Jason & Paul give their thoughts on Lanterns, Jason Statham's Mutiny, Coyote vs. ACME, and a bunch of other movies, TV shows, albums, and comic books they're currently loving. But first, Paul responds to all your corrections & omissions on last week's Jack episode! We learn about Francis Ford Coppola's original cut of the movie, why Jennifer Lopez's character was a horrible teacher, how the movie shares themes with Drop Dead Fred, and a whole lot more. Plus, as always, at the end of the show Paul announces next week's new movie! PAUL & JASON'S RECS: Sterling Point Mutiny Coyote vs. ACME Lanterns Six of Us by Tom King Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow by Tom King Marble Hall Murders The Witch Obsession Avatar Aang: The Last Airbender Maddie’s Secret Gail Daughtry and the Celebrity Sex Pass Motor City Earth, Wind & Fire (To Be Celestial vs That's the Weight of the World) Batman: Caped Crusader Witch Hat Atelier Bocchi the Rock! The Newsreader Inferno by Boards of Canada Whack's Museum by Tierra Whack Go to the Woods by Wolves of Glendale Marrow Deep by Mastodon
Jason & Paul give their thoughts on Lanterns, Jason Statham's Mutiny, Coyote vs. ACME, and a bunch of other movies, TV shows, albums, and comic books they're currently loving. But first, Paul responds to all your corrections & omissions on last week's Jack episode! We learn about Francis Ford Coppola's original cut of the movie, why Jennifer Lopez's character was a horrible teacher, how the movie shares themes with Drop Dead Fred, and a whole lot more. Plus, as always, at the end of the show Paul announces next week's new movie!
PAUL & JASON'S RECS:
Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow by Tom King
Avatar Aang: The Last Airbender
Gail Daughtry and the Celebrity Sex Pass
Earth, Wind & Fire (To Be Celestial vs That's the Weight of the World)
Whack's Museum by Tierra Whack
Go to the Woods by Wolves of Glendale
[00:00:00] Paul Scheer: Doing it just for the dollar bills. What Jennifer Lopez got right and wrong, and the Francis Ford Coppola cut. All this and more as we prepare to release the carrots. That's right, this is from the Carrot Board. It's now time for Last Looks. Hit the theme.
[00:00:26] Music: [Intro Song]
[00:00:26] Paul Scheer: Hello, all you 10-year-olds dreaming of a career in gynecology. I'm your host, Paul Scheer, and welcome to How Did This Get Made Last Looks, where you, the listener, get to voice your issues on Robin Williams' Jack, a movie that Discord user Arkham Player thinks could have been called The 40-Year-Old Virgin.
[00:00:44] Ooh, I like that. I like that a lot, and that would've come out first. So then, uh, 40-Year-Old Virgin, the one with Steve Carell, they would've had to call that one Jack. Is that how that works? I'm not sure.
[00:00:56] Anyway, Discord user Ghost Bag thinks that Jack might have had better luck at the box office with a different tagline, and he or she suggests, "A dumming of age story."
[00:01:09] Ooh, I like that a lot. "A dumming of age story." People, start using that on Letterboxd. Um, thank you for that alt movie tagline and that title, and I cannot forget to give a huge shout-out to Quinn for today's opening theme song. You all are killing it. Thank you for tuning in every week. Thank you for submitting your songs at HDTGM.com and also submitting all your queries, uh, everything about these movies that confound you that we didn't discuss on our Discord at Discord.gg/HDTGM.
[00:01:39] Now, coming up on today's episode, we are definitely gonna get into all of your corrections and omissions, of course. We're gonna talk about Jack for longer than Jack needs to be talked about, and then Jason is gonna pop in with me to chat about everything that we have been loving lately. It's been a while.
[00:01:55] Jason and I have been working a lot, so we have not gotten a chance to talk movies, TV shows, music, comic books. We're gonna do it all. We have a lot. And as always, at the end of the show, I am going to reveal the movie that we will be covering on next week's episode. Now, heads up, if you are in Los Angeles or planning to come to Los Angeles in October, I would like to invite you to come see June Diane Raphael and myself, as well as John Gabrus.
[00:02:19] You know him from Action Boys. He's also a How Did This Get Made all-star. As we tape our brand-new improvised multi-cam sitcom, it is called D.I.N.K.S., Dual Income, No Kids. Each episode uses the audience's, uh, feedback and suggestions to, uh, help us make our episode. Every episode is different, and we want you to be in that audience 'cause we want cool people in the audience, not those people that they just kinda shove into TV tapings.
[00:02:48] We want the best of the best, and it's totally free. Uh, the shows are on October 2nd, 7th, 10th, 16th, 21st, and 24th. That's right, we are shooting six episodes in less than a month, and it's gonna be wild, and every episode's completely different. Come for one, come for two, come for all six. You know, what, what do you got?
[00:03:06] What do you got to lose? Uh, you get a, a free meal out of it. Anyway, uh, if you would like to come... Check it out in Burbank. You can RSVP with your preferred dates by emailing us at dinksrvp@gmail.com, dinksrvp@gmail.com. And if you forget this or you don't wanna write that down, just go to the How Did This Get Made website or my website, and, uh, the link is right there.
[00:03:29] Um, also, if you've not signed up for our How Did This Get Made Mini League in the Vulture Movie Fantasy League, uh, what are you doing? Uh, the Mini League is amazing. It's like fantasy sports, but with movies. I come into this so excited every year, and I just get my ass handed to me, but let's see if you can do better than me.
[00:03:48] Just go to vulture.com/HDTGM or just click on the link in this episode's show notes. That's how easy it is. All right, that is enough housekeeping. That's what they call it in the biz, people. That's some housekeeping. Uh, so let's get into it. Uh, last week we talked at length about Jack. We had questions. You know what?
[00:04:06] I should say last week we talked at length about Francis Ford Coppola's Jack. Yeah, don't forget, Francis Ford Coppola's Jack starring Robin Williams. We had questions, and we might have even missed a few things. Here is your chance to set us straight. It is now time for corrections and omissions.
[00:04:29] Music: [Corrections and Omissions Song]
[00:04:42] Paul Scheer: Thank you, my good friends, Bombay Beach Revival. You all are the best. I love every time you submit a song and we get to play it. Let's start off with Jay from Ontario.
[00:04:55] Listener: Hey, Paul, June, and Jason. I'm a teacher librarian for a kindergarten to grade five school, and I think Jennifer Lopez should be fired for being such a horrible teacher.
[00:05:05] I know you talked about the scene where she rejects his invitation as being problematic, but she's completely incompetent from the moment we meet her. The school was notified that Jack was coming, and she did not even talk to her class beforehand. She could have explained his condition and discussed how we treat people that are different from us.
[00:05:23] Instead, the kids were unprepared. Worse, she didn't discuss it once he was there either. Also, she had no proper desk ready for him, knowing that he's much larger than her students. Then during recess, she doesn't make sure that he has a friend to play with like a good teacher would do for any new student, and she only chases those girls away when they pick on Jack.
[00:05:47] She doesn't really talk to them. Even during the basketball game, she sides with a team and doesn't step in when the game gets physical. He's a 180-pound man. That's just an injury waiting to happen. Anyway, love your podcast, love your book, and can't wait for you to come back to Canada. We'll let you guys in.
[00:06:07] Paul Scheer: All right. Can I just say I don't wanna pick favorites, but Jay, you came in, you delivered this call in an A-plus fashion. You are 100% right. J.Lo is a terrible teacher, and you know what? I had a note written down, and I didn't get to it, but the only thing that she does to ingratiate Jack to the class is have him talk about how he hates broccoli, and she's like,
[00:06:31] "Okay, great. They have commonality, and now no problems." E- everything else you brought up I don't need to echo because you did it so well, but yes, you are 100% correct. Uh, I love it. Thank you for calling out this teacher who's supposed to be our link, our, our, our piece of humanity here. And you know what? She's bad at her job.
[00:06:53] Jack isn't special, and neither is J.Lo the teacher. J.Lo the performer, very special. We love J.Lo. Um, all right, next one up here, this is, uh, ooh, from Texas. What do we got?
[00:07:04] Listener: Hey, guys. Uh, this is, uh, Stevon. So back when I was in college around 2006, 2007-ish, Francis Ford Coppola actually did a Q&A at my school, and I mostly remember him talking about his vineyard and his, at the time, passion project Megalopolis.
[00:07:19] But relevant to the podcast, at some point, I'll never forget it, this kid gets up to ask a question. I don't wanna say he was nervous, but he was certainly worked up. He was shaking, very excited to ask his question. He was clearly there for a reason, and that reason was to call Francis Ford Coppola out regarding his film Jack.
