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October 28, 2025 79 mins

Something’s fishy at the Megaplex… Will and Sabrina are watching “Phantom of the Megapelx” starring Taylor Handley and Corinne Bohrer. 

This film premiered in 2000 as a Disney Channel Original Movie.

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Episode Transcript

Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:14):
How important were movies to you when you were growing up.
Did your family go to the movies and stuff?

Speaker 2 (00:18):
Yes, I love the movies. First of all.

Speaker 3 (00:21):
One of my favorite things that my dad is obsessed
with is popcorn.

Speaker 2 (00:25):
It's his jam.

Speaker 3 (00:27):
I mean, I get him a giant thing of different
kinds of popcorn every year for Christmas and his birthday,
Like he loves popcorn.

Speaker 4 (00:35):
Have you ordered the specialty stuff from Chicago? No.

Speaker 1 (00:39):
So there's a place in the Chicago Airport. I mean
it's part of Chicago. But they have a big stand
at Kiosk at the airport where there's like a line
of people and you go there at the airport just.

Speaker 2 (00:47):
Because I'm gonna be there in like a couple of weeks.

Speaker 1 (00:49):
There you go, So go to the popcorn stand. They
have like nineteen different flavors. But it's like famous Chicago popcorn.

Speaker 3 (00:55):
And is it like one hundred dollars because everything's one
hundred dollars nowadays.

Speaker 1 (01:00):
Everything I told you I fund with I am without
even knowing it and end up funding the Boy Scouts
for the next nine years by buying two tubs of popcorn.

Speaker 2 (01:09):
Seriously, Oh my gosh, I know.

Speaker 3 (01:11):
My dad is the guy that gets the giant popcorn,
eats as much as he can and then gets a
refill on it.

Speaker 4 (01:19):
Yes, I love that. Does he like popcorn balls?

Speaker 2 (01:23):
I don't know. I don't know if he's had one
or not.

Speaker 3 (01:27):
I'm sure if he has, Yes, he loves them, because
he any kind of popcorn.

Speaker 4 (01:31):
Is his jam.

Speaker 3 (01:32):
But yeah, movies have always been such a big thing.
We made a huge deal of taking Monroe to her
first one.

Speaker 2 (01:41):
Ledger's not there yet. He can't sit through a movie
theater just yet.

Speaker 3 (01:45):
But oh yeah, and it's one of my favorite date
nights still, like, I love it, And I love the
upgraded movie theaters now where.

Speaker 2 (01:52):
You can like order it's like a bar.

Speaker 3 (01:54):
Yeah, you can order food to your like yeah, wishy,
I mean. But that's the bad thing is I I
fall asleep very easy in a comfy chair in a
dark room, so I can't even in a movie theater,
especially in a movie theater like the big chairs that
can like lean back and recline.

Speaker 2 (02:13):
Now, oh, it's a death it's a death bled for me.

Speaker 3 (02:16):
I am comfy, I am good, I've got Jordan's arm
and I'm snoozing probably forty minutes.

Speaker 4 (02:23):
Oh god. Yeah, I can't. I can't.

Speaker 1 (02:25):
I cannot fall asleep watching a movie. I just have
to know how it ends.

Speaker 4 (02:28):
Anyway. Yeah, we were big. We were big movie go
to the movies all the time as.

Speaker 3 (02:31):
A family, like as a family, all you all three
boys and everything.

Speaker 4 (02:34):
Yep, as a family.

Speaker 1 (02:35):
And because I was the youngest, my brothers want to
go see stuff that I shouldn't see. So my mom
just got you know, perfect at covering my eyes or
my ears or both, okay for certain parts of movies.

Speaker 4 (02:47):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (02:47):
So because my brothers are older, so I wanted to
go see stuff, and they're like, well, you can't not
bring your brother. We can't not go as a family,
so right, and we're not going to make a seventeen
year old sit through something Disney. So it's like I
was seeing a ready movies when I was young and
just having my eyes covered most of the time.

Speaker 2 (03:03):
Do you remember what your first movie was?

Speaker 1 (03:05):
My first movie ever in the theater, I believe was
Empire Strikes.

Speaker 4 (03:08):
Back in Wow four. Yeah, I was for you Wow. Yeah.

Speaker 2 (03:13):
I have no idea.

Speaker 3 (03:15):
I cannot remember what my first movie wasn't that's so sad.

Speaker 1 (03:19):
Yeah, you know what's really sad is when you find
out somebody that you like and admire, that you work
with has never seen the Star Wars movies.

Speaker 4 (03:26):
Isn't that crazy? Have you seen the Star Wars movies? Sure?
Oh wait, have you not? I'm talking about Mikayla. Have
you not seen the Star Wars movies? Oh my god?
What is wrong with you?

Speaker 2 (03:38):
I'm definitely not in a theater. Definitely not in the theater.
That had been a waste of time for my family.

Speaker 4 (03:44):
I can't do I can't do this with you anymore.
I think I can't do it.

Speaker 3 (03:48):
I've seen them. My dad's a pretty big fan. But
I can't tell you which is one. First of all,
there's like so many of them, and I can't tell
you which one I like.

Speaker 2 (03:59):
I get them.

Speaker 3 (03:59):
Mixed with like Planet of the Apes like I honestly,
I am not sorry. I know it's killing you softly,
just like one word at a time.

Speaker 4 (04:09):
I just what.

Speaker 3 (04:10):
I go into the Star Wars Land at Disneyland.

Speaker 2 (04:13):
I'm lost. I have no idea what any of this
stuff is. It looks cool, it's big. I go on
the rides. I don't get it.

Speaker 3 (04:21):
I think it seems like Star Tours is pretty much
the same thing.

Speaker 2 (04:24):
I really did you just leave? He just turned? He
turned his video.

Speaker 4 (04:34):
Are we now?

Speaker 1 (04:35):
Are?

Speaker 2 (04:37):
I'm sorry, it's true.

Speaker 3 (04:38):
I I know I've seen them because my dad liked them,
but I don't.

Speaker 2 (04:43):
I couldn't tell you, which is what.

Speaker 4 (04:44):
Do you know what a sith is?

Speaker 2 (04:47):
That sounds like an STD.

Speaker 1 (04:52):
I went to the doctor yesterday. It turns out I
have sith. Yeah, no, the sith. All right, we're not kidding.
This is a whole nother podcast. Oh my god, that
was a shot at Mikayla. I figured you'd be like,
of course, I've seen Star Wars. I'm a normal person now.

Speaker 3 (05:07):
No Rise of the Resistance is okay. So she's at
least saying she loves the land at Tisney.

Speaker 2 (05:14):
Mikayla, I don't think that's going to get you back.

Speaker 1 (05:17):
No, this is just so wrong. Producer Lisa. We will
go hang out as friends.

Speaker 2 (05:22):
As I knew Lisa would be upset about.

Speaker 4 (05:25):
It, because she's awesome. That's the problem is with the
rest of you. Anyway.

Speaker 1 (05:29):
Welcome back to Magical Rewind, the show that makes you
want to grab your friends, your PJS, and your popcorn
and go back to your time when all the houses
were smart.

Speaker 4 (05:35):
The waves, tsunamis and all your friends didn't suck.

Speaker 2 (05:37):
I'm will for no man, I'm Sabrina Bryan.

Speaker 1 (05:41):
This week we're throwing a big celebrity premiere for our
newest d com. Line up at your local movie theater
and make sure the popcorn is fresh and get it
one on the way out. Apparently as well get it refilled,
because it's time to review two thousand's Phantom of the Megaplex,
released on November tenth of two thousand. As the title
might suggest, this movie is loosely based on the nineteen
ten novel by Gaston Lero that later morphed into a

(06:04):
Broadway mega blockbuster and many many movies, Phantom of the Opera.

Speaker 4 (06:08):
Did you assume that was the.

Speaker 1 (06:09):
Case, Sabrina, when you saw the title, that Phantom of
the Megaplex was gonna be Phantom of the Opera? And
have you seen Phantom of the Opera or do you
throw that on the pile with Star Wars.

Speaker 2 (06:18):
I've seen Phantom of the Opera. M No.

Speaker 3 (06:22):
I didn't honestly didn't even really put that in either
together at all at all, not even a little. But
I was thinking, we're going to watch a scary movie
Spooky Season, and I'm.

Speaker 1 (06:31):
In that's what I thought too, And then we watched
this one. Yeah, many of the fans of Phantom of
the Megaplex, sorry, any fans of Phantom of the Megaplex,
call it the PG Disney Channel version of Scream, the
meta Halloween horror hit of the nineties, but others might
notice similaris to Scooby Doo. And truthfully, both of those

(06:51):
things are correct, and both are also wrong. But I
think maybe we expected a bit more scary hearing those comparisons,
Like this wasn't scary.

Speaker 3 (07:00):
I mean, there was a moment where I'm like, Okay,
I'm glad I didn't. I was gonna have Monroe watch
it with me. But I'm just really nervous about getting
her into scary movies, just because I don't know what's
gonna trigger her to like dreams, and I don't want starting.

Speaker 1 (07:15):
With a scary d coom is probably the way to go,
as opposed to like, this's Nightmare on Elm Street.

Speaker 3 (07:19):
Like it's in our interview with someone, we were talking about,
you know, doing Hocus Focus, and someone was like, oh,
that's kind of scary, and I was like it is.
So it's like I gotta watch I gotta watch it first.

Speaker 4 (07:30):
I still haven't seen it, still haven't seen it.

Speaker 1 (07:32):
While watching these older dcoms, we frequently run into small
elements that have become pretty dated since the release. Whether
it's a flip phone, a beeper, or a neon scrunchy,
it can stand out at times.

Speaker 4 (07:42):
But here this movie, it's kind.

Speaker 1 (07:44):
Of the entire concept of the film because it's the
movie theater. So you said you you went growing up,
I went growing up. But movie theaters are completely different things.
Most people aren't going at all.

Speaker 4 (07:55):
I know, kind of sucks because they were the.

Speaker 3 (08:00):
I mean, it's like to the point where it used
to be you had to get your tickets early for
some mega movies, right, like you had to go and
get them, not on an app.

Speaker 2 (08:11):
You had to go.

Speaker 3 (08:11):
To the theater and sit in line and get a
ticket to like the big weekend of the opening that
you see.

Speaker 4 (08:19):
And wait in line and wait in line and wait
in line. Yep.

Speaker 3 (08:22):
And I'm telling you and now that the theaters are
so grand and have, like like I said, the easy,
easy seating type things, like the lazy boy type things
in the service, they're smaller, right, there's not as many
seats packed in them, and it's still like crickets and
it's like it's they're still not selling out, Like I

(08:43):
don't think I've been to a movie theater that was
packed in years.

Speaker 1 (08:48):
Yeah, it's also it's one of those things where every
everybody knows that it's like, okay, am I going to
go out do everything I gotta do, get the movie,
go to that stuff.

Speaker 4 (08:55):
When in a.

Speaker 1 (08:56):
Week it's going to be streams, it's going to be
available on it's like so wid so this this entire
movie is kind of like not the thing.

Speaker 4 (09:03):
Yeah, it's I know, it.

Speaker 3 (09:04):
Felt it felt dated, even though it's not like it
felt dated, just purely on the fact that it's the movie.

Speaker 4 (09:11):
I agree one hundred percent.

Speaker 1 (09:12):
Also worth noting there is a payphone used in this
movie for a crucial plot point, and those don't even
exist anymore.

Speaker 4 (09:18):
Do you remember how much payphones were.

Speaker 3 (09:20):
Twenty five cents? See they were and then it went
up to thirty five.

