#47. 'Malignant' and 'The Mysterious Benedict Society'
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The main event is James Wan's Malignant, which Sonny reviews as a gloriously deranged experience: a cheesy, badly-acted 90s-throwback horror movie for its first eighty minutes that suddenly detonates into an unhinged action spectacle once the "twist" lands — the heroine's murderous absorbed fetal twin, Gabriel, has been growing off her spine and speaking through electrical outlets — and Sonny likens the film's total commitment to batshit-crazy ideas to peak-80s Brian De Palma, even though he calls the twist embarrassingly telegraphed from the opening scene. Vic, who somehow didn't see the reveal coming and burst out laughing alone at his screen when it hit, scores it a Quadrant B-minus (plot A, duration B, action/violence A-minus for the insane but sometimes CGI-sloppy carnage, sex/nudity F since it's a big-studio R-rated horror movie with zero skin). JVL, true to form, skipped the horror movie entirely and instead raves about The Mysterious Benedict Society on Disney+, describing it as "Royal Tenenbaums meets Under the Silver Lake for kids" and a rare streaming series that doesn't feel padded to hit episode count; Sonny and Vic each watched only the first episode and found it well-cast and pleasant but not especially gripping (Sonny's six-year-old bailed after five minutes). The long opening stretch covers JVL's total introvert depletion after playing genial host at a raucous Bulwark reader meetup at a Nationals game (Xanax plus beers required), and a fresh entry in Gout Watch as Vic's toe swells grotesquely after a CVS-coupon binge on Mike and Ike's candy, complete with an on-air foot reveal that grosses everyone out. They also dig into the Christopher Nolan/Universal deal for Oppenheimer (reportedly 20% of gross from dollar one and a three-week no-competing-releases window), riff on the new Hawkeye trailer and the Matt Fraction comics it's based on, and close with warm remembrances of Norm Macdonald, who had just died — Sonny, a former colleague, recounts writing his obituary mid-flight, and both hosts trade favorite bits (Turd Ferguson, the moth joke, the OJ Simpson "murder is legal in California" runs) and praise his memoir/comic novel Based on a True Story.
From the show notes
This week: the return of Gout Watch! JVL talks about talking to people. Sonny talks about Norm Macdonald. Vic and Sonny talk about Malignant (currently on HBO Max and in theaters) while JVL makes the case for The Mysterious Benedict Society (streaming on Disney+) since he doesn't do horror.
Full transcript
Guest00:00:00The body of Dr. Florence Weaver was found brutally murdered in her home this morning. Did you know her? No, but I saw her die. I'm seeing things. I'm seeing murders. As they're happening.
Vic00:00:19Hello?
Guest00:00:25He says his name is Gabriel. I think he's someone from my past. Whatever happened to you before you joined our family hurt you in a way that I can't even imagine. Stop saying that. Maddie, who are you talking to? Gabriel. Is he your imaginary friend?
?00:00:55He's the devil.
Vic00:00:57Hello and welcome to another edition of the Sub-Beacon. I'm Victor Matus along with Jonathan V. Last and Sonny Bunch. Just a reminder, the Sub-Beacon is now available through Patreon. Go to subbeacon.com, you'll easily find us. Please subscribe, tell your friends, and don't forget about the Sub-Beacon merchandise store at tpublic.com. Gentlemen... I just have a question.
Sonny00:01:27Payment. You each have like ten bucks coming to you.
Vic00:01:29Really? Oh, okay. Well, then there... What is... Oh, that is... You know what that can get me? That can get me, I believe, a Mexican Caesar at Chopped. Just barely. Maybe. Maybe. Before tax? Kale Caesar.
Sonny00:01:45I'll just take the Kale Caesar.
Vic00:01:46Before tax, maybe. Without chicken. Okay. Before tax. How are we? JVL, what's going on? I'm fine.
JVL00:01:53I'm still in recovery from yesterday. We had a social event at the office where a bunch of readers and podcast listeners from the Bulwark got together at a Nationals game. It's a fairly large crowd, a little bit reminiscent of being on a cruise ship. I took a Xanax and had a couple of beers to get me through it.
Sonny00:02:19That's a good combination.
JVL00:02:20And it was...
Sonny00:02:22I believe the phrase you used was a handful of Xanax.
JVL00:02:27Victorino, how do you do it? Because I think I did very well. I think I made all the people who I spoke with very happy.
Vic00:02:36How do I do it or why do I do it?
JVL00:02:37No, no, no, no. The question is how do... Because... So this is a... I'm being reasonably candid here. I think that I was a pretty good host and I think that I made time for everybody who I could and I think I was entertaining and I think people enjoyed themselves. I felt as though I had just run a marathon when it was over. I was so drained by it.
Vic00:03:02Yeah, but in a way like, "Whoo, that felt amazing."
JVL00:03:06No, not like that, in a way that I wanted to crawl into a cave and not speak to another human being for a week. Just the emotional energy it took to do that.
Vic00:03:17Well, if you're not used to it, then you would feel that way, sure. You know, if it's your default.
JVL00:03:22Because some people, I think, people like you, now correct me if I'm wrong, but when you exit a situation like that, you're jazzed. You can't sleep for hours because you're flying high like a kite.
Vic00:03:33No. I remember the first time I emceed a wedding for my friend Brian Faughton and his lovely wife Miriam, and I did it as a whole thing. I mean, I had material, it was very involved, and I pulled out all the stops because it was my first gig, and it was very exciting. And I had all sorts of jokes, and I remember I even had to work with then Congressman David Dreyer, where he threw me the- Is that where you did the pussy cook? No, no, no. That was at a dinner party. But then he had thrown me the mic, and I grabbed it, we did this thing, and I made various very sort of questionable jokes, but when I got back to the table, every time I got back to the table, I didn't feel like talking, like I just wanted to eat and not chat with the people at the table, and then when you go back on, you're on again. So it can be exhausting, and I maybe need a couple of hours alone to recharge, but that's all I need, and then I'm back on again. But you remember on the cruise ship, we would sort of turn off when we're at the casino, for example. We're just on our own, we're doing our thing, and sometimes some of the guests would see us there, but we're just basically doing our thing. I like the thing, but we're obviously different people. I like to think that the persona I have for a show or for being on is different than who I really am off the air. And then what happened once was I was at the barber shop, and I listened to the show, spotted me, but didn't say anything at the time, and literally watched me glad hand and say hi to everybody and say goodbye to everybody. I'm like, "I don't want to miss any of the barbers, God forbid." So he was like, "Yeah, that was really ... " It was like a show even though it wasn't on air. So it's just different that way.
Sonny00:05:35You are a naturally convivial person. Yes. In a way that JVL and I are not, I would say. I'm very much closer to JVL.
Vic00:05:42You would be somewhere in the middle, Sonny? Are you in between?
Sonny00:05:45I'm much closer to JVL in terms of not really wanting to talk to people I don't know. It's hard for me sometimes, but I would say that I'm slightly more fluid than JVL in those situations.
JVL00:06:03But here's the sticking point for me, though, is it's scale. If you sat me down at a baseball game with three people who were Sub-Beacon listeners or Bulwark people who I had never met before, I could have a really great time hanging out for three hours with those three people. It's the scale. Once you are in a large group where you're pinged. Ponging back, I don't I don't I don't need any new people.
Vic00:06:28You don't feel even if even if it's not new people, JVL, I think, you know, you're not comfortable with more than three, I'd say.
