In the Blink of an Eye with Joey Sims

[MUSIC] All we share, and all we experience, podcasts across time. Echoes across time is the tagline. >> I'm surprised there's no IMDB quote page for what I believe holds the record for the most existent film of 2026. >> This is a fun recurring game when I tell people- >> Like movie that least exists that we've covered or- >> No, no, no, no, you tell people that we're covering- >> What are you guys recording these days? >> I go, we're actually doing the understanding. Oh, that's exciting. So wait, so it's what? I go find Nemo and Wally, right, John Carter, oh, right, and then what since then, and I go finding Dorian, they go sure, sure, sure, and in the blink of an eye, and they go, what's that? >> In the what of a what? >> Right, and I go, he made like a smaller live action sci-fi, we're all connected drama, and they go, what year did that come out? And I go, well, here's a surprise for you. In fact, mere months ago, it premiered at this year's Sundance Film Festival, and went on Hulu February 27th of 2026, yep. >> I found myself taking a back all over again literally last night when I looked it up on Wikipedia. I was just like checking something, and at the top it said 2026. And I again had a renewed moment of like, wait, that can be right. But this year- >> It's not even a, oh my god, this year's been so long that in the blink of an eye was 2026. You know, in some ways, this year's kind of gone fast me in the blink of an eye. >> Well, actually, is this the most relevant movie of 2026? Because of how fast things move? >> Ah, so fast. >> Yeah. February, yeah, yeah, it came out, and I rushed to Hulu, and then I was like, wow, I'm going to cover it on the podcast anyway. >> So I guess I'll let it simmer. >> Ben and I were supposed to go to the premiere of this film in New York City that did not happen because of the snowstorm. >> Oh, that's right. >> So it was like it premiered at Sundance, and then there was supposed to be- >> Coworks so ran close the subways. >> The proper New York premiere. >> What? >> 20 inches of snow, what's the big deal? >> The following week. >> No. >> And it was like six hours before the premiere got an email that was like, never mind. >> Yeah. >> The Regal Union Square is closing. The events is not happening. >> On fun fact, on the same day, if we're talking about the same weather event, because there were two. >> Yeah, that's true. >> But on the same day, I was supposed to attend a marathon play reading session of the five, I think it was five different works of the playwright Tracey Letz. >> Oh, well, well. >> For the end of the show. >> Yes, that's where you stay. >> And you're coming in next week, in fact. >> Yes. >> Now that Tracey's become a full-time podcast, I'm also just kind of like listening to Tracey Letz every day. I think he's going to be like parachute into the sports podcast I listened to. He'll just kind of be like ever-present. He just like lives in the ringer offices. >> Yeah. >> Reviewing Quiz Nose on "Dowboys." >> And it's like, fun fact about that guy. Pulitzer Prize winning playwright. >> Yeah. >> In fact, on top of all this great podcast. >> He likes to make that joke of like, that stuff, that's my hobby. >> Right. >> This is my real job. >> This is my job. >> And increasingly, it's starting to feel like he's actually proving that way. >> Wait, Joey. >> Okay, well, they were going to read five Tracey Letz plays back. >> Don't quote me on the five. >> They were going to do like an all-day marathon. >> Okay. >> Tracey Letz plays. >> So wait. >> I'll guess so, Cish County. Susical the musical. What were the other two? >> No. >> Wait, now I need to look up what they were. >> What? >> Killer Joe. >> Killer Joe. >> I would assume is one of the big ones. >> We got Killer Joe. >> Well, we do have Killer Joe on this episode. That's a bit of a spoiler. Superior Donuts, which I should bring up to Tracey Letz. I'm going to see him and ask him. When is the next CBS sitcom adaptation of one of his plays going to premiere? >> It is. >> So funny that happened. >> It would just be so funny if CBS was like, we're going to do a bug sitcom. It's about a wacky motel. >> I mean, it's a little like Alice doesn't live here anymore. >> Right. >> Where you're like, that spawned a network sitcom that ran for years. >> And they're like, look. Her name's Alice. She's a waitress. >> It's a waitress. >> After that, we kind of did our own thing. >> You're doing the same thing. >> But you're like, I don't know. >> Guy owns a donut shop. People show up. >> Well, I've never seen the place of Superior Donuts. The place of Superior Donuts is a lighter. >> It's lighter. >> It's a bit lighter relatively speaking. The place included in the festival, which was never rescheduled. I'm sad to say. >> It's rude. >> Was Tracy going to be there? >> I don't know. >> But presumably, you could ask me about it. Augusto Sage County. We're going to open with that. >> Wow. >> Killer Joe, Linda Vista, The Minutes, and Man from Nebraska. >> That's funny that it was, yeah, no bug, no doughnuts. >> No bug, no doughnuts. >> But all of his regulars were slated for this day long thing. Margot Martindale was going to be there. Lily Raib, Thomas Sadosky. >> This is a whole Matthew Lillard was going to be reading one of those. >> It's going to be the little second most incredible cultural event in New York City that night. >> Yes. >> Behind Ben and I attending the Blink of an eye premiere. Yeah, interesting that you chose not to go bug nuts. Neither bug nor doughnuts. >> I guess bug is like, it's like, wow, you can go see that on Broadway. >> But it was probably because bug was playing on Broadway. >> And spare doughnuts, you can scale Paramount Plus, you can climb the mountain and watch all. >> Let's find out. >> Can you? >> How many episodes of Superior doughnuts do we think there were? Of course, the Tracy Let's sitcom adaptation, starring Jud Hersh and Jermaine Fowler. >> I'm going to guess 26. I mean, yeah, like two seasons of 13 each. It's my guess, but I'm not sure. >> Do you want to-- >> I think-- >> Does anyone else want to-- >> Wait, is that a bit or was it actually renewed for a second season? >> It was two seasons of Superior doughnuts. >> There were two seasons of Superior doughnuts. >> I thought it was like two episodes cancel type deal. >> No. >> I'm going to guess 40. >> Anyone else want to, you know, price is right, you know, kind of close without going over. >> 32. >> All right, I hear 32. I think it's 26. >> 26. >> 26. >> 42. >> 42. >> 43. >> The answer is 34. Ben, because-- >> Wow! >> Ben, Mark, I don't think that. >> So what do I get? >> You've got a Superior doughnut. >> Yeah. >> You'll get one at some point. >> One? >> You're now responsible for rescheduling the Tracy Letts marathon. >> Yeah. >> And producing it. >> It was in the blink of an eye premiere. You have to reschedule that. >> We got to do that. >> The first season was 13 episodes. The second season was a full network season. 21 episodes. >> 21 episodes. >> There we go. >> Yeah. >> And then they canceled it. And then they canceled it. Let's see. Along with Kevin can wait. And some of my other favorite shows. Nine J-K-L. >> Yeah. >> Yeah, that was a Mark Fibliquely. >> What the fuck is this shit? >> Right. Living Biblically I think was, it was based on that book, The Year of Living Biblically. And it's sort of like Bible Yes Man, where a guy has to carefully decide, starting J.R. Ferguson from Edmond. >> Yes. >> This is before he basically became a regular on the Conners. Of course. >> He was the best American comedy series. >> And then they also canceled Dan Coppelman's Me Myself and I, which was the Bobby Moynihan sitcom. I think that was a big splashy show that I think was the first cancellation of the season. >> Did he leave SNL for that? >> Yup. >> Yup. >> Wait, what? >> What? >> What? >> Yes, really? >> Are you not for it? >> Correct. >> Like it was the first thing he did at least. >> Yeah, I guess you're right, Dan. >> Yeah. >> 2017? >> Yeah. >> No, that was, I mean, talk about a different time. Nine years ago. >> Bring it back. >> Bring Bobby back. >> Why not? >> You know what he's not saying. >> He's just gonna have on someday. >> I would, Bobby. >> I would love to have Bobby right now. Bobby's taste, my friend Bobby who I'm referring to by his first name, is like, you know, we'd want a movie that he's passionate about. Like, you know, he loves the, he loves the goofy stuff, the silly stuff. >> He loves the five stuff. >> He loves the mopets. >> He does love the mop. >> He's on the, what should I call it? He's on the Daniel Radcliffe Tracey Morgan show. >> I know. I need to watch this. >> He's constantly on ATV. >> Oh, I know Bobby's busy. It's just like Bobby loved SNL so much. >> Bobby booked in busy. Bobby, and he's hoppers. He's the leader. >> He's the leader. >> He's the king of the box office this year. >> Do you see on first? >> No, it doesn't see often. >> Why not? >> You're like king of the box. >> You know, I haven't been inside like a movie theater in a few months. >> Why not? >> I don't know if I'm luck going on. >> I guess so. >> And you, you guys, who sees like movies instead of Michael? >> Michael? >> And a few months. So you saw Michael early. >> You went to several test screenings and gave them notes. >> Wait, yeah, I was a good soldier on Michael. >> What is that? >> That's a foot. >> That's the Adam Scott. >> No, no. >> It's a nonsense, it's a token. >> Which of course is a synonym for nonsense. >> Yes. >> You haven't seen, wait, come on, wait a second. Now I'm going to get -- >> Yeah, let's go. >> Right to sleep. >> This is blank check code. >> The goat. >> You don't know the goat. You haven't seen the goat. Hit the court. >> The goat ball. >> Or who is Sylvia? What are you -- >> Oh, goat. >> Yeah. >> It was an animated -- that shows you how your brain works. The animated adaptation of Edward Alpes, the goat, or who is Sylvia. My daughter's favorite movie in the year. Yeah, you didn't see -- >> What else we got? >> Did you see Nirvana? The band The Show of the Movie? >> Interesting. >> Yeah, I saw that. >> I saw that. >> I saw that. >> I see. >> Is that the whole joke of Nirvana? >> It's amazing. >> Nirvana? >> Well, it's spelled like that because that's how Canadians say Nirvana. >> Sure. >> And that's why it has the double end. Nirvana. >> I feel like you're bouncing it. >> I feel bouncing it. >> Really hard. Nirvana. >> Simply -- I'm simply going with their big. It was interesting. >> Yeah, so I saw that. Was that my last one? >> Oh, my God. >> Did you see the bone temple? >> No, I saw it. >> January and February, you were getting shit down. >> Yeah, yeah, yeah. >> And then you fell off. >> And then they're wealthy. >> Undertone? >> Scary park out. I was actually intrigued by undertone by the first wave of reactions to undertone where people were like scariest movie ever and then there came a second wave. Yeah, so interesting how that happens with independent horror films that the first reviews from like user I've been paid money on Twitter is like the exorcist is a fucking baby compared to this. You I'm dead. I'm dead. Here's my death certificate. It killed me screen dead in the theater. At screen until you shock underscore XXXXX and then undertone which is a movie I did not like hate but it was I probably is a lot of like what was that? A lady in a did I use to do it is looking behind him and I also made like three million domestic like a one million dollar budget. I don't think it got that far but it did it's sir. I'm sure it made people money like let's see where did it get to? It's one of the team. It's one of those movies where I was like that didn't pan out and then you see the return on investment. And we were like a 24 made it. The budget was probably like 80 cents on that thing is set at a fucking table. Well, they have to work overnight. Yeah, they would write they had the had to film it at 3 a.m. when she is of course logically recording a podcast. There is some there's some shoe leather about like oh he's in a different time zone. That's how they explain that away. Did you see half a million dollars? So it made 40 times. Nice work if you can get a budget. Super Mario Galaxy. Did you, my daughter's other family is naming children. What are the Christopher's? That's good. Go see that. Oh, I don't want to see the Christopher. You like the Christopher. I want the drama. The hot button. Everyone must have a drama nearly made it. What is being put nearly nearly made it to the drama? Then what happened? I just went back and watched all four seasons of 13 reasons why and then because you know it dealt with a lot of the same. A previous part of the same material. Right. Mother Mary. You got to meet mother. You got to meet the mother. No, and I wanted to see that too. But you know, look Christopher's mother Mary. Look, these are movies that I am representative of sadly the average. Yeah, exactly. But we were like, yeah, I want to try to find my try to try to find time for that. But you're going to see mortal combat too. Well, actually yes. Because I saw the first Mortal Kombat in the AMC Empire 25 and which is why I believe is where you're going to see mortal combat too. This is priority, guys. This is this is the right thing to do. I had a great time. Of course. Or maybe it was the air sub zero. So most of the Trump cabinet effect. I'm having fun. You didn't see Project Hill Mary. No, that's the kind of crazy one. He's got a little rock buddy. Yeah, I don't know if you're familiar with this gentleman named Rocky. Rocky. No, and then I he was puppeteered by an artist. So I know well, the guy, right? James Ortiz who did exactly who did. He was the cow guy. He did the into the woods. He was the cow. He comes from the theater world. He did, um, yeah, Milky White for the Into the Woods. The best guy ever saw. Rocky was like a Broadway guy before he made his transition to space. Yes, a rocky rocky operator. Rocky is real. Yes, I know. I was the same one of my good friends with friend of the pod. Rocky Heights. Did you weather? I did. I did. I did. I did. Did you marry? I know. I'm just having fun. Can you tell I'm not like that? You're talking about this. The bride when I thought the bride was musical. I was like. Well, I got to go see that. There's a dash of that. Yeah, there's a dash. They put on the Ritz for 20 minutes or whatever. Yeah. You didn't see it. No. Oh, interesting. Uh, return to time. Hill. You return to sign. Hill. Did you get in the iron lung? I'm just I'm getting deeper now. This is a game I like this time of year. We're recording this episode in May. It will come out in July. Is that correct? It's not. So the summer just kicked off. And it means it's the final moment where the top 10 box office movies of the year is still kind of wacky. Right? Where it's not like there are movies that can be in the top 10 that were not blockbusters. Sure. So reminders of him is currently the 10th