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191 - Wild Wild West (1999)
80 Plays4 months ago
“Let’s break down the word ‘redneck.’ First word, ‘red’: color of power, fire, passion. Second word, ‘neck’... hey, I can’t think of nothing for ‘neck’ right now, but without that, you still got red and that’s something to be proud of.”
We’re kicking off a brand new actor-centric theme month taking a look at the failed franchise starters of Big Willie Style himself, Mr. Will Smith, starting with what might be his first major misstep as a star! We’re digging deep into the ‘90s runs of this cast, including Smith, Kevin Kline, Kenneth Branagh, Salma Hayek, and director Barry Sonnenfeld, discussing Smith’s music career, and - inexplicably - doing a deep dive into the filmography of Sir William ‘Billy’ Joel! Don’t miss it!
We may not have Jim West’s raw charisma or Artemus Gordon’s affinity for gadgetry, but we do have a social media presence! Find us here:
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- Watch our big screen debut in Circle City Supernatural from our buddy J.P. Leck! You can either buy it on BluRay through his website, buy/rent it through Amazon Prime, or watch it free with ads on Tubi!
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Transcript
Introduction and Podcast Theme
00:00:20
Speaker
I'll say good for you. wiki wild wiki wiki wild wiki wiki wild wild disenfranchised podcast that podcast all about those franchises of one those films that fancy themselves full fledged franchises before falling flat on their face after the first film. I'm your host Stephen Foxworthy. And joining me as always the man who may or may not be Artemis Gordon in disguise. It's Tucker. Hey, Tucker. Hi, Stephen. How's it going? Not bad. How are you? Okay. Right on. On the positive side of OK, though. OK. That's better than in the negative side of OK. Like, I'm not like, oh, I'm OK. I'm like, yeah, I'm OK. Fucking OK. Yeah. Yeah. Now, I do I do have to say that unfortunately, our co-host Brett has been missing for several days. um he He was working on a top secret scientific project and then disappeared. ah We don't quite know where he is. And we hope he comes back soon because the day we're recording this, Tucker, the day
00:01:21
Speaker
that we are recording this is our good friend Brett's birthday. So if you're if you're on our patron Patreon, leave him ah leave him a happy belated birthday in the comments. If you know where he's on socials, he's not really, but if you know, go ahead and wish him a happy belated birthday over there. um i'm sure if you know where If you know where he lives, Go to his house, knock on the door, say happy birthday, Brett, and then turn around and walk away. Give him a big fucking hug and then and tell him it's Thomas from Steven and Tucker. He'll know what it means. Yeah, dude. He's wise to it. But yeah, he's he knows. He knows. He knows. He knows. Yeah, dude.
Will Smith Theme Month Kickoff
00:02:01
Speaker
But yeah, so we're kicking off a new theme month this month. We it's been a couple months since we did our last one. This one's one that Tucker has been ah waiting for. Honestly, Brett's been waiting
Will Smith's Career Highlights
00:02:10
Speaker
for this one, too. And um that's kind of why it's a bummer that he's gone missing for this episode, because this this movie in particular is one that he has wanted to talk about since the early, early days of this podcast. So it's a big, big old fucking bummer that he's not able to be here today. Um, but you know, some people party a little too hard for their birthdays. And, um, that's what we're not saying Brett did. We're just saying some people do. Yeah. Some people just randomly mentioning that. Right. Just throwing that out there, you know.
00:02:38
Speaker
You know, things happen. Interesting little factoid, Steven. Right. Yeah, you know. um But ah we are starting a and another actor centric theme month, our second for the year after Arnie, April to Austrian Boogaloo. And this time we are centering around. Well, it's July. In fact, today's episode is dropping on the 4th of July. Happy birthday to the Caesar salad today. A hundred years old today. ah This is the centennial of the Caesar salad fucking a love that for us um But so we're celebrating ah This month mr. 4th of July the guy who would always open a movie this weekend every year um The Fresh Prince himself big Willie style himself Mr. Will Smith Yeah they
00:03:26
Speaker
and And one thing, we're gonna talk a lot about Will Smith this month, but one thing we are gonna do, we're gonna keep his wife's name out of our fucking mouths. Well, I don't really have anything nice to say, so yeah, I'll just keep it out of my mouth. I just, I don't wanna get slapped. No. This is what it comes down to. I suppose so. Now that you've gotten that out of the way. Right, ah you know, look, it was gonna come out at some point. I was gonna see if we could just not
'Wild Wild West' Discussion
00:03:52
Speaker
mention it, but that's cool. Nope, nope, we kinda have to. Did you know though, Steven, did you know that I edit this podcast? I could make it so this entire month, there's no mention of it. I could very easily do that. You could. Am I going to do that? No. Probably. No, no, I'm not. I'm not. I'm not. I will not. Look, I know you too well. And I know that if something fits the flow, you'll leave it in regardless. That's true.
00:04:22
Speaker
Even though may it may be embarrassing for someone, usually me, I leave it in. I don't know. I feel like it's me a lot. No, dude. No, you've gotten a lot better about letting me know when you're going to put something embarrassing in. ah Yes, I like I. o I have a lot of I'm working on some of my antiquated opinions, you know, I appreciate that. Sometimes I work through that. on the podcast. And I think, you know what? I think it's inspiring, honestly. Yeah. To other people who are like, I just want to be better. But like, it's so hard. No, it's not. Just, you know, just talk to people about stuff. Figure out other people's perspectives. And and then you can understand why why ah an opinion you have or something that you say is not great. Yeah. Basically, what we're saying is get good. Yeah, be better. And and again, that finger's pointing right back at us, too, because we need to get good also.
00:05:19
Speaker
I'm just a little more vocal about that kind of stuff. I dig myself in holes. I mean, see the most recent? um Well, it probably won't drop for like another month. Who knows? Who knows the most recent episode of what are we watching that we just recorded earlier tonight? Hey, I climbed out of that pretty gracefully, though. and yeah More gracefully than I thought you were when you started, honestly. Well, see, and I think i think that's my problem is because I i have to sort of like I can't resolve the thing without the thing being there. You know what I mean? So if I'm going to work this stuff out on Mike, it has to start in an iffy place. And look, and we've all said things on this podcast that we probably shouldn't have said and probably going to come back to bite us in the ass later. And we just we we look, we got to own it. Yeah.
00:06:10
Speaker
and And if it upset you, we're sorry. That's not, um'm like I said, I'm just trying to be better, dude. Let me know. tension we Let me know because- We're in the process of being better. but it Put it in the comments. If I say some shit that's fucked up and I don't realize it, or if I have an opinion that's fucked up and I don't realize it, please, please let me know. Because like I said, i'm always trying to I'm always trying to learn and be better and like- And we're never going to be better if you don't tell us. Yeah. I'm just trying to be the best dude. So help me. Help me be the best dude.
Barry Sonnenfeld's Career Analysis
00:06:40
Speaker
So for this first week of what we're calling getting jigg getting jiggy in July, um we are talking about i would what I would call maybe the first big misstep of Will Smith's career. And really the first movie he was in that kind of
00:06:57
Speaker
didn't they probably wanted to have a s sequel but didn't get one ah kind of given what it was and who directed it and who started it it. This feels like something that was they were shooting for sequels for and it didn't get it. Tucker, what is that movie? We were talking about my favorite Christmas movie of all time. The Wild Wild West. And it's not it's not my favorite Christmas movie because it's a movie about Christmas. It's my favorite Christmas movie. It's because it's a movie that I normally watch around Christmas. And we're going to unpack that. Don't don't even get it twisted. We're going to unpack that here very shortly. um and But we're talking about 1999's Wild Wild West, directed by Barry Sonnenfeld and yeah. yeah
00:07:40
Speaker
Will Smith, Kevin Kline, Kenneth Brana, Selma Hayek, Ted Levine, Emm Emmett Walsh, Bai Ling, Rodney A. Grant, Garcelle Bovet, Musetta Vander, Sophia Eng, Frederique Van Der Waal, Ian Abercrombie's got a like a recurring cameo in this movie. Doesn't say a fucking word, but he's in there. i Future Jason. ah Derek Mears is in this movie. Deborah Kristofferson in this movie. Dare I say it, Tucker, what a cast. What a picture.
00:08:14
Speaker
What a cast. What a cast. And for my money, what a picture. Yeah. So um so this this month is all about Will Smith. We're going to be talking about the man himself. um Let's just do a little bit of preamble here. um Born in September 25, 1968. Willard Carroll Smith II gains his a lot of his notoriety through his rap career. um Parents just don't understand. Nightmare on my street, summertime. Classic. Boom, shake the room. Boom, shake the room. Girls take nothing but trouble. Brand new funk as we go.
00:08:55
Speaker
Ring my bell, et cetera, et cetera. The list goes on and on, parlaying that into an incredibly successful television show called The Fresh Prince of Bel Air, which ran for six seasons. And then finally breaking into movies, his very first theatrically released film, Tucker, was? ah That one was Tucker Channing, where he plays the gay con man, and it's so good. There's one before that one.
Kevin Kline & Kenneth Branagh in 'Wild Wild West'
00:09:22
Speaker
Oh, what is it? The Whoopi Goldberg Ted Danson film Made in America. Oh, yeah, that's right. He is in that. I also came out in 1993. Same with the film. You're talking about Six Degrees of Separation. Six Degrees of Separation, yes. That's Stalker Channing and Donald Sutherland. I've read that play, but I have not seen the film. There is nothing like that movie. And Will Smith is great in that movie because he hasn't quite figured out movie acting yet.
00:09:52
Speaker
right But it kind of it gives a sincerity to his performance. It works for him. in that film because of the character that he plays. And I recommend it to anybody who likes movies. Honestly, I want to see it. Will Smith actually did um like come out later and say he was kind of a coward in that movie um because he didn't go for the onscreen kiss with his co-star whose name escapes me. He's a director. um He was I was noticed. No, he did short bus getting. And he was the the lead in Hedwig and the Angry Inch.
00:10:27
Speaker
Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, I can't think of something mean though. It's John something. John, fuck, this is gonna bug me. I'm looking it up right now. I keep wanting to say John Michael Higgins. He's got three names, but John Michael Higgins is not. That's the guy from like A Mighty Wind and Best in Show. This is, shit, shit, shit, shit, shit. What's his name? What's his name? What's his name?
00:10:55
Speaker
ah Why is it not on the main page? Dammit. Ian McKellen, also in Six Degrees of Separation, though. Yeah, dude, he sure is. Anthony Michael Hall, Heather Graham, Michael or Anthony Rapp. JJ Abrams is in that movie. That's fucking weird. Yeah.
00:11:14
Speaker
I, is he not in this movie? I could have sworn he was in this movie. Maybe he's not. And maybe I'm, maybe I'm thinking of the wrong guy. Maybe, maybe you're thinking of the wrong guy. Straight at maybe, maybe it's, maybe it's Anthony Rapp. Maybe I'm, maybe I'm losing my mind, but I could have sworn it was the dude who directed short bus. I could have sworn. Maybe, maybe not, but it's real, real good and you should see it. It is on my list. I will probably get to it at some. It was a a community theater production. John Cameron Mitchell is who I'm thinking of. But I don't I doesn't look like he was in that movie. Maybe he was not. He's he's one of those like great actor director guys um like did a lot of he hosted, hosted a lot of stuff on, um hosted a lot of stuff on the independent film channel. IFC back in the day.
00:12:03
Speaker
um But no, like really great director, actor um is in like shrill, is in yellow jackets, um vinyl. He just like shows up and shit. um But was he in six degrees of separation? He was not in six degrees of separation. I am mistaken. My. Watch it anyway. I'm really glad that that we took that like 10 minute diversion for me just to be proven wrong. That was great.
00:12:36
Speaker
Well, that's okay, we got to talk about 60 degrees of separation. And it's really good. And nobody fucking remembers that movie. So go watch it, everybody. But his his big, his big break, Tucker, his first big break, you remember what it was? Was it Bad Boys? It's Bad Boys. I was gonna say, it's a movie you watched last week. It is Bad Boys in 1995. And I'll probably watch next week too. Probably. Love that fucking movie. You do. You do love them Bad Boys. What you gonna do? What you gonna do when they come for you, Tucker? um Not watch Cops, that's for sure. That's for sure. um And then after that, like he has within just a few years, kind of a weird miracle run where he does Independence Day in 96, Men in Black in 97, which is a fucking masterpiece. He does one other movie between Men in Black and Wild Wild West, you know what it is, Tucker?
00:13:31
Speaker
What is it? It's it's got your boy Jason Lee in it saying a very classic Jason Lee line. Oh, I mean, the state enemy of the state. Fucking. I love that movie. but Yeah. Yeah. And I was going to say the great Gene Hackman in that movie. Yes. And Lisa Bonet also in that movie. Oh, do I love Lisa Bonet? I love Lisa Bonet. Yeah, you do. Yeah, you do. um But yeah, that that is his... like run his film run up until this movie. He's only done a handful of movies up before Wild Wild West. That's how meteoric his rise was. But he was, for for a few years, he was ubiquitous because he was on television, he was in record stores, and he was on films. So like he was doing everything. And so it's not surprising that his star rose so quickly because the movies he was in
00:14:31
Speaker
particularly starting with Bad Boys and then in Independence Day men and Men in Black were huge. Like he's in, like those three movies back to back is kind of incredible. An actor these days would kill for ah for a three-peat like that, honestly. Well, and as much as I love this movie, I'm kind of glad that this one failed because I think it forced him to kind of get out of his comfort zone and we got some of the best performances out of him with shit like Ali. we're gonna talk about like the the interim next week for sure kind of his rebound off of this movie. um But yeah, like in it, because this isn't the only career this this movie this movie is didn't just stall his career, it stalled another career as well, which we'll get into.
00:15:17
Speaker
um But before we got too, dude too, too deep into Wild, Wild West, I wanted to at least touch on Will Smith. But before we get too deep on the other specifics of this movie, I want to talk about our personal histories with Wild, Wild West. Where do we where do you start with Wild, Wild West, Tucker? How does it enter your life? Why do you watch it every Christmas?
