Latest / Dangerous Laughter / HOLLYWOOD’S WOKE ERA IS COLLAPSING? Christian Toto on Disney, Trump, AI & the Culture War | Dangeorus Laughter with A.J. Rice

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HOLLYWOOD’S WOKE ERA IS COLLAPSING? Christian Toto on Disney, Trump, AI & the Culture War | Dangeorus Laughter with A.J. Rice · Dangerous Laughter

• 0:01
  Speaker A: Dangerous Laughter.
• 0:04
  Speaker B: Laughter.
• 0:06
  Speaker A: Dangerous. Dangerous Laughter. Dangerous Laughter. Danger. Left turn.
• 0:27
  Speaker B: Sa.
• 1:07
  Speaker C: Day 8 the Emergency Destruct system is now activated. The option to override detonation procedure has now expired. The ship will automatically destruct. One minute. And welcome back, ladies and gentlemen. This is Dangerous laughter. I am A.J. rice. Remember, there is no substitute for perfectly timed derision. Comedy is our civic duty here on Dangerous Laughter. I gotta tell everyone. You know this summer. Gotta get out there. Get out to the beach, the shore. I'm from Philly, so we call it the shore. We don't really call it the ocean or the beach, but you want to go down the shore, you want to go to the mountains, the lake, wherever you're, wherever your spot is, definitely get out there. But if you're gonna get out there, make sure you go out there healthy so you don't keel over. Everybody go get a physical. Don't let Joe Biden give it to you. Don't let Dr. Jill give it to you. You might get your hair sniffed. I just got physical results back and the kidneys and the liver are fine. I was shocked at this. I'm obviously not working hard enough as an Irish Catholic wise ass from Philadelphia who likes Guinness and Jameson. Ladies and gentlemen, my next dangerous guest. I've known this, this gentleman a long time. He has, he has dreams of being a New York Yankees bad boy. He does. He's an award winning film critic, podcaster, founder of Hollywoodandtoto.com his favorite films never passed the Bechtel test. They include gems like the, like Predator. You know, I like Predators with the Brody Silence of the Lambs. But obviously the original Predator is the best. The 40 year old virgin. And I don't think he was a member of that club. He has no, he has no interest in gender reboots, no patience for the descent into leftist group think. Ladies and gentlemen, the author of Virtue Bombs. How Hollywood Got Woke and lost its soul. The always thought provoking Christian Toto is with us, everybody. Welcome to Dangerous Laughter. My friend, we've known each other what, 20 years at this point?
• 3:48
  Speaker A: Way too long. And by the way, I could still be a virgin. I'm not quite sure.
• 3:51
  Speaker C: Okay, well, you're the 50 year old version, right? You know, I'm, I'm 120. I, as the audience knows, age backwards, like Benjamin Button. And let me just say this. So you put this book out. I want to touch on this book. This book came out a couple years ago. The question is, we've had a presidential election since this book came out, has Has Hollywood learned any lessons from the 2024 election? Are they learning any lessons? What, what is there? I mean, are they, are they just sort of hibernating the, you know, some of these words like wokeism waiting just sort of spin back up later.
• 4:31
  Speaker A: You know, I think they've learned some lessons. I think the, the lectures and the social media posts and the late night talk show screeds, now they haven't learned a lesson at all. But I think that they got, they got stomped at the box office enough times where the woke is definitely diminished at theaters and on the small screen. You still see it, you still see examples, but definitely less than before. And, and even Disney, which was sort of the, the front runner on all this kind of nonsense, they have dialed it back pretty aggressively. The new Toy Story 5. This got a couple of moments in there that felt like a blast on the ugly past. But generally speaking, I think because Hollywood is losing money because the industry is contracting up until recently, theatrical model has been really damaged and the threat of AI all these things have said, hey, we can't do this anymore. So I think that's, that's what's going on.
• 5:22
  Speaker C: Well, what goes on because I, you know, my wife and 4 year old went and saw Toy Story 5. And you know, the thing about Toy Story is they tried to do, not that long ago, in the midst of some of this insanity at Disney, they tried to do a, a Buzz Lightyear movie where they removed Tim Allen, they brought in Captain America's voice, who's a left wing coop from Boston. And you know, I think there was like some same sex friendships or there was some kind of goofy hucklebuck going on in the Buzz Lightyear movie. And it was a huge flop. Am I right?
• 5:57
  Speaker A: Massive flop. Yeah. You know, listen, part of it was the story wasn't very good if. Why would you get rid of Tim Allen? He's super popular. Nothing wrong with Chris Evans as an actor. We can talk about his politics other time. But you know, there's no reason to do that. I think that just created, no pun intended, bad buzz. The movie itself was a clunker and then you had that messaging and people are really getting fed, fed up with it. Hey, it's a kids movie. Can we leave that out? You know, don't put themes that are consequential or have different sexualities in films. That's perfectly fine. But kids films, it's a different, it's a different benchmark. And I think people are just extremely fed up and that for all those Reasons.
• 6:35
  Speaker C: It was.
• 6:35
  Speaker A: It was a. An absolute bomb.
• 6:37
  Speaker C: And the thing about Toy Story, and I. I remember. I think Hanks, you know, who's by no means, you know, Ronald Reagan. I think Hanks even said something like, you know, I have no idea why they would do that. I have no idea whether they would pull Tim Allen. Yeah. And look, Hanks and Allen probably don't agree on much politically, but they've done five of these movies now. And the thing about Toy Story, and I. Look, I'm a geriatric millennial, so I'm, you know, I was pretty much outside of the audience by the time the first one came out in, I think, 96 or something. But you're looking at two, maybe three generations now who have, certainly the younger millennials, the ones from the late 80s and the early 90s, you know, they've grown up with these characters. You're talking three generations deep now. And, you know, Disney went through. I remember they had the. The Cookie Iger had to come back and save the place because the last bozo was green lighting all this stuff like, you know, Buzz Lightyear has a Gay Friend or whatever it was called that. That to me, you know, they had to do some cleanup there. They had to clean up Marvel. They had to clean up freaking Star wars, you know, and look. And I'm a giant nerdgasm geek. I love this stuff. I do. But, you know, it started getting far away from, like, I always. And I always say this. What would Walt Disney do? Would he do this? Would he do Black Little Mermaid? I mean, would Hans Christian Anderson do?
• 8:12
  Speaker B: I like.
• 8:12
  Speaker C: I. I mean, dial up the Hans Christian Anderson. I want to do Black Little Mermaid, Volume 1, 2, 3, 4, 5. I mean, it's just kind of crazy, even trickling down into Disney Junior, you know, where, like, for a while there during the Biden administration, I had my first kid. The year that this book came out here, right? Everybody go get a copy of this book. Virtue bombs dropping bombs on the left here. I will tell you, there were these, like, little infomercials running all day on Disney Junior where, like, the. The guys from the Roots, who. I love them from Philly. I love the Roots. They're, like, doing music, too. And it's basically just like little black kids running around saying, you know, don't touch my hair. I'm from the streets. And they're singing and, like, this is. This is playing in between bluey episodes, right?
• 9:05
  Speaker B: I.
• 9:05
  Speaker A: It's hard to believe we went through it, but we did. And you're not wrong. And. But I think Disney was really the one that went the furthest and then backpedaled the quickest. And even Iger basically said, I think that I might have the phrase correct. We want to quiet the noise.
• 9:20
  Speaker C: Sure.
• 9:21
  Speaker A: On the culture front, he's. And he. To his credit, they partially did just that. There were plots that were scrapped, there were stories that were scrapped. And then even one of the directors of a recent Pixar movie said, we're not making therapy here, we're making movies. So they got the message, by and large. And their money has come back to a degree. Listen, they've done too much damage to Star Wars. That might be redeemable, and that's a
• 9:45
  Speaker C: shame, but they didn't do damage. They didn't do damage to Andor. That is a Shakespearean masterpiece. If anybody hasn't seen, you know, Rogue One, the film and Andor, there's only two seasons of it. They pre, they take place before that film and basically take you right up to the film by the end of the second season. I mean, it is just masterfully done. No nonsense. It's almost like, you know, a John Lari novel in space. It's, it's, it shows you the possibilities in this giant Star wars universe where you can have all kinds of things going on and you don't need trans robots and you don't need a color coded cast of, you know, Benetton kids and all the rest of it. You know, find the best people and tell the best stories. And I always, you know, you, you have to always ask, like I said before, would Walt Disney approve of this? And it's not just Star wars and Marvel and some of the Goofy cartoons. I think this summer we're gonna have a live action version of Moana, I believe.
