#48. 'Cry Macho'
Listen to this episode ↗on Substack, where the show lives now
The main review is Cry Macho, Clint Eastwood's long-gestating Western about a washed-up rodeo man sent to Mexico to retrieve his former boss's teenage son (and the boy's prized fighting rooster, Macho), which opened to a soft $4.4 million against Shang-Chi's continuing $21.7 million reign. JVL kicks off the review with a filthy parody "review" built entirely around double entendres on the rooster's name, and Vic scores the actual film generously on his Quadrant system — Plot A, Duration A-plus, Action/Violence C, and Sex/Nudity an N/A since it's only PG-13 — calling it "sweet" despite conceding it's a movie for old people. Sonny is the toughest grader, arguing the film simply doesn't work because 91-year-old Eastwood is implausible both as an object of a 38-year-old love interest's desire and as an action lead (he singles out an obviously body-doubled bronco-busting shot), and recommends The Mule as the superior recent Eastwood vehicle instead. JVL is more forgiving, likening the movie's uneven-but-occasionally-magic quality to being in the room for the 2012 Clint Eastwood "empty chair" RNC speech, and arguing that without Eastwood there's no reason for the film to exist at all. The long opening third is devoted to student-council war stories: JVL recounts rigging his sixth-grade election at a Quaker school on a single-issue "Pretzel Day" platform against his best friend Chris, using his little sister's first-grade voting bloc as a secret weapon; Sonny recalls his high school's shoo-in class president losing to an outsider named Elise; and Vic describes stepping aside from the presidency to run National Honor Society instead, plus the time he named a girls' volleyball team the "Beavers." Vic also delivers a gout update (a relapse after a "clean" gin-martini dinner, now on prednisone and mending), and Sonny recaps his garage door's now-third mechanical failure in as many years. The episode closes, as often, on Outtakes — a skeptical preview of Apple's Foundation adaptation — followed by Vic's saga of a shawarma sandwich left forgotten and reeking in a hot car.
From the show notes
The guys talk about their student council memories. Gout watch! Garage door follies. And the gang broaches a sensitive subject about Clint Eastwood's age. All that and so much more on this week's episode!
Full transcript
?00:00:00♪ ♪
Guest00:00:06- His name is Macho. - Like me? - Barry Strong Rooster. - Whatever. - What's wrong with that? - Nothing.
JVL00:00:13Guy wants to name his cock "Macho." Heh. That's okay by me.
Vic00:00:30Hello, 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, how are we? JVL.
JVL00:00:53- Some big news in our household. - Oh, boy. Flash has announced that he is running - for student council. - Wow. And this has really got me thinking back - to my days in student government. - Mm-hmm. When I would like to share the story of JVL's brief foray into electoral politics. So we are at the V Haddonfield Friends School, a little hippie Quaker school that I went to until sixth grade. - Haddonfield. - In Haddonfield. - In Haddonfield, New Jersey. - Yes. - A site of... - Isn't that where Michael Myers lives? - Yes. Yes, that is. - And so it was an incredibly small school, like 100 kids total, grades one through six, right? And my sixth grade class was 12 kids in it. And in sixth grade, you're finally allowed to run for office in sixth grade. I was a real mocker, and I had lined it up so that everybody would run unopposed. So I had sort of slut all the people who thought they wanted to make a drive for the brass ring. I said, no, no, let's just run as a full slate of candidates. So where, you know, I'll run for president. Chris Worshoven, my best friend, run for vice president. Then I forget, one of the other kids would run for treasurer. One of the other kids would run for secretary. - Never run for secretary. - Everybody gets what they want. Nobody has to worry about losing a vote. And so we had all agreed, right? We had brokered the peace. And then on the date of the filing deadline, Chris, my best friend, comes in and says to me, "Yeah, you know, I decided I'm gonna run for president too." So I was, I was outraged. And I took this very seriously. So I rejiggered my slate. I had a full slate of people to run again, the whole gamut. And this was a fool's errand for Chris because my secret weapon was that my baby sister was a first grader. And the first grade kids are essentially like New York City to the entire school, if the entire school is New York State. You know, the lion's share of the students were all in first grade. So I had the first grade classrooms wired while Chris was an only child, had no chance. Chris didn't even know anybody in the school below the, you know, below like fifth grade. So I ran a very, very serious campaign. It was, I don't know if you remember when, I forget who the Virginia gubernatorial candidate was, whose entire campaign was no car tax. This is now 20 years ago, a gentleman ran for governor of Virginia. - Wow, that is a long time ago. - And the only, literally the only issue he had, there was this hated personal property tax where you had to pay 20% of the value of your car. It does still exist, but it's much reduced. And it was 20% of the value of your car every single year you paid into.
Vic00:03:56- It was a great disincentive to ever buy a new car.
JVL00:03:58- Yes, yes. Anyway, my single issue was pretzel day.
Vic00:04:05- This is good.
JVL00:04:06- Elect me president and I will bring you a day in which you may purchase Philadelphia style soft pretzels at the cafeteria.
Vic00:04:17- For one day, one day, pretzel one day, like in the whole year, one day for, I think that's a good deal because it's like in the office. - Food question. - It's like in the office.
Sonny00:04:25- I have a food question. Are soft pretzels, specifically a Philadelphia thing? - Yes.
Vic00:04:31- Is that a? - Yes. - No. - 100%. - No. - That's not. - Like the cheese steak. - You can get soft filling cheese steak, yes. - You can get soft pretzels anywhere.
Sonny00:04:38- You can get soft pretzels anywhere. - They originated in Germany. - It's an Auntie Annie's thing.
Vic00:04:41- Matias will tell you they're from Germany.
JVL00:04:45- So anyway, we hold the election and I, if I could say so, I ran a dazzling campaign. I was, it was a very positive campaign. Even all the official campaign paraphernalia but behind the scenes went hard neg. Had to do a little hard, had to drive Chris's negatives up. And on election day, teacher Gloria, 'cause again at hippie Quaker school, you call all of the teachers by their first names. - That is weird. - Nobody would call them by their last names. They didn't wanna show that they were authority figures. So she calls all of the candidates into her office to give out the results. And she, you know, and so-and-so won secretary and so-and-so won treasurer and so-and-so won vice president. And at the presidential level, it was a very, very close race. But our next president is Jonathan Last. And she dismissed us and I went right up to her desk and I demanded to know the vote total. Because I was outraged that she would say that the race had been close. Because I had done, I had done some whipping on the votes and I could not find a single way that Chris could have crested 20 votes. And I was convinced that it was, that it was a blowout and that how dare she impugn my mandate? I cannot believe that Chris is still my best friend. - How close was it? - She wouldn't tell me. Wouldn't tell me. Which I then was even more convinced meant that it was a blowout and she was denying me my victory. - You don't think it was a plurality.
Sonny00:06:20- There's no, how many people were running in the,
JVL00:06:23was it just you and Chris? - Just me and Chris. Being Chris. The point of all this was not to talk about my blowout win but to talk about what a colossal asshole I was and that Chris is a near saint for having put up with me for now 41 years of our lives together. Can you imagine putting up with me for 41 years, Vic? - No, one. One was enough, really.
Sonny00:06:48- I mean, it's already, you're already at like 25, right?
Vic00:06:52- Yeah, sort of. - You're 25? - That's it.
