Ep. 197: horror flicks & melatonin rings

[00:00:00] Speaker A: Let's talk. You take us in. [00:00:02] Speaker B: Okay. Weird. I mean, I will. I'll certainly try and take us in. I mean, it depends where you'd like to go, you know. All right, how about this? I've gotten nothing, right? Sure. Let me. I think. I think, you know, in our fifth year, right? And I'll tell you something else. As a 46 year old man, this is fucking incredible. Right? What are you laughing at? [00:00:31] Speaker A: Are you a. That you didn't even make one point before you said, and let me tell you something else. So it wasn't so much a subject as a mid. But are you, are you 46? [00:00:43] Speaker B: I will be 46. Right. [00:00:45] Speaker A: Got it. Okay, go on. [00:00:48] Speaker B: I have existed through, I think, seven decades. How fucking mad is that? Seventies, eighties, think on seventies, eighties, nineties, tens, twenties and six. [00:01:02] Speaker A: Six decades. That is kind of bananas. [00:01:06] Speaker B: I have lived across six decades. [00:01:11] Speaker A: Weird. [00:01:12] Speaker B: Mad shit. [00:01:13] Speaker A: That's a lot of decades. How does that work? [00:01:15] Speaker B: Yeah, I'm sad. [00:01:17] Speaker A: Numbers are so deeply confusing. You ever, like people will argue about like where the century ended between like 1999 and 2000 or 2000 to 2001. It's like where the millennium starts or whatever. Some people say it's like 2000 or 2001. And I don't. I just. I would just like for us to stick with the nice round number and not worry about technical. [00:01:43] Speaker B: No, no, there's no doubt. 2000 at 1 minute past midnight on the 1 January 2000. [00:01:48] Speaker A: No, millennium. That's it. [00:01:50] Speaker B: That's when it started. [00:01:51] Speaker A: But I guess technically it's like if you're going from where the year started or whatever, it's the end of the year is. I don't know. I'm not going to think about it because it makes my head hurt. [00:02:02] Speaker B: Yeah, you shouldn't. Don't even accept that it's an issue. If you don't accept it's an issue that isn't an issue. Right. [00:02:08] Speaker A: Then it isn't one just going to shove my head into the dirt. [00:02:14] Speaker B: Let me tell you, over your seven. [00:02:16] Speaker A: Decades, six decades, you learned this much? Just if you pretend it's not a problem. It is not a problem, is it? [00:02:25] Speaker B: Are you starting? I mean, what is it like podcasting with an old guy like me? [00:02:30] Speaker A: Well, I'm getting old now. This, it was my birthday this week and this is my last year in my thirties, which is. That's kind of crazy to me. I think I can imagine. [00:02:43] Speaker B: Yes. [00:02:44] Speaker A: I think I thought I'd be older at this age. Do you know what I mean? [00:02:49] Speaker B: I know that makes zero sense. [00:02:52] Speaker A: I just like, I don't know there are, of course, parts of me that feel old. You know, my back hurts and my neck hurts and my knees hurt and things like that. I have a house and a dog and a husband, you know, stuff like that. But it just. I don't know. I guess I thought I middle aged would feel more middle aged. And I know this is what all old people say too, right? I would ask my grandma in her nineties, what is it like being old or whatever. She's like. It's weird because I only feel old when I look in the mirror. The person looking back at me is old, but the person isn't that hits home. [00:03:34] Speaker B: And I also look at my contemporaries. I look at people I went to school with, and I look at people of my age. [00:03:42] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:03:43] Speaker B: And I'm like, I don't look as fucking old as that, do I? [00:03:46] Speaker A: Right. There are definitely some people with, like, when we were watching rituals the other day, and the guy was like, I'm 38 years old. And I'm like, I'm sorry, what? [00:03:56] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah, yeah. [00:03:57] Speaker A: You know, that is what I expected this age to be. Like, I think is like that grizzled old doctor in rituals. But I've had this, like, thought process of, you know, I'm going to be 40 in a year. And so, you know, I love a goal. You know, I love a resolution, of course, kind of. And so I've decided that I'm going to hit 40 in the best physical shape of my adult life. Not necessarily. Not like the skinniest I've ever been or anything like that, but like, as in, like, you know, beefed up, going to the doctor and all my numbers are, like the greatest you've ever seen. And, like, you know, can squat my body weight, you know, things like that. Like that is my goal for the year. [00:04:48] Speaker B: What I will tell you is that what I see is somebody who isn't just, who doesn't just love making resolutions. You also enjoy following them through. [00:04:58] Speaker A: I do. Yeah. Right. Very much do, yes. [00:05:02] Speaker B: If you. If you commit to something, God damn, you're gonna fucking do it or die trying. That's. That's one thing. I don't think I'm speaking out of turn in making that particular observation. [00:05:13] Speaker A: Yeah, well, it's. I, like, I need the goals and I need to say them out loud because otherwise, you know, the way my adhd is set up, it's, you know, it just kind of goes to the wind or whatever. But if I say it, if I sit here and I say it to you and to the people who are listening to us and things like that. It's like, all right, let's do this. We're doing it. Yeah. I mean, and I don't always succeed, obviously. We've mentioned before, like, I tried to listen to a new album every week that did not. That did not play out. I just don't. I just don't know where to squeeze music into my day to day life because I can't listen to music and do other things. [00:05:57] Speaker B: Yeah, I get you. [00:05:59] Speaker A: So that didn't work. But obviously the. No drinking has worked fine. So now we are over eight months in on that. [00:06:11] Speaker B: Over eight months before you got a fucking load on. Yeah, before you. [00:06:15] Speaker A: I haven't done. I haven't drank at all. I mean, I've had a sip of, you know, Kyo's cocktails or things like that where we go out just to see what it tastes like, but still, you know, otherwise teetotaling and. Yeah, that's my. By 40, I want to have myself, you know, doing all kinds of push ups and lifting things and, you know, just being super healthy, you know, because it's, you know, otherwise it's never going to get any better. Right. [00:06:48] Speaker B: Well, yeah, I mean, you've. You've got to. You've got to. You've got to give yourself a chance of a pain free and dignified and mobile old age, haven't you? You've got to give yourself the best fucking chance that you can. [00:07:02] Speaker A: Yeah. So why not start now? You know? [00:07:04] Speaker B: Exactly, exactly. And I've, you know, my kind of transition into that fitness life. I've always been quite candid in saying that it was an attempt to kind of repair in the second half of my life any damage that I might have done in the first. [00:07:18] Speaker A: Right, yeah, totally. [00:07:20] Speaker B: Um, and, you know, without. Without kind of vocally setting out any kind of stall or committing to anything apart from having a few drinks on holiday, I've been sober now since, what, may, June? I haven't drunk in fucking months. [00:07:37] Speaker A: Right, yeah, exactly. Yeah, pretty much. You've just, uh, aside from holiday, you've been a pretty, uh, pretty sober dude. [00:07:45] Speaker B: That'S having been around a round drink. [00:07:48] Speaker A: Like, you've gone out. [00:07:49] Speaker B: I mean, went out with. Yes, yes, yes. Which is absolutely fucking Looney tunes to suggest that I'm not. [00:07:59] Speaker A: Like, I have been in social situations with you. And before you drink, usually you're ready to leave. So the fact that you have sat through social situations and had your alcohol free bruise and did not simply turn around and walk back out the door is quite impressive. Yeah. [00:08:19] Speaker B: I love to leave you, too. [00:08:22] Speaker A: You love leaving so much. This is like, a hallmark of going to parties with you, is spending the first 90 minutes of it pulling you back from the door. You just gotta stay a little longer. I'm gonna go. No, no, you're not. Just a little. Just keep until you have finally gotten tipsy enough that you're like, okay, I. [00:08:45] Speaker B: Can socialize with people, but that, you know, the. Not, not. And I feel confident in saying not anymore. But that space, that distance between Marco wants to leave and Marco is shit faced is tighter. That gap was very, very short. The sweet spot was very brief. [00:09:06] Speaker A: Yeah, it's true. [00:09:10] Speaker B: Yeah, it's. [00:09:11] Speaker A: What do you think you're going to do when you come here? What's. What's your plan? [00:09:15] Speaker B: Oh, God, I don't know. I don't know. I. Because I've said this to you kind of off air. Um, I'm going to be. I'm going to be edgy as fuck because. [00:09:28] Speaker A: Yes, of course. [00:09:28] Speaker B: Completely new situation. Completely new. Not a new group of people because. [00:09:33] Speaker A: We'Ve been hanging out with them for four years. [00:09:35] Speaker B: Exactly. Exactly, exactly, exactly. Um, but out of my kind of patch, out of my safe zone, I honestly can't say. I honestly cannot say. [00:09:47] Speaker A: I don't think you need it personally. I think you can. I think you can pull it off now. [00:09:54] Speaker B: Need is the wrong word. [00:09:56] Speaker A: Sure. [00:09:57] Speaker B: