Talking Pondo: A Boy Named Charlie Brown and Beverly Hills Cop Axel F

 In this episode, Marty gives Clif the movie A Boy Named Charlie Brown to watch and Clif gives Marty the movie Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F to watch.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Welcome to season two of Making Pondo and Talking Pondo. Talking Pondo is a podcast where Cliff and Marty give each other a film to watch and talk about them in detail. Some episodes will include a special guest. Making Pondo is a podcast where Cliff and Marty talk to people they have worked with and discuss their experiences on site. Alright, we're back. Here we go.

SPEAKER_03 0:26

Talking Pondo. Talking all day. Talking Pondo. Talking all day, talking all night. Been doing a lot of talking. A lot of talking. So uh season two. Season two, episode six, also known as episode 42 altogether. For what it's worth. Closing in on episode 50, closing on in the end of the year. But more importantly, Cliff has taken me back in time once again to what it feels like to be 12 years old. I'm watching peanuts and I'm watching Eddie Murphy be excellent bully. So we are going back in time pleasantly enough this week for that. It's our palate cleanser episode after all that horror and despair. We're giving you some lighter fare. Well, there's there's still a lot of bloodshed in the uh Beverly Hills Cop film, but it's it's not like Texas Chainsaw.

SPEAKER_00 1:23

So yeah, it's it's that it's that you know it's that action comedy violence that everybody you know.

SPEAKER_03 1:28

So uh we watched a boy named Charlie Brown, which was my pick, and um we watched Beverly Hills Cop Colin. Axel F. That's right. A movie that uh was Cliff's choice that just came out, direct to Netflix, and I could tell why within the first minute. But also it's one of those movies where it feels like if you just if we put all these elements together and say it's Beverly Hills Cop, it'll it'll turn into Beverly Hills Cop, right? Right?

SPEAKER_00 1:59

Right?

SPEAKER_03 2:00

Well anyway, which one yeah, we're gonna talk which one you want to talk about first.

SPEAKER_00 2:04

It was Beverly Hills Cop. That um uh what was the first of the of the the last trilogy of Star Wars movies, that one called uh Oh, it's much better than Star Wars movies. No, but you love but as much as you love to kind of harp on the fact that it's basically just remade Star Wars, it's just Star Wars remade, is what they did with uh with with Ray. That's what Axel F was completely. It was just fucking Beverly Hills Cop done kind of over again. I mean, to the point where like they're really hammering on the nostalgia with the soundtrack right out the gate, just yeah, bam.

SPEAKER_03 2:46

That's what I'm saying. If you throw all these elements together, will it just turn into it? And it's like, well, yeah, the answer is yes. But one of the reviews that I read that summed it up the best was if you want another amazing Beverly Hills cop movie, this ain't it. But if you just want another Beverly Hills cop movie, well, this is it.

SPEAKER_00 3:04

Um well, and I guess we should just since we're already diving into this one, we'll keep sticking to it. Yeah, why not? Let's start with that one. Um, so made in 2024, uh starring Eddie Murphy. Um, one of the things I'll give him credit for is that they got all the cast back, um, which was really important. It was nice to see Jeffrey as of course the head of uh police in Detroit, right?

SPEAKER_03 3:29

Um yeah, it was giving me running scared flashbacks like what if these characters existed now.

SPEAKER_00 3:37

Um and yeah, exactly. And uh, you know, it was nice to see um Taggart and Rosewood and you know, all that. They kept him out of the picture for a long time, but yeah, I would have liked more rosewood myself, so um that's a weird thing to say. Um it's I like how he hasn't changed, still the same old foley. I felt like it felt very familiar, very worn and in and lived in. Um, you know, that opening sequence is like is kind of ridiculous. Like I love the setup where he's like, no, we came to a hockey game because you know, we we like hockey, and oh look, you're some bad guys, and oh you're lucky you're here. I can't follow them. I'm getting trouble, right? It's classic. That's classic sort of Axle Foley. Um but them getting away on the fucking quad bikes, it turned into and this is where the Beverly Hills Cops series, in my opinion, kind of the in two and three and kind of lost its way, where they overdid the action. It's not lethal weapon.

SPEAKER_03 4:44

It's James Bond, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 4:46

Yeah, it's not lethal weapon, it's not James Bond, it's Axel Foley. He's he's a w loudmouth, he's kind of like a fletch with a little bit more action, right? But you know, he's more on his wits than he is with the gun. Um, of course, you did have that big action sequence at the end where he gets shot in in where they, you know, in the house at Victor Maitland's house in the first one. But other than that, there was not a lot of violence. He's you know, banana in the tailpipe, you know, all this type of shit to do what he needs to do. But by the second one, it's the gun club and it's all this stuff, and then the third one's this ridiculous sort of third one's crazy.

SPEAKER_03 5:24

I like how they're like not your finest power, they even no shit.

SPEAKER_00 5:28

Um and you know, he's he had stated that the reason he wanted to do this movie was because three was so bad he didn't want to leave the character like that and have that be the end of the series, right? And I do think that this it redeems the series with this, it's way better than three, and I would prefer to watch it over two, honestly, because it's funnier than two.

SPEAKER_03 5:51

But in ways, I there's there's certain things about those two movies I like more than this one.

SPEAKER_00 5:57

I I mean I like two, two's got a kind of a slick sense to it. I I I hate three, I I I believe that it exists, and yet it's it's bad, but even though it's got our boy in it, it's still terrible.

SPEAKER_03 6:09

This one I feel like wow, I can't believe it took 30 years to make this movie, and then it goes direct to streaming, and it's like, yeah, I feel like this franchise like part four has probably always had a bit of a dark cloud around it. So when it finally comes out, of course, it's compromised direct to video, but it seemed like this movie should have been a big theatrical with a large budget, helmed by some hotshot director and a really good screenwriter. And instead, it's this Australian guy. I think this is his first big film, actually. I think like everything else was shorts and stuff, and the writers were the guys who did that Nicolas Cage movie where he plays himself, but they were writing on top of that's the unbearable unbearable weight of massive talent is a fucking great movie. They were writing on top, I think, on top of a script that was written by the guy who does like Aquaman and some of those DC movies. So it's a very bizarre talent pool that's using this, but they're trying a lot of new people on it, right? Like a lot of people getting their start in a way were given a chance on this rather than it's like back in the day, only somebody seasoned with a lot of money would have gone into this because Beverly Hills comp would have been a big well.

SPEAKER_00 7:40

So it's like you did a very good job considering a great job. I thought he did because there's there is a lot of action sequences and and and stuff, you know. I mean, they're shooting in Beverly Hills, they're driving that little tripod, uh, that little cart around, and and there's the car chases and other things. So that's pretty big for a for a big project for a guy. And I don't I don't know.

SPEAKER_03 8:00

I still think the film is a victim of the pandemic, and what I mean by that is if this would have gone to the theaters, this would have been pushed as a big thing. I don't know if the script probably would have gotten polished a little bit more. Like, for instance, uh Joseph Gordon Levitt, I'm reading your file, Axel F. I know all about you. Wait a minute, he's your dad? Wouldn't it say that? Did one writer not communicate with the other writer? Was I missing something there?

SPEAKER_00 8:30

Yeah, that's a that was uh you know, that's a good catch.

SPEAKER_03 8:32

Yeah, I can see a little odd, but uh the weirdest thing to me was in the very beginning, so he's driving past those kids and he's like waving or whatever. I'm thinking, you're already down the street, man, they can't see you. And that was my first indication that something was very, very wrong with the driving scenes in this film. It's all digital projection like the mandaline, and it's fucking horrifying because it reminds me of it, it looks like Revenge of Zoe when Billy's driving to town in a way. So the pacing's wrong, like the they're braking or driving not fast enough yet. Like eventually they'll figure this out. But in this movie, I just wish somebody had driven down the street with a camera. It threw me out so bad. I was like, what is wrong with this? It's a digital projection, they're not driving anywhere. Oh my god.

