Speaker 1: Good day.
Speaker 2: This is Peter Hell.
Speaker 3: Are you welcome to You ain't seen nothing yet? In
Speaker 3: the Movie Podcast, where I chat to a movie lover
Speaker 3: about a classic or beloved movie they haven't quite got
Speaker 3: around to watching until now, and today's guest writer Trent Roberts.
Speaker 1: The first rule of fake Club is you do not
Speaker 1: talk about fake club now. It was your friend up.
Speaker 1: You broke my heart.
Speaker 4: I admire your luck, mister Bond.
Speaker 2: James boss.
Speaker 1: Me haven't any right now, don't see nothing here.
Speaker 3: I first met Trent Roberts about five years ago when
Speaker 3: I was looking for somebody to join the How to
Speaker 3: Stay Married Season two writing team. I had looked around
Speaker 3: and then sorted the advice of Wayne Hope and Robin Butler,
Speaker 3: whose work I've long admired.
Speaker 2: And when they said that I would be a massive.
Speaker 3: Fan of Trent, who had worked with them on Up
Speaker 3: Middle of Oogin, that was enough for me.
Speaker 2: I was hooked.
Speaker 3: So I had a conversation with Trent, and he was
Speaker 3: on the team, and I have not only not regretted it,
Speaker 3: but it's been a real joy to get to know Trent.
Speaker 3: He came onto the team and delivered in space. His
Speaker 3: writing was hilarious, heartfelt, and clever. In the writer's room,
Speaker 3: he was always such a lovely, calming and respectful presence.
Speaker 3: Sometimes he would be sitting there listening and then as
Speaker 3: soon as he spoke, he always he had answers to
Speaker 3: any of them the problems that we were discussing. His
Speaker 3: episodes were always heartfelt and clever, and as a result,
Speaker 3: many of these episodes resulted.
Speaker 2: In award nominations for his writing and for the show.
Speaker 3: Now, Trent has joined the kids lit community with his
Speaker 3: debut picture book, They're Very Funny at Dinosaur eight Dad's Hair,
Speaker 3: which has gone very well, but it's his latest book
Speaker 3: that's generating quite the buzz. It's for middle grade kids.
Speaker 3: It's called Stunt Kids, and it is. It's funny, it's sweet,
Speaker 3: it's action packed. If your kids loved Frankie Fish and
Speaker 3: I hope they did, still available in Lorgal bookstores, they
Speaker 3: will love Stunt Kids. It is fantastic and apart from
Speaker 3: being enormously talented, Trent is kind. He's fun, he's curious,
Speaker 3: he's hilarious, and I'm bloody stoked to be hanging with
Speaker 3: him today.
Speaker 1: Hey, I'm Trent Roberts. My three favorite films are Trainspotting,
Speaker 1: Shot EMII, and Spinal Tap.
Speaker 2: We cover is sexist?
Speaker 4: What's wrong with being sexy?
Speaker 1: And I hadn't seen Gremlins until last night.
Speaker 3: Yes, before we knew the rules of fight Club, there
Speaker 3: were the rules of the Bugwai. And if these rules
Speaker 3: won't follow your cute little kid and would turn into
Speaker 3: a bloody cane toad with a penshone for smoking, drinking,
Speaker 3: exposing themselves and generally running a muk billies. Zach Gallaghan's
Speaker 3: inventor father ran hot accident just into Chinatown with dual
Speaker 3: purposes the floggy, his latest invention, the bathroom Buddy, and
Speaker 3: to hopefully buy his son a Christmas gift, and he's
Speaker 3: taken to a hidden and mysterious op shop. What he
Speaker 3: walks out with is an exotic pet that, if not
Speaker 3: taken care of correctly, will cause havoc in the town
Speaker 3: of Kingston, falls from the pen of Christopher Columbus. Produced
Speaker 3: by the Great Steven Spielberg and directed by Joe Dante,
Speaker 3: Gremlins opened on the very same day as Ghostbusters.
Speaker 2: In nineteen eighty four.
Speaker 3: It became the fourth highest film of that year, behind
Speaker 3: Beverly Hills Cop Ghostbusters and Indiana Jones and the Temple
Speaker 3: of Doom. Gremlins is a film that doesn't take itself
Speaker 3: too seriously, embracing the horror tropes, the film is a
Speaker 3: pre cgi delight. Trent Roberts, do you think America should
Speaker 3: have tighter gun restrictions when it comes to Gremlins?
Speaker 1: Wow, we've hit it.
Speaker 2: You thought you're coming here comedy?
Speaker 5: I am.
Speaker 1: I was amazed at the gun use of the Gremlins,
Speaker 1: Like they have a bevy of weapons at their disposal.
Speaker 1: I don't obviously hadn't seen the move until last night,
Speaker 1: so I thought they might have just been a biting
Speaker 1: kind of yeah, but no, they've got bow and arrows
Speaker 1: and guns and like anything, like anything I could find
Speaker 1: became a weapon. I think tidy gun restrictions for them
Speaker 1: would be.
Speaker 2: Good, at least health checks. I mean rarely maybe think.
Speaker 3: Actually, we don't get too much into Gremlins just yet,
Speaker 3: but he made me think that in horror films guns
Speaker 3: aren't usually used, like because I guess it's too easy
Speaker 3: to have the villain's running around with the gun, you know.
Speaker 2: So to see the sea little villain with the gun
Speaker 2: was kind of weird.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I was constantly surprised, like this film is wild,
Speaker 1: like even by today's standards. I think I was blown
Speaker 1: away by what the Gremlins got up to there. They
Speaker 1: each had these kind of different characters that they took on.
Speaker 1: Their violence was extreme. They partied hard, like they really partied.
Speaker 2: They were a hard partying crew. There's no doubt about that.
Speaker 2: We'll get to Gremlins. Why you Why hadn't you seen it?
Speaker 2: Was this something that you kind of thought you had
Speaker 2: to see?
Speaker 1: I well, I had a very specific reason for not
Speaker 1: seeing it. I saw Ghostbusters and had terrible nightmares afterwards.
Speaker 1: And when I was writing to about this, I felt
Speaker 1: really bad about that. But I was only nine. No
Speaker 1: one else but no one else I spoke to ever
Speaker 1: had nightmares about Ghostbusters. It was always like, it's an
Speaker 1: awesome film, but the Sigourney Weaver stuff was pretty intense.
Speaker 1: But I had my nightmares about And then I guess
Speaker 1: this is what's the embarrassing bit, is that the fun
Speaker 1: ghost I can't remember his name, Oh yeah, forgot yes,
Speaker 1: but who wasn't kind of scary in the end. He
Speaker 1: was kind of one of the gang almost yeah, but
Speaker 1: I kept thinking he was behind my cupboard, and so
Speaker 1: when all my friends went to see Gremlins, I'm like,
Speaker 1: definitely not, Like I'm not ready and it was a
Speaker 1: source of shame until I realized it, like I was
Speaker 1: nine or ten. I think that's okay because when I
Speaker 1: came to watch Gremlins last night, my kids are thirteen
Speaker 1: and ten, and I decided that they weren't ready for it.
Speaker 1: And I think that was a good decision. Like, I
Speaker 1: don't think it's suitable. It's way way more intense than
Speaker 1: a lot of the because I think, you know, we
Speaker 1: sort of think that our kids are desensitized because of
Speaker 1: some of the things that they've seen. But this is,
Speaker 1: like I think I texted you, this is wild, Like
Speaker 1: the scenes were in the bar, they the Gremlins are nuts,
Speaker 1: Like it's really funny.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's like it's Mad Monday for the Gremlins. Let's
Speaker 2: get back.
Speaker 3: We'll come back to the Gremlins very soon. Your three
Speaker 3: favorite films are great films, and they all make complete
Speaker 3: sense that these are some of your favorite films.
Speaker 2: So let's start.
Speaker 3: And they've all been I'm pretty sure they've all been nominated.
Speaker 3: Certainly Spinal Tap has been nominated by many a comedian
Speaker 3: as their favorite film, and what an influence that movie
Speaker 3: has had.
Speaker 1: Yeah, that was I think that I was reading something
Speaker 1: this morning because I was just thinking a lot of
Speaker 1: my favorite things were all within this five six year period,
Speaker 1: and I think they did this study with music and
Speaker 1: films that fifteen to twenty five, I think is when
Speaker 1: you're you're going to be most passionate about you think
Speaker 1: as you see an experience in here in that time
Speaker 1: and I think mine, but Spinal Chat was when I
Speaker 1: first kind of went like I really love comedy, Like
Speaker 1: I don't know what this is. I just and it was.
Speaker 1: I think it was one of the first ones I
Speaker 1: just watch over and over.
Speaker 3: That in Top Secret, that's come up a few times,
Speaker 3: and that is I'm always happy when somebody mentions Top
Speaker 3: Secret because it is so so good.
Speaker 2: Well, COM's first film.
Speaker 1: And best film, Like it's so good in it, He's.
Speaker 2: Great, he's so great. Well he's never been as funny,
Speaker 2: you know, Like that just blew my mind.
Speaker 1: I just found that. I don't know if it's appropriate
Speaker 1: these days, some of the humors probably doesn't stand the
Speaker 1: test of time, but genuinely like heaps of laugh out
Speaker 1: loud stuff, which is it's.
Speaker 2: A celebration of silliness. Yeah, and there should be more
Speaker 2: of it.
Speaker 1: Yeah. And that kind of genre of the flying high
Speaker 1: and those kind of really really silly things that you
Speaker 1: do kind of they take you by surprise because they're
Speaker 1: so mad. That was kind of my introduction to comedy,
Speaker 1: and I think that came. I watched it about the
Speaker 1: same time as I got into the Simpson So I
Speaker 1: was like, and I started watching all the comedy festival
Speaker 1: shows and recording. I was like, comedies. I don't want
Speaker 1: to be a comedian, but I love watching comedy yea.
Speaker 1: And so yeah, that was a huge seminal thing for
Speaker 1: me and a real bonding thing for our friends because
Speaker 1: we all just loved and I think we're hopefully going
Speaker 1: to see you and I play with yeah next. I
Speaker 1: think it's next weekend.
Speaker 3: So by the toid this goes, you would have already
Speaker 3: seen it. And I'm jealous. I can't I consider getting
Speaker 3: over for it. So you are my who are like them?
Speaker 3: In the National will be the two favorite man's great
Speaker 3: choices and and Tim Rodgers, I think is maybe the
Speaker 3: best song writer I think Australia is produced and apologies
Speaker 3: to Mick Thomas, Paul Kelly, Nickay clayvodic in case Chambers,
Speaker 3: But I just think Benethanning and this goes on. But
Speaker 3: Tim is just incredible. The band's incredible. I see him
Speaker 3: live whenever I can. And they are playing the songs
Speaker 3: of Spinal Tap with Harry Shearer. Yeah, incredible, amazing.
Speaker 1: I remember when I first found out that Harry Sheer
Speaker 1: did a lot of the voices on the Simpsons, and like,
Speaker 1: he's just the ultimate human. It's the social Security number,
Speaker 1: not not not not not not not not too damn.
Speaker 1: He's in my favorite movie, He's on my favorite TV show,
Speaker 1: and not only just the voices of the Simpsons, like
Speaker 1: apes of them, like all these great characters. And yeah,
Speaker 1: to think that he's gonna be playing with you, who,
Speaker 1: I'm the same. I just like I think Tim is
Speaker 1: often a voice in my head when I'm writing, going
Speaker 1: that's crap, like just do something about I do something
Speaker 1: like I do, And I'm like, oh, I wish mate,
Speaker 1: Like yeah, I think he's a genius and yeah I can't.
Speaker 1: I saw them last time when they did the Spinal
Speaker 1: Tap songs. I'm coming what that night was called? But
Speaker 1: that yeah, the idea that they're doing with Harry's it's
Speaker 1: like wild.
