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#27. The Substandard on Red Eye, Ragnarok, and Michael Caine
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Dudes Chatting — Michael Caine: The main segment is a deep-dive into Michael Caine's career, organized around the "Caine-Hackman Theory" (coined in the movie PCU): that any movie on basic cable is made better by the presence of either Michael Caine or Gene Hackman. The hosts first work through their "basic cable classics" lists — JVL names the Tom Clancy movies, The Shawshank Redemption, and the Mission: Impossible franchise; Sonny picks Shattered Glass and Hook; Vic goes for The 40-Year-Old Virgin and Forgetting Sarah Marshall. The Caine deep-dive follows: Sonny offers his millennial-era canon (The Muppet Christmas Carol, Children of Men, Harry Brown, the Nolan Batman trilogy, The Prestige), JVL nominates Miss Congeniality as a serious entry, and Vic brings up Dressed to Kill and Deathtrap. Sonny recounts a real-life interview he conducted with Caine, lending the episode a personal dimension. The hosts also eulogize the cancellation of Fox News's Red Eye and pay tribute to Andy Levy. The Thor: Ragnarok trailer gets a brief airing at the end; Sonny worries the comedic tone is all wrong for the character.
Reviews: Vic reviewed Going in Style — the Michael Caine geriatric caper remake — and found it cute but insubstantial. Sonny grades it a B-minus.
Box Office: Boss Baby topped the chart; Beauty and the Beast remained strong.
The episode includes a Corrections segment and closes with the Spirit of the Week: High West Double Rye.
Full transcript
Guest00:00:00Hi, this is Bill Kristol. Normal Americans are watching baseball. You're listening to this podcast. What does that say about you? You're not doing it with the kind of... and you don't do the broken voice. But it gets very emotional. But it gets very emotional indeed. She was only 16 years old. She was only 16. You're only supposed to blow the bloody doors off. That's Michael Caine.
Vic00:00:49Hello and welcome back to The Substandard. I'm Victor Matus along with Jonathan V. Last and Sonny Bunch. I'd like to remind you that The Substandard is available on iTunes and Google Play. Just look at our website. Just look at our podcasts and search for Substandard. You'll easily find us. Please subscribe. Tell your friends. Leave her a view. In addition, we'd also like to remind you that The Substandard show notes posted by Jonathan Last are available every Friday at 11 a.m. at weeklystandard.com. Speaking of reviews, gentlemen, the floodgates have opened. At Last Can't, we have something like 158 starred reviews, 113 comments, customer comments. Keep them coming. Those customer reviews have been great. They've been great. They've been valuable. In fact, I think we're going to take it to the next level at this episode. Isn't that right, JVL?
JVL00:01:37Yes. EvilMikeD gave us our 100th written review. EvilMike, you should email me or tweet at one of us or something, because I have a little something for you. And also, I would like to ... Some of the reviews are really funny. People have put more than five seconds of their time into thinking about them, and I would like to reward people for that.
Sonny00:01:57JVL, that's very beneficent. Well, I'm a kind-hearted person who likes people. Unlike who in this room? Vic likes people.
JVL00:02:10So, I had a couple reviews that I thought should be nominated for best review of the week. I was going to toss them out to you boys and see if you have any other nominations.
Sonny00:02:18Can you just pick one? I think we should do one each. Okay.
Vic00:02:24JVL, you go. Same one, but go for it.
JVL00:02:26Vic, what time is it? It's 538. Harry, kill. Sonny, JVL, Vic.
Vic00:02:33I saw that review, and I wasn't sure if it meant that it's corresponding to each one, or we all get three in a row.
Sonny00:02:41I would assume that the F and the M and the K correspond to the order of the people. Yes.
JVL00:02:48Oh, great.
Sonny00:02:50First off, obviously, that's the right choice. I mean, there's nothing... It's totally in reverse, man. No, no, no, no.
Vic00:02:57What a jip. I know, that's political. That's a slur. That is a slur. I'm sorry. This is why you get killed. This is why you get killed, Vic. That's why I'm not going to Slovakia anytime soon.
JVL00:03:06So that is S. Ruttman. That's my nomination for best review of the week.
Sonny00:03:09Thank you. Go ahead, Sonny. My review is from Tom Cleveland. Gives us five stars. Sonny Bunch is right. Although Sonny Bunch has the reputation for being wrong about everything, when you think about it, he's actually right about everything. That's a good review. That's a... More reviews like that.
Vic00:03:26It's a very fine review. More reviews like that, people. You're like Diana Ross when she went to the Supremes, and then it was no longer the Supremes, and then it was just her alone. Just Diana Ross. That's what's happening over here.
JVL00:03:38Did you notice, Vic, the number of reviews that mention and point out Sonny by name? Clearly the breakout star. Way too many. No, this is what's happening here.
Vic00:03:48You're like the Huey Lewis of Huey Lewis and the News.
JVL00:03:50In Friends, he's the... What would his Friends analog be? Jennifer Aniston. Sonny is the Jennifer Aniston of the show.
Vic00:03:59I'm like the guy... The bald guy in the coffee shop. Gunther. Gunther. I think that's me. Okay. All right, so pick one. Who's getting the special parting prize? I guess...
JVL00:04:10S. Ruttman? Yeah, I think that's... Okay. S. Ruttman, who has you here.
Sonny00:04:15Two to one against me? My... Oh, come on.
JVL00:04:17You should email me or tweet at one of us, and I'll get you something nice. Good. Yeah. Laminated? Hey, now. Other than that... I think we all know what that means. How was your weekend, JVL? On a scale of one to ten, where one is an Atari Jaguar, and ten is the original Nintendo Entertainment System, I'm a Sega Dreamcast. And let me tell you why. Uh-oh. I got a little something in the mail. He's taking something out. Oh, no. A little something came in the mail today.
Vic00:04:47It's the Prana Spring Catalog. There's a half-naked dude on the cover. What's going on? This is you?
JVL00:04:54No, what's... It's Prana. These are the genes. They're in here. This is all... This is totally cool. It's on the level, guys.
Vic00:05:01I mean, there's... Why didn't you bring in your Dolce & Gabbana catalog? Why didn't you bring in that one? There's a reason that the... I think it's here for you boys.
Sonny00:05:07There's a reason that, like, the Zac Efron, the Kmart brand Zac Efron is in the front here instead of the chick in the bikini. I'm just going to throw that out there.
JVL00:05:16Take it home. Leaf through. Christmas is coming. If you see something you'd like...
Vic00:05:20Oh, dude, it accidentally slipped onto the ground. I fell down. How did that happen? I don't know what happened. Well, next week, I'll bring in my Athletic Catalog. Is it laminated? A long-time listener, probably not listener, Matt Labash. He loves...
JVL00:05:38See, a podcast is on the internet, so Matt Labash won't be seeing it.
Sonny00:05:41A friend of the show, but not really a listener.
