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200 - Battlefield Earth (2000)
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“But cheer up! There's at least one bright side to this! One day you're going to die and, when you end up in Hell, at least it'll be a step up from this place!”
It's our 200th episode and, for this very important milestone episode, we've opted to let Tucker write the show notes!
Gosh f***ing darn it you guys, this is a pretty rad episode. We talk about the movie and some other stuff and it's just so good. You're going to love it. Also, you may notice that the theme song has been remade, so please enjoy that as well. Love you, bye! - Tucker
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Transcript
Introduction and Milestones
00:00:21
Speaker
A franchise right below will make us rich beyond our wildest dreams. The saga of episode 200. It's the disenfranchised podcast. That's right, that podcast all about those franchises have won those films that fancy themselves full-fledged franchises before falling flat on their face after the first film turned 200 episodes today.
00:00:44
Speaker
but but I am your host, Steven Foxworthy, and joining me as ever he do, when he can, which isn't as often as it used to be, but he was there from the beginning. It's my buddy Brett Wright. Hey, buddy. How's it going, Brett? Hello, Steven. Oh, he did the thing. Yeah. Good shot, everybody. Oh, are we doing it now? Shit, okay. I can. I was gonna wait, but- Hold on, dude. It's episode 200.
00:01:16
Speaker
I'm going to turn my microphone off, though, because I'm definitely going to cough. Love it. And the guy whose microphone is now off, so I can say just about anything I want about him. It's it's doing a shot and he's getting ready to cough. There he goes. There he goes. He's coughing up a storm hacking away. It's our it's our good friend, Tucker. Hey, Tucker. It's your favorite of man animal. Right.
00:01:43
Speaker
I expected it. I wanted it. America's favorite man-animal, Tucker. Thank you. Thank you. Hello. I wanted it in the same man-animal at least once. I was constantly annoyed. it's It's right fucking there. It's right there. But no. I'm pretty sure that's trademarked anyway.
Revisiting Past Franchise Failures
00:02:02
Speaker
um it's It's episode 200 and the gang's all here.
00:02:08
Speaker
um And of course, you know, ah as we did for our 100th episode where we covered the 2017 remake, reboot. failed franchise starter. ah The Mummy, we are here to talk about another big budget financial and critical bomb, ah pretty much spearheaded, taken over by a ah member of the Church of Scientology. um That's right, for our 200th episode, we have chosen 2000's Roger Christian classic, Battlefield Earth.
00:02:44
Speaker
Directed, as we said, by Roger Christian, written by Corey Mandel and JD Shapiro. Fucking Drag Race Central outside my apartment tonight. I apologize for that in advance. I have a feeling that won't be the last time you hear it. And starring John Travolta, Barry Pepper, Forrest Whitaker, Kim Coates, Sabim Carcenti, Richard Tyson, Kelly Preston, and many, many others. What a cast.
00:03:15
Speaker
Dare I say it? No, it pains me to do so. Gentlemen, what a picture. The fuck is Forrest Whitaker doing in this movie? That, I think, that that that's really the first question we need to answer is, what the fuck is Forrest Whitaker doing in this movie?
Battlefield Earth's Cast and Performances
00:03:33
Speaker
I will add to that question and and say, what the fuck is Forrest Whitaker doing in this movie if he can't get on John Travolta's level in this movie?
00:03:44
Speaker
Here's the thing, he can. He just knows what he's doing. Yes, I know. know but My favorite thing about the trivia section on IMDB for this movie, the very first piece of trivia, Forrest Whitaker expressed his regret for participating in this movie. I bet he did. Yeah. I bet he did.
00:04:09
Speaker
He didn't seem like he was having a good time. John Travolta, on the other hand, wow. John Travolta's having too good a time in this movie. And you know what? This movie sucks. This movie sucks hard. And I'm going to give it a very low rating. But same but every time John Travolta was on the screen, I was like, yes, let's fucking do this. See, and i had I had the exact opposite reaction, like viscerally so.
00:04:34
Speaker
This is not enough for me, unfortunately. A what now? ENF did not finish. Oh, yeah. Part of the Brett Wright, I didn't watch it canon. Yeah, this is right. Look, it is. It is. Food fight. Gods of Egypt. Gods of Egypt. Yep. That's the pantheon of I can't be bothered anymore. I feel like there was a recent one, too, that you just didn't bother to finish.
00:05:07
Speaker
there nine so thanks so i mean I think I might have mentioned that I was real close to turning off Existo. Yeah, but then it totally redeemed itself. It did. Yeah. And then it kicks in and I was like, OK, now I get what this movie is. And I was all about it. But like, it was real close. He starts bouncing on that glowy ball, being all like, fucking a. And you're like, yeah. um Yeah. okay if i'm watching right i I don't want to watch this anymore. But I gave it about ti I will not abide spinning the bishop, sir. There are children present.
00:05:43
Speaker
anybody on the child watching existo give it about 10 more minutes after the point where you don't want to watch it anymore i think it's real good yeah yeah so that may be what you were thinking of yes maybe may i feel like i feel like it was there was a recent i didn't bother um but yeah so this this joins the the bret right pantheon of movies for this podcast that he just Couldn't be fucked to finish, really. Yeah, no. Because it doesn't deserve my time, really. I mean. Sometimes. Look, 200 episodes
Viewing Habits and Podcast Strategies
00:06:16
Speaker
of which I've maybe done 150. But, you know, it's like I'm getting too old for this shit. You're not announcing your retirement, are you? No. My retirement from life. and No. No, Brett, no.
00:06:36
Speaker
oh no i mean like ah um'm i'm too old i'm I'm too old and tired for this shit to like for like to put up with a movie like this. like you know I can still talk about a movie that I haven't seen all of.
00:06:50
Speaker
That's how you- As we've mentioned, you've done it before. I have. Sometimes I have hidden the fact that I did not finish a movie. Correct. Not because I didn't like it, but just because I didn't have time. And I was like, well, I still gotta record. So I'll just pretend like I saw the whole movie. And well most of the time it works. Most of the time Steven could not tell. Well, Brad, at least- This is where it was kind of obvious.
00:07:18
Speaker
At least you um have the good sense to not finish the film. There was a time that we had our friend JP Leck on and he was finishing it on his phone probably for the first 20 minutes of the podcast. Do you remember that, Steven, for Return of Captain Invincible? Oh, right, right, right, right. He was watching it. He's like, oh, yeah. ah Oh, yeah. All right. I finished watching it like 20 minutes. Right.
00:07:48
Speaker
Oh, okay. No, I've never done that yet. yet Don't be too hard on yourself. I don't have that kind of attention span. I could not because I couldn't do that. No, I i could never. i would just I would just log into the recording and go, all right, guys, I've missed the last 20 minutes. What happens? I would i would text to the group, say, yeah I'm running late. I have to finish this damn thing. That's usually what I do.
00:08:13
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So, you know. Yeah. So this is what he lives up with reputation. it You know what? i And I walked into this going, it cannot possibly be as bad as advertised. It cannot possibly be as terrible as the entire world has made it seem. And it's somehow worse. Yeah. It was. It's somehow worse. It was. For me at times. And I don't know how this works. I really don't. It's paradoxical almost.
00:08:43
Speaker
For me at times, it was a good bad movie. That's the fun I had with this movie was specifically John Travolta's performance. um How absurd everything was like nothing made sense.
00:08:58
Speaker
Um, but that means that ultimately there's no stakes when like nothing, everything's nonsensical. Like there's no stakes. There's nothing to really invest me or ground me in this movie. It's just a bunch of nonsense shit. And I don't like it. It's a bad movie. Yeah. But I. Aggressively bad. Maybe had a little bit of fun watching it and, um, I will admit here in public.
00:09:27
Speaker
that I did not get bored. It sucked, but in a way that was interesting. I was like, just't wow, I've I've never never experienced something that has sucked in this way before. I must study it. Yes, I must. Yeah. So I almost almost I don't agree, but I almost agree
Tone and Themes in Battlefield Earth
00:09:52
Speaker
with you, Tucker. Well, because I see there's there's moments You're like, is this what the movie is supposed to be? And then it's quickly gone in a flash, is as if it never existed. And it's back to the shit again. Right. And that's that's kind of the weird thing about it is you're you're almost wondering, like, oh did they set out to do this? but then and And Travolta's performance makes makes you think they absolutely did set out to make a terrible movie. But then, like,
00:10:27
Speaker
something will happen or someone will like actually give a serious line reading and you're like, wait, what? And then you realize, like, this is Travolta's love letter to his religion. Like, this is one of those for Travolta. Anyway, this is like a faith based movie. um And like, if if if true, um wild, if true, let's just say that. But yeah, good heavens, that's damn.
00:10:56
Speaker
I thought it was a tour de force. I'm absurdity. I was a tour de sum. Yeah, exactly. i' What I'm saying, what I'm saying is is this is this is one of the worst movies I've ever seen, but not like high up on the list, maybe in the top 50 somewhere.
00:11:21
Speaker
OK. But it's I don't know. There's something. It just sucks. You know, like I said, in a way I've never seen before. And and that interests me. I'm saying I might watch this movie again. At some point in my life before I didn't watch it because of how
Scientology and Its Influence
00:11:41
Speaker
bad it obviously was. But now that I've been forced to watch it. I might look at it again. Hmm. Not because it's good.
