#206. 'Strays'
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Strays — the R-rated animated comedy in which Will Ferrell and Jamie Foxx voice foul-mouthed dogs helping an abused pup named Reggie exact revenge on his abusive owner Doug (Will Forte) by biting off his genitals — earns real warmth from all three hosts despite a dismal $8 million opening at number five. Sonny calls it consistently funny and praises Will Forte's performance as genuinely brave for playing someone simultaneously monstrous and pathetic enough to deserve castration, though he wishes he hadn't seen the trailer so many times beforehand at the Drafthouse; JVL, who says he generally dislikes talking-animal movies, is won over by a Lord and Miller production sensibility that keeps pushing jokes two or three steps further than expected, citing the carnival-set "serial killer dog" bit and the "God is smiting us" fireworks gag as highlights, with his lone complaint being that constant background cursing occasionally dulls the impact of jokes built around cursing; Mike agrees, comparing the film favorably to Cocaine Bear as a movie actually made by people who understand jokes, and singles out the "devil in the sky" postal-truck billboard payoff as a favorite bit. The box-office talk turns into a broader lament for the dying theatrical R-rated comedy — Jennifer Lawrence's No Hard Feelings, Joy Ride, and The Blackening all underperformed too — with theories ranging from the actors' strike keeping Ferrell and Foxx off the press circuit (complicated by Foxx's ongoing health crisis), to younger audiences' discomfort with on-screen nudity, to VOD quietly becoming these movies' real home. The long opening banter covers Sonny teaching his eight-year-old daughter chess (she got hooked via a chess episode of Bluey, not — as JVL joked — an Anya Taylor-Joy-inspired Queen's Gambit phase) and buying her a cheap Amazon chessboard over JVL's objections; JVL's friend Luke, who moonlights hustling chess games in the park; Mike's three fruitless hours trying to unclog his home's HVAC condensate line himself before conceding he needs a professional, plus a side project rehanging a pantry door; and a shared lament over Shohei Ohtani's season-ending UCL injury alongside enthusiasm for the just-released Zack Snyder Rebel Moon trailer.
From the show notes
Pictured: Sonny's dog wearing Strays swag. (SB: "It's fine because I paid for it. The swag, not the dog. I stole the dog.")
Full transcript
Guest00:00:00Hi there big dogs. I'm trying to get home. I know which way that is. Oh great. Right up my **** ass you little ****. Oh no that can't be right. This is Will Ferrell. I'm lost. You're a stray man. You can do anything you want. This beer doesn't taste good but I like how it's making me feel. This is Jamie Foxx. I recently **** this couch. Best sex of my life. Wow. Yeah she dirty too. Oh well I can tell. Looks like she hasn't been washed in years. I'll see you later baby.
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 can do anything they want. Jonathan V. Last and Sonny Bunch. You can find us at Sub-Beacon.com where you can get first access to every episode of the show every Friday. Plus exclusive access to bonus episodes. Welcome to the Sub-Beacon Podcast. I'm your co-host Michael Warren. You can get first access to every episode of the show every Friday. Plus exclusive access to bonus episodes.
?00:00:59Welcome to the Sub-Beacon Podcast. I'm your co-host Michael Warren. You can get first access to every episode of the show every Friday. Plus exclusive access to bonus episodes. Welcome to the Sub-Beacon Podcast. I'm your co-host Michael Warren. You can get first access to every episode of the show every Friday. Plus exclusive access to bonus episodes.
Mike00:00:59Welcome to the Sub-Beacon Podcast. I'm your co-host Michael Warren. You can get first access to every episode of the show every Friday. Plus exclusive access to bonus episodes. But first, before we get into it, how's everybody doing? Sonny, what's going on with you there in the dark?
Sonny00:01:37Not a whole lot. Yeah, I'm trying to conserve coolness in this office and having as few lights on as possible makes it cooler.
Mike00:01:45Is it hot in Texas?
Sonny00:01:47It's been hot for like five straight months now. It's been, it's so hot. I can't, I can't deal with it anymore. Anyway, I'm good. Fun, fun little thing going on in my house. Is that my eight year old daughter has decided she likes to play chess, which has been, has been very, I've been trying to teach her things. But the problem is I'm not very good at chess. I mean, I'm good enough to beat the pants off. I just destroy her every time we play. Like it's not, it's not even close. She frequently doesn't even get a major piece of mine off the board. But that the, the, the, the problem is I'm not good enough to teach her how to like strategize. So I'm just like, I'm just winning. And I am like trying to, I'm trying to show her like, all right, you got to think like two or three smooths ahead here. You want to go here. So I do this. And it just kind of washes over her because I'm very bad at explaining it. It's not like checkers. We, we have also started playing checkers and she doesn't like checkers. She says it's too hard. It's harder than chess. And I'm like, first off, that's insane. That's an insane thing to say. You're a crazy person child who is eight years old. Get your, get your shit together. But, but. The, the, the thing about checkers is that I actually understand the theory of checkers. I understand checker strategy. I like know how to move pieces on the board to do things I want to do to further my goals. And I can teach her that. And I show her, and she's actually getting better at checkers. She can, you know, it's, it's, uh, we stay basically even until, you know, I don't know, the midway point. And then I, then I really start taking over.
JVL00:03:29There are, I, I chess for kids.
Sonny00:03:32Yeah, but I understand, I understand that there's a billion books out there that, but I'm not just going to buy some random thing on Amazon and give it to her. I have asked, I've asked a friend, a mutual friend of ours for a piece of advice.
JVL00:03:46That's how I conduct all of my parenting. That's well, I mean, I, a child has a problem. Let's go to Amazon and see if Lord Bezos can.
Sonny00:03:52No, no. I mean, this is eventually how I'm going to solve it, but I'm asking for an actual opinion of somebody who is, uh, who, who has been in the chess world for a long time for a like specific recommendation. I don't want to, I'm just not, I'm not just going to Google kids chess books and take the first sponsored result.
JVL00:04:09You know, it's because you're worried that that will stop her from becoming a grandmaster 15 years down the line.
Sonny00:04:15I just don't want to waste $5. It's good enough.
Mike00:04:17I don't want to wait 15 years down, 15 years down the line. It's a little late actually to becoming a, I know.
Sonny00:04:22Well, this is the problem is that she's already, she's already well past the age that she should be in professional competition. So I'm not expecting great things behind.
JVL00:04:29You should tell her she shouldn't even bother trying because it's too late for her.
Sonny00:04:33I just, I don't, I just don't want.
JVL00:04:34Sweetheart, I'm sorry, but you're not, if you weren't good by age eight, you can't get good.
Sonny00:04:39Yeah. I mean, I've, I've considered telling her this on several occasions.
Mike00:04:43Maybe you could do backgammon.
Sonny00:04:45But the funny. No. Boggle. Boggle. Boggle. Boggle's pretty great. We don't, I don't think we have a boggle set. We have a Yahtzee set. We do play Yahtzee sometimes. Yahtzee's fun. I love Yahtzee. I love Yahtzee. I love Yahtzee.
Mike00:04:58So, but Sonny, we do. We do have an actual, um, teach chess to your kids game, which starts off and she might be a little old for this, but it's like, it starts off with, you don't, you don't make any decisions. You just draw cards and then move the pieces and it gets you to think about, it gets you to think about like what could, what could be done with the pieces. You sort of like.
