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#138. The Substandard on Kubrick, 2001, and James Gunn
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Dudes Chatting — James Gunn firing and Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey: The episode opens on the James Gunn controversy. Sonny frames his firing from Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 as a case study in weaponized outrage culture — the tactic is wrong regardless of the target. JVL agrees the firing shouldn't have happened but can't resist noting Gunn is "kind of a prick." The bulk of the episode is a deep symposium on 2001: A Space Odyssey marking its 50th anniversary. Sonny recently saw the 70mm restoration at AFI Silver and is an unqualified admirer. JVL watched it on his phone in standard definition on a recent trip and finds it "insanely overrated," estimating that 10% of its runtime is ships landing in silence; he also confesses to fast-forwarding the Stargate sequence as a kid. Vic watched it on VHS and also skipped the Stargate. The group then ranks Kubrick: Sonny places A Clockwork Orange at #1, JVL leans toward The Shining. An extended sidebar debates whether Interstellar or Inception is the better Nolan spiritual-heir to Kubrick's ambition.
Box Office: The Equalizer 2 debuted at #1 with $35.8 million. Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again and Hotel Transylvania 3 also charted.
A Corrections segment closes the episode, addressing a listener who caught a mathematical error from a prior show — specifically that pi is not a prime number.
Full transcript
Guest00:00:00- Dave, do you mind if I ask you a personal question? - No, not at all. I've wondered whether you might be having some second thoughts about the mission. How do you mean? Rumors about something being dug up on the moon. I never gave these stories much credence, but particularly in view of some of the other things that have happened, I find them difficult to put out of my mind.
JVL00:00:43Open the pod bay doors, please, Hal.
Vic00:00:51Hello, and welcome to another edition of The Substandard, sponsored by the Black Tux. I'm Victor Matus, along with Sonny Bunch and Jonathan V. Last. I'd like to remind you The Substandard is available on iTunes, Google Play, and Stitcher. Just look under podcasts and search for Substandard. You'll easily find us. Please subscribe, tell your friends, and leave a review. Gentlemen, how are we, JVL? Big news. Big news. Big news. Give it to me.
JVL00:01:19Fall baseball, down by where I live, is getting set to start up. And the registration process has opened. And it turns out that for the fall league, for the spring league, it's a draft. For a fall league, the managers recruit their own teams. Oh, boy. I'm here to tell you, Flash is a pretty hot property. Been getting some emails and texts from the various coaches in the league, all making some very attractive offers. We gotta, as Flash's manager, we just gotta look for the situation that's the best for him. And, you know, like if coaches or their booster clubs want to drop off a couple packs of baseball cards in the mailbox, just with a little note card on them. Just find some relics. I'm sure the player would appreciate it, and it might influence his consideration one way or another.
Sonny00:02:12Look at this. This is crazy. This is just the worst side of youth sports right here. The parents selling their children for baseball cards.
JVL00:02:23Yeah, that's about how things are. How about you, Sonny?
Sonny00:02:27How are you? Good, good. I had a nice little date night with my wife. We went to go see a movie. Did you come down to the Alamo? No, no, no, no. I've seen the new Mission Impossible movie. We're not talking about this week. We're talking about it next week. I saw it at the Smithsonian on the air and space.
JVL00:02:46Just give me up or down. No, no, I can't get up. And then a thumbs up. No, you can't find that. Up or down. The listeners, you could tell them off.
Vic00:02:55Off the, when we're not taping, because we've got to save it.
Sonny00:02:59We've got to save it.
JVL00:02:59Save it for the show.
Vic00:03:00Okay, so did you figure out why? Was there a special appearance at the Smithsonian?
Sonny00:03:03Well, so it turns out that they actually did, I think, the U.S. premiere at the Smithsonian, but the next day. So we were like the test audience to make sure everything was running smoothly. That was it. Everything was running smoothly.
Vic00:03:14Please welcome Tom Cruise.
Sonny00:03:15But Tom Cruise was at the, yeah, on the big IMAX screen. The big action sequences are shot in legit IMAX, and the rest of the movie is fake IMAX. Or, like, just, you know, projected. They go back and forth, yeah. Which I always find very annoying and distracting. I love it.
JVL00:03:31I love it when Nolan does it. I hate it.
Sonny00:03:34I actually think it's destructive to the integrity of the film in question. I think it, like, makes you realize that it's a film when you keep switching back and forth like that in a way that is very distracting.
Vic00:03:44You're suddenly untransported from that world. Yeah, right.
Sonny00:03:47You're like, oh, wait, I'm watching a movie. Now we're back in the nice picture. Now we're back in the crappy picture. Now we're back in the nice picture. I don't like it. I think it's, I think it is distracting and bad for the movie. But before, I didn't actually want to talk about that. Before that. I'm sorry, hold on.
JVL00:04:00You think Shazam looks really good and fun, but flipping out. Which you pointed out three days ago, you pointed this out. But flipping out to full IMAX as a way of emphasizing the largeness of the setting on screen. It should all be. Really pulls you out of the movie.
Sonny00:04:15It should all be in the big format. If you're going to do it, it should all be in the big format or it should not be in the big format. Like, you shouldn't flip back and forth. I don't think this is a, like. Disagree. Well, you're free to disagree. You're wrong about a lot of things. So, we can leave it at that. Not wrong about Shazam. Well, we'll see. We'll go back to the tape on that. As I was saying three days ago on Monday, after we taped.
JVL00:04:38$800 million worldwide gross on Shazam.
Sonny00:04:40I think it will do $700 to $800 million worldwide with at least $250 domestic.
JVL00:04:45Bet you a baseball card.
Vic00:04:47I'm not going to get into your perverted game.
Sonny00:04:50You'll be betting me your son next with all your plans and plots and whatnot. Very valuable.
Vic00:04:56All on the back of Zach Levi.
Sonny00:04:59America's greatest hero, film star, Zach Levi. No, I didn't actually even want to talk about IMAX and all that. I wanted to talk about beforehand, we went to dinner at Carmine's. Have you ever been to Carmine's?
JVL00:05:11Of course I've been to Carmine's. Have you been to Carmine's, JVL? It's a New York place. It's a New York place, but they have a menu.
Sonny00:05:17They haven't got a menu. DC, Vegas.
Vic00:05:18I've been to two different locations in Carmine's. The one on Broadway and the one further down.
