The Parent Trap with Elena Lazic and Mani Lazic

[00:00:00] 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 Ladies, it's time to break up this little love fast. Potty? Castee. I mean, Castee.

[00:00:26] Potty! I mean... Whoa. He's smiling and raising his coffee, drinking it, satisfied with that. I was looking at Elena's face and she just looked at me. I didn't know what was going on. I was so confused. You thought I was reprimanding the two of you? Yeah.

[00:00:46] You have to break it up. Ladies! It is my nickname. Is it ladies? No, it's patty. Potty. Potty. Potty and Castee. Potty and Castee. Potty and Castee. You're Castee. Okay. I'm reading a Buzzfeed article about things you don't know about parents. I read it this morning.

[00:01:05] It's nothing good. So the movie is for Halle, right? That's the dedication of the movie. Her daughter. But she's got another daughter, Annie. Right. Well... Oh, and she chopped liver? So she named them after the two daughters. But was she born yet? Maybe not. No, no, they're in...

[00:01:20] Yes, because they were divorced by this part. They were named after the doses. The real doses. And Halle is in the movie. And Halle plays one of their bunk mates. Annie plays the towel girl, and Halle plays the one who asks where a bunk is.

[00:01:32] Halle has a lot more screen time, and Halle's also the one who went on to be a director in her own right. This is true. Ben, I think there's a leak in this room. Or there's a leak in the boat. Hello everybody, my name is Griffin.

[00:01:49] David Sims, and I rock the mic. Okay, stop stealing my lines. This is a podcast called Blank Check. It's about filmographies, directors who have massive success earlier on in their career and are given a series of blank checks to make whatever crazy passion projects they want.

[00:02:03] Sometimes those checks clear, and sometimes they bounce, baby. This is, for the first time ever, a mini-series demanded by the fans. A fans choice mini-series? Yes. We did a March Madness tournament, a bracket of 32 directors, and someone who we thought was a fairly low seed,

[00:02:28] who we thought would be interesting to do but had no expectations. What was her seed? Do you remember? I think she was probably right about the middle. I'm going to find it. But she was the juggernaut. Nancy Meyers steamrolled everybody. Yeah.

[00:02:42] She started off, I think, not as like a gimmick candidate, but as sort of like an underdog, a Cinderella candidate. Right, this would be an interesting person. We assume one of the... She was the 18th seed. Crazy. Yeah. But it's because she's generally so underrated.

[00:02:57] But senior files love her and she's never talked about in depth enough. That's the big thing I think. The first opportunity you have, you vote for Nancy Meyers. She came up against all these guys who are sort of like classic blank checkers.

[00:03:09] So Terri Gilliam, she edged him 52 to 48. I'm actually going to run through this. Thank you, blank check, Wiki. Paul Thomas Anderson was her second round match. Who we assume... 53-47. We thought it was probably going to come down. People always say like, can he do a PTA miniserie?

[00:03:25] What's that before Fendham Fred? No, it was after... Post-Fred. This was March 2018. I think we sort of thought it would come down to PTA versus Fincher. It seemed like those are the two obvious sort of like fanboy picks that will probably lead the way.

[00:03:40] Then in the quarters, right? So these are close votes. 52-48 and 53-47. She's weak in Outwind. Then she's got Sam Raimi, 56-44. So she's getting a little bit of distance. Then she goes up against my man, Michael Mann.

[00:03:55] And I assume that would be closer just because he another... And then she thrashes him 58 to 42. And then Fincher, 59-41. What's worse than two guys talking about Michael Mann for two hours and a half? Get ready. 2019 baby. Sorry. I'm going to make that happen.

[00:04:12] We have to get loads of girls on the podcast for those. They got thoughts about the man. We like to talk about man. Don't like manhunt her, but it's okay. Hashtag not all man. I'm fucking upset. David's sensitive. But this is... Very sensitive.

[00:04:30] We're upset because we always thought, oh, she'd be an interesting person. Dude, we've talked about her a long time actually. She was one of our... Yeah, it's true. We keep doing the papal horse in that original soup of ours. The original suggestion. She was always up there.

[00:04:42] And I think we always just thought, I don't know if we're going to lose listeners. I don't know if people want to hear us talk about her within our regular risk of it. I think the biggest fear we had was that she makes movies that are all similar.

[00:04:53] Sometimes we like directors like Ang Lee who work in all kinds of genres. Nancy Meyers is... She's in her lane. She likes her lane. I'm just going to... I'm going to confess it early on because it's sort of the original sin of this mini-series.

[00:05:05] For a long time, I had vetoed the idea because I didn't like her movies. You thought you were just going to be too negative. I didn't want to do a mini-series that critical. And then I had a sort of reawakening after I saw the intern on a plane.

[00:05:16] The intern is... I don't know. All her movies are so weird. Yes. Oh, no, she's deeply weird. That was always my argument for her. Right. And then I started reassessing everything and then sort of appreciating where she

[00:05:28] stands within the canon, especially as her type of movie has kind of died on a studio level. It made me see the greater value of her. So then she was more in the soup.

[00:05:40] And then I think we were both pleasantly surprised that she won because it gave us an opportunity to feel confident in covering her. Yes. But this, of course, is a mini-series called Something's Podicast. Damn right. And it's Poda. It's Podicast. PTA tried to stop it, but it's Podicast.

[00:05:58] Fincher laid his body on the tracks. He got run over. Yeah. I don't know why I'm... Got twisted. And this is her debut film, which is a very odd debut film in relation to what her career became in certain ways. In certain ways. It's called The Parent Trap.

[00:06:14] Yes. It is called The Parent Trap. It's a remake. It's a remake of a 1961 movie. 1961 film. Which was in and of itself the fourth adaptation of this book. Laudy and Lisa. This is a German book. Yeah. Wow.

[00:06:30] He wanted to make it as a movie originally and Hitler didn't green light it. Fuck it. I swear to God. He was really not a great guy. Hitler just think like, I just like why would the parents each take one kid? It's not a lot of consistency here.

[00:06:45] They don't stay in touch. I understand you don't want to be together but like was that the pitch meaning? That was the Hitler studio notes were brutal. Let's just move on from this please. Get off this right away. I'm glad that she's not remaking a Hitler accepted movie.

[00:07:03] Nancy Meyers is trying to put the will. Okay, let's have my take now. I know we had Hitler's but. The problem is if Nancy Meyers made Triumph of the Will it would make being a Nazi look so luxurious. Very wholesome. I said we're getting off of this.

[00:07:19] All right. So there's a 1961 Disney movie. It's called The Parent Trap. Which is the adaptation of the German book. I don't understand you. It stars Hailey Mills herself as you know who is Pollyanna that was her breakout role. She was the definitive Disney star of the time.

[00:07:33] And she it's got more you know Hera and I seen that movie several times because for some reason we owned it on VHS and I would watch it a lot as a kid. Hailey Mills.

[00:07:43] And I remember I asked my mom like how do they because my mom was like, you know, it's one person. How do they do that? I remember my mom going like, I don't know mirrors. I mean being like that doesn't. Anyway, there also was a TV remake.

[00:08:01] Was there not like a Disney? I think it's yeah. I could find I want to say like late 80s early 90s. There's three TV sequels. Oh, we're all about like Hailey Mills's kids and shit. Like there's all kinds of like generational dynamic because you know it's genetic right.

[00:08:18] Twins having twins. Yes, yes, I do. Twins at some point. So you know what a good premise. I know I think twins are like underrepresented but they are very cool. But not that many jokes you can do.

[00:08:31] Like I don't know how you can do a whole franchise around jokes around twins. Oh, she can take you. Well, you know they look alike and so they can pretend to be the other one. Well, I know that. Yeah, I would know a lot.

[00:08:44] I mean sister sister ran for like 100 episodes on this premise and never stop being funny. But sister sister's bit was like she's you know kind of a neat freak and this one's messy. Like it was like look alike but so different.

[00:08:57] And then the dad's the opposite and the mom right the neat freaks is the daughter of the messy mom and then so on and so forth. This movie does a variation on that sister sister some more.

[00:09:07] Yeah, I don't like in the twin pantheon you have like you have the two parent traps right. Sure. You have twins Arnie and Divina right. You have dead ringers. Oh great. Prestige. There is like a pretty good collection of Jack and Jill adaptation.

[00:09:24] We're talking about some of the great films of all. The man in the iron mask. Man in the iron mask. Fuck I'm now I'm googling twin movies. The man double. Yes, double impact with bad damn. Oh right. That's what a great film. Twin dragons with Jackie Chan.

[00:09:41] I feel like a lot of action stars at one point they were like Jackie Chan and Jackie Chan. Like that's the pitch better than one Jackie Chan every all the twins movie obviously right. Which it takes to is kind of a shitty half remake of parent trap.

[00:09:56] It takes to winning London passport to Paris when they went to Paris New York minute where they went to New York minute. A simple plan concert I think. Detective Jim's dad. The West was fun. I'm just reading out Olsen twins movie. There's so many. Sea world movies.

[00:10:15] They would make like one a year like direct to video. What's that movie with Selena Gomez? Is it Selena Gomez? The one where she's called it's not so based like Monaco or something. Oh yeah. No, I think you're right. That's a really good film. It's just a doppelganger.

[00:10:35] Is it not Selena Gomez? I think that's more of a prince and a popper thing. Monte Carlo, not Monaco. Yeah, it's a doppelganger thing but still like. She plays two roles. So right, that's a prince and popper. Then that category you file in your Dave's.

[00:10:51] Yeah, you know the movies where two people happen to look the same and can switch places. We got to introduce our guests. Introduce our guests. I said that. Our guests are experts on two major subjects. First and foremost, experts on cinema.

[00:11:08] They're both incredibly intelligent, well-regarded, well respected film critics. But they also are experts on being twins. Boy, oh boy. It's a knowledge. We're born with that expertise. We're going to have to do anything to gain it. Returning guest, Manuela Lazer. Hi, it's me. First time guest, Elena Lazer.

[00:11:32] Hello. Thank you for being here. Thanks for having us. So we're going to do a lot of that talking at the same time probably but we're going to try not to. If he can recognize our voices. What's his like to be twins guys?

[00:11:43] I don't know, I've never known anything else. Yeah, it sucks. It sucks. Like now I'm just to drag her here. Like I was the star of the show. What is this? Yeah. My cousin just said that. Really? Oh yeah, how is it? I think a lot of work.

[00:11:57] They seem happy though. That's always the parenting aspect of it I think about a lot. Just the two at one time. Well there's that thing of like, you know, like. It's quite easy because they can play with each other.

[00:12:10] There's things that are solved and also say you want to have two kids. Hey, you just had two kids. Yeah, but you're done. When our mama had us, she didn't want two kids. She just moved to a new country like two years before she barely spoke the language

[00:12:21] but she said that because we were together all the time, it was easy. She could just leave us there in the room and we would play together. So develop that own little language apparently at some point. Yeah, we just say things that don't.

[00:12:32] An idioblacia, that's what those are called. That's like quite a phenomenon, the twin language thing. I think so. It probably didn't last until like when we started actually to speak, we dropped it. But it was a thing.

[00:12:48] I have a friend who had younger twin sisters where they apparently had a twin sister where it apparently took them a longer time to drop it. And it was like a big point of concern in the family that they would never,

[00:12:59] not that they were nonverbal but they were not verbal in a way that worked for anyone else. Yeah, you know, one of my best friends from England is a twin. And don't fuck right off. I don't want to do this.

[00:13:12] We're going to get to that with the movie though. I swear to God. He's doing the bit and you're going to have to cut all of this out. I feel like his mom sort of insisted on him and his brother.

[00:13:22] They both went to same school but in being in separate classes. In the United States, you got to make those decisions. Like do you want to just sort of have them be a pair or you want to push them apart? Is that going to be a good idea?

[00:13:31] We tried for a long, long time. We were not in the same classes and we took different things to study. But then eventually we both ended up taking Latin and Italian and wanting to do English. And so they had no choice.

[00:13:44] So we had to be in the same class. And at first we were like, this is horrible. But then it was really fun until it was horrible again. But then it's fine. We were afraid of having competition. Then we're like, oh actually no, it's support.

