#204. 'Arnold'
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The main event is Netflix's three-part documentary Arnold, on which Sonny is rapturous — he calls it "pure hagiography and I love it," declares Arnold Schwarzenegger the living embodiment of the American dream, and singles out the opening bodybuilding/Austria episode as the strongest, even while admitting the abbreviated Hollywood-career section (which skips Kindergarten Cop, Total Recall, and Jingle All the Way almost entirely) is disappointing and wishing for a meatier deep dive into Arnold's shrewd movie-contract business dealings à la Edward Jay Epstein's book The Big Picture. JVL, who watched at 1.5x speed and still found it draggy, agrees the bodybuilding hour is the highlight (marveling at the era's naked-oiled-forest-workout culture as "only in America") but knocks the political section for glossing over how badly Arnold flailed early in his governorship, and closes with a fond Weekly Standard war story about sending Matt Labash to interview Arnold on his plane, ending on the classic "that's because he's ashamed of his body... girly man" line. Mike liked it least of the three, finding the bodybuilding footage more grotesque than fascinating and feeling the documentary let Arnold narrate his own myth too uncritically, though he was unexpectedly moved by the melancholy final images of Arnold alone in his mansions with his miniature donkeys. All three riff on Arnold as a magnetic, unabashed operator — JVL casts him as "lawful good Vince McMahon" — and needle the film's parade of toothless celebrity cameos (Linda Hamilton, Danny DeVito, James Cameron, a deadpan Jamie Lee Curtis) before teasing a future Arnold-themed draft bonus episode. The first third is, as usual, banter: Mike opens by ribbing JVL for having "nothing for public consumption," Sonny goes long on seeing Oppenheimer in rare 70mm IMAX in Dallas (one of only 19 such screens nationwide) and geeks out over the physical film-loading process, and Mike recounts a two-day Legoland New York/Goshen family trip — minifigure trading obsession, an underwhelming and understaffed ride lineup, and a long, furious rant about line-cutting adults that prompts JVL to ask whether the trip actually beat just buying the kids a $300 Lego set. Box office chatter covers Sound of Freedom's surprise gross surpassing Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning, the derelict-ship Dracula spinoff The Last Voyage of the Demeter underperforming, Oppenheimer becoming the highest-grossing film ever to not hit #1, and Blue Beetle's grim ~$25 million opening against a $140 million budget.
From the show notes
The living embodiment of the American dream.
Full transcript
Guest00:00:00There was a lot of things they had to learn. Obstacles that they had to overcome. You can get an injury, then all your athletic stuff is over. But the only thing that no one can take from you is your mind. Arnold Schwarzenegger terminated his box office competition. I was looking for another challenge, politics. Let's get to work.
Mike00:00:30Welcome to the Sub-Beacon Podcast. I'm your co-host, Mike Warren. With me, as always, are my two co-hosts who know what is best in life, Jonathan V. Last and Sonny Bunch. Come on over to Sub-Beacon.com where you can become a patron. Get first access to episodes every Friday. Get exclusive access to bonus episodes. Join the Sub-Beacon community where you can comment, vote in polls, lots of fun over there at Sub-Beacon.com. On today's episode, we're going to be talking about Arnold, the limited documentary series available on Netflix later on in the show. But first, guys, how are we doing? JVL, you got nothing for us today.
JVL00:01:16Is that correct? Yeah, I just told you everything in the green room over the course of 15 minutes, and it's amazing, and it is not for public consumption.
Sonny00:01:23No one's ever going to hear that.
JVL00:01:26Sonny, Michael, what do you boys have? Sonny, hit us.
Sonny00:01:30Um, what's going on with me? Uh, I, uh, big news, big news. I finally saw, uh, Oppenheimer's God and Christopher Nolan intended on the IMAX 70 millimeter, the IMAX 70 millimeter. There's, there's only, I think there's 19 of these theaters in the country. We happen to have one of them in Dallas, Texas.
JVL00:01:51Uh, like did they talk louder?
Sonny00:01:53It's, it's, the sound is, it sounds, sounds a little bit. It's a lot. It's, it's interesting.
JVL00:01:58I have.
Sonny00:02:00I have always, I have always been, no, they're not. Yeah. I have always been fairly ambivalent, uh, about Christopher Nolan's use of IMAX, uh, despite being, you know, a registered, I, you know, the foreign agents registration act, they have one of those for Christopher Nolan shills, the Christopher Nolan shill registration act Kinra, we call it. Um, and, uh, as a, as a, you know, fully, fully enrolled Kinra. Um, I have always been a total Christopher Nolan shill. It's, it's fine. Um, I've, I've accepted my, my lot in life, but I have always been a little bit ambivalent about how he uses IMAX, particularly in the years, uh, since inception came out really starting with the dark night rises. Um, uh, because he does this thing when he, when, when, when you see it in IMAX where the aspect ratios are constantly shifting. Cause some of the stuff he shoots with, uh, an IMAX certified camera, and sometimes he shoots it with like the big full box IMAX, you know. Uh, four by three, essentially, um, aspect ratio. Uh, and, uh, that is extremely distracting. I've always found that to be just extremely distracting. It's not even like, there's no real rhyme or reason to it, uh, except by what he is limited in his ability to shoot in any given circumstance. So like in, uh, Dunkirk, for instance, uh, you will get shots, you like shots within the same scene. You'll go from the. The full aspect, the full IMAX aspect ratio to like 2.35 to one, uh, or 1.8 to one or whatever it is. And he, and then back. And then like you, you, you go back, you cut back and forth and it's extremely, it's extremely distracting. I don't like it. It pulls you out of the moment, you know, once upon a time with like inception, uh, that we went in, in like the dark night and inception, when he switched to the full IMAX ratio, that just meant like action scene, big action, big action. We're doing big action. And like. We're shooting this in IMAX and it's big action. And like, that's it. That's fine. I think that's okay. But, uh, what, how he uses it in, um, in, uh, Dunkirk and to a lesser extent in tenant tenant is mostly in, in the IMAX AR, but, um, uh, but also in Oppenheimer, he does the same thing. He's switching back and forth.
JVL00:04:19That said, uh, seeing it right in the conference room scenes, he's in normal aspect ratio. And then in a hearing room scenes, he goes full. I.
Sonny00:04:29No, but that's not even, that's not even right. That's not in the, in the, in the, in the hearing room scenes, some of the shots are in full IMAX aspect ratio and then need that.
JVL00:04:40And then to understand, there's a lot of action.
Sonny00:04:42And then some of the shots are in, uh, you know, widescreen aspect ratio. It's, it's just really, it's, it's, I, I don't understand exactly what it is. I'm sure he, I'm sure he has some explanation in his, but it doesn't, it's, it just seems to, it's just distracting me. That said the, uh, the. The, the shots, uh, that are in the full aspect ratio in Oppenheimer. I forgive because I like, it really is just, it is enormous and, uh, and like kind of overwhelming and so clear, like the 70 millimeter print that they have. That's, you know, 11 miles or whatever of film that digitally projected. No, they have an actual, it's not ones and zeros. It's 70 millimeters, 70 millimeter film.
