The Other Guys (2010)

Transcript

Speaker: Bye.

Speaker: All right. Welcome back, everybody, to the Stakeouts and Shakedowns podcast, episode three. I'm so glad that you're all back with us. All of you. I'm so glad that you're back. um Thanks for checking in with us. It's me again, your amiable host, Wes Clifton. Glad that you could be with us. It's been a really busy few weeks for me, so I feel like...

Speaker: I've not been super active on our podcast socials, if you're following, and I've just kind of been out of my mind with everything going on. But I'm really glad to be back ah with some good friends talking about a good movie today.

Speaker: um My guests today are um Dr. Ava Caspery and Matthew Schwartz, Esquire. So, hey, buddies, how's it going? Hi. Hi. It's going so well. Thank you for using the honorific.

Speaker: Of course. Absolutely. Of course. um ah What is an Esquire? ah You know, I think it's a like title that lawyers use to make themselves seem really fancy. I had a lawyer one time that got me out of a traffic ticket and he is his thing ended with Esquire.

Speaker: And I just really ah really like it. I just have a subscription. That's all. Okay. You know what? That counts. I'm pretty sure that's what i'm pretty sure that's what he meant as well. I'm pretty sure that was his thing.

Speaker: yeah Yeah, great. Well, I'm really glad you guys could be with us today. It's my first time having multiple guests, so I hope that it goes okay. um I think it will. I feel good about think so, too. I feel really good about this. Great.

Speaker: Awesome. So I know, well, I know Matt for a really long time. ah We have played music together off and on for well over a decade ah in various outfits. We were in a band together called Monday in London, and now we play together in a band called Pacifico that Ava also is part of. And um I know Ava because she is...

Speaker: Connected by romance. I know. I set Matt up perfectly for a perfect Borat impression. He didn't do it. Oh, my wife. Thank you so much. every right Isn't it my wife?

Speaker: Because everybody wants more Borat. I know they do. um Great. So, guys, I just told a little bit about you, but maybe um tell a little bit about yourselves for the listeners.

Speaker: You want me to get started? Okay, yeah, so correct, I am his wife. um My name is Eva. I am from Germany originally. That's why you hear this accent in the very back of my throat where all the German sits.

Speaker: um Yeah, I've been married to Matt for a long time, 10 years. um And I am, as you said, part of the band, which is probably much more a loose term because I press a few buttons every now and then on the keyboard.

Speaker: um But yeah, ah chemical engineer. That's my job. I work in sustainability and I get to be lucky and hear Matt play music all the time.

Speaker: Love it. That's so sweet. you You also really enjoy houseplants, knitting, gardening. Yes, I'm a grandmother. I love an early bedtime too.

Speaker: I'm still trying to get there. I just can't go to bed on time. When you're younger, it's like you probably have reasons for not going to bed on time. And now it's just because I don't want to. ah like It just doesn't feel as good.

Speaker: I fight it sometimes. I'm like, i I just don't want to go to bed. I want to stay up. i'm and I'm a man. I'll do what I want. That's right. Exactly. That's what I think all the time. I'm man. Yeah. yeah And I'm sure you and I, too, i mean, we used to tour the way we go to sleep is with a a movie or a TV show in the background. And I almost do that always on my phone nowadays, too. But I try not to because doctors will tell you that that's bad sleep hygiene.

Speaker: Doctors. and And Internet articles have told me that. But I have always gone to sleep with a movie or TV on, always, as you know. And that's because when I was a little kid, I went through a period of time when for some reason I wouldn't go to sleep.

Speaker: And my dad must have just got tired of me going in his room because, you know, like when you're a little kid your parents need to know that you're having a hard time sleeping. um And they need to know every time. And so I would go in their room every time. And so eventually my dad just went in the living room and like made me a little pallet on the floor and turned on the movie Hook and was like, just watch this. You'll be fine. Yeah.

Speaker: and So that's how I got started with this bad habit. Good movie, though. Really good. Great movie. Thanks, Dad. um Sorry, Matthew. What about you? ah Yeah, I am Matthew Schwartz. um I don't know that we said this or not, but we both live in Atlanta, Georgia. Yeah, I am married to Ava. We. um I've been together 10 years. I know you because of music.

Speaker: I do music. ah Like you mentioned, Pacifico. I also have a boutique vinyl record label called Pacific Records. um I do a podcast called Moon Traveling Podcast with Aaron Sprinkle, one of my heroes and now friends.

Speaker: um Good day. And I do ah companion care ah with the elderly where I just hang out with them and and do whatever they want to do. And, um, and I guess also music related, I write and produce for people if they need or want that.

Speaker: And, um, the latest of that would be the kick snare crash EP that just came out and. Great band. I think that covers everything that I do. I also love my dog and my cat, Bruno and Harriet.

Speaker: And, um, I like hiking, running, yoga, um, comedy, um, and friendship. Friendship. Yours was way more complete than mine. I feel like I have not given a complete overview over who I am. but All right. Great. Well, thanks, guys. Appreciate that. um So next thing, I feel like movie podcast, I think it helps the listeners to understand the guests a little better. Maybe just tell me real briefly ah some of your favorite movies.

Speaker: Do you want me to start again? Yeah, go ahead. We're letting women have power. I love it. Thanks for letting me speak. I really appreciate that. Yes. Yeah. Thank you, sir. um So i know you were going to ask me about my favorite movies, but I have such a problem with the word favorite.

Speaker: So I just want to put a disclaimer out that maybe tomorrow I would feel absolutely different about this. But I do really love all of the, um ah like I love Wes Anderson movies, all of them, because they're so meticulous. And I feel like they're,

Speaker: I don't know. They're a Disney version of a good movie, you know, like it's not always super deep, but it is the vibes are immaculate. So I love those. um And then I love another Anderson guy, Paul Thomas Anderson. Love him for the opposite. Like it's not vibes, but it's actual life. You usually feel like you hear like an entire life story of it all.

Speaker: So huge fan of that. um And then um I think on my letterbox, I have one of my four favorite movies as Arrival, which I just think is an excellent movie.

Speaker: And I'm recently really getting slowly, slowly, slowly into horror. So Midsommar, huge fan. ah Finally watched the first Jordan Peele, which was what was was the name? was Yeah. No, no, no. That's that's Get Out was the first one. Yeah, yeah love that. So I love Jordan Peele.

Speaker: Yeah. So starting to enter the horror scene. I really loved. um Thank you very much. but One of us. One of us. What's the latest vampire guy? um Nosferatu? talking about Sinners? Oh, Nosferatu. yeah. Actually, really. We just watched Sinners last night. I've still not seen it. And it's that it's a recurring thing on this podcast because apparently it must be one of the best films of the year. And everybody's like, oh, Sinners, I loved it.

Speaker: And I missed it completely. And I need to catch up on it. So I'm really behind on that. It's one of those things where everyone told us it was great, so we went ah with too high expectations. yeah It was really good, but I think that if I went in with no expectations, I probably would think it was better than I thought last night.

Speaker: My one gripe, um which is not giving away any spoilers for you, Wes. Thank you much. the i would hate to do that for you, but i really don't like how often they're like...

Speaker: by the way, this is the plot. Remember, you know, like, oh yeah. And this is because of that. And I just like, yeah, they did have this one scene where they cut to something and you're like, I'm like, yeah, we know that. wow I think people were just assuming you're playing on your phone as you're watching the movie. So you need reminders. 2025. So I think needless exposition is sometimes really annoying. It's sometimes really hilarious. It can be yeah one or the other, but yeah.

Speaker: Yeah. Yeah. depends watching a terrible movie or what is considered a good movie. What are your favorite movies, Matthew? ah I love Follow That Bird. um Okay.

Speaker: Yeah. Y'all know that movie? It's a big bird movie. Yeah. Big bird movie. Yeah. Actually, yeah actually i do love that movie. yeah But no, I love, I mean, honestly, any Muppet movie is pretty freaking great. But um no, ah I love Hard Day's Night, ah Beatles movie. I really love that. I like Moulin Rouge. Yeah.

Speaker: I'm big fan of all his movies, Baz Luhrmann. um I love Moonrise Kingdom um and um all his movies. um I like... um

Speaker: Star Wars, I'm into that. Favorite would be Empire Strikes Back. ah The Rogue One is pretty friggin' amazing. Best, absolute best. um Then, um yeah, I don't know. I love James Bond movies.

Speaker: ah He's really speaking for your feminism over here. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I like the ones where he is taking control and not taking no for an answer. Yeah.

Speaker: uh, this is all a joke for anyone listening. Please do not. Canceled. Canceled. Uh, yeah. I mean, there's lots of really, really good movies. I love, uh, I am Sam. It was really so sad, but so beautiful.

Speaker: Uh, Billy Elliot, uh, was life changing for me. Um, uh, finding Forrester. what's the one that had the Elliot, Elliot Smith song that, uh, was really big. That Robin Williams in it.

Speaker: Um, Robin Williams? It's the first movie with Matt Damon. ah Oh yeah, that one. Oh, you're talking about yeah Good Will Hunting. Good Will Hunting. Yeah, that one's really amazing too. You know, yeah.

Speaker: I like good acting. That is a good ah good story. Well, cool. This is good because you guys, um most of my other guests have kind of had very similar movie taste to me. So you guys kind of have, us a lot of the ones Matt was saying were ones that I like, but some were not and some that I've never heard of. And then, ah you know, a lot of Ava's were ones that I've either never seen or like, i'm i'm I'm not a big Wes Anderson fan. Don't shoot me.

Speaker: No, no, I get it. I have a partner who's really not into that at all either. Less of an echo chamber than usual. Yeah. OK, great. Well, another question. And once again, you might not even have you can just say pass or whatever. But um I was curious if you guys and you could even say today's, I guess I was curious if you guys have a favorite buddy cop movie.

Speaker: Honestly, ah we were just talking about The Nice Guys the other day. It's a really good one. That's great movie. But it is for sure The Other Guys because this is such a monumental movie for us.

Speaker: Like it it's part of our relationship really. So yeah it's my favorite one. um Would... Would In Bruges be considered a buddy cop movie? You know, I've not thought of that. the I've not seen that in a really long time. It's about two guys, and they both work together. I mean, Grant, they're not cops, though. I guess that's the thing. They're not Well, here's my thing. i We've had this debate on this podcast a couple times.

Speaker: I'm... willing to be a little loosey goosey with whether or not they have to be cops anyway yeah well and i well like okay if they don't have to be cops there's that but also one of my favorite buddy movies i guess hear no evil see no evil i mean okay great awesome movie that's a great amazing movie also we did mention earlier i am wearing a for people can't see because you can't see a rocky t i'm a big fan of the rocky uh lineage.

Speaker: As am And clearly there's buddies in there, like the trainer, right? Absolutely, yeah. Rocky, clearly they're solving crimes all over. Apollo Creed, Duke, who do Rocky solves many injustices with his fists.

