The Review Review
Hosts Ben and Paul welcome special guests from all walks of life to watch, rate, discuss, and RERATE the films close to their hearts. You'll laugh (hopefully), you'll cry (maybe), you'll reconsider everything you have ever known! Welcome, to "The Review Review"
The Review Review
They Came Together / So Did We...
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...to a decision, about this movie, after much debate. Paul's choice on a coin flip "They Came Together," (2014 d. David Wain) Starring: Amy Poehler, Paul Rudd, and NEW YORK CITY. We're ending "March Movie Madness," on a high note (Paul literally) with this wild, zany, AND EXCEPTIONALLY HUMAN despite Paul's dumb dumb crap (tell me about it), spoof of the Rom-Com. Especially T. Hanks movies. Hey, thanks for reading. Wait. Wait a second. Thanks. Hang on...thaaaaannnnnkksssss. 3/31!
****A member of the “Review Review,” family is in the fight of her life, you can help! - TAP/CLICK
**All episodes contain explicit language**
Main Artwork - Ben McFadden
'Review Review Intro/Outro' Themes - Jamie Henwood
"What Are We Watching?" & "Whatcha Been Doin'?" Themes - Matthew Fosket
"Fun Facts" Theme - Chris Olds/Paul Root
Lead-Ins Edited/Conceptualized by - Ben McFadden
Produced by - Ben McFadden & Paul Root ("Shelf Help" - Paul Root)
Podcast/Program Concept - Paul Root
***This Podcast/Program is for entertainment purposes only. This Podcast/Program includes parody. This Podcast/Program contains peer review, film review, and film/art preservation discussions.
I don't know. Pro sex addict? What increases sex addiction?
SPEAKER_01Hmm.
SPEAKER_03Because Trevor's on that. Viagra? I guess. Cialis?
SPEAKER_01Do those things actually make you want to have sex, or they just get you heart?
SPEAKER_03I couldn't possibly comment.
SPEAKER_01I thought Christmas only came once a year.
SPEAKER_03Fuck that m God damn it. We have to move forward. This is the perfect conversation to be having in terms of the movie we're talking about today.
SPEAKER_01Hey Paul, how did how did we meet? It's a pretty funny story, isn't it?
SPEAKER_03It is. It's super cute. Yeah. It's like kind of a mute meat cute thing. I was working with Jessica in up in Portland. Yeah. Flash forward years. Ben and I are in UCB together, and then Ben I think you should take over.
SPEAKER_01Well, I think what's important in this story
Show Intro
SPEAKER_01is that Los Angeles is also a character in it.
SPEAKER_03Los Angeles really is a character. But it's like a neo-noir, like very dirty, very upsetting.
SPEAKER_01So if this movie were to start, it would start with someone dying in the streets the belly.
SPEAKER_02Someone crawling out of a dumpster and just falling onto the pavement like a sack of fucking potatoes.
SPEAKER_01Stay away from Paul. Paul who? Open your Paul. Oh, hey everybody.
SPEAKER_02It's Quato.
SPEAKER_01Uh you know how we start this show. We start it unhinged. This is the review review. Welcome in. I am one of the hosts of this program. My name oh, I said program. I am one of the hosts of this program.
SPEAKER_03Way to go. Now we can just keep moving forward here, and we don't have to do the demerits and things off mic like we do.
SPEAKER_01The cat of nine tales can stay in the closet.
SPEAKER_03Call me Paul Betney.
SPEAKER_01And this is you one of your other co-hosts. His name is Paul. That's true. And uh you are listening to the review, the review. I said that weird. You are listening to the review review. What is the review review if you're joining us for the very first time, first time caller, no time listener? This is a movie program. Listen more. You should listen to more.
SPEAKER_03You're gonna you're gonna want to do that.
SPEAKER_01Uh you should go back in time and find all of the episodes that you might want to listen to. Um that's the news. Yeah.
SPEAKER_03That's the news you've got for me. Okay.
unknownGrace Claw.
SPEAKER_03Wild. Because I did that.
SPEAKER_01Anyway. Um what is the review review? Well, we are a movie podcast where we typically would have a guest. That guest would bring us a movie. We have a few rules and stipulations, not part of a major franchise, at least seven years old or older, and something they might feel passionately about and want to talk about. We don't have a guest today because we are our own grandpas.
SPEAKER_03We came together alone. I want to I want to mention we had a guest scheduled, Daniel Talbot. Daniel had a life emergency. Daniel, we can't wait to have you in and was bringing a film called The Last of England. A movie with Tilda Swinton.
SPEAKER_01A movie I have not seen.
SPEAKER_03Same, and conceptually, it sounds incredible. Yeah. And Daniel, we cannot wait to talk to you about it.
SPEAKER_01Very, very best. Looking forward to having you, Daniel. But until then, it's just me and you, Paul. And we're we're gonna come together to a decision.
SPEAKER_03So interesting that this is a UCB revolving movie to a degree, and we met in UCB.
SPEAKER_01Is that something? Maybe. I mean, also this movie is full of gags and goofs and fools, and it's around April Fools. And some pranks. Some pranks.
SPEAKER_03It goes over holidays. It seems to want to make sure like it's a movie that covers almost any holiday.
SPEAKER_01I mean, it's when Harry met Sally and like shop around the corner and and and like it's so many things.
SPEAKER_03Oh, I think we're gonna I know I will anyway, because this seems like something, and I hate that I'm saying this to a degree, where if you fed AI like 12 to 15 different movies and said, make a movie, it would be this movie. Like this Oh my god, are you listening to this fucking bozo? Hey, it's Paul from the edit. I just want to say I don't think it's articulated well by whomever that was that was just speaking. AI could never do this funny. It could never be funny. This movie has so much heart and soul and appreciation for the genre and the greater genre than the amount of movies I mentioned. I'm listening to this as the editor, and I'm offended by whatever person it was that was just speaking and their opinions in terms of this movie and what the ultimate thing is and what it draws from, and that AI AI could fucking never. AI could never I award you no point, sir, and may God have mercy on your soul. Back to the program understanding or whatever of like romantic comedy tropes and everything being very tongue-in-cheek, and yeah, we're gonna go about this probably longer than the movie is.
SPEAKER_01I mean, if you haven't did we even say we're doing they came together. I thought it was clear because I think you're 2014. Yeah. With Paul Rod and Amy Polar, but we that's getting ahead of ourselves.
SPEAKER_03Little but a little more recent than we kn would normally do. So far in the history of this program.
SPEAKER_01I guess what is the most recent movie we've done? Readland? Her? No, I guess her was 2012. I guess Reedland, yeah.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, yeah, because that's like crazy recent.
SPEAKER_01Well, you gotta watch Reedland if you're gonna get ready for Doomsday.
SPEAKER_03If you want to have any fucking clue what's going on in terms of who is killing Robert Downey Jr. as Doom. And why why is that scythe thing so powerful?
SPEAKER_01How can he carry fire with it? I don't know. You're gonna you're gonna be lost in Doomsday if you don't see Readland.
SPEAKER_03I want to make some joke about AI porn and hitting Doom and ending him and
What You Been Doin?
SPEAKER_03moving on. Readland for certain the most recent.
SPEAKER_01Okay, that's right. Um speaking of recent, what have you been doing? Wasn't that a good transition? That was really good. I'm proud of myself.
SPEAKER_03As well, you should be. I have to look this up in my phone, sadly. That I don't I was like, oh, I put this in my phone so I don't have to read it.
SPEAKER_01Do you just take a picture every day to see what you've been doing? And then you scroll and cry. Do you ever do that where you're like not wanting to go on Instagram or something and you're just want but you want to scroll, so you just go through your own photos? Yeah. It's actually probably healthier. Almost certainly. And it's like, oh yeah, I did all these things and I took these photos for a reason at some point.
SPEAKER_03Well, and it's like a bummer anymore. You look through other people's Instagram and you almost don't really want to interact with it any more.
SPEAKER_01In some cases, because people feel creeped out, or you Or it feels disingenuous, like it feels fake, and yeah. It's it's it's weird where it's like if someone were just to hand me their phone and be like, hey, look at my photos, it would probably be way more enjoyable than going through their Instagram.
SPEAKER_03Oh, yeah, undoubtedly.
SPEAKER_01And I'd be like, Jesus, Paul.
SPEAKER_03Especially if they yeah, why does it look like that?
SPEAKER_01If those are in a specific it's like a baby's arm holding an apple.
SPEAKER_03No, you're not talking about me. I'm gonna cut a bunch of that out, maybe. We'll see. But what I've been doing, I want to say one thing is we were talking about being disingenuous. Let's not do that at all. John O'Matt, who's been on this program a couple times, yeah, had is it called All Systems Snow? He he had his Christmas movie Cell.
SPEAKER_01I saw it in uh in the trades, yeah.
SPEAKER_03And Hikari, who directed Rental Family, which I read Brendan Fraser.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, I recently watched it, it was very good.
SPEAKER_03I really want to watch it, yeah, but that's like super exciting. So look forward to that, folks. Yeah. So I've been I've been doing that. Keep an eye on the trades.
SPEAKER_01And we love successes in the review reviewiverse.
SPEAKER_03Yes.
SPEAKER_01And oh, that's from UCB. Is that something?
SPEAKER_03Goodness. It's been proven it's not. Oh, okay. No, we uh we, meaning Matt Foskett and I will occasionally play basketball together. That's how I got this.
SPEAKER_01Is that your point? Paul is pointing to his black eye. Pretty cool. Do I look tough? You ever done anything? It looks pretty tough. I I didn't know if you're gonna bring it up, and I thought I would I would I didn't know if I should bring it up, and I I was like, did he did Was your dad in town?
SPEAKER_02Jeez, I don't know.
SPEAKER_01I mean Do I keep that in? So we and Matt Foskett were playing a friendly game of b-ball like they do in this movie.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, and I was like, you know, rain dance, swish, and with similar results. And boy oh boy, nobody has that like right foot out, right foot in, right foot out, right foot in, right foot out, right foot in, like Ken Marino and Matthew Foscett. Those two have that motion, and I mean, I certainly was just running around yelling basketball, things like that. Again, AI only stand understands how much basketball has been in 15 movies. Yeah. So yeah, but basketball with Matthew Foscett, which is super fun. This is nice how we stay so young and beautiful.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. You have to. Absolutely. Either that or the substance. Take your pick. Or the beauty.
SPEAKER_03One Ashton Kucher, one Demi Moore, both about chemicals that keep you beautiful. Is that something?
SPEAKER_04Is that the butterfly effect? Holy shit. Is that the Mothman that's here? It is a prophecy.
SPEAKER_03What have you been doing? Other than scaring the shit out of me. That wasn't the fart chair, people.
SPEAKER_01That was just a fart.
SPEAKER_03They probably wouldn't have heard it.
SPEAKER_01I'm pretty sure we have the fart editor on. Now I just imagine someone sitting there. Someone sitting in the corner just waiting for like with their finger over a button to like edit edit a fart. It's Burris. Let's be fair. It's Burris.
SPEAKER_03Uh he's a burrito of many talents.