Speaker 4 (09:24):
You know how much they were in Connecticut? What a dime?

Speaker 2 (09:29):
A dime?

Speaker 1 (09:30):
It was ten cents to make a phone call in Connecticut,
and everybody to the point where everybody when I came
out to La thought I was lying when I said
that in like twenty five cents, because so the very
quick payphone story. It's my favorite payphone story ever, and
I've got a lot of them. When I booked Boy
Meets World, I was in Los Angeles, obviously, first screen

(09:50):
test with my dad. My dad and I flew out
and I walked out of the audition saying, this, man,
that was a horrible audition. I can't believe I didn't
get it. I so wanted it. That's terrible. My dad
looked at me, he could see it in my face.
He goes, so, where where do you want to go?

Speaker 4 (10:02):
What do you want to do?

Speaker 1 (10:03):
And I'd only been here a couple of times I
was sixteen. I was like, I want to go to
the Ripley's Believe it or Not Museum in Hollywood and
then go like walk around Hollywood.

Speaker 4 (10:11):
My Dad's like, fine, let's go do that.

Speaker 1 (10:13):
So we drive into Hollywood and we're walking around the museum.
But right before we were like about to go in, though,
there's a bank of payphones right across the street.

Speaker 4 (10:21):
My dad goes, why don't you just call your age?

Speaker 2 (10:23):
What's a bank of payphones mean?

Speaker 1 (10:25):
What does that mean like the bank, like the phones
in the in the movie you just saw, there's like
ten of them in a row. That's called a phone bank. Okay,
there would be a bank of phones. So there's like
multiple payphones together.

Speaker 4 (10:35):
Oh that's so Scottish.

Speaker 1 (10:37):
And so he goes, why don't you just go and
call your agent because nobody had cell phones wasn't such
a thing because nineteen ninety three. So I walked a
cromoped and walked across the street and picked up the payphone,
put in the change, called my agent in New York
and he wait, you got it. And that bank of
phones was there until like two years ago.

Speaker 4 (10:54):
Oh, and they finally took it.

Speaker 1 (10:56):
I literally drove by about a week and a half ago, Susan,
and we looked over and there's still like an imprint
of where we were, and that's where I was standing
when I found out I got.

Speaker 4 (11:06):
So it was there forever. So payphones very important to me.

Speaker 2 (11:10):
Yes, that is awesome.

Speaker 3 (11:12):
I mean I remember, you know, having to stop while
I was out auditioning with my dad, you know, and
they always seem to be at like at or by
like gas stations too.

Speaker 2 (11:24):
They were always kind of like.

Speaker 4 (11:25):
They're always a little bit gross. Was going on. Everybody's
using them.

Speaker 3 (11:30):
Everyone just treated them terribly, graffiti on them, spilt.

Speaker 2 (11:34):
Like yes, sodas or whatever.

Speaker 4 (11:39):
But I miss him.

Speaker 1 (11:40):
I do.

Speaker 2 (11:41):
Oh man.

Speaker 1 (11:42):
Now, I know we've mentioned this movie in the past,
but we always asked this. Did you know anything about
this movie going in?

Speaker 2 (11:47):
No, never saw. This is the first time for me.

Speaker 1 (11:51):
Nope, same, same, same, same. All right, well the synopsis
before we roll midnight Mayhem.

Speaker 4 (11:56):
Let's talk about what this movie is about.

Speaker 1 (11:58):
Yes, when a massive movie theater duplex prepares for a
big Hollywood premiere, a string of spooky events makes employees
suspect the theater is haunted. Team manager and training Peaked
must solve the mystery before the big event is ruined.

Speaker 4 (12:11):
And I was wishing it was hatching Peak, but it's not.

Speaker 1 (12:13):
And as per usual, you can watch Phantom of the
Megaplex right now in Disney Plush not Disney Minus though,
don't even buy that one. It's just filled with unboxing
videos and the sound of a sad bassoon. M They're
probably gonna put in a sad bassoon sound, but I
imagine it's gonna sound like.

Speaker 4 (12:31):
That because I could do a pretty good, Sad Bassoon.
What did you think of the movie? Early thoughts? What
did you think?

Speaker 2 (12:38):
I had great hopes for this movie. I was ready
to watch a fun, spooky movie and then we watched this.

Speaker 3 (12:46):
I watched it and it was it went down pretty
quickly like the Titanic.

Speaker 2 (12:53):
It was, uh, the Titanic.

Speaker 5 (12:55):
I'm going to go down in this movie to watch
and I've you know, I'm ready to see like a
really good one, so I can't wait to I feel
like I haven't been floored.

Speaker 1 (13:07):
Yeah, Halloween Town two was okay, it was it was not.

Speaker 4 (13:11):
It was not bad.

Speaker 1 (13:11):
It brought us back into that world. But we've had
a couple stinkers now in a row. This was not
a good movie.

Speaker 2 (13:16):
And Halloween the Halloween Town too.

Speaker 3 (13:20):
I feel like a lot of times we see the
second Disney, like you know, of the of the brand,
you know in these movies, the second ones tend to
have been better, and it wasn't. That's the only thing
that was kind of like, I was ready for a
t even better than the first one, and that was
ye case, this was even worse.

Speaker 4 (13:40):
Yeah, this is not. This was not a good one, and.

Speaker 3 (13:42):
I felt bad. I had like I said, I was
excited to watch it me too. I heard so much
about it, but a lot of people kind of bring
this one up.

Speaker 4 (13:49):
Yeah, I'm not sure why.

Speaker 1 (13:51):
I feel like we're One of the things that I'm
starting to notice is every time it kind of says
this a movie is from two thousand or ninety nine
or even two thousand and one up to say Cheetah Girls,
this is kind of a weird time in the Channel
when it comes to movies. It seems like they're really
trying to find They're not doing Brink and they're not
doing high school musical right, So it's like there's there's

(14:13):
some weirdness in like the end of ninety nine two
thousand era. Yeah, that it's kind of like they're not
really knowing what they are right now.

Speaker 3 (14:22):
And I know I've said this before, but I also
think it's because this was the era of the Channel
that was putting these out every month.

Speaker 4 (14:31):
Right, so just bumping them out.

Speaker 3 (14:33):
So I feel like a little bit like they're the
bar is not that high because it doesn't really matter.
They're doing them so often that it's not like I
feel like once you started getting the Cheetah Girls and
you started getting into.

Speaker 2 (14:47):
The High School Musical.

Speaker 3 (14:48):
They were taking a lot more time, investing a lot
more into the scripts and the writers and the sets
and stuff. It seems like they were just pumping them
out just to pump them out, and.

Speaker 4 (15:01):
It feels like that.

Speaker 1 (15:03):
I don't know, but it's just it just feels like
they're trying to find themselves in the dcom world at
this era.

Speaker 3 (15:09):
They haven't hit that that that token, this is a
this is a decom type right.

Speaker 1 (15:14):
But the Xenons and the Brinks and the stuff before
this all were great, and they kind of went into
this lull and then Cheetah Girls came and I think
that kind of changed the whole ball game again, where
they're like.

Speaker 4 (15:25):
Oh, this is what we have to do. So yeah,
I think this is just a bit of the law.

Speaker 1 (15:28):
This is like the uh Anthony Michael Hall season of
SNL where people kind of forget that it's like, oh, yeah,
that's right, he was on it too.

Speaker 4 (15:36):
That's kind of that's kind of the dcoms we're doing
right now. Anyway. This movie was directed by Blair True.

Speaker 1 (15:42):
We talked about Blair, a Utah local, during our recup
of Wish upon a Star, a movie he also directed.
He's a BYU graduate who started his Hollywood journey as
an assistant to senior VP at Disney, then got his
first movie for the studio in nineteen ninety three, Just
Like Dad, starring Nick Cassavettis and Wallace Sean.

Speaker 4 (15:58):
It conceivable he'd go on.

Speaker 1 (16:00):
To direct another Disney movie, The Paper Brigade, and direct
some episodes of TV, but over the past ten years
he's focused mostly on Mormon and BYU content, and the
movie stars Taylor Hanley as Pete Riley. This was one
of Taylor's first jobs as a kid. He also appeared
in TV shows like Fraser Dawson's Creek and The OC,
and he stayed a very busy actor ever since, in
shows like Griselda, movies like the Texas Chainsaw Masker remake,

(16:23):
and most recently, he was in the critically beloved series
Mayor of Kingstown alongside Jerry Renner and Diane Weistkrinn Boer
plays Julie Riley I'm hoping that's how I say it,
and Krinn was also a very busy actor in movies
like They Call Me Bruce, Joysticks and Police Academy four,
Citizens on Patrol as well as TV shows like Friends,
Mister Show, and Veronica Mars. But Magic Rewinders will most

(16:46):
definitely recognize her from Under Wraps, where she played the mom,
and they have Caitlin wax is Karen Riley. Some of
you may know her as a frequent collaborator with a
Hollywood legend of the screen air Bud. Yes, she was
in Airbud World Pup and Airbud Seventh Inning, Fetch Wo,
as well as movies that don't star a canine sports

(17:07):
stars such as The Divine Secret of the ya Ya
Sisterhood and the straight to video sequel To Inspect her Gadget.
She appears to have left the business, though her last
credit is from twenty fourteen.

Speaker 4 (17:17):
And we have Jacob Smith who plays Brian Riley.

Speaker 1 (17:19):
Jacob's best known as Owen Salinger and Party of Five,
and he played Jake in the Cheaper by the Dust movies.
And we have rick Maybe playing Ricky. Ricky has become
a frequent seth Rogen and Jay Barshell collaborator over the years,
seen in movies like Zach and Mury, Make a Porno Goon, Preacher,
Future Man, and most recently the new record holder for
the most Emmys in a night the studio, and I'd
like to point out, because of course this is a

(17:41):
podcast and it's not on video most of it. Sabrina
giggled over the word porno, and in the Dabney Redditch
she's giggling right now. And in the Dabney Reynolds share,
it's a big one, people, and that has nothing to
do with his size, because he is a legend. We've
got five foot two inch Hollywood man himself, Mickey Rooney
as movie made. Mickey's career spanned nine decades, that's ninety years.

(18:04):
People bursting out of the scene as a child actor
in the twenties, he'd later become a major box office
draw for MGM Studios, known for his loud personality and size,
eventually starring in movies like Babes and Arms and Boystown.
He'd earn an honorary Oscar as well as multiple Emmy
and Tony nominations. He was a true star for as
long as there was a Hollywood. Rooney died in twenty
fourteen at the age of ninety four. Serena, did you

(18:25):
know who Mickey Rooney was? Yes, he was just a legend.
It was always like Judy Garland and Mickey Rooney. I
mean these were like the original, original, original people.

Speaker 2 (18:36):
And that were Yeah, he was my favorite part of
this movie.

Speaker 4 (18:41):
I don't disagree.

Speaker 2 (18:42):
Literally loved him, do not disagree all ever he.

Speaker 3 (18:45):
Was on the screen. I was big smile, loved it.
I think he's absolutely adorable. He is that like Grandpa
that you just want to give, like the biggest hug.

Speaker 4 (18:54):
Too, and just a true legend.

Speaker 2 (18:56):
You know, he'll pull out like a legend. He'll do
the or with the ear type.

Speaker 3 (19:01):
Yeah, you know, it just seems like that, like you know,
always that's like candy to give.

Speaker 2 (19:06):
He just seems amazing.

Speaker 4 (19:07):
He was the man.

Speaker 1 (19:09):
And sure, this all sounds well and good, but let's
hope the movie runs less than the ninety four years
that Rooney lived.