Right. That's one thing. [00:09:58] Speaker A: I mean, in terms of the. Because of what you were just saying, the, like, I'm edgy. Right. Like, this is what I mean is, like, as, like, to take the edge off of hanging out in an awkward situation. Not need, as in, like, the, like, an overwhelming craving or something like that. I just mean in terms of the, like, I don't necessarily. I think once you're amongst everyone, you're not going to be in that position of being like, I'm so edgy and awkward that, like, I'm just gonna. Just gonna need to get schwesi. [00:10:32] Speaker B: Yeah. I have an instant allergic reaction to the term to need to that word. I need this or I need to do this. I don't know. What I don't want to do is load it with. Yeah, exactly. Exactly. [00:10:53] Speaker A: It's important that I do or don't. [00:10:55] Speaker B: Yes, yes. I'm simply going to enjoy a wonderful couple of days and take it as it comes. [00:11:03] Speaker A: Yeah. I got, like. I don't remember if I told you this, but. So we have this thing here, this community gifting group on Facebook, where if you have stuff that you don't need anymore. You can see if anyone who lives around here wants it, which is great. I give away all kinds of stuff on there because our house is full of junk. Um, and, uh, someone was giving away, like, four bottles of, like, full bottles of alcohol free spirits. So I have, like, tequila and rum and whiskey and something else down there, all alcohol free, which I'm pretty excited about, so I can make myself some little cocktails while everybody else is drinking normal things, which will be pretty fun. There's this weird thing I was telling my sister the other day that I had chili crisp in my meal. I had, like, some noodles or whatever and mixed chili crisp into it, which is very spicy. And then I had some seltzer afterwards, which is very fizzy. And it had the effect of making me feel like I was drunk for, like, 20 minutes after. It's like that mix of spice and effervescence had me, like, ooh, nice. For a little while. Just be taking shots of chili crisp and seltzer and seeing what happens. [00:12:23] Speaker B: Chili krispies. [00:12:25] Speaker A: It's like, I'm gonna have you try it when you come here. It's like red chili flakes in, like, oil and seasoning and various, there's, like, garlic and all kinds of stuff in it. And it is magical. So much stuff. [00:12:40] Speaker B: I will just put chili flakes on anything. Fucking beautiful. This is how you take it to the next level. I always feel like some kind of culinary alchemist. Whenever I add chili flakes or something. I'm like, hahaha. [00:12:52] Speaker A: I notice in a lot of recipes now, like, a lot of stuff calls for chili flakes where it didn't used to. I think now people are just used to eating so much spicy stuff. It's just like, toss some red chili flakes in there and you're good to go. So we go through tons of it all the time. Both the chili crisp and regular red chili flakes. But I'm gonna, when you get here, I have all kinds of foods. Like, we're gonna have to sit down and I'm makes deviled eggs, a fluffernutter, apple cider donuts. The chili crisp, like, very interesting. [00:13:22] Speaker B: No? Yeah, we're going to a cider fucking brewery, aren't we? [00:13:28] Speaker A: Yes, a cider, obviously. [00:13:30] Speaker B: I'm gonna be cider house, you know, I'm gonna have some cider there. [00:13:32] Speaker A: Well, yeah, clearly, you know. Yes, definitely gotta try this, that we're going. And they have other stuff there too. Like, quite a thing we're going to. And the angry orchard cider house is here in New Jersey. I did not know this until the local barista told me about it. So we're going to do that. It's going to be a good old time. But. [00:13:53] Speaker B: So I. I don't know if this is an urban myth or not. Right. But I got told once that a particular. Is a particular brand of sido here called Strongbow. Right. Strongbow. [00:14:06] Speaker A: Oh, I've had strongbow. Yeah, of course. [00:14:07] Speaker B: There you go. And I was told by someone that in the Strongbow brewery, I guess you'd call it, the way they measure the acidity of the drink that they're producing, is to drop a hunk of meat into the vat and see at what rate it starts to kind of decompose or bubble. [00:14:35] Speaker A: Surely not. That can't be. [00:14:38] Speaker B: I believed it for a little bit. I don't believe it anymore. Saying it out loud. [00:14:42] Speaker A: Yeah, it sounds absurd, like. Or maybe that's like an eight. Like an old way, like in the 17 hundreds or something. They did something like that, like, because now certainly there's something you can, like, dip into it and be like. [00:14:55] Speaker B: Like a strip of something that goes with color. Yeah, of course. Fucking nonsense. Silly nonsense. [00:15:02] Speaker A: We'll have to look into that, though. I wonder if that's, like, made up whole cloth or if it is like, oh, it was a practice people did before you had, like, a fucking ph strip to dip into it. [00:15:11] Speaker B: We'll go to the. We'll go to the fucking orchard and see him goat into a big, big whale. [00:15:17] Speaker A: Just like in Jurassic park. [00:15:18] Speaker B: Exactly. [00:15:27] Speaker A: Just the one more thing that I want to approach before we get into the movies, though, is, like, the thing that you are looking forward to here is being able to buy melatonin. [00:15:38] Speaker B: Right. I want to meet. If there's, like, a Pablo Escobar of melatonin in your country, I want to meet him and I want to agree, like, a trade deal. And I want to organize, like, a new shipping route for melatonin into my land. [00:15:59] Speaker A: Why can't you have melatonin over there? [00:16:04] Speaker B: Because for some fucking whackadoo reason, it's prescription only. [00:16:11] Speaker A: That's so bizarre because it's, like, not. It's like, not like our bodies make it, right? [00:16:16] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah. [00:16:16] Speaker A: We get sunlight. [00:16:17] Speaker B: It's complimentary. [00:16:18] Speaker A: Therapy is made. Yeah, exactly. It's homeopathy. This is, like, not. It's not like pharma. It's not medicine. So, like, that's super weird to me, that of all things, melatonin, you can't get you can get giant ass jars of it in the. In the grocery store. [00:16:34] Speaker B: Well, I will be fucking buying some because I'm taking it right now. And it's really. It seems. Seems to be working out really well. When I was on holiday in Bulgaria the other week, the hotel was super loud, right? So I opened up my translate app and I went to a pharmacy and I sat into it. My hotel is really loud. Have you got anything to help me sleep? And I held it up to the woman. She went, aha. Goes to a drawer in the back, gives me a fucking box, and I. You know, I can't. It looked. The word on the front looked like melatonin. [00:17:14] Speaker A: Like, that seems legit. [00:17:15] Speaker B: Yeah. And took it. And it worked great. [00:17:21] Speaker A: Beautiful. [00:17:22] Speaker B: Worked great. And I didn't finish the box, so I brought it back and I've been taking it. I've been mixing it with my prescribed. [00:17:32] Speaker A: Medication, which is probably fine because it's just melatonin. [00:17:35] Speaker B: Yeah. Hi, Pete. Do you have the charger? No, to be honest. Well, you're still not having it, though. Yeah, but it is, though. Look, it's connecting my audio equipment. What do you need? Usb c. I've got, like, a really short one. It's really short. You don't know short. I'm talking here, mate. Okay, you can do it. There you go. Bye. Love you. [00:18:11] Speaker A: He said you can do it. I believe in you. [00:18:14] Speaker B: Yes. [00:18:16] Speaker A: What a little shit. [00:18:18] Speaker B: Yeah. He knows. You know, I love the HP. Is that right? Now? It's the best. [00:18:23] Speaker A: It's the best. Both of them. [00:18:26] Speaker B: Yeah. But, yeah, I'm supplementing my prescribed medication with melatonin. And I think it's the one. [00:18:34] Speaker A: I think I love that it's so simple like this is. [00:18:39] Speaker B: You know, I told you it would be too short. [00:18:46] Speaker A: Yeah. It's incredible that it's like, you've tried so many things over the course of the past, like, two years or whatever, and then it's just something as simple as melatonin that solves it. Could I, like, mail it to you? Or is that the kind of thing that, like, would get, like, pulled over in the post office and they'd be like, you can't have this. [00:19:04] Speaker B: Listen. [00:19:07] Speaker A: Like, they don't have, like, melatonin sniffing dogs. [00:19:09] Speaker B: Melatonin dogs. Melatonin legal. The royal mail don't give a fuck. [00:19:19] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:19:21] Speaker B: Oh, here we go. Right. Melatonin is not prohibited in Britain. Rather, it is tightly regulated and only available via prescription. So crack on. [00:19:30] Speaker A: Right. Yeah. Like, that feels okay. [00:19:35] Speaker B: Pete, I'm recording a podcast, right. Can I just tell you that you're a very successful, award winning multinational podcast? Right? We've got fans. And your need for a charger ruining it. Ruining it for everyone. Are you sure? Certain, mate, I've never been more sure. We did. I. I told you. Yeah. Bye. I love you. Um, yes. So I. I think what that's telling me is you could fucking send me some. [00:20:14] Speaker A: Well, so you. You can buy some while you're here, but then, you know, if you find you still need it after you run out, at least look at that. You got a little