highest grossing film of the year. We love it. Just get another Hollywood. Who for a joint. Yeah, but the drama might overtake it. The drama might briefly be the 10th highest. Because the drama has really been, uh, had stayed hold instead. Yeah. Yeah. But right now. Yeah. Super Mario Galaxy project. Hail Mary, Michael Hopper's devil wears Prada to haven't seen. Uh, oh, no. Yeah. I do need to see that. Scream seven goat, weathering heights, send help. So send. Okay. So you saw two out of the 10. This year's needed Joe in the cinema. You're seeing too many dang plays. You're seeing too many days. March and April is the height of the of the theater. It's on the theater. Tony season. But I'm usually not totally absent from the movie theater. It's something went wrong. You work in the theater district. Not again, not deduct you. You host a theater podcast houseclose. It's called houseclose. It's called houseclose theater. We saw theater. We saw. Yes, which I hosted my friend Connor Scully. But we'll talk about that and we'll introduce what this show is in one second. But because you work in the theater district, you are near the two busiest. This is true and movie theaters in New York are like, you know, the M. Sampire. You know, what's on screen 25, baby? Well, this is what I used to. Yeah. This is what I used to do. This is how my life used to be structured when I had different part time jobs in Midtown. Is that it would be like I'd go in in the morning, do like a shift at one job. Go to the Empire, the Empire. You take off your Aladdin outfit. You take Joe used to wear an Aladdin outfit. It didn't work. You ride the wheel. I was a washer at Aladdin. Did you have like a hat or something? I think you're conflating it with when I worked in sessions at Elf the Musical. And I wore like a little Elf hat. A little a little Elf hat. Yes. Any I wore like a uniform as an Usher at Aladdin. But just like, you know, you'd ride the carpet down to the end of the block. And then I'd have a few hours before my evening work. So then yeah, I'd slot into whatever was playing in screen 24 at the 25. You know, so that was how I saw a lot of George Flint. A rat originated Santa Claus in Elf the Musical. Yeah, that was I. My first job in the city was doing concessions at the revival. Broadway the second 2012 way night was sent of Elf of Elf the Musical. I would it's not was not a revival. It was just them. It was just the revival on Wikipedia. I guess it is. You could it was basically just them doing the same thing again. Right. Just like a second engagement of the same production. It was this will only run eight weeks a year. It will come back only in the holiday. They were just they brought it back two years in a row. And then they brought it back again a few years. And then like if they don't bring it to Broadway, then it tours over the. The Grinch musical was done on the West end four separate times. Yeah, and it was not even set in England. Who was Santa was Santa my just my Santa my for my one for the second one was. Way night. Yeah, great. The only Santa I recognize among the British revivals is the third time. Oh, no, I'm sorry. No, I don't know any of the British ones. The third time they did it on Broadway though, it was Sean Aston. Now, do you like getting that call is Sean Aston? Where they're like, we think you're Santa size now. You know, Sean. We saw like Santa we saw you recently. Yeah, and sort of Santa age. Are you ready to put on the beer? And George went both have years on him. They do. Do credit to Sean Aston went and night did the original. The national president of original. Yes, exactly. The original Santa track of that show, which is he pops up basically at the beginning and at the end. And that's it. Yeah. So for them, they're like great, easy game, Broadway money, whatever. Yeah, right. For Aston, they reworked it so that he had a second role in the show that he played for a significant business of the minister. Greenway. It was the, it was like the evil boss. Oh, the one who's like your emotion company. That kind of makes them had a clean president. It is stood in bad. It's a captain hooked Mr. Darling. That kind of thing. Interesting. No, no, no. Not the father. You're saying he played the James Con character's boss. Yes, the Michael learners role in the movie. I suppose that I'm just saying like sort of father figures. But I guess you're right that James Conn is more of a father figure too. And Jake Conn and Asner are the two big father figures to buddy. They are. They are. But everyone forgets that Academy Award nominee Michael. A great actor. Is someone his life played an ornery boss? I want that. Do you think Michael Erner may be contributed to a sort of negative stereotype over the years. The amount of bosses he played behind desk yelling. I don't know. I don't know. Listen, this is Blankcheck with Griffin and David. I'm Griffin. I'm David. It's podcast about filmography directors who have massive success early on in their careers and are given as the reason Blank checks to make whatever crazy passion projects they want. Sometimes those checks clear. Sometimes they bounce baby. And sometimes they vanish into the ether. They do. And the blink of an eye. This was a one-blink movie. Blink of an eye. And this one blinked. I almost was like, has it left to you? And there's like, no, it's there. Okay, a few. It is wild that twice he has had this ultimate get out of jail free card. Like, guys, don't worry. Toy Story 5 is coming out in months. Yeah. New year weeks from now. Yeah. I will have one of the highest grossing films of the year. Well, I also feel like John Carter was an actual like much discussed bomb. Whereas this is more just something like no one never really knew it happened. So it's less, it'll stick to him a little bit. It's an interesting. Right. Is it worse to have the most existent bomb in history or a true tree falls in the middle of the woods and no one's there to hear it movie? - Right, I think it's better to have the, I made a movie that didn't exist. - Like Chris Whites, who's been on her show and discussed this, he made the Golden Compass, a movie that bankrupted a studio. God bless, love you, Chris. And then if you knew line, Rest in Power. - Yeah, Rest in Power. Now you're a single, went to the great shingle area and this guy, and then he made Afraid. - Mm-hmm. - That's how I refer to it. - Yes. - Afraid. - Afraid. - You see, you don't even know what happens? - Afraid. - Yeah, he made a movie called, - I don't even know about these movies. - Exactly, he made an AI horror movie called Afraid, but the AI in Afraid is capitalized. - Yes, Afraid. - Not his title. It had different title. - No, it had, it was called they listen. - Yes. - And then Sony was like, "It should be called Afraid." - Afraid. - And he has copped to its non-existence on this very show. - Yes. - He made a movie that didn't exist. - He went to a Barton Fink-esque atonement, yes. - Also this movie premiered at Sundance and then dropped on Hulu like a month later. - Uh-uh. - Yeah. - So it's not, so I don't know all the behind the scenes, but that doesn't give a feeling of them being like, oh, we want to try to get someone to put this in theaters. - That was always the exact plan and he has been transparent about. When they greenlit this movie, they were like, "It's going to Hulu by Hulu." Hulu original, I think the Sundance premier, if anything was sort of a gesture of goodwill or a kind of like, but you can be at a festival, that's cool. - Yes. - It was, right, that is the way to give this movie a launch. I don't know how much of an effort they would put into a traditional marketing campaign, if not for, we could go to Sundance and you could do a bunch of interviews and a screen with a lot of press there. - It can happen that the film debuts at Sundance and people like, we don't like it. - Sure. - Oh, that's bad. - But I know the date was set for when it was dropping on Hulu before it went to Sundance. In my memory, there was sort of an all-in-one announcement of this will premiere at Sundance and go to Hulu on February 27th. It's called In The Blink of an Eye. It's a film made by Andrew Stanton, whose films we're covering and the main series we're calling. Podsy. - Oh. (laughs) - You like it? Joey's kind. - I don't want to do real the series. - It's going to look really good. - It's going to be far along to you. - It's going to look really good in the car. - We've probably got one or five left, right? - Yeah, yeah, so you better like it. - Joey, I-- - So we've done, you guys have done John Carter. - We leaped across that one. - Yeah, of course. - We used the John Carter guest. - That's it. - The great mad singer. - Are you, are you a John Carter fan interrogator? - Are you Joey Simms of Mars? - Yeah. - You know, I rewatched a chunk of it ahead of this episode. I didn't, wasn't able, I didn't have time to get through the whole thing. It didn't play as well to me as the first time I watched it. I remember watching it a few years ago and being like, this is kind of like a glorious mess. Like, wow, this is like a crazy. Like, obviously this doesn't work, but what ambition? And I thought I would be revisiting that feeling. And then I watched it again and was like, oh Jesus, this is like-- - Just the way it starts is like so rough. - I think the book ends are tough with that one. I think there were some notes on that from me in the episode. The non-Mars stuff. - Yes. - Yeah. - This is a similarly ambitious movie. I mean, this is not like a-- - That's true. - Yes. - It's less, right. Like, the scale of it is more suggested than shown, but right. - But it does, it is, I would say, narratively and emotionally ambitious. And it does feel like on paper, a high risk movie, a, if you don't get this right, it's gonna be embarrassing kind of movie. - Right. - Who's our guest? - Our guest, as I said, Joey Sims, host of House Close, which I googled to make sure I was getting the name of the podcast correct. And are you aware, Joey, that there is another podcast hosted by a man named Joey Sims? I assume not you. I assume you're not doing double duty, called Healing Word. Join Joey Sims as we are challenged by studying the Bible to grow in our relationship with God and encourage to apply God's Word in our life. It sounds like, right material for a J Ferguson sitcom. - Yes, House Close. - Yes. - Peter, we saw with Sims and Scully. - Big two. - My co-host, the big two. My co-host, being the lovely honor Scully, a theater producer. And we see, yeah, I'm doing my plug. - Do your part. - We see two shows together. Sometimes the guests will also have seen the same two shows that are either currently running, like Broadway, off Broadway, off Broadway, whatever. - And then we talk about those two shows. Or in our latest episode, the fourth episode that we just did, it was three, it was three shows. So we're four episodes in and we already broke our format. - You people are sad. - Sorry. - How many of your episodes have been MJ the Musicals before? - Well, we're saving MJ the Musical. So over the summer when things slow down in the theater world, we'll do a 10 episode series, analyzing MJ the Musical, all the decisions that happened there. - Will you, during the slowest months, like check in with more long-running shows? - Yeah, yeah, yeah. We're trying to figure out, like, over the summer, like what fun things can we do? Like, we want to do, like, perfect crime. You know, that show that's been running off Broadway for a million years. - Shall we? - You know about perfect crime. He tempted to go see perfect crime. And in fact, Zach Cherry, very recent guest on the podcast, most recent guest on this podcast. - That's right. - He and I have been strategizing to go see perfect crime together. 'Cause he didn't know about it and I told him and he's fairly obsessed now. - Have you seen it before? - I haven't seen it. It builds itself as New York's longest running play. It is this, like, God-awful, like, murder mystery that's been running out. - I don't get it. What if it's good? - The theater center. - Says here, it's perfect. - Right, right. What used to be the Snapple thing? - It used to be the Snapple theaters. - But then you start the fantastic. - Yes. - Many years ago. - Right, yeah. - And the venue is owned now by the lead actress, right? - I guess. I believe she owns the venue. - Yes. - Yes, that is correct. Content-warning suicide. - This sounds dark. - Well, that's a spoiler. - And she has a beard. - She starts in the show, produces the show, like, hands out the playbills, you know. Like, one of those, she's been doing it since it started. I think she claims she's never missed a performance. I'm not sure if that's true. - No one's checking. - No way. - They're dark on Wednesdays, though, lazy. And they were uninterrupted, you know, up until the pandemic. - I know, I know she's, like, griped about that a lot. - Oh, she didn't want to close. She was, like, okay. (laughing) - But she's, like, missed family members wedding. - Oh, yeah. - And there was a point. - Her children don't know her. - There was a point that she was appearing in another play at the same time and she was still doing perfect murder. Like, for crying a lot, how dare you talk about the best show on earth? - But she would, like, do her walk on in the other play and then run over to the Snapple Theater and do. I, let me know when you actually make plans to go see it 'cause I. - It has done 15,000 performances. - I've been really eager to go and I need the kick in the butt. - It's been running as long as I've been alive essentially. It started a year after I was born, probably in my honor. - I should clarify, their performances were interrupted one other time by a very iconic event. I remember this press release so well, so I was just pulling it back up to remember. Off-Broadway's perfect crime and the office, the musical 'cause the office parody musical runs in the same building. Halt performances due to theft of pipes at the theater. - Is that what just says of copper pipes? - I just wanna find this. - Burgular's broken. - It's all fiction pipes, boy. - Burgular's broke into the vacant restaurant below, made their way to the basement of the building, disconnected and then stole every piece of copper pipe they could find. - Every piece. - The quoting from the press release of the show put out, leaving the building without any access to water, the criminals returned in the early hours today, smashing the front doors. They've not yet been able to blah, blah, blah, blah. Anyway, so they were also interrupted when all their copper pipes were formed. - But what year was that? - We're worthless. That was in 2022. And I don't know if these hoodlums were ever identified. - Did you know that after the end of the show, you are given a two-page insert sheet to explain the show because it's complex? - Yes. - Is that 'cause people were complaining like, I don't understand the ending. - Here are some other facts. It's