Episode 39-Mac and Me (1988) S2 FINALE!!!

SWEET JESUS, we finally did it, Sisterlovers!!! We finally watched one of the most cursed movies of all time that perfectly encapsulates the decade of the 1980s, Mac and Me! This film really made Saysha question her life choices and almost pushed Melanie to the brink of insanity. Tune in to hear us yap about hideous puppet design, California topography, McDonald's smoking policies, Coke products, Epstein Island, the origins of Coachella, and the survival odds of a wheelchair-bound child who falls off a cliff! We also finally get the scoop on what puppet Melanie is most willing to f*ck! Can you believe this is a family podcast!? Think of all the sacrifices our ancestors made so we could talk about puppet f*cking!

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Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:08

Welcome to VHS Sisters, a nostalgic movie podcast with two actual real-life sisters. I'm Melanie and I'm Stacia. Get into some comfy clothes, grab your favorite beverage, and come hang out with us as I forced my little sister to watch all the movies she missed growing up. Bitch, this is the 80s. It's 80s month. It's 80s month. Uh Melanie, how do you feel? God, I feel I'm uh I'm asking so sincerely too. How do you feel genuinely in this moment or just like after having watched the film? I mean, it's both because this is the reality we're in. We've just watched our last film, and I'm going to continue to call it a film and not a movie. We've watched, we've we have watched our last film of 80s month, and you know, it's it's May, it's spring. How do you feel? What's going on? I feel like a little um tired. No, I feel uh we always talk about movies, but you know, on the podcast, I'm never like, How are you? Oh, yeah, yeah, no, that's true. Um that's why I don't know what to say. No, I'm uh I'm I'm excited for summertime, you know, where we take a little siesta and enjoy. Yes, this is our last film of 80s month. This is sort of by default, is our season finale. Yeah. So it's gonna be a really special one. I feel like I've picked a really good movie for this occasion. And I feel like this is the thing. I I feel like we have done such a wide spectrum of movies, especially in season two. Yeah, because in season one, I think that we leaned pretty hard into like the genre films of the VHS era, the fantasy, the horror, the the puppetry. And in season two, we've really branched out. We started with some classics. I we watched things like The Shining, you know, you tried to see it in person in a movie theater. Yeah, what a what a time that was. That incredible. Doesn't that seem like five years ago? Kind of, yeah. It definitely feels like maybe it was last year, although it was in January, or no, it was December. It was it was last year, technically. There we go. Yeah, we did, we did try to you did try to see it in December. We watched Silence of the Lambs. Yes, we watched go ahead. I was saying, speaking of Anthony Hopkins, I saw him recently on like a like one of those bad spin-off movies of another movie that was like retired and dangerous or something. Wow. And it's like number two, and Anthony Hopkins is the villain in it. And I clocked him immediately, and I was like, is that my husband? One thing about Anthony Hopkins is he will not turn down a check. That's what I'm saying. And like, that's the type of man I needed in my life. He wants that financial stability and security. And he's like, you know what? I'll do a Marvel movie, I'll do a Hallmark movie. I don't care. I would love to see him in a Hallmark movie. Yeah, he uh, you know, he he definitely loves to say yes and to though. Let me let me let our listeners know. I've never really watched a Hallmark movie, so I can't say that I'm an expert, but like if he was in it, I would watch it. That is shocking to me, considering how much you love things like Love Island and K dramas and stuff. Listen, I mean, those are different, they're not as um, they're not very McKay-y, if you know what I'm saying. Oh, like they're too white and Anglo-Saxon for you, is what you're saying. Yeah, and just like the style of it is corny. And I know it's supposed to be kind of corny, but like it takes me out of it. Like, I want to find my own corniness organically. I want people to really put like their all in. And if it's not what they expected it to be, how should I say this? If they put their all in and it flops, that's our decision, you know, our our choice to make. There's some people who really love things that flop, and there's people who go, yo, yeah, that's definitely a flop. And you know, that kind of I guess brings us to our movie of the day. So, so do you do you think that the people who made this were sincere? They had to be like the tone of the movie felt like it was sincerely trying to be touching. And I will say there are moments that you do get that, but you're so like taken out of it when you look at these creepy, creepy puppets. Well, uh, I didn't even say the title of the movie, which I always do. The film that we're talking about today, listeners, is none other than the 1980s classic, uh Mac and Me, which was made in 1988. And this I I chose this for a lot of reasons. To me, this is like quintessential 80s. I watched this a ton as a child. We're we're gonna get into that. Um, it is also sort of like a commercial, yeah. Enrobed in the the encasing. That's a weird mixed metaphor, but it is like in in a movie. It is a commercial that is like in a children's movie, and I forgot how much product placement there was. I was like, ooh, I just want to crack open a crispy Diet Coke right now. Um, they were not drinking Diet Coke in the movie, but um they needed that full sugar. It was it was 88, it was wild. Wild times. People eating McDonald's, people, you know, drinking Gatorade in the glass bottle, sipping Cokes. It's a wonder like any any of us who grew up in the 80s have teeth left. Oh, yeah. Good point. The dental care was not great. Um, I know that you'd never, I I know you have no memories of this movie. I don't need I don't need to ask you. I'm gonna ask you a better question that I've prepared. Did you ever have a birthday party at McDonald's? And you know what? I wrote that in the note, in my notes rather. I have, I don't think I've ever had a birthday party at McDonald's. Because if I did, I think you would remember that, or maybe like you know, you would have had to bend a chaperone as you were. Uh I don't remember a lot. Listen, I've never had one, but I've been to at least one or two. And it was like okay, because you gotta remember, like, my version was not anything like what was depicted in this fine film. Uh we'll get to it. We'll get to it. But I would like, I remember, like, yeah, like you would get your food and eat and hang out. I don't think Ronald McDonald was there, but we got to go on like you just like basically rent out the playplace for an hour, and that's cool. I thought, I thought that Ronald was a part of the deal. Well, here's the thing it's like, if I were to have gone, because like I I imagine that I have, because I remember going and like having it could like maybe it was like a different thing. I don't know. I can't confirm or deny, but the point is I don't remember Ronald McDonald being there ever. So then I guess is that meaning that I'd never went to one, but maybe he retired like in the 80s after this movie. Well, so Melanie's answer is we don't know. It's indefinite. Like you said, you don't remember a lot of things. I mean remember that. I remember having a McDonald's birthday party for sure. It was not like this one at all. There was uh there was no choreographed dancing for sure. I wish there was. That's what I yeah, that's what I'm saying. Like if it was like this, then that would actually have been great, and I would have remembered it. I was terrified of clowns. There is a pretty infamous family photo of me, and I am being held by a birthday clown, and I clearly have a tear-streaked face. I look, I'm holding my hands like I'm being attacked by a wild animal. Oh no. Uh, I'm I was probably very shook by this clown. Um, I don't remember how I felt about my McDonald's birthday party, but it yeah, it wasn't as overwhelming as the one depicted in this film. Yeah, that this movie, I believe, I've done a lot of research on it. I believe that the producer was partially funded by McDonald's. I was gonna say somebody had to sponsor this, either Coke or McDonald's or both. Like, and then I was assuming they would just launch Red into like a happy meal toy or something with this, which I'm sure you would remember more than me. I don't think you could make Mac into a toy, is the thing. You could, it would just be so it would be so ugly. I mean, that's the thing. The design of him is like Dobby on crack. Yes, yes, that's exactly what it is, and uh yeah, it's not very marketable. Yeah, the producer for this movie, I found out he had previously worked on ad campaigns with McDonald's, and he did have an association with their charitable arm, which are the Ronald McDonald House charities, which, you know, is a great thing. Um, they wanted to do