SPEAKER_00 9:30

Yeah, and some of the scenes they did that. I mean, they didn't do it with everything, but there was some digital, it's just it's the scene at the looking thing. One of the things where it was really apparent to me was at the very end of the movie where he jumps into the back of the car where he's like, You two are the worst surveillance team ever, and it's like, oh man, that that looks like that looks very bad green screen.

SPEAKER_03 9:53

Beverly Hills Cops shouldn't have to get its corners to do that, right? But then again, I didn't see coming to America part two either.

SPEAKER_00 10:02

So it it did its best to follow the formula of the first movie. Like it followed it back home again. It had it it went it went from okay, incident in Detroit to gear in trouble, Foley, to LA to right into you know, getting in trouble in LA and boom, boom, and and kept moving. I I felt like it it it really followed that formula very well. Um Kevin Bacon is a bad guy, I didn't have a problem with at all. I thought that was kind of a fun choice.

SPEAKER_03 10:32

I'm like, well, he's the bad guy, yeah. Of course, because he's slowly turning into Gary Cole.

SPEAKER_00 10:37

You can you can tell that Victor Mayton, you can tell that Victor Mayton was the bad guy right away, too.

SPEAKER_03 10:42

It's just you know Kevin Bacon and Gary Cole have never been in the movie together.

SPEAKER_00 10:46

Really?

SPEAKER_03 10:48

So are they the same person? No, but they are hub actors. All roads lead to Gary Cole and Kevin Bacon.

SPEAKER_00 11:01

Um I read that this movie took about 30 years to get made.

SPEAKER_03 11:07

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 11:08

Um that it was at one point in Brett Ratner's hands for four or five years that he was having scripts written and trying to get something going with it. He was because it was after rush hour 2009 when he was really hot. And then I I heard that you know, uh Bruckheimer gave away the rights for a while, then got them back, and they could just never come up with a script and get people going, and I guess fine finally Paramount just took a pass on the distribution deal and and signed a deal with Netflix. This is the only Axel Foley movie to not be distributed by Paramount. Yeah. And so it's it's uh it's yeah, very weird.

SPEAKER_03 11:51

I remember hearing they were doing auditions for it by tape a couple of years ago. So this is one of those productions that it was already had that weird cloud around it, and then it got slowed down even more by uh by the pandemic. Well, they're already talking about part five. Yeah, you might as well, but you know, my only real note is just don't do the digital projection for driving. Nobody drives like that. They're driving at the weirdest pace, and then they'll cut to one window and they'll they'll pull up and break. Cut to the other window, they're driving again. Cut to the other window, they're driving at a slightly slower pace. Cut to the other window, they are driving at a consistent pace that nobody has ever driven at in the history of ever because they're shit in the road, and they're going straight for minutes on end, and it is so unnerving to me. One of the weirdest things I've seen in the movie in a long time. I also like that Kevin Bacon said chubby at one point. It gave me bowfinger flashbacks. I was really hoping the movie would end with Abby Murphy saying, Gotcha suckas.

SPEAKER_00 13:10

Um, so um the storyline of the movie. Let me read that real quick. Oh, yeah. Detective Axel Foley is up to his usual tricks in Detroit when Billy Rosewood, an LA private detective and longtime friend, contacts him for help. Foley's daughter, Jane Saunders, is a lawyer involved in a high-profile case and has been threatened. Foley sets off for Los Angeles, renewing many acquaintances and finding himself in the middle of a sinister conspiracy.

SPEAKER_03 13:41

As you do. As you do. I know what my last note here says. I couldn't make it out, but now I remember what it said. This movie felt like one of those latter-day Marx Brothers movies, like their twelfth movie, where they were so old they could barely move around, and half the movie was stunt doubles, but it's still kind of amusing. Well, this movie's nowhere near that bad, but 60-some-year-old Eddie Murphy's not quite moving as fast as he did back in the day. But neither are his foes in this film either. So they keep him up against age-appropriate criminals. So that was fun at least. Yeah. Um it's no Top Gun Maverick, but you're streaming, you could do worse.

SPEAKER_00 14:28

Yeah, Top Gun Maverick was was a I mean, we'll we'll cover that eventually, but that was a surprisingly decent follow-up to Top Gun, especially surprisingly with so many years between the two of them. But umson Pin Show back again.

SPEAKER_03 14:48

Yeah, it was nice to see Pinchot back again. Yep. Um the neutron dance, uh, heat is on, all the music from part one is represented.

SPEAKER_00 14:58

Yeah. Uh shake down, take down your busted. I think that was in two, so they used that one. They used that one too.

SPEAKER_03 15:05

So unfortunately, we didn't get Chris Duncan beatboxing over Axel F, which is an inside joke, but we did get somebody else doing a rap over Axel F and the in credits, a more modernized version. That's uh it's funny. That same guy did the Fletch music. Yeah, yeah. Um, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Louis Goosman.

SPEAKER_00 15:24

Harold Faltermeyer. Harold Faltermeyer. Uh, there's a Luis Guzman spotting in this, which is great. Can't can't can't hurt with a little Louis Guzman cameo.

SPEAKER_03 15:35

It was it was odd because it's like it's 2024, and this is how you kind of put that type of humor in the movie, right? It reminded me of the Star Wars Clone Wars movie when they go to that one hut boss who gives them the information, he's very flamboyant. If you have a vague memory of that movie.

SPEAKER_00 16:00

Um, I I thought it was funny that his name was Chilino. Um because there's a very popular string of Mexican restaurants in Oklahoma City called Chilinos, or at least they were popular. They're not they're not popular anymore. But during the 90s, there was like five or six Chilinos all across Oklahoma City. Um, but yeah, anyway.

SPEAKER_03 16:21

Here but Eddie Murphy reminded me of the edited out scene of from our movie where Billy's at the AA meeting, all yeah, Vinny, because he's immediately tall out and starts clapping for Louise Guzman. It's funny how everybody looks older but Eddie Murphy. He's like, We have the same age. Because you get hints that he's doing a little free forming and parts, you know, like the Saunders thing felt even if it if that's in the script, then that's that's a testament to him, right? It felt more like you know, tags and ad hoc. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 17:05

Well, I mean, he's 63 in the movie. I mean, no, I don't know in the his character's age, but he's like 31 in part three, right? He's yeah, he's six, yeah, he's 63 years old at this point in his career, so I'd say he looks pretty good. Taggart looks Taggart's guy. Boy, he's he he's I I I I realized this the other day as I was watching it. The cop Taggart, to me, since I was a kid, has always looked old. Yeah, since breaking away, right? Like he's just always looked old. Yeah, he's since and even in breaking away, he looks old. He just looks like he just looks like an old grown-up in my entire life. I don't know how else to put it. Taggart or Taggart?

SPEAKER_03 17:47

Taggart. Which one sounds better? Taggart or Taggart? There's no difference in that line is inspired by Beverly Hills Cop. Obviously. It the original Beverly Hills Cop was so what's the word ubiquitous to our youth. When that thing came out in 1984, it was just it was it was everywhere. I mean, 48 hours was a big sleeper hit, but when that one hit, it was like Murphy Mania.

SPEAKER_00 18:15

Yeah, he was huge at that point.

SPEAKER_03 18:17

Yep. That was a perfect four quadrant movie. The soundtrack was through the freaking roof. Through the freaking roof instrumentals hitting the top ten.

