Starship Troopers / Pauls, Party of Two - Bday Special!

Welcome to the party, pals! (pause) PAUL'S PRETTY PUNCTUAL PARTY! Where we pay our respects to another Paul, Dir: Paul Verhoeven, and his 1997 sci-fi/satire/war film "Starship Troopers." (Based on the novel by Robert Heinlein) Starring: Casper Van Dien, Denise Richards, Neil Patrick Harris, and Michael Ironside. Can a propaganda film, be wrapped in a propaganda film, and then wrapped in a delicious tortilla of satire? If not, well, they sure as hell tried. We discuss - the odds, military ranking based on acting ability, the beauty of the grey (embrace the “groutfit”), and of course HARDCORE NUDITY. 

Plot: Humans in a fascist, militaristic future wage war with giant alien bugs

Recorded 8/23
1hr 48mins

Transcript

I did. And you saw what it said? Star shit poopers. Got them. Are we recording?

Yeah. Well, this is appropriate. Happy birthday to Paul. Verhoeven? Is it his birthday too?

No. I I had to go back and listen to a little bit of the Paul Verhoeven, Arnold Schwarzenegger commentary on total recall. This is me running towards your screen. I thought that immediately when this movie started. Hello.

I'm Paul Verhoeven. I'm a media director. Hello. And this is me running up to you on the screen here. Who told us?

Was it Chris Olds? I I did actually. Alright. I know you don't wanna give me credit. After I just told you I would rather give credit to Chris Olds.

So would I, frankly. Yeah. Than me? Yeah. Yeah.

Easily. It's not hard. By the way, me By the way. Is I I gotta push through, man. Go, dude.

Wait. Back up. Another take. Got it? I'm ready.

I'm in. Are you ready? Are you ready? Ready. Action.

Okay. If I weigh Grun shaverate, treasure. That's next week. Hey, it's me, Paul. And it's you know what?

This is Ben. And we're here for a party. Oh. An unpunctual party for Paul. It's it's so many parties.

Me? So many Pauls. And Verhoeven, one of my favorite directors in the movie today, Starship Troopers. This is a belated birthday episode for Paul. Paul's birthday was on Sunday.

Eight '6. But today's 08/08, and you know that I like to go by the rules of numerology. Sure. I like to respect the Illuminati. And I said, we don't do my birthday episode till 08/08.

He did say that. I did. And so here we are. It's Paul's birthday episode. Yeehaw.

What have, what have we been up to? What have we been doing? It's been a minute. Yeah. What, what do you have to plug?

I know you just out of town working on fourteen forty eight stuff. Yeah. So fourteen forty eight Hollywood still coming up, November. Nice. There will be more to talk about as we get closer to that.

But if you, are like us and like cool things and, you know, we're hitting almost day 100 of the WGA strike Ugh. With Seg right next to them. Yeah. So soon, there's not gonna be much to do. So go come see some live theater.

And also, even if there were things to do, just do the thing that he said because it's a good thing to do. Live theater is cool. If it motivates you where it's like there's no new stuff, you're already on the wrong show. You're on the wrong track here. That's true.

Mostly go old stuff. Yeah. We are like Chris Olds. It's true. Old stuff.

This episode is in honor of Chris Olds. Is it brought to you by Chris Olds? Yeah. I think didn't Real Genius come out on eight five or eight four? Only your psychotic memory.

Sick lizard brain? Yeah. Do you have a sick lizard brain? You remember the numeral the num numerals. The numbers.

Sick like my lizard brain can do fucking ollies, dude. Oh, nice. Yeah. Five forties. On a It can literally grind a 40 foot rail.

Nice. Yeah. Pretty sweet lizard brain. On a scrapeboard. On a scrapeboard.

Oh, yeah. You got it. Or a tech deck. More appropriately. A lizard would hit a tech deck.

A tech deck. It's it's properly sized for a lizard. I do. And I think it would be one of those lizards with, like, the gecko Hawaii, like, with the sunglasses Oh, yeah. And the whole thing.

Yeah. Or iguana entertainment, the people who do the NBA jam. Sure. From downtown. By the way He's on fire.

This not bad. This movie has like six or eight sequels or whatever the shit it is. Video games and comic books. You told me that and I that blew my mind because I I've never heard of one sequel. I knew there were a couple.

Did Casper does Casper Van Dien show up in all of them? Several. I imagine Including animated versions. I mean, what the fuck else does he have to do? So I forgot to look up who this is.

Kind listener, look up who this is. He either is or was royalty by marriage for a period of time. He married a princess Wait. Cast of the nine? Yes.

It's quite a name. He married a princess. Perfect casting for this movie. God, the casting in this movie is amazing. I mean he's delightfully bad.

Remember, we don't know how the other person feels about this film. Absolutely. That's this whole thing about this program as you already know most likely. What Paul, what what have have you been doing? I wanna talk about the thing that we've both seen and talked about a little bit.

So what did you jump into what are we watching? Yeah. I do. Well, I feel something sneaking up on me and I think I know should I look? I think you should look.

That was scary. There was something out there. I just watched this movie that's like a proto scream slasher. It I think it inspired Scream to some degree called There's Nothing Out There. It's one of those really good bad movies.

I had a good time watching it. You'd hate it. Don't watch it. But listener, if you're like me Don't tell me what I like and don't January man. I am The January man at this point of the put your path to film and recommendations.

If you want to put that out there, fun. Go for Paul. Bad fun, creature feature slash You're saying Or I would work. I I don't think so. Now I have to watch it.

I hope so. It's on Amazon Prime. Are you inceptionizing me? Maybe. Are you inserting me?

We both saw Oppenheimer. Yep. Paul did a complete Barbenheimer, I believe. I did. I was actually gonna talk to you about the other thing.

Oh, please. More but I did do the complete Barbenheimer. Previous guest of this program, Liz Ellis and I, my girlfriend, her husband, we all saw Oppenheimer. Very positive feelings overall, I think. And, I don't like to speak for other people, but that's what I felt.

It's a really upbeat movie too. I don't know. And I don't have to cut out that review anyway that I just mentioned. Do you have to? Don't we?

We can talk about other movies. Can we talk about new stuff? I think so. Wow. This is a good I thought we just couldn't talk about things we were involved with.

Yeah. We're directly promote this is so this is an important piece of this because, like, I don't know the minutia exactly. That's what I thought. Me too. Okay.

I think there's a lot of muddied waters out there at some point. And people started not talking about any movie they saw. And I'm like, I don't think that's I don't think that's part of it, you guys. Yeah. I do get a little I get a little Yeah.

I mean, because then we wouldn't have what are we watching at all unless it was, like Always old stuff. Yeah. There's nothing out there. In terms of who's paying attention to this? There's nothing out there.

There's nothing out there. You studio execs that are listening to this and they're gonna come down hard on us. Zaslav. Iger. The big ones.

We know you're listening. And they're nothing. There's nothing out there. Because you're nothing. There's nothing out there.

Oppenheimer, I thought it was great. Yeah. Great time. And especially this has inspired me, not only got, like, a record turntable thing going, but gonna get a whole home new home theater situation going. And I almost want to get it going before Oppenheimer is in four k.

And did you see it in 70 millimeter IMAX? I did. Nice. Same theater we were at with Chris Nolan for No Time to Die. Yes.

Yes. A theater he prefers in the area apparently. Yeah. His choice. Yep.

So saw the 70 millimeter just a couple days after came out. It was amazing. That's what the audio is so insanely engrossing. Yeah. The audio for that movie is incredible.

Ludwig Goransson's score is incredible. Yeah. Audio design, audio engineering, audio I so many things, top to bottom technically. The thirty five minute chunk of the Trinity test, I feel like is some of the best cinema I've ever seen. It's pretty great.

I've Benny Safdie, kind of the unsung hero of that movie in terms of performance. I mean, so many great performances, top to bottom. Teller? Yeah. Top to bottom.

Top to bottom. To to to tit. What are we saying if girls are using to to to tits? Tote tits? So then you did Barbie?

Toe tits. Yeah. Which we've both seen. Yeah. And I loved it.

I was actually just having a conversation recently, had multiple conversations about it. It might be closer to four and a half, pap smears for me. Wow. Just came up with that off the fly. Yeah.

Thank you. I'm at four or four and a somewhere in there of, Mojo Dojo Casa houses. Yes. Yes. By the way, I really kind of want to see Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Mutant Mayhem.

I wanna see that too. Yeah. I hear good things. Yeah. In line with what we watched for your birthday, I'm also watching, Star Trek Picard.

I have one episode left of the series or season. I don't know. I think it's series. Yeah. Either way, season three of Picard is, I think, just some of the best Star Trek.

It's I mean, it's next gen point two point o. It's like a sequel. It's great. It's fantastic. Best Star Trek film?

First Contact? Agreed. Agreed. It's the best version of Invasion of the Body Snatchers, I think. Oh, yeah.

Sure. It's great. Yeah. Wrath of Khan, I also like. Wrath of Khan's great.

Yeah. I dude, I love as we know, I like undiscovered country. I even like Christian Slater. I even like Nemesis, if I'm being honest. I don't think it's a good movie.

I just like it. I understand why Tom Hardy had a launching point from that because what a great performance. Oh, yeah. I like average Star Trek movie, which is more enjoyable than most movies, I think. And I thought about Star Trek a lot while watching Starship Troopers.

Sure. You can't help yourself but do it. Yeah. I mean, I thought a lot about a lot of things. It's referencing a lot of things.

Sure. Complicated film? Maybe. Maybe. It's a satire.

I think it's very simple. Yeah. I think I think if you don't understand that it's a satire You overcomplicate it. Then you start to think that it might be rah rah. It's it's so anti military.

But it to the untrained eye or to the, uninterested eye or to the distracted eye. For for for many reasons, you might just, like, see it on its surface level and just be, like, oh, this is just a space marines fighting aliens. That's all this is. Yeah. Halo.

Yeah. Or a bad version of aliens. I thought about I thought of Halo a bunch bad. I said bad? No.

Like, that's what you would say if you Okay. If you were passing by, then you just took it at surface level. Okay. But I think that if you understand it if you if you realize, oh, this is a this is breaking apart the the genre a little bit, but it's also it's also, like, more than alien movies, it's it's more lampoon like, satire of war movies. Of war movies and nineteen fifties sci fi type films.

Sure. But, like To me, this is the future we're about we're about to get into this. We gotta avoid this. We gotta slow down. Alright.

But this is a future where, you know, the Nazis, Nazis, especially the ones that fled to Argentina Oh, sure. Win or whatever. Yeah. And, their perfect society solution has worked out, and they still have to have something to fight. So this is the thing.

There's gotta be a reason that they keep bunch of white people in in, Brazil. Right? Blonde haired, blue eyed. Exactly. I mean, my understanding, I watched a lot of commentaries when I was was younger and this was one of the first commentaries I watched.

This was one of my first theater experiences sitting next to my dad where I was like, uh-oh. Yeah. Let's jump into that. Let's say let's jump into our first experiences. I'm not try to be your therapist.

No. I love it. Let's jump into that, Paul. Let's jump into your sitting with your dad watching Starship Troopers. Tell me about that.

You're doing a good job. It was very uncomfortable for me. Let's talk about why was that uncomfortable for you, Paul. Because I wasn't as evolved as Paul Verhoeven thinks society should be. Well Partially because I was Giles.

You were like 14 when this movie came out. Right? Eight? The movie came out in '97? Twenty '5.