Speaker 3: I did community radio plenty of l FM eighty eight
Speaker 3: point six still eight point six, and I did a
Speaker 3: little breakfast show like it's actually a brunch kind of show,
Speaker 3: mid morning kind of show, and with my good friend
Speaker 3: James Brasher, a very funny guy, and he and we
Speaker 3: used to swing for the fences, I think for memory.
Speaker 3: I used to like try to book as many guests
Speaker 3: as I could, and I used to ring the you know,
Speaker 3: the big publicists around town, like around comedy festival time,
Speaker 3: and they're often very good. We often win interview people.
Speaker 3: I got interview Mick Thomas, who was a hero of
Speaker 3: Marvin Wedding's parties anything. And we interviewed sort of the
Speaker 3: working dog guys, you know, Tom Gleisner and Rob Sitch.
Speaker 3: They're always very generous with their time and support. And
Speaker 3: I also the biggest interview we got somehow, we got
Speaker 3: Harry Shearer and I think it was when he came
Speaker 3: down to do Frontline. He did that one episode of
Speaker 3: front Line as an American consultant, and he did a
Speaker 3: few you know, he's very generous with his you know,
Speaker 3: if you ask him to deal with money burns. He'll
Speaker 3: do money, but he's so generous with it. And it's
Speaker 3: a spooky hearing those voices come from the other end. Yeah,
Speaker 3: so spinal tap and then obviously the influencers had like
Speaker 3: the Office doesn't exist without totally the whole mockumentary to
Speaker 3: give birth to his genre is an amazing thing.
Speaker 1: Yeah, And I don't think it was a hit when
Speaker 1: it first came out, was it? I think it might
Speaker 1: have been that.
Speaker 3: A lot of the movies we ended covering on this
Speaker 3: on this podcast are not hits on release, so I
Speaker 3: think you might be right.
Speaker 2: And have you listened to the commentary of the DVD commentary?
Speaker 1: That would be great.
Speaker 3: It is as funny as the film. Yeah, get your
Speaker 3: hands on the DVD commentary and and listen to the commentary.
Speaker 3: It is all them doing it, pointing out in character
Speaker 3: and pointing out basically everyone who's died.
Speaker 2: Since since the since the movie came out. It's hilarious.
Speaker 2: It's hilarious.
Speaker 3: Train Spotting is an awesome film. I actually watched it recently.
Speaker 3: You and McGregor, very young, Neil McGregor, Kelly McDonald, Robert Carlin. Yeah,
Speaker 3: and of course directed by Danny boy Yea.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I that that. I used to have American beauty
Speaker 1: at the top of my list, but I can't anymore.
Speaker 1: Just that Kevin Spacey things kind of just ruined it
Speaker 1: for me. But Trainsporting is just consistent again in that
Speaker 1: kind of I think I was twenty one when it
Speaker 1: came out. I had hair the same as you and McGregor,
Speaker 1: but just a lot more. Receding had a T shirt
Speaker 1: that I bought. It was like the one he was worrying.
Speaker 1: And I traveled to around the world by myself and
Speaker 1: went to Edinburgh. I was reading the book because.
Speaker 2: You're a heroin.
Speaker 1: So I don't remember much of that time, but no,
Speaker 1: it was I read the book, I went to like
Speaker 1: I went to Glasgow into Edinburgh. I was just like
Speaker 1: immersed in it. And that train, the soundtrack obviously was
Speaker 1: just so huge and playing everywhere I went, and so
Speaker 1: to me that just I just keep coming back to that.
Speaker 1: It's like I just loved it so much and whether
Speaker 1: or not it's the greatest film of all time, I
Speaker 1: just what it meant to me. And I think that's
Speaker 1: the same with all the films that I kind of
Speaker 1: went through. It's maybe it's an egotistical thing, but it's
Speaker 1: how they made me feel or what I was going
Speaker 1: through at the time, and how much of an impact
Speaker 1: they had on me. And I just I just thought
Speaker 1: that the dialogue was just so brilliant, the characters were amazing,
Speaker 1: the state were so high, but then it was so funny.
Speaker 1: So many scenes that you kind of go like, I
Speaker 1: just can't remember anything, but like the you know, obviously
Speaker 1: the sheet and the sheets and the baby on the roof,
Speaker 1: and it was just such an I saw transporting too
Speaker 1: as well, which doesn't quite live up to the I
Speaker 1: was going.
Speaker 2: To ask you about that. I it's not as good
Speaker 2: as transporting. Yeah, but I think there's a I think
Speaker 2: it was a good film.
Speaker 1: I enjoyed it. I think it was definitely a good film.
Speaker 1: And and yeah, I came out of it pleasantly surprised.
Speaker 1: I was expecting to not like it at all. But yeah,
Speaker 1: it wasn't Maverick. It wasn't it was It wasn't gonna
Speaker 1: make a billion dollars.
Speaker 3: Yeah, but I thought for what they were going for,
Speaker 3: and I know the exact same experience I walked out
Speaker 3: going that was pretty good. Actually, I'll watch it again totally. Yeah, Emily, Yeah,
Speaker 3: what a joy a joyous film. This was its release
Speaker 3: and kind of took the world by storm. And yeah,
Speaker 3: a beautiful film.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's so rare that you see a film that's
Speaker 1: just the heart of it, even though obviously, again the
Speaker 1: stakes are high and there's all sorts of drama and
Speaker 1: it's just a pure optimism like her outlook, I love
Speaker 1: magical realism. Like I'm a huge fan of anything that
Speaker 1: kind of pushes the boundaries in that front. I still
Speaker 1: love female protagonists more than I love male protagonists. I
Speaker 1: think I'm not exactly an Alfa male, probably more in
Speaker 1: the Zea male category. So I loved her, loved loved
Speaker 1: everything about that film, and I've watched a lot of times,
Speaker 1: and it does kind of drag you out of whatever
Speaker 1: headspace you're in it into this beautiful world that we
Speaker 1: just kind of all wish we lived in it.
Speaker 3: It's what I love about foreign language cinema, Like if
Speaker 3: you're watching a English you know, speaking film, sometimes for
Speaker 3: me it needs to be you know, almost fantasy, you know,
Speaker 3: Star Wars or a lot of the rings for me
Speaker 3: to like completely lose myself. So, I mean that was
Speaker 3: actolutely invested in the story and I'm focused, and yeah,
Speaker 3: a lot of the you know, most times that happens.
Speaker 3: But the experience you get with a foreign languagement where
Speaker 3: you can feel like you are in Paris or you know,
Speaker 3: you are in Spain in the eighteen hundreds, you know,
Speaker 3: like it's it's it's an extraordinary feeling. I love things
Speaker 3: I love less, like resist subtitles, and I always say,
Speaker 3: you you forget about them within three minutes. You'll forget
Speaker 3: that you're doing it, that you break your brain will
Speaker 3: just work it out and.
Speaker 1: Out of it.
Speaker 3: It transports me more, I think, you know. And one
Speaker 3: of the first French films I saw was called The Apartment.
Speaker 2: Did you see that?
Speaker 1: I was going to be in my top three? I
Speaker 1: loved it. I loved it, loved it so much.
Speaker 3: There's money. Yeah, it's a beautiful, beautiful film. And I
Speaker 3: didn't see it for many, many, many many years, and
Speaker 3: then I tracked it down on DVD, you know, probably
Speaker 3: regional six, seven years ago and watch it again and
Speaker 3: it holds up beautiful.
Speaker 2: It doesn't get I don't hear about it much.
Speaker 1: Yeah, at the time I was blown away by it's
Speaker 1: because I Mets Monica get Married and yeah, Yeah, And
Speaker 1: I think I saw a lot of their films after
Speaker 1: that because of I think I saw it at the
Speaker 1: cinema the Apartment, and I think maybe it was one
Speaker 1: of the first sort of foreign language films I've seen.
Speaker 1: You know, when you kind of move from that seeing
Speaker 1: die Hard and all the box of stuff, there's other things.
Speaker 1: There's other films that actually resonate with me a lot more.
Speaker 3: Friendship makes complete sense because I reckon I had the
Speaker 3: same thing going on. I saw it at the cinema,
Speaker 3: the Keuno Cinemas in Melbourne. I'm probably sitting a few
Speaker 3: seats at.
Speaker 4: Is.
Speaker 3: It is a fantastic film, Armorlee, check it out, those
Speaker 3: three films, Trained, Spotting, Armie and Smile Tap And I
Speaker 3: look forward to covering those films in more depth with
Speaker 3: somebody who hasn't.
Speaker 2: Seen all Right, let's do it. It's time.
Speaker 3: Nine eighty four Joe Dante, produced by the great Steven Spielberg.
Speaker 2: Funnily enough, no real actors who went on to become
Speaker 2: massive names.
Speaker 3: And this sometimes you look back at these films that
Speaker 3: are big films, you know, Phoebe case the do some stuff,
Speaker 3: Judge Reynhall is in there, but young Corey Feldman, but
Speaker 3: nobody who kind of goes on becomes you know, somebody massive.
Speaker 1: But did you enjoy it? I did?
Speaker 2: I did.
Speaker 1: I wished I saw it at the cinema. Now, even
Speaker 1: though I would have been terrified, I think being in
Speaker 1: a cinema full of people, especially when the Gremlins go rogue,
Speaker 1: would have been great because I was watching it on
Speaker 1: my own, and actually I don't think I should watch
Speaker 1: stuff on my own. I really do feed off other
Speaker 1: people's energy. Really, Yeah, even like watching my favorite TV shows,
Speaker 1: I need my partner or one of my kids. Maybe
Speaker 1: I've got some problems, but I think I really wish
Speaker 1: I saw it in the cinema because I think it
Speaker 1: would be just so exciting when they do transform.
Speaker 2: But I did.
Speaker 1: I totally loved it. I thought it was nuts and
Speaker 1: there were some things in it. I was like, like,
Speaker 1: one O. The thing that stood out for me was
Speaker 1: how no one was that phased by Gizmo's appearance, Like
Speaker 1: no one was kind of like is that a dog
Speaker 1: or an eye or whatever?
Speaker 2: Was like, hey, nice one, what is not an overreaction?
Speaker 3: They definitely freaks out that there is this creature that
Speaker 3: they've never seen before. Imagine going to a pet store
Speaker 3: and they see maybe you're looking for a dog or
Speaker 3: a kitten, and then they go, we got this also,
Speaker 3: and it's a koala combined with a monkey or something.
Speaker 3: And you're like, oh, yeah, we'll have one of these
Speaker 3: these twohundchred bucks. What a hundred bucks doesn't cover it? Yeah,
Speaker 3: this thing that I've never seen before.
Speaker 1: It's like a fair price, doesn't it for a one
Speaker 1: of a kind creature that's never existed in any other universe.
Speaker 2: Let's have it. Let's have a little we'll get into it.
Speaker 3: Let's have a quick listen to when Rand the dad
Speaker 3: played by Hoyt accident he is the Moguai singing and
Speaker 3: his reaction, what is it?
Speaker 4: Mog Why.
Speaker 1: What's he doing singing?
Speaker 4: He does that sometimes.
Speaker 1: I gotta have him.
Speaker 6: He's incredible.
Speaker 5: Tell you what I'll do.
Speaker 1: I'll give you one hundred dollars for him.
Speaker 5: No, look, I've got to have him. It's a present
Speaker 5: for my son for Christmas. It's exactly what I've been
Speaker 5: looking for and I've been everywhere. I'll give you two
Speaker 5: hundred dollars. That's two hundred dollars.
Speaker 1: I'm sorry, Moghay not for sale. I thought you said
Speaker 1: everything at your grandfather's store was for sale.
Speaker 3: Grandfather, but morequai.
Speaker 2: It comes much responsibility.
Speaker 1: I cannot sell him at any price.
Speaker 3: Yeah, he great, kid's got other plans. I think I
Speaker 3: just realized that the Muguay sound but he's singing there,
Speaker 3: I think is I think the dial up connection was
Speaker 3: based on that noise. But if you love the line,
Speaker 3: this is exactly what I've been looking for about something
Speaker 3: that doesn't even exist.