Sonny00:05:25She knows how to move the piece. This is the thing is that she knows the basics. She knows how to move all the pieces. Right. Right. She understands, you know, kind of she's, she's supposed to, she's yeah. Like she understands the very basic stuff. It's just like, she doesn't understand. She doesn't understand like thinking, thinking a move ahead, literally just one move ahead. She, she did something and I was like, all right, I'm going to let you do that. She was like, no, I, and immediately took it back. And I was like, no, no, I'm going to show you why I'm just going to show you what happens here. You got it. Why you need to think about.
JVL00:05:55And then you didn't tell her, Oh no, you took your hand off the piece. Sorry. Boom. You lose your.
Sonny00:05:59Well, I did, I did tell her that she has to stop touching all of the pieces on the board as she is making her moves. I was like, look, technically when you touch a piece, you're supposed to then have to move that piece. And we're not going to play that way unless you keep touching every piece on the board. Then I'm going to enforce this rule because it's driving me crazy. It's driving me crazy that you're doing this. She wish, I mean, literally we'll just like take a pawn and like kind of move it in a circle and then move over to her queen and like rocket back and forth. I'm just like, stop. You got to stop that driving me crazy. So anyway. But that's, that's been fun. It's been, it's fun to try and teach her things that she wants. She's excited. Do you know, do you know how she got into chess? This is a, this is a fun little, this is where at least it was amusing.
JVL00:06:42She was watching the Queen's Gambit. No. And she thought that Anya Taylor-Joy, that's, she's something else. I want to be like her.
Sonny00:06:50Wow. That's what all girls should be thinking about Anya Taylor-Joy. She's something else. I want to be like her. But no, that's not, that's not, it's from the, you guys. Mike, you're a Bluey fan, yeah?
Mike00:07:02Oh yeah, that's right.
Sonny00:07:02There is a chess episode of Bluey where the dad tries to teach.
Mike00:07:06Correct. It is just like, I was just thinking of this. This is like what you're going through right now.
Sonny00:07:11No, but, no, but, no, but see, but like, it's very funny because she watched that episode and that's how she learned how to move the pieces. She like absorbed all the lessons that that superior father was teaching to, to, to his child and was like, I want to do that. And then I just kind of like, look over. I'm like, you want to play chess?
Guest00:07:28All right.
Sonny00:07:29We can do that. I guess we can do that. I, speaking of Amazon, this is a, we, we, she said, I want to play chess. And like, we had a chess board 24 hours later. Cause I just bought it right on Amazon. I got a $20 chess board.
JVL00:07:41You didn't ask your chess friend, which board is best?
Sonny00:07:43Well, no, because a chess board is a board. It's just chess.
JVL00:07:47How is she ever supposed to advance with a subpar chess board?
Sonny00:07:51I mean, it really, it is kind of, I'm like, I'm not going to let her take that out into the world or anything. And it would be embarrassing if she was walking around with this $20 chess board. I'm going to like get a, you know, a nice proper travel set, golden lay and whatnot
JVL00:08:05for to go out to the park and sit down with the old men and play for money.
Sonny00:08:09Exactly. She'll, she'll do the thing where she goes, she'll go from like table to table. So play like five tables at once and lose all of them in five minutes. It'll be great. Right.
JVL00:08:17I, uh, I've got a regular correspondent, uh, Luke who lives up in, in the city, who is a guy who is a, he teaches in a middle school and then on the side, he hustles chess. In the park. And those are his two income streams. He likes to hustle chess.
Mike00:08:34How, how does, how does chess hustling work? I mean, you, what you do is you just, is you just, you're just betting and running around to each of these tables. Like what, what, what exactly are you doing when you hustle?
JVL00:08:46Uh, you show up at a place where people play chess and, uh, you say, huh, sir, would you like to make this interesting? And you play for a hundred bucks a game or something like that.
Sonny00:08:56So it's just like billiards.
JVL00:08:57Yeah. Got it. Yeah. Okay.
Mike00:09:00All right.
Sonny00:09:01Why would anybody, if I was a, if I was a random person playing chess in a park and somebody came up to me and asked, would you like to play me in chess for a hundred dollars? I would say no. Every single time. Like, no, of course not. This is the dumbest idea I've ever heard. I don't know you, you could be a Gary Kasparov for all I know.
Mike00:09:19Totally. Well, yeah. I mean, the only person who is extending that offer is somebody who knows it's going to be an easy one hundred dollars.
Sonny00:09:25And this is like, once again, I just need to reiterate that I'm not good at chess. I like. I understand. Again, I can think like three moves ahead and that's about as far as it gets. I don't know any of the like standard opening gambits or anything. I like whenever we're playing, she moves. The Sicilian defense.
Mike00:09:41The Rui Lopez opening.
Sonny00:09:43She, she, she'll move like a random pawn out and then I will move an equally random pawn out. And like that, that's just how it starts. I like. Yeah.
Mike00:09:51The height, the height of my knowledge in this is like, I get really excited when I can do like a. Queens side castle. I'm like, I'm like, boom. Yeah. I just did that. And I remember showing my kids for the first time. They're like, how do you do that? I'm like, it's called a castle. It's for, it's for elevated players.
Sonny00:10:10I cast, I castle every game and it blows your mind every time. She's like, why do you, why do you keep doing that? I'm like, cause I can.
Mike00:10:19It's in the rules. All right. Well, uh, I don't know.
Sonny00:10:23I don't know what, I don't know what good it does to castle. I like, I don't know. I'm just like, I got my, I got my workout now. I don't know.
Mike00:10:29But yeah, yeah. It protects your, it protects your, uh, your king a little bit better. Uh, I guess. I don't know. All right. Well, uh, keep us posted JVL. What is going on in JVL's world?
JVL00:10:41Depressed. We are taping on Thursday, August 24th, and we have just suffered an American tragedy. A horrible, horrible, horrible thing happened on Wednesday, August 23, which points to nothing but American decline. And that is the, uh, injury of Shohei.
Mike00:10:59I knew you were going there. Oh, so sad.
JVL00:11:03So here's the, the weird thing. I think he has done enough to win the MVP anyway. Oh, absolutely. In fact, I don't think it's close. I think if you just take his numbers right now as they are, and it won't matter that he missed the final two months, two and a quarter months of the season, he's the MVP. I don't know if they'll give it to him. Uh, but we were seeing something that has. Never been done before and it's been taken from us and, oh, we didn't deserve it.
Mike00:11:37We didn't deserve it. Is the, is the real answer to that?
Sonny00:11:39Is he, is he, uh, is he out both, uh, on the pitching and the batting side?
JVL00:11:45Probably.
Mike00:11:46So it was interesting. The news coverage, the news coverage kept saying he won't pitch again, which left open the door for maybe for him de-aging or something.