Vic00:05:43When it gets on to shortwave, he'll be the first one listening.
Sonny00:05:47So, Sonny, how about you? You know, I've had a real rollercoaster of emotions the last week or so. Listeners of the podcast may have also been viewers of the show. Red Eye on Fox News, which everybody here in this studio was a big fan of. It was unfortunately canceled, kind of short notice, and it's a real bummer. I mean, there was nothing else really like it on the cable news landscape, a show that kind of seamlessly melded pop culture and politics, and did it with a sense of humor and a kind of joie de vivre, and like, you know, it was a really fun show to do, which is a very rare thing, I think, to say. Right, JBL? Do you have a lot of fun when you go and do TV? I really do not enjoy going on television. It's really stressful. And I do when I have to, but it's not enjoyable. It's stressful and it's hard.
JVL00:06:40Except for there are like two or three shows that I've enjoyed going on, and RedEye, absolutely the one I had the most fun. Yeah, absolutely. Every single time.
Sonny00:06:47So much fun. And, you know, I was fortunate enough to, you know, Andy Levy was very nice to invite me on, and they had me on a couple more times after that. I was actually scheduled to be on the last show. Booked it, you know, two weeks in advance, and then a week later, the news came down, and I got bumped for Greg Gutfeld. Oh, Greg. But, you know, I guess that's all right. But what was, you know, what was really, it was just a really fun show to do. And it was a fun show to watch, and like, you know, I just, it makes me sad to think of Fox News replacing it with like a Tucker Carlson rerun, or like a, you know, even just like live news. You know, footage from the news desk at three in the morning. Like, you know. The signal's almost like the end of an era.
JVL00:07:34I mean, what I, the sense I always got from doing the show, because you go there, so it's in the big Fox building, and they tape really, really late. It's like eight o'clock, seven o'clock at night. When you're done, the rest of the building is empty. There's nobody else working there. You just sort of like meander outside and hop in one of the Fox cars, take a cab or something. And so, you always kind of got the sense that you were like making a show in your parents' basement with zero supervision, you know. It would be Andy and Greg, and then later Tom, when Tom came on and ran the show, and like a couple producers. And I just thought that was awesome. Like, again, being able to like make something fun without the pressure of knowing that like a ton of people are watching, but with this cult following. So, you knew that there were people, people who cared about the show watching it.
Sonny00:08:19And this is one of the things I really liked about doing the show. I mean, like, you know, Tom is great, too. I should really, you know, Tom Shalhoub is really funny. He brought kind of like a slightly more manic vibe to it than Gutfeld. Yeah. Like, who was a little bit more sardonic and, you know, but, and so, you know, it was such a bummer. But like, one of the things you discovered as you did the show once or twice, kind of more, is that there is like a real community of red-eye fans who would be, I'd wake up the next morning, you know, after the show that I had taped aired, and there'd be a bunch of, you know, tweets from people. There was a woman who literally did like caricatures of all the guests on the show every night. This is like how she said, yeah, Tad. And like, and, you know, she, like, it's just fun, and it inspired a real sort of audience community that I don't, I just don't think exists on any other, for any other show on cable news.
Vic00:09:13I thought it was crazy when they said they were going to have, you know, a live show at 3 a.m. when everybody else at the, I mean, obviously, in the olden, olden days, you just put a, you know, a test pattern on, and then after that, you know, they did reruns, and you need to have, like, original content, and I guess Fox did, was that the first of Fox's sort of original content in the middle of the night? I mean, 3 a.m., what was that?
Sonny00:09:36I mean, it's still kind of the only, it was still kind of the only original content on any of the channels that late at night. Like, when MSNBC goes off the air with its live stuff, they do reruns of Lock Up. Like, I mean, they do, like, it's like, you know, old, old, you know, news, like, not even news programs, like docudrama programs, CNN, I think CNN goes pretty late now. Like, Don Lemon is on until. midnight or so. Can we just take a pause on the greatness of Andy Levy?
JVL00:10:04Yes. Andy Levy is so freaking awesome. That guy is one of the few genuinely, like, great funny towns, probably the funniest guy I've ever met.
Sonny00:10:13He has impeccable timing. I mean, like, the reason, for me, anyway, one of the main reasons that show works is, was the halftime segment where he is just kind of chiming in and, you know, he's like, he's very funny. It's really sad that he's not on Twitter anymore, because he was so good at it. I mean, it's just like the kind of firing back, the firing back at people. It's a skill that comes innate to some people, and it came innately to him, and he was great at it.
JVL00:10:44I once told him, this is a true story, that he and you, Sonny Bunch, were the only two reasons for anyone in America to be on Twitter. Oh, that's very nice.
Sonny00:10:52Because you guys are the best. And now Twitter only has half a reason. And now, yeah. So, I hope that Andy Levy, like, gets his talent.
JVL00:10:59Put to use. Because that guy's great. Tom, too.
Vic00:11:02And Tom, too. Tom Shalhoub's great. I kind of get the feeling that I was just about to be asked to be on that show, and then it got canceled.
JVL00:11:09You know, the problem is, actually, no, I know why you weren't on the show, Vic. Because they were working with a budget, and, you know, because it's a very, they weren't able to afford the wide-angle lens you need to fit your head on camera.
Vic00:11:20That's not true. I was on Fox Business with Charles, and he's got a big head, that fella. Big head. There were two of us. And Scotty. Well, right.
Sonny00:11:27They'd already prepared for him. You know?
Vic00:11:29Made the way for that studio, yes.
Sonny00:11:31It was great. I'll be honest. I think it was really, it was also a police action. They had to cordon off such a large area to, you know, make sure the axis of the earth didn't tilt off.
Vic00:11:40Well, with me and Charles, it was serious.
Sonny00:11:41It's like when Barnum & Bailey comes to town, they have to close down the Lincoln Tunnels.
Vic00:11:44Yeah, right. The Elkins can walk through. Okay, moving right along. Several listeners have asked us to name our favorite basic cable classics. In other words, you're flipping through channels, and then, boom, a particular movie comes up. Over and over, it keeps on running on a particular channel, and you just have to see it, right? So, we're not talking about our favorite movies of all time. We're not talking about, like, a great movie. No, no, no. We're talking about, yeah, because... Well, we'll... It could be. It could be. It depends if it's been... The Venn diagram is interesting, but... That's right. That's right. But it's not like I'm flipping through the channels, and then, boom, there's Almost Famous, you know, one of my favorite movies of all time that I never, I don't think I've ever seen running on any of the networks. It's just unfortunate. And it's such a great movie, and I don't... Part of the Almost Famous curse, everything about that, that's a whole separate episode. Almost Famous was, like, on HBO on a loop for months. Really? I don't know what you're talking about. I didn't see it. I didn't see it there. So, anyway, that is what we're talking about, stuff that you would come across, say, on USA or AMC. Why are we talking about that this week?
