Brokedown Palace - S11 E87

Welcome back to another episode, where this week, Sarah and Dan explore Brokedown Palace (1999).

Join us as we break down the film’s shortcomings and unexpected moments. We delve into the representation of Thailand and the justice system depicted in the movie along with the undertones of American exceptionalism

We discuss the cast, including Claire Danes (My So-Called Life and Romeo and Juliet), Kate Beckinsale (Shooting Fish and Underworld), Bill Pullman (a current favourite of Sarah’s), Lou Diamond Philips (Chavez) and a blink and you’ll miss him pre tuna sandwich Paul Walker.

What to expect from the episode:

• Sarah reveals her past obsession with Brokedown Palace
• Discussion of the film’s portrayal of drugs smuggling
• Honest opinion about the soundtrack
• Exploration of the friendship theme central to the movie
• Explanation of why Danes was banned from Thailand

Season 11 runs until August 11th with 8 episodes

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Episode Transcript

(00:00):
Hello and welcome to Shoot the Hostage with me Sarah and my partner Dan. We're a movie podcast and we cover eight films per season on a specific theme. Now, we swear we chat major spoilers and we occasionally cover triggering topics. So, please do use listener discretion. If you like what we do and want to support us, consider hitting five stars on Spotify or maybe subscribing or even reviewing on your platform of choice. We also have a Patreon with a free tier for lineups and updates and two paid tiers with extra content and early adree uploads. Right, on with the show. So, no pressure with this one, Sarah, because I am aware that Broke Down Palace is one of your favorite movies of all time. Why have you started with that? What?

(00:01):
With a with a bold face. Lie.
Bold.
Bold face.
B A L D.
Not. No. Bold. B O L D.
Is that That's when you make letters wider and thicker. So is is that the same for faces?
Yes.
Okay.
Your face was both thicker and wider as you said that.
Yeah, I thought so. I wondered what that feeling was. So this is not one of your favorite movies then. It's not. No.
So, why'd you pick it?
So, the theme is drugs. I feel like we couldn't really get through the season without doing a film about like drug smuggling, right?
Yeah. I suppose it's your season.
In order for it to be the most diverse selection of movies, I was like, "Yeah, let's do one." I'm not I'm not as familiar with Midnight Express, so I didn't include that. And also, it seems like a bit of a dad movie.
Okay.
And I I So, I was sort of torn between Broke Down Palace and Return to Paradise. And in hindsight, I kind of regret choosing Breakdown Palace.
I should have should have gone for
You should have pushed harder. Yeah, I do think I do think Return to Paradise is perhaps the better film, but I've still got a lot to talk about.
Oh, that's fair. I'm sure we'll we'll be fine. Uh I I uh I've seen Return to Paradise and I really like that movie when I first saw it, but I haven't seen it since. So, it might not hold up for me. I I don't know.
But I hadn't seen this one. This was a blind spot for me in I don't think I'd even heard of it when you mentioned about putting it on the lineup.
It's a blind spot for many people. I think it was I think it sort of flew under the radar a little bit when it was released.

(00:22):
Yeah.
I definitely didn't see it in the cinema.
I had a cinema release.
Well, that's what I'm saying. I don't know.
Okay.
It may not have done, but yeah, there was a year between Return to Paradise and Broke Down Palace.
So, this is 99.
This is 99. Yes.
It's our second 1999 movie of the season.
Yeah. That was unintentional.
Yeah. I didn't realize until you uh mentioned it recently.
It's almost like you came of age in the ' 90s
a little bit. Yeah.
I suppose it's always going to be like that, isn't it really for for when you choose a season is and when I choose one, it's a lot of the time it's going to be movies we grew up on cuz we have things to say about them. Yeah.
Including Broke Down Palace.
I have some things to say.
Lots lots to say. Yeah.
But yes, I did um I did rent this I believe on VHS when it came out.
Was it a blockbuster special? Was it your local I think it must have been Blockbuster.
The 99 years probably pushing out the
the Blockbuster years. Yeah. They were sort of dominating the the mom and pop stores by that point.

(00:43):
Yeah.
More's the pity. But um yeah, I I remember really really enjoying it when I saw it and I I definitely owned it at one point and I watched it a lot. I would have been maybe 17 16 17 when this came out.
How much is a lot?
Um like 15 times.
What a a lot. Well, cuz I watch
I've not seen this movie 15 times.
No, that's probably enough.
I've seen Need for Speed.
I might have seen it 10 times, though.
That's crazy.
I watched it twice this last week.
I know.
I'm including those.
All right. That's Yeah. Okay.
But yeah, I it appealed to me on a lot of levels because it sort of was a it seemed to me at the time to be a little bit subversive. In hindsight, not very much.
What do you think that seemed subversive about it to you when you were a teenager?
Drugs.
Oh, because It's about a drug. It's not really smuggling, is it? They get tricked into being mules.
Yes. Yeah. But it was um it was about something that was very unfamiliar to me. Obviously, I was a pretty sheltered kid.
It starred Cla Danes, who I absolutely adored because I was obsessed with My So-Called Life when that came out.
Ah, interesting. Okay. She was in that.

(01:04):
Mhm. She was the main character. It was It was her so-called life.
I'd never heard of that until you told me about it.
Right. Yeah. I didn't know it was her so so-called life either. I assumed it was Jared Leto's so-called life.
Sadly, um he does his presence does mar revisits of that series.
Yeah.
But um still still excellent.
Okay.
Like even today, even by today's standards, you would consider it somewhat progressive.
So good. So I I was a little bit biased. And obviously she was great in Romeo and Juliet as well. That was what 96 97
96 I want to say Lurman's Romeo and Juliet. I think I obviously I didn't see this movie when it came out on account of me watching it for the first time a week ago.
Yeah.
Uh but I was aware of Claire Danes at that point because of Romeo and Juliet
and that's the only reason why
I think that's the thing that sort of put her on the map, wasn't it?
Yeah. I mean she got put on my map from from that movie and then again she got put on my map. again when she was in Terminator 3.
Oh yeah.
Just uh just 4 years later after this movie.
Oh dear.
Dear indeed. Although not the worst Terminator movie these days.
What is
Genesis?

(01:25):
Yeah, right. It's
Salvation's pretty bad. And three is
prettyful. I three is I I was when I was doing research for this show, I was looking at DNE's uh credits. Terminite three. I looked at I'd given it a one and a half, but I think that might be a bit harsh.
No, it loses a star as soon as Cristiana Loan's robo tits expand. That was like awful.
There's some really there it's a weird movie because there's some brilliant stuff in it. There's a really nice a good chase in it where he's hanging off the truck. The ending is really cool. Like you don't see that sort of bleak ending in sci-fi popcorn movies much and I really like that.
I think I actually think that the The actors are quite good in it. Danes and
Nick Style.
Nick Style, I think he's fine. I think that character is written poorly in that movie, but I think he does his best.
Yeah,
he's a bit whiny, but that's not his fault. That's the script, I think. But, um, I think the worst one is definitely Genesis. And then, oh, and then what? Maybe it is Salvation, but I don't think that movies is as bad. I didn't like it the first time I saw it, but on on subsequent movies, visits. I'm like, "Yeah, it's okay.
I've made a grave mistake, haven't I?
Why?
We veered too hard into Terminator territory and I'm just letting it happen."
Oh, we're not I'm sorry. We're not here to talk about Terminator, are we? No, we're talking But it's because of Claire Danes, isn't it? Yeah. So, Danes. But apart from a couple of movies, like I can't think really what else I know her from. What else? Little Women. I haven't seen that.
Uh what else has she been in that I might have seen?
I mean, she was in Homeland, that TV show for a a long time.
Yeah, the Damian Lewis thing.
I I know you're not super into shows as a strict
Well, no. I remember my my boss in around 2008 was like, "Oh, you got to watch Homeland." And he lent me the DVD. And I lent him season one of Kirby Enthusiasm. I gave gave That's a fair trade.
Yeah. Well, it's not really cuz I didn't watch Homeland. I gave it back to him. I never got my curb back. So,
I had to buy it again.

