Balls Up: The High Stakes of Low-Brow Comedy | SVU

23:55Odoo solves this. It's a single company that sells a suite of enterprise apps that handles everything from accounting to inventory to sales. Odoo is all connected on a single platform in a simple and affordable way. You can save money without missing out on the features you need. Check out Odoo at O-D-O-O dot com. That's O-D-O-O dot com. I don't know, but there seems to be an uptick in them recently. There was one in Project Hail Mary. That's a biggie, yeah.

24:25Matt Singer:That was a biggie. I think that's secured its spot. And when you do the top five karaoke scenes in movies, that's going to be in the top five, I think. Yep. And there was a good one in The Fall Guy recently. I don't know if you saw that movie. I did. I don't remember a karaoke scene. There was a good karaoke scene in that. Where was that? I don't know. They go to a bar and Emily Blunt sings karaoke. I didn't care for the fall. I thought the fall guy was exhausting. Let me talk to you. You know what's better than the fall guy is Balls Out. No, no. Balls Up, whatever it's called. It's such a great movie you don't even know the title.

24:56And also, it should be called Balls Out. I guess it can't be called Balls Out because the balls are not out. They're in.

25:04Matt Singer:It should be called Balls Out. It should be called Balls In. Yeah. But because the nine's out, they couldn't do it. And I can't remember the title because it transcends titles. It's bigger than one single title. I wanted to talk to you about a specific scene here. You mentioned it earlier, and I think it is instructive because I am not against dumb comedies. I wrote a book about silly, vulgar comedies called Funny Business. It's out on October 6th. Pre-order your copy now. and one of the my book is mostly about the movies of the 2000s but actually one of the key kind of pretexts maybe the most important moment before these movies that I wrote about the films of you know the frat pack the Vince Vaughn movies the Will From movies is there something about Mary sure and I watched that there's a chapter in my book actually about it and because it's got Ben Stiller and Ben Stiller is a key figure in that period and I so I watched that movie several times.

26:04Matt Singer:The Franks and the Beans. Franks and Beans, you're right. Now, not a condom that can contain all of that, but the phrase is uttered in that film. That's so good, yeah. But I do think it is instructive. And because, I mean, maybe I'm speaking out of turn, but I do not foresee Balls Up becoming a film that sparks a movement in comedy the way that there's something about Mary Dinn. The movie has been out now for several days. And although if you go to the Amazon Prime, you will see that it is highly ranked on Prime. It was when I turned it on. It was the number three watched movie. I think it was number two when I looked.

26:45Matt Singer:OK. And perhaps now it's even number one. But the thing is, I've seen no chatter about this film whatsoever. No, it barely exists. So people clearly, you know, people are watching it somehow, but they're not. At least two. Yeah. It's not really connecting. I mean, that's the problem with Prime is that their movies seldom connect. Yes. So here's what I wanted to say about this movie in comparison with something about Mary. You mentioned there's this, I would say, I don't want to call it a showstopper because that would imply that I enjoyed it and I thought it was funny. But there is this big set piece in this scene that you referred to that I believe is in the trailer or at least alluded to where there are these fish that in the Amazon.

27:28This is a joke that is set up and then paid off, that there are these vampiric fish that live in the Amazon rainforest, the river.

27:38Matt Singer:Near the Iguzu Falls or whatever it's called. Thank you. Thank you so much. And that supposedly they're warned, our heroes are warned, that they are attracted to urine and that they will, if you pee into the Amazon, they will swim up the stream of urine. and go inside the urethra. Yeah. And of course, you know, Chekhov's vampire fish. You introduce something like that, you got to pay it off. Peter Farrelly's urethra, yeah. Yes, exactly. And so, but now when I'm watching this scene, which is graphic and involves, you know, like penile torture, you can't not think of, you know, the most famous scene or one of the most famous scenes in There's Something About Mary, which is Ben Stiller getting his, you know what, caught in a zipper.

28:30And I feel like the difference between the similarities, yet the massive differences between these scenes, says everything you need to know about why There's Something About Mary sparked a shift in comedy. And this movie may be the number two film on Prime Video, but I don't think it's going to go much farther than that.

28:49Matt Singer:I don't know. Yes, for sure. Like seeing something about Mary in a theater was 20 some odd years ago, 30 years ago, maybe even. Almost 30. It's 1998. I mean, so, you know, that was a different world, you know, and it was very, very. But it's not just it's a different world, Jordan. Yes. The scene in There's Something About Mary comes from a place of it's not just plausible. It happened. The Farrelly brothers, if you research this film, which, again, I did. This happened. Something like this happened to a kid they knew. They had a birthday party in their house as kids for one of their siblings.

29:26One of the kids who came over got his penis stuck in his zipper and his parents, the Farrelly's parents, had to deal with this. Oh, my God. And they remembered it for all those years and they put it into There's Something About Mary. The scene in There's Something About Mary is obviously a heightened version. Sure. But it also comes from a character development also. And it comes from a plausible place. Yeah. The scene we're talking about in Balls Up. Is ridiculous. It's based on a nonsensical urban legend about fish in the Amazon that supposedly do this.

29:57Matt Singer:It's just joke for the sake of joke. You're right. It's not a rich laugh. It is a cheap laugh, but it's a laugh. It's pretty damn funny. Did you laugh at this, though? Because I got to say, this was not one of the parts that I thought was funny. I wasn't laughing at the fish in the penis itself. I was laughing. Well, yes, I did laugh at the fish in the penis because I was laughing at how stupid it was. So it was a meta laugh. I was laughing at myself for being embarrassed by for being amused. So I was like laughing at the chutzpah of this movie existing in the first place. But then I was laughing legitimately at the riffing between Wahlberg and Hauser.

30:34Matt Singer:And they're both really, really talented. I mean, Paul Walter Hauser is great in everything. He's good as this character, the dumb guy. I mean, for God's sakes, I watched Queen Pins. Do you remember Queen Pins from a few years ago? I know the title, but I don't think I ever saw that one. Paul Walterhauser is a loss prevention guy, and people are stealing with coupons and whatnot, and Vince Vaughn is in it, and it's pretty funny. I mean, it's stupid. I hate to say this, but it's not as good as Balls Up, if you can imagine such a thing. And then Mark Wahlberg— Which is better, Queen's Pins or Moonlight?

31:09Where do we sit on that?

31:11Matt Singer:I'd have to revisit both and do an analysis. Okay. I'm sorry. Continue. Continue. But the thing about Wahlberg is he makes a lot of junk. I mean, did you see The Union, a fairly recent streaming film? No, I have not kept up with a lot of Mr. Wahlberg's oofre. Wahlberg puts out a lot of the action movies that are terrible, just terrible. But this, he's playing to strengths, which is dumb guy, like charisma. He plays a suit. He plays a salesman. And I think Wahlberg is very funny in Ted. I happen to think Ted is quite good. I've seen that. I like Ted better than this movie. I don't hate Ted. I've seen Ted as many times as you've seen Moonlight, at least three times.

31:52Matt Singer:And I will gladly say that Ted is better than Moonlight.

31:59Matt Singer:But this is a similar type of thing. I mean, Wahlberg still has the juice a little bit. He plays a good airhead. And, you know, the thing for me that made Mark Wahlberg, what really solidified for me what he can do, was when SNL parried him with that thing where he was talking, you know. Say hi to your mother for me. Once I saw whoever, who was the guy who did Mark Wahlberg in that sketch? Wasn't it Andy Samberg? Was it Andy Samberg? Yes, I suppose it was, yeah. When I saw Andy Samberg say hi to your mother for me, I clicked what Mark Wahlberg is all about. And I grew to appreciate him more. That was a sketch that was supposed to diss him, but it made me recognize his talents.

32:43Matt Singer:And I always thought he was good. He's good in Boogie Nights. And he's, you know, he's worked with the funky bunch, I think, has its merit. Sure. Unparalleled. Yeah. Absolutely. But it was when, like, I don't know, there's something about that say hi to your mother for me. It's like, oh, yeah, I kind of know that guy. And, yeah, you know, Irish-American dirtbag, you know, but also is nice to your mom. You know, I just, I get it. and when he does these comedies I just find them really endearing I don't know he's fine I thought Paul Walterhauser was funny I thought he was better than Wahlberg I mean he's not asked to do as much he's kind of the straight man in this scenario the performances across the board I think are they're up to the challenge and you know I think some of the some of the segments are funnier than others I thought Sacha Baron Cohen was you know fine I thought Eric Andre, a guy that I think is really funny in other things.

