Latest / Everyone's A Critic / Airheads w/ DC Pierson

Transcript

Airheads w/ DC Pierson · Everyone's A Critic

• 0:34
  SPEAKER_01: Hey man, how's it going?
• 0:36
  SPEAKER_00: Good.
• 0:36
  SPEAKER_00: How are you doing?
• 0:37
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, not too bad.
• 0:39
  SPEAKER_01: Sorry, apologies in advance if there's a uh there's a lawn uh uh uh guy doing stuff outside, it looks like, so there you may hear like the occasional leaf blower uh noise.
• 0:51
  SPEAKER_00: Uh it's fine, I'm sure I can clean that up in post if it need be, but it seems it seems fine anyway.
• 0:56
  SPEAKER_00: I can't hear it.
• 0:57
  SPEAKER_00: Um But yeah, you were just telling me about your podcast before uh just before we came on.
• 1:03
  SPEAKER_01: Oh yeah, I mean I'm I'm not sure when this will ultimately post, but on the day that we're actually recording this, um it will uh uh uh this I posted the it will either be the final episode of the series or the final actually I should say, since you're British, the final episode of the entire show, because I know that series over there can mean what season means here.
• 1:25
  SPEAKER_01: So it might be the final episode of the season or the series or the or or the whole the whole shoot and match, whatever you want to say.
• 1:33
  SPEAKER_01: Um, but uh yeah, I'm not sure.
• 1:36
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, but anyway, it's a podcast about home cooking, and I really enjoyed doing it.
• 1:42
  SPEAKER_01: Uh the the thing is, I think the thing that made it different, but also made it a little bit um daunting to keep up with every week for myself, uh, is that I would actually like cook on the show.
• 1:53
  SPEAKER_01: So I would record myself like cooking.
• 1:54
  SPEAKER_01: I had a little like law microphone and I would kind of narrate the whole process and and uh then I would also do like an interview.
• 2:01
  SPEAKER_01: Um, so there was a lot, there was like a lot to it, and I, you know, yeah it was so it was I think it was like kind of ambitious and and cool.
• 2:09
  SPEAKER_01: There's 44 episodes of it out there.
• 2:11
  SPEAKER_01: Oh nice and and those will be up indefinitely so people can go check those out.
• 2:16
  SPEAKER_01: And and I enjoyed doing it.
• 2:18
  SPEAKER_01: People seem to enjoy it, but it's just come to be that time where it's like time to uh to move on to to other to other things, other things that I can figure out how to make them be way more work than they probably should be.
• 2:31
  SPEAKER_00: Well just just to add a video element to it now and now like yeah, absolutely, yeah, for sure.
• 2:36
  SPEAKER_01: Totally.
• 2:36
  SPEAKER_01: And uh and then like uh a DJ set.
• 2:39
  SPEAKER_01: I'm gonna do a DJ set and just really and have to clear all the music and and do all that stuff too.
• 2:44
  SPEAKER_01: So you know, just keep it really light, just really easy.
• 2:47
  SPEAKER_00: Exactly, yeah.
• 2:50
  SPEAKER_00: Uh but yeah, we we must have started that around the same time then actually, because like this started around about 40 episodes ago or so.
• 2:56
  SPEAKER_00: Like, yeah.
• 2:58
  SPEAKER_01: Um yeah, I was I was noticing that.
• 3:01
  SPEAKER_01: Congrats to you, and you have officially, if you do a s one more episode, you have officially surpassed my episode counts.
• 3:07
  SPEAKER_01: Oh really?
• 3:07
  SPEAKER_01: So, yeah, exactly.
• 3:09
  SPEAKER_01: Forever.
• 3:11
  SPEAKER_00: Well, in that case, this will be you you'll be the one surpassing it because you're the next episode going out.
• 3:17
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, it's like a looper thing.
• 3:18
  SPEAKER_01: I'm the only one that can defeat myself.
• 3:23
  SPEAKER_00: Although, what if this is the final episode in my podcast as well?
• 3:26
  SPEAKER_01: No, don't say that.
• 3:28
  SPEAKER_00: No, I do have more booked in, so it's definitely not fantastic.
• 3:32
  SPEAKER_00: Um but yeah, you've come on today to talk about the movie Airheads, um, which you seem very excited about as well.
• 3:39
  SPEAKER_00: Like you but at the same time, you seem to have a you seem to have a lot of trouble tracking down, and I also did as well.
• 3:45
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, which is very interesting.
• 3:47
  SPEAKER_01: It's um I don't know how it is in the in the UK, but in the US currently, it's like not streaming anywhere.
• 3:53
  SPEAKER_01: It's not even and normally I'm somebody where like I don't I I don't need things to be like only on Netflix or only on Amazon Prime or whatever, like I'll all spring to like digitally rent something in the in the I don't want to brag, but I'll I'll shell out the$2.99 to uh to watch something on the the like Apple, I guess it used to be iTunes, but now it's like Apple TV or whatever store.
• 4:17
  SPEAKER_01: Um but yeah, it's not even it's not available in any of those formats.
• 4:20
  SPEAKER_01: You can't rent it on YouTube or or anything, which is which is a bummer because I do I I uh well we'll we'll get into that in a second, but yeah, so I I track down uh a DVD on eBay.
• 4:33
  SPEAKER_01: Um so I have some like some like library in the Midwest's old copy of uh of Airheads on DVD now.
• 4:42
  SPEAKER_00: And I actually tagged you in a tweet the other day because I saw someone else tweeting about how they just managed to buy it as well.
• 4:47
  SPEAKER_00: And it was like, what is going on?
• 4:49
  SPEAKER_00: Why is this suddenly like is it just me?
• 4:52
  SPEAKER_01: Is it one of those things of like I'm just noticing it again because people because we're talking going to talk about it, or is it something that's like always around and I think it is weirdly a little bit like I would not say that the movie Airheads is by any stretch of the imagination like in the zeitgeist right now, but like weirdly, I think in like Twitter circles, like there is like a definite Brendan Fraser renaissance.
• 5:14
  SPEAKER_01: I don't know if you've if you've noticed this.
• 5:16
  SPEAKER_01: There's a like with the um there's a lot of people uh just singing the praises, I think rightly, of of of Brendan Fraser.
• 5:24
  SPEAKER_01: So so definitely like it um I think people are maybe a little more the ambient uh uh universal uh mental awareness of of airheads is maybe just a little higher than it was, say like two years ago.
• 5:38
  SPEAKER_01: Because people are appreciating uh Brendan Fraser, and I think that's a wonderful thing.
• 5:42
  SPEAKER_00: He's an he's a great actor as well.
• 5:44
  SPEAKER_00: He's a great comedic actor, especially.
• 5:46
  SPEAKER_01: So good.
• 5:47
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, but he um but yeah, this this movie I I have been um I don't know if I'm I'm skipping ahead here to say I this movie is just like burned into my brain so much of it because of Comedy Central in the the US, the like um the yeah, or sort of like cable comedy station that was just like on everybody's cable package if you had cable in the late 90s, early 2000s.
• 6:17
  SPEAKER_01: And they would just play, they had a lot of original programming.
• 6:20
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, obviously they they had like South Park and like a lot of a lot of that stuff, but they would also just play some stuff they would just play over and over and over again.
• 6:29
  SPEAKER_01: One of the things that I always talk about with with friends of mine that are my same age who were like in middle school and and high school in the late 90s, early 2000s, is um they would always play Dana Carvey's stand-up special.
• 6:40
  SPEAKER_01: Have you have you ever seen that?
• 6:42
  SPEAKER_00: I've never seen it.
• 6:42
  SPEAKER_00: It's I don't think it's ever aired here.
• 6:44
  SPEAKER_01: Oh wow.
• 6:45
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, it is I don't know if it's just like of the time, but it was it, I just saw it so much that I couldn't I mean I I do think it's good, but I also haven't seen it in a really long time.
• 6:55
  SPEAKER_01: But it's just it was like all that entire thing was just completely burned into my brain.
• 6:59
  SPEAKER_01: And it's a lot of him doing like musical stuff.
• 7:01
  SPEAKER_01: And then yeah, among other things, like the movie Airheads, they would just play so much.
• 7:07
  SPEAKER_01: And I watched it a bunch and I really, really liked it.
• 7:10
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, I'm sure we'll talk about like all the movies that it's clearly um influenced by or sort of you know, uh uh almost like adopting the structure of in certain ways, like um Dog Day Afternoon and Die Hard, but I saw this movie before I saw either of those movies.
• 7:28
  SPEAKER_01: So I experienced Dog Day Afternoon and Die Hard backwards through through airheads.
• 7:34
  SPEAKER_00: Um you should probably shouldn't have seen those before.
• 7:37
  SPEAKER_00: Airheads is probably like the way to start, to be honest, because it's like those those are a little bit Yeah, this is the training wheels version for sure.
• 7:45
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yeah, exactly.
• 7:47
  SPEAKER_01: Um but yeah, so I just watched it a ton.
• 7:51
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 7:52
  SPEAKER_00: One one of the things I think is funny that you mentioned about um Dana Carvey, uh is that they used to air Waynes World 1 and 2 constantly on Comedy Central here.
• 8:03
  SPEAKER_00: So I'm very aware of Dana Carvey and everything.
• 8:06
  SPEAKER_00: It's just like, but they never for some reason they just I don't think they should tend to show a lot of weirdly enough, it was even though it's Comedy Central, they didn't show a lot of stand-up specials.
• 8:14
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, interesting.
• 8:15
  SPEAKER_00: Um other than like a couple of random English ones.
• 8:19
  SPEAKER_00: But like um yeah, other they they would show Tommy Boy a lot, from what I remember.
• 8:25
  SPEAKER_00: Um yeah, Wayne's World, uh and yeah, in South Park, I think.
• 8:30
  SPEAKER_00: Like I don't really remember anything else.
• 8:33
  SPEAKER_00: Strangely enough.
• 8:34
  SPEAKER_01: I mean yeah, I think they were really, at least in the in the States, they were really, really leveraging like just how the the 80s stand-up boom in America, basically.
• 8:46
  SPEAKER_01: Like they were there was really like so much in like the 80s and 90s, like so much stand-up and so much, especially like on TV, like HBO would do a ton of stand-up specials.
• 8:56
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 8:57
  SPEAKER_01: So each and HBO had like a lot of repeating series that were you know stand-up showcases.
• 9:02
  SPEAKER_01: And so I think what Comedy Central was basically doing is going like, let's just like license that stuff, and we'll have like two movies and like a billion stand-up specials, and we'll just like show these things again and again and again and again.
• 9:15
  SPEAKER_01: And so, yeah, there's just like random stand-up lines or bits, or that that like I swear everybody my age knows who had cable at the time, especially if you were like more like comedy, you know, if you were like a budding comedy nerd, you know, like Paula Poundstone had some bit in like an HBO special about a Snickers commercial where a woman says, Roundabout noon, where your appetite's poking at you, poking at you, poking at you, which is like a seven-layer obscure reference because like I never even saw that commercial.
• 9:45
  SPEAKER_01: I saw Paula Poundstone reference it in a stand-up special that Comedy Central played probably one billion times, and so it's just like tattooed on my on my psyche in some way.
• 9:57
  SPEAKER_01: Because also that was like, I, you know, I don't know, like uh yeah, it it that was how you entertained yourself.
• 10:07
  SPEAKER_01: You would just like turn on the TV and whatever was on, you would watch it.
• 10:10
  SPEAKER_01: Feels very distant now.
• 10:11
  SPEAKER_00: Um The weird thing is, like, I think around the time that you would have been doing that, uh not around the time you're doing that, but the same age that you would have been doing that, I was uh was the beginning of YouTube for me.
• 10:23
  SPEAKER_00: And so everything I discovered was like Chappelle, and then you as well, specifically like your like I remember 2006 discovering you on YouTube, like your uh uh Derek comedy stuff, and just being like, that's that's what I'm going to like kind of that's gonna influence my comedy as I go forward as well, weirdly enough.
• 10:45
  SPEAKER_00: That's a very strange citizen, yeah.
• 10:47
  SPEAKER_01: That's very flattering, but yeah, it is funny where it's just like the at that age, it's sort of like what the the the method in which you you or the sort of like on-ramp uh uh of of what you're gonna consume is gonna be as important as like what it is that's gonna dictate like the actually what you're seeing.
• 11:06
  SPEAKER_01: It's just like for me it was cable, for you it was it was YouTube.
• 11:09
  SPEAKER_01: That's really cool.
• 11:10
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, but it was also like the the early days of YouTube, so like anything could be put on there and not taken down as well.
• 11:16
  SPEAKER_00: So like I saw a lot of stuff that I like should not have been on there at the time, like it was all copyright infringement.
• 11:25
  SPEAKER_01: But yeah, because nobody knew that it was nobody knew that it was uh you know even existed, really, a lot of these companies.
• 11:32
  SPEAKER_00: But that's how I got into I guess like that's how I discovered a lot of comedy, and so like it's it's but again, like you discovered it through you you knew I guess you knew these people at the time, kind of, but um because you would have known SNL and everything as well, so you would have known um Sandler and Farley and all of those people in it, but did you know like Brendan Fraser and uh Steve Buscemi?
• 11:56
  SPEAKER_00: Were you aware of them?
• 11:57
  SPEAKER_00: Not as much.
• 11:58
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, I guess I would have been I I guess my my Buscemi zance, uh my b Steve Buscemi coming of age, it was probably like right around this time as well, and I don't know which came first, um, but like because like Fargo was like had just come out, like let's say that was like '96, so a couple years prior, there was kind of his big sort of, you know, uh, I feel like he had been in a bunch of other movies up until that point, but that's kind of I feel like a big sort of like crossing over point for him.
