'80s Movie Montage
Breaking down our favorite decade of flicks. Hosted by Anna Keizer and Derek Dehanke.
'80s Movie Montage
Dreamscape
In this episode, Anna and Derek chat about obvious bad guys, dream sex consent, and much more during their discussion of their second Halloween Series flick, Dreamscape (1984).
Connect with '80s Movie Montage on Facebook, Bluesky or Instagram! It's the same handle for all three... @80smontagepod.
Anna Keizer and Derek Dehanke are the co-hosts of ‘80s Movie Montage. The idea for the podcast came when they realized just how much they talk – a lot – when watching films from their favorite cinematic era. Their wedding theme was “a light nod to the ‘80s,” so there’s that, too. Both hail from the Midwest but have called Los Angeles home for several years now. Anna is a writer who received her B.A. in Film/Video from Columbia College Chicago and M.A. in Film Studies from Chapman University. Her dark comedy short She Had It Coming was an Official Selection of 25 film festivals with several awards won for it among them. Derek is an attorney who also likes movies. It is a point of pride that most of their podcast episodes are longer than the movies they cover.
What's going on here, Charlie? Last week I would have laughed at you. I'm not so sure about what's going on. The stakes are a little higher than I imagined. Mr. Blair is playing for Keats. That woman who linked with Tommy Ray didn't just die of a heart attack. What are you saying? I'm saying Blair's a ruthless killer. Officially, his organization doesn't even exist. I mean, these are the guys even the CIA are afraid of. What, you mean he's training me to be some kind of a spy? No, no, no. He wants more than spies, Alex. He wants assassins.
SPEAKER_02:Hello and welcome to 80s movie montage. This is Derek.
SPEAKER_04:And this is Anna.
SPEAKER_02:And that was Dennis Quaid as Alex Gardner and George Wend as Stephen King. Wait, no, that's Charlie Prince in 1984 as Dreamscape.
SPEAKER_04:Yes, crack.
SPEAKER_02:He basically was Stephen King.
SPEAKER_04:Really?
SPEAKER_02:Because like the character He's like a horror writer named Charlie Prince, just like getting research on something.
SPEAKER_04:Oh, I didn't really put that together. Instead of Stephen King, Charlie Prince. Okay, alright, alright. Yes, Dreamscape, which is the second in this year's Halloween series.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah. There was a point where you're like, so this is a horror movie, right? I'm like, it's sci-fi horror.
SPEAKER_04:This is true. This is true. Because this is the very first watch for me. But you you knew this home.
SPEAKER_02:I I knew the snake man. I remember the snake man, but I haven't seen this movie in a really long time. I remembered like the hyper-realistic sky and some of the dream sequences and the snake man, but I somehow had purged from my memory some of the wilder dream sequences.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah. I mean Yeah, they were there. Snake Man was giving me like uh Medusa vibes from Clash of the Titans.
SPEAKER_02:It looked like uh similar kind of effects technology. Like the stop motion.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah, stop motion. Yeah. Yeah. But I'm excited to dive into I mean, it's always fun for me to like check out a film. There's been a couple times this year where I was like totally brand new to a movie.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah.
SPEAKER_04:So it's always fun to see those. And we have three credited writers for this one.
SPEAKER_02:It's always a good sign.
SPEAKER_04:Well, I don't I don't think it's a bad sign, honestly. I don't I don't think it's like a huge deal that there's like three different writers. We have first David. Okay, so I just want to preface real quick. Unfortunately, this is gonna be one of those episodes where a lot of the people that we talk about are no longer with us. Uh, and it starts with David Lori.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah.
SPEAKER_04:Lori. Sure. Uh he passed in 2024. He has story and screenplay credit for this. So he he was probably like the first person on this project. Um had like a good little, like that sounds so demeaning. I'm not trying to sound he had a nice filmography of uh movies where I'm like, oh, he wrote that too. Cool. So all films for him I have, starting with Star Trek Volin the Final Frontier.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, I didn't.
SPEAKER_04:I thought that that was one you weren't like a huge fan of.
SPEAKER_02:It's not my favorite.
SPEAKER_04:Why? Is that the one with the whales?
SPEAKER_02:No, that was uh four, The Voyage Home. That one's great.
SPEAKER_04:Okay, my apologies.
SPEAKER_02:Five though, uh, just didn't do it for me.
SPEAKER_04:Okay, fair.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah.
SPEAKER_04:Fair. He wrote Passenger 57. He did the 1993, The Three Musketeers.
SPEAKER_01:Okay.
SPEAKER_04:Because there's a billion of those. Yeah. Uh Money Train.
unknown:Oh.
SPEAKER_02:Tom and Huck. Isn't that Whistle Snipes too?
SPEAKER_04:Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:In Passenger 57. Yeah. Also, yeah. Okay.
SPEAKER_04:You know, I was thinking about this when I was doing uh my notes on this episode. There's not a there haven't been a lot of, unless I'm overlooking them, a lot of like Mark Twain adaptations lately. But I feel like there's a period of time where Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:There was like the animated thing.
SPEAKER_04:The animated thing?
SPEAKER_02:Animated uh like uh Tom Saw. Like there, yeah, there's like some some weird, weird animated uh Mark Twain stuff. Yeah.
SPEAKER_04:But he wrote Tom and Huck, uh Blindsided, and Shattered End of the Road.
SPEAKER_02:Those are two different movies, right? It's not one shattered end of the road.
SPEAKER_04:Oh, did I not you know what? Thank you for saying that.
SPEAKER_02:Oh.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah, I think I did just like I didn't hit enter. Creating a new line.
SPEAKER_02:So shattered and end of the world. Correct, correct.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah, I kind of like shattered end of the road.
SPEAKER_02:It can work. There's something.
SPEAKER_04:I mean, what's the movie title? There's like bizarre movie titles out there, but I actually that was such a like happy uh little, I don't know, I wouldn't say accident, but incident that you were like you mentioned that because that made me realize, oh no, I made a mistake. So anyway, those are his credits.
SPEAKER_01:Okay.
SPEAKER_04:Okay, moving on to actually kind of familiar name, but yeah, I think for sure he'll come up again in the future. Chuck Russell. So he also has a screenplay credit for this film. And the reason why he's a familiar name is because this was like several seasons ago, but a brand new viewing to you and me at the time was the 1988 The Blob.
SPEAKER_02:That's such a fun movie. Like the effects are insane.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:Like it, they're they're horrifying. Yeah.
SPEAKER_04:Many thanks still to Gary for introducing us to that film. Go go check out that episode. It's like what, season two, probably.
SPEAKER_02:Uh always have respect for horror movies that are like, oh no, we're gonna kill this kid in a horrifying way.
SPEAKER_04:Respect.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah. Yeah. That's exactly sorry, spoilers. Yeah. Kid dies in that movie. But he both wrote and directed that film. So that's where I was like, yeah, why do I know this name? And the reason why he will almost certainly come up again, not this season, but he will come up again in the future because he also directed wrote and directed A Nightmare on Elm Street 3 Dream Warriors.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah. I mean, I feel like there's some connection between that and Dreamscape.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:Very much.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah, I wonder if they pulled him into that because of this. Who knows? He also, so we're still talking about Chuck Russell. He also wrote Paradise City, and he has a credit for the 20. So somebody put this on my radar just a couple days ago. There's an 80s film called Witchboard.
SPEAKER_02:Really?
SPEAKER_04:That I wasn't aware of.
SPEAKER_02:Oh.
SPEAKER_04:Uh, I guess it's a horror film, and they highly recommended it. So maybe in the future we'll cover that one. But there was a remake of it in 2024. And so Chuck Russell uh wrote on that. So the reason why I was like, oh, like when this person brought it to my attention, I was like, oh my gosh, it has Patch from Days of Our Lives. It's like a big character from Days of Our Lives. Not that I really watched that show, but Patch and Kayla, they were very popular.
SPEAKER_02:I am not familiar with them.