JVL00:11:57So his arm is, so it's the UC. L about which I now know a whole lot because of flash. And, uh, so he had gone through Tommy John once and we, they believe now that there are micro tears in it and they're trying to figure out what they're going to do. Will they have to do a full Tommy John again or not? And if they do, then he'll miss all of 2024, right? We won't get him again until 2025. We will miss the, it'll be the, he'll miss the last year of his, uh, uh, rookie contract with the angels, right? Which means he'll hit free agency, not having played in a year and a half. Like every, everything about this is terrible. It's terrible for the world, for America, for baseball. Uh, it's really, I don't know, man. Can't we have one thing? Nice. Just one thing in this country. That's nice.
Sonny00:12:51We have, we, well, we do have the better superior rules now. That's nice. The baseball rules that speed up the game and make it more pleasant to watch that everyone
JVL00:12:59enjoys while you're watching baseball, while you're watching baseball, do you ever, when they, oh, I don't want a shot of the guys standing in the, you know, the, the second baseman standing next to second, when the runner's on second, you see them standing there. You just look, it looks like they're standing next to a fucking pizza box because the bases are so big now and it's ludicrous. It looks like a cartoon. It looks like some child went out and left one of their toys in the middle of the field instead of a normal base. But the game's so much better now.
Sonny00:13:32Everyone loves it more.
JVL00:13:33Yeah. You know what? Everybody loves a lot of things, Sonny.
Sonny00:13:36You know what I love?
Mike00:13:38What do you love, Sonny?
Sonny00:13:40Well, I was, I was going to say Zack Snyder. Did you guys see, did you guys see Zack Snyder movie? Did you guys see the Zack Snyder trail? I sent it to you. Did you watch it?
JVL00:13:49Yes, I watched it. Mike, what did you say?
Sonny00:13:52What's that? It's a Zack Snyder cut of some, the trailer, the trailer for, uh, for rebel moon.
JVL00:13:59I didn't watch that.
Sonny00:14:00So Zack Snyder, uh, of course was asked, he was asked to pitch a star Wars movie and came up with a whole thing and it was totally divorced from like the rest of the star Wars stuff. So of course, Kathleen Kennedy was like, I don't know what to do with this.
Mike00:14:13This doesn't have people I'd recognize, but he was asked to pitch it or did he ask to pitch?
Sonny00:14:21Oh, I, I have no, I mean, I, I think there was a, I think there was a general round of Lucasfilm hearing pitches from directors.
Mike00:14:28Got it. Okay.
Sonny00:14:29And like he was, he, that way he was part of that.
JVL00:14:31Uh, I thought we were getting a Snyder cut of like sucker punch or something.
Sonny00:14:35Well, there's a director's cut of sucker punch that has yet to be released. It's slightly different from the extended cut, which is currently available on the railed Blu-ray.
Mike00:14:44Uh, but the, but now the, uh, rebel mood, it looks, it looks like something I would want to watch, which was sort of amazing.
Sonny00:14:55It's like, it's like star Wars or Dune by way of 300. It looks amazing. That's what I said. It looks amazing.
Mike00:15:02That's exactly what I said. No, it's great. Uh, all right. Well, we'll seek, uh, anything else JVL? No. And if you want to press us with, okay.
JVL00:15:10Yeah, no, it's bad. It's bad. What are you up to, buddy? What's going on? Well, look, have you started fall ball?
Mike00:15:16No, fall ball hasn't started yet. It's, um, I think it's after labor day. Um, so we're just, we're just waiting. Uh, just one kid playing this fall. Um, Oh no. Yeah. Who's dropping out? The five-year-old. Um, he doesn't want to play this season.
JVL00:15:31Um, which he could come back.
Mike00:15:33Oh yeah. He could come back. And I think once, like one of his kit buddies from, from his T-ball team in the spring is in his kindergarten class. And so I bet that will bring him back in the spring, but like, like with everything, like he's so good. And so, so much more naturally talented at sports than anybody in our family, parents certainly included. And like, he has no interest in it and it. It just, it's like, drives me crazy. Um, no, no, but what I was going to say is I feel like this podcast, you guys have built me up into some kind of home improvement, maintenance guru, uh, a label yourself, a label that I never wanted and frankly don't deserve.
JVL00:16:23Um, you're practically Bob Vila.
Mike00:16:25I've spent, well, you'll, you may, you may not agree with that, uh, after. So I have spent the last two days trying to fix a problem with my, uh, with my AC with my HVAC system is not, it is not a Sonny Bunch level can't access it problem. Uh, but essentially the, uh, uh, condensate line is leaking and which means it's blocked. It means it's blocked and I've tried every which way. To unblock it without calling a, uh, an HVAC guy. Um, my theory is that the outflow of this, which, so, so the, the, the goes from the furnace down, uh, and there is a, so we have a, a built in humidifier that we run in the winter. There is a line that comes down through from the humidifier into a vertical pipe that goes in. It, you know, goes also into the same, uh, line that is, seems to be where the overflow is happening because it's essentially open. There's like a, a, a tube going down to it and it's open. Um, and then it goes into the slab in the basement and disappears. And I have no idea where it comes out. And so I assume that it is blocked somewhere in my backyard under some mulch or something, because I've never had to clean it. And I have no idea where it is. Uh, I have tried.
Sonny00:18:03The mulch king brought low by his own, his own treasure.
Mike00:18:07By his own.
Sonny00:18:08This is like, this is like the Hamburglar drowning in hamburgers that he has stolen from Ronald McDonald.
Mike00:18:14It is. It is. So yes, I do appreciate the irony of this situation, um, but I've tried everything. So I have tried to sneak that didn't work. Um, I have tried with my shot back vote, both blowing and sucking with the shotgun. Uh, and, uh, blowing and sucking, blowing and sucking. I tried to try jostling.
Sonny00:18:36Did you try jostling? Like maybe jerk jerking it a little bit, you know, around, you know, I didn't, I, I, I
Mike00:18:43didn't try that. I don't know if that would really, I mean, I might get the juices flowing maybe, maybe, but I just spit. I just figured, I just figured a professional would be needed here. Yes.
JVL00:18:59Roughly. Mm.
Mike00:19:01Roughly. Ballpark. You don't have to go to seven minute increments.
JVL00:19:04Oh, oh, okay. Okay. How much time would you say you have spent working this problem?
Mike00:19:09Uh, roughly, uh, three hours.
JVL00:19:14Okay. So, uh, you call yourself an HVAC guy. You're probably gonna get $120 service call easily. And then the problem will be gone in seven minutes.
Mike00:19:26Correct.
JVL00:19:27Is your time not worth more than $60? $60 an hour? Because I would think there's a man with a full-time job, two children, and a baby. Baby. No. Baby. Your time is considerably more valuable right now than $60 an hour. That won't always be true. Like five years from now, your time really might not be worth 60 bucks an hour.
Mike00:19:48But time is the thing you don't have. Yeah. But, but here's, here's what you're discounting here, which is maybe I get some enjoyment out of trying.
JVL00:19:58Maybe there's.
Mike00:19:59Cool.
JVL00:20:00Maybe there's something. It's like a masochism thing.
Mike00:20:02It's a kink. Hey, I get to go to home Depot and like get some new attachments for my shop vac. Uh, I get to go try to buy a new little smaller snake to push in there and try and get the,
JVL00:20:13how much money have you spent on stuff to solve the problem?
Mike00:20:15You know, figures are, people can throw around a number of figures. Um, it doesn't, here's the problem ties it out over the lifetime of the tool.