JVL00:05:29Was it 600? Pounds.
Sonny00:05:30I think it's some, it's some, yeah, it's some, it's some enormous. They have to ship it in eight or 10 containers and then they put it together in the, in once they like bring it all up to the projection room, they put it together there and they have a guy, they gave it. IMAX sends a guy to each of these theaters to run the projector because you can't just have like a regular projector.
JVL00:05:50Is this, this is a, this is a, people wonder why Hollywood is going bankrupt, but these
Sonny00:05:56are, but these showings, but these showings are the, are, are selling out everywhere. I mean, like if you, so if you look at the theater, I saw it at you, uh, like all of the, the, uh, seats in the middle, like, you know, the middle, like stadium section, um, the, the middle part of the stadium section for literally every showing through the end of its run, uh, three weeks from now sold out. Like you, you cannot get a seat dead center at like 10 30 at night for a showing of Oppenheimer in IMAX 70 millimeter. Like, you can't get a seat dead center at like 10 30 at night for a showing of Oppenheimer and you just, you can't do it. So anyway, um, uh, it was also just like, it was, it was also, the whole thing was just a lot of fun too, because the, uh, the, the, the like Cinemark employee there, the like guy taking tickets, Cinemark, you know, came out and he like ran people through the technology of it. He was like, look at this strip of film here. These are 24 frames. This goes through the projector every second, 24 frames. And you know what it does? It doesn't go up and down like normal projector goes sideways. Goes sideways. Do the thing. It was, I mean, it was doing this just for you. It was really, it was really, I don't think I knew that about IMAX. Well, I, so I think it's only, well, so most IMAX projectors are digital. I mean, like most, most IMAX projectors are actually digital, right? So there, there aren't, but these film ones, they go through sideways and they have like an air compressor that shoots them through. It's, it's wild. It's a, it's a, it's a whole thing.
Mike00:07:22I just wonder what does the semi trailer carrying the 13 miles of IMAX felt like? What does it look like? Is it just nondescript? Does it have like, like I've never seen it.
Sonny00:07:34They break it, they, they break it down into like normal real size canisters. And then they put, they literally put the, the entire thing together in the projector room. They like, so, you know, you remember fight club, you remember fight club, like you've seen the movie fight club, you're, you're aware of this movie fight club. So you'd remember the scene in fight club where Tyler Durden is putting the strip, the frame of frames of pornography into snow white or whatever, or a Bambi. Or whatever it was. Um, and, uh, you know, how he, how he like uses that machine to like clip it together. That's they, they do, they have to do that for, you know, they do that with the 10 reels to put it, put it together and get it, get it all up there. Anyway, it's amazing. If you have a chance to see it in this format, any, everybody should, I think that the closest one to you guys is at the King of Prussia mall. Um, so I don't JBL, there might, there's one in, I guess you could go to New York city. You could go to the big Apple. See it there.
JVL00:08:31That's where, that's where I live. The city that never sleeps. Where is this 70 millimeter screen? I think the amount of rent you'd have to pay for on a, for the square footage or something like that could not possibly work.
Sonny00:08:43I mean, New York city has like a real IMAX. I think it's the AMC empire. I don't know. I'll figure it out, but all right.
JVL00:08:50Send it, send it to me and I will definitely think about going to see that.
Sonny00:08:53You should, you, since you loved it so much the first time it would, you know, maybe I'd
JVL00:08:56like it better. You'd probably like it better if it was, if it was.
Mike00:08:59Uh, all right. Well, thanks Sonny. Um, Michael, what's been going on, buddy? Well, you're looking at a guy, you guys are talking to a guy and listeners, you're listening to a guy who's just spent two days at Legoland, New York, Goshen, New York in Goshen, New York, 20, 20 miles from me.
JVL00:09:23Oh, you didn't stop by and use our house as a rest stop. Uh, well we, um, tell me everything about it. Because I'm dying to go and take the kids, but I've been a little like, eh, I don't know. They're still working the kinks out up there.
Mike00:09:36There is a little of that, but it did not matter to my kids. So this was our big summer vacation trip because we have the baby and we were like, you know, I don't know what it's going to be like to, you know, did all one, two, three, four, five,
JVL00:09:50five of you go, or was it just you and the big boys?
Mike00:09:53Oh, all five of us went, it was a family vacation. Oh, so great. We, uh, we drove up. We, I guess we did stay close to, cause we, so we stayed the night before we went to the park. We stayed on points. Thank you very much. Um, at a, in a hotel in Mawa. Um, and which is right. 12 miles from me. 12 miles. Okay.
JVL00:10:17So, um, did you go to the Wawa in Mawa?
Mike00:10:21We did not go to the Mawa Wawa, but we went to a Wawa earlier. Um, but so we stayed. We stayed in adjoining hotel rooms, which my big boys. Hey, Brick and loved.
JVL00:10:35Yeah.
Mike00:10:35We're going to love again on points. Thank you very much. Uh, and they love that. Uh, we went the next morning. So the whole idea was we went the next morning and went straight to go straight into the park. We were staying at the hotel on site at the Lego land, the Lego hotel, which themed room did you pick pirates castles? Oh, pirates on the fourth floor. Baby penthouse pirate penthouse. So, uh, we actually found out that our room was ready the morning that we got there. So we actually got out real quick, like, like maybe 30 minutes before the park open and like, it got into our room. Amazing. It was amazing. So then we went, uh, so then we spent the next, the full day, first day we was, it was a two day, you know, two nights at the Lego and hotel two day at the park. Um, what's it like?
JVL00:11:33Is it about rides? We're about museum stuff. It was about stores.
Mike00:11:38It's about rides. It's about shows. If you want it to be about shows, it's about for my five-year-old, it's about the ability to trade minifigures.
JVL00:11:51Do you know anything about this JVL? Oh, I know a lot about minifigures. I didn't realize that trading. Did he bring a whole stash of minifigs with him to trade? With kids?
Mike00:12:00Oh, strap in, strap in. So not only are there trading posts all around the park, which are these little kind of square boxes on wheels where there are on all four sides of the platform, minifigures that you can trade a minifigure you have for no questions asked. They just have to have a head, the arms and the legs. Like, that's all you need. Like, if you trade something and get one back, that's got hats and accessories and stuff. Hey, it's your lucky day.
JVL00:12:38You just struck gold, plastic gold.
Mike00:12:41Not only are there those trading posts throughout the park, there's one in the hotel. Yes, question.
Sonny00:12:47So you, you go with your minifig and you pick which one you want off of the trading post or you get a random one.
