[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 Dr. Brown, I brought this podcast back from the future and now it's erased
[00:00:25] Of course it's erased! It means your podcast hasn't been written yet No one's has! Your podcast is whatever you make it So make it a good one, both of you! Yeah, that's nice. This is the last line in the movie basically Right? I love your Blase Oh
[00:00:42] To what? Oh, in response? I was trying to remember, I was trying to place what this was going to be And then I was very satisfied You sounded mildly satisfied You went, oh Well no but I was like, oh, you know Oh Yeah
[00:00:57] Yeah, and then he says, we will dock! Yeah, right, then Marty butts in Shut up Marty This is Doc's movie Let him have the last line This really is Doc's movie I mean that's the thing I really admire about this one
[00:01:11] Like putting this under a microscope for this episode Now that we've spent a month living in Hill Valley as it were Right? Yes We had our Roger Rabbit episode but we've spent a month really thinking about this franchise The value of this movie mostly lies in
[00:01:26] Let's give Doc Brown a movie Um, yeah, okay, so We should introduce the podcast and we should You know, talk to our great guests and all that And I think you might Know this already or you might have anticipated this but yet this movie I vastly prefer
[00:01:42] To part two This movie is great That is so wild This movie is really good That is the most David opinion Is it? Is it really? Okay, okay I kind of was watching it and I was like how is that not the opinion?
[00:01:56] Yeah, I mean I feel like The opinion I know I'm not alone and on an island I'm sure people agree with me but I feel like back to the future franchise heads are like I just love this series
[00:02:08] I feel like most people feel like this movie's a shrug They're like oh it like kind of sucks right I mean I guess it's fun but whatever And then I've always contended it's like the ultimate gentleman's six movie It's just like well made, charming, good performance
[00:02:22] Good gentleman's eight, eight and a half Wow To our guest who of course you're invited to speak at any time David has Been reticent to show Back to the future part two the respect that I believe it deserves
[00:02:39] So I meant to rewatch the whole series before we talked And I only was able to watch the third one And I listened to your podcast with Back to the Future one But because of the space time continuum
[00:02:51] The podcast with Back to the Future part two has not yet been released At the time of this recording It has not yet been released and you haven't heard it And then you'll then hear it and then this episode will change Yeah, I will The file will update
[00:03:03] It's gonna change my tombstone weirdly Like if the reason I die will change And it'll change my tombstone pizza I bought a pepperoni it's gonna turn to a supreme Have you ever found a garlic bread griff? No, I've been searching so actively
[00:03:17] Do you know that these exist, Josh? That they're... I'm half introducing you now There are... there's a line of tombstone pizzas now The main flavor varietals But the crust is coated in garlic It's a garlic bread crust It sounds so fucking good And it's all I want
[00:03:34] And we wanted to get them before we went on Doe Boys To review Tombstone and David I mean David I feel like you looked in like three places And I looked in like 25 places You were in Manhattan too Well but Manhattan
[00:03:48] Manhattan has a lot of variety with supermarkets Whereas Brooklyn less So I looked where I could I also though would look on like Instacart or whatever I was always trying to see if any supermarket in like 25 miles had one I looked everywhere for them
[00:04:03] And then tombstone slid into my DMs And they were like When this is all over we'll try to send you one When this is all over? Oh wait so that's... I thought there was like a history you had with tombstone I mean maybe it is
[00:04:17] Yeah it was a little ominous That's why this feeling isn't so raw anymore With me the tombstone social media manager When I come to peace with you So you want a vaccine Simply so that you can then reply to tombstone and be like
[00:04:33] So where's my garlic bread pizza That's not why I want a vaccine Is it a top three reason? Yes absolutely I also think the vaccine would be better covered in garlic Wait a second what if it turns out that the garlic bread pizza is the vaccine
[00:04:49] And that's why there's all these supply chain issues That's the problem Because they can't figure out like who has antibodies Who doesn't Why do some young people get hit hard and old people survive And it's just like they could map it to like the four stores
[00:05:04] That are selling garlic bread pizza That is one of the little New York City As somebody who grew up not in New York City That is one of the New York things Where sometimes you want something that feels so basic
[00:05:17] That like everyone else in the country would have And it will take you like It's like a three day charting like Okay I gotta take this subway to this one part of Brooklyn No and I grew up here I'm born and raised in New York
[00:05:29] But like when my family would go travel to other places Or we'd like visit other people in different states Then I'd fall in love with some like regional junk food item Or a specific flavor that I'd never seen in New York
[00:05:42] Or like fast food chains that don't exist in New York And then I would just go crazy longing for them But this of course is a podcast about film operatives Directors who have massive success early on in their careers And are given a series of blank checks
[00:05:56] Make whatever crazy passion projects they want And sometimes those checks clear And sometimes they bounce baby I don't know at the last second I was like I should put some back to the future spin on it It's a mini series on the films of Robertson Mechis
[00:06:11] It's called podcast away And now we're finishing out the trilogy We're talking back to the future part three And our guest one of the nicest people in the world The nicest man on the internet Can I say that the nicest man on the internet?
[00:06:25] That's very flattering thank you What if you had demanded that we say You're the internet's bad boy though What if you were like I'm rebranding Or you don't even know what rest up is If I demanded that Griffin say I was the nicest man on the internet
[00:06:39] You better say I'm nice And that he asked me as if it was his idea Yes and then you corrected my wording He's a great stand up He's written for last week tonight Currently a writer on Deezus and Mero Josh Gondelman Hey thank you for having me
[00:06:56] Thank you so much for being here This has been a long journey We've been talking for a long time Has been a long journey About getting you on some episode Because you're a listener and a wonderful person And we've absolutely abused your kindness
[00:07:11] In terms of constantly going like Oh this thing came up would you be mine If we swapped you to this episode I do think it's no problem at all And you guys have your own the schedule And that makes so much sense
[00:07:23] But it did it was kind of a back to the future Ask span of space and time Yeah but we did it we're here At one point you were going to be on a later episode At one point you were going to be on an earlier episode
[00:07:37] You've moved around the timeline Yep but you know what I feel that it turned out Exactly the way it should Back to the future part three The podcast is what we make of it That's what we're here for baby So now that we know David's opinion
[00:07:52] And my opinion is you know Massive fan of this franchise I think it goes one two three But I think the drop from two to three Is bigger than the drop from one to two Even though one is inarguably like The perfect movie in the franchise
[00:08:07] What is your relationship to this franchise At large and this movie in particular I think I saw them out of order But came to the opinion that you have Griffin I think I saw two first Like I saw it at like a friend's house
[00:08:22] Like we were there family friends were there for Passover And I was like man this Biff Tannen A powerful man and probably always was such And then I saw back And then I think my dad was like You should watch the first one
[00:08:37] And I was like there's a back to the future one Like it was that young incredulous And then I watched three Yes I'm way out of order And I remember one being like The classic film Two being its own thing In the same world also very good
[00:08:53] But like in a more overall Ominous feel and to act Not that there wasn't peril in the first one But like No two was dark But yeah I just feel like visually I remember it being darker And just like the theme of like
[00:09:09] The whole world is already screwed up On this timeline Was like a new thing to introduce And then I saw three And three is like fun I remember it feeling like The third one of a movie Of a series of movies
[00:09:25] Is when you just go way back in time Cause those little Ninja Turtles 3 Came out like in the early 90s The Turtles were in time Ancient China Ancient Japan maybe It's definitely I think it had like a sort of a samurai Feel
[00:09:43] But now I want to check it out Well yes Fuedal Japan Fuedal Japan I feel bad for messing that up I don't think I'm a bad person for doing that You're not a bad person But I do want to give you the tagline
[00:09:59] For Turtles in time now that Please I've looked it up Griffin Do you know it? Do you know the tagline for Turtles in time? I don't What is it? Ancient Japan Okay Period 1593 Period Okay Without a map Period Kawabanga Without a clue Period Without a pizza Period Wow
[00:10:28] I forgot that the stakes were so high In the third Ninja Turtles movie Of course it's impossible for them to get some good Zaw I get that they don't have a map But like is that Like that's not really their biggest concern It's not like they're like
[00:10:42] Oh no we went back in time And we don't have a map I would have left out If I had to cut one I was making edits And I had to lose just a couple words for space I would lose without a clue I was gonna say
[00:10:57] Think of the Ninja Turtles I don't think of them as specifically clueless Or more clueless than say you or I would be If we appeared in feudal Japan They're pretty competent characters They're not Bill and Ted Like that's a Bill and Ted tagline
[00:11:12] Absolutely it's a Bill and Ted Without a clue where they're just like Dude are we in feudal Japan? That's like the whole vibe I feel like Ninja Turtles are pretty known for rolling with the punches And like very adaptable They kick on their feet yes
[00:11:27] They've studied martial arts Do you think it's that They're like it's like They're without a clue because they're without a map Like is it trying to like underline that like Since they're mapless The clues are gone These guys like fucking cartographers Like I don't remember
[00:11:46] Like you know Donatello having to check his compass every five minutes Before they attack the foot What is this shit? It's just a weird The movie should because it has a below tagline as well Which is the turtles are back in time And that's really all you need
[00:12:01] That's the premise of the movie we get it I don't need it to sound like a romcom Where it's like they're without a map And they've lost a compass And they're playing by heart Right exactly What I like about
[00:12:16] Without a pizza is it just makes them sound like Shitty American tourists like showing up in Japan Being like is there a fucking dominoes around here Or what? Yes right right But there's no pizza? Fudal Japan sucks I initially thought it was great It is funny how like
[00:12:36] Now that the Ninja Turtles has been around for so long Rebooted so many times and lasted for generations And people like care about Ninja Turtles And like the mythology and the integrity of the characters Across interpretations and stuff When you go like right it was literally just
[00:12:52] A Frank Miller Daredevil parody And the foot soldiers are called the foot soldiers Because in Daredevil they're the hand ninjas And Splinter's called Splinter Because in Daredevil his name is Stick Like everything is just like a space balls joke
[00:13:08] And it's like if Dark Helmet had developed as much Integrity as Darth Vader And we were like well we all know originally in the timeline Dark Helmet It's not just that though Griffin It's like you're right that it's initially a parody And then essentially they are approached by
[00:13:24] Cartoon companies, toy makers Happy meal manufacturers Anyone and they're just like yeah whatever Give us money like they had no integrity about The brand and they were like yeah do whatever you want with it Just you know go ahead sorry I'm not criticizing them
[00:13:41] I think they did a great job I'm criticizing them I always forget which one is which But there was a big falling out between Ysmin and Laird and one of them was like I now see we've let things go too far
[00:13:54] Like had the Albert Einstein like we had to Create the atomic bomb so that it could never be used Ever again kind of thing And he like sold out his part of it And was just like I don't approve of any of this
[00:14:04] And the other guy cashed us the checks and every time is like This is the best version yet So one of them has had like this sort of lingering regret Ysmin has just stuck with it And is like you know did cameos
[00:14:17] In the Michael Bay produced remakes or whatever And Laird moved to Massachusetts And I guess just hangs out The other thing and I know this because The Tic arc was so similar to this Like Tic only became what it became
[00:14:32] Because everyone was like fuck what's the next Ninja Turtles Take any black and white independent comic book With a slightly subversive edge And see if we can make it happen It was the toy deal first It was a guy came to them and was like
[00:14:46] I can absolutely sell toys Then they made every single merchandising deal And then they went look at all this merch we have Someone should make a cartoon show So it was essentially like an indie black and white comic Book that was somewhat hard to find
[00:15:00] That then got all of these merchandising deals And then someone said oh we should find a way To make it accessible to children It's so bizarre Why should kids want this Tic toy You know how because the toy comes from
[00:15:14] The toy first comes from the premise of like You know how kids love Tics right Right They're covered in them But the Tic was the same thing They had done like five issues And then the toy company was like We look at what just happened with Ninja Turtles
[00:15:28] So there's the weird thing where all the early Tic merchandise That came out when the cartoon show came out Has shit that's not in the cartoon show Like the video game has characters that are only in the comics And the toy line has characters that never appear
[00:15:42] Like they just were like everyone was Like it was complete a cart before the horse shit Back to the future quite the opposite We talked about this and are back to the future two episode But this was like the tail end of creatives
