A Life Less Ordinary with Janet Varney

[00:00:01] Blank Check with Griffin and David, Blank Check with Griffin and David Don't know what to say or to expect All you need to know is that the name of the show is Blank Check So you're telling me that successful podcasts are made in heaven?

[00:00:30] Okay, I watched this movie this morning. Yeah. I already don't really remember what you're talking about. Basically the last line of the film. It is the thing that is my virtual background on this zoom right now.

[00:00:40] When Cameron Diaz and Ewan McGregor are litigating whether it makes life more or less romantic that love is a bureaucratic act commanded by Dan Hedaya in a white office. The whole car- you're telling me that successful relationships are made in heaven

[00:00:59] not founded on the daily practicality of two people being prepared to tolerate the imperfections of one another? And he responds, it's not successful relationships, Celine. It's love and it comes from a strange and wonderful place that we don't know about and that place is an office.

[00:01:13] Can I confess? Yes. I was feeling a little exhausted at that point in the movie. By this movie? Just a little bit worn out. A little bit. By this film? You're also- this is also the top quote on IMDb. I'm just gonna call you out right now.

[00:01:27] Oh, absolutely. I opened up the- you know what? I didn't even open up the quotes page. I scrolled down to IMDb where it always gives you the preview of the first quote and I went, why dig deeper? Why not? Yeah.

[00:01:39] David, this is arguably one of the first examples of the modern wave of slow cinema, right? I would say this is kind of- Yeah, right. This is like watching a train go through Norway for 12 hours, definitely. Yeah. I was surprised that James Benning didn't direct this. Yes.

[00:01:53] I have to say, I think it was too slow. Too slow. And that's coming from me. Yeah. I also just wish he would have made some choices. There's nothing about this- you don't feel Danny Boyle's fingerprints anywhere. It's like he's asleep at the wheel, the thing's on autopilot.

[00:02:10] Throw a little style into this thing. Yeah, it's just- it's real four quadrant stuff. Just trying to be everything to everyone, you know? Very generic. Lacking in personality. That's the number one thing I'd say it's lacking in is any sort of distinct esoteric personality.

[00:02:26] I mean, even the soundtrack is just so typical. Was there a soundtrack? I don't even remember hearing a single song in this movie. I guess you're right. Yeah, it's like in one ear out the other. A sparse soundscape. Sarcasm is the lowest form of humor, you know?

[00:02:39] That's what they always say. Just going to point that out. Oh, is it really David? Oh, is it really? It's the kind of thing someone would say in a 90s movie. Huh, huh, huh. Do people say that? Really interesting. Could I be podcasting anymore right now? What?

[00:02:55] What, David? No, I don't know. I don't know. Introduce our podcast, please. I'm waiting for a guest. Our guest obviously has permission to interject at any point. Oh, that's right. I didn't know that. She should. Yeah, yeah, yeah. She should talk.

[00:03:04] I don't know why I thought I had to be introduced. I really didn't. Because people always think they have to be quiet. But you don't. Too polite. You don't have to be quiet. You don't. Yeah. You can just burst in.

[00:03:13] Well, you know, there's just so many podcasts where there's 10 to 15 minutes of just catching up and then the sort of stumbling into remembering there was a guest. So I was ready for that. I'm actually appalled that you haven't gone on and on more.

[00:03:28] No, no, we do the opposite, which is 30 to 45 minutes of stumbling into remembering that this is a podcast. But we do that with the guest. I'm so glad to be allowed for this ride just like the ride we experienced in this movie. We forget what we're doing.

[00:03:44] Yeah, makes sense. What the point of the show is. But I'll tell you what the show is. It's Blank Check with Griffin and David. I'm Griffin. I'm David. You really do sound exhausted.

[00:03:56] I want to reveal that recently a friend of mine watched Rachel Getting Married and then texted me that she was listening to our episode about it and said, Well, you haven't really talked about the movie much yet.

[00:04:08] And I was like, Oh, well, you know, I mean, how far in are you? And she's like an hour and 25 minutes. I was like, Well, maybe we're about to start talking about the movie. I don't really remember that one. But so I felt a little embarrassed.

[00:04:21] Yeah, no, that's horrifying. I do feel like we talked about that movie. Maybe that episode was eight hours long. Listen, I think the episode might be pretty long. I think so too. This is an Iowa Live podcast. It's a podcast about filmographies.

[00:04:38] Directors who experienced massive success early on in their careers and given a series of blank checks make whatever crazy passion projects they want. And sometimes those checks clear and sometimes they bounce baby. This is a mini series on the films of Danny Boyle. It is called Trainspodcasting.

[00:04:55] That's right. It sure is. Today we're talking his first bounce. Without question. Yes, a pretty, pretty classic bounce.

[00:05:04] I think this was a real sort of 90s blueprint bounce of you are like an indie breakout director or a foreign director who gets the siren call from Hollywood and they go just do your thing. But with bigger stars and more money. And then everyone goes never mind.

[00:05:23] We hate your thing. And the question sort of becomes was that person a one-trick pony? Did they get swallowed up by the studio system? Do they need to get back to the core of what they were doing or are they done?

[00:05:33] Look, this guy has one of the most classic early arcs like for us, right? Yes. The only thing I'll say is. It's weird that he bounced into a bigger bounce, right? Yes.

[00:05:49] But then also you could say the beach actually, which is his next movie was actually less of a bounce because it actually didn't make money. Like it was not well regarded, but it actually did kind of it did okay money wise.

[00:06:03] So maybe it wasn't as you know, you're forgetting one thing though. Yes, you are right that technically that movie was profitable. It was also the first Leonardo DiCaprio movie to be released after I know. I'm aware of the highest grossing around in the beach all time.

[00:06:20] I well know the man in the iron mask was right. Man, the iron mask comes out six weeks after Titanic. Yeah. Yeah. Well, no, it's comes out but yeah, it's beaten at the box office by Titanic.

[00:06:33] It is successful, but it's also like you are what this is box office 101. We all know this. If I ever talk about this next week, we'll get we'll talk about next week.

[00:06:42] I'm just saying the only way this movie of course isn't really a bounce is that it actually didn't cost that much money. It just cost more money for him, right? So but it like made it back. They made it back plus like a dollar or something, right?

[00:06:57] Yeah, you know what and they probably you know, they shorted Hawaiian, you know shirt futures and they probably made some money on that or whatever, you know, Hollywood's always up to no good.

[00:07:07] But I would be surprised if you found out this movie was 50% funded by Tommy Bahamas or 100% just the state of Utah just sponsored by the state of Utah tourism Bureau. Look at all the places there are in Utah.

[00:07:22] Exactly have fun with this guys doors open, but you are correct. Especially in that sort of thing of like buddy. We love your thing. Come do your thing. Just do your thing. Come on. Canvases blank. Yeah, you want to do some weird?

[00:07:38] Oh, yeah, sure all of the angels in an office. Yeah, same. It's like the same power trio. It's not even like buddy. No, you do your thing. But you know what bring in some new blood. We don't care.

[00:07:49] It's like oh no you you're going to bring the same powerhouse that gave us these other two movies. It is like you guys know what you're doing. You're a well-oiled machine. They were the three Musketeers. It was a proven like sort of machine.

[00:08:04] I also just watched it this morning for the first time tape and I all only watched it this morning for the first time.

[00:08:09] I in my in my sort of like mind had thought this must have been some movie where the siren call of Hollywood comes for Danny Boyle and they go. Here's the script. We have you can do whatever you want with it. I did not think for whatever reason.

[00:08:26] Here's the classic 90s thing. Here's an indie comic book. We found or here's right some random property, you know, right? No, yeah, you know was squirrelly Scottish. Dr. John Hodge just cooked this up all on his own.

[00:08:42] I was just like this was their failed studio movie where they were asked to take over something that had been in development for a while not this was their fully generated thing. Yeah. Yeah, I definitely thought there's no like my memory of it.

[00:08:56] I had invented a memory when I started watching and I did see it. I have seen it before and by the way, it's what everyone to know that I was asked to do this movie after I listed all of the other poison.

[00:09:08] I'm just going to pause for one second to say of course our guest today is Jana Varney from Legend of Korra and JV Club the great Jane of Arnie. Hi everybody who you told me how much you love Danny Boyle then you punished me.

[00:09:21] Yeah, I did if you love him so much. Why don't you do a life less ordinary? Why don't you do that? Then that was so much. Mm-hmm. Why don't you marry this movie? Yep. I said pretty pretty please but I did say I triple.

[00:09:33] I had not seen it in long enough that I definitely thought like my voice in my head got very like in my head. My voice was that shrill. Maybe I love this movie. I don't think I do. It's a secret masterpiece. Yeah, and I started watching it.

[00:09:47] I was like, I really had that moment was like, oh, of course. Yes, this was a this was a novel and they there's a lot going on in the novel that makes sense.

[00:09:55] And then of course, you know, they had to cut down the movie for time and it's all there to compress and that so I was like, hmm.

[00:10:02] Let me just do a little research and I was like, oh, oh no, there's a novel and an indie comic that comes after the movie after the movie to both. I think both of those things were in the works before the movie came out right?

[00:10:16] Like I feel like like David Bishop right was like, oh my God. Yeah, I got my hands on this thing that hasn't come out yet. Like I'm going to make a serialized comic just like you know,

[00:10:25] Yes, no, that was also them being like, oh the train spotting the soundtrack was so big and everyone had the poster. Let's have shit ready to go. Urban Outfitters shelves are going to be stocked. Everyone's holding their scissors ready to give the Ewan McGregor haircut. They're ready.

[00:10:41] They're poised. I mean look we've just done two hot young Ewan movies in a row where my takeaway was what great hair this guy has both like perfect feather. Shallow grave. Shallow grave. Train spotting. It's true. And the buzz cut.

[00:10:54] And then this I'm like he looks so fucking annoying. I want to punch him in the face.

[00:10:59] It's weird and when you see it early on I do feel like you see it from the back to a degree that you're like, I got to pause this and have a conversation with myself about whether this is a wig.

[00:11:09] Like I need to have this conversation and I started out confident that it was and then as the movie went on I was like, I wonder if they shot the first part last and that was a wig because the rest of the time it feels like it's his hair and somehow that's worse.

[00:11:25] Yeah. I has his hair ever looked bad in another movie. No, I think it's kind of hard to mess that guy's hair on. I can't think he's got good hair like that's part of his 30 year career. Right.

[00:11:37] Even like Fargo where they try to make his hair look bad on purpose. It looks better than this. Yeah.

[00:11:42] Well, it's still like kind of dorky chic if memory serves but this is like no this is tough and this is and then I also had to have that conversation with myself. Like what was that? What we were doing then? Cameron Diaz's hair is very familiar to me.

[00:11:55] I had that sort of pixie cut that's like a little over styled and you tell yourself you've got all this like good stuff going on. It's reminiscent of I think there's might be a cranberry sog in this.

[00:12:06] No, it's a cardigans the cardigans similar similar but we're like, you know, there was the that sort of short pixie kind of edgy like this was definitely my hair for a period of time.

[00:12:18] Although I don't think I ever curled it into that sort of weird bouffant that they give her early on.

[00:12:23] But yeah, so that felt familiar but his hair is like I really had to ask myself like was that was going on like Edinburgh or like where all the cool movie like music video directors had did they have that here was that a butchered version of Oasis? Yes.

[00:12:36] That was my thought the whole time which maybe that's the idea of the character right is that he's this sort of they needed to make him a schmuck but he still had to be like a cool Danny Boyle schmucks. We'd have schmucky Oasis hair. Yeah. All right.

[00:12:48] I just one I want to defend Oasis because their hair was never that bad. I sort of know what you mean because I guess they had these kinds of you know, 90s mop tops. I guess Liam's hair. Let it's melody. Also. Yeah. Yeah.

[00:13:02] So I guess that's the closest but really it more feels like they're like let's try this. Maybe this will be everyone's going to want this in a year.

[00:13:11] John, you know, there were zero people walking into the barbershop being like can I have a Ewan McGregor in a lifeless ordinary like the Rachel for men like you're right. I think it was an aspiration to create a haircut. Yes. A lot of layers.

[00:13:30] It was like a mini Rachel. Yeah, it's complicated that this sort of dance dream karaoke sequence. He like slicks his hair back and in this final direct address of the camera.

[00:13:40] That's my background right now and you're like, well, I could watch this movie if he looked like this the entire time this film would be 15% easier to watch immediately 15% generous. Okay, but no, right easier to watch. I'm not even saying better.

[00:13:55] Yeah, I'm saying yeah easier to watch to watch under the hair is so much of the annoyance for me.

[00:14:01] What about this shirt that I read that I guess is actually Gucci but yet it's on him the character of that was the other thing is that I had very early on.

[00:14:15] I was like, I know it's a book because they're really shoehorning in this charming adorable Scotsman as a janitor in a large American like skyscraper like this was written for someone else. This was a written for a Scottish guy that you're like John Hodge wrote it. Huh?

[00:14:32] So I guess it probably was written for you and McGregor. Yeah, it kind of wasn't kind of what it honestly and we can I got this in the dossier.

[00:14:42] They kind he tried out an American accent and they were just sort of like, why don't you just be Scottish and we're just not going to worry about it. That seems to be how it went which I get. Yeah, that's one of the better things about it.

[00:14:57] If he had had an American accent, I mean we've heard him do it. He can do okay, but the Scott the Scott all like let me ask you this Griff.

[00:15:03] What if he had the right hair that you like but he was American with that negate that 15% for you. I think I would I think I would take that trade off. Okay, I would and we've said if it is no go. He McGregor tends to oversell American accents.

[00:15:21] Yeah, that's my his American accents make my teeth hurt. It would be annoying especially in this era at this point in his career would be an annoying accent, but I still think I take that trade off the hair hurts my teeth.

[00:15:35] Well, I mean to be fair the hair also hurts my teeth.

[00:15:37] Like I can't deny that I'm pretty sure this is yes 1997 is the same year that you McGregor was also in an iconic episode of ER where he plays a guy who holds up a convenience store that nurse hassle Hathaway is in and it's like wow.

[00:15:54] You're in the store the whole hour. Do you guys not know about this Scott iconic episode? No, where he also has this haircut. Oh, don't he also has this haircut and he's that Janet you should watch it. You'll love it. You'll love it.

[00:16:06] It's the best and he also is like doing a Scottish accent. I'm pretty sure for no reason so like maybe whatever he just he just loved this hair for a year because it's doing a Scottish accent if he's got it. Yeah, he's just talking.

[00:16:22] He's but that's what I mean. He's right. He's just not he's but like it's in Chicago, but it's just sort of like well, you know, he's Scottish for some reason. Don't worry about it.