[00:13:59] And they were like, okay, no, this is a bit shit. But it was fine. But then we ended up high school with exactly the same amount of points on the final example. The points that you gained through all your grades throughout the last four years.

[00:14:12] And it was just like, we didn't get the same grades but we ended up with the same amount. Literally the same. That's crazy. That was really weird. Like everything combined together would end up averaging out the same. That's not it.

[00:14:22] And then the two of you have also worked in two different fields that are the same. I'm phrasing this poorly. No, there's a lot of doubles. But you twice have ended up in the same career. Right. Yeah. Well, the first one is because we look the same. Right.

[00:14:39] And the reason why it's interesting with modeling is because we both look the same and the same age. And we got into it because we were found at the same time being in the same supermarket. Which supermarket though? In our hometown. Yeah. It doesn't exist anymore, I think.

[00:14:53] Doesn't exist? Yeah, it tore it down. But history was made there. They should have put a plague, you know. Yeah. Eventually when we're rich and famous. But yeah. And then we started writing about movies because we both like movies.

[00:15:05] And we both went to study movies because we were like, well, we happen to like the same thing. Yeah. And we don't even do exactly modeling the same way. No.

[00:15:13] When we model, like every time we meet clients are like twins, that's such a good idea for the next project. I'm like, oh yeah, great. But then every single client has that idea. So it's like, they think it's very original.

[00:15:23] But it's really fun to do it together because we know each other. But at the same time, like we don't necessarily do all the same stuff in modeling, but also in writing. Oh yeah. Like we have quite different writing style. One is better than the other. Yeah.

[00:15:36] I'll tell you which one. I will also say, like, I've done like modeling, but I've had to do these like photo shoot, like promotional photo shoot thing. And I find it very like, I get very self-conscious when I'm the only person there. Yeah.

[00:15:52] Versus when you're like in a photo with another person. It's very odd when it's a bunch of people surrounding you in lights. Yeah. And it's sort of silent. Everyone's just staring at you. I imagine there's like a sense of security and yeah, being able to do it together.

[00:16:04] We started when we were like 15, 16. And if we had been alone, we would never have done it. Yeah. Our parents would like, okay, it's fine because you're together. So yeah. And it's true that it's easier.

[00:16:13] Like when I have to shoot with another model that I don't know, it's maybe better than by myself. But it's still like really weird because we don't necessarily understand each other's, you know, behavior, language or what. Chemistry. Yeah, chemistry.

[00:16:25] Whereas we're together, like it's just the most natural thing in the world. Yeah. There's the thing this movie does that I feel like a lot of twin movies do where it's like, they're very different. Like they love this idea of the twins being opposite.

[00:16:36] And then there are the few things that they're exactly the same on. Right. Which are so like kind of stupid and small. Yes. And just kind of like blender-y. They are blender-y. Yeah. Certainly in this movie. Blender-y. So you don't know what that means.

[00:16:50] I'm not going to explain. Please. Look how I can explain. I didn't realize that was a blank check. The blender? Is that right? The blender is like something that. Terminated by Alex Rospery. Shout out. Yes. Alex Rospery coined that term.

[00:17:03] It's when a director, is it in a cross-sexual film? So is it in one movie? I can't remember. It's like limited to a film. Yes. There's like a character who has like one weird thing about them. And so it was in one film. Where is it?

[00:17:17] It's enemy of the state. Will Smith keeps talking about his blender. He has a blender and he doesn't serve any purpose. Right. It never, it's not the end. It's like, oh, the blender is what I'll put in the machine to make. It's just a thing to make.

[00:17:28] That's right. I think it was amazing. I'm seeing like a real person. The most succinct way is ever put it. It's a thing that only exists to be a thing. Yeah. It serves no story function.

[00:17:37] It doesn't tell you anything about the character other than there's like a specific that they can keep on going back to. I quite like those. I do too. It gives a lot of like human dimension. Right. That's the idea is like a quick fix to make.

[00:17:49] You got to do it fast. In that movie it's when they eat the Oreos with peanut butter. Right. Oh my God. We both did this and I've never done that. I read that Nancy May has just like wrote this because she was like, I need a weird thing.

[00:18:02] So it was like, oh, it's actually not a thing. Did she invented it? She just made it up. She just made it up. That sounds just insane. But then I was like, maybe Americans do it. Apparently it's not. I tried Oreos with like Sorbet the other day.

[00:18:15] I thought it was really good. Sorbet? Yeah. She just had like Sorbet in the house. What's Sorbet? What's Sorbet? The strawberry. What flavor? Raspberry. Good flavor. That's been tense. Yeah, that was good. The parent trap. The parent trap. Well, so Nancy Meyers, right.

[00:18:32] I think, yeah, as you say her big argument is we're getting on the parent trap. It's fine, Ben. We get this. Ben's Michaelis this one. Is she's at the only person left making these kind of movies in Hollywood. That's her blank check.

[00:18:45] I mean not also her movies are very expensive. That's the other thing. Her movies are very expensive and very long. Narrative tangent. And like Hollywood usually squashes movies like this now because they're like, ah, that's television or oh, this is too much money for like, you know, whatever.

[00:18:57] These movies don't make money overseas. There's all those sort of like. They're also real movie star movies. Like they're movies that are sold by stars which doesn't really happen. No one cares about stars anymore. This is not that movie. No, it made a star.

[00:19:10] It became a star movie. Sure. It is sold on the talent of the main actress. Yes. But she's not a star. No, she's not first role. You just see her interacting with other kids. You're just like, this is insane because you never see it.

[00:19:25] I always admire films where you see kids, kid actors being amazing and interacting in real like kid terms and being really touching and like real because that's so impressive to me. That's always so impressive.

[00:19:37] And I think that movie is really about like the talent of acting of that. Yeah. The headline of this movie is it's a fucking stunning performance which also makes this movie kind of depressing to watch now. Oh yeah. Well, yeah.

[00:19:51] Just because it's like the fucking churn of like this horrible industry, you know, you like look at this person who clearly was just like so fucking capable. And the other thing that's really stunning about her in this is that she does seem like a real kid. Yeah.

[00:20:05] Like she doesn't have that like overly plasticly like child star thing that especially happens in Disney movies. She's playing two different very distant characters then also playing them playing each other and in all four iterations she seems like a real child.

[00:20:19] And they ask her to do a British accent. Right. I mean who would ask that of a kid? Yeah. That's just crazy to me. And she does it pretty well. Both of you live in London.

[00:20:27] I feel like I have less of an ear for this and David has no context to understand this. Oh fuck yourself. But I do think the accent holds up pretty well. She does it like extreme posh. Yeah. But it's kind of a very off story.

[00:20:41] But that is the original movie. Of course Haley Mills is English. So Haley Mills was having to do an American accent. Right. That's easy. It's easy. Especially for like Lindsay Lohan's like a Long Island girl. She is.

[00:20:53] She was born in the Bronx raised on Long Island by her delinquent fucking parents who you know have had trouble with her dad was a like day trader who like got arrested or right like dramatic family. They had trouble being humans.

[00:21:10] So you know then she was a kid model from the age of three. Wow. She was in 60 commercials. Yeah. Pizza Hut, Wendy's that kind of stuff. And then she was in another world which is a soap opera. And then this was her film debut. Correct.

[00:21:28] And Disney really doubled that. How old was she in this movie? She's 11. Right. It's crazy. Wow. And then she didn't make another theatrical film until Mean Girls. I mean a freaking Friday. Excuse me. Yes. Right. Yeah. No, there was some time off in between.

[00:21:48] She did a Disney Channel movie. Yeah. She makes life size and get a clue. Right. Right. Life size I believe is where Tyra Banks is her doll who comes to life. Correct. Currently in production on a sequel. Are you serious? That Tyra Banks isn't but Lindsay Lohan isn't.

[00:22:01] What? Seems. That movie has a weird, weird cult following. You're right. She's like something you wouldn't remate now. Correct. That's literally objectified person. She was one of these kids who clearly got into like a seven year Disney deal.

[00:22:19] Like she makes this movie and then she's in get a clue. Right. Which is another Disney Channel movie. Right. Life size I think was on ABC. About like a rich Manhattan kid who, I don't know, there's like a mystery she solves. She's like it's a shitty Harriet's book.

[00:22:33] And then in 03, so five years after parent trap, she does Freaky Friday. Which is she is both phenomenal and the better actor to like Jamie Lee Curtis doing amazing stuff. But I think Lindsay Lohan is like underrated in that movie. Yeah.

[00:22:47] I mean she came out of the gate. She has the tough role. She has to be the tight ass. Yes. Because it's Jamie Lee Curtis is playing a kid and she's so funny and silly.

[00:22:54] And like Lindsay Lohas has low-hass, low hand has to play a stick in the mud. There was, I find in retrospect this annoying thing of I feel like at the time people were

[00:23:05] like yeah well she's like an engaging personality but let's see if she can evolve into like a serious actress. And you look at like that run of like parent trap, Freaky Friday, Mean Girls. Those are all like pretty complicated performance. Yeah. Very demanding.

[00:23:20] She's so good in Mean Girls. She's so fucking good in Mean Girls. And a role that like could be nothing in the hands of less intelligent. Well not only that but that movie is all these fun supporting performances that are

[00:23:29] common in like Rachel McAdams and like Tim Meadows kicking ass. People who are allowed to go really big which makes it hard to not disappear into the tapestry of the film unless you're really smart about how you play it. She's not actually like this empty vessel at all.

[00:23:41] Like when you watch the movie you could just watch her and it would be still interesting. She's a magnetic screen performer. But that's the thing. It's like the problem with all the NC Meadows movies is everyone, no one takes them seriously

[00:23:50] because they're fun romantic comedies or child or kid movies and no one gives a shit. And now, now that they don't get made anymore, now we're like oh well those were really complex and interesting and great performances. And yeah, well it's a bit late now.

[00:24:03] Not saying that would have changed something in Hollywood but I'm just saying you know. She's still making her movie. It's one hope. One hope she will make another movie. Well this movie is sort of a bridge into her style because I mean the roots of her career

[00:24:15] are her collaboration with her ex-husband Charles Shire. She would co-write all the films. The further context right. Charles Shire. She would co-write with him but he would direct. Yes. And she talked about how she was trying to write on her own for a while and couldn't

[00:24:30] sort of break through. She was always being discounted, discredited. I think she was able to trojan horses being part of a duo and the fact that he would direct his films so she was like tied onto them as like part of the incubation process.

[00:24:43] She was born in Philadelphia. This is the first episode. We gotta do an answer. Yes, context. Her father was an executive at a voting machines manufacturer. Her mother was an interior designer. Wow. She was also a volunteer in the Head Start program which you know preschool.

[00:25:00] Raised in a Jewish household in Drexel Hill, which is like you know the Pennsylvania line. Gets into theater. Gets into screenwriting when she sees the graduate. Right. She went to Lower Marion High School which is you know a big fancy school.

[00:25:19] Kobe Bryant went there you know famous school. My friend Anna went there. Shout out to Anna. And then she worked in TV and yeah moves to LA you know she just like oh man she started a small cheesecake business. Did she know this? I did not know this.

[00:25:41] Oh my god. What was it called? What was it called? Yeah. I don't know let's find out. I'm trying to find the direct quote right now. Doesn't say the name. She read the story about how no one would take her seriously as a screenwriter and the big

[00:25:54] change for her was private Benjamin which no one wanted to make. They kept on getting rejected at every fucking studio and then they got Goldie Hawn attached. The movie was a massive success and then it got a great movie and it got Oscar nominations

[00:26:07] and she got an Oscar nomination for best screenplay and that sort of set them off on a big career. So she co-wrote that with Charles Shire who was a friend first and then a husband. Yes. And Harvey Miller is the other writer in that movie right?

[00:26:25] Yeah every studio passed on it you know blah blah blah huge hit and then they do a reconcilable differences together. Which is a movie about Polly Platt and Pierre Bogdanovich's divorce. Sure starring Ryan O'Neill and Shelley Long and Drew Barrymore.

[00:26:41] Yeah right like a teen it's like a teen Drew Barrymore like my parents suck movie. Yeah the poster is like the two of them and then she's like scribbled graffiti like devil horns on them or something. Yeah. Weird. Not a hit.