Speaker: Yeah. ah All right, cool. So finally, last thing is, have you guys, and we can do it quick, have you guys seen any um anything recently that you would recommend for our listeners? um And it doesn't have to be new, by the way. You can have watched an older movie.

Speaker: hold on i have too many thoughts all at once i just recently re-watched um what's that what's that movie called is it called masterminds with uh zach galifianakis oh great movie i don't think i've seen that oh it's so funny it's so funny yeah it's based on a true story quote unquote yeah it's it's so funny that's really crystal wigs in it and uh speaking of adam mckay i really liked his movie vice Oh, I did too. Yeah, I really, I did too. I have not seen that one. i need to watch that. liked very much. Yeah. ah ah

Speaker: I like superhero movies. I'm looking through my, my i have a feed on my Instagram that I, and whenever I see something i really, really like, I'll put in there and I'm looking through it now. Superman was really, really good.

Speaker: really liked that. ah The Thunderbolts, which is the newest, I guess not the newest now that Fantastic Four, but the second newest Marvel movie, that was surprisingly really, really good. I cried in that movie.

Speaker: Thunderbolts? Yeah. Do you watch it? I've heard nothing about it. No, I'm not a huge like I don't even know if it's Marvel. I'm not a big superhero movie guy like anything Batman. I'm going eat it up. But other than that, I'm kind of like pretty neutral. So I haven't seen that one yet.

Speaker: I would highly recommend it. It's about depression. And it's it's I thought it was really, really well written. And it has funny. It was made you cry. it It's good. um I saw Stranger Than Fiction recently, which I've seen a long time ago. But yeah, love that movie. Great movie.

Speaker: um yeah i don't know that there's anything else that's coming up in the last little bit but yeah those are the last couple i've seen that i thought were if you're into weird shit dog tooth i really like tooth i don't even know that same guy that did poor things in the favorite like an earlier stuff of his i forget what his name is but um it's really weird which is great okay cool Yeah. And the favorite and the lobster are both really, really good.

Speaker: I don't get to see any of that. And ah for my part, I'll just say kind of on brand for the podcast. I watched this. um If something's from the Netherlands, do you say that's a Dutch film? Is that what you would say? Yeah, that's right. So i watched this Dutch film ah called Almost Cops.

Speaker: And apparently the Dutch title was Bad Boas, which apparently the Boas is like they're like low level, like kind of like safety almost like traffic cops kind of but not really uh so it was sort of like obviously a play on bad boys it was a it was a really funny interesting buddy cop movie and i i really like seeing buddy cop films from other countries so it's on netflix i would recommend everybody check out almost cops uh i learned about it from the shout out bulletproof action podcast there they posted something about it on their instagram so i that's how i learned about it i really liked it I also enjoyed Heads of State um with ah ah Idris Elba and um John Cena.

Speaker: Because of the movie today, I was trying to so hard to say Mark Wahlberg, but it was John Cena and Idris Elba. And so I thought that was pretty good. Not quite a buddy cop movie, but kind of. And I enjoyed that. And then talking about slightly older movies, I recently read the book um A Walk Among the Tombstones by Lawrence Block.

Speaker: I just kind of picked it up randomly and I loved it. It's like a it's a hard-boiled detective... kind of novel, private eye novel, but it came out in the ninety s So it's not like one of those kind of classic 40s or 50s ones. ah But the film had Liam Neeson in it. And it was pretty different than the book, but I really enjoyed that. I think that came out in like 2012 or 2014.

Speaker: um But I really liked that a lot. So that's for me. All right, great. Well, we are going to take a little break and we're going to come back on the other side of this break and we are going to talk about tonight's feature.

Speaker: Tell me once again why I got on this roof. I chalked that up to bad life choices. In the toughest city in the world, nobody fights crime like these guys. Somebody call 9-1-Holy.

Speaker: And then there's the other guys. Stop humming that song. We know, we know. All the gunfights, all the car chases, all the sex we don't want to have with women, but we have to, all due to what you guys do. And we do it again and again.

Speaker: Hey, hey, hey, hey! If I want to hear you talk, I will shove my arm and work your mouth like a puppet. Peace out. Real, real characters. Can you stop it, man? What?

Speaker: I think you're a fake cop. I hear a guy who's probably a little insecure.

Speaker: We all know you're in a very dark place right now. I'm gonna do it! You're feeling as if sweet death is your only release. Oh, we got a second jump off.

Speaker: Oh, look, he's flying. Hi.

Speaker: Who are you? I'm his wife. This is ball and chain. Come on, seriously, who is that? I am a real cop. I'm working on a huge case. You're coming with me. It's a wooden gun.

Speaker: Oh! Listen up. We need your cooperation.

Speaker: We are doing a lot of property damage! How cool a helicopter!

Speaker: Where'd you learn to drive like that? Grand Theft Auto! want do good cop, bad cop. I come strong and then you come in. Got it. I want to know everything! Now! Okay, I'll talk to you, you're reasonable!

Speaker: You want to talk to me? Get away from me! I thought you said bad cop, bad cop. I am a peacock!

Speaker: You gotta let me fly! Pick another bird. Peacocks, they don't fly, Terry. They don't, do they? Just let them have it, Captain. The other guys.

Speaker: How do they walk away in movies without flinching when it explodes behind them? There's no way! The movie industry is completely irresponsible for the way they portray explosions!

Speaker: And we're back! and we're talking but oh yeah I've got you guys now the other guys so this um was a 2010 film I um just looked at my notes and I realized I thought I'd pulled up the wrong notes but I've got them this is very professional podcasting here so uh this is a 2010 film that I um really enjoyed i saw it Way later than 2010.

Speaker: And also, this is the first of my episodes where I've chosen the film specifically for the guests. um Early on in this, I had thought about wanting to have you guys on.

Speaker: And I had thought about this movie specifically for you all because I first saw it at your place. I don't remember exactly when, but I'm sure it was at some point when we were recording um self-care, um i think.

Speaker: and Okay. When we did the vocals for that. um But I was down there and we watched this movie and I really enjoyed it. So um first off, I just wanted to say, do one of you guys want to handle the plot description? Not to throw you for a loop. I can do it if you don't want to.

Speaker: Well, I don't have that in front of me. I mean, I can make it up, but I think that's something well-written. I don't have anything well-written. I just wanted to know if you guys wanted to describe it if you want me to read something off.

Speaker: Yeah, read something. Let me see what it says, and I'll you if it's wrong. Okay, great. Well, you've called my bluff. I'll be right back. I'm going to go grab the box. Hold on. Oh, I have the box. It was right here.

Speaker: Misfit NYPD. Okay. he I have to wait for him to get back. Yeah, yeah, yeah. He's going to have to edit all this. Hey, I've got the box. Okay. I too have the box. so Let's see if our boxes say the same thing. right Okay.

Speaker: All right. So I've got mine here. ah All right. So Misfit NYPD detectives Gamble and Hoyts, Will Ferrell and Mark Wahlberg are sentenced to life behind the desk.

Speaker: They hate each other. crap. Start over, start over, start over. Misfit, NYPD detectives Gamble and Hoyts, Will Ferrell and Mark Wahlberg are sentenced life behind the desk.

Speaker: You just do it. I feel like I keep missing my cue. You just come in next time. They hate each other. ah Yeah. so Sentence us to light behind the desk. They hate each other and the monotony of their mean meaningless jobs as they are forced to live in the shadow of two biggest and most badass cops in the force, Samuel L. Jackson and Dwayne Johnson.

Speaker: But when those guys go down for the count, opportunity knocks for Gamble and Hoyts. Stumbling onto what could be one of the biggest crimes in years, can the other guys step up their game to solve the case without killing each other and destroying NYC in the process?

Speaker: From the director of Step Brothers and Talladega Nights, and Oh, that's the rest of Talia. Talia night's Kim. Yeah, whatever. they Doing great. muby Yeah. We should do that. We should do this for a living. We absolutely should. And what people don't know is we do.

Speaker: um So great. Well, at least we've determined that our box descriptions are the same and that we are. Excellent readers. Yeah. ah And that's what matters.

Speaker: That's what matters most. Well, cool. Awesome. So I think that's a pretty good description. ah People hopefully have seen this film. I really enjoy this movie. I think it's a really good one.

Speaker: um I want to just real briefly give a few of the facts, like the basic facts about this movie. So the director of this is Adam McKay. It's not a name that immediately jumped out to me, but that's possibly because – My focus is always on like action movies and horror movies and stuff. And he's a big name, I would say, in 21st century comedy. as As that plot description told everybody, he ah was the director of ah Anchorman and Talladega Nights and also Step Brothers. So that makes sense because this movie to me feels like sort of like the buddy cop version of those movies. like it's It's right in line with that same type of comedy.

Speaker: um The score was by John Bryan. I'm assuming that's how he pronounces that. ah The writers are Adam McKay, the director, along with Chris Henschey. It stars everyone in the world, but mostly, let's see, Will Ferrell, Mark Wahlberg, Michael Keaton, Damon Wayans Jr., Ice-T, The Rock, or as he prefers to be known now, Dwayne Johnson, Samuel L. Jackson, Ava Mendez, ah and Rob w Riggle.

Speaker: It was released on August the 2010. The budget was a little wishy-washy where I saw it, but it was anywhere from $85 to $100 million. The box office was $170.9 million, so this was a successful film. It brought in close to $70 the budget. Rotten Tomatoes, it's got 79% critic rating 60% rating.

Speaker: over the budget yeah all rotten tomatoes it's got a seventy nine percent critic ah rating and a sixty percent audience score. Really? Yep. ah Yeah, right. Kind of kind of middling audience score there and but pretty not bad critically.

Speaker: And it did win. I just noted it did win at the 2011 Comedy Awards. It won Best Comedy Film. So, yeah. I've got a couple of facts for you. Okay, go for it. I love that. ready?

Speaker: Yes. So um ah Adam McKay was a writer on SNL, which is where he met Will Ferrell. Nice. ah They started their production company, um which ah they did for this movie and all the other movies. um And they also used to have that of website, Funny or Die. That was their website. Oh. um So ah what their production company is...

Speaker: Like the Sanchez one? Yeah, the Sanchez. Yeah. Or something like that. um I'm pretty sure Funny or Die also is still... They got sold. Gloria Sanchez and Gary Sanchez. they said Oh, yeah. I saw that at the first of the movie, right? they're They're not friends anymore. And I don't know what the fallout was. um John Bryan, the guy that the music, are you aware of who he is? i am not at all, no.

Speaker: Okay. So he ah is a famous producer. He started doing um indie rock stuff and then ah got into doing music soundtracks and such. But he, i love the guy. i would love to work with the guy.

Speaker: He worked with Elliot Smith, Rufus Wainwright, Howard. Who else? I think Mac Miller even. Yeah. he Well, he definitely worked at Kanye on an album, too.

