Has Nathan Felder Been Wasting Your Time?

Joe Escalante's weekly cannonball into the business end of showbiz. This week: the latest numbers from the box office, and ways to get more people into the theaters. Also, HBO finally realizes that they are actually bigger than Cinemax, Diddy and Harvey Weinstein make their weekly appearance on "Celebs Behaving Badly," and Joe is joined  by Rob Wallace, the "OC Movie Fiend," to discuss the local movie theater scene. The guy has a spreadsheet on the best seats at the movies, but he's not gonna share it... It's the front row, isn't it...

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:08):
Hey, Joe Escalante live from Hollywood. We are back. It's
two hours of the business, end of show business. Last
week I caught the one and only Tom Jones at
Harrah's Casino in Valley Center, California. A place she'll never
find unless you really go there on purpose. It's really
an Indian reservation where I once played there with the

(00:31):
vandalsin It's where things like like a thirteen year old
girl driving a truck, you know, just they just do
whatever they want down there on the reservation. Anyway, Tom
Jones was awesome, good to be back. Can't really move,
is got two hip replacement surgeries or something. But he
is worth seeing and he's still playing. He's still playing

(00:53):
like Coasta Mesa at the Siegers Strum at Las Vegas.
I believe maybe he's playing at another casino, Ago Caliente
in Ranchmarrage, So check them out if you can. Then
it was off to Florida with a Sublime crew for
the Welcome to Rockville Festival in the Daytona Speedway.

Speaker 2 (01:16):
Massive, just a.

Speaker 1 (01:17):
Massive, the biggest show the band has played other than Coachella,
and it was tremendous just watching everything unfold, And that's
what I do on about half the weekends. I go
with Sublime and manage their I mean there's a tour manager,
there's a production manager, there's a day to day manager.

(01:39):
But then those people need some kind of supervision rights him.

Speaker 3 (01:42):
Yeah.

Speaker 4 (01:42):
Absolutely, and it's good to hear that. Even like, I
don't want to call you a music mogul, but you're
as close as as a music mogal as anybody as
I know. You still take the time to go back
and actually catch the shows you like, like Tom Jones, Now,
did you throw underwear?

Speaker 1 (01:58):
No, but I got. I made sure I got a
show in this second row so that my wife could
see the underwear throwing taking place because he's young. She
don't remember the TV show or stuff like that. And
the and the underwear was just flying. It still flies,
it flies. Yeah, So I loved that. And then with
the band, you know, I just want to be there.

(02:19):
I only manage Sublime, and technically a kind of manager
of the ataris someone in the organization does really all
the work. And then I do manage Josh Freeze, the
former drummer of the Foo Fighters, which was big viral
news this weekend. That was a pain in the ass.

(02:40):
But Josh Freese is available. Well, actually he's available, but
he has like ten shows of The Vandals coming up,
so be careful. You've got offer him a lot of
money because we pay him a lot. The Vandals pay
Josh Freese a lot. If you don't know who, Josh
Freese is the most famous drummer in the world, just
about and definitely the best. And he plays drums in

(03:02):
The Vandals. He's in the Food Fighters for the last
couple of years. And you know you've heard the news
about the Food Fighters in the last year. Yeah, it's weird.
He kind of joined him at the wrong time, right
before Dave Girl decided to reveal that he has a
love child. And then they canceled the tour and the
rest of the stuff sat at home, and then they go,

(03:25):
all right, we're gonna go back up, but we're gonna
do with a different drummer. So we don't know what
it's all about. They don't say anything. No, no, they
said they won't release a statement and they won't give
a reason, so you know, you can do the math yourself.
Josh loved the guys, love playing with them. I loved

(03:46):
going on there out of town dates. And but it's
all the guys in the band are cool, but there's
rich stuff going on, you know, and Dave girl needs
to work it out because that's like families stuff going on.
That is uh. I don't think anyone would trade places
with him what he's going through. You know, he's got

(04:07):
a head to tell his mom or his wife that
that he had a baby somewhere else and then and
he worked it out though, so maybe that maybe it's
all for the best.

Speaker 4 (04:20):
It's usually those moments that cause people to take time
to reflect, and it seems like that's what he needed
to do.

Speaker 1 (04:27):
Yeah, he did. He needed to pump the brakes reflect
and if this is the what what it means, we
wish him luck? All right, Well, I didn't squeeze any
movies in h with all the traveling. But later on
in the second hour of the program, I got a
real character for you, seam. He's a movie fiend, does
a real live movie fiend, likes movies more than I do.

(04:49):
And he's got, you know, some opinions on theaters in
Orange County and various movies. Will we'll have fun conversation.
That's in the second hour. If you don't like it
you just you know, turn the radio down, don't turn
it out though, And of course we're going to hit
all the big stories, the business stories like we usually do,
run down the box office numbers. There's a new horror
flick on top, and we'll dive into some heavier stuff, Sam, because,

(05:13):
as you know, the P Diddy tryout in New York
is going to enter it. Second week. We got Cassie
Ventura testimony and we'll be reporting on that. And there's
also Harvey Weinstein is a retrial, and even Nathan Felder
is in trouble, or at least there's a controversy around
his latest show on HBO called The Rehearsal. Talk about HBO.

(05:39):
Why do they change your name so much?

Speaker 3 (05:42):
Sir?

Speaker 1 (05:42):
Elton John is making noise about AI and it's Disney's
seventieth anniversaries, all kinds of stuff going on there.

Speaker 4 (05:51):
I'm just happy Elton John is making any kind of
noise at this point of his career.

Speaker 1 (05:55):
Well, he can move around. Do you think he's older
than I think he's a little younger than Tom Jones.

Speaker 4 (06:01):
I'm sure he is. It's just Tom Jones made much
more of a career out of like being more physically gifted.
He was a good mover on the floor. He could
really shake it. Yeah, you never really saw too much
shaking out of Elton John. He just boogie wooget on
the piano.

Speaker 1 (06:15):
He looked like a guy who was a little bit
out of shape, just taking it easy. Yeah yeah, and
not in a bad way. He's just like, I'm not
going to the gym, not going to do bench presses. Okay,
what's the top gross Before we hit the traffic, I'll
just run it down in the theater's final destination, Bloodlines.
Tell me if you saw any of these Sam Thunderbolts

(06:38):
number two, I don't want to see you another Marvel movie.
Three Sinners. Everyone says Centners is great. Have you seen it?