JVL00:20:25It's really pennies a day.
Sonny00:20:27Here's the problem. All right. So this, so when I had my, my HVAC issue, uh, there, the, the, the guy who came out to replace the, the water heater, the plumber, and this is one reason why I ended up going with these guys instead of the other guy, he was like, oh, your, your condensate is, uh, is leaking. It looks like it's backflowing. Um, right. You want me to fix that real quick? I was like, sure. He was like, okay. And so he went out to the back yard and he was like, do you have a, do you have like a air compressor? It's like, no, I don't have an air compressor. Do you have a shop vac? I was like, no, I don't have a shop vac. Uh, he was like, okay, hold on. Do you have a hose? Do you have a hose? I was, I was like, I was like, yeah, yeah, I got a hose. So he, he, he, he basically just shot the water up through the outtake, which pushed it, pushed it back up and got rid of the blockage and everything. Everything's been fine since. Um, but this leads me to my point, which is that if you don't know where the, the outside thing, you're never going to be able to fix it.
Mike00:21:27I know, but that's where a professional. Needs to come in. Right? Like that.
Sonny00:21:32This is my conclusion. No, but what, how is the professional going to know where it is?
Mike00:21:35If you don't know where it is, they just, because they're a professional, they know
JVL00:21:37how these things are installed. Exactly. The houses in this neighborhood, where those things were typically, so, so the, my, I guess
Sonny00:21:46my other question is, is it coming out of the actual concrete slab? Do you think somewhere like, why can't you find it is my question. I don't understand why you can't find it.
Mike00:21:56So because, so I, I have. I've been able to sort of eyeball where the, the, the angle of the line as it dives into the slab. Right. Right. So when they, when they built the house 50 plus years ago, they put the, the line in and they poured the slab over it and you can kind of see the direction that it's going. So the direction that it's going is toward the backyard. Um, the area on which the angle is pointing when it, when, when it leaves the slab is under some, um, mulched, uh, uh, uh, beds underneath some boxwoods. So by assumption is that when we like, when they were putting it all, like it's just covered, it's just the, the, the, the little PVC pipe or whatever is covered is, yeah, is, is buried underneath. Um, and so take up all that mulch.
JVL00:22:58Yeah, probably.
Mike00:22:59I don't know because the, here's the other thing because the outside, uh, like the outside unit is where you might typically expect to see it. Uh, and it is not at the outside unit and in fact, so the outside unit is when you're walking out of the basement on the left side of one of the doors and the angle of the condensate line puts it on the opposite side of the door on the right side. Of the door as you're walking out. So, um, I just think it's buried underneath there and just, just call the HVAC. Yeah. Well, here's the thing. I will call him and he can also do a, our, we, we do not a semi-annual, but you know, every couple of years we have them come and also look at the furnace, you know, before winter and, and do their inspection. So get all that done in one fell swoop. But I will say to close this out, sorry, Sonny, you had a question. No, no. I will say to close this out that my frustration and not be able to fix this, I took out on another part of my house that I was able to fix, which was the pantry door coming off the hinges. And it was actually because the hinge was loose on the door part, not on the jam part. And so I took the door off exposing our, our, our pantry. The entire cul-de-sac, but that's okay. And for a couple of days and I drilled some holes put some dowel pins in there, glued it in, waited a day, sawed off the pins, sanded it down, drilled in, drilled in and, and replaced it and put, put it all back up and question opens and closes fine and it's great.
Sonny00:24:55Yes. Sonny. Are they like accordion style? Doors? No.
Mike00:25:00You know the ones that like fold up or it's a real door. It's a real door. It's just on the hinge. Yeah. It just, I just, the, the, the screws hit.
JVL00:25:07That's very good.
Mike00:25:08Yeah. Yeah. Very good. It was, I've done it. I've done it in many, many doors in my house cause it's an old house, original doors. Like I've had to replace the hinges and several of them and it's just, um, it sucks, but Shannon
JVL00:25:21just did that to one of our doors a couple of weeks ago. I am not a door hanging guy. That sort of shit scares me.
Mike00:25:26It's hard. It's hard.
Sonny00:25:28Anyway. So that's what I, that's what, what's up. I remember once when I was a kid, my dad took all the doors off the house cause he's like, we're going to paint the doors. I was like, okay, go paint the doors. And we, and we, he had, we had like a, we had a, you know, like a spray painter, you know, like a, you know what I mean? Like on a compressor. Yeah. And we, and we did them, we did all the doors and they all look like complete ass. I mean, just like everyone looked terrible, just like not incomplete. And I was like, we did all these doors. Right. He's like, yeah. All right, let's just do it with brushes. Yeah. We just, we ended up doing it with brushes.
JVL00:26:00At which point you could have just left them on.
Sonny00:26:01Could have just left them on the, could have just left them on. Yeah. Oh yeah. Would have been much easier, frankly, but.
Mike00:26:06Very funny. Yeah. You live and learn. All right. Well, uh, that's all good and well, let's, why don't we talk a little bit about, well, the box office real quick. So let's look at this last weekend here. Number one at the box office here in the doldrums of summer, Blue Beetle. Raking in $25 million. That's not good.
JVL00:26:33Is it? Raking might be a little strong. Yeah. Uh, no, that's bad. Scraping across the line.
Mike00:26:38That's bad. Okay.
JVL00:26:40That's what I thought. It's worse than Shazam. It's worse than Shazam sequel. It's worse than Shazam.
Sonny00:26:44It's worse than Morbius. Morbius did better. Open better. Here's, here's the one thing I will say, I, I get the feeling that Blue Beetle might hold a little better than Morbius or Shazam. Fury of the gods, uh, because it, it, it has gotten, the people who like it seem to really like it. Uh, and, um, it got, it got okay reviews and there's not really a ton of other big stuff coming.
JVL00:27:12Is, is it. Right. Play as a family movie. It can, it can.
Sonny00:27:16Little kids. I think, I think you could, I think you, I mean, I think you can take kids who, for whom it is appropriate to see like an MCU movie, so like that, that age, whatever age you you're taking kids there is. I would, I would say. So I mean, it's like, it's, it, it, it, you know, it, it's, it's aimed at Hispanic families basically. Um, although it like it, it over it. So it over index compared to the population of Hispanics, but it was clearly very underwhelming in the, the turnout because I, again, you, you put like a new conjuring movie or something like that in theaters. And it, it probably does double, double the box office, um, and, and over, over indexes in a similar sort of way. Because Hispanic audiences are very into religiously tinged for, for whatever reason.
Mike00:28:02Right. Right. Question about this though. Yeah. When you say it is aimed at Hispanic families, like the, my impression from the trailers is that it's very like heavy on, uh, kind of winking, uh, references to, you know, like almost like stereotypical, you know, people. You know, you know, the, in, in the Hispanic family, like it's, it's kind of, it's got kind of, uh.
Sonny00:28:32What are you trying to say?
Mike00:28:33Mike? No, I'm saying like the joke, the jokes are all sort of like, uh, you know, um, what am I trying to say? I like, what, what is the, what, it seemed like every sort of reference is very much on the nose. Yeah. Um, when it comes to these things, like, yeah, I know what you mean.
Sonny00:28:52I know it's got, it's got like the, you know, uh, it's got George Lopez in it.
