#267. 'Beetlejuice'
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The main event is the 1988 original Beetlejuice, not the new sequel, and the trio splits sharply: Sonny loves it and delivers a mini-lecture on uncredited script doctor Warren Skerrin, crediting him with stripping the film down to a lean, high-concept 92 minutes and praising the cast (Michael Keaton, Geena Davis, Alec Baldwin, Catherine O'Hara, Jeffrey Jones) as "a perfect movie"; JVL hates it, objecting to the deliberately gross, Pee-wee's Playhouse-style visual comedy and arguing Keaton's over-the-top performance is a proto-Jim-Carrey mugging he holds responsible for unleashing Jim Carrey on the world; Mike, who grew up on the Beetlejuice animated series, ultimately sides with Sonny, singling out Davis, the Maitlands' likable dumbness, Danny Elfman's score, and Tim Burton's unusually restrained, well-channeled weirdness. That disagreement spins into a running argument about whether Jim Carrey is actually good (Sonny and Mike say yes, citing Dumb and Dumber, Ace Ventura, and The Mask; JVL says absolute no), and the pair also trash the 2024 legacy sequel Beetlejuice Beetlejuice for its overstuffed subplots and the contorted ways it writes out Jeffrey Jones (killed offscreen via claymation, then reduced to a shark-eaten torso) and the aged-out Maitlands. The first third is classic Sub-Beacon banter: JVL delivers an extended, gleefully horned-up "Shed Talk" update on finally shingling his backyard shed roof after a "Roof Tube" YouTube deep-dive, Sonny recounts his daughter vomiting all night before a live Bulwark show in Dallas, and Mike walks through the logistics of a milestone father-son trip to the Wizarding World of Harry Potter at Universal Orlando, plus a quick box-office check-in on Deadpool & Wolverine, Twisters, and the Reagan biopic.
From the show notes
Plus: Shed talk!
Full transcript
Sonny00:00:00Alright, let's get down to business, you're right. I got a card around here somewhere. Here, here, who do I have to kill? Here, hold that for me, will ya? There you go. You don't have to kill anybody. Ah, possession, good. Learn to throw your voice, fool your friends, fun and parties. No, we just want to get some people out of our house. Ah, I understand, I understand. Well, look, in order to do that, I'm really gonna have to get to know you guys. You know, we gotta get closer, move in with you for a while, get to be real pals, you know what I'm saying?
JVL00:00:30See that guy for later, huh? My wife and I would like to ask you a couple of questions. Sure, sure, sure, go ahead, shoot.
Sonny00:00:35Well, for instance, uh, what are your qualifications? Ah, well, I attended Juilliard, I'm a graduate of the Harvard Business School, I travel quite extensively, I lived through the Black Plague and I had a pretty good time during that. I've seen The Exorcist about 167 times and it keeps getting funnier every single time I see it. Not to mention the fact that you're talking to a dead guy. Now what do you think?
Mike00:01:00Welcome to the Sub-Beacon Podcast. I am your co-host, Mike Warren. Joining me, as always, are my two co-hosts, uh, whose qualifications for co-hosting this podcast are that they've seen The Exorcist about 167 times and it keeps getting funnier every single time they see it. Jonathan V. Last and Sonny Bunch. Sonny, really? I like that one. I know he did. Join us over at Sub-Beacon.com.
Sonny00:01:33You can't see me out there in audience land, but I'm giving Mike a thumbs up. That's right.
Mike00:01:39Join us over at Sub-Beacon.com where you can become a patron. That's the only way to listen to our show. Tell your friends and family they've got to go to Sub-Beacon.com. Become a part of the conversation. Join the comments and you can do that all at Sub-Beacon.com. We're going to be talking about Beetlejuice. Don't say it again.
Sonny00:01:59The original.
Mike00:02:00We're just talking about Beetlejuice from 1988 later on in the show. But first, how are we doing JVL? We got a lot to talk about, don't we? Big, big news, boys.
JVL00:02:13I'm ready to make a life change. Ready to make a life change. Congratulations. This is where you want to have this conversation? This is it. This is it. I want to be a roofer.
Sonny00:02:24You want to be a roofer?
JVL00:02:25I want to be a roofer. Sure. The Shed, which is now. Fully operational.
Sonny00:02:32Shed Talk.
JVL00:02:33Oh, we're going so deep on Shed Talk. It is fully operational. In fact, many windows are stored in it. Windows, windows that have been caulked and sealed doors, which open absolutely seem and mesh perfectly and are hung perfectly. The only thing left was the roofing. And I went very deep into roof tube. Which is what I call the corner of YouTube where the roofers hang out. And I, I mean, I found, I am not making this up. This is not shtick. I find myself awake at midnight, two in the morning. I'd wake up to go to the bathroom. And then I just, let's say to myself, I'm just going to go downstairs with my phone and sit and check out just a few more, just a few more videos to learn more about roofing. And I'd just be sitting down there on the sofa. It's fall now. I get all covered up with my phone, just watching the millennial roofer or your average roofing guy or any of the many roof tubers that I now follow.
Mike00:03:40It's sick. It's sick what you're.
JVL00:03:42And, uh, and so then I, I got, you know, I worked it up till I was nice and hard. And then this weekend on labor day itself. The day of labor. I went out there and I just got after it at like eight in the morning. I did. I did the drip. Edges, although I didn't use drip edges, I used, uh, gutter aprons. I'll explain why. If you're curious, uh, I got my, I mean the underlayment, obviously underlayment been there for months. Um, I put down my starter shingles because a lot of these like hairy homeowner types will not do starter shingles around the edges. And yeah, I mean, you want them obviously on both the Eve edge and the rake edge. I assume. That you guys would do that.
Mike00:04:31The fact that you even said it, I mean, it didn't need to be said.
JVL00:04:34A little insulting. And, uh, and then with those installed, I just started cutting my staggers and getting the staggered rows started and just bam, bam, bam, straight across. Now I don't have a nail gun, which has made the process slightly more labor intensive and take slightly longer than we might've hoped. Um, but I am. I am. Now I have one side, 80% done the other side, about 50% done. I, yeah.
Sonny00:05:08Do you do it? Do you like alternate sides? Why would you do, why wouldn't you just do one side entirely and then do the other side?
JVL00:05:15Ah, this is such a good, such a good question. Uh, this roof is designed that it is pitched at like a 65 degree angle.
Sonny00:05:26It's pretty steep.
JVL00:05:29The, uh, getting to the top, the ridge of this roof is terrifying. And so I have got it as far up on the first side as Flash and I can basically get without going up to the ridge itself and then getting suspended over it so that you're upside down and doing those last like three rows.
Sonny00:05:58Why do you have to be upside down?
JVL00:05:59Because you're hanging over the, uh, the ridge from the opposite side. Oh, I see, yeah, I got you.
Sonny00:06:03Right, yeah.
JVL00:06:04Uh, and so we stopped that and then the kids are back at school and so I am now, while they're at school, whenever I feel like I need to take like 10 minutes to myself in the middle of my work, I go outside and pick up my hammer and I put in a row of shingles on the other side. And, uh, but I find I've solved my problem with the ridge, which is that the, this, this side. The sides of this roof are so sloped that what I'm going to do is not put a ladder up to, it's like, you know, touching the roof like this here. I'm right into the camera as, as your, as your picture, I'm going to extend it all the way out like this so that the ladder goes and lays along the roof itself so that you can basically walk all the way up the ladder to the ridge of the roof itself. Sure.
Sonny00:06:59What is your extension ladder?