backup. [00:20:23] Speaker B: Very nice. But, yeah, which, long story short. Yeah, what I'm saying is, before we started recording, I talked a little bit about how the tangle, the fucking tangle that I got myself in last year, largely down to kind of sleep and the places that. That led me. I feel as though I'm fucking blinking, emerging into the light. It's lovely. I love that. I've had weeks now, weeks of really kind of reliable sleep, and that's been fucking unheard of for three years almost. [00:21:02] Speaker A: It makes just such a huge difference. I mean, I want to say it's underrated, but obviously, every medical condition or things like that, people are like, are you getting enough sleep? Of course it's important. It's just most of us don't. And then when you actually do get enough sleep, it's like, holy hell. That is a game changer. [00:21:21] Speaker B: And it's also impacting the kind of. I'm not anxious at nighttime anymore, which is, in itself, a benefit. [00:21:29] Speaker A: Yes. [00:21:31] Speaker B: Feels good. [00:21:33] Speaker A: Love to hear it. Big fan. [00:21:34] Speaker B: Yeah, man. [00:21:35] Speaker A: Shall we talk about some movies? [00:21:37] Speaker B: We can, because we've got a bunch to talk about. [00:21:40] Speaker A: We gotta race through them. [00:21:42] Speaker B: Yeah, we do. Because you have an appointment, don't you? [00:21:44] Speaker A: I do have an appointment, yes. [00:21:47] Speaker B: Are they paying you? [00:21:48] Speaker A: Yes, of course. [00:21:54] Speaker B: Love that. We can go back, back, listeners, we haven't spoken about movies since Gremlins two. So we go, Jesus Christ. Have you got a bunch as well? [00:22:08] Speaker A: I do. Yeah. [00:22:09] Speaker B: Right. [00:22:09] Speaker A: I'm gonna rush through a bunch of them, but. [00:22:12] Speaker B: Right. Let me smash through. Over the summer, my boys started a Marvel rewatch. Right? An MCU rewatch. [00:22:19] Speaker A: And what, like, in any particular order or just, like, what the mood strikes them? [00:22:24] Speaker B: Release order. So from Iron man, incredible Hulk. [00:22:29] Speaker A: Oh, incredible Hulk. [00:22:29] Speaker B: Okay. Yes. And we're at the bit now where it starts to really get good. [00:22:35] Speaker A: Nice. [00:22:36] Speaker B: Yeah. And. Yes. All right. The magic has kind of worn off a little bit. Right. The shine has worn off a little bit. I would. Which I would attribute to dilution yeah, totally. Right. I think the capitalism has gotten in the way. Obviously, capitalism's gotten in the way of the vision. The expansion has gotten in the way of the vision. And some of the shows aren't fucking brilliant, and some of the movies haven't been brilliant either, but there was that fucking few years in the middle. Right. [00:23:10] Speaker A: Yeah. Where they, like, really cared about what they were making. [00:23:12] Speaker B: Fucking hell, man. And it's thrilling. It is so fucking exciting to relive some of these films. I jumped in on Ant man and civil war and Guardians of the Galaxy two this past week, and all three of them, man, they just don't miss. They're so fucking good. I vividly remember at the time these. These movies came out, like, 2014, and we look at. Let me see. Yeah. [00:23:42] Speaker A: I was in grad school. Yeah, yeah. [00:23:45] Speaker B: And I. I referred to the MCU at the time, and I stand by it as one of the towering fucking staggering achievements in cinema. [00:23:55] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:23:56] Speaker B: And I maintain that. I don't give a fuck if. I don't give a fuck if you. If you're, you know, whatever Scorsese has to say on the matter. [00:24:03] Speaker A: Right, right. [00:24:05] Speaker B: I don't care. I. There. There has never been another example of such a fucking colossal number of moving parts and individual stories working so fucking beautifully together. It is immense. So funny, so well made. Just everyone a spectacle, but at the same time, with personality. And that's never. Never more evident than in guardians of the Galaxy two. [00:24:36] Speaker A: Oh, yeah. [00:24:37] Speaker B: Which is just staggering. It is fucking staggering how good that film is. It's disgusting. [00:24:45] Speaker A: I love all of the guardians, honestly. Those are just through and through. [00:24:50] Speaker B: They're peak. They're fucking brilliant. [00:24:52] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:24:52] Speaker B: But never more so than in part two. Fuck me. How does. How does something of that scale still manage to feel so personal? Unreal, how? Like, I can't. Ah. There's nothing else like it. There's nothing else like it. Even. Even. Right. The. The Mary Poppins joke. Right. Is probably my favorite joke in that entire series. Like, the entire Marvel series. It's fucking brilliant. [00:25:21] Speaker A: Yep. [00:25:22] Speaker B: Because even in just, like, a four second gag, there's about five or six different things going on. [00:25:28] Speaker A: Right. [00:25:29] Speaker B: You know, Star Lord only says the Mary Poppins is cool because he knows that Yondu is about to fucking give the ultimate sacrifice and wants to give him a little something, and that results in Yondu. Mary Poppins looking like a dick, but he does look like Mary Poppins. Is she cool? Mary Poppins is a girl. It's got such a lot going on. It's so dense. And that's a, you know, that's a kind of at a glance view of what the entire film is all about. There's such a lot going on, and it is so dense, and you can just dip in and enjoy any level of it because they're all fucking brilliant. I love that film. And I cry so hard every time. [00:26:09] Speaker A: Every freaking time. [00:26:10] Speaker B: Oh, I cry so hard. Like. [00:26:14] Speaker A: Completely beautiful. [00:26:16] Speaker B: Yep. And we're about to go into the spidey zone. The spidey erade. [00:26:22] Speaker A: My version of your dipping into Marvel is dipping into old movies. I don't know. There's something about this time of year that makes me immediately turn on TCM or all of the bajillions of TCM movies that I've had sitting on my DVR for months. [00:26:39] Speaker B: When you say this time of year, you mean autumn. [00:26:41] Speaker A: It's like that transition from summer to fall where you're kind of right in between. And it's like that. My brain just goes, it's time to watch some old movies. And so I've been doing that lately. I'm super excited because I have my DVR set to record Casablanca, one of my favorite movies that you've never seen, so that we can watch that when you're here. Very excited to do that and finally introduce you to this movie. I think you're gonna really like it. [00:27:10] Speaker B: But will we wear our jammies? [00:27:13] Speaker A: Oh, obviously. Listen, this is friends. I have melatonin. We have melatonin. I have planned out, like, after the festivities of everything, like, the most chill recovery Sunday on the planet in which we, like, sleep in, you know, have a late breakfast, then we're going to go to the cider house, and then we're going to come back, get into the jammies, maybe have a dessert or something, and watch Casablanca. It is going to be magical. [00:27:44] Speaker B: I have heard that the cider house rules, so. [00:27:46] Speaker A: Oh, fucking hell. [00:27:48] Speaker B: Come on. You give me that on a plate. I think I'll have to have a little hangover for that, so. [00:27:53] Speaker A: Sure. Yeah. I mean, I kind of built the day around, like, people might feel a little hungover. And I think it'll just be you, me, Keough, and Richard for that. And Walter Groggins, of course. [00:28:07] Speaker B: Of course. [00:28:07] Speaker A: Does he's coming with us? Oh, he's a lush. [00:28:12] Speaker B: He's a proper kind of angry. [00:28:14] Speaker A: Yeah. He tosses him back. His tolerance is really high. [00:28:17] Speaker B: Starts to throw paws. [00:28:19] Speaker A: Exactly. But anyway, I. So I've been in TCM mode. So this week, I've watched a few I watched the Boston Strangler. So I had, like, there was a Tony Curtis marathon on. This is one of the things I love on TCM is that they'll have marathons of actors. And if I'm into that actor or actress, I will just record the whole day of whatever it is that they have on of this person. And so I watched the Boston Strangler, which was like, basically Tony Curtis had been this huge actor for most of the fifties and all that kind of stuff, but then started only really getting comedic roles. And he was kind of wanted a, a career resurgence or whatever. And so this was early, maybe even late seventies. It's a very strange movie. His, like, he considered this the movie he was, like, most proud of his performance in. And he's great. [00:29:16] Speaker B: Boston Strangler. [00:29:16] Speaker A: The Boston Strangler, true story, obviously, of the Boston Strangler, although it gets the details so horribly wrong to the point of almost offensiveness in this movie. And it's very experimental. So with, like, lots of, like, multi, multi frame things going on at the same time. And, oh, I do not like it. Like, just fucking tell the story. [00:29:41] Speaker B: No, all these. No, no. If you've got fucking throw it all up there. [00:29:48] Speaker A: Just toss it. You might enjoy this more than I did. And it, like, very much, like, kind of slows down halfway through. Like you're watching kind of a procedural, right, where they're trying to find this guy and then once they catch him, it becomes like, very much this, like, kind of what you, you know, those kinds of things where you're always like, oh, you could put this on a