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EPISODE 124: RIDE SHARES ARE TERRIFYING
657 Plays4 months ago
Need a quick ride? We’ve got ya covered. Listen in for the terrifying tales of ride shares: scary stories, the economics of ride shares, and insane things we suddenly see as “normal”. 🚗 🚕
HORROR IN THE MOVIES
RYDE and SPREE— literally the perfect movies for this episode!
WHATCHA BEEN WATCHIN’, BITCH?!
Listen in to hear what we’ve been watchin’... bitch!
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Transcript
Introduction and Setup
00:00:00
Speaker
Friday the 13th horror podcast is a proud, independent podcast. To learn more about the show, visit Friday13.com. Okay, so it says he's one minute away. Look for a purple Nissan? Purple Nissan? ah ah Okay, weird. There he is.
00:00:22
Speaker
Oh, hey, uh, hi, Richard. Richard's the name, but my friends call me Dick. Uh, okay, um, we are headed to the lesbian falls art house cinema, please. Yes, we are off to the theater. You got it. Oh, hey, hey, I think you missed a turn there. Yeah, it's faster if you take pop or boulevard. Hey, can you slow down? It's only 45 through here. Yeah, man, are you listening?
Horror and Politics
00:00:49
Speaker
Where we're going, you won't need ears. It's episode 124. Rideshares are terrifying.
00:00:59
Speaker
I am the writing on the wall, the whisper in the classroom. I'm Marjorie Greene, and I approve this message to save America, stop socialism, and stop China. Say goodbye, we honor thee from life to death.
00:01:19
Speaker
in real life. Doubters, the Doomsters, the Gloomsters, they are going to get it wrong. They're up in the movies. Where are you gonna go? Where are you gonna run? Where are you gonna hide? Nowhere. Because there's no one like you left. What do we want? Justice! When do we want it? Now! Let's go! What are you waiting for, huh?
00:01:50
Speaker
I want you to know that the movement we started is only just beginning. Sometimes. but Well, the report is out and it's damning, and it's all centered around the rideshare company Uber.
Rideshare Evolution
00:02:05
Speaker
The International Consortium of Investigative Journalists, a nonprofit network of reporters, released the report after sifting through troves of internal text messages, emails, and invoices that revealed Uber actually lobbied political leaders to relax labor laws, develop tactics to thwart thwart regulators and law enforcement and even considered betraying violence against its drivers as a way to gain public sympathy. Welcome to another episode of Friday, the 13th Horror Podcast. My name is Maddie and my name is Andrew. And if this is your first time with us on Friday, the 13th Horror Podcast, you have reached or let's I don't know, you've accessed the podcast.
00:02:47
Speaker
on the podcasting thing that you're listening to that talks about horror, horror in real life and in the movies from an LGBTQ plus perspective. Welcome to our 124th episode. If you are new, you've got 123 you should go listen to right after plus bonuses, plus bonus episodes. I don't even know how many we have, but there like there's an awful lot. It's good to be back in the seat. We took a bit of time off in June after our pride episode. Hope you guys enjoyed listening to that. And ah we're coming back to you, um you know, talking about
00:03:23
Speaker
Today, a subject that I think is near and dear to everyone to everyone who gets around um that uses things to move from one place to another because ride shares are pretty much the way that everyone does that now. um I would say, you know, like if I'm in, for example, Chicago, Andrew, it's usually pretty like it's not actually that easy to get a taxi anymore, like a normal taxi. No, not at all. And like, you know, in some other cities, I think it's the same. And so we thought, you know what, we haven't really tackled this subject yet. And this is a good one to do. So ride shares are indeed terrifying and we'll be sharing some great stories with you today.
00:04:05
Speaker
Yeah, um I can remember when I first moved to Chicago in 2010 that the taxi industry was totally different than it is today. um I remember standing and trying to wait and hailing down cabs and it was just like that. Like you literally looked for a cab, you put your hand up and they pulled over and hopefully they took card because back in the day they would try to pull tricks on you like I can't take card. My card machine's down. I'll drive you to the nearest ATM. Like, I don't know if you remember these days. Oh, I sure do. Yeah. I remember getting into, you know, like like nearly getting into fights with with cab drivers so because they refused to take a card. And I can't remember when it happened, but eventually like the law basically said you have to take a card.
00:04:57
Speaker
And so that was when it was a lot of fun to get indignant in the back seat and just say, you know what? I'm not going to get out of this taxi because you have to take my method of payment. So why don't you just take me where I'm going and then I'll pay you kind of thing. Yeah, i I think that like, honestly, I think I may have gotten out of one or two taxis without paying because they wouldn't take part. And I was like, well, then I don't know what to tell you. app Absolutely, I did. And, you know, like, i I think, you know, things have changed quite a bit.
00:05:29
Speaker
um you know I can't speak for you know a bunch of different places, but I can tell you, for example, in Dublin, right it's a little bit different here. There are still a good amount of just like normal taxis. Usually, those taxis will moonlight for you know probably... um Over here, we have a company called FreeNow. That's definitely the most popular rideshare app in Dublin. um There's another one called Bolts, which is getting pretty popular all across Europe now and and in the UK too. um And of course, we we do have Uber and I think there's there's a few other ones that i just I can't bother with all of them.
00:06:06
Speaker
Um, but it's, it's interesting that, you know, like when I'm in city center, like I can still get a normal taxi and I can actually get it fairly easily. Um, and so I'm kind of like half and half on how I use them. You know, like, for example, if I'm going to the airport. From where I live to Dublin Airport, it takes about, if it's good traffic, about a half hour, basically. For that, it's definitely easier for me to use a free now or to use an Uber if I have to, because Uber is just a little bit more expensive. And the free now will pick me up at my house and it will you know get me to where I'm going. And usually it's about 35 euros, so about 40 bucks, I would say. um But like if I'm in town and i you know i've I've been out for dinner or you know whatever, maybe it's like 11 o'clock at night and I'm going home.
00:06:52
Speaker
generally getting a taxi taxi is easier. And that's like a bit of getting used to for me because in Chicago, you know, as you know, I mean, like like I just said, pretty much we were taking Ubers like everywhere, an Uber or a Lyft. Yeah, well, I can tell you from the statistics that I pulled, um in 2014, there were 6,600 licensed cabs in Chicago. In May of 2021, there were only 1,480. So it has declined severely.
00:07:25
Speaker
um And those medallions to get one, that's pretty expensive, right? Well, like so this is another thing that happens. So for people that don't know, the city of Chicago has a licensing system that comes along with this thing called a medallion. The medallion sits on the kind of the hood of the car and it signifies that you are a you know licensed by the city and licensed by the state to drive a taxi. You took all the precautions and all the you know the all the extra licensing that has to happen. yeah so
00:07:56
Speaker
When before Uber and Lyft came into the city, the ah the price for a medallion, and usually these would be either handed down or people would buy them like as a company, essentially. um Before ride shares came to Chicago, the average cost for a medallion ah was $350,000. So think about that. So much money. Oh my God. And now in, you know, 2023 after ride shares have pretty much taken over the average price for a medallion is $11,000. So. wow
00:08:35
Speaker
those people that paid all that money back in the day for what they thought was a you know a fair price or what they
Rideshare Horror Stories
00:08:43
Speaker
thought was going to get them you know a stable income in the future. A serious investment in their business. Right. It's now decimated because of Uber and and the in these these companies. and you know I remember back in the day when Uber first came to the city when it was first starting to become a thing. And back in the day, it wasn't just like an average car that would come pick you up. This was like considered kind of like almost like a limousine. Like you would like, yeah I remember that you would get like a black car. Like it was always like black car service. And, you know, the guy would get out of the car and open the door for you. And like it it felt special. You know what I mean? And then
00:09:24
Speaker
As kind of it evolved, now we're getting, I don't know, I'm trying to think of what picked me up yesterday. Probably like a ah Nissan Rogue or something. you don't ask yeah sure It can be someone's hoopty if they really want. um And I've had many a hoopty pick me up. I mean, like and like let's let's take ourselves back for a minute. So like okay so like if we think about this whole rideshare business to begin with, right? It was such a disruptor in transportation, um at least in urban areas, because remember, like when when Uber started, like I wasn't getting one in Hobart, Indiana when I was visiting home. Right. Right. I was only getting it in the city. And that was the case across the entire country. I can't speak for the rest of the world, but that was the case for America for sure. Yeah, and it was definitely like a New York, L.A., Chicago start. Right. And so like just the idea of that to begin with was so
00:10:19
Speaker
I hate to use the word because I think it's kind of stupid for this, but I don't know what else to use. so It was revolutionary and like in thinking about how the fuck you get around, right? Absolutely, yeah. And we you know people like you and me took them because they were also cheaper than taxis at the time, if you remember. That's how they got us. Exactly. That roped us in. And if you remember too, with Uber, one of the things that really roped me in at least was if you got, if you referred people, you got, I forget how much you got, but like it was pretty good. You got, you either got like free rides or you got money in your account. I can't remember how that worked.
00:10:54
Speaker
But like if you did it right when Uber was still new, like you could sign up a bunch of fucking people. And I i definitely did. I signed up at least, I would say, 20 or 30 friends. right And I can even remember you know our friend, Ray, right, Andrew? We were at Holiday Club one night, as we were many nights back in the day. And I remember Ray being like, oh yeah, just use one of my free rides. Boom. And like I was so poor then. I was like, oh my God, thank you so much. But like that was the thing. like So many of us had all these free rides. We could just like give them out to people. So that all of that in itself, getting into a stranger's car, it wasn't marked as an Uber or as a Lyft yet, that kind of thing. That in itself was weird.
00:11:35
Speaker
Now, when you think about it now, yeah. Now, let's remember that there was also a time where, just like in one of the movies that we're going to talk about today, Spree, with Spree Social, there was another time when you would share the car with other people who would get it. I never did this. And in fact, I don't know, maybe you can still do that. I honestly don't know. But back in the day, when I worked in nonprofit and I was not making very much money, there was definitely, I would say I probably did that. I don't know, about 10 times in Chicago, probably. Uber pool, right? Uber pool. That's what it was. Yes. And i've Lyft had one too, but I can't remember what that was called. Anyways, you would get in. Hopefully you were praying that you were the first one so you could sit in whatever seat you wanted. But then it meant that you might have two extra people join the ride at any time.
00:12:27
Speaker
And so it definitely happened, you know, while, while I was doing it at, like I said, at least those 10 times and,
Personal Transportation Changes
00:12:33
Speaker
ah you know, nothing weird ever happened with those rides, but it was always awkward, but yeah it's just, it it's. What's so funny to me is that things that are so, so incredibly not normal, they become normal for you so quickly. And yeah and that was one of the things that did when it first started the whole like pool thing, everyone was like, I'm not going to do that. And then like, sure as shit, you know what we're doing a month later, everyone's doing it because no one's got any fucking money. And that was a cheap way to go. I could get from this place, you know, across town in for like, I don't know, less than 10 bucks. So like, of course I was going to do that.
