Speaker 1: Welcome to Movie Crush, a production of I Heart Radio.
Speaker 1: Hey everybody, and welcome to Movie Crush. This is a
Speaker 1: very special Friday edition. We usually pick a guest and
Speaker 1: deep dive into a single favorite film, but this week
Speaker 1: I have Jeff Meetchum on the show from well from
Speaker 1: the world of podcasting, which we'll talk about, from the
Speaker 1: TV show Blackish, which we'll talk about. But this is
Speaker 1: a Tom Cruise special. Everyone. Hi there, Hey man, how
Speaker 1: are you. I couldn't be I couldn't be more excited
Speaker 1: to talk Cruise for a long time. Yeah, I mean
Speaker 1: maybe the first thing I had the podcast chat later on,
Speaker 1: but I think maybe we should get just go ahead
Speaker 1: and talk about your podcast now. Is that will help
Speaker 1: explain why we're talking about Tom Cruise. Thanks? Man. Uh,
Speaker 1: you have a show out all meeting Tom Cruise that
Speaker 1: you do along with your co host Joel john Stone.
Speaker 1: And why don't you just tell me a little bit
Speaker 1: about this project and what the deal is here. Yeah.
Speaker 1: So I am your you know, I'm your typical. I
Speaker 1: don't think that's the right word. I was. I grew
Speaker 1: up just obsessed with movies and and you know, and
Speaker 1: I'm I was born in seventy nine. So I and
Speaker 1: we've talked a lot about this on the pod, so
Speaker 1: I've I've kind of worked it out where there's this
Speaker 1: chunk of time where I was. I was basically I
Speaker 1: was ten by I was twenty, so I grew up
Speaker 1: where from a kid to an adult where Tom Cruise
Speaker 1: was the biggest movie star in the world. And you know, man,
Speaker 1: you remember that was the height of the cineplex, and
Speaker 1: you know, like there was nothing more exciting than going
Speaker 1: to the movies, at least for us movie nerds, and there,
Speaker 1: you know, on a Saturday night. So I I was
Speaker 1: just I was just obsessed with the guy, like he
Speaker 1: was he was the best. And then and then and
Speaker 1: then I went to a performing arts college and I
Speaker 1: think I kind of, I don't know, I'm I'm I'm
Speaker 1: a very exciting guy, excitable guy, get really pumped about stuff.
Speaker 1: So I think people just started to be like, oh yeah,
Speaker 1: Jeff's obsessed with Cruise, and it just kind of snowballed
Speaker 1: into this thing where I eventually started to come up
Speaker 1: with this idea one day. And this was in like
Speaker 1: you know, I don't know, somewhere in the mid two thousands,
Speaker 1: and I was like, what if I there was a
Speaker 1: show about two guys who thought Tom Cruise was going
Speaker 1: to retire and it had to go like tell him
Speaker 1: not to retire. Yeah, and then and they had the
Speaker 1: perfect script for him. You know, Cruise has just missed
Speaker 1: his Academy Awards a few times, so uh, you know
Speaker 1: there's always the big star. Brad Pitts now got one.
Speaker 1: You know, clue he got his. So it's like, when
Speaker 1: does when does Cruise get his Academy Awards? He know,
Speaker 1: he's been nominated three times, but he nuver won. He
Speaker 1: should have won for Magnolia. He should have one from
Speaker 1: men and we'll get to that for uh. Because I
Speaker 1: am pissed um so he anyway, So I kept having
Speaker 1: all these ideas, ideas ideas, but of course, being the
Speaker 1: a d D, you know, sometimes lazy, sometimes distracted actor
Speaker 1: I am, and kids and all whatever, I just never
Speaker 1: did anything about it until my buddy Alec Lev who's
Speaker 1: a total go getter, was like, dude, you and your
Speaker 1: friend Joel are ridiculous together. You know, we we've known it.
Speaker 1: Joel and I've known each other since ninety nine. And
Speaker 1: Joel is like he he reminds me of my best
Speaker 1: friend Seater anyway, and so he just has this crazy
Speaker 1: wild DestinE spot. I mean, he comes up to me
Speaker 1: one day he says, dude, dude, I know how excited
Speaker 1: you are about Cruise and loved him. I heard this
Speaker 1: story about him on the set of What Last Samurai
Speaker 1: and he's like and he's and he's pumping himself up
Speaker 1: on the set and he's just yelling the words Cruise
Speaker 1: is on fire. And I was like, that sounds like
Speaker 1: Tom Cruise does, right. So anyway, my my buddy Alec
Speaker 1: was like, you gotta make this into a podcast. Let's
Speaker 1: at least just record one we did. This was I
Speaker 1: don't know fourteen fifteen months ago and a buddy of
Speaker 1: mine who remained nameless, gave me the Cruise cake that
Speaker 1: particular Christmas. And do you know about this cruise cake?
Speaker 1: Have you hear about this? No? I don't know what
Speaker 1: you haven't heard? Chuck all right, Dom's Bakery in the
Speaker 1: valley here in Los Angeles. Tom Cruise went there one day,
Speaker 1: as Cruise would. Somebody or somebody brought one of the
Speaker 1: cakes from this bakery and Tom Cruise lost his freaking
Speaker 1: mind and was like, this is the best cake I've
Speaker 1: ever had before. But he's not a cake eater because
Speaker 1: he's keeping his body shredded all the time. So what
Speaker 1: he decided to do is every holiday send. We're not
Speaker 1: sure what the number is yet, thousands of these cakes.
Speaker 1: Two people. It's if you google right now Cruise cake
Speaker 1: and it'll pop up and you'll see Kirsten Dunns will
Speaker 1: tell the story. Anyway, So my buddy gives me the
Speaker 1: the official Cruise cake that's got a little Ora him
Speaker 1: in on it and it says, you know, happy holidays
Speaker 1: from Tom Cruise. And so we put it into the
Speaker 1: pilot podcast and sold it to my heart and it's amazing,
Speaker 1: what a story. I can't believe it. And you know,
Speaker 1: and we'll get to more Cruise later. I do want
Speaker 1: to know a little bit more about your your background
Speaker 1: in childhood. I mean, I guess you're you were born
Speaker 1: in seventy nine. Here, I'm I'm a bit older. I'm
Speaker 1: eight years older, but you know, sort of similar era
Speaker 1: of of cruisiness especially and uh, you were just a
Speaker 1: movie head as a kid, where it was it always
Speaker 1: just your thing. Yeah, so I was my you know,
Speaker 1: I'm your my parents splay I was born in Connecticut.
Speaker 1: Parents split when I was quite young, and my mom
Speaker 1: and I moved to Florida in eighties six what part
Speaker 1: Sara Sota. We followed my grandparents, which you know is
Speaker 1: I can't tell you how many kids, even in my
Speaker 1: school were just like in the same boat. We're all snowbirds,
Speaker 1: right right. Came from New England and moved to Florida,
Speaker 1: and you know, I loved it, but I oh, and
Speaker 1: then my parents made this agreement and this actually did
Speaker 1: kind of looking back, shape my life where my um,
Speaker 1: I told my dad that as long as he saw
Speaker 1: me somehow once a month, that he didn't have to
Speaker 1: pay child support. So I saw my dad a lot,
Speaker 1: which was kind of crazy. Know, my construction worker father
Speaker 1: would fly down once a month from from Connecticut to
Speaker 1: Sarasota and we'd have a great weekend together. But then
Speaker 1: I'd go up and visit him for the whole summer
Speaker 1: nature holidays. So there, you know, I didn't have a
Speaker 1: ton of friends in Connecticut during those years, and especially
Speaker 1: in the late eighties, um, and that was the height
Speaker 1: of you know, blockbuster and I, dude, I was going
Speaker 1: crazy last night doing research. Even when you just said like,
Speaker 1: what were your favorite movies as a kid, because I
Speaker 1: this is how much I obsessed over movies. I think
Speaker 1: I just realized that, like in the summer of eighty nine,
Speaker 1: I must have watched every movie on the planet a
Speaker 1: thousand times. And we're not talking about the good ones either,
Speaker 1: you know, we're talking about you know, like Ghostbusters too.
Speaker 1: I probably saw you know, an uncomfortable number of times,
Speaker 1: but that just that's what I did. I was alone
Speaker 1: a lot, you know, I was a latch key kid
Speaker 1: in Sarasota because my mom was single and she was
Speaker 1: working a lot, and my my high school was I'm sorry,
Speaker 1: my my elementary school was right nearby, so I rode
Speaker 1: my bike there and then by, Like I said, by
Speaker 1: the summer of eighty nine, I'm you know, I'm able
Speaker 1: to ride my bike to the two local movie theaters
Speaker 1: that are right near me. And I still and I
Speaker 1: remember that summer of eighty nine. I was ten years old,
Speaker 1: and I bring it up like I'm saying that year
Speaker 1: because I think that was like that pinnacle, you know,
Speaker 1: you get a little independence, your mom doesn't mind you're
Speaker 1: leaving the house. And I still remember seeing the signs,
Speaker 1: the posters for Batman and Indiana Jones in the Last
Speaker 1: Crusade and being I still can feel, excuse me, I
Speaker 1: can still feel that visceral excitement of knowing that those
Speaker 1: two movies are coming out, and that feeling of I mean, remember, dude,
Speaker 1: you remember those days when you would you sneak into
Speaker 1: the R rated movies or double feature you know, you're you're,
Speaker 1: you're not exactly was terrible, terrible, not endorsing that, but
Speaker 1: we used to, uh yeah, we used to kind of
Speaker 1: sneak in and see as many movies as we could
Speaker 1: for that single admission price. Of course, of course, because
Speaker 1: no matter what year it was, it was still a
Speaker 1: lot of money to a kid, and man, I just
Speaker 1: that year, you know, it's like Major League and the Abyss. Yeah,
Speaker 1: you know, it's funny, like there were there were some
Speaker 1: truly great movies, but it was also like it sounds
Speaker 1: like you were like me, where you would be like,
Speaker 1: what are you guys gonna do? We're going to see
Speaker 1: Robin Hood Prints of Thieves, Like what else are we
Speaker 1: gonna do? Yeah, there was no other It wasn't even
Speaker 1: you know, there wasn't like that discussion like should we
Speaker 1: go to the movies or should we go do I
Speaker 1: can't even name what X was. It was just go
Speaker 1: to movies, like point break is out. What do you
Speaker 1: think we're doing on a Saturday afternoon? Exactly, Dude. I
Speaker 1: was such a nerd that even in my freshman year
Speaker 1: or movie nerd, at least my freshman year of college.
Speaker 1: My best friend Seater, this guy, we would this is
Speaker 1: this is so Florida. He would get on I would
Speaker 1: get on my bicycle. He would tie a rope to
Speaker 1: the back of my bicycle and roller blade off the
Speaker 1: back of my bicycle. We'd go to Subway. We'd get
Speaker 1: our sandwiches, our chips and cookies, and go to the
Speaker 1: go to the movie store, go to the you know, Blockbuster.
Speaker 1: I still remember renting what was the the Bruce Lee
Speaker 1: story one that his son was in. It was called
Speaker 1: like Oh Dragon, Dragon Dragon. I remember I was renting
Speaker 1: Dragon and then just kicking the ship out of each
Speaker 1: other for an hour, thinking that we were you know,
Speaker 1: Bruce Lee, and you know that those are my memories,
Speaker 1: my memories from my childhood and especially even my teen
Speaker 1: years where I went to performing art High school in Florida,
Speaker 1: already knowing that I kind of wanted to be an actor.
Speaker 1: That's all. It was, Like you said, it was movies.
Speaker 1: It was movies galore. Yeah, and you know I was
Speaker 1: um as as being a little older. My heyday earlier
Speaker 1: on was like et Raiders, goon Ease, Back to the Future.
Speaker 1: But you were just on the heels of that. So
Speaker 1: those were your VHS specials exactly, and you're like HBO specials, Um,
Speaker 1: those were those were big deal. Do you remember? Also,
Speaker 1: I loved keep my I had this uncle, Uncle Ray,
Speaker 1: and Uncle Ray was he was like the first person
Speaker 1: to dub every movie. You know, we all had that
Speaker 1: person in our life that just took the VHS day
Speaker 1: made SLP. So I had six hours worth the worst
Speaker 1: possible quality, the worst quality, and you'd have all three
Speaker 1: Rambos on there. You know, he'd fit on two tapes.
Speaker 1: He'd fit like every key and you just go to
Speaker 1: town watching like you said, e t or any of
Speaker 1: the Indiana Jones. It was everything. Yeah, those home collections
Speaker 1: recording off of cable TV. I was an HBO kid
Speaker 1: to like and when h and I've talked about this
Speaker 1: on the show before I grew up on Initially it
Speaker 1: was a gravel road and then they eventually paved it,
Speaker 1: but it wasn't some big neighborhood with kids everywhere. It
Speaker 1: was just a street with like six houses sort of
Speaker 1: in the woods. And uh, it was great looking back.
Speaker 1: We had a creek behind her house and you know,
Speaker 1: lives on a couple of acres. But at the time
Speaker 1: I wanted to live in like the et neighborhood with
Speaker 1: kids everywhere. Last key, kids everywhere. Um. But what we
Speaker 1: did get finally, when I was like ten or eleven,
Speaker 1: was HBO and MTV cable came down our little dirt road,
Speaker 1: and those two things changed my life. I sat around
Speaker 1: and watch MTV constantly because I was a big still
Speaker 1: am big music guy, and and HBO. I would watch
Speaker 1: some of these movies. And my wife always kids me
Speaker 1: about my sort of weird, semi sophisticated taste as a kid.