JVL00:06:34Yeah, for right. Yeah. I mean, I guess I could be at dinner with as many as seven human beings before I start getting getting like a little squirrely.
Sonny00:06:49Seven plus you. So dinner. Dinner for eight.
JVL00:06:52No, no, not seven plus.
Vic00:06:54Seven backs, including like the like the waiter, the waiter, the maitre d, the captains and
JVL00:07:01enough of my psychosis. No, Sonny, did you have fun? What did you do? People know who you were. Did people I because I barely saw you once we got to the ballpark.
Sonny00:07:09Yeah, no, it was fine. It was good. It was I enjoy talking to people. There were a couple of some listeners there, which was very exciting as well. So that's awesome. Some some some we can work overlap there. It was fun. It was fun. I like I'm I'm like you. It is not so much the. So much the like talking to new people as like having to talk to many new people all at once.
Vic00:07:30And like it's well, it's kind of like it's kind of like a wedding day. It's a whirlwind. A little bit. A whirlwind. And being on the thing is there are differences with, for example, I like meeting if it's a lot of people, but they're all there because, oh, they're you know, they listen to the show or whatever. Or they're they're there because whatever you're speaking or whatever the deal is. And it's a lot of people. I don't mind working the room. It's great. Thanks for coming. What I do mind is a large crowd where if I'm if I have to go somewhere because I got invited to something and I don't know anybody or only some people and you're doing this as a favor because somebody wanted you to go for whatever reason. And making new friends, I don't have a lot of you're only comfortable doing it.
JVL00:08:22Some people are there for you for me. Yeah.
Vic00:08:24I can meet a million people. Right. Great. But if it's like, for example, every now and then I can say it's because Kate's cousin doesn't listen to the show. But, you know, he would invite us, you know, to like a dinner party and we would think it would be just us maybe, you know, and but every time we get invited, there's all these new people. But it's like new people every single time. And so it's like, hi, what do you do? That's interesting. Every you know, and it's just exactly and it's like I have to add I have to add. Add more people to the list and what's your name and remember the whole thing and find things in common. And what do we you know, because you're there for a couple of hours that I find exhausting.
JVL00:09:02Yeah. Sonny, what you got a present from Matthias Matthias, oh, who Matthias Matthias. What did you get? I assumed it was a Blu ray from the field package. Victorino, I have a present from his for you, which I have to pop in the mail to get over to you.
Sonny00:09:20It is a Blu ray. I actually I'm not familiar. I'm not familiar with the film. It's a manual in space. No, it's a staging of Kosey Funtuti by Michael Haneke, because we all know how much Sonny
Vic00:09:35loves opera.
Sonny00:09:36Yeah. Well, no, I mean, Michael Haneke is an interesting director, so very nice. I'll have to see if it works. I think it it I can't tell what region it is, but I have a region free Blu ray player, so it'll work.
JVL00:09:52I believe. One of my audition songs was a number from Kosey Funtuti. It was the one where, you know, we are two men with beards. Look at us. We're so charming and sophisticated as the like being when you translate these Italian operas in English and it's ridiculous that it only works.
Vic00:10:09But yeah, God, well, that's not really good. I did not see I did. That's an opera. I did not see when I was in Vienna. It never played that year, that season for when I was there.
Guest00:10:22But how are you, Victorino?
Vic00:10:23Very good. What's going on, buddy? I'm doing terrible. I'm doing terrible. No. So, you know, as you know, I've had this.
JVL00:10:31Did you OD on Prick Dong?
Vic00:10:32No. No. So, you know, I have this the plantar fasciitis, which is it comes and goes on the left foot after I run or then after that you're sitting for a long time, you stand up and then you get a little gimpy or in the morning I'm a little gimpy. And then a few days ago I had a major gout flare up. The worst the likes of which I have not seen in maybe six or seven years. I've gone straight without any medication. Everything's been great.
JVL00:11:00And this thing came on like that is right.
Vic00:11:04It was there's the gout watch. It is awful. And the first thing I had to do, I mean, it felt naughty for a few days and I was like, well, I think it's something's coming on, but, you know, I'm just going to keep on doing what I'm doing.
JVL00:11:16So you didn't even get a warning twinge.
Vic00:11:18No, it was it was it felt naughty. It felt not. KNO TTY. KNO TTY. Not like my other activities.
Sonny00:11:28And so I woke up and my my big toe was in there. I didn't know how it got there.
Vic00:11:33I kept I so I kept an eye on it. And then suddenly it just went into high gear like two days ago and yesterday and into today. What have you been eating? Ah, that is the question, Sonny. So it's probably oatmeal. It was the oatmeal. Oatmeal and beans. And so you had oatmeal or beans. So you know, I mean, Friday, Saturday, Sunday. I've been drinking, I don't know, martinis, whiskey and then some beer.
Sonny00:11:57But you had a lunch. Where'd you go to lunch on Friday?
Vic00:11:59Oh, no. Nowhere. Nowhere. This was like after Kate was away. So I was hanging out at the neighbors and I made martinis and stuff. And then on Saturday they had a clam, which a fire pit. No, they had a fire pit. So I brought out, you know, some whiskeys. And then on Sunday I was at the Knights and then they convinced me, you know, we had a cigar. I said, why not? And that's the guards. Some. And then I ordered as well as a wild turkey one on one rye, which was actually quite delicious.
Sonny00:12:27He's good. I like. Yeah. And the rye.
Vic00:12:31I don't think I've had the rye. It's really something. It's a revelation. I would not have had it myself, Sonny, because I'd say the whiskey. But anyway, so that's been going on. But then what happened? What did I introduce into my diet? So I was at CVS because I had a coupon I had to use. I was going to expire because, you know, me, I guess that's right. I mean, I was going to say, I'm like seventy five. I'm like, you know, I'm all ready for that part of my life, by the way.
Sonny00:12:57So I said, you know, do you have a do you have a coupon folder? No, I wouldn't call it a folder.
Vic00:13:03I wouldn't call it a folder.
Sonny00:13:05It's like one of those accordion style ones that you unfold and they're separated by like do you have a little Rios coupons to the little basket on wheels that you can push through
Vic00:13:16the city as I do. I do. I do. Yeah, I should have that. I do cut the coupon.
Sonny00:13:21And I just was like, oh, my God, is the highlight of your Sunday morning getting the wash. Oh, I guess it's.
Vic00:13:27Oh, they don't do that. No, no, no, no. I don't get it anymore. Yeah, the big. Yeah.
JVL00:13:32That's how that's how like that's like how Rupert Murdoch pays for itself.
Vic00:13:34Yes, it pays for itself. You could add it up and you don't have to pay anything in the supermarket. So I had it was a 30 percent off entire purchase from CBS, which is a big deal, not one item. So entire purchase. So I go and I said, well, there are some things I see. Yes, I go to CBS. Yes. For certain things. So anyway, is that where you get your Wolverine blood?
Sonny00:13:56Now I need to know. Now I need to know what food you're buying. I didn't buy it.
Vic00:14:00Well, OK, well, this is it. This is it, Sonny. So I had to get like face wash and stuff, but I'm not going to get one thing. And so I said, OK, just load up with the other various sort of things I would get from CBS and then on top of soap, whatever. And then and then I thought I was I said, you know, sometimes in the afternoon I could I need a snack, but not candy because chocolate. We have chocolate, but like kind of like a candy. Sometimes I want a candy. I go by the candy aisle and they had a special that was four for five dollars. Mike and Ike's, you know, Mike and Ike's.
