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The Favorites - Our Gambling Movie Pantheon · The Favorites Sports Betting Podcast

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: The Favorites podcast is presented by FanDuel Sports Book. There's
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  Speaker 1: so they know I sent you. You must be twenty
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  Speaker 1: or visit one eight hundred gambler dot net in West Virginia.
• 1:23
  Speaker 1: Welcome to the Favorites the podcast from the Volume Podcast Network.
• 1:27
  Speaker 1: I am Chad Millman, Chief Content Officer of the Action Network.
• 1:32
  Speaker 1: I am joined by my bff, my companion, my compadre,
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  Speaker 1: professional better, Simon Hunter l oh Siman. Hello, Chad. How
• 1:43
  Speaker 1: you doing? Brother? I am so good right now, Simon,
• 1:48
  Speaker 1: because I'm so excited for the show we're gonna do.
• 1:52
  Speaker 1: One of my favorite guests on the podcast has been
• 1:56
  Speaker 1: Michael Lasker, who is a true Hollywood power player. He's
• 2:03
  Speaker 1: a manager at Mosaic, recently named recently named Matt Mitchell
• 2:08
  Speaker 1: updated his bio for us one of the forty most
• 2:11
  Speaker 1: powerful people in comedy by the Hollywood Reporter. And that
• 2:15
  Speaker 1: is no slouch, that is no rag, that is legit
• 2:20
  Speaker 1: entertainment media. Right there. I want to point out that recently,
• 2:24
  Speaker 1: it's like five years ago, let me let me finish
• 2:29
  Speaker 1: your intro, last year has come on and obviously he
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  Speaker 1: knows his stuff in the entertainment industry, but he's also
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  Speaker 1: a fan of it, which when you're a fan of
• 2:39
  Speaker 1: something that you also get to pursue, it just makes
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  Speaker 1: your passion all the more palpable. Uh. And he has
• 2:45
  Speaker 1: come on for Oscar's handicapping podcasts, and he's coming on
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  Speaker 1: today because we're gonna talk about best gambling films. We're
• 2:52
  Speaker 1: going to talk about worst gambling films. We're gonna talk
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  Speaker 1: about most accurate depictions of gamblers and gambling that we
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  Speaker 1: see in movies. Mr Alaskar, welcome to the show, Welcome
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  Speaker 1: back to the Thank you. It's it's a pleasure reback.
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  Speaker 1: And I was thinking about this the other day that
• 3:09
  Speaker 1: I think my predictions were relatively spot on on the
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  Speaker 1: Oscar Show, except of course I did not predict like
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  Speaker 1: what really happened at night with the greatest controversy the
• 3:18
  Speaker 1: Oscars have ever seen. But but my my actual like
• 3:21
  Speaker 1: category work was very strong, if I recall, it was
• 3:25
  Speaker 1: incredibly strong, and I think we want some people some money.
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  Speaker 1: I do remember watching some of the show, most of
• 3:31
  Speaker 1: the show and being like, we had that, we had that,
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  Speaker 1: And I'm always super proud because of how deep we go,
• 3:37
  Speaker 1: not just with you, but with the Action Network podcasts
• 3:39
  Speaker 1: on the Actor on the Oscars, what we do on
• 3:43
  Speaker 1: Action Network are experts are going deep into sound editing
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  Speaker 1: and overall editing, like they're not just thinking about the
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  Speaker 1: top categories, and so I highly recomed by the way.
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  Speaker 1: I mean oftentimes, you know, those top categories are so
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  Speaker 1: predetermined by the time you get to the Oscars. You know,
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  Speaker 1: I do not obviously gamble. I don't really gamble at all.
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  Speaker 1: We'll get to that a second, but yeah, a lot
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  Speaker 1: of times you get to the Oscars and you kind
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  Speaker 1: of know who's gonna win, which isn't really that fun.
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  Speaker 1: That's a different conversation because of the Golden Globes, which
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  Speaker 1: may or may not exist anymore, and all these other
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  Speaker 1: awards shows that have kind of diluted the procession. I mean, Chad,
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  Speaker 1: you are a little older than me, but you and
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  Speaker 1: I are old enough to remember when there was really
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  Speaker 1: only the Oscars and the Golden Globes, and now you
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  Speaker 1: have like the SAG Awards, you have all these critics
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  Speaker 1: awards that get televised, and it's it's created a much
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  Speaker 1: longer campaign, which many people in the business are against.
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  Speaker 1: There's probably some healthy balance no one's figured out yet.
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  Speaker 1: But I was decided for you guys to reach out
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  Speaker 1: about this, and I've I've done a lot of homework,
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  Speaker 1: rewatched some classics, and uh, I'm ready when you guys are,
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  Speaker 1: I'm excited. So um. A few weeks ago, we had
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  Speaker 1: a friend of the podcast, Academy Award nominated screenwriter Will
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  Speaker 1: Fetters on the show because he wrote the movie Hustle
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  Speaker 1: that came out with Adam Sandler and did you know
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  Speaker 1: bo Pho numbers on Netflix and has gotten incredible reviews.
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  Speaker 1: I love the movie. Will was also a fan of
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  Speaker 1: the podcast. Like I said, he knows how to gamble,
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  Speaker 1: he knows gambling. So we started this sort of secondary
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  Speaker 1: conversation about the best gambling movies, and we didn't get
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  Speaker 1: to go as deep as we would like, and so
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  Speaker 1: giving your expertise, we were excited to have you come
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  Speaker 1: on and break this down for us. Simon, I'm gonna
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  Speaker 1: ask you first. I know we're going to get into
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  Speaker 1: some controversial conversations here, but i'm gonna ask you first,
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  Speaker 1: give me your nominee, your nominee for your let's say,
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  Speaker 1: three best gambling films. Now, I broke off a little
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  Speaker 1: because the one of them is not a gambling film.
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  Speaker 1: It's a TV show. Technically it is Netflix, so I'll
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  Speaker 1: just start with that one. Squid Games. I don't even
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  Speaker 1: know if the child ever watched it, but basically, as
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  Speaker 1: I bleed, South Korean TV show, and it's about degenerates.
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  Speaker 1: It's literally people that they keep gambling away all this
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  Speaker 1: money or they keep taking big risk and have tons
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  Speaker 1: of debt it and they need to pay off the
• 6:01
  Speaker 1: debt by playing in these little kid games and the
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  Speaker 1: gamble is their life. So I loved it the whole
• 6:08
  Speaker 1: concept of it, just because it's just really interesting where
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  Speaker 1: it's a interesting concept about the world around us right now.
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  Speaker 1: So I really enjoyed Squid Games. Um. I don't even
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  Speaker 1: know if Chad's ever seen it because it is a
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  Speaker 1: foreign film. Uh subtitles it's very good. Yes, Uh so
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  Speaker 1: I did that one. Uh as Chad knows. I love Rounders.
