Talking Pondo: Top Secret and Real Genius with Drew Kallen-Keck

 In this episode, Drew Kallen-Keck joins the podcast. He brings along the movie Real Genius. Marty and Clif give Drew the movie Top Secret to watch. 

Transcript

SPEAKER_03 0:00

Nick Rivers is the inspiration for Nick Levine, at least the name. That's where I pulled Nick from. For our script with about the fictional writer, because I was quite obsessed with this film around the time we wrote uh comic book diaries. This movie got back on my radar about 20 years ago. I hadn't watched it for a long time, and the guys that we were making uh marijuanos with were really into it, and I started watching it and getting really into it. And so every time we seem to start a production up, Top Secret shows up on the TV somehow. So maybe it's showing up on the show here is announcing that we're getting ready to do something again.

SPEAKER_02 0:44

Welcome to season three of Talking Pondo. Talking Pondo is a podcast where Cliff and Marty give each other a film to watch and talk about them in detail. Some episodes will include a special guest.

SPEAKER_03 1:02

Alright, Marty, we're back. We're back. It's Talking Pondo with guest once again. Here we are in the middle of August. Yes, I did the math, so I know when these episodes drop. Definitely not August. Yeah, we're we're back with two more movies and a guest. Uh we'll reveal the guest here in a second. But uh what are the two movies? The two movies are a first for us. We've never really done a doubleheader like this before where both movies had the same lead actor before. So, as you all were discussing before, it really does kind of make this talking Kilmer because we were gonna have a talking mathow episode where we talk about Walter Mathow movies. This just happened to happen first. So I guess that's what today is. With let's start at the beginning top secret and real genius. I think it's like the first two movies of his career, and the guest today is Cliff Campbell. Well, we know he's here, but the real guest is Drew Kalen Keck is back once again. Our first guest in the format. Hello. Excellent, excellent.

SPEAKER_05 2:17

But yes, those were uh we were gonna do Top Secret and uh and uh Hotshots, but then Val Kilmer passed away right before we started recording, and I suggested maybe we go back to doing Real Genius because it's such a great movie, and um yeah, I I I I like both of these movies a lot. Um after watching them again, I I think Real Genius is probably the better of the two. As far as the plot goes.

SPEAKER_01 2:46

Oh, I would I would I think I would agree with that too.

SPEAKER_05 2:49

Yeah. Yeah. Um which I I from what I was reading about interviews with the guy at the Zucker Brothers and such for Top Secret, they would agree with you on that.

SPEAKER_03 2:59

Yeah, they they were affected by the box office. Years later, people were like, No, it's you you did make a funny good film. They're like, Really? It's like no, it's a they're just like, oh yeah, but it was just kind of a mess, wasn't it?

SPEAKER_05 3:12

Yeah. And those two years were really, I mean, there was so much stuff coming out in '84 and '85. Oh, yeah. 85, especially, has like so many good movies in it. Um, that uh, you know, they were up against a lot of stuff.

SPEAKER_03 3:27

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 3:28

You know, what are you gonna do?

SPEAKER_03 3:29

And Top Secret had a weird ad campaign, not to get started or anything, but it's a poster of the cow wearing the boots. It doesn't really tell you what the views, even though that's that's the that's the most iconic shot in the movie.

SPEAKER_01 3:43

It is true, cow is the cow walking around with the boots. I guess we should just jump into Top Secret since we're talking about that.

SPEAKER_03 3:49

Okay, well, I want to do our viewer mail segment real quick. Yes, we got thoughts once again on the uh Changeling Shining episode. You might remember from a few months back with uh Ben Haslar guesting. Uh basically somebody just wrote in uh this uh Cassie person writes in to say the Changeling is my very favorite scary movie. And another person, Allison, says she enjoyed it as well. So I guess the Changeling does have its fans out there.

SPEAKER_01 4:16

Ah I with with for good reason. I think we scored it, I think I scored it a three and a half, and I think you scored it to three. Yeah, that's a good movie. Um I I like its kind of old school horror creepiness, you know, and yeah, very interesting to watch that and the shining and talk about them because one's more like modern art horror, and the other one's kind of that old school type of you know, kind of creepy horror. Um so very, very different, but also made kind of around the same time. So anyways, thanks for commenting and and uh and um keep keep commenting, keep listening.

SPEAKER_03 4:49

So this week we go back to the 80s again with our first movie. Let's go chronological as we are wont to do around here. Is it the 80s World War II or an Elvis 50s beach movie? What is Top Secret?

SPEAKER_01 5:04

It's it's neither. It's it's fucking here. Let me read it to you. Okay, I'll just read you the log line. Here we go. So uh I'll leave you the log line of the storyline. Here's your log line. Um, Top Secret, 1984, PG, an hour and a half. An American rock and roll singer is invited to a cultural festival in East Germany in order to distract from a plot to destroy NATO submarines, but he accidentally becomes involved in a resistance plot to rescue an imprisoned scientist. Um that makes perfect sense completely uh your storyline. This time, Zucker and Abrams are spoofing most notably Elvis films and World War II spy movies. Val Kilmer stars as Nick Rivers, a handsome American 50s style rock and roll singer. While performing in East Germany, he falls in love with a beautiful heroine played by Lucy Gutterich and becomes involved with the French Resistance. Um so right away, like that's my biggest problem with this movie is that it's fucking all over the place. It's like it's like it's like Mel Brooks sticking Nazis into World History of the World Part One just because he's gotta have Nazis in the movie, right? Yeah. And so the you could tell that Abrams, Zucker, and Abs were like, uh the Zuckers and Abrams were like, we just want to make fun of Nazis. We have a fuckload of Nazi jokes. Let's figure out a way to do that. And so let's set it after World War II and have NATO, but also have Nazis, and but also have it in the 60s with surfing music and have an Elvis type figure. So this fucking thing is all right over the place, and breakdancing, it's all over the place, and it's kind of just like this pastiche so that we can just throw gag after gag after gag at you. It's a gag fest. Um, and in fact, even Zucker, I think, um, or Abrams, one of them said, like, yeah, that the first airplane was kind of a movie, and this is more just like a set of gags that we are throwing at you.

SPEAKER_05 6:48

Yeah. Which, from what I understand, is what drove Val Kilmer nuts, because he was coming out of being in like Juilliard or whatever, and like serious stuff, and he came in with like a backstory and everything.

SPEAKER_01 7:00

That makes sense, yeah.

SPEAKER_05 7:01

Yeah, that makes complex. There wasn't really any. So or his I mean he does a great job, but the fantastic job because he's playing it pretty straight compared to everybody else. Like everybody else is a little over the top, and there are bits where he kind of is. I mean, obviously his eldest moves are pretty impressive, and you know, but he's playing it as straight as he can. Yeah, you know, I mean he's playing as straight as he can within the framework where that they're at, as far as you know.

SPEAKER_01 7:32

Well, and I think that's what sells it. It's kind of like it's kind of like the pilot Ted in airplane. Like if he winks at the camera, it it it completely ruins the the joke, right?

SPEAKER_05 7:42

Like he's got although in this case he does literally wink at the camera a couple of times. But true, true, true, true, true. And they do have the uh what this is the this is a horrible movie, whatever the the bit where they're they both look at the camera, but yes, the ridiculous is the film that they're in.

SPEAKER_01 7:58

And I think that's that's again part of why it kind of loses its it's it's it's just it i i was talking to Marty about this earlier. You know, airplane is kind of the the pinnacle of this type of humor. Like it really is the very tip top, and then top secrets just a step down, boom. It's still great, still funny, horrible. It's still no god no, it's still firing on all cylinders, but it's not airplane, right? No, and then eat each one that comes after, and in in my opinion, just is slightly just diminishing returns like a staircase all the way down at like the the bottom of comedy when we get to these fucking I Know What You Did Last Summer parody type movies that that are just like the first scary movie was pretty much cash. Yeah, it was okay. But the ones after that, yeah. Well, and then you've got like the ones like the one about the they did that one about the 300, the you know, the battle maximus or some shit. You know, I mean it just oh my god. Yes, there you go. Meet the Spartans, there it was. Yes, fucking awful. So it's just like that's what I mean. It's like it just sort of is devolved into this bad parody of itself, I guess. But yeah, but this one actually, I mean, I I this one I've seen it so many times that I don't think I need to ever see it again. But at the same time, it still fucking got me. Like there were still points where it was, I was just like, God damn it, this movie got me again. I've seen this movie a thousand times. I've I like and it still got me. Because it never stops.

SPEAKER_03 9:26

Yeah, one joke. It reminds me like a proto mystery science theater in a way with joke, joke, joke, reference, pop culture reference, pop culture reference, joke, joke, joke. You know, you gotta catch your breath sometimes.

SPEAKER_05 9:38

Well, and the production design was pretty impressive. I mean, I know they got to shoot like the the they said they got a they got to use a lot of I try to remember where they said they they get to use some of the sets from.

SPEAKER_01 9:50

I know the street Superman.

SPEAKER_05 9:52

So that when they Superman, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 9:54

Yeah, when they looked at the window and the and the mice are yeah, on the street, that's the Superman set, yeah.

SPEAKER_05 9:58

But there was something else they got to use some stuff because they were shooting in in pine wood. Yeah, it's all burnt. Yeah. But the whole thing is well, yeah, that was the thing that the beach is like the beach in England. And it's not in California at all.

SPEAKER_01 10:12

It doesn't look it doesn't look very bright, and it doesn't, the surf doesn't look very good. Yeah, no.

SPEAKER_05 10:17

I'll be green hills in the background there. It was kind of like all right. Um that's also the thing with the with the music, right? So some of the songs are obviously parodies, but the other ones are kind of straight. I mean, it just does 2D Fruity, which is fun. Um and the How Silly Can You Get song isn't really particularly silly, really, other than the name. So the only one that's really a parody, or at least a kind of off-the-wall thing, was the Skeet Servant.

SPEAKER_03 10:46

That one in the Are You Lonesome Tonight, yeah. Yeah, Are You Lonesome Tonight, yeah?

SPEAKER_01 10:50

The Elvis, the straight up Elvis. That was great. The Are You Lonesome Tonight still makes me laugh, but guitar? Um, but I you know, I I want to say I so I saw this in the theater when it came out in '84. My grandfather took me to see it. I was 11. Yeah. And um, and then I bought the soundtrack at some point. I had a I had this soundtrack on tape. Um I didn't know Kilmer sang the songs, I just thought they were hilarious. Yeah, um, yeah. But I remember in particular the my grandfather laughing till I thought he was gonna, he started coughing. Like I thought he was gonna have a fit at the violator jokes. Where he's like, I can't bring my wife to an orgasm. He's like, well, they have each other.