(01:46):
No.
Luckily, it was season one. It was the cheapest season to buy on DVD.
But yeah, I got it.
But he's forever on your s*** list.
Yeah. I actually killed him.
I I I I did. He's buried in a garden,
is he? In this garden.
Yeah, but don't tell anyone.
Let's not.
They don't know where we live. It's fine.
We're not recording this. It's not going to go out. Like,
what could go wrong?
Yeah, exactly. Don't look it up. Don't look it up. Claire Dones.
Um, and if the police turn up, we'll know you're a massive group of ns.
Yeah. Yeah.
Grass.
Were you aware of Kate Beckanale?
Yes, I was aware of Kate Beckansale on account of having watched shoot fish at the cinema.
You're like the only other person I've ever met who knows what shooting fish is.
It's got space in the soundtrack. Sarah
and Stewart Towns end.

(02:07):
And the American guy,
who's not Bradley Cooper? Because Bradley Cooper was probably about 12 then.
How old do you think Bradley Cooper is?
I don't know, like 50.
So that the maths, never mind. Um, but yeah, I I loved that movie when it came out.
Yeah, I enjoyed that. I had seen it for years, but you know what? I' I'd give a revisit.
Yeah.
But I remember I remember seeing Kate Beckans in that. She had short hair in that.
And then when I suppose probably the next thing I remember seeing her in anyway was Pearl Harbor.
Oh no. I always forget about that.
Yeah.
And then Underworld.
And then it was Underworld, wasn't it? Van Heling I think she was in. So she's done a fair amount of stuff. Underworld is probably her most, let's be honest, that's probably what she's earned the most money from. I mean, I look, I don't love those movies. I enjoyed the first one when it came out. I remember watching the second one and going, "Oh, no." And then just didn't bother. I think there are more.
I think I've seen parts of some of them,
right?
But I don't know if I've ever watched an entire one cuz it didn't it never really interested me,
right?
I tried to cuz people were like, "It's great." And I put it I remember putting it on and just like falling asleep and just not just like this. This is rubbish though, isn't it?
But I don't know. She's sort of become iconic for that role, I think.
Yeah.
And it was around about the time where the Matrix sort of dictated that all women in films had to be in skintight spandex.

(02:28):
Yeah.
So, it was definitely influenced by that sort of aesthetic. I think
it's definitely a postmatrix movie. Yeah, you're right. Yeah.
Um, but yeah, I think they're both pretty good here
in Broke Down Palace.
Yeah,
I would say for me Dan's is head and shoulders above Beck and Sale in this. I I don't think
I think Beck and Sale I don't think Beck and Sale is great in this to be honest.
I one of my notes you can't I don't know if you can see it from there but it literally says um Cla Dane's axe rings around K Beck.
But you still think that Beckans did enough for the
I think she was all right. Yeah.
I don't know if it's just maybe a fact of maybe the writing was a bit off or maybe you're not really meant to endear to that character too much. I but I didn't like her character and I I didn't like Kane's character either to be honest with you. Alice
called Darlene. I didn't love Dne's character either, but she was interesting in her own right.
She seemed she seemed she it seemed like there was some development there of her character. It seemed like she had a past and I could see that in her acting. So, but yeah, she's as you say, as your notes quite rightly say, uh runs rings around Beckinale.
Yeah, I think I think this is definitely the Claire Danes show. So,
and there are a couple of other names in it like Bill Pullman's pulling his weight. Lou Diamond Phillips is in a different movie to everybody else.
Lou Diamond Phillips was in it.
Such a bizarre performance.
Yeah.
So strange.
I love that bit when Pullman pulls out, is it a cigar? And he's like,

(02:49):
so weird.
It's weird. Yeah.
So weird.
It's a weird performance.
Um, very brief Paul Walker
appearance.
Oh, yeah. Of course.
At the very very beginning and somewhere in the middle and then that's it.
Yeah. No, that was his brother and AC. I use pork as face over.
I see. That's
wasn't actually pork.
Tasteless. Um
luckily no movies are ever going to do that.
That's not going to age well.
Yeah.
Um
I completely forgot that those two are in it cuz I wrote down three actors. I wrote down Beckansale, Danes, and Paul Man.
Yeah.
And I know you want to get to Paul Man at some point. I know he's your sort of flavor of the month at the moment between him and his boy. Like I feel like every other movie we watch has got a poor man in it. Whether it's Bill or Lewis,
it's a talented family. I was going to say,
yeah.

(03:10):
Um, it did make me laugh actually cuz the the first time I watched Broke Down Palace this week, every time he said Darlene, it sounded like he was saying darling and I was like, "Oh, Bill,
is this a new crush?"
Reasonably, yeah.
Yeah. Cuz I don't remember you ever like when we first started dating, you didn't declare that to me.
No.
Oh, I really fancied a president from Independence Day. You wondered where I was going with that.
I did. Yeah. Thankfully, it somewhere that gets my approval.
Has there ever been a sexy president apart from Obama?
Um,
no,
there hasn't, has it?
I don't think so.
Clinton, Nixon, others. I'm not American, obviously.
Reagan.
Reagan. Reagan best name.
Cleveland.
Carter.
Cleveland. Lincoln.
Yeah. Kennedy. None of them really float my boat.
Trump. Excuse me while I vomit in my hand.
Um,

(03:31):
there's never been a sexy president, has there?
No, I don't believe so.
Apart from Obama.
I don't think he's particularly sexy.
I don't think he's by far the coolest president.
I think a lot of people would disagree with us and say that he is in fact sexy.
He's very charismatic, don't get me wrong.
Yeah. Yeah.
And I think he's quite a handsome man, but I sexy sexy is a different vibe.
If you think Barack Obama is a sexy pres was a sexy president, call him now. And um 01818111 8111. Where did I get that from?
I really hope that's not a real number. Watch it be like child line.
I memorized the child line number when I was a kid and I used to threaten my mom with calling it.
Did you?
Yeah.
What was it?
Oh, I can't remember now. I think it might be the one you just said.
No, I think I think that that's going live or live and kicking. No, it's going live cuz I remember Trevan Simon going 081 811 8181.
Did you want to ring up and play the the video games? Left. Left. Yeah,
but there's there was always a delay.
Yeah. Left. No, left. You f****** c****.
Oh, the left.

(03:52):
Oh, we've lost the caller. Sorry.
I can absolutely picture that.
Did you know that Broke Down Palace gets its name from a Grateful Dead song?
No. And that's a band.
Yes.
Yes.
Yes. Um, not a band that I have any great affection for. I They're mentioning pop culture quite a lot and the vibe that I get is that they're sort of like a stoner sort of dad band if that makes any sense.
I've not heard of them until you mentioned them. I think
like I think the fans of them are called Dead Heads and it was like big for loads of people to sort of follow them around the country on tours and go to every show.
Okay.
So they had a huge following.
So they're cool guys then.
Potentially you name a few unless any of them are sex pests or anything.
You have to qualify everything with that now, don't you?
Jesus.
So they took Why did they take a came um from one of their songs then for this movie. Do you think has it got anything to do with the film?
I don't know. I did try to look for any information as to why it was titled that, but I couldn't find anything definitive. There's not really like a huge amount of information out there about this movie. Full stop.
Yeah,
it was quite difficult this week
cuz no one's seen it, Sarah.
Yeah, Jonathan Kaplan. Not even Dan and Beckau have watched it.