Speaker 1: So good. He asked the question what is it? He goes,
Speaker 1: mog why, and then there should be twenty more questions
Speaker 1: after that, but he jumps into what's it doing, which
Speaker 1: is clearly singing, like it's amazing that he just the
Speaker 1: suspension of disbelief. I love that, And that's sort of
Speaker 1: how everyone else reacts about the.
Speaker 2: Whole film and the whole but nobody is. Nobody goes
Speaker 2: what the hell?
Speaker 1: Mary Feldman, Corey Feldman.
Speaker 3: He gets bitten, and then he then he becomes obsessed,
Speaker 3: like literally like five seconds later, he's obsessed with the
Speaker 3: old three D glasses. Now I know three D glasses
Speaker 3: were spooking people out in nineteen eighty four.
Speaker 5: But a mog why.
Speaker 2: Beats three D glasses every single time.
Speaker 1: I wonder if that was a choice. I can wonder I.
Speaker 2: Reckon because I reckon in those films.
Speaker 3: You do need to decide, Okay, when do our character
Speaker 3: stop freaking out at this bizarre thing that's happening.
Speaker 2: They held it off to.
Speaker 1: Have some.
Speaker 3: Like that. I mean the dad, The dad is weird,
Speaker 3: the parents, it's a way the family set up. I
Speaker 3: mean that dad is a ship. Dad is a ship
Speaker 3: Dad like he and he's a bit of a shit character.
Speaker 3: Maybe he's a character more than he's a ship dad.
Speaker 3: By the way, I love this film, So I like
Speaker 3: there are things. Yeah, we're taking the pits, but this
Speaker 3: is a film that doesn't take itself too seriously, and
Speaker 3: I wanted to mention that in the intro. So when
Speaker 3: we're pointing these things out, it's not at the expense
Speaker 3: of enjoying the film, at least from from from any man.
Speaker 2: And you can but the dad.
Speaker 3: First of all, he narrates the film. He doesn't deserve
Speaker 3: to narrate the film, Like it's not his story. He
Speaker 3: claims it as his story. Usually, when you have a
Speaker 3: narrator doesn't necessarily need to be the main character. Doesn't
Speaker 3: need to be Billy, but it needs to be somebody
Speaker 3: who has observed the story unfold, and he's there, you know,
Speaker 3: for large parts of it. He kind of just wanders
Speaker 3: in in weird moments.
Speaker 1: He does because I did some deep diving. The narration
Speaker 1: happened because they deleted an earlier scene, which seemed to
Speaker 1: be so because I was really spun out that the
Speaker 1: rules of the Mogua were in voiceover like that felt
Speaker 1: like it should have been a big moment, even if
Speaker 1: it was just the kids saying to the guy like,
Speaker 1: these are the three rules, miss, But it's the kid's
Speaker 1: voice over in the middle of the dad walking slow
Speaker 1: mode straight, So I feel like there was another scene
Speaker 1: that got cut. Yes, I totally agree that the dad
Speaker 1: shouldn't be doing the narration. I don't know why the
Speaker 1: Sun isn't doing it, even though again love the film.
Speaker 1: The Sun's got one of the weaker characters as well.
Speaker 1: I think Phoebe Kates is way more interesting. We will
Speaker 1: get to Billy, you get to Billy. But yeah, the
Speaker 1: dad country music star I found out right, Yeah, Okay,
Speaker 1: I love his name Hoyte Point, So yeah, I think
Speaker 1: he was probably one of the bigger plays. Maybe he
Speaker 1: was one of the bigger names at the time. That's
Speaker 1: why he got the voice saver.
Speaker 5: Well.
Speaker 3: I read that he also he had lived a lot
Speaker 3: of his lines. It's like, what's the seriously, you didn't
Speaker 3: have any good lines? Maybe stick to the script, like
Speaker 3: there was no real flare that he seems to like.
Speaker 2: You, Sally, you know what he had?
Speaker 3: Wow, he had lived those lines. It's like, well that
Speaker 3: was underwhelming. Y his performance is fine. I mean it
Speaker 3: feels a bit phoned in and maybe you know, like
Speaker 3: they had him for three days and yeah, what he
Speaker 3: gave he gave them. But yeah, he doesn't desert a narration.
Speaker 3: The Mum is maybe the saddest character in the film.
Speaker 3: She reminded me of the mum I Muriel's wedding.
Speaker 1: Like she.
Speaker 2: They don't go into it, but she I don't think
Speaker 2: he's happy.
Speaker 4: No.
Speaker 3: She has one of the maybe the biggest boss scene,
Speaker 3: which is great, Like that is an awesome scene where
Speaker 3: she takes on the gremlins in the kitchen and yeah,
Speaker 3: almost has that line which you know, if de live
Speaker 3: by Unstruction Nagger, we would all be quoting it. It's
Speaker 3: like get out of my kitchen. You put that in
Speaker 3: Arnie's voice, and it's great, it's a great line. Yeah,
Speaker 3: but Billy, let's talk about Billy.
Speaker 1: Well, just can go back to that scene the mum.
Speaker 1: I agree, what a sad character like. Her husband is
Speaker 1: a deadbeat, he's never home. And then so then I'd
Speaker 1: read it in the first draft of the script that
Speaker 1: got Steven Spielberg's attention. In that kitchen scene, her head
Speaker 1: was going to get ripped off by one of the
Speaker 1: Grimmas and rolled down the stairs. Yes, I'm so glad
Speaker 1: that didn't happen. Yeah.
Speaker 3: The first script by Chris Columbus was much darker, and
Speaker 3: it involved yes, the mum being decapitated and your head
Speaker 3: rolled down the stairs, and that they're going to kill
Speaker 3: the dog. They can eat the dog, I think, yeah,
Speaker 3: And then there's gonna be a scene set in McDonald's
Speaker 3: where the gremlins stormed the McDonald's and instead of eating
Speaker 3: the burgers.
Speaker 2: They ate the people.
Speaker 1: So good.
Speaker 3: But this is where Steven Spielberg is a genius, Like
Speaker 3: so I actually, but he didn't direct this film, and
Speaker 3: of course, you know he's just not one of his
Speaker 3: but he's you know, you think of Steven Spielberg even,
Speaker 3: you know, it's amazing how many people think Steven Spielberg
Speaker 3: direct Star Wars movies like he's just he just has this.
Speaker 3: As soon as his fingerprints are on it, he you know,
Speaker 3: he becomes very recognizable through that. And but I think
Speaker 3: he's a genius. Not you know, there's many reasons why
Speaker 3: it's genius, but I think one of the reasons is
Speaker 3: the choices he makes. And I think a lot of
Speaker 3: those choices come at script stage because Chris Columbus in
Speaker 3: the first draft there was gonna be no good gremlin,
Speaker 3: like they're all going to turn in the Gremlins, and
Speaker 3: Steven Spielberg said, you need one who remains good. And
Speaker 3: that gives us Gizmo who becomes upon release like basically
Speaker 3: the marketing the toys go. I'm not I'm not saying
Speaker 3: Steven Spielberg was was necessarily thinking about that, but to
Speaker 3: have that, to have him as you know, I mean,
Speaker 3: you watch it as in that on he doesn't do much.
Speaker 1: He's just kind of very He saves the day, but
Speaker 1: he says the day, which is unusual. Again, protagonist doesn't
Speaker 1: say the day. The cute little Mogua and that.
Speaker 3: Was I think there was another Spielberg call in the
Speaker 3: addit like he was going to like, so, Gizmo, guess
Speaker 3: the first blinde. I't know, we jumped to the end,
Speaker 3: but you know, but Gizmo, guess the first blind you know,
Speaker 3: having the light shine in on on stripe and then
Speaker 3: and then what was going to happen was Billy was
Speaker 3: going to get like the next blinds and kind of
Speaker 3: get more light almost like the kill shot.
Speaker 2: And and I think Spielberg said, let's let let give
Speaker 2: do it.
Speaker 3: So if you notice, if you go back and watch it,
Speaker 3: you'll notice that Billy is in a different position.
Speaker 2: He's almost like he's closest the lines. So that's that's why.
Speaker 1: Gism had a bit more of arrange than Billy. I
Speaker 1: suppose as well.
Speaker 3: I mean, there's a reason, there's a reason he had
Speaker 3: to say that Zach Allaghan hasn't hasn't kicked on. He
Speaker 3: wasn't g Grevlins too. But yeah, I mean, Billy exaculate
Speaker 3: Gallaghan's defense. There's not much for him. There's not one
Speaker 3: point where where Billy goes I've had enough. Yeah, I've
Speaker 3: had that to puss his bow, get out of my
Speaker 3: town Gremlins. He never like, he never has that that moment,
Speaker 3: even at the end when he gets you know, he's
Speaker 3: been he's being scratched across the chests. Even then, like
Speaker 3: there's no kind of feeling like he's really wounded, is there.
Speaker 1: Like he's such a laid back dude that even when
Speaker 1: he's getting attacked by a grandma and he's like, you know,
Speaker 1: we're just kind of yeah, yeah, you're right. He never
Speaker 1: it's such an unusual thing for someone in that position
Speaker 1: to be the protagonist is usually yeah, go through all
Speaker 1: these different journeys and in the end he's like, I've
Speaker 1: got to take them down. But he never gets to
Speaker 1: that point.
Speaker 2: You think of like Mel Gibson, I can't unleath the weapon.
Speaker 3: When he gets wounded, he gets you feel, you feel
Speaker 3: him get wounded, you feel him struggle with the injuries
Speaker 3: and and and and the cuts.
Speaker 2: It's the opposite here with Billy.
Speaker 3: You know, like he's bleeding for the chest and he
Speaker 3: doesn't like there's no even this like and part of
Speaker 3: it's directing in his defense, Joe Duante should have said,
Speaker 3: it's just you know, remember you know you've just been
Speaker 3: slashed across the chest by, you know, a sharp clawed creature.
Speaker 3: And I know you haven't freaked out about him once,
Speaker 3: but maybe it's time. Maybe it's time.
Speaker 2: And then he gets shot, which is like a bow
Speaker 2: and arrow, and so he gets shot in the arm.
Speaker 2: It's okay, yeah, that doesn't tickle. I get it. But
Speaker 2: he's about the faint as I come on, really.
Speaker 1: Throw a He's definitely not your archetypal hero. He's I'm not.
Speaker 1: I wouldn't say wet, but.
Speaker 2: He's He's was the word I absolutely thought of.
Speaker 1: He's certainly not. He doesn't make any scenes better, no,
Speaker 1: just and maybe that was, as you say, the writing,
Speaker 1: the directing. I don't know. I love how we got
Speaker 1: the roll because he Phoebe Kate's I think, was cast
Speaker 1: and they got I don't imagine many guys were competing
Speaker 1: for the role.
Speaker 3: Maybe they were, well I think they were looking at
Speaker 3: whether or had audership, but they will consider Emilio Esteves,
Speaker 3: people who were like probably that same almost fire Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 3: that were that were being considered, and it was I
Speaker 3: think it was the chemistry between Phoebe.
Speaker 1: Yeah, so I think it was Joe Dantel, whoever was
Speaker 1: in the room, said I can already see him falling
Speaker 1: in love with Phoebe, So that's going to be perfect
Speaker 1: for what we want. Yeah, but they probably should have
Speaker 1: put a little bit more stock into his acting. A
Speaker 1: lot of guys are going to fall in love with
Speaker 1: Phoebe Kate's that's not the hard bit, I don't think.
Speaker 2: No, exactly right, Yeah, gorgeous. Yeah, I can't imagine. I
Speaker 2: can't imagine Charlie has seen falling in love.
Speaker 1: With the most beautiful women of that era and incredible.
Speaker 1: I had a great career and at that point, and
Speaker 1: so yeah, I can't believe that's the chemistry was the reason,
Speaker 1: because he didn't have any chemistry on screen with anything. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I don't feel really harsh saying that.