SPEAKER_00 18:27

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Axel F was all over it. Yeah, that that song was huge. Plus, the you know you had the sisters, you had all that other stuff. And um, it was a good movie. It's a really good movie.

SPEAKER_03 18:40

What a career he's had, right? It's interesting to look at his career as opposed to like it's kind of similar to like Robin Williams in a way. Yeah. And he's thankfully, Eddie Murphy's still around, but you know, uh you you go, oh, every now and then they let him make something like a dream girls or something where he doesn't have to play the goofy comedy thing, but then he always has to go back and make you know the a couple of movies like this for the paycheck and stuff as well, you know. But every now and then they let him break the mold, you know, and that was Robin Williams, too. For the most part, it was like one, you know, like here's another programmer, and another Ed Murphy programmer after another after another, and then like every fourth or fifth one, you get that kind of like, oh, that's the one that you could tell that that everybody kind of cared about.

SPEAKER_00 19:36

But I think maybe I thought you know, my name is Dolomite was kind of like that. Oh, yeah. Right?

SPEAKER_03 19:45

You know, I was like, oh, that's you know, it's kind of a weird also?

SPEAKER_00 19:50

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 19:51

Yeah, okay.

SPEAKER_00 19:52

Yeah, might have to pull that onto the podcast at some point.

SPEAKER_03 19:56

Yeah. I was just watching it sitting here thinking, like, oh yeah, even if Robin Williams was still around, he'd still have to make goofball movies. It's like three or four of those for every one curious one they let him do. Even though you've proven yourself time and again, there's still that money factor to show business. And if the movies don't generate the money, there's no money for anybody to make, therefore, you can't make the movie. I mean, I wish we could run it off a fandom alone. Shit, there'd be nothing but awesome shit. But unfortunately, there's that show business aspect of it all, the business aspect.

SPEAKER_00 20:43

Um, they they they followed the tropes very well in this. Like, you have to have Billy hold his li uh badge up with his gun and say, drop your weapons. Tavert has to have a shotgun and come in with a shotgun. Foley, yeah. Yeah, fully has to get some sort of not superficial wound, but nothing life-threatening at the same time, you know, shot in the arm, shot in the high shoulder, you know. Um it it just it it did it, you know, because I think it kind of did exactly what it was supposed to do. Um and I I felt like it was pretty successful. I I think the second half had a problem, it dragged plot-wise.

SPEAKER_03 21:23

I thought watched it and I'm like, how has this only been this long?

SPEAKER_00 21:31

Um I but I enjoy, I I enjoyed it. I I like I said, I it it it gave me the more feeling of an original Beverly Hills cop than the previous one did, and that was I was very grateful for because it's like, fuck this, you know. Like 'cause I agree, Eddie, you can't go out on Beverly Hills Cop three. You gotta do four, you know.

SPEAKER_03 21:52

And yet when I look back at two and three now, which I might actually want to rewatch, it's like Well they're worse in ways, but they're better than in ways, like I was mentioning. And I think it's primarily to do with how the films were constructed. There wasn't CGI, there wasn't compromise. They just went out there and did all those crazy stunts and all that shit. And there's no Timothy Carhartt in this movie either. So I mean he's in part three, but you know, you can't fault a movie too bad for that. But you overall, this one is probab probably a better movie than part three, but part three at least was a bit I feel like part three really lost it lost its way.

SPEAKER_00 22:50

Yeah with with what Beverly Hills Cop was.

SPEAKER_03 22:53

And I do feel like watching it again just to see, you know. Yeah, do they reference it at all? Because I haven't seen it in a while. Maybe if I had watched all three before, maybe I'd be like, oh shoot, they're referencing part three a little more. And I didn't catch it or something. I don't know.

SPEAKER_00 23:10

I don't I don't remember any part three references, but other than the 1994 incident, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 23:16

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 23:17

Um at one point I read that uh Murphy was trying to shop it as a television series. And he would and he would be he would be the chief of police in Detroit, and there would be a new his like his son or his grandson or somebody would be or somebody else would be the new Axel F in the department, and it would the show would focus on that person, and he would just kind of be coming in and out of the show here and there, which I thought was kind of an interesting concept.

SPEAKER_03 23:45

It's it's so trippy and bizarre to make a Beverly Hills cop movie in 2024, and yet there it is, and it works for what it is, and people always like to say you couldn't make that now. Well, they did. There it is, and that's the version of it for now. And if it gets people interested in watching the originals, then there you go. We just watched part one on our film festival trip a few months ago, and so that was the most recent time I'd seen that one. So I was glad I at least had that fresh in my head because I guess all you really need is part one going into this. Shit, if you've never seen any of them, you can start here if you want. I think that's the idea for the new generation.

SPEAKER_00 24:35

It it does also does a very good job of standing alone to a certain extent. Like it, I mean you would have to kind of explain who Billy and Taggart are and what that backstory is a bit more, but if he was really standalone, but I think uh yeah, I think you could probably watch it and enjoy it without needing to know much more than, you know, oh, they have some sort of history together and so on and so forth, you know. Anyway. Um anything else you want to talk to say about it?

SPEAKER_03 25:09

Well, it doesn't really suffer from you know what The Force Awakens did to legacy sequels. This one's more in line with like a Top Gun Maverick, and what I mean by that is they're trying to just make it more like the original movie and not really change a whole lot to modernize it. They reflect on a few things here and there, but the movie as it is now It's almost like the same movie again, just with older people in it. Yeah, this version is a direct to video version, and it's really weird for me as having grown up with these movies to be like part four, direct to video. Of course, that means something different now. You know, they were they were testing with streaming movies before the pandemic. Wasn't there a movie called Bright that went direct to Netflix?

SPEAKER_00 25:59

Yeah, that was that one that that was a terrible fucking movie, and I think it still did okay on the platform. Well, people, yeah, people tuned into it, but immediately I think I think the actual viewership numbers dropped pretty quickly because people found out it wasn't very good. I watched it.

SPEAKER_02 26:14

So they were already not very good.

SPEAKER_03 26:16

They were dipping their toe into streaming new movies back then, so it makes you wonder if there hadn't been a pandemic and theaters had continued to operate, would they have done a more slower dive into figuring out what streaming is instead of going into it and then the whole business is upside down, and then Beverly Hills Cop 4 suffers from it because I feel like it just deserved a much larger budget.

SPEAKER_00 26:41

I think that I don't I don't think there was as much digital as you think there was, but but I but I I do I do hear what you're saying that you didn't like the the overall look of the film.

SPEAKER_03 26:52

Yeah, I felt like it uh and that's that's that's valid.

SPEAKER_00 26:57

Yeah. Um I didn't I didn't really yeah, I didn't really have much of that problem with it. Again, I you could you could see the digital here and there. Um I did think that the some of the helicopter stunts they did were pretty fucking.

SPEAKER_03 27:13

Oh see that stuff's great. It's just the odd driving. You're we're gonna look at this in 30 years, and it's gonna be like the rear projection in movies from the 50s. Give it a few more years and then they'll they'll get it to where it feels right. But this is gonna be one of those like 1997 CGI where people are just like, oh you like it at the time.

SPEAKER_00 27:39

Yeah, for me, I I don't know. I guess I'm just old school, but I I like if you can do a practical effect and do it do a practical effect, do a practical effect. Of course. Every every fucking time. And and in fact, I you know, I I I if you can stay away from CGI graphics, it's like that um that computer generated image of of New York in Escape from New York that comes on the screen and all that shit. That's all just that's just a map with tape lines on it that they shot with cameras and in front. That's not even fucking that's not even computer generated, right? It just looks like it is. They get away with it, right? And to me, that shit, it's it it not only looks better on screen, the effect lasts and plays forever. And mild CGs on that, you know. Mild, I mean, yeah, I I I hear you, but compared to what what we're talking about now with CGI and parallax and all this shit, that's just that you might as well have been hand handmade on that.

