231 TWISTED GIGGLES!

231 TWISTED GIGGLES!
The gang kicks off the show with a spirited discussion of Secret Invasion's AI generated opening titles before getting into their dark comedy flicks.
Also: She Came From the Woods, Kids vs Aliens, Unwelcome.

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Oh, I'm sorry, did I break your concentration somewhere between science and superstition such sights to show you strange aeons. Welcome to strange aeons radio. That's Eric over there. Hello. That is Vanessa over there. Hello. You know, we talk a lot about AI on the show and how quickly it is advancing. And last week, Vanessa, you brought up the Secret Invasion show was Samuel L. Jackson. Oh. And then there has been a big outcry over their opening credits, which are AI generated. Oh, that's right. And I, I've watched it, looking for it. And I thought, okay, it is kind of an uncomfortable credit sequence. But it does make me wonder why the premiere animation company in the world couldn't come up with credits just like that, using real animators I don't understand. And they could just use what they have. Also, like, I mean, are they just testing the waters? Like what is? Well, I'll tell you what it feels like when when the writers are out there striking and worrying about AI taking over for a big company to do something like this feels like a big middle finger in their face. Right? Yeah. Yeah. I'm sure that's a lot of what it is. I mean, it's, it's going to change the way a lot of things are done. And some is going to be fine. Some is going to be awful. But it'll be a huge change. It's going to be like some people almost like compared to like the the Industrial Revolution level of change in the way our world operates. I think we're going to know really soon what the start stuff starts to look like on a larger scale because of the writer strike. Yeah, I bet you money, we're gonna start to get some AI written shows just for people to like, see how it goes. Man, it's gonna be the last time we got the writers strike. We got reality TV. Yeah, exploded. You're so right. Because like, Okay, fine. We need contact, we need to put on our radio. So we're just going to put a bunch of people in a house and have them talk to each other or something. Well, you and I, Eric have talked about this, just, you know, whenever we've gotten a drink or something, it's impossible to let a technology out for free to people, and then suddenly say, you can't use this anymore. Yeah, it's not going anywhere. Technology doesn't go backwards. You can't go you know, I kind of tired of these smartphones. I just want a regular wired phone in my house. So everybody else in the world, you need to do that, too. So sorry. Not gonna happen. Yeah. And for my writer, friends, whom I love and support, and ally, and all of this. them saying where, you know, we're never going to get AI that actually writes the human experience. I got news for you. We're not seeing good films and television writing right now. Anyway. So if you're saying that we're never going to get AI that can, right, the ship that we've already got on TV, you're wrong, and it's coming quick. So, you know, studios are maybe, I guess, going to be consumers, consumers are going to have to be the ones who make this change. They're going to have to say we don't want to watch stuff like this. Right, right. I mean, and there is some responsibility for sure. to larger companies, I unfortunately, like, they are going to be the ones who are making choices and making decisions that are going to affect the rest of us. But of course, we can vote with our remote. But it's weird. I feel like the the most obvious AI landing space for written content would be network television. Because if it wants to, like however many episodes or, you know, sped through of CSI, or watch all the all the sitcoms ever made. Yeah, like I think it could come up with some very middling content that already exists. We have a lot of horribly middling content for network television, but things like the really unique wonderful stuff like beef or stranger things or you know, things that really light everybody up and get them excited. I don't think it can touch that. I don't think it will touch that. I disagree. 100%. Unfortunately, I don't think those shows are that original that AI couldn't come up with it by watching all the seasons of The X Files, or something like that. Well, there's also we go back we've had conversation on this show Many times on the idea of people calling things original or not original, right? And this is stuff that's been going on for decades with movies like abyss or not the abyss, the, the James Cameron avatar, that coming out or something like that coming out going, well, this is just Dances with Wolves like, Well, yeah, there's 1000 films that are Dances with Wolves, right? And real people wrote all of them. So the borrowing of ideas and rewriting scripts that already exists, is, is done by people, too. Yeah. And sometimes it's done brilliantly. And you get an amazing new version of that story. Most of the time has done fine. And sometimes it's like, well, you just made the exact same frickin model film. So I don't know, we don't really know where it's gonna go. The idea that I think the scariest about it is AI is for mainstream ish months old. I mean, this is not even yours for mainstream application. Yeah. And it's just taking over things it's wiping out. Jobs already is doing a lot of crazy stuff. And the other side of that coin, I think a little bit is the people it hasn't touched at all. There are plenty of people out there that don't give a shit or haven't paid any attention to what's going on. Because they don't have artists, friends, they don't have creative friends. They live in a different kind of world. So it feels very different. So they're, you know, they're the idea of oh, it's aI written, whatever, I don't care what entertains me. It's it is definitely coming for us all though. Like I heard a NPR interview with the guy who is behind one of the leading like AI tech firms. And he has found a way to get rid of all call centers. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, it's, it will resolve any question you have, they will be personable in a more interesting way than what you currently get. It will be faster. And yeah, like he's like, Yeah, we already did that one. So there are just so many jobs that people regardless of if they're paying attention or not, it's gonna be gone. It's more regulation. I think it is too late. But that really comes down to like military use. And, you know, if you say in XYZ situation, these, you know, weapons should do XYZ, then that's when you get in trouble because you need the guy who is standing there at the last moment going, um, maybe I won't blow up Russia. Yeah, I feel I feel we have dark days ahead of us. I think, you know, just being very realistic about this writer's strike. The reason that the studio's aren't budging on that AI, part of the contract is because they know what's coming down the pike. And what's most likely coming down the pike is that we will no longer have writer rooms. We'll have a writer on a show and he will prompt AI to come up with a series and then he will tweak those shows. There will be one writer that does all of this stuff. That's gonna that's gonna put a lot of people out of work. Yeah, writers rooms are huge. Yeah, a lot of people working on SNL or any I mean every show we're having like so yeah, good. Good times. We Oh, fun. Oh, shit. I saw something. And I think that Vanessa, you've probably seen the finale for Yellowjackets. I have not I'm pretty far behind on yellow jackets. But that's okay. Really interesting stuff. Stuff that I was not expecting stuff that probably AI could not have come up. Man, nice tie in. Well done. I really liked it. I really liked this show. And I really like this. It seems very well thought out. It seems like the creators do you know? Okay, we we pitched to you a five years story and we are sticking with it. Because there are some big changes by the end of Episode Two. Cool, and we're getting you know, some really good flashbacks to what happened there in the woods. And it's, it's all so dark and so drastic. And, you know, the series opened with a shot of them basically, as you know, Lord of the Flies. Yeah. You're like, well, they're living in a cabin. How do they get to that point? Well, by the end of season two, you're like, Oh, well, here's the first stage. So it's got really cool, really dark. I love it. That's awesome. I cannot wait to catch up on that. I am really addicted to something that Eric introduced to me which I'm unfortunately I'm two episodes behind on and chose to watch my movies for this. But silo Oh god. I'm loving that show. It's so, so well acted so interesting the story and once I get through this season, I'll see whether or not I just break down and read all the books instead. But they're, they're pretty good. Yeah, I'm about one episode off. But yeah, it's been a solid, really solid representation of the books. Um, a couple episodes behind, but I agree. This has been some really interesting television. It's nice to see. I started to feel like maybe I need to watch more things on Apple. Yeah, actually, almost everything I've seen on Apple's Excellent. Yeah, it's weird. Like, pretty much. I mean, that's where severance lives that's where I mean, they got paid last. Alright, so yeah, they got a lot of great shed. They don't have a lot. But what's the good? Yeah, that's probably a good indication. Let's just throw it out the wall. No, no. No. Speaking of maybe throwing a little bit at the wall, I've started watching the top crawl or whatever you call it on shutter again, like I did last year. barreling through all of those. So I watched kids vs. Aliens. Oh, yeah. How was that? Either? Have you seen this one? No. It's entertaining. I had fun watching it. I appear to be in the minority group I went on and it's like 2.5 or something. I'm letterbox average. That's going okay. That's Wow. But I mean, it's dumb. It's silly. It's over the top. It's like this is ridiculous, but And oddly violent at times. Jesus Christ bloody, but I don't know. I had fun with it's just a bunch of kids who have to deal with an alien invasion. I think I started this and didn't get too far into it. Is this. The kids are making a movie at the beginning. Yeah, okay. With his older sister, right? I mean, it's fine. It's also like 75 minutes long or something so nice breezy. Is it meant to be a kid? Oh, no. Oh, boy. I mean, that could be part of the problem because it starts off feeling very much that way. But by the end, it's like Oh, Jesus Christ banned some of the tearing apart of people and stuff like okay, this is brutal. But yeah, I I thought it was a fun silly watch. So enjoy, hopefully, I rented a movie that was coming. Very highly reviewed and everything called she came from the woods. I haven't seen it. It's a it's a throwback 80s Not slasher in the woods more like ancient evil in the woods, kind of It feels very much like an urban legend. Kind of like that. It's it's just, it's it's literally the story you would be telling around a campfire. And then you know, the the end of that story is always someone holds up the fake hook or something like that. Only this will be you know, and she still roams these woods. And by kind of by telling the story they reawaken this thing. It's also got a little a little bit of comedy in it and I don't think that quite works and that was pulling me out but it's got really good acting in it and it feels very much like an 80s slasher. You know, it's a bunch of teens in the woods than running for their lives but there's possession and a ghostly she coming from the woods. That sounds so I don't know, soft recommend on it. And that was on shutter know that I rented out prime money. So I spent you know, 12 hours total on a plane at least maybe 1314. So I read a bunch of comics, and Have either of you read nice house on the lake? No, but I have heard about it. Holy shit. It is so good. Oh, it was incredible. It is a horror comic. Yeah. And I definitely don't talk about much because it's easy to give things away with it but I will just say that it's really well written it's very creepy and a lot of great ways. I really love the unique ideas. Some of the characters are annoying but but that's okay. I was just completely blown away and when it has to it's actually just two volumes at this point. But when I got to the end I was like no oh my god so yeah, it's it's easy to get