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"Confessions of a Dangerous Mind" · The Spy-Fi Guys

• 0:00
  Speaker A: Some things are better left top secret. We are the spy fi guys, and this is confessions of a dangerous mind. Welcome to the spy fi guys, where we cover spy facts, spy fiction, and everything in between. I'm Christian.
• 0:22
  Speaker B: And I'm Zach.
• 0:23
  Speaker A: We've got another interesting choice for our spyenne fact movie, because it's so. This is based on a book about, what's his name? Chuck Barris, who's a game show host.
• 0:35
  Speaker B: For those of you just tuning in here on the Spotify guys, we jump back and forth between movies that are based on a true story and movies that don't even try to claim to be based on a true story, ones that are entirely fictional, James Bond mentioned impossible, and so on. Now, this one, we're putting it under, based on a true story, but I think it falls squarely into the somewhere in between part of our tag.
• 0:59
  Speaker A: Yeah, I did a little research on it, and we'll get to it when we get to the spy fact versus spy fiction. But, yeah, it's. I mean, did you know anything about Chuck Behrs beforehand?
• 1:11
  Speaker B: Did I know anything about him personally? No, but I was familiar with some of his shows.
• 1:15
  Speaker A: Okay, yeah, same. Same here. I'm like, I knew that he was a game show host, and he created a couple of different game shows.
• 1:21
  Speaker B: So you knew more than me, then.
• 1:23
  Speaker A: Yeah. Shall we go to our plot synopses, then?
• 1:26
  Speaker B: Okay, we're gonna jump right into our plot synopsis, our poetry plot synopsis. As always. From here on, the spoilers begin. So, if you haven't seen the movie yet, can't say we didn't warn you. So, here's the haiku. Moustaches and butts. Secrets and fame do not mixed decline of America.
• 1:50
  Speaker A: Whose mustaches are we talking about? Clooney.
• 1:53
  Speaker B: Clooney, of course.
• 1:54
  Speaker A: Okay. But that's just singular, not plural. Mustaches.
• 1:58
  Speaker B: Well, you see them multiple times.
• 2:00
  Speaker A: All right, all right. I guess so. Yeah, same with the button.
• 2:03
  Speaker B: Okay, and then here is our Limerick synopsis. There once was a hitman named Chuck who wanted to make a quick Buckley hit it huge on tv, but he couldn't foresee that his mind will always be stuck.
• 2:16
  Speaker A: Hmm. Interesting, interesting. All right. I like it.
• 2:20
  Speaker B: I get something that kind of covered the very dark tone of the movie, but I don't know if I could quite get there.
• 2:27
  Speaker A: Yeah. I also enjoy how much you, you know, rhyming with stuck. You kind of think where you're going is, oh, he actually didn't use that. Nice. Nice.
• 2:35
  Speaker B: Well, I lived to define expectations, but, yeah, there's a lot of f bombs in it.
• 2:40
  Speaker A: Yeah, I. A lot.
• 2:41
  Speaker B: A lot. And then here is the real IMDb plot summary. An adaptation of the cold memoir of game show impresario Chuck Barris in which he purports to have been a CIA hitman. Now, there's some big words in there for MDb and impresario.
• 2:59
  Speaker A: Yeah, yeah. All right, shall we get into our plot?
• 3:04
  Speaker B: Yes, we'll do it. There's a lot going on in this movie, so we'll just hit the highlights, I think.
• 3:09
  Speaker A: Yeah, yeah. We start off. We start off with him in like, where do we actually know where he is when he's like, yeah, hold up, in a hotel.
• 3:18
  Speaker B: Yeah, he's in his hotel room in New York, 1981. And my initial impression, like, from the first, because you got the shadows, you got the aforementioned, but I was like, oh, no, what have I done? Is this an art house movie? The thing with Dick Clark? And then you have like the type, type, type, type, type, type, type. Yeah, I thought it was gonna be like super boring.
• 3:43
  Speaker A: Yep, yep. He's naked in his hotel room and basically having an existential crisis.
• 3:49
  Speaker B: Yeah, that's right.
• 3:50
  Speaker A: We flashback to his, I guess, tedious. How old did he say he was? Like nine or like eleven or something.
• 3:58
  Speaker B: Harassing his neighbor.
• 4:00
  Speaker A: Not his neighbor, his sister's friend. Tuvia.
• 4:03
  Speaker B: Right. Yeah, we get the judaism immediately. Tuvius. Yeah, yeah, I think he was like eleven or something.
• 4:12
  Speaker A: Played by. Did you recognize him?
• 4:14
  Speaker B: No, I didn't recognize him.
• 4:15
  Speaker A: A young Michael Cera.
• 4:17
  Speaker B: Whoa.
• 4:18
  Speaker A: Yeah. I was like, wait, that's Michael Sarah.
• 4:21
  Speaker B: Oh, interesting. I did not see that.
• 4:23
  Speaker A: But yeah. So he's like, yeah, he's sexually harassing his, like, sister's friend. Yeah. And then basically his entire motivation is, you know, he's trying to. He's tired of getting rejected by beautiful women. He's trying to go after and he hears that, you know, tv is the wave of the future.
• 4:45
  Speaker B: Yeah, he's growing up in like the fifties and sixties or something. It's an industry, an era when you could just show up.
• 4:52
  Speaker A: Right, right. That would be nice, you know? Yeah. All right, I'm going to become an MZ NBC page by just showing up and saying, oh, can I get an application?
• 5:01
  Speaker B: Yeah. You know what boomers who have told.
• 5:04
  Speaker A: You, like, back in the day, I did put a down payment on my house for a $1,000. Well, we can't do that anymore.
• 5:14
  Speaker B: I walked into the plan and I said, hey there, bucko, you need to hire someone. You should hire me. I worked there for 35 years.
• 5:21
  Speaker A: Uh huh. Uh huh. Yeah. But so he. He does pretty well for just basically walking in, becoming a page, and then, like, gets into their management program. And then eventually he. This is when he has that sort of another existential crisis. Right. When he, like, almost gets some girl pregnant.
• 5:44
  Speaker B: Yep. That's right. And he runs out on her.
• 5:47
  Speaker A: Yep.
• 5:48
  Speaker B: And then he writes the song Palisades park. Did you know this song?
• 5:52
  Speaker A: I did not know this song.
• 5:54
  Speaker B: Okay. So growing up, I was not really into music for semi.
• 5:59
  Speaker A: Who's surprised?
• 6:00
  Speaker B: I don't know what that's supposed to mean when I can't get into it right now.
• 6:03
  Speaker A: The fact that you. Okay, I don't know what. At what point, but I made a reference to the song Blue by Eiffel 65, which was everywhere when we were growing up, and you had, like, a totally blank look. So, yes, I'm not surprised.
• 6:18
  Speaker B: I was totally out of touch. But what we did listen to in my house was the oldie station.
• 6:23
  Speaker A: So did I. But I still knew other things.
• 6:26
  Speaker B: For us, it was just the old east Asia.
• 6:28
  Speaker A: Wow. Okay, interesting.