33:38In fact, we may talk about him during our recommendation segment. I thought, I thought, I just didn't think he had a lot to do. Like I kind of thought his segment was just, was kind of flat. Yeah, that was a little flat. My problem is not the people in it. My problem is, and there are, again, there are individual moments that are funny. Molly Shannon, I thought, had a couple of fun moments early in the film. But the problem is, again, it is just there's nothing to grab onto here except the jokes. Again, getting back to There's Something About Mary, that's a film that has characters.

34:12Matt Singer:Has characters. And it has a story that you get invested in. The characters want something. And it follows through to a logical place. And even the outrageous things come from things in the story that, if not realistic, are plausible. And this is something we kind of talked about last week with Outcome. It's like there has to be some sort of base level of reality to grab onto. At least, I mean, at least here there's jokes. I mean, Outcome was like a comedy that was just not funny. It's just not funny. This one, there are occasional jokes. Yeah, the dialogue that they feed these two guys as they're bickering, Hope and Crosby style with each other, is very good.

34:52Matt Singer:The part when there's cocaine all over Paul Walterhauser and Mark Wahlberg is just sticking his nose all over him and he just goes, don't snort me. I just thought that was very funny. The line, don't snort me. I think you did mention earlier the Larry David translator device, which it doesn't make. Again, another thing that's kind of like, okay, whatever. But it is kind of funny to hear these scenes where they have a Google Translate. And it's Larry David. But the voice coming out of it is Larry David. And it's really Larry David doing it. He showed up at the premiere to take pictures. He's in the movie, and he's doing his Larry David schtick translating.

35:28And I did chuckle at that a few times. There are moments that made me laugh.

35:32Matt Singer:I found myself chuckling at every exchange, every zap, zap, zap, volley, back and forth. I mean, Paul Walter Hauser is just, they're just funny guys. I don't know. I guess I'm an idiot, but I just... Well, I mean, that was never in dispute. No, no. That doesn't have necessarily a bearing on this film. I just found that this was like a relaxing thing to watch. I didn't have to think. And it was like, it was just funny. I just, and like, I don't know the stuff when that, like the condom, uh, they have to defecate out the condom full of drugs. Sure. And, um, and, and like they're looking at it on the ground and he says, oh, the surprisingly lack, a surprising lack of fecal matter on this.

36:15Matt Singer:And Paul Walter has like, well, yes, we use advanced polymers that were make sure that blah blah blah it's just i don't know what do you want from me i i found myself amused someday there will be an episode of this podcast again where we don't mention fecal matter but sadly it will not be this week that's what we've learned do we have anything else to say i mean there was i just want to i will say this because we are the svu we talk about streaming yeah and i agree with you the the right uh venue for this is a streaming context i will say that putting this movie into a movie theater, as much as I do miss theatrical comedies, I don't think this would have been the one to turn the tide there.

36:55Because again, the whole, I have to say that the structure of this film, it really feels like, I mean, I don't want to besmirch the people who made it, but it does feel like at some point someone could have said should we try to like connect the dots here and they're like people are going to be watching this while they're ironing and they're putting away laundry and all they really care about is are we going to deliver like you know goofy gags where they're talking about uh you know baggies of cocaine that are shaped like penises yeah that are then eaten by crocodiles like it does have it it it feels like it was made for that audience we should point out that the

37:39Matt Singer:film was written by two gentlemen by the name of paul vernick and ret reese um and they are the co-writers of deadpool deadpool 2 and zombie land i mean zombie land is a is a fine yeah zombie that's pretty good i would say that this is i think zombie of the four just mentioned zombie land gets the gold yeah balls up gets the silver and then i guess the first deadpool is bronze and the second Deadpool's yeah I can't say I'm I think the I think I would say after Zombieland I would probably say the rest of those movies fail to make the platform wow but uh this I guess it's on par with the other ones um but I love the ending the I'm not going to give it away but like when the big conclusion happens and the oh I was I was fed up I was like they clearly had run out they were just like write write something we got to film something that woman at the end shows I thought was hilarious i was like hey look at that it's great i don't know she was fun that scene of her in the jail was very funny did you i have one more thing to say before we wrap this up a question one last question have you seen the poster for balls up i don't think i have okay well while i'm speaking maybe you're using a computer a device that will allow you to see it can you look it up while i'm talking i'm gonna ask claude claude get me the poster the poster thank you claude balls this was what i was gonna say i was gonna ask but the answer will be no because you hadn't seen it i when i would look at the poster on prime video i would go oh yeah did they intentionally like knock off nirvana the band the show the movie it looks it's like almost the exact same poster with soccer balls but that was knocked off from uh marty what is it knocked off from marty supreme i don't think i saw that marty no it's this that's the funny story is that the The Nirvana, the band, the show, the movie got an advanced look.

39:30Matt Singer:And it's like a wacky story of what Marty Supreme, the Marty Supreme poster is of Timothee Chalamet zooming through the sky on a. Oh, I never saw that poster. Yeah. So, yeah. So they're all just riffing on the same poster. Yes. I believe that this is a riff. This is two. It's these two knuckleheads. Parallel thinking. Yeah. Well, I think this is a parody. I don't think it's a. Intentional, but they're both intentionally parodying the same thing. Martin Friedrich Leibniz both inventing calculus at the same time but in different countries. Please. I just think this is more of a let's ride the bandwagon here.

40:04Matt Singer:Because this poster could have been made in a half hour by somebody with Photoshop. This is not a – Or even less if they used AI. That's right. These days one always wonders that question. All right. Well, you have one person here saying it's kind of funny and not a great story. And you have another person here saying it's better than Moonlight. So you can decide who you want to listen to and make up your mind and decide for yourself. But if you are interested, that's balls up. Yes. And it is streaming right now on Amazon's Prime Video. Look at these minnows. They're drinking my pee. Little fish.

40:45I got a fish in my... Oh, God. Use your teeth. Use mine. You're my only hope.

40:52Matt Singer:I need you to be a man right now. Yeah, yeah. Oh, yeah. Stop saying yeah. Sorry. This is Julian Edelman from Dudes on Dudes with Gronk and Jules. One thing I've learned over the years, before you head out on any adventure, you got to be ready to stay hydrated. Because dehydration ruins the fun faster than you can spell it. Pretty sure there's a Y in there somewhere. I was a slot receiver, not a spelling bee champ. Speaking of adventures, Liquid IV has been rolling with us for a while now. Total pros pro. Show up, does the job, makes everyone better. We're pumped to have them on the team. And trust me, you'll be thankful to have them with you when dehydration tries to sneak up on you.

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43:07Go to public.com slash podcast and earn an uncapped 1 % bonus when you transfer your portfolio. That's public.com slash podcast. Paid for by Public Investing. Brokered services by Open to the Public Investing, Inc., member FINRA and SIPC. Advisory services by Public Advisors, LLC, SEC Registered Advisor. Generated assets is an interactive analysis tool. Output is for informational purposes only and is not an investment recommendation or advice. Complete disclosures available at public.com slash disclosures. This is Jacob Goldstein from what's your problem. Business software is expensive, and when you buy software from lots of different companies, it's not only expensive, it gets confusing, slow to use, hard to integrate.

43:42Odoo solves that because all Odoo software is connected on a single affordable platform. Save money without missing out on the features you need. Odoo has no hidden costs and no limit on features or data. Odoo has over 60 apps available for any needs your business might have, all at no additional charge. Everything from websites to sales to inventory to accounting, all linked and talking to each other. Check out Odoo at O-D-O-O dot com. That's O-D-O-O dot com. While we were paused there for a second, I just got a whole lesson about this poster thing, how deep this poster thing goes. Yeah. Incredible.

44:23Yeah, it's - Marty Supreme had this poster, which I didn't see. It's the IMAX poster, if you want to see it.

44:28Matt Singer:according to the lore and you know you got to take whatever matt johnson says with a grain of matt johnson the the director director of nirvana yeah and and the you know the the star the principal guy he's a bit of a he's a bit of a prankster so you never know if he's if he's giving you the true true but um he claims that his that somebody on their team was accidentally bcc'd uh the marty supreme poster uh the one the imax poster and they're like oh we have to parody this and we have and they raced it into production so they did it on purpose they parodied and clearly the balls out up one is the same thing they're both parodying a poster that was i didn't even know existed so it's like i don't know why you would parody a a poster that's not that well known but i guess maybe i'm just not paying attention no i mean it shows you that we're you know balls ups not exactly shooting for the moon here.

45:24Matt Singer:I mean, it's like... The balls are up, but not that far. The stakes are low with balls up. They can mess around. The balls are up, the stakes are low. They can make whatever poster they want. Well, we reviewed balls up. But let's say you're looking for something else to watch this week. Maybe you don't have prime video. Or maybe you yourself caused an international incident by tackling a penis-shaped soccer mascot at the World Cup so you avoid all football-related films. Or hey, maybe your name is Walter Paulhauser and it's deeply confusing to you whenever someone talks about that man and so you refuse to watch his movies.

