Speaker 1: Welcome to Movie Crush, a production of I Heart Radio.
Speaker 1: Hey everybody, and welcome to Movie Crush Friday Interview edition
Speaker 1: with our old friend, our old pal, everyone's favorite, number
Speaker 1: one movie fan and poster collector and improv comedian Cold Stratton.
Speaker 1: It's with us. I wish that claim was true, but
Speaker 1: thank you. Check which part is untrue? I mean everybody's favorite.
Speaker 1: I don't know about that, but I think you're among
Speaker 1: the favorites. I love that. Thank you. It's fun being
Speaker 1: on the show, I'll say that much. So before we
Speaker 1: get going in to the movie coal, we want to
Speaker 1: talk a little bit about you know I talked to
Speaker 1: when the first time you were on the show. For
Speaker 1: those of you who did not hear that episode, we
Speaker 1: met at San Francisco sketch Fest. Uh to me, for
Speaker 1: my money, the greatest and best, most robust comedy festival
Speaker 1: in the country, and I guess in the world, because
Speaker 1: America is the only country where anything funny happens. And um,
Speaker 1: that's where we became pals and where we first met.
Speaker 1: And you you're one of the co founders and run
Speaker 1: Sketch Fest is a big part of your job. But
Speaker 1: very sadly, UH, this year. Uh, there are Yeah, I
Speaker 1: guess this year there's no sketch Fest going on. It
Speaker 1: should be going on right now in January. Obviously you
Speaker 1: guys aren't doing it because of COVID, but you have
Speaker 1: something else going on, and I would love to turn
Speaker 1: people onto this. Yeah. So it's weird because we would
Speaker 1: be in the middle of the festival right now, right
Speaker 1: and then in fact, this would probably be my weekend.
Speaker 1: I'm usually the second week end. Yeah, this will be
Speaker 1: the second weekend. We always notice the three day weekend
Speaker 1: because of Martin Luther King Day and stuff. This is
Speaker 1: gonna be weird that this will be the I realized
Speaker 1: this will be the first January I've spent in Los
Speaker 1: Angeles and twenty years. Oh wow, that's crazy. Yeah, it's not.
Speaker 1: It's well, I guess eighteen years because it was year
Speaker 1: two that I moved down or whatever. But still, like,
Speaker 1: I've never been here for January. I've always been up
Speaker 1: there for the bulk of the month. So it's a
Speaker 1: little I don't know what to do with myself, So
Speaker 1: there's that. But yeah, we're doing this. We realized that
Speaker 1: we weren't gonna be able to do it in person,
Speaker 1: festival pretty early on last year. We kept like delaying
Speaker 1: making the decision because every week would be different information
Speaker 1: about the virus and what was happening and stuff. So finally,
Speaker 1: like late summer, we decided to officially pull the plug
Speaker 1: because we figured there's just no what it was gonna happen. Um,
Speaker 1: so we did. So we're hoping to do another live
Speaker 1: show like festival next year, which that's crazy to say
Speaker 1: next year and we just went into this one but two.
Speaker 1: So we try to figure out what we could do
Speaker 1: to kind of mark the festival occasion this year and
Speaker 1: also raise some money for us so we could operate
Speaker 1: going into next year and have some capital to you know,
Speaker 1: put down venue deposits, et cetera, go over to the
Speaker 1: next one. I mean it's a business, you know. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's uh as everybody knows there's a lot of money
Speaker 1: at festivals, so uh yeah, there's not. But so yeah,
Speaker 1: it would also be our twentie year. That's one of
Speaker 1: the biggest bummers too, is you know, it will be
Speaker 1: the big celebration of making it to twenty. So um,
Speaker 1: what we decided to do instead was do like one
Speaker 1: giant kind of we are the world ish online benefit
Speaker 1: show with a ton of alumni from the festival. Um.
Speaker 1: So they ended up being over a hundred performers, which
Speaker 1: is crazy. It's amazing. It's gonna be a little over
Speaker 1: three hours. We're editing everything and it's gonna be long,
Speaker 1: but it'll be funny. Um, and that lineup is pretty insane.
Speaker 1: We you know, we're looking at the kids in the hall.
Speaker 1: We have the State all eleven of them, which is
Speaker 1: around Yeah, so they're doing something. Um, Bobo and Kirk
Speaker 1: and David Cross, Upper Citizen's Brigade, triumphty and Cel Comic
Speaker 1: Dog weird Al, John Ham, Aisha Tyler, Margaret Choe, Uh,
Speaker 1: Doug Benson, Uptown Showdown, Debates, Judge John Hodgman. Um. This
Speaker 1: is just off the top of my head, so I'm
Speaker 1: sure I'm missing tons of great people, but UM, music
Speaker 1: from like Paullen Storm and Jonathan Colton and Rhet Miller
Speaker 1: and UM, it's gonna be pretty amazing. So tickets are
Speaker 1: over at s F sketch Fest dot com, guest f
Speaker 1: and then sketch Fest dot com. Uh. They started twenty
Speaker 1: bucks uh for a live stream on January five o'clock
Speaker 1: pm Pacific time. Eight o'clock PM Eastern and whatever PM
Speaker 1: wherever you live or am. I don't know where you're
Speaker 1: gonna be doing this from UM, but it's gonna be
Speaker 1: pretty fantastic and everything goes to helping the festival move
Speaker 1: forward and be a festival UM next year. So that's great.
Speaker 1: Come check it out if you can. Well, I'm gonna
Speaker 1: buy my ticket. Twenty dollars is not a lot of
Speaker 1: money to spend on some great comedy. I would pay.
Speaker 1: Don't tell anyone this, but I would paid twenty dollars
Speaker 1: just to see the state reunion getting. I mean, that's
Speaker 1: it's there, some of those legendary UM Sketch performers and
Speaker 1: I don't know, man, they just hold a very special
Speaker 1: place in my heart. I was a big fan UH
Speaker 1: in real time from the MTV days, and you know,
Speaker 1: they're one of the ones who, like every single one
Speaker 1: of them, went on to do something great and continue
Speaker 1: to do great things. It's pretty crazy. Like we did
Speaker 1: a reunion with them in like I want to say
Speaker 1: where we got them all in person to San Francisco,
Speaker 1: all of and them, and they did a new Sketch
Speaker 1: show and they very intimate. UM then Eureka Theater, which
Speaker 1: is two hundred seats. They just did two shows. Wow,
Speaker 1: that sketch Show and that was it. So they sold
Speaker 1: out in a minute, of course. And then we also
Speaker 1: did like a big tribute conversation thing with them the
Speaker 1: next day. Um, so that was really cool just to
Speaker 1: get you know, us with all love and them, which
Speaker 1: is like that doesn't really happen that often that they're
Speaker 1: in the same room together. So we're honored that they're
Speaker 1: taking part. Yeah, that's so cool. I would pay twenty
Speaker 1: books just for that. I do like knowing that I'm
Speaker 1: not among the top one hundred alumni. That's fine, hurt
Speaker 1: I did you were on the table for that, and
Speaker 1: it's for reels. Like I was like, we gotta figure
Speaker 1: out something for Chuck to do. And then we also
Speaker 1: looked at our lineup and we're like, oh boy, a
Speaker 1: lot of white men are saying, yes, you gotta keep
Speaker 1: this diverse. It's fine. I love the diversity. And uh,
Speaker 1: you know, Josh and I kind of as far as
Speaker 1: I mean, stuff you should know would be the biggest draw.
Speaker 1: Um And I don't know, man, we're not into I
Speaker 1: don't think we would translate well to a virtual thing
Speaker 1: like that. So I'm genuinely did not have my feelings,
Speaker 1: sir it I was just givving a hard time. Okay, cool,
Speaker 1: because I love you and seriously you were you were
Speaker 1: discussed so and there's like the room. There's also like
Speaker 1: a ticket that gives you to this virtual after party
Speaker 1: thing which is like through gather Town, which is pretty
Speaker 1: interesting software stuff. Are you kind of a build an
Speaker 1: eight bit version of Cano Fight which is a theater
Speaker 1: in San Francisco, And then everybody gets a litt avatar
Speaker 1: when you move in and when you when you move
Speaker 1: close to somebody, your video and audio move on so
Speaker 1: you can have a conversation sort of like on zoom.
Speaker 1: And then when you walk away, you fade away and
Speaker 1: there's stuff happening within the theater and stuff like that
Speaker 1: too and stuff. So I we should get you into
Speaker 1: that involved in that because some of the performances will
Speaker 1: be hanging out and stuff and it's man, that is amazing.
Speaker 1: You should have posted it that virtually at Adam Savage's warehouse.