• 6:29
  Speaker B: It was music from, like, fifties through the seventies, so I definitely heard the song a lot. A lot of times I did not realize that it was inspired by him trying to pick up women at the local amusement park.
• 6:41
  Speaker A: Yeah, yeah, yeah. So he. He becomes Dick Clark's personal assistant on American Bandstand, and then he. Yeah, he. So he writes that song, and he's trying to use that song to, you.
• 6:55
  Speaker B: Know, pick up Maggie Gyllenhaal. Who's in it.
• 6:59
  Speaker A: Yeah. Oh, yeah. I was like, this movie is filled with, like, all these, like, either people who are going to be famous or already famous. I get. When this came out in what, 2002? I don't know. Was Matt Maggie Gyllenhaal a thing already at that point?
• 7:13
  Speaker B: I don't think so. I mean, she only came across my radar on the dark knighthood, I think is true for most people.
• 7:20
  Speaker A: I've seen her in a few things. I remember her in a few things before that, or at least I knew who she was. But, yeah, he's hooking up with her, and then, you know, meets her roommate, whose name is Penny. And there was a whole, like, I definitely got big bang flashbacks because there was something to do with knocking on it. Oh, because we see her, please. She's played by Drew Barrymore, and in the beginning, and she's knocking on his door. And, of course, you hear think knocking and the name Penny. And I think I thought of big Bang theory.
• 7:48
  Speaker B: You know, it's funny that you mentioned the big Bang theory. I'm going to bring that up later.
• 7:53
  Speaker A: Interesting. All right. All right.
• 7:54
  Speaker B: So stay tuned for that. This is like, you can tell it's Hollywood because, like, total male fantasy. Like, everywhere he goes, women are just throwing themselves at him. Like, just showing up.
• 8:04
  Speaker A: Yeah, yeah.
• 8:05
  Speaker B: More butts at this part.
• 8:07
  Speaker A: Well, it's Hollywood or it's an autobiography. Of course he's going to make his life seem more interesting than it probably actually was.
• 8:14
  Speaker B: Yeah. I mean, that's the whole theme of the movie right there.
• 8:16
  Speaker A: Yeah. But, yeah. So he comes up with this idea for a game show called the Dating Game. Now, you've heard of the dating game before.
• 8:24
  Speaker B: Absolutely. Yes.
• 8:26
  Speaker A: Now, I think my first sort of. Have you seen mallrats? I assume you've seen mall rats.
• 8:30
  Speaker B: No, I haven't.
• 8:31
  Speaker A: What? Wow.
• 8:34
  Speaker B: Another classic movie that I haven't seen.
• 8:37
  Speaker A: Wow. I mean, I don't feel, I don't know if it's a classic, but it is, you know, popular among, you know, our circle of friends probably.
• 8:45
  Speaker B: I do like other Kevin Smith movies.
• 8:48
  Speaker A: I think you'd like mallrats. It's the most, it's the most sort of fun. Well, like, it's very fun. It's very light. It's more commercial than, like, some of his, like, saying clerks.
• 9:00
  Speaker B: Yeah.
• 9:01
  Speaker A: There's a whole sequence with, like, with a dating game ripoff show. And they call it out that it's a dating game ripoff in the end of the movie. So that's what I thought.
• 9:12
  Speaker B: So my girlfriend watched this movie with me, confessions of a dangerous mind. She fell asleep for from Russia with love. She fell asleep for spying game. She did not fall asleep for this one. And she was, like, riveting. She was riveting.
• 9:25
  Speaker A: Fascinating.
• 9:26
  Speaker B: I was like, why don't we pause and finish this tomorrow? She's like, no, no, no. I want to see what happens. I would quote from her written down, which is he's too weird.
• 9:39
  Speaker A: Now, this is our second Sam Rockwell movie this year.
• 9:44
  Speaker B: That's right.
• 9:44
  Speaker A: That's right. I had forgotten about Argyle. But then, like, I don't know why I thought about just now. Oh, yeah. Because he's got long hair and a beard. Oh, yeah. No, that's, that's. That was him.
• 9:55
  Speaker B: And he's a spy.
• 9:57
  Speaker A: Anyway, so he did. He, you know, creates the pilot for the dating game. But then it gets shot down in favor of Hootenanny. What is Hootenanny?
• 10:06
  Speaker B: Well, I think that's the point. Like, no one's heard of it now?
• 10:10
  Speaker A: I mean, apparently it was an american musical variety tv show, so. It's a variety show. Okay.
• 10:15
  Speaker B: Yeah. It's kind of like these, you know, you hear stories of people who turn down the Beatles for some flash in the pan band that no one knows anymore. It's kind of supposed to be like that, I think, is what he's getting at.
• 10:27
  Speaker A: So as he's in the depression of, you know, his show getting, you know, not even. Not even canceled, but pre cancelled, never even getting picked up, he is kicked out of a bar for fighting. And he's approached by CIA agent Jim Bird, played by George Clooney.
• 10:46
  Speaker B: And his mustache.
• 10:47
  Speaker A: And his mustache. Who recruits him to be an assassin for the CIA. He'd be a contract agent. So not technically working for the CIA, but, you know, being contracted out by them.
• 11:01
  Speaker B: So something I quite like is he's like, what are you doing? I work in tv. I'm like, a mess. So why do you want me? Can't you get, like, a Navy Seal or something?
• 11:12
  Speaker A: And apparently he fits a profile.
• 11:15
  Speaker B: And I love that. I love the mysteriousness of the profile because he never explains what the profile is or what it says about him. It's like in Star wars where they mention something and it's left unexplained and it's cool because it's mysterious.
• 11:30
  Speaker A: I don't understand. I don't know what you're talking about because all of those mysteries are now gone. We know what Boba Fett's like under the helmet and his whole backstory.
• 11:39
  Speaker B: Right. Case in point, my girlfriend kept being like, you know, why does he keep working for them? And why, why? Why? And I'm like, well, I think what the movie is implying is that the profile says that he's easily manipulated, easily will do what he's told, and we'll kill for them, basically.
• 11:54
  Speaker A: He can. He has a way in terms of talking. Talking with people and getting into places.
• 12:00
  Speaker B: That's right.
• 12:01
  Speaker A: Yeah. But, yeah. So they have. They do have a little training montage, which I always. I always love a spy training montage. I mean, it was not. Not as good as the one last week with, with a spy game, but it was still pretty good. It's really showing him, you know, pretty. Doing pretty well in terms of the training course. And I realize now that this is like, the second movie in a row where we have a contract agent, because we also know that. Ooh, what was his name? Not Muir?
• 12:27
  Speaker B: Bishop.
• 12:28
  Speaker A: Bishop, yes. Tom Bishop was a contract agent as.
• 12:32
  Speaker B: Well, in spy game, actually, now that you mentioned it, this movie has some similarities, how they go through time and places.
• 12:39
  Speaker A: Yeah. We see him going on. I think it's his first mission in Mexico where he kills a guy.
• 12:45
  Speaker B: That's right. You don't see it.
• 12:47
  Speaker A: Yeah.