SPEAKER_05 11:28

Yeah, the anal penetrator.

SPEAKER_01 11:30

Yeah, then he watched it. It's just like, oh my god, dude. Like, wow.

SPEAKER_05 11:36

I watched it on Sunday, I forgot that that was in there. Watched it with my mother and her husband, who were a little more on the conservative end of things. We're like, hmm, okay, well, she she found it pretty funny for the most part, but that that scene was a little was rather quiet in the house at that point. Yeah, a PG. My wife was sitting next to my mother, and she said, Yeah, that was a little awkward.

SPEAKER_03 12:02

And there's also brief nudity in the film, too. And it's like, oh, this is probably the last of its kind of a PG before PG 13 came around.

SPEAKER_05 12:12

That reminds me of like I was watching this commentary for Stripes, that was the thing, and they had like the first scene in Stripes, so there's this randomly a woman wandering around the apartment. No, and Ivan Reitman's like, yeah, the 80s with a casual nudity. Casual nudity, yeah. You can't do that anymore. Um, which, you know, better or for worse. It was it was an interesting time. True. So I don't know.

SPEAKER_01 12:35

I I I I it's like um it's like Apes, Planet of the Apes, right? We did Planet of the Apes a while ago, and there's a lot of bare ass, and there's a lot of just artfully placed plants in certain parts of that movie because he's not wearing any clothes and things like that.

SPEAKER_05 12:51

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 12:52

But it's still it's but they didn't even rate it PG, they didn't even tell parents to worry about it, they just called it general audiences because yeah, none of it was sexual in nature, right? Like it's just so I don't know. I i I guess it all just depends on context, right? Um, yeah. This movie has such a fucking Hogan's Heroes feel to it right from the beginning. Like it's just got like uh it's got that TV set feel, like everything we're seeing is a set from a television show or a map. Like nothing was specifically created for the film, it feels like.

SPEAKER_05 13:26

Yeah, I mean they did I know they made the the restaurant set themselves. Did they talk about yeah? That was on the biggest stage in Pineware. That was a couple of things I actually got out of the the commentary. Um it wasn't a lot, but there was that, and then the set designer went on to do a bunch of stuff and win a bunch of Oscars. But um But yeah, most of it was recycled sets from something else, and I'm trying to remember what it was now. Um but anyway, something else is some other World War II type of movie that they had shot um on the s on the lot that they just recycled a bunch of sets from. Um yeah, and I I I think the movie kind of picks up more when you meet the French resistance guys, those are yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 14:10

I do I do like some of the early stuff like uh I got a gun rack in my Chevy for when the surf and the flak get heavy. That's a great yeah, that's a great line. Um it this is Peter Cushing's last American film. Is it and yeah, and they had to make a that prosthetic that he used, you know, that backwards scene where he's got the big eye. The big eye they had to do a face cast for that. And um 25 fucking years later, they used that same face cast to to mold him for Rogue One to make that. They use the exact same top secret cast, which I thought was amazing.

SPEAKER_05 14:45

Very, very good. Well, that makes sense. Uh they have it, might as well use it, right?

SPEAKER_03 14:50

Right, exactly. Yeah, I think it's pacing. Yeah, it's like you put it on, next thing you know, it's over. It just it flows so well, it's crazy, but it goes kind of fast, it moves. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 15:01

Ah I feel like I feel like it it it it that it first hours great, and then it you kind of hit like a okay, it's we're starting to let's let's let's wrap this up. Let's wrap it up. Like for me, it just it's like okay, we're we let's not linger. And it's in an hour and thirty, it doesn't. Like it gets in and it gets out. It's an hour and 20 minutes. It has some minutes of credits.

SPEAKER_05 15:25

Even even for that time, a blue lagoon joke was already kind of dated.

SPEAKER_03 15:29

Does anybody remember the blue lagoon now as well?

SPEAKER_01 15:33

Well, it's it's like the fucking uh the publisher's clearinghouse joke. They just yeah, anybody's gonna get that yeah, born after 95, even fucking understand what that joke is.

SPEAKER_05 15:43

What was the line that I sign? I was gonna sign up. I told them in the line in German might setting up for the the mailing list. What was it for again? Oh yeah. Publishers clearinghouse uh Montgomery Ward mailing list. Yeah, yeah. That's right. Yeah. And then is your daughter 18? It's a bit there's more crowds in my reader hosen.

SPEAKER_03 16:08

I like all the little things like if you're not paying attention, it's like what was that? And so the more I watch it, the more I catch weird little You left you left your funny dog poop.

SPEAKER_00 16:17

What a funny dog poop.

SPEAKER_05 16:20

But they pointed out in the commentary they didn't notice that a lot of the so-called German is actually Yiddish.

SPEAKER_00 16:25

Yes.

SPEAKER_05 16:26

Yeah, it is.

SPEAKER_01 16:27

Yep.

SPEAKER_05 16:28

Yeah, there's not a lot of real real German in the villa.

SPEAKER_01 16:31

No, it's mainly like old Yiddish sayings like um go take a shit in the ocean, uh stick your head in the ground, and so it grows upside down like an onion, all kinds of these weird Yiddish sayings.

SPEAKER_03 16:42

Yeah, like the priest with all the random the random Latin for the priest, and then he's the one who gets put in the electric chair. It's just like what's going on? It's just so random.

SPEAKER_05 16:55

The other fun thing was uh it's the first meeting of Al Kilmer of Batman and Alfred.

SPEAKER_00 17:02

Oh, that's true.

SPEAKER_05 17:03

What's his face? I forgot his name, Patrick Goh.

SPEAKER_00 17:06

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 17:07

Plays the scientists, and he played Alfred in the in the Batman movies. So I wonder if they had I wonder if they had a reminiscing in the on the set of Batman at that point.

SPEAKER_01 17:17

Oh, they must have.

SPEAKER_05 17:18

They must have. First scene of that. Yeah, they were talking about there was some stuff in the commentary, like I said, so that that submarine was on the back of a truck, and they were trying to like they had to back it through the wall like six times. They had to rebuild the wall every single time. Oh wow. Ridiculous, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 17:37

Anyway, um, this movie has a Jimmy Carter joke, a mash joke, and a Mary Tyler Moore joke. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 17:46

Where the fuck are we? And you know, I love that scene, Cliff, because they're having their serious conversation, but they're doing the most ridiculous dance that everybody happens to know all the moves to. Yeah, I fucking I love that.

SPEAKER_01 17:59

And I love that dance. I've that dance is so fucking funny. It's it's great. I absolutely love that dance.

SPEAKER_05 18:06

And that was something you were missing on the commentary. There's somebody who did that. The guy moderated ask, like, how do they keep the straight face? Like, after you've done it like 20 times, it's like it loses the goofiness because now you just want to get through it.

SPEAKER_01 18:18

You just want to get through it, yeah.

SPEAKER_05 18:20

Yeah, yeah. That's one way to do it, I guess. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 18:24

The other scene I was gonna say that my grandfather laughed so hard at was the ballet scene. Oh, yeah. Oh. Which is just ridiculous.

SPEAKER_05 18:34

Yeah. My mother liked the cow because she's she's the cow painted with polka dots on it.

SPEAKER_01 18:41

The cow's iconic with the boots, the rubber boots, the cow, that's iconic. I mean, that's that's the steel stolen, that's the biggest moment from the movie, in my opinion. And unfortunately, it doesn't even have anything to do with any of the actors.

SPEAKER_05 18:54

He's like fun. Nothing at all. The uh yeah, and the acting, of course, is kind of all over the place, but the guy, I like the one of the one French resistance guy was really good, the kind of big goofy guy. I liked him. I forgot his name.

SPEAKER_01 19:09

Was it that guy with the big nose and the and the deja mustache?

SPEAKER_05 19:13

Yeah, he was probably one of the better uh actors in that part.

SPEAKER_03 19:18

I'm sure we had not met before.

SPEAKER_05 19:20

Deja vu. Deja vu, yes.

SPEAKER_01 19:23

Deja vu. What is that name? He's been in a bunch of stuff. He's a really well-known English actor.

SPEAKER_05 19:29

Yeah, yeah. I mean, everybody in the everybody in the French Resistance was pretty good. That was yeah. They all they all did their parts quite well.

SPEAKER_01 19:37

Latrine. Omar Sharif is great in this. Like the fact that he even agreed to do this is is really surprising.

SPEAKER_05 19:46

Well, they were talking about that too, about how you know some of these serious actors love to do this stuff because nobody ever asked them to do it.

SPEAKER_00 19:53

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 19:54

Nobody asked them to do something funny and goofy because they're like, well, will they do it? No, because they like they're actors, they like to do something fun. Yeah right. Uh every once in a while just let loose and do something off the wall. And uh that was that was that, right? It's very clever.

SPEAKER_01 20:11

Uh that guy's name is Jim Carter, and he is uh he's one of the leads on Downton Abbey. Jimmy Carter. Oh, that's that's him. That's that's him.

SPEAKER_05 20:21

Okay. Yeah, he's brilliant. Yeah, he's really good. We didn't even recognize him. I mean, my wife and I watched Downton Abbey all the time.

SPEAKER_01 20:28

Yeah, yeah, he's Mr. Carson on Downton Abbey.

SPEAKER_05 20:30

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 20:31

Yeah, okay. He's fantastic, really, really good. Um that explains that. I I love if I don't know if you guys caught this, but when Kilmer's crawling through the ductwork, you know, to get to the professor, like he crawls out of that grate and like the grate just kind of stays open for him and then slowly clacks. Yeah, it kind of does, but then as he gets out, like the grate stays open. Like somebody's obviously holding that grate open and then lowering it slowly.

SPEAKER_05 21:00

Yeah, I noticed that. Because it whacks him in the head slightly when he gets out, and then it and then it was like it goes back up and then goes down very slowly. Things things you notice, especially as film people watching these things, going, Oh, yeah, somebody uh somebody didn't do that.

SPEAKER_01 21:20

Somebody had to sit back, yep, somebody had to hold that thing. Yep. Um I think my favorite bit this viewing was the giant pigeon in the background and the three guys that flap flap in the focus all over it and then fly away. I it's so dumb. But it's it, but but like what it and that's the thing about this movie is like the movie really commits to just fuck you, man. Gag, gag, gag. Here they come, here they come. And and look, you have two choices with this movie. You either lean into it and you go for the ride, or you grit your teeth and you hate every fucking minute of this thing. Yeah, there's no there's almost No in-between, in my opinion. No, like you can't. This is a very polarizing comedy. You either think this is funny, it's like a hot tub time machine. You either think that shit's funny or you don't. And you know, it's the dumbest thing we've ever seen.

unknown 22:14

Yeah. Yep.

