January 19, 2025 • 37 mins
Joe Escalante's weekly sojourn into the oily depths of the business end of showbiz. This week: TikTok got banned (thanks, Congress!) and then unbanned (thanks, Trump!). Also, a bunch of TV political hacks are getting positions in Trump's White House. Not like it hasn't happened with other politicians on both sides of the aisle...
And, the latest numbers from the box office (One of Them Days and Mufasa reign supreme), Joe's approval of the new film, Better Man, and his nostalgia for old-timey Lancelot Link-style animal actors... Producer Nikki talks about her horrible movie-going experience with other inconsiderate audience members.
And, the latest numbers from the box office (One of Them Days and Mufasa reign supreme), Joe's approval of the new film, Better Man, and his nostalgia for old-timey Lancelot Link-style animal actors... Producer Nikki talks about her horrible movie-going experience with other inconsiderate audience members.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:12):
Joe Ascalante Live from Hollywood. By Hollywood, you mean Burbank.
I am here with engineer Sam and producer NICKI.
Speaker 2 (00:23):
We are going to talk.
Speaker 1 (00:24):
About the entertainment industry. This is two hours of the
business end of show business. But since this is a
podcast episode, because we're preempted once again by the National
Football League, we are just going straight through the stories
and your podcast company might add a commercial.
Speaker 2 (00:43):
I don't know, Sam, can you hear me?
Speaker 3 (00:46):
Yep, loud and clear.
Speaker 1 (00:47):
How you doing, Joe, I'm good, good. I saw a
lot of movies. Nick Key's here too, she's saying movies.
And first, before we get to the movies, let's talk
a little bit about a couple of legal cases that
are going on right now. The one is very exciting
to me. It is the guy named M. Knight Chamalan Shamalayan.
(01:12):
How do you say that, Niki?
Speaker 4 (01:14):
I think it's.
Speaker 2 (01:18):
Did you really?
Speaker 3 (01:19):
Yeah? M Knight Shamalama ding dong?
Speaker 2 (01:22):
How old are you like seventy?
Speaker 3 (01:24):
Yeah? Totally.
Speaker 2 (01:29):
Well, he's getting I.
Speaker 1 (01:30):
Have so many stories I'm gonna have to scroll around.
Speaker 2 (01:32):
For this one. He's getting sued now.
Speaker 1 (01:38):
I mean a lot of people get sued when someone
steals their movie or movie idea or a television idea.
But very rarely, almost never do these things go very far.
Someone throws it out or they settle. In this case,
the guy has they're in trial right now. They're in
(02:02):
riverside on. There's a trial going on. It is a trial.
It's from the plaintiff, this woman, filmmaker, Francesca Gregorini. That's
a pretty good name, right, Francesca Gregorini. She alleges that
the psychological horror series Servant copies elements from her twenty
(02:25):
thirteenth film The Truth About Immanuel. Both works feature narratives
where a grieving mother cares for a lifelike doll as
if it were a real child apple where Shyamalamaj Shyamalan
has his servant. They say that their project was independently
(02:49):
created by a guy named Tony Bascallap, who began developing
it in two thousand and five, pre dating Gregorini's film Okay,
this isn't aside. This guy starts this in two thousand
and five. It is now twenty twenty four and he's
barely got it off the ground, and then he gets
a big lawsuit. That is the entertainment business in a nutshell? Okay,
(03:12):
what was what was this guy bascalop doing that whole time,
just running around with this and other projects that are
going nowhere, and he finally got a break here and
then someone says, you stole.
Speaker 2 (03:23):
It from me.
Speaker 1 (03:25):
And they're also suing the director because he's famous m
Night Shayamalan. And the trial started on Tuesday. Okay, that's
guess where it is. It's in Riverside. Why I haven't
been not able to figure out. But Francesca Gregrini is
suing him an Apple for eighty one million dollars, a
(03:46):
legend that they stole key elements and that there would
be no servant without the truth about Emmanuel. Her attorney
is like, are showing you know clips of the of
her movie and his movie and this courthouse and Riverside.
Speaker 2 (04:04):
These people are probably thrilled.
Speaker 1 (04:05):
It's the biggest thing to happen in Riverside since that
new in and out. Now here's a problem. We've talked
about these cases. What do you need for an infringement case? Well,
I'll tell you you need substantial similarity and you need
one other thing.
Speaker 2 (04:24):
What is it? Geis? Do you know I really don't
you need access something you find access access would be.
Speaker 1 (04:37):
Let's say Francisca Gregorini wrote this film and then produced it,
but it never came out or it only showed in
Italian cinemas. Then he would have no access. These people
would know, they wouldn't know it existed. So if they
don't know it existed, we never charged someone infringement. It
(04:57):
would have to be a complete copy. And even then,
you know, it's like the room full of monkeys in
a with typewriters and eventually though bash out of Shakespeare
and drama. But it'll take millions of years by accident.
So did it happen by accident? Well we don't, you know,
(05:17):
we don't want. We don't live in a society that
wants to penalize someone if they came up with the
exact same thing, So they have to have access.
Speaker 2 (05:24):
You can't.
Speaker 1 (05:25):
But the more access you have, like if you were
like looking over the shoulder of Francesca Gregorini and you
put out something that's kind of similar, you would you
would be in trouble. But if you never ever, if
you came from another planet and you made something similar,
people would just say, that's just a coincidence. Now, have
(05:48):
you guys ever seen a movie about a reborn doll?
Speaker 2 (05:54):
Yes, yeah, you've seen a few.
Speaker 1 (05:57):
Okay, so that's the defense that m night Yamielan is saying. Look,
this is a movie about a reborn doll. Happens all
the time. You can't own that. You can't own facts.
Speaker 2 (06:09):
I don't know.
Speaker 1 (06:09):
I don't really know why they call it a fact,
but it's just like, but they're trying to, you know,
throw a copyright excuses into the mix.
Speaker 2 (06:16):
Here, but it's it's not really a fact.
Speaker 1 (06:19):
It's just like, well, I guess they're saying, dolls are
reborn in literature, all in all kinds of literature, and
she can't own that forever, and just say, I made
a movie in twenty thirteen about a reborn doll, so
no one can.
Speaker 2 (06:34):
Ever do it.
Speaker 1 (06:35):
So there has to be more than that. So now
they're going over in front of the jury, going through
all the programs and saying, is there more than just
the reborn doll here? Did they steal something like maybe
a character's name, or maybe a character's job or something
like that that could give evidence that they really stole it?
But how hard would it be to change those things
(06:56):
if you were really stealing it. So that's why these
things really never go anywhere, and they really only go somewhere.
If it's like maybe they were partners back in history
and they broke up and then one guy released it
and I says to mine and you were in my
office the whole time.
Speaker 2 (07:14):
But in this one they are.
Speaker 1 (07:18):
I don't think she's going to win. I'm surprised it
went this far. The reason why it went this far
is probably because Apple and SHAMAI Alon have terrible attorneys.
Speaker 2 (07:30):
That's my guess.
Speaker 1 (07:31):
And now that I've been, you know, in the high
stakes world of music for the last year, I've seen
some bad attorneys.
Speaker 2 (07:40):
There's one other thing. Both sides. This is the interesting
thing about this case.
Speaker 1 (07:44):
They're trying to both sides say that they came from
humble beginnings and the other people came from wealth. As
some part of the equation here, the one attorney noted
that Shayamalan's attorney said he was born in India and
(08:04):
raised in Philadelphia without any entertainment industry connections, and then
noted that Gregrini's father was an Italian count more privileged
than an Italian count, and count Shacula I think was
his name here. I don't know how to pronounce Chocula. Yeah,
(08:25):
and her mother was a bond girl. That's pretty elite
right there. And her stepfather, oh Ringo Starr, one of
the Beatles. That's a band. And uh, Emmanuel was partly
financed by a German princess, Tatiana von Furstenberg.
Speaker 3 (08:49):
Yeah, I'm just picturing. I'm just picturing a count there
going one Lassu coming ah ah ah blah.
Speaker 1 (08:59):
Cola Furstenberg is a fixture in New York. She's been around.
We have mutual friends. But this is gonna This is
great because they're gonna reach a verdict and this verdict
will will serve to clarify copyright cases infringement cases in
the future. We almost never get them, so that's why
(09:19):
this is kind of exciting. I'm going to go over
one more thing.
Speaker 4 (09:22):
Well, actually, just to to add on to that really quick.
