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Episode 76: Graveyard Shift featuring Christy Admiraal
53 Plays1 month ago
Friend of the show Christy Admiraal is here for Week Three of the Spoooooktacular and she’s brought up something mysterious from the basement, it’s Graveyard Shift (1990). This Ralph S. Singleton film was based on a Stephen King short story and contains, if briefly, the enigmatic Brad Dourif. It’s both a horror film and a slice-of-life film that both contain lots of rats. One works better than the other, but that’s not exactly a compliment, though we all agree it has a certain charm. And lots of thick, questionable accents. And cute rats! Anyways, shifts startin’, better punch in, then tune in!
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Transcript
Introduction and Guest Welcome
00:00:40
Speaker
hello hello hello and welcome to the latest episode of spooky season
00:00:55
Speaker
ah
00:01:07
Speaker
ah Here at your favorite bad movie podcasts, we're your hosts. My name is Chris Anderson. And with me, as always, i have the dancing to my brogan, Mr. Greg Bossy. Howdy, howdy, howdy. How are you tonight?
00:01:26
Speaker
Oh, I'm doing pretty good, Greg. Unfortunately, we do not have my wife Anna here on a record hiatus from the show, unfortunately. Still not feeling 100%. You know what would genuinely help would be if you gave us five stars. yeah I'm not saying that would make them come back, but it wouldn't, or...
00:01:45
Speaker
And of course we have with us a very special guest. I would say she certainly has a lot of moxie. She's our own personal exterminator. It's Chrissy Admiral.
00:02:00
Speaker
That was such a better intro than I've ever been given on ah my own podcast or any other podcast before. i appreciate it. We love to roll out the red carpet. Yeah.
00:02:11
Speaker
Moxie is such a good dog name, by the way. is. I'm jumping way ahead here, but it is such a good dog name. It's really good, and it really suits the dog. It does. It does.
00:02:23
Speaker
Now, we're, of course, talking about the movie Graveyard Shift. Listeners, if you haven't seen Graveyard Shift, here's just a brief summary of the film to hold in your mind like a diamond.
00:02:43
Speaker
A drifter picks up a job at a small main
Discussion on Graveyard Shift's Plot
00:02:46
Speaker
yarn factory, only to be conscripted into a war against the rats that have taken over the factory's dilapidated basement.
00:02:57
Speaker
Yeah, more or less, I think. Yeah, no, that's that's kind of that's kind of the whole deal, yeah. um like that they really emphasize that he's a drifter, but that really doesn't have any pertinence the story. No, no. His mysterious background does not come into play. No, it's still it's still very much a mystery.
00:03:15
Speaker
He's a college boy. there's that. That we know. that but Yeah. Well, Christy, when I asked you for a spooky movie, when we were talking about coming on the show, you went straight to Graveyard Shift.
00:03:28
Speaker
What but compels you about Graveyard Shift? I'm sta genuinely curious. it's So I have a soft spot for Stephen King adaptations broadly.
00:03:39
Speaker
Fair enough. Yeah, no, I'm like clear, like obviously there are some that are actual good movies or television. There are some that are truly quality. And then there are a lot like this, which are like, okay, sure.
00:03:54
Speaker
Source material kind of, bang it out throw a character actor in there make it really literal and uh like like very dedicated to the source text and call it good uh this is what i think this is one of the more fun ones uh because for one thing graveyard shift is a great short story ah it did have potential to actually be like scary and fairly compelling on film and what you come up with and instead is sort of like a like a c tier b grade movie like it's not it's not
00:04:27
Speaker
great it's not particularly good but it does kind of rule still like and that's like i would put it in the same category as i would put like fire starter is here honestly even cronenberg's the dead zone is kind of here these are interesting none yeah they're not they're not like expertly done even the cronenberg one is not like amazing but it is not his best Yeah. Oh, absolutely not. It is a fun time. Like, I don't think King, like, not like, I don't want to get too into it. I don't think King adaptations really get
Appreciation for Short Film Runtimes
00:04:58
Speaker
good until you're at like the Christine level and higher.
00:05:00
Speaker
But this one, for me, this one is fun. And it's also easy, short, breezy watch. Okay, that makes sense to me. I did love the running time. I love it when somebody comes to with something sub 90 minutes.
00:05:17
Speaker
I'm like, let's go! this is a this is something that I love. I love watching movies on planes as everyone does, but one of my favorite things is the ah subcategory of under two hours, because that's what I want generally. Yeah.
00:05:31
Speaker
and Even better. Yeah. I love going to my Plex server and sorting by duration and like, let's stop at shortest and and, and move up from there. See what kind of sweet spot I'm going to find today.
00:05:46
Speaker
um And I think that makes sense to me. I think maybe everybody has a soft spot for their own personal C tier Stephen King adaptation.
00:05:58
Speaker
i think for me, mine is thinner. Yeah. ah but Did you, i watched this on ah Pluto and was going to spool up thinner the second it was over. Like it was like already. That makes perfect sense.
00:06:12
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah.
Stephen King Film Adaptations Overview
00:06:14
Speaker
ah Yeah, but I had not seen this one before and had not been particularly familiar with it. Greg, had you seen this one before? No, no. and I don't know.
00:06:23
Speaker
Like, it seems familiar to me, but that might just be because of the term graveyard shift. Like, I was like, do I know the movie or do I just know the phrase? And after watching the movie, I'd say pretty much just knew the phrase. And now you really, really, really know the phrase because they make sure to punch it a lot. Graveyard shift. Oh, the voice. It's so good. lot of really good titular lines in this one. Yes.
00:06:51
Speaker
that Greg, do you have like a C tier Stephen King that you like? So, i' ah because I was like, when I was younger, i was like, I don't like horror movies. I avoided like all the Stephen King stuff.
00:07:02
Speaker
I wouldn't say that I don't think that Dead Zone is C tier. I've seen like every k Cronenberg and I yeah i's i love it. I don't know if he... yeah I don't know that it's a I wouldn't call it a bad movie. I know. I don't know how it is as an adaptation of the actual material, though. That's one thing I will say. Short, short and like yeah positive. Yeah. okay All right. okay OK.
00:07:25
Speaker
I'm trying to think of what I have seen by it's such a weird smattering of things because it's like. Yeah. And he's got so much. It's like i've so I captioned the green mile and didn't particularly like that.
00:07:37
Speaker
But it's also weird to think that he also wrote that and this, you know what I mean? Like he's he's everywhere. Kind of. Yeah. No, graveyard shift is just from an interesting point in his career when he's bagging out a lot of
Production Insights on Graveyard Shift
00:07:50
Speaker
ah very good, very brutal short stories, because this is a horrifically violent short story. They can't show. I mean, I wish they did show more of it.
00:07:59
Speaker
yeah Yes. Really yeah violent and a lot of fun. Like his national work, ah ah this is drawn from that era. Okay. Yeah. i I think more gore yeah would to have bumped this up a solid star for me. Yeah.
00:08:14
Speaker
yeah Yeah. I would agree. Yeah. Because right and it does feel a lot like a gory movie without any gore in it. Yeah. It feels like a drama that is a horror movie for bit.
00:08:27
Speaker
Yeah. Well, you guys want to get into the context that I have about this movie? Please. Absolutely. Yeah. All right.
00:08:38
Speaker
wish I had some context.
00:08:54
Speaker
What's going on on screen? wanna hear some details. Gossip, scandal, all that shit. Can't imagine all the time.
00:09:16
Speaker
So, Graveyard Shift came out on October 26th, 1990.
Analysis of Graveyard Shift's Horror Elements
00:09:21
Speaker
So, this episode will be released like right around then. Possibly right on the 35th anniversary. Nice.
00:09:28
Speaker
ah So, ah the director is Ralph S. Singleton.
00:09:34
Speaker
We've got three taglines for this movie. Okay. Tagline number one. Stephen King took you to the edge with The Shining and Pet Sematary.