[00:07:35] So he starts talking about a disease called progeria. I'm sure you've heard about it. It's very tragic. It makes children age rapidly. Uh, but he starts going on this rant about progeria and how Jack was uh, not an accurate, uh, depiction of the disease, and he's very, like, angry. It gets very awkward.
[00:07:56] Everyone in the room is kinda whispering like, "What is this guy doing?" And to his credit, Francis Ford Coppola was just like, "Look, clearly we weren't trying to do an accurate depiction of any disease." I think they even mention in the film that it's, like, a fictional whatever made up, uh, sickness that Robin Williams's character has.
[00:08:12] Uh, but he was basically like, "Look, Jack, Dracula, all those movies I did during that period, I did it for the paycheck. I was in severe debt," debt that, of course, he was pulled out of due to his vineyard and his Coppola wine, and he lived happily ever after. But, uh, yeah, uh, I'll never forget that. Love you guys.
[00:08:30] Paul Scheer: Okay. First of all, um I, I would say that this is a great story, and I love it all. Um, I wanna side with, uh, FCC over here because I don't think he was ever trying to portray progeria. I think the people put that on the movie because they're idiots. Like, nothing will make you age four times. I think that's the comic, like, stylings of this movie is like, oh, yeah, it has similarities to progeria, but it's not progeria.
[00:09:00] It's like, uh, and I guess apparently a lot of people have been sending us messages explaining that progeria is nothing like what the movie depicts. I think that we were talking in the episode about progeria because it's like, well, that's the most similar thing that we could compare it to. But I don't think this movie was trying to do any sort of a, a faithful adaptation.
[00:09:18] As a matter of fact, um, it was like a stand-in for him. But we talked about this in the episode about him being, uh, Francis Ford Coppola being him, lonely when he had his disease when he was growing up, when he had polio, and also, and more sadly, and this is the thing I didn't wanna bring up in the episode, but I'll bring it up here because we can go deeper with each other.
[00:09:36] It was also about, um, Francis Ford Coppola losing his son very early in life, and there's a lot of emotional stuff that was not necessarily ripe for us to be picking at at comedy. So, uh, I would say shame on that guy in the audience for, like, thinking he was gonna zing Francis Ford Coppola, especially when he had a million more questions he could have asked, and I don't think that Francis Ford Coppola ever even mentions it as far as, uh, the doctor in the movie even says, "I've never seen anything like Jack's specific condition."
[00:10:07] And he name-checks progeria as a different devastating aging syndrome. So anyway, fuck that guy, but don't fuck you, Stevon. Uh, you were great. Um, I don't like this reason that Coppola said he can't answer for these movies 'cause he was in debt. Like, you can only say you don't answer for films if you were, like, on a cocaine bender.
[00:10:28] Like, being in debt doesn't mean that you can't make a good movie. Like, he could have made the best movies ever when he was in debt, right? Like, it's, it's like saying, like, poor people can't make good movies. Well, let me tell you, a lot of people that started off these indie movies, they're coming out with hits.
[00:10:42] Uh, low budget, no budget, whatever you wanna do. Um, all I would say is this: uh, Francis Ford Coppola, I think, lost a little bit of his touch. He may have been saying yes. He may have been rushing things into production. Those are reasons, but you can't just say, like, "Oh, chalk it up to me being in debt. I just didn't ha- I didn't believe in these movies."
[00:11:02] I mean, don't you all-- Sorry, now I'm getting off on a rant. Don't you just believe that No matter w- what the thing is, you have to commit to it, right? I mean, if you're doing it, you should commit. Um, I don't know. I find that to be a cop-out. There's a book I read where somebody kinda copped out on the movies that they made.
[00:11:19] I'm like, "You can't. You made 'em." It could've been received poorly. You could add a million different things, but you can't just basically be like, "Nah, I'm gonna take a mulligan on that one." It's weird. I, it's a g- sure, cash grab, whatever, but I also think Dracula was kinda fun and crazy. Um, this had none of that.
[00:11:34] Um, Clancy from Ontario, what do we got?
[00:11:37] Listener: Hi, guys. I just finished listening to the Jack episode, and I wanted to continue on this idea of childhood nostalgia that you are all discussing, um, particularly the association with Robin Williams and childhood. Through the '90s, Robin Williams was constantly paired with a cast that was predominantly children.
[00:11:55] It started in the late '80s with the Dead Poets Society. They were teenagers, but still children. Then there was Hook. Talk about not wanting to grow up. Uh, you mentioned Mrs. Doubtfire in the episode, where the most memorable scenes of that movie are those with his children, and even Jumanji, where it's mostly him paired up with the kids.
[00:12:14] So what was up with that? Did studios just not really know what to do with Robin Williams' energy? Did adult actors not know how to handle his spontaneous stream-of-thought improvisational style? Um, just curious on your thoughts on that. Saw you guys in Toronto last year for the Oscar show and had a blast.
[00:12:35] Thanks, guys. Bye.
[00:12:37] Paul Scheer: This is an interesting question. I, I think that Robin Williams, to me, was... I mean, I'm, I'm a kid growing up watching these movies, and I wanna hang out with Robin Williams. He seems to me the, the funniest person in the world. I, I got to see Robin Williams as I, o- as I was older, and it still was, like, amazing.
[00:12:57] Like, there was something so special about him that I feel like by putting him with kids, you bridge this gap of somebody who was known to be pretty dirty, um, in his act. I mean, not, not by today's standards, of course, but you know, and you kind of brought... It's like a four-quadrant movie. You ever heard that term, where you can bring in everybody because everyone loves Robin Williams?
[00:13:19] Like, he was like an animated character. But I would say the movies that you referenced, like Dead Poets Society, Hook, Mrs. Doubtfire, Jumanji, all very, very different. I mean, Dead Poets Society is, like, a drama. We talked about this on Unspooled. Uh, you know, like a very, a beautiful drama that's very different than Hook, which is like a Spielberg.
[00:13:37] I mean, a misfire, yes, but also, like, a weird, interesting one, and then Mrs. Doubtfire is like, that's, you know, like he's working with kids a lot, but I think it was this man who was caught between adulthood and childhood too. Wow. We went deep. We're going deep today. Uh, all right, we're gonna take a quick break, but when we come back, we will have more corrections and omissions coming your way, including some info on Francis Ford Coppola's first cut of the film.
[00:14:02] So stick around.
[00:14:04] Welcome back, my jackheads. Uh, it's time for more of your thoughts on Robin Williams' Jack. And now it is the Discord's turn to chime in. Now, Brian Leach wrote,
[00:14:14] "Did anyone find it weird that Fran Drescher is at the graduation smiling and clapping at Jack's speech, knowing full well that she made out with him when he was 10? I mean, sure, she didn't know at the time that he was 10, but she must have figured out who Mr. Powell was at some point during Jack and Louis' seven-year friendship."
[00:14:35] Well, okay, first of all, Fran is there because her son is graduating, so it's not weird that she's smiling. And I think that, look, he's a kid who had a, a moment, an inappropriate moment seven years ago with this woman, and I feel like her heart has gone out to him.
[00:14:53] What do you want her to be like, "Nah, fuck this guy. He's gonna die anyway. Fuck him. He kissed me. I kissed him." I don't think she has guilt on it. It, it, it's a funny story. It's a dinner table story. She's dining out on that story. Fran Drescher's character is dining out on that story every goddamn night.
[00:15:07] She's like, "Oh my gosh, I kissed a guy, and I thought he was really cute, and I found out he was 10." People go, "Oh my God!" You know, anyway.
[00:15:14] Unchen Andalusia writes,
[00:15:19] "I think the reason why they gave him silly red glittery shoes at graduation and held on them for such a long shot is because they were trying to bookend the movie with Wizard of Oz references. The movie opens with his mom and dad at the party in Wizard of Oz costumes. Then the movie does nothing with it. Then the red shoes show up like they just remembered they wanted to connect Jack's journey to The Wizard of Oz."
[00:15:43] Well, Unchen, um, I, I would say I don't see even the connection to Wizard of Oz. I, I... They look more like clown shoes to me, but okay. Let's go with the idea that it's a Wizard of Oz story. I don't think it is. I don't see any parallels to The Wizard of Oz, um, at all. But The way that we've now heard that Francis Ford Coppola approached these films, uh, the fact that we saw a banner that said seven years, there's a lot here that I would say that, yeah, that might have been an idea that somebody just said, like, "Wouldn't it be great if he also was dressed like the Wizard of Oz?"
[00:16:18] And then they drank a big glass of wine, and everyone's like, "Yes, let's do it." Anyway, Unchen, you're not wrong because Kat also chimes in to add that when Jack and his mom are playing flashlight tag, she also does the Wicked Witch hand to shadow the wall. All right, so another, uh, I mean, ag- like, these are, these are very hidden Wizard of Oz references.
