Latest / Houselights: A Film Director Podcast / The Whole Nine Yards (2000) - Jonathan Lynn | Houselights #279

Transcript

The Whole Nine Yards (2000) - Jonathan Lynn | Houselights #279 · Houselights: A Film Director Podcast

• 0:03
  Speaker 1: Welcome to the Net party.
• 0:20
  Speaker 2: Tonight on House Slights, we continue our Jonathan Lynn retrospective
• 0:24
  Speaker 2: with The Whole nine Yards from two thousand, the film
• 0:27
  Speaker 2: where Lynn took his lifelong interest in institutional corruption and
• 0:31
  Speaker 2: moved the institution to organized crime. It's a suburban farce
• 0:35
  Speaker 2: about a dentist who discovers his new neighbor is a
• 0:37
  Speaker 2: retired hitman, and the chaos that follows when everyone around
• 0:41
  Speaker 2: them decides they want something from.
• 0:43
  Speaker 3: Both of them.
• 0:44
  Speaker 2: With Me, who has already sized up the situation, made
• 0:47
  Speaker 2: his decision and is now just waiting for everyone else
• 0:50
  Speaker 2: to catch up. Darren Moser and bringing full oz energy,
• 0:54
  Speaker 2: a man who genuinely wants no part of any of this,
• 0:57
  Speaker 2: but keeps making it worse by trying to fix.
• 0:59
  Speaker 3: It on mills that is way off.
• 1:03
  Speaker 2: The Whole nine Yards means every new neighbor is a liability,
• 1:06
  Speaker 2: every marriage is a scheme, and Amanda Pete is going
• 1:09
  Speaker 2: to become a contract killer whether she has an outfit
• 1:11
  Speaker 2: or not. Let's move to Montreal, sell out our neighbor
• 1:15
  Speaker 2: and try to get this through a single conversation without
• 1:18
  Speaker 2: someone pointing a gun at a dentist.
• 1:20
  Speaker 4: This is House Lights, Yes again under formal protests. There's
• 1:25
  Speaker 4: no way I'm the os of this situation, and it's
• 1:29
  Speaker 4: not polite to start with such a troll, My good man,
• 1:32
  Speaker 4: how dare you?
• 1:32
  Speaker 2: Oh, it's kind of It's probably one of the better
• 1:35
  Speaker 2: trolls that I've done since I made fun of you
• 1:38
  Speaker 2: during my Sherlock intro.
• 1:40
  Speaker 4: Okay, that's fair too, that's very very fair. Okay, fair enough, all.
• 1:44
  Speaker 3: Right, So hold nine yards, yay yards.
• 1:48
  Speaker 2: This was released in February February of two thousand. It
• 1:51
  Speaker 2: is ninety nine minutes rated R. The budget was forty
• 1:54
  Speaker 2: one point three million and it made a box off
• 1:58
  Speaker 2: World one box us off of one hundred and six million,
• 2:00
  Speaker 2: so more than doubleged budget. And it stars Bruce Willis,
• 2:05
  Speaker 2: Matthew Perry, Amanda Pete, Michael Clarke, Duncan, Natasha Hinstridge, Rosanna
• 2:09
  Speaker 2: Arquette and Kevin Pollock.
• 2:10
  Speaker 4: Good lord, that's a yeah, that's a that's a pretty
• 2:14
  Speaker 4: respectable cast, and I like watching it this time. I
• 2:19
  Speaker 4: couldn't help but wonder is it is it Lynn's name
• 2:22
  Speaker 4: that brings like? Did that carry any weight for any
• 2:26
  Speaker 4: member of this cast?
• 2:28
  Speaker 3: Right?
• 2:28
  Speaker 1: Like?
• 2:29
  Speaker 3: I don't think so. I think you really be in
• 2:30
  Speaker 3: a Bruce Willis movie.
• 2:32
  Speaker 2: Carried the weight on this one, right, Yeah, I mean
• 2:34
  Speaker 2: this was this was fresh office sixth sense, yeah, and
• 2:39
  Speaker 2: I think so okay, So listen to this. I found
• 2:42
  Speaker 2: this story. Who knows if it's true. So producer Ellen
• 2:45
  Speaker 2: Kaufman was on a private jet you know, like you do,
• 2:50
  Speaker 2: and he was returning from a Planet Hollywood promotional trip
• 2:53
  Speaker 2: in Dubai.
• 2:53
  Speaker 1: We've all been there.
• 2:54
  Speaker 2: And Mitchell Kapner, the writer, a longtime friend of his,
• 2:58
  Speaker 2: had given him a script. Kaufman was was reading it
• 3:02
  Speaker 2: on the plane and just started belly laughing, like just
• 3:05
  Speaker 2: just losing it while reading the script, and he woke
• 3:09
  Speaker 2: up the other passengers on the plane and the other
• 3:11
  Speaker 2: people who were on the plane, whereas Bruce Willis, David
• 3:15
  Speaker 2: Willis's brother, and actress Tia Carrera, and so they all
• 3:18
  Speaker 2: started sharing the script, like giving each other page by
• 3:22
  Speaker 2: page as they were reading it. And by the end
• 3:25
  Speaker 2: of the flight, Willis was like, yeah, I'm doing this movie.
• 3:27
  Speaker 2: And that's that's what started it, Like, that's what pitched
• 3:31
  Speaker 2: it off, is that Alan Kaufman was on a flight
• 3:33
  Speaker 2: with Bruce Willis and like, and Bruce Willis was so
• 3:35
  Speaker 2: stoked about it.
• 3:36
  Speaker 1: He's like, yeah, let's make this happen.
• 3:37
  Speaker 2: And I think Bruce Willis was the one who picked
• 3:40
  Speaker 2: a man to Pete and Michael Clark Duncan to be
• 3:42
  Speaker 2: in the movie.
• 3:43
  Speaker 4: Which was smart because I definitely think that they bring
• 3:46
  Speaker 4: a good energy to the movie.
• 3:48
  Speaker 3: He definitely saw something there.
• 3:50
  Speaker 4: But I think also, I mean my recollection and you know,
• 3:53
  Speaker 4: memory can be a liar, you know, but you know,
• 3:57
  Speaker 4: Willis head he started off.
• 4:01
  Speaker 3: This part isn't the lire part of it.
• 4:02
  Speaker 4: The lyre part of it is that Willis was at
• 4:04
  Speaker 4: a point where coming back to comedy carried a little
• 4:08
  Speaker 4: bit of weight with it because he'd started off on
• 4:10
  Speaker 4: TV with Moonlighting. He was known as a comic actor.
• 4:13
  Speaker 4: That's why Diehard takes everybody by surprise. He tried to
• 4:16
  Speaker 4: get back into comedy with Hudson Hawk. Your mileage may
• 4:19
  Speaker 4: vary with that movie, and then you have you know,
• 4:22
  Speaker 4: his career flags a little bit and pulp fiction breathes
• 4:28
  Speaker 4: new life into his career. But then it flags again
• 4:31
  Speaker 4: as he continues like Color of Night type of stuff
• 4:34
  Speaker 4: going on, and then, like you were saying, Tristan sixth sense,
• 4:39
  Speaker 4: completely reinvigorate, it reinvigorates but everything's been serious ever since Diary.
• 4:45
  Speaker 4: Well except for Hudson Hawk, that's the outlier. Everything's pretty
• 4:48
  Speaker 4: much been action star and serious stuff. And now he's like,
• 4:51
  Speaker 4: I'm coming back to my roots. I'm coming back to comedy.
• 4:54
  Speaker 4: My recollection is that played into the marketing campaign. It
• 4:57
  Speaker 4: was like, you know, highlighting the fact that hey, he
• 5:01
  Speaker 4: started in comedy, he's backing comedy, and I like, is
• 5:04
  Speaker 4: my memory lying to me? Like, do you guys have
• 5:07
  Speaker 4: any memory of the marketing campaign at all?
• 5:09
  Speaker 2: I don't remember that aspect of the campaign. That doesn't
• 5:13
  Speaker 2: mean that it didn't happen. I mean it also could
• 5:15
  Speaker 2: just be on everyone's consciousness, you know, just because even
• 5:19
  Speaker 2: if they didn't lean into it in the marketing doesn't
• 5:22
  Speaker 2: mean it's not true, doesn't mean it's not accurate. I mean,
• 5:24
  Speaker 2: because that is accurate. I mean that's that's a big deal.
• 5:27
  Speaker 2: Like him coming back to comedy and taking it seriously.