Sonny00:14:34Yes. Yes.
Vic00:14:36I love Mike in the box. So. So why? So and one of them for us, I can get different kinds, including sours.
Sonny00:14:42Right.
Vic00:14:43So I said, oh, this is good. I said, I brought that.
Sonny00:14:45I want to go with the original man.
Vic00:14:46And I have the original, too. So I brought that. I brought two boxes into the office. The other day and man, I just starting to have to. I just lost track. I just start popping them in like, you know, like it's like almost heading towards half a box. And that's when all of a sudden, like not long after that, a few hours later, it just got I could feel the swelling get worse and worse. So of course, I looked it up. And yes, an increase in what they say sucrose levels can trigger gout, particularly from candy, hard candy, sweet candy or whatever. And I'm pretty sure it's the Mike and Ike's toe or. A heel. A toe. Toe. It's right on the base, the traditional location. And I have a pair of loafers that are pretty loose on me. I had to squeeze into that today and it was ridiculous. Angry toe. I'm I'm hobbling. I'm like in misery. The hobbling. You know how they you know, they that's that's that's what I'm like, you know, kind of throw
JVL00:15:42the throw the foot up in front of the cameras. We can have a look at that bad boy. He's like, I'm going to get you, sucker.
Sonny00:15:47No, no, no.
Vic00:15:49Sonny.
Sonny00:15:50Don't look.
JVL00:15:51I want to see it. I've never seen gout.
Sonny00:15:53Can you see it in the look at that?
JVL00:15:56No.
Sonny00:15:57Yeah. It's like it's like it's dislocated. It's like. Yeah. Side of his fucking foot. That's disgusting.
Vic00:16:03That's pretty nasty, dude. It is. That it's the real deal. That's gross. Good thing you didn't take a screenshot of that. Listeners would have paid a premium.
Sonny00:16:09So much. You put it back up there. Let's get out. Let's get out.
JVL00:16:13Let's get a look at that. They're Japanese businessmen who would pay a lot for this victory now.
Sonny00:16:19All right. I got it. Wow.
JVL00:16:22It is frightening. So what do you do? Are you doing cherry juice or?
Vic00:16:25Okay. No. Just a lot of water. A lot of water and taking a leave because that's kind of like naproxen and.
JVL00:16:32It's literally naproxen. Yes.
Vic00:16:34That's what the leave is. And so I need to, although I can get, you know, I mean, I can get, I don't know, maybe more than that from from a doctor, like increase the milligrams like of endomethacin, colchicin or something of that to that effect. I can't take allopurinol now because it's too late. It's happening already. But that's what I am. But I have to tell you, it is extremely it looks like its own I wouldn't I wouldn't even post that study. I think it's it's it's it's it's inappropriate. It looks like its own separate being that I just want to remove, like it's some sort of a malignancy.
JVL00:17:08What is what is what is his name in in. Coato?
Vic00:17:12Coato.
JVL00:17:13Yes. In Total Recall. How did you? How did you pull that? I know.
Vic00:17:18I know. I know. Every now and then there's a little bit left in us there. OK, so anyway, that was my quarter.
Sonny00:17:23It was what I was thinking about the whole time during Malignant. I mean, that's.
Vic00:17:26Yes. OK, well, speaking of which over over the weekend, Malignant grossed a whopping five point four million dollars at the box office just behind Free Guy at five point six million. And in first place again is Shang-Chi Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings with thirty four point seven million dollars. Box office thought this is this great news or what for Shang-Chi not for Malignant.
Sonny00:17:56Yeah. So the Shang-Chi news is good for Marvel and Disney and the theater owners and everybody else because it you know, it dropped fifty three percent, which like in a in normal times would be like, OK, fifty three percent. That's that's not it's not a bad drop, but it's not a great drop or anything. But these days it's very, very good. And the again, the important thing is that the the weekend, the number kept ticking up all weekend at the beginning of the weekend. It looked like it was going to drop about 60 percent and instead of dropped about fifty three percent. So, again, word of mouth is very strong. A lot of people are going to see it, which is good. I think people will be be happy about the thing I'm most interested in. Did you guys see the Christopher Nolan news?
Vic00:18:39Yes. He's going to do a movie about Robert Oppenheimer.
Sonny00:18:43So Christopher Nolan's next movie is a one hundred million dollar historical drama about Robert Oppenheimer and he's going to set off a nuclear bomb. He is doing it with Universal.
Vic00:18:56I would assume that is I said, if you ever wondered how much it costs to drop an atom bomb, it's one hundred million dollars.
Sonny00:19:01It turns out I would I would assume he is going to be dropping an atomic bomb. So a small one.
JVL00:19:07He did this small just to piss on the Warner's folks.
Sonny00:19:11Well, so the Hollywood Reporter, Hollywood Reporter had a whole story about like how it went down. Sony and Universal. Where I think the big ones at the end, Apple was also kind of in the mix, but he just he just he just rung concessions out of them. It was like I get 20% off dollar one, 20% off the gross, not the net, the gross. He gets gross points. Christopher Nolan, the only other director I think who has that that deal is Quentin Tarantino. He he negotiated. For a not only a like 120 day theatrical exclusive window, but he also said that Universal Universal agreed to not release any movies within three weeks on either side of the of of the movie. Wow. So so Universal will release no movies in that six week stretch that Oppenheimer or whatever it's gonna be called is right in the middle of dropping the big one. I mean, it's like it's like it's it's everything. It's everything he had at Warner Brothers, more or less, but like, he's for a biopic for a for a historical drama.
Vic00:20:30No word.
Sonny00:20:31No word. Oppenheimer. Who knows what it's actually about?
JVL00:20:34I mean, nobody. No word on who's the cat? No. Yes. Time. It's actually about time.
Vic00:20:40Right. Right. Right. Well, I mean, there's all sorts of clocks involved in the atom bomb.
Sonny00:20:44So yes, you know, in a way, you know. So in the. The in the famous Oppenheimer quote, you know, I am become death, death, the story of worlds, the more traditional word that is used for death in the original Sanskrit or whatever is time. How did that is actually you read this? I read it in Tom Schoen's Tom Schoen's book about Christopher Nolan, the Nolan variations. But he but the the that is the the. Traditional translation of that word is actually time, not death. So who knows what who knows what the movie is actually going to be? I mean, like when you when we heard he was making a movie about Dunkirk, we weren't expecting a hundred million dollar art film because that's what that was. Right. I mean, that is that is parts in with with the weird structure and dilation and all that. So I mean, who knows what who knows what the Oppenheimer movie will actually be about? But I would assume it has something to do with time.
JVL00:21:46And. When we we heard about Tenet, we assumed it would be a movie with a story story.
Sonny00:21:53This is for it's not for it's not for the basics.
JVL00:21:57Is this where is this where we can just get off the Nolan train finally? Never.
Vic00:22:04Is this the. Well, we'll find out. We'll find out after this.
Sonny00:22:07I mean, I like.
Vic00:22:08We gave him a pass.
Sonny00:22:09You're not. You're not. You're not. You're not at least intrigued by the idea of a Christopher Nolan biopic.
JVL00:22:16I am offended by a guy who just turned out a turd like Tenet demanding three weeks on either side of my film that thou shalt not release, you know, whatever shit.