Speaker 1: It was just because it was on HBO. Like I
Speaker 1: was the only twelve year old that would that had
Speaker 1: seen on Golden Pond nine times, or you know, these
Speaker 1: movies that were adult movies. But I just ate it
Speaker 1: all up. Man. Nobody nobody told us back then. You know,
Speaker 1: it doesn't seem like it was that long ago, but
Speaker 1: it is. Because nobody told us that you need to
Speaker 1: not let your kids watch these particular movies. Like no,
Speaker 1: you know, now I think about myself as a parent now.
Speaker 1: I just did another pod recently for somebody who wanted
Speaker 1: to talk about Cobra, and I thought Stollans Cobra as
Speaker 1: a kid was the coolest movie. I watched that movie
Speaker 1: again just recently. It is so horrifically violent and terrible
Speaker 1: for any child to watch. And then oh god, they
Speaker 1: were so violent. The killers were all very angry. You know,
Speaker 1: we watched movies we should not have been watching. Yeah,
Speaker 1: for sure. And and even like with the on Golden Ponds,
Speaker 1: these movies that are the content wasn't like something I
Speaker 1: shouldn't have been watching. But it's just what's a twelve
Speaker 1: year old kid watching a movie about aging, uh, you know,
Speaker 1: octogenarians and loving it? Yeah, of course, of course, remember
Speaker 1: the Remember just even the way the HBO symbol and
Speaker 1: the music would come. Remember that feeling you'd get every time,
Speaker 1: and sometimes when you didn't know what the movie was,
Speaker 1: you know, you turn it on and you didn't you know,
Speaker 1: you didn't flip over to the channel that had the
Speaker 1: scroll on it, so you were you were pumped. You
Speaker 1: didn't know what you're about to watch, and all the
Speaker 1: surprise is gone, and I don't want to be, you know, krusty,
Speaker 1: old fifth year old guy. I know, but the and
Speaker 1: the ease of access is wonderful. It's all great, but
Speaker 1: there was something a little special when we've talked about
Speaker 1: it before about going to that blockbuster and not knowing
Speaker 1: if you can find your movie and looking at those
Speaker 1: people coming in and returning movies to that cart and
Speaker 1: they're like, is it in? Did did they just returned
Speaker 1: the Last Crusade? Because I really need to see that movie? Sorry,
Speaker 1: Like all twenty copies are out when they when they
Speaker 1: come in the return tonight at somebody, well where is
Speaker 1: that guy? Do you know his address? What when when
Speaker 1: he rented it? What time did he rent it? You know?
Speaker 1: All right, I means you probably watched it, okay, you know, yeah,
Speaker 1: it's not rewound. I don't care give it to me.
Speaker 1: Seeing the guy even turn around and and seeing that
Speaker 1: kind of avalanche of movies, you seeing kind of funnel
Speaker 1: through and hope that you see the copy or remember
Speaker 1: remember when you'd walk to the back shelf and you'd
Speaker 1: see the you'd look at the thickness of the movie.
Speaker 1: So if you knew that one was kind of sticky
Speaker 1: out three dimensionally, is there, Oh, there's one, there's one,
Speaker 1: you know, because they'd give the new re member, they'd
Speaker 1: give the new release, like the whole wall and yeah.
Speaker 1: The etiquette of someone is standing right in front of
Speaker 1: your movie and there's the only one copy and you're like,
Speaker 1: can I just just trying to reach this thing, but
Speaker 1: technically like no, I'm sorry, this is my zone. You
Speaker 1: need to wait your turn. When I would spend those
Speaker 1: summers with my dad, uh, there was this place and
Speaker 1: then and I remember there were the other movie places.
Speaker 1: So there were the independent places, which I've worked at
Speaker 1: some of those. I love those. Of course. Of course
Speaker 1: those were always the guys like you that would work there,
Speaker 1: that knew everything about movies, so you could ask him
Speaker 1: any questions. They'd be like, well, man, listen, you know,
Speaker 1: Cobra is good, but if you really want to watch
Speaker 1: over the Top and yeah, maybe they were smarter than
Speaker 1: still Loan films. But we had this place down the
Speaker 1: street called Eastern Video, and I remember it was at
Speaker 1: the bottom of a hill because man, that trunk back
Speaker 1: up that hill was tough on the bike, and they
Speaker 1: had a deal which was five movies for five dollars
Speaker 1: for five a's and you couldn't do new release though.
Speaker 1: That was the only thing. And again there you go, like,
Speaker 1: that's that's my summer right there. I would I think
Speaker 1: there were days where I would by two days later,
Speaker 1: I'd go back and return all five because I burned
Speaker 1: through them so quickly, and get a new set of five.
Speaker 1: But it's not like at the time I was watching
Speaker 1: the highest level of films. I think, you know, Jean
Speaker 1: Claude Van Dam and stallone and so I think I
Speaker 1: watched Under Siege way too many times, you know, just
Speaker 1: an uncomfortable number of times. Yeah, I mean the video
Speaker 1: store experience is great. That certainly did all the Blockbuster.
Speaker 1: Uh you know, I supported Blockbuster, but the mom and
Speaker 1: pops were like they were still around. Like when I
Speaker 1: lived in l A, which doesn't seem like that long ago.
Speaker 1: I guess it's been like sixteen or seventeen years. But
Speaker 1: I lived in loose Felas and I went to Video
Speaker 1: Hut that was just right there across from House of Pies,
Speaker 1: and yeah, I know exactly what you're talking about. Yeah,
Speaker 1: there was a Video Hut there, and there was the
Speaker 1: Blockbuster down the street. But you went to Video Hut
Speaker 1: if you you know, if you lived in the Eric,
Speaker 1: because they had everything. Yeah. And as soon as you
Speaker 1: got as soon as we grew up in you know,
Speaker 1: college and young adult you, especially for those of us
Speaker 1: in the business, you started to learn about other films
Speaker 1: and you wanted to see those, and usually Blockbuster didn't
Speaker 1: have them or you know, so if you wanted to
Speaker 1: watch and I don't know in elikas and film you
Speaker 1: were like, I'll go to this other place and start
Speaker 1: to learn about these people. And again that person behind
Speaker 1: the desk nine times out of ten just had knowledge.
Speaker 1: Man had weird crazy knowledge or flicks. Yeah, the one
Speaker 1: I worked at in college was Vision Video. It was
Speaker 1: very much the cool indie one. And then there was
Speaker 1: one in Atlanta that was really great called Movies Worth Seeing,
Speaker 1: uh and Video Drum. And Video Drum is still around.
Speaker 1: It's like the only kind of one in Atlanta, still
Speaker 1: in the same little tiny building. And if you want
Speaker 1: to go find the first Jim Jarmish movie, then you
Speaker 1: can go in there and get it. I love that.
Speaker 1: That's that's something that God I missed that. I and
Speaker 1: Sarah so do we at a place where you could
Speaker 1: take a tag? It had a it had a little
Speaker 1: a little hook and tags underneath it, so you know,
Speaker 1: an he had a system. You know then the systems
Speaker 1: were the best. And and of course there was always
Speaker 1: that room in the back and most of these places
Speaker 1: you see it as a m you were like, oh, man,
Speaker 1: that's what's back there. I want to know what's in there?
Speaker 1: Right exactly? It's like, why is my the head dean
Speaker 1: of my deacon of my church coming out of that room?
Speaker 1: What's going on? Hey? Is that my third grade teacher? Mr? Johnson? Uh?
Speaker 1: When did um? When did you start acting in and
Speaker 1: when did Blackish come along for you? You were on
Speaker 1: from the very beginning, right, I was, Yeah, since the pilot.
Speaker 1: In short, I started acting at a I guess a
Speaker 1: fairly young age. I found out quickly that I was
Speaker 1: a terrible student and my mother was having trouble keeping
Speaker 1: me uh in school, So she sent me to kind
Speaker 1: of a delinquent middle school. And in that school, the
Speaker 1: head of this school just I mean there was literally
Speaker 1: eight of us that were in eighth grade and I
Speaker 1: had gone to like this other private, delinquent school before that,
Speaker 1: and finally she was fed up and she sent me
Speaker 1: to this weird school in the middle of nowhere in Sarasota. Anyway,
Speaker 1: they the teacher, they're just saw it in me. She
Speaker 1: was like, you're you're you're a performer, and that's your thing, man,
Speaker 1: you you love to perform. So they put on a
Speaker 1: play and she told my mom, she was like, listen, Jeff,
Speaker 1: jeff'son actor. This is what he's gonna do. And there's
Speaker 1: this performing arts high school in Sarasota called Booker, and
Speaker 1: you should have him audition and and and send him there.
Speaker 1: And I did, and I did. I auditioned for it.
Speaker 1: I I still remember my mom telling me, you know,
Speaker 1: to do the interview as a fourteen year old. She
Speaker 1: was like, please tell them that your favorite actors are
Speaker 1: in your own pacino and you know, stallone and and uh.
Speaker 1: And I was like and uh. And I got in
Speaker 1: and and and it kind of was, you know, there's
Speaker 1: history right there. I went to that school and it
Speaker 1: was amazing. You know, I started high school in ninety three,
Speaker 1: so we just had a great group of people and
Speaker 1: back in those days, it was a big deal to
Speaker 1: go to a conservatory for college. So you know, people
Speaker 1: were going to n y U and Carnegie Mellon and
Speaker 1: Juilliard and and n c I, s A and all
Speaker 1: these like you know, big, big performing arts schools, and
Speaker 1: you heard about the famous actors that went there. And
Speaker 1: I got a pamphlet for a school called Sunny Purchase
Speaker 1: that my friend Brandon showed me and on the cover
Speaker 1: was Wesley Snipes and I was like, what that guy
Speaker 1: is awesome. I'm coming to Blade University. I want to
Speaker 1: go to Blades University. That is so exactly. I'm like
Speaker 1: the dude from White Man Can Jump Sure, and uh.
Speaker 1: I auditioned for Sunny Purchase and I was for some
Speaker 1: reason obsessed over the school, and it was you know what.
Speaker 1: It was also just outside of New York's. It is
Speaker 1: just outside of New York City. So it was this
Speaker 1: great tie between being able to go into the city anytime,
Speaker 1: but not actually lived there because I was still a
Speaker 1: little intimidated by New York. And and then my dad
Speaker 1: was close by. You know, my dad lived in Connecticut,
Speaker 1: so I was able to kind of move back up
Speaker 1: there at eighteen, go there, I I graduate, I'm your
Speaker 1: very just this is I just love to like, I
Speaker 1: did anything I could to make money in the A
Speaker 1: lot of money in the shortest amount of time. So
Speaker 1: I found out about becoming a children's party entertainer. And
Speaker 1: I would dress up like Superman and Batman and SpongeBob
Speaker 1: and Barney and whatever the power Rangers I did. Power
Speaker 1: Rangers could ever imagine. And I would travel all over
Speaker 1: the Tri State area and you know, Greenwich and all
Speaker 1: the super rich up and uh, you know, up up
Speaker 1: the fifteen in Connecticut and just just you know, New
Speaker 1: Cane in And it did that for years and then
Speaker 1: I booked this in two thousand six, giving you my
Speaker 1: whole quick history to get the blackish I booked. I
Speaker 1: booked this internet commercial called Shave Everywhere dot com and
Speaker 1: you know, this is the internet has jud nothing has
Speaker 1: gone super viral yet at this point. It's it's yeah,
Speaker 1: two thousand six, and uh, they're like if Phillips No.
Speaker 1: Roko was like, oh, we got this product for men
Speaker 1: shaving their junk, and we want to do a whole
Speaker 1: funny campaign about that. And I was like, I'm your guy.
Speaker 1: Early man scape, no, that is it was the first
Speaker 1: man escaping thing, and uh, people later told me that
Speaker 1: they actually used in like business schools. This this was
Speaker 1: the first viral you know video and this way and anyway.
Speaker 1: It ended up winning the can Golden Lion Award for
Speaker 1: like best Website. And I mean, dude, I'm I'm playing
Speaker 1: softball in the park one day in Central Park and
Speaker 1: I get a phone call from my commercial agent who's like, listen,
Speaker 1: there's there's this agent from CIA that wants to meet you.
Speaker 1: And I literally the first thing I thought, Chucko was like,
Speaker 1: that's Tom Cruisers Agency, like that, we're are you whatever
Speaker 1: you need me to do in this moment, whatever you
Speaker 1: need me to do. So I end up calling that
Speaker 1: agent and yeah, he was. His name was Raj and
Speaker 1: he's an incredible agent and he was like listen, I
Speaker 1: we love your video. And people are calling. People started
Speaker 1: just calling. They were like, who's this guy in the
Speaker 1: white bathrobe? Who's who was talking about shaving his junk?
Speaker 1: And it was The website was ridiculous. You could you
Speaker 1: could click and like you could type in questions and
Speaker 1: ask me questions and I had answers. There was a
Speaker 1: music video, there was It was crazy. It was crazy,
Speaker 1: and I just I went from a guy who only
Speaker 1: had his equity card from doing a playdown and you know,
Speaker 1: Florida and a couple of commercials under my belt, and
Speaker 1: you know, I head lines on Guiding Light and all
Speaker 1: my Children and that's it. That's all I had. And
Speaker 1: next thing in on im at c A. So by
Speaker 1: the time I got out here, that's how people start,
Speaker 1: you know, I got all these general meetings because I'm
Speaker 1: with c A now, But of course I'd walk into
Speaker 1: these meetings, you know, with the head of casting at
Speaker 1: NBC and they'd be like, how were you here? You
Speaker 1: have nothing on your resume, And I was like, oh,
Speaker 1: I have a ball shaving commercial. And they loved it.
