Latest / Fumbling Through Film / r/Movies Recommends: Sneakers (1992)

Transcript

r/Movies Recommends: Sneakers (1992) · Fumbling Through Film

• 0:00
  Gather together from the cosmic reaches of the universe. Here in this great screening room with comfortable recliners are the most powerful forces of good ever assembled.
• 0:10
  Keith. He does some like, uh, shake your ass.
• 0:15
  Terry.
• 0:16
  They're like, what do you mean freak phones? Oh, you know, PHR. Yeah, like, wait, what?
• 0:21
  Derek.
• 0:22
  I try not to, except for this one moment. I'll edit this out as well.
• 0:26
  And the power twins, Zap and Jordan, with their magical lemur snort dedicated Welcome back to Fumbling Their Way Through Movies, one forgotten gem at a time.
• 0:34
  This week we watch the 1982 espionage action comedy Sneakers.
• 0:39
  This is Fumbling Through Film. You give me the box right now, or I will kill you right now.
• 0:46
  No. Jesus! Just give me the box, Marty. I thought you couldn't kill your friend, Koz! I missed on purpose! Now give me the box! Take the goddamn thing! I don't want it! You win, I lose! That's what you want, isn't it? Say it! Say it! Yes! I'm sorry, Koz. You could have shared this with me. I know. You could have had the power. I don't want it.
• 1:24
  Don't you know the places we can go with this?
• 1:27
  Yeah, I do. There's nobody there.
• 1:29
  Exactly. The world isn't run by weapons anymore, or energy, or money. It's run by little ones and zeros, little bits of data. It's all just electrons.
• 1:38
  I don't care.
• 1:39
  I don't expect other people to understand this, but I do expect you to understand this. We started this journey together.
• 1:48
  It wasn't a journey, Kaz. It was a prank.
• 1:54
  Hello and welcome to another one of a kind, genre-defining, brand new episode of Fumbling Through Film, the only show I guarantee dares to bring together 3 dudes to talk about movies. These aren't just any movies though. Could be, maybe. Well, I'll let you decide. These are the movies that we either missed, overlooked, or feel are simply worth revisiting. I'll answer for you. That's any movie.
• 2:25
  No, let the listeners decide.
• 2:27
  I know. No, no, I don't think we want— I don't want— I'm not sure I want to give the listener that much, uh, power.
• 2:31
  That much power? Listen, Keith, I give the listener that much credit. They'll be on my side.
• 2:35
  No, I think they'll agree with me, actually.
• 2:40
  My name is Derek and I'm a fumbler. Joining me here at the Fumbledome, the, the most argumentative place about what type of movies we watch on the face of the earth. Is the Prime Minister of Fumbling and Film, Keith.
• 2:54
  Hey, hey, what's up, KG? Um, fumbler extraordinaire.
• 2:59
  Like I caught you off guard.
• 3:01
  Uh,
• 3:01
  you could have told me. Oh shit. Oh my God, it's like when you get called on in class.
• 3:06
  Oh, uh, Keith wasn't looking at me and I still called out.
• 3:10
  I was, uh, I was passing a note to Terry and he caught me. I wasn't paying attention.
• 3:15
  Do you like me, yes or no?
• 3:17
  Will you go to prom with me?
• 3:26
  Keith?
• 3:26
  No.
• 3:27
  No?
• 3:30
  What, you won't go to prom with Terry?
• 3:32
  You won't go to prom with me?
• 3:34
  No.
• 3:34
  Door's open for me. That other dateless guy to the prom right now is the Dr. Dre of Kansas, Terry.
• 3:44
  Hi everybody, I got stood up at the prom. I guess I didn't get stood up. He did clearly say no. I guess that's not really—
• 3:51
  Hey, if there's any listeners out there, uh, that are going to the prom, uh, in spring, uh, let us know. Terry's available.
• 3:58
  Oh yeah, yeah, I'll go to any prom invites. Yeah, it's not weird. No, no, invite this 30-year-old man over 30.
• 4:06
  Don't, don't leave the door. Don't— yeah, don't even suggest you'll go to prom, Terry.
• 4:11
  That's right. I won't, I won't, I won't go to prom with anybody. It's ruined. Everything's ruined. I'm not going.
• 4:16
  Prom's dumb anyway.
• 4:19
  It's lame. Why would I go? It's just for a bunch of losers. Like, come on.
• 4:24
  That's true.
• 4:24
  You know, this is for losers.
• 4:26
  What, this podcast?
• 4:29
  This podcast.
• 4:31
  Oh yeah, there we go.
• 4:32
  And what we do here—
• 4:33
  So you know what, my, my, my like thing is telling people, you know, to check in with Terry, but no way listening to us was gonna go to prom anyways.
• 4:40
  Yeah, that's true. A bunch of dateless nerds listen to us. Oh, but let's tell those dateless nerds what it is we do here. Every month, one of us, uh, we watch movies, but not just any movie. Every month, one of us comes up with a theme, a genre, some sort of guiding light, a satellite to bounce their phone call off of.
• 5:04
  Mm, yes.
• 5:05
  Oh yeah, true.
• 5:06
  And then each of us picks a movie that bounces off that satellite that makes it impossible to trace. And then on the 4th week, we bounce a bunch of things off of a satellite and we watch a movie that was given to us randomly by a wheel that hates us all.
• 5:24
  Some more than others.
• 5:26
  Yeah,
• 5:28
  some more than others. That is true. Anyway, this month was me month and I came up with, I came up with not just any movie. How about a movie you haven't watched before? You've never seen before, but not just any movie you've never seen before. I posted on Reddit and I said, hey Reddit, what are movies that when you find out people haven't seen, you just have to make sure they see, right? You pitch it real hard. And I got like tons of responses, like 500 responses, which basically makes me a celebrity.
• 5:56
  You went viral. Internet exploded.
• 5:59
  And out of those, I chose the first week, The Fall. And then Keith had for this week, he chose Sneakers. Sneakers from— was like 1992? Is that what it is? '92, '93?
• 6:14
  September 11th. I can't believe you forgot.
• 6:16
  Oh, is that when it came on? September 11th, 1982 though? I mean, it was—
• 6:21
  yeah, there wasn't a—
• 6:22
  was it September 11th?
• 6:24
  All
• 6:24
  right, anyway, I mean, how could I forget,
• 6:27
  right? That's what I was thinking.
• 6:29
  But anyway, before we do a deep dive into Sneakers Before we talk about our viewing of Sneakers, did any of us have any previous experience with or knowledge of Sneakers?
• 6:44
  Uh, I mean, I mentioned this briefly, uh, when I picked it last week. Um, you know, I've been, I've been married for 16 years now. At least once a year it comes up, this movie comes up, and I mention how I haven't seen it. My wife goes, what, you've never seen that? And then we do it that same conversation over each year. And, uh, so I was like, you know what, it's on this list, I'm gonna go ahead and, uh, finally cross this one off.
• 7:09
  Nice.
• 7:10
  Yeah, that's— I'd never heard of it. I assumed it was about shoes, but it was not.
• 7:16
  Fair.
• 7:16
  Yeah.
• 7:18
  Now I'm gonna be honest, I thought I had seen this movie, but I'm gonna be 100% real, I always mistake this movie With another one, and I and I want to say I mistake it with something totally absolutely not even close in the same ballpark as far as movies go. Flatliners. Flatliners.
• 7:44
  Flatliners.
• 7:45
  Oh, okay. That wasn't what I was gonna guess.
• 7:47
  I think it's because it's the single word ends with ERS title.
• 7:53
  Okay. Okay.
• 7:54
  I know
• 7:55
  that sounds a lot of similar things in there.
• 7:58
  But here's the thing, I even Google searched on this too. I was like, what are movies that are similar in tone to Sneakers that would be easily confused for Sneakers?
• 8:10
  Flatliners?
• 8:12
  Flatliners was not one of them, but that's what I think I always confuse this movie with. Not because I forgot what Flatliners was, but because I thought Sneakers— like, I don't know, like there's just something I thought it was a movie it wasn't, and it— I've never seen it before. After—
• 8:30
  I thought you were gonna say, uh, Top Secret.
• 8:33
  No. Well, I know it's not Top Secret.
• 8:36
  No, but that's what—
• 8:37
  that's what I thought you were gonna say. That's like a farcical—
• 8:39
  like, I, I looked at the movie Hackers, but I've never seen that before either. Like, there's some— a movie that I thought this was, but it clearly wasn't because all— everything was new to me.
• 8:51
  Somehow your brain made a weird connection these things, and now it's just always been there.
• 8:56
  Because Flightliners has Kevin Bacon in it, right? And Julia Roberts, and they die and they come back.
• 9:00
  They come back.
• 9:01
  I remember it being a very cool—
• 9:02
  Yeah,
• 9:04
  I don't
• 9:04
  know, they like to die, they like to return from the dead.