SPEAKER_01What have I been doing? Uh I'm prepping to direct my next play in Seattle. It is Annie Baker's The Aliens for a company called White Rabbits Inc. I am it'll be interesting because I'm unfortunately not able to be there for the entire rehearsal process. I'm co-directing. So I have a co-director. Uh I'll be up there for about a week and then I will be remote for the remainder of the process. It'll be interesting. I've never done like I've never directed like that before, but I'm happy to have another director to be in the room. So that's great. That's a play that I've loved my for a long time, and I've been wanting to direct it, and I'm looking forward to that. And then I did a fun run at my work. Oh. How many K? I carved up and I did a fun run. Uh it was a 5K.
SPEAKER_03Did you eat like a shitload of fettuccines? Right. Yeah.
SPEAKER_01And no water. And my lips get all blue.
SPEAKER_03The men McMahon annual fun run for rabies against the fight of yeah.
SPEAKER_01Uh but yeah, it was a 5k. Uh great. And uh that was fun. It was a fun run. Um and I did it's not just a clever name. It's not just a clever name. I I it was interesting. I was uh they have a um
What Are You Watching?
SPEAKER_01a uh chant about it, which is like it's not a race, set your pace. Um and that is all good and well, but it the second it begins, it's like everyone like I'm too competitive. The men McMahon mind takes over. Yeah, yeah. I'm too competitive. And I had a friend I was running it with, and we were like, we're just gonna run a friendly conversational pace so we can have it, like we can talk the whole time. And uh the second that I started to get like passed by people, I was like, I was gone. And then I ran by some people, like, where is she? I was like, I don't know, and just kept going. Um and I definitely like push myself more than I do in my normal jogs, uh, because I was like, I'm gonna beat all these motherfuckers. Okay. Um so yeah, that was that was fun.
SPEAKER_03Well what have you been watching?
SPEAKER_01I was gonna ask you that question.
SPEAKER_03Nice try.
SPEAKER_01Why don't you go first?
SPEAKER_03Oh, fine. I want to mention two things. I'll do my best to be brief. First thing I want to mention is I've talked about Tiny Desk on this a little bit, and this is not that, but it depending on the person, you can get a similar effect feeling from it. The folks that comprise the team that make the things like Wet Hot American Summer role models, the 10 this movie, they have a music project called Middle Age Dad Jam Band. Okay, and they do covers of all sorts of rock, pop, 80s stuff, Billy Joel, Christopher Cross, Duran Duran, Ken Reno sings, David Wayne rips on the drums. The rip ripping. Okay. Oh, dude, yeah, like orange buckets, like he's great. Okay, and they have a million different cover songs on their YouTube channel, and it's so fun, and they have all these different pop-ins of family and friends and other people that work in TV and film and comedy and shit. It it's really, really fun and great. The other thing I want to mention, as we're watching like kind of a meta genre-bending rom com.
SPEAKER_00Yeah.
SPEAKER_03There's a movie that I just watched that I had not seen called Heart Eyes that is a rom com. Oh, is it when Harry Met Sally or You've Got Mail or whatever, mixed with like Scream or My Bloody Valentine. Okay. So it takes a rom com and takes a bunch of the tropes and adds them into like a horror movie scenario.
SPEAKER_02Okay.
SPEAKER_03Liked it. Okay. Not a movie that I'm super keen to be like, oh, the next one. We were talking about this uh moments ago. I want to see Scream 7. Yeah. That's a Who-Done It franchise that I like. This is a movie that, like a lot of slasher movies, are who's doing this terrible shit.
SPEAKER_01And that is literally what they're trying to figure out, yeah. Unless it's Halloween, because they know.
SPEAKER_03Oh, yeah. Nightmare on Elm Street. Yeah. Friday the 13th. Yeah. No, there was that one Friday the 13th where it was a different guy. So that all said. Well, I guess there was also yeah, never mind. That all said, the movie though is a fun kind of throwback to the Who Dun It slashers of the 80s, while also being a fun throwback to a lot of the rom-coms of like kind of the 90s.
SPEAKER_01Can I ask you a question? No, fuck you. Okay.
SPEAKER_02Okay. You look so despondent.
SPEAKER_01No, I'm just in the same vein of this movie and what you're talking about. Did you see that it teaser for scary movie?
SPEAKER_03I did.
SPEAKER_01What do you think?
SPEAKER_03I think I want to see it.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, me too. Yeah. Me too. I mean, like that first scary. I mean, honestly, the first two. Even the third one has funny moments. Like, it came in a time for me where the first one in particular, I I don't know if I've laughed that hard in a movie theater before.
SPEAKER_03Oh, that one, I want to say it's the second one with Chris Elliott. Yeah.
SPEAKER_02I don't know, but you could give me five on my strong hand. Take my strong hand.
SPEAKER_03And there's so much stuff that has come between the last one and this one. That's that's the thing that I think is so great about this spoof thing is that it can kind of be every 10-15 years or what have you, so much happens.
SPEAKER_01Oh, yeah. And I I I I mean, what I can tell from the teasers, I I don't know. I will we'll see. I'm sure there will be a lot in there, but I think that like at one point the thing that I'm thinking of is like we've got we've gotten to the point in some horror where we take ourselves so seriously.
SPEAKER_03Oh my god.
SPEAKER_01Please go after malignant, please go after hereditary, please go after Yeah, go after these A24, go after Osgood Perkins, go after weapons, go after all this shit.
SPEAKER_03You saw me do the arms.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
unknownYeah.
SPEAKER_01I mean, like, I'm not against going serious with with these with horror movies. I like a lot of them, but I think it's also fun to lamp. Let's let's roast ourselves a little bit.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, mid-somar in terms of production and visuals or whatever, is like a lot. Like, do something funny with that. There's something there, I'm certain of it.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_03Maybe not in the movie, but there's something that could be done.
SPEAKER_01100%. Yeah. Uh yeah. So that was what you watched. No, I was asking you a question. I didn't get to talk about what I watched.
SPEAKER_03I was gonna say you you watched the teaser the new scary movies. That's true. Okay, you're done. Okay.
SPEAKER_01Unless you have something else you want to talk about. I had something else I want to talk about. Yeah, okay. Uh interested. Actually, let me think about it.
unknownGod damn it.
SPEAKER_03Got him. Got him. Uh I watched Well, you came in here looking like shit.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, I know.
unknownWhat?
SPEAKER_01Yeah, tell me about it. Tell me about it. Well, you came in here looking like shit. Justin, I was uh, we were rolling.
SPEAKER_03Dude, did you think that that I didn't think it was ever gonna stop? You watched it digitally, I assume. Yeah. Did you think that there may we was like something wrong with it at all?
SPEAKER_01I knew it was a bit. That's such a good bit. It's fantastic. You have to take the bit to the point, you have to go through like five different phases in that bit where it's like it happens twice, that's funny. It happens, and then it gets to a point where you're like, this is tedious, and then it goes past that tedious point where you're just like this is still going, and you have to overcommit, and it's even funnier now. Um it's very inspirational.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, the cut how hard they commit to that to a repeating joke. Well, there's just something about it that is very inspirational.
SPEAKER_01I'll talk a lot about this, but um, I just want to mention that I uh I uh watch watching Scrubs, the new season of Scrubs. You sound happy. I was pleasantly surprised. I did not think they could truly recapture the magic of the first like couple seasons of Scrubs. Um, especially since I was like, I I'm pretty sure we as a collective have moved on from Zach Brath. Um, but I was pleasantly surprised, and the joke still hit, and it felt like the old series, and I like I definitely felt nostalgically transported. And um it's fun. I'm I'm I was yeah, very pleasantly surprised and happy to keep watching.
SPEAKER_03Does it have like essentially the entire collection uh minus the uh gentleman who played the like head doctor or lead doctor who passed away or what have you that was like? Oh, he did pass away, yeah. But it was John C. McGinley's there, Neil. I'm forgetting his last name, the guy who plays the janitor.
SPEAKER_01He has not shown up yet. Oh, okay. I'm thinking he will, but he hasn't shown up. They but but you know both couples, yep, all okay couples, um, and just some new characters, uh younger characters, but they're getting yeah, like the same. I don't want to spoil it, uh, but I've but I'm enjoying it and I'm happy that it's back. Um that's great, yeah. And then I watched a uh uh a documentary called The Hobby, a uh I think it's called The Hobby. I love documentaries, you already have my attention. Um the story of board games, and it's sort of just like a interesting glance into this part of life of board gaming that's become so big in millennial and gen like many cult, but specifically now.
SPEAKER_03It's big business, it's huge. Tabletop gaming is huge. Yeah. Do they talk about any specific games?
SPEAKER_01They go through a handful of them, yeah. Um the like uh Katan is one that they talk about. Uh the longest, or I got a uh ticket to ride. Um yeah, they they they there's a handful of games specific, and they do multiple people, different perspectives of like different because there's ultimately like a game, a board game like World Series thing.
SPEAKER_03Oh yeah, there it gets extremely competitive depending on the case.
SPEAKER_01There's like money on the line, like twenty five K or something like that. Um so yeah, it's interesting. These are like these the people that you uh learn of that are so dedicated to this, and um I'm like a casual I'd call they call me a casual gamer.
SPEAKER_03Are are you super good at any specific board game or tabletop game?
SPEAKER_01Uh I mean it depends on the I guess like it depends on the day and the game. Um Are you a big Monopoly player? We used to play Monopoly. I haven't played in a long time just because it takes like seven fucking hours.
SPEAKER_03Do you uh al always play like house rules or do you ever play tournament rules?
SPEAKER_01What are tournament rules?
SPEAKER_03I'm a big Monopoly fan. I've played a m a lot of Monopoly in life, up to and including competitively when I was younger. You might enjoy this documentary. I don't know if I've lost. Okay. And part of uh the genesis of me and the beat out uh special K was like okay, whatever. Like, I'm pretty fine. And she said, similar to what you said, takes like seven hours. And I was like, have you played tournament rules? Is that a timer? No. Uh it's it's a lot more strategic, and like properties get divvied out, like when they get down to a certain amount at a point in time. There are different open negotiations about things. There's no free parking. Is one of the properties the upper sweet side? Because I'll I'll buy it. That is adorable. I actually find that kind of adorable. Would you say up upper sweet side? I I think it's clever, I think it's kind of cute. No, what a dumb name. But uh, that was part of the thing was like we played a good amount of Monopoly after I was like, oh no, it takes like 90 minutes.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, I I haven't played that in a long time. I mean, I feel like the lot of the games that we've played these days are like team building games and not competitive games, um for the sake of friendships and yeah, marriages.
SPEAKER_00Yeah.
SPEAKER_01Um yeah. But Jess and I played a lot of sequence during lockdown, which I'm pretty good at, I would say. Good game. Yeah, really good game, fun game, and yeah, easy to learn and easy to just keep going. Like play one hand and then keep going, keep going, keep moving.
SPEAKER_03Man, I love that what we've been watching
"They Came Together" Facts
SPEAKER_03is now talking about something you could be doing while listening to this podcast. You could play sequence and listen to this, yeah. You could play Monopoly and listen to this, please do Battleship. Uh could you play what is it?
SPEAKER_01The horror at the house on the uh yeah, uh Betrayal at the House on Haunted.