Sonny00:05:22Right, right. So, Carmine's is a family style restaurant. It's a family style Italian place. You can't really get individual sized pork. Oh my God. You shouldn't even go in. You'll just explode. But it's a family style place. So, I went with my wife. It was just the two of us. So, we know going in, we're getting one plate. We're not getting an appetizer. We're just getting one plate of food. And we literally couldn't finish that one plate of food. What did you get? We got, it was a special. It was like four cheese gnocchi. And it was like, I mean it was good. But we each. We literally ate like one third of the plate.
JVL00:05:57So, this is the ideological opposite of the buffet.
Sonny00:06:00Yes. Yes.
Vic00:06:02Well, it's one visit. One plate for two people. No, I mean it is. It's one visit. You don't go up for seconds. But you won't get seconds once you get to each person.
Sonny00:06:08I mean, the best way to go to a place like this is to go with like ten people. And you get like three family sized plates. And you're all sharing. Like that's the ideal. But when you're going with one other person, it's like, okay, we're getting one thing. But I bring this up.
Vic00:06:21If I was with one person, I'd get maybe three or four dishes.
Sonny00:06:23Probably. Well, you mean you're different. You're a human garbage disposal. When I go alone, I get three or four dishes. When you go by yourself. So anyway, I bring this up because we're sitting there and a couple sits down next to us. And they clearly have never been here before because they, it's just, again, it's like a man and a woman. And they order an appetizer and a main course. And I'm just like kind of watching out of the corner of my eye as their food comes. And the waitress brings their appetizer. And they ordered wings. And it's literally like. Are they Italian? No. Wings are not an Italian dish. They're small people, too. I meant the wings. No, no, no, no.
JVL00:07:03The wings are an Italian dish that Carmine's is serving them.
Sonny00:07:06Well, it's like Carmine's wings. I don't know. They call it a thing. I don't know. But like anyway, the plate comes and it's literally like 30 wings. And this is the appetizer. And I just like see their face. I'm like, again, I'm like watching out of the corner of my eye. And I see their faces like their eyes grow into like this, these like. It's like a comic book O of horror. Like, what have we gotten ourselves into? And then like 20 minutes later, the waitress comes with their main dish. And it's a plate like basically the size of this computer screen. You can't see it at home, but it's like a solid, I don't know, what, 20, 26 inches across. And it is just filled with pasta. And like they've, and I, again, I kind of like look over the, and they've eaten like four of the wings.
JVL00:07:49Their server did not do them a favor.
Sonny00:07:51No, their server is supposed to.
Vic00:07:52Your server is supposed to.
Sonny00:07:53I've been, the server always warned, they'll say, like, You know, this is a family style. The portions are larger. You haven't eaten here before. You haven't eaten here before. Instead, he made a killing. So, anyway, I was, this was my weekend, was kind of watching this other couple be tormented by the massive amounts of food.
Vic00:08:09You'd be surprised, but, you know, people like my aunt, who lives in New York, well, if we go to Carmine's there, she loves the calamari. But it's the whole, I mean, it's a full. Yeah, but it's like four pans of.
JVL00:08:20Is the guacamole good?
Vic00:08:21No, the calamari, and actually, you'd be surprised. No, it's broccoli rabe, because, you know, I eat healthy, as you know. Right, of course. You can get a giant broccoli rabe, which I don't think involves that much butter, to be honest with you. Not much butter.
Sonny00:08:33No, I, anyway, that was my, that was my weekend. Good, good, good.
JVL00:08:37How was your weekend, Victorino?
Vic00:08:39Well, I am just fresh back. I arrived at home at midnight. I was in Connecticut for Friday, Saturday, Sunday. You did the Sunday night drive? Sunday night train. I took the, I left my kids behind. I took a five o'clock train from Old Savers. And made it back to Union Station at 1130.
JVL00:08:59With Kate in tow? Just you and Kate?
Vic00:09:01No, no, just me. Just me alone, because, you know. You left not only your kids, but your wife.
Sonny00:09:05As you know. Up there.
Vic00:09:07As you know, Sonny, I have to work. I have to come in. I can't just take days off like this.
Sonny00:09:12Oh, yeah. Vic never takes any time off. No, as you know. At the Free Beacon, you know.
Vic00:09:17Ever, ever. And.
Sonny00:09:18We were actually discussing a very nice part-time plan that he could sign up for. If he, if he, if he wanted to keep taking vacation days and going. You know what, I'm working.
Vic00:09:26I'm really working on these trips. But, so, I'm back here. But, of course, she went there to spend more family time up in Connecticut. And then from there, she's going to drive down to Jersey to see my folks. And then they'll be back on Sunday.
JVL00:09:38Cut to the chase. So, you get a full seven days without anybody else in the house. Yes. What are you going to do? Civilization?
Vic00:09:44I'll get, let me get to that. I'll get to that in a second. I'll get to that in a second. I just want to say, but it was a, it was a fun sort of two to three days for me in Connecticut. And you know what I played, and I dominated at this game, was a ladder golf. You know ladder golf, or they call it ladder toss, or blongo ball. It's the balls connected with the ropes, and you spin it, and there's like racks, and you have to have three points, two points, one point. The McCormicks know this game.
Sonny00:10:11I've never heard of this in my life. What are you talking about?
Vic00:10:13Ladder golf. And so, it's like there's three racks, and you got to spin, like you spin these balls connected to strings, and then you spin it, and it wraps on a thing. And I played.
JVL00:10:22Is this a New England waspy thing?
Vic00:10:24No. You know what? I mean, I. I played it down here. The McCormicks play it. They have a set themselves. Is it a Midwestern thing? I have no idea. Although, I haven't. No, I've seen it once before in Connecticut, but the McCormicks have it. So, and I played against Captain Bill Dwyer, and.
JVL00:10:39I bet you crushed him.
Vic00:10:40I crushed him, and it was a great big. This is how you can tell it's not a real sport. I agree. Hold on. It was a great big to-do, and it was very funny because Captain Bill Dwyer's, you know, wife, Erin, was mortified that I was beating him at this game. And what did Captain. Captain Bill Dwyer said, he said, you're like Lauren Holly from Any Given Sunday. That's what he said. What's the matter with you? You can't be losing to him. And the Captain's spin was, when everyone said, what happened? It was a big family reunion up there, people on the deck watching. And Captain Bill Dwyer's spin was, well, Vic finally found a sport that he's good at. Blanco ball.
JVL00:11:13So, were you playing in a yard? In a yard.
Vic00:11:15Or was this something you were doing on the yacht? Because it's a big yacht. No, it was in the yard. Okay. In the yard, back and forth. And my father-in-law is working on boats in his barn. How good is Dr. Dwyer at ladder golf? Didn't play him. I just played Captain Bill Dwyer twice, and then he retired. And I retired, rather. And then the next day.