• 5:31
  Speaker 2: I think that's the biggest thing, is that he took
• 5:34
  Speaker 2: this role seriously and you could tell like this wasn't
• 5:36
  Speaker 2: just a paycheck. He actually believed in this project. He
• 5:39
  Speaker 2: liked I don't want to say he liked the character,
• 5:41
  Speaker 2: but he liked playing the character it very much played
• 5:44
  Speaker 2: on screen because you can tell, like he didn't pull
• 5:45
  Speaker 2: Harrison Ford in the early odds, you know where, like
• 5:49
  Speaker 2: he just shows up and hrumps and then gets a paycheck.
• 5:52
  Speaker 2: You could actually tell he's trying in this Darren, what
• 5:55
  Speaker 2: did you know? Like, did you ever see this movie before?
• 5:57
  Speaker 2: Is this the first time?
• 5:58
  Speaker 1: What do you know about the movie going into this?
• 6:02
  Speaker 3: Yeah?
• 6:02
  Speaker 1: I didn't see it. I want to find it. I
• 6:05
  Speaker 1: should look up the trailer because I have this vague
• 6:08
  Speaker 1: memory of the trailer being one of those like you know,
• 6:12
  Speaker 1: what do you do when your neighbor turns out to
• 6:15
  Speaker 1: be a Like it feels like that kind of trailer,
• 6:18
  Speaker 1: like very leaning into the yet like you said, the humor,
• 6:24
  Speaker 1: you know, like should be the tulip moved next to
• 6:27
  Speaker 1: a dentist, you know, but he doesn't know that he's
• 6:31
  Speaker 1: a contract.
• 6:32
  Speaker 3: Like that's just the.
• 6:32
  Speaker 1: Life practically rights itself. It practically does. But yeah, I
• 6:38
  Speaker 1: didn't know. I knew it had enough for a sequel,
• 6:42
  Speaker 1: Like I knew that they made a sequel about it,
• 6:45
  Speaker 1: and which bombed hard. Yeah, apparently that did not do.
• 6:50
  Speaker 4: I never bothered watching it. They released it four years later,
• 6:53
  Speaker 4: Like if they call it up super quick.
• 6:56
  Speaker 3: Maybe I watched it.
• 6:59
  Speaker 2: I watched it, and it's nowhere near as good as
• 7:02
  Speaker 2: the first one. But it's nowhere near as bad as
• 7:04
  Speaker 2: everyone says that it is. Like it's it's fine. Like overall,
• 7:10
  Speaker 2: it's a lower quality film, and it has some pretty
• 7:13
  Speaker 2: low moments, some fart jokes here and there, But at
• 7:17
  Speaker 2: the same time, there's some really memorable moments that make
• 7:21
  Speaker 2: you laugh out loud. So if you like the first one,
• 7:24
  Speaker 2: it's kind of a toss up because like, if you
• 7:26
  Speaker 2: think it's going to besmirch your memory of the first one,
• 7:28
  Speaker 2: don't watch it. If you're just in it for to
• 7:30
  Speaker 2: see if you can get a couple of laughs, then watch.
• 7:32
  Speaker 1: It, because I mean, the vibe this movie gives off,
• 7:38
  Speaker 1: Like looking at the budget, okay, forty one million, I
• 7:41
  Speaker 1: have to feel a big chunk of that is like
• 7:45
  Speaker 1: Bruce Willis and Matthew Perry's salary, Like this just not
• 7:49
  Speaker 1: will You'll well, well, obviously will Is, but I mean
• 7:53
  Speaker 1: but Perry, But I mean this was Perry between seasons
• 7:55
  Speaker 1: six and season seven of Friends.
• 7:57
  Speaker 4: Yes, but well, I mean the thing is, I could
• 7:59
  Speaker 4: be completely off base, but Perry hadn't like this was
• 8:03
  Speaker 4: Perry's swing at getting into Like no, I'm not saying
• 8:07
  Speaker 4: it's his first picture or something, but like this was
• 8:09
  Speaker 4: this was a big swing.
• 8:10
  Speaker 3: Like he was he didn't really have like a film
• 8:12
  Speaker 3: career to speak of.
• 8:13
  Speaker 2: I think I would disagree with that, Like was it
• 8:18
  Speaker 2: like always stellar but no, like he was, let me
• 8:21
  Speaker 2: look this up.
• 8:22
  Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, but I'm very cure to say.
• 8:26
  Speaker 1: You know, it feels it's interesting just the look of it.
• 8:31
  Speaker 1: It's this weird intersection of early aughts. It practically feels
• 8:37
  Speaker 1: like a nineties movie. It feels like one of those
• 8:39
  Speaker 1: holdover nineties movies. It feels like a TV movie, Like
• 8:43
  Speaker 1: it's very simplistic. It's in practically one city, and I
• 8:47
  Speaker 1: get it like they shot it in the summer, you know,
• 8:50
  Speaker 1: for for Perry between Yes, he's in I think five
• 8:53
  Speaker 1: or six or six or seven, six and seven. Yeah,
• 8:57
  Speaker 1: and it's so it has all though vibes. But yeah,
• 9:02
  Speaker 1: it is it isn't. It was really interesting watching it
• 9:05
  Speaker 1: for the first time because really not knowing what to expect. Yeah,
• 9:09
  Speaker 1: there's the humor there and all of that, but in
• 9:15
  Speaker 1: a way I almost had a little bit of protagonist
• 9:19
  Speaker 1: confusion because the story is Oz's story, but Bruce Willis
• 9:25
  Speaker 1: is such they got too big of a name as
• 9:27
  Speaker 1: the other character.
• 9:29
  Speaker 2: I don't know if I didn't have any protagonist confusion
• 9:32
  Speaker 2: at all. This was Matthew Perry's movie, but yet it's
• 9:35
  Speaker 2: so much fun because Bruce Willis is in it. And
• 9:37
  Speaker 2: also to comment, so the movies that he did before
• 9:41
  Speaker 2: this was Fool's Russian Almost Heroes and Three to Tango. Now,
• 9:45
  Speaker 2: regardless of the quality of whatever perceived quality there is,
• 9:48
  Speaker 2: those are right on the same level of inherent Like
• 9:52
  Speaker 2: Hold nine Yards is a much bigger hit financially than
• 9:55
  Speaker 2: any of those movies.
• 9:56
  Speaker 1: But the thing is, you.
• 9:57
  Speaker 2: Know people who watched Friends watch those movies, those three
• 10:01
  Speaker 2: movies specifically, and so he wasn't a no name in
• 10:06
  Speaker 2: the film industry. And so I'm looking at your face, John,
• 10:10
  Speaker 2: and would disagree.
• 10:12
  Speaker 4: Like I said, this was not his first film by
• 10:15
  Speaker 4: any stretch, But this is I was merely arguing the
• 10:18
  Speaker 4: point that Willis is commanding a paycheck when he walks
• 10:22
  Speaker 4: onto a movie set. Matthew Perry's not commanding that same paycheck.
• 10:26
  Speaker 4: So like when you look at the forty one million dollars,
• 10:29
  Speaker 4: you could knock me over with a feather if it
• 10:32
  Speaker 4: didn't break down like Bruce Willis to come twenty million
• 10:34
  Speaker 4: of that and then they parsed out like five million
• 10:37
  Speaker 4: among everybody else, which is compared to the money I make.
• 10:41
  Speaker 3: It's a fortune. But you're saying you.
• 10:43
  Speaker 2: Have to think of it this way, though, Is that?
• 10:45
  Speaker 2: I mean, Okay, I know we're arguing about nothing, but true.
• 10:49
  Speaker 2: I think this was about the time that Perry was
• 10:52
  Speaker 2: making a million an episode. So this guy was making
• 10:56
  Speaker 2: twenty two million a year from from fall to spring,
• 11:01
  Speaker 2: so he didn't need to get he didn't need to
• 11:02
  Speaker 2: make Bruce Willis money on a movie because they were
• 11:05
  Speaker 2: actually shooting around Matthew Perry's schedule so that he could continue.
• 11:10
  Speaker 1: To tell me they want with him in it.
• 11:12
  Speaker 4: But yeah, but it's even funnier to me though, because
• 11:16
  Speaker 4: I wouldn't go so far as say protagonist confusion either.
• 11:19
  Speaker 4: But the I think Lynn is very much more in
• 11:23
  Speaker 4: love with what Bruce Willis is doing than with what
• 11:27
  Speaker 4: Matthew Perry is doing in this movie. I think that
• 11:30
  Speaker 4: I I think that there is much more energy, much
• 11:34
  Speaker 4: more uh you know, charismatic focus in this film on
• 11:41
  Speaker 4: Bruce Willis. I mean, he's front center on the poster
• 11:44
  Speaker 4: He's and his you know, his screen time. Just it
• 11:50
  Speaker 4: feel it comes across to me like there that Lynn
• 11:54
  Speaker 4: is having more fun with that character than he is
• 11:57
  Speaker 4: with oz Oz is obviously supposed to be, you know,
• 12:02
  Speaker 4: the main character. But it's just I just don't think
• 12:05
  Speaker 4: that he's uh, you know, maybe maybe the fault is
• 12:09
  Speaker 4: Perry's he from.