SPEAKER_03Maybe not that.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, maybe not the more immersive. That's pretty complex. That's a little challenging. Yeah. I mean, you ever you ever start a game and you start reading the rules and you're like, oh god, I don't want to play this right now.
SPEAKER_03Yep. Or say look up the YouTube, and if I see that the video is more than like five minutes, I'm like, nah, fine, pick something else. Yeah.
SPEAKER_01Or we've explored this as far as we're just explaining the rules to you, and you're just dying inside, and you're like, I've been here for two hours.
SPEAKER_03This is too much information. I've been awake all day.
SPEAKER_01I didn't come here to do homework.
SPEAKER_03Nope, not at all. I came here to play a game. Do you want to play this? Well, you know what the the a game, a game, the game.
SPEAKER_01But you know who did come together? You know.
SPEAKER_03Right now, over me? All over me? Over me.
SPEAKER_01Come together on my butt. Oh, whoa. But but but but okay, go ahead.
SPEAKER_03Let's talk some facts. Let's talk about the facts. Hey, they came together. This was produced by Show Walter Wayne and Lionsgate. This is like not too long post Twilight for them for Lionsgate. Oh. So I was like, Show Walter Wayne, uh and not not super close to Wet Hot American Summer, but also like if you were like if I said to you, Hey, I have this rom com for you, but it's made by the people who made Wet Hot American Summer, which you'd seen, you'd be like, Okay, I'm at this is good information. This was from 2014. It's rated R. It's an hour and 23 minutes. Hey, new little piece here. This is a rom-com spoof.
SPEAKER_01Our first spoof.
SPEAKER_03We're we're talking about genre a little bit, and I don't I don't think we did blazing saddles. I guess, yes, okay. I don't know if we've done like crazy out that blazing saddles feels so authentic at times. I forget how hilarious and goofy it is. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Wild. The budget on this movie was three million dollars. Depressing thing adjusted 12 years ago. This your dollar is worth twenty-eight percent less. 4.12 million dollars adjusted. I actually think this movie looks like it's like a seven to ten million dollar movie or something. I said when you consider the cast, is yeah, a big piece of it, I guess. Opening weekend was at Sundance. Wow. January 24th, 2014. Then it got a US home video release June 27th, 2014.
SPEAKER_01That's almost my birthday, Paul.
SPEAKER_03It is very close, isn't it? Yeah. $87,000 international gross only, it had no theatrical run in the United States. That is $113,000 adjusted. It did about $517,000 in home video sales. Final gross North America, as mentioned, was zero. Worldwide was the aforementioned $87,000, adjusted $113.
SPEAKER_01I want to mention just I realized something because some people might click on this and not have seen this movie. Mm-hmm. I think I think that's very possible. And I I wonder if we start putting like up front, where can you watch this? Because if folks are interested to be like, wait, hold on, I don't want to listen to this episode yet. Go watch this. It's on Prime, it's free.
SPEAKER_03It's on, I think, right now, like to be as we speak in this moment. And that's is like these things change so rapidly. Yeah. Normally I would love to be able to provide that information, but if you listen to this when it's released, two weeks after whatever, who fucking knows? That's true. So this is part of why we talk about letterboxed people. Letterboxd is a thing that will tell you. Letterbox tells you, yeah. Things are available. Other releases this weekend. Transformers age of extinction begin again in limited released weekend top five. Just kill it already. Transformers, age of extinction, 22 jump street, a sequel that I really enjoy. Me too.
SPEAKER_01Also a spoof, I would say.
SPEAKER_03I agree. How to train your dragon to think like a man to and Maleficent. Other films from 2014, Edge of Tomorrow, aka Lived I Repeat. I shouldn't have to say that. No, I should just be able to say Edge of Tomorrow, but that's not the world we live in. Uh Nightcrawler, Whiplash. Sorry, I'll get on your tempo. Predestination, Gone Girl, Tammy, Oliver Stone to the interview and blended. Letterboxed average is 3.2. Follow us. I'm I'm at my I messed up. You're off my tempo. Get on my tempo.
SPEAKER_01I will fuck you like a pig. Uh I am at Run BMC.
SPEAKER_03I am at Paul Acts Badly. Christy Lemire for Ebert.com gave this 1.5 out of 4. Christy Lemire, what who are you? Are you are you okay? Are you alright? Just I feel like if you don't like this movie, is there a level of like you're just against fun?
SPEAKER_01Or do you or do you not understand that this is a spoof?
SPEAKER_03And that the folks who made this movie love rom coms. Like it's it's an homage more than like a burn. It's not a skewer to the genre at all to me.
SPEAKER_01No spoof is. All spoofs are homages. I agree. Like for the most part, for the most part. They all love the genre. I feel like they all love the genre.
SPEAKER_03I think sometimes there's misses and execution more often than not, because I agree. More often it's mostly people trying to be like, this is great, I love this. I think this movie executes it so so well. Yeah. And the they clearly understand the genre. And the tropes, which is so important. Rotten Tomatoes, 70%, 40 popcorn, meta 60, 5.9 user. That feels a little more fair-ish. Major awards and uh major award wins and nominations. Non-alcoholic? Non-alcoholic. This episode is brought to you by non-alcoholic.
SPEAKER_01You know, sometimes you need to enjoy a non-alcoholic refreshment.
SPEAKER_03Ben has gone single sleepy eye and is now making horrible mouth noises into the microphone. Oh, gross. Oh, great. The hits keep coming.
SPEAKER_01They came together. I'm gonna talk about people. The director of this movie is David Wayne, a man I have met. Uh, he directed role models, What Haunt American Summer, and the Ten role models. Also very funny. I actually saw a clip lately, recently, that had me just dying because it was an outtake. And it was um it was Paul Rudd and uh what's his name? Joe um he's in uh Brooklyn 99.
SPEAKER_03Joe Lotrulio? Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_01When he's the head of the LARPing crew. Oh my god, dude. And it's he he's a lack and a lake. Yeah, he's clearly improvising.
SPEAKER_00Rubba dub dub.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, he comes down and goes, Oh, jingle jangle as his introduction. And Paul Rudd cannot keep a straight face. And then he leaves and goes, rubba dub dub, and you just see Paul Rudd just lose it, and he's like going, rubba dub dub.
SPEAKER_03It's just that's a movie I would like to uh so much of this and role models and what hot American Summer is just people trying to make each other laugh. Yeah, and it works, yeah, in my opinion.
SPEAKER_01Um, writers, also David Wayne, Mad TV, Michael School Walter, another man I have met, the idea of you music, Matt Novak, Dog Days, and Craig Wedrin, uh, School of Rock. Please bring School of Rock, some of my school of rock.
SPEAKER_03I agree with you. I feel like it's been too Mike White, a person that I've met since we're doing right, yeah. But uh Queg Queg Craig Wedrin is the middle-aged dad jam band. And I mean, the music in School of Rock and the music in this movie actually the music in this movie is very good. It's very I think it's it's spot on fantastic.
SPEAKER_01The reason I met them is because I saw Stella Live and I we Oh, I'm so jealous. We stayed after and met them and got autographs. I'm so jealous. Um, which is surprising to me. Uh no, we'll get there.
SPEAKER_03That's dope, though, that you got to go see Stella Live. That's cool. As like a mild sketch nerd, like that's so cool. It was great.
SPEAKER_01Uh, cinematography, Tom Houghton, R.I.P. He did 30 Rock, Rescue Me, Elementaries, All TV. Producers, many, uh, and Michael Schwalter, the big ones. He produced Stella and David Wayne, also the state. Uh, you don't get Stella without the state. You don't get this movie without the state.
SPEAKER_03That's true. And I want to say really quick about the work of Tom Houghton, uh the cinematographer. Yeah. This movie has the that weird kind of impeccable thing where it's like, oh, this would look good at the theater. This looks good on streaming. Like it just it's a good looking movie. It it's so good the approach hitting the the cue zone of the genre.
SPEAKER_01Oh, yeah. Everything, everything is on is is definitely like hitting what it wants to do about the like it understands the genre. He understood shooting this. Um Paul Rudd plays Joel. It's cup of Joel. Do you get it? What's your yeah? It's cup of Joe. Most people say cup of Joe, but it's cup of Joel. What's your first name? Joel.
SPEAKER_03You but what's your well my first name is? Joel's your middle name. Your name's Billy Joel? Huh. I never thought about that.
SPEAKER_02I like how his first name isn't William.
SPEAKER_01No. He could go by any, yeah, his name's just Billy. Uh he's in Clueless, the catcher was a spy, Anchorman the Legend of Ron Burgundy, and doesn't age.
SPEAKER_03No, he doesn't. The picture of Dorian Rudd is. Did I ever tell you there was a casting office that had a my headshot and his headshot and a big V in like Rudd V root? Hmm. Because people would contact or believe that like I they just didn't read the name right. Oh it was just a joke.
SPEAKER_01I cut that. I just was letting you bear. You keep going. Yeah to see if we can get there.
SPEAKER_03What does that have to do with the story? Well, no, you know, just no, just let it go.
SPEAKER_01Uh Amy Polar plays Molly, Baby Mama, Inside Out the House. Bill Hater plays Kyle, Hot Rod, Tropic Thunder, Clowny with a Chance of Meatballs, Ellie Kemper plays Karen, 21 Jump Street, the Lego Batman movie, Bridesmaids, Kobe Smulders plays Tiffany, The Avengers, Safe Haven, Jack Reacher, Never Go Back. And they never did.
SPEAKER_03Not just a clever title.
SPEAKER_01They never did, because that movie sucks. Noreen DeWolf plays Melanie, the Baby Makers, Breakaway, Bad Match. Jason Manzukis plays Bob, uh, the dictator, doolittle, stretch, and he's Dennis, Dennis Feinstein in Parks and Wreck.
SPEAKER_02You have five seconds to get off this property. I'm gonna have you hunted. Whatever. He's so funny.
SPEAKER_01He's funny and everything. It's great. Uh Michael Ian Black played Trevor, Superman from 2025, spinning gold, first one in, and he's in a cameo that I paid for for Matthew Scott Barrow's 40th birthday. That's incredible. The only cameo I've ever paid for. That's awesome. And it's great. It's very he he recorded it while he was eating Taco Bell.
SPEAKER_03Did you give him a script?
SPEAKER_01Did you
FUN Facts
SPEAKER_01provide him with all I said was uh please, this is for my friend Matt. He's turning 40. We love Stella, we love awkward humor. Uh, and uh feel free to go where whatever direction you want to go. And he was like, yeah, he basically was like, Hey Matt, this is Michael in Black. I'm eating Taco Bell for lunch. And then he started saying, Ben said Stella's awkward, and he started pretending to be. I'm I'm not gonna do it justice, but it's very funny, and he's still one of my favorites. Um you remember the TV show Ed, the the lawyer in a bowling alley, the super blue-eyed guy.
SPEAKER_03Uh yeah, who was on The Flash, I think.
SPEAKER_01Yep. Um, but that's where I first saw Michael Ian Black because he was his like friend who worked at the bowling alley.
SPEAKER_03Oh, okay. Yeah, I think for me, my first exposure must have been I watched the state on MTV.