Speaker 5 (09:25):
I don't know if you guys heard about the I
think it's the lawsuit happening because of Molana too. There
was someone who I guess had shown or shared parts
of their script with Disney before even Molana one, and
now they're suing for I think what ten billion dollars
over Mowana two similarities to I guess this film that
they were going to title Bucky the Wave Warrior that
(09:48):
has some.
Speaker 4 (09:49):
Unique connections to Polynesian culture.
Speaker 5 (09:52):
Now he didn't, I'm sure he did not invent Polynesian culture.
But I would be really curious to see how like
kind of an animated adventure style heartwarming Disney film script
would have similarities between you know that and Molana.
Speaker 4 (10:09):
Well, that will be an interesting one to see.
Speaker 1 (10:11):
I will be surprised if it goes anywhere, because they
never do. That's why this one is going somewhere. Now, Yeah,
I haven't heard of them Molana to one, but we'll
follow that. And then there's a couple of people came
to me, Oh yeah, I see them Mona two one. Yeah,
it's five days ago. This guy is like run around
(10:32):
ten billion. I mean that's just like irresponsible shooting for
ten billion. But there's the Disney movie read not just yeah,
I think it's well as Park Disney. Who's a pixel
Christmas movie, the Christmas movie about Red one or whatever,
(10:57):
Santa Claus gets kidnapped, whatever like that. They have to
bring in the government. That one someone came to me
and said, hey, look they stole my script. So if
a movie's success, but that was before the movie was successful.
It turned out to be pretty successful movie. Now, the
problem with the fun Furstenberg film financed film is that
(11:25):
they produced evidence of how much that it that it played,
you know, in theaters and it and it earned like
nine dollars.
Speaker 4 (11:35):
Awesome. Yeah, I think the source that I found they
were sharing said nine dollars from one viewer.
Speaker 1 (11:47):
Movie and it was probably the counts is I think
I got to watch this thing my money.
Speaker 2 (11:54):
Okay.
Speaker 1 (11:55):
So here's another story that I like, I want to
get to before we get to the movies. There's this
guy named James Dolan. He owns Madison Square Gardens, and
he's my new hero. He's the owner of the New
York Knicks and the Rangers. And he's under scrutiny for
using facial recognition technology at Madison Square Garden to ban
attorneys from firms engaged in lawsuits against his companies. This
(12:19):
policy has led to legal challenges and debates over its
ethical implications. Dolan's tenure has been marked by controversies. A
lot of people don't like him for various reasons. It's sports.
People hate people for whatever reasons. But what he's doing
is this lawyer said, there's a lawyer named Barbara Hart,
and she's part of a law firm called Grant and Eisenhoffer,
(12:43):
and they are suing MSG over some overpaid somebody overpaid
for the MSG cable network or whatever, and saying that
Dolan received unique benefits from the acquisition to the detriment
of stockholders. That's like a shareholder, sir, that's a nuisance
lawsuit if you ask me, from a disgruntled shareholders.
Speaker 2 (13:09):
And he said that.
Speaker 1 (13:10):
She said she attempted to do an attendant concert at
the garden in October twenty second, unaware that Madison Square
Garden had instituted a policy of banning lawyers at firms
currently suing the company.
Speaker 2 (13:24):
While I'm at.
Speaker 1 (13:25):
MSG, I was identified as a banned g and e.
Eisenhoffer attorney via facial recognition software. MSG employees stopped me
and asked for my ID. After I refuse to give
it to them, they correctly identified me as Miss Barbara Hart.
Come with me, please, yeap, escort it out of the
(13:47):
building where she belongs.
Speaker 3 (13:49):
No Knicks basketball for you?
Speaker 1 (13:53):
Wow?
Speaker 2 (13:53):
Yeah, I mean to me, I don't know how you
guys feel. I like it.
Speaker 4 (13:56):
I mean I feel like you know, parties have similar
door policies.
Speaker 5 (14:03):
You know.
Speaker 4 (14:04):
It's like, if you can't hang with me, you don't
get to come to my party.
Speaker 5 (14:08):
So if the guy owns Madison Square Garden, I can
understand why he wouldn't want his haters to be uh
enjoying his awesome situation.
Speaker 1 (14:17):
You know, he's using the only power he has as
a poor, humble arena owner to keep these people from dancing,
you know, just rubbing his face in these injunctions or
in these lawsuits. So he so it goes to court
and then one it's gone like back and forth through
(14:39):
the courts. But right now the courts are saying, all right,
you can't just those people. You can't throw them out
after you've already sold them tickets and use your facial
recognition stuff to throw them out, probably because they you know,
in the ticket, they had a right to it.
Speaker 2 (14:55):
They bought the ticket. There was a right to attend.
Speaker 1 (14:57):
It's kind of a license of a seat, and they
bought the license and they got to go in. But
the court said you could refuse to sell tickets. To
those people in the first place if you want, go ahead,
so you could tell them, hey, all you people suing me,
you're not coming to Madison Square Garden anymore. Now, someone
(15:17):
might say that has a chilling effect on those people's
right to sue, because it would hard to be hard
to get an attorney, because all those attorneys in New
York are they want to go to Knicks games.
Speaker 2 (15:28):
So interesting. But still I like it.
Speaker 4 (15:32):
Hey, I get it.
Speaker 3 (15:33):
You know, that's a level of spite that I wish
I could achieve.
Speaker 1 (15:39):
I I just I mean, there's I got a list
sam people that I would not let in my arena.
So and another thing before you get to the movies,
TikTok has been restored, so you can breathe a sigh
of relief.
Speaker 2 (15:55):
Nikki.
Speaker 1 (15:57):
It's very interesting that you was removed in the first place,
and both the President Biden and President Trump both wanted.
Speaker 2 (16:06):
It not to be banned.
Speaker 1 (16:08):
I remember we remember Trump used to say it's you know,
it's dangerous, but he now, I guess, wants it to
be sold to an American company. But he didn't want
to just take it off. I think nobody wants to
be the person that takes away young people's TikTok. So
but now Trump Yeah, it was.
Speaker 4 (16:28):
Yeah exactly.
Speaker 5 (16:29):
There's like a there's the I think the warning message
that announced that TikTok was being banned was changed. There
was one wording that came out first that was a
little bit more vague or just you know, just only
addressed the US ban.
Speaker 4 (16:44):
And then the second.
Speaker 5 (16:45):
Wording that was like an updated version of this band
message included President Trump in it.
Speaker 1 (16:53):
You go to but he will be yeah, yeah, you
go to TikTok right now. It says President Trump did
this all a favor here, let's all celebrate him. So
President Trump is having quite a honeymoon even though his
term hasn't started. So people are hostages, are getting free
TikTok is back up, he's milking it. So, yeah, we
(17:16):
have There's one other thing that might that is a
little bit of an issue for some. I mean, any
issue with Trump is going to be an issue for
half the country. But it seems to me that it's
becoming less than half in a way, it just seems
like less than half. But there's still people that just
you know, hate this man and want to kill him.
As you know, when people you know tried already. Two
people tried to actually kill him. One got pretty close.
(17:41):
But there is some concern in the television world because
he has nineteen people that he has hired in his
new staff that are Fox News employees or formal employees.
So people are thinking, you know, how's this going to work.
They're preparing to cover for a government filled with former
(18:01):
network employees. Now the president and executive editor of Fox
News Media, He's emphasized the network's commitment to journalistic integrity,
stating that their newsroom operates independently of any political affiliations.
This development raises questions about the relationship between media organizations
(18:22):
and government, highlighting the movement of personnel between the two sectors.
And this has always been going on, Like the Biden spokesperson,
that one, that's Karine Jean Pierre. She came from MSNBC
and Jensaki is now in MSNBC.
Speaker 2 (18:41):
So they both do it.
Speaker 1 (18:42):
But it just seems like Trump really did it. I mean, everybody.
My Apello guy is now the Secretary of the Interior.
I heard.
Speaker 2 (18:54):
You're not laughing at that. That's the best I have.
Speaker 4 (18:56):
Sorry, you're you're who my Pello guy, the my pillow guy,
the Mypello guy.
Speaker 2 (19:04):
Hey, come on, Nikki, Nikki, do you have a television?
You know I don't just watch movies. Yeah, okay, well
let me tell.
Speaker 4 (19:13):
You the movies and and tiktoks.