00:09:45
Speaker
This time, he pushes you over.
00:09:52
Speaker
I don't know if that's any good, but I like it. I really like it. I especially like ranking this, like mentioning this movie in the same breath as The Shining. Yeah, like move over, The Shining. It's time for graveyard shift.
00:10:08
Speaker
You're going to shit your pants. All right, tagline number two. Good benefits. Early retirement.
00:10:21
Speaker
Yeah, I like that. Yeah. That one's good. yeah i love Because this is very workplace. Yeah. Yeah. All right. Number three.
00:10:33
Speaker
It's a living...
00:10:37
Speaker
but not for long. Oh no, that's really good. yeah that's that's That's some solid work. Yeah, yeah those those aren't bad. ah So, Ralph S. Singleton mostly worked as a unit production manager and second assistant director.
00:10:55
Speaker
hu His only previous directing experience was two episodes of Cagney and Lacey. I did not watch them. think my I think my family did.
00:11:07
Speaker
So... Okay. So probably pretty wholesome. Yeah, I would imagine. Presumably, yeah. He did write a series of books on film production in the mid 80s.
00:11:18
Speaker
I'm sure they're... Textbooks. Yeah. I'm sure they're great reads. Yeah. I think one of them was called just like on unit production management. I think the other one was film finance.
00:11:30
Speaker
Okay. Boom. Love it. Sounds very practical. ah So he seems like the perfect guy to hire for a job that you want to do cheaply that will be able to like logistically make a movie.
00:11:48
Speaker
Like yeah this guy, he can do it. He's capable. Yeah. ah he wrote the short story was written in 1970 Cavalier magazine.
00:12:01
Speaker
and was later included in the Stephen King story collection Night Shift. Hmm. I give Night Shift in like an A+++. It's one of his best short story collections.
00:12:13
Speaker
Okay. One of the more satisfying Stephen King reads just generally. I am also like pretty unapologetically like, I have a lot of critiques for the man, but I love Uncle Steve very much. So like this is another part of wanting to talk about anything connected to them Yeah. Okay.
00:12:27
Speaker
Okay. i think i think stephen king is a lot of people's problematic fave absolutely lo yeah and every once in a while you're like he seems he's he hasn't said that much lately he's doing great and then he goes and he does a thing and you're like oh man yeah yeah he's not a perfect man but who amongst us is perfect uh so uh the first stephen king film adaptation was carrie in 1976 okay okay Since then, there have been, at least by my count, 70 filmed Stephen King edit patients, averaging about three a year.
00:13:04
Speaker
You looking at TV production as well with that? ah No, that was just... Wow. Wow. Yeah, it's wild. Yeah. So ah at this point in his career, there had been Carrie, Salem's Lot, which was originally a two-part TV miniseries, but was also released theatrically.
00:13:25
Speaker
ah The Shining... Creepshow, Cujo, The Dead Zone, Christine, Children of the Corn, Firestarter, Cat's Eye, Silver Bullet, Maximum Overdrive, which he also directed, Stand By Me, The Running Man, Creepshow 2, Pet Sematary, and
Director's Approach and Film Reception
00:13:46
Speaker
Tales from the Dark Side.
00:13:48
Speaker
And that list is front loaded with a lot of the very best ones too. Like that, because obviously like the the shining is the best carry is a second to that, but also like Kujo is great.
00:13:59
Speaker
Kujo is a lot of fun. Dead Zone is higher ranking but all than a lot of others. Like that's, oh, that's so interesting that that's the lead into this. Cause there are, I mean, there are a few plunkers at the the end there. So it's kind of, kind of winding down a bit.
00:14:12
Speaker
i'd I'd say, you know, but Tales from the Dark Side, solid. Pet Sematary, solid. You know? Yeah. Creepshow 2. Check out our episode on Creepshow 2. At least had The Raft in it. The Raft, a great story.
00:14:24
Speaker
yeah Yeah. Yeah. great segment of that movie. um But the combined global box office of those films that I just listed, that all the ones that came out before Graveyard Shift, $426,700,000. $426,700,000.
00:14:38
Speaker
four hundred and twenty six million seven hundred thousand dollars wow Not too bad. So ah Stephen King's adaptations were both a genre in and of themselves and also an industry at this point.
00:14:52
Speaker
i think it's fair to say. Yeah. Now, despite all that, producer Bill Dunn was able to license Graveyard Shift for a mere $2,500. Whoa.
00:15:04
Speaker
whoa That does not seem like a lot to me. It's yeah, that's, that's pennies. That's penny that's a steal. And there are a couple of reasons why he was able to do that. First, it was a short story and King would always cut his rates on short stories as opposed to his novels.
00:15:21
Speaker
But second, Bill Dunn was also a fellow Mainer. Oh, it's going to be a, yeah. yeah Yeah, he was a former school teacher who worked as a location scout on Creepshow and Pet Sematary.
00:15:34
Speaker
oh yeah And ah he also had helped establish the main film office with King. So, you know, they were bros. So he's like, yeah, okay. You want to try making your own little movie?
00:15:47
Speaker
Yeah, I'll give you a graveyard shift for a song. Nobody else is barking up my tree for graveyard shift. Uh, so done got, uh, the $10 million dollars budget from a distributor named Larry sugar.
00:16:01
Speaker
He wanted to to go into production quickly after pet cemetery blew everybody away at the American film market. Like he saw pet cemetery before it got released when they were trying to sell it to a distributor.
00:16:12
Speaker
And he was like, pet cemetery is go to be the next big thing. I need to make sure I've got the next Stephen King movie. So he was like, yes, let's bang out graveyard shift. So he hired Ralph S. Singleton, whose production background meant that he could turn things around on time and under budget.
00:16:30
Speaker
That kind of guy. It was shot on location in Harmony, Maine. And I think that really plays. Yeah.
00:16:41
Speaker
It was shot at the Bartlett Yarns Incorporated, which is America's oldest woolen yarn mill established in 1821. wow Oh, that rules.
00:16:53
Speaker
Yeah. like And I think, yeah, that location scouting is like impeccable. That's so good. Yeah. That's gotta be so much cheaper than like getting together this huge machinery. You know mean?
00:17:07
Speaker
Just see if you, especially cause they were shooting at night. So, you know, sounds great. Uh, It was not a hit.
00:17:18
Speaker
It has 0% from critics on Rotten Tomatoes. What? ah The box office took a sharp dive after the first weekend due to bad word of mouth.
00:17:33
Speaker
And it only took 11.6 on million dollars budget. In 2016 interview, Stephen King said it was one of his least favorite adaptations, a quick exploitation picture.
00:17:46
Speaker
End quote. Yeah.
In-depth Plot Analysis and Character Dynamics
00:17:49
Speaker
No accounting for taste. He also didn't like The Shining.
00:17:54
Speaker
Other horror movies of 1990.
00:17:59
Speaker
Just in terms of other Stephen King's, that year you also had Misery and Tales from the Dark Side, and also in television there had It. who Okay. Okay.
00:18:10
Speaker
You also got Jacob's Ladder. Ooh. think they're going to be re-releasing that for at least a day or something. I saw that. Yeah, yeah. I'm curious about I've never seen Jacob's Ladder. You've never seen it. I want to. You got Nightbreed.
00:18:28
Speaker
Oh. Okay. You got a lot of Part 2s coming out this year. You got Gremlins 2, Child's Play 2,
00:18:39
Speaker
Troll 2. Check out our episode on Troll 2. You got Puppet Master 2. You got Maniac Cop 2. You got Slumber Party Massacre 2.
00:18:52
Speaker
And you got The Exorcist 3.
00:18:55
Speaker
Okay.
00:18:58
Speaker
And I think um most relevant to this movie, you have arachnophobia. Arachnophobia. Oh, yeah. or Yeah. Yeah. Where this really stands in the shadows of arachnophobia. Very much.