SPEAKER_01Sure, yeah. Uh Michaela Watkins plays Habermeier.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, when we find out that that's her name at one point, somebody says Habermeyer.
SPEAKER_01Uh Wanderlust the Backup Plan in a world. Uh always be my maybe totally killer long shot.
SPEAKER_03Go back, you didn't say that person's name or the part they played.
SPEAKER_01Randall Park plays Martinson, always be my maybe, totally killer long shot.
SPEAKER_03Well, I'm gonna read you the fun facts this time, people. This film is simply overflowing with cameo appearances tends to happen with comedies that are brought to this and notable names in small roles and no ple in no particular order. David Wayne, who also directed this film, produced this film, co-wrote this film. The great Christopher Maloney, aka Elliot Stabler. My I said my buds in class. I just said my but I gotta get my bud. He's done with his class. Ed Helms. No, they're not real. Yeah, but they're not, I don't, but it's not real. It's not real. Ken Marino, Keenan Thompson, Jack McBrayer, Melanie Linsky, Zach Orth, Nora Jones, Michael Murphy, John Stamos, Adam Scott, Michael Shannon, and Jeffrey Dean Morgan, Michael Murphy, my beautiful white daughter. Jesus Christ. Dude, it's so much of it is so, so insanely gorgeously borderline. Yeah. Many actors, writers, directors, producers involved with this film have several overlapping credits, including What Hot American Summer, subsequent mini-series, The State, Stella role models, and other product. I mean, you can bring Reno 911 into this kind of thing, technically, with the way that people's credits overlap. In addition to Joel mentioning that New York City is, quote, like another character in the story in the first scene of the movie. This idea is on every poster for the movie. It was in every advertisement for the movie, it was on the movie's website, and at the end of the movie, it receives a credit that says, which is just like a character in the movie. It's really funny. Stars Paul Rudd and Amy Poe were technically reprising the roles of Joel and Molly from their table read of the script of this film from SF Sketchfest in 2012. David Wayne was interviewed around the release of this movie by the rap and was quoted as saying, It is a deliberately terrible romantic comedy. It's my favorite genre. Michael Show Walter and I have been friends for decades, and we always loved romantic comedies, both the great ones and the bad. The missus and the bad ones are just as cherished by us. This is our tribute and homage and ripdown to the genre. It's a really complicated, wonderful thing.
SPEAKER_01Oh my god. Yeah, absolutely. Like Show Walter, he went on to he did that great writers as well. Yeah, just in general. Um, but he's just he's done showrunning, he's he's he's directed big, huge Oscar-nominated movies.
SPEAKER_03Um this is what the these people should be working on. They're strong storytellers. Absolutely they are, and sometimes the core of storytelling in comedy or tragedy, as you know, is so like that line. There's so much crossover, like the eyes of Tammy Fay, yeah, you're cringing, like laughing as much as you're like upset or like wanting to cry or whatever. Like it's a really complex emotional story, and it's told with a really deft hand.
SPEAKER_01He did the series about Theranos. The oh, yeah, the Amanda Sayfred thing, yeah, which I really, really liked as well.
SPEAKER_03I liked that too. What was that fucking called? We're not gonna remember, are we? The Theranos, the Blood Stealer. Wasn't it about Dr. Michael Morbius? Uh it might have been. At your service. Hey, we are going to tell you the log line of this movie. I think we're just it's so complex.
SPEAKER_01It's such a yeah, it's a
Brought To You By
SPEAKER_01really complicated log line.
SPEAKER_03I I like to pitch it just as feed AI 15 movies, and this is what you end up with.
SPEAKER_01Do you want to do one word at a time each?
SPEAKER_03Yeah.
SPEAKER_01Okay.
SPEAKER_03Molly owns a quaint little sweet shop. Joel works for a gigantic candy company threatening to shut her down. How? They meet, fall, in love, break, up, and get back together is hilariously recounted in this rom calm spoof. I'm also gonna just like shout a shitload of movies really quick that I'm feeding into AI to make this movie. When Harry met Sally, Sleepless in Seattle, You've Got Mail, Shop Around the Corner, Lover Boy, Notting Hill, Father of the Bride, French Kiss, Serendipity While You Wrecking, Along Came Polly, Delirious, Airplane, Naked Gun, Wet Hot American Summer, Hot Shots, Teen Wolf, and Teen Witch, which are those from the same universe. Have you seen both of those movies? Not in the same room together. Teen Wolf and Teen Witch. Never at the same time. Well, okay, but who do you suspect of the murder? That's what's really important here. This is what was this brought to you by non-alcoholic? Non-alcoholics.
SPEAKER_01Non-alcoholics anonymous.
SPEAKER_03Non-alcoholics anonymous. Hey, you're still cool. You're I mean, honestly, you're more cool, probably. It's just like a Unitarian church, really. Join us. It's bliss.
SPEAKER_01We'll be back. Do you find that we're like because of this movie, we're like leaning more into our improv and UCB stuff right now?
SPEAKER_03We're a little more non denominational, which is what this episode was brought to you by. Non alcohol denominational.
SPEAKER_01Non dominate non non denominational, non alcoholic anonymous.
SPEAKER_03So on the note of this, yes, I do think that, and I want the freebie for Cinefile. Okay. I want it. I I don't know how. How often do I get the freebie? I don't remember.
SPEAKER_01You're very generous about you're a generous human.
SPEAKER_03This is weird. And you you let others Oh, you gaslight too.
SPEAKER_01Um we have electric.
Cinephile Round
SPEAKER_03Uh would you like to take the deck of cards and you were saying something very nice and I deflected and it was rude. Yeah, it's gone now. I appreciate it's gone now. I appreciate the idea of what you were saying. Uh it does that mean anything.
SPEAKER_01You like the concept of what I was saying. Does that mean anything? It means everything.
SPEAKER_03Okay, good. As long as you know that I care that you were saying something nice.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, I care.
SPEAKER_03Uh clearly.
SPEAKER_01We're gonna play Cinephile. It is a card game that has an actor and a movie on it. We each have to name a movie that actor is in, and then one of us is gonna screw up and talk about our first uh time watching this movie. That was the fastest I think I've ever said that.
SPEAKER_03Gene Hackman. The conversation.
SPEAKER_01Okay. Um The Royal Tenenbalms. The package. Uh the enemy of the state. Good one. The firm. Um I'm blanking, I'm blanking. My heart's going so fast, my head's throbbing.
SPEAKER_03There's no way out. There's no way out for you.
SPEAKER_01I can't think of it. I'm stuck, I'm done. I just stole it. No way out. No way out. It happens, man. Uh, suddenly, like my mind blanks, and then suddenly my heart starts going.
SPEAKER_03Sometimes there's too when there is someone that's so prolific and there's too many options, I can't pull something. I get paralyzed. Yeah, I'm the same way. Uh, I screwed it up. I think that's okay, buddy.
First & Current Experiences
SPEAKER_01I'm not a real man. Um, okay. Uh so uh I've never seen this movie. This is my first time watching this movie, Paul. And actually, every time you mentioned this movie to me, I didn't realize that this was first off, a a David Wayne Michael Schoalter Avenger, and B, a spoof. And so, like, I didn't know that until I looked at the letterbox and saw the description of it. And I went, oh, because I should have watched this movie when it came out. I mean, I was obsessed with Stella. I love Wet Hot American Summer. I've seen, I mean, I've I've again seen Stella Live, met these guys. Like, all this kind of comedy was in my wheelhouse, and it somehow just passed me by.
SPEAKER_03I am and I am not surprised by that. As we talked about some of the budget stuff where it's like we talked about the release.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. And yeah, but you would think, because even at this time, I feel like I was still renting movies from Broadway Video Um on Capitol Hill R.I.P. Um, Capitol Hill, R.I.P. It's gone. It's over, it's done.
SPEAKER_03Uh we had a good run. Yeah. Uh so you could get Skyline wine anytime.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. Tech Bros took over the non-alcohol one too. For you non-dominational folks. Uh the but yeah, so uh I was like every time you brought it up, I thought this was just a legit rom com. That is always my goal. And I saw like I'd see like the cover, and I'm like, interesting. Do they know what that title means?
SPEAKER_03And then as I saw the Yes, yeah, and so uh my first they also knew that they were flipping the names of the actors over it says Paul Rudd over Amy Polar and Amy Polar over Paul.
SPEAKER_01I fucking hate when posters do that where they put because they have to do it in line, usually like in line of their like billing on the but you'll see them like the actors lined up below and it doesn't line up, and you're just like fucking just put the people underneath their names.
SPEAKER_03My OCD does that too.
SPEAKER_01Don't make me like have to draw the lines like a bunch of wires that are connecting them.
SPEAKER_03But this movie is like that, it is so intentional. Oh, yeah, all the time.
SPEAKER_01This is a movie made by people who love movies, who love these kind of movies, who understand comedy, and and New York movies. It's kind of like a character in the movie.
SPEAKER_03A little bit, yeah.
SPEAKER_01If you think about it, if you think about it, it's kind of like a character in the movie.
SPEAKER_03If you were to start the movie, I think it would start with like a shot of the New York skyline.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, something like that. Um, so yeah, last night I watched it with the wife. That was a Borat reference. Um cool, man. Yeah. Uh yeah, anytime you want it, it's here. Um I really enjoyed it. It was so fun, it's so silly. It it's it's a blast. I was um I was laughing my ass off and uh rolling my eyes and ended and it was like that was a silly good time. I enjoyed it.
SPEAKER_03And uh I think I can guess your rating.
SPEAKER_01Oh, wait, do you want to try?
SPEAKER_03I would like to.
SPEAKER_01Okay.
SPEAKER_03You were going to rate it three and a half like magic burgers.
SPEAKER_00Hmm.
SPEAKER_04Close.
SPEAKER_01Oh three and a half. I knew it was gonna be three and a half fiction books. That's like a good rating. Do you like fiction books?
SPEAKER_03I do like fiction books.
SPEAKER_04I like fiction books too. Oh, that's wow. I haven't met anybody else that likes fiction books. Yeah. Isn't that cool? What are we doing right now? I can't my outflows here.
SPEAKER_03I keep bumping the mic and I need to stop doing that. You're such a klutz. Okay, but three and a half.
SPEAKER_01Three and a half. I think the uh I think the thing, and I'm I'm I I honestly I could probably go either way. Um I could in a convincing argument. Uh I think that like I love wet hot American Summer, and I think for me it is sort of for this group, kind of the like their Pace de Renault Renaissance or whatever you want to say. Resist the pace de renaissance. Uh it feels it's like it's like a shining gem on top of a mountain. It's so unique and interesting and and and weird and fucking hilarious.
SPEAKER_03And so that's a is that uh that's a very highly rated movie.
SPEAKER_01I would probably give that a four and a half.
SPEAKER_03That's a movie that someone can bring, I think not only because it's on a breaker list, but because technically the sequels are chose the movie.
SPEAKER_01Also, have you watched the shows? I have. Did you like them? I did. Yeah, me too. I liked that the sequel series just started immediately, like it was like an immediate sequel to Wet on American Summer, except everyone's 20 years older.