run in eight different theaters since 1987. - Right, it premiered off-Broad in the West Village at the courtyard playhouse. - In November? - It may not exist anymore. - 2016 Gary Busy spent two weeks in the role of Lionel. - Two, fantastic weeks. - In November, 2016, kicking America while it was down. - Why did he do that? - Right now. - They have starcast other people. John Snyder was briefly in the perfect crime. - I love him. - One of the dukes of Haser. - Perfect politics. - But isn't the other one worse for our both dukes? - No, the Schneider's pretty bad one. - Is Schneider the one who was in Smallville? - Yes, yeah. - Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. - She's never taken a sick day. She's missed only four performances, Catherine Russell. The last in 1995 to attend her brother's wedding. That was the last time she was willing to go to a wedding over doing the show. - So the Snapple has two theaters, two stages. - No longer the Snapple. So it used to be a Spotify Snapple. It's eternally the snappled we're gonna call on that because there used to be this big It was the sample sign, the snapple sign that the cats that would go around and around I'd scale the building to try to see the fact underneath Because it wasn't facing the street. I think it was like perfect cry Don't steal our pipes And they took them off they took them off now. It is just what do you think they're like? Hey, Snapple Do you want to sponsor the theater? They're like we sponsor a theater. I will say if you go to the Wikipedia page for the theater center The image it shows you immediately is snapple You can't shake that you can't shake that I know that the one of the theaters is the Jeriobak theater Mm-hmm. Yeah, that's where it's a fantastic friend for many many years. Yeah, yes Yes, he was in the original and that's where I guess the office musical is the an L I know that I go every night. Yeah, right now. They have perfect crime the office parody musical and they have one other parody Musical going right looks like they also have friends the unauthorized musical parody there again Sinkfeld which is an on authorized signfeld parody musical. Wow. Wow. Well, I Saw also a sadly now closed love actually parody musical at the same at the same venue I it was actually not long after theaters reopened after COVID that I went to see that show we're happy and My main memory of it was that the Alan Rickman character was performed by a guy who is in full like snake garb Anyone would talk to him. He pull out his wand You get it. It was kind of funny. I expect to adultery. There you go Perfect crime opened it reopened April 2021 It was the first show in New York City to get approval from actors equity to resume performances You just imagine the Catherine Russell was like yeah, Di Blasio her thighs for 14 months Like digging her nails and being like when can I get back on the fucking stage Di Blasio appeared at their first performance I think he like made give a little speech. There's fear all of the musical of course, which is about LaGuardia Right, it's the famous Probably musical when will we get our Di Blasio music? Bill is there tall Bill. I was gonna say who's the tallest musical theater actor we have right now Tommy - Like do we have to put Normand Leo butts on stilts to do the blood fuck who. Yeah, who is the tallest? Oh, I'll just Google it. Who is he? Yeah, you bring me over this time Tommy soon did come up Harold McGillen I can tell you sure who is a long time Phantom is six four pretty good No, this all is bill who six seven Timothy Hughes. That's the big man from Haiti's I was thinking of the big guy. No, he's more of an ensemble player He's yeah, very hot, but I remember that with the Haiti's time where there was the one big guy Yeah, the tall because they've got all the guys in the sir with the big hammers who are like, you know in Industrial hell. I mean you're also saying he's more of an ensemble guy This is maybe his breakout. This is the thing that that makes him a leading man. I mean Di Blasio You know what? Get him out there Yeah, you can know first act DeBasio is mayor second act DeBasio is horn dog. I was gonna say entire Yeah, second act is just sitting down with the New York Times for that piece Just like DeBasio like on the apps, you know, it's just like DeBasio being like field a I'll get a match one of these days Even if they hire someone like this huge guy they should still put the actor on stilts and make him so tall that his head is not visible in the Persineo March. That'd be good. It should be like police squad style. He's out of frame You know this one came out in the blink of an eye. Yeah, well, so look look look look there weren't there was nobody out here Who is like when are you guys covering an in blink of an eye and can I be on the show literally nobody nobody Joey has a new show. He is a new podcast. It's a show show about shows. He's my brother And as I mentioned the credits long time brother long to be yours. Hey, and uncle and he is my uncle Funk was my the uncle. So he's a wonderful uncle to my children. How am I kids doing? You're one of your younger sons has some anger issues, but Overall they're doing great. It's rock standing No, be Bob. Oh, they have names. Well, yeah, so funny to watch him do the math. Yes, it's why I teem up every time Because I like that he has to like seriously remember the can and he's maintaining Yeah, so you're like I'd love to you know plug my show on the podcast You know like what's coming up like Scorsese could I do Hugo and I'm like, you know, Hugo's a 2027 episode for us It's gonna be a wise away, you know, and I was like look, you know, it's coming up in the blink of an eye I got an empty spreadsheet cell right here in front of you for a much more recent episode if you'd care to fire up Hulu l u dot com It felt sort of in keeping with my you know some of my appearances so far on the show Lost space was lost in space a great as a sibling's choice. Yes, right at doing And right now actually great. Yes, right doing actually a double sibling episode. Yes, but then polar Express. I can't sure you infected us with That one I requested. Yes, and now now David has seen that movie like 80 times and has like fucking Stockholm syndrome Yeah, I kind of like it never left never never it is fun. It was fun in theaters I was thinking about you know the the the era of the siblings choice I think where we needed to fill slots on the schedule and we were like what are fun ideas for episodes? both of my siblings choices Got 20 years later legacy quals Right, that's a good point. Right. We just had a Romney on the show because yeah, I was proud to space jam Of course got the perfect and well remembered They started a new legacy. Yes, and how'd you rhythm up too lately? So running from twenty twenty eight public anomaly. I was gonna say He's the entire cabinet green lit Michael where he's selecting the car. G He's based from looking. No, this is this the John Cheetley. I think yes, his name is algae rhythm Conor alif has a running bit where he insists on calling that character the king of content Even though he's never seen the movie and you won't be corrected on it Yeah, and I was like, oh, what are the chances we get a loss in space like a sequel and you're like they're actually zero We got the Netflix series But I think with hurt dead Oh, yeah, that's the top reason that's the top reason Who's gonna bring the hurt if not big look ultimate is after after a massing power at paramount Goldsmith is like calling up the exact thing like a listen. I wrote a draft Wait a second, David. I think I know what you're gonna say. Well, I mean, I was trying to point to one I was trying to point to our president red Hulk is over there, but we bought new shell were remodeling the office I'm not sure where president Hulk is right now. Do we know Ben? Okay, I'm not I'm not certain he's he's respectively Stuffed away so I did salute him. Let's say he's visiting camp David. Oh, yeah, yeah, I see the blossoms. Yeah Lift Tyler. Where are my pills? So are you suggesting like fucking recast? Harrison Ford You like we got Ford we got Ford everyone else is back Mimi Rogers. Yes Matt Leblanc, Lacey Shabair, Florida. Can you play the kid? Jared Harris, we don't let him talk Yes, Gary oldman only in spider form. Yes Heather Graham Heather Graham. She's probably the most like still looks like herself of all the people I just mentioned like she's aged in two. Yeah, yeah, yeah, she's still Heather Graham. She's doing the new white Lotus season Is she on that? I think so. Did you see our friend Max Miguel is on it? I did see that well well well well Checking in But lost in space too. I'd love to see it. I don't I does seem unlikely I also feel like Stephen Hopkins has not worked of late. Yeah, what was his last film? I don't think he did any more TV films didn't he just retreat back to television? No, you are wrong And I remember his last film of course because it was race the Oens biopic that came out 10 years ago that has a lot of Lenny reef and stall Like you watch it and you're like this is gonna be a Jesse Owens biopic and they're like, yeah, sure He ran the race Lenny reef install though played by Karees van Houton is like a big part of the movie because of course It's about the 36 Olympics, but like it may be a little too concerned with her Probably because she's a fascinating figure in history, but you're kind of like isn't this the Jesse Owens movie? Well, they have a little bit of a will. They won't they think go in Talk about a scene with a movie though dangerous game nightmare and um street right here is a solid genre direct predator to judgment right blown away The ghost darkness or him leveling up like a bigger scale genre then lost in space is like you get to do a big Fucking special effects. This is a giant special effects studio movie. Yeah, right. You know his new line, but still you know and then under suspicion Never seen of course the big three Hackman Freeman Baluchie. Oh, then the life in death in Peter Sellers HBO movie, which is like not bad. Yeah, but is - The reaping. - That's the Hillary Swank. - That's the Hillary Swank 10 plagues of the Bible move. - Correct. - Where she's like, "I have two Oscars, "and Alexa, why are you fighting locus?" (laughing) Hillary, that is a brutal retort. - You know what I mean? 'Cause why are you fighting locus? - It's not like all about Steve or Sandra Bullock. 'Cause like, look, I filmed this right before I wanted us. It's like, it's three years after million dollar a day around like, you have two Oscars. - Yeah. - You had to do the reaping? - Yeah. - And then race. - And then race, yeah, then there's nine years between the reaping and race. And he hasn't made a film since. He's made some TV since. (triumphant music) - You're here to discuss interesting things in the blink of an eye. I want, this came out February 27th. Then I thought, oh, leap day. And then I'm like, oh, no, no, no, no. Leap day is February 29th. Then I had the thought, what movies came out on February 29th? 'Cause that's rare. - Oh, sure. - I found three. - Okay. - You wanna hear 'em? - Yep, please, semi pro. - Yeah. - February 29th, 2008. - Not a good movie in my memory. - No. - You know, they're Berlin Girl. Also February 29th. - Okay. - 2008. - Same year. - Yes, here's the most important. Well, 'cause it's so, every four years, oh yeah, yeah, yeah. - Here's the best one. - Yeah. - An extremely goofy movie. - Okay. - February 29th. - That was pretty funny. - Yeah. - Was it? - Don't get to do that. That was a D.T.V though. - It was, it was direct. - But that's a wonderful film. That's it. And it's a pretty excellent picture. - Yeah, that's great. - What if it's goofy movie back to school? - Oh. - It's like, finally, I get to move out and be my own man. - Right. - And go for college. - I'm saying, and I'm the dean. (laughs) - He decides he wants to take classes and bring disco back. - Oh, of course. - Yeah, so there's a lot of shake your groove thing in that movie. - BB Newworth plays a hot beatnik. Love interest for goof. - Uh-huh. - Yeah. - Max, have a love interest. - He does. I'm trying to remember. - It's gay. - It'd be pretty awesome if they'd done that. - It'd be pretty awesome if in the year 2000. - Fucking get over it. - I'm trying to remember who, voice. I'm sure it was like someone who was on a fucking fox. - Right. - Or WB drama at the time. In the blink of an eye, came out this year. - I'm seeing here that Vicki Lewis is the charismatic - You're right. - And BB Newworth is a librarian. Just let you know. - Okay, so Vicki Lewis is the beatnik who is Max's love interest and BB Newworth is the librarian. - I thought that sounded odd. - Page wise, but I wasn't the same thing. - No, I'm here to tell you the Vicki Lewis plays PJ's love interest for the fucking PJ. - PJ is the best friend. - Forgive me. - You're not remembering who PJ is. - Yeah, of course. - He's Pete's son. - Oh, he's the chunkier one. - He's the bigger guy. - But then wait a second. Does Max not have a love interest? - He's an in-sell. - Okay. - He starts looking at fortune. - I can't believe that I'm doing this. - Okay. - Can we, we're about 45. - Oh, that's right. - You know what? This is gonna be a 90 minute episode anyway. So let's talk about it in the blink of an eye. I do have a dossier if you want me to open it. - Oh, yes. - Part of the bleed JG did research on this move. - This is, that is astonishing. - Yeah. - Look, it's a feature film. - It looks sciencey. - That's true. - I'm sure they built sets and stuff. They didn't just like make it in his backyard. - 2016 Andrew Stanton made Finding Dory. 2026 he made in the blink of an eye. So that's 10 years. - Yeah. - What did he do in between? - Many things. - Live action television. - Yes. - I think basically post-dory his, he basically was like I want to make live action stuff and there's lots of TV and like it's a way to do it. - He did a recent interview leading up to Toy Story 5 where he said that he intends for Toy Story 5 to be his final animated film. And he said it's just that these movies take so long and I love animation but I was never primarily an animation person. I grew up like working at an art house theater in high school and that's when I really fell in love with film and I'm into all different types of movies and it's been a great blessing to work at a place like Pixar and have that sort of freedom and leeway but you can get a lot more done in live action. And I think there was a hope that while Finding Dory resets the board a little bit from the stink of John Carter and now I will try to make a smaller budgeted live action film. And there are many scripts that he has-- - What's our conclusion? - Find up for, but to sort of get his reps in Meanwhile, he did a tremendous amount of live action TV. - He directed episodes five and six of the second season of Stranger Things. I haven't seen them because Barb's not involved. So obviously my stance on Stranger