SPEAKER_04:Anyway. Okay, and lastly, the last credit is for the director. Like he wrote, and I think probably had a hand in doing a couple punch-ups on the script. Joseph Rubin. And he is primarily a director, so he doesn't have a ton of writing credits, and I try to separate those out when I can. So of his strictly speaking, writing credits, it seems like very early in his career, he wrote to direct like his own projects.
SPEAKER_01:Okay.
SPEAKER_04:And then kind of went away from that because his writing credits are also his first three directing credits, which are The Sister-in-Law, Pom Pom Girls, and Joyride.
SPEAKER_01:Okay.
SPEAKER_04:Don't know them. But let's segue into his directing career. So same three films, if we're talking chronological order. And then we get into films that are maybe a little bit more well known Our Winning Season, Gorp, which isn't a great film, but I I I'm not familiar with Gorp. It's like a it's a really bad like summer camp type movie.
SPEAKER_02:Is it like a meatballs kind of thing? Yeah. Okay.
SPEAKER_04:But worse.
SPEAKER_02:It's like But worse, but Meatballs is fantastic, so Yeah, so worse. But it's oh well it yeah.
SPEAKER_04:Was I indicating that meatballs is not good? I'm sorry.
SPEAKER_02:I I interpreted it as I th I I was hearing it as meatballs is bad, Gorp is even worse.
SPEAKER_04:I'm sorry. I didn't mean it that way.
SPEAKER_02:But if you meant like the kind of humor and they go like it's basically like Porkies at camp.
SPEAKER_04:I think it has kind of anyway.
SPEAKER_02:I know I saw it ages ago, but Porkies is the gold standard if I just want to talk about an 80s movie that I think is trash.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah.
SPEAKER_04:I'm on board with that. He also and then it's funny, he like really um goes in a lot of different directions as far as genre. He wrote, or I'm sorry, directed Sleeping with the Enemy, The Good Son. So he directed Money Train.
SPEAKER_01:Okay.
SPEAKER_04:He directed a film called The Forgotten, and then he also directed, I brought it up a minute ago, Blindsided. And then his last credit, I think as of right now, was like 2017, The Ottoman Lieutenant. All right, moving on to the DP Cinematography by Brian Tufano.
SPEAKER_01:Okay.
SPEAKER_04:He passed as well. He passed in 2023. And yeah, really interesting career. He had quite a bit of early, like earlier in his career, a lot of TV work. So with the films that he's done very early in his career, he shot a film called Quadrophenia.
SPEAKER_02:What's that?
SPEAKER_04:So I did Who's that? I I did look. Um, I guess actually, when I first Googled it, I think what popped up was like uh the Who, like an album or something. Really?
SPEAKER_02:Okay.
SPEAKER_04:Um something like that. And but Quad is specifically four, and I think it's like kind of a term for schizophrenia, but like specifically four different personalities.
SPEAKER_02:Well, the trailer the not the trailer, the um synopsis is just Jimmy Cooper loathes his dead end job and his working class parents. He seeks solace with his mod click, scooter riding, and drugs only to be disappointed.
SPEAKER_04:Well, I don't That's the movie. I don't know what the title indicates about like the connection to the actual film story.
SPEAKER_02:Quadriphina, quo and then like the um I think it's a cool word. A way of life. That's the way of life. That's on the uh poster, yeah.
SPEAKER_04:Uh he shot Shallow Grave, Train Spotting, A Life Less Ordinary. So those are all, I believe, Danny Boyle films.
SPEAKER_01:Okay.
SPEAKER_04:Uh so he must have had a relationship with him. He also shot, I I do love this movie. It's been a while since I've watched it, Billy Elliott. Yeah. It's a very, very sweet movie. Uh he also, and I was like, oh, are these films connected? Because he shot a film called Cadulthood.
SPEAKER_02:Cadult, like kid adulthood, cadulthood.
SPEAKER_04:But like smash those two words together. Okay. And then he also did a film called Adulthood. So I thought, oh, well, of course that must be like a sequel to Cadulthood. No, it's not. It's just two different movies. That's anyway. And then uh some of his later work, he did a 2011 film called The Gymnast. Or I should just say gymnast.
SPEAKER_02:There was no the he apparently also uh in TV work was cinematographer for one episode of a 1977 TV miniseries called Supernatural. So I don't know what that is, but it's not the same supernatural.
SPEAKER_04:Obviously, obviously, obviously, Avi. Okay, moving on to music. And we have brought this gentleman up before, actually, several times. Maurice is a I mean several times, and I'm still questioning the way I say his name, Jare.
SPEAKER_02:Sure. Okay, yeah, why not?
SPEAKER_04:So he's getting crazy with the music was crazy with the electronic keyboard, yeah. It was, I we both brought it up a couple times because it was like kind of noticeable, and I don't know if that's good or bad. I do think that like tonally it probably supported the film's story, but sometimes it was like a little much.
SPEAKER_02:I can say that while I I don't have a a ton of memories of seeing the movie besides Snake Man, I don't remember the music standing out the way it did when we watched it last night, where I'm like, holy cow, this is this is uh intense, intensely 80s.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah, exactly, exactly. And he also has passed. He passed in 2009. Now I'll get to like all the because his his career so far precedes this film. I mean, he was a multi-oscar-winning composer, and it's just absolutely wild to me the diversity of projects that he has done. When I start, and I mean, I know I know for a fact I said this the last time we brought him up because it still blows my mind. So his career started with like short films. Uh, he scores the olive trees of justice, he gets his first Oscar. So let's see. He does have a couple original songs, so it's a little bit of a mix of score nominations, original song nominations. The first one is score for Sundays in Sibylle.
SPEAKER_01:Okay.
SPEAKER_04:He wins best score. So this guy, he composed Lawrence of Arabia.
SPEAKER_02:Holy shit.
SPEAKER_04:Iconic score. He wins again for this was my dad's favorite film, Dr. Chivago.
SPEAKER_01:Okay.
SPEAKER_04:I mean, another truly iconic, yeah, gorgeous score. So this is the same guy, just to remind you, he he scored Lords of Arabia, Dr. Chivago, and Dreamscape.
SPEAKER_02:So Yeah, no, this guy this guy doesn't waste his time with projects that aren't great.
SPEAKER_04:That's the way of putting it. He gets a best original song nomination for the life and times of Judge Roy Bean. Love this title. The effect of gamma rays on Man in the Moon Marigolds.
SPEAKER_01:Okay, okay.
SPEAKER_04:Might have to check that out. He scores the man who would be king. He gets another score nomination for The Message. He does The Last Tycoon, The Tin Drum, Taps. So now we're getting to the 80s. He does, again, Lawrence for Arabia as well as Top Secret. He, I mean, and he fluctuates so wildly. He gets another score win for a passage to India. He gets another score nomination for witness. Oh he also, I think I brought this up the last time too because I was like, oh, he did like two back-to-back Harrison Ford films. Because he also scores the Mosquito Coast. Now, the very the last time we brought him up is because he scored Fatal Attraction.
SPEAKER_02:Okay. He also scored uh a Clint Eastwood movie that I'm gonna try to figure out. I'm gonna try to figure out how to get that into one of these seasons. Um, Firefox.
SPEAKER_04:What's that one about?
SPEAKER_02:That is where he is an ex-like uh pilot chosen to get um to sneak into the Soviet Union to steal an experimental fighter plane.
SPEAKER_04:It's always about Soviet Union, although they call him Russians in this film.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah. Yeah. I just call him that to be offensive.
SPEAKER_04:So he that's I'm not even done with his uh I mean, this is just a fraction of the word. He was a prolific composer. He gets another score nomination for Gorillas in the Mist. We also brought him up because he scored Dead Poet Society. Go check out that episode. He also scored Prancer.
SPEAKER_02:Wow.
SPEAKER_04:We are coming upon, although I don't want to cut short our Halloween series, but we are coming upon the holiday season. So go check out that episode when when we get to it. Uh, or when we get to that season. He gets his last best score nomination for Ghost. And then he also does a couple other titles, school ties, and a walk in the clouds. I mean, what a fucking career.
SPEAKER_02:And also the family friendly comedy Jacob's Ladder.
SPEAKER_04:Oh, yeah. I like you. I once you name something, it's like, oh yeah, of course you noticed that one. Yeah. But uh, what a career, right? Amazing.