Thirty '5. Thirty '1? That silence is on purpose. From me to you. Never.

Listen. I think they know. How old I am? I think they could figure it out. Oh, almost definitely, but still.

Except for Bob Iger. Bob Iger. You have no idea. I never know. Because you're nothing.

Because you're nothing. You ruined Twin Peaks, you fucker. You admitted you ruined it. You're better than Bob Chepak, but but still. Supposedly.

Anyway, but that was my first experience. My mom had a friend, a guy named Charlie. My mom has always been somebody who's, like, had lots of, like, friends or well wishers or whatever. She meets a lot of people. She's just, like, a loquacious, like, conversational person.

People like your mom? Yeah. Yeah. I sure. Yeah.

So this guy was, like, I worked as an extra on this movie called Starship Troopers. It's the same guy who did RoboCop, and I was enamored by this. And my mom was telling me, well, this movie is super violent. You're talk gonna talk to him about it. Super violent.

You can't. No. And at an a young age, nine or whatever. I don't know. Terminator two had been out on VHS, and that was the first rated r movie that I was actually allowed to watch.

But in the theater, I think Starship Troopers was my second r rated after Die Hard with a Vengeance. Oh, wow. Because this guy was an extra in Starship Troopers and was telling all these stories, and I could not help but go. And also the advertising. Yeah.

Who did he play? Some body part somewhere. Just a random face. Yeah. Part of the face attack.

He was a body cast or something probably. He was a body cast or something probably. In the ground that was like, oh, I'm not having a good day. Exactly. I'm not having a very good day.

It would I oh, shit. I should've watched this with headphones on. I might have missed one of those. One of those tour sets. Yeah.

This is a rewatch for you as well. It was a rewatch for me. Okay. I think the last time I saw it was in college Yeah. Which is a while ago now.

And I think Oh, man. That was dude, I just finished Oh, man. Two weeks ago. Wow. You look great.

Yeah. Thanks. No cap. Did you, like, take a big break in between high school and college? Or did you just go right in?

No. Actually, I graduated early. No cap. Oh. No cap.

All gas. Dead ass? Dead ass. Dead ass. Which is who Charlie played, a deadass.

Deadass body cast number four. Charlie the guy. Charlie well wisher. But there's not a one, two, or three. No.

Just a deadass body cast number four. He was the only one that made the cut. Yeah. Hey. You know, sometimes you don't you end up on the cutting room floor.

Literally in this movie. There are cases. I mean, there are a lot of dead bodies. Okay. And a lot of torso pieces.

The body count in this movie, I think, is it's either over 200 or over three. It's it's something ridiculous. Are you including the people who die from the asteroid? No. The 8,000,000 people?

No. I don't think I am. This is almost as bloody as Hotshots Part D. I Loved You in Wall Street. Yeah.

Close. Anyway, moving on. Anyways. I saw it in col last time I watched it, I was in college. I think I was super stoned.

I don't really remember it. Probably a background movie. But I remember renting this from not a Blockbuster or a Hollywood video. I believe it was called Island Video. And it was out on in Kingston, Washington, which is where my grandparents lived.

And it was I remember how they were supposed to go. Caring. They wanted to make sure. I was like, what? Okay.

14, 13 when this came out. So they were more responsible than my father, probably. I I don't know. They just didn't give a shit. I don't know.

I do remember it was a big deal when that movie that rental house opened. Before, we were just running for, like, the Thriftway. So, like, it was huge. And I I remember going in there, and it felt so brand new. And, yeah, he is beaming people.

It was great. I mean, you know. I get it. I fully get it. Yeah.

I will never capture that feeling again. It's all downhill from here. Oh, boy. I watched this by myself at my grandparents. I think they had two well, they had several TVs, but they had a TV out in their living room and a big TV.

Big TV was taken by my grandfather for something. So I watched it in the other room. I remember being, like, I'm too young to be watching this. There are booms. Yeah.

There's there's showers and boobs and sex and and me Silence. Theater too. Yep. But I liked it. I liked it when I was a kid.

I enjoyed it. What was your rating? I probably would have given it, like, four, what what what would I have chosen at a 14 year? I would have given it four boobs. At the age of 14?

Paul Fairhoven went three in total recall. You're like, buddy, let's go go four. Let's go four boobs. Starship Troopers, turn it up. Yeah.

Why not? Four boobs. Four boobs. Okay. At that point in time, I mean, I would have given it, like, four bugs or whatever or something lame like that.

Yeah. We We've just rewatched this. I Do we wanna do the fact sheet first? Or I probably feel like we should. Let's not let's not show our hand too early.

People will Okay. People will check out. Alright. You know what I mean? Fine.

Fine. Let's let's give them a little let's put let's throw some facts into their sheet. Okay. Well, welcome me. I'm Paul.

Starship Troopers. This was Sony and what other studio? Oh, is this a pop quiz fact sheet? Why not? I don't know.

New Line Cinema. Touchstone. Mhmm. Disney. Mhmm.

Is Casper Van Dien a young Han Solo? He does have a scar on his chin. I noticed that. He does hate love. Is it pronounced Van Dien?

Van Dien? I'm not sure. Okay. It's with a y. Right?

D I e n. Oh, oh, okay. I'm not sure, but not only is this a Disney thing and I'm trying to tie it to Star Wars for no reason at all, I guess, because Lucas probably borrows from Heinlein at times. But also this do you feel like Touchstone films have a specific look, like a specific haze? Like, they're lit in a specific way?

Like, they almost look, in a lot of cases, like, dream lit dreamlike. Like, the Sister Act films or Captain Ron or Noises Off, Father of the Bride. You mean, like, there's some kind of weird filter? Rocketeer. Yeah.

They almost like, Dick Tracy. They almost look like they look like a Touchstone movie. Interesting. And that's something to me that I could never really put my finger on about this movie where it's like it just everything looks a little hazy bright. Yeah.

And it just I was like, oh, I guess it's because it's touchstone? It is it is very What about Bob? This looks just like what about Bob. Almost frame for frame. Yeah.

Shot for shot. Baby steps onto the bug plant. Baby steps onto the spaceship. Baby steps The fact that he's just cut his pants into shorts to relax. Yeah.

Going on a vacation. Vacation from my problems. One of the greats. And, you're almost there. I had a stroke.

I just Mitch McConnell. Sorry. Now play the Final Fantasy music over it like a meme. Donkey Kong swimming levels. The fact that Richard Dreyfus hated Bill Murray just adds more to that movie even more.

Like, it just helps that movie even more. It just makes it better. Apparently, Richard Dreyfus is an asshole. Apparently, Gilbert is kind of an asshole, so, you know. Aren't you?

Aren't I? Yeah. It's true. Aren't we all? Maybe not on that level.

Maybe not a No. Maybe not that level. Maybe we don't creep ladies out. Maybe not. Well I would hope not.

We could we could we could survey all of our lady guests and say, on a level from one to 10, how creeped out were you? And then they'll give the rating, and then I'll say, okay. On our most recent episode where there are no where no lady guests available for or to be here, he did rate a movie for boobs. Now how do you feel? Sure.

But I I but but I did. But let's be clear. I said, what would have I rated it at 14 years old? You you did. And and this movie is not without boobs.

And it shouldn't There's boobs in the movie. Yes. And we'll get into this now. Paul Verhoeven, wanted to do this scene in Robocop. A shower scene.

And his idea behind that was in a society that is this way, in Robocop where everything is corporatized to save money or is, fascist or what? Fascist government. Yeah. And all this other stuff like like, no one's gonna care. Like, this won't matter.

This should not be a thing. Yeah. And that's why nothing in that scene in this movie, I don't feel it's sexualized in any way. Until they have sex. No.

No. Well, and then even then We don't actually see see them have sex. No. We'll we'll get to that. I'm gonna go back to the fact sheet.

I promise. Nineteen ninety seven, r rated, two hours and nine minutes. Mhmm. It's a movie. It is a longer movie.

Budget on this film was 105,000,000. Adjusted, that is $1.99.6. Opening weekend was November 9. Like, that had to be around around Veterans Day. Right?

Ninety seven. I I don't know. November 9. But I never know what Veterans Day is, to be honest. I it floats around, doesn't it?

I I believe it does. I think yes? Yeah. Well, good news. It made $22,000,000.

Adjusted, that was 41,800,000.0. Final gross in North America was 55,000,000. Adjusted, that was $1.00 4.5. Globally, it did $1.21. It eked out just over its budget.

Globally, just enough to get 14 sequels, eight video games, six comic books, two animated series. $230,000,000 adjusted. Other releases this same weekend, Mad City, y'all. Okay. Mad Mad City.

A Travolta Hoffman classic. Everybody knows it and loves it. Eve's Bayou as well. Weekend top five, this film. Mhmm.

Open number one. Bean, I know what you did last summer. Like the Mr. Bean movie? Yeah.

Like the Mr. Bean movie. Well, I have to be clear. Could be something else. Else.

There could be a I mean, movie about a little coffee bean that could. Sounds like the shittiest get out of my office. I'm just pitching you. Get out of my office. Can you just read my screen right now?

Get him out of my office. Can you just read this? No. You know I can't read. We've talked about this.

Can you just read this? Recognize the logos. Look at the pictures. The devil's advocate in Red Corner. Do you remember Red Corner?

I don't know what that is. Richard Gere? John Abnett? I know who Richard Gere is. John Chan?

What's a movie? Knows that movie. Make the movies. I was gonna ask what it's about, but I don't care. Films of note from this year, Men in Black, Air Force One.

Get off my plane. As soon as you get out of my off my office is on your plane. Yeah. Get get your office off my plane. Oh, shit.

The Peacemaker. We need him now. Clooney, help us. We need peace. The conspiracy theory Oh.

Is that GI Jane Oh. And Face Off were made to defeat Rocket Man. And one of your favorites, Mortal Kombat Annihilation. Some of the best CG I've ever seen ever. It is arguably the worst film ever made.

Arguably the worst film. When are we gonna do more of that? I don't know. Well, does it break our rule because it's a sequel? Or a franchise.

No. Because we're gonna get loosey goosey on that. We already know. We're we're we're loosening up. We're taking poppers.

We're loosening up. We're going a little crazy. We're going a little crazy. We'll go a little crazy. Yeah.

Who cares? We're expanding. You don't care. We took some shrooms. We're going places.

Oh, Liker doesn't care. Not about a damn thing. Not about your home. Not about nothing. Just about his home.

Just about that money. On that note, the top five films of this year, Domestic, Men in Black, Sony, Jurassic Park, The Lost World, Universal, Liar Liar, Universal, Air Force One, Sony, Star Wars, A New Hope, the rerelease, twentieth century book slash Lucasfilm slash now. Disney, Enjoy your money. Eiger. Eaking it out with number seven for the year of '97 playing for a total of twelve days.

Mortal Kombat Annihilation. Get over here. That was Titanic cap. I capped. Yeah.

It was Titanic. Oh, that makes more sense. Letterboxed average of this movie, 3.8. That's high. Pretty good average.

Yeah. My letterboxed, at paulactsbadly. Come there's there's a lot out there to look at in my letterbox. Come on in here and look at it. Go into Paul's weird little car.

Come into my little world. His weird little world. My little My little you're just gonna see him standing over these five movies you've never heard of being like, you're all my little you're my little people. Make paper airplanes, says the leprechaun. Yeah.

Well, we're not buying it. I'm at run b m c. It's accurate. You can see me do things, like watch movies. Bullshit.