through and I would highly recommend it. Nice house on the lake. Nice house I'm making a note sounds like or you are the second person to speak very highly of this. Cool. Well, I watched one that, buddy if our Craig said he hated you loved. And I think I've kind of between the guys on his welcome. Ah, yeah. It actually popped up as a new one. I went to watch that, Oh, it's on shutter, then when it's on the top thing, so it's like, All right, perfect, right where I need to see it. But overall, I liked it. The be I got a little annoyed with the husband share his character became a little too much of what he was. That aside about is pretty good. You know, there's a lot that creatures are damn cool. Yeah, this is a movie I was talking about several weeks ago, where the couple get assaulted, they live in like London or something, and they decide they're gonna move out to the country and get away from it. And it turns out that country folk are also real. hire the wrong people that work on their house, right. And then of course, there's the Red Hats, which like to steal babies and as long as you feed them, they're fine and all that stuff. And I guess my My only problem with it was I thought it was very slow first two acts. That's true. But then the third act just went so fucking bonkers that I was like, no, no problem. I love it. The first two didn't bother me too much slightly because what I started to think about last episode, unlikable characters. Hey, these had a couple of characters I kinda liked even though by the end, husbands are a little annoying. Yeah. But early on. That's a it's a nice couple. It's a good couple. There's somebody who's sort of okay, I want to follow your story, right? And after so many movies watching reasonably, it's like, I don't care who these people's stories are. I wanted to follow someone's story. So I think that's why I enjoyed it a little bit more. I love the British Irish who's ever bet that style of horror stuff that they do over there? There's a it's not, it's not crazy obvious. Like, you know, when you're watching an Italian horror film, there's a feeling and a style to those films that I really like. And it has that. Well, certainly the Irish countryside has a lot to borrow from as far as legends, and you know, they're not. They've been around a lot longer than we have. And so their legends I think are a little less sugar coated dinners are. It's true. You know, I I don't know. It was just when the Gore came. I thought it was shockingly gory. It was just like, Oh, I didn't realize this. What movie I was watching. So yeah, I would definitely, I would say check it out. Definitely. So as the unwelcome Yeah. Cool. I want to mention another one real quick. And I saw that I was like, I'm glad I heard your review of it before watching the blank on the first word 45. The globalen 45 and 45. Your description of it. It looks like a play done as a movie helped me enjoy the movie so much more good. Because I went in knowing that and everything you said is true. It's bizarrely lit, and it's got some weird stuff. But if you go in knowing that it's it's it is really a fun watch. It is really good. That's what was infuriating to me. It was like can I think this could have been a modern classic. If it was just a little moodier instead of so brightly lit. Yeah, it if I'd gone into it cold not hearing anything and be like This is weird. Yeah. But thinking of it as a play down on film. makes it better. You don't need is that director also did. We are still here? Oh, really? He's not a nobody. Yeah, that would make a neat play. You can take that to a small theater and perform that. Maybe he's got a very strong theatre background that we don't haven't looked into yet. You know, he told this amazing story on an interview that just about brought tears to my eyes that he had this idea for this story. And his father was in the war and very old, and he wanted to talk to his father. His father was a paraplegic from injuries received in the war. And he told his dad the idea, and then he said, you want to help me write it? And his dad was like, no. But he kept going to him and asking him questions to get things right. And he said that he was gonna give his dad a consultant credit on it. And his dad was like, oh, right, whatever. But he sent him the final script. He talked to his dad on the phone. His dad said, I think you nailed it. I can't wait to see this. His dad died two years or two hours after that. Yeah, he's dedicated to his dad and I was just like, oh my god, this is heartbreaking. That being said, I wish he had lit it better you bastard. See How about we take a break and when we come back we're talking dark comedies balloon in the sack blow it up now given away bottles of water to get their buddy to fall where it is we have returned Eric this was your sub genre is and what is it again? This is one of those to find it oh I want to watch this movie How can I make this thing so we're doing like dark and twisted comedies. Okay this one is fucking dark 10 minutes on the buzzer knock it down 1988 drowning by numbers by buckwheat and thinks the next nine to 10 the laundry 16 1718 pasture 19 Porlex 20 stata 21 Our Garner 22 sphere of friends free se 24 525 Lupo predecease McKay. 369 1518 2733 3640 to 45 was a bit inconvenient to have a heart attack in our back because it is inconvenient to have a heart attack anywhere what would you say if we said we don't agree with you a verdict? I'd say you better find me some evidence to the contrary Right Rotten Tomatoes got 88 Critics 89 from the crowd. I have not heard of this film. It's pretty well at 1.2 million pound budget. But then budget the box office was listed as $424,000 so I don't know. This is available pretty easily on hoopla or rent on Amazon. I think it's on YouTube even completely or a beautifully remastered seven disc which is where I finally was watching it. This is one I've actually wanted to watch for years it came i It came to my attention shortly after I'd seen Peter Greenaway is the cook the thief, his wife and your lover, which was this movie came out I think the year before that. He's also done the pillow book pass Barrows books, the Tulsa Looper suitcase part one, two and three, whatever the hell that is man, written by Peter Greenaway, who also