Speaker: um But yeah. Oh, here we go. Fiona Apple, Rhett Miller, ah Evan Dando. Yeah. So he's worked a lot. And Matt, you're a big Kanye guy. yeah yeah he worked on sean lennon's album friendly fire which i'm a huge fan of that album dido spoon keen of montreal so he's like he he's like an indie producer guy and i love his work and i would love to work with him um but yeah i'm a huge fan of of him and what he does so i when i saw that he did this i was like oh

Speaker: I'm glad. So for one thing, I'm glad you brought all those facts about um about Adam McKay and Will Ferrell. I'd be curious to know what caused the split, because I you know, I knew the films of Adam McKay and obviously I knew Will Ferrell. I mean, anybody around our age knows Will Ferrell. But like um the whole time I was watching it, I was like, this has a real SNL comedy vibe to me.

Speaker: So that makes a lot of sense now. Yeah, Ava and I were talking about – we watched the movie today to prepare for this ah because we wanted to keep it spread. ah and And basically we were kind of thinking the movie is basically a bunch of little skits that have a ah ah ah little story that's going through the whole thing.

Speaker: Yeah, I definitely agree. Like, I definitely think that, well, that's another thing. And like, I'm kind of skipping around my little like plot, just give my little show notes, but that's okay. I thought that the plot idea was a really interesting plot idea. And like, I don't want to say, I don't want to say it's a shame, like it got squandered or anything, because I think this is a great movie. And I think it did exactly what it needed to do. But I, I would like to see almost that same plot again.

Speaker: idea in a more plot focused film because I was like you it's like the the the plot um and that's kind of how it is really if you think about most of these um those movies that we've named that this crowd did you know it's like an it's like an excuse for them to like make hilarious scenes that are loosely strung together in like this plot shell yeah I agree Yeah, sure so I got two things here. We just Googled it. ah The split between Adam McKay and Will Ferrell was primarily caused by a casting decision for an HBO series about the Los Angeles Lakers.

Speaker: ah McKay chose John C. Reilly for the role of Jerry Buss, ah despite Ferrell wanting the part. McKay admitted he didn't communicate his decision to Ferrell beforehand, which led to hurt feelings and the end of their professional partnership.

Speaker: Farrell also cited differing bandwidths and ambitions as contributing factor. well McKay wanting to expand their production company's reach, while Farrell preferred a more focused approach. That's interesting. And I wonder, like, I did notice when I was going through Adam McKay's filmography, like Ava said earlier about the movie Vice, like I did notice that if you follow his career, he's branched into a lot of other kinds of things besides just comedy, which kind of took me by surprise.

Speaker: Yeah, I didn't even put together or realize he was the guy who did Vice until I was looking up for this, this episode. And if i if memory serves correctly, he also was part of Succession, right? He's one of the people that... I believe he is. Yeah. And how that's, I mean, that's fucking phenomenal. I love Succession.

Speaker: and he played And he played the main one of the bums who has an orgy in the back of the Prius in this movie. so I know! Dirty Mike and the boys! Yeah, Dirty Mike. So, honestly, he's doing great.

Speaker: And i'm also real I'm also super thankful that you brought the information about John Bryan because I love film scores, and usually I talk a lot about the film score on the podcast just because it's ah an interest of mine, but I just knew very little about John Bryan, and the score, we can get to it later, but the score in this movie didn't necessarily jump out to me that much i mean there were some cool moments where they were like great i thought the like old school kind of saxophone you know to set the mood when it would go between but but other than though that and like a few other places the score didn't really jump out to me that much so i i didn't have a lot to say about the score this time so i'm actually really thankful that you did because i do like to discuss film scores and film composers do you know if he's done a lot of other film work because you mentioned yeah he's done lots of film work yeah okay cool i'll pull up the list

Speaker: Dude, the internet's amazing sometimes. I know. Sometimes. I mean, when your internet works. He did Eternal Sunshine the Spotless Mind, Punch Drunk Love, Magnolia, I Heart Huckabees, Lady Bird, Step Brothers.

Speaker: What is there, anything else we've heard of? This is 40. This is 40. Christopher Robin. Heart 8. The Breakup. I he's done lots of films. So a lot of movies I haven't seen and one I have.

Speaker: ah Okay, cool. Great. So now I've seen Step Brothers and this. Yeah. I'm sure we might get to it or or or whatever, but this the song that was written for the film, Pimps Don't Cry, that was sung at the very end by CeeLo and Ava Mendez, was written by him, Adam McKay, and Will Ferrell.

Speaker: They did the lyrics. He did the music and then sang by CeeLo Green and Ava Mendez. But there's a scene in there where they sing it, and so then they made that an actual song. And then they have a music video for it on the Blu-ray. I know. That is correct. saw that in the special features. No. I was going through the special features. I bought this, ah the Blu-ray, just so I could like do some research for the podcast. And what's funny is, like most of the there's a few behind the scenes things that a little that are informative.

Speaker: Most of it's just like extended comedy bits that didn't make it into the movie. And then the commentary track, I like to watch commentary tracks. It was just their moms. it was like They called it the Mom-and-Terry, and it was just like Will Ferrell and Adam McKay and Chris Hinchy's moms talking about the film. So that was kind of interesting, but I didn't watch the whole i didn't watch the whole thing with that commentary on it. I didn't either. I didn't know that part.

Speaker: So we we don't have... We're old school. We don't even have the Blu-ray. We just have the the DVD. And ah it just has um extended and deleted scenes.

Speaker: And then it has... ah ah see a thing called crash and burn the story of the other guys which is basically just about the action uh it's the stunts yeah yeah which actually thought that was really cool yeah it was yeah and we watched all these too so we're gonna be really prepared and then bed bath and way beyond which was literally just uh different improv takes that michael keaton did about bad batten bed bath and beyond that was hilarious yeah Well, that's cool. um So yeah, so I, the the main thing I wanted to ask you guys about, because like I said, this is the first time I've chosen a film specifically for the guest.

Speaker: ah So I know you guys have some history with this film. i already said this is, well, I've watched it like, I guess I'll say two and a half times because I watched it once at you guys place a long time ago. Well, several years ago, not a long time.

Speaker: And then I watched it earlier this week. And then I watched it today on like time and a half. So I can make it through and kind of refresh myself. So I've watched it kind of two and a half times. But what is what is the backstory with you guys in this film? What's your experience with this movie?

Speaker: Okay, so, oh my gosh, it is, it literally is part of our relationship, like I said earlier, because um it was the very first movie we ever watched together. That is true. When we met each other. um And ah so it wasn't like the very first time we met, but the very first time we hung out.

Speaker: um I had watched the movie before, just, I think, because it was on cable or something. And I was just so excited that um Matt knew the movie and that Matt thought I was cool because I knew the movie.

Speaker: And we were just like watching it together and laughing and quoting. um And ah that same night, we also hooked up together. so um But other than that, it's just like there are so many parts of the movie that we quote incessantly all the freaking time.

Speaker: When we say I love you, we say I love you very much, Francine, like all the time. Like that's our thing. yeah um and it's just, yeah, it's I think we both really love it.

Speaker: ah The first time I saw it was in theaters in Winston-Salem before I moved to ah Baton Rouge. Shout out Camel City. Yeah, and I'm not exactly sure who I saw it with.

Speaker: um I would have assumed you were there, but you said you saw with first time. No, sir. Yeah. So, yeah. who Thanks for the invite. If you're listening to this and you knew that you saw this with me, let me know. um But, yeah, I saw it there, and then, yeah, I loved it. I bought it, and then when Ava came over, i was – but I think that was a time where it was between cable and and having apps. And so I just had DVDs and and and our dogs barking.

Speaker: And yeah, so we ah I put it on trying to impress her and she thought ah ah I thought it was cool that she knew it. And yeah, and like she said, we quote it and was like, oh she'd laugh at the same things I laughed at. and And then he would hold my hand. Yeah, then I held her hand. Yeah, it was it was it was really good.

Speaker: Our first date, though, was going we went to the movies to go see Cowboys and Aliens. Cowboys versus Aliens. Not nearly as good, though. I still haven't seen that. I feel like it sounds like it's something I should see, but I still haven't. So I, um first off, hats off to you guys for having the most most romantic backstory of any of my guests with ah with a film. Great for you.

Speaker: Also, I really like the fact that Matt put this movie on to to make Ava think that he was cool. I like that. Yeah. I like that. Matt's a musician. He's got plenty of things he could go with, but he's going with the other guys, and I appreciate that.

Speaker: Well, that's cool. Awesome. i I honestly did not know that when I thought of you guys for this movie. I just knew that you both really liked it and that we had watched it at your place. I actually didn't know ah that that was such an integral part of your relationship, so that's pretty awesome.

Speaker: Yeah, it's really I mean, we're really insufferable when we watch it, too, because there is just I mean, a whole lot of quoting going on. Basically, we can quote the entire movie. But this is that kind of movie, though, right? Like I was thinking that the whole time, like I watched it here, you know, by myself. And I just kept thinking, like, what ah for for one of many reasons why it's such a shame that we don't live closer to each other, because I was like, this would be a fun movie to all watch together.

Speaker: yeah it It seems like a great movie to watch in a social setting, mostly because of what we just said a minute ago. So much of it is just like hilarious scenes and a lot of improv strung together yeah ah by sort of a plot framework.

Speaker: Also, i have to ask you. So you watched this recently. We watched. Did you watch the theatrical or the unrated version? So both. I watched The Unrated earlier in the week, and then today on my 1.5 speed, I watched The Theatrical. yeah um So I've watched both. I will confess, i and maybe it's because I'm not as intricately familiar with the movie, I didn't spot a ton of differences. I mean, there's only nine minutes difference, which I mean, I guess is significant, but I'm assuming it's just...

Speaker: When I own rewatch, it felt like maybe some of the comedic scenes were shorter. And I'm assuming the unratedness maybe is because when they were improv-ing, they said some things that wouldn't fly with the surprising PG-13 rating that the theatrical cut has.

Speaker: And so I'm assuming that the only thing was it was maybe some of the improv scenes were a little longer. Yeah, so the the unrated version is 10 and a half minutes longer. um is makes it actually rated R according to what I Googled.

Speaker: ah But it includes extended scenes. Many of the existing scenes are longer while additional dialogue or gags that were cut from the theatrical release were added. So, um yeah, that's what it is.

Speaker: The main scene that is in it that's not in the other one is is that whole scene with the table, right? Isn't that different? With the table? Yeah, where he moves stuff on the table. Isn't that not in the original version? oh Yeah, I think you're right.

Speaker: The art show? The art show, yeah. yeah Yes, that, right. That's not, you're right because I'd forgotten about that because I watched the theatrical version earlier today and then, yeah, that wasn't in it at all. Yeah, that's interesting. and I will say i definitely preferred the did ah did you guys lose me?

