Field Of Dreams / The Tommy Wiseau Cut (Guest: Derek McFadden)

Novelist (The Santa Claus Agreement / All Systems Snow), and literary editor Derek McFadden ' reemerges from the corn rows to guest, and have a back and fourth bout "Field Of Dreams” (1989) Starring: Kevin Costner, Amy Madigan, Ray Liotta, James Earl Jones, and Ed Harris (Maybe?). The voices in our heads want us to talk to you about “Maniac Cop” (1988), familial bonds, convenience, being an ever evolving person, “Maniac Cop” (1988 now on Tubi), and CORN. Join us for this version of baseball, where there's PLENTY of crying. Listen to the voice in your head, hop in the VW bus, and let’s go! "Maniac Cop"...

Plot: Iowa farmer Ray Kinsella is inspired by a voice he can't ignore to pursue a dream he can hardly believe. Supported by his wife, Ray begins the quest by turning his ordinary cornfield into a place where dreams can come true.

Recorded 10/23
1hr 54mins

Transcript

SPEAKER_07 0:00

The chili's no longer burning my eyes. Well, that's good.

SPEAKER_04 0:03

Yeah, which is nice. Our voices are now burning your ears. Yeah. Did you hear that maniacal laugh? I heard it. Someone someone's back. Someone's back. And his name is Derek McFadden, my brother.

SPEAKER_03 0:18

That's me. I'm back. He's back. Hey, welcome back. I forced my way into the studio. You're welcome.

SPEAKER_07 0:24

That's what it was. Uh hey, welcome back, Derek, to the review review. As well as you, listener. Not a problem. And you know the concept of this show, Derek, as well as you, listener, but just in case, we take a film that's seven years old or older that's brought to us by our guest. One person at least has seen that film and has strong feelings about it. We all watch it separately, come up with a fresh rating, talk through the movie, and give a super fresh new rating. Derek, you came here uh with a film called Field of Dreams.

SPEAKER_03 1:01

Dream uh Dreams. Field of Dreams.

SPEAKER_07 1:05

Field of Dreams. And that's kind of fun because we're just coming into the World Series championship of American baseball.

SPEAKER_04 1:16

Yeah. Yes. Apropos. You know, just getting our cracker jacks and our hot dogs and our$20 beers.

SPEAKER_07 1:24

I could yeah, when they said like two beers and two dogs, seven dollars, and I was like, what the what?

SPEAKER_04 1:30

Holy shit. I was like, what can we go? Can we can we randomly walk down a street and end up back in 1989 so we can Yeah.

SPEAKER_07 1:38

I almost wanted to look it up in the inflation calendar and the calculator that I look so many things up in.

SPEAKER_04 1:44

That's two beers and two hot dogs. So does that mean like the hot dog is a dollar fifty or something?

SPEAKER_03 1:49

And like it was seven dollars and fifty cents. So I think each. I think that's right. But that's maybe each, yeah.

SPEAKER_07 1:56

Either way, crazy, crazy. I know the Milwaukee had to stop some pretty crazy beer promos that they were doing on beers a few years ago because because the pricing was so good and people just got out of hand.

SPEAKER_04 2:14

So Derek was with us, uh, if you recall everyone, with Galaxy Quest. How are you? Tell the good folks who you are and what you do.

SPEAKER_03 2:25

I am a writer. I'm Ben's brother, first of all. That's it. I'm a I'm a writer, uh Brave guy. So it wasn't my it wasn't my choice, but it happened.

SPEAKER_07 2:35

Um just so patient.

SPEAKER_03 2:40

I I I am I am happy that my parents made one of my best friends, so it's awesome.

SPEAKER_07 2:45

Um okay, there you go.

SPEAKER_03 2:48

Right there. Um, and but also I have just released the audio version of my new book, The Santa Claus Agreement, and there will be a short story collection of all Christmas stories coming out in November called All Systems Snow. Pun, all systems snow. I get it. You know I love a pun.

SPEAKER_05 3:07

You know I love that.

SPEAKER_03 3:09

Yeah, so that's what I'm up to. Uh this wonderful last weekend, I decided to get the flu shot and the COVID shot at the same time. Oh so uh on Saturday for about 12 hours, I was delirious. I apparently was making no sense and thought I was speaking in full sentences, but was not.

SPEAKER_07 3:29

But your Wi-Fi was at 500 MBPS, which is crazy.

SPEAKER_03 3:34

That's true. Yeah, so good.

SPEAKER_04 3:38

Uh where can folks find your audiobook?

SPEAKER_03 3:41

The Amazons, the Audibles. Just search for the Santa Claus Agreement or search my name. It is Derek McFadden, and uh you can find that audiobook plus the original um audiobook for my original novel, What Death Taught Terrence. And both of those are narrated by BJ Harrison. He is great, he does the classic tales podcast, he's awesome.

SPEAKER_04 4:03

So oh, very cool. Cool. Get your get your books from Bezos. Only the best. Only the best from Bezos.

SPEAKER_07 4:12

That's true. Um, oh wait, did you guys hear that? Holy smokes. I didn't. I was gonna ask how you were doing. Oh, how am I burning?

SPEAKER_04 4:21

I didn't hear anything. I thought I I think it was Billy.

SPEAKER_03 4:23

I thought it was Billy Zane, but maybe I'm wrong.

SPEAKER_07 4:26

No, we know that Derek is getting great Wi-Fi reception and has some cool stuff coming.

SPEAKER_04 4:32

Yeah. How are you doing? I am doing well. I am um I'm doing good. I am doing I am doing fine. Yeah. I am uh I'm a little wee sleepy today. Full tie tie. You know, kind of recovering after our our hobbit party.

SPEAKER_03 4:47

Because you were the host with the most babe.

SPEAKER_04 4:48

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 4:49

And that was some good pictures of that hobbit party.

SPEAKER_04 4:51

I had a little hobbit party for my wife. Uh she was a potato. And so other than that, you know. Pretty good. Yeah. Very good. Free balling. Free.

SPEAKER_07 5:06

Free balling. Free balling. Paul, how are you? I'm doing all right. You know, my back's still real weird doing weird shit. I think we'll beat this to air. I want to mention uh despite my back doing weird shit, go check uh check out our former guest Riley Shanahan in a Midsummer Night's Dream if we can. Uh, I had a great time. And uh also I got one of the big pieces for the home theater update. I got the Xbox Series X. I haven't really cracked it open. You can expect that I'll probably be delirious like Derek was, like, until like two or three in the morning, probably playing Resident Evil 4 on that stupid, great, wonderful, probably thing that I'm so happy I have in my life.

SPEAKER_04 5:48

That's so good. I love video games.

SPEAKER_07 5:49

Yeah, I don't I don't play them that much, like, but uh the ones that get me excited, like I just get pulled in so deep, so hard.

SPEAKER_03 5:58

Yeah, tell us what gets you excited, Paul.

SPEAKER_04 6:01

Things that go deep. Did you get so del you get so delirious you hear voices? Sometimes. Or noises. I meant noises.

SPEAKER_03 6:07

Noises out in the fields.

unknown 6:09

He will come.

SPEAKER_07 6:11

Make sure you let the right one in. Ask first. If you rub it, you will come. Ask first, please.

SPEAKER_02 6:18

Can I come inside?

SPEAKER_07 6:21

But hey!

SPEAKER_04 6:23

Did you hear a banging? Oh that was I heard a bang. That was Billy. That was Billy banging, baby.

SPEAKER_03 6:28

That's Billy. Here we go.

unknown 6:30

What am I watching? Watching. What am I watching? What am I watching? What am I watching?

SPEAKER_07 6:47

There it is. I'm gonna, you know, I'm gonna take control of this. Ben, yeah. What are you watching?

SPEAKER_04 6:52

What am I watching? You know, I watched a few of the MLB playoff games. Um get your cracker jacks, get your hot dogs, get your beers, cold beers. Sure. Also enjoy still watching the NFL. But I think what I really want to talk about is that I saw uh with you, Paul, we went and saw a little movie, uh, just a short little movie called Killers of the Flower Moon.

SPEAKER_07 7:17

It was a collection of 87 short films.

SPEAKER_04 7:19

Yeah. Uh and I quite enjoyed it. I I didn't think I was gonna enjoy it as much as I did, actually. And uh I really enjoyed it.

SPEAKER_07 7:27

I agree. It does a really good job of just making the gross people gross the whole time.

SPEAKER_04 7:32

Yeah, I mean I I have I have a few qualms, but I think overall, I think strong performances and uh really strong script and Scorsese back in some some of his like I feel like he really hits it with crime crime thrillers.

SPEAKER_07 7:48

Sure.

SPEAKER_04 7:48

Not the Irishman for me, but you know.

SPEAKER_07 7:51

Yeah. I I think he does well with historical stuff in general as well. So very much in his wheelhouse. Yeah. What are you watching? Uh you know, okay, I'll go. I'll go. Derek, is that alright with you?

SPEAKER_03 8:02

I think go go ahead. I'll go.

SPEAKER_07 8:03

I'm gonna go.

SPEAKER_03 8:04

I have comments on Flower Moon, but I'll wait.

SPEAKER_07 8:07

Oh, okay. No, no, you know what?

SPEAKER_03 8:08

Give the gimme. Gimme. So um I liked it, I didn't love it, and I left the theater kind of feeling gross. But I think that was kind of the intent.

SPEAKER_04 8:21

Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I think it's it's a history lesson in some way, but I think also let that's okay to feel that way. Yeah, I just I because I I probably won't watch it again.

SPEAKER_03 8:34

For me, it's like United 93. I don't need to see that again, and I don't need to see killers again. Great movies, both, just no.

SPEAKER_07 8:42

I have a big list of movies that are really wonderful that I recommend you watch if you can stand it, and then never watch again. It's like Henry Portrait of a Serial Killer's on there, or like 12 Years a Slave or Shame, like 12 Years a Slave, Steve Clay. Like, but like so many movies that it's like uh I put Dead Poet Society on that list. Like, watch this once and then probably step away. In terms of me, what have I been watching? I have been re-watching a chunk of and now into a new chunk for me of Veeep, which has been fucking great. It's been so wonderful. I'd never seen it. Oh man, it's it's great. If you have Max, uh give it a whirl. Okay, really, really give it a whirl. And I, as I like to dig for little gems, is like as it was proven on Mythbusters, and now by me. Eventually you can polish a turd and make it shine. I uh at 4 30 in the morning the other morning, because my back wasn't feeling great and such, watched a little film called Maniac Cop, directed by a gentleman named William Lustig, I believe. And it started like Bruce Campbell and uh Tom Atkins from Halloween 3 and a bunch of other people, but it was like surprisingly good in a way on a level, depending on how you look at it. And I watched the sequel, and that was good too. And I had a great time. They were streaming on Tubi that had commercials, but you know me. I don't I don't mind commercials too much. Sure. And I had a I had a good time with those. So if you are still in a spooky mood as we're coming out of spooky season, yeah, let it let it let it ride. Roll the dice. Why not?

SPEAKER_06 10:24

Are you willing to roll the dice on your family, life, and future?

SPEAKER_03 10:30

Derek. Okay, I unfortunately went and saw the creator, which while it is while while it is well shot because it is well, um, it's well shot because I believe Greg Frazier is the is the cinematographer, so it's gonna look beautiful, but it is the amalgamation of about four sci-fi plots, neither of which neither of which is brought to full fruition, and it just and with about an hour left, you're like, okay, when is this ending and can I leave? The first ten the the first ten minutes is great, but it reminded me in a lot of ways of Tomorrowland, where for me the first 10 minutes of that film, wonderful. If it had been that movie all the way through, it would be one of my favorite movies.

SPEAKER_04 11:19

It's not, and it just uh it's interesting because Gareth Edwards, I feel like, you know, I don't know if everyone knows this, but famously was basically like kicked off of Rogue One.

SPEAKER_07 11:32

Rogue One, yeah. And they for Tony Gilroy.

SPEAKER_04 11:34

Yeah. Tony Gilroy, who ended up coming up back to being the Andorra showrunner. But it just seems like he can't. A first movie was Monsters. Did you ever see Monsters? I did not ever know. So that was kind of like a pretty low budget monster movie about like these two tourists high concept, well executed. Yeah, yeah, it was pretty well done. It was funny, I watched that actually right before I went to the Amazon. Like the literally the night before I flew out, but it's about two like to see Bezos tourists. Uh yeah, the M sorry, the Amazon warehouse. I took, I took, I just delivered myself by Prime.

SPEAKER_07 12:08

I was gonna say, when when was this? 2009. And you just finished your shift, right? Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 12:15

He didn't deliver it here. He was his own drone at that time. Yes.

SPEAKER_04 12:20

I pissed at a lot of Gatorade bottles. And he brought them all here. But yeah, monsters, and then when because then he did uh uh Godzilla, and that was disappointing.

SPEAKER_07 12:29

Oh, I I thought it was okay, but yeah.

SPEAKER_04 12:32

Yeah, I think it's okay. I think it's half of a good movie.

SPEAKER_03 12:34

Which is whatzilla was that? Was that the Godzilla with Ebert and Siskel? No, no, no. You're thinking of Godzilla. Mayor Ebert, okay.

SPEAKER_04 12:41

No, no, no, no, no. No, no, no, no, no. You're thinking this is the Godzilla with Brian Cranston.

SPEAKER_07 12:45

You're thinking of the Roland Emmerich Dean Devlin 1999 movie, Matthew Broderick.

SPEAKER_03 12:51

They they they they wanted a thumbs up so bad they put Siskel and Ebert in the movie.

SPEAKER_04 12:56

Yeah, we've talked about that before, I think. I said about Mayor Ebert and Assistant Mare, and that I believe there was a Japanese Godzilla movie that came out like a couple years later where Japanese Godzilla just like tears the American Godzilla. That's rad.

SPEAKER_07 13:10

That's that's like a very cool flex to me.

SPEAKER_04 13:13

Uh anything else that you're watching?

SPEAKER_03 13:15

Um yes, I actually just went to a sneak preview yesterday uh after fully leaving my delirium and being aware of my life of my body. Of the holdovers. My words. Oh, the holdovers. How was that? Um the good things. Great. It is great. It is the best GMati performance since sideways, and it's a return to form for Alexander Payne after, let's just all say it, downsizing sucks. Um, I didn't see it.

SPEAKER_07 13:43

I never saw it. It was bad. I didn't see Tomorrowland. Like Brad Birds. Like so many things are over my sucks too, but unfortunately.