[00:15:54] Getting such control over their property And their creations where like Gale and Zemeckis Have absolute control and kill rights over everything Back to the future until they die It's one of those things where it's like It can never be remade
[00:16:08] They can never do some crappy spin off without them Like they just have the ultimate and I'll be all say And it does make this movie kind of unique That it's like here is a major 80s franchise That has its third installment come out in 1990
[00:16:23] And there has never really been serious talk Of doing anything major again You have comic books and you have video games And you have an animated series And you have stuff that's all treated as like Out of canon silliness That Bob Gale himself oversees
[00:16:35] And like stamps off on or helps right But this is this one franchise that's kind of been like Beautifully locked in Ember You know without this threat of it being revived Ghostbusters was a similar one Where like Ramas, Ackroyd, Reitman, Murray All had complete kill rights
[00:16:54] Nothing could go forward without all four of them approving And Murray was always the hold up And the other guys wanted to do stuff And then when Ramas died and it was only three of them No one's ever really written about this
[00:17:08] But there was some deal negotiated with Bill Murray I think because they had him at Ramas' memorial service And they were like Can we just write you a check And you'll let us make stuff without you They've always said You want to get to Bill Murray
[00:17:23] You get him at a funeral He's putty in your hands Right But it's this wild thing People were like Why does Ghostbusters 3 not get made Why don't they just make it without him If he doesn't want to make it It was like they couldn't make it
[00:17:36] Unless he gave them permission to make it And he gave so little of a shit That he wouldn't even say I don't care, just make it without me Which is so funny Because Bill Murray had that period Where he famously did anything
[00:17:48] Like was borderline tricked into doing Garfield Right It's so bizarre I can't wait to work with the Cohen brothers And they were like Yeah, it's gonna be great Truly one of the amazing stories Of how a thing got made That they gaslit him into believing
[00:18:05] That that's what was happening But I don't think they gaslit him I think he just asked no follow-up questions And did the most cursory read I mean I think he's even admitted He didn't read the script Until he showed up in the recording studio
[00:18:17] He just saw the cover page And said man I really like those Cohen's How much would it rule if now As a lark the Cohen brothers Made a Garfield move Right, they should do it They should take it over But in canon
[00:18:29] It should be a sequel to tale of two kids Yeah, yeah, yeah Full continuity The other Garfield thing That this is like maybe apocryphal But it came to mind Because you were talking about how they Own the rights so outright Is that when Garfield
[00:18:45] When those, the Garfield suction cut things And the rear windshield of cars Were really big Jim Davis saw them getting too popular And demanded they be pulled from the market Because he was worried that Garfield Was like jumping the shark
[00:18:59] And people were going to be sick of it Wow And then of course that never happened Yeah, no to be fair He was kind of right Like Garfield still fucking exists And makes like you know Hundreds of millions of dollars Like what did Garfield do today
[00:19:15] Now I'm looking it up I'll tell you Okay so it's a Monday So he's not happy He's pissed David Uh oh This is the ungetting Garfield That is best today I'm gonna read you I'm gonna read you The Garfield comic from today It's three panels Panel one
[00:19:35] Garfield is looking straight at us He's got a crazy grin on his face And he's thinking Because he doesn't speak He just thinks right He's stuck in the middle With you as playing Right and he's thinking Ready to train And then the second panel
[00:19:53] Is basically the exact same picture Except he's holding his hand up His paw And he says Let's start with some sustained Breathing exercises Okay guys Panel three is coming up Hard cut Garfield is asleep He's on his back And the only thing he's saying Is the letter Z
[00:20:13] Do you get it? The breathing exercises are snoring Because he's asleep I've got three words for you About Garfield Still got it Yeah no I think I can honestly say Garfield has not lost any edge That is exactly as funny as Garfield was 40 years back at all
[00:20:32] I swear to God the whole thing Like I know people mock it But like I looked at the Sunday panel Every single panel is the same Like he just doesn't even bother It's literally just John Looking at Odie and occasionally drinking coffee Until Garfield comes in
[00:20:46] Like panel eight to do a joke It's crazy It's kind of the masterful thing about Garfield Is that it's called Garfield But you don't see the Garfield until the eighth panel Well you know I assume both of you Saw Garfield minus Garfield
[00:21:05] When that was a big deal on the internet And it was kind of incredible For listeners who don't know It was this like early blog For someone who just Right someone would take Garfield strips And then just remove Garfield from the strip
[00:21:22] So they pretty much just be comics Of John Arbuckle talking to himself About his loneliness Which of course because Garfield doesn't speak That was always what was happening But the strips trick you into thinking There's a conversation The subtext of John's life laid bare
[00:21:41] By the absence of Garfield though Is really tragic It was incredible It became like this like Dan Klaus-esque Like really brutal Like head on exploration into depression And Jim Davis like fully approved of it And they published a book Of like the Garfield minus Garfield strips
[00:22:00] That Jim Davis was like yeah this is great This is the best my comics have ever been Jim Davis seems like he rules I don't know if he does I also think it's kind of an open Comics industry secret I've heard that Jim Davis is kind of
[00:22:16] A collective of like 40 people now Like Shakespeare Yes Right And we'll argue for years Over who did what Yes Yeah Garfield is really just an oral History at this point You know what I mean Yeah Kind of like a home Yeah it's Homeric exactly
[00:22:36] It's really just being told And retold generation to generation It's interesting that you said Josh That you saw two first then one then three Because I had the distinct thought Watching this one This is definitely the one I've seen the least
[00:22:53] And haven't seen in the longest amount of time Like oh this is really a franchise That is dependent on you seeing them In order Because it's so much about the echoes And the repetitions of the exact same Things over and over again You know it has that like
[00:23:11] I keep on using this but it's true It's structured like a fucking herald Where you like repeat the same three beats Over and over again and heighten them In this way that like you're saying Like the hacky thing about improv classes
[00:23:24] People always like oh the lazy third beat Is you just go to space You just do the same scene you've done The first two times but you go to space Most franchises third movie suddenly They travel through time Back to the future starts out with time travel
[00:23:37] Starts out traveling through time And weirdly does the opposite Where it's like this is the one that's kind of The least time travel heavy That mostly just kinda parks itself In one genre Yeah Yeah that's true And just does like a mapping game
[00:23:51] There's not like a lot of back and forth With time We go back in time We're stuck back in time We gotta get back to the future Yeah yeah you just gotta get back to that future Doc Brown never made a Lloyd team Sorry
[00:24:05] Doc Brown never made a Lloyd team Which is weird cause they're boring Cause that's in the name It's right Named after him Not named after him He had a triple ground show But he never made a Lloyd Chris the Lloyd at a triple ground show
[00:24:19] Griff you can always one up my jokes It's a suggestion of an occupation Ben you haven't been able to say anything While we talked about the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Who I believe you are You petitioned a court to be adopted by Right like that was something
[00:24:36] Your adjunct member An adjunct turtle Yeah I mean I'm gonna name my first kid Either bebop or rocksteady I haven't decided yet of course Number two I can't wait for the species reveal Like is the kid a warthog right there I know it's a risk
[00:24:53] It could go either way But yeah yeah back to the future Ben do you care about this one Do you care about back to the future three Ben My thoughts on back to the future three are I always thought it was corny That it was like yes
[00:25:06] And like the Wild West like You could do anything while you're like Going like to this old time It is dusty but you didn't care It's dusty I like that But I'm rewatching now I like some of it Biff is a
[00:25:24] You know wow this version of Biff is crazy It is the thing every time I rewatch the franchise He is dirty is what I'm trying to say He's very dirty I'm so dirty okay It's wild that's like one thing that really stuck out with me
[00:25:37] But alright sorry Griffin Can I throw out a theory Did Tom Wilson do too good of a job In these sequels to the detriment of his career Like I already people And like nasty Also that he makes such wild choices In every interpretation
[00:25:57] That he actually kind of is the most transformative Across like Biff to old Biff to Griff To 80s Biff to Mad Dog Tannen And I saw people on our reddit saying That they didn't even know That it was the same actor in this
[00:26:12] That they knew obviously was meant to be like a Tannen ancestor But that he is different enough in this Because you watch the range of what he does in this And you're like it's very bizarre that he didn't really Go on to have like a sitcom
[00:26:27] Or a constant like funny villain Or whatever it is He should have had a good character actor career Yeah it makes no sense to me that he didn't have a sitcom I mean he popped up in sitcoms That I maybe never hit
[00:26:40] And obviously he was so good in Freaks and Geeks Amazing on Freaks and Geeks But that's just six episodes Like it's not like that He's in every part of that show And like he done a lot of voice work But it's just weird that considering these
[00:26:55] Movies are such big hits like No one was calling Or maybe they were and maybe they didn't I have no idea Like I know He seems like a pretty happy guy He does He's a stand up And I've heard that the people who've done Stand up with him
[00:27:09] I believe his reputation is like solid dude to work with Like pretty One of the nicest guys in the world One of those guys that's like Hey I had this cool experience Being in these three huge movies That rules like what a nice way to
[00:27:22] What a nice way to think of a career By all accounts there's no bitterness on his part And I think he does very well as a stand up And he does very well doing voice over and stuff I saw that he's like a regular on SpongeBob
[00:27:32] He just does a lot of like Supporting SpongeBob characters I mean I think he does fine But you also just go based on Everyone else in this franchise You know And even just like Why am I forgetting his name The actor who plays Principal Strickland
[00:27:48] And all the different Stricklands James Tolkett Right, who's also I like his cameo in this one a lot Great But he is an example of like He was like you know An 80s like New York cop character Actor Who gets in this big movie
[00:28:04] And then he had a run of other shit Where he's in like the He-Man movie Where people were using him as this kind of Like hard ass In other family films And Tom Wilson is just kind of like He doesn't do anything like this again
[00:28:17] Then Freaks and Geeks is ten years later And he's so good in that But obviously that show isn't watched at the time It feels like if it had been He probably would have then had a second wind But he's just so god damn good
[00:28:30] In all three of these movies He is I think That everyone's good in these movies I'm trying to think of like a weak spot In the back to the future cast And there isn't really one Like the Elizabeth Shoe Slash Claudia Wells
[00:28:49] You know girlfriend role is always underwritten But like that's kind of it right Like the only weird thing is that Crispin Glover doesn't come back Yes I re-watching them Shoe is the performance that sticks out to me As being just a little bit too big
[00:29:04] But I also can't really blame her Because she's sliding in on two And what they give Jennifer to do In these two movies sucks At least in the first one Claudia Wells gets to like play a real teenager Having like charming scenes with her boyfriend
[00:29:20] Versus the sequels where she just falls asleep On a bunch of different surfaces Much kind of like the Garfield of the Back to the Future universe Very much, she hates Mondays She loves, there's a whole lasagna subplot That they cut because
[00:29:37] She paints into a giant pan of lasagna That was one of the scenes, the deleted scenes Oh boy But right like even Flea's good Like even Good Job by Flea Yeah Everyone's good I mean it also gets back to this thing I said in our episode for two
[00:29:54] Which is like I think this franchise is fundamentally So much more character based Than other franchises You know it's so much about the Dynamics and the relationships And even with the different timelines And different time periods It's so much about how those things
[00:30:11] Echo and what these people mean to each other And all of that In a way that's just like You know it's hard for actors To make this type of impression In an inflated franchise That has so much world building to do And so many payoffs to handle
[00:30:26] Whereas this all the payoffs are inter-personal And this movie does have that nice like Oh this feels like a nice season finale Like a series finale Like it just puts a nice bow And leaves everyone in a place where you feel happy
[00:30:40] And good about the fact that you're probably Never going to see them again But also it's that kind of season finale Or series finale Where if it got renewed you'd be like I get where they'd pick up here You know like it feels
[00:30:51] It feels like the end of this franchise But I was reading some review That kind of said that it felt like It could be the first episode of like A sci-fi procedural Which it did feel a little like Quantum Leapy Which I loved Quantum Leap
[00:31:05] You know what I mean? Like it did feel like the most like We got to go to a time Solve a problem And then move on Right, I think I like that That it's sort of back to the first movie's thing of like
[00:31:16] It's really hard to travel through time And like we're going to need to do all this stuff To engineer that happening again Whereas too obviously is having so much fun Traveling through time as much as it can It's also, I mean I remember as a kid