Sonny00:22:36That's what he is. He is. He is. He is King Kong, baby.
JVL00:22:41But he's not. But he is. I mean, he makes really good movies. But as a. He clearly is. Business matter. This is. No, this is. This is people acting irrationally from a business perspective.
Sonny00:22:53I don't think it is. I don't think it is. There are no the only other director who has the sort of name brand ID that gets people into theaters. Spielberg. Because it is.
JVL00:23:03The director is not Spielberg.
Sonny00:23:04That's Tarantino. It's not Spielberg. It's Quentin Tarantino. It's like it's Quentin Tarantino and Christopher Nolan. And if you any if you talk to any buddy who works in theatrical or anybody who works in distribution, this is what they will tell you, because it happens time and again. And even a movie like Interstellar, which like didn't do a billion dollars, but it made more than enough money to break even. And it is a big, sprawling blockbuster sci fi think piece type movie. Like there is nobody else. There is no there is no other director on the planet who can make that movie and have it gross what he grossed. Again, Dunkirk is a hundred million dollar World War Two art movie. That's why it is. It is. It is more akin to an art movie than it is. It is to a big blockbuster spectacle film. And that movie grossed five hundred fifty million dollars. Something like that. I mean, like and it got nominated for got nominated for ten Oscars. I mean, like there's nobody else. There is nobody else who can combine the box office and award season potential of Christopher Nolan just by his name alone, except for Quentin Tarantino.
Vic00:24:10I like the traditional storytelling of the reboot of Midway. And Dunkirk is visually for me, as you know, more pleasing.
Sonny00:24:20What's just a better movie?
JVL00:24:21I mean, I am much more excited about the new Hawkeye. The effects of the series.
Guest00:24:27Yeah.
JVL00:24:29Which is a clear adaptation of the Matt Fraction Hawkeye books, which were the Seinfeld of comic books about 15 years ago, 10 years ago when they came out, anybody who who dabbles in the. The comic arts who has not read those run out and get them. I'm trying to get J-Pod to to read them because I think he'll love them.
Sonny00:24:53The whole idea is it's just like John went suspiciously quiet when you offered to tell me about to send him the trade paperbacks. Tell me about it. He's very he clammed up.
JVL00:25:05It is the the thesis of it is this is what Hawkeye does when he's not being an Avenger. And what he does is he just like hangs out. He's out in what section? I guess it's Queens. I was gonna say it's New York. It's in New York. He's in Queens. He's got an apartment in this building. There's this Russian mobsters who are trying to evict the people in the building because it's a rent control building, I think. And they want to like get these people out so they could sell the building because it's, you know, the things are booming in New York. It's just it's hysterically funny. It's so great. I think also the series trailer looks awesome.
Vic00:25:47I think Jeremy Renner, I like him a lot and I think he makes a good Hawkeye.
JVL00:25:52So yeah, I hope it's better than Loki. So I mean, I don't know. Did anybody finish? Did anybody in America finish? I did not finish like Sonny. You must look.
Sonny00:26:04You did.
Vic00:26:05I watched the whole. Was it worthwhile and satisfying?
Sonny00:26:08It was fine. I like the ending. Really? The ending with Jonathan Majors playing a version of Kang the Conqueror. Oh. Was pretty funny. Alright. It's fine. Yeah. This is how I feel about most of the Marvel televisual products. I think the best of them is probably WandaVision.
Vic00:26:28WandaVision.
Sonny00:26:29Yeah. And that was the best because it was so kind of, it was very high concept. It was like we're doing a parody of sitcoms and it worked on that level if no other. Loki. Loki really dragged in the middle and then it ended with a couple of pretty good episodes I thought. It had Richard Grant playing classic Loki. Was very funny. Interesting. I don't know.
Vic00:26:56Okay. Good. Well, this week we're actually not, this week we're talking about rather the movie that came in third place but it debuted. Malignant. It debuted. Malignant which is simultaneously in theaters. And an HBO Max.
Sonny00:27:16Like everything else. Directed by James.
Vic00:27:18From Warner Brothers Slate. Directed by James Wan. Sonny, how about a big boy review?
Sonny00:27:23So Malignant, before I describe the plot, I want to describe the mood of this movie. Because the mood of this movie is for about two thirds of it, it's like a very cheesy 90s horror movie. Like very, like it's like lots of, you know, kind of jump scares. And kind of arch humor, but also like corny and like not, not terribly well acted. Like it's very, it's, it's, it's a very weird movie for the first 90 minutes or so. First 80 minutes. And then the last 30 minutes, it gets totally bonkers. And it's like, and it's all of a sudden, it's no longer really a horror movie. It's more of an action movie. It's like more akin to the Terminator. And to, uh, to, or, or like total recall or, or something like that than it is to, uh, a horror movie and, and the, the levels of violence in this movie are of, of a variety that I have not seen in a major studio release in some time. I mean, like it's, it's crazy. It's it's bonkers. So the, the plot of malignant, it opens with a prologue say, I think it's 1996. Three, 1993, 1993, a, uh, uh, a, a doctor is in a mental hospital talking about a patient that she is going to have to perform surgery on. And we don't really see the patient. We we're, we're told it's this boy, Gabriel, but the socks we see are little girl socks.
Vic00:29:03And then in the credits, yeah, yeah.
Sonny00:29:06So we're like, Oh, what's going on here? So like in the credits, then it shows a surgery being performed and like everybody is treating what happens in the last 30 minutes as if it's a big plot twist and spoilers because we're just going to talk about everything that happens in this movie. So if you, if you're really worried about being spoiled for malignant, stop listening now. Um, uh, but the, the, the, the big plot twist with 30 minutes to go is like, if you're paying any attention at all, it's very obvious what's happening in this, in the, in the opening scenes with this surgery, the talk about cutting out the cancer or whatever, we got to cut out the, the malignancy. Um, and then we flash forward and there's this woman, she's in an abusive relationship. Her, uh, partner slams her head against the wall and, uh, and she has a dream where he gets murdered. No, no. You get murdered in real life. What's happening. How did he get murdered? What happened? I don't understand. Uh, and there are a whole series, there's a whole series of killings like this. People keep dying while she is asleep and in dreams and seeing the, seeing the murders happen. There's some sort of psychic link. There's some sort of psychic link between the two of them. Turns out, turns out the thing that was being cut out of her was a, uh, absorbed fetal twin, uh, that was evil and grew, uh, as she aged in childhood and it like, it's like Quatto, uh, except coming out of her back and with like crazy spindly arms.
JVL00:30:33Connected by the brain.
Sonny00:30:35They're connected by the brain. And also he is an energy monster who speaks through speakers for some reason. Superpowers. That, that was never explained. That was never explained at all and it was never explained at all, but, but what is happening in this movie is that the fetal twin has reemerged, uh, the, the, the surgery to remove him was not successful and now he's killing people and he's making her take the fall for it. Uh, and everybody is going to pay. Everyone's going to pay for saying that he's imaginary and, uh, and a figment of their imaginations. Um, uh, like I said, the movie, the movie is a incredibly transparent. You can see all of this stuff coming from a mile away. Is one reason why I don't understand why they treat it like a big reveal, like the video from the, the, the asylum. They should have just, just structurally speaking, it, they should have made it clear what happened in that opening scene and then tried to like make it seem like he was a ghost or something. I just literally anything else, um, instead of this dumb, this dumb like twist. But what's, what's fascinating about the movie is in this last 30, 30 minutes, again, it goes from being like a kind of bad horror movie to like just incredibly super violent, uh, blood, broken bones, like viscera everywhere. Like th th there's a C there's a sequence that takes place in a jail cell. Uh, the, the, the lead character, the lead, the lead character is, you know, she's this like kind of, she's like a richer woman. She's stuck with all these, like all these, the C the S the scum of Seattle. Streets. The, the lady scum of Seattle streets is all in there with her and she kills all of them and she kills all of them.