Sonny00:06:54- Yes. - That vaguely reminds me of the one and only time I ran for office in high school, my senior year. Somebody put together a slate, JBL, not me, somebody else. The girl who had been the freshman, sophomore, and junior class president was getting ready to go in and be senior class president. She put together a whole slate of people. I ran unopposed for treasurer. I was the treasurer unopposed. Secretary was unopposed, vice president may have had another token opposition and then it was her for president. She was like a shoe in, everyone was gonna vote for her 'cause she'd been president all three of the previous years. And then somebody came to the school, new kid, came to the school and I'm trying to think of the most appropriate way to put this. She was charismatic in a hope and change sort of way. She was a great orator, not like that JVL. But she came in and she gave a blistering speech about how we're gonna change things. - New person, an outsider. - We're gonna have hope in the school.
JVL00:08:12- Enough of the same, you know you keep electing the same old student council presidents, you get the same old results. - You do, you do. - It's time for new, it's time to elect somebody who's not a career politician. Someone who hasn't been serving in student council for three years.
Sonny00:08:28- So this girl won, this girl defeated the girl who set up the slate on which, so then I had to serve with this weird person who I'd never met before and I was like, this is the worst, I'm gonna be the laziest treasurer ever. - Her name was Elise. - And I was. - Elise. - I was, I was the laziest treasurer of all time. The only thing I really, my only real takeaway from this is, so in our high school, and I guess most high schools, like the student, the class officers are responsible for doing like reunions in the future. So it's like the senior class is supposed to set up the reunions for the high school. - Oh yeah, sure. - And I'll just, I'll put it, I'll put it this way. We've had zero class reunions at Broad Point High School. Now if we had elected, if we had elected Amanda, would have had a reunion on five, 10, 20 years.
JVL00:09:17- 15, a 15, why not? You elect this carpetbagger who has no loyalty to the school.
Sonny00:09:23- But these, these, this, this, this, you know, this, this speechifying person came in and just blew everybody out of the water with her, with her fancy talk and her $10 words. - Hope and change. - And it was, it was, and, and, and like I said, no, no class reunions ever since. So that was, that's my, that's my, my takeaway from politics. - You know what we say, Sonny? - If you don't, if you vote for somebody new, it's gonna come back to bite you in the future.
JVL00:09:49- Elections have consequences.
Sonny00:09:53- Elections have consequences and the Brook Point class of 2000, the smoke-free class of 2000.
JVL00:09:58- Victorino, how is it that you never did student council? 'Cause I imagine, was it just that it wasn't enough of a challenge for you? - I did student council.
Vic00:10:06We didn't have any in grade school, so from one to eight, but I was a student rep my sophomore year, and then junior year I was vice president, and then, of the class, and then my plan was to run for student council president senior year.
JVL00:10:25- Was it Steve? Did Steve win?
Vic00:10:27- Well, what happened was, no, we talked about it because we were best friends, and he wanted to be, and he was working his way up as well. He was student council vice president. I was the junior class vice president. Two different things, right?
JVL00:10:40'Cause two different levels. - It's like being the governor versus the senator.
Vic00:10:43- Yeah, versus the state. That's exactly right. That's exactly right, and--
JVL00:10:46- Although, which is which in this case?
Vic00:10:48- The junior, what I was was more like, that's like the state assembly, you know what I mean? But the, versus sort of on the national level. But running for student council, I mean, that's freshman through senior year, so that's over 800 kids, between 800 and 900 kids that you have to get their votes. - All boys, right?
JVL00:11:06- We had a good chat, what?
Vic00:11:06- All boys? - No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, it's co-ed, it's co-ed. And so we had a good talk about this, and he said that he really wanted to run for student council president, and so I decided to run for National Honor Society president and stay on in student council as a rep. Which is sort of like when Robert McNamara was convinced to leave Secretary of Defense to become president of the IMF, or the World Bank. No, really, it's a great move. And so that's what it, but I only have, I love the meetings, I love the meetings, I love giving talks.
JVL00:11:41- Could you have been senior class president? Was there a senior class president?
Vic00:11:45- Yeah, you know what, there was, but I decided at that point, I wanted to capture the Nerd Herd Society, all for my own.
JVL00:11:52- You'd already nailed down your, your legacy was already.
Vic00:11:56- I was already set, and you know what, the National, we had a big, one of our big things, we had a blood drive, one of the other things was a charitable volleyball, a volleyball tournament, and so I was in charge of that, and, with my team. And it was for the whole school, so like this, you know, the whole team, yeah, any class, from freshman to senior, you could partake in the volleyball tournament. And there were a group of girls who were, they formed a team, and they said they didn't have any, like, you gotta have a name for the team. She goes, oh, we don't care, put something down for us. So I did, and I called, I named them the Beavers. And apparently that was, anyway, if that happened today. - What did the nuns say? - They didn't care, the janitor, Andre, laughed, and then the girls booed me, and then they just played anyway, you know? And that's the way it was back then. Lots of laughs, it was the '80s. Much like, you know, movies in the '80s, it was--
Sonny00:12:52- Yeah, it's like Revenge of the Nerds. - It was like that, it was fine. - Yeah, Revenge of the--
Vic00:12:56- Tricking girls and having sex with the wrong people. - Revenge of the Nerds, where he fools her in the Bounce House. - It's just great, that's all that is.
JVL00:13:05- You know, I remember-- - That's what it was like, so. - I remember a gym class when I was, like, junior year, where one of the guys in the gym class snuck up behind a couple girls who were, like, standing with their hands behind their backs, just, like, hanging out talking, and just, like, dropped his junk in her hands. - Oh, wow. - And this was just a thing which everybody, both boys and girls in the entire class, thought was the funniest thing which has ever happened in the history of the universe, and now would probably get this guy sent to prison. - Prison! - Prison!
Sonny00:13:42- He would be on a sex offender list. - As he should. - I don't know if he would go to prison, but he would be on a sex offender list
JVL00:13:48for the rest of his life. - But what's hysterical about this is that this guy and this girl, 20 years later, wound up married. - That's a great story. - They didn't date in high school. - Remember the time. - They didn't date in college. They both went off, had other things, both moved back to the town they grew up in, and didn't start dating until they were like 30. - But you know what?
Vic00:14:08It was seared into her memory. She couldn't get over that. I gotta get a piece of that, actually. That's what she was saying. I gotta relive that. That is amazing. Did you have, we can't, you know what? There was other things. We're just gonna move right along, I think. I'm not gonna get into it. - You're not gonna get into what? - No, you know, these terrible rumors. Like, you know, there would be like girls who would like tell that you heard about that girl, you know, so and so and so and so. And it's like, you know, you'll talk, oh, like the hot dog story. Remember that? Every school had one. - Every school has a hot dog story. - Everyone had a hot dog story. And I always thought, you know, but this is before the internet. So you don't know that. And you think it's actually, and some poor girls, you know, somebody, she walks, unbeknownst to her, you know, she walks around like in the cafeteria, oh, there she is. And you're like, who decided on that? You know? Terrible.
JVL00:14:53You know what? Let's be honest. You're the one who decided it 'cause you spread those rumors.
Vic00:14:57- No, the only part that I said is that it was cooked. - Oh, I heard.
JVL00:15:01I heard. Maybe it wasn't frozen.
Vic00:15:03Who could say? - It was cooked. At the end, it was cooked. But I never told, this is terrible.
JVL00:15:08- Was Vic a gossip?
Sonny00:15:10- I never. - Vic, were you a gossip monger? - I'm not gonna. - Vic, I find that hard to believe. - I'm not gonna answer that question.
JVL00:15:15- When did you construct the vault? - I'm not gonna dignify. I'm not gonna dignify. - At what age did you finally construct a vault in which you could put secrets? Because I cannot imagine that the vault existed circa 1991.