[00:16:39] And, and I gotta tell you, you wanna see Wizard of Oz, uh, movie, see Gale Dautry in the celebrity sex tape. Um, that is, that is a Wizard of Oz tale. I don't, I don't find this one-- I don't get it if it is. I don't get... He's not off to see the Wizard. He's not learning anything. He's not waking up and realizing that he's just a kid anymore.
[00:16:58] There's not, there's not that much there at all. Correct me if I'm wrong in another episode, but I, I don't see it. I see the references. I don't see the connection. Dr. Guts 1003 gives us a little picture, and I'm so glad, um, because, uh, Dr. Guts writes,
[00:17:15] "Unless I missed it, I am stunned that there was no mention of the dad photographing sexy women in a promotional campaign for the carrot board. That was wild and another scene that could have led to something interesting happening, but the film chose not to explore it."
[00:17:31] Now, uh, the picture that, uh, Dr. Guts puts up is the dad on the phone, and there are three, um, I would say breast-forward women. Uh, they're in, like, tank tops and, uh, short shorts, and they seem to be on some sort of, like, giant carrot that's like, um, like a, like a bucking bronco that you might see at, like, one of those, like, bull riding bars.
[00:17:54] Um, I don't know what the fuck this is, but you know what? Sex sells. And this, I imagine, again, is like a Francis Ford Coppola, like, "Yeah, let's do it like that." Drink a glass of wine, and then all of a sudden they're on set. And I agree with you. Wouldn't it have been fun if Jack was there and that's how he learned about sex 'cause his dad is making-- Maybe his dad isn't even working for the carrot board.
[00:18:14] I don't think there even is a carrot board. His dad is making porn. Wow. And he didn't share it And that's okay. No judgment on that. No judgment. But that's a hidden part of the movie.
[00:18:28] Uh, Firebird writes,
[00:18:29] "I found a IndieWire article on writer James DeMonaco, who later became known for creating The Purge movies, where he mentions some interesting tidbits on Jack. Uh, #releasethecopacut. Here is a snippet from the article. DeMonaco wrote the original script with his friend Gary, and I'm not gonna pronounce everybody's last name, so I'm just gonna say DeMonaco and Gary. And they were intending Gary to direct, but when DeMonaco, uh, and Gary sold the script, the studio found out that they could get Robin Williams to star. And so they were very excited until within weeks, the studio fired Gary. Okay? Now, Robin had this list of directors, and DeMonaco thinks he was kind of playing a political game, you know, trying to get the most out of it that he could because the directors that Robin wanted were Martin Scorsese, Barry Levinson, Francis Coppola and Brian De Palma. And I'm like, "This is nuts." And DeMonaco just assumed those directors would pass, and then Gary would be rehired. But this is what happens when one of those directors is deeply in debt. Coppola says yes. Now I'm adding the deeply in debt there. Uh, the end result didn't fully please DeMonaco or Coppola, uh, as the regime change at the studio led to a lot of tinkering with tone, which left Jack feeling awkward and clumsy despite a handful of deeply felt moments. I mean, "Francis had a cut that was much better than what the public saw," DeMonaco said. "It was a very melancholy film, but then Mike Ovitz took over the studio, and he didn't like what Francis was trying to do, and the more morbid scenes were excised, and Francis Ford Coppola had to take notes from the studio at that point."
[00:20:02] Wow, okay. So yes, #releasethecopacut. I gotta tell you people I'm having an experience right now where I'm working on something, and I can't be more specific than that. It's not Dink's, uh, which you should come see a live taping of. Um, and I have watched this movie get better, get worse, get better, get worse, get better, get worse.
[00:20:26] And, and I have seen it err on the side of worse more than better. Now, I am uniquely removed from this. It won't affect me how this movie comes out, so I can, like, leave my ego at the door. But it is an infuriating process to see something unequivocally better and then see it get changed yet again. Um, there's a thing that Paul Schneider said, yep, referencing Paul Schneider from Parks and Recreation season two, where, uh, he looked at a picture and it was a bunch of, uh, different images from everybody in the office at Parks and Rec, and he said, um, "That's a good old-fashioned camel."
[00:21:09] And they go, "What do you mean a camel?" He goes, "A camel is, uh, when a, a bunch of artists try to draw a horse from memory. That's a camel." And I feel like, A, I might be misquoting that, but you get the gist. And then and B, that's what happens on these studio movies. I, I have had so much-- I mean, I understand this business to a certain extent.
[00:21:31] This is the first time, though, where I've actively seen How... I mean, it gives me pause because like, wow, I know there's a better version of it here, but we're not gonna ever let anybody see that? Now, you also have on the other side of that, you know, Stanley Kubrick, who shot an epilogue to The Shining, and then after it was released was like,
[00:21:55] "You know what? I don't like that epilogue. Cut that scene." It was basically the, the, uh, caretaker of the Overlook comes to check in on Danny and, uh, Shelley Duvall at the end of the movie to be like, "Hey, uh, we can't find your husband's body. We don't think anything happened up there." You know? And then it's, at the end it's like, "Oh, I think he's a devil, too."
[00:22:13] Anyway, he cut that two-minute scene out of The Shining after it was released. Um, that I'm all for. Like, you're tinkering at the end of the day if it's a director who wants to make it. But, uh, to, I don't know, to be able to give over to somebody that's like, uh, like, "I'm gonna take this over," and then they don't get any of the penalty for taking it over.
[00:22:34] Anyway, I have a lot to talk about with this movie. Oh, it's been a, it's been a journey. Uh, anyway, I won't talk about it when it comes out. Um, let's go back to the phones. Nick from Illinois, what do you got?
[00:22:47] Listener: Hi there, Paul, Jason, and June. My name's Nick. Long time, first time. Hey, I listened to the episode Jack, um, and you started talking about how as a 10-year-old, he would know where his body begins and ends, even if he is growing quickly, and, uh, he would have awareness of where he is in space.
[00:23:06] And, uh, I gotta push back on that, uh, pretty significantly. I have a son whose name is Jack, and he grew so fast. He is very tall for his age, just for his age. Uh, and man, did he just have a bear of a time figuring out where his body is in space. I, I see him trying to navigate the world and, and he's just a little clumsy and he's just a, a little, you know, uh, just not smooth and lithe and he just has, he kind of bumps into things and he, he just wander- and he's just not always sure of himself, and it's because he's grown so goddamn fast, and his name is Jack, and it's awesome.
[00:23:51] Um, so I have to push back on that just a little bit. Uh, I love, love, love the podcast, um, and my boys love to watch Taskmaster. Jason, you are their favorite agent of chaos so far, so thanks for that. Um, yeah, and, and thanks for the years and years and, and years of entertainment. I appreciate it. Have a great day.
[00:24:10] Thank you.
[00:24:11] Paul Scheer: All right, Nick, I'm gonna take, uh, I'm gonna take a little bit of a, uh, issue with your taking an issue with our issue. Uh, I agree with you. I have a 10-year-old, I have a 12-year-old, and they, they are growing rapidly, not as m- fast as some would like, others faster. Uh, it causes a lot of issues. Uh, but here's what I'll say.
[00:24:30] Um, Robin Williams has been this way for a long time, right? So, like, I guess the difference between if he grows, uh, you know, four times the age, right? So just say, like, for the last four birthdays, he's been In his 20s. So I don't think that somebody in their 20s or 30s is completely out of depth in their 40s because their body has changed.
[00:24:54] I don't think your body change-- I guess what I'm saying is, I don't think your body is changing that much from 20 to 40 as far as height is concerned. So he would've been at this height for quite a long time, right? So it'd be 4, 8, 16. I know how to do math. Uh, 21. So that-- At four years old, he is 21 years old.
[00:25:15] So from four... So in this movie he's 10 or whatever, you know. So we're saying he's been this body size for six years. So anyway, Nick, I take issue with your issue, but I love you and you're great, and that was a good, uh, call. Good luck with those boys. Uh, next up, Joe from Brisbane.
[00:25:33] Listener: Hi, Jason, Paul, and June.
[00:25:35] It's Joe from Brisbane, Australia. Love the show. Just wanted to think about the possibility of a way to fix this movie. Maybe they should've just made him age three times instead of four. So if he was 45 and 15, and he was around 15-year-olds, maybe you could skirt the lines a little easier with some of the really cringey adult-child stuff.
[00:26:01] I know it doesn't make it that much better, but at least you can have a real coming-of-age style story if he was 15 going through puberty and all that sort of stuff. I'd love to know what you think. I, I think apart from, yeah, him being a 40-year-old 10-year-old, uh, I don't think this movie could be fixed really.
[00:26:20] But, um, thanks again you guys. Love your work. Bye.