And, I watch a lot of Yeah. Jones movies. Yeah. And a bunch of good stuff. I watch movies.

Like, newer stuff. Like, newer stuff than I watch. I did I did go on a lot of flights lately, and I watched a lot of, movies that are only available on the plane. Yeah. Or movies I would only watch on the plane.

Go over a couple of those because I wanna actually mention a thing really, briefly. I watched, The Lost King, which is about the real finding the remains of, of Richard the third based on the story. Okay. I watched She Said. That's what She Said, come on.

That's it. Yeah. It's about the Me Too movement, about, what's his name? The, you know, he who we do not name in this industry. Oh.

You know what I'm talking about? Yep. Bean. Yeah. Mr.

Bean. That was I know Bean. And then I watched the the, the Pacific Rim sequel. Why? Interesting.

Because I'd never seen it and I was just going through their movie database. I was like, I don't know when I'll watch this, probably never. Okay. I'll put it on. I like to watch Chopped on the airplane.

Oh, sure. Maybe I like to TV too. I watch some TV too. Like, I watched I also watch movies. Diners, Divers, and Dives.

Yes. Also, it's a little Guy Fieri. Yeah. Drizzle it on. I'm very interested in that.

I guess, we both do thumbs up on some of these things. Syskel and Ebert, they split on this. Syskel with the up. Oh, interesting. Usually not something we've said a lot.

Usually, it's Ebert with the up. Rotten Tomatoes, 71% on this one. Okay. So, like, solidly yay. That makes sense to me.

Not necessarily where I stand, but I I understand why some people feel that way. Interesting. Well, it's your turn before we talk about our current ranking. Well, I I mean, do you want me to read the whole thing? No.

I don't. I can read. No logos. Damn it. Alright.

Got it? So the director is Paul Verhoeven? Probably be Hoven. Paul Verhoeven? Soldier of Orange?

Never seen it. This is apparently been discussed as almost like a remake of that. It's similar in terms of the group dynamic and people splitting up for those reasons. Is that a eighties? Seventy?

Eighties? I think seventies. It was a movie that got him a movie called a movie you're about to say. Flesh and Blood. Very violent movie, also with Rutger Hauer.

And he Paul Verhoeven. Verhoeven? Is a person that grew up, as I understand it and have researched in Nazi occupied, Netherlands. Oh, interesting. He saw a lot of really horrible anti fascist.

Look. I've read A Girl with a Dragon Tattoo. I understand the mother Okay. Patsy. Got it.

Yeah. He gets it, everybody. I get it. Like, I've lived there. Got it.

Because I read a book. Pretty much same thing. Pretty much same thing. Same scenes. But either way, you kind of, you know, you understand the man a little bit and listen to his commentaries and stuff, and you understand the things he tries to get across in his art.

Sure. His Yeah. Art. He also did Total Recall. Art.

This is me running towards the screen. Running up to on the screen here. Quaid, you gotta start the reactor. Writer is Edward Neumeier? Yep.

Who also wrote Robocop? Hell, yeah. Oh, he did both. OG and remake? Or is he just credited on the remake?

I believe it's both. Oh, interesting. Starship Troopers one through three, again, did not know there were three of these. And several more. Robert Heinlein novel.

It's based on a novel. Yep. From 1959 of the same name. Director of photography was Jos Vulcano? Vulcano?

Ghost volcano? Ghost volcano? For for a second I thought I said volcano. And I was like, that's a It ought to have corrected it to volcano and I almost left it. I would have read it.

You do read directly off the teleprompter. Damn it. He did The Neverending Story, Das Boot, and Showgirls, which is also Paul Verhoeven. Right? Hell, yeah.

What a weird movie for Paul Verhoeven to do. What a perfect movie for Paul Verhoeven. What a pervert movie for anyone to do. Yeah. Let's not get as perverted as we did last week.

It is kind of a horny movie, though. Though. I kinda like that movie. It's so horny. That movie is horny.

But let this movie is not that horny, so we don't need to get as horny as we did last week. Washington guy Kyle MacLachlan. Yeah. I do like Kyle MacLachlan. Yeah.

I'm a, you know, Twin Peaks enthusiast. Give me some ice. Music is by Basil Polders. Are these all, like Basil Polidoris? Are these all, like, Norwegian people?

Or, like, are they all European? I think a lot of the people that he works with, I mean, I mean Our team of folks who are international. He did Conan the Barbarian, The Hunt for the Red October, For the Love of the Game. Great scores. This movie has a fucking phenomenal score.

It does. It's so triumphant throughout. It leads the mood. Yeah. Producers, John Davison, Airplane, The Sixth Day, Trapped in Paradise, Alan Marshall, Cliffhanger, Midnight Express, Basic Instinct.

Also Paul Verhoeven. Right? Yep. Yeah. I like The Sixth Day.

I saw that movie multiple times when I was a kid. Gross. Why? I don't know. I can't tell you why.

I remember he had, like, a zit in his eyelid and I was like, no more. Thanks. I didn't know. That's not how he knows a clown. He was Donald, he should be.

God. Shoot him. I'm Donald. He's Charlie. Shoot him.

Adaptation starring Arnold Schwarzenegger. Kill me kill me now. Donald, I don't know how to write it. You write it. I don't know what that accent was, but I like it.

I don't know either. I told you I can't do it. I think I'm doing, Caspar Bandian? Caspar Bandian trying to act, and I wanna back up Cliffhanger. Enrico.

Okay. Solid movie? Die hard on Cliff. Full of Cliff movie? Sure.

Fine. Do you like it? Yeah. I like it too. Yeah.

It's got a very fun lift gal. I like me some Lithgow. Really fun. I do. He's always fun.

Should have been the last season of, of Dexter. Should have been his It was the best one. Oh, easily. Without a question. Yeah.

It was the best. And it also completed it completed the arc. It came full circle on Dexter. It finally hit him. It finally came to him close to him.

And it was like, this is the end of this story. And then they just kept going. Doesn't it make you thankful for things like Breaking Bad ending when they ended? Or for me, like, what Good Place. I like that Good Place was like Yeah.

We're doing three or four seasons and we're done. Yeah. And you're like, well, we want more. Like, we're but the story's done. But why?

Yeah. We've gone as far as we're gonna go. Yeah. I hate the the need to squeeze money out of every story until it's dry. Not every goddamn thing is IP.

You know? Let's let people be a little creative. Three seasons of Lost? Great. Everything after that?

What the fuck are we doing? Wouldn't know. Didn't watch it? I did not. I did not.

I was a losty. I was watching a lot of movies at that point in time. I was watching Arrested Development and some other Oh, sure. But a lot movies. You were you a Battlestar?

No. I thought I thought about Battlestar a lot while watching this too. That was, like, around the same time. Lost and Battlestar were both doing, like, mystery box writing where they're, like, look at all these mysteries. And they're like, oh, sure.

Yeah. I wanna keep watching. Birth Cliff leading to nothing. Netflix Sure. Sending discs.

Yep. So you were, like, finishing a disc and being, like, but but and everything was a cliffhanger. How do I get the next cast of Indian Everything was a cliffhanger. And I just remember how Lost ended. And it was, like, wait a minute.

Smoke monster? There were still so many questions. Like, there were still so many things unanswered. Sorry. We're sidetracked.

But here we go. No. It's okay. I just want everyone to know this episode is brought to you by VHS Village where you can get all of Casper Van Dien's work on television as well as film. Ben Yeah.

Your beaming admiration still lives in VHS Village. Where Chris Olds works. You got it. Yep. You know, he's the owner proprietor.

See him there. VHS. And if you can answer his trivia, you get an extra day for free. Woah. It's pretty cool.

Maybe a taco. It's a good taco. Yeah. So So it's in As we've said it, it's Casper Van Dean or Dine. He plays Johnny Rico.

Not Hispanic at all, just to be clear. Tarzan the Lost City, Sleepy Hollow, and Alita Battle Angel. Who is he in Alita Battle Angel? No clue. Yeah.

They all changed their name because they're all the children of Nazis who were hiding in Argentina. I mean, that makes sense. Yeah. They're all white. Dina Meyer is Diz Diz?

Diz? Diz. Dizzy. Johnny Mnemonic, Star Trek Nemesis, and Saw. That's why you like Star Trek: Nemesis.

Because you're such a Dina Meyer fan. A huge Dina Meyer fan. I knew it. Huge. That was the thing.

Denise Richards as Carmen, Wild Things, The World Was Not Enough. I thought Christmas only came once a year. Not horny. Not sexy. Sorry.

You know what it is? Wild Things. Money plan. Also, Kelsey Grammer. But Wild Things is super horny.

That movie is It's so horny. Is super horny. Jake Busey as Ace, the Frighteners, Identity, Enemy of the State. Is this one of the first is this one of the only movies where he's not, like, a creepy, terrifying person? I think so.

And, also, he's delightful. He is. But I feel like he's always cast as, like, because he is kind of a terrifying like, he's he's got extreme features. He's it's like if Gary Busey had a son. Yeah.

Weird. Which you can't imagine someone having sex with Gary Busey. So You know what? Years ago Is it his son or his brother? Probably his son, I believe.

It is? He Great per Gary Busey, great actor if you haven't seen all of his performances. I just for point break He's just been saying this. Buddy Holly and sure. Jake Busey Busey doing some good work here and also mentioned some good work.

Just so you know. I liked identity Yeah. When it first came. But that's the thing is, like, he does end up falling into that kind of, like, wheelhouse of a person that gets kind of typecast as kind of, like, somebody out of their mind. Frighteners is the same.

Right? Yeah. Yep. Yeah. I also like Frighteners.

Oh, great movie. I think NPH, Neil Patrick Harris as Carl, Helen Kumar go to White Castle, Gone Girl, Matrix Resurrections. What a bad movie. Yeah. I wasn't a huge fan of it.

You know what I am a huge fan of in this movie? The costumes. Sure. Specifically, his costume for a lot of reasons. Would you like to guess what his nickname was on the set?

You mean his costume when he wears a trench coat and the hat? Yes. I don't know. A flasher? Doogie Himmler.

Yeah. It's very Nazi. He look he's supposed to look like SS. Yeah. He does.

Yeah. It is the costume is so the costumes in this movie throughout are I should have really Yeah. The costumes great. I love I love the design of the of all, like, the officer uniforms, everyone. Like, I just even the even the really cheesy looking, arena football uniforms work in the world.

And but that's the thing is that's the only thing that is. It's because sport is a sports are allowed to be fun and cheesy and weird, like, even in their nothing is branded. Everything's very conformist. Everything's very tailored. Everything's very fitting.

That's the only thing that looks like white. Like Yes. There's colors. There's, like, oh. Yeah.

And it all, like, the by the way, way to go arena football rules for becoming the overwhelming, football of the Future. Neo fascist future. Yeah. It's the only way you would go to succeed. Yeah.

Something had to happen. Arena football. The choice of the neo fascist future. Man, every time arena football or the USFL try to make me watch it, I'm like, just stop. XFL, I haven't.

I tried a little bit. I watched a little bit of it. I mostly just followed the XFL, like Yeah. On ESPN. You know who else is in this movie?

Tell me, please. Clancy Brown. I love him. I love him. I love him.

You too. A Zim, Highlander, Shawshank Redemption, Cowboys Aliens, I love Fancy Brown. Lex Luthor in the Superman cartoon. John dies at the end. Did you ever have you ever seen that?