00:19:12
Speaker
Like this is the arachnophobia we already have at home. yeah Well, you guys want to talk about the plot of Graveyard Shift?
00:19:23
Speaker
Oh, yeah. Yeah. I would like nothing more. Yes.
00:19:45
Speaker
Plot bumper, listen to me. I'm gonna give you the plot summary. Come on, baby. Here's the synopsis.
00:19:57
Speaker
Plot bumper, plot bumper.
00:20:08
Speaker
So we open in Bachman's Yearnworks. A urine works that's right next to a derelict graveyard. who
00:20:23
Speaker
Down in the basement, a man is ah feeding large sacks of wool into ah machine, something like a wool gin. Something that's separating the wool.
00:20:38
Speaker
And it's a hundred degrees down there. And on top of that, he is surrounded by rats all silently watching him.
00:20:48
Speaker
It's strangely unintimidating. Yeah. thought it kind of cute. I thought it was kind of cute. Yeah. I have, I have some thoughts on the use of rats in this movie, mainly like,
00:21:00
Speaker
ah They are consistently cute even when they're supposed to be threatening. don't know what the animal handler was doing to make them appear like so so like pets, basically. yeah that's what's That's the effect that you have here.
00:21:13
Speaker
Yeah, it feels like Cinderella is singing a song for them. They're all just like, with their paws up, just being like listen to her sing. And it's just like, nothing think this man is threatening them? I think.
00:21:24
Speaker
He doesn't care. No, no, no, no, no. no yeah, I really feel like this movie could have benefited a lot from the more closeups of rats chewing on things and burying their teeth because it was mostly them just being well behaved.
00:21:41
Speaker
Yeah. Uh, now, uh, he picks one of them up by the tail and he tosses it into the wool gin and, uh, it gets s mashed up and there's blood and it's terrible.
00:21:57
Speaker
And it's worse that he picked the rat actor up by the tail. You know, he should be picking rats up by the tail. Uh, So he goes to grab another one when something unseen pushes him into it and he's instantly mangled by the machine and eaten by rats.
00:22:18
Speaker
This is also very reminiscent of the mangler, which I think was also steve Stephen King. Yep. yep Only that's like a haunted laundry press. Yeah. the He briefly really had, like, he was very fixated on haunted objects for a bit. And yes, the mangler is a laundry. Interesting.
00:22:37
Speaker
Yeah. I wonder if, did he have any like experience in his youth working in textiles in an unpleasant factory? You know, I don't think so. A lot of the cocaine period is really interesting just because If he gets asked about what his inspiration was for something, the go-to answer is just drugs.
00:22:55
Speaker
So I assume they both like this and that. Okay. Fair enough. ah Yeah, I guess. Yeah. You can just have an imagination, but he always seems like he's drawings from the same things over and over again. Like he you wanted to mean something.
00:23:11
Speaker
Anyway, ah the guy gets mangled by rats and then we get our opening credits. it was all a cold open. I loved the title font. I got to say.
00:23:21
Speaker
We get an all too brief moment with Brad to riff as the exterminator who is flooding rats out of the basement into an adjacent river with a cry of adios motherfucker.
00:23:36
Speaker
I was so excited to see him at the front. I was just like, yes, good. Yes. Yes. Yes. Let's zoom in on this character.
00:23:45
Speaker
Yeah, it was almost kind of like in our episode on Screamers, like when we met Roy Dupuis' character, Derek. Yeah, and it was like all of a sudden the movie came alive. Like this came alive when Brad Dourif was on Screamers. You had mentioned, Christy, Dourif is one of your many Dourifs. Oh, I think this movie is almost nothing without him. like They really need him to keep coming back and reminding you why you're here, essentially. Because I do...
00:24:15
Speaker
I don't think that the co-lead performances are bad. ah quite like the Foreman's performance. I think it's very silly, very bad. Yeah, Stephen Mack is good. yeah he's ah he's doing I think he's doing the best Nandurif work here, but it really is ah like it's all about seeing this man so early in his career and already so on, I think.
00:24:36
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. He truly is on his screaming like a maniac shit. Nobody screams like a maniac, like Brad to
Standout Performances in the Film
00:24:44
Speaker
riff. And I love that now that he's just only does like rolls out of bed for Chucky twice a year to collect a million dollars.
00:24:52
Speaker
And he just gets to go and scream like a maniac and do it better than anyone else. And here's your check. And then he gets to go home. Like God bless. What wonderful life for a wonderful. early Yeah. Yeah.
00:25:05
Speaker
Uh, so, uh, there's a small roadside bar and restaurant and entering in is John Hall, a drifter with nothing to lose.
00:25:17
Speaker
That's right. Because of whatever. Yeah. He just is. Yeah. Yeah. Don't worry about it. Some people are drifters. Yeah. They drift. Would you be saying this if he was Chinese?
00:25:33
Speaker
uh so a dude named brogan tells uh the waitress daisy may let's make a baby doggy style yep uh him and uh the other townies tease john uh who sees a wanted ah poster with an open position at the yarns works Back at the Yarnworks, the foreman, Mr. Warwick, bribes a safety inspector to get until after the holiday weekend to fix up the basement. I can't remember what holiday it Fourth of July. Fourth of July.
00:26:11
Speaker
Of course.
00:26:14
Speaker
ah So then he goes upstairs and he harasses one of his female employees before interviewing John for the position. And he's like, well, it seems like you're a drifter with nothing to lose.
00:26:26
Speaker
Why should hire? if you've got nothing to lose, you won't be here next week. And John's like, can I just have the job, please? He's like, okay, but you get minimum wage.
00:26:41
Speaker
And also you're working the graveyard shift.
00:26:59
Speaker
yeah
00:27:02
Speaker
john accepts the position
00:27:06
Speaker
he gets to work that night and he immediately notices large quantities of rats yeah Luckily, he brought his trusty slingshot with him, as well as a sack of empty soda cans.
00:27:19
Speaker
You mean Diet Pepsi cans? Mostly Diet Pepsi. I feel like I might have saw one Mountain Dew in there. I don't recall. Maybe. You could be right about that. It's another Pepsi product. I keep the camera the Diet Pepsi for a while. Yeah, and it's a lot of, like, turn the can so Diet Pepsi's in the frame while I pull it back so you see me aiming with a Diet Pepsi can.
00:27:41
Speaker
Yes. I am sure they got a nice little check from Dietrich. And I'm sure it was a great investment. yeah So the exterminator comes to chat with him.
00:27:53
Speaker
He says this infestation is just too far gone for what Warwick wants to pay for. Warwick is really cheaping out on this. yeah He also carries an ankle pistol and says the only way to take care of these guys is just fucking shoot them.
00:28:08
Speaker
ah And then he tells his backstory, which is that he was in Nam and he saw rats being used to torture and kill ah prisoners. And it's a very intense monologue that is undoubtedly the best part of the movie.
00:28:24
Speaker
It lasts so long, but you're so happy about it. Oh, yeah. There's ah there's a Peter Weller film where he starts having like a war with a rat. And he has like a dinner scene where he's like, well, you know, actually, a little fact about rats. And so it's very interesting to me to see, like to weigh these two things against each other. Just like a man, like an interesting character actor, just giving a long monologue about how fucking awful a rat is.
00:28:52
Speaker
and that is very interesting to see they're two different takes he's very mesmerizing in this uh monologue yes really you can see he's a star and he's wearing like this little man bun but he's pulling it off somehow you know he's just crushing like i don't want to say like i i'm not gonna like walk all the way to like man brad duroff hot like that's not that's not where i'm coming from but like he looks good in this he also i'll say brad duroff is hot in this okay there you go He's got a certain appeal.