Sonny00:15:31- The vault was, if the vault comes with age. - Yeah, it does. - You gotta build that brick by a cinder block brick. - It does.
Vic00:15:36I'd say maybe the early 2000s. And then like mid 2000s was the double vault. Don't forget to tell me it's a double vault.
Sonny00:15:44- Did you, did you, did you have the vault when you started at the Weekly Standard? - Oh God, no. - Did the vault, did the vault exist when you, when you were--
Vic00:15:53- Kind of, and I think, and I think of some horrible ones. I think of some horrible ones that I accidentally spilled the beans. Not, sometimes it's not true, it's true. I accidentally said something that turns out not to be true about somebody or people or whatever. But other times it was just indiscretion where somebody told me they got fired from some job and then I mentioned to somebody else, oh, did you hear so-and-so got fired? And then the girl would be like, why did you, I didn't tell anybody yet. I didn't tell it. I'm like, oh, sorry, you know, and everybody found out. So I feel horrible about that.
Sonny00:16:21- This is, you're, you're, this is why, you're the person who made it. So every, everybody in our circle, not our circle, like at the Weekly Standard, but I mean, in the circle of journalism, would have to say, this is off the record.
Vic00:16:35- Oh, well, we all know how that works.
Sonny00:16:37- Every conversation would be prefaced with, this is off the record. But if you don't, like people who are listening right now, don't understand that this is like an actual thing that happens when more than four journalists get together in any situation and have a conversation for any length of time. Every single thing they say will be prefaced with, well, this is off the record, but, and then it's just like a totally banal story about like the fucking stickers bars in the freezer of the store. Anyway, I don't know, I was rambling.
Vic00:17:10- JVL has a great story about a very important campaign person whose name will not be mentioned, but who said to her- - I'll say Juliana's, I'll say Juliana's name.
JVL00:17:19- Off the record. - This person who would do things like, when you called her up for the campaign she was repping at the time, would say something like, I can say something for you, I can say something for you. Off the record, Mayor Giuliani is the greatest guy I've ever met. You can't use that.
Vic00:17:44- You can't use it. - You can't use that. - You can't even hint at it.
JVL00:17:48- But he is, just a dynamite human being, and he's the real deal. So.
Vic00:17:57- Thank you so much for the inside scoop. - Get bent.
JVL00:18:00Go back to eyes wide shut.
Vic00:18:05- I always heard that among the Europeans, for example, that they had a discrepancy between the term off the record and on background, and that was a reverse for them. So sometimes when I would interview some of these Germans--
JVL00:18:16- Oh, like public school, private school in the UK?
Vic00:18:19- Yeah, some confusion, yes. And so they would say things like off the record. I'm like, okay, I'm putting this one in. Or on background, on background. Well, I mean, on background in the American sense, I'm thinking, you know, so I swear.
JVL00:18:32Anyway. - This has to be how like an episode of "Yes, Minister" takes place, right? Because you get some German reporter who comes in and says, "No, auf Deutsch, off the record" means--
Vic00:18:46- Right, and then it's like the good stuff. Sonny, what is going on with you?
Sonny00:18:54- Not a whole lot. I mean, I like don't have anything good for this week. My garage door broke again. I moved, you know, we bought this house two years ago. And like three things now have gone wrong with this garage. It's like every single part of the garage door is--
JVL00:19:08- The opener or the door itself?
Sonny00:19:11- Now, so the first thing that, so this, when we first moved here, or not even really when we first moved here, but like July of 2020, the, like the wheel, you know, so you know how the wheels are on the tracks, right? - Yeah. - Of the door, it goes up and down. And the wheels are like bolted. There's like a plate that bolts to the actual door, right? Well, one of the wheels had like, kind of come sideways off the track and wrenched the panel entirely off the door. So wrenched that like bolt. So like we had that, so somebody had to come out and fix that. And they replaced all of the like wheels. - You got to do them all at the same time. - You got to do them all at the same time. So that was fun. And then literally like a month later, the spring, the, you know, the big spring. - Those things are expensive. - And those things are not cheap. Those things are not cheap.
JVL00:20:05- Well, those are made of vibranium. And so you've got to go all the way to Wakanda to get them. And so the shipping from Wakanda to Dallas.
Vic00:20:12- I didn't know vibranium could break.
Sonny00:20:15- I know. - So I replaced that. That was literally, again, that was like a month later that this happened, which was very annoying to me. And it's been fine since then. And it's been fine since August of 2020. - Is your lift now broken? - Until this week. So no, it's not. I thought it, I was afraid it was the actual motor, like the actual, you know, the motor, the half horsepower thing. But apparently there's like a little plastic connector that connects the motor to the actual chain pull. And that like shattered. Like, well, I don't know what the fuck happened to that, but it, it, it got caught on something or something. And it just, it just exploded into a million pieces. So.
JVL00:20:53- Well, you should really replace the whole thing. I mean, I wouldn't just play around with just doing the plastic piece. I'd just throw a new, get a nice, a nice lift master elite series.
Sonny00:21:03- I've got, I've got, I've got like, I've got, the one that's in there is actually a pretty nice one, apparently, 'cause I asked the guy, I was like, so should I get a new one? He's like, yeah, you could, you could in theory replace this. It's, it's, it's kind of old. It's like 10 years old, but you know, it's a, it's a lift master. It should last for a number of years. It should last for another 10 years, blah, blah. I was like, okay. - Is it wifi enabled?
JVL00:21:20Because I gotta say, I, having a wife.
Sonny00:21:23- Do you have a wifi enabled?
JVL00:21:25- Oh, I sure do.
Sonny00:21:26- Can you, can you operate it off of your phone?
JVL00:21:28- Oh, I sure do.
Sonny00:21:29- I have a question. I have a question for you, JVL. Is everything in your house connected to your wifi? Does, do you have the internet of things in all of your things? - No.
Vic00:21:38- The internet of.
Sonny00:21:39- What do you, what do you have connected to your phone? - Thermostat. - What can I, if I stole your phone, what can I operate?
JVL00:21:43- You could operate this. - Door lock. - The, not the locks, but the alarm system, the thermostat, the garage door, the Sonos, the Roku player, the TV. You could do the, you could turn the TV, any of the TVs anywhere in the house, you could turn on or off. - Oh my goodness. - Using the, my phone, but like no lights. We don't have any lights. We don't have any Amazon Echoes. We don't have anything that listens to you.
Sonny00:22:08- You don't have like your, your, your fridge isn't set up to tell you when you're out of the things. - No, none of that.
JVL00:22:12And we, and we don't have any Alexa or Echo Dots or Apple Home Pods or anything like that.
Sonny00:22:21- I, the, the only thing that we have set up via our phone is the alarm system. Like we can turn the alarm on and off from the phone, but everything else, thermostats, like everything else, I don't, I don't want on the internet at all.
JVL00:22:34- The thermostat is so great. Because when you are away for a week in the summer and the thermostat is off so that the house is like 85 degrees, four hours before you're gonna come home, turn it on and you know that when you walk into the house it'll be cool, that's pretty nice.
Sonny00:22:51- One thing you could do to avoid that is never go anywhere. You could just stay home all the time.
JVL00:22:57- Not really an option. We do like to go down to the beach.
Sonny00:23:00- Well that's a, see that's a--
JVL00:23:01- Where the sand is.
Sonny00:23:03- You know where, you know what's at the beach.
JVL00:23:05- And you know what, the place at the beach, also, also an internet enabled thermostat. So when I get to the beach, my house is cool. And then when I leave the beach and come back here, my other house is cool.