Yeah. Yep. I love that movie. He I mean, I feel like we can go on and on and on about Yeah. Wow.

The the character actors throughout in this movie. Yeah. Baby. We'll get to yeah. So Seth Gilliam is Sugar, courage under fire, police state still Alice, and the great Michael Ironside.

Yeah. As rag Rasa? Rasa. Rasa. Rasa.

Rasa. Highlander two, The Quickening, Scanners, and of course, Top Gun. The two Highlander villains from the first two Oh, you're right. Movies. I didn't realize that.

We got the Kurgan and the whatever the the quickener quickenizer. Awards and nominations. This is an Academy Award nominee. You're fucking right. It is.

Visual effects. As well it should be. Yeah. Tippett, Gilles Gilles, Anderson, and Richardson, they lost to Titanic. So not to Mortal Kombat Annihilation.

The greatest visual effects winner as well as I'll actually have to double check that. I'll have to double check that. Okay. This might be wrong. Wrong.

This could be a Titanic mistake. Kinda like going in a submarine. Yeah. We're in a real crunch here. We are in a crunch here.

Let me use my Xbox controller to get out of there a second. Just like that must have been full of blood. Oh, shit. Our attorneys just handed me the lawsuit. Okay.

Thank you. Oh, great. Is that from the families? It's from, all all the surviving members of the deceased. Yep.

Great. Correct. We're gonna lose. Well, we have to cease and desist at this moment and move to Argentina. It's it's the only way we can do it.

Fun facts. Director Paul Verhoeven and stars Dina Meyer and Casper Van Dien all had a threesome. Oh, sorry. No. Confirmed that Verhoeven and cinematographer, Jos Volcano, that's his name now, shot the co ed shower scene in the nude themselves on a dare from Meyer.

Volhaven originally wanted the same scene in Robocop. So a similar scene was constructed for James Cameron Anderson or aliens but Jettison. So you're saying they were naked while filming? Verhoeven and the DP were naked in the shower with the actor. As someone who's been naked on stage hot, I would find that very strange.

I can understand why I would feel I would find it disarming. I think as a lady, I would not want them to be naked if I'm being completely honest. Sure. Yeah. That makes perfect sense.

I don't know. But it was Dina Meyer that dared them to do it, so maybe I don't know. I don't know. Who knows the logic of it? Who knows?

But the scene works. Here as you said, Neil Patrick Harris was often called Doogie Himmler whenever he wore that military intelligence uniform. Michael Ironside, who read the book as a youth, asked Paul Verhoeven, who grew up in Nazi occupied Netherlands, why are you doing right wing fascist movie? Verhoeven replied, if I tell the world the right that a right wing fascist way of doing things doesn't work, then no one will listen to me. So I'm going to make a perfect fascist world.

Everything is beautiful. Everything is shiny. Everything has big guns and fancy ships. But it's only for killing fucking bugs. Like, right?

It's like they're just a they're a living raid can. I mean, he's totally and and and, like, we'll get into this. It's their whole existence. But, like, the bugs Serving the state. Seemingly we'll we'll get into that.

Are just caught up in this? Yeah. Yeah. I think. I mean, especially at the end with, like, he's scared.

I was, like, yeah. Of course he is. Of course he's scared. Look at the king. He he he his defenses are down.

It's like you don't need some sort of, like, psychic magic empath to see that the thing is fucking scared. We get we all know that I'm almost scared. It's so great. I yeah. The DVD audio commentary by director Paul Vailhoven was one of the first to be accompanied by disclaimer stating the opinions in the commentary belong to the speaker and not necessarily reflect the opinion of the movie studio.

And be very careful to make sure that, like, hey, the what this guy is saying does not represent us. Yeah. Although they play high school graduates, Casper Van Dien, Dina Meyer, and Patrick Muldoon were all 29 when they of course they were. Look at him. That's not a surprise at all.

He's got, like, a perfectly square jaw with, like, a 05:00 shadow all the time. The in the DVD commentary, director Paul Verhoeven states his intentions clearly. The film's message is that war makes fascists of us all. Nazi Germany's fashion icono icono iconography and propaganda are all intentionally woven throughout the film. The use of Nazi imagery for the film's American heroes occasioned comment at the time of the film's theatrical release.

The filmmakers did not explain their reasons for their choice with the result that some viewers interpreted it as a satire, while others read it as a celebration of fascism. Ironically, Robert a Heinlein, a very left wing man, wrote the novel as a satire of a military regime. He disapproved of, but filmmakers Paul Verhoeven and Edward Neumeier described. Oh, it as very brutalist and feeling very right wing. Got it.

And they felt it as very militaristic. They disagreed. Mark Wahlberg turned down the role of Johnny Rico. Interesting. James Cameron was once attached to direct.

That would have been That would have been not as good. Meta. Would have been not as good. Would have been weird. The song, I have not been to Paradise, a cover of the David Bowie song, I have not been to Oxford Town, is sung by Zoe Poladoris, the eldest daughter of Basil Poladoris, the film's composer.

Yeah. And that, like, scene where they're dancing after the football game? Yeah. The live performance. Yeah.

I think four video games, a cartoon series, a cartoon film, and or two, and five sequels, and maybe a remake? There's apparently a remake in development currently. Interesting. Yep. Oh, boy.

Well, I I saw it. I actually do not remember it. I no. I do remember the first couple words. Well, if you remember the first that's fine.

But Paul, what's the long line of this movie? People in a distant fascist future go to war with a terrifying, and hostile alien insect. Yeah. Humans in a fascist militaristic future wage war with a giant alien bugs. Okay.

Yay. Yeah. I feel pretty good about that. Yeah. We're gonna take a quick break.

Go to the, VHS Village though, please. Say hi to Chris Holds. Pick up a Choco Taco. Yep. Sometimes, if the freezer is full enough right trivia question about the movie, you can be awarded with a Choco Taco depending on current inventory.

Yeah. This is the disclaimer. That's down at the bottom. Just to get there, you need to, get onto the I 5, take the exit to Edmonds, get onto the Edmonds Kingston Ferry, and then drive down by the Thriftway. That may just fill in, it'll be right off to the side there on the right.

You can also just take the 14 past the Arctic Circle by the only fans and take a ride on Kaufman. It's your choice. It's your choice. Your choice. Either way, enjoy your trivia challenge at the VHS Village.

We'll be back. Hi. I'm Ben. I'm Paul. This episode is brought to you by VHS Village, Ventura's number one rental provider of Hereditary.

Editory. Willard Crispin Glover. Wicker Man, 02/2006 version. Bring it on to It's Already Been Broughton. Transformers Revenge of the Fallen.

Road Trip, also available on Betamax. And the masterpiece Somewhere in Time. Weird choices to advertise. That's right. VHS Village in Ventura, the only place in Ventura to get a free Choco Taco with your rental if you can answer Chris's question.

VHS Village in Ventura, the only fucking option to find VHS tapes. Rolling. Rolling. Rolling. Rolling.

Rolling down the river. Oh, I'm glad we know where to get our VHS tapes. Oh, shit. You're you've been recording. Yeah?

Okay. Well, fine. Fuck it. How do you rate this movie? Oh, no.

This is a movie that you cannot get on VHS at VHS Village. I was told to say that. Oh. Like you can get it on DVD though? No.

Oh. You can get it only soundtrack vinyl. That's it. They're very specialty. I think you can get it on was it Microfish?

Yeah. Microfilm. Yeah. Yeah. Yep.

Like eight What is the thing I'm thinking of from the libraries where they're, like, going through I yeah. Microfilm, I think. Don't they call it, like, micro fish or something? Probably. Hey, look it up.

I'm thinking of, like Look it up, smarties. I'm thinking of, like, you know, like in, Field of Dreams when they're Yeah. Exactly. Yeah. Sure.

When people go into the library and they look through the articles. Yeah. Yes. Yeah. In the through the periodicals, the old ones.

Yeah. You know? I don't know the term. Got it. I'm sorry I failed you.

Hello. Hi. I'm so sorry. Alright. Hello.

So this movie starts with it's me leaning towards the screen. I'm wailing. It's how the movie starts. I just love I love that Paul Verhoeven works with a lot of the same actors Uh-huh. Like, uses similar people over He uses Schwarzenegger again to run towards That's green here.

But Michael Ironside Oh, yeah. In Total Recall and Here as well as Dean Norris in Total Recall Oh. And here. And he just he likes to use similar folks. And I think people like working on his sets.

Favorite Veerhoven movie? It's RoboCop. Yeah. With without a question, without a doubt. I there was a mild hesitation there because I sometimes, a, feel judged because it is a top five movie ever for me.

Sure. But also, I think a lot of people in film circles, I'm talking really fast, a lot of people in film circles will say, well that's a very canned, like, everybody loves RoboCop now. Right. Everybody loves that. Whatever.

I've I've always loved it. And thoughts on the remake? One of the better remakes which isn't saying much. Sure. It's fine.

Yeah. Better than the Total Recall remake. Oh, they never get to ask two miles. They never fucking go two miles. Yeah.

Fuck. I love Colin Farrell, but Sure. WTF. No. Thank you.

Hey, everybody. Thank you for trying. Yeah. No. Thank you for rewatching.

I don't Vindra Samos. I have a feeling it's not gonna show up here. But I will also I can argue for I can argue with myself for Basic Instinct. I can argue with myself for Total Recall. Sure.

But I could too. Flashing blood's good too. I love the conceit in this movie of using the sort of, like, TV slash computer screen, like, the propaganda of do you want to know more and having the arrow. I think it's great. And I think it really, like, ups the idea that this is definitely satirizing, you know, the the military, the the especially I mean, fascist military, of course.

But, like, this there hasn't been a war in this country that people have felt like, oh, I can't wait to join that since World War two. Sure. And they had newsreels then. And they used newsreels to to make it feel like war was a noble thing to do. And that's what I feel like this is doing and it's it works so well.

I having just walked away from this movie Oh, yeah. We have to say our rankings. I'm so sorry. No. It's okay.

You know, I gave it, you know, four bugs or whatever it was at the time. I did watch it again a handful of years ago, a couple handfuls of years ago, whatever it was. And it was still probably four. And now it's still it's four Caspers for a lot of reasons. Yeah.

It's for Caspers. Yeah. Yeah. You mean Casper the Friendly Ghost? But also, just like four like blonde haired blue eyed.

He was If you don't remember, Casper the Casper the Friendly Ghost was Devin Sawa. He was. He was blonde haired, blue eyed. And also, basically, Richie Rich in the Casper comics pre death. Sure.

I think. Also, do you remember that, there's a ghost there's buster that shows up in Casper, the movie? No. Oh, yeah. Dan Aykroyd.

Yeah. Runs out of the house when they first move in and he goes, who are you gonna call? Someone else. That's right. I totally forgot that.

Yeah. Totally forgot. Totally random. I got to revisit that. I got to review Who's going to bring us Casper?

We're going to see that. Is the movie just called Casper? What's that? Is the movie just called Casper? Is it called Casper?

Okay. Just Casper. I walked out of that into Die Hard with a Vengeance. That's right. I didn't remember the Dan Aykroyd of it, but I had a little squeezy of the the is it the burping ghost or farting ghost?

Squirting. He just Did it squirt water? He's not squirting. That's last week's episode. It The squirting.

It squirts. It moans. It vibrates. You know, if he has village. No.

It's his uncle that I think burps. Because I had a squeezy and it had, like, this weird smell that would come out of it. Right. Gross. Yeah.