this whole like cross-promotional thing. And I don't think that they can do that. Like, I don't think that, like, I mean, whatever, like films have a lot of partnerships now, but I think I think it has to be like out in the open. I what I'm saying is they did this movie with this money for McDonald's, and they're just like, okay, now we're just gonna shoehorn all of this like McDonald's stuff in it. Like the one character, I believe her name is Claudia, the big sister. Yeah, she works there, she works there, and she's wearing this teal McDonald's shirt, which I wrote a note. I was like, honestly, if that was my work uniform, I would not be angry. Well, like, don't you? I feel like I remember when McDonald's workers they all wore these like green uniforms. And I'm, you know, this is obviously like the late 80s rendition of that, but I remember like the button up with the M on it that everyone was wearing at the time. I remember growing up the brown, the like that's the thing that people thought that the 80s were so brightly colored, like this movie. But in real life, it was very earth toned. So I remember McDonald's being a place that was like brown, avocado green, maybe. Oh god. Oh my goodness. And I remember ashtrays in there. Yo, if people have McDonald's ashtrays, I'm sure they go for a lot on eBay. Let look it up right now. McDonald's. I will. I will. McDonald's ashtrays. Oh my god, that would be the dream. Honestly, it's just a good thing for like your incense and stuff, you know. Yeah, yeah. You can just like, you know. Oh there it is. You found it. Well, yeah, there's a quite a few of them. Um, a lot of renditions of the ashtray by McDonald's. This one looks great. This is a vintage 70s McDonald's. It's plastic, which is scary. Wow, yeah. I uh you showed Melanie is showing me an image of a vintage red 1970s ashtray in. And then they have these vintage aluminum ones as well. I remember that one. I remember brown glass ones. Um, wow, I love this sidebar. It's a miracle, it's truly a miracle. I'm alive right now. Um, yeah, I have memories of McDon McDonald's, and I have many memories of this movie. It was funny upon this last rewatch, the music hit me first, and I was like, wow, the music takes me right back. And it's so interesting because this movie is scored by Alan Silvestri, who also did Back to the Future. Oh, wow. My connection. You can totally hear it in like, especially like the chase scenes. It's very like, Doc, we got to get out of here. You know, it's very that. And I was like, wow, this the soundtrack is like a 10, and the movie is a zero. And there is and I would I'm zero. Well, I forgot. Here's the thing. Okay, sorry, let me take it down to the foundations because, and then we'll start talking about this this really great movie. So, so the basic premise of this podcast is that there is somebody who believes in the thing and then a skeptic. It's kind of like the X-Files formula. You have a molder and you have a Scully, and it's like great chemistry. And I was like, I'm gonna show Melanie a lot of questionable movies that she's probably gonna hate, and I'm going to try to convince her to like them. The podcast has not become that. It is it is a real mixed bag of like me showing you like legit things that I love, and sometimes you like it, sometimes you're kind of medium on it. Rarely do you hate them. This one, I feel like I was watching it and I was like, this is gonna be a funny joke. And the longer I was watching it, I was like, why did I do this to myself? I did you I did this to myself, and now I'm being punished. Like I did this. I made that this is my decision, and now I'm suffering because of a choice that I made. So if anything, this finale is uh revenge for you know, me showing you things like Secret of Nim or uh I was trying to think of something else you hate it, never ending story. Yeah, yeah. I mean, I'm not like we'll we'll get into it at the end as far as and you know what we'll get into that when we do a recap of like best and worst. But this one's I think kind of gunning for a title for one of the movies that we've watched in the past. So we'll uh see. I'm sorry, gunning for what title? Gunning for a title of possibly the worst movie I've ever seen. And it's funny because like two of them were so close back to back between Howard the Duck and Mac and Me. Yes, making me be very thankful that I was born in the 90s. Okay, so so much like when we did Love Month back in February, you're like, actually, I hate love. Yeah, and it sucks. And now we start with the 80s, and you're like, uh, it's it's a you know, what a bummer. I didn't grow up in the Stranger Things decade. And now you're like, you know what? Maybe it's a good thing I missed it. I think so, yeah. It's like this movie is like a demagorgon. Like I wish there were demagorgons in this, actually. Yeah, no, there's there's there's some there is some puppetry, but yeah, we we do not get any classic D type monsters, yeah. So yeah, my uh real quick, yeah. I I watched this countless times on VHS, specifically at Aunt Jackie's house, another Aunt Jackie classic. Like there was no supervision in this house. And why would there be? I I mean, there were it was a house full of children, and you know, I have a lot of wild stories like growing up there, which I can't get into on this pod. This is like it's funny because like we kind of did like a similar childhood, but it was like the next generation because I also grew up in the Pasco house with a lot of kids going crazy running around everywhere, but it was a different generation, right? You were like firmly in like the jackass generation, and I was like in the Mac and Me generation. So uh yeah, no, this the the the music hit me right away. I was like, oh my god, yeah, this like very there's a lot of like interesting sounds in this movie, they whistle a lot. These aliens do not stop whistling. And if anybody knows me, you know that is one of my misophonian triggers. I really cannot abide a whistler. I'm sorry, it is the worst. You know, it really depends on the time and situation, but like whistles are used to like get attention very quickly, you know. But if you're constantly doing it, then it can be annoying. I'm talking about people who just entertain themselves by whistling. I'm just gonna whistle a little tune. People just walking around whistling. I'm like, I don't want to hear that. No one wants that. Who do you walk around who's whistling? People in the is it that like you know, Snow White and the seven dwarves up in like park slope. Don't don't get me fucking started. Like on dwarves whistling, yeah, kick characters who whistle. No, we're we're done. So already Mac and his family with their communication of like hand gestures and whistling. I hate them. There are wait okay, yeah, let's just get into it. So, yes, the movie opens Desert Planet. We see a family of aliens. What was what was your first impression of these this alien family? Disgusting. I hate them. I was like, okay, I like the first scene. He's slurping the earth. Stick that straw in there and slurp the earth, baby. My first note on my phone is I hate their butthole mouths, fat jowls, and large, unblinking human eyes. Word for word. And they do blink eventually, but at the time, Papa Alien was not blinking. Yeah, he's they're all pretty ugly. That's the thing. Like, they, I mean, clearly, this is an ET ripoff. Oh, the biggest ET ripoff. But I think they were trying to like include the concept of alien family dynamics, or like, you know, want like seeing the family that the extraterrestrial comes from, and that's supposed to maybe like, I don't know, touch your heart a little bit. It just creeped me out. Yeah, they didn't mean out so bad, they didn't do as good a job with the puppetry design as they did in E.T. Like you look at E.T. you're like, I love that guy. I I had a stuff I had a I had a stuffy of ET. I had an ET finger that glowed when you pressed it. I had a lot of E.T stuff, and it's like, yeah, is E.T. a little funny looking? Yes, but he's like cute, ugly. He's got charms about him, you know. He has charms about him. These guys are just ugly and not marketable in any way. There's nothing they move weirdly. Um yeah, there were a lot of ET ripoffs because E.T. was such a huge phenomena. So there was this, there was a movie called Munchie. I don't know if you've ever seen that one. There was a movie called Nuki, which I have to introduce you to at some point. Is that like Limp Biscuit song? No, not Nookie. Not Nookie. Nuokie, like okay, like getting nuked. Oh, yeah. Uh, there was there's also one of my favorites. There's a movie called Pod People, which has gone on to fame because of the show Mystery Science Theater 3000. It is probably my favorite episode where they rip on it. Uh I will send it to you if you've never seen it. You will fucking piss yourself laughing. It's so funny. Um, yeah. So this was one of the I I think this is like the most famous ET ripoff. And yeah, I I I think they just really drop the ball on the puppetry because you you do not feel instantly connected to these aliens, I feel. If anything, they're sort of strange, right? Yeah, and I understand