SPEAKER_03 28:38

And that's why it's just it it made me sad in a way where it's like, fuck, Beverly Hills cop should be sh at least shooting the the car scenes outside or something. You shouldn't have to well just because we can doesn't mean we should. Right. It felt like, well, we can just do all this stuff here because we're doing everything else with the explosions and stuff. It's like, no, that's that's important too.

SPEAKER_00 29:08

To me. Yeah, that's that's Hollywood. We're all about coulda, not shoulda. That's that's definitely science and Hollywood. Yeah. We're all about cuda, not shoulda. To quote Baton Oswald. Um, but all having said all that, I'm gonna give it two and a half stars. Because I enjoyed it.

SPEAKER_03 29:29

Yeah, you're more forgiving than I am. I gave it one and a half.

SPEAKER_00 29:33

Whew. The last the last third was was it took the last third was probably uh the part that probably needed the most polishing. But uh I thought the first third and and the parts with Serge were hilarious. Um, you know, I thought there was some fun stuff in there.

SPEAKER_03 29:50

Yeah, it's worth watching, but my my rating is as low as it is because it didn't really show us anything we haven't seen in a movie before. Oh, that's true. Just a very kills cop programmer, and that's fine if you want just that. But I was hoping for a little something. I only laughed out loud like once or something, and I think it was when he was telling him you can't call black folks that, you know.

SPEAKER_00 30:18

Oh, or he well, I like the whole part where he's like, Oh yeah, it's in the the black, the the black uh the you know, the black hockey league from back in the day, and he's like, you know what, there's a black hockey league. And you know, I didn't know that. You like you like you know, you so you say you love hockey, but you didn't know there's a black hockey league, and it's a promising beginning, you know, laughs here and there, you know.

SPEAKER_03 30:40

I wish they had leaned a little more into that of it, you know. There's just sprinkles of that humor in there. Yeah, I hear you. The whole movie could have been that in a larger theatrical spectacle, and then it could have been like holy shit, it could have been like the Top Gun Maverick, where you're just like, oh shit, that was awesome, that was hilarious, but hey, it finally happened. Beverly Hills Top 4.

SPEAKER_00 31:02

It exists now. I mean, I think it's again a better than three. And and to me, to me, redeeming the series. Yeah, that's uh you know, because now we're gonna get a five. There are talks to do a five. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. Well, why the fuck not, man? Till till the till the returns are so diminishing that you can't make any money off it. It's the Roger Corman method.

SPEAKER_03 31:25

Yeah. That's all anybody seems to do anymore.

SPEAKER_00 31:30

Well, I mean, that's Hollywood's scared to death to do anything that isn't a known product, dude. It's I don't I don't know what happened because it's like during the 70s, it it was like all it was all rebel filmmakers, right? Like the studio had no idea what to make, and they let all these Mavericks make these crazy ass movies that that and then once they hit and and did well, you know, um uh Hopper does Easy Rider, you know, you get got the Godfather in there, you get you know all these other filmmakers coming out making these movies, um, Mean Streets, Taxi Driver. Oh, okay, let's just let the artists make the art, and we'll just benefit, reap the benefits. Then here come the 80s, and the kids and and the next generation that's been been you know kind of influenced by that become some of the greatest filmmakers, in my opinion, of all time, Spielberg, Zemechis, all these others, you know, along with their peers of, you know, and then you get to the 90s, and uh and and it's it then it's really about the indie filmmakers and looking for the next generation and and and kind of going against the need to make these bloated hundred million dollar Terminator 2 movies, and then it gets into the aughts and it just it starts to it starts to die and it becomes it becomes all about the trilogies and the and the you know how many fucking Jason movies can we make, how many Freddie movies can we make? Can we, you know, how many Blair Witches can we make? How many of these can we make? Right? And to to where now the whole system is all they want to do is just make make movies based on shit that they know is gonna sell. They're not they don't want to take any chances on anything.

SPEAKER_03 33:10

Serialized, endless stories, which is why most TV shows. I was talking with Adrian about this a little while ago. Most TV shows end with just it just stops, it's a shitty no resolution because oh yeah, the network just gave up on it. Yeah. Because not everything can survive, you know, something's gonna get canceled, but yeah, yeah, that's that's what happens. That's why it's it's so hard for me to get invested in TV shows until I know that they've been around for a while. And even that, a show can be on for a long time and still have a not satisfactory ending because yeah, yeah, it's just stopped. Because it's all serialized to never end to keep you coming back over and over. Your well, you've your Grey's anatomies, your supernatural 15 seasons. You can do a lot of good stuff in there. You can do a lot of long-term storytelling if you're really allowed to do it. It's you know, stuff you can't do in film, but it's walking dead with its ridiculous amount of off. Yeah, where you're just left going, what the fuck? I love season one. Season two was five episodes and it went to shit because they changed the showrunner, and this happens over and over again.

SPEAKER_00 34:21

Well, and I mean Sopranos was you know, Game of Thrones, two of the biggest letdowns in television history, two of the biggest letdowns and endings in the world. Right.

SPEAKER_03 34:29

See, there's that perfect example of it, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 34:31

But we're but we're talking movies, we're not talking television.

SPEAKER_03 34:36

Life is a series of down endings because Every Hills Cop is talking about you know part four. We're talking about franchises and the serialization nature and how we got to this point over the last few years.

SPEAKER_00 34:48

So it's yeah, that's true. It's relevant. It's all tied together, yeah. It's all tied together.

SPEAKER_03 34:52

But yeah, um our second movie is uh is the palette cleanser for all the dark horror movies that we had to watch, but but also funnily enough, was serialized to death.

SPEAKER_00 35:03

Well, yeah, because it's a comic strip, which is the nature of serialization.

SPEAKER_03 35:08

Uh-huh. But this is uh a boy named Charlie Brown from 1969, and Peanuts the comic strip started in 1950, so it took them 19 years to get to a feature film. Yeah, they'd had about a half dozen uh TV specials before this movie, already nailing their classics Christmas, Great Pumpkin, and then this movie comes out. So uh it's kind of like the perfect installation of comic strip in film form in that way.

SPEAKER_00 35:42

It hadn't been they did their they did Race for Your Life and all those others before this.

SPEAKER_03 35:48

Oh no, those are the other theatrical movies. I they did a about a half dozen of their TV specials. Which was what Great Great Pumpkin. Yeah, those the little half-hour ones with the Dolly Madison commercials they'd show yearly on TV. But this was theatrical. Like this one to you had to go, oh, I'm gonna go see the Peanuts Gang on the big screen now.

SPEAKER_00 36:10

So the storyline Which doesn't happen for about a half hour because we have to learn how miserable Charlie Brown is before the perennial failure, Charlie Brown attends the National Spelling Bee and manages the worst Samlott team in the history of baseball. Linus loses and retrieves his security blanket. Snoopy the Beagle dances wildly and plays shortstop. The irrascible Lucy Van Pelt tricks Charlie Brown into kicking the football, but at the last minute she pulls it back and sends it flying onto his back. And although he loses the spelling bee, his friends gladly welcome Charlie Brown back to town upon his return. And uh features nearly two dozen songs and a talented voice cast.

SPEAKER_03 36:51

Yeah, it's kind of like if you were reading this in strip form, you'd read, you know, like a week's worth of one story, and then the next week would be about where's Linus' blanket, and then you know, they'd kind of bounce.