00:29:24
Speaker
Yeah. yeah The only other thing I've seen him in from anywhere near this era is a very early episode of the X-Files. and Oh, yeah, yeah, hill was care yeah. Yeah, Beyond the Sea. it's a rare It's a really good, I think, season one episode. And he really carries this this whole thing off. Like the ability to monologue about something that might not be interesting coming from another person, but of course from him is like really captivating.
00:29:48
Speaker
When was he in Dune? When was Dune? Oh, that's a, like, is that 84? or it yeah that Yeah, like mid-80s. Yeah, because that's that's mostly how I know him. I'm sure I've seen him in something else, but like he is very much the the Mentat from Doom. I feel like he's he is Lord of the Rings to a lot of people. Oh, okay, that would make sense. Yeah, yeah, but that's that's certainly the only other place I had seen him until this movie, and i've seen I have seen the 80s Doom as well.
00:30:21
Speaker
I, of course, know the best as the voice of Chucky. Fair. But ah also another good drift performance, I want to call it, was Spontaneous Combustion, the movie directed by Toby Hooper, where
00:30:38
Speaker
he's a pyrokinetic, if I remember correctly. It's been a while since I've seen it, but he doesn't like have full control of his pyrokinesis. Interestingly. Yeah. You could just see Brad Duriff crushing it. Yeah. yeah So upstairs at the factory, a bald worker named Ippiston busts on Warwick.
00:30:59
Speaker
But Warwick hears him doing his nasty impression and assigns him to basic basement cleanup duty. the office hottie Jane is also volunteering for cleanup duty ah mostly because she needs the double time.
00:31:18
Speaker
Warwick already has an old man down there getting a jump on it. This old man gets menaced up a ladder by a small group of very friendly looking rats before getting eaten by a giant bat slash rat.
00:31:33
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. It's weird that they threw Bat into the mix. I don't understand this. Yeah, that's part I don't understand. Is that in the short story? i was trying to remember if it is or not. I would think that I would remember if it was. like It's been a while. since It's been like a decade since read it, but still, like...
00:31:51
Speaker
that's crazy yeah yeah it's so like the first thing they show you is like this long tail you're like okay so it's a big rat and then like two scenes later you're like and it like envelops him with his wings and then you're like his it's it's wings wait a minute what are we what are we actually dealing with and why i feel like if you're gonna give it wings that's like a third act reveal yeah you know what mean yeah yeah yeah you like and it's got wings too Yeah, it's a it's like flying rat.
00:32:21
Speaker
Flying rat. That's pretty scary. And we never really we never really see the entirety of it at any point. No. So it's like, is it a bat or is it a giant rat with wings? It's like, hmm, who knows?
00:32:35
Speaker
Yeah. The, uh, yeah, the monster i would say is not iconic in this no part of that is because I don't really have a clear idea of what it looks like or is. Yeah.
00:32:46
Speaker
I mean, they, they showed like the head at one point and I remember thinking like, Oh, that's pretty striking actually. And so I don't really know why they didn't do more with it. Also because it's like, is that the movie?
00:32:58
Speaker
Is that the movie? Yeah. I don't know. It's, it's an interesting movie. Yeah. Once again, I feel like if there had been more to it visually, if there had been more gore or more monster, right right more something it feels like there's like I'm eating a bread sandwich.
Critique of Film's Pacing and Narrative
00:33:16
Speaker
Yeah. Maybe this is why like this movie. It's just like a warm bath. It's like nothing is happening here. It is very meditative. you Definitely. codeway ah So they sign.
00:33:31
Speaker
hang up a now hiring sign And then we're off to the restaurant again where the townies serve John a big old rat burger. Pretty funny. Yeah. Yeah. Pretty good gag.
00:33:43
Speaker
The rat they found was pretty big. I also wanted to add that that, that diner feels very real to me. Like that feels like a place that they filmed in that they found, not that they made or constructed. and It just seems very real.
00:33:57
Speaker
No, there are a lot of really good locations in this. this Yeah. did Good location work in this movie. Yeah. It feels very Maine to me as someone who's, I haven't been to Maine, but I've been in New Hampshire. I've been to Maine. It seems, it seemed Maine-ish.
00:34:10
Speaker
Now, Jane calls all their coworkers, a bunch of bastards, and then gives John a ride home in her cool Mustang. we find that set foot up She keeps her foot up on the console as she drives, which is a really nice touch.
00:34:25
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. Let's you know she's a real ah country gal. we find out that he's a widower and that she's divorced. Interesting.
00:34:36
Speaker
Yeah. So yes, they're both technically available. Isn't that interesting? yeah Yeah. Yeah. It's interesting. Yeah. Just, just interesting.
00:34:48
Speaker
ah back at the factory, Warwick hires Charlie Carmichael for basement crew. Uh, Warwick also voluntiles his assistant or secretary, Nordello, that she is also going to be on basement cleanup.
00:35:06
Speaker
And he and Nordello, they've been having a thing, Warwick and Nordello. Yeah.
00:35:13
Speaker
The thing that that they have is that they have been fucking.
00:35:18
Speaker
So she's already pissed off that she's gonna have to go do this basement shit because she knows that the basement isn't safe. She specifically probably knows that several people have died.
00:35:28
Speaker
So she's pissed off. So pissed off that she takes an axe to Warwick's vintage black Cadillac. It's awesome. It's so cool. Yeah. Yeah. You do get to see a vintage Cadillac get smashed up in this movie. That's production value.
00:35:41
Speaker
Yeah. According to Neil Breen. o Let's see. that Warwick catches her smashing up the Cadillac and he's about to like punch her in the fucking face when John intervenes, like grabs his wound up hand and gives him that look like, don't, don't.
00:36:04
Speaker
And so Warwick backs down and tells everybody to leave and everybody leaves. The next day, John is doing some machine maintenance and Warwick comes down and thanks him for intervening and then offers him a position on the cleanup crew.
00:36:22
Speaker
Double pay. It's double pay. Now tell me an educated guy like you can't use double pay.
00:36:31
Speaker
So later, John and Jane hang out at Jane's trailer at the trailer park. And we got some more Jane's backstory. She is divorced. And also ah Warwick said that if they fucked twice a week, he'd give her a promotion to an office job.
00:36:47
Speaker
She turned him down. And she got like reprimanded. Warwick's pretty, pretty shitty. He's a shitty boss. Yeah. Shitty bosses are the real horror of this movie. Man's humanity to man.
00:37:00
Speaker
Yeah.
00:37:03
Speaker
Now, Nordello breaks into warwick's office and there she finds damning paperwork about the building being condemned probably due to the millions of rats and giant were creatures that dwell therein and nothing ever comes of that right no well before she can do anything with it she falls down a flight of stairs that's right that's right that's right there are so many bumps and hops on the way down the stairs. It's good. Um, takes her a while. It's a, yeah it's not, I don't think it's meant to be slapstick, but it is.
00:37:39
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. It works. Uh, so the basement now, the cleanup starts in earnest. Warwick blasts rats with a fire hose while playing surfing safari on the stereo.
00:37:56
Speaker
And you get the impression that the rats are being hit with such tremendous water pressure that they're basically being vaporized.
00:38:05
Speaker
The boss says if they can clean it all up in a week, if they work systematically. But the place is filled mostly with destroyed garbage.
00:38:16
Speaker
There's never a really good establishing shot of the basement, so we don't really get a good idea of its scale or what the mess is. And I feel like we could have used some more establishing shots in this movie. I feel like spaces are not very well established. No. yeah
00:38:33
Speaker
So for the crew that we got in the basement, we got Brogan and Danson. The guys that have been bullying our our hero, John.
00:38:46
Speaker
We also got Charlie Carmichael, the new hire. We got Ipston, the bald guy with the horseshoe. And we got John and we got Jane.
00:38:58
Speaker
Some of them are sorting through garbage. Others are hunting rats. No one is working particularly hard. Probably because they all hate their boss very much and they don't care.