SPEAKER_05 22:15

I know I know people that were definitely on that would definitely be in that that dichotomy. I on the other hand, I think it very funny. And I I've enjoyed it every time I watched it. But you're right. It's not something I'm gonna pull out every two seconds and watch, you know, right once a year. This is a every couple of years, maybe we'll pull it out.

SPEAKER_00 22:34

Yep.

SPEAKER_05 22:35

Yeah. It's not in the same, it's not quite in the same league as airplane. You're right. It's just way better than Airplane 2.

SPEAKER_01 22:43

It's still yeah, it's better than Airplane 2. Did this come out after Airplane 2?

SPEAKER_05 22:48

Uh yeah. I'm gonna say it did. Yeah, a couple of years actually. They didn't have anything to do with airplane two because that's right.

SPEAKER_01 22:56

But it but but it was a step up from that, though. It's definitely like a oh here, here's the here's how you do it.

SPEAKER_05 23:02

It was uh 82, so it was two years before that. Okay, yeah. No, the thing that the thing they had with airplane was that they had a script to work off because I yeah, my dad and I, years ago, we were watching because I this is before I knew anything about it, we'd happen to catch zero hour on like late night or like late afternoon TV on like I don't know, AMC or something like that. And we hadn't ever realized that that was you know a thing, but we watched it and we're like, yeah, this is brilliant, because it's obviously they took this script for airplane and then it just went nuts. Um we were laughing at at the original film because we were recognizing stuff from airplane. It was weird, but you know.

SPEAKER_01 23:48

Um but yeah, for this one they were saying, you know, they didn't have a plot really, they didn't have a movie to work off of specifically, so they No, it's just it's just like set up, it's just like premise and then gag, gag, gag, a little bit of story, gag, gag, more gag, a little bit of story, gag, gag, gag, more story. Yeah, they had that. There are some really good gags in it. Fuck yeah. Yeah. Like the the the cow, the whole thing with the cow is fantastic from start to finish.

SPEAKER_05 24:19

Yeah, the the station pulling away from the train was always a good one. Very, really good. Very clever. And like from the very beginning, his his paint, his painting, and then you look at it and it's all fuzzy because it's going out the window.

SPEAKER_01 24:32

It's blurry.

SPEAKER_05 24:33

Yeah, I mean, that's uh yeah. It's just yeah, there's there's a lot of like individual things. The the saloon fight underwater is the flow fight, which was yeah.

SPEAKER_00 24:44

Oh, that's really good too. Very well done. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_05 24:46

Um, you know, so there's some really and then the backwards scene. There's stuff that's in there that you're really impressed with, and it's funny, but yes, as a whole, it doesn't quite come together.

SPEAKER_01 24:58

Well, it's like that individually, it's great. Yeah, it's like that reverse scene we just we mentioned earlier. I mentioned earlier, it's like if you watch that scene, you're like, good god, that must have been tough to film. Because it's just you have to do everything kind of in reverse, but in the right order, and I don't know.

SPEAKER_03 25:13

There's a big feature where you see it go the other direction if you're really interesting, yeah. There's a couple of fun scenes too.

SPEAKER_01 25:20

Yeah, yeah. Okay.

SPEAKER_03 25:21

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 25:22

That there's a scene where you know the scene where they they're screaming welcome, Neek, you know, and he's playing his guitar on stage, you know, and yeah, that and he throws the guitar up and it goes up in the air and disappears.

SPEAKER_03 25:33

That's the silly part.

SPEAKER_01 25:34

Yeah, I I wonder how I wonder if Prince saw that back when he did his he did that, he did that on the stage at a uh concert with uh I think it was While My Guitar Gently Weeps or one of those where he was playing, he came out and played the lead on it, and then right at the end, like he he just plays this scorching lead at the end of the song, and then as the song's over, he just throws his guitar up in the air and just walks off stage, and the guitar never comes back down, which is fantastic. It's such a great bit, especially because it's such a it's such an electric solo that he's playing, it's so unexpected. So but part of me is like, I wonder if he said top secret.

SPEAKER_05 26:12

Well, and then the uh the interesting thing too with all the girls screaming, which is uh from what I was listening to there, and they were saying they basically just had them watch a lot of stuff from the Beatles when the Beatles were all right, yeah. So I caught and I've seen some of that footage, and so I'm like, yeah, I kind of recognize specific girls doing specific other girls from the Beatles video, right? Yeah, um, but that yeah, that was kind of a weird one too. Because like I said, the songs weren't really that funny in that bit, they were a little more straightforward.

SPEAKER_03 26:49

Um but it's the things he's doing during the song, like the microphone stretching, the guitar going up, the putting his head in the noose, the hitting on the girl who's like 10. That's pretty creepy. That's very helvis. There there were there were a couple of things.

SPEAKER_05 27:07

You're like, hmm.

SPEAKER_03 27:08

Yeah the extending the extending.

SPEAKER_05 27:13

Yeah. Well, and then the my my favorite bit right after that, where he shoes all the bicycles off. Oh, that's good. That might be one of my favorite parts.

SPEAKER_03 27:23

Yes, that's really good. Because in the beginning, you see the German uh attach his bike to the rack like it's a horse. Yeah. And so Mike Horner, when he's letting them loose, it's like, oh, that was a setup.

SPEAKER_01 27:37

Do you guys remember um in the 80s how like okay, so in the especially in the late 70s, early 80s on your UHF stations, they would run the comedy classics, and it was the three stooges usually, right? Like you get the comedy classics on late night TVs, a bunch of three stooges. This feels like yeah, it feels like airplane and this are directly like sort of cashing in on that uh resurgence of of this old kind of slapsticky type of goofy ass three stooges type. Because it's airplane and top secretary are very three stooges, just a little bit, I guess it would be more highbrow three stooges, which is a weird thing to say.

SPEAKER_05 28:16

Not quite Marks Brothers, because I always prefer the Marks Brothers over Three Stooges, but Marks Brothers is a lot of verbal right.

SPEAKER_01 28:24

That's my and that's this airplane, it's much more physical. Top airplane and top secret are physical comedy with a little bit of verbal throne. That's why they feel more three stooges. Yeah, um, but you know, they came out and they were popular during that that sort of resurgence of uh you know, I mean, they had that stupid, you know, hey mo song that was you know in the top 40, you know, all that weird.

SPEAKER_03 28:47

Well, all those writers were inspired by that stuff when they were kids, so it makes sense. Uh they hired an extra writer on this to actually make it make sense to be like we have all these jokes and we don't know what to do with them, and somebody came in and like they were like, We'd still be in the writer's room if it wasn't for this guy. He figured out a path for to all go in.

SPEAKER_01 29:11

There's a um there's a buried L. Ron Hubbard call-out in this movie. Oh, yes, which I really, really enjoyed. I was like, Oh, that's sharp. I mean, that's 84, and they're calling El Ron out for that shit. This is this is a year or two before Dianetics, if I'm not mistaken.

SPEAKER_05 29:26

So I'm looking at the Wikipedia page, and by Skeet Surfing, they have literally written writers Brian Wilson, Mike Love, and Chuck Berry. So I'm remembering. I don't know if they actually wrote it, or are they just talking about the fact that they put it derivative? Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 29:43

I guess if they're listening, lifting the music, maybe they're they're giving credit for the music writing. If they're just lifting the music and they're putting lyrics over it, maybe I don't know.

SPEAKER_05 29:50

Because it sounds an awful lot, but it's not specifically, I don't know. It's like Weird Allen is pastious, it's always which is always what I always appreciate about Weird Allen. That because everybody's all about the the parodies, which are great, but I find his original songs that are pasticious much more interesting because he has to be that shows the genius of Weird Al. You have to know the artist well enough to know what the artist sounds like to make something that sounds like the artist.

SPEAKER_03 30:20

And Weird Owl says this is his favorite movie of all time. Is it?

SPEAKER_05 30:25

Which kind of makes a hell of a lot of sense. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 30:38

Okay, I got a few more things. Anything else to say about that? Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 30:42

Which which which TV character was Mel Tour May obsessed with? Was obsessed with Mel Tourme? Do you guys remember that? There was a TV character in the 80s who was obsessed with Mel Torme. Oh, it was Harry from Nightcourt.

SPEAKER_03 30:53

Ah, yeah. Oh, that's right. He was the Velvet Fog. Sorry.

SPEAKER_00 30:57

Yep.

SPEAKER_03 30:58

Uh Nick Rivers is the inspiration for Nick Levine, at least the name. That's where I pulled Nick from. For our script with about the fictional writer, because I was quite obsessed with this film around the time we wrote uh comic book diaries. This movie got back on my radar about 20 years ago. I hadn't watched it for a long time, and the guys that we were making uh marijuanos with were really into it, and I started watching it and getting really into it. And so every time we seem to start a production up, Top Secret shows up on the TV somehow. So maybe, maybe it's showing up on the show here is announcing that we're getting ready to do something again. Uh, anyways, uh I like all the jokes in the movie, but one doesn't really land for me. I get it, but it feels like one of the weirdest jokes in the movie. It's where he's getting whipped and he has this little dream sequence where he's like, I'm back in school. And I'm thinking, yeah, but I guess it's preferable to be getting whipped and have to go back to school and be late for your tests again, but it's just it's presented in such a hard way, yeah. I'm like, what? What's going on right there? Uh saw this at a midnight screening about 15, 20 years ago. That absolutely killed because you know, after all the years, everybody knows all the jokes. And I really love the fake credits at the end. They've peppered in some bullshit credits along the way. And my favorite one is on the left hand side it says Fareze, and then on the right hand side it says a jolly good fellow. It's totally stupid, but it's just like, oh my god, this movie just does not stop until the credits are over.

SPEAKER_05 32:40

So they're done.

SPEAKER_03 32:40

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 32:42

Yeah, it's really it's fucking relentless, that's for sure.

SPEAKER_03 32:46

I actually I'm I'm the heretic. I like this more than airplane. I tried to watch Airplane again a few years ago and I made it five minutes in. I'd seen it so many times that that's the one for me where I'm like, maybe one day I could come back to it, but I think it's because I was away from top secret for a good 20-some years and then rediscovered it in the early aughts and went, what what is going on here? Like, like I had to watch it a few times just to get a grip of it. Compared to Yellow Beard that we watched a few weeks ago, that one feels like let's throw a bunch of jokes and it never really gels. This one for me is just like, yeah, it's it's kind of bliss in a way.

