The Worst Idea Of All Time - Replay S01E05: Frayed

Episode Date: February 10, 2024

Please enjoy this victory lap of Season One episodes as we celebrate 10 years of The Worst Idea of All Time. Join us for our 10 year anniversary show on Feb. 10 (NZT) live and live-streaming via worstideaofalltime.com.Original Episode Description:This week, Tim and Guy attempt to drill into the accounting practices of Hollywood, animal cruelty on screen and also attempt to name five characters from the film. One thing is clear, Tim and Guy's relationship is growing strained. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Hello everybody. Now these guys, these guys in episode 5, these guys I recognise. Tim absolutely on his bullshit, Guy Montgomery egging him on, just totally provoking my ramblings but knowing exactly when to pull me back in. These are the guys. It only took 5 episodes, I feel like, for us to be just in full stride. And what's crazy to me is listening to this episode now guy and i could i think record the contents of this episode like today that's what it sounds like to me we have the same guys as the guys talking in this episode and that should be depressing because you would think that you had evolved from a mid-20s version of yourself.

But I don't know if we have that much. And you want to know something? I'm not depressed about that. I'm not embarrassed. I think it's kind of lovely. I can't exactly explain why, but there's something nice about the fact that we've, maybe it's that we just started off being true to ourselves.

I think there's a lot of content, if I can use that word, podcasts, videos, whatever, things that people make and put out into the world where they sort of struggle to take the performance mask off and be themselves. And I think the nice thing about this is because we thought no one was listening because we were just kind of doing it for ourselves and a handful of mates who we thought might tune in guy and i aren't trying to prove anything we never have tried to prove anything so you you've gotten the foulers for 10 years unfiltered and i think this episode is a complete evidence of that the boys calling themselves brave yes of course tick tick tick um i won't spoil it but there is a particular comment uh that i make

in this episode which is incredibly consequential uh just an idea that i float that gets locked in and um i kind of knew that this would happen, actually, but definitely me being a lot meaner to Guy Montgomery than he deserves or was warranted. I thought that would happen upon these listen backs, and sure enough, it did. So I guess this is an apology of sorts to Guy. He'll never hear this. But it's good that it exists, isn't it, in some form. So I hope you enjoy it here's episode five see you soon hello and welcome along to the worst idea of all time with me guy montgomery

and myself tim bat this is week five as we engage with the worst idea of all time what is that idea you say well i'm so glad you asked this is a podcast in which myself and guy watch the movie grown-ups 2 repetitively once a week to be specific and then we release a short podcast of about 20 or 25 minutes um talking about our feelings our thoughts and what we think of the movie week to week and a little bit about ourselves as well along the way occasionally probably more and more as the as the viewing sessions continue anyway this was numero five numero cinco or as the viewing sessions continue. Anyway, this was Numero 5. Numero Cinco. Or as the French would say, Cinq.

Is that right? Un, deux, trois, quatre, Cinq. Cinq. Cinq. Have you ever been to France? No. Do you know how you spell Cinq? No.

C-I-N-Q. Do you know how to spell Cinco? I reckon you could guess. It's pretty phonetic. C-I-N-C-O. You got it. You cracked it. Muy bien.

I know that because there was an NFL player called Chad Johnson who wore number 85, and he legally changed his name by deed poll to Ocho Cinco. That's awesome. Which is Spanish for 85. Yeah. I think he's in prison now. Okay. So, Grown Ups 2.

What a film. What a film this time. Got to be honest, me and Guy mentally, but I was just looking over at him. We were on different couchs. Usually we're huddled up on the same couch. Yeah, that's right. Usually we're sitting side by side. Today, I think there was definitely a change in atmosphere in the room.

It was more chill. I think we checked out mentally quite early on in the piece. That's right. I remember the whole movie, but I just wasn't like engaging with it as intensely as i have in previous weeks which i think as far as mental health is concerned is a really sage piece of decision making yeah fuck yes i mean you can you imagine engaging with this film five times with full mental capacity it'd be crippling i don't think it's

possible now you were coming in you were not in a great mood even before we watched the movie. I was fine. You were not. Be honest. You were feeling a little bit blue. I was. I'm just. I'm tired is all.