46:02Wow, do one more.

46:02Matt Singer:Come up with one more. I only got three. It's the rule of threes. Come on. Okay, all right. That is where we come in with our Rex Egg. Rex Egg. Rex Egg. Yeah, Rex Egg. I think that's what we should call it. Rex Egg. Rex Egg. And I think we should have, at one point we should like record a voice that's like, Rex Egg. So every time we say it, it sounds really exciting. But in the meantime, Jordan and I are going to give you two related recommendations of films inspired to be recommended. They weren't inspired by this film, but we're picking them because they are related in some way to follow us up.

46:33Two random recommendations of titles Jordan and I have watched recently. And then down the line, we also want to add some personalized recommendations to this segment where you, the listener, can get recommendations tailored to your specifications. So email matt at filmspottingsvu.com if you would like one. Tell us what streaming services you use. Give us a genre of a movie. And maybe we'll start adding some personalized recommendations to the Rexick. Yeah, what weird is it? Maybe some, like, tasty guitar.

47:08Matt Singer:Yes. Rexick. Some Moog synthesizer. Rexick. All right. You want to go first here, Jordan, with your first recommendation, your related recommendation? Yeah. Well, I mean, there's a movie that I really love and it means a lot to me. It's very important and it did win some acclaim. It's called Moonlight. And I think that we should. I was going to say it, but I was like, I think he's going there. I'm not going to interrupt. I'm not going to steal the joke. No, Moonlight is very good, but I'm not anti-Moonlight. It's a fantastic movie. I just I saw it once and I, you know, I. It's time for a revisit.

47:44Matt Singer:I will probably watch Balls Up again before I see Moonlight. But one movie that I did rewatch because, and this will, you know, in case there are listeners who think I'm a complete moron because I like this movie a lot. This movie, one of the things that I liked about it is that it's man on the run and it's two people on the run together. and it is a little bit like you know they didn't do anything wrong but suddenly they're caught up in a web of what the hell's going on and their lives are at stake I mean that there are no real stakes in this movie it's all very silly but I decided to go back and watch the OG of on the run in a foreign land and then with with uh with a companion and kind of wrong man principle and uh do you want to take a guess and try to think what I saw this is an old movie it's a 90 year old movie Is it one of the I think you mentioned The Hope and Crosby movies Is it one of those?

48:41Matt Singer:No, no, no This predates the Hope and Crosby But it's a movie you've seen The ones I'm thinking of Are like intergender road movies Yes, this is intergender I'm not thinking of a two man As you said, a man on the run plural A man's on the run Yeah, this is a man Well, it's mostly a man solo In a weird world As a wrong man And then he is with a woman and they're running in... A wrong man, you say? Yeah. Or someone just caught up in a web of intrigue that he had nothing to do with. Is this perhaps a film of the one Alfred Hitchcock? That's right. Who did like movies about wrong men. Yes. In fact, one of them is called The Wrong Man.

49:20Yes. But that's not the one you're talking about.

49:21Matt Singer:No, no. The one I'm talking about is The 39 Steps. That's what I would have guessed at that point. Yeah, and The 39 Steps... Actually, for a minute, I thought that was his first true masterpiece, piece but i saw that the the first the man who knew too much he made right before 39 steps but 39 steps is from 1935 and um it was when he was still making movies in in britain and this movie is beyond british it's so british there's so many little crispy little british moments it's so good um but the basic premise is um there's a there's a gentleman uh he's at the theater and there's a kerfuffle and he winds up taking a young woman back to his apartment he thinks you know it's it's all very tasteful but you know you think he's going to get some some action and she winds up being murdered and she's a spy and she sets a you know she knocks over the first domino and suddenly this guy has to escape and he goes to scotland so mark walberg and paul walter hauser go to brazil and in this uh movie um main actor whose name i'm blanking on right now goes to scotland and it's also just like a lot of vignettes it's like first he's on the train then he's with the farmer then he's with the farmer's wife then he's running and he's at the safe house that he thinks is a safe house but it's not the safe house then he sees the girl from the train again and they get handcuffed together and then they have all kinds of shenanigans at an inn and it becomes very funny at that point like a little sex farce and uh then there's running and they're shooting and they're back at a theater he invents a condom that can contain both the penile shaft and the scrotum and gonad And I will say that the great Robert Donat is the 39 steps.

51:01Matt Singer:I will say that the great Peter Farrelly and his screenwriters, Paul Wernick and Rhett Reese, were clearly inspired by the 39 steps when they made balls up. Clearly. No, they were not. But that is, I think, kind of the OG of these, you know, suddenly thrown into some wacky instigating incident, sends you on the run, and you can't take a break. Like, every time he thinks he's safe, Robert donut, Robert cream donut thinks he's safe. He's not safe, and he's got to move on. And, you know, that's kind of what balls up is. Like, you know, it's one, like, your exquisite corpse theory. The 39th Steps is not like that.

51:46Matt Singer:because it's quite good. Yeah, it's got like all the, it's got the MacGuffin, because the MacGuffin is that there's secret defense plans. Like, so he's stolen the defense plans, and that's like all it is to like set this guy up on this nightmare of like three days on the run. And then there's like all these little, like there's a scene where he's being trapped, he's chased, and then suddenly he's on the stage at a political rally. Then suddenly the microphone's in his face, and he has to come up with something to say. he's got to stay on the stage and vamp for time because there are people in the audience trying to get him.

52:19Matt Singer:Now, ladies and gentlemen, we're going to discuss some topic. What shall it be? The herring fisheries. Unemployment. What about the idle rich? The idle rich? That's a bit of an old-fashioned topic these days, especially for me because I'm not rich and I've never been idle. I've been pretty busy all my life and I expect to be much busier quite soon. It's got all this sort of dream logic. You know, all of the things that make a Hitchcock film great are compacted into 39 steps, which is quite short. It's like 90 minutes. So I don't know how many minutes per step that is. It's not a lot, but no laugh, no laugh at that at all.

52:50Matt Singer:I thought that was pretty good. I was trying to figure out in my head what it would be. I was struggling to do math. I can't laugh and do math at the same time. Are you kidding me? No, and they're on a train, and it's a sexy blonde is the woman. It's just a great – Again, it's a Hitchcock film that goes without saying. It's one of the better Hitchcock movies, and it's almost – it's 90 years old, and it still kicks ass. And there's a lot of clever moments. It's like there's a very famous moment where the woman sees a corpse and screams, but you don't hear her scream. You hear the train whistle.

53:20Matt Singer:The train going through, yes. And there's a lot of those little— It's a classic. It is one of the early Hitchcock masterpieces that really defined—it's North by Northwest 1.0. It's like the early version of that formula. I remember—I haven't seen it in a while, but I remember Mr. Memory. Yeah. Oh, God, it's so good. When we talked earlier about Chekhov's gun things, when you set something up, you have to pay it off later. The first scene introduces this guy, Mr. Memory, who's like a kitschy performer who does like these – he does like a vaudeville hall show, I guess, where he's like – he has the greatest brain in the world and nobody can stump him and he can remember things perfectly.

53:57And then that pays off in a wonderful way at the end of the film. It really does. Yeah.

54:00Matt Singer:It's so good. Very economical. Right. And it's very funny at the beginning because when the people in the audience are kind of heckling him, you just get to see these characters who don't reappear in the film. But what they say and how they're dressed and how they react, that was a beautiful sketch of a character. Now, you don't see – even in the great balls up, you don't see really precise filmmaking. You certainly do not. I mean, I'm going to say, I guess, you know, Alfred Hitchcock maybe is slightly better than balls up. I mean, you know, they're there. So anyway, that was my that was, you know, I was thinking for some god forsaken reason.

54:42Matt Singer:Somehow this movie, I was just kind of thinking about, like, what what is the genre here? Because it is a weird movie. And it did remind me of of 39 Steps. I went back and watched it. I had not seen it in many years. And it was better than I remembered. So as as much as I hate to say it, Jordan, you are right. and I can see the parallel to 39 Steps with Balls Up. But I would say it's a great alternate viewing suggestion this week. Now, where can people watch it? I watched it on Home Box Office Maximum. That's on HBO Max. Yeah, you're right. I was originally going to think of a Paul Walter Hauser suggestion and maybe I, Tonya, which is kind of when he first came on mine.

55:24Matt Singer:That was the first thing I really clocked him in was an I, Tonya. He's so good in that. I love I, Tanya. Such a good movie. You, Tanya? Yo, Tanya. And then I was thinking, hey, maybe I should give a shout out to Queen Pins. Which you already did. I did, but I don't know that I recommend. That movie has now been mentioned twice on this episode.