SPEAKER_01 33:27

So yeah. I don't, I don't, I don't think this one ever really gels either. Honestly, it's like I said, I believe it just feels like premise for so that you can fire. It's kind of like MASH, right? Where you're like, well, they they have this, they're in a mobile hospital, they're in Korea, go. And it's just you know, whatever, whatever jokes and things that they can throw in to to, you know, and I and I'm and hey, I love MASH.

SPEAKER_03 33:48

I'm not shitting on and I'm not shitting on Top Secret, it's just it's good in the Elton Mary Tyler Moore show, but yeah, but but it's also yeah, it's a good call.

SPEAKER_01 33:57

But it's also it's also sort of fucking dated, and and and I think I've seen I think I've seen both of these movies and this type of comedy so much that it's just a diminishing returns for me at this point, you know. Now it's not quite as in the in the mid-80s when I was watching this shit, it was fucking comedy gold. Comedy gold.

SPEAKER_05 34:17

They're not quite as dated as say the most of the scary movie stuff, because those are like flash in the pan stuff that was really popular the year it came out, but nobody's gonna remember any of this uh 20 years later. But yes, there are jokes, especially in Top Secret, that just aren't gonna land, you know, 30 or 40 years later, just because nobody knows what they are anymore. But if you like, and as they as they pointed out, Blue Lagoon, once again, was even dated when they did the movie. Yes, like out of nowhere. I've never seen Blue Lagoon, but I know enough about the Blue Lagoon to, you know, it's as if you've seen it, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 34:54

Trust me. Yeah. Somebody who had cable in the early 80s and was subjected to that ended sequel many times, you know exactly what that is.

SPEAKER_05 35:04

Ah, the old days when you just turn on the TV in the afternoon and you have to just flip channels to find something you want to watch.

SPEAKER_04 35:10

Yep.

SPEAKER_05 35:11

And sometimes you just watch stuff because it's the only thing that you're like, uh, I don't want to watch like the price is right again.

SPEAKER_00 35:19

Like so true. They even made it like what was it?

SPEAKER_05 35:23

What was it? One of the James Bond movies. I only saw the last 15 minutes for like years because they'd go to my dad's house and he had cable and we'd flip it on, and it'd always be the last 15 minutes of I think it's the Living Daylights, and I never saw the whole film until years later. But I knew the last 15 minutes of the Living Daylights pretty well.

SPEAKER_03 35:43

Yeah. Anyway, yeah, it's funny, they even made a sequel to The Blue Lagoon, and even that is ancient now, so I don't know if anybody truly remembers that anymore. But I think if you like World War II movies or if you like Elvis movies, there might still be something for a new viewer to latch on, but some of the jokes as if all with all comedy, it's gonna be like, what are they referencing there?

SPEAKER_05 36:08

Yeah. There's enough stuff in here that is you know timeless, just goofy jokes that yeah. But there are a few things, like the random uh queason art in his cell that just disappears.

SPEAKER_01 36:22

Uh-huh. Yes. Yeah, it's sitting on a shelf and then it's not. Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 36:26

And then it's a picture of the random picture of Cher.

SPEAKER_01 36:29

Yeah, right. Well, it's because he was dating her at the time that they filmed this movie. He was he was dating Cher. Yeah. So stuck her they stuck her picture on the wall. Yeah. Yeah. Anyway.

SPEAKER_03 36:42

What do you what do you what do you think, Marty? What do you give it? I'm I'm crazy. I give it four and a half because for me, I just I come back to I watched it twice this week, guys. I come back to it every year. So it's very inspirational for me. I know it's completely dumb, but I like I said, I think it's because I didn't see it for 20 some years, and it was just like, what? What is this? Yeah. I need the 4K disc.

SPEAKER_06 37:09

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 37:12

Um, Drew, what about you?

SPEAKER_05 37:14

Um I put it at a uh let's say let's say three and a half.

SPEAKER_03 37:20

More reasonable.

SPEAKER_05 37:21

Yeah. Yeah. I can't say four. It's close to a four. Uh I probably would airplane like four or four and a half. It's not a five for me. Not that it's not a bad movie. It's just uh for comedies, it's I'm a little more the slapsticky stuff I enjoy, but it's not my favorite. Right. I'm more of a word word type of guy. So for Val Kilmer, like comedy type movies, and he wasn't the main actor in it, but Kiss Kiss Bang Bang had some great, great Val Kilmer lines. Uh anyway. That's what that's one to pull out at some point. If you guys haven't watched that in a while.

SPEAKER_01 38:08

Well maybe we'll just do a talking kilmer every year and have you on for that. There we go. Yeah. He's he's got a bunch of friggin' movies.

SPEAKER_05 38:14

Tombstone. We could do uh what was the one?

SPEAKER_01 38:16

Tombstone, Willow, there's all kinds of stuff with the Saints.

SPEAKER_05 38:19

There's the one where he's the uh the uh fucking Batman movie he did. Yeah. So FBI agent on the on the uh reservation.

SPEAKER_01 38:27

So uh uh Thunderheart. Yeah, Salt Sea. There's a bunch of Graham Green.

SPEAKER_05 38:32

Graham Green was so great in Thunderheart. Doors. How do you know I was speeding? The wind told me. Said 57. Book him.

SPEAKER_01 38:42

Uh I'm gonna give it a three. I'm gonna give it a three. Um, I would probably give Air Payne somewhere in a three and a half to four range. Um this this is funny, you know, it but it's just it's not that funny. And uh I'm giving it like if I'm judging it based upon now and how many times I've watched it, I'm gonna say like two, one and a half or two, because I've just I've seen it too many times. I've seen the I've seen all the jokes, I've seen it, and it you know, I'm one and a half.

SPEAKER_03 39:11

The underwater fight scene alone is more than one and a half.

SPEAKER_05 39:16

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 39:17

The point is, yeah. I mean, for the 50th time I've seen it, sure, I guess. That's that's the problem with this movie, is and I think that's that's the thing. It's like the really great movies have a rewatchability that is almost never lost, right? Like Raiders or Godfather, you know. So you kind of you have to kind of judge a movie based upon its rewatchability, right? Like this one for me starts to kind of okay, I've seen this, but but I I mean I think a three is is uh definitely fair. I think it's well made. Apparently they they had an eight million dollar budget and they gave a million dollars back to the studio when they were done.

SPEAKER_05 39:54

Yeah, that was that's I remember they surprisingly talked about that. They actually came in way under budget.

SPEAKER_01 39:59

Yeah, that's very surprising. Well, and it makes sense. I mean, like I said, it all those sets just look like like that jail looks like just painted cardboard rock. Yeah, it's just it's just not they didn't go for like lived in believability, they went for like, you know, all right, TV set, go gag, gag, gag, let's do this. Definitely. But yeah. So, anyways, that moves us to Real Genius. Real genius.

SPEAKER_05 40:22

Ah, which I was thinking about Real Genius, and I was thinking about Revenge of the Nerds because the the girl was in both of those. Well, what's her I forgot her name. Michelle Michelle Mayrank.

SPEAKER_01 40:34

Michelle Mayrink, Valley Girl, one of the this one of the very few Michelle Mayring films out there.

SPEAKER_05 40:39

Yeah, she retired in like 88. Yeah. Went off to become a Buddhist, apparently.

SPEAKER_01 40:45

She got married, got kids, and shit, lives in Canada now, so good for her.

SPEAKER_05 40:49

I thought she was Uber cute in this movie, but that's just you know, she was very cute. For the weird kind of girl.

SPEAKER_01 40:56

There's a lot of Martha Coolidge like reusing people from her past movies in this movie, yeah, big time. You know, and Michelle Mayrink is one of them, so is Deborah Foreman.

SPEAKER_05 41:05

Um this list of who's in this thing, and there's so many pretty crazy, and it's so like little pits. So like Yuji uh Okamudo from he was in you know karate kid part two. And then also he was in Cobra Kai recently, but I'm like, I and he's barely like he they don't really he doesn't have a lot of lines, but you're like, I know that guy, I can see him and stuff. He was also great in Better Off Dead, which is like one of my favorite John Cusack movies.

SPEAKER_06 41:37

Savage Steve.

SPEAKER_05 41:38

Yeah, Better Off Dead and and One Crazy Summer, that's another double feature.

SPEAKER_01 41:43

Oh, yeah, very much so the Savage Steve Holland double feature. Yeah. Yeah. Uh Dean Devlin's in this movie.

SPEAKER_03 41:50

Dean Devlin, Dean Devlin created the creator of Stargate.

SPEAKER_05 41:56

I I am looking at his early stuff. I uh I really loved Moon 44 back in the day. That was ridiculously like low budget sci-fi movie with Michael Perry and Malcolm McDowell. I mean, you guys ever seen that one? No, but we what was it called again? Moon 44. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, sure. Ridiculous movie. And then City Limits. I mostly know City Limits from Mystery Science Theater.

SPEAKER_03 42:23

Yeah, because you know, where you can have taken anybody to this and John Stockwell and Kim Catrells in that. And then you get Dean Devlin popping up in there because it's it's so bizarre.

SPEAKER_01 42:36

Dean Devlin's big line is their beauticians. That's his big line in the movie.

SPEAKER_05 42:42

But I look at his his filmography and especially his television stuff. I'm I I can't say I've hated anything he's ever produced.

SPEAKER_01 42:49

So he wrote Universal Soldier, he wrote Stargate, he wrote Independence Day, he wrote he wrote the screenplay for the Godzilla 98 Godzilla. Well, that might be well, that one might be, but at the time it was a big fucking hit.

SPEAKER_05 43:04

And then I'm a big fan of like the librarian series, all the librarian stuff. Uh I've been and leverage, I love leverage. Uh I've been watching.

SPEAKER_00 43:12

He produced those, yep, yep, yep.

SPEAKER_05 43:14

I've been watching the arc uh recently. That's a pretty fun show on sci-fi channel.

SPEAKER_03 43:19

And Dean Devlin's most important cinematic role, his one episode of Too Close for Comfort. So but what is Dreal Genius?