like the concept of making a strange creature, sure. But it could have reworked the face, you know, like all the faces of these things. There are there are options out there, not a you know, not a very inspired look about these aliens. And in fact, when they finally get sucked up into the Mars rover that lands, or just a space rover wherever they're at. Just a rover. Yeah, it's not it's not Mars. We don't know what planet is made of, like, I'm assuming Coca Cola. They yo, they love sucking that coke out of the earth. They do. Oh, suck the earth. You are a earth. But they get sucked up and they get transported back to Earth because the United States was collect back when it was NASA. People were collecting samples and they discovered this alien family inside of the rover. And it's like a whole scene that, like, everything's getting destroyed. People are freaking out. There's smoke everywhere. You see the creepy aliens walking around. And it's supposed to be like this like big horror concept. And I'm just like, I hope they just shoot the whole family right then and there. You're like, the end. Movie's done. Movies done. Or also like the little one escapes and that's it, you know, and he can't get home because his family's dead. I don't know. It it is a children's movie, so they didn't want to like have a whole alien genocide in the beginning. They get they do get sucked up weirdly. Like their bodies seem to be made out of taffy. So they just kind of like are pulled into this huge rover vacuum thing. And of course, like the government fumbles, like they want to know what they are. Of course, because it's an ET ripoff, we need to have like big government involved in some way to sort of be like the big bad. And uh, but yeah, like you said, the they they somehow escape, or the um they all escape, but the little one, the littlest one who comes to be known as Mac much later, gets separated from his family in a very chaotic and upsetting to me as a child kind of way. Like he's instantly in peril, he's being stretched, he's get he gets hit by a car. And I remember I want to know how you feel about this this car accident scene, but I remember as a kid seeing his little alien face smashed against the windshields and being so upset. How did you feel about do you know? I think you get a sense in that first in the first 10 minutes what you're in for. How how are you feeling about that? Well, I was again waiting for something to happen. I knew Mac was a part of the movie, so he wasn't really going anywhere. But I think like the idea is to see like how unique these creatures are. The fact that they can get stretched, the fact that they get hit by a car and survive. Like, he's resilient. They're very resilient and also like they they're like crazy overpowered. They can like mess with electricity and like what are their other powers? So like super strong, too. Yeah, which is why I was like surprised. I don't know, like there wasn't enough scenes, perhaps, where like maybe Mac was supposed to be in control, like with this car accident. Like, obviously, there was a huge pile up, but like you didn't see him like stop the car or something like super, I guess, heroic. So I was just kind of like, okay, he's just a little blob guy until later we see he can turn things on. Yeah, his powers, you know, they whenever he remembers he has them, he can use them. Um, or or like the screenwriters remember that he has them. Right. Um, yeah, no, he causes this big car accident and he ends up in the vehicle of the Cruz family, not C-R-U-Z, but Cruz like Tom Cruise, which I think is which is really funny. Describe the family to us since the first time watcher. First time watcher, it's a mom and her two boys. Um, older brother is like kind of a goofball, but like it seems like he's kind of like a pseudo-father, like as we watch with time goes on. He's kind of responsible for helping his younger brother because the younger brother is handicapped. Now, I'm wondering, is he actually like paraplegic or the actor? That is a great question. Um yes, the actor who plays Eric, whose name is I hope I'm pronouncing his name correctly. Uh his first name is Jade, last name Caligory or Calligory. Whoa. Um, so cool name. Yeah, Jade Calligory. I'm just yeah, he was he born in California. I don't know if he was born in California. I did do research. He was actually um, he did actually have a disability that left him in a wheelchair. I believe he had spinal bifida. Okay, yeah, yeah, yeah. So I'm gonna say a lot of bad things about this actor, but I do want to say I think that it's cool that they have some representation for like an actually like wheelchair-bound actor in the part. Um, does he deliver in the acting department a hundred percent as well as like some other child actors could? Maybe not, but I do think that's a cool fun fact that they did use him. And uh yeah, Jonathan Ward plays his brother Mike, and then the mom, actually, who plays Mrs. Cruz, is uh a very famous actress. Her name is Christine Ebersoll. I know her from Broadway, she's like a huge Broadway actress. Oh, wow. She was also in the movie Amadeus, like she's been in like stuff, she's really, really good. She she was in the musical version of Grey Gardens on Broadway. Yeah, yeah, like it she's really good. You have to look her up. But anyway, it's like whenever I see her in the movie, I'm like, all right, Christine Eversoll's in this, she's like a legend. If you're like a theater nerd, you would know her better. But I think she's gorgeous, and all of her outfits are very 80s, very Laura Ashley. She has some athleisure as well. But yeah, so you meet the family, you get the sense that like the father has passed. Yeah, you do see in a photo like that. I guess like you look at a little like the younger son looks at like with sentiment, and you can see the dad in the car with the whole family, but it's like dad's not there, and they're also from Illinois, which to me, I think that dad's dead because it's like maybe he they got like a settlement or something, and they can afford to move out to California and like start a new life. Do you know what I'm saying? Because like otherwise they're stuck in Illinois, right? And I remember as a kid like really connecting to that because I'm like, oh, they're from Chicago. We're not so far from Chicago. So they were like a Midwestern family moving to California, which you know, we we will we'll definitely cover other 80s movies at some point. This was like a big theme in the 80s, like moving from some little town in the Midwest, moving to California. Oh my god, California's so different. It's like moving to Mars. Like they do that in the Lost Boys, you know, a lot of like the Lost Boys, right? It's like a very like, but like to me as a kid, I was like, oh my god, what if we just picked up and moved? What if we like just left? Let's do it. I mean, let's go now. It's not too late. It's it's never too late. You know what? Listeners, you can always start over. That's right. At any time. Um, I just looking down at my notes, I'm like, the aliens basically destroy anything they touch. Yeah. Well, so they move in the house. Right, right, right. Um, the alien Mac had stoned away with them that night after the car accident. So he's with them technically in the back seat. He passed out after having some sodas. Yeah, he he wanted to steal Eric's soda because he's addicted to sugar. Oh, yeah. I mean, who wouldn't be, you know? But so they end up at the house and they're like decorating, unpacking their stuff, and that's when Eric notices that like his TV is running or like his remote RC car is on, even after he took the battery out of the controller. And he's just like, This is weird. There's weird things happening. I don't know what it is. And you see Mac just like in the background, like his dumb face just looking around, and Eric doesn't notice him, but uh eventually he does, and uh he goes kind of on a chase throughout the house to figure out where he's at, and the neighbor cops up. Oh, yeah, yeah. No, describe the neighbor who is the neighbor. What her name's Deborah or something, or what's Debbie. Yeah, the first time you see Debbie, she's sitting on the side of the road. She has like a lot of pets with her. More pets in Mac and me than in Pet Cemetery. Exactly right. Yeah, she's wearing a Native American headdress in a teepee. She's you know what? Debbie started Coachella. Yeah, she did. She's she's definitely been to Burning Man when she got older. Absolutely. Yeah. So she's like, so they have like the classic formula, right? They have an older brother, they have a younger brother, and instead of a sister, they just have like the girl next door. Yep, girl next door who has an older sister who Mike is the older brother, he says. Yes, he falls instantly for her. I mean, who wouldn't? Look at that hair, yeah, gorge. True. Yeah, Mac is like, I will say this like the whole start of the movie, it takes like literally 35 minutes for Eric and Mac to connect. Like, it's a lot of shenanigans around the house. Like you said, the car, the electricity, TV's turning on, they're moving in, like that. It takes so long to get this movie