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EPISODE 113: DRIVING IS TERRIFYING!
921 Plays10 months ago
EPISODE 113: DRIVING IS TERRIFYING!
Driving can be equal parts exhilarating and awful— road trips can be a blast, commutes can be a disaster, and sometimes? Driving can be downright terrifying. Listen in as we chat about stats on accidents, driving in other countries, and our own experiences on the road.
HORROR IN THE MOVIES
Fuel up the ol’ automobile with these two driving-focused hits from Stephen King: CHRISTINE and MAXIMUM OVERDRIVE
WHATCHA BEEN WATCHIN’, BITCH?!
Listen in to hear what we’ve been watchin’... bitch!
DREAM CAR!
What are the wheels of the boys’ dreams? Listen in to find out!
–
A proud, independent podcast
Support FRIGAY THE 13TH: www.frigay13.com/support
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Transcript
Introduction and Podcast Overview
00:00:00
Speaker
Friday the 13th Horror Podcast is a proud, independent podcast. To learn more about the show, visit Friday13.com. Matty, I'm not so sure about this. I've never done it this way. Now, Andrew, driving here in Ireland is just like driving in America, just on the other side of the road. This, it really does make me very nervous. Calm down, breathe, and just accelerate as usual. You'll be fine. Okay, let's give it a try.
00:00:44
Speaker
Just be careful on our country roads, though.
Driving Experiences and Real-life Horrors
00:00:48
Speaker
It's episode 113. Driving is terrible. I am the writing on the wall, the whisper in the classroom. I'm Marjorie Greene, and I approve this message to save America, stop socialism, and stop China. Save the time we honor thee from life to death.
00:01:12
Speaker
You are in real life. Doubters, the Doomsters, the Gloomsters, they are going to get it wrong. They are in the movies. Where are you gonna go? Where are you gonna run? Where are you gonna hide? Nowhere. Because there's no one like you left. What do we want? Justice! When do we want it? Now! Let's go! What are you waiting for, huh?
00:01:44
Speaker
I want you to know that the movement we started is only just beginning.
00:02:01
Speaker
And this video is coming to us from Santa Clarita, where people in these two cars can be seen throwing things at each other. This is in an in and out drive-thru. They threw bleach, juice, water bottles, all of it going back and forth along with a lot of nasty language. All of this happening just before 1230, just outside the Six Flags Magic Mountain near the old road in the five. Now it's not known exactly what started all of this, but Santa Clarita's sheriff's deputies say they're looking into it.
00:02:28
Speaker
Wow. Vroom, vroom. It's time for Frage the 13th Horror Podcast. My name is Andrew. And my name is Maddie. And today we are talking all about driving. And if you've never been with our podcast before, we are the podcast that talks all about horror, horror in real life and in the movies. And today, like I said, it's all about those awful driving people and mechanics and everything to deal with.
00:02:57
Speaker
driving because let's face it it's terrifying you know what look look driving can be terrifying but i gotta tell you andrew i i do love driving i do too like well go ahead go ahead go ahead no there's nothing i like more than just like
00:03:14
Speaker
I'm weird about this. I don't really like going on highways, but I do, but I do like just like running errands. Listen, I totally get that. You know, like look, so I've, you know, I've been where I live now for Andrew. It's almost three years, which is crazy. It's just insane.
00:03:32
Speaker
But I mean, I had to give up a car when I moved here. Right. And like I've I've rented cars here, but like I don't have my own car, which I'm hoping to change this year. I'm going to finally buy one once some shit goes on. I'll talk about later. But like I really miss having I you know what it is with a car in the end at the end of the day. Convenience. Convenience. Sure. But a car is freedom.
00:03:57
Speaker
Do you know? Like it's the freedom to just like you fucking get behind the wheel. And like hopefully you like the car. Like hopefully you've got the radio that you like too and like your speakers actually work. But like you put on that fucking music, you turn it up, you get your, if it's nice out, you put your sunroof back and shit, you roll down the window. You put your record on. Yeah, you put your record on. And if it's cold, you roll up the window, whatever. But like, you know, you can just go do whatever you want. And like,
00:04:25
Speaker
I remember during the pandemic when obviously you couldn't do anything, and I would just get in my car and I would just drive north. There was one time I drove four hours into Wisconsin and just kept going and didn't go around people, but I was like,
00:04:45
Speaker
God, I'm so grateful that I can, like, go fucking drive somewhere, you know? I really miss that. However, do you remember the one time where we were going to Wisconsin and your windshield wipers malfunctioned in the middle of a rainstorm? Oh, my God. So wait, should we just tell that story really quick? Yeah. OK, so this was way back when, dude, this was 2016. My God, how many years ago is that now? Eight years ago? Yeah.
00:05:11
Speaker
But Andrew and Michael and I and my ex-fiancee were going camping, I forget where in Wisconsin, but it was a really pretty park. It was beautiful. At least five hours away, let's just say that. Five hours, kind of up by Door County, like really pretty stuff. Anyways, on the way there, we were driving through Manitowoc actually, which is where, what's that show called? Making a murderer. Making a murderer took place. And we were like, oh my God. And the fucking rain was,
00:05:41
Speaker
unbearable, torrential, it was torrential hurricane monsoon season shit.
00:05:47
Speaker
And so we were driving in my car and I had just replaced the windshield wiper blades. But here's the thing, my dude, I did it on my own, which I will never do again because I didn't do it right. And so in the middle of this fucking storm, the fucking things like I don't know what they do. Like the windshield wiper like goes perpendicular to the fucking windshield. And like we're I mean, we're all literally screaming.
00:06:13
Speaker
in this car. Gay screaming is happening. Gay screaming. Now listen, Andrew to this day, I blame that on my ex-fiancee because he was bad luck wherever we went. But listen, we'll never have that problem again. Andrew, listen, we've got a great show lined up for today. Two movies. One of them is fantastic and the other one is a movie. We're gonna
00:06:38
Speaker
We'll get to it. We're going to talk about those. But the films are Christine and Maximum Overdrive. I think this is the first episode where we've ever had two Stephen King films in the episode. So that's pretty cool. But before we talk about anything else, we'll go to the certified terrifying corner. So here it goes. We've got a few items lined up for you. The first thing is this. We are recording today on Saturday, 13th of January. And next week at the Republican
00:07:06
Speaker
Primary election season begins on the 15th on Tuesday in good old Iowa, the state that nobody cares about until it's an election. Or until you want corn. Bingo, right. So look, it really will be very interesting to see what happens. I mean, you've got Donald Trump who is leading the ticket and has done absolutely no debates at all, has done really nothing except just kind of
00:07:36
Speaker
run around railing against people. And has been exercised from the ballot in both Maine and Colorado. So I don't think, I don't think that's going to stick to be honest, but, um, uh, yeah, we'll, we'll see. But you know, beneath him would be Nikki Haley, former governor of South Carolina and the former ambassador to the UN.
00:07:57
Speaker
What should the end also the person who in a recent town hall did not list slavery as one of the reasons for the civil war so she's a real peach from the south and then you've got the guy from florida.
00:08:12
Speaker
Ron DeSantis. Listen to me, the guy from Florida. He's the governor of Florida, actually. Ron DeSantis, who is a real piece of shit. I'll tell you what, he's a real piece of shit. Do you know what I mean? Walking around in his kitten heels. Oh, God, what a fucking freak. And then Chris Christie's already dropped up. I mean, whatever. Look, everyone already knows this. It will be interesting to see if Nikki Haley can pull off some kind of upset. I kind of doubt it. So I'm just going to guess Trump going to win, but we'll see.
00:08:41
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, it's all a shit show. So you know what? Let's just let's just it's kind of like diarrhea. Like, let's just get it. Oh, oh, Andrew. Oh, even just even just hearing the word diarrhea always makes me feel like I'm going to have it eventually. Anyways, next item here is this. The Golden Globes went off last week without a hitch.
00:09:04
Speaker
Um, or so it seems anyway. Um, but I, I, I'm looking for, for other news besides just the most depressing news lately for the sort of showing corner. And so variety.com reported that thank God they're reporting this very important news that no one could get by with in life without, um, Kevin Hart, the comedian.
00:09:24
Speaker
He says that he won't host the Oscars ever again. And he says that that award shows aren't comedy friendly environments anymore. Hmm.
00:09:37
Speaker
You know, the only thing that I've heard about this from comics and I'm talking about like I'd say like B.C. level comics. Yeah, sure. Not like Kevin Hart comics. Right. Is that when people are put up for these award show hosting gigs, it's like at the last minute, they don't give them any writers like they have to supply their own writers to like do all this stuff. So like
00:10:06
Speaker
I mean, I kind of get it, but I think that he's taking it from a way more serious vantage point than anyone really needs to, if I'm being honest. Completely agree. You know, I recently saw a comedian in Dublin, and I don't really do comedians, you know what I mean? I don't like going to comedy shows. It's never been my thing. It really hasn't been. I used to and not anymore, though. Every now and then, like a little improv show might be kind of fun or whatever, but it's not really my thing.
00:10:36
Speaker
And I saw a guy recently, his name's Kevin James Thornton. He's and I really wanted to see that you were to say that you saw Kevin James. No, I did not. But Kevin James Thornton is a comedian who's actually originally from Indiana. He grew up in this like crazy evangelical church in the 90s. And that's what he does with his comedy shit. And he is he's just he's so fucking funny. And I had a great time at the show and I met him after and I was like, hey, I'm
00:11:05
Speaker
from Indiana and I'm also gay. It was kind of fun. It was wonderful. It was so good. His comedy is so wonderful, especially for queer people. Fuck, get Kevin James Thornton to host something. The problem with people like Kevin Hart that think they are comedians is that you kind of alluded to it there, Andrew, actually, is they expect everyone to just take their joke as a joke.
00:11:30
Speaker
And when anybody says one word about it, they act like they got shot in the fucking head. It's crazy. Whether it's Kevin Hart or Dave Chappelle or literally any of them anymore. I'm just like, stop complaining. You fucking make jokes for a living. Shut up.
00:11:49
Speaker
And also, I'm being very, very, you're very, very rich from it. So what do you have to complain about? I almost had fun putting this item in here because I was like, who gives a fuck? Like, I don't fucking care. Anyways, enough of that one. The next the next and final one is this X.
00:12:07
Speaker
Also known as Twitter is now worth 71% less than what Elon Musk paid for it, which as a reminder was $44 billion.
00:12:20
Speaker
Forty four billion dollars just to drive it into the ground. Twitter sucks. I mean, I've basically left it. I'm not really on it anymore. And it blows. I don't know what else. I mean, we've talked about this at length, but like it really does suck because like when we first got together with this whole gig, we made a lot of really good contacts via Twitter. And so I had a lot of really good luck via Twitter.
00:12:49
Speaker
And now it's like you put something out and you're lucky because listen, we're never going to pay for Twitter. It's not going to happen. Literally never. So we are lucky to get like 10 likes on something now. Like it's it's what it's not only that like you if you put anything out on Twitter, you're going to have a thousand trolls on either side of any issue after you all the time. And like that's all that surprise that we don't get.
00:13:18
Speaker
Yeah. I mean, that's all that Twitter has really become anymore is just like people yelling at each other all the time and like ruining each other's lives. It's such a hellscape that I used to think was fun. And I got to tell you, I've been off it now, like basically really off it for like two or three weeks and it feels pretty great. Like it's just like, ah, freedom.
00:13:42
Speaker
Anyways, social media sucks sometimes. So Andrew, that's it. Let's get on with the show. We've got a bunch of stuff to talk about. I know that you've got some stats on car accidents and about a really expensive car. I thought that I might talk to you a little bit about my process here of learning to drive in another country. Would you like to hear about it?
00:14:06
Speaker
Yeah, cause you're on the other side of the road. Yeah, so here's the thing, right? So I am 41 and a half years old and I am in a week, I'll be taking my final driving lesson, which is hilarious because I already know how to drive. Anyways, the driving lessons that I'm taking here are pretty funny. I have this driving instructor,
00:14:33
Speaker
who is this older gentleman who's actually really fun to talk to. And he is Irish, but he lived in South Africa. And on our first driving lesson, Andrew, he said, well, you know, you can hear that I'm Irish, but I'm just back from South Africa. I've only been back for about a year, lived in South Africa for about 25 years or whatever he said. Oh, my God.
00:14:54
Speaker
Yeah, for a long time. I was like, oh, wow, that's that's why I was like, you know, do you think that you're going to move? You'd ever move back to South Africa? Are you here for good? He said, absolutely not. And I said, why? And he said, because I had to kill my neighbor.