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  Speaker 1: Um watch that movie Minimum because I'm a serial. Watch
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  Speaker 1: Your Minimum fifty times. I can think of where I've
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  Speaker 1: just if it comes on it plays on TV, I'd
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  Speaker 1: watch it. If I stumbled across the DVD or the
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  Speaker 1: VHS tape, I throw it in and watch it. Loved
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  Speaker 1: everything about it, love all the little things to the nuances,
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  Speaker 1: of it where Matt Damon he lose, he went for it,
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  Speaker 1: he lost all of it, and it's pretty much a
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  Speaker 1: film about him trying to get back to it. Where
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  Speaker 1: you are what you are in life. Like some people,
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  Speaker 1: they're just drawn to gambling. There's just something about the numbers,
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  Speaker 1: the luck of it, and there's again we can talk
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  Speaker 1: about there's lemons out there. Some people like to lose.
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  Speaker 1: Who knows why they do, but they do like to lose.
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  Speaker 1: And I love that whole aspect of it where he's
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  Speaker 1: he's just grinding away trying to make that life. And
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  Speaker 1: for the last one, for me, I had a really
• 7:19
  Speaker 1: hard one making the top three because again we give
• 7:21
  Speaker 1: me option do top five, and I kind of not
• 7:24
  Speaker 1: that I phoned it in at the last year. But
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  Speaker 1: it's just my favorite gambling story. It's twenty one. I
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  Speaker 1: know Chad has a big, big hand in that, but
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  Speaker 1: I love twenty one. I just I love the idea
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  Speaker 1: of these nerds and their m I T teacher wherever
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  Speaker 1: the school was just being like, let's go to Vegas
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  Speaker 1: and we'll count cards, like I can't believe that's a
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  Speaker 1: real story that really happened. So people can see what
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  Speaker 1: they want about the movie. I know the gambling community
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  Speaker 1: doesn't love that movie, but I just have us. I
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  Speaker 1: just really really love that idea and that movie just
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  Speaker 1: because it's such a cool story and people like me
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  Speaker 1: I don't read that often. I didn't know about it
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  Speaker 1: until I saw the movie, so to me, it has
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  Speaker 1: a special place for me. Those are fascinating answers. There's
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  Speaker 1: a lot to unpack their Michael, I want to start
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  Speaker 1: with you give us your response to Simon's suggestions, his nominations,
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  Speaker 1: and then I want to give up. I think they're
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  Speaker 1: great idea. I mean, I think they're all great. They
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  Speaker 1: all fit into it. You know, twenty one is on
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  Speaker 1: a lot of people's list because it is a great story.
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  Speaker 1: Rounders is on my list. What I'll simply say is this.
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  Speaker 1: When I got the email, you know, from your producers
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  Speaker 1: about doing this, I started to think about what makes
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  Speaker 1: a good gambling movie, and I started thinking about the
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  Speaker 1: movies that I liked, and watching a few i'd never seen,
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  Speaker 1: and rewatching some whatever. I realized that what most of
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  Speaker 1: them have in common is basically like degenerate men. It's
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  Speaker 1: never women. Degenerate men who basically are nihilists and want
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  Speaker 1: to feel pain. And you know, I think it's in
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  Speaker 1: I think it's in The Gambler, the Original Gambler or
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  Speaker 1: James Khan, which I would put on my list, where
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  Speaker 1: I think he hasn't something the effect of like he
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  Speaker 1: bets because he kind of likes the feeling that he
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  Speaker 1: might lose and if he loses, well then he knows
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  Speaker 1: he can then win eventually hopefully. And you look at
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  Speaker 1: all these movies, and I'll give you some specifics. It's
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  Speaker 1: these people that they're addicted there. They are literally addicted.
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  Speaker 1: They're addicted to the up and down of it, you know.
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  Speaker 1: And I remember, you know, I was thinking about because
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  Speaker 1: I'm not a gambler. I don't do fancy football, but
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  Speaker 1: I did have like many people in the world, I
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  Speaker 1: had that phase in the mid auts where I discovered
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  Speaker 1: online poker, you know, on ESPN two, and I will
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  Speaker 1: watch like every night I went to bed when like
• 9:34
  Speaker 1: Chris Moneymaker and Phil Up with all those guys were coming.
• 9:38
  Speaker 1: Chris Moneymaker was new, the other guys have been around,
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  Speaker 1: and they would do these stories like about like Mike
• 9:42
  Speaker 1: Matasa where it's like, yeah, one dollars in the next day,
• 9:46
  Speaker 1: you had no money couldn't pay his phone bill, and
• 9:48
  Speaker 1: you get a sense. And I an old old friend
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  Speaker 1: of mine from growing up in Oklahoma, rolder brother was
• 9:54
  Speaker 1: a professional poker player for a while, and she would
• 9:56
  Speaker 1: tell me stories and they're not good stories, you know,
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  Speaker 1: I mean these there. This is a dark life for
• 10:01
  Speaker 1: a lot of people. And so I was trying to
• 10:03
  Speaker 1: look for movies you know that I think encapsulated that
• 10:06
  Speaker 1: desperation and Rounders definitely has it. Mr son of a beat,
• 10:12
  Speaker 1: Let's play some count I think Rounders in so many
• 10:16
  Speaker 1: people's pick because credit to those guys, to Complan Levine
• 10:20
  Speaker 1: who wrote it, into John Doll who directed it. They
• 10:23
  Speaker 1: do such an amazing job of teaching you poker, and
• 10:27
  Speaker 1: they were ahead of the curve as far as it
• 10:28
  Speaker 1: exploding in America of teaching you poker in the movie
• 10:32
  Speaker 1: and teaching you how he can get the edge and
• 10:34
  Speaker 1: what he needs. There's so many movies, and some of
• 10:36
  Speaker 1: I'm gonna name, we're like you're watching someone play crabs,
• 10:40
  Speaker 1: You're watching them like make bets on horse racing. It's
• 10:43
  Speaker 1: not quite as tactile as watching the poker and Rounders,
• 10:46
  Speaker 1: where you really understand, oh, he needs this, he's bluffing here.
• 10:50
  Speaker 1: This is what Malkovich is doing. So I mean Rounders
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  Speaker 1: is only you know, it just ages better and better
• 10:56
  Speaker 1: every year. I watched it a couple of years ago
• 10:59
  Speaker 1: and I couldn't leave how much it held up and
• 11:01
  Speaker 1: just how modern it still feels. It's a great, great movie.