[00:26:54] No but it exists in the canon of movies made by other directors about Peter Bogdanovich's relationships. Okay. Along with star 80. Sure. Yeah that guy's got a messy personal life. Then they work on a movie called Protocol starring Goldie Han Han Han Han. What that was?

[00:27:14] Who is a cocktail waitress who prevents the assassination of visiting Arab Emir. You are mistaken that movie doesn't exist. Doesn't sound like it exists. Baby Boom. Right that was a good day. Which is another Charles Shire movie with Diane Keaton. Yeah she's establishing her people.

[00:27:32] And then they remake Father of the Bride starring Steve Martin and Diane Keaton. Very big. Very big again Shire is directing it so then they do a sequel based on Father's Little Dividend. Thankfully they don't call it that since it's the grossest title in the world.

[00:27:47] They're working on a third they have a third script that they wrote but I think they break up before. But they're both credited on this which makes me think. Oh yeah so he produced this movie they broke up on the set of this movie.

[00:28:01] Which she refers to in that big New York Times profile of her from the complicated days. It's like the most traumatic thing that ever happened to her. Like and like clearly you know and then she only makes these movies about like kind of

[00:28:14] fuck up guys who you have to deal with who are still in your life. Yeah you know there's always that character in all of her movies. But it's always reconciled eventually so it's like very hopeful very optimistic. Yeah there is optimism she likes optimism she likes happy endings.

[00:28:30] And he's always surprising but it's always always works. She likes maturity too I feel like she likes scenes where it's like you know you sit down you have a fucking conversation yeah figure it out. People get over themselves.

[00:28:39] But not so much in the parent trap or these two yeah emotional idiots right. No I mean parent trap is clearly her being like okay how do I get to direct a movie sure the father of the bride films were Touchstone.

[00:28:52] So they're right adjacent to Disney Disney at this period of time was remaking a lot of the live action Disney films from the 60s and 70s. They were all sort of being churned up.

[00:29:01] It's a clear bridge to like oh you guys at parent father the bride father parent. Yeah. Right whatever. I think this was just sort of a way to get her foot in the door but it's interesting how many of the sort of hallmarks not in the thematic

[00:29:17] obviously what the source material is but what she does with it how it differentiates itself. I mean A in that both households become exorbitantly wealthy. Oh my God. She and Shire are still friends I'm reading this. Yeah I think now what were you about to say Manu.

[00:29:33] I was just saying yeah like even in the story I think in the parent trap you can see a lot of her because there's the whole yeah those people are stupid and they don't talk but when they do it's good and it's important

[00:29:44] and when they like make up at the end it's very it's very much like something's got to give to me like it's kind of like like fuck yeah let's go back together and you're like okay cool yeah it feels very much

[00:29:58] because it's all about their feelings doesn't make sense. Do you remember why we broke up? Let's not remember that. Yeah you never see that. That already happened. It's nice to see you. There's another thing that I love about this movie which is I always

[00:30:14] just get frustrated with comedies especially romantic comedies but any type of big studio comedy that is predicated on a lie where it's all about the tension of when are they going to get caught. Then you have to suffer through that second act reveal where it's like

[00:30:28] I'm sorry that I lied and everyone's mad at each other for a while. Right. And this movie weirdly kind of works around that by having both lies be volunteered like you know the reveals like. Well the other thing is like the parents can't be mad because

[00:30:44] they are defenseless. They can't be like well we kept you apart for a very good reason. They meet the universe is going to collapse like you know like there's no defense but the other is offered.

[00:30:56] The other part of it is that this movie other than a couple key sequences isn't that big into like the twin trickery. No. Which I feel like the trailers really showcase that. Yeah they only do it the one time really.

[00:31:07] Right and it felt like it was like one of those like I remember when the trailer came out I didn't bother to see this movie when it came out and I would go see every fucking movie like this. You sound like a piece of shit.

[00:31:15] Yeah and I saw it on video my mom and I were like this is really well directed. I saw this film in theaters in the United States of America. That's right. I understand why you put a point on it where else would you say this.

[00:31:26] I was here on vacation. Okay Ben cut that out. I was I started the AMC Lincoln Square. Hey the gentleman's theater. But I feel like the trailers really played up the like the camping trip shit the sort of like them walking in and out of different doors.

[00:31:43] But it's actually more about having a twin. Yeah. It's not really about like what could we do with twins. It's more like I have a twin. This is great. Yeah it's about family. Yeah it's really not about like it's more about the parents.

[00:31:56] It's not about like how weird it is to have a twin. It's about like I have a sister. Can I please be with my sister? Which is when you're not what you expect. My favorite thing about this movie too is how much it's

[00:32:06] about these two girls getting to see like the alternate version of their lives. I think it puts a lot of attention into them getting to enjoy. Yeah you sort of how the other half lives what the other parents like.

[00:32:20] But the one thing that makes it maybe a bit less interesting is that they're both like wealthy as shit. So it's like yeah they're like oh yeah this is that's where it is right. Yeah it would be really traumatic if one of them I know

[00:32:34] had to have grown up. There is a French movie. I think it's I think it's a life is a long river. I think that's what it's called. Good title. Where it's a great film where basically some people realize that at birth two kids were swapped and then

[00:32:57] they realize and the kids are like still young but one is like in a really rich family and the one is a very poor family. So the film is really like love dread and love just hatred and that's super interesting because they're

[00:33:09] not twins but it's just about the difference of like wow where you're born is important. Yeah that's why the title is actually like sort of ironic it's like our life is only a quiet river if you're really rich. Right. Exactly.

[00:33:20] It's a movie about class but it's so excellent but that's what I find in the parent trap it's all very you know how lucky it makes sense. Well Nancy Meyers right. Yeah she wouldn't make something about money. It's also like Nancy Meyers. It wouldn't be a problem.

[00:33:35] Yeah I think Nancy Meyers approaches well in the way that like a superhero movie director approaches like set pieces. Yeah yeah yeah. Or it's like you need shit to show in the trailer like you need production value. Those are the bones. You need a huge house.

[00:33:50] Incredible looking clothes. Well this lets her do two visions of wealth too. Yes. You got you know a coity-toity English life right but then you got like ranch sort of slightly like you know landsend catalog style Napa Valley. That's where the Nancy really shows because

[00:34:05] it's like you meet these two girls I mean I love the fact that the first 30 minutes of the movie you just start at the camp you meet them there you don't have a sense other than what they say about their home life.

[00:34:14] That's true it's actually very clever right you don't see the parents at all right you start with the kids you build out. Right because I think a lot of shittier filmmakers would have just gotten that set up by the way after 10 minutes and then done

[00:34:25] 80 minutes of trickery and then backed out right in the opening credit sequence right but they set up this sort of high class low class thing. Yeah but yeah but then that's out the window. Right because there's the tough talking more colloquial I mean the American one

[00:34:41] sounds like Bart Simpson. She definitely almost says don't have a count. Right that she asked her daughter like what are things that people say it's like I don't know tubular and then the other ones like super kind of like sophisticated and squirmish and all that sort of stuff.

[00:34:55] Right but she also has like a rapping buttler is her best friend. But I was going to say you just think like okay so the American girls maybe got like a little more of rough and tumble of a home life

[00:35:05] and it's like okay she's got this rough and tumble dad who accidentally fell into a multi-million dollar wine company. They found a way to make him like assault to the earth like all American guy who's also insanely wealthy. He raised horses but he's horses. Right.

[00:35:21] He owns several of them. He has a whole hill where he just has his grapes growing I mean he's fine. He's doing okay. And it just seems like very like at peace with everything like both of them have these incredibly big successful careers where they're insanely well

[00:35:37] regarded and they both just feel like I got this on autopilot. Like I know what I'm doing now my career isn't a struggle at all I just keep on doing the work that everybody loves. It's also a crazy thing what were you going to say?

[00:35:49] Should we start from the beginning a bit? Yeah. I'm just mean like literally the sequences because I really love this opening sequence. So it's the scene that sets up what happened in 1986. So we see just two figures we don't see their faces.

[00:36:07] And it's a man and a woman and they're on a boat on the Queen Elizabeth 2. Of course, QE2. And there's like it's already it's all slow-mo and very wealthy and everything looks great it's about a cruise and people having dinner and soft focus

[00:36:27] and someone is passing a ring on the finger of a woman and then we see them dancing we don't see their faces then someone comes to take a picture and we see the picture and it's the picture so it's Dennis Quaid and what's his name? RIP

[00:36:49] And so I love that sequence because it's so simple and it's so it establishes everything and it's the themes as well. You see already the wealth a bit but that's not even a theme it's just a context and you see it's so romantic It's so romantic!

[00:37:05] It establishes I think the aspirational thing of dancing lives which is like you watch this film, it's not real but it just makes you dream about what if this life was possible It's ideal. These two very exaggerated romantic versions of a reality where money is not a problem

[00:37:27] It's like she's not making films about real, real world but I think that's what's like the appeal. But that's also the really smart narrative function it has, she sells you on the high movie romance of this moment Everyone wishes they had one night like this and then

[00:37:45] that becomes the representation for these two girls of we gotta recreate this thing I think that's the best part of the story is that you get an investment in that photo of the power it represents of like, oh man that was that cool open

[00:38:01] and credit sequence I'd like more of that Sure! I think there's this idea that you got that you got the storybook romance and then you got there happy lives as fashion designers and they're doing pretty well in the rough and maybe the parents

[00:38:19] are like, you can do it and Nancy Myers is like, you can have both That's her big thesis She's like, no, no, no, you can do it You need to grow up maybe before you get to do it The picture thing

[00:38:33] in setting up the idea of this romance at the beginning also I think is what allows the movie to not be awkward when you realize that they're both doing really really well they're very happy on their own and you're like, yes we are but remember

[00:38:47] they could do that as well and if you didn't have that you'd be like well, they're very happy they could just send the girls one country for six months it's such a good high watermark The other thing that's kind of crazy about this film is it's like

[00:39:05] Quaid Richardson are the two established adult actors they're the top two billed people in the movie this opening credit sequence you're getting just slivers of them you're only really seeing them face on in this still photo and then they don't appear for another half hour

[00:39:17] Dan's Quaid doesn't appear in motion until 45 minutes in which is kind of a really bold move for this sort of movie to be like just invest in these two girls in their relation to Quaid He's coming off a dragon heart He's blumen, are you kidding me?

[00:39:33] He's coming off a I don't know what the fuck, Wyatt Earp He's in a slump he is in a bit of a slump he's fucking hot in this movie He's such a handsome guy That whole lands and catalog kind of look with the sort of like

[00:39:51] shirt sleeves rolled up and like he's grown into his looks I like how he does nothing, he's just being like pushed around by these women His character is kind of idiot Just having a good time Just thinking of Nancy Meyers making this movie

[00:40:05] and just having him be hot and do nothing it's kinda nice if you're a woman or you just fancy him he's just there He's just like this object that you can look at Basically no one asks anything of him until the end of the movie when she's like

[00:40:19] it's me or the kids and he's like oh the kids She's like what? But he does successfully so I mean this thing the movie comes down to where it's like why didn't you chase me and he's like I didn't know I was supposed to

[00:40:31] and you buy that he had never considered the fact without the character coming off it's so dumb that you hate him You buy that, you don't buy that they would keep the kids and you're like really hot I mean that's the sort of problem with this movie

[00:40:43] It's the problem with the premise You have to buy into the central which makes no sense What judge was like oh yeah sure the kids should live in separate countries and not know each other That's a good call My friends Marina and Niko who are incredible

[00:40:57] writers had a sketch they used to do that was the divorce meeting with the lawyer for the couple in the parent trap and they're going over the division of the property and then once they bring up this concept the lawyer's like are you fucking kidding me

[00:41:11] that is the most traumatic thing and it's like so what you guys hate each other I was like no we're pretty like friendly, just can't really make it work That's the bit is they keep on saying we can't stand each other

[00:41:21] and it's like I don't know you seem very close Yeah we don't really know what happened on that boat No but yeah The other moment I love is when the shitty fiance tells Dennis Quaid extra buttons on his shirt

[00:41:33] and I think it's supposed to be this moment of look how much he doesn't understand and that she's like making him do this embarrassing thing I don't know that's pretty fucking high Good call I got a couple more buttons off But first summer camp there's some antics first