Mike00:12:56No, no, no, no. You pick which one you want and put it in the trading post. Put yours on the trading post back on the little, on the little platform. Um, so not only can you do that, but every single employee at Legoland has, that's wearing a name tag, has on their name tag, a minifig that is attached there and you can go up to any one of them and trade your minifig or theirs. And by the end of it, both of them. My kids were like studiously, like what, looking at every single person who worked there. Like, is that what I want? Is that Lloyd from Ninjago? Yeah, I want him. Um, and my five-year-old basically like after like one or two rides on the second day, like tapped out, all he wanted to do was, was trade. And yeah, he was like obsessed with it. So that was a big deal. The rides were good. Uh, they're okay. I should say. I didn't get to ride as many as I wanted to, but it's not about me. Um, my kids were just not that into some of the rides. Um, age range are the rides geared towards. They are geared towards, I would say age six to 10. Okay. Maybe 11 or 12. Okay. Some of them. So like they have one legit roller coaster that I didn't get to ride. I was kind of bummed, but my kids didn't want to do it. Um, most of the ride. So like my five-year-old who is very tall for his age, um, was not tall enough to ride with his brother on most of the ride with his nine-year-old brother, almost nine-year-old brother. Um, yeah. Okay. So the rides were okay. The hotel was crazy and insane and like disgusting and my kids loved it. And, um,
Sonny00:14:57Wait, disgusting now. Yeah.
Mike00:14:59Um, I have to figure out how to say this without offending people. It is like a cruise ship on land. Yeah.
JVL00:15:08It's not built for high quality.
Mike00:15:11No. Um, the room was very cool. So they had, we're all in one room. We had a, you know, king sized bed. And then in the, there's a little alcove in the front of the room with bunk beds. And they actually had a trundle bed underneath the second bunk bed. Uh, but of course with the baby, we bought the pack and play. But that was like this own little area and it had two spaces, like play spaces for Legos. And then even have like a little, um, trough of, of just basic Legos. Like just, just the colored blocks build on your own. Yeah. Build your own stuff. Um, and, and yeah, after he was done trading the five real, just like went back to the hotel room at like noon on the second day and just played in like with Legos the whole time while the baby slept and me and me and the eight and a half year old went out and wrote some more rides. Okay. Um, yeah. So the hotel is not great. Uh, but it was fine. And my kids, again, they were obsessed with it. Every elevator when the doors close plays like disco music and has a disco ball. And so everybody's dancing, everybody's having a good time, but it's like, I was not quite, you know, just like old disco stuff, YMCA and, you know, uh, turn the beat around and all that crap. Um, there's a pool that, um, I didn't go to, but, uh, uh, Melissa took the baby and the big kid. Anyway, it's just, it's not great. There's a, there's a, there's a restaurant there. That's terrible. Um, that my kids loved. Um, they would, I would say they do a few really good things in the park. Lego does a great job with bathrooms. The bathrooms are all extremely clean, extremely available. Like they're, they're everywhere. They're big. They're clean. It was, that was not a problem. Um, the problem solving, they're very, they're, they're very attuned to problem solving. So the example of this is we had printed tickets, but also tickets on my phone. I'm just, I was just trying to cover my bases. So on the second day, me and the big boys went right when the park was open, we were the first in the park. So, and, but I gave Melissa her ticket when she and the baby came in later. Well, when I, when I went to do the phone tickets, I guess it scanned her ticket. I, you know, I was, I was, they were just all on the phone. And so when she tried to come in like an hour and a half later, like, Oh, this ticket has already been scanned. And she was like, Oh, well, my husband and the phone and all that stuff. And they like figured it out very quickly and like letter it basically like there, there was no, there was no like, like niggling over those kinds of details. It was like, just go, just go, just go. They did that. Great. Yeah. And here's what they did not do. Great. Uh, every ride by noon. So the park opens at 10, every ride by noon, noon, 30 had at least a 20 minute wait, if not a 45 minute wait, if not a 60 minute wait, if not a 90 minute wait, uh, kids rides. Oh, it was, it was awful. There are no, there are basically no trees. So it is built on a hill. In this beautiful part of New York and in orange County, New York and Goshen. Um, uh, and the, the O the, the, the start of the park is at the top of the hill and the rest of the park is at the bottom of the hill. And they've gotten one way, which is to go through mini land, which is this, they're all these, uh, American cities built in Lego. Um, and you basically walk down this windy steep path. Or walk up it, if the case is, uh, to get to the rest of the park, to the pirate area in the Lego city. Um, or now you can go through. So it's clear, clearly they it's this park's only two years old. They've clearly been doing some more ways to get down that are less steep. Um, there are also now newly built stairs to cut through some of these long winding, you know, uh, uh, switchback paths. Um, but it's hot. There are no, there's no tree coverage and it's pretty miserable. Um, walking through there. Um, and here's, here's my complaint. And look, this is not a good Lego land complaint. This is a complaint about people. This is a complaint about human beings being awful pieces of shit from the moment that I walked into this park. Preach. Preach brother, Michael. All right. So we go to the first ride, which is the Lego factory ride, which is a whole thing where you, it's, you go in. And you learn how to, you learn how the Jurassic park, the Jurassic park ride for Legos. Yes. But it's, there's like a whole thing where you become a mini fig and you're shrunk down and then you're put into a box at whatever.
JVL00:20:10I got dino DNA.
Mike00:20:12Exactly. Um, we get in line and it's early. It's the first ride we're on in the first day. And okay. So to paint the picture. So there's a, there is a steps going into the building. In which you then stand in line for a while. And at the entrance, there are, uh, there are railings and queue lines that are empty because it's the beginning of the day and it's, and there's not that many people online. And so we are just standing in line, waiting to get into the door, standing next to these queue lines that will be used later on in the day. And at a certain point, a man, a man comes on like right where we are. It says, Hey, can, can we basically like the line starting to get long? Can you guys snake through the queue? And you'll end up basically right where you are, but it will start the snaking through the long queue line.
JVL00:21:12And this man works for Lego is an employee of the park for Lego.
Mike00:21:15It's, if he's very, he's got the, he's got, he's actually, it's actually like, he's got the public safety that's on. So he's like, he's basically the cops and Lego police. Exactly.
Sonny00:21:25Did he have many figs to trade?
Mike00:21:27Uh, I don't remember. That was not my department. That was, you'll have to ask the five. Um, and so it's very clear. Like all we are doing is taking a right going 40 feet, snaking back 40 feet and coming right back to where we are to, to stay in line. Right. We are being asked to be the first to start this. Great. This is so easy. I'm as he's explained. He's explaining this, the family behind me, I hear them say, not us, not us, not us, not us, not us. And I'm like, not us. What is that? So then I'm like, all right guys, let's snake around here so we can get in, you know, and I see that family, which by the way is five grown adults and one little girl, five grown adults and one little girl. And they just jump. Right ahead. Everybody else snakes with us. They jump right ahead. Congratulations. You're now one step ahead of us. But the principle of the thing, no, but I glared at them the whole time until Melissa was like spit on them. No, but Melissa was like, you've got to calm down. You have got, it is the first ride of the day. I was like, all right, all right. I'm cool. Okay.
Sonny00:22:50I've gotten that talk before.
