Starship Troopers with J.D. Amato

[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 Welcome, Rico's Podcast Hello, ladies and bugs, I am Griffin Newman Oh, I'm David Sims

[00:00:41] It's a Blank Check with Griffin and David, or hashtag the two friends It's a competitive advantage It's a thing other podcasts don't have going for them And we promised ourselves, us two friends That no matter what happened, we'd be two friends forever

[00:00:51] Wherever we end up in this galaxy, in this bug war, we'll be friends forever Even if we're on clandestine? True! This is a podcast Interesting reply True! This is a podcast about homographies Would you like to know more? Yes, I would because I'm a connoisseur of context

[00:01:11] Click yes Think It's a podcast about homographies, directors who have massive success early on in their careers And they're given a series of Blank checks to do whatever crazy past projects they want Sometimes the checks clear and sometimes they bounce, baby Would you like to know more?

[00:01:25] Click yes I'm going to be doing their part Are you? Listening guarantees citizenship This is a Griffin's not happy with me I'm so happy, David's the one, he's been furious He's been throwing tables since we got here Yeah, I need to get into that in a second

[00:01:43] You can't really throw these tables I could angrily like raise it and lower it You brought your own little table then Oh yeah, this is our new fancy studio You got I think you got the controls, there you go Damn, we're going up

[00:01:57] We got the high ground now You got the high ground now Are you listening at home? The table is slightly raising And slightly lowering Difference of an inch in either direction This is a miniseries about the films of Paul Verhoeven and Hollywood And we've gotten to that point

[00:02:13] We've crossed that threshold The titular, the namesake For our miniseries The inspiration This of course is podship casters And we're today talking about Starship Troopers Yes, my favorite Paul Verhoeven movie Not to spoil my end of series list Wow, yeah But this is the one for me

[00:02:38] It's a very boy pick I'll admit But I love this movie You are a boy It is a fact I feel like we need to get our energy up Should I be mean again? You are very mean Let's get this out there

[00:02:51] Our guest has already talked on Mike Yeah, I've been holding back I haven't had the intro yet Hold him back But I got a lot to say He's a great friend of the podcast Of myself Of me? A listener favorite I consider you a great friend

[00:03:03] I consider you a great friend Until there was this beef between us Well that's what we need to talk about I don't want to put words in mouth Words in mouth Yes You know I'm from the Chris Gather Show My brother, my brother in May A cop show

[00:03:19] True True Fact Would you like to know more? Yes Such as his name Well, but first of all What people know him best from Of course His episodes such as Digital filmmaking from Attack on the Podcast The classic Speed racer Bing War the worlds Bing

[00:03:37] There's one other one No I believe that's the three No that's it Yeah This is his fourth appearance Fourth time's the charm And I'm coming at you Emily Yoshida I'm coming at you Richard Lawson Richard Lawson Those are the big shots Those are the heavy hitters

[00:03:51] No one else has done more than two Right I'd have to think I mean Conner I mean Depends on how you think about Conner Conner's only on one episode George Lucas was on five episodes And you know if you count the live appearances

[00:04:07] Then the Black Men and Can't Jump in Hollywood Bray and James No all of them have now done three Because they all did individual episodes with us And they've appeared as a group twice No because Gerard didn't do the live show Oh that's right

[00:04:22] It was only James and Bray Okay fine Alright well two out of the three Well this is such a great way to hook listeners in Lays and Sheldon and JD Amato is on the show for that I'm JD Amato and I love movies I love movies

[00:04:37] See JD's coming in with this real positive energy Blanky's out there After listening to what I want you to do Put those headphones on I like that you're on a phone call And I want you to say out loud Wherever you are I love movies

[00:04:51] Now don't shout it That's embarrassing No yeah Say it in a normal tone So people might think you're on a phone call And if you're a fellow blankie out there Who sees that hat You hear someone else say I love movies Come up And you go Blank it

[00:05:09] And they put out your hand And they go thank it And then smack their hand Like high five Cool And that's how you guys are going to sort of say hello in the wild Blank it Thank it And then slap Thank it Quick

[00:05:21] He's doing kind of like a Like a little It's a sideways Yeah high five High five I love movies Guys I love movies Before I watch a movie I say out loud I love movies Thank you At the end of the movies I say thank you

[00:05:35] So you say twice Thank you twice I say thank you for it coming And thank you for it going And then you take the disc out of your player And you go blank it And you slap it across the room Yep If you've ever been to my apartment

[00:05:46] It's just a sea of DVDs and Blu-rays That are scratch broken Crack discs So I just wanted to get into this And just say that We've been at the studio for about an hour now You have been here the longest of the three

[00:05:57] Because you were here when I arrived Yes Well you got here with producer Ben Right Because producer Ben And I got coffee ahead of time And What's that Mr. Positive He's doing the voices Tiebreaker Finest Film Critic Soak him with Benny White Hop Benny Like Benny Fuck master

[00:06:13] He's not Professor Crispy He is the meat lover He is the far detective He's graduated certain tells of the course Of different miniseries Such a Kylo Ben Producer Ben Kanovi Ben Knight Shyamalan Say Benny thing Ailee Benz with a dollar sign Ben Sate Warhawz Produ-er Bane

[00:06:31] And Ben 19 the Fennellmaker Yes I think I got Ben Deucer in there Back in the day You did That sounds right And the other one you got in was Produ-er Right Because that was the typo on TCGS Where you said it wasn't a typo

[00:06:45] I was saying you were a Produ-er Right Yep Those are great titles Those are great titles They are I like Ben Deucer And I like Produ-er I don't know if I'm a fan of the far detective The meat lover But hey Whenever Griffin does that

[00:07:01] It reminds me that you are an actor That can memorize things Yeah And you have like a memory palace In your head for all those names Because I don't know How you can remember all those There's some I forget sometimes But yes it is my job

[00:07:12] That's always the thing that people When we have guests on the show First time guests They always go Oh I always assumed you were Reading that off the list No I have to remember things That's why they pay me Griffin City does it off the bone

[00:07:23] Okay let's get into what happens here Okay so I was here The great fight Hashtag the great fight I was here before anybody David walks in Clearly stressed out Yeah Give him a big hug Yeah He sits down He flips up his computer

[00:07:38] He has a little work to do Declare that he has to do some work I had to Which is fine Just a second to work And what else does he flip out A sandwich from prayer Yeah big old sandwich This is what we really have to talk about

[00:07:48] This is what we really have to talk about Let's put a bookmark on that We'll get to the sandwich in a second So then Ben and I are like Having this like whispering conversation You were just chatting it's nice David keeps asking questions And then when I answer

[00:08:01] Literally says shut up I have to work Shut up I have to work I have to work I'm responding to questions That he is asking The point that I physically relocated myself Next to Ben Said David would stop asking questions And then telling me to shut up

[00:08:15] It was insane I'm real fun I'm a real fun guy And then Griffin was texting saying I'll be 15 minutes Yeah And then David is fine Griffin sent the classic Running 15 minutes late text Which means Griffin's rolling in Half an hour late Well but here's the thing

[00:08:29] I need to reveal now David texted me and said Hey Griffin you'd be 45 minutes late And I said I would never do that To my best friend Jay the Amada And he said I got this fucking sandwich to eat I got this piece to file

[00:08:42] This guy won't get off my fucking back Is the gall to answer questions I ask him Give me 45 minutes to wiggle around And if I could paint a picture of everybody And I said make it 30 and it's a deal So David is like It was the great compromise

[00:08:55] The great compromise David is clamoring away at the keyboard With stress on his face He finishes it And then immediately unwraps Unwraps and devours a sandwich Really good sandwich Gotta say But he eats it like cone head style Like he just shoves it into his throat

[00:09:12] And I think the first non-stressed work David thing that happened was He went That was actually a good sandwich Good sandwich David's a connoisseur of sandwiches I actually am Gotta be honest I'm not being facetious You love sandwiches It is If I was a connoisseur of anything

[00:09:28] I guess sandwiches is the top five thing And you seem surprised by this sandwich Because it was sort of a pre-prepared On the rack taken go It was a pret sandwich Pret sandwiches are usually It's like well you know it's fine I am nourished now

[00:09:42] You know it's sort of the most You can hope for usually But you crack the code That's the one I always get Which is the chicken Caesar with bacon Yeah On a baguette There's something about their bacon The weird little dry strips Of like extremely frighteningly red bacon

[00:09:55] Yeah That like it doesn't taste exactly Like other bacon But it does taste great Well it's like Taco Bell I want Mexican food I don't go to Taco Bell But when I want Taco Bell I go to Taco Bell Cause Taco Bell tastes great Sure

[00:10:07] It's not Mexican food It's whatever it is Yeah and this sandwich broke David from the spell Yeah Cause you're in a mood And now it's the bright joyous Happy friend David Except he said shut up again Right before we started listening That was a joke

[00:10:19] It was not funny David No comedy points I'm JD Amato and I love movies I'm Griffin Newman and I love movies I'm David Simpson and I love movies And I'm Ben Hosley And I think movies are fun Okay and I'm pointing it at JD right now Blanket

[00:10:35] Thank it So now that You're in a crisp slap Now that no one's listening Yeah this is the last episode Listen when you see my name pop up You know we're getting into it You smash that download button You gotta smash that download button

[00:10:50] We got two pages of Cleanly written notes Two pages of A4 but It's the A4 has been flipped Or no what's happening here Listen I'm a filmmaker I work in the industry And so all of my Everything I do is widescreen Sure sure yes

[00:11:06] So my paper is in a Widescreen aspect These are letter box notes Not letter box Notes These notes have been letter boxed For they've been modified to I write my notes in 185 Yeah that was about it You should be able to do that Yeah So we with our

[00:11:26] With our favorite guest We try to have a policy Of not having anyone on Two mini series in a row Because we like to build Anticipation variety and all of that And both Richard and Emily Had done big little episodes Right

[00:11:40] And you came to me and you were like You know I didn't get the call And I said to you it's because It's also been a long time It's been a while It's been a while It's been a while yes It's been a while and

[00:11:52] The song David was doing the song Yeah Right and so you were kind of like No one's ever done that before I was like let's get on the Let's get it going And I said look The reason I didn't even ask you For a big load

[00:12:01] Sure as you knew what was coming Because we had already decided And I said I know what you're Gonna want to do And I told you Verhoeven And you got so excited We were at the Union Square Train station You started yelling shit about

[00:12:11] How you were gonna beat Emily And Richard Yeah He's hostile He was slamming them He was slamming them He was like those idiots They took a big load They didn't know what they were Turning down Well it was Those jerks I mean I mean

[00:12:25] I mean Lord Hook, I in center They're talking about the loveless No spoilers But I mean Richard and Emily Have good shit coming in the future Because I mean they are the ones We think about in advance These three Yeah those three Yes that's what I'm saying

[00:12:39] Right everyone has good stuff lined up I'm saying like some people were Sort of like oh maybe we should Talk to them about doing an episode Sometime Right Richard, Emily and JD were like Oh we're doing this director You know Like Richard would be good for it

[00:12:52] Yeah exactly Right but this was I did you a kindness I said I'm not even going to have The big little conversation with you Because I want to let you be the one Of our fan favorite regulars Who gets a Verhoeven

[00:13:03] Listen I don't have much to talk about The Hurt Locker The K-19, The Widowmaker Listen don't have much to say about it We're talking about Paul Verhoeven Over here Paul Verhoeven We're talking about Starship Troopers We're talking about film on the Presbyts between practical and digital effects

[00:13:19] Oh yes We're talking about a film That's had the greatest turn around And critical response Perhaps the history of film Very well It's possible Think about another movie That critics hand as much And then we're like Actually Verhoeven maybe nailed it Well you know it's like

[00:13:35] You always read like Vertigo was poorly received You know there's always those Sort of classic tales Of like oh Vertigo got bad reviews When it came out And now we're going to agree It's like a consensus Like one of the great films But I wasn't there

[00:13:50] I don't know what kind of reviews Vertigo got I was there for Starship Trooper I also What I think is interesting About the Starship Troopers turn around Is something like Vertigo Where it's like Oh it's like an effective Hitchcock thriller And then people realized it's high art

[00:14:02] But it was always kind of Like a populist favorite Starship Troopers was like Viewed as a failed populist movie People were like That's an action movie For people with bad taste Who don't like good movies And then it became Like wait a second It's high art

[00:14:16] I would also like to point out You are listening to a podcast right now Where we are making equivalencies Between Vertigo And Starship Troopers 100% We love movies here We love movies here Blanket Thank it Sort of far from each other But we gave it a shot

[00:14:34] It was more of a traditional high five You didn't really get that It's kind of a diagonal high five Like sort of like Maybe an X with our hands I'd stand behind that Ben's like so uninterested Ben's already shaking his head Putting his hand in his

[00:14:49] He looks tired No it's fine It's just I We're like Almost 15 minutes in And And we're We've said the title of the movie We've said the title of the movie Once so okay Are you right? What are you complaining about? Hands up Hands up you're right Okay

[00:15:07] Ben, I do think there is a lot to talk about When you bring me on a podcast You know what you've signed up for That's true Well Jesus remember the fucking war Of the world's podcast Where we like We went down some rabbit hole

[00:15:17] I can't even remember what it was about And then like You know the recording had gone wrong And we had to stop What it wasn't That was a serious crisis we have heard It was the career of McGee Yes it was We did like 45 minutes

[00:15:32] It wasn't that long It was like But we had been I think we've been talking for a good 10 minutes About it and we were so deep We were way too deep And there were all these like Semantic arguments happening over like

[00:15:43] The exact arc of McGee's sort of rise and fall And that was Ben was sick There's a thing for almost every time you've been on the show Ben has been sick for that That's true Oh that was And we I forced the The intern

[00:15:58] And then you had to re-record the Yeah Ben was fully out of the office that day There was an intern mixing it for us Also are you guys aware That the podcast was actually longer Because after the fact Do you even know about this?