[00:16:34] They get all just like the Australians and the Kiwis they get all over you're going to run into Scots people everywhere, you know as as in this there's no scene of him being like and that's when I left Scotland for here, you know, and that's why I did that, you know, like he does and that's why we go.

[00:16:52] To Scotland. Yeah, at the end I wear a kilt and we buy an old Scottish Castle which you know go off. Nice work if you can get it. Yeah, sure.

[00:17:04] I'm pulling up photos from this ER episode and the hair style is very similar but somehow it doesn't upset me in the same way. It doesn't it you're right.

[00:17:14] It's better styled even though he only had you know, whatever the the the T1 one week of TV filming to get it right or right. I don't know.

[00:17:22] It feels like the exact same cut but whatever product they're putting in it in the life less ordinary set is like Satan's come it is like someone Holy goo sings. Yeah, that also manages to make it puffy and dry though.

[00:17:37] I guess that is what Satan come Satan's come would be puffy and dry so they're both like too flat and too fluffy. It's sad that you and doesn't have an Oscar nomination. It's kind of wild could have been it.

[00:17:50] Yeah, well, this could have been the one this could have been the one moon. He's always the one I remember feeling blue on her. She's at the closest.

[00:18:01] Yeah, that's probably the closest he came that she just sort of got all the attention on that and and it felt like everyone kind of took him for granted when he's really really good now. Yeah, he's good. He has a good head. He's a great singing voice.

[00:18:14] Just like Cameron Diaz just like Cameron Diaz. It's the same might be might be the cutest part of this movie. What is adorably charming to me?

[00:18:21] Is that you know, there was a conversation where Cameron was like can someone else sing for me please and he was like no you're gonna do it and it's going to be adorable. You're awful.

[00:18:31] And that's one of the most relatable charming things about you because you know, you're very beautiful and and it's a very unlikable character. So let's get let's you know what be yourself.

[00:18:41] It's also funny because they dub her in the mask and that's a movie things in the mask. It's one of the most iconic movie instant movie star moments and she's dubbed there. Yeah, does she sing in my best friend's wedding and sing badly?

[00:18:57] Yes, there's a lot of singing. She does. Yeah, right. There's the wedding karaoke. That also is that 97? I think that's 90. That's the same. She's she's duo bad singing at events in movies and Janet it is the exact thing that you just said except it works in that movie.

[00:19:12] They talk about it where the whole bit is she signs her up for karaoke to embarrass her. Yeah, does the song she's horrible. That's it. That's the scene and then the bit is Dermot Rooney is more charmed by the fact that she's right, right?

[00:19:27] It like it works in that movie.

[00:19:29] I think it works in this movie kind of they don't make as much as it works for me because it is it's it's there's very little to hold on to with her and whether it's incidental that she's a bad singer or not. Like I grabbed for it.

[00:19:43] Do you know what I mean? I grab for him like that. Oh, look at that. Lovable how non psychotic this character is a little bit of a disaster. She does also I want to acknowledge seeing in the sweetest thing where she does the penis song.

[00:19:55] Of course, there's the penis song in the sweetest thing but which is well done and kind of highlighted off to the middle distance trying to recall really am stroking like the sweetest thing. Is that the one with them? Mm. Some Blair Christina Applegate. Oh, yeah. Yeah.

[00:20:11] He gave it away. Sorry. Sorry. This was a very famous thing like, oh, look at my arms. Look at my arms. Yeah, that was another you know what? Well, I'll say this not unlike train spotting. That was a movie that was just sketches stitched together.

[00:20:23] Yep that sort of we were like, well, do you found you found a bunch of funny moments kind of and you know, you slapped them together and put a loose plot around it.

[00:20:31] Obviously, it didn't have the benefit of having been written as a book by, you know, Welch but there's there's a parallel to be drawn there. There's there's but I don't remember the penis song.

[00:20:41] I don't know how I don't remember it but I don't penis song is is definitely the moment to remember so you should check out again from the director of cruel intentions. But no other one my final Cameron singing question.

[00:20:54] Sorry, does she sing in Annie shortly or does miss Hannigan not sing in Annie? Is it one of those things in Annie? Excuse me. Exactly. So what the hell does she I have not seen the modern remake of Annie. I don't know. Does she sing?

[00:21:10] Okay, no one's good luck filling Carol Burnett's. Yeah, you can't don't even they should have just they should have retired that role if they're going to make a movie understand that it's a successful musical and goes on everywhere all over the world.

[00:21:20] However, it would be funny to remake any and just not have miss Hannigan that that would be a pretty big hole in the movie. She's so Carol Burnett should have won an Oscar for that. Did she know she didn't win an Oscar for that?

[00:21:32] She should movie was that movie was a bounce in its era, but it's an amazing movie in my opinion. Cameron Diaz is credited on the soundtrack that having been said I know that movie is very auto-tuned. I remember that I remember them posting across the board.

[00:21:50] It's very auto-tuney. Yes. Yeah, right basically everyone but Jamie Foxx sounds like T-Pain in that movie. Cool. We all know exactly what we all know what that means and we all heard it. Yep. Yep. Absolutely. T-Pain actually plays FDR in that movie. He does. I don't know.

[00:22:09] I know that I know FDR is not in it. I know it's set in modern times, but still be funny if he just showed up and you're just like I'm Franklin Roosevelt. What do you want from me? This is good. This is a good segue though.

[00:22:21] I have a quick question for you guys because you say, you know when Annie takes place when is heaven in this movie? Like what era great question is heaven and what era do our Angels played by Holly on a ride or a lint?

[00:22:36] Oh, where are they from like what because I don't feel like where they come from like do they return to Earth in the in the form that they best remember because they lived in the 40s. But the but heaven is like the 60s.

[00:22:50] You're asking more questions than some people who worked on this movie asked Janet Barney. That's all I were living. They were human at one point. They were so that's sort of double. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, right.

[00:23:03] Yeah, so and you know how like heaven has all of the heaven has that hierarchy and has like, you know, police precincts and thieves and sex workers that get a bad rap and Gabriel's got the corner. We all agree. That's what happens.

[00:23:16] As we all know the Archangel Gabriel who in the Bible like carries a flaming sword and announces God's will to men then made this lateral move over to guy who's in charge of people falling in love. Like that was his second act. In the Celestial World.

[00:23:36] He was like, you know what? I'm sick of being the damn boss who's yelling at everyone. Yeah. Yeah, fuck off Cupid. It's so bizarre. I texted David like this movie is insane and he went to the degree. It's one of those things where for the first five minutes.

[00:23:50] I thought I had put on the wrong the wrong movie. Yeah hundred percent because the last thing you expect is for this movie to open in heaven. No, I throw this movie on and I think I just was not paying.

[00:24:02] I assume you and Cameron's credits appear over a black screen or something or I missed them or whatever because the second I started watching. I just saw this footage of heaven, which is a white.

[00:24:17] Yeah, you know 60s office building police precinct, whatever everything is white and the credits are rolling like Holly Hunter Delroy Lindo Ian Holm and I'm like, is this just like another movie did like iTunes break like they just start a different movie?

[00:24:31] Because that sounds like a cast from a movie like that sounds like it sounds like a cast from a movie. You know what? I mean, it's just like it's like who's in that Holly Hunter Ian Holm Delroy Lindo. I'm just like yeah.

[00:24:43] Okay, that's how yeah, you know those are the stars. That's fine. Like in the canon of movies in which heaven is represented in some way as bureaucratic while everyone is wearing white. Have you talked about any of those yet?

[00:24:56] I can't remember like have you talked about defending your life, you know, or like stay is is is there's like a is heaven can wait. I can't remember which ones involved that everyone wears white defending your life. Everybody wears white right?

[00:25:08] Beautiful robes down to earth Rams the heaven can wait remake sort of turns it more into a nightclub is my memory hot great. Well, Beetlejuice great got it but it's a Chaz Palmatera Eugene Levy. It's a little similar to this vibe.

[00:25:22] It is it is funny how it is always like, you know, what sort of 40 something 50 something nervy character actor because that's funny right? Oh Chaz Palmin Terry even more. Oh, it's so running this place. Yeah, it's exhausting. Have a night easy.

[00:25:40] Yeah, so, you know Dan Hedaya is the Archangel Gabriel. I you know, classic at files going like divorce divorce, you know, like I was into that.

[00:25:52] I was briefly intrigued have have I ever said this on Mike that I realized during the pandemic that Dan Hedaya lives like in my neighborhood like like a block away from me and there's like a local place.

[00:26:08] I go to and I was eating outside and he like walked up to get takeout.

[00:26:14] I saw him walk out of his building grab takeout walk back to his building and it was like early ish lockdown like summer 2020 and I immediately knew it was Dan Hedaya fully masked because of the eyebrows. Yeah, and the full fur collar of hair sticking around. Yeah.

[00:26:34] Yeah, it was just no question. That's who it was. It's funny that you recognize him so quickly because he disappears into roles. He disappeared. I don't know what you're saying.

[00:26:42] He is on how many times do you watch a movie and suddenly you realize halfway through I've been watching Dan Hedaya man of a thousand voices. And yet somehow Griff you were able to see him in a mask.

[00:26:56] That's that you're like no that's a Vaughn stuff right there. You should not have been able to recognize him because he's a recognizable most of the time who even knows what the real Dan Hedaya looks like off screen. He's always done such deep disguise.

[00:27:10] This is this is one year after Clueless right or two two years after Clueless, but this is wouldn't you say this is prime. In fact, you know what Griffin Hedaya is not just in this movie.

[00:27:22] He's in another movie that came out in 1997 that Danny Boyle was supposed to make and drop down to make this Alien Resurrection. Did you know that Janet? I did not know that. I did not know that.

[00:27:35] It makes so much sense that they wanted Danny Boyle to do Alien Resurrection. It makes the most sense in the world that yeah, when they were like we're queuing up Alien 4 and they're like who should we hire the guy who made train spotting? There you go.

[00:27:50] Like that's exactly you know, like, you know, he's he's just they always would hire because it was Fincher and then before that James Cameron, you know, they'd hire like the guy who's about to happen. Yeah, who's like very visual and like who whatever had just made something exciting.

[00:28:09] Like I guess it's the easiest way to put it. I'd love to have heard the hipster soundtrack if if Resurrection hit that Danny Boyle like that is a good point. What do you want to see?

[00:28:20] Yeah, you're lucky if sneaker pimps are like part of the tearing rendering of flesh. Yeah, I mean Griff obviously he was going to make Alien Resurrection right? Like he was going to direct that script. It's the same movie. Yes.

[00:28:39] So I would I like to see that his take on that movie like kind of but like I mean, I do feel like he probably was right to sort of smell disaster there, right?

[00:28:50] It's funny that you can jump to this but I think it I think it would have been a better movie. Yes, I got a soft spot for that movie. I got a soft spot.

[00:29:00] Yeah, and I got a soft spot for the beach in terms as long as we're talking about movies that followed or right around the same era and the people were talking about I well, let me say this.

[00:29:11] I have a soft spot for the first three quarters of the beach and then zero tolerance for the rest of it. Like as soon as he starts to go crazy quote-unquote go crazy.

[00:29:22] I'm like, I'm good which is really just one part of the movie and I don't I'm not saying that movie is good but it's so watchable to me.

[00:29:31] It's so pretty watchable, you know, that's a movie where I've never really understood why people call it like shit on it as much as they do the beach because David's a big defender. I have yet to see it. I'm excited to watch it for this podcast.

[00:29:45] I think I probably like I don't you think David is going to like it. I think you're gonna like it. I think I think I will like it.

[00:29:50] It's a flawed movie, but like it's interesting and it's honestly the same for alien resurrection which we watched during the pandemic on this podcast and I said to Griffin before it started and you'd seen it before Griffin and I like a long time when I saw it huge alien fan.

[00:30:05] I had only seen it once maybe and I hated it. I said to you even though this movie is like an early CGI, you know gore fest. It has so many sets and enough puppets.

[00:30:14] I think you're gonna just like kind of like it and that was exactly your reaction. Yes. Yeah, I like it.

[00:30:20] I like it and I like I like the I like that's that they were like, you know what we're going to try to make this monster like we're actually going to try to make you feel about this monster the way that Sigourney Weaver feels about about it and I felt it.

[00:30:33] I felt it. I was like, I love you. I love you. I love you. Baby. I like yeah, I like the newborn alien.

[00:30:40] Yeah, like the newborn too, but but anyway, yes that no, but Janet that's a good segue or whatever, you know, you love Danny Boyle you love you love you apparently adore most of his movies. So what's your relationship to boil? Like what's when he first watching a boil?

[00:30:58] Well, I mean the thing I mean, I definitely was like train spotting was very was a very well time for me because I was like I had you know, some friends who are super into kind of Brit pop like Brit DJs and Brit pop and the sort of like beginning of that kind of ravey stuff that was that started to happen in the late 90s and early 2000s and friends who were into heroin.

[00:31:22] Hopefully not not friends who weren't. There might have been a there might have been a friend or two who is in heroin. But and so I think it I found it at a time and I don't think I saw I mean, I didn't see in the theater.

[00:31:34] I was too young but I mean I could have seen it but I feel like I wasn't that cool.

[00:31:38] But like it definitely kind of crusted in with the wave of me, you know going to see like Jod Digweed and stuff and living in San Francisco and being like I totally get this like I really get this and and so I thought it was very cool and great in the way that when you're younger you think movies where you're like, oh you can make movies like this kind of works.

[00:32:04] But but through his career I've always loved his sort of like, I mean it's kind of Soderberghian the like I don't know maybe I'll do this kind of movie now. Like let's try this like no no might work might not.

[00:32:15] I enjoy the sort of like casualness of that that they're like I buy into it. I'm like hey you know what maybe it's not a big deal if this doesn't succeed because he was trying something or whatever.

[00:32:25] But but I think throughout the movies even as as disparate as they can be from one another.

[00:32:31] I feel like he finds like it's like heart and sensitivity amid chaos in a way that I really like and I think this movie does not have very much of that at all if any. And that bums me out. That bums me out.

[00:32:46] The biggest problem with this movie is that the characters are annoying and in doing our episodes on train spotting and shallow grave and reading all the things he said about both of those movies at the time.

[00:32:56] He talked about how little he cared about the idea of characters being likable and that he didn't feel the need to conform them to classic sort of like Hollywood mainstream film archetypes and arcs and all that. He was right. And he's right in those two movies.

[00:33:10] He is so right. They're characters who are pretty despicable who do awful things on screen and they are engaging. Yeah you are compelled by them.

[00:33:18] You want to watch them endlessly and this movie starts and the second we get to McGregor and Diaz because the Hedaya Lindo Hunter opening is so bizarre and all three actors are like in the pocket enough. You're like I don't know where this is going but okay.