Mike00:28:57Exactly. That's what I'm saying.
Sonny00:28:59George Lopez playing the TIA. Right. Like it's like George Lopez playing, uh, uh, a humorous older Mexican man. Right. Um, which is, which is look, yes, I, so like one of the dangers of, uh, marketing in Hollywood, right. As you think like, oh, Hispanic audiences are monolithic in a way similar to how, uh, like black audiences are or Asian audiences are. And that's not really true at all. Hispanic audiences are a bunch of, you know, Mexican. Cuban, you know, uh, South American, like Puerto Rican, Hispanics who live in Colorado
Mike00:29:34Hispanics who live in New York.
Sonny00:29:35I mean, it's like all it's, it's, it's much, it's much different. It's much different. And, uh, and, and, uh, a little harder to, I think, uh, anyway, the, the, my point being my point being, uh, it was funny. I was talking to a friend online about this. He was like, yeah, my Cuban father, my immigrant, my Cuban immigrant father was like, I don't want to go see the Mexican superhero movie. And like, that is, that's that. And like, that is like the, the, the, the real issue here is that like, so again, something like the conjuring plays differently because it's specifically a more religious, right. Sort of thing. I mean, it's like a Catholic horror movie, right. Um, or whatever. I don't know. I don't know what faith.
Mike00:30:15I'm not, but, but, but, but my, my point is, is it, it very much feels like it's leaning so heavily into, Hey, this is a Hispanic move, a superhero movie. Instead of just trying to make a, an appealing superhero movie where the main character happens to be Latino.
Sonny00:30:33Yeah. So anyway, we'll see. We'll see how it plays. I don't know.
Mike00:30:37Yeah. I honestly don't know. But it only made $4 million more than Barbie.
Sonny00:30:40And it's fifth, uh, it's gonna, it's, it's gonna do, it's gonna do worse than Barbie this week. Yeah. I bet. I bet. I bet. Barbie is ahead of it. Uh, you know, uh, uh, maybe not, I don't know. Maybe the movie only falls 33%. Cause again, there's only the only other real competition is grand Turismo. Nobody's expecting that movie to do. Similarly. Well, even though it's pretty good. Um, uh, and, uh, you know, I don't know. We'll see. We'll see what happens. I think it might hang around for a while.
JVL00:31:05Okay. I got a grand Turismo question for you guys. Yeah. Uh, I was in a, the, the, my AMC to see strays. And I, uh, happened upon a, I'm trying to pull it up to show you, what do you call the big displays? Like a standee. It's not a, a standee. It was a stand up. Stand up. Something like that. Okay. For grand Turismo. Okay. Okay. The stand up for grand Turismo, uh, was about eight feet tall. You're going to hold this over as you guys.
Sonny00:31:38Whoa. Nope. Oh, you missed you.
JVL00:31:41Yeah.
Mike00:31:42Showing us all your dicks.
JVL00:31:43Yeah.
Mike00:31:44I'm sorry. I'm sorry.
JVL00:31:46Um, keep those in the, uh, text chat. So this is eight feet tall. Oh yeah.
Sonny00:31:49Oh yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Covered in text. The, the review, the Owen Gleiberman review.
JVL00:31:54That's just a hundred words of text. So here's if anybody would stand there to read this fucking thing, you almost like it's
Mike00:32:03so audacious. You might actually do it. You might actually stand there and read it. Cause you can't believe they actually did.
Sonny00:32:07So this is, this is fascinating. People on Twitter were making fun of this and you see this sort of thing occasionally, but you see it with like eight feet tall, right? Right. You, you see this sort of thing occasionally, but you see it with like art house movies. Usually, usually it's like, come see moonrise kingdom. And here's like the 600 word review from, I don't know, the New York times or whatever. So that happens. Sometimes it happens. Uh, uh, it's very funny that it's happening for this movie because again, grant Reisman is not the sort of movie where you're like, I am, I want, I want, well, it's not a video game movie. And this is what I talk about this in my review. Um, but it's, it's a sports movie really is what it is. It's a sports movie.
Mike00:32:45It's not a video game sports movie, but so no, but it's not, but it's not that.
Sonny00:32:50So like the, the, the whole structure of it is basically Rudy. I mean, it really is like, it's a, it's a, it's a S it's a sports movie through and through anyway, it's neither here nor there. But that, that advertisement is very funny. And I like, I think, I think the real point of putting the whole review up there is like, you see it and you're so impressed that they put the whole review up for this movie. Grant Reisman. You don't even need to read the review. You don't even need to read the 1500 word review.
JVL00:33:14I will say this, the, the part of me, which is most like actually viscerally offended by this is so this, this thing is eight feet tall. So it's four feet across. All right. Four feet across. Yep. And the text goes clear across the four feet. People who, who do text arrangements understand that there is a number of words on a single line that the human eye is comfortable reading. And when you start exceeding that, the human eye gets really fucking angry at your brain.
Sonny00:33:46Oh, I'm sorry. You, you're gonna, you're gonna tell me that we have to get rid of some of the beautiful words from Owen Lieberman's review.
JVL00:33:53And this is, this is like 35 words on average. Per line. It's just bring in the margins, just bring in the margins, bring in the margins. Why would you go? I'm looking at this thing again. This is a four foot wide thing. The text is incredibly tiny and the margins are about two inches on each side. As if anybody could read it, anybody who looks like the contract in Willy Wonka. Yes.
Sonny00:34:19It's again, my, again, my, my theory here, my argument would be the whole point is they don't want anyone to read it. They don't actually want anyone to read it. They don't want anyone to read this. They're just, they're just trying to impress people by saying like, look at this review. We put the whole thing here. That's how good this is.
Mike00:34:33Right. It's yeah. It's like, it's like the nutrition facts or the, uh, ingredient list, um, how did strays do this weekend? So that's what I was going to bring up next strays. The movie that we all saw and are going to be discussing in a moment came in at number five behind blue beetle, Barbie Oppenheimer and teenage mutant turtles, mutant mayhem, and just over $8 million in its first week strays. Number five. I mean, I guess I can't say I'm surprised I don't, it's an R rated comedy.
Sonny00:35:11There's there was a, there was a moment earlier in the summer where this was tracking in the twenties. Uh, so yeah, I'm really surprised.
JVL00:35:19I thought this thing had all the hallmarks of a, like an instant classic.
Sonny00:35:23It's a, it's the sort of thing that I think is pretty easy to advertise. It's pretty easy to market. Uh, it's high concept comedy, you know, it's not hard to explain it's cursing dogs, cursing dogs are funny. Um, and just, uh, I, nobody showed up for it. Uh, nobody, nobody came out and I, I, I'm a little surprised, but I'm not shocked because I'd been watching the tracking numbers dip down again for the last month or so.
JVL00:35:47Is this hurt by not having Jamie Foxx and Will Ferrell to run out onto the shows?
Sonny00:35:51Yeah. I think that, I think that is a, I think there's a case to be made that that certainly hurt, you know, at the margins and probably a little beyond the margins, because this is the sort of movie where you have to have the people out there making you laugh on podcasts and on late night shows, uh, because that reminds you like, oh yeah, these are funny people. I like to see funny people do funny things.