00:13:11
Speaker
But isn't that just wild to think about? it like and like Now that I'm older, my God, I would never do that. like Are you fucking kidding me? I would rather i would rather walk 10 miles than get into a car with three other people that I don't want to be in a car with. Keep in mind we always and that's the funny thing is like we we talk about it like it's this crazy thing But what do we take every single day to work the train or the bus? And so it's it's just so funny how you like convince yourself that something is too weird or too crazy like it is it is very weird and I remember like when you know uber first came to the city being like well this isn't gonna catch on. We, we, whatever. Like this, like cabs are here to stay, baby. You know what I mean? iPhones. That's not going to work out. This is like one of those things that you kind of convince yourself. and Now, Maddie, do you have any times where you've either gotten in a squabble with a ride chair driver or somebody was kind of weird or like any, any stories like that?
00:14:15
Speaker
plenty um shes ah i've I've got a lot of stories. I would say the the one that that I'll share is, um and this one is one that that actually did really creep me out, and this was way go way back when probably like 2014, I want to say. So it's about 10 years ago, right? And it was actually a taxi to ah to your house when you when you guys lived ah on whatever that street was by by Trader Joe's. And ah ah it was late. I imagine I was probably coming from another party or from a bar or something like that.
00:14:55
Speaker
And like this, it was during the summer and like back then in the summers, like I wore my running shorts like every single day and they were short as fuck. And like, I listen, i i've ah but I've got nice legs. That's just how it is, right? And and i and I work on it and and they are, i've I've run thousands of miles for these legs to look as good as they do quite frankly. So I'm in this, you know, Uber or whatever. And like, we don't really talk about anything, but, um, I got out of the car and I'm, you know, you just, you're done. That's all you gotta do. And then I walked into your house and I had to like go up the stairs, maybe because maybe I was, maybe it was going to your old house, Andrew. Now that I think about it, I can't remember because I remember going upstairs, but as it was going upstairs, this is when the Uber drivers could like still text you after the ride was done. oh
Entertainment and Media Commentary
00:15:43
Speaker
yeah And so the Uber driver, he just texted me nice legs. And I oh god i was just like,
00:15:52
Speaker
You know, other people might take that compliment and go, Oh, he thought I had nice legs. How nice. But for whatever reason, late at night, I was just like, Oh God. Oh my God. I just need to get inside this house right now and get away from this person. I've it felt very, very creepy to me. It really did. Well, that's like, that's the creepy thing about kind of like ride shares in general is that they have your picture. They know where you are. Like in some cases they know where you live. Right. So it's it is kind of a weird thing to think about. like Yeah, it only takes one person to be a little weirdo. I can remember, this actually just happened within the last year. We got into an Uber lift. We dabble in those. One of them, yeah. And we got in the car, very average looking car. It was probably like a
00:16:44
Speaker
I don't know, like a Ford Explorer or something you like like nothing, nothing crazy, but nothing to you know look beyond. um And we got in and it was February, so we're like trying to hurry in because it's freezing cold. And um Michael just shuts the door and the guy just explodes on us. And he's like, how dare you slam my door? This is a nice vehicle. I try to make it nice for you people and all you do is abuse my shit. And I was just like, What what's happening right now? like Like what is happening? That guy is working through things that you have nothing to do with. That's for sure. And he kept going on and on and on. And then Michael, you know, because listen, let's just say I'm the pacifist in this relationship. um And so Michael starts to get into it with this guy. Oh, I would have gone off. And finally, we got like about a block down the street and I just yelled, everyone fucking stop.
00:17:44
Speaker
And it like I was like, we just can we just all stop? We didn't mean to if we didn't mean to free infuriate you. Let's just move on. like Can you just drive us home? like we're We're done with this. And it thankfully, he just shut up the rest of the time. And then I start to look around, and I'm like, well, what does this guy think like his vehicle's like so special? And then I'm like, OK, he has a cracked windshield. like the The door handle is like hanging off on the passenger side. so like I don't know what's going on with this guy, but he's having a ah bad night. and i just i I was a little bit worried there for a second that we were going to get beat up by by a 50-year-old ah Uber driver. see that did you guys did Did you report him?
00:18:29
Speaker
Um, I can't remember what Michael did because it was all on his account. So I was like, you, yeah if you want to do it, do it. But he also knows where we live. So just be careful. I mean, that's the thing, you know, I've, I've reported drivers in the past, um, like, you know, for example, um, when you leave the airport here, uh, there, there are two ways that you can get to where you're going. Cause generally you're going to be going to Dublin, right? Yeah. So you can either go on the motorway, which is like ah the highway here and there's a toll on it, or you can go through town. If you go through town, there's no toll. If you go on the motorway, there's a toll. And so if you go through town, it's usually about half the cost to get to my house than on the motorway. So of course, which way do I usually go? Through town. And so there was this one, I figured out when it was, but I think this was last year, or maybe 2022.
00:19:16
Speaker
and like you know i've got an american accent obviously but like i've lived here for a good long while and trust me when you live here as long as i have you get really fucking tired of people constantly treating you like an american i know that sounds stupid but like you just get tired of it because like i live here i i don't need to be i don't need to constantly be the tourist or the other or the whatever And so like I got in this, you know, this, uh, this free now. And, um, I said quite clearly, take me through town and he went on the fucking motorway. And when we got to, and I was like, real I was actually like doing work stuff in the backseat. I wasn't even paying attention, which we were, which way we were going. Cause I had had to get a lot of shit done. We got to my house and I saw the cost of it double the cost. I said, motherfucker, you went on the motorway. You went on the motorway when I said to go through town and he was being weird about it. And I was like, I know I have an American accent.
00:20:07
Speaker
but how dare you not do what I asked you to do politely. And so I went in and I i reported him right away and and I got that money back and I felt so good about it. So you have to pay the tolls. Oh yeah. it if If you go through a toll, it's going to rack on to the top of your car. It's just like, if you were to take an Uber and the Uber gets tolls, that you would be paying for that too. I don't think that's how it works here. That's interesting. Oh, if it if it doesn't, then bonus, but here it definitely works that way. And I was like, fuck you for fucking doing that. It was, it really pissed me off. And you know, I looked up what the, um, industry, uh, like is in, in, in the, in the world, it's 106 billion dollar industry. for Huge.
00:20:53
Speaker
And like it's, and you know, thankfully this isn't happening nearly as much anymore, but let's talk a little bit about surge pricing ah because I'm sorry, but like last time I experienced this was when I was, when I went to Chicago in 2022, right. And I was visiting all of all of you guys and whatever and it was, it was a work thing. I could not believe the surges. They were fucking insane, dude. They're insane. Well, and then, so thankfully that's kind of gone out of fashion a little bit, but I can distinctly remember, like, if you were in the vicinity of any sort of concert, baseball game, theater,
00:21:39
Speaker
anything like that, it would be triple the price for you to try to get an Uber. huge yeah So I can remember distinctly walking out, I think you were with us to be honest with me, but um i we were walking out of the United Center and it was going to be like $80 to get home. And so we walked all the way to Western Avenue to get on the bus. yeah Yeah, I remember that. And because we just couldn't stomach the like of paying that amount of money for a ride, which was going to be I mean, from the United Center to my house is probably like four miles. You know what I mean? Like it's not it's it's like 20 bucks a mile. Why don't you go fuck yourself for that, buddy? Come on. But yeah, it's it's gotten insane. And I and you know, that's the thing about, you know, not not to like ah not to like dog on these companies, but these tech companies that
00:22:33
Speaker
they they give you all the stuff up front because they want to hook you and then they find ways around those hooks to like just gouge you for prices later on and it's kind of insane but it is what's the longest ride you've ever had Oh gosh, uh, probably to the airport. I don't think I've ever gone further than that in kind of a, in a, in a rideshare situation, which here in Chicago from the airport, uh, depending on traffic, you're looking at probably like 45 minutes. So that's probably like the longest. Do you have one that was longer than that?
00:23:07
Speaker
Yeah, um it was it was last year when we went to Salem. So I got off. I landed at Boston, of course. And i I didn't really know what I was going to do to get this because i I got I got to Boston a day before Michael and Andrew did. Right. And or a day and a half or something. And we were going to rent a car. So exactly right. But I was like, you know what? I'll go in a day early. It'll help me get rid of my jet lag anyway. There we go. And so I landed and I was like, Oh, I'll figure out there's got to be a train or something like that. And so like the, in order to get to the train from Boston, from from the airport, it it was just, it sounded very fucking complicated. I'm not going to lie. And I was, I was already tired. I was like, you know what? Fuck this. I'm getting a fucking car. And so I found a, I found an Uber and I was like, you know, can you take me to fucking Salem? And he was like,
00:23:55
Speaker
Yeah, sure. And so we did it. And that was like, I think that was like an hour and a half, I feel like, because there was traffic and like, you know what? It actually wasn't that bad. It gave me a chance to really chill out. The dude made a ton of money, so he was fine with it. And like I got straight to my hotel and I was like, great. here i am hi but it was it was a pretty long ride not gonna lie yeah i think that like so i have like i'm an i'm an i'm an extroverted introvert if that makes any sense so the the idea of being with a stranger for that long gives me so much anxiety yeah i don't think i could do it
00:24:35
Speaker
You know, it's like if if you ever have to do it like the best thing is just Lay lean back put on your head fucking headphones read a book or something just like zone out and pretend Yeah, like they're not got god forbid. They want to have a conversation. Oh, no no, no, no, no, no I don't need any talking anymore. I don't I don't either you know and like here if it's a taxi driver if but ah if it's a Lyft driver or or a free now driver or whatever it doesn't matter like And they enjoy talking here. And um I just I'm i'm polite, um but I try to end the conversation as quickly as possible. i'm not Yeah, I'm the same. Like if they're if they're going to ask questions or whatever, I will make them the quickest answers I can figure out and move on down the road for real. Now, wait. Now you asked me if I had like any scary and like you you had sort of a, you know, a tussle with that one driver. But have you ever had a ride that was scary, though?
00:25:31
Speaker
I'm trying to think. I can't think of any off the top of my head that like, you know, made me feel weird. I just like getting used to getting into a stranger's car in general at the beginning of all this really did weird me out, especially. if I was by myself because oh god yeah you know we went through a period just a couple of years ago where a lot of young men were getting picked up outside of bars, and I'm not talking about just gay bars, they were getting picked up out of bars pretty much in River North, which is kind of more of a a straight bar area, and they would be found dead in water. It was always in water.
00:26:12
Speaker
And smiley face killer and they've never ever solved it. It just kind of stopped after a while. But there was a series. Have you heard about the smiley face killer? I have. Yeah. The smiley face killer still freaks me out. It's freaks up my brother too. We talk about it. We haven't talked about it in a while, but we used to talk about it a lot. Like there, it's always young men. They're always found in your bodies of water and there's always a smiley face nearby. Like I'm telling you, yeah smiley face cult is fucking real. It was probably Uber drivers in the fucking smiley face cult.
00:26:43
Speaker
Yeah, it's it's a very it's a very creepy thing to think like you don't know who these people are. Like it's a cult. I'm telling you the vetting system for these ride shares nowadays is not what it used to be. Let's just put it that way. No, it's not. It's not. We don't have any scary ones. um The the only other scary like besides when I said there there was a ride I remember now. it would it It was a long time ago, of course, it was in Chicago. Um, like the guy wanted me to sit up front with him and like he was, he was, he was really insistent about it. Like, Oh yeah, sit up front with me. Come on, come on, come on, sit up front with me. And so I don't know. It was just one of those situations where like you felt weird saying no. If that makes sense. Like if, if you said no, it was going to be weird kind of thing. You know what I mean?
