Transcript
Speaker: Hello, hello, hello, and welcome to your favorite bad movie podcast. It's the only podcast that's brave enough to ask the question, if this movie's so bad, why do you like it so much?
Speaker: We're your hosts. My name is Chris Anderson. I'm obviously the Cody of the show. Cody. Sure. I'm the Cody. 100%. Okay. This is the main character.
Speaker: No, that's Jerry. Yeah, so I wrote down names, but it's a lot. Rory, Cody, Jake. It's like, I can't. Looking on now. The one that's really Chris-coded, that's Cody. Okay, it's coming through.
Speaker: we have ah my co-host, Mr. Greg Bossy. I'm going to go ahead and I'm going to say you're the Roy of the show. Oh, yeah. for me Yeah, no, I'll take that.
Speaker: Roy's great. Yeah. Yeah. And of course, we have my wonderful wife, the Josh of the show, Anna Anderson. An even higher compliment by my estimation. yeah How are you doing, my dove?
Speaker: I'm doing all right. How are you? Oh, I'm doing great. I've been on vacation. I've got a little bit of vacation brain, but that's okay because we have a great guest with us here to week this week here to week. And we and They chose this week's movie, so they're sort of running things around here. So they might be our own personal, oh, fuck. i God, I can't even remember his fucking name. Ben Stiller's character. Tony Perkis. Oh, no. Tony Perkis. Tony Perkis. No, you're the Tony Perkis of the show. Obviously, it's Christy Admiral. How are you, Christy?
Speaker: i'm I'm doing fantastically. I watched this movie yesterday. It was not the first time I've watched it in the last 12 months, but now I'm like really fresh to talk about it. And last time it was not for a podcast. It was just for fun. Okay. I mean, it's a fun movie. I'm sure of that.
Speaker: ah Listeners, this week we're talking about the movie Heavyweights. And if you haven't seen Heavyweights, here's just a brief description of Heavyweights to hold in your mind.
Speaker: Jerry is a chubby kid, so his parents sent him to Fat Camp, the best fat camp in America. Unfortunately, it's under new management.
Speaker: Oh, boy. yep Here we go again. guess. With greater power. Good job. Thank you. Thank you. Now, Christy.
Speaker: yeah What's your background with? i Yes. I'm like buckling down. i don't know why I feel so defensive of this movie that I don't like I can't really 100 percent endorse, but I feel very defensive. about it So I'm coming from that perspective. Just so you know, that's fair. That's fair.
Speaker: yeah so okay for one thing when i was picking something this time because i picked graveyard shift because i was in spooky season last time uh and i felt very prepared to pick one of my like unsung heroes of the stephen king ill-fated adaptations uh yeah in this case i was looking historically at what you guys have done and i noticed there haven't been a ton of this is something I obviously loved when I was a kid and therefore I still care about it. Like it's not, that doesn't, you don't into it that often, which I was kind of surprised by.
Speaker: Yeah. Yeah. I think I think people want to seem or a lot of our guests want to go for something that's sort of obscure or something that makes them seem cool instead of something that reminds them of being a kid and maybe a kid they didn't like very much, you know. But ah but what made you fall in love with heavyweights? Do you remember when you first saw heavyweights? Yes, I do.
Speaker: ah So it had to have been, it was within a year of it coming out. um I don't know how common this is. I mentioned it in a social setting once and one or two other people were yeah, this happened to me. I had a relative who was the only relative who had hbo And this relative would for holidays, like for Christmas specifically, give my two older brothers and me tapes of movies they thought we might like. Oh, there would be like three or four each. OK, yeah, yes. this is This feels like a very I mean, it feels both spiritually and literally Midwestern because this was like my. Yeah. And one of my aunts in Michigan doing this for me. ah
Speaker: So these tapes would feature like, okay, this is how I saw Wayne's World 2 500 times. This is how I saw any number of movies, good or bad, that many times. And Heavyweights was like sandwiched into one of those. So I would have been, okay this is an early 90s movie. My brothers would have been ah like tweens and I would have been seven or eight years old watching this. Okay. That and that seems like the target audience for this. Yeah. yeah Both like, ah like particularly this is very like, this is very up the alley of like the three of it like the three of us are dynamic because like a lot of very juvenile humor, a lot of like, we are like our parents are Christians and therefore we can't watch a movie above PG-13. So like a PG movie that says damn and ass and has a lot of fat. Great. It's spectacular. Exactly what Common Sense Media is going to get give like the all clear to.
Speaker: know Makes sense. Makes sense. ah I did not see this one. I was a little bit older when this came out. I would have been 14. And I think...
Speaker: and i think Also, I was a very scrawny child, so I i would have just like inherently not related to the this premise.
Speaker: You know what I have been like, oh, this is for somebody. Whatever. Not my thing. Yeah. would have yeah I know it exactly what you mean. Yeah. yeah The way that you know your average straight-sized person does when it comes to a fat person. You know you're just sort of glaze over and be like, yeah, I don't know. It's something else. Not my business. Yeah.
Speaker: ah But I watched it now and i I enjoyed it. I had a good time watching it. I won't complain. i mean, i i will critique, but I won't complain. ah Greg, had you seen this one before?
Speaker: Yes. So it turns out that I had, I thought that I had, but it wasn't certain until I was, i I try to write down name of the cast before I start the movie. So I have like, you like, oh, this is Dan, you know, it's like, so I can cross reference things and try to get a little better in my brain. And when I got to Ben Stiller, was like, Tony Perkis. Okay. I've seen this. Cause I remember that. Yeah.
Speaker: I remember that name, you know. um And I was 14 too when this came out, but I still rented it. I think I wanted... I i don't know if it was me or my family. was like, do you want to see that? I don't think I was like...
Speaker: crazy interested in it but for like ah you know a movie night or whatever was like yeah sure or why not you know um and i remember enjoying it at the time and i enjoyed it again this time but i did enlist a friend because i was a little afraid i was like i don't know what this is gonna be like so yeah maybe go in there not alone ah and we both seem to enjoy ourselves so i'm glad to hear it went down smooth what about you anna what did you think had you seen this one before ah No, I had neither seen nor heard of it. I, you know, I'm even a year older than Chris and Greg. So, like, that was the year I entered high school. And just, you know, I just wasn't watching Disney movies. That's fine. um
Speaker: I did happen to hear... ah We happened to hear a ah snatch of the Kelsey Brothers podcast where somebody asked them about their favorite Disney movies, and this was the only one either of them could think of.
Speaker: yeah And so that that really made me interested. in and And I think, i think yeah, i really I did really enjoy it, although it is fraught in places, for sure. Sure, yeah.
Speaker: Yeah, but overall, I'm going to say, yeah, let's talk about the elephant in the room. Let's talk about it. Just we're going to have to talk about it sooner or later. This is a movie about fat people and being a fat person and, ah you know, being a fat child. And that's obviously a subject matter that can frequently be handled poorly and, you know, not recognizing the real issues with that. But I do feel like this was a film that genuinely had its heart in the right place.
Speaker: Yeah. ah That did as much as it made ah that people the butt of jokes. It was never like, oh, he sat on something and he squashed it. Oh, he broke a chair. it was never that kind of joke.
Speaker: You know what i mean? It was just like, boy, we sure like food because we're fat and we like to eat. And it's like, well, OK, that that seems fair. That seems like a coming from a fair place. You know, at but at the very least, you know, it was it also it has its problems.