[00:41:47] We gotta do some antics This is very 90s live action Disney It really also just feels like Nancy Meyers being like yeah the kids will do stuff What do kids have like furniture, they put them on roofs What do kids do

[00:41:59] They're 11 years old, yeah they can put a bed on the roof And it's like when can we get to all the hotels and cool shit I want to Nancy this shit But it feels like this is the stuff she had to do

[00:42:11] This section has a totally different tone It feels like a very generic functional sort of like 90s kids comedy The score is also totally different in this section It's got this weird synthy Yeah the Alan Sylvesterie score It sounds for the first 30 minutes

[00:42:27] like they tempt the driving Miss Daisy music because it's the same kind of that's just the driving Miss Daisy music Right but it's almost identical I know what you're saying And then once they go to the rest of the movie it becomes this lusher sort of like orchestral

[00:42:41] thing, but this is just like the kids doing prank wars on each other It's a movie about much like the other great movie about twins The Prestige It's a movie about a prank But I love you so much if she just shot off the finger

[00:42:57] Yeah right I'm gonna murder your greatest love I mean honestly I didn't know how far they would go I was like oh my god You're saying trap in the cabin I was just how can you do this This is complicated this camp's way of dealing with it

[00:43:09] is like go to that cabin for days They're not like for like three hours they're like we're just gonna leave you there And they do that joke where they reference the great escape with the score Like they sort of make it this weird

[00:43:23] like friendly prison for the two of them Yeah it's horrible I don't like the antics and stuff as much but I like them in this movie especially because they allow a great play on the fact that they're twins but they don't know Like when they do the fencing

[00:43:39] and they put the mask on I find that so cool I will say though it is a little weird that they're like we're identical and then they don't talk about it again for 20 minutes Don't you understand we're twins I'm like yeah you should have got that

[00:43:53] from the beginning What can you think about eating in a moment like this? What do you mean? I don't know Because something like three identical strangers they talk about when they see each other immediately like so let's get the confirmation but we're clearly twins

[00:44:09] And in the film there's this moment where they shake hands and they're like because we can there's like this connection in parent trap But then for that moment was like when they realized that they're related but that's not what happens The other like their campmates

[00:44:23] the counselors are just like that's crazy you look the same but they don't go like you probably are related The counselor should be like let's check the records Instead Jan is from friends and the other person And they're just like these kids they put furniture on roofs

[00:44:41] They probably have their date of birth somewhere I'm reading They definitely have that They're both allergic to strawberries That's a thing that camps definitely have so that they don't kill kids You have to know allergies and shit like that

[00:44:55] And you have to lock up kids who put stuff on the roofs and You call the parents or something I don't know how many kids almost had their neck broken in that scene There's the thing where it's all slippery and then the chicken gets all slipped around

[00:45:09] This is just one insurance nightmare after another all this shit they're doing They were on the roof Like at my summer camp They had climbed up on the roof They were carrying a bed on the roof You would get kicked out immediately Of course

[00:45:27] What happens if you fall off the roof, you break your neck and then we're sued This is an insurance nightmare Go back to it looks like you're from Napa Okay What I think is cool though with all those antique stuff It shows how mature they are

[00:45:43] Both of them So I don't know which one is called Okay It's a f**k The Napa girl The Napa girl is Annie is the London girl Okay, so when Halle arrives and she's got her bag under a pile of bags And then a woman helps

[00:46:05] another girl and she's like That's my kind of woman This is how this woman talks and they're all very mature I don't think Nancy Meyers can write kids No, I guess not But it makes them so much more interesting It's charming It is charming

[00:46:25] And it's also one of the reasons why the Lohan performance is so impressive because this should not be actable These are not realistically written children and in most hands they would be suffering Lohan has to do this painful English prim accent which should be annoying

[00:46:43] She's got the f**king butler That should suck But it doesn't They have a handshake They gotta do I like that sting a lot I don't know who was like Yeah, let's put a bit of that song in this Sure

[00:47:01] Apparently there's a scene where they meet the queen Did you know that? Well it is a 2 and 10 minute 2 hours 10 minutes It's not crazy they cut out I got that I do think the moment with the fencing I just like

[00:47:17] I hadn't seen this movie in a couple of years and I was just like f**k how do they set this up to their fencing and they don't see each other's faces How sweaty is this going to be And there's just some really elegant blocking

[00:47:27] to set up why they don't catch each other out of peripheral vision They just have their back to each other and then they put a mask and they have it Other than that, I think the only way this section really feels Nancy Meyersy is that it's

[00:47:41] right here from the get go the classic Nancy Meyersy Nancy Meyers never makes a movie with less than 5 acts Yes this movie's got that She doesn't make 3 acts movie Act 1 is the camp Act 2 is their separate lives seeing how the other half lived Then it's like the reconciliation

[00:48:03] Then it's the camping trip What the hell Then epilogue And also the camp is sort of 1.5 acts because first it's prank war and then you got the sort of extended isolation sequence Yeah true Right there's the There's the adversarial half of the camp thing

[00:48:23] and then there's like the teamwork let's train each other to become each other Can we talk about the scene where I say PSD earrings That's a great scene What the hell Did you know I read that it's been cut in the UK and from the Disney broadcast because

[00:48:43] they didn't want copycats That's exactly what I was thinking If I had seen this movie when I was 11 I probably would have tried it but also that's how you can do it You can't say that You can't say that on the podcast

[00:48:57] You don't want all the kids who listen to blank chat committing copycats crimes So you can take a needle Get it real hot I think it's an apple No, it's a lemon It can't be That would kill her She would like pass out These fruits

[00:49:19] Yeah, but I know at least one girl who pierced yours That is a rite of passage I have heard of Because even the parents aren't freaked out they're like, and you got your ears pierced I know they don't say Did you go to Claire's or something?

[00:49:33] Was there a field trip to a mall? If it's a camp where you can do fencing You can probably get your ear pierced That's true You can probably do anything in that camp You got some American stuff You got a breast implant

[00:49:47] You got your hair and new clothes You got a full back tattoo You got a Ben Affleck Rising Phoenix back tattoo 11 years old Yeah, they were going through some shit They hatched the plane There's the moment where they start to respect each other's game

[00:50:03] You know why? Because she has her close window She has her close window Right, in the rain They smile at each other Thanks And then you have the pictures They unite the pictures Just like Justice League United the 7 They unite the 2

[00:50:21] What I really like in that isolation scene is when they talk about their parents and it's so cute because they're like I love my dad so much I can talk to him about everything But I love my mom She's so cool She makes dresses and I love her

[00:50:37] Do you know your mom? That mom is so heartbreaking She's so sad She misses her mom And then when you think about the premise She's like, what did they do? You keep waiting for them to be like We should never have done this They never took the money

[00:50:55] They're like, well, they're united now There's a sense of getting back together for a better future without any regret about the past which is crazy If I learned my parents had done that I would scream and I hit them Imagine being a parent and not seeing your child

[00:51:13] for over a decade and not having it be a situation where the government stole your child where you openly, willingly volunteered to never see your child again Just because the other one looks the same it's not like the same child That's the point

[00:51:29] You guys are twins, can you confirm that you guys are the same? We are the same person When I can't talk to someone we're exactly the same We should make it clear to our listeners that everything that either one of you has said

[00:51:43] has been said in unison by the other at the same time And it's surround sound This is in stereo, right Ben? Oh yeah Yeah, this is in stereo I don't know what else to say We are on the mic to you Hi Ben

[00:52:01] Hello, nice to see you again Nice to see you as well Welcome here I think we should get back to talk about the episode Sure Yeah That was just what I wanted That was Ben I wanted to say another thing Yeah, for a while

[00:52:21] I asked and she thought we should maybe do it with one of us doing a very heavy British accent She said no straight away and she insulted me You did some British accent and I wanted to kill you I know because I don't think it's a great accent

[00:52:35] I don't have any offense to anyone who speaks with British accent There's no such thing as a British accent What do you mean? There's English accent, Scottish accent I'm French, I don't know what I'm saying No, most people say that I'm always a pedant about it Why?

[00:52:53] Because he's pedantic We have to talk about I am pedantic You wanted to do this bit but then I would accept if you did the Scottish accent for example Can you try? I don't know what to do Just because I had no idea

[00:53:11] if people would figure out who is speaking when when they listen to this podcast I think it would be fine You think so? We have different haircuts That's true That's the big key distinction in terms of the audio You can hear in my voice

[00:53:27] that I have longer hair than you So they do the switcheroo Have you guys ever done a switcheroo? Everyone always asks us We're very good girls We're very boring so we never did it We did it one time I remember we did once

[00:53:43] We had to go pick up results from Bacchaloria That was a very important thing We decided to try it for the first time It's very similar to GCSE where you have to go to school in the summer and you get handed an envelope

[00:53:57] and you open it in front of everyone It was the worst experience in my life You decide let's stress each other out more For that reason I was busy I was in the country and I was terrified It was pretty bad You were very scared No one cared

[00:54:15] Did you go in as yourself, leave and then go in as I went to the Bucchaloria and she did it Did you go in, collect yours, leave and then pretend to be Elena and go back in a second time? I think I maybe went on two different days

[00:54:31] The very deadest clothes We had the same hair at the time We looked more like... This is my big question Do you think... I accept it doesn't harm the movie We have to buy into the premise Do you think there's any scenario in which either of these parents

[00:54:49] would not be able to tell that their child was different? I know they look the same But did the two of you think at the times where you had the same hairstyles you would ever have been able to trick your parents? No, but they just know instinctively

[00:55:01] They sometimes mix us up on the phone when we have our back turns When we were very small babies we looked more alike but all babies looked alike I think even at 11 we could be different If you look at pictures of us then we definitely look different

[00:55:21] It's just this weird thing in the movie where the mom and dad buy it wholesale and then Chessie and the grandpa are the people who sniff it out Well Chessie is she says the name that's when Chessie starts the best scene in the movie

[00:55:35] It's the world's greatest detective Chessie And the grandpa figures it out but the grandpa is like a wise old grandpa He's around the phone When you get the sense that it's because these two people spend more time with their kids than their parents which is very sad

[00:55:51] That's a good point Parents never spend time with their daughters so they don't know what they actually look like I want to talk about Chessie They do this switch so now F***ing Hallie is going to England and Annie's going to Napa So Annie's in Napa

[00:56:09] And you get sort of two isolated 15 minutes They stick with one then they go to the other Oh here's Dennis Quaid I missed you so much You can never go to camp again And then Chessie played by Lisa Ann Walter who is sort of like the sort of

[00:56:25] B-list Julie Kavner of the 90s She's like a stand up She was a character that only exists to make because Dennis Quaid who has to raise his daughter by himself doesn't know how to cook anything They don't need a nanny They don't need her then

[00:56:39] He can just make a normal meal every day and it'll be fine He has the time, he's never working She seems like a life long friend She says that she's known her for 11 years Chessie is here So immediately I'm watching it with my girlfriend

[00:56:55] We're both just like who is this person What's the deal? Is she an aunt? Is that what it is? No She's an employee? But she lives with them? And she sort of jokingly calls herself the butler? Right But at no point does Nancy ever just say

[00:57:13] Let me just clarify who this person is Never clarify her friends Is she the turtle? Is she the e? Where does she fit into the Quaid on? She's kind of the e We were watching this movie yesterday because Elena needed to see it Very good person

[00:57:29] We were wondering the same thing Who is this person? It's so bizarre because she's kind of coded at first as maybe a lesbian character And kind of like Francis McDormand Very similar to But then She gets with the butler So it's so very weird

[00:57:51] Which Nancy loves to just tie those little loose ends off Maybe they... The butler is kind of coded as gay at first Because he's kind of like He gives advice on the clothes And then he starts wearing this lever jacket And we see him in his swimsuit

[00:58:05] And I don't want to see that But that's why it's like They're actually a more interesting couple Because they're both like Bisexual, it's cool Or maybe he's just a normal person Who's not just a super macho danish Quaid guy He's not coded by Hollywood

[00:58:21] I'd like to see them Do whatever, just more of them Together as a couple Nancy was the first person to ever be woke And also Ever. I do think it's interesting that It's not like a lavender marriage thing It's that they are so Fucking attracted to each other