[00:31:31] Seeing the covers like at the video store And feeling like oh is that all this franchise is Is it just like each movie is a different set Of costumes, you know? Right, yeah Like it's the magic tree house or whatever And it's like oh the next one
[00:31:46] They're going to go to medieval times The next one this Like I didn't understand There's no reason you would know from the box That it is about these sort of like Intraces of the family history You know and trying to correct timelines And all this sort of stuff
[00:32:01] And this is the one that like You have the looming specter of the gravestone You know Doc Brown's death date And knowing that the train is coming But then most of the middle section of the movie Is just like well we just got some time to kill Yeah
[00:32:17] Let's just be in the old west But maybe we'll have a gun fight Maybe we won't Yeah But there's like a There's stakes to this that I don't Well I like this or maybe it's just that I like the stakes that it feels more personal
[00:32:32] I feel like Doc is sort of He's a character finally which He's so good in one But even in one like he's more just kind of like Sidekick, plot motivator You know exposition guy You know he's kind of like you know sort of a tool
[00:32:50] He has an interiority here Right right yeah and this right he's kind of more of And like Lloyd so obviously knows Who he's playing He's so ready to give you more Doc Like it's not like they're like you know Foisting a plot on him that doesn't
[00:33:06] It's just like it's so clear how much Lloyd Loves being this character So he's so sort of delightful Doing more than just being like Great Scott and being surprised and yelling About science like you know It's just nice to see him be cute I love that added dimension
[00:33:24] Because it feels like because Doc He I mean the movie starts out with Doc He's caring about the rules so much right And like don't go back and get me Let me live here it's fine And for him to then like
[00:33:39] Mess with the rules by like falling in Like such a human thing It's like really sweet and clearly established Like this means a lot to Doc A guy who's like always thinking about The big picture ramifications of time travel Right yeah yeah it bright I mean
[00:33:53] That's where the stakes become very clear In the movie because it is You know I go on and on about this But like especially for big franchise movies I feel like the battles always have to be Ideological in addition to whatever The external threat or issue is
[00:34:09] Right it's why stuff like Black Panther Wonder Woman works so much better For me than most superhero movies And the fact that you do have the character At the crossroads like that That you have Doc Brown kind of fighting Himself that they're not just
[00:34:23] Like oh we have to figure out how to get The car to work again but it's really this like I don't know if I like the premise of these movies anymore Like the characters within the franchise Are fighting against the entire idea of the franchise
[00:34:37] And I also think in this weird way where like Back to the future part two is very much about Sequels and trying to like revisit the first movie And make it again and all of that sort of stuff This one is very much the like
[00:34:51] Is it natural to keep a story going You know do you start to punish the characters By continuing to pull them through it And Doc Brown over and over again just keeps on saying like I never should have invented in the first place
[00:35:04] Like this whole thing is a nightmare It's made everything worse The first movie never should have happened It's triumphant when the DeLorean is destroyed In my opinion Yeah it feels like an important course correction There's a thing I saw on the Blank Check
[00:35:20] Subreddit that kind of blew my mind And I'm gonna paraphrase it because it's long But SG Standard I want to give credit is the username And they pointed out obviously this is a franchise That is so defined by The lack of Crispin Glover in the last two movies
[00:35:38] Right it's like Yes sure Especially considering that he's the dilemma In the first movie You have to imagine that He would have been a key part of all three of these films You know at the very least Like the Sheamus McFly thing would be replaced
[00:35:55] With something entirely different And probably a more emotionally substantiative In that place And part two would be a lot more about him And I think they make the right decision The decision that like Rise of Skywalker should have made Which is
[00:36:11] Write the movie around the fact that the guy is missing Like make a movie about the absence of this character Who matters rather than pretend that you still got him Crispin Glover's whole sort of friction with Bob Gale and Bob Zemeckis
[00:36:24] On the first movie was that he hated the fucking ending And he hated that at the end of the day it's about Look the house is nicer The dad's successful He's famous Biff works for him Like everything's shiny Marty has the nice car
[00:36:38] It's a very yuppie 80s materialistic Sort of happy ending Which Zemeckis is always content is satirical And Crispin Glover was like We should have an ending This is a movie for families And the kids are gonna see That isn't so beholden to those ideals
[00:36:56] That should be more about the value of what these people mean to each other And then two and three Kind of Even though they become defined by the fact that Crispin Glover doesn't do them Are like addressing his complaints for the first movie
[00:37:10] Like Back to the Future 2 is all about Marty trying to prioritize materialism Right Find the way to use And money corrupting the world into a dysto Everything Right It just destroys everything And Back to the Future 2 is like
[00:37:24] We're just gonna slow down and make this all about relationships It is exclusively Three, I'm sorry Three is just about what these people mean to each other And if you're with the person that makes you happy Then that's the happy ending Not the nicer house
[00:37:40] Even when your life's work is destroyed Right What's important is that you've found this relationship And you've abandoned this hyper-productivity-driven sense Which is like what Doc, if Doc was defined by anything He was defined by his work Early on in the franchise
[00:37:59] And so for him to give that up and go like What's important is I found this person And we have a family And now I'm going to come back to 1985 And see my friend Marty And my life's work gets destroyed And I'm happier than I've ever been Right
[00:38:14] Yeah, right, it's the one thing that hit me watching it this time I know we're going all at work Yeah, whatever But like In the theme of the free text of the future Yeah There's no way they could do this Because they didn't have Crispin Glover
[00:38:28] But it makes me realize like The best ending for this movie Would be when he goes back to his parents' place With Jennifer That it's not the timeline from the end of the first movie It's not the yuppie successful novelist You know That it's not that they're rich
[00:38:47] But that his parents are happy together Like it feels like you need one last ripple effect Of the status quo of his home life That isn't just They're all really successful now But you can't pull that off emotionally Without having the actor Yeah
[00:39:03] I also wonder if that well would still be fun Because like You don't want to repeat the stakes And it's hard to know exactly how you're not repeating the stakes But I mean It would be better if Glover was around Certainly The other thing is that
[00:39:19] And I'm not the only person to observe this I'm sure Like Marty himself does not actually have a lot To do in either of these sequels He's kind of just like Experiencing the sequels Like he's moving through them But like his personal stakes are kind of low
[00:39:36] So it's kind of what you're complaining about Griffin Right? Like it's sort of like You know, Doc Brown You know In the second movie It's just kind of apocalypses What you have to deal with In third movie Doc is Is the center point But like Marty You know
[00:39:50] Fox is always good Because he's He's a delightful actor Like and he knows what he's doing But Marty is just kind of like Oh my god Like through two movies Yeah I mean two You have You know His dad's life's at stake You know
[00:40:06] His mom's happiness is at stake Like it's He does He's more personally invested based on the relationships Around him But he does become a more Sort of passive character I mean he's always been a pretty reactive Character and it's the reason why they shoehorn
[00:40:23] In the chicken stuff so hard I mean they've openly talked about Which I don't want They were just like It feels very like We have to give him this thing That he's overcoming Or learning to To suppress in his own life Right
[00:40:37] And they pay it off at the very end And it does feel very like Oh we have to put this hero on a journey And this is what it is Right that's the problem Is it so transparently Seems like exactly what it is actually doing
[00:40:52] Like you can see it as a storytelling move Rather than anything organic Especially because I stood corrected Because I didn't remember the chicken being In the first movie at all But in fact Biff does say it to him once As Nicole reminded us But he doesn't
[00:41:07] Marty doesn't exactly like blow his top over it Although he does fight Biff It's not an atomic bomb Like it's not a self-destruct button for him Whereas this it like fully becomes his kryptonite And for these two movies And I feel like especially this one
[00:41:20] Because Marty has so little to do It's all just about this like Are you yellow belly thing Which for me bumps only because It's not something inherit to the things We liked about the guy in the first movie Like it's a The best kind of sequel writing
[00:41:38] Is you find something that was there all along And you deepen it, you know But this feels like such an artificial deepening It does feel like what he needs to Come to terms with is His fear of his future And becoming his parents
[00:41:55] Which his parents suddenly just becoming Like the suburban ideal Doesn't really solve that, you know Right Because now it's just like Well they're good I'll be fine I got the car Yeah I mean the weirdest part is that he has siblings Like when they come out in three
[00:42:10] You're like right he has siblings Right I guess they're doing fine too Great I mean it went Yeah whatever No no I just I read Wendy Jo Spurber was like Nine months pregnant when they were shooting two So they shot a scene with his brother
[00:42:25] In the alternate like Hell 1985 Where he's drunk and he's yelling about Biff And it's a pretty good scene But they found that people were more worried About what happened to the sister If you saw the brother So then they cut both of them out
[00:42:40] And by the time they shot this A couple months later she was able to go to set But it does feel like they're pretty much Totally dropped for the better part Of two movies Which is fine You know they're not the most compelling characters
[00:42:52] And especially in this one I don't know what we would need To see from them either Like how they would fit Or how we'd want them to fit I do you're talking about how like You were talking about how two is so much Darker It's like weirdly simultaneously
[00:43:07] Darker and more cartoony Because it's like so manic And it's so like in love with all the time Travel possibilities The opening of this one is so interesting to me Just because like First back to the future you have like The opening with the clocks and the wall
[00:43:23] The amplifier And almost immediately you go into Power of love Marty skateboarding across town Being the fucking coolest kid 80s teen movie shit right Second movie you start with the ending of the first And then you have that big credit sequence Where you're flying in the clouds
[00:43:40] And the Sylvesterie score is playing a full blast And it feels so triumphant And then this one you start with You're seeing the same scene for the third time Doc Brown celebrating after the DeLorean's disappeared Yes So it's like the third time you've seen this
[00:43:56] And the second time you've seen the new addendum Of Marty showing up And then it goes to that like very kind of quiet Weirdly melancholy opening credit sequence Where it's the new theme that he wrote for this What's kind of like the Clara romance love theme
[00:44:12] It's not the exciting back to the future stuff And it's just the brown mansion at night Like during the rain, you know Like quiet him sleeping It's like a very muted step down From a movie that was so Bug nuts bananas And then after that opening sequence
[00:44:32] It's like a while before anything cool happens You know, it gets very expositiony very quickly Where Marty and Doc are explaining this All the stuff that's happened in other times And Marty's catching Doc up Doc's warning Marty And so it's a lot of like Like winding the clock
[00:44:55] Exactly So that all the cool stuff can just kind of like Happen in perpetuity for the rest of the movie Right, there's like 10 to 15 minutes straight Of chalkboard scenes Which the other two back to the future movies Give you like half an hour of just cool shit happening
[00:45:11] Before there's a great Scott moment And someone has to explain what's at risk And this it's like That subdued opening Then you find out that Doc Brown is dead You know, you see the tombstone Like everything's very kind of like Small scale and insular and quiet
[00:45:31] And just sort of peace setting Not in the same way that Gail and Zemeckis usually do Where it's like so fun that you don't realize The pieces are being set up This is very transparently as you said Like clockwine thing And then minute 17 is when the car goes
[00:45:47] Like but it's pretty much 15 straight minutes Of like vegetables Not that they're not charming No, but you're right, you're right It's a slow start, you're right They're so watchable and charming But it's also like Okay, remember back to the future We're gonna do one but it's different now
[00:46:04] And then they tell you why it's different And then they go to that parking lot And then you can see like Oh, it's about to be action time Yeah, yeah, and I do I mean, I just love the smash cut The like match cut with the Indians
[00:46:22] On the drive-thru theater to them Like charging after him Like it's fun to see him put on The tacky pink cowboy outfit Yeah And just like you do get a little ant When you're like oh this might be like fun For them to play in this territory
[00:46:37] It is fun Wait what is this? It is fun, this is a great movie It's fun Definitely fun A western with Christopher Lloyd and Michael J. Fox In a flying train It's got a shootout It's got comedy drinking It's got all kinds of, you know It's got romance
[00:46:54] It's got Oscar winner Mary Steenberg And it's great This is a great movie It's a great movie It's so much fun It's so much fun I mean that's like There's just so much fun stuff that happens Which I love in a movie Generally You know what I mean?