SPEAKER_02:Insane.
SPEAKER_04:Insane. Okay. Moving on to film editing, Richard Halsley. And he's still working. This guy, he's still going for it. And he has some like amazing credits. He's also Oscar winner. So he started out in television early in his career as well. He for a while was uh I don't know, the editor, a editor on Peyton Place TV series, but everything else I have for him, films. So he cuts Harry and Ton. He is still very early in his career. He gets a best film editing Oscar win for Rocky.
SPEAKER_02:That's awesome.
SPEAKER_04:He cut Rocky.
SPEAKER_02:Wow.
SPEAKER_04:He does, and there are it's kind of amazing that we haven't brought it up yet, but there are gonna be definitely, I don't know if like soon is correct, but down the road, I'm sure he'll come back because he cut American Giggolo, Down and Out in Beverly Hills, Mannequin. That probably would be the next one we would talk about with him. Dragnet, Earth Girls Are Easy, he does Beaches. Now we're getting to the 90s, Joe versus the Volcano. Weird, weird movie. I don't if I've seen it, I don't really have any recollection of it.
SPEAKER_02:I think what what was strange about Joe versus the volcano is that you kind of have an idea in in your mind on what a movie's gonna be with Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan. Yeah. And this was just like a really um off the rails kind of film.
SPEAKER_04:Okay. Alright. I love this movie. He cuts uh Edward Scissor Hands because they did that. I feel like that's a film that they should play at the bowl, like over the holidays.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah.
SPEAKER_04:It has a great score too.
SPEAKER_02:Which holiday?
SPEAKER_04:I'm gonna say maybe like November, like early, like so past Halloween.
SPEAKER_02:Thanksgiving with scissor hands.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah, yeah. He uh cut Sister Axe, so I married an Axe Murderer, the 2018 The Little Mermaid, and just this year he cut a film called Isabel's Garden. Okay, we are at the stars of our film. We have actually a lot of big names in this movie.
SPEAKER_02:I mean, from everyone that we just talked about to who we're about to go through, this is a blockbuster with big names Academy Award.
SPEAKER_04:But was it actually No, I don't think so. Yeah. Um, no, but yeah, a lot of big names, starting with star of the film, Dennis Quaid. Oh, what was that?
SPEAKER_02:Well, I mean, I I have generally enjoyed him quite a bit.
SPEAKER_04:But you're talking about his life outside of acting. Yes. Yes, I understand, and I agree.
SPEAKER_02:Too bad.
SPEAKER_04:Too bad. Unfortunate. Unfortunate. So he plays Alex Gardner, and now look, normally I don't like I know we get to like our synopsis section, but I don't usually do like a full rundown. But I I'm really curious. That's probably just gonna be my call to action of like how familiar people are with this movie. Uh not to say that like people wouldn't be just because I wasn't, but Oh, people are familiar with this movie. Because of Snakeman?
SPEAKER_02:No, I don't know. I just think I think if um if you just said the name, you'd be like, wait, what? But yeah, yeah, exactly. Then you say, you know, the one with Snake Man, they'd be like, oh yeah, now I remember.
SPEAKER_04:Okay. Well, I mean, this this character in this film, so he I mean, he kind of reminded me of Eleven from Straight. Maybe because we were doing a rewatch of Stranger Things.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah.
SPEAKER_04:In terms of like just having these like psychic abilities. He also, I thought it was really interesting because now he wasn't as young as 11, but a lot of the language around the way he was treated when he was still technically a teenager sounded very similar, where he's being put through the ringer for all these like lab tests. There's this like one person that's like his point of contact, the way that like Matthew Modine was for 11.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah.
SPEAKER_04:Um, in terms of um Max von Siddao, and he essentially like goes at my A.
SPEAKER_02:I think I called him the aggressively reluctant hero.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:Because he he just um like no matter no matter what it was at the beginning, they're like, we wanna we want you to uh help us with no. Okay, so this is what we're no, like no.
SPEAKER_04:Well, I guess I get it. And it but it was a really interesting dynamic to me because like obviously, and I mean it seems like the extent of the abuse she suffered was way more extensive in Stranger Things.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah.
SPEAKER_04:But Alex seems to have come out of his situation, like he's a jokester, he's like pretty like sassy, like he is sassy, yeah. Yeah, he doesn't seem too broken up over the experience, although he certainly doesn't want to be part of it again, but he still maintains like a weirdly positive relationship with I I should stop calling him by the actor, just um what's Mac? Uh Dr. Is it Navot Novotny? Novotny.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah.
SPEAKER_04:So like when he gets pulled in and he realizes that it's him behind why he was like, I don't know, kidnapped as a strong word. Abducted. But abducted. When he realizes it's him, like, yeah, he's like kind of piss they're both kind of pissy with each other, yeah. But then they're like, let's go to dinner. Like it was very interesting to me that they had that type of rapport.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah. I mean, I think there was only one place to go to dinner in the village, and it was Hooters.
SPEAKER_04:Village. Yeah. Yeah. I was like, was that a real place in LA? Because they're obviously in Los Angeles.
SPEAKER_02:I don't know. I mean, it yeah, they were very much in LA because he's like, just let me off on Los Angeles.
SPEAKER_04:Instead of just like to not alienate people who have no fucking clue what street that is, you could have just like, you could just leave me out l let me out here, you know. In any case, this is the first time we have brought up Dennis Quaid, at least to be featured in a film. Isn't that interesting?
SPEAKER_02:That is.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah. Uh he very much got his start in like late 70s, early 80s, and had a great 80s. I mean, he still is working to this day for sure, but some of his early work, and I have so as of like late, he's done a lot more television, but his early work was definitely film-focused. He did breaking away. He was in the movie Gor Gorp.
SPEAKER_01:Okay.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah, he was in that. Uh Caveman, which is just terrible. Uh he I do want to do this film at some point. The night the lights went out in Georgia.
SPEAKER_02:I don't know what that's about.
SPEAKER_04:So it's him, it's Mark Hamill, and it's Christy McNichol.
SPEAKER_02:Okay.
SPEAKER_04:And so I've never seen the entire film. I've seen bits and pieces, but she I think they both so Dennis Quaid and Christy McNichol are brother and sister. I think they both have aspirations of being like country singers. However, she's far more successful than he is. And that's kind of the extent to which I think I know what the movie's about. And then Mark Hamill is like her love interest.
SPEAKER_01:Okay.
SPEAKER_04:So I've always thought it sounded like an interesting movie. So maybe one day. It's 80s.
SPEAKER_02:Right after Firefox.
SPEAKER_04:I think it's 81. So this is so funny because this is now like two episodes in a row where somebody just had like a you could say cameo, but they weren't well known at the time. But he also was in stripes. We said it last time about Bill Paxton.
SPEAKER_02:Like an extra or something in it, the graduation ceremony.
SPEAKER_04:Which is weird that there's so many later down the road big actors who were had these little parts. He maybe kind of gets his like more name recognition for Jaws 3D, maybe infamously.
SPEAKER_02:Really?
SPEAKER_04:Yeah. He's he's like he's like the guy.
SPEAKER_02:Mike Brody. So he's the kid. Yeah. He's he's sure. Yeah, he's not a that that's I think the tagline. Mike's not a kid anymore.
SPEAKER_04:He's not a kid anymore. He also was in the right stuff. Inner space.
SPEAKER_02:Suspect That was a fun movie, Inner Space.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah, I'd I'd totally do that.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah.
SPEAKER_04:Suspect, DOA. This is just ugh gross story. Great Balls of Fire.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, that's um turns out he did some not awesome stuff.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:Jerry Lee Lewis, I mean.
SPEAKER_04:Cracked. I mean, I remember even when that like when the movie was new, I was thinking, like, as a kid, isn't that kind of gross that he like married his like 13-year-old cousin? Yeah. The answer is yes. That's that's gross. So he was in Postcards from the Edge. He was in unfortunately the inferior Wyatt Earp movie called White Earp.