00:15:43
Speaker
Well, Stephen, um Since I was a very young man, I've really, really liked Will Smith. I started liking him in the late eighties when my metalhead cousin played me a copy of He's the DJ. I'm the rapper. And boy, well, I liked that. I liked that a lot. And so I'm I think I I basically owned
00:16:16
Speaker
that record because I rented it from the library so much. That and the follow-up and in this corner, it's very much into. um And I really liked i really like Fresh Prince because he he told funny stories. And I liked that. I like ah like all his funny stories. He's got some funny stories. And some of them are true, I found out, actually. I was watching an interview with him and Martin Lawrence for Bad Boys, the new bad boys, uh, uh, ride or die, ride or die. And he's talking about his first car, which he said was a candy, Apple red, I rock. And then I'm like, wait, that's in that song about him getting his star coal, his car stolen. He says a candy, Apple red, I rock windows deep tinted. And I'm like, okay well, that's weird. I guess that was his first car, right? That's cool. And then he talks about how it got stolen.
00:17:13
Speaker
And I'm like, hey, it gets stolen in that song. And then he's like, and like, it was just really disappointing because at the end of it, his car was totaled. The thief totaled his car. And that's what happens, Steven, at the end of the song, Who Stole My Car? By DJ Jazzy Jeff and the Fresh Prince. It's reality, dude. Reality raps. But no, he tells funny stories. And I like, I like, I like, go ahead. You know, I was just saying you borrow from your own life and that's that's how art art imitates life. Is that what they say? Yeah, I think I think that's why I wasn't so much into him after he kind of got away from the Fresh Prince moniker and started just doing like regular music instead of which is right around this time. I just I want more funny stories because you know what, Will Smith, just just spin me a yarn, dude.
00:18:08
Speaker
Like, give me a, ah give me, I want fresh Prince Fables. I don't need no Aesop. Give me fresh Prince Fables. Tell me, tell me all the silly little stories you got, dude, because I am, I'm glued to him every single one. The way this man spins a silly story is just a, it's a fantastic thing. The only thing that he does almost as well as that is acting.
00:18:33
Speaker
And that probably comes from the rapping, where instead of, you know, doing like the kind of raps that most people do, where it's a stream of consciousness, or they're talking about a specific subject, like he's, he's a storyteller. And I think storytellers are usually pretty good actors, I think. Generally speaking, yeah. Storytellers are usually pretty good actors is what I'm trying to say. I mean, that's what performance is, you're telling a story through performance. So yeah, that tracks. So i always I always followed his career. i when That's why I saw a Six Degrees of Separation kind of a little bit after it came out. I rented it from Blockbuster because I was like, oh, it's my boy. um I saw Bad Boys. I saw ah Independence Day. I saw Straight Up, Enemy of the State, some of these a few years later because I was young, a little too young for a few of them.
00:19:26
Speaker
ah But when Wild Wild West came out, I wanted to see it at the movie theater, but I never got around to it because you know i you know I was teenager and I was chasing girls and stuff. so i you know I didn't have a lot of time for my hobbies back then because I was a busy guy back then with other things, not school. But so I saw this on video as soon as it came out though. And I just bought, I just bought it blind. I was like, I know I'm going to like this. So as soon as it came out, I'm just like, I'm going to buy this, watch it at my leisure. And so I did. And I still have that VHS tape and I watch it every Christmas because my parents used to live in Florida and my sister and I would visit them on Christmas. And the room I stayed in was like their sewing slash computer room. And there was like a David in there.
00:20:21
Speaker
But there was also an old, like, little 13-inch TV that had a VCR on it. And so all the VHS tapes were in that room. And I always watched Wild Wild West. And you still watch Wild Wild West every Christmas? I do. I do watch it at Christmas time, yes, every year, at least once. um Because I just love it. I've always loved it. I think that the older I get, the more I appreciate different things about it. Like my review today is not even going to be close to what my review would have been when I saw it for the first time. Uh, I've had a lot of time to digest this film and I've had a lot of rewatches and every time I watch it, I see something where I'm like, that's, I had never thought of it that way before. And you know, I could see why people don't like this movie because it's not, it's not a
00:21:19
Speaker
good movie sometimes, but it's well made. It's well acted. And I think that it's the kind of comedy that wasn't popular then it was, it was kind of out of style, the kind of comedy that they were doing. Plus the way that they blended the, the Western and science fiction and steampunk and all that stuff. together was not something that was easy for most audiences to digest. Now, were you familiar with the show at all, like the show that this movie was based on? I don't remember it at all. But I know I had seen it because my dad used to watch it. Okay. I know this was what and this is kind of one another reason I'm bummed that Brett's not here is because I know Brett and his dad used to watch the show a lot.
00:22:15
Speaker
which is one reason Brett was excited to be here, but I can can kind of say something on that because my dad watched a lot of Westerns and still does. He still watches that the whatever the Western channel is that you can get with your local channels. Yes, I just that all day watching shit like bonanza and the rifleman.
00:22:35
Speaker
Yeah, fucking Connors. Yeah. Yeah. Do you check? Connors is the shit. um So anyone in the opening when he's just like. The rifle, but the rifle, but yeah, bow rifle button yeah it's it's exactly that. Yeah. Connors in the rifle, but it rivals the fugitive.
00:23:02
Speaker
if you're in trouble, if no one else can help, and if you can find them, maybe you can hire the A-Team. Yeah, dude. What I will say about the um the way that those TV westerns were structured, that's the way this movie is structured. This movie is structured like a t like three episodes of a TV western. Right. And I love that. about this movie. I love everything they're doing because they're succeeding whether you like it or not. who They are succeeding with everything they're trying to do in this movie.
00:23:39
Speaker
for my money. This is ah you you say you say you talk a lot about how it's out of date and I think there's something to that because the 90s were this the early 90s in particular were a big time we could do an entire theme month of movies based on 60s television shows ah because there was a ton of that like boomer nostalgia shit in the 90s because all these boomers were like hitting 30, 40 years old and, you know, wanted to watch all the shit that they grew up with. And so Hollywood was making movies. And this is one of the last ones.
00:24:12
Speaker
um Like one of the last ones from that era. And so as a result, it's it's kind of passé in a lot of ways, because it's all been done like Maverick was five years before. Maverick's fucking great to see our past episode on Maverick. that I'm unfortunately, unfortunately not on because I have so much to say about that movie. I love that movie so much. Oh, yeah, I don't doubt it. But like, yeah, like, I mean, but I mean, future episode of this podcast, the Beverly Hillbillies, future episode of this podcast, the Mod Squad, like it was a big thing in the 90s to just make shows out of and it really the Brady Bunch movie and its sequel, a very Brady sequel were kind of the ones that
00:25:00
Speaker
got that ball rolling. And this is one of the last ones of that kind of era. Well, and and our boy Barry Sonnenfeld, who directed this was responsible for kind of keeping that alive with the Addams family movies, too. He contributed to keeping that breathing like as a 90s. Yeah. Which is why I think it's it's appropriate that he directed this film, honestly. It is. And some on some of like, it's kind of combining what he did with Men in Black with what he did with the Addams Family, which to that point, those had been his two biggest hits. I'm going to get into Barry Sonnenfeld just soon as I talk about my own history with this movie, because
00:25:38
Speaker
i I watched some Fresh Prince for sure, but I was not like a, and, you know, i Will Smith was ubiquitous, like he was everywhere. So I knew who he was, but i was I was not a kid who was raised on rap. I was raised on oldies and CCM to the amazement of no one. um Right? Steven was raised on contemporary Christian music and old ah and oldies? ah Tucker, me too. I also wish we had all been ready. Um, two men standing on a hill, one disappears and one's left standing still. God, I wish we'd all been ready.
00:26:13
Speaker
and wow But ah Independence Day, I would say, was the first PG-13 movie that I ever saw. I saw it on my birthday. My birthday is in July. I saw it on my birthday in theaters and did not sleep that night because the scene with the alien in Area 51 scared the bejesus out of me. Where he takes over data? Yes. Yeah, that is scary. That terrified me. it was the The closest thing I'd ever seen to a horror film up to that point in my life. And it freaked me the fuck out. um Like at one point after I saw that movie, there was like a big like red like the sky was very, very red. That like one night and I thought it was the the alien ships like coming to like blow up Indianapolis. um I was a kid with an overactive imagination.
00:27:04
Speaker
And um so that was the first Will Smith film I saw. I saw Men in Black in theaters as well. Fucking loved Men in Black. So of course, when this movie comes out, I'm going to see it in theaters and you better believe your boy was there. Not opening weekend, but your boy was there. Your boy saw it on the big screen and um remember thinking it was fun, but not as good as Independence Day or Men in Black. Um, because, and ah I hate to be the one to tell you this, it's not as good as those other movies. It's just not. It is, is but it's not those. I will agree with you, but also I, I, I can't believe you didn't sniff this out, but this is, this is a Tucker movie. It's definitely a Tucker movie. It is the to the pure silliness of this motherfucker right up my alley. Kenneth Branagh, shit.
00:28:01
Speaker
dude is like that's he's he's acting to me. We're gonna talk ken we're gonna look I've got did I do deep dives on all these people's careers running up to this movie? Yes. Yes, I fucking did. Did I do I know what all of these people how all these people feel about this movie? Yes, I fucking do. And it makes me sad. Give your boy some some respect and some credit because I your boy did his homework this week. I will say, despite what the people involved with this film have to say about it, I think ah when they shot it, every actor in this film knew exactly what movie they were making. They understood the assignment, and everybody knocked it right out of the fucking park. Based on what I'm reading, the only person who really seemed to like being there was Ted Levine.
00:28:52
Speaker
Ted Levine, who who is 100% knows exactly what movie he's in. But like he blames the scripts, which yes, because they were writing pages like right up to the day. I believe that. I believe that. Which is why the script does not make any really coherent narrative sense. It's kind of all over the place. There are threads that are like picked up and dropped, and then 20 minutes later picked up again and then dropped again. like It doesn't make any fucking sense. um And then he also thinks Will Smith was horribly miscast as the lead.
00:29:26
Speaker
I could, I could see other people in the role, but I don't, I don't think he did a bad job. He's just, he's got the charisma for it. He's got the Riz as the kids say. And here's the thing. That is the one thing I think that Will Smith has in spades. He is a very, and I think that's the reason why he's such an effective leading man. And this is something we're going to talk about, I'm sure a lot this month, but the man is charismatic as fuck. and confident as all hell, dude. Which is why I don't think he works in every role. like Something like this I think he works very well in, but something like I Am Legend, where you've got a he's playing someone who's like in constant battle with himself and like you know constantly like battling loneliness. He's too confident for that. I don't believe him doing that as much as I do in something like this.
00:30:15
Speaker
You know, but to counter that, I will say I believe the hell out of him in Hancock, but that's kind of a mixed role because like he hates himself. He hates himself, but he's still confident because he's he's indestructible. Right. Spoiler alert, we'll get to Hancock. Very interesting role. And I think Will Smith knocked that out of the park. I think that's one of his performances. We're gonna answer the age-old question that asked by the Black Men Can't Jump in Hollywood podcast, is Hancock a good movie? We're gonna answer that this month. Okay, I can't wait because it's a complicated answer. It is. Really complicated. We're gonna talk about it. We're gonna talk about Hancock this month. Spoilers, we're gonna talk about Hancock. I haven't watched it in a long time. I'm excited to watch. I haven't watched it since I saw it in theaters. What? I saw it in theaters too. I saw that movie on a date.
00:31:05
Speaker
Oh. I took a female to see that movie. And you know what? It was the last date I ever went on with that lady. It's the last date I ever went on. Period. I still haven't been on a date since. Since 2008, I haven't been on a date. It's it's been ah it's been it's been a rough 20 years. um So. But no, so I saw this movie in theaters and I've watched it a few times since. I have seen it a few times since it came out. It's for one reason or another, it's one that I have come back to, and I cannot for the life of me tell you why I keep coming back to it, but I i do. It's fun and it's breezy. It flies right by, man. It's something all right. I mean, it's not a movie, um at spoilers, it's not a movie I particularly like, but yeah, it's a movie I've seen. But you don't not like it.
00:32:02
Speaker
I mean, I kind of don't like it. You're on the negative side of OK. Is that what you're telling me? Yes, I am absolutely on the negative side of OK on this one. That's for sure. But no, so this movie is directed by Barry Sonnenfeld, who up to this point in the 90s has had a kind of a fucking miracle run. Like, honestly, like this is This movie is a really odd thing because it is Will Smith and Barry Sonnenfeld meeting at the height of their powers. And at some point, both of them are going to have kind of a meteoric fall for Sonnenfeld. It's like right after this for Will Smith. It is significantly later, but it's it's fucking wild is what it is. It's doing it again. Well, your screen. Yeah, it's just the it's it's just the window, though.
00:32:57
Speaker
Oh, it stopped. Okay, good. Oh, fuck it started again. Shit. All right, I'm closing this window. I will mention to those who don't know that Barry Sonnenfeld Sonnenfeld started out as a cinematographer. Yes, which is why even though this movie is not great, it still looks pretty good. stick Oh, it looks so good. And he knows how to film seat with CGI too. And it looked it Man, it's a good looking movie. It's a real, real good looking movie because the color palette in this movie is not one that my brain likes. It's not. Normally, normally my brain would not let me like a movie like this, but it's just so fucking beautiful. It looks so good. Every shot is perfect in this movie. It do look good, though. It's a real good looking movie, yeah. I mean, for all its flaws, and it has several,
00:33:51
Speaker
The look of it is not one of them. like it it looks ah very It's a very dynamic looking film. That, I have to give it credit for that, if nothing else. The man knows how to shoot a fucking movie, man. He was specifically the DP for some of our favorite filmmakers, the Coen brothers. Yeah, dude. He was DP on the poll three of their films, Blood Simple. And Raising Arizona, right? Correct. Those are the three. Yes. And then he has a cameo in Barton Fink. Oh, yeah, he does.
00:34:25
Speaker
He's the ah the the phone operator. And he did several other movies as well. Like he was DP for some other fairly well-known films, which I'm going to look up right now because my computer has now decided that it doesn't want to reopen my browser that I closed. Wait, does that mean you can't see me anymore, Steven? Well, I can see you. OK, good. I have you open at a completely different browser than I have my notes open. And my notes are gone. I didn't comb this mustache for nothing, Steven. Oh, and I look I appreciate the the amount of effort you put into that that grooming. um umed up a So he also does. In addition to those three films, he is DP on throw mama from the train. Danny DeVito's first film big Penny Marshall's film big and also the Rob Reiner classic when Harry met Sally. He also is DP. The last film he ever DPS is the Rob Reiner film Misery.
00:35:23
Speaker
yeah Like Kathy Bates. Yes. Winning Oscar. Yes. Like fucking like he's a great cinematographer. And then like a lot of cinematographers before him, like Jan de Bont and many others, he gets to try his hand at directing and he does such a good job that they let him just keep being a director. um And he, for ah for the 90s at least, he has kind of an unimpeachable record. He starts his directing career in 1991 with a fucking so classic, The Addams Family, which we love. We do. um He follows that up in 93 with two movies, the first being the Michael J. Fox film for Love or Money, which I have not seen.