[00:47:12] Like I think that's such a wonderful trick to Josh are you telling me you love fun? I love fun What? Wait what is this? This is such a basic thing to say But like in a, when you watch like a fast and furious movie
[00:47:26] You get the impression that they were just like What cool thing could we do next? And this had that appeal to me It was, it felt, it feels like Let's do a bunch of fun stuff in a row If that makes sense
[00:47:40] That's, yeah, no Giel and Zemeckis talk about Like that's how they would write these movies together Where they would just come up with a bunch of flashcards That weren't what are the important story beats
[00:47:49] They are what are fun things we would like to see happen in this movie And then they hold themselves to We have to earn all of these things Figure out a story that supplies all of them But they definitely write like the fun scenes first
[00:48:03] I also think they're just so good at character comedy That like even when things feel a little homeworky They just write such good telling sort of character moments And then they just cast exactly the right actors And they find exactly the right comedic pitch Where everything's really nice
[00:48:21] I also just think like in terms of Is there anything else that back to the future three could have been David and I, massive defenders of Iron Man 3 We both contend as the best Marvel movie Which a lot of people don't like
[00:48:36] And I feel like one of the reasons I love it That I feel like other people dislike it Is that the suit is out of commission for most of the movie Because it just really feels like at that point
[00:48:47] In terms of stories where Iron Man is the one guy at the center Avengers movies are obviously their own fucking thing It's like the suit had become too powerful He had too many versions There was like so little threat or tension
[00:49:01] When he had this stuff, you know, at his disposal And it's great that it's like, oh, three is him having to Like Jerry Rigg stuff from Home Depot To figure out how to break into a home And it's also, I think the best decision this movie makes
[00:49:14] Is like minute 20, they fucked everything up The cars out of commission Like Doc Brown couldn't fix it in the old west Marty drove it back but then got the gas tank Like punctured So now they have no fuel, they have no way to get there
[00:49:29] They have no equipment, you know No technology to fix it And it's just sort of like, oh, there's such a narrow Like window back to the first movie Of how we could even possibly get this car to work There's one possible minute that we could make this happen
[00:49:45] And we're gonna make it happen either by an inch Or we're gonna fall off a cliff Yes And that's a really, really good story decision Because you have to scale it back after too And it's great, I think And I think really the Marty journey
[00:49:58] That's like more important than the chicken stuff Like the Marty stuff is like Yes Him letting go of trying to make sure Doc doesn't fall in love Right Like that's him, he wants Doc to not fall in love So they can complete their journey as friends
[00:50:17] Back to 1985 which is the mission he thought he was on But the mission he's really on Is letting Doc live his human life Yes, exactly Right, right And that fits in well with the bigger franchise Like it's Marty trying to fix his family thing
[00:50:33] Like to some degree Doc Brown is now family to him Doc Brown's kind of his real dad in a way Right So, right And also the only friend we ever see in that Yes, yes, inarguably Right, like his second best friend is needles And that guy sucks
[00:50:51] It's also, it's weird that he has like a girlfriend Which is like, when you're in high school That's like a move that you need like a certain amount Of social fluency to do And then his best friend is an old man Right, right
[00:51:06] Like his birthday parties must be so weird It's this thing that like, the more rewatching these three We're just really stuck out to me of like Right, so like you see his band at the beginning But otherwise you never see him socializing with other kids
[00:51:21] And there's this thing where like Every time he ends up anywhere Everyone likes him Like he's very popular in the 50s He's very popular in the old west Yeah, he's very likable He's a likable guy But he's also like not a particularly sociable guy
[00:51:36] He weirdly only cares about his girlfriend and this old man And everyone else he like doesn't really care about And it is like he has such a like He has so much emotional investment A.I. feel like this movie is him realizing
[00:51:50] Oh fuck I actually really do care about Doc Like this is such a Doc and Marty buddy movie Where in the other two I feel like they're just like Obviously we understand that for some reason They're friends, but the movies just jump into
[00:52:05] We have to solve this shit together And this one is Marty having to kind of let go of his friend And be like I want you to be happy I have to accept that my status quo Of you being the guy I can go visit
[00:52:17] Who lives in a garage isn't what might be best for you Or for Marty It might be good for Marty to like go to college And like meet some people his own age Yeah, yeah Yeah you can't just time travel with an old man forever
[00:52:34] Eventually you have to settle down in some year or another And live your life chronologically That's a good take I'll say the 100 year old thing hit me more this time around I know I said like I never really felt like I like this as a kid
[00:52:52] This movie, but it was interesting to think about How the franchise was like alright let's do the 100 year old Version of this town Right And thinking about like the legacy of like families Who like are all from like the same town and stuff
[00:53:13] Like I don't know it was interesting I feel like it made me think of my own family Cause like I grew up in a really old house And I've had relatives in my town throughout like the history and what not
[00:53:27] You grew up in a monster house we should mention A monster house? Cause it's relevant to Zemeckis Your house also does have the spirit of an old lady in it right Yes, of course Yeah But it is like it's more fun that it's an old tannin
[00:53:43] Than if it was just some other surly gunslinger right Right in the same way that it's fun that like oh man Strikland's the Marshall Like it's so much about the sort of like How much we cannot run away from whether it's nature or nurture
[00:54:02] Who our family is like traits that just get passed on From generation to generation Right All that discovery stuff is fun for me In the same way that I like that I forget her character but Leah Thompson's character in this movie
[00:54:17] Looks like Lorraine cause it's like well I don't know But like people are attracted to people who look like They're like there's edible shit you know Yeah, but it is bananas It's weird It's made all the weirder because Because he's playing James Fox Right
[00:54:34] Yes that is the decision where you're like look I understand how you talked yourself Yourselves into this like Gale and Zemeckis But it's sort of unlearning the lesson of Back to the Future one to have them just be married in this one Even if they're playing different people
[00:54:53] Yes for sure It's like what is that echoing in a way that we can learn from And then it right like as Gryffin was saying It's like sometimes you just want to fuck your mom Right
[00:55:06] Right like I do I think there's something to like faces reoccurring in families You know Sure And like people going for types that remind them of what they grew up with And things like that But it's that being that one to one Yes Makes it weirder
[00:55:21] And we already have the Marty McFly type It's Marty McFly He's there he's in the scene Right Right I'm realizing it either needed to be Crispin Glover And Leah Thompson Or it needed to be Michael J. Fox and Elizabeth Shrew Like it would have worked with that
[00:55:38] I mean no I mean it would work more maybe but not really Because you still would then have the question of like well wait Did their kid does their ancestor turn out to be a McFly or a shoe I forget what is it Parker Yeah
[00:55:53] Like is this like fucking like Royals in the 19th century Where like they're all really just they're all over Europe But they're really all just related to each other It's so inbred I also just forgot how little she has to do in this movie Like Leah Thompson Yeah
[00:56:13] Yeah She doesn't get much Right you have that the opening I just always remember the mirroring of the wake up Don't worry you're in blank I'm in blank Like scene But then after that she just kind of like looks sad a lot
[00:56:29] Like she just says a lot of like wow it's what we have And it's also like I feel like she's pretty invested in trying to Realistically play like an Irish immigrant You know like a sleeping harder times Yep
[00:56:42] Right and I think there's like a real kind of melancholy Like an honest melancholy like a hard fought spirit within her And then Michael J. Fox is kind of doing like doi-di-doi-di-doi I don't know if he has a strong take on Sheamus
[00:56:56] No and he's fun and like as he said like Mike J. Fox It rules in these movies Yeah But he's very much doing It's both of them repeating what they did back to the future part too Where Leah Thompson is just like
[00:57:09] I'm gonna go so much deeper and sadder into this character In playing that alternate 85 version And Michael J. Fox is like cool I get to wear six different costumes And it even as that His intro to the Wild West and his family Ends
[00:57:25] She's like Sheamus you can't bring him in here right We're gonna bring a curse to our family And that doesn't feel like it pays off super well No she's just kind of the worrier And Sheamus is just kind of incredibly steady
[00:57:38] It's one of the things that makes him a little uninteresting Is he just sort of like shows up to go like Well you know I've always believed Who cares what I say and whistles him away Right there was a bad McFly and he's dead
[00:57:51] So I'll just tell you about the mistakes he made And like that will reflect The decisions you need to make about improving yourself Which is fine I don't care We're in the Wild West They're shooting Did I mention that the train is You know time travels and flies
[00:58:11] Is it time train? David? Yeah this is a good movie It's time train Probably should have won Best Picture I don't know what one that you're dancing with Wolves It's the best time train I've seen I'll say that Yeah look we'll get to the time train
[00:58:23] When we get to the time train But it does feel like You have that strickel in line All I do train I apologize No don't apologize Five comedy points Good thank you and I apologize still You get five comedy points for the apology as well Thank you
[00:58:42] You have the strickel in line in the first movie Where he says like No McFly has ever amounted to anything In the history of Hill Valley And no one ever will Right And Marty says history is about to change It fucks with the game a little bit
[00:58:54] And as much as Marty has like a real character struggle And this idea of I don't want to be tied down to what a McFly has always been I want to be my own person It fucks with that to then have Sheamus be like
[00:59:06] No I'm pretty well adjusted What is his job even Is he like a farmer They guess they have a farm right I know he's like the town therapist Like he just seems so balanced You know Like it's not Once again it's not Fox's failing
[00:59:23] But it just feels like They never came up with a hook For that character outside of Well we still have this technology Where we can have Two Michael J. Foxes on screen at the same time And yeah Because it is so much about
[00:59:37] Like the shadow of the family history It's like well My brother was a piece of shit And my son who you're meeting right now Is the first American McFly You've heard stories about him I'm the one who is just super okay Yeah What's the problem with him
[00:59:52] He's just chilling He doesn't seem cursed at all No he seems great He's married to his mom He's got a sweet baby He's shooting little Rodents to feed his fam He's doing well No fam He calls him fam He came up with that In California
[01:00:14] I didn't feel right when I said it But I think it is authentic to the character No he invented fam He invented hashtag squad goals He's a bearie like ahead of his time He's just an old timey one of those cameras That poof and then there's smoke
[01:00:28] And it's sepia tone It's a 10 type you see them Chiseling in hashtag squad goals So Marty wakes up Like yeah what are we doing He's chased by a bear The minute I saw the bear I just want to mention the bear I just thought about like
[01:00:44] That job in Hollywood Like the guy who wrangles the bear You know where it's like There was that one There can't be a lot of guys with bears There's that one bear There's that one bear Bart the bear Who has like 20 major bear credits
[01:00:58] Like almost every major bear in a movie Was Bart the bear until like 1996 You think when other bears Go into the casting office And they see Bart there I thought he was busy I thought he was working on something
[01:01:12] My agent told me he was out of state shooting the thing Well and also I mean Bart the bear haunted Gandolfini for years Like every time he just be like They're gonna give it to Bart There's a Bart the bear too
[01:01:25] Who has no relation to Bart the bear Just fucking stole his name That sucks And also is in movies Like he did Evan Almighty He did We Bought a Zoo He was in an episode of Scrubs Bart the bear too Yeah Bart the bear is in this
[01:01:45] Bart the bear's big final credit was the edge Like he does the edge in 97 Does meet the Deedles in 1998 and retire But saying edge was really the high note Edge is the high note cause he's like the third lead But no It's a black bear
[01:01:59] In this movie that's chasing him Not a Grizzly so Whatever it is some other bear someone had I'm sorry I know this is a tangent Can I just very quickly read through The character names I won't even read through the titles
[01:02:13] Just the character names that Bart the bear played The bear The bear uncredited The bear uncredited The bear uncredited The bear uncredited The bald headed bear The Kodiak bear The bear The bear uncredited The bear walking thunder in the movie walking thunder The bear uncredited Bear parentheses
[01:02:39] As Bart In Homeward Bound 2 In Francisco In Les Amants de Rivière Rouge A TV miniseries in France It's the bear attacking children And fighting with Aries Schweig And then his last two credits are The bear and the bear He went back to the old stuff
[01:02:59] Back to his roots One thing that I love about that Is that he's either bear uncredited Or the title role of the film Yes Bear uncredited was Angelina Jolie's breakthrough performance Right? Bear uncredited There's clan of the cave bear Yeah, classic The bear with the bear of Hanna
[01:03:23] The bear was a big one That I think he actually is Top building I'm not joking Really? Yeah, because that movie is really just about a bear Like that's The bear is the only character David you are absolutely right Bart the bear first build as the Kodiak bear
[01:03:41] That rule Yook the bear second build as the bear cub What a career part Cheky Cairo third build as Tom Wow, Cheky Cairo got fucked In those co-sci-fockings He's behind two bears Can you imagine Cheky Cairo's agent calling him up And being like Cheky baby
[01:04:01] I got great news for you Cheky you are the Top build human in this movie Now okay question When you don't top build Cheky I got your top billing I'm the top build actor in this movie Yes, you are the top build human Actor in this movie
[01:04:19] Keep saying human actor There's two bears in front of you But Cheky who's gonna get build up Two bears Two bears It's one of them Bart Of course, yeah Bart got first billing He's above the title He respects Bart This other bear he doesn't give a shit about
[01:04:39] He doesn't Yook doesn't give a shit about Yook Do you know what the tagline is For the bear? I don't know There's a bear John Jack knows the bear It says He's an orphan at the start of a journey
[01:04:57] A journey to survive and then at the bottom of the poster In a box It says since its release The bear has smashed virtually every box Of his record And now ranks as one of the most successful Films ever released All right Big brag
[01:05:15] It's like a real mouthful Of a thing to brag about on a poster I know I mean there's just like a fancy way Of saying this did well in Europe It's like okay fine I'll go see it The smash hit sensation That's been taking over the world
[01:05:33] Instead it's just like listen Listen to me Since its release in the rest of the world It's such a serious talk All right I take it back It made 29 million dollars in America That's not bad for a movie starring A bear and also Starring a bear
[01:05:51] And Bart the bear had Was mostly, most of his deal was on The back end so this was huge for him He was a canny negotiator Everyone says that about Bart the bear He also, he was notable In the industry at that time
[01:06:05] He had the biggest cave of any actor I can't believe I started all this It was like the Will Smith cave Like a double Decorate cave He got the most salmon out of everyone Absolutely Yeah his writer was ridiculous Before David unfortunately Derailed this podcast with this
[01:06:27] Parasite engine Ben you make a good point It's this thing I feel like we keep coming back to Which is just like these movies being made At the exact right point Where like the year And the clean amount of time That they're traveling to
[01:06:43] Always has like the most resonance And that way where it's like 1985 1885 100 years apart on the nugget It's like right that is when this town Was formed That's when his family would have had their first Generation hitting the ground It's the beginning of that family legacy
[01:07:03] All these family legacies The clock tower being built Like there's just kind of this beautiful Symmetry to it Agree You're seeing the origin of the Hill Valley mythology I don't think it hits for kids as much though Like I don't, I feel like that's like a thing
[01:07:19] That definitely really more Interested in me just like right now I do like it as a choice but This like feels less and less Like a thing that's enjoyable for kids And more about the franchise maybe I think Galen Zemeckis Grew up loving westerns Yes Michael J. Fox
[01:07:37] Loves westerns And they were like oh we'll make a western Like what we grew up loving And I think children of 1990 were just kind of like That's the only place they're going to Are you not going to feudal Japan? Alright You're a feudal buddy
[01:07:53] I'm feudal Japan or out And they better not have a map by the way I'm just making that clear No clues either, don't give them a single clue And by god If I see a slice A single slice of pizza Oh no that's the conflict
[01:08:09] That's the reward we want at the end of the movie One single slice For a job well done I see so much as a grease soaked paper plate I'm trying to think because city slickers Is like the year after right Like the western
[01:08:25] There's a revival right after this Yeah cause you've got dances with wolves You have the sort of fancy western On its way back And unforgiven Which is this year Festival is this year And unforgivens in a couple years And like But the western right now
[01:08:45] Even like cause this is probably coming out before The importance of wolves is a very uncool Genre In the 80s No one wants westerns in the 80s Like that's just not the thing No So that's Daring of them I guess You have the Silverado Young guns
[01:09:07] I feel like young guns was the one successful one But it was so much the like Oh we're doing the anachronistic brat pack western And Silverado was sort of like A very old western And then the The The The The The The The The The The The The
[01:09:43] To So So Like You know The The Open But Yeah You know which yes, no studio would be like, yeah for the third one just kinda, you know, you should just really just say a whistful goodbye. Right, and also up until this point he's a pretty satirical filmmaker.
[01:10:28] Like it's always been this thing that makes- He's got a bit of a cynical, yeah, exactly 100%. And this movie doesn't feel cynical at all. No, no. At all, it's got none of it. And I feel like that's always this thing that makes a mech is so unreadable,
[01:10:41] but also interesting is it's like, well he's like the ultimate boomer, but it also feels like he has so much contempt in him. He's like constantly telling this line before this, between this like sort of nostalgic embrace and wanting to call out the ugliness
[01:10:56] that we tend to gloss over. And like Back to the Future is one of those movies where people analyze like what is he saying with like Marty McFly inventing rock and the dad becoming successful novelist at the end? Or is he saying anything?