Speaker: No. OK, great. OK, cool. I'm probably going to cut most of this stuff out, but just in case any of it gets in listeners, we've been having a lot of trouble with connectivity. And so that's it. So, yeah. Yeah.

Speaker: I think that the unrated version is a lot better. And the reason that I say that is not because I'm like, I don't want to watch PG-13. I actually kind of thought it was cool that they could make a funny movie and still be PG-13. But um I think that the unrated version is just – when I was watching the theatrical version, there were certain scenes where I was like, man, that seems abrupt.

Speaker: Like it seems like – I feel like you get a little more out of the characters and their interactions in the unrated version. That's true. agree. I agree. I agree. And I mean, for all of the things that we said about this movie being basically just skit after skit, which it's true. I mean, there's so many quotes in there. I feel like nowadays, just one part of this ah being funny in a movie would be like an he alert a hilarious movie.

Speaker: But the fact that there is a good plot behind it, you know, that yeah that go that runs through the entirety of the movie and actually has like a point to make at the end. yeah feel like that really rounds it up. It's not just hilarious and silly, but it actually makes a good point.

Speaker: yeah And it's it's an interesting idea. um You know, I was watching some of the special features and Adam McKay mentioned that kind of the the basic idea, which I mean, I guess we all know, but it just kind of occurred to me how simple but how interesting of an idea is.

Speaker: It's a cop who's pretty much unremarkable. You know, he he's um in with all these other people who are trying to be the action heroes, but he's like an unremarkable, just like desk cop. And he just accidentally stumbles onto this major crime that because everybody else is is trying for glory would have probably gone under the radar of most of these other people.

Speaker: Exactly. And then the other guy just great idea always wanting to be like, ah hey, there's drug dealers and Colombian drug lords. and yeah which It's one of my favorite things about the whole movie is every time Hoyts is like, they're Colombian drug lords. It made me laugh every single time that he'll be like, he could be involved in all kinds of drugs.

Speaker: And finally, the guy said specifically when they were talking about the ah inspiration, they mentioned that Hoyts wants to be like Miami Vice, you know, so Will Ferrell wants to sit at his desk and Hoyts just really wants to be like ah Miami Vice, Miami Vice. So, ah yeah, well, I'll say this. So, yeah, I agree. And I think. honestly, maybe that interesting plot is what separates it from like, so in the last episode, um Donnie and I talked about Bulletproof, which I think is a fine film and stars ah the father of one of this film's stars and when seniors in that.

Speaker: ah But, you know, we talked about how that movie was good, but it was sort of unremarkable. It was a little formulaic. And I do wonder if, if simply, well, I think two things maybe make this movie stand out a little more. One is that interesting plot idea. And two is the fact that like This – I don't know. Maybe it's just for people you know roughly our age, generation, whatever. Like the Will Ferrell type of comedy was the gold star of comedy for a long portion of the early 21st century.

Speaker: And so this movie has that going for it as well. It's like basically a powerhouse comedy. What's interesting in this is that he plays a straight guy in this. Like he's yeah never the straight guy. And in this movie, he's the straight guy. and Sort of. Yeah.

Speaker: Sort of, yeah. But he is until he's Gator. Yeah. But he he does such a great job. and Yeah, you're right. every like um I wrote the first thing. but but First of all, we have a crap ton of notes, but I realized 99% of our notes are just our favorite quotes in the film.

Speaker: Love that. but But I had written at the what my favorite character of the whole thing is, which is Captain Gene Mock, which is Michael Awesome. He is by far my favorite in the whole film. He's hilarious.

Speaker: every Every line he says is just golden. And in that little ah special thing about Bed Bath & Beyond, he said that the only thing he knew when he agreed to the job is that he was the captain of the force, but had did a second job at Bed Bath & Beyond.

Speaker: why i love that. I love that so much. Why do you have to work at Bed Bath & Beyond, though? and Oh, because his son is bisexual. He's trying to explore his bisexuality by studying. NYU? Yeah. At NYU, yeah.

Speaker: And I like that he throws that out to the DA. He just throws that out randomly to the DA and the DA says, that's great. And the DA tremendous. Tremendous. Yeah. I thought Michael Keaton was awesome in this too. And like, I really liked that character.

Speaker: Another kind of repeating trope of the buddy cop genre is like the angry, disaffected police captain. And everybody does that a little differently. know, we talked about how in 48 hours and then played for for comedy later in last action here, it's the same guy like yells and screams and gets really mad. And in this one, Michael Keaton is more like, just like,

Speaker: I don't know if the word is like flummoxed. He's just more like, you guys are stressing me out. I'm trying to do this other job at Bed Bath & Beyond. You guys are stressing me out. Like he's like kind of nice. And then especially when they go see him at his other job, he's like, hey, Alan, like he's really happy to see him there.

Speaker: You coming for the bath mats? So I just thought it was ah thought it was great. and I agree with you. I think he's really good. And I will say that, like, for me, ah I really liked Martin and Fosse. I yeah really like the the kind of like there's for people who hopefully everybody's seen this movie. But the kind of interplay of this film is it's between 74,000. Why did they only steal that much?

Speaker: ah For me, there's like there's three main sets of cops. There's Danson and Highsmith who are like, To me, that's where most of the parody of this film lives is with Nancy and Highsmith. They are an extremely exaggerated version of your Martin and Riggs or Murtaugh and Riggs. don't know Martin. Martin, Murtaugh Riggs from Lethal Weapon and all the guys from Bad Boys and all that. It's kind of like they're an amplified version of that.

Speaker: Then you have Martin and Fosse who are like trying their best to be the cool cops but just not quite getting there. you know And then you have Hoyts and Gamble who we've already discussed. like Gamble's not interested and Hoyt really wants to be Miami Vice and he has anger problems and a backstory where he shot Derek Jeter by accident. so He's a biracial angel.

Speaker: Yeah.

Speaker: But yeah, so I really liked Martin and Fosse. And I will say that's another thing for me that like stands out more in the unrated cut and maybe some of the ah ah extra features, the extra scenes and stuff. It's just like if you watch the theatrical version this film, Martin and Fosse are not in it as much.

Speaker: But if you yeah watch – give them a little chance to shine with their improv lines, they are – they're doing a lot better. And I thought they really funny. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, they have so many golden lines to the whole, like, what are you going to do though? Bar Mitzvahs. Bar Mitzvahs. I mean, that's He's like, I took the belt off my neck.

Speaker: took the belt off my neck and I left. out of there yeah Yeah. Bar Mitzvahs. I love that. And then I liked the part when they're like making fun of his, as a Prius driver, I will just say like, I really appreciated all the Prius oh yeah humor in this film.

Speaker: And I did appreciate. Yeah, I did. Yeah. It's great. Gas mileage. I think my, uh, suburban crapped one of these last night. Uh, Does come up with a dental dam? So I really liked all the, the the well, it was like good natured Prius ribbing, but also in the end that Prius got the job done.

Speaker: I did read that they had three different Priuses for this film, one of which was equipped with a racing engine. So mine doesn't come equipped with a racing engine. Yeah. Yet. Yet. But it does get great gas mileage. I will say that for her.

Speaker: And the environment thanks you. Well, that's good. And since you're talking about the different buddies but in the buddy cop movie, the damson and the Highsmith is so interesting to me because...

Speaker: And I remember when it came out, they weren't in any of the trailers or previews. At least I don't remember them being in it. So when I saw it and I saw that there was Samuel L. Jackson and The Rock, I was like, oh, they're in this.

Speaker: And then ah spoiler alert, if you haven't watched the movie, go watch it now. um When at the beginning, they're like you said, over the top stuff. And then when they jump off, they're like, these people are going down zip lines and they're like, how we going to catch them? They're like, we'll aim for the bushes. And they jump 100.

Speaker: 100 feet off this thing there wasn't even an awning in their way um they they they just show it they show them like you know fist bump and then jump together and then just splat on the ground and i remember being in the theater and once they hit and died i laughed so loud and no one else in that theater was laughing and i was just like well they're missing out on like what is happening am i crazy that was hilarious man you're a sick man It is it is funny. And like, I think that that humor is funny just because it made it make a lot more sense to me when I once again watched some of the extra features and Adam McKay was like, yeah, the reason they do this is because they've just like bought into their own hype so much that they just they think they're invincible, you know? Yeah. And I really love that. But I think what I love most of all is like I had a question about this movie that i was going to ask you guys, which is like.

Speaker: it is this movie a parody i've seen in some places it referred to as a parody would you call it a parody i don't think that there are like there parts of the movie that are parody like but i feel like the movie itself has enough to say that it's it's not like scary movie for scream yeah i i would say it's an homage more than anything yeah Yeah, I think that those sometimes run you know a pretty ah close line between parody and homage. i think And when I was watching it, to me, most of the parody seems centered on Danson and Highsmith. And I think that's what makes it really funny is because you know that that scene where they're just like, we're untouchable –

Speaker: We're going to jump off this building and then they die is is a great like subversion of the genre. Because if you watch like Lethal Weapon or Die Hard or any of those kind of old action movies like the bad guys, I mean, the good guys, not bad guys. The good guys are basically invincible, right? Like they get blown up and shot and tortured. And then the next thing they're like fist fighting, you know, and I love all that. But it's just really funny to watch them be like, we got to go in the heroic music plays and then they just splat on the sidewalk. It's pretty great.

Speaker: Well, yeah, they have that whole scene in this movie, too, where Hoyts and Gamble, um they are ah going to the insurance company and then it blows up.

Speaker: And they're like saying that, you know, like if you i had wrote it down looking for it. um But based so walking away from an explosion. Yeah. they make it How do they walk away in movies without it without ah ah flinching?

Speaker: I call bullshit on that. yeah He's like, scalding my skin. Yeah, he's like, the Millennium Falcon after blew up the Death Star. He's like, that's bullshit. And then the other one says, how dare you, Babastar Wars? It was all accurate.

Speaker: ah yeah But like, you know, that it showed that they actually could be hurt and such too when it came to the real characters. So that was good and interesting. Yeah, that's true. yeah also sort of the heavy of the film, the Australian guy at that moment when they blow up that insurance company, ah he just says, I love bombs. I love bombs. I thought that was a really funny line. like I missed it the first time I watched it today. He just went, I love bombs. It didn't say anything else.

Speaker: Perfect. ah that That actor, unfortunately, is no longer with us. Oh, that sucks. He was in um the first season ah of Ashoka. Did I say that right? Ashoka? Ashoka.

Speaker: ah The Star Wars show. ah Ray Stevenson is his name. And he passed away. um So they had to recast him for season two. didn't know that. But yeah. Well, that's sad. But yeah, well, he did. what are they three What are the three things that he loves, Ava?

Speaker: Oh, my gosh. um I definitely know it's Kylie Minogue. yeah um The small dimples just above a woman's butt cheeks. Now you're saying beautiful beautiful features.