Sonny00:23:17- Do you ever start messing with people who are staying in the house? - Raising the thermostat lower. - Just do like a Stanford experiment style, just like one degree hotter every hour. - No. - Until they snap and murder everyone.
JVL00:23:33You don't do that. - Victorino, how are you buddy? How's your gout?
Vic00:23:36- Well I guess it's time for a gout update. Well when I spoke to you last week, it was on the mend and then like a day or two later, inexplicably, I had a terrible gout relapse. - I'm sorry, hold on, hold on.
JVL00:23:51- Yes. - A day or two later, you're supposed to go to the pond.
Vic00:23:54- That's true, but it was uneventful. I had two martinis, but they were gin. - Oh, they were gin, okay. - They were gin, it's clear.
Sonny00:24:05- Do you have, what'd you have to eat? What'd you have, how many oysters did you have?
Vic00:24:08- No, no oysters, I just got a steak, but it was the lunch, it was the lunch portion. - The lunch portion, 10 ounces.
Sonny00:24:16- Was it a ribeye?
Vic00:24:17- A New York strip, come on, nothing too fatty, New York strip, medium rare, and then some potatoes, and then--
Sonny00:24:26- Did you get that half and a half?
Vic00:24:27- No, I did have a Caesar salad with anchovies.
Sonny00:24:33- The half and half for everybody, it's not a sex thing, it's half onion rings, half chips.
Vic00:24:37- It is delicious, I could throw that into a sex thing. And then I skipped dessert, but I did have a little bit of an after dinner drink. And so, anyway, like I said, nothing happened. And so it came back with a vengeance. So finally, on Saturday, I caved and I went to the doctor. And I saw a PA who took one look at it, he had a big smile on his face, he just said, "Wow, that is textbook, mind if I take a picture?" And I said, "Are you gonna send it to JAMA?" And he goes, "Yeah, they'd love that," he says. "No, no, I'm just gonna put it on your file." And so he just put it on my file, and he said, he gave me a couple of options, and I ended up going on a course of prednisone. - What were your options?
JVL00:25:30What are the options you would have?
Vic00:25:30- Oh, I mean, there's endomethacin, there's colchicine. I mean, I'm already taking Aleve, but you could take a stronger dosage of naproxen. But it's too late for allopurinol because I'm already having the flare up. And so, or you could just take two Aleve, you know, twice a day. Or we can speed things up and take the Medrol pack, the prednisone. So that's what I did. I took the prednisone, and I'm on the mend. The swelling is down. I was able to go for a little run a couple days ago, which was nice. You could still see the bump a little bit, but it's not angry and red and swollen. And that's where I am.
Sonny00:26:09- People were mad that I-- - Yeah, well, you know what, I think it's,
Vic00:26:13it's best for everyone that they, you know, you can't unsee it, you can't unsee it.
Sonny00:26:17- You don't, you know, we don't want it scarred. I feel like that would-- - No, that's inappropriate.
JVL00:26:21That's for Facebook, that's not what I want. - Isn't there, in I'm Gonna Get You, Sucker, isn't there a scene where somebody's got a bunion and they show it to you and it--
Vic00:26:30- Yeah, probably an old lady. Probably an old lady. - Yes, no, I think it's an old lady and they're talking about the bunion and talking about it and talking about it and then they show it to you. - It's such a great movie. You know, there's little scenes like that, but that's how I feel like an old lady. I feel like the old lady from No Country for Old Men. Remember her and she's sitting there talking about the cancer and she's I'm on the-- - The mom. - I'm on the prednis-- The mom, I'm on the prednisone. That's how I feel like. I feel like this is my last-- That's how I feel like. I feel like this is my last stand. I'm not gonna do anything else. Speaking of which, over the weekend, Clint Eastwood's "Cry Macho" came in third place at the box office with $4.4 million, followed by "Free Guy" with 5.1 million and again in first place, Shang-Chi with 21.7 million. Gentlemen, box office thoughts.
Sonny00:27:19- Shang-Chi will pass "Black Widow" at the box office before the start of this weekend, which is, I think everyone will say is a big win.
Vic00:27:31- More fodder for Scarlett in her lawsuit.
Sonny00:27:34- 30 or 40 million past "Black Widow" I think is a big win for everybody involved. "Free Guy" remains, holds strong. I think it dropped 8% last weekend.
Vic00:27:44- Yeah, Ryan Reynolds is doing well in this pandemic. He's doing well.
Sonny00:27:48- Ryan Reynolds, Ryan Reynolds is doing well. But it really is a story of the big, big movies and then everything else. We're getting one big blockbuster a month. In this case, it's Shang-Chi.
Vic00:28:00- When does Shang-Chi become available at home? Not anytime soon.
Sonny00:28:05- I think it's next month. It's like middle of next month, maybe early. Early next month, early October, mid-October, something like that. So, you know, but like there were two or three new movies that came out this week. There's a new Joe Carnahan movie, "Cop Shop", starring Gerard Butler and Frank Grillo and the great Toby Huss. Love Toby Huss. - Frank Grillo. - But nobody's going to see that. It grossed like $2.5 million on 3,000 screens. It's on 3,000 screens. It's two and a half million dollars, something like that, which is too bad because I actually went to go see it in the theater. It was entertaining enough. It's the sort of movie that like you could see Gerard Butler like muscling to like 40 or 50 million in normal times. These are still not normal times. So yeah, "Box Office" was interesting. "Cry Macho" is once again, it's another one of these HBO Max theatrical simultaneous releases alongside "Reminiscence" and some of the others that just like nobody's going to see them in theaters. 'Cause why would you do that when you can just sit at home, watch it on HBO Max?
Vic00:29:15- How much better do you think it would have done if it were strictly in theaters, "Cry Macho"?
Sonny00:29:22- In a normal time? - 17. - 10 to 15 million, probably. In a, and then it would have held well because Clint Eastwood's audience is old. Like this is, so this is one reason why it actually probably doesn't hurt it that much being on HBO Max is because, it doesn't hurt it that much being on HBO Max in the pandemic because in the pandemic, old people are still not going back to theaters. The numbers, the old folks are still very hesitant to go sit down in theaters. They're doing everything at home, so.
JVL00:29:59- It does also matter what kind of movie it is, right? I mean, "Godzilla" versus "King Kong", which was simultaneous on HBO Max, did okay. In theaters, right? I mean, HBO, I would say Warners has not been releasing a whole bunch of movies that really demands to be seen on the big screen.
Sonny00:30:20- "Mortal Kombat" would have been better if it had been released on the big screen. I mean, you could make the case that a lot of the movies that they've been releasing are not the sort of things that would blow up the box office anyway, but "Cry Macho" would do better than $5 million in a non-pandemic theatrical opening. - Even "Godzilla" versus "King Kong", I mean, that movie, you know, I still think it hasn't quite hit $100 million domestic. - Yeah, it would have done better. Clearly would have done better. - Which is soft.
JVL00:30:51- That's very soft. Especially since it's a baller movie.
Sonny00:30:55- That's fine. It's just what it is. But yeah, but this is just another one of the kind of smaller movies that makes as much sense at home as it does in theaters. I mean, the first real big test of this is going to be "Dune" in middle October. We've talked about this before and I am, if that grosses more than $35 million on its opening weekend, people in Warner Brothers, Discovery, Warner, HBO, Time, Time Warner, Cable, whatever the fuck it's called now, they're gonna be like doing cartwheels.
Vic00:31:33- Pop the cork.