[00:16:11] Yes I know about this You recorded a new segment which Ben placed in Yes Do you know about this? Remind me There is a sub-podcast in your podcast That was me reflecting Oh yeah of course Of course Of course

[00:16:26] As you guys I felt like you peer pressured me into Being negative And they really did They really did And if you listen to it it is insane Yeah it's like just say it JD Alright okay You extend to it you jump

[00:16:38] I'd say it was less peer pressure more just an assumption Alright guys We are now discussing Tangents We are on a tangent about prior tangents That we've had on this podcast So sorry listeners So I'm gonna pull us out of that Yeah JD Amato and I love tangents

[00:16:58] Can I just tell one story about JD and podcasting? Okay is it a short story? It's short I genuinely was like I should say no to this It was almost a no I listened back to our episodes And I listened back to them again

[00:17:13] Like I listened to our podcast all the time And it's sometimes I shock myself when I'm listening back Where you're like can I just say one thing And I'm like David why do you say yes And I'm like yeah sure And I'm like why do I even

[00:17:24] You're the lead character in a horror movie Table of contents We're gonna get in and talk about the practical effects Of this movie We're gonna get into the technical stuff I wanna talk technical stuff about this movie JD you like to talk about We'll talk about lenses

[00:17:36] Ben we'll tell you I was looking up specs on the film stock For this film We're gonna get into all that Sure But first I'm gonna tell a story about JD First game What's the JD story? So talking TCGS Which is the podcast Riley's talking about

[00:17:51] This is a very quick story This is a quick story Uh huh Where we all met Yes Sure That's how I met Ben And you were a guest host on that show We were sure Ben had long hair Yeah David A plus sims

[00:18:05] And wore a lot more tie-dye shirts And had just gone through a breakup Oh yeah You were in a I was in the place You were in a Something I could kindly describe Is a broom closet I mean You know I've seen bigger broom closets But this was

[00:18:21] Ben came on to that show Maybe around episode 20 Sure Yeah We had producer Evan at first And the first episode we did And it was You guys at TCGS Were making the pilot for Comedy Central So you knew you were gonna go off M&N

[00:18:33] For a little while And you had an idea To do a podcast to keep fans engaged In a weekly basis Sure No one knew if anyone would listen to it Riley and I record this episode Where Geth is the guest And within 12 hours We had 20,000 downloads

[00:18:47] It was this insane Wait are you telling a JD story? Yes You're just recapping the TCGS No I'm telling it So Hey Connors of the context No The first episode had like He's on our side now We got him When we were at your dad's NYU class

[00:19:01] You recounted the history of talking TCGS No In Anatole you don't know Okay The first episode had like 40,000 plus listeners Right Yeah yeah yeah I know We were like number 18 On the iTunes comedy charts It was really bizarre And then I said JD

[00:19:15] Oh Ben's telling me to stretch for time Okay We asked JD Hey you're the logical person To have on as a guest For episode 2 And JD said I'll do it One demand It has to be longer I thought the first episode Was too short I remember that

[00:19:28] You discussed it on the podcast Yes On your obsession with Extremely long podcasts People are listening to this Because they want They want to hear us talking And now there's people listening right now That are furious And they're like No get to the movie

[00:19:40] Why are you doing this? Yes there are Which we're going to do that I'm getting there So I love movies But Blanket So JD said I'll do episode 2 Why am I getting so mad? I'll do episode 2 As long as it's really long And so we did like

[00:19:53] A 2.5 hour episode It was very long I remember We released as two parts It was split up And that episode did 8000 Yeah right We lost like 25% And we never recovered Right Yeah I mean look The first episode Chris Gethard was your guest That was probably always

[00:20:09] Going to be your biggest draw Hey hey But I mean no offense to JD I think you'd agree What? That I'm not as big of a draw As the star of the show You direct Someone who Whole career is being a draw But that is That's sharp

[00:20:24] That's like Hulk 2003 Levels of second week Draw It was We kind of We strange magic That shit Listen If I could be the strange magic Your podcast I'm all about it Now you're ready Caravan of courage right here Would you say that there's

[00:20:39] A strange magic to the appeal Of Starship Troopers? Yes Just like anything Starship Troopers Is a movie Uh huh That For my entire license It can't come out If It pops up on TV I will watch it To the entirety Totally And often

[00:20:56] If it pops up on TV I will just Go find the movie And start it from the beginning Yeah, well actually I was cause it's actually crazy How many more times I think I've seen The like 20 minutes on of this movie When I'm watching the beginning

[00:21:08] I'm always like Oh yeah I always forget It begins in media risk Cause I don't watch the beginning As much Because I always do Like stop on HBO Or whatever And I'm like The first thing Is this movie comes right After show girls

[00:21:20] Which is like his biggest flaw And it feels like Him being like Fuck I need to make Another RoboCop And it doubles down On all the RoboCop stuff And goes even further It's very similar to RoboCop starting with the news Broadcast Except it's starting with

[00:21:32] Like fucking propaganda films Right And it goes longer into it Right And I feel like One also is written by A new Meyer Right all of that Yeah Getting tipped back on board Uh and it is Well now just total recall Is sci-fi as well

[00:21:46] I guess I was gonna say It's his first sci-fi So in Preparing for this podcast today I also watched Death from Above The making of Starship Troopers Oh is it on the Blu-ray or anything Like that But it's like 45 minute Documentary about the making of

[00:21:59] And I want to say There is a very funny thing And this is just I have no proof of this It's just It feels like they interviewed Ed and New Meyer Two different times Uh huh One which he's like So the original The book And he starts talking

[00:22:13] About all the things And then the other It feels like He had just taken cocaine Right before Because he's like We got bugs We got bugs And they're fighting people And I don't really care And we're doing this And it's like Insanity

[00:22:26] I think he's one of these guys We've talked about that Even this many series That he kind of fell down A cocaine hole for like A decade He's talked about how The success of RoboCop I believe we talk about it On the RoboCop episode

[00:22:36] But let me just recap for you Ed New Meyer's entire filmography RoboCop Huge 1987 Starship Troopers 1997 I think in between He just kind of did coke Excuse me I have more Oh we learned something Today about him Also Let me Let me I now want to go to IMDB

[00:22:56] To just make triply sure That I am correct He directed The Direct to Video sequel to this Three And Phil Tippett Phil Tippett I think did two And he did three Right But he's written all of the Direct to Video starship He wrote So after RoboCop Yeah

[00:23:13] He also wrote a TV movie Called RAP BASTARD That I assume is a pilot That didn't get picked up Probably because it was called RAP BASTARD RAT Okay Anyway Starship Troopers 2 Hero of the Federation Written by Ed New Meyer I believe you're correct That Tippett directed it

[00:23:30] Special effects master Phil Tippett Yeah Anacondas Colin The Hunt for the Blood Orchid He wrote that But he didn't do the first one No Oh wow Who is that Was that Ja Jean Ke The fact that you're trying to Pull the writer of Anaconda

[00:23:46] It was a joke JD Writer of Anaconda was Hans Bauer Jim Cash Jack Epps Jr But then The three friends New Meyer directed Starship Troopers 3 Right The Journey Home Then he writes and directs Starship Troopers 3 Which brought Johnny Rico back He got Casper Van Dien back

[00:24:05] Casper Van Dien Correct And he also wrote That's what we were talking about Is that Casper Van Dien isn't in 2 When I think Casper Van Dien is like What are you talking about No, I'm not doing a DTV movie I'm an actor I'm a sleepy hollow

[00:24:18] What are you talking about It's a time 3 rolls around They're like Casper It's Ed New Meyer Yeah sure Whatever The fans will like it You'll get back It could be the big thing The big thing Now here's my other question Did he have anything to do

[00:24:33] I think he's credited On the Robocop Remake Not just as like The Robocop Remake Are you sure it's not Story by characters Created by something like that No, here's what Here's what IMDb says Joshua Zetumer wrote it Yeah With Edward New Meyer and Michael Minor

[00:24:51] And then below that Edward New Meyer and Michael Minor Again 1987 motion picture Interesting So I don't know I don't know what happened there Christian Just grab the door Okay sure Hey Woo hoo hoo Hello I bet you know who I am Uh are you Woo hoo hoo

[00:25:15] I think I do But we have such a thing Where I always guess wrong But I'd love you to introduce yourself I have a couple guesses I am wearing a parka So you can't see me So if you guessed incorrectly It wouldn't be that embarrassing

[00:25:29] No I just need you to tell me Who you are Take one guess No Who are you The Tricks Rabbit See no way I was ever going to guess That you were the Tricks Really what was your guess Like I don't know Paul Lind Like what are you

[00:25:45] No I'm pretty sure This is what the Tricks Rabbit Sounds like Woo hoo Okay What's up dude Usually you like to eat cereal Yeah That's why I'm here I heard there was a cereal box here Oh no Oh okay Alright No box of cereal Just take a seat

[00:26:01] You're going to need to be sitting down to hear this Okay Okay you're sitting down I'm sitting down So Blank Check is sponsored by Cereal Box And Adaptive Studios Okay But that's It's a totally different thing But let me pitch you on it It's not food Sure thing

[00:26:15] Okay False Idols It's a new cereal From Cereal Box Who are sponsoring the show So we're talking about like Oat pieces Marshmallows What kind of makeup Well NPR called Cereal Box The HBO of reading Oh wow It's Adaptive Studios is this Entertainment studio

[00:26:32] They re-imagine how film and TV And digital projects are developed And produced and distributed And Cereal Box brings you these stories Written by bestselling Award winning writers Like in teams They write these things in teams Like a TV writer's room And they release new episodes

[00:26:47] Of like a cool story every week Oh wow Ding dong What's up Tricks rabbit Hold on let me get the door Ah Have you seen those children? Are you After me lucky charms I heard there was a cereal box In here somewhere Is there a cereal box anywhere

[00:27:03] In the premises We're gonna They're never Okay Hey take a seat Oh look it's a trick It's nice to see you Nice to see you too Let me tell you about false idols Okay So in this cereal And by cereal I mean serialized story

[00:27:17] Oh you still got my attention FBI linguist Layla L. Deeb Is a deep undercover Posing as an heiress in the Middle East And she has to infiltrate the highest echelons In society to trace priceless relics From their millionaire owners Back to illegal digs

[00:27:32] And the terrorist groups profiting from their sale You guys hooked? Ah wow Alright Can't believe it That sounds exciting She's got troubled past She's got growing feelings for an art dealer son And there's a terrorist plot that she has to decide

[00:27:46] Where her loyalties lie on either side of Ding dong No I don't know Ooh I just broke out of jail I need some cookie crisp Where's the cereal box? Not like Count Chocula Oh you know Chocula He's right outside I can bring him in Oh bo bo bo

[00:28:03] Where is the cereal box? Alright well here's the cereal box It's an app You can switch from listening to reading In one click So you can be listening to the show And say You know now you're in a place where you can't listen anymore You can switch

[00:28:17] Like inside my coffin You can just switch and read the rest of the thing on your phone I like adaptability in my media Chocolate There's new episodes every week You can read or listen at no extra cost And false idols will be released as a print book

[00:28:34] In early April and you can pre-order it Oh wow that's really exciting This is me Griffin talking Hey Griffin how you doing There's a lot of people in the studio right now Yeah There's four cereal characters sitting on top of each other

[00:28:45] Well I did tell them to take a seat So they took the same seat Yeah Well so blank check listeners Can get the series now with a 20% discount On the first season of false idols today Oh wow Yeah go to cerealbox.com Slash blank check That's S-E-R-I-A-L-B-O-X

[00:29:04] Dot com slash blank check Uh you check to make sure that the box is blank No my friend My, sorry My count Thank you chocolate cerealbox.com slash blank check You go to the redeem page and you use code Check18 to get a 20% discount on the first season

[00:29:24] Ding dong Hold on let me just get it No no no keep the door closed It's me the Quaker Oats man I'm looking for my children Yeah get them out of here They're his children? Yeah well I guess they fall under the Quaker Oats post family

[00:29:35] He's married to the post person Uh I don't know I think this all tracks Get out of here Don't you love it when we do add for different products In our ad for a product Get out of here They weren't advertising anything

[00:29:46] They were just speaking their own truths Blank check listeners can get the series now With a 20% discount on the first season Of false idols today Head to cerealbox.com slash blank check That's S-E-R-I-A-L-B-O-X dot com Slash blank check Or you go to the redeem page

[00:30:04] And use the code Check18 Ooh that sounds good Boo-Berry get out of here It did make me realize Flesh and Blood is the only one in the Hollywood Verhoeven movies that doesn't have a sequel of some sort And Verhoeven hasn't done any of those sequels himself

[00:30:22] But there are two direct-to-video hollow men Is there there's a total recall sequel? Oh you're right I'm sorry there's a remake of course And for all I know there is a direct-to-video I don't think there is There's a classic There's two pennies from heaven

[00:30:34] There's basic and sync 2 starring David Morris Risk addiction Weird Starring Nottingham Forrest football player Stan Collymore Who is the most remade and sequel director? Is it perhaps Verhoeven? I don't know But they just know I mean because like at West Craven It's gotta be some horror guy

[00:30:55] Where it's like there are 14 seasons Yeah yeah yeah Or if we're talking direct-to-video then Lucas takes the cake Sure Because of the amount of Star Wars properties But the thing that's interesting with him is that Literally everything Verhoeven launched Either resulted in a remake of Sequel or both

[00:31:12] Other than Flesh and Blood Right it's almost like less in the number of them And more in the different franchises Right that's what's impressive for me So okay so let's do some Oh you're taking the headphones off Oh boy

[00:31:25] So and you can probably help me out here JD Because if you watch this documentary Yep But apparently the film started life as a script called Bug Hunt at Outpost 9 Yep Which is a great name for a script They should have kept that Someone points out

[00:31:40] Did Newmire write that? Newmire I believe wrote that Okay And they were gonna make that And then someone points out to him like Yo this is similar to Starship Troopers Yes The book And then the story Is that Newmire Read that growing up And thought it was cool

[00:31:58] And was like yeah we can do it And then Verhoeven Started reading it And immediately Hated it And stopped reading it like Threw it in the garbage Half way through Two chapters in The spacious garbage After famously throwing the Robocop script Into the garbage like two chapters in

[00:32:12] He now throws the Starship Troopers novel Saying it is very boring And very right wing Yes And it was sort of a thing of like It made him bored and depressed Sorry that's the exact quote Which I think is really funny And so they've made them

[00:32:27] Will be loosely based on the book But they optioned the book And they made it official The title had some value Exactly yes Good title too Yeah great title I mean Bud Conn and Outpost 9 is good too But Bud Conn and Outpost 9 would have

[00:32:42] Almost for sure been like a directed It sounds like an Ed Wood movie Sure Yeah Where Starship Troopers Hey They're gonna watch it And they get a big budget Crazy budget $105 million Did your thing include the famous Which I've referenced before Like visual effects reel Do the documentary

[00:33:02] Visual effects reel There's like a famous story about Like they got the funding from Is the studio Disney What it is It's such stone and Columbia Yeah cause Tri-Stars What right yeah I'm gonna say something that's gonna sound Like a joke right now I'm suddenly feeling incredibly sick

[00:33:18] So I'm gonna run to the bathroom for a second Okay I think it's the JD Amato bump How sick are we talking? Nauseous I feel like I might puke Okay Give me a couple minutes JD and I are gonna go talk it out

[00:33:29] Do you wanna stop the recording? No let's keep talking Okay I take pee breaks all the time Now I have to like purell my hands Oh cause you were touching him Cause I gave him that high five Ah it's true I haven't touched him

[00:33:43] No but you touched him Oh I guess so Well I'm not worried about those kinds of vectors Anyway Here I've told Griffin this a million times anyway JD you look very alarmed Don't be alarmed Why did Griffin get so sick suddenly Gonna have to say it's your fault

[00:33:57] Okay There was a visual effects reel Which I believe they use in the movie Or at least they adapt in the movie Of the bug killing the cow Oh interesting You know like the cow walks into the lab And then the weird bug thing

[00:34:14] The one that's sort of the walking mantis thing Rips the cow apart And then Paul Verhoeven walks out on screen And goes please let me make this movie Interesting And that like the sort of visually impressive The effects and the you know

[00:34:33] The gore and the sort of like oh it's Paul Verhoeven He's back at it Was enough to convince him to green like this movie For like a hundred million dollars That's so interesting I did not hear that Um so This was I remember reading that in Empire Magazine

[00:34:48] So if that's It's not true then it's Empire Magazine's fault This was one of the largest scale In terms of amount of work to be done Yeah Minatures visual effects film of all time The amount of things they had to make Because every all of the

[00:35:04] All the ships All of that's practical Right And they had some All the bugs There is some version of them right Like there are physical versions of all the bugs There's physical versions of all the bugs And they also did the first like

[00:35:17] Cause this was right around Jurassic Park era And so that was the first sort of proof concept That you can have these CG creatures But this is four years after Jurassic Park This movie comes out four years after Right Yeah go on sorry But

[00:35:32] So it's sort of the first time That someone I mean there's been other movies but they had such Large scale Sort of set pieces That they didn't really have techniques to Combine both the practical and the digital elements

[00:35:46] So they had to like do a bunch of insane stuff And so the film straddles the line In a very verhoven way Between these like cutting edge digital stuff And this like awesome cool Top of the line practical stuff Well Like there's actual matte paintings in this movie