Speaker: Thank you. sure so And the look in a man's eye when he knows I'm about to hurt him. Yeah. ah Yeah. he I thought he did great in this and he was great as, as sort of the heavy.

Speaker: ah I liked that scene a lot. I also thought that the, um, Ershon was an interesting character. yeah Watching the, watching the, the, um, behind the scenes stuff, they mentioned how that character sort of changed as they wrote it. Like at first he was going to be sort of your typical, like sleazy baddie. And then he became this sort of like eclectic,

Speaker: kind of like weirdo just sort of guy yes yeah like a kind of a bumbler a little bit you've got a choice jersey boys or mama mia my favorite line that he says in this whole movie is when he says he's like or i can give you both 10 million dollars to walk away it's not a bribe and will ferrell goes it's absolutely a bribe you're offering us money not to do our jobs and he just goes not a bribe i just really thought that line was delivered so well i just really like that a lot uh and the first time they come to his office i've always wondered this he's watching what i believe is spongebob squarepants porn is that what also thought it was i don't know enough about spongebob i think he's playing a pornographic video game oh because he's like you got the choice you could walk the plank or you can take your panties off

Speaker: Yeah, but I thought that that was one of the characters in SpongeBob and the other one was supposed to be the... I also have never seen SpongeBob. I don't know a lot about SpongeBob. I just assumed it was some sort of pirate adult film.

Speaker: Yes. Yeah, I thought it was like he could actually choose actions, but maybe it's just a film. Either way, he's working hard and he's doing ah good work for his clients. So we we know that about him. We know he loves musicals and he works very hard all day. ah There was a really funny scene in the ah i don't I guess maybe this wasn't on you guys because some of them are only on the Blu-ray. There was a Blu-ray feature called Why Are There Brits in This?

Speaker: And a lot of it was just Adam McKay and the actor who played Ershon, whose name I can't remember right now. Alan Cummings. Okay, great. Thank you. And it was just them kind of trading insults back and forth. And Adam McKay was pretending like, yeah, you know, in in England, their culture is still basically like the 17th century. Like they live in huts and they don't understand, you know, how to make films.

Speaker: He's like, you know, they don't understand filmmaking. And then ah when it came back to Ershon, he was just like, yeah. You know, Adam was really generous with his with sharing his collection of he calls them adult films. You know, they're they're just porns.

Speaker: And he went on and on. He was like, he's got them in every every available format. He would bring them in, you know, not just DVDs. He would bring in, you know, VHS and even Betamax. And it was just really funny to mention that after all that. ah That's pretty good. funny So I think so.

Speaker: Another thing I wanted to ask you guys, do both of you guys do improv or is it just you, Matt? Do you both do it or is it just you? We both do it. OK, cool. So obviously there was a lot of of improv in this movie. I don't have any kind of background in improv other than being fan.

Speaker: I listen to comedy bang bang sometimes, so I feel like I know a little bit about it, but I've never done it. But just like ah I thought it was cool. And I mean, I guess it's kind of a feature of all these movies like your Anchorman's Talladega Nights that how much of it was.

Speaker: improv Like how much, how much, how many of the lines were improv? I don't know the answer to that. Oh no, I just, I just was commenting. It's a fact. Like you can, there's a, there's a special feature where it's called Linorama and they talk about how they just improv the lines and they just show like multiple takes, you know, of them like doing different lines and the way they delivered them and they've just tried over and over again, different ways. I was just saying, I thought it was interesting. I didn't know if yeah with your improv background. Well, the thing I really love about it is like, I didn't,

Speaker: I really didn't really understand improv until I started doing it and um taking classes. But, you know, one of the things they tell you is that you got to make it matter. You got to make it take it seriously. And I think that's what makes it so funny, because in the movie, even the people that aren't the straight guys, they their character. They're going to take it seriously. You know, that right. when ah When the guy is, when Mark is in the Bed Bath & Beyond apron, he's really excited about those bath mats, you know? And feel like that's what makes it so of believable that they really believe it.

Speaker: Yeah, I mean, that's 100%. And i believe ah that Adam McKay, and and I guess Anne Will Ferrell, but Adam McKay is the director of these films that we've we've mentioned, and this film.

Speaker: he ah He, a lot of times, because just like Anchorman was a lot of improro improvisation in that, and Stepbrother, same way. And what he does is that like they have a scripted line or two, and then and a couple options, and then they just let the actor take a couple stabs at it too.

Speaker: And then they let editors ah pick what they think is the funny, you know, with editing, pick pick what the funniest one is. And I think that that really is good. And I love they did that in the office too. Like it really gives trust into your team because, you know, who knows the character better?

Speaker: i mean, obviously the writer knows the character, they wrote it, but who knows the but character better than the person that literally is portraying it. So to give them a voice and give them a choice to be able to, be that character and and be like i think the character would say this and and a director giving them that chance at least you know least be heard if if even if they don't use it i think is really freaking beautiful yeah i agree yeah and i like that point that you just made because i think that obviously a good writer can can make characters different from one another but i think probably what adds even more you know

Speaker: difference or, or i don't want to say realism, but you know, like makes them different and stand out is the fact that then the actor also gets to put their own stamp on the character. Right. And I like that a lot. Yeah. Yeah. Um, and just for those that are, uh, playing bingo and keeping up with us, uh, apparently Ershon was watching hentai on his laptop, according to the internet.

Speaker: well that's just a sort of. Yeah, well, that's that's anime. It's anime porn, yeah. so So that's a little bit different than what any of us said. That's true, yeah. But really, honestly, it was in the same ballpark. We did great. we did i appreciate I think we all did great with our observation skills. We're all we're all little detectives on that one.

Speaker: It's funny, another thing, though, that you that you said that stood out to me, Ava, was when I was watching some of the behind-the-scenes stuff, I think it might have been the one about the stunts, Will Ferrell said, the quote that I wrote down from Will Ferrell was, the best comedy is played really real.

Speaker: Yes. Yes. Yeah. So that's exactly what you were saying. So that's interesting. Yeah. So yeah in improv class, I remember I got, uh, was like, we took four levels and then you graduate and then there's a fifth level that's long form. So the four levels are just kind of teaching you the platform and, you know, honing your skills and stuff.

Speaker: yeah I remember I had a teacher. Yes. And, um, I had a teacher that told me that I'm, that I was too funny. He's like, quit trying to be funny. And I was like, isn't that the point? You know, like you would think like it's comedy. That's the point.

Speaker: And then we learned that actually the most important sound you can hear and and ah improv is not actually a laugh. It would be if someone goes, ah, or ooh, or like those noises have way more, much more weight. You want them to believe you want to bring them in. You want to,

Speaker: uh you know so it's about the the characters and their relationships and and those kind of things are way more important than being funny the funny will happen but building building building those relationships building the scene you know making it about the relationship is the most important thing so yes playing it real and and and i think that they did that great i mean i cared about even though you know the relationship with eva mendez and and um a i and ava mendez yes come on matt And and Will Ferrell like is is a ridiculous relationship, but you also are like you know rooting for them to get back together and yeah make it work. And I mean, i think I honestly think that is what makes the funny even funnier and better. If you laugh partly because you have attention that was um you know stored up and now you want to laugh it off, like that makes it even better.

Speaker: um Yes. And so that's all part of making it matter in my head. Yeah. I think they did great with that. and I think that the improv nature of all these these films um adds a lot to it. you know I've always kind of thought about that era of Will Ferrell and all that stuff. It's sort of like, i don't know i and don't feel like this sounds complimentary, but in my mind, it's like the era of nonsense comedy where we just laugh really hard at like the ridiculous things they throw out.

Speaker: And I think they build a lot of those lines through what Matt just said, yeah kind of playing off the script and then just being able to just like go free and do as many... takes as they want of just saying crazy things. And I think that's how you get some of the funniest, most quotable lines of any of these movies, you know? Yeah, I totally agree.

Speaker: And ah again, I worry ah how much of that is possible these days, not because of, ah not necessarily because culture has changed and climate and all that, but really just...

Speaker: You know, there was so much more ah money to be made in movies. I mean, you can make a lot of money if you make a huge movie, but something small like that, i feel like it's so much harder to make nowa it nowadays because there's just not the space for it. There's not the time and money. You got to pump this out really quickly and put it on Netflix. And so.

Speaker: um Yeah, it's really true. No, it's really, it's definitely true. And like as somebody like myself who loves like B movies and who loves like, ah you know, I love a lot of what I watch is my VHS collection, like the old straight to video days. I mean, a lot of what you're, a lot of what you're talking about, I've often wondered, like there are still straight to video movies like there for a while. Steven Seagal was making like five of them a year, but like, you know, yeah they they don't, they don't really. Yeah. We'll get to him, but they don't really... ah say Not this episode, but coming up.

Speaker: But i I said they don't really make a lot of like... they don't make a lot of same kind of B movies that they made back in the video store era anymore. And it's because the video store era gave a place for that, it gave a a market for that, which was the video stores. It's like you said, now everything is sort of like with music and like how, you know, a few, a few big players have bought up all the space. You know, it's the same thing in movies. A few big players have bought up all the space. And so everything has to be either a huge blockbuster or nothing at all. And That's why I try to support um independent films. Like I often say I'm pretty hit or miss on like a twenty four

Speaker: Some of their movies I love and some of their movies I'm like, what is this? But I'm still glad that they're out there doing it because it's, you know, it's an independent film studio that's gotten really successful and had a lot success. success. And I think that we need to celebrate those spaces. you know And like even the other day, I went to a local film festival here in here in Raleigh, and and ah one of my friends makes short films. And a couple of my friends were actors and things in it, and they they won this like local contest. And I just thought, man, this is really neat to see something like this just celebrating independent filmmaking. So I think it's important for people to celebrate you know smaller and independent film whenever they can.

Speaker: I fully agree with that. Yeah. We lose a lot of the art and culture of it. And like, yeah it might sound weird to me to hear me say that as somebody who mostly likes stuff with explosions and machine guns and and karate chops, but like still there's room for that as well in a, in a certain place. And it's just, uh, can't get all that stuff when it's, everything has to cost 16,000 billion, million dollars, you know?

Speaker: Yeah, and also, I mean, i know this is maybe taking it a little bit too far, but I feel like not just does that help with independent people who make independent art, but it literally, i mean, it contributes to activism in a way because sure you are just...

Speaker: Allowing people to contribute and add to the zeitgeist and say their, you know, say their piece and you do that through art. And if that falls away and there's no platform for that anymore, then nobody will be heard.

Speaker: I agree. And i just think that, you know, and and it's fine. We can go, we can do whatever we want. This, this platform, we can do whatever we want. We can go as far as want. But, ah but so I think that they can't shut us down, but I think that I agree with you. And I just think that like, you know, the, the smaller and indie films, hopefully they'll find a place to live because it adds more.