Things is no Barb, no David, my barb purest. A barb absolutist in fact. - Yes, yes. - You watch Stranger Things. Do you remember Andrew Stanton's work on Stranger Things? - I mean, Stranger Things has a pretty solid like established visual style that I feel like even even when you're bringing in like Stanton or even like Frank Derrond's out of him. - Is it Beckner or fucking what is it the will to be? - What is it? - Yes. - It's a fucking live. - Beckner. - Beckner lives on top of that tummy floor. He lives in the tummy. The tummy is Beckner's home. That was the twist. Joey, I have never watched Stranger Things. I believe just because I try to keep tabs on Stanton's stuff. He directed the 11 like punk episode. - Oh, did he do that one? - Yes. - That one that they kind of well, it was like a second season. Yeah, like almost like failed backdoor pilot thing. - A little bit of a kind of one off self-contained episode. - You know, he didn't direct that one. - He didn't, okay. - That was Rebecca Thomas. - Interesting. - He directed episodes five and six and I can tell you like Hopper, Hooper Hopper. - Hopper? - This is season two. - Yeah. - And that's all you, yeah. - Yeah, he got lost in a tunnel and, you know. - Yeah. - Some 11 appears to be involved. - I'm sure he did a good job. You know, I gotta say the only ones that I ever remember noticing, like, oh, there's a bit of extra flavor here was when Darabon directed a couple episodes in the last season of Stranger Things. And you noticed a few things where you're like, oh, okay, that has a little switch to it, but. - Now, this is a show I never stuck with. I only watched the first season, but I know you watched it. Pinyata, the sixth episode of the fourth season of Better Call Saul. - It's an excellent episode. And Better Call Saul is a show I adore. - Yeah, he's a big fan, I know. - Yes, I think it's like a masterpiece. But that's a very good episode. He directed an episode of Legion. - Legion? He did the fourth episode of Tales from the Louvre. He did four total episodes of a show. I love Cold For All Mankind on Apple TV, including in my opinion, it's best ever episode. - Wow. - He did the third episode. It's the one where fucking, I mean, I don't remember the names of the episode, but like, where Joe Edgerton, I mean, not Joe Edgerton. Joe Kiniman. - God bless, there's a lot of Joe's out there. - Robert Cobb. - Where his adoptive daughter decides like she wants to be an astronaut, they have this huge fight. Oh, or she wants to be in the military, what, you know, like following his footsteps. And if this huge fight in a living room, him and his wife and the daughter, and the camera like sticks with it, moves all around, and it's so good. And it's so beautifully act. It's the show that it's being. I mean, that show. - I gotta start watching this. - It's fallin' off a little, season five's a little. It's kind of like, guys, I think you're done, you know, full of ideas. - Our friend Alan Stepan was so good in a text, recently revealed to me that they are about to launch a spin-off show that is retelling everything that's happened on For All Mankind so far, from the perspective of the Russians. They're just. - This is correct. - It's a city. It seems like, I don't think it's gonna run five seasons for that way. - Yeah, that's just a wild idea to be like, triumphant run, we're wrapping up, by the way, the spin-off is starting in three months, and it's just going back to the first point of the story. - I'm like, we know what happened, so what are you like? - Anyway, whatever. Who knows? It's also in English, despite all the Russian scenes in the show being in Russian in the main show. But clearly, they were like, "Well, the whole show can't be in Russian." And I'm like, "Well, then what are you doing?" And we fucking maybe don't make it. - He also directed an episode of Three Body Problem, and he wrote two episodes of Obi-Wan Kenobi. - A show I recently watched for the first time, and I will admit, I think is quite terrible. - Quite bad, but he's like, the credits on that are like, he's like one of like, a million names. - They're very qualified people. - Who knows who. - Who knows who. - Those Star Wars shows have a lot of wacky credits attached to them because at one point, this person was supposed to do this, or this was supposed to be a movie. - Right, for example, like, put him as an example, put Stanton in charge of like, "Hey, you are like guiding vision for this show, "maybe it would have been better." But I don't think it was that. - No, it's odd because, right, he gets credit as a writer on two episodes, but I don't even think he's a producer and he didn't direct any. And it made sense. - It just feels like you like stumbled into a writer's room for two weeks, and then you were like, ugh fuck this. - But it's also wild 'cause it's not like he worked in a writer's room on any other shows from the time he started. - No, but like, I feel like that's kind of like what being in the Pixar brain trust is no. - A little bit? - Yes. - They just don't get credited that way. - Totally, and I also think it makes sense that that moment, Obi-Wan, is where they're really starting to widen the aperture of like, maybe we're gonna make a ton of stuff for Disney Plus. If I'm gonna understand, I'm like, I just wanna get in the door at Lucasfilm. I wanna fucking talk to them about Star Wars shit. - I don't think a lot of people who worked on the Star Wars TV shows were basically like, I'd like to do something to do. I'd love to be on a set with a lightsaber. Like, it would just be awesome. Like, I grew up with Star Wars. Like, this rock. - Obviously, he makes sense. - He does, too. - I have done something. - And a show that made sense was Obi-Wan Kenobi, a perfect mini series that made sense. - Sense. - I assume I will have gripped about this. - Everyone would look down the camera and was like, "This makes sense." - And Grogu episode, but it is astonishing to me that almost all of the Disney Plus Star Wars shows are about a person with a child being chased by someone. - Yes. case by the. fourth most important evil jedi adjacent dark side guy like in this sector they present someone grace even sent r.i.p god bless i'm sure something is like and i'm also not a sif yes but i kind of like him and i'm not a giant either but i have a light saber and i'm like well what are you like i don't know i don't know i was like how are these all the exact same premise where you're like semi stoic lead younger more vulnerable sort of like under the wing uh you know they have to protect they're looking for something and someone else is chasing them and the person who's chasing them is establishes really evil and the longer things go on you're like they're only kind of half evil they're all that save for andor uh which is uh probably the best one i mean it's so close to anyone is anyone from that that that that take out good people are like yeah then we might want to put that out just because well my microphone's on fire you've watched a sugar right a soca a soca i watched the soca i'm gonna watch season two why not i love punished yeah i want to see what happens with um what's that what the hell's the blue guy who like yeah it's wrong i think a soca is so passing because i swear to god they're like get ready to meet the scariest villain in the world he's fucking Joe Biden in that show he's so quiet um i just the end of that season one is so wild to me because it's flowny basically being like i am setting up this throng guy right as like this is it like this is the new guy right because the show mostly has other smaller villains that she's dealing with right no no but just not just in the show like to me it felt like it was just like we are this is your new bad he's gonna like the star wars standing to other shows like i want to make movies and i'm sure he probably does want to do all this but i'm watching it and i'm like there's no fucking way that's happening so what the hell is this i don't know do we have to watch season two for the girl you don't have to do shit well i know that season two hasn't happened and won't come out yeah it won't come out by next week thank god cuz that's your season two it doesn't even have yeah doesn't even have it but it has been filmed and memory my can replace raced even some yeah i mean the man died look look we just say we're not the problem exactly actually was the best part of the show he was the best part and he was you were kind of like there's something to this idea there's something right you know to like the idea of what he's playing obviously the big problem with the shoka asoka asoka he's just like she's a non-character she's a non-character and like i know in the cartoon she's like a spunky teen who's like i'm a rabble or whatever but by the time the show like now that she's a grown up she's just like her vibe is she's serene every character is like that i mean that's yes yeah i mean they're all kind of just like we are your friend is okay okay so we haven't we haven't seen mando and we haven't recorded yet so i'm gonna burn some of these takes here and just remind me to not make these complaints in the mando episode okay might take away watching a soka was like this feels like watching children perform Shakespeare where they don't know what they're saying yeah and the only direction they're being given is play it seriously and say it's slow yes so everything is like your character motivation is serious and i think that is partially that Faloni ran these cartoon shows i have not watched much of Clone Wars but i watched the majority of rebels which i really liked and was a show that was fun and had defined characters and so much of a soka is him being like i'm bringing all my rebels characters into live action and then zapping them of any personality because i'm trying to fight the perception that these are cartoons characters so everyone is just like saying things really slowly and quietly even fucking like Ezra shows up who's been built up as by the way it's you can't have a character called Ezra no sorry it's ridiculous but um he shows up and he's been built up as like oh well oh for a crazy wild Ezra he's so fun and then he's just as pretty much just as dead eyeed as the rest of the realist with windstead who i always love i think basically never misses and we've talked about david like she's someone who can single handedly elevate dog shit totally and in this she is so boring and lifeless everyone is bad the the whales there are whales are fun whales are good the whales are good but everyone had told me the whales were good i skipped the show when it aired years ago and i remember at the time people being like the whales kind of feel like classic star wars magic i got to the whale sequence in the season and i was like that was good but if you're telling me that's the high water mark and i have four episodes left to go i'm terrified i agree with you the whales are like the one chunk that i felt a little something anyway that's my that's my star is ran over also so it's like basically not the lead character that she's not because she's the first half of the season not dead she's in love she's in a fucking in between the Anakin vs right she's in the limbo the Anakin vs it's just everyone being like we know we got to find has her as a woman if you ask out and crew yet i'm watching it right at least has energy what did they renew skills no no that's a one that was one of them that's basically the only thing that's coming back when they've announced and that'll be the end of it like it's over and then the alone he will be shot in the middle of time so probably everyone forget but they they announced that ballooning was going to direct a movie that was the culmination of all the what i think he thought that was happening and i think there was a little bit of we've changed our priorities let's just put grogu on a screen right and see what happens john directs that we're sorry we'll let you make a soca season two to wrap up those threats yeah i honestly think they should just let him just not for theaters but like in disney but let him make whatever crazy fucking movie he wants to make where he brings back all of them through a i like you know looplayer he wants to do this let's be real and he wants to correct everything that he thinks they did wrong in the sequel series right of like these guys should have been fighting together and they should be fighting throng i guess like let him oh good shit yes right like i just see you two fan movie it's in on the dizzy plus epidemic garbage can you have to like lift up the lid and they're like really and you're like yeah what's in there they're like all right we're getting out for you it's like covered in banana fields press play the fucking FBI break down it's just a spinning wheel it just turns into a question mark and it's like come on wait that wasn't gonna Chris and chosen yeah right I don't know so you just had to wash the phone you watch the phone movie and in the blink of an eye what's what's going on we will talk about this i'm like two months prior to this but yeah i do wonder if they have like a hail marry guy like the james gun dc thing kathy has retired philone whining he's gonna go to some cartoon world philone is in charge of the whole thing i know yeah but it does poorly do they go like i don't know we want a new steward and it's but then i don't know who the answer that question is i mean i think i know the answer which is it's they already announced uh uh Simon Kimberg is sort of like overseeing that ain't it my friend i don't do it again but they're like philone is in charge of operations which i also think is partially being like maybe maybe you don't write and direct the stuff is much anymore right and that's timing Kimberg's the guy who's sort of like you got to figure out the movie problem everything's really good anyway we're in the blink of an eye it does all this year i know the two movies that he came close to making the one was revolver is that correct sams all right well let me let me just go right here yeah okay so stand in just a note uh he is on the pixar senior creative team he was the narrative guru for literally credited as the narrative guru for Ralph breaks the internet hey ban okay good work because this is where uh once disney has bought pixar they start to send the pixar brain trust out to other projects that the other tendrils to give advice to history for uh he is a writer uh on side Stephanie Folsom uh so he created for key so obviously he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for that work it was in that same recent piece to history for was originally announced as a john last year movie weirdly enough Rashida Jones was writing it with her partner Wilmer McCormick writing partner it was the woody boat peep reunion movie but a very different version of it that didn't work for years and years and years and they kept pushing it back and then uh last year steps down hands-off directing