SPEAKER_01 43:29

Before we promise right in. Drill Genius, uh 1985 PG, an hour and forty-eight minutes long. An uptight team prodigy enters a top engineering college, but feels awkward among the freewheeling students. When a professor aims to turn their laser project into a military weapon, he and his offbeat roommate plot to ruin the plan. Uh, this is directed by Martha Coolidge, written by Neil is a real Pat Prophet and PJ Torok Torokovi, and it starts Val Kilmer. Um Let's see here. What's your log line, your storyline? Mitch Taylor is one of the youngest students ever accepted to university, known for its programs for geniuses. He partners up with his roommate, science club legend Chris Knight, on a project to develop a high-powered laser. Together with their hyperkinetic friends, they employ their intellects in the pursuit of bigger blasts, practical jokes, and a deeper understanding of what real genius means. When they find out that their professor intends to turn their work over to the military for use as a weapon, they decide to get even.

SPEAKER_05 44:48

And he said he based his character on what if Chris Knight grew up. And I can I'm looking at it now, going, yeah, I can see that. You can see that.

SPEAKER_01 45:02

Right away in the first five minutes, um Stacy Peralta is the guy flying the crossbow. Yeah. You know, the the and that that's that guy basically he he created Pal and Peralta. He's the reason that you had skateboarding in the 80s. Gotcha. All that shit. He's the reason that Tony Hawk is a is a no known name. He's the reason. And he all that he was yeah, he ran the biggest skateboarding company and the biggest skateboarding teams in the 80s and then moved into making films in the 90s and beyond. So it's it's crazy that he's got this weird little part of the film.

SPEAKER_03 45:33

Randomly in the film. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 45:35

I'd love to know how he got hooked up with that.

SPEAKER_03 45:38

This might be the ultimate Nexus film, as you like to call them, Cliff, where you can connect so many people to it.

SPEAKER_01 45:45

Lewis Giambalvo and Ed Louder are two of the most well known. I mean, just you see those guys' faces, Ed Louder. I mean, these guys are character actors who have been in hundreds of films. Youngblood's great.

SPEAKER_05 45:58

I like pretty much anything.

SPEAKER_01 46:00

Yep, me too. You've got Joanne Barron, uh, who is Pooh plays um Mitch's mom. She's been in a bunch of stuff. My God. Um, and then of course Mr. William Atherton himself.

SPEAKER_05 46:12

I mean, I it's it it's a it's a big toss-up for me. I mean, his role in Ghostbusters is great, but it's kind of small comparatively. And then this, he just gets to go full asshole. Between this and Ghostbusters and diehard, he pretty much cemented his I I get to play jerks uh for the rest of my life. It was great to see him in the in the latest Ghostbusters movie as the mayor of New York, uh, which was great. But yeah, his he's so slimy in this. It's just you know, it's next level slimy. It's so good where he's like, what are you looking at?

SPEAKER_01 46:51

This is you know, you're laborers, you should be laboring. That's what you get for not having an education. Like, wow.

SPEAKER_05 46:58

And that dog, the dog every single time.

SPEAKER_01 47:01

Oh, it's with that dog.

SPEAKER_05 47:04

Uh John Grease was great too. Oh, yeah. John Grease, yep, so much stuff.

SPEAKER_01 47:09

Fucking Robert Prescott's in this, he was like he played that great asshole character all throughout the 80s, yeah. That you just love to hate. Um, you had uh Patty Darbenville was in this, um Sandy Martin is in this.

SPEAKER_03 47:25

Um It's Always Sunny is in this film for two seconds.

SPEAKER_01 47:31

That's crazy. Um Tommy Swordlow, who played Bodie. That dude, uh that dude went on to be he was in Howard the Duck, he was in Child Play, he wrote, he wrote Cool Runnings, he wrote Little Giants, he wrote Snow Dogs, he wrote The Grinch, he wrote Puss and Boots Last Wish. What the fuck? Like it's the the work these people went on to do after this movie is is amaz a lot of them did it's amazing. It's really crazy how Martha and her and their the the casting people were able to sniff out all this fucking talent because it's just packed into this movie ridiculously.

SPEAKER_03 48:10

This is a perfect setup for uh this little uh little uh minute mini rant I have to go on as all these people worked on this, but the one who probably is the most notable is the cinematographer DP Vilmos Zygmunt.

SPEAKER_00 48:27

Vilmos Zygmunt, yep.

SPEAKER_03 48:29

This guy's got his start making every Arch Hall Jr. film that exists. He shot I shot Wild Guitar, and he also made movies for Ray Dennis Steckler, like the incredibly strange creatures who stopped living and became mixed-up zombies. Uh and he was also making movies for Al Adamson. You you know Al Adamson, Cliff. He directed East Meets Watts. This is the level of stuff that he was doing before he hooked up with Robert Altman and made uh Miss McCabe and Mrs. Miller, and then it was off to the races. He didn't have to do B stuff anymore. Then the next thing you know, he's making Deliverance with John Borman, and then he's making the Sugarland Express with Spielberg, which leads to Close Encounters, which leads to the Deer Hunter, which leads to Heaven's Gate, then he's working with uh De Palma on Blowout, then he ends up on Real Genius and immediately goes and makes The Witches of Eastwick, Fat Man and Little Boy, The Two Jakes, Bonfire, the Vanities, Maverick, uh, and then towards the end of his career, he he ends it with a couple of Woody Allen movies that are the lessers, but he also makes Jersey Girl with Kevin Smith.

SPEAKER_06 49:50

Jersey Girl.

SPEAKER_03 49:50

This guy goes all the way from people who work with Ed Wood. All the way to Kevin.

SPEAKER_05 49:57

I'm looking at his Wikipedia page. Apparently, he shot 24 episodes of the Mindy Project.

SPEAKER_01 50:02

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 50:03

It's interesting.

SPEAKER_01 50:06

He I mean, you skipped, I mean, you ski you skipped some other stuff, but yeah, I mean, he did he did so much shit, it's not even funny. It's he's he's a fantastic cinematographer. Yeah, and the film looks really good. I mean it does. I I I remember reading that um apparently that they had a lot of trouble with the lasers because that's that's the real tech. They're working with real lasers in that film. Yeah, and one of them's a dye laser. Um, and they st what they what he said was that they had a lot of trouble filming the laser coming at you, you couldn't even fucking see it. Going away, you could. So they learned quickly to fill the room with smoke to so the lasers would catch on film and also to try and shoot away from them or go pointing at or going away. I can't remember which one, but that that would make the laser pop on the camera more, and that's how basically he learned to use that and then went into other lighting techniques later later in his films, which I thought was fucking awesome.

SPEAKER_05 51:01

It's very impressive, some of the tech stuff. And then, like I said, looking at this and like Revenge of the Nerds, this is much more obviously realistic. Yes, what I understand. She um uh Martha Coolidge went and did a lot of rewrites and actually interviewed a bunch of people at Caltech, and actually tried to, you know, even though it's a it's a goofy kind of comedy, she tried to make it as realistic of a comedy as she could, which I I appreciated, which is always one of the things I liked about it. Because I'm like, that looks like a really fun place to go to school.

SPEAKER_01 51:32

I read that you know, yeah, I read that a lot of these antics are based on actual things that happened that students did at Caltech. Like the when Laszlo's doing the entries into the Frito Lake contest, that's Caltech students um who in 74 used a strategy to win to McDonald's sweepstakes. They won a station wagon, they won three grand in cash, they won fifteen hundred dollars in food vouchers, and so and like the liquid nitrogen coins and all this weird shit. It's like that's uh oh, not the liquid nitrogen coins, but the um you know the frozen uh skating ring. Yeah, the skating ring thing. They actually fucking do that at Caltech and the and they they they freeze it first, and then once it thaws, they turn it into like a fucking whitewater rafting thing through the halls, and so it's a whole thing at Caltech to do that, or at least it was.

SPEAKER_05 52:18

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 52:19

Um, so I just I find that shit fascinating where it's like, okay, so there is this is kind of based in fact a little bit. Yeah, that that really smart people, in order to kind of blow off the steam of being under a lot of academic pressure, they do a lot of weird shit like this.

SPEAKER_05 52:35

So in Montana State, which is where I went to school, I I was in the film and the media and theater arts department, and the the theater was built on the old ballroom, which is attached to the student union. And across the sidewalk was the engineering building. And we'd be in there rehearsing and stuff, and then you had to walk down the sidewalk, get to the parking lot. And there would be times, and this didn't happen to me, but it happened to several of my my other uh actor friends. You'd be walking towards the parking lot, and then like 10 o'clock at night, all of a sudden there'd be a laser down there because the engineers up in the engineering building are firing lasers at people walking past in the street because they're bored. Uh they've been up there too long or something. Like, yeah, so it kind of hit home for me. I'm like, yep, that's the sort of thing that happened. That's it. Yep. I used to call Montana State Boeing U, because Boeing used to hire a bunch of their engineers out of there.

SPEAKER_00 53:32

Oh, okay, that's hilarious. Yeah. That's hilarious.

SPEAKER_05 53:36

But no, it's such a great it's a great movie. You get to like the characters. It's it's it's not just I mean, Chris Knight's a goofy he's a goofy guy, but you see him be get real, you know, in the middle, and you you realize that you know he's he's a very smart guy. He's doing what it does is to blow off steam. And obviously to help the other people around him blow off steam, because yeah, some of these people are really tightly wound. Um just a fun character. He's got so many great lines in this movie.

SPEAKER_01 54:11

Oh god, this this whole movie is just full of 'em.

unknown 54:13

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 54:14

One after the other, like you know, one after the other after the other.

SPEAKER_05 54:17

It's just the the one I always say there. I saw the most disgusting thing I've ever seen in my life. Holyfeld and his pajamas.

SPEAKER_01 54:24

And it's pajamas. All my filth is in alphabetical order. This is under H for toy. What is it? It's a penis stretcher. You want to try it? No. Yeah. Um do you qualify that as a design problem or a launch problem? Yeah, a launch problem or a design problem. It's just, you know.

SPEAKER_03 54:41

Thrones and 85, guys. Thrones and 85.

unknown 54:44

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 54:45

Would you be uh would you be prepared if the world's if the world's uh gravity suddenly reversed? Only kind of thing I can't figure out is how to keep the change in my pockets. I know what nudity. That's what it is. This fucking thing, I can quote this thing all day long. This this has no diminishing returns for me. None. There is always something fresh in this movie. There is always something to like. There's always this movie, it feels so lived in. It feels like you're on some science campus. The fucking all the graffiti on the walls, the way things are done, there's it just feels like you are living in a in a science nerd campus.

SPEAKER_05 55:21

Kent's weird room with all the handprints on the walls. Yes.

SPEAKER_01 55:24

Kent's fucking strange ass room, the car they put in his room. Oh my god.

unknown 55:30

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 55:31

How much does it cost to do that? No shit.