[00:36:01] No which are amazing So we talk on our Total Recall episode About how that is like The peak The absolute peak Of like practical effects Right Cause it's like coming right near the end of practical effects They can do so much And they're trying like everything

[00:36:16] Yes and all those companies that do it Are up and running Right and it's all like yeah yeah yeah And they're like breaking barriers Stan Winston is a god Yeah And then of course I'm sure you've heard You know the famous I think it is Stan Winston's story

[00:36:29] On Jurassic Park where he looks at the CGI Recreation of the T-Rex And he says I am extinct Right like that's the joke Exactly So I don't think Verhoeven's worked with CGI before Right Cause in between Total Recall Which I guess Total Recall probably has a little CG

[00:36:46] Like very very basic but not really Right Cause that's like a matte painting heavy movie He made basic instinct and show girls Which are not Yeah this is probably the first time The first time Yeah And that actually And this is funny because Hollerman also Has incredibly groundbreaking

[00:37:02] How we doing Griffin came back Griffin bought for four I just puked a bunch Great So just can you affirm I feel okay I think it was just food poisoning Or something Okay JD's moving away JD is sort of in a horseshoe movement

[00:37:16] Like kind of like a pincer crab But this is less I think a defensive Let me keep myself healthy And more you might be the one You have yet to record an episode where one of us hasn't gotten Sick I know actually it's a little alarming Wait

[00:37:29] You're putting a mix It's been Ben up until now Ben's been sick all the time Right and today he's healthy so it looks like Speed Racer I remember Ben had like the flute Like it doesn't didn't talk except right at the end He was like Hey guys

[00:37:43] Now war of the worlds you literally were sick And did not show Stayed home The intern did the recording Yes And then what was digital filmmaking was Ben sick I feel like almost the entire Star Wars Like the entire run you were hungover

[00:37:59] Like you were always just like What's up I'm also shocked at Griffin I'm trying to do it right now If I just got physically sick I would be like game over I'm out I'm not like that at all If I puke usually I feel great

[00:38:11] Now I do worry maybe I'm gonna feel bad again Sure But right after I throw up I'm like Okay quit I might take another puke break I used to be like you But this is also the actor in me

[00:38:24] It's not just the memorizing the whole list of things It's like I've had that happen where I've had to puke in my trailer And then go out and do takes And I have to act like nothing happened JD I've never JD who I consider a pretty unflappable dude

[00:38:38] Seems a little flapped I'm flapped by this You're flapped You're severely flapped So what have you eaten Griffin I ate poutine in a bar last night I mean the culprit's pretty clear There's a straight line here Pardon the pun But a good gravy Yeah

[00:38:54] Well the issue was bad gravy What are you doing fucking eating poutine It was a good bar and so I don't want to drag their name But it was a bar where I thought I think I can trust the poutine here

[00:39:04] If I told you the place you'd be astonished That the poutine would cause this to me This whole thing has flapped me He's flapped I'm fully flapped by this Folks he's flapped He's been flapped Ben I'm sorry that I impugned you about being hung over all the time

[00:39:17] Did you want to say something JD's moving further away Just hang with me over here dude I'm gonna be on David's side here Yeah I don't know I wasn't always hung over Maybe I was quite often I think Griffin's right You were also a little sick of us

[00:39:30] I was sick of you guys Yeah I was working in a closet And then I also at that time Was living in an apartment A windowless room So I essentially went from one closet to another closet So it's not a great time in my life

[00:39:44] You're doing great these days I'm doing good I'm wearing a sharp car again I'm looking good I'm feeling good Ben's looks recently I keep needing to do a slideshow Cause I gotta take a picture of him His fashion's been on point But also Ben You know

[00:40:00] I've said this is your positivity for you Oh for sure Your positive band Positivity Mr. Hositive Yeah Yeah I've turned it around in 2018 Now Ben seems like a real positive place He's in a great zone One thing I just want to pause the podcast

[00:40:14] To tell you the Annie nominees for best animated feature You'll probably be interested too JD Okay good Just to sort of reset Just to sort of reset Uh huh Captain Underpants Cool Cars 3 Uh Cocoa Yep Despicable Me 3 If they nominated just the first 30 minutes

[00:40:31] I would sign off on that Uh they did not Clarify whether or not it was just Congratulations to Coco Yeah Yeah What's annoying to me is that the Annie's also have the like Best independent animated features Yeah Come on guys Cause breadwinner

[00:40:45] Everyone says that breadwinner movie is good Good movie Haven't seen it yet I like it a lot Anyway Breadwinner Could have been a trophy winner Number 2 Sorry that you're barfing Griff Um Let me catch you Oh thank you yes This episode's coming out on my birthday Oh yeah

[00:40:59] Yes I'll be a beautiful bouncing 29 years old As of the day of this release Beautiful barfing 29 years old I'll be a barfin all over the place at 29 Guys just for the people at home Can we stop talking about how sick Griffin was

[00:41:10] I think it's more for you though You're saying it's for the people at home I think it's for JD It's for me It's definitely for me But I know there's a couple people at home right now That are like me That are like

[00:41:20] I don't want to listen to this I think we're establishing an interesting B-plot to this episode I agree Definitely But let me just catch you up on what JD and I Were talking about while You were out Yeah Thank you If you can restate it word for word

[00:41:30] No But we were basically talking about the mix of practical and visual effects here Now I was talking about how total recall Practical effects We talk about it on that app right Yeah The King of practical This is his first visual effects heavy movie since then Uh huh

[00:41:46] Because showgirls and basic instinct are in between And Holloman's very CGI movie Well I was talking about Yeah that's coming up But so this is him he's like He's got many more tools in his toolbox Yes But JD is impressed by the mix Because as David said

[00:42:01] He believes this is the first Verhoeven movie Where he's had to use CGI Yeah For sure And it was interesting because I've read If you don't count the TV edit of showgirls Oh boy CGI bras Right the CGI bras I don't know if those

[00:42:16] You know at Kershree Glanson I'm sure those were CGI They may have been a cell GI Yeah Wily-wily The interesting article that I was reading from Like the late 90s when this movie came out It was basically like the effects team Giving interviews within the industry

[00:42:34] About how they did this stuff This film was nominated for best visual effect They brought in a lot of their post team After they had already shot All of their practical stuff Interesting Which in the world of filmmaking You would never do You always say Post-production is pre-production

[00:42:51] So if you're doing effects stuff You have to bring them in Because if you're getting for pre-vis Otherwise you're going to have a hard time Right And they had a hard time I'm sure they did For example there was one shot in the film Where they start outside

[00:43:02] Way outside the Roger Young Which is like the big giant spaceship Right And we zoom Bruce space to the Roger Young And then sort of track around the front of it And then push in closer And we see inside of it Carmen Ibanas hanging out in the Whatever

[00:43:18] They had shot that plate Of the you know her In the driver's seat or whatever Before they had built the models Or done any of CG stuff So they had to basically Like insane I want to get into more detail about All of the stuff they did

[00:43:35] Please do Yeah we got loads of time Loads of time Griffin you're just I might take a couple of puke breaks But otherwise we're good Yeah, you're right So they had to build one model So the Roger Young Those models They were 18 feet long 18 feet

[00:43:52] So for the main ship When you watch Starship, Dovers know that an 18 foot version Of that ship existed And they made multiple of them Let me just mention Like not only do effects driven things Or even a non-effects movie That has a big effect sequence

[00:44:06] Will they have the Special effects team working on Previz and development meetings All that sort of stuff But there will always be A person from the Special effects team on set When you're shooting stuff To say Don't do that Do this It helps me if you need this

[00:44:23] There was a guy in the tech Who always had his bag with his balls You know what I'm talking about The balls that you need to Plant up to get the reflection of the light Here's what's interesting This was So that's What Griffin's referring to is called

[00:44:33] HGRI Global Illumination We had wasballs on set all the time And this film was before The global illumination technology Really existed Interesting So, okay what that is Is when you have live action elements And you want to put CG elements in there

[00:44:48] I believe you talk about this a little bit On the episode too I think I did I think I did Because it was around a similar time Yeah So it's a similar thing You have to get the lighting alright Now this was before then

[00:45:01] So they would have to just mimic the lighting They couldn't do the HGRI illumination process Because it really didn't exist yet So what they're doing was just trying to Match the lighting as best they could By like taking really good field Notes and measurements And they would have

[00:45:17] Like a gray sphere That they would shoot just for like Harshness of light and Exposure and things like that But they wouldn't have the mirror ball That would get you all the information immediately And it's also the number one thing That sells the integration

[00:45:31] Of those elements is lighting Whether or not things look like They're in the same space I mean with that all said The visual effects are incredible Because I mean they're good anyway Right But when you think about like If they were all Monday morning quarterback That's incredible Exactly

[00:45:47] And then there's So like this is also Before processing power has gotten so intense So like I was reading some articles And they're saying that like Certain frames of it as they start running right out Would be 36 hours of rendering For a single frame Wow

[00:46:01] And so what they started doing Is they developed a sprite technology So like when you think about video games You know like sprites Yeah Yeah, of course Exactly the truth But like Mario is a sprite Mario is actually like four sprites Technically

[00:46:12] But like Mario is like a sprite Which means he's something that's pre-rendered The computer knows what it is And they're just moving that around the screen So what they did is they took 360 views of all of the bugs And rendered those out as individual sprites

[00:46:25] And then created this algorithm to pop those in So they didn't have to render those With the lighting effects That's really fucking hard So in the background You'll see a lot of those bugs Are these like pre-rendered sprite versions of them

[00:46:35] And the hero ones that are in the foreground Are individually rendered Are individually rendered And stuff like that And that got the render times down But it was like they're learning How to build this stuff on the fly In a movie like this

[00:46:45] While also building these crazy models And these models are huge Like massive Right For the ships and for the bugs And all that stuff Yeah, yeah, yeah Just because if you build them small It doesn't look real Right So like The fineness of detail

[00:46:59] Being able to have it be dense enough Right Yeah You get your specular reflections You get your Specular reflections When you make things small You're gonna notice it Which is the The deformations in the surface Will reflect light in certain directions

[00:47:14] And if you work on a small scale Totally, totally You're gonna notice the materials That was just about to say that That happens to me all the time You're gonna notice the materials reflecting Light in a different direction Which is why when you look at like

[00:47:23] A tiny little like snow village Or like a little like mini train set The light looks different It's because it's bouncing off of things That are meant to Have a more stable surface Because it's so small That light bounces differently See here's what's kind of really telling

[00:47:36] To me Okay and I understand There are movies of different scales And sizes and ambitions In terms of what technology They're trying to push But I know what's going on Keep talking Because we gotta do this movie Keep talking, keep talking I was just looking at the runtime

[00:47:52] The thing that I find interesting Is as opposed to Are we four hours long right now? No, keep going Barf man As opposed to This is so weird I don't know what the fuck is going on Nothing you just Bet on I exchanged a glance

[00:48:07] And now Griffin's losing his goddamn mind Ben's putting a finger to his lips Okay The thing that I find interesting Is where as Attack the Clones You said the thing that's crazy about That movies they were trying to do things That they had never been done before

[00:48:22] They were ahead of the technology In terms of their ambitions And they had to make up solutions on the fly That movie is more difficult Because literally every single shot Was something like that And this movie has practical elements And physical actors existing on sets

[00:48:35] And all of that sort of stuff But how well he pulled this off When it was a similar kind of process I think speaks to I don't know he's a guy with high standards And he hired really smart people

[00:48:48] And he took the time to make sure they figured it out Even if it wasn't the right workflow What year was Attack the Clones? 2002 Five years after this Which, think about that Right That's insane And for Hovind worked with the masters Of practical effects

[00:49:02] Mark Sullivan the guy who does all of the Mat paintings Is like one of the best mat painting guys In the world And so He did physical matte paintings Where they built miniatures Took photos of that He did matte paintings based on those miniatures

[00:49:17] And then they like composited elements So it's just like the height of Practical and digital sort of combining Yeah, Phil Tippett worked on fucking like Star Wars Like he did like the Rancor and shit You're looking at the people who are Real artists in their fields

[00:49:32] So this movie starts with a propaganda recruitment video Which is insane Yes Because the whole film is Book-ended as though the whole film Is a propaganda film Correct Yes This is his triumph of the will Correct He And literally stealing shots from triumph of the will

[00:49:50] Yeah, he studied triumph of the will He did Like extensively for this movie And of course the uniforms of the What are they called? SS The Federation Federation I thought you were trying to Well, the word not No, I'm aware

[00:50:03] It's really easy to forget that word these days They're so off the brain, you know The uniform of the Federation modeled on Nazi uniforms Which is the thing like when this movie came out People said like, oh this movie's so dumb These idiots accidentally made the costumes

[00:50:17] Look like Nazi costumes Like people literally said shit like that I know I know And it feels like a straw man argument Where we're like saying that people didn't get the movie But that generally genuinely was Google it, like find the fucking reviews They were like I know

[00:50:30] It's fascinating that this movie like Is this sort of litmus test for whether or not You have an interesting brain Because if you sit there and go like This is weird, let me figure out what he's trying to say As opposed to this is weird

[00:50:40] He must be an idiot who doesn't know what he's doing And at the time everyone wrote it off as He's an idiot, why are these performances so over the top Why are white actors all playing people from Buenos Aires Right Why do they look like Nazis

[00:50:52] And also I think just Like you read like the Ebert review Or Janet Maslow's review in The Times And it's like This is just like a dumb jock movie for boys Like this is just for like 12 year olds That's all it is Right And it's like

[00:51:06] You can see obviously if you sit down And watch this movie that is Wall to wall gory violence You know giant guns Nukes and like explosions Lot of nudity Yes, this sort of like Kind of very casual nudity And of course An ensemble of actors Who are largely

[00:51:26] Like fucking Barbie and Kendall Like H-List Like how low can we go And Verhoeven absolutely anonymous actors Or like kind of like vaguely washed up Actors like Dina Mayer Who are like basically sort of in a schlocky zone She's washed up after two movies

[00:51:44] Actors who don't leave much Yeah, Rue McClain and have rules in this movie Actors who don't leave much of a thumbprint Yeah, and Verhoeven purposely Wanted to cast the youngest actors he could No diss to Rue McClain and him by the way No, she rules him

[00:51:58] They look like kids is a stretch for Casper Vandy No, what we're saying is he wanted to cast like kids He wanted to cast like 15 year olds And they were like no fucking way And so then instead in all these interviews

[00:52:10] He talks about like everyone was basically appeared On Dawson's Creek or whatever He was like let's just get the cast of Dawson's Creek Casper Vandy was a total unknown Which is crazy He had never been in a movie All of them had been on Beverly Hills 90210

[00:52:25] He used that as sort of a casting pot He was Thai Mooney on One Night to Love Like One Life to Live And then he was in Beverly Hills 90210 He was 29 And apparently The age of me on the day that this episode releases He certainly looks 29

[00:52:43] And the story was that he came into the interview Into the audition And he had a background He went to military school And so he took a rifle and started doing Military assembling That kind of stuff And talked about his beliefs And all that stuff

[00:53:01] And for hope it was like yep this is him This is the guy Then he went on to be the lead puppet in Team America He is one of the most Artificial looking man of all time He just has this weird genetically perfect Symmetrical area

[00:53:15] Like he was drawn with a set square It does look like the puppet from Team America 100% Weirdly like aristocracy through marriage I believe he married a princess Uh Catherine Ochsenburg The daughter of Princess Elizabeth of Yugoslavia Thank you However they are divorced Sorry about it

[00:53:37] Casper van Dien who was born in Milton Florida His father as you say Was a fighter pilot Casper van Dien Sr His mother was a nursery school teacher He is descended from an old Dutch family Moved to New York long ago They carved him out of wood

[00:53:53] And then a fairy came and blessed him And turned him into a real boy And that's the Casper van Dien story That is true They prayed for a son His most notable role Post starship troopers Is that he was cut out of The rules of attraction

[00:54:11] Where he played Patrick Baker I forgot about that Apart from that he is in sleepy hollow Which he was like Probably like the 7th lead He's got some big scenes but I remember them positioning As like maybe Casper van Dien is going to continue

[00:54:25] To be in big budget movies Even if not as the lead he's like a steady guy He was also in Tarzan in the Lost City Which was a little more his speed The problem is he is Which was just like a vaguely cheapo Tarzan movie

[00:54:39] He's too classically attractive In an unsettling way He's sort of in that Dolph Lundgren universe Where he's just sort of frightening And a little Nazi And what's that even trying to me No matter how good an actor is You'd look at him and be like

[00:54:55] No offense to Casper van Dien I don't think he's a particularly good actor I think he's fine I think he suits this movie pretty well He has claimed as of late Two critics That he somewhat purposely Cast people that weren't great actors Or that

[00:55:13] The way he puts it Their look was more important than their acting ability I think it's very clear that from the young cast Like you watch this and it's It's not surprising Neil Patrick Harris Is the only one who went on to have a real career

[00:55:25] Because you see the way He plays the intentionality of being beaten down Amy Smart is very much like Of She's like hey She just sits there Just friends much No but like Denise Richards, Casper van Dien Martha Dickhead Patrick Muldoon They're all very much of a piece

[00:55:49] They're like models Had never been in a movie before Deena Mayer was in two movies Can you name them One she's in Johnny Mimonic No offense to Deena Mayer But she kind of ruins She's sort of the big problem with that movie

[00:56:09] I saw this movie that no one has any objections to. Sure. Which was like her big breakout role, but she's pretty bad. And then she was in Dragon Heart. Oh, yeah. Remember Dragon Heart? Yes. But I agree with what you're saying, Reeve Verhoeven casting for Look, because like

[00:56:24] Patrick Muldoon is a great- Dragon Heart though. Sean Connery voices a dragon. That's that one. Dennis Quaid. Yes. And then Denise Richards the same, like obviously, Denise Richards just had this sort of like, has this kind of otherworldly like- Yeah. You know what I mean?