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  Speaker 1: It is a phenomenal movie. There's so many lines that
• 11:09
  Speaker 1: you remember and to your point, it as far as
• 11:14
  Speaker 1: timing and nailed it right for it a generation and
• 11:18
  Speaker 1: there is a generation between me and Simon. Um, it
• 11:23
  Speaker 1: just mattered to everybody. You know. Last night at eleven
• 11:27
  Speaker 1: o'clock at night, I I'm going to bed and my
• 11:32
  Speaker 1: younger son who's fifteen, has a bunch of his buddies
• 11:35
  Speaker 1: over and they're just starting the movie they departed right
• 11:38
  Speaker 1: and like that is one of those movies where it
• 11:41
  Speaker 1: covers generations. It's gonna last, and Rounders has that same
• 11:45
  Speaker 1: feeling about it, a sort of Ed Norton, Matt Damon
• 11:49
  Speaker 1: at the very beginning of their careers, Combleman Levine, who
• 11:52
  Speaker 1: have gone on to do such legendary things including Billions. Um,
• 11:57
  Speaker 1: you know they did the Uber Show for show Time,
• 12:00
  Speaker 1: like their geniuses at capturing the Heart and the speed
• 12:06
  Speaker 1: and the pace and more importantly, the language. Right, Billions
• 12:09
  Speaker 1: isn't that far removed from Rounders in terms of the
• 12:12
  Speaker 1: complexity of the subject matter. And sometimes it doesn't matter
• 12:16
  Speaker 1: if you know what the languages are not because you're
• 12:18
  Speaker 1: so invested in the characters and the drama and the
• 12:20
  Speaker 1: pace that that you love it for that um Rounders
• 12:27
  Speaker 1: has to be on a list. Let me just but
• 12:30
  Speaker 1: you didn't response specifically the Squid Game sounds of us right,
• 12:35
  Speaker 1: and didn't watched Squid Game. Everyone talked about it. I like,
• 12:39
  Speaker 1: I just know it never sounded appealing to me, and
• 12:41
  Speaker 1: everyone loved it well, and you have to you have
• 12:45
  Speaker 1: to read the subtitles, which is tough for some people. Look,
• 12:47
  Speaker 1: I think Twin Games the interesting idea from Simon, because again,
• 12:51
  Speaker 1: when you think about gamming movies, almost all these movies
• 12:54
  Speaker 1: veer towards the casinos. And I was sorry with some
• 12:57
  Speaker 1: friends when I was telling them it was coming on
• 12:59
  Speaker 1: this and people were mentioning like Casino and it's like, well,
• 13:01
  Speaker 1: Casino is not really a gambled movie, you know. I
• 13:03
  Speaker 1: mean it takes place in Vegas and you get all
• 13:06
  Speaker 1: this cool stuff with DeNiro being this great Oddsmaker, but
• 13:09
  Speaker 1: it's not a movie where you're watching people gamble left
• 13:11
  Speaker 1: and right. I have a have a subset list I'm
• 13:14
  Speaker 1: gonna present to you guys as well, which is what
• 13:16
  Speaker 1: I refer to as quote gambling movies that are really
• 13:21
  Speaker 1: con man movies, but they also might be on these lists. Um,
• 13:25
  Speaker 1: I have a lot prepared. You have great? Is super fun? Um?
• 13:33
  Speaker 1: Actually a Mosaic client directed it. It's just a boring answer.
• 13:36
  Speaker 1: That's why I felt bad saying it's a boring answer.
• 13:38
  Speaker 1: But to me, it's just it was just a very
• 13:39
  Speaker 1: important movie in my life. That's why I think twenty
• 13:41
  Speaker 1: one is super fun. And I think which twenty one
• 13:43
  Speaker 1: did why it mattered with people is that if you
• 13:47
  Speaker 1: you could probably raise it back to Rainman. Rainman is
• 13:50
  Speaker 1: the first time you see someone count cards and then
• 13:53
  Speaker 1: they kind of satirized it a little bit or spoofed
• 13:55
  Speaker 1: into the hangover. UM, and I think twenty one came
• 13:58
  Speaker 1: out after the hangover. I could maybe I'm flip flopping that,
• 14:01
  Speaker 1: but I think that people. I think why that movie works,
• 14:05
  Speaker 1: why it's fun, it's definitely the kid element, because that
• 14:08
  Speaker 1: kind of creates something different than seeing these like degenerate
• 14:11
  Speaker 1: thirty year old forty year old men who are smoking
• 14:14
  Speaker 1: cigarettes NonStop. But everybody thinks they could count cars that
• 14:18
  Speaker 1: if there's a wish fulfilment to it, everybody thinks, oh,
• 14:20
  Speaker 1: I could go and I could remember that they had
• 14:22
  Speaker 1: already got rid of all the aces and blah blah blah.
• 14:24
  Speaker 1: So I think that's kind of what made it fun.
• 14:26
  Speaker 1: And then they came up with a good I've never
• 14:29
  Speaker 1: read that book, and I know his books because Ben
• 14:31
  Speaker 1: maisen Right. His book also became the Social Network. The
• 14:34
  Speaker 1: books are not I don't think, like really heavy duty,
• 14:36
  Speaker 1: in depth book books. They're just presenting these real life
• 14:40
  Speaker 1: stories and in Hollywood, you know, dramatize them. I think
• 14:42
  Speaker 1: Simon List was really good, you know, I mean I was.
• 14:45
  Speaker 1: I thought it was a little bit off the beaten path,
• 14:47
  Speaker 1: and I respect him with that. And the twenty one
• 14:49
  Speaker 1: thing is just it's the whole again. I didn't know
• 14:51
  Speaker 1: about this underground world of it's it isn't again. When
• 14:55
  Speaker 1: you're brought up your thought too. The man you walk
• 14:57
  Speaker 1: into casino, you've already lost, right, the odds are against you.
• 15:01
  Speaker 1: And I saw that movie and I was like, wait,
• 15:02
  Speaker 1: through math, you can beat the casino and it's not.
• 15:06
  Speaker 1: Again they called cheating, it's not. They just figured out
• 15:09
  Speaker 1: a way to count cards. So again, I just love
• 15:13
  Speaker 1: everything about twenty one. I just think it's such a cool,
• 15:15
  Speaker 1: amazing idea and I can't believe it actually really happened.
• 15:18
  Speaker 1: That's the craziest part about it. I love it too.
• 15:20
  Speaker 1: Um Alan Loebe, who's the screenwriter who has been on
• 15:24
  Speaker 1: the podcast often, uh grew up in my hometown. We're
• 15:28
  Speaker 1: good friends, did an amazing job with it. I also
• 15:33
  Speaker 1: I'm super jealous of the guy who wrote the book
• 15:36
  Speaker 1: because The Odds came out the same summer my book
• 15:39
  Speaker 1: about guys who have been in sports for a living.