[00:33:33] And then the introductions to both McGregor and Diaz you're like they are off putting something has been miscalibrated here. Yeah I am already annoyed by these characters. I don't want to spend time with that.

[00:33:44] Like just so like how can you be so how can you be like like shooting an apple off of Stanley Tucci's head and then shooting Stanley Tucci as we come to understand and still feel like just sort of empty and like and the same. I hard.

[00:33:59] And it's like yeah it just doesn't there's nothing about it that you have there's nothing to hold on to even though you're supposedly seeing all this stuff.

[00:34:08] And I also a thing that came up for me to watching the beginning where you sort of just have this like then this happens and this happens and this happens then his girlfriend's leaving him for an aerobics instructor and all that kind of stuff.

[00:34:20] I felt like there was this sort of like desire to have the whimsy of like Savage Steve Holland. Do you know like a little better off dead kind of like wow this is just crazy what's going on.

[00:34:32] But once again those characters in his films you're like I love you buddy you're such a waste. But I love you like you're on their side.

[00:34:41] Somehow you love them and it just there's you're really having to fight against like I got your guy got nothing you're giving you're not giving me anything you know even Ewan McGregor who's supposed to be like a lovable losers like he makes the choice to pull a gun on people so fast.

[00:35:01] You know I do know I guess these guys are pretty bad. They're kind of bad people like which is fine or can be fine.

[00:35:09] I'm Griffin what is the movie that this movie is a big you know obviously it's incredibly indebted to the Coen brothers like Danny Boyle is first to admit that but that's more kind of like aesthetically and the sort of you know criminals who don't have a plan thing but like what is the 90s disaffected Gen X E 20 something I guess it's just that mindset.

[00:35:31] Further back is it looking at like after hours or like something wild or some kind of like something wild is a good one what about true romance I guess that's yeah you know I mean obviously those are more unsympathetic characters they're more lovable with that movies even further dialed up but something like that where it's like but it's you know you're so along for the ride you're not even going to worry about how crazy these guys are right like what's that this thing is so much goofier to like he's doing sillier stuff.

[00:36:01] Consciously and then you add in the like the supernatural magical elements of the movie it is kind of unique I don't know I mean watching this I kept on like the thing that is hard to process is that this is his third movie and Janet as you're saying like I think that's cool about Boyle's career arguably starting on the next movie is that he begins to become a bit of a like genre hermit crab and he wants to try and make one of everything.

[00:36:29] And this is like the third and final time it feels like Danny Boyle is a genre. Yeah like Boyle Hodge McDonald thing is like yeah all of our movies are like this right.

[00:36:39] And this is the one where they hit the end of the road and they're like OK time to reinvent time to like Griffin Griffin I hate to tell you that is not true because the beach is very much part four of the vibe.

[00:36:49] Then it's I'm wrong it's it 20 days later is the let's go back to basic true shake everything out of the car like you know that kind of thing. You definitely yeah I agree with you David I mean there's that but but the beach still has.

[00:37:01] But there's also like a lot of just very sort of slick music video like feel to that movie that but that isn't as choppy you know.

[00:37:24] The beaches Boyle Hodge and McDonald and the decision they make fair or not is to cut you in out and take Leo because obviously Leo is where he is at that point and that's the decision that makes like Boyle and you and hate each other for years or whatever.

[00:37:41] And it's like interesting to think about that movie with you and but if that movie had you and then it would really kind of feel like man do you guys not have anything new in the tank you know it would be kind of like OK you and McGregor is like going crazy on drugs again like you know how many times we get to this when we get to this when you get to the point when you're like wait a minute like there's something happening here that's very like she's the head of an island.

[00:38:06] So I'm excited to listen to your episode about I'm excited to let me just say that do it. The thing that just surprises me is this movie feels like when you're talking about trying to distill what is the sensibility of this thing what is it aiming to be.

[00:38:19] I just think this film feels of a piece with like a handful of 90s movies that were breakout music video directors and or commercial directors where people would go like this guy's shit is so fucking kinetic and exciting.

[00:38:34] Imagine if you let them do a whole movie like this and then you watch it in the movie feels like a collection of music videos or commercials where like every scene has 87 ideas narratively comedically visually musically and it's only imagine how annoying it was on set where the guys like all right everyone stands still.

[00:38:54] I have to do this next setup like you know. You know what everything has to be like a special shot and then you watch this you're like he has told a story successfully two times before. He's done it.

[00:39:05] This feels like someone who has no substance in the tank when this is a guy who came out of theater.

[00:39:11] There's yeah there's a little bit of like like it's not it's not like little kid logic where it's like and then and then a dragon comes out and but the dragons pants like it's not that just you know that's it's not that disjointed but it is.

[00:39:28] No it's kind of like the teenage version of that. And then I've always loved so and so like let's throw some of that in like you know it's gonna be so much fun. It'll make sense don't worry about it.

[00:39:38] It does feel like a movie I would have written as a teenager.

[00:39:41] It certainly feels like if I saw it I was 11 when it came out so I was too young to see it like but if I saw it at the age of 12 or 13 I might have been like no man that movie is really interesting like you know heaven is an office.

[00:39:57] You know like I would be right and then but at the same time if I was say I'm a disaffected 25 year old Gen X or when it comes out and I see it I would have been like I'm out. I can't watch. Yeah.

[00:40:09] Like you know this is it my whole culture is ruined like and now it just kind of feels like this sort of cute little artifact. It's you know kind of a failure. There's a little bit of stuff in it.

[00:40:23] But I really it to me just the problem with the dossier Griff and we're gonna read is that I think Danny Boyle is very quick to criticize himself.

[00:40:31] So I'm not sure if there's more blame to pass around because he's mostly putting the blame on himself for what doesn't work about this movie but it just kind of feels like no one was like hey buddy this doesn't make sense like hey hey yeah hey can we can we not you know like we got to talk about this more.

[00:40:48] It feels like they were kind of being given a little bit of rope and you know whatever it was just it doesn't hang together at all.

[00:40:54] I'm interested to hear you talk more about what he said about it because I stumbled on his sort of defense of it which was like very much a defense that seemed to be taken out of the context of him like apologizing for it apologizing for it apologizing for it and then the quote I read kind of like but if it does have a redeeming quality it's which he you know which he was like.

[00:41:17] But isn't this kind of the way falling in love feels though kind of like in a way guys who's with me doesn't it this kind of how that energy.

[00:41:26] I was it has never felt that way to me and I think if falling in love felt like this I would be happy being single forever. Correct. That is the correct answer. I don't think it captures anything there but I do agree with you David.

[00:41:39] This is the kind of film where if I had seen it when I was 12 I would have defended it on the grounds of it being different. It's different. It's got stuff going on. It's doing a little Griff. It's a little less ordinary.

[00:41:51] This movie is so much less ordinary. Nope. No no okay. All right so obviously it's a very the other thing to say Shallow Grave comes out in theaters in the UK in 1995. Trainspotting came out in 1996. This movie comes out in 1997.

[00:42:13] So this guy is working all the time wasting and it's a real rocket fuel career thing and that's why it feels even crazier that once Trainspotting is out Hollywood is like Alien 4 sign on the dotted line. You're you're doing this right. We have a Joss Whedon script.

[00:42:33] As Boyle said he met Sigourney Weaver you know and she's like all right you know so everything is happening and the way he puts it is like. Excuse me that's not what he said. He said he met Sigourney Weaver which was absolutely a buzz.

[00:42:47] Such a good Danny Boyle quote. Adorable. What a buzz I'm sure he said to her. What a buzz. But yes the way he puts it is he realized the French franchise was transitioning between old school physical stuff and effects and stuff to CG.

[00:43:10] And he's in retrospect he's like maybe I could have been the guy who's like let's not do CG. Let's try and keep this as practical as possible but certainly he couldn't throw his weight around back then.

[00:43:22] And also I think back then he didn't know how to really direct either CG or complicated puppetry visual effects stuff so he's kind of like what am I doing here. Right.

[00:43:32] It is funny that all of his quotes about why he left the movie just broke down to the technical stuff.

[00:43:37] He was like I don't do effects and I don't know how to do the puppets and I don't know how to do the CGI and they want the CGI. I probably would want the puppets. I wouldn't know how to do that either.

[00:43:46] There's nothing he talks about on any story level. He's basically like I pulled myself out because I didn't think I was experienced enough in that area. Which you know J'Nai obviously had been working with really interesting practical effects from the start.

[00:44:00] J'Nai does make more sense on that level. It's just that everyone who made Alien Resurrection is like that guy didn't speak English so I didn't know what he was telling me. So that's the problem they face. I'm okay with it. I'm great with it.

[00:44:13] I'm glad that's what was happening because somehow I enjoy the results. I enjoy the results. I don't hate that movie. I do not hate that movie.

[00:44:21] But I don't either and it definitely does feel like a movie where people who the people who made it were not able to speak to each other. That is the best way to explain. I'm great with it.

[00:44:31] You should feel as weirdly alienated pun intended as you know just the stark insanity of that movie demanded. And successful in that regard. Yeah. But this I'm like with John Hodge and and I this is a sincere question.

[00:44:48] Like do you think it like it made sense to him the idea of like Gabriel and heaven and you know what I mean?

[00:44:57] Because there's I don't I'm like wondering if the original screenplay had more or something if there was if there really was just like I don't know.

[00:45:06] Like I had a weird dream that heaven you know you know I just watched Stairway to Heaven or whatever and like I had a dream that this and then but it was this. Well they definitely like that movie. Yeah. Stairway to Heaven is influenced there.

[00:45:18] There's no doubt which makes sense obviously. Also known as a matter of life and death. But the weirdest thing is that that stuff was not originally in the script at all. Which is when you learn that. That's the framing device they felt would save this.

[00:45:35] It just feels like a weird thing to sprinkle in but it basically seems like that's what they did. So what wait so Holly Hunter and Delroy Lindo weren't there like. They were. Like weirdly showing up. John Hodge takes out his typewriter. Page one.

[00:45:52] Where does this film come from? So here's the thing. Okay so while Danny Boyle is weighing should I do Alien 4 John Hodge is like here I've written a new script it's called A Life Less Ordinary.

[00:46:06] Danny reads it and it's like well this is more my cup of tea. This is more these you know this is Andrew and John who I've worked with so I'm more comfortable with that and he just hops right over to that. And that's fine right.

[00:46:18] John Hodge had been working on this script apparently since he started writing and so he sort of picks it back up after train spotting. This was the thing he was noodling with pre-train spotting and then he comes back around to. Yeah. Yes.

[00:46:31] Initially the script was set in Scotland right much like his other scripts. Okay. Like what I'm hearing. It was more straightforward the way Boyle puts it. It was more graphically violent and the Holly Hunter and Delroy Lindo characters were not angels but human bounty hunters or detectives.

[00:46:49] And I'm going to complete this Boyle quote here. Moving the location to America toning down the violence and introducing the angels made it into a completely different film. We made changes to it that were in retrospect a mistake.

[00:47:03] Because otherwise people might be saying it was a Scottish Fargo like people might be saying that today. They might be like it was a Scottish true romance or a Scottish. Exactly. It was a Coen Brothers movie.

[00:47:14] It was like him writing like a Scottish set inept criminal romance thing. You know like it was very it sounds like it was kind of riffing on. He is. You know Raising Arizona and all that stuff you know.

[00:47:27] He's right that that did make it into an entirely different film. Yes. Yeah. I would have liked to have seen that movie because we're so.

[00:47:36] You know what I mean like we don't mind if somebody from a different country sort of interprets their you know spits back out their fandom of something and like it succeeds. We like that. We're not going to say it's too derivative.

[00:47:48] We're going to say you know it's a fresh take on a certain vibe. I would like to see that movie. It's funny my like mind's eye perception of this movie not having seen it but probably you know half remembering trailers and TV ads from when it came out.

[00:48:04] I always got this confused with Excess Baggage which is the same year and feel incredibly similar to me where it's like sort of popping stars on the cusp. I don't I don't I feel like I can't even think. It's also a kidnapping movie right.

[00:48:19] It's Benicio Del Toro and Alicia Silverstone. Benicio is the dirtbag. Alicia is the bratty rich teenager. Okay. Right and I think that one is she pretends to kidnap herself and then he actually kidnaps her for real. Okay. Something like that. Yes yes exactly. Everybody was super into kidnapping.

[00:48:38] Yeah 1997 kidnapping got to get a couple sexy stars tangled up in a kidnap. Yeah and they're both like them with cars and hip soundtracks and shit and I absolutely was certain that Delroy Lindo and Holly Hunter were just bounty hunters in this movie.

[00:48:56] Right but no instead they took a script that existed. And I guess I don't that my coil does not explain who came up with this but it's clearly someone was like what if they're angels sent on a mission from God.

[00:49:12] I guess right like you know like because like I don't know how else you would describe it like you have to point at those characters.

[00:49:18] The stakes are their boss Gabriel is so angry about the amount of divorces that they need to make these two random people fall in love or else they are cursed to be mortal and sent back to Earth.

[00:49:32] But don't worry there's a literal deus ex machina at the end. Like maybe that's where it started.

[00:49:38] Oh what if that's what happened where they're like we don't love the ending to this we really need like a deus ex machina and they're like wait what if we just did literally that and God made it so that a bullet could go through you would like how was it supposed to end otherwise.

[00:49:56] In this case anything feels like there's a whole of light. There's a whole of light instructed and Danny Bowles like but if God is involved maybe then the ending feels less ridiculous. Right maybe that's it right.

[00:50:08] Maybe they're just like well we can't really square this third act unless literal celestial bodies are making it happen. But the other thing of course is they decide to move the action from America to Scotland to America. Danny Boyle says that's the home of road movies.

[00:50:23] We probably should have stuck with Scotland and France apparently there was some stuff in France but we've done two films set in Scotland we wanted to branch out. And apparently the original script had lots of severed heads and crazy violence. Seven heads in a duffel bag.

[00:50:38] Maybe yeah and then they found out there were eight coming soon. Embarrassing. The way the way Boyle puts it I am very proud of you and Cameron's work in A Lifeless Ordinary but it's bedeviled by the Coen brothers.

[00:50:50] The shadow they cast is so colossal they mix violence and comedy in a way that's really unpalatable but they engineer it so it's effective. And I think Boyle is basically just like I couldn't pull it off. I tried and failed.

[00:51:01] Yeah like he and he's not he never this tone does not leave him obviously he makes very comic and zippy jokes.

[00:51:11] Very comic and zippy movies but it does kind of feel like he's like yeah I took the swing at their thing and I realized that's their thing and I can't do it. I don't know. Right. I don't know if I can commend Cameron Diaz for performance.