(04:13):
I don't think Jonathan Kaplan remembers it. He was just This was the last movie he ever directed. just moved straight back to TV after this.
Okay. That's funny because it it did feel like a very TV movie to me, this one.
You said that the other day. Yeah. What was it about this movie that gave you that impression?
Because it's s***.
I don't agree that it's s***.
I It's a bit harsh. Look, it's I I don't think it's very good.
I remembered it being a lot better than it was, but the last time I watched it I was probably 19.
Yeah.
Um, so it's been a long time. And I also remember it being much much darker.
I I I was sure one of them died.
Do you know what? It's because since you've been 19 years old, you've been on a diet of martyrs and Gaspan movies. So now anything by comparison is a joy.
Yeah. This was like Tom and Jerry.
Yeah. Exactly.
Exactly.
No, I the second time I watched it, I watched it again today just for a quick refresher. And I was trying to watch it with that in mind because I when we watched it last weekend I was shocked that it seemed somewhat sanitized.
Like obviously it's grim.
I think I don't
Sorry, what were you you finish your point and
like I don't want to I don't want to underell it because it it does paint a pretty grim picture of life in a Thai prison as a foreigner.
We'll get to that.
But um

(04:34):
I don't know. I just remembered it being so much darker and I think I think you I think you might be right in your assessment. I think because my no in in that my consumption of media has gotten a lot more extreme over the years.
Yeah.
So I think maybe to the average viewer this might seem pretty dark.
I think it's it's definitely about a dark subject matter
and a very serious thing as well which I don't know maybe we'll talk about some point about what this is try is it what I don't know what it's trying to say but it's it it's at least at least somewhat highlighting a problem that is that happens about people naive people that get tricked into carrying drugs for people that are taking advantage of them
yeah so I have some criticisms of that sort of stuff because it was really difficult to watch this and not view it through the lens of like it sort of felt like a big advert for American exceptionalism.
Can you explain what that means to me as a as an idiot?
It felt a little bit like f*** yeah America.
Don't go to these squalid countries.
It did feel like that
where everybody's a brute and it felt like lowkey racist. I'm going to say it.
Yeah. Well, a lot of the Thailand stuff, I mean, is that how the tie justice system works? I doubt it.
Look, I have no experience with it. That might you. I have no experience with the tie justice system, but I can't imagine like it's not a lawless country.
No.
And there are so many tourists that go over there. No, no one would visit if that was
Yeah.
even a remote possibility surely.
Yeah.
Um so I do have some issues with that and the representation of the locals and and some other stuff. And even like Bill Pullman's character, Yankee Hank,
it's like the emphasis is all on like America, f*** yeah. Which started to gray a little bit wore on.
Even the end even the ending of the movie, it's like the girl next door, the the one that doesn't really doesn't say boo to goose. Is that a phrase? Like the nice young woman, she's going to get out of prison. And the one that's a bit gobby and is probably from a poor family

(04:55):
and from the wrong side of the tracks and and says what she thinks and and does drugs. Scum. the interesting one.
Throw away the key. Yeah.
Yeah.
So, it is it does feel like a very what's the word? Like a like a judge like point finger pointy like don't don't be CLA DNS.
It feels very much like a cautionary tale.
Yeah, that's it.
Like a a sort of I guess in America they say like an afterchool special.
Yeah. Yeah, it does. And and just going back to what you said earlier, I don't know. It's a movie set in Thailand. and I really think should have some tie characters in it.
Yeah.
And there's none.
Well, there there are a couple, but they're on the fringes and they're awful,
but they don't say much. You got Bill Bill Pullman's wife.
She's
who's but she's barely in it. She says a couple of things.
Actually, she was she was all right. She was all right. I quite liked her character, but yeah, she doesn't get very much to do,
but she has about eight lines in the in she's effectively a translator.
Yeah. And then you've got you there's a point in the movie about halfway through I think where I thought, "Oh, we're going to have one of the you get one of the um the prison wardens and I thought maybe she was going to be a character,
the one that they tried to bribe."
Yeah. I thought maybe she was going to be a sympathetic character to to what's going on with these particular young women. And also in general, like she must see this happen quite a lot with people that have been tricked into carrying drugs for people. And now there's a young woman in prison. She's probably seen this before. Let's have some empathy. Oh, maybe she's on a on a mission to try and help them out without getting into trouble herself.
Nope.
That's where I thought that the movie was going at that point.

(05:16):
And it didn't go there. And it's not like if I think of something, I don't necessarily want it to do exactly what I'm thinking, but I I don't think it did much interesting. I don't think that the ending was very interesting. And I just thought this seems a bit absurd by the time we got to that point. Maybe it's we're jumping ahead of ourselves here if we going to the ending. But you asked me about because I said it was s*** and that's a bit harsh. I think I don't think it's terrible, but I didn't I didn't think it was great.
Okay.
And I I don't think I would watch it again.
Do you think the the cautionary tale like the morality play stuff um plays into why you think it comes across as like a TV movie?
Um
it's definitely
possibly that might have something to do with it, but it's more
I think you're right. It is it is quite finger wagging like
yeah that's not something that occurred to me until now but yeah that probably does factor into it somewhat quite basic story and let's people have got to be how we want them to be but I think it was for me the TV movie thought was more stylistically like in terms of the uh how it looks it let's call it what it is it's a a movie from the '9s and you feel that and I felt that with the camera work I felt that with the music and the sound design.
Oh, we'll get to the music. Don't you worry.
Is that a note? Is it
I think it's it was more visually.
Yeah.
That made me feel like it was a TV movie. It just felt like it was something that would we'd be scrolling through the the TV in 2001 and then on channel 5 at quart 9, this movie has been on for 15 minutes and we're going to settle in and watch this movie now and I'm never going to think about it again. It's tough though, isn't it? Because I'm I'm inclined to give films from this era a little bit of wiggle room. I I 100% see what you're saying. It does not look even remotely cinematic, which in a country like Thailand, there's so much opportunity there.
Oh, you're right. I didn't even think of that. Such a wasted opportunity. Beautiful country.
Yeah. Um but I think
it could have been anywhere.
Yeah. Yeah. It could have been It just looked like random tourist destination for a lot of the runtime. Um, but I think also I'm inclined to give them a bit of wiggle room because it's the the copy that I have is a s***** barebones DVD that came out years and years and years ago. Total vanilla disc. Oh, no, sorry. It's got the trailer on it.
Oh, yeah.
We're treated to the trailer.
Bonus. It's a bonus. It's a trailer.

(05:37):
But there is like this sort of part of my brain that's like, we'll give him the benefit of the doubt. Maybe it's just a s***** answer.
Yeah.
But I definitely get what you're saying there.
I do.
Yeah. It's definitely definitely the story. Definitely the way it looks. The performances. I would I didn't like I said, I didn't love Beckans's performance in this.
I think it's more her character that I didn't like cuz like her accent was good. I thought she was decent, but the the character was so bland.
Yeah.
And privileged and, you know, so out of her depth. I think there there was a lot to explore there that they just didn't.
Do you think that maybe this movie could have benefited with a longer run time?
Yeah, I do.
Me, too.
Which is not often I would say that.
No, me neither. But it just felt like we we get the very quick introduction. Oh, isn't it great to be best friends with Cla Dan and Kate Beckell and then we're in Thailand. Yeah.
And that's it. We're off to the races. And then they meet an Australian and they they're a bit silly, but they're naive young women. So, you know, You know,
it's funny, isn't it?
If if you're a 17y old, you're going to make stupid decisions. And for us, we can make a stupid decision and probably nothing's going to happen. But if you know, you're around the drug dealers and you make a stupid decision, then yeah, you could get in trouble.
Yeah.
So, I don't I don't have much of an issue with that. But it just it wasn't very fleshed out. It was like, let's go from America to Thailand very very quickly and then they're in prison what in the first 12 minutes. It does feel like that. Yeah, it does feel like that. And then it's just like a speedun of horrible things and cockroaches and
Yeah, but I don't It's funny because you did you say that when you were young you thought, "Oh, it was a bit grim and a bit bleak." And it's Don't get me wrong, it's not like It's not an uplifting movie really. I mean, I suppose in a way it they do read it in a in that way.
Yeah. I do feel like they're leaning heavily into the optimism at the end, which is something else that bothers me because she's like, "And I know they'll never stop. trying to get Oh, babe, you're dying in that prison.
Yeah,

