Third Season Chaos And Catch-Up

Shawn 0:05

Hey, you're listening to History versus Hollywood. I'm Shawn.

Susie 0:10

I'm Susie.

Craig 0:11

And I'm Craig.

Shawn 0:12

And this is Basket Traffic. Much better name.

Craig 0:20

Bastard.

Shawn 0:25

We are back.

Craig 0:26

We're back.

Shawn 0:27

We're here after this is uh the start of our third season. You must be excited. Did you sleep last night?

Craig 0:34

Uh I did. Very well.

Shawn 0:36

You did. Just people weren't sure if we were gonna be back or not. So this is exciting. You know, they're so they were so worried in Paris that they're burning down the city.

Craig 0:45

Yeah, well, I and it's no relaxed.

Shawn 0:48

We're back. We are back. That’s how important this podcast is.

Craig 0:52

Exactly. People give a shit what we do.

Shawn 0:54

Yeah, apparently.

Craig 0:55

Yeah.

Shawn 0:55

Yeah. So third seasons are funny, right, in shows because usually everything goes off the rails in the third season. You know, the character and the story arcs are all set up. Right, right. And then and then something used there's usually a huge plot twist or a conclusion to a storyline or somebody dies. Right. Crossing my fingers over it.

Craig 1:14

Also like the third generation of a family-owned business, right? Third generation fucks it up.

Shawn 1:18

Exactly. So I expect this this season is gonna be horrible.

Craig 1:21

Big fucking flaming turd.

Shawn 1:23

It is just dumpster fire. Anyways, there's a great advertisement for the show. We're back, baby. Dumpster fire. Oh fuck. Yeah, we are back though, and we're excited to be back. It's gonna be it's gonna be a great year. And we just had a little time off.

Craig 1:37

Yeah, we did.

Shawn 1:38

Now, what did you get

Blu-Ray Audio Quality Vs Streaming

Shawn 1:40

up to?

Craig 1:40

Well, it's only been five weeks, Shawn.

Shawn 1:42

So I'm I'm like a dog. That is like three, four years from dog years.

Craig 1:49

Uh well, you know what I got up to? I bought a new Blu-ray DVD player and I bought Interstellar. And what made me think of that right now was you know how they get to that planet? And by being on that planet, one hour is the equivalent of seven years.

Shawn 2:02

Uh-huh. Yes.

Craig 2:03

That's what it must be.

Shawn 2:05

I yes, that's what it is. Exactly. That's what happens when good movie poll there. I'm impressed.

Craig 2:09

Yeah. And I had no idea that uh Timothy Chalamet was in that movie. I forgot that he was in that movie. Yeah.

Shawn 2:16

Yeah. I didn't know. Okay, so first of all, I didn't know you got a Blu-ray. So congratulations. Thank you. Um, I'm I'm a little upset you didn't ask me to come along and help you with that purchase. I mean, you know, have an expert to help you choose the Blu-rays.

Craig 2:28

Yeah.

Shawn 2:28

Uh, but I'm impressed you got Interstellar because that's one that I didn't think of. I was thinking of what I would buy just now. And Interstellar is, you're right, it's gotta be I have it's it's gotta be. Yeah. I I think I think of like what comes to mind. I think of Blade Runner.

Craig 2:43

Definitely Blade Runners. Welcome, Susie. Here we're just Susie. Oh, how Susie had insurance.

Shawn 2:49

We were gonna put that on live, the insurance uh phone call, but we you know thought it might be a little too exciting for people out there.

Susie 2:56

So or or a little too Susie needs what explained? Like it's insurance speak, you know? It they say one thing, but do they really mean those things?

Craig 3:06

I thought you were talking to your agent. I don't think they're trying to be cryptic.

Susie 3:11

Well, but I asked for an explanation and she replied without the explanation in email. So then I needed to call her back again to say what did you mean by that?

Shawn 3:20

I I thought you were talking to your agent because you were holding out for the third season here. So it's gl I'm glad to see you at the table.

Susie 3:25

Yeah, we've noticed you've had some of your requests have been um checked.

Shawn 3:30

One of my requests has been checked. There's many others that have not even been looked at. We have a brand new table. It's not a brand new table.

Craig 3:39

We've refinished it.

Shawn 3:40

And people know this because they were they were really invested in in the show last season, and I brought it up several times that this table needed to be finished, and uh you finally got to it. So thank you.

Susie 3:51

Craig talks like we did it. Oh, I guess you did do a little bit of it, but our daughter did it for us.

Craig 3:56

It's okay.

Susie 3:57

Oh, she did. Cameron did it.

Craig 3:58

Oh, that's great. Minimize whatever I do. That's all good. It's all good.

Susie 4:02

Zing. Keep doing it. Oh, she did most of the work and then you swooped in and helped.

Shawn 4:07

Oh, so you took credit credit for it. He did tell me he did it yesterday when I came. He he never mentioned Cameron.

Susie 4:13

So she did a three anyways. She did three pieces of furniture.

Shawn 4:17

That's like when Craig talks about the podcast. He's like, Have you listened to my podcast? Everybody?

Susie 4:23

Yeah. Well, he asked me if I think if I went to his wedding.

Craig 4:28

You know, we all make mistakes.

Susie 4:30

Weren't you there?

Shawn 4:32

I don't remember. Um, so we were talking about your new purchase. Congratulations. You got a Blu-ray. You must be so excited.

Craig 4:39

Well, when those come out, 2000.

Susie 4:42

Ears are hurting.

Craig 4:42

1995.

Susie 4:43

It's so loud.

Craig 4:44

I know. I know it's not. Well, that was the inspiration for it. So I I had no so everything that been watching is through streaming, right? Apple TV, right? So everything is streaming. Even though the 4K looks good, I have this really nice system. And then um look going through this, uh watching this YouTube video. This guy's saying, listen, as good as it looks, it's totally compressed. The audio is heavily compressed. It's the only way they can take these massive files and then stream them through you know the internet and at a reasonable size. So I went, really? Okay. So I went and bought one. They're not very expensive.

Susie 5:13

The movies are we gave it to you for your birthday. Oh, sorry.

Shawn 5:16

Oh my god, what is happening here?

Susie 5:19

He forgot that we bought him that for his birthday.

Shawn 5:22

This is the theme of the show today, apparently.

Susie 5:24

Yeah, everything's Craig's. Yeah.