00:27:28
Speaker
And like, I don't know, for whatever reason, I was young and stupid enough to go, yeah, this is a good idea to keep going with this guy. And so I got in the front with him and like we we were driving and he was going pretty fast up Lake Shore Drive. And i I remember actually saying like, dude, can you slow down? Cause you're going really, really fast. And then he did. And like, ah but there were a couple of other moments where he sped up again. And I was like, in my head, I was like, Oh my God, Jesus, just get me home. Just please get me home. So let me be safe. Let me be safe. And I got home and that was another one that I reported to be honest. like I was like, look,
00:28:01
Speaker
because he was acting a little erratic and weird. I was like, I don't know if this guy was drunk or what, but like something was not right in that, in that ride that that was right. and So, you know, like, look, I, I don't know if I have no idea what happened to that dude, but if at the very least Uber got in touch with him and said, you just got reported because somebody said you're acting strange. Like hopefully that gave him what he needed to know to like never do that again. You know what I mean? Like that was, I remember that being kind of a scary ride. Yeah, no, I mean, I've definitely had and erratic drivers for sure. Oh, yes. Like that. Let's be honest. ah the The drivers of Chicago are not necessarily the kindest, if you know what I mean. But if you drive in Chicago, you have to be in it. I'm just going to say this. You have to be an aggressive driver. There is no room for like
00:28:51
Speaker
for like pussyfoot driving. I'm sorry, but that's the fucking truth. You've got to fucking drive. Well, because if you don't, people will eat you alive, man. so That's the thing. That's the thing here, though, is like you're not just like never do you just go out for like a nice drive. Oh, hell no. Like it is. It is an event every time that you have to be like acutely aware of everything at all times. It's a competition. that free Every single time. like You gotta win, you gotta to get to where you're going, and you gotta beat that motherfucker next to you. because If you don't, they're gonna beat you in one way or another. like That Trader Joe's is just waiting for me. I gotta get there. My god, motherfuckers.
00:29:33
Speaker
All right. I do have one story of kind of a very infamous thing that happened involving an Uber driver. Tell us about it Janet. I'm not going to I'm not going to go through too many of the details just because it is kind of a longer story. okay um But this did happen where I went to college. um I went to Grand Valley State University, which is by Grand Rapids, Michigan. And this happened in and around Kalamazoo, which is about 40 minutes south. um This happened in 2016, a man named Jason Dalton. He was in a car with a his pickup, Matt Mellon, who was kind of his first pickup of the day. And um Matt noticed that he took a call. And then after he got off that call, like something changed in Jason Dalton. And oh shit he began to like drive erratically. He wasn't making sense.
00:30:32
Speaker
And thankfully Matt was able to, when he stopped, he like side swiped a car, like things, a lot of things happened. And um when he came to a stop sign, like Matt pretty much like like doubled out of the car and called 911 and reported this guy. um There was a reports of at least six people calling 911 on this guy and the cops did nothing. Oh my God, you gotta be kidding me. So he then went home. I mean, it's Kalamazoo. What else do they have to fucking do? Yeah, no kidding. Um, then he went home and exchanged his car for his other, his wife's car so that he basically wouldn't Oh my God. And then Maddie continued to pick up people all the while in between. He went to an apartment building. He went to a Kia dealership and he went to, I think it was an apartment complex.
00:31:29
Speaker
And in those times, he shot like seven people, um of which I think five typical Kia drivers, of which of which five died. um that again And, and this guy he like he was at this I think let me look at the from four o'clock pm until let's see here I think I want to say seven seven thirty seven pm he went on this um basically this spree of continuously still picking up people for uber dropping them off and then shooting people
00:32:10
Speaker
it was insane and like was there was there any motive like do we find out why he did this or that's the weird thing none of these people were connected none of these people made sense it it was totally random like a spree driver just having a bad day, I guess, I don't know, but it was kind of insane. um Thankfully, he was finally apprehended. um And in 2019, he pled guilty to all of the accounts, which is in and of itself kind of crazy because
00:32:43
Speaker
um You would think that somebody like this would try to plead insanity or you know try to try to get away with you know out of something just because of how sporadic this this thing happened. um But yeah, he's he's in he's in jail life without um possibility of parole. But it was one of those things that I remember I was living here at the time in 2016 in Chicago, but telling my friends, being like, Hey guys, like something weird is happening. Like I'm seeing reports of something. Like, cause I think it was like on like, you know, probably people started posting on Facebook at that point, you know, just like about like, sure Hey, be on the lookout. Can you believe this? Oh my God, whatever. And like, it was so crazy to people that like,
00:33:25
Speaker
I think that just the way that Uber was in 2016, I don't think people really understood it, especially in non-urban areas, like kind of like in between Kalamazoo and Grand Rapids where there's probably like, I don't know, like 10 Uber drivers. You know what I mean? And so like the fact of this, and then all my friends were like, Oh, no big deal. It's not a big deal. Like it's, it's, it's, it's nothing. Keep in mind, this guy got away with it for hours. yeah It's just crazy. But yeah, that's ah and you know there's even reports of people being like getting into Uber and being like, you're not the shooter, are you? And him being like, oh, no, no, no, no not me. Not me, I'm not the shooter. Oh my God. ah Yeah. Just imagine if you had gotten an Uber that day and it turned out that you were in that car. I got to tell you, if
00:34:18
Speaker
If that's how I died, I would be a really fucking pissed off ghost man. I'm not going to lie. What's the weird thing about this story is that he didn't kill any of his passengers. He killed random people outside of his vehicle. don hundred None of that makes any sense. It just doesn't make any sense. He like had a mentality of like, well, I'm still going to do my job, even if I'm a spree shooter. It's like it's like like like it's like saying with that, it's like I'm almost surprised that he didn't like plead insanity in some way and like find a way out of because it's like I don't understand how to explain that except that somebody just their brain went and they said, I have to kill everyone now. like i I don't know how else you fucking explain that shit, you know? Yeah. So it's it's one of the weirder stories that I've i've ever heard um and had close proximity to because a lot I know a lot of people that live in that area. So
00:35:09
Speaker
What is kind of crazy story? You know, you're you're you guys obviously live in Chicago. I live in Dublin. We both live in urban areas where we're likely to live in these urban areas for, you know, at least the next couple of years. Right. So do you think that in the next couple of years, as we grow older and as you know, as we think about our lives doing this and doing that, do you think you'll take more ride shares or fewer? Um, you know, I probably will take fewer if I'm being honest, because I do drive a bit more than I used to. and know Um, just because I kind of, I just feel more comfortable. Listen, I am an overthinker. So um knowing where I'm going, I know if there's going to be parking, I know where the parking structure is. I know much money. It is like, yeah fair now if I can do that, I feel comfortable just driving, but like, yeah
00:36:03
Speaker
it's when we're going to like, I don't know, like we were going to a show or like you're going to a baseball game or something like that where you're like, Oh, I'm not really sure like how the parking is going to be or like how that's all going to go. Then I'll take share of like an an Uber or something. Um, one other story that I kind of forgot right before, you know, I asked you the same question. yeah sure Um, there was a ride share where, um, Listen, Michael is amazing, but he's not the greatest at keeping his wallet in the right areas. Are you saying that Michael is not a good planner? Is that what you're saying right now to He doesn't like to sit on his wallet and so he likes to put his wallet in bags or in... I've heard i've heard so i've heard some other things he likes to sit on though.
00:36:49
Speaker
But there was one time where he had his wallet out for some reason and he left it in the back of an Uber. And I tell you what, we tried everything to get a hold of this Uber driver and to this day, we don't know what happened to it because not only could the driver not be contacted, Uh, Uber couldn't contact him. Um, we could, and, and then like, so we're like, okay, maybe we'll pay attention to the cards and see if like, if, if it kind of gets anything spent on it, maybe we'll, you know, figure that out. Nothing ever got spent on any of the cards. Nothing ever showed up again. It was just like this guy saw a wall on in his backseat and just went, I guess I'll just throw this away. Like, you know, actually saying but what happened to him, Andrew, I know what happened.
00:37:36
Speaker
That Uber driver was playing the left right game. You'll never see him again. You just didn't know it. You just had no idea. Um, what, and then, uh, same question back to you. What about you? Uh, well, I use them more or less, definitely less. Um, I would say when I, when I first moved here, I was taking free now as like it was fucking air outside. yeah like I mean, like a lot, I mean, there, there were days and when I was going out and everything a lot more. where I would take like four free nows in a day. And that is, that's fucked up. And it was a lot of money. And like, you know, but I've, I've, I've gotten older and I've, I've just sort of like changed some things in my life. Like I just, I just don't go out that much anymore. And so like just that alone, I, I use them less. But then also I've just tried to be,
00:38:24
Speaker
a lot more conscious of how I can get around without them. And you know i I walk a lot more now, and I already walked a good deal, but I walk a lot more. I do i take the buses a lot more. So I've definitely decreased the amount that I use them. I would say like that changes, of course, when I'm on vacation. And ah you know if if I'm on vacation somewhere where like the best way to get around is an Uber or something. like Yeah, like I'm going to do it. It's just it's fucking easier. especially I don't know how to get around. Yeah. Right. um But like in general, like where I live, live. No, I'm just I'm I'm basically going to take public transit as much as I can.
00:39:00
Speaker
Well, and now that we have, um, semi electric bikes that are for rent all around us, we do those quite a bit when oh yeah they're great. So, oh my God, during the pandemic, I got an electric bike over to your house all the time. That thing was fucking amazing. There was so much fun and no, no one was driving so you can go anywhere with it. It was very cool. Yeah, that's the other thing you got to be careful though with is, uh, the drivers, um, there is a, there is a war between the walkers, the drivers and the bike riders. And I don't know how we get beyond it, but everyone is against all those people. And then don't get me started on the rollerbladers. You guys can all go to hell. Sorry. and As a, as a, as a runner and you as a runner too, we all can unite on one thing.
00:39:46
Speaker
Well, actually, as runners, runners and bicyclers can unite on one thing, and that is that we hate rollerbladers very, very much. Get out of here. Get the fuck out of my way, motherfuckers. Andrew, we could talk about this all day, I think, but we have more of an episode to get to, don't we? Mm hmm. And with that, I guess I'll just I'll just say to you, Maddie, nice legs and we'll move on to what you've been watching, bitch. God, you creep.
00:40:14
Speaker
Let's all go to the lobby Let's all go to the lobby Let's all go to the lobby To get ourselves a treat It's time for what you've been watching, bitch. What you been watching you Uber riding bitch. And this is the segment in the show where we talk about the things that we have been watching or reading or listening to or whatever. And we each have four of them. And Andrew is going to give us the first thing that he's been watching right now. All right. My first one is the mole season two on Netflix. Uh, the mole is back everybody. I don't think, uh, Netflix was really pushing it this time. I'm not really sure because it's one of their best shows. Um, if you remember correctly, the mole used to be on ABC back in the day. It was hosted by Anderson Cooper for a couple of years. Forgot about that.