00:39:10
Speaker
Baldi has a scare when he's reaching into a roll-top desk. which seems like a bad idea to be doing in a rat. Yeah. I don't know why, especially when he's just like, it's not, it's an all right shape. It's like, you're going to get it out of there that shape. You're going to take it somewhere and restore it. Like, what are we, what are we talking about here, man?
00:39:28
Speaker
What's the story? Take that down to the flea market and probably get 20, 30 bucks for somebody else to restore it. Uh, But yeah, he he does instead stick his arm into like a nest of rats and be like, oh, it feels weird.
00:39:43
Speaker
Yeah. It feels weird in here. but feels like a bunch of warm rats. It feels yeah like I stuck my arm in a giant empanada. Yeah.
00:39:55
Speaker
Now, ah
00:39:58
Speaker
after that scare, he's complaining to Warwick that this is supposed to be a cleanup job, not an extermination job. And I got to say, they established that this was a union shop. I feel like Epstein has a very valid point here.
00:40:12
Speaker
Yeah, he has a lot to stand on here.
00:40:16
Speaker
But Warwick then fires him on the spot. And I got to say, now... If I was this guy's shop steward, i am licking my chops. when When he got fired in my head, I was just like probably good for him, realistically.
00:40:31
Speaker
Yeah, he survives, at least. Yeah, I mean, yeah that's that's one of those things, like, when this movie gets done in reality, you know, like, the next day he's watching the news, he's like, I was fucking fired by that guy. ah yeah Holy shit.
00:40:46
Speaker
They found him in a pile of skeletons.
00:40:53
Speaker
like but but but but but Now Warwick then blackmails our hero, Brad to riff the exterminator and his dog Moxie. yeah He says, basically he's going to like ruin their reputation and say that it's all their fault that all these rats have left their factories, other factories downstream.
00:41:13
Speaker
If the exterminator doesn't go into the neighboring graveyard to find the rats nest. Once again, this seems just like Warwick just cheaping out. You could just pay this guy to do this. This is literally his job.
00:41:26
Speaker
Yeah.
00:41:29
Speaker
So the exterminator and Moxie head over to the graveyard. Moxie runs into a mausoleum. And when the exterminator follows him in, the floor collapses underneath and our hero, the exterminator gets crushed by a stone casket.
Plot Conclusion and Final Confrontation
00:41:47
Speaker
And we know that we have 45 minutes left in this movie. Yeah. Well, maybe half an hour. It is once a very short. But still, RIP to the best character.
00:42:00
Speaker
So back inside, break time is over. Jane finds a trap door underneath a pile of garbage. And Warwick says they'll all head down there and they'll all check it out.
00:42:13
Speaker
the first room that they get into at the bottom of the stairs, they find a severed arm. Everybody freaks out. Pretty cool. Yeah. Yeah. ah Brogan tries to run upstairs, but the stairs collapse underneath him. And then he falls through that floor. There's another floor underneath that.
00:42:31
Speaker
There's like three sub basements in this building. It's wild. Yeah.
00:42:39
Speaker
and but because he destroyed the stairs, they're now also all trapped downstairs. And Brogan got eaten by some sort of thing. Presumably a giant rat. Bat. Giant rat bat.
00:42:51
Speaker
Rat bat. Yeah. That can swim. A rat bat that swims. Yeah, you know the type. Yeah, that's familiar. i can picture it.
00:43:02
Speaker
ah So everybody runs away and they split off into two parties. In one party, you got Danson, Carmichael, and Warwick. The three musketeers, I call them.
00:43:16
Speaker
And they got their in-jokes. They're great friends. No, they hate each other. The other two that we got are John and Jane. They're the other party. ah So Warwick, Carmichael and Danson find a copper still and some bottles. It looks like somebody was brewing some hooch down in the sub basement.
00:43:34
Speaker
Seems unsafe to have an open flame in there, but, you know, who knows? ah Warwick ah takes some bottles. He wants to make some Molotov cocktails. But he also he seems to be going a little bit nuts.
00:43:47
Speaker
Yeah, he's going a little crazy down there.
00:43:51
Speaker
Now, ah John and Jane, they swim through a cavern. They use a casket as a flotation device. For anybody who has the specific phobia of ah being in water in a cave, trigger warning, that does happen in this movie.
00:44:06
Speaker
Carmichael hears running water, and he thinks that it might be ah nearby river. So he crawls up a little tunnel that he finds, chasing the sound.
00:44:17
Speaker
And he finds a small opening. When he sticks his hand in, his hand gets bit off. And then he gets... it If I'm in a weird situation where I'm like... on A lot of people putting their hands in stuff. In scenarios where it's just like, don't do that. Yeah.
00:44:35
Speaker
Don't do that. They're like babies. They love using their hands to learn about things. Yeah. We got Alice in Wonderland said, just put it in your mouth. See what happens. Eat it. See what happens. Will you grow taller? Yeah.
00:44:47
Speaker
This is also my favorite music cue in the movie because it is so loud and so announcing what it's about to happen. It's really good. Yeah. Now, ah when Danson and Warwick run away, Danson, he almost falls into a pit trap, but Warwick saves him.
00:45:07
Speaker
But now dancing, he's sort of freaking out. He doesn't even want to move. He's just like, I'm not going anywhere. I'm just sitting right here. And so Warwick's like, yeah, okay, well, I'm going. get Smell you later.
00:45:19
Speaker
Smell you later. ah So dancing, ah he flicks his lighter because I guess he's sitting there alone in the dark.
00:45:31
Speaker
And when he does a giant monster eats him. Yeah. It's the same one we've been seeing. It's that monster. He gets eaten by the monster.
00:45:42
Speaker
Warwick tries to hit the monster with a Molotov cocktail, but the flame goes out. So he just throws bottle full of liquid at him. And then he runs away and falls in a giant pile of bones.
00:45:56
Speaker
Probably the biggest pile of bones we've had since nothing but trouble. Yeah, that I immediately thought of that. As soon as I saw that, I was just like, wow, this is like ah nothing but trouble level of bones. I had raps about nothing but trouble recently. i I'm sure you had a great time.
00:46:12
Speaker
Oh, yeah. it's It's a time. It's a movie for certain. It's a real experience.
Overall Impressions of Graveyard Shift
00:46:18
Speaker
It happens. Yeah. So meanwhile, John and Jane, they finally get out of the water. That's got to feel great. But now their socks are all wet.
00:46:27
Speaker
That's the worst sensation. yeah And on top of that, they're inside of a very large cavern, but they do see a hole to the surface way up top. It's a really good matte painting.
00:46:39
Speaker
One of the better things in the entire movie.
00:46:43
Speaker
There's also a very big pile of bones and and it turns out Warwack is passed out inside of it. They help him out and then he attacks them for his trouble.
00:46:56
Speaker
For their trouble. He attacks them and it's trouble. It's classic move on his part. Classic war. with Yeah. Yeah. He's constantly engaged in a war of one against all.
00:47:07
Speaker
Yeah. It was just like, fuck you. It's just like, but why? Like, what what did anybody do? i think at this point he's thinking, if I kill everybody, then no one will know that I got all these people killed.
00:47:21
Speaker
Yeah. think is where he's at. That makes some sense, I guess. ah you see lying on the floor, a the jawbone of an ass.
00:47:32
Speaker
And I know instantly someone is going to pick it up and wield it as a weapon in reference to the Bible. And indeed John does. And then Warwick in response just picks up an entire fucking skeleton and throws it at John.
00:47:46
Speaker
And then he turns around and he stabs Jane and then runs away. ah Yeah, that was unfortunate. Yeah, you hate to see Jane die. She was so cute. yeah She's so cute. ah So, yeah.
Review Segment: IMDb Critiques
00:48:04
Speaker
Warwick runs away and John gives chase and catches up just in time to see Warwick get killed by the monster.