• 15:41
  Speaker 1: His book did so much better than mine. And I
• 15:43
  Speaker 1: would check the Amazon rankings all the time and it
• 15:45
  Speaker 1: would just fucking kill me how much better Bringing Down
• 15:49
  Speaker 1: the House was doing than The Odds was doing. But
• 15:52
  Speaker 1: in the end, it's a good book and it's a
• 15:54
  Speaker 1: it's a great movie, and I loved it. It was
• 15:57
  Speaker 1: on my list. It's fourth on my list. If we
• 16:00
  Speaker 1: did five, it would be on there, and it used
• 16:03
  Speaker 1: to be number three until a conversation we had with
• 16:08
  Speaker 1: Will Fetters that maybe we think but Lasker just mentioned
• 16:11
  Speaker 1: sort of a subset that might maybe rethink my whole
• 16:15
  Speaker 1: entire thing. Michael, Look, when I got the emails at
• 16:19
  Speaker 1: the top three or top five, I'm gonna compress this.
• 16:21
  Speaker 1: I have five, but some of them are in the
• 16:23
  Speaker 1: same kind of the same lane, and I want to
• 16:26
  Speaker 1: do it to the prism of how these stories evolved
• 16:29
  Speaker 1: in like modern Hollywood. So let's just say the bottom one,
• 16:33
  Speaker 1: even though it's an incredible movie, is The Hustler with
• 16:35
  Speaker 1: Paul Newman. I got a hunch of fat Man. I
• 16:39
  Speaker 1: got a hunch it to me from here, know what
• 16:40
  Speaker 1: I mean? One corner pocket. I mean that ever happened
• 16:44
  Speaker 1: to you all of a sudden, you feel like you
• 16:47
  Speaker 1: can't miss. And this is a movie that I had, Like,
• 16:51
  Speaker 1: I know, I saw Color of Money I was a kid,
• 16:52
  Speaker 1: but I hadn't seen The Hustler. I started watching or
• 16:55
  Speaker 1: watching all these classics in the beginning of pandemic I've
• 16:57
  Speaker 1: never seen. And when I watched The Hustler, you know
• 17:00
  Speaker 1: it's Paul Newman Jackie Gleats and they're playing pool. I realized,
• 17:04
  Speaker 1: because I'm a nerd, I like, look this up on
• 17:06
  Speaker 1: the internet and confirmed it that it's nine one. That's
• 17:08
  Speaker 1: one of the first movies ever like a modern film
• 17:11
  Speaker 1: with a huge movie star, Paul Newman at the apex
• 17:14
  Speaker 1: of his fame, basically playing a loser. He's the degenerate gambler.
• 17:19
  Speaker 1: He cannot get out of his own way. He's a mess.
• 17:22
  Speaker 1: And the movie has a ton of gambling and a
• 17:24
  Speaker 1: ton of degenerates and it's just a great interesting film
• 17:28
  Speaker 1: nominated for like ten oscars. I mean, it's a it's
• 17:30
  Speaker 1: a really good movie that holds up, and I think
• 17:32
  Speaker 1: it's an interesting portrait again of these characters who are
• 17:36
  Speaker 1: really chasing the thrill, not the outcome, you know what
• 17:39
  Speaker 1: I mean. They're kind of chasing the high along the way,
• 17:42
  Speaker 1: and if they win, great, that only makes them want
• 17:45
  Speaker 1: to gamble more, and if they lose, only makes them
• 17:46
  Speaker 1: want to gamble more as well to get back up
• 17:49
  Speaker 1: to being even and so forth. So I think you
• 17:51
  Speaker 1: have the Hustler in the early sixties, and then what
• 17:54
  Speaker 1: I would say is in the seventies, I'm gonna put
• 17:57
  Speaker 1: two together for like number two or whatnot, and that
• 18:00
  Speaker 1: would be the Gambler in California Split. So the gambler
• 18:03
  Speaker 1: is James Cohn. They remade it terrible Mark Walbert film,
• 18:07
  Speaker 1: love Mark Walbert, but not a good movie. And The
• 18:09
  Speaker 1: Gambler is seventy four, so it's kind of what James
• 18:12
  Speaker 1: con does post The Godfather. And then California Split, I
• 18:15
  Speaker 1: think it's seventy or seventy two, and that's Robert Altman,
• 18:17
  Speaker 1: and that's Elliott Gould and George Siegel and their degenerate gamblers.
• 18:22
  Speaker 1: That's a sweet game. It is two dollar buying, right,
• 18:28
  Speaker 1: trying to play well. My partner here is the player,
• 18:30
  Speaker 1: and I guess I'm the drinker. Calgarnias Split is not
• 18:34
  Speaker 1: quite as nihilistic as The Gambler. The Gambler is a
• 18:36
  Speaker 1: dark movie. He's this professor in New York and he
• 18:40
  Speaker 1: is just he's a dark guy. He's like taking his
• 18:43
  Speaker 1: borrowing money from his rich mother and has no guilt
• 18:45
  Speaker 1: about not paying it back to the bookies and instead
• 18:48
  Speaker 1: betting it even more. And he's terrible to his girlfriend.
• 18:52
  Speaker 1: And as a really really dark third act. And then
• 18:54
  Speaker 1: California Split, I think you know that's a movie where
• 18:58
  Speaker 1: like again it's it's it's not quite as dark, but
• 19:02
  Speaker 1: you can luxuriate a little bit more, and that these
• 19:04
  Speaker 1: guys are kind of going on these runs and they're
• 19:06
  Speaker 1: gambling and they're up and they're down. But the end
• 19:08
  Speaker 1: of it then sucker punches you because you realize they're
• 19:11
  Speaker 1: both pathetic. One guy kind of sees a light, one
• 19:14
  Speaker 1: guy doesn't. But my point is those movies came out
• 19:16
  Speaker 1: in the seventies, and those movies kind of paved the
• 19:19
  Speaker 1: way for what came later. Of course, you put rounders
• 19:21
  Speaker 1: on any list, and I really think, I know it's crazy,
• 19:24
  Speaker 1: and you're gonna say it's recency biased, but it's Uncut Gems.
• 19:27
  Speaker 1: I don't know how you don't say Uncut Gems is
• 19:30
  Speaker 1: the best gambling film of all time, because I guess
• 19:33
  Speaker 1: I was trying to get out is like, and I
• 19:35
  Speaker 1: haven't verified this, but I'm positive of the Saffi brothers
• 19:38
  Speaker 1: studied The Gambler, studied California Split, studied all these movies.