[01:11:10] You know, and two is going so far in the other direction. And then this is just like, you know, the time train at the end is the moment where I'm like, this really feels like a Disney movie. And I don't say that derisively.
[01:11:25] Like the story of their struggle to get this movie set up, the first Back to the Future set up anywhere because people thought it was too cute and sweet, despite it being about mom fucking. And then this one is like, this is kind of them making their like
[01:11:40] 50s or 60s live action Disney adventure film, you know? There's something about it even in the stakes of the gunfights and the comedy and whatever. This movie feels... Go ahead, girl, finish your sentence. I'm sorry. No, just because it's not a movie
[01:11:55] where anyone's going to die of dysentery, you know? It's not. It feels like a theme parky kind of, I know what you mean, like animatronic, right? Like it's funny, but like a lot of these set pieces like Biff, you know, being, you know,
[01:12:08] trying to start fights or things like that. Like they feel very safe and very amusing. And there is no sense. The principal character thing is so weird. Like that feels so kid-ish. How? It's a kids movie. How would it nine? But it's not for kids either though,
[01:12:28] because it's not cool at all for its time. It's not very cool. It's not very cool except for the time train. How benign the gun stuff is really stuck out to me. Like there are people shooting guns all over the place.
[01:12:43] Like Marty McFly is like given a gun as a gift because he's so good at shooting guns. And that feels not, and how that's played is just like, that's still not that perilous even though the stakes are death. Like it just feels very, in 2020,
[01:13:01] that like my eyes went a little bit wide at like how casual the gunplay was. Right, it's very much like, this is a Western so there will be guns, but you're right, you're right. But it's also weird that it's a movie
[01:13:14] that's like on one level fundamentally obsessed with death. Like it's people trying to prevent deaths that are locked in like the time continuum, right? And on the other hand, it's like you never feel like anyone's gonna die from a gunshot.
[01:13:28] It doesn't feel like there's that immediate threat of violence. You feel more threat going over the ravine than you do in the fights as much as this movie is centered around like the sort of high noon or high 10 shootout. I do like that bit about liking killing
[01:13:45] before after breakfast. Very funny little back and forth there. That's the best part. You get, what about Monday? Also the other, it's like, what about Monday? Monday will be fine, you can kill on Monday. Like that whole conversation. Really funny. And all that stuff though, I mean,
[01:14:01] I think part of that feels like the whole movie is based around them trying to avoid that gunfight, right? So he sets the gunfight knowing I'm not gonna be there then. So like there is just the danger of like this
[01:14:15] pistols at seven AM, 10 paces in the town square. You're just like, oh, that's never gonna happen. So it does kind of like evade that and you don't get the nerves of like, oh, I hope that Marty McFly doesn't get shot in this duel.
[01:14:28] So there are two big deleted scenes from the franchise that have been on all the like releases they've done over the years that were cut because audiences found them upsetting. Like this is actually upsetting. It doesn't fit in with this movie.
[01:14:43] And it's kind of the same sequence happening twice in two and three. It's just interesting that both times they made this miscalculation. But in two it's, and you get the glimpse of this after Biff has returned from the 50s
[01:15:02] so that they, you know, the car isn't missing anymore. Old Biff. And he's given the almanac to his younger self. There's the shot of like old Biff hiding behind the DeLorean as he sneaks away and then you never see him again.
[01:15:19] And what they shot is he starts writhing in pain and then he like holds up his hand and it's the prom thing where he can see through his hand and you watch him slowly disappear from existence. But like Tom Wilson's really playing the suffering of it.
[01:15:38] And the idea is that somehow the ripple effect of what he did resulted in, you know, him not living to this point or at least this time. Full tearing apart of time. Right, right. And he was like audiences just found it really upsetting
[01:15:52] and they were also confused as to what exactly that was the cause and effect of. And we were like, we don't know. It's just something must have happened. So they cut that out. But then the even weirder example is
[01:16:03] there is a scene they shot that's burned into my memory having watched it whenever the first DVD release came out of this movie where after that standoff with Marshall Strickland and his son and Mad Dog and his gang,
[01:16:19] you know what he sort of says to his son like discipline. Look, see their discipline. It always works. There's some scene that's supposed to happen after later that night where they chase him down and murder him in cold blood in front of his son.
[01:16:32] And his son sits there over his father's dead body as they laugh and ride away. And like that's why he's in the movie because it was supposed to be aside from being like a cute little thing that it's like,
[01:16:45] oh, look, they've always been the sort of authority figures in this town. They've always been the disciplinary figures. It's also supposed to be like, oh, this is how you know that Mad Dog's actually a threat and that he's actually dangerous. Your principle is a fucking asshole.
[01:17:00] Right. And the scene just like does not feel like it belongs in a back to the future movie. Sometimes this doesn't feel like the kind of movie that needs one scene of jarring violence to recontextualize everything else you're seeing.
[01:17:14] No, it's like literally the little boy holding his father's bloody body screaming like, help, help as they ride away. And it like lingers on it for a while. I also, I mean, that character, the little boy is the father of Principal Strickland, right? Principal Strickland is 87 years old.
[01:17:39] Yeah, sure. In the fifties. I believe, yes. That's, I mean, I can't keep track of all the timing, all the generational stuff, but yes. There could be, there could be enough. He's carried on discipline. Like, and he, you know, all of us are thinking about it.
[01:17:52] Passed it down, right? It's a tradition in film. We maintain order. Right, right. Right. The Strickland's like discipline. The Tannins like bullying. The McFly's like being cowards. That's the thing. These movies are about these inescapable legacies. Doc Brown is just one guy always.
[01:18:14] What's this weird thing they've talked about? Like they developed all this backstory for Doc Brown, but then they liked it being kind of mysterious, but that he comes from a lot of money. Like he was this great legacy family
[01:18:26] and he was the black sheep, like weirdo science kid. And then there's that thing where his house burned down that he now lives in the garage of what used to be the Brown estate. And it's unclear if he did that on purpose
[01:18:37] for the insurance money or if something went wrong. But it always was one of those corners I find kind of interesting of just like who was he when he was like 20? What were his parents like? I love that like cool, cool aloof high school Marty McFly
[01:18:55] is at the same level socially as like that translates to adult who's burned down his family estate. Right, like blue blood, black sheep son. Yeah. And that's like as cool as one cool high school kid cause like you're never that cool when you're 16.
[01:19:10] So Griffin, would you want like a young Doc story? Yeah, there's the video game they did some years ago that's pretty fun that like Gail wrote and they got a lot of the original people back to do the voices. And that's about Marty going back
[01:19:28] to young Doc Brown during the prohibition. It's like a gangster story, like a 30s gangster story with like, I forget what his name is, but like triggers Tannen in the pinstripe suit is like who's like in the town. It's pretty fun.
[01:19:46] And it's like Doc Brown who's so scatterbrained as like a 20 year old. I think he works as a patent clerk and he like doesn't believe in himself as an inventor and everyone just thinks he's a fuck up. And Marty going back in time as the person
[01:19:58] who encourages him to like believe in his ideas and try to become an inventor rather than just approving other people's inventions. It's a nice little game. It's a nice little game. That's sweet. Yeah. I think they also adapted as a comic book.
[01:20:10] So things that are cool that happen in this movie. BTTF3, if you will. BTTF3. Doc Brown invites the first ice cube maker. Water is dirty. Fucking dirty as all get out. Everything is dirty. Everything is dirty. Yes. Lot of dirt.
[01:20:30] No buckshot when he's eating dinner right from that. From the game. Yeah. Griff, do you have more? Marty, Marty maybe invents the moonwalk taking another piece of pop culture away from African Americans. That's that's one moment, not even because of the Michael Jackson Association,
[01:20:49] but that's like the one moment that feels a little bit like two shitty time travel comedy. You know, like I feel like back to the future always toes the right line of not doing like, take my word for it. No one will ever buy a Pablo Picasso painting.
[01:21:06] Like I feel like they do just the right amount of Clint Eastwood jokes in this. They just get away with it. But something about the moonwalk thing just feels a little bit like too cute for me. Yeah. There's stuff like that that feels like
[01:21:25] they're just trying to be like, well, we should, you know, we should do some of the fun tropes to the first movie again, right? Like just to kind of like give the audience some relief, like give, you know, I don't know.
[01:21:35] But the big thing we should talk about is Clara. That's that's what I was going to say. Like, you know, yes, there's a cute little things, but she's sort of the one successful new character that the sequels introduce, right?
[01:21:49] Like two doesn't really try to introduce a new character. I mean, sort of. New versions of characters, right? Yeah. But like Clara, it's not like Clara is a, you know, incredibly complicated character. Like the no one in this movie is is particularly nuanced,
[01:22:04] but like she's just a very sweet winning character for minute one and like, you know, just gives the whole thing a little bit more weight. Well, Maristine Bergen is like one of the most sincere actors alive, right? Yes.
[01:22:19] Which we love her so much in, you know, kind of movie. What, Melvin and her? Well, book club is obviously book club as well. Yes. The upcoming book club too. Elf. Zoe's extraordinary playlist. The club in Ang. Yes. Yes. She's great in everything. I haven't watched Zoe's Extra.
[01:22:37] Is it good? It's fun. I wish the musical stuff were a little more, felt a little more like in stride. It does feel like, and we're gearing up to do a musical. Sure. Right. But it's like pretty cool.
[01:22:53] I kind of dipped in and out while my wife watched the whole thing and she was like very taken with it and I enjoyed all of it that I saw. Yeah, and just like, oh right, she just was great on like four seasons of Last Man on Earth.
[01:23:05] Like she's just great in everything. She's always great. She's a really smart casting choice for this. And you don't realize like, obviously Christopher Lloyd is just such a skilled actor and he was so much in this vein at the time playing like high energy lunatics, you know?
[01:23:25] That like to see that first scene where they start talking about science and Christopher Lloyd just like completely shifts gears. And he's still Doc Brown. It's not like he drops all recognizable qualities of the characters. But you're like this is the first time
[01:23:43] Doc Brown has had like a human conversation with another person really. And I think it's more impressive because she doesn't like come out of nowhere. They call the shot at the beginning when they say like his beloved Clara. And so you know that she's coming
[01:23:59] and you know that they're gonna resist it. So she has to be so winning. And so it has to feel so authentic and organic that you along with Marty like give up trying to be like no, no, no, no, we have to undo this
[01:24:14] because this means Doc's gonna die. And also the second polar, the second like elevation of like he's there. Doc's gonna die in a week. He doesn't even know who Clara is. And yet he will be buried by his beloved Clara.
[01:24:31] Like that's how fucking charming this person's gotta be. It's a one week romance. And Doc has already said, he's already said like, oh it doesn't matter. I don't know any Clara's. So it doesn't matter. Right, I don't believe in love.
[01:24:43] You can't fall in love with someone that quickly. It's a pretty beautiful setup in that way. You know, where they just lock you into understanding the timeline and the consequences and you don't think there's any way you would buy them. But she just is so fucking good.
[01:25:00] Such a smart casting choice. I always liked that she got on the poster and like above the title billing, which apparently was a last second decision for them. Like it was in the last couple of months they revised the poster and said like,
[01:25:14] you know what, let's add her on there. But aside from the symmetry, the niceness of like the first movie is one, the second one is two people, the third one is three people. It also feels like she makes herself the third most kind of important character
[01:25:29] in terms of agency in this franchise. Well, Biff, I think Biff has to be number three because he got all the Biffs. You got all the Biffs though. Yeah. What I'm saying is I feel like the Clara of Biff, Biff everyone else is so beholden to the timeline.
[01:25:50] You know, even though Biff is the one who disrupts it with the fucking book. I'm saying like Clara is very much an independent thinker. She feels like your big third hero alongside Marty. I had always figured she got on the poster just because she has an Oscar.
[01:26:05] Like that kind of just kind of gets you extra weight in terms of the poster, but that's cool, good for her. I was looking through like a back to the future book and it had like all the different drafts of the posters
[01:26:17] and how they were planning on doing totally different things for the two and three posters. Like it's one of the best ideas this franchise had. The final poster for the first movie, they landed on like two months before it came out. There are like 80 different poster designs
[01:26:33] that are all good and taglines that are good, but none of them would have had the same impact. And it probably the movie would not have been such a big hit. And then for the second one, they were like, we don't wanna repeat the same image.
[01:26:44] And then they landed on it at the last second cause they were like, fuck nothing else working. We'll just do the same thing, but with them coming out of the car with the future clothes. And then three was the same thing.
[01:26:54] And they added her at the last second. Right, I'm looking, originally it was gonna be the bear. It was gonna be the bear. It was gonna be the bear was the third. Bart was just gonna have the whole poster. Marty, Doc, Bart.
[01:27:05] I'm seeing one Griff, like one concept art where he was like on a watch, like Marty is sitting on a stopwatch essentially. Right, he's like kneeling on it. I get it. I mean- I have a little segment I wanna do
[01:27:20] at the end of this episode about the posters that could have been. Wow. Okay, I'm excited. Just a little segment. Just a little segment. No, I get you, I get you. Just a little segment. Yeah. But I think it is, you know,
[01:27:36] the fact that she is such an honest actor helps this character avoid being manic pixie dream teacher, especially because as you said, Josh, they've called their shot. Like the movie is telling you in advance, you have to believe that this is that great of a love
[01:27:52] that could move mountains in that short a time. And it also just is so nice where you're like, Doc and Marty are friends, but Doc is always kind of just talking at people. Like Doc is always just kind of monologuing
[01:28:06] his own understanding of what's going on around him and thinking out loud. And then when Clara like asked him about science, it's like, oh, this is the first time he's like slowed down and spoken at a normal human volume. Yeah. Ask questions that aren't urgent.