SPEAKER_03It's really funny that they just made that decision. Yeah, like they just did not care. It loved it. And the fact that they got everybody, yeah.
SPEAKER_01Um, so yeah, I I would definitely re-watch this movie. I would definitely tell someone who uh likes rom-coms or movies in general to watch this movie. I'm surprised I've never seen it. So thank you for bringing it to me.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, I'm so glad that you had not seen it, and I'm so glad that you went in blind. In my first experience, I also did, and that's part of why I was so delighted by it. Now, outside of like Slepaway Camp, and I guess Friday the 13th, I don't have a big affinity for camp movies, yeah, but I do have a very big affinity for Wet Hot American Summer. Yeah, I have a massive affinity for rom coms.
SPEAKER_01Sure.
SPEAKER_03So this is super in my wheelhouse. First time I saw it, I thought exactly what you thought. Oh my god, this is just a comedy starring or rom com starring Paul Rudd and Amy Polar. And I then I saw it was like, oh, directed by David Wayne. Wait, wait, wait. And I was like, okay, this is in a post-role models world.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_03I w how is this gonna go?
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_03And Amazon. As only the best from Bezos. Yeah. It was like $3.99 to rent or $4.99 to buy. I bought it sight unseen.
SPEAKER_00Hmm.
SPEAKER_03Loved the ride. I think it punches above its weight constantly in terms of the way it looks, the editing, the transitions, the lighting. The jokes are so funny. So many of them are so timeless. I think it's really hard to do insanely timeless dick and fart jokes. Yeah. And this movie nails several of them. That's true, yeah. It's really, really great at it. And the way that it decides to make time pass, the moment where they're like, Yeah, a couple years passed at the end of the movie, and the way they just throw all that away, it's like kind of appropriate, but also like kind of crushing. Like, I don't know, it's very effective. It's always hit me in a way. Five. Oh my gosh. Unused washcloths. Now I did have trouble. It's the hardest decision I've had in choosing an item for a movie because it's like unwrapped condoms. I thought you were going to say unused condoms. I almost did. I was so close. Just a rubber from the rubber ball. Yeah.
SPEAKER_01And then went over to meet my girlfriend. I don't understand.
SPEAKER_03Spins it on his finger like a basketball or a pizza.
SPEAKER_01And Jason Manzuka is hanging out in the window.
SPEAKER_02It's so funny.
SPEAKER_03That whole moment is so your biggest issue with commitment are your commitment issues. Are the only thing you commit to is your commitment is the laugh they get out of it. Yeah. So I watched this again today. I quote unquote own it digitally. Please listen to the review review shelf help. Get good things for your shelf. We'll help you, or we'll tell you the things to avoid.
SPEAKER_01Non-alcoholics really like them, those episodes. They're really, really, really, really, really, really good.
SPEAKER_03And they're short.
SPEAKER_01They are.
SPEAKER_03They're just like a shot.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_03It's great.
SPEAKER_01It's a shot of you. A shot of Paul.
SPEAKER_03Tell me about it. Make it a double.
SPEAKER_01Keep him in here looking like shit. He haven't said a word. This is that again.
SPEAKER_03I obviously have such an affinity for quotable movies. We were talking about Blazing Saddles.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. Big Lebowski.
SPEAKER_03This is one of those movies.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_03Massively, insanely quotable. Has no business looking as good as it does, as I said. Christopher Maloney, very, very specifically. What a gem. Seriously. The commitment from that actor. Good gracious. I'm so curious.
SPEAKER_01The wig. I'm so curious, because these are the only like this and Wet Hot American Summer are the only comedies that he's done that I can think of, yeah?
SPEAKER_03Didn't he do some kind of like com comedy sci-fi thing for the sci-fi network? Fuck if I know. He's a funny guy.
SPEAKER_01He is. But we all just know him as you know, law and order.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, stabler.
SPEAKER_01And so I it's just funny because I think he in Wet Hot American Summer, he is maybe the funniest part of that movie.
SPEAKER_02Gene. Yeah. And the talking mixed vegetable can into the fire. Take it high.
SPEAKER_03Like, I don't care. I like fiction books.
SPEAKER_01You like fiction books?
SPEAKER_03Yeah. But they're not real. You do. Oh no. And that's the thing is Eggfart, Egg Flaps? Eggfart. Sorry, Eggman. But his perspective, like, sucks. Yeah. Like, where he's like, no, it's not real. And he's just being like a lame o realist. And I think that's the thing, is maybe if you come into this and you haven't seen Wet Hot American Summer and you don't know what you're getting at, you might be very displeased with. If you went into Drive thinking you were gonna see Fast and the Furious, you were not pleased.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah.
SPEAKER_03Up to an including filing a class action lawsuit.
SPEAKER_01But also, like this is a very specific kind of comedy. Oh, yeah. That's like not even like airplane or scary movie, you know, like the it it's like the state and Stella and what I'm like there it is a very it you're right when it says you say like it it is a beautiful masterclass of walking the line at times where you're like whoa, and that was Stella too, right? Like Stella did it all the time. Um and that's a show that I can endlessly quote, like to the to my grave is Stella.
SPEAKER_03Please do, and I think you probably have to me like oh I'm definitely have several times, yeah. And there is something so specific about something like sneaking what feels like a DVD extras feature of a music video making of with John Stamos to a movie with like all these like fairly famous people.
SPEAKER_01I mean, Adam Scott made like there's a this is also the prime time of television, so there's a lot of like there's the office people, there's parks and rec people, there's 30 rock people, uh, but also then John Stamos. Because like Adam Scott, you're like, okay, and then what Michael Shannon?
SPEAKER_03Yeah, Michael Shannon. What the fuck is going on? I love it. Me too. I love it.
SPEAKER_01I was like, General Zod is gonna be is this a Superman cross? Is this a Snyder
Start The Movie (conversation)
SPEAKER_01thing?
SPEAKER_03Is that a thing?
SPEAKER_01Is that a thing?
SPEAKER_03Think about it.
SPEAKER_01I think they're gonna be in Doomsday.
SPEAKER_03It's possible. Bring your read covered. I think it's time we talk about this movie.
SPEAKER_01We gotta start it.
SPEAKER_03I five. I'm at five brand new washcloths.
SPEAKER_01It's a high score.
SPEAKER_03They're covered in shit. Those were decorative.
SPEAKER_01I think the only uh reasonable answer is someone came in the bathroom, put on my costume, pooped in it, and then took it off. Oh man, who do you think it was? I'm disgusted with all you people when he leaves and Manzuka's is just like, who do you think who do you think it was?
SPEAKER_03They both the everybody in this movie commits so hard.
SPEAKER_01When we meet the so we we get the like class kind of I love the music that opens this movie, it's very delightful. And when they the the classic like moving camera into the restaurant and the four the two couples sitting there, um and Bill Hader and Kelly are uh yeah, uh Bill Hader and Keny Kemper.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, they're more wine, yeah.
SPEAKER_01He's just jerking off the air. Hey, hey waiter, more wine. And then non-alcoholic, please. For better or worse. Skyline? Definitely worse. No, it's no, it's awful. It's awful.
SPEAKER_02There's he's so mean to her, and he's so miserable.
SPEAKER_01But but he also he he's just the ball run thing, just Jewish enough, just Jewish enough to not be in to not be offensive, I think.
SPEAKER_03Or to not know that he'll be honest or to only assume he is, or whatever that means.
SPEAKER_01Cute kind of klutzy blonde. Uh and when you've been married as long as we have, I stinky shit is better than sex.
SPEAKER_03This this is what I was talking about in terms of how cool it would be to see this in the theater. Then there's this great cut and awesome shot of Manhattan Central Park, and it's gorgeous. This beautiful aerial that is there's I don't think that's a drone. Oh no, it looks so good.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, because uh New York is kind of like a character in the movie, yeah.
SPEAKER_03To the point that like you see Central, it does this cut to New York and then it tr transitions to a painting in, I guess, Tiffany's apartment. Yeah, where it be New York becomes the story that we're in where Tiffany and him or Joel Joel are waking up and she's so perfect.
SPEAKER_01She's so and when she uh and Jess laughed at this because it always happens in movies where girls will have the sheet just perfectly above their boobs. Yes, and she stretches and it still stays. The sheet's like glued onto her. Uh and then we gorgeously staged, gorgeously executed. Um, I bumped the mic. I pulled a Paul. Uh but when Molly when we see Molly's I pulled a homer. I pull a Molly's apartment and she's such a klutz, she bumps into a thing, and then all these boxes just come flying out of it. 50 shoe boxes, and she just fall falls down the stairs.
SPEAKER_03No, like a professional stunt person like flies, flip-flops down the fucking stair stairs. And we've seen this split screen that we see in a lot of these rom coms. Yeah, and I don't know where all of them are. I think of so many things.
SPEAKER_01It's like even like how to lose a guy in 10 days, or um, what's the one with bol Sandra Bullock and Ryan Reynolds?
SPEAKER_03Oh, the proposal? Yeah, yeah. I think of so many things when they're both shaving. Yeah, she's shaving too. I'm fucking dying. And I love that I actually do you like the name Upper Sweet Side? I think it's very, yeah, I think it's very clever, actually. And the fact that her business model is to give everything away for free all the time.
SPEAKER_01And it says on the sign, all proceeds go to charity.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, and she has a bunch of like nice, pretty name brand shit floating around in that place.
SPEAKER_01That'll be a thousand dollars. No, just kidding, it's free. It's all free. And it's a classic, like they set it up where she works in this tiny little shop and he works at this can't what's it called? Candy CSR candy something systems research.
SPEAKER_03He's Fox Books in You've Got Mail.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, 100%. Uh he's corporate Stooge, but he he is uh and he's got a best friend, Jazz Jason Manzucas, and Mike William Black is the doucheest douche of all douche named Trevor with the bleach blonde hair.
SPEAKER_03He's Barney from How I Met Your Mother on ketamine and every other Adderall and every drug you can like mix together at the same time. He's a nightmare. And I can't let us pass up what is possibly my favorite line in the entire movie. And I hope you missed it so you feel like you have to go back and watch it. When Paul Rudd is walking by his assistant, and she's like, Yeah, he was going down on me for a minute, and I came like 10 times. Yeah, and then oh, my boss is here, I gotta go. Bye, Dad. Yeah.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, it was great. I always so I'm I like the whole time I kept wondering who like when is it improv and like you know, like when are we seeing someone just like riff and someone break uh because I love that shit. I love you know when movies do that, and I feel like we've gotten a little farther. We don't have a lot of comedies anymore, so there's I agree, not much of that. Uh most comedies just go on TV or streaming. There's been a huge lack, I agree, which was why there was a huge, I feel like a big uh love and craze for the naked gun return because because there hasn't been anything like this in a while.
SPEAKER_03I think audiences are kind of thirsty for it. That was part of the reason why when we did the coin flip between this and Tropic Thunder, I was like, okay, great, we're doing a comedy no matter what. Yeah, I think this is something that we need to do is like laugh our way through an episode right now, and I think that's been pretty successful and through a movie. Yeah, like let this feel like a a joyous uh I can't think of the other word I want to use. I don't fucking care. But Christopher Maloney shows up and has that wig, and he's like, Are there any other candy stores we need to know about? And like in first, like murdering people, and is so excited to do it. And it was just one. And we go back to that through of the dinner that's guiding us through the story is that Amy Polar and Paul Rudd are telling the story of their relationship to these people, and we keep coming back to that situation, and Amy Polar spikes the lens when they're saying this sounds like a corny movie, and she says, No, no, but this is our lives, yeah, and spikes the camera.