[00:26:23] Paul Scheer: Uh, okay. Sure. You mean like, oh, like, if he was the size of a 15-year-old? Yeah. Yeah, that would've been great. I would've liked that. I think that that's a good idea. They c- uh, th- this arbitrary age that they picked, I mean, this is the, the Robin Williams of it all.
[00:26:37] It, like, it doesn't necessarily serve the story, I don't think. But I mean, look, tell that to DeMonaco and Gary. Uh, next up, Sean, what do you got?
[00:26:46] Listener: Hey, uh, Paul and Jason. Um, I've never actually left a voicemail, so my hope is that you'll actually hear this one, and, uh, maybe you'll use it. Uh, so I was listening to the Jack episode, and you were talking about, um, how there was, like, a trend in the movies in the late '80s, early '90s of, like, these, you know, kind of boomer directors who were reflecting on not wanting to grow up or the re- the nostalgia of it all.
[00:27:12] And it made me immediately think of the time that when I re-watched Drop Dead Fred not too long after that infamous podcast episode dropped, um, to refresh my memory about it. There's a moment where Marsha Mason says to Phoebe Cates, um, "I did it. I got married. I had the kid. I bought the house, and my life sucks because you aren't really that good of a kid or whatever."
[00:27:36] And I remember saying like, "Oh, that's what this movie is." This movie-- So going back to Drop Dead Fred, I'm like, "That's what this movie is." It's the We did, we followed all the rules and we're not happy, and I feel like that's the same thing with, like, Jack and the observations that you all made. We followed all the rules and we're not happy.
[00:27:55] Uh, and uh, 100% Team Sanity on my side. Uh, and uh, love the show, and hopefully, uh, I hear this on Last Looks. Thank you.
[00:28:06] Paul Scheer: Damn right you're gonna hear this on Last Look, Sean. Uh, Team Sanity forever. You make a brilliant point, and I think that I'm not just saying that because you're Team Sanity. Um, here's the fix.
[00:28:18] In my mind, you just articulated how this movie gets 110% better. You need to send a 40-year-old back to being a kid, not a kid growing into a f-... Like, that's the thing, right? Big is about a kid becoming an adult, but what we really are chasing is an adult wanting to be a kid again. Now, that brings me to one of my favorite movies of all time, Hiding Out, which is a great Jon Cryer film.
[00:28:49] Uh, I loved Hiding Out. If you've not watched Hiding Out, oh boy, oh boy, it's a fun one. It's about like... Oh, why don't... Hiding Out's great. But that's the f- that's the wish fulfillment, but here's the thing: it's super fucking creepy. You can't make it about a 40-year-old who has all the knowledge of a 40-year-old in the body of a 15-year-old.
[00:29:09] You're fucked. It's gross. Um, so that is the rub, and so we make it the other way, and it loses a thing, but I think you're 100% right. We aren't happy, and that's a very, I think, an '80s or, like, late '80s, early '90s kind of boomer point of view. Anyway, great call, and it might've been my, my fa- my favorite call because we, we agreed here.
[00:29:34] I, I mean there's research, there's so much stuff, but I gotta say, I just wanna give this best call of this week to Jay from Ontario. She absolutely nailed it. You really showed us how it's done on a call. Uh, thank you for reading my book, by the way. And I'm not just giving you this because you read my book, uh, which is available to purchase wherever you get your books, audiobooks, whatever you wanna do.
[00:29:55] I even still sign them. Uh, if you've ordered a couple books, I'm a little bit late right now because I've been working so much, but I will get there. Uh, anyway, Jay, for your prize, you have won a very rare and extraordinary bottle of wine from Francis Ford Coppola's winery. This French wine variety is called Jacque Pelu Blanc.
[00:30:12] That's, uh, you know, uh, basically it translates into hairy white Jack. And the reason this bottle is so special is that even though it's only 10 years old, the wine tastes like it's been aged for 40 years, and it will also make you fart a lot. Anyway, I hope you enjoy your Jacque Pelu Blanc. Uh, anyway, Jay, you are the best.
[00:30:34] Uh, and thank you for everyone who is, uh, submitting these great, uh, questions. I, I love that we're using SpeakPipe. Everyone sounds so good. And you can call us at SpeakPipe.com/HDTGM or by writing us on our Discord. All right, coming up after one last break, Jason will drop by for a Just Chat.
[00:30:52] All right, welcome back everybody. Before Jason joins me, I must remind you to tune in to our classic episodes that we re-release every Tuesday. This week's classic episode is another movie featuring a special young boy. That's of course, The Odd Life of Timothy Green. And next week we will be revisiting the Keanu Reeves, Sandra Bullock fantasy romance, The Lake House.
[00:31:09] So keep on checking out all of our replays of classic episodes every Tuesday. And without any further ado, it is now time for a Just Chat with Mr. Jason Mantzoukas. John Cohen, hit the theme.
[00:31:32] Music: [Just Chat Song]
[00:31:38] Paul Scheer: Jason, how are you?
[00:31:39] Jason Mantzoukas: Paul, boy. You know, you and I are overlapping, um, two very busy work schedules.
[00:31:47] Paul Scheer: Yes.
[00:31:47] Jason Mantzoukas: I have n- this maybe the longest I've gone without really seeing you. I- Uh, I've been on my job-
[00:31:53] Paul Scheer: I know.
[00:31:53] Jason Mantzoukas: ... it's just ended, and now you're on yours and, uh, we, we need to hang.
[00:31:57] Paul Scheer: I know. I, I really feel that way. I feel like... someone was asking me about you the other day, and I was like, "I have... This is probably the longest I have gone without seeing you." And, uh, and in that time, my gosh, l- so many, so many things going on. So many great things-
[00:32:11] Jason Mantzoukas: Oh, we, we have a lot to talk about ...
[00:32:13] Paul Scheer: So much, you know-
[00:32:14] Jason Mantzoukas: And we're gonna spend all of this episode just talking about Sterling Point, right?
[00:32:18] Paul Scheer: Oh, we have to.
[00:32:19] Jason Mantzoukas: How caught, how caught up are you on Sterling Point?
[00:32:20] Paul Scheer: I mean, Jason, I've watched it twice, so I'm ready to break it down.
[00:32:24] Jason Mantzoukas: I, i'm not even kidding I have watched all of Sterling Point.
[00:32:26] Paul Scheer: What did we... Tell me a little bit about it, 'cause I don't even know if I've heard this name.
[00:32:29] Jason Mantzoukas: I'm kidding. Sterling Point is like a YA... It's not, though. It's Megan Park who did My Old Ass.
[00:32:37] Paul Scheer: Okay. Okay.
[00:32:37] Jason Mantzoukas: Okay?
[00:32:37] Paul Scheer: Got it. I like that.
[00:32:38] Jason Mantzoukas: So- but it's like what if Megan, what if the maker of My Old Ass, which is a fantastic movie-
[00:32:43] Paul Scheer: Yeah ...
[00:32:43] Jason Mantzoukas: Made a YA-seeming story? 'Cause it's not based on any book or anything like that.
[00:32:50] Paul Scheer: Okay.
[00:32:50] Jason Mantzoukas: It's an original idea, but it is all teenagers who live in, like, rich area of, like, the lake region in, like, northern Michigan.
[00:33:00] Paul Scheer: Okay.
[00:33:00] Jason Mantzoukas: Um, but it's just like, it's just coming-of-age teenage soap opera.
[00:33:06] Paul Scheer: Okay, but it's not like a comedy-
[00:33:08] Jason Mantzoukas: Uh, the way that Off Campus is-
[00:33:08] Paul Scheer: ... it's not like, it's not, like, trying to-
[00:33:09] Jason Mantzoukas: No.
[00:33:09] Paul Scheer: Deconstruct it. Got it.
[00:33:10] Jason Mantzoukas: It's not at all. It is, it is just a very well done one of these-
[00:33:15] Paul Scheer: Oh, okay
[00:33:15] Jason Mantzoukas: ... I will, I will say.
[00:33:15] Paul Scheer: By the way, I'm a, I'm a YA fan. I will watch the hell out of that.
[00:33:19] Jason Mantzoukas: This got me in a way that I was... You know what it is? It feels like what... I- i- in that way that I wanted, um, Sex Life of College Girls to be kind of Gilmore Girls goes to college-
[00:33:30] Paul Scheer: Yes.
[00:33:30] Jason Mantzoukas: And it kind of wasn't exactly, this a little bit is that. It's like, it's small town like Stars Hollow. It's got a Gilmore Girls element to it, except it's a little bit more grown up, if that makes sense.
[00:33:41] Paul Scheer: I, I, you know, I, Jason, I've been thinking about you so much because, uh, I, I am, we're on the Warner Brothers lot right now.
[00:33:48] Jason Mantzoukas: Oh, Stars Hollow.