• 19:42
  Speaker 1: But then they took you know, A two thousand, seventeen
• 19:45
  Speaker 1: eighteen whenever. It was kind of modern spin and like,
• 19:48
  Speaker 1: you know, his Internet. I was listening to them in
• 19:50
  Speaker 1: an interview a couple of years ago, and so you know,
• 19:53
  Speaker 1: we're making a movie. You know, you have a microphone on,
• 19:56
  Speaker 1: like the main actors. But in those scenes in the
• 19:58
  Speaker 1: end of the movie, whether they're in the jewelry store,
• 20:00
  Speaker 1: there's like seven actors around them. They're all talking, so
• 20:03
  Speaker 1: you're also recording all of their dialogue and the amount
• 20:07
  Speaker 1: of undertaking that takes with a sound editor to take
• 20:11
  Speaker 1: basically like six to seven tracks of dialogue and fuse
• 20:15
  Speaker 1: them together, because those scenes are so chaotic because everyone's
• 20:18
  Speaker 1: you know, jawing at each other. And I don't know,
• 20:21
  Speaker 1: I mean, I know it's a new movie, but like,
• 20:23
  Speaker 1: I've never seen a movie that that gives you the
• 20:26
  Speaker 1: highs and lows because he makes the crazy bet and
• 20:28
  Speaker 1: you don't think he can win. It makes you pay
• 20:30
  Speaker 1: the price because of the ending, and it also takes
• 20:33
  Speaker 1: you through all the mania of like him being chased
• 20:37
  Speaker 1: by Eric Gozean and his good Like I don't know,
• 20:40
  Speaker 1: I don't think there's a better movie that captures it. Uh.
• 20:44
  Speaker 1: That is the controversial take, right, because um, I want
• 20:49
  Speaker 1: to get Simon's response to uncut Gems. Uh, it's funny.
• 20:55
  Speaker 1: I did the same thing with The Hustler. When the
• 20:57
  Speaker 1: Pandemic started. I had never watched it, and so I
• 21:01
  Speaker 1: watched it start to finish, and obviously it was amazing
• 21:05
  Speaker 1: and so different than anything I had even could have conjured.
• 21:09
  Speaker 1: I had The Color of Money on this list is
• 21:11
  Speaker 1: like a great gambling movie. But also I happen to
• 21:17
  Speaker 1: have recently rewatched it, and it's not as good a
• 21:20
  Speaker 1: movie as I remember when it came out. And I
• 21:23
  Speaker 1: think Paul Newman won the Oscar for that. You can
• 21:25
  Speaker 1: back me up. I think that's when he did win
• 21:27
  Speaker 1: the Oscar for the first time, and I think he
• 21:30
  Speaker 1: got it more because of the career than because of
• 21:33
  Speaker 1: the quality of that movie. Um. Yeah, and he didn't
• 21:37
  Speaker 1: even to show up to the Cavity Awards. I don't
• 21:38
  Speaker 1: think he often attended, but at that point he didn't
• 21:41
  Speaker 1: care at all, and that it was exactly was a
• 21:44
  Speaker 1: late career Oscar, although ironically he got nominated two more times,
• 21:48
  Speaker 1: but he didn't win those either. But continue sorry, And
• 21:50
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• 23:33
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• 23:36
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• 23:39
  Speaker 1: forty seven hundred in Wyoming, or visit one gambler dot
• 23:43
  Speaker 1: net in West Virginia. I have Silver Linings Playbook on
• 23:47
  Speaker 1: my list. That's a great idea. Will Fetters had talked
• 23:52
  Speaker 1: about on the podcast as a gambling movie, and I
• 23:56
  Speaker 1: couldn't agree more. It's so central to everything in the movie.
• 24:01
  Speaker 1: The dad is a bookmaker, the climax is about them
• 24:07
  Speaker 1: and sort of the parlay bet of winning against the
• 24:10
  Speaker 1: cowboys and winning the dance contest. The entire thing is
• 24:13
  Speaker 1: a gamble, right, It's a different kind of gambling. So, Michael,
• 24:17
  Speaker 1: you were talking about like there's a subset of movies
• 24:19
  Speaker 1: that are gambling, but not that are about gambling, but
• 24:21
  Speaker 1: not gambling like you could put it on that but
• 24:24
  Speaker 1: to me, Uncut Gems Barnet like brilliant love everything like
• 24:30
  Speaker 1: it's uncomfortable. You know. Before we started the show, we
• 24:34
  Speaker 1: were talking about The Bear, right, this new show on
• 24:36
  Speaker 1: Hulu which I watched and just devoured and like two
• 24:40
  Speaker 1: nights and and like it's as good as anything I've
• 24:43
  Speaker 1: seen in years. And it's visceral. It makes you anxious.
• 24:48
  Speaker 1: The beats are great, like everything about it's colorful. It's
• 24:51
  Speaker 1: just it's awesome, totally awesome. You have that same feeling
• 24:55
  Speaker 1: watching and Cut Jens, like even if you don't know
• 24:57
  Speaker 1: the world, like you're just tense the whole time. I thought, Sam,
• 25:01
  Speaker 1: it was great. Simon, I don't think you like them
• 25:04
  Speaker 1: Cut Gems. I think we're on opposite side of this. Yeah,
• 25:07
  Speaker 1: I'm just I lived the life though. That's the problem.
• 25:10
  Speaker 1: It's like, what do you want from me? It's it's
• 25:13
  Speaker 1: it's it's it's I guess someone, Oh, here's your rely for.
• 25:15
  Speaker 1: They like to moot the show e R is your
• 25:17
  Speaker 1: real life? No, obviously it's not so Uncle Gems is Honestly,
• 25:23
  Speaker 1: the only thing I liked about it is it's a
• 25:24
  Speaker 1: true tale of these people's lives that they're just spiraling
• 25:28
  Speaker 1: and it doesn't matter what they do, even even if
• 25:30
  Speaker 1: they win a million dollars, they're going to go back
• 25:33
  Speaker 1: to zero. It's just there are just again we talked
• 25:35
  Speaker 1: about there's lemons, like there's just losers. No matter what
• 25:38
  Speaker 1: they do, they're going to lose, Like they'll never learn
• 25:40
  Speaker 1: the habits. They just don't care. But my biggest thing
• 25:43
  Speaker 1: I hated that movie was the parlor, Like I the
• 25:46
  Speaker 1: dumbest thing in the entire world. What was it? A nine?
• 25:48
  Speaker 1: Nine or seven games and nine? It was like a nine,
• 25:52
  Speaker 1: a nine including a nine part parlay, including the tip off,
• 25:56
  Speaker 1: which you know is anyone in the industry knows, you know,
• 26:01
  Speaker 1: one's betting the fucking tip But it's it's a nice
• 26:05
  Speaker 1: way to have a dramatic moment. But what's interesting now
• 26:09
  Speaker 1: in the modern sports world, with sports betting legal everywhere,
• 26:13
  Speaker 1: every single book is offering these new markets. And when
• 26:17
  Speaker 1: the NBA playoffs were happening, two the most popular markets
• 26:21
  Speaker 1: were first basket, who will score the first basket and
• 26:26
  Speaker 1: the type of the first basket scored? Right, those are
• 26:30
  Speaker 1: sucker bets, those are square bets, but the bookmakers the
• 26:35
  Speaker 1: operators are putting those markets available on their app front
• 26:41
  Speaker 1: and center, and so they're becoming more and more popular
• 26:44
  Speaker 1: because their immediate gratification. You see it right away, it's available.