Speaker: But, you know, i think overall, i didn't hate it. The friend that I watched it with when it was done said, I'm glad that that movie was more about the adults. And it was just like, yeah, that was, i think, a really handy thing about it is that the kids are sort of...
Speaker: the innocent bystander to like consumerism in adult problems. And they're just like, I don't even know how to handle this. And it's just like, yeah, nobody really would. Actually, this is a pretty wild situation you're in.
Speaker: ah And it has nothing to do with being at camp even just. Yeah. I think also like with the kids, they all have not all of them to a one because very few of them are like three dimensional characters. In fact, if any of them are, there's a like, ah but I'm like a character like,
Speaker: Josh, his thing is not that it's he's fat, it's that he's very funny and probably his dad is in the mob. ah character character like Cherry is like the everyman character. Roy is the comedian. like And ah Philip is British. I don't think, like none of them really have one one bit and it is that they're fat.
Speaker: Except maybe the kid gets a round of applause when he's the fattest kid in camp. But even that part, that joke lands harder for me than almost any other one, because it's weirdly like a dude's rock moment where everyone like when when Tony Perkins is attempting to shame this like the the character, the character who is like, I think the actual medical term would be like super fat. everyone is just very much embracing that and like oh I just any moment with Tony Perkis getting angry about something just makes me so happy this is also like I do think like I should know like going forward I'm I was very very into Ben Stiller when I was a kid Specifically like when they would show. Yeah, when they would show reruns of like the Ben Stiller show on FX, I would make VHS tapes of them. That sort of thing. So this is pre-crush, but this is like post-fascination for me. So I really love his performance here. I think it's very good. Yeah, it's the blueprint for the dodgeball performance. It's basically what he does in a much bigger movie later. And like every weird character actor that worms his way into this movie does great work with what little. Yeah.
Speaker: Yeah. And there was a lot of them. Oh, it's true. I forgot about Tim Blake Nelson. Like, like I said, I've watched this within the last year. I'm still like, Oh, why are you here? What happened?
Speaker: Well, we can talk a little bit about why people are here and what happened in the context portion. another slam dunk transition. Yeah.
Speaker: Wrong button. Ruined it. That's what I was looking for, yeah. It's an airborne and alarm. need to move them to opposite sides of the sound.
Speaker: Probably smart.
Speaker: Oh, it's all handsome content About the background of the film Script director, actors on set What was going on on screen? I wanna hear some details Gossips can do all that shit Can imagine all the time
Speaker: So Heavyweights was released February 17th, 1995. Not a great time for movie to premiere, February. not No, one of the worst times, actually. Yeah.
Speaker: But maybe kids at that point, they're aching for summer. You know, you're counter-programming from what's left over from ah Valentine's Day. Maybe. Oh, ah your director, Stephen Brill.
Speaker: Two taglines. Tagline number one. They never met a hot dog they didn't like until now. No. What? that's way That's nonsense. Throw it away. That makes zero sense.
Speaker: Cross that off of the poster. Better off without a tagline at all. You should just write, see it. and
Speaker: Or, uh, this is big. Yeah. Right? Tagline number two. They don't run the fastest. They don't jump the highest. But they sure are getting the last laugh.
Speaker: Yeah. Okay. but Not that bad. Not that bad. not Definitely better than the other one. Yeah. i In comparison to the other one, I'm going to let that one go.
Speaker: Yeah, this green light, moving on. Stephen Brill was born in 1962, so relatively young guy when he directed this film, just 33.
Speaker: He attended Boston University's film school in the early 80s, and it was then and there that he worked his way into the Boston comedy scene. He got his first big break in Hollywood a decade later with his first sold screenplay, a kid's sports comedy called The Mighty Ducks.
Speaker: Boom. Oh, okay. Yeah. Big one. Yeah. You guys seen Mighty Ducks? Mighty Dykes Head in the chain? Oh, yeah. Many times. Yeah. yeah I haven't actually seen it, but I know of it.
Speaker: Okay. Yeah, I mean, it was certainly a cultural phenomenon. I would say you should see it, but I also don't actually know if it's true anymore. Yeah, same. So I was like, I know that this is like part of like cultural osmosis tells me that I saw it a lot of times and I couldn't tell you much about at all. I'm also pretty sure that it's probably directly related for why I watched this because of the Josh film.
Speaker: Because he's great at Mighty Ducks. So it's like, yeah, I'll see. I'll see that. Yeah, that makes sense. The Mighty Ducks was a huge hit for the Disney Corporation. So two years later, there was the sequel D2 The Mighty Ducks, which was also written by Brill and was also financially successful.
Speaker: Disney was happy enough with these two movies that ah when Brill brought them his next screenplay, they decided to let him direct. And that screenplay was Heavyweights. This was his debut directing attempt.
Speaker: Okay. Heavyweights was not Brill's sole creation. However, he co-wrote it with an up-and-coming comedy director or a comedy writer named Judd Apatow. This is crazy.
Speaker: Okay. Yeah, no, it explains a lot, and yet not at all at the same time. It does, it does. So Judd Apatow had yet to become one of the defining comedic voices of his generation with movies like The 40-Year-Old Virgin and TV shows like Freaks and Geeks.
Speaker: At this point in his career, he was mostly known for being a writer for stand-up comedian Tom Arnold and for being the co-creator of the short-lived sketch comedy show The Ben Stiller Show.
Speaker: Oh, But yeah, his he made his bones as a comedy writer for Tom Arnold. Okay. He did not make money off The Ben Stiller Show. Nobody made money off The Ben Stiller Show, to be clear. yeah But I'm sure it elevated a lot of names. I'm sure it opened a lot of doors. Absolutely.
Speaker: Now, Apatow is probably then how Ben Stiller landed the gig playing a villain in a kid's movie. And Ben Stiller is probably also how his parents, Jerry Stiller and Ann Mara, ended up in the movie.
Speaker: In case you were wondering. Filming took about two months in Henderson, North Carolina over the summer. It was largely without incident, near as I can tell.
Speaker: That's good. Yeah. Yeah. ah The only stories I found from around set were that Kenan Thompson wrote later in his autobiography that he felt exploited a little at the time, ah possibly resenting ah being in a movie where his weight might be the subject of mockery. You know, obviously he's a...
Speaker: Famous comedian, longest lasting SNL cast member of all time. But I'm sure at 16, when you're a chubby guy, being in a movie, being like, you're the heavyweight. Like, that's got to feel a little shitty, you know? That makes sense. um And i also read that ah Ben Stiller was a little standoffish with the kids.
Speaker: Now, whether this was to help him perform his villainous role better or because he was a 29 year old spending his summer surrounded by 16 year old boys, who can say?
Speaker: Yeah, that's that seems kind of fair. Yeah, um either way, it makes sense. And, you know, but. People seem to largely remember the experience fondly.
Speaker: um Although I've had several people, like I've read stories and people have told me they've bumped into Ben Stiller and they've said like, oh, I loved you in heavyweights. I'd be like, that one? Okay. but That seems to be how he thinks of it at this point in his life.
Speaker: ah But in any case, audiences did not respond that well at the time. On a comparable budget to Mighty Ducks, heavyweights only made about a third as much at the box office. I think it was like $17 million on its $10 million dollars budget. So probably after expenses in marketing, it probably barely broke even if I had to guess.