00:11:51
Speaker
but because it's so bad in such a unique way yeah for research for science you guys ah for fucking science bad movie science i'm a strange scientist you guys a researcher
00:12:05
Speaker
and And this thing is such a product of the early two late 90s, early 2000s. Everything's got like that blue-green film over it like that made sense for The Matrix, but then everyone's like, this will make our movie look cool, so let's put this on here. Oh, it looks awful. Every every angle is a Dutch angle. Literally every shot is a fucking Dutch angle. It makes no sense. And then every transition is like a... ah just like a barn door wipe like a center wipe and and they turned to Star War exactly well but Lucas shit changed it up like he he made it different it didn't do the same wipe every fucking time yeah there were different ones for sure
00:12:50
Speaker
Yeah, you know, it's I was reminded of that episode of The Simpsons, where Homer's doing I think the dating video for Flanders, and he makes every wipe a star wipe. At least it's like, you know, dad, there are other types of wipes other than a star wipe. And Homer's like, Yeah, but why? Why transition if you're not going to transition in style? It's like, I'm taking my name off of this. That's fair. And I feel like that should have been what the editor on this movie said is I'm taking my name off of this. Because good boy,
00:13:20
Speaker
It real, real bad. The editing, speaking of the editing was atrocious. That was the one thing that threatened to um kind of harsh in my good time with how bad this was, is because the editing was just so aggressively bad where it almost gave me a headache at some point. Yes. Or you'd have a conversation with two people and, you know, you go back and forth for sure.
00:13:50
Speaker
But like they're going back and forth so fast and it doesn't make sense when they're cutting or why they're cutting. And it'll cut to a weird angle for no reason. And it's ah it hurts. It's bohemian rhapsody levels of bad. And somehow they want an Oscar for that shit. Yeah. I mean, if.
00:14:14
Speaker
If it weren't already evident that an Oscar could be bought, I think that would be your best indication. and that's That's the one that convinced me. Yes. I mean, you know, Harvey Weinstein's miracle run in the in the late 90s, early 2000s, Shakespeare in Love beating Saving Private Ryan is what convinced me. But yeah, yeah. Like Oscars can be purchased if if that movie can be that movie, you know. Yeah.
00:14:42
Speaker
Yeah, it's a bunch of old white dudes talking about movies with other old white dudes. Of course they can be bought. Mm hmm. There you go. There you go. Deepest pockets wins. So this movie, based on a 1982 novel by one L. Ron Hubbard, who you might know as the founder of the Church of Scientology,
00:15:09
Speaker
was a kind of a pulp sci-fi writer in the 1940s, wrote for a lot of pulp magazines. And then he um wrote a book called Dianetics in the meantime, which is kind of the founding text of, I don't want to call it the scripture of Scientology, because I don't think that's what they would call it. um But yeah, wrote wrote Dianetics and in the 1950s. And then basically, and a lot of people
00:15:40
Speaker
would widely agree it was for tax purposes, rebranded the whole thing as a religion, and created the sort the Church of Scientology, which is a ah fairly dominant and powerful force in Hollywood, at least. Several prominent entertainers are ah belong to the religion, including Tom Cruise and the aforementioned John Travolta, just to name two. ah There are, of course, many, many others as well. Bob Forrest Whitaker, though.
00:16:10
Speaker
not Forest Whitaker, the or Barry Pepper. no um like Or this film's director, Roger Christian. His name is Christian. He wrote he directed a movie about Scientology and he's a Buddhist. Go figure. Can he direct a bunch of Christmas movies, though? ah Roger Christian?
00:16:30
Speaker
yeah straight up maybe dude let me let's take a look at Roger Christian's filmography because it was surprisingly dense like I was surprised that it was as long as it was like he started out as an art director a set decorator ah he worked on a little movie called Star Wars ever heard of it the Star War yeah Star Wars um He was the set decorator on Star Wars, was a second unit or assistant director on the Phantom Menace. like So he's he's done some work with ah Georgie Porgy Lucas. And then films he's directed. um The Sender is his first feature in 1982, Lorca and the Outlaws, Arcadia Election Day. There's a Nostradamus biopic that he made with, is that Apostlethwaite?
00:17:21
Speaker
no it's not pete po um it's ah shaky cario ah but that movie also has Rutger Hauer, F. Murray Abraham, Amanda Plummer, and Michael Goff. So there you go. That's a thing that he directed. um The final cut in 95, underworld in 96. No, not that underworld. ah Patrick Stewart film called Masterminds in 97. Hey, I've seen that movie. It's Die Hard, but a kid in a school. I've heard of this movie.
00:17:56
Speaker
I love, I went to the movie theater to see it and I loved it when I saw it. And you know what? I watched it a couple years ago. The kid is Vincent Garza from Mad Men and Buffy, or no, sorry, Angel. Dude, you know what? Completely unrelated, but I'm sure tangents are welcome. But I watched Matinee last night and realized that that one kid is Omri Katz. That's dude from, that's Marshall from Erie, Indiana, dude, dude. Well, I mean, it makes sense that Dante would want to work with them. Yeah. Yeah. Have you watched your matinee 4K at Steven? Not yet. No. Watch it. It's so good. It looks so good. I bet. I can only imagine and all sound on 2.0, though. Sounds better. OK. Unless you have a five point one system. I don't. Two point one at the end or two point. Oh, it did. OK. I should remember these words.
00:18:52
Speaker
And then after that, he takes a little break American Daylight Bandito, Dangerous Intuition, which is a TV movie, Stranded Prisoners of the Sun, and Joseph and Mary, which there's that Christmas movie with Kevin Sorbo um as Joseph. Good God.
00:19:12
Speaker
oh Yeah, that's that's I bought was a cursed link I just clicked right there. um Which was the entire episode of Christianity Corner. God, I hope not. um Please. But yeah, it's um yeah, he seems to I mean, this is probably the most well known movie he's ever directed, which says a lot. Like, he's directed a lot of things, but this is the best known thing he's directed. um Did anyone read who they, the who Triddle to first offered the movie to? Who'd add up? It would have been a damn sight better. No, Tarantino.
00:20:01
Speaker
No, dude. No. And Tarantino took one look at the script and said, What the fuck? No. fucking No, John, come on. No. Johnny, you yeah like, you know, I love you, man, but like, no. Unless you send me some feet pics. Well, here's the thing, Travolta, to get this movie made Travolta probably would have done um shortly after the novel comes out.
00:20:27
Speaker
um
00:20:30
Speaker
Hubbard pretty much starts working on a movie right away. Apparently, there was some ah specious means by which the book landed on the bestseller list. um There was apparently a, and this is all public knowledge, or at least public theory, ah but you know, apparently there was a ah a conjecture perhaps, a ah massive book buying campaign orchestrated by the church um to buy like they in some cases people coming in and buying like 800 units like individually for one person um oftentimes they were used they were purchased and then given out at um
00:21:11
Speaker
like the the Church of Scientology centers when people would come in for their Thetan readings and what have you. um So like, you know, they they basically bought them all up because they knew that if a certain number of units were purchased or moved within a certain amount of time, it was more likely that they would be able to land a movie deal, which they did. That's smart and i legal. Yeah.
00:21:37
Speaker
All right. If you have the means to do so, why would you not do so? Yeah. um But yeah, there was I mean, Hubbard himself wrote a ah screenplay really wanted to do um the movie basically from the time the novel was published until he died. He was trying to get the movie made.
00:21:56
Speaker
um When did he die? He died in 1986. um He went so far as to have a 30 foot high inflatable, uh, turtle, uh, placed, uh, outside of a place on Hollywood Boulevard in 1984 to try to like get people interested in funding. The production, um, is, is a wild, wild thing. Uh, he died at the age of 74.
00:22:26
Speaker
He hung in there. He did. I would like to know more about Elrond Hubbard. I'd like to say go check out the last podcast on the left ah series on Elrond Hubbard. It's fascinating and hilarious. I would also recommend the the South Park Scientology episode, which is also enlightening and hilarious. I don't have a recommendation. All right. Cool story, bro.
00:22:54
Speaker
um so then So he dies in 86, the movie kind of falls apart. ah John Travolta, who has been a part of the Church of Scientology since the 70s. Wow, really? Yeah, 75 is apparently when he joins the Church of Scientology. I didn't know it had been around that long. Yeah, i mean well, din that is hard Dianetics was written in 52.
00:23:20
Speaker
Um, and so isn't that their midichlorians? Like they're that you're thinking of Thetans. Ah, there you go. That's, that's the, the minute. Yeah. The, the Thetan readings and auditing and yeah, all that stuff. Xenu is like the, I think the evil God thing. Um, again, I know very, I've, I've studied a lot of religions, uh, but I've not done a lot of, uh,
00:23:49
Speaker
a lot with Scientology. ah But it looks like 1954 is when the Church of Scientology was founded. Yeah. Wowzers. That's wild. I had no idea. Well, there you go, ma'am. Hey, at least they're not white supremacists. I mean, there's there's a number of other things that they're doing wrong, but, you know, that's not one of them. That's not one of them. I'm sorry, I just watched Waco. Oh, yeah.
00:24:17
Speaker
Holy shit, you guys. So when I was that that happened when I was a kid. So like there's a lot of terms that I've heard. Like I know what a branch Davidian is. Well, I don't know what it is, but I've heard that term. I've heard the name David Koresh. And I know that Waco was a big deal. And so going into the series. I know nothing. And man, it's fucked up. You guys should watch it. Your boy Zod is in it. It turns down. No, Zod.
00:24:47
Speaker
From a man of steel from. Oh, Michael Shannon. Yeah, dude. And and our boy ah from True Detective season two, Taylor Kitsch is John Carter. And he's amazing. i not about You guys are so good. And it's so upsetting. It's so upsetting. Oh, it's good television.