• 9:07
  Yeah, I remember liking that movie, but I know this is not it because I knew this was about computer hacking, right? Like, but it's not even about computer hacking, so like, there you go.
• 9:18
  Yeah, that's my— I think they've come out around the same time, I guess, you know, similar times.
• 9:24
  My wife tried to explain it to my younger— my younger, or, uh, well, my older son. He— she was like, uh, what do you— or she asked if he wanted to watch it. He's like, what's it about? She's like, well, it's kind of like Ocean's Eleven, which we then realized he's never seen Ocean's Eleven. So it was kind of a moot point there. And I was like, I don't think it's anything like Ocean's Eleven, but okay.
• 9:43
  Yeah, I was gonna say, like, I mean, I think just there's a team,
• 9:47
  there's a— and there's a heist of some sort.
• 9:49
  It's a heist.
• 9:49
  At least that one part. Yeah,
• 9:51
  before you talk about that heist at some part, Keith is going to take us dangerously close to the world of sneakers, closer than we could ever imagine.
• 10:00
  I think you guys might have imagined a lot closer, but okay.
• 10:04
  Like I, I was in the sneaker, my foot was in there.
• 10:08
  Oh yeah, I get close to sneakers almost every day, so I'm just—
• 10:11
  Every day?
• 10:12
  How much closer can I get?
• 10:13
  I don't call athletic shoes sneakers though, like At all.
• 10:17
  They're just shoes. I call them trainers.
• 10:20
  I'm trainers.
• 10:21
  Trainers. Yeah, those things are the— where the Brits have better words than us.
• 10:26
  Yes. Anywho, uh, Keith's gonna take us closer to trainers than we'd ever thought possible in another Patent Pending Fumblers deep dive.
• 10:35
  All right, well, Sneakers is, uh, PG-13, 2 hours and 6 minutes. Probably one of the longer movies.
• 10:45
  It was a long one. Yeah,
• 10:46
  yeah. Even, um, even in regular speed, unlike Wake and Fright a few weeks back. Uh, yep. Uh, we could tell you what it's about, but then of course we'd have to kill you.
• 10:58
  Is that the tagline for this movie?
• 10:59
  Yes, it is.
• 11:00
  That's the tagline?
• 11:01
  Oh, it's one, it's one of, it's one of 2 taglines, and I'll be honest, the other one was stupid also.
• 11:07
  Oh, this— that was really bad.
• 11:11
  Yeah, um, especially because once you look— once you see the movie, it doesn't really make—
• 11:15
  doesn't really apply.
• 11:16
  Yeah, no, it does.
• 11:18
  Yeah, kind of, but like, it's not as— it's not so obvious, you know? It's not like, oh, of course. It's like, I guess, you know?
• 11:25
  Yeah. I think it's the other one is actually the one that's on the, the actual poster as well, and that's a burglar, a spy, a fugitive, a delinquent, a hacker, and a piano teacher. Are these the good guys?
• 11:38
  Okay,
• 11:39
  yeah,
• 11:39
  that's bad.
• 11:41
  And, uh, the last one was, to trust can be murder.
• 11:45
  That's better.
• 11:46
  Yeah, that might be the best. Still, still kind of— or yeah, I
• 11:50
  should just put like, it's not about shoes. That's what it should say.
• 11:54
  Yeah, it's not what you think.
• 11:57
  Nope. All right, so this movie, uh, came out on September 11th, 1992. That'd make it 33 years, 1 month, and 21 days as time is recording. It is a millennial Virgo in a leap year version of the Year of the Monkey.
• 12:12
  Leap year. Wow.
• 12:13
  It opened at number 1 at the box office with about $10 million and ended up making approximately $51.4 million. Otherwise known as $140.1 million with inflation.
• 12:24
  Certified box office hit.
• 12:27
  Yeah. Yeah. It was number 1 for 2 weeks in a row and then just kind of slowly trailed off from there.
• 12:33
  Sure.
• 12:33
  Yep. A security pro finds his past returning to haunt him when he and his unique team are tasked with retrieving a particularly important item. Um, when the theatrical trailer came out, uh, the cast members' names were first presented all as anagrams. Um, they do this a little bit, and they did it for Robert Redford, and I think that they did it for like the guys who wrote and directed it in the beginning of the actual thing here. Um, but, uh, they did anagrams, which comes up later on. Uh, but Robert Redford is Fort Red Border. Uh, Dan Aykroyd was a York Dandy. Uh, Ben Kingsley was Kneel by Sting. Uh, Carney Mendemal—
• 13:15
  Kneel by Sting? That'd be funny.
• 13:17
  Yeah.
• 13:17
  Oh, by Sting. Oh, I thought it was by Sting.
• 13:20
  No,
• 13:22
  never
• 13:22
  mind.
• 13:23
  Uh, Carney, bassist.
• 13:24
  Like a lost album by Sting. Yeah, or The Police. Kneel.
• 13:28
  It's like King Neil. You have to kneel. Neil, next to him.
• 13:32
  Uh, Carny Menmal was for Mary McDonald. Uh, I Edit Spin Your was for Sydney Portier. Add Variant Thirds for David, uh, Shredder Heron. And Ryan— Ryovan Ernip was for River Phoenix. Wow. All the rest of them seem to make a little bit of sense. That one, uh—
• 13:53
  That was River Phoenix. I forgot about that. All right.
• 13:56
  Yeah. Yeah. All right. This movie is written and directed by Phil Alden Robinson. Now he is an Oscar nominated, uh, for writing. Uh, he wrote the screenplay based on, uh, material from another medium. I do believe that's now referred to as, uh, best adapted screenplay for the, uh, the movie Field of Dreams, which he also directed.
• 14:17
  Oh, he directed Field of Dreams too. Yeah.
• 14:20
  Mm-hmm. Yes. He directed, uh, Sum of All Fears, which is the Ben Affleck Uh, Jack Ryan.
• 14:26
  Yep.
• 14:27
  He's uncredited for his work on the screenplay for Fletch.
• 14:31
  Oh.
• 14:32
  Uh, which is the one that, that I like a lot. Uh, but in 1990, under, uh, it says as Chris Reece instead of his name Phil Alvin Robinson, uh, he wrote a screenplay for a film that was directed by Sidney Poitier. A widowed father tries to support his children after he becomes a ghost in an accident.
• 14:54
  Oh,
• 14:55
  it's Ghost Dad starring Bill Cosby.
• 14:57
  Ghost Dad? Yeah. That's a real movie?
• 15:00
  Yes, it is. Yeah. I didn't know it was directed by Sidney Poitier, um, until now. And I just also found it weird that like all the rest of the guy's movies like either list him as like Phil Alden Robinson, or I think it's like— I think there's one other name, but it's also— it's like Phil something Robinson. Uh, but this one he used Chris Reeve.
• 15:18
  There's a reason, I imagine.
• 15:20
  They want to be associated with Ghost Dad?
• 15:23
  No, probably not.
• 15:24
  Yeah, no, I don't think so. Additional writing credits go to Lawrence Lasker and Walter F. Parks. Uh, these guys were nominated in 1984 for an Oscar for the best screenplay for the movie WarGames. A young man finds a back door into a military central computer in which reality is confused with game playing, possibly starting World War III. Sorry, Matthew Broderick and Dabney Coleman.
• 15:52
  Dabney Coleman.
• 15:53
  And asks him if he wants to play a game of chess, and that's supposed to like lead to like blowing up nuclear stuff. So then they end up playing tic-tac-toe, I think, a bunch of times until they realize they can't win the game, and that's why it stops.
• 16:08
  Yeah, I see. It's, you know, they needed a crossover with Jigsaw from Saw. Or games versus Jigsaw. That'd be cool.
• 16:17
  Until he just realizes not to play the game anymore.
• 16:19
  Mm-hmm. The only way to win Jigsaw's games is just, just don't play. Well, actually, you'll still die if you do that.
• 16:24
  Yeah. Yeah.
• 16:26
  Well, maybe that you just— do you die more quickly?
• 16:30
  Probably. Rather than like trying to chop my eye out to get a key or something, I just let the thing crush my head. It's probably faster that way.
• 16:38
  Yeah. Yeah.
• 16:38
  At least I'll die peaceful. Well, Less, more peacefully.
• 16:41
  Those guys also do a lot of, uh, producing for movies. I think they were a producer on this, um, producer on WarGames as well.
• 16:48
  Nice.
• 16:50
  Yep. Now the main star of this movie is Robert Redford, who, uh, just died a little bit earlier this year.
• 16:57
  Yes, he did.
• 16:58
  He is an actor and director. Uh, he actually won, uh, the Oscar in his directorial debut for Ordinary People. Which I heard is a really, really good movie, but it's also, I think, very controversial because of the fact that it beat out something really good by, uh, Scorsese.