Speaker: It does still have a small cult following, though. I think it recently got like a deluxe Blu-ray re-release for its 30th anniversary. Nice. And obviously Judd Apatow would continue on to fame and fortune while Stephen Brill, his career took a less reputable turn. oh Most of his career after this was spent directing lesser known Adam Sandler movies or not lesser known, but perhaps lesser Adam Sandler movies. Let's be direct. oh Movies like Little Nicky, The Do-Over, Hubie Halloween movies.
Speaker: ah Little Nicky did at least get him a worst director and worst screenplay nomination at the Razzies. Oh, I got to put Hubie Halloween on our big list. Yeah, yeah. I'm curious about Hubie Halloween. Yeah. So the cameraman in this, both me and my friend were like, who is this guy? This guy looks so familiar. Yeah, he's a guy.
Speaker: Turns out he's in like basically all the Adam Sandler films. Yeah. Yeah. ah And i I wonder if little Nicky was his first one or think it might have been Waterboy. Yeah.
Speaker: I can't remember. i feel like he might have been in Wedding Singer, but I don't know where that. Oh, i think he was in Wedding Singer. He's in Mr. Deeds, which is also a Stephen Burrell joint. So, okay. there yeah Yeah. Yeah. He became part of the the Sandler. Yeah. Yeah.
Speaker: You know, company. It's interesting. It was interesting to see him outside the context of Adam Sandler. And both me and my friend thought he was either Trey Parker or Matt Stone. We couldn't remember which. was like, is that the South Park guy? Yeah, yeah. yeah ah But and Judd Apatow had a role as somebody named Homer, but I did not clock him in the film. I couldn't find him. I saw that in the credits. was like, I don't know if he's actually in this film. but Maybe that scene was deleted. Who can say? Uncredited. ah Paul Feig is a huge part of this movie, too, which I don't. Yes. yeah But it's so important that he is there. And I think this is the only time I've seen him act in anything that he was. It's wild. I've seen him on the soup.
Speaker: So it's interesting to see him actually do that kind of shtick for an extended period of time. No glasses, no suits, no dapperness whatsoever. Much looking. He's a real cutie, but yeah.
Speaker: Now, other family comedies of 1995.
Speaker: What was family friendly? What was Greg's family picking up at the video store? Did you get Jumanji? Yes. Yes. All right. Toy Story.
Speaker: Yeah, kind of obviously. Operation Dumbo Drop. Yeah. Tom and Huck. I want to say yes. we Oh, yeah. and I watched that in school. I watched that in school. Yeah, yeah.
Speaker: Yeah. Jonathan Taylor Thomas and Brad Renfro. And maybe throw some Rachel Lee Cook in there. I might i might be making that part out Interesting. that Talk about a ah ah powerful trio. Right? Yeah.
Speaker: Man of the House, also with Jonathan Taylor Thomas. Oh, yeah. Oh, that one sucks. Yeah. ah Babysitter's Club? no Okay. Okay. We found one that Greg's family didn't. Clueless.
Speaker: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. All right. So you saw all all the major family comedies of 1995, except for Babysitter's Club. Yes. Babysitter's Club is a fascinating cultural object. I don't recommend it, but I recommend looking into the production of it because it's really interesting. like Okay.
Speaker: Okay. Okay. Listeners, a hook has been planted. Well, you guys want to talk about the plot of heavyweights? Yes.
Speaker: Let's do this. Yes!
Speaker: Plot bumper, listen to me. I'm gonna give you the plot summary. Come on, baby. Here's the synopsis.
Speaker: Plot bumper, plot bumper.
Speaker: So we have been on a shot of an analog clock and it's almost 3 PM. And it's the kind of shot in the movie where you can tell when it's this kind of analog clock hanging on a cinder block wall and it's almost 3 PM, you know, it's about to be the last day of school. Yeah. I love that. It was so easy to tell. Cause it means just like, I just wrote some a big clock summer. Yeah.
Speaker: but Such a great movie feeling. They get out and everyone's screaming and throwing everything everywhere. And it's just like, yeah, it's exactly what I wanted to see. yeah Love a schools out scene the movie. Mm hmm.
Speaker: So we see our hero, Jerry, talking to his friend wearing a mean people suck shirt as Closer to Free by the Bo Deans plays on the soundtrack. It's the most 90s moment yeah I've seen in a movie in a while. And Jerry is a chubby 11 year old boy and he misses his bus and he has to walk home. And as he's walking home, we see that he's unathletic and uncoordinated. And that also dogs seem to dislike him. That was a weird moment.
Speaker: Yeah. It's like, geez, what kind of town is this is where you train your dogs to eat chubby children? Also, my friend is like, they have more baseballs. He doesn't need to throw that one over the fence. They definitely have more baseballs. It's like, yeah, i hope they do. Yeah.
Speaker: ah But when he gets home, there's a big surprise waiting for him. It's the latest member of the two-timers club, Tim Blake Nelson.
Speaker: course, we all remember Tim Blake Nelson from The Good Girl. Check out our episode about The Good Girl. yeah Yes, indeed. You do not see his penis in this one. Unfortunately, no.
Speaker: So Tim Blake is there in his capacity as salesman for Camp Hope, a fat camp for young boys. That actually seems like it's a pretty fun place. They got go-karts. They got some sort of big inflated pillow that they put on a lake called the blob. Did anybody else do that as a child? Did anybody else do that as a child? I have done it. don't think I ever had a successful launch off one. I've been on one before. I've had many successful launches off of one. And as a person who's afraid of the water, I got to tell you, it's awesome. It's just a blast. It's great. It's absolutely a good time. It's a good time.
Speaker: Listeners, get yourself a The Blob. yes and a lake get a large enough body of water just put morning your pos to one that's definitely a safe idea oh yeah uh listeners don't do that for legal reasons we have to advise you not to do that
Speaker: but if you do do it put us on instagram and tag us uh
Speaker: But even seeing the blob and ah the go-karts, Jerry still isn't interested when he finds out that it's a fat camp. ah But his parents tell him that he's going.
Speaker: Soon, he's flying out to camp. This camp, very east coast. He must be heading out to the east coast. ah A stewardess gives him some pin-on wings, and he meets another camper named Roy, played by Kenan Thompson, a very young Kenan Thompson.
Speaker: ah Roy tells him that the best part at Camp Hope is that ah nobody picks on you for being a fat kid because everybody is a fat kid. i was like, okay, I'm really glad that Roy came out and said this. Now this doesn't seem like a nightmarish place that this kid is going. yeah this is yeah oh this is a nice summer. This could be a good place. Yeah. I can see the value in that experience. Yeah.
Speaker: I can see that as the appeal of the movie, too, that it is it is nice to see a movie with a bunch of fat children who are friends instead of there being like a friend group where one of them is fat, and that's his...
Speaker: That's his only trade, you know? yeah there There are very few moments, ah if aside from like the get to it eventually, there are very few moments where they're presented as grotesque in any way. It is mostly just that they are normal children who are about to be put through horrible circumstances, but they're all going to go have a good time. like They're all going to go have the best damn summer of their lives, as yeah as camp director Pat Finlay says it.
Speaker: So soon they join up with a bunch of other boys and they get picked up by camp director, Pat, who is the longest standing counselor Camp Hope. He has been going there since he was a fat boy himself.
Speaker: And ah he is hopefully going to teach all these kids to become big fat party animals. Yeah. He immediately clocks Jerry as the only kid who hasn't been to Camp Hope before. Everybody else comes back every summer. Tim Blake Nelson goes out and he chooses one fat boy in America when they have an open slot. Congratulations, son.