00:25:17
Speaker
I'm saying, check it out. Check it out, you guys. This has been a mini episode of, what are we watching because? Just a little bit. Tucker, we don't have time to record those these days because we're all so busy. But Tucker just is. It's like it's all backed up in his brain and he just can't help but like let it like spill out all over the place because he's just. Anytime I can find it in. Anytime I can find it in like a decent transition that makes sense into something I've watched recently. He's talking about a cult. I watched a movie about a cult. Shit, let me talk about it. Let's talk about it right fucking now.
00:25:54
Speaker
yeah and um Travolta. Travolta. And then so after a stint of of popularity in the 70s, Travolta kind of falls out of favor in Hollywood only to have his career look who's talking finalized in 1994 by Quentin Tarantino in the film Pulp Fiction. But look who's talking. It's the baby, right? Yeah, but John and he sound like and he sound like Bruce Willis.
00:26:26
Speaker
Yeah but John Travolta was in that and that was like before his big comeback so like he was still around and like he was in some other shit too. He was. he yeah The thing I remember most about um the first Look Who's Talking is travolt or a Travolta in that movie is him singing Town Without Pity.
00:26:44
Speaker
um And that's that's pretty fun. I like let's let's take a look at what Travolta is up to in the intervening years. Let's take a look and look who's talking. I need to revisit that movie for sure. Unfortunately, that movie got two sequels, Tucker. Two of them. Yeah, I know. And the second one, the second film is pretty all right. I remember enjoying that. That one, it's the baby is the baby sound like Roseanne. Yeah. And then the third movie, the dogs are Dana DeVito and Diane Keaton. I know i don't know.
00:27:16
Speaker
I don't know. No, that's right. That's right. No, I believe that. I believe that that's true. I totally believe you, dude. I watched those in the midst of my ah my Amy Heckerling watch through in 2020 when I did, you know, all the movies. That time Steven watched all those movies in 2020. That's like the centerpiece on the disenfranchised big old card. No.
00:27:45
Speaker
No, it's Steven's religious upbringing. That's the centerpiece. that's That's the free space, yeah. That's the free space. So Travolta first gains notoriety in the early 70s in a little film called Carrie. Carrie.
00:28:01
Speaker
Brian de Palmas Carey. Before that though, he was on a ah little television show called Welcome Back Cotter, which started same year he joined Scientology 1975. Hey, are you saying there's some kind of- Mr. Cotter. Mr. Cotter. Are you saying there's some kind of link between that? Like maybe like the reason he got famous was because he became a Scientologist, you're saying?
00:28:28
Speaker
That's not what I'm saying, but you seem to be saying that. No, I'm saying are you implying that that could be a conspiracy theory you got there? um not i just I just stated a fact. How deep does this go? He was good in that show, though. So he was and he was good in Kerry. Apparently he was also very good in the 1976 film Boy in the Plastic Bubble.
00:28:50
Speaker
I didn't see that. And then he's off to the races. Saturday Night Fever in 77, Grease in 78, Urban Cowboy in 1980. Oh my God, Urban Cowboy is so good, you guys. It's on my voodoo. Watch it. Blowout in 81. Oh, God damn. I fucking love blowout. It's so good. Blowout's amazing. Like I was expecting it, but then you said it and I thought about it and I just need to take a breath because it's so good.
00:29:16
Speaker
I mean, the Travolta de Palma collaborations are particularly great. I've only recently watched that, so it's kind of fresh. I've only recently had my mind blown by that movie, so I apologize for reacting so aggressively, but... Oh, it's it it's fucking worth it, dude. That's an appropriate reaction to that film. So good. um The movie that was number one the week I was born, ah Sylvester Stallone's 1983 Stayin' Alive. Stayin' Alive. Yeah, dude.
00:29:46
Speaker
And then it gets kind of iffy. There's Two of a Kind, also in 83. Perfect in 1985. A TV movie called Basements in 87. The Experts in 89. He does do Look Who's Talking in 1989. There he is. Look Who's Talking, too, in 1990. In between something called Chains of Gold. Was that Crazy Alley that was in Look Who's Talking with him? Yes. OK.
00:30:16
Speaker
Yes, it was the two of them and then the baby. I don't know if you know this or not. The baby was voiced by Bruce Willis. Yeah, dude, Bruce Willis. And then George, George Siegel is ah is the father of Bruce Willis in that movie. Fantastic. The great George, the late great George Siegel also in that movie, Abe Vigoda.
00:30:36
Speaker
Fuck yeah, can't go wrong, that's what I'm saying. What he's talking, revisit it everybody. um He is in the made for TV movie, future episode of this podcast, Boris and Natasha, playing playing a character named, let me just see if I'm getting this right, John Travolta. Yeah, you guys, I like that movie. What are we doing that one? Is it soon? Is it on the schedule at least? It's on the schedule.
00:31:01
Speaker
And is it, is it pretty close to the Adventures of Rocky and Bowl Eagle with Robert De Niro? It's, it's the week before. Oh, and it's soon. It's soonish soon in soon and enough. I'm looking at the calendar right now. Keep going. You're going to have to change your pants. No, I'm going to turn off my mic as I react to seeing how soon it is to now. Probably not so excited. you're liking um I mean, but So a lot, you know, made for TV movies, movies that no one's ever heard of, movies that do not exist. Before 94, we have Pulp Fiction, ah Get Shorty in 95, in between a weird movie called White Man's Burden ah with Harry Belafonte, where it's like, what if what if someone could be racist against white people, which, ugh.
00:31:49
Speaker
future episode of the podcast. Oh, absolutely not. Double feature with Putney Swope. don um Broken Arrow and Phenomenon and Michael in 96. She's the Angel movie, right? Yeah. Face Off, Mad City in 97. Oh. Mike Nichols primary colors in 98. The Thin Red Live. In the 90s Renaissance after Pulp Fiction. I remember that very distinctly. Yeah, he becomes one of the like one of the biggest celebrities in the country. And then we hit 2000 with Battlefield Earth and Lucky Numbers. ah The Nora Efron numbers was fun. It's a kudrow. Exactly. That's pretty funny.
00:32:36
Speaker
And then the year after that, we have Swordfish in 2001. And then I feel like after that, he's pretty much just like kind of done. He does Basic in 2003, The Punisher in 2004, which is... When does he do the... ah cast When does he do the General's Daughter? General's Daughter is 99 the year before this. It's the last one he does before this one.
00:32:59
Speaker
I didn't hear you mention that. I apologize. That's right. No, I didn't. I didn't mention it. I stopped. I forgot he was. I forgot he was the main villain of that. It's a good Punisher movie as I prefer to it as. Yeah. With Thomas. We're going to we're going to cover all three Punisher movies at some point. Oh, fuck. Yeah. Thomas Jane. Look forward to it. ah d john Thomas Jane, Ray. What's his Ray? That other guy who looks old. Yeah. I mean, he's dead now.
00:33:28
Speaker
War Journal was bad. um But yeah, I got blocked on Twitter by the director of that movie. Nice. nice Yeah. ah for doing ah for For following a film critic.
00:33:41
Speaker
you know And then, I mean, mid 2000s, it's Ladder 49, it's Be Cool, it's Lonely Hearts, Wild Hogs, Hairspray, Bolts, ah the remake of Taking of Pelham 123,
00:33:57
Speaker
where he's got that weird goatee thing. i think Old dogs, like just, again, like just a series of increasingly bad decisions, I guess is what we could probably call Travolta's 2000s run. Although 2016, in the Valley of Violence, great movie. Oh, yeah, that is a really good movie. My my favorite Ty West film. It's up there for sure. Which um may be a controversial opinion, but there you go.
00:34:25
Speaker
No, I don't think it's a hot take. OK. But yeah, definitely my favorite of his. But then recently he's been like like gaudy and the fanatic just like doing some like really. Fred Durst directed that movie. He did. Yeah. I saw the TV. Glows Fred Durst. Yeah.
00:34:45
Speaker
Yeah. um ah Population 436 is Fred Durst, his best role. You guys see it. It's got Jeremy Sisto in it, which I know that makes you not want to see it. But trust me, it's good. It's like you can read my mind. And no, I'm like, Jeremy Sisto, peace. No, it's really good. It's that's really good. I think the best thing I've ever seen Jeremy Sisto in is ah six feet under.
00:35:14
Speaker
Yeah. that show rules. Yeah, just gonna throw that out there. But yeah, so that's I mean, this is Travolta pretty much at the height of his power kind of cashing in on his like five year run of like solid box office hits as being one of the biggest leading men in Hollywood to make this L Ron Hubbard movie a thing. And so
00:35:46
Speaker
Yeah, he's basically like, i if if I don't do what I want to do with all this power, what good is it? You could say he knows that with power. And he knows that it can go away just as quickly, too. He's got a strike while the iron is hot. Right. you know Because he was a big deal in the 70s and early 80s, but he dropped off there for a while, like we had just discussed. So he knows how fragile and fleeting that fame can be. So you got you got to do the thing that you want to do when you have the chance to do it.
00:36:15
Speaker
If you had one moment, one opportunity to have everything you ever wanted, would you capture it or just let it slip? I'd let it slip. Honestly. I think I already have, honestly. Those lyrics were mostly correct. and I know, I'd look. i Do I look like the kind of guy who would be able to recite Eminem lyrics perfectly? All Stephen listens to is Eminem. It's his favorite. Stephen's the real Slim Shady. Oh, oh, I better stand up. Yeah, dude.
00:36:45
Speaker
There he is. There I am. Please please standing up. ah So yeah, Travolta pretty much pushes this rock Sisyphus style uphill.