SPEAKER_03 13:52

Um but yeah, I love the holdovers. The holdovers is gonna be one of those movies that I think around Christmas time, probably not on Christmas, but around Christmas time, I will watch every year. It's one that I will want to own. It actually comes out officially November 10th, but uh I saw it in a sneak preview that I think uh one of the chains was having, and I was just like, Yeah, you know, I'm just gonna, I'm a cinephile, I'm gonna do that.

SPEAKER_04 14:16

So well, you snuck right in to that preview.

unknown 14:20

Yep.

SPEAKER_04 14:20

I do want to see that build right in. Yeah. Perhaps I'll see it in the theater with Paul.

SPEAKER_03 14:25

In the theatre. What I will say, what I will say, it would be perfect for our father, who aren't a weird dude. Um he would he would very much enjoy, so it might be a movie that we consider watching on Christmas.

SPEAKER_07 14:40

Look, Padre, now we're a weirdo.

SPEAKER_01 14:42

You want to go to the moving uh the talkies?

SPEAKER_05 14:45

What are we doing here?

SPEAKER_04 14:46

Are you doing a Bas Lerman?

SPEAKER_01 14:48

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 14:49

It's set in 1910. Whatever. Was it was that the Exorcist talking about going to see movie, like the the detective talking to the father about wanting to go watch movies, but as if it was in Shakespeare's time by Baz Lerman.

SPEAKER_01 15:03

Oh that's what I like to do.

SPEAKER_04 15:04

I like to go and see the pictures. You like to go to the pictures. You like to go see the pictures? I like to see movies and have conversation. Alright, we're gonna move it right along because we gotta talk about it right along, footloose and fancy free. We gotta talk about a movie we just watched. Oh, okay. Ben, what did we watch? We watched Check's notes, A Field of Drims.

SPEAKER_03 15:25

Field of Drims.

SPEAKER_04 15:26

A Field of Drims, and we have some information about said movie. This is Field of Dreams from Universal and the Gordon Company. It was made in 1989, and this is our third movie from the year that we've talked about. It is rated PG and it is an hour and 47 minutes. 89 being one of what I recall as being one of the best uh years of cinema.

SPEAKER_07 15:48

Real fine year, real fine.

SPEAKER_04 15:52

Yeah, real good. The budget for this film that Derek brought us is 15 million. Excuse me. That was the cake from last night. All of that is growing corn.

SPEAKER_03 16:04

Are you okay? Yeah, almost almost all of that is probably growing corn. Oh, yeah. It took them forever to grow this corn.

SPEAKER_04 16:11

Oh my god.

SPEAKER_03 16:12

Wow.

SPEAKER_07 16:13

That's crazy. I didn't know this that was all for the movie.

SPEAKER_04 16:15

I mean, it's not that high of a budget, though. Like adjusted is 37.2 million.

SPEAKER_07 16:19

Man, I just wish that movies that cost 30 to 70 million dollars got made.

SPEAKER_04 16:26

Yeah. Or so much. Or got theatrical releases.

SPEAKER_07 16:29

Right. Yeah. The Holdovers is probably one of those movies. Yeah. Probably less than 30 million.

SPEAKER_03 16:34

The only reason it gets a release is Pianati and Payne, and that's it. The only reason.

SPEAKER_04 16:39

Opening weekend. It was April 28th, 1989. That was the wide release. The wide release. Uh there were sneak previews, probably. Yeah, buddy. Uh 1.57 million on its opening weekend, which is 3.9 million adjusted. Final gross in North America, 64.4 million. Woo! Adjusted, 159.8 million. Other releases this weekend? K9. Starring Jim Belushi, your favorite Belushi.

SPEAKER_03 17:10

Yeah. Yeah. I I fully have not I read that on the sheet. Fully did not know that movie existed ever.

SPEAKER_04 17:16

Not to be confused. Isn't there a submarine movie called K9?

SPEAKER_07 17:20

That's K19. The Widowmaker. That's your favorite Harrison Ford movie. Get off my wife. Get off my sub.

SPEAKER_04 17:27

Get out of get out of my wife. Get off. Give me back my sub. Give me back my sub sandwich. Yeah. That's my lunch.

SPEAKER_03 17:37

Suddenly it was give me back my$5 foot long. I don't want to think of let's move on.

SPEAKER_04 17:46

Yeah, sorry. This is a f podcast.

SPEAKER_05 17:49

We don't so many bleeps already.

SPEAKER_04 17:54

Another movie that came out this weekend was Criminal Law. Did it? Lover Boy.

SPEAKER_08 17:58

Did it.

SPEAKER_04 17:59

And The Horror Show. Did it? Weekend Top Five. Pet Cemetery. It's a seminary. K9. Major League. Criminal Law. The Dream Team. This was number nine. Funny that it came out the same, or it was not the same weekend, but in this around the same time as Major League. Baseball on the brain, baby.

SPEAKER_07 18:21

Yeah, it's like we're everybody was coming off. I think Bull Durham like got that. Got the baseball rolling. It got right. Does any can anybody think of another one? My brother might. I mean the natural thing.

SPEAKER_04 18:33

Like in this time? Like in this time frame, it felt like baseball movies just started. The late 80s, early 90s hit a big boom.

SPEAKER_03 18:40

A lot of that was Kevin Costner.

SPEAKER_08 18:47

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 18:47

Is this is this another like if you're at a like if you're at a state stadium and they're like hot dogs, nachos, pizza comes free with your own CK moist towelettes to keep your hands clean.

SPEAKER_07 19:02

That's the best, very, very, very best kind. And it's super moisture absorbing. It actually will absorb oil out of the gulf. That was part of the technology developed by just don't flush it down your toilet. CK. No, do not do it.

SPEAKER_03 19:20

Do not do it. People have died. My mind is either blown or I have gotten dumber in the last minute. I don't know which. I haven't seen it.

SPEAKER_04 19:28

You know, CK Moist Tower Let.

SPEAKER_07 19:29

Stop listening to this program as soon as you can.

SPEAKER_04 19:32

Save every brain so you can. Top five films from this year domestic. Batmond, James Edmond, James Bond Jr. and The Last Crusade. Oh, yeah, because he's Sean Connery's son. Yeah, no, I got it. I get it. Lethal Weapon the Second. Rain Man. Honey I Killed the Kids, or maybe I shrunk them. Still not sure. You gotta figure that out, please. This was number 14, and Roadhouse was number 44. Roadhouse. Films of note from 1989. Uncle Buck, Twins, Fletch Lives, Steel Magnolias, The Burbs, Dead Poet Society, and Roadhouse.

SPEAKER_03 20:16

Another pretty good to me, Mijo. Another connection to this movie, Uncle Buck, the girlfriend of John Candy, is played by Annie Madigan.

SPEAKER_04 20:25

Yeah, yeah. Letterbox average 3.6. Speaking of Letterboxd, you can follow me on Letterboxd at Run BMC.

SPEAKER_07 20:32

And when you do that, you'll find me. I'm at Paul ActsBadly. Oh my gosh, if you find me, will you find Derek?

SPEAKER_03 20:38

And when you do that, you'll look and see that I have a profile at D-Man82. It says I've watched one movie this year. It is incorrect.

SPEAKER_04 20:46

Oh. Well, maybe maybe you should update that.

SPEAKER_03 20:50

I will probably have to do that after this point. Yes, but we are following each other, so follow them. You can follow me, and once I get it rolling, you will be happy that you did so.

SPEAKER_04 21:01

Happy Siskel and Ebert. Speaking of happy, they were split. Uh Ebert with the up. Rotten Tomatoes has an 88% tile. Ebert, a man of the people. Awards and nominations, three Oscar noms, best picture, uh, best adapted screenplay, and best score.

SPEAKER_03 21:20

So what they are saying by awarding them the Oscars as they did is that Driving Miss Daisy is a better film than Field of Dreams.

SPEAKER_07 21:27

Wild. I fully wrong so much.

SPEAKER_04 21:32

Well, Paul, would you like to talk about some peeps?

SPEAKER_07 21:35

I'm gonna tell you the director of this film is Phil Alden Robinson, directed a little movie, my cat's favorite movie. It's a little movie called Sneakers. Maggie loves that movie. I think she's a Redford gal. Oh yeah, I think she's a big fan. Seems to be. The Sum of All Fears, and when you watch that movie, you'll find out that that movie was what it was. The Angriest Man in Brooklyn, the writer, also Phil Alden Robinson. He wrote Rhinestone, All of Me, and Ghost Day.

SPEAKER_04 22:07

We don't talk about it.

SPEAKER_07 22:08

By the way, for that last one we bleeped out, he was listed as Chris Reese, which is essentially being Alan Smithy. If you are a writer. The novel is uh written by W.P. Kinsella, R.I.P. His novel, Shoeless Joe. Director of photography was John Lindley, Money Train. Not my favorite Snipe's Woody Harrelson movie, weirdly. We've talked about my favorite one, so that's good. Pleasantville and the core. Everybody loves Pleasantville. I haven't seen Pleasantville in a very long time.

SPEAKER_03 22:42

So good. It's been a while. It's been aware. I returned to that for Don Knott's, if nothing else, because he's just great. I forgot Don Knott's was in that.

SPEAKER_01 22:51

I'm in Pleasantville, but I'm also Jay Stewart.

SPEAKER_03 22:55

It was supposed to be. That was supposed to be Dick Van Dyke, and he turned it down.

SPEAKER_07 23:02

Well, uh the music for this film was James Horner, R.I.P. R.I.P. won the Oscar for Titanic, nominated for the Calm down, Billy. Billy! We're not doing Titanic. Probably never. Let it go. I've got one on deck for you, bud. Okay. Titanic. Also nominated for Avatar, Apollo 13, and a little movie called Aliens. Don't forget, get your votes in. Debate debate. Alien versus Aliens. Oscar nominated score on that side. Producers Lawrence and Charles R-I-P Charles Gordon. Predator Prey Franchise Die Hard Franchise. And Water World.

SPEAKER_02 23:48

CK Moist. Towelett's. Are you drinking your filtered pea water? Pick up the spill of your pea water. You could not get in your pea, you couldn't get into your moisture.

unknown 24:00

Moist.

SPEAKER_02 24:01

But also keep it moist.

SPEAKER_03 24:03

I find this show way funnier than I should.

SPEAKER_04 24:06

Correct. Yep. Yeah. We are a movie podcast, not a comedy podcast.

SPEAKER_07 24:10

Starring Kevin Costner as Ray Kinsella, The Big Chill, Silverado, Dragonfly, Mr. Brooks, Amy Madigan, Annie from Uncle Buck, Streets of Fire, Pollock, and Gone, Baby Gone. She's amazing. She's so good. Yeah. Leading into someone else who's amazing and so good. The wonderful, the legendary, James Earl Jones as Terrence Mann. Star Wars, The Sandlot, The Lion King, Fences and Broadway, several uh Simpsons Tree House of Horror episodes, a legend. Ray Lota, R.I.P. R.I.P. as Shoeless Joe Jackson, Narc, Goodfellas, Marriage Story, Cocaine Bear. Cocaine Bear.

SPEAKER_03 24:56

Favorite movie of all time.

SPEAKER_07 24:57

So many things I was gonna list that I was like, wow, Ray Lota's been in a lot of movies to do with cocaine. A lot.

SPEAKER_04 25:04

Heartbreakers.

SPEAKER_07 25:06

Yeah. Remember that movie? Yeah, Gene Hackman's on a lot of cocaine in there. And Jennifer Love Hewitt. Cocaine.

SPEAKER_04 25:11

Oh. And Sigornian Weaver.

SPEAKER_07 25:13

Cocaine. Cocaine. Gabby Hoffman as Karen from Now and Then Sleepless in Seattle. 200 Cigarettes. And also Uncle Buck.

SPEAKER_03 25:24

And come on.

SPEAKER_07 25:24

We're gonna have to do that movie at some point. Please.

SPEAKER_03 25:27

She was the mom in Come On Come On. So I don't know that movie. She was in Winning Time. You actually, you actually do. We watched it together.

SPEAKER_07 25:35

Yeah, Ben.

SPEAKER_03 25:38

Last week, Ben. It's it's the black and white movie with Woody Norman and and uh and Walking Phoenix, where Walking Phoenix plays a um a recorder for NPR.

SPEAKER_07 25:48

You are showing me your collector's edition of this that you have signed by Woody Norman. Oh photos. I feel like that is a bad title.

SPEAKER_03 25:59

It's unable to terrible. No, it's a terrible title. It's not memorable. It's not memorable. No at all.

SPEAKER_07 26:05

Okay. Well, Gabby Hoffman was in that everyone, and you should watch it. It's just not a good title.

SPEAKER_03 26:09

It's actually a really good movie.

SPEAKER_07 26:10

The movie? Good. Yeah. Timothy Busfield was. Oh, hi Mark. Why are you fran a little cat? Revenge of the nerds. Striking distance. Why are you a fran a little kid, little big league? And Quiz Show. Fun fact about Quiz Show. Please. Mr. Van Doren, the character that's played by Ray Far. Charles Van Doren, everybody. Charles Van Doren. Is uh my great great great great great either uncle or somehow once removed cousin. We're related in some ways. So great game show cheater.

SPEAKER_03 26:43

I'm somehow not surprised. Uh yeah, great game show cheater.

SPEAKER_07 26:46

Yeah, he's dude, we're both scumbags. Noted scumbags. Frank Whaley, Archie Graham. Well, one of them anyway. Uh Broken Arrow, Pulp Fiction, The Doors, and a movie called Cherry Crush, which is written by a gentleman named Paul Root. Same guy? Probably not. Who's to say? Art LaFleur, R.I.P. as Chick. Cobra, The Blob, the 1985. The remake. Yeah, yeah. Second remake? What's his name? Frank Derabont one. 80 something though. Speed Racer and The Sandlot, which also James Roll Jones is in, which also is about baseball. What is going on in this episode? Derek, is there anything that you'd like to tell us, sir?