• 26:50
  Speaker 1: We're covering them now. There are ways to sort of
• 26:53
  Speaker 1: game the system, same with first touchdown or no run
• 26:56
  Speaker 1: first inning. So all of a sudden, it's it's life
• 26:59
  Speaker 1: catching up to art because that could be a parlay
• 27:03
  Speaker 1: that people are making now. It is. It's just they
• 27:06
  Speaker 1: didn't need to do that. They could have just had
• 27:08
  Speaker 1: him put all of it on the one side and
• 27:10
  Speaker 1: that side loses and the ending still happens the same way.
• 27:12
  Speaker 1: It was just like, again, I know what they were
• 27:14
  Speaker 1: doing that whole point of that movie, but I just
• 27:16
  Speaker 1: will never forget how many people hit me up about
• 27:18
  Speaker 1: it because it's it's Sandler and everyone's like, dude, Stanley
• 27:21
  Speaker 1: did a gambly movie. You must love this movie, and
• 27:22
  Speaker 1: it's like, I fucking hated it. I have liked the
• 27:25
  Speaker 1: more now, like I've seen it probably two or three
• 27:27
  Speaker 1: times now, it's gotten better in my opinion, but like, yeah,
• 27:30
  Speaker 1: first time seeing it, I was just like, what a
• 27:33
  Speaker 1: waste of time and a lesson for everyone unless you
• 27:35
  Speaker 1: want to see the worst and ugliest side of sports betting?
• 27:38
  Speaker 1: Was that not? Maybe? The point? You know it was definite? Um. Yeah,
• 27:45
  Speaker 1: I I hear it everything you're saying, and it's me.
• 27:47
  Speaker 1: It's almost like you're saying, yeah, Like does a heroin addict,
• 27:50
  Speaker 1: you know, enjoy watching Raccoon for a dream? Maybe not?
• 27:54
  Speaker 1: You know what I mean? Like that might too. I'm
• 27:56
  Speaker 1: not calling you a heroinet excitement. You look very healthy. Um.
• 28:02
  Speaker 1: But it does bring up a good point, which is
• 28:04
  Speaker 1: something else that we want to talk about, which is
• 28:07
  Speaker 1: what movies had the best depiction of gambling. Michael, you
• 28:12
  Speaker 1: mentioned The Gambler. I mean there's a scene. I haven't
• 28:15
  Speaker 1: seen The Gambler for twenty something years because some of
• 28:18
  Speaker 1: the scenes in there were so disturbing, including like James
• 28:22
  Speaker 1: Cohn in a bathtub, like just in complete and total desperation.
• 28:29
  Speaker 1: What happens is he's he's up and then he loses
• 28:32
  Speaker 1: all this money and he has a little bit of
• 28:34
  Speaker 1: money left and as the book, he is leaving with
• 28:37
  Speaker 1: the money he's just had to pay him. He's like,
• 28:39
  Speaker 1: I want you to I want to take the Lakers
• 28:41
  Speaker 1: over the SuperSonics and because it's like nineties seventy four.
• 28:44
  Speaker 1: The games just like on the radio, you know that
• 28:46
  Speaker 1: you can't see all these games on TV. And he's
• 28:48
  Speaker 1: sitting in the bath and it's a game that like
• 28:50
  Speaker 1: comes down like literally the last second someone makes a
• 28:52
  Speaker 1: lucky shot and he has the radio at the edge
• 28:55
  Speaker 1: of the bath and you're watching it and you kind
• 28:57
  Speaker 1: of think, oh, he's gonna electrocute himself. He's to get
• 29:00
  Speaker 1: so upset that the radio is going to go into
• 29:03
  Speaker 1: the bathtub and he's gonna die. Um. Yeah, it's a
• 29:07
  Speaker 1: dark movie and it and it's and it also it's
• 29:09
  Speaker 1: from an era where, like you know, it's in a
• 29:11
  Speaker 1: great era where they were making darker films and they
• 29:14
  Speaker 1: were you know, James Cohn was never a Sonny exuse
• 29:17
  Speaker 1: the pun, because Sonny Cordoni was never a Sonny you know,
• 29:20
  Speaker 1: character actor, you know, even in Elf like Dark Cloud. Yeah,
• 29:25
  Speaker 1: I think someone said you a Christmas Graham. All right,
• 29:29
  Speaker 1: let's get it over with. Sanda must have called you, like,
• 29:33
  Speaker 1: are you going to sing a song or something that
• 29:34
  Speaker 1: I can I just go back to work, right. Yeah,
• 29:37
  Speaker 1: he plays dark people and yeah, in The Gambler, he's
• 29:40
  Speaker 1: just he's an asshole. He is just like cannot get
• 29:43
  Speaker 1: out of his own way. But he's not even a
• 29:45
  Speaker 1: lovable asshole. Some of these movies, you know, where you
• 29:48
  Speaker 1: have these gamblers, they're they're kind of lovable in their
• 29:51
  Speaker 1: in their desperation, but he's just kind of depraved. You know,
• 29:54
  Speaker 1: one thing you're a producer could mentioned. I don't know
• 29:56
  Speaker 1: if this is jumping ahead, but or it just made
• 29:58
  Speaker 1: me think about how again, there are a lot of
• 30:01
  Speaker 1: movies that have gambling, like Casino, but they're more con
• 30:03
  Speaker 1: Man movies. You know. I don't think you'd put Oceans
• 30:06
  Speaker 1: eleven on this list, or even The Sting, you know,
• 30:10
  Speaker 1: Like I was seeing about The Sting, which I love
• 30:11
  Speaker 1: this thing, but to me, The Sting is more of
• 30:13
  Speaker 1: a con Man film than a gambling film. Yes, they're gambling,
• 30:15
  Speaker 1: and they're faking gambling in their final subterfuge they pull
• 30:19
  Speaker 1: off on Robert Shaw, but I think those are more
• 30:22
  Speaker 1: con Man movies, right, Yeah, I don't. I don't think
• 30:25
  Speaker 1: of Oceans eleven as a gambling movie at all. It's
• 30:28
  Speaker 1: a great Vegas movie. It falls under the same rubric
• 30:32
  Speaker 1: as die Hard. Right. Is it a Christmas movie or
• 30:34
  Speaker 1: is not a Christmas movie, those are sort of they're
• 30:37
  Speaker 1: not gambling movies to me in any sense of the word.
• 30:40
  Speaker 1: Not any since the work. Can I pitch you a movie?