[00:56:38] And then the trailer and like her eyes are so bright. She looks like a drawing of a sexy lady more than like a real person. Which is fitting because movie opens on this, we are seeing this propaganda film.

[00:56:54] From a computer screen because you see drop-down menus and clicks. Right. Right. And it's, you know, service guarantees citizenship. I like how that's just sort of dropped in though. Like there's lots of other talking about service guaranteed citizenship and you're

[00:57:07] just probably like, you know, you might not quite think about what that line means instantly. It's such a funny line. And if you listen to the opening propaganda stuff and trickle throughout, they set up that basically humans have traveled to different planets to start mining and they

[00:57:27] accidentally stumbled on this planet with bugs. Right. And instead of turning around, they've tried to set up encampment there and the bugs are fighting back. Right. And so now they're mad at the bugs. But it's very much like we attack them. Right. But they were not told that.

[00:57:42] They are the indigenous people. Right, exactly. Yeah. There's only the one time where the newscasters, like some people say that, you know, live and let live might be better and like we might have disturbed the bugs. That's the whole point.

[00:57:53] And that's when Johnny Rico says I'm from Buenos Aires and I see Kill-A-Mil. Right. The movie functions as propaganda to not give you the counter argument. You have to read between the lines to understand what's actually going on.

[00:58:03] So the first image we see is all this stuff and then we see our boy, C-Van-D. Johnny Rico. Johnny Rico. Yeah. Get bugged right in the leg. Sure. We see all this chaos. Chaos. Some sort of like propaganda.

[00:58:18] It almost looks like propaganda got wrong because like, you know, war is pretty frightening. It's pretty frightening. Yeah, battleground footage. Here's something I want to say about this. And then we go to one year earlier. Then we go to one year earlier.

[00:58:28] I don't like that we see the battle going wrong at all. I do. I don't because I really like how horrifying the battle is when it happens. Yes, I agree. I just don't think we need to see it at all.

[00:58:36] I love how scary it is when it actually happens. But I do think- I mean, I like the propaganda video like open with that. I do think it's almost like for Hovan setting up his thesis sentence though, where he's

[00:58:47] like, it's about how it's this, but it's really this. I agree. That's what I like. I think you're right. I just don't think he needs to do it yet. I think you're right. Yeah.

[00:58:56] Doesn't need to do it, but I bet he would have been afraid that people would have just bought in that this whole thing was propaganda. That's right. Yeah, that happens anyway. It doesn't matter. Right. I want to say Denise Richards was in Look In Italian.

[00:59:10] I don't know what that is. We're the ones holding the podcast. The American crime drama film starring Matt LeBlanc that we mentioned on our Lost In Space episode, Look In Italian. Okay. Not to be confused with too many Italians.

[00:59:23] What you dreamed was the title of the Dark Knight Returns. No, it was 10 years, but more Italians was the- Anyway. I can't believe the way he's slowing down the podcast. I know what you're saying. He's telling us to shut up, going on these sides.

[00:59:37] Every podcast fan, every Blankie right now, they just slam the brakes in their car, freaking out at how amazing that coincidence is. And then they all went, I love movies. Blanket? I'm not touching you. Good callback. All right. So yeah, we come to Casper. So one year earlier.

[00:59:57] The other thing I want to say I like about this. Okay. Is because all the actors are so generic looking. I think if you were watching this for the first time- Which I did and I did what you're about to say.

[01:00:08] You wouldn't even necessarily piece together that was literally the footage from later in the battle. No idea, no idea that's the hero of the film. Right. I'm watching it this time and I've seen the movie five times when, oh right, that is Casper Van Dien, right?

[01:00:19] It's shaky, the guy looks like a fucking doll, he's got a helmet on. I just- I think it feels like random fight footage at that point. I know you guys want to make my point now I'm making my point.

[01:00:28] I'm sorry Ben, I got to just dial it back one further. Real great classic white text black screen title. Oh lovely. Practical. Yes. Not too fancy which is what I love. No, which is the same thing he does in Robocop at the end credits a Robocop.

[01:00:41] But he has tons of purposely crappy digital text for all of the propaganda stuff but that is like pristine, practical- This is true. You can see it flittering in the grain of film. And like that's the ellipses around his movie.

[01:00:54] Like he's like every other piece of text you're going to see is within the body of the film supporting the idea of what the movie is. Right. Arguing against technically. Exactly. All right, so the first- C-Vandy gets chopped in a line. Yeah, okay.

[01:01:09] The first chunk of the film. Jesus Christ, shushing, unbelievable. Jesus. Wow, I've never felt worse. Oh my God. I'm sick, David. Why are you being so hostile? I'm sick. We're an hour in. I'm on my deathbed. We've discussed the opening scene of the film.

[01:01:22] Yeah, Mr. Too Many Italians. Yeah. Too many. What was it? It's look, look at Italian. Looking with an apostrophe. Italian. You also walked us, you've been walking us through the careers of so many people via IMDV. That's my fucking job. People love it when I do that.

[01:01:39] And I never even got to say my point, which is I think weirdly, Dina Mayer. No, yes. It doesn't, it doesn't, I don't feel like she has the look that a lot of the other Actors See cast does. No.

[01:01:50] She's like, she doesn't have that sort of like living doll work. She's less generic. Yeah, she's sort of an interesting looking person. She's got the curly hair. Yeah. So I don't know why he cast Dina Mayer. She's flinty. She is flinty. I agree.

[01:02:02] She's pretty, yeah, she's pretty, this is her best person. That's what you want as a dizzy. We're talking about her dizzy flores. Yes. Isabel dizzy flores. Anyway, so the first chunk of the movie is high school, right? Yes.

[01:02:13] But I just have to say one of the first things we see, one of the first things we see is Casper Van Dien drawing a picture and he's too good at drawing. Yes. Correct. It's annoyed me since I was a kid.

[01:02:24] That program he's using, whatever it is, it's like a futuristic etch-a-sketcher, right? Yeah. Like, it's so weird. Because he draws him and Carmen. Yes. And then animates them kissing. He does a little gift. But here's my... And then in five seconds, she colors both of them in. Right.

[01:02:43] And then animates her blowing bubble gum in his face. Yeah. In a way that I'm like, in the future, everybody is this like... Who the fuck's her level? ...another... Here's... Maybe the program's doing most of the heavy lifting.

[01:02:54] Like maybe it's sort of like, it makes you a good drawer, like you just do the basics and it just kind of... It's like a bit moji. Yeah. It just kind of does it all for you. It has like pre-vis... It is the future after all.

[01:03:05] Because I mean like, he's good at drawing but I don't know if those two drawings really look like Casper Van Dien and Denise Rich. They kind of just look like boring people, right? But I mean, I know, I know. Right. Right. Hey now.

[01:03:18] So at high school, these 30-year-old actors are in high school. So what do they do in high school? Johnny's dating Carmen Abanhas. Yes. They're in Buenos Aires, Argentina, which we see nothing of. It's just skyscrapers and mansions. Right. It's been completely homogenized. Right. Future ball seems pretty chill.

[01:03:36] Yes. Ben's really excited to talk about future ball. We'll get there. Well, we're there. 30 minutes from now. No, we have some other stuff to talk about over there. Johnny Rico's bad at math. Carmen Abanhas is not bad at math. His friend Carl fucking... Humiliates him.

[01:03:49] Yeah, puts his score on the big board. Yeah, in the future, when you try to figure out your grades, you go and type into computer screen in front of everybody and it comes up as a like a 1-16th quadrant of the screen. Right. And then...

[01:04:01] And you consume this app. Anyone can access it and turn it, maximize it into the full image, full frame. His best friend Carl is played by Neil Patrick Harris and what is set up at the beginning of the movie just seemed like,

[01:04:12] oh, the funny best friend, clinic relief character and then Justin function that way at all, which is a thing I love that this movie does. He doesn't function that way. But you have this scene at the beginning where he's trying to make himself a psychic

[01:04:22] because that's a thing that the Federation needs, so he's doing tests. You mean Johnny Rico is? Yes. Carl is a psychic. Carl is a psychic. You mean Johnny Rico is trying. He's had to say. You said trying like it's... But he's also training Casper to be a psychic.

[01:04:36] Well, it's because like Casper's not good at math. Okay, so we won't do that. Could he be a psychic? No, we can't do that. He can't even guess the cards and Carl's like... He could be an animator, but seemingly he doesn't want to go down that career path.

[01:04:47] Military does need animators. Right. Generations. He could be the Sky Marshal of the animation department. Someone's got to be animating your private snafu shorts. And at this point, the A-plot... That's a good poll. Two people are going to like that a lot.

[01:04:58] Two people are going to like that a lot. When do you need to barf again? Four hours. So by the time we hit the third scene, I'll make the barf again. Oh, God. So what was I going to say? Oh, high school.

[01:05:10] I love how absolutely fake he is all in there and how old he is. The A-plot at this point is that Johnny Rico has yet to... What's he going to do? Where's he going to go to college? Make it with Carmen.

[01:05:21] What's he going to do with his life? No, the whole thing is like they haven't had sex yet. Do they never have sex though? No, because he's like, you haven't done it yet? He's like, no, we're tonight or whatever. It's like a very classic. Right, right.

[01:05:32] It's high school. The prom is approaching all that. Dizzy's got a crush on... She's crazy about him. She's in love with him. On Johnny Rico. And he hates it. How dare she like him? And Neil Patrick Harris is like, I can read her mind. Yes, he is.

[01:05:47] No, Patrick Harris also has a little monkey. Meanwhile. Meanwhilest. Michael Ironside. The great Michael Ironside. He used so beautifully in Total Recall. A method actor who spent two years killing bugs in order to prepare for this role. Shopped off his own arm. Just squashing bugs left and right.

[01:06:06] Here's a real back. When they shot all the scenes with him in no arm, they had his arm out and had a fake arm on there and then had to go through and digitally paint out his real arm. That sounds fucking hard. Yeah.

[01:06:21] Harder than just like put your arm behind your back. Shoot behind you. Yes, 100%. Yes. So he's this guy who sort of... What is he? Their math teacher, science teacher or something? No, Rue McClanahan's the anatomy teacher. Right, where they do the autos. The bug anatomy.

[01:06:35] I think he's like the... No, right, he's like the civic teacher. He's home act, right? Yeah. Does that seem where Mike Lahrenstein goes, today we're bigging cupcakes? Yeah, he like puts a stick blender onto his arm. Here's how to make a bed.

[01:06:48] What's the difference between citizenship and civilians? Also, how many eggs does it take to properly... What's the difference between Venetian blinds and... So he's their teacher and he's been damaged by this war. Yes. But he still is sort of like trying to instill an idea

[01:07:11] of 21st century patriotism. And all these classes are full of propaganda, like every class is steered towards this bug war and kind of throwing the import of this war onto all of their students to develop a pipeline where all of them feel like they need to be citizens

[01:07:29] versus civilians and the difference is that... Well, go on. Now what were you going to say? Well, in his first line, I think in the whole movie, he says like, all right, let's sum up the history. Yes. Then he says like, I'll read this,

[01:07:41] the social scientist of the 21st century brought our world to the brink of chaos. So basically it's like democracy is now regarded as this like... Yeah. Those guys, what an idiotic idea that was. Luckily there's no more democracy. Few, right? Like that we got...

[01:07:57] That pesky thing in a little way. Exactly, we barf that out of our system. Much like I barfed out my poutine. I hate this. It's why I keep picking about it. I know. And so now we're in this perfect new system

[01:08:09] where if you want to be able to vote, you have to serve in the military and fight bugs. I'll do the same with you. Well, my mom said violence doesn't solve anything. Really? I wonder what the city founders of Hiroshima would have to say about that.

[01:08:22] Then Carmen Abanes raises her hand. She goes, they wouldn't say anything because they're all dead. Hiroshima was destroyed is what she... And he says my favorite... My line's better. True. He says my favorite line in the whole movie. Correct. Naked force has resolved more issues throughout world history

[01:08:37] than any other factor. The contrary opinion of violence never solves anything is wishful thinking at its worst. And what I love about this is the shit he is saying is so frightening, but the movie is sort of like... You know, it's like, this is the nice teacher.

[01:08:52] He's the fucking dead poet society guy. Because this opening section of the movie does have the aesthetics of Beverly Hills 902. Absolutely. I mean, just even the lighting, their performances. It's like a 1950s high school rom. Yes, correct. It's like he's in this propaganda story. Right.

[01:09:10] The Mr. Chips who gets Johnny Rico to serve his planet. Right, he's looking for the purpose. Aspire to a higher cause. Right. Because this movie, or whatever, triumph of a will movie within the movie is like from lump and clay. You know, knock it at math.

[01:09:27] Like not a psychic. Yeah, good jawline. Good booming voice. This guy gets turned into like an icon of the Federation. Like a perfect soldier. Right. And this is like the seed being planted. Yes. Meanwhile, Mike Ardyn's side is basically like violence

[01:09:42] is the only answer to anything Johnny naked for. But he's like the Frederick Zola character. Right, right. You know, he's the guy that this movie is like canonizing as like the aspirational figure of the Federation. And he's so good. I mean, you're into it. Right, yeah.

[01:09:56] So I'm like, I'm so inspired by this movie. Yeah. Right. And then we fast forward to prom. Prom. Prom. Here's a fun fact. Growing up on my little, wasn't even, there was like an MP3 portal play you could hold like eight songs max on it.