• 12:47
  Speaker B: You just see him walking away, and they come back to it later.
• 12:51
  Speaker A: But, like, all throughout this, we also have, like, flashes of Penny and what she's doing. And now when he comes back, Penny is declared that she's a hippie.
• 13:01
  Speaker B: Now, my girlfriend was like, what's a hippie? And I really didn't know how to explain it.
• 13:09
  Speaker A: ABC had apparently, you know, had a hole in their programming, and so they decided they were going to greenlight the dating game. And by 1967, the show is a hit.
• 13:23
  Speaker B: Doesn't he have to make some changes and he has to shove it around to different networks?
• 13:28
  Speaker A: No, he doesn't shop around to different networks. What he does is he does have to make some changes. They record a bunch of episodes first, wherever. There's a lot of just lewd comments.
• 13:40
  Speaker B: Yeah, that's right. That's right. So did you see the fall guy with Emily Blunt and. No.
• 13:48
  Speaker A: I need to. I want to see it.
• 13:50
  Speaker B: Okay. Well, not giving anything away, but they're making a movie while all the spy stuff is going on.
• 13:57
  Speaker A: Is it spy stuff? Can we cover it?
• 14:01
  Speaker B: Well, it's more like detective stuff.
• 14:03
  Speaker A: Okay. That's the vibe I was getting, is like, it's, you know, he's trying to solve a mystery.
• 14:07
  Speaker B: But the crew that I watched it with, we found the movie stuff to be more interesting.
• 14:12
  Speaker A: Ah, yeah. And that's how I'm feeling about this. I'm more like, you know, the spy stuff's interesting, but I'm more fascinated by, like, the game show stuff, the fall guy.
• 14:23
  Speaker B: It's like how they do the stunts, how they do the effects.
• 14:26
  Speaker A: Yeah.
• 14:27
  Speaker B: You know, will the movie get made because they almost run out of money and stuff like that, so. Yeah. And of course, we know these shows. Like, we know the dating game. I've never actually seen the dating game.
• 14:38
  Speaker A: I don't know that I've seen a whole episode. Yeah. But I, like, have seen clips of it.
• 14:43
  Speaker B: Have you seen the serial killer one?
• 14:46
  Speaker A: No.
• 14:47
  Speaker B: Okay, wait, hang on a second.
• 14:49
  Speaker A: Okay.
• 14:50
  Speaker B: I'm not gonna save it for spy fact versus fiction. So one of the most infamous things about the dating game was a serial killer named Rodly Alcala appeared on the dating game. Obviously, you didn't know he was a serial killer at the time, but if you go back and watch the clip, you can find the clips on YouTube, and it's very creepy. He murdered six women and one girl in the 1970s.
• 15:18
  Speaker A: Wow.
• 15:21
  Speaker B: But anyway, so I've never seen the Davincam.
• 15:24
  Speaker A: I think I've actually seen more. I've seen clips of it, and I know I've seen clips of the newlywed game, which we'll get to in a bit.
• 15:30
  Speaker B: Oh, yes. Yes. Do you like the scene with the FCC guy chewing them out?
• 15:35
  Speaker A: I did enjoy that. So, yeah, so they got. They pull in that guy from the FCC to, like, basically just, you know, make sure that they don't see anything completely inappropriate because they couldn't, you know, they'll get fined and they'll pass on those fines to them.
• 15:52
  Speaker B: Yeah. It's interesting how I guess the impressions are supposed to be real people, but it's a difficult line to walk because you want to be entertaining, but you also can't get hit by the FCC. So that was tough, but I guess it worked on the show.
• 16:08
  Speaker A: Yeah, it seemingly did. Yeah. We get a view of one of his next CIA missions. He goes to Helsinki, Finland, and he meets female operative Patricia Watson, who's played by Julia Roberts.
• 16:22
  Speaker B: Christian, did you like how we got to Helsinki? Because the CIA was like, we'll send you there as a chaperone for the winners of the dating game.
• 16:31
  Speaker A: Yes, that's right. That's right. So, yeah, I mean. Oh, that's right. It was their idea that, like, all right. Because, yeah, for the dating game, they would, like, send them out to dinner or on a date somewhere local, somewhere cheap, but then to up the stakes, they would, like, send them out abroad. And, yeah, he goes. And he's got that, like, super annoying, like, contestant who's, like, basically turned off the, you know, woman somehow.
• 17:00
  Speaker B: And did you like the cameos here? This was, like, my favorite part of the movie.
• 17:06
  Speaker A: Oh, Brad Pitt as one of the contestants. Yeah.
• 17:09
  Speaker B: And that Damon. Yeah.
• 17:11
  Speaker A: Damon. I missed that Damon.
• 17:13
  Speaker B: Yeah. Well, the camera pans the two of them, passes the two of them, and then it ends on, like, this roly poly guy.
• 17:21
  Speaker A: Oh, I missed Matt Damon. Wow.
• 17:24
  Speaker B: Yeah, he's just sitting next to Brad.
• 17:26
  Speaker A: So, yeah, so as he's in Helsinki with, you know, with the really annoying contestant and the woman who's not interested in the male contestant at all, he's trying to do his spy or his assassination mission, and he meets Patricia.
• 17:43
  Speaker B: So, Christian, how do you feel about Julia Roberts?
• 17:47
  Speaker A: In what way?
• 17:50
  Speaker B: Like, as an actor. Like, I guess she's known for doing romantic comedies, which is not the kind of movies that I watch, but I can't say I've ever really liked her, even in Michael Collins.
• 18:01
  Speaker A: Interesting. Well, in Michael Collins, she has a terrible accent that comes and goes as it pleases.
• 18:07
  Speaker B: But I liked her here because I'm not used to seeing her as the femme fatale.
• 18:12
  Speaker A: Yeah. It's a new role for me to see her in that. Probably the most exposure I have to her is in the oceans movies, which. Well, just at least those first two. And I like her in those. Okay. But she doesn't really have that much of a character in them, really. So she. It's. It's a huge ensemble, but, yeah, I like her here. I. Let's. Yeah, the femme Fidel is a different role for her, and I liked it. Absolutely sleeps with her. Right. I'm trying to remember.
• 18:43
  Speaker B: Yeah, we got another. But counting.
• 18:46
  Speaker A: But is it. It's mostly his butts, though, right?
• 18:50
  Speaker B: Entirely his butts. That's why it's funny.
• 18:54
  Speaker A: Yeah. But, yeah, they sleep. Like they're. Yeah, they sleep together. And then once he gets back home, he's, like, gets chewed out by the person who was in charge of the operation because the contestant was, like, all over the place.
• 19:06
  Speaker B: Yeah. I find the idea of, like, you know, this contestant from the game show, like, wandering around while he's, like, doing a head. Like, I just assumed, christian, in my foolishness, I assumed that he would ditch the contestant.
• 19:21
  Speaker A: You would think so. But he's supposed to be a chaperone, so, you know.
• 19:25
  Speaker B: Yeah, so obvious. He ditches them, and then he goes and does the murder. No, but, no, but, yeah.