Speaker 4 (19:15):
Okay, here we go, Phantom of the Megaplex. Clock's in it.

Speaker 1 (19:19):
Eighty nine minutes, people one away from the target and
sitting on the right side of history. Beautiful, almost a
perfect landing. I'm thrilled for everyone involved, and I'd like
to thank my family.

Speaker 4 (19:28):
I'd like to thank my friends. I'm sorry I'm being played.

Speaker 1 (19:31):
Off and this should come as absolutely no surprise, but
guess who wrote it.

Speaker 4 (19:35):
That's right.

Speaker 1 (19:35):
It's the d com daddy himself, Stu Krieger, a friend
of the show and a true Disney icon.

Speaker 4 (19:41):
Hey Serena, Yeah, poor No, there we go works every time.

Speaker 3 (19:50):
Eight year old I can't hell of it is just
like so out of them, like what are we talking about?

Speaker 4 (19:56):
Right on this? I love it.

Speaker 1 (19:58):
Creaker is the most writing credits in d Calm history,
clocking in titles like cow Bells, Going to the Matt,
True Confessions, Gotta Kick It Up, the poof Point, Smart House,
and the Xenons, God Mate stew Then He Threw Away
the Mold.

Speaker 6 (20:15):
Halloween is around the corner, and your favorite podcasters serving
up episodes that are so good it's actually scary. Sex
and the City meet Severance when Adam Scott joins Kristin
Davis to discuss the haunting relationship between Big and Natasha
on Are You a Charlotte?

Speaker 4 (20:31):
And nine one one?

Speaker 6 (20:32):
What's Your Emergency? The new episode of Call It What
It Is? Of course nine to one to one.

Speaker 2 (20:36):
Nashville co star.

Speaker 6 (20:37):
Kimberly Williams Paisley joins Jessica Capshaw and Camilla Ludington to
talk about her health scare her superstar Hubby Brad Paisley
and her memories on the set of Father of the
Bride with the legendary Diane Keaton oscar winner Bree Larsen
is a work in progress. Sophia Bush finds out why
and waltz right over to daniel With because Danielle Fischel

(20:57):
has fellow Dancing with the Stars contestant Dylan Efron on
to talk about the ballroom, the leaderboard and more. Listen
now on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you
get your podcast.

Speaker 1 (21:16):
So let's hide the monster inflatables because even tied down
we can't promise anything.

Speaker 4 (21:20):
It's time to learn about Phantom of the Megaplex. We
open with.

Speaker 1 (21:24):
Spooky organ music, which is a great way to start
any movie if you ask me. We see old timey
footage or the Phantom of the Opera, with some narration
from Pete about how history sometimes can really be boring,
but every once in a while it can blow your mind, which,
by the way, is completely false.

Speaker 4 (21:39):
History is the best. I love it so much.

Speaker 1 (21:42):
We get our title treatment as the organ gets louder
while the grainy black and white footage and narration continues.

Speaker 4 (21:47):
He explains that the first movie theater.

Speaker 1 (21:49):
The Grand Theater with a nice extra E on the end,
so it's like Grande opened in nineteen twenty five and
Phantom of the Opera was the first film it showed. Eventually,
as times changed, the theater was condemned, with a rumor
that one of the theatergoers was actually still inside when
it exploded. Some even say he survived in some fashion,
and I was like, Oh, it's going to be spooky,

(22:10):
and then it wasn't. Now in modern day, a new,
huge movie theater was built in its place, and the
legend of the condemned patron grew. Seventeen year old Pete
Riley works at the Grand Theater as the youngest assistant
manager ever, and every time a light flickers or something breaks,
they blame this theater Phantom. Then we meet Sean McGibbon,
the stuffy senior manager. He's freaking out because the theater owner,

(22:31):
Wolfgang Niedermeier great name, scored a big Hollywood style movie
premiere for Midnight Mayhem, a flick that filmed nearby.

Speaker 4 (22:38):
When they meet Ricky aka Ricky Rules. Now bear with.

Speaker 1 (22:42):
Me, people, because this is where we get just a
ton of akas. And it was a little much for me.
We meet Ricky aka Ricky Rules. He's an employee who
knows all the rules and does everything by the book.
There's also Terry Torta, also known as Scary Terry. She's
always telling stories that ended death the destruction. Then you've
got Hillary aka Hillary Honey. She's a grandma, a teene's body,

(23:04):
always making sure the staff is eating enough and wearing
a jacket if it's cold. And Mark aka question Mark.
He seems to only answer anything asked of him with
a question. But after that, Pete also runs into Lacey
Ling or Racy Lacey, who is an overachiever who works
at rapid speed. Yes, there are a ton of people
we're meeting now. They're barely in the movie, and for
some reason, they're all named like their garbage pail kids.

(23:27):
It was really weird.

Speaker 2 (23:30):
There was so many. I mean, you love them, Hillary
Honey like Lacey Ling, but you love those names.

Speaker 3 (23:36):
I'm like, oh my gosh, but how many of them
are and they just.

Speaker 4 (23:41):
Don't kind of don't matter to the movie. And it's
really weird.

Speaker 3 (23:44):
Honestly, Well, we'll get to it, but no one really matters.

Speaker 4 (23:48):
No, I still don't know who who the star of
this movie is. I still have no idea.

Speaker 1 (23:54):
Then there's the head projectionist, Merle, who's a bit older
and very much into the technical details of his quickly
disappear job. And then we've got, of course, movie Mason,
played by the great Mickey Rooney. Mason doesn't even work
at the theater. He just pretends he does. His family
opened the original theater back in the twenties, and he
just loves movies, and every week he writes up his
own schedule and then just shows up. Pete also mentions

(24:14):
Caitlyn Kerrigan, who Caitlyn his big school crush. To score points,
he got her and her friend's two passes to an
early movie and the premiere, so everything's got to be
one hundred percent perfect for the night, a point Sean
emphasizes during an all out staff meeting. He wants the
Hollywood big wigs to see greatness from their humble theater.
People's jobs are on the line here, everybody and on cue.

(24:35):
Owner Wolfgang Niedermayer calls with some news he's hired his
son in law as a new general manager, which visibly
hurt Sean, but Sean puts on a good face. And
gets back to work, even praising Pete about his future
in the organization, but also he says if anything goes
wrong tonight.

Speaker 4 (24:50):
He'll be to blame. That sounds fair.

Speaker 1 (24:53):
Once home, Pete walks into an argument between his sister
Karen and their mom Julie. Karen is being asked to
babysit their little brother while she goes out with her
boyfriend George tonight. Pete wonders if she's gonna propose soon,
and it seems they really really like this guy. Karen
and the youngest brother, Brian, seem to relate everything to movies,
and ironically, Pete, the guy whose entire life is spent
in a movie theater, lives more in reality.

Speaker 4 (25:13):
He's all about.

Speaker 1 (25:14):
The money, which, of course you know as a kid
you want money, you work in the theater. Brian wants
to see Farmer Brown goes to town, while Karen wants
to see the horror flick University of Death with friends,
but Julie thinks University of Death is too gory for Karen,
who now hates her life because she isn't allowed to
see it. They end up compromising, though the two young
kids can go see Farmer Brown. But Pete has to

(25:36):
drive them home on his dinner break, which feels an
awful lot of responsibility put on the shoulders of a
seventeen year old kid who's also working at a job
just so his mom can go out with her boyfriend.
It seems a little It's like, really, how about you
take care of the kids while I go to work?

Speaker 4 (25:51):
Great?

Speaker 2 (25:51):
Oh man, I let the lady have a.

Speaker 3 (25:55):
Date night occasionally, but come on, I also like, can't
you just like get a sitter.

Speaker 4 (26:02):
I mean, it's big Hollywood career night. It's like a
huge night in my career, big.

Speaker 2 (26:07):
Night, and he's at work. I've how long is this break?

Speaker 3 (26:10):
I don't know anyone that gets like like what I mean, oh,
by these them all the way back home and then
get back.

Speaker 1 (26:18):
Now you're seventeen years old, you're running the theater on
the lunch break that they give you. You can't eat
or take any time to yourself. Drive your brother and
sister back home because I'm going out with George to
get some strange No, I don't think so.

Speaker 3 (26:34):
I don't mind that she's on a date. Let the
lady live her life. But I get it, but you
need to get somebody else to help you.

Speaker 1 (26:41):
Yeah, on this night of all nights, it's like Bob, Yeah,
go out with George tomorrow.

Speaker 4 (26:45):
He's not going anywhere. Go out with George tomorrow.

Speaker 2 (26:47):
Pick him up, pick him up and take him back.

Speaker 4 (26:50):
How hard is that?

Speaker 2 (26:51):
Jeez?

Speaker 1 (26:52):
Anyway, inside, Pete's eating cereal from a bowl bigger than
his head. Julian forms him of the plan for tonight,
and he is bummed. He thinks the kids will cramp
style with Caitlin.

Speaker 4 (27:01):
They will.

Speaker 1 (27:02):
They also reminisce about his dad, who is a movie
lover and yes, appears to be dead, a rarity in
d coms, where again, what do they say?

Speaker 4 (27:09):
One D is good divorced, the other D dead not good.

Speaker 1 (27:13):
Now, keep in mind this is something else that never
comes up again, Thank you very much. Right, Yeah, they
mention it, they move on. I get it, but it's strange.
Why not just make George's debt anyway? Julie does wonder
if that's why Pete works at the megaplex, but he
quickly insists he's not there for the movies.

Speaker 4 (27:29):
He's there for the cold, hard cash. But either way,
his mom thinks he's working too much.

Speaker 1 (27:34):
Well, maybe it's because you're giving him all the chores
while you're out doing what you do, Ma, But he
swears he doesn't need time away, especially because tonight's premiere
is going to be fun and he's not nervous about
it at all. And then we get what we call
on podmeats World. It's become famous. There's even a shirt
made about it, optical flip. It's a total disaster At
the theater. Half of the staff is called in sick,

(27:55):
and Niedermeyer has been checking in all day long, so
we find out that at all lunch and dinner breaks
have been canceled. Ricky Rules AKA knows that that's a
violation of union rules, but admits there's nothing that can
be done about it. Back at the Riley House, Karen
is trying to make a sneaky plan so she can
still see the forbidden University of Death, but you'll need
Brian's assistance and that could cause even more problems. We're

(28:18):
now back at the theater. Movie Mason is greeting visitors.
The concession stand is busy, and there's also a very
weird setup where people can try to win a prize
by pulling a sword out. It was an asteroid, right,
it was like it was like for a science movie
or was it pulling the sword out of the stone
like ex Caliber.

Speaker 2 (28:34):
But Excalibur situation.

Speaker 1 (28:36):
Yeah, but so you can pull the sword out of
the stone to win a prize. Okay, that's when we
meet Pete's bully, Donnie Holly, who shows up just because
he heard that Caitlin was coming. Yes, it turns out
that this guy is what they used to call in
two thousand eight blocking Jerk. Pete ignores them, but his
cage seems rattled by the better looking, cooler.

Speaker 4 (28:57):
Donnie, which I didn't get at all.

Speaker 1 (29:00):
I thought Pete was better looking, he's taller, he's in
charge any thing like what that guy?

Speaker 4 (29:07):
Come on?

Speaker 3 (29:07):
I know, but it just plays right into like just
like Jerk skits so much attention from girls, which it
is sad but true.

Speaker 4 (29:14):
They do.

Speaker 1 (29:15):
Nice guy's finish last, so sad. That's why George isn't gonna.

Speaker 4 (29:19):
Get any of the night. It's true.