Shawn 5:26

Um, so I've got a VCR too, if you want it. Jeez, dah, wow. I mean, like how old is the Blu-ray now? It's probably been around for a while.

Craig 5:36

Yeah. I'm um probably two and a half decades late on this one.

Shawn 5:39

So, and I've got an eight-track too, if you want it. Um so when you say your ears are hurting, what are we talking about?

Susie 5:45

Well, the sound is so great and uncompressed that Oh, do you want to wave to the neighbors?

Shawn 5:51

They're walking by our live studio window here.

Susie 5:53

It's okay. Um, we they always look in.

Shawn 5:56

Sorry, the blinds don't work right now in the studio. Blinds broke. So, and Craig was explaining all the technology behind it. And I said, Really? I just have a string. I just pull down on the string. But yours is computerized and you know, whatever. So, anyway, sorry, your ears.

Susie 6:12

So the stereo system is really good that we have, and so um, but the Blu-ray makes it better.

Craig 6:21

Okay, but what what were you watching?

Susie 6:23

Oh, we've watched um So we bought 1917. Yeah, 1917 watched it twice.

Craig 6:28

Of course you did. Yeah.

Susie 6:29

Twice. The second one we were stopping because uh one of our daughters taking a history course in trench warfare and world war one, and so we were stopping and discussing and then going and stopping and discussing and going.

Shawn 6:42

But oh, how entertaining how entertaining.

Susie 6:44

Yeah, the first time we didn't do it.

Craig 6:45

So we we bought they also bought the tr uh Christopher Nolan's trilogy, Batman.

Shawn 6:49

Oh, okay. Yeah, okay. So you've done Nolan, which is who you should probably do.

Craig 6:54

Totally. So yeah. But yeah, and then I have a huge list. Um, my next one I want to do is um Breakfast uh Oh, Breakfast Club.

Shawn 7:02

Breakfast Club. I was I thought you were joking.

Craig 7:04

Yeah, no. For Blu-ray? I know, I know. Because what? Guess how much it is to get the ultra-high definition Blu-ray version of Breakfast Club. Normally, like if you get a you know, movies or how much is it?

Shawn 7:17

Yeah, how much is it? It is this like a price is right thing. Okay, so uh, I'm gonna say if it's this collector's edition, I'm gonna say $69.99.

Craig 7:27

$80 Canadian. So, you know, you're looking at what 60 US, something like that.

Shawn 7:31

Is yeah, okay. Well, interesting.

Susie 7:33

How much is 1917?

Shawn 7:36

It was $19.17. Yeah, no, believe it or not.

Craig 7:39

It was still like almost close to $40. Well, they're all gonna be that much.

Shawn 7:43

Not John Hughes is not one. I love John Hughes, but it's not what I would think of for Blu-ray.

Susie 7:48

Yeah, but all the music would be great.

Shawn 7:51

John Hughes directed 1917.

Susie 7:54

No, oh my god.

Shawn 7:56

That would be great. Don't you as they're running through the trenches? Forget about me. That would be great.

Susie 8:04

I just sang that song to him when he was driving me to work the other day. And he said he was gonna forget to go off on my exit. And I started and I sent it and he says, Who sings that?

Shawn 8:10

No, no, it's and what movie is that in? Mockingheads, right? Simple Minds, one of my favorite bands. One of my favorite bands, so underrated, love them.

Craig 8:20

So, Shawn.

Shawn 8:21

Yeah.

Craig 8:22

How are you feeling?

Shawn 8:24

I'll get back to you on that. Are we gonna pull the trigger on Digger? It took me six weeks to come up with eyes. Nice. That's all I got. Nice.

Craig 8:33

Your

Choosing Digger Over The Other Film

Craig 8:34

idea, you you said to me, because we were gonna do the social reckoning movie, and then you text me and you're like, nah, this there's no energy around this movie. I think we should do Digger because Digger is turning out to be incredibly controversial. Everyone's talking about it. I'm a Tom Cruise fan, always have been, even though his movies have been far-reaching and different. Yeah. Always being a Tom Cruise fan.

Shawn 8:58

Well, we grew up with Tom, so he's kind of a part of our lives in that way, as an absolutely. Yeah.

Craig 9:03

It started off with him sliding across the floor in his white indies, you know, and uh with his sunglasses on.

Susie 9:10

You made the right call. How do you know you haven't seen the other movie? No, it was good point, Susie.

Shawn 9:15

Thank you.

Susie 9:15

Sorry.

Shawn 9:16

Way to bring it all. Way to bring it. It actually's supposed to be a good movie, too. That the social reckoning as well, I've heard.

Craig 9:23

Well, I hear it's kind of like a made-for-streaming style. This this was this is a cinema experience movie.

Box Office Panic And Studio Narratives

Shawn 9:30

First off, there was so much stuff online, it was just being inundated by the this whole narrative. First of all, a couple things. One, I want to I want to give kudos to Warner Brothers for for the way they marketed it at first. A really big twist in this film that they did not reveal. And I'm really thankful that they found a way to sell the movie without giving away some of the plot, because they usually do that so much. We we've all seen these trailers where the whole movie's in the trailer.

Susie 9:56

Yeah, the best part.

Shawn 9:57

Yeah. So and they could have very well decided to go that way because they wanted to sell this and explain what this is to people. They didn't do that, so I love that. But the whole thing online was all about how much this movie cost to make and how much this movie stood to lose. So, and it was 250 I think it cost $170 million to make and then another hundred million in marketing. And it it's gonna lose two hundred and fifty million dollars. In fact, it's gonna be one of the biggest losses in the history of Hollywood. I think it's comparable to a movie that came out a few years back called, I think it was called John Carter. It was for Disney. And it was um uh like a science fiction action movie, and it had uh I can't remember his name now, uh, but a young, hot, up-and-coming guy in it, and they had spent everything they had and the movie just tanked. So everybody's been online just obsessed with this narrative about whatever the movie don't even talk about the movie. Look how much money it's losing. And I will tell you, I went and saw it on a Wednesday afternoon. Yeah, ironically enough, it was in the biggest theater in in the in the movie place I went to. Yeah, and across the hall is Avengers Endgame. Oh no, right? So it's like, and everybody's going into Avengers Endgame, which has already been out. I mean, once, you know, it's already but and there was three people in the movie theater.

Susie 11:21

Well, how many were in with us? Maybe five.