[00:51:24] I'm not sure I can get there but. Can't either. We're gonna have we're gonna have a Cameron Diaz conversation. We're gonna have a whole Cameron talk. There's a big Cameron sidebar coming up. But but I don't I also don't think that like that's the problem. Agree.

[00:51:36] With this movie is. No. Well I tried for the Coen brothers and I didn't get the tone right. And it's like you were adding eight other tones to the mix. Yes. And you were over complicating this script to the high heavens. Including to the high heavens like.

[00:51:49] Yeah yeah literally going to the highest of heavens. This is all this is from okay here's another thing apparently Danny Boyle had basically never been to America. He his only concept of the US was from movies.

[00:52:04] So he went on a 10 day solitary drive across the country stopping in small towns to chat with locals. He would hang out. You all want to see this movie. Absolutely. I kind of would like to see it baby Danny Boyle just popping into local stores being like hello.

[00:52:20] You know you're all Americans then. Apparently they would hang out at Salt Lake City pub called Spanky's while they were shooting this movie because they shot this movie in Utah. And Danny and Ewan would shoot pool you know around or just with the locals and all that.

[00:52:40] So they had a lot of fun. They went on basically they went on a nice vacation to Utah. It's kind of kind of the same thing. And then of course the other influences you might spot in this movie.

[00:52:52] Danny Boyle's two big other influences stairway to heaven aka a matter of life and death is one. And it happened one night is the other another famous road trip movie obviously you know with bang bang quick fire dialogue.

[00:53:05] That's where some of the mad cap comes from like yeah sure all that stuff. But you know I never know what to expect from this movie. I never know what to make of it when someone when I talk to a filmmaker and they're like yeah I was

[00:53:19] thinking of you know two of the most totemic movies ever made. You know if you say matter of life and death and it happened one night I'm like okay yeah sure we'd all love to make those. Yeah okay.

[00:53:31] Like you know like what happens if you know it's the same thing like you know I'm going for a Blade Runner vibe with this. Okay good. Yeah. Let me know how that works out for you.

[00:53:40] You know it's just I just I get I get you know you want to acknowledge your influences or whatever but it's tough to compare yourself to these things. Especially if it's the same one movie that everyone tries and fails to make like it happens

[00:53:53] one night remains it retains its status because it is so deceptively hard to pull off. Right. Yes. Right. Yes. But I did I did not know that. I didn't know that. Right. Uh yes. Yes.

[00:54:07] But I did I didn't I also read that Stairway to Heaven was like directed by McDonald's grandfather so there's a there's an actual. Correct. Familial connection from that movie to this movie. Yes Andrew McDonald is the grandson of America Pressburger.

[00:54:26] Danny Boyle says he never brings that up so we do it for him. Nepo-gram baby. Which is funny. Um and uh you know one one last lovely quote from Andrew McDonald is one lesson I learned

[00:54:39] from my grandfather and Michael Michael Powell's work is that they had this core group of people they worked with over and over and he's saying this in the context of like you know Ewan and Danny can be like De Niro and Scorsese or Mastroianni and Fellini.

[00:54:53] No that's so sad. And it's like it is sad because they do lose that connection obviously they eventually made T2 together but like it is it's sad to think of the alternate universe where they

[00:55:04] just keep making movies together because God bless Ewan McGregor he's had a great career but he made a lot of shit you know in the in the 2000s as well like it would have been

[00:55:13] good to have Danny Boyle to go to every three years right and do something new. I don't know. It definitely it makes sense or it makes more sense now why Ewan took getting Bounce from the beach so hard.

[00:55:27] Yeah because it was not like oh this is one movie where they went with the bigger stars like I thought we were in this together right for the long run. We're all doing this together right you know they were young they're making these movies

[00:55:39] so quickly like I said like it's hard anyway so A Life Less Ordinary is opens in heaven and that doesn't close in heaven don't worry it closes in claymation. That's true and not five seconds of it a good couple minutes.

[00:56:01] In heaven angels are in charge of making sure that mortals find love now look I know I hear a symphony by Dana Ross and the Supremes play a song as we go through right as we said

[00:56:12] angel precinct basically you know I don't title card by the way it's just white now and so we're able to kind of surmise it's heaven yeah right yeah but you're saying it's not like heaven comma 1995 right you know angels I don't think of angels as being in

[00:56:34] charge of people falling in love are they no that's not a thing that once again we have a figure his name is Cupid yeah there is a mythology he's a little fat greek baby that's

[00:56:44] who Cupid is right and he he's there but like angels are supposed to like protect you maybe right it's kind of like uh you know you're wobbling on a bridge it's the guardian angel

[00:56:57] even if in this reality we're accepting that angels get people together like this is happening in a police precinct like there's nothing about what they are tasked with doing that fits or

[00:57:11] makes any kind of sense in any kind of context with what we see as we're tracking them coming through what we see looks like a police department where everything's white there truly is like

[00:57:23] a scantily clad lovely young woman with like pearls and lace that's white you know and you're like to understand you're meant to understand like okay she's maybe in the sex work trade um so something going on there like you know there's people I feel like there's people being

[00:57:39] booked for stuff so it's not like there's no that doesn't then allow you to go oh I get it angels are responsible for people falling in love like that doesn't help us absolutely have nothing to do with one another it doesn't make any goddamn sense they don't help

[00:57:54] the dan hodaya yelling is not going to be enough to get me over the line on this concept but also gabriel is like the don't shoot the messenger angel right like he's sort of the go

[00:58:04] between between god and humans but in this no he's like the middle manager between god and other angels are we in the romance wing of heaven is every office here dealing with some different

[00:58:19] petty bureaucratic this is starting to make sense I like where you're going with this you know what I'm saying like is this just the love division or is this every room would be a different thing to

[00:58:30] take care of again you're you're asking more questions than I think people asked while making this movie I just think there's more in this movie there's more just thinking like what do

[00:58:40] you mean they're magic what do you want from me right they're magic yeah I mean look Griff Michael the Nora Ephron film that's around the same time as this and uh that kind of has the

[00:58:52] same idea right he's kind of he needs to make people fall in love right uh yeah there's a quote here where he said uh they were concerned that Michael and uh the preacher's wife were

[00:59:07] coming out so close together but there was this 90s wave of angel movies right and then he was like oh our movie has sex and guns so I think we'll be fine you're fine yes I mean that that

[00:59:21] definitely is not the thing they had to worry about that's for sure at the time of filming both Michael and preacher's wife were causes for concern but our film is less pleasant than either

[00:59:30] of those plus we have gun sex and swearing it's a McDonald quote he is right that this film is less pleasant than those yeah sure do you think Touched by an Angel also was was because that was

[00:59:42] a big thing right people were kind of obsessed with that it was also it was down to Roma Downey and Dan Hedaya for that part they were contesting against each other they should have been no the

[00:59:53] worry in with Michael was or is are people going to think back and conflate that and phenomenon and think that the angel the angel Michael learned Portuguese in like a day because that's

[01:00:03] what happened to me yeah we covered Michael on this show and anytime I bring it up to people they go oh the one where John Travolta becomes smart and dies of being too smart yeah yeah

[01:00:14] too dang smart and his brain gets adorable magic guys all in one John Travolta yeah okay so I would not even I mean I really wouldn't have even worried about that like that

[01:00:25] that's the least of your worries the least of your worries is that you're afraid that this movie is going to be compared to those other two angel movies yes don't even worry about it don't even

[01:00:32] worry about it but then I want just like I'm actually pulling up my Apple TV window to scrub through this movie to make sure I remember the order in which things are established we go from

[01:00:43] heaven to Cameron Diaz in the pool yes wanting to do her William Tell practice right the whole the whole idea is that he's like you've got to get some people to fall in love or else you're

[01:00:54] in trouble and then he opens a file and he's clearly kind of like oh boy only the worst possible file I could be given you like because from up top somebody did say at some point like

[01:01:08] how much how much free will how much control is there like there is somebody above him who's like how much magic are they allowed to use are they causing the kidnapping what control do Delroy

[01:01:23] Landrieu what are they what are they in charge of what have what have they met what have they manifested here number one biggest question is like this trajectory is set and all they're doing is nudging a little bit because the construction of oh she accidentally shoots a guy

[01:01:43] her father is yelling at her he's angry because he's being replaced by a robot so he storms into the office at the same time like if you told me well this is so manufactured angels of course

[01:01:55] this into happening this non-meat cute yeah I would believe it but it almost feels like they're like okay good start thank god that happened of its own will all gonna for sure happen yeah yeah

[01:02:08] how do we nudge it along we're going to be we're going to evict this is where it needs where these guys need help right gotta get him evicted from his apartment that is a must for

[01:02:19] this romance to work out and it may not happen if we don't come in and evict him and take all of his stuff so that he then goes crazy was always gonna bring these two together but they were going to

[01:02:30] hate each other so now they have to make them like each other while they're together I am I am more pro like I like the Michael thing of like Andy McDonnell William Hurt are both just kind

[01:02:42] of like cynics right they don't believe in love anymore right and so if this movie is starting with you and being like nah I don't believe any of that crap like you know I'm never gonna fall

[01:02:52] in love and I'm like okay I understand the challenge here instead it's like Ewan McGregor is quite romantic he's writing fucking novels or whatever most romantic yes um but he's just I

[01:03:04] guess an impulsive fool and then Cameron Diaz is a spoiled psychopath like that is that supposed to be the challenge that they're just kind of awful like yeah let's set up very quickly okay so uh

[01:03:19] Stanley Tucci is one of her many suitors who is a dentist who gave her her great smile I think he's an orthodontist but I could be wrong they call him a dentist to the industry they call him a

[01:03:31] dentist but they Janet they that you are correct that they say that he won't be doing orthodonty anymore so maybe that that's just like they just consider that a specialty I don't know

[01:03:44] it's the only thing in the script that doesn't make sense very rude it's they're not the same at all I bet and it's the one thing that doesn't track consistently it's the one thing it's the one

[01:03:52] thing that doesn't track yeah everything else this movie hangs together perfectly the Stanley Tucci thing is a disaster and that's why it flopped to the box office is it just wasn't clear what kind

[01:04:00] of dentistry he practiced Cameron Diaz is practicing apple shooting off her butler's head after a swim as we all do you know you know your routine also techno music is playing we're essentially starting

[01:04:14] now in a jam sketch the British sketch show by Chris Morris it's like so specifically that kind of era music like Danny Boyle baby that's what you signed up for you put Danny Boyle the helm

[01:04:28] of this baby you're gonna get that techno music in the soundtrack is getting three volumes at the least um yes but then her so yeah Tucci shows up is like how many times oh sorry who plays the

[01:04:40] butler the great Ian McNeese I just want to shout him out I love that guy still with us um and yes and Stanley Tucci is playing a whatever cuck done dentist how many times do I have to propose to you

[01:04:54] she's really rich obviously is absurdly rich and and like and yet Ian Holm is kind of like god you know how hard it is to find you a good husband I'm like this is just like a random dentist you

[01:05:05] couldn't there's surely other suitors for the hands of a stunningly beautiful blonde millionaire would that really be tough Stanley Tucci is basically like openly like I want you as a status

[01:05:19] symbol yeah she's like I have this house I don't need you I don't need anything yeah I got a butler to shoot this was another moment and again this happened so quickly after like so for the for the

[01:05:31] heaven part I was like oh okay this was a book this was a book and then when that sort of disproved itself then during that little piece that comes right after I was like oh this is like um like a

[01:05:45] Jane Eyre like a Shakespeare read like oh she's a taming of the shrew like yes that's what this is it's a modern retelling of an old classic and then you're like no no no no that's also not the case

[01:05:56] at all so don't try to be linear and don't try to find a map don't try to map this on anything at ever but that's not an achievement it's not an achievement the first five scenes of this movie

[01:06:08] arguably each set up a different movie yes and feel like a different movie made by a different person almost I like where you're going with this because I'm immediately feeling like Ewan McGregor is

[01:06:21] setting up a Jim Carrey movie in which like his girlfriend who looks like a love child of Sandra Bullock and Barry Louis Parker leaves him for an aerobics instructor and like what is he going to

[01:06:32] do with his life that's that movie right maybe like a Jim Carrey movie but also yeah and maybe like a nice girl like Cameron Diaz will walk into his life and there will be some kind of enchanted

[01:06:41] mask that they have to deal with I don't like that kind of magic I need something grounded like a life less ordinary I do not want magic realist a kitchen sink drama like a life less ordinary

[01:06:52] but Cameron Diaz basically says to Tucci if you want to hold my attention you'll put the apple on your head let me shoot off of you he flinches at the last second which throws off her aim

[01:07:04] and thus she shoots him in the head in the head in the noggin yeah it is his fault again it is we're told that it hit his frontal lobe which is good apparently thank god

[01:07:18] they sort of say it with the energy of like a flesh wound and I'm like isn't the frontal lobe in your brain this is might make him a better mate for her though because I think that's where

[01:07:28] some psychopathy can come from after the fact if you get a frontal lobe injury he's gonna care as little about human life as she does so that might have been a match made in heaven his problem is

[01:07:38] definitely that he cares too much but then we cut to Ewan McGregor Ewan McGregor is in a basement janitor closet with two other janitors and he is talking to them about the secret child of Marilyn

[01:07:53] Monroe and John F Kennedy who then discovers Nazi gold hidden in a secret spot only she has the map to and with the way the film is cutting I was like Cameron Diaz's character is

[01:08:08] that explains why she has this mansion she's so the setup of this movie is that she is the daughter of John F Kennedy and Marilyn Monroe who uncovered some conspiracy and now lives off

[01:08:18] of Nazi gold yes that is what he want that's I think the adorable bait and switch yes they thought they were doing that everyone was going to be like what a moment when you realize that

[01:08:31] that's just an idea that Ewan McGregor's character had this bad novel idea that he won't stop pitching which everyone is confused by and then like knock knock knock at the door you're fired

[01:08:43] we're replacing you all with robots with cleaning robots which are adorable I want to say those robots are cute this is a movie about post-industrial replacing of blue collar jobs it's all there it's

[01:08:57] in the subtext but if you watch the movie again you'll see that that is exists throughout and that is what this movie is about he's ahead of the curve on this one thing like for him to be

[01:09:08] expressing this concern in 1997 as a filmmaker our jobs can be replaced by robots feels a little still far off right and then you're waiting for like well when they say robot we're not we're obviously

[01:09:19] not going to see the robot and if we saw the robot it'd be some proto Roomba thing no it's like a little like beep boop boop r2d2 kind of yeah it looks like a walking trash can with brushes yeah

