The Worst Movie Podcast
The Worst Movie Podcast dives headfirst into cinema’s biggest disasters, bizarre flops, and guilty pleasures that somehow made it onto the big screen.
Each week, Aaron & Ade break down a famously bad (or hilariously misguided) movie—exploring its wildest scenes, behind-the-scenes chaos, and the baffling choices that left critics scratching their heads.
From big-budget bombs to forgotten VHS nightmares, we ask the ultimate question: is it good-bad, bad-bad, or secretly genius? Expect laughter, sharp commentary, and maybe even a few guilty confessions about movies we actually love.
Whether you’re a cinephile, a casual moviegoer, or just someone who enjoys a good roast, The Worst Movie Podcast is your ticket to the dustbin of Hollywood.
The Worst Movie Podcast
Crossroads (The One Where Britney Spears Sings a Lot of Karaoke)
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This week on The Worst Movie Podcast, Ade and Aaron tackle Crossroads (2002), the Britney Spears road trip vehicle that earned a 15% on Rotten Tomatoes but turned its $12 million budget into $60 million at the box office. Written by Shonda Rhimes and directed by the woman behind Half Baked and Billy Madison, the film follows three estranged high school friends — played by Spears, Zoe Saldana, and Taryn Manning — as they drive cross-country with a mysterious stranger to chase their dreams. The guys debate Dan Aykroyd's accent, Britney's status as the least convincing nerd in cinema history, and whether a karaoke crowd has ever been that enthusiastic about anything.
Yo, yo, yo, yo, yo. What's up? Welcome to the worst movie podcast. Amade. I'm just gonna do that from now on.
SPEAKER_00I hope not. I don't like this new uh character trait you've developed. Vanilla Ice inspires me. Yeah. Uh well, I'm Aaron, and this is a podcast where we watch the worst movies ever made in the hopes of finding a hidden gem.
SPEAKER_01Enjoy. So, what are you you've been watching these days?
SPEAKER_00Uh I've been watching Naruto with Amanda. Uh is that anime? Yeah. We've watched it before. I don't think we've finished all of it, but we watched a lot of it before, but we're kind of re-watching it.
SPEAKER_01Well, she's that I I have no idea what it is.
SPEAKER_00Uh it's about a little ninja boy and his friends learning how to become ninjas. And like he's trying to become the leader of their uh little nation, their tribe, their village. He wants to grow up to be the the leader one day, and but he's kind of like I think he's an orphan and he's talented, but he's a little bit of a a chaotic mess sometimes.
SPEAKER_01Is it said in I assume ancient Japan?
SPEAKER_00Uh yeah, I guess so. It's like, I don't know. It's not like there's they do spells and stuff and like magic and uh but it's like modern enough. But it it's I don't know. It's it's its own world. Like they live in their own little villages in in the wilderness. And so it's kind of primitive, but it's also relative like there's modern things in it, so it's not like set in ancient times.
SPEAKER_02But like yeah, okay.
SPEAKER_00There's like regular buildings and stuff. Uh and models.
SPEAKER_01Are you really selling me on it?
SPEAKER_00Uh I don't know how to describe the setting of it. It's its own thing. You kind of just have to watch it. Uh what's it on? Netflix right now.
unknownOkay.
SPEAKER_00How many how many episodes or seasons? I think we're on season five right now. I don't know how many total there are.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, I've never gotten into any anime series. I watched the live action of Cowboy Bebop and uh one the first season of One Piece. I need to watch the second.
SPEAKER_00And I liked both of those, but yeah, I really liked One Piece uh One Piece, season one. I haven't seen season two yet.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. Well, cool. What have you been watching? So I watched a movie that just came out on Hulu that has maybe the dumbest premise of uh of any movie, maybe even including movies we've covered on this podcast. So the movie is about these two misfit college students that uh some drugs fall out of their ceiling and they take them. And then they're like some, you know, they don't really know what these drugs are. It's some like designer drug. And the rest of the movie is them trying to leave their dorm room and go down two flights of stairs to pick up the pizza they ordered.
SPEAKER_00That's the rest of the movie.
SPEAKER_01That's the rest of the movie, and the whole the whole thing, like it couldn't be dumber in terms of just the premise, and the stakes couldn't be lower throughout the whole movie, but it was hilarious. Like I was laughing the whole time, and I thought it was such good writing, and maybe it was just like it hit me at the right time and place and all those things. But uh, like yeah, I I just kind of watched it on a whim and loved it and was instantly like, I need to go wake up Kelly and see if she'd watch it with me. What's in second? It's called Pizza Movie.
SPEAKER_00Pizza Movie on Netflix?
SPEAKER_01On Hulu. It stars uh the guy from Stranger Things that plays uh Dustin, the curly haired.
SPEAKER_00Oh, uh yeah.
SPEAKER_01Gay and Tizaro. I d I don't know if I'm pronouncing his name right, but yeah, same. And then a bunch of other I don't think I recognize anybody else on it. Um but it's uh this created by this comedy duo, uh Brian and Nick. They go by Brit Britannic, and uh I think they both wrote for SNL for a while and do a bunch of like online shorts and stuff like that. But this is their first movie. Interesting. It's a small indie movie that premiered at South by Southwest. And yeah, anyway.
SPEAKER_00Uh I mean we've already talked about this, but it it sounds similar to the Nirvana, the band, the show, the movie. Also hilarious.
unknownI think.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. Did we talk about that on this podcast or do we talk that?
SPEAKER_00Uh we talked about it when we were talking about movies that have like eight word names. Yeah. Uh but we talked about it offline uh once I watched it. Yeah, that it's funnier than I thought it was gonna be. Well, similarly a very stupid plot.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_00That just works somehow.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, I don't I don't I I really want somebody else to watch this movie and talk to me about it to see if like maybe I was just I don't know.