Vic00:32:20And it's really, it's really, where are the police, where are the police?
Sonny00:32:24But it's like, it's just like a, it's like a four minutes orgy of violence that again, I like, I cannot remember having seen anything like this in a long, long time. Uh, I don't know. It's not a good movie exactly. I don't think it's, I don't think it's, it's not high art, but it is. It is impressively bonkers. The, the, the, the, the, the director at called the mind, not visually exactly, um, but in terms of like interests and ideas and like total commitment to just being batshit crazy, it was Brian De Palma. It is very much like a 1980s Brian De Palma movie that like just takes a wild turn at some point and goes totally crazy. Uh, and it has like a lot of the same obsessions with like identity and twins and doubles.
Vic00:33:13So the same level of acting between that woman and Nancy Allen and Craig was on remember
Sonny00:33:19Craig was on from body double, the guy who looks like Bill Maher. I thought that was Bill Maher for like 10 years because I mean, I saw that movie on, I saw that movie on HBO when I was like 12 probably. Uh, and I was like, good movie. I was like, this guy looks like, or I was probably older than that because I knew who Bill Maher was because he had his like his ABC show. So I was probably like 16 or 17. I was like, why is Bill Maher in this movie? What is, what is happening here? Uh, anyway, a weird movie. I don't think it's a great movie, but it is entertainingly bonkers. Um, even, even with all of its myriad flaws, it's not, again, it is like weirdly structured. It's not, it, the acting is bad. Uh, the, the writing is I think like intentionally kind of hokey. Um, but it is, it is question is it intentionally, it is, it is entertainingly bananas at the end.
Vic00:34:12So JVL.
JVL00:34:13Thank you, Sonny pass. I did. I did it. I, my interest level in this was zero. I saw something else that we can talk about, but I, I was fascinated the whole time listening because I thought to myself, this is something that I bet that 48 year old Vic is going to go. I don't like it, but that eight year old Vic would have loved.
Vic00:34:36That's interesting. Okay.
JVL00:34:38So because you would have gone to see this in the theaters with your family, I was hoping
Sonny00:34:43you would watch this with your dad.
Vic00:34:44I know you, I think he would have loved it. Uh, I guess I should tell him to watch it. It's uh, I was for most of the movie until the last 15 or so minutes, just waiting for this movie to end, you know, like, uh, first of all, the acting was, it felt like you're watching a TV special in a weird way or something, you know what it was like tales from the crypt or something like that. Um, and speaking of tales from the crypt listeners check out carrion death, uh, I think there's an actual episode on YouTube, uh, with common Glockman. That's fantastic. In any event, that's what it felt like. And what is this? You talk about the predictable twist, Sonny. That was not predictable for me, it wasn't, it wasn't, it wasn't right. Obviously there's a connection, but I did not expect visually to see what I saw, which is this thing, this little creature moving around connected. And by her brain, like it, it just popped out of her head. So I mean, I, I literally, I was, I was watching here alone, obviously, and I just started laughing out loud. I think I couldn't believe it happened. I was like, ah, I said, you gotta be kidding me. And it was so ridiculous looking, it was so ridiculous looking. Um, okay. So on the, on the quadrant scale, um, it gets about a B minus, uh, the plot is an a pretty straightforward with that incredible twist, not since the sixth sense, really, um, duration is duration. It was a B, it was about an hour 54, but I felt like, uh, um, it could have been a lot shorter. Um, the action and violence I give about an a minus, and the reason why is it towards the end, the violence is insane. It's true. And everything that Sonny says, but I felt like the CGI got sloppy at the end. And whereas in olden days, uh, when you had movies, like if you watch, um, I don't know, American werewolf in London or whatnot, you know, the amount of work that Rick Baker and those people put into sort of that stuff. Yeah. Prosthetics and the guts and things spilling out. And this is all just fake and you can see it as fake. So the police station scene is when they lost me on that one because it turned, there are alert, a lot of C, um, images there that almost like video game, like, and it was like, eh,
Sonny00:37:02you know, it's also shot in a very weird way to create a, a like kind of foe one-er like a, a foe single shot. Yes. The, the, the, the, the way the camera, like the way the camera is placed and like the angle of the lens is super wide, which feels very distorted.
JVL00:37:21The church.
Sonny00:37:22Yes. Similar. But that was a million times better than this. Yeah, exactly. That was, that was much, much better. Yes.
Vic00:37:28Uh, done than this. And then, and then sex nudity gets an F because this is a rated R movie.
Sonny00:37:31It's an R rated movie.
Vic00:37:32It's an R rated movie.
Sonny00:37:33So this is, so this is the, this is the other thing is that when I was watching it, I was like, this feels like a Brian De Palma movie where like anything can happen except. Except for the possibility that somebody will take their clothes off somewhere. That's right. Because like, it just, they're just big, big studio movies. Just don't do nudity like widows does, but you know, you know why they don't do it because
JVL00:37:55the people don't appreciate it because people like Vic, when they, they are given boobies, then turn their nose up at it.
Vic00:38:02I might've fallen asleep at that part. Uh, you know, because you want to talk about R rated horror, uh, think about like Friday, the 13th, the remake. The remake from 2009, that's a quadrant killer and, uh, another, uh, another one killed the quarter. And if you go back to the age, by the way, if you go back to the eighties, I would say like, think about horrible. He's like, which board with Donnie contained, I mean, come on, but it's, it's, it's even,
Sonny00:38:28it's a relatively recent switch. Like if you look at the, look at the original Halloween, the original John Carpenter Halloween from 78 or whatever, and then look at the Halloween sequel slash soft reboot that came out a couple of years ago. Um, yeah, just compare those two again, like the, the, the, the new Halloween, Halloween 2018 is good. It's entertaining. It's got a lot, it's got a lot to speak for it, but like, once again, there's like, there's just no chance at any, any, there's not going to be any nudity in that and like maybe, maybe that's for the best. Maybe we are an enlightened society now, but it is a, it's a, it's a big difference.
JVL00:39:07I like to embrace the vampire. That was my favorite.
Vic00:39:10My favorite horror movie was Embrace of the Vampire. Scary and yet exciting. Uh, I never finished the ending of that one. Um, the, the other thing was after, what did you, did you start it? You never finished the ending of the movie.
JVL00:39:24That's right.
Vic00:39:25The movie, the, the, okay, it's the idea. Thank you. The ending, you know, so in, in Malignant, you know, they have to force this creature back into her head, right? Which means, I mean, her head must be the size like my head or something. You could fit it. It's insane. But when I saw them. When they did, cause I said, what is she constantly bleeding from the head for? And there's a, she needs to get this checked out.
Sonny00:39:46And you see them. Once again, Vic, no idea. No, I don't like this. At the end of this.
Vic00:39:50She needs to get this, she needs to get this wound checked out because this other guy's roaming around.
Sonny00:39:55What's all this foreshadowing?