Speaker 4 (06:44):
No, everybody says it's great, though, Okay.

Speaker 1 (06:46):
Minecraft saw it? It is great? Saw it? Countain two? Okay?

Speaker 5 (06:48):
Good?

Speaker 1 (06:49):
The Countain two is It's the only one I really
want to see on this list. Then we got Hurry
Up Tomorrow from Lionsgate, Friendship from A twenty four Clown
in the Cornfield, I get it. It was a clown in
the cornfield, you know, until Dawn and the Amateur. Rounding
out the top ten, and I think we'll just take
a break right there, check the traffic, and we will

(07:10):
come back with Joe Ascalante Live from Hollywood. Joe Scalante
Live from Hollywood. By Hollywood, you mean Burdbank. So, Sam,
you didn't see a movie this week, but you didn't
see Minecraft. Yeah, and you soon went to the block
party ones where they tell everybody go ahead and throw popcorn.

Speaker 4 (07:28):
Yeah. Yeah, it's one where they on screen like they've
they figured out what the things the fans were doing.
They kind of created traditions around it, rocky horror picture
or the room style. And they went and they put
on a screen the countdown and then at you know,
three two one, and then they put the words on
the screen that everybody should be screaming chicken jockey, Chicken jockey, yeah, exactly,

(07:49):
or lava Chicken. They put the words to lava Chicken
on there. So everybody was singing along with Jack Black
in the movie. See that's the kind of thing I like.
And you saw there was, you know, on the screening
that I went to use. People were really timid because
they brought their kids. They didn't know what to expect.
But you know, somebody was waiting to throw the popcorn
and they were just waiting for one person to start it.
So then you know, like the first domino and then

(08:10):
everything falls after that. That's kind of stuff is really cool.
It made it so that people did midnight screenings religiously
of movies like the Room every week and every month
whenever it was screening around town.

Speaker 1 (08:23):
Man, does the movie industry need that? Because you got
young boys. If young boys are going to the movies,
the girls will come. Oh yeah, you know it's if
the girls are at the mall, the boys will come.
So good for them, and you know it's just a
little extra popcorn, you know, pick up. But I noticed this.
There's so many more employees at the cinema in Bellterra,

(08:46):
at the Beltera Mall in Huntington Beach. I'd say twice
as many as there were like a year ago. Nice
And so I mean the means and bathrooms are cleaner
and the service is better, so thank you.

Speaker 4 (08:58):
Yeah. And for you know, just to make it easier
on them, they only screened that movie once in that room,
so they don't have to repeatedly clean up a mess
over and over again. That's the kind of thing like
if you can if Hollywood can start making. I guess
movies that become like they don't have to obviously, don't
have to be outstanding, great works of art. They just

(09:19):
have to connect with the audience in a way that
makes them want to react.

Speaker 3 (09:23):
It's true.

Speaker 1 (09:24):
People want good movies.

Speaker 4 (09:25):
Yeah, so what you're saying, well, they crave they crave
reasonable movies that they can connect with. He doesn't have
to be good.

Speaker 1 (09:32):
Yeah, they don't have to be great. Now. I was
listening to a podcast the other day, Brett Easton Ellis,
and he was talking about The Star Is Born, like
it came out in seventy six or seventy seven. By
many measures, many people believe it's a terrible movie. It's
a terrible movie with Chris Christopherson and and Bette Midler.

(09:55):
But that movie was like, I think the biggest movie
of the year or the second biggest of the year
of seventy six or seventy seven, and it was just everywhere.
I mean, it was just it was playing. It played
in the theaters that started in seventy six, and the
seventy eight it was still in the theaters, and it
was just so such a big part of everybody's life.
This star is born Barbara streisand Chris Christofferson, and I

(10:19):
don't mean very good, but somehow people connected with it.
And it used to be it played like all the
time at my theater, at the Fox in Brossmore, and
I had to see it four or five times. It
didn't really want to didn't like Barbara Streisand.

Speaker 4 (10:33):
Were you trying to impress a girl?

Speaker 1 (10:34):
No, I was too little.

Speaker 2 (10:36):
It was ten.

Speaker 4 (10:37):
Oh geez, why'd you have to go to that over
and over again?

Speaker 1 (10:40):
Because it was playing first it was playing, so I
would go see it. I see everything that went to
the theater, everything. I would see everything as soon it
was like, you know, as soon as they changed every
Wednesday would I'd be there watching the guy change the
sign because I lived so close to it. Then it
would come back as a double feature because in those
days almost all movies played as double features. So you paid,

(11:01):
and in those days, I think my rate was seventy
five cents for under for eleven or under, and there
was a there was an opening movie and then and
then another movie, and then you would stay and watch
the main movie again. So I saw many times. Uh,
and then so it was I just had to you
know there was otherwise, you know, I wasn't gonna do
go home and get beat up by my brother and sister. Okay,

(11:23):
so yeah it doesn't It wasn't good. But it's a
huge movie, so I don't know if how well it aged.
But okay, let's move to streaming television. The Upfronts are
on right now, and television in general. Every year that
the television networks go to New York City around this
time and they do a big song and dance, like

(11:44):
they bring out the big stars like Lady Gaga or uh,
there's the other stars. They got a big star, think
a star, that's who's there, and and then they put
on a big show and tell everybody, Hey, this is
our identity this year, and this is who we are,
and please buy airtime for your pepsis or your cars

(12:05):
or whatever. So it's going on. I think it's just
finishing up. And what the big thing that HBO Max,
which was called Max and their big announcement was we're
just calling it HBO. Yeah, I mean I think a
lot of people called it HBO. Anyway, they try to
call it Max. And when people change their name to

(12:27):
something that's so simple and it's known for many other
things like Twitter's X there's a big mistakes.

Speaker 4 (12:32):
Well, and we already associated their brand of Max with Cinemax,
which we called skin Amax. Yeah, like we and then
they try to clip that and call that Max. So
I felt like we weren't even getting high quality HBO content.
We were getting what was the remnants of skin Amax.

Speaker 1 (12:51):
Well, I'm not going to comment on that, but the
reasons they gave, or the reasons people are talking about,
is is they recognize the strength of the HBO brand
and HBO is synonymous with good movies. Like remember the
old campaign where they said I don't make movies, I
or like HBO. I forgot how they did that campaign.