00:36:58
Speaker
um the the movie is eventually taken over by franchise pictures, who basically use it as a tax shelter, um which is kind of funny. um And that they end up getting like sued into oblivion after the movie comes out, ah because um they said the movie was supposed to cost X amount, um but it it actually cost a significantly lower amount. And so they were basically pocketing all the change. um So yeah, they got sued into oblivion for damages after the fact, um somehow making sure this movie loses even more money in the process. um And like, yeah, the I mean, does the, and
00:37:43
Speaker
The behind the scenes shit on this movie is kind of insane. um And ah but I would say a significant amount of the budget went directly to Travolta for his salary to be in this movie, which I think he even took a reduced rate of like I think his normal fee would have been 20 million and he's still pocketing a bulk of the funds for this movie regardless. Like Barry Pepper, when he talks about what a disaster this movie was, talks about just kind of how horrible the conditions were. At one point, like the food is practically inedible. And so Travolta just brings in his own personal chef to feed the cast and crew, which good move. I like that.
00:38:33
Speaker
Dude, you're like one of the producers on this thing. Surely you can make sure this is not happening to begin with, but yeah. Man, what it must be like to be like, I'm gonna i'm going to make my passion project film.
00:38:48
Speaker
But I'm also going to pay myself an exorbitant amount of money to do so. Yes. Yeah. Fantastic. Must be fucking nice. ah Yeah. You got to get that money up front because it's not like he's going to get anything off the box office. Mm-hmm.
Production Challenges and Sci-Fi Context
00:39:04
Speaker
OK.
00:39:05
Speaker
But I mean, did that check, they fully expected this thing to hit like, and I think that's how you get people like Forest Whitaker involved ah is, you know, this is going to be, you know, a big movie. And, you know, looking at the landscape in the 2000s, you have the Phantom Menace out the year before.
00:39:25
Speaker
which the director Roger Christian had worked on a second unit. Like you have a lot of sci-fi movies making a lot of money at the box office. A lot of these franchises are doing particularly well. And it's that age old Hollywood thing where if everyone else is doing it lets us do it as well. And surely we'll make as much money as everyone else is making because this is what people want to see. The thing they often forget though is it should probably be well made and have you know thought and purpose behind it.
00:39:55
Speaker
Yeah. Hey man, those jets, how they fly. They're like a thousand years old, right? Doesn't jet fuel have like a shelf life? I mean, don't tell Elrond Hubbard and the makers of this movie. Don't try to apply logic to anything in this movie. I don't even think Brett got to the jets, honestly. oh I don't remember them.
00:40:20
Speaker
But the Jets. Yeah, i mean that's how they make the bad guys is with Jets in seven days. They train these cavemen. They trade train cavemen to fly fighter jets, Brett, in less than seven days. We're talking like five and a half days, probably, if I'm being generous. Right. And they're they're all really, really good at it. And you know how they did that, Brett? They found a flight simulator.
00:40:47
Speaker
What's that, Brett? Say that again. Knowledge machine? Does it pumps knowledge into the brain? Did they use that? Well, no. You only use that. That only works on Barry Pepper. Yeah. I don't think to put anybody else in it that tracks. Yeah. No, so they they put the cavemen in this flight simulator, Brett. And they figure it out in less than seven days. And like how does this flight simulator still have power? We don't know.
00:41:16
Speaker
We don't know. How does the jet fuel still work? We don't fucking know. We don't know. Oh, and we don't you know what we don't need to. We don't need to. These are these are these are questions the movie doesn't ask. So why the fuck should we? Oh, yeah. Everything is just happening. Exactly. Stuff happens and then more stuff happens. And John Travolta choose a lot of scenery and more stuff happens.
Plot and Reception Issues
00:41:41
Speaker
Yeah. Mm hmm.
00:41:43
Speaker
Bing, Bing, pew pew. Does any of it matter? No, not really. Is any of it explained coherently? No, not at all. And and what do we want it to be? I mean, ideally, yes, but sometimes we don't get what we want. No, no, we certainly don't. That's why I'm dreading the plot in 60 seconds is because I don't I don't know what happened. I watched this movie. I watched the credits and I don't know Really, I can't wrap my head around what happened in this movie. And folks, I don't know what I'm going to do with this number. Maybe I make up what happened to the last 40 minutes. I mean, you know this chat. Hey. Sure. I got to remember what happens before that, too. I was also asleep.
00:42:31
Speaker
like Honestly, that's the other thing. like I say I stopped it 45 minutes before the end, but I was also asleep for a good maybe 15 to 20 minutes before that. I don't know, man.
00:42:47
Speaker
i moved ah but hope you don't call me this time around I kind of hope I do, I'm not gonna lie. ah let's Let's, since you brought it up, Tucker, let's get into it. The plot in 60 seconds, part of the show where we, at the behest of the D6 of Destiny, recount the plot of the film we are discussing in 60 seconds or less.
00:43:08
Speaker
I've got the d6 of destiny here numbers one and two are for me three and four for Brett five and six for Tucker Let's give it a roll and see what she has in store for us today Gentlemen That's a three. No, that's Brett. Oh fuck. Yes That is Brett. So Tucker, why don't you go ahead and put 60 seconds on the clock? I will put 60 seconds on the official ah straight up. What do we disenfranchise? ah Egg timer. I purchased it. It's this little digital egg timer. And look, if I turn the edge of it, it moves the numbers around. It sure does. How cool is that? Look at that. That's pretty rad.
00:43:55
Speaker
So, Brett, whenever you're ready, just start talking and I will hit this little button here and the clock will start. Give me a second. Give me a second. He's researching. me He's reading the Wikipedia. and the media don't you don't you work Yeah, you got to. If you got to read it, just read it. You know, no big deal. I mean, let's see how fast you can read it off Wikipedia. yeah andy All right, let us begin. In the year 3000 AD, Johnny Goodboy Tyler lives in the Rocky Mountains with a band of cave bells for the demons that rule Earth. Johnny doubts their stories and rides into the lowlands. Two hunters show him a desolate and overgrown city. While exploring it, he is captured by the demons, a cruel alien species called Cyclos.
00:44:38
Speaker
and taken as a slave to a base in the ruins of Denver. The base is covered with a gnarled stone, the pride cyclos, and the breathable atmosphere. Something they don't explain that well. Johnny shows resourcefulness, drawing their respect with other human slaves. In the interest of Turl, the high-born Earth security chief. Turl learns some stuff. ah Gold is valuable. ah Turl is mad because he's going to get shipped off when he thought he wasn't going to.
00:45:05
Speaker
Uh, some stuff happens. They find Fort Knox. Apparently that 10 seconds. The humans lots are involved. There's jets to combat the cycle air defenses that they apparently had 10 Johnny floats. That is time. I call it technology to the humans. You did so well, break. Good job. Good job, buddy.
00:45:28
Speaker
You so showed such a comprehension of the the nuances of the story of this film. Look, I mean, I should have done it off the top of my head. That probably would have been funnier, but i didn't I didn't have it in me. I mean, look, that's fine. I don't know that I would have had it in me to do it off the top of my head, to be quite honest. Didn't know. Not at all. I need to have the passion for it, like Speed Racer. and this I did not. Speed Racer, one of the greats. I mean, not, but also yes.
00:45:56
Speaker
I mean, um, good. The movie and my plot 60, but like mostly mostly fucking great. Yeah, don't do that. In fact, don't watch don't watch Battlefield Earth. Just go watch speed. ask No. I mean, you don't look you don't have to do that to yourself. You can you can show restraint and have self respect. Be like Brad. Be like Brad. Don't watch this fucking movie. No, definitely don't be like Steven and watch it two days before you have to.
00:46:25
Speaker
Though, Brett, you did miss the best scene in the whole movie. Did I? I think you did, because the best scene in the entire movie is when Forest Whitaker thinks that he he's got John Travolta like he he's got the footage of I don't know what, but apparently it's something that Ray can use for blackmail. i don't I don't know what's going on in this movie. I have no idea. No, doesn but.
00:46:49
Speaker
before his Whitaker's like, I straight up got you, dude. And then they have that exchange and they're like walking around and he's drunk. And that's Bravo. I when they started laughing at themselves, I laughed with them.
00:47:06
Speaker
It was it is the peak of the film. It is the reason to watch that movie is that scene. I thought I thought the best scene was when they they they send the the caveman out to like climb the mountain to figure out what their favorite food is. They assume that it must be rat raw rat because that's the first food that they eat. Right. And they're starving. They're starving and they're cold.
00:47:33
Speaker
Right. Yeah. it's too That's one of those. That's one of those times I was talking about earlier. I was like, is this what this movie is supposed to be? Is it supposed to be a comedy? Do you want lunch? Like which is this supposed to be funny? Like the aliens are incompetent, but like like not because like they don't know. you Like, is it supposed to be? Is this is this what battlefielders could have been? And that's why I have a bunch of humans.
00:48:00
Speaker
They have so many humans. They do. They could just ask one. Hey, what's your favorite food? Somebody would tell them. Well, but I mean, I think that that's kind of the joke, right? Like they write. They how they're written. Like they think they're so much better than humans. They're not. They're going to be able to figure it out. They don't need to ask. They won't stay so low. And how come how come if you can just put a little beam in Johnny Goodboy's head, Johnny Goodboy?
00:48:30
Speaker
If you could just shoot a little beam in his head and he can speak their language, why don't they all just speak human? Because like if there were to be a revolt, then they'd be able to understand what the motherfuckers are saying. And if all it takes is a little beam shot at your head, then you could just learn English. It's beneath them. But it's been a fish. See, and that's how I don't understand. I've worked for some shitty companies, but the way that this company is run, I don't know how it exists or thrives at all.
00:49:00
Speaker
Because everybody is backstabbing everybody else. No one is working together. and They just do so much stupid shit. I don't know. I don't know how they thrive. And it's like it peren or seven feet tall, really.