Speaker 3: Listen, he is the lead actor in a film that
Speaker 3: is hugely success, correct, So he's done something right, He's
Speaker 3: done a job like generally films don't do this and
Speaker 3: come such legacy kind of films if the lead actor
Speaker 3: has completely let the team totally. But yeah, like it
Speaker 3: is weird watching it kind of going and this is
Speaker 3: a part of it is casting, a part of it
Speaker 3: is directing absolutely and writing like Billy is given no
Speaker 3: real urgency.
Speaker 1: Yeah, there's nothing that he has to overcome really apart
Speaker 1: from the gremlins andselves. But his life is he's working
Speaker 1: in a bank. He's got a pretty downtrodden dog. The
Speaker 1: lady who there's a lady Deeble wants to Kelly's dog.
Speaker 3: I found that the the weird the weirdness of the
Speaker 3: the first half hour, more so the setting up of
Speaker 3: the town. They're setting up this idea that the you know,
Speaker 3: it's like the rich running the town and the poor,
Speaker 3: you know, obviously struggling, and so you're thinking, Okay, this's
Speaker 3: going to tie in. There's gonna be some kind of uprising.
Speaker 3: Maybe I think Chris Columbus is obsessive. It's a wonderful
Speaker 3: life because a real it's a wonderful Yeah. Also he
Speaker 3: in both home alone and homework. It's a wonderful life
Speaker 3: appears on TV screens. So there it feels like that
Speaker 3: town and those scenes into wonderful life in the bank.
Speaker 2: Yeah, there's a touch of that, but.
Speaker 3: It doesn't really go anywhere, Like we don't really even
Speaker 3: even this is Devil and the Dog, Like even the dog,
Speaker 3: the dog's got no agency.
Speaker 1: You thought the dog would come back, wouldn't you surely
Speaker 1: the dog deserve the hero moment or eat one of
Speaker 1: the gremlins.
Speaker 2: That's a funny, you know, it.
Speaker 3: Could be a cool scene, but they have a gremlin
Speaker 3: attack Billy and have his dog come and save the day.
Speaker 3: But there's no reason for that dog being in that movie.
Speaker 4: No.
Speaker 1: The first it's totally right about the first thirty minutes
Speaker 1: because I was I had to turn my phone off
Speaker 1: and then I turned it back on then, which is
Speaker 1: a terrible sign and probably a sign of my decaying
Speaker 1: attention span.
Speaker 2: Much as the kids, not just as the kids.
Speaker 1: But I do know that eighties movies, as I've watched
Speaker 1: a few eighties movies, when the kids telling talking them
Speaker 1: up and then they just sit there for the first
Speaker 1: half an hour and go like this sucks. Like even
Speaker 1: ET takes half an hour before ET comes, and so
Speaker 1: they're like, you know, where's ET, And I'm like, it's
Speaker 1: going to get there. But they do a lot of
Speaker 1: just kitchen table scenes, and I think we were way
Speaker 1: more forgiving of set up in those times, and this
Speaker 1: one gets straight into it. The first scene is awesome,
Speaker 1: and then it just goes way backwards in terms of
Speaker 1: stakes to this like slow town and just this mean
Speaker 1: old lady and the dog, and I.
Speaker 3: Think all it's trying to do, all it's achieving, really
Speaker 3: is going these are the people you're supposed to be
Speaker 3: rooting for, and these are the people we don't care
Speaker 3: about if they die, which is missus deeble Fundamen, xenophobic,
Speaker 3: phobic kids on banging on about foreign parts and foreign cars.
Speaker 2: And he's been of a conspiracy theorist.
Speaker 3: It ends up weirdly having some kernel of truth where
Speaker 3: I think he stumbles upon it being true, which is,
Speaker 3: you know, probably doesn't age well these yeah these days.
Speaker 3: But yeah, that's the only thing that I could think
Speaker 3: of as to what they were trying to do. Judge
Speaker 3: Reinholds in who goes on he's in Beverly Hills, was
Speaker 3: in Beverly Hills Cop. Yeah, comes out this year, so
Speaker 3: he's had a good year. Yeah, But also what happened
Speaker 3: Like this disappears, doesn't it.
Speaker 1: He totally disappears, and he's good, Like he's good at
Speaker 1: that kind of I was a massive reinhold fan.
Speaker 2: Yeah, he's so good at.
Speaker 1: Being that guy that you kind of, oh, I just
Speaker 1: want to you know, he's so hateable, but it's so
Speaker 1: charming at the same time. Yeah, yeah, sets himself up
Speaker 1: as this kind of antagonist, so it's disappears. It's really odd.
Speaker 1: It's really odd. It's just you could chop the first
Speaker 1: thirty minutes, I reckon because you know, like we Pixar,
Speaker 1: you just talk about setting up who'll be rooting for,
Speaker 1: who we against? Pixar does that in five minutes.
Speaker 2: I mean like this start of up is like the
Speaker 2: most extraordinary openings of a movie.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and they do that brilliantly. And I think in
Speaker 1: the eighties they kind of just did set ups where
Speaker 1: it just like this is the town, he is everyone,
Speaker 1: and it was just kind of like this real slow build.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: And I guess that's why I found the film so nuts,
Speaker 1: because when it does kind of escalate to the Gremlin
Speaker 1: going wild, it's like, whoa, this is so different than
Speaker 1: the first Yeah. Like I haven't seen any horror films.
Speaker 1: I'm not sure of the genre, but like I love
Speaker 1: the Scream series, and even from the get go, you're
Speaker 1: kind of like, Okay, I know, I'm on on edge,
Speaker 1: whereas this film instead of laid back for forty minutes.
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, and what and then there are so many
Speaker 3: tropes that they use. Like they said, they do embrace
Speaker 3: a lot of the tropes, even you know, the mum
Speaker 3: with the knife, you know, and it's get out of
Speaker 3: the house, Get out of the house, and in the
Speaker 3: phone discrimt.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 3: Yeah, there's a shadow on the wall, which I think
Speaker 3: is Spielberg obviously learnt a huge amount with Jaws, which
Speaker 3: was by not revealing the shark too early, by having
Speaker 3: it as a suspenseful thing. And that's why I think
Speaker 3: he does it with Et and I think you can
Speaker 3: feel like this holding off.
Speaker 5: You know.
Speaker 2: Obviously we see the Magua gizmo, you know.
Speaker 3: Pretty early, but even then it's it's a slow in
Speaker 3: sea all at once, you know, it's a slow kind
Speaker 3: of reveal. But then with the actual Gremlins, it is
Speaker 3: it's shadows on walls and it's just peaks and and
Speaker 3: a lot of it. The rule about the bright lights
Speaker 3: is really only to cover the special effects. That's how
Speaker 3: they that's why they came up with that rule. Okay,
Speaker 3: because they're all puppets, so this is pre c.
Speaker 1: G yeah, yeah, which is extremely good puppets too, They're
Speaker 1: really good.
Speaker 2: I remember watching this a while ago.
Speaker 3: In fact, Ross Noble nominated this as one of his
Speaker 3: three favorite films, and i'd recently when I interviewed him
Speaker 3: for the podcast, had just like grabbed, you know, I
Speaker 3: was watching Foxtail and like grabs you know, ten to
Speaker 3: fifteen minutes of it, and I kind of thought, oh, yeah, yeah,
Speaker 3: the Gremlins.
Speaker 2: You know, they're not great, are they?
Speaker 3: But when you watch it as a film, you get
Speaker 3: used to it and it's it's quite it's quite good.
Speaker 3: And Russ pointed out that one of the scenes, I
Speaker 3: think in the kitchen you can actually see like if
Speaker 3: you watch it closely enough, you can see like the
Speaker 3: stream with the puppet and that. But they do they
Speaker 3: do a great job with them. Yeah, it's funny. It's
Speaker 3: actually fun to watch knowing that their puppets. How the
Speaker 3: Gremlins are framed in each film, there's a lot of
Speaker 3: swinging from fans as well when there's obviously nailed them
Speaker 3: to the ceiling fan and a lot of things where
Speaker 3: you don't see their legs in a frame like that
Speaker 3: like it's the Muppet Show. But yeah, they do a
Speaker 3: really good job of placing the Gremlins and also in
Speaker 3: not having bright lights and that's you know, the Christmas tree.
Speaker 2: Of course, put one in the Christmas tree. You have
Speaker 2: the puppeteer.
Speaker 3: What I also found interesting about the way they get
Speaker 3: the rules out is the Dad doesn't really seem to
Speaker 3: take them seriously when he first hears the rules, but
Speaker 3: then when he tells Billy the rules, he seems to
Speaker 3: be very much on board with how serious these are.
Speaker 3: Let's have listened to durand telling Billy about these very
Speaker 3: important rules.
Speaker 5: You know, there's some things I forgot to tell you guys,
Speaker 5: and they're really important. Number One, he eats great lights.
Speaker 1: We're not that.
Speaker 5: But you've got to keep him out of the sunlight. Sunlight,
Speaker 5: it'll kill him. Number two, keep him away from water.
Speaker 5: Don't give him any water to drink, and whatever you do,
Speaker 5: don't give him a bath. And probably the most important thing,
Speaker 5: don't ever feed him after midnight.
Speaker 3: Yeah, they are the rules. I mean, it's a great premise,
Speaker 3: isn't it like to have? It's like I mentioned fight Club.
Speaker 3: It's great when you just have these very simple things
Speaker 3: that are easy to follow.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I agree. I think that's the genius of the film,
Speaker 1: is that that these three rules. I mean, you don't
Speaker 1: know why, like he tells you the first one, he says, don't, well,
Speaker 1: the rights don't bright lights will kill him. Then he
Speaker 1: says water, but he doesn't explain why. And then he says,
Speaker 1: don't have to eat after midnight, and Billy doesn't ask why.
Speaker 1: It just goes like, I'll try and remember those.
Speaker 3: What I thing I've always wondered about it. I think
Speaker 3: they take the piece out of this. Ingremlins too is
Speaker 3: always okay, they form after midnight, but when there's midnight finish.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's a very vague.
Speaker 2: Isn't that two thirty?
Speaker 5: Is that?
Speaker 2: Is it enough?
Speaker 3: Or I imagine it's probably daylight. I probably sunrise the
Speaker 3: next day. Yes, But and how's Billy? How's Billy like?
Speaker 2: Bloody hell? Billy like? He looks at the clock. I think,
Speaker 2: is it twenty to twelve? Yeah, I got enough time?
Speaker 1: Yeah, sneaking.
Speaker 3: Don't feed him after midnight? I saw it the twelf
Speaker 3: couplenty of time, A tray of chicken.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 5: No.
Speaker 1: Billy's yeah, very loose with the rules, and probably because
Speaker 1: he didn't know the consequences of the rules that would
Speaker 1: have helped.
Speaker 2: Well.
Speaker 3: I don't think that is good because I don't think
Speaker 3: even Rando knows the consequences because he's not interested enough
Speaker 3: in anything outside of his own ship inventions that he's
Speaker 3: forcing his family with.
Speaker 1: The one that the crack the eggs that was a
Speaker 1: love out. The egg cracker invention out of all.
Speaker 3: Of them, apparently invented. You know, everyone's got these little
Speaker 3: cafe bars and in their own kitchen. Apparently Ran invented them.
Speaker 3: A little bit sludgy, but apparently apparently I'm invented by Rand.
Speaker 1: Yeah, he could have interrogated the rules more, but I
Speaker 1: guess because it was on voice, so we'll never know
Speaker 1: how that played out. Like I guess maybe the kid,
Speaker 1: maybe the dad was the grandpa was going to come
Speaker 1: out and they quickly have to run, and then you
Speaker 1: had to ask, why what's going to happen if I
Speaker 1: feed them after midnight? Just just left.