• 12:28
  SPEAKER_01: Um and definitely like when I became aware of him, really, I feel like in part it was in Fargo and then the big Lebowski that I like remember renting on DVD and and obviously really, really liking um and watching a billion times.
• 12:46
  SPEAKER_01: And you had just like this awareness of like, oh, there's this guy, Steve Buscemi, and he's like, and it's like what that thing where it's like once you identify that person, you see them in everything.
• 12:56
  SPEAKER_01: Because they're in everything, and and that's one.
• 12:58
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, that's I would say like the you know, I don't want to skip ahead or anything, but like one of I mean, just this the cast of this movie is just like out of control.
• 13:06
  SPEAKER_00: It's fantastic, yeah.
• 13:08
  SPEAKER_00: It's like an incredible cast, and I was surprised because I I I remembered seeing this movie years and years ago, but not I don't remember too much about it other than that they they hijack a um a radio station.
• 13:20
  SPEAKER_00: That's all I really remembered about it.
• 13:21
  SPEAKER_00: But there's not obviously there's not like huge plot to it, but there's um I remembered the main cast of the three of them, and then nobody else in it, but going back and watching them now, I'm like, wow, there were so many huge comedic actors in this in this movie that I just didn't know at the time and have come to appreciate over the years.
• 13:39
  SPEAKER_00: Like Michael McKean as well.
• 13:42
  SPEAKER_00: Um who else is there?
• 13:44
  SPEAKER_00: There was um uh Michael Richard.
• 13:49
  SPEAKER_01: Judd Nelson, yeah, Michael Richard.
• 13:50
  SPEAKER_00: Judd Nelson, Ernie Hudson, um, there's a cameo from uh Harold Ramis.
• 13:55
  SPEAKER_00: Yep.
• 13:56
  SPEAKER_00: At one point, it's just it's wild the cards that you get in this.
• 14:00
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, uh Reg Reg E.
• 14:02
  SPEAKER_01: Cathy plays the like the studio like tech, like the the he's who went on to be like in the wire and tons of other amazing stuff.
• 14:10
  SPEAKER_01: He's so so funny in this.
• 14:11
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, no, there's tons and tons of really cool um people in it, and it's interesting to see that.
• 14:18
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, like, and it is I I really think like that if to me is the difference.
• 14:22
  SPEAKER_01: I like a lot of things about this movie.
• 14:23
  SPEAKER_01: Um, there's obviously also because it's something that I grew up watching on on Comedy Central, and now it's you know, 25 years later, inevitably there's a lot of stuff that has you know aged like milk that you left on top of the fridge.
• 14:35
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 14:35
  SPEAKER_01: Um but but there, you know, the the for me the performances are are uh among other a few other things, like really, really what makes what makes this movie go from like uh you know an okay 90s comedy to like a really, really fun, really, you know, like uh really fun comedy.
• 14:53
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 14:54
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, like the the weird thing is, so it has a 23% on Rotten Tomatoes from from 35 reviews, which is very low for that.
• 15:04
  SPEAKER_00: But then the audience score is about is 50% as well from a hundred thousand plus ratings, it says.
• 15:11
  SPEAKER_00: So again, but then like so that means a lot of people have seen this movie still.
• 15:15
  SPEAKER_00: Oh my god.
• 15:16
  SPEAKER_01: So I I swear so much of that has to be Comedy Central, like uh really.
• 15:20
  SPEAKER_01: Like they just played it, it's they really played it so, so much.
• 15:25
  SPEAKER_00: Do you reckon they owned the rights to it completely, and then it and then because of that, it just never got released on the people.
• 15:30
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, just like let's it never got there's like it never got renewed anywhere else.
• 15:35
  SPEAKER_01: Yep, they're people were just like, no, that's the Comedy Central movie.
• 15:38
  SPEAKER_01: That's basically just like them.
• 15:39
  SPEAKER_01: We would be like showing a Comedy Central uh uh logo on our network to be to air that um I'm just reminded, I'm looking at my notes here.
• 15:48
  SPEAKER_01: Another thing that's and another uh Cohn Brothers connection, um, score by Carter Burwell, who's done like a ton of scores for Cohen Brothers movies in the non There's not a ton of like not like rock music cues in the score that there is is is by Carter Burwell and it's kind of a like it's not just like first thought, just like rock.
• 16:10
  SPEAKER_01: It's kind of like 80 Z.
• 16:12
  SPEAKER_01: It's almost like not new wave, I would say, but it's like a little bit got that kind of um uh Danny Elf early Danny Elfman sort of like quirky, um, kind of almost like in an early Tim Burton movie kind of kind of feel to it.
• 16:24
  SPEAKER_01: It's good.
• 16:25
  SPEAKER_01: Like the score that is there is good, and I was like, oh shit, he did music for this.
• 16:28
  SPEAKER_00: That's I have to be honest, I didn't notice, but yeah.
• 16:31
  SPEAKER_00: But yeah, like it must be good.
• 16:33
  SPEAKER_00: Like you've like you've seen it enough times, you must know like that.
• 16:38
  SPEAKER_01: I wouldn't I don't know if that that is necessarily predictive of anything.
• 16:41
  SPEAKER_01: I've I've just seen this movie and that's all.
• 16:43
  SPEAKER_00: At the same time, you're gonna notice, like you're gonna pick up on it as well more than I'm gonna pick up on it the one time that I've seen it again.
• 16:49
  SPEAKER_00: Um I was trying to, I'm more focused when I watch it, I'm more I'm more focused on taking notes about what's going on in the movie than than the background stuff.
• 16:57
  SPEAKER_00: Um you said you saw it for the first time or like around Comedy Central time, but how old were you then?
• 17:01
  SPEAKER_00: Do you remember?
• 17:02
  SPEAKER_01: Um I would have been like again, like dead on exactly.
• 17:07
  SPEAKER_01: I feel like if you're ever gonna really like the movie Airheads, when you should see the movie Airheads, which which was like probably like 14, you know, like late middle school, early, early highs.
• 17:17
  SPEAKER_00: That makes sense, yeah.
• 17:18
  SPEAKER_00: That makes sense.
• 17:20
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 17:20
  SPEAKER_00: That's a that's a key time.
• 17:22
  SPEAKER_00: I feel like that is such a key time to like influence your comedy style and your taste and everything as well.
• 17:28
  SPEAKER_00: Um but then also like I so I grew up, I remember growing up like watching a lot of Sandler films as well, around uh that sort of age and everything.
• 17:36
  SPEAKER_00: So he was a huge influence on me.
• 17:39
  SPEAKER_00: Um and it's weird because this is like one of his first movies as well.
• 17:45
  SPEAKER_00: And it's a very toned-down Sandler, I feel like.
• 17:50
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, no, totally.
• 17:59
  SPEAKER_01: If you read like a lot of like SNL books and stuff, or like Chris Farley's, um, there's a really good oral history about Chris Farley called the Chris Farley show.
• 18:07
  SPEAKER_01: That's also super um depressing, you know, just what an amazing talent he was, and and and you know, obviously just had a lot of real, real struggles.
• 18:17
  SPEAKER_01: Um but that this was like I think kind of a like their on break from SNL, they get to kind of like I think Sandler was in it, and then I think I I really could be wrong about this, but like I think Sandler was maybe even like, oh, you you guys should check out this guy, Chris Farley, or whatever.
• 18:32
  SPEAKER_01: You know, like there was a real I think it might have even been before Chris Farley was on SNL, but that might be now that I'm saying it, I I think I'm completely uh, you know, making I I think I might be making that up.
• 18:43
  SPEAKER_01: But it's like it is really Chris Farley role, sorry.
• 18:48
  SPEAKER_00: It would have been like 91 they filmed that, I guess.
• 18:50
  SPEAKER_01: Um no, maybe not then, because this is Oh no, sorry, oh nine, this is 94.
• 18:54
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, this is 94.
• 18:55
  SPEAKER_00: I thought this was 92.
• 18:57
  SPEAKER_00: Uh that's even strange.
• 18:59
  SPEAKER_01: So yeah, so it would have been like a f an early, I mean he would have been an SNL by this point, but like an early Chris Farley role.
• 19:06
  SPEAKER_01: Like the they Oh yeah, definitely an early role.
• 19:08
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 19:09
  SPEAKER_00: It's not his it's not yeah, I guess like he uh Yeah, probably about a year later he would have like kind of broken out with like yeah, Tommy Boy.
• 19:19
  SPEAKER_00: What's Tommy Boy, 95?
• 19:21
  SPEAKER_00: I don't know.
• 19:22
  SPEAKER_00: Um what's the other one, him and David Spade?
• 19:25
  SPEAKER_01: Uh Tommy Boy and Black Sheep.
• 19:26
  SPEAKER_01: Black Sheep is later, I think.
• 19:28
  SPEAKER_01: Black Sheep, yeah.
• 19:28
  SPEAKER_00: Black Sheep's later, yeah.
• 19:30
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 19:30
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, so he would Yeah, so this is ver this is early for him.
• 19:34
  SPEAKER_00: And then that the one I remember growing up from him, actually, surprisingly enough, is Beverly Hills Ninja.
• 19:39
  SPEAKER_00: And I and I remember that over like any of his other films for some reason.
• 19:45
  SPEAKER_01: Well that's the thing too, is it's not like because I feel like Tommy Boy is kind of the agreed-upon like classic, right?
• 19:50
  SPEAKER_01: Like you can just indisputable, comedically, just like really, really I remember reading in like the one of those SNL books, or maybe it was the Chris Farley book, like uh like Rob Lowe saying about that movie, he's like, it's it's a movie for 12-year-olds, like it's a comedy for 12-year-olds, and he was like, I mean, you know, uh compared to what they make for 12 year olds now, he's like, it's Shakespeare, you know?
• 20:15
  SPEAKER_01: At the time nobody thought it was any great Shakespeare, but now you look back at it, it's like, oh, it's a you know, for for that kind of movie, Tommy Boy is really, really, really, really good.
• 20:23
  SPEAKER_01: I would not, yeah, I would not put airheads on that level.
• 20:26
  SPEAKER_01: Like, I I, you know, but I do think like there's there's a lot to like here.
• 20:31
  SPEAKER_01: I do think primarily the cast, but also like, and this is I think part of what made it perfect for me watching it at that particular age, is like the sort of the kind of like 90s, you get the sense that really what's going on in pop culture is like grunge, like the tail end of grunge.
• 20:48
  SPEAKER_01: But weirdly, the script, it's a little bit like they're the the the band themselves never they never quite get pinned down to exactly what they are.
• 20:58
  SPEAKER_01: In fact, it's kind of a running joke in the movie of like people are like, what's your sound?
• 21:01
  SPEAKER_01: Like, and they're like, well, it's kind of like a power slop.
• 21:03
  SPEAKER_01: Um, but they're really, really like micro, you know, like zoned in on exactly kind of where they where they fit or whatever.
• 21:11
  SPEAKER_01: But there is like a you know, just this sense of sort of like this like 80s, you know, early 90s, like LA like rock scene that like truly just like feels like it doesn't exist anymore, I'm sure.
• 21:24
  SPEAKER_01: And then I feel like at the time, like probably didn't even exist in this way.
• 21:29
  SPEAKER_00: And I think it feels dated for the time.
• 21:30
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, exactly.
• 21:31
  SPEAKER_01: I think if you were in that world at the time, you would never go to see this movie, or I think you would think it was like really lame.
• 21:37
  SPEAKER_01: Um, but since I was a 13 year old in Arizona in, you know, like in the late 90s, I'm looking at this thinking, like, I'm aware that it's pr this is probably a cartoon, but it still seems like cool to me.
• 21:51
  SPEAKER_01: Like these guys, where you look back on it now and you're like, oh, they're huge losers, and that's part of the the joke and the fun.
• 21:56
  SPEAKER_01: You look at it then and you're like, these guys are cool, man.
• 21:59
  SPEAKER_01: You know.
• 22:00
  SPEAKER_01: Like there's there's a certain um yeah, just it, just, just that, that being a uh a big part of it.
• 22:06
  SPEAKER_01: And just being like, yeah, but like rock and roll, right?
• 22:09
  SPEAKER_01: And you're like, what does that even mean?
• 22:11
  SPEAKER_01: I don't know what that means.
• 22:12
  SPEAKER_01: I'm fresh out of middle school, you know, but there's just a sense that a sort of like generic uh uh rebelliousness is sort of like the coolest that it's possible to be, but it doesn't really mean anything.
• 22:25
  SPEAKER_01: It's sort of it's not exactly nihilistic, it just is kind of a generic, just sort of like, you know, and I I love that that's kind of personified to me in the movie, and it's still so funny because it's one of those things that also the meaning for it kind of of it kind of changes as you get older, but like where you know the at one point Joe Montaigne, who we didn't uh uh oh my god, so good in this, um as the as the sort of like disaffected uh uh rock DJ Um who even feels like the station that he works at is kind of like selling out, is like, so you know, Chaz, you're on stage in front of 50,000 people, what are you gonna say?
• 23:04
  SPEAKER_01: And he's like, rock and roll.
• 23:07
  SPEAKER_01: And Michael McKeon's like, that's what you're gonna say, you're gonna say rock and roll.
• 23:10
  SPEAKER_01: That's what you're gonna say, or whatever, like that's it.
• 23:12
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 23:13
  SPEAKER_01: And for him, he you can tell it just is is is is fraught with meaning and and and substance and is just kind of nothing, and it's great, and and and I love it.
• 23:22
  SPEAKER_01: Anyway, I'm getting getting ahead of myself, but it's that those are the those are the moments, those are the airheads moments.