last year lots of hug and laughs that are pushed out of pixar entirely and they basically go to stand and they're like can you take a crack at this toy story force a disaster and we cannot cancel it because there was so much money tied up in the idea of marketing and merchandising and the promise to our shareholders that we will have another toy story movie and as he put it he like you know locked himself in a room and within like six hours was like I think I know what the movie is um that he is the the toy story genius and he is the one we know that's what they what's he and Joss Whedon did all those years ago right yes when the first one was a disaster and then they locked themselves in a room right and Joss Whedon was gone after like a week and then he continued to just fix everything and that yes he came up with forky right and he went to the Nobel I mean his his first big take was like bow coming back and okay if three was the end of Andy's story should four be kind of like well then what does what do you do now the other thing he said which I This is real genius, what the Toy Story stuff is. The problem they kept budding against with Toy Story 4, and I've read at least one or two of the scripts that have floated around for the canceled Toy Story 4. They were like, well, we wanna tell love story, we wanna make a rom-com, we wanna make a movie about like, bow and body getting back together. And people kept writing movies where they were like, this has nothing to do with them being toys. You're just writing a romance between two characters who happen to be toys. And Stanton's always been like, you have to start from the perspective of, what are the experiences that are unique to them? And he was just like, well, like, how do Woody and Bo Peep get split up? What is uniquely traumatizing about that that would be connected to them being a toy? Oh, Bo gets donated because the sister has a different relationship to her toys than Andy does. Yada, yada, yada, and then the story comes from there. (upbeat music) (upbeat music) May 2020, he was attached to something called chairman spaceman, which is an adaptation of a Thomas Pierce short story that was published in the New Yorker that he was gonna do for, well, Simon Kimberg's genre films for searchlight, which is about a corporate writer who renounces his wealth and signs up for an interplanetary mission to colonize the solar system. I don't know, sounds somewhat interesting. It sounds like in the blink of an eye, is sort of like the other heady sci-fi script that he then got going. Correct, so he jumped to that one. Yes, and obviously Hulu, searchlight, all owned by Disney, who, oh, stand for the billions and billions of dollars just made them. Right. But he put it as like those were the two things I was really serious about and in the blink of an eye came together a little faster. Revolver is revolver a romantic coming of age comedy starring Ethan and Maya Hawk, written by a stranger thing writer, Kate Treffrey. Treffrey. She's one who ended up writing the Stranger Things Broadway play. Of course, in which we saw the first shadow, first shadow. And to explain the floor thing in that one? Well, stages traditionally have a floor. Exactly. Does Vecna live in a theater? Is it Vecna inside your stomach? There is Vecna in a theater. There is a flat floor and people are just walking around hardwood, yeah, exactly. Waldwall carpet. It would be careful the spikes. I mean, because there are spikes in the top. The tummy spikes. They'll get you. You watched this and how they killed it. Right. They got back there. That fucker. Throw him into it. What did Vecna do? Vecna picked Vecna. Recession? Recession happened. What do you do? It was with the craziest fucking things in the world. He was in a big fan of gay people. So that was why he was after. Vecna. That was why he was after Will all those years. And I am, that's barely a joke that is basically what they imply in the last season among many other things. It is so insane that people dislike that ending so much that within a week they were like, no, no, there's another episode. The ending's bad on purpose because it's an augmented reality experience. It's metatextual. And there's a secret episode that's coming out. They would never just with this, this hard earnestly. And revolver, it's a 60s set thing in which Maya Hawk is a teenager in Anchorage, Alaska. And a flight from to Japan carrying the Beatles is forced to stop in Anchorage and she decides to fuck George Harrison. That is her goal. That is the plot of the movie. That is her goal. She, Santa wanted to make that for like five years and actually it just never happened. Now, Colby Day, the writer of this movie, who also wrote Space Man on Netflix, right? Yes. A movie I like a lot. Yeah. He started writing in the blink of an eye when living in New York in the mid 2010s. He goes to the Planetarium, heard of it, in the Hidden Planetarium. And he's a natural history. And they've got a big map of the timeline of the universe. It's a cool place to go, big bang and blah, blah. And he said, it gave me an existential crisis. Which that can happen when you start thinking about the vastness of the universe. So he's like, I think when you start to zoom out and you think about what does it mean to be here for not that long, you start to find the reading of life. He wanted to talk about the idea that even if we don't get much time, the things we do ripple through it. So he's trying to reassure his own anxiety. That's really what the movie is about. Yeah. So he's like, you know, initial concept is just that he wanted to write about time. So the initial story began with the big bang, the first thing in time, right? Kind of the ultimate prequel. He also was much more rigid about moving from past to present to future in that order. But I think Stanton pushes it more to be fluidly jumping between them all, you know, not like his three segments. This movie was in development for years. It also, you know, from the time that Stanton came attached to the script. Was it a blacklist script? It was on the blacklist. So that's like 2016, I want to say. Yes, it was on the blacklist in 2016, number six. But, you know, you get put on the blacklist. Everyone comes to calling, but they're also like, by the way, we have to change everything, or whatever. Stanton read the script years later, though. And was like, I'm jealous of whoever wants to try and make this realizes no one's making it. And decides to jump on board. He calls Colby and says, you love Cloud Atlas as much as I do. And Colby Day says, yeah, I do. I love story circles. That was my goal was doing a kind of a Cloud Atlas-y thing. Stanton also loves the fountain. Another movie, I would say, that is trying this kind of thing. And he, like, said, Triptic, he says, he's like, you know, you go to the roots of all that. And there's something deep put it all of us connect to about trifectas. Of course, he might be thinking about our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. I don't know. Famous trifecta. Father, son, Holy Ghost. So he starts revising, I don't know. I mean, this is going to, I'm going to be honest with you. Obviously, it's super Cloud Atlas-y, Cloud Atlas-y. It is kind of like a very small scale, if you could call it that, or not small scale, isn't right, but it's like a very, a more intimate version of Cloud Atlas. It's like, what if we did what Cloud Atlas is trying to do? But we really-- Yes. It's thrown it down to just these like three or so core relationships. And a kind of really clean line of cause and effect. This is sort of one narrative thread that's touched in three different eras. Yes. And very, just very small lives, in each of these-- I mean, yes, he is placing them in a canvas where it's like, look how huge they're the impact of these small lines actually. That's in the contrast. But they are the three smartest little stories. Modest is a good way to put them to put it. This was announced in October 2022. It was shot in 2023. And then just sort of was in stasis for three years. I've obviously wanted to do state and forever. So from the moment this movie was announced, I was like, well, when this comes out, we'll cover him. And then it kept on getting knocked down the schedule. And it is ideal that this and Toy Story 5 are coming out so close together. And we can do a series that doesn't end on this movie. And that has the contrast to both of them in the same year. I did not-- this movie went to Sundance and I would say critically ravaged and then has gone to Hulu with basically no impact whatsoever. I had, after the Snowstorm canceled the premiere, I was like, words not great. I'm going to have to watch this for the podcast. If I watch it now, will I even remember it by the time we record? Let me just hold off until it's actually time to do this episode. And so I've been dreading it. I did not dislike this movie. I cannot say I liked it. But I felt a little more neutral on it than I was expecting with how negative the word was. I think Joey, you and I are maybe in a slightly similar space of nothing really works for me. But there wasn't anything I bumped on too hard. And I like what it's trying to do, even if I don't think it gets there. It's a fart sandwich, but it's a sandwich. This is Ben's review is that it's a fart sandwich. Oh Ben's a fart sandwich. Yes. But he's just upset that he didn't get to voice the AI friend. I think the movie would have been a lot more fun if Kate McKinnon's AI friend had been voice by you. Ben would have been very good. Then he didn't voice the AI. It was not an indirect answer. The whole movie for some reason thinking that some narrative connective tissue they were doing was that the AI was voice by Rashida Jones. It sounded like that. I thought Rashida Jones is like some random actor. It's a little confusing. But although I don't know what that would have meant. Anyway, my experience was like, and the first 20 minutes or so, especially the very start of the movie, I was like, whole boy. 'Cause it starts with like the Sylvia Plath quote, remember, remember this is now and now and now. And you're like, oh boy. And then we open in like 45,000 BC with cavemen making sparks. And again, you're like. So obviously, if you're going to be invoking 2001 A Space Odyssey, you got to be careful. That's the best science fiction film. So you're inviting quite a comparison there if you're going to be doing that. And then so obviously, so intensely. So you're starting with that and then you're going into these two other introducing us to these two other stories. The Rashida Jones. David Diggs in the present day and she's a research scientist and they're flirting at college and then she's a doctoral candidate in anthropology. She do bones and then Greg question mark from statistics. Two actors I like a lot. What is that face you're making? I'm trying to think what I like Rashida Jones and I like her in this movie. Yeah, she's all right in this movie. Sure. I found this movie just kind of inert. That was my like I was not like raging about this like oh my god. This is it but it just felt like low energy. I mean it's going to be my fault. I'd like to complete my thoughts then you're introduced to the middle and then you're introduced to Kate McKinnon in the future and she's on a spaceship and she's on a mission to like save humanity by taking all of these like new babies in a bag babies in a spaceship to a new home and I think for the first like 20 30 minutes used like wow this is like like you said David this is very low energy this is very inert. It's cross cutting between all of them really quickly. It's not like you are taking right into cross cutting between three stories and they all seem pretty boring. It's got a little bit of the Asuka thing of like it feels like the tone of this is quote unquote serious right and I also think it's not even you know cloud Atlas opens like this where you're weaving between all them really quickly as they're setting it up. The cloud Atlas has twice as many threads and they're further apart. They're not as thematically linked in in a parent way from the get go and then after the first like three or four minutes which is also more symphonic and stylized it settles down into like we will focus on one for right and then go to the others to situate the first like 25 minutes of this just continue to just keep ribbing in a way where you're like the energy and the pacing are pretty low and slow. Well it's like you're gonna okay you've gone right into we're jumping between these but you never but you didn't first establish you don't feel like grounding about yes and and like right the the prehistoric one is like you know it's it's nonverbal they speak in it's it's very much him doing like a hot hut to knees but it's like a quest for fire you know it is it is actors and prosthetics. Yeah because they're in the end of thoughts so they you know or they're paleolithic people of some sort but the some looks about the meeting of yes chromagnon and yeah and right then there's the the present set graduate school section but I was gonna say I like both of these actors a lot it is an interesting casting choice to hire two people who are decades older than the characters they're playing. Yeah you know I was just watching the wizard of the Kremlin the the hottest movie of 2016 which is a movie where big that begins with Paul Dana playing like his character when he's like 18 years old and he's like I'm at college and I was just like just just don't show me this like I just I can't buy this and it's taking me out of the movie right away. It's the LMK thing for me where I'm like case a recent example where I'm like as we know we're all teenagers right now and you're like okay I'll listen but but also it's like cast cast for the age the character is going to spend the most time yes this movie jumps ahead eventually we get to a point where did he actually see why they did and Rashida Jones are playing their own age but I'd say it's a pretty short chunk of the movie. Yeah and by that point the movie is moving along time wise quite fast and then it even goes beyond that to them with old age makeup so you're like at you know 60% of their screen time is them in their 20s. Yes and they are 44 and 50. They are I mean look I know they're good looking people like they're good looking people they've aged really well and I thought the graduate school said but I didn't totally buy Rashida Jones they're like I'm just getting started in grad school there is like with my bone I think what is actually pretty fucking effective CGI D aging on the two of them that I noticed was varying subtle and a lot of that is they're two people with very good genes who have aged very well but there is like an energy thing of you just feel the two of them playing 20 something in a way that feels a little school play at times. It makes it confusing how much time is going right it does because I couldn't really I'm like hearing you