• 30:42
  Speaker 1: I'm curious if either of you have seen this. It's
• 30:45
  Speaker 1: a B movie, but I think it's an excellent movie
• 30:48
  Speaker 1: and it is a half gambling movie, half con man
• 30:50
  Speaker 1: movie from I was thinking about it a lot during
• 30:54
  Speaker 1: this this prep. Have you ever seen Digstown with James
• 30:57
  Speaker 1: Woods and lue Gossa Jr. Yes. The premise of this
• 31:01
  Speaker 1: movie is James Woods is a con man and he
• 31:04
  Speaker 1: goes to this small town and he makes a bet
• 31:07
  Speaker 1: with Bruce Dern, who's like the owns the town and says,
• 31:11
  Speaker 1: I can take my boxer Lugssa Jr. Who's like late fifties,
• 31:15
  Speaker 1: early sixties, and he in a twenty period can beat
• 31:20
  Speaker 1: any ten boxers from your county you put up against him.
• 31:24
  Speaker 1: So you're saying that our boxing here in Ditchtown is
• 31:27
  Speaker 1: not to your satisfaction. Mr Kane, Nice to meet Jay.
• 31:31
  Speaker 1: Cannot be finane, kist you, It's never too Satisfyingly, who's
• 31:35
  Speaker 1: gonna win every time? You know what I mean? Trunks
• 31:38
  Speaker 1: over here? Okay, halfway to the first round, he comes out,
• 31:40
  Speaker 1: I know he's gonna be kissing canvas and baboom. He's
• 31:43
  Speaker 1: already done it twice. So what do you think, is
• 31:46
  Speaker 1: he gonna kiss canvas the third time? Yes? And so
• 31:49
  Speaker 1: the movie takes place over twenty four hours. It's Lucassa Jr.
• 31:52
  Speaker 1: Who actually looks really good in the movie. He must
• 31:54
  Speaker 1: he had to be fifty five or sixty. He's still
• 31:57
  Speaker 1: like pretty well built, and he's taking on young men
• 32:00
  Speaker 1: who are like ripped boxers. But every twenty minutes there's
• 32:05
  Speaker 1: a twist, and then they keep upping the bet and
• 32:08
  Speaker 1: you kind of realized that James Woods has been like
• 32:11
  Speaker 1: setting this all. I don't want to give anything away.
• 32:13
  Speaker 1: It was directed by Michael Ritchie, who's not alive anymore,
• 32:16
  Speaker 1: who directed Bad News Bears, directed Downhill Racer with Robert Redford,
• 32:20
  Speaker 1: directed to Candidate, directed a lot of really great movies
• 32:22
  Speaker 1: that are kind of classics to a certain age of people,
• 32:26
  Speaker 1: but they aren't really classics today except Bad News Bears,
• 32:29
  Speaker 1: of course. But it's a really good movie. And it's
• 32:31
  Speaker 1: a combo. It's a con man and a gambling film.
• 32:34
  Speaker 1: And I saw with my buddy Joey in Tulsa Oklahoma,
• 32:38
  Speaker 1: and it was just like late August surprise of like
• 32:41
  Speaker 1: what a fun, weird little movie. You know I'd recommended
• 32:45
  Speaker 1: to all the doers. Is Joey your buddy from Oklahoma,
• 32:48
  Speaker 1: who's now the mayor of Oklahoma City. That's that's David Holt,
• 32:51
  Speaker 1: who's the mayor Oklahoma City. Good for David Holt. Um.
• 32:57
  Speaker 1: Here's the one thing I want to get before we go,
• 32:59
  Speaker 1: which is is worres gambling movies like Simon is Uncut
• 33:05
  Speaker 1: gems on your list of worst gambling movies. No, I
• 33:09
  Speaker 1: just again, I just hate it because I'm too close
• 33:11
  Speaker 1: to it. It's like, why do that? Why showed that?
• 33:14
  Speaker 1: Why I showed that side when they just legalized gambling.
• 33:16
  Speaker 1: But I get why they're doing it. Um for me,
• 33:19
  Speaker 1: it be probably too for the money. I just I
• 33:21
  Speaker 1: just remember the hype around it again. It's it's literally
• 33:24
  Speaker 1: sports betting. It's what I do. And man, the order
• 33:27
  Speaker 1: I've gotten the more times I watched, it's like, what
• 33:30
  Speaker 1: the hell is this movie? It's just it is weird.
• 33:33
  Speaker 1: And it's just weird too because Alpaccino and McConaughey and
• 33:36
  Speaker 1: it's just a complete egg. I mean like Alpacina's character
• 33:40
  Speaker 1: he like is a lemon in that movie. It's the
• 33:42
  Speaker 1: whole movie is just weird. Yeah, I gotta say, if
• 33:45
  Speaker 1: I learned anything it's that gambling is not your problem,
• 33:48
  Speaker 1: not even close. I don't know how to say this
• 33:50
  Speaker 1: without sounding a little rude, But you're a lemon leon,
• 33:54
  Speaker 1: like a bad car. There is something inherently defective in you,
• 33:58
  Speaker 1: and you and you and me and all of us
• 34:01
  Speaker 1: in this room. You see, most gamblers, when they go
• 34:04
  Speaker 1: to gamble, they go to win. When we go to gamble,
• 34:07
  Speaker 1: we go to lose. Subconsciously me, I never feel better
• 34:11
  Speaker 1: or more alive than when they're raking the chips away,
• 34:14
  Speaker 1: not bringing a man. And everybody here knows what I'm
• 34:16
  Speaker 1: talking about. Hell, even when we win, it's just a
• 34:19
  Speaker 1: matter of time before we give it all back. I'm
• 34:21
  Speaker 1: just gonna go with my worst one. I would say
• 34:23
  Speaker 1: two for the Money, just because they could have made
• 34:25
  Speaker 1: such an awesome, cool movie and they really fumbled the bag.
• 34:28
  Speaker 1: Couldn't agree more on two for the Money. Terrible, terrible movie,
• 34:33
  Speaker 1: So disappointing because as you, not as a better but
• 34:38
  Speaker 1: just as a purveyor and member the media who has
• 34:42
  Speaker 1: been doing this forever. I just had high expectations for
• 34:45
  Speaker 1: what it could be. Here's the controversial take again. You
• 34:50
  Speaker 1: need to make our own two for the money chat.
• 34:51
  Speaker 1: We got the man here. We gotta get the script
• 34:53
  Speaker 1: to lock ourselves in the cabin for a week. Here's
• 34:56
  Speaker 1: a here's another one, Molly's Game. I love Aaron Sorkin.
• 35:01
  Speaker 1: We talked about Western before we were before we started
• 35:04
  Speaker 1: recording this game was this. This movie was fucking terrible.