(05:58):
you're there for good.
Yeah,
I I appreciate the optimism, but I Yeah, that that rubbed me up the wrong way as well. But um but yeah, at the beginning, I think my biggest issue with the way this film starts is, and if you've listened to this podcast, if you know anything about my taste in films, you'll know that I hate a voice over unless it's done particularly well. And this film starts with Alice's voice over, and it I don't know if it's because of my affection for my so-called life. That's what it made me think of.
Does she do a voice over in it?
There's there's some, but it I don't know. It's just so cheesy. And I understand the the plot contrivance of having her record a tape to send to the lawyer
um because she didn't have pens and paper, but her friend had a Walkman.
Can you record record with headphones?
Yeah, I did think that.
I don't think you can.
No, you can't. That crossed my mind, too. Um, but also it just felt very like dear diary, you know, just really cheesy and not in keeping with the sort of story that you're trying to tell.
Like Gossip Girl or something.
Yeah. XOXO. I've never seen that show.
Me neighbor.
But yeah, I would say that's probably one of my biggest complaints is the cheesiness of it. But maybe that's intentional so that there's more of a juosition between their sort of charmed life in America and sleeping like
on a cockroach.
Yeah. Or fish heads,
I think. Yeah, you might be on fish heads.
Somebody put fish heads in her I nearly called it a sleeping bag. Her sort of roll thing. It looked like a massive, you know, those little um things that you mats that you roll sushi with.
Oh, sushi. Yeah.
Yeah.
It just like a massive one of those.

(06:19):
Yeah. Yeah. Oh, right. Okay. I didn't know I didn't know what was in her. I knew someone put something unpleasant in her map by didn't know what it was and that was probably the worst thing that happened to her. Uh I think that they could have I think you're on to something there like it was a bit cheesy and that could have been yeah just a way to highlight their I don't I wouldn't say that maybe Alice has had a privileged upbringing but certainly Darlene
well
but it does it does serve as a way to highlight the vast difference between how they've been brought up and this situation that they're in now. But I felt like yes it's bad that they're in this type prison and they might be in prison for 30 years But apart from that, I don't feel like it was that bad that like, you know, there wasn't crazy s*** going on in that prison. Everyone seemed a bit like apart from like get a fruit and you get hit on the hands. It's not great.
She was like caned for trying to eat an apple.
It's not great.
It's not It's not great, but I don't I don't feel like there was enough drama in the prison for them to warrant I I don't I felt like it needed to be a bit more harsh, maybe a bit darker.
I agree. But I think this film is sort of I don't know how it was marketed. I can't remember, but it feels like they were trying to make like Midnight Express, but for teenage girls.
100%. Yeah.
And hence the 12 certificate, hence the softening of some of the pun punishments and the realities of that sort of thing.
But you say that you don't think Alice grew up very privileged. And I'll agree on a surface level. I think that um obviously dead mom, dad's very distant, she's she's not rich like Darlene, but I think you're sort of underestimating how much privilege there is in being skinny white and attractive.
Well, yeah,
in a country like America. And I think that is sort of best displayed when they go to that resort and try to get free drinks. Like she's she's clearly not had as charmed a life as Darlene, but she thinks nothing of trying to steal from somewhere in a foreign country. And yes, we were all a little bit naive at se Well, I think they're 18. If they finish school, they'll be like 18 on their way to college. But um we were all a little bit naive back then. You think you're invincible when you're that age. But I don't know, there's a sense of entitlement there in both of them. I think
something that I do want to talk about that I think is probably the central theme is friendship.
Friends.
Um what do you think it says about friendship? Because obviously it's something that's woven into this this story.
Um Yeah. Uh, I've got nothing. It's It's I mean, I can only go by what the ending is, and it's like I don't know. I don't know. What What do you think it is? Cuz I ain't got a f****** clue.
I mean, I've got a few thoughts. I think um, first things first, they both fundamentally misunderstood Bros Before Hoes because they both fancied the blandest Australian that I think I've ever seen. I don't
Bill Porman is
Daniel Lean I think he's called. And The only
the not Lan. No,
the only thing I know him from is Muriel's wedding.

(06:40):
He plays the South African swimmer
that she gets married to. And I've seen that film a lot.
Yeah, I know you have.
And he's he's all right in that film, but he's not required to do very much beyond the accent.
Yeah. The whole character in that is that he's a bit
nothing, isn't he? Bit of a blank slate.
He was awful in this,
right?
I' I'd forgotten he was even in it to be honest with you. don't really remember much of his performance.
I mean,
he was sort of in it and then not in it.
I think that's one of the problems with this film is because he's so pivotal to the story,
but he's crap
and he's not very memorable, but but the film, the rest of the film is sort of haunted by the spectre of this character, but he's so nothing that it's like,
who cares?
Yeah, I suppose you're right. Like, if he's just in it for 10 minutes as he is, he really And it has this monumental impact on these characters that affects the rest of their lives. You would think that maybe he would need to be more memorable. And if he was, I would have remembered him more.
Yeah.
And uh but yeah, if it if as you say, he's a bit bland, it's like, well, why would they have chosen to follow this guy then? But then again, they are a lot of my criticisms of their actions in this movie is basically that I'm going to justify it by going but they're kids, they're children, and that's kind of the point, isn't it? They're naive.
Yeah. I think it goes deeper than that, though. And I think it's sort of the film kind of makes you doubt them and makes you doubt their friendship intentionally so because there's some sort of um mystery surrounding for some of the runtime at least, there's some mystery surrounding whether or not one or the other was aware of the drugs or, you know, cuz there's that we obviously know that Darlene went off with Nick, I want to say.
Um Like how low are your standards that he's the most charismatic man you could possibly hope to meet that they both have a crush on him
when Bill Palmer is in a country

(07:01):
or is it just the competitive nature between teenage girls?
Is it just that one of them's expressed an interest so the other one's I don't know. I don't know. There's some interesting stuff there that could have been explored a little bit more. I think
I think they do a decent job of establishing the fact that they are almost friends from birth. Like these girls have been through everything together, every pivotal moment,
have they?
How do you know that?
The voice over.
Oh, the voiceover, right? Okay.
Fills in all of that sort of stuff.
Yeah.
But I I don't know. I was never really convinced by how tight-knit their friendship was because they seemed a bit Alice at the very least seemed a bit jealous and backstabby. Like there was definitely some resentment simmering there.
Yeah. And do you think the resentment is that from Alice's perspective, Darlene has had more an easier life?
I think potentially to a degree.
Potentially that. Yeah. Potentially there's some resentment because
I don't know if you if you're into somebody, it doesn't feel good if they fancy your best friend instead. But also, she's a terrible friend
because I'm sorry if I'm on holiday with somebody that I have grown up with and love and they get with this absolute stranger who's older from different country. You're both somewhere where you don't speak the language. I I'm not going to leave her in a bar with this stranger. No f****** way. And Cla Dan thinks nothing of just
up and going. Like, do not. It does not pass with me.
Yeah, that was a bit of a twat move, was it?
Yes.
Yeah, you're right.
Very much so. Um, yeah, she doesn't understand girl code at all. And then there's some mystery surrounding whether or not she got with Nick because there's that part later on in the film where she's talking to Hank and he's saying, "Oh, we went uh my wife went to the hotel and showed them pictures of you two and guess which one she picked out as the one who was with Nick and it was Cla Danes."
So, there is some muddying of events there. And I don't think I don't think we're ever really supposed to know 100%.