That's all. I've been up since 4.30 a.m. Wow. What better way to celebrate making it 12 hours into a day. Not quite 12. What? 10 hours, I guess it was. Yeah, when we started.

You were a little bit of grown ups too Now Tim, early on, immediately right off the back of seeing the film for the fifth time What are your takeaways, how are you feeling, what do you want to talk about this week? I did want to delve into some stuff, what was it? I wanted to talk about the party scene because we seem to skip over it a lot There was something that we keep saying in the film that we keep forgetting to mention on the podcast and you brought it up this week, I can't remember what it was and I said let's remember to talk about this

well I sort of put the onus of remembering on you which you have neglected dang it no we will sit here and remember what? this is horrible content for the actual. Sit.

We'll get it. You know, this is like. Just stop talking if you're not remembering. I'm not going to remember. I'm having a great day. I went for a run. I feel like I'm getting. All right, let's run through the movie.

So we've got a moose at the start. It's a deer. Oh, yeah, sorry. Adam Sandler calls it a deer. That's right. We established've got a moose at the start. It's a deer. Oh, yeah, sorry. Adam Sandler calls it a deer. That's right. We established this week that the thing at the start is a CGI deer because Adam Sandler calls it a deer. And what we've learned from watching this movie five times

is always trust Adam Sandler, who wrote, produced, and starred in this film. Do you know, I never realised that they named... Oh, fuck, I've forgotten his name. Like, one of the main... David Spade's son. Higgins's son. Brayden. Brayden, yeah. Brayden Higgins. It took me the fifth watch to figure out that they'd've forgotten his name. Like one of the main... David Spade's son. Higgins' son. Brayden. Brayden, yeah.

Brayden Higgins. It took me the fifth watch to figure out that they'd given him a name. But they actually say it quite a lot. In fairness, the sheer number of characters being introduced means it's forgivable to forget. I mean, and even from week to week, to remember it one week and forget it the next week, that's okay too.

Yeah, I can't... Do you think you could name five characters from this movie by their characters' names? Lenny Fader, played by Adam Sandler. Yeah. Higgins, who never gets a first name. Yeah, that's true. Donnie McKenzie as Chris Rock's son.

Fuck off. How do you know that? Because I've watched the credits twice. Oh, right. I feel like you're cheating if you've watched the credits. Well, no, because I've already run out. So even then you can't name? Uh, no.

Bumpdy? Bumpdy what? Bumpdy? Nick? The bus driver? How amazingly forgettable is this movie? We've seen it five times and we can't name five characters out of approximately like the 30 characters that are in it. 30 hundred.

That's amazing, man. That's a cinematic feat to make a film so bland and forgettable that you can't even grasp onto shit when you try. There were moments in today's viewing, which previously I've been happy to look past or just ignore as cinematic negligence or whatever but today they they they irked me throw me specifics monty uh oh okay here's the first one when adam sandler takes control of the school bus and does this uh thing where he goes what is it? He says like, I'm your bus driver today.

Oh, yes. And then does this dumb trumpet motion with his hands and makes his eyes roll. It's more of a clarinet. It's more of a clarinet motion. And sticks his tongue out. And it's just like,

me and Guy were watching that today and we've mentioned it in previous weeks, though not in the podcast. And just be like, that is some fucking lazy movie making right there. That is Adam Sandler

like really, really mailing it in. That's Adam Sandler. I actually, I created the metaphor today. I said to Tim, this is Adam Sandler. That is Adam Sandler like really, really mailing it in. That's Adam Sandler. I actually, I created the metaphor today. I said it to him. This is Adam Sandler. This is what it's like when Adam Sandler

is picking up his kids from school and he's got no energy. He doesn't want to be doing the task but he's doing the task and the kid's getting in the car and he's like, oh, I should try and be funny. And he half-heartedly,

less than half-heartedly, I'd say he gave it about 22%, pretends to play a clarinet and do a silly face. Not that that's even referencing something. It's not like if he fully committed to that gag, it would be any funnier, because it wouldn't be. But just do it, because you're making a movie, bruh.