00:48:12
Speaker
So John turns around and runs out right past Jane's corpse, which I thought was very funny. Then he's like, well, anyway, she's probably still dead.
00:48:23
Speaker
Uh, and he climbs up and he's back in the factory basement, but the monster follows him and it busts through either the wall or the floor. I can't remember which.
00:48:35
Speaker
Hmm. And then John grabs, like climbs underneath the wool gin and he grabs a ah hook that you use for moving bales of wool.
00:48:48
Speaker
And he jams the hook in the creature's face. And then he hits the on button for the machine with his slingshot and diet Pepsi can.
00:49:01
Speaker
And the monster gets chewed up. and spit out and rats are eating all the giant monster blood. and then we see a sign hanging out that says under new management.
00:49:19
Speaker
And apparently in some cuts, you could see John punching out for both himself and for Jane.
00:49:26
Speaker
Oh, but that wasn't in the cut that I saw. No. And then we get a closing song. which is sort of a vaguely hop inspired song, but all the lyrics are just quotes from the film.
00:49:44
Speaker
It's really good. It's great. It is our closing credits. That's good because I immediately turned it off. Once the credits started, I just, I just shut it down and i was like, maybe I should have listened to the credit song a little bit. And i was like, well, well, we've done what we've done.
00:49:58
Speaker
No, you're going to listen to the whole thing tonight. Yes. That is happening. Yes.
00:50:05
Speaker
So final thoughts, five star ratings. Greg, kick us off. Yeah. so is this is kind of a weird movie. ah it's like It's like they were making a monster movie, but couldn't. So they just made a drama and then filmed as much monsters they could, which turned out to not be a lot.
00:50:24
Speaker
But it was still just like, that's what we're getting to. And none of what they do leading up to it it really makes a lot of sense for being a monster movie. But at the same time, i didn't necessarily dislike it.
00:50:36
Speaker
ah it's it feels like the kind of movie that is perfect for like a Saturday or Sunday afternoon where you're kind of half paying attention to it. And you're like, oh, this the part where they're going to put the rat on the tray.
00:50:50
Speaker
And then you like watch it, and then you hear Brad Derivsy walk into the room with your half-eaten ham sandwich. or what You know what I mean? like it's got a It's got a certain quality that feels very familiar and relaxing, so I appreciated that.
00:51:05
Speaker
I'm going to give it a watchability of a three again. I think on Saturday or Sunday morning, it's a pretty good time or afternoon, but I think like you pop it in on a Tuesday night. It's not exactly Tuesday night material.
00:51:18
Speaker
ah And then e as far as the weirdness goes, none of the individual pieces are that strange. It's like, that's that's a small town drama. That's a workplace drama. That's a monster movie.
00:51:33
Speaker
But the fact that they smash them all in together and the fact that, yeah, there's not a lot of establishing shots and there's like, it's a monster movie, but kind of not a monster. It's kind of weird. So I'm going to give it a three.
00:51:47
Speaker
Fair enough. I gave it a three in terms of watchability. I thought it was a time a little bit dull just due to the fact that it did keep on feeling like it was not doing anything interesting. i guess it was just happening, but it was short.
00:52:05
Speaker
Uh, and there is lots of rat footage. If you like rats, there is lots of great footage of Brad to riff. If you like Brad to riff, uh, I bet if you go to YouTube and if you just look for best of Brad to riff in graveyard shift, you probably be just fine.
00:52:25
Speaker
ah but ultimately there's like not a lot of meat on the bone, but I can also understand you don't always want a lot of meat on. You know what I mean? This is something you can watch over lunch. You know, you're absolutely right about the ham sandwich.
00:52:37
Speaker
ah For weirdness, I'm going to give it a three as well. I thought Drift brought his ah trademark intensity to four to five scenes, and it was very weird how much he was over delivering.
00:52:52
Speaker
Yeah. It was also weird that there was a giant carnivorous bat instead of a rat. I think that is genuinely strange. It's really weird. it's so the deal in the story is because i just like uh like searching my memory bank a little bit it's definitely not that it is a rat and it is like kind of warped like it's warped by the ravages of being in a basement and like breeding hundreds of more rats uh but she didn't like it's like a like the queen like the the rat queen basically she didn't
00:53:26
Speaker
ah become a bat in so doing. She's just kind of messed up in like a deteriorated way. yeah yeah it's ok It's a really odd like puppet. I wonder if there's somebody out in there who wanted to do some kind of puppetry situation and then just didn't get a chance to. Because like you said, you don't see the monster very much. No.
00:53:47
Speaker
yeah Not enough, I would say. Well, what about you, Chrissy, in terms of watchability and weirdness? I'm going three and a half because like, I know this is like, I but i am bringing this on as like ah something that is beloved by me. And it is.
00:54:01
Speaker
I also think that they're like, it's, it's not, it is still bad. It's still, much it's still like one of the lower tier Stephen King adaptations. It is absolutely like almost a liminal space of a movie. Like it is like, yeah. the that Like it not being ready for prime time really resonates with me. Like,
00:54:21
Speaker
it feels like it's a movie that someone is watching in a movie. Yes. yeah I mean, I will say like the way I rewatched it was having it in a smaller window next to the window I was working in. Like this is how I re familiarize myself with a movie. I actually think is little like,
00:54:41
Speaker
pretty yeah but i also think like the ways in which is weird i agree completely that it doesn't really know what it is so it's just kind of nothing like it's bouncing around ah it never really finds its footing you can tell it was made by somebody who knows like what a movie is knows like what a beginning and middle and end are there's a general arc but there's just not there's not a lot going on there and that feels weird on its own
00:55:07
Speaker
Well, with that, you guys want to get into act three of the show? Cause it's time for the review review. Yeah.
00:55:23
Speaker
Review, review. Where we review reviews. You wrote a review of the film, now we're going to review you.
00:55:38
Speaker
Review, review.
00:55:45
Speaker
Review, review. Review, review. La, la, la, la, la.
00:56:03
Speaker
Nice. So I've got five reviews that I pulled from IMDb. I can't even imagine. Yeah. Who are these people? They're all quite negative.
00:56:15
Speaker
okay Okay. Three of them are short. Two of them are long. Do you guys want the short ones first or the long ones first? Short. Short first, yeah. Two out of ten. Graveyard shift.
00:56:30
Speaker
Plot of this movie is so underused and at sometimes it completely loses itself in absurdity and not in good one. Yeah. No, I agree with that.
00:56:43
Speaker
Fair enough. Two out of 10 stars. Just don't watch it. I hardly dare to write anything about it. If scary movie is a quality rating, this movie certainly gets it.
00:56:56
Speaker
It's scary how bad a movie can be. yeah Interesting. Got him. One out of 10. I love Stephen King books.
00:57:10
Speaker
I've never seen a more forgettable horror flick. The acting was horror-able. The directing was horror-able. Please don't waste your time unless you're really high. Then maybe it would be fun to watch with the sound off.
00:57:24
Speaker
would say you turn the sound off, you're going to lose riff. You want the sound. The visuals aren't going to carry it.
00:57:32
Speaker
All right, here come the longer ones. One out of ten. Sure cure for insomnia. Insomnia. who know A very poor horror film based on a very good Stephen King short story called Night Shift. Not correct. It's called Graveyard Shift. It's from Night Shift.
00:57:53
Speaker
Basically, it's about huge killer rats. This one is about one huge killer rat with wings, no less. The story is dull. All the actors suck.
00:58:04
Speaker
Only Brad Dyrif went on to any type of movie career after this. And the monster looked as fake as it was.
00:58:13
Speaker
I didn't get a clear look at it, so... I caught this little fiasco at a first-run theater back in 1990. The place was crawling with high school kids, despite the R rating. This guy's a cop.
