Go (1999) - S11 E85

Are you ready to GO all-in? This week on Shoot the Hostage our drugs season takes a detour intro the fast-paced, vibrant world of Doug Liman’s 1999 cult hit, Go – our third foray into the wild world of cinematic substances.

This film boasts arguably the most aggressively late 90s cast ever, functioning as a true ensemble piece even if some weren't A-listers at the time. We get into the raw talent of Sarah Polley as Ronna, a young adult making some truly stupid decisions over one wild night. We also delve into the magnetic Taye Diggs who improves the second act by at least 35% and the sheer chaos of Breckin Meyer.  

We talk about Go's incredible soundtrack with artists like Fatboy Slim, Steppenwolf, Massive Attack, and No Doubt. Despite Doug Liman's initial unfamiliarity with rave culture, the film's fast-paced energy and quick cutting brilliantly capture the hedonism of the time, without ever feeling preachy. The movie is infused with drugs, particularly ecstasy (or "X," which becomes a fun running visual motif throughout, and we unpack how the film blends crime thriller elements with ridiculous comedy.

Here's some other things we explore in the episode:

• Doug Liman's directing style and other films from his career.
• The use of Melissa McCarthy and Confederated Products in other John August scripts
• The 90s ensemble cast, including Timothy Olyphant and Katie Holmes
• The film's unique title, its possible meaning and the difficulty of searching for it online
• The style influenced by Tarantino, Kevin Smith, and Kevin Williamson.
• The script's try-hard moments versus its enduring humour.

Season 11 runs until August 11th with 8 episodes

Would you like to see the full lineup for season 11? The only place you can see it is on Patreon but you don't need to be a paying member. Sign up for a free membership and get access to the lineup.

If you do have some loose change consider signing up as a paid member. Our £3 a month Patreon tier will grant you access to all of our end of season wrap shows for seasons 1-10 and a minimum of 2 reviews of brand new movies each month. Plus the back-catalogue of reviews from 2023 and 2024. 

Enjoy the show but can't support us financially? We get it. You could submit a review on the podcast player you're reading this on right now. Or if you listen on Spotify and you haven't given us a five-star rating yet, what are ye waiting for? It's easy.

If you've done some or all of that and still want to do more, we would love it if you tell a friend about the show.  

Or come find us on social media:

Instagram | TikTok | Threads | YouTube

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 cont. content and early ad free uploads. Right, on with the show

(00:01):
Dan.
Yep.
What do you think most people would give us their answer if they asked think of a dog Lyman movie.
Oh, good question. I What would your layman what would your Lyman think?
Oh, I like what you did there.
I kind of I kind of feel Lyman is a bit of a Are we going to say what movie we're covering or we just going to go straight into Doug Lyman?
Oh, I I just want an answer to the question that I've asked.
What was the question I could ask?
What do you think most people would give as like a Doug Lime if you say to somebody on the street, uh, name a Doug Lyman movie. What do you think they would say most commonly?
Go, which is the movie we're covering?
I don't think they would say that, though.
No, they wouldn't. But I just wanted to get the title of the movie in before we go down a Lyman hole.
In case people can't read,
in case anybody illiterate is listening,
I don't think your layman really knows who Doug Lyman is. If you're listening to this, you do cuz you're a fan of movies, but I don't think my mom would know who Doug L.
All right, fine. So, you've picked enough holes in my question,
but I'm exploring the question. Bear with me. So, what films of his are most wellknown or most accessible? I would say probably The First Born movie.
Yeah, I think that's what a lot of people would say, assuming they're familiar with Doug Lyman.
But I would say to people that aren't familiar with Doug Lyman, probably think that the first born movie was directed by Paul Greengrass.
He does seem to get the credit. He does for those, doesn't he?
Yeah. And maybe you should. I haven't seen those two last two born movies for years.

(00:22):
Two and three are great. Genuinely, I of them, but I think Doug Lyman was the one who sort of set a lot of the precedents. So, I think
Yeah, 100%. That first movie, like they all built off that first movie.
Yeah. So, I think he should get his flowers. Um, do you think people would say Swingers?
Some people would say Swingers, which was early in his career. I think his second movie, Going's Third.
What was his first?
It was a film. What?
It was a film
called uh I don't know. I didn't write it down.
All right.
Testing me now. I could look on online. But it's too hot and I can't
It's cheating. Um Yeah. So I don't I'm pretty confident I've never seen his first film. I think the first one I saw was Swingers.
Yeah.
So that tends to be what I think of.
Yeah. Same.
Um what else has he done?
Edge of Tomorrow.
Oh, that's one I always forget about.
That's your favorite bloodline, isn't it?
Oh, no. It's your favorite Tom Cruz.
It's my favorite Trump Tom Trump.
Trump Cruz.

(00:43):
It's my favorite Trump Cruz movie.
Tom Cruz.
Tom Cruz is a music act.
Yeah,
they're not bad. Not as good as Hooker.
Also a real band. Um, yeah. I forgot he did Edge of Tomorrow. That's a fantastic film.
Did he Did he do Jumper? Did he make a jumper?
A Jumper?
Yeah.
Well, he knits.
He knits as well. He is a very talented man.
Renaissance man.
Yeah.
He didn't direct Renaissance man though.
Not with Danny V1.
This is This has gone off the rails.
I think he did jump. I think he did jump. I think he did uh American made another Tom Cruz movie, which is all right.
I didn't know I haven't. I can picture the front cover, but I've never seen it.
It's about smuggling.
So, okay.
Maybe could have got into this season,

(01:04):
but it didn't.
No.
Alas, we are in fact covering 1999's Go instead.
I said that already, didn't I? Earlier.
I know that. I'm just reiterating. You're just going to give me s*** this entire episode.
I might be giving you s*** this entire episode.
You're just being sassy for no reason. So, when was the first time that you saw this movie? It came out in 1999 as I just said. Did you see it when it came out?
Roughly. I don't remember seeing it at cinema. I was a fan of swingers at that point. I had seen that and rented it and loved it. And
it was only a couple of years between, wasn't there?
96 is swingers 99 go. So yeah, three years.
But I must have I probably saw swingers around 97. Rented it.
Loved it.
Do you know what?
I'm not sure that it's going to hold up entirely well thinking about it.
Well, it's been a long time. since I've seen that movie. I think I do own it, so I should probably on a disc behind me. Um, so I probably should get on that, but it from memory they weren't like the greatest people.
No,
but if somebody had said, "Do you think Dan loved swingers when he was younger?" I'd have been 100%. Without a doubt.
Yeah.
I don't know why, but that's got like younger you written all over it for some reason. Besides the swing music.
Yeah.
That's not your bad. about that. But I did enjoy that movie.

(01:25):
Um, so
did you did you go around saying that everything was money?
I don't think I did.
Good.
Yeah. Calling women babies.
Beautiful babies. It's weird.
It's super weird. Yeah.
No, but I did enjoy swingers. And then probably probably the reason I was quite excited to see go was swingers.
Again, that was a rental. Would have been a super video special, I think, on a VHS.
I must have rented did it a few times because I remember showing various different people the film like, "Oh, it's a come around my we'll go and rent go and watch that." So, I think I think I must have rendered it a few times before procuring it on VHS.
Oh, you owned it on VHS?
I did. Did you? Did you own it on on videape?
Um, so I think the first time the first DVD player I bought would have been potentially 99. So, it's feasible that I never owned this on VHS. I might have gone straight to movie.
Yeah, that's interesting.
But I did um I did watch it fairly soon after it came out. Yeah,
I think I must have seen a trailer and been like this looks subversive and entirely up my street and oh no doubt are on the soundtrack. Um the less said about them the better these days.
Oh, what's happened with them? Are they not good people?
Queen Stefani is just a bit of a knob.
Oh, is she?
Yeah.
I don't know. This is news to me.