Speaker 1: I know, God, that would be amazing if they could
Speaker 1: build that out the old Man Cave. Yeah, for those
Speaker 1: of you listening, Adam Savage of the Missbusters has myth
Speaker 1: Busters has a sort of this legendary warehouse man cave
Speaker 1: in San Francisco that is, I mean he has parties
Speaker 1: there and stuff around the time of Sketch Fest, and
Speaker 1: it's just sort of like a nerd paradise. Uh. You know,
Speaker 1: whether or not you want to see like a life
Speaker 1: size Bubba fette or a real perfect recreation of the
Speaker 1: Blade Runner gun or like a little R two D
Speaker 1: two whirling around the party, it's pretty insane. It's like
Speaker 1: the good kind of hoarding. Yeah, it's just wall to
Speaker 1: wall props from things that either he traded for or
Speaker 1: he built himself. Um, it's pretty amazing. And you know,
Speaker 1: we have photos of like I'm sitting in Captain Kirk's chair,
Speaker 1: I'm holding a Hall Boys gun Like it's unbelievable, pretty phenomenal,
Speaker 1: very cool. So one more time, When is it in?
Speaker 1: What time? And where can you get tickets? So it's Saturday,
Speaker 1: January thirty five o'clock PM Pacific, eight o'clock Eastern and
Speaker 1: whatever time wherever you are. Um, and you can get
Speaker 1: tickets at s F Sketch Fest dot com. It's gonna
Speaker 1: be really great. That's great. And is it one of
Speaker 1: those things where if you pay per ticket you can
Speaker 1: watch it a couple of days later or is it
Speaker 1: only live? Yeah, so it'll be live stream, but you
Speaker 1: have access if you buy a ticket to um watch
Speaker 1: a replay of it for like twenty four hours or
Speaker 1: forty eight hours afterwards, I believe. So you have a
Speaker 1: little bit. It's great. So yeah, yeah, no, that's that's
Speaker 1: a great way to do it, because in I've done
Speaker 1: a couple of little concerts like that where I could
Speaker 1: not necessarily be there right at the time, but then
Speaker 1: I watched it the next day. Right. Also, you know,
Speaker 1: three hours of one sitting of anything, it can be
Speaker 1: a little hard. So you know, I'm sure some people
Speaker 1: will break it up. But well I can't wait. Man,
Speaker 1: I'll be there, thanks in as an audience member. All right,
Speaker 1: So we're gonna move along to your latest movie, Crush,
Speaker 1: which is the Albert Brooks written, directed, and starring film
Speaker 1: from Defending Your Life. Great movie, classic movie. And until
Speaker 1: I watched it today, I didn't realize that I had
Speaker 1: never seen this movie. You've never seen it? No, man,
Speaker 1: I caught I thought I had. I caught bits of
Speaker 1: it on HBO here and there, And it's one of
Speaker 1: those movies like that I thought I had seen, but
Speaker 1: as I was watching it, because I knew all about it,
Speaker 1: was like, wait a minute, I don't think I've actually
Speaker 1: ever sat down and watched this. It's probably it's my
Speaker 1: favorite Brooks movie, and I love them all pretty much. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I don't know. There's just something about it that, like,
Speaker 1: his neuroses are still on display, but it's not necessarily
Speaker 1: the driving force of the entire picture like it is
Speaker 1: in his other things which I started like that. It
Speaker 1: was definitely the air and it you know, obviously deals
Speaker 1: a lot with fear and and things like that, but
Speaker 1: and like how you're still judged even after you die.
Speaker 1: But but it's you know, I don't know it's for me.
Speaker 1: It's just like it's his only real like romantic comedy.
Speaker 1: I guess you could say. Yeah, I mean it is
Speaker 1: a love story at heart. I mean we're gonna get
Speaker 1: into the sort of allegory of the whole thing with
Speaker 1: being judged and your acts on life and and fear.
Speaker 1: And one thing I thought was really interesting was the
Speaker 1: notion that the the goal in the afterlife is to
Speaker 1: to keep gaining knowledge. Uh, and to get smarter and
Speaker 1: smarter and to use more of your brain. And that's
Speaker 1: sort of kind of the only like they met. Two
Speaker 1: things really is your goal is to keep gaining knowledge,
Speaker 1: and then the one great thing is you can eat
Speaker 1: however much without gaining weight, which is just funny. I
Speaker 1: think that's sort of everyone's idea of like a perfect afterlife,
Speaker 1: right to be sort of like what we're all doing
Speaker 1: the pandemic now, but we don't have a pandemic twenty
Speaker 1: pounds after Uh. So it was you know, it's considered
Speaker 1: a cult classic, like so many of his films, and
Speaker 1: he's only made uh she's what like five or six yeah,
Speaker 1: something like that. Let's there's real life. There's lots of
Speaker 1: America mask in your life, looking for comedy in the
Speaker 1: Muslim world, mothers mother, Um, I think that's right. Yeah. So,
Speaker 1: I mean he's a filmmaker and this is over the
Speaker 1: course of I mean since I think his first movie
Speaker 1: is like the early eighties, so he's I think real
Speaker 1: life was like seventy nine or something. Yeah, So he's
Speaker 1: judicious with his time and he's not a filmmaker who
Speaker 1: wants to make movies every two or three years. He
Speaker 1: takes long gaps in between, and like most of his movies,
Speaker 1: they don't this one included. They don't perform terribly well
Speaker 1: at the box office. Uh, they're always reviewed kindly and
Speaker 1: they usually are cable TV and sort of DVD cult classics.
Speaker 1: This one only made like. I looked up the box
Speaker 1: office on it because I'm always curious like it. In
Speaker 1: its entire theatrical run, I made sixteen million dollars, which
Speaker 1: was still not that much funny. Um, and when it opened, um,
Speaker 1: it was kind of unlimited release at first, so the
Speaker 1: weekend it opened it was against Okay, this is just
Speaker 1: even an idea of what was happening in the world
Speaker 1: of cinema the week it was released. Here's your top
Speaker 1: ten movies. Uh, the live action Teenage Mutant, Ninja Turtles Okay,
Speaker 1: I didn't see it. Um, I kind of love it.
Speaker 1: But Silence of the Lambs, Oh Boy, Dances with Wolves.
Speaker 1: Number four was New Jack City Okay. Five class Action,
Speaker 1: which is that Gene Hackman, Mary Elizabeth Mastro Antonio six
Speaker 1: Sleeping with the Enemy. Seven in its nineteenth week of release,
Speaker 1: Home Alone, that thing was nuts. Uh. Number eight The
Speaker 1: Doors number nine, The Perfect Upon that Jeff Speakman action movie.
Speaker 1: I had no idea what that is. It was like
Speaker 1: he was a guy that put out like one or
Speaker 1: two action movies, like they're trying to bring him the
Speaker 1: next new thing. And ten was Guilty by Suspicion, which
Speaker 1: I think was a Denero thing. I'm not Yeah, I
Speaker 1: think that was about the McCarthy era. I think it's
Speaker 1: a Hollywood screenwriter in the Blacklist eraff and that that
Speaker 1: sounds right. So the most I ever did was in
Speaker 1: its like third weekend. It was like I kind of
Speaker 1: went wider and it was like it was number six
Speaker 1: and it made like four million that weekend or something.
Speaker 1: So I'm looking up the Perfect Weapon now. And I
Speaker 1: definitely do not know this movie, but I sort of
Speaker 1: recognized that guy. Was he trying to be um obviously
Speaker 1: trying to be like a Steven Seagal type. Yeah, that's
Speaker 1: Kevin Pollock was a whole bit about it on his
Speaker 1: UM one of his old comedy specials where he's like
Speaker 1: sal and Jeff Speakman. So I got two quick little
Speaker 1: asides to tell you. Um. One is when I lived
Speaker 1: in l A, my friend John was a uh dated
Speaker 1: the personal assistant to meet Loaf's wife. We all did
Speaker 1: Hollywood story. Yeah, you know how that stuff happens in
Speaker 1: LA that's like these weird things. So I ended up
Speaker 1: hanging out at Meats House, which is what you called
Speaker 1: them by the way, um two or three times. He
Speaker 1: was never there, but um Steven Segal lived in the
Speaker 1: house behind him, and there were, you know, these big
Speaker 1: fences and stuff. But if you kind of walk up
Speaker 1: the stairs to Meats House, you can see over the fence.
Speaker 1: And he had all these little um Asian gazebos. They
Speaker 1: all look like sort of Indian miniature Indian temples sort
Speaker 1: of all over his backyard of his property, which I
Speaker 1: thought was very interesting. It's so weird for somebody that's
Speaker 1: like his whole persona is just like he's peaceful, he's serene,
Speaker 1: he's spiritual, but he's a total prick from what I understand. So, like,
Speaker 1: I don't think he's a nice guy. Right, So where
Speaker 1: did where does all that? How does that fit in there?
Speaker 1: I don't know. On SNL, like he was really upset
Speaker 1: about the Hans and Franz sketch about him. He's just
Speaker 1: like kick these guys, ask Like he was mad that
Speaker 1: they're dunking on him, when that's the whole ideas. It's
Speaker 1: just like he's he's humorless and not a nice guy
Speaker 1: from what I understand. Yeah, humorless is one of my
Speaker 1: least favorite character qualities in a celebrity. And he's here today.