stage and it would work. The, like, second half of Boston Strangler is very much mostly almost like a one man show of Tony Curtis. And he's great. It's just boring. Once you've, like, got the guy and then he's just, like, talking and they thought he had, like, multiple personalities and stuff like that. So they're kind of going through all of that stuff. But, yeah, it's a weird movie that feels very disjointed and chaotic. And it's also very weird because it is this transition from old school Hollywood into new school Hollywood. And so you have all these classic actors in it, like people who were huge in the fifties and stuff in Hays code era where everything had to be, you know, talked around, you couldn't explicitly talk about certain stuff. And they're, like, dropping, like, f slurs and stuff like that in this. And, like, very blatantly talking about, like, homosexuality and all these things and, like, sex and promiscuity. And you're, like, hearing it come out of these, like, old school guys mouths. You're just like, what is happening here? This is very weird to watch. It felt like all of those guys were trying to break into the new Hollywood, right? [00:31:21] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah, yeah. Reinvent themselves. [00:31:22] Speaker A: Yeah. Like, I can move on to this next version of what Hollywood is. And it's jarring. So I don't know. The Boston Strangler is, like, kind. I guess it's worth checking out. I just did not like it. Then I followed it with another Tony Curtis movie called sweet smell of success, which apparently Martin Scorsese considers one of the greatest films of all time. And indeed, a lot of people consider it, like, the greatest noir. And it is a very interesting movie of little consequence, but very tense nonetheless, where it's this super small story about this big, successful newspaper man who basically has control of everything because the press is so important in this era. But his sister, who he has way too close a relationship with Isdev, is going to marry this guy he doesn't like. So he hires Tony Curtis, who's, like, this sort of unscrupulous press guy, to try to break up their relationship, all while he's kind of playing both sides. Like, he's kind of acting like he likes the fiance while meanwhile having Tony Curtis try to break them up. And that sounds like a nothing story, right? Like, that's not interesting, but it's the dialogue and the tension. Like, this is the kind of dialogue when people kind of mock film noir they're doing, but, like, just done really well, where, like, every line is equip is like something extremely clever. You know, every single word out of their mouth is the cleverest thing that you've ever heard of. And they're all just such bad people. There is no one to root for in this entire movie. So. Sweet smell of success. I recommend that far more than Boston strangler. Your mileage may vary on enjoyment of it, but, you know, I had a good time with that. Watched Butch Cassidy and the Sundance kid, which. Listen, I don't have to tell anyone. That's a frickin great movie. I mean, Paul Newman and Robert Redford, please. You're gonna have a good time. So we actually went. We were testing out the. We got a new screen, and we put up the projector, and we watched this outside in the backyard, at which point Keo decided to buy a new projector the way that this one looked. So we've got a new Samsung projector coming. Yeah. He was like, nope, don't like this. So glad we tested it out first, but we put that up. Watch butch casting a Sundance kid. Great time as always. So clever, so fun. And the other thing that I. The other old thing that I watched was Midnight Run, which was perhaps a little less successful for me. Have you seen Midnight run? [00:34:16] Speaker B: I've seen Midnight run, yes. [00:34:19] Speaker A: I think the problem for me is, like, so basically, you know, midnight run. [00:34:25] Speaker B: Just make sure we're talking about the same movie. Prison movie, guy eats cockroaches. [00:34:29] Speaker A: No, uh uh. You're talking about something else, and I don't know what it is. Midnight Run is a movie in which Robert De Niro plays, like, a cop who refused to be a dirty cop and as such, was sort of ostracized and becomes like, I don't know if Bounty Hunter is the right word, but, like, something along those lines. And he is taking this. Being paid to get this white collar criminal who the mob is after, the FBI is after. There's multiple people sort of trying to get their hands on this guy. So he is on this cross country trek to try to get this white collar criminal, uh, played by Charles Grodin, to the place where he is going to get paid for him without them getting killed by the many competing forces that are trying to get ahold of him. And this is like one of those, like, kind of universally beloved movies. And I finally was like, you know what? I'm going to watch Midnight Run. I think the problem is that a few months ago, I watched the heartbreak kid with Charles Grodin, and I hated it so goddamn much that I kind of don't like Charles Grodin right now. And I think I would had I not watched that. But instead I was, like, so irritated at him from heartbreak kid. And the characters are somewhat similar that I just was like, I am not enjoying watching him in this. I also think the movie is just, like, too long for what it is. And weirdly, Danny Elfman scored the midnight run, and it is the worst score I have ever heard in a movie. It is so deeply bad, and you can see it in letterboxd reviews. People talk about this constantly, like, what the hell was the score on this movie? And so you never, like, you know, a score usually, like, compliments things, brings you, like, the emotional moments and things like that, and it does not let up enough for you to do this. Like, so the moments where intrusive. There's. Yeah, it's intrusive where there should be, like, this emotional moment. You're getting into. There's like, very intrusive, like, guitar or jazz music playing and things like that. Theremin going. I don't think he busted out the theremin, but, yeah, it's a bizarre movie. But that said, most people like Midnight run, so I am very much in the minority on not liking this movie. Just did not work for me. [00:37:08] Speaker B: Just a quick google. I was thinking of Midnight Express. [00:37:13] Speaker A: Yeah. Not the same movie. [00:37:15] Speaker B: You see, where the confusion arose. [00:37:18] Speaker A: We're talking past each other a little bit on that one. That's all my old movies. What else have you got? [00:37:25] Speaker B: Right, shall we talk of the dark half? [00:37:28] Speaker A: Ooh, the dark half? Yeah. [00:37:30] Speaker B: Shall we? [00:37:31] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. [00:37:35] Speaker B: As you'll know, darling listener Corey and I enjoy watching movies together whilst chatting them through on signal. And it was my pick. And this was a gap not only in my George Romero kind of canon, but also in my Stephen King adaptation canon, so. Right, fuck it. Let's, you know, kill the fucking, you know, kill the goose and watch it. Um. Did I just make that up? [00:38:07] Speaker A: I was like. I thought I was waiting for two birds and. No, just. Just the one. Just the one big one. Kill the goose. [00:38:15] Speaker B: The one angry bird. Um, so where to start? With the dark half. Right, so it. And I know that some. Some of our listeners aren't as big fans of king as I am, so I'll keep it brief. I think the dark half is one of the most slept on of King's books. It is one of the ones that I've read the most, and it's top five for me easily. I fucking love the dark half. It's great. It is obviously massively autobiographical, as a lot of his books deals with the conflict of, you know, sharing your identity between yourself and a pseudonym. You know, the. The kind of. The more. The scarier part of yourself that you can hide and pour into another name and. Fuck, man. Fuck. So good. So good. The movie. What I will say about the dark off is it is a slavish adaptation of the book. Like, it. It is. It sticks to the book like glue, to the point where I. I've read that book so many times, I can vividly remember whole passages from it, right? And the. The film just makes those passages visual. Just throw away bits of the movie. Like, this is one fantastic bit where the fucking authorization. What's his fucking name? [00:39:44] Speaker A: I can't remember either. [00:39:48] Speaker B: He gets in contact with his pseudonym, his other self, through automatic writing and stabs himself in the hand with a fucking pencil. And there's this wonderful bit where George Stark holds his hand up to the fucking light bulb, and he can see the light through this fucking hole in his hand. And that is just verbatim pulled from a passage in the book. He talks about the web of skin between his thumb and forefinger. He pours whiskey into the wound to fucking. Ah. Uh. Thad Beaumont is the name of the writer. [00:40:16] Speaker A: That is the name. [00:40:18] Speaker B: Um, yeah, it's. It's. But right here's the thing about the dark off. It's the. The direction is workmanlike. There's no flair to it at all. It's not, uh. It's not a showy movie. Right. There's no, you know, the cinematography is. Is very meat and potatoes. Right. But that's great because the. The film itself is almost like a fucking hard boiled kind of crime thriller, isn't it? [00:40:46] Speaker A: Right. [00:40:46] Speaker B: Yeah, it's a, you know, step by step by step. The plot in itself, the weirdness of the plot, this fucking ephemeral concept of a name, an alter ego