SPEAKER_03 27:27

Okay, so um we have a a selection of fun facts, and I will state the ones that are true and tell you the ones that are listed and that are not. Uh supposedly, the the voice that says if you build it, he will come, or if you build it, he will come, is Ed Harris. It very well could be Ed Harris. Uh he is married to uh Amy Madigan and has been for years. However, Phil Alden Robinson, the director, says that he recorded the scratch track for the voice, but that when they actually recorded the voice, it was a famous actor, an actor of some repute, and that he has not heard the correct name ever stated. Cool. So that tells me it may not be Ed Harris. The actual field is still standing. When the movie was made, it was actually owned, it was two farms owned by two different people. The farmhouse was owned by Don Lansing. Uh who V Don Lansing? Uh yeah. Of Lansing Insurance. Well, he he does live on Lansing Road, so he might be someone there. I don't know. Um but the the problem was the because they wanted his house for the farmhouse or the look of it for the veranda, because that's the way that it looked in the novel. And then they got his okay to basically gut his house to allow for some you know for cameras and all that. But the problem was he said, you can have all you want of my property. However, where you want to put center and left field, that's owned by the Ames camps, and you're gonna have to talk to them. So for a long time, the field was actually owned by two different families who were at odds with whether or not it should be a tourist site. And then uh the Ames camps sold back to the Lansings, and then the Lansings sold to um, I believe that his name is Frank Thomas. Uh famous This is really fascinating.

SPEAKER_04 29:25

Can you give us the facts on the sheet by chance?

SPEAKER_07 29:28

Sorry. Frank Thomas of the Big Hurt, though, from the White Sox.

SPEAKER_03 29:32

Um yeah, okay. Oh wow. It's actually called the Go the Distance Um LLC. And they own it, and they're the ones that created the uh MLB Field of Dreams situation and all of that.

SPEAKER_01 29:44

Got it.

SPEAKER_03 29:45

The okay, and then Matt Damon and Ben Athlak, their first acting roles were as as extras in the Fenway park scene. And Field of Dreams was actually filmed in three different places the park itself, and then I I guess Debuke Iowa stood in for Boston. And then where Costner meets Bert Lancaster, that is actually in Illinois across from the Mississippi.

SPEAKER_08 30:10

Okay.

SPEAKER_03 30:11

The original title of the move of the book is Shula's Joker. That is the original title that the publisher wanted. The original title of the book itself that W.P. Consello wanted was Dream Field. So when Phil Alden Robinson wanted to change it to Field of Dreams, he was worried. He didn't he didn't know what to say to the author, and the author was actually very happy to change the title because that was the original title he wanted. So Field of Dreams uh was signed off on quite quickly. If you build it, He Will Come is the 39th most popular movie quote, according to AFI. And then the shot of the line drive that knocked Kevin Costner over off the bat of Ray Leota, that was actually uh Kevin Costner wanting to see if Ray Leota could hit his curveball. Also, Ray Leota bats right-handed in the film, even though Shoeless Joe Jackson is a lefty.

SPEAKER_07 30:59

I noticed that. I did notice that. Hey, Poe Buddy's nerficed.

SPEAKER_04 31:05

You know? Apparently there was an American flag somewhere in Oppenheimer that had the wrong amount of stars on it. 50 stars on it.

SPEAKER_07 31:11

Uh, can somebody open my letterbox for me and give that zero? Oh, it doesn't go to zero. Well, I'm gonna petition for a new ranking. Negative a thousand. To give Oppenheimer the big O Zero. Zero. Because of that one thing. Guess what? We're gonna skip the whole thing about the guessing the log line, not only because we've all looked at the sheet, but because poor Derek is on Zoom. But thank you for joining us via Zoom. I'm gonna zoom through this log line if that's alright with everybody.

SPEAKER_03 31:42

I was also reading by my phone, which is why it probably sounded like I was reading like a robot.

SPEAKER_07 31:48

That's all right. Iowa farmer Ray Kinsell is inspired by a voice he can't ignore to pursue a dream he can hardly believe. Supported by his wife, Ray begins the quest to by turning his ordinary cornfield into a place where dreams can come true. If you're a fucking psycho. And not nightmares.

SPEAKER_00 32:07

Bitch!

SPEAKER_05 32:09

Um if you build it, he will come, bitch. And you don't want to know about where he comes or how or any of that, so he's not a nice guy.

SPEAKER_07 32:18

Wait, who is he? Why is he coming? Frederick. Frederick J. Krugerfield. Oh he is, and he is a bad guy. We're gonna flash all the way back to the 80s when that franchise matters.

SPEAKER_03 32:30

Is that his full name?

SPEAKER_07 32:31

Krugerfield, or are you just that's just me being me, but uh sorry about it. But uh let's all talk about our original experience with Wisfilm if we have any prior to our most recent watch, shall we? Yeah, and we're gonna figure out uh in what order we're gonna do that by playing a little round of Cinephile. I am going to choose a card. Uh maybe.

SPEAKER_04 32:56

Yeah. Would you stop fucking up?

SPEAKER_07 32:58

I would love to. First time for everything. Uh, the card is Kim Basinger, everyone. Kim Basinger. I'm gonna give you a few seconds to think of a Kim Basinger title or two.

SPEAKER_04 33:10

Yeah.

SPEAKER_07 33:10

And I'm going to read the one off the card. We're gonna get have nine and a half weeks to get us started. Nine and a half weeks.

SPEAKER_02 33:17

Okay.

SPEAKER_07 33:17

Okay, uh, that is the title. I'm gonna give you a couple seconds, Derek. Just fire off a title with Kim Basinger.

SPEAKER_03 33:24

Well, when you're ready.

SPEAKER_04 33:29

Okay. The natural. Um I'm blanking. I'm like, I'm like sitting here with blanks in my face. I'll give you a few seconds. Um, I just the pressure, I'm sleepy. Uh, I I it's just not coming to me.

SPEAKER_07 33:43

I'm gonna buzz you here. I'm so sorry, sir. I'm gonna try to cinch the win here. I'm gonna say I'm gonna give you an obscure one. Cool world. Oh yeah. With her and uh and that movie is fucking horny. It is animation and live action, and it is horny. That movie wants to fuck. Yeah. Uh okay, so then I'm so sorry, sir. You are the loser. Uh, do you have original experience with this film and what is your ranking?

SPEAKER_04 34:08

Uh well, my original ranking, right? Yes. So uh yeah, I mean, I think Derek uh uh introduced this movie to me in some capacity, my brother who we are speaking to at this moment.

SPEAKER_07 34:18

You haven't seen any movie he that hasn't been introduced to you by Derek, correct.

SPEAKER_04 34:23

Uh that is.

SPEAKER_07 34:24

Every movie you've ever seen.

SPEAKER_04 34:25

Actually, no, Derek has learned by listening to this podcast that we have watched different movies.

SPEAKER_03 34:30

Holy shit, a lot. Our cinema experience is wildly different with some with some overlap.

SPEAKER_07 34:37

Yeah. Wow. But I I got the distinct impression that every movie Ben has seen in his life, Derek was like, okay, Ben, you can watch this now.

SPEAKER_03 34:46

Well, as we have learned, many of Paul's distinct impressions are just flat out incorrect.

SPEAKER_07 34:51

Especially my Schwarzenegger. It's really bad. Uh anyway.

SPEAKER_03 34:57

Is that you moving toward the camera right there?

SPEAKER_05 35:00

Rushing toward the camera.

SPEAKER_04 35:01

This is me. Yes. Coming towards you in the camera. Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 35:06

Coming on the camera. Yeah, yes. You bail it. I will come through your camera.

SPEAKER_04 35:12

Uh CK Moistala to clean it off. I can't remember. Okay, get us back on track. I can't remember the first time. Because that's okay. Like, even when I started it today, I was like, I I I know this movie in my bones. I can play it in the background, and I could I and it's been a minute since I've seen it too, but I can tell you what's happening and what like who's saying what. Like it's just always been in existence for me, which is a weird thing, and especially since I hadn't seen it in a while. Uh, so I think, you know, in watching it all throughout my youths, I would have given it four and a half baseballs back in that day.

SPEAKER_07 35:50

Okay. So I watched this at some point in the 90s because I had to be somewhere like within a stone's throw of getting your you get your AARP card at 65.

SPEAKER_04 36:02

I you would know more than me.

SPEAKER_07 36:04

It was right in that wheelhouse when I got my AARP card. So this would be a big, big way. Uh I'm 88, sir. Same miles per hour to travel back to 80.

SPEAKER_03 36:15

I was trying to trim your a I was trying to trim your age. I was trying to get a tricky. I know I look 85.

SPEAKER_07 36:20

I look pretty good. He looks good for his age. But I'm 88, look 85, go 85, go back to 80. You go 88.

SPEAKER_04 36:26

You're almost old enough to run for president.

SPEAKER_07 36:28

So close. So close. Three years away. No, wait, because James Earl Jones is still a few years away from being able to run. He's 90 now. Wow. Yeah, early 90s.

SPEAKER_08 36:39

I vote for him.

SPEAKER_07 36:40

Just oh yeah, love him. So, either way, my dad rented this at some point when I was a kid and really, really enjoyed it and watched it again at some point in my 20s because I just remember being like, yeah, Field of Dreams, whatever he loves. That's a great movie. It's fine. Yeah. Yeah. Great. For Black Sox. Like, oh, I remember it was nominated for some awards. It was during Kevin Costner's indomitable, like crazy run that he had before he made uh Waterworld.

SPEAKER_04 37:07

He's got good hair. He great hair.

SPEAKER_07 37:09

Yeah. He's just so damn charming. That's the thing I think I forgot when he just uh plays like just a regular dude. Right. He's so great. I also like I think I want to re-watch Ten Cups soon because I feel like that's when I need to.

SPEAKER_03 37:23

That's a good movie.

SPEAKER_07 37:24

Yeah. But uh little Donnie Jonathan's action. The Don Jonathan's The Donissons Johnson's. Mia, I'm I'm Don Donaldson. This is my wife, Donald Donaldson. We're from Denver. Uh we're gonna divorce. Uh, but I enjoy that alliteration all. But uh outside of that, yeah. Four Black Sox, I just remember it's like, yeah, good movie. Fine. As Ben said, it's always existed, it's always been good. It's like in the zeitgeist, it's one of those like those dad movies you can't really question. Like, you just have to be like, yeah, the field of dreams, that's good.

SPEAKER_03 37:55

So I mean, it is the ultimate dad movie. I mean, if if there's not a if that's not a dad movie, I don't know what is.

SPEAKER_07 38:01

But like that's the thing when people shit on dad movies. I feel like it's like, have you seen Field of Dreams?

unknown 38:06

Yeah.

SPEAKER_07 38:07

Somebody shits on that. It's like, then you just don't really like movies. Yeah, maybe. Yeah. Also, I did just re-watch this and who knows?

SPEAKER_04 38:15

Who knows?

SPEAKER_07 38:15

Darren, who knows?

SPEAKER_04 38:17

You brought us on there. You brought this movie to us?

SPEAKER_03 38:19

I did. When I was starting to really get into baseball, my dad didn't really we didn't really do sports until I was about seven or eight. My best friend got me into baseball because my dad wasn't sure if I since I couldn't really play baseball, I had the cerebral palsy, everybody. Since uh since my dad wasn't really sure I could play baseball, he didn't want me to feel bad, so he didn't really start it start me with baseball. When my best friend got me into it, he said, You should really watch Field of Dreams, and I was like, I don't know what that is. And other people had recommended it to me, and they were like, It's about a guy who builds a field in his corn. And I was like, that sounds terrible. Uh but I but I I mean the log line they gave me was not good, but then I watched it.

SPEAKER_04 39:00

It sounds ridiculous.

SPEAKER_03 39:02

It's in concept, like the dumbest thing you've ever heard. But then I I watched it, and I'm gonna be honest with you, and you're gonna you're gonna think um that's not a good use of of my time, but uh I see what you watch on Letterboxd, Paul, so you don't have anything to stand on. I watched this movie Maniac cop, that's what I'm standing on.

SPEAKER_07 39:20

Maniac.

SPEAKER_00 39:22

Something in the shadows, something in the dark. Killed.

SPEAKER_05 39:27

Maniac cop.

SPEAKER_00 39:29

He'll find you. Bullets cannot kill him. There's just one maniac you'll have to face alone or die. You can fight him, remain silent forever. Starring Bruce Campbell from People Dead, Maniac Cop.

SPEAKER_03 39:53

I watched this movie the first time I saw it. 11 times back to back.

SPEAKER_07 39:59

Oh yeah. Wow. Wow, I almost just spit my water. I did just break glass. Yeah, it's getting intense over here.

SPEAKER_03 40:05

I wanted to preface that, and I I would have given it five inexpertly eaten hot dogs.

SPEAKER_04 40:12

That see, I was gonna say, like, what if you there?

SPEAKER_03 40:15

It's not there.

SPEAKER_04 40:15

What if you didn't like it and you watched the left like you were saying?

SPEAKER_03 40:19

Then I'm just torturing myself.

SPEAKER_04 40:20

I have to find out why. Why am I doing this?

SPEAKER_07 40:23

But five like hot dogs that you either struggle through or swallow whole or just like something, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 40:28

Like I'm like, I'm I'm like Jody Chestnut with those hot dogs, man. Oh, buddy, and it's a women. I mean I'm trying. I like to win it.

SPEAKER_04 40:35

I like to eat my hot dogs in meetings because you can't skip lunch. You cannot skip lunch.

SPEAKER_07 40:41

No one should have even ever one bad day. I don't think you're allowed to do that. By the way, is that your bag? I almost tripped on it. And all we do on this show when we try to be funny is reference other people's shit. Is 55 cheeseburgers, 55 sweet breaks, 55 fries? Even better. Yes. Hey, by the way, this episode is brought to you by new lemon scented CK Moist toilets. Available at the world. Which has the limited edition corn-scented CK Moist toilets smack excrete summer basically.

SPEAKER_03 41:18

Is that unhusked or husked? It's however you want.

SPEAKER_04 41:21

It's buttered and salted. And also, again, do not flush these down the toilet.

SPEAKER_07 41:26

You can also get, oh, okay, this summer only, Gary Beauty's buttered summer sausage. We'll be right back after these messages.

SPEAKER_02 41:37

This episode of the review review is brought to you by Steve Moistalette. Are currently available at the Fall Sports Bar Championship Spooky Dist Classic in limited strawberry field train. And water is moisture for. Not related to the actor or fashion designer, but a sponsor of the Review Review Podcast. Like and subscribe where you listen. And follow on Instagram at Review X2 Podcast. And limited collabs CK Moistalets. Now available. Tacoma Roma.

SPEAKER_07 43:13

First things first.

SPEAKER_03 43:15

Yes. I have Gifties. It is my tradition when I'm on this program to love that that's a thing. To offer offer Mr. some gifts.

SPEAKER_07 43:28

The penance. What I'm owed.

SPEAKER_04 43:31

Appreciation and love. Please read notes, Paul. I would call it okay. I would call it come up in. Paul, read this if you like yourself from Big D. And he has a guess. He has a he has a calculated. I did have a guess. Calculated guess.