It was gross. Fun. Fun. For kids. Gross, but fun.

For kids. It's like porn for kids. Kids can watch a little bit of porn. Just a little bit. Why not?

It's a little porn. I I would say that, you know, I I rated it for boobs because I was 14 years old. Yes. Okay. And this horny.

I get it. And there were boobs in this. I don't see boobs in every movie. No? And I A lot of butts in this movie too.

There are a lot of butts. Yeah. There's a I think that there's gotta be at least a partial peen. I didn't see a peen. Gotta be?

I I didn't see any peen. You didn't use your Amazon x-ray this time? Yeah. I I tried to see peen. I was like, okay.

Are we gonna get equal peen to boob ratio here? Yeah. You know? That's kinda like what House of Dragon is trying to correct from Game of Thrones. Yeah.

Are we gonna get, like, one, like, 14 inch peen in this movie? That'd be great. Yeah. Just a Ned Flanders. Just a Jerry Ghergich.

Yep. That a man has the largest penis I've ever seen. The largest penis I have ever seen. I didn't see any peen except for maybe an alien peen or two. But I I I I saw a little cotton ball in the chat with this.

With, four brain bugs. I'm still at four. So we're both at four. I was very entertained. Mhmm.

And I think it the satire of it hit me even harder this time than it has before. Have you read or seen or both 1984? I've seen it. I've never read it. So much of this feels like it's like, is this war even real?

It's not that too. Is this really happening? I thought are we just are they just using this as a way to keep people because they say you have to join to become a citizen. Right. So, like To be able to become a politician or yes.

To vote. To vote. Yes. So, like That becomes the requirement, military service. Yeah.

So, yeah, are they just using this war? Because by the end, I felt like, are the bugs the people attacking, or are they being attacked? Who who threw the first giant spore? Well, they first said the spores are coming to Earth to create more bugs. But it feels like they're just asteroids Right.

Which could be coming from anywhere. They're not spores. Yeah. They just tear shit up, but they also talk about spores. And how could the bugs send an asteroid?

They're not also, when they're training, they're training against people who are shooting them. Like, when they're in the training sim simulation. Live. I'm like By the way The bugs aren't shooting you. They're No.

This is a horrible training for the for this kind of one. Doesn't make it's No Edge of Tomorrow. No. Wow. Which is also a brilliant one.

What a fucking movie. Yeah. Oh, a movie that I thought about while I watched this to both movies credit. Yeah. Me too.

There are things that crossover which is awesome. Yes. 100%. To both movies credit. And this is the moment we roll into the credits.

Both high. Both on a four. Like, feeling pretty good. Oh, this was nominated for an Oscar? Yeah.

That makes fucking sense. You're damn right it was. It's a four star film. We're both at four? Thrill ride.

Because we start and we get Arnold running up against The screen here. Which is great to see. Probably stop pictures, but also Touchstone. Like, that thing I said, I was like, oh, shit. It all makes sense now, like, when I was, like, three minutes into the movie.

And we get the exposition via propaganda, which is very much fun. Fascism. Similar thing Do you want to know more? Similar thing with the media breaks in Robocop. Uh-huh.

Sure. And and the thing with this, do you want to know more? Doesn't fucking matter. You're gonna. Yeah.

I'm doing my part. This is a propaganda machine. I'm doing my part. Part. And there's just a I know that that's a meme.

A little boy. Yep. I'm doing my part. It's so good. Yeah.

So we start out in the propaganda film. Everybody join the military, become a citizen, come and fight the bug threat. They're coming Oh, earth. They're all coming after us to wipe us out and expand their, infestation, their species. Yeah.

Because they're species. Correct? That's what we're told. They're a species. Yeah.

Right. Okay. And the fascist media, etcetera, and it's even in schools Mhmm. Because Michael Ironside starts talking about, this was the fail of democracy. Like, this was something that happened.

It didn't work. We it was overthrown. It didn't work. It was done. We won the thing.

And they're in high school. Right. They're all supposed to be 17, 18 years old. We're standing on the edge of tomorrow. That's the theme from Saved by the Bell, the College Years.

Oh, sure. Yeah. I didn't realize at first that this was a high school. I thought they were in, like, a military school. Everything is so insanely brutalist.

Yeah. Everything is it's, like, Mexico City looking, like, very concrete, like, a bug, like, a, like, a alien bug in class. Yeah. And my that teacher The blind teacher with the crazy what? Were you hitting I just wanted it to seem intentional after I did it that one time.

Oh. You do it? No. But and also but I want your attention here. Okay.

Who is the teacher? Who is that actor or actress performer? No idea. You know a little show called The Golden Girls? Never heard of it.

Well, thank you for being a former friend named Blanche Devereaux. Oh, wow. I didn't recognize her. That's Rue McClanahan. I didn't recognize her.

Yeah. Isn't that crazy? She's so good. That's one of the really good Cameos. Small kind of cameo, performances in the film and she's unrecognizable.

Makeup and she's got Blind. Blind. She's blind. Sunglasses. Yeah.

And, like, a weird red hair situation. Kinda tall. She looks like she's kinda pulled from a Tim Burton situation a little bit. Like, she looks like the the scientist from Nightmare Before Christmas. A little bit.

Yeah. And I'm on board with it. Yeah. She's great. The fact that that it's, like, the way to know your enemy is they're these giant phenomenal, like, rubber props.

We have to talk about the prosthetics and the practical effects. The stomach and heart and Oh my god. All the practical effects. The models, the spaceship models. Yes.

Everything look great. It has aged like fine fucking wine. Yeah. It nearly at every moment, even in the moments where there's, like, some green screen that's not exactly perfect Sure. Toward the end of the movie.

Like, this holds up better than so many things that have come out in the last five to seven years. Oh, yeah. Better than Quantumania. Wow. I still haven't.

I just I still what Marvel did through Endgame is unprecedented. Sure. And since then, I just haven't hung on. Yeah. And that's just a me thing.

No. I don't think it's just a you thing. I think that's a world thing. Sure. In terms of the world thing, the the card game.

Psychics are real in this world. NPH is a psychic. We're in this ghostbuster situation. He's a real life magician. I did not know that.

He used to be a regular at the Magic Castle here in Hollywood. The Gothic Assle? The Gothic Assle. The Gothic Assle. Yeah.

Yeah. Tobias had to sell that voice. Yeah. Yeah. He wasn't But, yeah, he used to be a real yeah.

He's a real magician. So if you've ever seen That's awesome. How about your mother, he does magic in that, and it's real. That's actually a cool hobby. It's not like a cool thing when some random stranger's like, found a quarter behind your kid's ear.

No. Thanks. But if you're the person who can do, like, close-up or hand magic at a party, you're my hero. I fucking love you. I'm, please, flabbergasted by by close-up card magic.

Magic. I still every time I watch it, I'm like, I I don't understand. Magic is real. Is it? Kinda.

My life is nothing I want it to be and everything I was worried it could be because for fifteen minutes, I thought there were monsters in this world. Golden hawk about it. She'll tell you. Don't worry about it. Moving on.

Absolutely. To your favorite scene Mhmm. About your favorite thing What's that? After the bug dissection and Carmen puking all over The shower scene? And Disney making no.

But that's very telling, Disney making fun. The football game. Oh, the football game is great. I think it's pretty impressive. It's hilarious.

It's hilarious. It's arena football, which for you sportsball people out there, which I know there are people out here who call it sportsball and stop. It's not funny. We know you know what the name of the sport is. Yes.

Stop calling it sportsball. This isn't a Wendy Peters sportsball champion type thing. It's just I mean, this game might actually be called sportsball. They actually It's just I mean, this game might actually be called sportsball. They actually never say what the name of this game is.

There is a VHS documentary about this whole thing available at VHS Village. About this sport? Yeah. About the history of sportsball. You know what they kinda look like?

They kinda look like And what sports balls are what? They kinda look like they're playing rollerball. The classic by John McTiernan. Rollerball. They They do kind of look like that.

Chris Klein. I told them, but Chris The football is silver. And has orange tips. And we meet, The the Tigers are the appropriate color. They are orange and black.

Yeah. Thank goodness. And we need this okay. So the character we've met, we've met Casper Vendeen. We've met that he's in love with actually, he has a girlfriend who seems to Denise Richards?

I don't really care about him. She's into him but she's like hard to get. Like, she's And she's also more a career She's a career woman. Yeah. She's a career lady.

She's a bit of a smarty pants. Yeah. She wants to she wants to be a pilot. She wants to go into the military, and she doesn't give a fuck about him. He's a dummy.

He's a dummy. Well, as we He got c he got a c or whatever. 35. 30 five percent, which is Which is Which is an f. Everybody.

Well and it's like, okay. His parents, his dad, after this whole math thing where we find out Johnny Rico is dumb, his dad's like, I'd rather take 10 lashes in the public square. Also, like, how the hell is he getting into Harvard with that score? 35%? Like, it it's straight up like it's Larry with Yale and mister Burns.

Like, Yale could use an international airport, mister Burns. Like, get out of here. Yeah. It's all about money. It's also, like How are they so rich?

There's kid I mean, their kid they're super rich and their kid is dumb. Nazi money. They're super rich and their kid is dumb. They stole that money. This movie is so good.

Also, like, I love that he doesn't wanna go to Harvard. He wants to go into the military. To follow a girl. To follow They make it very clear. It's not clear until it happens that they're going to be divided.

Yeah. Her path is definitely different. Well, the three of them. Sure. Casper Van Dien, Dien, What's Her Face Carmen.

Carmen and Miles per hour, they all Doogie Himmler. Join and they all get into different parts of the military. Yeah. Based on not only their intelligence, but apparently, their acting ability. This apparently was extremely intentional Interesting.

Intentional Interesting. Where Casper Van Diem was supposed to be like, okay. You're a grunt. You're an infantry. Carmen, you're a you're a pilot.

You're a risk taker. You're a dazzler. You're smiling. You're you're a face. Sure.

And, NPH, you're the super capable steady hand officer, psychic. You're gonna be a colonel in no time. Yeah. Apparently, psychics are a thing in this world. Anyone he's trying to get Casper Van Dien to be psychic and he's just not.

If you can guess the cards close enough enough times based on the odds, then you're a psychic. He's a Golden Hawk would tell you. The odds say that you should have got Yes. At least one. Does that mean that they've played over 52 times?

Yes. Oh. I and actually, I have no idea because I don't know what the odds are, but I wanna say yes. I mean, I guess you sound smart. I guess it would probably be it could yeah.

Actually, I don't know either. In 52. You have one in fifty two chance. But I don't know what the odds are. Like, should you have it in less chances than that?

Should it actually be one in forty eight Right. Based on averages? I don't know. I want to let go of this. Okay.

Gosh. Now I don't. Okay. We have a special appearance. I was going to say, do you know the law of averages, Jess?

Jessica Aaron Martin is here. Picking cards based on people's psychic guesses. She also let a fly in somehow. Also Thus fly. That reminded me it reminded no no Goldblum.

Denied. We didn't get Goldblum. Where's the telepod? We did not get Goldblum. No telepod.

We have no repeats from our last time. Right. Did you know at VHS Village, they only have the fly too, the Eric Stoltz one? No fly. And it's always at, like, forty eight minutes in.

Yeah. You can't get it around any further back. No. That's as far as the tape will go. Yeah.

It's worn out before that. Yeah. I think it has Stoltz butt. Oh, that makes sense. Yeah.