00:41:04
Speaker
um And now it's on a new iteration on Netflix. It's season two. um At this point of recording, we still don't know who the mole is because there are two episodes left that they are holding until ah July 12th. So by the time you're listening to this, you probably already know who the mole is. but um We do a fun thing here in our household. We watched the very first episode and then we both guess right after that episode. Both myself and Michael's picks are still in the running. um So I'll report back on who is the mole. Wow. so
00:41:40
Speaker
cool it's a fun show i don't know if you watch it but it's really fun i don't you know it's actually it's funny that you've got it on there and i i sort of forgot about it i don't know if it's on my netflix here though i don't think i've seen it i'm gonna have a look though because i it sounds like a show that would be up my alley to be honest it's so bingeable um my first one Very bingeable is Ken Burns, The Civil War. You know, it was kind of a real big boring one for my what you've been watching list. You know, look, we're recording this on July 7th. Last week was July 4th. I just suddenly got into a mood where I was like, I want to just think about America for a while.
00:42:21
Speaker
And um I was like, you know what? I haven't watched the Civil War in a real long time. Let's have a watch. So the Civil War is eight episodes. ah This was a PBS ah ah ah series way back in the day. I think it was 92 was when the Civil War came out. of I'm not mistaken. um This was sort of like Ken Burns is first real big one. Right. like Everyone watched this. Everyone loved it, that kind of thing. Um, another reason why, why I wanted to watch this beyond July 4th is of course we have, you know, the election coming in November. Um, and you know, be, uh, I've just been thinking like, I've been thinking a lot of things like I'm sure a lot of us have, but, um, I i kind of wanted to remind myself about.
00:43:11
Speaker
how there was another time when things seemed impossible and and it took an ungodly amount of time. It took an insane amount of human life and it took, uh, toil and strife. Like we've never seen before to figure it out, but we did like we did figure it out. And, and like, I don't know. It was it was a good reminder to me that that we can like it's not easy, you know, by by any stretch of the imagination. We had to fight a wall that we but our our our our our American ancestors did.
00:43:50
Speaker
had to fight a terrible, bloody, awful, ungodly war to figure it out. But we did. We got there. And like I don't know. it was For whatever reason, it was helpful for me to see that, I guess. It it calmed me down a bit. Because you know look, it wasn't just July 4th this week. It was also a debate performance that was... I didn't watch it, but I i watched a couple clips and it it wasn't great. um And it's it's scary. So it was good to think of another time where things were also pretty terrifying. And somehow, you know, America as as an idea um still survived. And I think that's really important to think about. So I don't know if if you need that sort of, I don't know, reassurance, or if you're looking for some sort of analogous time in American history. If you've never watched it before, the Civil War
00:44:40
Speaker
from Ken Burns is genuinely pretty fucking good. You will know a lot of shit about the Civil War after you watch it. That's it. Cool. um My next one is a movie that came out, I think like ah halfway through the June. Through the June. What am I talking about? Through the June. It's called Under Paris. Have you heard of this movie? No, not at all. So this is a French movie about a shark that gets into way i'm sorry what that gets into the river in Paris. oh um no ah no And this shark is different from all the others. It's a smart shark. This shark loves a baguette. He a coffee. So um the movie starts with a woman in her research team. They're out in that part of the ocean where all the plastic is. um And they are trying to tag a shark. The shark attacks the team. And then it seems like there's a personal vendetta from the shark to get to this woman because it follows her to Paris um and gets in the river and lives there. And then
00:45:52
Speaker
Kind of things just go from there but like what i'll say about this movie is if if you watched deep blue sea back in what was that ninety eight ninety nine or whatever and and really loved that movie this feels like the french predecessor like ah the the french like. Answer to that movie because it's so fantastical and crazy and sharky and all the stuff so like I'm not gonna say it's like the best movie in the world and what I will say is if you can handle it watch the Subtitled version in you know with you know French with subtitles with English subtitles because the dubbing over
00:46:32
Speaker
It's fine, but it definitely makes it sound way more like goofy than I think the movie tried to be, if that makes any sense. Yeah, dubbing for me usually just doesn't, it doesn't hit the way that it did. It rarely works. Yeah, I would agree. So I liked it, but I like stupid movies. Fair enough. So if you like stupid movies, try Under Paris on Netflix. If you two love stupid shit, wait till you try this. um I gotta tell you, you had me at Shark in the Seine. That's pretty funny. um they Someone's gotta make a meme with that shark eat eating a croissant or something. You know what I mean? Like, come on. well And there's a there's a subplot to the movie about like a ah like a liberal um of course they climate climate warrior person who has a pretty funny arc in the movie. So if you watch it just for that, I don't know. it's kind don't know This movie is so bizarre. I can't even tell you. That is pretty fucking funny.
00:47:34
Speaker
Um, my next one is one that we reviewed on the show before and one that we've seen multiple times. One of truly one of my favorite horror films, 30 days of night, vampires in the cold. Yes. And the reason why I watched this, well, first of all, there was somebody visiting me. That's a long story. I'll tell you more about that later, Andrew. But we looking for something to watch. And I was like, you know what? I want to watch this. Because in my head, like it's like, OK, the thing, right? and I don't like to watch the thing in the winter. I like to watch the thing in the summer because it makes you feel a little bit cooler. You know what I mean? Yeah, it makes sense. if this That's how it is. And I had just come back from my trip to America a couple of weeks ago. um And it was while I was in America, the heat dome was on.
00:48:20
Speaker
So it was motherfucking hot as fuck every single day. Like that it was hot, man. I can tell you the funny thing is i when when you were here in Chicago, I was in Mexico and we looked and it was hotter in Chicago than it was in Mexico. That makes sense. That's just it. I mean, it was it was so hot and humid everywhere that I was in America. It was it was crazy. And like, i you know, I did OK with it, but it was it was a lot. I'm not going to lie. So getting getting back to Dublin, getting off the plane and it was like, I don't know, like maybe 68 degrees here. I was like, oh, that's great.
00:48:55
Speaker
Um, but I was like, Oh, you know what? Watching a good cold movie sounds good right now. And so 30 days of night, it fits the bill, baby. Um, it gives you vampires. It gives you Josh Hartnett. It gives you, um, uh, cold. It gives you, you know, darkness. And it's just a good movie, man. Like Pete, whoever thought that motherfucker up. was smart as fuck. I love, love, love the movie. And it was a great watch yet again. So like I don't need to to rehash it, but like, if you have not seen 30 days of night and you are a horror fan, you need to go watch this movie. It's so, so good.
00:49:33
Speaker
Yeah, I feel, um, what did we, I think that's in our like first 10 episodes or at least first 20 episodes, something like that. Yeah. Um, you can go listen to, I think as winter is terrifying, but so, so good. I loved it. I loved it yet again. So please watch it. All right. My next one it was on AMC plus. So I'm assuming that means it's on shutter. Um, but it is called hashtag Chad gets the ax all one word. Um, what a cycle, my goodness. Yeah, well, so this movie is about the so, you know, we just talked about social media a couple episodes ago and how crazy it's gotten with kind of influencers and YouTube culture and like all that stuff. And that's like this movie in a nutshell, but in a horror movie, because it's about these three
00:50:19
Speaker
um Well, it's it's two single guys and one couple that are all influencers and they're going into ah investigate a haunted place and they're all live streaming it and trying to like, ah you know, share their share their license, share their followers and all that stuff and trying to build their social media thing. And little do they know that this place is actually haunted or is it there's kind of a twist um that I don't want to give away. ah But This is very much like, Maddie, you'll hate this movie because it's all like found footage, but through like an influencer lens. So. But I liked it. I thought it was pretty fun and pretty inventive for like an hour and 24 minute movie on, you know, shutter or whatever. enough And so like I thought all the characters were pretty endearing and pretty true to kind of like what that, you know, character trope is with okay like the annoying YouTube, you know, guys essentially.
00:51:16
Speaker
Um, but I think this just came out because it was on like, uh, the, like featured area of AMC plus. So if you get a chance, I, I do recommend Chad gets the ax. Okay. Well, it's a very interesting title for sure. Um, my next one is the bear season three. I watched this on Disney plus here. I think it's on Hulu in America. Is that right? It's on both now. on boney and hulu Disney and Hulu are essentially kind of like sharing. Anyways. um The Bear, season three. um The Bear is such a, ah it's such a Chicago show. like there's I don't think there's been any other TV show like it that feels so incredibly Chicago.
00:52:01
Speaker
um and that's even thinking that there are things called fucking like chicago men or chicago fire or you know whatever the fuck the only other one that i can think of is the ah that this actor was also oh yeah was shame was shameless shameless yeah yeah yeah you're absolutely right and like i mean like it's down to like their accents it's down to what they wear it's down to it's down to fucking everything And this is the continuation of the story of Carmi and um and the beef, which turns into the bear um in this season. um Look, I mean, that this season's getting a lot of flack from a lot of people. um you know People are talking about it not being very good or this or that or whatever.
00:52:41
Speaker
I don't join that throng um for me. you know This is out of the three that we've had. This is probably my least favorite season, but it's still good. I i mean i think what's hard about it is that season one of the show was it was nearly breathtaking. It was so good. Like there had never been anything like this before. And like just the emotion in it and the heart of it was just so fucking cool. And all the actors that they got together and the writing and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.
00:53:14
Speaker
ah it's It's kind of hard to top it. And then season two came along and it did a pretty fucking good job of nearly getting there. And then season three came along and like, look, the story is continuing. like This is just sort of like that, that messy middle in stories where you got to tell this shit to get to the next part of it. And so that's the way that I kind of look at it. I think it was still a good season. like Once again, not my favorite, but a lot of good stuff in here. and a lot of great talent on on on the screen. um It's the same cast that we've been used to for the last two seasons. um But you know not on top of it, you know there are sort of like these guest roles that are played by i mean incredible people. like Olivia Coleman is in this show, for God's sake. That's incredible enough. um Josh Hartnett was also in this one, which was funny to see. um He did a a really great job. But then this is was a really fun season to see real chefs on screen.
00:54:09
Speaker
And um two chefs that were that were in particular really cool to see were Grant Akets of fame in Chicago. um This was one of the best restaurants in the world. It was the best restaurant in the world for a while. um And like to see Grant Akets on screen, it was it was honestly pretty fucking cool. like It was really neat. And then um Thomas Keller, who was the the chef of of French Laundry among among other ah really cool restaurants. So, um, you know, those little guest appearances from them to really, really neat stuff. So, um, I enjoyed it. Uh, I, I think it was really good. Don't listen to the haters watch season three of the bear. Yeah. We're like, um, I think four or five episodes in, we just haven't ah gotten through the whole thing yet. For me, I'm sorry, a show like the bear, I have to slow drip it. Otherwise it.
00:55:01
Speaker
it gives me like anxious feelings. I don't know. Yeah. Um, so I like to take my time with it, but I'm glad to hear that you liked it. I think that, I think that one thing with a show like this where it just like invades the zeitgeist so much in its first season, there's so much pressure to get it out fast and get it out yeah and get out like quality, which like, Quality and fast is not necessarily like the best recipe for this kind of thing. They don't always go hand in hand. And so like, I think the demand for this was so high that they just had to get something out. And I think maybe that's why it's it's suffering just a little bit. i haven't I haven't felt that way, but I have seen some of the the critiques on it, but... Makes sense. It's still a great show, Jesus, everybody. Amen. Take a break. and And I'll say just one more thing on it. Like, you know, obviously I'm i'm a Chicagoan for life. Like that's just in my heart. And like, this is the one show that makes me like truly feel like homesick. You know, like this yeah does it because it just does such a great job of being Chicago.
