Little Italy (Re-Release)

19:58Jason Mantzoukas:They're just getting sushi Canada. To all our Canadian listeners, fuck you. But when we talk about things being like Little Italy, Little Korea, it's usually adjacent to a giant city. Right. What is this? Little in reference to what? I'm assuming this is Toronto. I'm assuming this is Toronto's Italian neighborhood. So you're telling me that in Toronto, they don't have any pizzas that have gluten this day. According to this movie, they have only ever had cheese on a pizza until 2017. Let me just throw one thing out at you guys. This movie was also directed by the director of Mystic Pizza. No! What?

20:42Yes. Does he only make pizza-based movies? Wait a minute. I almost brought up Mystic Pizza as a reference.

20:49Jason Mantzoukas:because she's wearing the shirt that Julia Roberts wore. Are you kidding? Yes. No, I'm not kidding. No, no, no. It is directed by a guy. Can I ask you a question? Did that person make Slice? Another pizza-based movie? No, this guy has a very interesting career. Yeah, he made Opportunity Knocks with Dana Carvey, Grumpy Old Men, Richie Rich, My Favorite Martian, Miss Congeniality, How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days, Welcome to Mooseport, Just My Luck, My Life in Ruins, and Atlantic Gold. Like a bunch of good movies. When I saw Mystic Pizza. Yeah. I fell completely in love. Like true crush. Yeah. Young, like I have a crush on this woman in this movie who to me was so beautiful and so like exciting to watch.

21:39And, you know, and it was Annabeth Gish. Oh, Annabeth Gish. I mean, not Julia Roberts. I was like, who cares about Julia Roberts? I'm on a Gish tip too. Give me this Annabeth Gish. See, I felt that way. This Gish is going to make me gush. Listen, the scene between Gish and the babysitter's dad, the babysitting dad, is one of the best scenes. I mean, I could not get over what I was watching at that tender age.

22:11Jason Mantzoukas:Yes. Yeah. It's amazing. And she's incredible in it. And still incredible. Love you. America's Sweetheart, everybody says. Look, we love, I like an Annabeth. She could have been a pretty woman. I like an Annabeth Gish. I like a Jamie Gertz. I feel like these people know more. Jamie Gertz. Oh, don't, don't. Come on. Jamie Gertz was everything. She was my favorite. Now we're back to ladies of the 80s. Now we're back to ladies of the 80s. Did I already talk about this on the podcast, that I created a fake Jamie Gertz fan event in my Blockbuster video? What? You have talked about that. Okay. Not the first time I'm hearing of it.

22:46Jason Mantzoukas:Okay, all right. Well, there you go. Let's do an old episode and retell that story that very rarely comes out. Oh, Jamie. All right, so. I'm going to have Gish. But when we're interested. Gish and Gertz. By the way, I'm going to pitch a movie. Gish and Gertz? To both of them. Gish and Gertz. It's the new Kaguya and Lacey. You've all heard the usual travel advice, right? Pack light, bring a neck pillow, keep a portable charger handy. Yeah, yeah, those are all good. But the real travel hack, don't wait until you land to start learning the language. Instead, try Babbel for just 10 minutes a day. That's all you have to commit, 10 minutes a day.

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25:19Jason Mantzoukas:Talk to me about the fact that when we're introduced to Hayden Christensen, it seems to me that he's just a delivery boy. Yes. He doesn't seem to be the chef. He doesn't seem to be, you know. And so that's what I found to be so weird. He just seemed to be the person they would send out. His relationship to the pizza in the setup of the movie is that he loves delivering the pizza so he can fuck the women who are there to get the pizza. Sure. But yet he loves. That's his only connection. But yet he loves pizza so much, he's installed a very expensive pizza oven in his apartment. Like, I mean, he worked.

25:53Not even in his apartment, in Luigi's apartment. That's Luigi's apartment? Yes. Yes, he's living with Luigi now. I didn't realize that.

26:00Jason Mantzoukas:Can we talk about when he goes up to Luigi's roof? The rooftop garden? Yes. Did you notice something interesting about it? All the random lamps? Yes. There are so many lamps. Every time you look, and I know this is a visual thing. These are indoor lamps that have all been painted and are just on the rooftop. Listen, in Southern California, the design aesthetic is all about bringing the indoor outside and the outside inside. But in Little Italy, Canada, I feel like the weather conditions year round are not. You could look, June, we were in Canada. Remember how cold it was? Our children refused to walk outside.

26:42Jason Mantzoukas:They're like, it's too cold. When you would breathe, it would hurt your lungs. Oh, yeah. This is not a place where you have, literally, I'm counting right now, 15 indoor lamps. Indoor lamps that are outdoor. Oh, wait, is that the roof? That is the roof. Yeah, these are all indoor lamps, shaded lamps. Table lamps. Shaded lamps. Desk lamps. It's the kind of thing that, like, they're using as light for the movie. But if you think about it, like, the first time it rained, that would cause an electrical fire. Oh. Instantly. Amazing. I mean, definitely. But, I mean, I guess the thing is is that their chemistry was so good that you weren't even looking at that kind of thing.

27:19You don't even notice all the lamps.

27:21Jason Mantzoukas:This place is, like, drowning in lamps. I found their relationship to be confusing. Yes. Because she comes back to Canada and doesn't seem to have any, like, she's not upset with Canada. She doesn't race to get back. There doesn't seem to be any, like, movement, like, well, I'm not only here for a couple days. She seems to be like, I'm back in. Here I go. We also never get a satisfying, you know, like, the movie starts with this flashback where there are, like, teenagers, 12, 13, somewhere in that zone, probably. They're playing soccer. They're lighting firecrackers. They're the neighborhood best friend kids, right?

28:00Right.