• 19:33
  Speaker A: So once Barris gets back to the States, he has the idea for the newlywed game, which is, you know, sort of a offshoot of the dating game. Yes.
• 19:45
  Speaker B: I would argue is more successful. At least people talk about it more now.
• 19:50
  Speaker A: I. Yeah. And I think they did show one of the clip that I've seen, and I'm not sure if they reuse this clip or they actually refilmed a new footage of the sale, like, of acting out that clip of the, you know, what's the, you know, strangest place that you've had the urge to make whoopee?
• 20:07
  Speaker B: Which I can't believe they got away with back then, but I guess some time had passed.
• 20:11
  Speaker A: Yeah, yeah.
• 20:12
  Speaker B: And the FCC guy was a little, you know, more laid back, more just shocked. Yeah.
• 20:19
  Speaker A: But, yeah. So that's going on. And then, you know, barriss and Penny's relationship is, like, you know, taking. Hitting new levels. They buy a house, and there's a point where she, like, jokingly proposes marriage. But he's like. And he, like, completely, you know, freaks out.
• 20:38
  Speaker B: Yeah. He's afraid of commitment. As it's become clear at this point, he's got issues with kidding. Christian, I had a question about the newlywed game. Have you ever played the newlywed game against anyone?
• 20:52
  Speaker A: Yes.
• 20:53
  Speaker B: How'd it go?
• 20:54
  Speaker A: Good. So I think we played a variation of it, like at the baby shower for my first daughter, where it's like my wife's family calls it the shoe game, where basically everyone holds a shoe. I think they do this sometimes. They do this at wedding receptions too. You're holding both of your shoes and you're supposed to. One side is, if it's. They'll ask a question of who's more likely to do this or that. And like, you know, you hold up one shoe for your holding. That's right. You each get one of one shoe, one of, you know, yours and one of theirs, and you hold up one shoe if you think it'll be them that's more likely to do this or if it's your own shoe. So it's kind of like that.
• 21:37
  Speaker B: We played that at ZJ's, who long time listeners may know from all of our world war two episodes. We play that at his weapon reception. Or rather, I watched him and his wife play it.
• 21:50
  Speaker A: Bird sends him on a mission to West Berlin in 1970. And I like how we get the reveal of this is that we have the newlywed game and the winners said they're gonna go to West Berlin. And then you see them looking at each other like, uh, better than East Berlin. True, true. But yeah. He's supposed to assassinate someone named Hans Colbert.
• 22:14
  Speaker B: Did him teaming up with the CIA for showbiz. Did that remind you of Argo?
• 22:19
  Speaker A: I actually didn't think about Argo at all, but interesting to bring it up.
• 22:22
  Speaker B: Yeah, thought I mentioned that. Was it crawling under the wall or just crawling?
• 22:30
  Speaker A: I was wondering about that because I don't know.
• 22:34
  Speaker B: Well, I feel like he does go into East Berlin because we get trabants.
• 22:38
  Speaker A: Oh, yeah, no, there are trabants. And he is supposed to be in East Berlin because he's, you know, assassinating in, you know, East.
• 22:44
  Speaker B: East Berlin or totally like Munich at this part. Like the clothes. The seventies is in Berlin.
• 22:52
  Speaker A: He crawls through a tunnel. We're not. I don't know if that's a tunnel that's just in East Berlin or if it's getting across the wall or what I like how he like is given clothing to wear from by the guy. He's like, right there.
• 23:07
  Speaker B: Like, I don't want to be involved.
• 23:08
  Speaker A: And then he meets a west german agent or, sorry, not a german american agent named Keillor who helps him kill Hans Colbert.
• 23:19
  Speaker B: He doesn't just help him. He, like, does it for him.
• 23:21
  Speaker A: Yeah, that's right.
• 23:23
  Speaker B: There's, like, some comedy violence here. It feels like something out of, like, a Quentin Tarantino movie.
• 23:29
  Speaker A: But in the process of trying to escape, he is captured and I held in a prison camp.
• 23:37
  Speaker B: I believe that they didn't spend too much time with this part because prison sequences are always very tedious. I think I've been on the record that I don't like them.
• 23:46
  Speaker A: But it's revealed that the person who he gets exchanged for. Did you catch who that is?
• 23:53
  Speaker B: Yeah, it's the bachelor.
• 23:55
  Speaker A: The very annoying bachelor who came with him to Helsinki.
• 23:59
  Speaker B: Yeah, I like that. It was a funny twist.
• 24:01
  Speaker A: Yeah, it's a good twist. And also, like, the fact that, you know, for. Just for that guy, they had to trade seven people from. From who was captured in East Berlin.
• 24:11
  Speaker B: Yeah. And they all roll out on the truck. So, yeah, that was. I was not expecting that. That was pretty good.
• 24:16
  Speaker A: I was. I was like, I saw him in the prison camp, like, what's he doing? Oh, what? He's the. He's the traitor. What?
• 24:25
  Speaker B: Yeah, he's late for a new show, but also for the spies. It's like, just lay low because.
• 24:32
  Speaker A: Oh, that's right.
• 24:32
  Speaker B: Like, tip them off so you could be in danger. He was like, all right, that's a good twist. Gotta raise the tension. Gotta raise. You know, it's not just him going and knocking people off anymore, but anyway. Yeah, and also he needs a new show because his old shows are getting canceled or whatever, but, yeah, so he's.
• 24:48
  Speaker A: Like, auditioning all these old shows and he's imagining just straight up killing all these people who are just terrible, uh, terrible performers. And they're all, like, performing the same song.
• 24:59
  Speaker B: Yeah, well, yeah, it's two women with guitars doing the same song twice in a row, which is pretty funny.
• 25:05
  Speaker A: And he, like, comes up with the idea of, you know, all right, we'll let them. We'll intent, instead of looking for good acts, we're gonna find, intentionally find bad acts and, you know, we'll kill them, you know, before they finish. And then they're just sort of St. The people who he's working with, they're sort of staring. And that's when they. Well, he adapts that into. All right, we'll ring the gong and kick them off when we have had enough of them.
• 25:30
  Speaker B: So, yeah, that becomes the Gong show. So are you familiar with the gong?
• 25:34
  Speaker A: I am familiar with the Gong show, yeah.
• 25:37
  Speaker B: Okay. Why is that?
• 25:40
  Speaker A: I just, I've just heard of it. Yeah.
• 25:43
  Speaker B: Well, I had heard the name before, but I didn't know, like, what it was.
• 25:46
  Speaker A: Oh, yeah. Yeah.
• 25:48
  Speaker B: Or anything about it. Yeah.
• 25:49
  Speaker A: Now that I think about it, I know exactly where I know it from. I don't even know why he was talking about. But, like, one of my high school english teachers was like, he would go on these long winded rants about things and then make references that he'd have to explain to us cause we didn't know them. And then he was talking about the gong show for some reason and, like, explain the entire concept of the Gong show. So, yeah, that's why.
• 26:15
  Speaker B: Yeah, I asked my mom about some of these shows. Obviously, she knew the newlywed game. She said she had heard of gongsho and maybe you've seen it like once.