SPEAKER_02:And he was Doc Holliday.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah, that's tough. It's real tough. When and what they came out probably within a year of each other?
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, it was really weird. Like that, that sometimes happens. Like we had um like Armageddon and Deep Impact within like a year of each other, it felt like. Yes. Like sometimes that just happens.
SPEAKER_04:It it does. And unfortunately, it's like a far inferior film. Uh, I don't really care about the film so much, but oh man, do I love the score from Dragonheart?
SPEAKER_02:You sure do.
SPEAKER_04:I do. Yeah. Yeah. It's I was actually when I was doing the notes, I put it on while I was putting it together. It's so gorgeous. Love it. He was in The Parent Trap, Any Given Sunday, Traffic, The Rookie, Far From Heaven, The Day After Tomorrow, which is like another world disaster movie. In Good Company, Smart People. I think I own that movie, and I don't even know why. Why I have that DVD. I don't remember having an opinion about that movie.
SPEAKER_02:He was good in uh frequency too. Like a kind of a time travelish.
SPEAKER_04:I didn't add that one. That's with um what's his name?
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, the guy that just Yeah.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah. Same thing. And he's absolutely tremendous in the thin red line. He's so good. He okay, so getting back to Dennis Quaid. He is in the boo 2011 reboot of Footloose.
SPEAKER_02:But yeah. Yeah.
SPEAKER_04:And then I boo. And then I mentioned at the top of his section that he's lately done some film, or I'm sorry, TV. So those shows are Vegas, Goliath, and I heard that this just got canceled. Happy Face. Where I think he plays a serial killer. Okay. Who's in prison? Okay. We mentioned him a second ago, Max Found Siddow. So he is Dr.
SPEAKER_02:Paul Novotny.
SPEAKER_04:I don't know why it's so hard for me to say that. I'm just gonna call him Doctor. So Dr.
SPEAKER_02:N.
SPEAKER_04:Unfortunately, he's also passed. He passed in 2020. He was an incredible actor. Actually, the next two guys were both incredible actors.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah. And you would expect a movie like this to have two actors of their caliber.
SPEAKER_04:I mean, it's it's insane to have both these guys in this movie. I'm sorry, it is.
SPEAKER_02:It is no, it is. That's what makes it so good.
SPEAKER_04:I feel like either him and Christopher Plummer were just like, yeah, like I just want to act. I don't care about like I just love acting. I I gotta imagine. I mean, come on. I'll just leave it at that. But so his first credit, well, let's see. I think his um background was Swedish, uh, because he did a ton of stuff with Igmar Bergman. And his first credit was a 1949 film, Only a Mother. And then, yeah, he was in like over a dozen Bergman movies, uh, starting with the Seventh Seal. He was in Wild Strawberries. I mean, probably most American audiences. I I don't I don't want to presume, but like maybe they first became familiar with him because he's in The Exorcist, where he plays a guy like twice his age. Makeup was phenomenal in that movie.
SPEAKER_02:It really was because he looked significantly younger in Dreamscape.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:Which was like 11 years after The Exorcist. So they did or they did a fantastic job with the makeup.
SPEAKER_04:I mean, as good as I think I've ever seen. Like usually aging people to the extent like because he was like um what, maybe 40 in the Exorcist, like his real age. Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:And they made They made him like 80 or something.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah, he looked like he was in the 70s or 80s, and his makeup looks so fucking perfect.
SPEAKER_02:They did almost as good of a job as they did on Sam Winchester in Supernatural.
SPEAKER_04:I mean, to be fair, like I I don't think they did a bad job at all on uh Regan, but like or Reagan, Reagan. Um, but his makeup is just like spitchbird.
SPEAKER_02:I mean, you knew that they were doing something with Reagan because that's not how kids look.
SPEAKER_03:Right.
SPEAKER_02:But they did such a phenomenal job on Sidow that you wouldn't, you just assumed that he was that old. Like you didn't, you didn't know that they had even done anything.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah, exactly. Very impressive. He also was in, I know you don't like to acknowledge this, Exorcist 2, a heretic.
SPEAKER_02:I'm so sorry that he was part of that.
SPEAKER_04:I don't really remember the story. I know I've seen it, but like, was it in flashbacks? Because he, spoiler, dies in the Exorcist.
SPEAKER_02:Well, it probably brought back?
SPEAKER_04:Is it like a demon thing?
SPEAKER_02:I don't, I don't think they bring him back. Um, so it probably was a flashback.
SPEAKER_04:Uh so he's in Three Days of the Condor, Flash Garden.
unknown:Yeah.
SPEAKER_04:Conan. This is what I'm saying. Like, it's like very similar to um when you're talking about the composer, like just this like random mishmash of like these highly, highly acclaimed films and which Conan was he in? Uh Conan the Barbarian.
SPEAKER_02:Okay. That is. Oh, go ahead. That I mean, there's there are some big names in Conan the Barbarian.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah, but it's not it's not the Seventh Seal.
SPEAKER_02:It's Or the Exorcist, to be fair. I mean, you got James Earl Jones in that one though. Sure. You know.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah. No, totally. He now the last time we brought him up is because he did Strange Brew. Yeah. And honestly, it's funny because he's like It felt very similar.
SPEAKER_02:Yes. Yeah.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah. But he's actually the good guy in this.
SPEAKER_02:He is the good guy in this one, yeah.
SPEAKER_04:He, I mean, with some shades of gray, but he's the good guy.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah. They're pretty light shades.
SPEAKER_04:Pretty light shades. You know, they're not. I mean, he shouldn't have treated uh what is Dennis Quaid's character? Alex. He shouldn't have treated Alex that way as a kid. He's like not a science experiment, but he's not he's not the baddie that is Christopher Palmer, which it's immediately like obvious that Christopher Plummer's the baddie.
SPEAKER_02:There's like no He basically walks in like Yeah, I'll be the villain of this movie.
SPEAKER_04:There's like no ambiguity about him being the baddie. Uh, but we're we still have so many cards to get through for Von Stow. Um he does Never Say Never Again. Wait, never say never again. Yes.
SPEAKER_02:Really? The uh Bond movie? Correct. Wow.
SPEAKER_04:He is in Dune, the 8084 was we definitely have to cover that at some point. Uh sure. I'll do it. Hannah and her sisters. He gets uh best actor Oscar nomination for Pele the Conqueror. He I love I love this, and it makes total sense. So he's uncredited, but he is the voice of Vigo in Ghostbusters 2.
SPEAKER_02:Oh okay, yeah, that does make sense.
SPEAKER_04:I love that he did that.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah.
SPEAKER_04:He was in Awakenings. I mean so many movies. Judge Dread. What Dreams May Come.
SPEAKER_02:Which Judge Dredd was he was in the one with Stallone, right? Correct. Yeah, okay.
SPEAKER_04:Minority Report, which I do like that movie, but it's been a minute, so I don't remember who he was.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, I can't remember his role, but that was a really good movie ahead of its time in in many ways.
SPEAKER_04:Really good movie. Yeah. The Diving Bell and the Butterfly, Shutter Island. He gets another Oscar NOM, this time for Best Supporting Actor, for Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close. He is in Star Wars Episode 7. Yeah. The Force Awakens.
SPEAKER_01:Yep.
SPEAKER_04:He's in that. Uh and he did have a credit in Game of Thrones. His final credit.
SPEAKER_02:He was the uh tree, wasn't he?
SPEAKER_04:Yeah, I believe so.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah. What was that called? One-eyed raven or the game. There you go. Yeah. Thank you. He also played like the uh Leland Gaunt, the I think the person who ran the store in Stephen King's Needful Things, which was actually a pretty good adaptation of that book. Okay. Yeah.
SPEAKER_04:And yeah, his final credit was a film called Echoes of the Past. I mean, it just seems like, and this is very similar to who we're about to bring up, that he just loved acting and didn't really have ego about himself because he could have, he could have been like, I worked with fucking Igmar Bergman. I don't need to do Strange Brew, but he did Strange Brew and he did this movie.
SPEAKER_02:He didn't have to, but he did, and it was awesome.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah, and he's good.