SPEAKER_00I wonder if it's uh rental. I don't have Hulu, but I wonder if I can rent it somewhere.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, I'm not sure. Or you just have to come over and watch it after we watch out of sight.
SPEAKER_00I I think I can never watch that movie now because uh uh I can't I can't have the uh the tension end. I'm just gonna be staring at you the whole time. Do you like it?
SPEAKER_02Do you like it?
SPEAKER_01Yeah, I'm gonna have to watch it on my own. Well, we should get into today's movie. We're covering Crossroads from 2002, part of our pop star month. Um this one is starring Britney Spears, and Zoe Saldana has a bunch of cameos, I guess, or smaller roles from Dan Aykroyd, Kim Cottrell, Justin Long. It is directed by Tamara Davis, who did Half Baked and Billy Madison, and written by your favorite showrunner, Shonda Rhymes. Yeah. Grace of Anatomy Scandal, for those who don't know. Uh what what show what show did you watch? Were you watching with her?
SPEAKER_00That or the I've watched I've watched uh Gray's Anatomy and Scandal.
SPEAKER_01Oh, Scandal that you're recently watching.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. Yeah, more recently than Grace Anatomy, but. Did you finish Scandal? No, I didn't. I don't know if Amanda did, but yeah. I couldn't take anymore.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. Well, uh you'll have to educate me on whether or not you saw her writing come through her her signature um come through in this movie. Uh this movie earned a 15% on Rotten Tomatoes, uh, but did really well in the box office. $12 million budget, pretty, pretty modest, and made $60 million in the box office. Um had you heard about this movie or had you seen it before?
SPEAKER_00I had not seen it, but I do remember when it came out. It was a big deal. What do you remember about it? Uh Britney fans loved it. I didn't I don't know. I didn't have I don't think I had a bunch of friends that were really into Britney Spears, so I don't know. I like I didn't know what people thought of it at the time, but I remember it was very popular. What's your I mean it was a box office success for sure.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. What was your uh relationship to Britney at the time?
SPEAKER_00I don't know. I was I I knew of her, but I was not into her music. And I like You knew of her. I mean, of course I knew of her, but I knew her music and stuff because it was everywhere, but I wasn't a fan or anything.
SPEAKER_01Quick top three favorite Britney songs.
SPEAKER_00Well uh let's see if I can name three. There's Toxic, there's uh Oops, I did it again. Right? That's her.
SPEAKER_01I I I think it's hilarious that I'm asking this question, and you're looking to me to answer whether or not those are actually her songs. But yes, I those those both sounds like sound like songs that she's done. Those those are two that I would name as well.
SPEAKER_00I d I don't know if I know another one. I'm sure I know another one, but I don't think I can't remember. There's another one with baby in it, right?
SPEAKER_01What's uh uh baby? Yeah. There's one with baby and one with one with love, uh I'm sure. Uh yeah.
SPEAKER_00I have no idea. I I'm clearly not uh the target audience for this movie.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, I uh I'm not the target audience either, and I also didn't do enough of my research. I assumed you would be the music guru.
SPEAKER_00Not on Britney Spears, no. I don't I don't know.
SPEAKER_01Uh all right, I'll Google real quick most popular Britney songs.
SPEAKER_00It's gonna be so obvious when we hear it.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. Yeah, I feel like for me, I don't I I never owned a Britney album or single or anything like that, but uh I feel like you couldn't get away from Britney at this time. Yeah This was at the height of Britney's powers. Like I think she came out with uh um yeah, Baby One More Time was her debut single.
SPEAKER_00That's what I was One More Time. Oh Hit Me Baby One More Time.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, yeah, yeah. So that came out in 1998. And then uh Oops, I did it again was 2000. Uh and then Toxic was 2004, which is I guess widely considered by fans her best song. I don't know. But anyway, so yeah, so Crossroads came out kind of in between these eras, like she she obviously like came out big and super pop popular at her debut, but just kept building. Um and yeah, as far as I could tell, this this movie was like, all right, she's gonna she's gonna cross over into acting and this is gonna be you know part of the Britney Empire.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. How old was she when she made it big?
SPEAKER_01Uh well she was 21 in 2002, so when this movie came out. So yeah, around then, around that age.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, she was very young in this, which is part of my problem with this movie.
SPEAKER_01Uh say more.
SPEAKER_00Well, uh I'll just I'll give a synopsis of the uh the plot summary. Basically, uh they are three best friends Britney, Zoe Saldana, and um uh what's her name? Tamron uh Taryn Manning.
SPEAKER_01The one from Oranges and the New Black. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Kensatucky or what what was her character's name? Anyway, she was like the the hick uh villain Kensitucky.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, that's it. Tiffany Tiffany Doggett. Um yeah, so they're best friends, and it's the movie starts with them burying a time capsule uh in the shallowest hole I've ever seen. Uh and then they're promising to be friends forever, and then it cuts forward to eight years later, they're graduating high school and they don't want anything to do with each other anymore. But they had promised each other they'd come back and dig up this time capsule uh on graduation night. And so they do, and it uh it rekindles their friendship, and they decide to take this road trip to LA together uh from Georgia, I think is where they're from. Yeah. Uh and they each have kind of a reason to go. Brittany wants to go find her mom, who's had nothing to do with her her whole life. Her dad's uh played by Dan Aykroyd, and he he told her not to go. It's not gonna lead to anything good, but she decides she wants to do it anyway. And Mimi is going to audition for uh a record deal, I guess, in LA.
SPEAKER_01Not very clear. And also, yeah, we can get we can get into that a little bit more.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, and Zoe Saldana, who has become the most popular girl in school, is dating uh somebody at UCLA who is kind of this absentee boyfriend that she's like, well, I'm gonna go surprise him. And so they they set out on this road trip together uh right after high school graduation, it seems like. Uh, and they go with the guitarist for the band that played their their graduation party, uh, played by Anson Mount. Uh, and he's he's an older man. He's been in jail.