SPEAKER_00 37:02

It's very much yeah, it's very much like a you know, in car oh my goodness, how to explain this. I don't know if the peanuts did this, but I want to say they may have. But you know, cartoonists they do a weekly strip and then they have a big Sunday strip. Yeah, yeah, the big color. And usually they, you know, Calvin and Hobbes, that's that you you know, do you tie a story together and then culminate or start it on a Sunday or culminated on a Sunday. And the peanuts that these early on in these vignettes that he's doing in the sh in the movie feels very much like that. He's taking the best of each of those uh Sunday culminations and going, all right, let's do the uh let's do the dandelions on the on the pitcher's mound, and you know, hey Charlie Bryan, if you can't get your clothes on fast enough, we're gonna have to call the game because you keep getting your clothes knocked off. You know, that and then we'll do that whole thing. Then we'll then we'll switch over to, you know, uh feeding the dog and Snoopy and all that type of stuff, and then we'll switch over to the psychiatrist and the football, and then we'll switch over to uh Schroeder and his thing and Linus in the blanket, you know, and then we'll start the actual movie story. Yeah, right. Um this movie did what a lot of the same thing, yeah. Yeah, this this movie did what it I would and I was expecting it. I hadn't seen this in a very long time, so I didn't remember it hardly at all. But this movie did what a lot of movies in the 60s and the 70s that were animated did, where it would just kind of wander off story into a visual trip fest. Yeah, that's what I'm saying. And you're just like with a song and shit, and you're just like, okay, this I knew this is coming. Here we go. Here we go.

SPEAKER_03 38:44

It was uh trippiest of them, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 38:47

Yeah, I couldn't help but think. If you were on some some good psychedelics in the 60s, you probably would have gone to see that and quite enjoyed yourself.

SPEAKER_03 38:54

Yeah, by the time you get to 72's Snoopy Come Home, it's it's more subdued. And then the last two Race for Your Life and Bon Voyage, they're not really psychedelic at all. They're just yeah, they're just straight up animated, yeah, yeah, movies. Yeah, but back here, this is before Woodstock was a character. There's no Franklin, there's no Peppermint Patty. So she's no peppermint patty's in there.

SPEAKER_00 39:18

So Pig Pen gets to play uh a lot of background instead. Pigpin's in there, peppermint patty's in there. She's listed in the movie. Really? Yeah, but I'm pretty sure. Let me double check the let me double check the credits because I I could have sworn I saw that she was referenced in like a group. Yeah, Sally Dryer does Patty. She's just not called Pepper. She's just not called Peppermint Patty.

SPEAKER_03 39:40

That's another character. That's like Violet and Patty, those original. Oh, because she looked like Patty. Yeah, she's the other those two ones that are, you know, always picking on Charlie Brown with Lucy and singing that horrible song to him where it's like, wow, shaming in the 60s. No wonder we did this. Look, we're watching the movie where it's it's accepted. But think about it though. Lucy's really mean, but Charlie Brown and Linus are pretty fucking insufferable. So, I mean, again, it goes hand in hand, right?

SPEAKER_00 40:14

You know, it's it's hard after a while to feel bad for Charlie Brown when the dude is such a fricking bummer. It's like, dude. Yeah, he needs he's very depressed. Even Linus is like, come on, just be positive. Eventually it'll work out for you.

SPEAKER_03 40:32

And Linus is just completely addicted to his blanket, you know. Oh god. It's crazy. That thing's like the Doctor Strange's cloak, you know. Yeah, why would he give it to Charlie Brown at all?

SPEAKER_00 40:48

You know you're just gonna you know you're just gonna be Jones and for your fucking heroin in a day or two. What are you doing?

SPEAKER_03 40:54

And so then Charlie Brown's like, I don't even know what happened to your blanket. And it's like one of two things.

SPEAKER_00 41:04

He either is gaslighting Linus because he doesn't give a shit, and he knows where this blanket is, or two He's just thinking, fuck you, Linus, fuck you and take your blanket, motherfucker. That might actually be what it is, actually.

SPEAKER_03 41:19

But it might that's why I've always think this is definitely for adults, too, because there's shit that goes right over kids' heads in this, sure, especially these older ones. Sure. But I also think it what it might be is Charlie Brown don't give a shit about anybody. He's not paying attention to any details. You think he would know what Linus's blanket looks like after all this time? No, he don't know. He's just in the shoes with it.

SPEAKER_00 41:47

Yeah, yeah. I mean, he's he is in the middle of trying to win a spelling bee and he's gonna be on Timmy, so he's got a lot going on. He has a lot going on.

SPEAKER_02 41:55

That is the excuse.

SPEAKER_00 41:56

Yeah, he's absolutely um uh this is this is you know, this is classic. It's got all of the early classic peanut tropes. Um like we like we like I talked about. Um my favorite being my and I rem I remember now really loving Schroeder playing classical. I love that as a kid. And I love Snoopy and the Red Baron stuff. And so you get that early Snoopy and the Red Baron with his dreams and shit, and that was great.

SPEAKER_03 42:28

I just I ate I ate that up. And the Schroeder part is probably the trippiest part in the whole movie. Yeah, it is. Like, well, I'm watching Yellow Submarine for a second almost. Yeah, exactly. That's my thought exactly.

SPEAKER_02 42:40

Yes.

SPEAKER_03 42:42

Yeah. I like how it opens up the world of peanuts a bit. They're walking through the neighborhood house to house, and then they walk up to the what we call the peanuts wall, and then they stand by it. I'm like, oh, so that's what it looks like walking up to that little brick wall where they always stand at. This is kind of neat how they use the wide screen, and he keeps talking about, I don't want to see my uh problems projected onto a big screen. I'm like, and well, that's what the movie is, you know, we're seeing you on the big screen now, so meta in that respect. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 43:20

Sorry, I feel like you were gonna say I uh um I I mean I have a few notes. Um you know, like I said, I I get that that's the shtick, that's Charlie Bowne's kind of shtick, but that I I that downer sort of attitude kind of get can get a little tiring. And this is for kids.

SPEAKER_03 43:48

Yeah, and this is for kids especially for adults.

SPEAKER_00 43:51

Um uh Lucy Van Pelt is an app absolute fucking sociopath as a as a child, and I I'm sure she grows up to be in a woman's prison somewhere after having probably killed some dude and forged a bunch of fucking checks in his name or something.

SPEAKER_03 44:07

I also realized Charlie Brown doesn't deserve to get kicked football. After all these years, I've come to that conclusion. Like, yeah, you know. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 44:18

Yeah. Um yeah, I was a little bit disappointed there was no more, there was no I I mean, and we we can agree Peppermint Patty's lesbian, right? Like that's that's kind of the like where they're. I mean, there's there's innuendo, but there's there's um Was she just kind of sporty?

SPEAKER_03 44:37

There they're probably her and Marcy. I mean, obviously the comic. I'm not trying to imply that the two of them were going out, but I just if you look if you look at it just as a story, it does appear that there might be some buy going on. Yeah, but there's no but there's no one way or the other, but it might be more of a more complicated than that.

SPEAKER_00 44:59

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 45:00

In one of the latter one of the latter theatrical movies, Marcy gets a boyfriend. Right, right.

SPEAKER_00 45:07

I don't think Pepper McPatty responds too well to it.

SPEAKER_03 45:11

Um I remember. That might be the uh Race for Your Life movie.