SPEAKER_02:We're we're all the better for having had that experience because seeing it, it like makes it so much fun to watch when you see someone where you know that they have these incredible acting chops, and then you see a fucking dog eat or drink like a bunch of beer and start flying. It's like, yeah, that's that's the world that I want to live in.
SPEAKER_04:Um, I wonder if part of the reason why they cast him in this role is because they wanted to at least give they wanted to somewhat have a red herring of like who could be the baddie because he could kind of have that that vibe to him.
SPEAKER_02:I think I think probably so. Because like when the red flag is when he was telling Alex like how he was doing this, why he was doing this, he was just like, 'cause it's fucking exciting.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:Which is kind of like, oh, I don't I don't know if I trust that.
SPEAKER_04:Right, right.
SPEAKER_02:But it is better than like if you ask Christopher Plummer's character, Blair, and his answer was because I want to fucking murder people.
SPEAKER_04:Specifically the president.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah. Well, just all people, but starting with well, not starting with the president. I guess he's like the second.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah.
SPEAKER_04:But I and actually now that I'm thinking about it, like, again, I don't think that the doctor was the baddie because Christopher Plummer is very clearly the baddie. But he does blackmail Alex into helping him by saying he's gonna get the IRS on his ass if he doesn't. So that wasn't cool.
SPEAKER_02:Well, you know what is cool? Paying your taxes.
SPEAKER_04:Paying your taxes. Okay, so moving on to Christopher Plummer. I mean, I love Christopher Plummer so much.
SPEAKER_02:It it's just funny though, because it's like You didn't know he was you had no idea that he was in this, right? I mean, you once you started looking up everything. Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_04:I didn't I didn't know so many of these like huge names were in this movie. It's just so funny to me because like, okay, so he's not like a baddie, obviously, in the sound of music, but he has such a commanding presence that the second he walks, like like the second he appears in this movie as like, oh, so he's the bad guy.
SPEAKER_02:Like it's like not even Yeah, yeah, no, it's true.
SPEAKER_04:Not even a question. He plays Bob Blair, and unfortunately, he has passed as well. He passed a year after Von Sidow. He passed in 2021, and he too, he had an incredible career. Uh he he had credits well before this film, but I think he like very much came on came on everybody's radar in the sound of music.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah.
SPEAKER_04:So he is Captain Von Trapp, he's amazing in that film. Love him so much. Uh, some of his other credits, I mean, he had just a great career. Oedipus the King. I added this only because I think we've mentioned it before and it's a funny title. Lock Up Your Daughters exclamation point. He was in The Return of the Pink Panther, The Man Who Would Be King. This this film we could do at some point somewhere in time, because it's like 1980.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, I I kind of want to. Um that's the one with Christopher Reeve.
SPEAKER_04:Correct.
SPEAKER_02:Right? Yeah, Seymour. Yeah, it's like a kind of a time paradox type of movie. Yeah, I'd love to do that.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah. So he's in that. He had a role in that TV mini-series, The Thornbirds.
SPEAKER_02:Oh God.
SPEAKER_04:So he was in that.
SPEAKER_02:I don't even know what the equivalent, like, what would the modern day equivalent of something like that?
SPEAKER_04:It really isn't. Like, I mean, that was like before my time, but like I know that it was like so popular.
SPEAKER_02:It was like very romantic, and so from what I I never watched it, but like I don't know how hard you could push the boundaries of what was like acceptable on TV, but it felt like Was the male lead a priest?
SPEAKER_04:Was is that what like it was like a familiar thing?
SPEAKER_02:Because he was Priest Thornbird? I don't know.
SPEAKER_04:I don't know. I have no idea. Was it like a scarlet letter thing? Um I didn't I also didn't know that Christopher Plummer did voice work in American Tale. He actually did voice work a couple times.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah.
SPEAKER_04:So he also he was in Dragnet. Um so among his different voice uh projects, he I think was like the narrator for a lot of those Madeline Adam uh animated movies. Oh, okay. Yeah. So he did a ton of that, but then he also did Malcolm X and he was in Wolf and Twelve Monkeys, The Insider. That's a great movie.
SPEAKER_02:That real yeah.
SPEAKER_04:That's a really good movie. He was in Dracula 2000.
SPEAKER_02:Oh well, that's that is probably the worst vampire movie I've ever seen.
SPEAKER_04:But it I mean, the trajectory of his career reminds me so much of An Sidow, where they just, you know, like let's just act, let's just be in stuff.
SPEAKER_02:And no, fair, fair. That one's not even fun bad though. Like at least at least Dreamscape had some like fun moments. Yeah.
SPEAKER_04:So he also that he bounces back. He's in a beautiful mind. He does bounce back.
SPEAKER_02:That's amazing.
SPEAKER_04:Uh I so you know this movie much better than I do, but he's a national treasure.
SPEAKER_02:Oh, yeah. I remember is he a baddie? Uh that I can't remember, but I remember him in it, but I'm like, are you bad or good? I don't know.
SPEAKER_04:He was in Syriana. He does more voice work in the film Up. He and now very, very, very late in his career, he finally starts to get some Oscar love. Thank God. So he for gets his first nomination, best supporting actor. All his nominations were in best the best supporting actor category. The first time was for the last station. He wins. He wins best supporting actor for the film Beginners. And then he, and I remember this being kind of a big deal because they had to do a swap out of actors. He gets another best supporting actor Oscar nom for all the money in the world.
SPEAKER_02:I remember that, yeah.
SPEAKER_04:If I'm remembering correctly, that's when like the um what's his name from House of Cards?
SPEAKER_02:Uh oh, is that what happened?
SPEAKER_04:Yeah, that's when that all dropped. And so they pulled him, I believe, from the film, and then they had uh Christopher Plummer step in and get an Oscar nomination off of it. And also at the time, I think he was like, I I think the record still holds. He was 88 years old when he was nominated.
SPEAKER_02:That's amazing.
SPEAKER_04:So he and then one of his like one of his final film uh credits was for the first Knives Out film. But his actual final on-screen credit was for a TV series called Departure. All right. So okay, moving on to yet another amazing actor who had an incredible career, Eddie Albert. So he plays the president. Do we know his last name? I know his first name's John.
SPEAKER_02:President John? I don't know.
SPEAKER_04:Because his wife in the first nightmare just John, John. Uh Eddie Albert, he passed in 2005. His first credit was all the way back in 1936. Wow. So he had a very, very long career well before this movie came came along. So he did I mean, he did a ton of TV, uh, a lot of like one-offs, two offs. He did have some like longer stints on different series, but overall his career was very much like a back and forth between film and television. So some of his early work, I love just the title of this film, The Dude Goes West.
SPEAKER_01:Wow. Yeah.
SPEAKER_04:Cool, right? He was on a TV series called Leave It to Larry, not Leave It to Beaver, Leave It to Larry. And I think he might have been Larry. He gets his first best supporting actor Oscar nomination for Roman Holiday. I didn't know that before looking this up. He was in the film Oklahoma.
SPEAKER_02:Exclamation point.
SPEAKER_04:Oklahoma, where the wind blows. I don't.
SPEAKER_02:No, no, keep going. That was amazing.
SPEAKER_04:I don't know it. He was in The Sun also Rises. Uh, some TV work. So the first was Petticoat Junction. However, I bet you there's a whole generation of people who know him as the lead. Uh, what was it? Jah Zha Gabor's husband in Green Acres.
SPEAKER_02:That's where I know him from. Damn, I was trying to like, like, I know this guy from something. Okay.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah, there you go. He gets his next, he never won, but he gets his second and last best supporting actor Oscar nomination for the Heartbreak Kid. He was in the 1974 The Longest Yard.
SPEAKER_02:I remember him from that too, yeah.
SPEAKER_04:So he's in that. I will say this for him in this film. Good hair.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah.
SPEAKER_04:Great hair. Yeah, great head of hair. He was in Escape to Witch Mountain.
SPEAKER_02:Which one?
SPEAKER_04:Oh, is how many were there?
SPEAKER_02:No, I was just making a joke about the mountain, like Witch Mountain.
SPEAKER_04:Oh, you do that every time.