00:15:07
Speaker
Oh my God. And yeah, he had to, um, he lived in Johannesburg and he had to literally shoot his neighbor when his neighbor was breaking into his house to rob them. Um, Johannesburg is very dangerous by the way. Um, so that was how my driving lessons began. And they've been interesting ever since. I'm not sure quite frankly, if he's teaching me very much, I'll be very honest. How qualified is this murderer?
00:15:33
Speaker
Yeah, no, he is qualified for sure. I won't say what school he's with, but he's qualified. And that is the thing in Ireland, though, right? So like, it's not like a think back to when you were getting your your permit and then your license, right? We were not required to go take classes. I mean, you had to learn, obviously, you know, like you had to learn the test and you had to, you know, like get ready. We were. You were in India. In Indiana, we were not.
00:15:58
Speaker
Yeah, we had to take I think it was mandatory, like 40 hours of driving with an instructor. Yeah. And then an instructor that you had to pay, not like your parents. This was our gym teacher, so I don't remember. I know.
00:16:14
Speaker
I don't remember if we paid for it or not. I'd have to ask my parents to be honest, but I can tell you in Indiana, it was different in Indiana. We just you just like you took the written test. You got your permit. That was it. And then you explained a lot about the times that I have driven through Indiana. Thank God. And then and then the driving test was kind of the same. I mean, obviously you had to pass it, so you had to practice and learn, but that was basically it.
00:16:39
Speaker
So over here though, if you are a new driver who's Irish, like you grew up here or whatever, or if you're Irish, you have to take 12 driving lessons here. And it's very expensive to do and it takes a very long time. Then you get your learner's permit and then you have to get in line, get in the queue for the driving test, which can take like a year sometimes to get.
00:17:05
Speaker
Wow. So for me, I had to take a total of six lessons. I've had four of them the same age. I'm just curious. Basically, yeah. Although I would say in here, most people get the process started much later in life. Like people, people don't get their licenses here until they're like in their like 20s and 30s. It's really interesting because it's not easy to do. And like, frankly, cars are kind of expensive. So not that many people like drive, but
00:17:33
Speaker
For me, I'm almost done with it and then I'm in the waiting list right now and I think I'll probably have my driving test in like April or May, somewhere in there. And it's rigorous. You do have to learn a lot. You have to do other things too that I don't think we ever really did in America, like backing around a corner, for example.
00:17:55
Speaker
What what what in the same hell are you doing in Indiana? I don't know. And what are you doing in Michigan? We did not have to learn how to back around a corner. I can guarantee you. Yeah, we had we had to park backwards like not only parallel park, but we also had to pull into a parking spot backwards. What is it? What is that back into a spot? Yeah, but that's that's not the same thing. This is I mean, this is backing around a curb, which is which is completely different. And like and it's done in a very specific way here.
00:18:23
Speaker
And I'll be honest, it's hard because you're on the other side of the fucking car. It's just not the same as what you're used to. You know what I mean? So I don't know. It's crazy. So I'm looking forward to it being done. It's cost me a lot of money and I'm just ready to have a fucking license again and own a car.
00:18:42
Speaker
So it should be interesting. I'll be honest, I kind of resent that I have had to do this at 41 years of age, but, you know, I'm almost there. So especially since you've had your license in America for, you know, half your life. That's just the thing. Like if I was from like, you know, the only the only places that drive on this side of the road are the places that England colonized. Right. Right. So like if you go to the continent, like if you go to Italy or France or Germany, they drive on the same side of the road as Americans do.
00:19:11
Speaker
So like, what's funny is like, if I was from Germany and I had my license, my license would just like be okay in Ireland, which is absurd. You know what I mean? So the thing that would get me about that is having the, um, what do you call that thing that you click into place, like into drive or into reverse or into any of the gear shift.
00:19:34
Speaker
Yeah, like having that on my left side would drive me insane. That's the only way it gets me. Yeah. And like people have asked me, like, are you taking the manual test? And I'm like, fuck no, I don't know how to drive a manual and I'm not learning now. It's over, babe. Sorry. Every time I see it, I watch The Amazing Race every year when it comes out and every time they have to drive a manual, I'm like, oh, this is where I fail. They have to have a manual on that. A lot of times. Oh, man, that's cruel, dude. That's that's fucking cruel.
00:20:02
Speaker
I mean, you prepare for it, I'm sure. But anyway, speaking of the driving test, in the United States, I was surprised to see that only 61% of people pass it on their first try. Really? Yeah, I failed my first one.
00:20:20
Speaker
Wow. You know, I'm and I'm an excellent driver. I've only been in one accident my entire life and that was with my stepfather. But I just didn't think you were just too nervous when you took it or something or here. Here's the thing. My driving instructor was definitely drunk. My mom. No, my mom was in the backseat and we afterwards were like he like reeked a vodka like you could smell it on his breath and and then failed you. And then but also.
00:20:50
Speaker
I did run a red light on accident, but he failed me on one thing. And that was like, that was like the standard. Like you couldn't make that mistake and pass. And it was fine. I took it one week later and pass with flying. It was not like a big deal, but like it was just one of those things where like you're, you're so amped up. You're 16. I had already bought my Chevy Corsica.
00:21:19
Speaker
God, such a classic Midwest car. And, um, and then you fail and you're like, well, now I can't do anything with it. But like, it's just, it's, I think it's like a, uh, what do you call it? Like a, it's an age thing. Like you just have to go through it. You have to get through it. It's not a big deal. Like I mean, it's such a big deal about it, but listen, it's just a car. It's just a driving. Like you, you'll, you'll get it. Like even if you're nervous about it, and I doubt any of our listeners are
00:21:48
Speaker
16 and getting ready to take the driver's test like I'm trying to talk to him. After being a driver in Chicago for many, many, many, many years, I started to think of driving as an art, to be honest. You have to because everyone is.
00:22:07
Speaker
Yeah. And that's the thing is when I would go to other places where people drive so differently, and I mean really differently. So I'm thinking about how they drive in Hawaii, for example. And when I would go to Honolulu for business and a couple of times I would have to rent a car because of just what we had to do with the stuff that we were doing. And fucking
00:22:29
Speaker
this is the fucking drive so slow and they're so careful and they're so there's and they're also so like kind and it was hilarious every time that like their kindness pissed me off you know what i mean because i was like oh my god just get the fuck i just have to go get out of my way where you're where you're where you're at the cross the cross streets and you're like no you go no you go no you go
00:22:52
Speaker
Let's fucking go. But that's the thing is when you drive in Chicago, I've said this to many people before who were either visiting or I was with them, I was like, listen, you kind of have to be aggressive in Chicago because if you don't, you will be the one that gets hit. I can guarantee it. You just got to go. You got to be real and just fucking go. And you got to be like on it. You got to go on it.
00:23:13
Speaker
But people are generally other drivers around you are generally used to that. Do you know what I mean? Like they're like they're ready for you also to be amped to the fucking core, dude. And like that's how you drive in Chicago. It's like a it's like a literal like video game. Like you have to be ready for anything at any time. And now
00:23:33
Speaker
And you haven't even been here when this happened, but now we have so many alternative vehicles in Chicago. Like we have the motorized bicycles. We have manual bicycles. We have that. We have these things in many of these things.
00:23:50
Speaker
We have these things where it's just one wheel and people stand on it and you just kind of it's like a segue almost, but there's just so many vehicles that it is like a fucking video game when you go out on the road now where you just have to pay attention to so much. It's insane. Totally for sure.
00:24:09
Speaker
Speaking of cars, I think we've all had our fair share of vehicles in our lives. What do you think is the most you've ever spent on a car? Well, it's a good question. I never really had to buy a car, to be honest. The cars that I got were always hand-me-downs, and the last car that I had was a hand-me-down from my mom.
00:24:34
Speaker
And so like, you know, that was a car that lasted for a good long while. I will say that like that car, I personally had to pump a lot of money into it because it was a bit of a money pit. And like, you know, just, it was always sort of like a systemic thing. Like one thing would go wrong and then another, and then another, and then another kind of thing. As soon as you don't have car payments, you'll have car repairs. Bingo, completely.
00:24:55
Speaker
I would say what I can tell you like now is that like the cars I'm looking at now that those will be the ones that I'll spend the most on for sure and I would say that the car that I'm probably going to buy once I get my license here. That car will probably be around thirty five thousand to forty thousand euro.
00:25:14
Speaker
I would say, which in dollars I can tell you in just a moment. It won't be too far off of that. Hold on. It's about the same. EUR to USD is about $38,000, I would say. Okay. So somewhere around there. So that will be my most expensive car. Yeah. Once I get it.
00:25:32
Speaker
Yeah, I think, um, listen, I've never bought a brand new car in my entire life. It's just never been in the cards for me. Um, I've never leased a car, um, which I hear is, uh, both, uh, awesome and terrifying all at the same time because you get, cause you get a brand new car every three years, but also.
00:25:52
Speaker
There's so much pressure with like mileage and repairs and all that stuff. The most I've ever spent is our current car, which is a 2008 Volkswagen Jetta. It's nothing special. We bought that probably eight, nine years ago, and that was $12,000. So that's like the most we've really spent on a car.
00:26:15
Speaker
It's lasted us for a good long while. Are we dealing with a lot of things recently? Sure No, I mean at the same time in that now it's I mean, how old is it now? I mean eight four. I can't do that math right now 15 years 16 years old this year
00:26:30
Speaker
Yeah, so we'll get a new car soon and I'll update the listeners when we do. But on average, the non-luxury sedan these days costs about $32,000. That makes sense. That's like the average though. The full size units with like, you know, your navigation and like your heated seats and whatever
00:26:57
Speaker
fuckery is happening with cars these days is going to net you around $45,000. And then that doesn't take into account what you're going to have to deal with at the, what do you call those places where you buy cars?
00:27:15
Speaker
the dealership. Yeah. What you're going to have to deal with there because listen, going to a dealership and dealing with salespeople at a dealership is one of the most stressful things you'll ever do in your life. And it will take up more time than you ever think it will, even if you're just ready to buy the car. Sure. And you'll end up walking out with
00:27:37
Speaker
probably way more out of your pocket than you ever expected. Exactly. Right. Um, but do you want to know what the most expensive car to date these days is? Please tell me it is the Rolls Royce boat tail and it goes for, get this $26.2 million. Is that all?
00:28:01
Speaker
Really? This thing better. I've actually I've also I've just googled it so I can look at it. Oh, my. Oh, my God. Is it nice looking? I mean, it's I mean, so what I what I pulled here as an 18.7 foot long convertible with its vintage and modern design is powered by a twin turbo V12 engine.
00:28:22
Speaker
an eight speed automatic transition. This rolling yacht was produced only three times and reserved for billionaires. I mean, I'm not gonna lie. Would I ever pay that much money for this car? No. But is this a pretty car? Yeah. That might be one of the most beautiful cars I've ever seen in my life. When you're spending that amount of money on a car, are you not a little bit afraid to drive it?
00:28:51
Speaker
You know, I would be like, you know, I know people that that like that like own a Bentley and like, you know, and these are people that really love cars. You know what I mean? And like, frankly, they have the money to buy these cars. Like they they they have a lot of money.
00:29:08
Speaker
It's like I know of somebody who has a Bentley and like a Porsche and like a few other cars like he's really into cars and he's a great guy so I'm glad that he has these things you know what I mean? But like the thought like I would love a Bentley they're beautiful cars but like I would be scared to death to ever drive it literally anywhere because if one if one Nick happened or if a rock hit or something I would I would be in shambles.
00:29:33
Speaker
You know what I know? I almost feel like the only way that you can own cars like this is like number one, if you are a true, true car hound or a collector. Yeah. Or number two, like if you literally just have so much money that you could drive it around and not care because if something happens, you would just get it repaired and you'd be fine. You know what I mean? Because repairs on these things would be but they would be astronomical just to repair it.
00:30:00
Speaker
Well, speaking of that, let's get into car accidents. Oh, joy. The terrifying part of owning and driving for sure. Matty, have you ever been in a car accident? Oh, I have. Yeah, I've been in a few. Thankfully, none of them were none of them were ever that bad, which is good. But, you know, I've I've been in some where like maybe I was a dummy and this wasn't watching.
