Lucky Numbers with Alex Ross Perry

[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 Uh, do you masturbate, Ross?

[00:00:24] Geez, I, you know, I've been so busy lately I barely podcast my shoes There we go, are you happy? My podcasts I barely polish my podcast, yeah, I don't know Uh, yes, you don't know I don't know Okay, Griffin's very riled about the choice of quote for this

[00:00:45] Well now that I have access to the clock of the recording, I can say it took four minutes to get to that Yeah, that's what I was riled about Okay, what about this one? What about this one? Here's a new quote, ready? We're not restarting the episode

[00:00:59] But here's a new superior quote along the same lines Okay, let me assay the role of John Travolta's Russ Richards again Give me a moment to find the character and here's a new line

[00:01:10] Yeah, well what about this little missy? There's enough mist in this little puppy to save ten podcasters Uh, yeah, that's fine I mean, I don't remember a single line from this movie

[00:01:20] You could say anything right now, say it was from this movie and I'd be like, oh yeah, I guess I don't remember that Well, I've got to tell you there's a line I, and I'm gonna have to apologize, Ben

[00:01:29] I'm gonna have to grab my phone at some point because when I listened to Nora Efron's commentary She cites the line in the script that she said when I was reading it

[00:01:38] I must make this movie and I have to be on set the day that line is said for the first time Which line is it? Should I just do that now? Yeah I'll keep my phone relatively far away from the recording material

[00:01:53] And I'm gonna do a third alt rating, I think it should be Oh my god What about this little missy? There's enough mist in this podcast to save ten masturbators Here's the line Lisa Kudrow in the restaurant says, fuck me, no fried clams

[00:02:11] Is one of the reasons I wanted to do the movie I want to be there the day that line is first said Amidst all the chaos and sadness, it's possible to focus on the most trivial thing Says Nora Efron on the commentary for the hit 2000 comedy Lucky Numbers

[00:02:27] Now celebrating its 20th anniversary This is of course a very important episode celebrating the 20th anniversary of Lucky Numbers Guys, you're jumping the gun, the 20th anniversary of course is in October We're a few months out from the 20th anniversary

[00:02:44] But that's good because you'll get in front of the wave of other sort of retrospective pieces We're putting the marker down, right The oral history Also David, it's a year I've already heard there's competing oral histories, there's gonna be four

[00:02:58] David, it's a year-long celebration, the celebration isn't that day It's a year-long celebration, what are you talking about? We're one of a tapestry of events celebrating the 20th anniversary of Lucky Numbers Because this of course is blank check, it's a podcast about filmographies

[00:03:14] Directors who have early success, massive success early on in their careers They're given a series of blank checks to make whatever crazy passion products they want And sometimes those checks clear and sometimes they win the lottery But then result in several deaths, maybe

[00:03:28] This is a main series on the films of Nora Efron And we've gotten to this, her second least successful film financially Um, this is my life made less than a million Right, but this is, right, it certainly made less money than this is my life

[00:03:46] I just feel like this may have been bigger, this may have lost more money Right, because this probably cost some money and when you, you may not Do you know how much money this made total? How many black hats did it make?

[00:03:59] Can I tell you what I think? I haven't looked it up Okay My memory is that it made like one and a half black hats Yeah, I don't think it even got there It made one in a smidge black hats basically Like 11? What did it make? 10 Wow 10

[00:04:17] It basically made Travolta's salary is my guess It made like one in a third black hats Travolta might have gotten full quote for this I mean this is a big studio comedy at the peak of his stardom I would say slightly post peak, but still in the zone

[00:04:33] Yeah, but here's the thing Boy, do I have a rundown of the Travolta leading up to this to really dig in on Well, we did we I want to warn you we covered a lot in Michael And that is why my list starts with the release of Michael

[00:04:46] Great Because the period between Michael and this is insane Yes Can I just read it now? Yes, because there's the point I want to make after this Introduce our guest and then we can Who's chomping at the bit I'm Griffin I'm David

[00:05:04] Your name and our guest today return to the show for the fifth or sixth time I'm like Craig Kilbourne moving to CBS because I'm taking the five with me This is your this is the time you joined the Five Timers Club on the main feed

[00:05:16] I think so that's why I'm wearing my Ben hat Wow He's wearing a congratulations hat He has recently been annoying to the official ambassador brand ambassador And a congratulations and ambassador Sure of the congratulations fashion line Yes, this is your fifth episode You're on insomnia hollow man

[00:05:39] Taken woodstock you took woodstock We took a heap we took it we kept it now this yes Yes, and so to honor this event Of course I rewarded Alex with the congratulations hat You gave me congratulations hat because this is a major event for Alex Ross Perry

[00:05:55] Director of Listen Up Phillip Queen of Earth Her smell and many more Found another perfect film for me to come do I was gonna say you like to pick the film that kind of exists the least

[00:06:09] Often their lowest grossing film but a film that flopped in a way where people don't even talk about it And similar to Nolan with the one movie that he does not have a writing credit on

[00:06:18] This is the same thing and it therefore feels perfect and I basically demanded That this had to happen also a huge huge ephron household over here we love her Your big ephron fan And this similar to taking woodstock was like the one I hadn't seen Right

[00:06:36] Now we had booked someone else for this episode Which was John Travolta unfortunately John Travolta we booked Johnny Traves the most bovine of all leading men To be the guest on this episode

[00:06:47] And then we booked a non Travolta person who we've been trying to get on the show for a long time Well there's John Travolta and then there's non Travolta Those are the two categories We booked a non Travolta for this episode

[00:06:58] We've been trying to get on the show for a long time And he had not seen this movie and I was like hey this is up for grabs do you want to cover this And he was like sure

[00:07:06] And then you told David I would like to do lucky numbers And David said to you we have someone for lucky numbers it's off the table I don't think there's anything we can do about it

[00:07:16] And I believe I also said but you can have your pick of a Zemeckis or you know like it wasn't like I was like Now check back again later See ya Then Alex texted me and was like it's too bad I would have loved to done lucky numbers

[00:07:29] But David told me there's nothing that can be done It's immovable And I was like this is obstruction this is large government obstruction I can untangle this I reached out to the other guest we had booked I said would you rather do first pick of any Zemeckis movie

[00:07:44] Or lucky numbers and he said yeah I'll take a fucking Zemeckis over lucky numbers I made both people happier I'm the only one that would hear that offer and say lucky numbers obviously Yeah, yes, right you wanted it And I got it

[00:07:58] Much like Nora wanted to be on set hearing the owner of the fried clams Fuck me no fried clams Now can I say two controversial opinions right off the bat Okay One I think Lisa Kodrow nails that delivery of what is a very good line in a script

[00:08:15] She's great in this movie She's good Yeah she's actually just good in this movie Okay now here's my second controversial take I like this movie and I was not expecting that I was not prepared to have any generous takes on this film

[00:08:32] You know I like to aim to be either the bottom or second to bottom when you do your ranking So that's disappointing Yes I mean this is second to bottom This is third to bottom for me at least Alright well that's okay That's still on the loser's early

[00:08:52] Not to call out my list in advance but right there too I like less than this unquestionably While you're on the subject did you take my suggestion for a bonus episode Was your suggestion hanging up It was Yes then we did take your suggestion

[00:09:08] It was said to David in a blind rage when he was telling me that I had to take a hike We had already penciled hanging up into the schedule He stole your idea Blind rage Stolen glory Have you recorded it yet? We have not yet

[00:09:24] Because it's interesting that this and that are the same year both Kudrow Both Kudrow Kudrow it's like it's like welcome to the club Kudrow You're gonna be a rom-com leading lady You're gonna be in Nora Efron movies This is great like your movie start them awaits

[00:09:39] Well if you think that one of the things And frickin Marci X or You brought up Marci or Darcy X Marci X And people are like go away Lisa

[00:09:49] Well if you think that one of the things on my syllabus that I made is not talking about friends movies then you are incorrect Physical syllabus Great okay because this is the context I want to get into

[00:09:59] I feel like this is a really good episode to talk about the friends movie Also because I think you might never do one again Is that possible? When I was looking at the careers of the friends No

[00:10:11] Surely will a friends cast member ever be discussed outside of like a Lost in Space Oddball episode I was gonna say Right I feel like that's the only one we've done If we don't discuss Jesus David Schwimmer in a movie I'm gonna lose my mind

[00:10:29] What would that movie be? I don't know Name what that movie is I need to look at his filmography Major or marginal auteur that he worked with That you would ever discuss him unless you do a Doug Eland series Let's dig into it

[00:10:41] He worked with the auteur David Schwimmer Director of Run Fat Boy Run So maybe check yourself Of course He'd be on the weirdo's bracket right Yes He could be on the weirdo's Well okay look if we ever do Soda Berg David Schwimmer was in the laundromat

[00:10:57] Oh he did fold that movie like one I do feel like you have repeatedly said Soda Berg is unmanageable by any measure of how to do it Well who fucking knows We have yet to solve it

[00:11:09] Okay if we ever do Matt Reeves which we might then we're gonna need to kick it off with the Paul Bear We're gonna need to bear that Paul Now that's an interesting take because we could I could see two movies from now us doing Matt Reeves

[00:11:23] It could have 100% And if we ever do Mike Nichols I didn't realize this But apparently David Schwimmer plays a cop in Wolf so And certainly he would be the main thing to talk about while talking about Wolf One of the most insane things that has ever happened

[00:11:40] I'm realizing one other Schwimmer If we ever did Ivan Reitman We talked about Schwimmer in 6 days 7 nights 100% Okay so you're gonna cover a lot of Schwimmer He popped up in a lot of stuff We're gonna cover so much Schwimmer Yeah it's like a third lead

[00:11:54] But in terms of what I define as the friends movie That's like one of the six cast members of the hit TV show friends Like as the lead Like 6 days 7 nights is a charity for it and Hayes And then whatever Schwimmer as well I'm talking like

[00:12:07] I agree with you Movies that were like you're famous here's your movie You're forgetting there's a very obvious one Which one Peyton Reed I think you know he is Peyton Reed is a somewhat legitimate candidate And the breakup is He said you know that's a Jennifer Aniston vehicle

[00:12:24] Yes So that counts Cause Jennifer Aniston is the one who actually got vehicles I was gonna say Like multiple vehicles Well we have to unpack this But it is fascinating for being the one friend Who actually had a legitimate movie career That kind of worked

[00:12:40] She has worked with very few people we would ever cover on the show Unless you do Rob Reiner and cover the graduate movie Unless we do But you see you don't even remember the title Rumor has it Rumor has it Alright Alright alright fine

[00:12:58] Yeah who directed picture perfect I could answer that with a gun to my head It was a TV director mostly Glenn Okay Glenn, Karen, yeah whatever Part of what I found interesting is that like In my mind the friends movies by 2000 are all done

[00:13:15] Like this movie is like two years later than ever Two years later than every friends movie except for two that I found Which are the whole nine yards and three to tango Both Matthew Perry vehicles 2099 Right And then weirdly Marcy X is 2003 at which point no

[00:13:31] That was on a shelf for two years Yeah That was like a very delayed movie Because Paramount made that and then looked at it And said are we gonna get arrested if we put this in theaters It was one of those where they just kept on like

[00:13:43] They should release it now Yes now is the time for hip hop to meet shop till you drop Which was the tagline for Marcy X Isn't that also directed by like a weirdly over qualified director Well of course directed by Richard Benjamin You are correct

[00:14:00] Sergey Eisenstein directed that film yes You're right Ricky Benjamin Yeah Richard Benjamin This is what I find interesting Alex I'm so glad you're ready to talk about this This is of course a Mays airs but the films of Nora Afron It's called You've Got Podcasts

[00:14:13] We're talking about Lucky Numbers a film that I'm going to very half heartedly defend While just explaining why this movie I guess ticks off my weird fetishes Because I can't actually say anything about it that makes it sound good But No Not good

[00:14:27] The 90s is this weird run of Because I think the phenomenon of which sitcom stars become movie stars And which ones don't is really interesting Like if you look at a show like Cheers

[00:14:41] Which was so mammoth and the obvious thing was oh Shelly Long will become a movie star Ted Danson will become a movie star Both of them made a bunch of movies And they had hits but they never really became movie stars Ted Danson had

[00:14:56] Three men and a baby and a sequel Shelly Long had a couple like there's the The Bette Midler movie I'm forgetting the title of That was a big hit But they never really became proper movie stars

[00:15:09] You would not have bet that Woody Harrelson would be the one to connect He's the one Much like how Janet France and what's the one Yeah He is the one and of course we await Venom 2 Let There Be Carnage Which will be the final

[00:15:23] The final jewel atop his film star crown Ted Danson at least He has the distinction of I think being the best TV actor of all time Which I think he is With very little argument I think he's the one where he's like I've now done everything

[00:15:44] Like I've tried every kind of American TV genre I've done prestige, I've done multi-cam I've done it all like you know Did CSI just to do it That's what Danson finally realized He's like I should just be the most famous TV actor ever And he's incredible at it

[00:16:01] Yes I think that's a good argument And I'm not judging him for not having a better movie career Because he certainly tried and he had big hits He had good performances and shit But in the same way that it's like

[00:16:12] You wouldn't have predicted that DeVito becomes the leading man from the taxi cast Like those sitcoms often the person who was the lead doesn't have the career It's weirdly someone who seems like more of a character actor Who ends up growing into something else

[00:16:26] And then France is this example People always cite it as like the show that broke sitcoms Because there always used to be an understanding of like You put pretty people on procedurals You maybe have one pretty person in a sitcom cast

[00:16:38] But like a sitcom is mostly you get people who like come from the comedy clubs You get people come from Second City You get people come from musical theater Weirdos People want to watch people who are funny They're weirdos, they're collection of weirdos And then friends was suddenly

[00:16:53] Oh everyone in this cast is hot This is a sitcom Everyone's a hottie Everyone's getting their own weirdos I must say though while you're on the subject Seeing the talking about this era of sitcom One thing I wanted to bring up

[00:17:05] Especially seeing the four of you here visually Four of you kind of remind me of the cast of Seinfeld Hey I don't know if that's been brought up before What about the cast of Seinfeld? I want to say one thing about friends before

[00:17:16] I just feel like the four of you could do a promotional photo shoot For Blank Check where you assume like Seinfeld David's Cromer Right Yeah, yeah for sure David's always coming up with crazy schemes That he's trying to invent No, Ben Ben Wait what? I'm Cromer

[00:17:35] I feel like the way that they did the Wizard of Oz photo shoot The four of you could do the Seinfeld photo shoot Or that Rolling Stone where they're all in like S&M gear Have you ever seen that in the most cursed image of all time?

[00:17:48] I have not The Seinfeld crew in S&M gear I feel like the four of you could maybe do a Seinfeld photo shoot David has the most Jerry energy imaginable Right Yes, I am obviously the Jerry It's probably in the Constitution that I'm the Jerry That's like unbreakable

[00:18:07] There would need to be state action taken Wait a second You don't think David is the one who is describing things He's done off camera and you can't tell if they're real or not? No, I don't think so Plus, if he's the Cromer

[00:18:22] But it's not like when you're a bit of a coward And when you're like, I don't like that And that's like, I don't like that I don't like that But if your friend is George and your dad gets to be a wacky Franka stanza type

[00:18:34] It all lines up Absolutely Yes That lines up But seeing the four of you in thinking about that or a sitcom Did get my brain rushing onto the Seinfeld thing I hope this isn't compliment I mean, I say this as with the highest praise Let me speak

[00:18:48] The other thing about the Friends Cast pretty enough to be movie stars. Right only one of them has any comedy background, correct? Kudrow is the only one who like took second city classes. Right? Correct. Incorrect. Incorrect. Aniston auditioned for SNL had a background in sketch comedy was

[00:19:05] on a short live Fox sketch comedy show. Take it back. I forgot. I had no idea to be honest. The others did not LeBlanc, Perry, Cox obviously just they're just actors. There's a swimmer drama school people. Yeah. Yeah. Right. Right. Yeah. They were

[00:19:22] drama school moved to Hollywood people. What do we think about the double take? Are we into it? Do we like it? The double takes are fun. Members running bit where he kept doing double takes. I love a double take. I love a spit take.

[00:19:35] I like a spit take double takes. They stink. What? Come on. Wait. You don't like a double take. What? Wait a second. What? After the list, I like the double take with a pause in the middle where someone like looks and they're like, do you like a slow

[00:19:55] double take as well? Would they like someone slowly turns back around? Yeah, I like it all. This is great audio content to all be doing. The second Ben says it recording cast of friends is fascinating. The genre of friends movies is fascinating

[00:20:10] and I think they're mostly extinct by 97 98, which makes this as like an above the title studio release kind of an outlier because I think by 2000 most of the cast is not doing that anymore. I think 2000 is the cutoff point. I think

[00:20:25] because it's whole nine yards and this, I think that's really this is the last proper year of it. But here's what I think is interesting about your theory. Aniston is the one who goes on to have a film career. But for most of

[00:20:36] the 90s people were like, why isn't she connecting? What she does in the 2000s, what she does essentially starting the next year is I'm going to play second banana to every major A list comedy leading man. She becomes a star by just

[00:20:49] being like, I'll take the thankless role in Bruce Almighty in along came Polly how she finally becomes a movie star. Well, yeah, because they kick her off with picture perfect and things that are more just like, well, she must be a romcom leading lady. And then she's automatic

[00:21:06] resistance where it's like, no, that's a TV actor. You know that line used to be so firm and so people are like not interested. But the thing about Kudrow that you got, I mean like the opposite of sex she won critics awards for

[00:21:18] that and she had Romeo and Michelle the same year. So I think with Kudrow people are like this is like an intelligent comedy actress who you know she she's a perfect fit for Nora Efron. It makes total sense. She was

[00:21:31] always quietly the best actor on that show, but her especially how it's aged, especially watching now. She's running laps around everyone else. Yes, absolutely. And I'm so excited anytime she shows up in anything obviously like comeback people have come around to and recognized how much

[00:21:47] it was slept on. But I think watching that show is also one of those funny things where people were like everyone just agreed that the second season doesn't exist and nobody after wanting more of it for like a decade. We got

[00:21:58] it and everyone was like, oh, there's the one perfect season that everyone likes. Yeah, everyone was like, oh yeah, that's okay. Yeah, because there was also web therapy. She just does stuff. Wasn't that sponsored by like Mitsubishi or something? Probably I'm sponsored by Mitsubishi.