SPEAKER_02:But then I realized that there was every time there was a remake with The Rock.
unknown:Oh.
SPEAKER_02:Of Escape to Witch Mountain, yeah.
SPEAKER_04:Okay. He was on a TV series called Switch. His final credit was on the TV series California. Okay, moving on to like kind of the only trick in this movie, Kate Capshaw.
SPEAKER_02:Well, there was that one lady who died.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah. No lines.
SPEAKER_02:She's just she just died.
SPEAKER_04:This is a this is a very male-centric film as far as the characters go. But we do hate have Kate Capshaw. Yeah, we don't hate her at all. We love her. I mean to say hate at all. I'm gonna say have. Um I love Kate Capshaw, and I love her in this movie. She plays Dr. Jane DeVries, and which is funny. I went to school with a lot of Devries. Uh and yeah, I mean, tricky waters here.
SPEAKER_02:Um They're not even not even that tricky. It is just bad. Like Dennis Quaid, Alex does some muddy waters. Alex does some fucked up stuff in the scene.
SPEAKER_04:Oh yeah. Oh yeah.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah.
SPEAKER_04:I mean, oh yeah. It's and and they play it as romance, and it's okay.
SPEAKER_02:When uh okay, so she is like testing his psychic abilities or warming up his psychic abilities or whatever, when it's just like like the the opening of Ghostbusters. She's got like a card with a color which is funny because it's the same year. Yeah, and Alex has to like tell her what card she's holding. And then he just says, like, yes, I am attracted to you. And she kind of like smiles for a second, then she's like, No, this is serious business. Not gonna let you play mind games with me. Um, so that that's like okay, that that was like stupid and cheesy, but then like later in the movie, he asks her out to dinner and she says no, and he just kind of like leans in and kisses her on the lips. I'm nodding my head, yes, very hopefully that crossed several lines. Correct. But then like the to really top it off, after she decides not to go to dinner with him, he goes out drinking, comes back, she has like passed out asleep on the couch in her office, and he just thinks, like, you know what, I'm just gonna go in her dream, where they proceed to like get it on in the dream. I don't even like I instinctively know that that is super wrong, but I don't even know how to like dissect that.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah, no, I agree with you, and that was a great little recap. And also in that dream, boy, those tidy whitey pants. He looks like some tight white pants.
SPEAKER_02:I don't my call to action is whose pants were tighter, Justin Verlander or Dennis Quaid in Dreamscape.
SPEAKER_04:And yeah, I mean, I really like her in this movie, but it I have very not complicated feelings about her character, but just the dynamic of her relationship with Alex.
SPEAKER_02:Like, I love that after the dream thing happened, she's like, but it was just a dream, so it didn't really happen, but I am really upset.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah, it's a great way to articulate it. I mean, he he's it's he took advantage of her.
SPEAKER_02:It is very invasive.
SPEAKER_04:Very invasive. Yeah, yeah. Which by the way, this might be a great place to say, like, when we were watching this, I was like, so this is like the prequel to Inception.
SPEAKER_02:Like, that's essentially what this is. I I mean, when I looked up some of that, it seems that Nolan was more inspired by I can't remember if it was just the manga or the actual anime of something called um paprika, I think, which was where there was a device that would allow people to go in and control dreams. Um, so there were other things that probably inspired it, but man, it really seemed like they hit all of the bases in terms of like going in and like getting people's secrets or And what I couldn't I mean I asked you about this when you were watching, what I couldn't totally shake out was so the person who's like the psychic that goes into the dream, they're fully aware that they're in somebody else's dream.
SPEAKER_04:Yes. But it didn't seem like the person who actually was dreaming was aware that they were dream they weren't like lucid dreaming.
SPEAKER_02:No, he tried to get the president to acknowledge that he was just in a dream, and the president's like he kind of like accepted like, oh cool, but I can't wake up because they gave me a sedative.
SPEAKER_04:That's true, that's as far as it went. Yeah. But like with like Buddy, I don't think Buddy realized in the dream, like as soon as they wake up, he knows immediately that like Alex helped him conquer the monster.
SPEAKER_02:It's like they're fully, but they're fully in the dream, so they're like acting out their role in the dream, and then there's this like new person, which is Alex, but from the other person's side, they're just like still still in that dream.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah. Okay. Kate Caption, you know what? This because we haven't actually done Temple of Doom yet. I don't know if we will, but yeah, maybe I didn't realize that so like she hasn't actually come up on this podcast as far as like being featured in a film. And I didn't realize that she has not been acting in like over 20 years. Oh yeah. I mean, I think she's a great actress and would actually like to see her in more stuff. But you know, if she comes up again, probably the next time it would be for Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom.
SPEAKER_02:I suppose, depending on how long we do this, there's a chance that we would cover Black Rain.
SPEAKER_04:I don't even have that one listed.
SPEAKER_02:It is a good movie with Michael Douglas, yeah.
SPEAKER_04:Oh, okay.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, it's not a bad movie at all.
SPEAKER_04:Well, I was gonna say either Temple of Doom or Space Camp.
SPEAKER_02:All of them. We'll just cover all of them.
SPEAKER_04:And then in between those, I didn't even know this. Maybe I brought it up before. There's a film called Windy City.
SPEAKER_01:Hmm, what's that about?
SPEAKER_04:You know, I didn't click in. I just presumed that it was about Chicago, but I don't know. Uh, she was in How to Make an American Quilt. I love her in The Love Letter, it's such a good movie. It's this like quiet little, like kind of character piece. It's really, really good. And the reason why it got absolutely like just nobody ever heard of it is because it came out, I I want to say it came out like the same weekend as Phantom Menace. So it's like, well, obviously, nobody's gonna watch that movie. It's probably it's gonna get buried.
SPEAKER_02:It's probably a better movie than The Phantom Menace.
unknown:Oh.
SPEAKER_02:Because that's not a real high bar.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah. No, it's a good, I like it. And uh, I mean, she's still like very much with us, um, but her last credit was in 2002 for a TV movie called Do East. All right. I mean, if people aren't familiar, she's married to Steven Spielberg.
SPEAKER_02:So well, huh? I mean, she she could do whatever she wants then, right? Yeah. Like if she wanted to act, she would probably have an opportunity.
SPEAKER_04:She would probably have the opportunity. I feel like she has some connections.
SPEAKER_02:Although she could this is more like Spielberg related than Capshaw related, but because you brought him up, I thought it was like kind of hilarious that Activision is trying to like get a movie made for Call of Duty.
SPEAKER_04:I just read about this.
SPEAKER_02:And Spielberg was like, Yeah, I want to do it. And Activision's like, uh, you wanted a little bit too much control, so we're not gonna go with this. Uh, what's this Spielberg guy?
SPEAKER_04:I mean, what the fuck are they thinking?
SPEAKER_02:Maybe the guy that made Saving Private Ryan knows a little bit about making a war movie.
SPEAKER_04:The the hubris.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah.
SPEAKER_04:You know, to to be like, nah, Spielberg, we're gonna find someone else.
SPEAKER_02:Wild. Just what the fuck?
SPEAKER_04:Anyway, okay, moving on to David Patrick Kelly, who plays Tommy Ray Glatman. And as soon as he said his name in the movie, I was like, he's a serial killer because nobody calls themselves by all three names. Except. Except serial killers.
SPEAKER_02:So he's really good at acting like just an unhinged psychopath.
SPEAKER_04:He's definitely that in this movie. I mean, he doesn't even try to hide it.
unknown:No.
SPEAKER_02:In the first five minutes, it's like, you figured out yet? It's me. I'm the one. You're gonna have to stop me.
SPEAKER_04:I mean, this film is kind of hilarious in that regard. There's no ambiguity as far as like Plumber's character or this guy, that they're both like bad nudes.
SPEAKER_02:Because the way you're in we're introduced to Tommy's character because he just breaks into Alex's room and starts starts like playing the saxophone.
SPEAKER_04:Uh and the and the funny thing is is that Alex is like, do you want to grab a beer? Like he tries to like be friends with him, kind of.