(07:22):
And when you know what exactly that if she
if she also got with Nick
if she got with Nick I thought you meant about
because she was seen at his hotel room after Darene had been
there's that which I didn't even think about or care about to be honest with you. But then the thing that I thought about was did she know about the drugs? So I guess there's quite a lot of mystery about
about that character and what she knew and what she didn't know.
And I think that's set up intentionally because
Do you
I do I do I think um
I don't think that they just cut out half an hour of this movie because they wanted to get it down to a run time that 16 year old people could could watch
that would fit on a VHS tape in 1999 more like um yeah I don't know I don't think that I don't I don't necessarily think that stuff was trimmed cuz I think especially on second viewing today
but why make it ambiguous
I don't know I don't have an answer for you I'm afraid I think to maybe to make it more interesting
I how is that more I don't get it though like but isn't it more interesting to show that this character is flawed. Not that she might be flawed. Like what's
Well, we know she's flawed. She's definitely shown as being flawed.
Well, yeah,
I think they both are.
They both are. Yeah.
Um in in very different ways.
Well, Alice is always f****** lying, isn't she? Like Beck's dad. By the way, I'm going to fly all the way to Thailand and talk to my daughter and say, "Don't worry, you're going to be all right. f*** off, cuz I want to have a chat with Cla D. You're a little bastard, aren't you? You always been lying.
I'm going to dig out your mate for 5 minutes."

(07:43):
Yeah.
That as Much as this film hasn't aged well and I don't like it half as much as I did when I was 17, that's still a little bit gutting. And I think that's Cla Dane's acting that really sells that. When she yells at him and says she didn't do it, I'm just like knife through the heart.
Yeah,
I do think her performance is excellent in this.
Yeah, she's great.
And she is an elite crier.
Is she?
Honestly, whenever she the bottom lip starts going and I'm like, "Oh god, I'm going to go. And it still gets me a little bit at the end,
I must admit.
I thought she was really good in that end scene, but I hated what it was doing that scene. I hated it.
Why did you hate it?
So, if I understand this correctly, if you get on your knees and you say to the judge, I'm a good person, then judge be like, "All right, f*** off then."
Well, I didn't hate that because the judge did sort of explain. Well, he wasn't a judge, was he? He was like some sort of royalty, I think. Well, they said you can like appeal to the crown. I assumed that maybe he was some sort of regal. I I don't know.
I I thought he just thought he was a bit weird. And I I don't imagine that that's a real thing. That must be a contrivance for the for the movie.
Genuinely don't know, but it wouldn't surprise me. It does seem quite odd, but the guy kind of doing out the pardons or whatever does do a pretty good job of explaining that away cuz he says like, "Well, if you're telling the truth, then that means your friend is innocent and she should go home. Or if you're lying, then you're doing it to save your friend and that shows sufficient enough character that you should get what you're asking for.
Yeah, I
because ultimately to them she was saying that she would serve both sentences. So they're not really losing out. Only Cla Danes is losing in that scenario.
I'm confused. So I see I think when I heard that I didn't know what he was saying just because it I I'm a big dummy and I didn't really understand. It was very confusing to me. So he was saying that If you're lying, okay, so if you're lying, then that's good.
He's saying that shows you're of sufficient character that you're being so self-sacrificing in order for your friend to go free, then yeah, I will allow that.
But if you're telling the truth and you did do it,
then your friend doesn't deserve to be here and she should still be set free. Yeah.

(08:04):
So, who should be set free? And that's like
um Kate Beckell.
So, Beckansel goes free in whatever scenario.
Either scenario. Yeah. That's that was kind of the point of his thing. He was saying either way Uh, right. Okay. Yeah, I didn't get that. Okay.
I was completely lost by that. Um, I think by that point though, I just sort of checked out because I was like, you don't kneel in front of the crown or whatever he is and then maybe he just reverses all of the work that the justice system has done in one foul swoop. I might be wrong,
but that was the point. There was a whole thing leading up to that where Bill Pullman's character said that he So, the the Thai judge will not surprise you to find out that he was portrayed as a s***** person because there are no good Thai characters apparently. Um, and he struck a deal with him and said that if you go and gravel to the crown, this guy will fix it so that you're set free. I've given him like a bribe. You've just got to show.
But he didn't but the bribe didn't work cuz the guy was like, "No, f*** you. I'm not doing this bribe now."
Yeah. They were due to go and plead their case in front of the crown. And the guy's like, "No, no, no, no. Drug traffickers, they're not being pardoned and Hank says, "No, we had a deal." And that guy appears from out of the shadows and goes, "No, we don't." So, he just took the money and double crossed him effectively.
I don't know. Maybe it's just cuz I'd sort of checked out a little bit by that point anyway. But I think that that whole situation I just thought was pretty laughable and I didn't know how we got here.
I wouldn't say it was laughable. I don't like I say, I don't know anything about the tie justice system, but I I definitely didn't find it laughable.
Like I say, I might be wrong. This might be a real thing. I've done no research, but it felt f****** made up to me.
Well, there's corruption in every there's defin there's corruption everywhere. I'm not saying that. I'm just saying that really is there a thing where you just get on your knees and then you might get let off for 30 years. I don't know. That seems stupid to me. And in a movie where you have to plead your case though,
but in a movie that's meant to be grounded and about a real very serious subject and it gets to the end, you're just like, "Please, please." And you're like, "Yeah, all right." Like, I I go on it. Off you go. I I I hated it. I thought I I thought that was a terrible terrible ending.
Okay.
Um and I didn't like it very much, Sarah.
All right. I didn't think it was a terrible ending. And actually, I don't know why I'm fighting in this film's corner now.
I don't know why. Because you love it. That's why it's your favorite.
I don't love it. That's the point. But I don't think it's as bad as you're making out. Yeah. I don't know. I think I think it was sort of required for the And this won't be a factor for you if you're mentally checked out by that point.
I thought you was going to say mentally challenged. Well, that too. I don't that's not very politically correct these days.
Oh, you can't say that. I'm sorry.
No,

(08:25):
but I can say I'm Let's move on.
Yeah,
I think I think that was required for the emotional gut punch of an ending. And that's that does still affect me. I was like shedding a little bit of a tear by the end.
Maybe that's part of my problem with it is that it was very clearly it's so blatantly like you need to feel for these characters now. And I was like, f*** off. off. I don't care.
Oh, I'm just an easy mark, though. I see Cla Dan's crying and I'm I'm set off. That's That's all it takes.
I'm not saying she wasn't great in that scene. She was really really good in that. Like, she know she did. I've got no problem with Cla Dan's performance in this movie. She's great in this. I think she's she's way better than this movie is. I think if Cla Danes is not in this movie, this is a bargain basement of a movie. This is this is not a good movie without her in it, I don't think. But part of it could be like what you were saying. It's kind of designed to be to be watched by young young adults really, isn't it? This is like
I think so. Yeah.
This is like a divergent but tie prison
but with heroin.
With heroin. Yeah.
Yeah. Exactly. Is that what they were smuggling heroin?
So, yeah.
So, we've done another heroins this this season. We've done we've done two heroins.
But nobody was doing any heroins in this one.
No, it's this is a drug season and no one does any drugs in this movie. No.
Did they smoke a pot? She smoked a pot, didn't she?
I don't remember anybody. Oh, no. She did. Yeah. In the
She smoked a pot in the prison. And Beck and S was like, "Are you smoking a pot and don't?" And I'm thinking, "Yeah, you got f****** nothing else to do, have you?"
Yeah. Well, I'm just going to wait around to be caned again.
Yeah. Do you think it's it's slightly ironic that they got they got uh thrown in inside for drug smuggling when they didn't smuggle in drugs and then they get in prison and then they do drugs?
I mean, it's not all bad though because the prison hair stylist slayed those late ' 90s choppy bobs.

