane Weist and Mary Steenburgeon. Best friends. I did not know that. Worked as waitresses together at the Magic Pamp.

which, Van, you've had hamburgers from the magic pan, right? The apple pan, I don't know what the magic pan. Oh, no, what's the magic pan? What's the magic pan? The apple pan is right over here. I love that. Apple pan's incredible.

All right, you're right. I got apple pan and magic. I don't know what magic pan was. They worked at a bunch of restaurants, hit it big and were cast as sister-in-laws in this movie. That's great. Both won Oscars.

The movie was set in St. Louis But filmed in Florida. This is an abomination. It's just like they're outside of like a public's. There is no publics in Missouri. There's palm trees and shit. It's so bad. Plimpton, you mentioned she dated River Phoenix for nearly five years.

She was also bald at the beginning of the film in because she had just finished a movie where she played a cancer patient called Silence Like Glass. So she's wearing a wig. And then halfway through the film, Ron Howard got so fed up with the wig. He had her shave her head into that Mohawk thing that she has for the rest of the movie. which is actually here. The grandma, played by Helen Shaw,

who thought she was going to win Dan Waiters, just cruelly snatched from her by Dennis Dugan. This was her final film. She died in 1997 at age 100. Wow, good for her. Great job by Helen Shaw.

Yeah. I didn't really understand this, but this came up in the research. During filming the cast, became obsessed with playing the murder game. I think it's like playing mafia. Yeah. Yeah.

What's that? I don't know what that is. It's a game in which one person's, the murderer. They have to find a subtle way to kill other players simply by looking them without giving themselves away as the murder. I don't even understand it. But they were playing it in the dinner scene. It's like a party game where you basically

it's like one person is the criminal and then everybody else is like investigating and the criminal can like, yeah, it's like mafia. It's through eye movements. They're playing in the thing. Chris Ryan knew it was because he plays with Andy Green Mouth. Just a two-man game of mafia. You guys

playing each other. We mentioned this in Father of the Bradworth mentioned again. Steve Martin didn't actually become a parent until he was 67 years old in 2012 and was yet a dad and two of the iconic parent movies of his generation. Yeah, that's true. Fuck. Yeah. What a lie. This entire fucking time.

Are you kidding me? Like, Jesus. Yeah. So the whole-in-called acting. It's like finding out that James Cameron doesn't like water. Yeah. Then he hates cheese, man. Okay.

Apex Mountain, Steve Martin. I think we gave it to him already for Father of the Bride. We said later career Steve Martin was Father of the Bride. Earlier career, Steve Martin was like the jerk, Saturday Night, and all that stuff. If you're going to real Apex Mountain, it's got to be he's the biggest guest host on Saturday Night, which is the biggest comedy show and getting 30 million people per episode. He's in The Jerk, which is a huge hit.

He is doing comedy albums that are selling out. He's doing tours that are tour. that are 20,000 for every stand-up he does. And you're not topping Steve Martin in 79. What you guys didn't like shop girl? You guys didn't dig house sitter? This is heresy going on in this podcast. Mary Steenbergin, what is her Apex Mountain?

It's not this. It wouldn't be the fucking, what's the movie about Howard Hughes? Melvin and Howard? It actually might be this. Yeah, it might be this. It might be this, actually. Yeah, it might be this. All right.

She also, her character, and by extension, her is that she's the, like, who Randy Newman wrote the song about. Right. Right. Ron Howard, as a director, I think it's beautiful, mine, just because he won the Oscar. It has to be, yeah. Because an actor. It's Apollo 13.

It's got to be a beautiful mind, Chris. Chris, you love Apollo 13. Yeah. So do millions of other. people. This is not like a weird take. Chris is a patriot. As an actor, his Apex Mountain was the

scene in happy days when he misses the free throw, which I would encourage people to look up on YouTube. He misses the game-winning free throw, and then his dad offers him a candy bar. It's the all-time best happy day scene. Harley Jane Kozak, definitely. The 1935 Ford Model,

48, Deluxe convertible 100% Apex Mountain. Randy Newman, I think yes, because he had this song gets nominated for an Oscar, and this is really when the I Love L.A. became the staple of Lakers games. Because this is 89, right?

Yeah, it never got better for Randy Newman. As you can guess, I'm not a huge Randy Newman fan. I'm a huge Randy Newman fan, and I think he's had several Apex Mountains. I think he's like had one of the most mystifying, amazing careers. Toy Story. It's like, yeah. Yeah. He's just like really

a delightful little... So Craig's saying Toy Story for Randy Newman? Yeah. He came up with the song that they played right after the 2010 Game 7

as the confetti was falling down and I had to hear the fucking song so I hate Randy Newman. Wrote the score for the natural. Is that true? Yes. Randy Newman is making a case

that he's had several Apexes here. He's had an unbelievable career and I hate his guts. Because he's the Lakers guy? Yeah. Yeah, that's it. Dodgers guy as well. Fucking hate him.