[00:33:49] Paul Scheer: And, um, a- yes, and we're in, we're in Warner Village, where-
[00:33:52] Jason Mantzoukas: Yeah.
[00:33:52] Paul Scheer: ... uh, basically, you know, I am right near, like, uh, Lorelei's house. Yeah. Like, I, I'm, I'm right there. I'm... Our writers' room is in the Bob and Ashola house. Uh- Uh, but, uh, and we, I think-
[00:34:05] Jason Mantzoukas: That's so funny.
[00:34:05] Paul Scheer: ... Pretty Little Liars house as well, but I, we're, like, two houses down from, uh, Gilmore Girls house and I was so excited. I walk by it every day ...
[00:34:12] Jason Mantzoukas: Good.
[00:34:13] Paul Scheer: Uh, it's so fun.
[00:34:13] Jason Mantzoukas: That's great.
[00:34:14] Paul Scheer: But, um, I was gonna say, what we should definitely do, and it's been the talk of the town, if you have not gone yet, is check out that Lucas Art Museum.
[00:34:22] Jason Mantzoukas: Haven't been. Would love to.
[00:34:24] Paul Scheer: That looks amazing. Uh-
[00:34:26] Jason Mantzoukas: Would love to.
[00:34:27] Paul Scheer: And I'm really hoping that the George Lucas talk show can somehow do a live event within that space.
[00:34:34] Jason Mantzoukas: That I think would be like some sort of, uh, canon event in, in Marvel terms.
[00:34:41] Paul Scheer: It would be... Like, I, I... It would be perfect if they could figure out a way to- I, it... I just would love, I would love it, and I think it would be one of those things, like when Tom Hanks showed up on Dead Eyes, that if George Lucas showed up on the George Lucas talk show, but playing a character-
[00:34:57] Jason Mantzoukas: Oh, wouldn't that be so funny?
[00:34:59] Paul Scheer: Then, then... And then we just, l- then you lock... Not to make him lock it down, but man, that would be the, that would be the penultimate, uh, thing. I would love it so much.
[00:35:06] Jason Mantzoukas: Oh, I would love that. That would be a blast.
[00:35:09] Paul Scheer: Um, man, I've been watching and reading a lot, but I've also been traveling, so I, I just got back from Kenya, which was amazing.
[00:35:17] Jason Mantzoukas: That's right. Yeah, go ahead.
[00:35:18] Paul Scheer: Um, it w- Well, I mean, uh, nothing to recommend more than the country of Kenya.
[00:35:23] Jason Mantzoukas: Wow.
[00:35:23] Paul Scheer: Um, but I will say this, uh, a, a pride of lions killed an impala right outside of our, uh- our little camp. Uh, so we woke up at 5:00 in the morning, walls rumbling, uh, as this pride of lions just-
[00:35:38] Jason Mantzoukas: Wow.
[00:35:38] Paul Scheer: Were tearing apart an impala, and it does not sound like the MGM lion. It, it, it has a-
[00:35:43] Jason Mantzoukas: Sure.
[00:35:43] Paul Scheer: ... very different, uh, sound. But we had an amazing, amazing time. Have you ever been to Africa? 'Cause you're a well-traveled person. I know Africa's big.
[00:35:50] Jason Mantzoukas: Uh, I've never been to Sub-Saharan Africa. I've only been to Northern Africa.
[00:35:53] Paul Scheer: Okay.
[00:35:53] Jason Mantzoukas: So no. I've never been, I've never seen any of these animals, I've never been in any of those fo- in any of those places. This sounds incredible.
[00:35:59] Paul Scheer: I think that you would... I, I, we have to-
[00:36:01] Jason Mantzoukas: Oh, I would love it.
[00:36:01] Paul Scheer: ... uh, I will share some, uh, some travel recs to you as we go. But what have you been watching?
[00:36:06] Jason Mantzoukas: Oh, I've been watching a lot of stuff. Some of it I think you will really, uh, appreciate. Uh, and some of it I think you would genuinely like. Um-
[00:36:16] Paul Scheer: Uh- I like that I appreciate it, though.
[00:36:17] Jason Mantzoukas: Well, the s- for example, something you might maybe appreciate more than like-
[00:36:22] Paul Scheer: Uh-huh.
[00:36:22] Jason Mantzoukas: ... Um, is, so we, on a r- recent, um, episode here, lamented, uh, the news that they were not going to move forward with the, uh, Gerard Butler sequel to the movie Plane, which was going to be called Boat.
[00:36:37] Paul Scheer: Yes.
[00:36:37] Jason Mantzoukas: Uh, now I have great news. There is a Jason Statham movie called Mutiny that-
[00:36:42] Paul Scheer: Yes.
[00:36:42] Jason Mantzoukas: Might as well be called Boat, because it is basically that. It is basically Jason Statham gets on a shipping boat and has to work his way through the boat, killing all the bad guys, and-
[00:36:53] Paul Scheer: I love it.
[00:36:54] Jason Mantzoukas: It is a blast.
[00:36:55] Paul Scheer: Isn't that just Under Siege?
[00:36:57] Jason Mantzoukas: Basically, yes, except he's Jason Statham and doesn't have any of the nonsense of, um, uh, Steven Seagal, who I believe is playing the chef on the boat?
[00:37:06] Paul Scheer: Yes, he's the chef.
[00:37:07] Jason Mantzoukas: Yes, right.
[00:37:07] Paul Scheer: They didn't, they didn't count on the chef. Now, uh- ... did you know the little trick about that movie, that Amazon-
[00:37:13] Jason Mantzoukas: No.
[00:37:13] Paul Scheer: Accidentally released it before it came out in movie theaters?
[00:37:17] Jason Mantzoukas: Ooh.
[00:37:18] Paul Scheer: So they streamed it the week before it came out, and it completely messed up-
[00:37:23] Jason Mantzoukas: Oh, I didn't know that ...
[00:37:24] Paul Scheer: The box, well, the-
[00:37:25] Jason Mantzoukas: Cause I watched, I watched it at home. I wa- I, I didn't go to the theater to see it. I watched it at home ...
[00:37:29] Paul Scheer: I wonder if you got to- if you watched the, uh-
[00:37:32] Jason Mantzoukas: Oops.
[00:37:32] Paul Scheer: ... when they made a mist- well, it's not- I mi- ... not your mistake. It's their. They made the mistake.
[00:37:36] Jason Mantzoukas: I just saw a Jason Statham movie and I was like, "Let's go."
[00:37:38] Paul Scheer: No, yeah, they, they accidentally released it, and, uh, it really, uh, affected the box office.
[00:37:44] Jason Mantzoukas: That's, yeah, of course. It is, I will say, it is a blast. It is, it's better than Working Man, which was-
[00:37:50] Paul Scheer: Okay. Okay, yes.
[00:37:51] Jason Mantzoukas: ... the Stallone one that was not very good. Um, but and so this is peak, you know, Statham one-liners, murder, murder, murder, murder, murder. It's fun.
[00:38:01] Paul Scheer: I'm, I'm excited that he's just turning these out. Now I know that you may not have gotten to the theater 'cause you've been working so hard, but, uh, Coyote versus Acme, so happy that it is, that it did great at the box office and-
[00:38:13] Jason Mantzoukas: I fucking loved this movie.
[00:38:15] Paul Scheer: Okay. It looked so good.
[00:38:17] Jason Mantzoukas: This movie is incredible. Um, friend of the show, Yassir Lester r- r- uh, referred to it as a masterpiece recently, and I, I agree. It is fantastic.
[00:38:28] Paul Scheer: I think what people don't realize is in many respects it is like a comedy Erin Brockovich in a way.
[00:38:36] Jason Mantzoukas: Yeah.
[00:38:36] Paul Scheer: Like, it, there is-
[00:38:39] Jason Mantzoukas: The, its adherence-
[00:38:39] Paul Scheer: It's a legal drama.
[00:38:39] Jason Mantzoukas: ... yes. It, its adherence to being a courtroom drama is so fun and funny that it really got me. I was like, I love that they're following through on this. It's not loosey-goosey.
[00:38:50] Paul Scheer: Yes.
[00:38:51] Jason Mantzoukas: It's absolutely a courtroom drama featuring Looney Tunes.
[00:38:55] Paul Scheer: And my, uh, my buddy, uh, Dave Green, he, uh, directed this movie.
[00:39:00] Jason Mantzoukas: So good.
[00:39:01] Paul Scheer: And I just have to give him so much credit for, I mean, what he's been through, but more importantly, that he got Peter Lorre, the animated-
[00:39:09] Jason Mantzoukas: Yes.
[00:39:09] Paul Scheer: ... version of Peter Lorre to be a main character in this, which I think honestly just shows you how true this is to a vision.
[00:39:16] Jason Mantzoukas: Yes.