coming to life is. It speaks for itself. It does all the work for itself, doesn't it? You know, and if. And if Romero had tried. Yeah, there you go. That's. That's the best thing you can say about this film. Romero feels no need to embellish the text at all because the text is that fucking good. It is gripping. What a great movie. [00:41:18] Speaker A: Yeah. And this is one of those ones that I said this during it and has been a consistent theme that I've said over and over again throughout this whole year has been that I've been returning to nineties movies. Right. And this is just the. This is exactly what I like about them. That kind of, you know, lack of embellishment to them, the amount of practical effects, the, you know, just. It feels like a movie. It's telling this story, and it's not trying to do a thousand other things or, you know, that it's not overflowing with a ton of showy CGI. It's just, ugh. This is what you go to the pictures for. And absolutely loved watching the dark half, which I realized, like I said to you when you were like, let's watch the dark half, I was like, oh, yeah, I've read the book, but I've never seen this. And then, like, three minutes into it, I was like, I have very much seen this. [00:42:12] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. [00:42:13] Speaker A: You were like, yeah. As soon as it started, I was like, I remember seeking it out now. Like, once I thought I was like, yeah, I remember. I read the book when I was like middle school or whatever, and was like, yo. And like, maybe. I guess it must have been high school because this was, uh, what year did this movie come out? [00:42:31] Speaker B: I think it's 89 on 90. [00:42:32] Speaker A: Oh, was it that early? No, it's 93. Yeah. So it would have been. It must have been middle school. I read the book and then, you know, went to the video store or whatever and got this and was, like, very on board. Might have even been on tv. I think it might have been like a special tv event or whatever that they put this on. But, yeah, loved it. I was super stoked, which is not. Didn't we recently watch another Stephen King adaptation? I'm trying to think of what it was, but another one that we both really. [00:43:02] Speaker B: Oh, you've done a few with lai it. [00:43:07] Speaker A: Oh, well, yes, of course. No, but I was thinking a nineties one. I feel like sometime in the past few weeks, we also watched another Stephen King adaptation from the nineties that we both enjoyed and were surprised by. [00:43:22] Speaker B: I'll restate my commitment that I, after the MCU, multiverses were big. Yes. And everybody wanted. Everybody wanted another kind of shared universe franchise to take off, and it never quite worked. And it is a deep sadness to me that I'm the only one seemingly who saw the potential that the Stephen King multiverse would have been. That would have been money. [00:43:49] Speaker A: That would have been money as absolutely true. I mean, because, yeah, his stuff is always going to appeal to people, and I feel like they kind of tried to do a thing with the show Castle Rock. [00:44:00] Speaker B: Yeah, they had a crack. They had a crack, but they didn't do it right. They did it wrong. Yeah, you do it just like Marvel did. You take your fucking time. Ten year plan. You just throw star power and budget behind. You do carry again. You do misery again. You do say Salem's lot again. It would have been perfect on its own. And throughout each of these movies, you throw in building, building, building references to the dark tower. You know what I mean? And then that's your avengers. The fucking blow off is the dark tower. [00:44:32] Speaker A: Yeah. 100%. I agree with you. Would that we rule the world. And maybe what I was thinking of, of Stephen King adaptations was actually just running man. Well, yeah. Where's the light? Both a great time. I watched, oh, one that I sent to you on YouTube, so everyone can watch this. A pretty short movie. It's like an hour and eight minutes or something like that called milk. [00:45:07] Speaker B: I'm gonna watch that right after we get. [00:45:08] Speaker A: You gotta. Yeah, you got the time for it. Milk and cereal. S e r I a l. Found footage movie. This guy, I guess, is kind of like an Internet, like a YouTube comedian, I guess. But a lot of his stuff kind of follows in this vein. Like, sort of bizarre, surreal, horrific kind of setups and stuff like that, or normal things gone wrong. And so milk and cereal is about a prank youtuber who pulls a prank that in various ways goes off the rails. And I'm not gonna say any more than that, because, like I said, it's an hour long movie, easy to just watch, and apparently was made on an $800 budget, which is incredible. And I think that in and of itself, even if you don't like found footage movies, even if this isn't really. [00:46:04] Speaker B: Your bag watching, oh, you've gotta respect the hustle. How come it ends up on YouTube then? Talk to me about the story there. [00:46:11] Speaker A: I think it's because he's a youtuber, and this is how he releases everything, which, you know, I think is smart, right? Like, he's not. Like, he's making stuff that if he later wants to try to make bigger movies, he can point to. Like, well, a million people watched my movie on YouTube. So if you give me a real distribution deal, imagine how many people will watch my stuff. So I think it's a smart way to, you know, sort of jumpstart his career. Let's make a cheap movie, put it on our YouTube channel that already has x amount of followers, and get me established as a horror filmmaker. So, yeah, I recommend milk and cereal. Like I said, it's on YouTube. You can check that out. Cereal, like cereal killer. Not the thing that you eat for breakfast. Check that one. Check that one out. And I watched the fun house, which is, again, this is a mixed bag. The fun house is Tobe Hooper right before Poltergeist. And what I think is really interesting about this movie. Listen, it's a cool movie on many levels. There's a lot to like about it. The unfortunate thing about it is it slows down in the middle pretty deeply. But, you know, it's the fun house. [00:47:34] Speaker B: The fun house. [00:47:35] Speaker A: The fun house. And it is about, like, a group of teenagers who decide to spend the night in this, you know, traveling amusement park and run afoul of some seedy characters in this funhouse. And I think one of the things that I took from the fun house, which, like I said, it's flawed, it has some really good stuff in it, and then it slows down. It also has the problem of opening with a nude scene of a girl who's supposed to be in high school and looks like it. Clearly she's of age, but she looks 15. And it's a full nude shower scene. And you're like, instant ick. Yeah, huge ick. But that aside, so many people spread that whole thing about how, oh, like, Steven Spielberg really directed Poltergeist. You know, he was just giving the, like, cues on here. And Tobe Hooper had to a view which I share. A view which I espouse, which is absolutely not true. Neither of them think that nobody else, like, who worked on it thinks that. It's just that it has a Steven Spielberg feel. But the fun house shows you, like, this is poltergeist. This is him testing out all the things that would become Poltergeist. And it is so similar in so many ways to Poltergeist that if you watch the fun house, that should dispel for you that entire rumor. Because it is. [00:49:11] Speaker B: I will watch Poltergeist based on that. [00:49:14] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah. [00:49:17] Speaker B: If you were to put Steven Spielberg's name on Poltergeist, it would. It would simply be a Steven Spielberg film. So even if you didn't have a fucking hand on the camera, then Tobey Hooper was fucking. He'd be plagiarizing fucking tips and tricks, you know, I mean, he be nick and stuff. [00:49:36] Speaker A: There's certainly, like, influence from Steven Spielberg. I'm not saying that he had, like, no influence on the movie at all. Like, he's the executive producer of the movie. They always have an influence on it. But the idea that, like, people say, like, oh, he was basically going through the dailies and, like, re editing the movie altogether and all this kind of stuff. And they act as if, like, he. He shot the movie and he didn't. He didn't do that. He was not on set every day shooting this movie. Tobe Hooper did that. And when you watch the fun house, you cannot avoid the fact that you're like, this is Poltergeist. This movie is Poltergeist before Poltergeist came out and very much dispels a lot of that stuff simply in watching it. So I recommend the funhouse just to get that sense of, like, he wasn't just the Texas Chainsaw guy. He was really doing stuff that was along these lines. [00:50:26] Speaker B: Listen, had. Had he zigged instead of zagged a couple of times, we would be talking about Tobe Hooper in those terms. [00:50:34] Speaker A: Right. [00:50:35] Speaker B: You know, the guy was super accomplished. He was also a sicko. What can I tell you? The guy was making movies for the sickos, he was. [00:50:43] Speaker A: Yeah, absolutely. This one is very. It's like the midpoint between for the sickos and, like, mainstream culture guys, that kind of stuff. It's like that dead center of those two halves of Tobe Hooper. [00:51:01] Speaker B: So. [00:51:01] Speaker A: Yeah. What else did you watch? [00:51:04] Speaker B: Oh, man, so good. You know what I mean? I fucking love to watch the films. Let's see. Let's talk about Arcadian. Should we talk about Arcadian? [00:51:11] Speaker A: Oh, yeah. I've