• 17:14
  Raging Bull. It's, it's not—
• 17:16
  oh,
• 17:16
  it's not, uh, controversial because of that. It's not controversial at all.
• 17:20
  Uh, well, people, uh, the more ordinary people in the world might remember him as playing Alexander Pierce in Captain America: Winter Soldier.
• 17:29
  Oh yeah, of course.
• 17:32
  Uh, he also makes Demi Moore a very indecent proposal.
• 17:35
  He, she, he didn't— did he make it to her or was it to her husband? Who was her husband?
• 17:40
  Yeah, he makes it to the couple.
• 17:42
  Yeah.
• 17:43
  Isn't Woody Harrelson the husband?
• 17:44
  I think so. Yeah.
• 17:45
  Yeah. Uh, he is the Woodward of the duo Woodward and Bernstein in All the President's Men, a movie I do believe I watched because I did not want to read the book when we were in high school. Or I got really behind on reading the books, so I just watched the movie instead, and I don't remember much about it outside of those are the guys who, uh, broke the Watergate story. Uh, he did get a Best Supporting Actor nomination, uh, for playing Johnny Hooker in The Sting.
• 18:12
  Mm-hmm.
• 18:13
  And I think one of the roles that everyone knows him probably the most for is opposite, um, Paul Newman's Butch Cassidy in Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. which is the titular Sundance Kid.
• 18:25
  That's supposed to be an amazing movie. Never seen
• 18:28
  it. I saw it once, like a long time ago, and I remember being good and probably should watch again at some point in time.
• 18:36
  All right.
• 18:37
  Yep. Now, uh, he's got a bunch of other credits out there, and obviously he's a legend in Hollywood. But in 1984, he stars in what is, uh, probably one of my favorite movies. It's my favorite baseball movie, even though we didn't cover it Oh, I didn't cover it during baseball season. Uh, no, no, no, no, that was Kevin Costner. Uh, he plays Roy Hobbs in The Natural.
• 19:00
  Yeah,
• 19:00
  middle-aged. Yeah, middle-aged unknown comes seemingly out of nowhere to become a legendary baseball player with almost supernatural talent. Very good movie. I like it a
• 19:09
  lot. Wonder Boy. Yep.
• 19:11
  Yeah, he gets the— don't spoil it for Terry. It's a tree or something like that.
• 19:17
  Don't spoil it for Terry.
• 19:19
  Spoilers.
• 19:20
  Yeah, it's a really good baseball movie.
• 19:23
  Yes.
• 19:24
  And I don't even think you have to like baseball to appreciate it.
• 19:26
  No.
• 19:27
  Okay, that's good. That's good to hear.
• 19:30
  I mean, if you like baseball, it adds to it, you know.
• 19:34
  Cue it up, Terry.
• 19:35
  Yep, I'll watch it right now. All right, I'll be right back. Give me, I don't know, an hour and 40 minutes, however long it is.
• 19:41
  I think it's— I think it's like a 2-hour movie.
• 19:43
  It's like 3 hours 15.
• 19:44
  Yeah.
• 19:45
  Oh, it's a baseball epic.
• 19:47
  It's a bit— it's a bit long.
• 19:48
  It's back when baseball games used to take 3 hours. It's,
• 19:51
  it's, it's all real time.
• 19:53
  Yeah, there was no pitch clock on these guys.
• 19:55
  You still have to like watch the, you know, his origin story and stuff, and then you finally get to the game that's a 3-hour game. He's not even playing half the time. Yeah,
• 20:04
  they do it in flashbacks.
• 20:05
  Yeah, again, I don't want— I, again, I don't wanna, uh, I don't wanna spoil anything, but I think there is a bit of an origin story thing in there as well. So, oh, um, yeah, anyway, origin story for
• 20:15
  who?
• 20:17
  For him. Oh, Redford.
• 20:19
  Robert Redford. Yes,
• 20:20
  it's his origin story.
• 20:22
  Uh, I played on a, uh, I played on a, uh, softball team for, uh, one of the companies I used to work for back in like the early 2000s. And, uh, I got, uh, Hobbs put on the back of my jersey.
• 20:33
  Like Calvin and—
• 20:35
  Well, or Roy.
• 20:38
  Hobbs and Shaw, I believe, is what—
• 20:39
  or Hobbs and Shaw.
• 20:41
  Oh yeah, yeah, that could, that could work as well, man. And now that movie's been mentioned, So it's available for the wheel. Excellent.
• 20:46
  If I don't write it down, it doesn't.
• 20:48
  I wrote it down already. Um, this movie also stars, uh, Sidney Poitier, AKA Sir Sidney Poitier.
• 20:55
  Oh, he's a sir.
• 20:57
  Yes.
• 20:57
  Knighted.
• 20:58
  Yes, yes, yes. Uh, in 1964, he became the first African American to win Best Actor.
• 21:03
  Indeed.
• 21:04
  Uh, Oscar, and the only one until Denzel Washington got it 38 years later.
• 21:10
  Yes.
• 21:11
  Wow. And that was for a movie, uh, from 1963 called Lilies of the Field, where a traveling handyman becomes the answer to the prayers of nuns who wish to build a chapel in the desert.
• 21:20
  Silly nuns.
• 21:23
  Why would they do that?
• 21:24
  And, uh, that, that win was, uh, came 5 years after he became the first African American to be nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actor, uh, at all in 1959. And that was for the 1958 movie The Defiant Ones.
• 21:37
  Is that a war movie?
• 21:38
  Sounds like it.
• 21:39
  Let's say yes, because I forgot to write down what that was. Uh, in 1967, uh, he starred in, uh, the original version of Guess Who's Coming to Dinner. Uh, a white couple's attitudes are challenged when their daughter introduces them to her Black fiancé. Uh, starring Spencer Tracy and Katharine Hepburn. Katharine Hepburn actually won the Oscar in 1968 for this movie.
• 22:06
  Okay, nice.
• 22:06
  And it was later remade with, um, Pauly Shore? No, uh, uh, Kutcher. Uh, Ashton Kutcher.
• 22:14
  Ashton.
• 22:15
  Yeah. And he's— he comes to dinner with— I don't remember who's playing the dad, but it's not— it's not good.
• 22:21
  Bernie Mac,
• 22:22
  probably. Yes, I'm gonna say yes.
• 22:25
  Bernie Mac himself played the dad. Yeah, I think that's interesting.
• 22:29
  Well, and— and I mentioned this, um, when we did Wake and Fright that, you know, Donald Pleasence has his signature character. And, uh, we know that, uh, you know, Doc Brown is a signature character for people. But, uh, Sidney Poitier, uh, apparently has his signature character, and that is Virgil Tibbs. He originally plays him in 1967's The Heat of the Night.
• 22:50
  Mm-hmm.
• 22:52
  Comes back with the solo film in 1970 called They Call Me Mr. Tibbs. which I do believe is his, uh, like his catchphrase from The Heat of the Night. And then he returns again in 1971 with The Organization, still as Detective Virgil Tibbs.
• 23:09
  Mr. Tibbs? I've never heard of this Tibbs guy.
• 23:11
  Me neither.
• 23:13
  Yeah, The Heat of the Night went on to have a, uh, a long-running TV show as well.
• 23:16
  Really?
• 23:18
  Wow.
• 23:18
  Yeah, must be pretty popular.
• 23:20
  I believe it starred—
• 23:21
  Oh, the dude from All in the Family.
• 23:22
  All in the Family. Yeah, I can't think of his name. His Whatever that guy's name is.
• 23:27
  Archie Bunker.
• 23:28
  Archie Bunker. Yeah,
• 23:29
  of
• 23:30
  course.
• 23:30
  What is this? What is his name? It don't matter.
• 23:32
  Yeah, I can't think of it either. And then this movie stars a handful of other people, um, that a lot of them I mentioned before. Uh, David, uh, Statharian, um, plays a blind guy who's very good at, uh, he has very good hearing.
• 23:51
  Yeah,
• 23:51
  because he's blind.
• 23:52
  He's kind of a little almost Daredevil-esque, uh, to some extent, uh, as he's really able to like
• 23:59
  heighten,
• 23:59
  figure things out. Yeah, I mean, he can even drive. Uh, speaking of heightened senses, got Dan Aykroyd, um, who's a bunch of, uh, classic comedy movies— Ghostbusters, uh, The Great Outdoors, etc.—
• 24:12
  who is actually like a real-life conspiracy nut too.
• 24:15
  Yes, he is. So I think he seems very at home probably with his character.
• 24:19
  Yeah, not like the QAnon conspiracy, more like the alien conspiracy theories. Oh,
• 24:25
  that's a little more
• 24:26
  entertaining because he's got, he's got a, uh, a vodka line, doesn't he, called like Crystal Skull Vodka?