SPEAKER_07 43:49

I believe it is the book, the Kinsella book. One of these. Which I would actually be interested to read. Oh, look at that. Yes.

SPEAKER_03 43:58

Yes.

SPEAKER_07 43:59

Yes, it's right.

SPEAKER_03 44:03

Do you have a guess for number two?

SPEAKER_07 44:05

I do not. I'm totally in the dark.

SPEAKER_04 44:08

Although let's confirm it is, in fact, Shoeless Joe, written by W.P. Consella. On the cover is Shoeless Joe Jackson standing in front of a field that is of corn, not of dreams.

SPEAKER_07 44:21

Yeah, now you really are probably gonna have to come on every time. Because I am getting some good stuff. Okay, read this if you hate yourself from Terrence Mann. I had a feeling.

SPEAKER_02 44:33

If you read it, you will hate yourself. If you read it, you will go.

SPEAKER_07 44:38

Oh, I'm interested in this book. Catcher in the Rye!

SPEAKER_01 44:42

I've already read it and I already hate it. And I already hate myself.

SPEAKER_04 44:47

Nobody likes Catcher in the Rye. Nobody likes that.

SPEAKER_03 44:50

It's terrible. But I think that is, I mean, the in the original book, Terrence Mann's character was JD Salinger. And J.D. Salinger said, if you make a film of this and you put me in it, I will sue you. Oh whoa. So Phil Alden Robinson said, Well, who would be the funniest person for Kevin Costner to try to kidnap? And he said, James Earl Jones.

SPEAKER_01 45:14

Wow. Could have been.

SPEAKER_03 45:16

And that is why J and so he he and so it was written for James Earl Jones because they knew they couldn't get Salinger.

SPEAKER_04 45:22

So, but even if they were to make a character name, like base it off of him and cast someone else as Salinger? Christian Slater.

SPEAKER_03 45:29

Yeah, no, if it was way too young, but cool. If it was JD as JD, right? Oh, right, yeah. If it was some attempt at Salinger, they were gonna get sued. So they wanted to avoid that.

SPEAKER_04 45:38

They could have named him PJ Salamander. Scrody banger. Scrotum.

SPEAKER_03 45:49

I do have one other kind I think kind of funny little fact. They were all in Iowa. That includes um that includes Bert Lancaster. And Timothy Busfield was there, obviously, at the farm. They're all shooting at the farm. And every day that they're at the farm, Bert Lancaster asks Timothy Busfield to get him a Coke.

SPEAKER_01 46:09

Give me a chair.

SPEAKER_03 46:11

And Timothy Busfield does after about five days. He says, uh, sir, I don't know if you know, but I am working on this picture. I'm playing.

SPEAKER_05 46:20

Can we run the scene?

SPEAKER_03 46:22

Who is Timothy Busfield? The brother. He's he's Mark. He's Mark. And he's like, I don't know if you know. Oh, hi Mark. Oh, hi Mark.

SPEAKER_07 46:29

You forgot about Mark. He's here. You know it's him because he's with all those little cats.

SPEAKER_03 46:34

Yeah. He's like, I don't know if you know, but I'm I'm on this picture. I'm Bert Lancaster says, Oh, that's great. Can I have a Coke? So neat.

SPEAKER_07 46:42

I'm Bert Lancaster. Yeah, exactly. Shine my fucking shoes. And then Joe Pesci shot him. I uh I also love Amy Madigan apparently got offered a job at a bar she was frequenting in the area because they didn't know she was an actress. It was a bowling alley that they all frequented.

SPEAKER_05 47:01

Yeah, I love that.

SPEAKER_07 47:02

Bowling alley, yeah. And uh before we give our current rating, I do want to say, just by happenstance, I took an 11-second video this morning when I was watching this film. Oh yes, he sent it to me. And I do the fact sheet sometimes while I'm watching the film, if I don't have enough time, depending on how the day's shaking out. And I was watching the Siskel and Ebert uh review from '89 and it started.

SPEAKER_05 47:35

This is fucking insane.

SPEAKER_07 47:40

There's no way anyone can make out what is happening, but in the case that you do, uh the ext the exchange between James Earl Jones and Kevin Costner about what do we do from here post the baseball game, it's it's synced up almost exactly with Sisco and EBERT in real time. It was wild. Yeah. And I sent it to Ben, and we confirmed that the Illuminati exists. Yes. It's in control and also owns CK Moist Toilettes, which not only comes in lemon scent, it also comes in apple scent, and in fall sex in a Volkswagen van, which is their name.

SPEAKER_03 48:17

I also would like to say about that, about that review, uh the Siskel and Ebert, it says a lot about Siskel that the reason, uh, I think the main reason he gave a thumbs down on this is his childhood hero was Ty Cobb.

SPEAKER_07 48:29

Right.

SPEAKER_03 48:30

And uh what does that his childhood hero was Ty Cobb?

SPEAKER_07 48:34

Kind of interesting in a lot of ways, and something that we wrote in the fact sheet and want to mention really quick. There's a quote in the film that uh apparently all the players thought Ty Cobb was an asshole, which actually is not true. Joe Jackson and Ty Cobb apparently were friends later in life, and Joe Jackson uh ran a liquor store in South Carolina, and Cobb stopped there to purchase bourbon. During uh the sale of said bourbon, Jackson made no sign of recognition to Cobb until Cobb finally said, For God's sake, Joe, don't you remember me? Jackson somberly replied, Yeah, sure, I remember you, Ty. I just didn't think anyone wanted to remember me anymore. Which is like, holy shit, what a bar. Wow. Uh so that being said, we're gonna give our current rankings current review before we get into the movie.

SPEAKER_04 49:22

We just watched this movie, all three of us.

SPEAKER_07 49:24

CK voice tell it says released permission.

SPEAKER_04 49:27

So are we doing the same order?

SPEAKER_07 49:29

I think we gotta. That's the way the game works. It's it's here.

SPEAKER_04 49:33

Yeah, so again, we just watched the movie. I'll reiterate like it and I don't I don't remember the last time I watched this movie, Derek. I don't I it must have might have been with you, but I I I cannot remember the last time I actually watched it. Um but I put it on and it was like, oh, this is like just filling me full of nostalgia, which I thought was really relevant to the movie because I feel like the movie is all about nostalgia.

SPEAKER_07 49:56

And it's always when you're a Mariners fan and it's baseball, it's always through works of fiction because real life has well we had 95 and we had 2001. Oh, right. When they got to the world no, wait. Sure. They got to the oh wait.

SPEAKER_04 50:12

Of course, but like I've never experienced that World Series ever, so I don't even know how to do it. Right, right, right.

SPEAKER_07 50:18

Uh but I still uh I stand on the joke.

SPEAKER_04 50:20

I do think it's interesting, and I'll get on this more later. You can stand by your joke. I just didn't laugh at it.

SPEAKER_07 50:25

Yeah, that's I stand by my man too.

SPEAKER_04 50:28

Not everything he says. Um is strangling it. I think it's interesting how how much just in the zeitgeist, baseball brings nostalgia, like they're like tied together. There's this there's just like this connection to sentimentality that baseball has that not any other sport I feel like has. To America.

SPEAKER_07 50:52

Sure, but I'm so I want to say America. Like that. Not Merka, America.

SPEAKER_04 50:59

Got it. Yeah. You know, Americana.

SPEAKER_07 51:02

Americana.

SPEAKER_04 51:03

Norman Rock, well. So uh yeah, I watched it and it kind of just washed over me like a warm bath because I remember I remember it really well. Yeah. And I walked away with uh uh four four Nazi cows.

SPEAKER_07 51:17

Oh, yeah. So you went down. You were a four and a half before this most recent.

SPEAKER_04 51:22

I suppose I yeah, I mean, it wasn't a purposeful like thought. Like it was like I wasn't trying to be like, oh, I I think lesser of this now. It just that was the number that came to my mind, came to mind.

SPEAKER_07 51:32

Okay. So I didn't really think it through. Got it. Okay. I didn't think it through. I just want to say before I get into it, this rating has been paid for by CK Moist outlets. Oh comes in delicious grass baseball field scent. Just it's new, it's on the way, you can pre-order.

SPEAKER_04 51:51

Just don't flush them down the toilet.

SPEAKER_07 51:52

Don't flush it down the toilet. You will lose your home, you will lose your farm, you will lose your own.

SPEAKER_04 51:57

The only way to dispose of them is burning them and burying the ashes.

SPEAKER_07 52:01

It's crazy, it's like they saved the water, but now well, we can't go on about that. But this most recent viewing, I can't give it full sets of pairs. I wish I could give it full sets of pairs, because it'd have to be like two, four, etc. etc. Right. Uh, so I guess I just have to give it five black socks. I would love to give it six. If I could, I'd give it six. I'd give you the I Ben, I'd give you the extra one. Wow. I I had not seen this movie in its entirety in well over a decade.

SPEAKER_01 52:36

Yeah.

SPEAKER_07 52:36

And I really was like, okay, well, uh, I'm gonna try to not be on my phone because I may have to be on my computer because I have to condense some time here. Yeah, and at times I just like shut my computer or like ran it back, and uh I finished this movie and then I immediately fucking bought it. Nice, immediately bought it. I just had the best time in terms of like fantasy dramedies that are so insanely grounded. There are so few movies that not only are like charming and fun and feel believable while they're so insanely fucking unbelievable, and people know how unbelievable it is and say it every second. Yeah, yeah. But it's I don't know, it's so frank, it just like it cuts so much bullshit. Yeah, like it just it it continuously gets to points, it's just such a fucking fantastically made movie. And good lord, if I somebody asked me a few years ago, like who's your favorite composer? And so many people come to mind, and maybe James Horner is that person. I don't know, but the score in this movie does a lot.

SPEAKER_03 53:42

That score slaps.

SPEAKER_07 53:44

That score is one of the best scores ever heard. It's crazy good. Yeah, five. I'm not gonna fight the feeling, baby. I'm gonna let the nostalgia take me. Take me, America. Take me. Oh, sorry, America. Take me.

SPEAKER_03 53:57

America. Derek. So um I have seen this movie so many times. And I at least 11. Well, I mean, many times. I I watched this movie whenever I'm on like a first date at my house. I'm like, would if you've never seen it, you want to watch it. That type of thing.

SPEAKER_07 54:15

This is the qualifier. We talked about this. This is a qualifier for Derek. Yeah, definitely. I'm the jerk in Nightmare in Elm Street.

SPEAKER_03 54:21

Definitely is that for me.

SPEAKER_04 54:22

Like mine's Jaws and Raiders.

SPEAKER_07 54:23

And yours is like cash grabber. We don't talk about cashback. Snuck a cash. Cashback. Revolver starring Jason Stafem.

SPEAKER_03 54:33

I I think the movie uh changes once you have lost people in your life. Oh, sure. And and just gets deeper because you know, when you first watch it, you're watching it from oh, look at that. It's like there's ghosts in the cornfield, and isn't that you know, cute and kind of kitsch? And then you you lose someone, and all you want is them back. And this movie kind of gives you that option, says, see, he got it, he did it, and uh, I don't know, it's just every time, and Ben will get it. Every time I see this movie, I think of our of our papa, of our grandfather. Yeah, and I think I just want to bring him back and show him what I've done and see if he's proud.

SPEAKER_07 55:14

What's his name? Papa Dick. Papa Dick. Papa Dick. I had a papa dick as well. I had a I had a Grandpa Richard as well. Uh well, hey, to all the Papa Dicks out there and Grandpa Richards out there, R. Ip.

SPEAKER_03 55:28

Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_07 55:29

Because we would like to pay proper respect for the little moments we can on this program.

SPEAKER_03 55:34

I don't think I said, but I'm still at five uh portal uh inexpertly eating hot dogs.

SPEAKER_04 55:39

Great. Did did you both recognize my my my Nazi cow reference? Oh, I agree. 100% did. Okay. Dude, that that's at least I'm not a book burner. You Nazi cow.

SPEAKER_03 55:51

She gives me a little hot.

SPEAKER_04 55:52

She's she's she's hot, dude.

SPEAKER_03 55:55

I have to assume, and I have to assume that was if I have to assume that was the scene that she was like, I have to do this movie. That's good.

SPEAKER_04 56:03

I do want to say the the way this movie starts, so we can start. Let's dig in, baby.

SPEAKER_07 56:09

So Field of Dreams, the Universal again.

SPEAKER_04 56:12

Here we go. Old school Universal logo. Kevin Cause. Yes. Love that old school logo.

SPEAKER_03 56:16

That score starts right at my own.

SPEAKER_04 56:19

Oh, the score starts and we're immediately it we're we have nostalgia immediately because he's talking about his dad.

SPEAKER_07 56:24

And and if I may, really quick, may have the floor for a moment.

SPEAKER_04 56:27

And literally, you may have the whole room. Hold on, you may confirm. I'm trying to check with Billy Zane. Billy, is it okay? He said it is okay as long as you will do a Billy Zane movie at some point.

SPEAKER_07 56:41

Okay, I will. We all know which one I have in the chamber, like loaded, ready to go. When am I gonna let that thing loose?

SPEAKER_04 56:49

I don't know. When are you when are we doing Zoolander?

SPEAKER_07 56:52

T, shell, C. We nearly had we had an opportunity recently, but that guest decided to go a different direction. Okay. So the voiceover that starts this movie. Yeah, yeah. This is a thing that I notice in this uh having done this program for a bit, people love that Kevin Costner. That's one thing. Love is hard. Two things movies that have voiceover of some sort, but I'm noticing, I'm like, fuck, this is another movie that has like voiceover that I like, but this movie uses it really sparingly. Yes. Uh as well as like, oh, kid actor. Really good performance by kid actor. Good performance, yeah. Movie dealing with deep relationships, death, things like that. Yeah. This is one of those movies that like makes up for some of the like what dreams make comes and learn times and things of that nature.

SPEAKER_04 57:46

And this is why they try, this is why they make movies with like the magic sentimentality, you know, like this does a good job of cart of walking the fine line of going too modeling or too, you know, like too sentimental.

SPEAKER_07 57:58

Yeah, too sacron.

SPEAKER_04 57:59

Yeah, yeah, too sacrine.

SPEAKER_07 58:01

It's not quite it's a wonderful life, but it it it feels like kind of a modernized version of that to some degree.

SPEAKER_04 58:07

Oh, I definitely see it, yeah. And I so in this beginning where he's talking about his dad, and he's talking about dad was a Yankee fan. Oh, I wonder why. Dad played minor league for a year, and then like when he came back, and then they talk about how the Dodgers left Brooklyn. The thing that gets me from the entire he goes through the whole thing, and again, I hadn't seen this movie in a while. And he gets to the end, he's like, and now I'm 37 years old. Six, thirty-six years old starting.