JVL00:12:46Oh, because Fast and Furious doesn't come out for another week, and this is another spring doldrum where there's nothing interesting.
Vic00:12:53Yeah, we filled this in. Okay, so, Sonny, your thoughts on this?
Sonny00:12:59Well, it's an interesting phenomenon, one that kind of declines, I think. So, this is a thing that I used to do all the time, is I'd just be flipping through the channels, and I'd stumble upon something, and I'd be up until, like, three in the morning watching Heat for the 783rd time. You know, like, it's, but with kids, I actually do this much less now. I feel like I'm, like, spending much less time just kind of randomly watching TV shows. Like, I think it's, you know, one of the sad things in my life right now is I don't spend enough time on TV. I don't spend enough time in front of television's warming glow. One of the things they rob you of. Yeah, right. This is, you know, I, oh. Spending too much time with your kid. Oh, God, she smiles, and she's so happy. Oh, great. You know, I just want.
JVL00:13:39The warmth of your child's smile, not as comforting as the warmth of the television, too.
Sonny00:13:43Nothing compared to the plasma beams radiating out at me. Right. So, anyway, but I do have some basic cable classics. And, really, this is a misnomer, because I also include the pay cable classics in this.
JVL00:13:56Oh, wow.
Sonny00:13:56So, there was a period of time when, you know, I was, you know, I was, you know, I was The Shattered Glass, the movie about Stephen Glass, who was the fabulist at TNR, the New Republic, that starred Hayden Christensen, a.k.a. Anakin Skywalker, was kind of playing on a loop on HBO. And it has a fantastic supporting cast. Rosario Dawson is in it. Steve Zahn. Steve Zahn, thank you. Peter Skarsgård. Peter Skarsgård, and Chloe Sevigny, and, like, it's got this really amazing cast. And it, like, also does, it also, as a. As a person who was just about this age when the movie came out, in his, like, mid-twenties, like, kind of working at an ideological magazine, it nails that milieu of DC. It really does. Of, like, people trying to one-up each other on the. So, anyway, I, on, like, where they're being published, and where, you know, the stuff is running, and who's talking about their pieces, and, you know, there's just the really awful, there's a really awful subset of DC that is exactly like this movie. And it just nailed it. That movie. That movie nailed that scene. And, so, anyway, any time that this was on HBO, which was a lot, which was all the time, I would just stop and just, whatever I was doing, I would stop and watch it. No matter where it is in the movie. Yeah, no matter where it is in the movie. Because it's slightly episodic. Like, it has a great arc, but it's slightly episodic, where, like, you know, they're trying to track down the mystery of, you know, what is happening. And I just, I loved it. JVL.
JVL00:15:25My list of this is much smaller than your guys', probably, because I. So, I grew up without cable. I did not have cable until I was 23 years old. And I never made the leap to pay cable. I mean, that always just seemed like an insane extravagance. So, I have very, very few years worth spent with this. And I noticed that my list, they're all very similar movies, for the most part. Clear and Present Danger. The Hunt for Red October. Patriot Games. So, basically, Tom Clancy. Tom Clancy. But then, I think, like, Crimson Tide, Apollo 13, Shawshank Redemption, The First Mission Impossible. And those are the ones that I would just stop. So, it's a Saturday, and I'm doing something else. And I have the TV on in the background. It's before I'm married. And I would just, on TNT, Crimson Tide is there. I would just stop. Like, just whatever I'm doing, you know what? I can do it after Crimson Tide's over. I'm going to go sit and watch Chief of the Boat Cobb say, you know, no, sir, you can't have the keys. And I don't know what it is. I was actually trying to think about this and trying to think what the through line is about these movies. And what makes a movie so sticky, so much that it grabs you. And I couldn't come up with anything. Victorino, did you have thoughts? Sonny, did you have thoughts? Was that Tony Scott was Crimson Tide? Yes.
Vic00:16:47Yeah. I mean, there's something about it. I mean, the music is great. There's a lot of intensity. Gene Hackman is, you know, I mean, but are you talking about all those kind of movies in a row? I mean, they're action thrillers, but there's a lot of. Obviously, thought put into it because they were based on really good books. I think that's part of it.
Sonny00:17:03Well, with, like, Clear and Present Danger, it isn't episodic exactly, but it is a very specifically structured. Like, you're going from action beat to kind of exposition to action beat. So, any time you get into the movie, you're either in the middle of an action beat or you are, like, two minutes away from the next one. You know, you're, like, a couple lines of dialogue and some shots of Air Force jets flying over Columbia. So, I think that there's a segment of movie like that that, you know, like Jurassic Park. If you, like, flip on Jurassic Park, you can fall right into that or The Matrix or, like, you know. But there are also the ones that aren't like that, that are, like, kind of just so, that are so narratively striking that no matter where you jump into the movie, you feel like you haven't really missed anything because you you've seen it so many, like, so Shawshank is like this, Heat is like this. And, you know, there are other, like, a lot of the Nolan movies, especially the Batman movies, are kind of a mix of the two where you have, like, the narrative arcs and you also have the action beats. But there's a third category, I think, which is the nostalgia movies, right? So, one of my basic cable classics, and this is... This is going to be slightly controversial, perhaps, is Hook, the Steven Spielberg, Peter Pan movie, which is, like, by no means a good movie. It's not necessarily a, like, great piece of filmmaking, but it has all of the Spielberg tricks. It has Spielberg's great eye for shots and for scenes and for movement. And it has a funny performance from Robin Williams. And, like, I saw it when I was 12. Yeah. And I have, like, I've always kind of loved it.
Vic00:19:01Did you want to be one of the Lost Boys, Sonny? Well, if you cut out the skateboarding.
Sonny00:19:03No, I wanted to be Captain Hook.
JVL00:19:04Yeah, if you cut out the skateboarding Lost Boys, it's actually not a terrible movie.
Sonny00:19:08Well, but Rufio is one of the great characters of cinema. Rufio! Rufio's the real hero of Hook. No, Hook is the real hero of Hook. I don't know.
Vic00:19:17The movie's named after him. Come on. My friend, Stevie Starrish, was, like, a dead ringer for Rufio. My buddy and I had seen, my other friend, John Buckley, and I had seen the movie prior to this. And we said, oh, my God, it looks just like Stevie Starrish. And Steve, into watching this movie, just because he really was annoyed by that actor, Dante, I forget his last name, who was this Filipino actor. He's not. He's not made a bunch of movies. No, he hasn't. Don't step on it. I'm efforting. As soon as he appeared, Basco, Dante Basco, as soon as he appeared on screen, my friend goes, great, thanks a lot, guys. You know, and very, very funny. And we just enjoyed watching it at his expense.