SPEAKER_01 55:34

And that's that's actually another prank. That's that one's from England. They actually did that to somebody in England and disassembled the car and had it, and it was running in the fucking room.

SPEAKER_03 55:44

Yeah. You know what's funny about that is Kent does that the prank where he plays the phone message over. And all his cronies help him too. Yeah, fuck the cronies. We don't have to get back at the cronies. We only get back at Kent. Those other guys, Scot free. They never have to pay for it.

unknown 56:02

I know.

SPEAKER_05 56:04

I like the character that stutters because he's just kind of interesting. He's just sort of there. They pick on him slightly, but he's hanging out with him because he's, you know. Right. Yeah. Bodie. I feel like on some level, too, and this is sort of I was thinking about this when I was watching him. I'm like, this is like Big Bang Theory, but more realistic. Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 56:23

This is a complete launch of the Big Bang Theory.

unknown 56:27

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 56:28

Yeah. Yeah. Hey Bodie, uh, your stutter seems to be better. I've been doing shock treatments up the voltage. I mean, this fucking movie over and over again. Um I do like that right at the beginning, like it kind of it kind of tries to do a misdirection on you. Like it's like it starts off with this crossbow project thing, and then it goes into credits with all these weird pictures of weapons. Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 56:53

And then suddenly we're at a science fair.

SPEAKER_01 56:56

Yeah, the movie's telling you it's about weapons right from the beginning. You're just, but you're just kind of like, well, what is this? And then boom, you're off to college with this, with this young kid, right?

SPEAKER_06 57:05

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 57:05

And uh Chris Knight's introduction is the you know, I love the toxic waist t-shirt. He's got the the the boingy space things on his head, and he's being a you know, he's being a cut up for his pop, you know, potential, you know, it's such a great introduction. Where, you know, are you sure you're Chris Knight? Well, I hope so. I'm wearing his underwear. Yeah, you know, all that shit is just so good. Yeah, you instantly you instantly want to be him or like him in those situations. You know what I mean? I've all I have always wanted to run up to a girl and go, my god, don't eat that. Don't you know that eating that can give you large breasts? Oh god, I'm too late. I've I I've never had the balls, but I have always wanted to.

SPEAKER_05 57:48

It's kind of interesting, too. He's like a proto what what did uh Ryan Reynolds did, Van Wilder? Oh, oh my god, that's a good kind of character. Yes, it's a very proto that kind of thing, although Van Wilder takes the whole sexy part further. But that and uh one of my favorite movies, which is PCU. I love PCU, and it's it's you know that character. Um Jeremy Jeremy um Jeremy Pivin's character in that is very Chris Knight, right? Which is very similar now when I'm thinking about it, because it's the young guy who comes to the college campus, and except in this case he's just like PCU actually a brilliant, brilliant movie, but in my opinion. Um but yeah, he's like a very proto uh those kind of characters. Um I was thinking I always said PCU is like a modern animal house, but I'm like, it's it's actually more like a modern real genius.

SPEAKER_01 58:43

All right, it's like if you took real genius and animal animal house and you smashed them together.

SPEAKER_05 58:47

Yeah, yeah. Yeah, very much so. Not to do another movie, but the quote in that you're gonna do that, you're gonna be you're gonna wear the shirt of the band you're gonna go see. Don't be that guy.

SPEAKER_06 58:57

You'll be that guy, don't be that guy.

SPEAKER_03 58:59

And now I heard the writer one of the writers of PCU recently was like, Oh, I wore a Metallica shirt to a Metallica show. It's okay, guys. Do whatever the hell you want. You'll be okay.

SPEAKER_05 59:11

Uh yeah, there were so many great people in this movie.

SPEAKER_01 59:15

Yeah, and I feel like you nailed it with Ryan Reynolds. Like, like now that you've said that, I I can't I can't I can't stop thinking about the fact that Ryan Reynolds' entire personality is basically just Chris Knight from fucking genius.

SPEAKER_05 59:30

Very Chris Knight like in that. And I love that show. It was one of my favorite shows.

SPEAKER_01 59:34

Two girls, a guy, and a pizza place, that one.

SPEAKER_05 59:37

Yeah, it started out with two girls, a guy and a pizza place, and then they got rid of the pizza place after like season two, season three. That's right.

SPEAKER_03 59:42

So Deadpool is Batman, is what we've learned today. Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 59:47

Basically. Why is that why is that toy on your head? Because if I wear it anywhere else, it chafes. Right? Yes. Um, I want to I want to talk about the term DEI, and it shows up a lot in this film. Um, the plumbing, the plumbing van that they pull up in to Gathaway's house is it the the initials are DEI. So DEI is a is a is an in-joke amongst uh high end high high scientists and physicists, and they've been placing it everywhere. It's on the moon, it's in very it's in very different places, and the the joke is to try and put it in the most conspicuous places that you can that people can't really get to.

SPEAKER_03 1:00:29

So, what is it actually for in this case?

SPEAKER_01 1:00:31

I don't know. I don't know what it's just DEI is the thing. It's not I don't know if it's diversity, equity, inclusion or not, but it's been a running thing.

SPEAKER_05 1:00:38

Probably not, because it's been longer than that.

SPEAKER_01 1:00:40

But yeah, it's been a running thing since the 80s, so I would agree it's probably not, but I just I find it fascinating that this this it's like a I don't know, like a fucking weird skull and bones thing from Harvard. Like it's these secret societies, these secret clubs that are doing this stuff. This seems kind of harmless and prank, you know, prankful, but anyway, wild.

SPEAKER_05 1:00:59

Yeah, it's kind of interesting. Yeah.

unknown 1:01:02

That's true.

SPEAKER_05 1:01:03

So this is a good thing.

SPEAKER_01 1:01:04

I wanted to go to this college so badly because they had a fucking Burger Time game right in the dorm. Like the minute you go into the dorm, it's like rock music starts and everybody's playing Burger Time. And I'm like, this college is fucking awesome.

SPEAKER_03 1:01:14

Burger Time. God, I played that game a bunch. It takes Revenge of the Nerds up to the third one until the nerds have taken over the campus, and then they have uh the the frat house has the video games in it. But real genius, way ahead of the curve on that.

SPEAKER_01 1:01:28

Well, that's because they were going to a nerd school. It's true. I mean, they should have been going to a nerd school, but Adams College.

SPEAKER_03 1:01:33

Well, they got the best computer course in the country. Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 1:01:39

Those computers, man.

SPEAKER_03 1:01:41

I love when that's the screens are so small. Yeah, Blaslow's typing, and there's just a screensaver going. I love that part. Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 1:01:52

That was one of my favorite jokes in the in uh in uh Captain Marvel. Because it was set in the 90s when they have to go load up whatever it is on the computer, and it just you have to wait and wait and wait. I love that shit. Because computers are, yeah.

SPEAKER_06 1:02:09

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 1:02:10

Weird. But no, yes, it's a it's uh it's a clever movie. It I the characters have a decent arc, which I I appreciate for a movie of this type. It's not just here's a bunch of what kind of what the some of the like Revenge of the Nerds is fine, but it it's it's another one of those where here's just a whole bunch of gags to kind of do silly stuff, right? This one's a little more hard. This one has a lot more heart, I think. I agree. Than Revenge of the Nerds does.

SPEAKER_01 1:02:40

It's also not trying to delve too far into that. Like, you know, there's the scene where the the uh Patty Darbonville shows up and tries to have sex with Mitch, and then he runs to he runs to Michelle Mayrink's character, Jordan. It's also too old for him, right? Yeah, like four years older than you. I was gonna say, first off, Mitch is the man. He gets to college and immediately gets a girlfriend four years older than him. Mitch is the fucking man, all right? But he runs to her and immediately is like, I didn't have sex with her, but she wanted to have sex with me and blah blah blah because I want to have sex with you. But they don't, other than that, they don't really they're not really hammering on that relationship or trying to make too much out of it. It's just very a very natural like way to kind of cement their their their relationship and then move on, right? And from there, it's just we don't they don't really I like that. I like that we don't spend too much time on it. We're not dealt with well, we have to. No, you don't just keep moving. This move keep this movie light, keep it moving, keep it funny, keep it fun.

SPEAKER_03 1:03:36

It just keeps going, it doesn't if you don't pay attention the first 15 minutes, you might get lost. And the movie doesn't back up to tell you what's going on.

SPEAKER_01 1:03:44

But the movie's so charming, you really I don't think you'd mind. Like if we caught this halfway through and had no idea what it is, I'd be like, What is this?

SPEAKER_05 1:03:50

This is kind of funny, this is hilarious. Yeah, yeah, these characters are a lot of fun. And like I said, there's just a lot of random people in the background, like Dave Danvalin and all these, like practically no lines, but they're there, right?

SPEAKER_01 1:04:01

The the girl, the girl that he runs up to and says, Oh my god, don't you know, don't eat that, that can give you large breasts. She ends up doing she's in American pop, joysticks, private school, preppies, she's an avenging angel, Malibu Express, real genius, teen wolf. She's in a ton of stuff. It's insane. Like these people the people in these movies are not. Nick Conti's in this movie, for Christ's sakes. And he he did a bunch of shit too. It's insane.

unknown 1:04:29

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:04:29

The people that are in Nick Conti was also in Misfits of Science, which this movie reminded me of. And I haven't seen Misfits of Science since it was on TV. It's probably terrible, but anyway.

SPEAKER_03 1:04:39

But you know what else this reminded me of? I don't know if you've seen a movie called The Love Song of William H. Shaw. And there's this song playing called Civilized Fun. And damn if that falling, falling song and Real Genius didn't make me feel that same kind of like, oh, it's that got that same vibe to it. Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 1:05:08

And it ends with everybody wants to rule the world, which is oh yeah. It's a perfect ending.

SPEAKER_01 1:05:15

Oh, really? What about that time I follow you found you naked with that bowl of jello?

SPEAKER_03 1:05:18

I was hungry, okay.

SPEAKER_01 1:05:24

Um the one thing I noticed this time around is that Ick is the it is the perfect enabler friend. Ick is the friend that like enables you and gets you and he's like, sure, here, I'll turn the hallways into ice. Skate away, my friend. You know? Yes. Oh, it's it's gonna turn into gas, and we'll it will. I mean, maybe it'll explode. We don't know. But whatever. He's a classic fucking enabler. It's so great.

SPEAKER_03 1:05:48

Did the laser ever stop going through stuff? I love that though. I I've I've wanted that forever.

SPEAKER_01 1:05:56

I love how the laser because look, these two guys should know. This five megawatt laser is going to burn through whatever they're pointing at, but they still fire it off and take the chance of burning burning a hole straight through a five-year-old. God knows where this thing's going.