SPEAKER_01Uh when we get back to like clearly Trevor is fucking Tiffany. Oh, yeah. I love like Paul Redd. First, he has to have his basketball game and decide if he's gonna propose to Tiffany.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, and egg egg man, egg, egg egg flaps. Egg Bert, whose brother took his wife.
SPEAKER_01You'd have to ask my brother for that. Is he here? Can I ask him? Yeah, he is. Oh, she just wanted to travel more, concentrate more on her photography, and marriage just wasn't part of that plan. Okay, thanks.
SPEAKER_03Also, by the you have breast cancer business wise.
SPEAKER_01Business wise. Look at this. 011101011.
SPEAKER_03Oh my god.
SPEAKER_02Like her business was gonna fail anyway because again her business model was I'm just kidding, everything's free.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. Uh yeah. But yeah, he's basketball, he's basketball, basketball, basketball, basketball, basketball. They don't make a single shot. Uh but they swish. And that's the perspective that I represent. And they're all just saying the thing to make him come to this decision uh to ask Tiffany to marry him, which we all know is a bad idea. But when he gets there and there's all these clothes on the ground, and he's just like, Tiffany, are you home? Huh? Tiffany? Tiffany, are you Tiffany, where are you? And he's just like what like it goes on forever. And you just hear this like banging. Yeah. And he's just like, Tiffany, are you ho hello?
SPEAKER_03And he goes into a corner and like stares into a corner and they are fucking behind him loudly for a bit.
SPEAKER_01And he's got the ring out. It's great. We have to we have to get rid of her so that we can see the obvious love of his life.
SPEAKER_03Right, because he and Molly have to come together at one point or another, and hopefully multiple points. Metaphorically physically. Oh, literally and ph and physically. Oh. And I it happens in this movie. You you can say that again.
SPEAKER_01Well, uh they came together.
SPEAKER_03Oh, you look like you came in here looking like shit. Tell me about it. You can say that. This reminds me of the sideshow Bob stepping on rakes. Oh, yeah. Every time I see it, I laugh. I laugh my ass off every time I see it. It's great. And and for all I know, it was done as like a time filler.
SPEAKER_01I love bits like that though. I thought it was great. It just takes yeah. You you don't have bits like that anymore because people studio heads and producers are just not patient and they don't understand comedy.
SPEAKER_03Well, and and it is niche. I won't, yeah, I won't disagree with that. This movie deserved a much wider release than no release at all. Yeah. The fact that this movie didn't make its money back is kind of astonishing to me. It's crazy. And that you and I, people that are fans of sketch and of these people specifically, that we stumbled on this.
SPEAKER_01I mean, yeah. I mean, I again I watched all this stuff with Matt Barrow, and he had never I texted him yesterday and was like, Have you seen this movie? And I said, No, I never heard of it. So it's like common. Yeah, which is crazy. Again, we love love Stella. And so I'm yeah, I'm already starting to raise on this movie, Paul.
SPEAKER_03I hey, wait up.
SPEAKER_01Okay, think about it.
SPEAKER_03Hey. Thanks.
SPEAKER_04Thanks.
SPEAKER_01Oh, yeah, we meet his That felt like a game. It was so good. It was really funny. Uh Max Greenfield's not mentioned in our cast, but yeah, he plays uh I think he was mentioned it in some capacity, but yeah. Uh Paul Redd's little brother.
SPEAKER_03So well cast. Yeah. They're like the precocious, like, doesn't have a job, doesn't wanna take anything seriously.
SPEAKER_01Is there so many side characters that are like all my god that are all cliche side characters from other movies that like at some point they're like introducing another one and Bill Hader's just like, now who the fuck is this?
SPEAKER_03Yeah, like Wanda, the best friend, and the and but when Bubby comes along, her sister and her son. So many people. When Trevor is one of those characters, and the and he brings up another character that is brought up constantly, Dick Ricker. Oh, yeah, and also his fat, greasy cock, and how she wants his big juicy cock.
SPEAKER_01You got the Dick Ricker account and my girlfriend?
SPEAKER_03I want a prequel to this movie about the Dicker Teeth situation and the following court case.
SPEAKER_01That was one of those bits.
SPEAKER_02He was the number one case in the news for like a year.
SPEAKER_01That was one of those bits where I felt like it was an over-the-shoulder on Paul Rudd over Manzuka, and I felt like Manzuka's was breaking like the way he was can't blame him. Yeah, it's like they said dick, because I'm sure he's improvising that. Yeah, dick or teat, and it was it was a play on trick or treat.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, no, and that's the thing is like dick or teat on itself is whatever, but him committing and and being like, you must not get it, I'm gonna explain it to you, and Manzuka's choice to be like, no, no, everybody knows all about it, and then they go, moving on, yeah, is so so good. Like, literally, shit that gets thrown away, like the Frank comment of like, oh yeah, Frank was fucking around, and whatever, okay, whatever about Frank. And I don't think about Frank after that point.
SPEAKER_01They both have exes. There's there's her ex, who's the dad, who's in jail. He's right, he's serving and Frank. He's he's serving time in jail. He's serving T-I-M-E in jail, and then there's Frank, and it's like we're just getting all of these fucking character through or like threads that are very funny.
SPEAKER_03Oh, I agree. Yeah, everybody gets a moment. That's the thing, is a thread in this movie meet to for me means a moment. Yeah, do you have a moment? The sister has a moment, the kid has a Shannon has a great moment, has a has an absolute moment. When they show up, when they show up finally to the Halloween party as together, both as Ben Franklin.
SPEAKER_01Well, their meat cute is dropping their apples. Oh no, my apples, oh no, my my party tomatoes is that something you've heard of, Ben, and they don't pick up their groceries, they just keep going, they leave them there.
SPEAKER_02They leave all the shit in the street.
SPEAKER_03Yeah.
SPEAKER_01Also, our parties are in the same building.
SPEAKER_03Well, I'm so glad that we'll be separating very shortly, and they end up at the door, and Melanie Linsky's ADR. She had to ADR all of her lines in this movie. She, when they filmed, she has a New Zealand accent. She had to go back and ADR everything because I guess David Wayne decided.
SPEAKER_01I didn't know she was New Zealand Kiwi.
SPEAKER_03I didn't either until I read this uh a while ago or at some point. I agree. She sounds absolutely authentically American. It sounds absolutely genuine. But the when she says they came together and Roland has this, and they're like, no, we did not, but Roland has this insane superhero costume on.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_03And he immediately you can tell he is not comfortable. And like the tummy is rumbling. He had just done a he had just done a cameo where he ate a lot of Taco Bell. True. And went into the fucking bathroom. And when he's starting to try to hold his poop in, and he goes, No, no, no, no, no, no.
SPEAKER_01Question for you.
SPEAKER_02I'm like, that's how I would look if there's a camera running. Question for you.
SPEAKER_01Would wouldn't would you find a way to rip that thing off?
SPEAKER_03Oh my god, yes.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, right?
SPEAKER_03I I would absolutely destroy it. And I I felt like he kind of tried.
SPEAKER_01He's a buff dude.
SPEAKER_03He's ripped.
SPEAKER_01I was like, I was like, if it were me, I'm grabbing at the neck and I am just fucking pulling.
SPEAKER_03It's over.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_02But El Banio Asakupado. That's his strategy. No, I took off my superhero costume and changed into my shower guy costume.
SPEAKER_00Shower guy costume.
SPEAKER_03This whole scene, like where Molly throws like the tiny splash of water at the ball.
SPEAKER_01Very little, and he acts like it's an entire glass.
SPEAKER_02He's like, oh, everybody. And he goes, I'll have what if she's having. And then Manzucas, you are having we're all having the beans and the lentils and the pasta.
SPEAKER_01We're all having the same day.
SPEAKER_03So Roland gets confronted about the costume, and Keenan is so great in this.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_03He's just like, no, this is what you did. You shit in there, and you took a shower and you left shitty brand new wash.
SPEAKER_02Those are decorative.
SPEAKER_01Someone else must have broken in here, put on my costume, taking a poop. I just love that Elias and Manzuka. She goes, I wonder who it was.
SPEAKER_03On his way out, says, Oh, you people disgust me. And it is, are you not shocked by when Jason Manzuka says that? The first time you see this movie, when he says that, I dude, I almost pooped my pants.
SPEAKER_01I mean, these are some of these like the acting is that good. These are improvisers and comedians at like the top of their game.
SPEAKER_03Who do you think it was? And the cut after him saying that is the timing of the editing. Oh, yeah. That's part of like this movie is so funny because it's so well edited, it's so well staged, it's so well shot. There's not a lot. I feel like I have to say this, as I've said this before, Ben. I don't give out fives willy-nilly. It's true. And you're a cheap skate. I really am with that type of a score, and I feel like I've done this a lot on this program.
SPEAKER_01I mean, yeah, I mean, I feel like I have too, but that's because we get good movies. We really have. I think like in the whole, if you're to like the scope, there's so many movies in the universe, and most of them are bad.
SPEAKER_03I don't know if that's entirely true.
SPEAKER_01You don't think so. You don't think that if you were to take the entire scope of movies ever made, you wouldn't say that the majority of them aren't good.
SPEAKER_03Okay, I think there's a level of accuracy to that. I think I'm thinking of my opinion and what I've seen, and I'm personalizing. Sure. Where there's a like, look, man, of the 3,000-something movies I've seen, like a bulk of them are a two and a half or better, or a two that might be worth seeing, depending, I don't know, or I put a heart on this or whatever it is.
SPEAKER_02Sure.
SPEAKER_03But a a lot of those to a lot of people would not be palatable, or when you said, like you're saying, the entire scope of movies where it's like, I don't know, Paul, any movie made outside of America, you culturelists have where it's like, no, you're right though, where it's like But to the defense though, yeah, failure is part of the process.
SPEAKER_01Absolutely. So like we have to people have to fail, people have to make bad movies. That's how that's how they learn, that's how we learn.
SPEAKER_03Yeah. Uh listener, were you not listening to the story when when it cuts back to that? And yeah, and how kind of scared like Bill Hayter and Ellie Kemper get at a couple points where they're like kind of being held hostage by this story, yeah, that is insanely detailed. We find out at points. Like when they go through the bookstore thing and the fiction book, which is straight out of when Harry met Sally. Yeah, and Koofy. Uh Koofy Kofi with Koop. How she can't say coffee and the Aunt Flo thing where it looks, she looks like this like psychic healer, yeah, or something. And then they go we can't make out my Aunt Flo's here. Just random lady.
SPEAKER_01They're just like getting close to each other's faces and like uh, what are we doing?
SPEAKER_03Just like they can't kiss, right? That's the big thing in this movie. I guess that could do they ever have sex?
SPEAKER_01Uh yes, but they're their clothes on, and their clothes are all also on the floor, but then they oh it's it's in the don't they fall asleep?