Mike00:22:52I was, yeah, yeah, I was, I was. I was furious. Like everything about it was like, like the, the, the gaming of the system to get one step ahead. The fact that these are all adults and they have one child and they've got to jump ahead. And guess what? They rode the ride because it had like four different cars. If they rode the ride at the same fucking time we did. So they didn't get ahead at all. Oh, it made me so mad. So that set the tone for the rest of the two.
Sonny00:23:20Why didn't, why didn't the safety guy make them snake around with everybody else?
Mike00:23:24Oh, because he, because he got out. He got out of that bitch to, to like go to the next one, to tell them to the next ride, tell them he just did that. And then he stout, he would, there was no crowd control. And to be fair, yeah, to be fair, what he should have done is used a little rope line thing to cut off. Yeah. I don't, but I didn't do that. It was a little informal. Totally.
JVL00:23:44Without enforcement. Those are mere suggestions.
Sonny00:23:46That, well, this is a, that shit doesn't happen at Disney.
Mike00:23:49Tell you what, this is a story. No, this is a story that, that played itself out several times over, which is the staff there. Had none of the discipline of, of, of Walt Disney world, uh, cast members. Like, so the, the other thing was the brides were taking so long because everybody was, every ride was understaffed. So there was like one person on staff running every ride. And so they would take forever just to get people moving. So that annoyed. And then finally, like, I'm sorry, every, you know, every family is, is, is communist. Right. In, in every house, it's, it's a communist, uh, dictatorship. And like, honestly, it should be that way in theme parks because I, whatever the Legoland version of fast passes, it had my blood boiling because, and I don't even blame them because they paid the money for it. Like that's what they're paying for. But something is wrong with standing in a line for 20, 30 minutes to ride some stupid kids ride with your kid that you don't even want to ride, but the kid is dying to ride it. And then as soon as you're about. To get on the ride, you can scout the number of people. Hey, we're about to get on the ride. These, most of them, grownups line up in the fast pass lane or whatever.
JVL00:25:07It's the ride and reserve capitalist running dogs as we call them. Michael, I hate it.
Mike00:25:12I hate it. It's not, it's not the point. The point is for the kids to have fun. And instead there's all these adults, all these adults riding kids rides. What are they doing? Writing kids rides. If I didn't have to write it with my five-year-old, I wouldn't.
Sonny00:25:26That's the point of this park. That's not the point. The point of this park is, is to make money for the Lego corporation. Yes. That's the point of this park. That's what the fast pass is doing.
JVL00:25:35Anyway, Michael, I have just one question for you. Yeah. What? As a value proposition, I want you to be very honest with yourself here. Yep. Whatever this, this very beautiful family vacation cost you, would your, from a strictly utilitarian point of view, do you think your two older boys could have gotten as much, more, or less enjoyment if you had given each of them the $300 Lego set of their dreams? The Lego set that is so expensive that they know never to ask for it. If you had dropped that puppy, the, the Lego home record edition Millennium Falcon or something, you had given that to each of them. And said, this is weeks, maybe even a month's worth of Lego building joy and pleasure for you. And you'll have it for your entire lifetime, or we can spend 72 hours and drive to Goshen, New York. Which do you think would have given them more, more pleasure and joy?
Mike00:26:46The five-year-old, definitely the expensive Lego set. Absolutely. That's all he does.
Sonny00:26:53But he wouldn't have been able to trade. He wouldn't have been able to trade the mini-figs.
JVL00:26:57But that is a good point. The number of mini-figs. That is a good point. Just go on eBay. You could buy a bag of 400 mini-figs.
Mike00:27:03No, no, no. You have, but I will say this. I will, that was sort of a joke because I will actually say the two older boys were in, it was the greatest two days of their lives. They were so happy walking around with my eight and a half year old. And he's like, this is the best place ever. This is the best place ever. And I was like, great. It's totally worth it. Well, then it was worth it. No, it actually was worth it. And the joke was, so as the, as we're getting up to this, I said to Melissa several times, um, when there was some issue on the way up or, or even just the, the planning stages at every point, I would say, this was your idea. Just like a reminder, you know, this was your idea. And, and I, I had to say at the end, I said, that was a great trip. The kids.
JVL00:27:50I'm so glad I have that idea.
Mike00:27:52No, no, I gave her credit. I said, this was your idea. So it was all. Well, that ends well, and everybody was happy and we have lots of family in Philadelphia. And so we, we did stop by on the way up and the way down to see family. My brother got to hold his nephew and it was all fine. So, but I really hate people so much more now than I did them before. Uh, I would like, and that's the real lesson. That's great. Sure beats what I had in the green. Um, all right, should we move on? This is too much dudes chatting, uh, about my Legoland experience. Let's talk. Should we do box office real quick? Is there anything to say about box office? I mean, uh, Barbie still at number one, Oppenheimer still at number two.
JVL00:28:42Um, if somebody had told you Sonny that the QAnon movie was going to gross more domestically than mission impossible, dead reckoning, what, what should the odds of that, that prop that bit. And say in may of 2023, well, I, I don't know what you're talking about.
Sonny00:29:02There is no QAnon movie out there. There's sound of freedom, which is the child trafficking.
JVL00:29:06Yes, yes.
Sonny00:29:07That one's very different from, you know, uh, no, no, it's insane.
JVL00:29:13I, I, I don't think it is now past mission impossible.
Sonny00:29:17I mean, it's, it's grossed more than mission impossible. It's grossed more than Indiana Jones five it's gross, uh, more than the fast and gross more than fast.
Mike00:29:2610, it grows more than flash, but that's not saying more than the flash.
Sonny00:29:30I mean, like it is, uh, it's a, it's a legitimate box office phenomenon. Um, uh, so, you know, I don't good for good for the, I, I, I would not, I mean, I would never would have predicted this. I w I would have, I would have guessed it would be in the 20 to 30 million range. If it was able to, you know, break out at all, which is not a, which is not a guarantee with these things. Um, so question question. Yeah.
Mike00:29:54Number five. On this weekend's, uh, past weekends, box office, the last voyage of the Demeter. Yes. What is the last voyage of the Demeter?
Sonny00:30:04Have you ever read Bram Stoker's Dracula?
Mike00:30:07Oh, this is that movie.
Sonny00:30:08So the Bram Stoker's Dracula, there's a, there's a chapter in, yes, I'm sorry. I guess I knew this chapter in the novel. That's the, the, the captain's log chapter, which chronicles the voyage from Romania to England, where Dracula kills, bring Dracula. And Dracula kills everybody on the ship and it comes in derelict. Like that is the, that's the, that's this, this movie is that, that chapter.
Mike00:30:32That's a great idea.
Sonny00:30:34Yeah. The movie is not very good. Sadly. Uh, it, it, it just didn't work. It's one of these movies that is like everything about it is kind of great on paper. The cast is very good. And, uh, the, um, the idea is very good and the director has done some good stuff. And it just does the it's too long. It's two hours long. It's like repetitive. It's not particular. Really scary. It has a couple effective sequences, but it's just, it's not that good. It's not that good.