• 12:10
  Speaker 2: From Lynn's from Lynn's own mouth, sure, he has said that,
• 12:15
  Speaker 2: like the impression that I get from doing my research
• 12:18
  Speaker 2: and reading interviews and everything like that is that Lynn
• 12:22
  Speaker 2: had a lot of fun working with Bruce Willis, especially
• 12:26
  Speaker 2: behind the scenes, because Bruce Willis apparently was a very
• 12:30
  Speaker 2: like I think Lynn has described Bruce Willis as one
• 12:33
  Speaker 2: of the most unselfish actors he ever worked with, where
• 12:37
  Speaker 2: he would point out good stuff that everybody was doing
• 12:40
  Speaker 2: besides him and say like, oh, let's focus on that,
• 12:42
  Speaker 2: Let's do that. So he was a huge partner on set.
• 12:45
  Speaker 2: He was very much you know, working with Lynn on set,
• 12:48
  Speaker 2: and so like, he was clearly having a lot of fun.
• 12:50
  Speaker 2: But I don't think it was specifically the character of Tulip,
• 12:53
  Speaker 2: but just working with Willis was a was a delight.
• 12:57
  Speaker 2: But on top of that, Lynn talked about how Matthew
• 13:00
  Speaker 2: Perry brought so much to the role that he came
• 13:04
  Speaker 2: up with so many lines for Oz's character as well
• 13:07
  Speaker 2: as other characters, just improved on the spot and just
• 13:11
  Speaker 2: came on set with new material and new ideas that
• 13:14
  Speaker 2: they integrated so much of that into the movie that
• 13:17
  Speaker 2: he could have been a co writer.
• 13:19
  Speaker 4: Son then riddled me this then, because both Darren and
• 13:23
  Speaker 4: I are coming at it from like, well, at times,
• 13:26
  Speaker 4: it feels like Bruce Willis is the main character of
• 13:29
  Speaker 4: the movie because he commands so much attention and energy
• 13:34
  Speaker 4: in the way that the film itself is constructed. So
• 13:38
  Speaker 4: what is it that we're dealing with then? I mean,
• 13:40
  Speaker 4: I'm not trying to, like, you know, God rest his soul.
• 13:42
  Speaker 4: I'm not trying to diminish Matthew Perry's career or person
• 13:46
  Speaker 4: or a.
• 13:46
  Speaker 1: Mill come across that list.
• 13:48
  Speaker 4: Yeah, I'm saying, like, you know, I think that both
• 13:51
  Speaker 4: Darren and I are king off of the same thing
• 13:53
  Speaker 4: where it's like the movie is sort of I'll put
• 13:57
  Speaker 4: it in my words, I'm not trying to speak for you, Darren,
• 13:59
  Speaker 4: but like it's more a lot when Bruce Willis is
• 14:01
  Speaker 4: on screen, whereas like one of the criticisms that's out
• 14:05
  Speaker 4: there from the time is people saying, oh, this just
• 14:08
  Speaker 4: feels like a sitcom premise. And I don't know if
• 14:12
  Speaker 4: that's just because that's the way Perry's playing it or
• 14:15
  Speaker 4: something else behind it, but that does come.
• 14:18
  Speaker 2: Perry's Oh yeah, I think I can uh, well, I
• 14:22
  Speaker 2: don't sense any protagonist confusion whatsoever at all, Like I
• 14:25
  Speaker 2: don't get that at all.
• 14:27
  Speaker 3: What I do is saying that I agree with you
• 14:30
  Speaker 3: on that, but what a But.
• 14:31
  Speaker 2: What I will key in on what you're what you're
• 14:35
  Speaker 2: laying down is Bruce Willis is tackling this like a
• 14:39
  Speaker 2: movie star. Because I even while I was watching it,
• 14:41
  Speaker 2: I even texted you John, Where's Like, Bruce Willis is
• 14:44
  Speaker 2: so freaking cool. He just oozes coolness, like he's the
• 14:52
  Speaker 2: Danny Zuko of this movie. Like it's just it's so
• 14:56
  Speaker 2: freaking awesome. And he's so every time he's on screen,
• 15:00
  Speaker 2: you the eye gravitate towards gravitates towards him.
• 15:03
  Speaker 1: He's so cool.
• 15:04
  Speaker 2: And Matthew Perry, So Bruce Willis is tackling this movie
• 15:08
  Speaker 2: like a movie star. And Matthew Perry is absolutely taking
• 15:11
  Speaker 2: tackling this like a sitcom it is.
• 15:14
  Speaker 1: You guys are right. You guys are absolutely right, And
• 15:17
  Speaker 1: at least in.
• 15:17
  Speaker 2: That regard, where like he's zany, he's wacky, you know,
• 15:22
  Speaker 2: he'll he's he's bumping into walls, he's tripping, he's you know,
• 15:26
  Speaker 2: he's you know, saying ridiculous lines that people would only
• 15:30
  Speaker 2: say in a sitcom. And I think that energy comes
• 15:32
  Speaker 2: across and that's his wheelhouse and there's no shame in that.
• 15:36
  Speaker 2: Is it appropriate for this movie? I think so? Is
• 15:39
  Speaker 2: it appropriate for every movie? Does it make him look
• 15:42
  Speaker 2: like a movie star?
• 15:43
  Speaker 1: No?
• 15:44
  Speaker 2: But I think that's absolutely what's happening.
• 15:48
  Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, No. I think to clarify it, maybe protagonist's
• 15:54
  Speaker 1: confusion is a bit strong of a term. I really mean,
• 15:59
  Speaker 1: like kind of like you're saying Tristan every scene. Every
• 16:02
  Speaker 1: time Bruce Willis walks into the scene, he sucks all
• 16:06
  Speaker 1: the air out of the room and he becomes that.
• 16:08
  Speaker 1: It's like when you have Robin Williams in a movie
• 16:11
  Speaker 1: and he's not the lead, and when he shows up,
• 16:13
  Speaker 1: you remember those scenes because it's Robin Williams. So I'm
• 16:18
  Speaker 1: saying yeah, and it's not that it doesn't work, it's
• 16:22
  Speaker 1: just a really interesting power dynamic of the story.
• 16:28
  Speaker 3: Yeah, the story is following.
• 16:29
  Speaker 1: Matthew Perry and his zany adventures of his neighbor moving in.
• 16:35
  Speaker 1: But you find yourself, yeah, being drawn to every Okay,
• 16:39
  Speaker 1: well when are we getting back to Jimmy tuol? I
• 16:41
  Speaker 1: don't care, Like you could narrate him going to see
• 16:45
  Speaker 1: the other guy and figuring out what's happening. So it
• 16:49
  Speaker 1: even the ending, like Bruce Willis still gets the girl,
• 16:53
  Speaker 1: like like you almost not that you don't care that
• 16:56
  Speaker 1: Matthew Perry gets the girl, and that kind of wraps
• 17:00
  Speaker 1: up with a neat bow, but it feels like that's
• 17:03
  Speaker 1: what the script says, So that's what happens versus Willis
• 17:07
  Speaker 1: getting the girl is like because he's Bruce Willis And
• 17:10
  Speaker 1: that's so horribly written at the end.
• 17:13
  Speaker 2: So that's probably the worst scene in the entire movie
• 17:17
  Speaker 2: between Natasha Hindridge Hintstridge Hintstridge and Matthew Perry at the
• 17:22
  Speaker 2: end when he's like, I want to marry you more
• 17:24
  Speaker 2: than anyone's ever wanted to marry anyone in the history
• 17:27
  Speaker 2: of the world. Oh yeah, not only was that written down,
• 17:32
  Speaker 2: it was memorized, it was performed, it was edited and printed, Yeah.
• 17:37
  Speaker 4: A whole lot of people thought that was that was solid.
• 17:39
  Speaker 4: But like I'll I'll say as well that structurally for
• 17:45
  Speaker 4: the movie, I I consider the Rosanna Arquette character a
• 17:50
  Speaker 4: bit of a distraction with the way the movie is.
• 17:53
  Speaker 2: Let's talk about that. Let's talk about that. Okay, Rosanna
• 17:56
  Speaker 2: Arquette fantastic actress. She she's been in so much, She's
• 18:01
  Speaker 2: had such an amazing career. Why is this character weird?