00:36:16
Speaker
me neither. ah But the 1993 film I've absolutely seen so many times. In fact, Brett and I recorded a commentary track on it years ago on the Patreon, Adam's Family Values, which mostly consists of us just like quoting the movie back at the movie, we're having such a fucking good time. um And 95 he does get shorty. Do what? I said, eat me. Eat me. Da, da, na, na, na, na. Eat me. Ba, ba, na, na. It's so good. It's so good. It is really good. I paid money during the pandemic to watch Griffin Newman from the Blank Check podcast and the four hosts of the We Hate Movies podcast watch that on like an official Paramount feed. That's that a thing I did during the pandemic. And you know what? Fucking worth it.
00:37:07
Speaker
Yeah, dude, I believe it. It was a blast. It was a lot of fun. um I also paid to watch him and John Gabris watch at Griffin and John Gabris watch Hunt for Red October. Oh, you love that movie. I do love that movie. that Both of those movies are fucking phenomenal. In 95, he directs Get Shorty, and in 97, he does Men in Black. Yeah! Like, that is an insanely good run. in that like For Love or Money is the only real outlier, the only one of those that is not a stone cold classic. But his run up to this point is fucking perfection. And I would say it is the negative reception of this movie, and the production hell of his next movie, which is Big Trouble, which comes out in 2002, was supposed to come out in 2001, but a little thing called September 11th happened, and it's a movie about terror Tim Allen fighting terrorists.
00:38:03
Speaker
written by Dave Barry, of all people. It's a weird movie. It's a weird. Have you seen? the Have you not seen Big Trouble? No, but I like Dave Barry, or at least Harry Anderson's portrayal of him in Dave's World with Shadow Stevens and Misaj Taylor. I love Misaj Taylor. Misaj Taylor is the gri let me run down the cast of Big Trouble for you because it's a fucking wild movie. Now I want to see it. Written by Dave, like Dave Berry wrote the book it was based on. It stars Tim Allen. Okay, I'm okay with that. Renee Russo. Okay, I'm good with that. Stanley Tucci. Oh, I fucking love that. We love the Tuj. We do love the Tuj. Tom Sizemore. All right, yeah, I'm still with you, still with you. Johnny Knoxville. Yep, still there. Dennis motherfucking Farina.
00:38:58
Speaker
Yep, yep. You know how, you know I love Farina. Yeah. um Jack Kaler, who's the the dude's landlord in the Big Lebowski. Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Janine Garofalo. Hey. Patrick Warburton. Yep. um Ben Foster. Yep. Zoey Deschanel. Sure. Omar Epps. Yep. Jason Lee. Okay. skateboarding Jason Lee skateboarding Jason Lee Sofia Vergara modern family Sofia Vergara Andy Richter Cecily Strong does a really good impression of her she does she does yes I have and Michael McShane the guy who played um
00:39:45
Speaker
ah the The guy who was Friar Tuck in Robin Hood Prince of Thieves. Oh, yeah, OK. And it's also got heavy D, heavy D's in there as well. Are his boys there, though? No. Oh, just heavy D, not heavy D. Right. But it's it's got a fucking incredible. It's also got Siobhan, Siobhan Fallon from Men in Black. Someone that was wearing a car, like a suit. An egg or suit? Like an egg or suit. She's in there. Straight up egg or suit. um She's in there as well. Martha Stewart has a cameo as herself. Like it's a fucking wild movie. I remember really liking it. My fear is that it does not hold up. That is my fear with this movie. It has been a long time since I've probably since I was in college, since I've seen it.
00:40:34
Speaker
Um, but that's his immediate follow-up and because of 9 11, it gets pushed back a whole year, gets rewritten, goes through like a whole development health process before it finally gets released. And then the worst of the men in black, well, second worst now, men in black two. Oh yeah. You're right. You're right. Yeah. I haven't even seen international because I know it's bad, but I thought three was future episode of this podcast. I enjoyed three, specifically Josh Brolin and Jermaine. I thought were really good in that. Josh Rowan's so fucking good in Men in Black. A very effective villain. I like Jermaine Clement in that film as well. He was scary. Then four years after Men in Black 2 and Big Trouble come out, we get R.V. Robin Williams in R.V. I'm not one of them. He's kind of an indie hit, a sleeper hit, indie movie sort of deal. Six years after that, we get Men in Black 3. Which I enjoyed.
00:41:31
Speaker
but yeah Which honestly felt like a slight return to form but then he follows it up He follows it up Tucker four years later with a movie called nine lives Which is a ah Kevin Spacey talking cat movie. Oh yeah. One of, I want to say, one of two talking cat movies released inside of three years. What's the other one in Garfield? No, the other one is called, it's a David Dakota film called You're Never Gonna Believe It.
00:42:02
Speaker
A talking cat? Oh, it's called a talking cat. With an exclamation point, a question mark, and an exclamation point. So it's called a talking cat. And guess who's the voice of the cat? Guess who's the voice of the talking cat? Is it you, Steven? It's not. Although, you know, if they'd asked me, no, it's not Kevin Spacey, it's Eric Roberts. Hey, okay. Boy, that dude, boy, I'll tell you. He's like, he's like, if Michael, mad if everybody wanted to work with Michael Madsen, which they don't only, couldn parent you know, does, but like Eric Roberts will be in.
00:42:39
Speaker
Eric Roberts will be in the biggest blockbuster of the year, and he'll be in your friend's movie down the street who's shooting a movie in their backyard. He'll show up in that. For this one, why not I think I read David DiCotto just showed up to his house with a tape recorder, and he just recorded everything in his living room. Yeah, I love the work ethic on that guy. Somebody shows up at his door with a tape recorder. He's like, yeah, fuck it. Let's do it. Come on. I'll just make it some coffee. Let's go.
00:43:06
Speaker
But you know, because of the the wild drug habit he had in the 80s, the projects of quality just aren't there. Yeah. And honestly, he kind of shot his career in the foot with star 80. Have you seen star 80? No, it's a fucking tough watch, dude. It's a tough fucking watch. You know what it is? What it is. It's the um ah Dorothy Stratton, the the Playboy Playmate who was murdered by her boyfriend ah by her ex-husband. Sorry, by her ex-husband. It's it's.
00:43:40
Speaker
It's him. It's about it's about the guy that murdered Dorothy Stratton. And he's played by Eric Roberts. Oh, cool. Yeah. Bob. Bob Fosse read an article and was like, I relate to this guy. I want to make a movie about him. And it was the last movie Bob Fosse ever made, too. So I thought later, dude, I mean, Bob Fosse did direct two stone cold masterpieces. So, you know, the man, the man directed cabaret and all that jazz, two of the best movie musicals ever committed to film. You guys, if you're not a patron, uh, Steven loves cabaret. I do love cabaret. It is and movieing my favorite decade of film. I was just going to prove my listening comprehension by saying that, but you just ruined it. So sorry.
00:44:30
Speaker
I believe. I mean, I said it five times. You'd have had to have been a really poor comprehender to to miss it. But yeah. Well, I think I think I probably ah retain about 30 percent of everything that's said to me. OK. It's not because I'm not paying attention on purpose. It's just because my brain doesn't like to focus on things too much. Your brain is like a 12 year old on sugar, really, is what it is. Yeah. Yeah. ah Yep. And that's true. So what else did Barry Sonnenfeld direct, Steven? That's it. Nine Lives is his last film to date, 2006.
00:45:07
Speaker
Dude's coming up on a decade without having directed anything. So like, um yeah, he's he's not done much lately is the point I'm trying to make. I doubt that he has to do like with residuals on all those fucking hits that he made. I was going to say like the first five, like four of the first five are like practically perfect films. in And they're big ones too. Big ones make a lot of money. Here's the thing. This one, also a big one, but not one that's, what and I think this one and the next one, like I said, this one and the next one kind of, kind of kill a lot of that momentum for him. Now I will tell i will say this for Barry Sonnenfeld, he does do a lot of TV. yeah In fact, he directed the entire first season of Schmigadoon. Which we love. he We do. He directed 10 episodes of a series of unfortunate events. He directed the,
00:46:06
Speaker
the 2013 TV movie Beverly Hills Cop. He directed. Yeah, that was a pilot where it was actually Foley's son and ready. Not canon. Right. But. And he also directed a couple of he directed a couple of episodes of Pushing Daisies and six episodes of a show called Notes from the Underbelly, as well as the pilot episode of the live action tick. So, I mean, he's done on. The Amazon one or the Patrick Warburton one? The original, the Patrick Warburton. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Sorry, I forgot there was the second one.
00:46:40
Speaker
Both really good in very different ways. I mean, Ben Edlund has been involved in every television adaptation of The Tick. So all of them have his very specific brand of humor on them. I think Sonnenfeld is actually a producer on the Amazon one as well. Yes, he is. He's an executive producer on the Amazon one as well. Nice. Which I thought was the natural evolution of that show. Like I think every version of that show has been better than the last. The cartoon was great. The live action was great. And then that Amazon one that got canceled two seasons too soon was peak tick. Just pete really fleshed out that world. It was so fucking good. Griffin Newman of the Boing Check podcast plays Arthur in that one. um And he's so fucking good in it. um Peter Sarafinovich is amazing as the tick. Valerie Curry as Dot is phenomenal. like It's got Alan Tudyk as Danger Boat.
00:47:39
Speaker
some peak fucking comedy, you get Michael, Michael Cerverus, like Tony Award winner, Michael Cerverus is in there. um You get fuck what's his John Hodgman, Judge John Hodgman himself is in there. Like it's go watch Amazon Prime's The Tick. Yes, it's two seasons, but it's two seasons well spent. And the fact that we if they'd renewed for a third season, we could have gotten Thracazog. Like, come on. and The worst part about that is it wasn't because of ratings and it wasn't because of anything except for the simple fact that a new person took over a prime video and just canceled everything. Yep. That's why I never got my second season of Jean-Claude Van Johnson. Oh, you love that show. it's it's It's one of the best shows I've ever seen in my life. One season. And it could have gone so many places.
00:48:34
Speaker
That's another one where people watched it, people liked it, but it just happened to be on hiatus when that guy took over. And he was just like, yeah, everything gets canceled, except for like this one show. Which fucking sucks. Like because the tick was unbelievable. It was so good. um Go watch the Amazon Prime tick. Seriously, go watch. Yes, there are problems with Amazon. I don't blame it. But if you've got it to watch Fallout and the boys, you might as well go watch the tick. Like yeah, my god right. And watch John Colvin Johnson when you're done. It's only one season. So, so I say all that to say like Sonnenfeld, like this is kind of the end of his hit run. And after this, it's misstep after misstep after misstep, which is a real fucking bummer because I love that early Sonnenfeld shit. Like I love that early Sonnenfeld shit. Yeah.
00:49:30
Speaker
and And with the exception of For Love and Money, every one of those movies got a sequel. Adam's Family Values was the sequel, but like every single one of those first five get a sequel. And then we get to this one. And this one feels like it's trying to do, it's trying to combine, like I said, the guy said this a little bit ago, it's trying to combine what he did on Adam's Family with what he did on Men in Black. Because you you cast the lead of Men in Black, Will Smith, and you do what you did in Men in Black, you cast him opposite a stuffy white dude. And Will Smith plus stuffy white dude equals comedy.
00:50:06
Speaker
clearly at yeah But then you also are, like like with Adam's family, you're bringing kind of a modern fresh take on a classic 60s sitcom or television show, not a sitcom, but a classic 60s TV show. um Which, but again, by this but by this point in the late 90s, that whole notion was kind of passé. Yep. Like a lot of those were coming out in like 93, 94, 95. Like I was in elementary school during the heyday of those 60s TV shows becoming movies thing.
00:50:44
Speaker
with Beverly Hillbillies and little but Little Rascals was more of a 40s, 50s show. But like Little Rascals was around that time. um Mod Squad, the the Brady Bunch movies, like these were happening a lot around this time. And so to have it happening at this point, like even Flintstones and Maverick in, I think, 94, Yeah, like this is five years after that point, like that's kind of been done. So like, it's it's almost like, a Oh, okay, well, yeah, we can we can do this one more time, I i suppose.
00:51:25
Speaker
um You know that you know, the big thing about this movie, though, right, Tucker, like the big thing with Will Smith in this movie.
00:51:34
Speaker
Drum in the boobies? No, no. Although that is kind of a great moment. um The no Will Smith is offered another film. That also came out in. It's The Matrix. He's offered The Matrix in 1999. The Wachowskis offer him The Matrix. He's not. Wachowskis offer him The Matrix. He decides to turn down The Matrix to do this movie because he was such a big fan of the show. um And he calls it the biggest regret of his career. Wow. As of October 2021, Will Smith calls this the worst movie he's ever made. Wow, has he seen some of his other movies? We're going to talk about a few of them later. We're going to talk about a few of them later this month. Just making sure because. the legend Because here's the thing, most of the good ones don't get the you know the good ones usually tend to get sequels.
00:52:33
Speaker
Yeah, it's true. And we're gonna talk about the ones that didn't so man. And but here's the thing I will tell you every movie we're covering comes out before 2021. So all of those movies are in contention. And this is the one that he tags is the worst. I guess when we cover the last movie of the month, we can kind of discuss whether or not we agree with him at that point. But I have a feeling you're not going to regardless. Probably not. Probably not. Probably not. You know what else this movie has, Steven? What's that? It has a plot. Yeah, it does. You think we should do something about that? Ah, yeah, I suppose. Might as well. Might as well. Man's gotta do, I suppose.
00:53:15
Speaker
Well, then let's go ahead and bust out the coin of justice and talk about the plot in 60 seconds. For those of you joining us for the first time, welcome. Welcome to Will Smith Month. ah The plot in 60 seconds is the part of the show where we Tucker, myself, ah discuss the plot of the movie that we are talking about in 60 seconds or less at the behest of the coin of justice. We're going to flip it. Tucker's going to call it. Heads is Lady Liberty. Tales is the I guess the the crest of some nation, probably Great Britain, because this is a pound sterling. ah But I'm going to flip the coin, and Tucker, you're going to call it, what is it going to be?