(01:46):
Well, she's a big right-winger.
Oh, is she?
Yeah. I'm surprised at that.
I was shocked. I was shocked. I mean, like all the cultural appropriation throughout her career aside, white girls wearing bindies is what a different conversation, but um
what's a bindy?
The little kind of gemstones on your forehead.
Oh, does she wear one of them?
She did back in the day,
but you're not allowed to.
I mean, it's insensitive, shall we say?
Culturally inappropriation.
Inapprop inappropriation. Yeah. Um and she's started doing adverts for for um a Christian app,
which is as funny as it sounds.
I was wondering where what angle we were going to come at this film from it. No,
no, I didn't think so. Um but yeah, it was it's been quite funny actually because it's called the Hallow App. So, cue a lot of I ain't no app girl memes.
Right. Right.
But um yeah, the the songs on this soundtrack still bangers. I will say that
it's an incredible soundtrack.
Yeah. Oh, we'll definitely get to that later, I'm sure.
Yeah.
Um but yeah, I think I saw this fairly early on and it it was one that I watched a lot, much like yourself.

(02:07):
For me, too. I definitely was wearing out the old videape with the amount of times I watched it. And I would I would skip to I still do this now and I'll pick out certain scenes. It was a lot harder to do with VHS
pre-YouTube.
Yeah. But like even now with Blu-rays, DVDs, you just skip to the scene that you want. But yeah, but I had to remember where the bit was. Like it was an hour and 23 minutes or whatever.
Uh,
did you have a spreadsheet?
I I didn't have a spreadsheet then. No, I didn't even have a PC when I saw this movie. I didn't get a PC till like 2003. Uh, so no, I did not have a spreadsheet.
Okay.
But uh I what I did have was a surround sound stereo system and we occasionally I would record things from like the if I played a video tape, I would record record songs off of the end of movies.
Mhm.
I think once or twice I tried to record the entire movie so I could listen to it on the move. Might have done that with The Rock. I forget.
Seriously, just the audio.
Yeah.
God, you're a nerd.
Yeah.
But I definitely did I didn't do that with this film, but I did record the end because I wanted that no doubt song.
Yeah.
But it meant that I got the uh start of the dialogue from the very end of the movie. So, it's proper ingrained in me. Some All of this music is ingrained in me. All of this music is Youth Dan. You know, you fat boy slim, your BTS.
Oh, yeah.
Stephen Wolf was the first time I'd ever heard Stephen Wolf was on this movie.
Step Wolf remix is such a good track. There are so many good needle drops in this movie and we'll definitely talk about some of them later on.
Well, apparently it was composed by BT and uh that would make this our second BT movie.

(02:28):
BT the phone provider.
British Telecom. Yes,
British Telecom did the soundtrack to go.
That's the most random fact. I've ever heard. That wasn't in the trivia.
Well, I'm telling you now. So,
um, for the uninitiated, um, me. I'm talking about me. Who's BT? I've seen the name, but I don't know who BT is.
Like a late 90s, early 2000s dance/trance,
right?
DJ, I guess, slash musician. I don't know what you would really call them, but had a few like trans classics back in the day that I listen to and did the soundtrack for
this movie.
Uhhuh.
And and one that we've already covered which I mentioned Driven.
All right.
That's the most BT movie I think.
Have they worked since?
I think so. I think they've done a lot.
Yes. In Tesco.
I want to say that they did Swordfish, but that might have been Oakenfold. Might have been old Okei.
All right. Okay.
But um but yeah, so it's aggressively 90s/ early 2000s.
Yeah.

(02:49):
Music.
It's very you.
Yeah, it is. But I but like you said, I think Massive Attack on the soundtrack. Um, is was there some soft cell in there or am I thinking of I think I'm thinking of next week's movie?
Oh no.
Oh no. We'll come back to that. We'll come back to that next week. Yeah.
Why did you look excited when you said next week's movie?
I don't know because I just remembered that it's got a soft cell in it, I guess.
But you hate next week's movie. Anyway,
don't love next week's movie.
We'll talk about that at the end, shall we? Um,
next week, apparently.
Sorry. Um, so the cast in this, the cast in this is the most, this might be the most aggressively late 90s cast.
Would you say this is an ensemble? And what does ensemble mean?
Um,
I really hate it when people ask me to define words cuz I know I I don't know. I find that to be such a tall order. I can use words in context, but when you ask for the definition, I struggle.
Well, you see, to me, ensemble I don't know. For some reason,
on a somble
on a Yes. where they're all wearing one somble each.
Yeah.
Uh well, for me, it's it's obviously like a big list of actors in the movie, right? A large a large cast, but also isn't there meant to be some sort of Marvel quality there? Like it's going to be
Yeah.

(03:10):
lots of character actors, lots of A-listers, and you ensemble is like, oh, it's oh, it's Oceans 11 cuz you got Clooney and Pit and Cheeel being a British guy for some reason
and some other people.
Yeah. So, is it I guess my question is does the cast need to be A-list or at least known character actors or can it just be a group of people a group of actors in a because that would make all movies ensemble movies if they if they didn't have to be aart
the Tom Hardy movie.
Yeah.
That's not an ensemble piece.
No, it's not. No, cuz there's just one bloke in it. Yeah, I've already found a hole in your theory.
No, it's a Venom prequel. If you watch it right to the end, it goes Eddie,
Eddie, I'm going to drive the car.
I missed that. Was that post credits?
Yeah, it was.
Ah, damn it.
Um, I I would consider this an ensemble for sure. I would
I think my understanding is that they tend to have to be somewhat known,
but were but I guess this is why I'm thinking it, right? It might be an ensemble uh cast now, but when it came out, I I I didn't know who the f*** Sarah Polly was when this came out. And maybe I should have done from from um
Well, I did because when I was a child, I loved the TV show Ramona.
Oh, she was in that.
Yeah, I think I think that was based on book.
Okay.
But I really enjoyed that when I was a kid, so I knew who she was.
Okay. I haven't seen that. I I would have seen her in the Adventures of Baron Munchin when I was very young, but child actor, didn't know. And I didn't realize it was her until this week where we were doing research for this show. Yeah. Right.

(03:31):
So, I went back and watched The Adventures of Baron Mchelen. Is it?
It's all right.
Held up.
Yeah, it's all right.
Good.
It's a bit weird.
Yeah. Always a bit weird
with a Gill I am. It's always going to be a bit weird, isn't it?
I am the fifth member of the Black Eyed Peas.
But I I guess I didn't know who Sarah Polly was. I didn't know who um did I know J Mo more maybe I did.
Yeah, he was like he was somewhat known at the time. He did um Small Soldiers.
Small Soldiers. I seen him in the what that was that 98 Small Soldiers the year before maybe
I
Pauly that film about the parrot
was he in that
yes
I don't remember a frame of Pley
neither do I but I can picture that cover with the bird on it
is he a green bird
I think so
yeah I can I can picture it as well I think