SPEAKER_03Oh, I was gonna say they kiss themselves to kiss each other.
SPEAKER_01But they're all their clothes are on the ground and then they're also wearing their clothes. Um But when do they go get coffee and she orders the very complicated This is right here, okay? And that is so funny, dude.
SPEAKER_03It's great. Like, how complicated it's supposed to come off, and then the fact that it's like a number three where it's like this this person in this situation are so insanely basic. Yeah, like all the improvs that
Meet Me Halfway (through the movie)
SPEAKER_03they chose to keep from this date feel like not the best ones, where they're like, Oh, it's a guy on an iPhone, and he's like, uh, and the Amy Polar actually, I should say, gets a lot of the shining moments here where she's like, Oh, that's sweet, and she's like, I'm not gonna like the the things that she chooses to do to button a lot of this, I think is really, really good. Oh, yeah. I misspoke. You did? I did. I was saying like they were using not the best stuff, and I'm like, no, actually, uh Amy Polar has a lot of really great shit right here.
SPEAKER_01I love because their little date here is clearly like um improvised, like once they're sitting down. I agree, and they're just at one point she like they just left in an improv where she goes, uh yeah, you know, and then I got nothing. Like they just leave that in there, which I thought was very funny.
SPEAKER_03It makes him seem like he's good at it. Yeah, like because she's like, I can't, I can't even do anything at all. Like, oh, I'm helpless. Like it and the extras that are there that like spike the lens that are like, what the fuck was that?
SPEAKER_01Like you guys are just staring at the camera.
SPEAKER_03Like, I can improvise, like it's very funny, it's really, really great.
SPEAKER_01And we find out Oh, I have to mention because uh please, please, please. I love that in those moments of sadness, the color grading just completely changes and suddenly it's winter outside, right? And the seasons are wild in this. We go from like summer, clearly, I think summer to winter, to holidays really quickly. Uh, because it goes because then we have we have Halloween, and then we get the three holidays at the end, the boom, boom, boom.
SPEAKER_03Did they they didn't make it to Thanksgiving, right? Or did they make it to think like they made it like a few weeks?
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_03It's a very short amount of time.
SPEAKER_01Uh and the uh also Jess pointed this out to me. They uh her uh Amy Polar's hair is constantly changing.
SPEAKER_03All the time.
SPEAKER_01Every like every shot, or not every shot, but every like scene, it's like a different leading ladies from one of these movies, hairdo's.
SPEAKER_03It's that they're changing recreate. Uh but I'm so glad she said that.
SPEAKER_01They're when they're walking her back to the place and uh they talk about the important detail of where would you go if you were to leave at the altar?
SPEAKER_03Uh oh, yeah, the promenade.
SPEAKER_01And he's he says Boston.
SPEAKER_03That was his first guess for like uh clearly the first thing he improved, the first Boston. First thing he said, and she's like, no, the promenade scenario after he's met her kid and magically given her kid a burger out of his room, go eat that in bed. Yeah, he finds out like the Are you my new daddy? Dad, that's I love you, dad. Like, hey, I I think he likes you. I think I like him too. And this movie, like Hard Eyes that I mentioned, and a lot of rom-coms, there's like a fashion show yeah that happens where the apology dude where she ends up in a suit of armor, she starts out as a as a chimney sweep, right?
SPEAKER_01And this is when he's like apologi- Well, first he's like, I'm gonna go see her at the candy shop like right away. I'll see you right away. But instead, I had a buddy in Miami call me, ask if I want to come boogie boarding for the weekend, so I went and did that first.
SPEAKER_03Right, but on Monday I was there, and she was like, You you left or whatever she uh and he tells the brother that he left, and the brother's like, You always leave a note, and they get in this fight. Uh oh, yeah, you want the rent money, want some green backs.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, it would be nice to get a little rent money, and then the story about the tire and having to sell the tire swing to eat after their parents died, and like get a shirt or whatever, and they play the thanks game to the thanks.
SPEAKER_01Hey, one more second. Thanks. One more thing. Thanks. You can see like they're just like who's gonna break first.
unknownYeah.
SPEAKER_03Or I think it's like a race to get to the door. Like, it seems like it's clearly a game. Like when Amy Puller and Wanda, when Molly and Wanda play it, when Wanda's leaving, and Amy Puller goes, wait, and she and Wanda's already left, and she goes, Shit.
SPEAKER_01Like so they Oh, I forgot to mention this just because it made me and Jess laugh so hard. Uh, it was in their date, and he's talking about Tiffany, and Amy Puller just goes, Well, I don't know her, but she sounds like a dumb bitch.
SPEAKER_03So, so fucking funny. Like, when he notices her groucho glasses, like, how would you not notice that?
SPEAKER_01What is this guy got a pole up his ass? Yeah, he does. A mask from a sailboat?
SPEAKER_03The special fish is the stinky doo-doo fish. So uh we find out that Joel's actual name is Billy Joel.
SPEAKER_01Cup of Joel.
SPEAKER_03And I find it insane that they are having sex after stinky doo-doo fish night is pretty crazy. And when it was like mouth sex, it wasn't full sex. And after they have mouth sex, when they do oral, like deep oral, yeah, super oral to oral docking. That's where it becomes the Nora Jones.
SPEAKER_01Kinky shit. Yeah. It becomes the Nora Jones video. Music video. And I think it at this point, doesn't it cut back to Bill Hader? He's just like, what the fuck is going on?
SPEAKER_03I'm almost sure you're right. And it's like John Stamos and Adam Scott are like helping with the mix.
SPEAKER_01And they're like, you can get this anywhere, and they just make up a bunch of streaming.
SPEAKER_03Like they Arple, Sportafe, Sportafe, like all these uh Tubi or not Tubi, what was the Jeffrey Katzenberg?
SPEAKER_02Quibites, Quibites, quib Quibi.
SPEAKER_03So we now get to meet Molly's parents because in this like very short amount of time, we have to meet as many characters as possible, and we meet Molly's parents who are it's not mentioned there like full-on Nazis.
SPEAKER_01Oh no, he wears a Nazi eagle sigil.
SPEAKER_03He was a war eagle at the end of the movie, Nazi war eagle at the end of the movie, but when Joel meets them, it is not revealed to him at all in any way that they're like white supremacist, like Aryan nation people.
SPEAKER_01They do try to fool him into having sex with her mom and like, oh, you passed me a lot. You passed. None of my boyfriends ever did that. They always I always watch them bend my wife over and give it to her on the fuck the hell out of this test. And he's like, Well, I want I kind of want to try that again.
SPEAKER_03So when they sit and have dinner and it's like actually revealed, like it's revealed like very subtly. Yeah. My beautiful white daughter, Molly. And Paul Rod goes, What?
SPEAKER_02And then the dad's like, my pure as the driven snow, like starts saying all that like Aryan daughters, and you're just like, Oh my god.
SPEAKER_03And Joel.
SPEAKER_01This is the fight they get into.
SPEAKER_03Joel calls her out where he's like, Maybe you should have told me your parents were fucking white supremacists. And she was like, Shouldn't you just love me for me? And he was like, That's insane.
SPEAKER_01They're Nazis.
SPEAKER_02Your parents are literal fucking Nazis. And she keeps telling him to like let it go.
SPEAKER_01It's such a funny, it's it's such a funny decision to make from a writing standpoint because I agree. You're like that, like, yeah, to that that to be their fight, and for them to like you usually when these fights happen in these movies, I feel like they're you can kind of see both sides.
SPEAKER_02Sure. And sure.
SPEAKER_01In this case, you're like, nope.
SPEAKER_03Not at all. Fully on Paul Rudd's side. Get the fuck out. All the way. And so they now that they've broken up, of course, Tiffany shows back up. Yeah. And they have the most insane fucking gymnastic sex.
SPEAKER_01And when they But it's all in Michael, it's all in uh Bill Hader's head, right?
SPEAKER_03And when they cut back and Bill Hader's like, mmm, that last move? Like he's so excited by it, and Paul Rudd, like you were saying, it's like, what the fuck are you talking? What are you saying?
SPEAKER_01How did what he's like? How did she fall on your face how did she fall on your face and not break something?
SPEAKER_03Like spin her, how'd you spin her onto your dick like that or whatever? And Ellie Kemper the whole time is just
SPEAKER_02Like mortified.
SPEAKER_03So Molly is falling apart and decides I'm gonna go to dinner at Eggmart with Eggfart. Eggfart. And we're gonna find out that he doesn't like fiction books because they're not real. I talked to my teacher and I said, Why are you even making me read this? It's not real.
SPEAKER_01Talking about Greg Catsby. We were watching reading Greg Catsby, and like, were these people? I asked if were they real? They said no. Why are we reading this?
SPEAKER_03Zero imagination. Like it's funny because this movie is as believable as Return to Me or Serendipity or While You Were Asleep. Like a lot of those movies, like this movie is super duper outrageous, but when you look at some of those other movies on the micro, they're also super duper outrageous.
SPEAKER_01Oh, absolutely.
SPEAKER_03Yeah. Thematically or scenario-wise. So uh Candy Systems Research takes over. And yeah, they're taking they got a megamart coming, right? They're gonna bring in a big store that's gonna put poor Molly. He just wants to open Cup Joel. Yeah, that's all that that Joel really wants to do. He wants to get out and do that. But in the meantime, him and Molly are going to attend parties while they're with Tiffany and Eggcock at the same time. And play like charades and the the dichotomy that it shows of how good certain people are at charades, like where they can't guess Jaws, but they guess like the love of the mushroom by the Fortnite of the Gemini of the whatever like it's like how do you what the fuck? And Eggbert proposes.
SPEAKER_01Yep, and she says yes. And as she's like staring directly at Joel the whole time, yeah. Just like not, yeah. And uh Joel decides he needs to he needs to take care of himself now. He needs to take care of numero uno, and that doesn't include Tiffany. She he's gonna break up with her.
SPEAKER_03Well, and Tiffany, I mean, is Tiffany even real?
SPEAKER_01When they're not real.
SPEAKER_03Tiffany, you know how I know Tiffany's not real? Because she's judged Judith Scheinlin, and every single one of those orgasms was a hundred percent authentic. Yeah, what the fuck?
SPEAKER_02Also, why does he want to so good?
SPEAKER_01Why does he want to fuck his grandma?
SPEAKER_03Dude, when when he goes through so he goes through the photos of them, and it goes from photos that apparently suddenly he noticed like after five or six months, where he's like, oh, and it's like codachrome, and then it's like a hologram.
SPEAKER_01Did you notice that one of the photos wasn't him?
unknownYeah.
SPEAKER_01He's like, watch it's like clearly like a stand-in or double. And I was like, wait a minute.
SPEAKER_03Kind of like in the like in the next scene when we meet Joel's Bubby, the thing that made Molly fall in love with him that he care that he cares about his grandma.
SPEAKER_01And this is where I think Bill Hader goes, and now who the fuck is this?
SPEAKER_03It is. And Joel deduces what he needs to do in terms of like his love for Molly by just being with his Bubby. And when they're hugging, he's like, God, Bubby, I want to fuck you so bad. And she's like, Do it, Joel, don't overthink this.