on its feet. And we know they're gonna meet eventually, but I was just like, come on, like literally looking at the clock, like it's been a half hour, and the two main characters have not connected yet. The two main characters that are on the movie poster have not met. Yeah, the the pacing was really slow, and then like in the middle of all this like moving in footage, we also get like cuts to Max family. Oh god, yeah. Who are, you know, what are they up to? Yeah, what they're they're roaming through the desert, they somehow escaped, and like the parent, like both mom and dad alien, they're human actors in these costumes, right? With just like a headpiece on. Sure. I'm assuming the other the alien's sibling, the girl, she's also a like a child, or I I couldn't tell you. I didn't research that deeply, not gonna lie. I don't know if it was a child in there or a little person. Yeah, they they straight up look like they are going to die in Death Valley. Not soon enough. Not soon enough. They're like tired of looking at them. Yeah, they're languishing in the desert. They're looking real bad and dehydrated. They don't have any coke products out in the desert. They're they're simply dying for a crispy coke product, a coke straight from the earth, from the earth, yeah. It's so yeah, we're we're cutting from the desert to like this house, which like Eric's mom, like with a she has a child who is in a wheelchair. Why did she get a house on basically on top of a mountain? Right. She's like, That you're gonna love the house, sweetie. It's all one floor. Like, how great is that? And then the backyard slopes into this like danger canyon, this probably like 300-foot drop almost into a ravine, which is crazy. But I love like the way the back of the house like for before I go any further, sure. The set design on this, though, I will say, really took me back to a special time in my childhood and was like, look at all this stuff everywhere, and the toys, and the way like just the furniture looks, it kind of gave this coziness to it that I did enjoy. So props there. Um, other props are to the design of this hellscape of a backyard. So they've got like a little plot of just regular grass, decent, nice place to live. Obviously, they're clearly in the hills somewhere. And once you get out from that back gate, it's all wildflowers, which is cool. But what happens to good old Eric in his wheelchair, which I'm only laughing because of how crazy the scene is, he is chasing Mac and he starts rolling down that hill at top speed. I'm like, oh no, and then they like fling the dummy into the ravine, and out comes Deb, and she's just like, oh, screaming, screaming, and I'm like, no one's gonna survive that, you know, that's such a hard impact. But maybe, and I mean, if you weren't already paralyzed, you would be after that fall. It is such a dramatic fall. It is very clearly a dummy strapped to a wheelchair. This scene is infamous and classic. I don't, I don't know. Are you aware of the Paul Rudd meme that he does? I had to Google, I Googled the connection of that because you had mentioned Paul Rudd. Yes, he is a big, big fan of this movie. Yes. So I was like, shout out to Paul Rudd. But um, it's where he goes, it's only on Conan if he does an appearance and he's like, This is my new movie. It's just the scene or something. I think the first time he did this, like I said, he like had this sort of running joke, this bit going since like the 2000s. And yeah, every single time he's on Conan O'Brien, they're like, he's coming to promote a new show, a new movie. I think when he did it, he was uh guest starring on Friends, and he's like, Oh, I have a special clip from Friends. They're like, Oh, really? That's so crazy that we get to see that. And he just shows the scene where Eric falls into the ravine over and over again. Um, and and no one like, you know, it like every single time. I think he recently, like a couple years ago, he was on because Conan doesn't have a show anymore. He has a podcast like us. Shout out Conan. Hi, Conan. What's up, fellow podcaster? Um, he also, you know, he had to show him a clip of something, and then he completely like rickrolled him, you know, so to speak, by showing that clip again. Anyway, yes, that so so people who have not seen this movie, you know, might just know that scene and have like no context for it. Now you have context for it. Perfect. Because it it is one of the I will say that scene where he rips down the hill and is flung into the ravine is an iconic moment in cinema history. And then the way that like Mac pops up, you can tell he's not sure if he's going to save Eric or not. And Deb screaming her little head off. And then when Mac finally decides to like push Eric out of the water, this is the thing as a kid, I was like, no, he didn't do it. Like, he he didn't get out of the cock of duty car, you know. Like it was like one of those moments. I was like, so that he pushes Eric out in his wheelchair. I'm like, how is he still in his wheelchair? Because anybody who knows basic like physics would know that it would have like sank or or moved away from him. Do you know what I'm saying? Unless he was like buckled in. I don't think he was, or maybe he was. I uh do people get buckled into wheelchairs? Like it depends. It depends. Yeah, I guess so. Yeah, I don't know. I just remember that bothering me as a kid because I was like, wouldn't he just like push his body out? But I guess they had to save the wheelchair too. So well, they could have done like a separate scene that might have been too much where like he's pushed out of the water and he's just like laying on the the shoreline, essentially, not really a shoreline or just like the edge, and then maybe like Mac realizes, oh no, he needs this and like flings it out or something like that, comes shooting out of the water, and people are like, Oh my god, what is happening? Yeah, uh yeah. So Eric is alive, and it's at you know, at that point, I sorry, I looked at my notes again. I was like, How is Eric still in his chair? Um, so like Eric is alive, he goes back to the house, a doctor is like, they they call the doctor, and he's like, Your mom keeps saying that you you keep talking about a little guy because like this whole time, like he got in a fight with his mom before because he's like, I didn't do all this crazy shit around the house. This alien did. And the fact that mom wasn't like instantly awake from the power tools, like there was like holes drilled through the walls and like all this crazy stuff. I'm like, I that's just too much, but whatever, it's a silly movie. Yeah, so the the doctor comes over and he's like, What's going on, Eric? And Eric's like, I don't know, like you wouldn't believe me, or whatever. Like all the dialogue in this, it's not very well done. The doctor's like, here's a set, here's a mild sedative, have a nice day. I'm like, I wish a doctor would do that for me. Yeah, uh, especially a house doctor, like a house call, you know. A house call, someone gives you a chill pill and they're just like, Okay, have a nice day. California, I guess. I guess let's move. Yeah, we're moving, it's official. Yeah, and then drugs, you know. Yeah, no, it's it was it was they were different times. Yeah, Deb comes over, she's like, I didn't tell them about the creature because adults believe what they want to believe. Like they she gets like a whole scene explaining, you know, why she's not outing the creature, and then Courtney, the hot older sister, comes over. Mike Mike's like, hello, nurse. Yes, exactly. In her McDonald's uniform, of course. Yeah, it looks great. Like, I like her hair is like perfectly moosed and poofed. She's got her cute little polo on. She's like, I'm sorry, this this this always made me laugh too. She was just like, I work at the McDonald's. I was like, is there only one McDonald's in town? There's gotta be at least like 10. I mean, now there would be in California, as well as like in and out and whataburger and whatever else, but like maybe back in '88, there was only one in their area, maybe. But I get I'm assuming, like I said, they gotta be like in the hills somewhere because it's just like that ravine. Where is that in California? Like it seems remote, but it's not. So they do kind of reference where they are because they they say that they mentioned Palmdale, which is a suburban city in northern Los Angeles. So they're definitely like in the Los Angeles area. And yes, like you said, like up in the hills, like so. If you go like north, like before you get to the valley, like you know, Valley Girl Valley, yeah, you have to literally drive through mountains to get there. And so, like, you're looking down on the valley. I mean, we gotta go, you gotta see this like crazy geography because it's so dramatic. That's the thing, too. Like, you can be in West Hollywood and then you can go drive for like 35 minutes and like be in a desert like that, which is crazy. So they mentioned, yeah, they mentioned Palmdale is like where the alien family is. I'm like, okay, so this is all North LA. And you know, apparently there was one McDonald's there. Let's not, let's not get too stuck in. No.