(03:52):
yeah
William Fitner I I Fner Fitchner
Fner
Fner
I don't know that's how I say it
I knew him cuz for years after seeing him in movie is just popping up. He was one of those guys before I even knew his name.
It was uh he was Colonel Woody Sharp from um Armageddon.
Oh, of course.
Magadon.
Yeah. So, he was he was somewhat known.
He was known. I I knew who he was.
Yeah. Um Casey Holmes, obviously off the back of Dawson's Creek enjoyed massive success with that.
You see, I never saw Dawson's Creek. I never saw any of it.
But like most other teenagers on the planet did,
people spoke about it. Yeah.
So, I I think she enjoyed a lot of fame off the back of that.
Yeah. Timothy Olifan. Would I have known him? This was probably the first time I saw him, wasn't it?
He was in that one episode of Sex in the Sea.
Again, I've not seen that. So, was that after this or before this?
I think it was before this. Um, yeah. He didn't do a great deal. When was Scream Two?
Oh, he was a Scream Scream person, wasn't he? So, Scream 2 was

(04:13):
that may have been the biggest thing he'd done prior to this.
Scream 2 was 98.
Yeah,
wasn't it? It was goes 96, 98, and then 2000
for the first three Scream movies.
Yeah,
I think so.
So, yeah. Okay. So, I would have I probably would have known him from that then.
Mhm.
I would have definitely seen Scream by that point. I think the year after couple of years after I would have known him from um Gone in 60 Seconds, but at this point,
right,
wasn't really a a face or someone that I recognize
from memory. Anyway,
there were a lot of people who I think you would have called at the time upandcomers, like rising stars,
like Desmond Ascu,
straight off the back of Graange Hill.
Oh god.
If there was one noise you could make to sum up Desmond Ascu's acting in this movie, what would it what would the noise be?
Yeah.
I'm sorry if I just blew out your speakers. I'll turn it down in post.
Um, yeah, he's not good in this.

(04:34):
He's terrible.
I love Ty Dicks. Tay Diggs is great. He's definitely one of the high points in this.
Tay Diggs is always great and I think he's my favorite character in this.
He's very, very funny. His comic timing is impeccable.
I think that second part of the movie is way way worse without that character.
Oh yeah.
Almost like maybe Unwatchable. I feel like he his presence and his charisma lends that scene a certain or that that middle act a certain um not relevance. What's the word I'm looking for? I think with Without that character, it would just be f****** nonsense. Who are these clowns?
Yeah, he he definitely makes it more memorable. He's he's almost like
he's kind of the straight man to the three idiots
in a way. Like he's the one who's got a good head on his shoulders somewhat.
Yeah,
but bad choice in jackets.
I don't know about like
um Breim Meer I think is really funny here. I think he's genuinely really funny here. But I do feel bad for him in that breaer to me is who people cast when Seth Green isn't available,
right? Was Seth Green not available to do Garfield then?
I guess not.
He was just like, I'm Ginger. I don't want to be tied to this orange cat. This is a lose-lose for me.
Oh, I didn't ask him to play the cat.
Oh, right.
It was the the guy who But you only see his legs, John. You only see his legs in the cartoon, didn't you?
No.

(04:55):
Is that Is that on my
You see his whole face?
I'm thinking of other cartoons. I think
the Muppets you only saw like ankles. The Muppet Babies.
Okay.
Tom and Jerry, I think you only saw You're confusing it with like many of
Yeah. And then in a Garfield movie, they're like, "Let's get Bre and Ma and Jennifer Love you." It
never seen them.
Isn't the second one called A Tale of Two Kitties?
Is it really?
I think so. Yeah.
Why are you making me like it?
It's got Bill Murray in it.
Well, yeah.
As a cat.
Not all bad then. Um I knew that because of that joke that he made in that Zombieland movie about Garfield,
right? Zombie Land 2. Yeah.
Is he in the second one?
Yeah.
I've only seen the second one once.
Same.

(05:16):
Wasn't as good, was it?
No. We're getting on a real tangent here.
Cast cast.
James Duval.
James Duval. Who was in Independence Day?
Oh, yeah. So, it's it's so weird that our frames of reference are so wildly different because you're like Independence Day. And I'm like, oh, he worked with Greg Iraqi a bunch.
He was in some of the apocalypse trilogy.
The uh thero John Carpenter did the apocalypse trilogy. Gregory did the teen apocalypse trilogy. I'm getting it wrong.
Okay. Yeah, this is way above my head.
Um yeah, James Duval, like jobbing be movie actor for decades at this point. He was he was in Donny Darko,
was he?
He was the rabbit,
was he?
He was.
Oh, yeah. I can picture that now, actually. Yeah.
I've forgotten I've forgotten the name. Is it Frank?
Frank. Yeah.
He is in May. which you've definitely seen.
Is that the uh surgery one?
Yes.
Nonspoilers. Yeah. Okay. Yeah, I think I remember that.

(05:37):
Um he's he's in nowhere. Which brings us to and I've forgotten his surname. Nathan something
Barley.
No, it's definitely not Nathan Barley
Fielder.
It's not Nathan Fielder either. I wish Nathan Fielder was in this movie.
So do I.
And all movies.
I wish he was in every movie.
Yeah. Um, God, I feel really bad. I've forgotten his name, but I don't think he acts anymore. I think he left the industry. Um, on account of he wasn't very good except in this film.
Okay.
I think he's genuinely really good in this.
Who are we talking about? Manny.
Oh, Manny, right?
You love Manny.
Manny is great. So, he didn't go on to have a career. That's
He had He had a bit of a career, but he's not doing much.
Oh, okay. That's interesting because I think that he's again one of the standouts in this. I think he's very funny. But we did see that behind the scenes where Doug Lyman is directing the s*** out of him.
There was some very very specific
direction there. Yeah. So I don't know how much I mean
I mean yeah he is a he was good in this role because he took direction well
a bad actor would have

(05:58):
fluffed it right
I guess.
Um but yeah I think we do have to sort of allow Doug Lyman some of the applause for that performance.
Yeah he's way better than Desmond asked you.
Everybody's better. than Desmond Dne. What were they thinking?
I looked at his credits and he's done a lot of like Call of Duty
like voices. Yeah.
Right. I can see that actually.
Yeah.
Um I guess as a horror fan I know him best as um he's big brain in The Hills Have Eyes.
Oh, is he? Yeah.
I thought he was going to say wrong turn. He's in The Hills Have Eyes.
Mhm.
Okay. Did they have eyes in that movie?
The Hills?
Yeah.
I don't believe so. No, it was a bit of a misnomer.
I I think I was always like misharing that song when I was a kid. I've only It's only just dawned on me that is the hills have eyes with the sound of music. Right. That's the song.
That's not the song.
It's It's even more terrifying than that. The actual lyrics, the hills are alive with the sound of music.
They're alive.

(06:19):
Yeah. It's way scarier.
s***, man.
When they've just got eyes, you're like, well, you know, I can poke them in their eyes.
Yeah.
But now they're alive.
Sound of me. music is uh getting a horror remake as we speak.
Yeah.
Somebody's doing a an imaginative cut on YouTube.
Yeah.
Yeah. Is that everybody? Have we covered everyone?
I think so. Yeah.
All the important Oh, no. Scott Wolf.
Scott Wolf. So, you mentioned Scott Wolf.
We've covered everyone important.
Well, he was he was sort of enjoying a similar success to Casey Holmes because he was sort of off the back of Party of Five.
Oh, I sort of remember that being on television, but I I think it was a bit dower for my for my liking
probably
a bit sad and like oh no we're all for no f*** off
but Matthew Fox obviously went on to do Lost Ne Campbell was in it so like
Campbell was in it
it it birthed a few reasonably successful careers although Scott Wolfs wasn't one of them

(06:40):
right um the kid from Lost in Space
Penny Precious
Sure.
No anyone anyone anyone Anybody?
I'd love Lost in Space.
Yeah, you and You alone, I think. Are you talking about the 1997 Lost in Space?
Yeah.
Yeah, that's just you.
I love that movie. I saw it multiple times at the cinema and I still watch it now and I just don't get what
Yeah, but you like Space Troers.
Also a good movie.
Agree to disagree, darling.
A good bad movie. This the part of that sentence is correct. Yeah. So I wonder what the titling process was like in this film because when did Google come about?
You think that they just use the first two letters of Google?
I don't but maybe they did. No, what I was thinking of is this is probably the hardest movie to Google.
If you just write the word go
Yeah. Whenever
Did you mean Google?
Yeah.
Yeah. Even Goonies comes up. before.
Yeah. What do you mean even Goonies?