SPEAKER_07 58:30

Derek's gonna get you for that.

SPEAKER_04 58:31

And I stopped, and I was like, 36 years old? Yeah, I used to watch him and see, like, oh, that is an old man, that is a dad, and now I'm older than him.

SPEAKER_07 58:42

It's interesting when he said when he's talking about his dad, and he was like, Oh, my dad like was older than me when I was born, and he, you know, ancient this or that or whatever.

SPEAKER_04 58:51

Already worn down by life, is what he said.

SPEAKER_07 58:53

What he said, and that's the thing is like I I will say, and this is no offense to Mr. Costner, I don't know if this is just modern moisturizers, water that's not as hard, but boy, uh we all look we all look great. Yeah, just I'll say we all look great, and maybe it's because he sacrificed himself and gave us CK moist toilettes, which we all use every day. I did, and you should too. Just just do not flush it. Yeah, I also love that he notes at the very beginning important information. Yeah, my dad was a Yankee fan. Like, yeah, I I was a hippie. Yeah, he notes the a lot of these things come back up. The movie's just written really fucking well.

SPEAKER_03 59:29

They stayed with her family as long as they could, almost a full afternoon.

SPEAKER_07 59:34

They start, it's just a cerbic right from the beginning. Like right from the get-go, he's like a little bit of a smart aleck, and yeah, and I like that.

SPEAKER_04 59:41

And I love the just the little like home video of them in front of the farm, and you can see Annie, and you kind of get her character just through her like physicality already. Amy Madigan is a fucking fantastic actor. Yes. Holy shit. And she's so good in this.

SPEAKER_07 59:55

Can we talk about Amy Madigan for a moment? Are other people big uh Madigan? Uh Maniacs? Maniac cop? Maniac cop.

SPEAKER_04 1:00:08

We haven't talked about Tubi. I'm just curious. We haven't talked about her yet, so how can we talk about her Madigan?

SPEAKER_07 1:00:14

Oh, that's right. No movies exist outside of the movies that have been brought to us here.

SPEAKER_04 1:00:17

Yeah.

SPEAKER_07 1:00:18

That's true. No, I I think everyone knows how much I love Uncle Buck, but has anyone seen Gone Baby Gone? It's been a minute, but I've seen it. Yes, I have seen that. It's one of those movies that is on my like watch it once, but maybe leave it.

SPEAKER_03 1:00:30

Yeah, that's probably me too.

SPEAKER_07 1:00:31

I may circle back to that though, just because I remember that performance sticking to me so hard, as well as some like imagery, like some shit you can't on screen.

SPEAKER_05 1:00:39

Ed Harris, right?

SPEAKER_07 1:00:40

I think it's Ed Harris and Amy Madigan and uh Casey Affleck and Morgan Freeman, and I think like the cast is pretty deep. Oh, the cast is stacked. Affleck uh Ben Affleck directed.

SPEAKER_04 1:00:52

David Oleoa, or is that right?

SPEAKER_07 1:00:55

Oyaloo.

SPEAKER_04 1:00:56

Yeah.

SPEAKER_07 1:00:56

I don't know if he's in that or not, to be honest. I'd have to check.

SPEAKER_04 1:00:58

And so then we see him just working in the field.

SPEAKER_07 1:01:01

Immediately the voice. Yeah. Immediately. The movie just does not fuck around.

SPEAKER_04 1:01:06

No, it's it's dropping you right in.

SPEAKER_03 1:01:08

I mean, I really quickly circle back because so Costner had a start date of June, but he had a firm stop date of August something because he had to do the movie Revenge. So they wanted to get all the kind of forever.

SPEAKER_07 1:01:26

There's somebody else who's kind of big in that. I can't remember.

SPEAKER_03 1:01:28

So what they did was they shot all the interiors first because they had to have the corn grow. Well, it didn't grow. By the time that they wanted it to be grown, it was gonna be up at his shins, and that's not big corn. So then they had to irrigate the entire farm, and and they were in the middle of a huge drought. Nobody in Iowa was getting corn. They were all pissed at them. I was gonna say they couldn't just ship it in from somewhere else, plant it by the end of it by the second time you see him in the corn, Costner is walking on apple boxes because that irrigated water has grown that corn so high it's taller than Kevin Costner, and he's walking on apple boxes to just be at the right height of it.

SPEAKER_07 1:02:14

Wow, thank you so much, Roman Empire, for irrigation. Well, now I'm thinking about the Roman Empire. That's all I think about. Oh god, I'm chubbed. I'm chubbed. We gotta stop. So he so he says, Hey Annie, did you hear that? He immediately and he thinks what any logical person would think. Am I fucking crazy? Yeah. What is happening? We didn't hear anything. What it no? Is there a sound truck somewhere?

SPEAKER_04 1:02:40

And I like when he tells her you're hearing voice and she just goes with it. She's like, far out. Like she's like cool, man. She's like, what is the voice saying?

SPEAKER_07 1:02:47

Is it an is it an acid flashback?

SPEAKER_04 1:02:48

I've never taken a if you build what what will who will come?

SPEAKER_07 1:02:52

He didn't say I hate it when that happens. Yeah, you know, this voice you're hearing is really starting to piss me off. Like that's so fucking good, man.

SPEAKER_03 1:03:01

That's when uh he has to ease the pain. So we're not there yet.

SPEAKER_07 1:03:05

So we're we're in the house. Am I crazy? Whatever. He sits, he he goes to bed and stares at this cornfield for a while, and in the morning he insists he's gonna take his daughter and goes to the farm supply store. And it's so great. God, it just immediately Who's hearing voices? Rey is out in the farm. He tries to mask it, and it's like a complete and total failure. Like, I hear people hear voices. I do hear doing a good job.

SPEAKER_03 1:03:32

Yeah. I do like when he wakes up that morning and he's about to go into the farm supply store. He walks downstairs and Karen is watching Harvey.

SPEAKER_04 1:03:41

Oh, yeah, Jimmy Stewart. He can't deal with the fact that that man is sick, very sick.

SPEAKER_07 1:03:46

Very sick. And Jimmy Stewart was considered for the Bert Lancaster, Archie, Moonlight role, and uh had been retired for years at that point. But I I love even shit that normally I'm like, nah, this is too much. That's too much. Sorry, sorry. But things like I normally this is too crazy. Um crazy. I know, playing in the background. I'm really like, come on, man. And like in this movie, it just works. It works.

SPEAKER_04 1:04:16

Well, and everybody, I feel like everyone in that far seed place are mostly not actors. They're just they just like like salt. Real local people. And they're just like staring at him. They're just locals. Noises. I'm hearing noises. I'm just gonna pick up some WD40 and three in one oil, and that ought to do it.

SPEAKER_03 1:04:36

And then they all look at him after he leaves.

SPEAKER_01 1:04:38

I'm just here for some cow feed and some tractor oil and some biker crank.

SPEAKER_04 1:04:43

I like that he somehow, like one of the things I appreciate is that it doesn't, you know how and we've talked about this before. It's either you either get too much information, and then I like this that it doesn't give you it, just says like it's just magic.

SPEAKER_07 1:04:57

No, I I love that too. I like he very quickly when we're back at home, he's he hallucinates, sees, he has this vision of the field, and he goes inside and says to his wife, I don't think I am crazy. I think I know if you build it, he woke up. I think I know what it means.

SPEAKER_03 1:05:17

And that's one of the things that the movie doesn't fuck around, it just goes, goes, goes, it moves forward. No, I was gonna say that's one of the things that doesn't expound too much. The pacing of this movie, though, is is so wonderful that when you have watched it enough, you just know, okay, this is where we're doing this, and this is where we're doing, and you know exactly I don't know, the pacing's perfect. If it was any longer, it would be too much, and if it was any shorter, it wouldn't be enough.

SPEAKER_07 1:05:39

Well, that's what she said, and that's the thing is like I I think I know what if you build it, he will come means, and Amy Madigan goes, Ugh, I don't like the sound of that.

SPEAKER_05 1:05:48

She gets like a little joke in there or whatnot.

SPEAKER_04 1:05:51

I'm like, means that if I build a baseball field, shoeless Joe Jackson can come back and play baseball.

SPEAKER_07 1:05:57

And then she's like, Oh, wait, maybe that's worse even than that little thing.

SPEAKER_04 1:06:02

She's just I can't get over her.

SPEAKER_03 1:06:04

I actually love their marriage. And then it's and then they go to they go to bed and telling her he's telling her things about shoeless joe. Like, did you know Babe Ruth copied his swing? And instead of being like, hey dude, shut up. She's like, if I did, I've forgotten it.

SPEAKER_04 1:06:18

Yeah, but also she's also not like you're talking about a dead guy. You're saying that build a baseball field, a dead guy is gonna come back to life. That's what you're telling me right now, you know. She's not she's not being cynical, she's not mocking him, she's just like, okay, if that's what you need.

SPEAKER_07 1:06:33

I I think the setup of them being hippies just makes it make sense that this is kind of their dynamic. Sure, yeah. And she really hits a home run later on. Like, sorry, sorry, Derek, nailing down the dynamic. And even when she decides, like, okay, I guess we're building this fucking field, and the talking about the field and building the field, and everybody being like, This guy's crazy, like it ain't gonna work out for you, Miho. And like the and the the immediate thing is like you're gonna lose your fucking farm. You're again, like, you're nuts. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 1:07:10

And they set dressed that house beautifully. Uh oh yeah. By the by the door is the Marilyn Monroe picture that I think Andy Warhol did, that just tells you it and it just reminds you, oh yeah, that's who these people are. These people are farmers, but they're from the they're the hippies from the 60s who have decided to do this.

SPEAKER_04 1:07:28

They're logical radicals, like they're in Iowa, and you know, they're in a red state, and her parents are clearly Whoa, purple state now? No, purple red?

SPEAKER_03 1:07:40

Kind of redier. It's it's redder than it was in the Obama years.

SPEAKER_04 1:07:46

Moving on. But but but you know, the montage of him, like, okay, we're gonna do it, and they're plowing over their crop. The whole montage of him like using the explaining baseball baseball to his daughter, I think it's so awesome.

SPEAKER_07 1:07:59

I love that so like this movie is like to use two other movies, but it's like uh the Sandlot and like Finding Forester, but James Earl Jones is not only the Sandlot guy, but also Sean Connery and Finding Forester. And what I don't know, God bless it. It's just so good.

SPEAKER_04 1:08:18

We've talked about this before in other movies where it's like when you really start to strip it down to its bones, bones, this movie is about a parent and a child. Yeah, yes, it's about generations, and so this is about him and his dad and his generational trotter.

SPEAKER_07 1:08:32

It's about it's about knowing a huge part of it, is like him knowing himself, right? Is such a massive piece of it because it when when we get this first interaction with shoeless Joe, after it's like he's ripped up the thing, he's built the field, the whole deal lights, everything. It's amazing.

SPEAKER_03 1:08:52

He's waiting through seasons for something to happen, too.

SPEAKER_07 1:08:55

And we're we think like we're gonna lose the fucking farm, everything is bad, this is no good. And out of nowhere, Karen is like, Hey daddy, and he's like, Karen, just a minute. Hey Daddy, just a minute, and he like snaps at her the one time he like raises his voice, or he's mean, or whatever.

SPEAKER_04 1:09:12

And I think there's a man out there on your movie, and you know he knows it's so and the cord, the cord that's struck in the in the soundtrack there, like it hits his cord, and you're like the music tells us and the shot of him being out on the field, you're like, something's happened, something magical has happened. Yeah, and we get Ray Leota. I love the showless show.

SPEAKER_03 1:09:35

I love that first scene where he goes out and turns out the lights, and and he he's turning on the lights, and you you watch Ray Lota as the lights come on, just like becoming aware of each stanchion, and it it's just uh and the and the music, oh man.

SPEAKER_04 1:09:50

And then they play a little uh they play a little baseball.

SPEAKER_03 1:09:53

Well he basically plays like home run derby. Like yeah, shoe's just being yeah, by first being really bad though. Like he's gonna be. I'll get a few out there. And he he makes he makes him go, uh, did I come to the wrong field? Are you just terrible?

SPEAKER_04 1:10:09

Also, I miss the sound of wood, like the wood bat sound, the crack of a wood bat.

SPEAKER_07 1:10:14

Yes, it's just especially in person.

SPEAKER_04 1:10:16

Yeah.

SPEAKER_07 1:10:17

I I I love Kevin Costner when he's at his very, very best, is when he's just a regular flawed guy. Not a mermaid, not a mermaid, merman! Merman Merman! Billy, next time. Jesus. Not tonight, a demon night, another night.

SPEAKER_04 1:10:37

But go back to your jungle.

SPEAKER_07 1:10:39

Kevin Costner just this moment when he meets Shuless Joe Jackson and he can't hit a ball out to him. Let's see if you can hit my curveball, and Shulis Joe Jackson like nails the bag of balls right next to him, and he's like, and Ray Leota does this thing where he flicks his eye, he has like a tiny smirk, like these things last for less than a quarter of a second, and they're beautiful little tiny acting things that are so fucking good. Even when he starts talking about the phantom pain of not playing baseball, of like, I feel like I've lost a limb, and 50 years later I wake up and it's still there, and that's been dust forever, and you're just like, Jesus. But like the way he explains that phantom pain of not being able to play baseball great. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 1:11:25

Watching them play, and then like we he can we see that he can't cross the barrier, the line.

SPEAKER_07 1:11:32

Yeah, there's like a barrier there, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 1:11:35

It's like there's the field of play, and then there's the gravel, and he he knows instinctually like he can't go there. Right, something something is fully aware that he's been dead.

SPEAKER_07 1:11:47

If he's on earth, he has to be on a baseball field.

SPEAKER_04 1:11:51

Yeah, that is where he belongs. And I feel it's fascinating to me because I feel like all of them that come in play eventually getting ahead of ourselves.

SPEAKER_03 1:11:58

And that's what's so interesting is he's he's clearly somewhat aware that he's on earth, but they all ask at some point, is this heaven? Because it's it's probably very confusing on some level.

SPEAKER_07 1:12:11

Well, they know time has passed, they reference things that have happened since they've any of them have been dead, or that happened later than when we see them. There's a reference to Wizard of Oz, all sorts of shit. Yeah, I'm melting. Right. But ultimately, uh they probably are in heaven, they've just been brought back for this purpose for whatever. I don't know. I love leaves it open, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 1:12:36

Again, like they don't give us too much, but they get to do the thing they love.