00:30:29
Speaker
And maybe I bumped into somebody's back end or whatever. Or I've been in a couple of where I've been crashed into. But once again, thankfully, nothing awful. I've been in some accidents that didn't involve another car, where once I hit a curb really, really hard and hopped the wheel, the wheel popped, and I damaged the wheel well of the car. And then, look, living in Chicago, it's sort of
00:30:56
Speaker
Like part and parcel, like eventually you're going to have like a road accident in terms of like tire. Yeah. Like, I mean, that some of the potholes in Chicago should have their own zip code. Like they're insane. And like you, you can't see these things all the time. So you'll just, you'll hit one and like you might have a pretty bad accident. That happened to me a couple of times in Chicago.
00:31:18
Speaker
Yeah, I've only been in a couple. That's good. None. None serious. I was I remember distinctly one in my mom's when when she was driving her Ford tempo, a tempo where I was in the passenger seat and we got side not sideswiped. What do you call T-boned? T-boned. Oh, God. On my side. And that was really traumatizing for me as a little kid, but like nothing really. I wasn't injured or anything, but it was just like traumatizing as like a
00:31:48
Speaker
formative driving experience, you know? Um, and then the only other, the only other time I got in a car accident is when I was, I was backing out of our driveway and my stepdad was driving into our driveway and it just was like that perfect. Oh no. That perfect thing of just like we were both trying to go somewhere at the same time. We couldn't see, yeah, it was like slow motion and it just, I slammed into his, uh, I think it was a wind star, that awful van. Terrible van.
00:32:18
Speaker
Listen, my Chevy Corsica only had a scuff and his van was completely totaled. The van was totaled from that? Well, we couldn't ever open the side door ever again because it was crushed in basically.
00:32:33
Speaker
That is insane. But no, I've had, I've had really good luck with driving. Um, you know, I've gotten the occasional flat tire. There's always that really cold day in Chicago where you're really, um, where your tire pressure is not used to the cold. And on average, you'll get a flat tire around that time. And there's been times, um, just this past Christmas, our alternator decided to go out in our car and I was on the highway, which was really scary. And we had to kind of,
00:33:01
Speaker
And if anybody's ever been on a Chicago highway, these things are no one cares that you're on the side of the road and broken down. We even had state police drive by us and not stop. So that's just saying something like seriously pathetic. My God.
00:33:18
Speaker
Um, but talking about car accidents. So the number of fatal car accidents in each state has actually risen significantly over the last several years from 2018 to 2022. Um, the number of deadly accidents in the United States has risen about 16% from, from about 37,000 to about 43,000 given 2022. Um,
00:33:44
Speaker
State by state is very interesting. The most fatal accidents happened in Texas. The Lone Star State has over just about 4,500 fatal car crashes in these years. Texas also has the most total lane mileage of any state, so it's obviously a very big state. There's a lot of people that live there, so no surprise that maybe
00:34:10
Speaker
this would be a part of it. And speaking of that, another huge state, California was close in second with 4,400 deadly car accidents. Now see, that's just the thing though, is like California does not surprise me. Texas actually does surprise me. Yeah, you would feel like there would be like
00:34:27
Speaker
just open roads. For listeners who have never been, for listeners who don't live in America or don't really understand the size of it, Texas is fucking gigantic. You don't understand how big it is. You can fit
00:34:45
Speaker
I don't know, maybe like four Francis inside a fucking side. It's fucking huge. So like, I mean, I would just guess, you know, just like you, like, well, what I do wonder is I wonder like where like the concentration of those are happening. Like, are they by, are they mostly by Houston, Dallas, San Antonio kind of thing, Austin, you know, are they by the cities or are they rural? I'm going to guess they've got to be by the cities.
00:35:08
Speaker
Yeah. Um, and then speaking of, um, Rhode Island only had 54 deadly car crashes in 2022. But I mean, for Rhode Island, that's probably pretty big, you know, I mean, like, cause Rhode Island's it's so, it's so small. You can drive through the state of Rhode Island in one hour. We did, we did in June actually. Um,
00:35:27
Speaker
It's interesting you know like I'll say like for me the the issue of like fatalities in cars is it always it's close to home that that's how my dad died right and he died in in a t-bone basically he was he was on a country road it was it was a really stormy day it was a detour blah blah blah blah the farmer hadn't cut down the field there's a whole number of like
00:35:51
Speaker
of little circumstances that led him to be in this accident. And he just got hit by this truck that happened right at the same time as they were going through this intersection. And he died from blunt force trauma. And it's interesting, that accident, I think, when I was a lot younger, I think that that was traumatizing. Obviously, it was traumatizing, don't get me wrong. But in terms of me getting behind the wheel of a car, I think it was traumatizing for a couple of years.
00:36:18
Speaker
But actually, as I look back on it now, and I kind of wonder if my siblings feel the same way, we haven't really talked about this in a while, but I'm not, it doesn't scare, that doesn't scare me with driving, which is really interesting, I think, looking back at it. I don't feel super traumatized by it when I get behind the wheel of a car, you know what I mean? Yeah, well, I mean, it was truly an accident. Yeah, I mean, that's just the thing. It's so random, you just have to go with it. I think for my mom,
00:36:48
Speaker
I think it was obviously it was traumatizing for her too, duh. But I think for her, I think she worried a lot more about all of us in cars than we worried about ourselves, basically. And like with me, God, like, oh my God, good luck driving with her. It was constantly telling you what you were doing wrong, which to be fair, most moms do. But she was terrified all the time of it. And like for me, I guess I was always like,
00:37:14
Speaker
You know, look, when I get behind the wheel of a car, there's a certain amount of trust that you have to put in the people around you. You know, like you just, because if you don't have that contract, you couldn't do anything. Like you just have to believe other people are going to be okay too. You know? Well, and I think like you have to know that like,
00:37:34
Speaker
I don't know, people are going to have your best interest in hand and hopefully like, but you know, now in this day and age with, um, you know, Uber and Lyft and all these things, like we're constantly putting our own trust in, in other people to get us to the airport, to get us to the restaurant, to get us to the bar, to get us to wherever we're going. So.
00:37:54
Speaker
And I think that that's probably very likely to advance in a number of degrees very quickly. I really do think that our big cities eventually, cars will not be around in the next 15 years. I hope not. I really do. And I think that it's going to be replaced by mostly automated everything.
00:38:16
Speaker
And so I don't think there will be people driving the Uber. I think that the Ubers or whatever that becomes, it will just be robot. And you will just be taken around by this, that, or the other thing. And I think it's going to be welcome in this world. As much as I love driving, look, cars fucking suck for the environment. They're not good. And we can't keep it up. It's just not going to last, you know?
00:38:41
Speaker
Yeah, well, and just to round out some of this state evidence, it's interesting what you're talking about, because despite the large population, New York is not even close to a leading state in fatal car accidents. It only had around 1,150.
00:38:56
Speaker
in 2022 because people don't really own cars in the New York and New Jersey area because they get around by public transit for the most part. Unless they live upstate New York, but if you're in New York City and you own a car, you're a fucking millionaire.
00:39:12
Speaker
Like, yeah, other than that, like none of our friends that live there have cars, not one of them. So like that's that would be a luxury for people for the first three years I lived in Chicago. I didn't have a car. Yeah, same. I didn't have I didn't have I didn't have my own car for like, I don't know, 10 years in Chicago, I would say. I mean, it's all right. I was.
00:39:31
Speaker
Just to give it a little bit of comedy to end our horror in real life. Love it. I did look up some of the funniest vanity license plates because I think vanity license plates are the most ridiculous thing that people can do. They are. They're pretty insane. Because this requires you to not only go to the DMV, but to go to the DMV and ask for special treatment at the DMV. Yeah, basically. Yeah.
00:39:59
Speaker
I'm some of the funny ones that I saw. So this is in context. It's on a white Ford Bronco classic Bronco. Think about the 90s and his license plate is just not OJ. That's funny. That is very from New Jersey.
00:40:15
Speaker
Um, this next one is okay. I'm just gonna, I'm gonna give you the letters and you can, you can some eyes from there. Um, I could not see what, what state this was from, but it's P O W R B T T M. That stands for power bottom folks.
00:40:35
Speaker
I have I have known I have I've known only a couple in my life. They are rare unicorn gems that I love as a top.
00:40:46
Speaker
Um, that, that's pretty funny. And then another one from California just says, dump him. Yeah. Yeah. Look, I look, I agree. Dump him. Yes. Um, a proud mom from Kansas just says tan kids. Oh my God. Could you imagine Jesus? Um, another proud mama, maybe from North Carolina just has shirts. Why would you, why would you want that?
00:41:13
Speaker
And why would you want that? Who wants sharks on their car? All right. This next one I'm going to spell out for you and then I'll give you context. It's X three to two to a. Okay. I don't know what this means. That doesn't seem like a lot, but put it in reverse. Like you would see it in a mirror. A
00:41:36
Speaker
Ass... sex. Ass-sex. Yes. It says ass-sex. Okay, you know what? I'm gonna get that. If I can get a vanity plate here, which I don't think I can, I'm gonna get ass-sex as my vanity plate. I actually think that one's kind of ingenious because it has to be in reverse. For a minute I was like, what is this? Is this like a Star Wars reference or something? I don't know.
00:41:56
Speaker
So the next one, so this is one of my biggest pet peeves about people with cars is when people buy old cop cars because I think it should be outlawed and I don't think it should be allowed to buy old cop cars. Also, they're fucking ugly. Don't buy them. You're gross if you buy that. And their license plate just says, wee woo.
00:42:19
Speaker
That is kind of funny. And then, of course, from the great state of Colorado, what is every vegan? How do you know somebody's vegan? Well, they'll tell you with their license plate. Don't worry. They'll tell you. I'm vegan. Is their license plate? Although it is funny. I will say I'm dating a vegan right now.
00:42:37
Speaker
And he's not super, he's not flying that flag, which is nice. I mean, there could be something said for the politeness of Europeans talking about being vegan. True. But in America, they go and tell you ass. It's like, remember the old joke, how do you know someone's polyamorous? Don't worry, they'll tell you. Like, what was it? I was sitting in front of someone and they were like, this is a very Chicago joke, so forgive me. But they were like,
00:43:05
Speaker
How do you know somebody's from Schomburg? They'll tell you. You could use that for for like Naperville too, I feel. I know. Well, awesome. Listen, that was a great horror in a real life segment, Andrew. Should we take a break here and come back with what you've been watching, bitch? Let's go see what we've been watching, bitch.
00:43:24
Speaker
Let's all go to the lobby. Let's all go to the lobby. Let's all go to the lobby to get ourselves a treat. Welcome to what you've been watching, bitch. What you've been watching, you automatic slash manual bitch. There you go. Listen, folks, this is the this is the segment of the show. I can't speak today.
00:43:48
Speaker
This is the segment of the show where we talk about what we've been watching. These could be movies, it could be TV shows, it could be books sometimes or concerts or whatever, but we're just going to tell you the stuff that we've really enjoyed consuming since we last spoke to you. So Andrew, why don't you tell us what your first thing is?
00:44:07
Speaker
So my first one is called Crazy Fun Park and it is on Hulu. This is Australian show. It's a horror. Australian accent, Andrew. Do an accent. I can't try. I get it mixed up. I get it mixed up with British. Just try it right now. Try it. You know what? That's actually kind of good, though.
00:44:34
Speaker
But it's funny because I do listen to like an Australian podcast. I should know how to do this, but I don't know. But Crazy Fun Park is about two teens that live in kind of like a suburb of one of like, it's not a city in Australia, but it's like a suburb.
00:44:55
Speaker
And they have this amusement park that's been out of commission for a number of years because a number of people died there. And like the cheese, think of that. Did you watch that documentary about the New Jersey amusement park? Yeah. It's kind of like that. Such a great documentary.
00:45:12
Speaker
And so they decide to go there one night and some crazy things happen and then they kind of go through like a little bit of a falling out and one of the friends passes away. And when his other friend goes back to the fun park, he realizes that his friend died at the fun park and now lives at the fun park.
00:45:32
Speaker
and there's a number of other ghosts that live at the fun park that have died over the years so they're kind of like in suspended you know purgatory crazy fun park and we don't know why and that's kind of the whole point of the whole show is like trying to figure out what the mystery is and
00:45:47
Speaker
And it's on Hulu currently. I really liked it. It's definitely horror light. You know what I mean? Like it's, you know, when you talked about ghosts last episode, it's kind of that sort of comedy slash horror, like where there's horrific things that happen, but it's still it from a comedy angle.