Craig 11:25

Yeah, we were in the smaller theater. It was there's still only about six or eight.

Susie 11:29

Five or six people.

Shawn 11:29

And I I walk in and I'm like, ooh, this isn't good. And this is like the first week. Now it is a Wednesday, but still I'm like, now I love that because I got the whole theater to myself. I just picked out a seat, walked around, and like I was like, oh, this is great, but not good for the movie. No, in fact, the movie is pretty much gone from theaters.

Susie 11:46

Wow.

Shawn 11:46

And it's been what, four weeks, something maybe? What's it? Came out October 2nd. So yeah, it has, I mean, this is crazy. Yeah. So it's gone. It's it's like, I think it's still out there, but it's in one theater and it's got like limited showings and yeah, you so you said it was it had a budget of 170 million.

Craig 12:04

Something like that. And then there's it's 100 million markets.

Shawn 12:08

You gotta fly Tom Cruise all over the world to promote it, right? So it has that ain't cheap.

Craig 12:13

It has up to this point made domestically 17.5 million. Worldwide, it's made 42 million.

unknown 12:19

Yeah.

Shawn 12:20

Aye, aye, aye. Yeah. So this is my here's here's what I'm coming at you with. Does that matter to us as moviegoers watching this movie? Because that was the narrative, and I kept thinking, oh, well, if I were to give in to this, I would say, oh, it's a bad movie because it's nobody's seeing it and it's bad. You know what I mean? That was the narrative. This and I was thinking to myself, this is when I put my tinfoil hat on here. I was thinking to myself, does the studio actually want this movie to fail? Why would you think that? The studios, I mean.

Susie 12:52

Other than Warner Brothers.

Shawn 12:54

Well, and maybe even Warner Brothers, I mean, sure, they want to make their money back. I'm uh, you know, that would be silly, but but do they want these Maverick directors coming back into power and having control of the studio system?

Craig 13:07

Interesting.

Shawn 13:08

Or do they want to make or do they want to make more Avengers movies and more sequels and more prequels and more Disney Star Wars movies? And right? Do they want to go back to that? This is similar to like the 70s when they had all of these Maverick directors and they were sort of running Hollywood, and then they did this movie called Heaven's Gate, and it was the most expensive movie ever made, and um it completely tanks, and that was the turning point when this the studio system started to take back over and and make call the shots and take away the power from the directors.

Susie 13:45

I don't like to know too much about what I'm going into because I don't want preconceived ideas, I don't want to be judging it before. Totally understand that because I would have I can't say I didn't think it was a loser movie.

Craig 13:58

Like I didn't Oh no, we have so much to say. I just want to leap off that for a second here and say this is not just another movie. This this movie Digger is is it's it's another another level of whatever. You will either love it or hate it. I I don't think there's many many people in between who go, oh no, it's fine.

Shawn 14:13

It's very polarizing. It's incredibly the critics are so divided on this film. I mean, they they like you said, they absolutely hate it or they think it's the greatest uh movie ever made, literally.

Craig 14:26

The critic score for Rotten Tomatoes is 53%. And yet the popcorn meter, the people who go to it, it's up to above 70%. So there's this really interesting divide. I I'll just read a couple of these things. It's gonna kind of make me laugh. Like this is this was Digger is a failure because it got too smart about something people take seriously and was laughing while it did it. Uh-uh. Or maybe it shouldn't be surprising then that men as self-serious as Cruz and Iñorito?

Shawn 14:56

Uh Ignorito. You can pronounce it many different ways. Yeah, I've heard it pronounced.

Craig 15:01

Cruz and Ignorito can't do comedy, but the film's cinematic sleight of hand isn't sharp enough to compensate for the dearth of decent gags. Like, holy damn. And yet, if you go to the audience comments right away, it's it took a few minutes to realize the premise of the movie, but ultimately this is one of those gotcha movies made for deep thinkers. I loved this one. Don't go into this movie with any expectations and just be just go along for the ride. Fantastic cast and direction, really great movie. Uh it is a must-see.

Shawn 15:36

That's spot on for me. Yeah, that review. That's how I felt. I think that this is such a big swing, this movie. And uh it's so hard to describe. It's a this movie's batshit crazy. It's all over the place, dude. It's fucking crazy.

Craig 15:50

And and if you're listening to this right now and you haven't seen the movie, take the time. It's not a three-hour epic, it's not Nolan's Odyssey, it's like two hours and nine minutes. It's a totally

How To Talk Without Spoilers

Craig 16:00

watchable uh movie, and it's so interesting. Here's the problem, though. It's very hard for us to talk about this movie without revealing. There's a twist. Yeah.

Shawn 16:09

There is a twist about half an hour in, maybe. Uh, and it's it's totally game-changing. And so we sort of discussed this. We don't ever talk about the podcast before we do them, but we did discuss the fact that I I brought up that I didn't want to reveal the twist. Yeah. I I mean it'd be like saying, hey, you know, Bruce Willis is dead in in six cents, like right off the top, right? So what? Oh, like like so. I would be pissed off. And I'm so glad that when I went to see, like I said, thank you, Warner Brothers, for not revealing that twist because I had no idea. I did, and so I'm watching this film, and all of a sudden the ground is pulled out from underneath me. Yeah, and I'm like, holy shit! And it takes it in a completely different direction, this film. Yeah. Now you did know. I did know. Yeah, you blew it for yourself.

Craig 16:59

Yeah, I did. In a sense, I happened to watch a couple of YouTube videos, and they just kind of threw it out there quite quickly and they didn't give me that kind of spoiler alert. And I I'm accused of doing the same thing here on this podcast, but uh fundamentally, did it really change for me? I don't think it really did. Was it kind of an it would have been a neat, interesting, oh whoa, where's this going? But more importantly, I walked into this going, oh, I'm taking Susie. Fuck, she's gonna be pissed off at me. This is gonna be another beautiful Saturday. Sunny Saturday. She wants to be outside. I mean, this is a woman who has to have, she would love to have no fucking roof on her house while she sleeps at night. She's rather be. I mean, I'm like, set up a fucking tent out in the backyard if you want to sleep and with fresh air kind of thing. So here we are. We gotta take you to the drive, uh drive-out. Yeah. There we go. Convertible.

Susie 17:48

Well, he won't. So somebody should.

Craig 17:51

I and I didn't say much. All I was saying to Susa, going, yeah, just kind of like setting her up a little bit.