[00:22:24] Oh, really? No, no, but I want to be. You are right, David, though, that she is the one who had the most sort of traditional comedy bonafides going into a sitcom. Right. Right. And so she was mad about you.

[00:22:40] Right. And even though she was the weirdo character that she was the character who was sort of the most limited in her game, so it was hard to track what kind of movie star she could be. Whereas someone like Aniston, you'd go, well,

[00:22:50] I know I can see her in a romcom. It was like, who does Kudro play because it was such a character actor performance? It was not a movie star, a star energy performance on friends. But then she also seems to

[00:23:03] be kind of like I don't have anything to prove. I'm going to do whatever I feel like and then right off the bat, her appearance in this movie has that thing from this time period of like this person you know from TV is cursing.

[00:23:15] Yes. Isn't that something? Yes. And here's like you. I can't imagine like Phoebe having sex right like that. All the shit that's like pointedly out of character for Phoebe. It's a little different because Courtney Cox had been in the scream movies, which obviously

[00:23:31] but she has the weirder career because she had that as a big franchise and didn't know comedies. She's after French, she does no romantic comedies or anything like that. No, yes, she really just she's in the highest grossing movies because of scream

[00:23:45] and also the fewest movies of the whole cast. But she was also the one who had done the most before the show. She's unusual in that sense. She's the most famous. I was going to say that's what I know. Everyone knew her from the Springsteen video.

[00:24:00] She's in the He-Man movie. She's ostensibly the lead of the He-Man movie more than she plays Jerry's pretend wife on an episode of Seinfeld. Yeah, she was in a lot of family ties. She had like a big recurring role on that. She had done the most work. Yeah.

[00:24:15] Matt LeBlanc was like what like it's plucked out of I guess like Red Shoe catch up commercial right? Is he in like a commercial or something? A handsome boy and obviously the swimmer was like a getter guy. Yeah, who had been on a white P.D.

[00:24:32] Blue right and Aniston was like the queen of failed pilots like that was her reputation was she booked a pilot every year never went and and of course. Course. He's going to say leprechaun and she was in leprechaun. Yeah, I mean you can't you can't not talk about

[00:24:48] leprechaun fairly. She's dancing in the McDonald scene and Mac and me which I didn't know. Hey, I think that's exciting question about pilots like are those just sitting somewhere like all of these pilots all over the years? It would be fascinating to get to watch.

[00:25:04] It would be really cool. They should release it. Yeah, some of them leak out. Some of them end up getting released for different reasons years later, but it's so bizarre that so many of them are just like yes, we shot this.

[00:25:16] We spent a couple million dollars making this. It has famous people in it. People are curious about it. We will never let it be seen. I'm imagining. Sorry. Yes. I'm just going to brag for two seconds, but you go ahead. It's more interesting.

[00:25:28] Oh, I was just going to say, I imagine all those pilots like in a cave on top of a mountain somewhere like left to be discovered someday. That's where they all have to go. A lot of stuff is stored in mountains and salt mines. It's Hollywood ephemera.

[00:25:42] Stoltz future portrayer of Ben Hosley, whether he knows it or not sent me the the imagined television Tommy Schlamme directed Noah Bomback pilot that Stoltz is in called 30, which I had, which is, you know, not track down a bull

[00:26:00] and he sent me recently and it's it's no good. They didn't pick it up because it's no good. It's a no good. It seems it seems. I mean, it's like two thousand and it seems like they're saying like yeah, Noah, can you write something like friends,

[00:26:13] but it's your voice? His answer is like, I don't think I can, but I'll try. But it was weird just like sitting here watching like a dead air, no laugh track, 30 minute unerred pilot from 20 years ago. But is it a multi camera just without a live studio?

[00:26:31] I don't think it is multi camera. I think it's single camera. It's very like locationy. But yeah, pilots are weird. There is a pilot version of blazing saddles that they put on most of the home video releases in which Luke Gossett Jr. plays the Cleveland little part.

[00:26:49] And I think it's Steve Landisburg playing Jean Wilder and it's all shot on like a Western back lot, but they put a laugh track in all of it. And so it feels like you're watching a live action Hannah Barbera cartoon, like that weird thing where it's

[00:27:04] like who is supposed to be laughing at Scooby Doo right now? This is animated. Who are these adults? Right. Who are apparently watching the animator draw these things and laughing hysterically? I don't know. That's my side tangent. I'm sorry. Great.

[00:27:20] But you know, I thought that this is like one of the later friends movies and we'll get to Marcy X. We'll come back to that. But I thought this was interesting to see her in this movie when Dave, when David and I were talking about this

[00:27:31] when he refused to let me do it. He said she's one of the most cursed above the title actresses. Yeah. Yes. I love her when she's, you know, it's like, I mean, I think she is so incredible in the opposite of sex. Yeah. And Romeo and Michelle.

[00:27:48] Love Romeo and Michelle. So that one kind of doesn't count because that's early. But like, yeah, lucky numbers hanging up Marcy X. Like it becomes this kind of like cringy thing where it's like, how can this be happening to her? Like we know she's talented.

[00:28:02] Like how is it she gets the like the cruddiest projects? I agree with that. And I also agree with Alex's sentiment that David has gone mad with power in David's defense. I did see while I was waiting to do this today,

[00:28:15] another bad article about the future of Quibi. So David obviously has a lot of power. He's got a lot on his mind. Quibi is going from strength to strength and like every day, every day Quibi gains subscribers.

[00:28:28] And I think that statement said without any other facts or figures is just a sign of how strong Quibi is doing. You could reboot lucky numbers as a Quibi series. We have. We did. It's up there. Because you know what the lucky number is?

[00:28:43] The lucky number is 10 as in under 10 minutes. Yeah, no, we did Barbara Streisand and we're throwing money around Warren Beatty's in it. It's great. You have you have a gender swapped octogenarian lucky numbers Quibi reboot in which

[00:28:59] Warren Beatty plays the lotto guy and Barbara Streisand plays the weather woman. Yeah. And all we had to do is annex Canada for Barbara Streisand. People don't understand. I realize this, but we actually bought the country for her at the low, low price of forty trillion dollars.

[00:29:14] And it's all it's all coming around. Look, look, we got we got up. There was a bit of a hiccup because no one wanted to watch any of our shit or pay for the service. But now we're just going to push through that.

[00:29:26] That's that was that was just a hiccup. Well, congratulations. Thank you. Thank you for taking a break to talk. Talk about one of the sources of your revenue. He's really not doing well, Alex. It's really I've been getting really frightening text messages

[00:29:42] all hours of the day and it's mostly just like have you downloaded yet in a link to the app please we need a couple more people to meet our quota today. If you haven't yet, please download now available on Nokia engages were available on any kind of phone.

[00:30:00] OK, this is a thing I find very fascinating about Kudra. Nineteen ninety seven is all three of the movies that really work for her. Romy and Michelle opposite of sex cock watchers, all three of them are in one year and they're all like one's a weird studio comedy.

[00:30:20] The other two are like independent films in which she gives really good performances, works with good directors, right? People were like, OK, she's carving out a lane for herself. She's not trying to be a romcom star.

[00:30:30] She's trying to be like a female comedy star, like a character actor, comedy star. And then it's pretty much like analyze this two years later. There's a big hit. She's a cover. You'll cover that, of course. She's will cover this in out. She's technically below the title.

[00:30:46] It's Robert De Niro here. I'm going to and you know what? I'm actually going to narrate the entire poster now. OK, please do it up Robert De Niro, Billy Crystal. And then you got a picture of De Niro going and Billy Crystal. He's listening.

[00:30:58] You know, he's got the hand to his in a Harold Ramis film. Yeah. And well, New York's most powerful gangster is about to get in touch with his feelings. OK, that's tagline A. Analyze this. Now you're ready for tagline B. You capitalized and underlined.

[00:31:19] You try telling him is 50 minutes are up and Lisa Kudrow. And then below the second tagline it says and Lisa Kudrow. So she gets the idea that someone's like 95 percent of the way into seeing the movie, reading that second tagline.

[00:31:36] And I'm like, oh, I wouldn't want to tell him this 50 minutes are up. Oh, wait, and Lisa Kudrow. OK, all right. I feel like this is because for free such a dependably enjoyable part of the show lately where David is narrating these posters that have multiple lines.

[00:31:50] A poster. People love it. You do it with such Brio enjoy that and every time you do it, it's a perfect example. That must have been quite an animation eating them to get her on the poster, but they're like she can't be with those two guys.

[00:32:04] You guys are led right because the image is so indelible to Nero, you know, but no one else is in this like we're not going to put like jelly or whatever his name is on the poster. Right? So no one

[00:32:14] else is getting on the poster, but we'll give her. Gilly is pretty good though. He could be like maybe at the window like you know kind of like peeking. We will put her name on the poster and

[00:32:24] we will give her the and on the poster which is rare right. I apologize for going further afield, but I must do you know in the trailer, the trailer for Analyze that the way they do the

[00:32:36] billing with the narrator is what for that. That for that for the second film. I'm not talking about this anymore. I'm talking about that. OK, trailer. The trailer for Analyze that it goes like Robert De Niro, Billy Crystal, Lisa Kudrow and then they list 10 more names by

[00:32:58] character. They go like jelly, old Tony, Don Vittro, Michael Jr. They list the other gangsters by character as if they were all that iconic, all the supporting actors. All your favorites are iconic. I mean, they were that iconic, but they weren't this

[00:33:14] iconic. They weren't this iconic, but they were that iconic and actually ends. That's a hundred. Thank you very much. Jelly. Now I'm watching the trailer now. But yeah, she well while David does that. Can I do the Travolta rundown

[00:33:30] place post? This I found fascinating because he and this movie to me. I'm watching this, this movie called Lucky Numbers and if you've never just want to say the final credited mobster is called Lou the wrench. Of course monster

[00:33:45] monster. Yeah, it's also have monsters in it. It sounds like one of the scumbags that would be sort of orbiting the the caper in this movie. The Lucky Numbers. Yes, yes. I'm watching this movie and I'm just thinking. Imagine that you

[00:33:59] don't know who the lead actor in this movie is just someone's like this guy is famous, but I won't tell you for what you'll watch it and you think no one is no cultural context less has been more evidently not a movie star than this performance. I am

[00:34:15] seeing in this movie. What John Travolta is doing in this movie is so repellently unlikable and uncharismatic and unfunny and uncharming that just to watch it you're like I cannot believe that this is. This movie is six years after Pulp Fiction. I can't do

[00:34:33] that of it for someone who is at his peak, one of the most electrically charming actor like you know written Saturday night fever or Pulp Fiction, right like in this movie you're like does he know that he's playing like a person who's

[00:34:47] supposed to be charming like does he know that he's playing a human being who hosts a television show. A disastrous performance. It's unbelievable and also it's like a performance that's like this is the performance he would have given if he had never

[00:34:58] made Pulp Fiction or get shorty like this goes straight from early 90s jumps over his resurgence right back into the gutter even seen him against Tim Roth. I was having that thought. Yeah, I'm like I want to hear Tim Roth like

[00:35:13] he seems like a guy. Yeah, Roth is good in this but watching this I was thinking like is Travolta like he just seems like a guy who's like he's born to lose. He's like addicted to not

[00:35:25] being great even though he had it all for a minute. Alex take us through his post Michael career. This is going to blow your sense. Let me just set the stage because so Michael which you've covered is December 96 and he's a hit capping off a

[00:35:41] year. This is like a Jim Carrey 94 February 96 broken arrow July 96 phenomenon all hundred million dollar movies I think are at least big hits a broken arrow. I think may not have been quite a hundred million dollars phenomenon definitely was which

[00:35:57] no one remembers you'll come back to that when you do my old disappointment when you do my my John Woo in Hollywood miniseries that I told you you should look. I mean he broken arrow is a movie that I like I think is OK and has some

[00:36:11] good stuff and Travolta's doing his fun villain thing in it and some people go to the mat for and do you like broken arrow or like. Well, you know I didn't see that movie because of under the best intentions. You saw to learn how to steal

[00:36:28] thermonuclear weapons. Yeah. Yeah. No, is that the movie with Halle Berry? That is not. That's not a swordfish. That is swordfish. That is swordfish. You would like broke. I mean, I like broken arrow. You would like it. Yeah. It's like some

[00:36:44] Travolta's like a criminal who steal who steals a nuclear weapon and the line is broken arrow. Right. And Christmas later is that the guy who has to get it back. All right. Sliders in it. Yeah. Yeah. The line is like we have a broken arrow

[00:36:58] and they're like well what does that mean? And it's like well that's a nuclear weapon has been stolen. They're like well it's clearly like we should why do we have a word for that? I believe. Okay, let me let me try. I think I think I

[00:37:09] can get this almost spot on. He goes I don't know what's worse. That you haven't. That's I don't know what's worse that a thermonuclear weapon has been stolen or that it happens so often you have a name for it. That's a great

[00:37:20] line. I think that movie also has Samantha Mathis in it. Speaking of she's the female. Right. There are three Slater Mathis movies. Ben was helping me get this microphone set up which he graciously loaned me and brought to my house. Yes. He texts me at 1256. Hey, also

[00:37:41] part AM. No, no this is in the afternoon. Hey, also I watched by Centennial man. Me 1257 absurd Ben. Can I move there? Me probably not. I've never seen it. 212 Ben. Wait fuck I meant Johnny Mnemonic. I got them mixed up. They're both

[00:38:05] future people, future man. You know that's that's literally the only thing they have in common. What he said. Future man also just aesthetically no movie could almost be less Ben's vibe than by Centennial. That's why I was confused. I was like, wow, Ben's really caught up with

[00:38:21] everything during during COVID. He's reached the end of Netflix. He's just watching any movie with any Android in it in hopes that it gives him something. If you actually watch everything on Netflix, you have to watch by Centennial last but then the site reloads and now by

[00:38:38] Centennial man is in every movie on Netflix. It's like when you beat a video game and you get to keep your weapons like suddenly anything you watch by Centennial man or like in Super Mario World where like it all

[00:38:49] changes to autumn when you beat it. Exactly. I wish you could unlock big head mode on Netflix and then every movie you watch at a tiny body in a really big head. That was my favorite thing to do in video. David, maybe if you add

[00:39:02] that to Quibi, you'll fix your money woes. Yeah, I'd make it. We did add it to Clibby. We did. We did. We bought whatever. I'm going to stop making quibi jokes. John Travolta carry on 1997 June. Okay, yeah, face off August. She's so lovely November Mad City. Another

[00:39:20] hat trick here. I mean she's so lovely I'm saying that that's another year where he has three yes wide release movies that are studio movies that he is like in the movie, but to them face off. Face off is him

[00:39:38] working with Wu again and Wu being like what you were doing in Broken Arrow. Let's just do more of that. Like more bigger and it's it works really well. Mad City is a cost to Gaviris. Sure. English language political

[00:39:52] thriller with often that I must confess I have never seen. It's like a movie with men in it from the 90s some guys who were famous in the 70s. Not a hit March 98 primary colors December 98 the same day thin red line, which is obviously not really in the

[00:40:09] movie as one civil action giving a speech. Yeah, civil action is his movie. Yes, elections, a great movie. I love them, but that's you know those are two big movies again like nine months apart like he's putting them out like every every five

[00:40:20] to eight months here essentially my man's working. He's got planes to fuel. I would say from Pulp Fiction you know 94 where he gets an Oscar nomination on he is in a film that could at least be considered for the for awards

[00:40:33] contention right like get shorty Michael and phenomenon if maybe not so much face off at she's a whatever like civil action primary color like he's in films that studios will position properly. You know that I'm sure he is a movie

[00:40:47] star. He is a movie star of American proportions, but he's doing both. He's doing like blockbusters and legitimate films like he's trying to get Oscars and have action movies in the same June 99 Generals daughter. They get May 2000. You chip battlefield earth right and then

[00:41:05] it's now we just drive straight off October 2000 lucky numbers and then just a little epilogue June 01 swordfish November 01 domestic disturbance and now it's over right. Yeah, now the next time you see him he's like the bad guy

[00:41:20] in the Punisher. Yes, well right there's basic which is sort of like it's like another epilogue but like there's been huge filled all over it or something yes huge flop and there's ladder 49 which I guess is that's like 03. Oh, oh, that's a four.

[00:41:37] Oh, yeah so like that's like after I'm just saying like this run of his ends now like between battlefield earth and this movie it ends and also when I watched him and Nora on Charlie Rose 30 minute interview he has the swordfish goatee just

[00:41:52] on sitting there at the table with her and she's acting like he doesn't have it on his face. It's unbelievable. That's somehow the most offensive thing at that table. Weirdly yes on any other episode you would have to blur

[00:42:03] out Charlie Rose for people on this one he can stay but Travolta's little razor thin line is something that needs a warning now. I also think and we've talked about this like all the post 2000 movies he's kind of playing like elder statesman support for the new movie star.