• 26:23
  Speaker A: Really?
• 26:24
  Speaker B: But was not overly familiar with it. I mean, yeah, it's the seventies. That was when she was a teenager, you know, young person.
• 26:31
  Speaker A: Yeah. So I was surprised that she doesn't know of it more.
• 26:33
  Speaker B: Well, I don't think she likes the mean spirited.
• 26:36
  Speaker A: Oh, fair enough. Yeah.
• 26:38
  Speaker B: But, Christian, what show did the gang show remind you of?
• 26:42
  Speaker A: American Idol.
• 26:43
  Speaker B: Yes. Things haven't changed that much, I guess.
• 26:47
  Speaker A: No. Or that's. I mean, I really did think about that, like, especially later on when they are sort of, you know, doing some character assassination on him about how he's, you know, the worst because he brings out the worst of humanity in tv. I was like, oh, so because of him, do we have, like, the rise of, like, reality tv shows and, like, starting with an american idol and all of that? Huh? I can see it. I can see the direct path.
• 27:16
  Speaker B: So I didn't actually go and find it for spy fact versus fiction. But I do seem to remember similar criticisms being leveled against American Idol.
• 27:24
  Speaker A: I believe it.
• 27:25
  Speaker B: It's like laughing at other people's. Well, it was kind of like, do these people, the question everyone was wondering is like, do these people know that they're bad at singing and they just want to get on tv?
• 27:41
  Speaker A: Yeah, so. But, yeah, so in the background of all of this, we find that the german american agent who he worked with Keeler is murdered. And Byrd warns barrists of a mole in the agency. And at the same time, also his tv shows are getting canceled due to poor read, poor ratings. And it's all just sort of piling up on bears. Penny catches him cheating with someone in the, you know, their house, even though apparently she didn't actually put down any money for it. And it's probably not on the lease, but she helped decorate it and helped him choose everything, so she feels like she has a stake in the place.
• 28:20
  Speaker B: Yeah, she certainly feels like it's. It's her house. I can't really blame her. There's also. There's a creepy scene where he hires a prostitute to sing him happy birthday. We learn later that she's dressed like his mother doing that. We're moving forward to 1979.
• 28:39
  Speaker A: Yeah. Yep. But, yeah.
• 28:40
  Speaker B: So there's a part where Pamela, aka Julia Roberts, like, comes back in from the field.
• 28:46
  Speaker A: Patricia.
• 28:47
  Speaker B: Patricia, not Pamela. Excuse me? Patricia, not Pamela.
• 28:50
  Speaker A: Oh, yes, that's right.
• 28:51
  Speaker B: This is kind of my least favorite part, is there's a montage where it looks like there's supposed to be a love triangle between him and Patricia and Penny. And I was very thrown by this because I never got. I was never under the impression that he loved Patricia. He just saw a hot piece for him to screw whenever he felt like it. He certainly doesn't seem to love him.
• 29:19
  Speaker A: No, certainly.
• 29:22
  Speaker B: So I thought that was really weird. And then also, at some point around here, they say there's a mole.
• 29:28
  Speaker A: Yeah, yeah, we.
• 29:29
  Speaker B: We've established that, but, yeah. Okay, so now we have the part with bird at the pool.
• 29:33
  Speaker A: Yeah. And so he asks bird, you know, why was he chosen to be an assassin? Apparently, it's revealed that, you know, they have all these files on him, including the fact that his father was a serial killer, but, like, his mom had no idea when, you know, they got together.
• 29:53
  Speaker B: Yeah. It's almost, like, comical how, like, messed up his background is.
• 29:57
  Speaker A: Right. And the fact that he, like.
• 30:00
  Speaker B: Right.
• 30:00
  Speaker A: The twin part.
• 30:02
  Speaker B: So, Christian, how much of this do you think was true?
• 30:05
  Speaker A: Oh, absolutely none of it.
• 30:06
  Speaker B: Yeah, exactly. Exactly.
• 30:09
  Speaker A: But, yeah, apparently that he'd, like. Yeah. His mother had always wanted a girl, and then he was a twin, and he apparently, like, had strangled his sister, you know, in utero, with the umbilical cord.
• 30:23
  Speaker B: Right.
• 30:24
  Speaker A: I mean, yeah, yeah.
• 30:26
  Speaker B: The stuff about him being raised as a girl by his mom, I seem to believe that because they show it in flashback.
• 30:31
  Speaker A: Yeah.
• 30:31
  Speaker B: Like, clearly him, his mom and dad, like, didn't get along or whatever, so. But here's another part that I didn't like, okay? This part is, Bird says, we need you to find the mole.
• 30:47
  Speaker A: I was like, why?
• 30:50
  Speaker B: This guy's, like, an idiot, and his job is to kill people. Like, why? Why is it his job to find the mole? I thought that was very weird. And then also, you see him, like, bleeding into the pool.
• 31:04
  Speaker A: Yeah.
• 31:05
  Speaker B: And I first thought it was Chuck's imagination because he had seen something earlier where he was imagining something terrible. And then it turned out not to be real, turned out to be a dream. But Bird doesn't come back, so I guess he dies.
• 31:19
  Speaker A: I think. I think so. I think what we're. And it's, you know, it's. With the nature of this film, it's hard to really tell. It's up to interpretation. I think we're supposed to be. You get the idea that, you know, he. He showed up having been shot already and was like. And that he dies as he. You know, as he's talking to Barris, I guess.
• 31:45
  Speaker B: But, yeah, that was.
• 31:46
  Speaker A: Or, you know, maybe it up to interpretation. Did Bird or Barris kill Bird? I don't think so.
• 31:54
  Speaker B: Well, I know. I never really thought that, but maybe none of it actually happened because bears doesn't really do much to find the mole. He sort of bumbles his way through life the same way he bumbles his way through everything else.
• 32:10
  Speaker A: Yeah. And so this is where, basically, we sort of catch up to the beginning of the movie where Barris is spiraling out of control. This is where he has that. Like, what's the breakdown while he's. Oh, yeah, we never actually talked about how. I think the. The gong show is the first show where he's actually in front of the camera and he's actually the host of it.
• 32:30
  Speaker B: Yes, that's right. That's right.
• 32:32
  Speaker A: I don't think he was actually on air for dating game or newlywed game, I think. I don't. You. Yeah, I don't think he was actually the host of those. Or was he?
• 32:38
  Speaker B: Yeah. This is when he starts to go kind of crazy. Like he pulls his gun on the unknown comic.
• 32:44
  Speaker A: Yep, yep. And, yeah, he, like, has a breakdown, like, while on camera just sort of staring at the camera when he's supposed to be introducing an act. And then. Yeah, and then. Yeah. So he, like, locks himself away in the New York City hotel room.
• 32:58
  Speaker B: Yeah. There's also a jump scare where he's looking at a painting of a saint. It's like. It's, like, enormous. This is where it's starting to go kind of crazy again. Kind of like an art house movie. But at this point, I was locked in, so I was okay with it, but, yeah.