55:49Infinitely adding to the amount of times it's been mentioned on podcasts in the last six months.

55:53Matt Singer:I should point out, by the way, that the 39 Steps is not just available on a home box office maximum. It's also on Prime Video and the Criterion channel. Oh, wonderful. Okay. So people, there's a lot of ways to watch it. It is a masterpiece. It is a great recommendation. And as you said, not super long. People are very touchy about long movies these days. Unbelievable how often when you tell people, oh, this is good. You should watch it. They say, how long is it? That's their first question. I know. How long is it? I get it. They'll watch 14 hours of... I know. Real Housewives of Baton Rouge. Yes, without a break.

56:30But if a movie is more than 100 minutes, forget it!

56:33Matt Singer:I know. It's not right, but I understand the logic. When you're watching a TV show, usually, unless it's something like Better Call Saul or The Sopranos or The Wire, it's usually something that you're not... You know, it's a more surface-type viewing experience. Don't make excuses. Don't make excuses. A lot of times people put on a movie, they started at eight o 'clock and if they've been working all day and the kids are driving them nuts and the boss man's getting them down, you zonk out. You zonk out on the couch. The boss man. Leave me alone, boss man. I'm trying to watch balls up. What is your recommendation?

57:10So actually, as you were describing yours, I realized mine also has kind of a similar structure, although that was not the reason I picked it. But it is another movie with a pair of buddies kind of on the run. The reason I picked it is because I wanted to pick, you know, because I don't want to come off as some, especially now when I have a book to sell, like Funny Business coming out in October. I don't want to seem like somebody who doesn't like comedies or has something against raunchy, vulgar comedies because it's quite the opposite. No. One of my favorite kinds of movies. Disgusting, vile human being.

57:45Yeah. Bring it on. Yeah. I'm a horrible person. Bring it on. The grosser, the better. So I wanted to pick something that was a little crass, a little vulgar, but that I enjoy more. And when I was thinking about this, I also thought about Eric Andre, who we did mention. He is in Balls Up in a small role. I don't think really takes great advantage of his gifts, his skills. And so I thought, oh, well, the movie to recommend here is Bad Trip from 2021, which is streaming on Netflix. A very raunchy movie, a very bro-ish comedy. It is, but it is much more cleverly constructed, much more kind of logically constructed, and even more, much more hilarious.

58:32Non-stop funny business happening, one might even say, in this film, dare I say. The concept is kind of like, it's not necessarily jackass where it's just, you know, stunts and pranks. It's like the Jackass spinoff movie Bad Grandpa where they take they do the hidden camera pranks with actors and character but then they kind of structure them into a narrative and they make it into a story where there are scenes with actors and then there'll be a scene where the actors are interacting with real people who don't realize when they're being filmed that they're on camera. There's hidden cameras. So in this case, the film is about two buddies played by Eric Andre and Lil Rel.

59:14They're on a road trip and they are following a woman that Eric Andre is in love with. They're trying to get to her gallery show in New York City. She's an artist or she's running a gallery show or something. And to get there, they borrow Lil Rel's sister's car. And the sister is played by Tiffany Haddish. And she breaks out of jail, finds out they've taken her car and then is following them across the country. So, you know, it is actually kind of a similar through line to Balls Up.

59:49Matt Singer:It's finally time for that road trip. I'm talking. M-Y-C. Shouldn't have taken my sister's car, man. She's crazy. He will kill us. Keep your mouth shut. Snitches get stitches. But the story is used as a, again, it's a pretense for these hidden camera pranks. but besides the fact that they are unbelievably hilariously funny there's a huge last laugh every five minutes one of the things that i kind of enjoy about it is that you know hidden hidden camera films or shows or pranks they're often you know so much of the gag is about like humiliating or upsetting yeah the person who doesn't know they're on camera and there are a couple of things like that in this movie but the vast majority of them uh the scenes are really about humiliating eric andre making him feel uncomfortable and watching how people react to him they flip the script they flip that script that's right except there is no script because it's improvised but this sounds great but this was this was a coveted movie that's like it was gonna come out in theaters in 2020 and then it got dumped in streaming in 2021 and i didn't see it that's right and it's on netflix i re-watched it uh last week i laughed all over again as you said yes it it did it did premiere at south by southwest in 2020 in in an actual theater and it was supposed to come out i don't know who was supposed to distribute it originally but it was supposed to open in theaters um and then it was canceled because of the pandemic which is a shame because unlike balls up i am sure this movie would have crushed in a movie theater and i i've never gotten to see it in a movie theater.

1:01:33I would love to. This would be a great one for a movie theater that does retro screenings to show this. I think it would really kill.

1:01:43Matt Singer:Maybe the Paris Theater in New York City where you and I as members of the New York Film Critics Circle are frequently showing films. And that theater, which is a great theater, it's owned by Netflix. I'll send an email. What was the last movie you presented at the Paris Theater in New York City? I've done it a few times. I'm trying to think what the last one was. Was it Spaceballs? No, I did Spaceballs, but I also did Bull Durham. I think that was the last one. Ball Durham and Spaceballs. Okay. No, Bull. Oh, got it. Got it. Yeah. Bull Durham. Alright, well done. The Bulls are up. The Bulls are from Durham.

1:02:16Matt Singer:I'm sending an email. So it's a hilarious movie, and all three of the main performers are absolutely incredible. The hidden camera footage that they got is astonishing. And again, the pranks are just outrageous, but the people, the bystanders often come off so well that I remember when I watched this movie, especially in 2021, I don't know how you were feeling back then, but for me, not a great time. No, it was stressful. Stressful time. And at a time when... When civility and humanity seemed to have vanished from the earth, they captured people actually being nice, being kind, being thoughtful.

1:02:56And when Eric Andre would be doing these horrible, stupid things, instead of people yelling at him, they would try to help him. And it actually made you think, maybe there are some good people still in this world. You want to hear something else good about the movie Bad Trip?

1:03:10Matt Singer:It's only 87 minutes. Hey, that's good. Again, people, that's all people care about. How long is it? 87 minutes. Exactly. So there you go. So that is Bad Trip, and it is streaming on Netflix. What is this? The zoo? Come on, man. You know I love zoos. I'm going to get a selfie with a gorilla. No.

1:03:30Oh, my God.

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1:06:05Dependable since 1900.

1:06:10Matt Singer:Do you want to tell the listeners what you watched this week? What do we call that? It's a random recommendation. Yeah. And it also requires some honesty. Honesty, yeah. Some radical streaming honesty. Yeah. You want me to go first? Sure. You're on a roll. You just had a good one with Bad Trip. What's your next one? Okay. My random streaming choice this week. I watched on Plex not a private server this was available for all on Plex you have to watch it with ads but it is available it is now I should explain because this one does require why were you watching this it's not been the greatest couple of weeks for my wife and one night we were hanging out and we were kind of discussing well let's watch something what do you want to watch we don't have any tv shows going at the minute um we're kind of in between shows and she was like you know what i we somehow got to talking about one of her all-time favorite movies a nostalgic favorite for her and was like let's put them on let's watch it it's your you know one of your favorites and i bet it'll cheer you up and it did and the movie was empire records jordan have you ever seen empire records a million years ago yeah but it's it's beloved yeah it is um it is a beloved movie by for the millennials can't can't get enough of this movie i don't know that we've if we qualify as millennials because we're pretty old but no is a millennial is she gen x or she she's in between we're on that we're 1980 so we're kind of in that weird your millennial plus interregnum between gen x and and millennial space well yes uh yeah so it's her one of her all-time favorite movies from teenage years yeah i had probably seen it once before we met but But because we've been married now and I've known her for 25 years, it's a movie I have seen quite a few times.

1:08:06And it's so it's not one of my favorite movies, but I enjoy watching it with her in part because when you see it with her, she she knows this movie the way I know something like Spaceballs. She can perform this this movie as a one woman show. She knows. Wow. That's awesome. And it's a very impressive feat to behold. But we have not watched it in a while. So we rewatched it last week. And what I was really taken with this time is that it is viewed in 2026. It is this incredible catalog of the 90s, 90s music, 90s culture, 90s fashion, 90s hair, 90s up and coming acting talent, and especially kind of that Gen X 90s attitude.

1:08:48I mean, obviously it is heightened in some ways, but if someone said to me, like, what's a movie to watch to get like what the 90s were like? I think this is a pretty good choice. And if it's not what it was really like, it's what people in the 90s wanted it to be like, the vibe. You know, the poster's tagline, nobody is riding a flying ping pong ball or soccer balls on the poster, but it has this amazing tagline. And it says they're selling music, but not selling out. I know. And you're not going to find a better seven word summation of Generation X. Empire Records, featuring the music of Better Than Ezra, Gin Blossoms, Ape Hangers, Evan Dando, Toad the Wet Sprocket, and the Cranberries.