JVL00:07:01Uh, well, I mean, I've got a full size 20 foot painter's ladder.
Mike00:07:06Okay. Is that, well, the angle that you need to do to lay it up there will, so it will reach both the ground and where you need to get to, to the ridge.
JVL00:07:15It's, it's so steep that it reaches the ground easily. And there's like five feet hanging over the ridge.
?00:07:22Okay.
JVL00:07:23That's, that's how I, I did a test case with this. Okay. And, uh, so this by, I would say. I would say by Saturday morning before the first rains come, the entire roof should be done. And I just, I find myself wondering if there are other roofs I could go install. You, so you, you want to be, uh. Because I am loving it. Oh, I just want to be out there with the fellas, with the millennial roofer and your average roof guy, just up there sitting on a ridge. Just do, banging it out. I love it. I love everything about it. The roof. Yes, roofing, roofing. Can I explain why?
Mike00:08:01I, I, I think you're going to have to.
JVL00:08:03It's like the Lego building of construction. Yeah. So the, the joy of Legos is that everything makes sense and there's a plan. And if you follow the plan, everything works. Right. They're never like, you don't run into any snags like, oh geez, well I thought this, this piece was going to fit in that, but it doesn't really fit. We have to figure out a workaround. And that's all fucking construction. Construction is, oh my God. You know, you're like, oh, this, these corners look square, but it turns out they weren't perfectly square. Now I've got to solve a problem. Roofing, there are no problems to solve. It's just plug and play. And there's this subtlety to it, which I love because you can learn everything there is to know about roofing in like five minutes. It's so fucking simple. But then there are delicious little subtleties that you learn and that make you feel like you're, you're sort of deepening your understanding. Of the trade. And I just think it's great. The only problem is I would say the roofers that I see on Rooftube, most of them don't seem to be really my peer group. Younger, right?
Sonny00:09:14I mean, I don't think that's where he's going. I think you're going a different way.
JVL00:09:19What's that? Meth addicted.
Sonny00:09:21Oh, mostly.
JVL00:09:23I see. Very. A lot of FaceTime.
Sonny00:09:28Free roof. You could just, you know, I will come to your house and I will roof it and I won't be high on meth. Not going to leave any crystals up there.
JVL00:09:36And when you pay me, I won't be buying it. A lot of ink. A lot of face piercings. Well, this is just prejudice.
Sonny00:09:46You are suggesting these people are addicted to drugs because they have tattoos.
JVL00:09:55Just because they're incredibly thin and they make their living. Living on roofs.
Sonny00:09:59You got to be thin to work on a roof. Yeah. You're lifting up shingles. If you're not thin and you try to work on a roof, you know what happens? You go right through. You get knocked right off. I don't know. Because your body is like a sail. It just catches the full force of the wind. I'm so into this.
JVL00:10:15I can't even tell you. It is the most satisfying and most fun physical type labor I've ever done. Question.
Sonny00:10:24Have you ever done any bricklaying?
JVL00:10:28No. I feel like you would like bricklaying. I've done cinder block laying. I created a retaining wall, but that's not bricks. That's different. Yeah.
Sonny00:10:39Different.
JVL00:10:39And that was nice, but fucked up my knees for two years. That one project, no kidding, screwed up my knee for a year. Just from the bending and lifting? Have you ever laid pipe?
Mike00:10:50Sorry, you don't have to answer that. I mean, I do have four kids. Okay. All right. But here's my question. Here's my question, JBL. What is next for you in this roofing enthusiasm or this roofing, some might say, obsession? Yeah. What's next for you in the roofing journey?
JVL00:11:09You know, I met one of the dads at school. He and I were talking. He's in the midst of renovating his shed because a tree branch came down and went through the roof of his shed. And so he tore the roof off and is putting up new, like everything, new gables, joists, the whole nine. And and so this this gentleman, Seamus Seamus, if you're listening, Seamus isn't listening. I think that I'm going to text Seamus after this project is done and say, hey, when you when you get to the the roofing part, can I come over? We'll just get up there and get after it. I bought myself one of those little magnetic wristbands so I can keep the roofing nails on my wrist. So it's faster to. But I suppose I'll have to have to go and get a roof, you know, nail.
Sonny00:11:57Yeah, if you're doing this. Regularly, you want to you want a nail gun. You don't want to just.
JVL00:12:01Yeah. But with that, you got it. I mean, this is one of the subtleties you got to learn is you really want to be careful with that pressure on it because you don't want to overdrive nails into shingles. If you overdrive the nails shingles, you're weakening the shingle and it becomes easier for them to pull away. This is all about the ridge. Do you know how you want to lay the shingles on a ridge? Do you know this?
Sonny00:12:24I would guess you put it slightly over the top.
JVL00:12:28I meant directionally. How do you decide which edge of the ridge to start from?
Mike00:12:33Oh, I don't know how I don't even didn't even know that was something I would have to consider. But enlighten us. You start into the prevailing winds.
JVL00:12:44So that where the winds come, it's going over them and not blowing into the lips of the shingles. That makes sense. Shingle technology is amazing. Did you guys know this about shingles? So they, you know, so they're they're made now. Well, I mean, the things they can do. Those guys at GAF and what Owens Corning BASF BASF 3M. All of them, they they're made with both a tar and an adhesive sort of, you know, side and side so that you put them down and then they use. The heat generated by the asphalt and the sun to create the seal so that, you know, you put that stuff up and you just over the course of a few weeks, sun hits it, heats it up. That activates the adhesive that's on. Adhesive is not sticky until it gets heated up by the sun. Brilliant. It is brilliant, right?
Sonny00:13:48I love it. Oh, what are you doing?
JVL00:13:51Different layers of shingles that you can get like they're really nice. You do like the bullshit three tab shingles, but you can go to. Like. Full HD UHD shingles, which are like super duper 3D shingles for K. They basically 4K shingles. Yeah, I did not get 4K shingles. I bought just the high def shingles.
Sonny00:14:10I have a question. What are your thoughts on like the tile, like Spanish tile roofing? You know, like, so I haven't gotten to that.
JVL00:14:20I haven't gotten to that. But so here's here is the thing. I I have thought a little bit about this. The tiling does not give tiling gives me all the anxieties of other homeownership construction things because there's so many things that can go wrong.
Sonny00:14:37Right. Right. I mean, the tile is easy to break those.
JVL00:14:40You got to break them. You got to cut them like to certain ways and you got to really know what you're doing to cut them. It's it's all this problem solving. I just want to sit. I don't want to solve problems. I want to sit with my fucking book for the Lego Rivendell set and I just want to build the set and know that whatever. Step is on step thirty seven or one hundred thirty seven. I'm going to be able to do because it's all logical and it makes sense. The pieces fit together. That's what roofing is.
Mike00:15:07And there, you know, you can get some complications when you have to go to the hips.
JVL00:15:10You guys know about hips, right?
Sonny00:15:11Oh, yeah, of course.
JVL00:15:13But but you can work around.
Sonny00:15:15Why don't you tell the readers so they know?
JVL00:15:17So a hip is when you have a roof that's bumped out. So there is an angle up, but it's not going to to a ridge. Yeah. And so it's going up to something like a window. No. So it's like a rake, but a rake in the middle of the roof. Tell the folks at home what a rake is. A rake is the slanted, more vertical part of the roof. The eave is the horizontal part of the roof. Right. And then you I mean, obviously you have to do you have to do a drip edge, which is a an aluminum which comes and you put it on both. The eave edge and the rake edge. But but it goes on the eave edge. The aluminum goes under your overlayment and on the rake edge, it goes on top of the overlayment because the idea everything is about everything is about layering and flashing to create that watertight seal. So if water gets in one place, it ain't going nowhere else. Yep. Oh, God, I gotta go rub one out. This is not this is not stick again. Last night I was laying in bed, falling asleep, and I was just dreaming about shingling. I was just dreaming about being up on the roof and just, you know, laying down row.