Speaker 3: I actually also thought at the start of the film,
Speaker 3: I kind of thought it was weird. He was just
Speaker 3: walking the streets and all of a sudden, this kid,
Speaker 3: Like I would have liked to say, it's such a
Speaker 3: tiny thing, and it's such a time it's and it
Speaker 3: doesn't matter really, but I would liked to have seen
Speaker 3: I don't know, the kid find Rand or like you know,
Speaker 3: they see him on the street, so coming in like
Speaker 3: maybe leading down these serious streets as opposed to you know,
Speaker 3: all of a sudden Rand's walking by himself in chiming down,
Speaker 3: and then all of a sudden he's walking down the
Speaker 3: stairs with his kid like just to see. But I imagine,
Speaker 3: like you like you, maybe you suggested that there's scenes
Speaker 3: that are missing.
Speaker 1: I think so, I don't know what that scene was.
Speaker 1: But because Rand also he could be within his rights
Speaker 1: to say, you dragged me all the way to this
Speaker 1: shop and then I can't buy something here, like yeah,
Speaker 1: let me have what I want, Like I came out
Speaker 1: of the middle of the street to come down and
Speaker 1: see you. Yeah, yeah, there's there's some questions. There were
Speaker 1: some really good horror moments. I thought the bit with
Speaker 1: the science seato was great, and that was when they
Speaker 1: kind of went revealing. I don't think that was at
Speaker 1: the stage where you hadn't seen.
Speaker 2: Them, we haven't seen him yet.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and that was really good. That was like proper horror,
Speaker 1: like he kind of war is he? Where are? They
Speaker 1: reaches down to give him something to eat and gets
Speaker 1: sort of eaten alive or whatever, like that's.
Speaker 2: Let's talk about this trip.
Speaker 3: So Billy eventually discovers his science teacher. We don't know
Speaker 3: if he Billy's not at school age between sixteen and
Speaker 3: forty two, and he walks in, he walks into the
Speaker 3: science class that he has been torn up. He sees
Speaker 3: his science teacher basically his head under the desk with
Speaker 3: a syringe in his ass. Thankfully he's wearing his clothes.
Speaker 3: He has been strip maker. That makes it a very
Speaker 3: different film.
Speaker 2: But then does not tell anybody.
Speaker 3: No, doesn't tell the police when he talks to them
Speaker 3: later on, doesn't tell his dad's should if I'm if
Speaker 3: I if I'm walking into my into my work and
Speaker 3: my boss is at r EP are walking into his
Speaker 3: office and he's he's lying on the ground of a
Speaker 3: syringe in his ass.
Speaker 2: I'm just gonna get on with my day.
Speaker 3: No, I'm gonna tell somebody, But we forgive it because again,
Speaker 3: it doesn't take itself so seriously.
Speaker 2: So you set up your own culture with these kinds
Speaker 2: of films, and we've set.
Speaker 1: Up that he is unflappable, like nothing, nothing faces this guy,
Speaker 1: Like there go with the needle in his ass, Like,
Speaker 1: let's just keep rolling with it.
Speaker 3: I love to know that the conversations when him and
Speaker 3: Joe Dante, like did he ever say, should I come
Speaker 3: like freak out a bit here?
Speaker 2: Like this is my science teacher.
Speaker 3: I've obviously feel close enough to him to bring him this,
Speaker 3: So obviously there's there's a kind of a bond or
Speaker 3: a relationship.
Speaker 2: Should I be sad? No, No, just keep moving Billy
Speaker 2: like I should. Should I be determined and angry? No,
Speaker 2: just just be passive. Just this is normal.
Speaker 3: But there's yeah, and there are You're right, the Christas
Speaker 3: treet that's a great horrormone because it's it's it's the
Speaker 3: false alarm of the of the stocking that I'm going
Speaker 3: to ask you, is that toy robot for Billy? Is
Speaker 3: that one of his Christmas presents? Because he really is
Speaker 3: like twenty five and getting a toy robot?
Speaker 1: That that is a great question, because the whole premise
Speaker 1: of the film is that the dad is like I
Speaker 1: think it's because he's away from town a lot, wants
Speaker 1: to get his son the ultimate present. So it goes
Speaker 1: like a toy shop by like, yeah, thirty.
Speaker 2: Year old son, you know, cassettes.
Speaker 1: There was some good stuff in that Chinese shop, though,
Speaker 1: I thought that scene was amazing. It looks so good.
Speaker 2: It was really good.
Speaker 3: The outsign was good, and there was also some good
Speaker 3: the way they introduced they got a foreshadow there were
Speaker 3: lizards and drag and yeah, pointy years, so some good foreshadowing,
Speaker 3: yeah what we're about to do.
Speaker 1: And I think that Chinese actor who plays their shop owner,
Speaker 1: he was like quite experienced as an actor, and he
Speaker 1: was in his eighties, but they had to give makeup
Speaker 1: to make him look younger older because he's such a
Speaker 1: youthful man. That's a little bit of trivia that I
Speaker 1: was excited about.
Speaker 2: We need to get him on some Maybor League commercials or.
Speaker 1: Some I know. But that's the really funny thing about
Speaker 1: Gremlins is that there's some incredible horror moments mixed in
Speaker 1: with some really underwhelming responses from the people of the town.
Speaker 3: Well even when we might play this now and this
Speaker 3: is a horror trope, Yeah, you go to the police station.
Speaker 3: Eventually you go to the authorities. Of course the authorities
Speaker 3: are going to help, but of course the authorities are
Speaker 3: not going to believe you.
Speaker 2: Well I'm not.
Speaker 6: Sure maybe thousands. Look, I know it sounds crazy, I
Speaker 6: know it does, but in a matter of hours. This
Speaker 6: town is going to be turned to a major disaster area.
Speaker 2: I know you have got to warn pe you think
Speaker 2: this kid is drunk bread, No you are, I am
Speaker 2: not wrong.
Speaker 1: Probably reason revels come from.
Speaker 6: Man, all right, My father gave me one as a pressed.
Speaker 5: Oh pray, did your father always give you a vicious
Speaker 5: little monsters for a present?
Speaker 4: No?
Speaker 6: No, they don't start out vicious at first, of course not.
Speaker 6: They don't.
Speaker 7: They look like this, could you do the lights in here?
Speaker 3: Please never believe They never believe him.
Speaker 2: I mean, he's got the mug. Why there? But they're
Speaker 2: not freaking out.
Speaker 1: In the events that had a lot of nog eggnog.
Speaker 1: I think that was that kind of that added to
Speaker 1: their kind of like nonchalance. But yeah, that was I
Speaker 1: mean again the maguai, like, why is not anyone like
Speaker 1: what the hell is that?
Speaker 2: I forgot? Even bet the green demon in town?
Speaker 1: This this alone should get them out of the chop
Speaker 1: at the cop shop at least, like do some investigating.
Speaker 1: I think it was the Christmas Eve that start on
Speaker 1: the nog. There's nothing that was going to get them
Speaker 1: out on the town. Yeah, I think in their defense,
Speaker 1: I don't know why I'm defending them.
Speaker 3: But like that, no, well, I mean it's it's good
Speaker 3: to kind of, you know, find some kind of reason
Speaker 3: as to why strange choices are being made. Like Phoebe
Speaker 3: Phoebe also Phoebe Kate's sorry Kate, her name's Kate in
Speaker 3: the In the movie, she is working the bar as
Speaker 3: well as for two jobs, which is I think the
Speaker 3: only reason why that other scene with Judge ryan Hold
Speaker 3: really exists is established that she works at runs a
Speaker 3: second job. It's any information that I can seem to
Speaker 3: recall coming out of that scene. And obviously the responsible
Speaker 3: look at rules don't apply in four at this Irish
Speaker 3: tavern because she is serving. She is lighting smokes and
Speaker 3: pouring drinks. There's one of the transcret, a little pervert
Speaker 3: gremlin who flashes out, I'm not sure why you're flashing.
Speaker 2: When you don't have General's mate, what's the point them.
Speaker 1: A nude the whole ship And then he's flashing with
Speaker 1: a code like backwards.
Speaker 3: But I did laugh when they wear scarves, like there
Speaker 3: are some really fun it's a funny film, like the
Speaker 3: fact they're wearing scarves, the fact when they're they're caroling
Speaker 3: they're reading the lyrics even though they they're not singing
Speaker 3: soh at night.
Speaker 2: They're speaking their own gibberish.
Speaker 1: But they did occasionally speak English, and that that's something
Speaker 1: that I found really because Maguay can't speak English. But
Speaker 1: they would occasionally kind of just pull out like a
Speaker 1: witty one liner and then go back to gibberish. I
Speaker 1: guess they just picked up stuff along the way.
Speaker 2: Well, maguhy.
Speaker 3: Gizmo does say goodbye Billy right at the end, so
Speaker 3: he obviously did learn. They do learn behavior obviously. And
Speaker 3: at that moment actually where he comes back and says, oh,
Speaker 3: he's got something to say before he takes Gizmo away,
Speaker 3: and I was expecting something a bit more, you know, Okay,
Speaker 3: it's gonna be a bit heart wrenching. He's like, Billy, Okay,
Speaker 3: that was underwhelming.
Speaker 1: Yeah, but I guess I guess the scenes at the bar,
Speaker 1: though they are the actual highlight of the film, I
Speaker 1: think like they are so funny, like as you say, yes,
Speaker 1: it is just happily put not happily. I guess she's
Speaker 1: under duress, but she is pouring drinks and say this
Speaker 1: is just a normal night at the bar. Yeah, to
Speaker 1: a bunch of Gremlins. I love the jazz loving Gremlin
Speaker 1: and then there's a guy who's kind of like hilarious.
Speaker 2: I thought, I thought of you watching this, and I
Speaker 2: thought you, I bet you love that.
Speaker 1: Love that that was brilliant.
Speaker 2: It goes into like a flash dance montage that's really like.
Speaker 1: That whole sequence is just awesome, Like that's kind of
Speaker 1: the best, right.
Speaker 3: And like Gremlins two really leans into that kind of
Speaker 3: vibe good more like Leonard Moulten gave this like a
Speaker 3: really harsh review upon release, and he's in the second one.
Speaker 3: I think it's killed by the whole Hogan's in line.
Speaker 3: It's like the kitcheness goes up a whole bunch Joe
Speaker 3: Dundasi the first Gremlin's two. Yeah, okay more than Gremlins one.
Speaker 3: But the scene is just completely incredible. But what it does,
Speaker 3: like you know, talking about trying to work out why
Speaker 3: scenes perhaps exist, Phoebe does when when she lights the smoke,
Speaker 3: it does it does give her the idea about light
Speaker 3: and then kind of reminds the audience of that idea.
Speaker 3: And there are more ways than just waiting for the sunlight,
Speaker 3: you know, to produce light. And yeah, yeah, it's a
Speaker 3: bloody fun scene.
Speaker 1: It's awesome. And the missus deegle flying off the stack there,
Speaker 1: that is awesome when she flies up the stairs. What
Speaker 1: do you do all those things where it's yeah, she
Speaker 1: didn't seem to need a wheelchair, but she used a
Speaker 1: kind of a wish.
Speaker 3: Yeah, she says, all right, you probably denied somebody you
Speaker 3: know who actually needs that. I think there was a comment,
Speaker 3: to be honest, social comment about wealth and they take
Speaker 3: up resources.
Speaker 1: We should talk about the social commentary in the sect,
Speaker 1: but they did. She had one of my favorite lines,
Speaker 1: which is I hate Christmas Carala's screechy voiced little glue sniffers.
Speaker 1: No wonder they sent her flying off the.
Speaker 2: Nobody was just supported to see d No, she was
Speaker 2: really arch.
Speaker 1: Yeah, she was a nasty piece of work.
Speaker 2: And of course the Fudderberg or whatever his name is, Futamen,
Speaker 2: he gets it as well.
Speaker 1: What about Futaman's wife. She was a fascinating character. She
Speaker 1: was on LSD or something like. She was drifting around
Speaker 1: the room like on acid or something. She's married, that's right,
Speaker 1: so I think she's got a hardcore hallucinogen's addiction. But
Speaker 1: all her scenes were like, like, what's going on?