28:01Jason Mantzoukas:They play soccer together. They play a team sport one-on-one, which is the dumbest thing ever because one person always has to be the goalie. And they're obsessed with who's the winner and who's the loser. And the setup is always he's just shooting on her. Yes. Her only ability to win is to block. No, listen. I was a soccer player. Oh, okay. Traveling soccer player. Yes, and an athlete in general. Okay. She, that scene where she. I know this to be true because June's dad spoke about this at our wedding. It was one of the big things that he highlighted, the proud accomplishments where you're traveling soccer and basketball.

28:39He spent the majority of his speech just going over my stats as an athlete. I do remember him passing out homemade cards, player cards.

28:50Jason Mantzoukas:But it was like a Bo Jackson card. Like on one side you were baseball and the other side you were football. So I recognize, you know, I mean, and listen, if you look at me right now in my physicality, you might not automatically think that's an athlete. Elite athlete. No, that might not come to mind. Or maybe it does. It does to me. Maybe it does. Okay, great. But if put on a court, if like push came to shove and I was having to play one-on-one, whatever, I do feel like you would see something would come back. There's a history there. Okay. When Emma Roberts is playing soccer, she looks so deeply uncomfortable and out of her league.

29:32And she has never, not a single time once, played a game of soccer.

29:37Jason Mantzoukas:And Hayden Christensen is not only in the film, is coaching the soccer team. And then basically he's like, let's go outside right now and let me kick these balls at you. Well, that's the thing is, he's drilling shots at her. And she, you're right, I noticed the same as I was also captain of my high school soccer team. Oh my gosh. Guys, I played soccer for like a couple years. She has none of the skills, none of the instinctive skills of a keeper, right? Right. And it's hard to be a keeper. It is very hard. Oh, guys, this is not a sports podcast. Save it. When they're kids, it's fine. When they're kids, it's fine.

30:17But when they're adults, he's just drilling shots straight at her. Well, she hasn't been playing for years. She's going making food. But why? First of all, I want to talk about the London. Oh, the best the best line of the whole movie. The move, the line that made me legit laugh is when Jane Seymour is walking down the line and Gordon Ramsey and everybody's food. And she hands a woman two pieces of a split loaf of bread, which the woman that has to put on either side of her head. And Jane Seymour says, what are you? And the girl goes, a moron sandwich. I was like, a moron sandwich was the funniest fucking part of this movie.

30:58Jason Mantzoukas:And by the way, that's in like minute 230. And then it goes downhill from there. But at that point, I was like, oh, we might be in for a really fun ride. But why did she leave? We never got, sorry, all of this builds up, which is to say, like, we never understand why she left to go to England in the first place. And why are we rooting for her to stay or be home? To kind of put some markers on it. She was obsessed with him. I guess he didn't know that. So I think she went away because she was like, I am too into him. I need to, like, get out of town. But they never, they only, I thought they were exes.

31:32First, I thought they were siblings. Yes, which is troubling for a romantic comedy. Well, but I was excited to see a sibling movie. Yeah, I was excited to see a. Oh, not a romantic movie. No, a sibling movie. I feel like they're underrepresented. I was excited to see a sibling movie that might have romantic undertones. which is which is no big deal a category on Pornhub but they were not siblings right they were not former lovers or exes they were just you know she just in voiceover like has an aside about like needing to get away from him or no wonder I had a crush on you or whatever yeah and then she comes back and it's as if he's the love of her life when she sees, when he does the double take in the bar, it's the greatest double take.

32:25Please, please, fans, edit together that double take just over and over and over again.

32:32Jason Mantzoukas:I mean, and they really pump it from a directing standpoint and an acting standpoint. Everyone is bringing their A game on this double take. And then, and again, just to get me back to the scene that I really want to talk about, He sees her and his first instinct is, let's get out so I can drill balls at you. And someone says, hey, it's raining out. And you think, oh, maybe it'll be a light miss. They shoot this fucking thing in disaster movie rainstorm. I mean, first of all, all I can think of, how miserable is every actor on that day? Every actor. Because not just our leads go to the soccer field.

33:10Everybody. All of the patrons of Luigi's Bar. Yes. Without an umbrella.

33:15Jason Mantzoukas:There's a couple umbrellas in the background, but most of them are completely just getting drenched. And they're so excited about it. It seems like the entire bar, the owner, the bartender, everyone leaves to go out to the soccer field. I guarantee everybody got sick on that shoot. I mean, I've never been more uncomfortable than in rain shoots. We're supposed to understand. And this is what's confusing because it all pays off in the end when I guess she lets him win the final pizza contest. Well, because she always says, admit it. You let me win? Or you never let me win. But I never understand.

33:51I believe she would always win, but he would say, I let you win. And then she would say, no, you didn't. Okay, but then in the rain soccer game, he's not letting her win. No, and he's, in fact, winning. He scores on her way more. She never gets a shot. She saves three.

34:14Jason Mantzoukas:for those of you soccer fans out there for if you uh for if you're listening to men and blazers you've just come over here this is kind of a little crossover talk i'd love to talk english premier league right now get franklin leonard back arsenal uh so i mean i mean this so this whole movie is is predicated on this unrequited super passionate love but he never has to come to it. She never has to come to it. Their, and their breakup, I literally was like, when they got upset with each other. Yeah, what's their, their end of second act fight was, I wrote, why are they mad at each other? Yeah, I couldn't figure it out.

34:56No idea. I mean, I'll tell you. Sorry, I just want to go back to the in the rain scene. Yeah. They all go out to their thing, and they're starting it up, and And she's got two like wildly stereotypical Italian like girlfriends. Oh, yeah. And she's like, you set this up. And they're like, I don't know. They're like crazy.