JVL00:11:42I choose not to run. Very much like Borg.
Vic00:11:45Very much like Bjorn Borg. But, you know, all you know is, you know, get out of the way. Once I'm swinging my yellow balls around, you got to get out of the way. Okay. To jump to the... I thought you were saying, JVL, Home Alone, what I'm doing, right? You know what I'm doing, JVL? I am going to be, this week, enjoying my Amazon Prime purchase. Now, I'll give you a hint. Amazon Prime Day? Prime Day purchase. First, I'll give you a hint. It's battery operated. I'm just kidding. No. It's... You guessed it already. Civilization Complete, which I tweeted out. Complete. Gods and Kings and the other one. What is it? Brave New World. It was originally priced at $49. Got it for $12.49. It comes with everything. But it is completely different. The game moves at a snail's pace. And it's not, like, just easy to dominate. You got it. Have you started already? Yes.
JVL00:12:39Last night?
Vic00:12:39No, no, no. I thought about it, because I looked at the clock. It was 11.55 p.m.
JVL00:12:4311.55? I'll just do a couple turns. Yeah, just a couple.
Vic00:12:46Look, just until I get to the Hanging Gardens.
Sonny00:12:49As soon as I finish the Great Library, I'm going to stop.
Vic00:12:53You're not going to believe the new wonders that got them. The mausoleum of Halicarnassus. But they have new units, and I am excited to check out the new ones. Who are you playing as? I tried. Have you thought?
JVL00:13:05You've already played a little bit?
Vic00:13:06Yes. When? I tried before the trip. Oh, before the trip.
JVL00:13:10Okay. Who did you go as, and who are you excited to play as? That's a good question.
Vic00:13:14Sonny totally checked out at this point. We don't need him. I was Maria Theresa of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. And you can buy city-states. You click on a button. Underneath the usual gifting and stuff, it says diplomatic marriage. And then they're yours. After, like, if they're allies for five turns and you have the money. But it is very hard to earn gold. It's just really hard. And religion is back. So the Civ IV thing of religion is now incorporated. It's very complicated. And part of my trip on the train was reading tips on strategy for complete addition.
JVL00:13:53You didn't bring your laptop to play on the train? No, no. No, no, no, no, no.
Vic00:13:55No, I brought my work laptop because I was editing on Friday.
JVL00:13:58Are you going to be playing as the Germans? No, because I've done it.
Vic00:14:02But you know what? You know what? Poland is one. And their special unit is the Winged Hussar. Go check it out.
JVL00:14:09Hussar?
Vic00:14:10Hussar? Hussar? Hussar? The Winged Hussar. So anyway, but I'll tell you what. One other unit. One other unit. Machine gun. That's a new unit. Ooh. Yes. Yeah. So if you discover something. Now they have a new research called Ballista. And you can do a machine gun. And I think that's going to be very exciting. Speaking of machine guns, over the weekend, The Equalizer 2 took the top spot at the box office with $35.8 million, followed by Mamma Mia 2 with $34 million. And in third place, Hotel Transylvania 3 with $23 million. These numbers are fine, but it's no Guardians of the Galaxy, Sonny.
Sonny00:14:50Yeah. I mean, the big news out of Comic-Con really had nothing to do. It was James Gunn being kicked off of the Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 because a bunch of angry conservative-slash-alt-right-type tweeters dug up a bunch of his old tweets about making pedophile jokes, that sort of thing. My big thought on this, I have one big thought on this, and this is basically, this is what you get for weaponizing outrage. You know, when you make a world in which mistakes and bad jokes and bad tweets can be used to get people fired, you can't be too angry when it happens to someone you like. This is why I have, as JVL knows, always argued for forbearance on this sort of thing. We need to separate our politics. And the rest of our lives. Otherwise, we just kind of enter into this death struggle where every time someone makes a mistake, it comes back to haunt them. I have other kind of lesser thoughts, like, for instance, what was Disney expecting when they hired an edgelord indie director who made movies about, like, lizards crawling into people's crevices and killing them? You know, a guy with a trauma background who is known for this sort of thing. Like, what did they expect? Did they not go back through his social media accounts and kind of try to figure out who he is? And my other kind of small thought on this is, what on earth is his agent doing letting him have this Twitter account where he's out there not only, you know, the reason James Gunn fell under... Fell under fire was because, A, he is a vocal critic of President Trump, and B, he attacked Mark Duplass, who had said something nice about Ben Shapiro, and then everyone got mad at Mark Duplass. I mean, like, trying to explain a Twitter fight to a stranger is, like, is kind of pointless. So, hopefully some of you know what is going on here. But the, you know, why, how on earth does his agent let him have 10 years of awful, nasty tweets and jokes about having sex with children and that sort of thing when he's working for Disney? Every agent needs to have a serious talk with any of their, anyone in their stable who has an unmediated Twitter account about either doing a purge of old tweets or simply giving it up, because it is a disaster waiting to happen for all these people.
Vic00:17:50Particularly, I imagine, you know, eccentric types, artistic types, they all sorts of crazy things, right?
Sonny00:17:55Yeah, I mean, I, like, this is a, like, Disney hired James Gunn because James Gunn was a weirdo. They hired him because he was kind of a weird indie director with a quirky sensibility who would give their weird movie about the talking tree and the murderous raccoon kind of a veneer of artistic credibility. And so, you know, look, when you hire that sort of person, you have to kind of understand what you're getting. And Disney's failure to appreciate that. Left them open for this attack, you know, the weirdest thing about this is that James Gunn got in trouble for this sort of thing about six years ago, back when he was first brought on board the first Guardians of the Galaxy movie. Like, somebody went through his old tweets and, like, got mad at him for things and he apologized, was like, oh, you know, I'm sorry, I didn't mean to make the trans jokes. I didn't mean to come across as an anti-gay bigot, homophobe, all that stuff. So, like, at that time, somebody should have been like, we're nuking. We're nuking this account. You don't get to do this anymore. And the fact that he didn't speak poorly of him and his representation and the people at Disney, but also, like, this is the awful, terrible world that we've chosen, which is one where when you make jokes on Twitter or in public or if you are, say, a Netflix, this is a story I read this weekend, Netflix executive at a soccer game managing his daughter's soccer team, somebody comes up to him and says, why haven't you fired Danny Masterson yet? Danny Masterson had been accused of rape by three or four women, and he is, like, trying, again, he's, like, out with his family, he's trying to do family things, and he kind of dismisses the person, like, ah, we don't believe his accusers. Turns out one of the accusers is who asked him, and so it, like, it turns into, and the guy gets fired. His reputation is destroyed. And, you know, we need to create a world in which you are not 24 hours a day a representative of the place you work or the business that you do, and the fact that we, you know, we have chosen to live in a world where we destroy anybody who makes a mistake or does something we don't like is a bad world. We have chosen a bad world. We live in a bad world.