People overuse the Stoltz butt. Well, when I heard that was the thing in Back to the Future, ultimately, it wasn't because he wasn't quite right. It was because he was like, I show my butt. Look, I show my butt. And they're like, you're gonna have Calvin Klein's on.

He's like, no. I show my butt. I show Stoltz shows butt. Stolt shows butt. And they're like, yeah.

You keep saying that. You keep saying that. We get it. Stolt shows butt. And David's last words.

He's mad at me. Sir, we're going in the other direction. Yeah. Fine. I'm out of here.

Kiss this goodbye. Because it's the last time you're ever gonna see say goodbye to these these bugs. And then, you know, he came in and he's like, Fox chose Cox. And you're Damn it. I thought he The unrated version is available at FEHS Village in Ventura.

This will be a trivia question. Don't forget. I okay. We're back at school. Michael, we nailed that so hard.

Be high five, audio. High five. We did great. Hey. Figuring things out for yourself is the only freedom anyone really has, and we just exercised our freedom.

I actually really love that line that Ironside says. Yeah. It's it's one of those things, like, he knows I love him. The horrors of war in existence and Yeah. Yeah.

It makes sense why he moved up the ranks as an infantry person. He's a capable actor. He should have a ranking of lieutenant or what have you. And then they all so they all join. Those three join, right?

And we get the dude who is a paraplegic and has a robotic arm Yeah. Who's like, oh, you're going to be a pilot and then he says something to Miles per hour, like, I'll be saluting you next time I see you. Yep. And then he's like, ah, infantry. That's where I that's what made me the man I am today.

And we see that he's missing two legs. Violence made me a third of a man. Violence and violence and horror made me less human. And when we finally see the bugs, that makes sense because Yeah. They're completely unmatched.

Oh, yeah. Well and I I wanna back up a tiny bit. The shot where they're all being sworn in and they have their right hand up and the camera's coming down and how everybody the dress, again, it's very crisp. The it's very monochromatic. Like, everything goes together.

And if you listen to that, their pledge is not less than two years and as much longer as may be required by the needs of the federation. And it's like holy shit, that is technically a lifetime pledge if that's what the Federation wants. It's not two years. It's whatever the Federation wants. They're basically joining the Night Watch.

Yes. Correct. Yeah. They're giving up their life for this cause. For the equilibrium of it all.

What? For the Kurt Wimmer, gunkata. I do like how the colors of these, uniforms are there's, like, a slight purple hue. Oh, yeah. I got that too.

I think that's an interesting choice. It's like gray, black, and like slightly purple. Yeah. It's it's kind of a yeah. I agree.

It's almost like a black with like a purple highlight or something. There's something purple about it. It resonates purple in a way. It just it gives The pilots have it before they hit captain or what It gives your eye a little bit of a, like, relief from it being just, like So gray. So gray.

Cool. It's beautiful. It is. It's a good choice. The costume design is just we gotta talk to Audrey.

She probably love it. Oh, we should. Yeah. It would be great. I, saw Barbie with her.

She might love those costumes. Design. Those costumes are fucking dope. Great movie. I love also this is it keeps this rhythm up of, like, the FedNet, the network fascist media updates.

The propaganda. Like, with the like, this guy was found this morning, tried this morning, sentenced to this morning. He will be killed on television tonight. All networks, all channels. All networks at 6PM PM.

The government controls the TV, and this is what you will be using. It's like Yes. Like, we're controls the TV and this is what you will be using. I hear you watching. It's like Yes.

Like, don't do what he did. The whole world's in North Korea. Yes. Yeah. You get it.

Fully you get it. This makes me happy. Of course. So what a birthday present. Were you concerned that I was gonna be down on this?

A little. You understand why, I hope. I do. Because this is not a movie we've talked about. No.

So this was part of my inspiration was we have not talked about this. Yeah. This is not a director we've talked about whom I love. We've mentioned Verhoeven. A little bit.

Because he was supposed to initially direct Die Hard. Yeah. We've never talked in-depth. Sure. Yeah.

And I wanted to watch something that it had been like, that my memory was pretty cloudy. Yeah. I've The other things we talked about the guest and a couple other things were pretty ironclad. Yeah. But I you'd mentioned The Exorcist, we can say R.

I. P. E. Dude. Yeah.

One of the greats. I went through all The Exorcists during lockdown. Oh, wow. How was two for you? Not great.

How was three for you? Unmemorable. I think three is all right, despite the fact that I know it's Jeffrey Dahmer's favorite movie. Yikes. Right?

Are you looking forward to the new Exorcist? Yeah. Big time. I think it looks good. Yeah.

I was thinking about that because I was inspired by the trailer in Ellen Burstyn's back, baby. So The trailer looks the trailer looked good. It does. It looks it looks very good. It's It looks spooky.

It's hopefully more in line with the Halloween that he made and not in line with the last because it's David what is it? Gordon Green, I believe. Yep. Dude, I love the Halloween reboot from 2018. Me too.

I think it's fucking phenomenal. Me too. And we've talked about this upon rewatch. I like Halloween Kills. I think it is And I still haven't seen Halloween Ends.

It is a commentary on a lot of part twos violence and about its rhythm showing you that this is gonna have a lot to do with the original Halloween two from 1980 or whatever. But, it's fine. It's fine. Just like Something's standing away then. Something's standing away then.

Showering together. Yeah. Are we at that point? Yes. You can get that at VHS Village.

You absolutely can. Great. You can get any video you want of males and females showering together. Wait. That's not what you're asking.

They're on home videos? Yes. You've seen Porky's. It's like that, but But home videos. Home by the way, we've just gotten a note that VHS Village, has gotten, shut down by the city of Ventura Actually, no.

Based on their offerings. Apparently, it was shut down in 1998. Woah. What have we been doing? It was a different Chris Olds.

Real Chris Olds. He was real old. It was a Chris with a k. Oh, you gotta stay away from this. Wow.

Former guest Chris Olds. I'm so sorry. We're so sorry. Not real genius of us. Whoops.

Well, VHS Village in Ventura, it was it was a good ride. It was a good ride. Crazy, thank you again for sending that $500. That's what put the lender. I can't wait to till we're on Patreon and you can keep the cash flowing.

So those Betamaxes this way though. Do you think the cash is flowing for Amy Smart? So Amy Smart shows up in this which is why we which is why you could get Road Trip at VHS Village. Brenda Strong? 2 thousand's babe.

Yeah. 2 thousand's babe. I've had Absolutely. I thought her in Road Trip. I was like, you're a babe.

Wow. Yeah. Yeah. Absolutely. And she shows up briefly in this and then dies, I believe.

I believe she does. Yeah. In one of these. Because when we when they finally separate getting wrecked. Yeah.

We see that she's turning to be a pilot. She's got douchebag, douche doucheier. Patrick Muldoon. Patrick Muldoon. Really?

You think he's a douche? I mean, I think both hurt him and Casper Van Dyne are kinda douchey. I think he's not. I think he's a little more, like, elevated where he keeps trying to take the high road Sure. Several time until he's like, look, I'm gonna pull rank and fine.

If this is what you you wanna do, we'll do it. And Casper Van Dean gets, like, a dirty punch in. See, I like I'm a big fan of, like, fighting dirty. Yeah. There's no such thing as a as rules in a fight.

There's no such thing as a rule. You know how, like, in the JJ Abrams Star Trek, how we introduced Kirk in the bar fight? I like that. I like that. Me too.

I like how he fights in that and beats them up. So kinda into the the fighting dirty of it all. Well, and after that breakup video, she sends him. Because that's where we're at in the movie now. Yeah.

And they all She's already breaking up with him. She's already choosing Ducey McFootball. Well, she's choosing her career. Let's be clear. You know, she she does choose her career.

Yeah. She does. She's like, I wanna be a pilot which gives no room for you and me. And which is super awkward because everyone's gathered around watching it with him. Like, I'll hit your hot girlfriend and now because they never her and Patrick will do never actually end up together.

No. Like, it's never That we never see them kiss. We never see them together. We just see that they have a mutual respect and love for each other all the way up to his end, which actually, it ends up where he is a very respectable noble character, especially at the end. Until I was gonna say until his very last line.

The line as written and delivered is like technically, they are a species not a race. And when you think of this from a fascist lens, they're all fascist until we destroy your entire race, and you're like, oh, shit. That's, like, one of the really blatant things where this is, like, kind of an anti Interesting. I thought that was just a script choice. It might have been but it's, like, it it may have been but they are a species, are they not?

Not a race. They are Natasha Henstridge Sure. An alien. I think dummies don't know the difference. I agree, normally.

And he's he's a pilot, so he's not a full on dummy Sure. But he's a kinda dummy. I think they're all kinda dummies. I mean, they're all brainwashed by the propaganda of this world. Well, Michael Ironside is not a dummy.

I'm not saying they're dumb. I'm saying that they're brainwashed by this world. No. I don't disagree with you. But there there are a few people who are of above average intelligence, but most people are not.

And nobody is above the propaganda machine. Nobody. Yeah. Not in this not in this we don't meet anybody who's above it. No.

That's just a The only person that could potentially be is Miles per hour, but he's probably the most ingrained like, he's he's got it ingrained into his soul Yeah. The most. Well, in this Like, is he even psychic? You know what I mean? He's a leader.

Like, do psychics even exist in this world or is he just, like Does he make educated guesses and it's all a performance? Yeah. And it's hard to say he is a magician. Could all just be a big trick. Golden Hawk will tell you.

Could be a goof. She could be tricking too though. It's hard to say. So she breaks up with him and then they go into the training mission with the life fire. Well, and, like, this is also where I'm delighted.

I forgot. I remembered NPH was in this. We all remember this show. Breckenridge, Rube Baker Yeah. From Major League two was in this.

Briefly. Totally forgot. Well, and how he I remember the live fire training over anything else in this movie. Oh, I remember in the moment that somebody gets shot. As soon as he says, there's something wrong with my helmet.

I was like, oh, he gets shot. This is the moment. That's the moment Jess came down and saw him get and she was like, wait, they're using live fire, live ammo? And I was like, they just yeah. They just said they were before that there was like laser tag and now they're using but here's the part where I'm like, why are they why is the training mission against soldiers shooting them?

They're not fighting against another army. It should be Edge of Tomorrow style, like, the blades and Yeah. I it's it's very antiquated. This is where the fascism goes a little like anti Stalin where it's like people are insanely disposable, like the Red Army was to Stalin where it's just like waves and waves of people, antiquated training, antiquated training. Well, that's what they said.

Like, it doesn't matter. It all we need is people, right? Like, they just Right. We just need bodies or whatever. Or we just need you is whatever the problem is.

Yeah, bodies. That's it. And that's that's what it ends up being at the end too, which I think is why this movie It circles around beautifully. It's it's very circular. I also think this movie has five acts.

Oh. Okay. Why is that? I I just felt like if you can tell me the three clear acts, I can change my mind. But I felt like there were at least I think, if not three if not five, four, but, I don't know how defined the three acts are, but I feel it's basically, like, a three act structure that's broken up in a weird kind of order where, second act is a section on is essentially when they're all broken up, and we're mostly on Johnny Rico's ride.

I feel like third act starts after the dude dies. I I feel like the third act starts essentially when that main last battle begins, like the last, like, twenty or twenty five minutes of the movie that's just like gunfire. That's That's what I thought was a fifth act. Sure. It the movie has a weird structure.