00:56:06
Speaker
Yeah. All right. My last one is also on Netflix. It is called Outstanding a Comedy Revolution. Have you heard anything about this? no This is a documentary all about standup comedians in the LGBTQ. Interesting. it it was ah It was a June offering from Netflix, so for Pride Month, and they just did a great job of just like looking at stand-up and then like just and seeing how many people came up through stand-up that were LGBTQ and were like fighting for those rights through comedy.
00:56:45
Speaker
And it was like Sandra Bernhardt, Margaret Cho. like They just did such a good job of like you know even looking at people like Ellen DeGeneres, which obviously you know she had been reported for being a horrible person. But ah think about everything she had to fucking go through to even get to you know any sort of fame. Because You know, she was on, you know, she had the Ellen show and before that she was a stand up. But then as soon as she came out on the show one season more, you're done. You're canceled like it. It was such a stigma in Hollywood for anyone to be lesbian or gay or even bisexual, for God's sakes.
00:57:25
Speaker
and be taken either A, seriously as an actor or B, get work at all. And so just seeing how these people fought through kind of, and you know, think about the thing we don't think about, you know, I give Sandra Bernhardt a lot of flack as an actress because I don't think she's that great of an actress. I'm just gonna say it. And that's okay. Yeah. But her as a standup and her as someone that fought for gay rights in the 80s and 90s. Yeah, for sure. Amazing. And you forget about it. And so I think that this documentary did a fucking great job of just looking at these people that, you know, we kind of look at standups as kind of like, and for lack of a better term, as a joke. You know what I mean? Like, it's, oh, it's a good plan person. It's that person before they got their start or whatever. But like,
00:58:10
Speaker
These people are toting the line a lot for LGBTQ rights and kind of making it mainstream for people that maybe you don't hear it every day because they're traveling to places like Omaha or, you know, down south and and places like that where they're doing standup. That's maybe a little racy for those people. And so if you get a chance, this is a great documentary and it made me very nostalgic for I think that I just feel like Uh, like stand up in like the late nineties, right before, um, right before that show came out, um, last comic standing, like where, like where that kind of like launched, uh, a different wave of a standup comedian. But before that, there was like a.
00:58:54
Speaker
a heyday, and it just took me back, and so I loved it. So if you get a chance, I would definitely recommend Outstanding a Comedy Revolution. You know what? I will watch that. um i like I like comedy, which is a dumb thing to say, but like yeah, i I like comedy. Oh, I think I've been so tired over the past, I don't know, decade of just hearing about, like, frankly, straight comedians being such pieces of shit. You know what I mean? And going, but it's comedy. This is what we do. Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.
00:59:27
Speaker
and people defending them and like, not just defending them, but like defending them with fucking teeth about it. Like, oh, of course they can say whatever they, big it it becomes like ah a free speech thing and it's not a free speech thing. It has nothing to do with free speech. You have free speech to do whatever the fuck you want in this world. You can say whatever you want, you can do whatever you want, but there are consequences for your fucking actions. So it's it's it's um it's what's what I'm looking for. It is really compelling to me that there's a documentary that explores, frankly, other comedians that aren't these straight people who just kept doing a bunch of bullshit and trying to get away with it. Does that make sense? Who never, who never changed and think that everything else is, you know, not changing around them is stupid. I agree. Like that's, i'm I'm glad you brought this up because it it sounds compelling. Refreshing is the word I'm looking for refreshing. So thank you for bringing that to the table, Andrew.
01:00:21
Speaker
Um, my last one is called presumed innocent. It is on, um, uh, apple TV plus right now and it, uh, stars, um, it stars. What's his fucking name? Jake Gyllenhaal. I could not think of it for him. himself Um, it's a mini series and, um, Yeah. um I mean, look, this has a really good cast of people. Peter Sarsgaard is in it. um Bill Camp is in it. And Bill Camp has been in and a lot of really good shows lately because name might not sound familiar. But if you saw a picture, you would go, oh, yeah, that guy um and a handful of of other really good people.
01:00:59
Speaker
um It's an interesting show for sure. I'm not sure how it's gonna end up. You know, i've I've talked a lot about Apple TV plus shows on what's what you've been watching bitch for a while. And like, you know, they're always hit or miss. it just Sometimes they're really, really good. And sometimes you're like, man and sometimes you're like, that was really not good. This one is kind of ending up right in the middle for me right now. I hope that that improves because, like I said, there there are some really great people in this. it's It's a fairly good premise. But I don't know, sometimes I feel like the cliffhangers or like the things that that they keep dangling for you from episode to episode in Apple TV shows are like cheap. Like the writing is just cheap. I don't i don't know how else to say it. And like this happened, um oh I forget the name of the one show, but it was like, ah
01:01:47
Speaker
Idris Elba was in it and it was like a hijack show. I can't remember what it was called but I really, I just really couldn't stand it because the writing was just so cheesy. That can sometimes happen in this show too and it's a disappointment. So I don't know, there's still some episodes left to go. I'm gonna finish it out so I'll let you know how it goes but I don't know. I'm just kind of half and half with it right now I guess. Well, it's the funny thing with Apple TV plus is it seems like they keep throwing money at a lot of these like really big people because if you think of i the the cast that are on a lot of these shows are just crazy. But like they can't seem to break into like the zeitgeist of like popular culture. You know what I mean? Like I'd agree with you. Yeah. Like they they almost get there with ah with a show, like the morning show that starts off like so big and gets all these awards. And then it just kind of fades away. And like, agreed. It's one of those, it's one of those weird streamers that just, it's kind of like Peacock or Paramount Plus that just, they can't quite break in. And it's, and it would be interesting to see what happens to some of these streamers in the next couple of years, because you know, something's got to give at some point, but yeah, I think that makes a lot of sense.
01:03:02
Speaker
All right, well, that does it for what you've been watching, bitch. Maddie brought us the Civil War. You can find that by searching Ken Burns. um Yeah, I also I watch it on YouTube for free. So there you go. OK, he also brought us 30 Days of Night, which I'm sure you can find the bear season three, which you can find on Disney plus or Hulu and presumed innocent on Apple TV plus. And Andrew brought us the mole season two on netflix under paris also on netflix. Uh, hashtag Chad gets the ax on amc plus and outstanding a comedy revolution. So that does it for what you've been watching. Bitch, take a little break here. We'll be right back with our first film of the episode ride with a Y. All right. It's about one minute away. Okay. All right.
01:03:51
Speaker
i Right card? Right. It's an app. It's like um a taxi. Just more comfortable. i never heard of it
01:04:05
Speaker
find now you
01:04:11
Speaker
you're that ride driver
01:04:22
Speaker
Oh, you missed the turn.
01:04:38
Speaker
He has five Rs. Meaning he's not gonna kill us.
01:04:48
Speaker
Did you request a ride? Well, you've got one with the movie Ride. With a Y, as Maddie mentioned, ah for some reason. Maddie, tell us all about Ride. You have reached your final destination. Technology brings us closer, or perhaps it brings strangers a little too close. But how much can you really trust someone? With a new rideshare service, you never know who you'll be getting in a car with, or if you'll ever get out.
01:05:20
Speaker
Ride with a Y was directed by Brian Frank Vachilia. It was written by him as well, along with Dustin Frost, produced and distributed by Vega Entertainment. Paul was played by David Walks. Jasmine was played by Jessica Surfati. I believe you pronounce it that way. um Marcus is played by Ronnie Alvarez in a Oscar winning performance. Carl was played by Kyle Thomas Schmidt. And Mary was played by Veronica Lauren. The film was rated TV MA. So this must've, it must've played on TV first, I guess. I don't, I don't know. I think it was just a streamer. I think that's why it has that. Gotcha. Um, it's 84 minutes long, so that's a blessing, but it felt about 120.
01:06:02
Speaker
Uh, it's from the USA. Um, it was real. I honestly forgot to put the release date on there and it really does released on September 15th of 2017. Thank you, Andrew. I totally forgot to do that. I'm filming Los Angeles and I could not find out any budget information for this movie. Um, so this was the first watch for both of us. Um, you know, listen, we pick out a subject and then we look for movies that fit the subject. This is one that fit the theme very, very well, obviously. So Andrew, um, tell me what you thought about ride with a Y, which is how we're going to refer to it from now on.
01:06:37
Speaker
um So Ride, ah this movie is definitely like a one of those where it's a little more style over substance if you if you if you ask me because the movie looks really good and there's actually probably quite a bit of like well made shots and like the movie itself is well made. However, it suffers drastically from a script that makes little to no sense and we'll get into it in ah in a little bit here on why I think that. um But there were so many parts where I started to get into the movie and then just something so wacky would happen that I would be like, what are we watching?
01:07:17
Speaker
And so at the end of it, I was kind of just left a little like, I don't know, I kind of felt like that emoji where you just kind of have both your hands up in the air, like, I don't know. like amud you You were the shrug man. Yeah. um And so like, there are parts that I liked, and we'll get a into it, but a lot of it felt like someone had an idea And they had like an idea for like a, I don't know, like a 20 minute short. And they tried to extend it into a 90 minute movie or in this case, an 84 minute movie. And maybe they didn't have enough to do that. And and maybe they should just kept it as a as a short until they kind of fleshed out some of the other parts because they're on the and the and i like the service of it. It's a pretty simple movie. It's it's what they do with that time that they take that.
01:08:07
Speaker
It's very strange. And so I think that's my take on it. I think it's just kind of a weird movie. I didn't hate it, but I'm never going to watch it again. You know? Yeah, makes sense. um I feel much the same as you. um I think that oh Okay the film is from twenty seventeen right we have to put our brains back in twenty seventeen. And that wasn't that long ago it was seven years ago it's not it's not a short time but it's not a very long time either right and if you remember i told a story earlier in this episode from twenty fourteen with.
01:08:45
Speaker
Uber, right? That was when the guy said, you know, nice legs or whatever. We had been using it before that, probably from what, 2012, I would say. So these have been around for a very long time at this point. And I mean, like because like in modern history, it doesn't take that long to be very long. This movie acts like ride shares were entirely a new thing, entirely new. And that is immediately why this movie fails. Like the fact that anyone in this movie in L.A., like they weren't in Topeka, Kansas. They weren't in Hobart, Indiana. They weren't in ah they weren't in Pontiac, Michigan.
01:09:28
Speaker
They were in Los Angeles, one of the biggest cities in the world where there are people taking ride shares all the fucking time. We're supposed to honestly believe even in 2017 that a bunch of people in this movie didn't know what a ride share thing was that immediately made this movie very, very, uh, off, off the charts in a very strange way. But beyond that, um You know, look, you're right. The movie does look very good and it's made well. I think the best part of the movie in terms of of how it's made are the kills. The killer kills. i I thought I wrote down how many killed, but I guess I didn't. It kills a good number of people, right? And if you are into slashers where people get killed,
01:10:13
Speaker
these are pretty good kills pretty vicious they're vicious they are intense they are well done they're thought out and like for um for a slasher killer for that i mean like like the actual killer himself like there there's a very clear psychology in the way that okay this guy likes to kill like this and And that is a pattern that is carried out with every single person that he kills. So it's it's even that way. It's consistent. It really, really works, I have to say. So that part's good. It looks good, like you said. But then besides the the wacky idea that we have to give ourselves into that nobody knows what a ride share is. And this is a very new thing. um We also have to deal with the fact that the movie is just slow.