• 18:07
  Speaker 2: I mean, the character's supposed to be off putting and
• 18:09
  Speaker 2: she nails that. I mean, she she understood what she
• 18:12
  Speaker 2: was supposed to do. But did we need to see.
• 18:15
  Speaker 1: Her that much?
• 18:16
  Speaker 4: Just just you know, I honestly think that the way
• 18:21
  Speaker 4: to have solved it was at script level and have
• 18:24
  Speaker 4: her be going through the divorce with Oz, but he's
• 18:28
  Speaker 4: got the legal upper hand or something like that, and
• 18:31
  Speaker 4: that's why she's plotting to kill him. Because as it
• 18:35
  Speaker 4: is in the movie, just coming back and revisiting it
• 18:38
  Speaker 4: this time, I'm like, what human being is staying in,
• 18:42
  Speaker 4: especially the breadwinner is staying in this. They have hit
• 18:46
  Speaker 4: the point where they're like he's either not living on
• 18:48
  Speaker 4: that street anymore or she's been kicked out through like
• 18:51
  Speaker 4: a legal order or something.
• 18:52
  Speaker 2: Yeah, and you you don't have to get divorced in
• 18:54
  Speaker 2: order to be like, Okay, you're not living in my
• 18:56
  Speaker 2: house anymore, but I'll pay you support, you know, something
• 18:59
  Speaker 2: like that.
• 19:00
  Speaker 4: And then you and you can still have her trying
• 19:02
  Speaker 4: to kill him, and and it's a it's a thing
• 19:05
  Speaker 4: where like you still have that whole structure there. It's
• 19:08
  Speaker 4: just she's not like the first time you meet the
• 19:11
  Speaker 4: character is he's in there, like, and you can still
• 19:14
  Speaker 4: have him getting mad in the car after he gets
• 19:15
  Speaker 4: off the phone with her or something, or like she
• 19:17
  Speaker 4: comes up and serves papers or something like that.
• 19:19
  Speaker 2: Right, that was funny when we had to stop driving
• 19:24
  Speaker 2: not once but twice in order to just rage out.
• 19:27
  Speaker 4: And you know, like, but but it's just it's it's
• 19:30
  Speaker 4: one of those things where I think, you know, look,
• 19:33
  Speaker 4: I'll cop to it.
• 19:33
  Speaker 3: Like.
• 19:34
  Speaker 4: It kind of put me. It put me off coming
• 19:37
  Speaker 4: back and revisiting it. I have very fond memories of
• 19:39
  Speaker 4: this movie. And I came back and the way it starts,
• 19:42
  Speaker 4: I was like, eh, I don't like because I'm sitting
• 19:46
  Speaker 4: there and maybe it's just a benefit of age or so.
• 19:48
  Speaker 4: I was much younger back in the year two thousand
• 19:50
  Speaker 4: and I just come back at it this time, I'm like,
• 19:53
  Speaker 4: who the hell was I wasn't married at the time.
• 19:55
  Speaker 4: Maybe it made sense to me back then, but now
• 19:58
  Speaker 4: I'm like, no, if anybody was like this in a relationship.
• 20:01
  Speaker 3: Who the hell is sticking around for this nonsense?
• 20:04
  Speaker 5: You know?
• 20:04
  Speaker 3: Like, you know, I don't know.
• 20:06
  Speaker 4: It's it's one of those things where I feel like
• 20:09
  Speaker 4: it's just something that they didn't juggle properly from the
• 20:12
  Speaker 4: concept stage to the execution stage.
• 20:14
  Speaker 3: There were so many.
• 20:15
  Speaker 4: Moments and ways they could have fixed that, and they didn't.
• 20:20
  Speaker 4: And I think it's to the movies detriment specifically, because
• 20:23
  Speaker 4: what you said, why do we spend so much time
• 20:25
  Speaker 4: with her? Why do I need to see her having
• 20:27
  Speaker 4: a sex scene with Harlan? Well, like, this doesn't make sense.
• 20:31
  Speaker 4: Why does that exist? Yah, doesn't make any sense.
• 20:35
  Speaker 1: That's in my brain now.
• 20:36
  Speaker 3: Yeah, sorry about that.
• 20:38
  Speaker 2: No, No, there's the movie's fault, not yours. Yeah, Like,
• 20:41
  Speaker 2: that's straight up in my brain. I want to switch
• 20:44
  Speaker 2: gears a little bit here. I want to talk about
• 20:46
  Speaker 2: some of the behind the scenes individuals people who made
• 20:49
  Speaker 2: this happen. So the writer Kaepner, this was a specscript
• 20:53
  Speaker 2: as we talked about before, he had no major produced
• 20:56
  Speaker 2: credits before this. I think that's interesting in itself. But
• 21:00
  Speaker 2: the cinematographer David Franco French Canadian born in France, Raisin
• 21:06
  Speaker 2: ziear So he has shot Desperate Housewives, The Pilot, That's Important, Boardwalk, Empire,
• 21:14
  Speaker 2: Game of Thrones, Westworld, and Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee,
• 21:18
  Speaker 2: which he won the Emmy four. This guy like he
• 21:22
  Speaker 2: knows what he's doing with the DP and the editor
• 21:25
  Speaker 2: Tom Lewis. This is much like when you look at
• 21:29
  Speaker 2: his filmography, you're just like, yeah, that totally fits. So
• 21:33
  Speaker 2: he his filmography is really heavy in the late nineties
• 21:37
  Speaker 2: with the Wedding Singer, the water Boy and rat Race,
• 21:41
  Speaker 2: You're just like, yeah, this is the guy to edit
• 21:43
  Speaker 2: the whole nine yards. And the composer Randy Edelman so
• 21:48
  Speaker 2: described as a journeyman. You know, he did Kindergarten, cop
• 21:51
  Speaker 2: The Mask, Dragon Art, While You Were Sleeping. People have
• 21:55
  Speaker 2: called him functional and never really the focus.
• 21:59
  Speaker 1: I agree with that a little bit.
• 22:01
  Speaker 2: I think I feel like the music for The Mask,
• 22:04
  Speaker 2: Dragonheart and While You Were Sleeping are very recognizable, very good.
• 22:09
  Speaker 2: I don't think he gets enough credit. I want to
• 22:11
  Speaker 2: talk about it, And the reason why I ended on
• 22:13
  Speaker 2: Edelman is because I want to talk about the music
• 22:15
  Speaker 2: for this picture specifically what this picture had very different music.
• 22:20
  Speaker 2: It was very jazzy, very brassy. What did you think
• 22:22
  Speaker 2: about that?
• 22:25
  Speaker 4: I thought it was interesting. I you know, first and foremost,
• 22:29
  Speaker 4: you know, Oh, he's been called a journeyman. He's one
• 22:32
  Speaker 4: of the people credited on the Last Mohicans score from
• 22:35
  Speaker 4: Michael Mann's Last Mohicans. So anybody knows that anybody calling
• 22:38
  Speaker 4: him a journeyman can go.
• 22:40
  Speaker 3: Straight to hell, seriously like the room boiler room of.
• 22:44
  Speaker 4: Hell, and every so often take them out so they
• 22:45
  Speaker 4: get some hope that it's done, and then throw them
• 22:47
  Speaker 4: right back in. So for that reason, he's always amazing.
• 22:52
  Speaker 4: He also did the score for Dragon, the Bruce Lee Story,
• 22:55
  Speaker 4: and that is a good score on that.
• 22:56
  Speaker 1: That is a film.
• 22:57
  Speaker 2: Jeez, Edelman is underrated, as he did the score for Gettysburg.
• 23:03
  Speaker 4: But I think what it is is a lot of
• 23:05
  Speaker 4: his movies are populated by I'm gonna actually take a
• 23:09
  Speaker 4: compliment that you throw at editors and give it to
• 23:13
  Speaker 4: Edelman is he doesn't draw attention to himself the best
• 23:17
  Speaker 4: you know, your words are the best editing doesn't draw
• 23:20
  Speaker 4: attention to itself.
• 23:21
  Speaker 3: It just happens.
• 23:22
  Speaker 4: And I think that his scores are what the film needs.
• 23:27
  Speaker 4: He's not, forgive me, he's not a Williams. He's not
• 23:30
  Speaker 4: a Zimmer. He's not doing stuff where it's like look
• 23:33
  Speaker 4: at me, I love drums or anything like that. He's like,
• 23:36
  Speaker 4: oh the whole nine yards. You know what this calls for.
• 23:39
  Speaker 4: We're in Montreal. It's a little jazzy, it's a little
• 23:42
  Speaker 4: low key. It's fun, it's improv. There's improv on the set.