Like, those few seconds of film that have made the final cut and the release and the version that we're watching, how much would that equate to in terms of money? Like, if you boil it all down to the promotion and the production budget and how much everyone spent getting everyone on board and all that shit, and you divide that by the number of seconds in the film, that shit gag probably costs hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Yeah. So what the fuck, Adam Sandler? Well, so you've got to respect Adam Sandler for putting himself in a position to be that powerful. I actually had a specific request this week. People really enjoy your theory or the excitement that you feel around sort of these movies with household names where they're all mailing it in

and the success that you feel they're guaranteed. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, totally. It's strange accounting practices in Hollywood. Yes, and in listening back to some of the podcasts, I feel like I haven't really necessarily pushed the right buttons to ask you exactly sort of the science behind the theory or why exactly,

and I know you've sort of mentioned it in passing to me before, is it such a sure thing that you put these four recognizable faces on a poster yeah are people going to go to this movie well i don't know the accounting like exactly i if i did i probably wouldn't be doing a podcast where i have to watch the movie every single week i would probably be making movies in hollywood and be filthy stinking rich but i just know that when you you kind of like there's all these weird ways that, okay, I'll give you an example, and fuck, I don't have this verbatim,

like I wish I could Google this right now. No, no, no, no, hook it up. But it's something like, you know, the first two Star Wars movies still haven't made a profit or some shit like that because of the weird way that they do the accounting around it and the numbers. Like, they can make anything a success or anything a failure, really,

like in terms of the taxable amount that the movie makes. So you look at the greatest flops of all time. What's that, Waterworld, maybe? Yeah. And that Disney movie that came out, I think, two years ago, what was it called? John Smith, I think it was called? Yeah, yeah.

Which is the fucking, like, literally the most boring name that I could think of for a movie, especially for kids. But, I mean why why have why have hollywood or the producers or execs behind these not willed these particular stinkers to success i guess there are limits to the theory that you can make anything you know not tank prevent it from tanking and i'm not saying you can like invent a huge box office success but i'm saying like you can make a movie profitable do you think the movie needs to meet certain standards or do you? No,

no, no, not at all. I just mean like some, okay. So the case of John Smith, like that movie just took an ass ton of money to make and nobody saw it. So it's like,

you don't have enough places to hide the expenses. Like it's just, that's always going to bankrupt a little yeah small studio that we know is disney so and obviously i mean i'm asking you to to sort of expand on your conspiracy or if do we call it a conspiracy sure there's a little bit more than maybe maybe you've researched for i didn't tell you until you're coming in that i was going to be sort of hammering you like a bloody nail but uh where do they hide where they hide the losses where do they find the losses? Where do they find the profits? I mean, do you know anything about the margins,

the sort of fine print? There's a lot in there about franchising and stuff. Pixar's Cars was one of their least successful movies as a film, but every single child in North America, obviously I'm using hyperbole, had that fucking backpack and that bedspread. And that lunchbox.

And that lunchbox. So therefore, the movie becomes an unbridled success. Now, I'm dubious about this film that costs... The franchise value on Grown Ups 2. Well, yeah, that's true. Who's buying a Grown Ups 2 bedspread? Who wants to sleep? Who wants to buy their child a bedspread

with Adam Sandler's creepy face plastered all over it? He does have a creepy face, eh? You know what? Adam Sandler's got a creepy... Do you reckon he's had work done? No, he hasn't had work done. That's his face. Look, and I've got to say, there were moments in today's movie when I turned to you and I said, that's some really real acting

from Adam Sandler. Yeah. But I did find his character more deplorable than the last four times today. So you're coming round. He yells at his kids. Yeah. A lot. Yeah. Without any real prompt. And you still don't get where I'm coming from with the bully thing, because

Stone Cold Steve Austin arrives on the scene and they always try to set up the fact that Kavanagh, who is Stone Cold, has been a real dick to him in the past, but I'm never getting that sense. I just get the sense that Adam Sandler, aka Lenny Fader, has just always kind of like

slightly misread the situation, been really antagonistic and just been a bit of an arsehole his whole life? Well it's entirely possible, I mean I suppose I think what, when I saw Adam Sandler I saw a flash of the real negative Adam Sandler and I mean I'm still, I still stand by the idea that Adam Sandler

was with me through childhood, I'm still an Adam Sandler fan but it's when he's when he's in Kmart, which they mention six times explicitly in the name of each film. That's how you fucking make this movie profitable. Product placement. And he... So he gets bullied because he never fought back

to Stone Cold Steve Austin in intermediate school or whatever. Yes. And he falls off this exercise machine. Yes. And then Kevin James shows up and is laughing at him saying, gotcha. And he sort of turns on him. Yeah, because he tricks me.