Speaker 1: Let's Oh my god, you're great. I love you. Uh
Speaker 1: and the other quick story. And I think I've told
Speaker 1: this before on the one of my favorite murder ladies
Speaker 1: joined me for Silence of the Lambs. But I saw
Speaker 1: that movie as a double bill at my student center.
Speaker 1: How they would in college, they would show a movie
Speaker 1: and then say, hey, if you want to stick around
Speaker 1: and watch this other new movie, you can. So I
Speaker 1: went to see Dances with Wolves and they said, if
Speaker 1: you want to stick around and watch this new movie
Speaker 1: with Anthony Hopkins and Jodie Foster called Silence and the Lambs,
Speaker 1: then you can do so. And I was like, all right.
Speaker 1: And I thought it was like a because I heard
Speaker 1: Jodie Foster and Pinny Hopkins and Signlence of the Lands.
Speaker 1: I thought it was going to fully be like a
Speaker 1: merchant ivory thing, right, nothing about it, And like cut
Speaker 1: to fifteen minutes later when I'm just like you know,
Speaker 1: terrified sitting in my seat. Uh, and it definitely overperformed
Speaker 1: Dances with Wolves at Night. I left, and I was like,
Speaker 1: oh man, I have like a new favorite sort of
Speaker 1: thriller movie that is kind of magical those days in
Speaker 1: college when they like host screenings on campus because they
Speaker 1: have to because they have that budget and stuff, and
Speaker 1: like I remember seeing like Strange Days that way, and
Speaker 1: then Trapped in Paradise, that Nicholas Cage Dana Carvey Lovetts
Speaker 1: movie where they're like bank robbers sort to get out
Speaker 1: of some all time and uh Shawshank Redemption and Frank
Speaker 1: Darramant was there. This is like three months for it
Speaker 1: actually opened because his niece went to s S State
Speaker 1: San Francisco State where I was. So I have like
Speaker 1: a signed promotional Shaw shankate by ten that he signed
Speaker 1: for me backstage at that thing. But yeah, that's like
Speaker 1: I got to see that for free before it opened.
Speaker 1: And of course that movie is magical. So you strike
Speaker 1: me as the kind of person who might have worked
Speaker 1: at the student at theater. Did I worked at Video
Speaker 1: Stars any video starts for like a decade, but yeah,
Speaker 1: yeah I did do. Uh So yeah, Cult Classic Defending
Speaker 1: Your Life. Um. If you don't know about the movie,
Speaker 1: a go and watch it at streaming on HBO Max
Speaker 1: if you have that. But it is a movie about
Speaker 1: Albert Brooks. He plays a um AD executive who five
Speaker 1: minutes into the film dies. He gets hit by a
Speaker 1: bus in his brand new BMW and UM and goes
Speaker 1: to his immediate afterlife, which is uh, what's it called
Speaker 1: the Judgment City? Where the idea is that you have
Speaker 1: to defend your life in a sort of UM court
Speaker 1: where they pick out days of your life, examine those
Speaker 1: and then decide whether or not you should be allowed
Speaker 1: to go on uh and gain more and more knowledge,
Speaker 1: or the hell which is to be sent back to Earth,
Speaker 1: which I thought was pretty interesting. How did you love
Speaker 1: that line when he's talking to his layer ripped arm
Speaker 1: where he's like, is this heaven? No? Doesn't happen? Is
Speaker 1: this hell? No? There is no hell? Though here Los
Speaker 1: Angeles is getting pretty close? Yeah, uh yeah, you know,
Speaker 1: the Great Ripped Horn. I think it's interesting. Aside from
Speaker 1: a cameo by Shirley McLain and uh kind of a
Speaker 1: cameo by Buck Henry, the really only few recognizable characters
Speaker 1: are Albert Brooks, Meryl Streep and Ripped Horn. I guess
Speaker 1: if you sort of know your movies, he would recognize
Speaker 1: Lee Grant as the prosecutor. But otherwise it's just sort
Speaker 1: of peppered with these sort of no names and great
Speaker 1: little supporting roles too. He's Albert does a good job
Speaker 1: of like writing bits for people to do. I mean
Speaker 1: that has comes back from like his days of you know, work,
Speaker 1: stand up in the clubs, and his dad and all
Speaker 1: that stuff like that too. So I feel like they're
Speaker 1: they're biddy things in these movies, but they are great,
Speaker 1: you know, because everybody a little something to do that's
Speaker 1: really fun and aren't necessarily plot devices, but more so
Speaker 1: just something kind of interesting to move the plot along
Speaker 1: but be fun. Yeah. Mean, Albert Brooks always struck me
Speaker 1: as a sort of a Woody Allen adjacent filmmaker, and
Speaker 1: that is, like I said, his movies don't make a
Speaker 1: ton of money, kind of like Woody Allen's movies. But
Speaker 1: I think Albert Brooks could always get a movie made. Um.
Speaker 1: I'm sure he would laugh if I said, you know,
Speaker 1: with Little Trouble. Um, you know, behind the scenes, there's
Speaker 1: probably a lot of trouble trying to get films finance.
Speaker 1: But it seems like he's just one of those filmmakers
Speaker 1: with the credibility in the cache where when he's ready
Speaker 1: to jump back in, someone will say, sure, we'll make
Speaker 1: the next Probably he has his fan base that love
Speaker 1: him and his movies are so funny and that he
Speaker 1: does such a good job in this and every movie
Speaker 1: does kind of poking fun at the industry in Los
Speaker 1: Angeles and stuff too. So anybody that has any experience
Speaker 1: in the industry or like interest in it, um will
Speaker 1: love it. Little side jokes and things here and there,
Speaker 1: Like I remember, I think it was a muse where um,
Speaker 1: he's taking a meeting with Steven Spielberg's cousin or whatever.
Speaker 1: But he's on the lot or whatever, and he's talking
Speaker 1: to this kind of power agent guy and um, and
Speaker 1: he's got like a office just kind of full of
Speaker 1: little props and things like that, and he's like, oh,
Speaker 1: you love saving Private Ryan and he's like, yeah, I do.
Speaker 1: That's the couch from the movie, which just kills me.
Speaker 1: It's like so funny that what couch would like is
Speaker 1: there a couch in that movie? And he just bragging
Speaker 1: about the fact that he's sitting on the couch and
Speaker 1: saving private Ryan, Like it's that's pretty funny. Like in
Speaker 1: the background of the scene with the mom where they
Speaker 1: tell her that her sons have died or something, it's
Speaker 1: like the only couch in that movie. Uh. And you know,
Speaker 1: even before he dies, in that first five minutes, there's
Speaker 1: so many funny little lines. When he's going to buy
Speaker 1: the BMW and Uh. He's just so great at that
Speaker 1: sort of skewering satire, whether it's a car salesman or
Speaker 1: someone in the industry. And the car salesman's case keeps
Speaker 1: telling him how much weight he's lost, and he goes,
Speaker 1: I saw you three days ago. He's like, what is
Speaker 1: this weight loss? And he went, oh, I wrote you
Speaker 1: a check for thirty nine thousand dollars. That's what it is. Yeah.
Speaker 1: Doing that first five minutes, it's great too with the
Speaker 1: whole like what is what these jeeps? What's the fascination
Speaker 1: with these things? Are floods coming? Yeah? What do you
Speaker 1: know that I don't know? Uh? And even the car
Speaker 1: wreck is pretty funny, like he gets this a compact
Speaker 1: displayer in his car that he didn't ask for. He's
Speaker 1: got those long boxes. It's really dates in and he's
Speaker 1: listening to Barber streisand uh, is that yentle? What is that? Well,
Speaker 1: the song Something's Coming, but exactly what was from it
Speaker 1: might be, but yeah, I mean it's the irony of
Speaker 1: that whole thing too. Something's coming. I don't know what
Speaker 1: it is, and that's a bus because you're serving into
Speaker 1: the other lane. Yeah. For like a really kind of
Speaker 1: hysterically long period of time. He he's goes down into
Speaker 1: the floorboard of the passenger seat trying to pick up
Speaker 1: the CDs that have slid off for like seven eight seconds,
Speaker 1: that great shot of the car fully going on into
Speaker 1: the other lane, and then you know it's a bus.