[00:58:39] It's kind of like a dormitory She's like an eyeball in each other Like in the corridor, like This is gross This is gross It's nice. It's nature Yeah, but like Wasn't ready My read on Chessie is She has some line that

[00:58:59] I'm not even gonna try to misquote where she is saying Like you know your father He can't even keep track of the things right in front of his face Or whatever That somehow she just sort of like was a friend of his

[00:59:09] Who knew that he had some ability But also is like a fucking oblivious idiot And has sort of just been like his general Like not personal assistant But like assisting him And just picking everything up I feel like Chessie has Like a position within the company

[00:59:25] No, she's definitely an employee But she also seems to live there She was cooks for them Skucks I was watching this with subtitles And when they first said her name I was like this is embarrassing That whoever captioned this movie wrote Chessie That's not a name

[00:59:43] I was like clearly her name must be Chessie And someone misheard it Short for Chessica But she is also The star of the film's Best scene which is when she realizes Who this girl actually is and starts crying Which I think is so good

[01:00:01] But also hints at this sort of like Deep like thing Dark thing that they did This like terrible thing they did The other people on the side would never haunt them The question of the trauma Yeah, she was mostly a Sam comedian

[01:00:15] And then made a lot of TV appearances And then she had She still created her own sitcom Which it didn't take And then I looked at her Wikipedia And since then for the last 20 years She's mostly done like reality competitions Where she's either a judge or a contestant

[01:00:31] As like a celebrity blank But I think she's really good in this movie She is good, she's also just so Nancy Meyers She's so like in the vibe Like right away, she fits it so well She's one of the most convincing Of the characters I think

[01:00:45] I agree, in the ensemble because yeah The Butler is a little much It's a lot of perp-pre-co And the grandpa Like get out of here He's used this I was like pipe the back on peppermint And then the other thing so we can do the Napa thing

[01:01:01] Where you know is that Dennis Quaid's character Nick He's got a girl friend Parent traps and trouble One of my two least favorite Tropes in comedies or romantic comedies Is the predicated on a lie That's gonna fall apart at some point The other one is movies where

[01:01:21] One of the characters who you're supposed to like And think as a good person Are together with the worst human being Who ever lived Right, a person who's just like I'm terrible Like they just sort of sit on the chair And they're like I suck Yeah right

[01:01:37] Like it's wise people keep on calling her And you're sort of She doesn't want to murder any animals At the very beginning she doesn't do anything She's just a bit young And she's just hanging out And they hate her immediately She just tries her best to be nice

[01:01:53] To the daughter of her boyfriend At the beginning And then she's on the phone Well on the phone she's like yeah well ship the kids off To boarding school She only says that after they're like really really really Mean to her for no reason

[01:02:07] I think every Nancy Meyers movie has This character and it's always a problem They're never shaded well enough Like they're only a plot issue She's very beautiful but like she's allowed And she's also a very successful PR person Or whatever, like she's 26

[01:02:21] And I mean she's doing great in life But the movie hates her The movie despises her As do the children She's a necessary part of the company Because they need PR He seems to be doing fine They're making millions of dollars now

[01:02:37] They need to get his name out there And it's a shame we never see like her Like whatever she's making Like the new logo for the company Yeah we never see her scale It was like really shit

[01:02:49] She said it's like I made a new logo with your face Really? But to be fair I would buy any wine With Dennis Quaid's face I get overwhelmed at a wine store If I saw Dennis Quaid I'd be like Easy choice

[01:03:03] She could call it like a dragon heart vintage Does this come in white? Do you have a Quaid Rose? Unfortunately it's only Randy The Randy Rose Randy's like white lightning He's like some kind of weird spirits Like what do you call it in this country Everclear

[01:03:23] So she's evil She's just evil She's a gold digger This character is in the original film The other is the woman who played the gold digger In the 60s film Yes yes yes But she's like an obstacle They have to get around

[01:03:41] But it's interesting when there's a scene Where one of the girls Is like why do you want And she's so mature as well This scene is fascinating Yeah it's very well You know there's more like the little girls There's more than sex in life or whatever

[01:03:57] So first of all you're like alright I think what she replies is You know I know what I'm doing And I've worked really hard in my life And now I've got this and I'm gonna do it I think that what I love about that scene

[01:04:09] Is that Lindsay Lohan is really pointing out That her dad is in this for the set Yeah He's having fun Yeah because Lindsay Lohan clocks this girl And decides look my dad's having a bit of a midlife crisis And I marry this little girl

[01:04:23] Who's like 20 years younger than him Both Richardson and Quaid are shaded And they have no relationships in the last 11 years Yeah They've been so devoted to their children Yeah But right, but where is she's just like Look PR professional I'm doing great This is a rich guy

[01:04:43] Nice guy Why wouldn't I do this Why am I gonna turn this down That's why I found the film really cruel She could have turned her down And tell her that in a very kind way And at the end I don't remember what happened

[01:04:57] They do something really horrible to her And she's like it's me or the kid And he's almost like smiling at her He's like I'm choosing the kids over you It's so cruel She shouldn't have said it's me or the kids Yeah She's so rolling

[01:05:13] David you have to understand From her perspective she just went through The most traumatic thing a person can experience Seeing a lizard atop their water bottle The lizard goes in her mouth She has to spit it out That's insane I would hate everyone

[01:05:29] She's got a heavy duty water bottle There's like a cloth netting cover around it The lizard is on top She just has to see a lizard and then she reacts so poorly That it ends up in her mouth They didn't put a lizard in her mouth

[01:05:41] At that point that's on her They put it on her head It's horrible And they put her bed on the middle of the freaking lake In the water she could have drowned They're a little stinkers They are stinkers but look if you're going to marry

[01:05:55] A nice hot Napa Valley millionaire You're going to have to put up With his kids And his kids might hate you And they might be a pain in the ass They might put lizards in your soup or whatever

[01:06:07] And also maybe this guy made this terrible decision 11 years ago And there's going to be a second kid You never know And we all know about the Dennis Quaid trials One does not simply marry Dennis Quaid You have to prove yourself to be good of heart

[01:06:19] Pure of intention So that's what Meg Ryan did? She was America's sweetheart And that's a real chicken in the egg question Should we become America's sweetheart Because of Dennis Quaid The thing I was going to say is that this scene In which they sniff each other out

[01:06:35] Is fascinating because they play it with Like the sophistication And intensity of a movie in which Two con artists recognize each other We both got the same mark here What's your angle? Take the prestige again It is just right Elaine Hendrix is the Scarlett Johansson Of this movie

[01:06:55] She plays Meredith Elaine Hendrix had a couple years where she did This Where she was this type She weirdly plays the same part in Superstar The Mary Catherine Gallagher film Where she's like She would always be the impediment The conflict girlfriend I have a friend named Meredith Blake

[01:07:15] Every time they say Her full name a lot Meredith Blake I like her with the wrinkles They set up within Jumping ahead Her recognizing Natasha Richardson as the designer Not knowing that that's the facts So nice, I love that That's so much a Nancy kind of farce thing

[01:07:37] Where it's all about these relationships Setting up the different dynamics Rather than just crazy kind of twin pranks Yeah So the London side is calmer That's more just lovely There she goes again It is crazy to see Natasha Richardson It is also crazy how much she looks like

[01:07:55] Emma Thompson in this movie She styled like her In Love at Hane or whatever That's weird The character is so similar She styled like an Emma Thompson that didn't come about Until a couple years after this She has the haircut that Emma Thompson will soon have Right

[01:08:13] And she's very good in it This is right around the time This is the same year she does Cabrera on Broadway Which I saw her in when she won a Tony for Which was this like very radical Approach to an iconic character

[01:08:25] That Liza Minnelli obviously kind of owns It was the one without coming Yeah, yeah And it's so funny because she's so gentle In this and she's like not That's her other mode She's not an iconic actor She's patting her That's her big break down I'm trying to think

[01:08:45] What else is she in? She's in Nell She did a lot of films but it feels like she didn't Totally get to She is acting royalty She's the daughter of Vanessa Redgrave She's the sister of Jolie Richardson She's the daughter of Michael Redgrave

[01:08:59] Tony Richardson the director was her father Big famous acting English family She's also genuinely talented Many of the Redgraves are Actually really good They all are Lynn, I mean in England They are the most famous acting family They are absolute royalty Even though Vanessa Redgrave is always just

[01:09:19] Grabbing the mic and being like I want to talk about Israel It doesn't matter people are still like Benerated legend Vanessa Redgrave just had that Insane two year run where everyone died Around her, it was just this tragic Horrible Bermuda Triangle where they all fell To different sorts

[01:09:37] Natasha Richardson's death was such a freak accident Very frightening Rip Very good in this movie Very good in this film That's the thing that this movie That these two performances Really helps sell is just like how much These feel like nice homes you'd want to be

[01:09:55] And I like that because you don't see the Home lives before Camp, you're seeing them through The eyes of each girl And you're seeing it for the first time I'd be totally happy with this And at some point when one of them

[01:10:09] Is like you have to come back because Dad is a girlfriend You're gonna say hell no, I want to stay with mom I need like a few weeks to this So how horrible is it that So the British one, Annie

[01:10:21] When she goes to see her dad for the first time She's the one who has to deal with The girlfriend for the first time Like Halle never had She doesn't get the dad time Yeah I'm going to America, I have to deal with this

[01:10:33] Problem that was supposed to be my sister dealing with Over in London, zero conflict That's a nice fun time She has a nice stroll in the park with her Grandpa and she has everything She has the photo shoot for the wedding dress It's like really tacky

[01:10:47] It's super 90s but yeah She has a great time Also it's quite interesting that the mom Makes wedding dresses considering She got married and divorced immediately It's kind of like a weird Transference That she can't She's got a trauma

[01:11:05] I'm gonna make wedding dresses for the rest of my life The wine isn't as One to one but it's sort of like Part of the like Cause it's the wine they had Clink I don't know Clink? I always had this faulty memory that the same photo

[01:11:23] Was on the bottle of the wine when he shows it That he was like For this wine Of course I had the label made By my girlfriend So then I guess they just got rumbled She's great at locus I put your face on every bottle

[01:11:39] You and your ex wife Ben's bringing some pizza I saw this pizza I want some of this Do you guys eat While you record? Sometimes this rarely happens Very rarely This though has like a pizza Like audio booms Staffer Ben's knocking Knack man Oh

[01:12:07] Look at this British pizza delivery man God he looks familiar He looks like somebody He's got glasses and he's got a British accent But why David Why does he Who does he remind me of? This British pizza man English His name is English Shocker red hair Preckles

[01:12:31] Hand on hip He couldn't be our beloved Ben Hosley But the bone structure is so similar Sassy posture I don't know what you mean When were you born? He had to remember to do the accent When were you born? 1985 Weird he's reticent to state his birthday

[01:12:53] Like our beloved Ben Hosley He'll just say the year after thinking about it It's almost like he doesn't want to let people know How old he might be And it's weird the way he holds that pizza It's like When Ben delivers us pizza Which he has done

[01:13:09] Many times Ben can I have some of this pizza I'm so hungry Ben oh whoever you are English And now he has left the studio He's gone Sausage pizza With several slices already missing Who is this mysterious figure

[01:13:29] And now we just have no producer I'm good for now It couldn't be Ben That's impossible But the one thing I will not consider Is that he could be Ben's twin There's no way that's the answer He just has to be someone with a different accent

[01:13:43] Who looks exactly like You think they were like separated birth in one of them lived in like North Orange I had to make a Jersey joke There's a pizza guy out there No for crying out loud He took off so funny Did you guys plan this in advance

[01:13:57] Sometimes you plan these bits in advance without telling me That didn't seem planned to me No if I had planned this it would be a lot more complicated Sorry about that No it's fine you missed a pizza delivery Ben By some man called English His name is Sings

[01:14:15] English English English I think Yeah English houses Ben just dropped his glasses in the pizza But wait those are the same glasses What I've seen those glasses before somewhere Hey Ben you know what's not smart What is that David