01:10:59
Speaker
And like I said, the movie is 84 minutes long. I'm not joking when I say this felt like it was two hours long because it meanders and takes so much time. And it primarily takes that time in the rides themselves. There is there for each ride that this dude does, they take so long. It's like, wait a minute. Is this real? And I had to ask myself, like, wait a minute. OK, I know it's a movie. And like obviously, it's not going to be the exact time of the ride, duh. But like they're giving you a sense of how long this ride actually is. And like if you think about it, when he got back in, when he got near the start of the movie, he gets back into the car with um with Carl, right? So this is before Carl was dead. The ride from the girl's house after he kills her to you know wherever he, I forget, wherever he was going,
01:11:52
Speaker
that ride, like in movie time, seemed to me to take like a half hour. Was it the same to you? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And like, I mean, you and I were just talking about, you know, what's, what's the longest ride you've ever had. If you were in the car for a half hour and you know, watching the movie, there wasn't a lot of traffic here. Doesn't that just seem weird to you? And so like it what what this goes back to to me is like you know it's like it's like you said this could have just been a twenty minute short but instead somebody who didn't have experience making feature films decided I'm gonna give this a try and like you know kudos to you you're trying to create things I get that but on that you really failed and and it's it's sloppy filmmaking.
01:12:34
Speaker
Paying attention to all the elements of a film, including time, is incredibly important. Some directors get it, some directors don't. This director clearly did not get it. um I think you know beyond that, there were a number of frustrating parts in this.
Slasher Movie Analysis
01:12:49
Speaker
And like look, slashers are meant to be frustrating. Part of part of what um of what thrills you in your body is the frustration, is watching somebody not do what you think they're supposed to do in order to survive. This person should run out of the room. That person should close the window. This person should lock the door, whatever. They don't do that. And so it it it it it enhances or or it um it enunciates or or articulates the fear inside of you. And like that's all fine and good. But in this, there are some parts where you're like, are you fucking kidding me?
01:13:22
Speaker
And they're they're they're the one that that drove me nuts was when, remember the the woman who's who's really bossy that gets in the backseat and she's like calling people and saying like, call call this and do this and the party's not ready and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. And like, she has every chance in the world to get out of that car when it stopped. All she has to do, Andrew, is lift up the lock. I know that's it. And I'm watching it and I'm like, look, sometimes I get it. But this time I'm like, man, that's just easy. So what he could have done, the the director, what they could have done there is he could have, you know, made a point to lock the door or something to give us an idea that she can't open that door. You know what I mean? But we don't get that. Now, what does happen immediately after that is the kill.
01:14:11
Speaker
is probably the most vicious of the movie. He punches her so many times in the head that her head literally falls off because he hits her with brass knuckles. So it is it's a really frustrating part followed by one of the the most gruesome kills in the movie. Um, I think another part that was really, uh, just, I just wanted to, uh, I wanted to get in the ride with that killer quite frankly, and have him kill me, um, was when double T makes his appearance in this movie. This guy's he entertaining. Andrew, tell us about double T. Tell us whatever you can about him.
01:14:45
Speaker
Well, so this is the part of the movie that didn't make a whole lot of sense because um this man has um basically the main premise of the movie is that this Paul guy steals a ride share from another man named Carl kills him steals his car and becomes Carl for the night and goes on this murdering spree. What happens, though, is Paul accepts a ride from a woman and then pulls up to a theater where there is no people and then double T just gets in the car like it's like a regular taxi in the front seat and just talks him out of taking the other woman and and taking him instead because he has cash.
01:15:29
Speaker
Um, that's double T Terrence. Uh, he's at least entertaining. Uh, you know, at least he's something to, to, and you know, I don't know. He's a more active than anybody else in this movie, but he's so, and he's like this anachronism that just he hops up on the screen. It's it's as though he comes from 1992 with um ah with ah with a living colors shirt on and like his head cocked to the side of his hat, his hat cocked to the side. And like, I don't know who on Earth decided when they were either writing this or when they were casting it and then actually making it happen, how this could be possibly good for your film in 2017 or any time for that matter. But it it surely wasn't. It's it's it's honestly it's so annoying.
01:16:21
Speaker
that you just wanna shut the movie off. um And in this case, I mean, if I wasn't watching it for the show, if I had gotten that far, I definitely would have just gone, you know what? I'm just gonna watch The Exorcist tonight and call to tonight. Like that's that's it, I'm done with this, I can't do it anymore. um So I mean, I don't know, you know, it's, it's the the problem when we get movies like this is, like yeah Because you and I, I think you probably feel the same way here. You and I, we don't like to trash movies. We're not we're not we're not those kind of podcasters. like That's not what we like to do. And so like I really do try to find the good stuff in this. And so like you know all I can say is the kills in this are very juicy and they and they are really, like I said, they're very well done.
01:17:07
Speaker
And I would even say, like, yeah out of all the crazy, awful acting, like the killer is actually not that bad. You know, like no he he does his job and the dude is he's pretty good looking to for forgot he likes to take his clothes off. So if you like that in a movie, get a lot of that. He's got a nice butt and you know, I like butts. Yeah, so a couple of things that I just wanted to talk about that ah were the most frustrating for me. Tell me. um So the first thing is that we are introduced in this movie to our our main woman, Jasmine, and she finds a wallet on the street. And it right home rate it becomes a plot point that she's going to return the wallet, but then her boyfriend Marcus shows up
01:17:54
Speaker
And I think we're supposed to believe that he steals the money out of the wallet, but this plot point never comes back. It never is resolved. And so like, what was the point of putting this extra beat of finding a wallet on the street? if you're not gonna do anything with it so like that's yes that's and then we get the character so so throughout this movie we are introduced to vignette after vignette of just kind of like the worst kind of people you know we got like the super drunk girls we got the bossy woman we got terence double t or whatever
01:18:30
Speaker
And so like Marcus is also the worst boyfriend in the fucking world. Like he he might actually have the gold medal for that awful. And guess who makes it through the entire movie and then is somehow. I. redeemed at the end of the movie because Jasmine's pregnant and so now he's gonna be a better boyfriend this what what are we doing with Marcus he know I understand it dead in the streets and also like I'm just gonna be honest like he's not a good-looking person like he's he's not
01:19:04
Speaker
Yeah, he's definitely dating up with Jasmine. Let's just he he he might be somebody else's cup of tea, but like it's it's yet another sloppy point in the movie. Like casting has to make sense. Jasmine and is is she's just classically good looking and he is classically not. and all their interactions are just they're constantly fighting. And so, like, there's a point in the movie and that does this a couple of times where I think that they forgot that they already said something in the script about this, so they repeat it. Oh, no. Oh, no.
01:19:37
Speaker
because there's a part where they're going to a party they're going to um jasmine's friends part birthday party and marcus in the car on the way to the party's like alright we're gonna leave by eleven right we're like we're not gonna stay that late we'll leave by eleven she had to go to they had to go to one of his friends parties. right and so she says okay cool no no no problem then they get in the bar and he's like we're not going to stay here late are we and it was like we just talked about this we just literally made the rules that we're going to leave by 11 so why are we talking about this again
01:20:11
Speaker
And then there's just go, go ahead, go ahead, go ahead. And then there's another part in the movie where Paul is in the car with Carl and he's trying to make small talk with, uh, with Carl. So he asked him like, Oh, do you have a girlfriend? I bet you get lots of pretty ladies in this car. And, you know, Carl was like, Oh, you know, I don't have a girlfriend anymore. I did have one, but we broke up and here's why. And da da da da. And then they, they go to the next scene. And what does Paul say after that? He says, man, I bet you get a lot of ladies in these cars. And I'm like, I noticed that same thing. Yep, totally. Totally noticed that. The script is just so repetitive and I i don't really understand like how they didn't see this in editing and just make it not. Also, i mean let's go back to that that that scene at the bar right when they get there.
01:20:59
Speaker
I just want to say that it was very weird that Marcus ordered a Guinness that was fucking weird. It made no sense. ah Like, look, yes, yes, they drink Guinness all over the world. I'm perfectly aware of this. But as somebody who lives in the land of Guinness, I just that seemed very weird to me. It was a very specific, strange choice. And I'm like, clearly this director and this writer, they they like to drink in us. Congratulations. But that was so off. Like even that didn't seem authentic to me. Like nothing just seemed to work in this movie except for the kills. That's it. And that you know and it speaks to the brains of of those of those creators.
01:21:43
Speaker
You know, what I thought was authentic is when the girl at the beginning is kind of seducing Paul. She takes him home and she says, you know, pour, pour us a glass of wine and, you know, come and come meet me in the bathroom. And what kind of wine they got? Apothec red, baby. I was like, oh, my God. Yes. No. OK, I will tell you this. Speaking of, I'm glad you brought that scene up. Because, you know, look, but but before I started watching this yesterday, I had been texting Michael and Andrew about something else. And they were like, ah theyre we I must have said something where you were thinking about like, oh, Maddie's probably gonna hate this movie. And so you were said, oh, you must be watching Ride right now. And I was like, no, I'm gonna watch it soon. um And so, ah you know, you guys were sort of waiting for my reaction. And I was i went into it going, well, it's not gonna be that good. So, you know, whatever. But that scene,
01:22:35
Speaker
I was thinking, huh, when he got that wine, I didn't know ah what was going to happen. Right now. And for a minute, I thought, huh, I wonder if she's the killer that this. i And for a minute, I was like, this could actually be kind of interesting. Who knows what's going to happen? And that's what I will say. And I was I was I was hopeful for a minute that this was actually going to be kind of good, but it just didn't pan out that way. No, the the beginning you do have kind of a um question mark of who's the psycho here? Is it sure Paul? Is it the girl or is it Carl? And like you kind of like there is something interesting about that dynamic and like seeing like how is it going to play out? But the way it plays out is so by the book that you're like, yeah, well, that's kind of a letdown. I don't know. I agree. I think letdown is a good word for it because I think that that there are a number of ways that this could have been improved to make it quasi okay, if not good. And they just didn't occur. That's it. um So this is some of the ah brilliant script writing that I'm talking about, and I'm so sorry to talk on these people, but
01:23:42
Speaker
that at the beginning when they're kind of having a conversation at the bar, which doesn't make sense because she said, Oh, you, this was so frustrating. See, she says to him, Oh, you must, your girlfriend must hate that or something about his girlfriend. He's like, Oh, I don't have a girlfriend when it's clear they're on a date. So I'm like, what, what are you talking about? And then he says, oh, she says she says something to him and he says, oh, I'm an open book. And then what does she say to him? Well, I look forward to reading the pages. And I was like, oh, dear, we are in for a treat. um You know.
01:24:20
Speaker
And oh, the part that I forgot about that brought me back to 2017 is when people got in the car without saying where they were going, where they're just like, Oh, I'll just direct you. Like I remember that. And nowadays that seems like crazy talk. Like you don't just get into a car and like get going. ah You get into a car now and you already know the destination, how much it's going to cost, you know, which way you're going. And that was wild to me. Wow. ah You know, Andrew, i you know that I love to look at letterbox reviews when I think about our films. There are a surprising number of four and a half star reviews for this. You're joking me. They are in German, Andrew. And look ah my German is is elementary. I can read it okay, but I'm not going to take a lot of time to to translate these, but German people seem to like it.