00:58:30
Speaker
ah They were quiet at the beginning, but then they started to get restless and yell things and or laugh at the screen. When the monster was seen in full view, the entire audience exploded with laughter.
00:58:42
Speaker
Mind you, these are 14 and 15 year olds. i hate it when people have a fun time at the movies. ah
00:58:54
Speaker
An absolute waste of time and money. a definite one to avoid. Read the King short story. You'll be much better off.
00:59:02
Speaker
Last one. One out of ten. Inferior rat movie.
00:59:11
Speaker
This movie was well done and took the short story to its farthest limits. But it still reeked. Hmm. Interesting. Sorry, but since Willard and Michael Jackson's Ben, I've had nothing for rat movies.
00:59:27
Speaker
The actors did the best they could with this type of scripting. The director must have been on some heavy medications or something to even take this job. And the effects were typical pre-Star Wars fare.
00:59:41
Speaker
Interesting. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. Honestly, this was a dismal attempt with no scares, few creative devices, no suspense, and very little in the way of entertainment.
00:59:56
Speaker
Okay. That's fair. Uh, Hated it. I don't even care that Stephen King's name is on it somewhere. And the end, the monster at the end, isn't even a freaking rat.
01:00:10
Speaker
It's a giant bat. WTF? It gets a 1.3 from The Fiend. And this was reviewed by Fiendish Dramaturgy.
01:00:24
Speaker
1.3 is so specific that I find it interesting. Yeah. Why not a 1.4? Yeah. yeah Why not a 1.1? Yeah.
Fun with IMDb Scores Game
01:00:36
Speaker
yeah I mean, I understand why not a 1 even. Oh, of That's just cruel. You guys, I'm very excited. Yes. new We have a brand new game this week.
01:00:49
Speaker
New game, new bumper. That means a new bumper.
01:00:54
Speaker
I
01:01:01
Speaker
logged into IMDB. Can you guess what did I see? They rate the movies on their out of 10. They'll rate them eight. They'll rate them four when they give out their rating score.
01:01:12
Speaker
But can you guess what they have rated them?
01:01:32
Speaker
It's time play ratings game. it's
01:01:46
Speaker
really good. Thank you. I liked it a lot. So we're going to be playing the ratings game with the films of Andrew Devoff. Andrew Devoff played Danson here, the townie with the longer hair.
01:02:03
Speaker
So I thought that he was in Twin Peaks, but it turns out he was in Lost. Yes, he was in Lost. He was the Russian guy. Yeah, yeah. He ahead of the Hydra, I think.
01:02:15
Speaker
Yes. oh A classic character actor. He also played Wishmaster in the movie Wishmaster. Okay. Insane. So we're guessing the rating.
01:02:26
Speaker
Yes. What I'm going to do is I'm going to give you a title and a year and a brief description of a film that Andrew Devoff was in. And I'm going to give you three scores. I want you to guess which one is the score.
01:02:37
Speaker
These are the IMDB user ratings. Yes. Okay. And, uh, so it's going to be out of 10 and, and
01:02:49
Speaker
You'll buzz in by saying your own name. If you don't get it right, your opponent will have the chance to steal. you have any questions? I'm solid. I'm ready. All right, here we go. Question number one, hands-on busters.
01:03:01
Speaker
Okay. Mac and 1988. An alien trying to escape from NASA is befriended by a wheelchair-bound boy. Does that have 1.8, 2.7, 3.4 on Chrissy.
01:03:13
Speaker
two point seven or three point four on i mtv prissy Christy? 3.4. Yeah, that's correct. Christy's on the board. Have you talked about Mac and me yet?
01:03:27
Speaker
Not yet. No, we got a lot of... Simply must. We got a list of white whales. You know, we just were waiting for the right guest to pull the trigger.
01:03:38
Speaker
Question number two. An American summer, 1990. nineteen ninety s Divorcing Chicago parents send their only son to live with his aunt in Los Angeles for the summer, where he befriends a local, learns to surf, and gets a girlfriend, and witnesses a murder.
01:04:01
Speaker
Did that get 4.2, 5.4, or 6.8? Greg. Greg? 5.4. five point four six point eight
01:04:08
Speaker
greg gray five point four correct you guys are on fire question number three dangerous touch thriller about a promiscuous radio sex therapist who is dragged into blackmail by a young hustler did that get 4.4 6.4 7.2 dangerous touch six point four or seven point two
01:04:40
Speaker
dangerous touch ah Christy. Christy. 6.4. No! That's what I was going to guess. what What were the other two again? The other two are 4.4 or 7.2. 4.4.
01:04:57
Speaker
You've got it, Greg. 4.4 is so low for IMDb. It's really bad. Makes me pretty curious about Dangerous Touch. Also, you they really didn't have to include erotic thriller in the description after hearing that title. I know what you're getting at there.
01:05:15
Speaker
ah Question number four. Extra three. Watch the skies. nineteen ninety five 1995. Marines travel to a deserted island to defuse bombs, only to be terrorized by a deadly alien creature.
01:05:31
Speaker
Did extra three watch the skies get 2.9, 3.6, or 4.8? three point six or four point eight Greg. Greg. 4.8.
01:05:43
Speaker
No, I'm sorry, Christy, can you steal? 3.6 was right? it was yeah yeah i got to say I've seen the first extra and if the quality keeps up to three and but that's quality in air quotes, then it's definitely worth seeing extra three.
01:06:02
Speaker
Okay. Okay. Good to know. The first, the first extra is very, very interesting. Getting a lot for the TV watched list here from the filmography of Andrew Devov question. Number five, the random factor.
01:06:20
Speaker
oh A Canadian doctor's machine to reconstruct injured bodies from their DNA accidentally sends him into a mirror-reversed parallel universe.
01:06:32
Speaker
Did the random factor, 1995, 4.1, 5.9, 7.5? Greg? Greg. 4.1. Fortune favors the Greg.
01:06:42
Speaker
greg greg yeah four point one
01:06:47
Speaker
fortune favors the bold gregg
01:06:52
Speaker
that's also the moral of the random factor
01:06:58
Speaker
ah the next one is a jim winorski film if that helps you out stealth fighter 1999
01:07:06
Speaker
A naval pilot fakes his own death and then steals a stealth fighter from the U.S. Air Force base in the Philippines to attack military bases around the world. Only one man can stop him, a naval reservist.
01:07:22
Speaker
Did that get 2.3, 3.4, or 4.1? Christy. Christy? 4.1. three point four four point one christy christie four point one Oh, I'm sorry. Greg, can you steal? What were the other two? 2.3 or 3.4? Oh, this is tough. 2.3. I'm sorry.
01:07:39
Speaker
That one was 3.4. Question number seven.
01:07:44
Speaker
Extreme Justice, 1993.
01:07:48
Speaker
question number seven extreme justice ninety ninety three A rogue cop joins an elite LAPD unit who secretly operate as a vigilante death squad, but soon begins to question their methods.
01:08:04
Speaker
Hmm. Did this get, this is extreme justice. Did it get 3.8, 4.3, or 5.6? Uh, Christy. Christy? 4.3. No. I'm sorry, Greg, can you steal? I started so stupid.
01:08:15
Speaker
christine four point three
01:08:22
Speaker
i'm sorry greg can you steal where did so 5.6? Greg, you're pulling away. ah It seemed like maybe it was action-y. I felt like people would get behind that.
01:08:36
Speaker
think it might have starred Scott Glenn or somebody like that. and Sure. Question number eight. Moscow heat. oo Andrew D. Ivoff is of Russian descent, but he was born in Venezuela.
01:08:49
Speaker
Okay. That's why he has such an interesting accent. Yeah.
01:08:56
Speaker
A retired diplomat and an LAPD detective seek justice by pursuing a psychotic killer to Moscow. Did this get 2.5, 4.0, or 6.4? Greg. Greg? 2.5? Greg, you've got it. Wow.
01:09:09
Speaker
Wow.