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[01:15:15] Fast Ben for whatever Job you've got So if like I wanted to hire Like maybe like a producer Sure I could put together Like some qualifications of what I'm looking for And then Zipper cruder would do the work for me Yeah And you get qualified candidate fast

[01:15:33] You wouldn't have to wait for them to apply It's no wonder as if a cruder is rated Number one by employers in the US That rating comes from hiring sites on trust Pilot with over a thousand reviews So right now

[01:15:45] Blank check listeners can try Zipper cruder for free At this exclusive web address Zipper cruder dot com slash blank That's Zipper cruder dot com Slash B L A N K Zipper cruder dot com slash blank I don't understand why you keep spelling out

[01:15:59] To just type in Zipper cruder dot com You've made a Classic error I've made I have it's not that you leave it blank You type blank The word Zipper cruder dot com slash blank It's the smartest way to hire

[01:16:20] So you know there's a segment we always do in this miniseries We have a special correspondent Longtime sister Romley Newman Who is an expert in the food world Does her kitchen corner So right now we're going to cut live To Romley Newman's kitchen corner

[01:16:34] Welcome to Romley's kitchen corner And here is your host Miss Romley Newman In the kitchen Hello I'm reporting from a Kitchen and I'm talking about Parent Trap today This Movie doesn't really have a Kitchen presence but I would argue That Annie's house Is very much a kitchen house

[01:16:56] There's wine everywhere There's strategically placed wine throughout the entire house And you're in wine country There's a lot of talk about food There's a lot of talk about chili And it's a very open layout House so it does have this kind of comforting Welcome to my home

[01:17:14] Welcome to my kitchen vibe Even though all you really see is a marble countertop And a blue cabinet What do we have to say now? I just like I feel like Should we end on this? The original Parent Trap Which I just remember

[01:17:33] Would play on Disney Channel a lot Along with the sequels would play a lot Of the games that I watched them probably in bits and pieces I remember being a lot more like trying to set up Circumstances to trick them into falling in love

[01:17:43] And in this movie they're pretty Up front pretty quickly about Like we were hoping you'd get back together Yeah that makes sense To me because It's obvious to everyone And actually I think the politics of them Meeting again and stuff Are quite at first quite good

[01:18:01] Because they're like people you know They had something one time and they're like They're like this is not happening And it's quite really really sad Those moments they're quite Like yeah when they have that dinner On the boat I think it's a boat

[01:18:15] And they're trying to recreate that night It's so melancholy It's so so sad and they're just Yeah they don't have much to say to each other Because it's so fucked up That's insane It's so insane It's like 1570 in Paris You don't make people Right right

[01:18:35] Well yeah they should have taken them back to the hospital And been like so what was the thinking When you're like I'll take one you take one Yeah right No they trick their parents to going to San Francisco But she's up front With Richardson She's like

[01:18:51] Dad wants to see you She's not up front she says he wants to see you But he doesn't want to see you They both tell their parents like the other one wants to see you But Quaid doesn't know she's gonna be That's the big distinction

[01:19:03] She doesn't have to go far It's like a 12 hour flight Has never had a glass of wine in her life More than one glass of wine There's this idea that she's afraid of flying Yes And I think that's the only explanation we're given

[01:19:17] For why they never see each other And then how's Richardson's afraid of flying She says she drank a lot of wine for that one trip she made Right that's why she lived on the QE2 For 15 years That's why they were on the boat Because they were

[01:19:31] They literally have the thing where she like They open the car door And like little airplane plastic liquor bottles Like roll out And she gives her foot to the butler And he's like what the fuck and because she's drunk Wrong end I think he says to her

[01:19:45] Just like what the head first What do you say Simon Coons is the butler Is the butler Or she just pokes her head up Makes the butler drag her By the neck But it's No it's very odd He is like a near Mr. Belvedere Like stock ridiculous

[01:20:09] Cartoonie butler And Chessie is such a bizarre non archetypal Character It's also funny that Natasha Richardson Think she needs a fucking butler Well it's because they keep having tea all the Freaking time I do love their high tea in this movie It's so classic

[01:20:27] But now he's also hot butler He's got the leather jacket He's hot daddy butler I wasn't comfortable with that Elena you were very not into the butler I was very not into that I didn't want to think about Him doing this stuff

[01:20:43] While watching this movie about two kids trying to put their Paras together and I was like Gosh this is just not right The kids watching this film Maybe don't do that I was a kid and I think all that stuff I was just like butler looks fun Yeah

[01:20:59] I don't know I just think It feels like the 90s were kind of like Pete butler humor I remember as a kid finding butlers was funny Was it butler or nanny Or like that random adult in the house That takes care of the kids who's not the parents

[01:21:13] Fresh crazy butler I guess there's Alfred Batman's butler That's cool Our kid fire We're all butlers That was good Thank you The other big It incites so hard I think it is the post John Gilgit butler Denholm Elliott too Yeah you're a John Gilgit and Arthur

[01:21:39] And Denholm Elliott in trading places Those kind of started butler mania Which ran into a match And you love the butler who also is Kind of like a moral conscious I really like that Frasier episode Where Victor he hires a butler And it's Victor Garber

[01:21:55] No, Ferguson called Ferguson And at the end of the where he's Ferguson sends everyone gifts Frasier sad about having to let him go At the end or something and he's like Ferguson send yourself a gift It's funny I was really like Garrett butler

[01:22:11] Has he ever played a butler I think he should He's played a but head certainly I don't think he's ever played a butler That's the awful truth I had to like rush to that punchline Congratulations Lane is just looking at her phone Sick of this

[01:22:29] She's playing a machine gun preacher Ray Hound back So they Reignite in the San Francisco hotel It's mostly hotel action And this is when they're doing a lot of One walks away the other one comes back How did you get her so fast It's good it's fun

[01:22:47] This is definitely her homage to Body double But there's also this French movie Where there's this whole business where There are people and they get the wrong Luggage and they get in the wrong room The Louis III S movie Maybe Le L'Helou Leucus I don't know

[01:23:03] It's a very famous French movie And they get the wrong luggage And they keep switching rooms Obviously the number 6 becomes a 9 Because it's really like a Template of that And someone is sleeping next to the wrong person And like yeah it's just antics Like that really like

[01:23:21] It's really well done in this movie and I really love the fact that She's drunk as well the mom Yes, yes I like that a lot Yeah I mean they set up a lot of fun Little challenges For them trying to get the parents together

[01:23:33] I love that she's drunk and he just like Is just hanging out doing nothing and being Being a journey like to use When he sees her though it's so good Because she's like whatever And then he sees her and he's in the And he just goes like this

[01:23:47] Because the door is closing it's so nice It's pretty elegant But also why is he like smiling and stuff He should be like horrified Or just because the truth is that He still loves her but how can he be such a Happy go lucky guy after having done

[01:24:01] This horrible thing, this is a man But they also have the moment while they're waiting to try To get Quaid in the same place Where she sits at the bar next to Elaine Hendrix And orders like Something to sober her up that she says Tastes like tar

[01:24:15] And while she's closing out her account Elaine Hendrix looks over Which I think is a really good character detail That she's the kind of person who'd always Want to check everyone else's like credit card How much they're tipping What their name is

[01:24:29] I was looking for a hot client maybe Like hey maybe I can make a logo for you And she's interested in a logo What if your face was on the dresses What if that's The third act of phantom thread where he's like

[01:24:41] My face is going to be on all the dresses From now on My face not going to be in the hem anymore It's going to be the main feature Of my clothes You could write mum everywhere What if Elaine Hendrix's strategy

[01:24:55] Was literally just put a dentist quaid on it For everything Regardless of who she was working with She gives you the logo and it's just Quaid's face And he's not involved with the company All these companies have all the same logo And it's very confusing

[01:25:09] It's basically like they live Toiota a legend Of the car industry But have you ever put in Jesus Christ I retire I'm done Quaid Quaid So now They set up this thing Where they try to Three card Monty Which one of us is which

[01:25:35] One time they brazenly do it It's so horrifying and the parents are so scared They're like, shit, I can't get this right I like that scene, right, because the chicken's coming home to roost for the parents Where they're like, right, see You've created this and now they've evolved

[01:25:47] And they've kind of worked against you They're the raptors talking to each other In Jurassic Park 3 It makes sense that they can't tell the kids apart Because they don't have the experience of raising two kids together So they're just like, well I don't, I mean

[01:25:59] One of you is my child And so that's how they convince them to go on a camping trip all together Right, because this is the answer they've had Two camping trips in one movie That's a lot of camping, is that what American kids do all the time?

[01:26:13] And also like one thing to say Is that the first In the summer camping I'm used to watching movies where the summer camp Is setting for slasher films So I was really, you know And we have the same boats as in that movie, The Burning

[01:26:27] Where someone like dies on it, it's really funny And I was just expecting Because we get so insane like putting stuff on the roof And I was like, are they gonna like stab someone? You had never seen this before No, I had never seen this movie before

[01:26:39] I was just like, are you actually doing insane stuff Just to reference slasher films Like what is this, like To you, it felt like a location It was such a slasher film location Like a Gothic castle Well obviously a vampire is going to come out Yeah, exactly

[01:26:55] And then they go back to camping And she's drifting on When Meredith is drifting on the water I was just like, someone's gonna Jason's gonna come out of the water And I drag you back in the water Well I assume in France, yeah

[01:27:09] Summer camp is not a thing Some people do it but I don't think it's nearly as popular And he doesn't all look the same I know he's been camping I went to the atrium for years Like when I talk about it on the podcast

[01:27:21] People complain because he talks about it The most offensive thing we've heard Is what he lived, like what the fuck I don't give a shit I'm telling the people And we have a policy on this podcast We never prevent people from talking about their childhoods

[01:27:35] Especially where they were at different times In Britain If you're being sent to summer camp I think I've said this on the podcast before That means your parents hate Because they're just like get this kid away Because summer camp is just like military school Anyway

[01:27:55] They go on the camping trip and they're awful to Poor Lane Hendricks The QED reconciliation Attempt happens before this The QE2 happens before that And they're both like look this is sweet I don't know why we ever broke up But clearly we're gonna go back to our

[01:28:11] Respected lives For them it's more like a nice memory And they both say well we have really good lives now So there's a sense Yeah there's a sense of them Having focused on their careers And having made Having made a good living

[01:28:27] But that's where he says the thing of like I didn't think I was supposed to go after He does admit fault But it's interesting because he said about How your career Can't fulfill everything And you know it's sad It is just

[01:28:43] You could have found other people to be with as well But they couldn't because they still love each other See I'm a Stay together They imprinted on each other It is just this crazy thing in this Two hour and eight minute Nineties studio comedy for Children

[01:29:03] That like they don't end up in the same place Until like 90 minutes into the film And then this final camping trip Happens like in the last 20 minutes of the movie I thought it was gonna be over Before that camping It really feels like wait

[01:29:17] We're gonna go on the boat together We're going camping again We really wanted to be extra cruel to Meredith Just a little bit more So Nancy just always throws in an extra act for good She gives her another act This is exactly like the original

[01:29:31] I know which is crazy It just feels like that would be her creation Yeah it does But then yeah I mean I just like that Meredith Kind of like Dooms herself Yeah The card she shouldn't play But I think it's a card she's getting ready to play Anyway

[01:29:53] She does want the kids out of the picture So She plays the card and he's like what now I'm not into that He's like emotionally so stunted Because it's like how do you not have that conversation About are you ready to take on The responsibility of my kid

[01:30:09] Before you talk to your kid and be like Well maybe I'm gonna marry this lady But engagement's really fucking fast How long was she at summer camp A month? Two months? Max? Maybe eight weeks They're not back into the school year yet Still the summer So yeah so

[01:30:27] She said and then they cut Is basically like they're punished When they arrive back Meredith's out of here but they're still punished For the rest of their days And they go their separate ways But then Take the Concorde Yeah

[01:30:45] My brother James used to be obsessed with the Concorde Concorde scares the shit out of me And anytime we were at the airport he'd be like Are we flying the Concorde? And it was like No, we're going to Boston

[01:30:55] He just always wanted to be on a Concorde jet I don't think he ever rode on one Well it was only transatlantic Like it was literally just yeah But my dad flew in the Concorde But yeah it seemed so scary I was so scared of the Concorde