Speaker 1 (29:21):
Outside Karen and Brian are dropped off by their overprotective
mom and George. The theater is very backed up, and
not even movie Mason can help, especially since he isn't
taking tickets for the movie. He thinks are a waste
of time and money. So yeah, he's ripping tickets and
telling the people they shouldn't go to these crappy movies,
which actually thought was pretty funny. As movie goers continue
to line up on the door, GM Sean pulls him

(29:42):
off of his post and kicks the movie Mason man
himself out of the theater. He's called an insurance liability,
so Movie Mason finally walks out.

Speaker 4 (29:51):
Can't believe it because it's so close to his heart,
this beautiful theater he has to leave.

Speaker 1 (29:56):
Karen and Brian eventually meet up with their brother, who
is still assuring them he hates movies, and then he
sees Caitlin Kerrigan and runs off to say hi. Brian
makes a bee line for the candy dispenser and accidentally
breaks the handle off. Then, alongside Pete's bully Donnie, they
spill thousands of gumballs onto the floor, causing customers to
violently slip over and over again.

Speaker 4 (30:15):
Like they're marbles.

Speaker 1 (30:16):
But I don't if your feet are on the ground
and the things anyway, it's a Disney movie, and so
they were falling over the gumballs, which happens Donnie tries
to blame Brian, but Brian points out it's the Phantom,
And that's when I realized the first time that the
Phantom has been mentioned in this movie at all, essentially
that they're talking about him doing something, is twenty five

(30:36):
minutes into the movie, right, twenty five minutes.

Speaker 2 (30:39):
In lots of backstory, lots of.

Speaker 4 (30:42):
Stuff, lots of akao, lots of as.

Speaker 1 (30:45):
Lots of akas. This is such a really weird element
of the movie. The Phantom doesn't do terrible things at all.
They're just kind of little inconveniences, Like I thought the
people would be disappearing, or somebody's guts would be somewhere
or turned into something, or abducted or injured, or dropping lights.

Speaker 4 (31:04):
I mean something that like if a light fell next.

Speaker 1 (31:07):
To somebody, like it doesn't hit anybody, but like it
falls and it smashes. It's like, oh my god, there's
real danger. But instead it's like the gumball machine breaks
and there's some more popcorn than we can have and.

Speaker 4 (31:18):
The movie is skipping. It's like there's no danger.

Speaker 2 (31:21):
Water water in the balloons.

Speaker 7 (31:23):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (31:23):
I wasn't expecting it to be like dangerous.

Speaker 3 (31:27):
But.

Speaker 2 (31:28):
Yeah, it did.

Speaker 4 (31:30):
They threw in brink.

Speaker 1 (31:31):
They threw ten kids down a mountain on roller blades
and they're like knocking each other aside like that and
this one they're like that popcor in Machines broadcast. It's like,
give us, give us some I mean like even in
Halloween Town people are turning gray, you know, like magic
is dying. There's like real steaks. This is like you

(31:53):
got to clean up.

Speaker 3 (31:54):
Yes, and the yeah, there was, it wasn't it didn't.
It could have gone and pushed a little bit more
towards the scary side.

Speaker 4 (32:07):
Something.

Speaker 1 (32:07):
Just give us some some consequence, like people could get hurt,
people could disappear, the little boy goes missing. I mean,
like something right where it's you know, but this is
just these were.

Speaker 4 (32:20):
This phantom gave us mild inconveniences.

Speaker 3 (32:24):
It was like everyone seemed to be able to very
quickly get over it exactly.

Speaker 7 (32:30):
Even when we get to like the balloons situation, it's like, oh,
dry off, we're good, let's go, and it's like, you know,
it didn't ruin anything.

Speaker 2 (32:41):
No, so terrible phantom.

Speaker 1 (32:44):
Yes, the phantom of the making things slightly inconvenient for you.

Speaker 4 (32:49):
Yeah, it was weird.

Speaker 1 (32:51):
Pete Leaves Caitlyn to help clean up by using a
nearby hockey stick to swat the gumballs.

Speaker 4 (32:57):
You know, a hockey sticks are always just sitting around
movie theaters.

Speaker 1 (33:00):
Sorry, he grabbed the what they call movie theater hockey
stick and he used that to clean up a single
gumball at a time. Why not use a broom, you idiot?

Speaker 3 (33:10):
You know this, And to be honest though, like this
is when I started to get irritated too, Like.

Speaker 2 (33:17):
I'm just kind of like, okay, this is yeah, it.

Speaker 4 (33:23):
Was you know, yeah, so yeah, so he's using that.

Speaker 1 (33:27):
But during the ten seconds he was focused on his job,
Donnie comes in and steals Caitlin away.

Speaker 4 (33:32):
Wow.

Speaker 1 (33:33):
What. Karen is ready to see her horror movie, but
first sets up Ryan in the kiddie movie. She explains
if Pete CoP's looking for just say she's in the restroom.
And this is when we hear about the cinema sitter,
which apparently was a job back in the day, which
I don't remember at all. In this case, it's an
old lady walking theater to theater to make sure everyone's behaving.

Speaker 4 (33:50):
Did you had you heard of this a cinema sitter?

Speaker 1 (33:52):
It must be a thing I guess where somebody would
go and sit with my kid.

Speaker 4 (33:56):
I had never heard of the No.

Speaker 3 (33:57):
I'd never heard this, and that's I don't. I don't
believe it was ever a thing.

Speaker 4 (34:02):
Maybe it wasn't.

Speaker 1 (34:02):
I don't. I never heard of it either. It's an
interesting character possibility because you.

Speaker 2 (34:06):
Again, she comes out of nowhere.

Speaker 4 (34:09):
And disappears, and then disappears.

Speaker 3 (34:11):
We never see her again. This is when I'm starting
to catch on, like, who are the characters? I'm questioning,
who are the characters that?

Speaker 2 (34:19):
Actually?

Speaker 4 (34:20):
Who do about? Who came?

Speaker 5 (34:22):
Right?

Speaker 3 (34:25):
Okay, so no, now we've got the sitter. She could
be a really fun character to play with.

Speaker 4 (34:30):
Right. He also could have been the Phantom.

Speaker 3 (34:32):
She could have been the Phantom. Yeah, And it's kind
of like but it doesn't matter. I didn't need to
worry about it too.

Speaker 4 (34:37):
Much because I never saw her again, never saw her again.

Speaker 1 (34:39):
Don't have to don't have to follow your backstory, man,
I don't know who you are, nor do I.

Speaker 4 (34:45):
Care about you even slightly.

Speaker 1 (34:47):
Cinema sitter lady, And so Karen makes her way to
University of Death, avoiding that cinema sitter, while Pete reunites
with Caitlin. In her theater, promising that her and her
friend will get to meet hot celebs at the premiere later.
She's impressed with his power, especially when he announces he
may even get a promotion tonight again. Is this movie
about a phantom or just the inner workings of a

(35:08):
movie theater?

Speaker 4 (35:09):
I don't don't know what it is.

Speaker 2 (35:10):
I don't know. I'm starting to get a little irritated.

Speaker 4 (35:15):
That was the problem with this movie. What was I
didn't get the tone? Is it supposed to be? Is
it a rom com? Is it? Is it a scary,
no Halloween to kind of movie?

Speaker 3 (35:27):
What is it?

Speaker 4 (35:28):
Mida?

Speaker 3 (35:28):
I think it would be more towards that. It's definitely
not a rom com. We don't even like Did you
care about the love interest?

Speaker 4 (35:36):
Nope? No, No.

Speaker 1 (35:38):
One second she was with one dude, the next second
shoes with another. They don't kiss, they don't really touch,
they don't care.

Speaker 2 (35:43):
She doesn't have any lines. I know, he literally doesn't
have any lines this whole movie.

Speaker 1 (35:47):
I think she says two things and yeah, one of
them is what movie is this?

Speaker 4 (35:51):
And why am I in it? Yeah? Very strange.

Speaker 1 (35:54):
So Bully Donnie breaks up the flirt fast and says
that the popcorn machine in the lobby won't stop popping.
When Pete gets there, It's overflowing onto the snack counter.
Even turning it off won't help. So finally in this
movie we have something that could be the work of
the Phantom. But no, because Pete just unplugs it and
it stops. So once again, I'm there. The Phantom of
the Slight inconvenience. Yeah, doesn't roll off the tongue.

Speaker 4 (36:16):
Does it? But sorry, Phantom of the Apple. They're great,
slowly gently popcorn, it will stop popping. Uh yeah, But.

Speaker 1 (36:26):
When one of the movies in the theater is out
of focus, Oh, now we're getting crazy.

Speaker 4 (36:30):
Sean or Pete cannot be found.

Speaker 1 (36:31):
Pete's with his brother in theater seventeen, concerned that their
sister is supposedly in the restroom for this long but
still Brian is quick to blame the focus issues on
the Phantom.

Speaker 4 (36:40):
He explains that the Monster.

Speaker 1 (36:41):
Doesn't like this big Hollywood premiere coming to his home,
even if they can't agree on why it's happening. Little
Brian hears an evil, devilish laugh in the hallway, but
no one's around. When he runs off in fear, we
see that the Farmer Brown movie stand Up Eyes are moving.
Now in the University of Death Theater, Karen and her
friends play a game of doubledare, causing your friend Ashley
to stand up in yell I Love Paul Dalton, the

(37:02):
star of the movie, also adding that her name is
Karen Riley.

Speaker 4 (37:05):
To avoid any more embarrassment, Karen leaves.

Speaker 1 (37:07):
To check on Brian, but he's disappeared and she's caught
the attention of the cinema sitter. She quickly takes her
seat in Farmer Brown and hopes her brother returns soon.
And we're back at the snack counter. It's still packed,
Shawn is still Mia and mister Niedermeyer keeps calling for him.

Speaker 4 (37:22):
And now there's a disaster in theater twenty one. The
lights on the projector are out. The projectionist Master Merle
has no idea why it's happening. He thinks someone or
something is trying to sabotage their big night. They need
to find Sean.

Speaker 1 (37:35):
Obviously, Little Brian thinks this is the Phantom again and
wants to help Pete solve the mystery. Meanwhile, Hillary and
Scary Terry remember them from the beginning of the movie,
remember them see someone in a flowy black cape running.

Speaker 2 (37:47):
In the halls.

Speaker 4 (37:47):
But nothing is more concerning than what Pete and Brian find.

Speaker 1 (37:50):
In the basement. It's manager Sean tied up and gagged.
He didn't see who did it, but he was attacked
by the phantom.

Speaker 4 (37:57):
We're now back on the job.

Speaker 1 (37:58):
Sean finally picks up Niedermeyer's call, all the owners set
to arrive in an hour. The Riley kids finally reunite
on an escalator just says it breaks down more phantom. Brian,
you know he thinks so, by the way, And one
of my favorite jokes ever is Mitch Heedberg, who just
says escalators can never break, they can only become stairs.

(38:18):
And that's exactly what happened, So that's true. The littles
are set back to Farmer Brown while Pete continues to
try and solve this big phantom mess. Their dad always
used to say that watching a movie can teach you
lessons about life, but Pete is more pragmatic. But Brian
points out one of the big similarities between all the
Night's issues in the movie Glimpse of Gwenevere. In that theater,

(38:41):
the projection was out of focus in the theater, showing
cut to black.

Speaker 4 (38:44):
The projector's lights went off.

Speaker 1 (38:46):
The titles are matching the problem well except the popcorn
and the gumballs and.

Speaker 4 (38:51):
The escalator and all the other stuff keeping score.

Speaker 2 (38:56):
I'm out.