Speaker 1 (19:15):
You know that, well, you know they You're lucky because
if you did watch cable like I do, you'd have
to you'd be bombarded with commercials form mypellow dot com.
And uh so it's con He's constantly on Fox selling
is my pellow dot com pillows?
Speaker 4 (19:32):
Oh see cultural cultural divide here.
Speaker 1 (19:35):
Yes, there's a cultural divide. The Mypello guy is uh
now in the cabinet. Hilarious, Joe, Okay, never mind, all right,
let's go to the movies.
Speaker 2 (19:46):
Number one at the movies this week? Yes, do you
want want to guess?
Speaker 4 (19:55):
Enlighten us?
Speaker 2 (19:59):
What do you say? I said?
Speaker 4 (20:01):
Enlighten us?
Speaker 2 (20:02):
Oh, enlighten you? Okay?
Speaker 1 (20:04):
Yeah, Sam, do you have a guest number one movie
of the week?
Speaker 3 (20:06):
I have no guests whatsoever right now. I BET's probably
the same one as last week.
Speaker 1 (20:12):
It isn't.
Speaker 2 (20:13):
It's kind of a surprise. One of them days.
Speaker 1 (20:17):
This comedy the best friends Drew and Alyssa are about
to have one of them days when they discover Alissa's
boyfriend has blown their rent money. The duo finds themselves
going to extremes in a comical race against the clock
to avoid eviction and keep their friendship intact. It's just
two black female comedies, just comedians, and they've they're tearing
(20:40):
up the box office. It must be hilarious. That's what
I'm saying.
Speaker 4 (20:44):
Is that the one with Keiky Palmer?
Speaker 3 (20:46):
And this is a yeah, it is yeah.
Speaker 4 (20:49):
I do actually really want to see that one.
Speaker 1 (20:51):
Palmer. How do you pronounce the other person? You know?
Speaker 4 (20:54):
It's so funny.
Speaker 5 (20:55):
I loved her music when I was in high school,
and I had no clue how to pronounce her name.
And then one night I had a dream where like
in the dream, she like sits me down and she
explains it's pronounced sizza, and then I woke up and
it was correct.
Speaker 1 (21:09):
Okay, So there you go. That's the that's the only
girl's dream that's ever been told to me that actually
benefited me and didn't waste a good portion of it.
Thank you.
Speaker 2 (21:18):
Okay.
Speaker 1 (21:18):
So that's number one New movie Number one. Number two
Mufasa people Love It Making Money. Number three is Wolfman
from Universal four, Sonic The Hedgehog, Narber five, Dinneres Part two,
Pantera number six at Mohana two, which is now like
(21:38):
another billion dollar movie for Disney. So all the people
that are saying Disney's Studios going downhill and they're gonna
dry up, they're making money. They got Mufasa and they
got Mohana in the top ten right now. Noseratu from
Focused Features tried to see that, but it just didn't
work out. A complete unknown. I'm doing documentary number eight,
(22:03):
number nine, wicket number ten, Baby Girl, and then there's
a tie for number eleven and number twelve. Maybe we're
gonna call it flow. Let's talk about flow. Anyone see flow?
What is slow?
Speaker 4 (22:18):
I had not?
Speaker 2 (22:20):
Flow?
Speaker 1 (22:20):
Is the movie about is a movie, an animated feature
about a cat from Janis Films that survives like an
apocalypse of some kind. They don't really explain it because
it's about animals and what happens. There's the kind of
a utopian situation going on and there's only animals left
(22:40):
and they don't talk. So the animals, it's a movie
cartoon of the animals that don't talk.
Speaker 2 (22:46):
Have you ever seen that? It can't talk?
Speaker 4 (22:50):
It looks really cute.
Speaker 1 (22:51):
Oh, it's the best. It's a great movie. It's pretty short,
so it would be nice to see it in a theater,
but I don't think.
Speaker 5 (22:59):
You have to.
Speaker 2 (22:59):
I did.
Speaker 1 (23:02):
I broke my rule and I left the cinemak world
and went to the AMC World in the Long Beach.
Speaker 2 (23:07):
Have you ever been there?
Speaker 1 (23:08):
Oh?
Speaker 5 (23:08):
My god?
Speaker 2 (23:09):
And it's wild and I saw it there.
Speaker 1 (23:12):
It was super fun. Wild Robot still hanging in there
in the top fifteen. A couple other movies that I saw,
and we'll talk about like Conclave on Nora. We don't
need to talk about that, we already have and September five,
So Nikki, let's start with you. Let's start with Sam,
since we know he didn't see a movie because he's
(23:33):
got all these kids. Sam, what movies did you see
this week?
Speaker 3 (23:37):
None? Thank you very much. I saw Ostriches yesterday. Actually
you saw what I saw Ostriches. I went to an
ostrich farm yesterday.
Speaker 5 (23:49):
Oh, I was like, when did that come out?
Speaker 1 (23:51):
Yeah? Actual actual animals and the outdoors.
Speaker 2 (23:54):
You okay?
Speaker 1 (23:59):
Where Nikki? What did you deprive yourself of Vitamin D
this week by watching? So you usually watched like classic
movies and old movies and things like this.
Speaker 4 (24:11):
Yeah, this week was a little This week was a
little busy.
Speaker 5 (24:14):
So I only did a rewatch of The Substance with
a handful of my friends who all had not seen
it yet, and I went to the AMC at the
Glendale Galleria.
Speaker 4 (24:26):
I have to say I was shocked at the audience.
They were so rowdy and ridiculous.
Speaker 5 (24:32):
I I my friends and I I mean, hey, we're
all film students, so maybe we just have a little
more respect for the cinema than the average joe.
Speaker 4 (24:40):
But these people were like hooting and hollering and going like,
oh no, she didn't.
Speaker 2 (24:46):
At Oh no she did.
Speaker 4 (24:48):
No. I'm like, yeah she did, like be quiet and
acknowledged that she did. Okay, what the hell?
Speaker 5 (24:54):
So I was like, yeah, she did everything quiet, and
like they were being so ridiculous. If they're like especially
with the naked bodies, I'm like, can you please just
be chill about this and not make it some meme
or joke in your head because you just can't handle
a little bit of artistic, you know, expression that maybe
(25:15):
challenges you for a second, but you have to you
just have to.
Speaker 4 (25:17):
Crack a joke.
Speaker 5 (25:18):
And there were three people on their phones taking pictures
or videos of the screen, and people were yelling in
the audience, off your phone, we can see your phone.
Speaker 4 (25:27):
I was like, if you, if you really need to
be addicted to that thing, like, get out of the theater.
This is so ridiculous.
Speaker 5 (25:33):
There was even a guy next to me who was
going like not even just laughing at every scene, He's going,
oh my god, oh I can't believe it.
Speaker 2 (25:41):
Ahahaha.
Speaker 4 (25:42):
At every scene. I'm like, Okay, not only is it
a horror movie, but it's like I don't it's it's
too it's too good for this behavior. I was so displeased.
I felt like a sorry.
Speaker 5 (25:55):
I felt like a boomer in this moment, a real
I felt like I was aging my I was like,
two young people don't know anything.
Speaker 2 (26:03):
I don't.
Speaker 1 (26:05):
I don't approve of that. And and that's why I
picked my theater. My theater doesn't have that a lot
of it. It's it's mostly if there was one group
that you could like identify that sees movies at my theater,
it's young Vietnamese kids, and they're you know, they're just
very quiet in general. They're quiet people. And then there's
(26:28):
some old people and they're quiet and there's not much
teenage routiness going on at the Beltara in Huntington Beach.
But in their defense, I'm going to say this, that
movie was very interesting. What do we call it, like
a psychological thriller?
Speaker 4 (26:49):
Is that we were sure?
Speaker 2 (26:50):
Okay, so it's a classic psychological.
Speaker 1 (26:52):
Thriller until the last half hour when it becomes a
teenage gore horror movie that does attract people that are
gonna yell at the screen. So that was that guy's choice.
That was an amazing movie until that last part and
then you're like, what what am I watching? It got
it got over the top, and I think word got
out and said let's go see this movie and get crazy.
Speaker 5 (27:14):
Yeah, I mean I understand during the last scene, like
the third act, where you know, it goes from being
kind of psychological and they're being suspenseful moments and some
stakes to just all out mayhem. That is okay to
laugh at because it is truly so bizarre that I
can understand the comedic element, okay, but like nothing else
(27:36):
until that point is worth really like lolling about, which
just I think I was like huffing and puffing, just
so irritated.