Susie 17:56

Quite sure I told you to stop talking about it because I didn't want to know.

Craig 17:59

I said it's a little different, you know. You know, it's a little different.

Susie 18:03

Some people say it's weird. Well, yeah.

Craig 18:06

I'm sitting in it and I'm expecting to hate this movie, but I start, you hear me. I start laughing. I'm fucking giggling through the whole movie. And then sometimes I would like kind of like a belly laugh going on. Do you laugh at this movie?

Shawn 18:17

I I laughed hysterically at points, not the whole way through. No, I think the movie, that's why I love the movie, is that it is a roller coaster ride of all these different emotions. There's parts of the movie that I thought were kind of off-putting and weird, and yeah, I was kind of like, what the and then other parts were completely hilarious. And now, if you guys have seen any of Enorito's other stuff, like like um Birdman, like, because this reminded me a little bit of Birdman, because Birdman has some some kind of you know, it was a long time ago when Birdman came out.

Craig 18:46

Best picture, best actor. It was maybe my mind wasn't set for these things, and I'm not a cinemaphile like you. I think I stopped halfway through Birdman. It was too this is over. We're out of here. So it was so weird.

Susie 19:01

Craig, you're old enough that we could watch the whole thing.

Craig 19:03

Yeah, maybe, yeah, maybe I'm mature enough.

Susie 19:05

Yeah, okay.

Shawn 19:05

Yeah, and and and you can explain it to him before. Um then you've you've also got uh The Revenant, which is one of my favorite films, and you know, he won Best Picture for that. Yeah, so I mean that's incredible. Back to back, I mean Revenant and Birdman, I mean, and best actors for both of those movies. Oh wow, so he's one hell of a director.

Craig 19:25

I think the best way to describe this movie is that whether you hate it or you love it, it doesn't matter. It's a piece of art.

Shawn 19:32

Yeah. Well, it certainly looks that way.

Craig 19:34

It's a piece of art, like every scene is so beautifully crafted. The acting is exquisite. And you know what's so interesting? People hammered Tom Cruise for coming across as arrogant, and I don't get it. I thought he was utterly fantastic.

Shawn 19:51

I haven't read any of that. I I think he's a shoein' for best actor.

Craig 19:56

It's literally on the comments here by the critics panning him for his his acting and overacting, or I feel like we lost Tom Cruise in the last few years.

Shawn 20:07

Much like we I've talked about we lost James Cameron to Avatar. Yeah, we've lost Tom Cruise to the Mission Impossible movies. Right. And and while I I get that he wants to do that kind of stuff too, which which I appreciate because it gets people in the seats and gets people, it's a cinematic theater experience. I'm so happy to see him back doing these kind of things. Well, because he you know what we forgot? He's a really good actor.

Susie 20:30

So I wish I knew, I wish I could remember exactly where in the movie it was. But you know he's he's this big personality and he's doing his thing in the movie. And then at one point he just looks straight at the camera and he has a little half smirk, his Tom Cruise look, and he connects in the camera. And I'm it's like, there's the real guy for one second and then right back, like it was little in on the joke thing. Yeah, yeah.

Craig 20:59

Without revealing the plot twist, there's uh two sides of Tom Cruise we see, and I thought both of those sides were incredibly cool.

Shawn 21:08

I think we're used to two sides with Tom Cruise already, are we?

Craig 21:12

I don't know about you, man, but I don't he was genius. I I don't know. I'm still thinking about that movie. And I just his there was a monologue about 10 minutes, and he's speaking to this EU parliament or whatever, and it was extraordinary.

Shawn 21:28

Yeah. Well, it was all shot in one take, um, although there are cuts in it, and and it's always fun to see that you know the crowd in that monologue, they pull out their phones and they start recording them, which is so what would happen right now.

Susie 21:40

Oh, yeah.

Shawn 21:40

But that monologue, I think, will go down as one of the greatest scenes in i in movie history. I'm not kidding. Yeah, it is it is how can you not get an Oscar on for that monologue? And I'm sitting there going, he's talking to me right now. Yeah. Yeah. Like that's me he's talking to.

Susie 21:56

Like why is everybody so sweaty?

Craig 21:58

Oh, that was a theme though. With okay, are we gonna reveal it? No, I don't think we're gonna reveal it. It's it's a movie about the environment.

Environment Theme And Shared Responsibility

Shawn 22:05

Oh yeah, we should tell people what the movie's about. Yeah, yeah. It's about uh an oil digger.

Craig 22:10

Yeah, and Digger Rockwell is a billionaire tycoon. Yeah, and he is this classic bombastic rich dude who is so eccentric, very eccentric. He the world revolves around him, and if the narrative around the world doesn't fit his narrative, he just changes the narrative to fit his world, and everyone, like even his cat that's like on the verge of dead or is dead, yeah. Um he he's just brings in the best of the best, keeps this disgusting thing alive. And the cat just wants the cat's just looking at it in the camera, going, kill me, just let me die. Let me let me die. And uh, but no, but this is that bombastic nature of this this guy. He's he's grander than life, but and he's surrounded by very powerful people. John Goodman, who plays the president of the United States, who also, oh my god, express.

Shawn 23:04

Yeah, so Rizimed and oh my god, great cast.

Craig 23:07

Ultimately, uh the story is about, and this is how the movie starts, right? You got these methane bubbles just kind of coming up from the ocean floor. The sound is this kind of sonic dissonance, and it's off-putting but alluring and captivating, and you can't quite tell if it's real footage or animated in some way. It's all it's really, really cool. Yeah, and then that leads into the whole story about how methane is releasing from the ocean floor and it's causing damage to his oil rigs, and then releases a uh a size of a calving of an iceberg so large that it will basically destroy the world. There's an absurdity about all of this, but that's you'll see if you watch the movie why it's so absurd without again again giving it away. And the whole stories around how do you solve this problem? I don't think we're revealing too much when we say ultimately we go back to that 10-minute monologue is really cool because one of the reasons why I think I was bothered by that potentially bothered by about this movie, that it was going to be one of those preachy fucking movies that's gonna speak down on you in a self-righteous, smug kind of way, and it wasn't that at all. He's not smug, Alejandro. No, none of his movies are Tom Cruise. Funny when you listen to the comments, people just kind of like bothered by this. But I kind of wonder, because Shawn, this is the question I had for you and Susie. What did you think of the message around uh Tom Cruise's monologue? So just to set the stage for people listening, okay, and again, I'm not gonna give away a lot, but this is something that I think you should know. He's about to do a speech and he's surrounded by hundreds of uh EU members of the EU parliament. And he uh says, Yeah, I am responsible for all of this. This is my fault. He takes ownership. But then instead of going, yeah, he's the classic kind of stereotypical tropey, you know, white man, oil baron who uh takes on no responsibility, he then flips the conversation and he basically says, Yeah, but you're all at fault too. Like, I'm digging the oil. You want me to dig the oil? You want, you want the oil too. You all drove, you know, here in your cars. And so that's what made it so kind of enjoyable. What do you think?