been meaning to watch that one for a while. [00:51:13] Speaker B: Well, you should. Right. [00:51:15] Speaker A: Okay. [00:51:16] Speaker B: It is tempting to wonder if Nicolas Cage is trying to fund, like, medical treatment for a degenerative brain, right? Right. [00:51:29] Speaker A: We know that he has a tendency towards, like, bankruptcy and things like that. He's always got to be getting that bag because he is not good with his money. [00:51:36] Speaker B: Yes. But whereas, you know, Bruce Willis was just churning out cameos in things like, you know, criminal murder and, you know, matrix assassination, Nicolas Cage is massively prolific, but in shit hot films. [00:51:55] Speaker A: Yeah. Especially horror. [00:51:57] Speaker B: Particularly horror. He's, you know, he's discovered a fucking groove. And I. When the sun. God damn. May the day never come, but when the sun sets on Nicolas Cage's career, there will be so much to be said about his fucking gear shift. And as I speak right now, he's filling up the frame as long legs waiting at the bus stop in front of me. And Arcadian is another smart choice, another smart fucking movie. Lots of. [00:52:31] Speaker A: And it's on shutter. [00:52:33] Speaker B: Yes, indeed. If you think of maybe a low fijde, quiet place, you won't be far wrong. [00:52:40] Speaker A: Okay. [00:52:40] Speaker B: The world's gone to shit. You know, communications are down. Cities have broken down. [00:52:46] Speaker A: We. [00:52:46] Speaker B: We follow a family living a rural life on a farm, a dad and his two kids. But at nighttime, of course, you got a lockdown. You got a bolt the fucking door because the gribblies come out. And that's the film. That's the fucking movie. And Nicolas Cage manages. I can't remember. I think I was Alan, I was talking about this too, right? I think I was talking to my brother about this in every. He's always Nicolas Cage, right? [00:53:10] Speaker A: Mm hmm. [00:53:11] Speaker B: He's always Nicolas Cage, but he's never the same Nicolas Cage twice. [00:53:15] Speaker A: Yeah, exactly. [00:53:17] Speaker B: How the fuck does he do that? How is he capable of doing that when he's always recognizably doing him? [00:53:26] Speaker A: Yeah, I big time recommend. Before I started working for Wisecrack, this was one of my favorite videos then. Um, but on our YouTube, look up wisecrack. Nicolas Cage, deep or dumb and it's like a deep dive into his acting style and how he's talked about how he acts and what his influences are and all of that kind of stuff. And it is really fascinating to see, like him talk about it and find like how he does that, how he pulls all these weird, different characters. Like, his biggest inspiration for acting is kabuki and how he doesn't really believe in realism or naturalism in the way that he acts. It is very much about the bigness of kabuki and what you can convey in huge, unsubtle ways. It's really interesting. Nicolas Cage, deeper, dumb, wisecrack. [00:54:25] Speaker B: I love to watch that. The Nicolas cage that shows up in Arcadian is the same, I think, flavour of Nicolas Cage that you would have got in pigeous. You ever see pig? [00:54:34] Speaker A: Of course I saw pig. [00:54:37] Speaker B: Where just this earnest, credible, mature performance that just pins this whole fucking film together. Oh, I love him. I love him unashamedly. I have love for him. Another great thing to recommend Arcadian is the griblies are outstanding. [00:54:58] Speaker A: Nice. Okay. [00:54:59] Speaker B: Out fucking standing creature design. Just another. Another banging cage joint. Really good shit into it. [00:55:10] Speaker A: On it. I gotta get to that one. [00:55:12] Speaker B: You do. You sure do. Oh, and there's more. The hits just keep on coming. Cuckoo, right? [00:55:17] Speaker A: Yeah. Another one that I need to see. [00:55:19] Speaker B: I would hang right. It tells you. This is how much I wanted to see cuckoo. The version of Cuckoo I saw was a web rip, but with cinema cam audio. So a proper throwback to the early days of Internet piracy, you know, you would. You would rip versions of fucking camcorder jobs on the back. This was a splice of camcorder audio with Internet downloaded fucking video. And I wanted to see it that bad. I was like, I can put up with that. Put me pods in, crank the volume right up. Just. We must talk. We must talk soon. Not tonight, but we must talk soon about this fucking era of horror that we're in. Because christ has never, ever been better. Horror has never been more plentiful, more high quality. And cuckoo is another great example of that coming after long legs. It's in that kind of lot to personality. I'm watching you, Dan Stevens. I'm watching you, buddy. You have attracted my interest. [00:56:29] Speaker A: My mom was watching the guest yesterday, Dan Stevens, so much. [00:56:34] Speaker B: I bet she was Dan Stevens. You have my attention because the Bell Paxton parallels, mate. They're there. [00:56:45] Speaker A: Yeah, you are correct about that. [00:56:47] Speaker B: I am telling you, I am telling you. He is Bill Paxton reborn. He can do. Think of Congo, right? Bill Paxton in Congo. [00:56:55] Speaker A: Mm hmm. [00:56:56] Speaker B: That's Dan Stevens in Kong. [00:57:00] Speaker A: Wait, Bill Paxton in Congo. [00:57:01] Speaker B: Was he in Congo? All right, let's say the abyss. [00:57:04] Speaker A: Yeah. There we go. Wait, is that right? No. [00:57:10] Speaker B: Have I just named two films? [00:57:11] Speaker A: Yeah. I think you've just made. I think you just picked two movies that don't. I could be wrong, but I'm having trouble imagining him in those movies. [00:57:21] Speaker B: Embarrassingly. Have I just named two films without Bill Paxton? [00:57:25] Speaker A: I could just be not remembering, but. [00:57:29] Speaker B: Or I could be talking shit. [00:57:31] Speaker A: He is not in Congo. [00:57:33] Speaker B: All right. All right. So, Dan Stevens in Kong is Bill Paxton in Titanic. [00:57:38] Speaker A: He's in ghosts of the abyss. [00:57:40] Speaker B: There you go. I'll take that. [00:57:43] Speaker A: So, yes, technically, sure. Yeah. [00:57:45] Speaker B: Bill Paxton. And near dark. That's Dan Stevens in Abigail. [00:57:48] Speaker A: Yep. [00:57:49] Speaker B: Right. And now we have Bill Paxton. Sorry. Dan Stevens in Cuckoo, where? Very compelling, kooky ass spoiler villain. But, you know, he's a villain from the first fucking five minutes. You know, you don't have to be. You don't have to read too deeply into the text to work that out. But he's properly carving out a lovely little kind of furrow for himself in the genre is Dan Stevens. And I am watching you closely, sir. But just cuckoo, broadly right. Loads of personality. Nice. Kind of 2024 spin on a tale you think you know. [00:58:35] Speaker A: Right. [00:58:36] Speaker B: It's great. It's a load of fun. Again, great. Gribliest. Very little in the way of the juice. It tells a very frightening story, and it is frightening. It's. It's. You know, I was kind of. It got nice. [00:58:47] Speaker A: Nice. Okay. [00:58:48] Speaker B: Um. But without the juice, just with some really good creature design, some really sharp direction, some really nice writing. [00:58:55] Speaker A: Beautiful. [00:58:55] Speaker B: A really. Kind of a really engaging set. Why is it in Germany? Who fucking knows? But it's in Germany. Or maybe it's Austria. [00:59:02] Speaker A: Taxes? [00:59:04] Speaker B: No, but it's the. The. The screenplay is written in Germany. They've set it in Austria or Germany or somewhere like that. I don't know why. I don't know why. But they did. And it gives Dan Stevens an opportunity to do an accent, which is great in itself. [00:59:17] Speaker A: Nice. Okay. [00:59:19] Speaker B: Cuckoo is such fun. And it's just another fucking. Another course in the feast that we're all currently enjoying. [00:59:28] Speaker A: Love it. Into it. [00:59:31] Speaker B: I will get a quote on a poster one of these fucking days. [00:59:35] Speaker A: Someday. I will. Anything else? [00:59:38] Speaker B: I went, oh, fuck, yeah. They keep on coming. I went back to the video shop and watched robot jocks. You seen this? [00:59:44] Speaker A: I don't think so. The name sounds vaguely familiar, but I don't think I've seen it. [00:59:48] Speaker B: Robot jocks. J O X. Robot jocks. So we are going back to 1989, okay? A Stuart Gordon movie, right? [00:59:58] Speaker A: Okay. [00:59:59] Speaker B: He of reanimate her and castle freak and whatnot. Post world War three, the territories of North America and Canada are carved up, and ownership of these territories is decided via big fights in mech suits. Nice, right? [01:00:19] Speaker A: Sure. [01:00:19] Speaker B: Yeah. You're in, aren't you? [01:00:21] Speaker A: I'm in, yeah. I'm looking at the pictures. I'm in. [01:00:23] Speaker B: It being 1989, this is a beautiful blend of stop motion and cardboard and plexiglass sets of. [01:00:32] Speaker A: Yeah. [01:00:32] Speaker B: And a big old dose of is this. Computers in there. Just action. But do you know what? A third of the way through the stop motion and the shit effects just disappear, and you are just enjoying mech fights. [01:00:48] Speaker A: Nice. [01:00:49] Speaker B: In 1989, right? This is Pacific Rim before Pacific Rim. [01:00:56] Speaker A: Right? [01:00:58] Speaker B: It's more Power Rangers than it is Pacific Rim. [01:01:00] Speaker A: I was going to say the pictures look very Power Rangers. [01:01:03] Speaker B: Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Oh, such great laughs. Uh, put a little bit of running man in there because, you know, the