SPEAKER_01They never explained how she ended up like I don't know, arranging that with him. I know. I know. Yeah.
SPEAKER_00I I I expected a payoff of that, but well, she said that he was like one of the guys that would come hang around. Mimi said he was one of the guys that would come hang around the trailer park where she was from. So Mimi, Mimi is pregnant, uh and and she's had kind of a harder road than maybe Britney and and Zoe did. And Britney is the valedictorian, so she she was the brains of the group. Uh and so that yeah, the the rest of the movie is just them trying to get to California.
SPEAKER_01So but you were saying you have a hard time because she's 21 in the movie?
SPEAKER_00Well, no, they're uh they're she's young in real life, but in the movie, she's literally at her high school graduation. She's like so young, and they're sexualizing her from the get-go. Uh like the movie starts with her in her underwear. She in the first 10 minutes of the movie, she had three scenes, and two of them she was in her underwear.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, I I wasn't counting, I didn't realize.
SPEAKER_00And then Anson Mount is this man who's in his 20s. Like, he's not old, but he's been to college and jail and is back again. Uh, and he's picking up girls from the high school graduation that he's he's playing in the band there, and he's trying to he's picking up girls and then taking them across the country in his car.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, I mean, there's so many weird things in this about like just the premise.
SPEAKER_00And so many red flags right off the bat.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, and a very, I just felt like a very uh just a very different era, like uh pre-cell phone era too, where it's funny, we were just talking about it, uh uh our family and trying to talk to our kids about like, yeah, sometimes you would just get rides with random people because you didn't have a cell phone. So if somebody was supposed to pick you up and they didn't show up and you couldn't call anybody, you would just be like, hey, can somebody give me a ride? And sometimes you didn't know that person. And, you know, it was just like, yeah, you had to trust people. I mean, people even even as like 90s kids or early 2000s kids, you couldn't even conceive of the 60s and 50s and and 70s where people would just hitchhike. Like you'd literally just ride with anybody that would pick you up from the side of the highway.
SPEAKER_00Anybody that would stop.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. I mean, this was this was one step better than that, but still inconceivable in the modern era that yeah, you would have this 20-something year old guy as a high schooler that you heard that he just got out of prison, and you're like, he has a car and he's willing to drive us cross-country and not ask us for gas money up front. Like, fine.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, I think he took care of the gas the whole time, pretty much.
SPEAKER_01Well, I'll come back to the the finances later because that's also one of my nitpicks. Uh but I also just love just uh I don't know, the the from a different era of she didn't tell her dad she left a note by his bedside table and then just disappeared to go cross country.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_01No cell phone, no night. You might hear from me every few days when I'm at a gas station with a payphone, but you're just like, oh, my kid's gone. I hope they live. Yeah.
SPEAKER_00This was from like an era though where they were making movies like this aim towards like college-age kids of like the road trip. I mean, there was the road trip movies and like I don't know.
SPEAKER_01I mean, road trips were such a common thing in the culture back then and I've I mean for decades prior. I feel like road trips are not as much of a thing now. Do you feel that way? Or is it just like I haven't I don't take as many road trips?
SPEAKER_00I think they're as much a thing as they ever were. Although I mean cheap sk uh like cheap flights are much more common nowadays than Yeah, flights were way more expensive back in the day. Yeah, I think I think you're probably right that they're trending downwards, but I think that just the way the United States is set up, that road trips are still an like economical way to to vacation regionally.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, I mean this didn't if I think about myself during this time, like as a my college years and high school years, that it actually didn't feel it didn't seem that far off. I I never went cross country with somebody I didn't know, but I took a road trip in college where we were just like I was with two friends and uh we were we just went up and down the Pacific Coast and we didn't have a plan. We were just like, we'll stop at whatever motel we see that has a vacancy sign, and like we roughly knew when we wanted to get to Seattle, and we roughly knew when we wanted to to you know get to our other destination. But it was just kind of like you just drive and you know, hopefully you have enough gas money and all that stuff.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. I definitely did a lot more driving when I was younger. Like when I was early twenties. Yeah. You just get in it and have nowhere to go necessarily, you're just gonna drive.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. Yeah. Uh you want to talk about the cast a little bit? Uh well, first of all, uh did you like this movie? No.
unknownOkay.
SPEAKER_00It wasn't, so we've kind of had a uh streak of like three weeks in a row where I'm like, this is the worst movie I've ever seen. Yeah. This is bad, but it's not the worst movie I've ever seen. It's not worse than the vanilla ice movie.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, I certainly I definitely agree. I feel like this fits in the category of like, it's not a good movie, uh, but it's fine. I I I don't I'm not baffled by somebody who would be like, I love this movie. Yeah. I would assume they're a huge Britney fan. There's plenty of opportunity, like she there's a lot of lip syncing in this. Uh to I I don't think she were any of these her own songs. I assume maybe the one at the end. I don't know.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, I think the one at the end was, but there were yeah, there were several scenes where we watched her just lip sync full songs.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_00Uh of other people's music. Yeah.
SPEAKER_01Um, yeah, it was it was it was a karaoke movie. We we might get to that plot plot point later. Uh so yeah, if you love Brittany you'll love this. Uh it's clearly not marketed towards me or you. Um so, but yeah, and it wasn't like, oh, the writing is so absolutely terrible and the dialogue is atrocious. It just it was yeah.
SPEAKER_00I'll tell you what was atrocious in this movie, and that is the accents. Yeah. Uh Dan I don't know, Dan Aykroyd and Zoe Saldano were competing with each other for the worst accent imaginable.
SPEAKER_01Uh so this is what one of one of my questions is why do you hate Dan Aykroyd? We've talked about him before.
SPEAKER_00I like Dan Aykroyd.
SPEAKER_01Uh, I felt like we had a conversation once, and I was like, I think Dan Aykroyd is like should be, you know, one of the Hall of Famers from uh that comedy era and SNL uh cast. And you're just like, eh. You're pretty mad, Dan Aykroyd.