[01:10:09] One of the songs that I got illegally via Napster was I have not been to paradise by Zoe Polidoris. Daughter of the score. Daughter of the score. Right. She plays like electro violin, or like it's like this weird electro band and they,

[01:10:26] she plays a sort of a version of I have not been to Oxford town by David Bowie, but the lyrics are I have not been to paradise. Yeah. And I always, I had that on my thing and I would listen to it because I like Starship Troopers.

[01:10:38] I like Starship Troopers too. She's now a composer for Z list animated movies. Yeah. If you look up her like the hero of color city that Owen Wilson movie where you played a crayon. I do not know about that movie.

[01:10:50] That was inexplicably released on like a thousand screens. Wait, I've never. I swear to God. There's my hero of color city where Owen Wilson plays a crayon and Zoe Polidoris did the score and that movie got a wide release. Christina Ricci is yellow. Hey. Rosie Perez is red.

[01:11:05] Owen Wilson plays a fire breathing dragon? I thought it was a crayon. He's not crayon. No. Oh well. Okay. I have the on for, Wayne Brady is blue. Yeah, that makes sense. Yeah, of course. Yeah. He was born to play. Well, he's fought depression.

[01:11:20] He's talked about very openly his struggles with depression. Fair enough. Yeah. If you click on blue, it gives you the Wikipedia entry for the color blue. Oh, that was a joke by somebody. What was that? I mean someone had to put that in. Oh, the Wikipedia.

[01:11:35] Yes, someone had to do that. A wick of comedian was the one who made that. Yeah. All right. So anyways, they're all outside of color city. They're trying to get to it. Basically the mailman is like, I don't know how to get there. God damn it, JD.

[01:11:50] We're just going to summarize who are color quick. Yeah, quickly. Good. Five minutes. Five minutes. Very fast. So all of the crayons believe that the whole world should be their color. So they're mad at each other. Yes.

[01:12:03] And so it turns into sort of like a rat race, Amy Smart kind of battle. Reprising her role. It's sort of like which crayon is going to get to color city soon enough. Steps in. Okay. Big dragon side by all of us. David, you brought this on us.

[01:12:16] This one I didn't bring on. I was going to keep it moving. He brought up the crayons. I assume we all knew the hero of color city. So is there... The hero is... Is there anything else? I mean, we got... Well, there's the future ball.

[01:12:28] Oh yeah, it's future ball. And the rivalry with Xander. Ben's future ball player. Dave, are you going to Patrick Muldoon? Dave, why'd I say Dave? Patrick Muldoon's hair is like he has frosted tips. Yes. But they haven't been frosted. Correct. But they're separated.

[01:12:43] But they've got the weird spiky haircut. Yeah. Wait, Ben Dave Hosley. Are you going to play that theme right now for the Ben's future ball segment? Did my mic just go out? No. I'm hearing you fine. Okay. Yeah, sure. Okay. So here we go. I love future ball.

[01:13:03] It looks super chill because football in the future is now kind of toned down a little bit. And it's a lot safer. They play it indoors and it's fun. And it's like basketball. It's really interesting that you call it chill though. It's chill. It's very aggro.

[01:13:19] It's so chill. Is this still the theme song? Yeah. Yeah, great theme song. Thank you, Ben. The theme song is the whole segment. Blankies, if you guys want to turn that into your own original song, those are the lyrics. Treat them to at David Sims.

[01:13:33] Can I just read something quickly? Yeah, treat them to at David Sims. Definitely. 1014 AM. This is like DL Sims or something. I'll talk about it. 1014 AM, this morning that we're now speaking, JD Amato sends the text, crazy that today

[01:13:50] is the day we record the podcast episode that changes the world. I just want to restate that right now. What did I reply with? Podcast Guarantees citizenship. That's right. And JD responded, do you want to know more? 10 comedy points to everyone. Griffin's whole contribution was running 15 behind. Correct.

[01:14:07] And throwing up when he got here. I'm doing great. Also, I'd like to point out, we talked about this a little bit before the podcast, Futureball seems like football, but they made a couple of XFL style. Genestic elements. Right, yes, yes.

[01:14:19] One rule that they seem to have changed, which sort of confuses me is in football, when the clock runs out, you can continue play and it's sort of like, uh-oh, whatever happens. Until play ends. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[01:14:29] In Futureball, it is implied through the filmmaking that when the clock runs out, the game is just over, which is why. Everyone just walks immediately off the field. And then, when the C-Van D does his flip and puts it into the end zone. Yeah.

[01:14:40] And from that, like we see the clock tick down and implies that that's not how the, so I'm just sort of wondering why Futureball has that rule. We'll never know. Hit. It was the answer. Number one guess, Paul Verhoeven doesn't really know much about American football.

[01:14:52] I think the answer is that Ben's the commissioner of Futureball and he's yelling, keep it moving. Enough of this already. So they all sign up for the military. Yes. Carl signs up to be, like, I guess he wants to be an intelligence officer. He gets what's it called?

[01:15:09] No, it has a cool name. Games and theory. Games and theory where they're like, which basically means he's like a member of like MI6 or ESS. Carmen's very focused on the idea of being a pilot. So she gets to be a pilot.

[01:15:22] Johnny Rico's parents hate that he's thinking about joining. Johnny Rico, who is rich? Very rich. You see, like lives in Splendor and he got into Harvard. And his dad's going to send him to Zagma Beach. Yeah. Like some space beach. I've always wanted to go there.

[01:15:36] It's on the outer ring. Zagma Beach. Right. He says it with appropriate longing. But his parents dismissively tell him, you're only joining because you want to see her. You know, she's going to look good in a uniform. Which is true. Right. Yeah. Right.

[01:15:50] I mean that is the movie. And immediately they get separated. Yeah. Immediately they get separated because he gets just picked to be a grunt. Mobile infantry. And I love that. The guy behind the desk is like, mobile infantry made me

[01:16:00] the man I am today and he's got a robot arm and no legs. Yeah. He rolls out. It's a very pauper hoven joke of like mobile infantry made me the man I am. And then it like pans down to his no legs and his robot hand.

[01:16:10] And that is, of course, Robert David Hall from CSI, who was famed for only having one arm. And he's missing an arm in both his legs. Yes. Should we go through his filmography? Yeah, please. So, selected filmography includes The Littles. Littles. Which was an animated television series.

[01:16:29] He was in three episodes of LA law. And what am I saying? Oh my God, adventures in color city. The markers are here. 326 episodes of CSI. I mean, What does he play? He's like the, you've never seen CSI? No, I don't think I've ever seen an episode.

[01:16:47] He's like the lab guy. You know, he's like the guy in the lab. But you'd always, you know, you'd watch it with your uncle or whatever, and he'd be like, fun fact about that guy. Missing three of his limbs. Well, my uncle does even own it too.

[01:17:00] Sounds like you bought it with your uncle. Correct. Yeah. I've never watched it with your uncle. Don't make these assumptions. He's a fun guy to watch procedural television with. What other films have you watched with your uncle? Films very rare. Usually it's TV. Nice. But you know what?

[01:17:15] We did watch Hall's Moving Castle together. And he was baffled. Yeah, please tell me more. Oh, David the baffled boy. Oh, no, he's American. He's an American. I don't know if anyone knows, but... I didn't bring it up. I didn't bring it up.

[01:17:31] I just sound like I brought it up, does it? Maybe. Maybe a little bit. Maybe you're trying to get us. Maybe you're adding us in this thing. You want us to bring it up. David's got a smile keeping across his face because he knows it's sort of true.

[01:17:44] So after the recruitment process comes the next part of any great military film, right? Bootcamp. Bootcamp. Yes. With... Oh, Clancy Brown. Clancy Brown. Mr. Krabs himself. The best playing Sergeant Zim, who has my favorite line in the book. Oh, I looked it up. My favorite line. This is...

[01:18:09] This is my favorite line in the book. If you wanted to teach a baby a lesson, would you cut its head off? Of course not. You paddle it. There's circumstances where it's just as foolish to hit an enemy's city with an H bomb

[01:18:21] as it would be to spank a baby with an axe. I've just always thought about that line. That's in the book. This is probably where Paul Verhoeven's throwing the book. Yeah, he's like, I'm done with this. Yes. Now, in making this movie, they had Dale Dye come aboard.

[01:18:35] Who's that? Dale Dye is this guy that runs this company. Oh, sure. I see him. Yeah. He's a tough army man. Yes, and exactly, that's him. You know what his nickname was, right? When he was in the troops? The friendly man who's nice. The hero of Color City.

[01:18:49] Continue. Dale Dye's in the movie, actually. Is he? He plays the top general guy who gets removed from his podium. Oh, sure. Interesting role for him to take because that guy kind of is the screw-up. But anyway, sure.

[01:19:07] So Dale Dye, he takes the whole cast of Wyoming for something like 11 days and they go through a whole boot camp with the main cast. But they also, he took two of the... So he hand-selected all the extras, I believe.

[01:19:22] And he took two of the extras and had them come to the boot camp. And then they became like platoon leaders. So during the movie, and it's very funny in this behind the scenes documentary, what's his name? Busey. Jake Busey. Son of Gary.

[01:19:37] He was like, it was crazy. And then we came back and we had to be among all these civilians and we were just like, we've just been through a lot. It's like they all felt like they're in the military.

[01:19:45] And these two extras, they became squad leaders of the groups of extras. So they were sort of directing background. Yes. And so there's like stories from the set where all the extras would be information like jogging to meal breaks. And these extra leaders would be like, let's go.

[01:20:02] Like yelling at them as they jogged along. Sure. And so apparently the entire set just felt like a military thing because of this. And this guy, the entire movie, if you see the behind the scenes stuff, he's like directing next to Verhoeven, like yelling at people,

[01:20:17] giving them direction. He sort of directed that whole like the scene where they all take the oath together. Right. Like you see in the behind the scenes thing like this Dale Dye guy yelling to everyone there like, this is your oath. You must did it like going nuts.

[01:20:31] I love it. That stuff is really well done in this movie. I love it. It's yeah. This is also a boot camp we meet our good friend, a Sleavy, the wild man. Yeah. Oh, what a wild man he is. The palest citizen of the Federation yet. Yes.

[01:20:45] He played a lot of weird albino guys. I feel like I've seen a couple movies where Jake Busey, they just lighten his skin tone half. Right. And yeah, but he's a very pale man who looks like his father, Gary Busey. Yeah.

[01:20:59] I think if it were the other big Jake Busey role, I think of as the terrorist in contact. What else is he in? Right. Which he's albino and that's the one I'm thinking of. I think that's what they're leaning on.

[01:21:08] But he's also, he's the killer in the Frightners movie. I always really love. Yes, yes. He was in, of course, we all remember the sitcom Shasta McNasty. Right. Which he starred in. But this was a period where he kind of was being tapped as a guy,

[01:21:20] but he was playing a lot of heavies and psychos. Yeah. And then this was trying to position him as like the fun psycho. Like he's the fun loose cannon wild card guy. Like in a more conventional movie, this is the character that 10 year olds like. I guess so.

[01:21:33] But I think it would be also easy for, easy for them this movie to just be the bully. Right. Yes. Because he starts the bully as he cuts in line. Yes. And then he's just like. The first time we see Casper. Oh, Rico, I like you.

[01:21:45] You know, like immediately the tension is broken. Yes. Yes. We see the scene, we see the scene which is very Verhoeven where Zim is like, they just starting the boot camp. He's like, who here thinks they can take me out? Right. Yeah.

[01:22:01] And like some big corn fed guy is like. Right. It's like, I think I might be able to. Yeah. I think maybe I could sir. Braces arm. And it's like this very visible break. It's like, yeah, it's very violent, very fast.

[01:22:10] And like a wet wound around it too. Like he's bleeding and his arm is completely thrown out of whack. Right. And then Zim just like medic. Yeah, which is great. Then Dizzy shows up and then saying I heard this was the best. Right. And he's like, it is.

[01:22:24] And CVD flips out because he's like. He's like, you're just stalking me. Right. Get off my back. Even though of course he's pulling the same move about with, you know, trying to chase Carmen around the band. The galaxy. Right. And he actually lands a couple kicks on.

[01:22:37] But then she's in before he takes it down. Yeah. Then nothing's broken of her. No, no. There's also the scene. Art. Maybe her heart is broken. There's also the scene where he throws the knife at Jake Busy's. That's one of my favorite scenes.

[01:22:51] They're doing their in boot camp and he has this moment where Jake B. She's like, why do we got to learn all this knife throwing stuff? Like, listen, it's a nuke war. Which is actually a buttoner you don't bring a knife to a new course of great.

[01:23:03] Pretty good point by Jake B. She's like, I don't remember any knives being thrown later in the movie. Then Zim is like, put your hand on that wall and he does and he throws a knife through it and he's like, your opponent, your enemy cannot press a

[01:23:15] button if he does not have control of his hand. That's a thing I love about this movie is they make it clear that they're like healing technologies really advanced at this point. So you can really fuck you up. Right. So there's a lot of like really aggressive abuse

[01:23:28] at boot camp because it's like, well, as long as you're not in the battlefield we can throw you in the back of tank for like a couple days. There's one thing they can't fix. The guy getting shot in the head. You're done, Zo. Yeah, that's pretty gross too.

[01:23:39] No back to tank for that. No. And that's when it starts, the movie starts getting very violent here. Yes. Yeah. Like we're seeing people's heads explode. And the movie starts feeling a lot like Robocop. Like Robocop but also simultaneously and obviously along with the Serpah propaganda stuff.

[01:23:56] But the way they present characters, the moment with the helmet not working and all of that feels very like 1940s, 1950s American war movie. Sure. Of course. Where it's like, oh look these three friends who get sent off to different parts of

[01:24:11] the war and all meet their new friends who all die around them. And then they're reunited at the end. Right. Except by the end of it they've become fascist. Yeah. Well yes. Dean Norris almost kicks Casper out of the military. True.

[01:24:26] Dean Norris who is, he's in Total Recon. He's flappy-faced. Flappy-faced in Total Recon. And he's one of the other Verhoeven favorite. He's bringing a lot of his guys and Quatos in this too. Yes, right. He's the one who's going crazy on the base, right? On the military encampment.

[01:24:40] Yeah. But that's, I saw Verhoeven do this Q&A after Robocop and he was going to do Starship Troopers screening right afterwards. And he said my whole thing with Starship Troopers was I wanted to see if I could do a dual narrative.

[01:24:55] There were two narratives at the same time. They were very good looking, sexy young people and they are friends and they like each other and they are going to go off and fight bugs and try to get back together. And the other narrative is they are all fascists.

[01:25:10] So one way that he reinforces the first narrative is the group shower scene. Yes. Which is doubles as a scene where they all kind of explain like their basic motivations for being in the military. Which also feels very 1914's one. Right.

[01:25:26] So one person is like oh I want to have kids and it's easier to get a license. I love that line. It's easier to get a license if you're a citizen. But also he said that he felt like people didn't get the locker room

[01:25:38] scene in Robocop so he needs to double down to show like she doesn't sexual, her ass doesn't exist anymore. And the famous sort of story of the making of that is. He is nude while he directs it. The actors would not do it and then

[01:25:53] he agreed that both him and his D.P. would get naked. And weird thing that I learned that his D.P. grew up in like a nudist place and so. Oh weird. Verhoeven was like sort of on the fence about being naked and then his D.P.

[01:26:08] What's his name again? Jost Vakano. Yeah, Jost Vakano. He was already like. He was like naked the moment it happened. There is a funny thing. I mean there's like a double standard thing here because of course you're seeing a lot of breasts and

[01:26:21] there's not a dick in sight. And they even do some very careful Austin Powers blocking where there's a moment where like deep in the shot and part of that is like okay we're at medium shots. We're like above the waist whatever.