• 23:47
  Speaker 4: Jazz supports that vibe. I think it's the right score
• 23:50
  Speaker 4: for this movie. I mean, what do you expect to
• 23:52
  Speaker 4: score from this? To be like, should I be walking out?
• 23:55
  Speaker 4: I was like, I gotta buy this sound, right, No,
• 23:57
  Speaker 4: I should hardly notice the music, you know, like it
• 24:00
  Speaker 4: should just be there and hit the right emotional note.
• 24:03
  Speaker 3: That's it.
• 24:04
  Speaker 1: No, I think I think you're absolutely right. I'm looking
• 24:07
  Speaker 1: again over his career and it's like he's the one
• 24:10
  Speaker 1: who filled in all the gaps that weren't done by
• 24:14
  Speaker 1: the more known direct more known composers. Because yeah, I'm
• 24:18
  Speaker 1: seeing you know, you have six days, seven nights. Anaconda
• 24:23
  Speaker 1: down periscope Indian and the Cupboard, the mask, you know,
• 24:28
  Speaker 1: all the again, someone's got to do them, and and
• 24:31
  Speaker 1: a lot of those have great, you know, beats and
• 24:34
  Speaker 1: recognizable motifs and all sorts of things. So yeah, I think.
• 24:39
  Speaker 1: And then for this one, it I would say it's
• 24:43
  Speaker 1: above TV movie score, like it's a solid score, but
• 24:48
  Speaker 1: it's you know, it's not I'm not going to buy
• 24:50
  Speaker 1: it on disc, but it's it works, it's playful in
• 24:56
  Speaker 1: a good way.
• 24:57
  Speaker 4: And just to give a little more love to him,
• 24:59
  Speaker 4: he he also did the score for Christopher Nolan's Insomnia,
• 25:02
  Speaker 4: and that is a good score. So there you go.
• 25:06
  Speaker 4: So I yeah, no, it's good music. I don't think
• 25:11
  Speaker 4: that the music is ever the problem with the film.
• 25:15
  Speaker 4: I think that there are just certain structural things that
• 25:18
  Speaker 4: just can't be.
• 25:19
  Speaker 2: Well, let's talk about that. Let's talk about that. Okay.
• 25:22
  Speaker 2: So audiences really liked this movie. This has a high
• 25:26
  Speaker 2: score on audiences across the board, but critics kind of
• 25:31
  Speaker 2: lukewarm on it, and it made money. Why do you
• 25:34
  Speaker 2: think that is? Why do you think audiences liked it
• 25:36
  Speaker 2: but critics didn't?
• 25:37
  Speaker 1: Darren? Well, what are you thinking here? I mean, I
• 25:44
  Speaker 1: think it's the Matthew Perry effect of, like you said,
• 25:49
  Speaker 1: the butts are already in the seat because of Friends,
• 25:52
  Speaker 1: So you don't have to have a movie that on
• 25:58
  Speaker 1: itself is going to draw you in. They had the
• 26:00
  Speaker 1: right kind of one two punch of Bruce Willis and
• 26:04
  Speaker 1: Matthew per like it. Like we keep saying, rights itself,
• 26:07
  Speaker 1: It rights itself, the marketing rights itself. You're like, who
• 26:10
  Speaker 1: do we target? Well, we target people who love Bruce
• 26:12
  Speaker 1: Willis movies and who watch Friends, and it just pulls
• 26:16
  Speaker 1: people in. So but yeah, it's not a great movie.
• 26:24
  Speaker 1: It's I I'm trying to remember a single quotable line
• 26:29
  Speaker 1: from it and I watched it yesterday. But for that,
• 26:35
  Speaker 1: I mean, wise aren't lines, but.
• 26:39
  Speaker 3: I will.
• 26:40
  Speaker 2: You're like, that's definitely a line in the movie. Tristan
• 26:43
  Speaker 2: is basically what Darren just.
• 26:44
  Speaker 4: Said, I I'll I'll throw out there that the cinema
• 26:49
  Speaker 4: score average was a B as in Barricade. And the
• 26:53
  Speaker 4: thing is cinema score once you get out of the
• 26:56
  Speaker 4: A range, that means a word of mouth is not
• 26:59
  Speaker 4: going to be varribly strong. So while there is an
• 27:03
  Speaker 4: affection for this film, I don't think like audiences were
• 27:06
  Speaker 4: on fire now because again international like world wide box
• 27:10
  Speaker 4: office crosses one hundred million. But you know, again I
• 27:13
  Speaker 4: always throw this one out there, this is still at
• 27:15
  Speaker 4: the point where you know Blockbuster is you're hitting one
• 27:19
  Speaker 4: hundred million dollars stateside. In terms of the critical response,
• 27:25
  Speaker 4: I think that the one thing to hold on to
• 27:27
  Speaker 4: is that there are structural things. I think comedy is
• 27:32
  Speaker 4: very subjective. I think critics in general are you know,
• 27:36
  Speaker 4: sticks in the mud when it comes to stuff like this.
• 27:39
  Speaker 4: But the one positive I think that is consistently recognized
• 27:43
  Speaker 4: is this is really sort of like a breakout for
• 27:45
  Speaker 4: Amanda Pete. And you know, Roger Ebert called her out,
• 27:48
  Speaker 4: called her performance perfect. So I think what it is
• 27:52
  Speaker 4: is a lot of times when you look at these
• 27:54
  Speaker 4: critical reviews, they're talking about shortcomings of the film as
• 27:58
  Speaker 4: a whole, but it ever seems to stick to the
• 28:01
  Speaker 4: people in the film, like every all the critics are
• 28:03
  Speaker 4: willing to say like, hey, these are.
• 28:05
  Speaker 3: These are a lot of good performance. It's just the
• 28:06
  Speaker 3: movie didn't really come together.
• 28:09
  Speaker 2: And speaking of why didn't this make her a bigger star?
• 28:15
  Speaker 4: I mean everything hinges on what you do after the breakthrough, right,
• 28:20
  Speaker 4: like what what was her career afterward? And did she
• 28:25
  Speaker 4: did she leverage it? Did her manager leverage it?
• 28:27
  Speaker 1: Really?
• 28:28
  Speaker 4: I don't know. I don't know because looking at it,
• 28:31
  Speaker 4: she she went, she did Saving Silverman, which I don't
• 28:34
  Speaker 4: think was a big hit, but that was a it
• 28:36
  Speaker 4: was a cute movie. But then you have like high crimes,
• 28:38
  Speaker 4: changing lanes, whib goes down. Yeah, whatever we do identity,
• 28:44
  Speaker 4: I'm like, oh, okay, and then she shows up and
• 28:46
  Speaker 4: something's got to give.
• 28:47
  Speaker 1: Yes, there you go the big like show her test
• 28:52
  Speaker 1: she did. We've all seen it where an actor is
• 28:54
  Speaker 1: given like something to chew on and something to really
• 28:59
  Speaker 1: make their act ding chops rise, and she just didn't
• 29:02
  Speaker 1: really get that in her. Like John said, her next film,
• 29:06
  Speaker 1: the Ones right after. But ye, for this movie, the
• 29:12
  Speaker 1: litmus test, I kind of put it to is, you know,
• 29:16
  Speaker 1: describe the mini arc of each character in a sentence
• 29:22
  Speaker 1: or two, and which one would you rather hear about. Oh,
• 29:25
  Speaker 1: a dentist who has a contract killer moved next to him. Okay,
• 29:28
  Speaker 1: that's kind of a contract killer that you know, starts
• 29:32
  Speaker 1: to interweave with his neighbors and his ex wife and
• 29:36
  Speaker 1: the guy and they're trying to get ten million. Okay,
• 29:38
  Speaker 1: that's a little little more interesting. It's like the dental
• 29:41
  Speaker 1: assistant that wants to become a contract killer and then
• 29:48
  Speaker 1: it finds out that she was put on a hit
• 29:51
  Speaker 1: for her boss. Okay, I am now really interested in that.
• 29:55
  Speaker 1: So every every little mini story is almost more interesting
• 29:59
  Speaker 1: than the dentist story. And I think that kind of
• 30:04
  Speaker 1: sums up a lot of the movie.
• 30:05
  Speaker 3: Oh that's fair. I think that's fair that.
• 30:09
  Speaker 4: But at the same time, I think that, you know, Lynn,
• 30:14
  Speaker 4: where his strength comes through is his willingness as a
• 30:17
  Speaker 4: director to foster an improvisational environment and trust his you know,
• 30:22
  Speaker 4: his cast. So like, you know, all the stories are
• 30:25
  Speaker 4: that there's a lot of improv and yeah, I think that.