SPEAKER_00Uh I like him in most things I've seen him in. Uh I like he doesn't have a ton of range. He's always Dan Aykroyd in Ghostbusters, Blues Brothers, Tommy Boy.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, I feel like a lot of that. I feel like a lot of that class didn't have doesn't have a lot of range. I mean, either you think Chris Farley has range?
SPEAKER_00No. No. Uh I think Chris Farley, though, definitely makes me like Belly laugh a lot more than Dan Aykroyd does. Dan Aykroyd is a great sidekick.
SPEAKER_01He plays a straight man in a lot of what he does.
SPEAKER_00So yeah, he looks like everybody's dad, which is like the type of humor that I think he excels at.
SPEAKER_01Well, yeah. And he, I mean, he literally plays play plays Britney's Dad in this, he plays the dad in my girl, he plays, I don't know, yeah.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. I like him though. I'm not I don't have anything against Dan Aykroyd. Yeah. Uh if you want some crazy conspiracy theories, he's got him.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. Well, I know one of my alternate picks was uh we've talked about it before, sneakers, which you've never seen.
SPEAKER_00Right.
SPEAKER_01He plays a character who has a bunch of conspiracy theories, and I think he wasn't acting. Uh it's like a lot of like a government alien uh cover-up stuff and things like that. And and I think he I feel like I read or heard something that he his brother-in-law or his brother or somebody in his family is actually the guy that he like he based his character on that guy.
SPEAKER_00Oh, really?
SPEAKER_01Yeah. Um, he does seem like a weird guy.
SPEAKER_00Uh I'm gonna take it back though. After the last 10 years, I'm not gonna call any uh conspiracy theories crazy. So I think they're all on the table at this point.
SPEAKER_01Well, we're watching in real time the evolution of a conspiracy theorist. Like nobody starts in their twenties as a conspiracy theorist. It's like you you grow your beard out slowly over the decades, and then by the time you're in your 50s and 60s, you're like full on. Like become more and more of a hermit. Yeah, you've got the the red yarn connecting the dots on the Yeah.
SPEAKER_00I need to get a bulletin board.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. Um oh, by the way, I was looking at stuff while I was watching the movie. Uh confession, I multitasked a little bit. I didn't realize that Dana Eckroyd co-founded the House of Blues. Yeah. Did you know that? Yeah. Uh uh. All right. I'm new, I'm new to the picture. Uh what do you think is Zoe Saldana? Just as an actress.
SPEAKER_00I think uh I'd have to look her up. Let me look her up and No, no, wait.
SPEAKER_01Don't don't look at anything because I'm gonna go.
SPEAKER_00My gut is my gut is I generally like her, but yeah, when I immediately think of her, I think of uh like guardians, and I'm like, I don't know if that's fair.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_00So I yeah.
SPEAKER_01Uh Pop Quiz. Okay. Where is she on the list of actors, highest grossing actors?
SPEAKER_00Oh, she might be like top three. I don't know. Number one. Because yeah, she's Avatar and uh Marvel movies.
SPEAKER_01And the Marvel movies. Yeah. Yeah and uh Star Trek. Oh, yeah. Uh I felt like there was another one. But yeah, I was looking, I was looking at her IMDb, and I was like, man, she's in way more like big franchise 10 pull movies than I remembered. Like she's gotta be up there in the list. And I was like, holy shit, she's number one.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, that doesn't surprise me at all.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, so the the top uh I'll just give you the top ten real quick. Zoe Saldana, Scarlet Johansson, Samuel L. Jackson, Robert Danny Jr., Chris Pratt.
SPEAKER_02Okay all Marvel or Marvel.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. First non-Marvel, number six, Tom Cruise, then Chris Hemsworth, back to Marvel.
SPEAKER_00Tom Cruise has Toy Story. That's Disney.
SPEAKER_01He's in Toy Story? What?
SPEAKER_00Wait, did you say Tom Cruise or Tom Hanks? Yeah. Okay.
SPEAKER_01It took me a second. I was like, wait, who did he play in Toy Story? I haven't watched the last Toy Story, but maybe a weird Toy Story.
SPEAKER_00Yeah.
SPEAKER_01Uh yeah, then Chris Emsworth, number seven, Vin Diesel, number eight, Chris Evans, and then The Rock at number 10. Vin Diesel. Yeah. Yeah, it wouldn't have fallen. Yeah.
SPEAKER_00Uh I guess Fast and Furious. That's his big franchise.
SPEAKER_01He's also in Infinity War. Uh who was he in? I don't know. He was in Infinity War? Maybe he's uh oh wait, he's no, he's uh he's Groot, isn't he? Oh shit. Yeah. Yeah.
SPEAKER_00Yeah.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, so uh that's a little cheating. I feel like it should be an asterisk there. Yeah, I think we need results that don't have Disney as the uh Yeah, well, then it'd be Tom Cruise and The Rock. So Yeah. Oh my god. Okay. Uh did you catch the cameo from Jamie Lynn Spears? No. She was the younger version of Britney Spears when they're burying the time capsule. Oh, really? I was like, they found an actress that looks a lot like Britney Spears. And so I had to look it up and uh yeah. I didn't know that. Have you ever buried a time capsule? Or wish box, as they called it. No, I have not. You know, I I mean I don't think so. I mean, one of my thoughts when I was watching this is would I remember if I buried a time capsule when I was eight years old?
SPEAKER_00I know. Yeah. I the time cap I had problems with both of the time capsules. They buried an empty cardboard box under like one inch of soil. Well, on the third years.
SPEAKER_01The second one they did at the end of the movie. They did on the beach.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, right next to the surf.