• 10:51
  Speaker A: Yeah.
• 10:52
  Speaker C: Which is probably, you know, woke proof to some degree. The Rock is involved. He's a producer. Unless you have some information. I don't have.
• 11:02
  Speaker A: No, no, no indications about that one. Besides the fact that it's completely unnecessary.
• 11:06
  Speaker C: But you know, if you're a parent,
• 11:08
  Speaker A: you got kids who want to go to an air conditioned theater. I imagine there's worse things to watch than a live action Moana.
• 11:14
  Speaker C: It just seems like you're not a fan of Moana. Moana to the cartoon version. Look, I, you know, it's. Again, you know, it's a story mostly for little girls probably. There is a lot of that. You know, Disney, you know, spins out some of these things like Luca, which could have been amazing, but like Luca had some Problems. Luca had a friend. Luca wasn't sure what he, who he was on the inside and you know, he wasn't sure what, how many X and Y chromosomes he might have had. He was a sea creature. And they worked, they went, they wove that in there, in that movie. Now I have put that on, okay, and I've watched it and I can see the critique. It's not as blatant as, you know, Buzz Lightyear hangs out, you know, with, you know, at, in San Francisco. And you know, it's, it's, it's not, it's, it's not, it's not as blatant as that, but it's there. It's there. And you know, it's a shame because here's the thing about Disney and we're going to get into this. Disney also owns the View, which is abc. Disney also owns espn, which I guess part of their strategy on keeping ESPN from flying apart was to let Stephen A. Smith say whatever the hell he wants. Which I think, which I think is a good thing. And I write about that in the White Privilege album behind me here, you know, and, and of course they also are responsible for Jimmy Kimmel. Now I am someone. Look, this is dangerous laughter. Dangerous laughter isn't always pointed at the person you like or the person you voted for. I don't care whether it's Lenny Bruce or Jimmy Kimmel. I don't care whether it's, you know, Richard Prior or Jimmy Fallon or Johnny Carson. It's not always, you know, pick your favorite target or, or they, you know, having people in little bubbles where you can't sort of attack them. I believe that, you know, open, open season, equal opportunity. We always, and one of the things we say here, Christian, is, you know, we believe in the equal distribution of mockery. Now here's the thing. Jimmy probably should be on the air because, because he's not very good at his job. Not whether the shareholders at Disney are having a revolt. Am I right?
• 13:28
  Speaker A: Yeah, the, the Kimmel example is tricky. Listen, Late Night is dying. He's helping kill it, and he's aggressively, cartoonishly, maniacally one sided. And when you're that way, you just miss all the good jokes. I mean, you know, you know, the Trump Orange man, bad stuff gets old pretty quickly. He doesn't seem any. Have a lot of interest in, you know, reinventing the wheel. And you're missing lots of great stuff, Jimmy. And, and actually there's a big chasm in the marketplace now. There should be a right of center show or just a neutral show that tells all the jokes for everybody, makes fun of Trump, makes fun of this, make fun of that.
• 14:03
  Speaker C: Wait a minute. What? I'm just thinking. I've got the idea for this show as we speak. I've got it. It's called Dangerous Laughter. That's what it's called. I mean, look, we're here, and you and I have known each other a long time. Gut Failed. Cannot fight this fight alone. Crowder cannot fight this fight alone. Some of the boys, you know, on the podcasts, you know, whether it's Shane or Theo or whoever, and I don't agree with everything they say either, they can't fight this fight alone. But one of the reasons people are coming to shows like this and to your website, hollywoodandtoto.com and they're watching Rogan and they're watching Schultz and they're watching Theo Vaughn and all the rest of it. And Greg is dominating at Fox. You know, Greg still has to answer to corporate overlords because he's a news corp, right?
• 14:51
  Speaker A: Yeah.
• 14:51
  Speaker C: But he gets away with a lot. I gotta be honest with you. One of the reasons people are going to these places is because of what you just said, is that, you know, you either are going to be like Johnny, which Jay tried to really do, and like Dick Allen and like Dick Cavity, like Merv Griffin and all the rest of them. You're either going to be like them or you need to at least balance some things out. And Colbert, may he rest in peace, he's now doing, he's, he's now doing public access in, in Detroit or something, you know, and, and Kimmel, I mean, they're, they're activists, you know, whereas guys like Bill Maher, Stephen A. Smith, they try to balance some stuff out. And, you know, we're gonna want to talk about Bill Maher. We're going to take a break here in a second. Yeah, I want to talk about Bill Maher because I've sort of, you know, we've all sort of watched Bill Maher evolve over the years from Politically Incorrect. We got in trouble for dangerous laughter there, you know, calling. I think he called the 911 hijackers, that they had courage or something there, and ABC dumped them and then he ended up on hbo. But, but look, there are some people out there that try to not be totally insane and make fun of both sides and praise both sides if somebody does something. Right. So let's take a quick break. I'm here with Christian Toto, my buddy. New book out a couple Years ago but you got to go get it now Virtue bombs how Hollywood got woke and lost its soul Trying to to get it sold back we will be back right after this.
• 16:30
  Speaker B: Yo, yo, yo the chamber like a daycare Toys all scattered Democrats throwing tantrums Egos all battered Popcorn flying out Greens in the mix Booted out the union like a bad magic trick Crying, whining wh can't keep it low Nancy holding tricks, trying not to explode Chewing on her tongue Silence a weapon A circus in the capital A lesson on step it in, step it in, step it in, step it in. Alphabet soup, the DNC's a mess juvenile antics, no adult finesse Chucky in the corner scheming with a grin Politics a playground let the chaos begin Al Green serenades but they mute the tune Ejected from the floor by the afternoon tug of war Politics, truth lost in the fray Pelosi's tongue Acrobatics steal the play Congress acting up, no teacher in sight Time keeps ticking but ain't making it right Throwing fits, paper planes in the air this democracy looks more like daycare
• 17:36
  Speaker A: Our family here at Dangerous Laughter has a new mission. After 250 years of American history, we seek to showcase moments of great statesmanship, moments of courage, moments of restraint and uncommon wisdom. Moments of Maxine Waters,
• 17:59
  Speaker B: Victims of this president. You have members of your cabinet that are being booed out of restaurants. She's taking up at that house and saying their face, no sleep, no p. No sleep. And if you see anybody from that cabinet in a restaurant, in a department store, at a gasoline station, you get out and you call crowd and you just back on them. The management of this station are clueless. You're listening to Dangerous Laughter with AJ Rice on the Publius Media Network.
• 18:40
  Speaker D: This is where the Democratic Party is going, where this Democratic Socialist, this obsession with Israel, with the Jew hating with. They don't believe in capitalism. No prisons. If this is where they're going, my vote is in play. Okay. And I'd like to hear that. It actually always has been. I just. Every year I don't make my decision by who has an R or D. Actually always came to the conclusion that the Democrat was probably better. Sure. And voted for them. Okay. And Trump can't run again and he'd be a little too exciting for me anyway. So it's either going to be you or Rubio.
• 19:17
  Speaker C: Exactly. Exactly. Either going to be Vance or Rubio. Welcome back, everybody. This is Dangerous laughter. I am A.J. rice. We're here with Christian Toto. That that happened not that long ago. You got to give it up for the vice president. United States coming on. And apparently Pence had been on recently, too, so Republic. I don't think Kamala Harris has ever talked to him. I'm not sure Joe Biden has talked to him. Joe Biden might have been on there when he was one of 17 people running for president in 08. He might have. He might have been on then. But you got me. Look, pants Vance. Vance is the current guy. Millennial vice president. I love it. You know, we call him the hillbilly ninja. What do you think about that? What do you think about the fact that, yeah, look, he's selling a book.
• 20:05
  Speaker A: Yeah.
• 20:05
  Speaker C: But our people are willing to go in and take the fire, take the heat. First guy through the door, whether it's Vance or Trump talking to one knit, wait on 60 minutes or whatever. Doesn't matter who it is. Charlie Kirk, Andrew Breitbart, they would all do this.