Speaker 1 (38:57):
Yeah, I was kind of by this point too. I
was just like, I say, what's happening. I don't understand
what's happening, and it just every time they said Pete,
it made me long for hatching Pete.

Speaker 4 (39:05):
I know, got it.

Speaker 1 (39:07):
Somebody would put on a chicken costume into a dance
for the love of God. Karen and Brian need to
figure out where this bad guy will strike next, and
they figure it out quick. He's placed a massive than
in the theater for cyclone summer, causing customers to run
for their lives or get pelted by debris. After everyone
felt the thrust of the g forces, Pete finally turns
the fan off, but the damage has been done.

Speaker 4 (39:29):
Kind of.

Speaker 1 (39:30):
On the other side of town, George and Julie's big
date is bust when they lost their first reservations. Now
the second restaurant they plan to go to went out
of business. It's a tough economy, even in the Phantom
of the Megaplex. Julie keeps dropping awkward hints that she
wants to get married, but it also seemed like she
didn't want to get married, but George seems hesitant as well.
They use this metaphor of plants to deal with it,

(39:51):
and in the end agreeing that when they know, they'll know.
And I found this whole thing to be really odd
because didn't it sound like she was kind of like,
see those two plants, they're in separate pots.

Speaker 4 (40:01):
They seem really happy. Don't touch me, right.

Speaker 2 (40:06):
She didn't seem into it. He didn't seem into it.

Speaker 3 (40:10):
By the end of the movie, I completely forgot that
they were ever even talking about anyone getting married of
any sort. Like, I don't know, I didn't understand. Again,
I didn't understand what or why it mattered.

Speaker 4 (40:23):
It didn't because they want the big ending.

Speaker 1 (40:26):
That was the joke, is that they said, like, oh,
and now we need a big Hollywood ending, so he proposes, right,
But it was so tacked on weird.

Speaker 4 (40:35):
Yes, pointless.

Speaker 1 (40:37):
It also seemed like, at least in the first scene,
if you go back and you watch the first scene,
George's entire scene, all of his dialogue was dubbed, like
I thought they brought in another actor to dub him,
and later I was like, Okay, it seems to be
really his voice. But the first scene if that, the
first two completely dubbed. There was a lot of vo

(40:57):
work in this.

Speaker 3 (40:58):
C I was gonna say that that was one of
my Sabrina seas like, this is probably the worst of
the sound, like even I mean, you know, obviously we're
watching it on Disney Plus, but then these movies aired
there were commercial breaks or you know, right, have commercials
on the channel, but whatever.

Speaker 4 (41:14):
But this movie was clearly shot with commercial breaks and there.

Speaker 3 (41:16):
Was Yeah, and it's like the sound is so harsh,
like it and it comes back and it sounds so
different than when it was before.

Speaker 2 (41:26):
The audio in this was really kind of just all
over the place.

Speaker 4 (41:29):
I agree, one hundred percent.

Speaker 1 (41:30):
It was.

Speaker 4 (41:30):
It was noticeably weird the audio. Yeah, to the.

Speaker 3 (41:32):
Point where I think even anyone who was watching Obviously
we're kind of critiquing stuff and whatever, but I think
anyone that was watching noticed the audio is very strange.

Speaker 1 (41:43):
One hundred percent. So yeah, they'll know when it's time
to get married. But right then, Julie gets a page
from a number she doesn't recognize. It's Pete from the
theater's pay phone. He informs his mom that the dinner
break was canceled, so he can't take his siblings home anymore,
and since the dates gone to it anyway, she can
now pick them up no problem. But guess why George's
car won't start? Is it the phantom spoiler?

Speaker 4 (42:04):
It's not.

Speaker 1 (42:05):
By listening to it, it was definitely the starter motor,
so that was the problem. Back at the theater, Sean
says to Pete he thinks he knows who's behind all
of this. It's Movie Mason's doing. The old man is
mad he got kicked out and now he's seeking revenge.
But Karen and Brian say he'd never do that, but
Pete and the manager aren't so sure. So he needs
his siblings to sit and wait for their mom while

(42:25):
he goes and figures it all out. And then, while
just sitting there picking the gum off of his shoe,
Brian finds Mason's quote unquote work schedule and it is
very interesting. He runs off to find where this weirdo
takes his supposed breaks during the day. Outside the premiere
prep is in full swing. Prest and fans are everywhere,
and one employee tells Pete they saw Mason an hour ago.

(42:45):
He bought a ticket to see Merlin on Mars, which,
considering he was kicked out like an hour ago, sounds
pretty psychotic.

Speaker 4 (42:52):
Karen and Brian are on their own mission to find
movie Mason.

Speaker 1 (42:54):
They're in the back staircase on their way to the
basement when they see that same character, that weird shadowy
figure lurking in the background. Karen wants to leave, but
Brian wants to finally unmask this phantom, so she follows
his lead. Pete, having found no sign of Mason, returns
for his brother and sister and realizes they're gone. Things
aren't necessarily going great for him right now, but he
thinks there's a chance that maybe his mom picked him up,

(43:16):
and it's like, finally, at least one thing is going right.

Speaker 4 (43:18):
Of course, that's not.

Speaker 1 (43:19):
What happened, and boyfriend George, this guy is useless. Dude
is still having trouble with his car, so any plan
to pick up the kids is very delayed, especially when
she calls the theater's payphone and finds out no one
is waiting for her anymore. And I guess that makes
sense because Karen and Brian are deep in the bowels
of the theater, is scared by the darkness and the tons.

Speaker 4 (43:37):
Of creepy props that they find.

Speaker 1 (43:38):
They stumble at a long tunnel leading them to an
office filled with expensive items and pictures of the Phantom
of the Opera, and that's when they get an actual
jump scare from the movie There was One. It's movie Mason.
He greets them and rattles off some very ominous bs.
The kids ask if he's the Phantom of a megaplex,
and he takes a second to respond. He's spewing off

(44:00):
even more nonsense about magic and babies with butterflies and
a toddler in the bath. He explains that true wonder
is hard to come by, but there'll always be magic
at the movies, and no, he doesn't actually answer them
at all. Right, then he actually sounds a bit like
Nicole Kidman and those AMC commercials just making no sense.
But Mason obviously loves movies and finally says he could
never negatively affect a movie going experience for someone, so

(44:22):
he is definitely not the Phantom of the Megaplex. Shawn
is still missing, and now Pete can't find Caitlin. The
staff thinks they should just cancel the premiere, but Pete
ain't having it. This is the biggest thing that's ever
happened at the Grand and they are sticking to it.
And that's when a woman in a professional yellow suit
in sunglasses comes looking for Sean. They stall and find
out that she is a publicist or some big time

(44:42):
celebrities waiting in their limos. Angered by the confusion and
the delay of everything going on tonight, she needs things
to start soon or her clients will return.

Speaker 4 (44:50):
To La at once.

Speaker 1 (44:52):
And if that's not enough, Donnie pulls the sword out
of the stone the media or whatever, and now he
wants premiere tickets for his prize, and consider he's still
with Caitlin, that would make it a date.

Speaker 4 (45:02):
Let's just say there's a lot going on at this point.

Speaker 1 (45:05):
Very confusing, Pete promises that he'll get Donnie his tickets
later and threatens to kick him out, And just as
they're starting to stand nose to nose, a bell goes off.
It's the fire sprinklers. They've soaked a theater full of people. Again,
horribly inconvenient. He promises refunds and tries to get them
out of the lobby because the premiere starts in just
an hour. This movie should have been called Guy Who

(45:27):
Runs a Theater, just going through each theater going I'll
give you a refund, it's no prob We'll start the
movie again.

Speaker 4 (45:31):
Like at this movie is just watching a dude work
in a movie theater.

Speaker 3 (45:36):
Yes, I know, and truly like this movie theater is
making no money, no giving everyone free tickets constantly.

Speaker 2 (45:46):
I mean, it is just a.

Speaker 4 (45:47):
Mess, not weird. This was weird.

Speaker 2 (45:50):
This movie, like a lot of theaters nowadays, is going under.

Speaker 1 (45:54):
Yes, exactly, this is what they Thank you, Pete, you've
killed movie theaters.

Speaker 4 (46:00):
Well.

Speaker 1 (46:00):
He finally spots Karen and Brian, who returned to the
bench to wait for their mom, and tell Pete they've
identified the phantom. Brian at sure it's Merle the projectionist,
because technology is passing him by and the theater won't
need him soon. And this theory seems validated when a
scary trailer runs over and over in one of the theaters,
and something like that could.

Speaker 4 (46:17):
Only happen with Merle's expertise.

Speaker 1 (46:19):
The Rileys rushed to the booth to catch Mrrele, but
he vehemently denies he's the phantom and promises he's actually
trying to turn the trailer off. He has no idea
how it's happening, and that's when they see the cloaked
man inside the theater fidgeting with some tubing.

Speaker 4 (46:32):
He's scary and good at home improvements.

Speaker 1 (46:34):
Apparently it's now obviously not Merle, so they run off
to try to catch him, and then the tubing starts
letting out smoke filling the theater until the kids turn
it off, so they literally.

Speaker 4 (46:44):
Just have to walk down and turn it off.

Speaker 1 (46:47):
And now thanks to the movies, the three siblings know
exactly where to look to finally catch whoever's doing this.
They're gonna look at this new thing called the intranet.
He asks if the building is set up for it,
and that is the most two thousand question a human
being can ask in a movie?

Speaker 4 (47:01):
Is this building set up for the Intranet?

Speaker 1 (47:10):
And back on the street, a mechanic has finally started
working on Georgia's car and Julie still can't get a
hold of her kids at the theater. She's scared they're
all dead, but they aren't dead. They're on their way
to Sean's computer. Now joined by Kaitlin, they search for
the plot of Midnight Mayhem on a movie spoiler site.
That way they'll know exactly what the phantom plans to
do to sabotage it. Now, this is also very two thousands,
and I know this is kind of before your time,

(47:30):
but do you remember movie spoiler sites?

Speaker 2 (47:33):
Yes? Yes, I mean I don't think I ever went
on them, but.

Speaker 4 (47:37):
I know you I wouldn't want the movie spoiled.

Speaker 2 (47:39):
Yeah, I don't think I ever, but I remember for sure.

Speaker 4 (47:42):
Yes, yeah, yeah, I remember them too. And I was like,
why would anybody want to ruin the movie?

Speaker 2 (47:46):
Why do that? I know, it's so weird.

Speaker 3 (47:49):
Yeah, but that was like one of the first things
I remember being like, oh, I hate the Internet because
of that kind of stuff.

Speaker 1 (47:55):
Right, Well, it's just there's people out there that are
just poles, that just want to ruin stuff for other people.
That's their whole point is just yeah, yeah.

Speaker 4 (48:02):
I mean, people suck.

Speaker 1 (48:03):
Now in Shawn's office, the group tiptoes in only to
find Sean with his mouth taped hanging on the back
of the door. This was actually kind of scary where
he's like, wow, he's like taped up there how though, we'll.

Speaker 4 (48:16):
Get into that.

Speaker 2 (48:16):
I'll bring that up later.

Speaker 1 (48:18):
Yeah, and he's not dead. They're running out of suspects.
Just as Niedermeyer arrives with the film's director, Sean makes
sure no one mentions anything about the Phantom, then greets him,
and just as things are coming together, Lacy innocently pulls
a cord and hundreds of water balloons come crashing down
to the floor, dousing the entire group. A true nightmare
prank from the Phantom and over the Internet thing, the

(48:38):
Internet Machine, Brian learns the plot of Midnight Mayhem and
involves a kid. Okay, so he's like, from what I understood,
he builds a balloon so big inside of a room
that it sucks all the air out of the room.
I think is what it is. So yeah, maybe we
should have watched that movie instead.