SPEAKER_01That thing's washing up tomorrow.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, it was under an inch of sand. Somebody steps in it, it's an empty box. It's they're just gonna fall into the hole. Yeah. It has no structure, it's a cardboard box.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_00Um there's no way those are gonna last another eight years.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. What uh what are your lip syncing sessions like? Are you are you bouncing around in your underwear like that, like Brittany is with a spoon? No. Definitely not. You? Are you? I don't have any lip syncing sessions. I I don't know. Yeah, I just I don't know. I don't I don't sing by myself. I mean, I'm not really into singing anyway. Do you enjoy karaoke?
SPEAKER_00Yeah. I really yeah, well, I am not a public singer, but I definitely sing karaoke like just on from YouTube and stuff.
SPEAKER_01Uh by myself. Yeah, I meant like do you but you don't like doing karaoke like in public at a bar like a karaoke.
SPEAKER_00I would not like do a karaoke where you stand up in front of the bar and sing. Uh I would do those like private room ones where you you get like a room and like in lost in translation.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. My my frame of reference is just movies. I've only I've never done a movie. I've never done karaoke. Like well, same either. But I've never done public karaoke. I've been to karaoke a couple times, but would you do it?
SPEAKER_00No. Do you sing when you're by yourself?
SPEAKER_01No, I just I already said I I don't. I I just uh so most of my most of my music that I listen to is electronic music. And like I guess I'll sing if it's like uh usually it's like you know, the small sample on it or something like that. Or um maybe there'll be vocals and I'll like maybe I'll I'll chime in on the chorus or something, but I I don't know there are very few songs that aren't like happy birthday or shit like that that I'm like I know from start to finish and all the and I I would just like belt out and sing on my own. Yeah.
SPEAKER_02Fair enough.
SPEAKER_01One of my traumatic uh childhood things is I think it was like eighth grade or seventh grade. We had music class at school, and it was like you had to pick a song and go Yeah. Yeah, in front of the class. Like you you you could I think you could lip sync or you could just sing, uh which lip syncing, like I don't know, in that context feels like even worse than trying to sing along. Like uh because either way, you know, you have the vocal track. I mean, I don't know, nobody had like people would just bring cassettes and just play the song. It's not like you'd have like separate anyway.
SPEAKER_00I would have hated that too.
SPEAKER_01And I just dreaded it. So I end up picking Mind Playing Tricks on Me by Ghetto Boys. Do do you know that song? I mean it's a rap. Yeah, I do. At night I can't sleep, I toss and turn, candlesticks in the dark. Anyway, they play it on office space. Uh so I don't know.
SPEAKER_00Oh, well then I probably know it.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, yeah, you'd probably recognize it. I think it's like one of the scenes where I don't know, like Peter goes back into the office and like kicks down the cubicle wall or something. Maybe yeah, I can't remember which where. But anyway, so uh I record I don't I don't have the album because I can't I mean I can't uh I don't think my mom at the time would let me buy a Ghetto Boys uh cassette. So I re I record it um off the radio on the radio. It's like one of my favorite songs at this time at this point. And I stand up in front of the class and I start like rapping the lyrics, and like half the class is really into it. Like, okay, let's just be real. This is the 90s. The black half of the class is really into it. The white kids are like, what? Uh and then uh like all these other kids are rapping along with me, but they're all rapping the album version of the song.
SPEAKER_00I'm rapping the clean radio.
SPEAKER_01The clean version, which has some lyrics that if you go back and look at it, totally make sense that those aren't the real lyrics because they don't make sense at all. It's like uh at any rate, I'm just like I can't I can't think of an example off the top of my head. I'm just like mumbling along to and they're all like, wait, why uh why is he why did he just say that?
SPEAKER_00And anyway, it was so you were singing the clean words.
SPEAKER_01I was nervous and embarrassed anyway, and then just humiliated because I wasn't cool enough to know the real uh get a boys.
SPEAKER_00How old were you?
SPEAKER_01Uh I feel like it was it was probably seventh grade.
SPEAKER_00Yeah.
SPEAKER_01Well so middle school with a thriving era for all of us.
SPEAKER_00I hope the seventh grade little version of you that's inside of you recover from the well, clear clearly not because I won't go karaoke. Yeah, you and you never sang in public again.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, yeah. It probably was the last time I sung in public. Um yeah.
SPEAKER_00It's okay, Aday.
SPEAKER_01You can heal.
SPEAKER_00Allow yourself to heal.
SPEAKER_01I'm slowly um f finding myself on this podcast. Becoming the realizing my full potential.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, that's good. That's good. I'm happy for you. Uh when you watched this movie, did you uh would you look at this now and be like Zoe Saldana is gonna be a huge star?
SPEAKER_01No, not at all. Uh she wasn't, I didn't feel like she was bad in this movie, but she was not very she wasn't a super I mean, uh she was in it a lot, and obviously a key part of it, but I don't it wasn't very memorable. Like, oh, that's that's just a stella performance, or I mean her character was was so like uh I I guess there was a character arc and had some depth, but yeah, it was just started out as this caricature of a popular kid in school that was just super bitchy and then Yeah.
SPEAKER_00There was a like there were parts I thought she was good uh towards the end, really. Uh so uh spoiler alert, there's an there's an accident and and uh Mimi ends up losing her pregnancy. And I thought that the actress who played Mimi was really good at uh in that scene. Like I it was genuinely sad, and she did a great job, I thought. And I thought Zoe Saldana also did a good job uh in those scenes where she was um kind of comforting her, and also she felt responsible for her losing the baby because she kind of forced her into an uncomfortable situation and she fell running away and and fell down the stairs. But uh yeah, other than that, her performance to me was like uh it there were a lot of times where her accent felt like sarcastic. Like she was doing like uh a caricature of a Georgian accent. Uh yeah, it was there there were also parts where she sounded like Hispanic. Did you notice? I didn't know I didn't pick that up. She when it was uh early on, she calls her uh boyfriend at UCLA, and she's she has like a Hispanic accent the whole time. I'm like, where did this come from?