• 20:23
  Speaker A: Well, there's two things going on. One, yeah, they're all, they're all willing to do this. Good for them. They could have this, you know, conversation in the arena of ideas. They're ready to scrap and fight. They could defend what they have to say. But more importantly, Bill Maher has talked about this more than once. First of all, Bill Maher is open to people on the right coming on the show. Good for him. Which is. It shouldn't be. It shouldn't be noteworthy, but it is because so few people do it. But more specifically, he has said he's invited AOC in the show. He's invited Kamala Harris in the show. They don't want anything. They don't want any part of it. This is going to be a full debate. It's going to be challenging questions. It's going to be a give and take, back and forth, and they're not ready for that.
• 21:06
  Speaker B: They.
• 21:06
  Speaker A: There's a reason why Kamala Harris didn't go in Joe Rogan show, even though she should have. That was the audience that she needed to convince. If she goes on there and she states her case and she changes some hearts and minds, that's going to matter. But she couldn't do it. She wouldn't do it. She'd be terrible at it. She'd be terrible on Bill Maher show because he's going to press and prod and poke and ask some softball questions, too. So that's what's so interesting about Bill Maher and why he has people like my respect and some on the right. Not everyone, for sure. But he's willing to engage with other people. He's willing to agree to disagree. And he's willing to say that, oh, you're a conservative, you're not a monster. We can have a conversation. He's had Kid Rock on his club random show multiple times. He's had Dave Rubin on David Mamet. You know, those are the people he finds interesting. He had Spencer Pratt on. He practically endorsed him on air. That's where he is right now.
• 21:55
  Speaker C: He had Lara Trump in there. She was drinking tequila and tonic or something with him. I mean, look, you know, she's, she's. He looked like a Lilliputian sitting next to her, you know, because she's built like Wonder Woman. But that's the thing is that, and I tell people this 2024 election was a woke Waterloo. I have fun. I've done three books about this. I call it my the Mental Illness trilogy. You know, book three comes out this summer. The thing is, look, whether it's MSNBC or Fox News, New York Times or the Wall street journal in 2024, the secret vote, the undecided vote, was not hiding at the editorial board of the Wall Street Journal or even on Breitbart.com and we all knew where we were going. So what did Trump do? He went to these places where that, I think the number was like 4% were undecided. Right. So he went to Rogan and he went to, like, Andrew Schultz and he went to Theo Vaughn. Right. That's where he found them. I mean, that's where he, that's where the hidden votes were.
• 23:10
  Speaker A: It was super smart. It reached an audience that wasn't being tapped before. It was, you know, funny and silly and outrageous and irreverent. And it showed him at his best. And that's absolutely, that's what Harris couldn't do. I mean, could you imagine her for three hours on Joe Rogan with those word salad statements? I mean, my gosh, halfway through, he'd just kind of do a timeout signal and say, okay, we're done.
• 23:35
  Speaker C: Right. And that, see, this is the crazy thing. I mean, Trump in 16 was going on with Anderson Cooper and he's going on with Joe and Mika, and he's doing all this stuff because he was finding those voters.
• 23:46
  Speaker A: Yeah.
• 23:46
  Speaker C: That weren't sitting there watching Bill O'Reilly every night. You know, that's what he was doing. Right. So here he is going basically turning back the clock. Because you have to understand, I. My first, you know, taste of Trump was through Howard Stern every week you know, strippers and the casinos and the Trump Taj Mahal and, you know, the whack pack, boxing each other and all the rest of it. You know, so when you watched Trump go into. And I think, look, you know, full disclosure, you know, Baron, Don Jr. We've been the publicist for Don Jr. I mean, I think Don and Baron and others, Eric basically said, go to these places. Go on the Nelk boys. Go talk to bar the barstool guys. Yeah. Go to these places where this 4% was hiding. And that's all it took. Advance seems to be following that. And Rubio, you know, Rubio's got 15 jobs because he's the only. He's the only Latin guy in the cabinet. So he's mowing the lawn and doing all the rest of it. But he'll. I think he would do it too.
• 24:49
  Speaker D: Oh, yeah.
• 24:50
  Speaker C: I mean, they're very quick on their feet. And that's why you've got guys like, I think Stephen A. Smith and Mar. People like Fetterman. I can't believe I'm saying that. People like Fetterman, you know, and the other thing that I think Christian, that people watched because of COVID because of the Me Too movement, because of Wokeism, they watched the biggest podcast in the world. Who endorsed Bernie Sanders once upon a time, endorsed Trump. The oldest male heir of the most famous Democrat family of the 20th century, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Endorsed Trump.
• 25:28
  Speaker A: Yeah.
• 25:29
  Speaker C: You know, left wing feminist icons like Naomi Wolf endorsed Trump. People like Tulsi Gabbard switch parties and endorse Trump. So you had all this inertia happening and, you know, the question is whether a Vance or a Rubio. And I'd like your take on this just, you know, just from a presentation perspective. Look, Trump, you know, the people that voted for Trump, maybe they don't all want to go have dinner together. Right. But there's a big enough coalition where he wins all the swing states. Can Rubio and Vance keep that thing together? I don't know. I'm not sure. What's your take on that?
• 26:11
  Speaker A: Yeah, I don't know either. I'm better predicting the future. The irony is that both Vance and Ruby are better at these media interviews than President Trump is. Addition. Trump has lots of strengths, great humor, big personality, you know, bluntly speaking, in ways that I think really register with people. But I've seen Vance and Rubio deconstruct journalists, and to the point where I almost felt sorry for them. I wanted to send them a cookie bouquet. I mean, they just absolutely Eviscerate them with facts and knowledge and reason, where Trump is just full of bluster. So I think they do a better job of that. But there's something about Trump's Persona, his ego, his presence, his movement that those two don't have.
• 26:55
  Speaker C: And I don't think.
• 26:56
  Speaker A: I don't think it's transferable.
• 26:58
  Speaker C: It's. Yeah, it's instinct. I mean, he's. He's not an ideologue, you know, and it's. In a lot of ways, you could find tapes of him from the early 80s on Phil Donahue or Oprah.
• 27:09
  Speaker A: Yeah.
• 27:09
  Speaker C: Larry King or whatever. And he's saying the same thing now.
• 27:13
  Speaker A: Yeah.
• 27:14
  Speaker C: And he is a true populist, like Teddy Roosevelt, like Andrew Jackson and. And, you know, the one thing that I think everyone forgets, and this is where, you know, hollywoodandtoto.com comes in, is that his enemies continue to treat him as if he's merely a political figure and not a cultural one. He is a cultural figure, always has been. Yeah. You know, he went from, you know, being the playboy of the Western world to getting Franklin Graham's endorsement. Right, right. I mean, there's no one like him. We've never seen it. That's why I tell everyone, you know, enjoy what you're watching. You're never going to see this again. And just to go back to some of these shows, there's this term Christian, why did you platform that person? You platform, you know, Bill, Margaret, you platform this one or you platform that one. Right. And it's like, well, here's the thing. You were talking about Kamala Harris and others. I mean, Newsom will go to some places that may make him feel uncomfortable. He certainly has brought people on his own show where he's talked to Bannon, he talked to Charlie before he died. He's talked to Ben Shapiro and others a lot of time. I think maybe they stopped some of that because, you know, Gavin was getting exposed. You know, the machine gun. Yeah. My body, my former lawyer, the machine gun yarmulke. You know, don't mess with the. Don't mess with the he man of Sherman Oaks, California, there, Ben Shapiro. He'll. He'll tear you up. One of the few people on planet Earth that talks faster than I do. Right. For the children. So. But that's the thing, is that they. They will put on. They will put these people on. So if they're going to have this open primary, the Democrats, the question is, will they go to the places where they will feel uncomfortable?
• 29:15
  Speaker A: I don't you know, there are very few times I'll give Newsom credit for anything, but I give him credit for talking to those other voices like you mentioned. That's a big deal and pretty rare. Also, the, the, you mentioned, the platforming is sort of the big, you know, boogeyman word. The other one is humanizing. They don't want to humanize people. So that's, let's not forget that either. But I mean, I, I want to have faith in the American people that if there's a debate between presidential candidate AOC and presidential candidate JD Vance, that it's going to be a bloodbath the likes of which we've never seen. And hopefully people will be watching it and taking notes. But having said that, I've seen some pretty downright crazy candidates on both sides of the aisle, mostly the left, a little bit on the right, especially in Colorado here, that are getting some support. And that's, I think that's what scares me the most, is that where the American public going in directions which I just can't even begin to understand. I mean, the fact that our blue cities are getting bluer and the conditions are getting worse and LA had a chance to, for a lifeline with Spencer Pratt and they didn't grab it with both hands. Sure. That scares me.