Mike00:31:00All right.
Sonny00:31:00Uh, no, the only real interesting box office thing is as of today. So we're taping this Thursday night as of today, uh, Oppenheimer is now the highest grossing domestic picture ever to not hit number one at the box office, which is an interesting little, little factoid at $270 million. That's I mean, it's, it's going to make another 50 or 60 million probably. Um, It's going to, it's going to play for a little while. So, uh, I mean, like it's, I, that, you know, the, the two biggest box office stories of the summer are sound of freedom doing huge business and, you know, Oppenheimer again, being a three hour historical drama.
JVL00:31:44Flash is a pretty big story. No, but I mean, we have both the highs and the lows, right? We have historical bombs and historical.
Sonny00:31:51Yeah, but I, I feel like I, I do think that flash is just. Part flash is just part of a different story about the, the state of the comic book box
Mike00:32:01office and like the worst of a, of a bigger store, the whole DC thing.
Sonny00:32:04I mean, like I will see what happens with blue beetle this weekend, but you know, blue beetle cost 140 million, something like that. And it's going to open to 25 million, $140 million.
JVL00:32:16Yeah, it's because of all the stars.
Sonny00:32:18It looks so George Lopez doesn't work for free and the effects. Um, but, uh, I know you, I knew that movie wasn't, I knew that movie was in trouble. The moment I started seeing all the stories about how this was a really important movie for Hispanic audiences, you know, to finally see themselves. And I was like, Oh shit, they're, they're, they are panicked about this movie.
JVL00:32:38This is a Hispanic audiences are a huge part of the box office. I don't think people realize how small white people are as a percentage of the total box office.
Sonny00:32:47No, it's true. This is a, so like Hispanic, so, but this is, this is why blue beetle bombing is like kind of even more impressive because. Hispanic audiences do over-index relative to their population. They're they generally show up three times what their actual population is. Yeah.
JVL00:33:03No, any given weekend, the top box office is like 40% white, 35%, uh, Hispanic, 35% African-American. Yeah. It's not quite, it's not, it depends on the movie.
Sonny00:33:17It depends on the movie. It's not, it's not quite, it's not quite like that, but like, uh, but it's, it's not, that's not too far off. And like, so like the, the funny thing about blue beetles is like, that it is probably going to get out grossed by like some of the last conjuring sequels, you know, which again, index very, uh, they, it over-indexes Hispanic very heavily. I'm just saying that like Hispanic audiences are not interested in the George Lopez, uh, starring a Hispanic superhero movie, but they are interested in evil nuns. You know, the nun to probably going to outgross, uh, blue beetle, at least in the opening weekend.
JVL00:33:54So, oh,
Sonny00:33:55well, anyway, again, that's all that's, but that is, that is as with the flash, this is part of a broader, uh, problem with, you know, DC and Warner brothers and the state of comic book movies in general, so, well, speaking of white
Mike00:34:11people not going to the theater, the three of us did not go this week for this week's movie, we stayed home and watched this Netflix documentary. Uh, Arnold Sonny, do we need to do a big boy review or just explain what Arnold, the Netflix documentary Arnold is Arnold.
Sonny00:34:31This is a Netflix three part Netflix. I don't even, I, this isn't a documentary. This is pure hagiography and I love propaganda. I loved every second of it. Here's the thing, the thing about Arnold Schwarzenegger, and I do, I believe, I believe this very firmly. This is a thing I hold. I hold true. Arnold Schwarzenegger is the living embodiment of the American ideal and dream. Like I'm not saying he's the. Living American or anything like that. I'm not, I, you know, he has his issues. That's George W.
JVL00:35:00Bush.
Sonny00:35:00Well, George W. Bush obviously is the greatest living American, uh, uh, you know, but, but, but that's, or maybe Zack Snyder, but one of the two, the, the, it's neither here nor there, the, the, but the, uh, but like Arnold Schwarzenegger is literally the embodiment of the American dream. And this, and this documentary is essentially, uh, a, a three part look at the, the various angles of this. I mean, look, he's, he's an immigrant. Who comes to America and through, uh, like just sheer will and hard luck or hard work and a little bit of luck, um, and also some wise real estate investments, he becomes an extremely wealthy person. He's, he just, he, he becomes extremely wealthy, successful.
JVL00:35:43Marries a fucking Kennedy.
Sonny00:35:45Marries. He marries him to the Kennedy clan. He literally, he marries American royalty. Um, he becomes the most, uh, most famous person on the planet. The biggest movie star on the planet. He's the most. Successful actor of his generation. Um, uh, he is, uh, then becomes governor of the biggest state in the, you know, the sixth biggest economy in the world, the biggest state in America. Um, you know, uh, and, uh, and, you know, runs, runs, uh, that state for a while. And, and now he like has retired to his Blatial estates, plural in California and
Mike00:36:21Austin, Utah, Utah, everywhere.
Sonny00:36:24I mean, he's, he's all over the place. Um, with his, uh, with his like little miniature donkey, you know,
JVL00:36:30we all agree with him and that, but for the provision of the constitution, it is a hundred percent certainty that he would have become president.
Sonny00:36:38I think it is very likely. I don't know. Hey, one thing, this one thing, this documentary glosses over, it doesn't really get into how angry the GOP was with Arnold when he left like this, this
JVL00:36:49documentary 2000 and 2004, I mean, man, I was at. At those conventions and the reception that he got and he was where the Republican party was at that moment. Totally. And if, and if not no more, if he clearly is no longer Republican, but if he had
Mike00:37:06been into, if he had been able to run for president in 2008, I think his governor, his governorship would have been different and he would have been working more toward, toward appealing to the Republican base, so he could be the Republican nominee in 2008 and he would have been the Republican nominee and he probably would have won.
Sonny00:37:25Yeah. I mean, I think that's, I think that's all. I don't know. Arnold Schwarzenegger versus Barack Obama is an interesting counterfactual history.
JVL00:37:32I don't imagine that.
Sonny00:37:35I don't know. I don't know that Obama would have run, honestly. I feel like if you, if you look at, if you look at, I think you end up with, you end up, or Obama might not have run, it would have been Hillary versus Arnold Schwarzenegger and it w that would have been, he would have won 45 states.
Mike00:37:52Um, no realigning elections. Totally, totally. So, so much would have been different.
Sonny00:37:57Yeah. Uh, anyway, uh, so, so this documentary is three parts. First part is basically his life in Austria, then his bodybuilding, uh, in, in Europe and in America. Um, second part is a very cursory look at his, uh, movie career, frankly, the most disappointing part of the documentary, but that's because again, it's like they have, they have a 15 year stretch to cover and there are so many different avenues that you could tack there, there are like 16 different ways to tell the story of Arnold's, uh, rise to rise to prominence. And like, because this is just a movie about how great he is, they, they don't really touch on any of them. Um, and then it's, and then it's kind of his personal life running for the running for a governor, his political life and, you know, very gingerly touching on how his family kind of fell apart or at least how his relationship with Maria Schreiber ended. Um, and, and then it's, it's just now he's, he's, he's looking back on it all from his, uh, Sun Valley, Sun Valley, uh, mansion.