35:19Jason Mantzoukas:I hear those men in London really get you high. Oh, well, he's an investment. He goes, oh, he was an investment banker who had a sizable portfolio, but didn't know how to manage it. Is that how you ladies talk to him? What's so crazy about that scene is they've literally sit down for one second with her after not seeing her for five years and immediately hound her on the graphic details of her sex life. Yes. Who you fucking? How are their dick? Which are bad. Apparently, she straight in a row says three negative things about the men in England. Trashes them about going down on girls. Trashes them about their dick size.

35:59And abilities to use it. She's like... They get into it. Anyway, they go out to the soccer field. And, yeah, her friends are like, yeah. And then one of her friends, they cut to her receiving a phone call. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Because she says, oh, my God, little Sal's got diarrhea. I have to go. It's like, why? Why are they explaining that the friend needs to leave?

36:27Jason Mantzoukas:Who cares? She's like, I'm not shooting this rain scene. By the way, if she doesn't want to be in the rain scene, like, she doesn't have to be. But there are some amazing things to watch. I guess there's a famous story of, who's the guy in Lawrence of Arabia, Peter O'Toole, who said that whenever he would be in a big group scene, he would try to find a way to hide himself so he didn't have to be with the big group so he could do less coverage. And in this movie, when you watch it, Danny Aiello is always like, doop, doop, doop, doop, doop. He has one shot that's isolated or they got him in this thing, but especially at the airport at the end.

36:59Jason Mantzoukas:He is so far away from that group, not a part of it. I watched stuff like that. I watched the extras. There's a guy holding a sign at an airport. I couldn't get over him. Just watching the one pass of just extra work on this movie is amazing. Oh, my God. When Danny Aiello says, sausage and peppers, that was my nickname. Ew. What do you mean? Like, Mr. Sausage, I get? Whatever, but sausage and peppers. What are the peppers? Sausage is the penis. The peppers are the balls. But why are the peppers the balls? I wouldn't want to be called sausage or peppers. I usually say that. Careful with the peppers.

37:39Jason Mantzoukas:Do we think that they... Are we to believe... Turn the sausage. Don't burn those peps. Don't burn those peppers. Lick the peps. Bite the sausage. Careful with those peppers. Those peppers are very sensitive. The skin and the peppers. That's a spicy pepper, huh? What are these seeds doing in my peppers? I gotta put on my junk trunks to protect my sausage and peppers. Junk trunks was crazy. Is that a phrase that has ever been uttered before? I guess probably. It's probably Canadian slang. Oh, and are we to believe that in Canada people also hate all Indian people? Yes, that was... That was the other thing where I was like, this movie is new.

38:33This is a recent movie. Yep. For it to have. Days old. Days old. 1980s era stereotypes is crazy. I mean, they call one of the characters Slumdog. He goes, Jai Ho, Slumdog. What? And then. Coming in. So the great. Okay. I read my favorite character in the movie was Jesse. Not Jesse. The Indian girl from The Other, from Jesse's. I don't know who she was, but I thought she was one of the stars of the film. Yes. I would watch a whole movie about her. So one thing we've not even broached is the plot of the movie, which is that Hayden Christensen and Emma Roberts' fathers were, the reason they're best friends is because they were all family.

39:17Their fathers were best friends and had their own pizza place. And so blah, blah, blah. It was family. The whole family under one roof, blah, blah, blah. At the end of the cold open, the fathers get into a fight and separate. And so now they have. After winning the best pizza competition.

39:31Jason Mantzoukas:And so now they have side by side. Yes. Pizza competition and bikini contest. No big deal. Put them together. A little spice and a little nice pizza. Male and female bikinis. Although the men's. I appreciated the men being up there. The men's bikinis are more bike shorts, but that's fine. And then. So then they have side by side competing pizza restaurants. And they are in a feud, okay? It's a very, you know, you could simplify and say it's a real Romeo and Juliet situation. Sure, in a pizza place. But each pizza place has its own Indian work, like employee. They split down the middle. Because I would say that one of the things that was so confusing to me was that first scene, there are eight people working in one small pizzeria.

40:16Jason Mantzoukas:And I was like, there's too many people here. And no client, no customers. I feel like all you need in a pizza place of that size, that square footage, is one person making the pizza. Yep. A single person. One person. Maybe not even waitressing. This sounds like a business plan right now. It seemed to be like a pickup counter situation. Get Marcus Limonis on the phone right now. Marcus, call us. And then one person, really two people. One person at the cash register and one person making the pizza. And if Marcus Limonis was coming in to say this, he would say, he would say, you need to mend this feud and get back together because this was never better than when you did it together.

40:54Because he would say process product. That's what we're doing. That's what we got. That's what, guys, I'm not even kidding. Please, if you're out there and you know Marcus Limonis. He's tweeted at us. That's fine that he's tweeted at us, but we need him on the show. Oh, we need him on this show. He wants to come on the show. He's in Chicago, right? But he's in L.A. a lot. Oh, okay. Because I was going to say, next time we go to Chicago, I want Marcus Limonis on this show.

41:18Jason Mantzoukas:We should find a movie, like a big business, where someone's stuck. Like the worst, like a bad version of Baby Boom. Yes. And then be like, what did she do wrong with the baby boom? Also, Marcus, if you agree to come on this show, you can be 100 % in control. In charge. You play the sound clips. You tell Devin when to hit the theme song. This is a dream come true for me. You are the host. You are the host. Marcus, you run the show. You do the ad reads. This movie, but even between the two Indian workers. All the ad reads are for Marcus Limonis' businesses. He's like, Carmack. Sweet Peets. Sweet Peets.

42:01The simple Greek. Dad bags.

42:09Oh, come on, Marcus. Oh, my goodness. Camping world.