Oh, yeah, you weren't so tough. You know, you weren't so tough. You never jumped off the big 35-foot drop of the water hole. But you can see in his eyes there's some realism there. You can see the evil part of Adam Sandler sort of flaring up and it's probably one of the strongest pieces of acting

in the movie that and maybe when he yells at his daughter who's tiny and just this adorable little girl he just repetitively

yells at her hey I want to take a step back because we are getting fucking deep into this movie like concerningly deep too deep

what have you got for me I want to read you a customer review of our podcast did you read this no someone wrote us a review on iTunes

that's very flattering well you haven't heard it yet but it actually is it's amazing an important podcast about an important film this podcast is good enough I don't like your tone

they're being mean they're sarcastic I don't think they are I'll read it different this podcast is good enough that I would even listen if they reviewed a movie other than grown-ups too when guy and tim failed to talk about rob schneider's hot daughter turning up and the game of bow and arrow roulette i realized my embarrassment that i've actually seen the first grown-ups superlative podcast reviewing

five stars from g doggie g do G-Doggy, thank you. It sounds like at the end there, G-Doggy's reviewing G-Doggy's review more than the actual podcast. That's meta. I've got to say, I actually got someone wrote on my wall on Facebook, which is a hell of a piece of social media, I've got to say, just from Dob1. You can't just review everything now, man.

I'm not. You can't just review Facebook. Well, I mean, but if I was, I would say to say, just from Dob1. You can't just review everything now, man. I'm not. You can't just review Facebook. Well, I mean, but if I was, I would say things like, it's incredibly Moorish. What I am going to say to you, Timbatt, is that the review was from a man named Todd, who's been listening to the podcast, and for whatever reason, despite our suggestion not to watch the film,

he watched the film. Oh, no. What did Todd think he said I appreciate you have to suffer for your art but for the love of God man are you okay why are you doing this

we gotta do one yeah we gotta do a year I'm so into the idea of us watching 52 times I think 52 is certainly the maximum amount of times so I mean to Todd who might be listening 52 times. I think 52 is certainly the maximum amount of times. So, I mean, to Todd who might be listening. Oh, yeah.

You know what, Todd? I mean, I think that sort of question is the beauty of the podcast and why it's happening is we don't know why we're doing it, and we're certainly not enjoying it. There was a real sense of dread in the car on the way to the house today. We arrived in the house. Tim Batts sort of turned his back on the couch and sort of faced the back of the couch as though he was terrified to look at the TV. I mean, morale is low.

Anyway, you've got some tweets you want to share. Well, I only won, actually. I thought I had a whole bunch. It turns out I've only got one. It's just from Alice. She said, why do you keep starting the week with this torture? And in fairness to Alice, we took that feedback on board. And usually we've been watching at nine o'clock on a monday each week uh whereas today you'll find that we watched it sort of around 2 30 so there was out of necessity though

that wasn't a choice that we made no no but i mean i actually got i got some stuff i went for this run i was telling you about you know i mean I mean, I sort of started off the day, I was in a good mood, feeling positive. Hey, I've also, I'm just searching through my tweets now. I've not only tuned out to the movie, I've tuned out to your droning. Did you, you said in a- Speaking, it's pronounced speaking.

Sure. You said, Guy, in an interview that you did recently, to sit through this movie week after week is probably the bravest thing i've done uh true or false well obviously the the obviously it's true because i've got the article right here on my phone it's a reasonably transparent plug that i i placed in an interview that i don't even know if anyone read but uh i i do i do genuinely think that you know know, I've taken up running before. I've done push-ups in the morning before.