• 30:23
  Speaker C: Right? Yeah. I mean, some of these places, they might be too far gone. I mean, they have, they're doubling down on Mom. Donnie Ism.
• 30:32
  Speaker A: Yeah. You're a Philly guy, I'm a New York guy. This kills me watching it from afar. But if I was there today, I'd be there. I'd be gone tomorrow.
• 30:39
  Speaker C: Well, I mean, we've gotten to a point here where, you know, guys like Ed Rendell, Michael Bloomberg, they could never win.
• 30:46
  Speaker A: Oh, no.
• 30:47
  Speaker C: They, you know, they're right wingers to, you know, the sort of Islamic socialist sort of hybrid characters that we've got winning these elections. I mean, but, but that's the thing, and that's what Bill Maher is talking about in that cut that we played at the top, is that they're so kooky, they are losing guys. I mean, Stephen A. Smith told Hannity that he'd vote for Rubio. So, I mean, that, that's a huge deal.
• 31:16
  Speaker A: Yeah.
• 31:17
  Speaker C: And the fact that like Barack Obama, who's very savvy, Bill Clinton, who's even more savvy, they aren't saying, I mean, saying, trying to stop this train derailing. I mean, guys like Rahm Emanuel, who is a freaking genius, he has said it. He went on Some podcast with the woman with the, with the. That looks like she got hit in the face with a bag of nickels. He was on. He was on some podcast. Podcast with some. With some woman and he started talking about, maybe we should talk more about, you know, fixing the schools and not fixing the bathrooms and this. She went crazy on him on Rom. You know, Ron's on there with his little pig, his little stubby finger. You know, he's missing a finger. He's on there. I mean, Ron was the architect for Pelosi taking back the House of Representatives the first time around in 06. Believe me, I was there. I was producing Ingram at the time. You know, he is a very smart guy. The question is whether the Democrat Party has left that sort of triangulation space that he comes out of.
• 32:23
  Speaker A: I don't think it's a question. They absolutely have. I. Absolutely. I mean, absolutely. You're gonna listen, in about two months, AOC is going to look like Rush Limbaugh. That's how bad things are going and the speed at which it's going. So, yeah, the, the Rahma manuals, the, the Fettermans, they are, they are, they're being pushed aside. Chuck Schumer, they are old news that the, all the energy is coming from a different direction and they're going to be chased away and they're going to have a. Regrets. They'll have a few, but we all saw it coming.
• 32:51
  Speaker C: Well, they're going to make, you know, Vance and Rubio and whoever else look same. And that's what it's going to be about. And, you know, that stuff's not some of that crazy stuff that can play, you know, in Manhattan or some of these other outer boroughs or whatever, but ain't going to play in Wisconsin with the dairy farmers or on the Rust Belt. Certainly not in Florida. Right. So, I mean, it's just not, it's not gonna, it's not gonna. It's not gonna fly. And let me just say one other thing before we go here. I'm gonna take another break. Hispanics who are mostly Catholic, they don't get divorced, they don't have abortions, they escape some Latin communist dump, most likely. They certainly don't want to come here and vote that way again. That's why all those counties along the Texas Mexican border that were blue have all flipped. And you look at a county by county map of California, you know, out in the valley and like the Inland Empire and some of these places where you've got grape pickers and lettuce pickers and citrus pickers and all the rest of it. These are Hispanic Republican counties now, so I don't know where they're going to find the voters. Maybe they're in a hefty bag at the bottom of the river, but they're not that. I don't think most Hispanic Catholics are going to fall for this. And I'm not just talking about the Cubans and. And if Rubio's on the ticket, they really aren't going to fall for it.
• 34:13
  Speaker A: You might find the boats in the local graveyard, though, so be careful.
• 34:16
  Speaker C: That's right. That's right. Ring it up. We're talking to Christian Toto and you know, my buddy Andrew Clavin wrote the forward to this book. Andrew Clavin's actually partially responsible for me in getting into the PR business. I've known him a long time. His book, which is just as important now as we have a midterm as there was the last when this came out. Virtue Bombs. Talking with Christian Toto. I am AJ Rice. We're going to take a quick break. You are watching Dangerous. Laughter we will be right back. Now, A.J. another, another actor I know you follow very closely is Elliot Page, who's making an argument about animals and lgbtqia, too. Looking at nature as if it's this
• 35:02
  Speaker B: heteropatriarchal structure is absurd and that this gender binary that we've created is not but a quaint little myth. What we have been taught in school
• 35:13
  Speaker C: in regards to these structures, men being superior, women being inferior, it being this
• 35:19
  Speaker B: heterosexual existence, is just completely false.
• 35:25
  Speaker C: AJ I know you're not heteronormative, so I'm really yearn for your analysis of this. Well, Elliot, they, whatever, whatever's happening there, the former star of Juno, never forget, ladies and gentlemen, what they took from you, because that right there is what Homer because she's going to be in the next. She's going to be in the Odyssey movie this summer. That's exactly what Homer had in mind when he, when the great poet wrote the Iliad and the Odyssey. That. That's the star right there, the bearded lady.
• 35:58
  Speaker B: You should be women. And yet your beards forbid me to interpret that you are. So someone once said comedy is the art of turning horror into humor. That's the essence of the curse of the bearded lady. Laughing in the face of madness before it devours us whole. Nothing in living memory has been funnier or more horrifying than a movement convinced there are 72 genders. Boys have a penis, girls have a Vagina. The curse of the bearded Lady. The curse of the Bearded Lady. The Trans Mafia has whipped America's sanity. It's Monty Python by way of mingalo. Absurd theater with real victims. I'm not here to conduct a medical examination of the Trans Mafia. This is a cultural autopsy. If Billy Shakespeare could write tragedies, histories and comedies, why can't I? The radicals refuse to surrender their gender mad stranglehold on America's vital institutions. This book will show how we got here, how we fight back, and how the Democratic party's obsession with mainstreaming the bearded lady will doom it to political extinction. Stay locked in with the man who slayed the woking dead. This is dangerous Laughter with AJ Rice on the Publius Media Network.
• 37:38
  Speaker C: Back on the DL here where comedy is our civic duty, we are talking to Christian Toto, my friend from I think at this point, two decades now. His book Virtue Bombs. How Hollywood got woke Lost its soul. And look, you got to follow christian hollywood in toto.com. he is a film critic, he is a cultural devotee, is one of the people. When I, when I, when I thought about it because people have been trying to get me to do a show for years and I've done Christian show for both of my first two books, you know, I thought to myself, well, at some point, at least in the first month or so, I've got to have Christian on because some of the discussions that you and I have had over the years have been about, as Breitbart used to say, our ability on the right to swim downstream from culture. I mean we've all said it, we've all heard it ad nauseam. It's good. It's like the 11th Commandment that came from Andrew. You and I both knew Andrew. He was a mentor of mine. You know, I used to talk trash to him about the Dodgers any chance get. And you know that the thing about our culture is that there are more themes I, I guess making their way into the culture, fighting back against Wokeism. It's not just the fact that, you know, Musk liberated people on on Twitter, changed the name to X. The fact that the Ellison bought Paramount, which you know, also owns cbs, some Showtime and I'm sure some other things that I'm probably forgetting. Paramount plus and all the rest of it, you know, the left is kind of horrified. They're more afraid of what the Ellisons are doing than the fact that at any minute, you know, some AI version of some actress could just be snapped into, into creation. Right? Some, some guy in a mud hut in, you know, Zimbabwe can turn, you know, Jennifer Garner and Jennifer Lawrence and Jennifer this one and Jennifer that one, into the star of their own pocket movie. Right?
• 39:42
  Speaker A: Yeah. It's amazing how defensive they are about their near total control of entertainment. They don't want any encroachment, but sorry, technology is gonna, gonna make that happen. And we've seen that a bit with the Daily Wire and some documentaries which have kind of broken through Dinesh d' Souza as well. But they still have a near monopoly on the, on the entertainment realm. And yeah, I, I, it's, it's there, there's signs of hope, but there's still, it's a huge struggle, David. And Goliath barely describes it.