42:17Jason Mantzoukas:We love Marcus Limonis. We love you, Marcus Limonis. Just so you know, there is an episode where we talk about Marcus Limonis. We cut out, I would argue, 20 minutes of that conversation. We cut it out? We got to put it up as an extra. I mean, we cut about 20 minutes. You were not there that night, June, but we went deep into Marcus. I didn't even know you watched the show, Jason. Of course I watched the show. Do you watch the show just because he's Greek? Of course, I, well, contractually, I have to watch all shows of Greeks. That is part of the deal. And also because, you know, that's all my family wants to talk about is any and all Greek shows.

42:52Jason Mantzoukas:Would you make a version of this movie that's like a Greek-centric version of this movie? It's called My Big Fat Greek Wedding. And Andrea Martin in both. Andrea Martin is in both. Andrea Martin, I was going to mention that at one point, but Andrea Martin is the grandmother, has now played stereotypical ethnic grandmothers of Greek and Italian descent. She's Armenian and she's also from Maine. Isn't that amazing? Yeah, and doing amazing work. Listen, so is Alyssa Milano. I thought Alyssa Milano was a breath of fresh air. She was great. I appreciated her a lot. I really, really did. I actually liked the two brothers too, Salvatore and Vincenzo.

43:28Jason Mantzoukas:I thought, I actually don't think that there were any, like, I don't know. I liked all the color around this movie. I do believe I like the color around this movie. I think that there are some issues with some things. The main characters? Yeah, the main characters. So that's my favorite thing about watching bloopers in movies because you can tell the relationship between the actors by watching that gag reel at the end. There's not a single shot of Hayden Christensen and Emma Roberts enjoying themselves, having a laugh, someone messing up a line, the other one sort of smiling. There was not a single, single piece of footage that they could use to show like, oh, these two people could stand being in a room together.

44:05Jason Mantzoukas:Their meet cute or not their meet cute, but they're like falling in love montage is my favorite thing where they clearly got the rights to shoot at like a festival, like a like, you know, like a San Gennaro feast or something like that. And all they do is try on different Italian stereotypes shirts. It's like like, what are you looking at? My flags. And there's like little Italian flags over both breasts. And it's like, I'm the real Italian stallion. And it's like, my macaroni is always al dente. You know, it's just like real. And they're just like, oh, my gosh, these are great. Like, they love those shirts.

44:43Jason Mantzoukas:Oh, yeah. And I felt like they almost love those shirts more than they love each other. For sure. For sure. Well, he's like, get up early in the morning. I'm picking you up. And then he picks her up at like dawn to bring her to a street festival. A street festival? So they can buy T-shirts. And then they go and blow up fruit, vegetables rather, again at the old man's. And leave him a gift basket. But then they leave him a gift basket. But then. It's like, what is this? I don't know. They see water and unlike gremlins, they drive right towards it to get wet again on that bike. To get wet. And then they go at that.

45:16Just so they can go home and take their clothes off, I assume. Like I assume in Canada, maybe this is Canadian actually. In Canada, people can only get naked if their clothes have been soaked through. There's no other reason to. It's more pure. Which maybe makes sense as to why on a non-summer day when they said it was cold out, the fire hydrant was out and going. If people in Canada have to get in the bath with their clothes on, then take them off to get in the shower. There's going to be such a Reddit thread of Canadian fans of the show.

45:49Jason Mantzoukas:We're just drawing conclusions based on what we saw about your movie. Listen, I'm trying to understand with an open heart and an open mind. To understand your culture. They love Starbucks. We know that. That was crazy, too. I couldn't even follow that Starbucks run. I mean, the Starbucks thing, that they're addicted to caramel lattes? Yes. Andrea Martin drinks a number of lattes that, I'm not even kidding, would hospitalize her. Yeah, there were 10. She's too old for that much caffeine. She had 10 on that table. That was unsettling. And they react to Starbucks as if, again, to June's point, it was just invented.

46:24Jason Mantzoukas:Like, what is this new coffee place in town? Oh, two more. Everybody's got, oh, my God, two more. Everybody sounds like it's Mario Brothers. I feel like the director sent everybody Mario Brothers as like an accent. Research. As like a cornerstone for their accent. Speaking of Mario Brothers, let's talk about Luigi. Sure. The Asian man who has a very thick Italian accent. And the entire time I'm like, okay, are they not going to even, you know, touch this, broach this? And then they do. And here you go. Those sound like excuses of a man who's not being honest with himself. I can't follow that. I'm not being honest with myself.

47:07Can you pause for a second? Luigi, again, is not Italian. And even the Italians in this movie speak with so much incidental actual Italian in their dialogue. They are peppering. Oh, you work the peppers. They are peppering all of their sentences with real Italian words, which doesn't make any sense. It just doesn't make it. I grew up in a family where people spoke Greek, and they never would just insert Greek words.

47:40Jason Mantzoukas:Nope, I'm the same way. But listen to what's going on here on the accent, the story. So we have this man, an Asian man, who has a very thick Italian accent, which you just heard a little bit of. and listen to this. Look, I'm not trying to be mean or nothing, all right? But have you looked at yourself in the mirror? Luigi, your real name is Li Xiaoping. You're Chinese, bro. When are you going to be honest with yourself that you're not even Italian?

48:10There's that accordion. You know, when I told my dad I was gay, he threw me out of the house. Will you still be my friend? Luigi. Come on. You think I wouldn't be your friend just because, what, you like guys? So what? No. Because I'm not Italian. Okay.

48:36Jason Mantzoukas:I mean, You're Chinese, bro! This reveal that Luigi is gay plays very late in the movie. Luigi is a side character that doesn't really even deserve this treatment. Very fun. Liked him in the movie a lot, but when he reveals he's gay, my jaw dropped. I was like, really? Because I was like, I was like, where is this? What is going on? I love that this is a double reveal. Because I up until this point assumed he was just an Italian man. You thought this was like Gene Simmons in that movie with, uh... I guess this guy's just Italian. What's up, sports fans? I'm Rachel Demita, here to tell you about my show courtside club.