[01:31:07] I was scared of flying Well a couple of them crashed Couple It's also just they're so expensive Like they could never quite sustain the The price Is it like a different experience being in it Than a normal plane? Yeah you have to sit down the whole time

[01:31:25] And there's booms because it's breaking The sound barrier Is everyone like screaming in the whole time Like a roller coaster But also it takes no time I mean it's very very very fast Let me look it up Let's find out about the Concorde

[01:31:41] I like the idea that they would give you a photo Like at the end of a theme park ride Look at the stupid face you were making On the Concorde For like a few hours But it's worth knowing that actually I want to know how long Dennis Quaid

[01:31:57] No yeah Richardson Had to wait for the other guys to arrive At a normal plane The thing when you take a normal plane That you arrive at an airport that's quite far away Far out and then you have to drive So it's like a lot of hours

[01:32:11] Yeah this movie also doesn't deal with like the customs Yeah Probably has to wait online for like 90 minutes Depending on what time they land it So it could do New York to Paris 3.5 hours It flew at Mach 2 So twice the speed of sound Pretty cool

[01:32:30] You could build this podcast more often Yeah that's true It was fucking crazy it would fly at 56,000 feet You know planes usually fly around 35 to 40,000 feet It's crazy Completely bizarre that we did this and we don't do it anymore That's the weirder part

[01:32:47] One of those examples of technology that has regressed Like they should make a movie about it Instead of making First Man Alright let's not let's talk about First Man Last plane Fast plane Fast plane okay Like maybe like a good talker man in his dream

[01:33:03] Movie about the Concorde Right and they still were like No we can't do this He was too smart Man was not meant to travel at these speeds So they take the Concorde And he's like I finally came after you And Natasha says it like that

[01:33:19] Right and they just immediately I mean where are they gonna live now? They don't make that clear They just get married on the QE2 On the plane They prioritize one career or the other But his career is very geographically That's true

[01:33:35] But at the same time what is he doing? He can get someone to do that What does Chessie exist for? Well Chessie's gotta marry the Butler though They get engaged at the wedding Which is supremely obnoxious You do not get engaged at a wedding That is outrageous

[01:33:51] But they're part of the families Plus it's the second wedding Literally they're getting married They should have married only once It's on them The parent trap The only reasonably budgeted film Of Nancy Meyers career $15 million since the budget on this That's enough for a parent

[01:34:11] But then she starts making like 80 million Oh okay I mean everyone gets their quote on the parent trap And Natasha Richardson and Dennis Quaid Were not that kind of superstar level actor No this was the kind of thing For a while it was like

[01:34:25] A leading man or a leading lady Who never had like massive crossover breakthrough success Once you got to parent age You could get good steady paychecks In these types of Disney films And it was like Being the parent in the comedy

[01:34:41] Something like this or then like him doing the rookie A couple years later You know Dennis Quaid had his run as sort of being like a Disney guy Right It was definitely like He's dead He is daddy I mean that's what Jude Law is going to say

[01:34:58] In the holiday Jude Law says I am dead In what? In the holiday another Nancy Meyers Oh yeah he does There's a moment where he says I am daddy We're gonna talk about it Jude Law is daddy but yes The box office game guys July 31st 1998

[01:35:20] I was on vacation in America Maybe if you were walking on July 31st You're gonna have to have a conversation about this On white Yes later Number one at the box office So parent trap opens number two Okay Open to 11 million makes 66 Very nice multiplier

[01:35:42] Steady summer sleeper makes about 100 Worldwide I think it's 96 92 I don't mean just what it is I talked about on this podcast The highest grosser of 98 Oh it is saving private Ryan In what? A week of it's crazy Because it has a long run

[01:36:02] It does it's already made 73 million dollars Yeah It's gonna make 216 So I know something that's in the top five It's the film that kept on creeping all summer Moving up the charts What is it number three at this point Something about Mary Number third week

[01:36:20] And then it kept on every week Moving up the chart It was number four the week before It was so fucking exciting It was a classic word of mouth Success right where people kept being like You gotta see this I remember was this the same summer

[01:36:36] That the Mark McGuire Barry Bonds home run Thing was happening Yes you're absolutely right I remember this distinctively because my brother And my dad would get really excited about Home run record And it turns out both Mark McGuire and Sammy Sosa Broke it and Mark McGuire got more

[01:36:52] And then our thing my dad and I Was what position is something about Mary Gonna be and it would literally just move up One position every week Like it opened at six and people were like That's kind of disappointing and that was fun Four three two

[01:37:06] And then we were like what if they fuck it up But if they don't get to one It got to one and my big fat Greek wedding Had the same thing where it kept on moving up And it never got to one

[01:37:16] The week that it was going to hit one Swim fan beat it A tragic tragic time in American history But my big fat Greek wedding made more money It did so something about Mary's number three Yes number four is a new film This week

[01:37:30] It's a thriller I guess How To describe like a Grown-up action thriller Interesting director who's had a long And interesting career in Hollywood that we might want to cover someday But like later entry No earlier entry Starring an Oscar Nominee and an Oscar winner

[01:37:54] Were they in the March Madness Bracket this director No It's a director I have a lot of trouble with but has Indisputably made great movies He's also just made a couple of bad movies This is 98 Copeland Nope He would think of

[01:38:12] You say he's made great movies and horrible movies Is this a skimmer This is a programmer it's a pretty good movie This is a tough movie A veteran Oscar winner And then someone who's kind of being anointed as a new star A recent nominee is that the idea

[01:38:26] No two stars But honestly it's the Oscar winner who's being anointed Weird they're the more He's newer He also is a bad bad person He's a bad Bad So it's a Kevin Spacey Correct But he's second build But he is the title character

[01:38:50] Actually well they're both title characters American beauty No He's the title character Is it the David thing What is it called The movie way is like actually David Gale Life in times of David Gale No it's not David Gale Although Alan Parker is an interesting career

[01:39:10] He's a bad director though 1998 1998 Kevin Spacey he's a title character This is a great box office game I'm loving this people are freaking out right now Is it really obvious No no it's a movie that people forget about But it was a hit movie

[01:39:28] Oh well not a hit Exactly what it is It's directed by F. Gary Gray It's called The Negotiator And you know Kevin Spacey is the title character Because he is the negotiator But I believe Samuel L. Jackson is also playing a negotiator Yes

[01:39:44] The idea is that he's the old negotiator Who's like Who's taken someone hostage And Kevin Spacey is the new negotiator And he's like I'll only negotiate with the best negotiator I know I think I have that on DVD

[01:39:58] Because I read the synopsis and I was like this is great It feels like one of the movies you probably bought it That was so my brother It's a good movie It's just so long It's like two hours and twenty minutes

[01:40:10] So I never just want to throw it on I'll tell you my two big negotiator related memories One Two One is my brother who's been invoked a lot in this episode Used to always fight my parents about Like his bedtime and how much more food he had

[01:40:24] Deep before he could have dessert Right and then when this movie came out They were like look it's the Jamesy movie It was a big running joke in my family And then we called him the negotiator for a long time after that That's funny The second thing is

[01:40:38] That's a good bit We called James the negotiator and he was like a little eight year old boy But the other bit was The other memory is that My friend Dean DiGuardi when I was ten His dad was a limousine driver And his birthday party was

[01:40:54] Like ten ten year old boys got to ride around In a limousine And we had like a TV and a VCR in the back And we watched the negotiator It's a grown up movie That was this like birthday party in the year 2000

[01:41:06] Was like a bunch of ten year olds watching the negotiator And being like pretty smart Pretty intelligent adult thriller It's not a bad movie It's not a bad movie at all His career though is like Friday Which is obviously like cultural touchstone

[01:41:20] Set it off which is his great movie It's a terrific movie Negotiator which is like a solid Hollywood movie And these all movie a man apart that kind of sucks Not a very good film It's me to say that Italian job remake which is good

[01:41:34] Then Be Cool which is a blank check disaster Disaster Law-abiding citizen which I've never seen But seems kind of crummy But that does pretty well That is a film where the butler did it Yes and then And then Straight Outta Compton

[01:41:50] Which obviously is this sort of like smash hit Once again colossal cultural moment movie And then follows up with the 8th Fate of the Furious It's a fascinating career Like he's been signing onto these big masks Which is like one of the Hasbro cinematic Universe films

[01:42:06] He's like now become a big tentpole dude Yeah and he's like You know a black director who's worked in like many genres In Hollywood and like I don't know we could do Vaff Gary Gray And he started out in the music video world

[01:42:18] And like the rap journalism world He directed it was a good day Yeah it's pretty fascinating Anyway we should put him in the next part of Madness Sure Number 5 Yeah that's right we're not done Is a movie that every single person my age Certainly every girl my age

[01:42:36] Saw so many times I feel like it's a bit of a forgotten movie It is a great movie Is it ever after? It is ever after Colin a Cinderella story Starring Drew Barrymore Angelica Houston Like a reboot of Cinderella Yeah it was like a more

[01:42:54] Like it was a less Fantastical Cinderella Was kind of the idea right? It was Dugray Scott's coming out Right Jean-Marie Rose in it Legend of French Cinema I never saw that movie and I'm already being so excited for it And then I was such a Disney kid

[01:43:12] I was disappointed when I saw the trailer And I was like where are the mites Where's the pumpkin these guys got it so wrong They strip all that out They make it into a teen movie You got Mascazaro Nathan Weapon 4 Armageddon man I saw all these movies

[01:43:28] I was going to the movies Doctor Doolittle with Eddie Murphy Jane Austen's Mafia Base Skipball opening this week Saw it opening Believe I saw it on that vacation Cause I was like into South Park I was like a 12 year old idiot I wasn't allowed to watch South Park

[01:43:46] I liked Airplane and James Like both Basketball and Baseball So it was like an easy pitch For like a Sunday with Dad or whatever I think we saw it probably opening this one But that means David you are In town at the same time as Griffin

[01:44:00] When you were going to see movies I was not living here by this point 98 I didn't mean to do that When I saw movies I would usually stay with our friends on the Upper West Side Where I grew up and I feel like you were probably In downtown

[01:44:16] So you never go to the Lincoln Square AMC Which was brand new at the time We go there for a special event Although they were like Museum I'm actually using I remember seeing Baseball the Theatre That is now the IFC Center

[01:44:30] Which was then shut down and was unoccupied For like a decade before it reopened There's a few of those I didn't mean to do the bit I just meant to say It's not a bit It's fine Why did you retire it? Because I had had enough of it

[01:44:48] Actually I didn't ask Griffin just did it but I felt like he was responding to my obvious Like I'm so sick of it So now instead of having the bit We have the anti-bit which is so much worth So much worth He's driven it into the ground

[01:45:02] David said to me This bit has poisoned every well in my life And I as an act of mercy said I will hang the bit up from the rafters And then every week he fucking Temps me He throws the bit in my face

[01:45:16] David just got a pile of red cards Sitting next to him Ben's been flipping him down Like he's a fucking blackjack dealer I'm literally gonna Split comedic hairs with you The bit is you making fun of me Growing up like springing up that I grew up with

[01:45:32] The bit is the notion that you grew up I wasn't doing a bit You said it was a bit and you hated it The fact that you grew up there You can't change that It's a bit That's a bit You cannot change it

[01:45:48] The bit is when you're like I also want to announce this Because this episode is coming out soon Anyone on Twitter who tweets the bit at me I'm going to block you I've had enough of it I fucking hate it And people sometimes

[01:46:04] People will tweet it into conversations There are other people who maybe aren't As acquainted with the podcast And I'm like enough But David do you not understand How confusing it is When you say that you don't want to talk about the bit

[01:46:18] And then you invoke this fantastical notion Of something really, really Really interesting Observed that never could have happened That I could have grown up in another context Stop talking about the bit So I'm gonna When this episode drops So that'll be the one universal warning

[01:46:38] And then there's this episode But if anyone after or whatever this drops Tweets this, you know does this joke at me I block you, no questions asked Real consistent, so David is making it clear He's gonna block anyone who tweets about the bit

[01:46:50] After he tweets about the bit This fucking One exception I will not block Griffin Newman Because I know he's going to fuck around with this The second he comes I'm respecting the bit Dancing on it's great Is this some BDSM thing? Do you like the discomfort