• 23:28
  SPEAKER_00: What so like you so you weren't too aware of the of like the style of music at the time uh when you were watching it for the first time then, but are you are you like did you ever get into it then?
• 23:39
  SPEAKER_00: Did you um Well that's the thing is like looking back on it not them specifically, though, because they don't really like pin down, but like this that that 80s rock esque sort of thing.
• 23:49
  SPEAKER_01: Well that yeah, that's the that's the funny thing about this movie, is I remembered it as being like and I think maybe even at the time, I remembered it as being these guys are like gr uh it's it's like that basically like grunge, a kind of like watered down version of like Nirvana or Pearl Jam is like prevailing, and that's like commercially what's popular.
• 24:16
  SPEAKER_01: And I remembered it almost as like these guys are almost like a throwback to like met like metal and specifically like hair metal, right?
• 24:24
  SPEAKER_01: And that's kind of how it really reads a little bit in the movie, even though it's sort of a joke about them never really pinning down what they are, but uh especially like looking into like looking at the movie in general and these guys sort of like their ethos, if they can be said to to have one, and just their overall deal, their punk, you know what I mean?
• 24:46
  SPEAKER_00: Like they and and and the um in their in their element, in their their style, in their like uh uh general uh nature, I guess.
• 24:57
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, and the um I was looking into it in like the screenwriter who like he wrote this, he went on to write the movie Triple X, where Vin Diesel, it was like Vin Diesel's like post Fast and the Furious, original Fast and the Furious, kind of like one of his like star-making vehicles where he's an extreme sports uh super spy.
• 25:14
  SPEAKER_01: Um but like looking into that that writer, it seems like he's done a lot of stuff about like punks and and like produced like punk documentaries and whatever, and like clearly somebody that I got the sense like I didn't do a ton of research, but like maybe comes from a like 80s like California, I don't know, like hardcore or whatever, like punk scene.
• 25:33
  SPEAKER_01: And I think they were kind of smart in this movie to not pin it down specifically and say, like, these guys are definitely punk, whatever, but their song, the song, so they never they're and again, this is all I feel like I keep getting in the way of you like talking about the plots and what happens, which would make a lot of this make more sense.
• 25:51
  SPEAKER_01: But they are trying to get their song played on the radio, and we never hear the song.
• 25:55
  SPEAKER_01: Like the song keeps getting interrupted until the very, very end.
• 25:59
  SPEAKER_01: And I was, I sort of had forgotten that and then went watching it again.
• 26:03
  SPEAKER_01: I thought that was sort of delightful because also it keeps you from hearing the song and being like, This fucking sucks.
• 26:09
  SPEAKER_01: Like, you know, and then when you ultimately hear it, it's like, oh, it's pretty, you know.
• 26:15
  SPEAKER_01: I like at least I felt like I was like, oh, it's kind of you know, it's pretty good.
• 26:18
  SPEAKER_01: It's it's it's not bad.
• 26:19
  SPEAKER_01: It's certainly not, I think I don't think the movie wants you to think the song is is bad.
• 26:23
  SPEAKER_01: Um It's not bad, but it's just like it's like it's kind of a nothing song that's like it's been hyped up the whole time, maybe like um but turns out it's a it's a a song by the band Reagan Youth.
• 26:36
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 26:36
  SPEAKER_01: Which I didn't know.
• 26:37
  SPEAKER_00: I was just I was just reading that before came on it.
• 26:39
  SPEAKER_01: Isn't that interesting?
• 26:40
  SPEAKER_01: So like basically they just I think they were just and and that again to me, I felt like maybe the writer or the director was going like, well, this is like a punk, so it's like a you know, an 80s hardcore, you know, I think like LA area punk band.
• 26:53
  SPEAKER_01: Um and that this is gonna be, you know, this is their song.
• 26:56
  SPEAKER_01: And I don't think we're meant to like, I don't think it's really a winky reference.
• 26:58
  SPEAKER_01: I think they were just like, let's just get a song like off the rack, basically.
• 27:03
  SPEAKER_01: Um but I kind of thought like, oh, that that reinforced my theory that like the Lone Rangers are secretly punk, even though, and I'm sure this there was tons of discussion about this when they were making it, they don't really their fashion, they don't really look super punk.
• 27:18
  SPEAKER_01: No.
• 27:18
  SPEAKER_01: And like um Brendan Fraser in particular looks extremely grunge for the time.
• 27:24
  SPEAKER_00: Like he looks like dressing of the time.
• 27:26
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, with the exception of like he's wearing a leather jacket, which feels more 80s to me.
• 27:30
  SPEAKER_01: Like he he feels his hair in particular feels very like it's not really teased up hair metal, which is kind of how I remembered it.
• 27:38
  SPEAKER_01: It's more sort of like post-Eddie Vetter pretty boy grunge.
• 27:42
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, definitely.
• 27:44
  SPEAKER_00: Definitely.
• 27:44
  SPEAKER_00: And yeah, and and Sandler's de definitely dread of the time.
• 27:48
  SPEAKER_00: I don't I don't remember what Steve Bachemi was wearing in it, to be honest.
• 27:51
  SPEAKER_01: But Steve Yeah, so Sandler does feel very 80s now looking back on it.
• 27:56
  SPEAKER_01: Like I had none of this context at the time, but having read ever, you know, read like too many um oral histories about like different punk scenes, like Sandler feels pretty hardcore, like 80s, like especially because he like cleans pools, and pools feel were very seem very like key to that scene, and like sort of like skateboarding and you know, drained empty pools that you're kind of like passed out in or whatever.
• 28:19
  SPEAKER_01: He kind of has that look, like his hair's super short, yeah.
• 28:23
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and yeah, Buscemi just kind of looks like, and this is maybe just part of his general look, how he looks, but like he looks a little bit older and he looks like sort of more like 70s, just kind of like straight ahead, just like rock.
• 28:37
  SPEAKER_01: Like you could imagine him being like, I don't know, in like Motorhead.
• 28:41
  SPEAKER_01: Like Motorhead is often referenced in this.
• 28:43
  SPEAKER_01: You could imagine him being like a roadie for or for Motorhead.
• 28:47
  SPEAKER_00: He definitely feels like the old one in the group, actually.
• 28:49
  SPEAKER_00: For sure.
• 28:50
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 28:52
  SPEAKER_00: Um so let's I guess let's talk about the let's describe the plot then to anyone who has hasn't seen it.
• 28:58
  SPEAKER_00: Um so basically, like it's three aspiring musicians, uh kind of led by uh Brendan Fraser's character, and they um they sneak into a Los Angeles Angeles radio station to kind of um submit their tape, and in the process they they hold the the radio station hostage because it just like escalates into that.
• 29:22
  SPEAKER_01: Um yeah, they have um uh Buscemi works at a uh toy store and he's been like just kind of like getting all of these like because this also felt like something where I was like, oh, this kind of was happening.
• 29:36
  SPEAKER_01: Like, yeah, they were taking like you know, or that the things that are look too much like guns they've been taking like off the shelf.
• 29:44
  SPEAKER_01: So these like squirt guns that look really realistic, and he's been filling them with hot sauce and basically is saying that he's gonna use them like if somebody tries to break into there, what at the time I think would have been a genuinely shitty apartment, like when you see where it is and it's in Hollywood and it's right off the the freeway.
• 30:00
  SPEAKER_01: But at the time, I'm sure now is you know would be like a five thousand dollar a month um uh condo.
• 30:06
  SPEAKER_01: Um, but like if anybody, if he's like if any Hollywood Boulevard trash tries to break in, you know, I'm gonna like squirt him with with this, you know, with this gun and he shoots a stretch Armstrong doll, which again felt very uh very 90s.
• 30:18
  SPEAKER_01: It's very timely.
• 30:19
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, for sure.
• 30:19
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 30:21
  SPEAKER_00: So yeah, that's like the general premise in the movie, then I guess.
• 30:24
  SPEAKER_00: But like um so do you remember, do you know how many could you estimate how many times you've seen this?
• 30:29
  SPEAKER_01: Gosh.
• 30:30
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, I've definitely mostly seen it in parts, but like it is one of those movies where it's just like you would just turn again, and not something I really do anymore, but like very much of the time for me, like turn on the TV.
• 30:42
  SPEAKER_01: It's a circuit between like Comedy Central, MTV, VH1, that's pretty much it.
• 30:46
  SPEAKER_01: And like what's on any one of those, whatever catches me first, I'm gonna watch the rest of it, probably.
• 30:51
  SPEAKER_01: And so like airheads and maybe like fall asleep and then wake up and it's you know, The Simpsons is on, and then that's it.
• 30:58
  SPEAKER_01: So I've I've seen it in pieces, probably, you know, if you put all of those together at least 15 times.
• 31:07
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, okay.
• 31:07
  SPEAKER_00: That's yeah, I was expecting to say more based on all that.
• 31:10
  SPEAKER_01: Well, I've seen like individual like watches of any one of any one portion of the movie, like a hundred.
• 31:18
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 31:19
  SPEAKER_00: So you still don't have the record with this.
• 31:21
  SPEAKER_00: No, yeah, I don't think so.
• 31:22
  SPEAKER_00: No, there's um no uh uh one of my another episodes, someone had seen Wet Hot America's Summer well over a hundred times.
• 31:29
  SPEAKER_00: They were they were estimating because they like used to screen it regularly at cinema.
• 31:34
  SPEAKER_00: That's awesome.
• 31:35
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I mean that looks like but it is like that is one of those one of those types of of movies for sure.
• 31:41
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 31:41
  SPEAKER_00: I I like to ask the question to everyone just to see.
• 31:44
  SPEAKER_00: Like, yeah.
• 31:45
  SPEAKER_01: But also, I feel like you probably I would imagine sometimes you find that people have seen movies that didn't get more than 40% on Rotten Tomatoes more than they've necessarily seen, like it's a cliche example, but like Citizen Kane or something.
• 31:59
  SPEAKER_01: You know what I mean?
• 31:59
  SPEAKER_01: Like there's something about the like the low the the approachability of a movie like anything that you just sort of like, yeah, I'll watch that again.
• 32:08
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, it's just neat.
• 32:09
  SPEAKER_00: You don't have to think too hard about any of these movies that you're watching, so it's just like it's a nice way to like just relax and you can do other things at the same time.
• 32:16
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 32:17
  SPEAKER_00: And also like you there's a nostalgia to a lot of them as well, I feel like.
• 32:21
  SPEAKER_00: Um so I totally understand why people pick these movies as well.
• 32:26
  SPEAKER_00: Like I so seeing this and like knowing your history with it, it it highly makes sense that you pick this as well.
• 32:33
  SPEAKER_00: Um like I I guess like so had you thought about uh any other movies, or was this like as very one that was this one that came to mind straight away that you were like, oh, I want to do this because of the the history I have with it?
• 32:50
  SPEAKER_01: I didn't think of it, and I don't know if I would have thought of it if you hadn't provided like a l you had like a very nicely, I thought, you know, like a list of here are some movies, here's some ideas, some thought starters.
• 33:00
  SPEAKER_01: And then it like when I saw it, I mean I emailed you you experienced it.
• 33:04
  SPEAKER_01: I emailed you like right away.
• 33:05
  SPEAKER_01: Because I and I hadn't seen it in you know, like many, many, many years.
• 33:10
  SPEAKER_01: Um uh but um uh uh so yeah, so so you know it just it just jumped out at me.
• 33:19
  SPEAKER_01: And uh yeah, I mean I I I sorry, I didn't I didn't know if I was getting in the way of the plot recap or if we're oh no no no you can say whatever honestly like because you know whatever you know more about the things that like it's interesting.
• 33:32
  SPEAKER_00: Feel free to jump in at all.
• 33:33
  SPEAKER_01: So you were saying like, and I I think it like it it it it has to be acknowledged, and it was it was very interesting to me um that like not a big part of this movie, but a not insignificant part of this movie, um you know, has to do with basically so since these guys are in this radio station and there's a there's a like police response, and there ends up being this like um um kind of a multi-tiered, very dog day afternoon, sort of like, and then the cops that arrive initially are sort of you know, we get the sense that like Ernie Hudson, the chief, is the more level-headed one, and then this like SWAT team guy arrives and he's a total like macho jerk, and especially we we learn that he's like obsessed with the fact that his wife left him because she was fucking the pool boy, and he ends up when he finds out that Pip, uh uh Adam Sandler's character is a pool boy, ends up like deputizing the Michael Richards character who he misunderstands to be a Marine, to be like his John McClain sort of like guy on the inside, and gets him an actual machine gun.
• 34:38
  SPEAKER_01: So ends up like way over-escalating the situation beyond where it was.
• 34:42
  SPEAKER_01: Like it wasn't really a threat to anyone's safety until he like makes it one.
• 34:48
  SPEAKER_01: And um, there's a joke at the beginning about like um uh you know, Chris Chris Farley's just sort of like he's a hapless cop who's but he's he's you can tell he's really like trying to do the be the by the book or whatever.
• 35:01
  SPEAKER_01: And Ernie Hudson, who's supposed to be the good cop, says, like, well, you know, Chris Farley says, like, well, the sir, the civilian review board, and and and and Ernie Hudson says, like, to hell with the civilian review board, you know, whatever.
• 35:13
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and that ends up like influencing Chris Farley, basically doing a like treated comedically but like extrajudicial act of police brutality later by pulling somebody's like uh uh nipple ring out, um, and uh all of that stuff, and then and then um Brendan Fraser uh at one point, like when there's a big confrontation, so sort of just how in Dog Day Afternoon, where um Al Pacino riles the crowd up by chanting Attica, which is reference to the like the famous like um um prison riot, uh it that was very, very, you know, like super on everybody's mind at that time.