00:49:15
Speaker
Maybe, look I'm telling you, maybe this movie was supposed to be a satirical comedy. like They called it the home office, for fuck's sake. That's such a goofy name for an alien high authority. It is. ah it just It comes off as just goofy. And like I almost wonder if that was intentional. Well, and i mean based on what I'm reading here, the cyclos themselves were supposed to be Elrond Hubbard's kind of um
00:49:46
Speaker
I guess indictment against psychology and like psychiatry. like in What way? yeah yeah Please explain. Please explain how.
00:50:02
Speaker
um Apparently, in the book, the cyclos are ruled by a group called the Catrists, cyclocatrists, which is supposed to be similar to psychiatrists.
00:50:15
Speaker
ah and They were basically a group of evil charlatans, essentially. um And anyone who opposes them is subject subject to mind control and electroshock and, you know, all these psychiatric tools that were used in the 50s and shit. But yeah, apparently cyclo is supposed to mean brain in their language. um So basically, the cataracts treat everyone like mental patients. It sounds crazy when you say it, looking at it from a modern lens, but
00:50:50
Speaker
If, like you just said, if you go back to the fifties and you think about like lobotomy and electroshock, yeah, you know what? Elrond had maybe a point. Like psychiatry back then was some bullshit. We've come a long way. We've come a long way. You know, I've. I think I figured it out, you guys, I think I figured it out where they went wrong with this is instead of. Making a big budget movie, they should have made ah Saturday morning cartoon in the 80s and this this would have played so sold so many toys
00:51:27
Speaker
It would have played so well. We'd still be talking about Battlefield Earth. I'm surprised we didn't have toys when this movie came out. Like it's a perfect choice. Yeah, it's too energetic. Is that the term? Toyetic. Toyetic. Yeah, it's close. But this I would watch this as an 80s Saturday morning cartoon, for sure, because like John Travolta is ripped right out of that. His character is he's just really evil and there's no There's nothing else to his character except that he's an evil piece of shit. That's his one personality trait. He's not even terribly convincing at it because I don't buy him as a terror. I don't buy him as scary because so he's incompetent. Like, like fucking goofy that I'm not at at no point can I see how why any of these characters would perceive him as a threat. Well, do you remember the shredder and the eighty seven turtles?
00:52:25
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, just many 80s or early 90s cartoon villain. They're all buffoons. Cobra's a fucking buffoon. Like, like Primeval from the OG Ghostbusters buffoon. Skeletor buffoon. Yes. Like this is just terrible. But at least they looked scary. I guess.
00:52:50
Speaker
Travoltan, this movie don't look scary at all. Oh, look at that, they're one of the Battlefield Earth toys. Fuck yeah. Yeah, dude. Yeah, we we do have some Battlefield Earth toys um that were made for this movie. I don't think any of them sold. Strikes Me is kind of one of those where you've got like tons and tons of stock left over at a CVS or something. Oh, yeah, CDT video game of movies. Oh, yeah, absolutely. and ah But yeah, all the all the all your favorite characters, Johnny Goodboy, Kerr, Turrell. Yeah, there's a Forest Whitaker action figure here. Oh, oh, that might be the only chance I have to have Forest Whitaker in action figure four. Who wouldn't want that? I'm sure there's one of his character from Star Wars. Oh, yeah. Saw Gerrera. And also by I'd buy a ghost dog.
00:53:44
Speaker
action figure. I mean, fuck yeah, ghost dog rules, dude. Yeah, dude. Yeah. Forest Whitaker, what the fuck are you doing in this movie, dude? What? Honestly, though, not enough. He kind of disappointed me in this. Like I wanted him to be the best part of this movie because I wanted him. He should have been. Well, and he's he's got the kind of integrity that he's going to take any project seriously. I just don't think that he I don't think this was a project that He really. Understood, I guess. I mean, in the way that John Travolta did this reeks of paycheck movies. Yeah, I don't. But you don't see Forest Whitaker doing that, really. No, but I mean, what um he should. So have you seen in the crying game, Stephen? I I've seen parts of the crying game. I've not seen Harley. Don't doubt that man's integrity ever.
00:54:42
Speaker
Look, and i I'm just saying anyone can do a paycheck movie and I would not begrudge them their ability to do a paycheck movie. Like everyone's got to make money, particularly if they're working in this, this industry, this film industry that is ah ridiculous in terms of excess at times. Like make the money if you can. Absolutely. And I'm certainly not going to begrudge Forest Whitaker or anybody for taking a paycheck movie, but that does kind of seem like what this is.
00:55:12
Speaker
very That's fair stephen i concede yeah mr five but i was like okay you just guys been doing a favor for somebody that's true i i don't know if he had any ah prior working relationship with ah Roger Christian. And then again, he he seemed pretty adamantly or seemed pretty embarrassed by this movie. Also, how many stories do we hear of actors who were given one script when they agreed and then it turned into something completely different when they filmed it? And maybe that's why he's saying he regretted it. Yeah, that's entirely possible. They may have pitched this hard to him. Like and he might have been like, yeah, this looks fucking rad. And then he does it. And he's like, no, that was actually shit. Yeah.
00:55:57
Speaker
I was bamboozled. I mean, he does in 96. He is in the movie phenomenon with John Travolta. So that could just be one of those like, Hey, you want to make a movie with me? Kind of things. i'm beginning This feels like Travolta just calling in all the favors, which may be why after this movie is over, he's in this movie is cooked. Maybe that's why he's done is because no one owes him any more favors because he used them all up on this one. That's all the favors. You don't get anymore. Sorry, dude.
00:56:29
Speaker
Hey, why haven't we gotten any more John Travolta in Tarantino movies? Because we've gotten more Uma Thurman and we've gotten more Tim Roth. We've gotten more Samuel Jackson. ah Probably because Travolta offered him this. No, but like. no Not not counting the whole Vega Brothers thing, which I would have loved to have seen. Sure. um Not counting that, but who?
00:56:57
Speaker
Like thinking of Quentin Tarantino's films after Pulp Fiction, who would he be in any of that stuff? I guess he could have been like Ray Nicolette in Jackie Brown. Right. But i won' I don't want anyone but Michael Keaton to do that. No, I agree. I agree. ah Yeah, for sure. And he was the same character in Out of Sight, which is a really good movie with George Clooney and J.Lo. Right.
00:57:21
Speaker
I love that you put the emphasis on the low that that warmed my cockles. Thank you. Well, she's from the block. So I understand. Got to put the right emphasis on the correct syllables. Damn it. Yeah, correct. Yeah, dude.
00:57:39
Speaker
Um, yeah, man. I don't know. Revolta, dude. I don't know. Like, i but here's the thing. Like, I agree. I don't know where he fits in any other Tarantino project. Like, do you do you throw him in hateful aid as somebody? ah Probably. Like, he could. he I mean, look, we can talk shit about Travolta all day, but he's got the chops. He's proven it. He is proven that he can fucking act his pants off. He doesn't always do it. No.
00:58:09
Speaker
But he is a guy who can phone it in. And sometimes even when he's trying, you're like, dude, what are we doing? I would say so Fanatic is a good example of that. I would say he's also given some kind of iconic performances as well. Agreed. Agreed. Like, um I mean, Pulp Fiction is a great example. Face Off, another great example. Like, there's there's some great tri to go to performances. Don't get me wrong. This is not one of them.
00:58:38
Speaker
But this is an iconic performance, but not in the good way. Correct. Well, yeah, that's what I was going to say is that I think it is actually very iconic because you he really is leaning into it. Like I feel like he's giving this his all. And that's what makes it so much more enjoyable, that it's so just ridiculous. And like to see this man like he's he's so into this that he's going to give this performance and like that's his He's really going for it. Yes. I'm way into it. I'm way into his performance in this movie. It's bad, but in just the best way. Every time he's on screen, I'm like, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Could we get more to Volta? Can he say some silly shit real quick and like get mad about something or fuck somebody over or some shit? Yeah. Yeah. I. Yeah. And his performance is, again, just one of the things that I that just rings hollow to me in this movie.
00:59:35
Speaker
There have been many things that rings hollow to me in this movie. I'm agreeing with you. I'm just saying that for the same reason that you don't like it, I'm having a fantastic time with it. I i am agreeing with you that it is terrible, for sure. I mean, honestly, by and and I do understand on some level what you're saying is the fact that he's the only one in this movie with any kind of juice. Yeah. Like he's the only one that really is giving anything.
01:00:03
Speaker
um which does make him, on some level, compelling to watch. It's just the compulsion is mixed with revulsion for me. I also thought that dude that dude that tells him he's going to be there for even longer, like his boss or whatever it comes to it. Yeah, I thought that guy was real fucking good. Like, oh, I hated that guy. He was such a piece of shit. Yeah, that guy was fantastic. That that but that scene is the one that made me think of the.
01:00:35
Speaker
the Ferengi in particular, like all these guys sitting around talking about business and screwing each other over for corporate interests. That is, the actor's name is Michael McCray. He plays district manager Zete, I think is the name. What do I know him as well? He is in his IMDB top four, Battlefield Earth, Summer School, Masterminds, and three episodes of MacGyver.
01:01:03
Speaker
man. Where any play is three completely different characters. Characters name is his been district manager really? Yes. Yes. Damn. With ah such a funny performance. So like aliens have this office based hierarchy. You have to answer the HR if you're not sure. That's some bogon shit is what that is. Yeah. Yeah.
01:01:29
Speaker
from bithiker's guide for sure I mean, yeah, this guy does not have a particularly dense filmography. This Michael McCrae guy, it's mostly TV aye and and some TV movies. So he understood the assignment and he brought his A game to that role because he was fucking despicable. Despicable. Like I even. Or I'm sorry, I even felt sorry for Roger Volta's character for a second, and that guy sucks.