Speaker 1: Everybody loved it. Still to this day, there's casting directors,
Speaker 1: you know, with whatever success I've had since no, no, no,
Speaker 1: they still are like, remember that commercial you did and
Speaker 1: so yeah, so I did that for years and now
Speaker 1: we're just gonna skip over the you know, the hard
Speaker 1: times and the ups and the downs and kids and
Speaker 1: marrying my amazing, beautiful why and how many kids go
Speaker 1: I have to I have two boys, they are eight
Speaker 1: and a half and four, and um, yeah, my my,
Speaker 1: what about you? You got kids? I have a five
Speaker 1: and a half year old daughter. Oh you're in it then,
Speaker 1: you know, fun age, fun age, but pandemic age. That's tough. Yeah,
Speaker 1: we're doing okay. Yeah. She was able to go to
Speaker 1: this tiny, little micro school with four other kids outdoors
Speaker 1: at that's one of the parents houses. And so that was.
Speaker 1: That's been a savior. But that's that's it. That was
Speaker 1: then you has been super tough. Yeah, but they're back now,
Speaker 1: my kids are back. Well, he's friend in school. That's great, which,
Speaker 1: you know, again, very so lucky to be able to
Speaker 1: send my kids to one thanks to Blackish. So I
Speaker 1: just was your you know, I was booking jobs here
Speaker 1: and there, a couple of pilots here and there. Um.
Speaker 1: I never yeah, I don't know, I never. I like
Speaker 1: missed the improv scene. People. Just I would lie always
Speaker 1: in jobs if someone said to me like, hey man,
Speaker 1: you you do improv like you're you're a funny guy,
Speaker 1: and I'm like, yeah, no, I'm part of this troupe
Speaker 1: back in New York were called the Shenanigans, and I
Speaker 1: would just like make up names. Seriously, I never did it.
Speaker 1: I just I missed the whole boat of UCB and
Speaker 1: in the groundlings. I I don't know what I was.
Speaker 1: I was, honestly, I was just I had a great
Speaker 1: job being a kids party entertainer. I was booking commercials.
Speaker 1: I I'm a total I'm just like my dad. All
Speaker 1: I want to do is play all the time. So
Speaker 1: I was on like literally at one point, I was
Speaker 1: on like three softball teams and I was in a
Speaker 1: basketball league and I just was like, Oh, this is
Speaker 1: the life and wait for people to give me jobs.
Speaker 1: I wasn't as ambitious as some of these other people
Speaker 1: that are out there, just like the comedy all the time. Anyway,
Speaker 1: I U one day these great cast nearactors called me
Speaker 1: and they said, hey, man, you got an audition for
Speaker 1: the untitled Anthony Anderson project. And I was like, Oh,
Speaker 1: that's the dude from for me, myself and Irene, I know,
Speaker 1: the Kangaroo Jack guy and departed and you know, so
Speaker 1: I go in and it's crazy, Oh, I know, I mean,
Speaker 1: Anthony's his his career is amazing. And and I remember
Speaker 1: the character name said Josh, and he said it's a
Speaker 1: it's aid Josh thirties, the white guy. And I was like,
Speaker 1: I don't know what that means. And it was not
Speaker 1: for a series regular, and I mean it really is
Speaker 1: a crazy story. We I booked the job, and I
Speaker 1: think I booked it because the casting directors still tell
Speaker 1: the story that there's a line that said, what's up,
Speaker 1: Driggity Dre? What's like like giving him this cheesy nickname
Speaker 1: driggity Dre and uh, and it said in SloMo and
Speaker 1: I guess I was the only guy that actually went
Speaker 1: what's up? But I did it. I did I was
Speaker 1: the only one that did it in the actual SloMo
Speaker 1: and Uh. I booked it. Man. Even when we shot it,
Speaker 1: I was like, I had a bunch of lines that
Speaker 1: ended scenes. And as you learned as an actor, especially
Speaker 1: if you're a you know, at that time, I was
Speaker 1: just doing a lot of co star and guest star work.
Speaker 1: I was like, I'm never gonna like, you know, you
Speaker 1: knew to like make sure you spoke quickly so they
Speaker 1: couldn't you're lying off right, That's how it just yeah
Speaker 1: all the tricks man, and I just you know, I
Speaker 1: shot it, did it took took two days to do it,
Speaker 1: and then when it got picked up, I was I
Speaker 1: was I was recurring on this Nickelodeon show. Called The
Speaker 1: Thunderman's which was a blast, and I really did At
Speaker 1: the time, I just thought I just had a child,
Speaker 1: and I guess my career will be that I'll be
Speaker 1: like the dad on on kids shows, you know, because
Speaker 1: I just wanted to make money for my family. I
Speaker 1: wasn't really any I like hit this point where I
Speaker 1: was booking commercials. I was working, but I had lost
Speaker 1: that love to become Tom Cruise because I just wanted
Speaker 1: to support my family. And then I booked Blackish and
Speaker 1: the rest of this tray When what year was that
Speaker 1: first year? Wow, man, that's a great run. And that
Speaker 1: is you know, just first our seventh season amazing for
Speaker 1: for listeners who don't really know a lot about network
Speaker 1: TV and stuff. I mean for many, for for many actors,
Speaker 1: for smart actors, that is sort of the holy grail
Speaker 1: because the hours are really good compared to a lot
Speaker 1: of acting gigs. It's uh it is. It's there are
Speaker 1: dependable hours that you kind of know what you're gonna get. Generally, Um,
Speaker 1: it's usually on a stage, which is always a lot
Speaker 1: easier than being on location. It's a steady paycheck, it's
Speaker 1: the potential one day of of syndication and residuals, and
Speaker 1: it is just it's a great, great gig. And you
Speaker 1: always hear actors talk about even people who like you know,
Speaker 1: went on to do big, big movies and uh, like
Speaker 1: people like George Clooney, you talk about just those e
Speaker 1: R days and like those were great days because it's
Speaker 1: it's such good money after you've starved to death doing
Speaker 1: you know, kids parties and stuff. Uh, And that's just great. Man.
Speaker 1: It's a show that I didn't watch, but I watched,
Speaker 1: like I think I watched three episodes over the past
Speaker 1: couple of days to prepare for this. And it's really funny,
Speaker 1: Like I see why it's been around for seven years.
Speaker 1: It's it's a really good show. It's got a lot
Speaker 1: of heart. It's god, it's totally it tells stories that
Speaker 1: they they every every season, it feels like there's two
Speaker 1: or three episodes that are just like, oh, these are important,
Speaker 1: these are important episodes. And and we as the guys
Speaker 1: in the office, you know, nine times out of ten
Speaker 1: we've got one scene. You know, if if if people
Speaker 1: out there having to watch the show and did watch
Speaker 1: thirty Rock, we were kind of similar to the three
Speaker 1: of us that uh, Peter Mackenzie and Dionne called myself
Speaker 1: are kind of like the guys from thirty Rock where
Speaker 1: the Writer's room, you know, where they Every every episode
Speaker 1: Anthony comes and chats with us, and some episodes we've
Speaker 1: just had dream stories were always the ones that he
Speaker 1: runs his problems through. So we talk about these issues,
Speaker 1: especially in the black community, that are just sometimes huge discussions,
Speaker 1: and they take these two white guys Peter and myself
Speaker 1: and and Filter are that kind of blanket white opinion
Speaker 1: through And it's been fascinating. It's just been fascinating to
Speaker 1: learn and to talk about and to hear you know here,
Speaker 1: I'll tell if there's one thing I've learned for being
Speaker 1: on black issues, just shut up and listen. Just shut
Speaker 1: up and listen. Man. You know we have no idea, no, clearly.
Speaker 1: So it's it's been fascinating. Congratulations. Um, And I know
Speaker 1: that the show has a has a diverse audience, but
Speaker 1: obviously does have a quite an African American following. Um,
Speaker 1: do you get recognized like in the black community now
Speaker 1: when you go out and they're like, oh my god,
Speaker 1: look who it is? You know totally. I think at
Speaker 1: first I used to think that. I used to, like,
Speaker 1: if I walked by a black guy'd be like, he
Speaker 1: knows who I am. That's ridiculous. But I totally thought that.
Speaker 1: But then I found out that, like, I think sixty
Speaker 1: of our audience is white, so really interesting. Yeah, it's
Speaker 1: it was. Yeah, the split was something like that, like
Speaker 1: sixty forty. So I still get recognized way more by
Speaker 1: white people than than black people, which is kind of funny,
Speaker 1: you know, It's it's very interesting. That's like, oh, that's
Speaker 1: that's interesting. You know who I am? And I think
Speaker 1: a lot of people a really late to Josh's Josh
Speaker 1: is my character's name is Josh Openhole. That's his real
Speaker 1: his real name. I love it, and uh, I don't know.
Speaker 1: Josh is just um, he's a bit of a loner.
Speaker 1: He's a bit of a guy that just can never
Speaker 1: make it work and he says stupid things by accident,
Speaker 1: but he just wants to be liked. So there's a
Speaker 1: lot of people that can relate to that that he's
Speaker 1: a sweet guy. He's a sweet guy. He just means well,
Speaker 1: but he can never quite get it right. Well, I'm
Speaker 1: a fan now, and I hope, I hope for many
Speaker 1: many more years of that sweet, sweet network TV gig
Speaker 1: for you. God, yes, my my kids private school says,
Speaker 1: please keep it going, keep it going. Yeah exactly. All right, Well,
Speaker 1: I guess let's get into the cruise portion. Uh we uh,
Speaker 1: we do sort of have to caveat this with the
Speaker 1: Scientology thing. We don't need to get into all that.
Speaker 1: But uh, he's a part of an organization that has
Speaker 1: done some pretty bad things, and we don't want to
Speaker 1: just sweep that under the I mean, we are going
Speaker 1: to sweep it under the rug that wanted to acknowledge that,
Speaker 1: and just we're focusing on his his performances, uh as
Speaker 1: an actor. Yeah, that No, that's fair to say. This
Speaker 1: is what I tell people. If you want to talk
Speaker 1: about Scientology, watch the documentary. Maybe if you watch Going Clear,
Speaker 1: or watch you know, one of the shows about it.
Speaker 1: I don't know a lot about it. It seems like
Speaker 1: he has separated himself since the two thousand five you know,
Speaker 1: kind of when he when he started to speak about
Speaker 1: it a little bit more, you know, because remember you
Speaker 1: remember there was this strange period time where he remember
Speaker 1: before two thousand five, before the your glib Matt Couch
Speaker 1: jumping period of time. It was it was all the
Speaker 1: same time. It was really and I still say that
Speaker 1: to each other. You're being you're being glip, your glib.
Speaker 1: Before that, he was the most squeaky clean actor on
Speaker 1: the planet. Remember Roseanne what was her name? Oh my god,
Speaker 1: I called her Roseanne? But Sally Jesse now who had
Speaker 1: her talk show? Uh key, she was. She was in
Speaker 1: Rosie O'Donnell, Rosie O'donn'll there it's Oprah. Oh yeah, that's it,
Speaker 1: Oprah right, Rosie o'donald. Remember she was obsessed with him,
Speaker 1: Did you remember that? Would you ever watch her downs?
Speaker 1: Until he came on, he was just he was squeaky clean.
Speaker 1: Everybody loved him. He just had the great smile and
Speaker 1: he was kind. And then he what what The story
Speaker 1: goes that he changed publicists. He had this famous, famous publicist,
Speaker 1: and then he hired his sister to be his publicist,
Speaker 1: who was in scientology as well, and that's when things
Speaker 1: kind of got a little wonky. And then quickly soon
Speaker 1: after you never hear about it anymore. You never hear
Speaker 1: him say anything about it. So it is interesting to
Speaker 1: know what's something happened in that period of time and
Speaker 1: now you just never hear about it anymore, and now
Speaker 1: you just hear about now is this this second half
Speaker 1: of his career. There's last fifteen years has been this
Speaker 1: where a lot of these stories come from the legendary
Speaker 1: you know, Cruise being acting in a certain way that's
Speaker 1: just wild and amazing. It's like, yeah, yeah, totally. I mean,
Speaker 1: and I will say this, you know, from hearing stories
Speaker 1: about people that have worked with him in his career,
Speaker 1: like I've heard nothing but him being one of the
Speaker 1: most dedicated, Like he takes his job very, very seriously,
Speaker 1: and there is nothing that the guy won't do to
Speaker 1: get the performance that he needs to get. And and
Speaker 1: you've got to respect that. Absolutely. He never focused in
Speaker 1: um and not even just talking about sort of these
Speaker 1: days when he does his unstunts and all that, like
Speaker 1: that's all super cool. But you know, I remember hearing
Speaker 1: a lot of stories with Cameron crowback in the day
Speaker 1: and and all these great stories of how Tom Cruise
Speaker 1: is just so focused on doing a great job. Yeah.
Speaker 1: I mean, we just had Sarah right Olson on the
Speaker 1: show who played his wife and American maid, and she
Speaker 1: said that during the process of that movie that he
Speaker 1: the director with Doug Lyman, Tom Cruise and the writer
Speaker 1: lived in the same house together. I mean, these are
Speaker 1: forty fift year old men just during the shooting of
Speaker 1: the movie lived in the same house together, so they
Speaker 1: could do no thing but the focused on that movie
Speaker 1: and write it and dedicate themselves to it and and listen.