SPEAKER_07 1:12:40

Right. Uh if they're gonna be back on earth, this is what they're gonna be, should be.

SPEAKER_03 1:12:44

It's one of those movies where if it's fully explained, it's less interesting.

SPEAKER_07 1:12:49

I could not agree more. Yeah, so Annie's brother, Timothy Busfield, Mark, wants to buy the farm.

SPEAKER_04 1:12:57

Well, he wants yeah, and he's trying to he's in his mind, he's trying to help them.

SPEAKER_07 1:13:01

Is is that really what he thinks, though?

SPEAKER_04 1:13:03

I I mean I I don't think he's a malicious person.

SPEAKER_03 1:13:06

He he can't he doesn't see he can't see what they see. I mean, so in his mind, yeah, he wants to help them, and he thinks that this guy's gone a little bit off his rocker.

SPEAKER_07 1:13:17

Like it's his sister he loves her.

SPEAKER_03 1:13:18

His sister he loves her, and he he wants to make sure that Karen's okay, that Annie's okay. I think on some level he cares about Ray, but only in the sense that he he's with Annie.

SPEAKER_05 1:13:27

Yeah, we're I don't get this guy.

SPEAKER_04 1:13:30

He's he's your he's your uh family member who who is done really well in like the stock exchange. In some way, shape, or form.

SPEAKER_07 1:13:38

Yeah, and they want to do Ackroyd in the Great outdoors.

SPEAKER_04 1:13:40

Yeah, yeah, and they want to save you, they want to help you.

SPEAKER_07 1:13:43

Kevin Costner goes outside to watch the game with Karen, who uh Mark says was very rude. And they go outside. It's a child, and and Timothy Busfield goes out there and he's like, I thought there was some kind of game. And Kevin Costner says, Well, it's there's only eight of them, so it's like a practice. Eight of what? Timothy Busfield, Karen, what do you see, honey? And she's like, baseball. And I just like that he he can't see it, the mother can't see it, none of them can see it.

SPEAKER_04 1:14:10

I love her less because the as he's like saying, like, you can't see it, can you? And her mom goes, it's not very, it's not, I don't think it's very funny or polite.

SPEAKER_05 1:14:19

Funny, yeah. Make other people make other feel stupid and then just walk away.

SPEAKER_07 1:14:23

It's so good.

SPEAKER_04 1:14:24

Uh, and then they just start laughing.

SPEAKER_07 1:14:26

Oh, because what else are you gonna do?

SPEAKER_04 1:14:27

Yeah. I mean, when you're when you're hashtag blessed. You got you got ghost baseball men playing.

SPEAKER_07 1:14:33

Yeah. No, that you're not calling, you know, you're not calling Bill Murray and the guys in this one.

SPEAKER_04 1:14:39

Runner-up title for this movie Angels in the Outfield.

SPEAKER_05 1:14:44

It's me, Tony Dancing. Just kidding, it's me, Vigo Mortenson. Welcome to the green book. It's me, Joseph Gordon Levitt.

SPEAKER_03 1:14:58

It's Don Jonathan's. It's me, Christopher Lloyd. It's the baseball inception, everybody.

SPEAKER_01 1:15:04

Yeah, true.

SPEAKER_07 1:15:05

Comment. Little big league, uh, rookie leader. So the PTA meeting, the Nazi cow thing.

SPEAKER_04 1:15:13

There, and this is where we knock soon cow. Well, first, okay, hold on.

SPEAKER_07 1:15:17

Because first he has to hear knock soon cow.

SPEAKER_04 1:15:20

First he has to hear uh ease's pain.

SPEAKER_05 1:15:23

Yeah, yeah, ease his pain.

SPEAKER_04 1:15:25

Which is like, and again, all of these like clues from this voice have been coded, and he's had to like dig inside of himself to figure out where that what it means.

SPEAKER_07 1:15:35

Well, yeah, there have been like little like parallel dreams that he's had with his wife, and like little things, like crumbs that are there that he's just like fuck it, I'm I'm going for it. After he says, like, I'm 36, I've never been that spontaneous in my life, other than getting away for college. Like, I'm fucking doing this. Yeah, and his wife like is crazy supportive, and part of this is him at this point getting into the microfige Ben.

SPEAKER_04 1:16:02

Right, but hold on, we can't skip the PTA.

SPEAKER_07 1:16:04

Oh no, the PTA. Go back. I'm so sorry.

SPEAKER_04 1:16:07

Because you're right. They're this is where we meet the character. Well, we they talk about the character Terrence Mann. Yes. And they are, and that what's funny, no, not funny. I'm sorry. What what is what what what is awful is that there are still there are still people who want to do this to books. Yeah, yeah. Which is remove them from the public schools and the public libraries in some capacity.

SPEAKER_07 1:16:31

You know, my first instinct is to find it funny because it's so horrifying. Sure. It's like when I'm in a lot of pain, I laugh. I can't help it. Sure. But like it's not funny at all.

SPEAKER_03 1:16:42

Derek, please, as like from an author's standpoint, you were saying from an author's standpoint, it it's like I'm glad you you took to my book enough that you're mad at it, but maybe that was the point. And and um, and it's just I know there are authors who, including like Judy Bloom, who wear as a badge of honor, I guess the number of books of theirs that have been banned at times. But at a certain point, it's like, look, if you don't want to read books, you don't have to. The great thing about this country is you can decide if you want to or not.

SPEAKER_04 1:17:20

I I you should. And I did a yeah, I did a touring show once that we had a workshop where we took to schools where we did readings from books that were either banned or or uh challenged in public schools and public libraries, and we would have a conversation with students about the uh about the First Amendment and First Amendment rights. Oh, yeah, good and and the difference between a rating system and censorship and how you know rating systems are there so you know what you're getting into, and censorship is just removing something entirely. Yeah. I don't want to get too far on this because we've said this many times, this is not a political podcast. We're talking about a movie, but it's like a lot of atrocities are done in the name of saving the children. Oh boy, yeah. That that is just makes me throw up in my mouth.

SPEAKER_07 1:18:05

Now, if you'd like to save the children, vote for me in 2060.

SPEAKER_04 1:18:10

Sponsored, and Paul is sponsored by CK Most.

SPEAKER_07 1:18:13

I will be 40 years away from being old enough to be eligible at 333.

SPEAKER_03 1:18:18

And you know why Paul stopped writing books because he masterpiece.

SPEAKER_07 1:18:22

I I yank it off so hoard. This is my favorite.

SPEAKER_04 1:18:27

I'm not a book burner, you not.

SPEAKER_07 1:18:30

This is my favorite part of the movie because like this woman comes up at the PTA meeting, this like very narrow-minded with a very much not Karen with an I, like their daughter, right? But Karen with an E wants to get rid of this Terence Mann book because it's horny and this, it's pornographic. She's firing up a bunch of these simple-minded people as like the um the board is fighting to one member specifically.

SPEAKER_04 1:18:58

The guy who's like so exhausted, I feel his pain.

SPEAKER_07 1:19:01

Really good. Every little tiny part in this movie makes an impact. When Amy Madigan goes on this tirade, like, you know what this kind of censorship was? Like, when fucking who wants that when like Stalin was in charge and like goes for the throat? I'm like, mercy me. I like want to grab a fan. And I love that once everyone has their hands raised, she's like, All right, all right, far out. If my dad's OnlyFan store was still open, that would have been so easy for me.

SPEAKER_01 1:19:27

If it's a fan, we've got it. And if we don't, it's not a fan we're fans of. Only fans in Woodland take F5 off the 14 and turn left at the Arctic Circle.

SPEAKER_04 1:19:36

I miss OnlyFans. And in this conversation, in the in this PTA meeting, uh, Ray realizes that Ease's pain is about Terrence Mann.

SPEAKER_07 1:19:43

Yeah, because he's obsessing over it, writing it. By the way, one of my favorite moments in the movie is when Amy Madigan is asking people to raise hands and she hits Ray in the shoulder. And he's like, Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. Classic. It's so good. So we go from this PTA meeting where Amy Madigan has her one of her several great moments in this movie, and Kevin Costner has decided I'm gonna dig into Ease His Pain and Terrence Man and gets into Ben's favorite trope in film. Microfield. Sorry, my favorite.

SPEAKER_04 1:20:19

I thought you said my least favorite.

SPEAKER_07 1:20:20

Oh no, you're vavy. You're most favy.

SPEAKER_04 1:20:23

I love the microfiche. I do not like when they don't eat breakfast.

SPEAKER_07 1:20:26

I know. You like he likes watching people eat. I went through Ben's uh browser history and it's really weird. Man eats bacon.

SPEAKER_01 1:20:33

Man eats eggs, Emily eats eggs, dog eats bacon, dog eats man, man eats dogs, dog eats dog, boy becomes man, man becomes wolf. Anamorphs by anamorphs series. Bezos.

SPEAKER_04 1:20:49

Derek, do you want to talk about the next moment of after after this part?

SPEAKER_03 1:20:55

Are you talking about when uh when they're when they're talking about uh how he might have to go to Boston?

SPEAKER_07 1:21:01

Yeah, yeah, he's gonna go across the country if he can convince his wife.

SPEAKER_03 1:21:04

So, yeah, so he's trying to convince her, and she is firmly a no, and she says, maybe they should just send someone else. What about Shirley McLean? Is she too busy?

SPEAKER_08 1:21:14

Oh man.

SPEAKER_03 1:21:14

Yeah, that that joke still lands today, which is hilarious. Yeah, but then she remembers that she had a dream of Terrence Mann and Ray at Fenway Park, which is the one with the big green wall in left field. And I was eating a hot dog. Yeah, and immediately, and this is the part that I like the most, I think, because there is some intentionally inexpert editing of where uh Costner is talking, talking to himself, trying to figure out how he's going to convince Terrence Mann to go with him.

SPEAKER_07 1:21:48

Oh, oh, I love this in the car. It's like weird jump cuts.

SPEAKER_03 1:21:51

Yeah, and he finally lands on all right, Stuart, put your hands up and get in the trunk.

SPEAKER_07 1:21:57

Yeah, like that's one of his outcomes is like, I'm gonna take this guy hostage as he's like running.

SPEAKER_04 1:22:02

I love that he's just like not good at this, you know, right? Like when he first asks the guy, yeah, he's my friend. He uh like uh he told me to meet him, and the guy's like, if you were much of a friend, he'd give you the directions himself. And then you see his realization of like that's uh that's a good point.

SPEAKER_07 1:22:19

Yeah, he immediately surrenders, like he's and then there's like what is it?

SPEAKER_03 1:22:23

It's like that old woman is like get away from me. I'm gonna tell you nothing.

SPEAKER_04 1:22:28

Yeah, old woman's just like beelining out.

SPEAKER_07 1:22:30

But he gives a few bucks to like mechanic, and he's like, Yeah, he lives over there.

SPEAKER_04 1:22:33

Oh, and no problem. I also love I I I could tell that they were clearly not shooting in Boston. No, but yeah, but I love that they just gave that mechanic a Celtics hat.

SPEAKER_05 1:22:42

It was so yeah, it was like the laziest.

SPEAKER_07 1:22:44

Yeah, the movie is really bright throughout, unless it's outside at night and the baseball field lights are off. The movie is a it's a very warmly lit. Yeah, yeah. I think it's supposed to feel kind of like a dream.

SPEAKER_03 1:22:56

With many, many magic hour shots. So many magic hour shots.

SPEAKER_04 1:23:00

Yeah, it's god, it's beautiful, isn't it? He tells him to go down and it's the first window without a chicken in it.

SPEAKER_07 1:23:05

Yeah. And he finds it's like a beat-up old like blue door with a dirty window. And he meets Terry.

SPEAKER_04 1:23:12

And he knows that he's uh Terrence Man. Terrence Man has been writing for like children's software.

SPEAKER_07 1:23:18

Yeah, trying to help them figure out, like, get through confrontations or bullying and stuff like that, like which is so cool.

SPEAKER_04 1:23:25

You know, and I'll just mention this real quick because this movie came out in 89. I was born in 86. Uh oh, gross, you're so old. I know.

SPEAKER_07 1:23:34

I'm 16. Well, next month I'll be 16.

SPEAKER_04 1:23:37

The like the cars and the technology and all that in this movie, that's what I think of when I think of like as growing up in that time. Like, that's what computers were.

SPEAKER_07 1:23:46

Well, this movie like really got really deep into you. Why let it come inside?

unknown 1:23:52

You woke up.

SPEAKER_04 1:23:53

He asked, they asked if he could be. And it's inside of you now forever. But you know, like when we see because I just meant when they see Terrence's computers and stuff, yeah. I was like, oh yeah, this just that's how computers are.

SPEAKER_07 1:24:05

Well, and I like that like Kevin Costner was going through the scenarios and he was like, I'm gonna end up taking this guy hostage, and eventually he can't get Terry to talk to him or reason with him, and so he acts like he has a gun.

SPEAKER_04 1:24:16

And it's a bigger in his pocket. Yeah, Derek knows this moment very well.

SPEAKER_03 1:24:20

Oh, please. Yeah, when he says, when he when he first of all, when he says, uh, it's this is my gun. No, it's not, it's your finger. No, it's not it's my gun. Now I just need you to come with me. What hey, and he's like, Wait, what are you doing? I'm gonna beat you with a crowbar and then you go away.

SPEAKER_07 1:24:37

But you're a pacifist. What are the rules here? There's no rules here. There are no rules. It's like, dude, you came into my house, you're a stranger. There are no rules.

SPEAKER_03 1:24:44

The random guy wants to take me to a baseball game. I would have major issues with that.

SPEAKER_07 1:24:49

What's the first rule? The first rule is there is no are no rules. And what is the second rule? The second rule is that we have that there are no rules. And don't talk about the first rule. Yeah, there are. We have and he says, I have to take you to a baseball game. And I love that.

SPEAKER_04 1:25:05

And then when he's like, So weird I love how Terrence Mann like his like switch, like, you want to sit down? He's like, sure. You want some cookies? You want some coffee?

SPEAKER_07 1:25:12

Yeah, like yeah, stay a while.

SPEAKER_04 1:25:14

Yeah, he's like, who the fuck are you, dude? He's so sarcastic. Well, and you can see, and this is I think probably the it's a lighter take on the as we learn, JD Salinger was a dick, as he even though he was a voice for the generation for a long time. And this was kind of like this man has become cynical. Like this man who was like the voice of love and peace and giving and caring has become like beat down by he hates you, yeah.