[00:42:21] Like even if he's first build but I'm saying like yeah swordfish is Hugh Jackman's movie even if Travolta's first build ladder 49 is walking Phoenix's movie even if Travolta's first build. When is hairspray? Hairspray is 07. Here's the thing this is what's so weird

[00:42:41] about John Travolta. Now the battlefield earth lucky numbers one two punch or two thousand is certainly more than enough to consign him to like laughing stock territory right like full body blow. This is and by the way when Charlie Rose asks him

[00:42:54] about it he just calls it battleship great which not that we need to give him any comedy points. He doesn't deserve anything but it is funny to call it battleship to Travolta Charlie Rose like beyond being an absolute fucking monster was the worst interviewer ever like his horse

[00:43:10] the absolute worst like he's so terrible anytime I ever saw him he just be like anyway so like that's what his interview style was. I don't understand how he was a serious journalist for so many years that being said. I just want to say something

[00:43:25] about Charlie Rose very quickly because I don't think I've ever talked about this on the podcast. I was cut out of yet still somehow receive very minimal residuals for the Chris Rock movie top five. Congrats. Thank you.

[00:43:40] You were just below the five. You were I make I was six. I was number six. You didn't bottom five. I make I make tens of dollars off of that movie. Hey what is that movie about comedians like autobiographical rock was a guy. Yeah.

[00:43:58] What if like a comedian had a midlife thing where he talked to his friends about comedy but this is the crazy thing it's about what if Chris Rock became Denzel Washington like what if he then became the most serious

[00:44:08] not in like a face off way. Then you get the sauce bit off. So in what is now just part of the opening montage of that movie in which a lot of stuff is happening for context explain to you show you how famous this Chris Rock

[00:44:22] character is there is little snippets of Charlie Rose conducting a New York Times talk with Chris Rock and he's asking him questions about his career and the entire day is just shooting that it's just Charlie Rose Chris Rock on

[00:44:38] stage. I was one of the kids asking some dumb fucking question in the audience. He has all of his lines on note cards in front of him. He is playing Charlie Rose conducting an interview off of note cards and he fucked up

[00:44:53] every single line for 12 consecutive hours and his one job is you have to make it seem like this guy is so successful that everyone remembers the name of every movie he's been in and Charlie Rose kept on getting the guy's

[00:45:08] name wrong. He kept on addressing Chris Rock by the wrong. He's a moron. Well I'm Chris Rock or calling him like John Edwards and he's like it's Jake Edmonds like it kept on classic when I say miss when I say hello Mr. Thompson

[00:45:25] and step on your foot you say hello. Yes. Yes. It was one of those. What was your line? My line was do you still consider yourself to be a hip hop comedian. There you go.

[00:45:38] 12 bucks a month. I mean did he did he did he did. I will also say the only other tidbit from the Charlie Rose Travolta Efron interview that I watched while Griffin was delaying this two hours to also watch Cabin Boy. I delayed it

[00:45:54] half an hour to watch Cabin Boy. You guys all stop yelling I want to make my Travolta point get this over. Come on the only thing he said which will potentially feed your point is he says in this interview conducted sometime in

[00:46:03] middle 2000. He him and Tom Hanks are the same according to him at this and he says he says every script I get has has Hanks's fingerprints on it. Every script he gets has my fingerprints on it. I couldn't do Green Mile. He couldn't

[00:46:17] do primary colors. We ended up doing a lot of roles to get offered to one or the other and Charlie Rose says the more Efron so did you know with Tom Hanks someone you ever thought could be in this or John Travolta ever

[00:46:27] being you've got mail and she's like no and that's that's kind of the gist of it but I don't view them as really peers or equals but John Travolta views them. Not all he views them that way.

[00:46:40] I can see how maybe Travolta is like while we were both on sitcoms and he was the first choice for primary colors that's about it. That's about as far as I could take we're both in big movies in 1994. Right. I mean they weren't in the same lane. Yeah.

[00:46:56] But he probably views a civil action as a Tom Hanks type you know movie or whatever. Anyway, he thinks they're more than more similar than they are. This is the thing Travolta's energy is unlike anyone else's energy correct. Correct. That's

[00:47:11] one way to put it. Sure. Who's like Travolta. I guess cage is this most similar in a weird sort of a way that they know. I just totally face off work but like face off works because they are both actors when they are doing

[00:47:25] their thing that like their movie star thing you're like how on earth does this work. They're like lines that never quite cross but they got really close at face off and then just separate it again. It works because they're equally weird

[00:47:38] but I would say they're weird in different ways. Yeah. They're weird in very different ways but they both are sort of that thing where like if you showed someone one movie of theirs and they'd be like you're telling me this guy was

[00:47:49] like a huge successfully famous actor or like what. Yeah. At romantic leading man Oscar contender all those things in the tooth. I'm saying post battlefield earth lucky numbers which should be the death blow but the man is a cockroach like

[00:48:03] he's been dealt death blows before and he's never died right like his career has survived everything. I mean speed kills but Travolta doesn't. Yeah exactly. We talk about this a little in the Michael episode but like so even though

[00:48:17] you have total flops like basic and you know he still just will make leading man movies like wild hogs or you know what even taking a poem one two three where it's like in taking a poem one two three that performance is unhinged

[00:48:33] everyone else is doing kind of like gritty grounded work like it's a decent movie and then he's just in it like doing something complete and you're like why is he still in the club in a weird way. You know what I mean? I quoted

[00:48:46] this in our Michael episode but it's worth saying again because it really applies for this movie that you look at the fact that like Travolta and Cruz are the two most prominent Scientologists and you're like Tom Cruz is such a good spokesperson for that horrible fucking organization

[00:49:05] because he is like look at how high functioning he is look at how well he's aged look at how youthful and focused he is. He's at such a high performance level and then Travolta is like the opposite where it just seems like

[00:49:16] he has no sense of who he is. He lacks such complete self-awareness even just down to his like styling choices and a film like this where you're just like Cruz has never given a performance like this where he just fundamentally

[00:49:29] misunderstands how he reads on camera what movie he's in what the movie is calling for whether or not he should have made this film like like Cruz in something like Rock of Ages you go like you got to give him credit he went for

[00:49:43] it like the guy doesn't embarrass himself and Cruz in a disaster movie is like mummy where you're like well you miss sometimes but Cruz never does this John Travolta in this movie is bad and this movie or is bad bad but it's pretty good

[00:50:01] but we all watched it and I listened to an entire commentary about it. You watch it two times. No I watched the movie with on of the other night. I bought the DVD which as you know was something we were

[00:50:15] waiting for which I still think we should give away. We should everyone should you know we should all sign this and give it away somehow someday and then I recorded the commentary onto my phone and then listen to it while I was doing yard work over the weekend.

[00:50:26] Wow so you you turned the commentary into a podcast essentially how did you to record it onto your phone. I'm fascinated. Oh it's very pathetic. I took my old phone that I don't use anymore that I don't even know how to work it.

[00:50:40] I turned on voice memo put it in front of the TV played commentary recorded it. Oh cool came back like an hour and 45 minutes later and then sent it to myself. Wow that rules which was the only thing I could figure out

[00:50:54] but I want but honestly like I wanted to listen to it because I really love Nora Efron as a writer as a personality as a very funny woman and I really like just what she has to say about things is funny like I've never listened to a

[00:51:07] commentary of hers but I have no doubt that they're all funny. She's great with the wittiest people alive. I thought you know at the very least like formally 100 minutes of her riffing is going to be funny and also like this

[00:51:20] is such an outlier in everything she's done everything she is as a writer as a personality. The only movie she didn't write herself. This is the only time she's doing it because I'm else is great. I'm sure she'll say some funny stuff but also there has

[00:51:33] to be some insight as to what the deal is with this because if it was just a disaster that she walked away from she wouldn't have done a commentary and I wanted to listen to it. Sure. And it delivered on all those things.

[00:51:44] It was insightful and she had some great lines. So but when she's doing the commentary does she know the movie is bombed because sometimes I feel like they do those right when the movie seems there is no discussion of response to the movie at all. Sure. Sure.

[00:51:59] Critical audience. The cinema score F is not mentioned. I was about to say this is one of the early F Cinema scores which is amazing famous jumping ahead a little bit because typically movies I think they get an F Cinema score like not to

[00:52:12] spoil lucky numbers end with like the death of the main character or like something that's like very unpleasant. It's where's two kinds. There's there's the box which is like this the last time as this movie you're such a confusing nightmare.

[00:52:28] Also I love but like or there's the like this is an anti hero who gets killed and fuck this movie I'm giving it enough and this movie has like kind of an uplifting coda where it's like and here's how everything worked out and then

[00:52:40] people are like uh-huh uh-huh F. But that's the thing right it's usually usually like some horror movie that people were just like absolutely not. I despise every minute or some movie where they're like I did not get what I was promised right Solaris mother you

[00:52:56] know those sorts of words like you know I was one expecting this killing them softly right and I just did not get what I wanted now can I simplify it even further. I think it is movies where audiences are so freaked out by

[00:53:11] how different it is than what they were sold right yes and with horror films it's like this took a turn that is not what I expect out of a horror movie and those other movies you're talking about or like they tried to sell them as

[00:53:22] more conventional genre things and those are not that's another one right bug you know those the wicker man speaking of Nicholas this movie is exactly what it was sold as like that's what you have to think about because an F Cinema score

[00:53:36] isn't oh the focus testing was terrible these are people we plucked out from a wall who hated this movie they had no concept of it's people who went out of their way to buy a ticket and go see it in theaters opening weekend so it

[00:53:49] has to be deceptive marketing in some way. And it means that every single one of them as they walked out and were asked like hey great it out of a to F we're like F every single one was like F F because that's how hard it is to

[00:54:03] get an M cinema score so what happens like once a year maybe happen like isn't it like 40 movies total that have gotten less far less far less 20 20 movies total have gotten and this is one of them. Yes, and this is one of those hallowed films which is

[00:54:18] incredible because again truly like you know what the movie is like that like mother where it's just like I don't know what this is a baby gets turned apart like I'm repulsed. This does end with the main character going like everyone who

[00:54:30] was bad got punished and as for me well I guess I'm just lucky F. This is my point. So funny if you see the trailer for this movie and go which I have that looks good. I want to see that and then pay to go see this movie

[00:54:46] opening weekend. I don't understand how you come out of it so I rate about the quality of the movie relative to what you were expecting to imagine that it's just people who felt that the Nora Efron of it was oversold and they were like or the

[00:54:59] Travolta of it or whatever like a man and a woman that are famous in a Nora Efron movie. I have some sense of what this is and what you get is like a six generation Xerox of like a 90s black comedy which I

[00:55:12] have huge list of that I want to read because I do want to talk while we talk about this about the black comedy because I think this is this is one of them and the more research I did the more fascinated I got just trying to

[00:55:24] come up with something of a definitive list of like what were these movies and why were there so many of them. The obvious answer being reservoir dogs and Fargo. Yes, it's our dogs sex lies in videotape. It's that those are the movies and Hollywood's like can we

[00:55:40] make watered Fargo in there as well because I think between reservoir dogs and Fargo it's like a slow start but Fargo which is like a comedy and a guy gets thrown a wood chipper changes the game and then people are

[00:55:53] and the one I think the most important moment that like births the black comedy is Travolta shooting Marvin in the head like that. You die that's huge. A head being blown off as a punchline combined with Fargo as a wood chipper punchline to me like now

[00:56:09] this is a genre unto itself. Well, can I can I throw a little wrench into your heart please and I hope you say something. I'm getting you're forgetting Heather's. I feel like I am not forgetting Heather's. It's on my list of pre pre right right right. Right.

[00:56:22] OK, because I think there's another person you got to give some credit to. I I'm serial mom written here too. I think that's big John. What John Waters is a huge one. Yeah, we talked about this a little bit in Mexican knots.

[00:56:35] I am I have a weirdly big soft spot for like major studio major movie star 90s and 80s black comedies like this in early 2000s black comedies because it's one of those things that almost never works. And they always go like this script is so dark.

[00:56:49] It's so good. All these actors are attracted to it. There's big directors attracted to it and then it comes out and everyone rejects it violently every almost every time the list I'm going to read a list of movies that are failures and people don't remember fondly.

[00:57:02] Now here's the big exception who I think makes people still try to do this although it's finally maybe dried up that DeVito did it twice successfully that DeVito had wore the roses and throw mama from the train and you're like here's a big star.

[00:57:17] He's making movies with other big stars. Both of them are like pitch black violent really, really dark comedies that were big hits and critically respected. I will say that my list in its in its vague chronology has only one movie after death to

[00:57:34] Smoochie a DeVito joint written by the writer of Lucky Numbers. Yes, that is true. But no, there's I mean beyond the DeVito ones you mentioned there's ruthless people and other people's money and stuff like that. Like that was just a whole genre for him.

[00:57:48] DeVito as a movie star and as a director like he was able to mine this thing better than anyone else. Here's my list of some of these and what I'm saying I already mentioned Heather's and serial mom and these are not in order very bad things

[00:58:00] death to Smoochie duplex to die for which I think this movie owes a lot to which has not been she does not acknowledge in the commentary and Adam Resnick does not acknowledge in what I read with him. But I think that this movie at its best could have

[00:58:13] been a bad version of to die for which is a great movie I think the entire work of Todd Salons, Jawbreaker, Drop Dead Gorgeous, Cable Guy, Gross Point Blank, Clay Pigeons, Teaching Miss Tingle and Bad Santa. Yes, see I like almost all of the movies.

[00:58:33] Where is addicted to love? I don't understand. Oh, David's favorite. My favorite which is a huge one included on here. I think it's more of a dramedy. It's like heisty at double crosses and like criminals who are the main character like shit like that.

[00:58:50] I just feel like this is this is that this is right in the kind of right at the tail end of all that. Well, bandits is the more grounded version of it. I realize this thing that I'm a sucker for even

[00:58:59] when it's not well done and it's bizarre that I'm a sucker for this because it's in its description. It sounds unappealing, but I always fall for it is like pitched like a cartoon incredibly dark comedy about movie stars playing morally reprehensible criminals who are very

[00:59:21] stupid and fuck everything. Polucaville I guess could be on here. Polucaville is a good one. That's a smoochie I would put there. I'm not reading that. I have got the smoochy right now. Lady killer. Yes. Yeah, no, no, no, I'm including it. Well, I'm sure I'm sure Travolta's

[00:59:33] fingerprints were on the lady killer's script just as Tom Hanks's fingerprints were on this script. The Lady Killers is the only movie Tom Hanks has ever done that feels like it could have been a Travolta task. Yes, that's the only one and I have Griffin. I like that.

[00:59:48] Yeah, do you think Travolta would have given a subtle performance in the lady killer? If he'd gotten that role, I wish I could see Travolta's performance in the lady is a murdering Southern gentleman. I wish I could see you have somebody make you a deep

[01:00:04] self battle that one. Yes, I want someone that's oh my god. Yes, someone please make me a job. Travolta's Lady Killer's Deep Fake Challenge literally and Deep Fake all their movies into swap them all. The thing about Travolta that I don't really

[01:00:20] understand to this day, this is why I'm sort of ranting about it, but it's sort of like in hairspray when he is playing a character where the command is like big, big, right? Like go as big as you can. It's awful.

[01:00:34] Yes, but then in movies where the command isn't that and he just kind of he's a big sort of, you know, domineering performer, it works fine. Like it's so weird how the total balance needs to be just so. Well, right. Like at his best, this is the difference

[01:00:50] between Nicholas Cage and John Travolta. When he was in a sweet spot, he was equally good at like scaling things down and giving a leaving Las Vegas and being a real human being and being giving face off and going

[01:01:01] like, oh, I can go to the moon with this. Cage at his best and he's lost the thread used to be very good at knowing exactly what movie he was in and giving a performance that was best suited for that movie. Travolta, you put him in something like

[01:01:15] People vs. OJ and you go so, you know, play a real human being and he gives a performance that's a cartoonish over the top performance, but you're like, fuck, I this should be breaking the entire show, but it works. Right.

[01:01:28] I don't know why it's a river of ham, but it works. Then you put him in something like this and you're like John go big and it's like a war crime. Well, John Travolta in this movie plays a man named Russ Richards. Let's not Russ. Great fake name.

[01:01:42] Yeah, it's like also when I was watching this, I was like so they made the, you know her not last movie, but you know, like one one movie ago, they made a movie together. Yes, so it like clearly get along. They should know how to work together. Absolutely.

[01:01:56] He's undoubtedly better in Michael, which is also miscast in that movie. He's not great in that, but at least he's giving a performance. I mean, this performance feels like the kind of thing that happens and you would read like and Greg Keneer dropped out eight days before filming.

[01:02:12] And Greg Keneer, by the way, being honest suggestion of who could have maybe played a kind of character like this a little bit better. He'd be good. But like I couldn't like this seemed like he came into this movie with no idea and no prep.

[01:02:26] And then on the commentary, she says he was attached when she got the script. He was all about this script. He was the one who is trying to get this thing made. Yes, right? But then weirdly in the in the article

[01:02:38] that I read with Adam Resnick on Vulture where he like I guess is promoting his book a few years ago and talking about this, he claims the opposite. He claims that she brought Travolta in. So there seems to be some confusion,

[01:02:51] but I'll take her word for it over it. Well, I have two things I want to say that are sort of related. Then I feel like we're about to lose. One, I have a thing about Cage and Travolta. I feel like this is what I've decided.

[01:03:02] Cage used to have a Geiger counter and he knew his limits, right? He could point it at himself and then I guess it broke because like now he could look around the room and go. Got it. Know how to match this with Travolta.