Speaker 1: It's all over your six minutes into the movie and
Speaker 1: just launching into the premise that quickly. I loved. It
Speaker 1: didn't need to be one of those things where the
Speaker 1: whole first act you kind of get to know this person,
Speaker 1: and I think that's kind of the point is you
Speaker 1: shouldn't know that much about what kind of person he
Speaker 1: was going into this Judgment City, right, Yeah, I make
Speaker 1: us right to it, which I definitely appreciate, um because
Speaker 1: a lot of movies, like you said, like takes, so
Speaker 1: like take the first act or take the first three
Speaker 1: minutes or whatever, you get into the meat of it,
Speaker 1: and it's sort of like okay, but like the meat
Speaker 1: is what we're here for, so there's gotta be ways
Speaker 1: to get right into the action, as they say, um,
Speaker 1: which this movie is a good job with. Yeah, and
Speaker 1: you know this, it's a familiar concept. People have made
Speaker 1: movie like Heaven Can Wait and uh, or you know
Speaker 1: The Christmas the Christmas one where you see your life
Speaker 1: flash before your eyes. I'm blanking on everything today, it's
Speaker 1: a wonderful life, or sure The Family Man, uh and uh,
Speaker 1: well sure, I mean all these movies. It's a familiar conceit,
Speaker 1: but he he does something a little different with it.
Speaker 1: And it's kind of proof that you can use a
Speaker 1: familiar concept and still make a great movie if you
Speaker 1: have a little bit of a spin and there's just
Speaker 1: good writing in good performances totally, which is definitely does
Speaker 1: amazing on all fronts. I want him to make another movie.
Speaker 1: I know me too. He's I think it's like seventy
Speaker 1: three years old. Uh and I think him like good health,
Speaker 1: so he's could. But his last movie, I mean, I
Speaker 1: didn't see it the Muslim world. It's it's okay, it's
Speaker 1: not bad. It's it's not it doesn't deserve the skewering
Speaker 1: it gets, but it's not good like it's you know,
Speaker 1: it's definitely one of those like two and a half
Speaker 1: star movies like it's is that his least good movie? Probably.
Speaker 1: It's definitely watchable, and there's some really funny things in it.
Speaker 1: It just doesn't quite work as a whole. Gotcha, but
Speaker 1: that was like fifteen years ago, wasn't it something like that? Yeah,
Speaker 1: he needs to get going. Um, I love the part.
Speaker 1: And you know, of course some of this because it's
Speaker 1: such a funny movie. It's just gonna be like the
Speaker 1: funniest lines and funny of scenes. But right with her
Speaker 1: on the tram, you know, one of the gags is
Speaker 1: he's he's the only person under the age of like
Speaker 1: seventy five, like everywhere he goes, almost and the lady
Speaker 1: on the trams, how many of you like to play golf?
Speaker 1: And everyone just sort of sits there and you don't
Speaker 1: know at the time that they're still adjusting to their
Speaker 1: afterlife body. I guess because no one raises their hand.
Speaker 1: She says, you won't be able to get your hands
Speaker 1: up just yet, but good. And just that whole conversation
Speaker 1: he has with the old lady on the tram a
Speaker 1: little bit later just kills me to like, you remind
Speaker 1: me of my little poodle, so young aids No, No,
Speaker 1: I was in a carrect. Okay, I'll tell you about
Speaker 1: my dog. You have a while. Yeah, And she feels
Speaker 1: his hair. It's a little curly afro. Uh. That is
Speaker 1: a funny bit though, that he's always surrounded by old
Speaker 1: people and that's why he and Meryl Streep, you know,
Speaker 1: get they sort of lock eyes at that. That comedy
Speaker 1: club comedic, that comedy of sequence to is like such
Speaker 1: homage to his dad. And like a lot of people
Speaker 1: realized that as his dad died on stage, like that's uh,
Speaker 1: you know Harry really literally um like Harry park or
Speaker 1: Parky artists was I think that's what he's called. He
Speaker 1: was a Friar's Club roast for Lucille Ball and he
Speaker 1: did his act, and right when he was done with
Speaker 1: his act, like somebody said like, oh, he should be
Speaker 1: on primetime, way isn't he? And he turned to Milton
Speaker 1: Burl only, yeah, why is that? And then he just
Speaker 1: collapsed in Milton Burle's lap, and they took his heart
Speaker 1: failure and they took him backstage and tried to revive
Speaker 1: him and all this stuff, but um, and they weren't
Speaker 1: short to do because the friar's roast. And so they're backstage.
Speaker 1: I think Milton Burle said, is there a doctor in
Speaker 1: the house? And people thought he was kidding what he
Speaker 1: wasn't And then they tried to revive him backstage and
Speaker 1: they you know, couldn't do it. And meanwhile they're like,
Speaker 1: what should we do? And they asked Tony Martin to
Speaker 1: sing a song, but he he chose unfortunately there's no tomorrow. Um,
Speaker 1: that's happening. And yeah, so like he really did die
Speaker 1: on stage. So like that whole sequence is like, it's
Speaker 1: really funny where this comic is just kind of hacky
Speaker 1: on stage doing his bit and he's like trying to
Speaker 1: do his crowd work and he's like you, how did
Speaker 1: you die? And Albert says on stage like you yeah, wow,
Speaker 1: that was a slide nod. Then and then when they
Speaker 1: go into the alley, him and Meryl Streep and they're
Speaker 1: walking together, he's like, I had to go back in
Speaker 1: that's my father. She's like, oh my god. Really He's like, no,
Speaker 1: how sad that would be for me, But really, like,
Speaker 1: that's what happened to his dad, and so it's like
Speaker 1: very much. You wouldn't know it, but I think he's
Speaker 1: worked little references into his movies about his father in
Speaker 1: the past and stuff like that too, just kind of
Speaker 1: deal with how that went down, because you think he's
Speaker 1: eleven when his dad died. She Sai's terrible. Yeah, I
Speaker 1: mean he came from a show of his family and
Speaker 1: grew up in Beverly Hills and his dad, I mean
Speaker 1: he wasn't like the biggest star in the world, but
Speaker 1: very much a working comedian and well respected comedian. I
Speaker 1: think his mom was in the business too, right, you know,
Speaker 1: I'm that I'm not sure if it's very possible. It
Speaker 1: feels like they're very Hollywood from the beginning. Yeah, and
Speaker 1: you grew up with Rob Reiner and there was one other,
Speaker 1: um god who was it, kind of famous comedian. You know,
Speaker 1: these Beverly Hills kids sons of legends. Right, It's a
Speaker 1: very interesting way to grow up. I guess what do
Speaker 1: you think the statement of this movie is. I mean,
Speaker 1: there's a lot going on here, sort of metaphysically speaking, Yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean there's a lot of things. I think one
Speaker 1: it has it's sort of the messages that like you
Speaker 1: only live once and face your fears, like do things
Speaker 1: and take you out of your comfort zone. Do things
Speaker 1: because only extraordinary things will happen if you do that. Um.
Speaker 1: I think that's kind of one of the underlying things
Speaker 1: and the kind of whole reason that everybody's having their
Speaker 1: lives looked at as if they haven't overcome those things,
Speaker 1: they send them back until they do. Um. And that's
Speaker 1: actually like a big kind of running joke between him
Speaker 1: and Meryl Streep is that like she lives a like
Speaker 1: perfect life and everything she's staying. He's basically staying at
Speaker 1: a kind of okay motel, sick kind of looking hotel,
Speaker 1: and she's basically the Four Seasons and she's like, where
Speaker 1: are you saying? He's like, the Continental, come over, we'll
Speaker 1: paint it. Yeah. He's so good with just those. I
Speaker 1: mean they're very quick jokes, you know, like sometimes just
Speaker 1: a couple of words that he just nails. It's it's
Speaker 1: a real talent to be able to write a funny
Speaker 1: joke like that totally. I mean, he's so good at
Speaker 1: little aside. It's a very quotable movie. I mean most
Speaker 1: of his movies are quotable to me, but this one especially,
Speaker 1: I think it's just so many good little asides and
Speaker 1: quips and stuff. So, yeah, Mother was always one of
Speaker 1: my favorites of his. It was I mean, it's just
Speaker 1: one of those movies where there're certain moms and and
Speaker 1: if you have one of them and you see that movie,
Speaker 1: it's just like there was a lot of my mom
Speaker 1: in uh in Debbie Reynolds in that movie. It was
Speaker 1: pretty funny. I love it. Go ahead, and I was
Speaker 1: just say, it's just like Debbie Reynolds and that whole thing,
Speaker 1: Like it's just kind of funny that. I mean. That's
Speaker 1: how Meryl Streep got on this movie was that they
Speaker 1: were doing Postcards in the from the Edge around the
Speaker 1: same time, which you know is Carrie Fisher and Honor
Speaker 1: and something like that and carry they were all friends.
Speaker 1: So Herr. Albert went to dinner with Carrie Fisher and
Speaker 1: Meryl Streep and talked to me about the new movie.
Speaker 1: And Meryl Streep was like, well, is there a role
Speaker 1: for me in that? And he's kind of laughed and
Speaker 1: then he's like, well, do you want to be in it?
Speaker 1: And she's like yeah, So like that's kind of how
Speaker 1: like it wasn't she was never targeted for that role.