(08:46):
Yeah,
it was like somewhere between Winona Ryder and the lead singer from Republica.
Yeah, baby, I'm ready to go.
Who was the hair stylist at the prison? Vidal Cassoon. Yeah,
they were too good.
I I always expect in movies about prisons is is that they're just going to have their heads shaved off. Maybe I'm just thinking of Alien 3.
Yeah. Yeah, cuz it's knits. Is that Is that why they do that? I always assumed that's what it was because of head head louses.
Yeah, but there were a couple women in there with longer hair. So, I don't know if it's just like just an entrance humiliation ritual,
right? It looked good. Their hairs they rocked it.
Their hairs look great.
Yeah.
Uh I had a bit of an issue while they were in the prison. The lack of interesting characters in there. I thought there there was a real missed opportunity in prison where you could have had other relationships
potentially blossom and form and help establish the direction of where the main characters end up in the movie a little bit more maybe because it did very much feel like very quickly the first 15 minutes they're in jail and then if just it's a kind of kind of a collection of scenes leading up to the end of the movie but nothing very memorable and I think about other prison movies and You you've obviously got Green Mile, Shaw Shank, um
all the things that were written by Stephen King.
Oh, they're both Stephen King, aren't they? Of course they are. Yeah. Uh The Escapist with Andy Circus and Johnny Lee Miller. Uh The Hurricane. But anyway, sid track. I think I feel like a one of the best parts about a prison movie is when you get interesting characters in it and their interactions and whether it's trying to escape to prison or or whatever. But there's always memorable characters in it. Go to Shaw Shank maybe. You obviously got Morgan Freeman and you've got the guy that had the bird,
whatever his name was, but he's got the bird. He's so memorable. I've forgotten his name. But you have interesting characters in those movies. Green, you've got uh don't do anything wrong against Eugene Victor Tombs cuz he's a bad prison warden. But my point is
there is a point.
Oh, you have a point.
Yeah. Okay.
My point is that there are I think when you're doing a kind of a prison movie like this. I want there to be more interesting stuff going on in the prison. Yeah.
And to me, it was just it was just this courtyard and then they're going to try and we're going to go to the toilet and then try and run out of it.

(09:07):
And there wasn't the prison didn't have much character. It was quite basic.
Got that cockroach ear infection.
I've completely forgotten this this plot thread. What happened?
Um the cockroach crawled in her ear when she was sleeping and it stayed in there. So, she got in ction and fainted.
I don't remember that. Did she?
Did you watch this film?
I tried.
Did you fall asleep for about 45 minutes in the middle? Is that why you thought nothing happened?
Well, did that cockroach ear infection go on for 45 minutes?
Um, no. There was an escape attempt.
But yeah, repeated escape attempts. I Yeah. Anything Terminator? Um, the I remember the escape part. So, did she fake the cockroach infection to try and cockroach in her ear?
Okay. We didn't see it.
So, what you're saying is that the cockroaches are the most interesting characters in that prison
potentially.
I thought they were going to do something with the uh the the prisoner that said, "Oh, you can eat an apple. That's fine." But they she tricked them because when you eat an apple, you get caneed.
She was the one who put the fish heads in the bed as well.
She did that, too.
Yeah. But I thought there was
She was like the only other This is what I mean. This film is lowkey kind of racist because she was like the only Thai prisoner that we get to know and she's a f****** a******.
Yeah.
And then as you say, there is a lack of other characters in other relationships. There are two other women that we get to know.

(09:28):
Well, to get to know like
neither of which have names, I don't think
that's why we don't really. We all we know about her. Oh, she has a Walkman.
One of those Amanda Decadinet.
She can't afford $100 to get escape out of prison.
And the other one is a massive racial stereotype because it's the black wise lady.
Okay.
Who'll give them some advice.
Yeah.
I It's not great. It's not great in in those terms there. Yeah.
Is this written by a man?
I actually don't know.
Cuz it feels to me like it's written by a a dude.
Yeah, potentially.
And I'm like, on the one hand, I'm like, oh, it's nice to see this sort of movie featuring young women.
Yeah.
Uh, you don't really get to see prison movies about women very often.
No, you don't.
You What's the um There was the TV show.
There's like seven seasons of Orange is the New Black. Right. Okay. Yeah, that's that's what I'm thinking of. But it was it was quite I suppose on one hand I was like, "Oh, yeah. This is I I quite like to see where this goes." And I suppose it didn't go anywhere
and I thought it was it was ended up being quite boring and a bit of a bit of a let down and certainly a missed opportunity. Yeah. Why do I feel like this was written by a guy? I think um who's given this four stars? Someone I know has given it four stars.

(09:49):
It wasn't me.
Two and a half. Four. Three. Three. Four and a half. Who's giving this four and a half stars?
Jonathan Kaplan.
Is Jonathan Kaplan?
Is it?
No. Jonathan.
Uh, so who's the writer of this thing? Story by Adam Fields. David Arata. Writer David Arata. Yeah. Written by a guy.
I don't know why I thought that.
That makes sense cuz it it sort of feels like this movie doesn't like women that much
and it definitely doesn't like foreigners.
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, that's interesting because even the two main characters, I don't like Alice very much, but
she's interesting.
She's interesting and I don't like any 17-year-old people. So,
Darlene's just bland.
Yeah, Darlene's nothing. She's nothing. Like, I wouldn't have anything to say to that person.
Alice, I would have an interesting conversation with even if I hated her.
Yeah, but there there does seem to be an element of them of the script sort of taking the tack of Well, it's their own fault.
Yeah. I don't know. Is it I
I think you you might be right. It does sort of feel like that. I don't
And it's weird cuz I feel like the intention of the film was probably the opposite of that in some ways. Like it's about this very serious thing where young women or or anyone young really can be tricked into being a mule
and it's about being taken advantage of and how really anyone could be in that situation. But I feel like this movie sort of went the other way. It's like, well, if you're a d*******, then you're going to get in trouble.

(10:10):
It's funny because I feel like this film doesn't necessarily go where you think it's going to go. Um, which is not nowhere really. Let me explain. I think this sort of harks back to what I was saying earlier about Nick being somewhat absent for the the majority of the running time. So, I think by default, the fault then does fall to the girls because he's not there. He's just absent.
Yeah. And there wasn't enough of him being charming and and kind of
not for us to buy,
trying to seduce them in a romantic way and in a way of, you know, smuggle my drugs for me.
Yeah.
Meet me in Hong Kong. There wasn't enough of that.
But also, I think if you if you give nine if you give this story to 10 screenwriters, I think nine of them would have a more satisfying ending. And I'm not saying the film should have ended this way. But I think it's odd that there's no justice served. I think in so many other films of this ilk, they'd have found Nick. They'd have brought him to justice. The girls would have gone home, but we don't get a satisfying answer. So, it sort of feels like it goes nowhere. But I I'm sure the ending we get is more realistic in those terms because I'm sure these people slip through the net every day, but it's not very satisfying
from a narrative perspective anyway. Yeah. And it's Yeah, there is that. I didn't that didn't occur to me and I didn't have a huge problem with that cuz I don't mind things being left kind of open and unresolved really if the narrative is interesting enough. I think one of the things that I was disappointed with and got kind of interested about the hour mark into the movie because it's when Pullman goes to visit the other woman that was at the airport that you get a closeup of her in the when they're in the airport.
Yeah.
And
she's not relevant.
No.
And we come back to her later and Pullman is having a conversation with her and she was also a mule and she was also tricked into into doing this thing. And when it got to that point, I thought, okay, let's do something here then. Let's explore. I thought that what we were going to do then is we were going to meet more of these people, right?
And they were going to share their experiences and they were all going to sort of come together maybe and not necessarily Alice and Darling get out of prison and you know it was a happy ending and we all worked together and we achieved a thing
but maybe there's more light shed on the whole operation or something.
Yeah, cuz I feel like I feel like the idea of this for this movie must have come from real cases, real circumstances. Obviously
I think it was Yeah.
Like it's a bit scare scaremongery because you know this people that make these movies would have you think that this happens every day, but it's pretty rare, I I would imagine.
But it does happen.
But it does happen. Yes, it is a real problem. And people are taken advantage of and their entire their whole lives are ruined because of one stupid mistake they made. And it's not fair because we've all made stupid mistakes. I've made way worse mistakes that the people in this movie made. And I haven't gone to prison for 30 years. It's just stupid s*** you do when you're a kid. And I'm lucky that I haven't had to pay the sort of prices that they're paying this movie
and also you weren't in Thailand.