[01:09:32] I mean it looks like a piece of shit it looks like a piece of shit but it's he's both he's both ahead of and behind the times because that's also very 60s right that's like in the same way

[01:09:43] like yeah it's like I'm gonna be replaced by what our idea of a robot was in 1960 which is just a sort of human shaped thing with eyes that goes beep boop but then like cleans the room but like

[01:09:56] Griff there's what's the movie where this work like you know because like like we're sort of what we're really concentrating on the first 10 minutes of the movie because the first 10 minutes of the

[01:10:04] movie are so busy with ideas the heaven thing Cameron Diaz is this insane Ewan McGregor robots novels you know like where like what's the like zany movie where it's like cutting to this every

[01:10:16] two minutes and you're like oh my god I can't believe this is working or whatever you know like sure yeah falling down very very lively and this is the romantic version of characters

[01:10:29] and like here's my question after all of that you have this confrontation where the two plot lines meet so Cameron Diaz is getting yelled at by her dad mean oldie in home about you know

[01:10:45] shooting about shooting a man in the head what does he do what's his job what is what does he own like why is he so rich do we it doesn't matter do they ever say a company you know he's a big

[01:10:56] muckety-muck got it right he's a rich man in a skyscraper we cut we tie the threads together he's yelling at her for shooting the dentist and then Ewan McGregor comes in with the robot

[01:11:05] but he's yelling at her in this way that the movie's like this fucking guy and I'm like no he's saying why'd you shoot someone yeah don't shoot people he's yelling be normal

[01:11:15] and then Ewan comes in with the robot you're not gonna hey buddy and a gun and saying you're not gonna replace me points a gun at him and shoots him by mistake and we're off to this like you know

[01:11:27] zany adventure he's gonna have to take her hostage and they're gonna go on a road trip so in fairness I think he takes the guard's gun he takes the guards oh sure that's where he gets

[01:11:39] he he was just gonna make an explosive statement he was gonna throw the robot out the window by throwing the robot through the window and then when he gets tackled it gets it goes kicks up a

[01:11:52] notch because he gets his hands on the gun which then he loses which then Cameron Diaz gives back to him and that's how the kidnapping idea yes and my point is at this point the movie actually

[01:12:04] slows down quite a lot yes and is that better I mean she still learns how to drive within 30 seconds yeah you've got like stuff going on but then it's really it's the two of them stuck together

[01:12:18] and bickering and you know in a better version of this movie falling in love in an incredibly charming way and in the movie I would say less that's less successful but a little bit of the

[01:12:28] movie is at its most annoying when the two of them are only talking to each other it helps when there are other characters thrown in uh you know I'm just I'm stewing on your question of like what is

[01:12:40] the successful version of this movie what is the thing he is aiming for and I think the problem is he's kind of aiming for four different types of movies that are similar that he's grouping into

[01:12:53] the same pot but actually have distinct differences where it's like to a certain degree he's doing like an elmore leonard right to a certain degree he's doing raising arizona to a certain degree

[01:13:05] he's doing pulp fiction yeah you know and he's just like well you know these like wacky ensemble sort of like hyper violent crime comedies yeah it's like no like a crime spree but there's no

[01:13:18] spree it doesn't stay it's not then it's not the two of them on the road together no under the auspices of him having kidnapped her like it doesn't consistently it's not that

[01:13:29] they rob a bank right they rob a bank so there's that feels like that movie sort of starts and then doesn't exist and then maybe right comes back for a second then is gone I agree with you and he's

[01:13:42] he's doing amped up versions of each of those movies separately and swinging between them yeah okay so they're they're in a car now I mean it's and their dynamic is immediately him being panicked

[01:13:53] and her being like you fucking idiot you suck at kidnapping people right her immediate go-to is i'm gonna tell someone else how bad they are at being alive yeah guess what you're bad at

[01:14:06] not shooting people in the head yeah you have your own problems too she also seems like she's about to bring oh no i we're having i'm sorry i'm so sorry i know we're having cameron diaz

[01:14:17] section so i keep no let's do it now this is it this is it we're talking about the appeal of these two actors right now yes and i think cameron diaz obviously can be an incredibly

[01:14:28] appealing actor i'm not like i'm not about to debut some take that's like cameron diaz never been good like i like cameron diaz no no i agree oh absolutely but certainly i would say griffin

[01:14:42] you would i'm sure you would agree with this she probably over the course of her career found like i tend to do better or my movies tend to hit more when i'm playing more of a lovable

[01:14:52] ditz bubbly yeah you know right as sort of fun energetic character and not kind of a flinty mean you know sort of scary you know character which is what she's doing here also like she's

[01:15:05] coming out of retirement now annie is the last movie she made 2014 and then she's doing the movie back in action with jamie foxx now uh she apparently only does jamie foxx movies now but

[01:15:16] she has not been in a film in nine years right and she basically was just like i got tired of doing it i just i needed a break i didn't really want to do anymore i enjoyed my life i had kids whatever

[01:15:27] that last run of her movies she did start doing the kind of flinty angry thing where she had the run of like bad teacher bad teacher was a good again yes the other woman great version she did

[01:15:40] get to this point where she was like i understand i'm not a 20 something anymore i need to age into something else and she basically started playing like the woman who is bitter that she's not a

[01:15:51] bubbly 20 something anymore yes right that's well said yes which i think she did well i think she did well comedically but i think at this point in her career she understood that she's better

[01:16:00] it's so fascinating that this and my best friend's wedding are the same year and i feel people talk about when there's the constant conversation of like why don't we have movie stars anymore

[01:16:10] and so much of the answer is we don't have the pipeline that develops movie stars people get sucked into franchises and they play one character and their identity is tied to the one character

[01:16:20] and the ability to like intentionally build a career step by step doesn't really exist for people at least in movies anymore and i feel like i always will see people cite like

[01:16:31] cameron diaz as someone who did it right where she has this huge like plucked from obscurity as a model breakout in the mask she gets offered all these big studio movies and then for like

[01:16:41] three years she went to indies she was like i'm turned down all these studio films i want to learn how to act i want to do a bunch of small sundance movies i want to figure my shit out

[01:16:51] before i'm like thrust into being julia roberts she has the last supper she's the one feeling minnesota head above water keys to tulsa most of these movies don't exist right but it was like

[01:17:01] here's a little quiet sort of ground for you to figure out what your thing is before you get chewed up and spit out by this system and then 97 is her being like i'm back to doing studio movies

[01:17:12] i'm doing a danny boyle movie makes a ton of sense and i'm playing the foil in a julia roberts rom-com and then that's the one where i feel people are like she got it she figured it out

[01:17:23] she is relatable she is fun she's so good in this movie uh she's kind of like the key to it working the choice to make it like no she is likable she's not the villain julia roberts is the villain yeah

[01:17:36] is like kind of brilliant and then the year after this she does something about mary and it's like well now it's locked superstar done you figured it out you're like star of a generation your thing

[01:17:47] is branded but this is like the last movie she does before she figures her shit out even though this comes out after my best friend's wedding and we and it's not her fault because because the

[01:17:59] character is a disaster and is a psychopath and and i think like my compliment to her is that i don't buy her in this character at all my compliment to her is that there were several moments in the

[01:18:13] movie where i had to pause it because i was like she is about to laugh like at her most supposed to be despicable there is she is trying so hard not to break and that's my perception of it and

[01:18:31] and so it makes everything even more utterly unbelievable like i'm sure she's not proud of like not sticking to being a character or whatever perhaps if she has you know a sense of this

[01:18:42] performance but for me i was like good for you like good for you that you're like i i can't like you guys know i can't commit to this fully right like i have a likable person right that's the

[01:18:55] thing she's like fighting to suppress her natural effervescence which is the thing everyone else at this point in time is identifying that's her movie star superpower yeah that's the quality like i re-watched something about mary again recently which i do basically once a year and

[01:19:10] that's like a performance that should not work a character that should not work the entire premise of the movie is hinged on her being a construction of a dream woman written by a bunch of broey

[01:19:20] comedy good dudes right she's not a real person and yet somehow she makes that feel like a real person and the key to it is at the end when they do the build me up buttercup and there's all the

[01:19:29] sort of b-roll footage and bloopers and stuff you're like oh this actually just seems to be her energy at all times yeah yeah that's just what she's like yeah yeah 100 and that's what she did in charlie's angels and obviously charlie's angels they do a good job balancing

[01:19:44] that out with two other actors who are doing different you know things um and then after that i guess is when she swerves into meaner mode because she does vanilla sky gangs in new york

[01:20:00] charlie's angels to you know leave that aside but in her shoes is probably the the most like sort of in her shoes in the holiday uh which is sort of the mid-2000s for her like

[01:20:11] she's playing like spiky characters in those movies right like in the shoes she's very in her shoes she's like a real fuck up it's a good performance i like that really good performance

[01:20:22] and uh and in the holiday it's kind of that nancy meyers thing where you're like on paper this character is supposed to be you know abrasive because this is nancy meyer she's just coming

[01:20:34] off as like she just like is breathing nitrogen instead of oxygen or whatever you know she seems addled because like in that movie she's just like i don't know how to have sex and you're like

[01:20:44] what you've just met you i someone i really like really like and really respect recently was like and then my girlfriend you know and i watched the holiday and like it's surprisingly good and i said

[01:20:56] i don't think i've seen it and they were like you know what you should see it it's a lot better than you might think and i put it on i was like this is the worst thing i've ever seen i can't watch

[01:21:05] janet i can't get through it janet oh no you like the holiday we've covered it on this show i just have a question for you before we reveal our opinions of the great divide this is a great

[01:21:14] debate we've had on this show going on for years and whenever this movie comes up i pose this question to our guests yeah janet which half of that movie i.e which romance do you think works

[01:21:26] better so your choices are take cameron and jude or kate and jack even if you dislike the movie overall which do you think is the more successful you have to remember that i couldn't get through

[01:21:40] it so i i i think i i might have made it through half um yes so this is that's gonna be tough who barely interacted in the first step she's mostly having eli wallach explain scripts construction i remember that i definitely remember that i remember

[01:21:57] thinking that jack black was not playing a human a real human being um so that was off also very off-putting and i like jack black um but i i remember thinking that he i think that he it

[01:22:09] felt like he and cameron diaz were in the same movie in that they were not there was no nothing real happening it felt very both of those things felt like i'm this character everyone like i'm on

[01:22:21] a stage and you're very far away from me and i'm being this person um but if i so if i had to guess i i would say probably cameron diaz and jude love but i don't know what i'm i'm not basing that on

[01:22:32] the whole you're on david is that correct i'm right you're on david's side i'm on the right david's side okay crack of the bat that's right got it got it got it um a camera thing i was gonna

[01:22:41] say because you're putting vanilla sky into the spiky territory but i think what's so interesting about that performance a performance we like is that she's basically playing the like non-comedy version of the cameron diaz archetype where she's like seems kind of like amazing cool girl

[01:22:59] hottie and then you're like oh this person has like borderline personality disorder you know it's like the the trick to that performance is that when she rolls into the party she seems like fun impossible movie star yes and so tom cruise treats her like

[01:23:14] a prop rather than a person and then she comes back and is like i have feelings you have broken me um but but yes it is odd it does feel like she kept on trying to figure out how to play

[01:23:26] this spikier type and then she kind of gets there by the mid-2000s but the time she would try it earlier didn't work as well and again this this is a this is a perfect storm of also

[01:23:40] having nothing to work with just nothing i've been watching a lot of lubits movies again recently probably just because it was that time of the year and everything right um

[01:23:49] but watching them i was just like right this is the thing that people forget when they try to make these types of movies is the dialogue is funny like people constantly try to do the shop around

[01:24:01] the corner thing where they fight for the whole movie and then at the end realize they love each other and then they're like why do people think this is like mean and unpleasant it's like because

[01:24:09] they're not jokes you're just writing two people yelling at each other right like there's nothing funny that the either of them say to each other really no the the moments that i that i thought

[01:24:21] that i was like like suddenly having a great time were like the one that stood out to me for sure was like just the bit of delroy lindo having her tied up and like not accepting i mean it's so

[01:24:34] goofy but like him not accepting that she doesn't want to hit on that blackjack game is so funny and then the poem is like very funny and you get to the point where you're like i like hold on

[01:24:46] maybe i've been missing this movie has this been has this been the movie the whole time like maybe this is you know ben you're ben you're gesticulating how are you feeling are you great who barks that's the one time i laughed also another different movie maybe my favorite

[01:25:02] performance in the movie maury chicken yes oh yeah he's so great he is great them bringing him back is it works you know what i mean but what are all the examples we're talking about here there

[01:25:15] is another thing to do with those two characters there's another character entering in between the two of them wedging in between and then something that is circumstantially funny happens there is no

[01:25:24] moment where their banter back and forth which needs to be the lifeblood of this movie you need the it happened one night oh my god i could hear the two of them throw zingers back and forth at

[01:25:35] each other all day thing because the other secret with those kinds of movies where like the burns that people are throwing at each other are funny is you believe that the characters would be charmed

[01:25:44] by each other because they are being objectively funny yes you're like even if they're pretending to hate each other and fighting the things they're saying are funny they will be amused by each

[01:25:53] other's wit whereas in this it's just like two kids fighting in the back seat during a road trip yeah yeah hey can i ask you a quick question um what's timothy oliphant doing at this like what's

[01:26:08] great question what happened there he's uh playing a little yokel it's his second movie did you know that and what and what's the name of hiker there's there's the timothy oliphant coming and then he comes right after christopher gorham who was a guy back then you

[01:26:27] know christopher gorem you know he was in tv shows and stuff who's the the sweet gas station guy that he wouldn't yells at and then cameron correctly is like why are you being mean to him

[01:26:37] he didn't do anything to you both of those scenes have nothing to do with anything and inform nothing and aren't very interesting and even are more confusing for the character where you're like

[01:26:48] wait she's suddenly like why is she nice blue collar dude like sticking up for him like i haven't seen that person show up and this is a short movie oh it's 144 yeah an hour yeah and

[01:27:01] and like yet both of those scenes i was like there's a lot of fat i would trim here you know yeah well and also shallow grave and train spotting are both 90 minutes in and out the

[01:27:10] extra 14 minutes on this film are felt they are felt they feel padded um no you were we were texting while we were watching the movie this morning and you texted david this thing is character

[01:27:21] actor city i did which is a great way of putting it there was this golden age of the 90s where there was just an incredible bench of like hollywood approved character actors who would cycle

[01:27:30] in and out of these movies and these films were just every role would be filled with someone interesting and engaging adding a little flavor on top of everyone else that we've mentioned

[01:27:40] there's also tony shalhoub this is the one i want to bring up tony shalhoub so after he finds out he's being replaced by the robot ewan mcgregor goes to the bar where his girlfriend works