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Um, and at that point, I'm trying to remember what happens because, like, yeah, Courtney's like, yeah, I work at McDonald's, come up and see me sometime. You know what I'm saying? Yeah. But I think at that point, oh, right. At that point, De Deb, Debbie, whatever, and Eric, they realized that they need to capture this alias. So, how do they decide to do that? They were going to set well, they did. They set traps with like Coca-Cola, and because he realized that's what he likes. And they also hid in Eric's closet with like a bunch of extension cords, and we're gonna try to like tie them up. Yes, but then they also Eric put made Debbie wear a vacuum pack, and like I don't know how he realized, oh, yeah, let's just suck it up, like as if that was really gonna be like how he got inside of it instead of just like sucking him like to his skin or something. Melanie, clearly, Eric has seen the beginning of the movie. Oh, yeah, true. That, yeah. So he he knows he understands that if you suck at it with a vacuum, it's gonna be slurped up in the vacuum. He knows that because it's a very meta movie. A lot of sucking in this movie, a lot of sucking, a lot of holes. Oh no, a lot of slurping, uh and a lot of dancing, a lot of dancing, yeah. No, Mac gets sucked up into the vacuum. There are a lot of vacuum shenanigans. Uh, one thing I remember upsetting me watching this as a seven andor eight year old is I was really upset how much that puppet got abused. He got sucked up, he got smashed, he's he's he's flipping and flying all over the place. He's just a baby, he's just a baby, and yeah, like I don't have. A great love for this puppet because he is, as you said, ugly, ugly. But he, you know, he's still a baby, and I remember having compassion for him. Yeah, there were there were a lot of vacuum shenanigans, they suck him up, they blow him out. That I think at that point, Eric names Mac Mac, because he's like, What is it? And he's like, he says, it's a it's a Mac, it's a mysterious alien creature. So he just comes up with that on the fly. And I'm like, also, I think they just called him Mac because this was funded by McDonald's. Great point. Yeah, as I say, like, get a big Mac and me. They even say get like Deb says, Oh, you want to come get a Big Mac at some point? That's yeah, it's so funny. The amount of promotion. I'm like, what is happening? It isn't like I said, it is a commercial, you know, disguised as a children's family film. I was like, Do I want a Big Mac right now? No, I I can't remember the last time. This is the thing that sorry, quick sidebar. People I know still get McDonald's, and I'm like, why? The last time I had McDonald's was in 2022 when I was in Amsterdam because and all I got was because they have different flavors, like every you know, country. And if you're gonna have McDonald's, do it in a foreign country. Here it's like there's too much microplastic in the food. Absolutely. They have some standards. So I got like a small banana milkshake just to try it. The milkshake, I kid you not, was like this big as a small, it was maybe like three inches tall. Gotcha. You know, yeah, no, I know. Like if I were in Tokyo, I heard like, you know, like when Ryan went to Japan, he was like, Yeah, we went to the McDonald's there because it was good. And yeah, I I I'm just like, but to to be in America and to have access to other quick options, I'm like, why would you do why would you who needs a big Mac? Is what I'm saying. Nobody in in this day and age, whatever. Mac Mac is revived by the healing restorative powers of Coca-Cola, which I do believe in sometimes. Yeah, no, like I love a Coke, like a diet Coke Coke Zero. That shit just gets me together sometimes. It really does. Yeah. So Mac has been restored, but his family is straight up dying in the desert. And yeah, a lot of stuff happens in the middle, which is like this is the thing. Like the the screenplay is not great. No, and it's two hours long. It's a long ass movie. It's another long ass movie. So we get a lot of like scenes of Eric and Mac bonding in a way, like they communicate with each other, they figure out that yes, Mac does have a family, they've been separated, they gotta go get them. And then that's like intercut with shots of like the family languishing, like literally dying in the desert. And I it's so distressing, like as a child to watch. You're just like, look at these ugly aliens, like just dehydrated. Well, and like as time goes on, like you can see Max starts to like not be like he starts to kind of dwindle too. Like, I mean, like Coca-Cola can only sustain him for so long. And they go, like, he doesn't look so good, he looks depressed. I'm like, he looks the damn same this whole time. I say he didn't start out great. No, and he didn't like he didn't like change color or like shrivel up or anything, he just looked the same. They're like, he looks depressed. Yeah, there's a lot of like how do I want to say this? Like, yeah, you can tell that Mac is not thriving. He's like blowing his nose, he's trying to like fit in, but you can tell he's sad. There's a point at which in the middle, in this very messy middle, where he picks up the newspaper and is like looking for stuff. I'm like, can Mac read English? Because they they're showing him looking at a newspaper. I'm like, number one, how would he know what that is? And how could he read? Like he's an alien, he's a literal alien from another planet. Well, I guess like he maybe communicated with his parents and like they told him where he was at. So he cut out the shapes of like the place that they were in hopes to make a map. Uh oh, yes, with the horses and everything. Right. That's true. That's true. Yeah. So, like, yeah, he because they communicate still with their whistling, they're doing a lot of whistling back and forth, much to my chagrin. Yes, but I need to, I feel like we have to get to the most important part of this movie, which is the McDonald's birthday party. Oh, that comes right after that. Yeah, like after they realize the stakes, Eric gets invited to a birthday party, or they all do. Mm-hmm. Well, and also the people like the FBI or whatever are investigating the house because they believe that's where the creature is. Right. So they're kind of like staking out a little bit to see if they can get in there and get him. But so Max, like, or um, I'm sorry, Eric is like, okay, let's take him with us. And devs like, how are you gonna do that? So he proceeds to stuff him into this like creepy, well, not really creepy, but it's like a bear outfit or like a bear, um, a stuffed bear that he took the stuffing out of, shoved the alien in there and cut eye holes for his big googly eyes. And that was the most scary part of that. I mean, like, I really was like, keep that bear costume on this whole time because that's gonna like save me a lot of mental tax. But the eye holes really got me. So the uh neighbor mom, Debbie's mom, drives them to the party, and she's like, Isn't he a little too old for a teddy? And she's like, Well, mom, I don't know, he's handicapped, like, leave him alone. He's well, he kind of explains it like he sort of because do you remember Teddy Ruxpin? Yeah, it's like an electronic bear. It's like he's cooler than that. I had a teddy ruck spin, and that was my favorite toy because you put a cassette in Teddy's back and he read you stories. And I didn't have any siblings growing up, and I didn't have parents who wanted to play with me. So that was my only friend was uh was a mechanical bear who read me stories. I do love that. Um, yeah. So like I think they were trying to do like a take on Teddy Ruxpin, and the image of Mac in the Teddy outfit is chilling, to say the least. It's uh what's what's going down at the McDonald's? I want you to describe the scene to me because I we we've hinted to the party before. How what what how did this feel for you? It felt insane. I felt transported. I'm like, is this