Sonny00:31:35- So, I mean, I like, it kind of, it sucks for, for the folks who are counting on those movies to gross really high to, you know, guarantee more, more such movies. But what is, you know, HBO said, Warner Brothers said, "We're gonna, we're gonna take into account the, we're gonna take into account the numbers on HBO Max. And if it, if it performs like a, like a blockbuster on HBO Max, we're gonna make number two." I just like, I can't see them.
Vic00:32:01- Mentally convince themselves, sure.
Sonny00:32:02- Spending $200 million on a movie that grosses $150 million at the whole box office. - I was gonna ask,
Vic00:32:09what is the, what is the budget for Dune Reboot?
Sonny00:32:13- Just like $200 million. It's not a reboot. It's, it's a, it's a new adaptation of a source, of the source material. You know, it's based on a book.
Vic00:32:21- Oh, I don't know about that. I don't know about that. Who would write-- - Dick, did you know that?
Sonny00:32:24It's based on a book?
Vic00:32:25- If that were a book that--
Sonny00:32:26- It's written in the 1950s, I think.
Vic00:32:27- That would be a long book. That would be a long book. That'd be like 200 pages.
Sonny00:32:31- I've read, I've been reading the Foundation books again, 'cause that Foundation series on Apple is coming up. Have you guys seen the trailer? - I'm gonna, I'm gonna. - Here's what I don't under, maybe I'll save this for, I'll save this for Outtakes. We'll talk about Foundation in Outtakes.
Vic00:32:46- All right, all right, all right. And we are talking about Clint Eastwood starring and directing "Cry Macho" this week. - Who saw it?
JVL00:32:56- "Cry Macho." - Who saw it? - Oh, I saw it, too. - I saw it. - I saw it. Did anybody else see it?
Sonny00:33:00- No, I didn't. - Oh, come on. - I forgot. - There's a cock called Macho.
JVL00:33:05- "Cry Macho" follows an old cowboy named Mike, who goes to Mexico with a fistful of dollars to find his buddy's son, Rafa. When Mike gets down to Mexico, he visits the boy's sexy mother, who wants Mike to take her any which way but loose. She wants to get in the line of his fire. But Mike is all business. He would rather go to a cock fight looking for a teenage boy. At the fight, Mike meets Rafa and his giant cock, which he calls Macho. Man, what a name. Mike, Rafa, and Macho take a road trip, and there's a lot of tension. At first, Mike doesn't like the boy's cock, but it turns out to be an acquired taste. By the end of the story, Mike loves it and wishes it would paint his wagon. After Mike's truck is stolen, he goes looking for transportation and really wishes he had a pink Cadillac, but instead he teaches Rafa to be a pale rider of horses. As Mike, Clint Eastwood gives up a performance of magnum force and really lays down the gauntlet for Oscar season, "Cry Macho" is the best movie I've ever seen about a man, a teenage boy, and the boy's impressive cock. I give it 10 stars.
Sonny00:34:28- For the record, the cock is a rooster. It's a rooster, Gene.
Vic00:34:31You need to clarify that to people. - That wasn't quite Gene's voice. He's not-- - I've seen lots. I've seen a lot.
JVL00:34:39I've seen a lot of movies with this general premise before. This one was the best.
Vic00:34:45- This is, this is the same. This is actually the voice of Send, Harry Send. It's that gets the old man. Gene was much more distinguished to that. Come on. But, but a lot of references there. A lot of references. Lovely. Okay, Sonny, please save us.
Sonny00:35:04- "Cry Macho" is a movie. - About a boy and his cock. No, it's a, it's a, it's a, it's a, all right. So the, the, the premise, premise of this movie is, my Clint Eastwood plays a broken down old cowboy named Mike Milo, who has to go down to Mexico to rescue the son of his former boss. The boss has fired Mike Milo for being lazy and showing up to work late and all sorts of stuff. But he still feels indebted to the, to the boss because the boss pulled him out of a spiral. He's gotta, he's gonna go down and get his son. And, when he gets there, he is, he is confronted by a sexy Mexican Senora who really, really wants his, really wants him to, you know, spend the night. And Clint Eastwood says, "No, I've got a job to do. I gotta find this boy. I've gotta find this boy and save him and take him back to his dad." Long story short, finds boy, hijinks on the road. They get stranded in a Mexican town. And that's where they spend basically the last 45 minutes of this movie is. - The last, no, no, I'm sorry, correction. The last three hours.
JVL00:36:10They spend the last three hours of this movie in the town.
Sonny00:36:13- Yeah. The last, the last 45 minutes or so of this 105 minute movie in this, in this town. And that's when things just stop happening. It just, it's just this, the rhythms of small life, small town life in a small town. And they, they learn to appreciate the little things like pressing your own corn tortillas.
JVL00:36:32- I love that.
Sonny00:36:33It's delicious. - Extended sequence about, here's, here's, here's, here's the thing about this movie is that first off, this was a long sought after project. - Oh yeah. It's been around for 20 years. - People, people, people, people have been trying to get this off the ground for like 30 years. Clint Eastwood was originally circling this project before he made "Unforgiven" and was like, at 68 or whatever, I'm too young to make this movie. But now at 90.
JVL00:37:01- Isn't like Roy Scheider and Schwarzenegger were both attached to various points to this too. - I was gonna say, Roy Scheider.
Sonny00:37:08- Schwarzenegger was attached in 2011 after his stint as governor. - Oh. - And he would have made more sense for him as again, like a 64 year old man, 65 year old, whatever. - Kid, come with me if you want to live. - Would have made more sense. But like here's, this movie has a huge fundamental problem and that is that Clint Eastwood is too old for this role. I'm sorry, when he throws a punch, he looks like an old man throwing a punch. When he is just walking around, he looks like he's barely able to get around. He's 91 years old. The man is like, the man's a legend, good for him. I'm glad he can direct a movie like this. And the movie looks great. I want to say it is a great kind of standard Western taking advantage of the American Southwest. - And no CGI. - Lots of big vistas, lots of sunsets, lots of silhouettes. The director, whose name is Ben Davis, I think.
Vic00:38:04- Oh, I thought Clint Eastwood directed it.
Sonny00:38:08- No, the director of photography, the cinematographer, does a really good job of like, again, using sunsets and silhouettes to kind of put Clint Eastwood, the legend, up against the sky. He's like, you know, it's man melding into the myth from whence he came, whatever. I like the look of this movie and I don't mind the slowness. It is slow, it is very slow. But I just, I could never buy it. I'm sorry, I cannot. I cannot buy 90-year-old Clint Eastwood being an object of sexual desire for this like, 38-year-old, you know, rich Mexican lady.
JVL00:38:49- The actress is 35 and she's astonishingly good-looking.
Sonny00:38:53- Yeah, like it's, she's 39 now. She was 38 when they were shooting. So like the, she's, but she's very attractive, attractive woman, like 50, literally 50-some years younger than Clint Eastwood. There are actors who could have done this role. Liam Neeson could have done this role. Or Mel Gibson could have done this role. Or like Sylvester Stallone even could have done this role. Clint, Clint, Clint Eastwood, legend, love him. Nothing but respect for my Clint Eastwood. But he cannot, he cannot-- - Why don't they, why didn't they use it?
Vic00:39:31Why didn't they use a CG, why didn't they use like a CGI like they did for Robert De Niro in The Irishman? Because, you know--
Sonny00:39:37- No, remember the scene in The Irishman where he's like, where he's like curb stomping that guy? - And the body, you can see the way the body moves. - It's like an 80 year old man moving his legs on like a 40 year old man's body. And it's just like, no, that looks bad and fake. That's what this whole movie reminded me of. I mean, there's just one more, one last, one last specific complaint. There's a shot in this movie where Clint Eastwood is breaking a bronco, he's busting a bronco.