Shawn 25:34

Asked and answered. You just asked the question and then answered it all. Shit. So so I I I agree. I agree exactly. I I sat there in the theater and went, he's talking about me because I'm not willing to to I'm I'm a slave. I think that's one of the lines, isn't it? Something like that. But I'm a slave to all of the stuff that makes my life, I think, better. Yeah, right? I like to have heat in my apartment and gas in my car. And so am I willing to not do any? I do look, I'm sure we all do little things like Susie washes out plastic bags.

Susie 26:06

Yes.

Shawn 26:07

So good for you.

Susie 26:08

Plastic bag fairy.

Shawn 26:09

Yes, the plastic bag fairy. So good for you. But but you're dad, you're right. That was the message. And and it it was delivered in such an effective way that it struck me sitting there that I was like, oh my God, this is the first, actually, I'm kind of ashamed to admit this, but it's kind of the first time I ever thought about it like that. I mean, I think sub subconsciously I probably knew that all along. But it when it was was delivered to me by Tom Cruise And then and when Danger Zone was playing in the background.

Susie 26:40

I mean, it's true. Like when you I don't know, you hear about all these um activists in the world and they're and you're you're always kind of like, oh, I should be doing, I could do more, I could do more, but no, but you're like Yeah, you gotta raise your kids, you gotta go to work, you gotta do your thing, man. You still have to get up every day and go to work, and you wanna, you know, you wanna drive there.

Craig 27:02

You wanna go camping in your your trailer. That's right, man.

Susie 27:05

You wanna have your coffee imported from wherever.

Craig 27:08

But you wash the plastic bags, man, the Ziploc bags. There's the payoff, right? It's like it's like buying those environmental credits, you know. You're you're doing your bit. I'm doing my bit too.

Susie 27:17

I what do you do?

Craig 27:18

Um, what do you do, Craig? I recycle. Um, I take out the trash. Do you? Yeah. We do we do our bit.

Shawn 27:26

You know what I thought was funny was that like they had to put prosthetics on Tom Cruise to make him look like a 64-year-old man. Yeah, you know how old Tom Cruise is? 64. Yeah, it took it was six hours to put the prosthetics on, and Tom goes, you got to do it in an hour. So can you, because he doesn't have time because he's Tom Cruise to go in and do six hours. So can you imagine they would have 10 people practicing uh like on somebody before Tom got there to make sure they could get it down to an hour? It's like a pit crew, yeah, and and like only Tom Cruise would like because he's such a busy person, would be like, No, you gotta do it in an hour. But it takes six hours. I need it in an hour. Yeah, and I'm Tom Cruise, so you're gonna do it.

Susie 28:07

If you can't do it, then we're not gonna do this.

Shawn 28:09

Like so, isn't that I just thought that was funny? We gotta make this guy look his age. We're gonna need a lot of prosthetics.

Craig 28:15

Yeah, he looked good. I I actually thought the the the prosthetics people, whatever they're called, the I'm sure there's a category for it. Yeah, it's called makeup, makeup makeup, Oscar, maybe we'll see.

Shawn 28:28

They did set design Oscar. I mean, that's 10 out of 10. I mean, that like you said, visually, this film is on another level. Oh, and like the and the the costumes, the clothes, like his outfits, just it's sort of like Poor Things uh meets Mickey 17 meets like here, like this year, Warner Brothers has put out uh weapons, uh One Battle After Another, uh Mickey 17 and this film. And you know what? They're not all masterpieces. I know we've talked about a lot of those movies, but good for them for swinging at this, these kind of films and putting these kind of films out. Because we talked all last year about the fact the state of the movie industry and all the sequels and the all that shit we're talking about. And now we're here. And yes, this movie didn't do well financially. It's gonna be talked about for years as one of the biggest flops, but I hope that it gets its praise like.

Susie 29:23

So I wonder does the biggest flop win win an Oscar for a lead actor?

Shawn 29:28

I I I don't know what else is he's gonna be up against, right?

Craig 29:34

I just want to go back to this idea of movies that have flopped in the movie theater, but you know, what gone on to be. But gone because of VHS, because of DVD and now Blu-ray, these movies became cult classics and incredibly popular, and people went and bought out, you know, millions of these discs or you know, tapes. Yeah, there's the streaming model now. I don't know if it makes I don't know if that would lead to the same hype creation as a result. Because you know how on YouTube you see the number of accounts of views? You don't see that when you're going to Apple TV or other services. You don't you don't see if this thing is actually doing well. All you know is if it's in the top 10 list and and or you know, having conversations around the movie at work. But other than that, you know, whereas they would go, oh, this deep this has this movie has sold millions on the but why did it not do well in the movie theaters? I think this is one of those movies. Part of the problem is even the trailer couldn't reveal too much. If it did, it would give away the plot twist. So they were in this already awkward moment.

Susie 30:39

It'll be like a cult follow-up.

Shawn 30:42

But did you see the the uh requisite trailer they put out after the reviews? No, they had uh they made up a trailer of Tom Cruise reacting from the movie, Digger, of all the bad reviews. And so it would be like this movie is whatever, whatever. And and so then they show a clip of him from the movie going, it doesn't matter what the people think you know or what the critics think, because these are lines from the movie. Yeah, yeah. And so they inserted it all as his character responding. Oh, interesting, and it was brilliant. So, like once again, I'm I'm giving crude kudos to the to Warner Brothers for for doing that.

Craig 31:14

Well, and and I don't think there was a bad actor on set. I mean, first of all, John Goodman. Always, always so funny, yeah. Fucking he was brilliant, he's lost a lot of weight.