He's like the Lakers victory cigar. Lakers win, they play his song. I don't like Randy Newman because of that. I have no other reason. Of the Celtics. Who's like the chief song? For Boston,

it's drop. No, for Boston, it's drop kick Murphys because that got going with the Red Sox in the mid-2000s. And Neil Diamond. Neil Diamond. Neil Diamond for a bit, yeah. Yeah, but that's newer generation Red Sox fans.

The old school Red Sox fans don't like the Neil Diamond as much. But Dropkick Murphy's, that became like. So nobody writes songs for the Celtics? No. We have Gino. We have the guy in the clip when the guy from like Studio 54 with the long arms dancing. Oh, yeah. That's so much better than Randy Newman.

Yeah, right. The Celtics need to get on that, man. Yeah. Parent comedy movies, Apex Mountain. Huh. I was trying to think of some other ones in this vein. All right. So there are a couple of movies here that I like.

No, no movies that there's a movie with Tom Selling called Folks where Donabici's dad. That movie is fucking hysterical. I like that movie. That movie is hilarious. I'm trying to think of what else, though. I mean, would you consider the National Ampoons as parent comedies? Those are so young?

Yeah, those are more. More just about classic. I was trying to think of ones with just like a lot of characters, like a sprawling movie with a lot of characters, but, like, tries to have a heart and it's funny. Not a lot of them. It's not, yeah, they don't really do it as much. Yeah, and every few years they try, like, do like a, this is where I leave you, kind of like movie.

And yeah, they make them, it's a more rare occurrence now that they make these. Finn, what's the, what's the black movie version of parenthood? They kind of did it. They've done variations of this, but no, they haven't done the exact parenthood. They haven't done the exact parenthood. They haven't done the exact parenthood, but they kind of did. It's, I would make the case that it's Soul Food. I'll tell you why.

Soul Food's not nearly as funny as parenthood, but Soul Food is a story about two generations of black, a multi-generational black family. It's more about a matriarch that holds them together, but it is, there's like all of these characters in it. Like in Soul Food, the cousin that comes in out of nowhere, she's the brother that comes from nowhere to fuck everything up. You have the main guy who's trying to hold the family.

a little bit. It's more focused on the kids, you know, but you have all these inner workings between the sisters, and then you have all of that stuff. There's a marriage. You could make the, you kind of make the case that the Mekai Fifer character, it's kind of like the Todd character, the new person to the family

but I would say that it was so full. Yeah, that movie's not that funny, though. It's not funny at all. Yeah. I mean, to be honest with you, I would be honest with you, sometimes when we go through this shit, it's not as funny. Right. Sometimes the issues are a little bit more dire.

Kind of like, you know, when we're going through them. I know that Todd had it tough about whether he was going to start the house painting business. Or be a race car driver. Gary struggling with masturbation. Right. Sometimes our problems are a little bit more dire than that. You know, my man was trying to get a job after he got out the fucking pin. So it's just different, you know?

Well, we talk about crossover movies occasionally and the rewatchables. Right. Black parenthood seems like it's sitting there. It would be good. I think it's a, also to be honest with you, if I'm being completely serious, is I think, though, that we're just getting to a time where we can examine the lives of black characters and not have all of this social, economic, societal drama that is like ejected into the movie. Like, just the lives.

Like I watched Nomad Land. That's what I mean. Yeah, right. I watched Nomad Lane. And I'm like, do they have any movies about black people just roaming around? Like, just roaming around. Just like dealing with their own lives. And I think we're getting to the point now to where we realize that like, we're not just all our struggles.

Our major struggles against America or the system or whatever, we could just deal with our family dynamics and things. What about just three generations? I'm with it. I mean, they have films out there that are like that. Tell Tray. Tell Trayvon, get on it. Yeah, yeah, we're doing it. We're doing a lot of stuff.

Apex Mountain, Tom Hulse, I'm going to guess it's Amadeus. I forget what year that came out. Amadeus for sure. Amadeus is like before this, right? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Where do you rank Amadeus, Tom Hals and Amadeus versus Garfield and Zip-Zip-Bum or

whatever the fuck that was called? Tick-T-T-Bum? T-T-T-Boo. Zips-it- Boom. Who is more over the top? Are you asking me? Because I like the composer. I don't know.