say she's in her 20s makes a lot more sense to me now. Well because also it's like you can obviously be in your mid 40s and go to graduate school so you watch it and you're like I'm not immediately rejecting that Rashida Jones could be in this program but the longer it goes on you're sort of like I think she's supposed to be like 27 you know there's sort of context clues that develop and then there's the the Cape McKinan section which is right she is on a spaceship by herself with an AI friend year 24 17 right so it's like 400 years in the future and yeah she's got an AI that is pretty rascal pretty I would say like personable is not a howl is actually like conversational and feels friendly and human in its tone its demeanor but she's basically an isolation it's it's a very kind of walley setup of your alone on a spaceship looking for the planet that is inhabitable where where life could restart there's no like and this is deliberate but there's no like great tension to her mission because I believe they've identified the planet they know where she's going they're terraforming they're terraforming it they have a whole plan she's just got to get there should be done by the time I get there but that's happening yeah she's dealing with a yes she is dealing with a problem which is that there's something's gone wrong in the ship's systems but it's all played pretty all played pretty low key and they are also very they really drip out the information in a way that I actually kind of liked about like what her deal is I was going to say right the big mystery is like how is she alive and like because she's she's not going to go in hyper sleep like how she gonna just the thing is though as I keep stressing like she's doing this for a hundred and blah years I've rewatched it and it's it flies over your head you really watched well I'm saying I just get to see the intro of each character yeah it says longevity enhanced pilot oh does it not know I don't know I just I mean one of her first pieces of dialogue is something about like oh how many years do I have until we get there right and remember with the suggestion of the way she's saying it of like me you know not like my kids like me so you're like okay there's something going on with so you've with you I'm just gonna let's just say the thing right this movie is about humanity identifying basically the true to death right like scientifically I didn't stop aging yes but not like you're immortal you will venture she will she yeah we see her getting old at the end you will eventually die it's very so beyond right curing illnesses we have like identified a way to combat the gene that causes the degradation of aging you know and to slow it down and everything works out crawl well well I mean so the movie is very sketchy about a lot of details and again in a way that I didn't entirely hey one of the things that is kind of left to our imagination unless I miss something is that she is doing this mission to find us a new home because our current home presumably earth is no longer habitable but what is left vague is did that just happen naturally no I got the impression is because people stop dying and that right and that created like and that created like half a yeah but they don't really get into it but she says like we decided that people should not actually stop aging like when she's talking to the kids about it it's definitely the most interesting scene in the movie I I think everything about that scene I I think McKinnon's goodness move she is I she's yeah she's she's she's yes yeah she's I was the assignment I there were moments with her when I was moved by like on I the first moment in the movie after it was kind of going by very glacial and I was like oh boy the first moment where I like locked in a little bit is when she has to turn off the AI her AI friend and she's like turns it off and then you know she's like you were my only friend and then it's like sad about and I I don't know just because she played it so well I was like okay but this is my I'm feeling something I agree this is my biggest take with the film and I understand you know this whole movie generates from thinking about the big bang and the ripple of time and the story circles and you know all of that and like the whole movie should have been McKinnon I'm like this is the interesting story and actually the reveals that are interesting within her story are deflated somewhat by the other two narratives that's it you're right you're right because like the other scenarios just are pretty juiceless they are they just are they really are and they're you know they're little moments they're little flourishes and touches but when you actually step away from the movie and especially when it doesn't really connect all of its threads until the end and go like this is what's fucking been going on the whole time fucking not not the acorn that I would possibly get the nut out of here yes but you're just sort of like the whole interesting story is the Kate McKinnon thing and actually if you remove the other two narratives and you're slowly realizing what's going on with her the same doling out of information gradually but it not being supplanted by the other two that's the movie that feels it has a little more intrigue to it I like this This implication that it's basically like. watching sort of the turning point of humanity, the sort of notion of the two species and one outlived the other. And this was the merging of them. And this is sort of the missing link sort of moment. And then Rashida Jones is trying to, she has discovered the remnants of this missing link. What's the character's name? It's not Thorke or Thorne and Hira. Yes. If you look on IMDB, it's something I really like is Thorne is played by someone who is primarily like a stunt performer in a physical performer. His photo on IMDB is just him as a power ranger. His face is not even visible. It's fucking awesome. And tonight, a baby who's an actor, it's an awesome picture. It's just a full power ranger. Power ranger. Power ranger. Yes. Tonight, baby is an actor I really like. Yes, who plays his wife. But yeah, you're seeing this sort of like this is where humanity kind of starts, right? The Rashida Jones has recovered the remnants of this guy and believes like this missing link might help us understand where we came from, understand our own DNA more in a way that could lead to the breakthroughs of curing diseases this and that. While this is happening, her mother is dying rapidly from a very aggressive form of a terminal cancer. She's starting this sort of relationship with David Diggs who clearly is all in on her and she's kind of keeping him at arm's length a because she's so focused on her work and b because she's got the burden of caring for her mother. And she's sort of like, I don't know if I can take this on and you're watching this developing relationship where she's keeping him at a distance. Then she drops out of school to go be with her mother. So the relationship is mostly happening over zoom. You know, she's an isolation there and he's committed to her and eventually, you know, they, he comes, he moves in with her, they get married, they have kids and you realize that their son who they homeschool and they raise in the grand tradition of science is able to build on his parents' work and what she studied to actually crack the code. To cure death. To cure death. So the whole time of this of their story. Yes. You're a part of you is wondering, like, what the hell is this? Because like nothing is happening. Well, like, when you get to when you get to the end, you're like, okay, the, the overarching idea he is like here is that she and she especially, but end of it are like, they were just one other little step the link in the chain along the chain. And she has the moment. Good. Can you believe we made him? Yes. The guy who cures death. There is something as, as their relationship, the Rashida and David, like, as I gradually settled into, I was like, okay, this is just what this is going to be. Yeah. The whole movie, this, this like very quiet, you know, he's the most patient understanding the whole, mostly over video calls, which is kind of a crazy choice for a movie. But as I settled into it, I was like, okay, there are some nice moments that there's a, there's a very lovely moment where they're just sitting together on the phone silently while she's sitting by her mom in bed. And it's a wordless scene. And like, there are little moments like that where you're like, okay, that was, that was good. It's a very good visual storyteller. And even in a movie like this, they can't quite find itself. There will be moments like that where something kind of interesting specific is conveyed. Right. And where you feel a sense of what he's going, what they're going forward, they're dynamic of like, they're so in love. And like, despite all these problems they have in the fight she has, and like, at one point she tries to break up with them, it just kind of, like, doesn't come to anything because he's just like, no, like, you love me. I love you. Like, we're going to be together forever. I think that's kind of fun where she's really trying to break up with him because she's just like, this isn't fair to you. It doesn't matter that I'm in love with you. And then he starts laughing. And he's like, you know, you're in love with me. speaks to the weird writing style of the movie that in that particular scene is kind of charming where it's like, you think this is about to be a dramatic moment. And then it's not because he's just like, no, enough of that. The key thing here is kind of kind of kind of. Now, let's say, I just want to say something right now. Or hey, Bargas played Blake Bradley, aka the Navy Thunder Ranger in Power Rangers Ninja Storm. I'm glad you've been doing a deep dive on this wall. So we're not talking about the movie. Um, who is the blue Ranger, but it's just funny how like, at the start, they were like, yeah, we got a blue Ranger. We got a green Ranger. And now they're like, he's the blue, the Navy Thunder Ranger. Like, so we have dead, like kind of lands end style colors description. Yes. But he's in 36 episodes. Hey, like, and it's him. Yes. Like his human face is seen too. That's all. Uh, I don't have anymore. Do you want me to get more news for you on Ninja Storm Rangers? No, what I would say, maybe I will anyway, though, if you remove the other two plot lines and just sort of unpack like, this is what happens in the Kate McKinnon plot line, right? She is a woman who is on a spaceship by herself. Her only connection seems to be this AI robot. And she's like holding on to hundreds, thousands of embryos. Yes. In bags. Right. You grow them in bags that she is trying to protect while also having a sort of sunshine-esque green room to be able to provide oxygen for the ship. There is a fungus breakout. There is not going to be enough oxygen for her to get to the planet that's being terraformed. There's sort of the mystery of like, why is this one woman in isolation carrying so many embryos to repopulate humanity by herself? And, uh, you know, you have this sort of, I don't know, a bit of a trolley car problem, but not really of, there's not enough oxygen to get her there. She's like, I should kill myself. Your AI, you can handle the mission on your own. All that's important is that the embryos get to this planet and you can sort of activate everything. And the AI sacrifices itself to be like, you need a human being with like, reasoning and feelings and the X factor of human experience. You know, it shouldn't be done by a machine. And so, the AI basically convinces Kate McKinney to deactivate it so that they can use the extra room to plant more to create a second supply of oxygen. Because they have to isolate the, right? The have a separate room with the plant life isolated so that it doesn't also get disease. All of this is kind of like a run around where I was sort of like, the fuck, where are we going with this? Until the moment, as you said, where I think McKinney plays really well, the loss of like, oh, this was the only connection she had to something that even felt like humanity was speaking to this computer. And now she's got to do the rest of this mission alone. And she activates the one child that she can like, raise and have a relationship with. And she starts talking to her. And then you realize like, this is the last human being alive. We like, killed ourselves with overpopulation. She is functionally, if not literally a mortal close to it. And as she's raising this child, she explains this thing, but I think it's the best scene in the movie that both in terms of being well performed and well written, but also the ideas of it being so interesting of we solved the thing that felt like the great tragedy of humanity or own mortality. And in fact, we realized this is not good. It's not good. Not only did it just like fuck us up infrastructureally as a species, but also like people shouldn't live this long. It actually sucks. It's a curse and it's a burden. And we're restarting humanity. You will age normally. We're going to go to a new planet. We're going to try to get it right. I'm the last freak alive trying to like reset everything. It is important though that the company that did this to us is also the company that is now in charge of the ship. Right. This is where the movie trips up and also is very like not built for for this moment is that it has this lands in this very optimistic play. You could argue about whether it's optimistic because of course the the happy ending that we see is proceeded by like the collapse of civilization. Well, you're watching the sun's breakthrough as he gives the press conference to reveal that he's pure death at the same time as Kate McKinnon is basically explaining this was a mistake. It fucked everything up. And now we're trying to reset everything back to how it was. And so you have like David digs and Rashida Jones being like, can you believe it, our sun changed the world. And Kate McKinnon being like, the world's a nightmare. And now I have to try to do a hard reboot. Right. But then they're trying to the mood of the thing. And this is what you're saying is that that is all at a disconnect from the mood. The mood of the thing is very much like, but we figure it out. You know, like we figure we realize we made a mistake. And now we're pulling back and you know, we figured out a new way. And that's what you're seeing with this Kate McKinnon storyline. And then alongside that also she has this lovely AI friend who is like really nice and like helps her with everything. But and who and who the AI gives voice to like no humanity is the most important thing. And like having you having your X factor of being a human that is the most important thing more important than me. And not to like place other things that are like going on in the world right now onto the, but you do you can't avoid it. And I'm just watching that scene. And