[01:28:21] When he says like I'm a student of all sciences, you're kind of like, I guess he is. Like you hadn't thought about that before. Right. And that he's assumed this defensive position in his entire life. You know, like on top of him being this disgraced member
[01:28:38] of his like elite blue blood family, also the fact that he's like constantly having to outrun Libyan terrorists and shit. Like he's very much this renegade outlaw scientist and it feels like he has no allies in the town to the degree that his only friend is a kid
[01:28:54] who likes his gadgets. You know, but Marty never seems interested in science. He never gets the fourth dimension thing. The thing about though, Doc being an old guy is they get away with it being chill for kids and fun.
[01:29:09] But now it's about like love in this old guy, like fucking, you know, it's weird. That's what I always remembered as a kid, just being like, I don't know if I want to know about this adult romance. I wasn't into it.
[01:29:24] You didn't want to think about Doc Brown getting some. No, fair enough. It's so chased though. They like kids on their horses under the stars and there's like a shooting star that flies by them. It feels like so, so Disney.
[01:29:39] It's also so sweet when Doc just to see Christopher Lloyd see her on the train at the end of the movie and light up. Like, you know, he just plays that so perfectly. It definitely feels like to some degree
[01:29:54] the conception of this movie was let's like give Christopher Lloyd a gift for doing all the heavy lifting on these last two films. And also because now we probably doomed him to playing this type of character for the rest of his career.
[01:30:09] Like, let's, this is the one circumstance in which we can get a studio to give us tens of millions of dollars to have Christopher Lloyd be a romantic lead as an adult elderly man, you know? It's nice. He's just such a good fucking actor. He's great. He is.
[01:30:25] Even just like the final time train speech, the thing I butchered at the beginning of this is so like, and if you dream it, you can make it happen. You know, it's like so like when you wish upon a star kind of stuff, but he really,
[01:30:41] you feel like he believes what he's saying at all times. It's a very earnest movie. It's very earnest, right? From top to bottom. I mean, this is a movie where taking one shot of whiskey makes you fall unconscious because it's a great thing. That joke got me.
[01:30:57] That joke gets you. How many drinks has he had? And they go, that's the first one. The whiskey does the smoke when it spills out. So like they're making that whole, like it's so strong joke, which is really right. Because it's like the Wild West.
[01:31:12] So like God knows what they're actually drinking. But like Christopher Lloyd is one of the funniest physical actors. Like, I mean, he's got Adam's family values coming up a couple years after that. He can sell just falling over like that better than anyone. Oh man.
[01:31:30] What a feinty franchise. It really is just, they rely on the feints so much, but they're always good. They have good community actors. But you know what? Those are things when I saw these movies when I was a kid, I figured people fainted all the time.
[01:31:41] I figured that calling someone a chicken was like a fucking slur. Because the way that it's treated in this movie, I was like, geez, you really can't call someone that. There were all these lessons I learned from this movie that don't matter.
[01:31:54] Marty McFly reacts to being called a chicken as almost as if someone had called him Karen, the worst thing you could ever call a person. And then a few years later, you get that memorable scene in Pulp Fiction does Marcellus Wallace look like a chicken?
[01:32:07] And I think that they really drove it home. Yeah, yeah. What if Doc showed up at the end of Back to the Future when he's like, Marty, it's your kids. One of them said, Karen, we got to get to the future right now.
[01:32:21] She was at the ball yelling at someone. She's a Karen, Marty. Can we talk about the biggest performance in this movie, the most important performance in this movie? Sure. A little three person collective I call ZZ Top. I don't know what other people call them,
[01:32:42] but I like to call them ZZ Top. That's she call them, right? For the listeners, it is ZZ Top. It's not someone else Griffin is calling ZZ Top. Nope. No, I'm calling ZZ Top. I'm not calling Elizabeth's shoes ZZ Top. Yeah, it'd be weird.
[01:32:56] I just want to be clear about that. Yeah. Flee, the other guys in the car at the end, the other guys in the truck at the end. I could be calling him ZZ Top, but I'm not. I refer of course to Billy Gibbons
[01:33:08] and the other two members of ZZ Top. Dusty Hill and Hilariously. Dusty Hill. As everyone knows, Frank Beard the drummer who doesn't have a beard. He's the one who doesn't have a beard. The beardless one. The only problem with ZZ Top being in this movie
[01:33:23] is that you just wish they were in all three, that this movie had pulled the same trick with them where they play different instruments in different time periods. That'd be fun. The ZZ Top song gets billing in the opening credits. Which Huey Lewis does as well.
[01:33:43] It was like a rare time where, right, if you wrote a big song for a movie you get opening billing. Yes. It was, I don't know why, maybe it's like the Top Gun soundtrack star? I'm trying to remember what movie would have kicked that off
[01:33:58] where it's like Footloose, Ghostbusters. It is such an 80s thing. I or the Tiger, the Rocky movies do it. Batman has a Songs by Prince credit. He did a whole album. Yeah. No, no, Bob I'm just saying in the opening credits,
[01:34:14] this has that thing where it's double back written and performed by ZZ Top. Like the opening credits gives you the title of the song. Yeah. Oh, double back. This must be this song. It's gonna be an all time classic. Is it? The legend.
[01:34:28] Go ahead, go ahead, go ahead. No, no, no, I wanna hear what you're saying. Is it lame to say that ZZ Top is like a genuinely great group and I have several of their albums and I actually listen to them? Ben Wayne. Yeah, yeah. Okay, great, cool.
[01:34:42] Thank you. Yep. Thanks, cool. This is my thing. The young laser has that my dead dad was in ZZ Top bit that is probably one of my five favorite comedy bits of all time. It's one of the things I've been most influenced by my entire life.
[01:34:59] It has made it almost impossible for me to take ZZ Top seriously because every time I see them, I hear them, I think about them. The first thing that comes to mind is you guys all suck the baseline for Tush sucks.
[01:35:16] I just constantly think about that final moment where he reads the list of insults to them. If people haven't heard it, look it up. It was on the Invite Them Up album. He wrote a book called My Dead Dad Was In ZZ Top
[01:35:28] that included that as an essay, but it is a bit in which John Glaser's father has died and when he goes to settle his estate, he finds a box containing letters that reveal that his dad was the original keyboardist for ZZ Top
[01:35:41] and the letters outline how he ended up leaving the band and it's the greatest, it's the greatest. But I just, I always think about that. Apparently Zemeckis was a big ZZ Top fan. Asked them to be like the Huey Lewis for the movie
[01:35:57] because two doesn't have any original songs and the Huey Lewis songs were so big in the first one and you have Huey Lewis doing a cameo. You have like, there's a music video for Power of Love that has Christopher Lloyd and Huey Lewis in it.
[01:36:10] Like they were really all in on the synergy of that. So he was like, ZZ Top would be a fun one for the Western thing. They asked if they could come visit set and then when they were on set,
[01:36:19] they were like, can you please put us in the movie? Their whole argument was we look picture ready. Like you can just put us in front of the camera. So they were not planned to be in the movie and there's the thing where like
[01:36:32] if you're shooting concert scenes or club scenes or party scenes, anything with music in a movie and you have that many extras and there's dialogue over it, they never actually play the music for real unless it's just like the close up shot of the instrumentation or whatever
[01:36:49] because it's an editing nightmare with continuity of just different versions of the song having to stick together takes. There's this one moment that I'm just obsessed with and as a kid, I feel like from the first time I saw this movie on VHS,
[01:37:02] I rewound it over and over and over again because there's famously the thing at the end with the time train where one of Doc Brown's kids points at his dick which I feel like has now become a big urban legend and memed a lot.
[01:37:16] The kid like with his hand does like a come here gesture and then points directly at his penis and then I think grabs it. And the thought is that he was telling his parents off camera that he had to go to the bathroom
[01:37:29] but the kid looks like a little stinker and it ends up being this like, hey get a load of this. Like it feels very like beetle juicy in like a provocateur moment. Now I'm watching, of course I've heard this before
[01:37:42] but I'm trying to remember, is it the second kid? I'm looking, I'm watching. It's the littler kid. It's the littler kid who looks devilish. Oh right. Right, but the moment that I've always been obsessed with is it's like the mayor of Hill Valley comes back
[01:37:57] after the fight has been at least put off for a couple of days and he's like, okay everybody, okay everybody, let's get back to partying or whatever. And then ZZ Top does that move where they spin their instruments. Yes, classic.
[01:38:09] Which I guess is something from their live performances that Zemeckis thought would be funny to have them do in this movie. So they Jerry rigged these things to make the drums and the guitars spin around but then when they stop the spinning and they start playing again,
[01:38:28] it is so clear that they are not playing their instruments that he told them like you can't play it for real for sound reasons and they're so bad for professional rock stars who had been together for almost 20 plus years at that point.
[01:38:45] They are so bad at miming their instruments that their hands are inches away and the one guy as he's strumming on the guitar just goes like this. He just opens and closes his palm in front of the strings and the other guy just kind of goes like this.
[01:39:02] Like he just kind of wiggles it but they both are, it's so clear like they weren't supposed to be in the movie. There wasn't much rehearsal time. They pitched it to him Zemeckis said why not? They spent more energy trying to get the spinning rig going.
[01:39:15] They put them on camera, they got two takes and I'm seemingly the only person who's ever like even watching it today, I rewound it six times. I find it so funny how off the mark they are. I noticed it today for the first time. It's very funny.
[01:39:30] It's very, yeah, it's great. Right there way off. It's almost like a purposefully bad. It looks like actors playing musicians who have never held an instrument before and so it's weirder that it's guys who are not actors who play instruments for a living
[01:39:47] because they just can't fake it. They can't act. They can't act and David I guess ZZ Top is just so fucking real. They can't give you no bullshit. Oh God, it's so cool when they swing the guitars around though I'm watching it again now.
[01:40:00] This is, I'm just having a blast and it's cutting to like Bob Gale explaining something about ZZ Top. I guess about whatever like rigs they had to wear to spin the guitars. God, ZZ Top should be in more movies. They should like be in the MCU or something.
[01:40:17] Are they still hanging out? Do they like Trump or something? Am I gonna get bummed out right now? I shouldn't even. I have. I have. So hold on, hold on. We can't let's not, let's just say they do have real Trumpy faces.
[01:40:31] But we can't judge a ZZ Top by their cover. Wait a second, wait a second. I don't know if they're so close to Ted Nugent. I mean it's, I feel pretty confident. David, David, November 9th, 2018 headline. ZZ Top's Billy Gibbons fires his opener
[01:40:48] for wearing a Make America Great Again. There you go. There you go. I know what was wrong. All right, thank you Billy Gibbons. So all right, plot stuff guys. I mean, he gets dragged by Biff who's riding a horse. Oh yeah, yeah. Where's that? That's no good.
[01:41:08] There's Doc's cool gun. Oh yeah. I like all of Doc's inventions. It's the best joke in, dare I say it, a million ways to die in the West in Western comedy. Fucking hell, you're canceled for bringing that up. It's got one good joke where Seth MacFarlane
[01:41:31] is like running away from Liam Neeson or something and he hides out in a barn and then turns around and it's Christopher Lloyd working on the DeLorean. And he's like, oh duh, what? And then puts the tarp on top of it. This is like a terrible joke.
[01:41:46] I think it's funny, I like it. You just like back to the future and you're an easy fucking mark, admit it. Correct, correct. The easiest. Oh god, I mean I'm watching it and I'll say Lloyd is committed. I'm watching the clip right this time.
[01:42:01] That's what's fun about it. Right, Lloyd's like basically still looks the same. And I think the timing of the reveal is good. Right. And it's nice that they got the real Christopher Lloyd instead of having someone dressed the same
[01:42:12] where you only kind of see the hair in the jacket. Right, or like some epic movie shit where it's like a mad TV cast member playing him. I hate to dig into this, but that's another example of a movie where it's like Seth MacFarlane has,
[01:42:27] MacFarlane has his big hit with Ted and they're like, well what do you want to do? And he's like, I want to do a Western comedy. Like again, Hollywood would never be like, oh that sounds like a great idea.
[01:42:36] They let him do it because he just made a hit. But like it's so funny how many of these guys just go to that well with them like, well I love a Western, we can do it. We'll do this genre right, it'll be a hit.
[01:42:47] There's a certain type of nerd who loves Westerns. I also think, you're not mentioning the crazier part of A Million Ways to Die in the West, which is Ted is this humongous hit and he's like, okay it's a comedy Western.
[01:42:58] And they go, great, who are you thinking for the lead? You want to bring Wahlberg back? Is there anyone else? He's like, no, I'm the guy now. He really put himself front and center in a way that like, unless he was already making
[01:43:14] zillions of dollars for the company, I'd be like, what the fuck are you talking about dude? He hosted the Oscars. I know, it's a wild thing. It's also wild that like, I forgot about that. He made so much money for Fox right with his shows.