[00:39:17] Paul Scheer: It's not like it's not, it is a very specific thing.
[00:39:20] Jason Mantzoukas: It's not like a Space Jam 2 situation.
[00:39:21] Paul Scheer: No.
[00:39:22] Jason Mantzoukas: It's not like a craven attempt to, like, cash in on these characters. It's actually an incredibly clever take on bringing all of these characters. Because one of the things that's great is, because it's a courtroom drama, they can introduce into evidence all of the cartoons from the '30s and '40s.
[00:39:40] Paul Scheer: Yes.
[00:39:40] Jason Mantzoukas: So they're playing, uh, they're playing Looney Tunes cartoons that are, that are from the '40s as pieces of evidence in the courtroom. It's a blast.
[00:39:49] Paul Scheer: I absolutely loved it. It was like... And it's just like, it's fun. And Forte, I, you know, we love Will Forte, but it's-
[00:39:57] Jason Mantzoukas: The fucking best ...
[00:39:57] Paul Scheer: he does stuff in this movie that I just think is, like, really smart and small. He's also hilarious, but it's like he-
[00:40:05] Jason Mantzoukas: He's also acting against no one.
[00:40:07] Paul Scheer: No one.
[00:40:07] Jason Mantzoukas: He's in scenes with cartoon characters, so he's doing this all alone, which is always impressive to me.
[00:40:13] Paul Scheer: And beyond that, it's not even like he's doing a scene with a character that speaks. The character doesn't even speak, so he really has to do a lot of work.
[00:40:22] Jason Mantzoukas: Yeah.
[00:40:22] Paul Scheer: I mean, that first moment where they're checking into the hotel room is, the physical comedy in that is great.
[00:40:28] Jason Mantzoukas: Yes. It's absolutely hilarious. And he, I'm just... That, this is a movie that I feel like if all of this nonsense arou- And I don't frankly understand even the why. I know it's a tax write-down and selling the company and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.
[00:40:43] But this movie would have made money.
[00:40:47] Paul Scheer: Yeah.
[00:40:47] Jason Mantzoukas: I think. I think this movie, had it been properly released with, with a PNA that was meaningful, with re- Like, it could have been a huge movie.
[00:40:57] Paul Scheer: Well, I think what they don't understand is, and where people... Like, it is a success, right? It is a success. It came in number two.
[00:41:04] Jason Mantzoukas: For sure.
[00:41:04] Paul Scheer: Right? But it is a success on a $10 million, uh, marketing budget, and that is so, like, small potatoes in, like, major film releases. Like, it just doesn't allow you to get the word out in a way that is actually impactful at all. So for this movie to make that much on so little, like, that's even... like, you have to look at it even like that. So you're right. Like, if it actually had-
[00:41:30] Jason Mantzoukas: It would've been huge.
[00:41:31] Paul Scheer: ... an engine-
[00:41:32] Jason Mantzoukas: And it didn't have-
[00:41:33] Paul Scheer: It would've been huge.
[00:41:33] Jason Mantzoukas: ... Any of the m- the, the kind of, um, whiff of, uh, oh, it, it was canceled. Or if it, if it just appeared, was promoted, and, like, hit, I think it would've hit hard. Right.
[00:41:45] Paul Scheer: Oh, I totally agree. Now, have you been watching, uh, Lanterns at all?
[00:41:49] Jason Mantzoukas: Yes. Yeah. I'm, I'm having a blast with Lanterns.
[00:41:51] Paul Scheer: I like it. I think it's really good. It's fun.
[00:41:54] Jason Mantzoukas: I think it's fun, and I think it's like, you know, I'm watching it. I'm listening to podcasts about it. House of R is doing great podcasts about it.
[00:42:01] The Watchboys are talking about it.
[00:42:03] Paul Scheer: Ooh, I gotta listen. Yeah.
[00:42:03] Jason Mantzoukas: Great. It's all great. Um, to me, this is the level at which we should be able to execute, um, IP TV shows. You know? Like-
[00:42:12] Paul Scheer: Right.
[00:42:12] Jason Mantzoukas: ... I don't think people... Like, in, in the sense of, like, people are like, "Oh, it's so much like True Detective." And, and it is in, in a certain amount of ways.
[00:42:20] Paul Scheer: Sure.
[00:42:20] Jason Mantzoukas: And I'm enjoying that component of it. But I also feel like there's this way in which people are talking about it like It's, it's good. It's like True Detective. It's not like, um, Secret Invasion-
[00:42:33] Paul Scheer: Well, yeah.
[00:42:33] Jason Mantzoukas: ... like bad.
[00:42:34] Paul Scheer: Well, the, yes.
[00:42:34] Jason Mantzoukas: And I'm like, I'm like, well, sure, but it's also not like True Detective.
[00:42:39] Paul Scheer: No.
[00:42:39] Jason Mantzoukas: It's not as good as True Detective.
[00:42:40] Paul Scheer: Well, but this is the thing, and I felt this way when I got a chance to see Wonder Man way before anyone else did.
[00:42:46] Jason Mantzoukas: So good.
[00:42:46] Paul Scheer: It was so good. It's the same idea. I'm like, oh, this is an FX show.
[00:42:49] Jason Mantzoukas: Yeah.
[00:42:49] Paul Scheer: And I feel like that's the distinction to a certain degree. It's like, oh, these are, these are different ways of kind of treating these characters.
[00:42:58] Jason Mantzoukas: Yes.
[00:42:58] Paul Scheer: It's just, it's, it's, it's, yes, it's elevated drama. In the w- It's like a drama.
[00:43:02] Jason Mantzoukas: In the way, yes. In the way that right now if you went to Secret Headquarters to buy comics, and you picked up Spider-Man, you picked up, right, Immortal Thor, you picked up a bunch of books, they would tonally be very different from each other.
[00:43:15] Paul Scheer: Yes.
[00:43:15] Jason Mantzoukas: You know, they would have... Some would be more mature than others, some would be more all ages, some would be smaller stories, some would be epic crossovers. And-
[00:43:24] Paul Scheer: With the same characters ...
[00:43:26] Jason Mantzoukas: all of, exactly. And all pulling from the same characters and the same world. And that's what I feel like DC is doing pretty well. I think DC with Lanterns, but then the Lanterns tone is very different than the Superman/Supergirl tone, which is big, bright, poppy, and that's all gonna be very different from whatever this Clayface tone is, which looks to be body horror-
[00:43:48] Paul Scheer: Yes.
[00:43:48] Jason Mantzoukas: ... Cronenberg, uh, type stuff. Um, so I like that they're doing... It doesn't feel like DC is beholden to one house style look tone. Uh, and so I'm enjoying it. I'm, uh, it's great. Um-
[00:44:01] Paul Scheer: By the way, I'm not like, I've never been a big Lanterns person. Like, I'm not, you know, like, you know that-
[00:44:06] Jason Mantzoukas: Uh, I'll go f- one step further. I think Green Lantern is dumb-
[00:44:09] Paul Scheer: Okay, so-
[00:44:09] Jason Mantzoukas: ... as a power set.
[00:44:11] Paul Scheer: Right.
[00:44:11] Jason Mantzoukas: You know?
[00:44:11] Paul Scheer: I'm enjoying it from like a f- I'm not a fan of Lanterns, but I'm a fan of everybody involved, especially, uh, Tom King.
[00:44:17] Jason Mantzoukas: Incredible.
[00:44:18] Paul Scheer: And I gotta tell you, uh, he's got a new book out which is really fun, uh, called, uh, Six of Us. It's kind of like a riff on Friends, but it's like a murder mystery.
[00:44:29] Jason Mantzoukas: Great.
[00:44:29] Paul Scheer: Uh, and it's so cool. It's like basically it's like, uh, a yeah, sitcom cast, and one of them gets killed.
[00:44:37] Jason Mantzoukas: I love it.
[00:44:37] Paul Scheer: And it's like a little miniseries. And so far I just read the first one, and I think it's great. It's-
[00:44:42] Jason Mantzoukas: Yeah
[00:44:42] Paul Scheer: ... really, really fun.
[00:44:44] Jason Mantzoukas: Well, I mean, Tom King, uh, uh, a fa- a friend of the show, fan of the show-
[00:44:47] Paul Scheer: Yeah.
[00:44:47] Jason Mantzoukas: ... we know, um, is genuinely one of the great comics writers of this era. And you know, we've talked in the past about his Rorschach book, his-
[00:44:57] Paul Scheer: Right.
[00:44:57] Jason Mantzoukas: Um, uh, Adam Strange book, all those books, um, that are so incredible. And so all the stuff he did with Mitch Gerads, uh, who did one of our tour posters, incredible, who was there the night, uh, of the, uh, um, Drop Dead Fred episode.