Sonny00:19:50Yeah, and, like, there's a whole genre of movies like this. Like, there's a baseball trilogy. Oh, yeah, you mentioned this before. You know, Sandlot. Little Big League and Rookie, the Rookie of the Year. Just, it's like a, it is like, that was my, like, 1993 to 94 summer period. You know, I had a lot going on in my life. That's why I was studying abroad. I was, like, moving. Yeah, well, you know, I was a tween. Oh, you were a tween. These were my One Direction movies.
Vic00:20:20Oh, yeah, this is your phase, your One Direction phase. For me, the movies that I really am kind of a sucker for channel surfing are The Rom-Com I really like them. I think it's just, sometimes I'm just not in the mood for something too heavy. You know, I just want something to laugh at for a short amount, because I don't know how long I'm going to be watching TV, but you just haven't stopped. And there's specifically two. One is The 40-Year-Old Virgin, which I think is just very well-paid. I just don't find any dull moments. I find funny throughout, particularly Seth Rogen, Paul Rudd. You put those two in a room together, it's gold. You know, they go back and forth with, you know, How I Know You're Gay, this back thing. Fantastic. Jane Lynch is great. And then the other movie is Forgetting. Forgetting Sarah Marshall. Yes.
JVL00:21:00I really find that funny throughout. I love that movie. Love that movie. Plus, Kristen Bell. You know why it's great? Because of Kristen Bell.
Vic00:21:07Kristen Bell and Mila Kunis in Hawaii. Dear Lord. Kristen Bell is so funny.
JVL00:21:12She can do anything. Did you watch The Good Place? No.
Sonny00:21:16This is like the network sitcom that she's on right now, The Good Place? I don't watch TV, Sonny. Okay. Well, never mind then.
Vic00:21:23Jonah Hill has that great line when he says, Oh, I just went from six to midnight. Of course, he was talking about Russell Brand. If you remember that. Anyway, great stuff.
Sonny00:21:32No, the rom-coms are great. The rom-coms are great.
JVL00:21:34It's like, or Groundhog Day, which is almost built to be- Yeah, that is on a lot of TV.
Sonny00:21:37There's a reason that Groundhog Day found its milieu in the basic cable landscape, where you could just kind of jump in for 30 minutes and watch, like, the same thing essentially happen over and over again, but it's funny and Bill Murray is fantastic.
JVL00:21:53Didn't Caddyshack used to be on basic cable a lot? And I remember that movie, because when they cut it down, they cut the crap that you don't want, which is like the pregnancy scare stuff with Danny and, which really feels out of place in that movie. If you go watch that movie now, everything about it is awesome, except for that stuff. And you're like, wait a minute, what is this being shoehorned into here? We don't need this.
Vic00:22:13That was a strange detour, although if you're used to watching it on cable and then you see the actual movie version that's sexy, it's like, oh, I see what we were missing all this time. I'll tell you what also is not good to watch on basic cable is Goodfellas. Because of all the profanity, they have to gloss over it. And so there's, you know, I mean, they're dropping F-bombs left and right. And there's that famous scene with Joe Pesci with the funny house scene. And he's talking about how he's in Jersey and he's in the weeds and the Jersey cop finds him and interrogates him. And in the movie, he says, you know, go F your mother. And in the cable version, they have him say, go feel your mother. That's terrible. That's just as bad. It's just as bad. Go feel your mother. It's like Police Academy. You know, Police Academy. There's that, you know, the woman cop with the very quiet voice until the end of every Police Academy. And then she would scream at the bad guy, you know, and she'd say, you know, drop it, you know, drop it, asshole. And then instead, in this version, she says, drop it, egg roll.
JVL00:23:15This is terrible. This is a question. I always thought that it would be much better having these things bleeped than to insert like bad lip reading words, essentially. Absolutely. Yeah.
Vic00:23:27Right. This is.
JVL00:23:29Just bleep them.
Vic00:23:30Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Absolutely. Or you did remember when Private Parts, Howard Stern's movie, was on USA, and there would be scenes that were pixelated, and then he would actually walk out, Howard Stern, to narrate and say, okay, this is the part that's missing. And he would explain the part that, you know, that the censors had removed. It was really funny. Wait, wait. It was like a breaking the fourth wall? Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. No, he would be, Howard Stern himself, not in the movie, obviously. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But, you know, he would come out to explain, you know, while you're watching. Oh, this scene here, this is really, I mean, good stuff. That's funny. It was very, very funny. I mean, they used to do this.
JVL00:24:04They would shoot all takes of a scene. So, you had one for, like, the airplane version. Yes. One for the one that would go to the South Korean market, et cetera, et cetera.
Vic00:24:12Yeah, it's crazy. I was going to say, actually, Mad TV did a skit about The Sopranos on PAX TV. And I'll give that to you on show notes. It's fantastic, because it's like a five-minute episode. Yeah. And it's like every scene gets cut after about 10 seconds. It's fantastic. One of the shows that used to be on all the time was, like, The Italian Job. You ever notice this? Channel-serving Italian job used to come up all the time. And it reminded me of the original Italian job, which starred Michael Caine. Yes. Speaking of which. Thank you. That's a little obvious.
Sonny00:24:44It's like four hops to get to there. It's on the nose.
JVL00:24:46Three and a half. It's on the nose.
Vic00:24:48It was a fairly lackluster box office weekend. Boss Baby. Boss Baby. Did 26 million.
JVL00:24:55God.
Sonny00:24:55You people are all garbage. All of you out there. You saw Boss Baby? Everyone who saw this. I hope there are no listeners of The Substandard who saw Boss Baby. And I hope I didn't alienate you by calling you garbage, but it is what it is. I'm sorry. Here come the one-star reviews. Oh.
Vic00:25:11How dare you?
Sonny00:25:12How dare you make fun of Boss Baby? The people have spoken. Just remember, if you want your review read on air, talk about how great I am.
Vic00:25:18It just touched up Beauty and the Beast, I think, which is still, man, talk about legs. I'm talking about the movie. You mean the Beast's legs. The hairy. Strong. Wads. Beauty and the Beast did like 24. And then came Smurfs, The Lost Village. I didn't even know this was a thing. And I am not, I just said to myself, I am not watching this movie. So instead, I watched a movie that came in fourth, which was Going in Style, starring Michael Caine. This is a geriatric caper. So I thought for once, you know, Sonny and JVL, they're always going to movies, and I'm usually missing out on them. And so for once- Are you going to review it? I did. I did. This is very exciting.
Sonny00:25:57Vic is rocking the boat. This is really exciting. I'm going to just lean back and judge.
JVL00:26:03Take a break. Oh no. Everyone pull up a chair and listen to Uncle Vic. Oh boy.
Vic00:26:06Okay. It was meh, as Sonny Bunch might say, back in 2012. Meh. No, it was meh. No, it was a cute movie. It was a geriatric caper. Don't do a Sonny Bunch impression. I know. I'll just do my own. Do a Vic and Mattis.
Sonny00:26:17Vic and Mattis original.