JVL00:39:00Can we agree that the best part of this is the first one? Like, if you don't want to sit for three hours, just watch the first episode, which is about the, you know, him through age 27, basically. Right.
Sonny00:39:13So if you, I, like, I knew you don't need any of the rest of it. I knew, I knew a lot of this stuff, you know, because I, like, again, I just, you know, I, I, I consider Arnold to be an extremely interesting, uh, person worth, worth knowing about. But, uh, but if you've seen, if you've seen pumping iron, I don't know if you guys have watched pumping iron, the documentary is never saw it. So it's, it's actually, it's amazing. It's kind of amazing. Uh, and it's just this, it's this, you, if you, if you go back and watch it, you will see why he became as enormous as, uh, of a success as he is. And I say this, I say this with due respect and admiration, but he's like 80% sociopath. He's like, just, he's like, just, um, uh, just that a social enough to like, understand exactly how to undermine the people around him. He needs to undermine to get where he is. Um, but he does it at the same time in a way that like everybody loves him for it, which is, which is a, which is a really, I mean, it's a fascinating personality trait. He is, he is magnetic in a way that a lot of that it's, that it, that very few people are.
JVL00:40:22Think about him as the, the, the, the lawful good version of Vince McMahon, right? Where Vince McMahon is able to see his way to power and everybody hates him.
Mike00:40:35Right.
JVL00:40:37Arnold is, is able to do that. And in such a way that everybody winds up loving him. That's right.
Sonny00:40:42So what, what does that make Vince McMahon? Is he like chaotic evil?
JVL00:40:47I think so. Maybe I'd have to think, but no, he'd probably lawful evil. He's lawfully lawful evil. Yeah.
Sonny00:40:52Um, maybe. Yeah. Anyway. No, but he's not lawful evil though, because he's, oh, anyway, it doesn't matter. We're distracted. Uh, the, uh, the, the documentary again, it's so cursory. It's, it's only three hours. Uh, and each section of his life could easily be easily supported two and a half hour, um, documentary on, on its own. Uh, as JBL says, the, the opening hour is the most interesting. Um, the second hour is kind of the most cursory and disappointing. Um, but again, it, there's not much to say other than like. He becomes the biggest movie star in the world. And that's, that's all we're talking about here. The third part is interesting too, uh, because I had forgot, I, it was, it was so funny watching this because there's a moment where they talk about him being him touring the world, going to Iraq to talk about Terminator three. And I just had to like, I had to like reset my mind and be like, oh yeah, Terminator three came out at roughly the same time that the invasion of Iraq occurred. Like that was machines. That was like, that was, uh, that those two things were happening at the same time. And I was just trying to play like in my own head. That's I, it's, I don't know. It's 20 years ago now. I mean, it's, it's half my life ago. And I was trying to, I was like, at the time I was an intern at radio America, uh, doing a, doing a, I like that summer, that summer I went to the Czech Republic with, uh, Sarah Longwell and the collegiate network folks that, and I saw, I literally saw. Uh, Terminator three, like the day I got back from Prague, I went with my dad to go see it and I was exhausted and miserable, like probably still kind of drunk. Uh, and just, I hate it. I did not enjoy the movie cause I saw it in, in the wrong mind mindset.
Mike00:42:41Um, but, uh, the wrong aspect ratio was like, well, it was probably the wrong aspect.
Sonny00:42:45I don't know. I don't know. I was, again, I was very out of it at that. It was not, it was not an ideal circumstance. Um, but, uh, but no, it's like, it's just weird. A like, and like, I, I, I can trade, I can peg other like weird cinematic milestones of my life to Arnold's career. Like I remember seeing kindergarten cop in, uh, on like a cruise ship in, in, uh, you know, uh, going, uh, going to Sweden or something, you know, I, like, I remember, uh, last action hero. I had a, we had a birthday party for me to go see last action hero. That was like what we did. Um, because. Jurassic park, too scary, Jurassic park, too scary. Last action hero. Okay. I'm, I'm still not entirely sure how my parents were that went out mentally, but, uh, but, uh, but man, I like, uh, you know, uh, he is, he is one of the, um, key signature American folk heroes of, uh, the 20th century. He's just a fascinating figure. And, uh, again, I, I could use, I would watch a documentary that gets into like some of the more nitty gritty, um, some of the, some of the, you know, um, some of the, some of the more troubling aspects of Arnold's character, uh, but this, for what it is, this is, uh, this is deeply entertaining and I, I, I just enjoy like watching him talk. I could watch him talk for hours on end.
JVL00:44:16Hmm. JVL. I watched it on 1.5 speed and it was still a little slow. Um, I mean, I, uh, I mean, quad documentary, this is a, if, if I said to you, could you make Arnold Schwarzenegger's life boring? I mean, you could try, but the subject matter is like, so, you know, it's like, can you shoot Marilyn Monroe ugly? I guess you could take a picture of her and it makes her look ugly. Uh, after the, after the, the bodybuilding episode. I think it, it, the drag becomes way too much and the bodybuilding stuff is fascinating, but I mean so much, I don't know, like, you know, he's, he's talking about right. His home life and how he's a World War II baby and how, you know, like all these, these guys are coming home and they were all depressed because they had lost like, yeah, because they were the bad guys, right with the baddies. And he, uh, you know, like he wanted to just get out and get out and get to America because the Americans were the winners, right? And this is when you say an American success story, there is, you know, people say only in America and what they mean is upward mobility and that America has both the capacity for upward mobility and the immense machinery to find people with very, very niche talents and. Make them viable commercial products, right? Like Richard Simmons can only happen in America at the scale that he did, right? You can have a Japanese Richard Simmons. You can have a Ukrainian Richard Simmons or Brazilian Richard Simmons, but that person can't blow up to the size of the actual American version of Richard Simmons. And only in America can this is look, but Barack Obama is this.
Mike00:46:24But it's Arnold Schwarzenegger is this right? It's also the remaking, right? It's the it's the reinvention of yourself because I think of what you just described. I think of like Oprah Winfrey is a perfect example to like she who's in the wedding. Did you?
JVL00:46:37She's in the way that they show the Oprah Winfrey is doing a reading at the wedding of Arnold Schwarzenegger to the three again, like this, this steroid head muscle head from Austria whose dad lost World War Two with the American royalty within. Like Oprah do it. Everything is. It's crazy. It's only in America. Only in America.
Mike00:47:00Only in America.
JVL00:47:01Yeah. Did you guys remember Maria Shriver being as dishy as she was? Because I only ever remember Maria Shriver as like, you know, like whatever, like, you know, you're talking about the younger, young, young, like when the Maria Shriver who went to court and with Arnold who smoke show, yeah, yeah, I don't know. I agree. It I would say that very quickly about the bodybuilding. Two things that struck me the the the sixties and seventies were just a magical time. I guess a time when incredibly large dudes could go into a forest by a lake and just get all naked and work out with each other over and over and over and over and over again for hours on end and oil each other up and watch each other while they're. And it wasn't gay. That's amazing. Which is a thing, by the way, that happens in Austria, right? Arnold is. We are.