Sonny00:16:41I like I like this dream you have of just being like a handyman around town, just going around helping people with their roofs. But, you know, that's going to get you killed by the mob, right? Like you're going to you're this is like a definitely Jersey. It's like a Soprano subplot where like a guy is just like, yeah, no, just me and my friends are helping, you know, people. Put up roofs or whatever. And like Chrissy Moltisanti shows up with five guys in tracksuits. They're like, you're not helping anybody else do this anymore because they throw them off the roof. We own the roofing.
Mike00:17:08We own the roofing concession around here. That's right. That's right.
Sonny00:17:11You're you're you're into our territory.
Mike00:17:15No, I've done tiling and I'm much I really like tiling. Actually, it's it's it's soothing for me. It's just bad for my knees. I did it. I did it in high school in my house. I I tiled. With a friend tiled our basement and which was all tire basement. I mean, the section of the basement that was getting tiled. So it was a landing at the. Was it a murder basement? It was a landing at the bottom of the stairs and and a bedroom. And and it was it was basically so my dad didn't have to get on his knees and do it himself.
JVL00:17:51And it was brutal.
Mike00:17:53But there was something there was something therapeutic about. I think similar probably to break bricklaying, which I've never done of just sort of like you put on you sort of place it and you just move in a kind of I mean, it's tiles and like tiling. Yeah. Patterns and. I would much prefer to be inside tiling than outside on top of a roof. Oh, well, the weather maybe it's partially because the weather is so perfect.
JVL00:18:26Yeah. You try doing it.
Mike00:18:27Good lie.
JVL00:18:28Well, we did. That's precisely why I didn't do it in July. I let it sit. One other one other question. Michael, as I'm looking at my shed, which is fucking glorious right now. I mean, when I think of we're almost on the shed's one year anniversary of it being delivered. Yes. Now it is just out there like a castle. Would it be crazy for me to put in a floor? On the shed. I mean, it's got it's got a floor like it's it's got, you know, plywood flooring. But if I just decided, I mean, not nice, like I'm not going to go and get Brazilian cherry or something. That would be a crazy thing to do. And I'm not a crazy person, but I don't know, like some teak wood decking panels. Why? Or maybe it. Why? I don't just make it nicer. You're going to spend any time in that shed? It's a shed. You don't need it to be nicer. Why not?
Sonny00:19:27I have a question.
JVL00:19:28It's the roof on this shed with its HD shingles. It's so fucking good. It deserves a nicer floor.
Mike00:19:35I think I think I think you need to step away for a second, JVL. And let's think about what the point of the shed really is. It's to store your crap, right? Right. Yeah. Right.
Sonny00:19:48Just what if you put a TV out there, though?
Mike00:19:51OK, so it's a chair. It's a man shed. Because because because we're we're talking now about a completely different kind of structure.
Sonny00:19:57Talking about like a get like a lazy boy in there.
JVL00:20:00I mean, there's no reason it couldn't be that once I no longer have a million things to store in there because my children are grown.
Mike00:20:07So wait, then if that's the case, wait until you don't have the million things is all I'm saying before you put in nice floor.
JVL00:20:17You don't want to you don't want to work on the ventilation of this thing to show its excellent placement for the two ducts, the two the two vents are not duck and the air flow. In this because I did one up in a high gable and then one down on a side. And so it's I mean, I'm getting it. The air flow is going low to high and high to low. And it's just it's all coming together. It's all it is. Well, I'm happy. So we just did 20 minutes on this and I'm sorry, but I am legitimately excited and I love it. If you live in my area and you would like to do some roofing like you need to roof your shed, give me a call. I'll come over. We'll do it together. We'll see what Polly Walnuts has to say about that. I mean, look, I'll take care of him. I'll get a taste. You don't have to pay me, but I will pay Polly. So I'm allowed to help you with your shed.
Sonny00:21:10Everyone wins.
Mike00:21:11Hey, don't you hear what I said about laying pipe? All right, Sonny, what is going on with you? Thank you. What's going on with you?
Sonny00:21:19Not a whole lot. I had the most fun experience that any parent can have this this this evening. So we're taping. On Thursday at approximately two thirty three a.m., I hear coughing coming from one of the children's rooms and I go I go and first I go to my son's room because I thought it was coming out of his room and I'm like, hey, you want some water because he's caught is just coughing and he wakes up. He's like, what are you doing in here? Why? Why are you giving me? Sure, I'll take some water, I guess. What what's happening? So I give him the water and I think, OK, this is I've I've figured this out and as I'm walking away, I hear more coughing and then a mommy and then a splash. And I was like, oh, it wasn't my son. It was my daughter. And I go into her room and she has thrown up over the side of her bed. You know, she's got the tall, you know, not a bunk bed with a loft.
JVL00:22:17And she she throws up and she throws up splatter radius is probably quite large.
Sonny00:22:24It's not ideal. It would have been better if she was. It actually wasn't that it's not that bad because it's on the carpet.
JVL00:22:31So, you know, it doesn't really worse on the carpet because, you know, it's much worse to pick up.
Sonny00:22:36But like in terms of splash radius, it's just kind of carpet blunts.
Mike00:22:40The soaks in. Yeah.
Sonny00:22:45So anyway, she she threw up from like two thirty to seven this morning, which is just great. Just just which means I did not really sleep. I would get like just about asleep and then there's there it is again. So replacing. A lot of, you know, Kroger bags filled with vomit and then just bile. Just, you know, there's nothing in there after a while. So that was fun.
Mike00:23:08Please.
Sonny00:23:09That was fun. The best thing is we have a we have a live. We have a Bulwark live thing tonight here in Dallas. Very excited for it. And I would say there's like I would say I mean, I'm just like holding my breath because there's a 50 50 shot that I'm vomiting by the by the time that thing starts. I maybe I get maybe I get a full 24 hours. And it'll make it. But, you know, I might go go to the target and get some like whatever Pepto-Bismol. I don't know what you even take to not vomit. What's what is what are you what are your anti-vomit medicines? I don't I don't try to.
JVL00:23:43It's coming for you. It's coming for you. You can't stop it. I know that's that's the other direction.
Sonny00:23:48Yeah. I don't know. So anyway, that's what I'm looking forward to. Less exciting than the roof. But Mike, how are you doing?
JVL00:23:57Uh, just fine. I, um, I think you ever jerk off to watching guys installing roofs.
Sonny00:24:04Lord. Yes, obviously.
Mike00:24:08No, I put away.
JVL00:24:11I'm kidding because I put away watching other guys doing it. I jerk off to doing it.
Mike00:24:16I'm up there.
JVL00:24:17I'm gonna I'm gonna I'm gonna. All right.
Mike00:24:19I'm going to try to add. I'm going to try to add some wholesomeness to this sick and disgusting appropriately for the my fetish.
JVL00:24:27I've got a roof. Fetish episode.