Speaker: It adds a voice for everyone from anyone who's trying to look for something, some deep introspective meaning to someone like myself who just wants to go see a bunch of people who are blowing stuff up, but on a smaller, on a smaller level. yeah So, you know, yeah. um Well, yeah, great. So I'm glad.

Speaker: but go Go for Matt. If you're in the Atlanta area, these are the theaters that we have frequented or that we suggest to go to that are independent theaters and one ah particular video store. So there is the Springs Theater, which is where we go the most, independently owned. ah The Plaza Theater, ah which is one of the oldest.

Speaker: The Terra Theater, owned by the same people. Lambark Theater. There's a Starlight Drive-In. And then I've taken you, Wes, to Videodrome. Awesome. Oh, I love Videodrome. was glad you were going to bring up Videodrome. I really love Videodrome.

Speaker: I have to go down there every time I visit you guys. Yeah. And they do – the Videodrome partners with the Plaza and the Terra, and so they do – they have a person that works at Videodrome. They rotate.

Speaker: They pick a movie each for each month, and then they show it, so I guess two a month, at the Plaza and the Terra, and you never know what it is. Sometimes it's something crazy. Sometimes it's something you know really, really good. Sometimes it's something goofy. you know But yeah.

Speaker: I need to send it to you. There's like a grindhouse ah film series thing that's being done in Atlanta that keeps popping up on my – I don't have it in front of me, but keeps popping up on my socials and recommending it to me. And I'm like, oh, I wish I could be there.

Speaker: Well, while you're touting some of your locals, I'll also say, hey, if you live here in the Triangle, you should – always be going to the Carolina theater of Durham. They do the retro film series every weekend on Fridays. And, uh, that's where I basically live on the weekends. And, uh, also, uh, obviously we have an Alamo draft house, which is great, but it's not necessarily independent anymore. And we have here in Raleigh, we have the Rialto at five points.

Speaker: Uh, so people should definitely support that video store wise. We have Acme rewind, which is in Greensboro, not in the triangle, but I love Acme rewind. And I think everybody should go there and just check out some old films.

Speaker: So another thing, Ava, that you brought up a minute ago was, I think it was you, maybe it was Matt, but I think it was you, was the dynamic between the gambles between ah Ava Mendez and Will Ferrell. And I will say that that was one of the things that stood out to me the most from the my first watch, which was several years ago to now. Like before rewatching it, I definitely remembered their interactions as just being like so funny to me.

Speaker: Yeah. My plain wife, my plain home. Yeah. I mean, it's just, she doesn't have the biggest, but he's ever seen You're not the biggest, not by a long shot.

Speaker: Yeah. It's, I mean, it's just absolutely hilarious because by any, uh, measures, Eva Mendes is scalding hot and he treats her like she's just some, you know, annoying broad, like big old broad, yeah he calls her big old broad she likes to wield it yeah yeah which she's a big old broad and she likes the way she plays that you know like and the way this is played for the both of them somehow it doesn't come across like he is a fucking douchebag uh yeah woman hater but like you know the way she reacts makes it funny and cute because she's just like oh alan alan and his abs

Speaker: And it's just absolutely adorable. But I also, I mean, if we're bringing up um dynamics with women and Alan, we need to talk about Christina. Arnold Palmer alert.

Speaker: It's Christina. Are you stupid are you deaf? Yeah. and the The most funny thing about that is that she gets Terry's name wrong. She says, Oh yeah. heie That's right.

Speaker: Yeah. Yeah, I thought it was really funny. And I'm glad you said that about the dynamic between the gambles, because I was thinking like if you were to just describe this movie to somebody and they had not seen it, you'd be like, this guy sounds like he sucks.

Speaker: But somehow they play it off like to where you don't really get that impression. Like I was thinking he's like, if you're going to come to dinner, dress like a hobo. like just so When he's like dressed like a hobo, he's like, if I put that in to my Cosmo fashion app, it would get a D minus.

Speaker: Yeah. I thought it was pretty great. This short braised ribs taste like a dog's asshole. I was thinking, why would anyone?

Speaker: ah I thought it was so funny. Like that was some of the like classic stuff that you see in these, in these kind of Will Ferrell movies of that period to me, just their interactions are just so goofy and weird, but really well done. it just stood out to me. And the Christina thing, for one thing that the name Christina was hilarious to me. He says like Christine and she's like, it's Christina. Yeah.

Speaker: You idiot. You come to my house and you get my wife's name right. Probably the line that I say from this film most of all is the Arnold Palmer alert. Arnold Palmer alert. Because if anybody knows me, an Arnold Palmer ah is one of my favorite drinks in the world. Shout out my buddy Mark Senter for introducing me to the Arnold Palmer many years ago.

Speaker: ah But i i just love him. And so I find frequent... usage of the arnold palmer alert ah that's so good that entire scene is just absolutely excellent what are our most quoted lines like um we definitely do the uh i love you very much francine yes and i actually this year for our 10 year wedding anniversary i got her a necklace that says francine on it yes no it's funny fe yeah um we also do that's judgment jimmy yeah in the and which is ah probably a deep cut which is when they go to the um support group for people who are cops who shot their gun in the line of uh of defense or not the line of duty thank you thank you very much um and um she's like this is a judgment-free zone um you need to share and then somebody says you asshole for shooting derrick jeter and then she says that's judgment jimmy so we say that a lot

Speaker: Yeah, which is funny because the guy who plays Jimmy, who once again, I feel like I should have um brought my brought my research and remember that actor's name because I feel like I've seen him in several things, too. Yeah, he's in Vinyl, the show Vinyl. OK, amazing show.

Speaker: But he's only in a couple scenes in this. But yeah, I thought that was really funny when when he gets mad because he's telling that whole story, too. And he's like, I feel like ah she's like, how does that make you feel? and he's like, i feel like Viagra with a human face or something like that. When he's telling this story about his officer involved shooting rocks. Yeah, something like that. I just thought it was great.

Speaker: I like that scene a lot, too. Bobby Cannavale. Oh, yeah. say I think you pronounced it perfectly. I think so, too. Sure, probably not. He's Third Watch, ah Will and Grace.

Speaker: Um... a Boardwalk Empire. there we go. Mr. rob Robot. Blue Buds. ah Master of None. Yeah. Homecoming.

Speaker: Nine Perfect Strangers. The Watcher. He also was on Broadway, too. So, yeah. Boardwalk Empire was, I guess, the thing that that I most probably knew him from then because I used to love that show. when it was I would like to watch that. never seen it.

Speaker: Oh, it was pretty good, man. i used it to fill the soprano-shaped hole in my heart for a while. There's always a soprano-shaped hole in my heart. Yeah, it never quite filled that the hole, but it was a really good show.

Speaker: All right, I'll check it out. Yeah, pretty good. um Cool. so that being said, let's see what else. I just also wanted to say that I loved any part where Will Ferrell reverted into gator mode.

Speaker: That was the other thing that really stood out to me because I didn't see that coming the first time I watched it, where like you slowly find out that he has this backstory as a pimp, but he doesn't want accept that he's a pimp. He's like, I ran a dating service. Are you listening to my story? Are you listening to his story? I thought that was so funny. I'm a Anytime he'd be like, Gator!

Speaker: Gator needs his cat! like a yeah Gator's bitches better be wearing jimmies! Who even are you? Get out of here! Get out! I thought, who what man did this to you? I thought i thought that any time he turned into Gator was really funny.

Speaker: And that's one of the only times that he was, you're right, like he is the straight man for pretty much the whole movie. And that's the only time that he gets to let his inner goofball character climb out is when he's Gator. And I just thought it was really funny. A really funny thing.

Speaker: um So another thing I wanted to mention, just ah Adam McKay mentioned Midnight Run as being one of his influences for making this film, which I thought was great. I recently watched Midnight Run ah for the first time, and I really liked it. Have you guys seen that?

Speaker: No, I have have not. I wrote that down because, yeah, he said Midnight Run and then um Beverly Hills Cop. but Which... Yeah. Anybody who's listened to this podcast knows that I, how I feel about Beverly Hills Cop. the things I've made. What talked about that, that I thought was interesting. And I think you said this earlier, but the, it was a comedy, but the action was played straight.

Speaker: And, and I, I respect that because that you make, you make the, make it count. Like we were talking about earlier. Yeah. yeah But may that run, what is that? ah It's a movie with um Charles Grodin, R.I.P., and ah Robert De Niro, where Robert De Niro plays a bounty hunter who is who gets the job to go track down this white-collar criminal who's kind of on the run for – he's on the run from the mob, I guess. like he And so they they want to bring him in um for you know to be a witness against the mafia, and but he's on the run because he's worried for his life. And so Robert De Niro gets this job to like bring him – bring him home. it's It was a really good movie. It's also directed by Martin Brest, who was the director of ah Beverly Hills Cop.

Speaker: And it's a lot of people from Beverly Hills Cop. It has a Danny Elfman score. It's a really great film. I think you'd really like it a lot. It's sort of like ah an action comedy version of trains, planes and automobiles in a lot of ways, like the dynamic plays sort of like that.

Speaker: um I really liked it. Of course, I love the Beverly Hills Cop influence as well. Yeah, it's funny. I had mentioned that like a lot of these buddy cop movies, they can kind of a lot of them are action comedies, ah but they can run the gamut from being more comedy focused to like straight action in some of them. And I did think this one was definitely on the more comedy side. But when they did have action scenes, they had really cool ones.

Speaker: Yes. Yeah, and that was also in that ah special feature was saying that they it was shot on location in New York City and that everything was practical. um Like at the beginning when they're going down the, like falling to their deaths, they actually had their stuntmen on wires and you know And the scene in the beginning, too, where they have the ah car go into the bus and then the and then slingshot out of the bus into the Trump building, which so glad that Trump's building got destroyed in this. But all that was done practically um and they ah showed it. And that was really cool because, that it I mean, I can assume that, but when you assume in movies, you're usually wrong.

Speaker: Will you assume what? no that that That that's all real, you know? Oh, yeah yeah. I really enjoyed that crash and burn feature about the stunts. I think it's really sad that stuntmen, as far as I know, still don't have like you or stunt people.

Speaker: ah You still don't get a ah you still don't have an Oscar for. Yeah, that's that's pretty crazy. I signed a petition several years ago because like how ridiculous, like so much of what we love about movies comes from the stunts. And they really like put themselves on the line to make these great stunts. And I really liked that feature. It added a lot to me to know that how they did some of those great action scenes. And that's also the one where they talked about one of my favorite scenes in the movie where they they called it the gauntlet.

Speaker: But it's basically when they were they had the they had David Ershon and they need to get him to the the bank to stop the transfer where they're stealing the police pension fund. And so they have to basically get through every bad guy imaginable that would been build up this whole film in the Prius.

Speaker: And so there's just like this huge action chase scene that feels like it could belong in Bad Boys or Lethal Weapon or anything. But it's done in a Prius and they're doing like pit maneuvers where they're like spinning the cars around in up in a Prius.