wrote all the movies I listed above starring Bernard Hill, who you know might know as theodon in Lord of the Rings is also in Titanic and ghosts in the darkness. Joan plough right who's in Dennis the Menace. Last Action Hero revolution. Juliet Stevens who's in the 96th version of Emma, Bend It Like Beckham and Truly, Madly, Deeply which has been discussed on the show before. And Joely Richardson who was on 100 episodes of Nip Tuck, which if you've never watched his a darkly demented show, event horizon and this I just thought this was such a weird look see on IMDb I had to include this diet coke piece Bronson James Bond style television commercial. Oh my god. style. Oh man the this is I said Peter Greenaway. So of course, it's incredibly well shot the opening scene is uncomfortable little bit of setup because it opens on a dead bird hanging from something. And dead animals do pop up frequently in this film. But it pushes past that fairly quickly to a child jumping rope in the crazy hoop skirt with lights on it and the jump rope is lit. Every place separate. She's like holding it. And people kind of walked by and are talking to the hurt to themselves. She counts to 100 and a woman next year so why just stop at 100 So once you count 100 All the other hundreds are the same. Which is a strong theme in a weird way to this film. The film, the film's plot centers on three married women a grandmother, her daughter and her niece each named CeCe Colpitts Oh, so that they all look different and I mean age wise are incredibly different but it is very weird when other people are calling the same name. Follow up scene afterwards is a kind of reminiscent of the cook the thief in the way that it's a couple of drunk people getting ready to have sex with a room filled with apples and food and other kinds of food and they're built some Apple Barrels or something for for their bathtubs not like a short barrel but along troughed more like I guess. wife is watching from outside. So she goes in as the other the woman's in the nether thing she's passed out completely drunk and she drowns her husband. Oh, okay. Sure. Drowning by numbers. Film also has a kid that's introduced at this little after this scene that has a very strange series no no narrations where he's talking about games. He just describes this as how this game is played a lot of these games or knows what the hell he's talking about. Very hard to play and don't make a lot of sense. The kid's name is smart. Oh my god. So the the old this is the oldest. This is the grandmother in the movie she goes in, admits to the magistrate who they obviously know each other, that she killed her husband. And convinces him to say it was an accident, he had a heart attack and drown. The film is shot on on locations. But the way he shoots things sometimes is that God, this might be a set, because he'll like the first part and the background is completely black. But it all looks good. There's also an ongoing set another ongoing theme in the film as there are numbers counting up. I didn't realize this until it's like number 15 or 16. And it goes all the way up to 100. And the 100 shows up on the climactic moment which takes place on a boat. That's like okay, that's kind of cool. The game that smart describes what she does a lot of they're really impossible to play. And most of them are made up just random weird stuff to kind of explain what's going on, set up a scene. Like there's a weird version of cricket being played on a beach that has really nothing to do with cricket outside of a ball and a bat is wild. But then the film repeats kind of three times the daughter then kills her husband by drowning him. And then the niece kills her husband by drowning him and the magistrate keeps going along with it. But on the sidelines, there is a group that sits under a giant water silo and believes that this is all bullshit that these three men have been murdered. I'll start off with the one man murdered and they've got a couple of people from there. And then when the next person gets murdered, they add a couple more people. The nice ones a little interesting because when her husband drowns in the ocean, there's a group of guys running by and the guys with the right numbers for the way it's sequentially counting, break away and try to help her. I think it's 71 and 72. And for the rest of the movie every time you see them, they're in those same outfits. humor in the movie It comes from the absurdity of what's going on, and the callous nature and interesting ways that women look at what they're doing and why they're doing what they're doing. And it's all executed very well. credibly well acted. And the reoccurrence of the dead animals is a little uncomfortable. But the really strange part is when the niece and her husband run into two dead cows on the road with bikes, they're on bicycles. And they hear this and it comes back and the bikes in them are spread all over these cows like what the hell. But it all works. It's a very weird film. I guess I enjoyed it. I thought it was incredibly smart and interesting. And definitely one of those films I'm watching going. I think I'm missing a lot of what's going on here and could watch it again and get a lot more out of it. According to writer director Peter Greenaway, there are 100 things, starting with the letter S in Smith's room. The magistrate room has at least 100 things with the letter M in his room. There are as you're pushed through Smith's room, there's like framed bugs all over the place. And I'm pretty sure I'll bet if you found like there'll be 100 Butterflies and 100 because it just it's all so planned out. And Greenway asked for the film's musical score by Michael Newman to include our beats because we three entirely based on themes from Mozart slow movement, concerto and E flat bars. 5861. And they own and they he uses versions of them throughout the whole thing and they play in their original form three times after each guy is drunk. That comes back quite well. And I say I think there is a 0% chance that Wes Anderson has not watched a shit ton of Peter Greenaway movies Wow, the flat shot in a way he flattens all of his screens. It just sticks people in the middle of a of a scene to have them talk directly to the camera. Greenaway doesn't quite do that. But