JVL00:20:06I'm sorry. JVL. Garbage people chose a bad world to live in. Yeah, I know. I'm shocked. Shocking, right?
Sonny00:20:13Question.
JVL00:20:15If James Gunn was a director for a high-profile property at any other studio that was not Disney, would he have lost his gig for this? Because I think Disney is a special case. I mean, Disney is the mouse. It's the family. They have a real corporate identity about this in the way that I don't know that Sony or Fox or Warner Brothers would have.
Sonny00:20:40Hard to say. I think there are places he could have survived, and I think there are projects he could have survived on, but if you were making a PG-13... PG-13 movie that is supposed to appeal to teens and young adults, and there is the hint that you were linking to child pornography videos, which is, I think, what killed him. There was a tweet that was deleted that was like, check out this video of 100 girls touching themselves, and everyone was like, oh my God, pedo video. He's tweeting out pedo porn, but it was actually a choral group singing the Divinal song, I Touch Myself. But you couldn't see it because he had already deleted the tweets, so it was just like a blank video.
JVL00:21:29Question. Yeah. Had Disney not removed him, roughly how much money would Guardians 3 have lost as a result of still having James Gunn as the director?
Sonny00:21:41I think this is the real question, right? Zero. You think it's zero?
JVL00:21:45Zero.
Sonny00:21:46It's a headache, and I think that the first rule of PR is avoid headaches, so they were nipping. They were nipping something in the bud, and let's be honest, all of these Marvel movies look exactly alike anyway. There's a real question as to what exactly James Gunn brings to the table as a director that some other guy for hire wouldn't be able to. I mean, if they brought Jon Favreau in to do Guardians of the Galaxy 3, would it look different?
Vic00:22:16Well, he's a great speech writer, but I don't know. He does a great podcast, too. Question. These tweets have existed for a long time, obviously. You mentioned that. How did they, or why did they just resurface?
Sonny00:22:24Well, again, so what happened was, a few days ago, Mark Duplass tweeted out, if you are a liberal and you want to have a good conversation with a conservative, talk to Ben Shapiro. Something like that. Something along those lines. And the left lost its f***ing mind. Just lost its mind. It went totally nuts, to the point that Duplass deleted the tweet and then put up a kind of Maoist apology.
JVL00:22:52Here's my quick sidebar. Which is worse, if Duplass's Maoist apology is cynically not true and he's doing it just because he thinks he has to, or if it's genuine? Because I, having spent, I like Ben a great deal. I think Ben is an underrated writer and a great podcaster and just a good guy. So I was sort of outraged on his behalf. But when looking at this, I couldn't figure out which would be more depressing. If Duplass, like, didn't mean it but felt like he just had to do it. Because that's the state of the world. Or if he really meant it.
Sonny00:23:28I think it is more depressing if he really meant it. I understand the pressures that come along with being forced to denounce somebody who you don't even really know anyway. I mean, it's not like Duplass and Shapiro are friends. Right. Like, they're not hanging out. And I like Ben, too. I think, you know, he listens to the show sometimes. So, you know, sorry. Sorry, Ben. But, like, I think it's actually worse if he means it. Because that means that, like, he has actually been, like, mentally brainwashed. I mean, like, it's like a legit struggle session out there.
JVL00:24:03It's really, I mean, it's really bad. Yeah. And this is, I gotta say, this is one of the things where Twitter only has power over you if you're on it. If Duplass just wasn't on Twitter, then he would have been able to just, like, you know, give the finger of the world and be like, what do I care? Yeah, I don't care. You know, like, there's a weirdness to allowing Twitter to have control over your life.
Sonny00:24:23This is very much a Twitter controversy. And, you know, the idea that James Gunn will get in trouble for something he tweeted 10 years ago because of something he tweeted three days ago that people who love Donald Trump found offensive is, this is, like, the mad world that we live in. It's totally insane. But, again, it's the world we have chosen.
Vic00:24:46Well, I think what's really interesting, as you mentioned, is, you know, it's too bad for James Gunn because Guardians of the Galaxy is a very quirky movie, and they found a very quirky director, you know, I guess you could say, was really, yes, JVL.
JVL00:24:57I do want to say this. This is the type of thing that should never happen to anybody, but if it has to happen to somebody, let it happen to James Gunn. Right. He does not seem like a super good guy. Right, right. One of his tweets about the Duplass thing, it was like, you know, there are a lot of traitors and racists in the country today. Come the F on. Well, it's just... I mean, this is... Right, right. Totally. It shouldn't happen to anybody, but if it has to happen to somebody, fine.
Vic00:25:23I was just going to say. It's too bad for him because the Guardian of Galaxies series was really tailored for him, and speaking of tailored...
JVL00:25:30Look at that.
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Sonny00:27:10One more thing. I'm sorry. I'm James Gunn.
JVL00:27:12Did you just transition out of an ad? I did. I did a double check. Out of an ad.
Sonny00:27:15I transitioned out of an ad. Thank you.
Vic00:27:17You've got...
JVL00:27:18This is like the first...
Sonny00:27:21I had a very busy morning.
JVL00:27:22This is like the first snowboarder to pull a 1080 or something. This is like throwing out... It's never been done before.
Sonny00:27:26It's never been done before. Throwing a perfect game in the world. The double. The double. Oh, God. Please, Sonny. Continue. One more thing about James Gunn. Sorry to step on your transition. It's okay.
Vic00:27:35I'm glad I got it out.
Sonny00:27:36It really... I mean, JBL mentions that he is kind of a prick. Kind of a liberal prick. And... Just a prick.
JVL00:27:44Doesn't even need to be liberal. Just kind of a prick.
Sonny00:27:46He's just kind of a prick. And the... You know, the real lesson here is... Every revolution eats its own. And this is very much an example, just another example of kind of a, you know, like, oh, I've created this great world where we shame all the bad people. And I'm one of the good people, so I'll always be fine. And that's just not... That's not how it works. And there's been kind of a spate of articles of people being like, you know, our outrages are real, but this is a fake outrage by conservative... Like, all outrages are dumb. We shouldn't fire people because the mob gets mad. That's it. I'm done. Thank you. Sorry.