(13:14):
I'm a good thing. I'm not in charge of it,
but like better than movies, HBO kind of a thing.

Speaker 4 (13:19):
But do you remember that at I barely remember. I
see that thing. I did not get HBO. I had Showtime.
I was a Showtime house.

Speaker 1 (13:30):
Okay, well I'm sorry, you're poor.

Speaker 4 (13:32):
I know, I know.

Speaker 1 (13:34):
The uh So they merged the really you know, prestige
movies of HBO and the prestige television. They merge it
with the slock that's on Discovery they're seventeen channels or
whatever they had. But what they found out is people
weren't watching that on streaming. People like the cable universe,
likes Discovery channels and all those adventure shows and stuff,

(13:55):
but the streamers don't really like it. And so most
people were watching HB anyway, and they thought there schlock.
Walmart people were intimidated by HBO, but they're not. They
like it. These people like good movies. People that go
to Walmart want to see White Lotus. Evidently they want
to stream it if they if they have it, if
they're watching, you know, some Alaskan you know trucker TV show,

(14:20):
I guess they watched it on cable. So and then
the stock was going down. So they needed a branding
to kind of make a market correction. They wanted more.
They thought they could get more subscriber growth by relying
on HBO. Everybody's talking about White Lotus, right, or The

(14:41):
Last of Us. They're not talking about Alaskan truckers or
whatever's on Discovery.

Speaker 5 (14:50):
They're not.

Speaker 1 (14:51):
I used to write for Discovery Idea. I d no
one talked about us, although Saturday Night Live did a
skit based on my show True Nightmares. If you can
see True Nightmares, if you go to Discovery and then
look for Discovery ID and watch True Nightmares and you
see the episodes I wrote, you will be thrilled. Okay,

(15:12):
And you know they just HBO just acknowledged they made
a mistake. It's very sam so at Can. The biggest
news to come out of Can Film Festival is a
palm tree fell on a man who is walking along
the Cressette on Saturday in the east side, the seaside
French town of tom Authorities sped through festival goers to

(15:36):
tend to the person who laid injured and bleeding on
the sidewalk. You might want to check your laughter. No
information was immediately available on the person's condition. Representatives for
the festival didn't immediately respond to requests for comment. The
incident happened midday at the festival con which runs until
May twenty fourth. It is about halfway through. This is

(15:58):
the first palm tree injury of the season so but
so far no tall Mexican ships have crashed into any bridges,
so it's at this point a success. Joe Scalante Lie
from Hollywood coming back after this. Joe Sclante Lie from Hollywood.

(16:18):
We're here every Sunday from five to seven, two hours
at the business end of show business. K e IB
eleven fifty and your am dials. You drive around southern
California and you're convertible or you're jeep with no top
on it, that kind of stuff. You know, there was
someone in church in front of me today with a
shirt that said bikini Bottoms number one something. It's like

(16:46):
a SpongeBob reference. Yeah, okay, bikini bottoms.

Speaker 4 (16:50):
Yeah, Bikini bottom is the town that.

Speaker 1 (16:53):
He was fry cook. He was like number one fried
cook at Bikini Bottoms.

Speaker 4 (16:56):
Or some Well that's the town he was fry cook
at the Krabby Patty.

Speaker 1 (17:01):
The Crabby Patty.

Speaker 5 (17:02):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (17:03):
I have kids, Okay, Well, if they go to church,
I would I would say extreme graphics in the back
of your oversized T shirt.

Speaker 4 (17:11):
Not a good look.

Speaker 1 (17:15):
Bikini bottoms. My wife bikini bottoms. She like bikini bottoms.
And I'm like, I guess, okay. So, speaking of the
Hollywood industry, ah Malia Obama. So she's a director of commercials.

(17:39):
She's like a young person aspiring to be a director,
and you know, she has a name for herself. She's
Malia Obama. Who doesn't want Malia Obama on their project. Well,
Nike hired her to do a ad for a shoe
and she's facing a scrutiny. Indie film maker Natalie Jasmine

(18:01):
Harris has accused Obama of copying scenes from her twenty
twenty four short film entitled Grace. Harris points to striking similarities,
particularly a scene featuring young black girls playing patty cake.
They call it pat a cake. No no, no to me,
it's patty cake, noting similar camera angles, shots, framing, and

(18:24):
color palette. Harris stated that she feels that, Okay, so
she says, you copied my work. You you know, you pig,
you copied my work. But then it's like not really
protected work, but someone she believes something she copied her work.
So then she kind of defaulted to this other complaint

(18:45):
and she said, like, there's not like I can do
about it. But she feels that brands should hire original
artists instead of celebrities. That's a pretty good point. Social
media has been divided, with some users agreeing with Harris
and other defending Obama, suggesting coincidence or a comment concept.
So I encourage you to go to YouTube and look

(19:06):
at this, look at these two things. You got a
short film, you probably end up seeing a trailer for it,
and then you can see her Nike commercial. It's a
black woman and her daughter playing patty Cake together on
a steps on steps and the angles are very similar,
and it's the theme is mother and daughter bonding playing

(19:30):
patty cake and it and then okay, so that's maybe
substantial similarity if if you want a copyright claim, you
need substantial similarity if you're going to prove it, maybe
maybe not. Then the second thing you need that our
listeners will remember, we haven't had a copyright case in
a long time. The second thing you need is access. Now,

(19:53):
if Malia Obama has never seen this short film, then
you have no access.

Speaker 3 (20:01):
Now.

Speaker 1 (20:01):
The more access you have, the less similarity you need.
The more similarity you have, the less access you need.
If it's an exact copy, and the person says, ah, coincidence,
it's not gonna fly. So did she have access? Well,
it turns out they were both in the same film
competition at one point. They were both where something that

(20:21):
Malia was done made and something that this Jasmine Harris made.
Natalie Jasmine Harris and I believe Malia saw it. So
if that's true, then it looks like she saw it
and she loved it. And then she's hired to do

(20:43):
a Nike commercial and she thought, you know what I'm
gonna do. I'm going to recreate that mother daughter patty
Cake thing. I was very moved by it. I think
it would make a great Nike commercial.

Speaker 2 (20:54):
Is it illegal?