[01:26:32] But there's a part where in the deep background you see a sleeve and he the bar for like the shower. Yeah, they basically kind of blocking his lower half. But I say nudity is fine. Everything's fine. Just boobs. No wieners. You're not going to get a peek

[01:26:48] of the peen in this movie. And getting a peek of the peen. Yeah, this is true. But everyone's talking about what drew there and dizzy kind of she out. She's here for a girl. Here for a girl. Johnny Rico gets upset. You see is like was it you?

[01:27:02] And she sort of goes like yeah. I do think this is an example of a scene that is like very winky winky dialogue very like presentational information right and it feels like a propaganda film and it feels like one of those scenes that in

[01:27:22] retrospect was like Verhoeven very clearly being like yeah this is like 1950s because we were like right so what had you sign up and someone's like I'm here because of this. I'm here because of my career all the way right. This scene is almost a satire of the

[01:27:35] scene in an ensemble movie like this where everyone has to give like 2% shading to their character. Exactly. So you care about them when they're on the battlefield but it's so transparent and so overly done. So after the shower scene. There's the live fire incident where

[01:27:48] the guy you're going to have to say that every Paul Verhoeven movie. After the shower scene. The guy gets his head blown off. Rico gets flogged which is again not a scene that is played for not violence. No you're missing a big scene though

[01:28:00] which is Carmen breaks up with Rico. Yes Carmen sends him a CD-ROM Dear John letter. Dear John CD-ROM. Right. And Ace Levy we see that he plays the fiddle. I mean Ace Levy's neon green electric violin. Yes. Which he plays then and he plays later after like.

[01:28:20] He only plays it later. The first time he's got a real wooden fiddle they upgrade him in the later celebration scene. Right. I command that you party. It's just wild but anyway you're right yes. Yes. Carmen breaks up with him with the sort of like the first

[01:28:33] the shot of her next to Jupiter. Yeah it's so weird. So weird. Everyone's going like whooo. And then there's the moment where they all realize it's a break of video and they back the fuck off. Yeah. Because she's now gotten matched up with Dickhead McGillaguddy.

[01:28:45] Yeah she we there that's true there are some brief scenes with Carmen like her name is smart and this guy who had been creeping on her at the death ball game Xander is now her superior is the one who has a tea try to fly

[01:28:55] except she's pretty much got it. Yes she's got she's a pro. She's got an act for this. Right. Yeah she doesn't really have a lot of like conflict to overcome she's just like really good at being a pilot. Yeah and this guy is into her. Right.

[01:29:08] But sort of respects boundaries. Yeah they don't get together. A little bit he's a creep but he also is like he has that shitty like she'll come around eventually kind of air against right. But so after the live fire incident in the fogging

[01:29:24] right Riko's out he's going to wash out so he goes to Skype his parents goes to Skype his parents and then what's that in the background. Oh my god it's getting dark. We skipped over earlier Ed Newmeyer is executed the writer of the film.

[01:29:39] Oh oh he's the guy the the the the murderer in the murder and a video in the propaganda video who it's like it's like watch the execution live tonight all network 6 p.m. We missed another thing which is Johnny Rico is reprimanded by a public flogging. Yes.

[01:29:56] Which you know that fucking Verhoeven loves that he got the most Aryan guy in the world getting whipped by like a huge black man. Right. Like the movie very pointedly is just like fuck everything. Yes. But now he wants to go home to his parents they go of

[01:30:11] course honey wait what's that shadow boom Buenos is gone. They fired an asteroid at them. What were you pointing with me for your ace leave you line. What about my money how they always want to be friends after the tear your heart out

[01:30:23] rip your guts out or whatever your guts out yeah. So now Johnny Rico he's got investment because it's now it's about revenge because his parents never he knows dies yes on the video conference where he tells him he's coming back home he's from Buenos Aires and

[01:30:39] he says kill him all now here's the thing I think this movie does that's from Buenos Aires and I say kill them all. Really interesting narrative way we have this scene where Dick head McGillicuddy is helping Xander McGillicuddy Xander McGillicuddy is helping McGillicuddy Xander McGillicuddy Ben just seems

[01:30:57] we're an hour and a half in just FYI Karen. Okay cool so we only have two hours left to go there he's helping her steer the ship and they start scratching against the top of that asteroid they're trying to there's an asteroid incident

[01:31:14] and right they have to get out of the way it knocks out the communication tower yeah. Which just so you guys know the asteroid was a co-production between ILM and Thunderstone the Sony effects department and they had different asteroids you actually see it change slightly

[01:31:29] and it's a lot. Some of them look better. What's your point about the asteroid? Well so they're trying to you know disrupt the trajectory of this asteroid yes roughly that's what they're doing but in the process she nicks it. No no the asteroid is thrown

[01:31:44] at them and they have to get out of the way right and it knocks out their com tower. The bugs shot the asteroid at them. Well but have they? Yes that is the question. I mean we are told the asteroids are being fired by

[01:31:56] the right of course there's no. The movie is propaganding us because it's saying there's no evidence. There's no visual of them like loading an asteroid into the gun or what you know. But now there's justification for war the bugs did this we have to go get them

[01:32:07] now yeah well. There's no question and there's you know there's that in the early propaganda video where they're like well there's an asteroid field around their planet so that must be it and like they never explain like how the fuck wouldn't asteroid come from

[01:32:18] like one side of the galaxy to the other. Oh they use their bug goo to shoot an asteroid like it makes no sense but the movie never gives you any rebuke of that. And they do sort of hint at the fact that maybe this is just not related.

[01:32:29] Yeah that's why they hint at it yes no that's right and so finally like halfway through the movie I guess like probably now we're in yeah is the invasion of Clint Daffoe right which we saw at the beginning of the movie. Oh well Clancy Brown rips up his

[01:32:41] resignation. Yeah it doesn't look like your signature to me. And now he's all fucking it Johnny Rico is from Buenos Aires and he's here to give a look. Yes exactly and they invade Clint Daffoe and it is a total disaster it is horrifying and like what I

[01:32:56] like about this scene is that it is not played for laughs it just sucks. Yeah and like all these characters that we came to know just start getting killed yeah just right away like a nice redheaded lady who wants the kids she gets like

[01:33:10] ripped apart and the guy with the little mustache you know like yeah all these sort of background and this is when Johnny has his big heroic sort of moment on the tanker bug right when he gets on the back of the bug no that comes

[01:33:22] later there is no heroic moments in this this is right this one's all just they're losing and they run away it's at night. Johnny gets as you said earlier he gets bugged in the leg right so they got to throw him in the tank for a

[01:33:35] couple days and he's reported killed in action but it's just a disaster. But Carmen is heartbroken. True she's sad she looks it up on the and they have the great screen they have this sort of same technology that the Rebel Alliance that the Luke Skywalker.

[01:33:50] Yes yeah and what I love that though where it's like after that 10 minutes of sustained horror and it's like he's KIA and Carmen is sad I mean not yet Carmen yeah then you cut to him in the box to tank getting his leg rewritten yeah and

[01:34:06] dizzy and ace look you did like thumbs up she like kissed the tank and it's like how are they not just like completely shell shocked right and then they're also like only three days left and I was like my god he's in there for

[01:34:20] three days he seems awake but that's his weird strategy these movies were like all the action sequences are horrifying and the rest of the movie they're completely unaffected or they witnessed because the film has to function as I mean I think you know that and after

[01:34:35] Michael Ironside dies you know he's shaken up and he's mad and he gives Carmen attitude remember that they certainly there's certainly that concept of the like the infantry have to sort of see the battle and you know the sky right and the three of them are reunited

[01:34:49] they're all kind of they're all bloody crank down their charisma even more from their neutral well the Patrick Harris I feel like his I was gonna say he's the one guy who I think actively plays the sort of trauma and the deadness behind the eyes

[01:35:05] all that the other guys are just kind of doing less he's a better actor he's a much better actor yes does that really well when you get him reunited with them at the end of the film okay so he gets out of the tank

[01:35:16] his leg is good as now right so what comes right I mean I guess the fight this isn't a fight next the fight where he fights with Xander but that's very good more importantly it's that they get assigned to the rough next most importantly they all get

[01:35:34] tattoos that say death from above true right and they get assigned to the rough next and this is when he meets sugar walkins everyone's favorite character sugar walkins played by Seth Galliam of the wire my brother great actor my brother Jamesy who loves the

[01:35:46] wire I still have never watched the wire I know my bad watch a bad adult but he tried to sell me on watching the wire where so many people had unsuccessfully tried to go well it's this good it's you know all of this it represents

[01:35:58] the world right James was like sugar walkins is in it you would love it and you're like mm-hmm it was the closest I've ever come to watching the wire was doing sugar walkins was part of the cast yes yeah yeah but rough next is

[01:36:11] the baddest group of mobile infantry on this side of clandathu and they would die for their leader don't say anything bad about him who is it I hear I even see Vandy says like he's like I heard your leaders are hard at he gets punched in the

[01:36:25] face yeah by a woman yeah and she's like he saved my life and everyone's like he saved my life to my life and then okay everyone stands saluting here comes the guy down the aisle it's our old buddy Mikey iron side new metal hand yes teacher and

[01:36:41] iron side true yes and he's now rejoined the battle yes he only got one leader of the rough next one roll everybody fights nobody quits if you don't do your job I'll kill you myself where the rough next whatever his name is rough because no no no

[01:37:02] oh oh yeah yeah um it become Rikos rough next later then so rough next so we saw earlier the invasion of clandathu which is the bug home planet yes then we see them go to planet P which is the one that I think I know where it was

[01:37:21] shot it was shot in the bad lands of Wyoming okay you know the crazy sort of deserty mountainy place yeah so this is the only time we actually do see the bugs are on other planets I mean like and there is this sort of vague notion that

[01:37:36] like the bugs have colonized a lot of worlds and the humans want to colonize the galaxy you know what I mean it's like so maybe that's the actual issue here is like both civilizations have sort of expanded maybe the bugs more naturally or

[01:37:51] maybe you know this movies about a real estate battle because we see the Mormons tried to found like new Joseph Smith land or whatever and they all get like ripped to shreds right which is shown to us so it's like they're trying to reinforce like

[01:38:04] don't break the rules right you'll be bloody corpses anyway just some world-building shit and then they get to clandathu no not clandathu now in a pee and a pee I'm sorry and that's where that's where the you know what do you call tank bug

[01:38:21] or whatever the biggest yes that's where he has his big moment that they could obviously then put on every TV station and then well and the appearance of the tank bug was like that was like the money shot in the trailers right and it like shooting

[01:38:36] the flames and all that the movie you see it and it's like oh yeah the flames like burn people in that absolutely and you see a lot of the aftermath of the bodies like these sequences and with some sort of triumph at least a momentary triumph and then

[01:38:53] you're like reinforced with like hey look look at these decapitated right they show you all the dead bodies splits always that's what yeah that's right yes right yes and for every like Rico Johnny Rico that's put into back the tank yeah there's just like

[01:39:08] hundreds of bodies strewn about yeah in fact like yeah Carmen says like they there's so few wounded it's all right it's all dead everyone's dead and then like yeah they walk earlier Karmann walks through like the hospital wing or whatever and it's like people without limbs screaming as

[01:39:24] bloods flies everywhere and she seems unfazed by it yeah yeah because they love killing bugs yeah they're happy to be citizens so planet P is where they come upon the what the outpost yeah the outpost that's been like swarmed which is one of the great

[01:39:40] scenes action scenes I think of all time it's so good it's sort of it's like the tower defense right it's helm it's Helms deep right I'm gonna jump back in time here and say this is that I spent a lot of

[01:39:52] time as young child over at my buddy Mike Hart's house love my car love it playing starcraft 2 starcraft 2 not good dark craft one no start after one yeah I have to start to start when we start craft one I've never played

[01:40:07] start craft to it's dark craft one I used to play last dark craft one on battle net there was a you could create custom games are custom games was called starship troopers and it was like you were inside of the Zerg in star trick are very

[01:40:21] bug like they are yeah they're the same thing so you know you can use the evil and for a story to know what respect for my Zerg I don't know I don't first with that it always bothered me if they call them that yeah really yeah

[01:40:33] because starcraft got it first yeah it was weird but did they because isn't emperor's or is mentioned in the first one so they're starcraft I protect the galaxy from evil emperor's or but let's do the math on starcraft 1998 wow it looks like their faces are

[01:40:47] red wow it's like Ben's face is red at fury for how long this episode is too long and looks like a man who's walked thousand miles then any intermission thoughts now that we've got the exact middle of the podcast just gonna hit a

[01:41:02] quick intermission okay yeah sure sure sure sure let's let me take a look at my notes what I got here oh hey we forgot this is the best liner in the movie you're going on vacation so the following is a great

[01:41:17] line I really like that oh we're coming up on my favorite line what's that please tell us it's once they are there exploring the outpost they realize what the bugs are doing they find a hole in a man's head they do

[01:41:30] not only do they find a hole but then Michael Ironside sort of like brings the man's head over and like what does this look like to you puts his head inside the hole no brain no brain confirms the lack of brain and then

[01:41:41] says the line that is one of the greatest lines in cinema history they sucked out his brains yep they sucked his brains out is exact they suck his brains out hey everybody JD Amato here just jumping in for a minute back in the

[01:41:56] war of the worlds episode of the podcast I did an interruption like this in order to provide some subtext and the benduser was kind enough to let me do that again coming up I'm about to do a quadro impression and something you

[01:42:08] need to know about this episode is that from time to time I'm reminded the fact that earlier in the episode Griffin threw up so anytime I do a quadro impression or anytime I just don't seem totally locked in it's because what I'm really thinking about is the

[01:42:21] fact that Griffin threw up and I'm wondering is Griffin okay am I gonna get sick how come Ben and David aren't freaking out about this and I'm just sort of in my head so I just wanted to apologize I've been thinking about it for the past couple weeks

[01:42:34] and feeling bad and it felt better to let you guys in on the subtext I didn't know that I was in my head I'm not like a total germapho but the fact that Griffin threw up did sort of rattle me and I figured it was just

[01:42:45] better to be honest and let you guys know so anyways surf the interruption back to the episode now you know this is also the scene with Marshall Bell as the general of the outpost who's gone mad he's hiding in a closet or

[01:42:58] something yeah and this is the scene hiding his quadro under full armor yeah he's hiding the quadro yeah you must defend yourself what a great tangent from just a couple of pros anytime I'm here anytime you need me throw to me I'll give you a nice warm

[01:43:19] tan we're gonna step aside here for a quick podcast it's called the two quadros it's me and it's me how are you today I am well how are you now a brief podcast message from audible.com do you like audiobooks if so go to

[01:43:43] audible.com and use the promo code quattro that's cute our guest today is Nikki Glazer I don't know she's a good podcast guest she's been on my podcast you're Nikki hello I am Nikki Glazer you're not Dave do you're Nikki hey it's me Nikki Glazer

[01:44:05] not bad actually not bad not bad what was your show called TMI NSF W not safe for work wasn't it I mean you know never forget Nikki and Sarah live great TV show great correspondence on that one yeah I forgot you were corresponding on that

[01:44:21] I was I was that not safe that was supposed to be the big one weird career I remember when you were on that you were like yeah we're gonna ride this train all the way I thought I was gonna be you did

[01:44:32] you wrote it all the way like you know yeah four segments over two seasons it's a big get so what's it makes sense that aliens right then this movie they are in this that they're bugs right yeah because like you know that that whole dumb