01:25:09
Speaker
I'm there's also a three and a half star one in english from the staff underscore h and. ah it's she got This is back in twenty seventeen i didn't know letterbox even existed um but stuff underscore h says this was simple but good. hard Hard to be interested in these days of the basic plot like this. And it wasn't amazing, but worth the watch. It had a bit of a 90s feel to it. Some of the acting was kind of crappy, but it was shot great. The score was dope, and it had some crazy kills. Good for you, Steph H. um And there are some other people in here that I'm i'm surprised that you know people liked it as much as they did. But in general, I would say that most people tend to agree with us on this, um that this was
01:25:54
Speaker
Not um it wasn't gonna win best picture you know and I'll just I'll leave you with this with this scene so you can judge whether you want to watch this movie or not but. the though our main heroine Jasmine goes through ah quite the ordeal with our killer Paul and ends up setting his car on fire and you know getting away. She wakes up in the hospital, the nurse is saying, oh, thank God you're okay and you know you were out for a while there and also you're pregnant just because. And then
01:26:25
Speaker
In that same scene, you know as she's laying in the hospital with ah you know with the beep beeps and the drip drips and the all the stuff, a ah deputy comes in and says, we got to go identify the body right now. That was like- Come on, are you fucking kidding me? Are you fucking kidding me? And then she looks at him and she goes, right now? And he's like, yeah, let's go. And I was like, yeah, like she's in the hospital. What are you doing? That would that wouldn't happen. That just wouldn't happen. So that's that. I'm sorry. I don't mean to beat up on this movie too much, but it just was ah it was it was a tough one to get through. um That all being said, I think our main guy does a pretty good job. The kills were pretty good and the movie looked at least good. So Andrew, what are you with some positives? What are you rate in this movie?
01:27:16
Speaker
So here at Friday, the 13th horror podcast, we rate in a seven stripes gale for the seven stripes, of the gale rainbow. So that means 3.5 is an average movie. I'm going to give this movie a, I'm going to be generous and give it a three. Yeah. I also gave it a three. Um, and the only reason why is because the kills were pretty good. Other than that, this movie sucks. Yeah, I said it's a solid premise with some good vignettes, but the script and pacing just kinda ruin it. Well, folks, I'm sure that you're gonna run to go watch Ride after listening to this episode. But before you do, hold on, because we have one more film to go over with you, and that is called Spree. We'll be right back in a moment. For all of you out there who don't know me, get ready. Because you're about to know me.
Discussion on 'Spree'
01:28:04
Speaker
Hey, I don't see any cops around. Should I blow this next one?
01:28:10
Speaker
I'm Kurt. Hey guys. Hey guys. What's up guys? We're gonna inject this right on the label. Does this water have like a taste to it? Airtight. ah We're watertight. If you're not documenting yourself, you just don't exist.
01:28:31
Speaker
The mouth feel on this? Otherworldly.
01:28:39
Speaker
What we're doing here is important. We're creating a brand. You're following me, you guy. Fuck yeah!
01:28:59
Speaker
You're a fucking gun. You don't know what this job's like. You don't know. Put that fucking gun on.
01:29:17
Speaker
Where are you going? I'm taking you home. This is not the way to my fucking house, Kurt. Oh no, not your home. My home.
01:29:28
Speaker
i know your favorite candy it's a three remember those yeah this is about the movie called spree andrew just's going and tell whats about it right now boom in his numbers. Kurt Kunkel, a ride share driver thirsty for followers, has figured out a deadly plan to go viral. And as his disturbing live stream is absurdly embraced by the social media hellscape, a comedian emerges as the only hope to stop his rampage. Directed by Eugene, because I can't quote co nope.
01:30:00
Speaker
ah they not coach coat lorenko i would say Yeah, sorry about that, guys. Written by him and Gene McHugh, production and distribution were handled by a bunch of people. There was like four or five right at the beginning, Dream Crew, Forest Hill Entertainment, Super Bloom Films, Particular Crowd, and Vertigo Films, which is kind of crazy. um Kurt is played by Stranger Things himself, Joe Carey. Chris is played by our buddy, David Arquette. Bobby is played by Joshua Oval. Mario is played by John DeLuca. Jesse is played by Sashir Zamata. And London is played by Misha Barton, along with Lala Kent from from that reality show, Vanderpump Rules, and Frankie Grande. Oh my God, Jesus. This movie is not rated. It comes in at 93 minutes. It was made and released on August 14th of 2020 in and around Azusa, California, and l LA. ah This was a direct to Hulu, I believe, streamer, um so it did not have any budget information available. Maddie, what did you think of Spree, a very similar premise but handled very differently?
01:31:11
Speaker
Yeah, so this is my first time watching Spree um and I thought it was great. um i I had a lot of fun with this movie. you know I watched this back to back with Ride, Ride with Hawaii. And so it was a very refreshing experience to watch a movie that I was actually enjoying, to be honest with you. um look i I like joke quite a bit. um I think he has a lot of reasons to like him, you know, joke on screen and like listen, we've watched him for a long time in Stranger Things. He's been a part he was part of the show from the very beginning. and
01:31:46
Speaker
So he's like part of like the American living room almost, you know what I mean? Like like we we all know him, we know who he is. And like we know the kind of characters that he generally plays. And this is right up his alley. It makes total sense. He was cast perfectly for it. Bam, boom, done. um and like you know like he's he's a he's a he's a cute guy he is sort of a big old goofball and like he's a lot of fun to watch on screen because he's very electric he's just kind of all over the place and like look is he ever gonna play any like super serious roles I don't know maybe like when he gets into his
01:32:22
Speaker
30s or something, he might you know find some some crazy thing that he ends up playing. Now he's got a band. Oh, he's got a band, does he? Oh, good for him. He has a huge song on the on the and the radio right now. Oh, I didn't know that. That's crazy. all All about Chicago, by the way. What? Oh, my God. Because he went to DePaul. Oh, wow. good Good for him. That's a very interesting theater program. I'll just put it that way. um But look, I mean, there's there's there's a lot to like about this movie. um The movie is absolutely off the wall ridiculous. um Andrew said it said it in the plot summary, but this is a movie that really, yeah, yeah it's about ah a ride share thing. That's of course why we chose it for this episode. But at the end of the day, it's really about like social media influencers and society gone berserk.
01:33:12
Speaker
And, um, and the film is actually based on the, uh, Elliot Roger, um, who was the inspiration for the character of Kurt Kunkle. Elliot Roger was the one in 2014 in Isla Vista, California, who was, he was a total incel. He was on 4chan and he just went and like killed a bunch of girls. Remember that? And I think guys remember. Um, terrible story. And he was like a little rich kid. to so like It's just a total little fucker in Isla Vista who just went out one day and fucking shot some people because he was an incel who thought that every woman in the world owed him sex. It was a very fucking strange thing. Um, and a terrible tragedy.
01:33:50
Speaker
And this movie is not too far off of of that. you know While the character of Kurt is not an incel, um he's out there looking for the popularity that he thinks he deserves and cannot quite figure out why he can't get it. He's been producing all of these terrible, lackluster, stupid pieces of content on social media, mostly about nothing. And that matches very well what happens right now in the world. If you go on social media, which is funny for someone who works in it, I am on it very, very seldomly now, except to post Muppet memes when I'm high.
01:34:29
Speaker
um It's basically just a bunch of young people making movies all day long about anything, about eating spaghetti, about waking up, about getting a glass of water, you name it. There is somebody making a reel about something, and that's what this is about. The the character of Kurt has been spending so much time on Kurt's world trying to find some sort of bastion of meaning, and and he can't find anything. And here's the reason why. because no one gives a flying fuck about him. And I'm saying this to all of us now, no one gives a flying fuck about you either, right? That's the world that we live in. This world where we think we hold so much incredible meaning that everyone must listen to us when in reality, you fucking don't because that's what life is. No one fucking cares about you because you're not a special little snowflake.
01:35:25
Speaker
That's it. But this special little snowflake, it's it's comedic, but he is determined to make everyone care about him. So how does he do that? He comes up with an idea called hashtag the lesson and the lesson basically is him going in his ride share called Spree. um Well, he's a driver for Spree. It's basically Uber and killing people. That's it. And so he does things like get bottles of water ready in the backseat of the car. But before he puts them in there, he injects poison into them and he puts a little drop of hot wax on it so that it it covers up. It looks like a normal bottle of water. There you go. He devises different ways to kill these people and in crazy or crazier ways, because even when he starts to kill people in the car, his audience that is watching doesn't really respond. And that's what I don't believe it yeah or or don't believe it. And that's one of the brilliant things about the movie, too, is, you know, you'll watch all the stuff happen.
01:36:22
Speaker
And that alone is pretty crazy. But you could do a rewatch of the movie only looking at the comments that get posted in the live stream. And a funny thing about that, in that in the trivia for the movie, um the writer and director Eugene Coles-Lorengo, or however you say it, he said that he did 40 all-nighters writing all the comments and usernames that appear throughout the movie. Wow. And honestly, it shows because if you and I want to do a rewatch like so I can see more of them. But as you kind of glance down, it's like it's either going to be in the lower left or the lower right of your screen. There are some comments in there that are so authentic. Like it feels like you're actually watching this happen. Like like like you're really seeing this go for it. And I just thought that was brilliant. So I mean, look, this is one that I could really wax on about and I will in this episode.
01:37:16
Speaker
Um, but like I, I gotta tell ya, I really enjoyed it. Yeah. Um, for me, I'm in a similar boat as you. I think that this is, this is this premise. Was your first time watching it? I watched it once before, but i I, I just kind of forgot about it. So, and um, but this is this premise done, right? You know what I mean? yeah because we We have a lead that is. very um and and en enigmatic, like very just like you you you want to follow this actor because sure he does he does little things because there are like I think six different cameras in the kind of the car set up that he has. Yeah. um He does like little winks and nods to the camera that only an actor like Joe Kerry can do and make funny but also make you you're because you're you're kind of like cheering for a bad guy. You know what I mean? Yeah, sure.
01:38:12
Speaker
A lot of his passengers are just, I mean, the first one he picks up is like a white supremacist, essentially. Oh, my God, Jesus. ah Where he says, ah just kind of say it with me, I'm white and I'm proud. And I was like, oh, God. um And then that guy swiftly gets killed. um my My favorite passengers, as I mentioned before, were the Misha Barton, Lala Kent and Frankie Grande, just because it's so it's so L.A. that it was just so L.A. of the part where um he, I forget what they're talking about, but um one of the, I think it's Lala goes like, Oh, I I'm having deja vu and Misha Barton goes deja vu means you're exactly where you need to be. And I was like, Oh my God, this has totally.
01:39:00
Speaker
um and there's And then there's a lot of like really funny little segments. I think the one with Mario is pretty funny and when when Jesse gets in the car with him because it's an Uber or Uber pool or what they call on on this a spree social. um And he steve figures out that she's a comedian, that she has a big social media following. And so he goes like, oh, follow her, follow. And she just goes, nobody says follow her, follow out loud. yeah yeah like Nobody says that out loud. There's little ports like that that were just like really funny. um And then like, you know, we kind of get like a little bit of a backstory on Kurt and maybe why he's um kind of, you know, suffering or whatnot that he is.