I will give you that. It dips it dips and it goes I mean, because when he is relieved of duty, a bee because we feel like we're on this trajectory that he's going to become, squad leader. Squad leader. Yeah. And then he is basically relieved.

He's above that. Yeah. By accident, he fails upward. And I also this is a part that Justin mentioned is that yeah. Yeah, the woman who actually shot Breckenridge in the head washes out.

Yep. And she was like, is is there no, like, is there no, like, actual she she's not arrested? Like, we're not gonna do a trial? And I was like, not in this world, apparently. No.

Well, actual Harvard grad, Dean Norris shows up from Breaking Bad, ASAP Oh, yeah. Hank Schrader himself and, gives the 10 lashes to Rico because it's like we've already lost two people. This guy's too good to lose. One one's dead. The other one we just exiled.

Again, you are found, tried, and executed on live TV in a day in this world, so Yeah. The the the public lashing is quite a quite a choice. It's a thing. It's quite a thing. By Hank himself.

Oh. Well, he gets his comeuppance. He gets his comeuppance. He sure does. He gets shot in the head.

He sure does. So many people get shot in the head in this movie. Yeah. Or get alien dicked in the head. Oh my god.

Like, everything you're just a hot dog to them. You're just a you're just a bunch of hot dogs. You mean a bunch of little tiny hot dogs with, two big dogs? With, like, little smokey sticking out of it. Sushi splats?

You're just you're just five sushi splats. That's all you are. Yeah. I also so Carmen is the, is the secondary storyline, and we're finding out, like Uh-huh. She's such a great pilot, partially because she's, like, reckless and Yeah.

Kind of insane. Like, her more efficient course almost got them killed, by the way. So how is that more efficient? They're also all going along and, like, all the all the ships are, like, going along and there's blue lights going up all around them. And then they realize those are, like, missiles alien missiles.

I guess. Because then they start and I'm, like, wait. Why do they know this to hit? The asteroids? I don't To direct these out, they say?

And then they say Well, the aliens are shooting them out of their butts. Those green lights. But, like, they're, like, flying around them like they're, like, fireworks. Like, oh, look at that. And then they see, like, oh, shit.

They're destroying ships. It is like, Halo. You're right. It's so close to Halo. It's so funny.

I never watched the Halo series on Paramount. I watched the pilot and was like, okay, and just walked away. It's crazy how many things that went through because at one point there was a movie that was supposed to be made with Denzel as master of chief. Toro was involved? Yeah.

And the guy who made chatting Neil DeBlancia. Blanco. Yep. Was involved. Okay.

So I'm hoping you're not gonna disagree with me. We get the Rico, remit of Carmen after they break up. And she says she thinks about what happened in Buenos Aires with the butt bombs with the poo bombs or whatever it is, the asteroid that destroys Buenos Aires. And she says Oh, yeah. I was meant to mention that.

And then I can't stop crying. Yeah. And, she's okay on that delivery. She's not bad. And Fadin to You is playing and also continues playing during a fight between Patrick Muldoon and Casper Van Dien.

I do have to say Fadin. Oh, yeah. That was really weird. I still have to say, I think So good. Casper Van Dien and Denise Richards are not the best actors.

Wow. But I think it Hot take hot dog. But I think it works really well for this. Yeah. They have chemistry.

But it all but but, like, the the movie itself I I feel like Paul Verhoeven knew they weren't great actors, if that makes sense. I think it was intentional. I think it's been said it was intentional, maybe. Okay. I do know that I I don't know the whole thing.

I know there's, like, a whole, like, Starship Troopers, like, convention and, like, Casper Van Dien is, like, a superstar. I'm not part of that world, but I do Same. But I do know that that's a thing, that this is a big cult following. And I imagine that the bad actor of it all is part of it, like He's too good of a filmmaker for these types of things to, like, just be by accident. Yeah.

In my like, we've listed off several of his films and there are newer ones that are Dutch that are also good, Benedetta. I haven't seen those. Yeah. I've only watched one but there are apparently a few. I mean, it's How do you think about Hollow, man?

That is not one of the good ones in my opinion. But also I have not seen it since right when I rented it at the VHS Village in Van Nuys. Oh, which is still open. That one's still open? Yeah.

So can you get Chaco Tech, sir? You can. Oh, well. It's run by someone named Chris Olds, c r y s. Olds?

Oh, different Chris Olds. Yeah. Interesting. Yeah. They just Venmo'd us some money.

It's brought to you by VHS Village in Van Nuys. We're redoing the D Day. I D Day'd the first VHS Village. We're redoing the D Day just like this movie. I mean, that's why this movie is doing World War two without doing World War two.

That's why I felt like it was limp. Like, it was showing, like, rah rah war and then being like, yeah. But look at all the people who get fucking killed. Destroyed. Just like, yeah.

They have no worth whatsoever. And the government doesn't care. They're like, yeah. That's gonna happen. We just need more people.

No. Dude, everybody fights. Nobody quits. If you quit, I'll kill you myself. Like Yeah.

That's it. And that's like Rico goes to the point he's so inspired by those words from Michael Ironside and by Michael Ironside and now by fight he's so interested in fighting out that his legs repaired and all this shit because he got hurt. Yeah. He blows up a giant bug with a grenade like a cowboy. He rides it That like the bomb, like, bugs that can shoot, like, acid Yeah.

Burning acid. Like lava lava face or something. But it also isn't its blood because then the blood explodes and it doesn't actually burn him. They're also orange. Right.

Tell us about that. Does it not burn bugs? But it feels like it well, it feels like it has to go because it Let's make this make sense. When he shoots it, he shoot it, like, goes into it, like, shoots together and then it, like, creates, like, this, like, burning thing and shoot. Oh.

That was a burst. Doing it a lot tonight. How's it on purpose? I've done a lot of stuff. But he shoots it and then that's what burns that woman and she loses her arm because it has to, like, combine because then when he, like, shoots the bug's exoskeleton?

Yeah. I'm trying to I'm trying to tries a grenade and then it blows up. He doesn't get acidically burned. So I guess it has I right. Maybe this movie doesn't make sense.

No. Just kidding. I don't think it does. Mad when movies like this are I think I think it does make sense. Mad.

He shoots it the bug shoots has to shoot it together and then shoots it out, and that's what makes it I think it has, like, almost, like, gas coming out of its nose or or something. You know, there is, there is a beetle in the Amazon that can shoot, like, acid at you from, like, 20 feet away. Wow. They call it the predator. It's actually It's running up to you on the screen here.

This is it's actually me. No. Because when I was in the Amazon brag, my guide was like, oh, we, like, did this huge walking gap, like, around the trail, like, went off trail and came back. And I was like, what the fuck was that? He was like, oh, there's a bug shoots acid 20 feet.

I'm like, fucking what? Nothing in the Amazon wants you to be alive. Bugs don't want you to be alive. She sees the back person from here, like, trail, like, with a hole through their head that's just smoking. It's, yeah.

It's like in Raiders. Yes. Exactly. That same thing. But, yeah, bugs bugs, we are easily hate bugs because now we're They're ugly.

They're disgusting. We see kids killing cockroaches as if they have something to do with this. Right. Which they don't. They're they're bugs that live on Earth.

They have nothing to do with this war. Edgar, the skin is hanging on your bones. And I get very mad when they kill the roaches just like Edgar. I I don't like roaches, but I also don't like killing bugs anymore. I'm not huge on death.

I freeze spiders if I see them. Sure. I try to be decent on that. I try to put them in a cup and let them out. Yeah.

Flies. Where'd you go? I'll let I'll let Rudy catch the flies. Yeah. They have more fun that way.

Vince is like that too. But he doesn't wanna kill him. He just wants to like be there. Torture them? Like play with me.

Yes. Cats are murderers. Yeah. All the way around. Torturers.

Yeah. Yes. All the way around. Yeah. I love them.

Me too. I by the way, I love how so often movies are like, hey, you want like a violin but like a future violin. It's just Green neon. This one's green. I gotta I gotta so we get that big hoedown, more dancing, more partying.

Well, because they win a battle? They win a battle after Rico kills that big bug. Even though he almost dies. And him and but him and Dizzy They fuck. They figgity fuck.

In, like, twenty minutes. Make that twenty minutes. Twenty minutes. When did you go, my guy died? I'm like, yeah, you can make that work.

Twenty minutes? Are you kidding me? Dude's not gonna last that long. Yeah. No.

Apparently, he this is his second time ever, I think. Yeah. He's that's a that's a three minute jaunt they're going on. Yeah. That's probably approximately right.

We all know what we're not She sucked his brains out like that brain bug. Every line, Michael Ironside, it sucked his brains out. Like, everything he says. Well, because they say that the bug makes him do things because they say it like Give up intelligence. Yeah.

What's what called him backup. Right. But then when we see the brain bug later and he just sucks his brain right out and kills him. Yeah. We never see the bug take over someone.

We never get to actually see it. No. It doesn't puppet him at all. Right. We were told that's what happened.

That it can puppet you. Right. Or is that just what the government wants? Can it puppet you before sucking your brain out? Was there point We didn't we never saw that.

At that point? We are really poking holes in this. No. But no. But I think I I no.

I think again, I think that the I don't think the war I think the bugs the humans are the colonizer. The bugs are being colonized and they're fighting back. I think the government just keeps the war going. So this call for backup isn't the bugs calling for backup. It's the government calling for backup because they just want the war to keep going.

Do you know what I'm saying? Most most likely, it keeps recruitment up. It keeps probably taxes up or all whatever. This whole machine continues to go. Because they don't need to go It's a piece of this they don't need to go fight the bugs.

It's like it's like the giant fleet ships. It's like I was like, if you just drop smaller ships from far away, it seems like they could just annihilate these bugs from the ground if you just use, like, nimble little ships. Also, they also have they have nukes. Couldn't they just nuke the planet? Apparently, they could.

They have they're using mini nukes. Organic material that bullets work on eventually. So Yes. They're using mini nukes, so why don't you just nuke the planet? I guess in this do they just call it a nuke?

Is it not actually They do call it a nuke. But is it not actually a nuke? Well, it's a Yeah. But they say nuke. I don't know.

It's a it's a it's a mushroom cloud, so I don't know. Yeah. One assumes. Let's ask I J Robert Oppenheimer. He seems like he's in a good headspace.

Yeah. After so many of the things that happened on that day. Your special, special day. This which is what this episode is for. Eight eight Illuminati.

That's what it's for. Okay. Sorry. Yeah. Always remember.

And also, for the VHS Village in Van Nuys, not Ventura, we moved in 1999, changed ownership. Oh, that's why it went under. Right. Got it. Owned by Chris Olds, c r y s.

Different Chris Olds then. Why does Dizzy get this insane funeral, by the way? Dizzy dies and gets the Seahawk flag. Dude, the Seahawk flag for sure, I thought that immediately. Blue and neon green.

It was. It was like it was like looking at, like, I was like, woah. I don't think I've seen that at a Seahawks game? Do our listeners know that we're Seahawks fans? I unless this is their first rodeo, yeah, they know.

Okay. They know. And we've talked about it a few different times. Would you like to talk about it now? You know what I'm saying?

Would you like to know more? I will do you wanna know more? Do you wanna know more? Did you know that it's almost been a year since we started this? I'm sorry.

We started in September of last year. Is that when we started recording? Yeah. Wow. And we started releasing.

Wow. And how do you feel about this journey? Everyone, I'm putting them on the spot. You wanna keep going? I feel I feel good.