Speaker 1: I whenever I hear bad stories or the people that
Speaker 1: question it, it's always the people that just listened to
Speaker 1: the news that I know him personally. But at the moment,
Speaker 1: the people that we have spoken to that know him
Speaker 1: personally or have worked with him just have nothing but
Speaker 1: the greatest things to say about it. And that's what
Speaker 1: makes him fascinating that, as I say in the party,
Speaker 1: shrouded with mystery, but yet to everybody he's the hardest working,
Speaker 1: the nicest guy. So I'm interested. I'm a manic dud uh.
Speaker 1: And since you know you have a podcast about meeting
Speaker 1: Tom Cruise, I'll tell you my quick to Tom Cruise stories. Yes,
Speaker 1: when I lived in l A and I worked in
Speaker 1: TV commercial production, I worked as a p A and
Speaker 1: then an art department. I was in the production office
Speaker 1: in Santa Monica one day for the company I worked
Speaker 1: for a lot Tom Cruise was rumored to be in
Speaker 1: the building, and uh, it was you know, you know
Speaker 1: how things are in l A like an office like
Speaker 1: that will really be a buzz if you know, like
Speaker 1: Cruiz is going to be here, by the way, because
Speaker 1: they were doing casting upstairs or something and he, Uh,
Speaker 1: they were like, he's here. He's walking down the hall.
Speaker 1: He's walking down the hall. And I ran out and
Speaker 1: I looked, and I saw the I can't even say
Speaker 1: I saw the back of his head. He was surrounded
Speaker 1: by like six or eight people walking down the hall.
Speaker 1: But he's not a tall guy. No, that's what everybody.
Speaker 1: He was obscured by everybody that he was surrounded by.
Speaker 1: And I knew Tom Cruise was fifteen feet away from
Speaker 1: me in a circle of people, but I couldn't even
Speaker 1: see him. Yeah, and what makes him what? What? What
Speaker 1: makes this? Why I think he's the greatest movie star
Speaker 1: of all time is because of that, is because just
Speaker 1: you being fifteen feet away from him is a story
Speaker 1: for the rest of your life. And there's so many people,
Speaker 1: there's not too many people that happened to We all
Speaker 1: love Ethan Hawk, but I don't think you're sitting here
Speaker 1: going to tell me one day, right, man, I was
Speaker 1: fifteen feet away from Ethan Hawk and then then you
Speaker 1: didn't see him and he was walking away from me
Speaker 1: with a group of people like story, we love him.
Speaker 1: But uh. And then my wife, she worked in the
Speaker 1: film industry at the time. She was a um ended
Speaker 1: up producing music videos and commercials and stuff. But at
Speaker 1: the time was I think maybe just a production coordinator
Speaker 1: on the mission. Impossible just the um rock face climbing
Speaker 1: shoot from m I Too, from m I Too. So
Speaker 1: you know, and in movies sometimes like if you go
Speaker 1: on just a location to do one thing, sometimes you
Speaker 1: have like sort of a different crew. Uh. And she
Speaker 1: just helped helped coordinate that shoot and uh. She it's
Speaker 1: still to this day, doesn't like Tom Cruise because he
Speaker 1: like made everyone wait for too long in his trailer
Speaker 1: and wouldn't come out, and it was it was one
Speaker 1: of those things, you know, the sort of nuts and
Speaker 1: bolts of filmmakings where she's like, how this big movies sorry,
Speaker 1: wouldn't come out of his trailer and we were all
Speaker 1: three hours later and I wanted to go home. And
Speaker 1: so that's that's why she doesn't like Tom Cruise, isn't
Speaker 1: it can you imagine having the pressure of that for
Speaker 1: the rest of your life? So you have one bad day,
Speaker 1: assuming he could have had others. I'm not doubting that
Speaker 1: it wasn't lame what he did, but yeah, you know
Speaker 1: that one day that you know, in a bad mood
Speaker 1: passed by you and you're like hey, hey, Bruce Willis
Speaker 1: and he's like whatever, and forever I'm like that guy said, Dick, Yeah,
Speaker 1: his COVID meltdown. You know, that was broadcast far and wide.
Speaker 1: It's you know, that was a tricky one because I
Speaker 1: got it and like, I do think you should talk
Speaker 1: to people in a kinder way, but I also get
Speaker 1: how much money is at stake and how he was like, listen, man,
Speaker 1: we are taking this seriously, and like, there is so
Speaker 1: much pressure on me as a human, like you can't
Speaker 1: you can't funk this up. And I get it. I
Speaker 1: get it, he snapped, Man, He's a human being. So
Speaker 1: I wasn't one of the jobs that heard that and
Speaker 1: was like, oh what, it's total asshole. I was like, man,
Speaker 1: I kind of see where he's coming from. I don't
Speaker 1: think too many people did either. I mean maybe it
Speaker 1: was split, but that was interesting to see that even
Speaker 1: on the you know, on the Twitter pages and on
Speaker 1: the Instagram there's the split people being like no, man,
Speaker 1: I get it. And I think people brought their own
Speaker 1: ship into it though, Like if you didn't like Tom
Speaker 1: Cruise before, you probably just use that to reinforce sure
Speaker 1: for sure. Absolutely. So wait did your wife get to
Speaker 1: meet him? Uh? Yeah, I mean you know, in that
Speaker 1: the coordinator gets to meet the lead actor, like he
Speaker 1: probably came through, but she wasn't like accepting his petty
Speaker 1: cash or anything like that. You know, that goes totally. So.
Speaker 1: My first experience with Tom Cruise was one of those
Speaker 1: HBO movies as a kid that I saw probably two
Speaker 1: dozen times, a movie called Taps about the military Academy,
Speaker 1: and Tom Cruise had a very small part, but a
Speaker 1: very kind of key part at the end of that film,
Speaker 1: and then The Outsider shortly after that, another small role.
Speaker 1: But that was my introduction to him as an actor
Speaker 1: and when he was just sort of a Doughey kid.
Speaker 1: And uh, I think it's interesting how he's changed. You know,
Speaker 1: there are a lot of Tom Cruises from those days too,
Speaker 1: like real series acting to action hero. Uh. I think
Speaker 1: it's a pretty interesting career. It is. And you gotta
Speaker 1: remember those first two movies you named especially for your generation,
Speaker 1: and that when how old you were when you saw
Speaker 1: those movies. He was he was pigeonholed as a psychopath
Speaker 1: at that point because he had done his first little
Speaker 1: role on Endless Love and then Outside some Taps. He's
Speaker 1: a crazy man in those movies and so and he
Speaker 1: was kind of he was a wrestler, so he was
Speaker 1: shredded and kind of like he was a little scrapper.
Speaker 1: And it acts it's funny because Tom Cruise is is
Speaker 1: you know, what made him famous as risky business, but
Speaker 1: he actually had to work hard to get risky business
Speaker 1: because that was so different than what he was playing
Speaker 1: at that point. So it's it is fascinating to think
Speaker 1: that he could have easily not gotten risky Business and
Speaker 1: then just gone down the path of being the outsider scrapper,
Speaker 1: tough guy, maybe doing horror films and you know, but
Speaker 1: he didn't. He there's this, like now legendary story that
Speaker 1: he um he ran off all this like he didn't
Speaker 1: work out. He just ran and did cardio and then
Speaker 1: gorged himself on like sugar. So he kind of made
Speaker 1: it himself look a little like sweet, like like gave
Speaker 1: himself like a thin layer of fat. So when he
Speaker 1: did Joe Goodson and uh in that movie, he he
Speaker 1: just looked like a normal boy instead of this like
Speaker 1: a psychopath. Yeah, yeah, totally. And that's what we know.
Speaker 1: Risky business is like what launched him to be this megastar.
Speaker 1: So yeah, so what how we decided to do this.
Speaker 1: It was to come up with three top five categories, um,
Speaker 1: top five guilty pleasure movies, Tom Cruise, Top five legit
Speaker 1: acting movies is what I called it, and just top
Speaker 1: five overall films that he's been in. And I figured
Speaker 1: we just trade off and chit chat about him. All
Speaker 1: let's do it, alright. So Tom, I couldn't be more excited,
Speaker 1: Like I literally, man couldn't be more excited in my
Speaker 1: closet in my house. This is so cool. Top five
Speaker 1: guilty pleasure movies. I'm gonna go ahead and start off with.
Speaker 1: And I hesitate to put it under guilty pleasures because
Speaker 1: it is a good movie, but it's risky business. And
Speaker 1: it was a movie that I think was unfairly included
Speaker 1: in that sort of teen sort of ten a teen
Speaker 1: film thing and that that era. But it is a
Speaker 1: good movie. But I'm still putting it in guilty pleasures.
Speaker 1: I get that, I've I think that's a right call
Speaker 1: to it. It's still fulfill it does. It is a
Speaker 1: teenage movie no matter what, even though it's it's very
Speaker 1: well written in different and interesting. But yeah, it's a
Speaker 1: guilty pleasure. I I give you that one great great
Speaker 1: movie though, such a good movie. Yeah, just watching it
Speaker 1: again recently and him into morn. Now, you don't get
Speaker 1: better chemistry than that, those two, know, I mean that
Speaker 1: was hot stuff for a kid. Uh, it's stuff for
Speaker 1: an adult. But I still want a this day. Like
Speaker 1: when I see an old portion for sale, I'm like,
Speaker 1: oh man, the fucking risky business car. There is no substitute,
Speaker 1: that's right, remember that. Uh so we'll go back and forth. Yes,
Speaker 1: what do you? Okay? Alright, So my first guilty pleasure
Speaker 1: then is cocktail? All right, well that's on my list,
Speaker 1: so we can go ahead and just talk cocktail. Okay, good?
Speaker 1: How can I not be on your guilty pleasure list?
Speaker 1: It was that was so fun. It was mad. The
Speaker 1: move the music that just the complete ridiculous soundtrack, and
Speaker 1: the the idea of watching it again, you know I did.
Speaker 1: I watched it all these was last year. At the
Speaker 1: idea that he just walks into a bar and there's
Speaker 1: Brian Brown smoking a cigarette and it's just a dive
Speaker 1: bar and he's like, oh, by the way, I'm also
Speaker 1: a circus entertainer, right with liquor bottles. Well, that kicked
Speaker 1: off a genuine, uh movement in bartending to do ship
Speaker 1: like that. And I know it already was a thing.
Speaker 1: It's not like they invented it, but they really popularized
Speaker 1: that whole bat bar show, bartender bar show thing. Absolutely. Man,
Speaker 1: she that movie is just a movie is ridiculous and
Speaker 1: I love it so much. And and again, I mean
Speaker 1: it's it's dated on some of its subject line, especially
Speaker 1: if you just go back and look at the idea
Speaker 1: that he just he falls in love with this girl,
Speaker 1: has the most loving relationship with her, and then Brian
Speaker 1: Brown is just like, hey, I bet you can't go
Speaker 1: bang this other girl, and he's like that I could
Speaker 1: bet I could, and then he does. And then when
Speaker 1: he makes the argument to her later when she's like
Speaker 1: I'm pregnant and he's like, look you, you came on
Speaker 1: too strong and She's like, my I thought we were
Speaker 1: just in love. Like it's it's a little dated, but
Speaker 1: it's still a fun movie. Remember remember the ridiculous poems,
Speaker 1: you know, up in front of the audience. So, yeah,
Speaker 1: who's the other I mean, I know Elizabeth Shoo obviously
Speaker 1: was the lead, But who was the one? Who was
Speaker 1: the other one? What was the dude from f Oh?
Speaker 1: Who was the woman that played the quote unlow holder woman?
Speaker 1: I don't remember her name, but she was showing Kelly
Speaker 1: Lynch and Gina gershun Was it one of those two? Know,
Speaker 1: Gina Gershwan worked in the ridiculous bar that they became
Speaker 1: famous saying, oh, and that's another one too, is that
Speaker 1: he was dating Gina Gershwan. And then Brian Brown, being
Speaker 1: the shallowest character ever, was like he made a bet.
Speaker 1: Everything in that movie is about bets, and so he's like, bet,
Speaker 1: I bet she'll leave you, and he's like, she's not
Speaker 1: going to leave me. So he has sex with her.
Speaker 1: Like it's so shallow and so mean. He was such
Speaker 1: a jerk. He was such a jerk, and then he
Speaker 1: killed himself. That's fine. He gets spall Cocktail a hundred
Speaker 1: and seventy million dollar. Gross, what a smash it. So
Speaker 1: see what you want about that movie. But I mean
Speaker 1: that that's what helped propel him to being one of
Speaker 1: the biggest stars in the world. Yeah. Absolutely, absolutely. My
Speaker 1: buddy makes the argument that he thinks the reason why
Speaker 1: he didn't get nominated for rain Man, which you should have,
Speaker 1: is because that was the same year Cocktail had come
Speaker 1: out in the summer and Raymond came out in the winter,
Speaker 1: so people like had that stain that? Yeah, that that
Speaker 1: oh boy vodka stain. Alright, alright, so my next guilty pleasure.
Speaker 1: And I hope I'm not insulting you because for all
Speaker 1: I know, this is on your top five best movies. No,
Speaker 1: it's fine, is Top Gun? No, that's right, that's okay,
Speaker 1: that's totally understandable. Great movie. I mean I was one
Speaker 1: of these kids who saw that movie a ton of time,
Speaker 1: and I wasn't I don't think I remember being like,
Speaker 1: oh man, Top Guns the best thing I've ever seen.
Speaker 1: But when I, as in a full grown adult last year,
Speaker 1: saw that first teaser for Maverick, I was like, I
Speaker 1: was so in man. I was like, man, this is
Speaker 1: getting all my buttons and I didn't even know I
Speaker 1: had those buttons. That is spot on. That first bong sound,
Speaker 1: that famous sound from that you hear that in that
Speaker 1: new teaser and you're like, what's happening? Yeah it maybe
Speaker 1: I think it might be the ultimate guilty pleasure, you know,
Speaker 1: And I'm admitting that even more now because I used
Speaker 1: to say, and I do. I mean, it is my
Speaker 1: favorite movie of all time, like it is really it is,
Speaker 1: like it is the Desert Island movie. You know. I
Speaker 1: could say it's Cuckoo's Nest or Chinatown. Are these great movies.