Speaker 4 (48:55):
I don't know.

Speaker 1 (48:56):
But in the lobby, everyone is toweling off because again
the Phantom of the slide inconvenience, and Niedermeyer reveals that
someone has stolen the huge Midnight Mayhem monster inflatable that
was on the roof of the building. He wants answers,
and so does the snooty publicism earlier, who is now
ready to leave and take her clients with her. But
Niedermeyer doesn't want her to leave. He demands Sean open

(49:16):
the doors.

Speaker 4 (49:17):
And let the festivities begin.

Speaker 1 (49:19):
Pete leaves to find out what happened to that inflatable monster,
and outside it is a zoo filled with busy premiere traffic.
Movie Mason has once again just slid into the non job,
welcoming guests and singing Hooray to Hollywood, Hooray for Hollywood
to fans.

Speaker 4 (49:33):
The crowd loves it, but Sean doesn't.

Speaker 1 (49:34):
He wants to know what that little weirdo is still
doing there at the grand after he kicked him out.
Sean gets aggressive, and a nearby woman asks what the
problem is. Came from movie superstar Madison Ashley mets. She
exits her limo and jumps to the defense of Mason.
Apparently they're old friends, because of course they are, because
Ashley used to come to the theater as a kid
and he was the first person to encourage her to act.

(49:56):
Sean now looks very stupid as Madison walks Mason into
the premiere as her scored, and then George and Julie finally,
you know, finish what they're doing ahu.

Speaker 4 (50:05):
And make it to the theater. By that, by the way,
I meant fix the car.

Speaker 1 (50:10):
And they're focused still on finding Karen and Brian, but
they are still on a mission now. With Pete and
a key that they found on the ground, they rushed
to the roof to learn more about this missing monster balloon,
but all that's left is a rope, and while they
contemplate who could have taken it, they have a nice
little moment of teamwork and compassion and come together as
a family, because why not at this point in the movie,

(50:32):
just as our hearts are with family connection, the shadowy figure,
who can now see is also wearing a silver mask,
lurks behind him, and after a few seconds, the phantom pounces,
engulfing them in a blanket and tying them together with
a rope.

Speaker 4 (50:43):
Things just got serious.

Speaker 1 (50:45):
The phantom laughs in his evil tone, and the kids scream.
The monster eventually runs off, happy with himself, leaving the
Rileys alone and scared on the roof. George and Julie
continue to check the lobby for any signs of her kids.
They've only seen Katie Sigal and LeVar Burton, which was
a nice nod to another d com that Daddy ste wrote,
Smart House. The Riley kids are still on the roof now,

(51:06):
shuffling together as a tied team, trying to do anything
they can to escape, And this was another one of
those I could tell that they had to dub something
in because they're obviously covered, and they start to move
as a unit, and then they eighty yard a line
where they go, well, don't worry, we won't fall off
the roof because there's obviously handrails. Like they said, they
had to point out that they were like barriers, so

(51:28):
the kids couldn't fall off the roof.

Speaker 3 (51:30):
Yeah, because everything is safe in the Disney world.

Speaker 4 (51:34):
Yep. So they're like dubing in after there's rails. Were fine.

Speaker 1 (51:40):
Yeah, So they're on the roof shuffling together as a team,
trying to escape. And then Pete has an idea he
saw it in a movie. Maybe he doesn't hate the
cinema as much as we thought. Back at the midnight
Mayhem premiere, everyone is taking their seats and Julie is
scouring the audience. Niedermeyer welcomes everyone to the event and
brings up the director, who thanks everyone for coming out
so late. And that's when it hit me. Of course
it's at night, so Julie now has lost Brian past midnight.

Speaker 4 (52:04):
I feel like this is a.

Speaker 1 (52:05):
Bit of a child Protective Service issue at this point,
and somebody should be calling CPS.

Speaker 4 (52:09):
But that's what it is.

Speaker 2 (52:10):
And just to the point where I could care less.

Speaker 4 (52:13):
I couldn't either. It was so I just it was like,
can we please just out.

Speaker 3 (52:19):
Yes?

Speaker 2 (52:20):
Exactly, Yeah, it was.

Speaker 3 (52:21):
I know, I obviously know who this villain is, Like, yes,
it's kind of.

Speaker 4 (52:27):
Like and the villain isn't even there's no danger. No,
there's no danger.

Speaker 1 (52:32):
It's and there's that's not even like fun wacky stuff happening,
like make it a weird like almost like an Abbot
Costello or or a three Stooges kind of movie where
wacky stuff is happening.

Speaker 4 (52:43):
They could have gone that way. They did it with
the gumballs and all this, but then they tried to
go scary, but without going scary, did this movie did
not know what it was?

Speaker 8 (52:51):
Uh?

Speaker 4 (52:51):
Uh No?

Speaker 1 (52:52):
And just as he accused the movie to begin, a
large rumbling starts from the balcony. Everyone looks up to
see the commotion, and it's a huge monster. The out
side one, the inflatable thing that's slowly inflating. It eventually
gets so big it starts seeping out into the main theater,
falling on the crowd, almost like Godzilla onto a terrified
Japanese city.

Speaker 4 (53:09):
The audience tries to fight back, but the balloon is
just too much.

Speaker 1 (53:12):
Because balloon, eventually it's open mouth devours the director. Everyone's
running in different directions, summending up luckier than others, and
then one of the exits becomes blocked by another inflatable monster,
this time it's King Kong, and then the other exit
gets blocked by a pink female King Kong. The phantom
is thought of everything except making this movie good, and
has unlimited access to all of these inflatables.

Speaker 3 (53:34):
I legit do not think that I would have even
moved out of my seat. I would now looking around, like,
what is happening right now?

Speaker 4 (53:41):
This is a giant balloon. It seems like premiere. Yeah,
yeah it took What would you say?

Speaker 2 (53:45):
It wasn't scary, it wasn't anything, It was just like annoying.

Speaker 1 (53:49):
Yes it was again the Phantom of the Slight Inconvenience
on the roof. The Rileys are still wrestling in the blanket,
shuffling to a valve to untie the rope, which they've
eventually accomplished, but now they must block the Phantom's big finale,
so they sprint to the theater. Pete also announces he
knows the Phantom's true identity, but it doesn't matter because
the inflatables have blocked every doorway, so they pivot to

(54:11):
the balcony. Pivot pivot to the balcony and see true
chaos below. Someone could die. And then Movie Mason appears.
He's got an idea. He tells Pete to go pulls
the sword from the media in the lobby, but Pete
knows it takes ten thousand tugs. I had too many
jokes going through my head, so I'm just gonna go
past this, and he doesn't have the time, and then

(54:32):
Projector Merle appears and also reveals himself, what do you
read about? What are you laughing about? You didn't even
know what I was talking about. He also appears and
reveals himself that he's totally innocent. He turns off the
display and shows Pete how to get his weapons.

Speaker 4 (54:47):
Pete hurries back to.

Speaker 1 (54:48):
The premiere, where George and his mom are now pinned
against the wall alongside other customers, and then from the
highest part of the balcony, Pete takes a big, deep
breath and jumps spread eagles sword out onto the back
of the giant lizard. He stumbles, but eventually he slices
a monster with a sword, stabbing it multiple times and
deflating it just in the nick of time for some reason.

Speaker 4 (55:05):
And you're laughing as I'm just saying, what happened.

Speaker 3 (55:13):
This entire time he's on this monster, I'm thinking, like
putting myself in his position filming this right, Like how
lame do you feel like he thought he was, Like
if he did have a crush on this girl that.

Speaker 4 (55:28):
Was his las's over over done.

Speaker 2 (55:31):
Like just like just like do you know when you do?

Speaker 4 (55:36):
You know?

Speaker 3 (55:37):
Like I have several things that I've done, A lot
of them ended up being around the third Cheetah Girls.

Speaker 2 (55:42):
Of like embarrassing, this is so embarrassing, Like I can't.

Speaker 4 (55:48):
Wait to see the third Cheeta Girl.

Speaker 3 (55:49):
Well it's not the movie itself, it was the like
things that we did for promoting and like having to
say lines and doing this, Like that's.

Speaker 4 (55:58):
Why I wanted another reason. I could never do Answer
with the Stars. I see all this Duff Danielle has
to do and it's like, come on, oh, it's like, hi,
I'm here tonight to dance. Couldn't do it. Yeah, I
couldn't do it anyway.

Speaker 3 (56:14):
I just that's all I could think of watching this
scene was he's a older kid, right, he's.

Speaker 4 (56:21):
Supposed to seventeen, eighteen years old, you know, eighteen years.

Speaker 3 (56:23):
Old whatever, and having to like manhandle this thick lizard's
what's happening.

Speaker 4 (56:31):
That's making a joke, like like, what the hell is
going on?

Speaker 2 (56:34):
Oh man?

Speaker 4 (56:35):
And he wasn't.

Speaker 3 (56:36):
He wasn't like a Shilah buff doing something like this
right correct.

Speaker 4 (56:40):
He was playing it very real.

Speaker 2 (56:42):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (56:44):
Yeah, it's like can you mad now? Shy it in
this totally different movie.

Speaker 3 (56:47):
Totally different totally It's just oh man, it was just
so funny to watch.

Speaker 2 (56:52):
I was just like, oh man, you know, this kid
is just going okay. It was where the channel?

Speaker 4 (56:58):
Right?

Speaker 1 (56:58):
It is one of my big this is my big
I'm seventeen. It's like the first thing I'm doing. But wow, Yeah, anyway,
all right, So everyone applauds, but the hidden phantom looks peeved.
Brian quickly spots him, forcing the guy back into the darkness.
While the inflatables are being taken care of, Pete rushes
after the Phantom, eventually running into him behind the big

(57:18):
screen where everyone can see their silhouettes fighting. It is
a back and forth battle, with everyone watching what baited breath.
The organ continues to play, and just when it looks
like the Phantom's gonna get away, Pete holds onto the
bad guy with all of his strength. They end up
swinging on a rope from one side of the stage
to the other as the crowd gasps in fear. Eventually
they change direction and come barreling through the screen, ripping

(57:39):
it in half. They fall to the ground and Pete
grabs the phantom. He wrestles with him, hoping to take
the mask off, and when he does, he finally reveals it's.

Speaker 4 (57:48):
Did you know who it was? Instead? Like well before
any of.

Speaker 3 (57:50):
Course, except for there's some holes that it doesn't quite
make sense that of course not.

Speaker 1 (57:56):
He ties up and everything. Yeah, he's like hanging on
the back of the door. How the hell did you
do that, Bro, Like not? Yes? So it was Sean,
whoa the man who's been missing for the entire movie
basically right right. Kniederbayer escorts him out, saying there's no
time to have him arrested because of the impending premiere,
but he promises he'll make the former manager's life miserable.

Speaker 4 (58:19):
He's fired and banned.

Speaker 1 (58:20):
From the premises for life, which honestly feels like he
just got away unscathed after doing all the stuff he
should be going to jail.

Speaker 4 (58:26):
But whatever.

Speaker 1 (58:28):
As far as motive, Sean has clearly overworked and mad
about being passed over for the promotion. But even with
that in mind, I think becoming a phantom was a
bit of an overreaction. Shaan get another job as a
manager at another movie theater, Bro.

Speaker 4 (58:43):
Not that big a deal. Yeah, I mean the you're good, Seriously,
go manage.