• 35:53
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, uh Brendan Fraser kind of like gets the crowd going by chanting and on more on his side by chanting Rodney King at these LAPD officers, and obviously that being this like super catalyzing, you know, incredibly awful act of police brutality that was very much at the forefront of everybody's consciousness at this time.
• 36:10
  SPEAKER_01: But it it it so all of that to say like there was this big through line in watching it in terms of like, and I don't think, again, it almost feels trivializing to even sort of like talk about it in the context of a dumb comedy movie from the 90s.
• 36:24
  SPEAKER_01: And I'm not trying I'm not saying that Airheads is trying to like tackle any of these problems just to go like it's there, and I thought it was sort of like interesting, and I genuinely felt like, oh, like when Brendan Fraser is chanting like Rodney King, on the one hand, you know, it basically just like even in the moment, Reg uh Cathy, who plays like the the this um uh I can't remember his character's name, but he's like this the sort of station like engineer guy.
• 36:51
  SPEAKER_01: Um is sort of like, what the hell is he doing?
• 36:54
  SPEAKER_01: Like basically being like as a black man in LA, seems to be being like, that has nothing to do with this.
• 37:00
  SPEAKER_01: And Sandler's character takes it to mean like, oh, he doesn't know who Rodney King is, and he's like, Yeah, you know, Rodney King, he was that guy.
• 37:07
  SPEAKER_01: Um there's I just feel like that moment alone, I feel like you could write an entire socio sociological like text around because it's sort of this like this white character who's pretty entitled thinks like this will kind of be a goof ultimately if we if we take the station hostage and it'll probably be okay, and then ultimately is like proven right, like it ultimately isn't that big of a deal and is kind of a good move for them, is never in any real danger.
• 37:34
  SPEAKER_01: And then you have these black characters being like, what are they doing?
• 37:37
  SPEAKER_01: This is pretty entitled.
• 37:39
  SPEAKER_01: It is even called out on the news at one point.
• 37:41
  SPEAKER_01: Like, people are annoyed by like these entitled, like basically somebody says, like, oh, people have real problems out there, and these guys are doing this.
• 37:49
  SPEAKER_01: Like, there's there are these these these through lines, and again, I don't think Airheads is setting out to to sort of like solve any problems, but it is is there and it's present.
• 37:59
  SPEAKER_01: And I thought it was interesting and in some ways difficult.
• 38:02
  SPEAKER_01: Like, some of that stuff felt like chewier um um in light of of absolutely everything that's going on um in America in terms of like you know, racialized uh uh uh uh policing and and police brutality and and all that stuff.
• 38:20
  SPEAKER_01: Like it was it was interesting to see that.
• 38:22
  SPEAKER_01: Some of it made it more of a bummer, honestly, because I was just like, oh yeah, that like this is still an issue that's being confronted.
• 38:30
  SPEAKER_01: Here it is, presented in this 90s movies way where it's kind of a joke, and but it also the joke is a little bit on the characters and they're being clueless.
• 38:37
  SPEAKER_01: Um, but it was, you know, I just I found that to be very like um uh you know, I didn't, I I don't think that the movie was say trying to say everything about that, but I didn't I also didn't think it was saying nothing about that, and I didn't think it was perfect, but I did think it was was like interesting and and and sort of like worth acknowledging.
• 38:58
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, absolutely.
• 38:59
  SPEAKER_00: I guess like looking at it that way, yeah.
• 39:02
  SPEAKER_00: When I when I was watching it, it did make me feel very uncomfortable, if I'm being honest.
• 39:07
  SPEAKER_00: Like that the all of that stuff that made me especially when he came out and chanted uh Rodney King, it did make me feel uncomfortable.
• 39:14
  SPEAKER_00: But like when you're talking about it now and bringing it up in the context of everything and you like kind of ex like explaining it as a as a as a whole, I do kind of see what you what they probab were probably were going for then as well.
• 39:26
  SPEAKER_00: And it's a little bit yeah, I do I do see a little bit more now.
• 39:31
  SPEAKER_00: I guess like there was a there is a line at one point where on the news they say um because I wrote it down because it was interesting, he says um white urban males uh are the least likely to elicit fear uh in people, and they say that about these guys and everything, and it's I I thought that was a really interesting line in the context of like they've literally broken into a place, got guns on them and everything, and people are standing outside cheering them on.
• 39:59
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, and I think like that's the that's the thing that you know I I I thought that was super interesting too, and I think that like you know, we can we can sort of look at it, it's like inside the context of this movie, you know, it's sort of like, okay, this is a funny thing these guys are doing, like, you know, they're ultimately never in any real danger, you know, nobody gets really, to my knowledge.
• 40:24
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, I just watched it a few days ago, but maybe I'm off base here, like nobody gets super hurt at any point, you know, like um but if you look at it, if you sort of take it outside of the context of the movie and you're like, yeah, these white guys who are like, you know, straight, white, young, relatively privileged, even though it seems like they're sort of like, you know, economically struggling somewhat at the moment, aren't exactly getting what they want in terms of their career, so they're going to like take what everyone else has every reason to believe are guns and like take hostages until they sort of like get what they want in their life, is like scary and is like a thing I think that is all too, you know, somebody experiencing frustration and and sort of using the threat of or the reality of gun violence to get what they want is like outside of the context of this movie, not not a funny thing.
• 41:11
  SPEAKER_01: And it is one of those things where you sort of like look at it in that mirror reflection and you go like, oh, that, you know, in context of this movie, I see why, why it sort of works and why the juxtaposition of that with like more serious movies like like Dog Day Afternoon are is is is funny.
• 41:28
  SPEAKER_01: Um you take it out of that context, it's like kind of disturbing, right?
• 41:32
  SPEAKER_01: But I also think it is, you can see there, you know, I don't know.
• 41:35
  SPEAKER_01: Like I I um I do think it's interesting, but I know what you mean when he started chanting Rodney King.
• 41:40
  SPEAKER_01: I was I was like, oh shit, I forgot about that, and I was genuinely uncomfortable.
• 41:44
  SPEAKER_01: And yeah, I you know, it just is it it is, you know, there's just a ton of interesting stuff like that.
• 41:51
  SPEAKER_01: Like Sandler's character clearly being like, and it I think this is the movie's attitude, is like he he's a guy who thinks like, oh yeah, man, as he even says, like to the Reg Cathy character, who also is not like that character isn't super three-dimensionally written, like he's a little bit of a cliche, like a kind of like you know, he's I think he's supposed to be sort of a very like 70s guy who still, you know, he's kind of has a very like um, I think he's supposed to be an anachronism in the movie.
• 42:19
  SPEAKER_01: It's not super he Reg Cathy's fucking amazing in the role.
• 42:22
  SPEAKER_01: He's super, super funny.
• 42:23
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, but anyway, Adam Sandler says to him, like, no way, man, yeah, I I get it, man.
• 42:26
  SPEAKER_01: I'm down, you know.
• 42:27
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and I think Sandler is supposed to be a well-meaning but extremely clueless um um you know, guy who actually, in fact, doesn't get it and is unintentionally offensive to these people by trying to sympathize with their plight actually reveals how little he gets it.
• 42:42
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 42:43
  SPEAKER_00: There is there is there is the point where he speaks to the um the other uh the the black woman in it.
• 42:48
  SPEAKER_00: I don't know her name.
• 42:49
  SPEAKER_01: Yvonne is the name of the character, and I am gonna look up the actress's name because she she is she again doesn't she doesn't get enough to do, but she is great in it.
• 43:00
  SPEAKER_00: But but yeah, but basically he says to her, um like uh what is it he says?
• 43:05
  SPEAKER_00: It's something like um you oh do you ever get followed?
• 43:11
  SPEAKER_00: Uh I know what it's like.
• 43:12
  SPEAKER_00: Do you ever get followed when you're in um in the store by people and everything?
• 43:16
  SPEAKER_00: And she's like, No, that's never happened to me before.
• 43:18
  SPEAKER_00: Has that happened to you?
• 43:19
  SPEAKER_00: And he's like, uh I don't know.
• 43:21
  SPEAKER_00: Um just like panicking, because he doesn't like it's just things that he thinks he knows about black people, basically.
• 43:27
  SPEAKER_01: Yes, exactly, and it's just like super, super tacky.
• 43:31
  SPEAKER_01: Like he's just being like exact by trying to show how much he gets it, he shows truly how much he doesn't get it.
• 43:36
  SPEAKER_01: So Michelle Hurst is the name of the actor actress who plays um Yvonne, and she's great.
• 43:42
  SPEAKER_01: She was recently in the trial of the Chicago 7, uh the the the that's nominated for uh Best Picture that I still haven't watched yet.
• 43:49
  SPEAKER_01: But I'm going to.
• 43:50
  SPEAKER_01: The Oscars are this weekend.
• 43:51
  SPEAKER_01: Um but yeah, she's been in a a ton, a ton of stuff.
• 43:55
  SPEAKER_01: She's great.
• 43:57
  SPEAKER_00: The Oscars are this weekend.
• 43:59
  SPEAKER_00: Sorry, you just like.
• 44:00
  SPEAKER_00: On mine.
• 44:01
  SPEAKER_00: I can't believe how fast that's come around.
• 44:05
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, so let's yeah, she's she is great at it as well.
• 44:07
  SPEAKER_00: Like she, yeah.
• 44:08
  SPEAKER_00: I kind of wish they gave her more to do as well.
• 44:10
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I would say that's another they got rid of her character quite quickly.
• 44:13
  SPEAKER_01: It's another flaw of the movie, and I think is obviously not uncommon for you know comedies um of the era or even today.
• 44:21
  SPEAKER_01: It's like that they didn't give the the female characters nearly as much to do as the the male characters.
• 44:27
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, some of that I feel like you could argue is like, well, it's in this rock world that's like super overly male driven now and especially at the time.
• 44:35
  SPEAKER_01: Um but I don't know if it's necessarily I don't think it's purely functioning as like a critique of that.
• 44:41
  SPEAKER_01: I think it's also just a much realistic movie.
• 44:43
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I think so too.
• 44:44
  SPEAKER_00: Um I I think like one one thing I will say is very weird about this.
• 44:51
  SPEAKER_00: There's two there's two very weird characters in this movie.
• 44:53
  SPEAKER_00: One of them is Michael Richards and one of them is David Arquette.
• 44:57
  SPEAKER_01: Totally, yeah.
• 44:59
  SPEAKER_01: So go ahead.
• 45:00
  SPEAKER_00: I don't entirely get what like David Arquette's purpose is in this movie.
• 45:04
  SPEAKER_01: I don't either, especially re-watching it now.
• 45:08
  SPEAKER_01: Like, I think that maybe they thought they had more to do with him or whatever, but like he weirdly, I was thinking about it and I was like, oh, there's a world where because we haven't fully we haven't even yet fully engaged with the Brendan Fraser of it all, how how great you know he is in this role, and he really kind of makes the movie in many ways.
• 45:26
  SPEAKER_01: Um but the I think there's a world where, even if not literally David Arquette, like the character of Chaz, Brendan Fraser's character, is played more like that, like more the sort of like cliche, one-dimensional kind of like 90s, like yeah, yeah, kind of like Beavis and Butthead, like super brain dead, like glue sniffing, you know, quasi-punk guy.
• 45:47
  SPEAKER_01: Um he's not, which is great.
• 45:51
  SPEAKER_01: Like he's the the Brendan Fraser plays that character with a ton of integrity.
• 45:54
  SPEAKER_01: But that said, you're totally right.
• 45:56
  SPEAKER_01: Like the David Arquette character, through no fault of David Arquette's uh at all, really.
• 46:00
  SPEAKER_01: No, I don't think it's his fault.
• 46:02
  SPEAKER_01: Um that character just doesn't have a ton to do.
• 46:07
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 46:08
  SPEAKER_00: And then the Michael Richards character is just kind of bizarre in this movie.
• 46:13
  SPEAKER_00: It just feels very out of place.
• 46:15
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, so he is.
• 46:16
  SPEAKER_01: I feel like they it's almost like there's there's like one too many squares in this movie, right?
• 46:22
  SPEAKER_01: Like they have this movie's partially concerned with like these guys think they're cool and they think other people who don't have their say, you know, other people are are lame, you know, or their sellouts or their whatever.
• 46:33
  SPEAKER_01: And and Michael Richards character is supposed to be this like studio or station accountant, and so he's sort of like the ultimate, like button-downed, you know, whatever guy, and he um ends up like trying to basically play the hero and hide in a um uh reluctantly, um, and and hide in like you know, like in die hard, like in the vents, basically.
• 46:58
  SPEAKER_01: Um and so that's kind of his like plot purpose, but I agree with you in terms of his actual like character purpose, it felt like, and maybe this is too early for this to be the case, but it felt like they were like, and great, we got Kramer from Seinfeld, he'll just kind of goof it up and and do a bunch of stuff, and and they didn't actually really give him a ton to do, and like him being sort of a square, straight-laced guy, and these guys are crazy.
• 47:19
  SPEAKER_01: It didn't feel like beyond his plot purpose that he had a whole lot, you know, that that that character really did a whole lot.
• 47:26
  SPEAKER_01: I I agree with you.
• 47:28
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 47:28
  SPEAKER_00: It's interesting.
• 47:29
  SPEAKER_00: I saw him so like another movie that's uh sort of been let that's coming up on this is A Problem Child, and he's in that as the villain in that movie.
• 47:41
  SPEAKER_00: And so he is like he's he does it again, it's the same thing of like he's on his own for most of the movie, um, and he's like breaking out of jail and like doing all this stuff, and he's like, it's it's very much like he has no purpose in there either.
• 47:56
  SPEAKER_00: And so it's very weird to see like around the same sort of time he was playing these roles where he had like they were just sticking him in for the sake of have it almost for the sake of having him there.