SPEAKER_01Yeah. Uh yeah. Maybe that was. I mean, this was one of her first movies. It was like second or third. She's from New Jersey. Uh um raised in New York, but her her parents are Dominican, so maybe she had a bit of a Dominican accent growing up.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. I thought Taryn Manning, who played Mimi the Pregnant Friend, was the best of the three throughout the movie. I thought she was actually um not bad at all.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. Yeah, I thought she was pretty good. Uh I thought Brittany was not that bad. Same.
SPEAKER_00Uh there were parts that like there was an emotional bathroom scene that she seemed to be she was okay.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_00Yeah.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. Uh uh, she was the least nerdy looking nerd that I've seen. Like she uh she I mean, especially they spent a lot of time on so they spent a lot of time on her being a virgin. She like her and Justin Long try to, it was very uncomfortable. Uh uh, probably to your point earlier.
SPEAKER_00Like, and then um I just don't like this era of movies that are writing they're like sexualized high school characters.
SPEAKER_01That was an era from the beginning of movies until maybe 10 years ago.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, Revenge of the Nerds, Porkies, is like it's been going on forever, but yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_01I mean, this is very tasteful compared to those.
SPEAKER_00I suppose so, yeah. But it's still, I mean, I guess it's a good thing that society is moving away from these types of I hope.
SPEAKER_01But yeah, she's supposed to be this nerdy, ostracized, like her only friend is Justin Long.
SPEAKER_00Because he's her lab partner, like that's the only friend she has.
SPEAKER_01And uh yeah, nobody yeah, but she she looks like Brittany Spears and super pretty high school girl that somehow doesn't have any friends. And she like dresses. I I mean it's not like she like dressed nerdi or they like gave her glasses or like her hair is just perfect and you know all that stuff.
SPEAKER_00They didn't even pretend to do like the uh nerdy getup. She just looked like Britney Spears.
SPEAKER_01Exactly. That's but somehow in this in this cool uh school that was uh not cool enough.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. She's only nerdy because they said she was nerdy. They didn't do anything to actually show us.
SPEAKER_01Uh back to what you said earlier. Could you imagine being that guy on a 30 33-hour drive with those three girls?
SPEAKER_00Yeah, I I don't know why he agreed to it.
SPEAKER_01To be honest. He didn't I mean he did he did get with Britney at the end. So uh Yeah, mission. I mean he didn't even know she was he he didn't know she was coming, I guess, on the to on the trip.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, so he agreed to take one girl cross country and she invites two friends. So I d I did feel a little bit bad for him, but there were parts where he was like mad at um he was mad at Britney because they were dancing at some karaoke club and a guy got handsy with her and and he had to like fight he didn't even fight, he just made the guy leave. Didn't he punch him? Oh yeah, he did punch him.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, he knocked him out or something.
SPEAKER_00Yeah.
SPEAKER_01Why was he mad at her?
SPEAKER_00I don't know. Like Amanda and I both were like, I don't understand this why this character is mad at Britney because some guy got handsy with her.
SPEAKER_01It was before we found out why he's in jail, and I thought they would come back to that. Like he maybe he was in jail for hitting somebody at a club and he's I don't know.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, that would have been a better uh that would have been a much better reason uh for why he was in jail than what he was really in jail for, which was driving his stepsister across state lines uh to get her away from domestic abuse, which is fine, but then he immediately agrees again to start driving high school girls across state lines.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. So I went down a rabbit hole on this. This is this is the man act, which um I don't you haven't seen Dave Chappelle's special, but he he talks about the man act quite a bit. Um it was first used to prosecute the boxer that defeated the great white hope. What was it? Do you know the story?
SPEAKER_00No. Rock and Marciano.
SPEAKER_01Uh uh maybe Google this while I'm telling what I recall of the story. Waiter Bird. Yeah. Uh that's him. Um, there was this boxer in the 20s that this black boxer that was just dominant and was just like knocking, and he was like super cocky.
SPEAKER_00Jack Johnson.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, Jack Johnson. And uh basically Jim Jeffries. The great white hell. Isn't that the name of the comedian actor? Uh I think so. Um anyway, he was super cocky, uh, very f uh what's the word? Uh not flame boy. Uh no, but he like had a lot of white girlfriends and would uh didn't hide it at all in a time that this country country was. Flaunted it. Yeah. Um and so anyway, they they basically flouted uh Yeah. I don't know. I don't know. Yeah, I think maybe that's going more F-words, please. Um passed a law, the Maine Act, to it's made it illegal to transport women across state lines for the purpose of sexual something, something. Um they also prosecuted Charlie Chap Chaplin on this. For a for a long time it was like kind of this loophole law that uh they would prosecute people that like Chaplin they're really going after him for his communist beliefs, but it was just like he had this girlfriend that he transported across, like they traveled together and they were basically like, Well, that's the man like you're traveling with somebody that you're also sleeping with, so that's illegal. Um it's been like tightened a little bit, but this is what they this is what Diddy was convicted on, and and R. Kelly. Oh. Um so anyway, this character still relevant. Still relevant. But the fact that this character drove Britney across from Georgia, California, and then slept with her means that like he went to jail for this. I mean, he didn't sleep with his stepsister, but you know, that that is That is essentially what he would have been prosecuted for in the storyline, but he he then did it again. Uh uh, which I I wanted to cover this on the podcast so there's a public record. If anybody finds my Google searches during the story, because I I started searching around for like because he mentioned something about like he went to jail for this. I'm like, how would somebody go to jail for this? And yeah, and like as soon as I hit submit on the my search terms, I was like, wait a second, that sounds really weird. How do you go to jail for transporting minors? Is it illegal? Yeah.
SPEAKER_00Yeah.
SPEAKER_01Uh um, which I this is in super bad taste, but like I feel like Shonda had to have written this dialogue on purpose. Uh so that he him and Britney sleep together, and then like Dan Aykroyd flies to California and he's like lecturing Britney, and he's like, Who's that guy? Yeah. And she's like, he just gave us a ride, that's all.
unknownYeah.