(07:01):
What do you What do I mean is what do I mean even Goonies?
The Goonies is so much more wellknown than Go. Of course it was.
Yeah.
Did you watch the um the commentary on the Blu-ray?
I watched some of it. I watched about a third of it. Nearly nearly half of it maybe. Wasn't very good. Some of it very interesting.
See, my question was going to be did they discuss the name on there?
I don't think so.
I just wonder what prompted like the one of the shortest titles known to man.
I don't know.
Do you think it's appropriate? It's quite a propulsive word, isn't it? So, and it's quite a propulsive movie.
I suppose so. It's probably a bit of a s*** title, isn't it? Really, if you're not
great. Yeah, that's why I'm asking. I don't love it.
There's one scene in the movie where Kate Holmes throws some keys at someone and she says, "Go." It's like, "Oh, did you Is that where this title came from? or I don't know. It doesn't really mean anything, does it?
Go or or like it could be in reference to maybe if we're following a kind of a for the first part anyway
children like Ron is meant to be 17, right? I don't know if she was actually 17 or she was telling Fner that she was 17.
That's something I was going to ask you actually. I wasn't sure if um she was doing the same thing,
but it could be uh I don't know. I was thinking maybe something to do with You're an adult now. Go, go, go out into the world. Go. Maybe. I I mean, I'm I could be pinch. Is it What's the reaching? Pinching.
Could be reaching around here.
Could be pinching.
Yeah.
Yeah. I mean, that's as good as an answer as I've got.

(07:22):
I don't know.
I just wondered cuz it's um it's kind of a unique title,
I suppose. So, I never really thought about it.
You're welcome. Can we talk more about Sarah Polly, please?
Sure.
Because she is sort of central to this movie,
Rona.
Yeah.
Yeah.
And I think from what I've heard, Doug Lyman felt the same way and he pushed really, really hard to cast her.
And the from what I understand, she'd only really worked in Canada with one or two exceptions. And she really didn't want to go to the States to work. She wanted to remain in Canada and just sort of stay in the homegrown movie and TV industry.
Yeah.
But she was persuaded by Doug Lyman cuz he put really really hard. I don't know. Do you think she's good here? Do you think she is a good actor?
Uh yes, I think so. I'll tell you what, I thought I enjoyed her in Baron Manchow and she's a child in that.
Yeah,
I enjoyed her in this. I enjoyed her I think she's excellent in the Dawn of the Dead remake.
Yeah.
And maybe that's about all I know her from, though.
You've seen Splice? I know how much you love that movie.
I forget Splice just Yeah. I tried to block that. out my my memory. God. Oh. But yeah, I think she's I think she's decent in this. I I think um maybe some sometimes the script isn't isn't great or maybe I feel like the script is maybe trying to be a bit too clever sometimes and it it sounds a bit jarring. And I think that's why sometimes some of the deliveries might seem a bit off.
Yeah.

(07:43):
Or maybe it's a choice. Maybe it's because it's the overlapping kind of interconnected stories thing. So they're doing same scenes from different angles. So maybe some of it just seems jarring because like well that's not how you said that before. That's a slightly different cadence. So maybe could be getting it confused in my brain. But
that's a good point actually.
You used a different take there.
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
Hadn't really thought of that. But yeah, that's definitely a consideration.
But no, I do enjoy her in this. I do enjoy her character and her journey.
I uh she's just she's a kid. She's making stupid decisions. as a teenager, which we've all done.
It's interesting that you say journey because I tend to use that word when there's more of a a character arc. And I don't think Ronald learns anything here.
I Yeah. I It's difficult to say cuz it's only over the course of kind of one night, isn't it? So there's no like
you need a longer period of time to see change.
Yeah. And I wonder what she does the next day. Maybe she just goes out and does exactly the same thing.
I doubt it. Straight from the hospital.
She went straight to work. didn't she?
She's skint.
Yeah,
girl's got a hustle. Yeah, I don't know. I think she's I think she's pretty strong in this movie.
I think you might be right about the script, though. We'll circle back to that in a second. I think everybody's kind of great here with the exception of Katie Holmes
and Desmond Ascu.
Well, yeah. I don't even I'm never even thinking about Desmond ascu. He's so offensive to me and that earring that he's got is clinging on for dear life and makes me really uneasy. And I think his character is just gross.
Yeah, he's the worst.
I think he's deeply unlikable as a character and an actor.

(08:04):
Yeah,
I'm not sorry that I said that. Um, but in the realms of people who, you know, are somewhat decent at their craft, I didn't really like Katie Holmes. And I think that's just me.
I I think that that character is maybe the most gets the gets the least to do out of everybody because especially In that first part, you've got Ronnie and Manny driving around and they they're getting the comedy stuff or Manny's getting the comedy stuff and and Ron is the plot essentially.
And then you've got Todd Gaines, Tom Timothy Olphant who's quite a probably steals the movie. I would say that character to to a degree. Yeah. All the exceptions digs. Yeah.
Tigs aside,
and uh I think Holmes doesn't she just doesn't get very much to do.
She She's a bit of a nothing character. She's just sort of there. And then there's a point where that they leave her with a Todd Gaines character and they're having a chat. In one of the I think in the original script, Gaines had pulled a gun on that character.
Oh, okay.
And then they decided to cut that out cuz they thought it was a bit weird when they were hooking up later.
Yeah.
But I already think it's weird. Like he was already
He was still a bit menacing.
Yeah, definitely. But the next day she's just like, "All right, mate. Come over. I'll buy, you know, you were going to buy me breakfast and stuff. We're going to a biscuit.
I think that is one of the reasons that I don't care for her performance very much. Some of it is the character.
Um I feel mean even saying this, but like 50% is just the Katy Holmes of it all. I really dislike her delivery
and it's it's a specific delivery she does in everything. So I assume that's just how she talks, which is why I feel mean saying it. But just her her affectations and I don't know, intonations and stuff, it just really it's like nails down a chalkboard for me.
Interesting. Cuz I I
I'm sure she's lovely.
Who knows? But I I've heard a lot of people complain about her performance in the first uh Nolan Batman movie, Batman Begins, and then she got recast
uh not by Maggie Gyllenhaal, but replaced by Maggie Gyllenhaal. Gyllenhaal.
I I still don't know to this day.