Speaker: And just it was one of my favorite scenes in the whole film. film helicopters shooting guns i thought it was so awesome it was a great one of my one of my favorite things about that too is it has one of my favorite musical moments from it it has uh monday monday by the oh yeah and i love it when you have a song like that that really doesn't fit the moment but also fits the moment so perfectly yeah like that did ah By the way, I looked it up. ah Yes, stunt actors were not able to get Academy Awards until it is now going to be started. The first time it will be available is in 2028 for movies that come out in 2027. So there you go. I applaud that because I remember signing a petition a long time ago and I just thought this is crazy that like so many of these stunts like are are so dangerous and they make the movie so much better and they don't get like everybody else gets one, but not them.

Speaker: See, your signature helped. um I feel like any of us can make the change. Did you see that movie Fall Guy that came out last year? I didn't. We really wanted to and just somehow didn't end up making it to see it. You you would enjoy that. But it was it was ah directed by a, um but I guess, by a stunt person.

Speaker: And um and i I don't know if he wrote it too, but but basically the stunts in there are incredible. Incredible. And they're all practical and and ah it's basically a love a love story to stuntmen, stuntwomen, stuntpeople.

Speaker: And ah the story is actually pretty pretty decent too. I would definitely check it out. Yeah, I really want to. like It's just kind of – I feel like it's like so many things. like I feel like i there's some times when I just have a hard time making it to the theater and then once I've missed it in the theater, I have a hard time catching up on stuff. But I really would like to see that. I need to move it up my list a little bit.

Speaker: So a couple of things just sort of like getting towards the end here that I wanted to point out. I did want to point out. um So this movie came out at the same ah in the same year as another buddy cop sort of kind of parody ah that I actually haven't seen, but it's on my list. I've I've I own it and I want to watch it because I'm hoping to do it on an upcoming episode, which was the movie Cop Out with Bruce Willis and Tracy Morgan. Have either of you guys seen that? No, oh I've heard of it. I've never seen it It has a Harold Faltermeyer score, which Harold Faltermeyer, if anybody's following along, they probably know this is one of my top, if not my top favorite film composer.

Speaker: And um I so I've got the score and I love it. um But i I recently purchased, well, somewhat recently purchased the movie. I don't want to see it. So I've not seen it. You guys haven't seen it either. So I guess we can't comment on it. But it was a Kevin Smith directed movie and it it um it was not.

Speaker: a success It was not a big success. It came out around the same time. And I just noticed that apparently a lot of um reviewers favorably compared this movie to Cop Out. ah One person, Richard Roper, stated, note to Kevin Smith, this is how you do a spoof of the buddy cop genre. Aha. And Witte of the Star-Ledger said in his mixed review, measured against this year's other police – a mixed review of the other guys.

Speaker: ah Measured against this year's other police farce, remember Cop Out? It looks absolutely heroic, the it being the other guys. So ah those guys apparently did not enjoy Cop Out. I am really interested in it. The few people I know who have seen it said it was actually – a really good movie that for some reason just didn't catch on. I don't know. I'm i'm excited to watch that one.

Speaker: I also thought this movie was a little similar to a TV show that also came out in 2010, which was called the good guys. Uh, I don't guess either of you caught that because no one did. No, that starred, um, Colin Hanks and man, now um his name's escaped me to great actor. He was the bad guy in Billy Madison.

Speaker: Oh, man. But anyways, it was a buddy cop thing. It was about this one guy, sort of like this movie where Colin Hanks plays this cop who's just sort of like happy to just be a regular Joe, you know, a regular desk jockey. He's not trying to be – just trying to play straight and buy the book and just be a good cop.

Speaker: And then his partner – Man, it's really going to bother me. withford Thank you so much. Bradley Whitford. Thank you. ah He plays this like older cop who's kind of like towards the end of his career, but he's like, back in the day, we used to do crazy shootouts to slide across the car. And I really liked that show. It was not a success and it got canceled after one season. But it was just funny to me that those all came out in 2010. That is interesting.

Speaker: ah so Sorry to interrupt, but that just reminds me of ah and my one of my favorite. There's a ton of favorite SNL sketches I have, but there's one that Aidy Bryant and what's her name who plays? um Oh, my God.

Speaker: Anyway, that it's a body cop, like spoof thingy, and it's dyke and fats, and it's hilarious. Oh, my God. um Yeah, ah definitely watch it. Absolutely hilarious.

Speaker: What's her name? i cannot believe I'm blanking on her name. Anyway, it's good. So I'm glad you brought that up because obviously whenever we all get together, we watch a ton of Saturday Night Live. So this this movie was also a great pick for us to discuss for that reason too because because of the whole Saturday Night Live of it all.

Speaker: yes um so great uh and i need to watch that and also i'm glad you brought that up because it brings up another point which is interesting when you're talking about buddy cop movies in general which is that it's a pretty widely touted and unfortunate fact that there just aren't a lot of female-led buddy cop films uh i'm i'm gathering up as many as i can i mean obviously ah the heat uh with i literally was about to mention that i pulled it up to ask if that was on yeah that's it we it's on the list for sure and then uh There's an older one called Feds from, I think, the late 80s that I have on my list. And then Cynthia Rothrock and Michelle Yeoh did several of them in in Hong Kong.

Speaker: So I would like to I'd like to bring those out. But yeah, just it really overall, not a movie that has traditionally had a lot of female leads, which is unfortunate. But I think it's I think it's great that. um There are some and hopefully hopefully there will be more because the buddy cop genre. One thing I've learned from doing this podcast is while it might not be at the top of the box office, there's still buddy cop movies being made all the time. There's been a lot made in the 21st century. So I don't know why I never mentioned it, but I'm a huge fan of the Rush Hour series. Oh, dude. Love those movies. Love those movies. So good.

Speaker: ah The Rush Hour movies, like for me, I sort of – and that's one of the things that like – I don't want to say inspired this podcast, but I always loved buddy cop movies. and And in my mind, I guess because of just the era when I grew up and kind of when I ended up going off to college and getting my mind on other things, like – sort of rush hour was the bookend, like kind of the bookend of when the buddy cop genre peaked for me. And then doing this podcast and putting together my list on my letterbox, ah plug for my letterbox, there's a long Stakeouts and Shakedown list on there. But ah there's just so many buddy cop films that have continued to go right up until this day. It's been a big genre kind of on the outskirts of the box office ah success for success for throughout the 21st century. Yeah.

Speaker: yeah Um, well, cool. So I guess we're kind of sort of coming to the end here. Uh, final thing I'll just say, did you guys have any, any final thoughts, anything else you want to say about the movie that we didn't get to?

Speaker: I mean, I could quote the rest of the movie to you if you wanted to. And go. Yeah. But ah yeah, I guess the other thing that I wanted to mention is that I am truly in love with Dirty Mike and the Boys.

Speaker: um i I love how affirming and sex positive that entire part is. Our ah Wi-Fi is named after Dirty Mike and the Boys. password We won't give you the password. Yeah. Yeah.

Speaker: yeah i i don't know i there's just so many parts of this movie that are so funny and so quotable i love the the singing when they do in the old um historical ah irish oh yes and all their harry potter books were burned i like what he says It was consensual. That part made me laugh more than any other part. And then they're saying it's ah full of rich history. You like seeing these sad songs? Yeah, they're full of rich history. and You like just said Harry Potter books.

Speaker: Yeah. um I really love that that. I mean, the scene where the one we quote the most where they go and see, what's Terry's girlfriend's name? I can't remember. ah Francine.

Speaker: She sees Francine at the at the ballet. of ah She's practicing ballet. And he's like, if you were with me, you wouldn't have to be shaking your ass here for dollar bills. And she's like, this is a ballet studio, Terry. These bars are horizontal. Oh, Another thing that we sometimes do, we text each other 915. Let's have a great day, everybody.

Speaker: Is that when their day starts? Is that when their their workday starts? I'm assuming or that's just maybe what he does every day. I have no idea. Okay. I don't know. It was pretty funny, but just kind of out out of nowhere.

Speaker: Yeah. So you actually just reminded me of another thing that I wanted to point out, which is how much I love all the running gags that go throughout this movie. I love a good running gag. And so this one has several, we've already mentioned the one where like ah Mark Wahlberg constantly brings up drugs without any connection or reason. It was maybe one of my favorite things about the whole movie. Every time he'd be like, Oh, it could be Colombian drug Lords. Or he's like, this guy could be connected to the cartels. And I was like, where are you getting this? What's happening? Yeah. And I really, really like when mock played by Michael Keaton constantly quotes TLC, but then pretty pretend yeah know that he's quoting TLC. The the part when he gets when he's like, and I creep creep.

Speaker: yeah thought It was you know so funny bag. And then the Another one, and I think maybe there might be a little more of this in the unrated than there is in the theatrical, but when he, lee when he does the, when Mark Wahlberg busts out his like ballet dance and then later on, Will Ferrell's like, how did you learn how to do that? And he's basically like, well, we did it to make fun of these guys in my neighborhood.

Speaker: And he does that several times throughout movie. Like well we'll find out that he knows some sort of like crazy artistic thing. And he's like, yeah, we just did it to make fun of the guys in my neighborhood. and it made me laugh so much. i love it when Will Ferrell says, you learn to dance like that sarcastically.

Speaker: Yeah. yeah yeah so thought that was great oh good we're big fans of the little little river band oh yeah lrb lrb i always keep six discs in my car yeah um yeah i mean there really is so many yeah also the the gag with uh will ferrell how he every woman is so into him and they can't figure out why yeah you know what's the deal with you and hot ladies who' top that one that one lady when she first sees him she goes pantera and i'm just like it made me laugh so hard

Speaker: ah oh man i mean honestly they're all just it's it's so good and it's so rewatchable i will also say that there was a time where we would go out a lot more and i was still drinking and we would have this movie on at night when we got back you know we'd make like ah cheese fries or something and watch it and we would only ever get to half the movie and then fall asleep so it's nice to watch the movie from the beginning to the end Wes doesn't drink anymore but that's that's how it is for the um which Thor movie is it that you and I have watched only half of

Speaker: Oh, yeah. that we It needs to be pointed out that I guess both of us, but at least me I know, was was stone sober. We just turned it on way too late. kept falling asleep. Yeah. Watched the first one. that was funny. it Is that Ragnarok? Yeah, it's the third one, I guess. Because you were like, Wes, it's so good. Because as we said earlier, I don't really i don't really follow the Marvel movies too much. you But you'll love this one. It's so good.

Speaker: And at the time we were playing music, I guess it's when we were doing the Monday in London reunion show. Yeah, it was. You would come in for for rehearsals, and we turned it on and like way too late, and we went to sleep like after the first half. And then we tried it again later after the show, were like, we're going to make it this time, and we still didn't. And i can I tell you something? i don't know if I have yet made it.