[01:03:15] The director needed the Geiger counter. Like, you know, it's sort of, you know, because that's because like an OJ Simpson, he's over the top, but everything else is so dark and and so grim and you know, everyone else is playing a pretty, you know, so like, so he's

[01:03:28] kind of fine. Like he's just pushing the limits a little bit and everyone else is bringing it in. That's OK. But the other thing is you said Greg Keneer solid choice. He'd be good at playing a guy who gets in over his head for sure. Yeah, 2000.

[01:03:41] Like a normal man is in this movie. Yes, they'll pull me would be incredible in the late talks about some moment. Welcome to commentary. She talks. She talks a little pulmon in the commentary I can get there when we get to his part.

[01:03:51] Pullman is so fucking good in this. He's great. Now that's the only problem is that he is actually very funny in really another like another Efron player coming back. Yes, a lot of them Richard Schiff most famous for playing the Italian restaurant waiter

[01:04:07] and Michael she's bringing in all her favorites leading man. She says on the commentary that when that shift doing the scene in the kitchen with Tim Roth, right? Yes, she says at the end of that scene, the crew burst out into applause because

[01:04:20] it was like watching two prize fighters just like dance around each other. Brilliant. I mean, he's good. I think that's an engaging scene. I think like Travolta's performance is so disastrous and even if you guys don't like the rest of this movie, which I can't

[01:04:33] defend, you have to admit that most of the cast is doing a good job. But that's good. Well, rough shift something that I found Michael Moore fits. Well, we'll get there. We will get there. We'll get to him. But something she talks about almost more

[01:04:48] than anything else in the commentary, which is something that Griffin, I'm sure you'll want to run with. And this being like, as we've talked about, the end of the kind of paramount comedy era is like all she cares about is comedy.

[01:05:01] Her respect for the idea of a comedic performance is the only thing she talks about throughout most of the commentary. She says casting comedy actors is the most important thing. She says she said it better than I will. But her respect for the idea of a

[01:05:14] comedic performance is so strong. She says it's amazing how many actors we can cross off the list when we're casting a comedy. We can go down the list and write NF and you know what that means. It means not funny, but like her respect for

[01:05:29] the idea of calibrating comedic performances seems to be the main driving force in all of her approach to anything, obviously, but even in something like this. And she rehearsed meticulously. I mean, she would rehearse like a play for all of her films to fine tune

[01:05:44] the performance for weeks before they actually got on set. So she cares about it. So that's why the supporting cast in this. And I think every movie is always like pretty solid and all really great actors doing great work.

[01:05:57] And this one thesis we keep on coming back to with this is that her work as a writer, a humorist, a prose writer, a nonfiction writer before moving into film was sort of marked for its costus, causticness, her very sort of a certain sense of humor.

[01:06:16] And whenever she tried to put it into her movies, Alex is holding up a copy of Crazy Saladin Scribble Scabble. Whenever she tried to put it into her movies, it didn't work. It's very well signed. Oh my God, it says to Alex and Anna,

[01:06:31] all the best nor effort. Wow, that rules. Got a couple. No, it's just this too. It's humble for someone. Yeah, big brag, real brag. I'm not humble. This was fun. We want to see the read for someone who had

[01:06:45] such good skills in terms of directing actors and comedies. Is that a different? Yeah, how many signed nor effort on books do you own Alex? We're from the same home. I also have this jam. Like I said, during my extra time,

[01:06:59] I was able to walk around and pick stuff up. Have my this is my life tape. Good movie. Yeah, yeah, good movie. Nice, nice, nice video depot, Mount Vernon, former rental. Nice. The fact that she could make these souffle movies so well and couldn't make the dark films.

[01:07:16] And then this is like this and mix nuts are the two darkest scripts she has where it's like a mix nuts is bad. Like I don't know. I mean, yeah, it's not very good, but it's I like this a lot more than mix nuts. I disagree.

[01:07:27] No, that's crazy. I disagree. And now I'm realizing. Yeah, but mix nuts. I just remember being like oh wow, there's a nor effort on Christmas movie that I've not seen. That must be good. And we were watching it one Christmas and we were like,

[01:07:41] so this is what Christmas looks like in California. This is disgusting. The thing about nor effort is like the ones you haven't heard of usually it's it's like well there's a reason except for this is my life

[01:07:53] where like that is the one we're like on very right exactly right. But but I think like mix nuts and lucky numbers both have the thing where if you could describe the plot to someone in a way

[01:08:09] that makes it sound like a drama like you could describe most of the events that happen in both films and it would not sound like a comedy. It is like comedies that are pointedly based around let's make funny material out of things that are inherently not comedic,

[01:08:25] which does seem like the kind of thing she would want totally perfect and clearly never did. And she kept trying and she never could get it right. And I'll say I want to just some of her intentions that she

[01:08:35] expresses on the commentary in this are very specifically that. But it's just like it's also crazy to me that this is the movie she made after you've got mail, which is like that. I mean one of the all time great return to form movies,

[01:08:49] whether you love her highscrush film, whether you love it or not like I'm done. That is exactly what people wanted instead of mix nuts and Michael. I want to do I know this episode is going to be 90 percent

[01:08:59] context, but I just want to do my very quick table setting for Adam Resnick. And then I want to do my quick because in addition to the signing that you know I want to I want to do because I have four

[01:09:10] fun kind of run ins with her sort of in my life ish with Anna and now one of them was going to the signing. There's three others that are fun to talk about because again we

[01:09:21] love her a lot and she means a lot to us, which makes watching this movie lucky numbers all the more dispirited and then Romley's going to do a very quick kitchen corner. That's why I demanded it because I was curious. David is currently bleeding out of his eyes.

[01:09:33] This is what I say about Resnick. He's a very interesting career. Well, he's originally a Letterman guy. Not a man. He becomes Chris Elliott's main writer. Right. They become the main collaborators for all the Elliott stuff.

[01:09:46] And then he creates a co-creates get a life, which is like one of the great cult TV shows in the early days of Fox. When the cult TV shows were really cult TV shows, yes, they could carve out like two seasons.

[01:10:02] They aired at weird times on a network that was still getting its sea legs that didn't have enough for other programming to replace it. So it's somehow eaked out two full seasons despite being hated. And then if you didn't know someone who taped it, it was gone. Right.

[01:10:16] It was trading tapes or going to the Museum of Television Radio or like it was impossible to find for so long. But but a great show and then it's like this is the kind of thing that used to happen in show business where it's

[01:10:28] like here are these two guys who were weirdo, gonzol comedy elements of the weirdo, gonzol late night show. They use that cache to make a network sitcom. That sitcom flops. Then the studio said, I don't know, I guess you should make

[01:10:43] a movie now like they got promoted up the ranks. So then they write a script that is so esoteric that is what if we made a parody of Ray Harryhaus and adventure films starring me, the guy's who guy whose comedic angle is I play a brat.

[01:10:58] I play an entitled asshole. I'm an overgrown child. Yes, right. They write cabin boy, which is an effects driven comedy for Tim Burton to direct. Tim Burton is going to do it. Then he quits because Ed Wood comes to him, but he still stays on as producer.

[01:11:14] Disney finances cabin boy releases it to theaters. It becomes the biggest punching bag of its year. Letterman makes jokes about being in cabin boy for ages because he's so embarrassed by the movie. The movie made about rules half a black hat to be clear. Right.

[01:11:30] It made half a black. It's like a big stain on everyone's career. Chris Elliott has to like take his licks and do one shitty season of SNL post movie post get a life. And then Resnick is like, I guess I can't have this partnership with Chris Elliott.

[01:11:46] I guess Chris Elliott's going to become like a supporting actor and shit like Groundhog Day. I need to figure out how to make my own bones. And he writes two of the most reviled mainstream comedy scripts of the next 10 years.

[01:11:59] He does death to Smoochie and lucky numbers like he does one season of Larry Sanders, but then he writes two scripts that both have the same reputation were equally despised big flops starring big movie stars. And he's just sort of like I don't know.

[01:12:14] I guess people don't like what I do and both of them are just the same mistakes and I like them and both of them kind of posit as its main theory watching folks kill each other for money is hilarious.

[01:12:26] They're which that's not it's just not the same thing. It's not funny. I'm the only person who finds it funny. I mean, I figure out why got to love giving more white men chances in Hollywood to fail upwards. Hey, they did great work though. This is the thing.

[01:12:41] Yeah, it's not like we're talking about. At least in this case, they got to drag down a white woman with them. That's true. A famous white Jewish woman was dragged down totally by this script, but by the way, but it's worth mentioning.

[01:12:55] She does in the commentary speak very fondly of him in this script. It's not like, oh, I got this thing. I didn't like she's like, oh, it's a wonderful script. He was a great writer. I loved having him around.

[01:13:06] He was rewriting it like once we were up and running and he saw the look like she's very gracious about the writer on the one movie she didn't write. And I love his book and it's like a very sort of self-aware, self-affacing take of like this is my

[01:13:19] career of being a guy working in show business where everyone hates everything I make. Like the public reacts violently. And this is the difference, Ang. I mean, yes, they were allowed to fail upwards in a way that non white men and write a book about failing.

[01:13:36] But here's the difference. One person bought it. It sounds like no fair enough. I want to defend this. I want to defend this. No, because I think there's so many guys who suck, who make crappy shit and are bad people and continue to fail upwards.

[01:13:50] I think the Chris Elliott, Adam Resnick thing defies logic because at every opportunity they never should have been given another chance. Nothing they did was commercial. Nothing they did was liked. And what they did was actually funny and has aged well outside of this movie.

[01:14:05] Well, just to say the reason they got chances was that they worked on Letterman, which was the comedy load star of the 80s was the coolest comedy show of the 80s. So everyone coming out of Letterman was considered, you know, like hot shit.

[01:14:19] Like that was the coolest comedy show in the 80s and Letterman produced Cabin Boy and he's in it and like, you know, he produced it. He didn't produce it, but he's in it. He produced it. He gave his blessing to produce it. Produced Cabin Boy.

[01:14:33] I don't think so. I can double check that. Cabin Boy rules. I love it. It's a good hell yeah. Put it on the list of Ben's choice someday, maybe. I would love to do Cabin Boy. We should. The other thing is inexplicably after Tim Burton quits,

[01:14:50] they let Adam Resnick direct Cabin Boy, a side print being an insane first movie to make with all these effects. And then he's just like, well, people hated me and my movie. I can never direct a film ever again. And Lucky Numbers feels like something that he probably

[01:15:06] wanted to direct himself. He probably should have directed both Lucky Numbers and Dennis Smoochie. So did everybody did? Did anybody else read the like Vulture interview with him only about Lucky Numbers? Yes, where he just like talks about how he like, you know, he's from Harrisburg.

[01:15:22] He remembers this story. He wanted to write it. It was a true story. Right. And he like grew up remembering this and wrote this, you know, darker script called Numbers. And you know, just kind of watched as it became not what he wanted it to be. Mm hmm.

[01:15:39] Sure. I mean, because it gets worked into somewhat of a comedy. I mean, the reason this movie is an abject failure is that it doesn't know what it is. So the scenes where people die, you literally have to rewind

[01:15:52] the movie and be like, wait, I'm sorry, did I just watch a murder because it happened with the energy of someone fucking opening a door? Like nothing just happened. It's someone died. Like I need this to either be madcap or dark or like, but it's neither.

[01:16:06] This movie cannot pick a lane and Travolta is the emblem, you know, emblematic of that. I don't know who is he. Is he even bothered by this? Like he never even seems confused or angry. Like he just walks into scenes with like, like he's just

[01:16:21] at a five all the time. Like Kudrow, she's playing big. She's being weird. Like she's being funny. She's reacting. Yeah. Yeah, exactly. But like Travolta, I just want someone to walk up to and be like, yeah, you know, you're part of a conspiracy that involves murder and theft.

[01:16:35] Like FYI, that's your character, what he's doing in the movie. He hits that when he's on air and is finding out. Yes. The one scene where he is freaking out on the, can I read? Can I read what she says about that scene in the commentary? Yes.

[01:16:48] Obviously we're jumping way ahead here. But that's the best scene in the commentary. She says, um, she says, this is one of the scenes that I knew if we could get it to work, it would be so funny. Now, just knowing that that was a scene and she

[01:17:03] speaks very highly of his performance in that moment. And I do want to, and also I do want to set the table because her kind of introduction of like what the deal was with how she saw this movie, as I

[01:17:13] already mentioned in relation to to die for does kind of make sense. And also I do want to give a tiny bit of context for why we love Nora so much and why I wanted to do this because I don't want this to just be like,

[01:17:26] ha, ha, this is her worst movie or a bad movie. It's more like she's really important and we really love her work, but not all of it. And that's very interesting when you love anybody. Um, so if I may, so like I said, okay, so I have

[01:17:42] four encounters with her or her family roughly in our, in my life. Number one of which is that on and I, when I remember nothing came out, went to see her read at Barnes and Noble Union Square. It was really fun. She read it.

[01:17:54] She was hilarious autograph signing. We got this old paperback signed and she said, oh my God, I haven't seen one of those in 30 years. We felt very honored. Number three at the Lincoln Center, that was number one. Well, I'm there are four. Okay. These are in no order.

[01:18:10] Okay. Except one of them is the best that I'll say for last. They're in no order, but you're saying the numbers that you wrote next to each other because I've got an off track. Um, at the Lincoln Center Chaplain Gala of

[01:18:23] Rob Reiner that we went to in like, I don't know, 2013. Our modern day Charlie Chaplin obviously, because they only get that you think that they give out the Chaplain Gala every year. They don't, they just get it once for Reiner.

[01:18:35] One time they waited for one person to fill Chaplin shoes and it was Reiner. Future Blank Check, many series subject Rob Reiner. Yeah. And Billy Crystal and Meg Ryan came out together to, you know, introduce some clips or something. And Anna lost her shit.

[01:18:50] Just seeing the two of them standing next to each other at a podium like she just like, it was the most exciting thing she'd ever seen growing up on the West Coast fetishizing the New York of when Harry Met Sally. And it was very exciting.

[01:19:05] All right, number whatever. Number B, I'll do that like they do it in a bad comedy where you change from number to number. Her son, Jacob Bernstein, who made the documentary about her that was on HBO. When Schwarzman and I did the section for

[01:19:23] The New York Times, like a night out with, you know what the section is? It's like in the styles where it's just like a column of like someone who has something to promote and they spend a night with him. We did it with him.

[01:19:36] So we had like dinner with him and then he like went to a bookstore with us and then we like went uptown to try to get tickets to inherent advice, but we were like hanging out with him and picking his brain about whatever and talking

[01:19:48] about his mom because Jason had worked with her and bewitched, teeing up my special gift to you guys. So it was fun to hang out with Jacob Bernstein. This is before he made the documentary. Super nice guy. Although Jason and I felt like we were boring

[01:20:02] the hell out of him at our dinner because we were like, oh, he wants to write an article on what we're doing is like what we actually would be doing tonight, which is eating and going to a bookstore and he knows this is not a good article.

[01:20:13] And then the final thing that was really exciting for big Noura Afron fans like us is last year I was being given some like award with like a conversation at the Sun Valley Idaho Film Festival and the big guest of honor was Meg Ryan.

[01:20:30] So we were like, oh, that's cool. In order to get to Sun Valley you have to fly from JFK to Salt Lake City and then Salt Lake State to Sun Valley and they were flew on and I both business class and in the seat

[01:20:42] in front of us from JFK to Sun Valley was Meg Ryan like the seat in front of me and then also on the next leg of the flight she was in front of us again for the like the 40 minute flight and so you guys were Billy Crystal binder.

[01:20:57] I really did feel it felt it felt like we were in a movie, but then on the TV screen on the back of the chair one of the options was when Harry Met Sally and Anna was just like how fucking crazy is it that this

[01:21:09] move like we could watch this on a seat that her head is touching? How cool would that be which we could smell her hair which we did not do a second. You could I'm not saying you should I advise against it. It was an option.

[01:21:23] It was just an option anyway little piece of hair for kind of like you know contextual senses of like just how exciting it is to sort of think about her work and her legacy and her personality and her you know the people she's worked with the

[01:21:36] iconic collaborators and her family of intellectuals and writers and her creative family. It's all very interesting so I didn't want to watch lucky numbers because I thought it would be shitty. I wanted to watch it because it's like the last piece of the puzzle.

[01:21:51] See I had the opposite thing which I was just like I am resigned to thinking this movie is shitty and then put it on and 30 minutes and I was like fuck right I'm the only person who finds movies about dumb criminals dying to be entertaining.

[01:22:05] I'm the only one plenty of movies about dumb criminals dying. Name one David cartoonish name one Fargo. That's the one you don't get that everyone gets that one. Pick one off of my list David do you prefer clay clay pigeons to gross point blank fucking.

[01:22:22] I don't know like the lavender hillbob like what I would call it. Farrell's right there David. Yeah. Call him Farrell great criminal. What wait a second. Wait a second David. Why would you pick an Ealing brother comedy. No it's just Ealing studios they're not brother.

[01:22:39] How would you know that damn it. I know I grew up in England and I grew up in London in fact where Ealing studios was although I grew up in north London not west London. And now I'm realizing that once again

[01:22:55] I think for the fifth week in a row I have fucked up what is supposed to be after nailing it the first time I have proceeded to fuck it up in every episode since then. Is the new bit that you just can't do the bit.

[01:23:09] I don't know what the bit this time is supposed to be that he knows that I grew up in London. Well what he doesn't know is that before I moved to London I lived in the Upper West Side. That's a good one. That's a good that's good.