(08:25):
A lot of people didn't like her performance in that first movie. I don't really see what the problem is, but everybody else is seeing something I'm not apparently. And then I couldn't name you another Katie Holmes movie.
So we've got the two. We've got the two there. My reference points.
She's been in a lot of stuff.
Oh, was she in Tallaladega Nights?
No,
she was, wasn't she?
Yeah, she was Ricky Bobby.
She was the lead in Tallaladega Nights. No, she played the car. Um, genuinely, I don't know. Maybe she was. Yeah,
maybe. I'm thinking of something else with fast car in it.
But yeah, I I do feel like she's the weak link. But as I say, only 50% is on her. I think the other 50% is the writing and or direction because
it's just a lack of lack of things she has to do in this.
No, I don't I don't necessarily agree with that. I think yes, I agree that the character isn't given much to do, but I think what she is given to do, I don't know, it sort of harks back to the the point that you just made about us not having enough time to really explore much in the way of character development. because it's such a a a narrow window of time that the movie covers.
Yeah. Especially the first segment.
Yeah. Which is why her performance doesn't make as much sense to me because it feels like it feels like it's a different person from her first scenes to her last scenes. It feels like it's a different human.
I I think definitely from the early part until compared to the part where she hooks up with Todd Gaines. Yes.
Cuz she's the sensible sarcastic one.
Yeah. But then there's the other part where the gangsters turn up in LA and I think that between her and Timothy Olant, I think that scene's very funny. Uh but maybe we'll talk about that. Maybe we'll talk about that at some point.
Yeah. Okay.
I I I was just thinking about it like in her appearances in this movie and for the most part I probably agree with you, but I do think it's more of a script or wasted character. And uh then there's some stuff of hers that I enjoy in the in the last in the last act.
Okay.
But I I don't really have much of a frame of reference for for Katie Holmes. Was she Did you watch Dawson's Creek?

(08:46):
I sadly Yeah. I've seen it all the way through twice.
Re what?
I know.
Nobody's watched it twice.
Some people own it. Some people love that show.
Are some people you
No,
you don't own it.
I don't own it. I don't even like it that much.
Why did you watch it twice?
I don't know, Dan. I really don't know. Boredom and hate watching and all manner of I don't watch things that I do like twice.
Lucky that's where you and I differ. I hate myself.
No. Um, yeah. I don't know. There there isn't a huge amount to differentiate her character from Dawson's Creek as somebody who's watched it through twice and her character in this. So, I feel like I don't know, maybe she was just a bit typ cast. Maybe none of it's her fault.
But yeah, she's probably my least favorite character. As we discussed, Desmond side.
Yeah, of course.
That's just a given at this point.
Yeah.
Yeah. I I'm so curious about how he got this role cuz apparently his agent was contacted about it and he sent in a tape and everything and they were quite impressed with him.
So they So Doug Lyman watched the tape
and didn't immediately throw it out of a window and say, "I never want to hear from this dude again."
That's weird, isn't it? Cuz his delivery is awful in it. Some of it when he's talking about Vegas at the start of the movie and he sort of looks up to the sky and like does a I don't even know what you call it. Just sort of looks around. It's so like overacting. Nobody Nobody communicates like that.

(09:07):
No.
Unless it's like amateur dramatics on a Tuesday night at the community hall.
That's what it was giving. Yeah. It was giving that and it was giving first day on Earth. It was giving I'm going to learn as I go along from these things we call humans.
Yeah.
Yeah. I don't know. But they must have been happy with the performance. So Who are we to criticize? Um, somebody we didn't mention, this was uh also Melissa McCarthy's film debut.
Yeah. Yeah. First first movie. And she went on to appear in John August movies apparently.
John August.
They carried on collaborating. Who was the writer of this this screenplay?
Oh, what else has John August done then?
Yep. Charlie's Angels.
The um the McG one. Yuck.
What else?
Charlie's Angels. Full throttle.
What else with Melissa McCarthy in? I'll narrow it down.
Is she not in those?
No. Is she?
I haven't seen them, but I just assumed that she would be at some point in the movie. Uh Charlie in a Chocolate Factory.
She wasn't in that
big fish.
Was she in that?
I don't I haven't seen any

(09:28):
I haven't seen any of this ones. I don't know. Is there another big fish?
Probably.
All right. I I Yeah. And other stuff that probably has got Melissa McCarthy in that I haven't written down.
Right. Okay.
Do your own research.
Can I I just want to state at this point the sass and resignation is because we're melting currently. We're in the height of British summertime and in an unventilated room.
Don't try and defend. Don't try like give me excuses. I'm just lazy and I can't be bothered.
I was trying to do any research. And I think if you're going to turn up as a listener and listen to this show, I think the least you could do is do some f****** research.
I don't know why we've got to sit here and do it all. That's not what this is. You do your homework, you watch the movie, you do your research, and then we have a fun chat about it.
I think you're putting too much on the listener here. This isn't This isn't a community project. We're not all getting marks for this.
Did we not mention the exams at the end of the year?
We do. quiz.
We do a quiz. Yeah.
Yeah. Listen to the rap shows. Um did you know that um before this movie Tay Diggs didn't know how to drive?
Yeah, I did hear that actually. And he they only he was only allowed to drive at 15 miles per hour.
Seriously, I didn't know that.
Yeah. What a shame. You get to sit in that car and you can drive 15 miles an hour. I'd be devastated.
What a waste.
But on the other hand, you do get to drive a Ferrari, albeit very very slowly.
Do you know what I find ironic and somewhat counterintuitive? Um, is that if you can't drive and you do a really intensive course, it's a crash course.
That doesn't seem right to me.

(09:49):
No, it's probably not the right phrasing to use, is it?
Seems insensitive.
Yeah.
Who do we take this up with?
The Mr. Mrs. or Mrs. Driving agency.
The DA. Take it up with the DA. DA.
The DA will see you on Monday morning at 9:00 a.m.
No, I'm not going to do that.
The driving authority.
Um, going back to Timothy Olant for a second, I have a fact about him as well. He was originally cast in the Aiden Quinn role in Practical Magic, but he got fired. And I did try to find out what he was fired for, and I couldn't. I'm very sad about that.
Um, so he he only got this job because schedules aligned cuz he'd been fired from one job. Okay.
Pick this up instead.
Is that the one about the witches? And it's got Nicole Kimman and
Yeah. Sandra Bulock.
Yeah.
They're doing a sequel.
Oh, good. Good.
People love that movie.
Practical magics
probably. As long as it's not like practical magic. Magic the next generation.
Just practical magic 2025. Just like they're not even bothering anymore, are they? Just f****** call it what we called it before. What we call I don't know. f*** it. Who cares? Just call it. did last summer with Freddy Prince Jr. in it. Yeah. Yeah. We'll put him in it.

(10:10):
Oh, that looks bad, doesn't it?
Yeah, it looks s***.
I have some other facts.
Okay.
Um, before they landed Sarah Polly, which they, as I've already mentioned, worked really hard to get hold of, um, it was almost Christina Reachi, which to be honest, I can see.
When was Adam's family values was four years before this? 95
I want to put it around. I think the first one was what 91. So maybe 91, 94 or 95.
Yeah. Okay. So she's the she's a a right kind of age. I feel like there was a big gap between Adam's Family and then until I saw Christina Reachi again.
Oh, not if you were into indie films.
Okay.
She was in some cork cuz the opposite of sex was really good, Buffalo 66. Like she was in a ton of really edgy stuff around that time.
Right. See, when you say indie films, I'm thinking Harrison Ford, which wasn't in any of those
independent films.
Okay. Yes. Stuff that I wouldn't have been aware of at that point.
Potentially not. Yeah. Um
I think that's good casting. I think that would have worked quite well.
Me too. Me too. As much as I like Sarah Polly in this role, I I'm there's a part of me that's sad we didn't get the Christina Richi version.
I think she would have been great at that. Um she has that sort of sardonic,
witty, sarcastic kind of vibe.
Yeah, maybe she would have been good in the if we're going to recast Katie Holmes, maybe put her in that role. Give her more to do. Obviously,
I like that.