00:53:56
Speaker
Tails. It is heads, my friend, which means it falls to you. Okay. To discuss the plot of 1999's Wild, Wild West. Wicky, Wild, Wicky, Wild, Wicky, Wicky, Wild, Wild West, Jim West, Desperado, Rough Rider. No, you don't want Nada. None of this. Six Gun and his brother running his Buffalo Soldier. Look, it's like I told you. Any damsel that's in distress, be out of that dress when you meet Jim West. All right, I'm done. I love that line, that any damsel that's in distress be out of that dress when she meets Jim West. God, I love that line. He's a wordsmith, dude. Fresh Prince knows how to use words to where they sound real cool, dude. That's kind of one of his superpowers. Kind of what he does. Anyway, I've got one minute on the clock. I am going to start it whenever you're ready to give you the 30 and 10 second warnings. Your time starts, as I said, when you do.
00:54:47
Speaker
OK so Jim West is a cowboy dude ah but he's like ah CIA or something ATF some some some such shit. um But he is following ah General McGrath. because he thinks that he's the guy who has the tank that killed his family. And so he finds him. And it turns out that it's not him. Actually, it was ah the the dude in the wheelchair that doesn't have half a body. Arliss, what's his last name? Arliss Loveless. Thank you. OK. And so he and ah Kevin Kline get together at the urging of ah the president.
00:55:28
Speaker
to hunt down Loveless and they meet Salma Hayek and she gets kidnapped and ah they have to stop a giant spider and it's really rad. And every time that the president shows up, I love trying to guess if it's him or um Kevin Kline's character, even though he plays, he plays. And that is time. He plays them both all the time. Kevin Kline does play both roles in this movie. Do you know who they originally wanted to play? The ah the the what's ah the the president? You be who they originally wanted to play President Grant. President Grant, ah who? They originally wanted Robert Conrad, who played Jim West in the original show. Well, that would have been so fucking cool. They wanted him to make a cameo. They offered the role to him. He read the script and turned them down cold. Oh.
00:56:26
Speaker
Boo. He said he read the script and didn't think it um matched the spirit of the original show. ah Didn't really do what he had thought and hoped that a film ah version of Wild, Wild West would do. ah Basically was disappointed. And so he turned it down. Will Smith, of course, later would publicly apologize to Robert Conrad and basically say, look, I get it. um But yeah, that was that was kind of what happened there kind of
00:57:00
Speaker
There's a lot of stuff that happens in that movie, but none of it's really important, except the stuff that I just said, honestly. Most of it's silly set pieces and and fun fun little comedy moments. and right Yeah, it's got it's got a real 48 hours vibe sometimes, you know? hey jim was Jim West is very much um Reggie from 48 Hours in some of this movie, specifically because of the the racial undertones in this film, which it has to have, by the way, it has to have. If you're going to have a black protagonist in a movie set in 1869, then yes. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So he kind of had it had big Reggie vibes from 48 hours in this a lot of times, the way that he spoke to other people who were very obviously racist. It reminded me a lot of eight hours. Right. No, I that makes a lot of sense.
00:57:50
Speaker
um Yeah, for for my I don't know, for my part, I I think Will Smith is doing fine yeah um in this. But I again, there are probably like 20 other people who would probably do just as good a job at doing what he's doing here. um I would say maybe even better. I will say that looking at what I have been able to find from the pre-production of this movie, he is The one like he's the only black guy they're considering at one point. ah Mel Gibson is attached to star as Jim West with Richard Donner to direct Richard Donner, who had actually directed the original show. um They went on to do maverick. ah The script on that one, by the way, would have been written by Shane Black. Yeah, which is kind of cool.
00:58:46
Speaker
And then after that, they tasked ah they they they had Tom Cruise on board and then Tom Cruise ended up leaving to do his own 1960s film adaptation in Mission Impossible. Yeah. Yeah. Which is kind of the last one of those that really works. And then it just gets like after the first movie, it kind of goes off and veers off in its own direction and becomes its completely own thing. Yeah. like ends up getting a huge um its own identity, really, apart from the original show. Like most people don't you you. That's like a trivia thing. Did you know Mission Impossible is based on a show? Yeah, do because I think the only character in that first movie from the show was the John Voight character Jim Phelps. I like and respect all of the Mission Impossible films, but I really wish that it had become
00:59:41
Speaker
kind of like Mad Max, where like each one is a little bit different because that's how it started out. It is. Like you had the first one that was very much an espionage film. Which is my favorite for that reason. Yes. Oh, and it's so good. And then the second one just completely different tone. Completely. Because initially it was an O tour driven franchise. It was Tom Cruise approaching directors he really liked and going, hey, you want to direct a mission impossible, but just do do whatever you want. And so that's why those first four movies, it's Brian De Palma making the most Brian De Palma movie ever. John Woo making the most John Woo movie ever. She can get away with in America. Yes. Yeah. But then you go JJ Abrams, who's basically just making an episode of Alias. And then you get ah Brad Bird, who is doing some cool visual stuff. But that's like one of his first
01:00:35
Speaker
live action films. And so it's got kind of a very different feel. And then Christopher McQuarrie comes on and basically becomes the only director allowed to do Mission Impossible movies after that. And you know what? Good for him. He deserves it. He's phenomenal. We got to watch Way of the Gun, Steven. We got to watch Way of the Gun, dude. put it Put it on a straight up, man. Put it on a straight up and I will. I have JP Leck on that one. We both like that. There you go. So good. But like I. I don't so they bring in Kevin Kline to kind of match the stuffy white guy energy of Tommy Lee Jones and Kevin Kline feels like he's above this entire movie the whole time. eve He feels like he's slumming it in this movie, and I think that's how he actually felt doing this movie.
01:01:30
Speaker
ah He's like, I've won an Oscar. What the fuck am I doing? here it's kind of his attitude I believe that. But also like maybe that worked for his performance because I think he's really funny in this movie. Here's the thing. He's pro. Yeah, Kevin Kline's a pro. Yeah. Like if you hire him to do something, he's going to do it. Whether or not he's having fun is inconsequential. It's another thing altogether. But like so he wins an Oscar for Best Supporting Actor in 1988 for a little film called A Fish Called Wanda. So his night like he is a hot commodity in the 90s and he starts the 90s with a little movie called I Love You to Death in which he plays like apparently like a very stereotypical over the top Italian American gentleman doing the accent and everything.
01:02:26
Speaker
Um, other highlights from the nineties. He does soap dish in 91. He plays Douglas Fairbanks and chaplain in 92. Robert Downey Jr. Richard Attenborough's chaplain. I like that movie. Uh, Ivan Reitman's Dave. He's the lead in Ivan Reitman's Dave. He's the narrator of the Nutcracker movie with Macaulay Culkin. Uh, you forgot that existed, didn't you? No, I just don't give a fuck. Fair enough. ninety Ninety-five, he does French kiss. ah Disney's the hunchback of Notre Dame in 96. The belated follow-up to A Fish Called Wanda, Fierce Creatures in 97. Also in 97, honestly, 97, a great year for Kevin Space. He does Fierce Creatures, Angley's the Ice Storm, and Frank Oz's In and Out, all in 97. A fucking great year for Kevin Kline.
01:03:22
Speaker
And then in 99, he does the film version of A Midsummer Night's Dream, where he plays Nick Bottom. Just- Is that the one with Mel Gibson? No. I think you're thinking Mel Gibson's Hamlet. That's the one with Stanley Tucci. There was one with there was a there was one with Mel Gibson. It was Christian, it was ah of Ethan Hawke that was at Hamlet. And Julia Stiles and- No, Mel Gibson did a version of Hamlet as well. Okay. I believe you. I'm sitting around this time, generally. Kevin Klein, Michelle Pfeiffer, Rupert Everett, Stanley Tucci, Kalista Flockhart, Anna Friel.
01:04:06
Speaker
Christian Bale, Dominic West, David Strathair and Sophie Marceau, like fucking Bill Irwin, Sam Rockwell. Yeah, fucking great. one But no, the Mel Gibson. I don't know that Mel Gibson. I know he did a version of Hamlet. But I don't know if he's done. I don't know that he's done any other Shakespeare. I'm i'm looking at his filmography right now, because I if he's done a Midsummer Night's Dream, I kind of want to know about it. um But I did not know that he had done any other Shakespeare besides that one. um He does his Hamlet comes out in 1990, so a very early ah kind of preceding a lot of Kenneth Branagh stuff. But yeah, that's the only Shakespeare film he's done. And that's the one I think with Glenn Close's Guinevere. Yeah. And the Franco Zeffirelli Hamlet is that one.
01:05:05
Speaker
or Gertrude, not Gwyneth or Gertrude. That one's also got Helena Bonham Carter, Ian Holm as Polonius. The cast, though, not as strong as as Kenneth Branagh's Hamlet, which we'll talk about here momentarily. But like, yeah, Kevin Kline's apparently his whole attitude is, I have an Oscar, what the fuck am I doing in this movie? Kind of seems to be his his whole attitude toward it. um Well, I've got news for Kevin Kline and the headline is shove it because
01:05:39
Speaker
Look, I've seen a fish called Wanda and I've seen fierce creatures. And despite it being tailor made for me, both of those movies, you got a couple of pythons in there. You got Kevin Kline. You got Jamie Lee Curtis up in that motherfucker. Fish called Wanda is amazing. I love fish. I hate both of those movies. I don't think they're funny. I don't think anything in any of those movies is funny. Everything falls flat. I cannot fucking stand them. But you know what? I love Kevin Kline in this movie. I think he is hilarious. So you know what, Kevin Kline? I'm glad that you have opinions about your movies, but maybe, you know, maybe don't disparage your work because some people really love it and find great joy in it, even if it's not something that you enjoy doing so.
01:06:18
Speaker
The line I quote, one of the lines I quote most from any movie ever is Kevin Kline's oft repeated line in A Fish Called Wanda, where he just yells, asshole, as he's driving. I love it so much. It's such a great line. He it's one of the rare instances of an actor winning an Oscar for a comedy performance, which never happens. But I think that's just how good he is in that fucking movie. He's unbelievable in it. And He deserved that Oscar, man. steve i can't figure out why i don't like those movies because i should i i really should
01:06:51
Speaker
i don't understand i've actually tried to watch a fish called wanda i think probably about seven times now and i can't get through about thirty minutes of it It's just Ken is trying to kill me. So good. Yeah, not funny. Not funny. I love it. I love it so much. It's so good I wish I did. I want to, though. That's what makes me mad because it's like one of those things that's got a lot of my favorite people in it. And I'm like, how does this not work for me? How does this not work? It should work for you. It should work for everybody. it's Great movie. Maybe one day I'll mature enough past like twenty five and, you know, call back and.
01:07:26
Speaker
Maybe I'll appreciate it in a different way. Yeah, I will say ah Kevin Kline and Kenneth Brana. Their immediate follow up to this is the future episode of this podcast, the DreamWorks film, The Road to Eldorado. Oh, I like that one. Yeah, we're going to we're going to cover that at some point, because they absolutely do. They did a prequel to that one though. Yeah, they did a prequel to that one. Joseph, like, something of dreams. but King of Dreams. Yeah, something like that. So yeah, we can't we cannot cover Prince of Egypt, but we can absolutely cover Road to Eldorado.
01:08:05
Speaker
And I miss that early DreamWorks animation, man. I like those movies. We could probably do a whole theme month, actually. We could probably do like a DreamWorks December. Shrek killed it, man. Everything after Shrek was just like, I don't give a fuck. And they, you know, they wanted to make sequels, all that shit. They, it's, so it's rolled to El Dorado. We got Sinbad, Monsters versus Aliens, which has had like a lot of like straight to video shorts and shit. but like nothing actually like full length. I would have said Megamind, but Megamind just fucking got a sequel earlier this year, which fucking- Steven just finding out like a week before we're supposed to recover the movie. I'm like, Hey man, I think there's a sequel to this. Yeah. Less than, less than a week.
01:08:48
Speaker
That was some unwelcome news. Indeed. You're like, what's this about? And i i so I literally I googled Mega Man, Mega Mind sequel. And sure enough, there is one of them. I'm like, oh, fuck, man. I don't want that at all. the episode Then we would have had to do the sequel as well. but No, look, I'm glad you told me when you did. But still, I was like, well, fuck now. I got to find something else. And then. Dennis or Donald Sutherland died. So we're like, OK, we can cover ah we can cover Buffy the Vampire Slayer. We can cover one of like the four Donald Sutherland movies that we can cover on this podcast. And you guys wanted to do that one. ah So we we have that one locked and loaded and then everyone had to drop out of that episode. So we we did a we did a rewind, a revisited.
01:09:32
Speaker
Um, but yeah, um, Madagascar, we can't do Kung Fu Panda. We can't do, um, crudes. We can't turbo. Turbo's another one. Uh, we could also do series on that though, on Netflix. But TV doesn't count for what we do. Yeah, I know. We could do Peabody and Sherman. There was a Netflix show on that too. And I, I do want to see that because it's the only, a Rocky and Bullwinkle-related film that I have not seen. I have seen it. It's not bad. That one also has Stanley Tucci in it. For what? Stanley Tucci. I know you do. I know you do. So can we cover Peabody and Sherman then? Yeah.
01:10:18
Speaker
Put it on the list. Like I'm saying, we can do an entire DreamWorks theme month. DreamWorks animation theme month. We can make that happen. Make sure you got any Germans on there because I do want to watch that movie, but not enough to watch it on my own volition. You know what? Fair. Totally fair. Sometimes you need to push in the right direction, you know? Yeah. Speaking of pushing in the right direction, Kenneth Brana. Yeah dude steals this fucking movie dude steals it right up out out of in front of everybody. Get hammin' it up dude. It's British actors for whatever reason love doing a southern accent. It's southern accent is hmm. It's like foghorn leghorn yeah with it's like gay foghorn leghorn is what he's doing in this movie.
01:11:06
Speaker
yes And I'm kind of here for it, but it's all yeah ridiculous. It's so over the top. No Southern person I have ever met sounds like this man. And yet I still kind of believe it. yeah And dick for like mary poppins thing dude so yeah you do it so bad and it's really fucking good for for a man without a lower half of his body, he is the horniest motherfucker I've ever seen in a film. yeah Like, I forgot how horny this movie is, and it is all Lovelace's, like, female assistants. And he's got four of them, and they're played by four of the most beautiful women I've ever seen on film. Yeah, dude. It's Bai Ling, who is fucking gorgeous. It is Musetta Vander, who I had such a crush on in the 90s. It's Frederic Van Der Waal, and it's Sofia Eng, like,
01:12:02
Speaker
like the horniest movie I've ever seen. And these women are walking around essentially in bustiers the whole movie. So, you know, Teenage Steven was here for this shit. Yeah, dude. And I'm seriously just like for those beautiful women ever committed to film. You said Evander in particular was a was a crush of mine who plays Munisha in this movie. She was also in Oh Brother Where Art Thou was one of the sirens. Yeah, if I may quote Beavis. Or if I may quote Wayne Campbell, Schwing. Schwing.