[00:45:11] Paul Scheer: Love that. By the way, Tom King also, I, I believe if, it's Supergirl, the, the movie is based on his book-
[00:45:17] Jason Mantzoukas: Yes.
[00:45:17] Paul Scheer: Of Supergirl, and that book is uh, amazing. Woman of Tomorrow. Uh, read that book. You'll be a, a huge fan.
[00:45:22] Jason Mantzoukas: Absolutely fantastic book.
[00:45:23] Paul Scheer: Yeah.
[00:45:23] Jason Mantzoukas: Um, anyway, uh, I feel like there's so much, uh, in this show that I'm really enjoying, and I'm... It's, uh, you know, it's also a sweet spot for me because I, all I want to watch is detective shows.
[00:45:35] Paul Scheer: Yeah.
[00:45:35] Jason Mantzoukas: Uh, and this is a detective show. Um, another detective show that has just returned for a new season that I will shout out is the l- uh, the series of, uh, miniseries that are built around, um, a book series. I don't know what the books are called. Uh, but Lesley Manville stars in them. It's on PBS Masterpiece right now.
[00:45:54] The first ones were called Magpie Murders.
[00:45:56] Paul Scheer: Okay.
[00:45:57] Jason Mantzoukas: The second season was called, um, something else Murders, and the third season that just started is called The Marble Hall Murders.
[00:46:04] Paul Scheer: Ooh.
[00:46:04] Jason Mantzoukas: Um, fantastic. Lesley Manville is a book editor, and the, the man whose books she edited is a, writes a kind of Agatha Christie whodunit series.
[00:46:15] And then he dies, and she... So the stories take place in modern times while Lesley Manville's trying to solve the current mystery. But then also it pops into the narrative of the books-
[00:46:26] Paul Scheer: Ooh.
[00:46:26] Jason Mantzoukas: ... Because the guy wrote clues to all the stories in the books. So it has this period component to it, which is the interior story of the book. Then, then the exterior, which is modern day-
[00:46:39] Paul Scheer: Oh, I love this.
[00:46:40] Jason Mantzoukas: ... Lesley Manville. And they are a blast.
[00:46:42] Paul Scheer: Oh, I love that. I, I just was looking at this as a novel, and the novels seem even great. Like, they feel-
[00:46:48] Jason Mantzoukas: Oh, I bet they're great. Yeah. I haven't touched the novels. I bet they're great. The, the mini-se- they're, they're six episodes each.
[00:46:53] Classic British kind of setup. Absolutely dynamite. The new season just started. The first two seasons are available, like I said, I think PBS Masterpiece.
[00:47:01] Paul Scheer: Yes, they are.
[00:47:03] Jason Mantzoukas: They're probably elsewhere as well. PBS. Um. Um.
[00:47:04] Paul Scheer: But, uh-
[00:47:05] Jason Mantzoukas: Incredible ...
[00:47:05] Paul Scheer: now I've watched a movie, uh, that I was just surprised. I know we're coming up to scary season eventually in October here, but I had never seen The Witch. Have you seen The Witch? The, uh-
[00:47:16] Jason Mantzoukas: Haven't seen The Witch.
[00:47:17] Paul Scheer: All right. So this is the, uh, like, the, uh, Robert Eggers-
[00:47:20] Jason Mantzoukas: Yeah.
[00:47:21] Paul Scheer: ... right? Anya Taylor-Joy. Like, whoa. It was great. I don't know how I missed it.
[00:47:26] Jason Mantzoukas: Yeah.
[00:47:26] Paul Scheer: And it is one that I, like, I, I like to sometimes recommend, uh, movies that are, uh, not too scary for people who don't like scary, like, people who are like, "I don't like scary movies."
[00:47:35] Jason Mantzoukas: Yes.
[00:47:35] Paul Scheer: This movie is great. And, like, it is... I, I, it's a very old pull, but I was like, "Oh, I just haven't been, like-" caught into a world, and this is obviously his first film. Um, so it's a lot smaller than, like, Nosferatu and stuff like that, but it has all that sort of stuff. The text, the way the children speak is all, you know, technically correct.
[00:47:53] They're-
[00:47:53] Jason Mantzoukas: Yeah.
[00:47:54] Paul Scheer: ... like shooting in the middle of a forest. It really, really, really good. The Witch, if you've not gotten around to it, which surprisingly you're not alone. I've talked to a handful of people and, uh, people have not seen it.
[00:48:03] Jason Mantzoukas: There's a bunch. You know, the- s- I'm especially, my... One of my true blind spots is horror. I'm not a... I don't love horror movies, so they end up being the ones that I get to last.
[00:48:15] Paul Scheer: You're not reaching for them, yeah.
[00:48:17] Jason Mantzoukas: You know? And so there's a bunch of really great recent, like, you know, past 10 or so years horror movies that I just haven't watched. Um, what's the-
[00:48:27] Paul Scheer: Well, you would-
[00:48:27] Jason Mantzoukas: It Follows.
[00:48:28] Paul Scheer: Oh, It Follows is great.
[00:48:29] Jason Mantzoukas: Right?
[00:48:29] Paul Scheer: It Follows. Yes.
[00:48:30] Jason Mantzoukas: Right? Which i- it... 'Cause didn't the same filmmaker just make the dinosaur movie?
[00:48:34] Paul Scheer: Yes. Yes, yes, yes.
[00:48:35] Jason Mantzoukas: So that, that has come up again, and I was reminded, "Oh, I never saw It Follows." So is- it's like that.
[00:48:41] Paul Scheer: Well, you know, I have to say that, uh, you would love... And this is not a shock to anybody, but Obsession is so good. It's so funny.
[00:48:49] Jason Mantzoukas: Yeah.
[00:48:50] Paul Scheer: And, uh, and it's just a real, like, a, a real treat of a movie. Like, that I was... Again, I, this summer I've been traveling a bunch. I haven't gotten to, to be at home. Uh, and when I finally got to watch it, I was like, "Oh, the hype is real on this." Yeah. This is really good. And again-
[00:49:05] Jason Mantzoukas: That's great.
[00:49:05] Paul Scheer: It's there. It's, it's there for you to, to enjoy.
[00:49:08] Jason Mantzoukas: Let me shout out a couple of other movies just-
[00:49:09] Paul Scheer: Yeah.
[00:49:10] Jason Mantzoukas: ... while we're on movies. You mentioned, um, how, uh, whoever bobbled the Jason Statham release Another terribly bobbled release, uh, for a, I will say, incredible movie is the Avatar Aang movie.
[00:49:23] Paul Scheer: Okay.
[00:49:24] Jason Mantzoukas: ... Which they accidentally leaked as well, and then robbed that movie of its potential, uh, huge audience reception. Um, this is a feature length movie starring Aang and the gang from Avatar: The Last Airbender, but as adults.
[00:49:39] Paul Scheer: Oh.
[00:49:39] Jason Mantzoukas: So this movie takes place between the end of Avatar: The Last Airbender and the beginning of The Legend of Korra, and it was fantastic. Absolutely loved it, love those characters.
[00:49:49] I mentioned in a episode r- recently, I think, um, John Early's movie, Maddie's Secret, is-
[00:49:55] Paul Scheer: Yes.
[00:49:55] Jason Mantzoukas: ... absolutely one of the best movies of the year. Everybody should watch it. Um, another movie I will shout out that is, was so fucking funny, the... One of the funniest mo- moments in a movie I've seen this year is the scene where John Slattery's foot is caught in a door in the David Wain movie-
[00:50:15] Paul Scheer: Oh, yeah.
[00:50:16] Jason Mantzoukas: Gail- ... Gail Daugherty's Celebrity Sex Pass.
[00:50:18] Paul Scheer: Yes.
[00:50:18] Jason Mantzoukas: Which is an incredibly funny, very David Wain movie. And in the-
[00:50:23] Paul Scheer: It's very much, if you love, like, Wet Hot-
[00:50:24] Jason Mantzoukas: Yep.
[00:50:25] Paul Scheer: ... it, it is so in that pocket. It's so good. It's so funny.
[00:50:28] Jason Mantzoukas: And there is a m- there is a joke in here that is one million percent David Wain, and it is just the John Slattery getting his foot stuck in a slamming door, and it is... it made me laugh so hard I started to get, like, lightheaded. It was really very funny ...
[00:50:43] Paul Scheer: There is so much stuff. And I gotta tell you, the one pers- I mean, everyone's great in that movie. I really like a lot of people. Uh, but Ben Wang-
[00:50:51] Jason Mantzoukas: Oh my God.
[00:50:52] Paul Scheer: ... That kid is really funny. He was in that new Karate Kid movie that came out like, Karate Kid: Legends. He's in Long Walk-
[00:50:57] Jason Mantzoukas: Yeah.