Speaker 2: She was loosening?
Speaker 1: She was, but I think you're right. She probably was
Speaker 1: just drugging her way out of this marriage she had to. Yeah,
Speaker 1: she was.
Speaker 3: Also the women in this town are married to deadbeats,
Speaker 3: dead beat blokes, and they're.
Speaker 2: Just trying to get through their days.
Speaker 3: And it's even like with the mom Billy's mum like
Speaker 3: she has that she's the only one who actually takes
Speaker 3: on the gremlins.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and it's Billy who ushes her next door that
Speaker 2: you'd be safe. I'll take whoeverm know what mum should
Speaker 2: have does Billy, he's got this. These guys are babysitting.
Speaker 2: You go plave your toy robot. Billy. I've got this
Speaker 2: shit under control. I've already killed three.
Speaker 6: True.
Speaker 1: That is so true. She is the strongest character by Miles.
Speaker 1: She's killed a bunch of gremlins and Billy who's just
Speaker 1: sort of going with everything.
Speaker 2: I love her when she glenned twenties at Grandma back
Speaker 2: into the microwave, so.
Speaker 1: Good, she's awesome. Yeah, you're so right. While was she
Speaker 1: getting babysat's She's ready to take on the weld. She's
Speaker 1: kind of like, is it Sarah Connor and Terminator like
Speaker 1: she could have been. That's kind of the character that
Speaker 1: she could have been.
Speaker 3: Yeah, there is a Gremlin story coming, apparently right in
Speaker 3: my next year, I think, unless it's been delayed that
Speaker 3: I read on i AMDB that it was due for
Speaker 3: release in twenty twenty three.
Speaker 1: That's awesome.
Speaker 3: Maybe maybe it's around the mum because if Billy hasn't grown.
Speaker 2: A pair by now, oh my god.
Speaker 1: Well, you think that some of the women would start
Speaker 1: to date the Gremlins because they've got far more charisma,
Speaker 1: Like they're kind of outgoing there, out for a good time.
Speaker 1: They get to done, Like I could see a few
Speaker 1: of them kind of mining and dining the local ladies
Speaker 1: and going there's a better option. I mean, we've got
Speaker 1: some bad traits, but no worse than your.
Speaker 3: Husbands, you know, and we're more accepting people's finishes these days.
Speaker 2: Positive, you know. I'm like, yeah, why not, it's it?
Speaker 2: Why do I get to know? Ah Gremlin?
Speaker 1: I think there'd be some pretty charming, Like they were
Speaker 1: pretty funny, that charismatic that they left the guys in
Speaker 1: the town for dead in terms of you know, being
Speaker 1: up and about and getting things done.
Speaker 2: It's a bloody good point.
Speaker 1: Could be a rom com.
Speaker 3: I like that whenever they went to a new place,
Speaker 3: they got the most out of wherever they went. By
Speaker 3: the bar, they and as every every possible thing, Like
Speaker 3: the jazz thing was like so brilliant.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 3: So when they get to the sports store, yeah, they
Speaker 3: just say, okay, what have we got this ball machine?
Speaker 3: Like Billy basically gets taken out by a ball machine.
Speaker 1: Well, Billy's injury and again this is this just sums
Speaker 1: up Billy, Like there's so many funny things you could
Speaker 1: do in a sports right. He gets injured by falling
Speaker 1: onto a shelf. It's such a low fire injury.
Speaker 3: You got a couple of tennis balls before that. But
Speaker 3: he doesn't move out of the way to the tennis ball.
Speaker 3: He's like, oh, move behind the sweatshirts. There's a rack
Speaker 3: of sweatshirts next to you. Just move, take a step
Speaker 3: to the left, Billy, do something.
Speaker 1: So I worked in a sports store for seven years
Speaker 1: and I've had worse injuries after a shift than what
Speaker 1: he cupped in there, like just falling onto the corner
Speaker 1: of a shelf, dodging a tennis ball, Like, come on,
Speaker 1: Billy on you.
Speaker 3: Need to do better, Billy. But yeah, and then so
Speaker 3: you got the yeah trying the saws at Billy.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and that was great. And the base the chainsawvice
Speaker 2: the baseball bat was was great. And then Gizmo comes
Speaker 2: to the rescue and that was all. I'm not sure
Speaker 2: how I'm not sure who's controlling the remote control car.
Speaker 3: I'm not sure if Gizmo has hot wired, because that's
Speaker 3: not how remote control cars. You can't just hop in
Speaker 3: them and drive even if you, you know, if you
Speaker 3: if you Gizmo sized. But anyway, let's say he's hohod White.
Speaker 2: It's fun. Anyway, thank god they did that. Thank God
Speaker 2: it wasn't Billy who say that.
Speaker 1: They Yeah, Steven.
Speaker 2: Spielberg, you're a genius.
Speaker 3: Gizmo comes in up over the shovel, Yeah, and it's
Speaker 3: it's it's great because Gizmo, like, up until then, he's
Speaker 3: just been cute.
Speaker 1: He has what There another great scene, which you haven't
Speaker 1: talking about, EDI is the cinema scene where the Gremlins
Speaker 1: love snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. Yeah, I don't
Speaker 1: know what was is there a famous Christmas movie? But
Speaker 1: they were really into it, right, like this. These guys
Speaker 1: were going nuts for everything. Finally, just yeah, this is
Speaker 1: we're passionate about. This film was a listen to the
Speaker 1: Gremlins enjoying snow White.
Speaker 5: What are they doing?
Speaker 6: You're watching snow White.
Speaker 2: And they love it? Yeah?
Speaker 3: But you know what, you know what occurred to me,
Speaker 3: I'm not sure this is like a thing that's been
Speaker 3: commented on before. Quentin Tarantino has stolen Glorious Bastards the
Speaker 3: end of the Glorious Bastards from Gremlins.
Speaker 1: I haven't seen Glorious Bastards.
Speaker 2: I'm sorry, Trent, I'm really sorry.
Speaker 1: You've enough there is that wasn't a spoiler that it
Speaker 1: was more like another classic that I haven't seen. Moment.
Speaker 3: Well, there's there's a there's a cinema scene. Well, if
Speaker 3: he's any Glorious Pasts, you know what I'm talking about.
Speaker 3: But it is almost exactly what happens in Glorious.
Speaker 1: But I can't imagine how that can be.
Speaker 3: Like that cinema scene is pretty yeah, and and funnily enough,
Speaker 3: it's weird because there's a whole bunch of Nazis watching
Speaker 3: a certain film, you know, like, I don't know, Joy
Speaker 3: the Darts I've never heard anyone. I'm I've do some
Speaker 3: deep diming make that connection. The Quentin Tarantino I've interviewed before.
Speaker 3: I love the interview him again. I'm gonna ask him
Speaker 3: the great question, was Gremlin's the inspiration.
Speaker 5: For that?
Speaker 2: It's amazing scenes in Inglorious Barson's.
Speaker 1: That's that's well, he's pretty honest about the things that
Speaker 1: he watches, and yeah, that's it. I'd love to know.
Speaker 1: That is the bit where Billy does something. He finally, yes,
Speaker 1: he finally does something proactive, and which is kind of
Speaker 1: the sad because I was I actually like the Gremlins
Speaker 1: enjoying the film. I didn't want them to die at
Speaker 1: that point. It's kind of like they're having a great time.
Speaker 1: They're not really hurting anyone in there.
Speaker 2: Watch the movie.
Speaker 1: Watch the movie.
Speaker 2: I got a bit of a movie marathon. That's probably
Speaker 2: a good it's a good deal, just like that, and
Speaker 2: let them.
Speaker 3: Live forever watching movies. Well, I mean, I'm surprised I
Speaker 3: got the projective working to be honest scene. I mean,
Speaker 3: I'm surprised there's a projectionist watching that movie going that
Speaker 3: that's not how.
Speaker 5: To do it.
Speaker 2: That they would never have got that that that film
Speaker 2: is ruined. You won't get that back that.
Speaker 1: That is one of my favorite bits though, when they're
Speaker 1: enjoying snow White and the Seven Dwors I love that. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I love that.
Speaker 2: It is more fun than that if they had.
Speaker 1: Had a horror film totally.
Speaker 3: It is something really fun, you know, and them singing
Speaker 3: with the the Seven Dwarves is good fun. Let's talk
Speaker 3: about Phoebe Kate's and her big Sea. I mean, all right,
Speaker 3: so there's two weird things about this. One of the
Speaker 3: content of her backstory, so she's made it clear a
Speaker 3: couple of times, and she doesn't like Christmas.
Speaker 2: She hates Christmas. Billy to Cols and Mike, you know
Speaker 2: everyone loves Christmas. He does. He does ask a week
Speaker 2: question ges why are you are you? Are you Hindi? Billy?
Speaker 2: Is that his stick?
Speaker 4: Like?
Speaker 1: Is that the first time he cracks the jokes, he's
Speaker 1: genuinely asking. I don't know. That's out of character for
Speaker 1: him to say something. It's not just straight straight back.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I don't know.
Speaker 3: Yeah, he learned in prof accident. And then so this
Speaker 3: is an intense part of the film. They are yeah,
Speaker 3: they realize they are under attack. And they go and
Speaker 3: to uh Is at the sports store wherever they end
Speaker 3: up now, and she she decides this is the time,
Speaker 3: this is the perfect time to emote about her tragic past.
Speaker 3: Keep in mind when you're listening to this that while
Speaker 3: she does her emoting, Billy is almost paying no attention.
Speaker 3: Gives Billy gives me he's paying more attention than Billy is.
Speaker 3: But let's listen to this.
Speaker 1: She'd have a Triggerlets by the way, this is so
Speaker 1: full on what she's.
Speaker 2: About to say. It is actually full on. It is
Speaker 2: actually full on.
Speaker 3: And also actually it's also a good point if you
Speaker 3: are listening to this, and I'm very seriously, if you're
Speaker 3: listening to this in your car and you have kids
Speaker 3: of a certain age who still have a genuine love
Speaker 3: and belief in all things Christmas, maybe.
Speaker 2: Skip over these next couple of bits here. There is
Speaker 2: obviously a big.
Speaker 3: Reveal reveal and spoiler, not just a movie spoiler, but
Speaker 3: maybe a little life spoiler.
Speaker 2: So we give you plenty of time.
Speaker 3: Just hit a couple of thirty second shifts and come
Speaker 3: back to it, or listen when your kids, young kids
Speaker 3: oving around. Let's have a listen to phebe Cakes's tragic backstory.
Speaker 4: Here was Christmas Eve. I was nine years old. Me
Speaker 4: and Mom were decorating the tree, waiting for Dad to
Speaker 4: come home from work. A couple hours went by, Dad
Speaker 4: wasn't home. His mom called the office, no answer. Christmas
Speaker 4: Day came and went and still nothing. The police began
Speaker 4: to search. Four or five days went by. Neither one
Speaker 4: of us could eat or sleep. Everything was falling apart.
Speaker 4: It was snowing outside. The house was freezing, so I
Speaker 4: went to try to light up the fire, and that's
Speaker 4: when I noticed the smell.
Speaker 5: Yeah.
Speaker 4: Firemen came and broke through the chimney top and me
Speaker 4: and Mom expecting them to pull out a dead cat
Speaker 4: or a bird, and instead they pulled out my father.
Speaker 4: He was dressed in a Santa Claus suit. He'd been
Speaker 4: climbing town the chimney on Christmas Eve. His arm was
Speaker 4: sorted with presents. He was going to surprise us. He
Speaker 4: slipped and broke his neck died instantly, And that's how
Speaker 4: I found out that there was no Santa Claus.
Speaker 3: I mean, I love the focus like her. What this
Speaker 3: story means to her is her belief in Santa Claus
Speaker 3: has been shattered. As opposed to her father died.
Speaker 1: That's how I loved my father. That's not that's not
Speaker 1: her top concern. There is that is a whole podcast,
Speaker 1: that monologue, Like, there is so much to unpack with
Speaker 1: what's just happened.