Shawn 31:23

Some of his facial expressions in this film, they're genius. And you have Ahmed uh Riz Ahmed is so good in this film. He should get a best supporting nomination.

Craig 31:32

I think so. His whole character, he is like basically the scientist, the environmental scientist, and who is under this enormous pressure from this bombastic individual of a man of Digger, and but eventually he has this coming out party kind of calling him out beautiful, beautiful moment.

Shawn 31:50

Good scene.

Craig 31:51

And then I Sandra Mueller. Oh, Hewler. Yeah, Hewler. Yeah, Hewler, Hewler, another great movie, but she again just has a nose for great movies, and she had a nose job done, actually, after her last film.

Shawn 32:08

So there you go.

Craig 32:08

So you just made that. Yeah, okay. But I can never tell with you. Yeah.

Shawn 32:13

Most people get nose jobs in Hollywood. Uh Jesse Plummins. Yeah. Another I'm a And these people are all very limited in the film. It's really all Tom Cruise. I think he's in every scene. Yeah. And then these people all are very small little roles, but they add a lot to it. Yeah. Right?

Craig 32:29

So we've we've given away the 10-minute monologue detail.

Shawn 32:34

Um, there are a lot of other we haven't we've given it away, but we until you've seen it, yeah, you won't believe it. So you that's what I mean. We can't, it it won't blow anything for you.

Susie 32:44

No, we haven't really And it's so worth going to. I want to go to see it again.

Shawn 32:49

Like I said, it's nice to see Tom back in a dramatic role. And then I started thinking, like, okay, what are Tom's like five best roles in my in like just thinking about it? And I came up with a few ideas. Okay. And I was like, okay. So I'm gonna say I love Tom Cruise and Collateral. Okay, so these are five things. Do you remember collateral? That's another that'd be another great Blu-ray DVD. That's incredible with Michael Mann. Where he plays the hitman with Jamie Foxx, okay. He's driving around LA in the back of a cab. Incredible. And I probably put Jerry Maguire on that list because that was a comedic and a dramatic performance. He did get a nomination for that, by the way, for best actor.

Craig 33:28

That's right.

Shawn 33:28

And then I would put um I would put Magnolia on that list. He's so good in Magnolia. And then I'd probably put Digger on this list, and I would put still my number one. I would go back is Born on the Fourth of July. He was so good as Ron Kovic. Yeah, he was talking about it. And that's not top gun for that. Top gun is back to uh acting? No. Great movie. I mean, for our childhood.

Susie 33:53

Top gun for just watching. Yeah. It's just looking at him.

Shawn 33:56

Yeah.

Susie 33:56

He looked great.

Shawn 33:57

Yeah. I know the dramatic role. I don't know.

Susie 33:59

Just talking, just look.

Shawn 34:02

But it but it was it was nice to to to be back in that realm again and you know, not see him hang off the side of a plane or something like that, you know.

Susie 34:11

And just get that one little wink of him, of all good old Tom Cruise, too.

Shawn 34:16

It's just like, oh, he's there, and then oh and don't worry, he'll be back, you know, yes, running from an explosion in no time here. I'm sure his next film.

Craig 34:23

Well, I don't yeah, this guy doesn't seem like he's gonna retire anytime.

Shawn 34:25

Oh, God, no. Getting me?

Craig 34:27

I I I I think fundamental will be dead before Tom Cruise retires.

Susie 34:31

And he'll die on set somewhere. He will die doing what he loves doing.

Shawn 34:35

Wouldn't it be funny if he died on Digger and didn't die on Mission Impossible?

unknown 34:40

Right?

Shawn 34:40

He fell down a set of stairs or something, and he didn't die from an explosion on an airplane or uh falling out of a cliff or jumping off a train over a yeah.

Craig 34:49

This movie did feel like it was a satire of satire.

Why The Movie Makes Us Uncomfortable

Shawn 34:53

It's like Doctor Strangel, a little bit, kind of meets something else.

Craig 34:56

Yeah, you know it was like poking fun of people poking fun or satirizing the people who satirize or are cynical. And this is where I do wonder the these these critics who were really quite hard on this movie. My take is this, and I I I don't know if it's true. I'm kinda curious to what you think. It seemed to me that the narrative was fundamentally we're all responsible and that we can't just easily because in our world today it's so polarized, it's so easy to go, you're at fault. You this this person or this group that they're responsible and then and we're not gonna take any responsibility or culpability.

Susie 35:38

Yeah, everybody wants to play at the blame game.

Craig 35:40

Yeah, and what I liked about this movie, it kind of went, no, pulled back the curtain and went, nah, we're all in this together, and if we're gonna find solutions, we actually have to work together with this instead of just pointing fingers and blaming. And and I wondered if that's where you get some of these uh individuals who found it, you know.

Shawn 36:00

I I still can't get over the critics not liking this film because this film is brilliant. Yeah, I mean, it it's put together so well.

Craig 36:10

Yeah, so why why would half of the rotten?

Shawn 36:12

That's why my my tinfoil hat comes on, like like the fix is in or something.

Craig 36:17

No, it's it's like because I think it breaks that narrative of the rich dudes are are at fault.

Shawn 36:24

And somebody's got to be at blame, and it's not us. Yeah, it's not us.

Craig 36:28

That the mirrors that Innerito is putting this mirror up, and then and that's causing others to go, oh, oh, uh, and make them uncomfortable. I it's the only thing I can think about.

Shawn 36:38

That's the key, Craig. I would say to anybody, is that this film made me uncomfortable. And I loved it. I enjoyed the ride, but there was something deeply in the pit of my stomach made me uncomfortable while I was watching it. I think that that art I mean, this is gonna sound so pretentious, but I think art like questions everything and that you believe and it pushes against everything and it makes you feel kind of uncomfortable, but also happy and also sad and also, you know. So uh I think that's that's what cinematic experiences are supposed to be about. Now, having said that, it's great to just go watch something you can just laugh at, not turn that off once in a while. But can't you have it all? Can't you have all of that coming?

Susie 37:24

This one seemed to have it all.

Craig 37:25

Oh, I think I might be buying this on Blu-ray, there's no doubt. Oh, yeah. I think you're gonna buy everything. I I think that you've got a problem.

Susie 37:32

Oh yeah. And I didn't fall asleep in this movie, so that's there's the Susie thumbs up.