Speaker 1: It was just one of those things where like she
Speaker 1: said she wanted to do it, so he's kind of
Speaker 1: rewrote it a little bit and tailed it to tailed
Speaker 1: or tailored it to her, which is very phenomenal. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I saw that that. He was very um obviously even
Speaker 1: you know, in her reputation was just so cemented as
Speaker 1: like one of the great leading actors of all time,
Speaker 1: and uh, he was. He would he said he never
Speaker 1: would have thought, like did even try and get somebody
Speaker 1: like Meryl Streep, But he said once he met her,
Speaker 1: he said she was just so funny and cool and
Speaker 1: like so not what he thought she would be. And
Speaker 1: he said that he had never really seen her the
Speaker 1: movie where she could just kind of beat herself in
Speaker 1: fun and uh and smiling and you know, uh and
Speaker 1: just sort of laid back, and so he wanted to
Speaker 1: give her a part like that. And it's my favorite
Speaker 1: Meryl Street performance, to be honest. I mean she's great
Speaker 1: and everything, Like she's argue with the greatest living actor
Speaker 1: right now. Like she's pretty phenomenal, but it's just something
Speaker 1: about like the charm and the easy going but she's
Speaker 1: totally in control of the performance and has great chemistry
Speaker 1: with Albert, which you know, I don't know on paper,
Speaker 1: i'd be like, oh, those two definitely a couple, But
Speaker 1: in my mind I thought about, like, it actually would
Speaker 1: have been kind of cool if her part was Holly
Speaker 1: Hunter to kind of sort of rekindle the broadcast news angle. Yeah, yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: that would have been cool. Yeah, but definitely, I think
Speaker 1: Meryl is so good in this and yeah, I love it. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean just physically the way she carries herself in
Speaker 1: this movie. I mean it's not a flashy performance at all.
Speaker 1: But um, you know, Albert Brooks does one face kind
Speaker 1: of uh in the best way possible, which is just uneasiness. Basically,
Speaker 1: he just has a face that always reads like he's
Speaker 1: a little worried about something, and he's he plays a
Speaker 1: sort of a stiffness an anxiety in this movie. But
Speaker 1: it's not overdone at all. He's not, like you were
Speaker 1: saying earlier, not supermanic about you know, everything that's going on.
Speaker 1: It's not like to the Woody Allen levels, but it's
Speaker 1: just enough to play against her complete comfort in her
Speaker 1: body and in her life, and even the way she
Speaker 1: pulls her feet up on the couch when she sits,
Speaker 1: or in the scene in the scene where she is
Speaker 1: he pops in on her trial where she's defending her
Speaker 1: life and she's sitting in that chair with her kind
Speaker 1: of legs pulled up and just smiling, and it really
Speaker 1: is sort of a stark difference, very subtle, but very stark,
Speaker 1: especially when, like, you know, his trial is very contentious
Speaker 1: with like you know, Bob Diamond and well that's the
Speaker 1: lawyer five ever of torn and Lee Grant are just
Speaker 1: really going head to head and there's a lot of
Speaker 1: like he just feels he has a hard time defending
Speaker 1: everything that they show and the footage is very damning.
Speaker 1: And then you know the moment that he's in Meryl
Speaker 1: Stream staying as they show her like rescuing people from
Speaker 1: a fire or whatever, and then then judged cat out
Speaker 1: of the fire, right, and then the judge is like,
Speaker 1: I just wanted to watch that again, but it's already
Speaker 1: a preconceived notion that she's moving on. Everybody loves her.
Speaker 1: She calls her lawyer Sam like it's yeah, yeah. And
Speaker 1: at the end of that scene, it's great too because
Speaker 1: the two judges, um, one of them says like, well,
Speaker 1: let's meet back tomorrow mainly just to uh, mainly just
Speaker 1: to enjoy it again, like like they know she's going on,
Speaker 1: there's really no need for any more days, but they
Speaker 1: really just like being around her totally. It's really great.
Speaker 1: I love the fact that kids don't have to defend themselves.
Speaker 1: It's sort of a small touch, but a very sweet one.
Speaker 1: And then he's you know, ripped torns, his kids don't
Speaker 1: have to defend themselves, and then albre Bronks immediately goes,
Speaker 1: what about teenage two? Roundbunctious trying it um um. He's
Speaker 1: so good in this movie, Like this is my favorite
Speaker 1: ripped torn thing too. Um so good And it's actually
Speaker 1: kind of funny Tay read that, like so you know,
Speaker 1: as you know, Albert's a little obsessed with Easy Rider,
Speaker 1: which is like kind of the whole thing with in
Speaker 1: um Lost in America, which the whole thing like let's
Speaker 1: just pick up and live on, you know, live free.
Speaker 1: So for the role Bob Diamond, he wanted um Dennis
Speaker 1: Hopper at first, who turned it down to the scheduling,
Speaker 1: and then he was offered to Jack Nicholson and Nicholson
Speaker 1: passed on it, and then he thought about Easy Rider,
Speaker 1: which originally Ripped Torn was on in the Nickelson role,
Speaker 1: but he got fired from it because he pulled a
Speaker 1: knife on Dennis Hopper, so so that he just thought
Speaker 1: about that, like, oh, there's there's my next easy writer connection,
Speaker 1: and then then he hired Ripped Torn from this. You know, Yeah,
Speaker 1: I did see the Ripped Torn was. He said something
Speaker 1: about him not working a lot that much preceding this movie,
Speaker 1: I think, and I really didn't get it, and the
Speaker 1: knife kind of explains that he was sort of problematic
Speaker 1: in some ways, But was that this deal was he
Speaker 1: just kind of hard to work with. I think he's
Speaker 1: kind of hard to work with and just really I
Speaker 1: think he was kind of paranoid and a bit of
Speaker 1: a drunk from what I understand, So he had definitely
Speaker 1: had substance to use problems and things. Um, but yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean, you wouldn't know it from this thing, like
Speaker 1: he's he's playing such a charming blow hard. Yeah, it
Speaker 1: kind of against type. If you're you know if you
Speaker 1: know ripped torn from Larry Sanders. Uh, and just that
Speaker 1: face of his, Like he's got one of the great
Speaker 1: scowls in movie history. And I think we're used to
Speaker 1: him playing the heavy and kind of the asshole, so
Speaker 1: it was nice to see that flipped here. Yeah, totally.
Speaker 1: It's Yeah, he's so good. Uh. And Lee Grant, who
Speaker 1: played the prosecutor, she had been in a lot of stuff,
Speaker 1: but I didn't know the she was a filmmaker. To
Speaker 1: she she was blacklisted for twelve years and then came
Speaker 1: back and she directed a lot of TV a lot
Speaker 1: of TV movies, but also a lot of documentaries. Um
Speaker 1: that we're about causes very important to her, which is
Speaker 1: really cool. Yeah. And she's really good in this too,
Speaker 1: Like how tough she was you wouldn't sleep. Yeah, that's right.
Speaker 1: Also like sort of the non religious aspect, and I
Speaker 1: imagine that was something. You know, if you go to
Speaker 1: make a movie about the afterlife, you gotta decide that's
Speaker 1: one of the first things you have to decide is
Speaker 1: how how religious is this going to be? And this
Speaker 1: wasn't at all. I mean the whole the whole basic
Speaker 1: concept of how they did it is it just kind
Speaker 1: of looks like kind of a suburb like you know,
Speaker 1: holiday ends kind of place that kind of drab um
Speaker 1: and made to be that way so it would be
Speaker 1: something that people would feel comfortable in because it's basic
Speaker 1: plane earth stuff, um, which is you know, it goes
Speaker 1: whole idea of like you know, if you got, you know,
Speaker 1: kidnapped by aliens, they would probably put you in something
Speaker 1: like that because they you wouldn't be as alarmed as
Speaker 1: then if he's got different like places to look so
Speaker 1: to speak. Yeah, um, so, yeah, it's made that way
Speaker 1: to keep them comfortable, and it's just so drab and
Speaker 1: pouring everywhere they go. Yeah, and he has I mean,
Speaker 1: he always gets in a couple of little um shots
Speaker 1: here and there, a commentary about just the world and
Speaker 1: in this case about Earth in the United States. When
Speaker 1: he says kind of early in the movie, they take
Speaker 1: suggestions in the suggestion box about how it could be
Speaker 1: more comfortable and more earthlike, and he said, you should
Speaker 1: put in some of those mini malls. And the lady's
Speaker 1: response was something about, uh, she likes to do her
Speaker 1: own nails and and doesn't need a tax accounting or
Speaker 1: something like that. She doesn't like frozen yogurt or yeah,
Speaker 1: likes to do her own nails. Um, I guess let's
Speaker 1: talk about the you know, everyone is has a certain
Speaker 1: amount of day days that are plucked from their life
Speaker 1: that they have to be judged against. One of the
Speaker 1: running jokes is he has nine days, and he's constantly
Speaker 1: he's constantly trying to figure out if that's a lot
Speaker 1: of days or not, because you know, rip Torn is
Speaker 1: always very stingy with the information, and he's like, some
Speaker 1: people have more, some people have less, you have nine.