huddled masses, uh, watch these fights and place wagers and whatnot. Listen. Produced by one Charles band. [01:01:19] Speaker A: Ugh. Gross. [01:01:20] Speaker B: I saw that name come up. Talk to me about this bad, this guy, because this isn't a name that I've come across. [01:01:25] Speaker A: He, uh, runs full moon pictures. I believe it's called full moon productions. Things like that. Makes, like, a whole bunch of just, like, shitty movies, like evil Bong and stuff like that, that there's like 97 of and they're all low quality. The first thing I ever saw, I can't remember what the movie was, but he actually was a guest on Jobob one night. And without any context for this guy, I was like, I hate him with my whole being. This guy sucks. Just, like, deeply misogynist, deeply self important, you know, very defensive. Like, thinks he's doing the greatest stuff on earth while making all this shit. Like, he's like, he's actually this very transgressive filmmaker with his bullshit or whatever. That's really just like titties and gore. Yeah, exactly. It's just. And not in a way that's like, there's plenty of movies with a lot of titties and gore, but it's in a way that is, like, very much not in the, like. Like, women are in on it way, you know, this is clearly meant just as, like, men like to see women ripped apart while they're naked. That kind of way, you know? Yeah, just ginger dead, man. You might have heard of. I don't know. That's Charles Mann. Hate the guy. Hate him for whatever reason, he's canadian boy Ryan's hero. But I also don't know if he's, like, heard him talk that much. I just remember when that was on, I was like, I don't know who this Charles band guy is, but I fucking hate him. And canadian boy Ryan wasn't actually watching the movie with us and was like, oh, no. Oh, no, that's my hero. Like, I don't like to hear this. I was like, oh, I'm sorry, but he sucks. But, yeah, no, I do not like this Charles band. [01:03:11] Speaker B: Troma was one in a million. Right? [01:03:14] Speaker A: Right. Yeah. It's ripoff trauma is what Charles Van makes. [01:03:20] Speaker B: Yep, yep, yep. There are loads of examples throughout cinema history, comedy history. Chris Morris was guilty of spawning a lot of fucking imitators who missed the fucking point. And it feels like that's what's gone on here. You know, you think you're doing the fucking Lord's work and carrying on a noble tradition of lo fi schlock, but you're getting it wrong. [01:03:44] Speaker A: You don't understand the spirit that was motivating it. You only got low budget schlock out of it. [01:03:51] Speaker B: Yep. [01:03:51] Speaker A: Yeah, but that's. This is, like, not the. Like. There's another. I think transfers is a Charles band movie from the eighties that apparently is great as well. I have not seen it, but people really like that one. So I don't know what the hell happened after. [01:04:07] Speaker B: There's none of what you described there in robot jocks. That. That. That's not what this is. It's. It's. And it's a real stab at making a fucking spectacle of Sci-Fi you know what I mean? And it comes across as, like, really well intentioned doctor who type fucking lo fi, but with big ambitions. Robot jocks is a great laugh. It's really good. [01:04:30] Speaker A: Okay, well, I'm willing to check it out. [01:04:33] Speaker B: Okay. And the hits keep on coming. Beetlejuice, beetlejuice. [01:04:36] Speaker A: I still haven't gotten to get out and see that. It's been such a busy week, and I am dying to see this. Um, don't give away too much. Just. [01:04:46] Speaker B: No, I'm picking my words here. I'm picking my words. Okay. So had beetlejuice. Beetlejuice been made two years after the original and not, like, 35 years after the original, it would have been the same film. [01:05:00] Speaker A: Oh, okay. I love that. [01:05:02] Speaker B: Right? [01:05:02] Speaker A: Mm hmm. [01:05:03] Speaker B: Beetlejuice, beetlejuice K is not a whit that it's 2024. It doesn't give a fuck. It hasn't adapted. The pacing is identical to the first one. And when you watch the first one again, it takes its time to get where it does. [01:05:16] Speaker A: Yeah. I have had people watch. I've, like, seen people watch it who never saw it before. And, like, this movie's kind of slow. I'm like, huh. I guess I've watched it enough times that slowness does not occur to me while watching it. [01:05:30] Speaker B: Yep. It makes no concessions to how attention spans might have changed. It's nothing. But it's not for people who've not seen the first one. It isn't for them. It's not, it doesn't care if you've, if you're new to the film, it's going to tell its story and take its time and the, it's. It's so fucking comfortable and good and right to revisit these characters so many years later and spend time with them. It's lovely just to spend time around the deets again. It's wonderful. Amazing. I love, I loved what I've seen. People who didn't love how Jeffrey Jones isn't in it. [01:06:11] Speaker A: But why would you not love that? Because he should not be in it. [01:06:16] Speaker B: Oh, yeah. No, I know. But he is markedly not in it. [01:06:20] Speaker A: Okay. Gotcha. [01:06:21] Speaker B: Right. [01:06:21] Speaker A: I see. [01:06:22] Speaker B: And if you know why he isn't in it, the way that he's not in it makes so much more sense. They fuck him up, mate. [01:06:29] Speaker A: Amazing. [01:06:30] Speaker B: Absolutely. Yeah. I enjoyed that. His picture is in it. I don't know if I can know, but, yeah, it's very pointed, what they do. Yeah. Very intense. [01:06:45] Speaker A: That's great. I appreciate that. [01:06:47] Speaker B: Yeah, it's terrific. And it's every bit as weird now I roll that back. It isn't. I don't think Beetlejuice is a weird film. Right, right. For me, weird suggests you get something unusual outside of what you're expecting to get. [01:07:07] Speaker A: Sure. [01:07:07] Speaker B: Right. Beetlejuice isn't a weird film because it's exactly what you think it's going to be. It extends the world of the first one. No notes. It's great. [01:07:20] Speaker A: Beautiful. [01:07:21] Speaker B: It's a great time. [01:07:22] Speaker A: I can't wait to see it. [01:07:23] Speaker B: Great time. [01:07:23] Speaker A: Maybe finally tomorrow I'll be able to see it. I don't know. We're finishing redoing our bathroom, so it depends on that. But I really, oh, God, I need to see it so bad. [01:07:33] Speaker B: Oh, it's great. Um, and I can't even, I can't even say anything because there's some, there's some really fun surprises in it. There are cameos that you don't know about it. [01:07:43] Speaker A: Stoked. [01:07:44] Speaker B: Uh, interestingly, the, right. I can, I can, I can read a room, right? It's part of my, it's part of my job, right? I can get a vibe from a room without anybody having to say a word before. Beetlejuice. Beetlejuice. The trailer for Megalopolis played. [01:08:01] Speaker A: Oh, God. [01:08:04] Speaker B: And I saw beetlejuice on a Sunday, right? And it packed the fucking room out. It was a packed theater on a Sunday afternoon. And just the, you could almost chew the sensation of after that trailer, everybody. The fuck was that? It was tangible. It was, it was. You could almost pluck it out of the air. Like, what the fuck? [01:08:29] Speaker A: I just love, you know, what's his face. Just blowing up his entire legacy over this movie. It's truly a sight to behold. Like it's gonna sexually harass extras, make a movie that looks bloated and terrible. Like, you know, like, fuck. [01:08:43] Speaker B: Shit. [01:08:44] Speaker A: Yeah, right? Like it's a just completely blowing up his entire legacy with one film. And it is quite a sight to behold. [01:08:53] Speaker B: Yeah, you love to see it. [01:08:55] Speaker A: You love to see it. Bye, old white men. [01:09:01] Speaker B: Let's talk rituals. This was a pic of yours. [01:09:03] Speaker A: Yeah, this was a pic of mine. I was watching there's a new Shudder series on and I can't remember what it's called, but the first episode was about horror tropes. Um, and, you know, I liked that the, the approach it took to it was like, usually we talk about how much we hate horror tropes. And this was kind of a positive light on, like, why we, why they work and why we keep watching things that have, like, tropes. Like why do people run upstairs when they should run out the door and things like that. Why do we watch movies where people make stupid decisions and all that kind of stuff? So they started talking about this movie, rituals, and immediately I was like, I'm, I'm kind of, I'm in. I fast forwarded because I didn't want to know any more about what happened as they talked about this. It's like, I'm interested. Don't spoil it for me. And rituals is kind of, I mean, you can't avoid the comparisons to deliberance, of course, because you've got this kind of group of unsuspecting guys being terrorized by hillbilly locals or whatever, but it isn't a direct deliverance ripoff or anything like that. You've got these doctors who go out into the wilderness on this, like, hike that they're kind of. They're already sort of unprepared for the rigors of the hike that they're going on. [01:10:19] Speaker B: I think it shows a very high. It feels unusual to see a film from the seventies being so open and warm towards masculine friendship. [01:10:36] Speaker A: Yes. [01:10:37] Speaker B: Isn't it lovely seeing just a bunch of goofy guys goofing around and clearly just being a good bunch of lads with one another? [01:10:44] Speaker A: Right. Just like, very tight. You know, there's interpersonal sort of like things that they butt