01:01:59
Speaker
But other dude was laying it on so thick. I was like, fuck man, calm down. Like ease off a bit. like I mean, but look, if Travolta had known that that woman was the senator's daughter. dot dot dot fill in that kind of throwaway line. That was a comedy line. What was that doing in that movie? thats seriously about was it hilarious comedy All along, like inconsistent tone in this. I don't know the inconsistency is again are kind of one of the things that get me in this. I want this to be a comedy so bad. Oh, I gotta watch it again. I can't wait.
01:02:35
Speaker
Oh my God, it's so bad. I don't know why you'd want to. For science, we talked about this. Yeah, yeah, yeah, sure, for sure, sure. Barry Pepper is the lead. Originally Travolta wanted to play the lead himself. ah But then by the time he actually got to make the movie, was too old. oh He old as fuck.
01:02:54
Speaker
I love Berry Pepper. He could as hell an enemy in the state. He's good in just about anything he does. I really dig Berry Pepper. Yeah. No notes. I dig Berry Pepper. the The last thing I think I saw him in was Crawl, the alligator movie. He's fucking great in that. I was going to say, what what what happened to the man? I don't I haven't seen him in a while. He is he honestly, he does a lot of independent film. He is in future episode of this podcast, The Lone Ranger. So there is that.
01:03:24
Speaker
He chose to do the Maze Runner series instead of, you know, one of the more lucrative YA franchises. I don't know how many Maze Runner movies. There was three, weren't there? Three, yeah. He's in two of the three. Lucrative enough. He's in the Coen Brothers True Grit in 2010. He is. He's in Clint Eastwood's Flags of Our Fathers.
01:03:47
Speaker
um He plays Tom Ripley in ah in ah the movie Ripley Underground. um He's in the Will Smith film Seven Pounds. Like the man works and has worked consistently. It's just like his kind of miracle run is over in the 90s.
01:04:06
Speaker
And it's it's short-lived, too. He does Saving Private Ryan in 98, Enemy of the State also in 98, Green Mile in 99, and this in 2000. And that's after that, it's like we were soldiers in 2022, Spike Lee's 25th Hour also in 2022, or 2002, rather. Sorry, both of those, 2002. Flags of Our Fathers in 2006, Seven Pounds in 2008,
01:04:33
Speaker
um Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2 in 2009. Oh, he was in Lonesome Dove, though. He was in Lonesome Dove, though. like But again, man just man just works. He is in the TV miniseries Titanic from 96, the year before the Cameron movie comes out. He does an episode of the show Sliders, does an episode of the show Highlander, does an episode of the show Mantis. Oh.
01:05:04
Speaker
So, I mean, man works. And I know he's been up for like independent spirit awards and things like that. Like he he he does tend to do good work when he does work. ah The problem is he just hasn't done a lot. He played ah Bobby Kennedy in the TV series, The Kennedys, for which he won an Emmy. Oh, I'll bet his Boston accent's really good. Oh, it's got to be, right?
01:05:30
Speaker
he looks like He looks like a guy who would do a good boss next. I don't know how to explain that, but he does. ah He wins, ultimately goes on to win the 2001 Razzie for worst supporting actor for Battlefield Earth. In days after he told the Guardian, I wish somebody had invited me to the ceremony. I would have gone and accepted it. That would have been so much fun. Him and Halle Berry, right? Man and Sandra Bullock.
01:06:00
Speaker
Did she accept hers too? She did. she She brought copies of the movie to give to everybody in attendance because they clearly didn't understand the movie. Because fuck them. Fuck the Razzies. Seriously, fuck the Razzies. This movie won seven of the eight Razzies it was nominated for. The only one it didn't win was worst supporting actor for Forest Whitaker because that move that award was already won by Barry Pepper.
01:06:25
Speaker
But it wins, I have the awards pulled up here. Worst picture, worst actor for John Travolta for both this and Lucky Numbers. It wins, we're supporting actor for Barry Pepper who beat out Forest Whitaker for the same movie. um Worst supporting actress, Kelly Preston in Battlefield Earth, which rude. She didn't do it, I mean, she was fine. She was in one scene. Yeah.
01:06:51
Speaker
And literally like it's not even it's not even a supporting role. It's more of a cameo than anything else. um Worst screen couple for John Travolta and anyone sharing the screen with him in Battlefield or? I like the bartender. ah Worst ah director, Roger Christian, and worst screenplay, seven of the eight that it was nominated for at one. Fantastic. Yeah.
01:07:19
Speaker
So there everybody that's the fucking Golden Raspberries. You you you beat a dead horse. You kicked a movie while it was down. Congratulations. Right. right Yeah. fuckinging did ah Picked the lowest hanging fruit imaginable. ah Right up there was CinemaSins on YouTube in terms of shitty content.
01:07:41
Speaker
ah I do want to mention that there was a jazz album that accompanied the release of the novel, Battlefield Earth. Really? Called Space Jazz. Can I hear that? Can I listen to that right now? And by right now, I mean like when we're done. It might be on Spotify. I don't Spotify.
01:07:59
Speaker
ladies cha I'm too shy. Space Jazz, Elrond Hubbard. Yep, that's it. I've got it. It's here.
01:08:10
Speaker
Chick Corea and Stanley Clark who are two Scientologists played on the album We're we're up listening to this you guys and I'm gonna report back ah the reviewer special episode The one reviewer from the vinyl factory said of it, if this isn't one of jazz's worst, it's certainly it's craziest. Oh, I am intrigued. I cannot. You guys, as soon as we're done here, I'm going to keep these headphones on, which I've had on for almost over three hours now because I watched the movie right before we started recording and I watched it with these headphones on. I'm going to keep them on and I'm going to listen to that.
01:08:52
Speaker
I want to listen to that. Please report back with your findings. Right. Or do more science. I'm I'm a science guy. She blinded me with science. Science.
01:09:08
Speaker
Science. Wow. Miss Yakimoto, you're beautiful. Yeah. Yeah. So this movie, ah it comes out in Hold on. Wait. Wow. Are we doing it?
01:09:28
Speaker
You would not believe it. There is a video game. You would not believe what I'm about to fucking tell you. Oh, shit. do you I dude. Let me take you on a fascinating trip over to the video game corner. Yes. We haven't been in so long. Tucker's video game corner is not nearly as well stocked as Brett's. It was fucking wild. um So what year did this come out? Let me check it out. In the year 2000.
01:09:57
Speaker
It doesn't say. that Man is still alive. Oh, wait, that's different. In the year 2000. I'm not sure what year that came out. But it's on PS5 and Xbox Series X. It must have been recently, which is fascinating even more fascinating. No, no. So.
01:10:24
Speaker
They basically, so there, there is a a series, a video game series called battlefield. Um, Oh, that, that, no, Brent. Oh, brett hold no, hold on. Wait a minute, Tucker. Okay. i Don't you just wait buddy. You're in for a treat. Um, so so basically.
01:10:49
Speaker
Okay, it was released on PS4 and Xbox One, so it might be a few years old, but anyway. um It takes inspiration. So this version of Battlefield, called Battlefield Earth, is based on the novel and the movie-ish.
01:11:10
Speaker
So it plays the same as other games in the franchise with the player shooting and finding enemies to complete objectives. um but this time with laser weapons and knives based on the lightsabers from Star Wars.
01:11:28
Speaker
So after the events of these other Battlefield games, um because therere Battlefield is kind of cut does kind of have a story. It's a franchise. After that, drones sent by a vault,
01:11:44
Speaker
A character voiced by John Travolta. Oh my. um A tyrannical overlord from the planet Cyber-Cyclo. um um any he's He's more or less playing Tarl, let's be honest, but they named him something different for some reason. Reasons. For reasons.
01:12:09
Speaker
which forces the game's protagonist to fight his way through the planet and take the battle to space with the help of his partner, a woman who crash landed on Earth and leads a resistant force.
01:12:21
Speaker
So, but but listen, listen to this voice cast. Voice cast on this is insane. Nuts. So Keanu Reeves is the main character, voices the main character. John Travolta has returned. Somehow, John Travolta has returned. John Travolta has returned.
01:12:40
Speaker
Um, let's see who else, Karen Gillen is an alien, is an alien member of the villains race. Felicity Jones as well. Felicity Jones, uh, Yuri Lowenthal, the exalted voice actor, Yuri Lowenthal, um, DC Douglas, uh, Jeremy Renner, Taika Waititi, uh, Brie Larson, Benedict Cumberbatch.
01:13:05
Speaker
I mean, Tom Hardy, the fuck? What is what is this bread? Is this Josh Brolin, Cara Delevingne? Is this in the act well? Where is this? Can I buy this? I don't think I can buy this. I i mean, it's just real like so some people need to, I mean, come out of the because like when can the box art and it doesn't look real. But when did these articles come out possibly on April 1st?
01:13:36
Speaker
I mean, it's very possible. There's like, I could be finding an old, you know, April 1st, uh, you know, article, but I mean, I don't see any other news about it, but that doesn't surprise me. Like, you know, who's talking about the battlefield earth game. Um,
01:13:57
Speaker
but it's very possible that I've been bamboozled and this is not real. I don't believe it, Brett. I don't believe it. I don't, and you know, I don't. It seems too good to be believed, honestly. But also, I'm glad that we spent time talking about it. Because I kind of want to know. I do. Whoever, so I'm basically reading this off of a a fandom wiki. And like who, and I couldn't find any other information about it, but like for someone
01:14:33
Speaker
to go through this. I mean, this is is some fan fiction. People got time on their hands, Brett. Right? Not us, but some people. We don't have enough time to research whether or not this is accurate or not, and we're not going to. Yes. I mean, you know shout us out if if you know this is real or not. If we have been bamboozled.