• 48:05
  SPEAKER_01: Interesting.
• 48:06
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, yeah, it doesn't, it's like I think that happens sometimes with actors, and again, I don't really know how this relates in terms of like the chronology of when Seinfeld was on and when he was like, you know, um obviously making a big impact as Kramer, but like they don't I think sometimes that happens where where people believe like this guy's super funny on this show, so we'll just put him in this and he'd just let him, whatever.
• 48:33
  SPEAKER_01: And I don't think it's you know, it's it's it's it's when an actor then doesn't ultimately deliver on that, it's not necessarily you know that that just you know I think that that happens.
• 48:44
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I don't think it's his fault here either.
• 48:46
  SPEAKER_00: I uh again like not like we said with David Arquet, it's not it's he's it's not his uh it's not the re he's not the reason the role doesn't work.
• 48:57
  SPEAKER_00: Um it is the the weird writing around those characters um just it's kind of like forcing them into a movie that they don't need to be into almost.
• 49:07
  SPEAKER_00: And I don't know if it's I also don't know if it's just a pad out the movie a little bit more, because it's a very short movie on the same at the same time.
• 49:13
  SPEAKER_00: It's only 90 minutes long.
• 49:16
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I also think that they were clearly like understandably, at least on a script level, like enamored with the sort of like comedic diehard, you know, uh uh take of it and having him be the like, he's not the hero, he's just sort of this little subplot, but we'll do kind of a diehard thing with him, but he's a complete bumbler.
• 49:34
  SPEAKER_01: Um, like I see where they I see why they like that, and I do like again how it ultimately functions, where it's sort of like you have this super aggro, you know, um wannabe super cop like uh using him to try to be like, and I'm gonna give you, you know, a machine gun.
• 49:54
  SPEAKER_01: And then that ultimately ends up kind of reinforcing and heightening the danger of the actual hostage situation and ultimately convincing the cops mistakenly that that that these aren't just they they finally realize, wait, these are just fake machine guns, and then this the actual machine gun goes off and they're like, oh shit, they're real guns, actually.
• 50:13
  SPEAKER_01: You know, like um like I get why that turn like works um on a script level, but I I I I think that again he doesn't, it's ultimately like not that character isn't necessarily um a whole lot more than that.
• 50:28
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 50:29
  SPEAKER_00: Um okay, so let's talk, let's talk, let's get to Brendan.
• 50:33
  SPEAKER_00: Let's get to Fraser, yeah.
• 50:34
  SPEAKER_00: Absolutely.
• 50:35
  SPEAKER_00: Obviously, I I was he a star at this point, or was he like That's a really good question.
• 50:42
  SPEAKER_01: So I think it depends on we gotta talk about when Encino Man was.
• 50:46
  SPEAKER_01: You know, like I feel like that was the big sort of like 92.
• 50:52
  SPEAKER_01: 92, okay, so like two years before this.
• 50:55
  SPEAKER_00: Um and I completely forgot about that movie.
• 50:59
  SPEAKER_01: I don't know, I don't think I've ever seen it, to be honest with you, which feels like, or maybe I have, but not I'm not sure I've seen it.
• 51:06
  SPEAKER_01: I did definitely didn't see it at the time.
• 51:08
  SPEAKER_01: Um, so he kind of has a dual, like he's in school ties, which is like a uh was a big just sort of like um uh you know, I think like commercially successful, more like drama of the kind that they don't really make anymore, I feel like, like more sort of like mainstream Hollywood drama and Encino Man in the same year.
• 51:29
  SPEAKER_01: And thus I feel like is the duality of of Brendan Fraser, where he's a really, really, really good dramatic actor, but then he's also a really really funny comic actor, and he looks like a fucking movie star, like he's a such a good looking dude.
• 51:48
  SPEAKER_01: Um in a way that it's sort of like that.
• 51:51
  SPEAKER_01: I feel like uh, you know, it it it he can it's almost like he can do too much that he's never been pigeonholed in quite one or the other.
• 52:02
  SPEAKER_01: Um and like yeah, he's in um uh yeah, in Sinoman, school ties, um uh with honors, again, another sort of more just like mainstream like Hollywood drama.
• 52:15
  SPEAKER_01: Um uh and then yeah, airheads.
• 52:19
  SPEAKER_01: Um and yeah, so he is just like I think immaculately good in this movie.
• 52:28
  SPEAKER_01: You know what I mean?
• 52:29
  SPEAKER_01: Like I remember like there's a moment where he to me, like this Brendan Fraser being good in this movie comes entirely down to the moment where they're getting super frustrated with they've they've broken into the studio but the or the radio station, but they haven't yet been like, okay, this is a robbery, because that's not even really the plan.
• 52:49
  SPEAKER_01: They kind of just want to like go in with a plan they want to just break in and like really try to get Joe Montana to play their tape because that will get them signed because Brandon Fraser's been told, like, we can't, you know, we're not gonna sign you unless we will solicit your tape, and and we won't solicit it unless we we hear that there's like buzz out there, and so he's stuck in this very, frankly, as somebody in the entertainment industry, like very relatable chicken and egg thing of sort of like, well, how do I get you know, whatever if I don't have you say that I need to have that, but I can't get that without this, how do I get that?
• 53:19
  SPEAKER_01: You know, like I'm sure we've all we've all been there in one form or another.
• 53:23
  SPEAKER_01: And so when they get really, really frustrated, and then I think Steve Buscemi kind of makes the first move and sort of like pulls the like fake, you know, the fake gun that's ultimately full of hot sauce.
• 53:34
  SPEAKER_01: But um, when Brandon Fraser's getting frustrated and he's kind of going with it, and he he has like some line.
• 53:41
  SPEAKER_01: I didn't write down the whole thing, but it comes down to like he's sort of like he's just like, just let me clear my head and let me let me like think.
• 53:46
  SPEAKER_01: And I think he's like yelling at Michael McKeon, but also he's like Joe Montaigne's there, and he's sort of like I think he's referring to Michael McKeon where he's like, but this penis won't, whatever.
• 53:55
  SPEAKER_01: And so he pronounces penis in like a funny, sort of quirky, you know, Gen X way.
• 54:02
  SPEAKER_01: And but the line read and the fucking drama is so real and is so good.
• 54:08
  SPEAKER_01: Like it's just it's all of that.
• 54:11
  SPEAKER_01: It's it all comes down to uh to penis for me in this in this movie.
• 54:15
  SPEAKER_01: Like you just buy the frustration, you buy the the confusion and just trying to get a hold of things.
• 54:20
  SPEAKER_01: Like, I just wanted something very simple, and now this guy is here, he's being a penis, and uh oh yeah, I I he's he's so good.
• 54:29
  SPEAKER_01: And then he I think like one of his other sort of like bravura moments in the movie is um you know, when he's basically sort of like explaining like why do ultimately why do you really want this?
• 54:44
  SPEAKER_01: Like that's sort of what it comes down to.
• 54:46
  SPEAKER_01: I think it's like around the time where they're ultimately again, there's lots of ins and outs and different people coming with different record contracts or whatever, but when they're trying, he's trying to figure like they're trying to decide like what do you actually like want um and uh what are you trying to get out of this?
• 55:03
  SPEAKER_01: And he's just basically going, like, I don't really care.
• 55:06
  SPEAKER_01: I don't want to be like rich and whatever and famous.
• 55:08
  SPEAKER_01: I just know that like I've always known that like on some level I'm I think he says like I'm screwed up and average enough to write a song that could live forever, and after that it don't matter, you know?
• 55:18
  SPEAKER_01: And there's something very kind of punk about it.
• 55:23
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, just like that he's just going, like, I'm not, I don't think I'm Shakespeare.
• 55:26
  SPEAKER_01: I don't think I'm that great.
• 55:28
  SPEAKER_01: I'm just going like, I think there's enough that I could just buy it off a little bit and then I'd be fine like forever, which is probably wrong, you know, but like there's something there's something uh very he so sells that.
• 55:41
  SPEAKER_01: And then very shortly thereafter, in in what we would in like cliche screenwriting uh save the cat terms call the um kind of the dark night of the soul moment where um he's uh I think he's again trying to figure out like should we sign this record contract or should we not?
• 55:58
  SPEAKER_01: Or his girlfriend is just like broken up with him, he's like super bummed out, and he goes to the um uh in he's in like the station's like kitchen and he's kind of sitting on like the edge of like a window or a counter or something, and he's got the he's got like a frozen burrito and he like sprays it with the um hot sauce in the gun to try to like and it's like he you just buy the pathos of him.
• 56:23
  SPEAKER_01: He's not saying anything, and you just buy where he's at at that moment, and also it helps that unsatisfied by the replacements is playing, which is a great fucking song.
• 56:30
  SPEAKER_00: And when that kicked in, I got so happy on that song.
• 56:33
  SPEAKER_01: I totally forgot.
• 56:34
  SPEAKER_01: I've I've since been become a huge replacements fan, but I forgot that it was in this movie.
• 56:37
  SPEAKER_01: And he, yeah, he's he so it's just like this perfect blend of of the the the pathos of of Fraser and the and the comedy, and he's he's so so uh good in it.
• 56:50
  SPEAKER_01: He really grounds the whole movie in a way that I don't even like the word, I think the word grounding or grounded is overrated, but but that's what he does for this movie.
• 56:58
  SPEAKER_00: One thing one thing I find very interesting, I don't know if you've you read this in the trivia, but it said the character was supposed to be played by John Cusack.
• 57:06
  SPEAKER_01: No.
• 57:07
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 57:08
  SPEAKER_01: Wow.
• 57:08
  SPEAKER_01: I mean that's wild.
• 57:10
  SPEAKER_01: Do you know if that was like much earlier?
• 57:13
  SPEAKER_00: It just says was Chaz was originally supposed to be played by John Cusack, that's all it says.
• 57:17
  SPEAKER_01: That's so interesting.
• 57:18
  SPEAKER_00: I mean that I think I see it as well, though.
• 57:21
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 57:21
  SPEAKER_00: I see it, but it's a different movie.
• 57:24
  SPEAKER_00: Oh it makes a different movie.
• 57:25
  SPEAKER_00: Oh yeah, absolutely.
• 57:26
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, like, yeah, you feel like at that point, like yeah, you you because you can't help but think of him in high fidelity, you know, and it makes him seem more like he is like more of like a rock snob or something, but I don't, you know, that that's just that character.
• 57:39
  SPEAKER_01: That's so interesting.
• 57:40
  SPEAKER_01: Because he could have been great too, and he you totally buy him as a sort of like Cameron Crow, sort of like rumpled, you know, romantic uh artistic figure.
• 57:49
  SPEAKER_01: Like, you know, I totally buy that.
• 57:51
  SPEAKER_01: That's so interesting.
• 57:52
  SPEAKER_01: I did not know that.
• 57:54
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, and I I think it's fascinating.
• 57:56
  SPEAKER_00: Like I I I want to see what I want to know what would have been different about it and what how they would have changed it.
• 58:04
  SPEAKER_00: I would they have changed the the style of music that they were making, would they have like so interesting.
• 58:12
  SPEAKER_00: But I'd get it as well because John Cusack is very much also a charismatic man who can do drama and comedy at the same time.
• 58:20
  SPEAKER_00: And is I so I do get it why they would like if they can't get Cusack, okay, we'll go to Brendan Fraser.
• 58:27
  SPEAKER_01: Oh yeah, no, absolutely.
• 58:28
  SPEAKER_01: I I I totally get it.
• 58:30
  SPEAKER_01: That that would have been really interesting.
• 58:32
  SPEAKER_01: That's like one of those interesting alternate uh alternate universe things.
• 58:36
  SPEAKER_01: But yeah, but Will Smith and the Matrix.
• 58:38
  SPEAKER_01: So here's what because I was just looking at my notes and I remembered, so it's like I'll put this to you, you know, and I I'm uh you know, big QSAC fan, big fan of the sort of like the QSAC, you know, that that Pantheon.
• 58:50
  SPEAKER_01: Um uh but the the moment I was realizing in this movie, another moment where I'm just like, man, this is the perfect like 13-year-old uh uh watch, like at this time is that moment where it's like, I think the first time or one of the first times that Fraser comes out to talk to the cops and kind of be like, what the fuck is going on, or whatever, or here's our demands.
• 59:14
  SPEAKER_01: And a crowd is starting to gather and he's starting to realize and kind of vibe with like, oh man, we're kind of starting, he's starting to get a you know a little bit high on his own supply and think like, oh, we have he, I think at the moment thinks like maybe people heard the record, even though only like 10 seconds of it played, or we have more fans than I thought, or he's he's thinking something he shouldn't be thinking ultimately, but like he's sort of vibing off that, and as he kind of goes to go into the back into the station, he like leaps up on this like little stanchion or just little sort of like concrete, you know, planter or or you know uh uh ashtray or whatever, and is just like woo, you know, and he has this moment that's so like nothing, you know, that's a nothing moment.
• 59:54
  SPEAKER_01: Um, but it's but he's so cool.
• 59:56
  SPEAKER_01: He sells the shit out of it.
• 59:57
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, it's it's yeah, and it just to me it's like I see that in that moment, and I'm instantly 13, and I, you know, want to be in a band, even though these guys aren't even in a band barely in this movie, you know, like that that to me kind of is like, yep, I'm there's that's that it really hits like a weird like lizard brain part of me with this movie.
• 1:00:14
  SPEAKER_00: Um did you did you ever uh make a band?
• 1:00:17
  SPEAKER_01: I didn't give a try and I had the closest I ever got was um I remember I was in like a summer like uh uh drama uh like program in uh uh middle school, and there was a girl who I was like friends with who was a little bit older, and like one other guy, and she was like, We're gonna like start a band, you'll be like the bassist or whatever.