• 35:10
  Speaker 1: It was plotting, it was predictable. I love Sorkin as
• 35:14
  Speaker 1: a writer. I think as a director he's doing after
• 35:17
  Speaker 1: school specials. I thought, and his his his his movie
• 35:22
  Speaker 1: on HBO. I think it was about the trials in
• 35:25
  Speaker 1: sixty nine about um, I forgot what was what was called?
• 35:29
  Speaker 1: I thought that was terrible, no good. As a director.
• 35:33
  Speaker 1: Here's I would say I was. I thought about Molly's Game.
• 35:35
  Speaker 1: One thing I wanted to throw out, UM, I don't
• 35:38
  Speaker 1: want to hate it too hard on anybody's movies. The
• 35:40
  Speaker 1: thing I will say about Molly's Game, I do think
• 35:43
  Speaker 1: it has a sequence in it, And I'm curious, Simon,
• 35:45
  Speaker 1: if you you know how you feel about this. I
• 35:48
  Speaker 1: think the sequence in the middle of the movie with
• 35:50
  Speaker 1: Bill Camp. Bill Camps a character after he played the
• 35:53
  Speaker 1: janitor in The Queen's Gambit. You've seen him in a
• 35:55
  Speaker 1: hundred Things. He's the guy in the middle of the
• 35:58
  Speaker 1: movie who she says in the Erasion, he just wanted
• 36:01
  Speaker 1: to come play poker quickly before he went to celebrate
• 36:03
  Speaker 1: his anniversary with his wife. And he's the guy who
• 36:05
  Speaker 1: gets up real fast and then loses everything again and
• 36:08
  Speaker 1: again again. And he's a genius. He's a famous actor
• 36:11
  Speaker 1: from Broadway. I think that sequence is an outstanding sequence
• 36:16
  Speaker 1: because they really give you the sense of how fast
• 36:19
  Speaker 1: everything changes and how the digger, the bigger the hole
• 36:22
  Speaker 1: you dig, the more you're willing to gamble to get
• 36:25
  Speaker 1: out of the hole, which never really works. So you know,
• 36:28
  Speaker 1: the movie, it's an interesting movie. It's a little all
• 36:31
  Speaker 1: over the map with the way it's told and that
• 36:33
  Speaker 1: Kevin Costner stuff that was all made up, um you know,
• 36:36
  Speaker 1: I mean they had to, they had to dramatize, you know,
• 36:38
  Speaker 1: and make a movie. But that Bill Camp sequence really
• 36:41
  Speaker 1: stood out to me of just that's how it happens.
• 36:44
  Speaker 1: You know, guy just wants to play quick poker game
• 36:45
  Speaker 1: before he goes to dinner with his wife, and you
• 36:48
  Speaker 1: watch that scene and you're like, did that guy ever
• 36:50
  Speaker 1: go home again? Like did he ever even see it?
• 36:52
  Speaker 1: You know what I mean? Like his life must have
• 36:53
  Speaker 1: been ruined. I don't know if that was true, but
• 36:56
  Speaker 1: they were just you know, dramatizing. But it is what
• 36:58
  Speaker 1: that that is interesting in that you can pick out
• 37:03
  Speaker 1: the sequence, but the movie itself wasn't all that special,
• 37:07
  Speaker 1: which makes what happened in uncut Gems, or what they
• 37:10
  Speaker 1: did in Rounders, or even the way the parlay becomes
• 37:15
  Speaker 1: something that is a through line for silver Linings or
• 37:19
  Speaker 1: the excitement of twenty one. Gambling is relatively sedentary as
• 37:25
  Speaker 1: an activity, right, and so the ability of the filmmaker,
• 37:29
  Speaker 1: the screenwriter whoever, to create something that has pace and
• 37:34
  Speaker 1: feels exciting and you feel the tension, it's really hard
• 37:38
  Speaker 1: to do. It's why other ones like Molly's Game or
• 37:40
  Speaker 1: Two for the Money do so badly is because you
• 37:44
  Speaker 1: don't get that that particular moment. Right, there was another
• 37:47
  Speaker 1: one lay the favorite, Right, the movie was fucking awful,
• 37:51
  Speaker 1: just like cliche and like this was another one Simon
• 37:54
  Speaker 1: where it was coming out and everyone's like, cool, it's
• 37:56
  Speaker 1: going to be a cool new movie about sports betting
• 38:00
  Speaker 1: is based on a cool book. You don't get the
• 38:02
  Speaker 1: gambling right, If you don't get the pacing right in
• 38:03
  Speaker 1: the anxiety, you kind of lose the threat. In the future,
• 38:06
  Speaker 1: I do think that as more as sports because more normal.
• 38:09
  Speaker 1: I do think more professionals that come forward, and we
• 38:11
  Speaker 1: might get better sports betting movies because to me, the
• 38:14
  Speaker 1: life itself as cool as hell. Like on there for you.
• 38:17
  Speaker 1: When I first met a professional better we went to
• 38:19
  Speaker 1: a sports book and he showed me he had a
• 38:21
  Speaker 1: bag of money, say it was tent k. He goes,
• 38:23
  Speaker 1: you want to see a magic trick? And I said, yeah,
• 38:26
  Speaker 1: because I'm gonna turn this tent came into a hundred K.
• 38:28
  Speaker 1: Waiting this car for the next five hours, goes in
• 38:30
  Speaker 1: the sports book. I stay there and watched the rest
• 38:32
  Speaker 1: of his cash in the back of the car. He
• 38:34
  Speaker 1: comes sure enough, he comes back out after the baseball
• 38:36
  Speaker 1: games four hours later, get a delf of bag with
• 38:38
  Speaker 1: seventy K and and I just remember thinking, like, holy
• 38:40
  Speaker 1: sh it, I want this life. So that's what I mean.
• 38:42
  Speaker 1: There's there's cool things he's sports writers or sports movies
• 38:45
  Speaker 1: could do with sports betting. I think we're gonna be
• 38:47
  Speaker 1: a good air for that coming up. Well, Michael Lasker,
• 38:52
  Speaker 1: manager at Mosaic, most powerful person in all of comedy
• 38:56
  Speaker 1: in Hollywood. There's there's no doubt about it. I know
• 39:00
  Speaker 1: you're shaking your head. I'm just gonna say it. Don't
• 39:03
  Speaker 1: worry about it. Uh, Simon Hunter, Matt Mitchell. Uh, this
• 39:08
  Speaker 1: has been super fun. This has been the Favorites podcast
• 39:11
  Speaker 1: from the Volume Podcast Network. Download us on Spotify, Apple Podcast,
• 39:15
  Speaker 1: rate review, subscribe, Ubus five stars, say whatever you want.
• 39:18
  Speaker 1: Feedback is a gift. Until next time. I love you,