Vic00:26:18Okay, well, if you like sort of a post-sex scene with Alan Arkin and Ann-Margret, this is a great movie. It's the kind of- Ooh, Sonny, are you okay there? Oh. This is a remake. So, this movie stars Michael Caine, Morgan Freeman, and Alan Arkin, and it is a remake of a 1979 movie of the same name that starred George Burns, Lee Strasberg, and Art Carney. Essentially, in this movie, three old guys, they're losing their pension from the company that they all worked for. Michael Caine not only is losing his pension, but he's going to lose his house because the bank had conned him to getting into one of those teaser mortgages, and all of a sudden, he owes a lot more of the interest rate, everything exploded, and he can't afford it. So, it's a housing banking issue, and then, of course, the company that they worked for, and they had a pension, got bought by some international firm, and they're moving all the jobs to Vietnam. So, there's the outsourcing issue as well. The interesting thing is, it's an interesting time for this kind of a theme, for a movie to come out, and one of the executive producers is Steven Mnuchin, the current secretary. Treasury secretary. Treasury secretary. You could see that sort of, we lost our jobs.
Sonny00:27:31Also, one of the executive producers on Batman v Superman, Dawn of Justice. Yes. He's one of our great film minds. He does a lot. Of our time.
Vic00:27:38He did a lot. He did a lot now.
Sonny00:27:40Frankly, I think wasting him in the government is one of the big crimes of the Trump administration.
Vic00:27:45I absolutely agree, Sonny. This movie was also directed by Zach Braff, who's kind of a, yes, exactly, from Scrubs and, of course, Garden State. So, it's kind of a sense, he's a sensitive new age guy, so there's a lot of poignancy. There are moments of, you know, getting old. Ill. Thoughts of, you know, loneliness and mortality. There are a few. It's hard to talk when Sonny's pouring his third drink.
Sonny00:28:07I'm just, this is insufferable.
Vic00:28:11But, some great moments. There's some great performances, not by just those three in Ann Market, but Matt Dillon, Kenan Thompson. Good stuff. A handful of funny moments. And, so, yeah, it was cute. But, it reminded me, Sonny, and Jonathan Bunch, of the movie. Jonathan, that, again, for Michael Caine, I don't think he really cares how well the movie does. If it's a great movie, it's a bad movie. For him, like many Brit actors, it's just work. Didn't we talk about this before? It's just a different attitude, right, JVL? Yeah, okay. But, before we move on, Sonny, could you please grade Vic?
Sonny00:28:43Oh, boo. You know, I'm going to grade on a curve here, because it was a first effort. It was a first effort. I'll give him a B minus. There's room for improvement. Oh, hey, I'll take that. There's room for improvement.
Vic00:28:54Just about what I did at Georgetown. Thank you.
Sonny00:28:552.7. Oh, no, I was a 3.2. That was a 3.2. Well, that would be a B plus. Let's not get crazy.
JVL00:29:03The next time you review a movie with Victorino, I think you should have a co-byline. You and Sonny could do it together.
Vic00:29:08You know, the co-byline author of yours is a big fan of this show. I would say this is a great movie to tell your parents to watch. You say, oh, your parents don't know what to watch, and we say, watch Going In Style. They'll love it. Lots of old people jokes.
Sonny00:29:20I do love the kind of Alan Arkin resurgence here. Between this and Argo and Little Miss Sunshine, he's really had a... He's had a real nice run here.
Vic00:29:29He's great, and there's a scene where they try to steal food at a grocery store, which is pathetic and funny at the same time. So, it's kind of like The Substandard, then. That's what you're saying. Yes. JVL. So, this is a thing, right?
JVL00:29:42Where you get, there's every two or three years, we get an old person movie, like Cocoon or Space Cowboys or First Wives Club, or what was the one with Diane Keaton and Jack Nicholson?
Vic00:29:55Oh, yeah. Something's Gotta Give. Something's Gotta Give. I like that one.
JVL00:29:58And people love it. I mean, this is not a movie that people have fallen in love with, clearly, but these things happen, and we're having construction done at the office. I don't know if you guys can hear that at home. I don't know. Michael Caine is 84 years old. He has 162 film credits on IMDb, and I mean, he's fine. He's a little bit like Christopher Hitchens to me, which is to say he's a guy who worked so long. He was so prolific, and then eventually, at some point, like four-fifths of the way through his career, people realized, hey, you know what? This guy's actually kind of great, and that's kind of what Michael Caine is. I don't think anybody really thought of Christopher Hitchens the way we think of him now, in like 1995. Yeah. And I don't think when Alfie came out, nobody was thinking that Michael Caine was going to be what he is, or the Italian job. Nobody thought that. Again, he doesn't... I don't think he really emerges until Hannah and her sisters, probably, where people really start thinking, oh, actually, hold on. This guy's pretty good. And then, late in life, I don't know. He's kind of great, right? You know?
Vic00:31:09I think literally the fourth wall is coming down in the studio. Anyway, what I was going to say is, a lot of luck played a role in Michael Caine's career, because he was dirt poor, grew up before the war in the 1930s, his father was a fishmonger, and he had a very, very low class, I guess it was a Cockney accent, I almost get confused between Cockney or East End, but none of the Brit directors and producers wanted him, because they said, nobody wants to see that or hear that. And it was the luck of the draw that Zulu happened to have American backing, and Americans, they can't, if you watch Mary Poppins with Dick Van Dyke, Americans can't tell the difference between Cockney accents and the very high-end accents and things like that. And so, Zulu was his big breakthrough, and then, of course, you mentioned Alfie and he became that guy, sort of the British cad, you know, sort of scandalous and sort of very edgy, and then, as you mentioned, but not until Hannah and Her Sisters, but again, he just took whatever, he's had so many good roles and so many bad roles over the years. You mentioned Hannah and Her Sisters, for which he won the Oscar for Best Supporting Actor, and he was asked, you know, where were you? Because he wasn't there to accept the award, and he said, yeah, when I found out I won the award, I was in the Bahamas filming Jaws, The Revenge.
JVL00:32:25Yeah, no, he's working, this is what he does. The idea is, I should be, this is a job, I should treat it like a job, and I think that that is wholly admirable. Yeah. I really like that. So, when I saw him. Also, Sonny, before we go on, do you know, with his 162 film credits, do you know what he has never done once? Directed. Oh. He never thought to himself. No, that's good for him.
Sonny00:32:47Oh, I know a lot about film, I should direct. Yeah, he does. No, he just, I'm an actor, I'm going to act. God bless him. No, that's great, that's right. When I was working at the Washington Times, you know, 10 years ago, I had the chance to interview Michael Caine. Like, it was one of these very rare exceptions that we made, that I would travel to New York. Usually, like, people come to D.C., but he was doing a very limited amount of promotion for Harry Brown, which is kind of a smaller, like, it was basically his Gran Torino, like his kind of old man revenge movie. That's right. And they were, they basically threw the press doors open, like, anybody who wants to come talk to Michael Caine, come talk to Michael Caine. I was like, I'm there. So, I took the Megabus up. And, or possibly the Bolt Bus, one of the two.