I'll keep going. I wanna be a citizen. Well, two years or until your death, I'll let you know. This is what you signed up for. I could've gone to Harvard.

I I love when, Doogie Doogie Howser, Miles per hour shows up. Doogie Himmler? Yeah. After the the funeral, talking smart bugs and smart shit, and Johnny Rico just starts direct quoting Michael Ironside. Like, I'm gonna lose arms.

I'm gonna lose legs. I'm gonna become, like, I'm gonna spread, like, the word of the my family's dead. I'm gonna spread the good word of the fascist government. Also, I love that he becomes lieutenant. Right?

Rico becomes lieutenant. And he has a new army that he's, like Gym squad. Squad. And they obviously cast, like, actual high school kids or at least college kids So many of the ages. Because they need them to look young and, like, younger than who Johnny Rico was.

And I'm like, oh, those are just children. Do they will they push you through or hold you back until you're really worthy of being done with high school? Is it tough to get through high school? There's still a Harvard. True.

I think if you're at war, it feels feels like maybe there's a draft. Sure. Maybe, like, everybody is just It's like Vietnam. You mean Nam? Vietnam.

All those people that died on Hamburger Hill. Oh, that's a good movie. You seen that movie? Hamburger Hill? Yeah.

No. Good movie. Haven't watched it in several years, but remember it being good. I was thinking of Big Lebowski. This is it's what Walter says when they're Oh, yeah.

That's right. I just watched that movie, James. That's also a good movie. Was all that shit about Vietnam, Walter. Walter.

That's right. I'm sorry, dude. Can't help you. It's a very tender moment. Yeah.

It is. It's true. Oh, Walter. Walter is just a fuck up. What Big Lebowski character are you?

Like closest to? Sure. I think I'm probably closest to the dude. Me too. Honestly.

How about this? We both wanna see Ninja Turtles. But But, well Which Ninja Turtles? I will say I have been a lot of nauseous like Walter Yeah. In my life.

Same. I know that we're on a tangent here, but I've brought this up before in my life, and I'll bring it up here and then run up. But, that last moment of him saying I'm sorry dude. I'm sorry dude. He says it like three times.

Yeah. And then he just hugs him. He really means it. Because he recognizes that he's just like a fuck up. Yeah.

And he fucks everything up over and over and over and the dude stays with you. The only person he has. Yeah. Yeah. And he lost Donnie.

Yeah. Who didn't need to die. Nope. The beautiful man who enjoyed the shores from Leo Carrillo to Point Loma. Oh, that's by the In N Out.

Right? It's yeah. Fuck. I like that this movie turns into, like, this crazy fucking hilarious, like, house of horrors. Like, the ships are being destroyed.

Everybody's dying in crazy we ways. Oh my god. That's a good idea. The captain's killed by a door. And then the best thing in the movie when Denise Richards and Patrick Muldoon escape in the escape pod and they hit a floating body that goes Oh, yeah.

I forgot that I made a sound in space. Yeah. There the people are just Best. Best. I mean, the the amount of death is and, like, the reporter who gets, like, bitten half and then, like, the camera guy who sticks sticks around, I'm like, dude, get the fuck out of there.

He sticks around and gets He really wants that shot. He He does. I get I don't know what kind of bonuses you get. And it takes a lot to kill the bug. It does.

A lot of like If you just have the basic battle rifle, you're gonna go through all 32 or 30 per month rounds. I mean, it remind me of a video game where you're like, it doesn't, you know it's not like life where you can shoot something twice or once and it's gone. It's like, you gotta fucking lay into it Yes. Until it's dead. And what Miles per hour says, like, don't shoot its limbs because it can keep going.

It's still 81%. Nervous system or something. Yeah. Yeah. Those things are they don't stop.

And they're like similar to Edge of Tomorrow. Again, like, it's just like blades and it's gonna, like, stab you somewhere. Just keep going, keep going. And that's the thing is this movie is a big it's kind of a trailblazer for some of these like sci fi war films. Like this took a lot from Aliens.

Yeah. But also I do see I think all three of these movies are actually great. They're very different, in a lot of ways, but similar in a lot of ways, in terms of Aliens Yeah. This. Edge of tomorrow.

Edge of tomorrow. Absolutely. Yeah. I was thinking about a lot at both. I actually don't and this is the thing.

Muldoon shows up with Denise Richards when Casper Van Dien and everybody are overwhelmed. Yeah. And he gets out of the shuttle and is shooting everything and is ready to save everybody and wants to help out and this whole thing. Like, he's a good soldier. He's very capable.

Yeah. He admits he's wrong several times. What do you say? Tower. Tower.

Come on. And then the tower gets fucking annihilated. Annihilated with, like, the gas or whatnot. He tried. He did.

He's, he's the Johnny in Yeah. Karate Kid. Sure. He's not actually a bad guy. Yeah.

Totally. We they realized that, Rico's alive because she thought he was dead because his name was listed as dead because he got stabbed in the leg and then put into a bacta tank. Yeah. It seems like he did get killed for a moment. They never explained how he makes it out of that.

No. Because it goes black. A bug envelops yeah. The screen is black. But they say he got saved by Michael Ironside's character.

Yeah. So But we don't see it. No. But a Bacta tank. Right?

Essentially, a bacta tank. Yeah. It's got a little Star Wars action going. Yeah. And they so then we see every but they come back together, the three the Trinity, right?

Miles per hour, Denise Richards. Yep. After Muldoon is brained and Denise Mormon outpost called Joe Smith called Joe Smith Yes. That was put into the I don't know what that was about. It was clearly just like It's like they fucking hate Mormons, so they're like, oh, the Mormons I guess built a power post in the bug territory, and they all they all fucking died.

Can't watch r rated movies So they wouldn't know anything. I guess. I don't know. It's like the PETA, the thing. You're right.

They wouldn't know anyway. There's a thing about, I guess, that Paul Verhoeven censored the animal violence when it was, like, happening to the cow. It was, like, his commentary on PETA. Like, you can't beat to pee to pee, but But he still showed a dead dog in that rubble. Did he?

Oh, god. It was awful. I was like Oh, wow. Fuck. It's clearly fake, but it's, like Well, that's good.

A dead like there's a dead dog corpse in the rubble after they bomb Yeah. Earth or whatever, the the asteroid. And I was like, oh man, that sucks. But the the brain bug theory is correct. There is a brain bug that's sucking out commands brains that has all these hundreds of thousands of whatever stars.

They're just so strategic apparently. Yep. And they capture one and it is apparently this is the thing. It's gonna turn the war at the prop they're testing it. They're gonna figure out everything they need to know.

It's scared even though small medium to short range aircraft could easily that are nimble could easily kill all of these things. Apparently, those don't really exist that have any weapons on them. See it. Because you can get, you can get soldiers in and out with small aircraft, but you can't use them to fight. I thought I thought the way it ended was kind of circular where it's just telling us like, oh, look, the war has ended but we still need more people.

We need bodies. We need you. The propaganda machine continues forward in the hopes of more violence as Michael Irons says in the beginning of the movie, violence is the important thing. Violence is the driver. Yeah.

Like and it's like It's not. You know, we're gonna keep spreading oppression throughout the universe. Yeah. It's like the whole movie, as we said, was, like, very gray and, like, down and But it ends in this, like because because it's leaning into the propaganda, it ends in this, like, triumphant way and it shows The music does so much work. His former, staff sergeant is now a a private, so he salutes him.

Yep. Zim. Clancy Brown, man. Because he got he captured it. Anime cannot press a button if his hand is disabled.

But, yeah, it ends in a way that you're like, oh, yeah. It's an optimistic ending, I guess, except the war is gonna keep going and people are gonna keep dying and For nothing. They're gonna keep profiting, I guess. They we've got to mention that, like, they fired or the guy who called the mission to attack the bug planet stepped down. Yeah.

The air marshal. Yeah. And then they had someone else step in because that it It didn't work. Yeah. I mean, it's sort of like idiocracy in a way where you're like, look at the future that we're lead we're heading towards.

Right. Like and what all these people keep failing upward Yeah. In various ways, which is interesting. I mean, the ship that she's piloting gets blown in half. She only lives because her and what's his fuck escape and then she becomes the the captain of a ship.

Yeah. Because she survives the bug encounter. Because she survives. She's a hero in the bug encounter. Even though the one she was piloting was the one that got destroyed and every literally everyone else died on it.

Yeah. I believe so. Except for those people that escaped the pods. Very few that got out on pods. Yeah.

Who knows how many that was? But now Where's a weird thing, man? Where's a weird I I'm gonna be honest. I'm gonna tell you something. I'm gonna be honest.

Something for my soul. I don't wanna do it. War. No. Sure.

Well I really I don't know. What's it good for? Ab absolutely nothing. Wait. Say it again.

War? Yeah. Come on now. What is it good for? Sing it again.

Oh, wait. Our lawyers came through. Wait. Okay. In case you didn't know, this podcast is now owned and operated by By the lawyers.

Clearly, he has better lawyers than us. Alright. Boy, Paul Beyeroven, auteur, artiste. I feel like all we did was, like, suck his brains out on this movie. A little bit, but it's also We sucked his brains out.

I'm I'm I'm sticking I'm sticking with my four brain bugs or whatever I said. I'm I'm, you know, it's it's not quite the five star for me, but which is fine. I don't need to justify that, but it's it's a it's a four brain bug movie for me. And I would recommend watching this movie, and I think I would recommend watching it and really trying to keep in mind that this is satire. Yeah.

If if you've seen there's even imagery in, like, glory Inglourious Basterds where, I'm forgetting the name of the actor, German guy, I believe, German. I'm not sure. He also is in some of the Marvel films. Oh. He's really good.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. He's getting his name. Daniel Bruhl.

Thank you. He He is piling up all these bodies of, like, these innocent, you know, or people who are fighting for the side of good. It's, quotation marks as war is not good for anybody. Similar imagery in this movie of the bugs piled up at times and things like that. Just imagery of war that carries over really well.

I, in the infancy of Netflix, a friend of mine for a watch party rented Triumph of the Will on DVD and was like, we should watch this. And everybody was was like, I feel weird, but okay. And as a social experiment, everybody just being like, holy shit. The fact that this exists is insane. And, all that said, I am doubling down on my four Caspers.

It is a four Caspers. I'm okay with Caspers. It's Casper Casper something. I can't think of anything clever in this moment. But it's still four.

Yeah. It's still four. You don't need to be clever. No. Just be you, Paul.

It's your birthday. Four Caspers. It was your birthday. It was. 08/08.

Eight '8, baby. 08/08. That's how we do it. Eight crazy nights. We mentioned that with Melinda Hensley.

Oh, that's true. One of the greats. Also, money plane. Money plane. Get your money plane on.

Chelsea Grammer. Available at PHS Village. I think we're about done with this. I think they're done with us. Yeah.

Our bookend themes are Jimmy Henwood. Our what are we watching theme is Matthew Foskett. Ben's letterboxed is Run DMC. My letterboxed is Paul acts badly. Thanks so much for joining us for more big, not punctual party.

Follow us on Instagram though at Review x two podcast. X two gonna give it to you. You're gonna have a great time. And go to VHS Village to celebrate Paul's birthday this Friday. I will be there.

He will be there with Chris Olds Guaranteed. Slash Veronica. Former owner and current owner. How about Choco Taco for your friends? Veerhoven.

He'll be there. Always is. Thanks for joining us. Good night.