• 30:28
  Speaker 4: I think in all honesty, yes, they're laughing at Like,
• 30:32
  Speaker 4: I would love to see that original script because if
• 30:34
  Speaker 4: there's so much improv going on on set, did they
• 30:37
  Speaker 4: wind up moving away from what was making them laugh
• 30:41
  Speaker 4: in the first place. I'd be very curious to find
• 30:44
  Speaker 4: that script laying out there and read it. Because they're
• 30:48
  Speaker 4: on the plane reading it, they're laughing, They're like, oh, yeah,
• 30:51
  Speaker 4: this is the movie we're going to make next. And
• 30:54
  Speaker 4: then there's a lot of improv on set. Is that
• 30:57
  Speaker 4: Lynn trusting his his actors a little too much because
• 31:03
  Speaker 4: it winds up being funny in the moment while you're
• 31:06
  Speaker 4: making it, and then when it's coming together in the
• 31:08
  Speaker 4: editing bay, it's like, oh, well, the structure of the
• 31:12
  Speaker 4: house is the same, but we painted this room a
• 31:13
  Speaker 4: different color, we changed this door, we have a different
• 31:16
  Speaker 4: mirror in there. And maybe people pick up on.
• 31:18
  Speaker 2: That random question. Did Montreal add anything? No? No, So
• 31:25
  Speaker 2: this could have been set. This could have been set anywhere.
• 31:28
  Speaker 3: This could have been sad.
• 31:30
  Speaker 1: This, yeah, could have been any any with it. It
• 31:34
  Speaker 1: kind of felt weird that they kept mentioning that it
• 31:37
  Speaker 1: was in Canada, like they didn't want us to forget
• 31:40
  Speaker 1: that this is not in America, Like this could be Ednytown, USA,
• 31:44
  Speaker 1: but no, you gotta know this is We're going to
• 31:48
  Speaker 1: specifically tell you where we're flying.
• 31:50
  Speaker 4: And it's like, okay, they got an extra half percent
• 31:53
  Speaker 4: tax credit for a Canadian city each time. Maybe I
• 31:57
  Speaker 4: don't know.
• 31:58
  Speaker 2: Well, but it wasn't origin set in Montreal, but they
• 32:01
  Speaker 2: started shooting in Montreal and they were just like, you
• 32:03
  Speaker 2: know what, let's just lean into it, like that's a
• 32:05
  Speaker 2: true story.
• 32:07
  Speaker 4: I think that it would explain Rosanna arquette accent the question.
• 32:13
  Speaker 2: The quote unquote French accents.
• 32:15
  Speaker 3: Yeah, French accent.
• 32:19
  Speaker 4: I think that the movie, if anything, probably would have
• 32:23
  Speaker 4: played better had they kept it, you know, a suburb
• 32:28
  Speaker 4: of Chicago, because you could have even had a joke of,
• 32:31
  Speaker 4: like you did hits in Chicago, why are you just
• 32:35
  Speaker 4: why didn't they move you somewhere else? You're so close,
• 32:37
  Speaker 4: you know, like that sort of thing.
• 32:38
  Speaker 2: Whereas listen to anything North of Division is basically Wisconsin
• 32:42
  Speaker 2: is what they would write in the movie.
• 32:44
  Speaker 4: And the Chicago audiences was would laugh and people like
• 32:48
  Speaker 4: myself would be like, what okay?
• 32:51
  Speaker 2: Uh So the only the only benefit I see from
• 32:57
  Speaker 2: from being said in Montreal is the joke that we
• 33:00
  Speaker 2: get about mayonnaise on his hamburger. I love that joke
• 33:03
  Speaker 2: so much. When he's just like, he's like, okay, I
• 33:05
  Speaker 2: want to I'm want a cheeseburger, and please don't put
• 33:09
  Speaker 2: a mayonnaise on it, and they go, no mayonnaise. He's like,
• 33:11
  Speaker 2: no mayonnaise, and then she walks away. He's like, they're
• 33:13
  Speaker 2: gonna put mayonnaise on it?
• 33:16
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 33:16
  Speaker 2: Then it comes back and he just picks it up
• 33:18
  Speaker 2: and shows it to her, and then I, yes, I.
• 33:22
  Speaker 4: Think that that feel that definitely feels like an improv
• 33:25
  Speaker 4: thing where they went out to eat one one time
• 33:28
  Speaker 4: and somebody was like, the hell is mayonnaise doing on
• 33:30
  Speaker 4: my hamburger right now?
• 33:31
  Speaker 3: That sort of thing, you know.
• 33:34
  Speaker 4: I think that, Uh, it's interesting because I think that
• 33:37
  Speaker 4: this this movie, I'm curious to know what, like you
• 33:41
  Speaker 4: guys think, where Lynn pops up. We've seen a few
• 33:44
  Speaker 4: of his movies by this point, where do you see
• 33:46
  Speaker 4: him in here?
• 33:47
  Speaker 1: Anywhere?
• 33:48
  Speaker 3: Could this have been done by anybody?
• 33:51
  Speaker 2: I honestly don't see Linn anywhere. Like even when you
• 33:55
  Speaker 2: look at the cinematography, Yeah, you know, even he's doing
• 33:59
  Speaker 2: something different. Even Franco is doing something a little different
• 34:02
  Speaker 2: than what he normally does. Like it's you see Dutch
• 34:05
  Speaker 2: angles for some reason, but it's not consistent, and it's
• 34:08
  Speaker 2: not when like things are tense or things are weird
• 34:11
  Speaker 2: or odd. It's just kind of random and it's Yeah,
• 34:17
  Speaker 2: I don't know. Maybe the pacing, the ensemble dynamic could
• 34:21
  Speaker 2: be Lynn.
• 34:22
  Speaker 4: But but yeah, I mean I think that I think
• 34:24
  Speaker 4: that's what we're struggling with, is like I think that
• 34:27
  Speaker 4: Lynn as a director, I think you're right in terms
• 34:31
  Speaker 4: of getting his ensemble to perform well.
• 34:33
  Speaker 3: Together.
• 34:34
  Speaker 4: That's his gift. And I think that what we three
• 34:39
  Speaker 4: sometimes do as we focus a lot on like where
• 34:41
  Speaker 4: do we you know? I know I do, well, we're
• 34:43
  Speaker 4: a director focused podcast. I'm like, where do I see?
• 34:46
  Speaker 4: And I'm like, I think that he's an invisible hand
• 34:49
  Speaker 4: in the sense that he can keep things moving on
• 34:51
  Speaker 4: schedule while giving people the freedom to goof around. And
• 34:55
  Speaker 4: maybe that explains the lack.
• 34:57
  Speaker 3: Of visual language.
• 34:58
  Speaker 4: Is it's like, if you're go let people improv and like,
• 35:02
  Speaker 4: it's not going to be set up for twelve hours
• 35:05
  Speaker 4: for a three minute shot. If people are going to
• 35:07
  Speaker 4: be improving, it's like, set up a durable scheme so
• 35:11
  Speaker 4: that we can just go back and riff a ton
• 35:14
  Speaker 4: of lines and the lighting is always right and we
• 35:16
  Speaker 4: can cut this really easy. Maybe that's his skill as
• 35:20
  Speaker 4: a director too, is knowing how to set it up
• 35:22
  Speaker 4: so that the ensemble can have fun with it and
• 35:26
  Speaker 4: they can they can just edit together the best takes.
• 35:29
  Speaker 1: Now, I think you're right because there's not a lot
• 35:32
  Speaker 1: of why. I mean, there obviously are wide shots and
• 35:36
  Speaker 1: things like that, but there's a lot of inner cutting.
• 35:38
  Speaker 1: There's a lot of singles and such. I think of
• 35:41
  Speaker 1: the scene where they're like hiding out in one of
• 35:44
  Speaker 1: the rooms and Matthew Perry sits down on the stack
• 35:47
  Speaker 1: of tires and it's kind of like not stable and
• 35:50
  Speaker 1: he's kind of leaning. But every other shot in that
• 35:53
  Speaker 1: sequence he's not in it. It's there's never a I mean,
• 35:57
  Speaker 1: maybe there's one wide shot of everybody in the room,
• 35:59
  Speaker 1: because does that make sense, Because if you're improvising, you
• 36:03
  Speaker 1: can't be like, Okay, now you got to sit there
• 36:06
  Speaker 1: half leaning over while we shoot everybody else's two shot
• 36:10
  Speaker 1: because you happen to be in the shot. No, they're
• 36:12
  Speaker 1: not going to do that. They're gonna But he created
• 36:16
  Speaker 1: these and then let them play.
• 36:19
  Speaker 2: It's shot like television, yes, except for except for the
• 36:23
  Speaker 2: Dutch angles, like when you have a lot of singles
• 36:24
  Speaker 2: and a lot of close ups. It's not shot like
• 36:26
  Speaker 2: a sitcom, but a shot like television.