I'm like, well, it's a little bullshit. Like that's not what that's not like a reflective of that is not what we're learning and seeing about how these technologies operate. That's just you fantasizing. No, in fact, about like maybe one day it will be like that. We have the opposite issue, which is like AI convincing people to kill themselves, not AI being like I should deactivate. So so humanity can persist. - Right, so I was just like, yeah. - It also, I mean, it's the whole, like-- - And Stan was out, I read an interview with him where they were asked about this and they were like, it takes a very like optimistic view and his answer was just like, well, what else can you do, but just have hope and have optimism. And it's like, well, that's a layman sort of. - I find this interview really interesting in general because it feels like he is a guy and I related this really hard where he is, like there is a constant fight between like an overriding cynicism and like an attempted optimism that he like doesn't want to drown in the cynicism, even though it's a innate state. And there is a sort of like sappy emotionality to him that he's a little bit embarrassed by, right? And I think that's a lot of like the Toy Story magic comes from that sensibility. It feels like this movie puts the thumb down too hard on the optimism, even when it's doing something that is a little bit ominous and it's trying to like, create the friction between like, well, here's this amazing accomplishment and human existence that we have this breakthrough, but also we're watching the business end of what was a mistake by it. But then the optimism is, but they're gonna fix it eventually. - I guess so, but that's why the end of the movie's really odd with like, wow, I can't believe we made him. And I'm like, history's greatest. - Right. - You know what? It seems like he maybe was. - This was a mistake and this was a curse. And I'm like, I sort of don't even to know about that guy. It's more interesting to just spend time with Kate McKinnon, the one person who's the representative of why this was a mistake, you know? And especially her doing that nice- - But it's also like fixing it. - Interesting to me, I also think. - I think like, there was a review I read at Sundance that was critiquing her casting and saying like, her sort of what they described as her finger guns, comic energy is an ill match for this movie. And then I was like, oh, is she gonna be doing like Ghostbusters? - No, not at all. - No, I think she's giving like a good dramatic performance, but I think her being- - It's a little sedate. Like, and it's like chameleon, she gives her more energy than any of the other performers in the movie, even though she's playing it straight. She has a little bit of that off-wire energy, which I think helps. I think it could have helped to have more of the casting beyond those lines. - I think if you're gonna have a character in the future, make 'em talk weird. - She loves shit like that too. - You mean like to do a cloud out? Let's think like the true true. - Yeah, come on. - She's also kind of doing her like cowboy kind of, you know, Cape McKinnon sort of thing. - Here's what I can tell you. - Yeah, Ninja Storm was the 10th. - Okay, this is how a Ranger series. Now, the one before was Wild Force, which I guess they turned into like animals, like lions and eagles and stuff. And the one after a one we all know well is Dino Thunder, where they were just like, fuck it, they're dinosaurs. They can, I guess, I don't know. 'Cause the originals are kinda dinosaurs. - I just- - Ninja Storm though, they were ninjas. - Ninjas. - I tell ya. - Those are red ninja dinosaurs? - No, just regular old ninjas. - That's kind of interesting. - There's a more interesting thing. (laughing) And I was like, do they have Zordon? And it's like, no, they have a sensei who gets turned into a guinea pig. - So it's going into GeForce territories. - Zordil sounds possible. - I think there's a more interesting version of like passengers in this, with her activating the one embryo, so it's not to be alone and go crazy. - I don't think I even really clocked if you're reading this, right? That that was a thing where she was going against the mission, or anything, I thought that was just part of the mission. - The other part of it is, now she needs help 'cause she doesn't have the AI. - I think that was some part of the plan. - Yes, but then it's like, she's forming this emotional relationship that wasn't part of the plan because she needs that, and in raising a child now, and actually kind of being a mother in a way, she wasn't supposed to be. And this movie ends with, I've seen I think Kim can also perform as well, of like her holding the funeral for this child on the reborn earth, and she has barely aged, she looks like five years later, and it's like crinkles in the air. - She's seated in the mission, but like her curses that she also now has to like, - Just to watch her kids die. - Right, and she's like, - Hey, lived a long time. - She wasn't really my child. I'm not technically her mother more so than any of you but, she's the one I felt the most connected to. - These are interesting, heavy ideas. - Yeah, I feel like the movie shies away from ever getting too emotional, getting too kind of like, worked up about any of it. And so at the end I was kind of like, - Yeah, okay. - It's just the one idea I like is, yeah, if we could live forever, it would suck. - Sure, I'm, it would cause a thousand problems. - I'm going into problems. - My favorite show, New Amsterdam, when they could like Costa Waldo, remember? - Yeah, of course. - He was old. - Yes, but young. - Wasn't there also a different, a young, gruffet one where he was, - That one was where every time he dies, he wakes up in the East River or something. And he's still, and it was called like, eternal or forever. - Right. - Uh-oh. - It was called uh-oh. - It was that he would like, ground hug day, but the next day. - It was called forever. - Yes. - Right, I can tell you. - The day wouldn't reset. He would just, he would just like, he's in the East River again. - So I guess it's a little being John Malk of it where they would just spit him out. - What I liked about New Amsterdam was like, in the pilot, he liked me to like an old man who's his son. And he's, the old man's like, "Wow, you really don't fucking age." True, and he's like, "Yeah, that's my thing." - Off to solve a mystery. - 'Cause that's the best thing about old network shows. They were like, "He's immortal." - He's fascinating. And he solves mysteries everywhere. They're like, "Don't worry, he solves the mystery." - He solves the mystery. - Don't worry, he solves the mystery. - There's an engine. - Yes. Yeah, you know, the ideas are interesting. I just, I also find the design a little blend of the spaceship and all that. Like where I'm just like, it's just got this kind of big apple-y. - Yeah. - I feel that. - You know, sort of look to it that is not very distinctive. - Per clothes. - Right. - It's like boring. - It was another thing that acquired. - Watching that movie "Space Man", which Colby Day wrote. - Yes. - Has a very different look. - Has a look. Like I found that movie also a little sleepy. But like that movie at least was very heady. - Yeah, looking. - I like that movie a lot. I think rewatching Wally for the first time in a while, it was interesting because that did feel new. The whole visual design language of Wally, both the sort of busted, rusted, old, buy and large stuff. And then when you get to the axiom and making everything that apple influenced, you know? It's a year before Star Trek, which does the similar and a redesign of like, the enterprises now kind of Apple store coded and all of that. Now this has just sort of become the default language for what spaceships look like. And it's not interesting to do. And it feels like someone needs to like, shake up the formula again. - I mean, everything about the visuals and the movie. Nothing is bad, the movie looks fine, but it's all just very like default and all very, I mean, that is all really all kind of summed up by the fact that for a score they were like, I know Stanton has worked with him before. - It's his number one. - But you were like, call up Thomas Newman and have him deliver the same. - He's saying, have him do the thing. - The thing that you've heard a million times. - I've never seen Quest for Fire or Clan of the Cave Bear in the full mirror. - I recently watched Clan of the Cave Bear. - Tell me about it. - Because I'm trying to watch, it's not very good. Okay. And I'm trying to watch every 1986 film for the, - Oh, sure. - Big picture of our inevitable. - Yeah. - And I got to this point where I was sort of like, you know, at this point, I've probably seen most of the major films of 1986. But then I was like, all right, well, what was nominated for an Oscar? - Oh, sure. - That I haven't seen yet. - The answer was, one was Clan of the Cave Bear, which got it a makeup nomination. It was a gigantic bomb, that film. A huge huge bomb. It's Darryl Handel plays a cave woman. - Yes. - It's great stuff. - But coming off of Quest for Fire being a surprise hit. - Exactly. - They're like, well, keep it with the cavemen. You've also, I also watched Franco Zephyrlle's adaptation of the opera Otello, which is-- - I'll keep yours plus the Domingo in makeup. - I was playing that one at work on my iPad and then I was like, hmm, I might have to turn this one off. And I also watched Crimes of the Heart, which got three Oscar nominations. Bruce Barris for Filmed. - Fuckin' saw! - Yes. - What were they doing in the '80s? - Bruce was, it's a weird career. - He's based on a play. - Yeah. - How does, how is any of what we're talking about right now? How did we transition into it? - I don't know if I'm a caveman or a caveman. - He's a caveman. - And this movie has a bit of a Clan of the Cave Bear. - The weird times of the heart, it's just a lot of Southern bells going like, oh, mama, mama, never love me. - I lost the thing. - There was an '80s micro trend of, we're gonna try to make caveman movie that are ostensibly a little more quote unquote accurate. And no one's gonna talk and it's sort of like a dramatized nature documentary sort of vibe. I mean, sometimes this movie, in a negative way, feels like a 30 minute film you would watch at a planetarium or something. - Yeah, I mean, a little bit, right. - But it's very, very hard to do any version of that. A caveman thing that isn't that, especially if you're gonna decide to be accurate about it. - It's hard to see them discover a whistle. - Yeah, and be like, whoa. - Yeah, that own whistle doesn't care. - They should be do a caveman movie that's like Chris Nolan doing the Odyssey where they're just like, hey, what's up? I'm Homer, like you know what, daddy. - Can I, sorry, one more tangent. I just watched the movie Whistle. - It's a horror movie. - Oh, you blew the whistle. - That's it, don't blow it. Great tagline. That was the tagline. - That's actually really funny. - And it's just like, we're in a high school. I'm Jam Daphne Keane from Logan. I'm, you know, I'm a little, got some drama. I'm bisexual, maybe. Blah, blah, blah. What's this Aztec death whistle? (laughing) Don't blow the fucking whistle. I'm like, what if I blew it? No, don't do it. I just love any movie where it's like, there's a scary whistle. And I'm like, don't tell me someone blows it and they're like, "Oh, no, they blow it, all right." - Yeah, there is, it was not very good. Quest for Fire then leads to Conquest Iron Master, Iceman and Clan of the Cave, there were like five of them. - Iceman wasn't about Bobby Drake? - Not yet, we were too afraid. That's Timothy Hutton, Fred Skepsy movie. - Of course, the big two. - Yes, but that's more of an unfrozen. - I think someone figured out that I have a nervous tick where if anyone says two names on this podcast or three names, I'd just say the big two immediately because I think it's always funny. - It's always funny. - Oh, yeah. - That was a, he's Timothy Hutton, following up the Oscar win is the caveman who discovers fire and then he is frozen and then he is revived. It's like serious and senomane, but it was, this was like a big trend for the era and these movies were popular. - Quester Fire certainly was a very viral target. - Clan of the Cavemare was such a huge bomb and probably ended the whole thing. - The whole thing. - No one has really dared to touch this in 30 years. - It's a good point, so this has caveman stuff. - Yeah. - Have there been any other recent caveman dramas? - Caveman, I'm looking on Wikipedia, the two recent ones they've mentioned are, there's a French movie called A-O, The Last Hunter, literally A-O, Colin The Last Hunter. And then there was the, I forget, which Hughes brother directed it? Albert Hughes, Alpha? - Oh, that's right. - Mick Fee and a Wolf. - Right. - For those of us at home, Joey and I just shared a look. - Yeah. - Knowing look. - Yeah. - As you were going through. - Don't forget the crudes. - This tangent. - Oh, the crudes. - And then they had a new awakening. What was the crudes sequel subtitle? - The January 6th. - The crudes stormed the Capitol. - No, I don't know. - Crudes was one of those movies where it like, a new age. - A new age. It came out on Drive-In's only in like. - In 2020. - August 22nd. - There were like, there's a crudes movie and Cuomo was like, "Feeders staying close." - It's a great opening for that. - The crudes. - A new age might have come close to Titanic's number of consecutive weeks at the top of the box office. 