1:09:34What is wrong with you people? Rock and roll.

1:09:38Matt Singer:I mean, it's a movie about a record store right there. What the hell is a record store? And then it's a movie about dismissing financial success or just sticking your nose up at making money, which is anathema to the kids today. It's a very different attitude. And, yeah, and, of course, the soundtrack is all, you know, I'm looking at it right now. Incredible soundtrack of 90s movies. Jim Blas, the Cranberries, Edwin Collins, oh, I never met a girl like you before. I mean, come on. That's good stuff. Cracker. Well, it's good when he sings it, but yes. Some bands I don't remember, I'm looking at.

1:10:17Matt Singer:Better than Ezra, I remember. Sure. The ass ponies are in there. Gin Blossoms, I think, at the end. For sure. For sure. And I was very excited. I always enjoyed the Gin Blossoms. Yeah. So, yes, as you said, it takes place very quickly if you don't know it. It takes place entirely in a record store. It was written on spec by a former Tower Records employee. It's kind of like an indie record store, this bastion of indie record culture that's threatened to be bought by, I don't know what the equivalent would be at the time, maybe Virgin or something. It's going to be acquired by a big record store chain.

1:10:50And it's a true ensemble film, but if there is a main character, it might be the clerk that's paid by Rory Cochran, who finds out that the chain is going to be sold. He tries to save the store by stealing 9 ,000 bucks from the register and bringing it to Atlantic City and betting it all. And of course, he loses it all. And then again, I mentioned the amazing acting talent. You have Anthony LaPaglia is the manager of the store. The clerks are Liv Tyler, Renee Zellweger, Robin Tunney, Ethan Embry. And of course now, like if it is famous, it's famous for Rex Manning Day, which is what the day that the film is set.

1:11:24Rex Manning is like this faded pop star of the seventies. He's going to show up and sign his new record. But again, the, the, the nineties vibe is incredible. If I'm picking like my own personal retail experience movie, I'm probably going to pick Clerks just because I'm like, you know, like that's even more.

1:11:44Matt Singer:I also want to point out High Fidelity, which came out. It's a little bit late. It's 2000, but it's a little bit later. Yes. They form a kind of Triforce, those three films of like the vibe of the record or video store guy. I do like that. What's her name? Debbie Mazar is in this as well. Debbie Mazar. I didn't mention her. Thank you. She's also in it. Yeah. But I think it's a movie that – I don't know if it holds up well, but it is one of those time capsule movies. And I have to tell you, just the sound of this movie when they are stocking CDs and you hear the CD cases, the jewel cases clicking and clacking together.

1:12:24That's funny. It was like ASMR for me. It put me in a magical faraway land, a wonderful place called the 90s and media stores.

1:12:35Matt Singer:I saw this movie when it came out and I haven't seen it since. So I don't know what my problem is. I think you might want to revisit it. So Empire Records and it is streaming. I watched it on Plex. It is available for rent elsewhere, but that was where we found it. You wanted to save the$3.99 and just watch it on Plex. I mean, look, I'm not made of$3.95. If I can save it, I'm going to save it. Hey, let me, if your wife loves this movie so much, why doesn't she have the Blu-ray? We do own it on, I think, multiple formats, but we were in the room that doesn't have our, I have a PS5. That's a good answer.

1:13:06All right. We did not want to walk the distance. We were that lazy and we wanted to watch it on the laptop.

1:13:12Matt Singer:You might wake the kids. I get it. I get it. Yeah, yeah, exactly. All right. What's your random recommendation? I wasn't going to, I wasn't sure because I watched two movies in the last 24 hours. One of which is great. And another one is terrible, but the one, since you had this nice story about how you and Mel decided what to watch, I'm going to, the movie that I watched that was terrible has kind of a funny story to it. So last night, also known as Saturday night, we're recording this on a Sunday. Two buddies of mine that I don't see often enough came over and my wife is out of town. And so they both, yeah, we, they came, we came, we, my buddies came over and we grilled some steaks and drank a lot of beer and, and hung out.

1:13:57Matt Singer:and you know we did not go gambling or go to a a sporting house as they say we stayed home and sat on the couch and who's what is a sporting house and who says the phrase sporting house is a gentlemanly way of saying uh house of ill repute you know okay yeah no we were we're nice boys we stayed we you know we had a few drinks we had some food we did watch uh what did we watch we watched um was it the knicks did they play yesterday i think they did we watched the knicks The New York Knickerbockers did play, I believe, yesterday. We watched that yesterday. We watched the Knicks one. I mean, I wasn't really paying attention.

1:14:31Matt Singer:But anyway, so the point is we were – it's three guys. We were sitting around. We started yelling about politics. And we started talking about Elon Musk. He's a guy who is not a great guy. My friend has this theory, and he was just saying, Elon Musk is a real-life Hugo Drax. And I'm laughing. And he's like, you know, he's building his rockets. he wants to um he's obsessed with natalism you know he's trying to repopulate the species as he sees it and he's obsessed with the letter x you know elon musk has his son is named x and he changed twitter to x and then my other buddies goes who the hell is hugo drax you see where this is going and so we said what who's hugo drax i said like you don't know who My friend had never seen the James Bond picture Moonraker.

1:15:29Wow. From Earth to the most spectacular adventure in space, Moonraker. It's out of this world. What exactly do you want to hear, Drex? Moonraker 1, liftoff. Moonraker 2, liftoff.

1:15:43Matt Singer:So this is already pretty late at night. This is late enough that I did kind of conk out toward the end, and we'd had a few Heinekens at this point. We put on Moonraker, which the funny part is we say, where are these films streaming? Last night, Saturday the 18th, it was streaming on Netflix. And when we went to Netflix, it said, leaves tomorrow. Oh, wow. So by the time this airs, I honestly do not know where. It's Moonraker. It's streaming everywhere. The James Bond films are notorious for popping up somewhere for two months. Yes. And then they leave and then they pop up somewhere else. So by the time you hear this, they will be available somewhere else.

1:16:27It is not hard to find Moonraker. And then if you're listening to this a few months later, it won't be there anymore either.

1:16:32Matt Singer:Honestly, go to YouTube and type in Moonraker, good stream, Russian source, and it's there for God's sakes. So we watched Moonraker again, which I've seen 15 times. And I love Moonraker. I mean, obviously, if I just fought for balls up, you know I like Moonraker. But it is the dumbest movie. It's just beyond dumb. it too was just like what they're in venice now they're in rio now the the thing that the things that caught me about moonraker i mean yeah i'm gonna sound like a maniac you know james bond and casual sex but the way in which james bond will be in sporting houses james bond will be in a scene with somebody and if the if his scene partner is a man then the scene will just end but if he's in a room with a woman and then the scene is over he will just start taking off her clothes and they fade.

1:17:22Matt Singer:I mean, he has intimate encounters with just, you know, he goes down to Rio and there's M, if I may use that expression, M has hooked him up with the Brazilian version of James Bond. You know, she's like, I'm a member of Q-Force or whatever the hell it's called. And she's like, we're going to have to go here, here, here. And he goes, ah, very good. Well, we won't be able to go until this evening. Do you have any idea of what we can do for the next few hours? And suddenly he's taken off for clothes! That's, you know, it was the late 70s and it was James Bond, and you know, you gotta take it as a...

1:18:01Matt Singer:Well, well, well. I happen to have this condom which can cover both the penile shaft as well as the scrotum and the gonads. The thing I love there are two things I love about Moonraker is when they go up to space and they discover a space station 25 times the size of the space station that exists today that was built that nobody noticed nobody noticed it of course and at some point you know you have to say they have to do a little lip service like why did the americans and the russian and they go he has radar jamming on the space station it's like oh okay good that that that explains it all and then the other part is of, I think it has the best joke in all of 007.

1:18:47Matt Singer:I'm listening. The last line of the movie, which is when they patch him through to thank him for saving the planet because Hugo Drax tried to send nerf. Spoiler alert. Spoiler alert. James Bond defeats the bad guy in the end. Sends nerve gas to Earth and James Bond. So they patch through. We have him on screens. Oh, put him through to Buckingham Palace so the Queen can watch. And it's James Bond and he's stooping Dr. Holly Goodhead. I don't remember the name of the actress who plays Dr. Holly Goodhead. Lois Childs, I think. There you go. Who is Q? Is that Desmond Llewellyn? Is that his name? Desmond Llewellyn is Q.

1:19:30And Bernard Lee was M, if I may use the expression. Yeah. So they're watching.