[01:44:48] like you know like notion that like you know just like humanoid yeah like headed creatures yeah bugs make sense because bugs kind of look extraterrestrial sure their growths and they're adapted to live in environments we don't understand they lack empathetic faces and it would make sense that they

[01:45:05] would thrive yes and I level a complaint please it's a design complaint with the bugs oh this is the same design team that did tremors and tremors to okay okay and if you pick up the walking bugs tremors to I feel like they kind of reuse their

[01:45:23] feel like they sort of reuse the aesthetic wow I can see that here we try to find it what should I look for tremors monster I'm gonna read a quote while you're doing this Michael Ironside who had read Starship troopers when verhoeven yeah you know a little bit

[01:45:39] it's got the same week yeah I just found this and I want to read this Michael Ironside when Verhoeven asked him to be in Starship troopers was like yeah Starship troopers I read that book that's like fascist bullshit and Verhoeven's response was if I tell the

[01:45:54] world that a right-wing fascist way of doing things doesn't work then no one will listen to me so I'm gonna make a perfect fascist world everyone is beautiful everyone is shiny everything has big guns and fancy ships but it's only good for killing fucking bug that's

[01:46:08] a great great line right I mean yeah I love him and I love this movie I do too so they now know that the bugs are the real thing but they got control you yes it turns out the stress signal was false the bugs made

[01:46:21] them do it remote control right but more importantly in this tower defense two people die yes they do one one rat check Ironsides who kills him earlier in the film CVD Johnny Rico because early in the film he watches someone suffer yeah

[01:46:38] someone get captured by a bug and he don't let me do that right shoot them to spare his life promise it kills legs fucking axe off yeah and CVD he hesitates but he takes the shot which was always a question to me

[01:46:51] because it's pretty clear they have this thing that basically rewrite your legs so the fact that he's like now kill me now sort of feels like it seems survivable man yeah it's possible I guess so he's bleeding yeah I don't know I think he's worried about what's gonna

[01:47:06] happen next I think that's the bigger thing he shows his fear in that moment yeah he was presented to Rico is like unflappable you know here's a fucking hero it's quite a moment and in this moment he's like I don't want to be

[01:47:18] in this world right and then the thing that sort of sucks him down is this one of the bugs that comes at you know the ground bugs sand bugs sand bugs come out and our friend is yeah launched a grenade right into his beak blows that

[01:47:30] thing asunder now let me ask you question do you think past and future guest and Mr. fans he loves or hates this movie I'm sure she loves this movie a lot of bugs but also it's anti-bug yeah but secretly as long as

[01:47:42] there are bugs she's on board secretly kind of because she can like the bug yes you know even if the movie doesn't sure big bug loves bugs nice shout out of Emma Stefansky's bug love which is an upcoming podcast on the audio boom and Mr. fans he's

[01:48:01] bug love and spitting it right then no hey Ben would you say that you're into our antics today yeah it's fine would you say that you're having are you having are you having any of it I'm having some of the antics

[01:48:16] percent percentage wise oh here we go I don't know let's see if I'm thinking about it as a pie chart I'm gonna say like a slice of just one slice about a lot of 15 you know maybe a lot of action

[01:48:29] today yeah there has been a lot of action was a lot of me taking notes being like well you're gonna have to cut that down and yeah it's like you're talking off like that down what are you talking about getting cut down slow it

[01:48:40] down stretch it out baby let me know we can do a we can do a tighter version of whatever the yeah I can do another take I'm an actor you know what let's do another take of the wato thing you're not a lot of wato and

[01:48:50] quattos okay ready no why were the two quattos we're both quite as your wato I'm not involved remember you're gonna be nicky glazer you're the host here with my two quattos quattos how are you doing today hey hey I'm fine I'm quite a hey the

[01:49:06] quattos how are you doing I am doing okay Italian quite of course yes you know that's we've done their show together for you now to be here's one question yeah Italian quattos and Wario not very dissimilar right like a quattio same basic

[01:49:22] deal audio is a different character like if quattos Italian he's just Wario correct all right good thank you wato wato Wario and that bit and that sums up today's podcast of too many Italian quattario excellent 500 comedy points he brought it around jade wow what

[01:49:39] what a great take here Ben we need some take twos on can our promo code for all future ads be quattario and but we don't tell them how to spell it and if you get the spelling right you get the discount

[01:49:52] if not if you do if you spell it wrong the wrong versions actually add more money yeah it's more expensive you have to pay for the discount that others are getting you have to pay for the difference what's probably be a net profit for the companies they

[01:50:05] probably be into that I mean look our listeners love Russian roulette that's what we're selling them right here what else do I need to take two of more table raising okay that was good oh wow Chachy just went low no see we just learned a lot there

[01:50:23] low obstacle illusion they went high you thought we went so after dizzy dies I'm sorry but we have to finish it's crazy I just need to pick five more times please do after that remember when I puked in this episode yeah it was wild feels like a

[01:50:41] thousand years ago I get another take at that group no no no it feels like I haven't too many years yeah that's how it feels that's correct also how long ago it feels can I point this out and you happen during the fucking Eisenhower administration on a 12-hour

[01:50:57] day subreddit yeah right 12 hour podcast let's shout out the podcast where every episode literally 12 hours and you get how that happens now there is someone that was someone was like oh if you like this you should listen to blank check okay and then

[01:51:12] some respond was like no it's too negative I tried and they're they're they're too negative about movies there's been a very positive we fucking love movies we're negative I think this is just maybe listen to a negative episode only sure we on the balance

[01:51:29] talk about a lot of movies we love and even when we talk about movies that are bad we cite a lot of things we like about agreed yeah I don't think of this as a particularly negative something good in every movie yeah I love movies

[01:51:39] hey not touching you threw up two hours ago you threw up in the last few days you threw up time is now a circle but it was definitely somewhere on that 45% of our podcast that was two hours ago so so dizzy is dead

[01:51:59] dizzy dad she doesn't come back no oh but but also they bury her I'm sorry space barrier they had they had a little bit of space my side demanded that they have a party it's an order that you have fun he brings out kegs

[01:52:12] he brings out a neon space fiddle he does and he finally says to give some worthy advice to Rika yes it's like baseballs that he gives out to people it's just a ball some future balls future balls but he also says like dizzy likes you like essentially you

[01:52:26] know don't don't pass up a good thing yeah so he goes they're gonna start having the sex and then I inside comes in he's like ship up shape out ten minutes from now and then he sees her under the blanket goes make it 20 and then there's you're

[01:52:41] putting too much for pre-con it he's pretty he's pretty make it 20 like he just sort of like sticks to his there's the moment I love where she comes out and they look at each other and he goes like yeah I can get it in 20

[01:52:51] that's like a course you dumb teenager you can get it done in 20 Casper the friendly ghost you can get it done yeah so is this implied that this is him losing his virginity because Carmen ever slept together you know that Casper Bandy and first credit is the directive

[01:53:06] video fantasy comedy Casper colon a street spirit of beginning really yes I saw that weird do you know that Casper Bandy and is the CEO and founder of Casper mattresses don't say that they actually say whatever they want they should sponsor this episode no they should

[01:53:23] Ben get him on the horn we're recording this months in advance right now if Ben has done his job we're gonna cut to a Casper mattress ad okay if Ben did his job we just had a Casper mattress ad I'm a Buenos Aires and I love affordable mattresses

[01:53:41] they sucked their brains out of a box the size of a mini fridge it's me the 40 year old Casper Vendee in do your job then you know what I needed after Starship troopers 3 didn't take off a good night's sleep okay shut up

[01:53:59] hey it's a callback it's a callback so what part should I pass the Casper mattress should be the marker part of the podcast yeah that's like one of the highlights and tell me it's a hot one send them the part where I go puke too

[01:54:16] I recorded some field audio from the bathroom just send them that the part of the podcast is one of the host leaves to throw up I will say do your job Ben what you ate protein I will say JD quite a bad episode

[01:54:33] why did you where where did you have the bar protein I'm not gonna say because I don't want to impune only their name it's a good bar where I do a lot of shows okay and if you live in New York you can probably discern

[01:54:45] all right look we're just gonna we're gonna finish the episode okay disease dad she gets a funeral dizzy that there's so much no there isn't so much no there isn't there's just one sequence left well no

[01:54:56] I would say the thing that we did kind of pass over is that while this fight is happening there's also all the stuff in space yeah you know and I think what I love it that's a little bit

[01:55:07] is that you have a bug that actually can produce a missile shoot it farts into space in the space like lasers yes yes that's cool I like that I like that stuff that giant that's part of the whole planet peace sequence where it's like we realize

[01:55:22] they saw us coming yeah that's the brain bugs or thing yeah the space ballet with all the ships those are all miniatures or quote unquote bigatures those are all they're really cool giant ships that they're animating around each other hashtag

[01:55:35] big picture hashtag bigatures but no I mean there's only one less sequence which is the brain bug well they've reunited now the three of them have reunited on like a space base well can't Carmen and Xander rescue the other guys from the the tower and Xander

[01:55:51] becomes wise to the fact that Rico is the one who led this mission so he's still alive and he says to her he tells her about it they they reunite but now Rico is like pilots right right we have we do the die and have emotions anymore

[01:56:04] and he's pretty sad I mean it's a sad moment dizzy gets impaled right and iron side gets bisected and Neil Patrick Harris looks genuinely broken well right then he right because he shows up and he's the one like look I have to make these

[01:56:16] decisions every day like where I send people off to their death and this is also a moment that is like a very clear move he walks in and like it gets stop oh and he's now wearing a black uniform that is like dark bags around his eyes

[01:56:28] right and it's like a black yes a duster it looks like the SS like uniform and you realize like oh this has been one year since that scene where they literally put their arms around each other and go like we'll be friends forever

[01:56:40] promise no matter what happens wherever we are in the galaxy and he's got no laughs about him no and like even like Johnny Rico is like they're like upset that they're gonna be sent back in possibly to die

[01:56:52] and he's like mad he's like this is the decisions I have to make every day and it's clear it's clear that he's seen some shit in the past like yes and even when they say like look at us three of us back together again it's so joyless

[01:57:04] there's no emotion he's really good in those final really good his eyes do look like all sunken and kind of haunted and he's like talking fast in a way he right he's like divorced all emotion out of this like it's clear that

[01:57:16] like the past year of his life has been sort of a living hell of having to make these impossible decisions right it's a very canny performance because he's got to sell a character arc that's happened entirely off screen for the last hour plus

[01:57:28] and he does it just from his body language and this was his sort of this is the beginning of his comeback it's not real because like obviously his real comeback would you agree is Harold and Kumar right no his real

[01:57:40] comeback is undercover brother which tease him up for Harold and Kumar he's so good but like that's where people like oh yeah Neil Patrick Harris like seem self aware like a reclamation project when we're hoping put him in this is 97

[01:57:52] undercover brother even isn't for another five years and Harold and Kumar he's a lot of musicals yes starts appearing he was like a replacement cast member in rent 97 so around the same year I think on the tour he did Sweeney Todd in San Francisco he did proof he

[01:58:08] starts like assassins this is until a sassins is 04 so that was like part of his whole like Neil Patrick Harris is back baby yes because how many mother is 05 I think yeah do you know what they called him on set when they were filming

[01:58:20] of Starship Troopers yeah doogie Himmler it's pretty fun truly it's true I think that's really yeah I give the entire casting crew of Starship Troopers 10 comedy points to divide amongst themselves I know I should be more just 5000 because it's a large casting

[01:58:32] good job thank you so final sequence they go down to this planet where they hear there's a brain bug a brain is controlling all things it looks like a nutsack it's like it looks like the thing that Anakin and Pat may ride and attack of the clones

[01:58:48] right the big set piece is that Dizzy and the carmen and McGillicuddy they're shooting from the sky the Roger Young explodes they escape last second yes they try to land instead they puncture through the mountain and they're in the center of the right

[01:59:06] bug land yeah and they get bugged in the shoulder and dragged around Carmen gets bugged in the shoulder and then sander gets brain bug he gets brain bug that's another cool practical model like head getting sucked dry yes that's really

[01:59:22] just very total recall it's like the opposite of the eye bug kind of Mars and the like brain bug is a practical bug although there are CGI versions of it right because like the one where they're like when they have to

[01:59:32] have to walk and shit yeah well sure but there's also the propaganda where they're like sticking things inside of it that's definitely a CGI bug because it's got the weird like shimmery yes skin but the close-ups to the face

[01:59:44] are like this disgusting it's awesome gooey thing that this knife thing comes out of right yeah that sucks your brain and it sucks his brain it is like traumatic to look at it's messed up carmen cuts it off Carmen chops it off with a knife which

[02:00:00] hey the knife came in use brought it to a new fight you're right look at that I take it back I take it back sorry it's a call back no you're right sorry sergeant sim sorry I just wanted to apologize sorry person yes apology except you're not sergeant

[02:00:16] well sergeant Jim doesn't need your apologies no he's here hey because they so Rico and his gang going on his gang they rescue Carmen they rescue after Rico gets like a use the force moment yes yeah we are maybe that psychic training

[02:00:34] paid off maybe or maybe it was just Neil Patrick Harris yeah we learn later that Patrick Harris maybe told him right um they go back and they rescue her who heroically sacrifices himself no oh sugar rock our boy sugar walkins right hero of the movie sacrifice himself

[02:00:52] character and then film this is the moment that always watch what's one thing he does sacrifices himself true growing up it always was weird to me it bothered me is that it feels like our heroes save the day they find the brain bug she

[02:01:06] cuts it off they come out they're afraid and they come out to everybody cheering and running right and they're like what's happening and they're like we caught the brain bug right and so they've run around and who caught the brain bug our boys in private sim yeah

[02:01:22] accepted an emotion to get into the field yeah but there's the great moment where Neil Patrick Harris puts his hand up to the bug and shouts this is the final triumphant note of the movie they're afraid and people cheer and they fully

[02:01:34] dehumanize this enemy they're getting their rocks off on the idea that they are harming these things and soon we will understand the bug yes and Carmen C van D Busey none of them get the accolades it's just sort of like that's part

[02:01:50] of your duty there was not to get too heavy but like that was a whole big part of the surpropaganda machine of the Holocaust was like the Nazis going like look the Jews look worse than us they're fucking disgusting which is how they teach

[02:02:02] all these students about bugs in the class going over how revolting they are their processes all of this and then getting that hatred to a level where people actually get off on the idea of like look at them crying

[02:02:14] look at this bug that's afraid you know it's like a really chilling ending yeah in the middle they had to make me laugh a whole lot rolls they had that thing where there's the kids stomping on regular roaches which is like

[02:02:26] messed up like these aren't even bad guys they just look like the things you get everyone into a mode of like hating the very look and feel of these things whatever size there are whatever their motivations are you know what I got it

[02:02:38] merchandise spotlight wait but glad that it's not last line of the film yeah is in big text it says they'll keep fighting next page and they'll win and that's how the movie ends shows like well it's like you could be like Amy smart and you see Amy smart

[02:03:04] or her captain Denise Richards this whole movie wasn't had it was one big right you could be like ace you know who's like you know or you know Roughnecks leader Johnny Rico and he's like you want to live forever

[02:03:16] like he's like you want to live right my favorite characters in the history of film or you could be like a Neopetrick Harris you know and you will keep fighting and they'll win so this movie had an extensive toy line

[02:03:28] which is weird because it's rated R and it's about Nazis it's super violent but I think from the moment they signed on to make this movie they were like soldiers fighting bugs a hundred bucks right how can it not be a merchandise and the 90s

[02:03:40] were the one decade where like this happened we're like fucking terminator two had an extensive toy line you know like Robo cop had toys like but this one's very very bizarre because the characters in the movie the human