49:18If you love hoops and hot takes, then you're in the right place. Want to hear about Caitlin Clark's unstoppable rise in the WNBA, how stars like Wemby and Luka Doncic are dominating the NBA, or maybe you just want the tea on this week's most viral sports moments. Don't worry. We'll keep you updated on all of it. So grab your popcorn and come hang with us courtside. You can listen to courtside club, wherever you get your podcasts. Uwe and ah.

50:12Or get the app. That's R-A-K-U-T-E-N.

50:15Jason Mantzoukas:Best thing that's ever happened to you financially. Go. Easy. Sold my car on Carvana. Amazing offer. Really? I hit 200 on a scratcher. Did the scratcher come to your house and hand you a check? No. How many scratchers did you hit to get that? I hit a button on Carvana.com once. Okay, that's fair. It's like the lottery, except you always win. Not like the lottery at all, actually. Exactly. Inexplicably good. Offers worth bragging about. Sell your car today on Carvana. Pickup fees may apply. Do we ever find out who they're talking to? I know this is a small point, but like narration always, I think.

50:53Jason Mantzoukas:All right, so it is to us. It wasn't like, it wasn't to Jane Seymour. I thought that maybe they may have told her the whole story when she showed up at the wedding. I also thought that Jane Seymour was at their new restaurant, did not realize it was a wedding, and did not realize that. It was a wedding? Oh, yeah, it was the wedding. Their wedding? Yeah, because they're dancing. No, not their wedding. It was their grandparents' wedding. Oh, okay. Wait, at Pizza Organica? Yes. Pizza Organica. At Pizza Organica at the end of the movie when Jane Seymour is there, that's a wedding? Yes. Oh, I didn't catch that.

51:20Jason Mantzoukas:You thought it was like the opening of a restaurant. That's what I assumed. And she's just, Jane Seymour is now a part of this wedding. Like she's crashed the wedding. So let me get this straight. You probably thought it was the opening of the restaurant because there's five million signs that say Organica. Pizza Organica. Because finally they are bringing organic ingredients to pizza. But if you are having a wedding, hosting a wedding for your grandparents to get married, do you need that much signage? Literally on every table there's a giant sign. Also, like, how long? They were still open for business.

51:50They were still open for delivery. Oh, so they had paying cut. Delivery, yeah. Delivery takeout. How long has it taken to get Pizza Organica up and running, right? So I think both dads must have sold their shops. Sure. And they took over that corner to make a bigger restaurant. I think they just knocked out the middle wall. Okay. Okay, yeah. But they handed their business over. They redid it. And then how long? I think they're up and running because the kitchens are still there. I mean, again, I'd love to talk to Marcus about this. But the kitchens are still there. They knock out a wall.

52:18Jason Mantzoukas:But it looks like they accept a new bar, a real nice new bar. That's right. I'm saying six months. Six months? But then. There's no employee training. So it takes six months to, like, build it out and get it ready and do all the work to get it. They've got a pizza organic neon sign outside. You're telling me. People in the community already know there's pizza there. Jane Seymour has arrived to beg Emma Roberts to come back and work for her because, I don't know what. But you're saying she's allowed six months to pass? Well, but she did say that the other chef she put in charge made - She did hire someone else.

52:54Jason Mantzoukas:She hired the other guy, and then he gave the critic a diarrhea. Oh, so much diarrhea in this movie. So much diarrhea in this movie. Which, by the way, I don't mind. But by the way, and I appreciate that about you, you really look kindly. You throw a kind out of the diarrhea. Here's what I want in a movie. I want a believable love story. I want colorful side characters. And then I want hot, wet dumps. Now, June, can I ask you a question? Because maybe I'm misremembering this. But at the end of the movie, right before the credits hit, I thought they were at Pizza Organica. They are having a wedding.

53:28Jason Mantzoukas:Jane Seymour is there. There's a dance. There's a lot going on. And then a man fully in Indian garb gets up and says, hey, everybody, get the fuck out of here. So that's a part of the gag reel. Yeah. Oh, that was the first clip from the gag reel. Oh, that's from the Indian restaurant. Wait, when did they go? That was from that like sensual curry restaurant or whatever the fuck that was. Remember when we talk about the reefer. Can I? Oh, we need to talk about the reefer. We need to talk about the police woman who like felt up. Everybody, every woman in this movie acts like Hayden Christensen is the single greatest looking man in history.

54:06And that's what's troubling. I do think that the hair and makeup department on this movie should be taken out into a field and shot.

54:15Jason Mantzoukas:A Canadian field? Yes, a giant Canadian field. A giant Canadian field. I do think halfway through the movie they started to spray tan him. Because they were looking at the dailies and were like, oh, something is very, very wrong here. but I have to leave June does have to leave June any final thoughts before you go no I mean I couldn't make heads or tails of it no listen we stopped the movie a number of times to just do things and we had a couple of errands to run so it was a real stop start experience this movie felt like five hours long it's an hour and 40 minutes and it just is long I stopped it at one point to be like well I must be near the end and I was 22 minutes that's when we stopped at two that 22 minute mark is those 22 minutes are hours long.

55:00Jason Mantzoukas:And then from 22 to 20, it feels so long because we stopped it twice. Still 20 minutes? Yep. Thank you, June. There are so many things, June, that I want to know your opinion on. Do you think the grandparents were having sex in the church up until they got caught? Is that like where they go to fuck? No, I feel like they were, yeah, they were very pure. Okay. How crazy, just because I want very quick June reactions off of these things. At the pizza contest, when they finish the contest, Emma Roberts pulls, like, he wins. She lets him win. She walks off stage. Her suitcase is there. There's a cab waiting.

55:41A yellow cab. A yellow cab waiting. When she gets to the airport, she's had a full wardrobe change. She's now in, like, a pink flouncy dress. Like, what's... Anyway, sorry. And what kind of traveling outfit was that? Yes. I may have a lot to say about her costumes, but I don't know. I have to save it for a mini.