JVL00:33:29And paid for it out of pocket. Oh, yeah.
Sonny00:33:31Oh, yeah. I paid for the round trip Bolt Bus tickets out of pocket on an up and back. I did not spend the night in New York City, because I was very poor, because I was a...
JVL00:33:41Only the best for The Washington Times.
Sonny00:33:43So, anyway, I, like, went up and I talked to him, and it was very, it was a great chat. The interview lives on in Google somewhere. Just Google Sonny Bunch and Michael Caine. I'm sure it'll pop up. But he talked about... How, you know, Gene Hackman had, like, announced he was retiring. And Gene Hackman was like, I'm not doing any more movies, you know. And Caine was like, he seemed almost baffled by it. You know, he was like, well, I'll just stop doing movies when they stop calling me. Like, when they don't want me to do movies anymore, that's when I'll stop. And it is that sort of ethic that I think everyone really loves about him right now. But also has, like, led to such a good and diverse body of work. Like, you know, there's so much, there's so... If you're a Michael Caine fan... If you're a Michael Caine fan, you can find anything he has done on TV at some point. Yes, it's on TV. Which, of course, leads to... And one of the reasons that Hackman came up was because of the great Caine-Hackman theory from PCU. Do you remember the film PCU, JBL?
JVL00:34:43I do vaguely remember it. Was that with Jeremy Piven? Yes.
Sonny00:34:47Jeremy Piven. So, Jeremy Piven stars in this movie PCU, which is like... Which was almost actually past its time when it came out in 1994 about the awful PC campuses. It is now very relevant again in its own weird way. These things are cyclical. But one of the subplots of... Not even really a subplot, just like kind of a funny throwaway thing in PCU, was there was a guy who was studying film theory whose thesis revolved around the Caine-Hackman theory, which is this idea that at any point, at any time of the day, you can turn on the television and find either a Gene Hackman or Michael Caine movie. And that's very right. And that speaks well to both. Both of them, frankly. They're kind of like not only the quality of their work, maybe not necessarily the quality of each individual film choice, but the quality of their work and their longevity.
Vic00:35:37Yeah. When you met Michael Caine, was he as charming in person for the amount of time?
Sonny00:35:42So nice. Really? Like he was very pleasant and very kind of... Yeah, very much like... Yeah, that's exactly what he said. When did Michael Caine come into our studio? Oh, I love the substandard.
JVL00:35:54He probably really enjoyed meeting me.
Sonny00:35:56Didn't you? It was probably genuine pleasure, not an actual thing. It was definitely the highlight of his trip, I could tell. I could tell. It was me kind of stammering my questions out. It was like very Chris Farley-esque. So you're pretty great. Mr. Caine, I like Batman. I like the Batman movies. And you're Alfred. Can you talk about that a little bit? That would be nice. That's exactly what I was like. That was wonderful. Show notes, people. Show notes. Did you find it?
Vic00:36:34Did you find it? Not yet. I can't believe you're still not at The Washington Times.
Sonny00:36:37Yeah, no. Weirdly, I got laid off. So anyway, Michael Caine is great. I love Michael Caine. Very nice. Very nice man to, you know. And he, again, we should really recognize the fact that he's become kind of a meme, a meme to himself. Like, there's that great scene from The Trip. Oh, absolutely. Where they're doing the, we should definitely put that in show notes. Definitely in show notes. That's the thing that needs to be in show notes. Rob Wright and Steve Coogan. Doing their, like, dueling Michael Caine impressions. And it's, like, it really is, I shouldn't have brought it up, frankly, because it's too hard to describe, but, like, it's great.
Vic00:37:15And I think the first one is probably from the original Italian job, right? You're only supposed to blow the bloody doors off. And then the other one, I think, is from Get Carter. Get Carter. Right? She was only 16. That's fantastic. 16. Fantastic. Do you have a particular favorite Michael Caine? So, I, well, JBL, why don't you, JBL, would you like to pick?
JVL00:37:35You know, I don't have a very sophisticated view of this. My, I really, really like his turn in Miss Congeniality. I like a lot of things about Miss Congeniality. I have a real weakness for that movie. Sandra Bullock. Right, Sandra Bullock. So, he plays the guy who is the pageant nerd whose job is to train Sandra Bullock and get her so that she could pass for business. Being a pageant girl. And he's hysterical. She's an FBI agent. Yeah, I guess she's an FBI agent. And it's, he's great. He's so funny and he's supercilious and supercilious Michael Caine is really some of the best Michael Caine. Definitely. I, I, I love him. He's one of those things. I think he's probably the part that makes that movie go from being, eh, pretty good to really enjoyable. Yeah.
Sonny00:38:18How about you, Sonny? So, as a millennial, I'm only really aware of Michael Caine post-1992 or something like Oh, he never was.
JVL00:38:25He never worked before that. Don't worry.
Sonny00:38:26Yeah, no, it's, it's, my understanding is that there, he was, he started acting in his 60s and, uh. Late comer. Right, right, right. So, uh, the millennial Michael Caine list is something like this. Oh, yes, yes. It's Muppet Christmas Carol. Oh, Scrooge. Where he plays Scrooge. He's a fantastic Scrooge. He's, you know, perfectly gruff. He was. But also very, very, you know, uh, interacted very well with the puppets. Had great chemistry with the puppets.
JVL00:38:51It takes skill. I think it takes skill to do that. It does. It really does. Dan, look how well he pretended to be. And happy to meet you.
Vic00:38:57Oh, wow. Wow. Wow. Do I need to mark the time, Sonny?
Sonny00:39:03No, because I'm just sad now. Now I don't want to say the rest of my millennial Michael Caine list.
Vic00:39:08Okay. Please.
Sonny00:39:11Please, Sonny. We love you. Come on. Uh, number two. Children of, or number four, I guess. Children of Men. Children of Men, I think, is, uh, one of his, his great turns. It's like the kind of funny and kooky, weed-growing, uh, hippie. Who gets mercilessly gunned down by the crazy radicals. Crazy radicals are always bad in a movie. Uh, number, number three is Harry Brown, which is the movie I was up there to see him for. And it is very, like, he is, like, both kind of, like, doddering, but also, uh, very, very effective and a solid, you know, kind of old man action star. Yeah. Um, it didn't feel patronizing in a way, because they really kind of acknowledged the fact that it was absurd that this man would be out there killing. Yeah. You know, hoods and street tops and stuff. Anyway. Uh, number two would be, uh, uh, all of the, the Batman movies. I'm going to lump them all into one. Just, just have his Alfred is, is, I think, as far as I'm concerned, the best Alfred. Is it the definitive Alfred now?