• 24:33
  Oh yes, I've seen that, I've seen that.
• 24:36
  Yeah, it's based upon the Crystal Skull whatever that Indiana Jones movie was based upon too. Yeah, um,
• 24:42
  based
• 24:43
  his vodka off Indiana Jones, or
• 24:44
  wait, no, there's like a The crystal skull conspiracy, I have no idea.
• 24:50
  Oh, it's like—
• 24:51
  it's the same thing that Indiana Jones was based upon as well too.
• 24:54
  They found like an alien skull made of crystal or
• 24:57
  something like that. Yeah,
• 24:58
  had psychic powers and
• 25:00
  something like that. Yeah,
• 25:02
  and drank out of it.
• 25:04
  Yeah, drank out of it, and then aliens,
• 25:05
  yeah,
• 25:06
  broke your brain. Yeah.
• 25:07
  Yeah, and I'll be honest, like, I actually was Surprised. Like, he looks very, very young in this movie. Like, younger than he even does in, you know, like Ghostbusters and stuff like that. It's just— I don't know why, he just seemed to, uh, very young looking in this movie. It's amazing.
• 25:26
  Yeah, yeah, youth to him. He looked like a young guy.
• 25:30
  Yeah.
• 25:30
  Yeah. His name is Mother.
• 25:32
  Yes, it is.
• 25:34
  His name is Mother. Yeah, weirdly.
• 25:37
  Uh, this also has, uh, Mary McDonnell in it. Derek, one of your favorites, Donald Logue, is in this movie.
• 25:44
  As who?
• 25:45
  He's the mathematician dude in the—
• 25:48
  Oh, really? The doctor.
• 25:51
  Nice.
• 25:51
  And then, as we mentioned earlier, and Derek, you didn't recognize him as well, but Sir Ben Kingsley.
• 25:58
  No, I did not recognize. I sat there, is that Ralph Fiennes? No, it's not Ralph Fiennes. I couldn't figure out who it was.
• 26:06
  And I will say the— because there's young versions of, um, the, the 2 guys, uh, Cosmo and, and Bishop, the young versions are actually really good, uh, casting as well. Yeah, yeah.
• 26:20
  Uh,
• 26:22
  I, I thought, uh,
• 26:23
  I thought I could immediately tell which one was young Robert Redford too.
• 26:26
  Yeah,
• 26:27
  yeah,
• 26:28
  his
• 26:28
  mustache, the blonde hair and the mustache. Yeah,
• 26:31
  yeah. Those are a little— those are a little on point, uh, there. And, uh, this movie also stars River Phoenix, who, uh, I mean, the main 2 things I know him from are Stand By Me, and he also plays young Indiana Jones at the beginning of The Last Crusade.
• 26:47
  Oh, okay.
• 26:49
  Yeah. Now, uh, speaking of young Martin and young Cosmo, uh, when they attempt their initial prank at the beginning of the movie The facade building scene is the famous Hill Valley clock tower from Back to the Future.
• 27:02
  Oh, look at that!
• 27:04
  It all comes back.
• 27:05
  Were they in Hill Valley when they did it?
• 27:07
  I have no idea.
• 27:09
  Wouldn't that be something
• 27:10
  if it was in the universe?
• 27:12
  Mm-hmm.
• 27:13
  That would be awesome. Yeah, that would be
• 27:16
  like it would make sense for some way this movie goes too.
• 27:18
  Mm-hmm.
• 27:20
  Oh sure. Yeah.
• 27:21
  Yep. Professor Len Edelman. Uh, he's one of 3 mathematicians who invented the RSA cryptosystem. He's the A in RSA, currently the preeminent method of encrypting any form of data in the world. Uh, he served as a mathematical consultant on this movie.
• 27:39
  There was a mathematical consultant?
• 27:42
  They felt the need to get a mathematical consultant?
• 27:44
  Yeah.
• 27:44
  For what? For the, for the whiteboard?
• 27:46
  For that guy talking?
• 27:48
  Well, he, yeah, he actually wrote all the stuff on the whiteboard. Yes.
• 27:51
  So that, all right.
• 27:52
  He actually spent time putting that whole thing together.
• 27:55
  I feel bad for him unless he got paid. I'm sure he got paid well.
• 27:58
  Yeah. Now, the RSA crypto system, named after the surnames for Ron Rivest, Leonard Adleman, and Adi Shamir, is a family of public key crypto systems, one of the oldest widely used for secure data transmission. In RSA-based cryptology— cryptography, a user's private key, which can be used to sign messages or decrypt messages sent to that user, is a pair of large prime numbers chosen at random and kept secret. That's as close as I could possibly come to sneakers.
• 28:39
  That was close. I didn't expect math. I did not expect math.
• 28:43
  Too much math.
• 28:44
  Yeah.
• 28:44
  I like math.
• 28:45
  Yeah. I, I don't. And, uh, that's where I really felt like I was getting way too fancy.
• 28:49
  The fact that they brought in a mathematics, uh, consultant to write the whiteboard cracks me up.
• 28:56
  Yeah, for a part that's like, like 5, less than 5 minutes of the movie.
• 29:00
  Of all the things they're worried about somebody going, oh, that's not accurate, it was that.
• 29:06
  I'll be honest, I never even looked at the whiteboard while it was there. I was too, uh—
• 29:10
  But even if you did, would you have known what it was? Be like, okay, it's math.
• 29:15
  But if you really wanted to call out what was on the whiteboard, then maybe you shouldn't have, uh, Donald Logue dressed in that white hat and suit.
• 29:22
  He looked like an eccentric mathematician.
• 29:24
  Yeah.
• 29:25
  That likes to get busy at Mexico City.
• 29:28
  He does, but he's got— he does not have time for it. He's got work.
• 29:31
  Got work. Get off me, woman. I gotta do work.
• 29:35
  This guy's— he's, he's, he's got so much going on. He can't— he hasn't got time for women right now. And this lady's like, get off of him. She's like,
• 29:44
  Come on, let's just—
• 29:45
  Make me your work.
• 29:46
  I think it was okay. Like,
• 29:49
  what does he have to do that's so important right now?
• 29:51
  I know, that's what I think of. Like, this dude is blowing his opportunity.
• 29:55
  Does he need— I'm like, what's going on, dude? Come on, it's not that big a deal.
• 29:59
  You can't spend 10 minutes on that and then get back to your work? Come on,
• 30:03
  10 minutes,
• 30:04
  just take a break.
• 30:06
  Well, I mean, he's gotta like go to the bathroom and get cleaned up after. Oh yeah,
• 30:11
  that all
• 30:11
  factors into that time as well.
• 30:13
  His head back into the right headspace.
• 30:15
  Mm-hmm.
• 30:16
  Well, you got that post, uh, clarity at that point. It's probably— yeah,
• 30:19
  yeah, there's math, math just floating in his brain.
• 30:24
  Yeah, yeah, it's very crystal clear at that point.
• 30:27
  You probably would have survived the movie if you'd just done it.
• 30:30
  Only he'd known.
• 30:31
  Yeah,
• 30:32
  see, then they could have just made like a compromising video and blackmailed him.
• 30:37
  Yeah, see? Yeah, because he was cheating. Yeah, look, this is— yeah, he made a big mistake. You just made a big mistake. If he had just done it, like, think about his last act was him just saying like, no, get off me, woman, basically. Yeah, like, if he wasn't in the mood, that's fine, but it's like, it seemed like he kind of wanted to still. Like, I don't know, I don't know, I don't know.
• 30:58
  So as I mentioned, this is— I'm— this is a movie that I missed at some point and just never got back around to. I've been trying to figure out like why I missed it, but I'm, I'm I think you're like me, you thought
• 31:12
  it was something else.
• 31:13
  Well, no, I'm thinking that, uh, I mean, this came out in the fall of what would have been senior year.
• 31:20
  Yeah.
• 31:21
  And so if I was playing football, I probably didn't get very much time on, on the weekends for seeing too many movies that year. Um, I wonder if it was Sleepers.
• 31:33
  I thought this movie was
• 31:34
  Sleepers.
• 31:36
  Oh yeah, I'm just trying to think of— I'm just trying to think of ERS names too.
• 31:40
  I mean, that also— it starts with the S as well, so maybe that is—
• 31:43
  It's an entirely different movie.
• 31:45
  Oh yeah, that's not— yeah, it's also looking around,
• 31:48
  not even the same ballpark, just opposite in the '90s. Yeah, I'm just trying to think of other movies that I could have thought was this but wasn't. I just never saw—
• 31:58
  that's pretty weird. Yeah, I don't know.
• 32:01
  Hmm.
• 32:02
  Oh well,
• 32:03
  it's fine. You know it now.
• 32:04
  Yeah, I do. I'll never forget it.
• 32:07
  Well, maybe we should throw that up Reddit for a future, uh, future.