Speaker 1 (20:57):
I don't think so. I think patty Cake black a
lady and her daughter is a bonding thing. And if
you want to depict it in a short film where
they're bonding over one thing, and you can also depict
it in a thing that it was a famous female
athlete was the mother in the Nike commercial and just

(21:18):
say that look she It shows her humanity and no
relationship with their daughter. So I don't think it's illegal.
But the point is taken. You know what, these people Nike,
They're never going to hire me because I'm not famous.
So they hired someone because their father was Barack Obama.
Now that's a gripe. That is fair game.

Speaker 4 (21:39):
Now the question I have is like, so the angles
and everything on the shot were similar or exactly the same.

Speaker 1 (21:44):
It looked it looked like I love the way she
shot that where the cameras are moving around, and they
were like, and then we got a shot of them
from the inside to the out, you know, but because
but if you're making that anyway, you would get a
shot from the inside to the out maybe. And then
we got a shot of their close up their hands. Well,
of course you get a close up of their hands,
you know, if you're doing this A lot of us
just standard filmmaking. But it was the camera movements. I

(22:08):
think you just go like whoa, and someone lined them
up and you're like whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. Wait a second.
It's like she told her editor, more make it more
like this is that illegal? I'm saying no, But and
what are the damages? So damages, no one's gonna say.
I'm not gonna go see Grace the short film by
Natalie Jasmine Harris anymore because I can just when I

(22:31):
want to see Patty Cake, I watch the Nike commercial.
So there's no damages. And if anything, it's the best
thing that ever happened to Natalie Jasmine Harris, without a doubt.
It's the best thing. So it's a black eye on
Malia Obama, but it's the best thing that happened to
Natalie Jasmine Harris. So she's using it as a platform
to say, you know, people should try to be a

(22:52):
little more clever and do a little more work and
find out who true artists are rather than just hiring
people because they're face. And when you hire people just
because they're famous or because they're a gender or something
color their skin, which is a big topic today, you
sometimes don't get the best work when if you just
went around and figured out who is the best people,

(23:14):
you would get the best work. And here I thought
that the I thought the commercial was great, but Natalie
Jasmine Harris could have done just as good job. She
never would have got that job. So there's really is
no damages. She couldn't assert damages if she was if
she was suing.

Speaker 4 (23:34):
And I know it's in an unrelated field, but I
heard similar copyright issues with video games and a major company,
Bungie using artwork from a person who's like a well
known artist in the field, and though people who work
there are followers of them on social media and use
their images because they you know, like you really liked it,

(23:55):
so they use their graphics in their game.

Speaker 1 (23:56):
That could be damages because that's a job that that
person could get exactly, you know. And I guess this
girl could argue, well, if I was considered by that company,
I would have done the same scene, and but you
took it. But she wouldn't have done the same scene.
It's just Nike being just take whatever they can get
from Malia Obama, take what everything gets. It's a great story.

(24:18):
And Melie Obama directed this about the famous athlete and
her daughter. It's fantastic. I would have done the same thing.
I would have been embarrassed when they found out that
she lifted the concept and she's not as creative as
we thought. I'd be embarrassed.

Speaker 4 (24:31):
Well, and really, anytime, like a company like Nike, they
are going for name recognition and brand recognition, and that's
what they're getting.

Speaker 1 (24:40):
With with Yeah, you know, and if you want to
be an artist, stay away from Nike. I'll tell you
that right now. Stay away from Nike. If you're a
real artist, you stay away from them, and you go
and you make a statement like I wouldn't work for
Nike if my life depended on it. Look at the schlock,
Look at these overpriced sneakers. This has nothing to do
with art. I spit on the ground. Okay, that's what

(25:00):
I would do. Smokey Robinson under criminal investigation after sexual
assault allegations. Motown legend. Smokey Robinson now under criminal investigation
because it was a lawsuit like a civil suit. Now
it's a criminal investigation by the Los Angeles County Sheriff's
Department following allegations of sexual assault. This development comes after
four anonymous women who worked as housekeepers for Robinson filed

(25:24):
a civil suit against him and his wife last week.
That was a civil suit, he got it. Now it's
a criminal accusation accusing him of rape and sexual battery.
Robinson's attorney has dismissed the allegations as vile and false
the allegation yes yeah, suggesting the police report was only

(25:44):
filed after the fifty million dollar lawsuit to prejudice the
public opinion. That doesn't make any sense. Why would the
police department want to prejudice public opinion. They're just looking around,
and if they don't look around, they could be there
could be other victims. So they got to look around.
And you know, I don't know if he did it.
The guy. I think I said this before I saw

(26:05):
him at Coachella or stage coach. I think it was
a little bit handsy with the with the with the
backup singers. So I think he's just like an old
guy that doesn't know how to act appropriately. I'm hoping
that's just it. And the housekeepers, you know, it's like
Arnold Scheuchzen nigger style. I don't think it rose to that.
I know there's no baby floating around. There's no proof.

(26:26):
So when we come back after this traffic report, we're
going to go over the latest on the P. Diddy trial, developments,
Harvey Weinstein, and the Elton John scandal that has rocked
the industry. Joe was Scalante live from Hollywood. Here's the
traffic Joe Ascalante Live from Hollywood. By Hollywood, you mean

(26:48):
bird Bank.

Speaker 5 (26:50):
So the P.

Speaker 1 (26:51):
Diddy trial is it's pretty gross, I gotta say, Sam,
But it is wrapping up the first week in New
York City. It's been dominated by emotional and at times
very graphic testimony of his former partner, singer Cassie Ventura.
Over four days. Ventura detailed allegations of years of abuse,

(27:14):
controlling behavior, and being coerced into participating and disturbing sexual
encounters she referred to as freak coughs. Yes, I think
that might have been what happened to Josh Freese. I'm
not sure she a freeze off, okay. She recounted specific

(27:37):
instances of alleged violence and threats. This is her on
the stand. She painted a picture of a deeply troubled relationship,
adding further details this week of singer Don Richard, who
worked with Combs on the reality show Making of the
Band or Making the Band, and later in a group
Danity Kane Took the sand. Richard testified that she witnessed

(27:59):
Comb's physically attack Ventor on multiple occasions, including a disturbing
incident in two thousand and nine where she claims Comes
attempted to strike Ventura with a skillet, a skillet, a skillet,
cast iron skillet. It was actually technically it was a
George Forman grille, but you know, they're just calling a

(28:19):
skillet for safe time. Looking ahead to next week, we
can anticipate the prosecution continuing to present witnesses and evidence
aimed at cooperating Ventur's account and establishing a pattern of
a llegimist contact, because if they're just having fights, okay, battery.