[00:50:57] Paul Scheer: ... Which is great. But man, I am, like, excited to see more of him- Yeah ... 'cause I'm like,
[00:51:02] " he's doing it"
[00:51:03] Jason Mantzoukas: He's fantastic.
[00:51:03] Paul Scheer: Yeah.
[00:51:03] Jason Mantzoukas: I agree. Com- really great. Um, I mentioned as well the, um- The Motor City movie-
[00:51:10] Paul Scheer: Yes.
[00:51:10] Jason Mantzoukas: ... That is Alan Ritchson crazy, uh, action movie I thought was fantastic. The Earth, Wind & Fire documentary that Questlove just did for HBO-
[00:51:18] Paul Scheer: Oh, yeah.
[00:51:19] Jason Mantzoukas: ... is an incredible watch. Really great. Um-
[00:51:22] Paul Scheer: These are a bunch of good things. I'm gonna watch-
[00:51:24] Jason Mantzoukas: These are some great stuff. I'll shout out the Batman, the new Batman animated, uh, Caped Crusader, season two is out.
[00:51:30] Paul Scheer: A continuation of the first season-
[00:51:31] Jason Mantzoukas: Fantastic.
[00:51:31] Paul Scheer: Which is great. So good.
[00:51:32] Jason Mantzoukas: Great. Um, there's a great and incredible anime called Witch Hat Atelier that I just finished and was absolutely blown away by.
[00:51:40] Paul Scheer: Wow.
[00:51:40] Jason Mantzoukas: I'm also obsessed with an anime called Bocchi the Rock!, which is about a socially awkward girl who just wants to be in a rock and roll band.
[00:51:47] Paul Scheer: I like that. I'll watch that.
[00:51:48] Jason Mantzoukas: Um, but this is my headline. My headline is there is an Australian show called The Newsreader.
[00:51:54] Paul Scheer: Okay.
[00:51:54] Jason Mantzoukas: That is, I think there's two or three seasons, and it is one of the best, like, one-hour dramas I've seen in a while.
[00:52:03] Paul Scheer: Whoa.
[00:52:03] Jason Mantzoukas: It is phenomenal. 100% on Rotten Tomatoes. It's called The Newsreader. It is dynamite, and the woman who's the lead, whose name I'm not gonna remember now, is-
[00:52:11] Paul Scheer: Ana Tori?
[00:52:12] Jason Mantzoukas: Yes. Uh, A- Ana Torv. Is it Torv?
[00:52:15] Paul Scheer: Or Tor- Oh, Torv. Torv, yes.
[00:52:16] Jason Mantzoukas: Ana Torv is d- giving un- un-
[00:52:18] Paul Scheer: Oh my God, she's from Fringe.
[00:52:20] Jason Mantzoukas: Oh, I didn't know that. Okay.
[00:52:21] Paul Scheer: Okay, I love Fringe, so she's the-
[00:52:22] Jason Mantzoukas: I didn't see Fringe.
[00:52:23] Paul Scheer: ... sh- okay, so she's the lead of Fringe. Okay. Yes.
[00:52:24] Jason Mantzoukas: Oh, okay. Well then, 'cause, so I'm just dis- maybe I've seen her in other stuff, but this performance is electric to watch.
[00:52:33] Paul Scheer: Oh, I loved her.
[00:52:33] Jason Mantzoukas: It is a phenomenal show, and I think-
[00:52:35] Paul Scheer: I thought she was so good in that show ...
[00:52:36] Jason Mantzoukas: It's dynamite. It's, it's a, you know, like, all joking aside, like, I, I really enjoyed Sterling Point. I like a lot of the other stuff. This is a phenomenal show.
[00:52:45] Paul Scheer: Okay. Well, this is, uh, that, now, I m- I mean, there's so many, so many things. I will tell you-
[00:52:49] Jason Mantzoukas: There's so many stuff, and I- I'm just gonna only just, last but not least, say, if you're driving around at night, listen to the new Boards of Canada record, Inferno, and if you're driving around any other time, listen to the new Tierra Whack album.
[00:53:00] Paul Scheer: I wanna also shout out-
[00:53:01] Jason Mantzoukas: Incredible.
[00:53:01] Paul Scheer: ... Uh, the new Wolves of Glendale album is great. They're on tour right now. We are friends with them. They've composed some songs for the show. Their new album is so, so good, but the album that I really wanna shout out is the new Mastodon album-
[00:53:14] Jason Mantzoukas: Oh, yeah ...
[00:53:14] Paul Scheer: Which is fantastic. They actually came on Dark Web and they were great. Uh, but this album is, I mean, I just, I have been listening to it a ton, and, uh-
[00:53:24] Jason Mantzoukas: Yeah.
[00:53:24] Paul Scheer: I, I love it. Just-
[00:53:25] Jason Mantzoukas: They also just did a great episode of the Amoeba What's in My Bag-
[00:53:28] Paul Scheer: Yes.
[00:53:29] Jason Mantzoukas: ... You- YouTube series that w- had some great picks on it.
[00:53:32] Paul Scheer: Yeah, they're just a fun band, and they, uh, if you don't know anything about them, their lead singer was having some substance abuse problems. He left the band, and then in that time where he left the band, he passed away.
[00:53:44] And so this album is very much a kind of dealing with that grief and that anger, and it's a really, uh, it's a really cathartic but cool, cool album.
[00:53:53] Jason Mantzoukas: Yeah.
[00:53:53] Paul Scheer: Um-
[00:53:53] Jason Mantzoukas: Can I just ask for something?
[00:53:55] Paul Scheer: Sure.
[00:53:55] Jason Mantzoukas: Just because sometimes I ask for things and the audience sends them to us.
[00:53:59] Paul Scheer: Yeah, yes.
[00:53:59] Jason Mantzoukas: Um, I'm looking for the documentary Tony Williams in Africa, which is about, uh, the jazz drummer Tony Williams.
[00:54:06] Paul Scheer: Ooh, great.
[00:54:06] Jason Mantzoukas: I'm curious about that. Um, I'm looking, I'm looking for that. I'm looking for Under Salt Marsh, the Kelly Reilly sh- the British Kelly Reilly show.
[00:54:13] Paul Scheer: Hm.
[00:54:13] Jason Mantzoukas: Um, and then, uh, and then there's some other stuff, but, you know, we'll see what, we'll see what the, what the people come up with.
[00:54:19] Paul Scheer: All right, Jason, what a pleasure. Uh, we will talk soon.
[00:54:22] Jason Mantzoukas: Thank you, Paul.
[00:54:23] Paul Scheer: All right, now that our Just Chat has come to an end, it is finally the moment you've all been waiting for. It is time to announce our next movie. Next week we'll be going from a sperm that aged too fast to a worm from the ancient past. Ooh, I like this. That means that we'll be kicking off our spooky movie season with the 1988 bonkers cult horror classic, The Lair of the White Worm, starring Hugh Grant, Amanda Donohoe, and Peter Capaldi.
[00:54:48] That's right, Doctor Who himself. Now, IMDb says,
[00:54:51] "When an archeologist uncovers a strange skull in a foreign land, the residents of a nearby town begin to disappear, leading to further inexplicable occurrences."
[00:54:59] Rotten Tomatoes rates The Lair of the White Worm at a 67% fresh, and critic Ty Burr writes,
[00:55:05] "Russell's version of a horror film. An over-the-top hoot, it is perfect for an All Hallows' Eve drinking game or for terrifying the neighbor's kids by projecting it onto the side of your house."
[00:55:15] Ty Burr, I cannot think of a better way to describe this movie. This movie is awesome. All right, let's take a listen to the trailer.
[00:55:23] Trailer Audio: Something's been found in Stone'rig cavern.
[00:55:25] Legend has it that Stone'rig cavern was the lair of the Dampton Worm.
[00:55:30] My God.
[00:55:31] When the venom attacks the nervous system, the victim appears to be afflicted by a form of vampirism.
[00:55:38] I hear you're having trouble with a snake.
[00:55:39] Ah, and you're going to uphold family tradition and slay the beastie.
[00:55:44] Are you out of your mind?
[00:55:46] Paul Scheer: You can stream Lair of the White Worm on Prime Video, Tubi, Canopy, and Hoopla, or you can rent it at all the usual places where you'd rent movies. All right, everybody, that is it for Last Looks. If you listen to us on Apple Podcasts or Spotify, please rate and review us, and also make sure you are following us and have automatic downloads turned on.
[00:56:02] It helps the show. It helps the show, so do that, please, and we appreciate it. Visit us on social media @HDTGM, and a big thank you to our producer Scott Sonne and Molly Reynolds, our engineer Casey Holford, our social media manager Zoe Applebaum, and we'll of course be forever thankful to the one and only Avaryl Halley.
[00:56:18] We'll see you next week for The Lair of the White Worm.