• 32:10
  What's the movie you thought was a movie but really wasn't until you saw it?
• 32:14
  No, no, just what movie does everyone think you thought Sneakers was?
• 32:18
  Oh, specifically Sneakers?
• 32:20
  Yeah. Um, I mean, I think we've already done that a couple times where I thought I'd seen a movie or knew everything about a movie, and then we've watched it here so far, and I'm like, ah, nope, never saw that.
• 32:32
  No. So I watched this movie, I'm like, man, I don't— I don't know what it is. But then when they got to the, we gotta make the room 98.6 degrees, you gotta move super slow, that felt real familiar though.
• 32:44
  That was like Triple X: Return of Xander Cage.
• 32:47
  Yeah, maybe that's why it felt real familiar.
• 32:49
  That was like Mission: Impossible as well, isn't it? Yeah.
• 32:52
  And I think it was also that— that one movie with Catherine Zeta-Jones and, uh,
• 32:57
  Entrapment.
• 32:58
  Yeah, I think that was in there too, where she's doing it like little booty crawl through the grid.
• 33:06
  Yep.
• 33:07
  I feel like there was something about that, like that turning up the temperature to 98.6 felt real familiar, but I'm sure it's, it's been done a million times.
• 33:15
  It's like a spy movie trope, I think.
• 33:17
  Yeah, I think so.
• 33:18
  Yeah, this did remind me of Mission: Impossible quite a bit. Quite a bit, at least like the first one.
• 33:25
  So, so one, a mistake that I made was I, I, I was waiting to watch the movie with my wife, but like I had some free time, so I started to do the, the deep dive.
• 33:36
  Yes.
• 33:36
  And going through, and I saw, uh, you know, through IMDb that there was a young Cosmo, and then there was, uh, Ben Kingsley's name is like way farther down the list. Um, when you look through it and it shows that he's in there as Cosmo, I was like, oh.
• 33:54
  Oh, so that got spoiled for you?
• 33:56
  Yeah. I was like, all right. But also, kind of the way it's set up, I mean, I kind of—
• 34:01
  It's pretty— I knew right away he was the villain.
• 34:03
  It's pretty obvious right away that, you know,
• 34:05
  he's the villain. Like, that's what I knew. I was like, okay, yeah.
• 34:07
  There's only 3 people in the world that would've known that his name was Marty whatever.
• 34:12
  Marty.
• 34:14
  Martin Bryce or Marty Bryce.
• 34:17
  Marty McFly. And it was him. His, his girl. I can't remember what her name was.
• 34:24
  And
• 34:24
  then a guy who supposedly died in prison.
• 34:26
  Yes, but thanks to helping out organized crime people, make some phone calls, he got himself out.
• 34:32
  Yeah, yeah. There's a point with this movie where I, I was really digging it, and then it really took a turn that made me go like, ugh.
• 34:41
  Oh,
• 34:43
  it was like that back third.
• 34:44
  Yeah, I felt like it just kind of overstayed its welcome a little bit. It's like, all right, let's just get— yeah.
• 34:49
  We got done and my wife was like, she's like, that's pretty good, right? And I was like, it's not bad. It's just there's something off about it. And I think it's the length of the movie. There's like 20 minutes that do not need to be in here easily. And then again, I think that's a big problem I have with most movies is that they're always like 15, 20 minutes long.
• 35:10
  What are the 20 minutes that you think don't belong in this movie?
• 35:13
  See, that's the thing. I also couldn't figure out what Overall, you would take out, but I'm like this movie seems way too long for what they're trying to do. Like for the story that they're trying to tell, I don't know if it's like if stuff seemed like repetitive at times or something, but it just seemed like they took a really long time to get through this movie, like and and tell the story that they did to where I was like there's some really cool scenes in this, but like there's just something in in between them that you're like okay come on let's. Moving along here.
• 35:48
  I, I don't feel like it drug for me. I, I thought the pacing was fine. I thought the story— I just, I hated how it devolved into corny.
• 35:59
  Yeah, I felt like it kind of— the tone shifted or something. At first it was kind of like an espionage thriller kind of thing, and then it kind of gets like a little too over the top. Like, it was like— felt like kind of more realistic, I guess, at first, and then it kind of became like— I mean, I'm sure— I don't know how realistic it really is or not at the end, but it kind of Into like insert generic like spy movie kind of thing. I feel like
• 36:23
  yeah, and when when they were doing the initial getting of the box, it was really cool. I really enjoyed that, and the the the score behind it was really like kind of chaotic and fun. It was like kink kink kink, you know, like it was it was like that tense. But it wasn't whimsical, right? It was tense, but like—
• 36:49
  Like a low piano percussive, like—
• 36:51
  But then there was the weird, sharp keys in there, the sharp higher pitch, like, kink, kink, kink, like weird. But then when we got to getting the box again, which is like the ultimate— it's like the definition of MacGuffin, right? Yeah. Thing needed to acquire to move the plot along. Right? Which is— the movie was just MacGuffin after MacGuffin, right? Neither here nor there.
• 37:18
  But with the same thing over and over again, like just that little— the answering machine thing.
• 37:23
  Yes, but the score became kind of Robert Zemeckis slash Steven Spielberg whimsical. It was, especially when blind dudes drive in the car.
• 37:38
  Yes.
• 37:38
  And I'm like, oh, come on.
• 37:41
  Oh, see, I, I really enjoyed that scene.
• 37:43
  Oh no, that was the kind of thing that just makes me go, ugh, I'm done.
• 37:48
  Like, I, I really— so like when they do steal the box the first time and the, the one lady kind of barges in and that whole scene where like he has to talk her down. Yeah, I actually thought that was really well done.
• 37:58
  Yeah, I thought that was great. I love that part.
• 37:59
  Yeah, especially it's the blind guy just like pitching him like different things to say and stuff like that. Uh, the weird little scene, like, uh, almost kind of like an Armageddon-esque scene at the end where they're all asking for stuff.
• 38:12
  That was—
• 38:14
  yeah,
• 38:14
  I enjoyed, I enjoyed that. I was just waiting for somebody to say like, and I don't ever want to pay taxes again.
• 38:20
  Mm-hmm.
• 38:21
  Yeah, I like the one guy that was like, I just want the girl's phone number.
• 38:25
  Yeah,
• 38:26
  this does turn into like a Spielbergian, like, uh, kind of thing. Yeah, yeah, it's like, I don't know, there's like something changes, the vibe changes.
• 38:35
  Yeah. Oh, go ahead, Keith.
• 38:38
  Sorry, I don't know if it's, if it's when like Ben Kingsley first shows up, and maybe that's about the time that things kind of go a little weird. Like, because you— because you finally— you're like, okay, here's the guy behind the whole thing. But then he's dis— he's gone for like then like 40 minutes again of the movie.
• 38:54
  Yeah.
• 38:55
  And then shows up just at the end to have the final talk, which basically repeats. So maybe that's what it is, like, because it's a very similar— the speech we used to open, uh, the episode. It's very similar to the one where like they're in that little like soundproof room as well.
• 39:11
  Yep.
• 39:12
  And, and I— and that might be my, my issue.
• 39:15
  It's also what they say at the beginning of the movie too. It's like a rehash of a rehash. Yes.
• 39:19
  Yeah, I think that might— so that might be— now I'm able to kind of like pinpoint a little more what my issue is. I, I enjoyed the movie, but there's so much stuff that just repeats itself. Like, whether it's conversation or like you said, like, okay, they got the box and then, okay, we gotta go get the box again. And oh, by the way, we switched out the box thing like we've already tried to do once before. And
• 39:45
  yeah,
• 39:46
  uh, and going through all that. And I think that may be what my issue here is, is good movie, but they just repeat so much stuff in it that it makes it seem even longer than the 2 hours and 6 minutes. It seems even longer.
• 39:59
  Yeah, I agree with that.
• 40:01
  Like, I really, I really enjoyed Cindy Portier's role in this, and I thought Robert Redford was really good in it. All the guys, all like their entire team, I actually liked all of their stuff. Some of it's a little weird, like when the guy's like, what did you hear when you were in the back of the trunk? And it's
• 40:18
  like, yeah, that was a little— figures out like whether— I
• 40:20
  thought, yeah, plus I thought he got knocked out a second time while he was in the back of the trunk, so I'm like, how does he know if they went over a bridge?
• 40:26
  Yeah, he was unconscious. I don't know.
• 40:29
  Yeah, the whole like super hearing thing was kind of like— I get it that he's blind or whatever, but it felt like kind of unnecessary. I was just like, this is too much, I guess. I like that shot of him like hacking the computer and it's like his big old sunglasses and it's reflecting the stuff off the screen. That looks really cool.
• 40:45
  Yeah, that was cool. I did—
• 40:47
  it's all the Braille. Um,
• 40:49
  yeah, I thought that was super interesting.