• 1:00:42
  SPEAKER_01: And she was like wearing a flannel shirt, you know, and so I was just like, fuck yeah, let's do it, you know, absolutely.
• 1:00:47
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, and that, yeah, that's the closest I've ever come.
• 1:00:49
  SPEAKER_01: And that's really I think I even looked in the classified briefly for like bass guitar for sale, you know, um, is when that was.
• 1:00:55
  SPEAKER_01: And that was also too.
• 1:00:56
  SPEAKER_01: I was I I I there's just a lot of like little cute, little sort of uh cues, you know, subconscious cues for me in this movie of like, oh yeah, sweet, there's part of me that really likes this whole milieu, is you know, just like the the radio station at the time and like all the posters on the wall really reminds me of like my dad was you know older than than the people who were into this music, but was very much into the sort of like kind of post-grunge, like post-Seattle Gold Rush, you know, music.
• 1:01:24
  SPEAKER_01: He was into like Toad the Wet Sprocket and the Gym Blossoms who were from the Gym Blossoms are from Phoenix, where I'm from.
• 1:01:31
  SPEAKER_01: And uh so we would go to this record store, we'd go to like Tower Records, you know, down by Arizona State University, so kind of like college, you know, record store and Zia Records, which was a used record store, and those walls that they would have, like they clearly got like a billion free promo posters for you know the new Mud Honey record or whatever, and they're just gonna it smells like patchouli before I even know what patchouli is.
• 1:01:52
  SPEAKER_01: And so that this the certain just sort of like design cues and just different things in this movie kind of like scratch that itch.
• 1:01:59
  SPEAKER_01: Um worth mentioning on a completely different note, a design cue that felt potentially accurate, but I think like did not scratch an itch or scratched a bad itch whatsoever.
• 1:02:09
  SPEAKER_01: Do you know what I'm gonna say?
• 1:02:10
  SPEAKER_00: No, okay.
• 1:02:11
  SPEAKER_01: Um, I had totally forgotten about this and feels like weirdly, grossly believable, um, but still kind of like definitely takes you out of it.
• 1:02:20
  SPEAKER_01: Is that so there, it's uh KPPX or something like that, Rebel Radio, which I vaguely remembered, and then their station insignia is like a sort of Iron Maiden skeleton wearing a like uh Confederate flag cap.
• 1:02:37
  SPEAKER_00: I did not see that.
• 1:02:38
  SPEAKER_01: It feels very Leonard Skinnered, like it reminds you of like how much kind of like boneheaded, especially like Southern rock iconography, just kind of like incorporated the Confederate flag, and then you look at it now.
• 1:02:49
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, or should have looked at it then, really.
• 1:02:51
  SPEAKER_01: I I don't know if I was really processing it on that level when I was watching it at the time, just like, oh, gross, you know, like that sucks.
• 1:02:57
  SPEAKER_01: And kind of like, and especially when like Buscemi's kind of putting on the station t-shirt and he's like, Oh, this looks cool.
• 1:03:02
  SPEAKER_01: You're just like, oh no, like that really missed that.
• 1:03:05
  SPEAKER_01: That really uh uh took me out of it.
• 1:03:08
  SPEAKER_01: Again, I'm I'm I'm pinning it on on uh Leonard Skinnard a little bit, but um uh maybe unfairly, but it yeah, that really kind of like uh uh took took me out of it a little bit.
• 1:03:20
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 1:03:21
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, that's strange.
• 1:03:22
  SPEAKER_00: I I somehow completely missed that.
• 1:03:24
  SPEAKER_00: I didn't even I don't even remember the lo what it looked like, that logo or anything.
• 1:03:28
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, it you see it a couple times in the station and then it's like on their t-shirt, and it's never really like commented on, you know, one way or the other.
• 1:03:35
  SPEAKER_01: I have to imagine it's the kind of thing that like if you if you were making it again, you would like to think you would just be like, let's not, because it it doesn't, it doesn't it's not commented on one way or the other, it's just completely like uh, you know, so doesn't add anything to it, takes it away.
• 1:03:48
  SPEAKER_01: Speaking of something that is not super like um, you know, like charged or or gross in that way, but did kind of take me out of it as well that I sort of forgot was in there.
• 1:03:59
  SPEAKER_01: D now do you know what I'm gonna say?
• 1:04:01
  SPEAKER_00: No, it's funny that you've had like so many things to take you out that have taken you out of it.
• 1:04:05
  SPEAKER_01: Beavis and butthead uh came out.
• 1:04:07
  SPEAKER_00: Oh yeah, that really is strange.
• 1:04:10
  SPEAKER_00: So at some point.
• 1:04:12
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, go ahead.
• 1:04:12
  SPEAKER_01: Sorry, you you'd you go ahead.
• 1:04:14
  SPEAKER_00: Oh no, it's just it's a it's a it comes in the middle of the movie, there's a call in, and it's Beavis and Butthead, and you're like, wait, is it a is it supposed to be a prank call?
• 1:04:24
  SPEAKER_00: Is it supposed to be them?
• 1:04:25
  SPEAKER_00: What is it what's going on here?
• 1:04:27
  SPEAKER_00: Why are they in this movie?
• 1:04:28
  SPEAKER_00: And then I looked it up and it is it's Mike Judge doing the voices, so it's like what is it because they were so famous?
• 1:04:36
  SPEAKER_00: Is and it's it's a movie about rock music?
• 1:04:38
  SPEAKER_01: Like, what is that is my my interpretation of it, and I have no idea.
• 1:04:44
  SPEAKER_01: This is why I wish every movie had a um my bar, by the way, for is that all um or my sort of you know, this is my if I have a campaign platform, you know, for president of of movies, this is it.
• 1:04:59
  SPEAKER_01: All movies should have as detailed of a Wikipedia page as the Devil Wears Prada.
• 1:05:03
  SPEAKER_01: That is my um Does that have a really detailed page?
• 1:05:05
  SPEAKER_01: Devil Wears Prada has a wonderfully detailed Wikipedia page, and no matter what movie I watch, which I think Devil Wears Prada is a very good movie, but no matter what movie I want to watch, you know, I watch, whether it's bad, good, or indifferent, I want to know every thought that went into every you know little detail or whatever.
• 1:05:21
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 1:05:21
  SPEAKER_01: And I um I really felt like the um uh anyway, that's a tangent, but but I want to know like what the deal was with that fucking Beavis and Butthead thing.
• 1:05:37
  SPEAKER_01: You know what I mean?
• 1:05:38
  SPEAKER_01: Like, um, and I really I my guess is that, like you said, they were such a big deal at the time that maybe somebody at the studio or whatever was like, we should have this, Beavis and Butthead should call in, and that'll be a huge thing.
• 1:05:50
  SPEAKER_01: And and we can't say no to that because they're such a big deal culturally at the time.
• 1:05:54
  SPEAKER_01: Maybe it was originally in the script, but it really felt like you know, uh, somebody's idea of like this.
• 1:06:00
  SPEAKER_01: Will be a really big, you know, then maybe we can do like cross-promotion with that show or whatever.
• 1:06:05
  SPEAKER_01: Because they were huge, but it completely takes you out of it because it's like they even reference having seen the Lone Rangers at a show.
• 1:06:12
  SPEAKER_01: And so in that moment, you're just like, so they there was a show ostensibly in this universe where there were cartoon characters.
• 1:06:20
  SPEAKER_01: It just doesn't, it doesn't fully track.
• 1:06:23
  SPEAKER_00: Doesn't he like ref I feel like Brendan Fraser at one point calls says something about Beavers and Butthead that he might name some people Beavers and Buttheads?
• 1:06:32
  SPEAKER_00: I think you're right.
• 1:06:33
  SPEAKER_00: Not in the context of that.
• 1:06:34
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 1:06:35
  SPEAKER_01: I think you're right.
• 1:06:36
  SPEAKER_00: Which even weirder.
• 1:06:37
  SPEAKER_00: Yes, exactly.
• 1:06:38
  SPEAKER_00: It's like, okay, there's who are these guys?
• 1:06:42
  SPEAKER_00: They're just like, yeah, they're supposed to be two random guys, but they're also beavers, like as an audience, we're aware they are Beavers and Buttheads.
• 1:06:49
  SPEAKER_01: I know.
• 1:06:50
  SPEAKER_01: Oh my god, it's so weird.
• 1:06:51
  SPEAKER_01: Um one thing just while I'm going through my notes here, again, random tangent, but that so a big plot point in the movie is that Michael McKeon, one of the many square uh villains that the movie has to offer, uh, my favorite by far.
• 1:07:05
  SPEAKER_01: He's so, so fucking funny in this.
• 1:07:07
  SPEAKER_01: He's so good.
• 1:07:08
  SPEAKER_01: I love him.
• 1:07:08
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, he's so funny.
• 1:07:09
  SPEAKER_01: He's always good, so good in this.
• 1:07:11
  SPEAKER_01: He's great in everything, yeah.
• 1:07:12
  SPEAKER_01: Um but he uh, or I was I just saw that I have written down here he has a uh uh a great uh in this moment, so so it's revealed that he, the Craven station manager, is taking the station easy listening because it'll be like a bigger, it's a bigger format, it's an up and coming format, like they'll they'll make more money that way.
• 1:07:33
  SPEAKER_01: Rock and rolls on the way out.
• 1:07:35
  SPEAKER_01: Um and uh so they discover a closet full of merchandise for this new format.
• 1:07:42
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and Joe Montaigne is like, what the hell are these?
• 1:07:45
  SPEAKER_01: And he holds up some like branded, you know, easy listening station uh shorts, and Michael McKeon goes, They're shorts, Ian, you know, pants with little legs.
• 1:07:53
  SPEAKER_01: And it's a nothing line.
• 1:07:54
  SPEAKER_01: Like, even as I'm reading it here right now, but if it's Michael McKeon saying it, it's the funniest fucking thing you've ever heard.
• 1:08:00
  SPEAKER_01: It is.
• 1:08:00
  SPEAKER_01: Um so, but I was reminded that that actually, this not literally the hostage situation of it all, but the easy listening format switch uh happened to a station in um uh Phoenix, where I'm from, and they there was a sort of like re staff rebellion, and they decided to like lock the station doors.
• 1:08:23
  SPEAKER_01: For basically, it was like they were told, like, hey, you know, it's Thursday, on Monday, we're going easy listening.
• 1:08:29
  SPEAKER_01: And they like locked the station doors and just played Raspberry Beret by Prince over and over again.
• 1:08:34
  SPEAKER_01: I think with the idea of like, you're hoping that we can like switch formats and then the the listenership will just you know ride it out, but we want to just like drive people insane and have them, which also to me, there there's a little bit of like rockism or sort of like especially white male-centric rockism present there with their thinking like we're gonna play Raspberry Beret over and over again and that'll drive people away.
• 1:08:56
  SPEAKER_01: Obviously, to me, it's sort of like hell, I'll listen to the Raspberry Beret station for at least an hour.
• 1:09:01
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, exactly.
• 1:09:02
  SPEAKER_01: But um, but I always thought that that was like that's like a funny I I'm Jay, I'm pretty sure that happened.
• 1:09:07
  SPEAKER_01: Um now I'm now that I'm thinking about it, I'm like, was that an urban legend?
• 1:09:10
  SPEAKER_01: But I feel like I remember that happening or at least hearing about it.
• 1:09:14
  SPEAKER_00: Um I'm just looking at the trivia now, and it says something about um KPPX 103 was based on a a Long Reach radio station, uh, which went off the air after uh six months after this movie arrived in theaters.
• 1:09:27
  SPEAKER_00: Um and it was uh also a hard rock heavy metal format.
• 1:09:31
  SPEAKER_00: Um and they they announced that they were gonna be changing formats as well, and that's what caused it.
• 1:09:38
  SPEAKER_01: There you go.
• 1:09:39
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, it's but that's so weird that it was based on that station, and then it happened.
• 1:09:42
  SPEAKER_00: And then they went out of business.
• 1:09:43
  SPEAKER_01: Well, I do think it's like that's one of the cool things about the movie, is I do think that like, even though they they very smartly, I think, positioned the Lone Rangers to not be any one exact type of rock, they I think are commenting on something very astutely, which is just sort of like none of these people involved care about this music, none of the people that are actually making money off of it really care about it enough.
• 1:10:08
  SPEAKER_01: You know, Joe Montaña feels like he cares about it, but he even displays when this band first comes in a certain amount of kind of old man rock, you know, sort of like you know, uh uh that nothing's ever gonna be better than the Beatles, but then ultimately he gets sort of like energized by these guys and their and their and their what we'll generously call youthful uh uh zeal.
• 1:10:29
  SPEAKER_00: Um uh but that's another funny line, actually, like when they when they when they talk when they're now talking about the Beatles and let nothing being better than that music of the time, and then they're like, No, have you heard our music?
• 1:10:41
  SPEAKER_00: And it's just like, well, this is not there's no way this is better than the Beatles.
• 1:10:46
  SPEAKER_00: I'm I'm with I I'm kind of agreeing with the with these older guys.
• 1:10:50
  SPEAKER_01: Oh yeah, oh absolutely.
• 1:10:51
  SPEAKER_01: I mean totally especially when you hear like the per when they the like 10 seconds that they ultimately play of their of their of their song the first time before the tape machine like eats it, is so just kind of like drum fill, dum dun dum.
• 1:11:06
  SPEAKER_01: It's like each of the it's just each of the instruments kind of going like now this instrument, you know, it's like perfectly, and they're kind of vibing to it, but it's just sort of like this is the dumbest sounding so ultimately the song is better than that, and it starts in like the dumbest way possible.