Speaker: No, I think we finished it. think we finished it I think there was a third time. I think you were in Georgia, and we started halfway through the movie. Yes, that's That's correct. that way we only had to watch the second half. So yeah. Well, awesome guys. I'm really glad you could come on and do this. Especially it, it means a lot for when people love the film and can talk about it from a, from a place of love like that. I love the backstory with it. Thanks so much. Great to, it's great to get to hang out even if it's through this virtual means with some of my great friends from another state. So thanks doing this. I say one more thing about this movie? You certainly can.

Speaker: yeah At the very end, when when it ends, and he's done this with a couple of his movies, I really did appreciate that Adam McKay was giving us a lesson. And po the first thing is how a Ponzi can work.

Speaker: And then he goes into telling us about like the $700 billion Tart bailout. dollar tart mailil out And that how much money each American would get if they were to have given that to us rather than to a corporation.

Speaker: um Also about a AIG's bonuses, how they got a billion dollar in bonuses and 71 of the owners or whatever, but big people see how ah got um got bailout bonuses. Like after the bailout, they got bonuses.

Speaker: but um And then also how us, the lay people, that 47% of us, ah oh, sorry, we've gotten 47% loss in our 401ks from 2004 to 2009 because of all this. It's all related.

Speaker: And all that kind of information is A, amazing that that he'd share that and B, really important that we ah you know we are informed like that. Yeah.

Speaker: Yeah, I agree. I and I also think it was a really a yes, it's very important to do. And I really am glad you brought that up because I was just talking the other day about how like that. I think it's great when a movie has a message, but I don't think anybody likes to feel preached to. And this was really in ah in a film. And this was a really interesting way to have that message and put it out there in such a way that the movie never felt preachy. But it also kind of summed up the message, which when I was watching once again, the behind the scenes, I think it was the actor who we said, Alan Cummings, is that his name? who played Yeah.

Speaker: He was pointing out, he was like, yeah, you know, like in the olden days when these kind of movies, the bad guys would be drug cartels and things like that. But he's like, in our day, the bad guys are white collar criminals who are stealing money from the regular people. And I was, you know, so in a way it does have a message and it kind of does really emphasizes that at the end. So, yeah, it's a great point. I'm glad you brought that out.

Speaker: And I think that that brings things full circle too with what we were talking about ah when it comes to supporting independent and yeah local places. So, I mean, no matter what you're doing, and this is by someone that you literally literally just filled out ah his Amazon cart before I got on Oh my gosh. Which, you know, doesn't mean we don't have to buy it from there. we we can ah We can look at that stuff in the cart and get somewhere else.

Speaker: But I think it is very important for us to, there's only, so you and I have talked about this a bunch. For people that don't know that are listening to this, Wes joined um me and Aaron on our podcast for two episodes, one about religion and one about ah politics.

Speaker: And we talked about, ah you know, how infuriating it is that there's only so much we can do when it comes to politics but the best thing we can do is educate ourselves and then um you know vote those are the best things you can do and then the other things you can do is put your money and your time where your where your heart is and so like if you have a heart for your community and for your fellow man then you need to be giving your time and money to ah non-profits and and corporations and companies maybe not corporation but companies you know that that are independent and, and that can help, uh, your community and, and, and such. So, yeah.

Speaker: Yeah, for sure. Amen. For sure. Well, that's great. And actually that brings me to kind of the last thing I was going to say, which is do, do any you guys have anything you want to promote? I'm absolutely sure that you do. Yeah. I've got what you're to promote.

Speaker: What can I promote? Eva works in sustainability. Tell us how we can be more sustainable. Oh yeah, I do work in sustainability. um You can recycle. Recycling is still really, really important, even though people have lost kind of the understanding or there's a lot of cynicism around it.

Speaker: but Recycling does make a difference. You can actually um collect your flexible films and drop them off at stores. They have containers in the front where you can throw your flexible films in.

Speaker: And that actually is collected, um ah despite what some of the news articles are saying. um And then in general, like, you know, it's always good to don't shop a lot of fast fashion. It's always good to try to do your best. You know, eating meat, for example, is Kind of bad for the environment.

Speaker: But also knowing that ah's similar to what this movie says, large billionaires and large corporations have so much impact on the environment that whatever you do doesn't really make that big of a difference.

Speaker: So I'm not saying don't do anything. I'm saying don't beat yourself up when you are going for the convenient route every now and then. I think it's really important from a, um you know, just like a message standpoint. If you are living in a way that inspires others, um you know, you could start a compost, for example, or you could buy a thrift rather than new clothes and things like that.

Speaker: And that inspires somebody else to do the same. That's way more powerful than exactly how many glass jars you've actually recycled or not. Yeah. Awesome. Yeah. That's all I have, I think. yeah um Yeah. I don't have anything that's, so but you know, I could talk about how with music, if you want to support your your local or independent musicians or just your favorite artist, buy directly from them.

Speaker: um You can stream if you want to, but buy the album too. um But tell us about your music. and Yeah, Matt, I know. I was going to say, i I know I'm in the know. I know you have things. Yeah, yeah. I was just trying to, like, soften the blow between her talking about how to save the world and and then me going, yeah, so I'm in a band and we're doing this and please go buy this. Look, it's important, all right. Yeah. ah coupling it with what to do with music. You don't have to like my music, but in general, you know, support your artists. But yes, I, I, uh, Wes and I both play in a band called Pacifico.

Speaker: We, um, our last release was an EP that came out in December of last year called moving on and standing, moving on or standing still. The last full length was in 2023 called self care.

Speaker: We have a live album that we just put up for pre-order on ah Friday and we're going to release a song each week. It was recorded live last year at the first, annual, Evolution Summerfest and Wes and myself are both in that recording. And yeah, and my label Pacifer Records, we had two vinyl releases this year so far and got one more to come. I can't tell you yet about the next one except for It's Amazing and CJ, who was also in Pacifico, worked very, very hard on it.

Speaker: It's really amazing. And then the previous two was a tribute to the band Morellus Forest. It's got 14 artists from throughou but ah throughout the ah U.S. on there.

Speaker: And then I a re-release of one of my favorite bands, one of my favorite releases, Rose Blossom Punch's Ephemir was re-released on our label. um So those those are the the big releases that have happened on the label and stuff.

Speaker: And as I mentioned, Wes was on our podcast, Moon Traveling Podcast. um We are in our third season um and things are still going and and going great. And, um, yeah, you want to hear Wes and I talk about politics or religion, uh, with Aaron, ah you should definitely go check that out.

Speaker: But yeah, I mean, love one another. That's, that's always, yeah, that's, ah that's honestly the thing I wanted to say too. Like the best thing you can do uh, be good to the people around you and, um, give them mercy and grace, even if they're douchebags.

Speaker: True. Well, thanks, guys. ah So if you if you're keeping notes, what you should do is take good care of the environment, take good care of other people, support independent artists. Definitely go check out um Pacifico. I mean, not to toot my own horn a little bit here, but this is a great opportunity to do that.

Speaker: I too am very proud of the stuff we've done. Matt mentioned self-care, which was our most recent full length, which I'm extremely proud of. It's few years old, but I still haven't got over ah how proud I am of what we made. So hopefully you guys will go and and check that out on Bandcamp at Pacifico's Bandcamp and also check out everything he's doing with Pacifico Records and definitely check out Moon Traveling Podcast. Don't just check out the two episodes I was on. It's a very interesting podcast. I mean, definitely go if you want to hear us break into some some deeper topic matter than, than we necessarily talk about on this show.

Speaker: Uh, but, but check it out. You can find all those things on social media, uh, Pacifico rock Pacific records, uh, moon traveling podcasts. Um, you can find myself at Pacific Matt and Ava. Your handle is my handle is Ava like Ava, which is E V A like A V A. And I'm also on letterbox under that moniker.

Speaker: Yeah. I don't have a letterboxd, but, uh, yeah. So don't can't find me there. Well, maybe you'll get, maybe you'll join us soon so you can be one of us. So yeah, listeners, you can please check out all that stuff. Check, uh, check me out on Letterboxd, uh, the underscore strong bow, uh, mainly just so you can see the list of the, uh, extremely comprehensive buddy cop film list that I've made, uh, for stakeouts and shakedowns on Letterboxd. Um, also,

Speaker: please do make sure to follow us on Instagram at Steak and Shake Pod, S-T-A-K-E and Shake Pod. ah And also you can check us out on YouTube now. We're on YouTube. Listen to us wherever that you find your podcasts. Obviously, whatever a platform you're on, it helps if you'll subscribe to us, if you'll leave a rating or review, especially I'm trying to push people to do.

Speaker: If you listen to us on Apple Podcasts, make sure to leave a rating and review. That's really going to help me to get the show out to more and more people. um So please do that. And I feel like I had one more thing that I'm forgetting, but hey, oh, tell a friend. That's what it was. Tell a friend, tell a friend while you're being kind to your friend, also be kind and tell them to check out this show. So that's it for us, guys. Thanks so much. We will see you next time. And until then, y'all be cool. Right on.

Speaker: Hey, hey, everybody. Sorry, I got to duck back in here and say a couple of things. One, doing a little research for this episode, I noticed that we said Alan Cummings played David Ershon, but in fact, ah that actor's name is Steve Coogan.

Speaker: yeah I was watching Romy and Michelle's high school reunion recently, and Alan Cummings is in that, and I was like, wait, that's not that guy. So I went back and double-checked, and the actor's name is ah Steve Coogan. So credit where credit's due, Alan Cummings, great actor, Steve Coogan, great in this.

Speaker: the other thing is um I think you guys probably thought I was going to forget to do my little buddy cop crossovers, but I'm not. So let me just throw some of those in really quickly. ah So this movie, we've got Damon Wayans Jr. As I mentioned, his father, Damon Wayans, has some buddy cop credentials. But for him... himself he would later go on to do a movie called let's be cops damon wayans jr uh mark walberg has been in the corrupter two guns and um spencer confidential which i haven't seen spencer confidential yet but it appears to be buddy cop ish so i'm counting it ah michael keaton i put in the robocop remake uh i haven't decided yet whether robocop is a buddy cop film i mean it's uh you know it's uh murphy is a

Speaker: robot and his partner lewis is definitely you know there's a dynamic there but who knows uh but michael keaton was in the remake uh the rock was in um central intelligence with kevin hart i believe he was in um ah the fast and furious spinoff hobs and shaw which i think counts and he was in the Get Smart film from, I think, 2008. Samuel Jackson was in Die Hard with a Vengeance and National Lampoon's Loaded Weapon 1.

Speaker: And Will Ferrell himself had an appearance in the Starsky and Hutch film. And also he was in Holmes and Watson. I haven't yet decided if Holmes and Watson are buddy cops. It's a good question. Probably not by the conventional definition, but...

Speaker: Who knows? But anyways, there's our buddy cop crossovers for this time. All right. Till next time, y'all be cool. Right on.