Mike00:24:29Uh, no, I think I can safely say this because I don't think my son listens to the podcast. I hope he doesn't after that last exchange. Um, but, uh, I have just, uh, pulled the trigger on a, uh, plan to take my oldest who is turning 10 next week, uh, to take my oldest later in the year to the wizarding world of Harry Potter at the universal studios studios resort in Orlando. Uh, so the origins of this trip are that we decided at some point that each of our three kids would at upon turning age, the age 10, the age of 10, we would be able to sort of in a celebration of them reaching the end of their first decade on earth, go on a trip somewhere with one of their parents of their choosing somewhere in the contiguous 48 United States.
JVL00:25:32Oh, you put it on them to choose the parent. Hold on. Yeah.
Mike00:25:36Yeah.
JVL00:25:37That's fraught.
Mike00:25:38It's not really fraught.
JVL00:25:40It's not really fraught because like it's with whichever you like better, mommy or daddy.
Mike00:25:48Nobody's feelings are hurt. I would not be hurt if they did not pick me.
JVL00:25:51Um, but, um, that's a hundred percent a lie. If your 10 year old son had said to you, dad, I'd really rather mom take me to the Harry Potter world. A part of you would have died inside.
Mike00:26:04Yeah, it would have been fine. Like, whatever. Like, it's, it's fine. Like, I don't need, I don't need that. Um, I mean, I'm, I, I don't, don't get me wrong. I'm very much looking forward to it because yes, he did pick me. Um, and I'm looking forward to it, but, um. That's what the favorite parent would say. The plan, the plan is, um, sorry, the, the, the sort of the process for this was that it's up to them to provide a selection of three options and like pitch those options to us. So they pitch which parent and they pitch which three things they would like to do. And so, um.
JVL00:26:43Do they have to have a PowerPoint deck?
Mike00:26:45No, but that's exactly what, what my oldest did.
Sonny00:26:49Did you show them the first season of Mad Men? This is how you put it together. I've never seen it. I've never seen it. You don't want to sell, you don't sell people a product. You sell people an idea of themselves.
Mike00:27:02No, it's just, it's, it's a, it's a little project for them and it's, you know, get them to think, you know, and here I'm an idiot thinking. I love this idea. I'm an idiot thinking like, oh, like he's going to say, let's go to New York city or let's go on a hike somewhere. And, uh, because this, because I'm like, I, I guess I was pretending that my almost 10 years, um, I was a little surprised when his three options were, uh, the wizarding world of Harry Potter, Hershey park in Pennsylvania. And, um, what he described as super Mario world, which it's a, but it's like, it's like one place in universal studios, Hollywood. And it's like, it's like, it's like not even a place. It's like one.
Sonny00:27:57It's like a sub part of the park. Yeah. Right. But it's like, it's like, it's like galaxy's edge, but it hasn't even been fully built
Mike00:28:03out yet. It's like, it literally just one thing right now. And, um, so the choice was obvious. Let's, let's, let's go to Orlando rather than to, uh, LA and Hershey park. He even told me that was like his third, his third favorite of the three options. Um, and, uh, and so he's very into Harry Potter, uh, at this point in his life. So it all made sense. So then it was a question of how do we do this and when do we do this? Because, you know, there's, there's an election over the next two months. I'm going to be extremely busy, um, in my, in my day job doing that. Um, then you've got like November and December, which are sort of like the worst times to go. If you want to actually do something. Yeah. Rainy season theme parks. Yeah, exactly. Um, so we determined that. Um, randomly there is a day in the middle of the week on Wednesday at the end of January, which is, which the kids have off from school. It's like end of quarter student holiday. Um, I'm going to have to take him out of school for this trip. Like there's just no getting around that. Um, but it was sort of ideal because it's low traffic time for, for Orlando end of January, literally the last week of January, uh, middle of the week, also low traffic time. And, um, and it's kind of perfect. Like nothing is really going on. The only thing that could be going on is basketball season for, for youth basketball, but like big deal, you might have to miss practice. Um, so then the question was, what do, like, how, how do we do it? Where do we stay? Uh, how many days do we do the park? And I went back and forth and I'm not looking for advice on this because the decisions have already been made. So listeners out there are like, you can give me your. Tips on what to do once we're there, but we're doing this. Um, so the plan right now was to fly into Orlando on, on Tuesday night. So after school, after work, we have sort of a night flight into Orlando. We get to our hotel. We're staying at, I already don't like this. You don't like this already. All right.
JVL00:30:18Well, that's what's done is done. Cause if that flight is delayed and you don't get there to like two in the morning, he'll be a wreck the next day. Cause he won't have slept. It'll be fine.
Sonny00:30:27This happened the first time we went to Disney world. We, we had a, we, I mean, so what, uh, I, the, the very short version of the story was we had, we had a flight out of DFW, uh, into Orlando direct or no, it wasn't directed. It, I, we transferred somewhere. Um, and, uh, that got canceled and we had to, we ended up having to like at the last minute, get the last flight out of love field on Southwest. Like we just bought. Um, four more tickets and like, luckily we had the travel insurance and it covered like 98% of the cost or something. We got, we got like, anyway, we got most of that back, but the, uh, um, but the, uh, but yeah, that definitely is like a thing to consider. Just give yourself cushion to have like one last flight out.
Mike00:31:18Well, it's in case maybe, I mean, but here's the thing. The, the, the, the plan. I'm sorry. I derailed you. Keep, keep going.
JVL00:31:27Well, the plan allows for some leaky cauldron.
Mike00:31:31No, we're not saying the leaky cauldron with Madam Rosemary to, um, uh, uh, no, but, but the, the plan actually allows for some, some wiggle room in this travel and this, you know, travel disaster scenario you guys have laid out. Um, but we're staying on, we're staying at, uh, basically the least expensive, uh, resort hotel. So I got a pretty good deal on it and like. It's not within walking distance, but it's got the regular shuttles and.
Sonny00:32:02Is it like on the universal studios property?
Mike00:32:04It is a property. It's like, you know, I think it's technically across the street. Um, so there's like, there's the ones that are like on property. There are the ones that are like. Is it owned by universal? Yes. It's owned by universal. Um, and then there's like apparently some new ones that are like even farther away from it, but there are technically owned by universal. Um, but you know, we've, I, I, my, my, my calculation on that is I don't care about the hotel as it's like a place for us to sleep. It's not, you know, we're not spending time at the pool and all that stuff. Um, and then we're doing, we, we bought the three day to park park to park tickets. So we will essentially be able to go on. So the way I've been told it works is you've got some Harry Potter stuff in the, uh, universal studio. You got some Harry Potter stuff in the islands of adventure and to go between them is the, is the Hogwarts train and you got to have the park to park pass to go between them. So that's primarily what we're there for the Harry Potter stuff. So we've got the park to park pass. Um, we're going to be there Wednesday. We're going to be there Thursday. We're checking out from our hotel on Friday morning, but we have a ticket to continue, uh, attending the parks on Friday and the late flight out of Orlando on Friday. So that if there was one extra thing we wanted to do, we could do that. If we wanted to take it easy on Friday or whatever. So we basically like, I think we can do this, everything we want to do in like two days. So we have this extra buffer of, of three days, uh, of a third day. And, uh, and then we'll fly out and then it's a Friday night flight out next day, Saturday. It's the weekend anyway. So that's the plan. Tell me how wrong I did. One piece of advice.
JVL00:34:04Uh, you got to book your appointment at all of Anders or the web choosing ceremony or yes, the wand choosing. Yes. I've heard about this is the thing, which is the show stopping event in which I assume you'll have to mortgage your third child for, but, uh, but is what I've heard from people who've done it one. A hundred percent worth it.
Mike00:34:28Yeah. I've heard that as well.
JVL00:34:30It has to be booked in advance to get on that right now. That's my only, that's my only advice. Otherwise I love it. I love everything about this.