1:19:36Matt Singer:And of course, Roger Moore is making love to Dr. Holly Goodhead. And they're in a space capsule orbiting the Earth, returning to planet Earth. Yes. And he's in the act of kissing her. And somebody says, dear God, what is 007 doing? And Desmond Llewellyn says, what's the exact line? He goes, I believe he's attempting re-entry, sir. my god what's bun doing i think he's attempting re-entry sir and it's such a build-up but you're like he's gonna say something and the way he says it in this like upper class british tone it's it's such a blue joke it's so coarse but it's so funny and it's also you've just sat through two hours and nine minutes of yeah moon right it's just awful movie it just goes on and on Why are you recommending it if it's awful?

1:20:32Matt Singer:Well, you love Moonraker. I mean, the sets, the Ken Adams sets are amazing. The HQ, it's the best HQ. Well, no, You Only Live Twice has the best HQ when they go inside a volcano. And they're also launching space rockets from that. But the HQ, they're in the Brazilian rainforest. Much like the characters in Balls Up. I mean, it all comes back to Balls Up. And they're in a cave. and he, you know, James Bond follows a hottie. It's one of Drax's you know, concubines that he's sending to space and, you know, Bond follows her and then it's like suddenly it's like it looks like Casa Bonita, right? It's like it's got a waterfall and a little land bridge and then they go from that and it looks almost like Fred Flintstone land.

1:21:20Matt Singer:It's like all these stones but then he opens a door and it's like all black and chrome and sleek with like pyramids and view screens and there's like a round desk that descends into the floor for no reason it's just the production design i mean they had just a ton of the budget was just like make a james bond movie do whatever you want go off ken adam go off and it's just so good i just love that and the score you know what's his name uh john barry's john barry score the sweeping majestic scores are just uh you know i i love it is the dumb i mean yes it is the dumbest movie ever made as you said and yet john barry's music i actually while they were on netflix i actually re-watched moonraker just on a lark one night before i went to sleep and i i can't quite uh i can't quite support the this the how much you're recommending this movie but what i'm sensing is you really don't care if a movie has people going from one place to the next and there's a lot of wacky shenanigans, you're fine with however they get there.

1:22:27Because the end, you're right. The end, the moon raker, the actual raking of the moon is very silly and fun. But to get there, there's a real, when are we going to get to the fireworks factory quality to the first 90 minutes of this movie where he's going all over the globe and has nothing to do with outer space. It's all wandering around these beautiful places, including Rio. But yes, I would say it is maybe the most Roger Moore, James Bond. For sure.

1:22:58Matt Singer:Oh, it's the nadir of the series in terms of stupidity and plausibility. And it has many people that dislike this film. It has the weirdest product placement in all of cinema. Gigantic product placement for 7 Up. there's multiple there's more than one shot of a 7-Up product placement there's a um a big billboard that eventually gets smashed through jaws smashes through it and then later after that when jaws and when he first meets his his love the little nerdy girl with the braids uh there's like a giant thermos of 7-Up sitting there on a table it's just ridiculous so okay well so this recommendation segment was brought to you by the good people at 7up.

1:23:43The Uncola. Okay, so to recap the segment here, Jordan recommends The 39 Steps, which is on HBO Max, Criterion, and Prime Video. He also recommends, sort of, Moonraker, which was on Netflix. It's now somewhere. It's somewhere. Of course, you can always, you know, these movies are always digitally available somewhere if you're willing to spend the$3.95 or whatever. it is. And then my movies were Bad Trip on Netflix and Empire Records on Plex. High Five Casino. You've earned your place and now it's time to enjoy the perks. At High Five Casino, the prestige loyalty program rewards your play with real benefits.

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1:25:09type any prompt and put the AI to work. It screens thousands of stocks, builds a one-of-a-kind index, and lets you backtest it against the S &P 500. Then you can invest in a few clicks. Generated assets are like ETFs with infinite possibilities, completely customizable and based on your thesis, not someone else's. Go to public.com slash podcast and earn an uncapped 1 % bonus when you transfer your portfolio. That's public.com slash podcast. Paid for by Public Investing. Brokered services by Open to the Public Investing, Member FINRA and SIPC. Advisory services by Public Advisors, LLC, SEC registered advisor.

1:25:39Generated assets is an interactive analysis tool. Output is for informational purposes only and is not an investment recommendation or advice. Complete disclosures available at public.com slash disclosures. This is Jacob Goldstein from What's Your Problem? When you buy business software from lots of vendors, the costs add up and it gets complicated and confusing. Odoo solves this. It's a single company that sells a suite of enterprise apps that handles everything from accounting to inventory to sales. Odoo is all connected on a single platform in a simple and affordable way. You can save money without missing out on the features you need.

1:26:12Check out Odoo at odoo.com. That's odoo.com. Your vehicle doesn't just get you from here to there. It's a bridge to the people and places that matter most. It's how you show up for your family, your community, and everyone else that depends on you. That's why for 125 years, Firestone has been building tires with one thing in mind, to deliver products that are as reliable as you are. Firestone, always dependable since 1900. Shall we play a game?

1:26:53Matt Singer:Oh, hey, hey, Matt, before we play the game, and before we introduce producer Sam Van Beethoven is here going to join us and it's very exciting we both confessed that we didn't know what the hell a moon raker was I mean we know in the context of the movie Moon Raker it's the name of the shuttle and in the original book it's a rocket in the book I would imagine that there are others out there in the listening audience that don't know like well what the hell is a moon like I thought it was like a rake like you know when space balls were combing the desert I pictured that on the moon like attached to the lunar rover like raking the moon looking for moon rocks but a moonraker is a thing would you like to know what it is sam you know what a moonraker is i imagine the same thing you're describing i mean literally literally that you recall i mean everything in my no a moonraker is an actual thing and points to anybody listening going i know i know a moonraker i just i went to google and i typed in what is a moonraker and google's ai has responded a moonraker is a light square sail flown at the very top of a ship's mast above the sky sail used to maximize speed in light winds um so uh and it says this also refers to a nickname for people from wiltshire england rooted in a folklore tale of smugglers wow so um when when ian fleming wrote moonraker and and it was one of the early ones so that might even be from the 50s uh late 50s, very early 60s.

1:28:23Matt Singer:I think I saw 55, actually. Yeah, it is much earlier in the book series than in the film series. It was a little bit of a pun, so it was a little bit of a pun, but, you know, not that many people know obscure nautical terms, so that's nautical trivia here on SVU. We already had an anatomical lesson earlier. Yes. About the gonads and the penile shaft. I dare anyone to say they don't learn things listening to film spotting SVU. All right. Now let's get to our game segment. I have always loved looking at the plot keywords on IMDb. It's about 20 years ago now, but back on the IFC News podcast, RIP, we used to do a weekly contest built around the plot keywords on IMDb.

1:29:08recently I did an article on the strangest plot keywords on IMDB it's just they're just fun you look at them and you look at the keywords that people make for movies and they're they can be very strange sometimes and now I have created a new game based on the keywords and it will no doubt become America's fastest growing quiz sensation I'm calling it key chain yeah here's how it will work. I'm going to give you a list or chain, if you will, of five connected keywords from a single movie and you need to tell me the name of the movie. The quicker you answer, the more points you can get. However, if you get it wrong, you cannot guess again and you leave the other person open to perhaps getting the film right, but for fewer points.

1:29:57If you get it right on the first keyword, you get five points, two keywords, four points, and so on. There's five keywords, For each film. And because we reviewed a Peter Farrelly movie. These are all keywords. For Peter Farrelly. Or Farrelly Brothers movies. Okay. Do we understand the rules of the game? I do. I do. I just want to point out by the way.

1:30:19Matt Singer:That I won last week's. You did? Letter box ding. Yes. You won the first game. I'm one to zero against Sam. So let's see who's going to win this week. Yes. So I am going to start listing the keywords. if you think you know it you can buzz in making a buzzing sound we should probably buy buzzers i guess but buzz in and we'll see and if you're right you get a point if you are wrong uh you you miss the opportunity to guess again and hear the rest of the keywords so here we go i have six once again i made six questions i don't know why i did it last time but it worked out so i'm hoping it works out again this time there are six questions or six lists or chains of keywords are we ready sam and jordan let's do it here we go movie number one here are the keywords crude toy uh sorry crude humor comedy could be any of all of them exactly especially especially Especially Green Book.

1:31:19Number two, toilet humor. Number three, diarrhea. Jordan. Dumb and dumber. That is correct. I didn't want to jump in too fast. The other two keywords were dead bird and broken tooth. Those were the keywords. Wow. Okay. So that means three points to Jordan. You're good. I'll let you jot this down. I'm writing it down. We're going to keep track. Okay. question or movie number two. Here we go. First keyword is New York City. Second keyword. Pizza. Third. Oh, Sam. I'm going with Green Book. That is correct. Oh, God. I would. Jesus. Yes, of course. The famous scene where Viggo Mortensen eats a folded over entire pizza.