[01:27:54] where her boss is tony shalhoub and she then tells him that she's leaving him for an aerobics instructor tony shalhoub maybe says one thing in that scene speaks for half a second and then

[01:28:05] doesn't come back until the very end so when i'm like 90 minutes into this movie i'm like did they really burn shalhoub just handing a beer yeah is this movie showing off so thoroughly that

[01:28:17] it doesn't even feel the need to give shalhoub a thing to do because it's you have shalhoub gorem elephant like in a row not really serving any function and then shalhoub comes back at the end

[01:28:29] but you're throwing a lot of actors at us yeah he's got a fun he definitely has i mean yeah that he has he has a great line i guess he has what i feel is presented as the best line of the movie

[01:28:42] i'm not sure i feel that that's the best line of the movie but i feel like it's handed to us by the film as like and here are you ready for it this is the best moment is it and then he tips of the

[01:28:54] speech and is like she's no she's your type you've like that you know but he does a great job with it and he does and i love the fact that it's stanley i will say for as crazy as the whole

[01:29:04] stanley tucci character thing is i do love that it's him because i feel like they could have cast someone i mean it's it's such a weird choice that i like it family to see we're everybody's always

[01:29:15] happy we all love a touch of the team yeah yeah and this is the year after big night he's you know he's a guy but he's probably a few years from being stanley tucci still maybe i don't know like

[01:29:30] big night was like it was all about the excitement of them making that movie right and him being a huge part of that but like just wanting to see him in everything i think was a couple of still

[01:29:41] a couple of years yeah i think you're right weirdly slowly yeah it's devil wears prada is when it goes from you know stanley tucci is a really reliable actor too is stanley tucci someone

[01:29:54] we should put on american money right like yes we're like wait a second we've been sitting on the diamond mine i want to go to italy with him yeah yeah yeah yeah i think that's right i think

[01:30:07] that's right that's not and that's not surprising that it's that movie i think that's right because before that is like the terminal and he's the mean boss and you're like yes danny tucci's the

[01:30:16] mean boss sure i see it all the time it's fine he is inarguably the most interesting version of this character you could possibly put in this movie that's what i'm saying yes exactly yes

[01:30:25] and when he comes back you're like thrilled because you're somewhere like it is nice burn him just to get shot in the head which again it's like what no what she's shot him in the i mean

[01:30:36] i guess i guess we've sort of established that they have the kind of relationship where if she's on the lam and her current whatever gets shot that she would go to him i guess we've established that

[01:30:49] well like camera tiaz is basically coaching ewan mcgregor through how to hold her hostage yes and then meanwhile holly hunter and delroy lindow have gone down to earth and have presented themselves to ian holm as bounty hunters in 1940s attire saying they will

[01:31:08] find his daughter but they're bad at this too they say every wrong thing to ian holm that's kind of funny it's when delroy lindow is is saying he'll prorate them if she comes back missing body

[01:31:21] parts right if you lose an ear we'll knock off 20 grand it's kind of but guys this movie has holly hunter and delroy lindow this was in 1997 yes holly hunter's an oscar winner delroy lindow wonderful

[01:31:34] wonderful character actor it's kind of in like a huge hot streak this is delroy lindow like running the 90s yes 100 they're playing you know well and that's a rep that's an actual representation of

[01:31:47] like i want this uh elmore leonard feeling i want don't really know and then i want the coen brothers they're the the power team that's gonna always remind you of those two filmmakers like or sorry

[01:32:02] more letters no you're absolutely right you want to be like danny those are two different things that is true that's one thing this is what i'm saying i'm like how does this movie have

[01:32:14] two actors i adore like forget ewan and cameron who i'm very fond of both of them this movie has holly hunter and delroy lindow playing angel bounty hunters yes yeah like she's doing a different

[01:32:25] accent like you don't see her yeah stray too far from her natural accent like five different voices in this movie well yeah and and and and i and i say this with all due respect to them and i love them

[01:32:38] they don't really have a lot of chemistry they're not very funny and their scenes are a little flat like yeah it just feels like such a waste like of such an incredible casting coup and yet you're

[01:32:49] relieved every time the movie cuts to them and you're like finally i can relax from this fucking hostile car ride and i'm sure both of those actors were like the guy who made train spotting uh yeah

[01:33:01] like i'll play whatever role he wants like you know what i'd love to work with that guy and it just kind of feels like they don't get to do anything interesting like the blank check thing where if

[01:33:11] someone has the type of success that defies all logic like train spotting being this breakout phenomenon then everyone goes anything you pitch to me that sounds crazy i must just not get it

[01:33:23] yes yes right everything about this movie is you just imagine every direction he's giving to an actor every pitch he's making to the studios they're like i bet train spotting also sounded

[01:33:34] crazy in the room who would want to see that movie right who wants the baby crawling on the ceiling yeah don't ask too many questions yeah yeah don't don't we don't want to we don't want to get our

[01:33:44] fingers in this one you know this is this is one where we're just gonna we know what to do and we're just gonna back off and let you do your thing he's operating on a wavelength we can't

[01:33:53] even understand so you just have to trust him you're in his hands you're in safe hands yeah so i don't we don't even really need to go through everything here but there's we certainly should

[01:34:03] talk about uh the the karaoke scene which danny boyle talks about as like the film sex scene that's what he says like uh-huh you know like uh these kinds of movies so sad going yeah yeah both you

[01:34:17] guys kind of grown there uh which is this is a quote from danny boyle that i is quite charming but i made me raise my eyebrow a little bit he says the dance of the karaoke is the sex scene

[01:34:29] this is supposed to be some kind of romance we can't do a sex scene because then you'd have to have tissues and condoms and things oh danny it doesn't seem right for this particular kind of

[01:34:41] film so we thought we'd have this dance instead which is very old-fashioned that's the way they used to do it in the old days isn't it i get what he's saying i get that he's like look in a frank

[01:34:50] capra movie they dance and you get it you know you read everything into that danny boyle movie you always need to see the rubber is his i'm like tanny not all sex scenes need tissues like there

[01:35:03] need to be like hey can you you know how people shit themselves every time they have sex throw the blanket on the girl's parents you know like i i just and it does feel off this movie was

[01:35:17] rated r right or was it not no it has to be rated r right uh it has to be yes right you know it's like it feels weird that this movie that like danny boyle basically i was rated r he's talking

[01:35:28] about like yeah you know we cut the violence down and i didn't want anyone to fuck in it and i'm like why why why not why don't you want some like verve here i mean the quote includes him saying

[01:35:41] with this particular kind of film so the follow-up question from the interviewer would have been and what particular kind of film is that please define to me this type of film you're acting like exists

[01:35:51] yeah has any proven model he's talked so much about what a like moral victory the condom moment was which i love is great but that he was like this was a thing that hodge mcdonald and i talked

[01:36:03] about that you never see the removal or the application of the condom because you don't want to show an erect penis in a movie you can't do it with the sensors so you leave out this

[01:36:12] important part of like casual sex in these movies with 20-somethings and he's like we figured out the way to do it in silhouette and it's after sex so he's flaccid we were so excited that we did it

[01:36:22] and then for his takeaway from that to be any sex scene i ever do has to involve condoms and if i can't figure out a way to shoot it then i guess there's no sex this movie has angels in it

[01:36:40] it's just odd how there's the karaoke dance scene and then we just cut to the morning after and ewan mcgregor is like what happened and she's like you were great and you're just kind of like oh okay

[01:36:52] so is that that's that's happened now and yeah i guess they like each other now like they're like celebrating that oh my god they slept together things seem good and the camera ds is like you

[01:37:04] don't think i like you do you yeah and then he's like i was gonna propose marriage they might be falling in love otherwise you got to remind everyone that there has to be x amount more of

[01:37:15] movie so it can't be we have to keep putting up the roadblocks of like it starts to seem like we're getting somewhere but holly and delroy ring ring ring the movie essentially diffuses two central

[01:37:26] tensions 45 minutes in it has cameron diaz you mcgregor basically go you're free and she go well so let's do this together and we'll both make money and so you're like okay so now there's not

[01:37:38] a hostage situation anymore they are willing partners she's coaching him on how to be a scarier negotiator she's writing ransom notes in her own blood yes which is a fairly intense thing

[01:37:54] for her to be doing right um and uh you know they're doing these phone calls right you know she's basically like come on he asked for half a million dollars and she's annoyed she's like i'm

[01:38:04] worth more than that like you know don't make me out like some cheap prize fully collaborating to fleece her father now though she is not in any danger from him and then they sleep together

[01:38:15] and she's like but don't think anything of it so like sexual tension diffused tension of the the hostage situation diffused and then the people who are out there chasing them are delroy lindo

[01:38:29] and holly hunter who want them to fall in love so you're like well what happens when they catch up with the two of them they just have a negotiation they gotta keep trying to kill them it has to

[01:38:44] they all they have they constantly have to flash mortality in front of both of these characters because that's the only way for you to fall in love with someone you have to trauma bond yeah you can

[01:38:56] only only real love comes out of a extraordinary and terrifying circumstance that will never repeat itself again and you're just going to have to face the reality that your life is going to be ordinary unless you're a psychopath who continues to put yourself into life-threatening situations so that

[01:39:11] there's some sort of zest to your marriage i know i mean it's not setting you up very well it's not setting you up very well wrong to want a life less ordinary just a life a little less ordinary but

[01:39:21] the scene where like delroy lindo forces ewan mcgregor to dig his own grave yeah yeah that's a weird scene that's intense they suck at this so holly hunter and delroy lindo are bad at this

[01:39:32] they keep saying to each other that like the drama will be part of the romance right that seems to be their modus operandi they're like ah you know you got to put some stakes on this or else they're

[01:39:41] just not going to be into it but that doesn't really track no and and denaday is like i'm frustrated with your results everyone ends up getting divorced it doesn't last and i'm like

[01:39:54] how did they ever get any two people together in the first place well we never yeah we've never seen we don't have because that scene is meaningless and is at the beginning of the

[01:40:03] movie we don't have anything to compare it to we don't have any idea what they've done wrong what their work has been like up to this point what that even meant why this exists at all as a device so

[01:40:16] there's nothing you're starting with nothing so you don't know you don't know what they what they mean or why what they're why they're bad at what they're doing or we know that like the temperature

[01:40:25] is too cold and i guess the clothes are too scratchy or something on earth and that's why you want to make sure you don't you want to go back to the place where everything is white i guess

[01:40:33] yeah you know why do they want to go back there seems boring but whatever i mean they do they want to be immortal i guess that's cool um what are some other things that happened uh there's

[01:40:44] the whole road such scenario right with holly hunter where they think they've run over holly hunter oh she's like terminator there's and she goes terminator she goes full terminator onto the back of the car and you said she didn't have much to do with how shame on you

[01:41:02] she's got stuff to do you mean holly hunter's career is weird because i am saying like you've got holly hunter and you're blowing it there are other movies from this era that she would pop up

[01:41:13] in that you would like copycat or whatever you would similarly kind of be like this is holly hunter we're working with you know like what do we you know i get that she's a specific actor

[01:41:21] or whatever but you know she doesn't actually make a lot of movies good for her i'm looking at this that's why it's so weird that she was in like little black book right i mean we ran through

[01:41:31] her piano career how odd her career is after piano after she wins the oscar and what she chooses to do and doesn't do um do you timothy oliphant basically says that like his one day working with

[01:41:44] her inspired him to keep acting that he was feeling very broken down by the industry and was thinking about walking away from it because he found it like creatively soul crushing and stifling and

[01:41:55] he was like watching her creative process and the choices she made on set and she kind of took me under her wing on this movie on this movie she was an angel and i'm glad she kept timothy

[01:42:07] oliphant in the business because i love that man he's a good man yeah 100 percent uh you know i i love justified and i love you know even i don't know that's the real story this is the real story

[01:42:20] of this movie the real story is she was an angel she was sent down from now hear me out god wanted this movie to get made because he needed to make sure that timothy oliphant had the career he has

[01:42:34] had right so he needed to create a movie about god putting people in situations so that he would continue to stay in the business had to put holly hunter and she had to play an angel because she's

[01:42:46] actually in real life an angel for god for show business keeping timothy oliphant in we have cracked this wide open yeah that's why he's so inexplicable in this film that's why when he

[01:42:58] appears you're like wait why is he even here there was only one reason he needed that day with holly i want to read this this answers a couple questions but it's also just pretty good in and of itself

[01:43:09] so he said this is a timothy oliphant radio interview from 2017 kpcc 89.3 fm southern california he says i did a scene that would basically got cut out of a danny boyle movie a lifeless ordinary

[01:43:21] where i was working with holly hunter for the days those are moments danny boyle there was just a way in which he works enthusiasm he makes you feel like everything is wonderful but here's the important part of the story watching holly hunter was pretty life-changing i hadn't seen

[01:43:32] that before we were doing a take and the cameras on her the wind picked up and she turned her face into the wind some noise would happen off camera and she'd turn and look at it and then look back

[01:43:42] at me she had this monologue and at first i keep thinking she's screwing up the shot but then i realize no she's not she's actually just completely dialed into the entire experience and everything that's happening and she's not concerned with getting it right she's not even

[01:43:54] trying to get it right she's interested in the moment whatever was happening at the moment it felt fearless and unconscious and i remember flagging that moment that day and thinking

[01:44:02] well that's where you want to go that's where you want to get to okay that's nice none of that feels reflected in the performance we see on screen no i may be like he says most of it just got cut out

[01:44:14] and that's that's that you know that happens um but i'm glad he had that transcendent moment and i'm also glad that like almost any actor he seems to talk very fondly about danny boyle

[01:44:25] yeah as a as an honest guy yeah he seems like a super fun person to work with there's no no i've no i don't question that even in movies like that that don't succeed for sure

[01:44:35] pleasure to work with yes he seems quite well regarded in that uh sense um how does this movie resolve itself you know uh what happens is eventually they get in fights and uh they

[01:44:51] decide to rob a bank right uh which goes well until the security guard shoots at them well he takes a bullet for her he gets a flash of her getting shot in the stomach and then like nicolas cajun next he takes the bullet to prevent that from happening

[01:45:08] yeah um and uh he gets operated on by stanley tucci right and he like falls you know he like you know goes unconscious wakes up to see them essentially doing some kind of sexual role play

[01:45:23] she's doing like a cheesecake shoot with her we're meant to understand for sure that she's way not into it and that this for some reason for her is part of her manipulation she's like whatever this is what she you know she promised stanley tucci i'll

[01:45:38] you know do that with you for a night if you save my friend right right um but super bloody fucking like prosthetic leg yeah um and uh then well basically they they split up but then delroy