(28:39):
You can give citem for battery. They have to prove
that it's this giant, conspiratorial cabal to traffic people and
hold them prisoners. So it's not easy. This is not
a slam dunk at all. The defense will likely continue
their strategy of challenging the credibility of witnesses and presenting

(29:01):
evidence that disputes their allegations. In other words, didn't you
ask for it, miss Ventura, that kind of stuff that's
frowned upon some juries. If you say that's in front
of a jury, they just sometimes are going to turn off.
It's possible the defense may call their own witnesses to
offer a different perspective on the events in question. The
trials are expected to continue for several weeks, and the

(29:23):
testimonies in the coming days will be crucial in shaping
the jury's understanding of the complex serious accusations against Comps is.
That is exactly what. It is, complex and serious because
it's you know, it's not illegal to be a pervert.
It's not illegal to have freak offs. If everybody's contenting,

(29:46):
you have a guy, you have a guy who is
If I have anything to do with it, Sam, it
will become a league. Freakoffs will be illegal. First things.
First thing when I hit the Oval office, no more
freak offs people. Okay, So there's a guy who was
a male escort who testified and he said I was

(30:08):
called there over and over to have sex with Cassie
Ventura while did he rubbed himself with all these oils
that he's got a line around and watched Still was
she a prisoner? Was she trafficked? Very hard for a
jury to all twelve of them to say like guilty.

(30:29):
He's a trafficker. So we don't know what's going and
that's why he didn't take a plea deal. I think
his lawyer said, these people can't prove all. This is
crazy what they're accusing you of. It's you're a swinger.
It's disgusting. It makes me spit on the ground. But
and you can sue her for defamation. I guess if
it's not true. But I think it's all true. I
think he's in fact here they're admitting it that it's true.

(30:50):
This guy's a swinger, he does kinky stuff.

Speaker 5 (30:53):
But is he a.

Speaker 1 (30:57):
Trafficker and a rapist? It's going to be hard now
down the street in the Harvey Weinstein trial. His accuser,
Kaja Sokola is going through some stuff herself. The former
model has faced intense cross examination. So she's saying he
did this to me, he did that to me. Weinstein's
Eventstein challenged Sokola's credibility presenting a journal where she detailed

(31:19):
past sexual abuse but didn't initially mention Weinstein. I don't
know what that's supposed to mean. They also questioned her
about continued contact with Weinstein after the alleged assaults, suggesting
she sought to leverage the relationship for career advancement. Sokola
strongly denied these claims, asserting that Weinstein sexually assaulted her

(31:39):
and that she never had a consensual relationship with him.
The defense aimed to portray her as a wanna be
actress sam but Sokola maintained that she wanted Weinstein to
be honest about her potential in the film industry. So
I think she has a right to meet with Harvey
Weinstein and say do you think I have what it
takes to be a star and get raped? And and

(32:02):
then also this is important not to have to mention
it in her diary, you know. And then now they're
putting her on trial about her diary and not to
never call him again, Like, Okay, that was really gross,
but hey, can I have a job. And this is
the difference between him and Less Moonvest, the guy I

(32:22):
worked for. This Weinstein guy didn't give these girls jobs.
If this is true, he raped them and he didn't
give him jobs and he left him in the on
the curb Less Moonvest he didn't rape anybody, but he
might have been gross, but he always gave him jobs.
He came through, he made their careers.

Speaker 4 (32:44):
And yeah, it's one thing if you're trying to base,
like for especially if you're one of the actresses, you
can you feel like you're base. You're they're basing your
value as an actress and as a performer based on
your ability to sexually please this one, this one production head.

Speaker 1 (33:02):
Yeah, it's it's bs okay. And remember this is a
retrial because he was already tried and they threw it
out because they because they they did what they might
be doing right now to p Diddy, overcharging him and
trying to prove some crazy thing and hauling in too
many witnesses that maybe shouldn't be in there. And if
they do that, they're gonna get the Weinstein situation and

(33:23):
they're gonna have to retry it. This is the retrial,
So they're just being a little more careful saying jury
this lady says, this happened. I'm not gonna haul in
every person in the world that has an accusation, but
they are hauling in a bunch of people with accusations
to confirm a pattern of behavior in the p Diddy one.
You got if you can, if you can confirm this
pattern of behavior, that helps your case. But if you

(33:44):
if you go overboard and the judge is supposed to
not let this stuff in, if the judge lets too
much of it in, then they have grounds for an appeal,
and a higher court might grant the appeal, and then
you got to try it again.

Speaker 4 (33:54):
And that's what that's what happened with Bill Cosby.

Speaker 1 (33:57):
Yeah, Bill Cosby, you're quite right. He was over trees
arched and then he got out. Then what happened to him?

Speaker 4 (34:03):
He didn't do what you suggested. Now, no, he's still
a pariah.

Speaker 1 (34:07):
He dead. Now there where is he?

Speaker 5 (34:09):
Like?

Speaker 4 (34:09):
I think you still? Career wise, he's dead.

Speaker 1 (34:12):
Yeah, he's not working, Okay, Nathan Felder. We heard of
this the HBO series The Rehearsal. He's in a lot
of trouble because he had a fake singing contest on
his show, The Rehearsal, and people are upset because he people,
you know, they sign things and say, you're going to
be in the singing commercial, the singing competition. It's going

(34:34):
to be on TV. We don't really have to air it,
you know it well, like any TV contract would say,
I'm paying you to do this. If it doesn't air
for some network reason, I don't have to pay you
and there's no damages. So you sign that for a
fake singing competition, and then when you find out it
was fake and it was only to amuse Nathan Felder
there and you don't have any grounds to assume him.

(34:56):
So this lady said, it costs me tens of thousands
of dollars to keep flying out here and there really
was no singing competition, and you crush my dreams. And
Nathan Felder, this happens to him all the time. He
and he wins because he's careful with his attorneys, but
he is guilty I believe of an immoral waste of

(35:18):
people's time for his own benefit. He's wasting a lot
of people's, innocent people's time for his own benefit, and
he's using contractual language to make sure they can't do
anything about it. And he still gets his HBO check
every week. And these people are out of luck. So
is it illegal?

Speaker 3 (35:40):
No?

Speaker 1 (35:41):
Is it wrong?

Speaker 3 (35:42):
Yes?