JVL00:36:12You need them out there doing the shmay.
Sonny00:36:14They need the shmay. You gotta do the shmay.
Mike00:36:16So I read that Will Ferrell and Jamie Foxx actually recorded their lines together in like together in person for this, for this movie. So like the chemistry. Between them on, on a talk show would be, would it would be fantastic, right? Like it would be, it would be, you know, sell the movie.
Sonny00:36:32I don't know that Jamie Foxx is in any shape to do that. That's a good point. I forgot about that. I forgot about that. Cause he had like a stroke or something and like has not been seen in public for the last six months or longer. Um, so I, I don't, I don't know. Yeah. So anyway, I, I do think, I think the strike hurt. Uh, and I do think that this is the sort of thing where you, you get like Rob Riggle out there, you know, doing 27 podcasts and you get. Uh, you get, you get will Forte out there doing, you know, Conan or whatever, uh, and that, that would help. But it, it like audiences just weren't, weren't interested. Audiences haven't been interested in any R rated comedies this year. I mean the Jennifer Lawrence movie, no hard feelings, right. Didn't bomb, but it didn't, you know, it's probably not going to make its, uh, it's not going to make its money back, um, after marketing and everything.
JVL00:37:19Uh, you know, all this is funny to me because you had a guy on Bulwark goes to Hollywood. I forget his name, the Amazon studios guy. It was laying out his blueprint for how to start a new studio and he was like, we need R rated comedies.
Sonny00:37:30Right.
JVL00:37:31Price. Yeah. Yeah. His, I would build a new studio around R rated comedies.
Sonny00:37:35I mean, look, here's the thing. You make an R rated comedy for $5 million and all of these, all of these were fine because they actually make more money on VOD at this point than they do, uh, in theaters. You keep more where your VOD money. The problem is when you get a movie, like you get a movie like no hard feelings or strays. Those both costs between 45 and $50 million. I think. Um, you, if you, uh, Uh, you, you spread that out a little bit, look at something like, um, the blackening or joy ride. Those were cheaper movies, uh, in like the 10 to 15 million range, I think. But both of those bombed as well. Um, bottoms is coming out. That movie is going to bomb. You know why that movie is going to bomb is because it's, uh, it is a gay comedy, a gay ranch calm and people do not show up for those. Just look at bros.
JVL00:38:17Uh, like it, it, it, this is a lesbian ranch calm. That's same.
Sonny00:38:21No, I think it's probably about the same. Um, I, I just don't think, I don't think. I don't know. I, the problem is again, like audiences are simply not coming to our rated comedies. They are, but they are doing okay. Business on VOD. My understanding is the Fletch lives movie did pretty well on VOD. Um, it didn't really get anything other than a, uh, token run or w wait, it was, or confess confess Fletch. Was, was that the confess Fletch, um, that, that did pretty well on VOD. I, I bet this actually will do okay on VOD, uh, no hard feelings supposedly did pretty well on VOD. I actually bought it on VOD. Watch it on VOD.
Mike00:38:57I mean, this is these, the R rated comedies do feel like the kind of thing you pop on when you put the kids down and you're just looking to like laugh at something stupid and like, it's, it feels like a movie that you're comfortable watching in your basement
JVL00:39:16and not going out right to the movies, find an audience on streaming because again, I feel like this has all the makings of a cult classic.
Sonny00:39:28Well, I feel like lots of these movies become hits once they get to DVD, right? Well, I mean, like not all of them, but yeah, I mean movies like office space, right. Or, uh, uh, idiocracy, um, or I dunno, some other Mike judge movie old school was a pretty big hit.
JVL00:39:46Yeah.
Sonny00:39:47Old school was a big hit. Yeah. Um, I mean, it's just, it's really wild to think about the decline of the R rated comedy. I mean like 13, 12, 13 years ago. The hangover comes out. That movie made a half a billion dollars worldwide. Um, you know, the, you, you, the, the whole frat pack run with the wedding crashers and old school 40 year old version, all the Judd Apatow movies, right. The 40 year old version has the, has the quality gone down.
Mike00:40:12I mean, or is the, or, or comedy tastes changing? I think, I think because the last, the last one I remember, and I could be wrong in the timing on this. The last one I remember, uh, going to a theater too, that was kind of a big hit was bridesmaids. And that was what?
Sonny00:40:3210 years ago.
?00:40:33Yeah.
Sonny00:40:34Yeah. That, I mean that, I mean, you definitely had, you had, you had several movies in that run with a what's her name? Um, Melissa McCarthy. Yes. She, she had several, the heat, the heat was very big. Um, I don't know. I think part of it is, look, I think part of it is you have changing audience tastes. Part of it is, uh, there, there is, there is a hesitance to it. To, to, uh, make movies about certain subjects. Yes. Uh, audiences these days are very uncomfortable about sex in movies and especially sex in theaters, younger audiences in particular, not that interested in, uh, the raunch comm sort of thing. Um, which is, you know, a common, I think a combination of like changing more is also the, you know, uh, the, the most interesting theory that I have heard to explain this is kids today have developed such a strict. Frigid set of codes when it comes to nude selfies and the, and the like ideas of nudity has to be totally strict, strictly consensual that everybody has to agree to everything before you start doing it. Uh, they don't, they don't want to, they don't want to show up in, they don't want to show up in theaters and just get surprised by it. They don't, they don't. And like, it's, it's fast.
Mike00:41:47I didn't consent to this.
Sonny00:41:48I didn't, I didn't, I've literally, I've literally read this argument before, uh, nudity is a violation of my consent. Nudity in a movie is a violation of my, I did not consent to this. I was not given proper. And like, first off you have, there's a whole fucking rating system, right? Um, that tells you, you know, what is going to be in the movie, but I digress. I don't know. Audiences aren't showing up is the long and the short of it. And I don't know if it's just a, if, if they get their humor on Tik TOK now, if they, um, uh, if, if the older audiences like us just stay at home, watch it on, on demand or whatever. I don't know.
Mike00:42:20Well, why don't we talk about strays? Let's let's hear a big boy review of, uh, of strays.
Sonny00:42:24So it's, it's dogs talking and cursing. They're having fun. They're, they're living. They're living their best life. All right. So, uh, the setup of this movie is pretty simple. Um, uh, will Ferrell plays a scrappy little pup named Reggie, who is unloved by his owner. Doug played by will Forte will Forte keeps driving him away from the house and leaving him places. And the dog keeps coming back, uh, and eventually will Forte drives him into the city, leaves them there. Reggie can't get back and he's scared and he's alone and he meets up. With bug who's voiced by Jamie Foxx, uh, and they, uh, and a couple other dogs decide that Doug is a bad owner and that, uh, Reggie needs to take his revenge by getting back to the house and biting Doug's dick off. That's that's the, that's the whole movie right there. That's that's the movie, um, in a nutshell, uh, the, the humor will, uh, I found the movie pretty funny, even though I had seen the trailer so many times that I knew 80% of the jokes before they were coming. Which is annoying, um, as always, but like, I, I still found it very funny. Um, there is a, for instance, there's a, this one moment where, uh, a celebrity cameo, I won't spoiler for anyone here, but, uh, is doing some birdwatching and you think at first the joke is just the celebrity is doing birdwatching and then the camera cuts to his notebook, which is just the word bird over and over again with like little empty checkboxes next to it. And I was like, and that made me laugh. That was unexpected. I thought it was very funny.