(10:31):
But that would that Because Holmes does do a little bit of that at the start when she's first talking. A bit snarky. Yeah. So maybe uh
maybe that role we can expand it a bit further would have been good for her and we can that way we can keep Sarah Polly as well.
Yeah, I like that. I like that a lot.
And just sack Desmond.
Yeah. Just No, we need to recast him.
No, we don't.
Well, no, we do.
No, we don't.
Okay. I mean, this film literally doesn't work without that connection, but okay. We're just following random people.
Elijah Wood.
Elijah Wood. I don't hate that.
Sean William Scott.
No. No. I hate that.
Chris Klein.
Why are you just naming people from American Pie now?
s***. Whatever his name is. Moccuccino guy.
No, none of those people.
They're making another American Pie movie.
Of course they are. Yeah. They're just going to keep making them, aren't they?
There's about 19 now, aren't there?
I think there are four proper ones. So, this

(10:52):
Oh, there's a bunch of like spin-offs, though.
Pi one, Pi 2, Pi 3, the wedding, Pi 4, the reunion.
Okay.
Pi Band Camp.
I'm just trusting you here.
That's the National Lampoons spin-off thing.
All right.
Um, so I think this new one will be pi five.
Okay.
Pie in the sky.
Shorty P. pie hole.
Yeah, shut your pie hole. That's what it's called.
We're done with this. Let's move on. Um,
that's what I should call it.
I think everybody else would be like, "Yeah, that's a good title for this."
They all get together for some event and there's a natural disaster
and the hole this time is a sinkhole.
Yeah, it's a big asteroid and just lands on Jim
as he's trying to fornicate with a sock
or a pie. I suppose it's a pie mostly, isn't it?
Either or. Yeah, it's not called American sock.

(11:13):
That's where he tries to pull a sock as well.
The American sock franchise
in a different universe. That's what it is.
That's the more realistic version of that.
Yeah, maybe that's the better timeline where we never got CO and climate change isn't a thing.
We had American sock. We didn't have We didn't have uh climate change.
That's a fair trade, personally.
Yeah, I I trade American effort to to have those things be gone.
Yeah,
definitely.
Maybe we can find some sort of synchronic like drug that will shunt us to that timeline.
We can make it so that when they're coming up for the ideas for American pie, we can just replace the pie with a sock.
Mhm.
And then thus doing that creates a butterfly effect and the other things climate change stops. It just becomes everyone stopped making apple pies which are really bad for the environment.
Are they?
Yeah. Just
it's terrible for apples. It's a meane. It's a methane thing.
It's really inhumane for the apples.
Yeah. And just creates a hold in. You know, it's like
just having all those ovens on is really heating the planet up.
Yeah. That's what it is. Yeah. Cuz the people just saw that movie and they're like, I tell you what, I really fancy a pie now.

(11:34):
Mhm.
So, everyone was cooking pies and that's why the planet started heating up.
Yeah.
You're right. Cuz the ovens were just on.
Mhm.
And they wouldn't And because whenever they got a pie out and their son would started to f*** the pie, they're like, "Oh s***, we can't eat that pie now. We have to make another pie
and thus the cycle continues.
And it continues. Yeah.
But everybody's got loads of socks.
Yeah.
So, yeah, I like it. I think we could sell that between the two of us.
And then what happened is people ate so many apple pies and they tried to f*** so many apple pies that we had no apples anymore. Like apples would just be extinct and people were like, "What should we do? Let's eat bats instead." And that's where came from.
You've figured it out. Yeah. Um so, so how do we get to this alternate timeline?
We've got go back in time via the synchronic drug.
Oh, right. And then sh Okay, I see what you're saying.
Was f****** Mcfuck face was coming up with American pie.
Yeah,
we have to rub out all of the word wherever pie.
We replace the word pie with sock.
We just kill them all.
Kill them. But then we wouldn't have American sock either.

(11:55):
Just do some murders.
Would you would you take out Sean William Scott?
No.
He's all right. He seems, doesn't he?
I don't know anything about him. I choice. I've got nothing against the man. He was good in that Becky sequel.
Yeah. So, I mean, he's sort of uh does some kind of interesting He was just Sean William Scott for about 15 years, wasn't he? And now he's
Oh, who can we get for this uh idiot um phone stiffler? I don't know.
Have you tried Kerry? Yes. He said no. All right. How much is Sean William Scott? Not as much. Cheaper, is he? Yeah.
Oh, let's go that route.
The one from the American Soccer franchise. Yeah, that's the one.
But I have a question. Is Jennifer Culage still in it
in American Sock?
Yeah.
Yeah. She's the only character in it.
It's just her.
Yeah.
Oh, I am so in.
Yeah.
Sock.
She's a sock.
Oh my god.

(12:16):
Stifler sock. Sil
I I think I think I kind of love this sill.
Is that our second merch drop?
Yeah.
Sock I'd like to find,
but they are socks.
They are socks. Yeah. So, you can't see the world unless you you've got your cakes off.
Yeah.
Which I wouldn't recommend.
At which point it's already too late.
It's already too late. Yeah.
Yeah.
So, going back to the film that we're talking about.
Oh, yeah.
I've got a fun fact that I think you'll really enjoy. because it pertains to cars, which obviously you love.
Okay.
You're the car guy.
So, there is a number plate in this movie that's been used in a s*** ton of other movies, including SWAT, Beverly Hills Cop 2, Mholland Drive, and Traffic, which is a film that could have been on this lineup. I don't know what it means, but it's 2 G A2 T123. Two gat 123.
Two gat. Oh, yeah. I do sort of remember seeing that now. My visual memory is kicking up. Yeah.
I thought you would enjoy a car fact.
Yeah. I wonder why they're all connected.

(12:37):
I don't know. Maybe it's like one of those things where everybody in the industry just unilaterally decided that American phone numbers would start with 555. Yeah.
Even though they don't in real life.
Why is that?
Um because they didn't want to accidentally use a real phone number.
Okay.
So, they somebody decided to just use the prefix 555 and that would ensure that nobody accidentally got a s*** ton of prank calls.
Yeah. or just accidentally ring someone when you're trying to do acting. Yeah.
Oh s***, sorry.
Just go again.
Yeah. Um, so yeah, maybe that's the the number plate equivalent of that.
So all number plates
and Willilhelm scream.
Two two gap and Willilhelm.
Yeah.
Scream. Is that the one that goes?
Yeah.
It's the scream, funnily enough.
Yeah.
Also, Doug Lyman knew nothing about rave culture when taking on this project.
That's funny because you would think like watching it, you would be like, "Oh, he's been to a rave."
Well, I wouldn't because I've never been to a rave, so I just trust whatever is thrust into my eyeballs at this point. I'm just like, well, they say it's a rave. Sure. I've got no basis for comparison.

(12:58):
But you have?
Yeah.
So, you say this is accurate?
I would say that. Well, yeah. Watching this, it feels like the people that made it know have been to raves and are a fan of that kind of thing. I guess it does feel like that.
What other rave movies are there? Is Human Traffic a rave movie?
Yeah, Human Traffic is one that I actually meant to bring up in our train spotting show and completely forgot about cuz that's that's one that was kind of
trying to jump on a success of Train Spotting. Maybe maybe not intentionally, but but was I'm sure half the reason that got funded is because of Train Spotting.
But they didn't have you and McGregor. They had John Sim.
John Sim and Danny Dyier.
Yeah.
Yeah.
And Andrew Lincoln.
Coral.
Yeah. That guy.
I forgot he was in it. I just remember him from Teachers.
And this life where he might have been called Egg.
Egg. Yeah. He was called Egg. Yeah.
Yeah. Yeah.
Okay. Um, but it's it's funny that Doug Lyman knew nothing about it because after the film, he became quite a fan of R culture.
He got super into it off the back of the movie.
Maybe it's just the the the passion or the interesting I'm picking up on then partly the really