[01:47:08] Of having to fight against the confines of the bit It's retired This podcast is deconstructing itself This is like a post-meta podcast now I feel like this is what happens to a podcast It goes too on too long The bits start doing battle with themselves They metastasize

[01:47:24] This podcast is greater than the sum of its bits I would say See she's right Can we stop fighting? No we're not really fighting I've just been thinking about this I'm a law abiding citizen Copyright of Curie Greay So that's the first parent trap

[01:47:42] I mean the first Nancy Meyers It's the second parent trap How many episodes are you going to do about the parent trap? At least two and then they're going to get confused We'll release the episodes in an alternating order No it's just interesting Because especially after the father

[01:47:56] Of the bride movies you could see her just Continuing to do this She very easily could have stayed in the family movie lane That's right Even the remake lane The big glossy remake lane Then she makes her most high concept Movie next but a movie that's decidedly

[01:48:12] In adult films Well yes but it's also the one movie She doesn't write Which is kind of Talent The problem We're talking about what women want next week's episode One out and out Stinker And far and away the most successful movie of her career

[01:48:32] That's the movie that was always on TV in France Really? I do feel like not to paint with a broad brush But France does love its big broad comedies Like you know far-deafful sort of comedies Sunday on TV There's that I think there was the parent trap sometimes

[01:48:50] But what women want was the big one The scene in what women want where he gets in the bathtub Electrocuted One of my earliest memories I mean I did like a work exchange In France and I lived in Tour But this is fine, this is something that happens

[01:49:08] Canon Worked in a menswear store, Jules Really? I didn't know that existed I think it's old Yeah this is we're talking about 2003 Do you know about this David had the sexy period Where he worked in a bar Well that's in Paris, that's later

[01:49:24] That's when I'm a grown man David had some sexy French times where he was very handsome And compelling I moved to America like an idiot That actually Literally someone once said that to me When I was a reporter and it was like a rainy day

[01:49:38] And I was standing outside city hall For some council meeting And I'm like talking to a press guy And he was like, yeah, in Paris And I was like, you know I lived in Paris I was a bartender and he was like

[01:49:50] Why didn't you just keep doing that I just think that's so romantic That he was like a bartender in Paris In French I do, not very well though I used to speak better French But anyway I did work at a menswear store And I remember

[01:50:06] My parent, my host No one in this family spoke English Except for him So I would talk to him a lot And he loved like those like Le placard That was the hot And he was like, you gotta watch this Because he knew I liked movies

[01:50:22] That's weird though David That you spent that much time in Paris And never traveled around other parts of Europe This was in tour It wasn't in Paris And then we went to Futurist scope Yeah, we went two years ago It's great, so good You should go back

[01:50:40] Come back to Europe David In Griffin as well We can all go to Futurist scope We can go to park in adventure To Futurist scope We could go to park in Astrix I've never been there My parents have it, it's alright I liked it a lot

[01:50:58] It's weirdly sort of more Because we went on an Astrix tangent in a recent episode And now there's like a whole thing in the red Breaking down how crazy the Astrix franchise is We were talking about the Astrix movies Because they are so mind-blowingly expensive

[01:51:10] They're so high production But the one that's good We went to see that in the cinema In the big multiplex And it was so popular That we didn't have a seat and we sat down on the stairs And they let us do that They like oversold it

[01:51:26] I think it's like the fourth There's been a lot of them There were others before that But that's when they restarted doing them It's the second of the Depardure Because then the Olympics won Because that's the one that has the insane Like 113 million dollar budget

[01:51:42] And then that one did like a third of Cleopatra That's the one where they have all these famous people Doing a bit Like Zinedine Zidane The most depressing thing you've seen And Jamel's in that one But is he in the Cleopatra one as well Jamel the Boos

[01:51:58] And then Benini's in the first right Is he plays Julius Caesar? No, no He plays like the local Roman officer Gatreet John plays Julius Caesar In the first one Alleyndon on plays him in the third one Yeah, it's bad

[01:52:14] And then there was a fourth one like in Britain I think It's called like Her Majesty's Secret Service And I feel like Asterix always changed It's always some new guys Asterix Obelix is always your art He used to be Christian Clevier for a while He's the first two

[01:52:32] He was the best But he only did it for one And then the fourth He shows up every fucking time He's a legend He's always everything There are probably like lots of young people in France Who just know him as Obelix Which is so good

[01:52:50] Obelix and Company which is my I read all the Asterix books a thousand times That's my favorite one It's so fucking funny You do need to read a few Asterix before you read that one Because it's sort of breaking the form But it is so brilliant

[01:53:04] And it's this hilarious satire This guy comes to Caesar and he's like Let's not try to destroy them with soldiers Let's destroy them with capitalism And he goes there and starts buying miniers The big rocks Big stones That Obelix makes And everyone's like why are you buying them

[01:53:22] They serve no purpose And he starts buying them all And playing them off against each other It's so funny I went to Park Asterix It's really fucking cool I was like I'm a friend's family As a teenager and I really wanted to go to Disneyland Paris

[01:53:38] And they were like Disneyland Paris is for fucking babies And losers Park Asterix has more of Like a Six Flags-esque reputation That the rides are a little more intense Like it's a little less about the theming The rides are kind of like thrill rides

[01:53:52] Cause what do you want to do with Asterix Right They kind of keep the aesthetics Of the thing but there's also a limited character Based because it's just this one property But the thing that's really funny about that is A lot of Asterix merchandise

[01:54:06] A lot of Obelix merchandise A lot of merchandise of The Rock Sure Like because it's a limited cast That rock is like You can get a plush doll You can get a lollipop that looks like it The rock is like equivalent to like Goofy In the Asterix universe

[01:54:24] It's like the third most merchandise character Right And they don't anthropomorphize it They have like guys in a rock costume And shit The Rock's like a big fucking thing Is that a rock? It's a Minier It's a Minier I'm sorry

[01:54:40] That's why it's special because he sculpted it and stuff I love like a big That's just like a pillow That just looks like a Minier I remember walking in And seeing a shelf where there were Millenia's in different sizes

[01:54:54] And it was like here's like the Beanie Baby sized one Here's like a huge one that's like plush Your asterisk carrying it around But now you can carry it That's how it looks They're all over Britain and Ireland too And everyone's like who made them

[01:55:08] What purpose did they start We just know that they made these rocks And left them here for summaries It is The blender of Asterix Franchise There we go Balance of the magic potion What a perfect note to end on

[01:55:24] And now clearly we have to do an asterisk Miniser Yeah You can do a French comedy thing Talk about the good ones I do find it interesting that all those minis have different directors too Yeah I don't shy by directing the good ones

[01:55:38] Right and Claude Zadid did the first one I think Enough asterisk talk Ben's just looking at Asterix Ben actually you would fucking love Asterix You're kind of guys There are a couple of scoundrels Definitely Yeah well you know Asterix is kind of crafty And small and clever

[01:55:58] And obelisk is like a big bruiser And obelisk always wants to drink that magic potion Even though he doesn't need it He doesn't want it But he still wants it because it's tasty And he's just like He wants to fit in He's just on drugs

[01:56:14] He's very sensitive about his size But he also does love to eat Like a whole wild boar Like that's his favorite food I want to just like restate again In relation to the details you just heard They are the cultural equivalent to Mickey Mouse In France

[01:56:30] Like all these weird details And they're just like fucking beloved Yeah they're the best And every book ends with them Having a huge buffet Just eating those food And dancing And then cacophonyx is like I'm going to sing And they tie him up Have you seen Ben look

[01:56:50] All the names are like All the names are translated apart from asterix and obelisk All the names in the French And with x The dog is called like phoenix No isn't it No it's edéphix Which means fixed idea Look how happy Ben looks So pleased

[01:57:10] I'm so glad we introduced you to the dog Because all the names are In America England not really The dog is called dogmatix Which I believe you're right he's called edéphix in French The druid who makes the potion Is called get-a-fix Really funny

[01:57:28] In French I believe he's called panoramix Panoramix The chief is called vital statistics Seriously I forget what he's called in France The chief in France is called Abra-racour-six Which means like with short arms But it also means when you're running Abra-racour-six Means when you're running really fast

[01:57:50] It's hard to explain The bard is called cacophonix In France he's called assurance-sturrix Assurance-sturrix Comprehensive insurance Does that just mean that he's annoying Like an insurance salesman I don't think it really means anything in France

[01:58:06] It's just like words that sound like if they don't really have the meaning Doesn't really fit what they are And the old man is called geriatrix And the fishmonger is called unhygienics And the metal worker is called fully automatic It keeps going Everyone has a funny name

[01:58:20] I'm so happy that Astrix keeps on coming up Sure, love Astrix That's your own story, this is the best one Monty and Lynn, thank you so much for being here Thank you, thanks for having us Of course We won't make you take a greyhound back

[01:58:34] There's of course the blank check off Or we'll fly anyone out from any country They took a greyhound because they are Want to pocket the cash We'll do whatever we want with that cash Yeah, right, of course Thanks for being here Where can people find your writing?

[01:58:50] I know it's a very complicated answer Well these days the best way is to follow us on Twitter I would say My ad is Manilazic MA and I LAZIC And I'm at Elazic Thanks for caring about the representation Of twins in cinema It's a very important issue

[01:59:14] It's a cause that's worth fighting for This is basically why we are from critics For justice Justice for twins You think all movies should have twins? Yeah, I mean between representation Two for the price of one Why not? To be fair, I also get cheated in this movie

[01:59:32] Lin-Zelohan does not have a twin So it's like We should get work to real twin actors So yeah, let's see if you want to make a remake With twins I'll give you like a quick life hack For how to get better twin representation Instantly

[01:59:48] Watch any 3D movie without the glasses Thank you all for listening Please remember to rate, review, subscribe Thanks to And for Gudo for our social media Joe Bowen and Pat Reynolds For our work and big congrats to Joe Bowen who just became a father Yes, Harper Bowen

[02:00:08] Congratulations, Maslutov Because sometimes you do artwork And sometimes You have a baby bounce David took off his headphones Thanks to Lin-Zelohan for our theme song Go to BlankisDotter at that com For some real nerdy shit And as always Put a dentist's quate on it

[02:00:36] Hey David, I got a quick Question for you Do you like diving deep into the director's Complete filmography? Absolutely, I've actually been known to do that once in a while But certainly not on microphone No, no, no More important question

[02:00:52] Can you quote Kevin Bacon's best film tremors word for word Sure, probably Because you are a Kevin Bacon fan You like to put a little bacon on the dish I like to put a little bacon on the dish David, I got great news for you

[02:01:04] Because those are two things you like doing And because you have no outlets To do them on your own podcast What if I could recommend a podcast for you to listen to? Okay The Storm of Spoilers podcast is for you, David

[02:01:18] Oh, I know the Storm of Spoilers podcast Look, it started out as a show about Game of Thrones Much like every show started out As a show about Game of Thrones Or some other extended franchise Right, or a serial parody But it's become a podcast that now covers

[02:01:32] All of your pop culture Obsessions From Star Wars, a thing we never talk about on this podcast The complete works of Carrie Foucahnaga Something we probably won't have reason to talk about Maybe four or five years from now Give him a couple more, yeah

[02:01:46] Some podcast takes several episodes to cover Directors' Filmography Lame sounds too long Unsustainable Your hosts at Storm of Spoilers have been known to cram it all Into one Saves time It's like listening to a podcast at ten times the speed It's like the Gaikoua podcasting

[02:02:04] Here's the thing, David The name Storm of Spoilers Is a pun on George R. R. Martin's Book A Storm of Swords, I read it And while the show does like the Dig into behind the scenes info It's not an all spoilers podcast anymore It's a good storm now

[02:02:22] Like Oral Monroe The best storm Master Thief Not like these hurricanes Like Reuben Carter No matter what Spoilers host Neil Miller Joanna Robinson Joe Rowe, friend of the show Dave Gonzalez are always unflinchingly Honest in their coverage of the film and TV You can't live without

[02:02:46] Sometimes they cheer and sometimes they denounce Bee I have no idea what you're talking about It's available now on iTunes, Stitcher And wherever you're already downloading podcasts Like Blank Check with Griffin and David Oh yeah that's a good one