00:46:07
Speaker
Um, and it's pretty endearing. Um, I got a little bit bored towards the middle of the show, but then it kind of picked back up towards the end. It's 10 episodes. Uh, so anybody that's like into something like ghosts or looking for something that's a little, maybe horror light, check out crazy fun park on Hulu. I love that. I will. Um, just not on Hulu. Um, I, it's on Disney plus anything on Hulu is on right now.
00:46:32
Speaker
I'll tell you about a film that I just saw. It is called Past Lives. Past Lives is a movie that has really only recently come out in the last few weeks. It's an A24 movie. It's directed by a director who is Canadian and Korean. Her name is Celine Song. This is really her debut feature.
00:47:02
Speaker
And this is what a great movie. I just truly enjoyed it. It's from a 24, but it's not a horror movie. Go figure. It's a brilliant, little, lovely love story.
00:47:17
Speaker
and um it's centered around um let me just pull up their names really quick centered around where's the cast on this jesus um i you know i forget their names hey hey so oh i know it nora nora moon is is the is the woman and hey song is is the guy and um they grow up together as like childhood friends in korea and soul
00:47:39
Speaker
And, um, there is this one day that happens where, um, where they're about to immigrate. Um, but the kids don't know it yet. And they're, the mom takes them on, uh, the, the two moms take them on a date when they're children. And, um, like the day after they fucking leave Korea and like these kids, these kids very clearly like like each other and like they're, you know, they're young, but like, it's like very, very young love kind of.
00:48:06
Speaker
And it's just all about their stories from there. I don't want to give a whole lot away, because it really is just a glorious little film. But what I really loved about it was just like, it's lovely. Like, I haven't seen a lovely movie in a long time, if I'm being honest. That's cool. I like that. And this movie was just lovely. It's a beautiful little love story. And so much happens in it. And like the names, Jess, past lives, it deals with the Korean cultural concept of in-yun, I-N.
00:48:35
Speaker
apostrophe y w n and there's like this concept of like you might feel you might like brush past somebody on the street and feel this incredibly strong feeling when you do or you might see somebody and feel like you're really connected to them even though you don't know them at all.
00:48:54
Speaker
And that is an indicator of In Yun, and that there are all these thousands of lifetimes between you, where you've been repeating things over and over again, or where you live entirely new lives together, but you're still connected in one way or another, right? So it's kind of like reincarnation, kind of like past lives kind of shit. And so that's what this movie really deals with.
00:49:15
Speaker
I saw it on a date and we both really liked it. It's a good, it's a good date movie, I would say, if you're, if you're into that. Um, but I really, really enjoyed it. So, you know, I don't know how you can see it outside of the theater. I'm not sure if it's like streaming anywhere yet. I think you can like rent it on Apple and, you know, probably see it on Amazon and stuff. But if you get the chance to see past lives, see it. It is in both English and Korean. So if you're not in the subtitles, get over it, watch it anyway. Wonderful movie. Highly recommend past lives.
00:49:41
Speaker
cool uh i like a good feel-good movie every once in a while we don't have very many of them anymore yeah i think you and michael would really both like this one cool i'll check it out um the next one i have is a newer shutter movie uh the sacrifice game this so how was this um you know what i
00:50:04
Speaker
Everything I've heard about this, people really didn't like it. OK, I liked it, but it definitely has. I'm going to say I liked it like with with caveats, because there are a lot of like acting choices that are like, well, and this is a shutter movie, right? This is a shutter original. Yeah. OK. So basically what this movie is about is about two girls that are kind of left behind during a winter recess at a boarding school. OK.
00:50:32
Speaker
And they're basically left behind because their parents either can't come pick them up or circumstances and they're there with the one teacher that has been chosen to be like the person that stays behind and takes care of the leftovers and.
00:50:49
Speaker
and her boyfriend who's played by Gus Kenworthy of all people. What? Really? Yeah. I love Gus Kenworthy, but who was the casting person? Like why? A weird choice, kind of a weird choice, but anyway. Makes no sense. And basically what happens is they are infiltrated by a group of
00:51:09
Speaker
kind of like culty people, and you kind of don't understand why the cult people are there at the beginning, and then it slowly over time reveals what's happening. And I will say there are, like what I said, there are some acting choices that are special, like somebody really committed to being this kind of thing.
00:51:30
Speaker
But I did like the story arc that happens and I thought that the twist at the end was pretty original. If I'm being totally honest, I still had fun with it. But this is the era that I'm going into now to where I just try to look for the good stuff anymore because I hate negativity around horror.
00:51:55
Speaker
Like maybe this maybe this movie is not going to be for you. I still had fun with it, but I know a lot of people said it was kind of shitty. So I got I got to ride that line, I guess. So but I like this. So if you if you trust my taste, go check out the sacrifice game. Nice. My next movie is one called Sisu. I watch this on demand. I don't know somewhere. I don't know the camera where I watched it, but I'm sure you can watch it in a number of places. It is S.I.S.U.
00:52:25
Speaker
So this is a this is a Finnish movie. So it's from Finland. They don't talk like that there. They don't. That was actually that was actually mean of me. I take that back. I don't even know what finish. Listen, you made me say oi earlier. Oi, oi, oi. I don't know. That's not how Finnish people speak. Also, Finnish people are very nice and they're very happy. Anyways, very attractive. They are. They are. They are attractive people.
00:52:54
Speaker
Anyways, this is a rough movie. I want to tell you that right now. So Sisu takes place during World War II. It's near the end of the war and the Nazis are in Finland and they're like wreaking havoc and being assholes because that's what they fucking do. And they come across this fucking dude who I don't even remember his name and honestly doesn't even remember. I think it's a Tommy if I remember correctly.
00:53:21
Speaker
Tommy is in Lapland, which is in the wilderness. Lapland now, by the way, is where people take their kids in Europe right before Christmas, because they all believe that's the North Pole. So it snows a bunch up there, and I think that's Santa shit. Literally not.
00:53:38
Speaker
But yeah, right. My boss takes his kid there every year, though. It's actually it's really cute. And they like do all the Christmasy stuff anyways. But this is like Lapland, not Christmas stuff. And like it's like it's like it's like takes place in the summer. So it's kind of hot out or whatever. And like there is this dude, a Tommy, who's a who's a Finnish guy who is digging for gold. Right.
00:54:00
Speaker
And this is not a spoiler, I promise. Listen, the dude finds gold very early on in the movie, but he finds a fuck ton of gold. Like, I mean, I mean, like he's like panning for gold kind of shit, like in the ground gold. So it's not like he found a fortune or something. I mean, like the dude is like getting the fucking gold. You know what I mean? So he fucking digs this shit out. But like at the same time, he knows that there are Nazis fucking everywhere. So he has to like get this shit to the bank ASAP.
00:54:28
Speaker
But on the way to the bank, the motherfucker meets up with a bunch of Nazi dudes. Now, little do the Nazis know that this guy is like a fucking legend. And like, I mean, this dude is battle fucking hardened. He's older. He's got a big old beard, all that kind of shit. But like, there's a part where like he's like bathing in the river and like,
00:54:49
Speaker
Like, I'm not into daddies. I just hope to be one. Do you know what I mean? And like this guy is ripped, but like old. He's like he's like the Jason Statham of Finland. Yeah, but like, but like older and like, but like, you know, if you were into daddies, I think you'd be into this kind of thing. You know what I mean? And like he clearly is like ready to kick some ass and he's clearly also from the scars all over his body. The dude has been through a fucking lot. And so these Nazis
00:55:15
Speaker
I'll just tell you about the first one. He rides his horse past this first group of Nazis and then they try to get him and he just wallops the fuck out of them. And the movie just goes on from there. You don't fuck with this guy at all. It was great. I love any movie where Nazis get the fucking shit kicked out of them and this is one of them.
00:55:35
Speaker
So if you enjoy those kind of movies, like you're going to like this. And I would say too, like the style of it is sort of like, how can I say this? Like in terms of like, like, like, like the fighting parts of it, it will remind you of like,
00:55:51
Speaker
Kill Bill kind of shit without the stylization, if that makes any sense at all. Like over the top a little bit. A little bit over the top, but like it's not going to be like fucking neon colors. It's not it's not that shit, but like it's like over the top violence, but like this dude fucking goes for it.
00:56:07
Speaker
I love this movie. I watched it, you know, at night or whatever. It wasn't one that I was planning on watching, but it just came up and I was like, you know, let's give it a try. I loved it. So give it a shot. You know, it's of course, you know, a lot of it's it's in English. So, you know, you'll enjoy it. It's only 91 minutes long. It is power packed and action packed. You'll love it. Cool. Sounds fun. Fun.
00:56:28
Speaker
Um, my next one is it lives inside and this is currently on Hulu. Um, I remembered seeing a preview for this a while ago and being really excited to see it. And then it just kind of disappeared. And then all of a sudden it was on Hulu and I was like, Oh, that movie. I remember seeing the preview for that. Um, this is all about it. Indian American family that, uh,
00:56:51
Speaker
their daughter their only daughter is really trying to assimilate to american culture so she's kind of like pushing away her her indian heritage like she doesn't want to do anything with like her mom like cooks like traditional food and like she doesn't want anything to do with it.
00:57:07
Speaker
And one day she comes across another Indian American girl who she was friends with as kids and they've since like, you know, kind of drifted apart. And she has this jar and she's kind of talking about like, it's, you know, it's in there.
00:57:24
Speaker
It's in the jar. And the girls like, I don't want to deal with you like that. And she knocks it out of her hand and the jar breaks. Little do we know this releases a demon that it has that has ties to like Indian culture that I don't want to go too far into because it kind of over explains the movie. But this movie was really spooky and I thought that it was really, really good up until
00:57:54
Speaker
Because just like anything like what you can't see is more scary than what you can see. So like I thought it was really scary up until they kind of show the demon and like
00:58:08
Speaker
the demon design just looks kind of goofy if i'm being honest yeah but like up until that point i really really liked it and i kind of can forgive kind of the ending just because like yeah you just enjoy what you enjoyed about the movie like i don't know but um i will say that that was kind of a little bit of a detractor was kind of the practical effects on the demon itself but when it is
00:58:31
Speaker
Because there is a part where I'm not going to say who the character is, but there is a part where one character is literally invisibly like crushed to death. Oh, my God. It is. It is pretty scary. So if it I thought it was a really original idea, it reminded me a lot of the boogeyman, which we watched earlier. Oh, yes. Sure. Sure.
00:58:55
Speaker
Um, and so like, if you're into that kind of thing, uh, I definitely give this a chance. It's on Hulu right now for free. So you can watch it. It, it lives inside. Cool. Uh, my next one is the holdovers, the holdovers. Uh, I want to watch this. Well, it's eerily similar in, um, to the one that you mentioned earlier, the sacrifice game.
00:59:14
Speaker
which is kind of funny. It's about, you know, people that get left over at a school. And there's, you know, the one teacher who has to watch what are called the holdovers while they're there for the holidays. I didn't see the parallels there. Well, while you were talking, I was like, that's so weird that came out at the same time. Anyways, The Holdovers is directed and comes from Alexander Payne. Alexander Payne has been a, I mean, God, just such a successful filmmaker. If you've seen Election, for example, which is fantastic.
00:59:43
Speaker
Oh, okay. Or Sideways, which I just adore. The Descendants about Schmitt, Nebraska, Downsizing. Some really great films have come from Alexander Payne, and I'm one of his big fans. And this one is by far like his new best one.
00:59:59
Speaker
This one this if you will I think it's really lovely because I'm using that word a lot today lovely It's lovely because it's just really simple. It's a simple story but you know that goes into really complex, you know themes and into you know, some dark parts of what it is to be a human and
01:00:18
Speaker
But it ends, you know, of course, I won't tell you how this ends, but it ends in a really, I think, hopeful way, which is a movie that maybe we need these days. The Holdovers is definitely going to be viewed as a holiday movie. And this is, I mean, I bought it. This is one that I'm going to watch probably every Christmas now, to be honest.
01:00:36
Speaker
Paul Giamatti stars and probably one of the best roles he's ever done. I think Paul Giamatti is a great actor. There are some times when maybe I get a little bit, I used to get a little bit tired of Paul Giamatti because he was just kind of always playing the same thing.
01:00:51
Speaker
I'm not sure that this is that far off of that, if I'm being honest. And what I mean by that is it's Paul Giamatti being Paul Giamatti. Being neurotic. He doesn't really do anything different. But I think in this case, it works so incredibly well. It's there. In the same way that I think he worked incredibly well in sideways, or the same way that he worked really well in American Splendor, or any of the amazing films that he has been in before.