• 1:11:20
  SPEAKER_00: Um basically like what happens towards the end towards the end is like um they are kind of um they get uh people are becoming more and more interested, uh so they get all this stuff happen, um, and then they get this, they demand to fly, they have demands to fly in a stage where they're gonna go and perform on the stage.
• 1:11:47
  SPEAKER_00: And that's which is also like they they're flying in flying in on a helicopter, which is already ridiculous.
• 1:11:55
  SPEAKER_00: Um and they they get on stage to do their performance, and they've signed uh uh what's his name's character, uh Judd Nelson's character makes them sign a contract, but they they don't want to do it initially because it's like selling out almost because he's not actually high.
• 1:12:12
  SPEAKER_01: Also, Judd Nelson, I wrote down is like a perfect like thematic casting, you know, in this movie where it's sort of like 80s bad boy, cool guy has now in the 90s turned like complete, like willing, you know, sell out who just doesn't give a shit.
• 1:12:26
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, totally.
• 1:12:27
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, absolutely.
• 1:12:28
  SPEAKER_00: I think about that.
• 1:12:31
  SPEAKER_00: And he's like, um, so he's just an evil guy who makes like tries to make them sign a contract because they now they've got a buzz behind them and it he can market that.
• 1:12:39
  SPEAKER_00: Um Brendan Fraser doesn't want to sell out though, but they're gonna go out and do this concert and on stage they're gonna perform one time.
• 1:12:50
  SPEAKER_00: So you're gonna say something.
• 1:12:51
  SPEAKER_01: Oh no, go ahead.
• 1:12:51
  SPEAKER_01: I was I was just alright.
• 1:12:54
  SPEAKER_00: Um and then they they get on the stage and Judd Nelson wants them to record a music video and do it all um miming, all through miming, and that's not what they're about apparently.
• 1:13:09
  SPEAKER_00: And so they like they decide they're gonna like just stop and so the music's playing in the background.
• 1:13:16
  SPEAKER_00: That's when you finally hear the song for the first time.
• 1:13:18
  SPEAKER_00: It's just kind of playing in the background.
• 1:13:21
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I love I I do, it's like it's also it's so funny too to like because you kind of watch it and you're sort of like whether or not it's like their definition of what selling out is obviously so I mean, gosh, so much has been sort of like written and talked about in terms of like this idea of selling out that has existed for X amount of years and how that just doesn't exist anymore in many ways because the music industry has collapsed, you know, so much that now it's just sort of like whatever bands or artists can do to like get their music out there or get paid, you just have to do it because there's no other real like revenue streams.
• 1:13:56
  SPEAKER_01: And you that's you're hard-pressed to argue, argue that.
• 1:13:59
  SPEAKER_01: But I do think what I love about it, whether or not that's sort of like the idea that it's like, no way, man, we're not gonna lip sync, or you know, like that feels pretty silly on some level, like because it's like ostensibly, you're recording a music video, you do have to lip sync.
• 1:14:11
  SPEAKER_01: Like, that's just something you like pretty much have to do, um, unless you're uh Springsteen in the 80s and then you like drive your director crazy, but that's a whole other story where you're just like, come film me doing it 90 times in concert, and then find the takes where it seems like I'm doing it exactly like the record.
• 1:14:27
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, I'll do respect to to Springsteen, uh uh uh whom I love.
• 1:14:33
  SPEAKER_01: Um, but it it it whether or not you buy into that specific definition of like selling out or whether or not selling out matters or doesn't matter, what I love about, and I think what is such smart screenwriting with the Chaz character, um, the thing that breaks him almost is when he realizes, you know, it's finally like, okay, cool.
• 1:14:52
  SPEAKER_01: Like he's mad initially at the Steve Buscemi character for saying, like, amongst all of these crazy things that we're gonna demand so that we can, you know, demand a bunch of random stuff so we can plead insanity ultimately is their is their dumb plan.
• 1:15:04
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and have us have a guy come down here and sign us to a record contract.
• 1:15:08
  SPEAKER_01: And Fraser's mad at him because he's like, no, man, we got to do it on our, you know, whatever, on our merit.
• 1:15:14
  SPEAKER_01: Like, we want to do it our own terms where it's like, you're doing, you're taking literally coercing people into playing your record.
• 1:15:19
  SPEAKER_01: So at a certain point, you're not doing stuff, you know, on merit, but that's a whole other uh story.
• 1:15:24
  SPEAKER_01: It's still you buy that, he buys it.
• 1:15:27
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and then when Judd Nelson gets down there, he then realized and is about to sign them, and everybody's like, oh my god, our dreams are happening.
• 1:15:35
  SPEAKER_01: He realizes, like, wait a minute, you've never heard our music, and that tears it for him, and he he he almost you know scotches the whole deal.
• 1:15:45
  SPEAKER_01: And again, great acting moment, and I do think genuinely like great writing moment to have this character sort of be like, no matter what, that's the thing that I always come back to.
• 1:15:53
  SPEAKER_01: Is for me, it is about the music, even though that's lame and eye-rolly, you know, like you buy that, he buys it.
• 1:15:59
  SPEAKER_01: It's Fraser totally sells it, and that is one of those things that kind of elevates this movie to be like, you know, I again, we've talked about so many of the sort of like flaws and and things that have aged poorly in this movie, but if there's anything that makes it more than just a movie that I I I liked when I was a 14-year-old that I still like respond to, it's not necessarily the integrity of that as an ideal, even it is the integrity that the character has in believing it.
• 1:16:25
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I completely agree.
• 1:16:27
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 1:16:28
  SPEAKER_00: And and he really does sell it as well.
• 1:16:30
  SPEAKER_00: Like you said, he sells it so well.
• 1:16:32
  SPEAKER_00: And he's uh yeah, like thinking back on the on the um uh Cusack stuff, I'm like, I'm like, I'm so glad he was Brendan Fraser got the role instead.
• 1:16:41
  SPEAKER_00: I'm so glad.
• 1:16:43
  SPEAKER_00: Oh yeah, it just would have been a different movie.
• 1:16:44
  SPEAKER_00: I think you're right.
• 1:16:45
  SPEAKER_01: I think they would have had to make it a different I think he would have had to bend more kind of almost like indie or college rock or it's it's just a different, you know.
• 1:16:52
  SPEAKER_01: I I just I I feel like the Cusack characters are sort of a different, they're just a different thing.
• 1:16:57
  SPEAKER_01: It just would have had to be different.
• 1:16:58
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 1:16:59
  SPEAKER_00: But like he's I think he sells it like you said, like he he brings it in like a an earnest way that I don't think John Cusack would have done.
• 1:17:09
  SPEAKER_00: So I think John Cusack would have been like more eye-rolly about everything.
• 1:17:13
  SPEAKER_01: Well, also you just believe like I mean it's so so so hard to do, and I say this as somebody that that occasionally gets cast to play uh dumb people.
• 1:17:26
  SPEAKER_01: Um and I and and and and and Fraser is sort of the the god of this.
• 1:17:30
  SPEAKER_01: I would I I'm not saying like, and I get how to do this, I'm like, I I don't get how to do this, it's so hard, like or I don't get how to how to do this nearly as well as he does.
• 1:17:38
  SPEAKER_01: You buy him as dumb, but the actor's clearly not dumb, and you buy that he has a ton of integrity, like that the character has a ton of integrity.
• 1:17:49
  SPEAKER_01: And and and I feel like that's what not even necessarily integrity in terms of um like I said, oh, I'm gonna sell out or not, just that Fraser plays him with a great deal of integrity, and he has integrity as a performer, like portraying that character.
• 1:18:03
  SPEAKER_01: That's so fucking hard.
• 1:18:04
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, like all the way back up to the top of my notes here.
• 1:18:07
  SPEAKER_01: Like, I I wrote down like the first couple lines that that Chaz has in this movie are the kind of like you could imagine just being the sort of like genera um gen X kind of hip dialogue that you might write into your script at this time.
• 1:18:21
  SPEAKER_01: Like his girlfriend like throws something at him and hits him in the face, and he goes, he goes, Oh, my snout, or like uh uses the phrase necklace goober, and he just like sells it so well.
• 1:18:33
  SPEAKER_01: Like he does, he just oh, it's so good.
• 1:18:36
  SPEAKER_01: It's you know I always want to like see stuff.
• 1:18:40
  SPEAKER_00: Exactly.
• 1:18:41
  SPEAKER_00: Just yeah, exactly.
• 1:18:42
  SPEAKER_00: It works for him.
• 1:18:43
  SPEAKER_00: So you were saying you almost want to you were saying you almost want to do something.
• 1:18:48
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, I don't I mean I I I genuinely don't remember what it was.
• 1:18:51
  SPEAKER_01: I did, I'm just like I'm just like randomly jumping through my I my notes here.
• 1:18:55
  SPEAKER_01: I think I probably lost whatever whatever weird uh train of thought I was on with that.
• 1:19:00
  SPEAKER_01: Um when the this is I'm just literally random going through random moments in my in my notes now, um, all of which can be cut out or not, because it's literally just me being like, Oh, that was funny.
• 1:19:11
  SPEAKER_01: Um but I I mean if I think of a moment in this movie or a line in this movie in my head more than any other for no reason is when um uh and I can't remember the actor's name off the top of my head, but he plays the super aggro uh uh cop, you know, uh the one that's gonna like uh give Michael Richards a machine gun.
• 1:19:30
  SPEAKER_01: He at some point gets uh Chaz's old yearbook and they're gonna show like everybody.
• 1:19:37
  SPEAKER_01: He's not actually cool, man.
• 1:19:39
  SPEAKER_01: He was a nerd in high school, um, which again feels hilarious.
• 1:19:42
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and he sees that his name was Chester, and then he sees his little like dorky photo and he just goes, Chester.
• 1:19:48
  SPEAKER_01: Like I think of that so much in my head.
• 1:19:51
  SPEAKER_01: And I love that they they find his driver's license, Chaz's driver's license, and his as occupation he's listed master of ceremonies.
• 1:19:58
  SPEAKER_01: It's just so funny.
• 1:19:59
  SPEAKER_01: I don't know why.
• 1:20:00
  SPEAKER_01: That's just so the these guys, but in that moment, I thought that moment was so interesting where they sort of out him as being like he was a nerd in high school, and it's so interesting to see like the values of the time or the values that the movie presumes is ever going like this guy was a nerd, and everybody, all these like rockers are like boo in the crowd.
• 1:20:21
  SPEAKER_01: And you know, like he played, and and so Fraser kind of like you know, Chaz is just having this really you know bearing his soul moment because he's trying to win his girlfriend back, and he's just you know, he's like, Yeah, you know, when I used to play DD, and everybody's like, ugh, and it's so interesting, right?
• 1:20:37
  SPEAKER_01: Because now like everybody fucking plays DD.
• 1:20:40
  SPEAKER_01: You know, it's the modern version of like back in the 50s or 60s where every suburban couple played bridge, you know, like everybody's in into DD, all of this nerd stuff, you know, there's Marvel, the Marvel cinematic universe, all this nerd stuff has become hyper mainstreamed.
• 1:20:56
  SPEAKER_01: And so it's interesting to see in the in the movie where it's like, and then in the crowd, there, you know, one guy pipes up and says, like, I played DD too, and people, you know, um, and then actually I learned as the writer of the movie, um, a guy pipes up and says, I used to masturbate, and everybody's kind of like, huh?
• 1:21:12
  SPEAKER_01: And he's like, Constantly, or what, you know, like it's just very um it's and oh, and then we have a Lemmy campaign.
• 1:21:18
  SPEAKER_01: And then Lemmy Lemmy says, I was the editor of the school magazine in such a funny, perfect performance.
• 1:21:23
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 1:21:25
  SPEAKER_00: I think that one of the funniest parts about that is that the what the thing that he's most ashamed of is his name was Chester.
• 1:21:32
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 1:21:33
  SPEAKER_00: And it's like, you're just like, okay, that's not a thing.
• 1:21:37
  SPEAKER_00: Like, who's how is Chaz?
• 1:21:39
  SPEAKER_01: Chaz is so much cooler, you know what I mean?
• 1:21:41
  SPEAKER_01: Like, it's really funny.
• 1:21:43
  SPEAKER_00: Like, fine, your name was Chester?
• 1:21:45
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, I don't think anyone's gonna care.
• 1:21:49
  SPEAKER_00: He's like, I understand if you want to if you want to break up with me now.
• 1:21:54
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, just like I like that the movie has created a world in which we buy those as the like values.
• 1:22:02
  SPEAKER_01: You know what I mean?
• 1:22:02
  SPEAKER_01: That like people are like, you know what, I don't, I'm not mad at you, even though you played DD in high school and your name was Chester.
• 1:22:07
  SPEAKER_01: You know, that I I yeah, I think it's really, really funny.
• 1:22:11
  SPEAKER_01: Um yeah, two two random things about also about like the location and whatever.
• 1:22:17
  SPEAKER_01: So the um the KPPX, like the building is in the literal same cul-de-sac as Nakatomi, the building that played Nakatomi Plaza.
• 1:22:28
  SPEAKER_02: I was just reading it earlier, yeah.
• 1:22:30
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, which I which I remember, I feel like I remember like kind of realizing that once I saw Die Hard and then moving to LA and occasionally going to like go to auditions or stuff on the Fox lot.
• 1:22:43
  SPEAKER_01: It's literally like those are both like Fox buildings, I think.
• 1:22:47
  SPEAKER_01: Like they're you know it's so I think that was just like they were probably when they were making this movie, we're just like, yeah, shoot it, shoot it over there, shoot it in our you know, accounting department or whatever.