[01:43:29] And then he is like, I'm finally ready to make a movie. Here you go Ted. And it feels like that's the kind of thing where the studios go look, you've been so big for us, whatever it takes to make you happy.
[01:43:40] And Fox was like, fuck you, that sounds dumb. Like we're not making your goddamn teddy bear movie. And then Universal made it and made so much goddamn money. And he was like, smell you later. Well now I'm a Universal movie guy. Universal, here we go.
[01:43:53] Two more movies coming. And then Ted too bombed and a million ways to die in the West Bombed. Yeah, Ted too bombed. I mean, and then he was like, okay, I guess I'll bring back Cosmos and I'll do a Star Trek show
[01:44:07] that I will pretend is a comedy but immediately revealed is not a comedy. That's the weirdest thing in the world. Right, right. That everyone was like it's a parody and he's like, I told him it was a parody so they would let me make it.
[01:44:19] And after episode two, there are no more jokes ever again. Right. It's literally just him being like, I get that they don't wanna make Star Trek, like I love it, which is just like people on a ship, you know, having adventures episode by episode,
[01:44:35] but damn it, I'll do it. Like I don't care. Like I'll just- He like tricked them into doing it. Yes. But also, even if it were still a parody, it were what he sold them originally, the pitch of it's a Star Trek parody
[01:44:50] and I get to play Captain Kirk this time. Right. He's wild. They're like, wait a minute, you're a TV star and he's like, yeah, why not? I am now because I just decided I am. And I fucking sing. Yeah. Right, that's good.
[01:45:05] Yeah, and I'm gonna be America's 21st century Sinatra. You are? Yeah, I am. Fuck you. Who says no? American dad is still on. I had a Grammy nominated album. I had a Grammy nominated album called Music Is Better Than Words. You did? Yes, I did.
[01:45:21] Oh yeah, I'm Seth MacFarlane. Nothing I've done makes sense. Does Seth MacFarlane have the biggest blank check in show business? Tell me how many albums he's released Griffin. Just give me just guess a number. Six. Six. Six albums. How did you know that? I had a feeling.
[01:45:38] Five teams seemed too few. Sevens seemed too many. Yeah, sevens gauche. Sevens. Seven MacFarlane. It feels less like a blank check than a heat check. Does that make sense? David, I know you're a basketball guy. Thank you. We are two basketball fans is exactly what it is
[01:45:56] because he even with the bounces, like he still always has the constant revenue stream with the two cartoons. So yeah, so he'll just every so often he'll throw one up. Like you know what I mean? Like, well, sci-fi show, like you know, jazz albums and I don't know,
[01:46:16] like are the jazz albums successful? Maybe they are. Like what's the ceiling of success on a jazz album anyway? You know, it's not like these things need to- Who buys that music? That person's sick. Right, it's like these things need to sell like a billion records, right?
[01:46:31] Like you know, he's- That's the thing. It's like, I bet Seth MacFarlane's jazz albums are amongst the highest selling jazz albums in the last 10 years. Just because he got more press than any other jazz album does, right? Yeah, I don't, I, look, look,
[01:46:47] we should wrap up the episode of our back. We can't get into the economics of jazz album releasing in the 21st century. I feel like it's just, there's a lot to dig into. I don't have a lot of research on this. It's a fascinating topic.
[01:47:00] You're right, we can't get into it. That's absolutely Patreon content. You're right, right. We do all six Seth MacFarlane jazz albums back to back. Yeah. What have we announced you were doing? Every week, no, it goes on the main feed.
[01:47:15] Every week you do the top five Billboard jazz albums after you do the box office day. Right, right, yeah, let's check the Billboard Jazz Charks right now. We announced we're doing a Seth MacFarlane mini series except main feed is just the albums and Patreon is the movies.
[01:47:31] I mean, Jesus, the fucking number one, you know who's number one on the Billboard Jazz Chart right now? Seth MacFarlane. No, Frank Sinatra, good for him. Really? He's fucking killing it. Number two is Nora Jones. Number three is Miles Davis. They don't fuck around. It's just the Kings.
[01:47:51] Michael Buble is fourth. And number five is Louis Armstrong. It's five people, you're like, sure, there you go. Well, like, okay, here's the thing. I'm looking at chart positions for his first album, music is better than words. US Billboard 200, peak position 111. Peak position on the jazz.
[01:48:14] On the Billboard 200 all around. Peak position on the Jazz Chart two. Number two. It didn't hit the number one spot though. But it probably was Sinatra. I was gonna say it's probably not a modern day artist who's beating him. He's probably just consoling Sinatra shadow.
[01:48:32] He came at the King and he missed. He did. That's how Seth MacFarlane thinks of Seth MacFarlane. Like, I'm just constantly in Frank Sinatra's shadow. Like what an image of yourself? It's he's living, he's Deon Waiters. He is Deon Waiters.
[01:48:48] Who, Josh, do you know, will win a ring this year? No matter what, because he's on both teams that are in the finals this year. No, oh right, I forgot that. He started, this was still the season where he took that edible on the flight
[01:49:01] and freaked out and got suspended. Yes, he started the year on the heat, took an edible, freaked out on an airplane, got fired and now plays for the Lakers. This is the year of Deon Waiters. He won 2020. He won 2020. What a victory. Good job, Deon. I know.
[01:49:17] For the listener at home Griffin just fled the Zoom call once you guys started talking about basketball. Yeah, just disappeared. I'm sorry I hijacked your podcast where you guys know things like minor, funny and smart just to talk about the NBA finals. It's quite all right.
[01:49:33] I love to talk about the NBA finals. Griffin's back. Not the first time, won't be the last. I used that moment when I would have nothing to contribute as an opportunity to get the thing I wanted for the final segment. I do want to point out,
[01:49:45] because you made your Sinatra joke, Josh on Seth MacFarlane's Wikipedia, he points out that he trained with Sally Sweetland, who worked with Sinatra as a vocal coach and he bought Frank Sinatra's microphone that he used on most of his albums. Oh, that's creepy.
[01:50:03] And that's what he records on and uses for live shows. That's weird. That he uses it for live shows? I believe so. It would be better if he recorded Peter Griffin's voice in that microphone. I wish. And he records on analog tape. Wow. The jazz or family guy?
[01:50:22] Seth MacFarlane is the Christopher Nolan of modern jazz. He wants everything the way he grew up with it. He's the Tim Heidecker. I think you should leave, Kevin. Right. Who's Dave Rock? Yes. Or whatever. Dan. Anyway, Griff, back to the future part three.
[01:50:42] Is there anything else we want to talk about except for the final train sequence, which is so good? Doc Barry's a car, which is cool. You just appreciate that he buried something. Yeah, I think that rules. Right.
[01:50:56] I also just like that it's such a like a tiny little clever time travel thing of like, oh, if you're trapped in the past, you can just leave something in a place where no one will find it for 100 years and write them a letter.
[01:51:07] Similar cute time travel thing. Marty showing up, Doc saying, who dressed you like that? And Marty saying, you did. Always fun. Always fun. Yeah, so Ben, if you had a DeLorean, you could bury jeans, go 100 years in the future, unburied the jeans there.
[01:51:24] They'd be 100 year old jeans and then bring them back to the present. Those would be worth so much. Yeah, those are. Yeah, hyper buried jeans. It'd be great. But yeah, no, I just love the final trains. Maybe I'm just a sucker for trains,
[01:51:40] but I'm just into you are repeating the stakes. Yeah, yeah, I am. Yes, the stakes are fun. It's it's a classic to make a stuff of just like it excels because it's so well defined. You understand exactly what needs to happen,
[01:51:55] how at what moment where everything is in relation to everything else they've gone over it so many times. And it's once you have like Clara on the side of the train, it feels like them riffing on Buster Keaton too, like them doing the general thing.
[01:52:10] I also love that they keep the hoverboard and play, but they don't overuse it in this movie. You reestablish it at the beginning when you have that shot of him like napping with his feet up on the hoverboard and then they hold off on it
[01:52:22] for long enough that you forget that it's even a tool. And it's so exciting when they're able to use that to save a life at the end. But it's sweet. I remember as a kid genuinely believing that Doc and Clara had died,
[01:52:35] that they had gone over the cliff and thought this franchise just ends on a very bitter sweet note. Boy gets his four by four loses his best friend. But the end stuff is nice. I mean, it's like, right, you have the needle scene
[01:52:52] and then you have the lovely Doc Brown Coda. Yeah, both of those scenes work for me. I just like Marty being chill, being like why would I erase that asshole? Like I just, that's a nice little coda to that. And then the time train,
[01:53:07] I'm just so into the time train. What, no, I'm sorry, what do you wanna say about needles? I was just gonna say it super works. Like it is the even more believable than anything in the Wild West. When he's like, I don't have to race these dudes,
[01:53:21] you get the feeling of like, oh, he's made that progress that we're supposed to, we're buying in that this is his evolution as a character. As much as the chicken stuff is not very gracefully worked into these two movies, it does pay off there.
[01:53:37] Like that is the moment you want of that much shoe horning. But just everything about the time train rules, Doc and Clara's outfits rule that they name their kids Jules and Vern rules. The Clara's last name, Ravine changing to Eastwood Ravine. Love that, love that.
[01:53:55] Did you see that, David? Yes, yeah, I love all those little jokes. Yeah, love how many times the Ravine changes name, but the final Eastwood gag is really good. But just that final, like the train looks cool when it comes in and you see all the gears moving.
[01:54:10] And then the moment when you realize the train can fucking fly, when it goes into the hover wheel position. Yeah, that's cool. Also, when the DeLorean gets hit by the train and then they like end up going back, like I love the logic.
[01:54:24] It's like cartoon logic of like, no police have shown up, like no one's been called to the scene. Trains just go through, hit stuff and keep going. I think that's very funny. Right. It enters the grease pantheon of a film that ends with a non-flying form
[01:54:41] of transportation taking flight. Yes, the best pantheon. Here's a little thing I wanna do because I forgot to do this in our three hour episode on the first movie. Oh for God's sake. That episode was, I will put it slightly longer
[01:54:55] than the film Back to the Future was. It was a significant way longer. About an hour longer, yeah. So I was looking, this was like the book that came with the 30th anniversary Blu-ray set. There's a new set coming out now.
[01:55:08] I will rebuy these movies for like the fifth fucking time. But they have all these rejected poster concepts in here, which are all good, but it just made me think like, this is just such a fucking striking image. It's such a good image.
[01:55:23] And so much of it is just the colors and the posing and his expression. You don't, it doesn't really tell you what you need to know about the movie, but it definitely makes you intrigued. It draws you in. And I heard Zemeckis say like,
[01:55:35] the best thing a poster can do is sell you on the mood of a movie. And the poster definitely does that. These other ones do not. And it also feels like, I feel it would have made its legacy far more of like team comedy
[01:55:50] rather than what thought of as like family, you know, sci-fi, comedy adventure kind of movies. So this one is like Marty, let me turn off my virtual background so you can see this. But I'll describe them as well. So it's like Marty hanging 10 on like a clock
[01:56:08] and his family and his friends are like on there, right? And he's like holding onto it. Like he's surfing the clock. And the tagline is Marty McFly has broken the time barrier and he's got just one week to get it fixed. Yeah, okay.
[01:56:22] I mean, it's a little convoluted. It feels a little bit like the text on the front of like a, not a goosebumps book but the adventure analog of that. Yes, yes. Great take, great take. Absolutely. Okay, so this is the next one.
[01:56:38] It's the one I think you were talking about David where he's trapped like in the clock. So you can see here, he's in like the face of the clock looking at his parents shocked. And the tagline is 17 year old Marty McFly got home early last night. 30 years early.
[01:57:00] I mean, I hear it's not wrong. He did get home 30 years early. The point of this segment is I wanna underline how close movies come to not becoming iconic. Yeah. Even you pointed this out on the original Back to the Future episode a couple of weeks ago,
[01:57:18] but Back to the Future as the title is like kind of a bit, right? Like until you see the movie, you can only really imagine. And as someone who worked for five years on a TV show whose name was a bit, people don't remember it
[01:57:33] until it becomes a thing that is like part of their regular life. Like people, when I worked at last week tonight people would be like, oh, I love that show this week with John Oliver. Like just got it wrong constantly because the name is a bit
[01:57:44] not like an intuitive description of a thing. Now I wanna find what it was cause it's like a legendary story that they hated the title. Oh, you're talking about the like Space Man for Mars thing? Right, right. Yes, that's what it is. Right, right.
[01:57:58] Ned Tannen was the name of the executive at Universal who wanted them to call it Space Man from Pluto or whatever it is after the book. I'm gonna look it up exactly because it's so funny. He wrote this memo that is so demented
[01:58:15] that Steven Spielberg responded to it by being like, that was a very funny joke and the guy couldn't call it. That couldn't be like, I was serious because Steven Spielberg had just been like, well, okay, like, it's Sid Steinberg. That was Sid Steinberg who was their supporter.
[01:58:33] Ned Tannen was a guy who worked at Universal and I think fucked over Zemeckis on I Wanna Hold Your Hand which is why the Tannen family has that name in the movies. It's, you're right Griff, it's Space Man from Pluto
[01:58:47] and he's like, I think this title's no good. It doesn't sound like a genre movie. I think it needs a better title. We should call it Space Man from Pluto. You'll just have her refer to him as a Space Man from Pluto
[01:59:00] instead of like Darth Vader or whatever that joke is. And so that's how you get that into the movie and then it sounds like an old fashioned science fiction flick. So problem solved. And Spielberg replied with like great joke memo
[01:59:14] and Sid Sheaberg just was like, didn't bring it up again. Spielberg like laid it on thick. He said like, Sid, we, as you know, no time is more stressful than the couple of weeks leading into production of the movie.