01:12:39
Speaker
yeah I like not to get horny on main or anything, but yes. Like, absolutely. She was also in Mortal Kombat Annihilation, a future episode of Unenfranchised, I'm sure. Katana. Sindel. Sindel, that was going to be my second guess. Yeah, that movie sucks. Yeah, I'm sure it
Christopher Lambert & Kenneth Branagh's Film Work
01:13:01
Speaker
does. um I didn't like the first one, so I can't imagine the second one's going to be any good. ah The first one was a bit of dumb fun. I enjoyed.
01:13:10
Speaker
I enjoyed Christopher Lambert in that movie, I sure did. Yeah, I bet you did. I love me some Christopher Lambert. Christopher Lambert being all creepy and weird. ah But Kenneth Branagh at this point was mostly known for Shakespeare, for his Shakespeare adaptations. He was the Shakespeare guy. Honestly, kind of still to this day known as the is either the Shakespeare guy or the weird fucking accent guy. Because between this movie and what he's doing in future episodes of this podcast, Jack Ryan Shadow Recruit, and movie we'll never cover on this podcast, Tenet, he's doing some weird fucking accents in those movies. I feel like anytime he's in a movie where he has to do an accent, he does the most ridiculous version of that accent. Him and Tom Hardy, they do that a lot. Yes, they never talk normal. No. And I like in Venom, he does two voices that are just wacky.
01:14:05
Speaker
Like his Eddie Brock voice is really silly. And then his Venom voice is, I think it's honestly one of the best voice acting performances by a non-voice actor is his performance as Venom. And even though i don't I don't think those movies are all that great, they're fine, whatever. But him as Venom, like the symbiote, it's comedy fucking gold. He is so hilarious. Like a turd in the wind. Yeah, dude, he's fantastic. I love it. so I want to watch an animated series of like pre-venom venom where it's just like the symbiote rolling around in space and shit. Just to hear his goofy
Kenneth Branagh's Casting Choices
01:14:49
Speaker
thoughts and shit and how ridiculous he is. And Tom Hardy voices it. I'd watch it. Sure. There you go.
01:14:56
Speaker
um But no, Brana is basically like a second coming of Olivier, like the guy who's bringing Shakespeare to the unwashed masses. And to his credit, he's way more prolific than Olivier, but he kind of starts this 90s boom, ah this 90s Shakespeare boom, which which results in stuff like Baz Luhrmann's Romeo and Juliet, Tim Blake Nelson's Oh, Gil Junair's 10 Things I Hate About You. Like all these Shakespeare adaptations that we get in the 90s are thanks to Kenneth Brana. Um, and he, at this point in the nineties, he's done. Most of the films he's done are stuff he's directed. So like dead again, he directed Peter's friends. He directed, he's got an uncredited role in swing kids, which, I mean, swing kids. I like that movie. Boy, that gets dark quick. Doesn't it? Yeah, it does. Oh, yeah does you're having a great time. and Then all of a sudden, damn, right up until you're not. Yeah. Yeah. Damn.
01:15:51
Speaker
right up till you're not. I do love that movie, though. It's good. I remember. I remember really enjoying it. Yeah. Swing Heil. Is that what they say in that movie? That is the thing they say in that movie. Yeah. Oof. That's weird. Weird to say now. umwin And then he directs he stars and directs in both Much Ado About Nothing and Frankenstein. ah he's He stars in the 1995 version of Othello, but does not direct it. He plays Iago in that one, opposite Laurence Fishburne as Othello.
01:16:24
Speaker
ah He directs Hamlet which a with a star-studded fucking cast. I think that's the one with Bill Murray, and Kate Winslet, and Billy Crystal, and Charlton Heston, and just- How many Hamlets has Bill Murray been in? Damn. i I think he's just been in the one. No, he's in the modernized version with Ethan Hawke, I was talking about before. He's in that too, Julia Stiles. Yeah. Is he really? Yeah, he plays the mom's boyfriend, the uncle, he's the uncle. Polonius. Yeah. I'm pretty sure that's the role he plays in the Kenneth Branagh one, but I could be wrong. That's wild. Fucking wild, dude. I could be really, really wrong. I could have sworn he was in that one. No, you're right. He's I'm way off base on this one. I could have sworn he was in the Kenneth Branagh one, but no, apparently he is not.
01:17:21
Speaker
um nowm Now I'm curious who plays Polonius in that one because I thought it was Bill Murray. I
Branagh's Career Decisions
01:17:28
Speaker
don't know. um Julie Christie plays Gertrude. Derek Jacobi is Claudius. Richard Attenborough is the English ambassador. Brian motherfucking Blessed as the ghost of Hamlet's father. Richard Breyers is the actor that plays Polonius in that one. ah Billy Crystal plays a gravedigger. Gerard Depardieu is in that motherfucker as well. Judi Dench is in there. like it's
01:17:52
Speaker
like the the cast is fucking wallto wall to wall bangers like everybody in this movie is fucking somebody. ah John, you'll good Rosemary Harris, Charlton Heston, ah Rowena King, Jack Lemmon. Just like fucking again, who's who Rufus Sewell, Timothy Spall. Timothy Spall plays Rosencrantz fucking love that Robin Williams is in this motherfucker. He's yeah. He isn't that. Hey, I should see that. You should. But Steven, you need to see the other one, though, because I think you would really like it. The Ethan Hawke one. Yes, I think you would like it a lot. Who directed that one? Oh, no, just some dude. Some bloke. Yeah, just some fella. um Michael Almerada. Sure.
01:18:50
Speaker
I came out of the movie theater when I worked there and we got copies of the soundtrack for free. Okay. Yeah, on CD. And there's some good shit on that soundtrack. That's a fantastic soundtrack. ah Brana, like Will Smith, another actor to turn down another role to be in this movie. He turned down ah what I think was the lead role in the Richard Attenborough film, Grey Owl. which went to Pierce Brosnan. And direct a video, I'm assuming, because I've never heard of it. No, but yeah. Also comes out
Branagh & Will Smith's On-Screen Chemistry
01:19:23
Speaker
in 99. Brana takes this role for the paycheck, and when he has to tell Attenborough, he has to drop out of gray owl. Attenborough's like, you know what? Totally get it. You do what you have to do. Don't even feel bad about it. Like Attenborough's just like, you know what? I get it, man. I've been there. Sometimes you got to take the money when the money's that good. So. yeah
01:19:45
Speaker
um yeah But yeah, Kenneth Branagh, you know, and he's he's probably the best part of this movie. Which isn't saying a lot, but yeah, he's he's doing he's doing all the all the Kenneth Branagh things. And again, this is one of the early instances of him like talking in a very just bizarre over the top weird accent, too. So. I love it. He's he's very, very funny in this film. Every line that he delivers, I am I'm invested in. I want to hear what this idiot has to say, because he's just so ridiculous. My favorite scenes, and this is is awful, and I kind of hate myself for this, are the scenes where it's the back and forth between him and Will Smith, where Kenneth Brown is saying the most awful racist shit.
01:20:36
Speaker
And Will Smith is just talking about how he's only half of a human being. like i every time Every time they're on screen together, I'm like, okay, do it now. Do it now. Do it now. Because it's so fucking racist and ableist, and I hate that I love it as much as I do. But like all the ways that they find to just be terrible to each other because they do it at the party and Then they do it again right at the end and you're like, oh my like and here's the thing the the best part about it is it's not Explicitly racist. It's a con or ableist. It's a context-based thing anything that they're saying to each other in different context perfectly fine, but the back that he's
01:21:19
Speaker
saying to Kenneth Branagh, I don't want to get legs cut out from underneath me. Him and the things that he says to Will Smith. Yeah, the fact that it's the fact that it's Will Smith and Kenneth Branagh playing a a ah person who's lost the lower half of his body. Now, Branagh performed that role entirely on his knees. um And he would have to like stop filming every few minutes to like stand up and walk around because otherwise he would lose complete circulation of the lower half of his body. So by all accounts, not an easy role for him to perform in this particular context. But hey, you know, it was worth the money and it brought me joy. He was paid a lot of money for it.
01:22:10
Speaker
Good for him. And now he's doing those ah those series of movies with the detective guy, right? Another one where he's got an absolutely ridiculous accent, Hercule Poirot, correct. are those that's it My roommate watched those and she really likes them. I've seen the first two. I've not seen the most recent one that came out last year yet. The haunting one. The haunting in Venice. I liked the first one. um The second one was OK. um but And it was kind of one of those like, I guess I'll see the third one. the But they that the the the thing about it is he's able to get a really fucking good cast together.
01:22:49
Speaker
like the they're all-star cast. The only problem is with the second one, about half the all-star cast was like really controversial at the time. He gets fucking army hammer. He's going through the the cannibal shit. Gal Gadot, who's going through the the Israeli army thing. And you've got Latisha Wright, who's going through the anti-mask, anti-vax thing. We're like all around the time that movie comes out, like you got all three of those people just being kind of awful in the press. And so it kind of
Branagh's Directorial Ambitions
01:23:23
Speaker
under it kind of overshadows what is honestly a not half bad movie. You know. You know, I like that they have the courage, unlike Netflix, who insists that Ryan Johnson call all of his
01:23:41
Speaker
movies a knives out tail. Yeah in case we're too stupid to understand these movies they trust their audience enough to know hey this is part of this series we don't need to like put it on there in the title you just know because you know this character from the he's from the movie that's the guy from the movie and here's the thing This is a thing we're gonna talk about at least at some other point, but Kenneth Branagh is one of those guys who just really wants to direct a franchise, just feels like the kind of guy who just really, really wants to direct his own franchise. And the fact that he's got this Herco Poro thing that he really wants, that he's finally able to do, feels like he's finally getting the chance. Cause he directs Thor, the original Thor in 2011. He then did a looking at the right a few years after really that he does future episode good job of this podcast Jack Ryan shadow recruit the year after that he does Cinderella Disney Cinderella 2017 murder on the Orient Express 2020 see our previous episode Artemis foul
01:24:48
Speaker
And like so he's got like all these like shots at bat to try to like get a sequel off or ah a a franchise of his own off the ground. None of them hits until Murder and the Orient Express gets Death on the Nile. And then he does two of those inside of two years. Death on the Nile is 2022. Haunting in Venice is 2023. And those things come out like boom, boom. And honestly, Haunting Venice probably looks like the one I'm going to like the best. I'm looking at this like
Salma Hayek's Role Analysis
01:25:16
Speaker
still image from the movie and it's got like Hercule Poirot standing in front of ah like a cross shadow of a cross with like all red background. And the cast is incredible. You got Michelle Yeoh, Jamie Dornan, Tina Fey, like these incredible Italian actors.
01:25:33
Speaker
Kelly Riley's in it. God, she's great. What a cat. See, I need to watch this movie. I just need to suck it up and watch it. It's on Hulu. I need to watch the whole series, yeah. I thought the first two were fun. like ah Again, Death on the Nile kind of gets overshadowed by its by its the the people misbehaving in its cast. But I feel like they're all on Hulu right now. So if you have Hulu, you can check those out. I might if I have time. um Our busy season. is like starts mid June and then it runs basically through mid August and then we slow way the fuck down. So I'll have, cause you remember when ah when the season started, I was still watching a bunch of shit. Cause it's slow for a while. I mean, it hits in the mid summer, but the beginning and the end of the season are slow. So i I think that's going to be my celebration to the end of the busy part of the season. I'll watch those three movies.
01:26:32
Speaker
And ah so the first one is not on Hulu, the other two are. um I will say Leslie Odom Jr. is in the first of those Urquill Poirot movies, Murder on the Orient Express, and then he's ah later in Knives Out. So he is in two murder mystery movies ah where he plays a ah potential killer um being hunted by a ah detective with an absurd accent. Um, hey that that sounds like a hyper specific letterbox list for me. Um, but yeah, man, like Kenneth Brana is, I think he's great. I want him to direct more movies. Uh, if, even if they're just Hercule Poirot movies, I want him to direct more of those. They're fun. And really the only major cast member we haven't discussed yet is Salma Hayek.
01:27:21
Speaker
She's all right in this. She's underused. I think she's underused and I don't. She doesn't have any fucking thing to do and I don't like her character. I'm just saying she doesn't really have much of a character. No. Though she
Personal Movie Preferences
01:27:35
Speaker
does help with the humor. She provides some humor. There's some stuff that she's involved with that I laugh with a lot but overall Just not an interesting character, not a character that I really care about too much, but still she's fine. I don't think she's bad in the role at all. She's essentially just like an object of contention between their two leads who were both attracted to her. And that's the thing I do like about it is the twist at the end that they never had a chance anyway because the scientist was her husband. I thought that was fantastic.
01:28:09
Speaker
And that's that's I like that and I don't because every word out of her mouth up until that point has been a lie. Yeah, no, I agree. I just I like the twist. Yeah. Yeah. But the fact that up to that point, everything she said has just been kind of like her lying to get the thing that she wants to everybody. Well, if you kind of look at it in hindsight, um which why is why I think it works a little better for me now than it did the first time I saw it. um That's all she does in this movie. Even if you know, even if you don't know that that's her husband, the first time you see her, she's on some bullshit. o The first time you see her. that's that So that should be an indication, I feel like that something's up, but you don't realize that until the twist comes and you're like, oh yeah, that makes sense. She was on some bullshit, like this whole movie. A movie that does that really well though, like really fucking well,
01:29:09
Speaker
Way better than this. Dirty Rotten Scoundrels does that so much better than this movie. Can you believe I haven't seen that? I know. Do me neither. Go i fucking watch that movie. I know. I know. I may have just ruined the ending for you. I don't remember what you said. Remember 30 percent. No, like, ah but it it does. The the woman is full of is on her bullshit the whole time. So you reminded me. Cool. All right. I did. Now you've spoiled it for me. You're welcome. OK. But no, like I just it's it's a it's a i it's still a wild ride of a movie, honestly, and you absolutely should see it because Steve Martin and Michael Caine are hilarious in it. Glenn Headley is amazing. I love all those people. yeah Then you will love this movie. It's an amazing film and it's directed by the great Frank Oz, who we love.