Speaker 2: What we've just listened to. I think it should be
Speaker 2: a prequel.
Speaker 1: That's because it's an urban legend, I think, is what
Speaker 1: I was reading. That's that's where they got that story from.
Speaker 2: Right, But does.
Speaker 1: Anyone actually ever go down a chimney like no, Well,
Speaker 1: I think.
Speaker 3: I maybe I'm making this up, but I seem to
Speaker 3: think that occasionally you hear somebody dying doing this.
Speaker 2: Okay, that might be made up. I don't know. I
Speaker 2: don't know. It's it's a strange choice.
Speaker 3: There are plenty of ways to, you know, have create
Speaker 3: the illusion of Santa without.
Speaker 2: Of course, Santa is real. We all know that.
Speaker 3: Yeah, all we know that My brother kept the Santa
Speaker 3: thing going for me by telling me, in conhoots with
Speaker 3: my dad that he walked in on Santa taking a
Speaker 3: ship and it's all And I actually believed it. I thought, okay,
Speaker 3: whether it's actually saw Santa taking so sound was real?
Speaker 3: I thought they're gonna make up that story. That's and
Speaker 3: then I was telling kids in the school yard about that,
Speaker 3: so it's real.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, there's M's real brother. Sorry taking it dumb.
Speaker 3: And my brother was working but Mark come over here,
Speaker 3: tell him about saying sound taking it dump And.
Speaker 2: He just looked at me and going, I can't believe
Speaker 2: you still believe this?
Speaker 1: That's that's the more happen.
Speaker 2: That was my moment. That was Phoebe Kate story.
Speaker 1: That's how I knew. I knew what was he hoping
Speaker 1: to achieve? Like, so what was if he did survive,
Speaker 1: would you just pop out at the bottom of the
Speaker 1: chimney and what if they're not there?
Speaker 2: Like so when she says she said and broke his
Speaker 2: neck that all happened.
Speaker 3: He wasn't alive when Phoebe K's he didn't survive three
Speaker 3: or four days.
Speaker 2: And then he basically died on the It was a
Speaker 2: quick on the job.
Speaker 1: Yeah, but did he so?
Speaker 4: Was he? So?
Speaker 1: Were they trying to were that was there where they
Speaker 1: were both downstairs and he went, I'm going to jump
Speaker 1: down and surprise them or was he trying to do
Speaker 1: it at night, in which case no one would ever know? Yeah,
Speaker 1: I can't work out when he was doing this because
Speaker 1: if they were down there, they would have heard in
Speaker 1: this case quickly. If they weren't there, he pops down
Speaker 1: the bottom and no one ever knows that he did it.
Speaker 3: So yeah, unless yeah, unless he's set up a video
Speaker 3: camera and he set up on the tripod, Yeah, to
Speaker 3: see him.
Speaker 2: Actually, okay, you know, come down. Maybe he's even's got
Speaker 2: one on the roof.
Speaker 1: Yeah. And canons are big then though, right, Yeah.
Speaker 3: They're very big. Yeah and expensive. I'm not sure that's
Speaker 3: Phoebe's back gb k's backstory here, but that was young. Yeah,
Speaker 3: you're absolutely right. If you're going to do like a
Speaker 3: stunt like this huge stuff, you need the kids to
Speaker 3: see it.
Speaker 1: Yeah. Yeah, so if they were there, I mean, I
Speaker 1: don't know. Do you hear someone's neck? I mean, that's
Speaker 1: probably too dark for this podcast. I don't want to
Speaker 1: go there.
Speaker 2: Give us a call.
Speaker 5: Do you hear it?
Speaker 1: The next snap? But it is an incredible place to
Speaker 1: put that reveal because that's kind of the gremlins of
Speaker 1: running a mark and the town is in danger and
Speaker 1: she It's a long reveal, right, Like it's a couple
Speaker 1: of feels like a minute or felt longer.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's it's quite a mind.
Speaker 3: Look, Steven Spielberg wanted it taken out, yeah enough, and
Speaker 3: Joe Dante, uh, for some reason, I'm not sure.
Speaker 1: He said it summed up the tone of the film
Speaker 1: that crossed between the macab and the funny and the well.
Speaker 2: I mean, I kind of I'm glad that was his reasoning.
Speaker 2: I'm glad it wasn't. No, this is a very powerful story.
Speaker 1: You know, he knew it was silly and.
Speaker 3: Spill and Spielberg that was his concern. He wasn't sure
Speaker 3: if it was supposed to be supposed to be laughing
Speaker 3: at this. So I like and I just like, I
Speaker 3: love that Steven Spielberg gave the director right of way. Yeah,
Speaker 3: that's that's Steven Spielberg story. He could have said, mate,
Speaker 3: trust me, I made Jaws, Yeah, check it out.
Speaker 1: And John Days like Piranha.
Speaker 2: So so we're kind of equal. I love the Spielberg
Speaker 2: said no, your movie.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I know. And because because it is a big
Speaker 1: strange moment, I can see why Silberg. You know, he
Speaker 1: could have easily gone, like, we just rap him it out.
Speaker 1: It doesn't work and it slays it.
Speaker 3: But good on him. Yeah, it's certainly like got us talking. Yeah,
Speaker 3: oh it's a very it's a very talky. It's a
Speaker 3: conversation starter. The other another thing that I noticed was
Speaker 3: the priest too. Basically he's not is this basically an extra,
Speaker 3: But this is a moment where the gremlins are in
Speaker 3: the letterbox and he goes and he realizes there's gremlins
Speaker 3: in the letterbox. So and then he just allows the
Speaker 3: next guy who comes up, which is a fundament I
Speaker 3: don't know, but the next gout to come up and
Speaker 3: he just steps back and watches.
Speaker 1: Nothing about this letterbox.
Speaker 3: Yeah, go for you, you get your hand torn off.
Speaker 3: I would have thought a Catholic priest might say, son,
Speaker 3: do not there is something and evil, there is a
Speaker 3: demon I'll get, I'll get my Christ will perform an extoricism. No,
Speaker 3: just you tested that for me, mate.
Speaker 2: Thanks.
Speaker 1: I think it's best not to ask so many questions,
Speaker 1: isn't it?
Speaker 3: And like these like this, I love doing this because
Speaker 3: like when we did Love Actually with Eddie Bannon, we
Speaker 3: tore that film apart, and I'm always I'm always at
Speaker 3: pains to say we are not here in a way
Speaker 3: that change your mind on what you think of a movie.
Speaker 3: I still I still really enjoy love actually, even though
Speaker 3: we did point out all the plot holes in that
Speaker 3: film and I and I've personally spoken to people who
Speaker 3: love that movie and listen to the podcasts and weren't sure,
Speaker 3: you know, I don't keep loving the film. Yeah, it's
Speaker 3: about how it makes you feel, and that's great. And
Speaker 3: this is I think this is a this is a
Speaker 3: great film. This is a great film.
Speaker 2: And if you compare it to some of the monster
Speaker 2: movies that inspired.
Speaker 3: You know, Critters and and then there's some troll type
Speaker 3: films around that time, this is easily still the goat
Speaker 3: as far as those films are really inspired, like a
Speaker 3: subgenre of horror films.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and the premise is so clever, like and we
Speaker 1: haven't talked about the role. I didn't realize it was
Speaker 1: a Roll Dale story Gremlins, Yeah, but very I think
Speaker 1: it's very different to what I haven't read. Yeah, well
Speaker 1: Dale story.
Speaker 3: But yeah, so Gremlins was the Rod Daal wrote a
Speaker 3: book I think in nineteen forty three called Gremlin his
Speaker 3: first kid's book, his first kids book.
Speaker 2: Yeah, so this is where this term comes from.
Speaker 3: And then and then I think people obviously the war
Speaker 3: was going on around at times, So whenever there was
Speaker 3: something wrong with an aircraft, they would often say there's
Speaker 3: gremlins in the system or the gremlins have got to it,
Speaker 3: and that's popularized that kind of quasi kind of expression
Speaker 3: of the there's gremlins in the system. So yeah, it's
Speaker 3: it's it's it's incredible. We haven't spoken about Stripe. It's important,
Speaker 3: you know, to have you know, there's a group of villains,
Speaker 3: but a specific villain. Yeah, clever to give him a.
Speaker 1: Physical Yeah, yeah, he is the Joe.
Speaker 2: Pesky of the gremlins.
Speaker 3: Here's a Tommy DeVito in this story, like he is
Speaker 3: a mean yeah mother, Yeah, yeah, no doubt about that.
Speaker 1: Yeah, he's great. I really I really liked him about
Speaker 1: have about.
Speaker 3: The gag At one point I meant to mention when
Speaker 3: you mentioned the jazz at the bar, the jazz scene
Speaker 3: of the puppet on the puppet, like that meta little
Speaker 3: gag of having a gremlin who is a puppet, yeah,
Speaker 3: with two puppets on their hands. I thought it was
Speaker 3: very funny as well. I've got some fun facts before
Speaker 3: we before we wrap this up. I'm sure you probably
Speaker 3: know this, Trent. You may have even recognized it, but
Speaker 3: the Kingston Falls the set you may recognize it because
Speaker 3: it was the same set used in Back to the Future.
Speaker 3: I was I was kind of expecting to be actually
Speaker 3: the same set as It's Wonderful life as well, because
Speaker 3: it feels so totally so much it's wonderful. It's a
Speaker 3: backlot on at Universal Studios.
Speaker 1: So the clock tower, the club you see the famous
Speaker 1: clock tower from Back to the Future, I think, yes,
Speaker 1: and the cinema I think are the main two.
Speaker 3: And there's all these little easter eggs in it as
Speaker 3: far as like et Stripe hides behind and Et. At
Speaker 3: one point in the bar, one of the gremlins is
Speaker 3: playing the Star Wars video game.
Speaker 1: Cool does there's a moment I couldn't quite hear it,
Speaker 1: but I think there's a moment where the mum's trying
Speaker 1: to make a phone call and the phone home.
Speaker 2: It's so good, it's it is so good.
Speaker 3: It's an extraordinary like all the gremlins are puppets, Like
Speaker 3: there's a shipload of puppets. And one of the executives said,
Speaker 3: I think there needs to be less gremlins. Yeah, let's
Speaker 3: have less gremlins, And Steven Spielberg said again, what a genius.
Speaker 3: He says, Oh, why don't we just make them people
Speaker 3: and call the film people.
Speaker 1: It's a great comeback. Are you going to like there?
Speaker 1: I also read that there were gremlins originally going to
Speaker 1: be monkeys with masks.
Speaker 2: Please tell us about this. Yeah, I tried it.
Speaker 3: They tried it, and the Webers did not like wearing
Speaker 3: a gremlin mask. A shock horror that would have been
Speaker 3: just impossible to film. I would imagine thinking that was
Speaker 3: an easier way to do things than actually using puppets.
Speaker 1: Yeah, but it does make you realize those big scenes
Speaker 1: where there was what twenty or thirty gremlins would have
Speaker 1: been Wow, that would have been amazing to film like
Speaker 1: that would have been such a difficult thing to coordinate
Speaker 1: all those puppeteers, and and it was, and they're brilliant
Speaker 1: those scenes. I think that's the kind of the bit
Speaker 1: that makes me go of Gremlins is Yeah, as you say,
Speaker 1: the greatest of all time in this genre because those
Speaker 1: scenes are so funny. But there was no green screen, right,
Speaker 1: It's just all all happening as you see it, which
Speaker 1: is very cool.