Speaker 1 (58:49):
McDonald's or something like a restaurant. So you've got management experience,
now go do something else.

Speaker 4 (58:53):
Bro.

Speaker 1 (58:54):
That the idea of putting on a silver mask and
slightly inconveniencing people just doesn't seem the way to go.

Speaker 2 (59:00):
Just irritating.

Speaker 4 (59:02):
Exactly is not how you should do it. Yikes. But
okay yeh. Another weird development.

Speaker 1 (59:13):
After he tells off Pietermeier, the director of Midnight Mayhem,
rushes after Sean to talk about making his life story
into a movie.

Speaker 4 (59:20):
Phantom of the Megaplex. This Sean mcgibbons story.

Speaker 1 (59:23):
He invites him to la and Sean accepts and luckily
Sean certainly won't.

Speaker 4 (59:27):
Be the craziest person in Hollywood.

Speaker 1 (59:29):
Yeah, but that was like, I want to make your
movie a manager who gets upset about being fired so
slightly inconveniences people. Ooh, it's going to be a blockbuster.
I see Tim Cruse starring in it. Yes, I said
that properly, Tim CRUs starring in it. Now, Pete, alone
with his brother and sister, admits he's ready to lighten

(59:49):
up a bit and enjoy his teenage years.

Speaker 4 (59:51):
He doesn't need to work twenty four to seven.

Speaker 1 (59:53):
Brian says, all they need now is their Hollywood ending,
and that's when George speaks up.

Speaker 4 (59:56):
Remember George, this guy.

Speaker 1 (59:59):
He uses another plant analogy to get on one knee
to ask Julie to marry him. He doesn't have a ring,
but movie Mason chimes in with a proper ring he
keeps in case of emergencies.

Speaker 4 (01:00:08):
Yeah, Julie says.

Speaker 1 (01:00:10):
Yes, but kind of like yes, like she's not still
into it, like we need we just had.

Speaker 4 (01:00:16):
This conversation in your busted ass car.

Speaker 2 (01:00:18):
Yeah, like she is really not pumped about this.

Speaker 1 (01:00:22):
No, No, ironically, I think they can both do better. Yes, so,
but of course the lobby celebrates. Niederbayer says he needs
a new manager and it pays a lot. He asked
Pete to take the position, and the inspiring employee immediately
says he'd be honored, which again, now you're managing this thing.
You could be seventeen years old making what fifty sixty

(01:00:43):
grand a year?

Speaker 2 (01:00:44):
Take that job.

Speaker 1 (01:00:45):
But then he takes a second to think about it.
He sees the reaction of his family and knows he
has to make a change with his life.

Speaker 4 (01:00:50):
Why he says he can't take the job.

Speaker 1 (01:00:53):
He wants to spend more time with his family and
apparently Caitlin, who's now hanging all over him. Yeah, of course,
because he's he just killed the fake dime or I
can't either.

Speaker 3 (01:01:01):
And I realized I don't even know what her voice
sounds like, because I don't think she really said anything.

Speaker 4 (01:01:06):
I ate the whole thing.

Speaker 1 (01:01:07):
Yeah, he asked for the night off to see a movie,
and not only does Niederbayer give Hi permission, but he
throws in fifty bucks to take her to breakfast to Brexil. Apparently,
he's like, after you bang her tonight, which you're gonna
go take her to breakfast.

Speaker 2 (01:01:25):
Like the premiere was at midnight. I get it to Denny's.

Speaker 4 (01:01:30):
I know, he said, it's like, go get her some
breakfast in the morning. I know.

Speaker 3 (01:01:35):
It was so strange, but not the strangest thing in
this movie though.

Speaker 4 (01:01:38):
That's the thing.

Speaker 1 (01:01:39):
By this point I was I was just kind of
lying on my couch going to sespie over. Soon it's
got to end with that, Everyone piles back into the
new theater to enjoy the show. The Rileys regroup and
Julie tells the littles it's time to go home, but
Pete keeps his promise and begs his mom to let
them stay for the movie. It's late, but it's also
summer and their detective work helped crack the case. What

(01:02:00):
better place for the whole family to get together than
at the movies. Julia grees and gives in. They entered
the theater together greeted by movie Bason, who's once again
working for free, breaking numerous labor laws and seeming totally creepy.
He tells Pete he never used to believe in the
Phantom of the Megaplex. But the Werewolf of the Megaplex,
that's a different story. We hear the howling of a
wolf and that's our movie. Oh, thankfully it was done done.

Speaker 4 (01:02:31):
Can we do some real reviews?

Speaker 1 (01:02:32):
I think, uh, Saburna, you've got the one star review
this week.

Speaker 3 (01:02:38):
Your ne brion has it. The name of this reviewer
is in name and blood.

Speaker 2 (01:02:45):
Okay, I'm nervous already.

Speaker 4 (01:02:47):
Yeah, I am too.

Speaker 3 (01:02:48):
I woke up one day with a bad hangover, switched
on the TV and this came on. It had fresh
face teens, it had fresh face Mickey Rooney, and it
had a giant, a giant inflatable monster that somehow chases
people around. All of that was fantastic, as was the
amusing side story about some.

Speaker 2 (01:03:15):
But I found the whole story too complicated.

Speaker 3 (01:03:18):
I was lying in my bed eating a couple of
sausage rolls, trying to frantically write down clues that could
lead me to guess who the phantom was. I really
thought it was the mom's new boyfriend.

Speaker 4 (01:03:30):
I mean, one star, such a weird review.

Speaker 3 (01:03:33):
Such a weird review, and how how would it have
been the boyfriend when he was with the moms.

Speaker 4 (01:03:39):
There the whole time?

Speaker 1 (01:03:41):
The best part about that is I just want a
sausage roll because they're great.

Speaker 3 (01:03:44):
And I had a bad hangover, so I switched on
the Disney Channel.

Speaker 4 (01:03:48):
What okay?

Speaker 2 (01:03:50):
All right?

Speaker 1 (01:03:51):
Yes, I have the five star this week and it's
from Des Warren d. S.

Speaker 4 (01:03:55):
Warren. This is the funniest movie that I've ever seen.

Speaker 1 (01:03:58):
Who needs Oscar winners when you have David Johnston and
Mickey Rooney. How this movie disappeared off the face of
the earth. I have no idea good thing. I filled
twelve six hour tapes with this movie in case eleven
are destroyed or something.

Speaker 4 (01:04:10):
I don't sleep. I just watched this movie.

Speaker 1 (01:04:12):
How can I bathe, eat, or re enter society when
I can watch this twenty four to seven. I'm watching
it right now. Granted my skin is gray from lack
of sunlight and my leg muscles of atropeed, but I
can't get.

Speaker 4 (01:04:22):
Enough of it. Five stars.

Speaker 1 (01:04:25):
I think that was ironic. I think that was ironic.
I don't think that was real. Well, now, of course
we come to our favorite portion of the program, and
that is when producer Jensen tries to stump us with
weird questions. In this one, this little side game is
called movie in a movie. In Phantom of the Megaplex,

(01:04:46):
we find ourselves watching characters in a movie whose main
goal is to also watch a movie. In their case,
it's called midnight mayhem. This is a common thing in metafilms.
So we're gonna be given a movie and a list
of possible titles to choose from, hoping to pick the
movie that is inside of the other movie.

Speaker 4 (01:05:03):
Does that make sense? So three out of five wins.

Speaker 1 (01:05:06):
So we're gonna get the name of a movie, and
we have to talk about the movie that they're.

Speaker 4 (01:05:09):
Seeing in that movie.

Speaker 1 (01:05:11):
Okay, uh, who do we have with I don't think
we have producer Jensen with us today.

Speaker 4 (01:05:15):
So who do we have with us today is gonna
be helping us out?

Speaker 2 (01:05:18):
You have producer Lisa because she's seen Star Wars.

Speaker 1 (01:05:20):
Oh thank god, producer Lisa, someone who speaks my language,
which is human that's the language my oh, my heart.

Speaker 4 (01:05:27):
Here we go.

Speaker 1 (01:05:28):
So number one or number one movie is Scream two,
so ins which I've never seen. In Scream two was
the movie they were watching. Slash A slash, B cut,
C stab or D slice?

Speaker 4 (01:05:42):
What do you go?

Speaker 2 (01:05:42):
I think it's a slash.

Speaker 4 (01:05:44):
I'm gonna I'm gonna agree with you. I'm gonna say
a slash.

Speaker 2 (01:05:48):
You've never seen the Scream movies?

Speaker 4 (01:05:49):
Will?

Speaker 1 (01:05:50):
I saw the first one. I'm not a horror guy.
They're scared.

Speaker 2 (01:05:53):
Still got a point. I see all the Scream movies.
It is C stab.

Speaker 4 (01:05:58):
Oh well then you saw I'm Sabriae. Never trust Sabrina.

Speaker 3 (01:06:02):
I've never seen the movie stab, so I honestly that
was just a shot in the dark for me.

Speaker 1 (01:06:06):
Well, no, I think STAB is the fake movie they're
watching in Scream that's the whole point.

Speaker 3 (01:06:10):
Yeah, and Scream two, it's the movie that is made
about what happened in Scream one. Oh, and they're watching
it at like okay, yeah, gotcha.

Speaker 1 (01:06:19):
Number two Home Alone is the movie he's watching. A
Demons without a conscience, B Saints with a heart see
Heavenly Devils tonight or d Angels with filthy souls.

Speaker 2 (01:06:31):
Oh, I don't know. I have no idea.

Speaker 1 (01:06:33):
I think it's D Angels with Filthy Souls, because doesn't
he say, like, here's some hot for a filthy animal.

Speaker 4 (01:06:39):
I think it's Angels.

Speaker 2 (01:06:40):
With filthy all right, I'll go with D two it
is D yes.

Speaker 1 (01:06:45):
Number three, The Big Lebowski is the movie they're watching.
A log Jamin, B woodstuff in C stick Hunting or
D rod Hiding.

Speaker 4 (01:06:56):
What do you got Sabrina with BwOs.

Speaker 1 (01:07:01):
I'm going with the correct answer, which is A long Jamin.

Speaker 2 (01:07:05):
That is correct.

Speaker 1 (01:07:06):
Yeah, that's one of the best porno titles ever. Number
four south Park, Bigger, Longer, and Uncut are the movie
they're watching. Is it A the Fire, B prostate of Power?
See butt Cracked or D Super Sphincter, But he got.

Speaker 2 (01:07:23):
Sabrina going with B prostate of Power.

Speaker 4 (01:07:30):
I am once again going with the correct answer.

Speaker 2 (01:07:33):
A the Fire It's correct.

Speaker 4 (01:07:37):
Have you seen South Park, Bigger, Longer on cut?

Speaker 3 (01:07:39):
No?

Speaker 4 (01:07:40):
Oh god, it's it is genius. It is literally genius.

Speaker 1 (01:07:45):
As they're watching fire and number five adaptation never seen it.
Are they watching A fire, rain, B vandal Eyes, see
Haunting Hope or D Racing Heart. Uh A, I'm gonna
say bee vandalize No idea.

Speaker 2 (01:08:03):
It is B.

Speaker 4 (01:08:05):
He wow. I win great.

Speaker 1 (01:08:09):
Can we thank you so much Producer Lisa for just
being awesome and having seen Star Wars.

Speaker 4 (01:08:14):
May the Force be.

Speaker 2 (01:08:14):
With you seeing everything? I love it?

Speaker 4 (01:08:17):
So can we do a sabritaseas.

Speaker 2 (01:08:22):
We can.