• 36:29
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 36:29
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I didn't think about that until just now.
• 36:31
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 36:32
  Speaker 4: I agree with that. I think I think that's that's right,
• 36:36
  Speaker 4: that's spot on, that's spot on.
• 36:38
  Speaker 3: I think that. Yeah, you know. I So I'm just
• 36:42
  Speaker 3: trying I'm trying to go back through in my brain
• 36:45
  Speaker 3: right now.
• 36:46
  Speaker 4: And because the thing is, while we're sort of like
• 36:48
  Speaker 4: picking at things here and there. I would be curious
• 36:52
  Speaker 4: as to the whole Natasha Henstridge character. You know, Tulip's
• 36:58
  Speaker 4: ex wife or still wife but on the way to
• 37:03
  Speaker 4: ex wife sort of thing. I mean, does it land
• 37:06
  Speaker 4: like you know, Darren? Does it land for you like
• 37:09
  Speaker 4: particularly well? Is this necessary to the story or do
• 37:12
  Speaker 4: you think this was just invented to be like, Hey,
• 37:15
  Speaker 4: he's got to wind up with somebody at the end.
• 37:16
  Speaker 3: We can't have just him not have a girl.
• 37:20
  Speaker 1: I mean it kind of feels like that. It feels like, oh,
• 37:23
  Speaker 1: we need a happy ending for our main character. So,
• 37:26
  Speaker 1: but she has to also be integrated enough into the
• 37:29
  Speaker 1: story that she's actually gonna still be in the story
• 37:32
  Speaker 1: by the end. If it was just some person he
• 37:35
  Speaker 1: met on a dating website or whatever, then there's no
• 37:39
  Speaker 1: reason for her to be in this story. So but
• 37:43
  Speaker 1: if she's the ex wife of the killer, then yeah,
• 37:46
  Speaker 1: she's gonna be in every scene and it makes sense.
• 37:49
  Speaker 3: What about you, Tristan? Does it land well for you?
• 37:52
  Speaker 1: No?
• 37:53
  Speaker 2: I always thought that hinterests. I can't say her last name, Natasha.
• 37:59
  Speaker 2: We're in a free slam basis Natasha's character. I always
• 38:03
  Speaker 2: felt like it was kind of lacking, Like I never
• 38:05
  Speaker 2: really I'm not the biggest fan of hers. I don't
• 38:10
  Speaker 2: really feel like she's she brings anything to the table
• 38:12
  Speaker 2: that is uniquely hers. And that's probably unfair of me
• 38:17
  Speaker 2: to say, but it's it's kind of how I feel.
• 38:20
  Speaker 2: And I feel like her character could have been played
• 38:22
  Speaker 2: by almost any actress, like even Rosanna Arquette. Even though
• 38:26
  Speaker 2: we would have liked to have had less of her,
• 38:28
  Speaker 2: mainly because of the script, it's still she's still bringing
• 38:32
  Speaker 2: Arquette energy. Like everyone's bringing energy that is their own
• 38:36
  Speaker 2: to the character and to the movie, except for her.
• 38:39
  Speaker 2: I think she is the weakest link in terms of
• 38:43
  Speaker 2: acting chops, even though Arquette is the more annoying character.
• 38:47
  Speaker 4: I wouldn't go so far as to throw nat. I mean,
• 38:50
  Speaker 4: we're really close under the bus like that. I would
• 38:53
  Speaker 4: say that it really is she's not served well by
• 38:55
  Speaker 4: the character. I think that they don't quite know what
• 38:58
  Speaker 4: to do with the character.
• 38:59
  Speaker 2: I'll give you that. That's a much nicer read, and
• 39:01
  Speaker 2: I want to go with that.
• 39:02
  Speaker 1: Yeah, Victory, Well, well, and we've seen humor, you know,
• 39:08
  Speaker 1: I mean we just mentioned uh like rat race and
• 39:12
  Speaker 1: stuff like that, Like that's a nineties movie, nineties era
• 39:14
  Speaker 1: movie where you have unkind characters that are kind of
• 39:19
  Speaker 1: snooty and you don't like them. They're just really doubling
• 39:23
  Speaker 1: down on you want to hate the wife. It's like,
• 39:26
  Speaker 1: so everything she does is terrible. But I wanted to
• 39:29
  Speaker 1: talk a bit about Michael Clark Duncan because this feels
• 39:34
  Speaker 1: like a very interesting choice because it is literally the
• 39:37
  Speaker 1: next movie after The Green Mile. So you go from
• 39:42
  Speaker 1: this powerhouse role of John Coffee, like where you are
• 39:49
  Speaker 1: the emotional core of this movie, back to I'm the
• 39:54
  Speaker 1: man for hire. Yeah, I'm I'm he's got an he's
• 39:58
  Speaker 1: got a young I don't and I don't disparage it
• 40:02
  Speaker 1: at all. It's just interesting in just yeah, his career
• 40:06
  Speaker 1: is a is a career of heis and lows. My goodness, Well, I.
• 40:11
  Speaker 3: Think that I think that Duncan.
• 40:12
  Speaker 4: I always loved Duncan as an actor because he was
• 40:16
  Speaker 4: unafraid to do whatever, Like he would walk into any
• 40:20
  Speaker 4: role and be like, I'm going to just give this
• 40:22
  Speaker 4: everything I got. And I think he's giving everything he
• 40:25
  Speaker 4: has in here, and I think that to you know,
• 40:30
  Speaker 4: him coming to comedy right after The Green Mile is
• 40:33
  Speaker 4: in my view, no different than Bruce Willis coming to
• 40:36
  Speaker 4: comedy immediately after The Sixth Sense. It's sort of a declaration.
• 40:40
  Speaker 4: You know, nobody knows how big The Sixth Sense is
• 40:42
  Speaker 4: going to be when they're making it. Nobody knows how
• 40:44
  Speaker 4: big Green Mile is going to be. You know, while
• 40:47
  Speaker 4: they're making it, they can have maybe a sense that
• 40:49
  Speaker 4: it's like a good movie. They don't know how well
• 40:50
  Speaker 4: it's going to land. But it shows that absolute fearless
• 40:56
  Speaker 4: side of an actor to be like, you know what,
• 40:58
  Speaker 4: my next project is going to be a funny one,
• 41:00
  Speaker 4: and I'm just gonna keep you know, showing up my well.
• 41:03
  Speaker 2: I think it's also an issue with his body type.
• 41:08
  Speaker 2: You know, he's not He's not gonna get John Coffee
• 41:11
  Speaker 2: every single time. He's gonna get roles like the whole
• 41:13
  Speaker 2: nine Yards way more often than he is the Green Mile.
• 41:18
  Speaker 1: That's it does a lot of voice work, which makes sense.
• 41:20
  Speaker 4: So yeah, oh absolutely, what an amazing voice. But but
• 41:24
  Speaker 4: the thing is, I think that what's what's fascinating is
• 41:27
  Speaker 4: I wish he would have gotten even more John Coffee
• 41:30
  Speaker 4: rolls and kept getting the comedy roles because I think
• 41:33
  Speaker 4: that if anything, you know, he's got that he doesn't have.
• 41:38
  Speaker 4: He's never gonna get leading, he's never gonna get the
• 41:41
  Speaker 4: Oz character role, He's not going to get the Toolip
• 41:44
  Speaker 4: character role. But this movie is different without him. And
• 41:47
  Speaker 4: I think that if you had cast some other guys,
• 41:50
  Speaker 4: like let's say we we we mix it up and
• 41:52
  Speaker 4: we have Harland Williams playing his character, it's not it
• 41:55
  Speaker 4: doesn't Land as well. The the sort of playful menace
• 41:59
  Speaker 4: that he brings to it is so necessary and he's
• 42:03
  Speaker 4: able to sell it so well, and like, you know,
• 42:06
  Speaker 4: God rest his soul. I mean, it's like it's kind
• 42:08
  Speaker 4: of honestly really sad that two of the kids, two
• 42:12
  Speaker 4: of the actors in here.
• 42:14
  Speaker 2: I want to ask you about that, John, Like I'm
• 42:16
  Speaker 2: not asking I want to ask you specifically because you
• 42:18
  Speaker 2: saw this before and Darren was lazy and didn't see
• 42:21
  Speaker 2: it before.
• 42:22
  Speaker 3: That's true.
• 42:23
  Speaker 2: But Duncan's gone, Perry's gone, Willis is out of the game.
• 42:28
  Speaker 3: Yep.
• 42:30
  Speaker 2: Did you did that register to you while watching this?