Mike00:34:36So I'm, it's the key thing is, is it's sort of the only time, like, I mean, there's maybe a future where our entire family goes to one of these theme parks, but I doubt it. Um, it just does not seem, it's not something that like we're super into and, um, too big an age spread. And the age spread is too big. Uh, exactly.
Sonny00:35:00So yeah, that's, that's, that's a hard one. So it's expensive too. I mean, buying tickets for buying tickets for all of them is, is expensive.
Mike00:35:08It's expensive for two people.
Sonny00:35:10Yeah, no, I mean, it's, it's like, it's crazy how expensive these places are now. Uh, like I was, I, uh, through a confluence of events, like the Disney, Disneyland having discounted ticket prices and like a sale. On Southwest flights, I was like pricing it out just for like a, a, like almost spur of the moment, not quite spur of the moment, but it would have been like, it would have been right after the election and it would have been like the perfect time to go before Thanksgiving after the election. And I was like, eh, and it still would have been like, it still would have cost like with the, just the tickets alone would have been like a thousand bucks for two days at the parks or three days at the parks or something. I mean, it was like, it was like, it was, it was just an, uh, uh, it was an unreason. And that was before you get into like the, you know, fast passes and stuff like that. Like it was just an unreasonable amount of money for, uh, for like an extra bonus vacation. Right.
Mike00:36:08Right.
Sonny00:36:08Are you, does universal studios have some, I assume they have, they have like an express
Mike00:36:12pass. I'm, I'm again, we are sort of, so the other thing about this is like my oldest is not, I, I am, I am not, this trip is not dependent on this. I am hopeful that. Sort of his, um, he has kind of a, uh, slight fear of thrill rides, but also like he's intrigued by them and kind of wants to do them, but it's maybe not entirely brave enough yet. And so our trip will not depend on him, you know, getting, getting brave about those things between now and then, like we will have a good time without it, but I'm also hoping that he wants to do some of those. And if he does. Like, we're going to be there long enough that like, if we have to go back on Friday morning and stand in line for an hour and a half to ride one of the rides that we didn't get to, or he wanted to do again, like, that's fine. Like I, I, I am, this is a trip that I am hoping, uh, there will be like zero pressure on me to like fit it all in because like, there's either no way we can fit it all in or we'll have enough time to fit it all in or. Like, I don't know. I'm, I'm trying to be very copacetic about, about the whole thing and just make sure that like he, the, the, the, the wonder of it, like the ooh and the ah of, of it, which we've already paid for, right? Like it's the walking through the stuff that's going to see all the, the castle and the train and all that stuff. Yeah. That's already paid for. Everything else is, is gravy, I hope, but I could be wrong.
Sonny00:37:53That'll be fun. That'll be a fun trip.
JVL00:37:55Yay.
Mike00:37:56All right. Five minutes in. We got to talk about something. Um, okay. So let's talk about the box office. Number one, once more this weekend, Deadpool and Wolverine at number one. Uh, it is just, just South. Am I correct? Just South of 600 million.
Sonny00:38:16No, it's over 600 million.
Mike00:38:18It's over 600 now, but over from the past weekend.
Sonny00:38:21You know, you know what, you know what the, the nicest story of the summer is the, uh, performance of twisters, which continue, which added, which lost 10% of its screens. But I think it picked up some, uh, some of the large format screens, the, you know, IMAXs and things like that. Uh, so it, it ended up adding like 26% weekend over weekend, um, in its seventh week weekend, which is very good. You know, that doesn't happen a ton. Um, and that, you know, it's up to 258 million. It'll probably get around to 75, something like that. Uh, which is, you know, that's a, that's a solid number. Good for, good for Glenn Powell and the, the twisters team.
Mike00:39:00Absolutely.
Sonny00:39:01I'd like to see it happen.
Mike00:39:02Uh, number four, the, uh, this past weekend is the Reagan movie.
Sonny00:39:06Um, yeah, it's, it's interesting. I've heard, I've heard mixed things, uh, in terms of, so it had the worst trailer I've ever seen in my life. Like, I don't know if you guys saw the trailer for it. It looks so bad for the trailer. It's genuinely, it's like a parody. It's like a parody of a conservative movie. And like, I say that as, you know, look, I'm a, I'm a, I like movies with conservative themes, et cetera. But, you know, there is a sub-genre of film that's like Christian conservative movie. And this was, it felt like a, just an absolute parody of that. Um, uh, but, uh, you know, I've, I've heard from some, some people who I trust that it's actually not terrible that it's, that it's, that it's, you know, I mean, it's got a good cast. Dennis Quaid, good actor. Dennis Quaid is, uh, that guy can, that guy can act up, uh, act up a storm. Cap as, as Frank Sinatra. I don't know if you guys saw this.
Mike00:40:00Hold me now.
Sonny00:40:01Uh, but no, I haven't seen it. John Voight, the actor. I haven't seen it.
Mike00:40:04Not the periodontist. Um, so yeah. Well, all right. Um, any other box office thoughts? No.
JVL00:40:13No, let's move on so I can obliterate this beloved classic. How dare you?
Mike00:40:17Well, we are talking, we are moving on and we're talking about Beetlejuice because Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice is in theaters now. The 37th. 36 years in between sequel, uh, from the original 1988 class, Tim Burton, classic Beetlejuice Sonny. You want to give us a beloved box office hit. Uh, do you want to give us a review of this 36 year old movie?
Sonny00:40:42I want to talk about, I want to Beetlejuice directed by Tim Burton starring Michael Keaton. I want to, I want to talk about something I find very interesting about Beetlejuice and, uh, it's not, it's not the, it's not the director or the star really. It's the, it's the director. It's one of the writers, a guy named Warren Skerrin, who, uh, is, he was, he was based in Austin, Texas. He worked out of Austin, Texas, and he was basically, he was one of the great studio ghost writers, script doctors, uh, of the 1980s. So Skerrin, uh, did an uncredited rewrite on Top Gun that everybody in town like credited with saving the movie, like turned it into a huge hit. He added, you know. The romantic subplot and, and got the, got the lingo down, et cetera, et cetera. Uh, but he's like, he's the guy who everyone said, like, Top Gun is a hit because of him, even though he did not get credit in the WGA arbitration. There was a big fight over who got credit for that. Uh, and then he, you know, he did some other stuff and then he-
Mike00:41:47Beverly Hills Cops, Cop 2, right?
Sonny00:41:49He gets, he gets, he, he, he's picking up credits. He's picking up big checks, you know, he's making, you know, six figures, low six figures and high six figures, uh, for these, for this work. Uh, and then, uh, someone at Warner Brothers, uh, sends him the screenplay for, um, for Beetlejuice and he, he basically, he takes it over and essentially does two big things.
JVL00:42:12At this point, it's mostly a horror. Well, it was- Largely a horror movie with some comedic elements.