You've seen both of them. I haven't seen zip-zip boom. It's tick-tick-tick-thew. Whatever it's called. I'm not watching that. My wife and daughter loved it. Yeah. I was like, I'm going to go watch sports.

I'll see you guys later. How about that Super Bowl? Hey, they're in there watching Tick-Tick-Bomb. You come in there eating like a fucking side of beef. Yeah. You got the demand show playing. Hey, I'm up here watching us. A rookie made a 50 foot shot to beat me.

A stretch limo pulls by and throws Ben out of the backseat. It just rolls. Hey, what's for dinner, dad? Yeah, your friends don't really slow down. Gansomandel, Apex Mountain for them for your heroes, Chris? I think Slickers is, right? Yeah, I would say Slickers, too. Feel good little league scenes?

Ooh, bro, you got a lot of Little League competition there. You got fucking rookie at a year. just floated. Bad news bears. Bad news bear? That's kind of like he wasn't actually in Little League. He was like major league baseball. There's an answer to this because it's not parenthood.

It is, it's bad news bears and breaking training. Bad news bears too. Or hardball. Tanner. Another Keal-Nor-Ree's movie. Oh, damn. I forgot about hardball. Hard ball.

I was thinking about Tanner running around everyone chain and let them play in the Astrodome and Bad News Bears too. That's pretty good too. There's also. But you're right. Hardball. Like, G-baby getting a game in a hit. I like to think that this guy, that the guy at Harbaal is actually Todd,

taught left St. Louis, moved to Chicago. Oh, that's a great one. Then he started gambling because he had had a couple's conversations. Right? With Gary. No, what's his name? With what's his face? With like, they had a couple.

Larry. Him and Larry. Yeah. Him and Larry connected. And he was like, I'm going to make somebody like that. He ends up coaching kids up there. Maybe Larry's bookies, like, by Todd's racing team. and they're like, you're going to have to start throwing some races.

Apex Mountain for funny movie Great Grandmas. Really hard to pull off the super old grandparent character and have it be funny. This is up there. Driving Blow Job Accident Scenes. So the winner is World According to Garp. Okay. I don't know if you remember that movie, but it was a scene in the book,

and then they made it in a movie. and where Robin Williams' wife in the movie is giving her guy she's having a fare of the bull job and Robin Williams drives into the driveway with the headlights off and re-wrents them and she bites the guy's dick off. Hard to top. Oh, that sounds hilarious, Bill.

Jesus Christ. It actually, they made a way to make it funny in the next scene. That sounds fucking a barrel of laughs, man. Well, it's not like this was hilarious. Christ, David Lynch. movie. Blow job car accidents are never funny, man. This one it merits to be funny.

Nobody's penis got bit off. This is fucking Oz now. It's like nuts. Well, that leads us to picking nits. Wouldn't Gil's wife or Gil have been more injured in the car accident? Somebody's getting hurt. She's either getting her head slammed against the steering wheel or, you know, he's getting world accorded to garped. I just don't feel like that both walking away from that one. Well, we have to know more about the nature of the accident. Like, was it like he accidentally like goes up against

the guardrail or was there another car involved? Like how damage does because it's really unclear. Yeah. This movie really explored the PG-13 parameters. Yes. Yeah. For sure. For sure. It's very heavy on sex. It's a very

sexual movie. There's a lot about Sex. Vibrator, porn. Blow jobs. Yeah. Blow job. The whole nine. Yeah. Film it like taking pictures of yourself. having sex, all the stuff about slapping this is not the apex mountain for roadhead though.

Not the apex mountain for roadhead. What is? What do you have for roadhead? Pam and Tommy Lee. For sure, of course. An actual 1997 classic. I called and ordered it on television. Like I called a human being. Like, you know, like

there was no internet guys. You kids, they just get to do all these stuff. And I had to call somebody on the phone. Give my full name, my card number and ask for that to be sent to my residence. You have to go the extra mile for it back in the day. That's what happened.

Those were the days. More picky nits. Rick Moranis singing in the classroom is bad. That's my least favorite scene in the movie. I just don't like it. Yeah, it's like a fast forward. It's way too long. I can't believe it's as long as it is.

And then the sex photos, like, I just don't know anybody who, just had their sex photos developed? Just developed at the local photo place. That is fucking crazy. Nobody did that. Not even in college people didn't do that. Never heard of that. I feel like there was

much more of like a taboo around doing that back then. Yeah, you just knew like we went to like spring break and took all kinds of crazy pictures in Galveston just like girls and bathing suits and stuff like that when we gave them to the people, there were ones that they would develop. Because it was like

against their like their ethics and stuff? Yeah. Interesting. Could this be remade as a 10-episode Netflix show? It did get it. That's already

happened. Probably in answerable questions is our next category. I'll ask both of you. Would you have watched a 2000 sequel about cool?