Speaker 1: But I'm not if someone says to me, like, hey,
Speaker 1: let's watch a movie, I'm not gonna be like, let's
Speaker 1: watch Chinatown and I'm gonna watch I'm gonna watch Top
Speaker 1: Gun and it's gonna be a blast, and you're gonna
Speaker 1: love every second of it. It's the best. Yeah, I
Speaker 1: mean some genuinely great, great action of course for uh
Speaker 1: and you can't help but sort of laugh at and
Speaker 1: love all of that mckismo and the it's just it's
Speaker 1: Val Kilm or just choose every scene in that movie
Speaker 1: up and he's we all have to. They all have
Speaker 1: the ridiculous you know, code names of Iceman and Wolfman
Speaker 1: and the completely ridiculous volleyball scene that has no place whatsoever,
Speaker 1: but it's in there because I mean the director even admits,
Speaker 1: don't he Scott said, like, let's put another scene in
Speaker 1: where they're playing volleyball and we oiled them up. It
Speaker 1: had got to oil them up, got o him up,
Speaker 1: had no uh, had no rhyme or reason to be
Speaker 1: in the movie. But I I live for that movie.
Speaker 1: And and and just like you said with Cocktail, it's
Speaker 1: like I guess it. It changed the generation of young
Speaker 1: men that all wanted to go into the Air Force
Speaker 1: and the Navy. Yeah, and it did a lot for recruitment.
Speaker 1: And I have to say, my brother in law is
Speaker 1: a he's in the Marine Corps and he's very high
Speaker 1: ranking officer now but he still has his wings. But
Speaker 1: he was a pilot. That's how he came up as
Speaker 1: a helicopter pilot. And uh he they always just laughed
Speaker 1: at these Maverick and Iceman and he was like, that's
Speaker 1: not how it works, man. He's like, you don't pick
Speaker 1: your own name, and it certainly isn't some cool name.
Speaker 1: And he said, you get a name tagged on you
Speaker 1: that is usually a joke. That's some something to make
Speaker 1: fun of you. And like his name was always Hazel
Speaker 1: because he was always cleaning up after everyone. He's a
Speaker 1: clean freak. And so like you didn't say, all right,
Speaker 1: my name is gonna be Iceman. He's like that ain't
Speaker 1: how it works, hazel Man. That scared me. I was like,
Speaker 1: was he a stripper? Because hazels a stripper's name. All right,
Speaker 1: So that was my next one. That's your next one.
Speaker 1: Mine is similar and in the sense that it's Days
Speaker 1: of Thunder. Okay, good Yeah. Days of Thunder is the
Speaker 1: next Tony Scott film he did. They said it was basically,
Speaker 1: you know, a top gun in race cars. I freaking
Speaker 1: love this movie. I could watch it anytime. It's the best.
Speaker 1: The music at the beginning, what's Mike Michael Workers? At
Speaker 1: his name Worker, the bad guy, So yeah, he's you
Speaker 1: know the scene when they the scene when they both
Speaker 1: get differ and rental cars and just you know, just
Speaker 1: just casually race on a beach at ninety miles per
Speaker 1: hour and in oldsmobile Alero is totally not gonna get
Speaker 1: you arrested. I freaking love that movie. Oh when his
Speaker 1: name is Cold Trickle, Yeah, one of the great movie names.
Speaker 1: You know, also had Robert Duval in it. Uh some
Speaker 1: you know, Randy Quaid, great great part, young John c Riley. Uh.
Speaker 1: It was you know, it's almost like peak Cruise of
Speaker 1: that era of like let's you know, let's put him
Speaker 1: in a race car. I mean that was probably the
Speaker 1: pitch is let's put Tom Cruise in a race car.
Speaker 1: And you'd just come off of a very successful dramatic
Speaker 1: run of like three you know, I think that's born
Speaker 1: on the fourth and right man, and uh, I'm missing
Speaker 1: something else right in between that. But he had done
Speaker 1: very dramatic movies, maybe those two. So then he was like, oh,
Speaker 1: just let's not forget I'm also the biggest star in
Speaker 1: the world. Yeah, and imagine there might be some agent
Speaker 1: at work saying we need to give him one. You know,
Speaker 1: you've been doing this this artsy fartzy stuff. Yeah, two
Speaker 1: for them, Yeah, yeah, yeah one or you know, yeah,
Speaker 1: I know two for us, one for them kind of thing. Yeah, exactly.
Speaker 1: Worked with Tony Scott on a on a TV commercial.
Speaker 1: He directed an army commercial one time, and one of
Speaker 1: the most fun jobs I was ever on. One of
Speaker 1: the greatest, most fun directors I ever worked with that
Speaker 1: must I mean, he is my favorite director. I think
Speaker 1: he was a great man. He was high energy, super
Speaker 1: crew friendly, always just wanted to shoot, shoot, shoot, move on,
Speaker 1: move on, move on, don't overthink it, and just he
Speaker 1: just had the best energy around him. Always just like,
Speaker 1: let's go, what's the next thing, Let's do it, Let's
Speaker 1: do it. You can't help but have that little like
Speaker 1: what happened? What happened at the end. I know, man,
Speaker 1: very very sad. It is sad, it's weird, it's it's
Speaker 1: I mean, again, I didn't know him. Maybe you're here
Speaker 1: you are saying you worked with him, but yeah, I mean,
Speaker 1: just one job. I got a great picture with him.
Speaker 1: I gonna you know how you see polaroids before the smartphone,
Speaker 1: and I got a polaroid of him. Always would set
Speaker 1: up kind of funny pictures with whoever I was working with.
Speaker 1: It was a big star. And I was like, can
Speaker 1: you fake like your arm wrestling me? And he's like,
Speaker 1: as long as I can be beating you, And so
Speaker 1: he really, you know, hammed it up like he was
Speaker 1: slamming my arm down on the table. That's awesome. Probably
Speaker 1: my probably one of my top five guilty pleasures of
Speaker 1: all time. I don't think it's a guilty pleasure. It's
Speaker 1: a phenomenal movie. But Man on Fire, oh sure, because
Speaker 1: Man on Fire not just the best Denzel movie. It's
Speaker 1: got everything cry every time totally. Uh, I think you're
Speaker 1: I can't remember. Go ahead, okay, well ahead, yeah, I'm
Speaker 1: down to one on my list. Then, and that movie.
Speaker 1: There's a little movie called The Interview with the Vampire. Okay, okay,
Speaker 1: I couldn't put it on. I couldn't do it. It
Speaker 1: didn't make any of my list. God tell me why. Well,
Speaker 1: I mean, I read that book back then, and I
Speaker 1: and I'm not one to read books like that. I
Speaker 1: don't know why I did, But for some reason, I
Speaker 1: read that damn book and saw the movie and was
Speaker 1: excited about it. And it's just it was everything wrong
Speaker 1: about adapting books, you know, but in all the right ways.
Speaker 1: At the same time. It's like the casting wasn't great.
Speaker 1: Everyone was up in arm at the time about him
Speaker 1: being cast in that role and it but it's a
Speaker 1: movie like that. When it comes on today, I find
Speaker 1: myself watching it for almost badness. Absolutely I there. So
Speaker 1: I have to do these two things. With myself when
Speaker 1: when it comes to Tom Cruise movies, especially during the
Speaker 1: pod I have to remember, I'm a forty one year
Speaker 1: old man right now and we're talking about the movie,
Speaker 1: and I have to remember how I felt at sixteen
Speaker 1: when Interview came out, and I couldn't have been more excited,
Speaker 1: Like I couldn't I was. I was beyond myself. I
Speaker 1: mean that cast was you know, it was the coolest
Speaker 1: dudes in Hollywood at the time. You know, Christian Slater
Speaker 1: and remember there was the there was that famous lure
Speaker 1: around it because it was supposed to be a river
Speaker 1: Phoenix was supposed to play the Christians later part, but
Speaker 1: he had just died. I forgot about all this, like
Speaker 1: mystery and this new Brad Pitt. By the way, Tom
Speaker 1: Cruise was such a big star that his face is
Speaker 1: plastered on the front of Interview with the Vampire. It
Speaker 1: says Tom Cruise, his face, the name of the movie,
Speaker 1: and then just little font of everybody else. Pitt is
Speaker 1: in every scene in that movie. Tom Cruise is a
Speaker 1: code like the side character. He's not in half the movie.
Speaker 1: And I think that's just great. You know, it's like
Speaker 1: all Tom Cruise and Meanwhile, Brad pitts totally the start
Speaker 1: he was. Yeah, Brad Pitt was a very beautiful woman
Speaker 1: in that movie. Yes, he was a super model air. Uh. Okay,
Speaker 1: so is that your five? Did you do? That's my
Speaker 1: five because we had some overlap. But okay, finish out
Speaker 1: your list. I've got two. I've got Okay. For some
Speaker 1: strange reason, I still okay, this was a hard list
Speaker 1: for me. I'm freaking out. Okay, My I've got three left.
Speaker 1: I believe I have three left. But just follow me
Speaker 1: on this. So I've got Oblivion, which I think some
Speaker 1: people kind of I didn't see it. You didn't see okay,
Speaker 1: so jumped on it. That's the Joseph Kaczynski, who I
Speaker 1: think that's how you say his name. He directed Tron Legacy,
Speaker 1: which I also kind of loved. The music was awesome,
Speaker 1: and now he's also directing the newest Top Gun Maverick. Oh,
Speaker 1: so I I freaking loved to Oblivion. And uh and
Speaker 1: then Night and Day is if you haven't seen Night
Speaker 1: and Day, it is Tom Cruise at his peak, cruiz nous.
Speaker 1: He is ridiculous, and it's him Cameron Diaz. It's this
Speaker 1: movie that came out that kind of didn't. I don't
Speaker 1: think it made a lot of money. And he is
Speaker 1: just he's awesome in it. And then then I'm skipping
Speaker 1: over those two quickly because the number one guiltiest pleasure
Speaker 1: of guilty pleasures is far and away. Yes, all right,
Speaker 1: so just let me say quickly looking back, now, I
Speaker 1: actually did see Oblivion. I totally saw Oblivion. You did, Yes,
Speaker 1: I did, And you know what, it was okay, but
Speaker 1: obviously enough for me to remember it. Critics did not like.
Speaker 1: I had a good It had a good uh had
Speaker 1: a good twist at the end. I think it looked
Speaker 1: great visually. It was a very cool looking movie. Um,
Speaker 1: and I did not see Night and Day for reasons
Speaker 1: that are. Yes, I think it was supposed to be
Speaker 1: a pretty bad movie from the beginning. It Yeah, it's
Speaker 1: but his performance in it is so ridiculously like he's
Speaker 1: so likable in it, and he's so you know, when
Speaker 1: the these big stars just find that dropped in place,
Speaker 1: they become stars because it's some amazing performance that they
Speaker 1: this this most of them have this movie that just
Speaker 1: changed them. But then they start to drop in you know,
Speaker 1: and and that's when you know, Clooney wins an Academy
Speaker 1: Award for how good He didn't you know? We love
Speaker 1: him and no brother like he just these all these big,
Speaker 1: huge mega stars eventually just become so good that the
Speaker 1: cameras not even there anymore. And I feel like when
Speaker 1: you watch Night and Day, he's so he's so ridiculous
Speaker 1: in it. He's likable. But listen, Far and Away to
Speaker 1: me is the it's that's the one he is, that's
Speaker 1: that high. I call it the hybrid movie because he's
Speaker 1: a he's a scrapper and a boxer and you pull
Speaker 1: for that guy and he's got this ridiculous Irish accent
Speaker 1: but he's but it's a total love story and it
Speaker 1: and it's a sweet member. Remember all the sweeping, you
Speaker 1: know epics that we would watch back then, and I
Speaker 1: dare you know, people will be mad at me for
Speaker 1: calling Far and Away an epic, but you know, he
Speaker 1: goes from was it was Ireland to Boston to you know,
Speaker 1: the the Oklahoma territory. I just freaking love that movie. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I liked Far and Away, and I think he took
Speaker 1: a lot of grief for that accent um. But what
Speaker 1: are you gonna do? It? Was a fun enough movie.
Speaker 1: That was Ron Howard, right, that is Ron and Ron
Speaker 1: Howard's at his height at that point too, you know,
Speaker 1: just having the big the music, the Irish music, and
Speaker 1: and Nicole Kidman was wonderful in that movie. She was
Speaker 1: She was abusive in the relationship in Days of Thunder,
Speaker 1: if you remember, she was always like really because she
Speaker 1: pushed him around a lot. Strange fillion Days of Thunder,
Speaker 1: but she and him together, I thought, and Far and
Speaker 1: Away was the best totally. And I think they were
Speaker 1: fully in love by that point, right, Oh yeah, oh yeah,
Speaker 1: Like they met on Days of Thunder. I think that's right.
Speaker 1: I think they met at days I can't I believe
Speaker 1: they met at Days of Thunder. Yeah, And so I
Speaker 1: think they're totally in love at that point. And you know,
Speaker 1: later on they do their crazy performance and eyes wide shut.