1:32:12That is it. That's it, my friend. Yeah. The other three keywords there. Unlikely friendship. yeah racism and then travel guidebook and if you didn't get it at that point

1:32:23Matt Singer:you're fired you're it's a lost cause so that means the pizza moment in green book is is remarkable it is pretty special green book got a lot of flack um green book's good i like green book it's not it's not the best picture of the year it's it's no it is not but um i thought green book was fine i think we've heard enough of your opinions uh jordan yeah on this show Okay, so that means four points for Sam, three points for Jordan so far. It's another exciting... Oh, right, because the number of keywords it takes. Yes. I kind of took a show back. The fewer you hear, if you get it right, the more points you get.

1:32:59You got it on the second keyword, so you got four points. All right. Okay. Movie number three. Here we go. First keyword is buddy comedy. Second keyword is brother-brother relationship. Jordan Stuck on You Jordan, you are correct Stuck on You The conjoined twin fairy brothers movie The other keywords on that one were Hollywood, California I believe one of the brothers wants to be an actor they go to Hollywood Surgical operation and finally Conjoined twins Okay, so you got that on the second So four points for Jordan meaning it is now seven to four. Good boy. It's still close. It's still close.

1:33:49A single bead of sweat traveling down Sam's forehead now. Seven to four. I'm keeping track here. Where's the moon record when you need it? Okay. Question or movie number four. Here we go. First keyword. American remake of American film. Second keyword. Urinating on someone. Third keyword, Cabo San Lucas, Mexico.

1:34:21Matt Singer:I clearly didn't see this movie. Keyword four, unhappy marriage. Is it Heartbreak Kid? It is the remake of the Heartbreak Kid. Sam gets it. Was that the Elaine May? Yeah. Did I get to the fourth keyword there? When did we stop? You said Mad Marriage. That's four, right? Unhappy Marriage. That was the fourth one. Okay, so two points. I did not know that that was a Farrelly production. Yes. Did they both do it or just one of them? That is the Farrelly's reunion, I believe so. It's their reunion with Ben Stiller. That is their, like, I don't know if you'd call it a comeback, but following There's Something About Mary, like almost 10 years later, they made a remake of The Heartbreak Kid.

1:35:08Matt Singer:I never saw it. I never saw it because nobody liked it. People were down on it, and I really liked the original. with Charles Groh. The original is a masterpiece. With Jenny Berlin. The remake is not incredible. It has, much like Balls Up, it has some moments, but I cannot, I cannot recommend it now. But that means that it is now seven to six. Jordan holding a very slight lead. We have a real game going here again this week. This is like the Knicks game the other day. Two more movies left. Two more movies left. Still anybody's game. What will happen? I don't know. I don't know either. Here we go.

1:35:48Movie number five. First keyword is three word title. Second keyword is cartoon sound effects. Jordan. The Three Stooges. That is correct. The Three Stooges. Also another Farrelly Brothers joint. The misbegotten big screen modern Three Stooges.

1:36:12Matt Singer:It's not bad. I mean, it's not bad. It's probably better than it should be. Is that fair? It's balls up level. There's a gag. You know, I've been so crude on this show. I am an intellectual, by the way. I watched 39 Steps. Last week I was talking about some art documentary. But there's a crude joke in Three Stooges that is just the funniest thing ever. I, it involves, it involves a busty woman and the ahuga sound effect from an old tiny car. Yeah. That is just so stupid. And you could be like, we can't do it. We can't do it. It's so immature. We have to do it. You know, we must. Who else will do it if not us?

1:37:00Matt Singer:So. Okay. Now, wasn't Russell Crowe affiliated with that movie at some point in some early pre-production? There were so many versions of that movie through the years. I don't, let's let, we could look and see. I mean, I remember like, I think Jim Carrey was going to be in it at one point. I would imagine he would be Mo, right? They had so many, they had so many different casts that fell through over the years. If you did it now and you had Paul Walter Hauser as Curly, forget it. Now we're talking. Jim Carrey was going to be in it. Sean Penn was going to be in it. Yeah, I feel like it was prestige-y for a while.

1:37:39Yeah. Don't see Russell Crowe on the Wikipedia page, but that doesn't mean it didn't happen.

1:37:43Matt Singer:You know who you should get for Larry now? I don't know if he acts. Timothy Chalamet? Actually, he kind of would do it. No, you know, there's this podcaster, not that I listen to podcasts, but there's this podcaster named Adam Friedland. Have you heard of him? Or Friedman? He's a political podcaster. Well, given that you don't know his name, I can't say for certain that I... I think it's Adam Friedman. He kind of looks like Larry of the Three Stooges, and I think he could do it. He's a funny guy in what I've seen. We'll call him up. We'll see if he's available. Okay. So that means that after five questions, the score is 11 to 6 in Jordan's favor.

1:38:20Oh, wow. Gee, come on, Sam. You've got to catch up. Now, but wait. If Sam gets the last movie correct on the first keyword, he ties the game. Oh, shit. We have one more or two more? So you know what you've got to do? just we only have one more so it could be a tie and that's fine you buzz in well if i may give

1:38:40Matt Singer:you a suggestion yeah yeah just go buzz in when he says the first thing and just try this is like when you i think we should let him try why not yeah there's something in the in in the game of um uh a backgammon called the uh crawford rule that's preventing what i'm suggesting uh where if you're losing and so you can just double automatically you can't do but there's no Crawford rule in Matt Singer's Wacky Hits. The Hoffman rule says you have to buzz in. Alright, let's do it. Sam's going to try to get it on one keyword. If you can get it right, and I think if you are a huge expert of the Farrelly Brothers filmography, which I know you are, I think this is gettable on the first one.

1:39:18Matt Singer:There's only so many left. That's true. There's only a few left. If the first keyword is bowling, we all know what it is. It's not bowling. I will say the first keyword is not bowling. Okay, here we go. Semen? Because we know what it is to do. No. Shellac? No. Shellac? No, okay. All right, here we go. The final movie of our game here. The first keyword is American remake of British film. Shallow how? This is to tie the game. Shallow how? I'm afraid that is incorrect. Can I try to steal? Well, would you like to hear the other keywords, Or do you just want to guess? I guess it doesn't matter because you've already won the game.

1:40:02So you might as well.

1:40:03Matt Singer:Were they involved in the Hugh Grant bedazzled? They were not. That is also an incorrect answer. Okay. Give me the second one. Well, now the game is over. Jordan has won. So we might as well just see what the answer was. I'm going to give you the other four keywords. No points are up now, but you can both, if you figure it out, feels free. Here we go. Just for pride. Yeah. Asking someone out on a date. keyword three romantic breakup and reconciliation this is a deep cut it well it was the last one it better be keyword number four baseball team fever pitch that is correct it is the remake of fever pitch remake of course of the fever pitch was the soccer one yes yes the original one i I think based on maybe a Nick Hornby.

1:40:55Nick Hornby.

1:40:56Matt Singer:Yep, yep. It was about soccer, and the American remake was about the Red Sox. Yep. Yes, it was. And the whole movie, the end of the movie had to be reshot because the whole thing was about the Red Sox never win. And then while they were filming it was the year that the Red Sox finally broke the curse of the Bambino. That's hilarious. The last keyword was going to be the curse of the Bambino. That is hilarious. Guess what? I don't think I mentioned the other keywords. I was at the game where they filmed that scene. I was in St. Louis when the Red Sox won the World Series against the Cardinals. Wow.

1:41:25I was in the stadium, in Bush Stadium. And there they were. And I remember reviewing the film on FilmSpotting the next year. All those years ago. Oh, those many years ago.

1:41:35Matt Singer:Wow. So I love that you nixed the two most famous movies, which are the song about Mary. Yeah, why make these? Come on. No Kingpin. I was waiting for Kingpin. I'm going to go to the quiz master here. No Kingpin. Kingpin, which, by the way, is their best film, I feel. Kingpin is hilarious. I love Kingpin. Dumb and Dumber? Better than Dumb and Dumber. Kingpin is the best. Dumb and Dumber 2, T.O.? I don't know if I even saw that one. But, you know, the other deep cut was it's a Peter solo joint. No, it's not a Peter solo joint. It's based on Peter's novel called Outside Providence. Have you seen that movie?