Speaker 2 (27:44):
By the whole thing, come to come to adulthood.
Speaker 4 (27:50):
Yeah, but I could feel my prefrontal cortex just like hardening.
Speaker 3 (27:53):
In that moment.
Speaker 5 (27:54):
I was like, I'm really coming into myself here then
out of whatever the hell that was?
Speaker 2 (28:00):
Did you see?
Speaker 1 (28:01):
Did you see any So if you want to see
the substance, don't go to the Glendale Galleria. What's the
is that an AMC.
Speaker 4 (28:08):
Or it was an AMC and the first time I
saw it.
Speaker 5 (28:11):
This is actually I can recommend seeing it at the
Culver City Theater because that's where I saw it the
first time in October. It's right next to an arawon
and also a like skin or dermatology clinic that does
botox and other crazy facials and whatever. And so walking
by the Arawon and then also by that and by
(28:33):
the way, like that one skincare clinic looks a lot
like the bathroom in the substance.
Speaker 4 (28:37):
So with my boyfriend and I.
Speaker 5 (28:38):
When we went to go watch it, we like looked
at both of those buildings and had our fun poking
at them. Right, But after leaving the substance quite disturbed,
we had to pass by them again and that was
a nice little add on going like, oh no, get
out of there, you know, all.
Speaker 1 (28:54):
Right, Well, I know you have to go soon, So
I want to rush through the rest in the movie,
or at least my letterboxed list, unless you have any
other ones you want to you want to say that
you saw it.
Speaker 4 (29:10):
Yeah, I watched a lot of arrested development this week.
Speaker 2 (29:12):
It's been okay.
Speaker 1 (29:15):
So what I saw is I saw The Conclave, and uh,
you know, it's beautifully shot, beautifully directed, great actors in it,
but it's just as a Catholic, this is my domain, guys,
and you guys are just out of your minds, just
(29:35):
like you know, whenever it's somebody, if any movie makes
it to this level, these stars and this budget, and
it's about Catholicism, it's anti Catholic. So this was this
was no different. So it's just like it was embarrassing.
Uh still still like well crafted, but like such low
(29:55):
hanging fruit like that of their attack on the church.
And so I pity their souls, That's what I'm saying.
I pity their souls, everybody who made the con Club.
I'm gonna pray for you guys. A couple of days later,
I saw Better Man. Better Man is the I'll just
(30:16):
read my review. Not since Lancelot Link Secret Chimp went
off the air have I had such a good time
watching anything. All I can say, right, all I can
say is that if you're the guy that made the
Bob Dylan biopic or any biopic in the past five years,
you would just hide after seeing this movie and hope
nobody ever brings it up again. There's tons of genius
(30:36):
at work here that no one else ever thought of. However,
I always go back to my religion. His grandmother was
buried in a grave with a cross on it. I
bet she gave him some fear of God that they
left out of the script. But I'm gonna only ding
him a half a point of that. And I gave
it four and a half stars. I think that's my
first movie of the year with four and a half stars.
(30:58):
It's all about this guy and his grandma. I raised him,
uh and he he's he's Robbie Williams who's a huge
star in in a boy band, then becomes a star
in his own right. And his grandma's advice is always
you know what guides him. But he turns into a junkie.
So I don't know how great of a grandma she was,
because you know, my grandma gave me advice that that.
(31:22):
You know, Wait, did they grandma's better than his grandma?
Speaker 2 (31:26):
Is what I'm saying.
Speaker 3 (31:27):
Did they actually have to get a junkie monkey to
play him?
Speaker 1 (31:30):
Yeah, they have a junkie that's high on coke and
uh as a sexual.
Speaker 3 (31:34):
Addict like an actual monkey.
Speaker 2 (31:38):
Well, I mean, you know, it's like a it's like
a Mufasa monkey, you know.
Speaker 3 (31:41):
Okay, oh okay. So I was telling my wife it's
like kind of a computer generated kind of thing.
Speaker 1 (31:49):
I was telling my wife, how can they How can
that lady do all these sex scenes with his monkey
because he must have really bad peanut butter breath.
Speaker 2 (31:58):
Sammy, Sam gets that joke.
Speaker 3 (32:01):
I get that joke very well.
Speaker 1 (32:04):
In the old days, when we used to enslave chimpanzees
for our amusement in movies and TV, we would give
them a peanut butter and then they would try to
lick it out of their teeth, and then we could
dub in a dialogue while for that, because they look
like they're talking when they're trying to get the peanut
butter out of their teeth.
Speaker 3 (32:21):
So seriously, Lancelot Link is just a classic. It's a
treasure that people just let slip by, and it's gone
off into obscurity. I'm sure we could find episodes of
it on YouTube or whatever.
Speaker 2 (32:36):
Yeah, you can find it, but it'll never be made again. Okay.
Speaker 1 (32:39):
So four and a half Stars three and a half
Stars to September five is the other movie I saw
about the Israeli kidnapping at the Olympics in nineteen seventy two,
old enough to remember this, and so it was really
cool to see this movie. It's controversial because it's told
only from the the point of view of these A
(33:05):
TV network employees and executives, you know, and so there's
no Palestinian TV executives.
Speaker 2 (33:14):
Here's a sentence you never heard.
Speaker 1 (33:16):
Oh, if these Palestinians didn't control Hollywood, I could maybe
get ahead. So it's not exactly a balanced treatment of
the of the topic of the Palestinians kidnapping the Jews.
But technically I loved it. The the vintage television hardware
(33:42):
and technical problem. It was like that movie apol Thard
Team where they're trying to put together the I think
that was the one they're trying to put together the
rocket and before it crashes or it disintegrates.
Speaker 2 (33:57):
I mean it looks like that.
Speaker 1 (33:58):
They go, we got a problem, and we got all
these big giants and weird technology to make Cairns and
and go over to the satellite. There's only one satellite
and they got to give it back to CBS at
three o'clock. And we're having a fight with CBSA we
have a world story here, and CBS is like, the
don't care. We got to show Days of our Lives whatever.
Speaker 3 (34:18):
A documentary or a dramatization.
Speaker 1 (34:21):
Well, let me tell you that it's a good question.
It's a dramatization. It's a script with good actors like
Peter sarsgard. I think this is the day. But they
use a lot of actual stuff, like the ABC Wide
World of Sports. They use one guy, Jim I forget
his last name anyway, Jim, the main anchor.
Speaker 2 (34:42):
They're using this the.
Speaker 1 (34:42):
Regular film of him from a long time ago. Peter Jennings.
They use an actor and they don't use him, and
I think it might have to do with life story rights.
Maybe his family didn't want to give it up. Howard Cosell.
They never show Howard Cosell, and that was the tragedy
of this movie. Never showed but they play his voice,
his actual voice, because he was there and he was
help so very sad. And then to not see.
Speaker 2 (35:07):
Howard cosell and I heard.
Speaker 1 (35:08):
What the problem was is they were going to have
Hierd Coselle was going to be played by a chimpanzee,
and then when they found out about this Better Man movie,
they just abandoned that idea because they thought people would
think they were, you know, copying the Abby Williams thing,
and no one wanted to do that, so they just
showed his voice or you know, played his voice. Now
this movie is since it only tells you one side,
and it's just not not even just one side, but
(35:29):
it's a narrow vision of this thing. It's just whatever
these guys knew while they're in the TV station, because
they're like, oh my god, there's shoot, there's guns, there's shooting.
We got to go what are we gonna do? We
can't do this, we can't do that. Let's try this,
Let's try that. Very riveting, keep you on the edge
of your seat. But I wouldn't go see it unless
(35:49):
the next day you watch this other movie called A
Day in September, which is a documentary from nineteen ninety nine,
which won Best Documentary in the Oscars in the year
two thousand. You can see it on MGM Plus, which
is a faulty app because they make you stream.
Speaker 2 (36:08):
It from your phone. Oh wow, it's true, but.
Speaker 1 (36:17):
Still a fascinating documentary, and it's there on MGM plus.
You can get it, and then you can get a
free trial for seven days of MGM plus. Put on
your phone, stream it to your TV and there you go.
But if you're gonna watch September five, watch one day
in September the next day, and that's like a complete
picture of what happened, rather than the you know, the
(36:40):
half story, which is, you know, really wildly entertaining. But
it's not like a lot of people online were saying, now,
this is propaganda from only one side. No, it's telling
it's only telling you what these guys knew. It's only
what they knew. So that's the story. When in September
the commentary, I gave it four stars and September five
(37:04):
I gave three and a half stars. So that's it
for me and movies this week. And I think that's
it for us, right Nikki were getting you out on time,
I think so, thanks guys.