Vic00:40:03- Yeah, that's what he does.
Sonny00:40:05- Busting a bronco. And the scene with Eastwood on the horse starts in like a very close-type close-up, right? And it's like just his face. And he's like kind of moving up and down and it's clear he's like sitting in a chair.
Vic00:40:21- Oh no, I don't think so, oh come on.
Sonny00:40:24- Back and forth, he's sitting on a plank of wood and somebody's going like this. And you can't see me, the listeners can't see me, but I'm doing, I'm moving my arms up and down.
JVL00:40:35- Like a teeter-totter.
Vic00:40:36- I refuse to believe that. - Like a teeter-totter.
Sonny00:40:38- I refuse to believe that. - And then we get a wider establishing shot sort of thing and it's clearly a stuntman in Clint Eastwood's jacket. Just like riding this horse, just riding it. - Unclear, it's unclear. - We cut right back, we cut back in on that tight close-up and there's Clint rocking back and forth on his plank of wood. And I was just like, this is fucking ridiculous. I cannot, I cannot, I cannot abide this. I can't, this makes me, this makes me angry. - Question.
JVL00:41:12- So anyway. - Question. - Anyway, yeah. - Of all of the things which were utterly improbable, was the craziest one the milf who wanted to bang it out with him, the punching the bodyguard, or Clint catching a rooster who is running around?
Sonny00:41:35- That's the first thing that jumped out to me in this movie. So after the hot 38 year old throws herself at him, he goes to this cock fight and the rooster's running around, macho, the rooster's running around. And all of a sudden he turns into Rocky, not in Rocky one, but in Rocky three. When he's going, after he's been running on the beach, he's got the speed, he's got the speed.
JVL00:41:59- Not just speed and stamina, but can bend over and down to the ground to grab the bird.
Sonny00:42:05It was ridiculous. It was, I was like, I couldn't catch that rooster. There's no way that old man could.
Vic00:42:11- The answer to your question JVL is neither. Neither of those scenarios were ridiculous because number one, that lady was crazy. She wanted to do it with anybody. Number two, what was the, the punching of the bodyguard. He got the help of Macho. Macho was distracting him and so it allowed him to land a little, you know, a little nick him in the nose. - A little jab. - A little jab. He's got the jab, okay. A bony jab. - That guy's the worst bodyguard ever. - It's really bad. And then the, and then the third one was the chicken. Remember, he's like a horse whisperer, but also an animal guy. And so he knew he, you don't have to, the more you chase after the chicken, the faster the chicken's gonna go. You go slow, the chicken goes slow, whoop, picked him up. That's how he did it. I liked this movie.
JVL00:43:03I did. - Are you kidding me?
Vic00:43:04- No, not at all. And I obviously like infinitely better than "Widows", but let's go through the quadrants here. Okay, so plot, I gave it an A. I, it would have been an A plus, but I was concerned. How is he gonna do this border thing? Like, you know, like you need papers. Don't you need papers? Don't you need passports? I wasn't sure. - Just set the price. Just set the price. There was no, no, what? - They should have had a thing that, you know, it would have been great if he was at the border and then they would have Anton Chigurh pass him by. Just like, oh, sorry. I'm going my way. - You know, for the first 45 minutes,
JVL00:43:34I was desperate for Anton Chigurh to show up in this movie and start killing people. - He was, okay. - I literally have that in my notes. Like, where is Anton Chigurh? We need him.
Vic00:43:44- It's terrifying. Duration, I gave it an A plus. It's an hour 40, and it didn't feel long to me. I was in a mood where I was very mellow. I was very mellow. And no, I was not smoking anything. I was just very mellow. Okay, action and violence, I give it a C.
JVL00:43:58- Is your prednisone, is that a side effect
Vic00:44:00of the prednisone? - Maybe it's the prednisone. I'm not so sure. The C for the action violence I mean, but I'm happy there was no CGI. - Only a C? - That's what I liked about it. That's what I liked about it.
JVL00:44:09- That action and violence gets a C? - That gets a C, yeah. - These quadrants are a sham. - And they're my quadrants. - The quadrants are the biggest scam going.
Vic00:44:18- I'm gonna keep it going, and it will always be with us. The sex nudity is an N/A 'cause it's PG-13. - It's not an N/A. - It's PG-13. - She's in lingerie.
JVL00:44:27She's begging for sex, and she doesn't get naked. The Victorino Matus, I know, would be outraged by that.
Vic00:44:35- It is, but it's PG-13, so they're not gonna do that. If it was R, then I would be upset.
Sonny00:44:40- This is, did you guys see The Mule?
Vic00:44:43- No, but I want to because somebody said it's not as bad as I thought it was gonna be.
Sonny00:44:47- So The Mule is an interesting movie because Clint Eastwood is again playing an old person who goes south of the border, and the whole point of the character, his oldness, his elderly status makes sense because he's not supposed, nobody would ever suspect this guy of being a drug runner. - He's taking drugs in the trunk, and he goes, and nobody would ever stop him and search his car 'cause why would you look in this old man's car? That movie, in that movie, 88-year-old Clint Eastwood has not one, but two threesomes.
Vic00:45:19- That's what I heard.
Sonny00:45:19That's right, 'cause I said I hadn't seen it,
Vic00:45:23and I heard it wasn't that good, and Aaron Harrison's like, "No, you gotta see it. "It's really good," he said to me. So I guess that, there you go.
Sonny00:45:30- So that movie gets an A.
Vic00:45:31- Okay, good. Well, there you go, but it's probably rated R. - I thought this was sweet. I know I have a soft spot for Clint Eastwood. At the end of-- - The kid in this movie is terrible. - I liked it a lot, and the end of the movie, I said, "Oh, that was really nice," and you know what Kate said to me? She was watching with me. She said, "That's a movie for old people." I said, "Not true, I like it."
JVL00:45:51JVL, your thoughts. - The kid, here's a question for you guys. The kid is supposed to be 13 or 16? - 13. - Unclear.
Sonny00:46:01- Supposedly. - I think he's supposed to be 14 or 15.
JVL00:46:03- The kid is written by somebody who spends no time around teenage boys because the kid's sort of mental and emotional makeup is that of about a 10-year-old. Like he, I just mean like that character makes total sense as a 10-year-old boy. - Yes. - Not as a 13 or 14-year-old boy. He does not seem, we are told, that this kid has been livin' on the streets, stealin' stuff. - And abused. - And abused. This kid does not seem super street smart. And together, does not seem like he's-- - He's good about gettin' cars. He can jack the car.
Vic00:46:48I would say the acting--
Sonny00:46:50- They tell us a lot of things, but they don't really show it.
Vic00:46:52- The kid acting is not as bad as the Hmong acting in Gran Torino. I'll put it that way. That was--
Sonny00:47:01- Oh, I thought the Hmong acting-- - Was terrible. - In Gran Torino was much better than this.
Vic00:47:05- Oh, did you really think so? Oh, man, I just recently watched Gran Torino again, and man, there's some awkward moments. But anyway, continue, JVL, sorry.
JVL00:47:12- I mean, so there, so one of the things that jumped out at me for the first half of the movie was how little connective tissue there was between scenes. It was very episodic. I mean, he shows up in Mexico, and the next thing you know, he's at the MILFs house. And then he's just at the cockfight. And then, you know, like, you just move with no, and that bugged me at the beginning of the movie, but then I kind of liked it. I liked the pacing of that a little bit. Except that that tempo then disappears halfway through the movie once they get to this town. And there was this amazing scene, though, where a guy gets shocked after the big cock just springs out into his face. Do you know that part at the end? The guy who's just, yeah, it's amazing. - The bodyguard. - Yeah, the bodyguard. Now, the, he's no chicken, he's macho.