[01:45:56] lindow writes a poem in ewan's handwriting sends it selene to selene to says cameron diaz she is moved comes and finds him recites it to him and says i'm so charmed by this you've won me back

[01:46:11] over and you're like i don't write poetry what that's not a thing what did you do that was the plan i don't know they didn't seem to anticipate that he would be like i have not

[01:46:22] written poems anytime this will fall apart immediately they did buy all the spy gear they could get their hands on a lot of spy gear a lot of spy gear yeah the the the them parting ways

[01:46:36] for being such a sort of random chaotic movie that is four movies suddenly you are like in the middle of save the cat in the most bland like all of a sudden you're like oh third act like it's it feels

[01:46:51] so forced that it suddenly becomes the most pat movie you've ever seen because it's like oh this is oh what's happening here oh that's this is where they have to hate each other now god i got it i

[01:47:03] guess i should time i watch my that like the fall oh no yeah and and then you're right like tony shalhoub gets the big scene but it's the best friend in the most generic rom-com being like

[01:47:15] go to her run through the airport get there in time before she boards the flight traffic's terrible you're gonna have to go on foot hail a cab but then after 10 minutes get frustrated check your

[01:47:25] watch but make sure give the cabbie time to also give you a gem let the cabbie give you a little nugget and then and then just start running correct none of this none of this i'll just say

[01:47:38] that like we're probably there's probably 15 20 minutes of the movie left when all this is happening and i was definitely not like i have found a hidden gem but i was kind of like look

[01:47:48] this movie is kind of wacky and i'll give it it's you know give it a little credit for at least it's just weird and that it happened and i i haven't hated watching this but then the final

[01:47:59] chunk of like the angels now resigned to their mortality decide to kidnap cameron diaz again yes and take her hostage and he has to rescue her and then the butler shoots the angels

[01:48:13] and like you know all this stuff where they're like i'm like why have you crammed all of this i that's when i was really kind of like guys i'm i'm sick of this i i am sick of this i am now a

[01:48:24] little annoyed right yeah i went from being like and look it doesn't work but i'm charmed by the by the attempt to buy and i was like can you guys shut up please like you mcgregor gets shot in the

[01:48:34] heart and you cut to dan hedaya frantically answering the phone like he's howie mindell on deal or no deal talking to the dealer i had the same thought yes dealer no deal energy you

[01:48:45] want me to you think he's a good player ewan mcgregor's dream describing his own dream about being on a game show yes was enough information for cameron diaz to realize that what that

[01:48:57] eventually was going to mean was that she would shoot him in the heart yes but that that bullet would pass through him without harming him to then penetrate the person that's holding onto

[01:49:10] like that's that's the takeaway from the dream like oh the dream makes sense it makes perfect sense it makes perfect sense that half described dream that sounded annoying uh you mentioned the

[01:49:23] the claymation uh at the end jay and i don't know if you know this uh this was because they forgot to shoot or write anything explaining where the money went and only after they cut the movie

[01:49:32] together they realized that scene was missing fox was like do you need money for reshoots and danny was like no we'll do it in stop motion we'll do it in claymation but of course you are

[01:49:42] right that scene is missing and i of course will pull out my plasticine and make it for you right now oh my god they forgot they forgot uh let me let me see if there's any all right i'm gonna just

[01:49:53] give you guys uh any other dossier thing so i told you right neumann gregor had just made the movie night watch kind of a forgotten 90s thriller uh and he does an american accent in that and he showed

[01:50:05] that movie to boyle and mcdonald being like here's my american accent if you want me to do one and they watched it and they were like you should just be scottish and he to this day is like i

[01:50:17] don't know if they just felt it'd be better for the movie or if they didn't like my accent but whatever they cast him so he didn't care um obviously cameron diaz uh is basically getting

[01:50:29] cast off of the mask here as as she was for all these little movies she did like feeling minnesota right and the last supper and all that she's the one um and uh you know as as boyle puts it he

[01:50:42] wanted someone mythically american that's that's his take on cameron diaz she is very american certainly um holly hunter like you know they love joel cohen and ethan cohen those two guys also

[01:50:56] known as the cohen brothers uh so they're into that um uh they did consider having god appear in the film sean connery orson wells whoopie goldberg were some names that got tossed around

[01:51:12] each one of those lost roles to each other so countless times yes countless times they went with whoopie again says sean connery i wanted to be eddie yeah always get those three confused

[01:51:27] be jumping jack flash um i could have gotten back in the habit thank you thank you i don't think you're gonna get cast in the sequel sean come on why not originated it sean i don't think it's a

[01:51:44] game ball sean i think it's hers uh oh ian holm apparently on set ian home told danny boyle that he had been deeply in talks with stanley kubrick about making napoleon

[01:51:56] for a long time and then one day stanley kubrick just top talking to him and that was the end of that but that makes sense right in home being in napoleon i don't know if he was gonna play

[01:52:07] napoleon in anything he did that movie the emperor's new clothes where he plays napoleon yes wait what was the end it's called the emperor's new clothes yeah because i too feel like i've seen him with his hand in a jacket absolutely and the little hat he played napoleon

[01:52:23] guys three times oh he played him in a british tv series called napoleon and love he played him in time bandits and that's what i'm thinking of i'm definitely thinking of time bandits yes okay all

[01:52:36] right there is i went to the wikipedia page for the emperor's new clothes and there's a subsection ian holmes napoleon right listing the two times he's done on television twice in film

[01:52:48] yeah twice in literature i don't know what the fuck they're talking about he did it twice in literature griffin don't ask questions okay um okay this is interesting okay the film had a small

[01:52:58] budget 12 million dollars so fox mostly left them alone because the budget was so small their two big notes were one they should kiss more often they wanted a kiss in the movie every 10 minutes

[01:53:11] was david simms the chief executive i was about to say uh and then the other one which they listened to is that initially in the bank robbery scene so in the bank robbery scene cameron diaz points a gun

[01:53:22] at the teller ewan mcgregor says i thought we agreed no cliches and instead she points a gun at a like a teenage girl and and like it's like give me the money right that's the sort of like

[01:53:35] whatever joke in the original script it was a tiny girl it was a seven-year-old girl and fox was like look if you absolutely want to do this we're not going to put our foot down but

[01:53:46] we don't think that's a good idea and danny boy was like you're right you're right she probably should we are we are kindly asking you not to do but it's still it still is like that that moment

[01:53:57] stands out i think just in terms of what ages well and doesn't even in movies that make no sense and aren't great that move that that move sort of stands out to me as like people today

[01:54:09] going i don't think we do that do we do that do we have the the heroine character and i think it gets excused by the term black comedy but this is not i think that's this movie has been

[01:54:21] described as a black comedy i don't think that it is at all no so it's weird because you're like oh there's like four or five black comedy moments so this is gonna be a black comedy and that's

[01:54:31] like kind of how you get away with your you know your leading lady pointing a loaded gun at a child yeah it was still very much a child that's one of the problems is it does feel like he's trying to

[01:54:41] make a frothy comedy on top of a dark story right yeah right yeah like the comedy in this movie is not dark at all there are dark circumstances and all of them are played silly right but then

[01:54:54] something like that happens you're like no i just played out of my mind what could have happened in that scenario it's really bad really it's like really bad but i will say for the kiss maybe you're

[01:55:03] gonna bring this up david i apologize if i'm jumping on it no that authentic spit string that comes from between them right after the bank robbery i hate that i'm interested enough in

[01:55:14] filmmaking that i can't just appreciate the reality of that and instead of my mind i was imagining danny boyle being like this is it that's the one that's going in the can that's real and i

[01:55:23] love it and it's a spit string i hate that i like it pulls me out instead of putting putting me back in so i have to put and reinsert myself into the movie but um but i did but you know you don't see

[01:55:33] a lot of tongue and a lot of spit strings in in movie kisses these days or in television kisses and no i appreciate that they went for it there's your viscera there's your condom there's your yeah

[01:55:43] there's your condom it's the tissue absolutely um the other thing i wanted to mention which i do think is quite cute is that apparently you know they shot this movie in utah and apparently ewan

[01:55:56] mcgregor really stuck out in 90s utah with his weird hair and his funky clothes and all that uh so apparently he had a bit of a hard time being i don't know the the lonely scottish boy in in utah

[01:56:12] um okay yeah that's all i don't know i think i think they had a good time making this movie i think you're absolutely it seems like everyone's very fond of each other and is like talking about

[01:56:23] it's not like danny boyle is like oh my god you could tell from week one we were screwed you know it's more just kind of like i think we kind of just like didn't have a tone that we totally figured

[01:56:34] out and we shouldn't have turned it into angels oops this is one of those movies where the cast dinners must have been incredible i'm sure exactly everyone's in their 20s too they're all saucy

[01:56:45] right this is like utah you're just owning whatever town you're filming in you know salt lake city you're making a trip to the temple i can't see what that's all about maybe you catch a

[01:56:55] morbin tabernacle choir uh show danny boyle says he saw nodding hill which comes out a couple years later uh but still he says when he saw that he was like oh this is a good romantic comedy okay yes

[01:57:12] that's true and there is nothing about this movie that is like that movie in any way clearly like uh i don't think i ever could have made a movie like this but this is a romantic right this is

[01:57:22] the tone i don't know how to do or don't want to do or whatever that does now preemptively explain why he makes yesterday makes yesterday 20 years later yeah i now get that that was his sights

[01:57:35] were set on that yeah okay after all this you know criticism he does say i like the film i'm affectionate about it uh it's a film nobody likes and everyone's forgotten but there are elements

[01:57:47] about falling in love that are really good it's very dizzy and not rational i don't know he seems like he's like oh that's my little misfit toy right like that's uh-huh yeah you know which is

[01:57:57] especially if you had a great time making it like we you know he's he's he's now he's it's all mixed up in one thing now it's like the making of that movie and where he was in his life and like them

[01:58:08] having fun and being an enjoyable experience it that's hard to tease apart from something that that maybe doesn't succeed at all so and i want him to have that i want him to for this to be a

[01:58:17] super positive fun memory and you know for him to feel like oh the lightheartedness madcap adventure of yeah being in love right and you know if leo wanted to work with him right after that i can't

[01:58:31] have dinged him that badly yeah uh that was already in the works yeah how that works so do we want to play the box office game yeah just janet because we did as you said force you take

[01:58:44] the poison pill on this movie i'll just say in in booking guests for this mini series we we are usually going about things as we reach out to people or people have reached out to us uh you

[01:58:55] know if it's a first-time guest like you or someone we've had before on we go hey here's the next two things we're doing here are the next two directors here are all the movies that are up

[01:59:05] for grabs do you have feelings about any of them and uh basically everyone came back to us with the exact same three denny boyle picks it was this real thing where like everyone basically picked

[01:59:17] the same three movies what did they pick uh everyone basically said i would do train spotting did not did not that did not feel that important to me i mean i gave you i gave you a lot you gave

[01:59:31] me if you're gonna tell me that a bunch of people said i want to do millions then i'm gonna the end you know what i'm sorry millions is one of the only ones we had booked early though okay we did

[01:59:41] book it early someone called me i see i see and everyone said slumdog millionaire and trains yeah and no one wants to do slumdog millionaire but yes anyway oh really i assume that people would

[01:59:50] just be like i know what a danny boyle movie is it's that one right well you wrote this email where you're saying how like important he was to you yeah and then i was like well even i don't

[02:00:00] know if we're gonna find anyone who really wants to stand up for a life less ordinary but if there's someone who has like a really strong passion for danny boyle at that period that you'll be able to

[02:00:10] speak well about this to any degree but i want to give you the platform to if there are any other general danny boyle thoughts you want to say about his career about this era his 90s these

[02:00:21] movies for you i know we talked about a little bit but i want to give you the platform i feel like i said it i feel like i i said the the sort of like he's figuring it all out and he yeah and he and

[02:00:31] he represents a whole sort of like slew of other things culturally that you know became important to me around the same time i think that's true for a lot of people um but you know i i love him i

[02:00:45] would love to work with him it would be amazing to work with danny boyle absolutely 100 percent even if they could go back and reinsert me into this experience and i had to say the only danny

[02:00:55] boyle movie i was in and was allowed to be in was a life less ordinary i would absolutely do it i want you to do a boil now i mean i don't know man i want danny boyle to do another movie

[02:01:06] more than anything uh i know it hasn't even been that long and he got hung up on bond and then made a couple tv shows or whatever you know like i get that he's not like in hiding or whatever but i'd

[02:01:18] like to make a movie basically the last thing that was like seriously announced coming from him was him supposed to he's supposed to do a methuselah action movie with michael jordan that has been

[02:01:31] that is one of those projects that he's been attached to for so long so it must be a script he loves um because it is hilarious isn't it yeah yeah but i mean like a lot of people

[02:01:42] have been attached to it over the years i love you know the idea of michael b jordan doing it it's basically like what if a guy lived to be a thousand years old but it's like an action movie

[02:01:50] he could also kick yeah he could kick he could do a kick right um he has a kick that he does so make that that's fine i'm all for it no i know that's one of those like development hell

[02:02:03] movies but then whenever it was early 2020 they were like this now has heat behind it again boyle and jordan together there's excitement and then i feel like there's been no development but you also haven't heard about him working on anything new when did yesterday come out 2019 2019 i put

[02:02:21] forward the theory that it's the movie that caused the pandemic we'll get back to this at the end of our mini series but i have at certain points suggested that it might be if a movie can be

[02:02:30] patient zero it might have been yesterday a lot of crowd scenes a lot of crowds that's true that's true they got to hear him do all the songs yeah see because you know no one knows the beatles what

[02:02:42] they cut anna de armas out of the trailer which is illegal it has been agreed and ruled by the supreme court that it was illegal yeah i think he went i think he actually served time in the can

[02:02:54] for that a little bit i think it's coming it's coming yeah people are talking about now there's a new film you know coming out called plane right it's about planes yes good but actually the movie

[02:03:05] is mostly set on an island right the plane lands on an island sure and then most of it is set on an island and someone tried to tell me like well that's false advertising and i was like

[02:03:14] do you think there are people who are like a movie has a plane in it i'm there like where they're like wait a second this movie's got planes there was an era where that was true i feel like the 20s

[02:03:28] 1920s to be clear no i feel like there wasn't there an era where it was like we got snakes on a plane we got the president on a plane we got jodie foster

[02:03:36] on a flight plan we got she had a flight plan she had a whole plan i think it went all right but the element there janet is that the pitch was you won't believe what we put on this plane

[02:03:49] whereas plane is just selling you what if there was a plane that movie that title is going to change that title's going to change no it's not playing oh no no it's out tomorrow or next week