SPEAKER_01I'm like, double meeting. Yeah.
SPEAKER_00Dad didn't pick up on it. I said the same thing when he when she said that. And then, like, strangely, Dan Aykroyd like gives him a nod of respect at the very end, and I'm like, why would he just had to fly across the country to pick up his daughter who ran away with this strange man who had sex with her and is like hugging her, and she's like, I want to stay with him. Like, why would he at any point be like, yeah, like a head nod, like, all right, brother? Good one. She's mine now. I like it's it was such a weird thing. And yeah, I don't know. There were so many red flags in this movie that I just was like, I don't my skin was crawling the whole time. Yeah. It was a very uncomfortable movie to watch. Between the like the weird sexual subplot, the Brittany singing was also hard to watch for me.
SPEAKER_01Well, I I thought it was fine. Like it, I she has a great voice, and she was just like yeah, it was just really long for like her singing uh feels like a woman and uh or some of the other songs. I don't know.
SPEAKER_00I didn't write it out. Uh they made you watch the whole song too. Like they bought the rights and they were gonna make you watch the whole song. Yeah. She I don't like that like moany thing that she does with her voice. Like when she's just regular singing, I'm like, she sounds nice, but then she does that like moaning thing, and I don't it just makes me uncomfortable.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, I didn't understand in the story. I I didn't know why they try to do it like this, but uh so the Mimi, is that her name? The Mimi's the one who wants to go to the singing album. And then uh there's this big moment in the middle of the movie where they're in New Orleans and they like they're I guess they're stuck, they run out of money because they have to repair the car or something, and they're like, We're we're gonna go to New Orleans and do this karaoke night, where they make like a thousand bucks. Like, is that like can you do that as at a like the whole thing is like it's karaoke night, and then you they pass around a jar, like you tip the singers. I've I guess so.
SPEAKER_00Like that's how you vote for who is the best of the night, is based on your tips. First of all, I how could you know until you've seen them all?
SPEAKER_01Exactly. I I as a very competitive person, I'm like, this this feels rigged. Because first of all, you is it like everyone gets a different jar, and then you have to like sit and count out like how many one dollar bills everybody like you won't it's like uh it's like the election, you won't know the votes until like the next day or yeah days. Yeah, for one song they're gonna give you a very spacious dressing room. Wasn't somebody like laid up, yeah.
SPEAKER_00And it was very private for for being like, you know, they're probably bringing on 10, 15 singers. Like, who knows how many people need that dressing room?
SPEAKER_01Yeah. Uh and then and then it's this big switcheroo where like Mimi then like gets nervous. Did you crash how Mimi gets up to sing and somebody's like, Look at her, she's pregnant.
SPEAKER_00She's pregnant.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. Could you imagine being that guy that sing that says that at a at a keratin?
SPEAKER_00To be fair, I think they did need to remind the audience because the actress it seemed like sometimes she was wearing a prosthetic and sometimes she wasn't.
SPEAKER_01And there was very small at the very least.
SPEAKER_00It was very small, but there was a scene too where she's like sitting with her in a chair and she's got her legs up in the chair with her, and Amanda was like, A pregnant woman cannot sit like this. Yeah. Like I she wore very baggy clothing, and it was easy to forget she was pregnant throughout the movie.
SPEAKER_01I just I I was like, maybe that's just a 2002 era thing, or is some guy just be like, get off the stage, you're pregnant.
SPEAKER_00Look, a pregnant woman in public. Can you believe it?
SPEAKER_01She's not barefoot in the in the kitchen. Yeah. Um and so anyway, this whole like she can't sing, and then and she was like, You have to do it.
SPEAKER_00You're the one with the good voice anyway. I'm like, when did that when was that established?
SPEAKER_01They never established yeah, she was like a med school student, like she was gonna go into med school, and uh yeah, I guess I don't know, from her dancing around in her bedroom.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, we thought that she was just the brainy beautiful girl, but she's also the brainy beautiful talented girl.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. And the crowd just loses their shit. Like I uh like as if I mean, maybe if you discover Britney Spears in a karaoke bar in New Orleans, you'd be a bit or two. But like the level, like this crowd goes from like booing them to just like standing on the bar and dancing and like throwing their money. Yeah. Uh yeah, I I've never seen a crowd that enthusiastic.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, same. Um and that apparently gave them an endless amount of money because they were saying at like beachside villas and fancy hotels in New Orleans.
SPEAKER_01Well, yeah, and that was my next point. They the next scene, they go to the suite and they're like, ooh, a mini bar. And they basically just like tear through the mini bar. They show a shot of I guess room service, just these beautiful cakes and desserts. Like spread out. I'm like, they spent 150% of that money on on their hotel bill for the next night or for that night. Yeah. Uh, because like they had it stacked out the the cash stacked out on the bar.
SPEAKER_00And I'm like, there's uh yeah, maybe a thousand yeah, eight hundred dollars.
SPEAKER_01And and they'd already established it costs like what, four or four hundred bucks or something like that to repair the car, and they need another like four hundred bucks or something like that for gas, and that's not even counting, you know, their other hotel rooms and meals and stuff like that. Yeah. Like uh, I don't know, that bugged me. Uh, did you see the twist with uh was it Dylan? I don't know, the the fiance, quote unquote fiance, being the dad of Mimi's.
SPEAKER_00Oh yeah, I called that.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. That was that was telegraphed. Uh the whole thing about uh when she was telling the story earlier in the movie and she was like, all I remember was this blue bottle.
SPEAKER_00And Zoe got really uncomfortable.
SPEAKER_01And I was like, that's really specific. And then does he is he the only person in the country that drinks that particular beer?
SPEAKER_00Yeah, and he still drinks it, apparently.
SPEAKER_01Uh when they kept saying blue bottle, did you think of the coffee maker? Blue bottle coffee.