like an off, off, off Broadway musical that's happening right now? I I was like, look at the diversity. Like, we didn't see any of these people throughout this whole movie, and now we've got a whole gang of kids outside, fully synchronized dancing, like outside as well as inside, which was nuts. It was like, I've never even been to like a wedding, a prom, any event that's had this amount of dancing and like this good of dancing, too, because they're all like synchronized. These are like professional dance teams on this, and they're in there and they walk into the McDonald's and you see the birthday party, and it looks insane. Like it really does look over the top. There's Ronald McDonald there, like officially like the one, I'm assuming. Yeah, no, he's he, I'm sorry, he's credited in the credits as Ronald McDonald as himself. Damn, okay. Yeah. And it's like it's so intense, and so it's like such a spectacle. So I'm like, really, like, what is happening? And then I'm really loving the choreography, and then all of a sudden, Mac starts dancing, like the bearer walks away, like he's trying to like get into trouble, and he's up on the counter just freestyling. I'm like, what? Not only does he freestyle, but in order to get from like the children's area, like where they're having the party, to like the front counter where all the workers are, he proceeds to like sort of spin in the air as if he's in space, like like gravity does not affect him anymore. And then why wasn't he doing this the whole damn time? And then he's like doing the curly shuffle, like on the on the the curly shuffle, yeah. He's he's go and he's soft shoeing, he's he's jiving up there. Do you mean the cupid shuffle? The the no, uh, you don't know the curly if you if you that's from uh three stooges, it's from three stooges, yeah. That's a that that reference might be a little old for you, but yeah, he is he is cutting a rug, this bear. And I want to say, just real quick, like I said, I don't remember McDonald's parties being like this. I think this movie has the perfect depiction of like commercially what people wanted to think that the 80s were, like you said, like weird diversity where it doesn't make sense. It's like we have a lot of synchronized dances because dancing was really big, a lot of breakdancing that was huge at the time. Apparently, I looked for her, so I I watched this movie twice through, okay. FYI. Oh god. Uh, and I looked both times. Apparently, Jennifer Aniston is an extra in the scene. Oh, wow. In her first role, I could not clock her either time. So maybe it was like before I don't know if she had work done. I don't know if she's like unrecognizable as a kid. She no, she's she's still with us without all the talks or anything like that. But like, no, I mean, like as a teen, like you look so much different than you do as an adult sometimes. I think she definitely grew into her looks. Yeah, I'll have to Google her and like I'm sure somebody's like freeze-framed it for just so we can see it. But yeah, so this whole scene, now that you've seen this McDonald's scene with Ronald McDonald and the dancing bear, now you truly spiritually understand what the 80s are. Oh, yeah, a hundred percent. And I I I was like enjoying that, and it's funny too, because you're talking about like commercially trying to represent the 80s. The mom's got a job at Sears, she sure does. She's gotta still pay them grocery bills, even though you know her husband's settlement paid for the house, um, in my head. And um, she's like at Sears and she's talking to a guy on the escalator, and she's like, Oh, how long have you been working in lingerie for? I'm like, Whoa, mom's working hard at the Sears, she's trying to make some extra money. She's like, her her husband is not even cold in his grave, and he's she's out here schmoozing with the lingerie guy. Oh, yeah, I love it. And then, like, then she gets disrupted to like come out because this is at the point where Mac escapes. Well, Mac and Eric escape the McDonald's, right? And he's like rolling down the hill in the wheelchair. We get another, we get another roll down the hill. We get a like a six-minute chase scene because all of the feds have tracked Mac to the McDonald's, which like it doesn't make any sense that this happens because they know where Eric lives, right? So, like, why wouldn't they just like go back and wait for him? But no, they we have like fully grown like federal officers like running a 5k to get this alien. They get chased through the sears. There's a little car chase, like there, there's a lot. There's it's it's very much like Howard the Duck. There it goes on for way too long. Way too long. Yeah, eventually, you know, the rolls up on the highway and scoops his brother in because somehow he's still going like, I don't know, 50 miles an hour in this wheelchair, and they're able to get him on to the van, and then they make their escape, right? So it's yeah, the uh Claudia, you said the older sister, yeah. I think Claudia Eric, Debbie, and Mac in the van, and they're taken off. They're taken off, and then they're informed like where the alien family is. They go out in the desert, like out in Palmdale, I guess. They find a lot of horses. There's beautiful horses. Yeah, they're just like, hey, can we get like a helicopter shot of these horses? Because this is gorgeous. Let's just do this. Um, so they do that real quick, and then they find this desiccated alien family in the cave. Ugh, still not dead, unfortunately, but they're getting there. You want this alien family to die. I just want them off my screen. Like, I was just like, I didn't want to look at them. The Papa alien was so ugly. Everyone was so ugly, but he was the worst. And then, yeah, so they find them in the cave and they revive them with none other than God's greatest creation, Coca-Cola. Yes, they're all rejuvenated, and then like it, yeah, it sucks that you don't want to see the alien family because I I hate to tell y'all. No, yeah, the end of the movie is chalk full of this alien family. And uh, yeah, we get like this very like at the end, it's like, okay, so they found the family, but we still need conflict. So, like, let's get them all in the van. And then these aliens, this is the thing. These aliens that Eric and his brother are both like, oh, they won't hurt you, they won't harm you, seem to be doing like pretty sketchy, harmful things. Yeah, they're like totally being a nuisance in the back, and it's like they're capable of like bending steel and they're super strong and capable. And it's just like he's starting to reach for like the gear shifter in the van. They're like, No, no, no, like, you know, you need to stop. So they have Debbie entertain them, and Mike's like, Yeah, be the mommy. I'm like, ew. And she's like, put your hands up, you know. She's playing like Simon says or whatever with them just to get them to calm down. And I'm like, man. So they roll up to a gas station in hopes to get them some more healing Coca-Cola products, and that's when the police catch up with them. Or no, they go to a grocery store. There's also a gas station. They go, yeah, they they get back to civilization. Somehow the alien family ends up in the grocery store because they can't sit still, which leads to like a standoff. The alien dad gets a gun. And again, like we have this like feral alien creature like holding fumbling with a gun, and this whole time the older brother is like, he won't hurt you. I'm like, how do you know that? Right, exactly. And I'm like, if this cop, if this whole thing was in 2020, that cop would have shot for sure. It was, I mean, even back then, I mean, well, what year was this? 88? This is before Rodney King. I was gonna say, LAPD does not play. Yeah, true, exactly. So my first question, don't answer, boom, you're done. Boom, you're done. Yeah, yeah, yeah. No, really, you know, unfortunate that that happens. But yeah, if if this were a more realistic movie, uh that alien would be dead. But