SPEAKER_01And he lifts up her pants and is clearly like a stand-in for her ass.
SPEAKER_03Where it's like clearly like some 20-something year old fitness instructor's ass or whatever, and not like some 75-year-old woman's ass, just like naked gun, where it's not Leslie Nielsen's back.
SPEAKER_00Yeah.
SPEAKER_03And the like Ellie Kemper and Bill Hader, even like this, like eat they can't get on board with that. They're like, absolutely not.
SPEAKER_01It's just silent after he says that it just like cuts back to them and they're just quiet.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, like not a detail I needed, but when Joel gets back to candy systems and research, and he's like, We gotta save Molly's little shop, and he's doing his speech. And one of my other favorite lines of the movie, do you know what I'm gonna say when Michael Ian Black is trying to interrupt him and says, Don't be seduced by his word jazz.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. And he yeah, Trevor gets fired and he gets the uh the the dick trigger uh account.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, the dick and we meet Dick Ricker and Dick Ricker of the of all the people in the movie, he's not anyone notable.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, he's not anyone noticeable notable, and the way that they shake hands, they put their so awkward. It's like left hand to left hand uh or left hand to right hand. I don't know. It looks weird.
SPEAKER_03It looks weird, it looks uncomfortable and like positioned not correctly, but Joel is given a promotion in an office. They all have champagne suddenly, and yeah, and they're and Trevor's fired. Like, there's justice in the world, and Joel is like, I'm gonna go get Molly, and Jake ends up being his I'm off duty, and then it's like you're not the only one getting your shit together, brother, after impersonating.
SPEAKER_01Driving a cower, but yeah, he's gotta go, he's gotta go break up the wedding, which is like so many rom-coms, every single one.
SPEAKER_03Oh, yeah. Uh Vital trope.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. Grand gesture. And she's wearing the Groucho glasses in her wedding fart glass. He doesn't notice.
SPEAKER_03He doesn't realize at all. Proving the point that Wanda made. Like you you do something, and he and he should notice. He should pay attention to you enough to notice if you're wearing fucking groucho glasses. At least that much. And this is where the dad is wearing like the like Nazi war eagle as he's like walking her down the aisle, and Molly ditches the wedding. And of course, because Joel's not that good of a listener, his first thought is my first thought was Boston and runs everybody to Boston, but it was great. But still makes it to the promenade in time.
SPEAKER_01If you notice the Boston set is is like literally the same set as New York, it just has a bunch of Boston signs up. It's like it's like a set they've already used.
SPEAKER_03Well, and they and they say like somebody's like, Oh, Wahlbergs, and like we if you listen to it really.
SPEAKER_01And it says pocking, it says like pocking, red swalks. Yeah, but yeah, they have to go to the promenade. I love that he gets the promenade and he looks and he goes, She's not here. And the camera pans slowly to the right, just like really quick. And it's like, she's right there.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, with her like wheelie bag, and she is furious, obviously, because she's like, I gotta start my life over. Like, my my business is shutting down, which it was gonna shut down anyway. Candy systems and research really had nothing to do with that. That's a good name. It is upper sweet side. It really is, it's way better than CSR. Yeah, way better. And Roland shows up and he's like, Nope. I talked to Joel and he made a speech, and your place is gonna be open forever.
SPEAKER_01Everyone's there, everybody is there, everyone that's from the movie is there.
SPEAKER_03Frank people that we haven't met. Frank shows up, the boyfriend that was cheating on her, yeah. And it was and but his girlfriend died, so that's over now. Yeah, and it's Jeffrey Dean Morgan, known known Seahawks fan in Negan. Yeah, Jeffrey Dean Morgan. And then out of nowhere, we find out that because it was her wedding day, that Spike, her husband, broke out of prison and got a ninja fucking samurai, whatever sword.
SPEAKER_01He's pissed at you, Joel. That's what they say. Like, he's mad at you.
SPEAKER_03And Joel uh wins the fight and puts up his little dukes and does his little dance, little little Mac dance, and when they're dragging Spike away, and he yells, I always loved you, bitch.
SPEAKER_02The cop shoots him in the face, like in the background.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, later they're like, uh, somebody's her son was like, Yeah, I think he's just never gonna be the same after he watched his own father get shot by the police in the face.
SPEAKER_03They literally they go, Yeah, there's just something about like that where the kid was never the same after seeing his dad getting shot in the face. Like but the the transition to to their actual wedding is really, really good. Like that spin transition.
SPEAKER_01They get married at the promenade.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, that there's some really nice little kind of transition or stylistic flares that happen through this movie where it's like it's bigger than its budget, it's kind of bigger than the sum of the parts, like it's just really talented people where the givea shit was really high. Yeah. And Joel's coffee cart that he's been dreaming about, cup of Joel that he's been talking about the whole movie. Whatever happened to just a good cup of coffee, asshole cunt.
SPEAKER_01Like I love, I love that because it's just like, yeah, it's just like like shitty diner coffee outside and with a cardboard sign. So bad! Like they're like one, two, three, and they reveal it's just a cardboard sign.
SPEAKER_03There was no effort.
SPEAKER_01And when they're talking about it later, and they're talking about how everything fell apart, like their marriage, and he goes, and the cup of Joel clothes, it wasn't really anything anyway. Like it was nothing, it was nothing. Uh, but yeah, we we get all of this, and then they just tell us, like, yeah, it didn't work out, and uh, and then they decide, I guess, because because Bill Hader and Ellie Kemper are gonna stay together, which they shouldn't, to be clear. That marriage shouldn't stay together.
SPEAKER_03No, they they really should not. It's like I don't it's not is it is it playful? It feels uh kind of mean. It feels mean, yeah.
SPEAKER_01Feels like Bill Hader is miserable and doesn't want to be there.
SPEAKER_03But then he seems like delighted after he hears this story about these people that went through whatever it was that we they went through, like them in the period at the end of the movie that's just explained, yeah, in just some dialogue of like, yeah, kid shot in
Final Ratings
SPEAKER_03face, I cheated with I Amy Polar cheated with Frank, I Paul Rudd, didn't do anything in terms of my coffee cart because it was nothing, like real life set in. And the way that the movie just goes, Oh, all the like super depressing shit that like nobody like actually wants to deal with or anything, that happened in this movie, but we're just gonna explain it away. That's a total that's another movie.
SPEAKER_01What's funny is like that's that's that happened. I mean, that that's how uh I don't know if you ever watched How I Munch Your Mother, but that is like the last episode of How I Munch Your Mother is so disappointing because basically they do this whole season about changing Barney and all this stuff, and then the whole last episode is like, yeah, and then that marriage didn't work out, and Barney went back to being Barney, and you're just like, What? What why did we want why did we why did we watch that?
SPEAKER_03That's why I don't watch Game of Thrones because I've never met a single person that told me the last season was worth watching.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, it it's definitely worth I would say night of the seven kingdom knight of the seventh kingdom is incredible.
SPEAKER_03I've heard there are certain episodes that are amazing, but I don't know if I can just take one or two or three episodes out of something. The whole season. The whole season's incredible. I I don't doubt it. I don't doubt it. But hey, Ben, me. I told you it was gonna be a crazy day. You can say that again. Well, you came in here looking like shit. Yeah, tell me about it. Yeah, tell me about it. We've gotten to the end of this movie. We did. We talked about all of the movie longer than the movie is technically.
SPEAKER_01Bigger, longer, faster, stronger.
SPEAKER_03Like a jackhammer. Relentless jackhammer. I think, Ben, maybe who do you think is the le the more the least who should go first? Well, you were a five, and I feel like you should go first, because I don't feel like you're gonna change. I think that's really, really clear that I'm not. I think it was c pretty clear that I was doing my best to guns ablazin. Yeah, to pull your score up, or at the very least, keep it where it was. But I think I think I did my best to make the best argument that I could, as like I feel like we were quoting and laughing, and I just think this movie is such a breeze, and it's well scored and cut and photographed and cast, and again, it clips right along, and I like that it in a way is like, oh yeah, by the way, real life, oh fuck. Like at the end, just like kind of skips through that, and then like let's get married again. And at no point does it ever does he ever say it's gonna be a crazy day to the camera, and the way it ends on where it's just like, yeah, this whole thing is just selliness. Yeah, so I am going to stay at my five brand new washcloths. Those were decorative.
SPEAKER_01Okay. Uh well, I felt like I was raising, I'm gonna, I'm gonna raise, I'm gonna go up to a four. Yes. Four uh fiction books. Do you like fiction books?
SPEAKER_04I do enjoy a fiction book.
SPEAKER_01Uh I mean I I love I love talking about this movie. It's it you're right, it's endlessly quotable. And it actually does make it make what it makes me want to do is go back and like binge the state, binge Stella, watch White Hot American Summer, and like get back into that uh comic. Because I just I haven't I haven't watched What Hot American Summer in a long time. Um, but I I remember first watching that uh when I was in college and just dying. Um so yeah, I mean there's so much in this that is like homage. It's so it's clearly like you're right, it there's a big give a shit factor because these people love this genre and they're not they're not, yeah, they're not this isn't mean humor. It's like it's humor in in in the spirit of loving something, which is great. And uh everyone in it's great, jokes are great. Four.
unknownI'm so glad you enjoy it.
SPEAKER_03I get it just tickles me in such a way, I laugh in such a way. I've probably seen this movie eight or nine times at this point in life. I I very early on in the genesis of of my story of where I hold people hostage and have to listen to about special K about to beat out. I was like, you should watch this, it's super weird. And uh she watched it and she was like, Oh yeah, I hate it. And I was like, Yeah, she hated it, yeah, and like a lot of people do, but I'm so glad that like well, me and my wife did not. I'm look forward to what Matt Barrow thought of it. Yeah, assuming that Matt Barrow watches it uh sooner than later. And the state, and I don't know if this is true, Stella most recently in the last six or eight months was available on Paramount Plus. Oh, I watched a handful of State. Might not be there much longer. Hard to say. Ben, a lot of people help us get this episode and every episode done. Who are those folks?
SPEAKER_01Well, other than you, lovely listener, who are gave us your ears all the way to the end of the episode, so thank you.
SPEAKER_03Uh this isn't available in a 4K, by the way.
SPEAKER_01I can't do a shelf help for this. That makes sense. 4K? They buried this. I know. Uh, you might have to lead the charge on that. My digital license never gets the lease never gets revoked. Well, whatever. Uh yes, Jamie Henwood does our bookend themes. Matthew Foskett does our what are you watching, what are you doing themes. Uh, Chris Olds does our fun facts theme. Uh who else, Paul?
SPEAKER_03Well, you can follow me on letterboxed at Paul XPadly if you like.
SPEAKER_01And follow me at Run BMC. Follow us on Instagram at review x2 podcast and blue sky. Um and flashes. That's pretty cool.
SPEAKER_03You can listen to us anywhere you like, honestly, except YouTube. We don't do a video podcast at this point. Sportify, Quibite, Quibo. At the Tacoma Dome! Fuck you! Hey, thanks so much for joining us. We ended they came together at a five and a four. Again, anywhere you listen, subscribe. Share this program. Thanks so much for hey tell me about it.
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