Speaker 2 (37:14):
All right, okay, so that's for.
Speaker 1 (37:18):
Joe Scalante live from Hollywood, and we'll now leave you
with just a taste of the greatest song ever written.
Joe Ascalante Live from Hollywood. By Hollywood, you mean Burbank.
I am here with engineer Sam and producer NICKI.
Speaker 2 (00:23):
We are going to talk.
Speaker 1 (00:24):
About the entertainment industry. This is two hours of the
business end of show business. But since this is a
podcast episode, because we're preempted once again by the National
Football League, we are just going straight through the stories
and your podcast company might add a commercial.
Speaker 2 (00:43):
I don't know, Sam, can you hear me?
Speaker 3 (00:46):
Yep, loud and clear.
Speaker 1 (00:47):
How you doing, Joe, I'm good, good. I saw a
lot of movies. Nick Key's here too, she's saying movies.
And first, before we get to the movies, let's talk
a little bit about a couple of legal cases that
are going on right now. The one is very exciting
to me. It is the guy named M. Knight Chamalan Shamalayan.
(01:12):
How do you say that, Niki?
Speaker 4 (01:14):
I think it's.
Speaker 2 (01:18):
Did you really?
Speaker 3 (01:19):
Yeah? M Knight Shamalama ding dong?
Speaker 2 (01:22):
How old are you like seventy?
Speaker 3 (01:24):
Yeah? Totally.
Speaker 2 (01:29):
Well, he's getting I.
Speaker 1 (01:30):
Have so many stories I'm gonna have to scroll around.
Speaker 2 (01:32):
For this one. He's getting sued now.
Speaker 1 (01:38):
I mean a lot of people get sued when someone
steals their movie or movie idea or a television idea.
But very rarely, almost never do these things go very far.
Someone throws it out or they settle. In this case,
the guy has they're in trial right now. They're in
(02:02):
riverside on. There's a trial going on. It is a trial.
It's from the plaintiff, this woman, filmmaker, Francesca Gregorini. That's
a pretty good name, right, Francesca Gregorini. She alleges that
the psychological horror series Servant copies elements from her twenty
(02:25):
thirteenth film The Truth About Immanuel. Both works feature narratives
where a grieving mother cares for a lifelike doll as
if it were a real child apple where Shyamalamaj Shyamalan
has his servant. They say that their project was independently
(02:49):
created by a guy named Tony Bascallap, who began developing
it in two thousand and five, pre dating Gregorini's film Okay,
this isn't aside. This guy starts this in two thousand
and five. It is now twenty twenty four and he's
barely got it off the ground, and then he gets
a big lawsuit. That is the entertainment business in a nutshell? Okay,
(03:12):
what was what was this guy bascalop doing that whole time,
just running around with this and other projects that are
going nowhere, and he finally got a break here and
then someone says, you stole.
Speaker 2 (03:23):
It from me.
Speaker 1 (03:25):
And they're also suing the director because he's famous m
Night Shayamalan. And the trial started on Tuesday. Okay, that's
guess where it is. It's in Riverside. Why I haven't
been not able to figure out. But Francesca Gregrini is
suing him an Apple for eighty one million dollars, a
(03:46):
legend that they stole key elements and that there would
be no servant without the truth about Emmanuel. Her attorney
is like, are showing you know clips of the of
her movie and his movie and this courthouse and Riverside.
Speaker 2 (04:04):
These people are probably thrilled.
Speaker 1 (04:05):
It's the biggest thing to happen in Riverside since that
new in and out. Now here's a problem. We've talked
about these cases. What do you need for an infringement case? Well,
I'll tell you you need substantial similarity and you need
one other thing.
Speaker 2 (04:24):
What is it? Geis? Do you know I really don't
you need access something you find access access would be.
Speaker 1 (04:37):
Let's say Francisca Gregorini wrote this film and then produced it,
but it never came out or it only showed in
Italian cinemas. Then he would have no access. These people
would know, they wouldn't know it existed. So if they
don't know it existed, we never charged someone infringement. It
(04:57):
would have to be a complete copy. And even then,
you know, it's like the room full of monkeys in
a with typewriters and eventually though bash out of Shakespeare
and drama. But it'll take millions of years by accident.
So did it happen by accident? Well we don't, you know,
(05:17):
we don't want. We don't live in a society that
wants to penalize someone if they came up with the
exact same thing, So they have to have access.
Speaker 2 (05:24):
You can't.
Speaker 1 (05:25):
But the more access you have, like if you were
like looking over the shoulder of Francesca Gregorini and you
put out something that's kind of similar, you would you
would be in trouble. But if you never ever, if
you came from another planet and you made something similar,
people would just say, that's just a coincidence. Now, have
(05:48):
you guys ever seen a movie about a reborn doll?
Speaker 2 (05:54):
Yes, yeah, you've seen a few.
Speaker 1 (05:57):
Okay, so that's the defense that m night Yamielan is saying. Look,
this is a movie about a reborn doll. Happens all
the time. You can't own that. You can't own facts.
Speaker 2 (06:09):
I don't know.
Speaker 1 (06:09):
I don't really know why they call it a fact,
but it's just like, but they're trying to, you know,
throw a copyright excuses into the mix.
Speaker 2 (06:16):
Here, but it's it's not really a fact.
Speaker 1 (06:19):
It's just like, well, I guess they're saying, dolls are
reborn in literature, all in all kinds of literature, and
she can't own that forever, and just say, I made
a movie in twenty thirteen about a reborn doll, so
no one can.
Speaker 2 (06:34):
Ever do it.
Speaker 1 (06:35):
So there has to be more than that. So now
they're going over in front of the jury, going through
all the programs and saying, is there more than just
the reborn doll here? Did they steal something like maybe
a character's name, or maybe a character's job or something
like that that could give evidence that they really stole it?
But how hard would it be to change those things
(06:56):
if you were really stealing it. So that's why these
things really never go anywhere, and they really only go somewhere.
If it's like maybe they were partners back in history
and they broke up and then one guy released it
and I says to mine and you were in my
office the whole time.
Speaker 2 (07:14):
But in this one they are.
Speaker 1 (07:18):
I don't think she's going to win. I'm surprised it
went this far. The reason why it went this far
is probably because Apple and SHAMAI Alon have terrible attorneys.
Speaker 2 (07:30):
That's my guess.
Speaker 1 (07:31):
And now that I've been, you know, in the high
stakes world of music for the last year, I've seen
some bad attorneys.
Speaker 2 (07:40):
There's one other thing. Both sides. This is the interesting
thing about this case.
Speaker 1 (07:44):
They're trying to both sides say that they came from
humble beginnings and the other people came from wealth. As
some part of the equation here, the one attorney noted
that Shayamalan's attorney said he was born in India and
(08:04):
raised in Philadelphia without any entertainment industry connections, and then
noted that Gregrini's father was an Italian count more privileged
than an Italian count, and count Shacula I think was
his name here. I don't know how to pronounce Chocula. Yeah,
(08:25):
and her mother was a bond girl. That's pretty elite
right there. And her stepfather, oh Ringo Starr, one of
the Beatles. That's a band. And uh, Emmanuel was partly
financed by a German princess, Tatiana von Furstenberg.
Speaker 3 (08:49):
Yeah, I'm just picturing. I'm just picturing a count there
going one Lassu coming ah ah ah blah.
Speaker 1 (08:59):
Cola Furstenberg is a fixture in New York. She's been around.
We have mutual friends. But this is gonna This is
great because they're gonna reach a verdict and this verdict
will will serve to clarify copyright cases infringement cases in
the future. We almost never get them, so that's why
(09:19):
this is kind of exciting. I'm going to go over
one more thing.
Speaker 4 (09:22):
Well, actually, just to to add on to that really quick.
Speaker 5 (09:25):
I don't know if you guys heard about the I
think it's the lawsuit happening because of Molana too. There
was someone who I guess had shown or shared parts
of their script with Disney before even Molana one, and
now they're suing for I think what ten billion dollars
over Mowana two similarities to I guess this film that
they were going to title Bucky the Wave Warrior that
(09:48):
has some.
Speaker 4 (09:49):
Unique connections to Polynesian culture.