it leads to this this huge the end of the movie is basically this stakeout situation, cops shooting willy-nilly. And here's the thing: here's a fun fact for you, Melanie. So, in the original cut of the movie, uh Eric was supposed to take a bullet fired by the police and and die, but it's a children's movie. So they had to recut it and have the store essentially explode, and Errow, who was near it, got harmed enough to pass away. So that's how they wanted to soften it a little bit. Okay, because I was gonna say, like, a few issues here. Okay, yeah, do tell, do tell. First one is the fact that the aliens are so capable of all of this like telekinesis or like electricity, like control of electricity or whatever. Why wouldn't like the aliens like bend these guns like and wrap them up so they're like useless or something like that? See, you would think that's called what we we've talked about it before in in our film analysis. That's called that that's called a promise and a payoff. Like, why would you show the father bending steel earlier, not like seven minutes before? If he can't like pull the guns towards him, you know, telekinetically or whatever. He does nothing with that ability. No at all. They don't help. Well, they they eventually help Eric, you know, who has died. Um, they they do band together at the end to heal him. Yeah. And I guess like where you're saying the original cut was that he was supposed to get shot is crazy. But like the fact that he you can see that he wasn't like in the explosion, he was kind of far from it. Not like terrible. I mean, he was still really close to it, don't get me wrong. But it was like, I think like the worst thing that would happen is like maybe he would singe some of his hair, but I'm like, okay, he dies from that. And I'm like, what does he die from? Stress, like it's not even like uh, you know, it could have been a cardiac event, but he wasn't even on fire. He wasn't on fire, and I'm like, and this is a movie that is bold enough to throw a child in a wheelchair off of a cliff. You mean to tell me you can't have a scene at the end, like if he is going to die from the explosion, why not show the wheelchair being flung out of a ball of flame? Oh, yeah, like on fire, fully on fire. Why can't you do that? Um, but it was I think it was edited in kind of a clunky way because of the fact that the shooting. They they wanted Eric to get straight up shot in the chest, which is so wild for a kid's movie. Um, I know that there are a couple like different edits of it out there. This is why this movie has sort of become like a cult film, I see as well. Yeah, the shooting of Eric, although cut from most prints, was explicitly shown in the Japanese VHS release. Oh shit, that's what we need. That is what we need. Anybody out there, listeners, you got this Japanese Mac and Me for us. Hey, Brian Yemenez, if you're listening to this. Oh, hi Brian. What up? Send us Mac and Me right now. Um, for the film's mainstream release in theaters and on home video, the scene has been cut from the test screen phase of the film following negative reactions from test audiences. So here's the thing they filmed that and it got shown in theaters. So yeah, that that is fully wild that that happened. But yeah, they were just like, okay, let's soften it a little bit. Or surprise McDonald's would agree to like kind of co-partnership in a movie where a kid dies. Yep. And uh yeah, they wanted to do a lot of, they wanted to do a lot of um very German of them, actually. It really is. Yeah, they wanted to do a lot of like cross-promotional things, uh, but it just like never came to fruition because this movie famously flopped, even though you know, we get a happy ending at the end. Oh god, let me get into it then. Okay, yeah. Well, let's say, you know, first of all, they heal Eric, not enough to heal him from his wheelchair. Thank you. That was the point I wanted to say too. Which, like, you know, you could say that doesn't like make him unhol or whatever, which is fine. Yeah, unfair. It's not a problem, he's not a problem to be fixed, you know. But yeah, no, so he does live and the aliens live. And then, yeah, how do we end this movie, which just kind of ends? It's so fucking I had more notes in this section than any other part of this movie. Okay, so we get to like this court, this like huge ceremony that's happening in the court. Now the aliens are at the front and they're in clothing and they're getting their citizenships to the United States of America, which is like on a different level of fucked up, because it's like at least like speaking from you know, a civilian in the United States, the immigrants that are here are actually hot, you know, and like you know, you're gonna give these ugly ass aliens. So, in my opinion, I'm like, okay, I guess the key to getting into the country is being ugly and white, then you'll get that citizenship. I love that that's your takeaway. Um, I was like, yeah, at the end, I was like, so everything's fine because they realize that the aliens have healing power. Right, but like you know they would be in that lab getting experimented on like immediately after that. Like, there's no way they would be granted rights, especially in this country. So that's not even the worst part. The worst part is the girl, I keep forgetting. I'm gonna call her Beverly. Uh, that's the other movie. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Debbie gives Papa Alien a kiss on the butthole mouth, and I'm like, yo, Papa. Alien was on Epstein Island for sure. Like open mouth kissed this child. I want to say at the end, they're all kissing the alien. Kissing. So much alien kissing. Everyone's giving them smooches. I don't know how we went from them like pointing guns at people and being on fire and shit to just being like, let me give you a smooch. I don't know. They are locking lips at the immigration court ceremony. Uh Papa alien can't wait to kiss that little girl. Oh god, I know. And then like then he's driving. So now he's got a license to drive in the state of California. And he's also like got the two kids in the car with the alien family. And then there's Mac like in the car seat, which I'm like, yeah, I guess now let's be safe with him. Sure. Yeah, he's he's been in peril for like two hours. Yeah, like he couldn't he can survive without the car seat. But now he's driving, and then it goes like as they take off on the highway, which I'm like, who which parents are letting them drive with the alien family? I don't know what's happening. And then there's like a that he's blowing bubblegum, and then the bubblegum comes up and it's like, we'll be back. I surely hope not. But it's like they're promising a sequel after that. That is so bold and insane to do. Melanie, I regret to inform you that there was no sequel. Oh thank God. They promised a sequel with that bubble. You know, he he blew the bubble gum so hard that it said, We'll be back, which is like almost a catchphrase from another movie. Like you you can't. I mean, I don't know if like Arnold like trademarked that. Oh yeah, it's a good good point. Yeah, that was that was a few years before this, though, no? Yeah, no, I think Terminator was 85, but it was also I'll be back, not the back right, right, right, right, right. Yeah, but I think they were trying to like sort of cat they were trying to cash in on a lot of previously established IPs. And uh yeah, so you know, how did you feel about that ending? Do you think that they wrapped it up nicely? How how was that for you? I felt like it couldn't end soon enough. So the fact that so much insanity happened in the last, I don't know, 20 minutes of the movie was something that I was not expecting. So, like I had mentioned to you, I started it yesterday, and I got to a point where I'm like, okay, I gotta go to bed. Like, I can't keep watching this. So I ended where they got into the cave, and then that was it. Like I didn't see the revival of the family and then everything