• 33:15
  Speaker A: So Penny comes to see him and tries to convince him to get to, you know, come back to California and get married.
• 33:21
  Speaker B: I can't believe she's still with him.
• 33:23
  Speaker A: Right?
• 33:25
  Speaker B: She still hasn't given up on him.
• 33:27
  Speaker A: And you see him finally sort of shake himself out of it, get, you know, shave, put on clothes, because he is naked that entire time. Shave his beard off, cut his hair. And we see him getting ready to go meet someone. We assume it's Penny, but it turns out to actually be Patricia. And they're meeting up in Boston, and.
• 33:47
  Speaker B: She seems, like, totally into him.
• 33:49
  Speaker A: Yeah.
• 33:49
  Speaker B: Like, the whole rest of the movie, I feel like she could barely stand to be in his presence. But now she seems to legitimately like him, which made me suspicious already.
• 34:00
  Speaker A: Yeah. Had dinner. They're meeting up, and they're having a cup of coffee in her hotel room or apartment or wherever in her place, there's, you know, they have coffee, and then he collapses.
• 34:16
  Speaker B: So, Christian, how much of this did you figure out? Cause I totally fell for all of it.
• 34:22
  Speaker A: I fell for it. I had to rewind it. Like, wait, what? Oh. Oh. What? I I love this sort of thing. So, like, I. But I didn't catch it. Um, I did, like, on the rewatch, I was like, oh, that's the part where that's why he. So. And what we're talking about is that there was poison in the coffee, but he sees it, switches, and he. Well, he actually doesn't. I like how he does this, though. So he doesn't switch the cups. He just turns. He moves. There's like a piece of, like a. Was it a sugar cube or something on one cup, which is supposed to reveal which one it was, like, near Patricia. So he assumed that's the marker, that it's actually the, you know, the safe one. So he moves that as he's, like, saying, you know, I could learn to love this. The skyline. She's looking. He switches that, and he doesn't, you know, rotate the entire plate. He just turns around. Which way? This the couple or this? The container of milk is. So it looks like that she had put it down wrong.
• 35:21
  Speaker B: It's the smartest thing he does, this whole movie.
• 35:24
  Speaker A: Yeah. When she sees that, she flips the cups. So even though it looks like that he has been poisoned and she, like, reveals that she is the mole, even though it looks like the barrist is the one who drank the poison, he's okay. And it's actually Patricia who drank the poison. And, like, is revealed. You know, it's revealed a couple, like, a minute later, as she starts to collapse and dies.
• 35:49
  Speaker B: So I thought I was like, whoa. For once, he doesn't bumble his way into success for a change.
• 35:54
  Speaker A: Yeah. Yeah. Now that you think of. Yeah. It is the smartest thing he's done in this movie as a spy, I.
• 36:01
  Speaker B: Guess because I'm kind of mixed feelings here. Like, on the one hand, I felt dumb, like I should have figured it out already because, you know, spy movies, the mole is never some random dude that you've never seen before. The mole is always a character, you know? And there aren't that many characters in this movie.
• 36:19
  Speaker A: I thought it was gonna be bird, and then he was dead, so. Okay, that rules that out.
• 36:24
  Speaker B: It's like. So it's either her or penny. Somehow I don't think it's Penny. Maybe it's the unknown comic.
• 36:31
  Speaker A: It could be, anyway, but, yeah. So, after she dies, he goes home and starts writing his autobiography, which is called confessions of a dangerous mind. He decides to finally marry Penny. And do you like how in their. Like, what is it, their pronouncement? Like, the priest is just listing off all of his accomplishments and all the shows that he made.
• 36:57
  Speaker B: Yeah, I guess he's a fan.
• 37:00
  Speaker A: Or Barris told him to do that. Cause he's got that kind of ego.
• 37:03
  Speaker B: Oh, yeah. I did not think of that. But Penny seems to not like it.
• 37:08
  Speaker A: Well, she rolls her eyes at it, but she also knows who she's married.
• 37:12
  Speaker B: Yeah, that's. I mean, at this point, I should say.
• 37:16
  Speaker A: But, yeah. And then I like this. The very. As they're, like, coming out of the ceremony and all people are throwing rice, like, tradition. He starts to notice faces who shouldn't be there. And it takes me a while to realize, oh, these are people he's killed. Like, he's. These are the. That's why they're out of place. And then I see George Clooney said, oh, right. Because he. I was like, is he dead? Is he. Because I, you know, wasn't clear. Like, is he actually dead? Or that. Imagine. No, but I think with the, you know, placing him in context with all the other people who are definitely dead, he's dead, too. So he's just seeing these visions.
• 37:52
  Speaker B: Wait a second. You're saying he's dead? Chuck's dead.
• 37:55
  Speaker A: No, no, no. Bird guys are dead.
• 37:58
  Speaker B: Oh, bird is one.
• 38:00
  Speaker A: Is the one I wasn't sure about because it's. You know, it was unclear. It's up to interpretation. In the beginning, in that full scene, whether he was actually there or not.
• 38:09
  Speaker B: Yeah, no, I like this. It's like he's gonna be haunted by the ghost of his victims for the rest of his days.
• 38:15
  Speaker A: Yeah, but. So he, like. He, like, gets freaked out and, like, grabs Penny, goes into the limo and then, like, confesses that he was an assassin, but she laughs about, doesn't believe him, and she decides just to not correct her.
• 38:29
  Speaker B: Yeah.
• 38:30
  Speaker A: And with that, our movie ends.
• 38:32
  Speaker B: Yeah. With no business like show business over the end. That was a good recap. And so next we have our spy fact versus fiction. Why don't you go? I think the movie itself is really what everyone wants to know. And then I have something for after.
• 38:51
  Speaker A: I didn't actually have too much versus fiction because. Do you have actually on, like, the accuracy of the movie?
• 39:01
  Speaker B: I have something from movieweb.com. confessions of a dangerous mind is the greatest biopic that's also phony. So basically, the short version.
• 39:10
  Speaker A: Okay, go ahead, go ahead.
• 39:11
  Speaker B: The short version is everything about the CIA is probably not true.
• 39:14
  Speaker A: That's. Yeah, yeah.
• 39:16
  Speaker B: But the stuff about the tv shows is true.
• 39:19
  Speaker A: Yeah. Oh, where I feel. I'm trying to remember where I read that. But basically he said that, like, a couple years afterwards, talking about the movie or the book, he reveals that all that CIA stuff he made up.
• 39:33
  Speaker B: Yeah. And then something else from movie Web is it said he wrote the book in 1984, but it didn't sell.
• 39:41
  Speaker A: Oh.
• 39:42
  Speaker B: He was stuck in a living room full of unsold books long before Hollywood came knocking on his door. So he kind of lucked out that the movie actually put him into relevance again. So that was interesting.
• 39:54
  Speaker A: Okay, here. Okay. It's in Wikipedia. Apparently, Barris admitted that he had made up a story in a 1984 interview promoting the book.
• 40:02
  Speaker B: Yep. What a good story. It was interesting.