Speaker 3: Yeah, or practical, this affected the rating system, So this
Speaker 3: basically the PG thirteen rating came out because of Gremlins
Speaker 3: and also Temple of Doom. Spielberg fought hard because he
Speaker 3: thought there needed to be something between PG and rate
Speaker 3: of R. So pg's amperenal guidance are you know, all
Speaker 3: the scary movies And it was too violent for PG,
Speaker 3: but not viold enough for so PG thirteen was born,
Speaker 3: which is very interesting. I mentioned it was released in
Speaker 3: the same day as ghost Bus is. Apparently in the
Speaker 3: convention when Deadbeat Dad is calling, there is a time
Speaker 3: machine from the movie time Machine in the background and
Speaker 3: it disappears at one point. Now I even gone back
Speaker 3: to check this and there's a bit of a reaction
Speaker 3: from those around. Also, Steven Spielberg does a bit of
Speaker 3: Hitchcock cameo and he's in an electric wheelchair in that scene.
Speaker 3: Tim Burton, it was almost given this film to direct,
Speaker 3: which would have been his debut feature and the only
Speaker 3: reason they didn't give it to him because he hadn't
Speaker 3: directed a feature film. You can imagine Tim Burton totally.
Speaker 1: Yeah, that would be brilliant.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: I have one final question for you. What do you
Speaker 1: think Do you think there's some sort of allegory or
Speaker 1: metaphor what like the Gremlins represent from gizmo chair to
Speaker 1: look that up, and no one had like a concrete theory.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I know there was. There's there's a show called
Speaker 3: Dear White People, and I haven't seen much of that
Speaker 3: at all, but I did see a short clip and
Speaker 3: it wasn't long enough for me to really kind of
Speaker 3: but they I imagine they suggesting there's a race element
Speaker 3: to Gremlins and there's there's no black people. Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 3: which is incredible common when we look back at films
Speaker 3: from the eighties and even in the nineties.
Speaker 2: Did you think there's something going on?
Speaker 1: I did read that there was an allegory for commercialism
Speaker 1: and how that's kind of corrupted us. But then Gremlins
Speaker 1: is one of the biggest merchandising films of all time.
Speaker 2: And I wonder if to.
Speaker 3: Think both can be true that the Chris Columbus wrote
Speaker 3: potentially they say that was true, and then but then
Speaker 3: the studio go, Okay, you can write your andti commercialism thing,
Speaker 3: but we need to make it buck Yeah, yeah, we
Speaker 3: need to make this work. So I mean both can
Speaker 3: potentially be true. Also, you could see that, as you know,
Speaker 3: Americans interference or you know, with with you know in
Speaker 3: foreign places, you know, like they go to China, but
Speaker 3: they're in Chinatown and they steal something. Stealing is you know,
Speaker 3: is in vera commas because the boy does give it
Speaker 3: to him. If he does, I think he does, he
Speaker 3: actually end up paying for he have the money.
Speaker 1: I don't know.
Speaker 2: I'm not sure.
Speaker 1: They could just be alcohol as well, like could you
Speaker 1: go from a gizmo to a stripe with a few
Speaker 1: beers some people?
Speaker 2: That's very true.
Speaker 3: Another little easter egg on the on the cinema, there's
Speaker 3: a film plan called A Boy's Life, which is a
Speaker 3: fake name given to et and they said they shipped
Speaker 3: it in there's so much buzz around the next Spielberg film.
Speaker 3: In this movie, they shipped it in the in the
Speaker 3: theaters under you know, under the guys of the title
Speaker 3: A Boy's Life. Yeah, I think they're all fun. Fact
Speaker 3: before we go, the final scene is when the gentleman
Speaker 3: from the store comes back to reclaimed gizmo and he says,
Speaker 3: you know, he says, that looks very sheepish during this.
Speaker 3: He knows, he knows he calls this he's not remorseful
Speaker 3: enough of my life. But he does say to him,
Speaker 3: you are not responsible enough for this, and I thought, yeah, no, ship,
Speaker 3: very big understatement. Well, this podcast comes with homework. I
Speaker 3: really appreciate you watching this. I want to congratulate you
Speaker 3: on your kids book, Stunt Kids. It's such a glorious reader.
Speaker 3: It's like you yourself. It's funny, it's full of joy,
Speaker 3: it's really positive and you must be very proud.
Speaker 1: I am really excited about it. It's got a great
Speaker 1: response from kids, and that's obviously who it's saying about.
Speaker 1: So yeah, and that's been an incredible ride. And yeah,
Speaker 1: thanks for your support of the book as well. Your name.
Speaker 1: Obviously he is underneath mine on the cover recommending it.
Speaker 1: So that's a beautiful thing.
Speaker 2: My absolute pleasure. It's such a fun read.
Speaker 3: So if you've got kids around, like the eight to
Speaker 3: twelve kind of a middle grade, get Stunt Kids. It
Speaker 3: is a fantastic read. If they love Frankie Fish though,
Speaker 3: they're gonna love Stunt Kids. And yeah, my congratulations again
Speaker 3: on all everything you're doing. We're gonna go have some
Speaker 3: lunch and thanks for doing. Thanks watching Gremlins for us.
Speaker 1: Thanks for having me. I've absolutely loved it. It's been awesome.
Speaker 2: There we go.
Speaker 3: It was Gremlin's with my great mate Trent Roberts. What
Speaker 3: a fantastic man, beautiful man is Trent. Check out Stunt
Speaker 3: Kids is his book. It's on the shelves. If it's
Speaker 3: not that your bookstore. You can do this with any book.
Speaker 3: If they don't have the book you're looking for, just
Speaker 3: ask them the order it in.
Speaker 2: That's what they do.
Speaker 3: Trent is a fantastic like and I appreciate him doing
Speaker 3: his homework. Gremlins, What a fun film that was to
Speaker 3: talk about. I didn't realize almost the resentment I had
Speaker 3: towards Billy. What a soft character he was very rarely
Speaker 3: Derek Myers from Casway Studios dot com. Do you get
Speaker 3: a character as soft as Billy as the lead? But
Speaker 3: maybe you can make the point that actually it was
Speaker 3: Gizmo in the lead or maybe Stripe?
Speaker 2: Who knows. Did you enjoy Gremlins?
Speaker 7: Oh? Absolutely it was. To me it was realistic effects.
Speaker 2: It's fun at the time. Yeah, it was awesome, And
Speaker 2: like I said when I was watching.
Speaker 3: It, I've seen clips over the years and I thought
Speaker 3: otherways you could see the puppetry in that, but watching
Speaker 3: it as a whole, it works, It still works and
Speaker 3: holds up really well. I really enjoyed it, so we
Speaker 3: would love you to help get the word out for
Speaker 3: you ain't seen nothing yet. So things you can do
Speaker 3: is you can go to iTunes and leave a review
Speaker 3: and give us a five star review.
Speaker 2: It helps.
Speaker 3: It just keeps us in the conversation, It helps the
Speaker 3: algorithm all those technical things. Tell your friends come along
Speaker 3: to one of our live shows. That would be fantastic.
Speaker 3: We had an episode, a one hundred episode coming up,
Speaker 3: and I'll announce who the guests will be and the film.
Speaker 2: It'll be very soon.
Speaker 3: Give you a clue there's been a previous guest who
Speaker 3: may have done the first episode. Anyway, we'll chat more,
Speaker 3: maybe next week we can have an announcement on that.
Speaker 3: You can email us at Yasney Podcast at gmail dot com.
Speaker 3: Of course, love to hear your voice on the speak pipe,
Speaker 3: so go follow the links through our page and you
Speaker 3: can leave a message. You'd love to hear your voice.
Speaker 3: It makes it all the more exciting and intimate, not
Speaker 3: in a weird way. I feel free to leave us
Speaker 3: a speak pipe, but you know, if you're a bit shy,
Speaker 3: you want to send us an email, you can at
Speaker 3: Yasney podcast at Gmail.
Speaker 7: Hey Pete, I've got an email here. I've been waiting
Speaker 7: for YEP for five seasons.
Speaker 2: Five c Wow, that is all right.
Speaker 7: This one is short and sweet, but it's from Mick
Speaker 7: and it says, Hey Pete, I so love the podcast.
Speaker 7: Got you Mick long shot, but love to hear a
Speaker 7: Monty Python.
Speaker 3: It Well, wouldn't we all? Absolutely? I mean that will happen.
Speaker 3: That would definitely happen. It's about finding like it's we
Speaker 3: constantly have requests for Tarantino films, for a bit more Hitchcock.
Speaker 3: I'm I'm sure if I've done Hitchcock yet, I don't
Speaker 3: think we have. And then Mighty Python's also on the list.
Speaker 3: But what I can't do is I can nudge people
Speaker 3: towards certain movies, but they need to be excited to
Speaker 3: watch the movie. So the problem also those films is
Speaker 3: that most people have seen most who are interesting films.
Speaker 3: I have seen Tarantino films, and most comedians have seen
Speaker 3: Life of Brian and the Holy Grail, And so it's
Speaker 3: they're on the list.
Speaker 2: They're on the list.
Speaker 1: Mick.
Speaker 3: I will try to nudge people towards Muney Python and
Speaker 3: be a fun one to do. Absolutely one of my
Speaker 3: favorite films of all time, no doubt, Life of Brian.
Speaker 3: So you have been heard, Mick. We appreciate you, and
Speaker 3: hopefully maybe this season we can get somebody to watch
Speaker 3: Life of Brian for the first time. That would have
Speaker 3: been experience. Wouldn't imagine watching that for the first time, now,
Speaker 3: I'd be fantastic.
Speaker 7: I tried watching The Holy Grail with my daughter the
Speaker 7: other day and she was like, oh, Dad, can we
Speaker 7: watch something else. I'm like, every two seconds, way, wait, wait, wait,
Speaker 7: one more minute, this is the this is epic, this
Speaker 7: bit coming up.
Speaker 1: It was just constantly, Yeah.
Speaker 3: I do find the Life of Brian a much I think,
Speaker 3: a much better film than Holy Grad and much funnier.
Speaker 3: I I the Holy Grail. I do like I do
Speaker 3: like if I was being a little bit critical, I
Speaker 3: would go it's it's it's more it's pure silliness and nonsense,
Speaker 3: which is fine, that's very it's all very funny, where
Speaker 3: Life of Brian has more meat on its bones, and
Speaker 3: it's just it just seems the character working that is
Speaker 3: just I think brilliant and Yeah, but you know, it's
Speaker 3: like comparing Godfather three. We Godfather's Part one and two,
Speaker 3: Like Life Brian is one of the all time great comedies.
Speaker 3: It's in like It would be surely in the top
Speaker 3: five comedies of all time, if not the top one.
Speaker 3: With this is My All to Happen, you know, playing
Speaker 3: Strange and Momobiles. Maybe maybe not on the list. On
Speaker 3: the list next week on the show.
Speaker 2: This is a big one.
Speaker 3: It's a bit of a unique one. I'm very excited
Speaker 3: about this. The first time we've had multiple guests on
Speaker 3: the same show. It is the Gang, the hilarious Gang.
Speaker 3: They have taken the comedy world by storm over the
Speaker 3: last year and a bit. They are Sushi Mango. If
Speaker 3: you're not following them, get onto them on Instagram. I'm
Speaker 3: sure they're on YouTube and all that, but I follow
Speaker 3: them on Instagram. Sushi Mango spelled so Shi Mango. They
Speaker 3: are playing stadiums right now, over and over again, all
Speaker 3: around the country. Literal stadiums, Rod Laver Arena, they played
Speaker 3: in Melbourne. They are massive and they're going to come on.
Speaker 3: The boys have never seen the movie Napoleon Dynamite. Yes,
Speaker 3: we are moving from the eighties, we are heading up
Speaker 3: to the nineties and Napoleon Dynamite. It was the birth
Speaker 3: of John Heath. A great film. I have seen it
Speaker 3: many times. I watched it not too long ago with
Speaker 3: my kids actually, and they loved it. If you haven't
Speaker 3: seen Napoleon Dynamite, check it out. It's going to be
Speaker 3: a big episode next week in the studio with the
Speaker 3: boys and Sushi Mango Napoleon Dynamite.
Speaker 2: Until then, by for an hour, and so we leave
Speaker 2: old Pete
Speaker 3: Say Man Salt and to our friends of the radio audience,
Speaker 3: we've been a pleasant good night.