SPEAKER_00No, I was thinking of balls, the drink, the energy drink.
SPEAKER_01Oh. Uh yeah, I just kept thinking blue bottle, blue bottle, blue bottle coffee.
SPEAKER_00Yeah.
SPEAKER_01Do you know what coffee company launched in 2002, the same year this movie came out?
SPEAKER_00No way, really. Blue bottle coffee.
SPEAKER_01You think they watched this movie and were like, huh? No way. Let's name this after a character who raped somebody.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, I'm sure that's what they thought.
SPEAKER_01And then proposed to her friend and moved across the country and didn't even want to see his fiancee.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, I didn't get the there was a that storyline was a little thin, like just a little. Yeah, I don't know. It was it was not a it was not a terrible movie. There were some decent performances in it, but yeah, the the plot gave me a lot of uh ick and the uh yeah, it was thin. It was a little thin.
SPEAKER_01I just have two quick notes. One, why do people touch hot engines in movies? I feel like I've never had a car breakdown and I'm like, let me touch the we see that on screen a lot.
SPEAKER_00Was it Dan Aykroyd did it at the beginning?
SPEAKER_01No, it was the it was the the guy that was uh Ben Yeah it wasn't it wasn't the mechanic, it was the it was the the old guy that was driving the the 20-year-old. Anson Anson Mount uh and then I don't remember now where I wrote this quote from, but maybe Dan Aykroyd said it. Just what were you thinking? Running away with a pregnant girl.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, why what does it matter? I don't know. People kept me mentioning her pregnancy like it was a crime or something.
SPEAKER_01Like it she's young, sure. I guess uh yeah, I guess back then 20 years ago, it was like, nope, you should be at home.
SPEAKER_00Did this make you feel nostalgic for the early 2000s?
SPEAKER_01Uh no, I I think it was hard to feel nostalgic for a movie that you didn't particularly enjoy. Did you feel nostalgic for early 2000s?
SPEAKER_00No, and the whole time I was watching this, I was like, I don't know who this movie's for. I guess it's Britney fans, but I was like, I had no idea that this is what girls my age at that time were into. Uh yeah.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, I mean I I could understand appeal because it's you're it's this coming of age story, I guess, kind of where you're you're I guess reuniting with your best friends, like you're rediscovering your relationship with your best friends. This hot guy is driving you cross country. It's like you know, newfound freedom and a little bit of danger and adventure and all that. Like, yeah, I mean, broad strokes, it it makes sense.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. It's just our perspective has changed, I think, in the 24 years since this came out.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. I mean, it's not it's definitely not gonna appeal to a guy in his forties who was never a Britney's fan, uh Britney Fierce fan to begin with.
SPEAKER_00Britney Fierce.
SPEAKER_01Britney, yeah. What's her name again? What's your alternate pick?
SPEAKER_00Uh I picked Eight Mile.
SPEAKER_01You can't pick like a super popular.
SPEAKER_00All right. Uh Hell on Wheels then.
SPEAKER_01Oh, what's that?
SPEAKER_00Uh it's an AMC show. It's an old West show. It's got Anson Mount in it who played the older guy.
SPEAKER_03Yeah.
SPEAKER_00Uh it was a good show. I liked it. It's conf he plays a Confederate soldier. Uh and he's just kind of traveling across the country.
SPEAKER_01Did you know who he was when you watched this?
SPEAKER_00I uh I knew him from Hell on Wheels.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, I feel like I I looked at his uh MDV and I don't think I've seen him in anything since.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, I don't know that I've seen him in anything else either. But it was a pretty good show. I think it reviewed well and people generally like it. I liked it. Yeah. But I'm into those types of shows.
SPEAKER_01Eight Mile's a good movie also. Yes.
SPEAKER_00Worth a while if you haven't seen it.
SPEAKER_01Didn't you pick Eight Mile last week for uh Cool as Eyes? You're just gonna pick Eight Mile all month. That's fine.
SPEAKER_00Did I really?
SPEAKER_01I don't know. I don't I don't I don't remember what your I don't remember. What's yours? Uh I had a hard time finding one. That's why I'm being so petty about it. Uh I couldn't find a movie that I uh loved with um any of the main casts in it, so I went with uh Barbarian from 2022, which stars Justin Long. It's a horror movie. Uh it's it's by the same uh guy that did uh weapons.
SPEAKER_00Yeah.
SPEAKER_01Uh did you ever see it?
SPEAKER_00Barbarian?
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_00No. I'm not a horror fan. I did see weapons with you. Yeah. I like Barbarian more than weapons. I've heard that it was better than weapons.
SPEAKER_01But it is scary.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, which I was gonna say, which means I'm less likely to watch it. I'll watch the bad horror movies.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. Uh but Justin Long, he plays an actor who owns a house in Detroit in this rundown neighborhood neighborhood and that he's been renting out as an Airbnb. And um won't go more than that.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, I do kind of want to watch it. I I've always heard good things about it. It's an interesting premise. If you make me watch if you make if it's playing when I'm over at your house sometime, I might watch it.
SPEAKER_01All right. After Out of Sight and Movie, and then uh Barbarian. I think I made Kelly watch it. Um she liked it. She doesn't like horror movies either.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, I was gonna say I don't think she does either.
SPEAKER_01Well, that's about it for Crossroads. Uh thoughts, questions, comments, hit us up at the worst uh podcast. Theme ideas. The worst podcast. No, the worst movie podcast at gmail.com. The worst gmail at podcast.com.
SPEAKER_00We'll get through this.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. You'll figure it out. Uh maybe I've been saying it wrong this whole time.
SPEAKER_00It's the name of the podcast at gmail.com.
SPEAKER_01Yes, Britney Fears at the Worst Gmail Podcast. At Hotmail.com. Movies slash wave. Uh yeah. Like and subscribe. I'm Ade.
SPEAKER_00I'm Aaron. Thanks for listening to the Worst Movie Podcast.