Speaker 5 (09:52):
Now he didn't, I'm sure he did not invent Polynesian culture.
But I would be really curious to see how like
kind of an animated adventure style heartwarming Disney film script
would have similarities between you know that and Molana.
Speaker 4 (10:09):
Well, that will be an interesting one to see.
Speaker 1 (10:11):
I will be surprised if it goes anywhere, because they
never do. That's why this one is going somewhere. Now, Yeah,
I haven't heard of them Molana to one, but we'll
follow that. And then there's a couple of people came
to me, Oh yeah, I see them Mona two one. Yeah,
it's five days ago. This guy is like run around
(10:32):
ten billion. I mean that's just like irresponsible shooting for
ten billion. But there's the Disney movie read not just yeah,
I think it's well as Park Disney. Who's a pixel
Christmas movie, the Christmas movie about Red one or whatever,
(10:57):
Santa Claus gets kidnapped, whatever like that. They have to
bring in the government. That one someone came to me
and said, hey, look they stole my script. So if
a movie's success, but that was before the movie was successful.
It turned out to be pretty successful movie. Now, the
problem with the fun Furstenberg film financed film is that
(11:25):
they produced evidence of how much that it that it played,
you know, in theaters and it and it earned like
nine dollars.
Speaker 4 (11:35):
Awesome. Yeah, I think the source that I found they
were sharing said nine dollars from one viewer.
Speaker 1 (11:47):
Movie and it was probably the counts is I think
I got to watch this thing my money.
Speaker 2 (11:54):
Okay.
Speaker 1 (11:55):
So here's another story that I like, I want to
get to before we get to the movies. There's this
guy named James Dolan. He owns Madison Square Gardens, and
he's my new hero. He's the owner of the New
York Knicks and the Rangers. And he's under scrutiny for
using facial recognition technology at Madison Square Garden to ban
attorneys from firms engaged in lawsuits against his companies. This
(12:19):
policy has led to legal challenges and debates over its
ethical implications. Dolan's tenure has been marked by controversies. A
lot of people don't like him for various reasons. It's sports.
People hate people for whatever reasons. But what he's doing
is this lawyer said, there's a lawyer named Barbara Hart,
and she's part of a law firm called Grant and Eisenhoffer,
(12:43):
and they are suing MSG over some overpaid somebody overpaid
for the MSG cable network or whatever, and saying that
Dolan received unique benefits from the acquisition to the detriment
of stockholders. That's like a shareholder, sir, that's a nuisance
lawsuit if you ask me, from a disgruntled shareholders.
Speaker 2 (13:09):
And he said that.
Speaker 1 (13:10):
She said she attempted to do an attendant concert at
the garden in October twenty second, unaware that Madison Square
Garden had instituted a policy of banning lawyers at firms
currently suing the company.
Speaker 2 (13:24):
While I'm at.
Speaker 1 (13:25):
MSG, I was identified as a banned g and e.
Eisenhoffer attorney via facial recognition software. MSG employees stopped me
and asked for my ID. After I refuse to give
it to them, they correctly identified me as Miss Barbara Hart.
Come with me, please, yeap, escort it out of the
(13:47):
building where she belongs.
Speaker 3 (13:49):
No Knicks basketball for you?
Speaker 1 (13:53):
Wow?
Speaker 2 (13:53):
Yeah, I mean to me, I don't know how you
guys feel. I like it.
Speaker 4 (13:56):
I mean I feel like you know, parties have similar
door policies.
Speaker 5 (14:03):
You know.
Speaker 4 (14:04):
It's like, if you can't hang with me, you don't
get to come to my party.
Speaker 5 (14:08):
So if the guy owns Madison Square Garden, I can
understand why he wouldn't want his haters to be uh
enjoying his awesome situation.
Speaker 1 (14:17):
You know, he's using the only power he has as
a poor, humble arena owner to keep these people from dancing,
you know, just rubbing his face in these injunctions or
in these lawsuits. So he so it goes to court
and then one it's gone like back and forth through
(14:39):
the courts. But right now the courts are saying, all right,
you can't just those people. You can't throw them out
after you've already sold them tickets and use your facial
recognition stuff to throw them out, probably because they you know,
in the ticket, they had a right to it.
Speaker 2 (14:55):
They bought the ticket. There was a right to attend.
Speaker 1 (14:57):
It's kind of a license of a seat, and they
bought the license and they got to go in. But
the court said you could refuse to sell tickets. To
those people in the first place if you want, go ahead,
so you could tell them, hey, all you people suing me,
you're not coming to Madison Square Garden anymore. Now, someone
(15:17):
might say that has a chilling effect on those people's
right to sue, because it would hard to be hard
to get an attorney, because all those attorneys in New
York are they want to go to Knicks games.
Speaker 2 (15:28):
So interesting. But still I like it.
Speaker 4 (15:32):
Hey, I get it.
Speaker 3 (15:33):
You know, that's a level of spite that I wish
I could achieve.
Speaker 1 (15:39):
I I just I mean, there's I got a list
sam people that I would not let in my arena.
So and another thing before you get to the movies,
TikTok has been restored, so you can breathe a sigh
of relief.
Speaker 2 (15:55):
Nikki.
Speaker 1 (15:57):
It's very interesting that you was removed in the first place,
and both the President Biden and President Trump both wanted.
Speaker 2 (16:06):
It not to be banned.
Speaker 1 (16:08):
I remember we remember Trump used to say it's you know,
it's dangerous, but he now, I guess, wants it to
be sold to an American company. But he didn't want
to just take it off. I think nobody wants to
be the person that takes away young people's TikTok. So
but now Trump Yeah, it was.
Speaker 4 (16:28):
Yeah exactly.
Speaker 5 (16:29):
There's like a there's the I think the warning message
that announced that TikTok was being banned was changed. There
was one wording that came out first that was a
little bit more vague or just you know, just only
addressed the US ban.
Speaker 4 (16:44):
And then the second.
Speaker 5 (16:45):
Wording that was like an updated version of this band
message included President Trump in it.
Speaker 1 (16:53):
You go to but he will be yeah, yeah, you
go to TikTok right now. It says President Trump did
this all a favor here, let's all celebrate him. So
President Trump is having quite a honeymoon even though his
term hasn't started. So people are hostages, are getting free
TikTok is back up, he's milking it. So, yeah, we
(17:16):
have There's one other thing that might that is a
little bit of an issue for some. I mean, any
issue with Trump is going to be an issue for
half the country. But it seems to me that it's
becoming less than half in a way, it just seems
like less than half. But there's still people that just
you know, hate this man and want to kill him.
As you know, when people you know tried already. Two
people tried to actually kill him. One got pretty close.
(17:41):
But there is some concern in the television world because
he has nineteen people that he has hired in his
new staff that are Fox News employees or formal employees.
So people are thinking, you know, how's this going to work.
They're preparing to cover for a government filled with former
(18:01):
network employees. Now the president and executive editor of Fox
News Media, He's emphasized the network's commitment to journalistic integrity,
stating that their newsroom operates independently of any political affiliations.
This development raises questions about the relationship between media organizations
(18:22):
and government, highlighting the movement of personnel between the two sectors.
And this has always been going on, Like the Biden spokesperson,
that one, that's Karine Jean Pierre. She came from MSNBC
and Jensaki is now in MSNBC.
Speaker 2 (18:41):
So they both do it.
Speaker 1 (18:42):
But it just seems like Trump really did it. I mean, everybody.
My Apello guy is now the Secretary of the Interior.
I heard.
Speaker 2 (18:54):
You're not laughing at that. That's the best I have.
Speaker 4 (18:56):
Sorry, you're you're who my Pello guy, the my pillow guy,
the Mypello guy.
Speaker 2 (19:04):
Hey, come on, Nikki, Nikki, do you have a television?
You know I don't just watch movies. Yeah, okay, well
let me tell.
Speaker 4 (19:13):
You the movies and and tiktoks.
Speaker 1 (19:15):
You know that, well, you know they You're lucky because
if you did watch cable like I do, you'd have
to you'd be bombarded with commercials form mypellow dot com.
And uh so it's con He's constantly on Fox selling
is my pellow dot com pillows?
Speaker 4 (19:32):
Oh see cultural cultural divide here.
Speaker 1 (19:35):
Yes, there's a cultural divide. The Mypello guy is uh
now in the cabinet. Hilarious, Joe, Okay, never mind, all right,
let's go to the movies.