Vic00:39:56No, it wasn't. And there was a lot of shadowing in general, but they put this thing in the head and I said, oh, that explains the bad acting because it's suppressing her brain function. I have JVL any other, you have anything? Anything else to say about this or, uh, that's it?
JVL00:40:13No, I just, the second movies like this, I, I just have no interest in, I was curious about who the, who the audience for this was, because this is, it feels like throwback horror and not modern horror, right? Modern horror is different. It has something to say, right.
Sonny00:40:31You know, or, but I mean, James Wan, you know, James Wan directed the conjuring, which was an enormous hit. Oh, that's right. Yeah. And, and he was, he directed the first saw, um, and like a couple, I think one or two others in the series, but he also directed Aquaman. I mean, he directed Aquaman and like that movie grossed a billion dollars. So he had, he had the chits to make like whatever he wanted. He could make any, he, he had a blank check for up to $25 million or whatever from Warner brothers and was like, this is the thing I'm making. This is, this is, this is what I want to do with a year of my life. Okay.
JVL00:41:08It sounds like a $5 million movie. I mean, it does not sound like very expensive.
Sonny00:41:12I'd be interested to see what the budget was because of the, I bet it was 20 to 25 million because it's, it is, it's an FX heavy movie with, uh, with the, I dunno, a lot of set
Vic00:41:22pieces. So I felt like all the women looked the same. Was that just me? They all looked the same to me. Like the one who turns out to be the mother and then the other one, she looks like her
Sonny00:41:31daughter.
Vic00:41:32I mean, I think intentionally she looks a little bit like the other lady. I mean, it was weird. It was just, oh, you're right. She looks like, that's right.
JVL00:41:39Let all these characters be white. Please let all these characters be white.
Vic00:41:42They are all white women and they all look the same and I'm just like, what's happening here? You know? Uh, and, and there's no explanation about this superhuman strength or the fighting skill.
Sonny00:41:54Or, or again, the fact that he is an energy monster who like sucks power out of light bulbs and then speaks through speakers for some reason. I like, if this was a backdoor X-Men, uh, origins movie, that would be awesome. Yes. If they had like at the end of it been like professor X will return in, you know, no malignant
Vic00:42:15to this would have been a great, uh, uh, episode of tales from the crypt, particularly the special effects of the creature connected to her head. In the end, when they, when they, they pop in the, the, the, the VCR, right. She's cause thank God the adopted mother has a VHS player. So they pop it, they pop in the, the video cassette, uh, and then, and then they see the camera goes around the surgery. That's the part that got me. That's just amazing. Uh, terrible. It is.
Sonny00:42:45Again, it is, it is played to be a big surprise or, or, and I guess it worked for, I guess it, I guess it worked, but I'm telling you, Vic, it was not, I probably, I, you know,
Vic00:42:59I don't catch all the dialogue as you know. So I mean, they're probably, that was probably a factor. So I wasn't sure what was it, but it did, I was like, okay, well it is weird that the killer has long. Yeah. Black hair.
Sonny00:43:10So like you couldn't tell that the killer was like running backwards in the, in the running. But also it was jumping around backwards.
Vic00:43:18It was jumping around like, again, like it had, uh, special powers.
Sonny00:43:22It's uh, it definitely had strong, like X-Men, uh, horror movie, but this is the movie new mutants should have been fair enough.
Vic00:43:33Uh, we're also, uh, I was going to say, do you, do you know what had better? Acting, uh, that, uh, mysterious Benedict society.
Sonny00:43:44Did you watch any?
Vic00:43:45I did. I watched the episode better acting.
Sonny00:43:48I watched the first episode as well.
Vic00:43:49And so on a lighter note for our listeners, uh, we agreed horror is not Jonathan's thing. Uh, but Jonathan is big on a show on the Disney plus Disney plus show. Uh, that is called, uh, the, uh, mysterious, uh, Benedict, uh, society. Uh, and JVL, you love the show. Tell us, uh, tell the listeners if they haven't seen it yet. What is it about?
JVL00:44:14Pitch the show. The mysterious Benedict society is based on a young adult fiction series from back in the early 2000 aughts. It is the Royal Tenenbaums meets under the silver Lake, but for kids, I don't know how
Vic00:44:29to, it's only half good.
JVL00:44:33It's great. And I am glad that you both agreed to watch. You know, one 40 minute episode of it. Uh, did you like it as much as I did?
Sonny00:44:45No, well, I, I, I didn't dislike, it's, it's, so I, I, I sat down to watch it with my six year old and she checked out after five minutes, she was like, she was like, I don't like this. I was like, okay, you don't have to watch, I'm not gonna force you to watch it. So she was not into it. Um, I, I. I understand what you're saying with the, uh, Wes Anderson influence, the Wes Anderson look of it all. Um, and it definitely has that. It felt, it felt almost like, again, I, I only watched the first episode, so I don't know, maybe it, maybe it's, it gets a little different, but it felt, it felt a little bit like Roald Dahl, but by way of Matthew Vaughn with the color palette of Wes Anderson.
JVL00:45:33So I hate Roald Dahl. Uh, and I. Okay. Uh, I am sorry that your six-year-old didn't like it because this killed on the quadrants in my house, the quadrants being 13, 11, eight and five. And from five to 13, they were all, let's watch another, let's watch another, let's
Vic00:45:54watch another. I, I ha I watched this alone, so I'm curious, uh, what my kids would think about it. Uh, as soon as I mentioned, Kate explained to me, this was based on books.
JVL00:46:04I did not know that.
Vic00:46:06Um, Sling blade over here. I reckon, I reckon, uh, great movie by the way. Uh, uh, but, but, uh, it was, it was a nice change of pace for me. I, I, I didn't find, I didn't personally find it like compelling, like I want to know what happens next, but, uh, I did find it like charming enough and nice enough. And certainly, uh, a relief after having watched malignant, the switch gears is like, oh, that's good.
Sonny00:46:37Uh, and I can see how the, the time you watch them back to back, uh, did you watch, did you turn off malignant and like, turn on, I'm trying to think if I did that, uh, no,
Vic00:46:46I, I w I watched it the following, the following day, the following day, uh, but, uh, and I can see the, the, the allure of this idea, uh, which is very true, uh, from a kid's point of view that, you know, adults are also fixated on terrible news out there and that's all there is out there and we get caught up in it. And what must that be like? Because that's really what it's like, but what must be that be like, uh, for kids? Uh, and how do they process that and wouldn't it be great if there was some alternative? So JVL.
JVL00:47:16Yeah, it's, you know, I mean, I think it's beautiful to look at. It's, it is like most Wes Anderson's it, uh, films it, it alternates between being on location shot and then shot in a way that self-consciously looks like a theatrical, uh, like an actual theater production. You know, like where you're, you're looking at a set, like literally a set, you know, a stage set and you know, you're setting this indeterminate time, you know, I was about the seventies. It's the eighties.
Vic00:47:47Are you in Europe? Are you in America? The UK time in place is not, I didn't miss that all.
JVL00:47:53No, you didn't miss it. And you know, all these characters are quirky. The set dressing, all the sets are dressed like crazy.
Vic00:47:59It feels like it's in France, but like maybe from the fifties or sixties, it feels like
Sonny00:48:04the grand Budapest hotel.
Vic00:48:05Yeah. The grand Budapest hotel. And everyone is dressed nicely.