SPEAKER_02:Hey, fuck you, buddy. I'm here for me.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah, it was so so bizarre. Um, he is still very much working, he's been a lot of stuff. Yeah. So you brought him up while we were watching this because, like, you again, you know this movie better than I do, but he's in the Warriors.
SPEAKER_02:He he's like the guy that basically is responsible for the Warriors happening. Like the whole movie is based off of like what that character does. Okay. Yeah.
SPEAKER_04:All right. He's in 48 Hours, Commando. So he very much could come up again in the future. Wild at Heart. I remember that this movie, which I'm like, oh, innocent times, the adventures of Ford Fairlane, and people were just like kind of up in arms about it because they thought that what's his name? He had just such a dirty type of comedy.
SPEAKER_02:Andrew Dice Clay, to be fair, was like incredibly like every ist that you could like misogynist, racist, like all of those things. Like his comedy was like pretty gross.
SPEAKER_04:But it was a shtick, right?
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, the well what was it? I guess that was his like character, and I don't think his character in the movie was even like a fraction of as like bad as his stand-up stuff would be. But I think if people like watched old stand-up from him now, they'd be like, oh wow, yeah, that was kind of bad.
SPEAKER_04:I'm just like looking at like what's he what has he been up to.
SPEAKER_02:But that was his thing. It was like, you know, uh people would come up with routines that were like shocking just for like that shock value, but it was it was gross.
SPEAKER_04:He was the first stand-up comedian to sell out Madison Square Garden for two consecutive nights.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, there you go. There you go. Well done. Well done.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah. Okay, so getting back to David Patrick Kelly, he also was in the original uh Twin Peaks TV series. He too was in Malcolm X, he was in Cricklin, The Crow, Flirting with Disaster. So this is kind of funny. He was in the 2005 The Young Longest Yard. So both versions of the Longest Yard have come up. Um Eddie Albert was in the other one. So he I have not really watched these films yet. He's in John Wick and John Wick chapter two.
SPEAKER_02:I've seen most of John Wick. I think I've seen the whole thing. Um I mean, it's tough because his dog is killed in it. So I know that you can't.
SPEAKER_04:I don't really want to watch it, yeah.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah. But if you want to if you wanted to see someone like just exact glorious vengeance for that half-that's the whole reason. Right. I do know that that's the conceit of the entire The whole franchise is based off of like someone killed this guy's dog and he will not stop killing.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah. I'm all about it.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah. So he's in that. And then more recently, some TV work, The Blacklist and Succession. He had uh like a two-episode arc on that. Okay. Lastly, we're going to cover, I mean, his intro into this film, I'm sorry, it's kind of funny. George Wend.
SPEAKER_02:It was so like sinister when you see Norm at the bar.
SPEAKER_04:But it's like Norm. Yeah. Norm at a bar trying to look sinister. He plays, like you said earlier, Charlie Prince. So he is. But he's a novelist or a journalist? He's a novelist. Both. Okay.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah.
SPEAKER_04:And he's trying to get what material for his next book.
SPEAKER_02:I think so. I think he's doing research or something, yeah.
SPEAKER_04:And I'm sorry to say, uh, of everyone that we've talked about, George Went has passed the most recently. He passed just this year in 2025. But also had an incredible career. He, I mean, I will get- not the first time we brought him up. But we haven't done house yet, right? We just watched house. Wasn't he in Fletch? Oh, he was in Fletch.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah.
SPEAKER_04:I was thinking house. Because like when I was doing his credits, I was like, we haven't, I think we've just we have talked about house a lot.
SPEAKER_02:Because it's so weird.
SPEAKER_04:It's so because it's so wacky, but we haven't actually covered house before the podcast. Yeah. Um, but yes, you're right. He has come up because of Fletch. But earlier in his career, so a lot of film work. My bodyguard, he too is in somewhere in time. Okay. Yeah. You just mentioned it. He's in Fletch. House, which we should do for our Halloween series, maybe, maybe next year. I don't know. We'll see. Maybe. This this podcast might just keep going because I need to have the Halloween series every year.
SPEAKER_02:We'll just find ways to fill in the gaps between every year's Halloween.
SPEAKER_04:Exactly.
SPEAKER_02:Okay.
SPEAKER_04:Never say die. So of course, Norm.
SPEAKER_02:Yep. Norm Peterson. 269 episodes of cheers.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah. And I think he got, I don't think he ever won, but he got a ton of Emmy nominations off of it.
SPEAKER_02:His character always just had like the great one-liners when he would walk in. Great.
SPEAKER_04:Great delivery.
SPEAKER_02:He It's a dog eat dog world, and I'm wearing milk bone underwear.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah. It's a great line. He he completely embodied that character so well. He had a very unfortunately short-lived show of his own, The George Wentz show. He was in the film Outside Providence. He was in the original Sabrina the Teenage Witch. Oh.
SPEAKER_02:With uh just the TV show and Melissa Joan Hart. Yeah.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah. So he was in that one. This, of course, is kind of close to my heart. He was never credited for it, but he was on SNL a handful of times.
SPEAKER_02:Oh, the Bears.
SPEAKER_04:As yeah. One of the super fans. Bob Swarsky. The Bears. So he was on that. He was on a TV series called Clip. Later, like some of his later credits, he was in a film called Christmas with the Campbells. This is kind of fun. A TV series called What the Elf?
SPEAKER_01:I like it.
SPEAKER_04:It's cute.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah.
SPEAKER_04:And then his final credit was a TV movie called Love's Second Act. All right. Film synopsis. A man who can enter and manipulate people's dreams is recruited by a government agency to help cure the president of the United States of his nightmares about nuclear war, but stumbles upon an assassination plot.
SPEAKER_02:That gets us there.
SPEAKER_04:Fucking a lot to have in a single sentence.
SPEAKER_02:That is one sentence. Yeah.
SPEAKER_04:One sentence. And it was I was actually laughing as I was typing it. So I was like, this movie's an hour and a half. And they like this stuff all just happened. It's a quick-paced film.
SPEAKER_02:You know, we didn't we didn't address it yet, but the reason why Blair, Christopher Plummer's character, wanted to assassinate the president, because the president had the audacity to go to Geneva to try to negotiate an arms deal.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah, he wanted to stop.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah. Let's let's get rid of all of our nuclear weapons.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:And Blair's like, we have we have to kill this guy.
SPEAKER_04:Because he thought he was like weak.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah. He thought that that was gonna result in like the downfall of the United States.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:So there's there was a lot of uh like Cold War fear stuff reflected in a lot of these types of movies.
SPEAKER_04:Very much so. I mean, this movie came out the year that like Reagan was up for re-election.
SPEAKER_02:How long do you think it'll be before we see movies that reflect back what we're experiencing now?
SPEAKER_04:I I'll tell you this. I don't want to watch them. I'm living it.
SPEAKER_02:I don't want to watch They're for sure gonna happen.
SPEAKER_04:I mean, that often here's the thing though, is that often during times like this, like the like public consciousness, it usually does filter into horror.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, the immediate response will be more like escape. Yeah. But exactly. There will there's gonna come a time where there are gonna be movies where you see like pieces of what's happening now reflected back.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah. I mean, you know, in terms of um World War II and the like literal, but like figurative fallout from that, you know, that's why like in the 1950s and like Cold War and Nuclear War, like you're starting to see like all these like horror films of like mutated bugs and mutat mutated anything. Yeah Godzilla.
SPEAKER_02:Yes.
SPEAKER_04:Um so that's how it kind of surfaced in that way. I mean, by the time we hit the 80s, like so many of these films are can be like I it's interesting, like maybe it's like the higher sophistication of the audience, where or or just choices of the filmmakers to just like be a little bit more on the nose about these concerns and these like the anxiety of the of the public with with these issues, so yeah, it will be interesting to see how that all circles back um with the times we're living in now. But I mean, I'm curious. I already said that this was like a first watch for me. Do you remember like outside of Snake Man? I mean, we didn't really break up Snake Man. Snake Man is like the horror element of the entire film.