56:00Jason Mantzoukas:June's got to run. She's a professional businesswoman. See you later, June. Goodbye, June. All this talk, though, makes me go like, there is no real reason, though, that you needed to say it was Canada. Right? I mean, there's nothing in this movie that's specifically Canadian. Like, they could have faked it for New York. I think they contractually had to for some reason. I guess Air Canada did give them a lot of money. Wait a minute. is this one of those Canadian is Hayden Christian Canadian? Christensen? It might be one of those like did the Canadian film board make this movie? Okay so like a Gooby-esque kind of thing.

56:36Like their money so they had to He is a Canadian actor and producer.

56:40Jason Mantzoukas:This is adding up. Yes alright alright. And then I think the writer might also be Oh wow this is a real Now we're getting into it. By the way I'm So, yeah, they really have to make a big deal out of it. I bet that's why it's so specifically Canadian. Oh, and the writer is also Canadian. I see. Vinay Vermani. Okay, so this is, okay. All right. So, I think they had to. I think that was, I bet that is part of it. Financed by the Canadian government. Yes, basically, because they have, the Canadian government has a, like a film board that basically finances movies to be shot in Canada that have a certain amount of Canadian performers in them, all the rest.

57:23We can, I'm sure, talk to our, I'm sure a lot of Canadian people are going to weigh in on all of this on the message board.

57:28Jason Mantzoukas:We need to get into it deeply. There was one, or I'd say two really funny performances. I love the mortuary guy. Sure. He was very funny. Comes in straight up grabbing his dick. And sniffing a heel. Yep. Great. Ooh, look at that big toe. Another performance I really liked was the female police officer who's kind of accosting Hayden Christensen.

58:14pockets that might be sharp or hard or pokey in any way. But that was from a different movie. That was from a different movie. Because she wasn't high. No, she wasn't high. She hadn't eaten the pizza. Oh, so at one point the prank war during the prank war between the now the former best friend's competitive pizza owner dads one of the dads replaces the other one.

58:39Jason Mantzoukas:Oregano. The other one's oregano with weed. And by the way, when you see the cut to that weed That's a lot of weed. That's like thousands of dollars worth of weed. And so that guy had to go buy that on the legal market and then grind. Like the amount of time you're grinding it. Probably, you know, he probably mixed it in with oregano just so it wasn't totally. Okay. Like I bet it's a subtle. But then they feed weed to all of their patrons. But the patrons are then acting as if the weed is like ecstasy or peyote. I mean, I was like, oh, is it mushrooms? They put magic. Because, look, Jason, I've never smoked weed.

59:14Jason Mantzoukas:I know you have never smoked weed. I don't believe in it. And so the idea that you would see these people reacting, I would say this is the most truthful performance of weed. Like an old woman is atop one of the tables dancing erotically. Like weed doesn't make you like horny and want to dance on tables. I don't think, again, I've never tried it. And I've never tried it either. I just watch movies to let me see how people would react to it. But there's so many issues with that. But also, they're packed. We need Seth Rogen on this podcast. My goodness gracious. It was like that was itself. But I didn't mind.

59:52See, that was the stuff that I was like, I don't mind prank wars between. I love it. Like if the story had been more about the rival pizza. And I liked stuff like I liked that the wives of the warring best friends were still friends and would have secret. but they had like glasses of red wine in the planters. But it was a poured red wine. Not like they don't keep a bottle in there. No, they have pre-poured glasses of red wine hidden outside in planters. And they put it back in. Then they put it back in as if like, well, I'll come back later and have this plant wine.

1:00:27Jason Mantzoukas:Oh, did you remember that scene where Luigi goes, he calls him bad Rocky or some of that? Or no, no, he says like, now you have to be Rocky. Yes. But they referenced it earlier too because they play a Rocky theme, but they clearly couldn't afford the Rocky. Oh, I didn't notice that. Oh, it's an amazing theme here. Take a listen. Andiamo to the field! Nicky versus Leo. The rematch is going to get messy, people. Yay, it's enough. Okay. Nicky blocks a shot. Leo does a shot. Hey! Leo scores. Nicky does a shot. Hey! It's just like one beat off. It's just off. There is so many weird, all of the, how about this?

1:01:16How about when the flight attendant scene happens, Emma Roberts shows up at Hayden Christensen's house to play soccer, right? Ding dong, she rings the bell. Cab pulls up, flight attendant comes out, ding dong, she rings the same bell. Uh-oh, two girls here to see the same guy. Great. The guy comes down. Hayden Christensen's like oh Lisa oh my god hey good to see you to the flight attendant and he's like all right go on inside yeah and then so he so the blonde goes upstairs into his apartment for

1:01:47Jason Mantzoukas:like future bonzo yeah get ready get ready for me and now Nikki is like Emma Roberts rather is like okay so I guess I'll see you later and he's like no um how about dinner tomorrow night and my place right here where I'm gonna fuck this girl tonight you come tomorrow night and I'll make you food I'll make you food tomorrow night tonight not good because you just saw that girl go up there i'm gonna fuck that girl he's a ladies man tomorrow oh i gotta remember to wash my sheets but okay anyway tomorrow you come over and she's like yeah okay i'll come over i was like what the fuck is going on this is i mean she shouldn't be with him she should go i was rooting for her to go back to london and there's a point yes go back to london go back to london be a chef you are killing it over there.

1:02:34Jason Mantzoukas:And there's a moment where she says, like, you're never going to leave. She never asks him to leave. He never says he can't leave. If Marcus Limonis was giving these people advice, he would say to her, go to London. Go to London, and if you want to come back later, having learned everything you need to learn, come back later. He could say to her, look, the pizza market in Canada is not strong enough for you to give up your career from a very high-priced Culinary Institute. I'm Marcus Limonis, and I'm pulling up to what the hell is this? Wait, where am I? Did I pass through a portal back in time?