• 40:05
  Speaker A: So movie web calls is number one. Catch me if you can. It's got to be up there because, like, Barris, it's been revealed that most of his. What's his name?
• 40:17
  Speaker B: Frank something. Right.
• 40:19
  Speaker A: Frank Abagnale. His stories were, like, entirely made up. You know, it makes. It makes a great story, but it's. Yeah. Not. Not real. So what I do have for spy fact, first fiction, there is a mention when he's on the. You know, he's working on the Dick Clark show or. No. American Bandstand. Was it?
• 40:38
  Speaker B: It was American Bandstand. Yeah.
• 40:39
  Speaker A: Yeah. So he mentions that because that, like, he was there in the aftermath of the payola music Paola scandal. So payola in the music industry is the illegal practice of paying a commercial radio station to play a song without the station disclosing the payments, without them saying that they're being paid to actually promote these songs.
• 41:00
  Speaker B: Okay, I did not catch that.
• 41:02
  Speaker A: And this is all from wikipedia. Apparently, in the 1950s, independent record companies or music publishers frequently use Paola to promote rock and roll on american radio. And there was a whole, like, investigation with it from the. Like, with a congressional investigation and the whole, you know, carried out by the House committee. House subcommittee on Legislative Oversight. Wow. Yeah. So this was apparently a whole big thing that I did not know about.
• 41:36
  Speaker B: Me neither.
• 41:38
  Speaker A: And then in terms of, I did look up sort of the three prominent game shows that were mentioned here, the dating game. So it first aired in December of 1965, and it was actually went through the eighties. Actually, ABC actually dropped the show in 1973, but it continued syndication as the new dating game. And then it was revived three additional times in syndication as the all new dating game.
• 42:11
  Speaker B: Wow.
• 42:12
  Speaker A: Yeah.
• 42:13
  Speaker B: People love it.
• 42:14
  Speaker A: Yeah, it was popular. And then the new lingua game in 1966, and then, you know, got revamped a number of times, including as the new newlywed game. The newlywed and the newlywed game starring Paul Rodriguez.
• 42:28
  Speaker B: I don't know him.
• 42:29
  Speaker A: I don't know either. But, yeah, that's also, according to Wikipedia, the many of the newlywed games questions dealt with making whoopee, which is the euphemism. Euphemism that producers used for sexual intercourse, intercourse to circumvent network censorship. But yeah. And then the Gong show. Okay, it only aired for two years, like, in the daytime schedule from 1976 to 1978, and then in syndication. And it, like, would go away and come back from syndication. But one of the reasons I do actually notice, because in 2017, they revived it. Well, and it was being produced by Will Arnett from arrested Development. But the host was Mike Myers character as a previously unknown british comedian, Tommy Maitlandh. And it had, like, heavy makeup and was, like, really weird.
• 43:27
  Speaker B: That sounds weird and a little bit scary and depressing. I think it gives me a lot of emotions.
• 43:34
  Speaker A: Yeah. So it aired for two seasons. Yeah. That's what I've got for spyfact versus spy fiction.
• 43:40
  Speaker B: Okay. So the last thing that I have is I was watching this movie about a guy named Chuck who made shows that were popular, but people said he was leading to the dumbing down of America. And that got me thinking about another Chuck.
• 43:55
  Speaker A: Chuck Lorre.
• 43:56
  Speaker B: Yes. How familiar are you with Chuck Lorre?
• 43:59
  Speaker A: A little bit. I mean, I did watch. Yeah, actually a decent amount of two and a half men. And then I watched the first couple seasons of Big Bang Theory before I realized, oh, wait, they're not making jokes for nerds. They're making jokes at nerds.
• 44:15
  Speaker B: Well, fair enough. Well, Christian, what you may not know about Chuck Laurie is that he started his career as a songwriter, and since you know more popular music than I do, he wrote a song called French Kissing, which Deborah Harry made a top ten UK hit.
• 44:33
  Speaker A: Okay, not familiar with it.
• 44:35
  Speaker B: Well, in the early 1980s, he turned to writing scripts for animated shows. His first project was the animated show Heath Clef.
• 44:44
  Speaker A: Wow. Yep.
• 44:46
  Speaker B: But Chuck Lorre also co wrote the soundtrack to the 1987 animated tv series Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.
• 44:53
  Speaker A: No. Did he write the theme song?
• 44:57
  Speaker B: Well, co wrote it.
• 44:59
  Speaker A: Wow.
• 45:00
  Speaker B: Yeah. So I remembered when his shows came out, people criticized them for being sexist, mean spirited, stupid. But then I went back to try to find it on the Internet, and I wasn't able to. The closest thing I could find was a article on looper.com that said every Chuck Lorre sitcom has the exact same problem. It says he turns out sitcom after sitcom, and they all have the exact same problem in common. It's not their irritating laugh tracks. It's the fact that Laurie's jokes are flat out mean and most of his characters are unrepentant jerks. But rather than digging into this, his shows are falsely presented as stories about friends, family, and togetherness. They're also marketed as funny. So.
• 45:43
  Speaker A: Wow.
• 45:44
  Speaker B: My dad loved two and a half men, and it's kind of lowered my respect for him a little bit. Like, two and a half men is, like, stupid, mean, not very positive depictions of women.
• 45:57
  Speaker A: No, it's not. It's pretty terrible.
• 46:00
  Speaker B: My girlfriend likes young Sheldon, and apparently that's a little bit better.
• 46:04
  Speaker A: I've heard, actually, good things about young Sheldon, so.
• 46:08
  Speaker B: So, Christian, have you seen a couple YouTube videos about masculinity and the big Bang theory?
• 46:13
  Speaker A: No.
• 46:14
  Speaker B: So, yeah, this guy called pop culture detective made a couple of videos about it, which is quite interesting. And I never was really into the big Bang theory. I watched it, like, maybe the first season, but the guy made the point that all of the main characters in the Big Bang theory are misogynist.
• 46:31
  Speaker A: Yeah. Yeah.
• 46:33
  Speaker B: So, like, just for those of you who are familiar with it. So Howard is obvious because he's always hitting on women and being creepy. Raj, pray to women. Except when he drinks, and then he turns into, like, a scumbag.
• 46:44
  Speaker A: Right.
• 46:45
  Speaker B: Was, like, aggressively hitting on women. Sheldon basically thinks women can't be scientists or mathematicians, which I do not remember, but apparently he believes that. Okay, yeah, like, he makes multiple comments that are, like, women aren't as good at math and sciences as men, which is, you know, interesting. And then Leonard is just, like, the typical, like, nice guy, nice guy creeper. So anyway, I thought that was an interesting parallel to this movie.
• 47:15
  Speaker A: Do we know that Chuck Lorre was not an assassin for the CIA?
• 47:19
  Speaker B: It's not on his Wikipedia page. Put it out. Yeah, well, I should say all that stuff about Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and all that. That was from his Wikipedia page that.
• 47:29
  Speaker A: Like, I just looked up the teenage music like that. Is that true? Oh, yeah. It's right there. The theme music composer, Chuck Lorre and Dennis C. Brown. That is crazy.