Speaker 2 (19:46):
Number one at the movies this week? Yes, do you
want want to guess?
Speaker 4 (19:55):
Enlighten us?
Speaker 2 (19:59):
What do you say? I said?
Speaker 4 (20:01):
Enlighten us?
Speaker 2 (20:02):
Oh, enlighten you? Okay?
Speaker 1 (20:04):
Yeah, Sam, do you have a guest number one movie
of the week?
Speaker 3 (20:06):
I have no guests whatsoever right now. I BET's probably
the same one as last week.
Speaker 1 (20:12):
It isn't.
Speaker 2 (20:13):
It's kind of a surprise. One of them days.
Speaker 1 (20:17):
This comedy the best friends Drew and Alyssa are about
to have one of them days when they discover Alissa's
boyfriend has blown their rent money. The duo finds themselves
going to extremes in a comical race against the clock
to avoid eviction and keep their friendship intact. It's just
two black female comedies, just comedians, and they've they're tearing
(20:40):
up the box office. It must be hilarious. That's what
I'm saying.
Speaker 4 (20:44):
Is that the one with Keiky Palmer?
Speaker 3 (20:46):
And this is a yeah, it is yeah.
Speaker 4 (20:49):
I do actually really want to see that one.
Speaker 1 (20:51):
Palmer. How do you pronounce the other person? You know?
Speaker 4 (20:54):
It's so funny.
Speaker 5 (20:55):
I loved her music when I was in high school,
and I had no clue how to pronounce her name.
And then one night I had a dream where like
in the dream, she like sits me down and she
explains it's pronounced sizza, and then I woke up and
it was correct.
Speaker 1 (21:09):
Okay, So there you go. That's the that's the only
girl's dream that's ever been told to me that actually
benefited me and didn't waste a good portion of it.
Thank you.
Speaker 2 (21:18):
Okay.
Speaker 1 (21:18):
So that's number one New movie Number one. Number two
Mufasa people Love It Making Money. Number three is Wolfman
from Universal four, Sonic The Hedgehog, Narber five, Dinneres Part two,
Pantera number six at Mohana two, which is now like
(21:38):
another billion dollar movie for Disney. So all the people
that are saying Disney's Studios going downhill and they're gonna
dry up, they're making money. They got Mufasa and they
got Mohana in the top ten right now. Noseratu from
Focused Features tried to see that, but it just didn't
work out. A complete unknown. I'm doing documentary number eight,
(22:03):
number nine, wicket number ten, Baby Girl, and then there's
a tie for number eleven and number twelve. Maybe we're
gonna call it flow. Let's talk about flow. Anyone see flow?
What is slow?
Speaker 4 (22:18):
I had not?
Speaker 2 (22:20):
Flow?
Speaker 1 (22:20):
Is the movie about is a movie, an animated feature
about a cat from Janis Films that survives like an
apocalypse of some kind. They don't really explain it because
it's about animals and what happens. There's the kind of
a utopian situation going on and there's only animals left
(22:40):
and they don't talk. So the animals, it's a movie
cartoon of the animals that don't talk.
Speaker 2 (22:46):
Have you ever seen that? It can't talk?
Speaker 4 (22:50):
It looks really cute.
Speaker 1 (22:51):
Oh, it's the best. It's a great movie. It's pretty short,
so it would be nice to see it in a theater,
but I don't think.
Speaker 5 (22:59):
You have to.
Speaker 2 (22:59):
I did.
Speaker 1 (23:02):
I broke my rule and I left the cinemak world
and went to the AMC World in the Long Beach.
Speaker 2 (23:07):
Have you ever been there?
Speaker 1 (23:08):
Oh?
Speaker 5 (23:08):
My god?
Speaker 2 (23:09):
And it's wild and I saw it there.
Speaker 1 (23:12):
It was super fun. Wild Robot still hanging in there
in the top fifteen. A couple other movies that I saw,
and we'll talk about like Conclave on Nora. We don't
need to talk about that, we already have and September five,
So Nikki, let's start with you. Let's start with Sam,
since we know he didn't see a movie because he's
(23:33):
got all these kids. Sam, what movies did you see
this week?
Speaker 3 (23:37):
None? Thank you very much. I saw Ostriches yesterday. Actually
you saw what I saw Ostriches. I went to an
ostrich farm yesterday.
Speaker 5 (23:49):
Oh, I was like, when did that come out?
Speaker 1 (23:51):
Yeah? Actual actual animals and the outdoors.
Speaker 2 (23:54):
You okay?
Speaker 1 (23:59):
Where Nikki? What did you deprive yourself of Vitamin D
this week by watching? So you usually watched like classic
movies and old movies and things like this.
Speaker 4 (24:11):
Yeah, this week was a little This week was a
little busy.
Speaker 5 (24:14):
So I only did a rewatch of The Substance with
a handful of my friends who all had not seen
it yet, and I went to the AMC at the
Glendale Galleria.
Speaker 4 (24:26):
I have to say I was shocked at the audience.
They were so rowdy and ridiculous.
Speaker 5 (24:32):
I I my friends and I I mean, hey, we're
all film students, so maybe we just have a little
more respect for the cinema than the average joe.
Speaker 4 (24:40):
But these people were like hooting and hollering and going like,
oh no, she didn't.
Speaker 2 (24:46):
At Oh no she did.
Speaker 4 (24:48):
No. I'm like, yeah she did, like be quiet and
acknowledged that she did. Okay, what the hell?
Speaker 5 (24:54):
So I was like, yeah, she did everything quiet, and
like they were being so ridiculous. If they're like especially
with the naked bodies, I'm like, can you please just
be chill about this and not make it some meme
or joke in your head because you just can't handle
a little bit of artistic, you know, expression that maybe
(25:15):
challenges you for a second, but you have to you
just have to.
Speaker 4 (25:17):
Crack a joke.
Speaker 5 (25:18):
And there were three people on their phones taking pictures
or videos of the screen, and people were yelling in
the audience, off your phone, we can see your phone.
Speaker 4 (25:27):
I was like, if you, if you really need to
be addicted to that thing, like, get out of the theater.
This is so ridiculous.
Speaker 5 (25:33):
There was even a guy next to me who was
going like not even just laughing at every scene, He's going,
oh my god, oh I can't believe it.
Speaker 2 (25:41):
Ahahaha.
Speaker 4 (25:42):
At every scene. I'm like, Okay, not only is it
a horror movie, but it's like I don't it's it's
too it's too good for this behavior. I was so displeased.
I felt like a sorry.
Speaker 5 (25:55):
I felt like a boomer in this moment, a real
I felt like I was aging my I was like,
two young people don't know anything.
Speaker 2 (26:03):
I don't.
Speaker 1 (26:05):
I don't approve of that. And and that's why I
picked my theater. My theater doesn't have that a lot
of it. It's it's mostly if there was one group
that you could like identify that sees movies at my theater,
it's young Vietnamese kids, and they're you know, they're just
very quiet in general. They're quiet people. And then there's
(26:28):
some old people and they're quiet and there's not much
teenage routiness going on at the Beltara in Huntington Beach.
But in their defense, I'm going to say this, that
movie was very interesting. What do we call it, like
a psychological thriller?
Speaker 4 (26:49):
Is that we were sure?
Speaker 2 (26:50):
Okay, so it's a classic psychological.
Speaker 1 (26:52):
Thriller until the last half hour when it becomes a
teenage gore horror movie that does attract people that are
gonna yell at the screen. So that was that guy's choice.
That was an amazing movie until that last part and
then you're like, what what am I watching? It got
it got over the top, and I think word got
out and said let's go see this movie and get crazy.
Speaker 5 (27:14):
Yeah, I mean I understand during the last scene, like
the third act, where you know, it goes from being
kind of psychological and they're being suspenseful moments and some
stakes to just all out mayhem. That is okay to
laugh at because it is truly so bizarre that I
can understand the comedic element, okay, but like nothing else
(27:36):
until that point is worth really like lolling about, which
just I think I was like huffing and puffing, just
so irritated.
Speaker 2 (27:44):
By the whole thing, come to come to adulthood.
Speaker 4 (27:50):
Yeah, but I could feel my prefrontal cortex just like hardening.
Speaker 3 (27:53):
In that moment.
Speaker 5 (27:54):
I was like, I'm really coming into myself here then
out of whatever the hell that was?
Speaker 2 (28:00):
Did you see?