Vic00:28:26Speaking of odysseys... Speaking of odysseys, I believe this is now the... It's not only the 50th anniversary of 2001 Space Odyssey. Is it also, like, around this time? Is that why it's happening now? Yeah, I mean, it was a... People are talking about it. Sonny, what's going on here?
Sonny00:28:40It came out in, I don't know, like, May or June or something like that. Okay. All right.
Vic00:28:43So it's the 50th anniversary.
Sonny00:28:44And this week, also today... This week, today, Thursday, July 26th, when we're taping, is Stanley Kubrick's, I believe, 90th birthday? If he were. Yes. Yes. It would be his 90th. Or possibly 91st. I don't know how math works.
Vic00:28:59And did they have a special sort of screening of 2001?
Sonny00:29:06So 2001 was released. They have... The short version of the story is Christopher Nolan worked with Warner Brothers to put together a new print of the film. They worked from the original kind of interpositive, which is the print that they used to strike new prints from. So not the actual negative, but the print that they make from the original negative. He took new interpositives, or he took prints struck from the interpositive and did a bunch of color corrections to Stanley Kubrick's original kind of intentions and that sort of thing. And they put together a bunch of 70 millimeter prints and they sent it all around the country. And I think the screenings have just wrapped up. So sorry. We probably should have done this episode like two months ago. Did you go see it? I saw it at the AFI Silver here in town. Silver Spring? In Silver Spring. How long did it take you to get home? God, it took me like an hour to get home. Well, this is, I don't want to get into it, but it was a freaking disaster. It's a terrible place. But it's hard. It's kind of annoying to get to if you live in Virginia. But if you live in D.C. or Maryland, you should go sometime. The AFI Silver's great. Anyway, I saw a new 70 millimeter print. I basically only watch 2001 once every five or six years or so. And I see it in 70 millimeter at a place like this. The AFI Silver, because it is a movie that only really makes sense to watch on the big screen. It is a film that is very much about movement and motion and the way that that kind of interplays with sound and music. And you have to see it on the biggest possible screen with the best possible music setup, best speakers and all that, to really understand what's going on. You know, it's a film that... That was made for an earlier time, for a generation before, you know, the MTV generation with its quick cuts. Oh, yeah. This is not Pearl Harbor. This is not Pearl Harbor. And it's, you know, Michael Bay-style editing. You know, it's a sort of movie that you experience and you let wash over you. And, you know, to just distill it to, like, plot points or, you know, whatever is... All that stuff is...
Vic00:31:19The normal stuff? The narrative? Yeah, the narrative, the plot... It's not an issue.
Sonny00:31:23This is really... The lines... It's not why you're watching it. That's not why you're watching it. It's not why you're watching it. It's an experience. As they say on the poster... Like a roller coaster. Like a theme park ride. It's the ultimate trip. Well, I mean, it's more... It's opening your mind, you know. It's like LSD, but on film. It's really... It's really... That's... So, anyway.
Vic00:31:43JVL, did you recently watch 2001, A Space Odyssey, to prepare for this episode?
JVL00:31:48You know, as Paul Thomas Anderson is fond of saying, we're all Stanley's children. And I'm happy to... I'm happy to acknowledge the greatness of Kubrick. And I had not watched this since I was a teenager. So, I re-watched it last night.
Vic00:32:02How? Where?
JVL00:32:04In my home.
Vic00:32:07So, on the big screen?
JVL00:32:08On my phone.
Sonny00:32:11In portrait mode. Oh, come on. In standard definition. My God. Where did you even get that from?
JVL00:32:19Amazon hides the standard definition option from you, but it's there. And I did it just for you, Sonny.
Sonny00:32:27Question. Yeah. S.D. How big is the actual viewing space on your phone when you're watching it in portrait? Would you say it's like three square inches all together?
Vic00:32:42I was going to say three.
JVL00:32:46Closer to two and a half.
Sonny00:32:48So, about two and a half square inches. Maybe two. Wide.
JVL00:32:51Maybe two. Okay, great. And I let it wash over me, Vic. I just let it wash over me.
Vic00:33:02You felt like you were enveloped in outer space. You were there.
JVL00:33:04Something else. Really?
Vic00:33:06Victorino, have you watched it recently? You know what? I have only watched it once when AFI came out with the top 100 movies of the century. Do you remember that? Of the last century, we were alive then. And I wanted to check off as many off that list, which I had on my old bulletin board. And one of them was 2001. I was living at the Kennedy Warren at the time in my little efficiency, my studio. And I watched it.
Sonny00:33:30Did you watch it on VHS?
Vic00:33:31I watched it on VHS, Sonny. And I have to tell you.
Sonny00:33:34In Pan and Scan.
Vic00:33:35Savages. There's a part of the movie, Pan and Scan, there was a part of a movie. I didn't even notice that if it was happening. There was no letterboxing. No. What I remember is the part where they're going through this weird space trip where you have to be on LSD to experience it. The Stargate?
Sonny00:33:54It's called the Stargate. You go through the monolith.
Vic00:33:56The monolith, and I fast-forwarded because it went on for like five minutes. It went on for like 15 minutes. Oh, my gosh. So what is that like, though?
Sonny00:34:05Well, I will say, look, the first time I saw the movie, I saw it on a screen that was probably about 20 inches, like a TV, like a CRT TV, back in the 90s in a friend's basement. And it was showing on one of the PBS channels, like WETA. And we were watching. I was like, yeah, this is, I don't know. And then I watched it later in Blu-ray or DVD or whatever, or probably DVD at the time. I was like, yeah, I don't quite. And it wasn't until I saw it in the theater on the big screen where you can see the little individual movement of people in the windows of the ships as they're doing the docking, as the ships actually kind of look like they're dancing with each other to the set of the Blue Danube Waltz. I mean, it is a different experience on the big screen. It is not a movie you watch for plot. That's not why you watch it. It's not layer cake. It's bigger. Okay.
Vic00:35:04JVL? Yes, JVL.
JVL00:35:06I have a lot of thoughts. I have observations. Having it as fresh in my mind as it is.
Vic00:35:10I have observations and thoughts. Is part of it, Sonny, expectations? So you go in there, you know now what to expect, that this is not a normal movie per se, that you know that it's going to be how long through the ape section? JVL?
JVL00:35:26The ape section itself is, I ran a lot of clock on it. The first dialogue is at 25 minutes and 44 seconds. Wow. The dialogue between homo sapiens. The first intelligible English words is at 25, 44. I actually, so the Dawn of Man stuff is interminable. But I also liked parts of it. It's great. For instance. I get it. If they remade this movie today, which they absolutely should.