Speaker 1: But most people's reaction is like, whoa nine days? It
Speaker 1: seems like a lot everybody who like lives or works there,
Speaker 1: so to speak, in the area. And it's really funny too,
Speaker 1: because it just always gets like a little reaction. Like
Speaker 1: there's a whole scene in the sushi restaurant where um,
Speaker 1: you know, they do the sushi thing where they call
Speaker 1: the orders out and everybody repeats it and says in yeah,
Speaker 1: that too, but he did sushi chef asked, you know
Speaker 1: how many days you're looking at and he says nine days,
Speaker 1: and he goes, oh my god, nine days, and then
Speaker 1: everyone starts repeating nine days, And especially like with probably
Speaker 1: My favorite side character in this movie is Eduardo. The
Speaker 1: Italian Waiter's great. He's so funny and when they ask him,
Speaker 1: you know how many days we're looking at nine? It
Speaker 1: makes so good. Yeah, I mean there's some you know,
Speaker 1: these are all very much ethnic stereotypes, but they are
Speaker 1: pretty funny. Um. And the Italian restaurant scene is great
Speaker 1: because again, like what could be the best thing in
Speaker 1: the world is to eat everything in the world, to
Speaker 1: have three pounds of pasta or thirty shrimp and I'm
Speaker 1: gonna bring you nine pies each day? What nine pie?
Speaker 1: And just the whole idea too that in that scene,
Speaker 1: like he's embarrassed in front of Julia of like having
Speaker 1: all this food come to him when like, you don't
Speaker 1: need to be. She's loving this, like it's the whole thing.
Speaker 1: But he's still paranoid and he's still like is afraid
Speaker 1: of what she'll think of him, which is kind of
Speaker 1: the whole thing in the movie is like he's very
Speaker 1: concerned with what people will think of him, like yeah,
Speaker 1: the fear, Yeah, how does he live up to this thing?
Speaker 1: Or what were other people doing? How can I live
Speaker 1: up to that? Which is shown a lot and stuff
Speaker 1: he does in the past two and like that's one
Speaker 1: of the moments where it's really display as like, you know,
Speaker 1: she's slurping noodles out of her mouth and he's just
Speaker 1: kind of like, ever gonna end, Bite it off, Bite
Speaker 1: it off, bite it all off, bite down, bite down.
Speaker 1: And I love Edwardo's line to or her. He's like,
Speaker 1: I'm gonna bring you thirty shrimp and he's like they're
Speaker 1: so fresh to they're crawling it up under your plate,
Speaker 1: aren't shrimp? Aren't they hiring cholesterol? I don't know what
Speaker 1: you're talking about, but they had and everything. You believe me,
Speaker 1: don't worry about it. Yeah, And you know, they use
Speaker 1: that against him, the fact that he's still carrying around
Speaker 1: that fear of what people think, um or just fear
Speaker 1: of taking that leap, uh, and they use it against
Speaker 1: him on that final day when he when he doesn't
Speaker 1: he chooses not to sleep with Meryl Streep kind of
Speaker 1: for all the good reasons, uh, it seems like, and
Speaker 1: they use that against him, saying like he's still afraid
Speaker 1: to take that leap, right, which is like totally It's
Speaker 1: that's a tough moment because like, really he is trying
Speaker 1: to be like gentlemanly and not rush it and try
Speaker 1: to you know, ruin it all those things. But yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean it's and then has a nice little you
Speaker 1: know ending to like the way they do finally resolve
Speaker 1: all that stuff is pretty pretty nice, pretty good for
Speaker 1: a Brooks movie, because they often just kind of I
Speaker 1: don't want to say peter out, but they just kind
Speaker 1: of end a lot of the times that they feel
Speaker 1: that this one's wrapped up in a little bow pretty nicely. Yeah.
Speaker 1: I mean it's a very satisfying ending. Uh. And you're right,
Speaker 1: he doesn't because that's sort of a I think he
Speaker 1: never wants to do sort of the cheap, sort of
Speaker 1: feel good movie ending, but he allowed it in this
Speaker 1: case because they had such good chemistry. You really do
Speaker 1: want them to be together and to for him not
Speaker 1: to get sent back to Earth. Uh. But you know,
Speaker 1: as far as let's get back to those nine days,
Speaker 1: he they're pulling up these scenes from his childhood, and
Speaker 1: I love that they're not too overdone, like he could
Speaker 1: have made them really uh super super awful or indefensible,
Speaker 1: but they're all sort of normal things that kids go through. Uh.
Speaker 1: And that that one brutal scene where that he's a
Speaker 1: baby in the or like a toddler in the crib
Speaker 1: and his parents are fighting. Is just bawling. Is like that,
Speaker 1: especially now as an adult and apparent really kind of
Speaker 1: hard to see. Oh totally. I mean it's it. It
Speaker 1: borders on melodrama, but it also hits all the right
Speaker 1: notes at the same time too. Of like them this
Speaker 1: totally heated argument and them just he's about to strike
Speaker 1: his wife or so it seems like, as dad, and
Speaker 1: then they see the kid out of the corner of
Speaker 1: their eye who's just kind of crying, and the pen
Speaker 1: looking at them, and they just kind of realized in
Speaker 1: that moment, like what the hell are we doing? And
Speaker 1: Grace like it's yeah, it's tough and ripped, torn always
Speaker 1: has his back, which is great. Yeah, he's always like listen,
Speaker 1: this guy's is trying to do the right thing. And
Speaker 1: then Lee Grant as a prosecutor, will come in right
Speaker 1: behind him and say we have it. Then let's fast
Speaker 1: forward to later that day when he doesn't do the
Speaker 1: right thing and it's just it's so unfair, you know,
Speaker 1: it really is. I Mean, there's the whole thing where
Speaker 1: like his classmate forgot his paints and is um, you
Speaker 1: know one of those kids. It's like they're gonna suspend me,
Speaker 1: They're gonna kick me out. I can't. Oh my gosh,
Speaker 1: I don't have my paints. And so Daniel decides in
Speaker 1: that moment to be like, you know, I'll use mine
Speaker 1: and then tells his teacher like I lost him, I
Speaker 1: forgot him or whatever. And so it's like like a
Speaker 1: wonderful little act. And then of course Lee Grant throws
Speaker 1: it in his face later on when he's talking to
Speaker 1: his dad and his dad's like, I can't believe it.
Speaker 1: No TV. And then he's like, I didn't do it,
Speaker 1: Steve lost it. Yeah, you want to punish him. Punished,
Speaker 1: punish you punish him. So it's the whole like he
Speaker 1: made a nice act to try to help his friend,
Speaker 1: but then he's a kid, so obviously when he's threatened
Speaker 1: with you know things from his father, back pedals and
Speaker 1: throws his friend under the bus. So it's you know,
Speaker 1: double sighted. Yeah, great casting there too is for the
Speaker 1: kid and his dad totally. You know, they just basically
Speaker 1: said give me someone with a brown afro. Um. There's
Speaker 1: so much comedy. One of My favorite things in funny
Speaker 1: movies is when you can get multiple laughs out of
Speaker 1: the same um like sound effect or something um that's
Speaker 1: not like a line. And in his uh, in his
Speaker 1: trial scenes, I laughed every single time that chair turned
Speaker 1: around and it's on you know, he's sitting in this
Speaker 1: chair and it's on a on a an electric spindle
Speaker 1: that will turn him around and then watch the screen,
Speaker 1: and then after it's over, it turns him back around
Speaker 1: to face judges and just the sound effect they use
Speaker 1: every single time, and you're waiting for the reveal of
Speaker 1: his face even though you know exactly what his face
Speaker 1: is going to be, which is that Albert Brooks face
Speaker 1: of unease. But somehow it was just it was funny
Speaker 1: every single time. Yeah, and you gotta wait for it.
Speaker 1: Like it's not a fast swivel, it's just kind of time.
Speaker 1: And he slumped down his chair and he's just so
Speaker 1: like uncomfortable with having to look back at his life
Speaker 1: at all, much less defend it. There's that funny and
Speaker 1: you know it's a movie with allegory and some sort
Speaker 1: of heavier themes, but it is Albert Brooks, so you're
Speaker 1: also going to get some fun stuff. Like the Blooper
Speaker 1: real basically of of his kind of dumb things he
Speaker 1: did in this life, and that it's the only time
Speaker 1: this movie kind of veers into that kind of comedy.
Speaker 1: But that's a pretty fun sequence. I know, it's like
Speaker 1: there's no reason for them to show it, but they
Speaker 1: just do. Anyways. It's kind of embarrassing and I just
Speaker 1: love like the chainsaw on the parasol on the outside
Speaker 1: the world. So stupid, but so it was great. Yeah,
Speaker 1: he just you know, his car is uh, sort of
Speaker 1: rolling out of the gas station and instead of trying
Speaker 1: to jump in the door and stop it, he jumps
Speaker 1: on the hood of the car. It's all like very
Speaker 1: broad comedy. It's pretty fun stuff, really silly, but so good.