01:39:46
Speaker
Yeah. And it turns out he doesn't have a great home life. ah His mom and his dad are broken up and kind of at at wits with each other and don't get along. And so he's kind of being pushed and pulled between those two. um And then we find out later on in the movie that he ex his first victim was actually his mom, which is kind of really crazy. um And, you know, David Arquette does a great job of being a foil for Joe Carey to kind of like act off of Um, and I think that, you know, he's, he's there for comedic relief, but he also does bring a little bit of heart to the movie. If I'm being a honest, um, you know, kind of him and Jesse are kind of maybe the more like heart part of the movie. Um, if that makes any sense. Well, I mean, I i think too, like there, there's a, there's a bit of authenticity in that relationship, you know, right
01:40:36
Speaker
I mean this movie is off the wall don't get me wrong but you can sort of see that being real like that dad and that son that that kind of fucking tracks dude you know yeah i'm guessing that they're friends in real life in this one. Um, one thing I did want to point out is, uh, when, when, when he is killing Mario by slamming into him while he's peeing outside, um, there is a song that is playing all about how Kurt is a gummy bear and he tastes real good. I'm a gummy bear. I'm a gummy bear. yeah So I wrote down in my notes two things that made me laugh really fucking hard um Was when Mario says just drive faggot hi oh are And then when the gummy bear song came on I was dying I was fucking dying I was like, hold on. Is this an actual song right now? It was so fucking funny. Very the other the other part that made me um
01:41:33
Speaker
laugh out loud was when David Arquette is texting um Kurt and he says, come and get me, but come as spelled C-U-N. Oh, and I tell you, it's like one of the comments that made me laugh very, very hard too. was when like he's like on Jesse's stream or whatever. And and one of the people that come because he's like he's like killing people actively in the stream. One of the people comments wide people is all serial killers. I was I lost it was a very.
01:42:05
Speaker
um Another part that I thought that was kind of smart in the movie is um where he accidentally um ah he accidentally flips his car when he's kind of like making fun of homeless people, which I was pretty happy about actually when he loved it. Um, and then like he tries to go get another ride share, but, um, the police have shut down Spree because there's a killer on the loose. And so he has to download go-go, which is another ride share company. But I just thought that that, I thought that that was a little piece of the script that was really smart is that, oh yeah, if something was going on like this, they would just shut down the app. Like they would be like, well, we're not going to, you know, until they he's captured, you know we're not going to have people just walking around, uh, killing people. Um,
01:42:54
Speaker
The part that frustrated me really bad was the DJ woman. um The way that she finds that that gun and then it was a lot proceeds to take photos with it, put it in her mouth, I think. like a lot I was like, can we stop with this? And then she accidentally kills that police officer with that same gun. I was like, what is going on? I kind of lost it there too. I'm not going to lie. Uh, it almost, the movie almost lost me, but it brought me back when he's right after that part where he's, uh, evading police while also eating carne asada fries, which was funny. It's funny that you say that because I have in my notes right, right after that, that, that at if I said at about 55 minutes, I was checking the clock and that's right where you are right now.
01:43:42
Speaker
yeah yeah are basically right right where you are And I was the same way. It almost lost me a little bit. And then it sort of like it goes into a valley and then it jumps back up pretty quickly. So there is that lull in the middle, but like they do manage to pop it back up and then it it continues on fairly strong until the end, I would say. Well, and I did like that the how the movie handled, um, that Jesse didn't have a phone anymore because she made it kind of as part of her set on comedy that she destroys her phone during her comedy set because she's being like, um I get off social media. I don't want to be on it anymore. You know, no, no more eyes on me, which is kind of her like phrase or catch phrase.
01:44:21
Speaker
um And so she doesn't have a car or doesn't have a phone for the rest of the movie. And that's what allows kind of like the the end of the movie to happen. um It is funny, though, that there is a vignette during the credits where it's showing that because of what happened to her, she's now a social media famous again. I was like, this is bad. And she's like a rocketed famous idea when, um you know, when she ends up killing killing Kurt at the end. And one of the comments on the phone is, grab a selfie, grab have a selfie with him, Yolo. Like once again, like there's just all these really great moments. Like I don't know Eugene, whatever his last name is, um but he writes some some pretty solid comedy. i'm I'm not going to lie. And like funny and dark comedy at that.
01:45:07
Speaker
I also loved right in that scene too, just just before that on the couch is that family pillow. Did you notice that? Yes. Oh my god. It was like perfectly placed. Come on. Well, and the funny thing in your, in your when you say like grab a selfie, so what does she do? She does it. doesn't That's the funny part. And like and listen, when when this thing resolves to the end and it turns out that the film we've been watching was made by a 4chan user. So like it's sort of like it breaks it down at the end and all of a sudden we're in 4chan now and it's bing, bing, bing, bing, bing. Everyone's talking about Kirk Hunkle, la, la, la, la, la, la, la. And then one 4chan user going, i'm going to make I'm going to put together all the whatever, send me whatever video you have, but but blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.
01:45:53
Speaker
And then like it ends with, oh, here, I put it all together. i Hope you guys like it. Here's the link. Bam. That's the movie that we just watched. I thought that was a brilliant way to do this movie. And I i i didn't see that that coming. And look we've had similar plot twists like that before in other movies, but I think it was particularly well done here. that is I don't know much about Eugene, whatever his name is. But I gotta guess that this isn't his first feature film. you know like he's He's had a hand in writing some some pretty good shit, it would seem to me.
01:46:25
Speaker
Yeah, I thought the other smart thing was so I'm not a huge like a YouTube Twitch person, but I do know a little bit about like that culture. And I thought it was funny that when Jesse has the phone, someone donates a dollar just to say run because like the featured like piece that comes up on the screen. Yes. The other part that I neglected to say was when he's going through the homeless people, he he makes mention. He's like, see all these homeless people, no social media presence at all. yeah dude um but yeah i think just overall this was just so much more of an enjoyable and maybe i liked it more because i too watched it back to back with our other movie um and so maybe i'm giving it too much credit but i just had such a good time with this movie
01:47:15
Speaker
and such a bad time with the other one that maybe I'm giving it too much credit, but I, at the end of the day, just, I had fun with this movie. It's it's it's it's it's it's ah it's a funny, it's violent, it's strange, and the and the way that it's filmed is unique, so I got to give it some gotta to give it some credit. so Completely agree with you. And i'm I'm looking at this guy at Eugene's letterbox page right now. It looks like he he hasn't done very much, which is really surprising to me. And it appears that he might be Ukrainian or Russian, not entirely sure. um the The only other two that he's done that might people might know would be Wobble Palace and and Zeros and Ones, but I've never seen those. Spree is definitely the biggest movie that he's done.
01:47:59
Speaker
And I think just, you know, once again, and for somebody who wrote and directed this, that's really impressive stuff. And I just, I think it's extremely well done. Yeah. Agreed. Um, so Maddie, what do you give Spree and what are your final thoughts? Uh, you know, I wrote down a five to begin with, but I'm going to up that I'm going to give it a five and a half. Um, and I said, look, Joe, Joe Keery steals the show, but the movie in general is pretty damn good. And the twist at the end is killer. Yeah, I'm gonna bump mine up just a little bit too, and I'm gonna give it a five. um I said, Joe Kerry kills in this role. It's the small things here and that here, like the stunt casting and the small jokes that make this a fun rewatch experience. Amen. Well, folks, that does it for our two films in this episode. We'll be right back to close out the show.
01:48:54
Speaker
Okay, early to bed, early to rise makes a woman healthy, wealthy, and wise. That's why you're wiser than me. It's Stephen. Hi, I'm Maurice. I'm an executive by day and a wild man by night. Hi, my name is Monroe. ah You've probably already noticed that I have incredibly blue eyes. Folks, that does it for episode 124. But before we go, we're going to play a little game, a game that we'd like to play here called Slice Left and Slice Right. It's a terrifying game of Tinder. So Andrew, tell us how the game works.
01:49:28
Speaker
So ah we are going to name um the characters from the movies that we just watched. And in our so our our helpless opinion, we will say whether we would slice left by saying no. Correct. That's right. Uh-huh. Correct. And slice right. If we're saying yes, we'll go on a date with you. So yeah so Maddie. it would you Sure. OK, are you slicing left or slicing right on Kurt? ah Joe Curie is slicing ah slicing right on Kurt. Yeah, I will. he's He's a fucked up little maniac, but he's cute. I will slice. I will slice left. Not exactly my cup of tea and that greasy hair. Got to go. Fair enough. Oh, that hair was bad. Yeah. But it but it fit the character. OK, Andrew, are you going to slice left or right on Chris, played by David Arquette?
01:50:23
Speaker
slice right all day long, Ben, a huge fan. And now that he's gotten a little older, fits my demographic. So s slice and write. I'm going to slice. I mean, look, he's not my type. and I'm going to slice right anyway, just because it would be fun to go on a date with David, our cat, it would. Okay. Next we have up our, our foul mouth passenger, Mario played by John DeLuca. I got a slice left on Mario. like i I need to be the one that has you know ah ah a bit of a sassier attitude, quite frankly, and i I can't deal with Mario. It's not gonna work.
01:50:58
Speaker
Listen, if I'm going off of a terrifying game of Tinder where I'm only seeing a picture, let's be honest, I'm slicing right on Mario. It's just yeah inevitable. Whatever. it gets It's going to happen. Andrew, are you going to slice the left or right on Paul, the murderer in Ride with a Y, played by David Walks? Listen, let's be honest. He's going to post a picture with his shirt off, so I'm probably going to slice right just based on how ah how ah shallow I am. So I'm probably slicing right. If his profile says it is a bottom, I'm going to slice right. Let's be honest that the actor does have a little bit of gay face, so I think oh without a doubt he has he has the gay face. He's got the guh for sure. Yeah.
01:51:45
Speaker
All right. And then our final ah terrifying passenger, Marcus, played by Ronnie Alvarez, the boyfriend. Slicing left. Slicing left right now. Yeah, let's be honest. He would he he would definitely post a picture of him like at a baseball game with a backwards cap. And I would slice left. Sorry, Marcus. Awful. Well, Andrew, as usual, we've we've made the right choices, I think. Correct. Correct. even though we don't make a lot of them in real life. but No, we don't, especially listen. yeah You did. You got married my dating life. You know, I'm a smart person, Andrew, but not when it comes to that. I'm just not. I'm not. Love does crazy things. Oh, sure does. Listen, Andrew, that was episode 124. How fun.
01:52:37
Speaker
Hope everyone enjoyed it before we let you go folks um as always first of all just thank you for being a listener we we appreciate you spending your time with us hope you had fun with us in your ears as well um and look if you want to find a way to support our little tiny show you can absolutely do that it's pretty easy to do. You can go to our website at www.frygay13.com slash support. Once you're there, you'll see a link to our Patreon and to our merch store. We will update that merch store. I promise you before this year ends, it's going to happen. um But beyond that, those are two easy ways to do it. yeah You can be ah a member of our Patreon for as little as a dollar a month.
01:53:15
Speaker
um which is ah a pretty low low low fee to pay to to help out a little podcast like us. Every dime that you give us goes right back into the show, helps us rent movies, helps us buy new equipment, helps us pay for software that we use to make the show in the first place. um So for those of you that are our supporters on Patreon, um let us just say a really hearty thank you to you um for being with us, especially when there are some people who have been on that Patreon from day one. So thank you very much for doing that. We really appreciate it. And I'm not going to belabor this too long because if you haven't left a review yet, you're not a real supporter. So I'll just leave it at that. And as always, at every episode, we encourage you to get slayed.