Mike00:43:56By the way, one little grace note in that joke is he has one empty checkbox left to check off the bird he just saw. And then he very clearly checks on the opposite page in his book where the, where, where everything else was filled in already. Like everything about that, like just burst out laughing. Sorry.
Sonny00:44:15It was great. I enjoyed that. Uh, and there, there are a lot of little visual jokes like that that are very funny. Um, the, the, again, the setup here is basically. Dogs cursing and humping things and talking about how they're humping things. It's dogs and they're, they're weird and they're, they're strange, but we're always trying to think about how dogs act and this is, this is, this is how they actually think. I don't know. I, I enjoyed it. I'm a dog guy. You guys are not dog guys. So I'm kind of curious to know you hate dogs. Both of you hate dogs. No, no. Both of you are, both of you probably sympathized with Will Forte in this movie, uh, I, the, and this is, this brings me to my final point. Again, there's not a whole lot. To review here. You either find it funny or you don't. Um, I thought Will Forte's performance in this movie was not only very good, but also very brave because he had to, he has to be essentially the most evil person in the history of cinema. The sort of person who you, who you believe will beat a small dog to death with a baseball bat because he's tired. He's tired of he's tired and no, and he simultaneously has to be, uh, so pathetic that you think that he. He absolutely deserves to be castrated for his patheticness. I, I don't know. I like this movie a lot. Uh, I thought it was very good or I, I, I don't think I'm not, uh, let me walk that back a little bit. I thought it was good enough. It made me laugh enough times, which is like between four and six times. And I was like, all right, this fine, fun, fun time in the theater. If I could have, if I could have gotten the men in black device and neuralize the ads out of my brain, so I could have seen them all fresh, it probably would have been a little better. I don't know about you guys, but the, the. Review for strays played in front of essentially every movie I saw at the draft house for the last two months. So I've seen that trailer like 20 times. It's very annoying. Uh, but anyway, JVL, what did you think of stress?
JVL00:46:07I, you know, so I, I don't like dog. I don't like talking animal movies and this is a whole genre, the, the, the weirdness that there is a genre for talking animal movies, it's just fucking strange. Uh, but I thought this was consistently funnier than it needed. And, you know, I may, because it's a Lord and Miller production and they exercise some control over the screenplay, uh, again, like this could have been a very mid level production and instead it's, it's fine. I mean, an example is the, the cameo with the bird watcher. Another example is they're, they're at a carnival and, uh, and to the carnival scene just absolutely broke me. It was so funny. Um, and it starts where we are all of a sudden out of the person of the dogs and we are sort of third person watching a girl doing a carnival game and a young 25 year old ish girl doing carnival game and a 25 years guy watching her and he's got a dog and the dog barks while she's trying to toss the ring or something and then it's a meet cute, you know, and they're having their little moment and then we cut back to dog POV and the dogs, uh, that we're, you know, our protagonists are talking to this dog, which is a lab, a golden lab and the golden lab is like in his own world telling a story and they're making fun of him for like narrating when nobody's listening. It's like a funny bit and then they leave and in a lesser movie, that's the end of the bit and we're onto the next joke and here the dog says, they're right, nobody is listening to me, but they should because I know that he's a serial killer and he already has three girls bodies buried in our backyard. Yeah, that's so fucking dark and then the next one, hold on Sonny, you're muted. The next one is, so they're there and they have stolen hot dogs and fireworks start and we get the craziness of like dogs being afraid of fireworks, which again, in a lesser movie, that's the joke, but here the joke is that Hunter, who is voiced by, I forget who, who's like the neurotic therapy dog, Randall Hart.
Mike00:48:23Randall Hart, God saw us, he sees everything, he thinks the fireworks are God smiting them
JVL00:48:29for stealing. It just, the whole movie is filled with things like that where they go two and three steps further into jokes than they need to and that's why I just think this is destined to be a classic. No, Michael?
Mike00:48:42No, I totally agree with you. It felt, I was comparing it the whole time to Cocaine Bear and Cocaine Bear felt like you know, what does Pert Happily on Parks and Recreation say? Like it had the cadence of a joke, like it had the cadence of a funny movie but it didn't actually deliver on the humor whereas Strays went above and beyond as you say. It seemed to have been written and directed and made by people who actually like comedy, who actually understand jokes and jokes. What's humorous and it sounds ridiculous to say that. Of course, they're making a comedy movie, right? But like there's a lot of funny movies that are, you know, movies that try to be funny that just aren't and this felt more professional. I laughed out loud several times in my theater at the Alabama Drafthouse. I was the only one. I feel like if I had been in a full theater, I think it would have been even more enjoyable. Yeah.
JVL00:49:48I wish that I had been. There was like a hell of a handful of people in our theater. It's only showing twice in a day. A day at my AMC. Oh, really?
Mike00:49:54Really?
JVL00:49:55We're on week two and it's getting two show times per day. Oof. That's not good. That's not good. That's tough. But go ahead, Sonny.
Sonny00:50:03JBL, you said you saw it with your mother-in-law.
JVL00:50:05My mother. So I took Flash and my mother-in-law and my mother-in-law is in a place right now where she could use a laugh. She's going through some tough stuff and she is, I think I may have heard her curse once like 20 years ago. 20 years ago. But she's a saint. She's very, very saint and she's not like, you know, the church leader or anything, but she's just very, you know, but she likes bawdy stuff. So she'll like titter over bawdy things. And so I took her and I just said, hey, Flash and I are going to go see a movie tonight. Come out with us. So she said, okay. And then she says, what are you going to see? I was like, oh, it's like some, it's like Homeward Bound, but I got to see it for the show. It's stupid and I'm making Flash see it as a, you know, as a penance because I want some company. And so she's like, so it's just like talking. It's like, yeah, it's like dogs talking, trying to find their way home or something. It's like, okay. And we sat down. The first 30 seconds she looks at me, she goes, oh, oh, she was all a titter is what you're saying. And here, here's my lone criticism of the movie. And I don't quite know how to express this properly. I think there might've been 15% too much cursing. Yes. Not because I had. Have any, any problem with it, but I think it may have muffled some of the jokes when it, when the cursing really hits as right. I mean, they're cursing done for comic effect is a very real thing. And the more sort of non-comic, just sort of background cursing that you have, that it takes a little bit of edge off of those moments when it really does hit to have a dog like yelling, no, go fuck yourself or something like that. Right. Right. Did either of you feel that way about the, like just a little bit too much of it?
Mike00:51:57I did feel that way. I also felt that the jokes that I liked the most were, were, were, were, were actually some of the tame ones, the cute ones that were sort of like, you know, set up your expectations and then were revealed to be kind of a funny, cute dog joke. Like, like, so the bunnies, the bunnies, which I saw cut, like I knew as immediately,
Sonny00:52:19I knew what was going on. Yeah.