Sonny00:48:11- The rooster in this is very much like a cartoon sidekick rooster, like a Pixar.
JVL00:48:17- This rooster is a lot like the Moana thing, yeah. And also, what's up with the federales? Like, the Mexican police are the most crack. We are, as far as I can tell, in a desolate part of the country with only four working automobiles. And the federales, despite the fact that they are engaged in a war against the cartels, managed to track these guys across the entire countryside. They're always there, they are on top of it, because unclear, because are they tracking because they've followed him from the cockfighting? 'Cause they broke up this cockfighting ring?
Sonny00:49:00None of it makes sense. - They're in the pay
JVL00:49:02of the raising of-- - No, I don't think they are. That's why she sends the bodyguard after. - I think they are, I think they're supposed to be. - Again, there's not enough connective tissue to know. - They're sort of connected, I think, to them. - So here's the thing that I wanna get to, though, that's about this. So I agree, Santino, entirely, with how ridiculous Eastwood is in this. And yet, I think we're probably wrong to complain about Eastwood's role in his performance in this, because without Eastwood, there is no reason for this movie to get made. This movie, with Liam Neeson or Sylvester Stallone in it, is worth nothing. And yet, there are moments in it where Eastwood does the sort of magic stuff. - Yes! - When they're in the car with the rooster, there's a lot of every which way, but loose in it. You know, where he played with the rang-a-dang. He'll throw a line away, or he'll catch this wry smile, and it will work. And the whole thing made me think of the 2012 Republican National Convention. - Oh, the chair. - Do you guys remember that? - Sure, of course. - Sure. - So I was in the room for the convention. I was there in the arena watching the thing happen. And there was this disconnect between people who watched it on TV, who thought that it was the craziest, creepiest thing ever, and the energy in the room. And the energy there, like it was weird and it didn't all work, but some of it really worked. Like there were moments of it that were genuinely great and charming. And there are moments of this, not a lot of them, not even most of them, but there are a few of them which are genuinely charming. And if this is the last time we get to see Clint Eastwood on screen, then I would rather have this movie made with him in it than not have it made. - There you go. - I, do you see what I'm saying? Like to complain that it's imperfect seems ungrateful for the career that this guy has had. - It's not, like I said, B plus.
Sonny00:51:18- But it's not that it's imperfect, it's that it is, it doesn't work. It just doesn't, it just doesn't, it's implausible to the extent that I cannot watch this and think, this is a thing that is happening that I believe. - I agree with that. - I just, I can't, I can't do it. - I agree. - And like, again, again, you guys should, you should, you guys should actually watch The Mule. - I will. - I think you would, I think you would find it interesting. - I bet it does well in the quadrants. - If it's on, you know, HBO Max or whatever. Because it is, it's the same basic sort of movie about a guy who is trying to connect with, you know, blah, blah, he's trying to make out, he's trying, it's a reconsideration of masculinity. Well, it's the same sort of thing he's been doing since Unforgiven, right? - Right, I had a bad past. - And it's just, it's better on every level. I mean, The Mule has Bradley Cooper as the like, second lead in it. - And Michael Payne. - And Bradley Cooper is, I don't know how to tell you this, Bradley Cooper is a much better actor than-- - The kid? - The 15-year-old who is in this movie. He just is. And like, that would have been, I think that would have worked better as a swan song than this, which again, is I find implausible and unbelievable on virtually every level. And I agree with you JVL that there are nice moments, there are nice like Clint Eastwood star turn moments in this. I wouldn't dispute that. He just, he can't carry the film.
Vic00:52:48- Totally agree. - Does he think he carries the film because in his mind he's not 91 but he's still not Outlaw Josie Wales Young
JVL00:52:56but like Unforgiven Young. - He wants to act, right? I mean, he still wants to act. He does not want to retire from in front of the camera the way other older stars do or he does not want to retire into roles that are more fitting in the way that like Michael Gambon doesn't do stuff where he breaks a Bronco. - Right. - You know, Christopher Plummer was not doing, you know what I mean? Like Michael Caine, look at Michael Caine, right? Michael Caine, you know, in Interstellar is like seated at a table. No, not Interstellar, what's the-- - The last one? - Intent, right, yeah, just seated at a table because like that's what he could do, yeah. And he can still be Michael Caine for that, but he can't do other stuff. So I, did you guys notice the weird directorial choice about subtitles where sometimes-- - Yes, from the Spanish. - You get subtitles in Spanish, but then sometimes you don't. I found that very confusing because I couldn't understand. - Why? - I couldn't understand the choice of it. - Yeah. - And I kept trying to figure it out and it didn't, I just couldn't come up with a reason.
Vic00:54:07- Well, you know, I like to have subtitles for Spanish and English, but it was--
JVL00:54:12- Sonny, did you, did that like pop for you and think to yourself, why is this happening?
Sonny00:54:18- Yeah, no, and it usually does. When I'm watching something and some things are subtitled, some things aren't, I usually make note of it and I didn't hear, which suggests to me that it worked.
Vic00:54:27- It made me wonder what they were hiding from us. Because then you just have to get the gist of, uh-oh, they're in trouble or something like that. But, yeah, that was--
JVL00:54:35- Yeah, again, it only bothered me because I was trying to figure out the reasoning for the choice, not for any other reason.
Vic00:54:42- Question, where does her money come from?
JVL00:54:46- Probably the investments.
Vic00:54:48- Because I assumed immediately that there was some drug connection, wrongly, and then you just don't find out. And I kept on thinking, who is the husband who's gonna find out about what's going on? Of course, the husband is technically Dwight Yoakam, so she's kind of with the bodyguard, I guess. But, you know, because if I were in Clint's position, yes, exciting, but on the other hand, kind of scary. Who are these guys roaming around? They gonna come into the middle, you know? I mean, it was very scary, but, you know.
Sonny00:55:15- Dwight Yoakam is great in this movie for a role that makes no sense. - No sense whatsoever. - At all. - The role-- - Dwight Yoakam is great-- - The role of the father who sends Clint Eastwood down there to, like, just his motivations keep changing willy-nilly, and, like, it's hard to tell what he actually wants from, like, this boy, if it's actually just a money player, if he is actually, like, he wants to be a father to him, or what, like, it's--
JVL00:55:40- I don't think the movie knows what the answer is to that.
Sonny00:55:43- I don't think, no, I don't think--
Vic00:55:44- The reason why this movie takes place in '79, 1980 is because that's when the book was written, or that it's just been sitting there for so long?
Sonny00:55:54- The book was written in '74, '75, something like that.
Vic00:55:56- Okay, all right, so they just chose to keep it of that period, yeah.
Sonny00:55:59- Originally, it was a script, he wrote a script, the writer, the original writer wrote a script, it got rejected by everybody in town, so he wrote a novel that did well, that sold some copies, and then he just resubmitted the same exact script to the studios and somebody bought it. And it's been, again, it's been kind of making the rounds in Hollywood for the last 30, 40 years. Like, it just, it finally, it finally, you know, a spot opened up on Clint Eastwood's schedule and he was like, "Now's the time." Not when I was 65, I was-- - Which is true. - Way too young for it then. Now that I'm 90, I can be this character.