heads on, but there's also. Yeah, an affection between them and they're, you know, going on this trip not to like. I think with a lot of things like that, you would see guys trying to, like, out masculine each other and these survivors scenarios and things where this is not the case, which you do get in deliverance, right? Yeah, exactly. And so these guys are trying to do this hike that they're not totally prepared for, and then as they do it, someone starts fucking with them by stealing their boots. And then the ways in which they are being fucked with become increasingly more violent over the course of the film. Yeah. And I enjoyed it. I thought rituals was a good time. Maybe a good time is not the right word, but. [01:11:40] Speaker B: Is it a seventies thing? I don't know. With that kind of the music over the opening titles being super chilled and super kind of pastoral. And it belies the nastiness that is to come. The opening kind of ten minutes of rituals. Oh, this is nice. Everybody's going to go camping and it's going to be lovely. [01:12:01] Speaker A: Yep. [01:12:02] Speaker B: Then you've got heads on sticks and you've got fucking, you know, people on. [01:12:05] Speaker A: Fire traps and bear traps, people on fire, all kinds of stuff in this thing. It really escalates. [01:12:13] Speaker B: I think it's more hills have eyes than it is deliverance. [01:12:16] Speaker A: I have not watched hills have eyes for obvious reasons, so I cannot tell you. But I have seen people compare it to that for sure. Or say it's like hills have eyes meets deliverance. Yeah, it definitely does that thing where it kind of pulls you in with like, it's just building these guys friendship and everything and like, even some of their work conflicts and stuff like that. They're arguing over diagnoses of people and everything and, you know, just very authentic. Yeah, exactly. It feels very authentic. And then shit goes awry. [01:12:47] Speaker B: Yes, it does. [01:12:48] Speaker A: Yeah. So rituals, I'd say watch it. [01:12:51] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah, do it. It's, you know, you. You're not going to. It's not going to harm you if you watch it. Unlike Joe's two, which I'm not going to. [01:12:59] Speaker A: We're not going to talk about. Yeah. That's coming in our 200th episode with two weeks time. [01:13:09] Speaker B: In two weekend's time. I'll be there, won't I? [01:13:11] Speaker A: You will be here. Yeah. [01:13:13] Speaker B: Holy shit. [01:13:14] Speaker A: I know. I mean, at this time, two weeks from now, you will already be here. We'll be going and eating catfish with Kristen and Briena. [01:13:21] Speaker B: I'll already be in prison. [01:13:24] Speaker A: Yep. You will have already stolen a TSA agent's gun just for the heck of it. [01:13:30] Speaker B: All right, so we'll skip Jules two, because we're going to hell. Rank it. [01:13:33] Speaker A: Yes. And so, finally, I think your last thing was the one that you quizzed me on. [01:13:40] Speaker B: Well, penultimate thing, because not only did Pete and I watch scream two the other night, last night on 911. [01:13:48] Speaker A: Oh, boy. [01:13:49] Speaker B: We watched scream three, our first watch. [01:13:52] Speaker A: Wow. A movie that was entirely changed by 911. [01:13:57] Speaker B: Oh, is that right? [01:13:58] Speaker A: Yeah. Or, no, it wasn't 911. It was columbine. That's what it was. It was columbine that changed scream three. Yeah. You know, this scream three, you'll note, is all adults in it. It was not meant to be, as the scream movies tend not to be, because they were dealing with the fallout of a school shooting and were trying to avoid teenagers getting murdered and kind of redid the entire script as a result of kind of sort of skirting around the issues of kind of fraught teen violence, you know, field at that point. I'm curious what you thought of this one. I love scream three, and I've said before that I kind of equate it very much to a goofier version of new nightmare. [01:14:55] Speaker B: New nightmare. [01:14:56] Speaker A: Yeah. It's very much doing the same kinds of things, and a lot of people do not like that at all. A lot of people hate scream three, and I feel like I don't. I just really like what it does with it, how it's a very silly meta take on. I mean, all of them are meta, obviously, but this takes that to another level. [01:15:18] Speaker B: This one is silly. This one is very silly. [01:15:20] Speaker A: It's very good. [01:15:22] Speaker B: And it marks, for me, the start of what I've come to kind of bitterly dislike about screen. It feels like it started here. It feels like it started to fold in on itself. Cameos for the sick. What the fuck was Carrie Fisher doing in this fucking film? What the fuck was Jay and Silent Bob doing in this film? Pointless. [01:15:44] Speaker A: But it's like, that's the thing, is it's on purpose. Right? Like that's part of the goofiness of this movie is like throwing all that kind of shit at it. Like, you know, it's making fun of. This is what Hollywood movies do when you get to this point in a franchise. Like just put a fucking rapper in it or some, you know, like it is commenting on the fact that, oh, we're this far into the franchise. Well, now it's time to start putting dumb cameos in it. And it's directly doing that in this Hollywood setting. [01:16:17] Speaker B: Yep. All of which I get and I see, but it feels like the focus has gone more from it being a horror movie with commentary about movies. [01:16:27] Speaker A: Yeah. [01:16:27] Speaker B: To more about a movie which is now all about itself. And I think the fucking, I don't think it's an effective horror movie because I can't get past the self referentialism is just too much. [01:16:38] Speaker A: Which like, again, I think because so much of it changed because of 911, not 911, because of Columbine. That is the result of that where like scream four, you get back to it very much being like much more like the first scream. We're talking about high schoolers who are in a world in which these movies exist and everything, but it is a high school slasher as opposed to three, which is it being about itself or whatever. So I think four will bring you back to what you like about scream. And then you did like five, you just don't like six. So I think it's like I did like, yeah, you don't like it all. [01:17:21] Speaker B: Hinges on four, doesn't it? [01:17:23] Speaker A: Yeah, four is the one. And I think you'll like that one because it bears a lot of resemblance to one and a lot of people consider it the second best scream movie. So I think that'll put you back on track again. [01:17:36] Speaker B: I'm watching them with my boy who is 13, who you would have heard earlier on harassing me for a phone charger. And he is eating them up. [01:17:45] Speaker A: I love that. That makes me very happy because that's the age I was when I was watching this. Right? Like scream one, two and three. I was around that age when I was watching them. So I love to hear that he is. He's having my experience watching them. [01:17:58] Speaker B: Yeah, he's loving them. He's absolutely loving them. [01:18:01] Speaker A: Fantastic. [01:18:01] Speaker B: And I've pre ordered this week the 4k rerelease of Elm street. [01:18:08] Speaker A: Oh, nice. [01:18:09] Speaker B: Coming in October. And I think he's ready. [01:18:11] Speaker A: Yeah, he's definitely ready. For sure. He's watched the final destinations or the first couple of final destinations. He's watched this. He can do Elm street. [01:18:19] Speaker B: Yeah, I think he's ready. It's a 15 now and on Paramount. Plus, it is. The screams are still rated 18, so I can get that past our legal department. [01:18:28] Speaker A: Yeah. [01:18:29] Speaker B: Which, of course, is my wife. [01:18:31] Speaker A: Yes, naturally. [01:18:32] Speaker B: So, yes, that's going to be a huge moment. But what would I do if he doesn't like it? [01:18:37] Speaker A: Oh, that would be rough. I don't even know how you would cope with that. [01:18:41] Speaker B: But DNA test, obviously. [01:18:43] Speaker A: Clearly something is very wrong. Yes. Gonna have to have a talk with your wifey, but that's it for me. [01:18:53] Speaker B: What a lovely feast of films this week. [01:18:55] Speaker A: Mm hmm. Yeah. Hear, hear. Friends, since this is, you know, just a movie, so let us know what you've been watching this past week, what you're looking forward to watching, what we should watch, recommendations, things like that. Hey, also, check out our discord. Our dear friend Xander has completely revamped it. It is a whole new discord. It's like sorcery to me. I don't know how he did it, but everything is really cool. There's things where you can hit an emoji that represents your pronouns and that will show up in your bio for the server and things like that. Like, this is. It's bananas. So go check out our discord and see all of Sanders hard work. There's also John Latour made Corey and Mark emojis, so you can use those as responses. Yeah. So, friends, go check it out. It is so wild. We are next level on the discord. [01:19:57] Speaker B: Yeah. I've always wanted that. [01:20:00] Speaker A: It's been a thing should have happened a long time ago. But thank you, John, for doing the thing that neither of us know how to do. And Xander, for just incredible work, everybody. Go look at it. Link is in all our bios and all that. We appreciate you big time, and we appreciate all of you listeners for being along on this journey. And what do they got to do? [01:20:23] Speaker B: Mark Lewis, stay spooky. [01:20:26] Speaker A: Hell, yeah. That's.