[01:23:22] That's good. Right. It's a good bit and I fucked it up. Oh my god. It is Zoom really does start to rot away at your brain. Oh. That's the new bit. 100% yes. Going into month four of my entire life being Zoom I barely know how to

[01:23:39] speak to people anymore. Well boy boy boy but anyway. Yes you I think you just leapt at the fact that I said any Ealing comedy. But I think of the comedy so when I think of like you know it's a dog whistle for criminals. Yes.

[01:23:52] Hey should we talk about the plot. Yeah. Yes this is what I wanted to say. And this is I was going to say it's to center everything back on to talk at the plot of the movie. The fundamental thing this movie asks you to accept the buy-in

[01:24:10] to the premise of the movie is this Travolta guy is so fucking charming. This guy is so beloved in his community. He's so innately charismatic and good at everything he does that he's not just the most beloved weatherman I have ever seen but

[01:24:26] he's been able to spin that off into multiple businesses like PSAs he has his own roped off velvet booth at Denny's and they have an omelet named after him and he is so off putting from the first moment he's on screen. The jokes in this movie are so

[01:24:42] bad. There's some I like there's an omelet named after me here. The like did I tell you about this largest for the sake of expediency. Let's go with yes like this is the worst kind of writing. I'm going to pull up some jokes I like.

[01:24:56] Here's the way to set up lucky numbers like OK so in the commentary she talks a lot she's like this is one of these movies. This is a story about these kinds of people that I'm fascinated by these people who are like television personalities who in another

[01:25:11] era would have been like local shoe salesmen or businessmen and now they're kind of famous and what we've seen in our culture is a huge round that quoting for you know specifically but she's like what we've seen is a huge rise in people like this who kind

[01:25:27] of seem like they're famous but they're not but they think that they're important and they all have these weird schemes of things like owning a dealership and she was really interested in this corrosive sense of modern entertainment and media and celebrity again to die for

[01:25:44] does this perfectly five years earlier. That is what she's a good version that is what she is thinking about with this character and she really seems to find out to be incredibly compelling. That's so dated like local TV celebs are more of a thing

[01:25:58] in like the 80s when this scandal happened. Two thousand. This is two thousand there's a fucking internet. It absolutely should have been a period film. It is it says 1988 in the beginning of the movie. Does it. Yes it says Harrisburg 1988. How did I completely miss

[01:26:14] everything about this movie feels like it's set in the year. And a lot of what she talks about is she's like you know you go to Harrisburg it does not look like the present but we wanted it to be very timeless. Sure Harrisburg not the sexiest

[01:26:25] city in the world. No offense to it. I must say as a you know Pennsylvania resident by birth seeing this kind of drab Pennsylvania 80s. I mean the aesthetics of this movie I love I live in it and I love it. It's I actually loved all the

[01:26:40] locations the kind of dark griminess of it took me to Bicentennial man. Yes it's my Bicentennial man if you I want to live in it except unlike Bicentennial man I actually watched this this I can't get over thinking for just one second that Ben wanted

[01:26:56] to live in Bicentennial man. That's what was so confusing to me about it. It's so I know I know it's just great. It is now the fourth time we've discussed it on like an off mic since the zoom started and it's still funny. Here's here's her here's

[01:27:13] kind of introductory statement on the commentary. I don't think of this as a movie about crime as much as I think of it as a movie about one of those human weaknesses we all have. I actually think it's one of those things that's almost Shakespearean which is a

[01:27:25] ludicrous thing to say about a movie like this. But the temptation to do that thing to make a huge amount of money. If you say to me I don't understand this then you're lying everybody's got it. And then later says I was influenced by things like

[01:27:40] fortune cookie or even double indemnity. The thing Billy Wilder would do where there isn't somebody in the movie who isn't guilty of something or other. And she talks about double indemnity a lot in the commentary. Well double indemnity is one of the most famous pieces of

[01:27:56] like film noir of all time. Here's an incredible this the last thing I have from the commentary is amazing Nora Efron line between the sweater and Lisa's performance we were going for a little teeny taste of Barbara Stanwyck and double indemnity with a woman with

[01:28:09] absolutely no remorse at all and a really great sweater. Like love it love it. She's got a good sweater. I love Lee. Yes. But anyway that seems like how she saw this movie. Can I ask before we go into the plot Alex do you think

[01:28:23] this much when you do I assume you've done directors commentary. Do you think this much about the like stuff you add on to your movies and do you imagine that someday someone's going to like record in front of a TV. It's a great question.

[01:28:39] I've done two of my own movies and I only for Philip and her smell and I only viewed like to me it's only like I love these when I was younger and I just want this to be the thing that like the two percent of people

[01:28:56] that will listen to this will be like oh that does tell me the thing I wanted to learn about how a thing gets made time well used. I got what I because it's always like I'm just going to throw this on and see what

[01:29:08] it is and the ones that are great you're just like I can't stop listening to this. This is just like nuggets of gold left and right how they did this shot what this location was this the cast and like that is like the one of

[01:29:21] this craft craft yeah all the only wants to hear about that I do try to make I mean but you know no one ever tells me they listen to them so I don't know. I mean I always do I feel like we like blank check is a

[01:29:32] podcast where the the Venn diagram of people who listen to our show and people who listen to commentaries is a perfect circle right like that's that's the exact audience of people who listen to commentaries people who are like I need more context I need

[01:29:46] to understand how and why these decisions were made. Part of the thing with the commentary is that like lucky numbers is not on Blu-ray and probably will never be if after the previous 90 minutes you're thinking I need to get that don't go searching for it it's not

[01:29:59] there but like it's going straight to 4k interesting to me that like there's an S.D.D.V.D. of this movie that has 100 minutes of one of the most famous wits of American culture and like unless you buy this S.D.D.V.D.

[01:30:14] That content of Noura Afron is lost. So that's why you held an old cell phone up to a TV. So it could be captured for all posterity and submitted to the the National Registry. Right now we can distribute that. Yeah maybe we should just make

[01:30:30] that our bonus episode. Let's just draw a page for you so no one will get mad at us. Definitely not copyright infringement. That's great. Who's actually going to pursue that? Who's actually going to go hey sorry. That's the question maybe someone will maybe there's

[01:30:45] someone in some dusty office who's like I'm in charge of all TV commentaries 2000 to 2005 and I'm just surfing the internet waiting for one to drop. So that's the ultimate scan of us posting that. So we've identified a Patreon feed. It looks like it's a special bonus drop. Yes.

[01:31:05] Griffin's announcement coming over the speaker at the FBI headquarters in Quantico and there's someone down there waiting for the new Patreon drop and they're like sir we've got one because I did I just speaking of copyright I asked Ben if I could play music because I

[01:31:20] wanted to play Get Lucky by Daft Punk on the episode. He said no so I just texted it to you guys. Yes and I replied to you with the theme song from CBS's numbers. Yes. So the basic set up of this movie is that John Travolta

[01:31:38] is this very successful, very beloved local celebrity who also is deeply in debt. Everyone thinks he's really successful but he has somehow blown all of his money. They Tim Roth calls out it's weird you're not married. You don't have expensive hobbies. You don't drink. You don't do drugs.

[01:31:56] How did you lose all your money and Travolta goes like I don't know it just disappears which I expected. Oh there's going to be some late reveal of some weird reason why he lost all his money. Some weird habit he has or some weird mistake he made.

[01:32:10] No it never comes. It's sunny. I just it's just the weather's warm. He's just stupid. Is that he's just reasoning I got. He did not sell his pumpkin futures in October. He didn't. He's he's got a bad sense of the climate for a weatherman. Right.

[01:32:25] I guess that's the joke right right. Lisa Kudra plays the woman who pulls out the ping pong balls. On the the weekly Lotto drawing. They both work at the same station. Which for people who are younger than us used to be a job

[01:32:41] used to be a job used to be a series of jobs a whole industry there was a British because we've already done the fucking bit game show called Talking Telephone Numbers where two people literally hosting the show were just like we're just going to call

[01:32:56] telephone numbers that we pick out of a lottery and anyone who picks up gets money like that was the whole premise of the show. So how did you know that? How would you know that? Did you wait? Wait a second. No, no, no, no, no, no, Alex.

[01:33:08] No, no, no, this makes sense because you don't realize David grew up in England and he lived there his entire life. He lived there from the time he was born until his mid 20s and then he moved to New York. But that was the first time

[01:33:21] that David had ever stepped foot in New York, of course was in his 20s. Shuffling so angrily in his window there. Oh, but is it steam is coming out of his teeth? So Russ needs money. Russ, he's I was going to say they're having an affair.

[01:33:40] I'm trying to get the plot out as quickly as possible. One thing she does do in the commentary is she says very specifically. She goes for people listening to this who care about screenplays. This is the end of Act one and then later she goes and for

[01:33:52] those people who still care. This is the end of act two. She's like very methodical about the idea of structure and writing and comedy performances. Well, she also knew that the lucky numbers commentary was going to be used as a teaching tool. Right. So Lisa Kodro, Travolta are

[01:34:06] having an affair, but also Lisa Kodro and Ed O'Neill, who is their boss, are having an affair. Now Ed O'Neill, I mean, David, we committed about 30 minutes to each of these supporting characters. It's not going to happen. I'm sorry. I have to put in all

[01:34:22] the Ed O'Neill time. That's out. I will. OK, let me just say quickly about Ed O'Neill while watching him. I was like, is Ed O'Neill dead? How come I haven't seen him in anything in a long time? He's a modern family. He's my family.

[01:34:33] Yes, I didn't know that. Yeah, I guess I forgot that he been on that show for 12 years, but I thought he was one of those people. You've got like nine consecutive Emmy nominations. He's like the king of the sitcom. He's not dead at all. He's stronger than ever.

[01:34:47] Truly one of the most highly paid men on television over the last decade. She speaks very highly of him and calls him an actor of Shakespearean qualities. I love him. I'm a huge. I don't know. He feels like he feels like he feels like a Ben guy and

[01:35:00] and Mary with Children feels like a Ben show. Yeah, for sure. OK, let me just do a quick 20 minutes on Ed O'Neill. So Ed O'Neill is absolutely not. No, no, absolutely not. The only actor we will be doing while there's fuck. There's three actors we need

[01:35:15] to do a fair amount. Give me some credit. I'm trying to speed round the clock. I'll be honest. You know, I like to write down a lot of notes when I'm watching the movies for these. I did not get a lot of notes on this one.

[01:35:25] There's not a lot to write down during this movie. This plot is very quick and very dumb. And that's why I'm trying to set it up as quickly as possible for people who haven't seen it because not everyone who listens to the show might take an hour

[01:35:37] and 40 minutes out of their life to watch Lucky Numbers. We're just to point out we're about an hour and 40 minutes into the episode. Well, like 10. This is time to start. The beginning was kind of a mistake. Having the what at the beginning? You know, there's a little bit

[01:35:52] of a hiccup at the beginning, right? I don't know how accurate that clock is. Oh, that's true. And we should hear every down jumping ahead at 24 minutes. Tim Roth and John Travolta reuniting for the first time since Pulp Fiction decide to rig the lottery. Twenty four minutes.

[01:36:07] That's the big thing. Right. Because originally Travolta's get rich quick scheme is Tim Roth, his best friend who owns a strip club and also is the chef and is British and he's British. She calls in the commentary, the devil. Yes, she's trying. He's trying to teach John

[01:36:25] Travolta how to fleece his way out of debt. So he suggests that John Travolta hires thugs to rob his own snowmobile dealership, which he envisions fraud, a little classic insurance. He envisions as a sort of craft work music video of Volvo driven efficiency

[01:36:46] of men in black leather and lasers and the whole the whole production and his imagination is very classy. And his happy ending, how he comes out of it with all this money and new very much like a joke in Sean of the dead. But they hire Michael Rappaport,

[01:37:01] who's a loose cannon and also Travolta's employee at the dealership. It has used his keys that night to get laid on the rapaport's character's name. It's still the thug. Dale, Dale, the what? Dill the Thug. His name is Dale, Dale T. Thug. This is when Michael

[01:37:21] Rappaport is doing. I mean, this is my favorite stat and this is why I needed to bring him up. He's credited as being in eight films in the year two thousand just in the year two thousand eight films. The the films are next Friday. He plays a mailman,

[01:37:38] the sequel to Friday, small Woody Allen, small time crooks. He's in that because he was in he's in a tall as crooks. I believe he wears his digging helmet backwards in the trailer because he says it looks cooler with the light facing the other way. Right?

[01:37:51] I mean, it's just the years Rappaport got playing dummies like, you know, very you know, anyway, he's in the The Arnold Schwarzenegger film, The Six Day. Oh, The Six Day, right. That the days weren't over yet. He's in Men of Honor, the Oscar Robert Denny Junior Kubogane, Junior

[01:38:10] Navy movie. Another actor he worked with many times. He's in Bamboozled Spike Lee's Bamboozle. Incredible performance. Yeah, great. He's a great performance. Great movie. He's in a John Leguizama vehicle. I've never heard of called King of the Jungle. He's in a Swedish heist comedy film called Chain

[01:38:28] of Fools and he is in Lucky Numbers. That is right. Eight. How many people are in eight movies of the year on boss? What's this Boston show he's on at this time? Boston. He's on Boston public next year. Next year. He's on all but

[01:38:41] he's on all the Boston until Bill Burke comes for his crown. He is on all the Boston shows and playing all the Boston thugs. He's a New York guy, but yes. Is 2000 an anomalous year for him or is he in like six and ninety nine works a lot?

[01:38:58] I don't think he says no. His average is more like four a year and then 2000 for some reason it was an avalanche. She says on the commentary that he ad-libbed all of the baseball stuff and he came in loaded with baseball facts and ideas just ready to spew.

[01:39:17] Yeah. And by the way, she also says that Maria Bamford, who we skipped over Maria Bamford is the local waitress at the Denny's where we didn't skip over her. We tried to line the line. She has the best line in the movie in my opinion.

[01:39:28] We have so good at this movie. The initial scene where he's at his Denny's booth, so we have gone past it. She comes up many times. She's seen parts of the movie. She's seen which is the movie. Yes. But she apparently also did a lot of ad-libbing

[01:39:41] and you know to me it's like I didn't know who she was at 2000. It's kind of weird. This was this was an early time to pick Maria Bamford to have her on your radar as like you're like a small town waitress. Yes, she's got like a good

[01:39:57] supporting role. She's so I just want to point out of the eight movies he did in 2000. Michael Rappaport did three uneped criminal comedies three out of eight. He's a great scumbum. Yes, he's kind of like a king of the ginger scumbums. For sure. But but the main sort

[01:40:16] of like gimmick to this character is he is a thug who also loves sports memorabilia and uses it's a good blender. He uses his very expensive sports memorabilia to commit the acts of robbery, except it's not really a blender because it kind of almost is a

[01:40:34] plot detail that that he gets himself in danger because he won't leave his bat behind. He does love his bat. He loves his bat because it's an original. This goes south. Game used. Yes. And they get pinched and now he wants ten thousand dollars

[01:40:50] extra from Travolta for his pain and suffering because his weird employee gets like he's trying to like make it. His employee is someone that on a fell should have been played by Steve's on. Absolutely. I know this is stupid. I do genuinely find funny

[01:41:07] just the larger joke of he keeps on accumulating more debt, that everything he does as a get rich quick scheme somehow ends with him owing someone else more. I like that. I think that's funny. It's a funny running gag for someone who's not an inept

[01:41:23] criminal but an inept person who's in debt. Yes, I like that. It's kind of like how we picture Nicholas Cage is in real life. Yes. Yes. It's very Nicholas. He agrees to do a movie to get out of debt, but the movie shoots somewhere where he loses

[01:41:38] all of his money gambling. Right. Lots of things in this movie, you know, on paper could be funny. Like it's it's a reasonable premise like to let's adapt this real life scandal. Yeah. You know, brainless crooks there. You know, Lisa Kudrow is kind of like all brass.

[01:41:57] No no smarts. I don't know. You know what I mean? Like they don't make sense. It's just that ever. I don't know. The tone is never hits the tone. The tone that she's getting out of her word and she's going for double indemnity. You need like just

[01:42:12] like so like such a perfect blend of yeah, like weirdly funny lines, but not funny characters just in way over their heads in a way that the tone is just like tense because you know that other shoes going to drop and it's never movie.

[01:42:27] A movie I like that falls into this sort of category is the Ice Harvest, the Harold Ramis movie. That's a good one, which is a lot closer to feeling like a genuine noir. He's not just saying, oh, it's like a noir movie. That film has more atmosphere,

[01:42:45] more tension. It's more dramatic. It's slower. It's more darkly lit. This zone of like where we're making a very dark comedy with murder and crime that also has the energy of a Looney Tunes cartoon audiences always vomit at. And she says on the Charlie

[01:43:04] Rose interview, she's like, I wanted to do stuff. I've never shot before. I've never shot someone throwing a body off of a bridge before, which is weird because I thought I remembered that happening in Sleepless in Seattle. But also right on the water

[01:43:16] she pulls off exactly like is is the the truck flipping. That is funny. That's not amazing. That is the funniest joke or shot in the movie. Chris Nolan, Nora Efron, great truck flips. Yes. Can we call out the most fine as you know, it was 50 percent of

[01:43:33] mixed nuts as characters moving around a dead body. This is true. Which is mostly body bridge. They don't throw it off a bridge. They throw it up into the air. They put it in a Christmas tree. They throw it downstairs. It's also worth mentioning.

[01:43:46] I wrote down that this movie is vaguely Christmassy and that it starts in what they say is the lead up to the Christmas season. She loves Christmas. Yes, yes. Much like myself, a Jew who loves Christmas so much. Many of her movies involve Christmas.