SPEAKER_05 1:06:15

Except for Chris Knight, who wears uh ray bands. Well, no, and that scene, he's wearing a catcher's mask. Like that's gonna help. That's right. So good. Yeah. But yeah, the sciencey bits were were pretty sciencey, right?

SPEAKER_01 1:06:35

They looked very realistic, which was no, they were I mean, you know, you know that part where they climb onto the um the B1 Lancer and he he plugs that he plugs that ribbon.

SPEAKER_05 1:06:46

Yeah, the clip. I had one of those two.

SPEAKER_01 1:06:49

So so that's that's that's a DDOS attack. I mean, yeah, it's a localized version of a DDOS attack where you're basically just you're plugging into that chip and you're and you're starting to hit the computer with so many requests that the computer's doing nothing but just doing the request. It can't, yeah, it's the the processor's so busy it can't do anything else. That's what you do to a website when you want to take it down. You flood it with IP requests, and then the server can't respond and shuts itself down, right? So you deny that's a denial of service. So I'm watching that going, wow, that's so weird how it it's different, but it's the same damn thing. The concept's the same.

SPEAKER_03 1:07:22

So war games leads to this kind of in a way.

SPEAKER_01 1:07:25

Yeah, yeah, sort of. Yeah. And that era is definitely I love the fact that that Chris Knight isn't intimidated. Like there, there's that point where Kent goes, Oh yeah, well, Mighty Mouse beat your emplacement scores by 20 points. And Chris is just like, You did? I bet you think you're pretty smart, don't you? You know, and he's like, Yeah, yeah, he's he's not jealous or intimidated by that at all, which I think is is great for his character, and I think it's a great writing choice in general, right? Like he's that stuff doesn't intimidate him, he's not insecure about that at all.

SPEAKER_05 1:07:57

Whereas Kent, very insecure about that, very insecure about that, yeah. Yeah, well, the fact that also that Chris knows that Laszlo is smarter than both of them, so yeah, you know, yeah. He's got a guy living in his closet who's way smarter than he is, so down in the steam tunnels.

SPEAKER_01 1:08:14

My favorite, again, talking about the lived-in look of this film and where where everywhere you look, something's happening or interesting. Everything in the everywhere you look in this movie, there's something interesting. But there's uh a goldfish tank that's been made out of a water cooler, and I uh uh dude, if you get water out of it, which my wife was like, that's disgusting.

SPEAKER_05 1:08:38

It's hilarious. Of course, that fish would be dead. I think it's too too small for that fish, but still, it is great.

SPEAKER_01 1:08:46

No, no, that's five gallon for one fish, five gallon. Maybe not not great, but I think it's I think it's tall enough and round enough that you might you may be able to do it. It's true, you can make one pretty easy. God, I wouldn't mind having one of those. It'd be dope. Be really, really cool. So then at 53 minutes, um one of the hottest girls ever on film opens the door. Um my 80s, my 80s crush, Deborah Foreman, who I got to meet in person and is one of the nicest people you'll ever want to meet. It's really awesome.

SPEAKER_05 1:09:20

She's barely in this movie, which is part of the thing. I I think she's in it more than she is, but she's not. She's like two scenes and that's it.

SPEAKER_01 1:09:28

My personal belief is that she had a subplot somewhere and that it got cut out. That's my personal belief. But because it just it seems like she's got more context and more subtext in her interactions than what the movie's giving me, right? Like she seems to be going back and forth with Chris Knight a little too much for there not to be something else there.

SPEAKER_03 1:09:47

Yeah, my guess was you know, she was in Valley Girl and it was like, well, I'm saying I can get you in the same very we don't have too large of a part for you, but here's this, maybe I don't know.

SPEAKER_01 1:09:57

Yep, yeah, yeah, and that's Michelle too, but um she does get the best line in the movie. If there's you know, when he says, if there's ever anything I can do for you or more to the point to you, please don't hesitate to ask. And she says, Can you hammer a board with a six-inch spike through a board with your penis? And he goes, Not at the moment. And she goes, a girl's gotta have her standards and walks off. I'm just like, Oh, I'm in love.

SPEAKER_05 1:10:26

Well, we we see your uh your old yeah, well, yeah. She retired in 91, apparently.

SPEAKER_01 1:10:37

Yeah, yeah. She's uh she does web, I think she does web design now, is the last thing I heard she does. She does web design. But she's been she's been doing some other stuff. She was in a movie in 2024.

SPEAKER_03 1:10:47

Yeah. Yeah, she said she was coming out of retirement from acting. That's why she was doing the con circuit and stuff. So we're like, so awesome.

SPEAKER_01 1:10:55

Yeah. Uh I love the the study montage, is is one of my favorite montages of all time in all film. Mainly because it does exactly what it's supposed to. It's entertaining, it moves the story along, but it also gives you what you need. And then in the middle, it it stops to give you this wonderful fucking academic nerd freak out where that dude's rubbing his palms and he just runs out, and everybody just kind of goes, Alright, I'm gonna take his chair, and everybody just moves around and goes back to what they're doing. Like, seen that before. It's so perfect.

SPEAKER_05 1:11:32

Uh yeah, it's uh yeah, it's it's a movie that that is a movie I can watch, you know, many, many times and enjoy it every time I watch.

SPEAKER_01 1:11:43

Oh, when they put the transceiver in kids' braces, they knock him out and put the transceiver in his braces, and you know, stop playing with yourself.

SPEAKER_00 1:11:51

And oh my god.

SPEAKER_03 1:11:52

Because it comes from God to Jerry to me. So then later on, God is actually talking to him. You know, God, my dad.

SPEAKER_01 1:12:03

And then it has the most amazing line which ties back to my one of my favorite one of my favorite lines from Pat Pat and Oswald of any special he's ever done is we're science, we're all about cuda, not shoulda. And you know, we just made cancer, airborne and contagious. You're welcome. We're science, we're all about cuda, not shoulda, right? So in the movie, at one point, Laszlo goes, What would you use that for? And he goes, Making an arm of Swiss cheese, I don't know. And in and Mitch goes, let the engineers figure out a use for it. And all I could think of was, we're science, we're all about cuda, not shoulda. Like, like it's so perfect. Why did you make that?

SPEAKER_05 1:12:38

There was a really good episode of uh of uh Malcolm Gladwell's uh revisionist history. He did a whole thing on the bomber mafia and about napalm. He did a whole episode on that, you know, the scientists who made the napalm and didn't really think about what they were gonna use napalm for. And you know, having that realization that I was just doing the chemistry, I wasn't thinking what was gonna happen with it when I was done with it.

SPEAKER_01 1:13:03

Um yeah, that's that's how you get TNT. That's that's why you have the Nobel Prize. Because the guy who invented TNT was like, fuck, I made it, I did a really bad thing.

SPEAKER_05 1:13:12

Yeah. We're gonna uh make up for it. I'm gonna make up for it. Or the Winchester House, for that matter. Yep, very true. Uh yeah, so yeah, that was uh yeah. Yeah. There's uh there's a game, a board game that I like called uh Unsettled. Um you're a bunch of scientists, and basically the rest of the crew got killed, and you end up having to land on planets. And it's kind of a console kind of feel. The base game is the base game, but every planet's got its own thing. But the uh the tagline is uh space is hard, try not to die. Um but the first planet, the sort of tagline at the end was because you're all just scientists, right? And this is uh we're scientists, so let's go touch stuff. That's what science is about. You're just gonna go touch stuff, just gotta see what happens. Although we know what happens with that if we've seen the what was the uh what was the the aliens prequel? Prometheus? Prometheus? Yeah, Prometheus, and they're wandering around touching things that they probably shouldn't be touching. Like, why would you why would you open your helmet, you moron? Yeah, that one's like a 50s movie of the dumbest scientist on on uh on film right there. Right there.

SPEAKER_01 1:14:37

So my favorite line in this movie, and one that I have quoted since high school, is you ever had a dream where you're sort of standing in sun god robes on a pyramid with thousands of naked women screaming and throwing little pickles at you? No, I'm not the only one that has that dream. It's my favorite fucking non-sequitur out of nowhere. It's just it's so good, dude. It's so good. It is, it is, yeah. Yeah. Um I did a hollow film and it's pajamas lying a lot. Yep, yep. That's great. There's so many good ones. It's it's it's it's ridiculous. My my only problem with this film, my literally, my only problem with this film is Laszlo at the end. Like he because he goes from like programming everything to suddenly meeting this girl and showing up with the RV at the end, like when the popcorn house is all done. And it's like it's just a little too neat, right? It's just it's just a touch too neat. A little too. But I right, and I but I also don't want them to drag the ending out by stopping and showing me him and Patty getting together, either. Right, yeah, yeah. Um, but that's my only complaint about it. Literally, everything else about this movie is is is absolutely fucking spectacular. It's it's it's I love the end. If you want to talk about a movie that feels like the 80s, this is it.

SPEAKER_05 1:15:56

Yeah. They get the college professor and like the senate the uh congressman. Get down, and then the congressman's like, what, what, what are we doing?

SPEAKER_01 1:16:05

What are we doing? All right, yes. I'd like to uh get down. I'd like to uh compliment you on your choice of slippers. Yes.

SPEAKER_05 1:16:16

I think I think the young people like it when I when I get down with them. Verbally.

SPEAKER_03 1:16:26

I guess they proved that the popcorn would eventually just burn and scorch rather than yeah, with busters.

SPEAKER_05 1:16:32

That was one of the things too. That was when it was a great episode of Mythbusters where they did this.

SPEAKER_01 1:16:36

Oh, it's interesting you said that. Um, I read that all that popcorn was was uh it took them over three months to pop all that popcorn. Continuous popping. Continuous popping. They it and and they treated it with a flame retardant so nobody could eat it. And so they had people on set shooing the birds and people away from it afterwards to because that if you it would literally poison you if you ate that shit. Yeah, um, but and that's another thing that we skipped. That popcorn house and that popcorn house gag, you'll never see it again. It's the it's unique, it's a great gag, it's done perfectly. Uh they own that forever and ever.

SPEAKER_05 1:17:12

Yeah, my wife was looking at that house, she's going, that house looks weird, and then she saw the end of it. Oh, okay. That's because it's not, it's just walls, right? It's all it is. And I was like, Yeah, if you notice, there's like nothing else around this house. It is like in its own space and called Zach. Yep. No houses near it, no, yeah, nothing. Right. Yeah. So yeah, it's such a great, great movie. Well, I'm glad we watched it.