SPEAKER_02:I mean, I thought Snakeman was terrified. When I when I like that is the thing that I remembered from like seeing this when I was a kid. And when Tommy like picked up that that was something that Dennis Quaid was afraid. I mean, it was scary, but I don't know if he thought that it was gonna just like paralyze Alex when he when he saw it, because that Yeah. I mean that You see a guy morph into a giant like snake man, yeah, it's gonna be disturbing.
SPEAKER_04:It was an interesting choice because for first of all, I mean, although he didn't really know what he was getting himself into, I did think it was very commendable. Like this the whole save the cat element with Alex's character is that he immediately wants to help Buddy.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah.
SPEAKER_04:As soon as he realizes that this kid is so terrified.
SPEAKER_02:He's fully in at that point.
SPEAKER_04:There's like no hesitation. Yeah. Like, even as soon as Jane brings up who Buddy is. First of all, she's talking about all his problems right in front of Buddy. Yeah. He's like, she's like breaking down how like disturbed this child is in front of the child.
SPEAKER_02:He's sitting two feet away in a wheelchair and she's telling Alex, like, this kid is absolutely fucked.
SPEAKER_04:I mean, it's just so bizarre.
SPEAKER_02:We wish we could help him, but he's probably dead.
SPEAKER_04:A lot of like privacy violations. Um and he should have had his parent with him, like literally at all times. That legislation didn't exist at that time. I mean, it's like, where are Buddy's parents? Anyway, but as soon as she tells Buddy's story to Alex without hesitation, first of all, he's like, Let me talk to him.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah.
SPEAKER_04:And and so he talks to him, and as soon as he gets a sense of what's going on, he immediately goes to Dr. N and is like, I want to go into this kid's dream. Like, I do think that that was a awesome part of his character to show.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah.
SPEAKER_04:That while he's like a womanizer and a gambler, and you know, like all those little things, that he actually has a heart that like wants to help um for somebody that he feels deserves the help.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah.
SPEAKER_04:And and to that point, when they go into the dream, he doesn't have like he might be scared of Snake Man, but actually he immediately attacks Snake Man as soon as he sees him.
SPEAKER_02:At that time, he didn't know that if he died in the dream, he would die in real life. So he was like, Let's go.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah, yeah, that's a good point. I wonder if it would have done differently, but um, yeah, so he immediately attacks Snake Man, and actually Buddy, Buddy's a little badass because he gets that axe and he immediately starts chopping Snake Man 2.
SPEAKER_02:So he like does the thing that I think uh Will wished he could have done in Stranger Things, where he like turns and he's like, just go away, and then instead he gets like completely overtaken by so I think like this movie is um it has some like really interesting ideas, and I don't know if in part it's just like the the technology and the fact like the limitations at the time. It doesn't necessarily all come together to make like a really awesome movie, but there's enough there to where I still have kind of a sense of nostalgia. Like I I totally forgot, like there are some insanely cringy moments in this movie.
SPEAKER_04:There are in like almost every movie we cover.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, like the the dream with the uh guy who's just anxious about his wife.
SPEAKER_04:Yes, it it goes that was just like it goes from funny to offensive really fast.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, and it it's just I I wish they just hadn't done that because if they had gone from like the dream with the steel worker to literally anything else, yeah because it it so took it out of it being like a horror movie or it was just really weird sequence, yeah. So that that's like by far my least favorite. I think if if you just like drop that out of it, because that that has no significance at any time.
SPEAKER_04:It has no bearing on the story at all.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah.
SPEAKER_04:So I agree with you. It would have been no, that's actually a really, really good point. They I don't know if somebody said you need to have some kind of comedic relief in this film, but it is very disjointed from the rest of the story. Yeah, I'd kind of forgotten about it because it had no bearing.
SPEAKER_02:You take that out and you use the time that you spent on that to tighten up some of the other things, and I think it would be.
SPEAKER_04:So, like you don't have to cut that sequence just like, yeah, fill it with something else that actually has impact on the narrative. Um and also I will say that those like um what were they? It seemed like nuclear war victims. The though they were horrifying. Yeah, the makeup work on those people were was great. Um, so those those were very effective. I wish I had seen more like horror elements, but those were very effective.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah.
SPEAKER_04:So I presume you would want to watch this movie again. Apparently, it's completely for free, the whole thing on YouTube, you said.
SPEAKER_02:We watched it on uh Peacock, but then you can just like if you if you look up Dreamscape on YouTube, you'll find that people just have it up there and you can watch the whole thing. I don't know how those haven't been taken down.
SPEAKER_04:Um I mean, it was a fun film. I'm glad I saw it. I'm glad I saw it because you obviously have, like you said, a nostalgia and like affinity for this film. So I like watching things where, you know, you love this movie.
SPEAKER_02:So it had really great ideas. And if it was going to be remade today, then it probably would just just be called Inception.
SPEAKER_04:I think it was remade, right?
SPEAKER_02:I don't think so. I think there's a remake of of Dreamscape. Uh there are a lot of movies like like this now.
SPEAKER_04:I think so. There was I thought I saw that there was. I don't know, maybe I'm wrong.
SPEAKER_02:Fair enough.
SPEAKER_04:Fair enough. Okay. I do like I really love the key art, the poster.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah.
SPEAKER_04:But it is very similar to like Indiana Jones. Yeah, it's not it's like kind of a ripoff.
SPEAKER_02:There's there is a point in the movie where he has the the torch, yeah. Where he lights it at the towards the very end.
SPEAKER_04:Even the like actually the more I'm looking at it, it's like literally Dennis Quaid is indie, Kate Capshaw is Kate Capshaw, and Buddy is uh short round.
SPEAKER_02:No, that's exactly right.
SPEAKER_04:Like that's exactly what the poster is.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah.
SPEAKER_04:So I already did my call to action. I would love to know who knows about this movie, what they love or don't love about it. Like it, if it's like, look, we've had this conversation before. We're like, okay, so this is the first time seeing it as an adult. I'm sure I would maybe feel a different way about it had I seen it as a kid. Yeah. So I'm curious about people who have seen it in childhood versus adulthood.
SPEAKER_02:I fully respect that it just doesn't hold up. But when this movie, when I first saw it as a kid, and and it was like more like in line with what you'd expect from effects and like other types of films, it was awesome.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah, no, it it was fun. Again, I'm glad I saw it. And if it was on, I would watch it again. But with you, I probably wouldn't be like by myself much. So if you want to get in touch with us, we would love to hear from you. You can reach out through Facebook, Instagram, or Blue Sky. It is the same handle at all three. It is at 80smontage pod and 80s is 80S. Man, we're just flying through this Halloween series. It's going too fast.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah.
SPEAKER_04:We're already at like the halfway point.
SPEAKER_02:We're just gonna create a new podcast and call it 80s horror montage.
SPEAKER_04:I mean, definitely there are podcasts out there, but don't tempt me. Uh I don't think you know. I don't I mean, I have talked to you about what I don't. I don't know. The next one. I'm really excited to cover this. I have seen it, but I haven't like really played close attention to it. And it's kind of a bonkers movie, but it's very fun.
SPEAKER_02:Okay. Oh, hmm. Is it critters?
SPEAKER_04:No. No, okay. But I did debate that one this year. Um, this one, so not this will give it away. Not George Romero.
SPEAKER_02:Uh Day of the Dead. Dawn of the Day of the The Return. Oh, the return of the Living Dead. There you go. Okay.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah, I'm very excited to cover this one. Um Yeah, it's just it's gonna be a like a huge departure tone tonally from what we just covered. Yes. Um, but I think it'll be really fun. So this one actually why did this cut name come up? Oh, because we saw somebody named David O'Bannon, and I was like, oh, was that Dan O'Bannon? Dan O'Bannon was the writer from Alien, and this is his directorial debut.
SPEAKER_02:Oh, nice. So that's I don't know if I've seen it. There are a lot of zombie movies out there. I haven't seen them all, but neither have I. We'll find out.
SPEAKER_04:We'll find out. So that's what's next on tap. And in the meantime, thank you to everybody for hanging with us. We really appreciate that with all of the podcast choices that you have, that you are tuning into ours. So thank you, and we will talk to you again in two weeks' time.