Oh, hell yeah. I think I would have too. Yeah. I think parenthood too could have easily happened. You could have made

it into like more of a thriller like cool on the road looking for Larry. Like where's like going to Chile kind of like taken. She could still make that movie. Like Taylor Hackford directing? It's like proof of life.

Caruso's in it for some reason. Yeah, Larry's been like making bets for like a Chilean like syndicate. Cools around. He's holding up pictures and it's a picture of like, you know, Tom Hulse and the leather jacket. He's like, yo, have you seen this man? He looks like Yarmierier-Yager. Right.

You've seen this man. Finn, we didn't mention this. How did you feel about cool being named cool? the whole thing was fucked up I'm gonna be honest with you It's right You know what I mean I'm not

It's one of those things Where you're watching the movie And you just made the decision Not to trip I wasn't tripping in So I feel like I shouldn't trip now But it's like You know he comes in

He has the son That nobody's ever heard of The son's name is cool He's black The whole thing is a little bit All right guys Come on And let's make the kid black

So we'll really show how far they didn't it was not that big of a deal but it was kind of like come on man it's a little fucked up cool smart i guess they could have gone jamal which would have somehow been like more fucked up you know but cool is you know this is his name another an answerable question what's kevin's job now i think he's the gm of the padres you know like i think he went into advanced analytics you don't think he's the CEO of twitter you think Kevin Buckman's into Bitcoin now? Like you think he's like,

I don't know. I mean, he probably, he probably had a healthy life. Kids go through tough times around that age. Yeah. I think,

what Kevin Buckman's like my age right now? Yeah. You know what the funny thing is? I think Van, I think Van has Kevin Buckman blocked on Twitter. No, I think, if we're being honest,

Bill, Kevin Buckman probably works for the ringer. Oh. About insulting. Kevin Buckman probably works for the ringer. Kevin Buckman probably has a nice paw where he discusses things.

You know what I mean? He gets you in trouble every now and again. Kevin Buckman probably works for us. Makes the tense face every once in a while on Zoom. What piece of memorabilia would you want from this movie, Chris? I mean, Robards his car, probably. The car, yeah. Yeah, I was going to say the car.

Or Tom Hulse's hair if it was a week. week. I just want to wear that around the house. All right. Who won the movie? Tough one. So I think it's, I'm going to make a, I'm just going to throw this out there for Diane Weist. Like the obvious thing would be Howard, the obvious thing that would be Martin. But she's so good in this. She gets nominated. She's, she in some ways is got like, you know, less, she has less time on screen than Martin to make her case. But I think she's like amazing in every scene she's in. She's funny. She's heartbreaking.

What do you think? I thought she was awesome in the movie. And I also, we didn't talk about her enough. I really like Steenberg in this movie. She's great. I thought she's just so grounded. She's perfect. It's the perfect kind of couple that makes sense.

I know couples like that were one's the even killed one. The other one's kind of the wild card. She's really likable. Also, she breaks out of a conversation. concrete cell that you could put that character in. Yeah, that character sucks 90% of the time. But she actually, the character herself talks about like, everybody wants me to go back to work, but what if this is what I like doing, you know?

Yeah. I think Ron Howard wins the movie because it's coming off. We didn't mention this. It was coming off Willow, which was a bomb. And he had done three straight comedies, basically. And it was like, what is this guy? can he only direct funny movies built around

like an awesome stars is he actually a real director he makes this and that opens the door for the next 30 years of movies for him so I would vote for him I'm gonna go

Steve Martin just because Diane Weiss is the best in this movie she's just amazing but I'm gonna go to Steve Martin just because I don't know that there's an other role another role should I say

that gives him the latitude to show the complete limits of his powers. Like the cowboy gills get seen as classic Steve Martin. He's going back and forth with Jason Robarts that's like highbrow actor Steve Martin.

He's just all over the place in this movie like scoring buckets everywhere. He's amazing. I mean, it really, you're right. It's like this is like if Steve Martin's a five tool guy like he gets to show off every five tool, all the five souls. Producer Craig,

are you there? Yeah. What'd you think of this movie? I like, it a lot. I honestly, when I watch movies set in this time period, and I have this weird nostalgia, even though I wasn't alive during this time for like

life, the way it looked then, the clothes they wear like the way the kids like hang out in the house, like, the level of technology that people had, I don't know. There's something about that time that just like felt very simple in a great way. Yeah. That seemed like the most fucking insulting thing that anyone has ever seen. Get your

young ass out of you. I totally agree with them. I get the level of technology. Motherfucking, it was 1988. He's not saying we were churning butter. He was just saying, it's nice that we didn't have fucking phones

on the face all the time. Craig, you know I fuck with you heavy, but I feel in a way about what you just said, you fucking kids. We're going to do rewatchables around Arthur the ArtVark or something like that so that you can tell us about what we're I like having the film camera.