that ensued after. So that was where I picked up today and was like, this is a totally different movie now. Yeah, I I I think that the screenwriters just kind of like ran out of steam. And you know what? I get it. It's very hard to end things as somebody, you know, I've started a lot of projects and not finished a lot of writing projects. This is a reminder to all writer listeners out there. Please finish your projects. Yeah, like think about it, edit, take your time. You know, if this came out in '91 or something, um, because they wanted to take the time to make it good. We might be talking about, we might have not even talked about this movie. I might have seen it already and loved it. It could have been a classic. Yeah, it could have been all of these things, but it wasn't. I mean, I feel like this movie, I just want to say, like, as we're starting to wrap up, I do feel like this movie is a classic for a lot of people my age. And I've read multiple things on the internet or seen things on YouTube. People are like, this movie would replay in my house more than E.T., like it was just sort of a movie that was like always on. People got it from Blockbuster, re-rented it. And I will say, like, I know we've bagged on this movie quite a bit. You know, I do think like we were not as harsh as I initially thought we would be. I just want to say, in terms of bright points, not to bag on anything too much, like you said, the production design of this movie is very cozy. Um, the house is cool. I mean, like just being like actually in California and being in that setting, you're like, oh wow, this is lovely. Yeah. And I'm having representation with Eric, I thought was really cool. You know, he's just normal, right? Like anyone else. He has some, like he's clearly capable of going down a hill a lot faster than we are. But uh, besides that, he's just a normal kid, and it's kind of cool to have him on a movie, like have someone in a movie who's portrayed like that, and it's not like a oh poor me situation. Yeah, apparently that one scene where the the infamous scene where he's rolling down the hill using a wheelchair, the director actually performed a portion of the stunt himself because he they didn't want to put a tremendous risk on the child actor. Wow. So give a give him up. You know, they weren't trying to like endanger him. He did a great job. The actor, I can't get over his name though. Jade is his is his real name. Yeah, Jade Calligori is Eric Cruz. Surprised he's not a Phoenix brother. Uh he's not a what? Like a Phoenix, like river Phoenix. And oh god it. Yeah, it seems like a yeah. I wonder if he was like a a hippie, like California child. I want to say the overall family dynamic, I find I think they are all really great together. Yeah, yeah, me too. The mom and son relationship was cute. It was cute. Like, I like we didn't really mention it, but there is a scene where they like go and work out together. I loved that actually. Yeah, yeah. I'm like, does this slow the movie down? Yes, but we do get this like, I'm like, when do you ever see like mothers and sons bond in movies? I'm like, I think that's I think that's really nice, you know? Yeah, um, so yeah, there's like a coziness and a familiarity to it, and it definitely is like in the midst of all like these wild choices, there's just something about I'm like, oh, right, this this house feels like the 80s, and McDonald's definitely feels like the 80s. Yeah, the dance party was lit. It was pretty lit. Yeah, did did you find anything positive in this film? Basically, the same things that you mentioned. I I liked the coziness of the house. I liked the fact that the mom and son's relationships were like pretty normal, but also like just like genuine, like they weren't a force thing, or it wasn't like, oh, mom's, you know, it's not like mom's trying to remarry, like she's just like moving her family out and they're restarting their lives in California. There's no other like thing, you know, um, to it. But I I was gonna say there there is like conflict, a little bit of conflict when she thinks that like Erica's messed up the house, right? Which is normal, you know. Yeah, like young boys, young girls, everyone's rambunctious, okay? Like people mess things up. It's common for parents to be yelling at their kids at that stage. But I thought it was like, I mean, the tone of it was sweet. It was just so like it just was constantly interrupted by these creepy ass aliens. Like, if they weren't in it, like I know it would be a different movie, but like if they had spent any more money on like puppet design or creature design, I think we would be talking about a very different movie. Plus, editing that would help too. A little bit of editing, yeah. Like you can see where they cut corners. I want to say, like, can you see this movie if like the Henson creature shop had gotten a hold of it? Yeah, that would be a way better movie, and even something more like a hoggle type situation. Ugh, another puppet I despise. Okay, fuck Mary Kill. Jesus Christ, hoggle Mac for Mac and Me, or uh, who's a good third puppet? The chamxies. I was gonna say the Chamberlain from uh crystal. Yeah, Chamberlain, Mac and me, Hoggle. Fuck Mary Kill. Send the nuke. You just want to nuke them all? Nuke them all. That's it. They don't even get a chance. Uh how how could you okay? You must choose kill Mac. Okay, same. Uh why would I ever want to fuck Hoggle? I never would, but I would and Chamberlain's the worst. You can't even give me another Skexies, like one that's a little more um like mentally together. I mean apt. I feel like the Chamberlain's pretty smart, you know. I would I would marry him, yeah. I guess he's got money, yeah. Do you know what I'm saying? Like, yeah, any Skexies, Chamberlain, you know, emperor, just take that money and just like let him crumble in bed, you know. That's fine with me. Honestly, that's a great relationship for me. Just hand me that cash, Daddy. It'll last 15 seconds. It's fine. Yeah, I'll be blackout drunk, anyways. I wanted to give it an F for like fuck this movie, but I will because of the high points and because of that iconic McDonald's scene, I will raise it to a solid D. Yeah, D plus. Yeah. Deep this, if any movie's a D plus, it's this fine film of Mac and me. Um, this is, you know what, 80s Month has been great. It's been eye-opening to me in terms of trauma. Yeah. Every episode has unveiled an a new level of childhood trauma. And I feel like I can really start to reparent myself now, which which I'm going to attempt to do during our summer break. So absolutely. Yes. What a great movie to leave off from just to get a break. Because I will say I do need it after this one. I need a cleanse, if you will. Yeah, that my intent was to like give you a movie so bad you're like, I don't think I ever want to watch a movie ever again. Yeah. I mean, like, I there's a few on my hit list, but they are nothing like this, I will say. So, yeah, we uh we will be back next week. We are gonna recap season two, just like we did in season one. Yeah, so you're not getting rid of us just yet. Not yet. And then after our recap, we will be taking a little summer break as kids do, because we're just nothing but a couple of freewheeling kids with with money, sort of, with adult money, and we're gonna try to enjoy it before you know the next pandemic comes. So, yeah. Anyway, so I guess we'll see you next time. Yeah, we'll be back. My fucking earphones fell off. So, guys, we'll be back. We'll be back. We'll wait, let's say it together. Here we go. We'll be back. We gotta say it faster. No, no, no. We're trying to say it like how we usually say it. Oh, okay. We'll be back. Thank you so much for listening to this episode of VHS Sisters. We hope you've had a fun and cozy time. Please consider liking, leaving a review, and following us on your podcast platform of choice. If you'd like to chat with us, please email us at VHS Sisters Podcast at gmail.com. Love you. Bye. That's it.