SPEAKER_00 45:19

I wonder if that has anything to do or coincide at all with um I re saw a documentary where um apparently he was very good friends with Billie Jean King. Um yeah. I I I I saw a documentary on her on her on her tennis career, and and she met him, I guess, during the time when she was going through the whole thing with um uh Bobby Riggs and all that type of thing, and trying to and fighting to get you know equal pay and shit like that. Um that she met him somehow, and I think she called him Sparky. Makes sense. I want to say was the nickname, yeah. Yeah, nickname that she had for his nickname, yeah. Yeah, and she so she talked a lot about him affectionately and and what a great guy he was, and what a good he really helped her. Not I don't know, I don't I can't remember, and I don't want to uh assign anything to it, but I what I remember is he kind of helped her kind of be her true self or at least kind of uh fight the fights that she was fighting. And so I thought that was interesting. I don't know, I'm not saying that peppermint patty and that type of thing has anything to do, but I wonder if that's all.

SPEAKER_03 46:27

He was very aggressive, though.

SPEAKER_00 46:29

Yeah, he maybe it's all exactly maybe it's all tight. He's seeing it happen in real life and he starts to put it into his art, maybe type of thing.

unknown 46:35

I don't know.

SPEAKER_03 46:36

Because it never nothing is ever outright, but it's like we talk about with intentional fallacy and subtext, and it's it goes back to chasing Amy in the Archie conversation, right? We're gonna go across the street and stack Archies, you know. Right. It's just it's something to talk about. Yeah. Yeah. I think it could be Bon Voyage Charlie Brown where Marcy gets a boyfriend, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 47:01

Yeah. I'd have to look more into it and maybe maybe dig into that. I haven't I don't know much about Schultz's life or his personal, you know, um his, you know, why he created certain characters the way he did or or or moved on, you know. Um it's interesting that uh go go ahead.

SPEAKER_03 47:17

I'll I'll say my thought after.

SPEAKER_00 47:19

No, um I that was I was uh yeah, I think that was it.

SPEAKER_03 47:24

Oh, okay. Uh I think it's interesting that they get their first theatrical film almost 20 years into the strip's existence, which is probably perfect time because they've had enough time to saturate, people know what it is, you know, and it's ready to come out. And then you get basically three more theatrical peanuts movies in the 70s, and I'm thinking, oh, that 70s must have been when they were at their height of popularity. 20 to 30 years of their run, they're starting to put the toys in stores, which is invince the modern bookstore. There'd probably be no Amazon.com without the peanuts, if you really think about it. And uh then after you get through the three movies, Bon Voyage is in 1980, and so now we go into the 80s, and they're still popular, but you're starting to get things like Flash Beagle, and it's starting to drop off a little bit until inevitably in the year 2000 it stops at 50 years of production. It made me think the other night, maybe this is the fate of The Simpsons 50 years, and then it'll just disappear into the e in the evening, and no one will even notice. And occasionally it'll it'll pop up here and there because it's always going to be there, but that will be its run because the last the people who got the nostalgia from the people who already had nostalgia have come and gone, and then it just runs its course. And I bet all those other animated shows will follow course in about 2040. So let's let's see if I'm correct on that. But that's what the made me think that, yeah, the peanuts were incredibly popular in the 70s, right? Didn't it seem like they were everything? Oh god, yeah. Yeah, yeah, they were huge.

SPEAKER_00 49:10

Um yeah, um, yeah, they were they were freaking huge. Uh, I remember them being all over. Um I mean, I had a Woodstock, especially at that point, was very big. Snoopy and Woodstock were, I think, were probably carrying the peanuts mostly at that point.

SPEAKER_03 49:30

And this is like right before Woodstock is 69, and that's where that character's name comes from. But yeah, they were that duo was shh. I mean, he he'd been doing the strip for over 20 years, and then he strikes gold with Woodstock. Yeah. Talk about fucking and you bring a new character into a TV show or something later on, and you people hate that shit. You bring this little yellow bird in there, and boom. Yep. Through the fucking roof. And then Peppermint Patty, Marcy, Franklin, there were still a few other newer characters that he introduced that still ended up getting more and more popular.

SPEAKER_00 50:17

Yeah, so that's I'm I'm I'm quickly, I guess. Huh? I'm quickly perusing an NPR article, and and I I kind of got it right, sort of. Um he was a big proponent of tile nine. He became a friend of Billie Jean King's. He he actually included her in the strips at some certain points, and he created Peppermint Patty to be uh uh uh she's the best athlete. She's basically like a a you know, girl jock playing sports and all that type of thing. Um and he did that because he yeah, he wanted to um add clout to Title IX, which you know is Title IX all about bringing quality in sports for women. Um so that's that's an interesting yeah.

SPEAKER_03 51:08

Yeah, because you know, everybody bought the newspaper back then, and so everybody read the funny pages, and so Peanuts was really a part of people's lives as much as any of those other strips were back then in that pre-internet world. Mm-hmm. What I really liked about this movie was the old school cell animation.

SPEAKER_00 51:29

You know, it's been a while since it's been a while since I'd seen an actual fucking hand-drawn animated movie, so that was really kind of nice.

SPEAKER_03 51:37

I appreciate that craft, you know. And you could tell they stepped it up from the TV specials because they're like, okay, this is the one going to the theaters now, so we're gonna we're gonna try some things. We're gonna experiment a little bit.

SPEAKER_00 51:53

Yeah, no, it it looked great. I mean, it it like I said, it it it kind of it kind of takes a like like you're always going to know.

SPEAKER_03 52:04

Um movies between 68 and 80 assume you're on acid.

SPEAKER_00 52:09

Yeah, yeah, it's yeah, it's gonna wander here and there, it's gonna give you pretty things to look at. It's always gonna have a musical number or two that had that isn't about moving the story along or anything, it's just you know it's just a diversion, yeah, total frippery. Yeah, just you're just adding time.

SPEAKER_03 52:27

And yet you can chop it into like three half-hour segments kind of perfectly, you know. Charlie Brown's depressed, Charlie Brown's in the spelling bean, and then Charlie Brown's coming back. You know, how dark uh shit, I'm trying I'm talking about giving you a light movie. How dark is it after he comes in second place, which is not bad in the spelling bee, and they fucking turn on him like he's a piece of shit. That's how you would shame people back then, it was normal. And he rides home all by himself, it's in the bed, and he's just sitting there in the dark, just yeah, and it's like, oh my god.

SPEAKER_00 53:05

I know, I know it all. Well, and you know, you people talk about social anxiety now, dude. I mean, the social anxiety was so bad when we were kids that it would just keep you from trying something. You would just be like, if I if I can't be the best in school at it, there's no point in even trying it because I'm not gonna come in second or third and get laughed at or fifth. Yeah, you know, you know, the fear of getting laughed at was like paralyzing. I don't laugh at you.

SPEAKER_03 53:36

And these kids are all assholes, they're all just terrible. Oh, they're terrible, and Charlie Brown's terrible too. And and and Snoopy hates him. Snoopy loves him, but he hates him. He mostly wants to get fed. Yep, he puts up with Charlie Brown, is what I should say. We learn more about that in the sequel when he leaves, when Snoopy goes on his little adventure, you know.

SPEAKER_00 54:03

Yeah, what doesn't somebody say Charlie Brown Esquire? And doesn't Esquire mean lawyer? Probably.

SPEAKER_03 54:11

I mean, if Lucy's becoming his high-powered agent that wants 10% of him, you know, I wouldn't be surprised. Um Jerry Maguire all over again. She's one of the bad agents, you know. She's not a booster for you.

SPEAKER_00 54:28

It's it's slightly subversive. It's it's got some slightly subversive stuff in there, especially for the time. Um skating Snoopy has always been a fave of mine too. I love that. Um they usually get rally a lot of the subversive lines, yeah. Yeah, exactly.

SPEAKER_03 54:47

Because she's the innocent one. Yeah. Oh, I like the Snoopy skating diversion too. That's another one of those just yeah. You just go off a little thing for a few minutes. What was I watching?