01:15:00
Speaker
if by some slim chance, it's a real thing. right Lead us in the right direction, please. And not into temptation for his namesake, yea. Although now I will say there is, that I have discovered an actual game. yeah ah mean We're not saying the last one I read was an actual game or not. We're just kind of thinking it might not be. It's ambiguous at this point.
01:15:27
Speaker
But this one came out in 1996 bundled with a copy of the book. And it was just a very not well-known PC RPG that not a whole lot of people know much about, or a visitor metric, maybe. There was not a whole lot of information. Damn. Now that I've heard. Get out there, folks.
01:15:53
Speaker
So be good, for goodness sake. Oh, somebody's coming. Oh, well. Oh, you guys.
01:16:09
Speaker
hu anyway It's been a video game corner. Carry on, Stephen. Battlefield Earth opens May 12th. In the year 2000, it opens at number two, ah grossing in its opening weekend, $11.5 million dollars on its way to $21.5 million dollars domestic. It earns over half of its box office in its opening weekend. Quick, Stephen, hold on. Do the or somebody do the conversion to today's money.
01:16:49
Speaker
Oh shit, ah did I save that site? If this did better or worse than Borderlands. Wait, um hey. Hey. What was the budget?
Financial Analysis and Comparisons
01:17:01
Speaker
ah The budget was $80 million. dollars And what did it make you hit, sir? Counting the international box office, which you know we normally don't do, $29.7 million.
01:17:18
Speaker
Thank you for repeating that. I apologize. I was still laughing and at very absurd ah reference that he made there. um Yeah, I can't find that. I thought I saved that in my favorites. Did you pull it up, Steven, for the conversion? Sure didn't. I remember it being really easy just Googling, like, straight up, what is it in today's money?
01:17:46
Speaker
money converter by year in solution calculator. That's the one. Yes. Oh, thank you for dropping that in the chat. So we go from 2000 to 2024. We're going to go twenty nine million.
01:18:17
Speaker
Yeah, well, hang on, I put in 200 instead of 2000. God, that would be about 53 million dollars in today's money. The gentleman Borderlands 30 million in its entire run. So that's in today dollars. So and it costs like what episode of this podcast Borderlands? Absolutely. is I can't wait to torture myself with that fucking movie.
01:18:46
Speaker
I don't want to. We're going to have to. We got a game corner and like, but we got a. like ah No, it has to be an episode. I was going to say, that sounds like a video game corner, if ever there was one. i mean Yeah, it will be. And Brett, you're going to be doing all the talking because I tried to play a borderland and it gave me motion sickness. So I have not played anything in the franchise except for like 10 minutes before I puked.
01:19:11
Speaker
Sure. And I haven't played all of it, so I'm not i'm also not an expert or anything. so That's never stopped us before. And it will not stop us going forward.
01:19:24
Speaker
um opening and or at number one the weekend the battlefield earth a saga of the year 3000 comes out ah in its second weekend it's Ridley Scott's gladiator future Academy Award winner so we've got the Academy Award winner for best picture and the Razzie award winner for worst picture at the number one and number two spots in the box office this weekend. If I can just interject real quick and say that I worked at the movie theater when all these movies came out. So instead of saying that for every film, I'm just going to say it right now. And it can just be implied that I cleaned out a movie theater while the credits to all these films were playing. In third place, it's U-571.
01:20:09
Speaker
That's a boat movie. I don't like boat movies, Steven. We were aware. You've made that i'm like. Ungently clear. Despite the fact that some of those movies fucking rip. That's what I've heard. How do you feel about submarine movies, though? That's it's worse than a boat boat movie because it's even further in the water, dude. Dude, but I. You're. You're. Like, do you like does it? What if the movie takes place on a boat, but it's not a boat movie?
01:20:38
Speaker
but I probably like that slide pirates of the caribbean um scar but go shit our movie ghost ship i liked the first the first 15 minutes of ghost ship are real, real good until they got on the ghost ship. I mean, the first 15 minutes of ghost ship is pretty good. It is. It's a pretty fantastic opening. to Or you might say it's ghosted. You could. You could. 13 ghosts joke.
01:21:07
Speaker
Is it Matthew Lillard and fourth and Mr. Monk? And he says Matthew Lillard tells him that he has ghosts and he says goats. It's just no ghosts. Oh, OK, I see. what All right. I get the connection there. Tony Shubalubaloob from the monk.
01:21:31
Speaker
Let's see him pronounce his name. In fourth place, Tony Shalhoub. In fourth place, the Dennis Quaid Jim Caviezel movie, Frequency. Yeah, oh which I remember really liking. It's really good. yeah I mean, also, no maybe if you have a close relationship with your dad, don't watch it. or You're going to be crying a lot. yeah I watched it with my dad. i mean that's fine So did I. And it was fine because I was young at the time. yeah If I were to watch it now, I would probably cry so much. Yeah. It's fucked up.
01:22:03
Speaker
Um, in fifth place, uh, the Flintstones in Viva Rock Vegas in its third weekend at the box office. That's the one with the bald one instead of Rick Moranis, right? Correct. And the one with, uh, Robert Baratheon instead of John Goodman. Okay. Yeah. In sixth place. I remember him as in the night's tale. That's what I know I'm from. Right. I saw him in Game of Thrones. I was like, Oh, that's a dude from night's tale.
01:22:31
Speaker
Still standing, he's the the husband in the in the sitcom Still Standing with Jamie Gertz. That's cool. Yeah, yeah, yeah. ah In sixth place, a movie called Center Stage, which is apparently about dancers, question mark? It is, it is, yeah. ah Seventh place, Where the Heart Is, a movie my ah my partner once as a teenager tried to film in a Walmart and got kicked out. I like that movie.
01:23:00
Speaker
Yeah, it's Natalie Portman. Yeah, dude, she gets pregnant and she gets locked in the Walmart. Yeah, and then she she names her baby Americas, which is a dumb name. It's a really dumb movie, but really dumb. It's a really fucking dumb movie. My sister is just so it's so wholesome. You can't deny it. Like, you know how we watch all these sci-fi movies that like you can't you have to suspend your disbelief, but it's so good that it doesn't matter. That's where the heart is for me. Like, it's just so wholesome.
Other Films and Ratings Discussion
01:23:31
Speaker
In eighth place, screwed.
01:23:34
Speaker
Uh, what if, what if people were screwed? I guess that's a North McDonald movie. Gabe Chappelle in that one. Uh, in a ninth place, a really great movie that I love. Love and basketball. Uh, movie fucking rules. Uh, love and basketball. Good movie. There's a criterion of that, right? Is there? I think there is. That would be awesome if true. I feel like that is. Uh, and then in 10th place, held up.
01:24:03
Speaker
Um, I, a movie I know nothing about. I don't know that one either. Nia Long is apparently in this movie. Jake Busey. Um, Rosalind Sanchez. Damn. Sarah Paulson in this movie. Jamie Fox. Golly. Directed by Steve Rash. I know nothing about this.
01:24:27
Speaker
But there you go. That is this week's box office. ah The Tomatometer score on this one is three.
01:24:37
Speaker
3%. Yeah, dude. Just three. Just three. The Critic's Consensus, Ugly, Campy, and Poorly-Acted Battlefield Earth is a stunningly misguided, aggressively bad sci-fi folly. So there you go. There you go. Yes. The meta score is nine.
01:24:58
Speaker
based on over overwhelming dislike based on 33 critic reviews. I don't think I've ever seen a meta score that low. ah Tucker, you want to take a stab at the um letterbox score for this one? I feel like this is easy.
01:25:15
Speaker
ah
01:25:17
Speaker
Look, like letterboxed, it's all about the memes. and the jokes, nobody really reviews movies on there. So I'm going to say, except for me, I do. Well, I mean, very few, not enough people do. I mean, its main function is meme reviews. So I'm going to say somewhere in between people being silly and people genuinely having a good time with this movie, like I did, and people completely hating it, it's going to be between two
01:25:51
Speaker
2.7 and 3.1 Wow 1.3 holy shit the memes didn't pull through for this one Tucker, there are 320 five-star ratings for this movie. There are 11,157 half-star ratings. They tried. They tried. It's so bad even the memes couldn't go. No, I give them 300 and some people, I give them credit. They tried. They tried. They tried. Because that's what you do on that site, right? But everybody else was like, I can't. I can't. No. Like, we've got to cut the shit. This is actually bad. I can't. I can't even make a joke about it. It's just bad. I pay myself to do it.
01:26:38
Speaker
It it real, real bad, people aggressively bad. Like we said, you can skip this one. Is it the worst thing I feel like we've ever covered? No, but it's not because food might exist. Food fight exists. Marmaduke also exists. Did we are we forgetting that I had fun with this and I might watch it again? Like there there are people, I think, who would have a good time with this. You can't say don't watch it.
01:27:07
Speaker
don't watch it if it doesn't sound like something you'd be into. But if you're a fucking lunatic like me, yeah, check it out. But who is a lunatic like you, Tucker? oh what Me, me, maybe some other. people I know I am. Well, yeah, that's the point is you are you and whom.
01:27:27
Speaker
I mean, there's gotta be some other people. There are are more, I'm sure of us. There are dozens of us, dozens. Again, I don't like this movie. Let's be clear. So just for the sake of argument, if you had to rate this film, say, but out of five stars, how would you rate Battlefield Earth from the year 2000? I will give it a 1.5, and this is why.