01:30:01
Speaker
Oh yeah, we do love Frank Oz. We do love Frank Oz. In all of his endeavors, as as an actor, as a a Muppet performer, as a director, yes just weigh into Frank Oz in every possible way. Exactly. The the man is a fucking legend. Respect on in the name. um But no, he... But but i in that in that movie, the actress is playing dumb the whole time, and it's not till the very end that you realize she's been playing everybody. But she has a character, and she has a something akin to agency, whereas I never get the impression that Selma Hayek's character in this movie does. Yeah, I don't give a shit about her character. Which is a problem. Like, she's literally there to be TNA.
01:30:49
Speaker
a breast of fresh ass, as it were. um
01:30:56
Speaker
Steven, this movie is so funny. I laugh pretty much nonstop during this movie. And when I'm not laughing, I'm just watching in wonder, just being like, man, I fucking love this movie. Damn. You ever have that Steven where like, you know, you're watching a movie and it's so good and you're just like, fuck, I'm so into this. You just got to stop for a moment. And you're like, holy, Holy shit, I am into this movie. Yeah, that's me when I'm not laughing. That's what's going on in my brain. I'm like, man, I can't believe how much I love this fucking movie is fantastic. Having a great
Branagh's 90s Cinematic Impact
01:31:29
Speaker
time. I don't feel that way about this. I wish I did. I understand why people don't because it's not less. The thing is that it is in a lot of ways, despite the fact that the script is garbage. It's a mess. In a lot of ways, this is a very well made film and.
01:31:47
Speaker
It's a it's a tailor made Tucker movie, man. Everything, everything about this movie is is it's for me. It's like they just made it directly for me, which I don't actually think that it just seems that way sometimes. And I'm not like in The Truman Show or anything that that's not a thing that's real, right? I don't think so. OK, good. Of course, if I if it were, I would have to say that. So yeah, we drive golf balls off the broken bridge. You bring six pack. Yep. Make sure to look directly into camera. ah
01:32:22
Speaker
We can't find him. and Oh, before I move too far off of um Kenneth Braun, I do want to say his character is not actually on the TV show, ah but is an amalgamation of two different characters, one named Miguelito Lovelace, who is played by Michael Dunn, who is perhaps best known from the Star Trek episode, the original series Star Trek episode, ah Plato's Stepchildren. ah He's a little person, basically. That's why his name's Little Miguel. Miguelito, right, Little Mike. Yeah, Lance and Flo Miguel, yeah. Mikey. Mikey Loveless. But he's that he's a little person, ah played by Paul Williams in the second made-for-TV movie that they did for the show. um But Michael Dunn plays him in the in the original series for 10 episodes, one of the more popular recurring villains in the show. And then a ah an amputee Southern general, ah Confederate general, played by Ricardo Montelan.
01:33:21
Speaker
um And so they kind of smashed those two characters together and came up with Arliss Loveless, basically. I wanted to wanted to mention that before I got too, too deep, ah too too, too far away from from Brana. ah But Hayek is again kind of at the height of her powers here, although her 90s is a little more up and down. She's done a lot. She did a lot of great stuff in the 90s, some of her best stuff in the 90s, honestly. her best stuff comes in the early 2000s. Because that's when she does Frida and Frida. Frida fucking rules. um just If anybody has any doubts that Selma Hayek has any talent. Let's watch Frida. I mean, she's amazing. Frida is an amazing film, like directed by Julie Taymor.
01:34:11
Speaker
and like fucking incredible. It's wild. That movie is so good. Look, I saw, I watched that on, I think, I don't remember. It was one of the movie channels in like mid 2000s and I wasn't even, I have no interest in it. I was just flipping around and it was starting and I was just immediately fucking hypnotized by that movie. Like I said, I just looked at the channel, I was like, oh, Oh, what's this? What's this thing? Oh, Frida, okay. Okay, I guess I'm gonna watch this. Julie Taymor is a fucking visual stylist. Like, her movies look incredible.
01:34:51
Speaker
Frida, it's ah Titus, um which also looks insane with Anthony Hopkins and Alan Cumming fucking amazing um across the universe, which again looks in that movie looks for all the flaws of that movie. It looks incredible. It does look great, but then we fucking sucks outside of that. For me, it fucking weirdly. It is the first movie my partner and I ever saw together in a theater. That's fantastic. Uh, so, I mean, let' guys like it though of course, you know, just cause I don't like it. I want it to really enjoy for sure. Sure. Sure. Sure. Sure. Sure. I understand. Um, and then she also directed, uh, the 2010 version of the Tempest with, um, Helen Mirren. Yeah. I didn't see that because, um, why and, uh, Jimin Honsu as well.
01:35:42
Speaker
I'm like fucking cool. And then she in 2020, she directed a biopic of Gloria Steinem called The Glorious. I'd watch that with Julianne Moore, Alicia Vikander and your girl Janelle Monae. I might um I definitely have to fucking watch it. So that's why
Selma Hayek's Career Evolution
01:36:02
Speaker
yeah, she going to be my girlfriend one day, Steven. I hope you're right. I don't think you are, but I hope you're right.
01:36:11
Speaker
I don't know if you're her type, but yeah. How do you know? What's that supposed to mean, Steven? What's that supposed to mean? I'm not cool enough? You don't think I can hang, Steven? Not what I mean. Do you think I'm outside of my, out of my prime, dude? Don't you try and tell me? I think you're out of your depth is what I think. She do have a big ass, you're right.
01:36:35
Speaker
You're right. I don't I don't know how she feels about men is what I'm saying. No, I know all that, but Stephen. I'll be the one, right? It'll be me, right? She just needs to get with me. That's all it is, right? I mean, to be fair, that's how that works, right? She is bisexual and pansexual. So maybe you got a shot. Who knows? Fucking smoking, too. I'm sorry. yeah I'm sorry to objectify you, Janelle Monae. I don't want to because I i like. Everything about you, it's just you're fucking smoking hot. I don't know what to say. She's a beautiful woman. Among her other many attributes. She's also an incredibly talented musician and an amazing actress. Fantastic. Let's not get it twisted. She's so good in Glass Onion. What was the movie about the the female astronauts? Hidden Figures. Hidden Figures, yes. you do Moonlight, dude. Fucking Moonlight. Oh, yeah. It's fucking good in that area. And here's the thing I'll say. Janelle Monae, when's she bad?
01:37:37
Speaker
I haven't. I, you know, I've seen bad things with her in it or think not bad things, but just things that don't really live up to her. her stature as a performer, but she's still fantastic. and I did see Antebellum, bad movie that she is somehow very good in. I haven't seen that. It's not good. Well, damn. Can't win all the time. She's fine. She's in that Lady and the Tramp, that live action Lady and the Tramp movie that was released direct to Disney Plus. Guess so. Future episode of this podcast, Ugly Dolls.
01:38:11
Speaker
oh yeah Uh, that weird ass, um, Richard, uh, or, uh, Robert Zemeckis film. Welcome to Marwen. Forgot she was in that. Me too. But yeah, there you go. Janelle Monae. We love her. Um, but, but Selma Hayek though. ah Her 90s run starts in 93. She's in a very small role in a film called My Crazy Life, or Mi Vida Loca. And then hits it big a couple years later in a little film called Desperado, directed by one Robert Rodriguez. Ever heard of it? She's yeah fucking amazing in that movie. But then she really pops off.
01:38:53
Speaker
she Her 90s run is all over the place, so she's in 96 she does the Cindy Crawford, Billy Baldwin movie, Fair Game, and then follows that up with From Dusk Till Dawn. and satanico pandemonium. Oh, also directed by Robert Rodriguez, yeah in which doesn't Tarantino like suck her feet? Is is that is she the one whose feet Tarantino sucking on in that movie? Well, she puts her foot in his mouth and pours liquor down her leg. So yes, there's a toe. There's a toe dipped or two.
01:39:29
Speaker
There's a dipped toe, you know. She's in the Matthew Perry comedy Fools Rush In, in 97. The weird movie about Studio 54, 54, with like, Nev Campbell, Ryan Phillippe, her and and Mike Myers, yeah. Fucking wild. That movie, I remember the advertising, but I remember never saying it. That's right, you should see it. It felt like it was trying to be Boogie Nights. It wasn't. It wasn't? That's probably why it got made. That's probably why it got green lit, but no, it wasn't. Okay. Um, and then of course she has a small role in, uh, another Rodriguez film, 1998, the faculty future episode of this podcast, the faculty starring John Stewart. Yes. And then past episode and Harry Knowles past episode of
01:40:26
Speaker
Yes. We can keep going. and we We can. Josh Hartnett. And, ah you know, straight up Robert Patrick. I've been that motherfucker too. Jordana Brewster. And Elijah Wood. ah Yeah. Elijah Wood. um ah Fucking fucking Lauren from Empire Records is in that movie. Piper Laurie is in there as well. Piper Laurie from Twin Peaks. Yeah. And then past episode of Upsall Christianity Corner. ah She's in Dogma the year this movie comes out. She does double duty. She's Dogma and Wild Wild West. That's when she got a body. 50 box. Yeah.
01:41:06
Speaker
That's my favorite thing that she's ever said in her entire life. is Are those two lines? It's constantly running around my head. Um, but yeah, she didn't really have a good time making this because the entire time she's like, what am I doing here? I'm barely in this movie. I have nothing to do. Your eye candy and your comic foil. And it's barely, barely the second one. So yeah. Oh, she got some good jokes that wouldn't exist if she weren't in that movie. I'm just saying there's some of the top tier fucking jokes. One or two, not many. Again, she really is completely underused, completely underutilized. She knew it. We know it. Like she just does not have a lot to do. um Which is a fucking bummer because she's, again, as we've said, insanely talented. But I feel like at this point of her career, she is mostly reduced to her looks.
01:42:00
Speaker
And I don't
Will Smith's Peak Popularity
01:42:01
Speaker
think a lot of people really start to take her seriously until she shows up in traffic the year after this. And then of course, Frida is her big calling card movie. Her big swing. I think for people who are insanely attractive, ah that that can be a difficult thing to get past. You know, like I don't want to say boo-hoo, you're so hot. But at the same time, when you're that attractive, especially when you're that uniquely attractive, nobody looks like Selma Hayek. Nobody. Not one damn person looks like Selma. You can't say, oh, that person kind of looks like Selma Hayek or that she's got Selma Hayek's eyes. No, Selma Hayek is a singular beauty. She is.
01:42:46
Speaker
And so that's all people see or care about when you're that fucking pretty and that uniquely pretty. Nobody gives a fuck if you can give a good performance. Nobody gives a fuck if you're funny. No, you are the hottest thing I've ever seen. Get in my movie and do nothing but let us look at you. Right. Which I mean, in several early films of hers, that's kind of what she's reduced to. But when she gets an opportunity to play outside of that, like in Fools Rush In or in
01:43:18
Speaker
um Dogma, or in Frida, she really knocks it out of the park. There was one she was in, I think, fairly recently that she got a lot of attention for. What was that? I remember that. I remember her coming back into the public consciousness for a minute. Beatrice at Dinner in 2017. Like, that was one. And that movie, it's like her, I think John Lith goes in there as well. Um, Connie Britton, the great Connie Britton in there, Jay Duplass, Amy Landecker, Chloe Sevigny, great cast, John Early. God, what a cast. What a fucking cast on this thing, uh, directed by, uh, Miguel Arteta. Um, she's a holistic medicine practitioner who attends the dinner party of a wealthy client after her car breaks down. And it's kind of this.
01:44:10
Speaker
Exploration of like race in America in 2017 and like class disparity and it's it got a lot of buzz and a lot of attention and um There were a lot of people thinking that she might get another Oscar nomination for it Which would have been kind of cool if she had so far. She's only been nominated for Frida. That's it.
01:44:35
Speaker
Oh, hey, she was in the new Puss in Boots movie, too. That makes me happy because she's done a lot of both of them with Antonio Banderas before. Yeah, I mean, yeah, they're they're good friends. Yeah, she's in both of the Puss in Boots movies. She's in House of Gucci Eternals. Like she's done. She's been doing more stuff lately. ah The hitman's bodyguard and the hitman's wife's bodyguard. She's in both of those. Like she does shit. She's still working. I'm saying that they've done a lot of stuff together like they she was even in Once Upon a Time in Mexico. Mm hmm. Spy Kids 3D. Yeah, dude. Dude, yeah. You go, Selma Hayek. She's in The Eternals, man. Like, no, but i I didn't really like that movie that much. But like, I recognize that it it looked like a movie that was that a lot of people put a lot of hard work in. And so I when I saw it, I was like, I don't really like that, but
01:45:33
Speaker
Wow, that looked like it was really hard to make and like you took a lot of really talented people. So fucking respect, you know, right?
01:45:43
Speaker
Yeah, man. Wild West. Yeah. Wild Wild West. Jim West. Desperado. Yeah, dude. Let's talk about that song, though. Straight to the Wild Wild West, dude. Sisko. Yeah, I think featuring. Yeah, Drew Hill and Cool Mode. And yeah, that that song was this is. Will Smith has one other movie tie in song after this, and that's Nodja Head from Men in Black 2. But yeah, basically he does this. It's it's Men in Black. It's this and it's Nodja Head. And that's it. Like he doesn't really try that again. That's too bad. I want the Ali theme song. Can we get that?
01:46:30
Speaker
And I don't know if it was because his his movie career started taking a backseat to his film career at that point. I'm sure I'll research that as we get it going a little later. But like his his music career is a full swing at this point. Yeah, like he's doing like 97 Big Willie style comes out kids because like after summertime, he had trouble finding a hit with his last two Fresh Prince albums or I mean his last
01:47:01
Speaker
Oh, I got quiet. Hold up. There we go. Okay. What I was saying was, hold on. Where'd I start? Okay. Um, well, at that time he was really going through a resurgence because he had had trouble finding a hit with Code Red, which was his final Fresh Prince album, which the single off that was boom, shake the room. And it was a modest
'Wild Wild West' Box Office Performance
01:47:26
Speaker
success. I still sing it at karaoke and people remember it. So like but it wasn't summertime. And so he had been doing more acting. And so when he kind of got back into music, he sort of reinvented his his musical personality. Right. And he wasn't called the Fresh Prince anymore. He was Will Smith.