'Cause it had like four months where nothing else was coming out. - Yeah, like Florida's open. - Right, and you'd be like, the crudes racked up another robust $5,000 to be number one at the box office this weekend. - Yeah, look. In the blink of an eye, I found the caveman stuff like unsuccessful. - I found it. - Yeah. - That was the least successful. - Again, as with a lot of the other elements, as with the other three elements of the movie, it gets to a thing right at the end where he's like, where there's a baby that's been born. - Right. - It's like, no, it's not the dad is like, oh, he's like, has this happy moment and then dies. And again, it's hitting at that same idea of like, he was just a link on the chain and it's like, okay, all right, I get it. - And that's sort of like the first man being born, the first modern. - Right, but I'm like, but you, but that was all for that. I mean, again, I admire in a way the smallness of it. I'm like, you know, this is not the type of screenplay that exists anymore in that sort of, in that smallness, but. - Our buddy Bill got a good review of this movie and he was sort of calling out like, how much he admires the ambition of it. But when you make a film like this, you're like, drawing those comparisons directly to 2001, which is a challenge, right? - Like I said. - And he said like, the other one this movie like really draws a line to is the tree of life in this sort of like, you know, the small interpersonal drama of today is linked to, our origins as a species and whatever. And there is something a little mathematical in the structure of this screenplay. I'm down to just what I'm saying of like, maybe this movie should just be all Kate McKinnon of like, the need to have the prehistoric section be an equal third of the story. It feels like a mistake to me why I'm like, this could be three scenes and it's an interesting addition to the movie. It doesn't need to have 30 minutes of screen time divided across the film because what's interesting about it can be conveyed very quickly. And it's the same way that like, tree of life is like, you get one dinosaur scene and it kind of shakes your system where you're like, whoa, there's a dinosaur scene in a Terence Malik movie. But he's not like, well, the dinosaur is an equal lead with Brad Pitt and Sean Penn. These are the three narrative streams of the movie. - Or Dino Westman. - There was actually even a moment early in the movie where our main, I think he was our main like a guy from the Pillier Times or whatever. - The Navy Ranger. - Yeah. - Fucking Navy Thunder Ranger. - Navy Thunder. - He falls as he's climbing, and he lands on a rock, and it's like, dunk, and then it cuts away from him. And I was like, did he just die? Like, was that the end? Well, because I thought for a second I was like, was that like the point of that being in this movie was just like, sometimes it's just like that. You're a guy. - Like, have a night. - Live in a bed. - Live in a bed. - Live in a bed. - You fall, you dead. - That's it. - Yeah. - But no, then he gets up here. - Right. - He actually gets hit by a bus later in the script where they cut that. - I have to go to therapy. We should play the box office game. - Great. - And Lord knows I needed it. - You do? - Yeah. - Do you say therapy? - Things have been changing. - This is crazy, Griffo. - Ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch. - You gotta keep it up. - No, it's a one-off thing. - Oh, it's usually Thursday. - It's not like I'm playing Fast and Loose. I do, yeah. (upbeat music) Well, the box office game, of course, this film did not actually premiere in theaters, but we can still cover the box office of February, 27th, 20th, 26th. - Bad weekend, a lot of theater closers because of the snowstorm I imagine was this the week after that. - This might be the week after that. - I can't remember. - Who knows? What's important is the number one of the box office is a giant hit. - It is weathering heights? - No. - Oh, fuck. - That could be a Valentine's Day, of course it did. - No, it stars your friend and mine. Timothy Hitmaker's Simon. So I think he's the lead role, haven't seen it yet. It's a sequel. - It's her film. - It's screen seven. - Because you didn't see screen seven. - I didn't make the screening for reasons I can't remember, but probably my boss was like, you're not reviewing it. So I was kind of like not that motivated. And then the reviews were really bad. And I just was kind of like, I think I might be waiting for Paramount Plus on this one. - Like, because like I quite enjoy five and six, I like the screen franchise. But because this is actively rejecting five and six. - Sure. - I wasn't too pulled in by like, we've got Nev Campbell. I'm like, yeah, I've seen her in a screen movie before. Like this isn't like, oh, she's been missing. She wasn't in one of the-- - Well, congrats on not being a scab. - Yeah, sure. Also, fuck Timothy Simon's now, I'm kidding. I assume, isn't he like a professor and they throw him out of Windows? - I haven't seen it yet. - Sounds good. - That sounds fun. - Big hit. - Did you see it? Joey Simpson? - No, I felt the same as you and I was also like, yeah, fuck them. - Who directed now? Oh, Williamson directed. - Yeah. - I'm also not an incredible size. - No. Number two at the box office. - Number two at the box office is my daughter's favorite film of 20 years. - Roar. - No? - Oh, goat. - Go. - They played Roar Ball. - I was thinking about the ball. - Roar? - Roar Ball. - Roar, isn't that the name of the movie-- - The Tatum O'Neal movie where they live with a tiger. - To be hatred. - To be hatred. - To be hatred. - Where they were like, there were, 10 to 12 wide falling. - Yeah. - Barely most movies have a camera ball. I had like half his scalpers off it. - Production was a wild success. It only took five years and a minimum of three scalpings. It's the most insane film I've ever made. No, I was thinking so much about Roar Ball. - The most insane film I've ever made. Like, is the movie's weird. - It's weird. - Yeah, yeah. - It's weird, yeah. - No, the film was goat. - Yeah. - Joey, you didn't see? - Goat, no. Made $103 million domestic. - Was it okay. - Very solid hit for Sony. - Mm-hmm. - A movie I really enjoyed. I've seen it a few times. - Yeah, I liked it. - Yeah, okay. - He plays basketball. - No, he plays Roar Ball, Joey. It's very different. It means that sometimes-- - Roar Ball. - The court is ice and sometimes it's lava. - That is true. - Number three, the box office or romantic drama annotation of a novel. - Is it the Colleen Hoover? - No, no, no, no, come on. - You just said it was number one. - It's called Reminders of You? - No, no, come on. You said it was number one. - Oh, the ring. - Sorry, sorry, sorry. - A film that I quite like. - I do too. - And our buddy, Allison Ramore. - And Yilda has the exact take I have on the movie, which is it's an adaptation of a 15-year-old reading the book in high school. - Yeah, did you see? Yeah, I quite like that. - Yeah, I dug one. - Well, it's kind of into the, I have not stopped thinking about the shot where she goes back after her awful dad dies. And it cuts to his, like, Mark. - He is a man who cuts to his dead body in the chair. And there's just like an insanely high pile of bottles of empty alcohol. - What do I do to him in? - You know, it's hard to tell what the movie is saying there. No, I was just like the excess of it. I was just like hell, yeah. - That's what I was wanting to meet with people like this movie's over the top. I'm like, yeah, yeah, it's going for that. That's sort of the idea. - Oh, like, you're in high school and you read a great book. You know, one of the most important works of literature and says, like, she walks in to find her father surrounded by bottles. And you're like, if you're 15, you imagine, oh, it's 8,000 bottles. - There's a bowl, there's a bone temple. So what if number three, sorry, four at the box office knew this week. - Yeah. - He's a concert film centered around a band. I confess, I didn't know this existed. - Was this the BTS movie? - No, no, you didn't know this existed. Is it a band I would know by name? - This is a real band. - A real band? Possibly I think so they're famous. I know pop band. No, they're like a rock Yeah, alternative rock electro pop. It's not a Imagine Dragons. No, it's sort of like that. I mean imagine them I'm trying to just the click this is oh Fuck I wish I don't think imagine dragons anyone said Ben Ben Ben. What is this man? What is it tell me what they are? I don't I know their name, but I don't actually know what the kind of music is Wait, I can't see. Oh for crying Come on, man. It's going over and Like what I don't know what their actual deal is I know the band is a 21 pilots. That's very close to Imagine Dragons. It is I agree with you I just don't really what what is their vibe then laughed at me so much for saying Imagine Dragons I was scared to guess 21 pilots should have guessed it. They're a little bit more of a fun period The movie is called 21 pilots more than we ever imagined. Okay, it made 3.7 million dollars in its opening weekend I would describe their vibe as put that in your pipe and imagine dragons I say what they're really what their song. I don't know. I just know that there's a band called 21 pilots That's where my knowledge and same and number five is another concert film sort of not not of a recent figure But a deceased figure this epic epic Elvis Presley in concert an incredible title Which I did not get to see but I was told was kind of rad. Yeah, I'll cover on patreon whenever we do buzz best I'm in You've also got number six a movie that I wanted to love and thought was okay Crime 101. Oh sure. I need to watch that find 101. Yeah That was your letter. Yeah, it's pretty good. Probably didn't numbers Here's the twist. I'm gonna let you finish the episode. Okay, you know what? I'll see you later Get out of here. Go away. Oh, I'm gonna go. I'll tell you the next I can only imagine two. Yeah, what's that? That's based on a song the guy wrote about his dad not being nice And this is the sequel where the songs are hit the dad's like I just don't know if I want to be a nice guy That's pretty good. I'll check it out. Number eight. The Sam Raimi's great sent help. But you saw that. I you saw that right. Of course. Great movie Number nine how to make a killing of the Fairly bad a 24-glin powell remake of kind of hearts and cornet kind of hearts and coordinates And number 10 as Utopia two hanging out for it's like fourth month Highest nursing film in 2025 uh, yeah, you've also got solo me. Oh there number 12. That's the Kevin James wants a wife movie Yeah, Gerv's going to therapy. He is going to therapy. He's out of here Wow, maybe Joey should take over. What should we do a coup? Sure. I mean we could happen before I've done it Never happened. I have left or because we went for you know four hours about Fucking cabbage patch kids or whatever. Sure, but uh, I don't think Griffin's ever left before there was a time he threw up Yes, but he came back left threw up came back. No, he's normally the one who makes it too long makes it too long shows up late Yes, let's you know what let's hear some grievances So this is kind of yeah in unique position. We've never been here before. Yeah I have to see Mortal Kombat two in an hour I'm going later this evening, but I'm I'm very excited. Do you have work talking to my brother? No, I'm I have a few hours. I'm going to maybe try to hang out with Lane, Lane Montgomery Friend of the show composer of the theme song and prior past future guest Uh, your former roommate my former roommate. Uh, we've been looking for a time to grab like a late lunch So I'm gonna see But he may be he may have been held up at work. It's unclear So no and then tonight I'm seeing giant On Broadway, yeah, the play. That's the role. Not so nice move bro And I said my journalist go play Yes, I did get that one. Do you sound excited? Yeah, Matt one in did you get the number? I'm excited to see him We love to see John Liff go take on a big mammoth roll on Broadway. Who doesn't the play from from what I've heard is I don't know. I'm not that excited by the yeah, but Traumty Dumpty Right, so it it is After the giant concludes then we all remain in the theater the doors are locked in John Liff That reads the entire he of Trumpty Dumpty Do you know about Trump? Are you aware that that don't let go Wrote a New York Times bestseller called Dumpty, uh, which was a series of uh comical nursery rhymes about Donald Trump Then he wrote a sequel called Trumpty Dumpty wanted a crown And my guess in that one he turns around he says Trump not so bad Wait, you're telling me he doubles down on how Trump is bad And then would you would it shock you to learn that there's a third book called a Confederacy of Dumpty's Who's that for? Uh, what do you mean children? They loved John Liff goes, uh, Hectoring poetry And I think it's the only needs to write one more which hopefully he's working on in between shows and then that's gonna That's gonna do it that then Trump will be like he got me Rhymes I didn't think you'd do he's right he's been hot fire All right, Jay just one more plug of course for your podcast. Yeah, so my podcast. Thank you theater We saw which I don't know what episode will be on by the time this comes out um, you know as I'm talking about it It's very new um it releases by weekly we talk about two shows uh each episode Two new shows, but maybe we'll do some fun episodes as I as I mentioned Such as about the the the pipe robbery at the perfect crime and um you have guests on occasionally We have cool guests on we just had Grace Walker who's a great like theater tiktok her on we're gonna have More cool people on including non-theater people. Oh a big hope of ours going forward It's to start having some people who are not like theater specific people, but like comedians who are like who are into theater because Many of them are whether they proudly admit it or Or not um, so we're hopeful to have lots of different types of guests on and uh, yeah, it's fun. Give it a Give it a listen. There's a link in the episode description And wait, this is also a first you have to take us out. Oh, okay. Um, yes, so in the blink of an eye Listen to Joey's podcast. Um next week on the show is toy story five Course, which at this point has already come out because the stamps and series premiered a little later But we have yet to see But I'm told there's an iPad Uh, so that's next week and then we will be starting our series on some fuck called martin scort sezi So listen forward to that uh, and uh, as always um Well, no, you got a rate review. Oh, yeah, I'm gonna rate review and subscribe. We have a patreon. Yeah, sure. We got okay We'll talk about special features uh, yeah, thanks to special features. We got uh, we're starting our resident evil commentary series fun We're gonna watch the resident evil movies called us anderson His universe of six movies and then the visible resident evil welcome to raccoon city And then I guess we will touch on uh, the zack cracker movie as well at some point uh, I don't like yeah We'll talk about it that patreon.com/blankcheck. We also have a newsletter on substack checkbook to weekly Behind the scenes look Into the world of blank check I think we've done all we need to do as far as housekeeping So and as always david as always Uh, there's something about the nut Yeah, there's there's an acorn golden nut at the golden acorn blankcheck with griffin and david is hosted by griffin newman and david sims Our executive producer is me Ben Hossley our creative producer is Marie barbie selenis and our associate producer is aja maqian This show is mixed and edited by aja maqian and alan smithy research by j.j. birch Our theme song is by lame Montgomery in the great american novel with additional music by Alex Mitchell artwork by joe bowin holly moss and pat Reynolds Our production assistant is minick special thanks to david chow jordan fish and nate paterson for their production help Head over to blankcheckpod.com for links to all of the real nerdy shit Join our patreon blankcheck special features for exclusive franchise commentaries and bonus episodes Follow us on social at blankcheck pod Subscribe to our weekly newsletter checkbook on substack this podcast is created and produced by blankcheck productions