• 40:11
  Speaker C: Sure. So I want you take the time here and paint the picture. This summer there is this wild movie that is taking the Internet by storm. I think Musk even put it up for free.
• 40:22
  Speaker A: Yes.
• 40:23
  Speaker C: You know, on social media, on X, it's called Citizen Vigilante. Now, as someone that's like a huge fan of things like the Boondock Saints and other things, you know, this isn't, I don't think new Tarantino is probably secretly kicking himself saying, I wish I made this, I wish I made this freaking movie. Yeah, maybe, maybe Guy Ritchie. But tell the audience, what is this film? Who's in it, where do they come from? And why is there controversy around it? And hat. Why, why has it been multiple times this summer the number one movie on Amazon Prime?
• 41:00
  Speaker A: Yeah, this is Citizen Vigilante. It stars Armie Hammer, who was a rising star who got canceled because of some allegations made from his ex partners. Abuse. You know, I don't want to get into. You can kind of Google it yourself. But they were, they were unsettling for sure. Nothing proven in a court of law. And his career evaporated. So this is his comeback vehicle. The director here is Uwe Bol is a German filmmaker. He's done a lot of films over the years, a lot of video game adaptations. And I have to be blunt with you, he is not a quality filmmaker. He's actually a terrible filmmaker. But he's got a voice and he's got an attitude and he's got a willingness to say things that other people aren't saying, which is exactly why this movie matters. Citizen Vigilante is not a good film in any traditional sense, but it's powerful and it talks about there is violence going on in the migrant community across Europe and part of it is no one wants to talk about it. Part of it is. When they find it, they are not punished as nearly as severely as they should. And it's an issue, and it's something that the media downplays. It's something Hollywood completely ignores. And so what Ovibola has done is said, no, I'm gonna make a movie about this. I'm gonna shove it in your face. And that's the value of this film. It's subversive to the core. Is it well directed? Is it well written? Absolutely not. But you know what? Something about it is striking a chord, which is why it's doing well, very well, on Prime Video. Before our mics heated up, it was number one in Prime Video and number two on iTunes as far as VOD type sales.
• 42:30
  Speaker C: So.
• 42:30
  Speaker B: Wow.
• 42:31
  Speaker A: Making a mark. You know, he's teased the sequel. He's a bit of a promotional guy, so I don't know if it's going
• 42:35
  Speaker C: to happen, but the fact that Is John Wick. Shakespeare. It's not Shakespeare.
• 42:41
  Speaker A: No, no.
• 42:42
  Speaker C: I mean, come on. I mean, we. We all know what we're getting when we talk.
• 42:45
  Speaker A: Yeah.
• 42:46
  Speaker C: Some of these things. I mean, Keanu says very little. We all love. You know, I could watch Ian McShane, you know, go to the bathroom. But beyond that, I mean, John Wick is just a. Yep, yep. Right. So is, you know, and this movie, correct me if I'm wrong, and we're gonna play a clip from it here in a second. This movie, it's been banned in Germany. Is that right?
• 43:07
  Speaker A: So German film officials refuse to give it a rating, which is not a technical ban, but it basically doesn't allow theaters to show it. So it's essentially a ban.
• 43:18
  Speaker C: Technical canceling.
• 43:20
  Speaker A: Exactly. Exactly.
• 43:21
  Speaker C: All right, so, Chris, let's. Let's play a little clip from this army hammer in a citizen vigilante.
• 43:29
  Speaker D: Are these the values you're teaching your children?
• 43:31
  Speaker C: I teach him the values from Quran and these values from our family.
• 43:37
  Speaker D: Well, if these are your values, that women in America and Europe deserve to be raped because of a dress code, why did you come here?
• 43:47
  Speaker C: You know that we have several war in our country and we have a dangerous life. That's why we are here. And I think you know that.
• 43:56
  Speaker D: Do you know what I think?
• 43:57
  Speaker A: Why?
• 43:58
  Speaker D: I don't think it was the good ones that got out of your country. I think it was the bad ones. And I think you brought with you your archaic value system and your commitment to religion over democracy and over anything else, including the rule of law.
• 44:20
  Speaker C: Wow. I mean, that. I mean, look, it's not Hamlet But I mean, we've all kind of said that. Everyone from Antonin Scalia to Ben Shapiro to Tucker Carlson to you and I and every right winger in between, at least until recently with Tucker. I mean, the reality is that, you know, that that is basically a defense of Western civilization.
• 44:46
  Speaker A: Yeah.
• 44:47
  Speaker C: And that's all you need. One or two nuggets like that and you've got, you know, we'll take it.
• 44:54
  Speaker A: Yeah. I think that's why the movie's resonating. Listen, if this was, you know, a poorly directed and not well shot and not smart and the message didn't really resonate with audiences, we could all shrug and no one would care. But this is a crudely made film that's saying something that needed to be said that no one is saying. That's why it's, it's piercing through. And by the way, Rotten Tomatoes, last time I checked, it had about five or six reviews, all negative. And then the audience score. Oh, I heard last time I checked, 94.
• 45:27
  Speaker C: Wow. So here we are and we've seen the scenes of the prayer rugs taken over the streets of Brooklyn. We've seen the marching dear Bornistan, Michigan. We've seen what's going on in Paris and Berlin and all around what goes on in these Christmas markets. You know, I define Western civilization as standing on Greece and Rome and Judeo Christian values. And it's special. And not all civilizations are created equal. They're just not, which is why some of them go away. And you know, for people that are apologizing for defending Judeo Christian philosophy, Greco Roman philosophy from, and, and quite frankly, dangerous laughter Christian. And I'm not trying to enter the meta universe here and break down the fourth, break down the fourth wall. One of the reasons the show is called, what it's called is because in Western civilization, from Aristophanes all the way through to Shane Gillis and everyone in between, whether it's Jonathan Swift or someone like Mark Twain, who was the author of one of the most banned books ever called Huckleberry Finn, Lenny Bruce, Richard Pryor, whoever the hell it is, Sam Kinison, Rodney Rickles, whoever, Joan, that dangerous laughter is a. Is something that really can only exist in most cases in the West. And although there's been some close calls, Voltaire, Voltaire was put in prison. Lenny Bruce was arrested. There's plenty of people that have, that have been, you know, some close calls. We don't kill our court jesters here. We try to not kill our artists. And yet we have situations where the second Western art. Whether it's Tio fan, go remember him. Or the boys at south park, it doesn't matter who it is. When our comedy, when our drama, when our theater or film finds its way into other cultures, there are bands on it. And when we expose those cultures as being a situation where not everybody gets a trophy, that we actually might be better than you. That not everyone. Me. Look, Christian and I would love to be on the men's Olympic basketball team, but look at us, you know, I
• 47:59
  Speaker A: missed it by that.
• 48:00
  Speaker C: He's got a good jump shot, I've got a killer crossover. But we, we ain't playing for no one. Okay? We can't even play the 11 year old CYO league at this point. But I think that in and of itself is why this is resonating. Yeah. Because it's a defense of the West.
• 48:18
  Speaker A: And by the way, for all the talk about free speech and Jimmy Kimmel and Donald Trump is doing this and Donald Trump is doing that, and Jane Fonda raising her fist to protect free speech, how about Ovibol? How about his movie Citizen Vigilante being banned in Germany? Why don't they speak out about that? They don't give a darn about his film if it's canceled or stressed or anything. They don't care.
• 48:41
  Speaker C: There's Mark Ruffalo when you need him. Where are all the usual dingbat suspects, right? Which brings me to this. Chris, get this George Washington graphic up. Put that up there. We've had plenty of films about, you know, the blind lesbian, the blind wheelchair lesbian, the. The Crying Game, 1, 2, 3, 4. We. We. I mean, I don't know how many movies we have to make about all kinds of people that none of us ever want to meet and none of us care about. 50, 000 versions of this stupid thing and reboots of this and female Ghostbusters and all the rest of it. And yet here we are, America 250 this summer, and where someone actually decided to make a movie about, oh, I don't know, George Washington. It's about time. I mean, we finally found some room, Christian, for George Washington. What do you think about that?