he does a version of it. I think it looks a lot better. But he does flat shots on people but they're off a little bit. They're not just squared to the camera like he's starting to do now and Wes Anderson's films, and the colors are outrageous. They're gorgeous colors all over the place. It's not quite as obvious as the cook and the thief where every room was themed a certain color. But they're the outfits are wonderfully colorful, and they were neat stuff. And the people are and the characters are always strange. They're always a little quirky and weird. It didn't win an award for Best Art artistic contribution to the Cannes Film Festival in 1988. And came out a year before the cook the thief, his wife and her lover. And is a film like I said could we be rewarded with several watches? I think there's a lot more in this movie than this. And I thought it was great. Wow, I've never heard of this movie. Yeah, no, I've haven't either. It sounds incredible. I came across a weird thing. While looking about some stuff on this for some reason. Criteria does not put out or is not put out for you to greenways movies. Why? Which is weird because they should yeah, I mean, his stuff fits right into what they do. But I'm not sure why he's got a relationship with like StudioCanal or some, I don't know, but his stuffs not very available. Like the cook the thief has been on and off all the time. This this version on Blu ray is the first time it's been available in the US in a very long time. It's been available in Britain quite a bit because it's a British made film, but not in the US very much so his stuffs oddly untapped for that and they even got a really interesting interviews with him for this disc which he gets he doesn't do very much audio commentaries and all kinds of shit Severan really went all out to make this a criterion level release. Well, okay, Vanessa, I know how much you love comedies. So would you came up with here 10 minutes? Well, I went with a pretty obscure dark comedy film. I don't know if either of you would have seen this. The 1996 film The Cable Guy cable die. Let's do this strip the Cable Guy 50 bucks who give you all the movie channels for free. You're offering me a bribe. What you've just done is illegal. And in this state If convicted, you could be fined up to $5,000 or it's been six months in a correctional facility. Oh please no That was done. I just I was just making conversation for Steven Kovacs you guys play here too cool. The price of cable just went up. Okay Jeff Douglas, you're on my team. Let's play. No way. I'm assuming now we're not friends. I don't even know you. Well, let's fix that. He's got a friend he can control. Where are we going? To find this restaurant in town? I have your skin check this out the island I just don't have any room in my life brand new friends. So what are you trying to say I have a friend who will not be ignored. I give you free cable. The guy's a sociopath. Leaves messages on my machine night and day. If you're there, pick up pick up Pick up, pick up pick up pick up he shows up wherever I go and won't leave me alone. Can you need some tough love there Stephen Colbert action here. I'm Steven Kovacs didn't do anything just call my cable guy at least look into it. Nobody named chip Douglas works with a cable company suspicious social net You're all being pulled by him. He's a lunatic and he's a fellow of don't mess with me. Come back here. I'm here for you. Don't do that. You're gonna get me killed. Oh Jim Carrey, Matthew Broderick cable guy who can take off I have seen this as weird times. I had never seen it before. I remember in the sixth grade. My best friend at the time, at least the goatee making a lot of jokes. I did not understand men getting increasingly irritated about the whole situation. And now I finally understand what they were about. So did you reach out to her? No, we don't speak. Yeah. She I'm sure she's living a great life. Rotten Tomatoes score 55% from critics and 51% from audience budget of 47 million was considered to have done poorly. But the box office have 102 point 8 billion. So I don't know if they just spent so much on advertising or their expert expectations were really high or what but they felt like they didn't get their money's worth. Directed by Ben Stiller. He has directed 56 things including Reality Bites, The Ben Stiller Show cable guy of course. Zeelandia Tropic Thunder, The Secret Life of Walter Mitty and most recently severance. He's acted in 133 things. A lot of those plus Tropic Thunder. There's Something About Mary SNL. Lots of episodes of SNL rally but it's like he's he's been around for a while. If you don't know who he is, then I think that you don't watch movies. It's written by Lou Holtz Jr. This is his only writing credit. We'll get into that later. It's produced by Judd Apatow starring so many people, Jim Carrey 65 credits including the mask Ace Ventura, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind and recently Sonic the Hedgehog, and the weekend music videos. He's in a couple of them. I was like, I guess I got to watch these What the fuck? Matthew Broderick also isn't this. At three credits. We have talked about Matthew a number of times he was in Star episodes on WarGames and Godzilla. You would also know him from Ferris Bueller's Day Off the producers and many other films. And Leslie Mann is in this 46 credits. She was in Georgia the jungle knocked up. This is 40 vacation. She is also known as Judd Apatow his wife. Oh, she is one of those people who every time I saw her up until the movie, this is 40 She's just like almost unreadable and like a really strange actress and that you feel like she's just kind of given. I don't know, she's she's just so middling. But then I think at some point, I finally figured it out. Anyway, also in this movie, Jack Black, George Seagal receival Ben Stiller, Eric Roberts, Janine Garoppolo Andy Dick, David Cross, Owen Wilson, Kathy Griffin and Bob Odenkirk. Who has one line of Chow. Yeah. Basically, anybody who is like an indie comic at the time is probably going to walk through this film at some point. The story follows architectus Like wrote his name down wrong. Steven Kovacs moves into an apartment on his own after him and his girlfriend decide to take time apart. Robin