• 47:40
  Speaker B: Okay, so next we have our favorite quotes. This movie, I thought was very quotable, and I have a lot. Why don't you go first question so I can knock some of them off?
• 47:50
  Speaker A: Let's see. I've got. I'm not killing people. My future is in television. Oh, yeah. I think this is from bird. He says, you're 32 years old and you achieved nothing. Jesus Christ was dead and alive again by 33. You better get cracking.
• 48:05
  Speaker B: I just have JC line, and then I didn't remember how it actually worked.
• 48:08
  Speaker A: Yeah, yeah, it's. It's pretty good. And then in Salem, Salems are filled with people who think they're Jesus or Satan. Very few people have delusions of being a guy down the block who works for insurance company. That's what I've got. All right, let me see. Let me hear yours.
• 48:23
  Speaker B: I like some of the funny ones, but I also like some of the dark and serious ones. So there's the good voiceover. So, like, I like when the voiceover says, life was sweet for a minute when he's having his montage. And then later he says, I'm gonna come up with a series. Everyone would love me. So then some funny ones. There's in the training montage, the drill sergeant accidentally kills a guy with a judo chat neck. And he says, I need another volunteer. There's a part where penny says, oh, it's Montessori's revenge diarrhea in Mexico. Somebody calls him a assassination enthusiast. I think my favorite line in the movie is Julie Roberts says, you're not like the other murderers. The end, I like. After Julie Roberts dies, he writes with her finger. No, love.
• 49:18
  Speaker A: Oh, yes.
• 49:20
  Speaker B: Which, you know, I think he was speaking from his own experiences on that one. But then I do, even though it's Christian. I wanted to talk to you about this, if you don't mind. The very end of the movie, which we skipped over, is it's the real life Chuck Barris. Saying, I got an idea. It's the old man game. And I won't say the whole story, but basically, if you don't kill yourself, he gets a refrigerator.
• 49:45
  Speaker A: It's like the three. Three old spies. Was it? Or was it three old.
• 49:49
  Speaker B: Three old guys. Just three old guys. Yeah. But then. So my initial reaction that I was like, chuck, like, what are you complaining about? You achieved your dreams.
• 50:00
  Speaker A: Yeah.
• 50:01
  Speaker B: What are you talking about? Like, all the regrets and dreams you never achieved. Like, you did what you wanted. What are you complaining about? Then I told my girlfriend about it. It's just like, well, he's, like, totally messed up. And even so messed up, I guess it's more like everyone else.
• 50:20
  Speaker A: Yeah.
• 50:20
  Speaker B: Like all he wanted was to be loved. Yes, he did. But he didn't love himself.
• 50:24
  Speaker A: Alrighty. Shall we go into our ratings?
• 50:28
  Speaker B: Okay. Yeah. So now we do our ratings. We rate every movie on a scale of one to ten martinis. One being Avengers 998 and ten being even better than mission Impossible ghost protocol. So how would we rate confessions of a dangerous mind?
• 50:42
  Speaker A: I'm very curious. Go ahead, Zach.
• 50:45
  Speaker B: So I loved it. I'm not gonna lie. I loved it. I thought it was great.
• 50:51
  Speaker A: Okay.
• 50:53
  Speaker B: It was engaging. It really moved things along. It was so different. I liked the real life stuff. The characters were really interesting. It had just enough dark to it to make me feel feelings, but not so much that it was over the top. So I quite enjoyed it. But it's not perfect.
• 51:17
  Speaker A: Okay.
• 51:18
  Speaker B: The long triangle thing was really weird. I don't know what they were doing with that. Again, him doing, like, the mole hunt was kind of like. I was like, why? Again, like we talked about why. You're asking him to find the mole. That's not his job. And the only one left. He's the only one left. Yeah. But I just thought it was a really engaging and a really well done movie. So I'm going to give it an eight and a. Wow.
• 51:45
  Speaker A: Wow.
• 51:46
  Speaker B: Yep. I thought it was that guy.
• 51:48
  Speaker A: I mean, so interesting. Interesting. Like, I enjoyed this movie, but it's not a spy film. It really isn't. Like, yes, there's that second, but it is really more about the game show part and about his just own demons. And, like, as we, as you know, mentioned, the spy part is entirely made up. And that definitely knocks it down a bit for me. So while I did enjoy this movie, that is a well made movie. We're a spy movie podcast, and it's not a spy movie.
• 52:29
  Speaker B: No. This is Michael Collins all over again. I'm reading it as a movie, and you're reading it as a spy movie.
• 52:34
  Speaker A: But, I mean, it's in our name. We're a spy movie podcast, so I feel like we should have to be judging it as a spy movie. And I cannot in good conscience give this any more than a five as a spy movie.
• 52:46
  Speaker B: So how would you rate it as a regular movie? Just as a movie?
• 52:52
  Speaker A: Give it a solid seven. Seven and a half, maybe.
• 52:56
  Speaker B: All right.
• 52:58
  Speaker A: I enjoyed as a spy movie, maybe not. Even if. You know what? I'm changing four and a half because it's. It's. It's just.
• 53:06
  Speaker B: You didn't like the twist with the poison.
• 53:08
  Speaker A: That was the only reason I'm giving it that high of a score.
• 53:13
  Speaker B: Yeah, I would probably give it around there, too, if it was a spy movie.
• 53:17
  Speaker A: Yeah. But which I feel like is our, you know, our mantra is that we were, you know, a spy movie podcast. I can't, like. Yeah, as a movie, and especially as it's something about, like, I'm, you know, I like that sort of era of, you know, golden age of television, fifties and sixties. So that's interesting to me, but it's just not. Not a spy movie.
• 53:39
  Speaker B: All right, well, fair enough. So if you talk about. Or are we. We done?
• 53:44
  Speaker A: Well, I don't know if we want to discuss this on the air or not. We can cut this out, but our next episode will be our hundredth regular episode, not including your dead drops and microdot episodes. All right, well, thanks for joining us, everyone. You can find us on social media at the spy fi guys on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. And you can also find us on YouTube. Or if you would like to listen to your podcasts over there, we're up there. And you can also find our merch store@redbubble.com, until next time, I'm Christiane.
• 54:12
  Speaker B: And I'm Zach.
• 54:13
  Speaker A: And we are the spy fi guys signing off. Thank you for listening to the spy fi guys. If you enjoyed our podcast, please be sure to give us a five star rating on iTunes. The theme song from this podcast is mistake the Getaway by Kevin McLeod from incompetech.com. licensed under Creative Commons by Attribution Films, books and television shows reviewed by our podcast are the intellectual property of their respective copyright holders, and no infringement is intended.
• 54:47
  Speaker B: This is a personal podcast. Any views, statements, or opinions expressed in this podcast are personal and belong solely to the participants. They do not represent those of people, institutions, or organizations that the participants may or may not be associated with in a professional Orlando personal capacity unless explicitly stated. Any views or opinions are not intended to malign any religion, ethnic group, club, organization, company or individual.
• 55:12
  Speaker A: You can find our podcast on social media at thespyguys on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.