(10:31):
Oh yeah, cuz that happens all the time.
But I I thought we were going to go down a path of maybe meeting some more women that have gone through the same thing and learn more about it and how they can
I don't know. I don't I I don't want to say like fight against it or anything like that, but at least highlight it more and have more of a discussion about it cuz I feel like that's probably what that's probably what the starting point of this movie was was looking at those real life cases. But somewhere on the road. They got it in their head that they want to make a character piece, but they forgot to put characters in it. Like that's that's basically what my thesis of this of this entire movie is.
Okay, I can appreciate that. And I think I think I'm on the same page for most of what you've had to say.
It could have been really good. I agree. It could have been like there was some ingredients there, you know, maybe we'll get another director. I don't know. I don't know Kaplan's work, so I feel a bit harsh saying that, but TV sounds about right.
That's more his from what we know.
Yeah. Um,
better soundtrack.
Yeah. Oh, lord. Oh,
this this might be one of the worst soundtracks in any film ever.
Worse than hackers.
Yeah.
Right.
But the prodigy was in the hacker soundtrack.
Prody and hackers.
The hacker soundtrack is pretty good. Certainly by comparison to this. Anyway,
are we saying the hackers or just hackers?
Hackers.
Okay. I uh Yeah, it's uh it's so 90s. Is this this soundtrack?
It's just like somebody when I don't know just just get me a load of like breathy female vocals to chill beats.
Yeah.

(10:52):
That were super popular in America in the late '9s.
I I I can't I bet like it didn't feature at all in this movie, but I bet if you buy this soundtrack, then Enigma is almost certainly on it.
It's Yeah, it's so nice.
It's a bonus track.
It's a bonus track. Yeah, it's uh it definitely ages it. It's It's I thought about the beach. a little bit while we were watching this. And I guess
Thailand, I mean, the beach is also the beach also feels a little bit um stuck in the time that it was made as well, I think. But most of that could be because it's got All Saints on the soundtrack,
but at least that one had Tilda Swintson.
That one had Tilda Swintson. And I don't think that's I think I do prefer the beach to this movie. I think it's great, but it's okay. I think it's beautifully shot and, you know, some amazing locations, but like what you were saying, If you go to the beach, I suppose it has to cuz it's part of the kind of the reason that people coming to this place, but it shows the beauty of of that country. Whereas in this, you don't see any of that. You see in Broke Down Palace, you see the inside of a hotel, you see the inside of an airport, you see the inside of a prison.
s***** little hostel looking room.
Yeah. And that's about like Was this even shot in Thailand?
I'm not sure. I think it was because I read somewhere that um Oh god, it was either Thailand or the Philippines. One of which Cla Danes is banned for life.
Okay.
She can't set foot in the country ever again
because she was in Terminator 3.
Yes. Cuz she worked with Jared Leto. So she's guilty by association. No, I would never say such a thing. Um she was pretty savage about the country and the locals in the press. She said it was squalid. There were cockroaches everywhere. Everybody was dirty. There were missing limbs. Like she was really scathing. And they were like,
"How dare you have a limb missing?"
I know.
How dare you come up
How dare you live in poverty. This is clearly your own fault.
Yeah. How it's disgusting. You've got an arm off. Yeah.
How Why would you come up to me without an arm? Oh, I hate her now. I think

(11:13):
she was she a kid then, though.
She was fairly young. Yeah. But it's given the ugly American stereotype.
Yeah. It's not a great look.
It's not. And apparently the whoever was in charge of the country at the time sort of said, "Well, she's just a kid. Let's leave it. But then apparently then she doubled down and they were like, "Nope, banned."
Oh, wow.
So yeah, not great. Not great. But um she did backtrack a little bit and say, "Well, no, like loads of the country is beautiful. You know, I just saw some bad parts." It's like, cool. There's bad parts of everywhere. You know that, right?
Yeah.
Have you been to Skid Row in LA? It's not great.
Yeah. You've been to Shubbury in Essex? Well, I was thinking somewhere that Cla Danes might know.
She might know. There's a lot of movies get shot in the UK, though.
She might. She might. Yeah.
So, like Andrew Garfield shot that that advert on Victoria Station in Southen.
Brolywood.
Yeah. Broly Broly. Brolywood. Brolywood. That's Hodon.
Yeah.
Yeah.
I thought that was Hollywood.
Oh, you're right. Yeah, that is Hollywood.
This is getting confusing now.
Where's Brolywood then?
That's just England.

(11:34):
That's just UK. Yeah, you're right. Yeah,
the UK film industry.
Yeah,
it's always got to be rhyming.
Yeah,
for people to take it seriously. So, quick question.
You can sort of trace everything that happened back to Alice and her poor decision making. So, I've got a question. Would you, given the choice, would you rather go to Hawaii or Thailand?
Would do you mean in what's like
for a holiday?
What am I doing on?
Well, they were originally supposed to go to Hawaii for a graduation. trip, but they said it seemed too pretentious and that's where all Americans go, but they wanted to get a real experience.
So, they went they wanted to go to Thailand and she talked Darlene into it.
Hawaii.
Would you?
Yeah.
I don't know if I agree. I think I would go to Thailand. Not on the basis of this film.
I think I would. Yeah. I don't know. I I wouldn't go to both to be fair.
Yeah.
I just feel like I don't know why I feel like it's maybe easier to go to Thailand than it is to to Hawaii for us. So, I feel like I would take the ticket, the free ticket to Hawaii. Oh, it's a free ticket now, is it? To to Thailand.
Okay.
Yeah. Oh, in this scenario. So, am I the girls in this scenario?

(11:55):
Well, you're one of them. You're not both of them.
Which one? Can I Which one?
You could be either.
So, if I'm Alice, I'm probably I'd probably want to go to Thailand. If I'm Darlene, I'd probably want to go to Hawaii.
You're putting yourself in their shoes.
Yeah.
This has become a weird thought experiment now. It's just supposed to be a silly question. I picked Thailand, but that's mostly on the basis that I've always wanted to go to Thailand. And also, it seems like people in Hawaii just want tourists to be there less.
Oh, is it? Okay.
I'm not saying they're like hostile to tourists, but they're very proud of where they're from. And
I think um they don't want it ruined by
stupid white people.
I really I just want to go to um I was going to say to Highland to Hawaii cuz I want to visit all of the um the shooting location. for that Cameron Crow movie.
My favorite Cameron Crow movie. That is
That's nobody's favorite Cameron Crow movie.
Was it? I've forgotten the name of that.
Aloha.
Aloh. It was called Aloha.
Yes.
Oh, it was bad. It's not good.
I watched that for our before we recorded our almost famous episode
and I wish I hadn't. It's rubbish.