Speaker 1: So we talked a little bit about the chemistry between
Speaker 1: Meryl Streep and Albert Brooks. Uh. It's really very natural.
Speaker 1: It happens pretty quickly, and there's the idea that maybe
Speaker 1: they may have known each other in a past life
Speaker 1: and the past lives pavilion. She was a he's a
Speaker 1: dressmaker and dinner right, and she's like Prince Valiant. Yeah,
Speaker 1: like she did all these great things. Um, but they
Speaker 1: you know it culminates in what I think is really
Speaker 1: one of the better first kiss scenes in movies. It's
Speaker 1: really really great. Yeah, if they're so sweet together, it's like,
Speaker 1: that's the thing is. It feels very like an old
Speaker 1: fashioned courtship, but under extraordinary circumstances where and a very
Speaker 1: abbreviated timeline you're only there for a couple of days
Speaker 1: or whatever. So, um, they're just so sweet together. I
Speaker 1: love it so much. And the whole Past Lives Pavilion too,
Speaker 1: Like that whole sequence cracks me up. Like surely McClain
Speaker 1: is the one in introduces it, which you know, at
Speaker 1: that time she's very much known for like out on
Speaker 1: a limb and like all those like weird spiritual things.
Speaker 1: And just the fact that when she says welcome to
Speaker 1: the past a Pavilion, you hear off screen some woman go,
Speaker 1: oh my god, it's so good. Like just little moments
Speaker 1: like that. It just cracked me up. Yeah, And I
Speaker 1: saw where he was talking about using special effects. He
Speaker 1: had a big a little bit bigger budget for this
Speaker 1: movie than he normally had, and um was able to
Speaker 1: do some things that now, you know, look very sort
Speaker 1: of rudimentary, but back then it was it was a
Speaker 1: bit of cutting edge stuff showing those kind of hologram
Speaker 1: like people in the past lives, and he talks about
Speaker 1: the trams were all miniatures except for the ones that
Speaker 1: they were writing on obviously. Uh and they used you know,
Speaker 1: uh Matt paintings and stuff, which is not special well
Speaker 1: it is special effects, but not c G I. And
Speaker 1: those trams are the same ones that they use at
Speaker 1: Universal Studios, so that really I wondered where they got those.
Speaker 1: I thought it was kind of cool too, how they
Speaker 1: all had to wear these were the same outfit um,
Speaker 1: which is this sort of just white smock basically. Yeah,
Speaker 1: they call him what tupas or two guys tupas. Yeah,
Speaker 1: that's not how comfortable they are. Yeah, there's it's just
Speaker 1: like the lounge where that they're basically all walking around
Speaker 1: and and when he tried to tip the guy early on,
Speaker 1: that shows a mystery. Right before he can really like speak, right,
Speaker 1: you can't really move, He's reaching for his pockets that
Speaker 1: aren't there and stuff. Just yeah, it's so good. I
Speaker 1: read a Rolling Stone um twenty five years after article,
Speaker 1: which was in where Albert Brooks basically wrote a piece
Speaker 1: for Rolling Stone and it's cool. It's like he really
Speaker 1: you can tell he cares a lot about this movie
Speaker 1: and that he loves that it is. Um had a
Speaker 1: second life sort of as a cult classic. He talked
Speaker 1: about this one kid whose parents his parents wrote him
Speaker 1: and said that he was like a twelve year old
Speaker 1: who'd memorize the movie. And he said, you know, I
Speaker 1: know not obviously people aren't out there memorizing it. And
Speaker 1: he said, but he said, it's interesting that it played
Speaker 1: really well too young younger people, and that that's something
Speaker 1: you never thought would happen. It wasn't a movie made
Speaker 1: for young people, but in the when they did the
Speaker 1: test screenings, it performed best in people eighteen, which was
Speaker 1: kind of surprising. I think, I mean I was I think,
Speaker 1: wasn't any one. So I was like fifteen or sixteen
Speaker 1: at the time when I came out and then I did, Yeah,
Speaker 1: I saw it right away. But that also helped that,
Speaker 1: Like my dad was a big out Brooks fans, so
Speaker 1: and that was like it was PG Brooks so of
Speaker 1: chrsty All went and saw that. But yeah, I loved
Speaker 1: it then and it resonated with me then. But like
Speaker 1: also like I just I love like clever dialogue and
Speaker 1: quips and stuff like that too, and this movie is
Speaker 1: just full of it. So it's one of those things
Speaker 1: that I just gravitated towards it naturally. But I'm not
Speaker 1: surprised it resonates with people because I feel like a
Speaker 1: lot it's very family friendly and it is um it's
Speaker 1: even I think it's PG. Thirteen, but there's not really
Speaker 1: anything I don't see why that in it. But um,
Speaker 1: you know, it's the kind of thing you would watch,
Speaker 1: you know, you show to your kids and they would
Speaker 1: probably find the concept kind of funny or whatever if
Speaker 1: they're old enough. I think you have to be at
Speaker 1: least you know, seven, eight, nine years old. But I
Speaker 1: think it's one of one of those things that would
Speaker 1: resonate with kids. It's it's very funny and very charming. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and also a movie I think that a kid could
Speaker 1: watch and get one take from it and then an
Speaker 1: adult you know, or if you watch it years later,
Speaker 1: like you you know, it's one of those movies that
Speaker 1: kind of can change what you get out of it
Speaker 1: as you get older. Totally. It's got a great score too,
Speaker 1: Like I think that's one of the ones that's really
Speaker 1: talk about but the music is pretty phenomenal. Um. Michael Gordon,
Speaker 1: the music who like he did scores for like Pretty
Speaker 1: and Pink and Fame in terms of endearment and stuff,
Speaker 1: a lot of anis he's still doing music producing stuff today. Um.
Speaker 1: But I really really enjoyed the score on the field
Speaker 1: of it too. Yeah. It's sort of a good, old
Speaker 1: fashioned eighties nineties movie score. It's not too flashy or anything,
Speaker 1: but I like movies that have scores. Um, I think
Speaker 1: it's a bit of a lost art other than big,
Speaker 1: big sort of epics. Obviously you think about the score.
Speaker 1: But um, that's one thing I always loved about Alexander
Speaker 1: Payne movies is he has very little popular music or songs,
Speaker 1: and he's a sort of a modern filmmaker who uses
Speaker 1: these kind of old fashioned feeling scores. And I don't
Speaker 1: know this, there's something about it from our childhood. I
Speaker 1: guess it just it feels like a movie. Yeah. I
Speaker 1: like that. I mean I think it's a nice, like
Speaker 1: good theme that kind of recurs throughout and then obviously
Speaker 1: incidental music in between. Um. And I think a lot
Speaker 1: of that had to do with like John Williams and
Speaker 1: the eighties and all those iconic scores that he did
Speaker 1: and James Horner and people like that too. Yeah, you know,
Speaker 1: it's just it definitely is I mean, obviously we're both
Speaker 1: like eighties movie people that grew up on that stuff,
Speaker 1: so it definitely does sort of take you back to
Speaker 1: the field that kind of feel on the movie instead
Speaker 1: of like a freaking like scrillic score like they had
Speaker 1: in The Mandalorian one week. Um. But yeah, it's so good. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I don't even know. I mean, I know who scrillics is,
Speaker 1: but I know just enough to laugh at that. You know.
Speaker 1: It's just, you know, dub stuff isn't necessarily the best
Speaker 1: choice for something, but I mean I don't mind it
Speaker 1: in certain scenarios. But um, so yeah, let's you know,
Speaker 1: let's hit the ending again, because I think, like I said,
Speaker 1: Brooks isn't known for doing these sort of saccharin endings. Um.
Speaker 1: But and I'm curious if there was ever a different
Speaker 1: ending written for this that's a little more cynical. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I wonder about that because it would kind of seem
Speaker 1: like they would if it was typical Brooks thing, they
Speaker 1: would just send him back down and just be you
Speaker 1: show him in a minimal or something right and uh,
Speaker 1: but it does get that happy ending you want, and
Speaker 1: it doesn't in a nice little kind of twist in
Speaker 1: a sense too, because basically, like she's leaving and he
Speaker 1: finally overcomes his fear to try to go be with her. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and um, he's you know, running and trying to get
Speaker 1: inside the tram. And if you guys don't know want
Speaker 1: this ends, then don't listen to this. But it's not
Speaker 1: a huge revelation. But he's trying to get inside this
Speaker 1: tram and like it won't open and there's kind of
Speaker 1: electricity on the ground. It's kind of shocking him as
Speaker 1: he goes trying to get into this thing, saying I
Speaker 1: love you, want to be with you. And he said,
Speaker 1: She's like, I want to be with you. Two and
Speaker 1: and then the camera pulls back and it's inside the
Speaker 1: courtroom and that the judges are watching him, and then
Speaker 1: they look at each other. They all kind of the
Speaker 1: grant stuff do They all just kind of nod, And
Speaker 1: then the one judge goes let him go, and then
Speaker 1: the tram doors open and he gets on the tram
Speaker 1: to go into the you know, the next step with her,
Speaker 1: which is it's just really nice. Yeah, it was super
Speaker 1: sweet and I thought that, like, I didn't see that
Speaker 1: part coming with the court. I thought it was sweet
Speaker 1: enough that he was going after the woman he loves
Speaker 1: and in the scene that we've all seen a million times,
Speaker 1: whether they're chasing a train or a bus or whatever,
Speaker 1: and in this case is the tram, which was kind
Speaker 1: of a funny little spin on it, right, But um,
Speaker 1: I thought that was sweet enough. And I didn't even
Speaker 1: know that he was going to get in for a
Speaker 1: second there. I thought that he was not, and he
Speaker 1: would just see her drive off, but it would have
Speaker 1: been enough that he showed that bravery. So when they
Speaker 1: pulled back to the court and showed it in real time,
Speaker 1: I was like, oh, I did not see that coming.