01:47:51
Speaker
And he wasn't doing silly stories, shame. ah He was just doing like party songs and they're great, they're fun. It's just like, I- I mean, welcome to Miami. Bienvenido, ami ami. And also get your jiggy on. Yes. I heard. Na na na na na na na. People love those fucking songs, dude. I mean, that one hits the Billboard top 10, goes nine times platinum. in 97, like that one is a huge hit. And he follows it up this year in 99 with Willennium, which that one hits number five on the Billboard 200. And that one also goes multi platinum. So he's like, again, we've got that kind of triple threat where he's he's just finished a successful run on a TV show. He's one of the biggest movie stars on the planet. And he's also one of the biggest recording artists working.
01:48:45
Speaker
like he's kind of got the market the entertainment market cornered like this is him at the height of his power the height of his ability and his run will last a few more years I think the next movie we talk about is kind of the beginning of the end of that run of success and we'll talk about the interim between this movie and that one next week but like I mean, and then we'll talk about his downward trajectory in the couple of weeks after that, which I find equally fascinating. Like that's why I think his career is an interesting one to talk about is because it's got like these hills and valleys in it. um Like particularly this very huge mountaintop and then that very steep drop off that it hits, which I'm excited to talk about all of that. Nice. Me too. I also am.
01:49:34
Speaker
Excited. And I enjoyed talking about this movie, too, because, you know, like your your opinion on this film is is pretty much is kind of the standard opinion on it. I think we're like, it's not it's not terrible, but it's not really good. You know, like it's all right. Whatever. I mean, I will call this a bad movie. That is what I will call it. Yes. But like, do you really mind watching it that much, though? There are worse things I have put on and worse... they' they're a movie i will There are other movies of his I will not return to before I will return to this one. Yeah. Like I'll return to this one before I'll return to some of his other stuff. know um Because there is an element of fun to it. It's not good. But you know what? it Roger Ebert had a rule.
01:50:23
Speaker
And he said this was the first movie to ever break that rule. He said any movie with either Harry Dean Stanton or M.M. at Walsh can't be all bad. And he said this is the movie that finally breaks the Walsh Stanton or the Stanton Walsh. I think he was great as the train conductor guy. He was fantastic. It turns out he was a marshal too. Right? Like, again, but again, I want more of that. Like, I want more mm at wall. She's not given enough to do. I just want a sequel to this because I really feel like the chemistry well, first of all, the relationship between Will Smith and Kevin Kline in this movie is very antagonistic. Another kind of call back to 48 hours in that way. And very, yes, a very antagonistic. And I like
01:51:16
Speaker
where they left it at the end, it made me want to see where their relationship was going to go after they started really respecting each other. But they're still like going to fuss and fight because they're two very different fucking people. and I just that's why I always wanted to sequel to this movie, because this movie is great. But the next one, the next one that man, if it went the way that I want it to go in my head. Fantastic. Fantastic. There's one other thing we really need to talk about. Well, let's hurry up with it, man. I got to go to bed late as hell. That's the the John Peters giant spider of it all. Everybody knows that story, Steven. I think the giant spider is fantastic. And not only is the giant spider fantastic in this movie, but the writers of this movie got that note where the guy was like, there's got to be a giant spider and they're like, great, OK.
01:52:10
Speaker
We'll make that a major plot point. Fantastic. That sounds awesome. And it's one of, it's so silly because it's the silliest thing in a movie whose script that does not work, but it's one of, it works. It works in this script. It's one of the only things that really works is that throw away fucking giant spider that homeboy wanted in like just a movie, Eddie movie. He didn't care. What movie we making? Can we put a giant spider in it? No. Okay. Well, I'll see if there's another one I can put a giant spider in. The writers took that assignment. It's really the only thing worth a damn in this script is how well that spider fits in there, dude. It's kind of.
01:52:50
Speaker
It's kind of the whole crux of the plot, pretty much. I was going to talk about it the whole time. There's not much fucking plot, but point taken, I guess. I'm just saying, whereas like ah Tim Burton, which that's why I get his perspective, too, or, you know, Kevin Smith, sorry. Yeah, I get his perspective, too, where it's just like why I'd like there's no reason for a giant spider to be in this. But the writers of Wild Wild West were like, OK, fucking great let's do it challenge accepted they put they make that iconography like a central part of Lovelace's look too like it's on all of these flags insignia is everything just so that when the giant spider comes in at the end we've seeded that
01:53:35
Speaker
Like we've made that kind of like he's got the little spider web brooch and the little spider brooch on his lapel. Like he's got the fucking spider so that when that shows up, it's not a it's not out of left field. Like they do a good job of integrating it, I think, um but it's still fucking ridiculous as hell. Yeah, I think I think it looks great. The sound design on it is fan fantastic. I love the way it sounds. Damn, that's a good sound in spider. Let me tell you what. Wild Wild West opens, it's a Wednesday opener. It opens Wednesday, June 30th, which means it opens, Tucker, today. The day we are recording this is the anniversary of the release date of this film. Not anymore for me, dude. It's been, it's been Monday for about an hour here, dude. so Well, from when we started, and it'll catch up with you I was going to say I still got five minutes, but like,
01:54:33
Speaker
It this is the 25th anniversary of the day that we're recording this the day. So it's
Box Office Competition
01:54:40
Speaker
an honor, man. It's and it is. It's an honor just to be nominated. um But yes, so let me get to the proper weekend here. and we will do we'll do the July 2nd weekend, which is the weekend it would would have been open wide. It opens at number one, Tucker. It opens number one um right weekend that it comes out. It opens to $27.7 million. dollars
01:55:06
Speaker
Part of the reason everyone said it opened so big is because of the number four movie opening this weekend. um The number four movie that is also opening this weekend, everyone said that kids and and people and too young to get into the number four movie would buy tickets for this movie so they could then sneak in to the number four film. Any guesses to what that one might be? 1999? Mm hmm. Fucking Blair Witch or some shit? Mm hmm. So number two, we've got Adam Sandler's Big Daddy. You're going to give all that build up and then not go right toward to four. Correct. I'm going to talk about four on one. OK, all right. Big Daddy. Cool. Everybody loves that one. What's three in its second week and three is Disney's Tarzan, the movie that kind of kills the Renaissance. Nobody gives a shit. What's four in theaters for three. And in fourth place, I look, if anything, I can do to get you through this as quickly as possible.
01:56:06
Speaker
You like belay this for like hours at a time. Anything I can do to help you like just bust through this. It should just, it should be its own sub episode. Like we don't even do this in the main feed episode. We just do like a 30 minute thing, like an addendum to the episode. That's what it comes out like on Friday. time right yeah Right. The box office on Friday. Yeah. Do its own separate feed, have its own separate fucking feed for it? Yes. What's four, Steven? Based on the adult animated cartoon show, very popular in the 90s. It is South Park, bigger, longer and uncut.
01:56:45
Speaker
The movie whose title is the penis joke. I think it was a success anyway. It still made money for sure. It did just not as much for sure. Like it did not make nearly as much as this movie did. But yeah, it made it made a goodly amount. um It made the South Park made about 50, 50 million. Whereas Wild Wild West made one like a nothing budget. Yeah, we don't need a big budget to make a South Park movie for sure. yeah I'm surprised that they've only made one, honestly. Honestly, well, they've made a lot for Paramount Plus. Yeah, I feel like those are more like TV specials. I feel like you know they kind of are. Yeah, right. But I mean, they're feature length each each one of them is and very wildly in quality, if I'm being real honest. um In fifth place, a movie called The General's Daughter with John Travolta. What if the general had a daughter? That's kind of a fucked up movie. It's kind of a good movie, too. I've never never seen it. It's all right. It's it's the kind of movie that was going out of style very quickly.
01:57:44
Speaker
It was kind of a mid 90s, early 90s thriller sort of thing. Shot kind of like the game. It looks like the game, you know, and like a 99. That was in the past. um Yes. Very, very sharp and very blue and very, very like directly, but limitedly lit. You know what I mean? Like they're trying to like like they're trying to light a black and white movie, but they shot it in color on accident. Right. Yeah. I know exactly what you're talking about. ah Rounding out the top 10, you've got Star Wars Episode one, The Phantom Menace in sixth place. Austin Powers, the spy who shagged me in seventh.
01:58:21
Speaker
Uh, in eighth place opening this week, Spike Lee's Walt Disney film, The Summer of Sam. Yeah, that movie's all right, except that Zodiac exists, so it's not good anymore. I liked it until that movie came out and I was like, they're kind of, this is, it's too similar for me to not like, like this less now, even though I loved it before. The zodiac is doing what son of sam is doing way better but i still like son of sam just zodiac is like perfect like zodiac is the gold standard and summer of sam is like the also ran still really good but in comparison just not as like.
01:58:58
Speaker
and If only Zodiac didn't exist. Yeah. I still get to enjoy Summer of Sam. Zodiac is my favorite venture film with a bullet. I fucking love Zodiac. It's a amazing. God, that movie is amazing. um And in ninth place, you have Notting Hill. In tenth place, an ideal husband. And in an eleventh place, not that I'll usually include it, but I'm in this time because I think it's fun. ah The Mummy. which the which one the brennan frasier frasier yeah ninety nine brennan frasier it probably been on the
01:59:31
Speaker
on the charts for about two or three months at that point though. Every bi so every millennial bisexuals, bisexual awakening. it's in It's been in theaters for nine weeks. And it's grossed almost 150 millions in nine weeks. Like it's done very well. A big deal. Everybody loves that movie. Big ass deal, son. um Wild Wild West um on a $175 million dollars production budget earns only 113 domestic. another 107 international for a total worldwide of 221 million. So not the multiplier they need to justify any sequel. What'd you say that budget was? It was 175. Oof. Big oof. The most expensive movie of 1999, and that includes Phantom Menace and The Matrix.
02:00:28
Speaker
Well, that sucks. Yep. Look, I get that a lot of people don't like this movie, but it it didn't deserve to fail that hard. I don't believe. ah The Tomatometer score on this one is a 16%. The critic's consensus bombastic manic and largely laugh free. What? I agree with the first two. Wild Wild West is a bizarre misfire in which greater care was lavished upon the special effects than on the s script. Nothing in there I disagree with, I'm gonna say. like I agree with the point that they were making, but I don't agree with everything that they said to support it. so Sure, I understand. The metascore is a 40 based on 25 critics reviews, mixed or average reviews. And Tucker care to guess the letterbox score on this one. It's gonna be in between 2.3 and 2.7.
02:01:29
Speaker
missed it by that much. It's a two point two. Damn. OK. All right. Letterboxd. OK, whatever. You suck anyway. Letterboxd. So who cares? And
Critiques on 'Wild Wild West' Production
02:01:41
Speaker
I do want to point out um a I want to call him friend of the podcast, but I don't know this guy, actually, but we follow each other on Letterboxd. Daniel Ehrenberg from the franchise podcast, his review of this movie is Kenneth Brana's best beard since Emma Thompson boom roasted.
02:01:58
Speaker
It is a good beard, though. It's a good beard. All right. And so, Tucker, the time has come for us to rate this movie for ourselves. How do you, out of five possible stars, rate 1999's Wild Wild West? Steven, I love this movie. I love it so much. I am enthusiastic about this film. And like I said, like with a film like this, you would expect me to like it like hook. You would expect me to like it less the more I watched it though. Nope. That Dustin Hoffman performance in hook. It will always be like the goat performance in him and Bob Hoskins. I was going to say, don't sleep on Bob Hoskins in that movie, please. I'm just saying the rest of that movie, every time I see it, I'm like, this is not as good as the last time I saw it. It's that that's one that does not hold up. I mean, Spielberg apologized for that one for a reason. I don't think it's bad. I don't think it's bad. I just I think that the two really good performances in that movie elevate it so much and it's just decent enough that it takes you a few watches to kind of see
02:03:06
Speaker
under the, you know, under the surface of it and be like, oh, this isn't really that good. ah But anyway, um I don't remember why I brought that up, but the point is.
02:03:21
Speaker
I am giving this a three point five out of five stars because I love this movie enough, honestly, to give it five stars, but. Even while I'm enjoying every second of this movie, I'm not blind. And I'm not stupid. And I can see the problems with this movie. So I think I'm going to land right on a 3.5. A very enthusiastic 3.5, I would say. Stephen? It's a two. It's a two for me.
02:03:52
Speaker
that's Well done. Because here's the thing. It's still a very Simon Feld film, so it still looks good. Oh, it looks fantastic. And it's it's not late stage Simon Feld, although it is him cresting into that mode um to where like it's so bad I can't watch it. it It's him at least trying to take a swing, and I think he will not recover from how badly this does fully, which I've we've talked i've mentioned already. um But by the same token, like it Will Smith is still charming as hell. the The actors that are doing what they're doing in this movie are doing fine. Yes, a lot of them are underutilized. Yes, a lot of them are not used to their full potential.
02:04:38
Speaker
um But there are still there are still some fun moments. Is it incomprehensible? Yes. is it I mean, is it bad? Yes. it's It's not a good movie. It's not. Like, objectively, it's not. I would say it's not a good script. Like I said, I think for me, everything I and I forgive the the script. The reason I like it so much is because everything else is so well done in this movie. The costume design looks great. The art direction, the production design is fucking fantastic. Cinematography is great. It just it looks and the sound design is phenomenal. It looks and it sounds and it feels great. It's just.
02:05:25
Speaker
Outside of the very simple through line plot of this movie, the rest of it is just it's a big fucking mess, man. It's a big mess. It's a it's a big one. Yeah. And if I would didn't have so much fun with that mess, I would. would probably fucking hate this movie. But right. But again, this is kind of a um a movie custom made for Tucker's. So a movie just just like a little movie called Hundreds of Beavers. But yeah, if you if you self identify as Tucker.
02:05:59
Speaker
Uh, you'll probably like this movie. I'm just saying. And if you like this movie, you might consider self-identifying as Tucker. You may be a Tucker. You don't know. You may be entitled to compensation. Yeah. You might be able to sue me. I don't know what for, but you know, give it a shot. Who knows? I don't know. We'll figure something out. Anything happened. Yeah. Um, but yeah, that's, that's Wild Wild West. We did it, Tucker. We did it. We talked about Wild Wild West. It was great. Will Smith's first great misstep. This the only thing. That I like more than talking about this movie is watching this movie. So I will look, you give me a platform and unlimited time, I will talk to you about this movie all day, all day. I wish honestly, Stephen, I wish it weren't one in the morning where I am.
02:06:50
Speaker
because I would love for this to be the first 12 hour episode of the disenfranchised podcast. Cause I could go, I could go, I could go on every every scene. I'm going to tell you what is just really rad about everything that happens in every scene and every shot. And I don't know, man, yeah I love it when something comes together in such a unique and, and personal way. to where it's like all the things I really dig, just kind of thrown together in one thing. And when it works for me, ooh, it's the best feeling. And see, I don't know if it ever hits that spot for me. I don't know if it ever hits the spot where it's it's just working for me. That's because you haven't seen it on VHS, Steven.