• 42:34
  Speaker 3: Did it?
• 42:34
  Speaker 1: Did it register on a different emotional level or were
• 42:37
  Speaker 1: you able to.
• 42:39
  Speaker 4: Not really a different emotional level. But it's definitely one
• 42:41
  Speaker 4: of those things where it's like it really is a
• 42:43
  Speaker 4: passage of time sort of thing where it's like, you know,
• 42:47
  Speaker 4: in a perfect world, you know, all three of those
• 42:50
  Speaker 4: people are still super active in in the biz and
• 42:56
  Speaker 4: you know, releasing movies or at least in supporting roles,
• 42:59
  Speaker 4: and you know, yeah, it is. It's one of those
• 43:02
  Speaker 4: things where it's like it's it reminds you that twenty
• 43:05
  Speaker 4: six years is actually a pretty long time. It may
• 43:09
  Speaker 4: feel like yesterday, but a lot of time has gone by,
• 43:13
  Speaker 4: and you know, I mean, but at the same time,
• 43:16
  Speaker 4: you know, it's like I don't sit there watching it
• 43:19
  Speaker 4: getting all modeling about it or anything like that.
• 43:21
  Speaker 3: It's just like, all right, he's gone, ah bummer man, Yeah,
• 43:26
  Speaker 3: that sort of thing.
• 43:28
  Speaker 2: Now, Darren, because I'm hosting, you get to go first.
• 43:32
  Speaker 2: I want to know what is how many tattooed tulips
• 43:37
  Speaker 2: are you giving this movie? Because I know you're not
• 43:39
  Speaker 2: giving any half tattooed tulips. No unfinished work by the Inkman.
• 43:44
  Speaker 1: So it's inked in, it's got a little shading. It
• 43:47
  Speaker 1: is definitely a commitment. It's real subtle that way. No
• 43:50
  Speaker 1: one will recognize me like unlike any other movie where
• 43:54
  Speaker 1: you're a member of a crack commando squad during the war,
• 43:59
  Speaker 1: Green for anything like that, you always get the tattoo
• 44:02
  Speaker 1: and they always see right through you. I'm gonna give
• 44:05
  Speaker 1: it to Tulips. You know.
• 44:07
  Speaker 5: It's it's a Yeah, it's it's a. It's a it's
• 44:14
  Speaker 5: a movie. It is trying hard.
• 44:18
  Speaker 1: It's one of the movie is movies of all time. No,
• 44:22
  Speaker 1: I mean again, man, I keep coming back to it
• 44:25
  Speaker 1: with comedy. I can barely think of any lines from
• 44:29
  Speaker 1: this movie like there is there are moments, obviously, and
• 44:32
  Speaker 1: there are are are jokes and things like that, but
• 44:36
  Speaker 1: it's just not my cup of tea. It's why was,
• 44:38
  Speaker 1: to your quote, lazy and chose not to watch this
• 44:41
  Speaker 1: movie yet in my life. So I'm giving it to Tulips.
• 44:47
  Speaker 2: John, how many? How many random flies in the scene?
• 44:52
  Speaker 2: Are you giving this movie? A side note? So, so,
• 44:57
  Speaker 2: the house that they were shooting in was swarming with
• 45:02
  Speaker 2: flies and they couldn't get rid of them, and so
• 45:04
  Speaker 2: that's why they pop up every once in a while
• 45:06
  Speaker 2: in the shots because they couldn't like there was they
• 45:09
  Speaker 2: hardly could find a take where there wasn't flies in there,
• 45:12
  Speaker 2: so they had to just go with it, which is
• 45:14
  Speaker 2: such I relate to that on such an intimate level,
• 45:18
  Speaker 2: like coming from video production where you just sometimes you
• 45:20
  Speaker 2: just got to go screw it. Fine, the house has flies,
• 45:25
  Speaker 2: it's making it to the picture, you know.
• 45:27
  Speaker 1: Where there's not a fly on a boat. Let's do
• 45:29
  Speaker 1: a seat on a boat out in the water. Oh
• 45:32
  Speaker 1: than the mosquitoes, I guess. Yeah.
• 45:35
  Speaker 2: So Darren, so John, how many flies are you giving
• 45:37
  Speaker 2: this one?
• 45:38
  Speaker 4: Well, on the way to the number of flies that
• 45:40
  Speaker 4: I'm going to give this movie, I am going to
• 45:42
  Speaker 4: say that Amanda Pete is terrific in this film.
• 45:45
  Speaker 1: She truly is so two flies one for never one.
• 45:48
  Speaker 4: So I think that she's wonderful. But I do, before
• 45:52
  Speaker 4: we step out, want to say that I think that
• 45:56
  Speaker 4: there were so many more tasteful ways that they could
• 45:58
  Speaker 4: have shot the nudity in the film, including from behind.
• 46:05
  Speaker 4: She did not need to be fully on display. And
• 46:07
  Speaker 4: I'm not saying that as a prude. I'm saying that
• 46:10
  Speaker 4: as the camera like. She is exposed for long enough
• 46:17
  Speaker 4: that I'm kind of like it. It feels prurient the
• 46:21
  Speaker 4: way that they do it, But I don't know that
• 46:25
  Speaker 4: it was necessary to shoot it that way.
• 46:29
  Speaker 3: I think that you could still.
• 46:30
  Speaker 4: Get the mood and the impression of it without that,
• 46:36
  Speaker 4: and like it's just I don't know. I mean, it's like,
• 46:39
  Speaker 4: I'm sure there are people that disagree with me, and
• 46:41
  Speaker 4: they can and that's fine, but whatever I do come
• 46:45
  Speaker 4: in slightly better than Darren. Comedy is very subjective, but
• 46:51
  Speaker 4: for me, there weren't a lot of laughs in it
• 46:53
  Speaker 4: this time. So I went up coming in at two
• 46:56
  Speaker 4: and a half because I'm a sane person and I
• 46:58
  Speaker 4: think half stars exist, So two and a half from.
• 47:02
  Speaker 2: Me, Oh, you guys are killing me, man. I think
• 47:07
  Speaker 2: this movie is great. I really do. I watched this
• 47:10
  Speaker 2: all the time in college. I watched it when it
• 47:12
  Speaker 2: came out, I watched it on repeat in college. I
• 47:15
  Speaker 2: got so many parts of this memorized. I think this
• 47:19
  Speaker 2: is very quotable. I think this is really funny. I
• 47:22
  Speaker 2: think Bruce Willis brings his a game, his comedic chops.
• 47:26
  Speaker 2: I do think there's structural issues. I think there's definite
• 47:29
  Speaker 2: script issues, but I'm legitimately giving this four stars. I'm
• 47:34
  Speaker 2: giving this four stars. I think this is really funny.
• 47:37
  Speaker 2: I think it earned the audience rating, it earned the
• 47:41
  Speaker 2: money that it got. This is something that I am
• 47:44
  Speaker 2: going to watch again, regardless of the script issues, especially
• 47:48
  Speaker 2: this stuff at the end that I already talked about.
• 47:50
  Speaker 1: But I want to marry you more than any Wins
• 47:51
  Speaker 1: ever wanted to marry anyone in the the world.
• 47:54
  Speaker 2: Oh and also when Bruce Willis threatened the waiter saying,
• 48:00
  Speaker 2: if you put mayonnaise on the burger, I'm gonna like
• 48:03
  Speaker 2: come to your house and cut off your legs and
• 48:05
  Speaker 2: watch you bleed to death.
• 48:06
  Speaker 1: Something like that.
• 48:07
  Speaker 2: Don't fight Club taught us in ninety nine in the
• 48:09
  Speaker 2: year before that you don't mess with people who prepare
• 48:11
  Speaker 2: your food. Very true, very true. So but I still
• 48:15
  Speaker 2: give this four stars. I think this is really funny
• 48:18
  Speaker 2: and this is worth it, and I think Matthew Perry
• 48:20
  Speaker 2: and Bruce Willis have great chemistry. And even though the
• 48:24
  Speaker 2: sequel was nowhere near as good, and even Kevin Pollack
• 48:27
  Speaker 2: called it a disaster, it was nice to see them
• 48:30
  Speaker 2: together again. So I'm giving this four stars. Now, Darren,
• 48:33
  Speaker 2: we're switching gears, We're changing houses. What are we doing
• 48:37
  Speaker 2: next week?
• 48:38
  Speaker 1: That's right, the House of Jonathan Lynn is over and
• 48:41
  Speaker 1: we're moving on to Nancy Myers. We're going to be
• 48:44
  Speaker 1: covering the nineteen ninety eight remake The Parent Trap next
• 48:49
  Speaker 1: on House Lights, Join the Revolution, Join the net Party,