Speaker: Yeah. So, ah but yeah, he makes the extra effort to make Jerry feel welcome. As soon, they're on the bus to camp and they arrive. And we meet Julie, the new camp nurse, and Tim, a former fat camper turned a skinny camp counselor.
Speaker: And these are our three main counselors. What do y'all think about the counselors? I like, I like ah Pat. He's a good time. He seems like a good guy. I like him.
Speaker: ah Yeah, good vibes on Pat. Paul Feig is hilarious to me. I think he's really having a fun time in this movie, and I'm having a fun time watching him. And I don't usually like to talk about these things, but every time... ah Every time Julie was on screen, I found her transfixing. I thought she was extremely attractive. She's so beautiful. It's crazy to me. I had forgotten how gorgeous she is. like it Also, in a way where like she's not like a so like a hello nurse situation. She is not over the top sexy or anything. No, it's she's not Kelly LeBrock. no Exactly. She's just very naturally pretty woman.
Speaker: e Anytime she's on screen, i was just like, hmm, what? I'm sorry. I was i was paying attention. i'm sorry. What was that? I completely understand. i think if I had one criticism, the counselors, I wish that Pat was more...
Speaker: ah I wish he didn't choke when he met up with Julie and like tried to hit on her. Yeah. I feel like it it would have been really powerful to have him be a confident fat guy in like all aspects of his life, like right from the get go.
Speaker: But I have a theory about that. Tell me your theory. My theory is that he's supposed to be sort of a surrogate for young kids to get the confidence to talk to someone else because they were in a situation where they couldn't have a co-ed camp. So none of the kids could overcome that milestone. So they made Pat overcome that milestone so that there was something to like...
Speaker: look at that was still like socially acceptable because it's not that they could have one of the children hit on one of the counselors so it had two counselors that you know but i i feel like it would have been more powerful to me to have him modeling that right from the jump to just like i am confident enough in myself to go and be confident when i interact with someone i'm attracted to I do want to note that the they make it textual that nurse Julie is pretty. It's like immediately after the character is introduced, the two coolest ah boy campers, ah there's ah Josh and Roy ah have an exchange about how it pleases them that she is very attractive. And it yes, it's kind of gross, but it's also like there's a lot worse things they could say that she's very attractive. No, I'm sure if this was a real camp, they'd be saying some nastier stuff.
Speaker: oh So Jerry, he goes to his bunk, Chipmunk Bunk. And there he meets his bunk mates. We're all colorful and interesting, sort of, to a limited extent. But the main ones we've already talked about are Josh and Roy. Josh looks like a 12-year-old Paul Sorvino, and Roy is King and Tom.
Speaker: ah Jerry tries to make nice by mentioning he snuck in a box of Oreos and all the other fellows reveal their snacks, dashes and their secret hiding spots that they have all around the cabin. One kid brought in a couple of salamis or possibly pepperonis and they have hollowed out, ah you know, parts of their bed and they have cubbies under the floor.
Speaker: And the English kid taped a bunch of chocolate bars to his chest, but they all melted. And then all the other boys leap on him and start licking the candy off of them. Which I thought was a bit much.
Speaker: That one was. Come on, fellas. Yeah. um They did have candy and gun cases, which was pretty good. Like one opened up a briefcase and it was like little bags of bullets, but it was like gumdrops. And someone's like, well, take a look at this. And they had another different style of gun case, but with other, i was like, that's pretty good.
Speaker: Yeah. Yeah. They had fun with that little montage. there There are a bunch of little montages that are just filled with those sort of chicken fat gags that are always really fun in this movie. Yeah. But it seems the good times were not to last.
Speaker: Their very first afternoon, the whole camp assembles in the auditorium at the bequest of the camp owners, as played by Jerry Stiller and Ann Mara. They explain that they're bankrupt due to something not camp related.
Speaker: And now the camp is under new ownership. That new ownership is a deranged self-help and fitness guru named Tony Perkis, and he's played by Ben Stiller.
Speaker: ah one of the first things that really got me that Perkis tells them is that he's never interacted with children before. Having been homeschooled and an only child. But he plans to use this summer. But he's looking forward to it. That was a good gag. That one got me. I look forward to interacting with children for the first time. It's just like, that's the funniest way to say that actually.
Speaker: ah He also tells him that he plans to use this summer to get footage for an infomercial for a new health lifestyle system that he'll be selling. The kids are all feeling a little skeptical about the new new direction for the camp.
Speaker: Their favorite counselor, Pat, he gets kicked out of chipmunk bunk and replaced by Lars, an intense, muscular Scandinavian guy with a deviated septum.
Speaker: The next day... All the campers get weighed in for a big weigh-in montage. And it confirms for us in the audience that, yes, these kids are fat.
Speaker: In case you thought they were all dynamos just waiting for their potential to be unleashed, ah the following baseball scene will clear that up for you. None of them are good at baseball.
Speaker: We find that out when Camp MVP, a nearby sports camp, has sent over a team to Camp Hope to kick their asses. And they probably do just that. And I like that the camp counselor ah from Camp MVP, Chris, is also he's not like an asshole. He's just like, you know, it's my job to teach these kids to be good at sports. So we're going to play as hard as we can. We're probably going to kick your ass. I'm going to teach them to be like competitive and try and psych you out. So they're probably going little bit mean.
Speaker: Sorry, bro. You know, I guess that's what's going on.
Speaker: The indignities do not stop there, however. Perkis springs a surprise inspection on Chipmunk Bunk, and he finds their assorted snack stashes.
Speaker: He tries to break Jerry as the new kid, figuring he'd be the one to squeal. But then Josh steps up and he takes the fall for him.
Speaker: The next day, Josh is gone. This is so weird. Yeah, weird moment in the movie. Because it's kind of like a kind of like the nicest way to say it is it's like an episode of Hogan's Heroes when they're in there. Where's the stuff? Where did you hide your things? Look at all these snacks.
Speaker: ah and then it's And then the next day he's gone. It's like they took this joke further than I was expecting them to take this joke. Yeah, I wasn't expecting Josh to get disappeared. Yes, that was it real harsh. Ben Stiller delivers the line, a comedian, I like comedians, perhaps I could book you on a tour, which is a thing that that's like a, in the, in like my household growing up, this was a thing that we loved to say to each other because it really like, it's devoid of context that, I mean, and in context, it sounds deranged. Oh, yeah. And then it does lead to him ah getting shipped out. and Yes. It takes a while for the movie to come back to. ah does Is Josh okay? Did they kill Josh? And there are theories that are presented immediately about how, yeah, maybe he would maybe he was murdered. yeah
Speaker: Yeah. Yeah. The camp rumor mill is really spinning. And he had a great little montage of hurting through the grapevine game of telephone stuff. Yeah. ah Let's see.
Speaker: Jerry writes a letter back home to grandma, a character that we've never met before, but I guess he's close to his grandma. And he tells her that the camp sucks. And we get a montage of the camp sucking in a sort of different place. There's so many more montages than I thought. Thank you for pointing out that this is like a montage of go-go film. Yeah. Yeah. You'll get exercise montages. You'll get meal montages.
Speaker: You name it. I'll do a montage about it. Of just little gags. Just a shot with one little gag. ah To make the camp suck even more. Perkis has arranged an inter-camp activity.