Speaker 1 (35:43):
And people who are seeking fame in Hollywood. It's what
this show's about. You got to be careful. There's usually
a better way to make a living and find happiness
in your family. No one ever died surround in Hollywood.
Died surrounded by a great group of friends. Wow, after

(36:03):
a wonderful, fulfilled life. No people die alone and after
being chewed up and spit out. So remember that, Hollywood.
We're gonna come back next hour. We're going to be
talking to Rob Wallace, Orange County Movie Fiend, Extraordinary, Joe
Scalante Live from Hollywood. Joe'scalante Live from Hollywood. If by
Hollywood you mean Burbank. This is two hours of the business,

(36:26):
end of show business. And I just got a red
ball from the snack bar red Bull.

Speaker 4 (36:31):
Red ball too, red bull, Oh my gosh.

Speaker 1 (36:36):
Okay, So this is what we do every Sunday from
five to seven right here on k e IB eleven
to fifty on your AM dial. We talk about the
business end of show business. And if there's one thing
we'd love to do, it's promote seeing movies in theaters.
And I got a guy coming up who is the
biggest movie fiend I've seen in a long time. And

(36:59):
the people used to be movie feends. Who's a movie
feend today? Who's going to these theaters?

Speaker 3 (37:03):
You know?

Speaker 1 (37:03):
Besides me? And I'm yeah, I'm like once a week,
maybe twice. But this guy's all over the place. He's
got the regal all you can watch. Pass anyway, before
we get them on the line, I just want to
just kind of talk about Elton John for a little bit. Okay, Yeah,

(37:27):
he's launched a scathing attack on a UK government plan
regarding AI and copyright. Speaking to the BBC's Laura Koonsburg,
Sir Elton brand the ministers, all the ministers in their parliament,
absolute losers and said he feels incredibly betrayed by proposals
that could exempt technology firms from copyright laws when using

(37:51):
artists to work to train AI. What does that mean?
You have your large language models that they use to
train AI? And you have to input all this information.
And he says, if you input one of my songs,
like if I'm using AI and say, hey, what do
you think the best Elton John song would be to

(38:14):
like sing for my wife on our thirtieth anniversary. I
would type that in and would go like, oh Joe,
what a romantic idea, Because this is how it talks
a Google Gemini. That's a great romantic idea. I would
suggest a goodbye yellow bic road And it might even
say because I know your wife's favorite color is yellow,
because you could put in some prompts things that she

(38:36):
likes are yellow, crocodiles, blah blah blah, fabite animals, the crocodile,
Oh Joe, hop about crocodile rock. You know that's what
you would get. So what Elton John is saying is like,
if you are using my songs and the lyrics, wow,
Like if your girlfriend's name is Susie or your wife

(38:57):
or whatever, or both of them could be your girl
and your wife could have the same name because you're kinky.
Maybe it goes through the lyrics. Let's copyrighted lyrics. So
he's saying, if you use copyrighted lyrics and your AI
training models. You got to tell me and you got
to pay me. Okay, this is a kind of worms
because I don't know if this will ever work. I mean,
can you imagine AI without all this copyrighted work on

(39:20):
the internet. It goes through the Internet and training it
by saying here's all there. Here's a copy of The
Exorcist by William Peter Bladdie, and I want you to
know that too. It's got to know everything. Oh well,
William Peter Bladdie said you can't use his estate says
you can't use it. So everybody's got a blind spot
there or only chat GBT can and Google gym and

(39:44):
I cannot because he made it. Is the estate made it,
you know, a deal over here and didn't over here.
The Walt Disney state all Disney has their own AI.
They won't let anyone else use it. Apple has their
said blah blah blah. It could be chaos. So I
think the lawmakers are saying, hey, we can't do that.

Speaker 4 (39:58):
Well, I mean that's trying to make laws preventing AI
from making those kind of recommendations and suggestions based off
of the work of the artists. Why what's stopping the
artist from suing a person making the same recommendation as
someone else.

Speaker 1 (40:14):
If yeah, you can't sue a person from reading all
that stuff and saying I have great advice, and if
you I'm a relationship expert. For one hundred dollars, I'll
tell you advice. Which at Elton John Song should I
should I use to serenade my wife. All right, let
me go look at them and listen to them over
the weekend. I'll get back to you on Monday. Yeah,
you couldn't pay that guy, I mean you that guy.

(40:36):
You can't sue that guy for that.

Speaker 5 (40:38):
Uh.

Speaker 4 (40:38):
Yeah. It feels a little and it feels like he's
looking for a reason to be outraged. But at the
same time I understand he's trying to protect his work.

Speaker 1 (40:45):
Yeah, I think there's no damages for him. And it's
a little bit of get off my lawn. So we'll
be talking about this in the future, of course, because
this is your AI headquarters for AI information on our
artificial intelligence in the inter payment industry, because I kind
of know a little bit about it. Okay, Now we're
going to talk to my new friend Rob Wallace, who

(41:10):
is such a movie fiend. He makes like seating charts
and stuff too, so he sits in the right see
every time, and he's just I haven't met anybody in
a long time that has has watched so many movies.
So I hope you enjoy our conversation. You're gonna learn
a lot, maybe a few movies you never thought you
were gonna watch, and you're gonna watch after listening to this.

Speaker 2 (41:30):
Is that right, Rob?

Speaker 5 (41:32):
Yes, I have a really strange thing that I've shown
a couple of my friends. I know that it's weird,
but I it started out of really that you would
go and reserve a seat and that you know, you
get those movies that are like when you're gonna go
to on your birthday or some big blockbuster thing or
you know, you want to know like am I way

(41:53):
too high? Am I way too low? And I in
the wrong spot?

Speaker 3 (41:57):
You know?

Speaker 5 (41:57):
And so every time I would go, I would kind
of remember, okay, that one was good, or maybe the
one in front of me would be better, And so
I just started a small, like innocent, I guess at
first notepad that would kind of jot down where I
was in, what seat and what theater inside of each
movie theater, and so basically, over time, I started to

(42:19):
avoid movie trailers, but my friends love movie trailers. So
then there'd be this twenty minute period where I would
just be burning time, and then I would be like, Okay,
I'm gonna start walking in and out of these movie
theaters that are empty. I'm going to start jotting down
a list so that in the future when I come here,
like if it's theater number seven, I know I've sat

(42:42):
in the seat. This is the best one. I know
for sure I'm gonna have the best seat because I'm
going to book ahead the day before or whatever.