01:27:53
Speaker
because it sucks. Like I said, probably top 50 worst movies I've ever seen in my life and boys, I've seen some stinkers. Believe me when I say, you don't know what I've seen. You don't know what I've seen. Um, but it gets the 1.5 because
01:28:16
Speaker
I don't know, it's just so bad and not in a way like The Room is or any of those other movies that you think of when you think of movies that are so bad that they're good, but in its own little unique way. And I'm not going to say that I'm going to watch this movie over and over and over, but I may revisit it a few times. If I meet someone who I think would have a good time with it, I might show it to them. So 1.5.
01:28:45
Speaker
Brett, what about you? I don't don't think I'm fit to rate it since I didn't finish it. But I mean, if I were to give a rating to what I did see, a solid 0.5. Fair. Whereas I'm giving it a 1. Wow. A 1 out of 5 feels aggressively generous to me. Yeah. I feel like I I feel like I need to rate it a one. We need to swap scores. This doesn't make any sense. There's no way you liked this more than me. You guys, we did it. We subverted expectations. It's our 200th episode. It doesn't make any sense. It's different now. It's all different now. We did it. Well, then I got to raise my score to a 1.5 because, like I said, there's no way. Then I'm going to a half. Well, then I lower my back to one. Stop this madness. Stop this madness.
01:29:42
Speaker
I don't know what the official scores are anymore. Honestly, I don't care. Look, this movie's bad and you should feel bad. um This movie's bad and it should feel bad um is basically where I where i land on it. So when adapting the film, Travolta, oh they only adapted the first half of the novel. ah The novel is ah over 1,000 pages and they only adapted the first 400 in some pages.
01:30:09
Speaker
yeah And so there was absolutely plans for a sequel. When asked while promoting the movie if there would be a sequel to this movie, Travolta said, yeah, sure. And then a year later, he was like,
01:30:24
Speaker
He said, um ultimately, the movie did 100 million when you count box office DVD sales, video, and pay per view. But I don't know what kind of number it would have to do to justify filming the second part of the book. And I don't want to push any buttons in the press and stir anybody up about it now. ah So basically, no. A Tokyo-based studio did announce in 2001 that they would air 13 one hour animated television segments based on the book should be rendered in a manga style, which obviously fell through. um Yeah, it's kind of one of those just like, no, like this as soon as the movie enters its second weekend and drops from two to six in the box office, you pretty much know nothing's ever going to come
01:31:13
Speaker
No animatrix for this. Ever did, correct. And it's some of my favorite letterbox reviews. Someone called it a Dutch oven of Dutch angles. Good review. Someone else said, if this is the best Scientology has to offer, I don't think we have anything to fear from them. Dutch angle transition, Dutch angle transition, Dutch angle transition, Dutch angle transition, Dutch angle transition, ad infinitum end.
01:31:45
Speaker
But there you go. yeah just yeah know but ah What a piece of shit. um but So we like to cover the big disasters for for our centennial episodes. And this certainly qualifies. That is is Friends of Ours, our 200th episode. We did it, guys. We did 100. I did most of them. You did. You did more than me Tucker did. Yeah, you did more than me, dude. Well, look, I don't want to throw that in your face.
01:32:15
Speaker
and I did, I will. I'm an adult, Brett. I can take it. I understand facts. But I have more respect for this man than that. I suppose. Why? Exactly.
01:32:27
Speaker
and
01:32:31
Speaker
I can. We all friends, you all know, we all friends, are we? Yeah. ah Well, you're the one that hasn't been around for a while. You tell us. Ouch. You're the one that's been actively avoiding us. there that Fair point.
01:32:46
Speaker
Um, anyway, um, look, 200 episodes and we've got some really good ones still to come. Honestly. oh Yeah. That's what I was doing. I was looking at the calendar to see what was next week. Yeah. I, I'm not sure. I've not heard from our guest for next week. So we'll see. We have a guest for next week's episode. I don't, but I can come up with something.
01:33:07
Speaker
Damn. but You know how I do. um we We have a guest planned, but I have not heard. I haven't yet to secure a strong commitment. So unfortunately, I don't know if it's gonna happen or not. I hope it does because we haven't had this guest on in a while and we need to talk to them again very soon because they've got some good stuff happening.
01:33:25
Speaker
that I would love to talk to them about. um So I'm going to try to secure them for next week's
Social Media and Listener Engagement
01:33:30
Speaker
episode. In the meantime, though, you can find us on a couple of different social medias. Honestly, these days, it's mostly Instagram, ah Facebook, and and Blue Sky at DisinfranchPod. You can shoot us an email, disinfranchpod at gmail dot.com. Let us know how we're doing. We'll read your emails live on the podcast, unless you tell us not to.
01:33:50
Speaker
um You can head on over to patreon dot.com slash disenfranch pod where for absolutely free You can join the official conversation of the disenfranchised podcast or for five dollars a month you can get access to just scads and scads of of content behind that paywall and It's one of these days Tucker's gonna there is some lost episodes of what are we watching that Tucker's just gonna drop there? Hasn't that only they're only three months old OK, and there's two of them. We only recorded them at the beginning of the summer. And I'm excited to put them together. I'm excited to have the time to do that. And I'd also like to do some Patreon stuff soon. Yeah, you guys. We have some ideas for some Patreon stuff, in fact, one of which we've discussed on a previous episode that we did. So we're going to do the top five. That's what we're thinking.
01:34:48
Speaker
Yeah, it's I also want to do. hey I'm probably going to watch Frozen Empire. So, yeah. Oh, I also want to do um another. What are we watching? Because the list keeps growing and I want to talk about all this stuff like you guys are like, oh, I haven't been keeping a list and I don't care. Well, I haven't. I do like there have been some things that I've watched that I need to discuss with you guys, at least briefly.
01:35:12
Speaker
So if maybe we could have a very special like ah comeback episode of what are we watching? Well, you know what we have to do first? What? Release the episodes you haven't aired yet. Oh, no, I know. I know. ah We're getting there. We're getting there. Yeah, dude. Yeah, dude. Dude, yeah. The winter is the it's a fruitful time for what are we watching the summer? It's kind of a drought.
01:35:41
Speaker
It is. And that's just how it's got to be. Winter is coming. Feast and famine sometime. Feast and famine. It do be like that, though. Dude, yeah. um And look, while you're on the internet, swing by Apple Podcasts, Spotify, leave us a five-star rating and review ah so that ah other people can find us too, because that really does help go a long way to helping us find other listeners like yourselves. I am your host, Stephen Foxworthy. You can find me on Blue Sky. And that's pretty much it. these days Instagram, I guess, a little bit at Chewy. wall I posted a picture of my haircut this week um at Chewy Walrus.
01:36:19
Speaker
Um, uh, Brett, where can we find you on the socials these days? Uh, pretty much nowhere except for letterboxed underscore or like you can, you can follow my Instagram. I don't post anything, uh, ever. Usually sometimes like once a year, rare oddically but you know, I'm on there. If you want to just, do you want to check out what I have posted, yeah you know, that' that'd be cool. I guess.
01:36:46
Speaker
Yeah, I guess. Whatever, man. Whatever, man. and Tucker, what about you? Well, I'm on Instagram and YouTube at Ice 909. That's I.C.E. and I.N.E., the number zero and the number nine. Also, Tuck mugs is a whole thing that happens sometimes. And that's at Tuck underscore mugs on Instagram. And I, you know, you know, guys, I had sent a post to my social media coordinator yesterday. Yeah. And ah he's he's cooked. I'm going to let him cook. but' He's been busy the last couple of days, like he was also he just got back to his day job today. And so things are things are a little busy. Stephen, you know so much about him. It's like how ah Peter Parker is such good friends with Spider-Man.
01:37:41
Speaker
Yeah, and you notice you never see me and your social media director in the same place. Have you ever noticed that? That's weird. What?
01:37:50
Speaker
yeah i got we got Bring me pictures of your social media manager. We've got one in the chamber, though. I've sent it to my social media manager. They are putting the fine tunes on it and making sure it is ready for distribution and it will be out I'm sure with at least within the week. And I have a guest mug from when I was staying with my cousin last week. ah Might we do two in a week? I wonder if you could ask your social media coordinator friend Steven.
01:38:25
Speaker
you know Yeah, we'll see what we can do. Again, I know he's very busy, but yeah, we'll see what we can do. Can you take your glasses off real quick? Nope. I don't want to do that. How suspicious. You'll get motion sickness. You don't want to be. Yeah. Look, I can't see without my glasses, bro. What an absurd question. Yeah. All right. What do you think? I take them off when I transform? How absurd. Honestly, a little rude.
01:38:57
Speaker
Yeah. Strike two in the past 10 minutes. You're on notice, Brett. That's like three to five.
01:39:11
Speaker
um Yeah, that's it. That's social media, I guess. um That's all. That's it. That's all we got. Anyway, that's episode 200. Look, guys, we did 200 episodes, and I think that's something that we should be proud of. um do Do us a favor, go back and listen to all the 200 episodes that preceded this one.
01:39:28
Speaker
um single one and And listen to them, listen listen to each of those 200 episodes 200 times. Do me a favor. um And that'll really help our numbers and boost us up the chart. So thank you so much for doing that in advance.
01:39:43
Speaker
oh yeah yeah um And yeah, that's all for our 200th episode. Join us next week for episode 201. um ah Yeah, ah this has been the disenfranchised podcast. I'm your host Stephen Foxworthy for my co-host Tucker and Brett Wright until next time Before you guys could even spell your name. We were podcasting to galaxies You know, whatever it is Brett call it fate Call it luck call it karma and you can cut it there. What do you call it? Whoa, is the kitty okay?
01:40:23
Speaker
Yes. Okay.