Speaker 1: All right, So now we are going to move on
Speaker 1: to our next category, Top five legit acting movies. Uh,
Speaker 1: and I'm gonna start off with rain Man. Uh was
Speaker 1: he not even nominated for that? You said he was
Speaker 1: not nominated? It's crazy. He was crazy, truly truly great
Speaker 1: in that movie. And that was I think a truly
Speaker 1: great movie. I really really loved rain Man. Yeah, rain
Speaker 1: Man will never get made today if you watch it again. Yeah,
Speaker 1: you can't say. Well, he's abusive to his brother. He
Speaker 1: he says terrible words to him. But the but just
Speaker 1: if you take the idea as an actor that you're
Speaker 1: going through, you you you learned something. You have this
Speaker 1: arc character. Nobody has a greater arc than his character
Speaker 1: in that movie. You know, he just a terrible piece
Speaker 1: of ship human being. At the beginning, he's self real
Speaker 1: you know, you can't do those things now. But it's, uh,
Speaker 1: I don't want to say it's a shame because you
Speaker 1: know there there should be movies about awful people, you know, yeah, right,
Speaker 1: and no, it makes total sense. It's it's it's because
Speaker 1: we're trying to get rid in this culture of getting
Speaker 1: rid of the inappropriate way of speaking about uh, someone
Speaker 1: with you know, whatever disabilities and that in this case.
Speaker 1: But he he he is a real human being. People
Speaker 1: are like that and for him to learn that, to
Speaker 1: to to get rid of the selfishness. And you know,
Speaker 1: he's a car salesman and by the end he wants
Speaker 1: to take care of this handicapped man for the rest
Speaker 1: of his life. Is it's ridiculous that he didn't get nominated. Um,
Speaker 1: it's funny people now think that maybe Dustin Hoffman's performance
Speaker 1: was a little too much, and looking back, Yeah, when
Speaker 1: you watch the movie, it's actually Cruz who comes out
Speaker 1: as just an incredible performance. And I have it on
Speaker 1: my list as well for legit acting. Legit acting, definitely,
Speaker 1: that's my that's my number one. Actually, all right, well
Speaker 1: what's your what's your next? Alright, it's my next one
Speaker 1: is h Collateral. I think his acting in Collateral is
Speaker 1: that if you look at it as that's the kind
Speaker 1: of the end of the run before he has this
Speaker 1: again what we talked about earlier, the scientology, couch jumping,
Speaker 1: you know, divorce, getting remarried, weird time. He does Collateral
Speaker 1: just before all that, and it's it is just a
Speaker 1: dropped in. He's scary, he's intimidating, he's a murderer. His
Speaker 1: performance with Jamie Fox them together, it's just it's a
Speaker 1: it's it's a Michael Mann film. I I get all
Speaker 1: the fields for that movie. And then the fight, the
Speaker 1: gun sequence in the nightclub is like too real, it
Speaker 1: feels too real. But I put Collateral as one of
Speaker 1: my top five performances of his gau Well, I'm not
Speaker 1: gonna say anything. No, I want to hear. I would
Speaker 1: you want to hear when you get back to it,
Speaker 1: because I could I can already tell that you were
Speaker 1: a little like no, no, no, not true. Actually you'll
Speaker 1: be surprised, my friend. Alright, alright, So that one, uh,
Speaker 1: and this is a pretty obvious one if you talk
Speaker 1: about legit acting. The movie that I think really put
Speaker 1: him on the map as a as someone who did
Speaker 1: things that they didn't think he could do as an actor.
Speaker 1: And that has born on the fourth of July, right
Speaker 1: on the heels of rain Man. Obviously, like we said,
Speaker 1: rain Man was a was a great performance. Um, but
Speaker 1: Born on the fourth of July was that sort of
Speaker 1: Oscar bait thing. For sure. He went places that you
Speaker 1: didn't think someone like him could go. No, no, he
Speaker 1: that was the beginning of kind of making himself ugly, uh,
Speaker 1: letting him be dirty and grimy and work with just
Speaker 1: the gray Willem Dafoe and and and get getting nasty.
Speaker 1: He just got nasty in that movie. And it's it's
Speaker 1: not one you want to watch. It's not like we're
Speaker 1: let's that's the problem with that movie. You don't want
Speaker 1: to pop it on and be like, let's watch Born
Speaker 1: on the Fourth. Yeah, I saw that movie, I think once. Yeah,
Speaker 1: exactly exactly that that scene when he discovers in the
Speaker 1: spital that he is definitely paralyzed and there's this like
Speaker 1: weird like something's dripping and I think, I can't remember
Speaker 1: even what it is, and he just realized and he
Speaker 1: lets out this guttural scream. That's a messed up movie,
Speaker 1: but it is, and it's a It was a movie
Speaker 1: that was very uncomfortable to watch for he embodied the physicality.
Speaker 1: I mean, the emotional aspect of it was enough, but
Speaker 1: he embodied this physicality where it was tough. He always
Speaker 1: seemed dirty, and he always seemed yeah, just like, oh,
Speaker 1: such a gritty, grimy, sad character. Yeah. And unfortunately he uh,
Speaker 1: he was up against Daniel bay Lewis and my left
Speaker 1: foot and that's why what are you gonna do when
Speaker 1: the greatest actor of all time, you know, comes up
Speaker 1: against you? Yeah, that is really tough. Yeah, all right,
Speaker 1: I didn't realize that is it my turn? Your turn,
Speaker 1: my turn? Okay, this one's going to be different. This
Speaker 1: one's a little different. But I think one of his
Speaker 1: greatest acting performances is in Mission Impossible three, the JJ
Speaker 1: Abrams one three am I three, which is, by the way,
Speaker 1: the beginning of the real M I series, like the
Speaker 1: Tom Cruise, Mission Impossible, Ethan Hunt that we know now
Speaker 1: started with the j J Abrams Mission Impossible three movie.
Speaker 1: So talk to me about that. I've seen all of them,
Speaker 1: and I enjoy all of them, but I don't have
Speaker 1: this en psychopedic knowledge where I can sort of I
Speaker 1: know one of them wasn't great. Was that m I
Speaker 1: two that was at my two s m I two
Speaker 1: is is a bag of a bag of flaming poop.
Speaker 1: It is that it is just ridiculous. Has the characters are.
Speaker 1: He basically turned to Ethan Hunt into a superhero. And
Speaker 1: it's just the thing about Ethan Hunt that we know
Speaker 1: now is that it's this man that at any moment
Speaker 1: could and should be dead, and and he will do
Speaker 1: anything at any costs to save the moment, the planet,
Speaker 1: whatever you want. And that's what makes the you know
Speaker 1: three through six so far fascinating. The first one is
Speaker 1: a like a weird film New Air. It's a lot
Speaker 1: of love for that movie. I know it gets bagged
Speaker 1: on by a lot of fans, But I actually really
Speaker 1: enjoyed that first mission impostum. I mean, when we all
Speaker 1: saw it in the theater, we were you know, we
Speaker 1: thought it was the coolest thing. And the Langley scene
Speaker 1: is still one of the coolest moments ever. But am
Speaker 1: I three opens with him his arms tied behind his back,
Speaker 1: he's bleeding, and and uh Philip Simore Hoffman as one
Speaker 1: of the just the best bad guys. I think his
Speaker 1: name was Owen Davies is you know, ripped a ripped
Speaker 1: a thing off. He's got his wife, uh, Tom Cruise,
Speaker 1: his wife played by Michelle Monahan, you know, strapped up
Speaker 1: over there, and he's gonna shoot her until he tells
Speaker 1: him where the rabbits foot down. He counts down from
Speaker 1: ten and it's the first moment of the movie. And
Speaker 1: Tom Cruise's performance in that scene, I don't care who
Speaker 1: you are. You can make fun of me right now
Speaker 1: for saying that, I put it on one of my best.
Speaker 1: You watched that moment. He is unbelievable as an actor.
Speaker 1: In that scene, he goes through more emotions and thoughts
Speaker 1: and choices and in all the while, you know, the
Speaker 1: stakes couldn't be higher wife who has no idea who
Speaker 1: you are is. It's an incredible movie. It's my I'm
Speaker 1: gonna stay it out loud right now. It's my favorite
Speaker 1: mission Impossible. It is JJ Abrams, his first direct, his
Speaker 1: first major motion picture as well. Yeah, I think at
Speaker 1: that point you'd only done TV. Uh huh. Don't pre
Speaker 1: quote me on that, but but I think you're right. Actually, yeah,
Speaker 1: first movie. Yeah, am I three? That was a good one.
Speaker 1: That's great, alright, So I'm gonna go with Jerry McGuire
Speaker 1: from my next pick. Uh. For many many years until
Speaker 1: I feel like he'd made a couple of not great movies.
Speaker 1: I was very much Cameron Crowe's biggest fan. I always
Speaker 1: wanted to be a screenwriter and still dabbling that stuff
Speaker 1: even though I never sold anything. But I always kind
Speaker 1: of put him on on the pedestal of like greatest
Speaker 1: screenwriters up to a certain point with all of his
Speaker 1: early movies and say anything in singles and almost famous,
Speaker 1: and I think Jerry McGuire was one of the high
Speaker 1: points for him in writing a movie that was just uh,
Speaker 1: and he called it Jerry McGuire for that reason. It
Speaker 1: was just a Portrait of a guy, and uh, it was.
Speaker 1: It shouldn't have been called The Agent or or anything
Speaker 1: like that, like the fact that he titled that. Jerry
Speaker 1: McGuire says it all because it's about this man and
Speaker 1: this journey that this this guy undergoes, this humbling journey.
Speaker 1: And I still love this movie. I just I think it,
Speaker 1: adore it. I think it's wonderful. I'm gonna I'm gonna
Speaker 1: jump around with you because you know, we're let's just
Speaker 1: talk about McGuire for a second. I have it as
Speaker 1: his best of all time. Okay, so your top five overall?
Speaker 1: My top five overall puts Jerry McGuire at number one.
Speaker 1: I think it sums everything up for you know, if
Speaker 1: you take the Tom Cruise formula, which is, you know,
Speaker 1: the cocky guy who gets broken down and built back
Speaker 1: up again. Nobody played cocky better than Tom Cruise, and
Speaker 1: no one played broken better than him. And and you
Speaker 1: know the loves Ory We just all the Dorothy Boyd stuff.
Speaker 1: We all loved man and and this is the height.
Speaker 1: This is is the height of height. You know, he's
Speaker 1: it's he's come off of this crazy hundred million dollar
Speaker 1: run of films like a bunch that we've already named.
Speaker 1: And it's my favorite Tom Cruise movie, which is ridiculous
Speaker 1: because I'm an action film junkie, and yet Jerry McGuire
Speaker 1: is my favorite. Nothing is better than Cuba Gooding Junior
Speaker 1: in that movie, you know, and just it's just it's
Speaker 1: just a hell of a movie, Gina King. I mean,
Speaker 1: oh my god, it's a character piece and like the
Speaker 1: the purest sense of the word. Yeah uh, and I
Speaker 1: loved everything about it. The kid was great, her Nicky
Speaker 1: Reneger's sister like Hunt. Yes, Lynn Fry had a good cameo. Yes, yes,
Speaker 1: you know. It's got to be pique. Jay Moore, you know,
Speaker 1: with that great right, Remember the remember the phone call
Speaker 1: sequence once he knows he's fired, and then he says,
Speaker 1: I'm gonna get all of them back, and he it
Speaker 1: goes between him and Jay Moore calling all the different clients,
Speaker 1: and Jay Moore is just he's got that line in
Speaker 1: there where he says uping where he's like, remember that
Speaker 1: time we were at that strip club and there was
Speaker 1: the dead hooker you don't remember, I do because I'm
Speaker 1: your agent, you know, or like something like that, and
Speaker 1: he's just it's just an amazing movie. So that's yeah,
Speaker 1: in a movie that like um, sort of capra esque
Speaker 1: and that it that it gives you. It was a
Speaker 1: movie that and then this is so corny to say,
Speaker 1: but it truly like made you feel better about people
Speaker 1: and give you hope that you can try and do
Speaker 1: the right thing and go off on your own and
Speaker 1: chart your own path and that will pay off and
Speaker 1: give you a reward. I just loved it. I that's
Speaker 1: there's nothing wrong with that. There's nothing wrong with having
Speaker 1: a movie that can bring happiness to you. You know,
Speaker 1: there's there's a lot going on in the world. I
Speaker 1: don't want to get too deep about it, but yeah,
Speaker 1: it's it's just a it's just a lovely movie that
Speaker 1: teaches a lesson and at the end is a love
Speaker 1: story that has maybe the arguably the greatest back to
Speaker 1: back you know to romantic lines of you complete me
Speaker 1: and you had me at Hello. Like it's just the best.
Speaker 1: I mean, that movie had the three or four lines
Speaker 1: that are part of pop culture history forever. Oh yeah,
Speaker 1: and people said show me the money for fifteen years,
Speaker 1: I mean forever. We we quote that movie all the time.
Speaker 1: It was just you know, it's too good. It's too good.
Speaker 1: I can't tell, I can't do it. Also, did you
Speaker 1: say the guy that played the another great guest star,
Speaker 1: and I think you said his name, the dude who
Speaker 1: plays the mammy, the male nanny. He was great from
Speaker 1: high fidelity. He's awesome. He was the best jazz man
Speaker 1: and he handsome like the tape to play jazz. Well there,
Speaker 1: that's the best. I think like Jerry was he was
Speaker 1: always trying to do the right thing. He had that
Speaker 1: crisis of confidence or conscience at the beginning of the movie,
Speaker 1: and from that point forward, he just always always always
Speaker 1: tried to do the right thing. And that's why there
Speaker 1: was that meant so much when when Cuba getting Junior
Speaker 1: stuck with him man as his one guy, like it
Speaker 1: was just great. And they gave him. I love that
Speaker 1: they gave him, not this like bombastic contract. They gave
Speaker 1: him just like a decent amount of money. So it's
Speaker 1: not like Jerry is now like a billionaire agant. For
Speaker 1: some reason, that always hits me, especially in this day
Speaker 1: and age of of just obscene money in sports. Uh.