• 40:51
  Yeah,
• 40:51
  that was cool too. Yeah,
• 40:52
  like the, the Braille display or output or whatever.
• 40:55
  So that was the Braille Playboy he was reading at the beginning.
• 40:58
  Was he really?
• 41:00
  Yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 41:01
  I didn't even notice it.
• 41:02
  They're like, they asked about something, he's like, oh, he's over there reading. And then they— he gets in there, he sees him like going over stuff, and also he closes it over. It's a Playboy magazine.
• 41:11
  Oh, I didn't notice that. Uh, the, the things that I didn't like about this movie, and that happens in a lot of movies, especially at this time, I like the technology aspects, like the The hacking of things, like, oh, the screen is just scrambled and this box unscrambles the screen. Like, it'd be like playing, you know, like Fortnite and like, oh, but it's all hacked. It's encrypted. And then it just, it's just Fortnite but scrambled. Like, you know, like the Playboy Channel in the '80s, you know?
• 41:47
  Just like fuzzy, like you can't make it out.
• 41:50
  Yeah. That's not how it would be at all sort of thing, right? But I understand they had to make it so it's palatable to a, uh, a movie-going audience.
• 42:00
  Yeah, and then they enhance— it's basically like the beginning where they're like mixing up the names like Keith was saying, or like it's like Robert Redford and it's like they make a new word out of it. Like that's basically what they're like— the internet sites they go to are the databases. Yeah, yeah, scrambled words.
• 42:13
  Yeah, it's just this— it's, it's not just scrambled words, it, it's the same damn— well, I guess it is scrambled, it's the same damn letters, just
• 42:22
  Yeah, right.
• 42:23
  It's like the Junior Jumble. That's where— that's all it is. It's like, okay, oh, cat and dog, great, I got it.
• 42:28
  The guy who plays Whistler, uh, he apparently— he's patterned after this guy named Joe Ingrassia, who was a blind telephone expert born with perfect pitch, uh, who was one of the original phone freakers.
• 42:42
  Phone freakers? What's that,
• 42:46
  the turkey boys?
• 42:46
  No, it was, um, I started looking up in this because one of the trivia things that was on here that I was like, well, this is a little bit of a far-fetched thing, but it says while they're picking through the, the trash, um, for Dr. Brandes and stuff, uh, Dan Aykroyd holds up a folded box of Captain Crunch. And apparently this is in reference to in the '70s, Captain Crunch came with a small whistle in the box. And then there's a guy, a phone freaker by the name of John Draper. discovered that this whistle could be used to get free phone calls.
• 43:19
  Oh,
• 43:19
  which was one of the many components in the practice of phone phreaking, which apparently digital phones now make obsolete. I guess if you blew this whistle into like a payphone, whatever the noise that it made registered in the payphone as like a— like that you paid.
• 43:36
  Weird.
• 43:36
  Yeah. Um, and then, uh, Cosmo also tells Martin that while in prison Uh, he helps the mafia men make some free telephone calls. So they're, you know, again, he probably helps them by, you know, doing something with,
• 43:51
  with a Captain Crunch whistle
• 43:53
  or, or something similar to make the, the noise so that they thought it was a free—
• 43:57
  Sure.
• 43:58
  Uh, like it, it signaled whatever it was. But yeah, I, I started looking into that a little bit and I was like, well, that seems a little weird and far-fetched. But since we were just talking about the— so we're talking about the whistler guy and Uh, how he seems, seems a little too over the top, but he was apparently based off of somebody.
• 44:14
  Yeah, fair enough.
• 44:16
  Yeah.
• 44:17
  They called them phone freakers.
• 44:18
  Apparently so.
• 44:20
  These people who would use the phone for free are called phone freakers. That's crazy. That just seems like, that's not what I envision in my head when I hear the word phone freaker. I don't know what I would expect, but just people getting a phone call for free is not what I expected. Maybe it's free, R-F-R-E-E-K-E-R-S. Freakers.
• 44:39
  Oh, Terry. Maybe
• 44:40
  it's with a PH.
• 44:43
  Really?
• 44:45
  Oh yeah,
• 44:45
  it is. Okay, now I'm confused.
• 44:48
  I don't like any of it.
• 44:50
  No, that's true. Me neither, which is why I tried to leave it out there.
• 44:53
  Let's go back in time and stop these phone freakers.
• 44:55
  Oh
• 44:55
  yeah, tell the Captain Crunch company, hey, Post or General Mills, don't put that whistle in there. People freak phones if you do.
• 45:02
  We gotta warn them. Yeah, we gotta stop this. They're like, what do you mean freak phones? Oh, you know, PHFR. Yeah, like, wait, what? P-H-R-E-E-K-E-R. P-H-R-E-E-Q-U-E-R-S. We gotta stop. I mean, if anything, we have to stop it just for that, like the spelling.
• 45:24
  They use a Q instead of a K and a PH is 7F. We gotta stop them.
• 45:30
  They're mad. They're crazy. They're, they're using the phone lines and they're not paying anything.
• 45:35
  They're damn phone freakers.
• 45:38
  Yeah, something about making long-distance calls or something like that. That's what— yeah, but yeah.
• 45:44
  Wow, Captain Crunch really messed up with that one.
• 45:47
  Goddamn Captain Crunch. I said Captain Crunch. It's not even Captain Crunch, it's Cap'n Crunch.
• 45:53
  Oh
• 45:54
  yeah, that's true. We don't want to mess that up. That's
• 45:56
  a proper title. There's an actual sea captain out there, last name Crunch, who's like, you better get it
• 46:01
  right. You
• 46:02
  talking to me, Captain Crunch?
• 46:05
  Yeah, yeah, Cap'n Crunch is my cousin.
• 46:07
  Cap'n Crunch is my father. Call me Captain Crunch.
• 46:13
  Cap'n Crunch. It's a much more honorific title when you're known as Cap'n, you know, instead of Captain.
• 46:20
  Ah, shit. Yeah, uh, so this movie, I kind of— I liked it. but I didn't at the same time. I don't know if that makes sense.
• 46:33
  I agree with that.
• 46:34
  It makes 100% sense to me because that's the same vibe I had right after watching it.
• 46:38
  And I was really digging it for like the first 2/3. That's just— that back third got too goofy and just too much.
• 46:47
  I don't know. Yeah, I felt like it didn't have— yeah, like the— to me it was like almost like a political thriller at first.
• 46:53
  Yeah, and it was really good like that.
• 46:55
  Yeah, it was like kind of you know, mystery. Like, it's kind of not necessarily super scary, but there's like a tenseness to it and stuff like that.
• 47:03
  Like, is it the FBI? Is it the CIA?
• 47:05
  Yeah, yeah.
• 47:06
  Who's, who's behind it? And who's— yeah, which one is trying to screw over the other? Which it turns out in the end, like, one of them is trying to get so they can read everybody else's.
• 47:14
  Like, yeah. And it's a good mystery, the beginning part of it. And I'm like, yeah, I'm intrigued, I'm intrigued. But then as it goes on, I start to feel— yeah, like, start to slip away. And I'm like, It becomes too fun, I guess. I don't know, like, they're trying to like goof around too much, I guess. And I'm like, it's just not matching what I was expecting with the beginning of the movie, with kind of like the, the kind of like spy, like, I don't know. They
• 47:38
  make a big deal of, um, they make the really big deal about Cosmo like putting in the alias.
• 47:49
  Oh yeah, yeah,
• 47:50
  yeah. Put his Martin Bishop alias in there along with his Marty Rice or whatever his name was before. They made a really big deal about that. Didn't really do anything. Like, no, it's like just the next day he was like, all right, let's go ahead and sort every— let's bring everything to my girlfriend.
• 48:06
  It's not like the police were chasing him down at all, at all.
• 48:09
  No, which is what— which is what it kind of made you think was, oh, as soon as we put this in there Like the authorities are gonna suddenly, like, gonna get like a thing. Oh, this guy we've been looking for for the last 30 years is actually here and now we know how to find him.
• 48:24
  Mm-hmm.
• 48:25
  And all his aliases. And that doesn't do anything. He just—
• 48:29
  nope.
• 48:30
  They move on to being like, hey, let's just steal the thing back ourselves.
• 48:33
  Yeah. And be— because that'll work. So the Russian guy didn't want to help him because he was so scared of whoever. Right. Right. But they go and just steal it back and it's like, no biggie. Like, like they're not going to come after us. Like there was no repercussions or even like, you need to go get these guys. There's the ones that stole— like there's none of that happened. Instead it was James Earl Jones being like, I don't think I can get you the trip to the— you know, Tahiti's not even in Europe. You know, I'm just like, Come on.