[02:03:52] characters kind of are just action figures like they're just blank things that a kid holds up in relation to the bugs and they made all the bugs and different sizes and control ones and ones that were like micro machines where you got a little tiny like

[02:04:04] centimeter humans but I have really I have an interesting not for now right after they're made by Galoo which is one of those great companies that got gobbled up by Hasbro there used to be like a bunch of great like Kenner and all those companies

[02:04:16] that all got absorbed but the thing I really like about the toy line they made a lot of the humans which is weird because the human characters aren't like interchangeable but they do look like dolls they do but they also

[02:04:26] redesigned all of them like the the armor in the movie looks rad but it was one of those things where they're like we got to make it look more toyetic I remember there being like a Johnny Rico Barbie

[02:04:34] kind of character that had like hair I don't have that pulled up here what have you got pulled up but what I have you know what this episode isn't short I know

[02:04:42] I just want to read these names because they also add on to all of them like titles to make them sound more exciting so there's a toxic raider ace levy right in his uniform of course in that famous

[02:04:54] scene where he raids toxic waste bright green they like made up different fucking outfits bug thrasher Carmen Ibanez firestorm Johnny Rico mega marauder Johnny Rico cyber commander sugar walk ins and then jetpack a sleevey they all have like uniforms equipment or titles

[02:05:14] that actually relate to the movie that's I mean classic classic classic toy line classic toy line done for a super harsh fascistic R rated film the film was there a video game Griffin definitely I never played it but I definitely was one

[02:05:28] yeah I mean this is like a this is a video game essentially in movie form right but I would be interested to play that there was also rough next which was like the adult animated series yes yes there have been a few video games and a pinball machine

[02:05:42] I remember the pinball machine there's a film called terror and ascendancy good title sorry game oh yeah but the film came out it did what did come out okay November 1997 uh-huh was not particularly well received no and of course you know

[02:06:02] worth noting this is the post showgirls movie right so lot of state um yeah but I think also people have a now has a very very tarnished reputation and people are their arms are crossed already exactly that's right that's what I'm trying to say

[02:06:18] I think their hope was that he'd have another straight down the middle box office hit at the very least it opened very big and then dropped really hard right well let me see I think it's

[02:06:28] opening weekend was big and it has substantial drop 55% drop not a crazy didn't make it to it opens to $22 million oh I was a bigger open now I mean it's pretty good for an R rated movie

[02:06:40] in 97 though I mean that's sure the equivalent of why are you looking Ben of a 42 million opening now so you know not great but the budget would be close 200 now well would it yeah I guess it might this was also quintessential I just rental

[02:06:58] yes it what no for sure I mean the film had a long life and like early days of DVD this was one that was like oh this is like reference quality you see how much better DVD is

[02:07:06] right it made 54 domestic 121 total so you know yeah it lost my well you know not maybe not a calamity but a box office failure wasn't only a hundred million dollars yeah but you need to make more than just

[02:07:21] a lot of marketing division with them they made it back eventually through everything else they definitely wanted this to be much bigger than they wanted this to be huge they did but at the same

[02:07:30] time they released this you know hyper violent R rated movie I mean like I mean I guess they're hoping for like a total recall situation but like that movie start Arnold Schwarzenegger yeah this movie starts

[02:07:39] Casper Vandy and they released over Thanksgiving they did I mean right a couple weeks before thanks to me but yes all right so number one at the box office Starship Troopers okay number two jumping from number 15 as it goes why oh wow a beloved comedy figure

[02:07:53] finally gets his movie bean how did you know amazing I'll tell you why because I was distinctly in the other day in the shower thinking about the fact that they platformed to be I remember that vividly the platforming of I don't know what's weirder that being did

[02:08:09] well or that they platform released yeah so bean do you want to tell me how much being gross in the United States 50 45 do you want to tell me how much it grossed worldwide 150 251 million Mr. Bean on every international flight it's what they play yeah because it works

[02:08:28] well and you know the sequel the long delayed sequel Mr. Bean's holiday the disparities even greater because it's like 20 domestic 250 yeah I was 33 domestic 196 worldwide yes it made 14% yeah that America dropped the ball on Johnny English I John English both of them huge

[02:08:47] and in my home I got just announced they're gonna do a third one I wouldn't be surprised yeah I mean like Ron Atkinson is like I'm trying to like what's like the most famous

[02:08:56] comedy person in America probably Jake Busey just like and he can do no wrong in Britain I just thought that he takes 10 years between entry and he just fucking chills out man he

[02:09:08] chills out okay bean platform bean is number two how do you feel about being because you like Ernest I feel like you like a lot of the 90s sort of I like child comedy you know

[02:09:17] sort of genre well I'll take offense that because Ernest isn't broad Ernest is actually a very specific film subtle new ones character is a subtle new ones okay I would say the humor can be a little broad I don't mean that in a hundred percent Mr. Bean

[02:09:29] I love the classic stuff the BBC stuff all that stuff movies always they try to add story here's what I honestly think the best Mr. Bean stuff is sort of like Jacques Taty in the sense that it just works which is what they should have made right

[02:09:43] but that's what the sequel was trying to be right yeah the first one doesn't have holiday isn't the first one like he goes to Hollywood this is my uncle this is my brother with Peter McNichol and it's like there's this whole thing with

[02:09:54] Whistler's mother the painting it's like yeah and like there's like a narrative arc to Peter McNichol's characters like not what we want and the daughter has a narrative arc because there's the boyfriend with the motorcycle I saw that

[02:10:06] film in theaters I don't remember yeah we just just said Mr. Bean to the beach and have him put on a funny yeah I was listening to your tweet suit and God knows what's going on with it and if you want to make some money domestically

[02:10:17] platform it very you got a platform number three yeah falling from number one the previous week okay in its fourth week of release is a horror film it was number one three weekends in a row 1997 oh Halloween H2O no interesting but so

[02:10:37] it ran the table in October correct it's not scream to know but you know it is a you know it's kind of a sister movie to those movies I guess I still know what you did last summer correct I it's just the original the original okay I know

[02:10:51] you did last time starring Jennifer love Hewitt, Ryan Phillips, Sarah Michelle Geller, SMJ, Freddie Prinze Jr. F.P.J. I just love the three of the four have a yeah three names three sort of three names Ryan Philippe looks like a dick head

[02:11:06] yeah he looks like a goddamn idiot dick head which is a movie about a fisherman with a big old hook yeah yeah yeah Casper Von Dan number four is why do I feel like we've talked about this movie before I like this movie I'm trying

[02:11:22] to is that a clue or is that a surprise slightly so I don't know okay horror film but sort of like a classy horror I guess starring a very famous man classy horror the famous man couple of young engineers whistle a clue no I'm

[02:11:39] trying to figure it out Hellraiser 4 hellraiser no no no it's an original film very classic your memories classic how would you describe this film I mean I can tell you more but it would give it away it's a very classy actor but he

[02:11:50] doesn't usually do horror films well he's done it all he's this is the kind of leading man where he like he's nuanced that's a note of sarcasm take take that with a grain of salt okay so this this guy's kind of he's running

[02:12:04] wild he's running absolutely well where is he at in his star arc at this point like his third or fourth wave at this point you know he's an Oscar-winning veteran okay it's third or fourth wave he's old at this point pretty old I know

[02:12:20] he's probably in his fifties or sixties even now probably fifties one that Oscar it's a classy horror movie he's playing a bit I mean like I don't think I don't think it's classy but it thinks it's classy is playing a biblical figure

[02:12:33] yes this is true this is true what fucking movie is all right well let me give you a further clue okay it's also a legal drama so it's sort of like a horror oh it's the devil's advocate yes the Taylor Hackford joint

[02:12:51] Stark Yonariev's Al Pacino and Charlie's it of course Ben likes that movie what are you talking about it's a little bit surprising I don't know what even is that movie I don't remember it at all Pacino plays the devil he's a lawyer and he's a lawyer and

[02:13:05] Yonariev works for him he's the devil's advocate right right right right number five is a film that was banned in China banned in China because it is set in China and has some things to say about

[02:13:16] China and on the king nope I don't know if an in the king was that that's it in Sam that's it in Thailand seven years in Tibet nope but good guess same same vibe yeah I'm trying to think along those lines

[02:13:28] 1907 oh condom nope it's a hard movie to remember this movie and it was banned in China you know the other things that could get you banned in China are depiction of ghosts and mixing live action animation yes you know hybrid

[02:13:43] films are banned in China because it's unnatural right right to have Michael Jordan and Daffy dock on the same screen Crimson Peak I believe was banned in China ghost busters banned in China even if they're funny ghosts

[02:13:53] no good very bad don't do it you know China has this thing where they only import like it's like eight movies a year that used to be the thing it's gone out raise it used to be eight now now it's more right but still you'll have

[02:14:06] movies that try to appeal to correct yes China in it to get in there like what was recent recently there oh I do it all the time yeah yeah China has a big role in the Martian there's so many examples of that in modern Hollywood

[02:14:18] Coco's done crazy while in China it's gonna probably be like the biggest animated film ever American anime film ever in China which is astonishing because the skeleton thing is really close to the ghost I was gonna say it's

[02:14:28] basically about ghosts people are trying to figure out how the fuck but it's a spirit world so I guess and sense of family and tradition okay wait so it this is Jesus Christ you may maybe have never heard of this movie I don't

[02:14:38] know I probably have not it stars the very famous hunk who's now sort of in his like sexy gray hair phase but he was an early gray hair it's not the Connery one no Connor what's that one oh no that's Japanese the Empire

[02:14:54] right son yeah yeah movie is racist yeah right I was trying to get movies that people wouldn't like this movie is banned in China because it's like critical of the Chinese government it's a mystery thriller directed by John Avnit

[02:15:11] who's the actor Richard gear infernal affairs no that is a Richard Geer film though I'm not I'm not gonna remember the name red corner yeah no I literally would never have gotten wow I was shot in Los Angeles using a

[02:15:28] elaborate CGI sets to will create China I bet that holds up really well okay so red corner movie opens and we find Richard no he's a red crayon he's a red crayon red corner was not a big hit considering all the bruja it so we've

[02:15:47] also got boogie nights oh we've got Eve's by you which is a classic kiss the girls start of a major franchise that's true Alex cross fairy tale a true story yeah you don't remember that movie is that an animated film it's a

[02:16:03] film about these photos that were faked of girls interacting with Harry's that went viral in the newspaper at the time but the movie posits that it was real gattica Harvey Cattel plays Harry Houdini I like that movie a lot as a child

[02:16:16] full Monty Harvey Cattel plays Harry Houdini what I tell I say Cattel Cattel I think I think he would say Cattel and I say Cattel oh cool Q card Cattel yes I'd like to share a final thought if I may please I think we should wrap up this

[02:16:35] podcast it's I don't know I mean let's not rush anything yeah so you know the running kind of theme to my commentary is I like things wet this is true you like a slick flick there's like no bits podcast I really do like when movies are wet

[02:16:51] I think it's cool you get it added features like why I have a dry scene make it a wet it's obvious but I want to point out in this movie I think it's got the best slime hands down so many varieties there's like orange slime green

[02:17:07] yellow so sticky it's like just visceral yeah I just want to say this because you know I'm always like trying to tell Hollywood what to do yeah you know yeah so CGI or no CG I don't care I just want some slime in it okay okay real

[02:17:23] practical slime I want you to get your actors all greasy and gross and nasty that's that's my two cents that's been slime corner and the right corner is done we did the quad oh the two normal quad oh great I'm spinning off I need actually

[02:17:39] a you mind just a third take a take three sure any notes on this one do it that make it longer okay so this is this is wato with two quados and wario right and Nikki Glaser shirt to which David will he'll be doing double duty I'm doing

[02:17:58] triple duty I'm Mario as well all right great and okay go this is the quitario show with me wato two quados warrior and special guest laser today we are talking about Starship troopers the film opens on a

[02:18:21] propaganda film and we see Casper of N.T.N. get bugged in the lag that's been our show for the day sorry you're not having enough time to get to our other second I'm apologies this is me Nikki Glaser yes apologies and this is me the

[02:18:37] normal sounding what quado how are you doing normal and then I'm a warrior I'm gonna win today I beat you the show is over that was Nikki Glaser saying so so there they are let me let me wato finish up the show and I'm Nikki

[02:18:50] Glaser saying that that was the normal sounding quado saying that was Nikki Glaser saying so they're they all okay I get it will you please let wato finish up the show thank you all for listening we remember to rate

[02:19:01] review and subscribe go to blankies.reddit.com for some real nerdy shit about blank check a different show this show is called quado quataya thanks to end for good oh for social media for blank check thanks to Joe bone and Pat

[02:19:20] Reynolds for social art work for blank check thank you to lay Montgomery for theme song for blank check quado do you have something to say I didn't get to I have a great factoid oh this is JD Quatar Quattar

[02:19:35] I got a factoid that's good here one of my favorite don't look at your your future watch my future watch it's two hours 15 minutes we play to double speed okay here's a factoid here's the thing that I love I'm

[02:19:55] JD motto and I love movies JD Aquata here's the thing I love about movies when they use props from one movie in another movie yes these suits for this movie where you're used in Hollywood a forever okay indeed I heard that before

[02:20:11] yeah there is an entire Power Rangers series which is Power Rangers lost Galaxy is reading off in notes right now that uses the exact costumes of the Starship Troopers as their main sort of like soldier thanks yeah then

[02:20:25] Firefly one of the things uses repainted versions of these exact costumes the 2001 Planet of the Apes uses these costumes the Starship Troopers props are used forever and ever and ever they're still around somewhere being used in movies for something I love movies I love when

[02:20:47] props are reused also you're gonna meet Ernest scared stupid those are that's a reuse of the clowns from Colin Cosmata space look it up okay more slime and should we wrap it up or yes you want to know doing next week for episode on the hello man

[02:21:09] yeah with a special guest Alex Ross Perry yes and there's always the guest water to be rude David never got around to saying that he this is his favorite for hope and movie you up in the beginning you're like I'll

[02:21:23] talk about that later you never did no we're gonna talk about that next week I mean the rankings we'll do our rankings okay but it is my favorite for over movie okay what are you my least hair podcast now I'm kidding I love

[02:21:35] this is the best one this is the number one best one I'll see you guys in the subreddit yes are you in there I go I go and learn drop your name do you have my username JD Amato oh it's gonna be hard to smile he's a real

[02:21:49] glide listeners yeah we can go talk about the tech stuff we'll talk about the film stock we'll talk about all that in the subreddit okay what I'll take us out and as always this is going to sound like a joke right

[02:22:03] now but I actually feel really sick I think I need to go to go I'm JD Amato and I love movies I had a dream last night where my sister was making me play a board game where ghosts were summoned and they had to answer trivia

[02:22:23] you had to bet on what ghosts you thought would have the answer or their real ghost they were real ghosts but you had to be sort of nice because they came with they had a lot of baggage and then there is a lot of waves that always

[02:22:35] happens in my dream I don't know why I decided to bring that up right now but I just remembered that shut up JD okay I need to talk about something once we get going David's been a little sassy today that chicken Caesar

[02:22:49] Sam would I'm feeling on the hockey it's got some spice in them today yeah I know hey shut up David yeah enough with the sandwich shut up so I haven't had lunch yet shut up well you should have lunch in the first 20 seconds of me a guest

[02:23:03] on this podcast has told us shut up yeah Jesus Christ you've been here for an hour yeah we'll get into that first play David the sandwich I was gonna get your own time and David's leaving a little buffer so I can eat this sandwich

[02:23:18] David broke down how late you are normally never okay ready yeah ready