• 49:51
  Speaker A: Yeah, well, it took an. It took a studio outside of Hollywood, Angel Studios and Wonder Project to give us this movie at this particular time. But the good news is it's terrific. It's a very good movie. Good performances across the board. Great battle scenes, by the way. You know, you don't expect that level at this sort of indie filmmaker status, but they've done it, man. This is A very well acted, good film. Obviously the timing couldn't be better and I think people are going to really react to it. Of course, coming out July 3rd, young Washington and. Yeah, why didn't Hollywood bite on this? Why haven't we seen multiple movies about this fellow's remarkable life? I mean, my God, this is just a snap, a slice of it.
• 50:33
  Speaker B: Right.
• 50:34
  Speaker A: There's one particular battle which is historically accurate where he was shot multiple times, one through the hat. And he, he lived to tell the tale and then found a country. So it's an amazing story. It's, it's a good biopic. I'm looking forward to people seeing it.
• 50:48
  Speaker C: It spent a lot of time on what, the French and Indian war? Part of his life.
• 50:52
  Speaker A: Yeah, the early days, you know, his, his, his failures, his ego, his place in the world, his trying to ingratiate himself with it within the British army because that was what all he had available to him and it shows his growth and his maturation and why he became the person he became. I mean that's, it's, it's like a superhero origin story.
• 51:13
  Speaker C: Well, think about what you just. Well, there you go. I like that. Think about what you just said though. They had to go outside of the normal studio system.
• 51:22
  Speaker A: Yeah.
• 51:23
  Speaker C: To make a movie about the most important American ever.
• 51:28
  Speaker A: Yeah.
• 51:29
  Speaker C: Ever.
• 51:29
  Speaker A: Yeah.
• 51:30
  Speaker C: Okay. Most important American ever. How many, how many parody Trump movies have they made? How many parody Ronald Reagan movies have they made? I mean, we got a good Ronald Reagan movie fairly recently, but you know, and they're, they're reassessing him as they do. I mean, a thousand movies about Nixon sucked and a thousand movies about this. I mean, God bless Gary Oldman, who I know and I know Duggar Banski, his agent for a long time. I mean, you know, making a Churchill movie may prove to be problematic. Gary Oldman was able to pull one off and win an Academy Award recently. But think about what you just said. Mel Gibson had to go outside of the studio system to make a movie about the most important Christian who ever lived whose name happened to be Jesus Christ. And these guys had to go outside the studio system to make a movie about the most important American. This is where we're at. Yeah. I've got to think that the boys of Paramount now maybe we'll get some studio backed green lit films that, you know, tell our story as Americans. What do you think?
• 52:39
  Speaker A: Well, I mean, I agree. I also, you know, this is partly on us. If you're a right of center person and you don't go support Andor see Young Washington, we're not going to get more movies like this. I think it's going to do well. I think it'll be fine. But, you know, I think we also have to take an active role in this. And again, it isn't like eating your vegetables because it's a very good movie, but it also, you know, you open big on opening weekend, you have big numbers. All of a sudden, it's sending a message to Hollywood. Who doesn't want to tell these stories? Well, gosh, we're gonna leave a lot of money at the table if we don't. So that's important too. I don't want to leave that behind.
• 53:13
  Speaker C: So. Yeah, no, I mean, I, I. And look, that's what Andrew used to, Breitbart used to say to both of us. Don't just complain. Go make art and then go support it. You know, we had this, what was this movie about? The human trafficking that did so well.
• 53:27
  Speaker A: Yeah. Sound of Freedom.
• 53:28
  Speaker C: Sound of Freedom. You know, from the same studio. Right. Am I right?
• 53:32
  Speaker A: So they didn't make it, but they, they distributed it, so. Right.
• 53:35
  Speaker C: So let's talk about some of this other garbage that's coming this summer, some of which that I must confess, I, I will probably go see just because I'm a super, you know, dork. We've got. Which has already come out. We had a Star wars movie, the Mandalorian and Grogu. How did this do? What was the deal with this movie? I mean, I, I like the show. I like Favreau. Right. I like him. You know, but it's, it, it kind of playing up on the Baby Yoda theme. I guess it ran out of gas, huh?
• 54:12
  Speaker A: Yeah. You know, they, they made the movie after the show basically petered out. I, I thought the first two seasons were quite good. I don't think I caught up with most of the third. So the energy behind the concept was already sort of fading.
• 54:23
  Speaker C: Right.
• 54:24
  Speaker A: But they haven't made a movie since 2019 in the Star wars universe, so they want to get something out there.
• 54:29
  Speaker C: Right.
• 54:29
  Speaker A: By most accounts, this was basically a new season or episodes of a new season that they kind of re reformed into a movie. Yeah. And it shows. The movie has underperformed. It made Less than Solo A Star Wars Story, which was sort of the low, the low benchmark of the saga
• 54:46
  Speaker C: in modern times, which actually is not terrible.
• 54:50
  Speaker A: Yeah, it's, I agree. It's not terrible at all.
• 54:51
  Speaker C: It's not. I mean, it's, you know. All right, so as a child of the 80s I was a fan of. I watched He Man. I played with He Man Toys. They finally got this Masters of the Universe movie out where Jared Leto could play, once again, another bad guy that I guess we're all gonna forget about. Yes.
• 55:13
  Speaker A: Yeah. The movie has not done well at all at the box office. I think it had a very specific niche. Like you mentioned, people who grew up with the toys, great. But kids today didn't. It's not their generation. It's not speaking to them. And they made the budget too big. So that's the problem. So I didn't see this one. I've heard mixed of good things about it. It sounds like it has a bit of a tongue in cheek. It kind of doesn't take itself seriously, which I like.
• 55:36
  Speaker C: Well, that's good.
• 55:37
  Speaker A: Yeah. But if you make the budget too high and you don't have a huge audience, you're done. You're done.
• 55:41
  Speaker C: So sometimes movies just need to be big, dumb. Fun. Yeah, big dumb. And maybe this is for us. This is for millennials with our kids. Hasbro and Mattel. No different than Barbie. Right. Obviously not a feminist speech, but we're gonna get to a feminist speech here in a second. So we already talked about Toy Story, you know, where I guess the theme of the movie is toys versus tech. You know, there's like a. There's like a tablet that's the bad guy, and the toys fight the tablet, and eventually the tablet becomes an ally.
• 56:13
  Speaker A: Yeah. You know, and I think that's a good theme because I think it acknowledges where we are as a culture and where kids are getting their toys from. I mean, it takes a lot of imagination to take Buzz Lightyear, a stiff toy that barely moves. I guess the arms probably gesticulate versus a tablet, which is giving you all this information. You don't have to use your imagination. So that's. It's a great theme and it's smart, and it kind of plays into the whole toy store store universe. I just think that the franchise itself, it's.
• 56:39
  Speaker C: It's getting a little.
• 56:41
  Speaker A: It's getting a little weary. It's just some of the themes are being repetitive. Oh, it's about growing up and growing past your toys and losing childhood.
• 56:48
  Speaker C: Yeah.
• 56:48
  Speaker A: Those are great inspirational talking points. And it's really interesting for a movie to explore them, except they did it in one through four, so.
• 56:56
  Speaker C: Well. Right. But like I told you, we're in like a third generation of people, so. So maybe this is for Gen Z and Gen Alpha to.
• 57:04
  Speaker A: Yeah.
• 57:05
  Speaker C: You know, grow up. To be as cool as the millennials in Gen X. Yeah. So let's. So Spielberg is. Is. Hasn't made a. A movie that anyone cared about in a long time. What was the last one we cared about? Did you. Could you even rattle it off? I mean, saving private Ryan, Lincoln, I guess.
• 57:22
  Speaker A: Lincoln, I guess. Bridges Spies has his defenders.
• 57:26
  Speaker C: What was it called? What?
• 57:27
  Speaker A: Bridge of spies. That's probably maybe a decade or so.
• 57:31
  Speaker C: Okay. That's the, that's the. Tom Hanks is a. Yeah. Communist or something like that in real life. So he's got this movie disclosure day, which, you know, the federal government is, I guess, helping them promote. Because. So, Because. Is this out, by the way? No, not yet. Is anyone seeing this movie? What, what's happening here with this?