(12:16):
But it's so good. You forgot the name.
I I Yeah, Hawaii. I understand that they have a very nice night sky. I can look at the stars. Yeah.
So, yeah, there's that.
I was going to say we could visit locations from the White Lotus, but we can't afford that.
Is that in Hawaii?
The season one was. Yeah.
Was it? Well, have they not done a season in Thailand yet?
Yeah.
Which one was that?
The last season.
Three.
Yes.
Okay.
The most recent one.
I forget.
I know that they've done a season in different places, but I can tell you where they are.
Yeah.
It's the one with Mari Bartlett and then the other two seasons, which is good.
Everything else.
Yeah. the first season which I love and the other two seasons which were like well it hasn't got Mar Butler in it has it
fair do you know what fair

(12:37):
yeah
I can't blame you for that
for me he made that I loved the first season and I didn't quite like the other seasons as much but yeah it's because Marlet wasn't in it my favorite human
your favorite human what am I a piece of wood
he's my second
call back listen to your driven show is my second favorite human. Like it goes without saying you're my favorite human. I don't even need to say that, do I?
Sometimes it's nice to hear.
Okay. Is it nice for everybody else to hear as well?
I don't know.
f*** him. Who cares? You want me to just say it?
Yeah.
Okay.
Did you know that the um the location that they used for the women's prison in Brodown Palace was actually an active mental health facility for women?
Oh, was it? I thought he was going to say an active volcano.
It was an active volcano. Yes. It didn't seem that bad. There was a There was a cat. At least I would go to prison if there was a cat there.
There was a cat. Yeah. And fish heads.
And fish heads. Maybe it was the cat that did it. But yeah, that apparently they um sectioned it off. So they put barriers up and h haveved the facility so that they squished all of the inhabitants into one half and then used the other half for fil for a filming. location and takes were often interrupted by distressed women wailing.
Okay.
Which not great. You you're effectively making these women's lives
harder than they need to be just to make a stupid film.
Yeah,

(12:58):
I don't love that. Um but yeah, there's there's not a huge amount of trivia about this film out there. I did I did do some digging, but
yeah,
that was about the best I could come up with.
So, Breakdown Palace I'm going to take a wild stab in the dark and say that you're probably never going to watch this again.
Not a chance.
Yeah.
Not in a I would not watch this in a million years again cuz I just thought it was a bit boring and I thought it was a bit dull.
But did Lou Diamond Phillips performance not even make things a bit more exciting.
The two and a half minutes that he's in this movie.
I don't there's something about his face. He he looks like if a gremlin wished to be human.
Okay.
And I will not elaborate. How dare you?
How dare you? That's my boy Chavez.
I dared.
Yeah, he's going to be in Young Guns Fredo,
even though he died in Young Guns 2.
Great.
He'll be back.
Spoilers.
Uh, yeah, he was in this movie. I don't He was He's his his performance was weird. Um, but it made me smile because it was weird. I feel like this is maybe the Oh, it's definitely not the worst film we've watched. What's the What's worse? We've watched some bad movies.
Police Academy. 7.

(13:19):
Yeah, you're right. There's There's way worse movies that we've watched, but
actually I would rather watch Police Academy 7 than Army of the Dead.
Make of that what you will.
It's shorter.
Yeah.
Yeah. So, there's that. It's Yeah, it's 100% It's not the worst movie we've ever watched, but I think it's Don't take this wrong way. I think it's one of the least interesting movies that I've watched for for this for this show.
I Yeah, I'll be honest. I added it to the lineup because I wanted to include a film about drug smuggling. I vetoed Return to Paradise because It was much harder to get a hold of and because I remembered this being better.
There's no guarantee that Return to Paradise is is any better.
True.
I liked it at the time, but I like if I went back to it now, I might not like it.
I think it's got a bit more substance though. Has it?
I think it's got a bit more to say. Yeah.
Okay.
And it's also got Wim Phoenix, who's also always great.
Yeah. But it's also got Vince Vaughn in it.
True. Yeah, there is that.
Yeah.
But either way, this is one that will not be putting on any sort of regular rotation in our household.
Not for me. Will you watch this again? Did you buy this for the for the show?
I did. Yeah. It was only a few quid. It was a few quid.
Well, well, you could watch all those bonus trailers now, can't you?

(13:40):
Trailer.
Yeah, one.
Not even not even an extended or an alternate trailer. Nothing.
Just the original trailer that you've already probably seen or you've seen the movie cuz you're buying it.
Why do they do they put trailers?
I don't know.
They I suppose they probably don't. Any more, but I did for a while. But this is in the era, right, where we're putting commentaries and lots of extras on DVDs
because DVDs were like new.
Yeah. And you can get loads of information on them.
Yeah. But they just didn't give a s***.
No. Would you watch Would you watch a director's commentary? You don't ever watch them anyway, but
I do sometimes, but I wouldn't for this. No.
No. I I might Do you know what? I might have been tempted, but probably switched it off after 10 minutes.
Yeah. You'd have been bored for 15 minutes in.
Yeah,
for sure.
I won't be watching this again. No,
I don't fully regret putting it in the lineup, but it's certainly a low point so far.
I I'm Do you know what it I It's part of the interesting thing about doing this is sometimes watching movies that particularly cuz we take it in turns to choose the seasons and the movies. When you choose a lineup and you say, "What about this? What about this?" I was like, "No, it's your season." You just pick what you want to pick.
Are you going to have more involvement going forward.
I was going to say from this point forward that's changing.

(14:01):
Yeah.
Um no it but it's so while I wasn't thrilled while watching this and I sort of wondered where this conversation was going to go. Um I am glad that I've seen it cuz I've now got the uh the touch point of early Cla Danes, early Kate Beckansel, another Bill Porman,
the worst soundtrack known to man.
Worst Yeah, exactly. We can always reference that. Uh so I guess I didn't know that. It was a blind spot on account of having not f****** heard of this movie until you mentioned it. But it was a blind spot and and now I've seen it and that's what I can say about this movie.
That's the best thing you have to say about it.
I've now seen this.
Yeah.
I look I still don't hate it. But do I think it's great? No, I do not.
I don't think it's half as good as I did when I was a teenager, which is a shame.
Has anyone seen this movie?
Yeah, there's one girl that did a video essay on YouTube.
Okay. That's it.
How many people listening do you think have actually seen this movie?
Um, a percentage like 12%.
12%.
Yeah.
Okay. So, you think
maybe we'll be surprised.
Yeah.
People that listen to this are are people. They're they're film people. Maybe they have.
No, I know that. I know. If you're listening to this weird obscure show, obscure, that's not the right word. Everyone's got a movie podcast. It's not It's not obscure, is it? But just like this. weird unknown podcast. If you're listening to this, then you're probably a fan of movies and and you know a lot of them, but I just I don't know. I hadn't heard of this

(14:22):
and that's not always the correct measure. You know, what I know is the same thing as what everybody else doesn't know,
but I don't know. I It's just weird to me that this I feel like I'm from another universe where this movie doesn't exist and you've just gone now you're in this universe, Dan. Here is the DVD
Mandela effect.
Um yeah, I don't know. It was It it kind of flopped when it came out and it's kind of remained forgotten and some movies are forgotten for a good reason.
Let's end there, shall we?
Forgettable.
What are we doing next week?
Well, it's your season, so hopefully you can tell me.
Um, I think we're doing Pineapple Express.
I think that you're right
because I think I wanted to give you a quick reprieve before we get back to Gritty.
Oh. We're going back to Gritty after that, are we?
Maybe.
So, we're going Seth Rogan.
Mhm.
Everyone's favorite James Franco.
Everyone's favorite sex.
The best Franco. And it'll be our first Danny McBride movie.
Yeah.
I've seen Pineapple Express once.
I really enjoyed it when it came out. It made me laugh a lot.

(14:43):
I didn't.
We'll see if that has changed.
I didn't like it very much when it came out. Okay.
I bought it. I blind bought it cuz I was like, "Oh, Seth Rogan's funny. I watched it."
String a comedy. s***. Yeah.
Oh, no.
But I'm hoping that I was just in the wrong frame of mind cuz I watched it once, never went back to it. Do you know what? I'm more mature now and I'm sure it's one of those movies that as you get older probably you see more stuff in it.
Oh yeah. You'll pick up on some of the subtext and Yeah.
Yeah. I can't wait.
Yeah. So, Pineapple Express and we can try and figure out why it's called Pineapple Express.
Because it's named after the strain of weed.