1:03:12Am I in Italy? No, Marcus, you're in Little Italy. I would love... If they stopped him from driving his new car, they're like, no, no, we have to give you a car from the 70s to drive into Little Italy.

1:03:22Jason Mantzoukas:I would love that they would have made a full crossover promotion, like the profit goes to Little Italy. And it's all like, they have to all be their characters. There's no one psyched. It's like the Star Wars holiday special, but with Marcus LaMona. And he's like, what happened? You guys, wait a minute. So you're telling me the guy next door used to be your best friend? So I went across the street and I talked to Vinny. Now, what they don't realize is he's got the sauce, but he's got the crust. And together, they make a great pizza. Now, they can't let their personal problems get in the way of what I'm not kidding is the best pizza I've ever tasted.

1:03:57Jason Mantzoukas:Now, I'm going to go to my lighting guy. You remember him from season one. He's going to put new light fixtures in, make displays look really shining. Remember when I met with those people that make plastic units for displaying things? What a great way to sell merch. Now, you know when we reconfigured those small RVs to be portable homes? We're going to make that into a food truck. How about Little Italy Tiny Homes? How about Tiny Homes Italy? By the way, instead of an app, they should have done a food truck. Yes. Like, why not? I mean, obviously do a food truck. The movie came out last year. Last year.

1:04:31Jason Mantzoukas:Jason, do you want to know what the tagline for this movie was? Three generations, two families, one forbidden love. Ooh. But it's wrong. It's not. Because it's three generations, two families, two forbidden loves. Correct. I don't want to give short shrift to Danny Aiello and Andrea Martin, who actually I really enjoyed in this movie. Oh, I thought their stuff was the most, had the most actual chemistry. Yeah. Like they had, their scenes together were both funny and like very sweetly romantic in a way that the movie, this is a romantic comedy, but the two leads don't have any chemistry or any palpable kind of energy between them.

1:05:15Jason Mantzoukas:No, I mean, look, I just, to use the terms of the film, I felt that their chemistry was Vente. Yeah. And I felt like Hayden Christensen and Emma Roberts was tall. Oh, interesting. Grande? Grande, yeah. Or Trente? Or, I don't know, like whatever the... Oh, no, no, I'm sorry, you're going the opposite way. I'm sorry, I thought you were... No, Vente and tall, that's what I kind of see. I mean, did... And my other question is, did Starbucks pay to get in on this? They had to have. They can't have that much Starbucks. Exterior Starbucks, interior Starbucks, Starbucks cups, so many Starbucks scenes.

1:05:52And it's only they only discover so interesting. They only discover Starbucks when they are discovered flirting in the confessional. And the priest kicks them out. And then they discover Starbucks.

1:06:05Jason Mantzoukas:By the way, this is like, you know, when George Lucas and Steven Spielberg got together to make Raiders, you know, it's like, oh, these two great guys together. And that's how I kind of feel about this movie. Air Canada and Starbucks coming together to make a move. To make great content. Two of our greatest content providers. Well, Jason, obviously we had some strong opinions about this movie. There are people out there with another opinion. It is now time for Second Opinions.

1:06:51I need a second opinion.

1:06:56Jason Mantzoukas:That is John Lajoie with his second opinion theme, which I love so much. So good. Jason, these are five-star reviews called from Amazon. As of today, which is Halloween, there are only 42 reviews total for the film. 55 % five stars. And so I don't have many to read, but I have these two. This is from Sean Amidon. and it was written just a couple of days ago. My wife really enjoyed this movie. I, however, thought it was okay. But since my wife is always right, I give it a 10 out of 10. Five stars. Great. So that was the first one. This one was written by Marilyn Campbell. As an actual culinary arts grad, I truly appreciated the aspects that almost every food-related show completely ignores.

1:07:47Jason Mantzoukas:And while some of it comes off as a joke, it makes it way more realistic and delicious yum ew first of all there isn't that much food talk in this movie very little in fact i mean basically she just says that pears cut down the acidity of cheese figs the figs yeah and and i guess smushing the tomato like um but don't do it like a man i mean not much yeah very little she continues to go the competitions the family feuds the families loving each other through the feuds, the multi-generational connections, because that is family. I love all of the fantastic quotes. Are there fantastic quotes in this movie?

1:08:29Jason Mantzoukas:Yeah, I would love to know what those are. And I want to remember them all. I can barely remember a line from this film. I'm just so glad I decided to rent this. A new favorite. Great job. All around five stars. That's all I got. That's all I got. That's tough stuff. It is. And so, like I said, this movie came out September 21st. It's 102 minutes. It's rated R. For what? No, I mean cursing? I guess cursing, but there really isn't even much cursing. Just that kind of awkward ass shot of that one guy. Of Luigi. You see Luigi's butt, but like Emma Roberts is in a bra at one point, but that's. But a very tasteful.

1:09:10Like totally, not very, and it's not very sexually, nothing very sexually. There's just some kissing.

1:09:17Jason Mantzoukas:Do you think it's because they squeeze those tomatoes so hard? Yeah, probably. Opening weekend was - Is it a Canadian R or an American R? Canadian R is when they stay out after 6 o 'clock. Oh, well, this movie has them out at night. They're out at dark, you know, so this is an R-rated movie. We don't want kids to see this. We actually should have had Seth on this episode. He could have answered a lot of our questions about Canada. Guys, Canada, we'd love to come and do live shows in your country so we can understand what the fuck you guys are up to. We really needed an audience. How did this get made in Little Italy, Canada?

1:09:53Set it up, dummies. Oh, my God.