02:07:37
Speaker
I mean, I'm pretty sure I rented this movie after it first came out. I just I just wanted to put this up to the camera because it's a thing of beauty. You said this was the first time you saw this movie in the original aspect ratio, though, right? This is that the first time. Yes. And that's why I am gushing even more about how good it looks. So I've tried to keep saying that over and over. That is a fantastic looking movie because this looks good for four by three pan and scan. Looks good. Fantastic. Great. But in that original aspect ratio, holy fuck, Steven, this movie is epic. The scale of this movie. This movie looks big.
Billy Joel's Musical Legacy
02:08:16
Speaker
This movie is a huge movie size. So many big shots of big things should have seen it on the big screen, man. Oh, man, I wish I had. I hope maybe one day it'll get reassessed and people will start liking it and we'll get like a rerelease. Hmm. I would love to. Or maybe, you know, that sounds like something the new Beverly would do.
02:08:37
Speaker
Just for LOLs. I'd go see it there on 35 millimeter. Yes, please. You know what? New Beverly, this is a promise. If you play Wild Wild West, I will buy a plane ticket to LA. You will fly across the motherfucking country. I will. Just to watch the Wild Wild West on straight up 35 millimeter. Gimme, gimme, gimme. Gimme, gimme. Gimme, gimme, gimme. Yeah. All right. Well, this has been the disenfranchised episode of Wild Wild West. And you know what? If you are looking for some people to follow on social media, hey, follow us. We're on ah Blue Sky, Instagram, Letterboxd and YouTube at Disinfranch Pod. If you want to give us some support but don't want to spend much money, you can head to
02:09:26
Speaker
wherever you your podcasts apple podcasts spotify leave us a fivetar rating and review We do try to read those five star reviews on the podcast. So if you leave us a five star review, ah we will read it out here on the podcast. We also have an email address. You can send us your thoughts. disenfranch pod at gmail dot com Go ahead and head over there, send us your thoughts failed franchise starters. You would love to see us cover and we will read those thoughts on the podcast as well. Additionally, if you want to support us.
02:09:59
Speaker
and spend a little money. ah Boy, howdy, have we got a platform for you. Patreon dot.com slash disenfranch pod. You can find hours of bonus content, our occasionally updated ah sister show. What are we watching? Where we talk about stuff that we've been watching. um Tucker's been sitting on an episode for about a month. Look, there's going to be a Patreon announcement soon because I need to sit down and just kind of Just go, go through it with the patrons and let them know, you know, that I appreciate them and I straight up love them and I love engaging with them especially. But your boy has just been busy as hell, dude. And like, to be honest, like as far as Patreons go, we, we have a lot of content and we're usually pretty steady with it.
02:10:58
Speaker
Usually. usually Look, up until a couple months ago, we were putting out four episodes of What Are We Watching a Month. Correct. And about every three or four months, you'd get something else too, like an unenfranchised or Oops All Christianity Corner, which I still really want to do one on Book of Clarence. Can we do that soon? I do too. Look, I'm game, man. We got to find time to get the band together, because as the guy who schedules this thing, it's like herding cats the last few weeks. Yeah. Yeah, I know it. And I apologize for that. And i I can't get anyone to sit down and record a damn episode. And I'm sure that that all of our patrons, I mean, they'll probably listen to this episode, but I still do want to kind of ah write up a little something and and post it on the Patreon. And I'm really, really, really going to try to get that month old episode of what are we watching edited and distributed sometime this week.
02:11:57
Speaker
I'm going to try so hard. I'm like the hardest I could possibly try. I'm going to try. I'm sure they only appreciate that. Not only am I working like every damn night at the campground, doing nanny shit during the day, most days on the days I'm not doing nanny shit when I'm not doing mandatory podcast shit, I may have, you know, kind of started planting the little tiniest of seeds of a new musical project I'm working on with someone else. So that's been taking up some of my time as well. Maybe doing some music stuff. Maybe I don't know. but I don't know. I might have, you know, dedicated an entire unused room in my house to it. I don't know. Who knows? Guess we'll find out. fucking You have unused rooms. That's amazing. My house is huge for better. Must be nice. For better and for worse, I say. Yeah. So, yeah.
02:12:51
Speaker
patrons. I'm sorry. but Yeah. um Five bucks a month patreon dot.com slash disenfranch pod. And you too can have access to all of that. In fact, while we've been talking, ah the the early access ah to this month's theme has dropped on Patreon and we've already gotten a response. So yes, what is it read it? Oh, no, you can't because it's spoilers for the Oh, no, you can read. No, well, I can read the I can read the first sentence. um Basically, we announced on social media today that ah we were doing an actor study and our good buddy, Norvin Kline says, How do I know?
02:13:30
Speaker
And then men ah reckons that he's the only person ah who liked the last movie we're covering this month ah to which I responded. I'll take that bet. So yeah, I think he might be the only person who liked that movie.
02:13:46
Speaker
ah Oh, I haven't seen it. I kind of heard that it's something that most people don't like that I might like though. That's the impression I get. You know what that that sounds right. I can't wait to find out either way, honestly. Yeah, for me, I think the movie that we're covering next week is kind of where I fell off with Will Smith. But we'll talk about that next week. i'm sure I can't wait. um But yeah. um I am your host, Stephen Foxworthy. You can find me on Instagram, letterboxed and blue sky at Chewy Walrus. Brett Wright, I think, is only available on letterbox these days at SUS underscore Warlock. Tucker, where all can we find you on the socials these days? I'm on YouTube and Instagram. But at Ice 909, I see e and I n e and the number zero and the number nine.
02:14:46
Speaker
Uh, I finally got my PA back from the campground here because we just bought one for the campground. And so I listened to some more records up on my Instagram. Uh, but then I made the fantastic decision to take the PA a to the room that I have dedicated to musical instrumentation and, uh, creation and recording in my house. So now I'm right there in that same place. So I might have to buy, uh, might have to cruise the Goodwill, see if I can find an old receiver or something that maybe has a tape deck on it and a pair of really good speakers and, uh, do some analog in a very analog way. So that's exciting. But until then, I'll probably just listen to records on, I got a new Bluetooth speaker a couple months ago because mine shit the bed.
02:15:38
Speaker
And I kind of went all out on a very portable. It's about this big, but it's a sound design. It's been about 200 bucks on it. And this thing sounds phenomenal. And it's so loud and and there's never any distortion. And like, I'm not kidding. It's like this big. It's the size of like a Subway sandwich. But like on top of my fridge in the kitchen, if I have it up really loud, I can still like feel the base in the floor and everything. You can feel the good vibrations. Yes. And there's an app on my phone that that connects to it and I can do presets, ah EQ presets, or I can mess with the EQ myself. It's fantastic. But why did I mention that?
02:16:22
Speaker
Oh yeah, I'm probably going to use that to listen to records in the interim because I just got a new vines record. Plus I really want to get through the alphabetical thing and that speaker sounds fantastic and I can just take it around with me all around the house. Nice. So get ready for more records, hopefully on ah Instagram where we're heading into the Billy Joel's. That's a big chunk, the big fucking junk. Cause like the only thing I don't have on vinyl by Billy Joel is river of dreams. Is that a specific reason for that or you just hate that album or? I never bought it on vinyl and it's really expensive because it wasn't even released in the United States on vinyl. Oh, no so it's really expensive and like I really like that record, but it's not that important to me to have a complete Billy Joel collection because I don't have a complete Billy Joel collection because I'm a completist. I have a complete almost complete Billy Joel collection because all those albums fucking slap.
02:17:18
Speaker
There. Yeah. I mean, we are all carried along by the river of dreams, though. This is true. I go. You know what? Even in the middle of the night, sometimes I go walk into myti and my sleep. Yeah. Where the valley of truth,
Podcast Future Plans and Personal Projects
02:17:32
Speaker
even. Oh, wow. A river so deep. Yeah, man. You know, I think I'm I think I'm looking for something. Looking for something. Yeah, maybe something sacred I lost. Yeah. yeahy Yeah, I bet I bet the river is pretty wide, though, and it's too hard to cross. and Yeah, dude. Absolutely. i'm I'm helping, man. I'm helping. I'm here to help. It's such a good song. And that's a good record, too. I I've never listened to the record, but I do love that track. That's a really good track.
02:18:06
Speaker
The whole album is really good. And then after that, he did um kind of a piano concerto classical album that's also really fucking good. Here's the thing. He's he's very good at playing the piano. He is very good at um keyed instruments. That is for sure. I don't know if you're aware of his first band that put out a record called Attila. Nope. It is a sixties psychedelic doom metal duo and it's Billy Joel playing his organ like electric organ through a fuzz pedal and another dude playing drums and drumming and it's heavy metal. Okay. And it's fantastic for about half of the record. Then you get kind of sick of it.
02:19:00
Speaker
but it's really good. Like if you listen to side A one day and then like maybe two days later, listen to side B, you're gonna have a real good time. Real good time. That's a really good record actually. So I can honestly say there's not a Billy Joel record that I've heard that doesn't 100% slap. Good to know. Yeah. Yeah. Billy Joel. He's an icon. Captain Jack will get you by tonight. Take you to that special island. Yeah, dude. Yeah, dude. Yeah, dude. Dude, yeah. What's the the ah the lyric in that? Where he's talking about ah like your sister's out like on a date while you sit at home and straight up masturbate. Yeah. Yeah, that's that's basically your sister's out. She's on a date. So you sit at home and masturbate. Yeah, that's the line. Yeah, there it is. Thank you. That's ah I like that song a lot.
02:19:51
Speaker
It's really long. It's like an eight minute song. It's, seven it's insanely long. Yeah. My buddy had, my buddy Dan, future guests of the podcast, Dan O'Miller had the, um, had the Billy Joel greatest hits album. And that song was on there. And that was the first time I think either of us had ever heard it before. And we, uh, we, we loved that entire album, that album's wall to wall bangers. So it is really good. And we had a good time with it. Look, Billy Joel is a phenomenal artist, but his band is fantastic too. Everybody in that band, it's kind of like the Blues Brothers band where everybody in that band is just top top of their fucking game, like wrecking crew, quality musicians. And they actually were the backing band on Karen Carpenter's solo record. I do fucking love the carpenters. You better believe I fucking love the carpenters. If you love the carpenters, specifically Karen Carpenter, um you should check out her solo record because it's like, what if Karen Carpenter
02:20:50
Speaker
made a record, but she didn't have Richard Carpenter being just like meticulous about which is great. I love his production. I love everything that he does with production. The cardigans. It's just a different kind of thing. It's not a better thing or a worse thing. It's just a different kind of thing. It's a very loosey goosey record, which is why it never got released because she played it for Richard Carpenter. And he was like, I fucking hate this. You shouldn't release it because him and his family were dicks to her. You should read this book called Little Girl Blue. It's really interesting. It's it's a it's about Karen Carpenter and all that. It's really fascinating. But yeah, so check out check out Karen Carpenter's solo record. It's really good. It's available on streaming specifically ah the song. um If I had you. Yeah.
02:21:44
Speaker
OK, really good talk. So my Instagram. Yeah. Tuck mugs is also a thing I do. It is officially called Tuck mugs now. Not tu sp we haven't even gotten to Tuck mugs yet. I you know it's Tuck mugs and it's fantastic. And Ari sent us ah a mug a couple of weeks ago. did Yeah, that was it's up really, really great. Yeah, it was it was a good post. It was a good it was a very short post, but effective. Great. mug You know, that's some fucking good looking mug. Sometimes you I mean, you just you don't have to say more than what you really need to say. And it checked. It checked off all the boxes of the format. Then the most of how long you guys as long as, you know, um checking off all those boxes. And that's a perfect example of it. Really enjoy the mug. Enjoy the post. We're working on more stuff.
02:22:33
Speaker
getting in some mug related activities put together. Uh, and, uh, it's fantastic time at tuck mugs. Uh, but that's all really all I got about tuck mugs this week because there's not really anything we got some stuff percolating, but nothing that's like rolling out. Um, But we'll see. We'll see how that goes. I guess it depends on whether or not anyone gets some guest mugs in there. Look, I'd really love some guest mugs because it's summertime. And despite the fact that I am in New England, they do begin hot sometimes. And I'm just I don't want to drink coffee. I don't want to eat soup. All the things I normally do out of a mug.
02:23:10
Speaker
Not into it. So if you're gonna get anything from me Until like maybe September it's gonna be like pint glasses shot glasses Stuff like that. Your boy is not using mugs I ate vegetable soup the other day and then went to work and it was like 100 degrees outside and I thought I was gonna fucking die. Yeah. So, no. Not doing hot stuff in mugs. Sorry. Send guest mugs. Please. I still drink my coffee every morning out of a mug, but... Steven. I feel like I've offered a couple of guest mugs at this point, so I feel like no one's gonna love. But it's been so long. It's been so long. It's been...
02:23:53
Speaker
A long time since your last mug. Has it now? A long time, time. Yeah, dude. But TuckMugs, send me some mugs. Check out my mugs. Let's all have a good, mug-tastic time. And that's Tuck underscore mugs on Instagram. All right. And now that it's almost one 30 a.m. where Tucker is, hey, let's bring this in for a landing. Because, you know, I've totally, totally been getting enough sleep lately, Steven. Totally.
02:24:27
Speaker
I didn't tell you to do 20 minutes on your record collect on Billy Joel. Okay. Look, that's why this is the reason why like, if I'm dreading a recording, it's not because I'm dreading talking to you or talking about the movie. It's usually because I know that I i want to say so much about the thing we're talking about that I'm going to keep us here until two o'clock in the morning. and I'm only going to have myself to blame.
02:24:55
Speaker
So like when I go get all snarky about like, come on, let's fucking go. It's my fault, I'm doing it. I was gonna say you're doing it right now dude. I'm trying to end this motherfucker. You're trying, but I won't let you because I have so much to say. Apparently. About nothing. Take us out, Steven. All right, this has been our episode on Wild Wild West. Getting Jiggy in July continues next week. Be sure to join us. We've got another great episode planned for you and who knows, maybe Brett'll be here. um I hope so. Gosh, I hope so, too. Anyway, until next time, I'm your host, Stephen Foxworthy from my co-host Tucker in the absent Brett Wright. Until next time, look, let's just all go get some shut ass. Let's take a breath of fresh air.
02:25:54
Speaker
you