Shawn 37:37

There's the stamp of approval. That's it. Susie did that's what the critics said. Susie didn't fall asleep in this film. The Susie meter. Yeah. Yeah. I like that.

Susie 37:45

I've been awake for quite a couple, maybe a couple years now.

Shawn 37:50

We're all very proud of you.

Susie 37:51

I know. I am mostly proud too.

Shawn 37:53

Yeah, you're like normally a narcoleptic. Don't worry, we'll find you some movies to fall asleep in coming up.

unknown 37:58

Yeah.

Shawn 37:59

Yeah. And like I said, Digger uh being this artistic important movie, but doesn't mean I'm not excited about movies like Miami Vice, 1985. I just saw the the shoot. Oh my god, I saw Austin Butler in the outfit. And man, does he look good? He's in the he's in the white blazer with the with the baby blue shirt underneath. And the it's got full Don Johnson. It's looks so good.

Craig 38:23

Well, I think we've covered the main bits. We can only go so far considering that if we say anything more, we'll kind of reveal the big plot twist.

Shawn 38:30

It's a tough, tough one to talk about, even though we did choose to talk about it, but it's tricky.

Craig 38:36

And this is one of those movies that I feel like I wanted to promote out there.

Shawn 38:39

If you haven't seen it, um it's important, I think, that everybody, I mean, sees this, and I hate to say that too. I mean, it feels kind of cheap. Yeah. But but I'm like, you gotta see this movie.

Craig 38:48

We're not getting any revenue out of this thing at all, obviously. And once and neither are they.

Susie 38:54

But if you go, the it'll help you know cut their losses a little a little less.

Shawn 38:58

I'm gonna see it 800 times before. Um, but it's an honestly, all kidding aside, this is it's important. This film is important.

Craig 39:07

I don't think there's another actor out in this in the world that could do what Tom Cruise just did in that movie.

Shawn 39:14

I do. I think so.

Craig 39:15

Really?

Susie 39:15

Yeah. Well, Daniel Day Lewis. No, it's Daniel Day Lewis. He could do it. Yeah.

Craig 39:20

Okay. Well the fuck do I know then?

Shawn 39:22

Well, I'm just giving my opinion. Yeah, no, okay, I definitely that's what this show is about opinion.

Susie 39:28

I mean, Tom did it really, really well.

Shawn 39:30

No, I love Tom. I I I couldn't picture anybody else doing it after seeing him do it. You're right. Yeah, it's hard to get it. But I could see that they probably had, you know, I mean, I think he wrote this with obviously with Tom in mind. That's what I've heard that he came to Tom. Oh no, the story is that Tom wrote his motorbike from San Diego to LA. He was shooting Maverick, this Top Gun movie, and he drove his bike to go and talk to Alejandro about this film. And Alejandro was writing it for him. So there you go. It was meant for him.

Craig 39:59

Right. Speaking of Maverick, there's gonna be a part of the Top Gun.

Shawn 40:02

Of course there is. Yeah. You have the biggest gross, one of the biggest grossing movies of all time, right? The second one. So there's no way the studio is not gonna let that happen.

Susie 40:10

Yeah.

Shawn 40:11

And you've seen the Days of Thunder sequel that's on the shelves coming coming to us now. So gonna be lots of lots of that stuff. So it's nice to have Tom doing Digger.

Nathan Fielder And Elizabeth Holmes Doc

Craig 40:27

Shawn, I I think a good way to kind of finish this off is talking about Catherine Holmes. I mean, we've been talking about Digger Rockwell, who is this fictitious character of this.

Shawn 40:37

It's Elizabeth Holmes, but thanks for playing. Catherine Holmes is uh a porn star, I think. We're talking about um Digger, and and we, I think, I hope, gets nominated for Best Picture. Uh, and certainly Tom Cruise will be nominated for best actor, I hope. And he may even win it. We don't know who he's gonna be up against at this point, so we'll leave that open. But I think there's gonna be big change at the Oscars this year because I think that a documentary may, for the first time, be put in the best picture category, not the best documentary category. They do, but it's a possibility that this movie is so big, and it this, of course, is the Elizabeth Holmes movie, um, and it's called Everything You Can See.

Craig 41:26

And uh And you forwarded this uh I did forward this to you a few weeks ago. Of the part of the documentary, I'm assuming.

Shawn 41:33

Yeah, and it's Nathan Fielder who's you didn't watch it?

unknown 41:36

What?

Craig 41:36

No, I haven't seen this on the theater soon.

Susie 41:38

Oh, I mean you didn't watch the clip, did you? No, I did. Oh, you didn't. I had to tell him.

Shawn 41:41

It's listen, I had to tell him I sent it to the let's get into the Instagram account.

Craig 41:46

We have this Instagram account.

Shawn 41:48

I've been sending something every day for the last 82 days. I have no response.

Susie 41:53

This should also be admin on the Instagram account with you.

Craig 41:56

Yeah, like you care.

Shawn 41:58

Anyways, he had no idea. I sent it to the Instagram account, and um, he finally saw it after I told him I sent it to the Instagram account. But, long story short, we'll cut that. I never look at it.

Craig 42:08

I'm sorry. I'm terrible with social media.

Shawn 42:11

So Nathan Fielder is a comedian. He's done a lot of just out there stuff, and and he's a sketch comedian, and he's he's quite brilliant. But nobody knew that he was shooting, nobody in the industry knew he was shooting this documentary where he basically lived with Elizabeth Holmes 14 days before she's going to jail. It is this documentary is all centered around him in the house with her, and I guess her husband's in it. And this movie is blowing people's freaking minds. And it's, first of all, it's three hours long, so it is a commitment. You're going to see a three-hour documentary in the theater, but everybody's coming out of this going, What did I just see? Like, much like like Digger, like we're talking about with Digger. And and so this is another movie that people are mind-bending. But but I love the fact that it um premiered at like Telluride or Sundance or somewhere, and nobody had a clue what the movie was. They're like, What is this? Is it comedy? Oh, did he put out a comedy? Is it and then they realize, holy shit, this is the Elizabeth Catherine Holmes story. Yeah. Who's Catherine Holmes? Um, porno. It's a porno story. I'm in.

Susie 43:21

Um not gonna look at cowboy boots the same way. Oh, and they had the popcorn, the popcorn cowboy boot.

Shawn 43:29

I see. Which they have now for everything, you notice.

Susie 43:32

Yes, every movie has some sort of popcorn vessel.