Sonny00:36:06They should.
JVL00:36:06And that's going to be, we're going to talk about that last. But this is a movie that is crying out to be remade. Can Zack Snyder do it?
Vic00:36:15It might not be a bad choice, frankly.
JVL00:36:18The apes would be CGI and they'd be less good. I actually just watched The Two Towers over the weekend with Flash. And the Andy Serkis Gollum physical work, which everybody has been so always, nothing compared to the actors who are doing the apes. They're really good. Yeah, yeah. The B-unit photography in The Dawn of Man stuff, amazing. The shot of the leopard with the eyes glowing when he turns away from the zebra. There's astonishing filmmaking. That said, Sonny, what time is it?
Sonny00:36:5036.15.
JVL00:36:51Every time a f***ing ship has to land somewhere, it's a minimum of three minutes. That's the best part. It's landing in real time. It's landing in real time. There are four moments, four scenes of ships. There is the Earth ship docking with the space station, the space station pod landing on the moon, the moon ship landing at the alien site, and then Discovery 1 approaching Jupiter. The first three of these take three minutes of screen time each. The final one, Discovery 1's approach to Jupiter, is fully five minutes long. What that means... What that means is that 10% of the movie's run time,
Sonny00:37:3010% of it is dedicated to docking, to ship's landing. And the interlude. And docking. And the overture.
JVL00:37:39There is the scene where they go to the monolith on the moon, and the guys, it begins with the men in the space suit looking down over the excavation site and seeing the monolith, then walking down, looking at it, reaching out to touch it. Just like the apes. Which is just like the apes, and which I love. I don't need it to be. I love Sonny's face. The Sonny's face is, I just blew your mind. I don't need that. And it isn't just me. Nobody, no viewer needs that to be three and a half minutes long.
Sonny00:38:19You do if you're watching it in the movie theater, and all you can hear is, it creates the sense of isolation, and it gives you that sense of really, truly foreign and extraterrestrial-ness. And then when the sound, when the radio signal goes off, it's deafening in the theater.
JVL00:38:40The diminishing returns for the visual impact and experiential impact of that, after 90 seconds, shrink down to this. I'm not saying you need to do... I'm not saying you need to do quick-cut stuff, but what I'm saying is you can take your time and have atmospherics that are not at that level of self-indulgence.
Vic00:39:03Question, Sonny. Yeah. When the movie came out in 1968, it had to have been, inarguably, the most impressive special effects space scenes ever done to that point, right?
JVL00:39:15I mean, it's not like...
Vic00:39:17Even later sci-fi movies, you'd be able to see black outlines and things like this, but it looked...
Sonny00:39:24Well, this is one of the reasons it took four years to make, is because they kept... Kubrick was not pleased with Douglas Trumbull's work in it. They kept having to keep getting it right, and Trumbull, to his credit, made this movie what it is. I mean, without his work, it's not the same.
Vic00:39:45So, when JVL was discussing how long it took for these ships, three minutes docking this and that, if you were in the audience in 1968, would you be just, like, marveling for three minutes? Three minutes just in amazement, including young George Lucas or whoever else. George Lucas, who wrote Patton at the time. But anyway, not Patton, that's Spencer Ford Kubrick, but young George Lucas watching this and Stephen Spielberg saying, wow, and I loved every minute.
Sonny00:40:05Or young Christopher Nolan. The reason Christopher Nolan wanted to work on the print was because he had seen it as, like, an eight-year-old or whatever.
JVL00:40:12Christopher Nolan still would have wanted to do it if those scenes had each been two minutes long.
Sonny00:40:16The third minute doesn't get you anything. Oh, but it does. JVL creates so much mood.
JVL00:40:21This is like being the person who goes into 7-Eleven and gets the giant, super gargantuan gulp version of it and then feels like they have to, after filling it up, like, pour off the foam and get that last little bit of extra. No, you've got 140 ounces of soda there. You don't need to put any more in.
Sonny00:40:43Well, you don't want 10 ounces of foam.
Vic00:40:46What was your thought, JVL, on the Stargate?
JVL00:40:49So this is, again, I do not... I don't want to troll you by saying the movie is ridiculous and terrible, but it's not. It is a stunning achievement. The sets, the rotating sets, the photography is astonishing. The Stargate sequence, I mean, they didn't have this in 1968. They did not have computers, let alone computer-generated animation. This is done by, what, they had, like, lights and paint in a bucket of water that they were, you know, putting motor through and had a camera lens in.
Sonny00:41:16I think there was some very, very rudimentary computer work done on this.
JVL00:41:20It's astonishing as a technical achievement. But virtuosity is cinematic, but it's not narrative. Like, it's, I mean, the thing which cinema is, this is a real question. What is cinema? Is cinema just technical achievement? Or is it technical achievement that has to be used in the service of telling a story? Because there's very little storytelling going on. And what is done in this movie is so, I don't need concrete answers. I believe that art can be ambiguous. But because something is insanely ambiguous doesn't mean that it is finely wrought art.
Sonny00:41:58Sure. My take on that question is kind of my take on Kubrick as a larger phenomenon. Can I just take two minutes to explain my theory of Stanley Kubrick and why he is, like, kind of... Please. My theory on Stanley Kubrick is that he endures as, like, essentially the kind of greatest of the semi-art auteurist filmmakers is that he is entirely accessible. In a way that a lot of these guys aren't because he worked in genre, right? He made, what, three war films. He made a sci-fi film. He made a horror film. Gladiator film. He made a sword and sandal picture, right? Costume drama. Right. And a costume drama. So, like, he kind of throughout his career worked within very specific identifiable genres. And he has enough kind of unique stylistic things. That people can look at what he's doing and say, oh, I recognize the kind of, like, steadicam tracking shot. Or, like, I recognize the, like, low angle, super close up on the face. You know, like, he does, he does, like, enough very specific things. And he works in very middle brow concepts. So, the concept of 2001 is where did we come from? Where are we going? Right? Like, this is the big question. In A Clockwork Orange, it is what is free will? And does it actually... Does it actually matter? Dr. Strangelove is, you know, like, what does it actually mean to have the power to destroy ourselves? Like, he's working in kind of very broad, accessible ways in very broad, accessible media. Very, very broad, accessible genres. So, to get to answer your point, I think narrative matters. But I don't think it matters as much on 2001 as it does in his other films, if that makes sense.
JVL00:44:01I mean, he took four years to get the space station right. During that time, could he have, like, figured out in the most broad strokes what his script was actually trying to say? What the story was?