his girlfriend freaked out when he proposed to her and made a move out. While waiting for the cable guy, his friend Jack Black tells him he should slip the guy of 50 and get all the free movie channels. When the eccentric ask cable guy arrives very late and very eccentric, Steven works up the courage to ask him and upon doing it in a fit of gratitude he agrees to hang out with Chip The Cable Guy the next day, the two become kind of friends. Steven seems to hang out with him mostly because he doesn't know what else to do with his time. And he feels really bad. And Chip is just so over the top and like kind of forceful that he just ends up becoming his best friend. Chip weaves his way into his his life showing up at like his kind of work basketball game than his parents house, his girlfriend's house, even breaking into his apartment to fill it up with incredible sound and TV equipment. Chip has a very special way of showing his thanks. After a party where Stephen sleeps with a cute girl who chip invited over, you finds out she was actually a hard prostitutes. And so Stephen decides to end their friendship, Chip mix it up to him without his knowledge by breaking up a date between his girlfriend and Owen Wilson. And then going into robbing his girlfriend's place and giving her cable and basically saying, oh, yeah, like this was, you know, Steve's idea. And, and yeah, he won't stop talking about you. Basically, he finds a way to kind of get him back into the good graces. So when Robin comes around, and it's like, hey, maybe we should start seeing each other again. Chip expects that his best friend will be grateful. But instead, Steven says, I'm not going to have time for you, when it breaks up with him in the rain. I'm sorry, pal. But I got to really make this work. And so chip does not take kindly to this. And if he can't be his best friend, he's going to be his worst enemy. He starts ruining his life. He gets his friends, family, girlfriend, co workers and everyone to think the worst. Then he gets them in jail. He gets them fired. And of course, because chip is friends with everybody because it gives them all their cable and gives them favors and is the preferred cable guy for them. He's in with like the police and other random people. And so everywhere that Steven goes, things go bad. Eventually, things build up to a big climax where they are battling on a satellite dish. This film is insane. It's really insane. There were definitely a couple of points where I did laugh, because it was just so insane. And Jim Carrey is bringing it so hard. And everyone around him is trying so hard to be the straight man and not laugh or breaking the smiles and constantly. Constantly. He's beating the crap out of Owen Wilson and Owens like faces like wet and on the ground and the spear chagrin against it and he's just smiling. Man, of course, I'm curious like doing a ton of improv so people just don't know what's going to happen a lot of the time. Also, notes everyone was really thin in the 90s Jack Black is like one of the thinnest characters in here. I was like what is happening? Everyone is really small. Jim Carrey looks great, and he still looks great. But trivia, while filming all the filming of the scene where the cable button guy is playing basketball, it became obvious that Jim Carrey could barely dribble a basketball nevermind make a basket. So Ben Stiller had Carrie mime the action without a ball and VFX added the basketball and post production. When Jim Carrey was negotiating, negotiating his 20 million salary for the film, he insisted that his attorney and two managers all wear Ace Ventura dressing gowns, so as not to lose their sense of perspective. Matthew Broderick was paid 2 million he is technically a star. Although Judd Apatow as I mentioned, he received a credit as a producer. He was also one of the film's writers who was denied a screenwriting credit by the Writers Guild of America and challenged the ruling claiming that he wrote much of the movies dialogue, and many of the scenes. The novelization restores his credit as writer, which is a weird way to get that Apatow lost in intense arbitration and battle with the Writers Guild with Lou Holtz Jr. Over the credits, writing the script in the holsters version, according to Ben Stiller basically was a silly buddy comedy app is how revise the script to make it bleaker. He gave him based Jim Carrey basically all the Mmm class funny version of a classic stalker and all the physical humor was put into it and his and carrier describe this the finished product as Hitchcock meets Jerry Lewis and Rosemary's Baby meets the odd couple, which makes sense. originally pitched with Chris Farley and the lead. Judd Apatow and Ben Stiller went to South Carolina to meet Jim Carrey to see if he would be good for the role when he was shooting Ace Ventura when nature calls, and for few days of the creative discussion of the scripts. at a bar, Jim Carrey came up with the idea of having the character push his chest up against the glass like Midnight Express and the person writing tips on glass on a bar napkin. Lots of scenes are improvised. Gene Siskel said this was Jim Carrey's best movie since the mask, apparently Jesus skull huge fan, one of the earliest Frat Pack movies, which would include Ben Stiller, Jack Black Judd Apatow and Owen Wilson. And according to Judd Apatow, Larry, the cable guys manager was upset with the film. Before we started shooting. I got a call from his friend, this friend of mine who managed Larry the Cable Guy Appa tower called, he said, Judd, what are you up? What are you doing? You can't call this movie, the cable guy. That guy has been working so hard developing this character, you're gonna destroy his career. But there was nothing I could do to change it. But clearly labeled Larry, the cable guy has done way better than the cable guy. So you had to compare. If you had to compare the Larry the Cable Guy and the movie, Larry that I had, in the movie, The Cable Guy, Larry wins, hands down. I still don't know how I feel about this movie. I enjoy it a lot. And I decided to rewatch it a few years or a year or two ago. And it's so bizarre and so dark and so weird. That I really enjoy it. It was a occasional play in Suncoast. So I know the words far better than I