[02:03:59] all right plane i can just see it much much like you and mcgurk can see camera diaz getting shot in the gut i can see a year from now jack nicholson out of retirement back in the public eye

[02:04:11] on stage opening the envelope and going the best picture goes to plane and then holding up the two fingers like he did after crash he knows how surprised everyone is by what he just said

[02:04:24] plane all right griffin this movie came out october 24th 1997 just what you just what you think when you watch this movie halloween people are gonna be in a mood for this yeah i guess it

[02:04:39] is supernatural so unsurprisingly uh it opens number nine with two million dollars so obviously and it legs it out to four oh so uh not a great run for life less ordinary it's basically it's basically out of theaters after two weeks um okay but uh uh unsurprisingly

[02:04:59] number one at the box office is a horror film sure it's in its second week and it's got an iconic title it's got an iconic title is it uh is it i know what you did last summer i know what

[02:05:13] you did last summer pretty phenomenal title yeah yeah based on a book based on a book based on a book i know what you did last summer it is based on louis duncan's book that's correct yes

[02:05:24] yeah shout out i think i think it's a loosely based on that book but sure uh and of course it was followed by i still know what you did last summer and i'll always know what you did

[02:05:35] last summer i think went to uh went to direct video right yeah yeah i still know you did last summer though is arguably an even better title the audacity of it it's audacious it's because

[02:05:45] it knows it's it's that that it's that it's sort of you know making fun of itself yeah but there's also the way that you want yeah there's a nice tension to the title of of the title yelling at

[02:05:56] you this is not resolved yeah don't think you're in the clear i still fucking know what you did last summer yeah i know oh i know i know i haven't forgotten you have the immediate context

[02:06:08] that there another summer has not passed okay you immediately get a lot of clues the timeline is this might pick right back up yeah i do i do there's two things one i do want to say

[02:06:20] sarah michelle geller's character and i know you did last summer do you guys remember what she's called she's one of the great horror movie names ever her name is helen shivers i think about it

[02:06:30] all the time oh boy uh it is such a good name uh i remember that movie being fun i have not seen it in many many i've never seen it you've never seen i know what you did last summer i don't think

[02:06:41] i've ever seen it and i think i confuse it with final destination well it's very different from final destination i think in my mind there's a lot of like funny awful crazy things that happen

[02:06:53] but yeah there's a little bit of that it's very it's one of those classic um you know it's like a beachy slasher there's a lot of beachy a lot of rain and water there's crabs hook

[02:07:05] hook handed fisherman right hook handed fisherman right he's no good um anyway so i know he did last summer he's doing great at the box office obviously that starred the uh the uh jennifer love hewitt

[02:07:17] six the six named two actor uh jennifer love hewitt sarah michelle geller you know one two punch plus freddie prince jr and ryan phillipy uh two ryan ryan phil no it's ryan phillip and then e is

[02:07:33] his last just the initial e right ryan philip yes uh you've also got a young and haish johnny galecki a lot of a lot of good people in that movie um knife number two at the box office griff

[02:07:44] is uh also hmm it's it's a horror hmm it's it's a legal film with horror elements is it the devil's advocate how do you describe the devil's advocate yeah that's the only way this you're always so freaking good no other movie that could be describing

[02:08:03] not really right there's no other movie where it's like i'm an attorney who's the devil like that that never happened again isn't angel heart does that have someone a lawyer in that nevermind

[02:08:14] i don't think they're lawyers i think he's like a ci right that's that's devil crime you can say yeah it is devil i think it just features maybe someone in a suit and in my mind i was like oh

[02:08:25] they're a lawyer it is the same twist of this guy in a suit played by one of the actors from heat is the devil thank you thank you it might be you're right though it might be the only satanic courtroom

[02:08:38] thriller i mean in angel heart i will say it is supposed to be a twist that robert de niro is the devil whereas the devil's advocate they're not really hiding it right you know al pacino basically

[02:08:50] walks in wearing horns yes yeah right isn't uh isn't de niro's character name in angel heart lou cypher though correct oh hell yeah his name is louis cypher what a well-hidden twist

[02:09:04] yes uh all right number three at the box office griff is another crime movie an adult okay uh you know detective thriller uh i think i know go ahead do you have a guess is it la confidential

[02:09:17] no that is too good a movie that movie is good that movie however is yeah in the top 10 la confidential is number 10 okay uh it's been out for six weeks but you have to say that's an adult

[02:09:29] crime movie if there ever was one of one of my favorite movies of the 90s uh no this is more airport you know novel is this kiss the girl it's kiss the girls and which one's that that's is that

[02:09:41] one of several ashley judd morgan freeman movies yes well it's one of several ashley judd r-rated thrillers okay and then it's one of two morgan freeman as uh alex cross don't cross alex don't

[02:09:56] cross alex cross um who is then of course later played by tyler perry correct is there someone else that's just tv show now oh with aldis hodge that they're gonna do yeah okay okay yes uh but

[02:10:11] the james patterson books uh kiss the girls you know they're all named after um nursery rhymes so kiss the girls long came a spider jack and jill you know there's a lot of he did like he did a lot

[02:10:22] of them humpty dumpty yes oh totally yeah yes snow white and the seven dwarves james how are you gonna you know i'll figure it out don't worry i'm looking at actual titles here jack and jill

[02:10:33] four blind mice mary mary cross double cross and cross country well that's the thing he started going cross he started doing crosses after a while yeah he did like cross my heart you know

[02:10:45] a lot of those yeah pop goes the weasel two of them back to back were called roses are red and violets are blue those are two separate titles have you griff have you seen kiss the girls no i haven't

[02:10:59] it's one of those things where like is it a good movie not particularly but morgan freeman is so like above the level that movie needs and he's so good in it like because he you know i just i'm so

[02:11:13] fascinated by that 90s morgan freeman is an a-list movie star thing like this guy in his 50s is now someone who opens movies and like he's you know he it is just there's just not it's good it's good

[02:11:26] stuff just like a steady presence in a movie is made for grown-ups yeah very satisfying yeah a lot of good actors in that movie brian cox bill nunn carrie elwes he's definitely not the murderer couldn't be carrie elwes he's playing the character name of john t innocent man

[02:11:46] nick q suspicious um number four at the box office is a big epic movie that is a flop very controversial at the time not in america but in another country for existing kundun no but correct uh area and country that's mad about it yes yeah what's the other

[02:12:13] john jackanaud's seven years well done janet right yes um which i've never seen because it always seemed kind of boring yeah i i well that was in my hardcore anti-brad pitt phase where i was like i won't watch him do anything serious

[02:12:29] i don't believe him no i really was like david i took a stand that is fair that was his most boring era 100 of course that's his era where he i think is realizing like i can't do right i can't

[02:12:41] do that like i can't do saintly beautiful yeah yeah stoic because like he's bad in interview with the vampire legends of the fall uh-huh that meet joe black like and devil's own like he did

[02:12:54] tons of movies where it's like don't don't do this like yeah do weird shit and fight club is when he's like okay right yes yeah yes it was fight club when he when he won you back over janet oh

[02:13:04] absolutely absolutely it is funny that he does seven and people are like huh brad pitt can kind of act and then he does 12 monkeys and like he gets his oscar nomination and they were like great

[02:13:17] you've proven to us what a good scuzzy character actor you are with visionary directors how about we make you some boring guy again they just immediately throw him back into the old shit

[02:13:28] yeah seven years in the back so not a hit obviously and you know it was a whole okay number five is new this week okay it's a film we all watched in science class giraffe and what is it it's a film

[02:13:39] we all watched in science class it's a good movie no no no no no what why would we watch blubber he's a professor let's recon the history of everything so that that's true oh kids are always watching flubber in school david he discovered flubber it's that's a that's

[02:14:03] unique chemical to be fair what are you saying we watched it in science class i'm mystified by this flubber jerry lewis discovered flubber years ago didn't he no it was fred mcmurray was the

[02:14:16] fred mcmurray it's not jerry lewis jerry lewis was the nutty professor right uh look wildly no no it's a it's a serious very different it's a serious science film it's a serious science

[02:14:26] film kind of a flop on release but quickly well regarded very very like visually science but not space like science not space like not space grounded one of the characters really wants to go

[02:14:39] to space one of the characters really wants to go to space 1987 kind of a flop redeemed shown in science class stars mystify main character is a hottie the female lead also a hottie but then

[02:14:55] the supporting character is is uh you know white that's the money yeah this is where he's in breakout mode maybe you haven't seen this film oh he knows what it is it's not flatliners although

[02:15:11] everyone in flatliners is hot so you're not wrong about that jen it's gattaca it's gattaca it's i wish i would have watched that in science class same it's a movie that i remember in biology class

[02:15:23] they were like so this movie is about genes and stuff let's just watch it i'm gonna put my head down on a desk you know but uh jude jude law so so hot yes yes absolutely yep great yeah

[02:15:36] yep cool architecture memory serves yeah very cool aesthetically all that stuff right exactly um cool movie that is number five this week weird week at the box office mostly grown-up movies i would say right like you know r-rated stuff possibly until now based on what you're saying

[02:15:54] uh and then yeah well i'll just give you the others then number six was fairy tale of a true story which is uh oh sure that's like a true story well obviously that's a movie based on

[02:16:06] there was that scam where the guy it's like the guy who took pictures of fairies like in like and they published in the newspaper his his the daughters with fairies and people thought they

[02:16:16] proved the existence of fairy harvey kytel plays harry houdini in it he sure does it's an odd film and peter o'doul plays arthur conan doyle yes i've i've blacked out during the making well

[02:16:29] no no no one's heard of that movie only freaks like us i saw it twice in theaters yeah uh it's it's one of those movies where it's called fairy tale a true story but the true story is that what

[02:16:39] happened was faked and the movie treats it as if it were real so the title's a lie confusing yeah much like plane okay number seven at the box office in and out very fun yep yeah okay very

[02:16:50] of its time kevin klein moment sure um number eight griffin we were just talking about him the creator of puppy dog pals harland williams the film is rocket man yes uh not rocket man with

[02:17:03] elton john no the other one uh i've never seen it have you seen rocket man in which you're asking me if i have seen rocket man yeah rocket man possibly my mother's favorite comedy of the last 30 years

[02:17:18] i cannot tell you how many times i've seen rocket man pretty good tagline can you tell me the tagline there he blows i don't know what is he's just taking up space oh yeah it's good uh and the

[02:17:31] poster of course is his suit inflated because he can't stop farting in it uh janet my mother for perspective is a very pretentious french woman and she but in that way people love jerry lewis

[02:17:43] sees this farting guy yep that's where you unwind that's where you let your hair down is in watching movies if you're uptight in french well no that's when she's most uptight but she just

[02:17:53] loves rocket man as like it's just very well directed well i don't know if that's true because i haven't seen it have you seen rocket man no no did you know uh have janet have you heard of the

[02:18:05] uh animated children's show puppy dog pals yes the uh rocket man he's the creator of that movie that of that show that's that's really weird david's daughter recently discovered it and he

[02:18:17] he decried that the show is a pox against humanity my daughter is less than two years old but has found rocket i mean puppy dog pals she's not found rocket man found puppy dog pals on the disney plus

[02:18:30] carousel pointed to it and said puppy and when i decided to try and play something else she stomped her feet until i played it because i don't know how to deal with that and so i put it on it's not

[02:18:40] very good in my opinion i'm sorry if you know if you know anyone involved we can't all be bluey we can't all well that's what i was trying to play was bluey and she was she was like no other puppies

[02:18:51] um you've also got a little film called a life less ordinary oh yeah we talked about that one and then la confidential uh bringing up the rear has been out for a couple months

[02:19:01] but la confidential look griff it's been out for a couple months it's made 29 million dollars and it's gonna leg it out to 64 because of the oscar you know yeah bounce like afterwards

[02:19:14] wow so that's cool oh also boogie nights is like new and expanding in theaters that's been out for a couple weeks and it's like 100 screens wow so that's kind of cool so like you could go see

[02:19:23] boogie nights i mean there's so many good movies in theaters right now it is it's crazy just a variety a real variety a real variety yeah okay we're done we gotta stop wasting janet's time come on

[02:19:38] we gotta that's been so much fun okay good janet you're the best is there anything you want to plug boo i don't know when does this come out i know you guys record a little bit far out don't you

[02:19:49] that's a good question this comes out on uh february 5th so not that far away so i just want to plug hoping hoping you all had a great time at sketch fest which is now closed as of i

[02:20:01] guess maybe today uh future me is very very tired indeed uh but future me enjoyed seeing at least one of the gentlemen here on this podcast i will be there i'm looking forward to it yeah it's gonna

[02:20:13] be great to seeing you yeah uh if you're a fan of avatar the last airbender i do a very fun podcast for nickelodeon iheart with uh dante bosco it is not just a rewatch podcast but it does include

[02:20:25] conversations about episodes and a bunch of other stuff called braving the elements um and we'll leave it at that i watched all of avatar and cora in lockdown in 2020 it was a great

[02:20:37] it was a great help to me yeah those were those shows they they came out on netflix at a really good time for where everyone's emotional frailty was uh in terms of needing something like that so

[02:20:50] i mean i definitely told my wife like today she was like who's what's the podcast today i said we're i don't even need to tell you about the movie don't worry about it but cora is on it and

[02:20:58] she was like cora and so we were very excited um i will um but yes thank you for coming on janet oh my god i i'm absolutely gonna invite myself back you you will you will come back and we we will make

[02:21:11] good we will give you no we don't want to talk about this fun it's just as fun talking about stinkers uh especially when it's like you know someone you care about and you whose work you love

[02:21:21] and a bunch of people you like it's yes you know there's a lot to talk about so yes it's great yes and this is kind of the definition of a movie that's more fun to talk about than to watch

[02:21:29] talking about it is really fun absolutely couldn't agree more uh and i hope you all liked listening to it please remember to rate review and subscribe thank you to marie bardi for our

[02:21:41] social media and helping to produce the show thank you to alex barron aj mckeon for our editing jj birch for our research joe bone pat reynolds for our artwork lane montgomery and the great american

[02:21:51] novel for our theme song you can go to blankcheckpod.com for links to some real nerdy shit including our patreon blank check special features where we do franchise commentaries we of course finishing up we just finished up the cotsy trilogy uh february bonus we haven't

[02:22:07] quite figured out at this moment we're coming up next men in black long demanded that's right doing the four men in black films and commentary starting february 21st with uh the original

[02:22:17] men in black the best movie ever made number one three other movies yep yep and then three other movies that happened uh tune in next week for the beach that's right we're going to the beach

[02:22:31] yeah we won't tell you where it is though it's a secret nope it's it's in a secret place don't get hurt do not get hurt on the beach after your head drops off yes uh and as always dan hadea is a chameleon