Sonny00:44:16But I don't think, I think it's pretty clear what the story is trying to say. It's trying to say, this is... This is where we are. This is where we're going. What is, you know, what is the human journey through time and space? It ends with a star baby. That makes perfect sense. I don't understand what the issue is here.
JVL00:44:37Is the star baby there to eat all of our nuclear weapons? Or is he there to kill us? Or is he there to create a new heaven? Or is he actually just in a human zoo? He's just the next stage, man.
Vic00:44:49I think that's... Well, the answer takes place nine years later in 2010. Yeah.
Sonny00:44:55I would say this.
JVL00:44:59The whole time I kept thinking to myself, this movie might have been better if Martin Scorsese had been directing it. There'd be a lot more violence. True. He would pay attention to story. Yeah. Give him that. Yeah. No, but I really, I did... I honestly did feel that this is the type of thing that if you hand it off to, say, Denis Villeneuve?
Sonny00:45:19Denis Villeneuve. Denis Villeneuve. Villeneuve.
JVL00:45:23Denis Villeneuve. I would be okay with a remake on that that is, again, atmospheric, but not self-indulgent. That moves things along with some sort of economy. This is... Economy is overrated. It is not overrated in filmmaking.
Sonny00:45:40But this is one of the reasons why, again, I really enjoy seeing it in a theater. Because they have... It has... When you go and see it at the AFI on a 70 millimeter print, they have the overture at the beginning as people are kind of filling in and taking their seats.
JVL00:45:53Oh, I know. The overture. They, it has... Sat through that on my phone.
Sonny00:45:56It has the intermission, where you can... Sat through that, too. I got the full experience. You can get up and you walk around and you go get some popcorn, you go get a PBR, you know, and you come back here.
Vic00:46:07Is that one of the last films... Listeners will maybe notice, too. Is this one of the... That one of the last films that had an intermission in the movie? Yeah. I remember Sound of Music has one, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang has one, Gone with the Wind has one. You still get them... I don't remember that.
Sonny00:46:20You still get them occasionally. The Hateful Eight, the roadshow version of the Hateful Eight. Oh, my. That went around on 70 millimeter. They did what? Had an intermission. Had a 15 or 20 minute intermission. But it is the thing that has disappeared, and that's, I think, bad, actually. I think the intermission is one of the reasons the film works, because the intermission kind of like... You are actually kind of exhausted after that first hour and a half. Like, it is a...
JVL00:46:43You're bored. You're not exhausted. No, you're not.
Sonny00:46:46Again, it's very different in sitting in the theater, watching it on the giant screen where...
Vic00:46:52I've seen the movie. It's the same movie. I've seen it. It's the same.
JVL00:46:54I've seen it on my phone.
Sonny00:46:55It's not the same movie. It's the same thing. I've seen it on my phone. And you get up, and you walk around for a little bit, and you come back, and you're like, what was Hal planning on doing? Because the intermission ends on him reading the lips. It's like, you're like, oh my God, that computer knows what they're thinking. What's he going to do?
JVL00:47:11It's great.
Vic00:47:11H-A-L or I-B-M? H-A-L. I-B-M.
JVL00:47:16Then he does that thing where he's shutting down Hal, and he has to pull out every single tape cassette. He does that thing in order to shut it. How long did that take? He can't just pull down one. How long did that take?
Sonny00:47:27He's got to pull out another one.
Vic00:47:28What is the running time? Question, what is the running time?
Sonny00:47:30He can feel his mind going, JBL.
JVL00:47:32The running time is, it's not that long. It's like two hours and 30 minutes. Really?
Sonny00:47:38It's basically as long as The Dark Knight.
JVL00:47:39It is not that long.
Sonny00:47:41It only feels-
JVL00:47:41Shorter than Infinity War. It feels like it's five hours long. And this is, again, this is a failure of the- There's a phrase for this they use in screenwriting, which is escaping me, where you are trying to portray- A feeling like boredom, but instead of portraying the feeling of boredom, you actually portray actual boredom, and you bore the audience. And that's what this movie does. I honestly, I am not, I love atmospherics. I love atmosphere, but atmosphere is an ingredient which contributes to the story and is not a substitute for the story, and substituting atmosphere for story is the same kind of sin as- Substituting action for the story. You know, I mean, the flaws in this are no different in theory than, like, a kung fu movie, which is just all action with no plot in it.
Vic00:48:35Yeah. No. Sonny, I mean, you like, obviously, 2001 A Space Odyssey, but is that your favorite of the Kubrick?
Sonny00:48:44No. Ouvra? No, my favorite would be-
Vic00:48:46Oh, wait, wait, wait. Rank them.
Sonny00:48:50Oh, I've got a ranking somewhere. I actually-
Vic00:48:53You have to do all of them. All right, you can just do, I would say, starting from Spartacus.
Sonny00:48:56You guys go first. Give me one sec, actually. Victorino.
Vic00:48:59I can't work that well on the spot with Kubrick.
JVL00:49:02Did we see Eyes Wide Shut together?
Vic00:49:04No, we did not. We did not. I've only seen parts of that. No, that wasn't me. Who are you with? How dare you? You've only seen the parts on Dailymotion.
Sonny00:49:10I've only seen the parts with-
JVL00:49:12I've only seen the parts on Dailymotion. Lily Sobiaski, Lily Sobiaski on Dailymotion.
Vic00:49:17That reminds me later on tonight. Okay. Oh, that's right. It's been wild these last few weeks. It's been wild these last few days.
JVL00:49:24I would guess that your favorite is Full Metal Jacket. But again, Full Metal Jacket is only half a great movie. It is half a great movie. It is half a great movie. It is half a great movie. The Shining is probably on the top of my list. Yeah, I like The Shining a lot. That's interesting to me.
Vic00:49:38I find it interesting. You know, part of me wanted to live in that world. I guess I'm not totally surprised. I mean, I lived basically in The Shining and the Overlook, the Kennedy Warren, you know, with the creepy carpet and the long halls. But it's an interesting, I mean, it's an interesting idea. I know that Stephen King hated it, right?
JVL00:49:53I don't think I knew that.
Vic00:49:56Oh, yeah. Maybe I did.
Sonny00:49:57Yeah. King hates that version. Yeah. Hates it. Yeah.
JVL00:50:00Does he hate the direction or the screenplay, Victorino?
Vic00:50:06Oh.
JVL00:50:07Don't say it out loud, but we know the screenwriter, sort of. All fair.
Vic00:50:14What?
JVL00:50:14All fair.
Vic00:50:14Okay.