01:09:13
Speaker
greg gregg two point five greg you've got it wow wow wow saw through to the heart of the cards.
Baddie Awards and Humorous Highlights
01:09:28
Speaker
All right, last one.
01:09:31
Speaker
Magic Man, 2010. two thousand and ten An aspiring magician named Tatiana travels to Vegas to see the world-famous magic idol Krell Darius.
01:09:44
Speaker
yeah As the layers of illusion unfold, so too the dark windows of Tatiana's past. Cradle Darius is played by Billy Zane. I'll tell you that.
01:09:57
Speaker
Did this get 2.1, 3.4, or 4.2? Christy. Christy. 4.2. No, it didn't do that well.
01:10:05
Speaker
<unk>ty christti
01:10:08
Speaker
four point two
01:10:21
Speaker
Wow. That got a 2.1 on IMDb. So, you know I'm going to be tracking that one down. Yeah, I feel like I want to watch everything Billy Zane has done, probably.
01:10:34
Speaker
Yeah, I bet he's done a lot. I bet he's been good in a lot of it. Yeah, he's always he's always one to watch. He commits. He's not throwing it in. Oh, yeah.
01:10:46
Speaker
He's always willing to get rid of his hair, too, which I appreciate. Yeah, does he even have hair anymore? He might not. It's the Batty Awards.
01:11:03
Speaker
Now you're messing with a... Now you're messing with the Batty Awards. Now you're messing with the Batty Awards.
01:11:15
Speaker
Congratulations
01:11:20
Speaker
to all the nominees.
01:11:27
Speaker
That's right. Congratulations to all our nominees. It's the Batty Awards. You'll figure it out. Greg, do you have a Batty Award? I do. i don't really have a title for this one, but ah when Warwick is threatening, was it Nordella? The one who's beating up the car?
01:11:46
Speaker
Yeah. yeah or Yeah. So like, you know, everything's happening and they're doing all this stuff. And they like cut back to me. He's like right in her face. And he's like talking to her and he's threatening her.
01:11:57
Speaker
But if you look down in the corner, he's got out a finger gun. e And i was like at the time, like realistically, if someone were doing what he was doing to me and they had a finger gun pointed at me, I would be genuinely terrified.
01:12:10
Speaker
But as a viewer, I saw the finger gun down there and I was just like, that's not how you do that. That's not how you threaten somebody on a movie. Like that's not gonna, that doesn't work for me. And it was just really great.
01:12:24
Speaker
Real, real nice little cherry on that scene. Fantastic. I'm going to give my baddie award for best product placement. And you might think that it's going to go to diet Pepsi.
01:12:35
Speaker
It's not. No, why it's going to go to Moxie the soda, that classic new England drink. Yeah. That Moxie the dog is almost definitely named after and is a delicious, refreshing drink that I will enjoy maybe once every 10 years.
Chrissy's Other Projects
01:12:52
Speaker
um Oh, Moxie. And then. That's my hit rate on Moxie, too. Yeah, you need to have it ice cold. Have you ever had Moxie, Greg? Not, and I would like to, actually. It's one of those. good It's good. You don't want to have it every day, but it's good. What is its flavor?
01:13:07
Speaker
It's like root beer, but with a little bit more herbaceousness to it and a really strong bitter note. Mmm. that but you need to have it like ice cold and you need to have like half a can and it's it's almost like campari and soda type of vibe i say it sounds like a fernight situation a little bit yeah you can see why it's not like the most popular soda in america but yeah no it's extreme it's extremely main to me too i think it's the only time i get it is a friend who lives in maine wilbur
01:13:40
Speaker
So odd, odd little tangent here, but if you look up like what everybody's state drink is, the vast majority of them are milk. um But um ah mains is moxie, if I remember correctly. Because it's just very funny. It's like milk milk, milk, milk, root beer, milk, milk, moxie, milk, milk.
01:14:02
Speaker
Well, Christy, do you have a baddie award? Yeah, I don't know if I have a name for it, but I'm going to give whatever kind of a word I can to Frank Welker for providing the voice of the monster. yes Because I just thought it was fun to see his name in the credits.
01:14:18
Speaker
the The man has voiced ah Fred Jones since the inception Scooby-Doo, and he often throws in like lion roars in The Lion King or like... uh he's a lot of disney sidekicks like a lot of the the ones that are closer to silent like um the cricket and mulan that sort of thing so okay a good bench strength there he's not quite like mel blanc level or like even like a billy west but he is like a veteran of the voice acting industry yeah nice if I think he had a statistic for a while where he had, if you just took every movie that he had ever been in and totaled up their box office gross, his was the highest beyond like everybody because she had just been in everything.
01:15:00
Speaker
Anytime you heard like a dog bark or a cat meow in a movie, that was Frank Welker in a recording booth because he could just do it. You're like, I'll make the meow more sad. Make the lion scarier.
01:15:12
Speaker
You know, like you could direct an animal sound out of him. That's so interesting. my My one other like honorable mention is the very tepid kiss that our two share.
01:15:23
Speaker
Oh, yeah, that was nice. That was nice, yeah. It's sweet, and it's like, oh, so you guys didn't have sex off screen at any point. No. No, they didn't get to know each other like that.
01:15:34
Speaker
There was no consummation. No. Well, speaking of consummation, this has been a consummate episode and you have been a consummate guest.
01:15:46
Speaker
Christy, thank you so much for coming. Thank you. No, it was, ah i had a blast. I am always excited to talk about a King hand adaptation, especially when it isn't very good.
01:15:57
Speaker
Well, do you have anything going on? Do you want people to follow you or anything? Sure. I'm on Blue Sky, ah Christy Admiral. I'm on Letterboxd at Admiral Christy. One of those is spelled with three A's and one of them is spelled with two. I'll just let people figure out which is which.
01:16:14
Speaker
And I am the occasional third chair on the podcast Total Massacre. One of the last episodes I was on was actually about Carrie. And you can listen to that one.
01:16:25
Speaker
which is me, my co-host, Rowan Kaiser, and the, and but in a middle, I was going to try to say a big word, but the terrific ah Zach Hamlin on that one.
01:16:36
Speaker
So fantastic. yeah Check it out, everybody. And listeners come back next week. We'll be finishing up spooky season.
01:16:48
Speaker
With special guest Merit Kay. And we'll be talking about conquest. Lucio Fulci's conquest. So tertiary horror to wind up the season.
01:17:02
Speaker
i And, but before you go, Christy, I got to ask you, are you going to listen to this show when it comes out?
01:17:11
Speaker
That's a coin flip. Yeah. If you do and you make it this far, give us five stars. You're right there. give yourself five stars. I'll give you five stars regardless. It doesn't matter if listen yes Yes. Listeners, you see how easy it is? Get on board the five-star train.
01:17:30
Speaker
it's riding it all the way to success.
01:17:35
Speaker
And ah don't forget to subscribe, but follow, leave a comment. Anything you can do is great. You can find us on blue sky. You can find us on Instagram. You can come join our discord where we're watching two movies a month.
Episode Conclusion and Future Teasers
01:17:48
Speaker
We're watching episodes of Tyler Perry's, the oval, the wildest show you've ever seen in your fucking life. And, uh, Yeah, come and join us.
01:17:58
Speaker
And until next week, be good and goodbye. Goodbye. over. over
01:18:11
Speaker
are
01:18:15
Speaker
the graveyard
01:18:19
Speaker
this isn't advanced
01:18:25
Speaker
where place that page
01:18:35
Speaker
I ain't got problem. You got a problem. I ain't got a problem.
01:19:02
Speaker
Come on, take a break.
01:19:10
Speaker
take a break. Don't piss me off. Break's over. You better be punching out your time card. Come on, take a break. Punching out your time card.
01:19:22
Speaker
Come on, take a break.
01:19:26
Speaker
Break's over.