I've done various different things which I don't enjoy, but I do because I understand that it's for the greater good. Do you feel the same way about this podcast, though? Do you think there's a benefit and a payoff? I do feel that doing this, I don't feel there's a benefit or a payoff, which is why I think I qualified it as one of the bravest things I've done, is because we are valiantly sort of dragging ourselves into this room week after week with no visible end game,

no light at the end of the tunnel, no redeeming quality. And frankly, I don't know the numbers on this thing, but I still don't know that anyone is or would listen to this. It's not, you know, it's not you know it's not enough well you wouldn't it's not enough to justify doing it wouldn't describe it as a glamorous sort of behind the scenes look to paraphrase what you just said using your own words this is from the the same interview which you appear to have done with some online zine or something of that

nature to domain uh if anyone if anyone you know play. I don't even know how to spell that. It's French, like song. The question asked was, what is the most heroic thing that you've ever done? Guy's response. I didn't, first of all, just before you respond, I didn't like the question because I haven't done much. Guy's response. It's actually an ongoing thing that involves

a very subjective interpretation of the word heroic. I'm currently involved in a social experiment slash podcast with a friend called Tim Batt. That's nice that you called me a friend. In which we watch and discuss Grown Ups 2 once a week. Anyone who has sat through Grown Ups 2 once is already a hero in my eyes. But to sit through this movie week after week is probably the bravest thing I've done. If against all odds this sounds like the sort of abomination you'd like to listen to,

the podcast is called The Worst Idea of All Time. And then you've provided a link. Yeah. So you rate what we're doing. That's the feeling I get. I don't rate what I'm doing. I just didn't have anything heroic in my back catalogue of actions.

And I freaked out and I thought how can I work this so I plugged a podcast that we do now it's time for the worst idea of all time shining light what was your favourite shining moment my shining light today Tim

was Selma Hayek Adam Sandler's wife Mrs Fader I'm sure we hear her name at some point, but I don't remember it. Shit. We should definitely know her name by this stage. She is leaving the house. Her kids are hanging out at the bottom of the driveway, getting ready to go to school,

and Adam Sandler's hanging out with his children in sort of a rare display of competent parenting from the man. And she's actually going the other way. She's driving to work. She's not taking her kids to school. Even though they're leaving at the exact same time. And they're going in exactly the same direction because it's a small town.

Anyway, she leans out the car window and she says, Have the best last day of school ever, my glorious children. I love you all. And it's sort of, I don't know why I like it so much. You think Guy's embellishing that delivery and he's not. Yeah, she actually doesn't stumble over it in the middle like I did. But there's something about it. It happens every week.

And I guess the absurdity of the yelling and the fact that she's sort of wishing this positivity on her children while neglecting them so blatantly. It's sort of, it's an exciting and interesting paradox. And the way I'm talking about this ridiculous moment and this ridiculous film tells me that we are certainly on track to lose our minds. Oh yeah, we're going deep.

We're going deep on this one, boy. I can't even think of a redeeming moment of the film for me today. Surely, come on, Tim. Not to say that it was so awful. It was just, I think I'm putting up walls now. I think I'm putting up mental blockades so that I don't get too involved in it. You were, I gotta say, it was so awful it was just i i think i'm putting up walls now i think i'm putting up mental blockade so that i don't get too you were i gotta say i was i was disappointed by your your contribution as a viewer of the movie today what are you talking about i gotta i felt you were

checked out uh well listen man i watched the whole thing yeah i watched the whole thing and you actually went for a piss and i didn't pause it i said you can pause it if you want i know you i know what you say i know what you said i said it stays on yeah no you didn't say the movie keeps going you didn't say either i say you said we must continue no you said i'm not gonna pause it i think my favorite part of the fifth viewing of Grown Ups 2 today would have... Shit, I don't know, man. I really... Fuck.