Speaker 1 (28:01):
Did you see any So if you want to see
the substance, don't go to the Glendale Galleria. What's the
is that an AMC.
Speaker 4 (28:08):
Or it was an AMC and the first time I
saw it.
Speaker 5 (28:11):
This is actually I can recommend seeing it at the
Culver City Theater because that's where I saw it the
first time in October. It's right next to an arawon
and also a like skin or dermatology clinic that does
botox and other crazy facials and whatever. And so walking
by the Arawon and then also by that and by
(28:33):
the way, like that one skincare clinic looks a lot
like the bathroom in the substance.
Speaker 4 (28:37):
So with my boyfriend and I.
Speaker 5 (28:38):
When we went to go watch it, we like looked
at both of those buildings and had our fun poking
at them. Right, But after leaving the substance quite disturbed,
we had to pass by them again and that was
a nice little add on going like, oh no, get
out of there, you know, all.
Speaker 1 (28:54):
Right, Well, I know you have to go soon, So
I want to rush through the rest in the movie,
or at least my letterboxed list, unless you have any
other ones you want to you want to say that
you saw it.
Speaker 4 (29:10):
Yeah, I watched a lot of arrested development this week.
Speaker 2 (29:12):
It's been okay.
Speaker 1 (29:15):
So what I saw is I saw The Conclave, and uh,
you know, it's beautifully shot, beautifully directed, great actors in it,
but it's just as a Catholic, this is my domain, guys,
and you guys are just out of your minds, just
(29:35):
like you know, whenever it's somebody, if any movie makes
it to this level, these stars and this budget, and
it's about Catholicism, it's anti Catholic. So this was this
was no different. So it's just like it was embarrassing.
Uh still still like well crafted, but like such low
(29:55):
hanging fruit like that of their attack on the church.
And so I pity their souls, That's what I'm saying.
I pity their souls, everybody who made the con Club.
I'm gonna pray for you guys. A couple of days later,
I saw Better Man. Better Man is the I'll just
(30:16):
read my review. Not since Lancelot Link Secret Chimp went
off the air have I had such a good time
watching anything. All I can say, right, all I can
say is that if you're the guy that made the
Bob Dylan biopic or any biopic in the past five years,
you would just hide after seeing this movie and hope
nobody ever brings it up again. There's tons of genius
(30:36):
at work here that no one else ever thought of. However,
I always go back to my religion. His grandmother was
buried in a grave with a cross on it. I
bet she gave him some fear of God that they
left out of the script. But I'm gonna only ding
him a half a point of that. And I gave
it four and a half stars. I think that's my
first movie of the year with four and a half stars.
(30:58):
It's all about this guy and his grandma. I raised him,
uh and he he's he's Robbie Williams who's a huge
star in in a boy band, then becomes a star
in his own right. And his grandma's advice is always
you know what guides him. But he turns into a junkie.
So I don't know how great of a grandma she was,
because you know, my grandma gave me advice that that.
(31:22):
You know, Wait, did they grandma's better than his grandma?
Speaker 2 (31:26):
Is what I'm saying.
Speaker 3 (31:27):
Did they actually have to get a junkie monkey to
play him?
Speaker 1 (31:30):
Yeah, they have a junkie that's high on coke and
uh as a sexual.
Speaker 3 (31:34):
Addict like an actual monkey.
Speaker 2 (31:38):
Well, I mean, you know, it's like a it's like
a Mufasa monkey, you know.
Speaker 3 (31:41):
Okay, oh okay. So I was telling my wife it's
like kind of a computer generated kind of thing.
Speaker 1 (31:49):
I was telling my wife, how can they How can
that lady do all these sex scenes with his monkey
because he must have really bad peanut butter breath.
Speaker 2 (31:58):
Sammy, Sam gets that joke.
Speaker 3 (32:01):
I get that joke very well.
Speaker 1 (32:04):
In the old days, when we used to enslave chimpanzees
for our amusement in movies and TV, we would give
them a peanut butter and then they would try to
lick it out of their teeth, and then we could
dub in a dialogue while for that, because they look
like they're talking when they're trying to get the peanut
butter out of their teeth.
Speaker 3 (32:21):
So seriously, Lancelot Link is just a classic. It's a
treasure that people just let slip by, and it's gone
off into obscurity. I'm sure we could find episodes of
it on YouTube or whatever.
Speaker 2 (32:36):
Yeah, you can find it, but it'll never be made again. Okay.
Speaker 1 (32:39):
So four and a half Stars three and a half
Stars to September five is the other movie I saw
about the Israeli kidnapping at the Olympics in nineteen seventy two,
old enough to remember this, and so it was really
cool to see this movie. It's controversial because it's told
only from the the point of view of these A
(33:05):
TV network employees and executives, you know, and so there's
no Palestinian TV executives.
Speaker 2 (33:14):
Here's a sentence you never heard.
Speaker 1 (33:16):
Oh, if these Palestinians didn't control Hollywood, I could maybe
get ahead. So it's not exactly a balanced treatment of
the of the topic of the Palestinians kidnapping the Jews.
But technically I loved it. The the vintage television hardware
(33:42):
and technical problem. It was like that movie apol Thard
Team where they're trying to put together the I think
that was the one they're trying to put together the
rocket and before it crashes or it disintegrates.
Speaker 2 (33:57):
I mean it looks like that.
Speaker 1 (33:58):
They go, we got a problem, and we got all
these big giants and weird technology to make Cairns and
and go over to the satellite. There's only one satellite
and they got to give it back to CBS at
three o'clock. And we're having a fight with CBSA we
have a world story here, and CBS is like, the
don't care. We got to show Days of our Lives whatever.
Speaker 3 (34:18):
A documentary or a dramatization.
Speaker 1 (34:21):
Well, let me tell you that it's a good question.
It's a dramatization. It's a script with good actors like
Peter sarsgard. I think this is the day. But they
use a lot of actual stuff, like the ABC Wide
World of Sports. They use one guy, Jim I forget
his last name anyway, Jim, the main anchor.
Speaker 2 (34:42):
They're using this the.
Speaker 1 (34:42):
Regular film of him from a long time ago. Peter Jennings.
They use an actor and they don't use him, and
I think it might have to do with life story rights.
Maybe his family didn't want to give it up. Howard Cosell.
They never show Howard Cosell, and that was the tragedy
of this movie. Never showed but they play his voice,
his actual voice, because he was there and he was
help so very sad. And then to not see.
Speaker 2 (35:07):
Howard cosell and I heard.
Speaker 1 (35:08):
What the problem was is they were going to have
Hierd Coselle was going to be played by a chimpanzee,
and then when they found out about this Better Man movie,
they just abandoned that idea because they thought people would
think they were, you know, copying the Abby Williams thing,
and no one wanted to do that, so they just
showed his voice or you know, played his voice. Now
this movie is since it only tells you one side,
and it's just not not even just one side, but
(35:29):
it's a narrow vision of this thing. It's just whatever
these guys knew while they're in the TV station, because
they're like, oh my god, there's shoot, there's guns, there's shooting.
We got to go what are we gonna do? We
can't do this, we can't do that. Let's try this,
Let's try that. Very riveting, keep you on the edge
of your seat. But I wouldn't go see it unless
(35:49):
the next day you watch this other movie called A
Day in September, which is a documentary from nineteen ninety nine,
which won Best Documentary in the Oscars in the year
two thousand. You can see it on MGM Plus, which
is a faulty app because they make you stream.
Speaker 2 (36:08):
It from your phone. Oh wow, it's true, but.
Speaker 1 (36:17):
Still a fascinating documentary, and it's there on MGM plus.
You can get it, and then you can get a
free trial for seven days of MGM plus. Put on
your phone, stream it to your TV and there you go.
But if you're gonna watch September five, watch one day
in September the next day, and that's like a complete
picture of what happened, rather than the you know, the
(36:40):
half story, which is, you know, really wildly entertaining. But
it's not like a lot of people online were saying, now,
this is propaganda from only one side. No, it's telling
it's only telling you what these guys knew. It's only
what they knew. So that's the story. When in September
the commentary, I gave it four stars and September five
(37:04):
I gave three and a half stars. So that's it
for me and movies this week. And I think that's
it for us, right Nikki were getting you out on time,
I think so, thanks guys.
Speaker 2 (37:14):
All right, okay, so that's for.
Speaker 1 (37:18):
Joe Scalante live from Hollywood, and we'll now leave you
with just a taste of the greatest song ever written.
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