I like no iPads. I don't know. I like I like it. I like that. Not a lot of video games, three porn tapes. It's a simpler time. By the way, not even the cool VHS. The VHS, where it pops up out the top. Oh, yeah. And then you have to put the tape in there and put that bitch down like that.

And I think that thing broke within four months. All the time. All the time. All the time. Jesus, right. Yeah. Yeah, I'm with Craig. It did remind me of like, and this is basically the case through like 1995

where there's just this kind of era where it's just like people having conversations. I also just like the way even it looked on camera. Like, I like the way sitcoms look in the 90s. I like the way like when Harry Met Sally, which is the same year as this movie, I think. Like, I just like the way it's filmed. Like the physical, like, composition of the screen. I think it just looks better than movies now.

I don't know why. Before we go, Ivan Reitman died yesterday. I saw that. Who we've done a couple rewatchables of that he was involved with, but just an awesome career. Kind of a surprising when. He was only 75. I don't think.

I don't think he was sick or anything. He was just involved in the Ghostbusters remake with his son Jason, who I got to know over the years. He was a great guy. But just such an important, influential career on not just movies, but how he influenced comedy and culture, you know, and the fact that he was a director and was also at the same time, was able to transition to becoming a producer and these different generation of filmmakers

and actors that he affected. it's weird to think of the rewatchables when somebody great dies, but it was like, that was one of the things with him is he made these movies that were incredibly rewatchable. We did Dave. We did stripes last year. He just had such a good sense of just what a lot of people would like

that didn't feel kind of standard. That was a little ahead of its time, had an edge. But yeah, I was, I was bummed. Chris, I know you were a huge fan. Yeah, it's like, I think the influence thing is the thing that came to my, obviously like with the sun, but like just like there's no Seth Rogen

without Ivan Reitman. There's no like the way that the Apatow movies get worked out now. Like all these movies that have like a basically like a really tidy concept in like that you could pitch in an elevator but then the rest of the movie feels so organic and funny and real and human.

That's a lot of that is from Raymond. Did you guys do Ghostbusters? You haven't done that. We've been saving that one. Yeah, he's he tapped into that comedy kind of anti, we talked about him in the stretch. right-s-pot, the kind of slight anti-hero kind of loser, the lovable loser, able to turn it around, that just became the staple of comedies, right? That's like how many Apatown movies

that were there like that? How many movies in general have that kind of principle? You could go even like movies like dirty work, but they're all like that's basic premise. And just the idea that a comedy could like take in like sci-fi or a comedy could be an action movie or a comedy could be a workplace movie, like just breaking up the genre a little bit. And I think that's the thing that, like, that always stood out with me for him is that, like, there are certain names that you just associate with time to have a good time when you're watching the movie. It's just like, if you see Bill Murray's name into credits, for a certain point, especially, it was like you knew that it was time to have some fun. You knew that it was time to get into something. No matter what the premise of the movie was, if the premise was set in Chernobyl, you knew that it was going to be a fun time in Chernobyl.

And I haven't right, it's name is exactly the same way. If you see that name, you know, we're going to have some fun. You're going to get some laughs. You're going to get some good storytelling. So it was definitely, definitely tough to see that. Yeah, that's a great point. You saw his name. It was like a stamp of approval for whether you're going to have a good time right.

He just had such a good sense of, you know, a movie like Dave that just shouldn't have worked the way it did. But. Deliiful. Yeah. The other thing is these movies that, you know, a lot of them are late 70s, 80s, early 90s. And then like the Craig generation, those movies, still hold up. I'm sure you've seen a bunch of them, right, Craig? Animal House stripes, meatballs, all that stuff.

I haven't seen meatballs, actually, but yeah. Meatballs kind of timeless. You'd be surprised. Yeah, meatballs works. But anyway, wanted to mention him because he was really one of the greats. Anyway, that's it for the rewatchables produced by Craig Horlebeck. As always, you can listen to Vann on Higher Learning and on Ringervis. You can hear Chris on the watch and the big picture in Ringer, NBA. And Will. We'll be back. We have two more

F-D-up family February. Craig, we might do two next week. Might do double-dip next week. Might try to cram in.

There's nothing going on. There's no basketball next week. So we might do a double. Anyway, we will see you next week. Thanks, guys.