(13:19):
the curiosity of it like
Yeah, I it just it feels like a how what am I trying to say here?
It doesn't feel like it's being made from any sort of moralistic or judgy point of view. It feels they're not trying to condemn Rave Culture like a lot of filmmakers would.
Yeah, I mean there's definitely that. I I mean I'm thinking more stylist ically more visually it's quite fast-paced and you know quick cutting and the story lines interlink and people sort of a bit smart and talking quickly at each other and stuff. So I don't know really
I don't know really what that has to do with rapes but I don't know it feels like it's in keeping with that kind of thing. Yeah, maybe it's maybe it's just a nostalgia thing for me and just the kind of the area the ' 90s where we're just coming out of that kind of acid house. raves in mansions, which sadly for the most part didn't really return, unless actually if you know of a rave that's happening, let me know.
Well, the problem is that everybody who owns a mansion these days is uh not likely to throw a rave.
No.
So, what we need to do is overthrow the billionaires and just put on massive raves in their empty houses.
Yeah, I agree.
So, obviously this is drugs season and we we haven't really talked about drugs yet, so we probably We should. We've covered heroin. We've covered a fictional drug called synchronic. And this is
uh baby aspirin.
Baby aspirin. Yeah.
For the most part.
Um no ecstasy, obviously.
Yeah.
Um
X.
X. Yeah.
20 hits of X. No one says that.
Not these days. Did they?
No.

(13:40):
Maybe they did in America.
Well, maybe in America,
but X is sort of a bit of a running theme in the movie. Not just the drug itself, but like like the um the game that they're playing when they have to name dead celebrities.
Oh yeah.
Omar Sharif wasn't dead by the way.
Okay.
Was incorrect. But they they get stuck on X after Malcolm X.
It's like a rule or something.
Yeah. And then the cat says um I can't remember who it is. The cat when he's mentally communicating with Manny, which is probably one of my favorite moments in the film, actually.
It's good. And his acting is is very funny.
It is very funny.
They had to paint that cat.
They had to
paint that cat black.
No, they didn't.
Yeah,
they painted the cat,
I think. So, yeah,
you're talking s***. You're just trying to upset me now.
I might be talking s***, but I'm 65% certain that they had to paint that cat
like they did with Black Phillip in the Witch.

(14:01):
Yes.
Huh. Okay. I don't even remember the cat being black. Are you I feel like this is gaslighting.
I'm 60 60% certain that they had to paint that cat black.
If I just keep keep um offering a different viewpoint where you backtrack the percentage just fall every time
you keep dropping.
Um yeah, like the the bit at the end where Desmond Ascu kind of draws an X on his arm for where to shoot through like it but it crops up a bunch of times.
Yeah, I had noticed that.
Which I think is really fun. Um let's talk about the script a little bit because you you kind of touched on it earlier and I wanted to circle back. You said um I can't remember the words you used But like to to me some of the script does read a little bit like hello there fellow kids.
Yeah, I suppose. So I think there for me just it's trying to be a bit smart. It's trying to be it's very I'm very aware of the time period of this movie and where it sits.
You know, we're all trying to do a bit of a Tarantino Kevin Smith thing here.
It's bit Kevin Williamson sprinkled in. Definitely.
It's definitely It feels like an amalgamation of all of those things. And it does I guess because of that it feels quite derivative
in some ways.
Yeah. Only in that only because it's
thematically I think it's quite fresh.
Yeah. And I agree but but stylistically perhaps and just the fact that it got made when it did was probably because of a a lot of those sorts of things.
Yeah. Maybe I do quite like the script though. I'm not going to be I'm not going to lie.
I think it's I think for the most part it's okay, but there's there's some stuff in it I'm like
Yeah, some of it makes me cringe. Namely, every time Desmond Ascu opens his mouth.
Yeah. The delivery is not good. But but even just like the when Fickner's like when they're talking about 20 20 or 20 or something,
do you know?

(14:22):
Oh, 20 at 20.
20 at 20. But they all say it the same way. 20. It's like no,
I've never heard that phrase. Maybe it's a common phrase. I don't know. But like it's that annoyed me. That felt like I could see the writer writing that rather than it felt like these characters were saying that.
Okay. And to it sort of took me out of it a bit. But I do enjoy obviously I enjoy the f*** out of this movie. I love this movie. I think it's so much fun.
Well, that I know you do. That's why I'm sort of surprised to hear you be even somewhat critical of it.
Yeah.
Okay. I I think I've always had somewhat of an issue with some some parts of this movie, but it just boils down to it makes me laugh. I don't care.
And it's worth it for that Stephen Wolf needle drop.
Yeah.
So good.
Yeah.
Yeah. Um Okay. Okay. I I quite like the script. I'll be honest. I agree with what you're saying. I do think some of it skews a little bit tryh hard.
Yeah, it's a good term.
Feels a little bit affected. Um I do I do agree with you,
but for I don't know something about it. This film has such a weird almost indescribable charm
that I kind of don't care.
I think that's really where I'm coming from as well. Like it does feel quite it does it's very derivative, I think. think stylistically or in some ways just because of where it when it came out. Maybe if this came out now it would be seem a bit fresher or whatever, but
maybe
uh
cuz I I don't see this film as being grounded in any in any way. So the fact that it's all kind of a little bit heightened reality. It doesn't bother me that the the dialogue isn't naturalistic or doesn't necessarily feel appropriate.
It just makes me laugh and I just I I just think this film is a very good comedy. It makes me laugh all Three sections make me laugh and I don't know what it says about me, but the Vegas section makes me laugh the most.

(14:43):
Maybe I'm deeply immature, but it kills me.
Yeah,
those guys just And they're they're idiots. They're with the exception of Tay Digs.
Well, this is kind of this is one of the things I think I'm getting at in in terms of it having an indescribable charm. And I think it's sort of I think it must mean that the script is fairly good because I think Every character in this is like varying levels of despicable
except for Tadix.
I mean, they do steal that man's car.
He had it coming.
He thought he was a valet.
Yeah. Okay. Yeah. Like racism aside, um, racism coupled with bad jacket.
Yeah. Do you know what? That's something I was going to bring up actually. Like I I didn't necessarily click when I was a teenager watching this that there maybe was some racism in it cuz to me It was always, oh, he's wearing that coat, that jacket that they they referenced earlier in the movie, and then the guy gives him the hand or tries to get a hand towel in the bathroom.
So, like, he does it probably does look like stuff, but I it never clicked for me that maybe it's a racist.
There are other factors making him think he's in the service industry.
Yeah.
Yeah, that's kind of what I took from it anyway. Um, primarily the jacket though. This is not a nice jacket.
I've never told you how much I love your jacket.
Was that Nascu's only good line.
Yeah, I think so.
It's the only time we laughed.
But yeah, I think I think a film with this many characters, none of whom I really like or would hang out with.
Not even Marcus Tay Digs character.
Probably not. No,

(15:04):
I think he's great. He does bang.
I don't want to hear him going on about tantric sex all the time. It's boring.
Yeah,
just f*** off and talk to Sting about it. I hate him also.
Um,
fair enough.
But yeah, I think it's kind of a a small miracle that the film's populated by just not great people and it's still really likable. I'm still so invested in what everybody's doing.
Yeah.
And the outcomes
definitely the main the main characters of each of the three stories are not great. There's Ron
Katy Holmes is fine
but the but like the central main character. So you got a runner in the first one. She she I think she's all right. She's just making bad decisions but that's kind of the point. She's a teenager making stupid decisions.
Manny steals drugs from her.
Yeah.
Which is terrible thing to do to a friend.
Yeah. And then you've got the the main character of of Desmond in the second part who's a d*******.
Mhm.
And in the third part, you got them two essential characters. Um
both of whom are cheating on each other
as Adam and Zach.
Yes.