JVL00:48:08It's got, and you know, the characters often when they're in dialogue, the dialogue takes place with the characters facing, making eye contact with the camera.
Sonny00:48:18Everybody's center set.
JVL00:48:19Set lots of center set stuff.
Sonny00:48:21Center set staring directly at the camera.
JVL00:48:25The characters are all very strange. You know, the hero professor Benedict is basically Steve Zissou. The, the precocious kids are all like the royalty. Royal Tannenbaum's kids in their own weird way. Um, even to the point where the, my favorite of the kids is the little French girl, Constance Contrere, who's, you know, like cute as a button and 10 years old and like really put together with these little pigtails. And then, but she basically looks like she should be smoking a Galois and trying to put her cigarette out in people's eyes. I don't know everything about it just charmed me. And it, it is a series of small puzzles. It's a, one of these little puzzle box stories where you're, you know, just unwrapping little mysteries as you go. And I'm sure there is a two hour version of this where you could have made this into a, just a straight movie and not a series. But this is the first streaming series that I can think of, which doesn't feel padded. It's like the journey actually feels pretty organic and it's not like a documentary. Yeah. It feels like a pleasing organic. And honestly, probably this would be better than the two hour version. You know, like most of these streaming shows you look at, you know, like Loki was a perfect example of this. That's a, that's a two hour, five minute movie. You know, they just get, you know, super size it out to become, you know, more content. And I thought this is great. I really, I loved it and I'm sorry you guys didn't love it as much as I did.
Vic00:50:05I'm, I would be curious to rewatch it when I can get the kids together and see what they think about it.
JVL00:50:13Yeah. Because it's really not a kids show. That's the other thing. Like it's again, I could see literally anybody. I could see high school kids watching this.
Sonny00:50:20This is, yeah. I mean, I, I think my, my six year old is too young for it. I mean like there's no way she understood, I mean like she can, she can read, but I don't think she can read like the headlines of all the newspapers as they're like going, well,
Vic00:50:32you tell her I missed a lot of those too. Uncle Vic. That's right.
Sonny00:50:37Also can't read. That's right.
Vic00:50:39I'm with her. I'm with her on this is really slow down. Slow down.
Sonny00:50:44Uh, okay. So I, I mean, I like, I didn't dislike it. I, I, it's very clever. It's very well cast. It's got Tony Hale, um, Kristen Schaal, who a lot of people really like. And I 30 rock.
JVL00:50:54Right. This is where everybody knows her as the crazy intern from 30 rock.
Sonny00:50:57I'm, I, I'm a little cold on her because I, her face is weird to me.
Vic00:51:01It is. And, and, and, and obviously time has passed. Because like, wow.
JVL00:51:06And then obviously we're all, well, she was cast as an intern when she was already like 35. Yeah. I mean, same, same as God, what's the kid, the kid plays Kenneth, uh, whose name is Phil something or another. Right. Um, but again, who was like 35 years old playing Kenneth the page. Right.
Sonny00:51:24Yeah. Right. But it's also, it's, and it's got a, it's got a guy from sons of anarchy as the, uh, the like kind of groundskeeper type character.
JVL00:51:30Yes. You know who I thought that was? I thought it was like, you thought it was Chris Hemsworth. Didn't you? No, I thought it was a lot like Chris.
Vic00:51:38I thought it was like Baron holds, but, uh, no, no, no, no, it's a, it's a guy who played
Sonny00:51:43Opie on, uh, sons of anarchy.
JVL00:51:45He's great. Did you, were you there for his one little monologue in episode one? I don't know which, but there's an early episode in which somebody offhandedly asks him like how he got there, what his story is and like all of a sudden the lights go out behind him as if he is. Forward into the spotlight and he does this very, again, a very self-consciously dramatic telling of his own story. It's so great. It's this fabulous little piece of work.
Sonny00:52:15He's good. I like him. I I'll, I'll maybe I'll watch another episode and see if I can get, get more into it. The other, but the problem with it is that it is an hour long show. It's not, I was expecting it to be like a 30 minute.
JVL00:52:25They're between 40 and 52 minutes. They're, they're, none of them are full hour and the lengths vary, which is again, pretty, pretty good. Yeah. You know, unlike many people I have been very soft on many of the Disney plus series, including the Mandalorian. Uh, the other thing is, I think this looks so good that it looks like something that could be put on a big screen and theatrical release without any compromises.
Sonny00:52:53My, my big visual takeaway from the first episode, aside from the like very Andersonian quality of it was you remember that there's, there's a shot in the. The first episode that basically takes you through the streets of this British town or wherever they are to wind up at the orphanage and it, it, I, it just felt very fake and like not, not, I, maybe I, I like, I think in what sense the CGI fake or derivative fake or it was clearly, no, it was just clearly like, it was clearly all done in a computer. It was not there. It's not like they had a drone flying on the streets.
JVL00:53:30See, I, I thought that felt fake almost in the Mr. Rogers neighborhood. You, I mean, if you remember the opening of Mr. Rogers and you go through the model, this almost felt like a model say, I mean, I understand that they did, I understand that they did not build models and that it was CGI, but I, I thought the F the effect of the CGI was almost to make it feel like you were in a miniature model world.
Sonny00:53:52I didn't know it didn't, it didn't work for me.
JVL00:53:55I'm sorry.
Sonny00:53:56Like it's definitely, but it's, it's, it's not like, here's the thing is that it's not a bad show. It's not like I was sitting here thinking like, oh, this sucks. I hate JBL for recommending. Yeah. It and making us watch it. I was like, I was like, I could see, I could see this working, but like without being able to watch it with my kids, I don't know if it's, if I can do the time commitment. Would you like a couple? Needed for it? No. Thank you. I'm all booked up.
Vic00:54:18For me, it was, it was a nice change of pace in terms of the acting quality after having watched a little bit. That's what I thought. Okay. Great. Uh, let's see here. Do we have any, uh, spirit of the week corrections or shout outs? Anything?
JVL00:54:34I have a correction JVL last week when I gave a shout out to Matias, I said he had two little girls. The baby is a boy. I'm sorry. Ah, I'm so I misgendered the baby, but in, in fairness, the baby was wearing like a hand me down hat, like a sun hat that was like, you know, half grow. I don't know. I'm sorry. I'm very sorry. Matias. I didn't mean to misgender your both very cute.
Vic00:55:02Okay. Uh, very good. That is all the time we're giving to this episode. Questions, comments, compliments, tweet us at Sonny Bunch at Victorino Matus. Again, be sure to subscribe to us on Patrion. Just go to sub beacon.com. We're there.
JVL00:55:17Tell your friends until next time.
Sonny00:55:21Do we want to talk about norm? Norm Macdonald?
JVL00:55:30We can, but before we talk about that, I have a funny story for you. Yeah.
Sonny00:55:33Oh, okay.
JVL00:55:34So, uh, we are sitting around before we just settled on trying the mysterious Benedict society and I'm going through, I'm proposing ideas for my children. What we, what we shall watch. And one of them is, uh, the D plus reboot of Doogie Houser.
Vic00:55:50I saw, uh, at the, after the episode, you know how it shows you teasers. And I looked at that and I said, what?
JVL00:55:57And so the, the kids will say, what's a Doogie Houser. And I said, well, it's a, it's a story. Uh, about a kid who's a genius and he graduates from medical school and he becomes a doctor when he's 16 years old and it's about his life navigating, being a real doctor, even though he's only a teenager. And, and it's great. I, I watched that show when I was a kid and I loved it and favorite sitting at the kitchen table, reading a book without even looking up says, I can see why that would have appealed to you.