Speaker 3 (01:08:24):
I didn't see a lot because I really saw so much.
Found myself not paying attention very often in this movie.
I'm going to be honest, Yes, I had just kind
of more so I guess questions, and in a movie
like this where we are just constantly confused, I think
it's more of the questions.

Speaker 2 (01:08:42):
For instance, the gunball moment.

Speaker 3 (01:08:45):
Okay, so we have our bully right who For a second,
I'm like, oh, wait, do we like him? Because at
first he kind of helps the little brother, like oh,
you just got to put it right back on, like right,
super kind of nice, right yeah, And then of course
it breaks, he doesn't want to take ownership of it
and he becomes a jerk again. But like kind of

(01:09:07):
just like a weird to me that just wrote it down,
So it was like such a weird little moment like
he was nice out of like, yeah, a bully with
a heart, right of course, the sean tied up just
drove me nuts.

Speaker 2 (01:09:20):
I'm like there's just no way, you know.

Speaker 3 (01:09:24):
I get the first one, yes, but no, like no,
and I feel like he Then then again it was
like but then he was in the area with the balloons,
like when they had the water balloons. Also with the balloons, Lacy,
Pete seemed to I.

Speaker 2 (01:09:44):
Almost that is Pete the phantom, because he.

Speaker 3 (01:09:48):
Knew that that that string was gonna release the balloons.

Speaker 1 (01:09:52):
And he was like, Lacy, no, see, I think he
just thought the balloon drop was going to be for
later in the in the night for the premiere, so
he I want to just release the regular balloons. I
don't think he knew they were full of water. Okay,
would be my guess of how they explain that.

Speaker 2 (01:10:06):
Well, I knew.

Speaker 3 (01:10:06):
Yeah, it was really strange. That whole of it was
so weird. Then we get into the girlfriend. She drove
me crazy, not needed a character that in no way
was necessary at all. The girl, the little sister's friends
were more needed than this girlfriend's situation.

Speaker 2 (01:10:27):
So weird. She was not involved in anything.

Speaker 3 (01:10:31):
Yeah, and then there was a moment after the bully
gets the you know, the ex caliber thing, he like disappeared,
We like then never saw him after again. No, so
he was kind of the only character in my sense
of leading up to that had any kind of significance.
He was trying to ruin you know, Pete's day in

(01:10:52):
his night like he was also adding in his like
I'm gonna make this you know, I'm gonna get your girl.

Speaker 4 (01:10:57):
I'm also gonna make it slightly inconvenient.

Speaker 2 (01:11:00):
Yeah, I was going to make it slightly and convenient.

Speaker 3 (01:11:03):
And so I was kind of like, I mean, maybe
it would be good for him to be the phantom
because he like kind of just disappeared, But then he
wasn't and it wasn't anything, So there was just a
lot of questions of like, where did he go? Why
was this character in this movie at all? Like the girlfriend,
even the relationship with the mom and the soon to

(01:11:25):
be stepdad was just kind of like I didn't understand
why there didn't make a lot of sense to have
so many of these characters that we got to know
and didn't need, like the theater sitter, who I don't
believe is a thing.

Speaker 2 (01:11:41):
Where did she go?

Speaker 4 (01:11:43):
And why do we care?

Speaker 2 (01:11:45):
Why did we care? I don't know, I don't know
what's happening.

Speaker 3 (01:11:48):
So strange and weird because I feel like we've done.
We don't really say this about a lot of is
like Stu's movies. His movies are always so thought out,
and it was like, but again, I think this was
during the time that they were just cranking out movies
one after another and not spending the kind of time
that a xenon had, right you know what I mean,

(01:12:09):
or whatever, or bring those kinds of movies.

Speaker 1 (01:12:11):
I would like to talk to him too, because I'll
bet you he was If we talked to Stu again,
he'd be like, oh oh, when I first wrote it,
it was like lights falling and their kids were in danger,
and Disney was like, no, no, no, you got to you
got to bring all that back. You got to Disney
find I'll bet you he had a draft where it
wasn't slightly inconveniencing people.

Speaker 4 (01:12:29):
It was like danger danger ye yeah, yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:12:35):
Yeah, or or this was a movie that.

Speaker 3 (01:12:38):
You know, he said he was kind of their ringer
that came in later on and rewrote stuff, so I
wonder if he like.

Speaker 1 (01:12:46):
Had that's my guest too, But he also produced this movie.
He was one of the producers.

Speaker 2 (01:12:50):
So then no, yeah, I don't know, I don't know.

Speaker 4 (01:12:53):
This was a very rare.

Speaker 3 (01:12:55):
Miss I want to say when we talked to him,
one of the times we've gotten a chance to interview
him twice, I want to say he brought up this
movie because I feel like that that's the first time
I heard of the Yeah, the movie title.

Speaker 4 (01:13:08):
All right, we'll go check it out. It up.

Speaker 2 (01:13:10):
I don't know, I'll have to listen to.

Speaker 4 (01:13:12):
Yeah, we'll go. We'll go listen to the interviews again.
You should as well.

Speaker 1 (01:13:14):
Thank you, Sabrina. And now it's time to rate our film.
I'm not even to do the joke about one or ten.
One's gonna be the worst, ten is gonna be the best.
I'm guessing it's going to be closer to one than ten.
Are options this week one out of ten grands with
extra e tons of unused characters, humongous cereal bowls, one

(01:13:35):
at at Tend, Little Phantom Inconveniences, cinema sitters hot Premiere celebs,
one out of ten tough dcon economies, one out of
ten babies with butterflies, or one out of ten movie
spoiler sites. I think I picked this week, don't I.
I'm going to say Little Phantom Inconveniences perfect. Obviously, I

(01:13:58):
forget who goes first? Who goes first?

Speaker 4 (01:13:59):
You were me?

Speaker 2 (01:14:01):
I think it's my turn to go all right, what
are you okay to do that one?

Speaker 3 (01:14:07):
You know? I, like I said, I am really looking
forward to watching a movie that I like, come out going.

Speaker 2 (01:14:14):
I love this movie. Yes, I love to love d coms.

Speaker 3 (01:14:18):
It's like the best and most exciting thing of this
the week for me.

Speaker 7 (01:14:23):
Sometimes that's saying a whole lot, right, I give.

Speaker 2 (01:14:28):
This mom a good movie.

Speaker 4 (01:14:31):
She works hard, she deserves it.

Speaker 2 (01:14:34):
Damn it deserves a good time.

Speaker 3 (01:14:37):
This wasn't it, though, this this movie. I again, I
like scary movies. I'm here for a Disney one because
I don't love to get too scared. I'd love to
find the first kind of scary movie I'm gonna like
get in front of my daughter.

Speaker 2 (01:14:54):
And this wasn't it. It was such a miss for me.

Speaker 3 (01:14:57):
I like I said, I fell out of interest time
and time again through this movie. So it's probably it
wasn't I don't. I don't want to say it wasn't
like the worst movie. It just was like, Okay, it
was kind of an eye roll for me, right, And
I hate saying that, sorry, because I love stew.

Speaker 2 (01:15:17):
This was a four. What do we say, Little.

Speaker 4 (01:15:21):
Phantom, Little Phantom Inconveniences four?

Speaker 2 (01:15:24):
I think fuzz Bucket was higher than this one.

Speaker 1 (01:15:31):
Yeah, I would watch fuzz Bucket a thousand times in
a row.

Speaker 4 (01:15:36):
Fuzz Bucket was short. It was funny because it was crazy.
It was so insane. It was like an acid trip,
Like I would watch that all every day. Compared to
this movie.

Speaker 1 (01:15:46):
Yeah, I you literally agree with you on hundred percent.
This exact number I was going to go for is four.
Hot for Little Phantom Inconveniences. This movie did not know
what it was a very very rare miss. I'm Stu Krieger.
My guess is he knows there's some story behind it,
because this is not a stuw. This does not read

(01:16:06):
like a stew The characters made no sense. A lot
of them didn't have any reason to be there. There
was no actual stakes that it was. It was weird.

Speaker 4 (01:16:15):
This was just a.

Speaker 1 (01:16:16):
Weird, weird movie all the way around, and not good weird,
not Fuzzbucket weird, just like bad movie weird.

Speaker 4 (01:16:23):
So yes, I couldn't agree with you more.

Speaker 1 (01:16:25):
I love finding these little gems, like if I sit
down and I watch it going to the mat or
I watch there's times I will stop the movie and
be like, Sue, you got to come watch this, Like
Color of Friends and stuff, it's like you got to
check this out. Even the Xenons and Cheetah Girls too.
I mean, there have been great movies where it's you.
Even if they're not great movies, you still walk out

(01:16:45):
going like, all right, High School Musical two was fun.
You know, Yes, him on the golf course is absurd
and singing to himself in the pond is absurd, but
it's fun.

Speaker 4 (01:16:56):
And Ashley Tisdale's great. It doesn't take itself too seriously.
And then you.

Speaker 1 (01:17:00):
Watch movies like this where it's just like I don't
know what this is. Yeah, Like this was like Dad
napped to where it was just kind of like, what,
what's right actually happening here?

Speaker 2 (01:17:09):
And to be fair, the kids their acting was great.
To me, it was good.

Speaker 3 (01:17:14):
It wasn't fine, it was it was just literally the
storylineers and the didn't The mount of characters that were
in that didn't matter were so strange.

Speaker 1 (01:17:26):
And if there is ever a movie that should be
remade by Disney, Phantom of the Megaplex made a musical
like Phantom of the Opera with actual steaks would be
a great deco. Yeah, so they write all new music
for it. Just take it off a Phantom of the
Opera again, do.

Speaker 2 (01:17:45):
It would slay this what I'm saying.

Speaker 4 (01:17:49):
Thank god, that's what I'm saying. Do Phantom of the
Opera for kids. That's a great kid. But this is sure.
This isn't it. This isn't it.

Speaker 1 (01:17:56):
Oh yeah, Well, thank you everybody so much for joining
us our next movie.

Speaker 4 (01:18:00):
Hopefully we'll find it.

Speaker 1 (01:18:01):
Hopefully we'll find the Diamond and the Rough again because
we need a good one.

Speaker 4 (01:18:04):
Brought the first Ta Come ever back to the forefront.
That's right. We are still in Boooky season.

Speaker 1 (01:18:11):
So we are watching the remake now of under Wraps,
released in twenty twenty one. It is on Disney Plus
to stream, so maybe get a head start what I'm
sure will be a very fun episode. And this week
our Parkopper episode keeps us in the theater for an
after credit scene because we're chatting with Ricky Maybe from
Phantom of the Megaplex. He's got some great Mickey Rooney
stories and we talked to him all about his work

(01:18:32):
with Seth Rogan.

Speaker 4 (01:18:33):
Let's listen to a little snippet right now.

Speaker 8 (01:18:36):
And the great thing about this project personally was it
all pretty much takes place over one day, so yeah,
we were always in the same wardrobe. Yeah, which, as
fellow actors like that is just when you don't have
to do wardrog changes all day and you can kind
of just like kick it on set.

Speaker 4 (01:18:58):
He was hilarious.

Speaker 1 (01:18:59):
So make sure to subscribe to the dedicated Magical Rewine
feed today and listen to all the interviews that we've
done with some incredible people, exclusive cast members, some crew,
everybody from Disney Channel, Like we've talked to everybody, So
go and listen to it, my friends, and for more info,
you can follow us at that internet thing I was
talking about at Magical Rewind Pod on the Instagram machine

(01:19:20):
by everybody
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Hosts And Creators

Will Friedle

Will Friedle

Sabrina Bryan

Sabrina Bryan

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