probably should. You know, like the Lions of goodbye. See, you know, that whole segment of that the when he wears the does the Hannibal Lecter imitation in the in the it's medieval times, medieval times. I just, I really enjoy it. I think it's one of his more interesting roles because and a gutsy role where he's coming from being and I think that's why it flopped. It came from being the ACE Fichera goofy, silly dude, do this really dark, occasionally scary character and the karaoke scene. Love it. Honestly, insane. I remember liking moments of it. But overall, it didn't work for me. But I mean, Jim Carrey is performance, I think is really astounding. And as somebody who can appreciate acting, I'm like, back to energy and the constant like, just stuff he's bringing to this film that just you feel worried for everyone around him like he's gonna smack them or scare him or crash something. But it's a fascinating watch just for that. I think maybe that's part of my problem. You know, I have I have anxiety around people like that. It's just so uncomfortable. Everything he does just like, kill myself rather than hanging out with this branch. It's a stressful movie. It's a really stressful movie. Okay, I'm giving myself 10 minutes now. And I am talking about from 2010 Super I knew I was losing her. Excuse me. Have you seen my wife? I don't think she wants to see you anymore. Don't touch my car. I'm going that's not the kind of touching on that. Jock. He stole my wife. Can you arrest him? Sometimes it's better just to accept these things. That men battering pipe bombs utility belts. Green Arrow has a bow and arrow. Why do you need all those? I'm making up my own superhero. He needs a weapon. That'll do cool. All it takes to be a superhero is the choice to fight evil. Shut up crime steal don't deal drugs. molest kids brutal assault by the Crimson both continued last night. You know it's cool. Kids sidekick How do I look? That's an appropriate Frank is the only thing that will save me. We will take those suckers doubt let's do this just sit here and wait for crime to happen. That's right. So worrying just learning you have to teach is not about good and evil. This is about she loved me more because I am interesting face the wrath of the crimson bolts budget of $25 million box office of 420 Let me start that over budget of $2.5 million box office of $422,000 The Rotten Tomato critics give it 49% And the audience gives it 56% Written and directed by James Gunn was 21 directing credits including slither movie 43 A bunch of indie films called Guardians of the Galaxy, the Suicide Squad and the peacemaker series starring Rainn Wilson who has 93 credits, including don't tell a soul Jerry and Marge go large and 188 episodes of The Office is Elliott page when he was Ellen Page is in this 52 credits including Juno X Men Days of Future Past and the Umbrella Academy. Live Tyler has 40 credits including Armageddon, that thing you do and the Lord of the Rings trilogy. Kevin Bacon is also in this 106 credits including tremors Stir of Echoes, Hollow Man, and most recently the Guardians of the Galaxy holiday special. And then a bunch of names that you would recognize if you watch James Gunn films like Greg Henry Michael Rooker, Sean Gunn, Steven Blackheart, Linda Cardellini, Nathan Fillion, Sean Sean Gunn is in this twice, apparently. And even Steve Agee, who is the guy with the bad beard job and Peacemaker he is in this film. Have you both seen this film? No. Oh, Vanessa, I'm gonna ruin this film for you. That's you. I think you would like this. I probably will watch it eventually. Well, the movie starts out with an animated dance sequence of the Superheroes In this film, very similar to Peacemaker with a lot of the same movements. Really interesting. And then we meet Frank, he is a short order cook. He only has two good memories from his life and he has drawn them and put them on his wall. One of them is marrying his wife Sarah. And then there was an incident where he showed a police officer where a purse snatcher had run past him and the police officer says, Thanks, buddy. These are the two good moments in his life. It's pretty obvious that he's a bit of a loser and he's kind of mentally unbalanced, and not exactly in a great way. Not in a cute, quirky way, you know, like in possibly a dangerous way. Sara is getting bored with him. And she's hanging out with deadbeat friends that are getting her into drugs and stuff. And even one morning, Kevin Bacon just shows up at their apartment looking for Sara and you can tell that he's kind of a bad man, a crime boss kind of guy. And in a very humiliating scene. Frank makes breakfast for him. Ah, and then a couple of days later, Sarah has left Frank for jock which is Kevin Bacon's character's name. So Frank goes to the club. Jacques owns and tries to get her back. But Frank's goons beat the shit out of him and he goes home seeking into a very deep depression. In this depression, Frank has vision or he is touched by the finger of God and tentacles and all sorts of crazy stuff. And he meets the holy Avenger, which is a superhero from a public access TV show. I don't know if that's a thing anymore. public access TV is that really? But I don't imagine it's very popular even by Yeah, yeah. Nathan Fillion plays the holy avenger of course he's decked out in Cape and a mask and all that and he's very Nathan Philly Nish. The holy Avenger tells Frank that God has chosen him for a special purpose to be a real life superhero and fight crime. So he goes to a local comic book store and one of the workers Libby is very eager to help him because she thinks he's making a new comic book. So he ends up creating a very basic red superhero costume and calls himself The Crimson bolts his weapon of choice is a pipe wrench, and he decides to start fighting drug dealers and child molesters with the catchphrase Shut up crime. But let's not forget the Frank is very mentally unbalanced and even puts on the costume and beats a man with his wrench simply for cutting in line in front of him at a movie. So the cops are really wanting to find the Crimson bolt. Finally, Frank thinks he is ready to rescue Sarah from shock and he goes after her at the man's well guarded mansion. It does not go as planned. Not only do they shoot him in