01:01:16
Speaker
Paul Giamatti plays this high school teacher at an elite prep school in the Northeast. And I forget what the name of the school, oh Barton, Barton is the name of the school. And so he is there in New England and he is a former student at this prep school who went to Harvard and found himself back at the school being a teacher.
01:01:38
Speaker
So as you can imagine from that, that's not really where he wanted to end up. So he's sort of a curmudgeon, he's a dick, he's mean to the kids, and he's the classic mean teacher, basically. And of course, all the holdovers end up with him as the person watching them over Christmas. There's one boy in particular who's one of the older boys played by Dominic Sessa, played beautifully by Dominic Sessa.
01:02:04
Speaker
And he's sort of like, they're just enemies. They really don't like each other. And so they are the two that end up together in this whole other situation. At the same time, Devine Joy Randolph, who is so good in this movie.
01:02:20
Speaker
She is so fucking good in this movie she is the cook at barton and so she also has to stay behind too but her son also went to barton before as well and you learn really early on that her son was a student there because she was a cookie go there for free and that he had only recently been killed in vietnam.
01:02:39
Speaker
And so they're stuck there. There's all these family issues around it. It's absolutely beautiful. And like I said, where it ends up is somewhere really, really hopeful. So I really enjoyed this movie. I enjoyed it so much that I bought it for not cheap. So if you haven't seen it yet, I would say maybe watch it now before the Christmas spirit leaves you entirely as you go into the year. But I really enjoyed it and I hope that you do too.
01:03:05
Speaker
Cool. Yeah. This is somewhere like HBO max or something. Cause I remember seeing it. So I definitely would give this a shot. Um, my last one is kind of a holdover from the holiday season, just like you were talking about. This is a movie called it's a wonderful knife and it is on shutter.
01:03:24
Speaker
I don't know why there's so much hate around this movie. I think a lot of people maybe have a case of grinchiness. I don't know, but there's a lot of people that really hated this movie and a lot of people that I really respect and why kind of trust their opinion that didn't really like this movie. I thought it was perfectly
01:03:45
Speaker
Fine. It's not going to. It's a shutter original. It's not going to knock your socks off. Sorry. It's called It's a Wonderful Knife. What do you think it's going to be? Fucking Amadeus? I mean, like, who gives a fuck? Just to give a little bit of a context around what the movie is about, it's about a girl who on one Christmas stumbles upon a serial killer and inadvertently ends up killing him.
01:04:12
Speaker
And then a year later, basically, her family wants to forget about it. The whole town wants to forget about it. And so she feels very fed up. She feels very like, why did I even why do I even exist? And so she kind of does it's a wonderful life thing and says, like, well, I want to like, basically, I don't want to be I don't what what I don't want to be born, basically. And then it's all about like her trying to figure out
01:04:37
Speaker
her new life and trying to get back to her old life because it's it's a wonderful life and it's a wonderful life. So like you can kind of like get the context. But I mean, there's a lot of really good people. Joel McHale's in this. OK. Catherine Catherine Isabelle from Ginger Snaps is in this. There's a ton of queer representation. Her brother is gay. Her aunts are gay. Like, is that the reason why people didn't like this movie? I don't know.
01:05:07
Speaker
Honestly, probably. Yeah, I really enjoyed it. I thought it was a perfectly lovely little slasher homage to It's a Wonderful Life, and that's all I needed. So congratulations Shutter, you win my love. I don't know why other people can't just
01:05:23
Speaker
enjoy something. In the words, in the words of Bette Midler, fuck them if they can't take a joke. Um, my final one is you are what you eat a twin experiment on Netflix. Oh, yeah. I watched this the other night. Um, this, it's like a reality show kind of thing. It's like, it's like a throw me off with a twin experience.
01:05:42
Speaker
That's that's what it's called a twin experiment experiment. Oh, okay. So you are what you eat is I think it was four episodes. I can't quite recall. Anyways, it is a show where it's it's like a little docu show in that in that like made by Netflix style kind of thing.
01:05:57
Speaker
Um, where they get, um, it's about, uh, it's about a, a dietary study where they, I think it was like, cause they, they, they have like six pairs of identical twins on the show. But like, I think that the whole study itself was like 90 pairs of twins or something, but they're all identical twins, right? And that that's the important part.
01:06:19
Speaker
because identical twins have the same DNA. So the identical twins, one would be given a plant-based diet, and the other would be given an omnivore diet. And so throughout the course of the experiment, in the first part, the people doing the study would supply them with all the food, and then in the latter, and then also they get a trainer. So they're both doing the same exercises. They're both
01:06:43
Speaker
Doing the same kind of mitigations. It's just that the type of food that they're eating is different right and Like so the first part of it they give them the food It's sort of like a like a like a box food sort of thing like it tells you how to make it and all the rest of the shit Yeah, and then her meal right and then in the latter part of the study like they have to just do it on their own so they have to go to the store make good choices that kind of thing and
01:07:03
Speaker
So by the end of it, as you're probably guessing right now, the plant-based people ended up healthier than the people who were eating meat still. And I will say that there were some really interesting parts of it. And there are parts of it where if you're a meat eater, which I am, and Andrew, you are.
01:07:23
Speaker
Sure, lots of people are listening right now are too. There are parts of it that just remind you about where your food comes from that are uncomfortable to watch. I like to eat salmon. There was a whole segment in the show about salmon farming and how awful it is.
01:07:40
Speaker
I gotta tell ya, I literally bought salmon, I don't know, a week before I watched this. And it's like smoked salmon, so it's gonna be good for a little bit anyway. And I don't know if I wanna eat it, to be honest, because it's kinda gross to me now. Or thinking about, they talk about chicken, and oh my God, chicken houses, it should not surprise you how awful it is. Or pigs, or whatever, whatever the case may be.
01:08:08
Speaker
So there's some really good stuff in there. The only thing about the show that I wasn't a fan of is that it kind of felt like a commercial for brands in it. So like, it would be like, here's a segment from Impossible Meat. And then Impossible Meat would, you know, talk about their stuff. And like, there were a couple of other like vegan brands that would be out there.
01:08:27
Speaker
And obviously they probably funded it, duh. But I didn't like that part if I'm being honest. This would have been a much more effective show if they had kept brand names out of this. It takes the science out of it for me. For me it really did too. And as far as I know though, this study is pretty comprehensive and it is of course scientific and it works, but I think that they did themselves a disservice by inviting the big vegan brands right now to be a part of it. They shouldn't have done that.
01:08:56
Speaker
And I think this just would have been way more effective had they not done that. But once again, who do you think ended up paying for this? Duh, it was probably Impossible Foods and whatever the other ones are too for the placement. So like, I do think it's worth watching if you're, I don't know if you're into it, but like just keep, for me, that was something that definitely drew me back. But I mean, look, it did work in some ways. I am like legitimately thinking like, wow,
01:09:22
Speaker
I really haven't thought about this, this, and this for a while. Maybe I should think about that. Maybe I should think about my visceral fat levels right now, and maybe I shouldn't eat so much meat. I think that it was effective in that way, so it was, in the end, worth it, I think. Cool. I don't know if I want to watch that or not, because I don't want to feel bad about myself. I would say it's less feeling bad about yourself, and it definitely will make you think about what you're eating. It will make you think about that, for sure.
01:09:51
Speaker
Yeah. All right. Well, that will do it for what you've been watching, Bitch. Maddie brought us past lives, which is currently in cinemas. Sisu, which is on demand somewhere. The Holdovers, which I know is on somewhere in America. So just go. Yeah. Just search for it. Yeah.
01:10:08
Speaker
And, um, you are what you eat, which is currently on Netflix. And Andrew brought us crazy fun park on Hulu, the sacrifice game on shutter. It lives inside on Hulu and it's a wonderful knife on shutter. So folks stay tuned. We'll be right back with our first film of the episode, Christine. Honey, you ever owned a car before? No, I just forgot my license.
01:10:44
Speaker
Her name's Christine. I like that. I saw you guys at the football game. How'd you forget that car fixed up like that? Old, plain old-fashioned hard work. Ever since he bought that car, he's been obsessed with it. And you know what else?
01:11:15
Speaker
They told us the man who owned that car last died in it. What do you know about that car? I know there's a guy who owned the car before, Arnie. His daughter choked to death in Christine. It's that car. I swear it's the car. It's Christine coming. Oh, Cherry. That's funny, you know, because I heard you stole it. Well, after I cleaned up the broken glass, it wasn't so bad.
01:11:44
Speaker
So what if you fix it up and he just comes back and does it again? He won't do it again.
01:12:08
Speaker
She was born to be bad. It's time for Christine. Maddie, tell us all about Christine. How do you kill something that can't possibly be alive? Geeky student, Arnie Cunn- I can't speak today, Andrew. Geeky student, Arnie Cunningham falls for Christine.
01:12:31
Speaker
a rusty 1958 Plymouth Fury, and becomes obsessed with restoring the classic automobile to her former glory. As the car changes, so does Arnie, whose newfound confidence turns to arrogance behind the wheel of his exotic beauty. Arnie's girlfriend Lee and best friend Dennis reach out to him,
01:12:51
Speaker
only to be met by a fury like no other. Christine was directed by John Carpenter, the legend. Welcome back. Right. Written by Stephen King, the legend and Bill Phillips, who wrote the screenplay. Production company was Delphi Premier and the distribution was Columbia Pictures. Arnie was played by Keith Gordon. Dennis was played by the cute, unbelievably cute John Stockwell. I'm in love with him. Anyways, Lee played by Alexandra Paul.
01:13:21
Speaker
Darnell, played by Robert Proskie, Junkins, played by Harry Dean Stanton, Mom, played by Christine Belford, Buddy, played by William Ostrander, and Labay, played by Roberts Blossom. It is rated R, it's 110 minutes long from the USA, released December 9th of 1983, and it was filmed basically all over Los Angeles.
01:13:44
Speaker
Budget was 10 million and brought in 21 million with gross. So Andrew, tell us what you think about Christine. Yeah, Christine, I've definitely seen this before, but it's been quite a while. So this was like a new watch again. I don't really understand why this movie is rated R, if I'm being honest, because it's a really good point. Why is it rated R? Because all of like the quote unquote, like Gore is kind of like shot
01:14:13
Speaker
away from. And there's really no sex in this movie. Yeah. So maybe I guess maybe like the one guy that gets run over by the flame car is maybe why it must be. But anyway. So this is a quintessential Stephen King story. It's a coming of age story.
Exploring 'Christine': A Movie Deep Dive
01:14:32
Speaker
Have you read this one?
01:14:33
Speaker
This is actually one of the earlier books that I haven't read. OK. Because it's a little daunting. It's a it's one of his longer ones. And I was like, it's about a car. Like, do I really care that much? I don't know. I get that. Like. And so it just was one of those ones that I skipped. I don't know why. But after seeing the movie, I kind of want to go back and read it just to get a little bit of it, because I know there's probably more backstory than what we're getting in the movie. Sure.
01:15:00
Speaker
But overall, I had a lot of fun with this. I thought it was... I think that it starts really good and it ends really good. I do think that there's a lull in the middle that is a little...
01:15:13
Speaker
boring, if I'm being honest. It's kind of like when, what's, Dennis, when he's in the hospital bed, that part, I'm just like, what's happening? Like, can we get out of the story? Because you kind of play along with like the, there's like kind of two stories happening concurrently. We have Dennis, who's like the popular kid, and we have Arnie, who's the not popular kid. And for some reason they're friends. We don't really understand why they're friends, but they just are.
01:15:44
Speaker
and it's kind of like it's kind of a two-pronged movie because it's kind of about him and it's kind of about Arnie so I kind of have a hard time understanding who's supposed to be the protagonist because obviously the antagonist is Christine but like I don't know who I'm supposed to root for am I supposed to be rooting for
01:16:04
Speaker
Dennis and Lee, am I supposed to be rooting for Arnie and Lee? I mean, who am I rooting for in the overall understanding of the of the movie? But that does not detract from my enjoyment of the movie, because a lot of the things that they do right, they do really right. Like, honestly, I had forgotten all about that whole regeneration of the car scene.
01:16:28
Speaker
And the way that they do that practically, it looks so good. It's amazing. I don't know how they did it in the 80s, but in the early 80s too. And this is in 1983 for guys. I know. And it looks better than most movies we have now. Agreed.
01:16:46
Speaker
I thought it was funny that it was $250 for a car. And we'll talk about the Stephen King-isms of it all when we get down into the nitty gritty of the movie and of the next movie. But what did you think of Christine? I loved it.