JVL00:50:15Yes. Go ahead, Sonny. You're on.
Sonny00:50:16I would go, this is from four years ago I tweeted this, so I'm sure it's still good.
JVL00:50:22Hold on. Step me up. Are you going from lowest to best? I'm going from best to worst. Best to worst.
Sonny00:50:27Or should I do worst to best?
JVL00:50:29Do worst to best. I want to build up to your favorite. Absolutely. Worst to best. And understand worst is really just still amazing.
Sonny00:50:35Worst is still- You don't dislike anything. Worst is not great. That's right. I mean, the two bottom entries on this are actually not that good, but all right. Fear and Desire, which was lost for a long time. They found it recently. Killer's Kiss. Spartacus. Lolita. Eyes Wide Shut. Paths of Glory. The Killing. Full Metal Jacket. Barry Lyndon. The Shining. 2001 A Space Odyssey. Dr. Strangelove, and my favorite is A Clockwork Orange.
JVL00:51:08Wow. Okay. Okay. Interesting.
Sonny00:51:12I would maybe move The Shining up higher in the last four years or so. I would actually probably bump that up a little bit. But it's hard, because I would say the top six or so entries are all- They're all four-star movies, so.
JVL00:51:25I would say about Kubrick that he is not my favorite guy, his stuff, but he is clearly in the pantheon. Like, the very top, the highest shelf in the pantheon, Kubrick occupies that space. And that said, 2001 is insanely overrated. It is astonishing in many ways, but ultimately a failure as a movie, in the same way that I judge Interstellar to be a failure as a movie. Although it is a tremendous success in many ways.
Vic00:51:57Well, I'll have to revisit that. What did you like better in terms of Nolan? Interstellar or Inception? Inception. Okay. I mean, Inception is a... All right. Yeah.
JVL00:52:08Enormous achievement.
Vic00:52:09Right? You're the same. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Same.
JVL00:52:10Is there anybody who likes Interstellar better?
Vic00:52:12I figured I'd have to see it more times to get... Sonny, you loved Interstellar.
Sonny00:52:17I mean, I think they're both four-star movies. Okay.
Vic00:52:19Okay. We ready? Okay. Corrections edition. Corrections? Anything? Everything's okay? All right. I don't think we got anything wrong. Good. Oh, how about... Oh, I know. How about Pi?
JVL00:52:31How about Pi slash Prime number last week? I literally... And I'm just like an idiot. I'm just nodding along.
Sonny00:52:37Oh, yeah, boss. Yeah. But I literally said in the podcast right after I said it, I was like, oh, wait, Pi is 3.14 and that's not Prime. So...
JVL00:52:47It was... That was still... We're a bunch of idiots.
Sonny00:52:51Nobody has ever accused us of being smart. Just dudes chatting. That was terrible.
Vic00:52:55You know what? You learn about Prime numbers. You know where you learn about it? You learn about it in Contact. Because the signal, Prime... I said, wait a minute, look.
Sonny00:53:052001. They're Prime... Oh, also... 2001, better movie than Contact. Oh.
Vic00:53:09My God. Look at Jonathan's eyebrows. Yeah, I agree. Only one of them has James Woods. That's all I'm going to say. Okay. That's all the time we're giving to this episode. Questions, comments, complaints, compliments, tweet us at Victorino Matus at Sonny Bunch.
Sonny00:53:23At JBLast.
Vic00:53:25Again, be sure to subscribe to us on iTunes or Google Play. Just type in Substandard on a podcast and we're there, just in time. Somebody's calling in, so leave a review, tell your friends. Until next time. I have an outtake of you.
JVL00:53:45You don't have an outtake of me. I just have questions about your glorious week and all the things you're going to do.
Vic00:53:51Well, coming up ahead... I have some stuff to do at the house. I was told. I was told. You know?
JVL00:53:57Like what?
Vic00:53:58Clear out one of these bookshelves. We're making... My daughter's getting her own room now, you know? And so, it was a den at some point, and there's a bookshelf, and she said, that last bottom shelf, all your stuff, she says, you got to clear it out or do something with it. I don't know what. And she goes, what is it there? No, no. Oh, no. That's it. It's in a box. Get rid of them. That's in a box in the basement, but not on the floor. God forbid there's flooding. It's like, some of them are like newspaper clips from when I had written in newspapers back in the day that are yellowed, magazine, extra copies of magazines.
JVL00:54:38You want to save those for the Vic Mattis Library. For the Vic Mattis Library.
Vic00:54:41And then some of them are just like, she goes, there's a copy of, you know, there's like a Maxim with Jennifer Love Hewitt on there. And I said, oh, in other words, tonight I got to go through my whole **** bank to get through what I've got to, you know, keep and what I'm not keeping. That's bad. That's basically what's going on.
JVL00:54:55What time is that, Sonny?
Vic00:54:57Do we bleep that? I was kidding. I made that up. I made that up. Don't call between the hours of 8 and 11 tonight. I'm just going through it.
JVL00:55:05What are you going to eat while you're... That is a very good question. You want to go to Carmine's?
Vic00:55:09I'd go to, oh my gosh, I'd go to Carmine's. No, I...
JVL00:55:12Oh, and then you could bring it all home.
Vic00:55:13It could be, then that'll stretch out for a week. You know what the ideal thing is? I'm not, I am not, I've never been one to cook alone for, you know, for one hour. And I always find it kind of depressing if you cook something really nice for one person. Well, that's the best way, right?
Sonny00:55:28No, that's the best way. Like a nice steak or something?
Vic00:55:31That was so sad. It's so sad. So I might try to do something just simple, not a big dinner. Maybe that'll be good for the RG, you know? By the way, when I was in Connecticut, Captain Bill and his wife, Erin, had me go on a four-mile run. I had never run four miles before. How'd it go? It went pretty good. I think we did 42 minutes, but split negative, negative splits, so that by... By the last mile, it was under 10. It was like 940 or something like that. And I celebrated later that day at the picnic part of the family reunion by having a double cheeseburger, a hot dog, and four martinis. Oh, good. Oh, I'm sure that's fun.
Sonny00:56:132001, a space odyssey. More like 2001 minutes longer than Homer's odyssey. Audience today might not take a shine to the... slow pace, but 2001 made a killing in 1968, grossing the equivalent of $400 million in 2018. Still, there's something chilling about a computer turning against its operators, like a dishwasher operating at 9,000 decibels more than the promised 42. Seriously, though, at one point before the intermission, I felt like I was watching with my eyes wide shut. Hopefully nobody heard me snoring. I give it one star, baby.
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