Speaker 1: And then another one we forgot to mention is Kelly Preston,
Speaker 1: how good she wasn't that you know she was? And
Speaker 1: all the scenes with the elder agent. Uh, does that
Speaker 1: supposed to be Billy Wilder? Yes, there's that great story
Speaker 1: where he couldn't get Billy Wilder to be in the movie.
Speaker 1: And he took Tom Cruise with him and and Cameron
Speaker 1: Crow said it was interesting, he said, because Tom Cruise
Speaker 1: asked him and he said, I could tell that it
Speaker 1: was not someone who was used to hearing the word no.
Speaker 1: He's like it was almost like he didn't know how
Speaker 1: to react when Billy Wilder told Tom Cruise no, he
Speaker 1: wouldn't do it. Does not compute. What do you mean,
Speaker 1: I'm Tom Cruise asking you to do this? You're not
Speaker 1: gonna do it? Yeah? Yeah, yeah, yeah, Oh man, that's grad.
Speaker 1: I didn't know that. That's my wife does that all time.
Speaker 1: She does the Uh sometimes I wake up in the
Speaker 1: morning and it's or whatever that line is, it's gonna
Speaker 1: be a great day. Yeah. Um, where are we are here?
Speaker 1: I don't know. I'll just go next. I have one.
Speaker 1: I have one here. Well, I'll actually have two left,
Speaker 1: so it's not sure we have the same same one. Um,
Speaker 1: Magnolia Next on my list. Frank T. J. McKee. I'm
Speaker 1: doing a series with a friend, uh, Paul Thomas Anderson series,
Speaker 1: and we covered Magnolia was one of my favorite movies
Speaker 1: at the time, and I've seen that many times since.
Speaker 1: Just a powerhouse performance. It's you know, I mean, he
Speaker 1: should listen. I'm a die hard fan. I for some
Speaker 1: reason thought side our House Rules the year it came
Speaker 1: out was I'm gonna make a little jump. Here was
Speaker 1: an amazing movie and I cried my face off. Michael.
Speaker 1: It's great and Michael Caine is an incredible actor. Tom
Speaker 1: Crue should have won the Academy Award for Magnolia. He
Speaker 1: was It is that he was the epitome of what
Speaker 1: a supporting act or was in the movie, and it
Speaker 1: was in a performance like no other, and the crying
Speaker 1: sequence and the just the I'm silently judging you as
Speaker 1: one of my favorite lines of the movie. He's incredible.
Speaker 1: I mean, there were so many pieces to that. You know,
Speaker 1: He's first, you have the piece where he's on on
Speaker 1: the stage doing all his uh, you know, how to
Speaker 1: how to woo women stuff, not wu women, how to
Speaker 1: how to dominate in control women, right, and um, all
Speaker 1: that stuff is amazing. And then like he said, the
Speaker 1: interview sequence and then all the stuff with Robarts. It's
Speaker 1: just like, what like he just got to chew his
Speaker 1: way through that whole thing. My only, my only issue
Speaker 1: with that movie forever. And how dare me say this
Speaker 1: for one of the greatest directors we've ever had his
Speaker 1: when Cruise is, they should have just left the camera
Speaker 1: on him and not switched over to Robarts dead face
Speaker 1: or even they even put it if you go back
Speaker 1: and watch it again. I just watched all these again,
Speaker 1: so you think of things that you don't and they
Speaker 1: cut over to uh, philipiomore Hoffman's face at times too,
Speaker 1: and I was like, no, please, Cruises crushing the scene?
Speaker 1: Is it is in mind you? This is the This
Speaker 1: is the culmination of a twenty year career at this point,
Speaker 1: our almost twenty year career of a man who's had
Speaker 1: a lot of daddy issues, you know, which which is
Speaker 1: just if I don't know how much you know about
Speaker 1: that with Cruiz, but that his father left as a
Speaker 1: young man, and you know, most of his movies that
Speaker 1: he had control over in some way always had something
Speaker 1: to do with his father. And either a dead father
Speaker 1: or an absent father or a father who she was
Speaker 1: living in a shadow of and this was the culmination
Speaker 1: and for him to sit over Robarts and and and
Speaker 1: let those emotions out, those were real. That was his
Speaker 1: reel as a gets so an amazing performance. Love it. Uh.
Speaker 1: And then my last one or actually you say your
Speaker 1: last one was my last one? That one, My last
Speaker 1: one was Magnolia. So I'm excited to hear what your
Speaker 1: other one is. Well, my last one is Eyes Wide Shut.
Speaker 1: It's yes. And I'll go ahead and say we can
Speaker 1: mark Eyes Wide Shut and Jerry McGuire off of the
Speaker 1: top five overall movies for me. But um as wat
Speaker 1: Shut to me just a legendary movie. All the stories
Speaker 1: that surrounded it and the number of takes and the
Speaker 1: length of the shoot in the It's just it's one
Speaker 1: of those movies where the legend that a companies that
Speaker 1: kind of enriches the movie itself. It's a movie I
Speaker 1: know a lot of people don't like, but I love it,
Speaker 1: and um well, I just I think his work in
Speaker 1: it was second to none. So my I have the
Speaker 1: reverse feeling on that movie, which on like both you know,
Speaker 1: I did not love it when I first saw it.
Speaker 1: I think I might have even even though it came
Speaker 1: out when I was twenty, I think I was just
Speaker 1: too young to appreciate it. I still was just learning
Speaker 1: about good cinema while I was in college at that point.
Speaker 1: Because again, as as you and the listeners can hear,
Speaker 1: I mostly watched jeezy action films and and you know,
Speaker 1: budding comedies most of my childhood, and so I didn't
Speaker 1: really get the chance to appreciate it. I went back
Speaker 1: later on in life, in my late twenties and watched
Speaker 1: you know, bar linkedon and you know, and I obviously
Speaker 1: I love the Shining, but got to understand Kubrick a
Speaker 1: little bit more. And then I watched it again, and
Speaker 1: then I thought to myself, how was Nicole Kidman not
Speaker 1: winning every award for what she did in that movie?
Speaker 1: She was extraordinary in that movie, and so was he,
Speaker 1: but she but she was the to me, she was
Speaker 1: the actual just star those that scene when she describes
Speaker 1: the dream and what what a movie? What a movie?
Speaker 1: What an interesting different movie? And I, of course I
Speaker 1: didn't know anything at the time that I saw it
Speaker 1: about about you know, you know, someone someone deceiving you
Speaker 1: and your relationship and letting your mind go crazy. You know,
Speaker 1: I was just too young to really appreciate totally. I
Speaker 1: get it. I love it all right. Now we're on
Speaker 1: the top five overall movies. Like I said, I'm down
Speaker 1: to three from my original five because they've been covered.
Speaker 1: So what do you have one of my one? Am I? Okay? Yeah,
Speaker 1: so I'm out. Jereedy McGuire, I am too, I'm out.
Speaker 1: Jeremy McGuire, top gun. You said you're out, eyes wide
Speaker 1: shut and Jerry McGuire. So we both have three left.
Speaker 1: Here we go, look at this all right, you start
Speaker 1: start yeah, okay. So my first overall which I put
Speaker 1: as number five because I was such a nerd and
Speaker 1: I even categorized them or I even I even like numerically,
Speaker 1: was like, okay, this is number five. Is a different one,
Speaker 1: but I think it's got a lot of people actually
Speaker 1: think it is one of his best, which is Edge
Speaker 1: of Tomorrow. That's on my list. Ah good, good, great
Speaker 1: movie and and movie that frankly surprised me and how
Speaker 1: good it was. Yes it was gonna be. I was like,
Speaker 1: I'm down for any of the big cruise movies like
Speaker 1: that that we'll put out in the summer of the
Speaker 1: action movies I'll go see them all. Uh, And I
Speaker 1: was really surprised on how great great that movie was.
Speaker 1: It's it just it keeps getting better every time you
Speaker 1: watch it too. It's the quintessential Tom Cruise movie where
Speaker 1: he is again he's the likable douche bag at the beginning.
Speaker 1: You you know, he's the he's the pr rep for
Speaker 1: the army, and he's recruited all the people, but he's
Speaker 1: actually just a week nobody. He do you even hear
Speaker 1: I just watched it again recently, so you hear him
Speaker 1: say how many times have I said that already? Oh?
Speaker 1: I just watched it again. Reasonably? What's wrong with me?
Speaker 1: I have two children and a job. He says that
Speaker 1: he like had I think he says he was like
Speaker 1: a sales repp or he had like an accounting firm
Speaker 1: or something like that. Like he's just a total nobody.
Speaker 1: That's just a good talker. And and you take the
Speaker 1: Groundhog Day, you know theory and just an amazing director
Speaker 1: in Lineman, and yeah, what a movie. Yeah, it's a
Speaker 1: great movie. And it's um My wife actually worked on
Speaker 1: Go many years ago, dougline first movie when he was
Speaker 1: just a budding director. And I remember at the time
Speaker 1: she tells me she's like, this guy is like he's
Speaker 1: really got the goods, and um, yeah, I mean I
Speaker 1: loved it. It was It's a movie I only saw
Speaker 1: once and now like, I totally want to go back
Speaker 1: and watch it again and have wanted to. It's when
Speaker 1: I was trying to talk to my wife into seeing
Speaker 1: She's generally not into that stuff, but I think it's
Speaker 1: I think it's so good it's hard to not like.
Speaker 1: It has such a clever premise and it's executed just
Speaker 1: so flawlessly for sure, and you know, and again another
Speaker 1: movie where the other performances are fantastic, and you know,
Speaker 1: Bill Bill Paxton, who's got to be all one of
Speaker 1: our favorites, is so good in it, and it's just
Speaker 1: interesting and different and unique and uh and all the
Speaker 1: little they now go back and watch it because now
Speaker 1: that you know how it ends, you can see the
Speaker 1: little like choices that they make. And uh, I mean
Speaker 1: at the time, I remember thinking like, oh, I gotta
Speaker 1: see this again soon. Is this one of those movies
Speaker 1: where a second viewing yes again is like super informative.
Speaker 1: But I just never got around to it, and it
Speaker 1: did not do well because I guess the name was
Speaker 1: threw people off a and I guess there was something
Speaker 1: else going on around there where he wasn't making a
Speaker 1: ton of money as Tom Cruig. Again maybe I don't know.
Speaker 1: I can't really think it was like teen or something.
Speaker 1: I can't remember to the exactly, but anyway, he just
Speaker 1: they ended up changing the title to Live Die Repeat,
Speaker 1: or it's called like Edge of Tomorrow, Lived I Repeat,
Speaker 1: Like I actually did something that you never see where
Speaker 1: they had to mess with the name and now there's
Speaker 1: a chance of a sequel and it's it got a
Speaker 1: real second run, It got a second life, and everybody
Speaker 1: loves it now. Yeah, I mean I think it was
Speaker 1: one of those movies where the word of mouth. I
Speaker 1: think everyone, especially after stuff like Oblivion, people are kind
Speaker 1: of is this just another kind of Tom Cruise exactly
Speaker 1: runaround movie and word got around and I remember friends
Speaker 1: of me saying, like, no, man, this movie is really awesome,
Speaker 1: like you see it, which is exactly what happened with
Speaker 1: American made years later, which is also another Doug Lineman film.
Speaker 1: It was so he made The Mummy and uh, oh
Speaker 1: my god, why can't I think of the other movie
Speaker 1: that nobody. Oh, oh, Jack Reacher too, So it's Reach
Speaker 1: too and the Mummy and they're total just they're bad.
Speaker 1: They're just not good for whatever reason, they're not good.
Speaker 1: So then when American Maid came out, people again, we're like,
Speaker 1: not gonna go see this. So I don't get it.
Speaker 1: And it's great. Is Jack Reacher one good? Jack Reacher
Speaker 1: one is fine, it's fine. It's fine that Jack Reacher
Speaker 1: movies just didn't really do what they needed to do.
Speaker 1: I guess Jack Reacher the character. I get the books.
Speaker 1: My mother in law tells me, you're fantastic, and I
Speaker 1: didn't see that. Yeah, well they weren't. They weren't good.
Speaker 1: They just didn't They just didn't do it. That's why
Speaker 1: you didn't see it, because they probably have a on
Speaker 1: rotten tomatoes. So alright, so my next one, we don't
Speaker 1: have to go over too much. I was kind of
Speaker 1: keeping this in the back pocket because I wanted to
Speaker 1: surprise you, but Collateral is on my list. Yeah, I
Speaker 1: love Collateral. I just didn't want to play my hand
Speaker 1: to her like that. Though I was worried. I was
Speaker 1: worried you didn't like it. It was great. I mean,
Speaker 1: it's Michael Mann at his finest. It was I remember,
Speaker 1: I think the first movie shot on DV if I
Speaker 1: remember right, it was weird to look different, remember, Yeah,
Speaker 1: and it's uh. I think it just kind of snuck
Speaker 1: up on me and is uh. And I think it's truly,
Speaker 1: truly great Michael Man and Tom Cruise movie. Yeah. I
Speaker 1: thought a heart time at first, because Michael Man, to
Speaker 1: me was still last of the Mohicans, and I I
Speaker 1: thought like, oh, I I loved his bigger movies. And
Speaker 1: I thought it was weird and uncomfortable at first, and
Speaker 1: then again I had to watch it a few more
Speaker 1: times to be like, holy shit, I think this is
Speaker 1: awesome and the it's real and this it looks like
Speaker 1: it's being shot on a handheld camera. Like it's just
Speaker 1: looks too real to me. And I couldn't deal with that,
Speaker 1: so I only said at once, I need to check
Speaker 1: that out again. Well he did a run of those,
Speaker 1: remember he did? He did? It felt like the same
Speaker 1: way in the Insider had. The Insider had that kind
Speaker 1: of weird quality where you felt like you were just
Speaker 1: it felt like it was too close. You were like,
Speaker 1: is this really happening? Am I watching a you know?