SPEAKER_02 54:58

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 54:59

It's like the Red Baron thing. It's really kind of it's fun. It's it has nothing to do with the story or anything, but it's this nice fun diversion. Um it's an indulgent movie. I mean, it wanders, it kind of lingers, it doesn't really have much of a plot.

SPEAKER_03 55:15

Yeah, they didn't know how to make a 90-minute structure yet.

SPEAKER_00 55:17

Yeah, no, but it's still super charming and super engaging.

SPEAKER_03 55:22

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 55:23

Like it's I I can see why people like it. Um, I absolutely it was like, like you said, it's it was a great palette cleanser after all those uh after all the horror movies. It really was. It was nice to like shit. I hadn't seen this since I was a little kid. Yeah, and surprisingly, it still really holds up for for an older viewer. Like it's not, especially once you get past the first 20 minutes. Yeah, like but when we got to the end, I was like, oh shit, it's over. Like, oh, okay, well fuck. Because it was it went it, you know, it really it moved really well. It was fun. I enjoyed it. Um one of my notes is someone find this kid his fucking blanket already.

SPEAKER_03 56:07

Oh yeah, that was that was uh reminds me of some of the other movies we've watched where they've leaned into one particular person screaming the same thing too many times. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 56:21

Um but it but when he gets the blanket and he does that dance, I was laughing. That was really funny. Um it has that early tech, I don't know what to call it. Um you remember the Lord of the Rings movie from the 70s? And I think Bashke did it in Wizards where they take where they would animate over live action that they had tracing over the shot and then tree rotoscoping, yeah. Was that what it was? I think that's the term for it. But it it had some of that where you could see live people at certain parts moving around, and then they had drawn over it, especially during I think the um the Schroeder stuff.

SPEAKER_03 57:02

Oh, yeah, that makes sense. Yeah, they were probably experimenting with some of those different animation techniques.

SPEAKER_00 57:08

Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. It was interesting, it was good.

SPEAKER_03 57:12

Yeah, it has it starts like boyhood. That shot of them as laying in the grass, just you know, up at the sky, and I'm like, that's kind of perfect. Uh, and you know, it's true, if you learn these rules, you can spell the thing. You should say boyhood, boyhood starts like this, right? And the song implies that all these kids are gonna grow up. I don't think Rod McEwen understands peanuts. Uh but it's true, if you learn these rules, you can spell just about anything. Of their little song about, you know, and they go through all the different words, including coding and things, but it seems weird, but it's because of the way they're spelled. And I think I even learned something about there was only three words that end it in E D E, right? Right, and it's like, hey, that's right, you know, I never thought of it that way. Or C E D E, right? Yeah, C E E. You think I should pay more attention to this movie? I could, you know, C B D expert spiller. Uh the four there's fourth wall breaks, and then there's fourth wall breaks that are done as the thoughts as well. So I thought that was kind of interesting. You know, the fourth wall break is continuing, and Charlie Brown is talking to the audience through his thoughts. So it's just like, oh, a level on top of a level. It's a ninth wall break. And then I said, yes, this is all pre-Woodstock, and Schroeder's Trip was one of my notes. And uh yeah, I mean, out of the four movies they made, and there's that fifth movie, the Pixar-ish one, which is okay. Uh, I think this is the best of the original movies because they it starts to become a little diminishing returns, they start feeling like longer specials, those they're still fun, but there's nothing quite as interesting as this relic from 1969 with its little tangents that it goes on, and it's its weird psychedelic trips, and then teaching you how to be a better speller at the same time.

SPEAKER_00 59:26

I um I enjoy it. Um I I I really thought it was good. Um I I I did remember it being as kind of harsh in certain ways as it was, you know. Like they really shit on Charlie Brown and he really shits on himself. Um but at the same time, uh, it's really well done. Uh it's in g like I said, it's charming and it's engaging, it's funny. Um it in in put in parts where it really needs to be funny.

SPEAKER_03 1:00:02

Uh I think kids and adults could still watch this today. There's sure for each, you know.

SPEAKER_00 1:00:08

Yeah, I mean it's an it's an older type of of of you know storytelling, but you know, I kids love cartoons, they'll watch any, you know, any any kid under 10 years will watch any cartoon you put in front of them, probably. And there's something they probably enjoy it.

SPEAKER_03 1:00:24

Yeah, I completely agree.

SPEAKER_00 1:00:27

What were you saying about you think you could put you could put it in front of a kid or yeah, like I said, I think you could put it in front of a kid now, and I think you probably enjoy it. I think um Yeah, like I said, it's different. It's not like you know, boss baby or Shrek, but at the same time it's it's interesting enough and it's weird enough that I think the kids will get it and enjoy it. You know. And in the end, there is a sort of a uh weird friendship amongst all those kids, you know, even with little sociopath Lucy running around and weird ass Linus in his blanket and you know, Charlie Brown's sister who has the hots for Linus and won't leave him alone, and you know, that's good stuff.

SPEAKER_03 1:01:21

Well, I'm gonna give it two and a half. It's not like the most amazing thing in the world, but it's it's very pleasant. You know, it's a leaning towards a three, but it has some pacing issues and whatnot, but I think it's just kind of like, yeah, that's that's fine. It's not really gonna bother anybody, I don't think.

SPEAKER_00 1:01:40

And I mean, I think uh I think I'm probably gonna give it three stars. Yeah, I could see that too, you know. Uh I do think it's a classic. I think it's classic for a reason. Um, I think it influenced a lot of things that came after it, you know. Um, and really what killed it is probably gonna be the invention of cartoons for toys, you know, cartoons that sell toys.

SPEAKER_03 1:02:06

Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:02:07

You know, this idea of cartoons that are are specifically the Transformers and you know G.I. Joe and uh all the stuff, you know, Munchi Chi and fucking Dungeons and Dragons and all the stuff that's basically just created to sell you a product, you know. Peanuts wasn't was never created to sell you a product other than something to give you something to read in a comic book strip. You know, just trying to put it all into three panels, you know. Yeah, it's I mean it's the reason it's the reason Waterson walked away from it, right? Like he's just like, look, if you're just gonna commercialize my art, not pay me for it first off, but also do it in a way that I don't want you to do, I'm done. I'm not doing it anymore. You know, that's our fault. We don't have any more Calvin and Hobbs.

SPEAKER_03 1:02:50

Yeah, and and Schultz had uh a good control over his his uh work over that 50 years, and then over the last 24 years, uh they've kept it pretty respectful. I think King's Road Syndicate or whoever it is still owns it. So Peanuts hasn't been bought by Disney or a conglomerate, so it's just been what it should be. That's why that that 3D rendered movie they did a few years back was more of just based off of old strips and stuff. So they're not really writing new content, they're just right taking what was there because you got 50 years worth of shit and making more of it. I think they did a kid's show that was 3D rendered that was on the same concept after the movie where it's like, okay, we're gonna mine the strips storylines and make that rather than well.

SPEAKER_00 1:03:44

I mean, if there's I mean, if he's got 30 to 40 years of storylines, he's got there should be enough there to tell the right stories. It's I I for years have said quietly to people around me that I can't believe that nobody's come up with a Calvin and Hobbes script and convinced Waterson to make to make an animated movie, you know. Because it's just a hand-drawn animated movie, it just works in the in the strip file. I think it's I think it's also back to the whole idea of not you know, and if you if you tip one way or the other, he doesn't come off right, you know.