Speaker: He's invited a nearby girls camp over for a dance in the hopes that an evening of being judged by the opposite sex will motivate our boys to lose some weight. He's also locked them inside the dance hall.
Speaker: Yeah, he doesn't want kids running away into the woods in the middle of the night. Come on. It's an insurance thing. You have to lock them in and make sure the fire exits are blocked. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker: They don't say if the girls camp has a theme, but it kind of seems like maybe it's model camp because all the girls are like really, really thin. yeah no Noticeably. that is That is, I think, like the the biggest flaw in the movie is that there are no fat girls or women at all. you know it does this also like I actually think the joke about a disordered eating in Bolivia is more offensive than any of the jokes. Oh, yeah. Oh, my God, yes! like it It feels like the most mean-spirited moment in a movie that could have been full of mean-spirited moments.
Speaker: Yeah. Yeah. It treated the fat kids much more kindly. um But the dance, it goes horribly. There are no fat girls there. Pat almost gets something going with Julie, but then he chokes again.
Speaker: Luckily, skinny counselor Tim has just what the doctor has ordered to liven up this dance. He takes to the empty dance floor and he starts spasmodically shaking his moneymaker.
Speaker: It's great. We'd love to see a lanky guy dancing real goofy in a movie. Always fun stuff. He's also wearing a very dated suit, like for the time period. And I think that's wonderful. He looks so silly and he's a good dancer too, which ah like, I think where we it should be acknowledged that Paul Feig looks like.
Speaker: Really good when he's dancing. I will keep acknowledging how good Paul Feig looks in this movie. No, he's a real cutie patootie when he's out there dancing and all goofy. And he does show off his sort of long and lean build. And yeah, it does look like his character is wearing his father's suit that was a hand-me-down. But...
Speaker: You know, it's a fun scene for sure. ah And all the kids seeing him dance all goofy, they start feeling more comfortable to go out there and start dancing. And soon the gals get in on the dancing and everybody's having fun. And when Perkis sees that, he shuts the whole thing down.
Speaker: What's the point if my own kids are not being humiliated?
Speaker: Jerry is, of course, despondent. He was dancing with the girl. Pat finds him sitting alone a broken down go-kart. And Jerry laments that this summer has been a real disappointment.
Speaker: He never even got to ride a go-kart, which he was especially looking forward to because he wanted for once in his life to be fast. And I thought that was kind of a touching little moment to talk about this little fat kid's conflicted relationship with his body. You know, I thought that was a relatively elegant way to do that.
Speaker: and ah And Pat does, like, push the go-kart around the track, and they have fun running around in the moonlight. It's really sweet. It's a sweet so sweet. Yeah. yes It's also, like...
Speaker: We don't get a ton of like, you're right that this movie is more about the adults. This scene is more revelatory about Pat, I think, than any of the other ones. So I was like, oh, this was his calling. Like he is supposed to be here. and yeah yeah's And I think Julie sees them together while this is happening. And that's when she's like, Pat.
Speaker: yeah I always I think the moment she walked up to him, she was like, I like this guy. She was into Pat from the beginning, but now I think it took it to the next level. Yeah, yeah. yeah That night, Josh returns to camp.
Speaker: ah He pretends to be lobotomized, but then he tells the other guy that actually his dad just threatened to sue ah after Perkis kicked him out of camp. They tell him that Perkis took their snack stash. And so the boys decide to go break into Perkis's cabin while he's out for a jog.
Speaker: Assuming that Perkis would never throw away a sack full of fun-sized three musketeers that have been hiding under the floor of a camp cabin in the middle of July. ah But they don't find their candy. Instead, they find all their letters home, which Perkis has been intercepting and hiding.
Speaker: Luckily, Soon, one of them finds a kid eating a hamburger on the shitter. with it turns and it looks like a really good burger, I gotta say. It it does. It's nice, fluffy, but it wasn't one of those squished up McDonald's burgers. All the sesame seeds were in place. I remember thinking, like, I think I want a burger, actually.
Speaker: Yeah. It turns out that there's a food black market supply chain that involves a former fat kid that ended up being on Perkis' squad, who I think was played by another brother from Home Improvement.
Speaker: Oh, though the older brother. think the oldest one. Yeah, that That could make sense. That would make sense. That might have been him. Listeners, I'm not going to check. That's a fun mystery for you to see.
Speaker: ah But the good news is the boys can eat whatever they want again. They just have to pay the price.
Speaker: ah Soon it's time for the mid-summer weigh-in. And it turns out everyone has gained weight. Perkis is pissed off.
Speaker: And he starts yelling at the kids. And then when Pat tries to stand up for them, Perkis verbally demeans him in front of Julie. To top it off, as punishment for their weight gain, Perkis is taking them on a 20-mile hike tomorrow. This, to me, sounds incredibly dangerous.
Speaker: it's Oh, yeah. It's a really, really bad idea. ah Taking, like, a 20-mile hike is hard for somebody who hikes. Like, you're going to do that in one day, insane to do it with a bunch of kids who, like, have both been put through, like, exercise hell, like, like and are also, ah like Honestly, eating probably a pretty normal diet, balancing it out with the food deprivation. Yeah, all in all at the end of the day. yeah Yeah, I don't think they're doing great and I don't think they're in peak physical condition at this moment. No, it's horribly dangerous. yeah Yeah, they're definitely not going to be properly hydrated. He's going to be looking at at some the heat injuries within the first hour of this, I'm going to say. Yeah.
Speaker: But the next day, the kids do go on the hike ah while the counselors stay back and they try to figure out how to take down Perkis. They know that if they just had some evidence of how he was mistreating the kids, they could take it to some assorted contacts they have and they could take him down.
Speaker: Then they overhear the videographer for his infomercial complaining that he hasn't been paid. And they realize that this is exactly what they need. What's also funny is like when they're doing the way in Tony Parker is like, turn off that camera.
Speaker: And ah my friend and I, because we know how cameras work, like he didn't turn off the camera. camera is still going. ah which none of that footage manages to work its way in later.
Speaker: Spoiler alert. No. Which is interesting, but I like that it's sort of set up that this camera guy is capturing a whole lot of footage. Even just in the background, you see that granular detail. very nice.
Speaker: The kids, though, they have a better plan than all this camera stuff. Once Perkis' hike gets far enough out into the woods, they lure him into a pit trap. And then from there they tie him up and toss him into his shed.
Speaker: It's great. It's a good plan. Well executed. Yeah. it's much more It's direct action. We don't need to get other people involved. Let's solve this ourselves. ah When Jerry tells Pat, Tim, and Julie about the kidnapping, they're surprisingly on board pretty quickly.
Speaker: ah They somehow tie up Lars and all the other Perkis counselors to large trees, and then they smear Lars with honey in a way that seems strangely sexual. Yeah, want to talk this for a second. Can we? Yeah. Can we just pause for a second? Yeah. yeah i this is one thing that i had wiped from like my memory of seeing this as a child and as soon as i was like this is yeah like this is some of the like this is one of the gayest things i have seen in a live action disney movie like if not like the most homoerotic and it's crazy like it comes out of nowhere it is never referenced again mm-hmm And this is one scene of a man getting his shirt ripped open and having honey smeared on his chest with a, a brush. Like, yes, it's all very, it's all very odd.
Speaker: Yeah. Like they didn't even go for the comedy, pour honey on his head, which I feel like would be the easy answer for that. But instead to get out a brush and smear it on his exposed chest while he's tied to a tree. i i'm I feel like you can find some of this stuff on AO3.