01:17:03
Speaker
I had such a great time with this movie. I thought it was... Honestly, I think it's brilliant. I think it's brilliant. I haven't seen this before. And I'll tell you... Really? Well, but here's the thing. What you said earlier about reading the book, it's about a car. That's the way I always felt about the movie. I'm honest. I knew it was from Stephen King. I knew it was from John Carpenter. I just never thought I would really care about it until this episode came along.
01:17:28
Speaker
And it fucking rocks. I love this movie. I love this movie. I think that everyone in the movie was fantastic, even Lee when she wasn't fantastic. You know what I thought with her? I was like, Oh, this is like Jamie Lee Curtis and Nancy Thompson combined.
01:17:45
Speaker
Yeah, basically. I mean, like, look, she's in the story as kind of a bit of like a gear, if I'm being honest, like she just kind of functions in the story. The real bulk of the story here is Arnie and like in his incredible transformation from, you know, as the plot earlier said, like total geek to being like a completely different person.
01:18:06
Speaker
And I think that Keith Gordon was fucking fantastic playing, playing Arnie. I think too, you know, you, you, you said earlier, like, we don't really know why they're friends. I like, certainly we don't. I mean, we kind of gather it like they just must've grown up together. Um, and like, and like, you know, one obviously was just interested in sports and shit. And one was interested in, you know, mechanics or whatever, I don't know, or science. Um,
01:18:32
Speaker
But Dennis is played so earnestly by John Stockwell, like so earnestly. There's never a moment where you don't believe that John Stockwell is Dennis. And is a good guy. Oh my God, an incredibly good guy. And it matters wholeheartedly in the story, the performance of him, because there's never a moment where Dennis airs as a friend. He is a friend to the end.
01:18:58
Speaker
And he sticks by, he sticks by Arnie, he sticks by Lee, he sticks by fuck, even like Arnie's parents for God's sake. He's just a good fucking kid. Those parents. We gotta talk about Arnie's parents suck. Um, but also there is this simmering
01:19:14
Speaker
love between Arnie and Dennis that is so homoerotic and so like fun to watch in 2024 with, you know, through our big old gay eyes. Like it's it's unmistakable. There are there are so many that you say that because
01:19:31
Speaker
even towards the end where you think like, oh, is there going to be like a love triangle between like Lee and Dennis and Arnie? You're like, no, because Dennis is like just in love with Arnie. Dennis is in love with Arnie and he's in love with Arnie even before the transformation. Like, I mean, he passes up Kelly Preston for God's sake.
01:19:52
Speaker
I mean, it's it's it's incredible watching this. And not only like is he clearly in love with him like in like a, you know, in a in a subtext sort of way, he's also Arnie's defender. Like he comes to Arnie's defense, you know, in times of real danger when Arnie is in is in the garage being attacked by Buddy, whatever his name, Buddy Reperton.
01:20:11
Speaker
Um, you know, the one that comes to his aid, even in the face of a switchblade, uh, is Dennis. It's really incredible. But then like the lines make it pretty fucking clear when, um, when they're, so it's, it's not too far after they buy the car. And like, Dennis is basically asking Arnie, like, why are you so obsessed with this? And Arnie's in the car saying, maybe I just found something as ugly as me.
01:20:33
Speaker
And Dennis says, you're not ugly, Arnie. And then Arnie says, I know what I am. And then Dennis says, queer maybe, but not ugly. And then Arnie says, fuck you. And they kind of like laugh it off, basically. Also, when Dennis comes to Arnie's defense in the garage, in the mechanic garage at their high school. So it's like a high school garage kind of thing, right?
01:20:57
Speaker
Shop class. Shop class. There you go. So when Dennis comes to his aid there and like he like, you know, hits Buddy Rupperton and gets the switchblade out of his hand and all the rest of it, he is not punched by other boys. He is not kicked by other boys. He is groped in his big old bulging crotch.
01:21:18
Speaker
by Mooch. That is what the movie does. Look, John Carpenter is no dummy. He knows what he's doing. He's a filmmaking genius. He chose that very specific shot on purpose. Do you feel the same way about that? I do. How could he not? He knows that Dennis is in love with him. Come on.
01:21:40
Speaker
Yeah. And that that I listen, I'd forgotten a lot about this movie. I definitely forgot about the tactic of fighting by grabbing someone by the dick. Sweet Jesus. It was a lot. But I mean, look, not only about are these things really great about the movie, the soundtrack is absolutely incredible. I mean, the soundtrack has.
01:22:00
Speaker
Soundtrack has some of the best hits of like the 50s, 60s, 70s, but also the score. Oh, and the score is wonderful because, of course, who did the score? John Carpenter. I mean, like, you know, so in some of the songs that I wrote down here, Bad to the Bone, of course, which bookends the movie, Not Fate Away, which is just incredible.
01:22:19
Speaker
I wonder always and forever we belong together i wonder why little bitty pretty one be suburban from rolling stones. What is that one little darling pledging my love rock and roll i mean this incredible songs that bring you directly into the era that christine comes from.
01:22:40
Speaker
And so you've got the music is almost a character. You've got this beautiful car. I've never wanted to own a Plymouth Fury more in my life than I do right now. And you've got people who are just completely committed to their roles in this. And you've got a story that is unlikely to work that fucking works. It absolutely works. So I fell in love with this movie. I really did.
01:23:02
Speaker
Yeah. Well, and we should say that that's how Christine communicates with Arnie is through the songs. It basically like I did love that part where Dennis comes to like break into the car for the first time and the car just like the radio turns on and it's you keep on knocking, but you can't. I like laughed out loud. I thought that was like so funny.
01:23:27
Speaker
You know, we should talk a little bit about the Stephen King of it all because I think that that's one thing that if someone goes into this blind and they're not familiar with the works of Stephen King, there are some things in this that are just a little bit like
01:23:45
Speaker
Goofy tell us well, there's a lot of the things like when there's getting the car from The the previous owner and he's like, oh, yeah when she first came in she had that new car smell There's no other car smell like it except for pussy. I love this. I love this voice from you right now, too
01:24:06
Speaker
But like, there's like pussy jokes. There's, you know, there's the queer joke. There's, um, I like the, the one line where he's like, you know, Arnie, I was thinking, and then Arnie just goes, Oh, yeah. Like there's, there's like,
01:24:21
Speaker
There's a style that if you are not used to Stephen King, that is going to take you a little bit out of it because he just has like, I'm sorry, but the man is old and he has a mentality. We'll see it in a lot of the dialogue in our next movie as well.
01:24:39
Speaker
that just it doesn't it doesn't age well, is what I'm saying. But but I would counter in this one and I would say that through through the lens of somebody else, it works at least. And that's the we'll talk about this more when we talk about maximum overdrive in the next film. But like.
01:24:57
Speaker
When Stephen King isn't a huge part of it, it works better, I think. And like this one, John Carpenter got the actors to make those lines still work, even though they feel archaic. You know, like like the one where the detective is kind of questioning him and he's like scouts honor. And then Arnie just goes, I'm not a scout. Yeah, right. Exactly.
01:25:23
Speaker
I like the sign in the office of Darnell's auto mechanic shop where it just says, in God we trust, everyone else must pay cash. My favorite scene though in the whole movie, like I alluded to earlier though, is when the bullies have come in and they've beat to shit Christine.
01:25:46
Speaker
And Arnie comes with Lee the next day and discovers it. And then he goes back later that night and he's just trying to figure out, like, what, what do I do now? Like I fixed up this car and now it's all busted again. And you hear like a little, like, and he sees that the engine has repaired itself. And then he goes to the.
01:26:08
Speaker
um like the front of the car and just looks at it and you get like that signature like sting of john carpenter music with the lights headlights coming on and he just goes okay show me yep and it just brings the car brings itself back to life and it is fucking
01:26:27
Speaker
awesome it's amazing it's honestly amazing and it's not the only time that it happens in the movie i mean like it happens sort of over and over again and it does make you think like once again in 83 how how did this happen how did you make this happen i can tell you that i do know that they filmed it in reverse okay
01:26:48
Speaker
so they had basically how they could um how do you just how do you just like like not suction cup but like they they imploded the car basically sure yeah but but showed it in reverse to where it was coming back out so i i do know how they did it but like the the the the thinking behind it and how you get to that point
01:27:10
Speaker
Girl, you a genius. Seriously, it's wild. I think that, I do think that the movie is a little bit long, if I'm being honest. Yeah, tell me more about where you think the lull happens.
01:27:26
Speaker
It's literally when Dennis is in the hospital. Like we have to go to the hospital like three times basically to like see over because I think it's over the course of like a month and a half that he's kind of in the hospital. Yeah. And the dates have to keep popping up on the screen. You know, in my notes, I don't remember exactly when this would have been, but I did write down Dennis has been absent for many scenes now. It is noticeable.
01:27:52
Speaker
And I don't think I felt it necessarily as a lull. Probably because it's my first time seeing it. I think I felt it more as a lack. I was like, wait a minute, where's Dennis? You just wanted to see him more. He's very cute. I don't know if you feel the same way, but Jesus, what a cutie. My God. Especially when he's wearing that little belly. Oh, football uniform. Oh my God. When he's hurt and he's lain. Oh my God. Let me come to your aid. I know what to do.
01:28:22
Speaker
And I did think that that part is very weird. Like when he is distracted during the football game and they show like all of a sudden Arnie and Lee are a thing. We don't really get like a meet cute with Arnie and Lee. Like they're just kind of all of a sudden together kissing very awkwardly at the football game. Very awkwardly.
01:28:44
Speaker
But that did make me take a sideswipe of what's happening here because this is a little weird. But when he gets hit, that is rough stuff. Poor Dennis. He's so in love with Arnie. He's clearly so distraught. He is distracted from the game that he plays so well. And literally anybody in the school, all they can ask him about is if he's going to play football.
01:29:10
Speaker
That part really distracted me too was I was like, the first, what, I guess 30 minutes of the movie, we're kind of like getting introduced to the characters and their environments and whatnot. And literally like three people in the span of, I don't know, five minutes of the movie come up to Dennis and are like, are you going to play football this year? Are you going to play football this year? What do you think? Of course he is. Come on.
01:29:34
Speaker
Um, I did like, so my favorite scene in the movie is the introduction of, um, well, it's not the introduction, but it's the, the pass to Lee from Dennis. And when he gets up in the library to go over and talk to her and Kelly Preston is sitting there and her face is like, Oh my God, he's coming to talk to me. And then
01:29:57
Speaker
When he passes her and her face just drops, I was like, that is so classic. No, baby. I can't be going to Arnie, baby. Sorry, honey. Andrew, did you did you know that Kevin Bacon was offered the lead role originally of Dennis or Arnie? Of Arnie, I believe. And that doesn't make sense. And he ended up choosing Footloose instead. And at one point, apparently, Bacon was going to originally star in Dolan's Cadillac. Another Stephen King story, of course, sent around a car.
01:30:27
Speaker
Hmm, interesting. One thing we should talk about really quick is the bullies and how they are disposed of and how they are. They are crotch gropers when they fight. Also, did you so muchi, the first bully who is killed?
01:30:47
Speaker
Why is he hitchhiking in the middle of the night? And where is he going? Who the fuck knows? Because he gets dropped off. He gets. Listen, I think this is another queer element. I think he was out there sucking some dick. Some trucker. You know what? Maybe. I mean, honestly, maybe he was. I mean, like that.
01:31:04
Speaker
I don't know. Maybe Stephen King was thinking about a whole little queer universe in this little California town when he made this because it's so clear. It's not just Dennis and Arnie and it's not just Moochie. It's also like there's the one friend of theirs who, what was it? They're in the hallway and they're talking about
01:31:25
Speaker
something or other and he's like, oh, I really love this one girl and you know how fussy I am. And I was like, yeah, clearly you're gay. Like, duh. I mean, like there's there's a whole lot of gayness here. And can we also talk about how Buddy is definitely 45 years old and everyone else in this movie? Like, how did that happen? Like, what what high schooler looks like that? None of it. And thank God they don't. We'd be terrified of them.
01:31:50
Speaker
That guy's definitely been in the gym for like four years, like 30 years for God's sake. He might as well be 45. Um, and, and the way that he's disposed of, I thought that, you know, in both movies today, we get total demolition of a service center, which is kind of, kind of cool. A theme. We just didn't think we'd ever talk about flaming service centers. Um, no, I, I did like that there's so much,
01:32:20
Speaker
payment towards Moochie's death. And then the other two bullies just get like rammed by cars and exploded. Well, I got to tell you, when Christine so when Christine is at the garage and it blows up and then Christine catches on fire and then it goes after Buddy, that just the image of of Christine going just slow enough behind Buddy, but she's fucking on fire. Oh, my God.