1:42:11Matt Singer:It's a good movie. It's okay. Alec Baldwin, yeah. There's some good scenes in that. It's funny. Peter is the more prolific of the two. And Bobby, I don't think he's done stuff without Peter, but Peter has done stuff without Bobby. I believe. I could be mistaken, but I think that's the case. Much like Ethan Coen is a little bit more productive than Joel Coen. And even before they split. Ethan would occasionally write books. He wrote a book, a collection of short stories. And plays. And he wrote some plays, which I've never seen. and then and then you know that so clearly Peter and Ethan Peter Farrelly and Ethan Cohen should make a movie together they're very they should swap siblings I think that is exactly what we're saying so I must have been I must have been referencing this 2007 movie web interview with the Farrelly brothers where Bobby Farrelly said I'll tell you this of the three stooges Moe is the one we really want to get a good actor for we want we want Russell Crowe that's so funny Benicio Del Toro was once considered for the part the other two guys would be more from the comedy world he'd be great can you even imagine they got a bunch of nobodies right well they got Sean Hayes Will Sasso Will Sasso Diamantopolis Chris Diamantopolis Chris Diamantopolis it wasn't quite the Jim Carrey level stars that they originally wanted.

1:43:43But as you said, it's not without its charms.

1:43:45Matt Singer:Yeah, and it's Sofia Vergara's Inspires the Ahuga sound effects, I'm sure. That feels right. And Larry David is a nun. I forgot about that. Well, there you go. He's had a longstanding connection with the Farrelly's, I guess. JWoww is in the film. Wow, look at that. It's a hell of a movie. We should all watch it. You're just saying things you're seeing on your screen right now. Exactly. But that means, Jordan, you have won again. Wow You won for the second week in a row You are now up two games Sam's going to win next week I feel it Sam though a fine showing I mean you could have I thought you might pull it out there On the last one I really just jumped too hard Because Fever Pitch Yeah I mean it's obvious In retrospect That's sad That's sad That's alright Well maybe you'll get them You'll get them next time I believe in you Alright as we wind things down here Let's give you a quick overview Of stuff that's new to streaming This week On Prime We have Kevin An animated series About a city cat who goes it alone created by Aubrey Plaza.

1:44:41It's got the voices of Jason Schwartzman as Kevin, Whoopi Goldberg, John Waters and others. John Waters, someone I need more of in my life. I wish he would make a new movie. Please, John, I'm happy that you're, you're doing animated voices, but we need a new, we need a new John Waters movie. Have you ever seen him do,

1:44:59Matt Singer:I has somewhere between standup and a one man show. Have you ever seen him do that? No, I have. It's quite entertaining. It's all right. Yeah, it's good. All right. Well, that is Kevin on Prime. We've also got on HBO, we've got Half Man. This is a new six-episode limited series from Baby Reindeer creator Richard Gad. It stars Gad and Jamie Bell as estranged brothers. And over on Netflix, a lot of stuff coming out this week, including Unchosen, a six-episode British thriller set in a religious cult with Asa Butterfield and Christopher Eccleston, a one-time Doctor Who. A series that actually my wife is already excited about.

1:45:43Matt Singer:This is called This is a Gardening Show. And it is a documentary with Zach Galifianakis. I think it's real. I don't think it's scripted. With Zach Galifianakis learning how to garden. Yes. And he doesn't know how to garden. It's like a kitschy gardening show with Zach Galifianakis as the host. It looks very charming. Yeah. My wife is super into gardening. And there is a British television show. I just made a reference to Doctor Who. It's even older than Doctor Who. It's called Gardener's World. It's been on since the 60s. Obviously, it does not have the same hosts as it always had. But there's this guy named Monty Don.

1:46:19It'd be pretty funny if it did, though.

1:46:21Matt Singer:Well, it's some old tree. There's a guy named Monty Don who's on it. It's such a relaxing show. So my wife, and he's got a dog. And they just go around and go, oh, look at these lovely zinnias. And Gardener's World, for the British people out there, really know it. And anyhow, also Netflix, an animated Stranger Things series called Tales from 85. It's set between seasons two and three of the very popular show. And then a motion picture that we're going to be reviewing next week called Apex. Apex. Apex. And it stars Charlize Theron, who was in Aeon Flux, which is like Apex is shorter Aeon Flux, you know, in terms of the, you know, it's got an A and an X.

1:47:05Matt Singer:and Apex is about a grieving woman on a solo adventure in the Australian wild who is being hunted by Taron Egerton. I like Taron Egerton. It's directed by Balthazar Cormacor. I don't know if that's how he pronounces his name or not. I'm pretty confident that's not how he pronounces his name. Balthazar Cormacor. He is from Iceland and he's made the films Everest, Beast, and Adrift and other movies with only one word in the title. He also made Two Guns with Mark Wahlberg from Balls Up. I think he also directed Contraband with Mark Wahlberg. I don't think I saw it called that. Oh, Contraband was a classic.

1:47:47He played John Contraband.

1:47:49Matt Singer:Yeah. He didn't. That was not his actual name. Caleb Laundrie Jones. I always made that joke when that movie was coming out. Yeah. Oh, he made 101 Reykjavik. That was his first movie. Or not his first movie, but among his first movies, which I remember seeing when that came out in the year 2000, 26 years ago, and here he is still pumping out. I saw two guns in the theaters. I thought that was okay. I'm not the world's biggest Balthazar Cormac or fan, I realize. But maybe Apex is where it's at. Maybe that's the one that turns it around. I hope so. And it's got Charlize. And not just Charlize, also Eric Bana.

1:48:23Matt Singer:Eric Bana's in it. I like that guy. Okay. So that's our review for next week. In Australia. All right. So we're going to watch Apex, but it's coming out to Netflix. Our first Netflix movie. Our main Netflix review. The bread and butter of this podcast. And Matt, 96 minutes. Maybe we should make that a rule. We only review movies that are under 100 minutes or something. Well, no, we shouldn't say that. But for now, for this week, we will. So that's what's coming next week. Thank you for listening. Thank you for sending us emails. You send it to Matt at, what is the address? Matt at filmspottingsvu.com.

1:49:03Also, we should say that coming up in the film spotting feed Friday on the film spotting mothership, the championship round of 40s madness, Citizen Kane versus Casablanca. That I mean, that really is a. You know, it's funny.

1:49:19Matt Singer:That's a tough choice. I remember something that your friend, the late Roger Ebert, who was truly a champion of Matt Singer, not joking. and Matt Singer, of course, wrote a book about Siskel and Ebert. He said that Citizen Kane was the greatest movie ever made, but his favorite movie to watch was Casablanca. Yes, yes, that is true. I found that to be a very interesting way of putting it. Adam and Joss will also pit Kane and Casablanca against each other in review format, deciding once and for all what is the greatest film of the 1940s, irregardless of what Roger Ebert once said. I'm afraid they're going to get the final word this time.

1:50:00Matt Singer:I think my choice is Casablanca. If I have to pick one of the two. And I would pick Citizen Kane. I mean, I'm not kicking Citizen Kane out of bed. Don't get me wrong. But I think Casablanca is just... I would prefer to watch that for the 25th time. But they're both... What about you, Sam? If you have to pick one... Pick it again, Sam. Which one would you pick? I don't know. I think I'd have to go Kane I think I would and I'd regret it I'd choose it but regret it that's the only thing I think I think I have to go Casablanca it's just better I don't know I saw it when I was pretty young it meant a lot to me but Citizen Kane's got a lot of cool stuff going on don't get me wrong as the poster says it's terrific it does say that actually well if listeners want to weigh in they can email us about which is better, Citizen Kane or Casablanca, or tell us what they think about the show, or give us some of their streaming platform choices and a genre, and we can give them a personalized recommendation on our next episode.

1:51:06The email address, one more time, is matt at filmspottingsvu.com You can also find me on Instagram and Letterboxd at SuperPulse. I'm also on Blue Sky, at Matt Singer. Jordan is also on Blue Sky, even though he's trying to get off of all social media.

1:51:22Matt Singer:I do a little Blue Sky. I'm Jay Hoffman. Jay Hoffman. And I'm also on Letterboxd. But if you follow me on Letterboxd, there's going to be spoilers for what I'm going to be talking about. That's okay. That's all right. I mean, people, it builds anticipation. That's true. You were talking about an Alfred Hitchcock movie earlier. If you follow Jordan on Letterboxd, that's suspense. If you just tune into SVU and don't look at Letterboxd, that's surprise. FilmSpotting SVU is produced by Sam Van Halgren. I'm Matt Singer. he is you are oh Sam no me Jordan say your name oh my goodness my name is Sam my name is Jordan Hopp it's very late I'm very tired I was up last night drinking beer watching Moonraker for Christ's sake I gotta go to sleep okay but we thank you to the listeners and for the people and by the way the letters the letters the emails that came in last week some of them were very nice the ones and also because Matt looks at them first he did not forward all the ones saying bring back Allison I'll hold on to the ones that were mean for blackmail material purposes later.

1:52:25But he's Jordan and I'm Matt. We'll see you next week. Thanks for listening.

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