[01:44:00] But then like you lose that and I didn't have any idea. Has Christmas happened? There hasn't really been like. In the commentary, she's like, now of course it's January by now. And I feel like the Lotto drawing was the week after Christmas. And I was like, yeah, sure.

[01:44:15] Maybe could not track that outside of the one time Lisa Kudrow wears a Santa hat. But you know what else happens around this point in the movie that we do need to talk about is at minute 30. A non actor, a cross vocational performer here, enters into the film

[01:44:31] as Maddox, a little bit dim with a crush on his cousin and and a real aficionado of masturbation. And that is a hundred million dollar grossing documentary filmmaker Academy Award Palm Palm door winner Michael Moore. All true. This is all this is in a it's only three scene

[01:44:52] performance. Yes, and his only performance correct. His only acting role ever playing himself. Correct. The only time he has ever acted in a TV the year before is himself. He does. That's not what it says on IMDB. So you guys should believe he plays himself

[01:45:08] in that he play. OK, all right. Technically, he plays a talking head on a TV panel. I guess he's never identified. But I do want to say watching this all we could think was they must have just been friends like what on earth could the explanation for this

[01:45:23] be? It has to be in the commentary. She says, you know, our casting director had this great idea where she just said what about Michael Moore and I knew him from New York. I've loved his films and he moderates lots of Q&A's and panels in New York.

[01:45:37] And I thought he was so funny. He came in and read for four characters. He was great as all of them. And then we put him in this role. That is so bizarre, especially because this film is like well cast. You have a lot of

[01:45:50] good actors in it. Right. A lot of people read a little bit of Paul. People like Bamford, who were like at the beginning of their career to suddenly go like, of course, let's pull someone who has no acting aspirations whatsoever. And seemingly this one

[01:46:04] performance and the response to it scared him off of ever even trying ever again. But this also like this is not that far removed. I mean, it's a couple of years. But like everyone forgets Michael Moore made a fiction movie as his follow up to Roger and me.

[01:46:17] Yeah. Canadian bacon. Like he did not lock in on being Michael Moore. I mean until people thought he might be a studio comedy guy until like yeah. I also was wondering like, you know, because Columbine obviously really refocused his energies as a documentary

[01:46:31] filmmaker and that was ninety nine. Yes. Kind of wonder. No, that's two thousand two. Columbine is right after the Matrix came out. The event. The event. You're talking the event of calling for Columbine. Yeah. No, I'm saying. But I'm saying the event of Columbine clearly refocused

[01:46:47] his perspective on how to make documentaries and think about America. Sure. I'm wondering if that was that was on his mind at this time when he was shooting Lucky Numbers. Right. Because for most of the nineties, he was doing TV awful. True. He did all his right.

[01:47:02] Exactly. Right. So he's doing mosh pits with Alan Keys or whoever. We're right. I could forget. It was yes. Yeah. So he's in this movie and there's something wrong master. He's advising it to people all the time. A little off about him. Yes, they use language that I

[01:47:19] will not repeat. But he seems like he's you know what people might now call on the spectrum at the time called other things and they call him a lot of names. Yeah. And it's a bizarre performance and he asks John Travolta if he if he

[01:47:31] masturbates, if he likes it and and his whole belief is he's a deeply religious man. He says that if he the money he's making, he would put half towards the church, half to open an adult bookstore. He believes that God wants us to masturbate. That's this

[01:47:49] character's raison d'etre is to preach the good word of masturbation to everyone he meets within two minutes of speaking to them. And he's there because he's the stooley that they need to buy the ticket and redeem it. Yes, because they're going to need someone that they can't be

[01:48:05] traced to. We haven't even established that the premise of the movie is they are injecting the lotto balls with paint so that they're weighed down. So only the numbers they want come up so that they can win all the money and get themselves out of this apparently

[01:48:19] exactly how the real life thing happened. But otherwise this movie is kind of made out of whole cloth. It's just based off of people who work at a local TV station rigging the lotto in this way. All the other incidents are fictional. It's yeah, right.

[01:48:33] Right. That's the that's the only thing that except the one thing that she flags. I'm going to listen to the commentary. I feel like I'm referring to it a lot. She does say it was sorry, Alex. Did you listen to the commentary

[01:48:43] for this? I did. Yeah, I made a file of it on my phone. The country for lucky numbers. For this movie, they're saying this kind of I got to say it was not time wasted because it's paying off a lot. The thing where the guy comes

[01:48:55] to Tim Roth and says all these other people connected to you hit the numbers, that's how the real people got caught. Oh, interesting. Is it like a pocket of people all connected to each other? One because this someone had talked and given out some of the numbers.

[01:49:10] And it's that thing where all the other people can be traced back to Tim Roth and none of them got all the numbers correct so that they could still get the main bounty. But he clearly leaked like just put three of these numbers down to a bunch of

[01:49:23] people to get smaller payouts. I guess so. Anyway, Michael Moore dies on the ground gasping for breath while Lisa Kudry tries to find his I hate to term puffer. It's an inhaler. This is like a sub-hogi thing like it's an inhaler. It's not a puffer and Travolta

[01:49:40] calls it an inhaler. Yes, well there's enough mist in this little puffy to save 10 master babies. Yeah, so he dies on the ground while she's singing the theme song to happy days and just like a peak shitty black comedy scene. It is not good. I will fully concede.

[01:49:57] It has a blow up doll in it for some reason. It's a huge problem scene, I think, especially because that's when the movie is right. It's turning from like madcap silly black comedy to like, oh, boy, the stakes are higher now. People are dying like this is

[01:50:12] getting out of control. But the tone of the movie doesn't really feel like it acknowledges that. No, it feels like the scene is just going like, oh, look at how cruel she is. She's letting him suffer and have a hard time breathing because

[01:50:25] the way in which he dies is so casual. It takes five minutes to realize that he is actually dead. No, I as it was happening, I kept waiting for her to realize like the that her like cruel joke like went too far.

[01:50:39] And it turns out she's just a cop. So I like your cat's cameo there. Yeah. Good time. Might all must be asleep. But anyway, it's kind of like disgusting and not funny at all. And then she says the clams line that made Nora want

[01:50:53] to make this movie for whatever reason. Worth it. And then I am then like what's happening at this point? It's just like now it's a bunch of stuff. It's now that they just need to find someone to cash in the ticket and like right

[01:51:05] that the news is tightening on Roth and everything's getting worse. It's this idea of like, OK, so Schiff, which I do think that's a very good scene. Schiff interrogates Roth and then Roth realizes Schiff is on to we have to get rid of him.

[01:51:19] So then they owe more money to the thugs in addition to disposing the body. Right. He's right. He's now coming back around to Travolta. Travolta had to pay for his bail, but now Rappaport wants additional money for taking care of the book.

[01:51:32] Travolta has had to move at this point from his big mansion to a. Sold his Jaguar house. Guys, you both just sound like madmen. You just say it's just babbling. These are real things that happen in the movie. I'll give you one little bit

[01:51:46] of trivia is that that location of his new house is in Sacramento where they shot part of the movie. Now, that is the kind of scintillating fact that you can only learn if you listen to the DVD commentary for Lucky Numbers. We have not talked about my favorite

[01:52:03] thread of the movie, which is about halfway through when the bodies are piling up, the incidents are piling up. Travolta can't downsize his life any further. We cut to a police precinct where Bill Pullman sits in a chair that is 59 minutes into this movie. That's an hour before

[01:52:21] then I have one before we enter Pullman. Ben, I know in this in the When Harry Met Sally episode, you were kind of getting excited about how good comedy buttons are in that movie. And that's correct. They're perfect. Here's a button in Lucky Numbers.

[01:52:37] The end of the scene is almost over. Here's the button. John Travolta want to have sex. Lisa Kudrow. Yeah. That's it. That's the button. That's how the scene is. You remember that scene? I do. And I thought that was a good joke because they start

[01:52:48] planning and then it's like before they actually get to the meat of the plan. They're like, you want to have sex? Yeah, that was effective. OK. It won comedy points that I wanted to run that button by you because to me I was just like this

[01:52:59] is this isn't writing. I don't really know. I took that button and I sewed it on my jacket proudly. If you tried to attach anything with that button, you would fail. Yeah. Sorry. This that button announced it wasn't heightened enough. But it's still I thought

[01:53:14] it was a joke. Also, they have no chemistry. Like like they're having sex in the movie. And it's also supposed to be set up that like the sex she has with Ed O'Neill sucks, but the sex she has with Travolta is electric. He's the good sex.

[01:53:28] She seems bored in both cases and he seems bored. Everyone seems bored. Can we talk about the Pullman Thread as we in order to set that up? We need to mention that this is I think I haven't rewatched them as recently as you guys have.

[01:53:40] The only Nora Efron movie that features a strip club is a primary location. So many times. It's one of the hangouts. And I believe the only Nora Efron movie to make jokes of ping pong balls ostensibly flying out of women's bodies in that strip club.

[01:53:56] I'm sorry. That's a big that's a big blanket statement. Let me cross. Yeah, think about that. Yes. Also, it's sleepless. It is because I thought that was I thought that was in Julie and Julia, but you're it's in sleepless in Seattle. Yeah. I mean, Julia Child definitely

[01:54:11] went to strip clubs like that all the time. I'm not sure if it made the movie. I have to check the tapes. I have to check the tapes on that one. I deleted. All right, well, find out and I'll check back 59 minutes into an hour and 40 minute movie.

[01:54:22] Bill Pullman enters with some scheme about faking a back injury to get out of police duty. Yeah, he's a detective who doesn't want to do any detective. I think Bill Pullman is what this movie should be both in his performance. And I think Nora has the right

[01:54:38] handle on this character. Yes. You've also got Darryl Mitchell, who's a great foil. I love Darryl Mitchell. I think this might be the last movie he was in before he was paralyzed. It's the country bears. It's the country bears. Oh, really? I know that.

[01:54:53] I know that because it's tragic. How did he get paralyzed? Motorcycle accident. Yeah, an accident. And and he you know, I know him as mostly from Galaxy Quest, obviously, and 10 things I hate about you. Right. He was like home fries is such a great

[01:55:08] a great like sort of funny guy off the bench. Like, you know, do three big scenes and like he's he rolls and stuff. Yeah. But then he had that whole he's now like in a wheelchair and he's I mean, I think he's on NCIS New Orleans like for

[01:55:22] like still is running now. Like he was on multiple seasons of Ed. He was on the Michael Stray hand Fox sitcom Brothers like he still works. One of the most offensive. Yeah. Brothers was absolutely insane. It was just Michael Stray and making fun of him for being

[01:55:35] in a wheelchair and him making fun of Michael Stray and for having a gap in his teeth. You should watch the pilot. It's one of the crazy things I've ever seen. I have no idea how it is on Fox should be in Anges mountain of

[01:55:46] pilots that are not allowed out scattered amongst the gems. I do like that because this does not happen often. Daryl Mitchell is like not a big star, but he's like working in a lot of good projects. He's like a good scene stealer, as you said, right?

[01:56:03] Then he gets in this really tragic accident and people started writing roles for him. Like most of the roles he's done since then, even like brothers and his role on Ed people were like, here's this great actor. He's now in a wheelchair. Let's write a role that suits

[01:56:17] his personality and like incorporates the fact that he's paraplegic. I feel like very often if someone has an accident like that, Hollywood is just like, I don't know what to do with you. Christopher Reeve being in the remake of Rear Window. Right. But with Daryl

[01:56:31] Mitchell, it's been done effectively and he's had a nice career. So you want to talk about Bill Pullman as being a cop detective who wants to not really be doing his job. Yes. The stakes here are different with a lot of his scenes. He's in a different movie.

[01:56:44] Accidentally. Right. And I think this movie, Nora has a handle on, which is here's a cop who doesn't want to be a cop at all. He finds the job to be a real bummer. He faked a back injury and his superior caught him chopping wood in his backyard.

[01:57:02] So now he's forcing him to go back onto patrol, but he doesn't want to do that. So he's looking to end to cases as quickly as possible. And he is the guy who keeps on being at the right place at the right time to collect

[01:57:17] the information, to bust the case wide open. And he refuses to acknowledge it because he doesn't want to have to do the extra work. He refuses to do the extra research, to check the file. And it's Daryl Mitchell is his partner who like is trying

[01:57:31] to actually do things correctly and everything flies over Bill Pullman's head. I think Pullman plays this beautiful. I think he's very funny. Much like Kudrow, he is dialed pretty into what he's doing. And like just the scene, this final scene where like he shows up

[01:57:49] in the hospital room where Travolta is waking up after an accident. We'll talk about it. OK, so I'll get there when I get there. But the Pullman stuff, I just think all of that totally. Basically, like from, you know, minute 30 when Michael Moore is killed,

[01:58:06] roughly 40 minutes until like minute 80 is just like Ed O'Neill, Rappaport and Tim Roth all trying to like get the money and it's like boring and it makes no sense. And every time there's like a joke, it's not funny. Travolta gets into a position

[01:58:21] where he now owes far more money than he originally. Right. They do a scene where he's like Ed O'Neill wants half and then he wants half. He wants 20,000. He wants 10 percent. Like I'm now in further debt. So his strategy is I need to just get level again.

[01:58:36] I'm going to sell the ticket to someone else to unburden myself of all of this drama. And he sells it to Ed O'Neill for like a hundred thousand dollars or something. He's selling him a six million dollar ticket for a hundred thousand dollars and also trying

[01:58:49] to unload all of his snowmobiles. So he has enough cash to just get out, move, start from his his assistant Jerry, who has like a cousin in Colorado who wants to buy all the snowmobiles who always speaks in these very meaningful kind of like poetic

[01:59:05] statements that end up being from a play that he wrote about Evil Caneval when he was in middle school. I second just gibberish. Everything you're saying just gibberish, David. Do you like this movie? Do you like what do you like the plot of Lucky Not a Fan?

[01:59:20] It's a gentleman's 10. I did like Jerry's bedroom where he has bobbleheads, a kiss poster and jars of trolls. I believe we're talking about Larry, Larry. Jerry is Richard Schiff. Larry is Michael. How can I have that? He's slamming his face on his desk.

[01:59:35] I'm trying to say a sentence. That's all I'm trying to do. Oh, my God. What did you think of his jars of trolls? I don't remember it. You like the troll? What don't remember any of what did you think of? What did you think of like very

[01:59:49] hot in those sort of comedy writing? Like when they're there and Tim Roth is like you need to see what's right in front of you and Travult is like all this in front of me is this placemat with the presidents that only goes up to Van Buren.

[02:00:00] It's like what kind of I like that kind of jokes are these. I don't understand and Travult is a 10 point. That's a 10 point. This kind of delivery. I get that Resnick can write a good weird joke. Like I mean the man, you know, he made cabin boy.

[02:00:12] He worked on it. And some of these lines when you say them in isolation, you're like, yeah, that's that's clever. Like I get that. I don't think Nora was a particularly good match for his his whatever comedic point of view anyway. This doesn't seem like she's got whatever.

[02:00:29] There's a whole tonal thing is the whole problem with the movie. When he sells the ticket to Ed O'Neill for 100 grand, he is doing the thing that I do think you need to do in this in these kinds of movies happens

[02:00:42] in uncut gyms happens in a lot of movies about like people and suddenly looks like he's paying attention again. Yeah, where he's where he gets to zero. Like, you know what I mean? Like because that's where he's like, OK, now I don't owe rap for any money.

[02:00:57] Yes, I'm not in any immediate danger of being arrested or level again. Yeah, exactly. Sure, I never got the fortune I was trying to get. But like at least I am, you know, level. Now here's the point of the movie where I thought he would then,

[02:01:11] you know, catapult back under, get arrested and the movie ends. The ending of this movie is very different, very surprising to me did not understand it at all. But we can get into that. During some like the X Factor is the Pullman series of nonsense

[02:01:26] of like a breaking in of rap report. Like there's just like a ten minute sequence that is gibberish that ends with rap report being shot. Right. At this point, I'm like, you don't even understand who's in whose house or like what is happening with the

[02:01:41] dynamics of the Kudrow at O'Neill Pullman. Right, because you have the thing. The thugs are so bad that when they dispose of Schiff's body, throwing it over a bridge in the scene that nor Efron felt compelled by every fiber for being to shoot,

[02:01:56] they put a plastic bag over his head, beat the shit out of him and then tie one brick to one hand so the body isn't weighed down properly and it rises to the surface. It's a funny cut. They say it'll never be found.

[02:02:09] It'll never be found. It cuts to them finding it and then Bill Pullman says probably a suicide open and shut. That's that's funny. It's funny, but it is also funny to say, you know, it'll never ever be found and then it cuts to the news guys going

[02:02:23] and today the body of a local gangster was found in the river and then Travolta and Travolta freaking out. That's the best visual gag in the movie, too. It's that and the truck spilling over are the two actually inspired visual gags. That one is you're

[02:02:36] watching it from the perspective of the monitors in the control room at the news station. So you're watching them deliver the news while Travolta is on camera but not on the air yet. So you see him lose his mind and then try to recover.

[02:02:51] I think that seems good. It's fine. Ten. She's right. You do need to make that scene good and they made it good. But unfortunately, it's like 75 minutes into this movie. Yes, it's very deep into this movie and it is also the first time you're like, Oh,

[02:03:08] is he a character now? Like now he's funny. Like he has an understanding of his actions. Yeah. Of all the things that Travolta doesn't do well in this movie, the thing he does the least horribly is playing the freakouts, the like I'm in over my head.

[02:03:25] He totally loses control. He's OK at that. He's OK at that. Everything else is abhorrent. And then they're like basically him and his assistant are just going to load up the truck and he's going to like get out of town forever. And that's supposed to be it.