SPEAKER_01 1:17:44

I am too. I'm glad you brought it on the show. We've been talking about bringing this one on for a minute, but I feel like I'm glad we waited this long so to where we were more comfortable with how we're doing the podcast because I really had a lot I wanted to say about this movie. It's a personal favorite of mine. Um, it ranks very high in my personal, like my personal favorites collection. Um so yeah. Um, you got anything else, Marty, you want to talk about with it?

SPEAKER_03 1:18:09

I mean, for for further uh reference, watch Manhattan Project again. That was another movie like this that feels like it birthed a big theory.

SPEAKER_01 1:18:19

So good.

SPEAKER_05 1:18:20

Those those uh movies. And then if you want more kind of off-the-wall stuff, Weird Science was great. And then um one of my personal favorites that not a lot of people remember is My Science Project. Right, yes, which I kind of love that movie.

SPEAKER_00 1:18:33

I love that too.

SPEAKER_04 1:18:34

You've never seen Jedi? That was Dean Stock.

SPEAKER_01 1:18:40

It's it's it's been about five or six years, I think, since I've seen that.

SPEAKER_04 1:18:44

That's um crap, I just spaced his name. Dennis Hopper. Played the bad guy in speed. Dennis Hopper. Dennis Hopper. Dennis Hopper, yeah, Dennis Hopper as the teacher. I mean, goes back in Simon.

SPEAKER_01 1:18:57

Oh, that's right. I forgot about it.

SPEAKER_05 1:18:59

Movie man. Yeah. As the science teacher who ends up getting sucked through the portal. Yeah, that's great. I love that movie. That was that line that was Fisher Stevens, like not being offensive as playing an Indian character. I mean, he's such a great job in in uh we're gonna have to bring Short Circuit on the show at the end. Short circuit, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:19:23

But it is it is it's very, very at the fine, at the time it was fine and it was acceptable. Now it's wildly offensive.

SPEAKER_05 1:19:31

It's also kind of weird. It's it's one of those things it's like it's like just Vasquez in Aliens. Yeah. When you realize that she is not Latina at all, she's a redheaded Irish woman playing a Latina, but she does such a good job playing a Latina that you're like, I'm not I wouldn't have known, right?

SPEAKER_01 1:19:49

No, God, it took me it took me 20 years to figure out that Vasquez from Aliens is the same woman who answers the phone in Terminator 2 and is Edward Furlong's mom. I was like, oh my god, that's the same person.

SPEAKER_05 1:20:02

She's also in uh Near Dark. She plays one of the vampires. That's right, you're right. Kath and Bigelow.

SPEAKER_01 1:20:08

Yes, yes, you're absolutely right. That's a great movie. We we did that one for the show earlier.

SPEAKER_05 1:20:12

Yeah, yeah. So it's uh it's sort of the same thing. I mean, you you forgive the fact that he's not actually an Indian, but you wouldn't be able to pull that off nowadays.

SPEAKER_01 1:20:23

It's you know, now cultural appropriation would kill you.

SPEAKER_03 1:20:26

I remember Lou Diamond Phillips, the guy asked him about, you know, and he was like, Hey, I was playing, you know, I did my research, I I brought, you know. Yeah, yeah. Well he remembered the La Bamba, they were giving him grief about. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:20:40

Well, he said that well, he said that when he sh when he I mean, remember when they he said that when they flew him out for La Bamba to LA, uh uh Richie's brother picked him up at the airport. Richie's older fucking brother, who them who's also in the movie, picked him up and was like, here's drove him around. That's where this happened, that's where that happened. You gotta make sure this is right. Yeah, you know, um, and really made sure that you know, and uh uh to impart upon him how important it was to get Richie's story correct. I I love La Bomba. It's one of my one of uh my favorite music movies. It's a it's a really great one. We'll have to bring that one on too. But anyways, we're we're we're diverging. Um what do you think, Drew? What do you give this one?

SPEAKER_05 1:21:20

I I would definitely give this one like a four and a half for me. I think. I have to I have to say my fives for something. I'm not one of those people who just gives out fives for everything.

SPEAKER_01 1:21:30

I'm right there with you.

SPEAKER_05 1:21:30

I I don't either, but this is a four and one of my fives, I know is not one of your favorites, but you know, after our last one. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:21:39

Well that's sometimes they're different, but this is not a five, but this is this is very close. This is very, very close. Yeah, very close. Do you say four and a half also? Yeah, four and a half. Yeah, Martha Coolidge just she just made a hell of a movie here. Over four and a half's all around for this one. All right, yeah, excellent. Yep, nice. Wow, that's the first time we I think we've ever agreed with a guest. I think that's the first time you and I have agreed in a very long time, too. Yeah. Yeah. Um I the other thing I'll say about Real Genius is that the two writers who wrote this thing, so Neil Israel, he wrote Bachelor Party, moving violations. Uh he wrote he he was he uh oh, I'm sorry, he was yeah, Bachelor Party Moving Violations, Look Who's Talking, Um, Police Academy. Um, that's his style of comedy, Look Who's Talking Too, and then the other dude, uh Pat Proft, he wrote uh things like oh for the Smothers Brothers, he wrote the Star Wars holiday special, um he wrote Police Academy, uh Bachelor Party, you know, some other things. So a naked gun, he wrote hot shots. Oh, seeing it all time together. High school high. Um so it's it's interesting. Oh, oh, look at that. Scary movie three, four, and five.

SPEAKER_05 1:23:01

That yeah, there you go.

SPEAKER_01 1:23:03

Yep. That's interesting.

SPEAKER_05 1:23:06

There's a lot of fascinating, fascinating stuff.

SPEAKER_01 1:23:09

He just wrote a new the Kashiak Life Day Carol, a live stage reading of the Star Wars holiday special TV movie from 2025. Jesus Christ. Well, I won't be watching that.

SPEAKER_03 1:23:25

That's your movie next week.

SPEAKER_01 1:23:27

Yeah. Holy crap. Well, that was fun. Um again, I know I only gave Top Secret a three, but still a fun watch. It's just it's not as fun as it was when I was 11 and the first time I saw it. And and when I compare it to Real Genius, which I saw when I was 12, and I am now 52, and it still holds up this well.

SPEAKER_05 1:23:48

Yeah. Yeah, I was like, I laughed at both of them a lot, but I laughed a lot more at Real Genius.

SPEAKER_00 1:23:54

Exactly.

SPEAKER_05 1:23:55

That's the thing. Yeah. So well, thanks me. Thanks for having me on, guys, to talk about these things.

SPEAKER_01 1:24:02

Yeah, well, we're probably gonna have you on. I I get the feeling you're gonna be eventually end up being like a regular guest every season.

SPEAKER_05 1:24:08

So I am fine with that. I've got lots of movies that I have opinions about. So, you know.

SPEAKER_01 1:24:13

Well, I mean, we definitely I think I think you need to just kind of be our Mar, we can talk about this, but if you're interested, you just kind of be our permanent Val Kilmer guest or talk to Kilmer guest.

SPEAKER_06 1:24:22

That's that's right, that's fine with me.

SPEAKER_03 1:24:28

Yeah, mix it up too.

SPEAKER_01 1:24:31

There's a bunch of them.

SPEAKER_05 1:24:32

Yeah, we can make it mix it up, but I was watching I was watching reaction videos, which I don't usually do, but I got down this hole of people watching the scene in Tombstone where Johnny Ringo and Doc Holiday have their fight, and it's so fun to watch some people go, Doc, no, what are you doing? You should be in bed, man. And then, you know, he shoots him in the head. He's come out, come out, come out.

SPEAKER_01 1:24:58

I love that one.

SPEAKER_05 1:24:59

It looks like somebody just stepped on your grave. He's so good in that movie.

SPEAKER_01 1:25:04

It's such a fun movie to watch. It's uh the only other reaction I've really enjoyed is uh watching people watch The Red Wedding from Game of Thrones. Yeah. Jesus Christ, because if you if you haven't read the book and you're not prepared for that, it's a whole thing, man.

SPEAKER_05 1:25:20

Like it's a whole apparently this week this week it's been all the people who have watched Last of Us but never played the video game. And uh yeah. Really? Yeah, they uh they don't drag that for I'm trying not to be spoilery. I haven't watched it, but I know enough about it to I don't know if you guys have played the video game or not, but they uh they don't they don't drag that out for the whole season, they do it right up front. Wow. Okay.

SPEAKER_01 1:25:50

Well, and la um part two is getting ready to come out of that too, right? That's yeah, that's what I'm saying.

SPEAKER_05 1:25:56

Part season two just started. That's the thing. Oh stuff that happened in the second video game. Gotcha. They uh, you know. Yeah, anyway. Anyway, there we go.

SPEAKER_03 1:26:13

Oh, you got anything you want to do?

SPEAKER_05 1:26:16

Yeah. Uh no, I mean I just finished doing a show, a play I was in, but that was a couple weeks ago. Right now it's just doing stuff in my store trying to survive this whole tariff thing, and since that affects pretty much most of my product. Yay, tariffs. Yeah, most of the board games come out of China one way or the other. And trying to explain to people that don't understand this sort of thing, like why this is not a good idea and why we can't just manufacture everything in the US because it's just nothing else. The machines are made in China, and that doesn't help either. So, you know.

SPEAKER_01 1:26:53

What are you doing? Anyway, I don't want to get into that. Just turn on the fucking factories that make the the thing and the board games, sure. Yeah, that's how that works. You know, turn the four turn on the shuttered board game factories, they just need a coat of paint. Yes, and we'll be up and running in a couple months.

SPEAKER_05 1:27:09

All the hundreds of board game factories that we have in this country.

SPEAKER_01 1:27:13

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_05 1:27:15

Anyway, yeah, anyway. But yeah, I haven't got anything major on that.

SPEAKER_01 1:27:20

Alright, well, thanks for having me guys. Yeah, we appreciate you as usual. It's always good. As always. As always. Alright. Let's get out of here.

SPEAKER_03 1:27:29

That was episode 10 of season three. We'll be back next week with two more movies, and you know what those are because you listened to last week's show. We don't know what they are.

SPEAKER_00 1:27:40

That's true. That's true.

SPEAKER_03 1:27:43

Oh, uh, you want to go out of here, you want to go out of here on a quote? This is not Mel Torme. Albert Potatoes.

SPEAKER_01 1:27:52

What novelty dog poop? Souvenir. Uh

SPEAKER_06 1:28:00

Do Ludus for the latine every time.

SPEAKER_05 1:28:04

All right, guys. See you soon. All right.