Sonny00:42:18Yes. And it, and instead he turns it into essentially, you know, a comedy. He turns it into a comedy with, with some horror elements, basically. That's the broadest sense. Broadest strokes. But he comes in and he simplifies it. What he does is he simplifies it. He really, he narrows the, the film down to what studios did the best in the 1980s, which is a high concept, uh, comedy or a high concept movie, right? So that the concept of Beetlejuice is basically newly dead couple is condemned to haunt their beloved house for 125 years and hates the couple that moves in and wants to get rid of them. So they call up a terrible presence, Beetlejuice, to get rid of them. And that's, that's it. That's, that's the whole movie. It's only 92 minutes. It's pretty, it's pretty short. It's, uh, but it, the simplicity of it, the simplicity of it is what allows Tim Burton to hang all of his Tim Burton-y stuff on it. Like the set designs and the weird sculptures and the character designs and the, and the, all the humor with Michael Keaton. This is another thing he did. He came in. So the movie, again, this is like a perfect example of a 1980s high concept studio hit. They, the, they make the movie. They shoot the movie. They test screen it for audiences. Audiences like it. And they like the Michael Keaton stuff so much that the studio's like, you need to write more scenes for Michael Keaton and we'll shoot him and we'll put him in. And like that, you know, that's how, that's how they did it. And it's, it's, it all pays off. It's an enormous hit. Everybody loves it. And then they work together on, they re-teamed Burton, Skerrin and Keaton re-teamed on Batman. The, the original writer was a guy named Sam Hamm, I believe. Skerrin comes in and. Does, does script work on that. Runs lines with Jack Nicholson and, and Michael Keaton. And, and it's, you know, it's interesting. And then he dies like a year later. He dies in 1990. He, he had cancer. He had some, some sort of horrible disease. He, he tried to treat with, you know, nuts and berries and stuff. Turned out didn't, didn't do well for him. But he, but he's a really interesting guy. And he is like, he's emblematic of, of a period in the, in the industry. And look, script doctors still exist. Right. It's not like, it's not like they've stopped sending this new Minecraft movie. Apparently had 40 different teams of writers work. I don't know if you guys saw the trailer for it, but I, a friend of mine online was like, I'm really curious to see what the credits are on this. Because the last I saw, there were something like 40 different writing teams that had been attached to it at one point or another. So like, this is a thing that happens. This is, this is, this is a thing that happens.
Mike00:44:50Thomas Lennon and Robert Ben Grant are like a great script.
Sonny00:44:53They do. They do a real good job with it. And in their, their books. That's very interesting too. I'm sorry. I'm getting into the weeds a little bit. It's funny. I read their book because I was, I was interested to get their take on how it works. And their, their big thing was in the WGA arbitration, if you want to get credit and if that means more residuals, et cetera, et cetera. WGA doesn't care about dialogue. They don't care about new passes on dialogue. They want elements. They want characters. They want sets. They want. So what happens, what ends up happening? And frankly, what ended up happening to Beetlejuice Beetlejuice is that you end up with. These overstuffed movies with too many characters and too many discreet locations and too many, just too much stuff going on. And this was, this was a genius of Beetlejuice again, was it was narrow. It narrowed everything down. They removed characters. The, in the original draft of the screenplay, there were two Dietz children. There were two Dietz children. Instead, there's just one and they kind of condensed all of the, um, he, he worked with the original screenwriter a little bit, but they condensed, you know, the, the two children into one and then even then the executives in charge were like, we need to be more specific with her. Is she like a punk? Is she goth? Is she a poet? Like what's, what's her, we need that. And they, and, and that is one thing that this movie does very well. You can, you know, within like two minutes, what, uh, what, what kind of kid she is, what kind of kid she is, what, um, so, uh, anyway, that I, I find this, I find this all very fascinating. Just as backstory, the movie itself, I look, I know JBL is going to be a hater here. He's going to talk about how much, how terrible Tim. Burton is and how he's a hack and everything, but he, he's perfectly suited for this material, this kind of weird, um, supernatural horror comedy stuff. His design aesthetic works perfectly with the ridiculous yuppies who move in from New York city to this, you know, bucolic Connecticut town. Uh, and it's got, it's got like an underrated element of why this movie succeeds is that it has two incredibly hot movie stars in it. Gina Davis and Alec Baldwin is the ghost couple, you know, they're just like. They are just attractive to look at.
Mike00:46:58Gina Davis is so cute in this movie.
Sonny00:47:01And, and on top of that, and on top of that, you have, uh, you have Michael Keaton who, you know, great performance from Michael Keaton over the top, whatever. I love, I love Michael Keaton in this movie as Beetlejuice, but then you have Catherine O'Hara who, uh, of course was an alum of SCTV. She's very funny. She has a great physical sensibility to her and Jeffrey Jones who had, who had, who had gotten his start in more, uh, dramatic roles. But like, I would argue. I would argue Amadeus is actually kind of a very funny role. I don't know. I don't know when the last time you guys watched Amadeus is, but he's very funny as the emperor in it. Kind of like Aryan aloof. Um, and of course he was in, uh, you know, Ferris Bueller's Day Off and, uh, he's great. Uh, of course we don't talk about him anymore because of the unpleasantness with the child pornography. We don't, we don't, we don't talk about that. Uh, but he, he's very good in this movie. I, the, the whole thing just, just sings. It just goes from scene to scene. It zips along at 92 minutes. It's perfect. Perfect movie. One of the best movies of the 1980s. Beloved by all.
JVL00:48:07If not the best.
Sonny00:48:09Beloved by all people.
Mike00:48:13All right, Sonny. Thank you very much.
JVL00:48:15Sonny, did you like the stage musical version as well?
Sonny00:48:19I did not see the stage. I interviewed a guy who was in the stage musical version, uh, for, for my podcast, but I did not, I did not ever actually go. See it. Apparently it's very different from the movie.
JVL00:48:29Michael, you, you loved it. This is a beloved talisman from your childhood.
Mike00:48:35Come back to me. Cause I have, I, cause I want to mediate this, this, what the, this conflict that we're about to.
JVL00:48:41I just, uh, I mean, look, I don't like it. And part of that is a me problem because I don't like, I don't like gross visuals. This movie thrives on gross visuals. And there are people who, for whom that's great. I'm not one of them. Uh, Alec Baldwin is great. I mean, he's basically playing his part as if he's Jimmy Stewart. And, and like, he's a, he's a great straight man throughout this performance by Michael Keaton, who I really, really like as an actor and always have. Um, I mean, I fucking liked him in gung ho. I was like, Oh, that guy's awesome. I love him. Right. Loved him in everything. He bears responsibility for Jim Carrey's entire fucking career because of this movie.
Sonny00:49:35Because who's great.
JVL00:49:37Jim Carrey saw Beetlejuice. Good job, Michael Keaton.
Sonny00:49:40And just thought Jim Carrey, the beloved comic actor from the 1990s.
JVL00:49:45Jim Carrey, who is the, the worst.
Sonny00:49:48Oh my God. I hate Jim Carrey. What? I'm doing, I'm literally, I'm literally the guy. I'm the mean. I'm the meme from the Conan, uh, the Conan, uh, interview where the guy's like, uh, Jeffrey Epstein, the, the real estate developer. That's me right now with you and Jim Carrey and Michael Keaton and Beetlejuice.
JVL00:50:10You legitimately like Jim Carrey?
Sonny00:50:13I love Jim Carrey. Jim Carrey's great. Dumb and Dumber. Great.
Mike00:50:18Ace Ventura.
Sonny00:50:19Ace Ventura.
JVL00:50:20Great. You know, if he just, uh, pulls enough faces and shouts loud enough and goes. Over the top and everybody will laugh.
Sonny00:50:29You're Tommy Lee Jones from the set of Batman forever who stopped. They go to dinner one night and, and, and Jim Carrey goes up to say hi to him and Tommy Lee Jones stops him. Tommy Lee Jones, Harvard man stops him and says, I cannot sanction your buffoonery and just embarrasses him in front of everyone. That's you right now.