[02:03:38] We didn't even mention that his ambition in life seems to be to not host the weather, but to host a game show. He wants us to game show and he has an agent who he keeps on telling people is about to book

[02:03:48] him a big job and he hasn't heard from the agent in nine months. And then when they call him back, they tell him that the agent's been dead for nine months. Also a funny joke. Funny joke. He keeps on saying like, no, he's definitely my agent.

[02:04:00] He's definitely like full agent. He's about to get me a big job. But then the thing we're talking around is that they load up the truck with snowmobiles set painfully to wear the champions and about which she says, you know, when we were going through

[02:04:14] at the end and you're running out of money and you're clearing songs, they're always trying to cut ones. And I said if we lose this, we lose the movie. And I was like, I don't even get the jokes of why she thought that highly of this dreadful queue.

[02:04:26] They're loading up the truck. We are the champions. The song stops. It's dead silent. And then there's like a 10 second shot of the truck just driving and then like a 20 second shot of it just slowly falling over. They pull out of the dealership

[02:04:40] and it's a big wide shot of the snowy street. It's like the dark night framing. And the idea is that the road is so snowy that when they pull out, we didn't even mention that it finally started snowing. Right. And that he's a

[02:04:53] fan and he never ever smells. He couldn't predict it. Right. There's a joke that he couldn't predict it. He also doesn't have the class C license to drive the truck, which he says right before he like pulls out, you know, off. Right.

[02:05:06] It is the kind of thing that finally undoes someone in a movie like this usually. I'm sorry. Am I correct in assuming he also chose to do weather in this one city because it's the same all the time. And here's right. It's like pretty ordinary weather.

[02:05:20] Because when people ask him to explain the weather, he can't do it. He says like, no, it's different when I have the charts. He's just bad. Yeah. I would imagine, you know, Harrisburg has four seasons. I'd imagine they go through the cycles, but she seems to

[02:05:35] view him as like someone who's just like he's just telling us he's just some idiot whose face is on TV and that's his thing. He's the kind of weatherman that changes his name to stormy. Yes. So they pull out of the dealership and it's a hard turn.

[02:05:50] And because of the road is so icy, there's like a whip lash effect to the back of the trailer where it then spins entirely over the other way and topples over. It's a good shot and it's crazy that someone gave her the time and money and space

[02:06:04] to do that in this very funny. It is funny. It's actually surprising. And then perfectly executed silent. Wow. Right. And then Travolta freaks out, steals one of the snowmobiles and tries to get away from the cops. Does anybody want to guess what she compares this to? This shot.

[02:06:22] Him on the snowmobile. She compares to a very famous North by Northwest. Not far off. Okay. She says that she she she wanted it to feel like slim pickings riding the bomb at the end of Dr. Strangelove. Wow. That's a way to call your shot.

[02:06:40] I'm glad she's shooting so high. She's like, yeah, I wanted this film to echo three or four of the best films ever made by Hollywood. So Nora, what attract to do this screenplay? Well, I felt like it was about time for me to make canonically

[02:06:51] one of the 10 best films ever made. She does always couch it as I read with the one thing, the Shakespearean thing. She always says, like, which is of course absurd to say about something like this. But yes, she was not lacking in some way.

[02:07:03] So he goes on like some dumb joy ride on and there's like a bit of business where he grabs a snowmobile and the guy is like, don't take that one. It's bad and it's slow. And he's like, is this how you sell these? And when Bill Pullman

[02:07:14] finally catches up to him, he freaks out, takes a crow. Bar and throws it through his window. Not realizing he's there to help? No, and then gets knocked out, wakes up in a hospital and the nurses are all faunting over him because he's

[02:07:28] such a big star and they think he's cute. It almost feels like, oh my God, has he reset? Has somehow the guy gotten a second chance? Then Bill Pullman comes in and he's like, oh no, you're in big trouble, mister. You think it's that scene

[02:07:38] that exists in this movie where the guy finally puts it together and catches him? Where crime pays, essentially. Because of one small mistake he made, one tiny slip up undid the whole thing. But the twist is that Pullman cares so little, he's looking for only $300 compensation

[02:07:55] for the broken windshield. And also he needs to pay a parking ticket, a traffic ticket. He gives him a ticket, yes, for operating a snowman. This is a great joke. This is a great joke where he gives him the ticket and he

[02:08:07] looks at it and he goes, it's blank and he goes, Pullman goes, yeah, my pen ran out of ink. And also the ticket is in two pieces and he goes, you can just fix that with scotch tape. It's still good. All that stuff is funny. That's funny.

[02:08:22] That's funny. And then yes, the movie is that like everyone gets exactly what they wanted. Travolta becomes a successful game show. Of a show called Lucky Numbers. I would dispute that. Crystal does not get what she wanted. No, she's the only one. I'm sorry. Yes. Yeah.

[02:08:40] No, that's that's the one of the weird things about the movie where it's like, anyway, Travolta becomes a game show host with a car. He wraps it all up. A bit of voiceover. The voice over in the beginning comes back. We didn't we didn't mention

[02:08:51] that they get Maria Bamford to cash the ticket. She becomes the perhaps she gives a speech that according to the commentary is entirely improvised where she's just like riffing on insane nonsense about how she picked these numbers. She's doing the numbers. I will say my favorite line is

[02:09:06] when she says, well, when I was 16, I went to a party and then moves on. Yeah, that's funny. And she made it funny. I picked 70 because 70 cents is how much the bacon cheese costs on a bacon cheeseburger. Right. I like that line. Oh, that's good. You're right.

[02:09:25] And then they wrap it up. Lisa Kudrow is the only one who's punished. She gets stuck working as a lotto theme stripper. Yes, it does very much feel like like what? Like she's punished for being sexually permissive. Right. And also like John Travolta in

[02:09:39] her, I think are like equally like shitty skin. Everyone in this movie. Yeah. We must say it doesn't make any sense to work as a stripper dressed in a bikini covered in lotto balls, which I feel like was heavily used in the marketing, which I was shocked

[02:09:54] to see is like a one shot joke in the epilogue because I feel like that was like the image you saw. And then to add on top of it, they label her as a Monday Tuesday like strip. She's not even getting like time. Yeah, it's so shitty.

[02:10:11] And then in that Tim Roth becomes like a multi millionaire. He has like he hits a bit. Tim Roth. Yeah. Because all the epilogues each character gets a little freeze frame send off. Tim Roth winks at the camera and hits. Yes. I love the name gig.

[02:10:25] I do too. That's a good one. Can I say what I also like about Tim Roth's performance that he chooses to play this guy with the zero menace whatsoever. Super chair like right. Like that. But also just like there's nothing he just everything he says is very casual.

[02:10:41] But he has that inherent Tim Roth menace, right? He knows he doesn't need to lean on it at all. That's a canny choice on his. He's a smart actor. This is the thing. I have no objection to most of the performance in this film.

[02:10:56] So we agree it's a great. And I don't even have an objection to a lot of the writing. But on the screen you're like as you're watching it, it's falling out of your head. I just I can't retain any of it. And this type of messy movie is

[02:11:08] my ultimate guilty. And Resnick seems to say something to that effect in this pretty good article on Vulture, which I recommend where he says a classic case of a script stirring up a certain amount of excitement. Everyone getting swept up in it because talent likes it.

[02:11:20] Directors like it in the package as they say comes together. But no one stops to think if it's the right package, no one producer is going to turn down a green light if blah, blah, blah. He just, you know, lists all the reasons it doesn't

[02:11:31] go well that there's a good idea. This is not a nor-effron-esque script. So right away it was a gamble. And he just basically says, you know, like this could have been a thing and then just everything went wrong even though this was big stars and a great

[02:11:44] comedy actress and a great director that everyone knew made hits. No one stops to think like every element here tastes terrible together. That's I feel like half of the bounces we cover on the show that is a very eloquent summation of what went wrong.

[02:11:59] Like sometimes a balance is a director hubristically shoots for the stars and they just get everything wrong. And sometimes it's just like every element should not be put next to the others. Yeah, it's like two fine tastes that go awful together. Like toothpaste and orange juice.

[02:12:19] Then there is the insane audacity of ending this movie with like a man John Travolta was fine. He becomes a game show host. He gets everything he ever wanted. Right, which is I think why people exited this movie and said F because they want him to be punished.

[02:12:35] 100% I want to be punished with the fuck does he deserve anything of this? He sucks. Well, you know a lot of the looking at like the contemporary reviews, people seem to find a lot of problem with like what they felt was a deep sense of condescension about the

[02:12:49] characters and that like clearly the filmmakers think these people are morons, which is probably a criticism of all of these kinds of comedies. Absolutely. But on the Charlie Rose interview she does refer to them as entirely unworthy human beings, which is a phrase I love.

[02:13:05] So if you're ever like, I wonder like does it, it's kind of hard to tell the director's intention because in order to make a movie for two years, you do need to care about the characters. And sometimes you just think they're entirely unworthy human beings.

[02:13:16] Yeah, which makes me wonder why would you spend two years of your life? She seems to hold this kind of like glib want to be famous, not talented person and especially low esteem. But I feel like a lot of her comedy writing, you know, prose writing and

[02:13:33] nonfiction writing before she moved to film was obviously almost all of it was from her perspective. I mean there's sort of like personal essays and stories in this and that, but it was a lot of sort of critiquing the behavior of other people around

[02:13:47] her and other trends and things like that. And she wants to try to do that stuff in movies, but when you're living with someone visually existing on camera for over 90 minutes in which an actor has to imbue all of that like annoying behavior

[02:14:02] with some sense of a larger life behind it, it becomes like very unpleasant for people to watch. And that's pretty much the through line for all of her movies that weren't successful. Yeah, and it's interesting like this goes into Bewitched, which is a fiasco

[02:14:17] to use a word David said before we were recording. And it's amazing. And like this was the period where I got really into her because of like just moving in with Anna and like reading her books. And then she was like at a real

[02:14:29] fallow period after these two movies and like culturally, I think, and it was like weird how into her we were because it was like, yeah, I guess, you know, like the early movies, sure, but like lately and then those books, I think really made her great again.

[02:14:44] Like I feel bad about my neck and I remember nothing. I think really, really turn things around. And then I think it's good that her last movie kind of like it's justifiable film. She went out on a hit. Like she went out on like

[02:14:58] even if you don't think it's your best film, she went out doing the thing that she was good at as a filmmaker. It was a success. People got Oscar nominations. It was well liked. It was clearly a film with like subject matter that she was personally engaged with.

[02:15:12] All of which could be said about this as well. I just think it is fascinating that like you're right. It feels like lucky numbers and Bewitched should be like she cannot recover from this, especially considering that she tragically dies too soon. Right? She died way too soon. Right.

[02:15:31] But the fact that like in the last five years of her life she kind of completely restored her reputation. Like hit books, a well-liked play, a big hit movie. The play was Postumist, wasn't it? Yeah, but like she got it to get she wrote it obviously.

[02:15:44] You know that like she every final her final five or six years of living everything she wrote was ended on a high note and her son said in that documentary like she was very aware of the fact that she was sick and she wasn't going to live

[02:15:57] that much longer and she wanted to get out as much as she could. And the fact that so much of that final like burst of work did represent her at her best or near her best is a pretty insane phenomenon, but it's a nice. It's good.

[02:16:12] It's a good ending. These two movies are weird. I should also mention we didn't even I've sent to you guys like a 15 minute as a gift a blank check gift phone call with Jason Schwartzman talking about bewitched for you to do with what you will.

[02:16:28] We will find a way to release that either within the body of a witch or as a patient on bonus. I called him and asked him you know stories about her getting cast in the movie just any little anecdote for 15 minutes. Does he know? Does he know what

[02:16:46] that it was me. Oh, no, I told him. I mean, I've told him about the show before and yeah, because he was like, do you want me to just tell you and you can relay it? And I said, no, I'm going to record it and send it.

[02:16:56] And he said, OK. Also ask ask Jason Schwartzman if he wants to talk about Robert's a mech as a Christmas Carol having a hard time finding a guest for that one. Not a lot of nips not a lot of bites.

[02:17:09] Maybe he wants to swing in for that one. He could compare it unfavorably to Klaus. Anyway, I asked him for some firsthand Nora anecdotes on behalf of you and he provided them. So hopefully that's available somehow. Look, we've had a great time talking about this.

[02:17:25] I'm excited to figure out just how poorly it did at the box office. And then it's been great hanging out with you guys. But look, I'm feeling great. I love doing this. You guys are when you show up you're here trying to break the record

[02:17:37] and I will say on behalf of others. I feel like this hasn't come up in some of the recent episodes, but like you guys really did a great job of keeping everything on schedule during the worst of the world falling apart.

[02:17:48] And as I told Ben when he gave me this microphone, we kept everything sounding very professional. I appreciate that it takes a lot of work. I know people in this weird time everything feels very heightened. And so if an episode drops four hours late

[02:18:04] or something ends up being a little different than we expected that people freak out and I'm not asking for empathy, but people should know it takes a tremendous amount of work to keep the schedule in place and to keep the episodes like coming out in any form.

[02:18:21] Yeah, but we're going to be good moving forward and it won't happen anymore. No, I'm just saying. I know, but I'm just saying that now. People need to understand that there will be small concessions just to the nature of our horrible reality. We're back on track.

[02:18:36] But that run during the first couple weeks of COVID when it was like Marge Manus episodes and like Demi bonus. There was just like the Justin Timberlake Demi. Like I feel like you were putting on an episode like every 72 hours for like three weeks

[02:18:50] and it was really, really fun. We did more Marge Madness updates than usual because we needed to use peak behind the curtain. Yeah, we need to use Marge Madness to figure out the technical aspects of how we record the show remotely. Well, as a fan, it was appreciated

[02:19:07] and I will also say on the subject before we do box office, I really have to publicly eat my words on Demi because that was a great run. Hey! I know that on even some of the episodes people mentioned like that I was dubious

[02:19:21] but what I ended up doing was watching like 11 or 12 movies I'd never seen and liked. And really liked most of them. Hell yeah. And the episodes were uniformly enjoyable including when he won and I remember saying to you guys, do people know they just voted

[02:19:37] for the first or builder episode? Turns out it was your best episode ever. It might have been our number one. It's on my face but boy, I'm better off for having watched all those movies and kind of employed my Demi knowledge now

[02:19:51] to have gotten like a recent music-y job that I wouldn't have really known how to pitch on if not for thinking about him as long as you did that series. So I was fully in the wrong. Someone, I'm not going to call them out by name

[02:20:04] because they don't need to be shamed anymore or they're going to be shamed, but the reason they're going to have to and the reason they're going to be shamed is because there's another kind of typical film critic but is public tweeted like did you see this?

[02:20:20] They tweeted like oh is there any other example? No no no because this is what I'm going to say. I'm not going to say what you think I'm going to say, David. David give me a modicum of trust. Trust Griffin like he's Russ Richards Okay.

[02:20:36] Someone said something like, is there any other example of someone like Jonathan Demi who makes one great film and then makes forgettable bullshit for the next 40 years? And he was getting clowned on in the way people get clowned on film Twitter.

[02:20:53] But when I saw the tweet and I looked at the replies, there was a very, very large percentage of them that were blankies not jumping down this guy's throat but saying like, you know I used to have a similar opinion on him but then I watched

[02:21:09] all of his movies because of Blank Check and first of all he made so many good interesting movies before Silence of the Lambs and second of all he only had 20 years after Silence of the Lambs and third of all there are a lot of

[02:21:20] undersung gems in that following 20 years. I liked that the most diplomatic of the responses to that tweet were blank check people sort of saying what Alex is saying now which is like I actually think if you take the time to dig into Demi there's a lot of

[02:21:34] interesting stuff there. It was very enriching for me to watch all of those movies and I was glad to I was glad to be forced to do that. Isn't that a positive thing for me to say David and not just clowning on somebody with the bad tape?

[02:21:46] I didn't think you were going to clown on him. It is nice that they were that they David's hair has turned into fire a lot ghost writer. He's so hot thing mad. There's a couple things, a couple things I want to say one.

[02:21:59] My hair is very long right now and I can't stand it. The worst the worst most annoying thing about quarantine to be clear. It is not the worst thing about David's hair looks exactly the same.

[02:22:08] I notice no difference other than the fact that it's on fire like James Wood Hades and Hercules one of my dark it you know because obviously it's been so hard for people especially like the person who cuts my hair.

[02:22:20] I has cut my hair for years and I love her and I love seeing a break and chatting with her every you know a couple months or whatever and she sent me an email the other day being like hey like I'm in New York like

[02:22:31] but when you know when whenever this is over I'm still here and I was so happy. I interviewed Spike Lee today so that's also that also took it out of me. That took a fucking double humble brag.

[02:22:42] I'm sorry can we go back to the first exciting thing is that your hairdresser in town and the second exciting thing is that you talked to Spike Lee. Lee did not leave New York shout out second thing interviewed Spike Lee. That was cool.

[02:22:56] So but that probably like used up a little of my zoom fatigue or whatever. Third thing let's play the box office game. I can't I'm excited for that. Let's do it. That that is crazy though that you led with you led with the most exciting

[02:23:11] thing is my hairdresser named a walking Phoenix mockumentary. She said I'm still here. OK, let's play the box office game. My God and that's why you stick around for two hours and 30 minutes.

[02:23:25] If we were if we were half an hour in I guess that that one I would have been like I get it that when you said that to me it was like I was watching

[02:23:32] the words come at my face and I was just like I don't know what these are. Look David as opposed to my hairdresser who I don't have much of a personal relationship to who instead named for me a tourist walking Phoenix vigilante drama.

[02:23:50] They said I was never really here right. OK, let's play a box office game. That one I got you. All right. So this film opened at number seven. It didn't open well. Fireworks. Oh yeah, fireworks in the day. I work for you now baby.