1:09:56Jason Mantzoukas:So the budget, the opening weekend it made about— I would redo this movie in Little Italy, Canada. I'm typing it in right now. Little Italy, Canada. I think it's probably Toronto. All right, Little Italy, Canada. I mean, I bet a bunch of cities have Little Italys. Right. Well, Toronto, yeah. Sometimes referred to as College Street West. It's a district in Toronto that's known for its Italian-Canadian restaurants and businesses. I'm looking at it. You know, they got a little movie theater there. By the way, it does not look like the place where they shot this thing here. And there's a statue of Johnny Lombardi on the street who launched Canada's first multicultural radio station from Little Italy.

1:10:38Jason Mantzoukas:Oh, nice. And, oh, look at this. Movies filmed nearby. Nearby. Yeah. Police Academy. Scott Pilgrim versus the World. The Long Kiss Goodnight. The TV series Beauty and the Beast. And Little Italy? Near Canadian Little Italy. But not this movie, Little Italy. No. It's not listed. No, no. Interesting. Italians arrived in Toronto in large numbers during the 20th century, and they settled in the area known as the Ward. By the 1920s, most Italians had moved west, and the city emerged as Little Italy. Greece, very similar. Lots of Greeks in Toronto, lots of Greeks immigrated to Toronto. It's like one of the largest Greek cities in the world is Toronto.

1:11:25Really? Oh, I did not know that.

1:11:27Jason Mantzoukas:And one of the big tourist attractions there is the Italian Walk of Fame, which has noteworthy Italian Canadians. Interesting. which I'm now just going to go there and just find out who those are. And I don't see any ones that you would immediately rate. That's a boy. Okay. So the movie made$200 ,000 on the opening weekend. No one knows what the budget is. It's already up to about a million, but not yet at a million. The movie came in number 241 of all the movies released in the last 365 days. The top three of this year, Black Panther, Avengers, Infinity War, Star Wars, The Last Jedi. It was beaten by the Meg and it beat nothing.

1:12:14Jason Mantzoukas:So there you go, people. This is Little Italy. Jason, any final thoughts? This is some pretty wild stuff. I would watch it just because of how much of a parody of one of these movies it seems like. Yeah. You know, it's like the way the movie starts especially, I wouldn't watch this movie, but I would maybe watch the first half hour just to see how they're aping all of those old school like, you know, that's back when you can ride your bikes all around town. This is our little Italy. I do think it's a movie that's good to ride fast forward because when you see something interesting, if you stop it, it probably is worth it.

1:12:53Jason Mantzoukas:Something interesting might be happening. But it's not worth it to fully watch. Even an hour and 40 minutes? No, it's rough. It's rough. But there is some very fun, funny stuff. Some good performances by a lot of the supporting people. Enjoy the movie, stay for the blooper reel, which I'm always a fan of. I can't believe the guy that did Mystic Pizza made this movie. Yeah. I mean, it's a real. I mean, clearly that was the connection that they wanted. I mean, Emma Roberts, too. It's like, this is the new Mystic Pizza. This is the new. I mean, is it the new Mystic Pizza? I don't know. If it is, who's Annabeth Gish?

1:13:24Right. I mean, the girl with the diarrhea kid, I think.

1:13:30Jason Mantzoukas:All right, people. Jason, your movie right now is out. Yes, The Long Dumb Road. It is out now in Los Angeles, in New York, in Austin, I believe. It's also available on VOD. And it is on VOD. Go to iTunes right now. It's called The Long Dumb Road. It is a movie that I am, like, me and Tony Revallori are the stars of this movie. From Spider-Man, Homecoming, and Grand Budapest Hotel. Exactly. If you like me, if you think I'm funny on this show, on other shows, please go and rent or buy this movie. It would mean so much to me. That would be amazing. I need people to see this movie. And also, it's genuinely very funny.

1:14:09Jason Mantzoukas:It's a great movie directed by Hannah Fidel. Check it out. And that is all for this week. I want to give a big shout out and thank you to Averill Halley for pulling all these amazing clips. Nick Kiley for doing all this research. Cody for doing all the producing side. Kelly Alto and Devin in the booth. Bye-bye. Thank you so much for listening to Little Italy. Reminder that Elle is on Prime right now. That's right. June Diane Rayfield stars as Elle Woods' mom, Eva, and the hit Amazon comedy, Elle. Check it out if you've not watched it yet. It is a great family show. It is a great just regular person show.

1:14:48Jason Mantzoukas:It's a show where my childhood is nostalgia, which is kind of fun and also kind of scary. You can make sure that you can get tickets to June and Mai's brand new Amazon multicam sitcom created by Marta Kaufman by going to howdidthisgetmadehdtgm.com or my webpage where we will have links for you to get tickets. If they're not up yet, don't worry, they will be. And like I always say to you every week, make sure you are subscribed to our feed and have automatic downloads turned on in the show settings. It helps us. And we also just simply appreciate it a lot. We'll see you next week. Bye for now. What's up, sports fans?

1:15:32I'm Rachel Demita, here to tell you about my show, Courtside Club. If you love hoops and hot takes, then you're in the right place. Want to hear about Caitlin Clark's unstoppable rise in the WNBA? How stars like Wemby and Luka Doncic are dominating the NBA? or maybe you just want the tea on this week's most viral sports moments. Don't worry. We'll keep you updated on all of it. So grab your popcorn and come hang with us. Courtside. You can listen to Courtside Club wherever you get your podcasts. Ooh, we and ah. Hi, I'm Angie Hicks, co-founder of Angie. When you use Angie for your home projects, you know all your jobs will be done well.

1:16:10Roof repair? Done well. Kitchen sink install? Done well. Deck upgrades? Done well. Electrical upgrade? Done well. Angie's been connecting homeowners with skilled pros for nearly 30 years, so we know the difference between done and done well. Angie, the one you trust to find the ones you trust. Find a pro for your project at Angie.com.