Speaker: ah That night, everybody cuts loose. There's a big bonfire party and they order a shit ton of delivery, including it. You got to get the six foot party sub and they're all going nuts.
Speaker: They're having a great time. The next morning, Pat surveys all the fat tween boys passed out in piles of food on the campground. And he says, look, we all had our fun last night.
Speaker: But I think we can all agree that maybe that's overindulging. And ah let's clean up our act. And then they we get a little bit like, okay, now they're doing a little power walking. And they're getting like some cooking lessons from Julie who's teaching them how to make pasta primavera.
Speaker: And, then you know, just a little bit of like a mild get healthy montage. Mm-hmm. It was going to be in there somewhere. i feel like a yeah healthy montage could have been much more offensive than this. Yeah. This is really tempered. Yeah. Yeah. yeah And like, we didn't see skinny kids in fat suits for the first half of the movie. And then at the end, like, and now you're the real boy that you were supposed to be like, it didn't have any of that shit. I don't have a ah particular problem with this.
Speaker: If someone else did, I would completely understand. ah that Do not talk to me about it. I don't care that much. but ah Pat assembles all the parents in the auditorium because it's parents day.
Speaker: And he plays them a video of Perkis abusing their fat children. While that's going on, Perkis escapes from the shed by tricking ah his guard, the English boy, who I think was named Nicholas, but yeah might have been Nicholas. yes You've been a good guard, Nicholas. Your queen would be proud. took me a moment when he said it I was like, he's queen.
Speaker: Oh, because he's British. Also, to nitpick for a second, I would not call this kid fat. No, no, no. This is not a kid that there wouldn't be intervention into like, you need to lose. what yeah Yeah, he has a like a very young looking face. like he is married Yeah, he just he still has baby fat. And you could tell they're putting him in sweater vests to make him look better. They saw this kid come in and they were like, he's the only English kid we're going cast. And he's got that spark. So we got to have him there. yeah he was he was the most ah edge case, I want to say, amongst the group.
Speaker: But Perkis, he shows up at the auditorium and he's he's like pops up on a second story window. yeah he's sitting in the rafters and it made me laugh so hard this time. This joke landed for me. Yeah, his entrance was great. He's so unhinged in it too. It's fantastic.
Speaker: The cinematography, the editing skills, the villain was a bit over the top. It's a thing that he he's like praising the film, doing a sarcastic slow clap. It just tops your work from this.
Speaker: Yes. He then Jerry's dad finally stands up for Jerry after the whole time, like giving Jerry shit about his weight. Jerry's dad played by Jeffrey Tambor does stand up. It's like, Hey man, you crossed the line with my kid. I wanted my kid to come here and lose some weight, not to get treated like shit by you. And then, uh, Perkis punches him in the face, then does some backflips and knocks himself out.
Speaker: It's a weird fight scene. Yeah. Yeah. They all act as though they did something. Like, all this yeah like we really got them. They're a celebratory group.
Speaker: They are. You know, they got to take their W's where you can find them.
Speaker: Perkis' dad, Tony Perkis the lighting fixture king of Pennsylvania, apologized to everybody and agrees to put Pat in charge of the camp for the rest of the summer as long as people don't sue him.
Speaker: ah And of course, Perkins Sr. also played by Ben Stiller, this time playing ah a bald old man. ah The kids, they have the Apache relay race against Camp MVP. All this feels like ah kind of a coda right now, the Apache relay race. After we've done with Perkins, this yeah feels extraneous to me. yeah It is definitely offensive, though.
Speaker: Yes. They do have all the kids in ah like nineteen fifty s Western Indian Garland. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. I tried to erase that from my brain. Yeah.
Speaker: Yeah. Yeah. ah But yeah, and then the relay race in three legs. The first one's an obstacle course. Camp MVP obviously dominates the obstacle course because our kids are still fat.
Speaker: And then ah we get to the quiz portion and Nicholas, not being a product of American public schools, is able to... slam dunk his way through the quiz so it's tied up going into the final leg which is a go-kart race and Jerry finally gets to race a go-kart and they built him a souped up super go-kart and it's neck and neck and the other guy of course he races dirty but then Jerry crosses the finish line first This is interminable, right? This is the longest scene that's ever been in a film. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. They, this doesn't, I don't know. It structurally, it just doesn't work. it It's no dangling out there like a paralyzed limb.
Speaker: ah But Jerry, Jerry wins. Pat kisses Julie. Everybody's happy. The movie ends. There's a little post-credits scene of ah Tony Perkis now going door-to-door selling gems.
Speaker: Magical gems. I didn't see that. didn't get that. I've not seen that before. oh stick around for after the credits listeners. Got a cute Disney Plus backup. Get all the way to the end here. I feel like I'm really missing some lore.
Speaker: Yeah, yeah. There's so much more perks. And the same way that they did post-credits scene in Dodgeball where he was big and fat. It all comes around.
Speaker: Final thoughts. Five-star ratings. Heavyweights. Greg, pick us um Yeah, I found this one to be pretty enjoyable. Although I will say that both times I've watched it, I've forgotten about the offensive ah costumes during the race.
Speaker: um And I did. it is superfluous now that you bring it up. It didn't really bother me at the time, but it was weird that it was continuing on. I think we're both just like, oh, we're going to the race now.
Speaker: How about that? um For watchability, i think i would I think I would say a four, but for the costumes, i're going to drop it down to three and a half, I think. I think that's reasonable. How about weirdness? Weirdness? i don't think it's that weird. I'm going to give it a half a star, I guess. Yeah. um Some of the scenes are a bit, yeah, there's like the smearing the honey on the chest of a man. And some of the jokes are a little adult that I didn't think they would quite go for. But obviously you're tick you're trying to tickle the tickle the fancy of the parents that are also in the audience sometimes. But yeah, I don't think it was that weird.
Speaker: So half star. Speaking of adult, quick aside. Yeah. ah You know when they did the Seymour Butts joke? Yes. Josh said, oh there this is Seymour Butts candy? In the original script, he said, Peter Fitz.
Speaker: Oh. And yeah ah and the punchline there instead of, of course, this guy wants to see more butts, was ah Peter Fitz, if you push hard enough, which was a weird joke. Yeah, don't do that.
Speaker: Anna, final thoughts, five star rating. I gave this a three stars for watchability.
Speaker: um But I would, it's the kind of thing where I really do think your mileage may vary a lot. um You know, there were parts that made me uncomfortable, but I did also laugh a lot. Like it is also very funny. There are a lot of very good jokes. Yeah.
Speaker: ah For weirdness, I ended up giving it a two just mostly because I thought it was it was weird seeing Ben Stiller like working out later bits in this context. Oh, yeah.
Speaker: For sure. But other than that, the you know the the story is very straightforward, not weird at all. Yeah. I landed similarly to you guys. I gave it a three and a half for watchability. There are definitely lots of laughs here, but I would have liked it a lot better if there was just one person that liked being fat or one fat woman.
Speaker: Either one of those things I think would help a lot. Yeah. Yeah, because the whole time you're you're sort of on tenterhooks. You're aware that this could be mishandled in any moment. And if you saw things like that, it would make you able to relax and enjoy them. That's fair, I think.
Speaker: ah For weirdness, I gave it one and a half stars. They do let Stiller get away with a couple of pretty strange gags here and there. ah But I do think the most unusual or at least atypical thing about it is that it is a movie about a lot of fat people.