• 57:54
  Speaker A: The box office is. Okay. Not Spielbergian. The reviews were mixed. I think. I think a lot of critics were reviewing it with this. With not, not rose colored glasses, but Spielberg colored glasses. Not a good film. Yeah, it's. It's got a good cast. Emily Blunt, Colman, Domingo, good people in it. And. But it's not quality. It's well beneath what he's done in the past. And the ending is terrible. And it's a very. It feels like a guy who's not really in touch with the culture had made this movie. And, you know, I, I don't want to throw ageism, but he's 79 and it, it's starting to show. I hate to say that because we all love.
• 58:34
  Speaker C: Well, but Marty's still doing it. Yeah. And Hitchcock could still do it.
• 58:39
  Speaker A: Yep.
• 58:40
  Speaker C: And yeah, Stanley Kubrick could still do it at a certain age, you know.
• 58:45
  Speaker A: Yeah.
• 58:45
  Speaker C: And, you know, Bergman and others. Fellini. All right, so. So, so at the end of this movie, e. T. Comes back and, you know, goes on the golden Bachelor or something. I mean, I don't even know what happens.
• 58:57
  Speaker A: It's a. It's like a. A, A wave of Reese's pieces floods the screen and you just. You die of glucose poisoning. I don't know.
• 59:05
  Speaker C: That's right. The real alien was Drew Barrymore. Yeah. All right, so. So now we have. In comic book nerd world, we've got the Marvel world and the DC world. The Marvel world, although they've had some problems, have been able to stay in the same exact timeline to some degree and, and fold in different properties as Disney's acquired different studios and they've had some smash hits, they've had some flops, but for the most part, they continue to go back to the. Well, they've got A pretty good, you know, cast of characters. They're bringing Robert Downey Jr. Back to play Dr. Doom. Whereas the D.C. world, which is Superman for all, for all you non dorks that actually date women, the DC world is Superman, Batman, Aquaman, Wonder Woman. That world. Okay. And it apparently includes Supergirl, who had a. Well, Chris pulled up the old Supergirl poster from the 80s. There was. So that was the original Supergirl poster from the 80s, which I think did spin off of the Christopher Reeves movie. And the Supergirl also had a. Unless. Is that. Oh, did they make. Is that. Is that the. Is that the poster for the new one?
• 1:00:19
  Speaker A: No. No.
• 1:00:20
  Speaker C: Okay. I was gonna say they do a throwback poster. All right, Chris. Chris, you passed the nerd test today because you got the wrong one. There was a Supergirl TV show, I believe, on the CW that did fairly well. So what's the deal with this movie? That's like a left wing, feminist man hating screed throughout it, or tell me what happened because you trashed it on your site.
• 1:00:44
  Speaker A: Yeah, no, I wouldn't say it's that for sure. That's. That's. Maybe you feared that, and rightfully so, but it's not. That's not the problem with it. Basically, James Gunn, who did the Guardians of the Galaxy movies, was given the. The key to the ring.
• 1:00:58
  Speaker C: He.
• 1:00:58
  Speaker A: He's now in charge of DC movies and he made Superman last year. I was not a fan.
• 1:01:03
  Speaker C: Me neither. But it did. I wanted to be well.
• 1:01:06
  Speaker A: It did well enough to kind of keep it. Keep it afloat. And they said, let's make a Supergirl movie, even though she's not the most popular character, even though there's not a big sort of cultural connection there. But that was their choice. So they made a Supergirl movie. They hired an actress, Millie Alcock, who's a virtual unknown. She's been a couple things. And then she started like a game
• 1:01:25
  Speaker C: with Game of Thrones.
• 1:01:26
  Speaker A: Yeah, the prequel. Yeah.
• 1:01:27
  Speaker C: Right.
• 1:01:27
  Speaker A: Yeah.
• 1:01:28
  Speaker C: So.
• 1:01:28
  Speaker A: But then she started saying, well, you know, as a woman in this space, I feel attacked, and blah, blah, blah. And then when there was blowback to that silliness, she said, well, I want
• 1:01:37
  Speaker C: the same day as Superman.
• 1:01:38
  Speaker A: Yeah, it was, you know, all those Christian dads were attacking me. That blew up in her face. And the trailer wasn't very good. Then we get the movie itself just recently, and that's not very good. It's muddled, poor character development. Action scenes don't exactly pop. I think she's okay in it, but she's certainly not A star. They brought in Jason Momoa to be basically Jason Momoa and steal a couple
• 1:02:02
  Speaker C: scenes, which he does now, right? Yeah.
• 1:02:06
  Speaker A: I don't mean he's a bounty. I don't even know what he is. I don't know why he's there. He's just there. But it did about 37, 38 million, which is terrible for a superhero film with a big budget. So it will go down and lose at least 100 million, maybe not, Maybe more. We'll have to wait and see. But it's just a poorly conceived, poorly written film. And just one little nerd note. The act. The woman who wrote this movie, and her name is escaping me because she's completely unknown, had no credits to her name except in one short film before they were. She was handed the keys to this potential franchise. So you think if you want to make a movie like this, you hire the best. You hire people with track records. You find out someone who's done this before and done it well. Oh, no. Oh, no. They hired an amateur.
• 1:02:52
  Speaker C: Sure.
• 1:02:53
  Speaker A: Screenwriter. And that's why the movie's one of the many reasons why the movie stinks.
• 1:02:56
  Speaker C: Well. And look, like I said before, the DC just can't get its act together. No, it's being rebooted. The entire universe gets rebooted constantly. And James Gunn had success at Marvel. He was almost canceled himself.
• 1:03:10
  Speaker A: Yeah.
• 1:03:11
  Speaker C: And, you know, he was given the keys of the kingdom, and this thing is derailed. Because as much as I don't really buy Ben Affleck as Bruce Wayne, those things were fairly serviceable, entertaining movies. And that reboot happened just 12 years ago. I mean, it's not that long ago. Right.
• 1:03:32
  Speaker A: Can we handle.
• 1:03:33
  Speaker C: So this summer, you know, because we're going to go here in a second, but yeah, some of our favorite guys are back. It sounds like the Wayans brothers are back to do another scary movie.
• 1:03:41
  Speaker A: Yeah.
• 1:03:42
  Speaker C: My. My friends from Westchester University, the Jackass boys are back for one last. We're gonna get one last movie, I guess, where Steve O. Staple guns his testicles to his leg or something, Right? Something like that. You know, when I saw Jackass Best and Last, I thought this was about the, you know, 2028 primary and it was going to happen on the Democrat party. We're gonna get another Minions movie. But the One thing and a Spider Man. I'm not going to trash Spider man because I, I, you know, I'm definitely a. On Team Marvel. I'll have to bring you back once that comes out, because I, I don't know What Marvel's doing there. I know that the Punisher is in the movie. I know that the Hulk is in the movie. I'm. I'm hearing the X Men may be revealed in the movie. You never know what Marvel's gonna do.
• 1:04:32
  Speaker D: Yeah.
• 1:04:32
  Speaker C: Gene Gray. Jean Gray may be revealed as the. The redheaded actress from Stranger Things. I forget her.
• 1:04:41
  Speaker A: Yeah.
• 1:04:41
  Speaker C: So, yeah, Sophie Sink may end up being Gene Gray in this movie.
• 1:04:44
  Speaker A: Yeah.
• 1:04:44
  Speaker C: Everybody thinks she's, you know, Mary Jane from another dimension, But. So I want to talk about Christopher Nolan, the most important filmmaker in his prime right now. He has a movie called the Odyssey, which is obviously part two of Homer's epic. You know, which. The first one being the Iliad, which was about the 10 years of the Trojan War. And then obviously Odysseus's journey home after the Trojan War. And he's got. Nolan can get anyone he wants at any moment.
• 1:05:17
  Speaker A: Yep.
• 1:05:18
  Speaker C: Like peak. Spielberg could. And he's got a black Helen of Troy and a trans Achilles.
• 1:05:31
  Speaker A: It's. We just learned it. Elliot Page is not playing Achilles. That was sort of the. That was sort of the rumor going about, because Paige is in the movie, but not as Achilles.
• 1:05:43
  Speaker C: Okay, well, thank God. Almost fainted. Okay. So. Yeah.
• 1:05:46
  Speaker A: But you're right about Helen Detroit.
• 1:05:48
  Speaker C: Who are they playing?
• 1:05:51
  Speaker A: It's a minor character. I didn't even recognize the name Ajax.