Speaker 1: And then even the Miami Vice movie, which was a
Speaker 1: train wreck in itself, but it's still was like that,
Speaker 1: it was shot like that. Those Michael Mann went through
Speaker 1: a time where he was just doing weird you know,
Speaker 1: in your face, nighttime, gritty, dark and man Collateral did
Speaker 1: it all? Right? What else you got too? Left? Here? Okay?
Speaker 1: How many of you have left? I have just one? Okay?
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, because that was your number two. So my here,
Speaker 1: here's mine. You have to put in m I six
Speaker 1: as a top five overall, and I the reason why
Speaker 1: you don't have to. But the reason why is because
Speaker 1: that is the you know, we far My buddy Alec
Speaker 1: on the show makes the argument of this that that
Speaker 1: in all the Oscar nominations and everything, it's always got
Speaker 1: to be a dramatic performance, Like at the nominations that
Speaker 1: just came out this year, you've got to have somebody
Speaker 1: just weeping and crying, and it's got to be you know,
Speaker 1: Hugh Jackman Imprisoners, just like someone's got to have a
Speaker 1: dead daughter somewhere. And what Tom Cruise has done as
Speaker 1: an actual star and these Ethan Hunts, you know, character
Speaker 1: movies is just nothing short of incredible and awesome you
Speaker 1: care about the character, you love them. It's got the drama,
Speaker 1: it's got a little bit of comedy, and the action is.
Speaker 1: Nobody will do what Tom Cruise just did in m
Speaker 1: I six. Ever again less he somehow doubles down a
Speaker 1: m I seven, which I'm not sure as possible. You know,
Speaker 1: the man taught himself how to flay fly a military
Speaker 1: level helicopter. He jumped out of a Halo jump a
Speaker 1: hundred and six times. You know, he just did. It's incredible,
Speaker 1: and it's an incredible movie with with just great storyline
Speaker 1: and the bad guy coming back from the fifth one
Speaker 1: and Superman is the arch nemesis. Now it's just it's
Speaker 1: too good man. That fight scene between those two is
Speaker 1: just amazing. Some of the I mean, there's there's great,
Speaker 1: big action sequences, but the m I series had some
Speaker 1: of the best outside of the Born series, some of
Speaker 1: the best just fights. I agree. I agree the history,
Speaker 1: I think, yeah and I was, I am, I am
Speaker 1: all for the second and third Born movies. I think
Speaker 1: the two and three Supremacy and then Ultimatum are maybe
Speaker 1: two of the best I've ever seen. But yeah, m
Speaker 1: I six is up there, and it just I just
Speaker 1: if if, if I could have found one, m I
Speaker 1: to embody them all, even oh I said, am I
Speaker 1: three is my favorite? It is am I six though
Speaker 1: embodies like Tom grew. So I think with you saying
Speaker 1: you have one left of me saying one left, it's
Speaker 1: almost impossible for not us to have the same movie here.
Speaker 1: But I'm oh, interesting, it's it's almost impossible. Well mine
Speaker 1: is Color of Money. Whoa chock the crowd? Holy sh it,
Speaker 1: it is not the same movie. Yeah, the Color of Money, Man,
Speaker 1: I love that movie. That was an HBO movie for
Speaker 1: me that I saw a bunch. It's Scorsese, it's Paul Newman,
Speaker 1: uh cruise in it was just fantastic as the cocky
Speaker 1: young uh pool player. Like everything about that movie works
Speaker 1: for me. Still, I love it. And and this wasn't,
Speaker 1: by the way, sub rank. So I'm not saying that
Speaker 1: that's my number one favorite, that these were all just
Speaker 1: five in random order, but Color of Money is definitely
Speaker 1: definitely on the list for me. Love it. Uh yeah,
Speaker 1: what is what is? Paul Newman's got a line when
Speaker 1: he's sitting down with him in the back of the
Speaker 1: shop where he's wearing the famous Vent shirt and he says, like,
Speaker 1: you are a giant flake and I learned something like
Speaker 1: that and he's like, don't change that, Like that's he is.
Speaker 1: That's another one where you think Tom Cruise was just
Speaker 1: being this this over excited guy, but actually he was
Speaker 1: playing an amazing character and went through a great arc
Speaker 1: and by the end of that movie he becomes the
Speaker 1: shark himself and he's not a good person. And wow,
Speaker 1: I can't believe we didn't have the same number one.
Speaker 1: Trying to think of what yours is now. I mean
Speaker 1: you already said top Gun, right, yeah, how could you?
Speaker 1: You haven't named this movie once? No, no, no, it
Speaker 1: was my Guilty Pleasure. No, no, the movie that I'm
Speaker 1: about to name yet, which is A Few Good Men? Ah, okay,
Speaker 1: A Few Good Men? Is sure that our our mutual
Speaker 1: friend Kevin Pollock on the show? Yeah? Oh, how do
Speaker 1: you know Kevin? Him? He was the Stuff you Should
Speaker 1: Know listener, And uh, I actually met Kevin when we
Speaker 1: did a Stuff he Should Know live at podcast Fest
Speaker 1: and he interrupted the show by filling up our water
Speaker 1: glass on the stage and afterward we talked, and now
Speaker 1: we're we've been pals for a while now, dude, Before
Speaker 1: I talked about a few good men. I don't know
Speaker 1: how many of your guests have done this, but I'll
Speaker 1: nerd out real fast. You're I'm a huge fan of
Speaker 1: stuff you should know. You guys, you got me and
Speaker 1: my wife through some really hard times when our first
Speaker 1: son was born. He did not sleep at all, my
Speaker 1: son Jack, and so for that first year we I
Speaker 1: I could literally get emotional thinking about how tough it
Speaker 1: was because you know, we were sleep deprived and the
Speaker 1: only way he would nap is by putting him in
Speaker 1: the stroller. And so you know these are to me.
Speaker 1: You know, I didn't know a lot about podcasts, and
Speaker 1: someone said, hey, man, you should listen to stuff you
Speaker 1: should know, and I, I mean, you guys got me
Speaker 1: through some really tough times. Is super sweet. Thank you.
Speaker 1: That's so cool. I didn't know that. And I learned
Speaker 1: a lot, a very cool lot during that time. Um, okay,
Speaker 1: a few good men. How it's many people argue it
Speaker 1: to be his best or at least his cruizy ist.
Speaker 1: It is Aaron Sorkin's first play turned into an incredible movie.
Speaker 1: It is the perfect storm of every great actor on
Speaker 1: the planet coming together. Um. I still put Jerry McGuire
Speaker 1: over it, which I know on my podcast my guys
Speaker 1: will argue with me about endlessly because they put this
Speaker 1: movie as there their number one. It's um again, just
Speaker 1: like with Jerry McGuire as some of the most famous
Speaker 1: lines of all time, maybe the best scene ever between
Speaker 1: Nicholson and Cruz, and Uh. Every time I watch it,
Speaker 1: you're like, oh my god, you forget You're like, oh,
Speaker 1: this is this is awesome. This movie is great. It
Speaker 1: was also nominated that year for Best Picture. Nicholson was
Speaker 1: nominated for Best Actor, and I think that's another one
Speaker 1: that Cruz got shafted for not getting nominated for. He
Speaker 1: wasn't nominated for that. So he's been nominated three times.
Speaker 1: He was born. On the fourth he lost to, like
Speaker 1: we said, Daniel Day. You can't argue with that. He's
Speaker 1: nominated for Best Actor for Jerry McGuire. He lost to Uh,
Speaker 1: I can do this, um shine, what's a Jeffrey Roush
Speaker 1: and shine? How can you again? You know? The Academy
Speaker 1: if you yeah, they just love if you morph yourself
Speaker 1: and turn yourself into a crazy person and play the piano,
Speaker 1: you're gonna win. And then uh, and then yeah, Michael
Speaker 1: Caine you lost to in Magnolia, UM for for Centerhouse Rules,
Speaker 1: So I think, yeah, a few good men. Uh, he
Speaker 1: should have been nominated for and same with Um, same
Speaker 1: with rain Man. Yeah, I mean I love a few
Speaker 1: good Men. It was not on any of my list,
Speaker 1: but very well could have been, as you know how
Speaker 1: these lists go. Of course, of course, pitch me on
Speaker 1: any given day and I will. I'll throw a few
Speaker 1: good Men on my list. Really really great movie. When
Speaker 1: is he going to get that Oscar man Wenzi? Well,
Speaker 1: that's see, I have a chuck. I'm gonna say it
Speaker 1: out loud. I'm gonna say it on this podcast. I
Speaker 1: have the perfect I know what he should do. He
Speaker 1: should do Color of Money to basically meaning exactly so
Speaker 1: Newman was in the Hustler and then did you know
Speaker 1: call our Money wins his oscars. Here you go. But
Speaker 1: the problem is is that he still looks so young.
Speaker 1: We need another like fifteen years. You need him to
Speaker 1: look old. That's the downside. Yeah, I mean they aged
Speaker 1: him up a little bit in Collateral. He had that
Speaker 1: gray hair. Yeah that's right, the still the silver fox look. Yeah,
Speaker 1: he is a bit ageless. Uh. And then you just
Speaker 1: cast whatever young asshole as as the events, you know,
Speaker 1: the uh you need the the younger you know early
Speaker 1: that way, that's hysterical above now I know. But he
Speaker 1: was so good at it. He was. Yeah, he did
Speaker 1: come to mind for both of us. That's really sad
Speaker 1: and wonderful and please he is. I think he with
Speaker 1: all of his shortcomings, he is. He's. Yeah, it's one
Speaker 1: of the most out the actors out there. No. I
Speaker 1: saw that that when he did uh this year that
Speaker 1: he made honey Boy. Honey Boy is fantastic. My goodness,
Speaker 1: my goodness, and it did Fury. Do you remember that
Speaker 1: movie Fury with with Brad Pitt as the the tank guys.
Speaker 1: The tank guys did go back, Go back and watch
Speaker 1: him in that movie and the four of them. Who
Speaker 1: Michael pana is easily you want to put anybody in
Speaker 1: any movie at any time. You just got this role.
Speaker 1: He's not the number one on the call sheet, but
Speaker 1: you got the number two. You're like, who do we get? Oh?
Speaker 1: I know Michael Panea. Yeah, he's he's wonderful. Oh my god,
Speaker 1: he can do anything. He has a house in Atlanta, now,
Speaker 1: oh does he really? I think he worked here enough
Speaker 1: and liked it and was just I think he and
Speaker 1: his family bought a house here. You guys are popular
Speaker 1: now they're in Atlanta. I mean, let me know if
Speaker 1: you ever make your way down here for anything. You know,
Speaker 1: I used to before I got blackish, I had I
Speaker 1: had a second life. I was the children's party entertainer.
Speaker 1: And then people said, hey, you've got a great voice.
Speaker 1: You should do corporate work. And I was like, what's
Speaker 1: that mean? Like, oh, yeah, when a trade show comes
Speaker 1: through you, you you can be the you can be
Speaker 1: the spokesman for the product and stand on the trade
Speaker 1: show floor. So I went to Atlanta a lot do
Speaker 1: It was soul sucking, but I made good money for
Speaker 1: you and ate a lot of food. Well, Atlanta a
Speaker 1: town that just parties all the time. You guys just
Speaker 1: party all the time. There's a lot of partying and
Speaker 1: a lot of great food. Well this was a lot
Speaker 1: of fun, Jeff. I feel like there's more to talk about.
Speaker 1: So I would love for you to come back sometime.
Speaker 1: That would mean in the world and we'll figure out
Speaker 1: another angle. Maybe we can talk about stuff that like
Speaker 1: the last Samurai, or maybe we know I don't have
Speaker 1: to be Cruise stuff. Let's talk about Tom Cruise again. Yeah,
Speaker 1: we can do Cruise, but listen, I'm a fan of
Speaker 1: we can. We could just do the nineties, right, just
Speaker 1: the nineties and every film that meant the world to us.
Speaker 1: All right, cool man, thanks a lot, and everyone check
Speaker 1: out Blackish. And do you have like Twitter handles and
Speaker 1: stuff you acted on social Yeah, I'm big on uh
Speaker 1: one am my on Instagram. So just at Jeff Meatchum
Speaker 1: and at Meeting Cruise, uh for our podcast, and just
Speaker 1: please check out the Meeting Tom Cruise pod because I
Speaker 1: love doing what Chuck does and it's uh, it's fun man,
Speaker 1: it's fun to talk. It is, and yeah, I love it.
Speaker 1: Thanks man. Movie Crash is produced and written by Charles
Speaker 1: Bryant and Meel Brown, edited and engineered by Seth Nicholas Johnson,
Speaker 1: and scored by Noel Brown here in our home studio
Speaker 1: at Pontsty Market, Atlanta, Georgia. For I Heart Radio. For
Speaker 1: more podcasts for my Heart Radio, visit the I Heart
Speaker 1: Radio app, Apple podcast, or wherever you listen to your
Speaker 1: favorite shows.