SPEAKER_07 1:25:41

Peace, love, dope! Like, yeah, yeah, get the hell out of here. Did you know and he doesn't believe like he doesn't believe in dreams anymore? Did you know JD standed stands for Jiminy Dick?

SPEAKER_03 1:25:52

Jiminy Dick! Believe it stands for Jerome David.

SPEAKER_07 1:25:55

So well, that's probably more accurate. Yeah. Yeah. What if it was Jumbo Dick?

SPEAKER_04 1:26:01

What if it was? Cool. Well, you know?

SPEAKER_07 1:26:05

Like Max Power. That's like equivalent to.

SPEAKER_04 1:26:08

There's no way to know. There's no.

SPEAKER_07 1:26:09

I couldn't. There's no way to do it.

SPEAKER_03 1:26:12

His parents didn't name him.

SPEAKER_07 1:26:13

His parentage never I have no name.

SPEAKER_03 1:26:15

I do.

SPEAKER_04 1:26:16

He never gave me a name. And I do what I do like about this in this moment in this conversation is that you know that he acquiesces. He goes with him.

SPEAKER_07 1:26:23

Yeah, I'll go to the bait. Because he's been having these dreams and visions and thoughts.

SPEAKER_04 1:26:28

Well, and this is the thing.

SPEAKER_07 1:26:28

It's like we don't know that yet.

SPEAKER_04 1:26:29

He, you know, he has given up on what his like mission was. His life mission was. Yeah. And there's part of him that is being dragged back into it. And so they go to the game, and this is one of my favorite moments that I want to talk about. And we kind of talked about it uh before, but when he says, like, he when he says, like, I I I'm tired of people, like, I'm tired of people like wanting to say, like, what would you say about this or that? I want people to think about how they would react to something and how they would say it. I want some privacy and I want to be left alone. Yeah, I'm not the fucking voice of a generation. Be your own person. And that he says that when Ray's like, what do you want? And he's like, No, what do you want? And then we see like three old guys just standing at the hot dog stand, and he's like, hot dog and a beer. Make it too. Make it too. Seven bucks. It's a great, it's just such a great moment.

SPEAKER_07 1:27:19

It's wonderful. And when they when they take their seats, yeah, and Kevin Costner has the vision.

SPEAKER_03 1:27:26

Yeah, he sees on the scoreboard cannot fuck around.

SPEAKER_04 1:27:30

Also, this was the first time that I recognized the fact that when he's seen the vision and it says Moonlight Graham on the scoreboard, the innings are going by quickly. Yeah. Like the on the scoreboard, you're seeing like up to up to bats, up to bats, inning, inning, inning. So like the baseball game is moving quicker.

SPEAKER_07 1:27:48

I feel like he's uh is he kind of like is he Donny Darko? Is he traveling in time a little bit? Is he on a path?

SPEAKER_03 1:27:54

Well, it's a little bit of that here. It's a little bit of that because he is time traveling as we find a little bit of a hard.

SPEAKER_04 1:28:02

And he says to Terrence, like, Did you see that? And he says, See what? And he's like, if you I guess I don't know why I brought you. Yeah, yeah. I don't know why I brought you here. We can go.

SPEAKER_03 1:28:10

I think I think he just wants a confirmation. Like he saw it, he doesn't know what he saw.

SPEAKER_04 1:28:15

Well, but but he's doing all of these things that are seemingly insane, but yeah, for him, they feel like the right move. And so, like, this is one of those moments where it's like, I don't know why I brought this dude if he doesn't if he doesn't if he's not on board.

SPEAKER_07 1:28:29

Well, James Earl Jones immediately is like, Yeah, let's go. We can leave.

SPEAKER_04 1:28:33

Yeah, I want to go and take you home. That scene, and we hit the cord again, the scene where he drops him off and he flips a UI and he turns back around, and James Earl Jones is standing right in the middle, the headlights on him, and the cord strikes again. Boom, and it's a good one. Moonlight Graham. Yes, you saw it. I knew you saw it.

SPEAKER_03 1:28:49

It gives me goosebumps just and he's like, What did I see, right? Because he has no idea what that even means.

SPEAKER_07 1:28:54

Yeah, yeah. How often do you watch a film that you've seen multiple times that a musical cue or somebody saying a specific line or whatever makes you have physical and emotional reactions? I'm gonna tell you right now, I cried three separate times during this movie. Yeah, I get it for like minutes, yeah, and like prolonged periods. And I want to say, Derek, you might be the champion here. I don't think I've cried. Have I cried during a movie that we've watched, or have I noted it? I think this might have been the first time, and it happened several times.

SPEAKER_03 1:29:26

Well, and so I think my favorite line of James Earl Jones is is delivered here when he finally he says, I I know what we're supposed to do. We're supposed to go to find um, we're supposed to go to Chisholm, Minnesota to find Moonlight Graham. And he says, Well, so uh I mean, but but what do we do? We find him, and he just goes, How the hell am I supposed to know that? Yeah, yeah, like I just love that line.

SPEAKER_07 1:29:49

I'm just on the fucking ride, dude. We're just journeying. And we they never go too far from bringing the brother in law back into the fold. This is where we find out the outside. Tension, the pressure gonna be like that, like the house has essentially been foreclosed, they haven't been talking that much, and the brother-in-law is essentially bought it from the bank. They're gonna take it as he can't he's as he forecloses. How much property is that baseball field, by the way? How much worth of corn is that? Oh, Paul Newman's gonna have my legs broke.

SPEAKER_04 1:30:21

I mean, he can 2200 bucks an acre. I mean, he clearly owns like hundreds of acres.

SPEAKER_07 1:30:26

He owns a lot of fucking land.

SPEAKER_03 1:30:28

I will I will say about that scene where where it's Mark and the business partners, those business partners are just two extras who live in Iowa. They're like, let me find two big dudes that can stand behind Timothy Busfield. And they did.

SPEAKER_07 1:30:42

Well, did you see the extended edition? They had like this guy with a weird accent come in. He had like long dyed black hair, and he was like, Oh, hi, Mark, and then they cut it, but that then he looked at Karen and he's like, Why a friend Locke?

SPEAKER_03 1:30:54

It's it's the Tommy Wasseau uh edition of the case.

SPEAKER_04 1:30:57

And then they instead of playing baseball, they throw a football around.

SPEAKER_03 1:31:00

You're tearing me apart, Jamie Madigan.

SPEAKER_04 1:31:03

They throw a football around in in tuxedos.

SPEAKER_07 1:31:05

It's so good. I so they go to Minnesota.

SPEAKER_04 1:31:09

I also love I just want to say, like, this is the part of the movie where it becomes a buddy travel movie. Yes. So wonderful. It's like it becomes just like they're a buddy movie, and it's like, did not see that. If you did not know that was coming, you would never have guessed that would be where this movie was going. This is an adventure. This this is an adventure movie. Yeah, I would say, not What Dreams May Come.

SPEAKER_03 1:31:32

No. If if I can talk really quick about this moment, because please they're looking, they're looking for Moonlight Graham, and they can't find anything. And and Terrence sees that there's a it's a newspaper office. He says, Well, maybe we'll find something here. They walk in there. Now, the obituary, when they find out that Doc Graham is dead and he died in 1972, the obituary is actually what inspired WP Kinsella to uh create the character of Moonlight Graham because that obituary was actually written by the person who ran that newspaper, and they used the actual obituary in the movie.

SPEAKER_07 1:32:08

Oh wow, that's amazing. Yeah. I didn't know that. When they're in Minnesota and they're talking to those people at the bar about Moonlight Graham. Oh, yeah. Those are people, those are actual folks who came out while they were shooting, knew about Moonlight Graham, and the whole story about like when he had passed, he had boxes of blue hats for his wife. Oh god, that one gets me.

SPEAKER_03 1:32:29

Is that one of the places you is that one of the places you cried, Paul? Because that's one of the places I cry.

SPEAKER_07 1:32:34

There are a few different places that are mostly to do with we're gonna get to one of them very soon, that like the one that really hit me really hard, we're gonna get to soon. But we had a few, one of the very first ones was honestly uh the first time when everybody is like playing baseball and no one else sees it. I had like happy tears.

SPEAKER_04 1:32:53

Yeah. Well, and I love their like banter, the baseball. We didn't talk about it, but like their banter, and then they're like like swearing, and then like there's a kid and like sorry, and she's like, I don't mind.

SPEAKER_07 1:33:02

It's okay, I don't mind. When they're ragging him about dinner, yeah, and dinner with dinner time, like kids did that shit to me when I got called for dinner.

SPEAKER_04 1:33:13

And the guy who talks about is like I quit smoking and I haven't had a cigarette because I died in 70. And he's doing the thing where he's like touching his like where his pocket would be where they keep cigarettes. He's like, You don't smoke, do you? Yeah, it's so good. Looking for what back back to where we were at, they finally discover like he had a medical practice. Yeah. And uh he has been dead for several years.

SPEAKER_07 1:33:34

And he had played baseball for it profession at a professional level for three minutes, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 1:33:40

At a major league level for three minutes, yeah at a professional level for probably longer than.

SPEAKER_07 1:33:45

Thank you for correcting me, because that's very true. Like any level past like college where you're being paid traveling, etc., is professional in terms of uh baseball.

SPEAKER_03 1:33:53

I would I would like to say that that Moonlight Graham played his one game of baseball on June 29th, 1905. June 29th. Shut it, shut, shut, shut.

SPEAKER_05 1:34:03

Wait, don't look at that penny, Richard Matheson! It's the return of Dick. They're so what what did I say?

SPEAKER_07 1:34:11

We both have grandpa dicks, Dicky Math and Jumbo Dick Salinger. Yeah, wow. Too many dicks on the dance floor here. Too many dicks on the dance floor. Too many dicks. We time travel back. Subtitles this point.

SPEAKER_04 1:34:28

Yeah, yeah, maybe. He goes, they they they're in a motel and he says, Oh, and he uh Terence has to call his dad because he is missing that's been reported as missing. Yeah, and I love that moment because Ray leaves, and you see this moment before he even dials. Terence is like sitting there and he just starts smiling. He goes, What am I gonna tell him?

SPEAKER_07 1:34:47

Yeah, like I can't tell him the fucking truth about this. Yeah, this is insane.

SPEAKER_04 1:34:51

And Ray just goes on a walk, and he goes outside.

SPEAKER_03 1:34:55

It's such a cool scene because it's it's it's such an interesting way to do time travel. They don't do it in a way where you're like, I am time traveling, it just happens, and he accepts it like he's accepted everything else. You see the godfather is one of this year's 10 bests, re-elect Richard Nixon, that type of dick.

SPEAKER_04 1:35:14

Tricky dick. The other dick.

SPEAKER_03 1:35:15

Oh too many, and then it, and then it comes back to what the people said about about Doc Graham. He he always wears an overcoat and he carried an he carries an umbrella, and then you realize, oh, that's that's who this is, and I'm I gotta go get him.

SPEAKER_07 1:35:32

Almost every piece of exposition in this movie ends up paying off. Another thing that really hits for me, because I think it came out in 73, shot in 72, maybe something, is so many things, so much imagery of this dream is evocative of the Exorcist. And I think intentionally.

SPEAKER_04 1:35:51

Interesting.

SPEAKER_07 1:35:52

Uh, because it's part of the time period, also, but like the fog, some of the shots that Bert Lancaster steps and stops when they go past stairs, things like that. It's like, oh, I'm like, oh, this is rad. Like, this is the part that really hit me when Bert Lancaster is essentially and and and Kevin Costner are having this conversation that essentially is uh Bert Lancaster saying, It's like being this close to your dream and pinching his fingers together to show us like a quarter of an inch.

SPEAKER_03 1:36:22

And watching it brush past you, like watching it brush past you, yeah.

SPEAKER_07 1:36:26

And Kevin Costner eventually saying, you know, you you do for you to be this close and like you know, not do the thing would be a tragedy. And for him to say, for me to not be a doctor would be the greatest tragedy. Yeah, that line. Like that's where I'm kind of like starting to lose it, where it's like what you think you were meant for, and like what you meant for, what you are meant for, or your purpose can be two different things, and you can find this out at any point.

SPEAKER_04 1:36:56

Yeah, it's it's a beautiful conversation, and he just Ray just walks back to the present, yeah, like nothing, yeah.

SPEAKER_07 1:37:04

Yeah, it's like he he's conversing and he's like, Yeah, so in the in the end, we were talking, and I was like, bro, uh it is best you stay. Bye.

SPEAKER_03 1:37:12

And he he just explains it to Terence Mann, and Terrence Mann's like, All right, well, I guess we'll move on.

SPEAKER_04 1:37:17

And they and they and that's when Karen calls and is like, they're gonna buy that's when Annie calls, yeah.

SPEAKER_07 1:37:21

Annie calls, they're gonna buy my brother. We're gonna take our farm. It's over, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 1:37:27

And so they're coming back home. He's like, I'm coming home. And the only this is the only, I will say, for me, the only thing that felt forced is his is his reasoning to pick up the hitchhiker. Now, I get it, there's magic. He's being sort of like pulled by different moments of like it's like destiny and fate, but the line is just I need all the karma I can get today, and he pulls over to pick up a hitchhiker, which just feels that just felt a little forced for me. It doesn't make like if they're trying to get back because of this like tension and all that. I'm like, I uh but I get it because it art, it's it is we end up knowing that that is and he's also but but I think that we have also um developed over the film that Ray is the kind of guy who would pick up a hitchhiker.

SPEAKER_07 1:38:17

I guess that's true. He is a hippie that that and as they're pulling up to him, he's like, Oh, hey, where are you going? Like, how far are you going? Far as Iowa, great, I'll come with you. Uh I'm a baseball player, Ray. Yeah, I bet you are. Like, and then it's like, okay, he rolls his eyes at all these coincidences a couple times where he's like almost kind of like, I'm kind of sick of this happening.

SPEAKER_04 1:38:41

It's like lost a little of the magic, but it's not the kid, it's not that part, it's just the the the honestly the reasoning. The line, just the line, I need all the crime I could get today. I was like, ah, I don't understand the reasoning you well.

SPEAKER_07 1:38:56

They're they're at an impasse where they're not entirely sure exactly what the next point is. And like they're in a VW bus, as you both mentioned. He's like a child of the 60s. I I buy it. I buy it.

SPEAKER_04 1:39:06

But it but we just learned he's gotta get back because the house is so like the the the pull and the tension is that he's about to lose his farm.

SPEAKER_07 1:39:13

Yeah, that's the biggest piece here is the family's gonna end up getting broken apart by family.