Vic00:56:34- One of the things you notice is how much meat he's lost, you know, in that time span from, let's say, Gran Torino to, or from, you know, from that time until now, even when, even in his 80s, and now when you enter his 90s, I mean, he's just a stick figure now, sadly. And one of the things you do notice is the voice is also very, it's reedy, you know, it's old. It's very old. - Yeah. - But still, I thought, if this movie takes place in 1980, it means his character was born in 1889, so. - Wow. - I mean, that's kind of crazy. I don't know.
Sonny00:57:09- Well, they never say the age of the character. - No, they don't.
Vic00:57:11I'm just basing it on how, so you're saying that, are you saying that in the movie he's not supposed to be 91?
JVL00:57:18- He looks every year of it.
Vic00:57:19- He does, he does, he does.
Sonny00:57:21- Doesn't look like a spry 80--
Vic00:57:24- He was born in the Hoover administration, so, anyway. Okay.
Sonny00:57:29- I feel bad saying this. - I know, you love Clint. I know you love Clint Eastwood. - I do love Clint Eastwood, but I just, he's old.
Vic00:57:34- Despite all that, I still thought it was very sweet.
Sonny00:57:36- He was old.
Vic00:57:37- I liked it. - It has moments, it has moments, it has moments. - Do we have any other thoughts? - No. - Does he have another project lined up if you go to IMDB? You know, usually they have stuff.
JVL00:57:48- Yeah, I'm sorry, Victorino, you didn't get to make a cock joke. Sonny and I both had our fun, and you, you're just gonna let this, this is like Chekhov's gun, you're just gonna let it sit there?
Vic00:57:56- No, it didn't, it didn't, it didn't, it did not occur to me, it did not occur to me. No, no, not at all, except for cock fights or something, that's funny, it's Mexico, it's also very popular in the Philippines, that Spanish influence. But no, that's funny. Okay. - Who are you? - I know.
JVL00:58:17- Naked Elizabeth Debicki does nothing for you.
Vic00:58:20- Too tall, scary.
JVL00:58:22- But this, you're like, oh, it's the best, I love it. You don't wanna make the puns, you don't, like, what? This prednisone is bad shit, you gotta get off of it.
Vic00:58:30- I'm so hungry, too, I'm so hungry, the prednisone makes me so hungry.
JVL00:58:34- I don't like the way this drug makes you.
Vic00:58:38- I learned it from you, Dad! - You back, Vic. I want the Victorino that I fell in love with. - I haven't had a drink since, in like six days. So, Spirit of the Week corrections, shout outs, anything? Nothing? - Nothing. - Okay, that is all the time we're giving to this episode. Questions, comments, compliments, tweet us @SonnyBunch, @VictorinoMatus. Again, be sure to subscribe to us on Patreon. Just go to subbeacon.com, we're there. Tell your friends, until next time. What did you want to save till the...
Sonny00:59:21- Oh, so I, as I said, I've been reading the Foundation books, because this series is coming to Apple TV+, did you, have you, you've seen the trailers?
Vic00:59:32- I don't even know what you're talking about. Is this Anne, is this Anne Rand, is this Anne Rand?
Sonny00:59:37- It's on Apple TV+, it's Isaac Asimov's Foundation books. It was originally a series of short stories that got turned into a trilogy, then expanded into, you know, like seven more books or whatever. But I've been reading, the fundamental premise of the books is this scientist, the scientist predicts the fall of the galactic empire, you know, a million star systems, and it's all gonna collapse, and there will be 30,000 years of darkness unless the foundation is established and can kind of guide humanity through this crisis, and then the age of darkness will only be 1,000 years, okay? The thing about the books is that they take all, the books are just a series of conversations, more or less. It's just a bunch of people talking to each other, over and over again, just people talking about they're like, "Oh, well, this is the crisis, "and we have to avert it. "Well, how are we gonna avert it? "Well, why don't we do this thing?" And then it turns out they do a secret other thing and whatever, but the series is all action. Every single thing that they've shown in the ads, and it's all like backstory on the empire, which is not in any of the, or at least not in like the first three books. I am like fairly skeptical now having, again, revisited these books for the first time in like 30 years, rereading them and thinking like, show that David Goyer, David Goyer is the guy who is behind this, you folks will remember him as the co-writer of "The Dark Knight" and some other stuff, "Batman vs. Superman," I think he co-wrote. I am somewhat skeptical that this is a thing that will work in any sort of way like the book works. I just, I don't quite understand the point.
JVL01:01:23- Well, the book is like political philosophy, if I'm remembering correctly. I read this, I wanna say, when I was in my freshman year of high school, and I loved it. Spoiler, Vic, this is not for you.
Vic01:01:34- I was gonna say, please, for the love of God, don't make me read or watch this thing.
Sonny01:01:37It sounds terrible. - It's a lot of talking. - No, but you might like the show, because it looks like the show's just nothing but like explosions.
JVL01:01:44- But the book was, I mean, the book was the, this was like Irving Kristol-style science fiction. Like Irving Kristol has this great essay about how all science fiction is about politics and it's all political science and all the, and it's really true. All of that '50s and '60s stuff is definitely true of the foundation books. Sonny, is it, how old were you when you read it the first time?
Sonny01:02:08- I mean, I was like eight when I read it. None of it made any sense to me. - You were a precocious little fellow, weren't you?
JVL01:02:13- Because I was way too young. - Eight years old?
Sonny01:02:15- Well, I tried to read it and I just didn't get it. So I just kind of like worked my way through it and I was like, okay, these are dumb and boring. Where are my books about sports?
JVL01:02:26- Well, I'm-
Sonny01:02:27- But I like, I put it aside. I didn't pick it up again until like, again, like a month ago and I started reading through them again. They're good, they're good, they're entertaining. But like, this is not at all what the TV show looks like.
JVL01:02:39- I am skeptical that Amazon is capable as a- - Apple. - Apple. - Oh, it's Apple, okay. Well, nevermind then. I was thinking this was an Amazon show, not an Apple show. Maybe it's good if it's an Apple show.
Sonny01:02:53- Yeah. - Could be.
JVL01:02:54- Yeah, okay.
Vic01:02:57anything else no we can end it there or i can i have victorino do it i do it you know i you know
JVL01:03:06how i am about you will just blame it on the prednisone we'll say oh it was the vitamin p talking i he's not responsible for that that's right i uh uh you know how i am about saving food
Vic01:03:16and uh so we went out to a restaurant uh one of my favorite places lebanese diverta and uh and my daughter courthouse right no no no no no no no no no no uh it's uh it's it's in westover it's it's the the original the original lebanese diverta which is up here so um uh my daughter ordered a shawarma sandwich but she couldn't finish it so i'm like oh save that sandwich i put it in a box and said we're gonna i'll have that for lunch the next day the shawarma sandwich and i took some various vegetables and things for other people's plates loaded up the styrofoam container but i was driving to the restaurant and i was driving to the restaurant and i was having kate's car and then uh and then uh kate and i think the kids they wanted to get ice cream or whatever um but i decided not to and so i said i'll just drive back so i drive back and then they showed up later and then the next morning um i look in the fridge and i said where did you put the leftover shawarma she goes i didn't put it anywhere we walked back and i said oh uh i guess i left it in the car so i go in the car and there it is and kate was not happy and i bring it in even i can't eat it now you know it was hot in the car and she said she goes so what the car smells now and i said no no no no it's it's it's fine it smelled like beirut but no i said it's fine
JVL01:04:44i hope you put it in the compost bin yeah i'm sure it's fine
Spot something wrong in this episode? Suggest a correction →
Comments
Loading…