the lake, but as he is escaping in the car that they can clearly read the license plate of they recognize who he actually is. So he can't even go home. So he ends up showing up at Libby's house during the middle of this party she's having. And he admits to her that he's the Crimson bolt. And by this time, we have realized that Libby is also somewhat unbalanced. She is very, very excited to kick everybody out of her house and then dig the bullet out of his leg. He's telling her a pass straight through, you don't need to dig the bullet. But she's very excited to do stuff like this pours hydrogen peroxide on the wound. Yeah. And then she also wants to become his teenage sidekick like Robin or Bucky or even Toro. He tells her Aren't you a little older? Like teenage psychic, how old are you? And she's like 24 But you're really old, so it'll be fine. However, it turns out that she's even more unhinged than Frank and she nearly kills a dude that she's almost positive vandalized a friend's car. And Frank tells her that she absolutely cannot be his sidekick. That changes when she rescues him from nearly getting killed when jocks henchmen show up. She rescues him by slamming the car into one of the henchmen at a brick wall and you know, killing him so confirming that they are now a dynamic duo. They start training and creating weapons so that they can go rescue Sarah from jocks well guarded mansion again. Will they succeed? As the James Gunn movie a very early James Gunn movie, so even if they do, it might not be the way you'd think. Will Libby rape Frank in her apartment even though he reminds her he's married? While she's using the excuse that is different when they're in costume? Ah, the answer is yes. And it is one of the more uncomfortable scenes in a movie full of pretty uncomfortable scenes. And will Libby get her head blown wide open during the rescue attempt and probably the most gruesome shot of the movie? That is for you to find out. But you have been warned. Let me tell you it is a it is a uncomfortable shot. No pun intended. This is unsurprisingly a really solid movie. James Gunn had already been in the business for a while. So it's no shock that he was able to put together something so strong on a very limited budget. I've seen this now three times in the 13 years since it has come out each time I'm always a little surprised with how good and strong this film is. And dark. There is a lot of humor in it. The humor all comes from unfortunately, how how realistic some of this seems, you know, there's we had an era when there were actually people in Seattle dressing up as superheroes and fighting crime as as Phoenix such as it was. And that would be a very stupid thing to do without superpowers because you could get very hurt. Especially now when everybody's got a fucking gut. I have some trivia. The role of Jack which was Kevin Bacon, that was supposed to be played by John Claude Van Damme up until a week before shooting began. Gun said, quote, the guy was kind of AWOL. I just couldn't risk that personality type on the movie, and Kevin Bacon stepped in as a last minute replacement. James Gunn wanted John C. Reilly to star but he wasn't thought to be big enough name. Marine Wilson was at that point from the office. Didn't realize this came out after American. Yeah. Since the film was a low budget independent project everyone involved in the film was paid scale. Oh, wow. Yeah. And in 2019, Wilson reprised his role as the Crimson bolt in the mid credit scene of the gun produced supervillain film brightburn via a new photo taken for the film. I didn't realize gun did riper and he produced it. And I think he wrote it and it was directed by a gun at different kinds of different gun. The lot of guns are a lot of guns. This America has way too many guns. We've been talking about it forever. Well, that was my movie. It's really good. Yeah. Amber's thinking that was a hell of a film. Yeah. That you're right. That scene on the couch with her going after him is so uncomfortable. Yeah. Yeah, it's just like, I can't tell if he was just trying to shock. Or if you really wanted to make a statement of you know, this is, this is awful. Either way it goes, or whatever it was, you know, this is young James Gunn, and hard to tell what he really wanted to do. He liked to shock people back then. But really, really solid movie. It's called Super. And you can watch it on Tubi which is how I watched it again. You know what sucks about me? You guys, I own super Oh, my hands easier to just sign on to TV than to switch my input channel and watch it on my PlayStation. I am starting to get to that point. Time for dollar rental or something, then I guess I guess I'll try to take it out. Yeah. Oh my god. Okay, you guys, that means it is my choice for the sub genre. And I have something cool in mind, because there's a movie I want to watch. The best way to do it. My pick is magicians. And it can be magicians that wear the hat with the stars and moons or it can be the magicians that were the top hats, but got to have some kind of magician in your movie. Oh, cool. I love it. All right. With that in mind, this is the part where we thank everyone for liking and sharing all of our posts, we really, really appreciate that. There are a couple of you who do it just religiously when the episode comes out. But it'd be great if everybody else could just kind of share the posts and let people know we're out here doing this for plus 200 episodes now. Thank gosh. And we also really, really appreciate the people participating in the value for value model, which is if you get some value out of this, turn around and make that some value that you give back and like mica showed recently you can be mean to us to give us some movie that's maybe going to bother us greatly or we're not going to like or maybe we'll love you never know that's true but level of your meanness has to directly correspond with the level of your value. That's right. Yes. The amount you like is the amount you be bad towards. Well put you can also leave us a message on the strange aeons radio hotline which is 253-237-4266 Go ahead and let us know that it's okay to play that message and we will play it on the next show. Alright guys, that is it. 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