(15:25):
Jay Moore and Scott Scott Wolf.
Mhm.
Yeah. And they're idiots as well. Vacuous actors.
Yeah.
Um
but yeah, they they seem like d******** as well, but they seem like Maybe they're the older of the of the the various characters.
Do you think?
Yeah. But
they're about the same age as the guys in the middle section.
Even the even the policeman Even the policeman William Fner. Even he's a weirdo.
Well, he's he's succumbed to the trap of an MLM for a start. He's trying to get them embroiled in a pyramid scheme.
It's Sarah. It's Confederated Products.
It's an MLM. Okay.
Which apparently John August reused in in other movies.
Oh, really? The Confederated Products thing. Because apparently they were trying to get
Is it I assumed it was like a take on Amway.
They mentioned Amway in the movie.
Oh, right.
J Moore says uh when he's doing the pitch, Confederated Products and he's like like Amway. He's like Confederated Products,
but apparently they couldn't get the rights to whatever company. It might may well have been Amway
and that's why they threw a dig in.

(15:46):
Yeah, perhaps. I'd like to think so. But yeah, he reused that. He reused that. I had to Google Confederated products cuz didn't know if it I was like, is this a real thing or or what?
I did I honestly didn't know. I just assumed it was fabricated. But
is that what better wear is
kind of cuz you can only get it through representatives and um like cataloges, can't you?
You can only buy this plastic egg tray from a catalog.
Avon.
Yeah. Oh, don't get me started. Don't you want your f****** catalog back? Do not leave it at my door.
Yeah. Just don't give me one.
Just knocking on knocking on the door. retrieve their goods that they put through the door in the first place.
Back. Oh, you mean the thing that I just f****** just burnt up and used as a roach?
Yeah. Or or the thing that I chucked on a bonfire? I sent it to landfill.
We burnt it along with the Battlefield Earth DVD.
Yeah. It's gone forever. Piss off. Don't Don't ever leave catalogs at my door.
But yeah, I think obviously MLMs still exist. I think the power that be are trying to stamp them out one by one. But I think that's something else that sort of dates the film a little bit.
Yeah.
But despite it being aggressively ' 90s, it doesn't feel stale
at all. Like I'm not I'm not watching it and cringing at the style or the slang that they're using generally. I think despite everything I've just said over the last hour, I actually think this film's aged reasonably well.
Whoa.
Do you disagree? I um yeah, I it probably hasn't aged too badly really cuz I I feel like it's not some of the s*** that these characters are saying, as you say, they're not necessarily good characters, but it is weird to think about cuz I do find some of it funny like Breham Meer's character thinking he's black. That kills me.
It's very funny.
It's very funny,

(16:07):
but he's Yeah, he's It doesn't make him likable. He's not a good tool, obviously. But I find it funny and And I don't know if that it's but that he was a tall in the ' 90s when he was saying it. It's not like back then he was a cool character and now we're looking back and going, "Oh, actually the character wasn't very cool." So it hasn't changed. I'm just trying to think.
He was the one that they were making fun of cuz he was stealing Marcus' stories.
Yeah, exactly. So maybe maybe it has aged quite well then thinking about it because it's not we're not changing trying to change opinions of of something. We're not going back and going, "Oh, that wasn't cool." Well, yeah. No, it wasn't cool then. has not come out.
But I think content aside, like I I don't think it's dated too badly.
I think Swingers is probably going to be more dated than
Yeah.
than Go, isn't it?
Almost certainly.
Yeah.
I mean, it's not helped by the fact that it's soundtracked by music that was inspired by the 50s. Anyway,
right.
It's all a little bit oldfashioned to begin with.
Yeah.
Right. So, the time's come to start wrapping up. I think um I feel like I should apologize to you because this was one of the few bright spots in this season. Yeah, there were more than I thought there would be.
There's a couple. There's still a couple, but um yeah, how do you feel after you've had a week off from Torment?
Good. I enjoyed re revisiting this movie. I'm glad that I got it on Blu-ray. It's definitely going to be something I come back to again and again. I mean, I have seen it probably 30 times at this point.
That's a lot.
It's a lot.
I wonder what's the most anybody's watched go.
I don't know. Doug Lyman, the editor when editor edit the air editor.
Yeah.

(16:28):
Um Yeah,
I think I still have fun with it. It's still And it breezes. Like we put it on and before you know it, it's done. I've laughed for an hour and a half and it's just
just passed by and I remember remember it pretty much word for word. It still makes me laugh, which is
weird. Not many films can do that.
I don't watch many comedies on repeat. I used to when I was a kid, but
I think this has more going for it than just a comedy though.
Okay.
I think it sort of straddles a couple of different genres.
It's like a definitely like a crime thrillery
crime caper like
crimey caper.
It's got thrillery moments.
Yeah.
But it sort of melds it with ridiculous comedy.
Yeah.
And it does it really well.
I think so.
Like on paper there's a a lot of it that shouldn't work but does. Um and again Desmond ask you aside I think it was just a really good combination of people.
Yeah I think is it seems like a weird lightning and in the bottle scenario. Certainly, you've got
a lot of those people weren't
well, they definitely weren't who they are are today. Timothy Olphant's been around feels like he's been around forever now. And

(16:49):
yeah,
does the westerns and whatever. And
he's always wearing some sort of cowboy hat.
Yeah, he's always got some sort of headpiece on
but uh yeah, so it was it's sort of right place, right time
in terms of where the culture was, the actors, everything feels like it came together quite nicely. Yeah,
I think this is my favorite Doug line. movie.
Okay.
I think it is. It's definitely the one I've seen most.
I'm trying to think. If somebody said to me, would I rather watch Go or Edge of Tomorrow,
I probably would choose this. You know,
I would choose Go. I like Edge of Tomorrow.
But
this is paced so nicely.
Yeah,
it's a really easy watch.
It's a really easy watch, isn't it?
Yeah.
I think it comes down to whether or not you can accept that these characters are assholes. I can imagine someone else sitting down watching it going, I can't can't f****** sit and watch these people for
Oh, yeah. These people are unbearable.
Yeah.

(17:10):
Or that maybe the humor just didn't land for them.
Yeah. And humor is so subjective. It's like the most subjective thing, isn't it, when it comes to
Well, humor.
Yeah, I agree. Um, yeah, I'm I'm really glad that I chose this actually because I hadn't seen it in such a long time. So, it was nice to to get a refresher and to
find out that actually it's still kind of awesome.
It's kind of great.
Yeah. Yeah.
Yeah.
I'm really happy.
Good. I'm happy too that you chose it and we have watched it and now we own the Blu-ray and can watch it whenever we want.
But not the boring commentary apparently.
Not a boring ass commentary. No.
Okay. So, from being super glad that I chose that and that we got to watch it,
um I've got really bad news for you, Dan.
What What's the What's the news?
Um we're covering Climax next week.
Oh, no. Not Climax.
Are you going to leave me? Is that Is that the episode where you leave me?
Are we really watching Climax?
Yes.
And if we can, I want to try and fit in Enter the Void as well.

(17:31):
No, I don't have enough void in my schedule at the moment to watch that.
Oh,
I'm very busy, Sarah.
Okay,
maybe you can watch that when I'm in Twickenham.
Maybe.
No, do watch it cuz we're not going to get time.
We love Gasper no.
I've seen a grand total of one Gasper No Way film and it's that one that we're watching again apparently.
Well, I watched it twice in one week. I enjoy it a lot. Make your minds up about what that says about me. We'll delve into that next week, I think.
Oh god, I I cannot wait.