Craig 43:36

My favorite Tom Cruise moment was when he comes out of that. We were talking about that the monologue that he has. He goes into that room. Yeah. And he does fires the fucking cowboy.

Susie 43:48

Bite me! Bite me!

Craig 43:51

It's I think it's in the trailer. Uh it's so good. Just classic Tom Cruise.

Susie 43:56

And then he comes in, and the other guy is super drunk, been just a bad idea.

Shawn 44:00

And that's drunk. That's why I think he should be nominated. Yeah. Because that drunk scene where he's giving Tom shit about fucking his responsibility and all of this is so great.

Susie 44:12

So good. Love it. So good.

Tom Cruise Roles And Season Wrap

Craig 44:14

All right, Shawn. And Susie. Yep. Good to see you.

Susie 44:18

Yeah, I'm here too, Craig. Don't forget about me. It's not just your show.

Shawn 44:21

He couldn't see you behind the puppet show theater over.

Craig 44:24

Susie, I see you every day.

Susie 44:26

You're just disappearing.

Craig 44:27

Yeah. No, no, no.

Shawn 44:29

And so that's it. And very excited to um get into our next week's topic, which Craig is planning as we speak right now. What is that topic, Craig?

Craig 44:38

Ancient history.

Shawn 44:39

Okay. That's that's vague. Riveting.

Craig 44:42

It's a four-part series of ancient history. Ancient history.

Shawn 44:45

That covers a lot.

Craig 44:46

That's right. Focus on all the different philosophers of ancient history.

Susie 44:51

Well, we kind of.

Craig 44:52

I did that already.

Susie 44:53

Shawn, we're gonna sit in the back of the room for this one.

Shawn 44:55

I'm not I'm gonna be sick for that one. Say it. I'm like, I'm I coming up with nothing especially for this one. And then you feel stupid. And you know, and so Craig, you carried this one for sure. This was yours. Yeah, I mean you need a 20-minute monologue. Your monologue was was better than Tom Cruise's monologue in that last one.

Craig 45:15

You're too kind. I'm not sure it was better. I didn't even know. You're right, it wasn't better.

Shawn 45:19

Did I talk that much? It was actually not better, but it was long, it was as long.

Craig 45:22

I you shouldn't meet it.

Shawn 45:23

Yeah. You you you know, you carried the ball.

Craig 45:25

No, I I I sometimes black out when I talk. It's probably what the students see when they see me tease.

Shawn 45:29

Is that why we have to pick him up off the floor? Yeah, yeah. Sometimes. No, I mean, it it you definitely had a perspective um on this one, and you you, you know, you brought your your knowledge to it. I I kind of threw a blank on this one.

Susie 45:45

I tried to um I was gonna try to review today, but to take it.

Craig 45:49

Because you don't give a shit.

Susie 45:50

Well, I do give a shit.

Craig 45:51

No, you don't. That this is what we do. We have on your tag is you just don't want to be here.

Susie 45:56

Oh my god.

Craig 45:57

Okay. Wait a minute.

Susie 45:58

If I didn't want to be here, I wouldn't.

Craig 46:00

You wouldn't be here. I think it's fucking funny.

Susie 46:02

No, but um, I'm also in between the cinephile and the historian. And that's too far away.

Shawn 46:10

You can just say between the asshole and the other asshole.

Susie 46:14

I am not the fucking sh what is it called? Choda.

Craig 46:19

Whoa. Wow. Damn. If you feel like you're the choda in this relationship, okay, I'm speechless. That's funny.

Shawn 46:28

You know what I think we should do? I think we should have those You're not putting that out, by the way. We should have those have those styrofoam bats, and then you can just hit Craig whenever he's talking too much. Um, you know, Craig was going on talking about about Digger, and I just thought, I'm not gonna get to say anything during this podcast. Oh, I'm sorry, sorry. I can't even I I but you're lucky because I had nothing to say.

Susie 46:52

Well, you can't say it without ruining it. That's it. Well, you know what?

Craig 46:55

I was surprised. I'm surprised you didn't go on, you know, talk about Tom Cruise and his things.

Shawn 46:58

You just Well, I mean, I did. Uh you blacked out while I was talking about it. I did mention five performances that you guys said nothing about, by the way. You just went like no feedback on any of those. You're like, uh-huh. Uh-huh. Yes, that was a movie. I feel like you always say that for you. I was so that was to engage a conversation. I said the top five Tom my top five Tom Cruise performances, and I expected that could have been 30 minutes. I thought I was gonna get pushback or I was gonna get, no, you're right. You remember this or that? Nothing. Fucking nothing, dude. Craig's thinking about his next fucking monologue over there. You know? He's like, geez, maybe I could talk about the social relevance of the uh environmental uh thing. Like, and I'm like, dude, hey, shut off the machine for a second and engage. I'm sorry. You know, this is an engaging thing. We're supposed to be engaging and talking and like we're it's not all facts and figures, okay?

Craig 47:56

Well, you reference movies that I hadn't seen in a long time.

Shawn 47:59

You've never seen Jerry McGuire.

Craig 48:00

Your one no no no, I've seen the other one.

Shawn 48:02

Your one. Show me the money! Your one contributor was not Top Gun. That was that was what you contributed today, okay?

Craig 48:14

I'll do better.

Shawn 48:15

Here I am thinking, oh, this is great. I'll do the my I'll do my top five, Shawn's list. It'll be a new segment for the third season of the fucking podcast. Shawn's top list. I'll have top five. And Craig will write some really cool music around it, and it'll engage this conversation. Nothing.

Craig 48:30

Zero. Susie's? Yeah, you too. Um what?

Shawn 48:35

Me too, what?

Craig 48:36

Me too what? No, not hashtag.

Shawn 48:37

I think you guys are just like, uh when is this gonna end? You know? Well, I'll explain to you all about Tom Cruise's movies. I love that you think he's a great actor, but you haven't seen anything he's done. So wonderful. Craig started the whole podcast off about talking about how big a Tom Cruise fan he is and how great Tom Cruise is. Never seen any of his work, but thinks he's fantastic. Top Gun. Seen Top Gun 28 times. That's right. That's it.

Craig 49:06

All right, dude. It was good to see you.

Shawn 49:08

Um I I don't feel like you meant that. That was an automatic response. Typical closing of the talk show. Hey, dude, it was good to see you. Hey, move your pants again.