Do you know what I liked? I liked how genuinely vacant Kevin James' child appears to be. I don't think it's acting. I think they've just found some dumb kids. This is transparent from you. I know you didn't even enjoy any moment of the movie this week. No, no, no, there were bits. No, you see, you're making this up

because we talked during the movie about how that overcooked the stupidness of the character. No, you said that. You agreed. Your eyes agreed with me. They laboured the point we get it kevin james's kid is stupid you did not that is not i i'm sorry i shouldn't i shouldn't attack your shining light but i'm i'm saying you know this is why i think you need to focus a little harder

next week tim do you know it's a weird bit of the movie when uh they're at the party and a dog is doing a beer bong i'm so glad you brought it up assisted by a human it's not like the dog do you know who the human is do you know who the lady feeding the dog the beer bong is hey you know when they're coming out of kmart and there's a woman with four children pushing a trolley towards them and she goes i wish i never had you yeah Yeah. That is the same character who feeds the dog the beer bong at the party. How in God's name

did you figure that out? Can you see? I thought you just saw the dog. Do you see her? You see the lady, it starts off, the shot, God, see,

if you paid any attention, you would know what I'm talking about. The shot starts on her pouring a beer into a beer bong and you think, oh, hey, hopefully she's

feeding it to frank the tank from old school and this movie has one redeeming feature but no the camera pans down and she's feeding it to a dog and she says something like take it you animal and it's the lady from the from the car park see it's moments like that which is so unsettling because you go okay i i get it you're trying to like make a goof make it funny make a little gag in the movie there you don't understand that this is abuse like this is an evil see but they're thinking beyond that they're thinking is the stand-up comics i think kevin james is a history and stand-up the thing is the college name oh yeah this is a callback there's a classic callback when is the dog drinking it's a buried no it's not the dog it's the recurring character it's a buried treasure for those of us who watched the movie five times

and pay attention in the fifth viewing, Tim. Shut up. And you're lucky I even shared that with you. I should have kept it to myself, gone home and thought about it in private. Are you done? What is the callback to? The character. It's like it's a treat.

Then just have her at the fucking party. It's a treat to have a recurring character in the movie She doesn't need to throw a beer down a canine's throat She doesn't throw the beer She pours the beer The dog looks like it enjoys the beer bong Do you reckon this is going to get worse? Let's go home

I think it's getting better If anything Hey something else I want to mention briefly. You insisted on doing a little bit of drinking through this one. You insisted on having two beers, and I tried to say no. Yeah, look, I just thought to myself, what is it? One hour, 40 minutes. 101 minutes.

Yeah. Yeah, your theory is to stay good enough to drive is like good enough to podcast, which I can, it's got its merits. but i just think what we need to do because if we're really going to commit to this for 52 weeks guy we've got to have interesting elements brought in each time and so like we can't just go blowing our load at episode five with introducing i hardly think drinking two beers during the fifth viewing is is what what we would constitute as blowing our load on the fifth watch, all right? All I'm saying is it's a beautiful day. You know, I was feeling a little blue about watching the podcast.

I thought what's a little, I mean, what is just, how much do we want to torture ourselves? And obviously a lot because we're doing it every week. But, I mean, what's wrong with having two beers during the movie i feel like we yeah okay i think i stand by the decision okay look tim you know you're a great guy um hell of a guy i gotta be honest you know there's a lot of stuff you do i respect but the way the way you behave today was unprofessional and i don't think i can be in the same room as you for much longer. Okay.

Here's what I'm going to do. I'm going to take your feedback on board, quickly ignore it, come back next week, watch the movie, do the exact same thing again, and we'll see what you get. All right.

We'll see what you get. Also, this week, we're going to set up a Facebook page, worst idea of all time. And, I mean, to people like Todd who have watched the movie, I would quite like to incorporate a feedback segment. So we'll get the page set up. If you like the podcast, like the page,

and we'll be able to take your feedback, ideas, everything on board. Or people like that person whose name I forget, if you just listen to the podcast, G-Doggy, then send us a review of our review podcast. Yeah. I mean, I guess what I'm saying is we need you. We need you at this point. Yeah.

You can hear it's getting hostile in the studio. It's getting massively hostile. So anyway, like the Facebook page, Worst Idea of All Time, as always, don't watch the movie. Can't stress that enough. Can't stress that enough. Don't watch the movie. Don't watch the movie.

We'll do that for you. My name's Guy Montgomery. I'm Tim Batt. Now go forth and prosper.