JVL00:50:51Jim Carrey just doesn't like to have fun. I don't, I don't appreciate it. I don't, I don't, I don't. I don't like the sound effects. Whenever Beetlejuice, Michael Keaton, like looks into his pocket and you get the trombone or the slide whistle, like you're in some fucking, like we're still in Pee-Wee's Playhouse. Like we are still in Pee-Wee's Playhouse.
Sonny00:51:11Did you not like Pee-Wee's Big Adventure?
JVL00:51:14I didn't like any of those things. I don't, I don't, I don't care for those things.
Mike00:51:19All right. Sorry, JVL.
JVL00:51:20No, there are only two good things about this movie. Yeah. One of them is Alec Baldwin's straight man. The other is Winona Ryder. Who is it? I just, since Heather's, I have had a thing for Winona Ryder that has lasted. I don't know. We did some terrible action movie years ago. That she was in. Like Winona Ryder's in it. It's like a strung out heroin addicted girlfriend. And yet she was still crazy, ultra hot Winona Ryder. I just love Winona Ryder. She's great in everything.
Sonny00:51:53She is like, she's your aide. Like you guys. You guys are basically the same age, right? Yeah, I think so. You were, because you were what when, you were what when Beetlejuice came out? Probably 15, 16?
JVL00:52:0512.
Sonny00:52:0612? No. Okay, she's probably a little older. 1988?
JVL00:52:1188? Yeah, so I was 14. I was 14.
Mike00:52:15Yeah, that makes sense. All right. So, so you just don't, you just don't like the grossness.
JVL00:52:20I don't care for it. Okay. And I, I don't, I really don't care for the. Uh, the over the topness of it and the, the, I really don't care for the Michael Keaton performance, which is again, as I said, it is like watching proto Jim Carrey. And I don't mean that in a good way. Uh, I, I'm sorry. I had thought it was accepted that Jim Carrey was a buffoon and that was not actually funny, but maybe that was just me operating under an assumption that all people of taste recognized.
Sonny00:52:56You guys think that he's false assumption.
JVL00:52:58He's a great, I don't know. Maybe you looked at his work in Sonic, the hedgehog and Sonic, the hedgehog too, and said, boy, that guy get him an Oscar.
Mike00:53:09Uh, first of all, never saw either of the Sonic, the hedgehog movies. And by the way, we're talking about Jim Carrey. We're not actually talking about Jim Carrey, but if we're going to talk about Jim Carrey, we're talking about Jim Carrey of the nineties when he was at the peak of his powers, right?
Sonny00:53:211994 box office star in the world. Cause people loved him.
Mike00:53:24He was fucking horrible. He's great. Are you kidding? Dumb and dumber.
JVL00:53:28We have had so many people like this, right? We, we went through a Will Ferrell phase when Will Ferrell, Will Ferrell, also great. He's also listen, listen, we went through an Adam Sandler phase where Adam, Adam Sandler and Adam Sandler and Will Ferrell's things that they did were great. Jim Carrey's thing that he does is absolute lowest common denominator buffoonery.
Sonny00:53:53You can't, you cannot say. All right, Tommy Lee.
Mike00:53:56Don't like it. All right. Well, I have to, I have to side with Sonny on this. I find this movie delightful and it's interesting to watch it. I don't know when the last time I saw this movie, it was probably when I was a teenager. But of course, because of my age, I came to Beetlejuice initially through the animated series, which was on, I think Fox kids. And, you know, one sort of rotation, probably syndication, maybe not first run. But like the, the, the theme is the, is the, is the Danny Elfman theme. You know, it's basically. Great theme in this movie.
Sonny00:54:37The music in this movie is wonderful.
Mike00:54:39It's fantastic. It's like, it fits perfectly. And it's like, you, you can't believe that it, it, it, it has the, the hallmark, I think of a good tune or a good score or a good song, which is you can't believe that it wasn't written before. Like it just, it, it, it all, it just sounds like something that is, that, that has always been around. I think that's the hallmark of good, of good music or a hallmark. So the theme to the, the animated show, and it was basically, it's like Beetlejuice and Lydia, like go on adventures and like the, the, the neither world and, and do things. Yes, go ahead.
Sonny00:55:18Can I, because I, this is one reason why I've always been vaguely annoyed by the cartoon, despite I, like, I also, I wouldn't say that.
Mike00:55:25I'm sure it's not good. Like I, I don't, I haven't seen it.
Sonny00:55:27No, no, no, no, no. But it's, it's, it's all wrong. It's all, the, the, the premise of the, of the cartoon is Lydia and Beetlejuice are friends and have wacky adventures together. Yes, totally. And the movie, he's a terrifying, I mean, he's not terrifying really, but he's, he's a, he's a presence of chaos and destruction. He's like trying to get her to marry him against her will. I mean, it's like.
JVL00:55:49So, so I totally agree. In the first script, he just wanted to fuck her.
Sonny00:55:54Yeah.
JVL00:55:55One of the changes that, uh. That your boy brought into it, Sonny, was changing it. She's too young for that. They have to be married. Maybe, maybe the demon should not be trying to, to nail the teenage girl. Maybe we should just make it a bride thing. Yeah.
Mike00:56:07Uh, so, but, but my point in bringing that up was that. So when I eventually.
JVL00:56:13How could you blame Beetlejuice?
Mike00:56:15When I eventually saw the movie, it was sort of a revel. It was like, oh, this is like, this is better than what I thought Beetlejuice was. Do you know what I mean? It was sort of. It was sort of like, this is, this is a, you know, which as a kid, like you don't understand that there are, you know, they make an animated series after a popular movie. It's going to be different, but I, you know, so that was sort of a revelation. So, um, I always remember thinking like, wow, Beetlejuice was sort of contained more than I had initially thought. Um, but rewatching it for, for this show, um, a couple of thoughts strike me again. I think I already said this, Gina Davis, like she's just, she looks, she looks great. She looks great in this movie. Um, I, I, I big, big fan, big fan, big fan. Um, the, the Maitland's are really stupid, which is something Beetlejuice says early on. Um, when he's like, when he looks up at the, in the obituary, uh, meet, uh, on the obituary page, he's like, oh, they look stupid. But like, I didn't appreciate until this viewing, like how many, like basically how they screw up the whole time. And they're kind of dumb about it and they don't read the manual and all this stuff, like, which. I just thought it was very funny. And it's like, you know, it, it makes them, it, it's an interesting choice to do with the characters because it, it, it just heightens the comedy of it. And it makes like everything surrounding there. Like it makes you almost forget like, okay, this is a nice couple. They hint that they can't have children, uh, that they wanted children, but they couldn't have children. And it's like, it, it takes all of the weight off of it. And it just kind of makes it, makes it comic. Um, it helps make it comic. Um, so I, I really liked that. I, I, I actually timed this. It's like, it's like there, there are a couple. So there's like the, there's his voice and then there's the TV commercial, but you don't actually sort of like see Beetlejuice in a, in a full fledged scene until like 40 minutes into the movie. Um, which is, uh, also interesting. It's like the, the movie's named after him and, and he's not the hero, you know, he's like, he's not even really the anti here. It's just like this. He's kind of this, as you said, agent of chaos. He's a, he is. The villain. Um, I mean, a lovable scamp. Isn't the villain though. Isn't the villain, the, um, it's maybe Otho, I think, um, Beetlejuice is a scamp.
Sonny00:58:38Everybody's supposed to love the villain is yuppie dumb. I mean, really, this is like the, the villain is like the 1980s, uh, aesthetic invading America.
Mike00:58:48That's the 1980s, New York in America with a sub villain or, or a sort of secondary villain being the bureaucracy. Of, of the undead, which is such a brilliant concept. And I loved and appreciated it so much more on this view.