Speaker 3 (42:48):
You know.

Speaker 5 (42:50):
So it's very weird, but I have all the intel.

Speaker 1 (42:55):
It kind of reminds me of the one app that
would tell you when you could go to the bathroom.
Remember that, Yeah yeah, run p yeah yeah, and then
that that kind of went away. I think you can
just use chachipt now.

Speaker 5 (43:07):
I did it the other day. Yeah, they just know genius.
They probably just scraped all their data. But you know,
same thing.

Speaker 2 (43:14):
Wow, one more use. I use Google Gym.

Speaker 5 (43:17):
But I'm sure it's the same thing about oh yeah, yeah, yeah,
it's crazy.

Speaker 1 (43:21):
Okay, Okay, so let's I'm now looking at your letter
box just so people know if they if they do
if they really need to, and and for people who
don't know what a letterbox account is, it's it's like
a social movie account where you can see what other
people are watching, read reviews, and then if you see

(43:43):
it's someone that that that likes the same movies you
look like you like, you can go and see what
other movies they recommended. You could be friends, and that's
our But I use it as a diary to keep
track of every movie I've seen because I can't remember them.

Speaker 5 (43:58):
Yeah, when I start writing in the theater, when I'm
still sitting there at the end, I'm like, this is
all right.

Speaker 2 (44:04):
I noticed people I have friends that do that.

Speaker 1 (44:07):
I'm that's a really good idea because you get, you know,
what else are you gonna do during the credits? Why
my wife insists stayed to the very very end in
case there's a blueprint.

Speaker 5 (44:16):
Yeah, So yeah, it's it's cool to do the watch
list thing. You know, find similar things, like you can
find similar like like I'm really into time travel movies,
so you can find ones where people will say, like,
you know, these are all the ones that are going
to be you might have missed some random time travel
type type scenario. Here they all are in one spot.

(44:39):
It's pretty good for that.

Speaker 1 (44:40):
If you just joined us here on Joe Scalante Live
from Hollywood, we're talking to Rob Wallace, the Coast of
Mesa movie Theend. We'll be back after traffic. Joe Scalante
Live from Hollywood. We are talking movies for this second
hour of the program. I have Rob Wallace, the Orange
County movie fiend, on the line. I'm gonna read your

(45:01):
top four movies, which are and the Eternal Sunshine of
the Spotless Mind, and Big Fish, Amilee and Stranger than Fiction.
And I'll tell you there's only I want to I
want you to guess. Like we kind of know each other,
we got mutual friends. Guess which one of those four

(45:25):
movies Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Big Fish, Amie,
and Stranger than Fiction. Guess which one of those movies
I walked out on? Oh really, maybe one of your
top four films in your life. I couldn't even finish.
I had to leave.

Speaker 5 (45:43):
I would say the Oh, well, there's a couple. There's
two of them are very weird. I would say Eternal
Sunshine is very weird and confusing at first, but I
think that's what makes it good over time, that you
get new things each time. Amily is also kind of strange.
So either of those is my guys, big Fish, Oh really,

(46:03):
what did you not like about it?

Speaker 1 (46:05):
I couldn't take it. I just go this is I
can't stand this movie. I don't even remember what it was.
That's why I have letterbox scoring. Okay, you remind me
like like, and I've only walked out of about three
or four movies in my life. Oh wow, this big Fish,
I could name him. The Spielberg movie that was about
Spielberg growing up. Yeah, he was too predictable and I

(46:26):
was just like, let me guess he's going to experience
hate at high school and you know, oh, okay, here
it goes.

Speaker 2 (46:32):
And then then there was The Commitments was a movie
a long time ago.

Speaker 1 (46:39):
First movie ever walked out on about about like a
rock band in Ireland A long time ago.

Speaker 5 (46:44):
I think. I think I recently walked out on on
the Spielberg movie that was new that came out last year,
that was like had it was supposed to be everybody
from Forrest Gump. I think that was the same was
just basically a single locked off shot of the same room,
but like it was through time and everyone in the
theater walked out. It was crazy, and like by the

(47:07):
time I left, there was one guy sitting there and
it was like we you already watched everyone else leave,
Like you're hanging in there. But yeah, I will walk
out pretty regularly because I have that regal unlimited past,
So I'm just like whatever, Like this was something to
do instead of watching TV, I'll do that. But I
also have another weird thing that kind of relate. One

(47:27):
of those is that's mentioned. I know that many people
don't do this, but I'm a photographer and so I
found kind of like a way, you know how, Like
I'm sure over time this is probably a similar thing
that we have in common, which is you end up
meeting bands that you you know, you have a relationship
with their music in a way, and then and then

(47:49):
it changes over time because then you know the person
or you know what they're talking about, or you know
it's a new dimension when you hear them sing or
you you hear, oh, this song is about their daughter.
Thing that I actually know now started to well, traveling
with bands and stuff to like for instance, when Missus

(48:11):
played riot Fest, I took a train out into the
suburbs to go see the house from home alone. So
I was like, why not, why not go see it?
It's I guess it's called set jetting instead of jet
setting set jetting.

Speaker 1 (48:24):
How about the Christmas story House? We've been to that one?

Speaker 5 (48:27):
No, I haven't, but that's how there was like a wait,
where is that located?

Speaker 2 (48:32):
I forgot? But our drummer Josh Freeze, he's been there twice.

Speaker 1 (48:37):
Like he's like when he's on tour with the Foo
Fighters or with the Perfect Circle or whatever. There he's
actually been twice. But somewhere out in the Midwest. There
is something to it.

Speaker 5 (48:49):
Yeah, Like so the Eternal in the movie Eternal Sunshine,
there's a spot that is mon Talk that's a big
part of the movie where they're like meet me and
mom talk at the end and it's like snow's on
the on the beach and there's this house that they
break into and it's like kind of like a character
of the movie. I just decided to rent a car

(49:09):
and drive in the snow out to Montalk and it
was like literally the scene from the movie to be
standing in a snow covered beach in the East Coast.
I just think it, like because then you watch the
movie again and you're like, yeah, I stood on you know,
these people's patio or whatever. It's like a whole crazy
dimension to it, you know. So I just think trying

(49:31):
to go to as many Oh, I went to train
Spotting as well. I went to in Scotland, said Jenny.
That's a new thing.