JVL00:40:14Because it's a very different Alfred.
Sonny00:40:16Yeah. Yeah, it is. It is, it's, it's a very different Alfred and it's very, uh, it is the Michael Keaton Alfred. Who was, who, Michael Goff. Was that who? The old, the old, yeah, yeah. And Jeremy Irons is the more recent one. And Jeremy Irons is, and, and like, Michael Goff is a more traditional Alfred, kind of like the, you know, and I really like what Michael Caine does. Like, his scene at the end of The Dark Knight Rises.
Vic00:40:40His eulogy.
Sonny00:40:40His eulogy, just, I, like, I don't feel ashamed to say that there may have been a welling of the eyes the first time I saw that, uh, uh, because it is, he is, he clearly feels like he has failed. He's failed Batman. And again, the, the... The Christian Bale Batman's a little bit of a different Batman, too. He's like, he doesn't actually really want to be Batman. Has anyone ever written that? Somebody's written that. Yeah. You know what? I, I agree with you, actually.
Vic00:41:06For me, he has become the definitive Alfred. Yeah. Yeah. I'm really glad that, I don't know how, but how he had gotten connected with Christopher Nolan. Mm-hmm. Because we talk about, um, I loved him in, I, I agree with the Batman movies, but also, um, The Prestige.
Sonny00:41:19The Prestige is my number one Michael Caine. Ah. Okay. Cutter. Yeah. Oh, yeah.
Vic00:41:22Just fantastic. Every great magic trick consists of three eyes. It's just really, really good. Um, I will mention two old Michael Canes before your time, Sonny. Oh. Yeah, he did a couple. Just a couple. He just did a couple. The world started in 1982. 1982. That's. Uh, he did Death Trap with Christopher Reeve, which actually is from 1982. Ah. Um, I recommend that one. Uh, and also Dressed to Kill, but that's a very controversial role in Dressed to Kill. Um, there is a, um, serial murderer. I don't know if it's a serial murderer, but, uh, there is a murderer on the loose in the city. Uh. It's a woman, but she hasn't been identified, and, uh, Nancy Allen, the opening scene is a very psycho-ish murder of Angie Dickinson in the bathtub, and it's just horrific, and, and they're trying to find out who this murderer or stalker is, and she's constantly going to her psychotherapist, uh, Michael Caine, about, like, you know, trying, you know, talking about her feelings and everything else. Well, it turns out that the killer was Michael Caine. He was not only a psychotherapist, he was a psycho, and he was dressing up as a woman. This would be problematic today, I think.
Sonny00:42:24Yes.
Vic00:42:25Yes. Yes, it would be. I'm just going to leave it at that.
Sonny00:42:27How many problematics? That was De Palma, right? What was that? That was De Palma, right? Yeah, I think De Palma was just a leader.
JVL00:42:33Uh, that would, oh, yeah, that would be a four problematic.
Sonny00:42:36De Palma's whole, considering that De Palma is, like, a huge leftist, his whole, uh, body of work is, like, the definition of problematic. I mean, it's actually kind of.
JVL00:42:47He's going to have to be disappeared. Yeah.
Sonny00:42:49Yeah. Yeah.
Vic00:42:50Uh, uh, bad Michael Caine, we mentioned Jaws of Revenge, and finally, I will also say, I saw, probably. It was so bad, I only saw part of the movie on, uh, when it was on TV, The Hand, and Michael Caine played a cartoonist who gets in a car accident, he loses his hand, they could never find the hand at the scene of the accident, but the hand finds him. And here's the worst part, director, Oliver Stone. Yeah.
Sonny00:43:10No, that was one of Oliver Stone's first movies.
Vic00:43:11Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Insane. Okay, um, moving right along, uh, we'd like to mention that, I think, next, uh, week's episode, we are going to do a Best of the Substandard, our favorite episode. And also Worst of. And Worst of. Which will be topped by this episode. Which, by the way, is such a garbage episode.
Sonny00:43:28Oh, my God, this episode's so good. How dare you? What are you talking about? You're an idiot.
Vic00:43:32Thanks a lot, man. You're a jerk. Thanks a lot.
Sonny00:43:34You're a real jerk.
Vic00:43:35Why don't you just talk about Thor Ragnarok? Yeah. JVL. No. Well, you're going to talk about it anyway. Um, you wanted to, you saw the trailer, it's the teaser trailer.
JVL00:43:45I thought we were saving that for outtakes, Vic.
Vic00:43:48Yeah, Vic, shut up.
Sonny00:43:48Are we really? God, now it is a garbage episode.
JVL00:43:50Lousy reviewing, lousy hosting. Now it is a garbage episode. Bad transition. You know, somebody has to be the host of this thing. Uh, correction? Wait, hold on. Is that actually true?
Sonny00:44:00Do we, do we need to?
JVL00:44:02I don't see any reason Sonny can't do everything. Is there, is there, can we make this a two-man show? Oh, that would be, that would be great and save me all this writing.
Vic00:44:10This is all script. Nothing that I've said right now is actually spontaneous. J-Pod right now is like, oh my God, this is great. This is, they're, the psychodrama intensifies. Is this the episode where I walk out? I was saving that one for later. Because you can only do it once. Can I mute you? You can mute me. Oh no, that's been done already. You can only do the walkout once. Okay, moving right along then to corrections, additions, clarifications. I have a bunch. I have none. Do you think anybody else want to go first?
JVL00:44:38No, I have none.
Sonny00:44:38No, JVL, you go first.
JVL00:44:40I said Kathy Kane had been a Batgirl. Just Carl texted or twittered or something. Tweeted. He needed to say that no, Kathy Kane was Batwoman, not Batgirl. He is correct. The Batgirls have been in order. Betty Kane. Barbara Gordon, who is the sort of iconic Batgirl. Cassandra Kane and then Stephanie Brown. I said the ghost in the shell was 30 years old. That's wrong. It is only 28 years old. My sister and I went to see Starcade. It was 1999. And the main event, Bret Hart versus Goldberg. That's a good show. That was pretty awesome. Notable because-
Sonny00:45:17The most talented technical wrestler versus the least talented technical wrestler of all time.
JVL00:45:24Except- The main event turned out to be not very good. And the reason, we would learn later, is because early in the match, he was kicked by Goldberg in the head and suffered a legit concussion. And this is the injury which caused him to retire. Yeah. So we were there at the match. Thanks, Goldberg. Yeah, exactly.
Sonny00:45:38Dick.
JVL00:45:38Thanks, dude. And, oh, this is not a correction, but Jose Galvin, a listener, emailed to Twitter to us a Kimono My House Toys link with pictures to all of his Star Blazers gear, including a water pistol in the shape of a- In the shape of the Starship Argo. And the target was Deslok.