Sonny00:48:04He has his workout. But then it's a thing that happens in America. They just instead of in the forest, it's Venice Beach, right?
JVL00:48:08Well, in Venice Beach, you're doing it as performance in the forest. They're just alone together. I mean, it's like being in the Roman, you know, Greco-Roman gymnasium. I've never seen Gladiator movie scraps. And this young they're in there. The the weirdness of it and the guys like the middle aged men who come to watch the bodybuilders. I couldn't so much, but it's like a Tobias Funke vibe to the whole thing, like, oh, boy, Michael, girl. My wow. What is just weird as shit?
Mike00:48:52Can I say I? I had a similar thing. I thought it was more that the whole thing was like grotesque to me, like the the things that their bodies are, you know, like Arnold talks a lot about the documentary about, you know, have this perfect body. You know, I was making my body even more perfect. And it's like, is it, though? Because it looks it looks disgusting and grotesque to, you know, it's like like muscles on muscle
Sonny00:49:19like I hate someone hates excellence over here.
Mike00:49:24But like I was thinking more, actually, the aside on steroids was fascinating.
JVL00:49:30Yeah. And of course, I was using a lot of steroids at the time. Right. Right. Everybody.
Mike00:49:37Everybody was doing it. The important thing was that was was was that it was sparing, you know, it was discipline.
JVL00:49:42It was only every four months, five percent, you know, maybe five percent of what I have was.
Mike00:49:47Yeah. I want to quantify that. No, I was thinking of when they're in when he's in America and. They're like interviewing the people. Maybe this is in pumping iron. They're interviewing the people who are coming to see Kim Arnold in like I think it's in something with me. It's a Whitney in New York. Yeah. Yes. And it's like it's and they're like talking to like, you know, like art society women outside. They're like, I don't know what I'm going to see in here. And it's like, it's so bizarre and the freak show.
JVL00:50:16It's a it's a it's a free side. So thing. But they classed it up and it's it's fascinating.
Mike00:50:24In that way. Yes. So, yeah. So a couple thoughts. One, I did not like this as much as you did, Sonny, and maybe it was the second two hours like the diminishing returns soured it for me. It became increasingly clear that this was pro Arnold propaganda that it was always clear, but it was like it was like so on the nose that it just turned me off. The political stuff I thought was so. Breezy it like breezed over all of this stuff, it it really glossed over the fact that actually Arnold didn't know what the fuck he was doing when he was like, especially at the beginning as governor. Right. Like, you know, he sort of says, you know, I am so impatient and that's why it's like, no, he actually when that I was at the Democratic State Senate president or whoever, is that that great footage where they're like where he's like yelling at Arnold in in the state house or something? And he's like, he's like, thanks a lot because you fucked my bill. And like, that's like real politics and like Arnold is kind of like, like, ha ha ha, you know, and it's like, actually, he just like he really didn't get it. And I thought they kind of glossed over that. I get it.
Sonny00:51:35It's it's. Yeah, I mean, I would watch I would watch a 90 minute one on one interview with Mike Murphy about. Totally. Yes.
Mike00:51:44Oh, it's great to see Mike pop up.
Sonny00:51:45I was like, oh, hey, look, it's just like, let's get let's get 90 minutes with Mike Murphy here talking about what he thought about Arnold and his campaign.
Mike00:51:51But I thought there was too much Arnold, you know, like they're like he. He was so dominant in it that I felt. Yes, tell his own story. Yeah, exactly. I mentioned the thing about the grotesque bodybuilding that I agree the movie section was so it was weird what they left out and maybe we'll get into this in the bonus episode, but you know, no mention of Kindergarten Cop, basically. There's no mention of Total Recall, no mention of Jingle All the Way. Like he mentions certain flops, but not others. He mentions certain hits, but not others. I just thought that was kind of it. And then did you guys, maybe I'm just cynical or maybe I'm not cynical enough, but the ending of every episode and particularly the ending of the last one, after you hear about his family falling apart, Arnold's in these giant houses that he owns and he's all alone. He looks very lonely. He looks miserable. Running around with his little animals. I felt, I can't believe I'm saying this, I felt sorry for him and not in a look at that pathetic guy, but I generally, because I love Arnold Schwarzenegger and I felt like this is a lonely, broken man who achieved excellence.
JVL00:53:15King Lear sitting on a throne in an empty castle.
Mike00:53:18And it made me sad. It made me very sad. I'm glad you guys saw the same thing.
JVL00:53:23I don't want to end on a sad note, so I want, I would like to share a story that I don't know if either of you will remember because it may, were either of you at the standard when he was running for governor?
Sonny00:53:36No.
JVL00:53:37No. Okay. So, uh, he announces he's running for governor and of course, what do we do with the weekly standard? Yes. Yes. We sent Matt lay bash out today to do a hangout piece with Arnold and because we have the ends with. Mike Murphy were able to get him right on in and Matt flies from, uh, flies from DC to LA and I believe in, in the telling of the story goes directly from his commercial flight over to the private terminal and gets on Arnold's plane with him. And you know, he's, he's come from DC, so he's got like a coat and stuff. And, uh, Arnold is sitting at a conference table in the plane, reading the paper and one of the, the functionaries says, you know, can I take your coat? And Matt says, no, I'm fine. I'm good.
Mike00:54:30And Arnold, without looking up goes, that's because he's ashamed of his body.
JVL00:54:35He doesn't want us to see that he's a little flabby girly man.
Mike00:54:43So great. Even when he's cutting you down, you'll love him. That's this. That's the, that's the Arnold charm. That's it.
Sonny00:54:52This is what I'm talking about. This is what. I'm sorry. Like 80% sociopath. Yes. But just charming enough that like, nobody holds it against him.
Mike00:54:59Nobody, nobody, nobody, you know, if he said it in an American accent, he would just be an asshole. It's so much of it is the Austrian accent, the funny way he talks, but also there's the self-awareness, right?
JVL00:55:11There's the, he's so in on the joke that it's like Arnold doing Hans and Franz from Saturday Night Live doing Arnold. And he knows that his bit is like a. Yeah, it's a, it's just a fascinating, fascinating guy and only in America.
Mike00:55:35All right. So, uh, any other thoughts on Arnold, uh, before we, uh, we wrap things up? Sonny?
?00:55:44Nothing?