• 1:05:54
  Speaker C: Okay. There's a background. Background. A background person. All right, well, lower number 12. Yeah, that's right. That's Trojan. That's right. It's Trojan. Trojan number seven. Well, he has used her. They. Or the him, whatever the hell it is, before in Inception.
• 1:06:12
  Speaker A: Yep.
• 1:06:13
  Speaker C: And I just want to tell people, always remember what they took from us. Go back and watch Juno. Go back and watch. I mean, Elliot Page was a heck of a talent once upon a time.
• 1:06:25
  Speaker A: Yeah.
• 1:06:27
  Speaker C: So when you see, you know, now she's shirtless more than I am. I mean, I. You know, she looks better than I do, too. So which of these. Which of these movies are you most excited about? None.
• 1:06:39
  Speaker A: You know, the. The geek in me is Spider Man. Brand New Day, because it's a very solid franchise. Tom Holland doesn't hate us. Or if he does, he keeps it to himself. That's right. And I think they've been very consistent. The Last Spider man was a massive hit, but the Odyssey, I. I couldn't be more curious about for all the reasons you just said.
• 1:06:55
  Speaker C: Sure.
• 1:06:55
  Speaker A: Christopher Nolan is the director at this particular moment. He is what Spielberg used to be. He can make anything. And we're curious as heck to see it. People will line up. This will be a blockbuster, even though it's not on paper going to be box office worthy. I mean, look at Oppenheimer. Oh, it's a historical drama about the guy who created the atomic bomb. That's not box office catnip. But because he did it, it was a sensation. So I, I cheer that on. I hope he's consistently good. He's very talented. And you know, there's been woke murmurs about the movie I've got to give him. Until I see it and I see it, I'm gonna give him the benefit of doubt because he's been so good. I mean, he made the Dark Knight Rises, which was an attack on occupying Wall Street. He's earned our trust. Until he doesn't.
• 1:07:42
  Speaker C: Sure. And I look, I think he loves the United Kingdom. He works a lot with his brother and his wife, I believe.
• 1:07:50
  Speaker A: Yeah, yeah.
• 1:07:51
  Speaker C: They've made shows like Westworld and I think they're in charge of this, this video game thing on prime with Walter Goggins.
• 1:08:01
  Speaker A: Oh, Fallout.
• 1:08:02
  Speaker C: Fallout. I think they make that. I don't get a lot of wacky lib vibes from their team.
• 1:08:10
  Speaker A: Nope.
• 1:08:12
  Speaker C: But if you were to go back into the Christopher Nolan catalog, you don't have to go as far back as what was it following or something. The one with the Voyeurism movie. That. Which was his student film. It was his first film before Memento. My. One of my favorites. Sleeper was, or not a sleeper, I should say was, is Insomnia, where Pacino is just like a washed up cop and he's in Alaska and he's trying to track down Robin Williams as a serial killer.
• 1:08:41
  Speaker A: Amazing.
• 1:08:42
  Speaker C: Is. And I think Hillary Swank is in is a great film. It is a bizarre film. And I always remember that scene where. And I always tell my wife, I'm gonna reenact the scene. The scene where you have white nights in Alaska where it's like day. It's like the sun's up at midnight. And Pacino's like trying to build this pillows. He's trying to cover the windows up so he can get some sleep. And he's always like tripping over himself and he's all. I mean, it's just. He's a. He's a mess. But I love that movie. A lot of people haven't seen that one.
• 1:09:20
  Speaker A: His career hadn't exploded quite yet.
• 1:09:22
  Speaker C: Yeah.
• 1:09:22
  Speaker A: He wasn't really Christopher Nolan as he is today, but that's a terrific movie.
• 1:09:26
  Speaker C: Yeah. Which one's yours? What's your favorite, non. Batman.
• 1:09:31
  Speaker A: You know, Inception drove me crazy because I didn't understand it. But the more I watch it, the more it kind of all fell into place. Sure. I didn't love Dunkirk as much as other people. That's a, that's a tough one. I enjoyed Interstellar a lot. I think I want to watch it again.
• 1:09:50
  Speaker C: What about the Prestige? That's a heck of a film.
• 1:09:53
  Speaker A: Yeah.
• 1:09:54
  Speaker C: Yeah.
• 1:09:54
  Speaker A: I gotta think about it. I don't. I mean I gotta go to my. I have some jeopardy. Music to think about that one. But you can't go wrong with a lot of these choices, man. I mean, he's just gotta go home, resume. And he's still youngish, he's still, you know, at his peak. So it's exciting.
• 1:10:07
  Speaker C: Yeah. No, he's not going anywhere. Look, you know, you need, look, he's a great, he's a creator. I'm glad he's out there doing it. I've been tracking him since, you know. Guy Pierce in Memento. Yeah, Memento came around during that time period where we were all being mind effed by that. By American Psycho, by Fight Club. You know, these things all we were, we weren't, we, we had been. We started to become programmed as the people we were watching weren't real or what we didn't show. We weren't sure what was happening. Yeah, but look, Christian Toto. See, here's the thing. Everybody needs to go to hollywoodandtoto.com. everybody needs to go get virtue bombs. You gotta. You got another book in you sometime soon, sir?
• 1:10:50
  Speaker A: I don't think so, man. I think I might be a one and done. But it was the book I wanted to write. So I'm proud of it. Yeah. Unless the inspiration comes again. I, I, I'm torn in many different directions. I write for Hot Air, the Blaze, Daily Wire.
• 1:11:03
  Speaker B: Sure.
• 1:11:03
  Speaker A: Just News, California Post and my side Hollywood and Toto. So I gotta, I'm busy now.
• 1:11:09
  Speaker C: Are you treated nicely by other reviewers or are you considered, you know, some sort of, you know, monster because of where you write for?
• 1:11:18
  Speaker A: I mean, you know, I've been treated well over the years both by publicists and fellow writers.
• 1:11:23
  Speaker C: For the most I treat you like, but. That's right.
• 1:11:26
  Speaker A: I'm used to it by now. Some like a beaten child. Yeah, no, I think it, you know, I conduct myself in a fairly upstanding fashion. I'm not, I'm not slinging mud where I don't need to sling mud. But I also have, I throw sharp elbows. So I'm I'm waiting for the blowback, but hopefully not for a while.
• 1:11:43
  Speaker C: Sure. I mean, and look, you're, you know, you're in this space with other people, but you have a unique take. There's very few other people in this space, you know, Sonny Bunch and a few others out there.
• 1:11:54
  Speaker A: Yeah.
• 1:11:54
  Speaker C: And look, if you really want, if you are, you know, a right of center person or just a movie lover in general, you love Abbott and Costello, which Christian does, you know, he dedicated his book to them. You know, I mean, this is your guy. You've got to go to Hollywood in Toto go buy the book. He is regularly putting up new pieces at the website. I went in, I was in there, you know, digging around last night, loving every minute of it. So I always come to you. And one of the reasons why I wanted to have you on was because I know you are one of the few people because you, you know, life didn't begin when Trump came down the golden escalator for you that, that knows that shows like yours, shows like mine and others need to exist so that different types of perspectives on the culture, on the entertainment industry, you know, can be debated and talked about. So I really thank you for coming on. I'd love to have you back, brother.
• 1:12:53
  Speaker A: Yeah, I appreciate it. Thanks for the kind words. And by the way, the dirty little secret is if Hollywood listened to us, I think they might get a little wiser about the products. Not that we're such geniuses, but we speak, we represent a lot of people and they're ignoring them at their own peril.
• 1:13:06
  Speaker C: Absolutely. Absolutely. Christian, Toto, everyone go get his book Virtue bombs. Go to his website, Hollywood and Toto, follow him on Twitter. And you know, on I, I go out on X, I should say Facebook and everywhere else. And just remember, everybody go to dangerous laughter.com dangerouslaughter.com Some of our shows are dangerous. Some of them are laughter. Some of them are both. Understand that comedy is our civic duty. I am A.J. rice. Understand this. We are unfit for polite company. Everyone, tell your friends, Tell everyone you know about dangerous laughter. Share it. Go to YouTube. Go to rumble. I will catch you on the flip side.
• 1:13:52
  Speaker A: Dangerous laughter.
• 1:13:54
  Speaker B: Laughter.
• 1:13:57
  Speaker A: Dangerous. Dangerous laughter. Dangerous laughter.
• 1:14:12
  Speaker B: Love.