Vic00:45:59Yes. And I think he had a Star Blazers lunchbox. He did. The reason why the show is doing so well, Sonny, is because of Star Blazers, but I'll talk about that in our Best of episodes next week. Nothing from you, obviously. Perfect. Okay, yeah. One of the moments, nothing from me. Spirit of the Week, Sonny, you brought something.
Sonny00:46:19Yes, I brought a bottle of High West's Double Rod. A blend of straight white whiskeys. It is one of my, it is, oh, JVL is taking a sip. I said that JVL would like it.
JVL00:46:36That's not bad. It's actually, I think you would actually, it's a very smooth. That's not bad.
Sonny00:46:40It's a very, very smooth whiskey. It's almost a little sweet. I think you would really like it. I brought this in today because I wanted to, again, commemorate Red Eye. This is, I was there for the last taping. I was just watching on the couch. On the side of the studio. And me and some of the other guests, I don't want to name, I don't want to blow anybody's cover here, were drinking this beforehand. And it was just, it was a really sweet and sad moment. RIP Red Eye. Andy Levy, you're the best. Go find another job. Tom Shilhu, I really hope you get something at Fox. And Greg Gutfeld, you're doing okay. So, you know, keep it up. Keep it up. But yeah, that's the spirit of the week is high west double rye.
Vic00:47:26That was very drinkable.
Sonny00:47:28I honestly, like, I love it. I think it's, it is a very good intro whiskey, I think, as we've seen.
Vic00:47:38I'll say it's a very good off-season crop rye. Okay, that's all the time we want to spend on this episode. Thank God. You know, questions, comments, complaints, compliments, tweet us at Victorino Matus at Sonny Bunch. Again, be sure to subscribe. Subscribe to us on iTunes or Google Play. Just type in Substandard under podcasts, and we're there. Leave a review. Tell your friends. And don't forget, Substandard show notes will be up on Friday at 11 a.m. Until next time. Really quickly, just, I forgot to give a shout out to my brother-in-law, Bill Dwyer, who just made captain at the Arlington County Fire Department. But, last week, I was editing, and I found a run-on sentence, and I fixed it. Wow. So, you know, different achievements, but of the same level. A firefighter and a captain. He sounds kind of like a real man. Like I said, and I found the run-on sentence, same thing. It's like, you know, different, but the same. Congratulations, man. Thank you. Did you go home and tell your son about it? About which part? No.
JVL00:48:46Did you bring your son in to watch you edit, so he can understand what Daddy does?
Sonny00:48:49Bill, thanks for all of the service that you've done. You've done for the community, whatever. We have a real hero in studio today.
JVL00:48:58Some would say the editors are the greatest heroes of them all. The most unsung. The most unsung. Before we move on to Thor Ragnarok, I have an email from Aaron Burch, whose subject line says, my wife is making me do this. Vic, we listen to all your podcasts, and there's nothing she'd like more than to hear you read and acknowledge this email. He goes on more, and I'm not actually going to read the whole thing.
Sonny00:49:24And says, if you guys grew up watching JBL, why are you reading One Punch Man?
JVL00:49:30And I'm not going to, because I don't watch television. But Aaron, I just wanted you to know that we got your email.
Vic00:49:34You must have been very preoccupied when I read Aaron's email at the last episode, JVL. That's not true.
JVL00:49:40That's true. You'll have to. Is that really true? Yes, it is. All right, what's the time counter? We'll just edit this whole thing out, starting with Bill Dwyer. That's okay. The wife will be delighted that we mentioned her twice. Is this really true?
Vic00:49:51Yeah, and I mentioned One Punch Man, and Sonny's like, let's move on. Please. And so, you know, maybe because it was me talking, and none of you listened to me.
Sonny00:49:58I actually don't remember this either. See? I'm pretty sure this is not true.
Vic00:50:01No, I don't think this is true. Are you sure? No, this is not true. It's a different email. Yeah, One Punch Man. I mentioned One Punch Man, and the wife mentioning that we should give it a shout out. And you were just ignoring me, as usual. All right. Yes.
Sonny00:50:15How dare you? I told you this was a horrible episode. Well, it certainly is off the rails now. Now it's over. Well, let's talk about Thor.
Vic00:50:22Thanks for paying attention. We're going to talk about Thor. We're going to talk about Thor Ragnarok, so we can mention it in the title, and we'll get really good on the internet SEO. Nobody cares. Sonny. Well, JVL was right. JVL, you want to talk about it. You brought it on.
JVL00:50:34It's a comic book superhero movie starring Jeff Goldblum. If that doesn't blow your skirt up, I don't know what does. Also, notice- Who? They are monkeying with the titles to make it much more Guardians of the Galaxy. Yes. Much more Guardians of the Galaxy. So, this is- This is my problem with this trailer.
Sonny00:50:55You have a problem, Sonny. It is. Sonny has a problem, weirdly. The whole trailer's tone is off for me. It is too funny. It is too, like, kind of comedy. It is- The first shot of him, like, floating in space, and he's like, you're wondering how I got here. That's a play on the meme, the, like, freeze frame meme that is very popular on Twitter. And then there's the scene where he sees- He sees the Hulk in the arena, and he's like, that's my friend from work, or whatever. And that is a just- That's not something Thor would say. Thor would be like, we've battled together on the fields of Valhalla, or whatever. Something like that. And it's like, it's just- It is all wrong. It's all- And then the title cards, as you mentioned, have this kind of weird, glittery, multicolored feel to them that- 80s, pure 80s. That calls to mind, very specifically, Guardians of the Galaxy. So it is very obvious that Guardians of- Guardians of the Galaxy, which was a much bigger hit than either of the Thor movies has been, has had a big influence on how, at the very least, they're marketing this. And another part of the problem here is that you have the Thor shorts, where he's living with that guy in Australia. Have you seen these? We can put them in show notes. It's this weird kind of pseudo-SNL comedy thing, where he's living with a guy who works in an office, and the guy's like, hey, Thor, maybe you should pay some rent. And Thor's like- And he's like, I have gold doubloons that you can't possibly see, because you're a normal human, and I'm an Asgardian. It's like, they're trying to bring that tone to the movie, which I think is a big mistake. Thor was a very funny film. The first Thor was a very funny film. I liked it. Because it had this kind of fish-out-of-water feel, where he's- No, that's not why he liked it. Well, he liked it, because- Because of Stellan Skarsgård. I love Stellan Skarsgård. How did you guys- Natalie Portman. The problem with this movie is that they are trying to make him kind of like just a normal bro who also wields lightning hammers. Like, it just doesn't work for me.
JVL00:52:59On the other hand, they got to change things up from Thor and the Dark Elves, because- That was just a poorly plotted movie. Yeah, but this is a rare Marvel movie that just misses on every level. So, I don't know. I'm up for trying a Thor comedy or something. Although, if this does badly, they'll move on to Lady Thor. And, you know, do you think that would be okay? Hey, Sonny, I'm sure it'll be fine.
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