[02:24:02] Great to shoot fireworks when you can't see them. It's supposed to piss cops off right. All right. Well, this is me off. I hate fireworks. I hate. We would get their attention. No, I like it. Keep it going.

[02:24:15] It turns out that Ben is the only one shooting fireworks. He's moving from borough to borough. So David this opened when in October? Yes, late October, October 27th 2000. So this is very spooky. Four point five.

[02:24:30] I was a Halloween release four point five million dollars on twenty five hundred screen, so not a particularly good opening. It makes ten million dollars total at the domestic box office. I don't believe it was ever really released internationally. I hope it is pointedly remember

[02:24:47] Entertainment Weekly running an article around the release of this film about how October was the worst month, how there had been fewer, a hundred million dollar grossers in history from October over any other month. And they were saying like, look at the evidence of Travolta movies bombing.

[02:25:03] Like look at all the movies that no one's going to see in October. I feel like that's gone now. Right. October used to be the worst month though. That sure. Right. Now right now the summer starts and March and ends in October practically or whatever.

[02:25:15] Used to. Used to. Now the summer is canceled. Right now the summer starts at Thanksgiving or whatever the new system is going to be. But anyway, I just want to point out that we're not going to talk

[02:25:25] about it, but opening at number six above lucky numbers is Jonathan Lipnicki's The Little Vampire. Oh, we should talk about it actually for a little bit. Can we go on a little vampire side tension? Yeah, what's the deal with the movie? Like what's it about?

[02:25:39] He's a little vampire. Okay, small, all righty remember a lot more. If you'd asked me what year was that movie I would have said what Jerry McGuire is 95. I would have said that movie was 96. That movie is 2000. 2000, he looks like he's the same age. Yes, exactly. He does.

[02:25:58] He's just got slightly spikier hair. Did they shoot it in 96? He didn't age at all and then he aged a lot. Like he had like a seven year window where he looked identical and now he's unrecognizable. The weirdest thing is it's like from the director of like

[02:26:12] last exit to Brooklyn and body of evidence. Like I don't know how he was called in to make a kid vampire movie. Is that only LaMelle? Uli Adele Adele. My Oolly is good. Paul. Good Paul. All right, number one of the box office, the big comedy hit of

[02:26:28] why I guess probably came out late September or October. Big comedy star and another actor who's doing more comedy is famous actor. Another famous actor who who didn't originally do comedies and now is doing more of them. I know what he's just he's just started to.

[02:26:48] Is it a hero? Is it meet the parents? It's not the parents just for the record. I believe that was what it was in its fourth weekend has dropped only six percent to stay number one for the four she held for a million dollars.

[02:27:03] Yes, and then a little meet the Fockers does a hundred million more than this big hit. It's crazy how successful those movies were. It's also crazy how many uses I get out of saying you can milk anything. It's always funny. It's the funniest line ever in any movie.

[02:27:20] Ben and meet the parents takes. I don't know anyone else care about me, the parents. I remember liking it at the time. It feels so cringy. It's very cringy. It gives me like, I don't know. A lot of Ben Stiller stuff is too much.

[02:27:34] There's one incredible joke in the second one, which I remember nothing about where he thinks that Ben Stiller has fathered a child with a Hispanic woman. And he's there is a young Hispanic man who has been stillers years. Exactly. And he does look exactly like Ben.

[02:27:50] And then the only thing I remember about that movie is he says that boy's name is Jorge Villalobos translation George House of Wolves, which is an amazing joke. But by the way, that is a great example of comedy more is changing between that and Lucky Numbers.

[02:28:07] That is like sure comedy guys Ben Stiller Owen Wilson just like kind of riffing. That movie sort of it's bringing back an older thing. It's like we're doing farce again. We're doing like a social comedy, right? Like it's about like snooty rich people who are weird.

[02:28:25] You know, destroying Lucky Numbers is exactly like the decline of the black dark comedy and the rise of like comedies with people that you just kind of want to hang out with who are vaguely uncomfortable and funny. Well, but meet the parents had that gross

[02:28:39] out tinge like it had the you know those big moments that you could put in a trailer that was sort of like American pie. Yeah. Right. That's the remnant of the Fairly Brothers tale, which is now moving to the more character based cringe comedy brothers.

[02:28:54] But by high stakes and it's the combination of a those slack pack guys become the big leading man and also now it's can you put someone in a comedy who usually isn't funny and that's half the selling point like John Travolta?

[02:29:08] Number two, except except he thought he was funny. OK, number two is an absolutely unsurprising sequel but a total flop of a sequel, though it actually is opening the 13 million dollars to a horror film. A Blair Witch book of shadows book of shadows.

[02:29:26] That's right. They opened the book. Everyone thought that was going to be number one and it greatly underperformed. It did. It's not very good, but it is interesting in that it's about a group of people who have seen the Blair Witch Project, think it's real and try to

[02:29:40] recreate it and then some fucked up shit happens to them. It is such a bizarre pitch like you should think it's just like some people try and find the you know, like it set as a sequel to the Blair Witch

[02:29:50] Project, but they're like, no, it's going to be a meta take on people being freaked out by the Blair Witch Project. We're going to get the director of the movie about the West Memphis three killers, right? Who directed a documentary filmmaker about real murders.

[02:30:05] That's so weird. OK, I'm sorry, but just to state this very cleanly, that still appeared in time where even though like the entire appeal of Blair Witch was, oh look, they made it for like forty thousand dollars. It looks like a home video.

[02:30:18] It's like a scary haunted object and it grossed this much money. They still were like, yeah, but you can't make another movie like that. It has to look like a real movie. So instead they hire a documentary filmmaker to make a movie that isn't a

[02:30:31] mockumentary, which everyone rejects because they're like this is the opposite of what we liked about Blair Witch. It's not about the fucking lore. It's about the aesthetics weird weird miscalculation. Weird movie number three is an inspirational sports drama from Walt Disney in the year 2000. It's not the rookie.

[02:30:53] No. Is it? Remember the Titans? Yes, it is. OK, another big wash. Sorry for stealing that, but no, we were sourcing all those Disney sports movies on Disney Plus and that I just know is there's there's three zeros after that movie. What's what's the best?

[02:31:09] Oh, we haven't watched most of them yet. We watched Miracle. I think Miracle would be my pitch. Miracle is my pitch. That's the Conor baby. Yeah, he's good at them. I like that guy. I think that movie Loki. It's very good. Great Kurt Russell movie. Yeah.

[02:31:30] Number four at the box office is a comedy I certainly saw in theaters. I believe I saw it twice. Huge bomb, big comedy director, two kind of middling stars of the moment who are maybe like T. Stars. No, their movie stars.

[02:31:48] It's just like they're not quite like cream of the crop movie stars. Like they're sort of like, oh, it's second tier. It's a remake. I did see it twice. I have no idea why it's not very.

[02:32:00] Did you a remake of a foreign film or an earlier American remake of an earlier comedy, I believe a British movie. Hmm. And do you like it still? Or did you see it two times by coincidence? I think it was kind of by coincidence.

[02:32:15] I think at the time I was very into the lead. I mean, I still love the male star. But at the time I was sort of like he's going to be big, like, you know, where I'm going to see everything he's in. Wow.

[02:32:27] I saw it once and was like, this is funny. And I think I saw it a second time. I was like, oh, I guess it's just OK. When is the original movie from roughly from the sixties? And there's a gender flip happening.

[02:32:39] One of the two lead roles has been gender flipped. Huh. Huh. There's a gender flip. People really remember. Yeah. But that feels like that this is what's driving me crazy. It sounds like it's something that should be so squarely in the wheel houses of both Alex and myself.

[02:32:55] Yes, we should be the only two people who remember this. Major director. But as a comedy director, it does nailed it. I believe I also saw that two times in the other. I saw that one. Yes. Brendan Frazier, Elizabeth Hurley. She's the devil.

[02:33:11] And you know that because she's wearing a little red dress. Yes. The original is Peter Cook and Dudley Moore. Right. That's right. I say so they made the devil a woman in a red dress. Yes. With the shape of a red dress. I'm bought figure. You're right.

[02:33:24] I was also just all in it. Brendan Frazier at this point. Yeah, I mean, that's why why. So I saw 100 percent was like his money in the bank for me. Yeah. And in my you know, and he plays lots of because he keeps wishing and he keeps

[02:33:39] having different lives. So he got to wear different ways. Right. It's funny. I don't know. Yeah. Maybe it's not funny. And then comedy. There's a lot of comedy. So October is like comedy month. Yeah, I mean they've been sort of hanging around as well.

[02:33:54] I guess so you'll laugh so hard. I'll scare you that was because obviously the big Halloween or Blair Witch two and the little vampire right to scare you. Obviously year and the number five is a failed Oscar play big stars. It's not a man of honor canceled.

[02:34:14] No one of them. One of them is highly canceled. Mel Gibson. That could be men of honor. OK, is it a spacey? Is it pay it forward? It's a spacey. Yes, let's be frank. It's pay it forward. Let's be frank.

[02:34:26] If you would please allow me to be frank. It is it is pay it forward. Right. Yes. Yes. And much hyped at the time but a movie that basically people already were engraving the Oscars when the release date was announced.

[02:34:41] I believe Griffin walked out and said like best actor, best actress, David. I didn't wait to walk out. The lights had not even risen in the theater and I turned to my father and I confidently said picture director, actor, actress, supporting actor.

[02:34:55] I thought it was going to take them all. Can you imagine watching that movie now? Really tough to imagine. It'd be fun as a goof. I from redeeming something at some point in time ended up with pay it forward in my iTunes library.

[02:35:13] It was some promotion where it was like by one Warner Brothers movie and we give you three extra ones for free. And this one is pay it forward. Right. I mean, it's like a curse. It's a monkey's paw. Yeah.

[02:35:25] But this quarantine trash and then it ends up back in your living room. You tell them of iTunes movies. Absolutely. But the quarantine has really tested me where I just keep on looking at that file in my iTunes library and go like, is this the thing that will

[02:35:39] finally push me to watch a standard deaf digital copy of pay it for? It's not even HD. What else is in the top? What's below? Lucky numbers. Yeah, just around some things. OK, so well, obviously we have the little vampire as I mentioned.

[02:35:57] Shout out to the littlest of all vampires. We've also got a contender. The drama Rod Lurie. Certainly his best movie. Carder of the power. We love it. We've got the legend of drunken master. Oh, yeah. That's sort of an interesting little moment.

[02:36:20] You know, we're like years later, redubbing, re-editing of a classic film, a sequel to a classic film. That one's OK. Yeah, we've got Best in Show, which is sort of chugging along. It's made like ten million dollars. Why does it end up that? It ends up at like 20.

[02:36:38] So it was sort of like a little sleeper. We just rewatched that. Just a movie that you watch now and it's crazy that this was like a film released in movie theaters. Yes, yes. It's just like so, so fun sketches and it just looks like whatever.

[02:36:55] And it's so funny and like people paid money to sit and watch it. I did like a little guest mini series on my own, rewatching them maybe earlier this year, end of last year.

[02:37:07] And that one held up a little bit less for me than the others just because I remember it being the funniest fucking thing I had ever seen at that point in time. But then you get to the last 30 minutes with Fred Willard and that is

[02:37:19] truly there is an argument to be made that that is the best comedic performance in the history of cinema. One shows up. Right. Return on investment. I mean, Seth Meyers tweeted something about it, but just like the amount

[02:37:32] of screen time he has versus how much he gets out of every syllable in that performance is insane. One of the funniest people ever. One of the best parts of that performance isn't even something he says.

[02:37:43] It's when the other guy goes, well, just like when you asked me that last year. The way everyone responds to him, the looks he makes, like he was on set for like three hours. I think what the what happened part of a mighty wind is his individual,

[02:37:59] probably most like electrifying scene. Yes, yes. I think, you know, the best in show run there is bulletproof. It's like his flu game. It's Michael Jordan's flu game. It's him just showing up and somehow just like getting bucket. Yeah.

[02:38:15] So you've also got the ladies man, one of the better. Another Paramount. Scenic comedy. Paramount. Crumbling. You've got and then you've got this is actually something. The only last thing I want to say to other F CinemaScore movies, Lost Souls and Dr. T and the Women. Yeah.

[02:38:33] So in 2000, America is like, I don't know what it is, but we're sick of what you're trying to do like enough. I think the F CinemaScore only starts that year. I was looking at the list. Uh, yeah, it's it's even ninety nine or two.

[02:38:50] That it's like it's around there. And I think we can all agree in closing that, you know, lucky numbers gets an A right, David? The last yes, absolutely. A plus the last thing I want to say is that David Gordon Greens, David, George Washington opened on five screens.

[02:39:04] Great movie. His first movie. The first F CinemaScore movie is 1999. Eye of the Beholder and then 2000 is like Dr. T, Lost Souls, Lucky Numbers. Then it suddenly. But I had a beholder came out in 2000, right?

[02:39:21] I think it's like a British movie and then it's like a January 6th 2000. You're right. So four movies come out in the United States in 2000 are the first four films to get. Presuming that at that point they were like here's the CinemaScore thing.

[02:39:35] And by the way, guys, now this is brand new for the millennium, but you can give movies an F. We had people were like, oh, we have good. We have almost run for three hours. I have to eat something. This is David. I have a side tangent.

[02:39:47] I want to go on quick. Really quick. Can I just talk about Johnny Mnumonic? My headphones are literally almost out of battery. And then I have a merchandise spotlight. I want to do as well. David, we're joking. I know you're joking.

[02:40:03] You better be joking or else you're trouble. He was joking. I will say now that we're done. I'm not right now that we're done. It doesn't seem like Griffin, you needed to delay this 90 minutes to rewatch Cabin Boy, but I'm glad you did 30 minutes to watch Cabin Boy.

[02:40:17] Fair point. So I just wanted to watch Cabin Boy, which is because I'm in an Adam Resnick thing. I watched all of Get a Life in quarantine as well. Good, good show.

[02:40:28] And I will say I wanted to say more about Adam Resnick, but then all of you dunked on me. It was open season on old Griffey. We got it. We got to save room for my Schwartzman. Bewitched tidbit somewhere. That's happening next episode.

[02:40:45] But you can't put it in the mail. You can do whatever you want. It's yours. Yeah, we're not going to put in a lucky numbers. No, no. I mean, if we could do whatever we want, you can do whatever you want to put it in and double it.

[02:40:55] Yeah, let's let's re edit our first episode ever, which was not good. The first Phantom podcast episode and put it in there in the middle. But like, let's not tell anyone. Let's just update it. Right. Just the numbers on that episode without any zero pointy to it.

[02:41:12] Yeah. And it'll be the perfect crime. Alex, thank you for being on the show. Thank you for having me back. Number five. I'm so happy. We get we have finally inducted you into the five perfect film selection in a already very strong mini series that's just

[02:41:27] beginning for the listener. I mean, you know, you demanded it. Was it worth it? You tell me. I'm happy. No, you tell me. You know, I'm saying was it was a great time you dreamed of David is miserable.

[02:41:41] His head is on fire like anger from the Pixar film inside out worth it. And I just because I had so much fun preparing for it and wanting to make it a real compelling episode because I know already from listening

[02:41:51] to one and a half of these that this mini series is taking Nora Efron very seriously and you're elevating her as a writer and already in the half of the This Is My Life

[02:42:00] episode as a director and this coming towards the end is going to be a real question mark for people as it was for me. Who plays anger inside out? Lewis Black. Of course. Hey, there you go. Yeah, they took the shortest walk possible on that one. Yeah, really.

[02:42:16] Well, he was good. Hey, and thank all of you for listening and please remember to rate and read subscribe. Thanks to and for co-producing the show and Brian and our social media, Lame Monk, Omri for our theme song Joe Bonapet

[02:42:29] Rouse for artwork tune in next week for a witch with Dana Schwarz and maybe the right bed, the right man. I'm sorry, the shorts men drop unless we decide to put it somewhere else funky and on our Patreon. Now we're doing we're not going to do that.

[02:42:50] We're going to we're going to put a right man drop in the Bewitched episode and we're going to put the Schwarz men drop somewhere funky like in a recording of Funky Cole, Medina, go to blank check dot com back slash

[02:43:02] Patreon, go to patreon dot com back slash blank check for Mission Impossible Commentaries and blankies dot red dot com for some real nerdy shit. And as always, I don't think I have ever seen David look more defeated by an episode than he does right now.

[02:43:21] We're at three hours of episode now, three hours, one, two, three. I know. OK, I think this is the one I want to do. David. Yes. Can can you say, geez, I've been so busy lately, I barely polish my shoes. OK. Sure.

[02:43:48] Geez, I've been so busy lately, I barely polish my shoes. Hold on. No, hold on. Sorry. I say the line and then you say that it's the opposite of what we usually do. No, I'm not doing that. I don't even remember this line just well in that case.

[02:44:03] I go which line? That's the line. That's the line I'm trying to do. You have to respond to it. Otherwise there's no context. Can't wait for all this to go at the end of the episode. Yeah. That's the line I'm trying to do. You're forgetting how it goes.

[02:44:22] I am. I don't remember anything about this movie. When did you want to go like two days ago? It's gone. He asks apropos of nothing. Do you masturbate, Russ? And Russ says, geez, I've been so busy lately, I barely polish my shoes.

[02:44:39] Do you would you rather ask me do you masturbate, Russ? Yeah, sure. And you pass your shoes. There you go. That's what I'll do because David refuses. God. OK, so David, whenever you're ready, whenever you feel like you have

[02:44:57] your best Michael Moore down, you in your best Michael Moore say, do you masturbate, Russ?