[01:59:28] For that I must thank you for giving us such a great laugh in the offices of Back to the Future. You really helped take me. Like he just fucking embarrassed the guy so hard because he was like, that's the only way he'll back down from this.
[01:59:38] Other taglines I'm just gonna speed round through these. This poster is just the three feet of George and Lorraine and Marty. Like it, where is it here? Oh yeah, there they are. And it's standing there. Marty McFly has just come between
[01:59:53] the most unlikely couple in high school, his parents. Like it makes you realize how hard it is to sell the premise of this movie because it is guy tries to not fuck his mom. Very take my life please, but it's like fuck my mom please.
[02:00:08] Please don't fuck my mom. Or no, I guess he is saying to his dad. Sid Sheaberg's other suggestion for the title was fuck my mom please. Right. Yes. We've got a PG movie called fuck my mom please. Let's see the box office game. Yeah, all right.
[02:00:22] This is the one back to the future not to make a hundred million. Is that right? It makes 88 domestic. That's right. 244 worldwide. Yeah, so that's the thing. Like I don't even know if Universal would have been like let's definitely make a fourth anyway. Right?
[02:00:40] Like I know the movie's kind of wrapping up here but like it wasn't a huge enough thing for them to be like, Bobby have you gotten the other ideas? First one was the highest grossing movie of its year. Someone did the math.
[02:00:52] It would have made like 900 million domestic. It was like a hit beyond all measure, yes. Right. Second one's a huge hit but a major drop off and then the third one like performed okay. And they made them as- I'm sorry I found the one other tagline
[02:01:05] I want to call out. Go ahead. Marty McFly's dropping into surprise his parents. The surprise is that it's 13 years before he'll be born. All right, that's so sweaty. We get it earlier. All these are so sweaty. Yeah. That's so sweaty.
[02:01:21] Right the time one I just love that the poster and the tagline they ended up with don't allude to the parents shit at all. It's just like who's this young kid who can travel through time apparently? Yeah, that's cool. He doesn't need to-
[02:01:33] Why does he want to see his parents? Right, right. Kid hangs out with parents is like such a weird pitch for a movie. Yeah it also just made the mistake like of the Matrix movie you know like the back to back sequel thing where they're really close together.
[02:01:48] You don't get to build up anticipation. I think that rarely works. Like it's not usually what people want. No and people were very critical of the fact. Like I remember as a kid reading old mad magazines they would do so many bits
[02:02:01] in like those couple of years about like oh Hollywood's so bankrupt they put the trailer for the next movie before the first ones even ended. Like everyone was ragging on the fact that there was the preview and the uncredits of this.
[02:02:13] It saved them a lot of money doing it this way and obviously like cast availability but then no one really attempted it again until Matrix then pired to the Caribbean and now obviously it happens somewhat more often. Lord of the Rings, Marvel movie shooting back to back
[02:02:30] but it's still often not the best strategy. All right so it opens number one. Now the thing Griffin is that this is the week before total recall. Whoa. So some of these movies were in that box office game but number one, back to feature part three.
[02:02:47] Some time ago as well. It was. Number two it's just these movies are kind of obscured I remember us talking about them. Go ahead what is it? I'm sorry just what's the weekend again? What's the opening weekend gross on back to the future?
[02:03:00] May 25th 1990 it opens at $23 million. Okay. Number two was number one before it's two movie stars a man and a woman billed above the title with their first names. Bird on a Wire. Bird on a Wire. Melon Goldie. Melon Goldie. Which I've never seen. Me neither.
[02:03:22] I've also never seen it. Number three in the box office is one of the biggest hits of 1990 was it the biggest? I think no. Cause the biggest movie in 1990 as far as I know is Home Alone. Yeah, correct. Well no it's actually not if you go worldwide.
[02:03:39] Do you know what's number one if you go worldwide? Goat. Mr. Worldwide over here suddenly I'm talking hit bowl. But come on. All right. Griffin thank you for saying that. You're welcome. You're very welcome Josh. I knew you would like that joke.
[02:03:55] I don't know if I'd make it with a different guess. I don't know if I'm empowered to assign comedy points but if I were, I would assign that to you. Of course you are. Are you kidding me? It means the world to me.
[02:04:04] Griffin that's five comedy points to you buddy. Was it Ghost? Ghost is the number one. He said it. I only said it cause David said it already. It's just wild to think that Ghost was the biggest movie. I mean obviously Ghost was a phenomenon.
[02:04:17] Anyway, but this is the third biggest. So those two are the top movies in 1990. This is the next one. Another colossal star making phenomenon the likes of which we'll never see again. Pretty woman. Pretty woman with Julia Roberts.
[02:04:32] And number four worldwide that year is Dances of the Wolves and number five is Total Recall. Back to the Future Part Three is sixth biggest movie of the year. Okay, number four is, this is the one that I remembered us talking about. You got a comedy star.
[02:04:51] He's on the poster making this expression. Oh boy. Can you for the listener at home maybe describe what I'm doing? He looks non-plused. Holding my hands out. Holding my hands out. What am I supposed to do here? Exactly. He's a comedy star that we all know and love.
[02:05:18] He has a job that some might consider an untrustworthy profession. Interesting, okay. Is this a lawyer movie? No, and in fact the job he has- Oh I remember this coming up. Okay, okay. Is this that Joe Pesci movie? No, it's not Joe Pesci.
[02:05:38] The job this character has is a job that Robert Zemeckis made a movie about. We actually talked about it already. Oh, it's Cadillac Man? It's Cadillac Man. Robin Williams. Robin Williams is Cadillac Man. Tim Robbins, Fran Drescher, The Trio. We love them.
[02:05:57] If you can't trust a car salesman, who can you trust? That is the tagline to Cadillac Man, a movie about a used car salesman played by Robin Williams that I have never seen. Have either of you seen Cadillac Man? I have not. I have, it's good.
[02:06:14] I believe you. Tim Robbins is like robbing the story, shows up with the gun because him and Fran Drescher are dating and they like broke up. And then Robin Williams is supposed to be a real scumbag, I love it. Right, I will say the top tagline
[02:06:30] if you can't trust a car salesman, who can you trust, pretty ordinary. The bottom tagline, a comedy about the near death of a salesman. That's kind of funny. Hey, good, it's fun. Hey, some drama humor, some Arthur Miller humor. I like it.
[02:06:47] Number, go ahead, what were you gonna say, Griff? No, I just, I like it. I'd like it, I approve. I give it some comedy point. Number five at the box office, Griffin, is a, and like, you know, I'm four years old,
[02:06:59] so I'm not seeing movies yet, you know what I mean? So like, just these things just fly over my head. It's a Disney movie, it's an action film. It stars one of your favorite actors. I've never heard of it. It's a Keaton movie? No, no, no, no.
[02:07:20] But like, since I feel like you tried to watch all the movies this actor was in, maybe you've seen this one. It's not Steve Martin, it's not Bill Murray. It's not City Slickers, it's not Steve Martin, Bill Murray, it's not a comedy actor.
[02:07:33] Although some people think he could be pretty funny sometimes. Oh, oh, it's a Nicholas Cage movie? It is. It's a Nicholas Cage movie? It's not Garden Tess, it's military. It's like, I don't think they're in the middle, but like they're flying military equipment
[02:07:51] and I think they're having like an adventure in South America. Is it the one with Tommy Lee Jones? Tommy Lee Jones is in it, Sean Young is in it. It's like one of the few Nicholas Cage movies I haven't seen, pre-directed video run. Do you know the name?
[02:08:09] It's called like The Yardbirds or something? Birds, you got birds right. Yeah. It's Firebirds. Right, that was like, I was trying to watch all of his movies circa 2010 or whatever it was and that one was so hard to find. It like doesn't exist.
[02:08:29] Yeah, maybe it's on Disney Plus. It was a Disney movie. I hope so, I hope it's spotlighted. I hope they revive it as a Disney Plus series. Weird box office game, Firebirds, I don't know. Wow. Do you know what the tagline is for Firebirds?
[02:08:46] You want me to tell you the tagline or are you gonna tell me? I'm gonna tell you, the best just got better. That's it? Yep, the best just got better. Cage, Jones, Young, the best just got better. Okay, you know, fine.
[02:09:02] It feels like they had that lying around and they're like, whenever we get stumped by a movie, we'll just throw this on one that where we, and it'll probably apply. Absolutely in a tagline pile that could apply to any movie.
[02:09:16] Yeah, the guy who wrote the script comes in and he's like, so it's about like these helicopter pilots and they go to South America and the guy's like, Jesus, I gotta get to lunch. Look, could you say that with this film the best got better?
[02:09:28] And the guy's like, I don't know, I guess so. And he's like, great, we're gonna do that one. Get out of here. The magic is back again? I don't know, just take something from the drawer. I don't know what to do. The magic was already back.
[02:09:40] How do I top the magic is back? I don't know, magic is back again? Any tagline in the fridge that doesn't have a name or it not, you can take. Just pull one of them. Ben, I just wanna say that number six at the box office this week
[02:09:54] is a movie we will definitely do as a Ben's choice one day. And we already talked about this franchise, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Hell. One, the original. The first one. The first one. Wow. You've also got The Hunt for Red October. You have Joe versus The Volcano.
[02:10:11] Great movie. You got Tales from the Dark Side, The Movie. Good movie. And you have Spaced Invaders, another like. Never seen it? Disney thing I've never heard of. What the fuck is this? It's the director of Angus, my beloved under-song teen comedy. I like it, you're right.
[02:10:29] Angus Rules. And I tried to watch that movie because I was such a fan of Angus. I was like, what if Patrick Reed Johnson secretly got this beautiful career? And that movie's kind of dog shit. What about Baby Days Out, Baby's Day Out though?
[02:10:44] Did you do like that movie? That movie's kind of fun, right? He's a baby. It's kind of fun. It's like the highest grossing film in the history of Manila or something. Manila is just a city. I don't know. I think we, Griffin,
[02:10:58] I swear we've had this conversation before. This is something Jeffery was having for me. Yes, okay, the episode's over. Josh, thank you so much for being on the show. Yes, Josh, thank you. Truly a pleasure. I had so much fun. We had so much fun.
[02:11:11] Such a gentleman and one of the reasons we abused your kindness and bopped you around the schedule so much is we were just like, he's an ace in the hole. Whatever episode we get him on, he's gonna make good.
[02:11:19] Josh was booked on the first episode of this show. We've just been fucking him over for six years. We've been booked to talk about the first 10 minutes of the Phantom Menace. That's what it was. It was the real kind of Jimmy Kimmel,
[02:11:32] Matt Damon kind of bit we've had going that no one knew about. No, this was so fun. And I so appreciate you having me on. Thank you. Of course. I'm a fan of the show as I mentioned before. Incredible. People should watch Deezus and Mero which rules. Absolutely.
[02:11:49] They're the best. They are the best. They're so funny. And people should rate, review and subscribe and go to blankies.write.com for some real ordinary shit. Check out our Shopify page for some real nerdy merch. Go over to our Patreon, patreon.com backslash,
[02:12:06] Belenque Echeca where we're talking about the alien franchise and doing some other fun stuff. Thanks to Ange for Guto for social media help make this show run. Thanks to Leem Montgomery for our theme song, Joe Bowen Pat-Rounds for our artwork. Tune in next week for Death Becomes Her.
[02:12:28] And as always, Baby's Day Out was the most successful film in Calcutta. Calcutta, okay. It was big in India but specifically in Calcutta it played at the largest theater for over a year and they said that Baby's Day Out was more successful than Star Wars. Then Stomp?
[02:12:50] Star Wars. It's a very... Oh, oh, oh, oh. Sorry. Stomp? I didn't know that I was like weird rubric but I don't know what American culture ports to India. I'm sorry, I'm sorry. I just, I know the episode's over. I've just discovered something I have to share.
[02:13:09] Go ahead, please. Baby's Day Out was remade Sure. Under the title, Cisindry. And then there was a Malaysian remake of that remake titled James Bond. No, that can't be real. Yes, you're right. James Bond, they just called it James Bond. James Bond, plot description.
[02:13:39] Following the bankruptcy of their local business five friends go into hiding only to stumble upon a baby who changes their life. It sounds like in the remakes a lot changed. There was a lot going on. No character named James Bond in this cast. With the podcast long over,
[02:13:56] may I put in a tiny plug for my podcast as well? Of course. Oh please, it's a great time to do that with the podcast being over because I'm bad as being a host and I didn't ask you for quality of life. That's no problem.
[02:14:06] I just, I didn't mean to force it but I was like as long as we're doing little stuff at the end. It's called Make My Day. It's a comedy game show with one guest every week who's the only contestant so they're guaranteed to win
[02:14:17] and at the end they win a $100 donation to the charity of their choice. That's all. Thank you. That's why you're the nicest guy on the internet because you actually put work into making people feel better. Okay, so we said it Josh. You could put the gun down.
[02:14:31] You can call off your guard. I'm pointing a gun at the zoom call. Like two hours and 15 minutes. We've all had lasers pointing at our chests this entire time. Is that really? I've got a lot of laser guys. Unbelievable.