• 1:22:56
  SPEAKER_01: Um uh but I I just think that's cool.
• 1:22:59
  SPEAKER_01: And then also when you were talking about like they fly in this stage for them to perform in.
• 1:23:04
  SPEAKER_01: Weirdly, I doubt it was intentional.
• 1:23:07
  SPEAKER_01: Um, but it if you go and watch the video for the the the song Rock Steady by the Whispers, uh the 60s, 70s uh uh and 80s uh soul like RB uh group, which that is one of my favorite songs.
• 1:23:24
  SPEAKER_01: That's why I've seen the video a bunch of times.
• 1:23:26
  SPEAKER_01: It's a perfect 80s video, and in that, in that a big part of that video is them like a big outdoor stage in this exact part of Century City in LA, and them kind of like performing for people like out just in the just sort of in the world.
• 1:23:42
  SPEAKER_01: There's no real story to exactly what's happening, other than it's clear like a really cool concert that everybody wants to go to.
• 1:23:47
  SPEAKER_01: And in my head, they're like the same thing now.
• 1:23:50
  SPEAKER_01: Like, I don't know if in the Whisperers video they like fly in the stage on a helicopter, but in my head they do, they've just like become become one.
• 1:23:59
  SPEAKER_01: That's amazing.
• 1:23:59
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, it's so weird how like that happens in your brain as well, isn't it?
• 1:24:02
  SPEAKER_00: Like where you you just associate these two things together for some reason.
• 1:24:07
  SPEAKER_00: It's so funny how that happens over time.
• 1:24:10
  SPEAKER_00: Um so like yeah, basically that once they've once they've um flown in that stage, uh everyone and and they they decide no lip sync and whatever.
• 1:24:21
  SPEAKER_01: Oh yeah, that's I was just sorry, I was just reminded this is like literally the last thing of my notes was um that when they're when Judd Nelson's like do you know like you guys have to lip sync or whatever, uh Chaz, I think it's Chaz, is or is it Sandler says like don't make us be lame is like one of my favorite lines in the movie.
• 1:24:39
  SPEAKER_01: Um which is it's just such a like but I think it's Fraser and it's just so there's again so much integrity.
• 1:24:46
  SPEAKER_01: He just gen genuinely he's just does not want to be made to be lame, feels so wonderfully 90s, kind of like Gen X.
• 1:24:53
  SPEAKER_00: It's so Gen X.
• 1:24:54
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah it's so Gen X.
• 1:24:56
  SPEAKER_00: Um But yeah, they like um the crowd kind of like break past.
• 1:25:01
  SPEAKER_00: They the I can't remember if someone lets them pass to let them through or not, but they all like break in and they like rush to the stage, um and the three guys like crowd surf and then it cuts to like it cuts to them playing in jail.
• 1:25:19
  SPEAKER_00: They're playing their song for the first time properly in jail, and uh and they're on the phone basically, and they're like, Yeah, they're gonna be touring in six months.
• 1:25:30
  SPEAKER_00: Um three if they've got good three if they're uh out for good behavior, and then it comes up with the title cards that says like um they went tr their album went triple platinum and they were they were released three months on Lather for good behavior.
• 1:25:43
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I feel like they missed, I feel, and this also felt like hyper potentially like studio note territory.
• 1:25:49
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 1:25:49
  SPEAKER_01: But I part of me wondered like, because I remembered like that that was basically the end of the movie, but I just felt like we were sort of missing a very like animal housey kind of, you know, it's like, okay, great, it's a happy ending, but you want a little bit of like an undercut or whatever.
• 1:26:04
  SPEAKER_01: You know what I mean?
• 1:26:04
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I agree.
• 1:26:05
  SPEAKER_01: I wanted a little bit of like, and then they were electrocuted as soon as they stepped on stage accidentally because like somebody set the thing, you know what I mean?
• 1:26:12
  SPEAKER_01: Like, or something.
• 1:26:13
  SPEAKER_01: Like, I feel like that's the kind that felt like the ethos of the movie a little bit, or kind of the sense of humor.
• 1:26:18
  SPEAKER_01: It's a little bit of these like, they're lovable losers, but at the end of the day, they're they're like fuck ups, and they're gonna to fuck up them, they shall return.
• 1:26:25
  SPEAKER_01: And I don't think it would have been betraying anything, or even I think it just would have been another laugh, and it would have felt just if there had been some sort of undercut.
• 1:26:33
  SPEAKER_00: Just an extra like little little bit that you can add to it.
• 1:26:36
  SPEAKER_00: Exactly.
• 1:26:37
  SPEAKER_00: I completely agree.
• 1:26:39
  SPEAKER_00: Uh okay, so do you have um any final thoughts on the movie then before we move on to the final segment?
• 1:26:44
  SPEAKER_01: Gosh, what didn't I say?
• 1:26:46
  SPEAKER_01: Um I don't think I do.
• 1:26:47
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, I think at the end of the day, that's you know, that I I I think I think we've we've we've covered it all.
• 1:26:52
  SPEAKER_01: Tons of of or or at least a lot of- You've sold, you've very much sold this movie.
• 1:26:56
  SPEAKER_01: Ton of great performances.
• 1:26:57
  SPEAKER_01: You know, I think I think the script is like, I think there's a lot of things to like in the script.
• 1:27:02
  SPEAKER_01: I think there's a lot of things in the movie that have, you know, of course, not aged well uh whatsoever, or or maybe didn't even play well at the time.
• 1:27:10
  SPEAKER_01: Um uh by no means perfect, but I did not feel like completely uh uh betrayed by my younger self for looking back on it and being like, I spent so much time watching this movie.
• 1:27:23
  SPEAKER_01: Um and it's a it's a testament to it's you know, it's again, it's a it's largely on the shoulders of of Brendan Fraser.
• 1:27:29
  SPEAKER_01: And I think it completely, I would, I would, you know, I think again, we're talking about the movie being the the whole premise of this podcast is it being underrated.
• 1:27:36
  SPEAKER_01: Do I think the movie's underrated?
• 1:27:38
  SPEAKER_01: I think the movie is a little bit underrated.
• 1:27:40
  SPEAKER_01: I think it probably deserves better than to have like zero, you know, on or like 20% or whatever on 23% is very low for really harsh.
• 1:27:48
  SPEAKER_01: I feel like a lot of that feels very like if you go back and read, you know, reviews of sort of like Sandler movies that at the time, you know, were considered, you know, lame and for kids.
• 1:27:58
  SPEAKER_01: And again, now like Roblo said, it's like.
• 1:28:00
  SPEAKER_01: is like Shakespeare comparatively, you know, like Billy Madison or one of those movies that's just like it, they're they're of course they're for 12 year olds, but they really there's a lot to love.
• 1:28:09
  SPEAKER_01: Like they were pretty critics were pretty harsh.
• 1:28:12
  SPEAKER_01: I feel like there was a a just genuine view that like a movie like this, there can be no good and bad here.
• 1:28:17
  SPEAKER_01: To attempt a movie like this is automatically dumb or juvenile.
• 1:28:21
  SPEAKER_01: And I um I I think this movie is a little bit of a victim of that.
• 1:28:25
  SPEAKER_01: Do I think it's like vastly underrated and should have 99% on Rotten Tomatoes?
• 1:28:30
  SPEAKER_01: No, I get it.
• 1:28:31
  SPEAKER_01: Do I think that Brendan Fraser's performance is genuinely underrated?
• 1:28:35
  SPEAKER_01: Absolutely.
• 1:28:35
  SPEAKER_01: I think he's so so so so good in this movie.
• 1:28:39
  SPEAKER_00: I completely agree with all of that that you just said there and yeah I'm really glad that uh you suggested it uh for me to I'm really glad you picked it for to uh watch because I it's not it's not something I would have necessarily gone back and watched uh because it didn't I guess like at when I first watched it it didn't like um it didn't make an impact on me but now going back and watching it it was a fun movie and I really I did enjoy it.
• 1:29:04
  SPEAKER_01: Oh totally yeah I wanted to over thing and then I have one more thing and again you can cut out any number of these one more things no go for it go for it.
• 1:29:13
  SPEAKER_01: But I wanted to um uh sorry one second it's gonna take me a second to look up her name because I want to actually shout her name out because she doesn't get enough necessarily again like like we said the female characters do not get nearly as much uh to do in the movie um uh but um uh I think the character of of Susie who plays the receptionist at the um who who falls in love with I've got her name up here if you want it's um Nina Samazko yeah Nina Nina Samazko yeah exactly so she um she has such a good line in it at one point where they're just sort of talking about how like show business is like really fucked up and she's commiserating and she's like my ex-boyfriend Parker was a model and one time they stole his shoes where you're just like it's such a perfect non-sequitur but you can tell again again integrity she really believes it she's like fuck yeah man this was really messed up and that to me is this movie you know there's a lot of little lines like that where you're like fuck that's great this actor's doing a great job everybody just about everybody is is selling the shit out of it airheads uh you know everyone's selling the shit out of it and they're all having fun as well you can and it feels it and um yeah so let's move on to the uh final segment then which is um do you have a reverse of this which is a movie that you um that is universally praised by critics and maybe by fans and everything that you think is a bad movie.
• 1:30:44
  SPEAKER_01: I do I so the one that I the first one that jumped to mind and that I I genuinely don't think is a bad movie and also have not seen it in a really long time but I sort of like just just sort of like annoys me for a very specific reason is uh the movie Chinatown always gets like thrown out there specifically as like a really any like screenwriting book I feel like are so many screenwriting the best screen by ever watching it.
• 1:31:08
  SPEAKER_01: I always throw out Chinatown, right?
• 1:31:09
  SPEAKER_01: It's always like in this in Chinatown and whatever.
• 1:31:12
  SPEAKER_01: But my specific annoyance with that is always like it's really hard to follow.
• 1:31:17
  SPEAKER_01: Like when you read someone describing it, it's like this twisty, you know, sort of of of Raymond Chamber-esque mystery and so it's very hard to follow like okay who and then the what and with the water and the thing and blah blah blah blah blah.
• 1:31:30
  SPEAKER_01: And so when somebody's trying to use it to describe like just clean storytelling, screenwriting, whatever, you're just like, but wait, I can't keep track of it while you're describing it.
• 1:31:39
  SPEAKER_01: So how can I learn it as an example?
• 1:31:41
  SPEAKER_01: That is my specific very very hyper uh petty beef with the the the great movie Chinatown which again I have not seen actually in you know it's seen in a long time but have have have uh that is my that's my quip that's my Chinatown uh uh uh quibble interesting like yeah I haven't seen it in a long time as well um I I remember love like loving it when I saw it but like it's not one that I necessarily would go back to regularly as well at the same time right I know it's interesting oh that's right I I I feel like I know more about it from books than I do from studying screenwriting and everything yeah so I I don't uh I don't it's it's it's it's I think that weird quibble keeps me from and again keeps me from maybe wanting to go back and rewatch it keeps me from from from holding it to the esteem that I maybe should because also there's you know I I feel like I really like like noir stuff.
• 1:32:47
  SPEAKER_01: I like old LA stuff.
• 1:32:49
  SPEAKER_01: I mean I even like the old LA of the 90s as as evidenced in this in this movie.
• 1:32:53
  SPEAKER_01: Um so I'm sure that if I revisited it I would find a lot to like that is just my very specific like why sometimes even thinking about Chinatown I get a little bit of a I get a little bit of a headache.
• 1:33:06
  SPEAKER_00: That's completely fair.
• 1:33:09
  SPEAKER_01: Okay well this has been great um let's um so do you have anything that you want to plug at the moment how can we find you online and if you um I am on Twitter at DC Pearson um and I like I like we discussed briefly at the beginning I have recently wrapped up this podcast but it is still out there and available if it sounds interesting to to uh to anyone listening and you like if you like hearing me talk which Lord knows you've gotten plenty of on this podcast you may be uh maybe all I'll all topped up on that for the moment but um uh the podcast is called Stay for Dinner and it's a podcast of home cooking and I I cook a recipe every week uh on the show so that part of it can be kind of like nice and relaxing and sometimes you get to hear me really screw up.
• 1:33:55
  SPEAKER_01: And then I have a conversation uh with a guest um uh about home cooking and where it does or does not fit into their lives at the moment and food memories and uh yeah so so that's that's out there wherever podcasts are cast.
• 1:34:09
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 1:34:10
  SPEAKER_00: Nice.
• 1:34:11
  SPEAKER_00: Great.
• 1:34:12
  SPEAKER_00: What sort of guest do you have on there by the way as well?
• 1:34:14
  SPEAKER_01: I have a rat anyway quite a range.
• 1:34:17
  SPEAKER_01: I had like the the the the the final guest I had on was Nicole Bayer comedian and the host of nailed it on Netflix.
• 1:34:25
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah uh the just impossibly impossibly funny super cool interesting person.
• 1:34:29
  SPEAKER_01: And the episode before that I had this author Rick Perlstein who has written uh uh a cycle of books about like uh uh American conservatism uh very much a a critical view but just like super interesting amazing historian um and I've had people from people who like work in restaurants uh chefs come on uh I interviewed my grandma my wife interviewed her grandma um uh all all kinds of a pretty a pretty good range of of people yeah thanks man oh no I'm definitely gonna check that out now please do I love I love anything I love cooking stuff so like and also like yeah I need more podcasts to listen to obviously like but there's there's always podcasts to listen to that is one thing yeah that's one thing we're not in danger of uh of running out of it great well thanks so much for doing this thanks for having me man I really appreciate it and uh glad we can make it work glad we could both track down a copy of airheads and uh uh rock and roll that's the end of the podcast if you enjoyed it please leave us a review and let me some legends so we can make in more episodes and I'll see you next week for more moviescritics dot blog