SPEAKER_03 1:04:25

Calvin has to exist in your mind. And yet Charlie Brown was so universal with their characters from abroad, right? Like he's just depressed, he's on the spectrum, she's crazy, she's crushing. And then we have the peppermint patty marcy situation, we've got pig pen, that's a whole thing to unpack right there. The little red-headed girl, we haven't even gone into that yet. And then you saw how they published how many they published all the strips in those hardback books, right? Didn't that take 15 years or some shit? And there's like 45 volumes, or yeah, it's taking a lot to go through. I wish I had the time to sit down and read the whole 50 years. I think I'd be fascinated by just seeing what that would be.

SPEAKER_00 1:05:16

I mean, enough of the specials, yeah. Yeah, I bet you that's enlightening to watch him to watch his his not only his probably his storytelling grow and his but his also his art grow, introducing the new characters. You know, again, part peppermint patty comes from that whole his whole push for Title IX and this idea of trying to normalize women playing sports. Um because weirdly enough, it's you know, that's that's that was not a thing that women did very often.

SPEAKER_03 1:05:44

And supposedly the longest continual narrative written by one person fifty years, one person, same story, nonstop. Sheesh. I don't think anybody else has has topped that. It's pretty crazy if you think about it in that respect. And I I really appreciate this the comic strip in general, because what a hard thing to do. You have a couple panels and you have to hit it. And you have to hit it a couple times a week. And people still do it, you know, but it's not the same as when the newspapers run around. I wonder what the comic strip nowadays.

SPEAKER_00 1:06:25

My uh so I I have a weird perspective on this because my friend's kid, he requested for his birthday. I asked him where he wanted for his birthday, and he said, I want to get the paper because he had learned about comic book strips. He was reading me this he was reading Garfield, his dad has a bunch of old Garfields and he was going through them, and his dad was like, Yeah, these used to come, you used to get these in the newspaper. And he's like, What are you talking about? And he's like, Yeah, there was a whole section called the comics in the newspaper. And so I I did. I bought him the I bought him the the uh the Sunday run. I just bought him the Sunday run. There's no way I was buying all daily, but uh I bought him the Sunday run for a year. I think it was I don't know, 40 bucks, fifty bucks. And uh yeah, he found that you know there's a whole Sunday section, he got really into comics and comic books and that whole thing from that. Got really um but I guess there's so I guess they're still doing 'em. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 1:07:19

You know, it's just uh a little different. I remember, you know, when we were in our heavy comic book phase, I'd be getting a lot of trade paperbacks and collections like that. And so whenever they'd put up like a new far side collection or uh whatever the strip was, those were always like those nice, you know, Life from Hell was uh was the one that I was extremely excited about when I found because I was I was reading that way before Simpsons. And then Tracy Ullman Skits, that's how long ago that was. It's crazy to think. I knew Cliff, but Cliff knew me, and there was no TV show called The Simpsons yet. No, isn't that insane? But it's true, it's so true. Wow. Well, I'm thinking about you know how our rating system on this show and how sometimes it can be all over the place, but I think that's great because between the two of our ratings, you get a good idea of what's good in the movie and what's not good in the movie, right? Yeah, like if one of us gives it one and the other gives it five, well, obviously there's something to it, and obviously something to it that's probably shitty too, but yeah, always worth watching.

SPEAKER_00 1:08:35

Well, and I mean if you if you tend to agree more with one or the other of us when we're reviewing these and you've seen these movies, you go, Oh yeah, I've seen that, he's right. Oh, the old scene. Then you know on the ones that you haven't seen which one that you probably will agree with, right? Like, I don't want to see that. He said it was terrible. But yeah, so Axe Lef and a boy named Charlie Brown. So I guess that leaves us. So that means next week we have is that special guest?

SPEAKER_03 1:09:04

That was a good palette cleanser. Yeah, next week, uh yeah, that was a good one. Do this special guest for them. Let's uh okay do the first talking pondo with a guest. Let's try this one out. Yes, who should come on as the guest?

SPEAKER_00 1:09:21

Let's bring on Drew.

SPEAKER_03 1:09:24

Sure. Why not? Why not? I like it because it mixes it up even more because then you have to wait for his making episode down the line. Yes, I like it. So let's see. Drew, what movie do you want to give us? And then you give it. He's giving us the adventures of Buckaroo Bonsai Across the Eighth Dimension. Oh, okay. So we're gonna give him what are we gonna give him? Uh that that CGI fest from the 80s you were talking about, Escape from New York. We'll give him that. Okay. Works for me. Why not? So that'll be next week. And then what's the movies that we're giving each other the week after that? Because you know, we need to announce that too for reasons. Well, then that's gonna be the first ever talking pondo Thanksgiving special. Woohoo! Where we're picking movies that are Thanksgiving themed, I guess.

SPEAKER_00 1:10:28

And I and I think this one's gonna come out like really close to Thanksgiving. Like it's gonna be dropped November 25th, I think. Yeah, so it'll it'll be it'll be either right after Thanksgiving or right before. The Monday after or right before Thanksgiving.

SPEAKER_03 1:10:44

I think it's the like that week of like a couple of days before. So okay, so I gotta come up with a Thanksgiving movie to give you. Uh uh Planes, trains, and automobiles?

SPEAKER_00 1:10:55

No. No, fourth, fourth Thursday will be the 22nd, so it'll be the Monday after will be the okay.

SPEAKER_03 1:11:01

Well, it's still gonna be your Thanksgiving one. How about planes, trains, and automobiles? Is that acceptable for Thanksgiving? I would think that that's a they're they're trying to get home for Thanksgiving, right? Thanksgiving and it's a child would use movie. We haven't done one of those. Yeah, yeah, I like that. Yeah, I'll give you that one. How's that?

SPEAKER_00 1:11:19

Okay, all right. I like that. Yeah, that's a good call. I'm gonna give you, and and you can tell me if you agree with this, if you think this is a Thanksgiving movie. Uh, I'm gonna give you Adam's Family Values. Oh, okay.

SPEAKER_03 1:11:33

Uh, you know, I haven't seen it in so long that I'm gonna say yes.

SPEAKER_00 1:11:38

So, I mean, there is a there is a Thanksgiving play in the movie.

SPEAKER_03 1:11:42

Oh, that's right. Yes, now I remember, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:11:45

So I think that that's close enough to Thanksgiving.

SPEAKER_03 1:11:49

Because picking out the Thanksgiving movies are a little tricky. But cool. I already have that laid out. So next week we got our first ever talking with guests with two sci-fi classics, and then the episode after that was our Thanksgiving special. And why did we announce the Thanksgiving special now? Because we don't announce it on the talking with guest episode, that's why. That's right. We want to let you know what's up so you can watch the movies ahead of time. That's right. Trying to, you know, get you guys excited about what's gonna happen next. Mixing the format around a bit, you know. We got more interesting stuff for you for the rest of the year. The year's winding down, then we hit January with episode 50. It's gonna be a fun way to start the year. Yes, sir. And boy, has this been a long one. You never know which ones are gonna be the long ones.

SPEAKER_00 1:12:39

Yeah. Well, you know, I think we had quite a bit, you had you had quite a bit to say about uh Peanuts I the two. Um and Axel F itself.

SPEAKER_03 1:12:48

Yeah, um, kind of have to talk about the whole series, jumping into part four as the first one.

SPEAKER_00 1:12:53

So yeah, yeah. Part five coming your way. We'll be seeing that in a couple years. That'll be great. A good day to Beverly Hills Cop. Who doesn't want more Eddie Murphy as Axl Foley? Live free or Beverly Hills Cop. Live free or Axl Foley.

SPEAKER_01 1:13:10

Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER_00 1:13:12

All right, Marty. Well, I guess until um well, I guess two weeks from now, yeah. Well, because we're gonna do the Drew Drew later too.

unknown 1:13:20

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 1:13:20

I see you then. Right on later.