• 49:12
  Yeah, he's like almost— yeah, it's like, wow, this guy's like kind of going along with him. Like, now what do you want? He has a lot, you know. Like, he's like— it's like this guy isn't that scared. Like, they're not scary. They're not. Like, the way that the Russian guy acts is like this is gonna be like some high-level top-secret thing that they're just gonna— there's no escape once you get dug in there. But it's like, oh, it was so easy.
• 49:32
  Yeah, it's easy to escape.
• 49:34
  Also, I mean, he doesn't turn Cosmo back in again. Like, what happens to that dude?
• 49:38
  Yeah, exactly.
• 49:39
  He's, he's in the wind. But they— so again, also when they steal it and then he goes, fine, here, take it back, he gives it to him, but he gives him the— he, he
• 49:47
  takes the thing off that he apparently had some from somewhere.
• 49:51
  He took out the, like, the code or something.
• 49:53
  But did they show him opening the same box though in the van?
• 49:58
  Oh, he had his own box?
• 50:01
  Yeah.
• 50:02
  Well, yeah, well, Mother gets him, uh, one that matches because he's like, oh, you might need—
• 50:06
  oh, did that happen? I don't remember that happening.
• 50:07
  But then When they, they hand the thing over to, uh, to James Earl Jones at the end, and then they're like, yeah, the thing doesn't even really work anymore. He walks away, he like pulls out, he's got like the, whatever, the chip processor thing with him. I'm like, so you, you, you did the switcheroo one time and then now you're, you're doing a switcheroo again here. Yeah. Again, more of this repeat thing. Um, that's not very sneaky for Sneakers, I guess. But
• 50:39
  no,
• 50:41
  also, I don't— I, I think they refer to it like at one time, like very early in the movie, what they're doing is sneak. Like there's just a reference to them calling themselves Sneakers early on or something.
• 50:52
  But then later on, Dan Aykroyd said that was the best sneak we've ever done or something like that.
• 50:56
  Yeah. And I'm like, that's, that's really how you got to this name? Was like, I guess, I don't know.
• 51:01
  That was a high-level sneaking.
• 51:03
  Mm-hmm.
• 51:03
  You know, I think about it now, right? So he does a switcheroo on mob guy, uh, old friend they left to die in prison, who now works with the mob, who the Russians were afraid to even say who they were. So you'd think that they would come and kill him for that, right? And then they do the switcheroo on the NSA. When you think they get it to where it's supposed to go, be like, hey, this is missing a piece.
• 51:31
  Well, I know, I think he specifically says it doesn't actually work.
• 51:34
  Yeah, I understand that. But don't you think like somebody would've opened it up and been like, there's parts missing?
• 51:41
  The, the NSA would be like, yeah. 'Cause he says like, well, we don't really care if it's broken or not. We just want it. But it's like, really? They should care. Well, I understand.
• 51:47
  That's when they tell the one guy they can't get him world peace and, uh, or peace amongst men or whatever. They can't get him that. So that's, yeah, they get all the rest of the stuff, but because it wasn't fully put together, they can't do that.
• 51:59
  They know why it's broken. Like, there's obviously this guy took it, right? Like, just— he's right there, just take it. Like, you have all the power. You might have promised them some stuff, but like, you know, it's supposed to be a shady, scary agency. And yeah, they're just like, all right, well,
• 52:14
  well. And then even if you're the NSA and you're not hip to it, the moment the news report comes out that the Republican National Party is completely flat broke but all these other places got money all of a sudden, Be like, wait a minute, that would require some sort of magical tool to decrypt everything. But this said this is broken. Yeah, like there's just too many things that were too corny at the end that just really made me cringe.
• 52:45
  Yeah,
• 52:47
  yeah. Beginning is good though. I like the setup.
• 52:49
  The first 2/3 was really good. And then it— man, and then she does it like, I'm gonna go on a date with this nerd and get him to say this handful of words.
• 52:59
  Yeah,
• 52:59
  one being passport. Come on. Like, she's going on this checklist. Can you just say the word passport for me? Sure, passport.
• 53:09
  He's like, do you want to have breakfast? Should I call you or nudge you?
• 53:12
  Yeah,
• 53:14
  yeah, yeah,
• 53:17
  yeah. Like, the clue to, to her being part of this, like, squad is that she said he went on— she went on an online date with him, and that was the red flag.
• 53:26
  match those 2 together.
• 53:28
  Why? Yeah, absolutely.
• 53:30
  Yeah. Computer knows nothing. What he, he looks— he's a hideous troll and she's beautiful. Computer doesn't know that.
• 53:36
  No, especially back then. Like, there's no way. Like, there's no algorithms. There's just like, yeah, random.
• 53:43
  Yeah. Oh, they both said they like X, Y, and Z. Oh, they both enjoy, I don't know, movies with John Wayne. Match them.
• 53:55
  2 of the world's biggest John Wayne fans. Yeah, that's all you need to know.
• 53:59
  Exactly. Yeah. All right,
• 54:02
  well, did we do it?
• 54:03
  I think so.
• 54:05
  Did we get through sneakers? Keith, Keith kind of like threw up his hands like he's done.
• 54:08
  He's like, yeah, because that's good. Because I mean, the more we, the more we keep going down it, I think the more negative—
• 54:15
  unless you're liking it.
• 54:16
  Yeah, yeah. And I, I didn't, I didn't hate it. I was kind of like, no, I didn't hate it either. But I'm more like, yeah, yeah, I just— I didn't hate it. Would you like it? I didn't hate it.
• 54:26
  Uh,
• 54:26
  yeah. All right. Yeah, well, we did it, boyos. We got all the way. We snuck through sneakers.
• 54:33
  We sure did.
• 54:34
  Or trainers, as it was called in Great Britain. Or les escrocs, as it was done in France. Or I'm sorry, Montreal.
• 54:48
  Oh yeah, yeah.
• 54:49
  They're French-Canadian. I don't know if Les Crawl is how they said it.
• 54:56
  I think they say it in Louisiana too, a little bit like that.
• 54:58
  Oh yeah, holy crawl.
• 55:00
  Yeah. Oh, they're down there.
• 55:03
  Louisiana, Louisiana, holy crawl.
• 55:05
  They were all juvenile.
• 55:08
  Juvenile? Back that ass up. That was juvenile, right?
• 55:13
  Yes, it was. Yes.
• 55:14
  See, I remember.
• 55:16
  He knows things. He knows things. Just not saying.
• 55:18
  Maybe was that Mystical? I don't remember.
• 55:21
  Oh, don't get those two mixed up.
• 55:23
  Who is Mystical? What did Mystical do except for be put in prison for?
• 55:29
  Uh, shake your ass.
• 55:32
  Yeah, shake your ass. Show me what you're working with.
• 55:36
  Yes, that's what it—
• 55:38
  yeah. Uh, well, yeah, we made it. We got all the way through. Sneakers or lacrosse,
• 55:47
  as they say down in Dubai.
• 55:48
  Or trainers, as they say over here.
• 55:50
  Or trainers. Uh, what'd you guys think?
• 55:52
  Yeah, the longer we talk about it, I mean, the less I'm enjoying it, but I— there's some good standout parts in it, some good, uh, some good acting from people you expect good acting from. Uh, just something off with it overall. Sure.
• 56:09
  Yeah, I, I think overall it's one of those kind of just like, it was an all right movie. I didn't hate it necessarily, but if I wanted, like we were doing, we started to start pick at it and I started to get like annoyed with the movie. But it's not that bad. The first chunks are pretty good. I just think that there's that tonal shift that happens somewhere between like the middle and the end where it's just like too, uh, I don't know, sentimental and like blockbuster-y. Whereas before it was kind of this more like, I felt like I kind of liked it. I felt like they're kind of underdogs a little bit, you know, they were doing things their own way. I like that. And then it seems like at the end they're like, oh, we're just spies and we have an answer to everything and all this stuff. Okay. Yeah, I, I just think the shift was what threw it off for me, but it was okay. It was just okay.
• 56:51
  Yeah, I agree. Those first 2/3 were, were pretty good. I like, I enjoyed quite a bit of it. I could tell, like, I liked it. It had some tension to it and it was a little bit like wink wink, nudge nudge quirky. Like we're kind of, kind of goofy because we're We get Dana Aykroyd, but we're still like, like spies or whatever, right? Like, they weren't spies. Like, I don't know what they were. Sneakers. They were sneakers. And then, then it just, it turned into there's a blind guy driving a car. There's, there's the weird date. Didn't say the word— I love the word passport. Like, that should be a tip-off immediately, right? Like, there's this There's just too much of that stuff going on. And then like, there's like no consequences for the things they did from any direction. Like, you'd think, you'd think the mob or that guy and his toy company and the government would be having like a shoot 'em out showdown at their apartment. No, that didn't happen.
• 57:54
  Yeah, should have been raids on the place. And
• 57:57
  should have been all sorts of crazy shit going on.