Sonny00:59:05There's it's, it's so funny too, because there's so much stuff in this movie. You simply like, we talk about the things you couldn't do today. And one of the things you could not do today is have an entire running gag in the movie about how, if you commit suicide, you get punished this way. They literally, you, the, the, the whole, this whole thing is in the sequel and they just don't do the suicide part of it. It's like, that's interesting. That's not part of it. You just, if you die, you, some of you wind up in the bureaucracy, um, the, okay.
Mike00:59:36So then the, um, other elements of this movie that I love. So the, I think this is sort of the perfect use of Tim Burton's weirdness, which I think we've discussed on the show, or you guys have certainly discussed on the show. Like Tim Burton left to his own devices is a disaster. Like he is too, he's too. Uh, uh, enamored with his own weird sense, like weirdness that it's just, it's too much, but this is, this was sort of perfectly channeled Tim Burton this, um, the way. So first of all, the actual house itself before the yuppies move up there is Tim Burton, right? Like it's, it's, it's like tall and angular and sitting up on the hill. And then I love the sculptures and additions, you know, grafted on to the side of the house. Once the, once the, once, uh, Jeffrey Jones and Catherine O'Hara move up, it's just, it's, it's delightful. And it's actually kind of, it's, it's light. It's like a light Tim Burton-y touch. It's not too Tim Burton-y. Um, and it, it kind of grounds it in a realism, but it's also ridiculous and over the top. Um, the, it's funny that you mentioned not liking the grossness JVL because the grossness is, I think it's pretty tame actually. It's pretty cartoonish. I think that it's, and it's pretty, it's, it's even the scary stuff is played for laughs. Um, and I don't care for it.
JVL01:01:04Um, all right.
?01:01:04All right.
Mike01:01:05Um, I also just think this is like, I love the, the, the length of the movie, the, um, the just various elements, like the use of Harry Belafonte's music in it. It's just, it's that it's the kind of thing that they weren't planning on it, but it, it, it makes it distinct. And, uh, and it's like another element that makes this movie distinct and sort of the realm of like comedy movies from, from this period. It's like, oh yeah. It's like, let's add on another thing, which is like Calypso music. Like who, like why Calypso music in 1988? I don't know. It's not like it was popular. It's not like it was on the radio. It's just like a quirky little addition. And, uh, like every time those songs come on, it's, uh, I think of this movie, so, um, I kind of love it. I kind of horrified to think. Of what Beetlejuice Beetlejuice is like, because you've seen it, Sonny. Like, I don't care to see it. It's bad. It, it sounds, it looks bad. It looks like every other nostalgia trip, sequel, reboot, whatever. And I hate that. It's going to be an entree for a lot of people into this movie.
Sonny01:02:17Yeah. No, I mean, look, the problem with the, the sequel is that it, uh, is that it, again, it, it takes all of the things that worked about. Again, specifically what scare and did to the, uh, to the, to the film. It takes all the things he did to the script and like throws them out the window and it's like, you know what we need? We need 17 subplots and none of them can be resolved satisfactorily. And we're going to have three different love stories, not, not a triangle, not three people in love with the three separate running on separate tracks. It just, it's the whole thing is a disaster. The whole thing.
Mike01:02:53Is there any Alec Baldwin in it?
Sonny01:02:55No. So it's, so there, there are two, there, there are two notable omissions. The first is Jeffrey Jones, which again, like he obviously with his pornography stuff, they don't want, they don't want him anywhere near this, but he, but you can't just write him out of the movie by killing him. Right? Like, because it's a movie about the movie about the afterlife. So like the increasingly ridiculous lengths they go to, to keep him actually out of the movie is kind of funny in a, in a, in a horrifying meta sort of way. Like in initially we see, we see him. Uh, so we, so if spoilers in the movie, he dies, but the way he dies is told through claymation, so he's not ever actually on the screen. And then when he is, uh, when, when his plane crashes, it crashes into the water, he survives the plane crash. But when, when the plane goes down, he gets eaten by a shark from the top half. So like, he's wandering around the afterlife, but it's just his torso. It's like, perfect. It's like, it's, it's funny. And, uh, and, and the, uh, and the, the Maitland's are not in the movie either. And I swear, I, I, I like, I wanted to throw something at the screen. There's a Winona Ryder has a line. Literally. She has a line that I wrote it down, but I don't have my notebook here. The line is like, we found a loophole and they were able to move on. That's literally what she says. And Jenna, Emperor Palpatine returned Jenna Ortega, who is her daughter says, uh, Oh, that's convenient. I almost screamed at the screen. Yeah, it is. It is convenient. Isn't it? That we're not explaining any of this, just saying it. It was, I was like, but again, like I, I, you know, I don't know how much depth you really need to get into to be like the Maitland's aren't here because Alec Baldwin and Gina Davis are too old to reprise these roles.
JVL01:04:44I really wanted coherent rules for this universe. I feel, you know, I feel very cheated by it.
Sonny01:04:49Yeah. You don't get any of that.
Mike01:04:51So, all right. Any other thoughts on the bad movie? You're wrong. The original is a great movie. This one's a bad movie.
Sonny01:04:59The original is, the original Beetlejuice is a perfect distillation of what everything the studios were doing right in the 1980s. It is, it is. Totally agree with that. You have the weirdo director who is corralled by the studios who bring in the proper screenwriters to get the script into shape with, with actors who you like in all sorts of roles. I mean, it's, and it's 92 minutes. You're in and out. It's perfect. It's a perfect movie.
JVL01:05:26Any other thoughts? I'd rather be proofing. I would, I would rather be up on a roof installing shingles than watch that fucking thing again.
Mike01:05:34Ridiculous. Good Lord. All right. Well, that is all the time we are going to give to this episode. Join us over at subbeacon.com and we will talk to you next time. Uh, yeah, but Jeffrey Jones, um, by the way, it's, it's. It's Rooney in Ferris Bueller. It's just like, it's one of the great just performances and character, like everything about that performance is great. Um, and, um, the other place I think of when I think of, uh, Jeffrey Jones, no, is the past October. He's great. I know the past. Remember the past John Leguizamo it's a retelling of the, uh, most dangerous game. And if you want to. I think to me, I think John, John Leguizamo is what you think Jim Carrey is.
Sonny01:06:31Yeah. 100%. Yeah.
Mike01:06:33It's like John Leguizamo is like an attempt to do Jim Carrey, but not funny.
JVL01:06:39I mostly do not like, I mostly do not care for John Leguizamo.
Mike01:06:42Yeah. But like, that's what I think you're, you dislike, you just like Jim Carrey, but Jim Carrey is actually good at it.
Sonny01:06:50Like different strokes for different folks, but, uh, I'm, I'm just, I'm just, you know, Beetlejuice good, Jim Carrey good. We should do a, we should do a Jim Carrey retrospective. We can do the 1990s, Jim Carrey's 1990s.
Mike01:07:03I just found out, I just found out this week that my wife, who's the same age as I am, has never seen the mask, never seen it. And she has no interest. She would agree with you JBL.
JVL01:07:12She does not like Jim Carrey. She's been cheated by the culture.
Sonny01:07:15The mask. You guys, I can't, I can't believe this is a bit. You guys are totally. There's, there's a shot in the mask where the camera just goes up her legs and they go.
Mike01:07:25I know that shot.
Sonny01:07:28That was a, that was an important shot for me. Very important shot. That was a 12 year old.
Mike01:07:34I'm sure it's fine.
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