Vic00:56:29Oh, wow. She went there.
JVL00:56:32She went there burn as the kids say D E D D just a sniper. Yeah.
Sonny00:56:41I, how could she be that savage to me? It was horrible.
JVL00:56:44That's great. Yeah. That's great. Anyway, Norm. Hey Victorino. Did you know that Sonny is a real deal journalist who on a plane can be told, Hey, Norm McDonald just died. Can you write an obituary? Oh yeah. He's a pro in the air before landing his pieces filed. Not surprised. Not surprised.
Sonny00:57:02Uh, I mean it helps that I know a lot about Norm McDonald just in my brain. I was able to, I was able to like this, I mean that is what happened.
Vic00:57:10Did you have any inkling that he was an ill health?
Sonny00:57:13No, nobody knew. He didn't. I mean, you know, for nine years we had exchanged DMS a couple of times, but it's not like he was, you know, filling me in on his oncology treatments. Uh, I mean like I, it was, I was shocked. Um, I was shocked and like weirdly affected by it. Like in a way that the, the last time that I have like been this surprised by a, uh, this surprise in this moved by a celebrity or actor's death was Philip Seymour Hoffman.
Vic00:57:41Oh sure.
Sonny00:57:42When Philip Seymour Hoffman just like dropped dead in the prime of heroin overdose. Uh, that was like, that was a, that was a, just a real dagger. Um, and this, this is, this is not dissimilar because I feel like, I feel like Norm was having kind of a resurgence of respect and you know, people, people were like, you know, discovering a lot of his stuff on like the David Letterman show, the Conan O'Brien shows like he, he's like the, one of the all time great, um, late night interview subjects. He was always just very, very good at that format. Uh, he was the, he was the guy, he would, he was the last standup on David Letterman's, um, show on, on, uh, when he ended, when he ended that show, um, and he just much beloved like all, all of the like great current standups considered Norm to be like one of the all time best. You know, Dave Chappelle, Chris Rock, all those guys and it's the, the art of telling the joke is really the thing he's, he's so good and like it's, it's not just the art of telling the joke. I mean there are probably people who are better joke tellers than him, um, though not many because he was, he was, he was exceptionally good at that kind of dry, totally, um, you know, just kind of saying a thing, um, that is, that is so ridiculous and absurd and saying it was such a straight face that, that it made it work. It made people laugh. Um, I, uh, I, I, I was, I was very surprised. I was very bummed. Uh, and, um, you know, if people haven't read his book, uh, based on a true story, which is, which was kind of like pitched as a memoir and people like reviewed it as a memoir, even though it's like, obviously, like, I don't understand how you could read that book and not realize that you're reading a comic novel, um, uh, you have to, and it, it, you, it's, it's, it's, it's one of the few books that I recommend on audio book more than, uh, the actual physical, you know, product because norm reads it and you, you know, as, as in, in character, uh, the character being himself, I don't know, man, it's, uh, it was, it was a blow. It, I, I was, I was very, I was very sad to see that favorite norm bits.
JVL00:59:58You guys, mine has got to be turd. Ferguson. Oh, yeah. When he's burnt. Reynolds. You mean what he's yeah. Burnt.
Vic01:00:06Reynolds.
Sonny01:00:07Burnt. Reynolds. His Larry King, his, his Larry King, like, like one-liners, um, those were, those were always great. But I, I, again, I just love, I like anytime he was, he was on, you know, Conan O'Brien or whatever, like the moth, the moth joke on Conan O'Brien just is just like, it's like
Vic01:00:26a, it's like a five minute long, it's amazing and it's amazingly clean because there's some stuff that he's, some other jokes and there's six, I remember him, I can't, I'm not gonna repeat the joke, but he did it on Weekend Update and it's the kind of thing that you wouldn't be able to tell now and it had to do with, you know, a priest scandal and it was just so, it was just so shocking, but you know, but we laughed, I laughed, I mean, it was, it was, it was funny, uh, so I'm not gonna get into that, but, uh, uh.
Sonny01:00:54There was, there was, somebody, somebody on Twitter was like, uh, was like Norma, I sold my first joke to Norm Macdonald and the joke was, he was like, it was something that I thought was so horrible and it would never ever be on SNL, but of course it's like, I sent him a list of five and that's the one he wanted and he used it and he, and he, he, it's on, it, he had a link to the YouTube, but it was something like, you know, uh, uh, up at the Oscars this week, Jodie Foster and Tom Hanks, uh, are in heated competition for the controversial, controversial new, uh, category Best Retard.
Vic01:01:27Oh, wow.
Sonny01:01:30It's just like, it's like, but it, this is exactly what was happening at the Oscars.
JVL01:01:34Oh yeah.
Sonny01:01:35Right, right, right, right, right, right, right, right, right. It's like the most it's it, but it's so, it's so it's pointed and it's obvious and, and it is so funny because it's just like how he says, and you're right, he would never be able to, you could never tell, you could actually not tell that joke.
Vic01:01:49He's also, he, he's also a great as a setup guy because, and he did this, I think on Jimmy Fallon's show where he's talking about Higgins and the two of them, they go way back and it's a charades bit and you can see this on, um, if you go to YouTube, just type in, um, uh, Norm Macdonald, uh, Jimmy Fallon charades or Higgins charades and it's fantastic, uh, about, it's just really good. So just check that out.
Sonny01:02:16Uh, and his, his show on Netflix, he had a, he had a like a one season show that was basically him as the host of a late night style talk show, um, that is just, it's, it's really, it's, it's genius in its, in its own way. He was a very good interviewer because he's like, he's like deep, he's actually very, very smart. Like he is a student of Russian literature and like, uh, you know, like just, did you
Vic01:02:42see this bit on, uh, comedians and cars getting coffee and he's with, I did not, I actually have not seen it where he's talking to the side, he's talking about the talk about Patton Oswalt and Patton Oswalt was talking about the, the bill Cosby, um, uh, scandal and the whole thing. And, and, and, and this is Norm McDonald saying that, yeah. Patton Oswalt says that the worst thing about it is the hypocrisy. But I disagree. And here he goes, you disagree, really? What is the worst thing? And he says, the rape, the rape is the worst thing, the rapes, the rapes, the rapes were the worst thing. That's the worst thing. Very funny.
Sonny01:03:15I mean, you know, this is his whole, his whole theory of humor was the, the punchline should be the setup. Like the, the, the setup and the punchline should be the same. Like you should, and this is why, this is why all of his stuff with OJ Simpson in the, in the weekend update is so funny because anytime OJ Simpson is mentioned, the punchline is always, he's a murderer. Right. So like all you have to do is mention OJ Simpson. It's like, okay. Murder is now legal in California.
JVL01:03:39You know.
Sonny01:03:40All right. So anyway. Anything else?
JVL01:03:43I am buying on audible based on true story right now.
Vic01:03:47Hey, excellent. And I am just in case listeners are concerned, uh, I am, uh, probably going to go to, uh, uh, get a prescription. From a doctor at urgent care for, uh, a gout medication like endomethacin, colchicine or naproxen and, uh, and I got to do that in the morning cause I have lunch tomorrow at the Palm.
?01:04:11I do.
Sonny01:04:12I'm sure it'll be fine.
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