01:32:46
Speaker
I literally have my notes. I have my notes and it's starred. I said, Flaming Christine is so cool. Oh, my fucking is like, honestly, amazing, amazing.
01:32:56
Speaker
Um, and then we do get the reveal that, um, we've been waiting for it towards the end to where Arnie is behind the wheel of Christine. We weren't sure. And I don't know, I don't know how you feel about this because like, when he's behind the car at the end, he kind of is like almost like zombie ish. Um,
01:33:16
Speaker
Do you think that he was behind the car the whole time or do you think that Christine kind of took things in her own hand at some point? That's a good question. I thought about it. I think it could definitely go either way. Maybe it's a bit of a roar shock either way that you go with it. I think that he wasn't that that was my initial take on it.
01:33:36
Speaker
Yeah. OK, I don't know because they do have a fake out where they say like, no, he had Darnell's car and was doing stuff and he was at home. And I just think like when he gets to the garage and Junkins is talking to him, I it doesn't seem like he's lying.
01:33:57
Speaker
Yeah, to me, he does seem genuinely surprised. Yeah, a lot of things. So and he also seems genuinely worried, like because in that scene, before he goes around the corner, before he gets around junkins to go around the corner, he can't see Christine. And so he doesn't know what shape she's in. And he's genuinely worried about that. And like, if he could put the car away, he would know what shape it was in. Do you know what I mean? So true. I just don't think that he's lying. It doesn't seem that way to me.
01:34:27
Speaker
That maybe at the end, that's like the true like obsession has become. It seems that way. You know what I mean? It seems that way. Can we just talk about one for one second? These awful, awful parents. These parents are so awful. I mean, it's it's it's a it's a reminder that like Stephen King can often fall into archetypes and stereotypes with certain things. And like this is certainly one of those like the awful nagging parent. This is who you get.
01:34:55
Speaker
God, that mom, every time, I was like, can you just relax for a second? Do you have a PTA meeting you can go to or something? She worried her son thinking about too much D, but actually, the son thinking about P, Jenna's thinking about the D, you know? Yes.
01:35:15
Speaker
All right. Well, Maddie here at Friday, the 13th horror podcast, we judge on a seven stripe scale for the seven stripes of the gay old rainbow. What do you give Stephen Carpenter? Stephen Carpenter? Yeah, that's fine. Whatever it is. You put their names together. I did. Right. I give Christine a solid six out of seven. Like I said earlier, I really, really love this movie. And all I have to tell you is this movie fucking rocks. That's it. I loved it.
01:35:44
Speaker
Yeah, I had a really good time with it. I gave it a 5.5 and I said, what's my final thoughts here? I said, there is a little in the middle that prevents it from being perfect, but this movie is still and has incredible feel and soundtrack. Fuck yeah. Um, Andrew, let's take a break here and we will go to a film that is not Christine after this call maximum overdrive.
01:36:17
Speaker
The dick is going on around here. Who was driving it? I don't know. Curtis! It's coming after us! What is going on? I don't know! You are the one. You got the one. I just want to get the hell out of here.
01:36:46
Speaker
Please don't ever stay in the dark.
Review of 'Maximum Overdrive': Critiques and Commentary
01:36:49
Speaker
Help me. You're gonna get us in an awful lot of trouble, man. We are really in trouble. Maximum Terror. Jesus coming in hideous. Maximum King. Maybe tomorrow will be our world again.
01:37:11
Speaker
Dino De Laurentiis presents... Steven King's... Maximum Overdrive.
01:37:25
Speaker
It's not minimum, it's maximum. Andrew, tell us about maximum overdrive. Stephen King's masterpiece of terror directed by the master himself. When a comet passes close to the earth, machines all over the world come alive and go on a homicidal rampage. A group of people at a desolate truck stop are held hostage
01:37:48
Speaker
by a gang of homicidal 18-wheelers. The frightened people set out to defeat the killer machines or be killed by them. Directed and written by Stephen King. Production distribution handled by De Laurentiis Entertainment Group. Music by only ACDC. Yeah. Composed. Composed by ACDC, baby. Bill is played by Emilio Estevez. Hendershot is played by Pat Hingle. Handy is played by Frankie Falzon.
01:38:18
Speaker
Brett is played by Laura Harrington, Wanda June is played by Ellen McEldruff, Deak is played by Holter Graham, Curtis is played by John Short, and Connie is played by Yirdlee Smith. This is rated R. It comes in at 98 minutes. It was released on July 25th of 1986, and filming locations included Wilmington, North Carolina.
01:38:43
Speaker
This had a budget of $9 million and did not succeed at the box office and only brought in about $3.5 million. Maddie, has this your first time experiencing Stephen King's only directorial debut? Andrew, it was the first time and it will be the last time.
01:39:02
Speaker
Yeah, I'm not going to lie, and I'm not I'm not going to spend the next 20 minutes or so shitting all over it, but I will say that I did not did not like this movie. Maximum Overdrive is a very weird movie.
01:39:19
Speaker
It's what you just saw, what you just heard from Andrew gives you an idea of it. But when the movie opens, a title card comes up and it says, on June 19th, 1987, at 9 47 a.m. Eastern Standard Time, the Earth passed into the extraordinarily diffuse tale of Rhea M, a rogue comet. According to astronomical calculations, the planet will remain in the tail of the comet for the next eight days, five hours, 25 minutes and 23 seconds.
01:39:46
Speaker
And it's got a picture of the earth and some green smoke around it or whatever. And here we go. Yeah. By the way, we talk about the mist in episode whatever see episode, whatever. Look, the maximum overdrive, I sort of feel like Stephen King one day woke up and said, wow, Christine was fucking great. How could I make something along the same lines, but terrible?
01:40:11
Speaker
And that's just what he said about to do. Maximum Overdrive is a movie that doesn't make a whole lot of sense. And honestly, Andrew basically said what happens in the plot. There are a bunch of 18 wheelers or however many wheels that keep people hostage at a service center. Among these people is Emilio Estevez and Frankie Faison, which is cool. Also, I will say, like, do you ever wake up Andrew and just think, boy, I could I could actually go on an Emilio Estevez fucking film marathon right now because I did think that.
01:40:39
Speaker
I love it. Really? What are you going to watch? Mighty Ducks and Mighty. Oh my God. Mighty Ducks, Young Guns, Part One and Two, like you name it, I think is wonderful. Anyways, I mean, boy, what to say about it? This movie has a lot that does not work for it. The very first thing is the writing. The writing in this movie is is really not very good. And it's not like.
01:41:02
Speaker
um it's not just like the plot itself because like the plot you could make work in a lot of ways i mean it's you know it's it's not that far fetched from other shit that we watch but like the the dialogue in this is fucking bad man and like just like to give you an example of how bad it is like there's no just like normal
01:41:24
Speaker
cursing in this movie that doesn't exist. Like there's this one part where like the Bible salesman guy who doesn't make any sense in the first place, like he comes out of the diner at the service center and he keeps saying scum ball and like various and like various interpolation. That's very Stephen King though. Yeah. But like on it, like he's not even like saying scum bag. He's like saying all this other stuff and then he says puss bag and it's just like you're watching it and you're like, why?
01:41:53
Speaker
Or there is the woman name. What's her name? Wanda June. Wanda June. Wanda June. Wanda June is the cook at the diner there and the waitress. You know, she does. She does a little bit of both. Right. And when the the trucks are, for some reason, mysteriously trying to kill everybody, she goes outside and just starts screaming. We made you. We made you and over.
01:42:23
Speaker
and over again. And she just keeps saying, we made you, don't you understand? We made you. Um, and then what else does she say? We deserve loyalty, you pukey things. Um, and I wrote that down cause I was like, who on earth, whatever say you pukey things? It's just, it's so dumb. And so like, you know, those are just a couple of examples of like, of how it just sort of permeates the movie. I can think of a couple of people in college I wanted to look at and be like, you pukey things.
01:42:52
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, sure, now we do, but it's, I think what I'm trying to get at here is it sort of takes you out of the movie, you know what I mean? And all you can think about is just, this is just so dumb over and over again. I mean, there are some other things to it too, right? The relation, like I said earlier that Stephen King can sometimes, and I love Stephen King,
01:43:14
Speaker
But sometimes when it's stuff where he is too involved, it can fall into stereotypes and archetypes. And they just kind of like play themselves off like they're like painted boxes or something. And that happens a lot in this. You've got like the corrupt boss. You've got the newlywed couple. You've got the Bible salesman. And like one scene that really drove me nuts is the Bible salesman when he's selling a Bible in the booth at the restaurant.
01:43:40
Speaker
And it's so over the top. He's trying to sell this Bible, whatever. I get all the subtexts around having a Bible salesman who's a shyster. Duh, it makes sense. But he's doing it with a mouthful of food. He had just eaten a tuna salad sandwich or something. That's the kind of directing
01:44:02
Speaker
where it's so over the top that it's literally beating you with a fucking sledgehammer to get the point across to you. And I think that in the end, that might be the main problem with this movie is that Stephen King directed it. And Stephen King himself even said that Stephen King, and this is some ephemera for you, Stephen King disowned the film, describing it as, quote unquote, a moron movie.
01:44:27
Speaker
and considered the process a learning experience after which he intended never to direct again. And I think he made the right decision there. Like, I mean, he gave it a shot. He tried. It was his own story. He should have been great at it, but it just didn't work.
01:44:42
Speaker
And that was something that I thought about with Christine. I've never read the book before. But Christine is a weird fucking plot. It's about a fucking car. You know what I mean? It's not all that far-fetched. It's not all that less far-fetched than maximum overdrive when you really think about it. It's just something about Stephen King's work on paper.
01:45:04
Speaker
I feel like it does better on screen when it's through someone else's lens, when they have a chance to sort of refine it a little bit and make it watchable because I love reading Stephen King. I think Stephen King's books are fantastic. It's just watching him do it on screen doesn't really do it for me. Does that make sense?
01:45:21
Speaker
Yeah, no, I'm right there with you. I'm waiting to hear when I get a chance to say what I think. Yeah, go ahead and save. But no, maximum overdrive. Obviously, I don't remember who said it or not. Was this your first time watching it? Oh, he said yes. Yeah. Yeah. I remember seeing this as a kid. And because this was like one of those movies that was just like on TV for some reason, I don't remember what channel. I don't know why, but it was just on.
01:45:47
Speaker
And then also I had a, my, my step, my step siblings mother was obsessed with ACDC. So this was like a huge thing about AC, like ACDC is always in the tape player. So you know what I mean?
01:46:02
Speaker
And so, like, this was honestly just like, and I think that they made this music for this movie. Like, I think that this was like, and then it became like ACDC music. Like, if I'm remembering correctly, I mean, who made who? Who made who? Like, that's true. But anyway, listen, do I think this movie is super dumb? Yes, absolutely. A lot of the dialogue makes
01:46:30
Speaker
fucking no sense. A lot of the story is very stupid, but I think that it's so campy that I think that I kind of like it. Fair enough. Yeah, fair enough. Like when you take it at like camp level of just like, this is a movie about fucking the machines come alive and kill everybody. Yeah.
01:46:55
Speaker
I don't know. Like when you just think about that, like it's such a ridiculous concept that you kind of just have to like lean into it. And that's what they did is they just leaned into it. And like, honestly, there are a couple of parts where I laughed and I thought it was hilarious. Like when that one guy, Duncan, I think is his name, the father, when he gets hit by that truck, I was like, fuck off. That was crazy.
01:47:21
Speaker
And there's there's a part at the beginning where a bridge is going up when it's not supposed to. And the chaos that happens during that, there is a part where a woman, I swear to I don't know how they film this, but she launches through a windshield so comically that I laughed. I like see that I drank like it was hilarious. Like so funny. But I think that that's where I lean into this movie is it just kind of being more campy than like a traditional like a horror
01:47:51
Speaker
And I think that's where I got enjoyment out of it. Like they're definitely stupid shit here. Like when the pinball machine breaks and the guy just goes, your mama, I was like, what? I will say that that's one thing. Like I, you know, I try not to put on like a super, a super lens, not, not, not too often, but
01:48:10
Speaker
It's kind of like, are they really having the black guy taking all the money and stuff right now? Like that's kind of weird, but look, it was this was what, 86, right? So there we go. There you go. And I'm sorry, but like any movie that just crushes a child with a steamroller. You know what?