Mike00:52:20The one I was thinking. Which that was, so that was very fun. That was a very much a comedy professional type joke. Um, the one that I really liked, which I, I liked probably too much, but I just thought it was, I was wondering about it the whole time. So there's a whole, the whole premise is they're trying to get back to home. So he's, he's dropped off in Atlanta. It's very, obviously, I mean, it's filmed in Atlanta and then they have to get back to the country where the small town, uh, and there's three kind of way points on the way back that, that Will Ferrell's dog, uh, remembers. And the last, and you see two of them on the way up to Atlanta. So you, you know what they're talking about, uh, the, the third one, they keep referring to the devil in the sky. And I like literally, it was a tease for me. I was like, what was that? I don't remember seeing that. And, uh, you know, spoiler, I guess it was like, it's revealed that the devil in the sky is a giant, uh, you know, postal service billboard with a smiling postman on it. And I just, it was, it just was. It's not what I was expecting at all. It was, I just thought it was very funny. It tickled, tickled me. And then it actually did have the great payoff at the end of the movie when the postman actually shows up and they do say, you know, uh, fuck you, fuck you. You know, they're like, they're barking at the postman and he's like, Oh, look at you. Cute dogs. Like I've got, it's got a lot of energy, right? Exactly. And meanwhile, they're screaming and they're, you know, fuck you, fuck you.
Sonny00:53:45Bite off your head.
Mike00:53:46I ought to buy off your head. Um, so I thought, I thought actually when the movie leaned into the cute stuff, it, it was working really well. And it, and it made those shocking moments, uh, ring true. And so there were times where I thought, yeah, a little too much shock. Um, you know, leave us wanting more.
Sonny00:54:03So my, uh, my, my only critique on the jokes was I expected and thought we deserve to see the Doug get a visit from the, uh, the serial killer at the fair.
JVL00:54:16Well, did you say that would have been a very funny?
Sonny00:54:18Oh, is there a singer?
JVL00:54:19There's a stinger where you're in the hospital and talking to Doug about everything. It was like, oh, and, uh, yeah, we couldn't read that your dick.
Sonny00:54:30I did see that. I did see that.
JVL00:54:32The boxes, right? So Doug is moving and we have shots of his house and he's got boxes everywhere. It's your label. It's like Doug's porn, uh, weed, weed, rappers, like weeds, little stuff like that.
Sonny00:54:48It's very visually funny. It's very visually. It's also a hallmark of the, the Lord and Miller Spider-Man, uh, animated movies. There are lots of background jokes.
JVL00:54:57I, I, I go talking to the dogs when they can't understand each other.
Mike00:55:01I, I, I loved it. Yeah. So did I. Um, and, and I thought, uh, I thought flash was going to piss himself. He was laughing.
JVL00:55:10So yeah, I would say if you are 15, boy, this movie is the funniest thing ever.
Sonny00:55:16Would you say this movie is funnier, less funny, or the same amount of funny as good boys, JBL?
JVL00:55:24Same amount for me. Less again, my own experiences with good boys are very, uh, are very personal because I feel like I lived good boys. And so for me, good boys hits as an emotional movie in a weird way. But, uh, in terms of funny, I, I would say they're both, both very funny, equally funny. You.
Sonny00:55:45I would say it's slightly less funny for me. I, I, I, I like good boys a little more than this. But this is, this was still, I, again, I liked it a lot. I give it a thumbs up. You know, I, it's, I'm surprised I haven't gotten more hate mail about giving, uh, Barbie a thumbs down and this a thumbs up on the old rotten tomato scale. But, uh, you know, this, I thought was, this was better. I thought, just thought it worked better as a comedy.
Mike00:56:10So I, I did not share. Can we just say, uh, have a quick word about Will Forte? Because I did not share your, uh, your insight, Sonny, that, uh, that, you know, he had to be the worst, but like it was all played very, very light, even though like, it was like terrible, like dog abuse. He was doing like, I, like it, you know, I never actually, oh man, he did Will Forte. Like I, but I, but I thought he was, I thought he was great. And I just think Will Forte is a completely underrated, uh, comedy voice.
Sonny00:56:44Thank you.
Mike00:56:45Um, I, I think he is, um, speaking of podcasts, I did listen to, uh, his interview, which was done before the strike recorded before the strike, uh, with Dana Carvey and David Spade in which they go through a number of his Saturday night live sketch. And he is, he's one of these guys that is way funnier than anybody thinks and, um, sort of the victim of some overshadowing. So one of his all time greatest sketches on Saturday night live was a bit that he used to do in the groundlings. Will Forte did, uh, it's essentially. He's in a spelling bee and he spells a very basic word incorrectly, but he drags out the very obviously incorrect spelling for like, for like three minutes of like spelling letters that don't make a word. And, uh, it's, it's a hilarious bit and it's his commitment, right. To the like ridiculousness and like unfunnyness that makes it funny again. And it's a very funny sketch. It had the unfortunate fate of airing the same night as lazy Sunday and like lazy Sunday is what everybody remembers from that period. Uh, but, but I just, I, I want to, you know, light a candle or, or, or whatever for, for Will Forte's.
JVL00:58:01It's funny to me, Lauren. So Lauren Michaels has a long history of bringing in guys basically to push out other people and bring in people who throw up duplicative talents. Uh, and you know, like Bill Murray was in a way, duplicative of Chevy chase. And he's done this for 40 years or whatever. Will Forte was brought in basically the very end of Will Ferrell's run to do Will Ferrell bits. And it is funny to have the two of them interacting in a movie in a way in which you could easily see each of them taking the opposite role, very easy to see Will Ferrell doing the part of Doug and very easy to see Will Forte in the part of Reggie.
Sonny00:58:49Yeah, you could do, you, you could definitely see, I, I, I always thought Will Forte was brought in to get rid of Chris Parnell who Lorne Michaels always
JVL00:58:56kind of hated Chris Parnell's more of a utility player, Chris Parnell is one of these guys who you just push, put in into any number of different roles that don't
Mike00:59:07need a lot of, yeah, so, so what I have, what I have heard is that is a little bit of that, but also that Lorne Michaels a likes to have funny people around him and different types of funny people and sort of like almost kind of like has this sense of, he always wants this troop with different strengths. And, and I would say, yes, Will Forte's could, could have fit into that role, but he's actually so much weirder and darker than Will Ferrell and, and I think that's why he never really broke out because the commitment is different than Will, Will Ferrell's commitment is like bigger and broader and Will Forte's commitment is to things that are weirder and like basically like fucked up. And it's, it's, I think it's amazing that he was on the show for as long as he was and given the chance and he seems to have the same view, like he can't believe his, his own luck. So yeah. All right. Anyway, well, uh, uh, is that all the time? I guess we're going to give to strays. Any other thoughts? No, no. All right. Uh, well, uh. Uh, you can check us out at sub beacon.com and we will see you next time.
Sonny01:00:29So we're going to do talking, talking animal movies.
JVL01:00:32So I'm sorry. I think we may not be able to, I've got to jump in as soon as we can wrap here. So, uh, maybe next week we'll do a bonus or something. I don't know. Um, we'll do something good and fun for you guys next week.
Sonny01:00:46Just something good and fun. Yeah. It's been a week. It's been a long. It's been a long week where we're, you know, we're going to make excuses for ourselves here. Uh, but you know, we'll, we'll, we'll, we'll get it back together next week.
JVL01:00:56I'm sure it's fine.
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