Sonny00:55:44No, no. I mean, I, again, I like, I don't think you guys are wrong that the, especially the last two hours are kind of like, uh, get, let's like it. It, the, again, the problem, you're, you're looking at 20 years of the guy's life. You got to cover in, uh, in an hour and you listed, you listed three movies and the one I was most interested in was Jingle All The Way. Like there, how much time should they spend on Jingle All The Way on an episode like this? Like, but, but you, but you see what I mean? Like, it's not, it's not like, it's not like I, I, I can, I, this is what I, when I say that there are like 15 different ways you could look at Arnold, this is what I'm talking about. Like you could look at his, the rise of Arnold as like. The defining muscle man, action hero of that generation. You could look at him as the guy who was able to understand that to become the true global superstar, he had to appeal to women and to appeal to women. He had to do comedies. He had to make twins and kindergarten cop, or you could look at, uh, the sequel, man, you could look at him as, uh, teaming up with Bruce Willis and, and, um, uh, sliced alone on, uh, the, the restaurant on, you know, I like. I mean, like there, there are like so many different ways. And then you could look at the fall of all this, right? You look at starting with last action hero and how that, that whole era comes to an end and how he is still able to kind of make it work for a period of time. And frankly, one of the reasons he ran for governor was because it was like, all right, my time as a movie star is at an end. Like his, his, his reign was over and it was like, okay, what's the next thing?
JVL00:57:19And again, so like, again, there, I, I, I totally agree with you guys that this is
Sonny00:57:23cursory and hagiographic. And I, as somebody who likes a good hagiography of somebody I like, I'm, I'm okay with that. Yeah. But like it, you know, I, that, that the, the business, the business angle of, of Arnold Schwarzenegger would be a fascinating, like two and a half hour documentary all on its own. I mean, this is one of the reasons why I'm sorry, I'm rambling here, but this is one of the reasons why Edward J. Epstein's book on Hollywood business is so interesting because he got a hold of Arnold's contract. Yeah. His books. Um, I forget what the, the, I think it's called the big picture. Yep. Um, uh, but he got a hold of one of Arnold's contracts and like a large portion of his kind of construction of helping people understand how the industry works was just like breaking down dollar by dollar what Arnold was getting paid for. And it's fascinating. I mean, he was, he was one of the first guys to take, uh, you know, big first dollar grosses. He was one of the first guys to, you know, insist on, um, uh,
JVL00:58:27a lot like Michael Jordan's mother in that way.
Sonny00:58:30Yes. Very much.
JVL00:58:32Uh, I, I would say these movies, these movies, these episodes are not packed to the gills. I mean, Sonny, I would say that they could have found time to do kindergarten top because this thing moves so slowly. Like they just aren't propulsive enough. And there, there's a lot. There's a lot of dead space in them.
Sonny00:58:51It's also just weird that they have, they have their, they have interviews with Lyndall Hamilton and Danny DeVito and James Cameron and Ivan Reitman, RIP. Yeah. Uh, and they just, they, they have them say the most cursory thing. Yes. Imagine the most surface level. It's, it's like, there's not an interest. It's not like James Cameron is telling an interesting story from the set of true lies or anything. It's just like Arnold is, and then he ran for governor and we were like, yeah, Jamie
Mike00:59:19is running for governor. Jamie Lee Curtis. Let me have my name above the line. Yeah. Yeah. No. My favorite was from the third one where she's like, where they're going through all of his friends from, from Hollywood and they're like reacting to him running for governor. And Jamie Lee Curtis is like, I heard it. And I thought, yeah, well, that was a wonderful insight.
Sonny00:59:41That was also very funny though, because if you, I think if you're reading between the lines, when you're looking at Linda Hamilton and Danny DeVito and James Cameron's reaction to him. They're all kind of like, he's running as a Republican.
Mike00:59:53Yeah.
Sonny00:59:54And Jamie Lee Curtis is just like, yeah, he's going to win.
?00:59:56Yeah.
Mike00:59:57That's right.
Sonny00:59:57Yeah. He's going to, he's going to win. He's going to win. It was, it was, it was, it was just, it was very interesting. Again, like I feel like I may be, maybe I'm reading too much into it, but I did feel like there was a very specific thing going on there.
Mike01:00:09The last thing I'll say is that in terms of what a documentary, a really good documentary could be, there was a shade of it when Everett was talking about his father and his relationship with his family. Um, and it felt like there were these moments that were, where things might even break through where there's actually some real Arnold coming through and then he like gets, gets out of it real quick. But just like the, the descriptions of his parents growing up with them, the mother scrubbing the floors, you know, the things about his brother, um, and his, like, I was like, like get, get me into that. Like, I want to watch a bunch of stuff about Arnold's. This, this bizarre man who had to escape this family. What is that family really like?
JVL01:00:56And there's, I want to know about the Miami photographer who all he does is take pictures of male bodybuilders. That is just catch that. Like is this little five foot two middle-aged man who lives in Miami and he is, oh, he just loves taking pictures and you know, you need to go down to the gym with the boys and they
Mike01:01:15get into that JVL. I'd like to know what that's all about.
JVL01:01:18I'd like to know what that's all about. Well, I can, after the show's over, I'll give me about 10 seconds. I'll explain what it's all about.
Mike01:01:25All right. I think that's all the time we're given this episode. Check us out at subbeacon.com and we'll see you next time.
Sonny01:01:38We're going to do an Arnold draft, right? We're going to pick Arnold. You know,
JVL01:01:42the documentary sadly does not include one of Arnold's greatest witticisms, which is when he notes that he used to make films with Jim Cameron back during his art house period. I love that. Which Arnold is very, very clever.
?01:02:02He's funny.
JVL01:02:03He's funny.
Mike01:02:05He's just a funny guy.
Sonny01:02:07There was a speaking of true lies and Cameron and Arnold. There was a there was a funny story that was I've seen I'd seen before, but was going around Twitter again this week. But it was because it was James Cameron's birthday this week. And and somebody was like, let's, let's all remember the time that James Cameron out. It was ninety five or ninety six. He had, you know, he was he was celebrating his 50th birthday or something and was like, I'm going to go see Stanley Kubrick. That's what I'm going to do, because, you know, we've been pen pals and, you know, it's it's. And so he's Stanley. He goes to Stanley Kubrick's house and Stanley invites him. And he's like, come in, James, come in. Let's go. Let's go downstairs. Let's go downstairs into my basement where he pulls out a print of true lies. Stanley Kubrick pulls out a print that he has of true lies. He spools it in and he starts going through the movie and he says, Jim, how did you do this? How did you do this special effect here? What? How did you get this shot on the bridge where you're blowing it up? And James like, well, you know, we had we we did this scene. We did that. We did this shot and this effect. And and then and Stanley would like not be like, how did you do this? It's just like through the whole movie. Like a shot by shot breakdown of true lies, which is I like the thing. The thing I don't think people really appreciate about Stanley Kubrick is that he was a true fan of genre. Like you just have to look at his his his filmography. He made a horror movie. He made comedies. He made action movies. He made war movies like he is. He he really likes genre filmmaking costume dramas. I like it's it's just like it's it. But but he was. He was a he was a real student of true lies, which is great because true lies is one of the great underrated action films in the 90s.
Mike01:03:57So yeah, it's no eraser, though.
Sonny01:04:00I'm sure it's fine.
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