Speaker 1: Very cool. Yeah, it was a nice little twist and
Speaker 1: a good little bow from the movie, which you know,
Speaker 1: it doesn't always happen, like I said, And it's pretty well.
Speaker 1: I mean, it was pretty well acclaimed, but like not
Speaker 1: overwhelmingly so like Roddery, but really liked it a lot.
Speaker 1: Um but like Owen Glieberman said, quote a lackluster affair,
Speaker 1: so boo oh and Glieberman, um, and I actually read
Speaker 1: his review because I was curious. But he said that
Speaker 1: like he's a he was a big Albert Brooks fan,
Speaker 1: which is prized me that he would then say that
Speaker 1: this is a lackluster affair, because I feel like, I
Speaker 1: feel like this is typical Albert Brooks cannon just a
Speaker 1: little sweeter totally. It's right in the wheelhouse right exactly.
Speaker 1: So that surprised me so, but um, you know, it
Speaker 1: wasn't It wasn't really panned by anybody. The worst reviews
Speaker 1: are just like it's okay, it doesn't have enough bite
Speaker 1: or whatever, which is like, I don't understand that argument either,
Speaker 1: because I don't think that's the point of the movie. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I think if it would make if it were made today,
Speaker 1: it would be so much more overdone. From the sets,
Speaker 1: in the costumes, and what the afterlife it would look like,
Speaker 1: to to just what happens and in the in the
Speaker 1: days that they go back and look at for each
Speaker 1: of them, I think they would be way more overdone
Speaker 1: and sort of sensationalized. It's a subtle movie in a
Speaker 1: lot of ways. Yeah, And it's also one of those
Speaker 1: movies that's just very sweet and fun to watch, not
Speaker 1: a chore, not not a homework movie, is I call
Speaker 1: some movies that come out there just like but it's
Speaker 1: two and a half hours and oh boy, Um it's
Speaker 1: just a pleasant diversion, I guess you could say, And
Speaker 1: especially nowadays when things are so like all the time,
Speaker 1: it's just nice to have something, which is I think
Speaker 1: that's the reason I love ted Lassa so much, which
Speaker 1: I know you guys have talked about recently. But it's
Speaker 1: just like it's just his unwavering optimism and positivity. It
Speaker 1: is really good, feels really good in especially you know,
Speaker 1: going into this issue. So I when we watched the
Speaker 1: whole thing twice once with my parents, and um, I
Speaker 1: don't know, it's just like something about entertainment that's a
Speaker 1: little more not saccarin, but like just a little more
Speaker 1: positive and a little more sweet that you know, it's entertainment.
Speaker 1: It's to do you away from things, which is like
Speaker 1: I never understand the argument when people are like this
Speaker 1: isn't realistic because blah blah blah. I was like, yeah,
Speaker 1: it's a it's a fucking movie, like there's life around you,
Speaker 1: Like it's not it's not a documentary Like I get it.
Speaker 1: But yeah, I mean, you know, I love my uh
Speaker 1: my dark serial killer content and a good black comedy. Um,
Speaker 1: and there's a time for all that stuff. But like
Speaker 1: you said, especially this past year, like give me better things,
Speaker 1: give me catastrophe, give me ted Lasso, uh one, Mississippi
Speaker 1: Master of None. Like these movies that just have so
Speaker 1: or TV shows that have so much heart. Defending your life,
Speaker 1: you know, put me in that same zone. I just
Speaker 1: I'll take all that stuff right now. Yeah, me too,
Speaker 1: as much as like it on me. I mean, I
Speaker 1: love I loved Sound of Metal as well as you did.
Speaker 1: But like, like that's that movie is. It's a little tough,
Speaker 1: but like it's rewarding. It's super super rewarding. I didn't
Speaker 1: feel tough watching it, but like there's just a lot
Speaker 1: of stuff coming out of that vein that are just
Speaker 1: like I guess because it's like now it would be
Speaker 1: Oscar time so speaking. So there's just a lot of
Speaker 1: like really heavy dramas with like characters going on very
Speaker 1: harrowing journeys and tough situations. So it's just kind of
Speaker 1: nice to see sing sometimes that are just a little
Speaker 1: more sweet. I totally agree. Defending your life is that. Uh,
Speaker 1: I got nothing else do you have anything on your list? Um,
Speaker 1: I don't think so. And we didn't talk about how
Speaker 1: Meryl Streep died. Her little monologue about how she passed
Speaker 1: on because everybody else is you know, old, she's one
Speaker 1: of the youngest people there. But yeah, her. It's just
Speaker 1: just kind of funny that this person who's super altruistic
Speaker 1: and just you know, so on charge of everything died
Speaker 1: by like tripping next to her pool and hitting her
Speaker 1: head and then just rolling into the pool, I guess,
Speaker 1: and drowning. And she was angry. She's angry, Yeah, how
Speaker 1: did you die? Pissed? You mean you're pissed. And Albert
Speaker 1: of course equips it's like, well, what do the East
Speaker 1: German judge give you? You gotta negotiate the patio furniture.
Speaker 1: They take that very seriously. Yeah, I thought that wasn't
Speaker 1: interesting because she uh, I mean, that's sort of one
Speaker 1: of the little mysteries of the movie. You wonder what
Speaker 1: she did and how she died, And I thought it
Speaker 1: was an interesting turn to have her die angry because
Speaker 1: she's such a pleasant person in uh in the afterlife, right, Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's kind of funny that that's what, you know, It
Speaker 1: just goes to show you that, like, you can be
Speaker 1: as in control of your life as you think you are,
Speaker 1: but you never are. Like that's that's one of the
Speaker 1: things that they kind of saying this thing too, is
Speaker 1: like you gotta do the best you can. Like you're
Speaker 1: not in control. No one's in control. It doesn't matter
Speaker 1: how together you are, how good you are, Like, you
Speaker 1: are not in control life. Life happens around you. You
Speaker 1: don't control life. Yeah, absolutely, Uh well those are great
Speaker 1: parting words, my friend, Go watch Defending Your Life on HBO,
Speaker 1: max Um, go watch any Albert Brooks movie. Let's hope
Speaker 1: he makes another one soon. I want to hope. I
Speaker 1: don't know. I wonder if he's got something in the
Speaker 1: in the work, so it would be great, awesome. I
Speaker 1: would like to see him to do at least, especially
Speaker 1: if the Searching for Comedy The Muzzlemoor wasn't great, I'd
Speaker 1: like to see him go out on a better note
Speaker 1: than that. I mean, you should don't take a look
Speaker 1: at it. It's it's definitely watchable, and it's Albert, and
Speaker 1: it's got good, good Albert moments in it. But well,
Speaker 1: there's always gonna be great lines, all right, dude, Well,
Speaker 1: go to what's the website, s F Sketch Fest s
Speaker 1: F sketch Fest dot com. Yes, by your tickets. Yeah,
Speaker 1: they're all up there. Jan is the day. But it's
Speaker 1: gonna be it's gonna be pretty amazing. There's some really
Speaker 1: fun surprises and things cooked up because in addition to
Speaker 1: the hundred performers, there's like some surprise guests that pop
Speaker 1: on into things too, So there's gonna be there's gonna
Speaker 1: to be some fun surprises in there as well. That's awesome,
Speaker 1: all right, Thanks buddy, Yeah, thanks Chuck, and thanks everyone
Speaker 1: for listening. We'll see you next week. Movie Crash is
Speaker 1: produced and written by Charles Bryant and Meel Brown, edited
Speaker 1: and engineered by Seth Nicholas Johnson, and scored by Noel
Speaker 1: Brown here in our home studio at Pontsty Market, Atlanta, Georgia.
Speaker 1: For I Heart Radio. For more podcasts for my Heart Radio,
Speaker 1: visit the I Heart Radio app, Apple podcast, or wherever
Speaker 1: you listen to your favorite shows.