Speaker: And that is definitely just not a subject of a lot of movies. Categorically. ah Christy, what about you? Watchability and weirdness. ah So the last time I watched this movie, I think in my Letterboxd review, i clarify three and a half stars.
Speaker: like ah And that would that would translate directly to watchability in this case for like watching it as an adult, ah putting the nostalgia aside entirely. Like it's a five star film for me because ah it makes me feel very similarly to how I felt about it when I was like nine years old. But it is three and a half ah for sure. And there is like this the odd like shoe droppiness of are we going to acknowledge like is this like are we pro fatness or are we like like is this a like a body neutrality picture like body neutrality did not exist as a concept yet so really did not and not in any material way so of course not that but that does like holds you back from like fully loving it i think or does it does it does for me uh
Speaker: i Yeah, two out of five for weirdness just because the the the honey thing is just so insane. And also... Reasonable. Stiller... Yeah, Stiller doing... Any bits where he is like, like the whole sequence where he is exercising and ah and another another sequence, where like every time he exercises, he says at least one thing that is like a a direct misunderstanding of how exercise works or like how yoga works. At one point he does pose and says repulse the monkey, which is just like, I like this nonsense that you've thrown in this movie for me. Yeah.
Speaker: but Yeah. yeah Well, I think that's fair. And I think it's time to move on to act three of the show, where I'm going to take us on a little bit of a tangent, just as a palate cleanser. A palate cleansing tangent.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: Sure, the movie's the main event. But that's not the case with this segment. No need to be sad or lament.
Speaker: Cause we're going on tangent.
Speaker: Yeah, that's the name of this segment. Going on a tangent.
Speaker: Tangent. Tangent. Tangent.
Speaker: So this week's tangent is going about something that I'm going to call the fanboys fiasco. Hmm. Oh, okay. So in 2007, director Stephen Brill had finished making the movie without a paddle, but had yet to make a drill bit Taylor.
Speaker: That's where he was at in his career. Okay. And he got a job offer. That job offer came from...
Speaker: Bummer alarm. Bummer alarm. This next bit is kind of a bummer. Harvey Weinstein. Oh. Oh.
Speaker: Yeah. Weinstein was producing a movie called Fanboys about a group of Star Wars fans who take a road trip out to Skywalker Ranch to steal a rough cut of Phantom Menace so that one of them could see it before he dies of cancer.
Speaker: Okay. Now, Weinstein... He didn't like the cancer angle. And the original director, Kyle Newman, he did. But Kyle Newman didn't have final cut.
Speaker: So Weinstein brought in Brill to direct reshoots. Weinstein then screens both versions of the movie for test audiences to find out which one they prefer.
Speaker: The problem was they forgot to replace the cancer thing with any other kind of motivation. So the Brill cut was just about a bunch of jerks driving out to Skywalker Ranch to steal the rough cut of Phantom Menace for no particular reason.
Speaker: Wow. Test audiences ended up preferring the original cut. On top of that, Word gets starts getting out amongst the Star Wars fandom, who were obviously much more tight-knit around then. you know i'm going to say post-prequel trilogy, but pre-sequel trilogy. ah So they were getting nervous that ah Weinstein is monkeying around with fanboys. They're getting pissed off about this.
Speaker: They were excited for this movie. it is Because George Lucas had officially given it his personal thumbs up at that point. and Okay. Okay. But then emails from Brill get leaked where he's complaining about all this and he calls Star Wars fans losers and dumb. He's like writing back to people on Ain't It Cool News. He's so no he's getting sucked in. Oh no. Oh This only increased the movie's ill will amongst Star Wars fans.
Speaker: At this point, Weinstein ends up washing his hands of the whole thing and quietly dumps fanboys into, i want to say, roughly 10 theaters in February, two years later.
Speaker: He put it on as few screens as possible, and it made less than a million dollars. Wow. That is the fanboys fiasco. So I remember that movie.
Speaker: I remember that movie existing, but I don't remember much about it. And that's, this may be why. and Well, Kristen Bell is in it. I know that. And I think Kevin Smith has like a guest appearance in it. I was remembering. That would make sense. Associated and yeah with it in some way. Like when you were queuing up the bummer alert, I was like, I know fanboys has to do with Kevin Smith, but that was a bummer of a much higher order. than Yes. Yeah. Like union busting. Yeah. Yeah.
Speaker: Well, do you guys want to play a game? Yeah. Absolutely. All right, you guys are going to have guess the title.
Speaker: Let me tell you about this brand new game. Where you guess the movie's name. You just tell me what the title is prove you know about showbiz.
Speaker: Guess the title. Whipper, whipper, whipper, whipper. Guess the title. Gooby, gooby, gooby, gooby. Guess the title. Guess the title.
Speaker: Come on, honey. Guess the title. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker: I sometimes walk around now saying gooby, gooby, gooby. So thank you for that. a fun vocal stim. Yeah. I occasionally, like I do podcasts every now and again. I've done this one once before. I used to do my own. I've never been on one or like been part of one that had as charming of drops as this does. Oh, thank you for saying so. Just want to dance in place the entire time.
Speaker: Well, thank you. i appreciate that. of course. Well, this week we're talking about the films of David Bow. Not the films of David Bowie. David Bow. He was the actor that played Chris, the counselor from Camp MVP. oh You might know him me from playing Weird Al's best friend in UHF and having guest appearances on hundreds of television shows. to say He looked so familiar He was like, oh, it's that guy. But I couldn't place him.
Speaker: Just a classic working actor. And you are not going to be familiar with any of the films that I'm going to be asking you about. What I'm going to do is I'm going to give you a plot description and three titles. I want you to buzz in and tell me which title is the title of the film. ah If you get it wrong, your opponents will have the chance to steal. You'll buzz in by saying your own name.
Speaker: Anybody have any questions?
Speaker: All right. Question number one. A con man on the run seeks refuge with his grandmother. Is that where there's a will, the rumpus room, or two of a kind?
Speaker: ah Greg. Anna. Greg? The rumpus room.
Speaker: sorry, Greg. It wasn't the rumpus room. I was going say it. Yeah. Fair enough. Anna or Christy, can you steal? Anna. anna yeah Anna?
Speaker: ah Where there's a will.
Speaker: You're correct. You're on the board, my heart. That adds an interesting color to the concept of what the movie might be about. Yeah, yeah. Question number two.
Speaker: McBride agrees to give his accountant a hand in a bitter custody battle. But when the man is accused of murdering his therapist, everything changes. McBride, played by John Larroquette,
Speaker: is that McBride, murder makes sense. McBride, the doctor is out. Really out.
Speaker: Or McBride and the case of the accountant's head shrinker. yeah Greg. Chris, yeah. Greg. ah McBride. and the doctor is out.
Speaker: Really out. You've got it, Greg. Wait, really? Oh, wow. I'm going to write that down. It's absolutely not that one. I didn't. There was a part of me that hoped, but I was just like, you kill that hope right now, Greg. That's not going to be the case. Yeah, no, I gotta check out what McBride movies I could track down.
Speaker: Question number three. An oil refinery blows up, causing a firestorm that threatens everything around it, including a nearby hospital. Ooh. Is that Get Out Now?
Speaker: A Blaze or The Burning of Children's Ward 6? Christy. Jesus Christy. Say ablaze. You've got it. It's all tied up.