01:48:30
Speaker
And it kills a coach with a soda machine. Fair enough. I don't know if you noticed this, but when the very first scene happens with the famous Stephen King cameo of him at the ATM, the bank... What would you call that? The bank signage, the digital signage? Sure. It just says, fuck you.
01:48:52
Speaker
It's called me an asshole. Yeah. And then the ATM calls him an asshole. Um, I, I think that those are just like genuinely funny parts. I mean, the fact that the coach gets killed by a soda machine is ridiculous. It's ridiculous. And then like the fact that like this, there's an extended scene of this, of this child, because he's probably, what, what would you say he's like 12, probably 11, it seems like, it seems like he's a pre-teen. Yeah.
01:49:18
Speaker
And he is riding his bike through town and just seeing all of the dead bodies and just there's a lot of them. And this kid is just not reacting. He's just like, oh, oh, he and the only time he reacts is when the was when the what do you call him? The the lawn sprinklers turn on.
01:49:39
Speaker
I actually did like that scene. I thought it was kind of spooky. I thought it was too. There's something really terrifying about a child going through the aftermath of a town being massacred. I also have in my notes that we made you because I thought that was part. We made you! We made you!
01:50:05
Speaker
I there is a part in the middle where they kind of play homage to Kujo a little bit to where they are being forced to quote unquote feed the 18 wheelers. Oh, sure. Yeah. And they play up like this whole like heat is now a issue in the movie, which was kind of weird. But I think that he probably put that in there because that's what he knows.
01:50:32
Speaker
because of Cujo. The other reference that I saw in the movie to other Stephen Kings, I don't know if you saw this or not, but towards the beginning of the movie, and it's seen a couple of times, there is a sign that says Estes Express Lines.
01:50:47
Speaker
And I think that it's like Colorado. Yeah. And that's where the Stanley motel is. Yeah. That's really interesting. So I didn't know if that was, I don't know if that is because of that or if that was just a coincidence, but I didn't know that it is. I say yes. Yeah. We can give them a little bit of grace, right?
01:51:12
Speaker
The one thing I will say about this movie is there are way too many characters, way too many characters to keep track of, to care about. And the reality is that is that in the end, you don't. Well, there is the part where the the what do you call it? The bulldozer and the gun thing. Yeah. What would you call that? Like a military vehicle, I guess, shows up the gun thing. It doesn't. I don't like what?
01:51:37
Speaker
What what military has that piece of shit? A machine gun, a machine gun on wheels, on a cart, basically. I don't know. Like it's a dolly with a machine gun on it, essentially. But it's basically fodder for getting rid of half of the cast that we didn't even know whose names they were, basically, because that's like when the machine gun goes off and kills like half the cast days. That's Machina. There it goes.
01:52:00
Speaker
Yeah, because we were like, well, we didn't even know who they were anyway. And now we're just left with the people that we actually know, except for Brad, who mysteriously gets the whole movie without being called out once until he steals the ring off of the girl at the end of the movie and gets killed. But I was like, because they distinctly say when they're on the sailboat, that Emilio Estevez or the other girl, I can't remember who says it. One of them says, where's Brad? And I just said to myself, who's Brad?
01:52:29
Speaker
Check out the big brains on Brad. But there's just a part in the middle there where it gets a little bit, I don't know, kind of boring. And then it kind of picks back up again. But there's also I agree with you on the boring part.
01:52:46
Speaker
It's also a monologue delivered by Emilio Estevez about a broom situation and about aliens. And I'm just like, what are you talking about? You're obviously having a heat stroke. You need to just go lay down. Just lay down, honey. It's okay.
01:53:04
Speaker
Um, but overall I think like, I don't know. I thought that it was, I think it's funny that they over explain what's happening here because not only do we get a opening title card, the one that you explained, we also get a ending title card where we are told that two days later, a large UFO was destroyed by a Russian like satellite. It says was destroyed in space by a Russian weather satellite, which happened to be equipped with a laser cannon and class four new
01:53:34
Speaker
clear missiles. Approximately six days later, the Earth passed beyond the tail of Rhea M exactly as predicted. But I mean, like, come on, which happened to be equipped with a laser cannon. Are you fucking kidding me? And then it also says something about like, and but the survivors are still survivors. Oh, yeah, I'm trying to pull the title card. I couldn't get I actually actually pulled the movie. It's just it's when that came up at the end, I was like, oh, man,
01:54:03
Speaker
Wow You've read it you've read a ton of Stephen King was this part of a book before this is based on a short story called trucks and it's It's basically kind of the same thing But it's more about people being trapped at the truck stop and having to serve the 18 wheelers It's it's it's that middle part where they're like basically pumping gas like okay That's the short story like I don't get the whole like
01:54:33
Speaker
the kid and the dad and crawling through poop and all that stuff. I forgot to mention, we also get an extended scene where Emilio Estevez drinks poop water. But hey, also folks too, if you've not seen maximum overdrive before, or if you want to watch it again, I rented it. I'm not sure what you did, Andrew, but I had to rent it because I had to rent it. But I am actually, I pulled up those title screens on the internet archive, archive.org, where you apparently can watch the entire movie.
01:55:02
Speaker
It's right there. Well, that would have been good a day ago. Yeah, I didn't know that until now. But anyways, there is if you want to watch it for free. The only other thing that I wanted to call out that I thought was funny was when they are hiding and the fast food menu even is against them. And it's like humans here. Humans here. Yeah. And I mean, and that kid goes, this is for my dad, like shoots it. But I was like, you know, that isn't what killed your dad, though. Right. Like it was the 18 Wheeler that ran him over. But
01:55:30
Speaker
You know, sometimes I enjoy reading the letterbox reviews. There's one person. Is there a good one? Well, there's always good ones, but here's one. This comes from Anna Nomoli. What a funny name on letterbox. And Anna says, the cinematic equivalent of being served a Mountain Dew with blood in it because you ordered it that way.
01:55:56
Speaker
Um, speaking of that, speaking of that name, because this just reminds me, but there is an excellent, because we talk about drag names a lot on this show. There is an excellent drag name on the new season of RuPaul's Drag Race. I want to tell you it because I know you don't really watch it anymore, but it's Amanda Tori meeting. Amanda Tori. Oh, that's so good. Oh my God.
01:56:17
Speaker
Um, that's really good. There, there is another review. I'll read it. I'll read a couple more because there's always fun. There's one from lumen who says this production is what a nasty cocaine habit looks like. And I believe this was still in his cocaine days.
01:56:30
Speaker
It is. I think that he famously has said like, I barely remember making this movie there. There you go. And there's a there's another great one, too. And Andrew, you might like this one. This comes from Jay Larson and Jay Larson just says wonderfully stupid. Yeah. Yeah, that makes sense.
01:56:48
Speaker
All right. Well, Maddie, what do you give maximum overdrive on your scale? Yeah, I gave maximum overdrive one of my lowest scores of all time. I gave it a two. I don't think that's my lowest though. I'm fairly sure gave it a two. And I said, I honestly hated this movie. May it never play again.
01:57:09
Speaker
I'm gonna give it a four, and I'm gonna say, is this movie pretty dumb? Yes, but the over-the-topness and the deaths and destructions are pretty silly and fun. Fair enough, Andrew, fair enough. Well, folks, that brings us to the end of our films within this episode, but stay tuned. We'll be right back to close out the show.
01:57:28
Speaker
I am Crazy Hubbard Whitfield. Come on down to Crazy Hubbard's used car lot. We've got prices slashing down from 2004s to 1989 models. Come on down here. You gotta see these cars. We got Chevy's. We got Ford's.
01:57:43
Speaker
We got Daewoo. We got trucks like this nice Nissan Titan right here. Get yourself in one, drive it home, your wife's gonna love it. Bring everybody you know and come on out here. Ask for my wife too. She's cooking a pot of beans and she'll love to serve something to you. So come on down and we'll get you straight.
01:58:01
Speaker
And folks, that was episode one 13 of Friday, the 13th horror podcast. But before we go, we have a final game for you. And as you know, listeners who have been with us for a long time, our final games are always very complicated. They take a lot of explaining. There's large rule books. There have been controversies over how the games have been played. Um, much like chess.
01:58:25
Speaker
The complexity here is great, astounding, astounding. And so this game follows in that same tradition of Friday, the 13th horror podcast, and it's called dream car. And it's where Andrew and I are going to tell you what our dream car is. That's all that it is really. So Andrew, tell me, what is your dream car and why? Clarifying question. Go ahead. Are we being realistic or fantastical? I mean, what's your dream car?
01:58:54
Speaker
Right now, I would really just like a Volkswagen Touareg sport. No, no, no, that's that's practical. What is your dream car? Like you money's not an option. What's the car you want? Oh, gosh. Definitely something elevated. So like up in the air. So I'm above everybody. So you're flying at the plane.
01:59:15
Speaker
Yeah, yeah. It has it has a a dispenser that will either dispense Diet Coke or Coke Zero, which one of them I'm feeling that day. OK. It has Sour Patch Kids all the time. And basically, I can either put it in autopilot or I can drive it myself because sometimes I just like to drive. Lovely. And it's probably like a charcoise, if I'm being honest. And does like does the car exist like this? Is there a similar car?
01:59:45
Speaker
Absolutely not. Okay. It's kind of a mix between like, what is the licorice dispenser in Wayne's world? Like I want that. Oh my God. Oh God. You're making me think about Twizzlers now. God, I love Twizzlers so much. Trust me, people, you will never know how much you love a candy until you can't get it. That's the truth. Andrew, beautiful car. I think that sounds wonderful.
02:00:06
Speaker
Sounds like something out of Mario Kart or something. Kind of, a little bit. For me, I think if money were no object, for sure, I would definitely be in a Mercedes G-Wagon, for sure. Wow, you're so fancy. I can see myself in that motherfucker tooling around, and it's the matte black one or the matte silver one, so it's not even shiny, and it's just fucking cool as fuck.
02:00:32
Speaker
But also, like I really do love me like an old boxy Volvo station wagon. Like I love an old Volvo. Yes. Yeah. I don't want the new ones at the curvy line. I want I want the boxy shit and I want the one with those little windshield wipers on the headlights. Yeah. I'm talking about like late 90s Volvo station wagon. Like that's what I'm into here. And like that would be amazing. It would be absolutely incredible.
02:00:58
Speaker
Um, but you can't really get those anymore because Volvo made stupid decisions. Um, so I'll just go with the Mercedes G back and instead that works for me. That's it. Um, what a fun game. Andrew, how complicated, how complicated, how bizarre. Um, folks, that was episode 113 of Friday, the 13th horror podcast. Hope you had a really great time.
02:01:17
Speaker
Before we let you go, listen, we're a proud independent podcast. We can always use your support to make our podcast even better. How can you do that? You can do it in a couple of ways and you can find both of these ways over at our website, which is www.frygay13.com slash support. Once you're there, you'll see that you can either buy merchandise from us into some funny little things, or you can also become a patron on Patreon. You can become a patron on Patreon for as little as $1 a month.
02:01:47
Speaker
Yes, that's $1 a month or $12 a year. That means you get every episode for 50 cents. Exactly. And listen, you know, we don't do any kind of crazy Patreon shit because we're not into that. We also don't hide anything from anyone either. So none of our content is behind a paywall ever, and it never will be. So, you know, look, anything that you give us goes right to the show, helps us make the show better. And that's that. So give it some thought and consider becoming a patron today.
02:02:17
Speaker
Yeah, and if you can't monetarily help us out, which we understand in these day and age, whatever can you buy these days? You can also leave a review on your podcast player of choice. We love Spotify and Apple podcasts because those have the best reach, but wherever you listen,
02:02:35
Speaker
Just pop a little review in there. We want to hear from you, even if it's just, you know, five stars and you just say, hell yes, is your review. I don't really care. Um, I mean, I do really care because it's a better way to say it. Um, because I really would love to hear from people. Exactly. And, and would love to, to, we're, we're sitting at, we're at a weird place where we're like 20 reviews away from the next milestone. So we could really use your review on either Apple podcasts or Spotify.
02:03:05
Speaker
Amen. And, uh, folks, look, uh, we're in the dead of winter. It's that time of winter when it just really sucks. You know, like it's just doldrums. It's dark, it's cold, and it just, it's fucking blows. But in the midst of all of that, what Andrew and I hope for both, what Andrew and I both hope for you is that at some point in these doldrums, you go and get slayed.