SPEAKER_03 1:39:19

I do really love the next scene, which is uh uh which is Ray and Terrence really talking about Ray's relationship with his father, yeah, and why and why he would stop playing catch with him. That's when I read The Boat Rocker by Terence Mann. Never played catch with him again. Uh yeah. It's not my fault you didn't play catch with your father. And you know, it hit, and but there's a line at that same conversation when he said, I cannot respect a man whose hero is a criminal. Who was his hero? Shoeless Joe Jackson. You know, he wasn't a criminal. Right. Yeah, then what then why did you say it? I was 17.

SPEAKER_04 1:39:56

And it was the last thing you said to him, right? Well, he never got to he never got to take it back.

SPEAKER_03 1:40:00

Right, he never didn't think he left that he left the house at 17, and all he says is I never got to take it back, made it back for the funeral, though.

SPEAKER_07 1:40:09

A huge, huge part of this movie is when you're young, when you're old, or what have you, the presumptions of things that you know or what you believe have to change. They must change as time marches on. Yeah, it's unavoidable. You gotta fucking do it.

SPEAKER_04 1:40:28

Yeah.

SPEAKER_07 1:40:29

I I'm just so full on into the fairy tale. That was part of the thing with the hitchhiker and this this thing where he uh is kind of forcing James Earl Jones to therapise him, maybe kind of voluntarily therapizing him to a degree. It's like this in the end, there is no exposition wasted at the very beginning of the movie. My dad became a Yankee fan, which was like a big thing.

SPEAKER_04 1:40:51

Yeah, they gave us the they gave us the seed of his dad playing for a year or whatever.

SPEAKER_07 1:40:56

But they never mentioned that he played Major League Baseball until it's revealed kind of to us at the end. And that's another thing that I like about the movie is everything kind of unfolds well. It's it's an hour and 47 minutes, but if somebody said, Oh yeah, it's like an hour 30, I'd be like, Okay. Yeah, it feels quick.

SPEAKER_03 1:41:13

Really quick. Yeah, it does.

SPEAKER_04 1:41:14

Yeah. And this is like the final showdown, really, where it's like Archie, Archie, this kid they picked up who is Moonlight Graham as a kid, he gets to go play baseball. Frank Whaley.

SPEAKER_03 1:41:25

Archie gets Archie gets the night game, which which is, I mean, because when they arrive home, it's dark, but now they can have full games because there's more people, but not Ty Cobb, because he was a real son of a bitch, and none of them want to play with him.

SPEAKER_04 1:41:40

So the great speech from Taryn. So people people will come, Ray.

SPEAKER_03 1:41:44

Well, the no uh they will come. Yeah, and is saying, Okay, well, now's the time you have to sign the papers. And first we get Karen saying people will come to Iowa, you know, and they'll come and they'll be really bored because it's Iowa, of course, and they'll wanna and they'll and they'll wanna pay us by buying a ticket. And you know, and they're sort of listening to her. But what really sells it is the James Earl Jones speech.

SPEAKER_07 1:42:17

Yeah. Yeah, I the it's it's the magic of baseball, of belief, of uh happiness, of purity, of heaven, of an afterlife.

SPEAKER_04 1:42:28

One that baseball brings is is that nostalgic thing.

SPEAKER_07 1:42:31

It's one of these ultimate equalizer of America.

SPEAKER_03 1:42:36

You also really get here, I think Timothy Buzzfield in his mind, he's not a villain, he's trying to do the right thing.

SPEAKER_07 1:42:43

You can live here rent-free forever. I'm giving you a great deal.

SPEAKER_03 1:42:46

$4,200 an acre, man. We just need the corn back.

SPEAKER_07 1:42:49

This is the other thing about the movie. Like, it's got this whole wild thing that is the A story. But the B story is so relatable and grounded, we could lose our place because we took a selly risk. Yeah, it just so happens that this is a fantastic, fantastical one. And this is where we walk into the scary moment of the movie where the the daughter like falls off the stands.

SPEAKER_04 1:43:15

After they have like a they have like a kerfuffle, and yeah, it doesn't seem like anyone pushed her, but she just fell, I think.

SPEAKER_03 1:43:22

Well, one is like like one is holding her, the and and Kevin Costner's trying to get her back from him. Right.

SPEAKER_04 1:43:29

And it's should definitely have a railing up there. That's not OSHA approved.

SPEAKER_03 1:43:33

I don't think so.

SPEAKER_07 1:43:34

Yeah, they're gonna shut that down. Yeah, I don't yeah, they had to modify that. Did they modify that, Derek?

SPEAKER_03 1:43:40

But I think by now, yeah. But there's a line added in a um but but there's a line right at that point uh when when Kevin Costner sees that that the young Moonlight Graham is running towards the line, and she's about to call emergency because I mean their kid is dying, probably, and he says, Annie, wait, and she says, What?

SPEAKER_07 1:44:04

Yeah, that's the thing that takes me out in this movie. That's the one moment that I'm like, What the fuck? Yeah, because your your child's dying. What do you mean, wait? What did they do to us?

SPEAKER_03 1:44:13

Yeah, and like all of a sudden, then Bert Lancaster walks out, and he from here to eternities are and all of a sudden uh Timothy Buzzfield can see Bert Lancaster because you see, yeah, yeah. You see Timothy Buzzfield say, What the? Like kind of just mouth, what the right and then he's like, What did all these guys get here?

SPEAKER_07 1:44:32

I thought, dude, I thought that was great. I think it's like that existential moment, that crisis, that feeling of loss. There was something that happened that hit him in a way that changed him in that moment that made him truly like a brother, an ally, what have you, to them. And then this comes into the next moment where I started to get uh pretty emotional.

SPEAKER_04 1:44:54

Yeah, I feel like we're getting towards like the big last moment, which is Reggae's catch with his dad.

SPEAKER_07 1:44:59

Well, uh James Earl Jones uh goes with them. He's invited to go, and it this is the first time I'd watched the movie where I wasn't like, dude, Kevin Costner, chill the fuck out. He's dying or dead, and he's gonna go, so chill out. This was the first time I watched it. Yeah, where I really empathized with him, where he was like, Okay, great, he was the writer, he was the voice, he was the radical, whatever. In your case, he earned it. I built the field, I did this. Why are you choosing him? I think in that moment, not only is he thinking about himself because he's human, but he's also like kind of ignoring. I I think he starts to get it, but ignores that he's like, Oh, wait, he they're picking him for a reason that I can't be picked for.

SPEAKER_04 1:45:48

Yeah, well, he doesn't realize he doesn't realize that that's absolutely plainly to him toward the end.

SPEAKER_03 1:45:53

And the and the the part of that where he says, I've I've done everything I've been asked to do, and I've never asked what's in it for me. What are you saying? I'm saying what's in it for me. Like I I'm asking that question now.

SPEAKER_07 1:46:05

Which you should never, ever, ever, ever do. That should never be your motivation ever. And that again is something that made me very emotional. Like you don't go through the undertaking of a film or a novel or what how it's not an entirely selfish undertaking if you're doing it right.

SPEAKER_04 1:46:24

Yeah, it's not about I'm doing this to get this back. I'm doing this because I love it. Because you want to do the right thing. Because I love it.

SPEAKER_03 1:46:33

Because because in on some level, on some level it's because on some level it's therapy for me, but I I'm I'm I'm doing it for reasons that make sense to me at the time. And what I get out of it afterwards is a completely separate transaction.

SPEAKER_04 1:46:49

Right. Yeah, and for me, I think the moment here is that what he gets out of it.

SPEAKER_07 1:46:55

See the game with all these legends, but it's about his dad. And then his dad is hanging around and that's what this movie's about. His amazing wife is like, go fucking talk to him.

SPEAKER_03 1:47:05

You should inter you should introduce him to his granddaughter.

SPEAKER_07 1:47:08

And it's all it's like kind of surface level. We're just we're just talking, we're just having a catch. We're just two guys, two girls hanging out.

SPEAKER_03 1:47:16

So when he introduces her him to to Karen, he says, Karen, this is my and then he stops and says, This is John. Yeah and the interesting thing about that is in the original uh movie, as it was first test screened, he just says, Hey, want to have a catch? But what happened was when they test screened it, a lot of people didn't realize that that was uh Kevin Costner's dad, that that was Ray's father.

SPEAKER_07 1:47:44

So it's great the way it is, it's probably better the way it is.

SPEAKER_03 1:47:47

So the dad part, when you when you say hey dad, when the reason they cut away from Kevin Costner at that point is he doesn't actually say that, and that's ADR'd.

SPEAKER_07 1:47:55

Oh I actually love when at the very end of the exchange he says hey dad and he turns immediately. Yeah, like he's joked. He's known the whole time. Yeah, yeah. It's fucking awesome. Yeah, I love it. So started to almost lose it again there. Uh, we find out they're probably gonna end up keeping their farm because there is a line of cars that goes all through all the way through the state of Iowa.

SPEAKER_04 1:48:16

Yeah, and Timothy Busfield says, like, you can't sell this place, Ray. You can't sell it.

SPEAKER_07 1:48:20

Yeah, you gotta keep this place forever. Oh yeah. And get the feeling he has gained a powerful ally.

SPEAKER_03 1:48:25

And Dwyer Brown, who plays who plays John, says that at least like once or twice a week, he will get asked, want to have a catch. And he always says, I'd like that. And they'll throw a piece of paper or something. Just to do it.

SPEAKER_07 1:48:41

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 1:48:41

What a film. What a great movie for our baseball season.

SPEAKER_07 1:48:47

The only reason my face is in one piece is because I was able to dab it off with CK moists. It dried my skin while moistening. You're very skin.

SPEAKER_04 1:48:58

Your skin looks very dry.

SPEAKER_07 1:49:00

Thank you. But also kind of moist. Kind of moist. A little bit. Wetness is the essence of moisture, and moisture is the essence of dryness. CK moist toilettes.

SPEAKER_04 1:49:12

Merman! Well, let's talk about our final rankings. We just had a long conversation. Long conversation. I feel like you two should go because I'm the one that could, or you guys aren't gonna change.

SPEAKER_07 1:49:26

I am I I'm not. It's still, I'm gonna take it. It's five black socks. It truly is. I really had such you did you both mentioned a couple things that were kind of like, eh, and is this a little too fairy tale-y at times, or is this a little too convenient at times? But it really hit me as even you were talking about it, Ben, I was like, Yeah, Kevin Coster in that moment does kind of do the like when he says, Yeah, I play baseball. Yeah, I bet you do. Like, he's there's that he almost laughs at it. Like, I feel like he's I'm on board as an audience member. That was yeah, yeah, that was one of my remaining flaws, uh, and it and not that it's not flawed, but uh in terms of a viewing experience, I just had the best time. I'm so glad I what rewatched and purchased.

SPEAKER_03 1:50:13

Yeah. Well, how about Derek? I don't think I just think this movie, It's a Wonderful Life. Those two movies are kind of um, they form my sentimental backbone when I write stories. And so this is a almost a sacred movie to me. And yes, there are issues with it in certain places, and Ben, you mentioned them, but I I kind of just go with all of it because I say, look, I'm I'm I'm here for it all. So I'm I'm at five uh inexpertly eating hot dogs that will be uh hit out of my uh throat by uh Bert Lancaster.

SPEAKER_07 1:50:47

I'm so glad that I rated it highly because I feel like the next gift I could have gotten was Transformers DVD. And I don't want it. I also I love that after James Earl Jones passes in this movie, there's a shot toward the sky, and when he passes in Lion King, there's a shot toward the sky, and when he passes in the Simpsons, or when Bleeding Gums Murphy passes in the Simpsons, it goes to the sky, and they do all the James Earl Joneses. CNN.

SPEAKER_03 1:51:17

I've heard some people say uh if there was a se if there was a sequel to this movie, would it be when they found Terrence Mann's body in the corn and and brought Ray up on charges?

SPEAKER_07 1:51:29

I would watch that also. Different movie. Yeah, yeah, I would watch it. Did the drama did uh what death taught Terence? Was that consciously or subconsciously? Did that come from this movie at all?

SPEAKER_03 1:51:41

Uh well, uh, as Ben has said on this podcast, this movie, but also Defending Your Life, I think had a lot to do uh with that. Yeah, okay. Yeah, but definitely uh this movie, it's a wonderful life as well, because it is a life review book, and so um there's a lot of that. And but you know what in in his review of this book of the movie, one of the things Ebert says is it reminded him of a Jimmy Stewart movie, and I completely understand why.

SPEAKER_07 1:52:07

Same. It's very capra, it's got like a the right level of saccharine, baby. I like it. I still got all my teeth, just barely. They're more like candy corns now, but they're there.

SPEAKER_04 1:52:18

Well, I'm gonna I'm going up to four and a half uh Nazi cows. Too low. Nice. I jumped from a four to four and a half. You got a half point? Too low.

SPEAKER_07 1:52:29

I'll take it.

SPEAKER_04 1:52:29

You know, I think that's great. Four and a half's a really good score.

SPEAKER_03 1:52:33

I am tired of not getting fives. But here's the thing I'm okay with a four and a half because I know Ben will have to watch this movie many more times, probably with me.

SPEAKER_07 1:52:41

I mean, I still will watch it. Great news for me. My girlfriend's okay with four and a half.

unknown 1:52:47

Sorry.

SPEAKER_03 1:52:47

Well, with that, it's a hard Derek or Derek.

SPEAKER_04 1:52:50

Where can people find you uh if they want to find you?

SPEAKER_03 1:52:54

On the internet. It's Derek McFadden. Yeah, it's I don't know if you know what it is, but it's Derek McFadden Editor.com. All of my books are on the Amazons, and two of my books are on the Audibles. It's pretty easy.

SPEAKER_04 1:53:06

Well, my brother, Derek, I love you. Thank you for coming back. This podcast is gross. Thank you for coming back onto our program. You are welcome. Thank you for listening to our program.

SPEAKER_07 1:53:17

Yeah, follow us. I listen to your don't you? Everyone listen to it like Derek.

SPEAKER_04 1:53:22

Follow me at Paul XBadly. Follow Ben. At Run BMC, follow us at review x2 podcast. Make sure you smash that like and subscribe or whatever.

SPEAKER_03 1:53:31

And make sure you listen to this podcast as I do on my phone while I'm falling asleep.

SPEAKER_04 1:53:35

As Martin Scorsese wants you to do.

SPEAKER_07 1:53:38

Oh, you are gonna have some fucked up dreams hearing my voice while you fall asleep. Don't do what Derek do does. Yeah. Don't do what Donnie don't do. Thanks, everybody. Thanks, Derek. Bye.