Speaker: We've got a real barn burner. Speaking of hospitals burning down. They're very much the same. Yeah, they're both structures. Question number four.
Speaker: After a family has an alien encounter, they call the Air Force to report the incident, which leads to a visit from the men in black who turn out to be alien mutant hybrids.
Speaker: Is the third protocol? Watch the skies or the shadow men? Greg.
Speaker: Greg? Watch the skies.
Speaker: No, I'm sorry. It wasn't watch the skies. Anna. Anna? The shadow men. You've got it. Wow. Wow.
Speaker: Plenty of game left to play. Don't worry. Question number five. Bikers transport their dead stunt performer friend cross country for burial.
Speaker: Is that Masters of Menace? The Last Ride? Or Wild to the Bone? Christy.
Speaker: Christy? Wild to the Bone. No, I'm sorry. It wasn't wild to the bone. liked it so much more than the other two. Understandable. Thank you.
Speaker: Greg? Greg? The Last Ride. I'm sorry. They were the Masters of Menace. Terrible title.
Speaker: It is. Question number six. An overweight man falls in love with the girl from the candy store. Little does he know, she's writing her senior thesis about his weight problems.
Speaker: ho yeah Is that your sweetness is my weakness? o I want candy. Or I don't buy kisses anymore.
Speaker: Greg.
Speaker: i don't buy kisses anymore. Damn it, you thought I was going clip that if you got that clean.
Speaker: I don't buy kisses anymore. Thank you.
Speaker: You're correct, Greg. I can't believe I'm correct. ah Question number seven. A convicted killer gives a live interview right before his execution, only to take the TV crew hostage.
Speaker: Is that K-I-L-L News? Oh, that's great title. Live from Death row
Speaker: Or Blood on the News? Christy. Anna. Christy? The second one, Death Row. Live from Death Row? Yeah, Live from Death Row. You're correct. Yay.
Speaker: This is an aside, but were you there the evening, Chris, that we saw a newscaster say, tonight a police officer slashed at 11? That sounds very familiar. It was the weirdest thing I've ever heard. yeah
Speaker: Question number eight. Anything is possible when a mysterious... I i feel like you could put anything is possible at the beginning of any movie description. I'm just going to start doing that at the beginning of every question from Helen.
Speaker: Anything is possible when a mysterious professor tells young Tim about a supernova that grants wishes. wo Unfortunately, when Tim's wish doesn't go as planned, he finds himself in a dog's body.
Speaker: Classic. Is that a Christmas tale? T-A-I-L? Yeah. Timmy and the supernova? sir Or that darn professor?
Speaker: ah Greg. Greg? Timmy and the Supernova. No, unfortunately not. Anna or Christy, can news do you steal?
Speaker: Anna. Anna? a Christmas tale. You've got it, my heart.
Speaker: Question number nine. Last one. A horror anthology. Anything is possible when a horror anthology about a psychiatrist who uses virtual reality to probe the minds of three unsuspecting patients.
Speaker: Is that Future Shock? The Twisted Three? Or Virtual Blood? Christy. Christy?
Speaker: Future Shock? You've got it, but not quite enough. Anna is our big winner this week with four big points. Congratulations.
Speaker: Thank you. Oh, yeah. Oh, it's the Batty Awards.
Speaker: Now you're messing with the Batty Awards. Now you're messing with the Batty Awards. Now you're messing with the Batty Awards.
Speaker: Now you're messing with the Batty Awards.
Speaker: Congratulations to all the nominees.
Speaker: That's right. Congratulations to all our nominees. It's the Batty Awards. The awards that we give out to those little people, moments, touches, details, all the things that make a bad movie so good.
Speaker: Greg, do you have a Batty Award? I do. There's a joke in there that did two of my favorite things that jokes do. One is where people have misinterpreted what someone else has said and given the wrong reaction. Which we already talked about with the one joke where they clap for the fattest kid in camp because they don't realize that they're not supposed to be excited about that. And then it also combines it that concept with a subtle joke that you might miss if you're not quite paying attention because it happens either kind of out of frame or not at quite the right beat in the moment for you to see it coming.
Speaker: And it's right when Tony Perkis is giving the first presentation, he's leaving. And everyone's like, oh. And he starts walking away and he's like, puts his hands out for high fives. And no one will high five which is pretty good. And then they're like, they cut away to other people being worried. And then they cut back. And one kid's like, yeah, I'll five you.
Speaker: And that kid, that kid just got me. We were just like, was it? Yeah. It was just like, you didn't understand, but it was like, you could miss it. And that's what I love. I love when that No, that was a very good gag. I agree. 100%. Good texture.
Speaker: Yeah. Nice little button on that moment. Anna, do you have a batty award? Yeah. There's a a little moment. Yeah. Where it's when Jerry's come back to tell the counselors about the kids having taken Perkis hostage. And I don't I don't have the exact exchange written down,
Speaker: but he says something and then Julie says something like, Oh, you're cute. And he's just like, okay. And this a moment where he's just entirely unimpressed by her being a pretty lady because he's too young. And I love that. I love that part.
Speaker: Now that's fair. That was a nice moment. I'm going to give my baddie a word out to one specific costume. And that's a costume worn at the dance. I know what you're going to say. And that's Cody wearing beret and the Les Miserables t-shirt. Yes.
Speaker: So good. That's why I was a Cody, because I could tell he was doing that because you' like, I want to look sophisticated. most Sophisticated stuff. Gals like it when you're sophisticated. Of course, my Les Mis t-shirt and my beret.
Speaker: I would have bring that up at some point because you said you were the Cody and I want be like, oh, because of your Les Mis t-shirt, right? Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. but Christy, do you have a Batty Award?
Speaker: Oh, I have so many Bani words. I really like the one specific joke. If I could like I'll go off book. This is not a Ben Stiller. This is not a Paul Feig.
Speaker: Really like the poet the part where Lars is attempting to hit on Julie. And she says that he should be watching the campers or she suggests that he should be watching the campers. said He says, oh, I have them on the body system. And she's confused by this. He demonstrates that this is he yells buddy and everyone in the water yells back at him buddy. And she just goes, oh, oh, buddy. And it's it's cute. And right before that, he pushes a bunch of kids into the water, which is funny. Kind of a one-two punch there with for Lars ah making me laugh out loud.
Speaker: Yeah. Yeah. Lars was low key. He delivered when he was out straight. Yeah. He understood his apartment. Yeah. Yeah. Well, Christy, thank you so much for joining us this week. It's been great to have you here. Do you have anything going on that you want to plug?
Speaker: Not really. No. ah don know I'm on Letterboxd at Admiral Christy and I am on Blue Sky at Christy Admiral. Third A is silent. And I don't do much internet writing anymore because all the websites I used to work for do not exist anymore. So unless somebody wants to start funding a Neo toast or ah perhaps ah a hairpin and all something of that sort, ah you can find me microblogging and giving too many movies five stars on Letterboxd.
Speaker: Okay. Well, listeners, check it out. Keep up with what Christy's got going on. Keep up with us by hitting that follow button or a subscribe, whatever the platform you're on has, calls it. And hey, you know what?
Speaker: Don't forget the five stars is free. That's what I always say. And come back next week. We're going talking about Freddy Got Fingered with Alex DeSantis. Very excited to bang out Freddy Got Fingered. And ah until next week, be good and goodbye.
Speaker: Goodbye. Bye-bye.
Speaker: That you would, if you could And you know that you should Yes, you know that you should