• 57:59
  There should have been like bombing the city block trying to get to him.
• 58:02
  Bomb on the block. All right. Well, we know what we thought. What did the internet have to say? On March 31st, 2024, Niels Goddard had this to say. Almost perfect. Period. I absolutely love this movie and have done since its initial release. It features one of the best ensemble casts in any movie ever. Mmm. All the actors are completely at the top of their game, and the movie is thrilling, engaging, and funny. The film score by James Horner with Branford Marsalis is timeless. There is no part of this movie that isn't completely entertaining. Wow! The scenes with Robert Redford and Ben Kingsley are phenomenal, tense, and loaded in all the best ways a drama can be. Mary McDonnell is just perfect in this movie. Her amusing put-downs are utterly charming. Hats off to the casting of the actors for the young versions of Redford and Kingsley too. Spot on. A near-perfect movie. And I don't say that often. 3 found it helpful, 2 not so much. 10 out of 10.
• 59:27
  Wow, really liked it. Okay.
• 59:31
  Really liked it. Near perfect, but gave it a perfect rating.
• 59:35
  Yes. Well, IMDb, can you give it like half stars? I don't remember.
• 59:41
  No, you sure can't.
• 59:42
  So no.
• 59:43
  So maybe he just rounded up.
• 59:44
  Well, not to be outdone. On June 18th, 2003, Retega had this to say. Awful movie.
• 59:55
  Hmm.
• 59:56
  One can merely wonder who votes this movie a 10. It's worth nothing. The realistic level, parentheses, concerning the art of hacking as depicted here, end parentheses, of this movie is absolutely zero. It is a classic example of trying to represent how hacking happens, but then in a way that the general public can actually see that anything happens. The acting is equally bad. That's not true. The movie is not worth seeing. Not true either. 21 found it helpful, 46 not so much. 1 out of 10.
• 1:00:41
  A little harsh, a little harsh, a
• 1:00:43
  little harsh. But I agree with the hacking aspect. It's, yeah, it's like hacking for kindergartners sort of level. The enhance, enhance, enhance again. Like, okay.
• 1:00:54
  Yeah, that's a trope for sure.
• 1:00:56
  That is a trope. I wonder if they were the first ones to do it. I doubt it.
• 1:01:00
  I doubt it.
• 1:01:00
  Well, we did it. We got through week 2 of month 12. Sneakers. That leaves us with like a few things left to do.
• 1:01:11
  Yep.
• 1:01:11
  First and foremost is finding out what week 3 has in store for us, courtesy of Terry.
• 1:01:18
  Yes, yes, it's my turn to pick. And I was perusing— my
• 1:01:22
  turn,
• 1:01:23
  it's my turn. I'm excited. Uh, I was perusing the Reddit thread and
• 1:01:28
  big swing, big swing.
• 1:01:29
  I had to scroll pretty far and I found something that really aligned with my already, uh, personal movie watching. I was like, you know what, this is perfect, perfect timing, perfect in the chronological order I've been watching these films. I'm going to pick The King of Comedy.
• 1:01:47
  Oh, we've talked about this movie. Yeah, I am very excited for you, Terry.
• 1:01:53
  Yes, I've not seen it. I have made it a soft goal to watch all of Martin Scorsese's movies. And I've been slowly working my way through them, and literally the next one in line is The King of Comedy. And so when I saw that, I popped.
• 1:02:08
  When I saw this on the thread, I thought of you too, because I'm like, oh, Terry hasn't seen this.
• 1:02:13
  That's true.
• 1:02:14
  And I talked about how— and I've— I, I have seen this once, and I probably saw it in 2003, so it's been like 20— wow, 20, 22 years, something like that. We're on there. It's been a minute.
• 1:02:25
  About time.
• 1:02:25
  And I guarantee I was drinking at the time too, so I don't know. Well, new things will be new to me as well.
• 1:02:31
  Yes, yes, it'll be exciting. I've been doing the little Scorsese journey and I was like, well, this is the perfect excuse to keep that going.
• 1:02:38
  So this is a good one too, and it has like, has some like some modern sort of like, it was ahead of its time for what it was doing.
• 1:02:48
  Yeah,
• 1:02:49
  get ready. I'm excited, I'm excited because I'm gonna watch this one again. Ooh-wee, King of Comedy. Awesome. All right, well, we got it. We got through sneakers. We're on to a Scorsese movie, which is like awesome.
• 1:03:05
  This is our first one.
• 1:03:07
  Our first one. Can you believe it?
• 1:03:09
  Can you believe I'm the one who picked Scorsese?
• 1:03:10
  We're 12 months into the 13-month Fumbler calendar and we're finally getting— finally getting to a Scorsese movie.
• 1:03:19
  Yeah, and it's not like a 4-hour movie either. It's only an hour 49.
• 1:03:24
  Yeah, I didn't pick like The Irishman, which is three and a half hours.
• 1:03:26
  But it's it's De Niro. Oh, Jerry Lewis. There's a lot of good in this movie. I'm excited. Really enjoyed it when I saw it the first time, and I hope I hope I remember correctly because I liked it.
• 1:03:38
  I've never seen it, so let me go.
• 1:03:41
  Excellent. Excellent.
• 1:03:43
  All right. Well, at least was. Well, hold on. Oh,
• 1:03:47
  this guy that recommended this movie on your thread. I guess we all agree that. I don't know why this is a movie that you'd freak out about if someone said they hadn't seen it.
• 1:03:55
  Uh-huh.
• 1:03:56
  You all agree with that?
• 1:03:57
  Okay. Yeah, well, I mean, it's a movie that he finds out somebody hasn't seen, he tries to get him to watch it. That's the whole point. It's a recommendation from somebody who really digs the movie.
• 1:04:08
  They liked it. That's great.
• 1:04:10
  That's all that matters.
• 1:04:11
  Yep.
• 1:04:12
  And even if it was the movie that was like, it's not like that, I like this, and if it was mentioned in the thread, that would have counted too. But this is a good one. King of Comedy.
• 1:04:22
  Nice. Not to be confused with King of Kong.
• 1:04:24
  Or the Kings of Comedy, or the—
• 1:04:27
  Oh yeah,
• 1:04:28
  true. Or like King of New York.
• 1:04:30
  Or King of New York, or King of Queens.
• 1:04:34
  God, King of the Hill.
• 1:04:36
  King of the Hill. There's lots of King of's. King of New York is a good movie too. Have you seen that one?
• 1:04:42
  I don't think so.
• 1:04:43
  Christopher Walken?
• 1:04:43
  Nope, I have not seen that.
• 1:04:45
  He's got a line in it that I love. He goes, oh, you know I love money. And I love that line. I
• 1:04:51
  don't know why.
• 1:04:53
  There is a scene in that movie that is akin to the Hereditary light pole scene.
• 1:04:59
  Really?
• 1:05:00
  It involves a fire hydrant.
• 1:05:02
  Uh-oh.
• 1:05:02
  Just thinking of it, that's the only 2 things I remember about that movie, the fire hydrant and, oh, you know I love money.
• 1:05:10
  I, I know I've seen it, but it's been like such a long time.
• 1:05:13
  I want to see it more now after hearing about this fire hydrant and this money thing.
• 1:05:18
  Yep. I, boy, I might, I might queue it up right after this. Oh boy. Well, I guess that leaves us with nothing to do other than end this the way we end everything.
• 1:05:37
  This is how I end a lot of things. Speed's great.
• 1:06:03
  This is what I'm trickin', what I'm flippin', 'cause this just what I do. I'm effervescent, I'm out there cresting as if it's a full-grown German Shepherd. You better keep steppin', they don't mess with me. And they down, down, y'all can't catch me. And they bow, bow, pay yourself, fix your hair, throw that. My Prada for my bunafas and Dinah for my babooski. You think I'm trickin'? Well, I ain't trippin'. I'm buying if you got nice curves for your iceberg. Reagan Hill, I'm not gonna lie, you do something to me. Hope this indecent proposal make you do something with me. Forget a dollar, girl. Pick up fifty. Forget that cowgirl. You need a real feeling. Off top, the nickel box hurt me. Up and over, girl. Show me what you're working with. Shake your ass. Watch this. All right. Shake your ass. Show me what you're working with.
• 1:06:46
  Thanks for listening to Fumbling Through Film. New episodes drop every Thursday. Got feedback or questions? Email us at fumblingthroughfilm@gmail.com. Follow us on Blue Sky at Film Fumblers and on Instagram. Instagram @film.fumblers. You can also follow Keith on Instagram @kg33lives and @dadscardsdaily. Terry's on Letterboxd @terry2099, and Derek's on social media @derek9n9. All original music is produced by the Dr. Dre of Kansas, Terry. Hit him up for the bangers. See you next week as we keep on fumbling.