Speaker 1 (49:38):
The person.

Speaker 5 (49:39):
That's a cool thing to go be like, I'm in
the scene from the movie I didn't even know now
and I watch it, I will have walked down, you know,
the stairs from the beginning of Train Spotting or the
you know whatever. It's pretty cool.

Speaker 1 (49:51):
But yeah, do you know that the movie that won
the Best Foreign Film, that Brazilian movie. I'm still here.

Speaker 5 (50:00):
I listen. I think I listened to your guys Oscars
recap episode there was It's funny. I don't know that one.

Speaker 1 (50:11):
Well, it's the one that won the Best Best Picture
for a list. It's pretty good. It's not I gave
it four stars because it's quality movie. And but we
went to the house in Brazil just to feel the
house where they filmed it and the people. The taxi

(50:31):
driver said, oh h and we asked, like, have you
seen the movie? I'm still here, and the lady goes, yeah,
screw that director.

Speaker 5 (50:41):
He's a.

Speaker 2 (50:43):
Communist, you know. And then we just like landed right
in the middle of a.

Speaker 1 (50:47):
Political uh yeah yeah, and she's like, yeah, he's a
he's a loser. None of that stuff is true. But
but I'll take you by the house, so he should. Yeah,
she took us by the house. Okay, So where where
is the theater that you go to where you're keeping
track of all these seats?

Speaker 2 (51:04):
Primary?

Speaker 3 (51:05):
Oh no, I have.

Speaker 5 (51:07):
It's all over Orange County.

Speaker 2 (51:09):
Okay, well name my name is Yah.

Speaker 5 (51:10):
So like my number one that I go to, My
number one best theater I think in Orange County from
all the ones that I go to is big Newport
six by Fashion Island has this huge RPX screen that's
just like twice as big as any other screen. And
if you're gonna go see, you know, some big opening movie,
that's the place to see it, because it's like, I
think it's better than an IMAX screen, but they only

(51:33):
have six It's like, have you ever been there before?

Speaker 2 (51:35):
I've driven by it. Do they have like uh like
exotic foods and things like that, or no.

Speaker 5 (51:41):
That's there's one. There's one inside Fashion Island, but then
the one outside looks very old and like, no, that's
kind of like a loop. You drive through and it
kind of looks like Las Vegas. It's wild. It has
like neon and stuff, but it's divided into two separate
buildings and it's really strange if I was a teenager,
Like there's a separate building where they don't even check tickets,
so you just walk in like no one ever even

(52:03):
checks anything.

Speaker 1 (52:04):
But yeah, what's it called again, Big Newport six six
And it's a regal.

Speaker 5 (52:09):
It's a regal. Yeah, and it's it's right outside of
Fashion Island and the loop of Fashion Island.

Speaker 2 (52:13):
Okay.

Speaker 5 (52:13):
I'll go a lot of times to like the Freeda Cinema.
Have you ever been there?

Speaker 2 (52:17):
Yeah, I've been there for like birthday parties and stuff
like that.

Speaker 5 (52:21):
Yeah, they have some interesting stuff that.

Speaker 1 (52:23):
I should check that out more often because they do
have different movies because I'm stuck in the Cinemak Movie Club. Yeah,
I'm in the like I'm in the The good news
is I'm at Platinum, so I'm getting you know, free
tickets and I'm getting and it's nine it's not unlimited though,
it's just nine ninety nine or twelve dollars now a month.

(52:45):
Oh okay, and you get your movie for that and
then you can hold it, roll it over if you
don't use it. But I don't go to the movies
that much, you know. I'm just going, like, you know,
once a week, so I can't have these ones that
are like limited or three times a week.

Speaker 2 (53:02):
Yeah, I can't do it. I don't know.

Speaker 1 (53:04):
But anyways, I like the cinema because I live in
Seal Beach, Yeah, Huntington Beach. It's a nice mall and
I just, you know, usually just trying to avoid Long Beach.

Speaker 5 (53:13):
Is what I I've got the details. I've got the Bellatra,
Bellatarra details on some of those the theaters actually only
it looks like maybe four of them. But there's this
new thing that I found that they just started at
the Bellata and I found it when I was visiting
Las Vegas, and it's it's called the D box. Have
you ever seen that?

Speaker 2 (53:33):
Yeah?

Speaker 5 (53:33):
I will so cool.

Speaker 2 (53:35):
The D box is vibrates, right, it vibrates according to
the movie.

Speaker 5 (53:38):
Yeah, but not too crazy, because they have one at
Regal where it hurts and like it it's too aggressive
and like it blows wind in your face. This one's
like Recliners, but it just kind of like punches you
a little bit.

Speaker 1 (53:49):
It's really good when you're when you go to a
movie like too late. It's a little bit late and yeah,
fall asleep. You sit in that D box. You're not
going to fall asleep. It's gonna yeah what I see.
I saw Deadpool in that one, and it was like
it was pretty cool. It was pretty action packed feeling,
you know, but not too intense. But yeah, I'm always
I mean, it's an ever growing type of deal. Sometimes
sometimes I'll get out of him.

Speaker 5 (54:10):
I go really late. Sometimes I'm kind of a night owl.
So sometimes you'll get out of the theater and you'll
be like, Okay, it's like one am or something, and
then you're like it's two nuts, two nuts. Then, But
that's when I'm able to be like, Okay, I'm going
to go into a couple of theaters right here and
add them to my list.

Speaker 1 (54:26):
Okay, let's take a break right there and we'll come
back after the messages, et cetera. Joe'scalante live from Hollywood
talking to Rob Wallace, the Orange County movie Fend.

Speaker 2 (54:37):
Okay, e I b A.

Speaker 1 (54:38):
I'm a live fifth Joe Ascalante Live from Hollywood. We
are talking movies for this second hour of the program.
I have Rob Wallace, the Orange County movie Fiend, on
the line. I heard about him through a friend of mine.
He said, my friend loves the movies so much that
he has a chart that he has built to rate

(55:01):
all the seats in the Orange County theaters so he
doesn't end up getting in the wrong one. So Rob,
that brings me to the big question. Is your list public?

Speaker 5 (55:11):
No, I've only shared it with a few friends because
I don't want to go to the I don't want
to be like, these are the best seats, Hey take
them when I get get there. Yeah, I don't want
to be gone, but I could share it with I've
only shared it with the one friend that told you
about this. So the fact that it's kind of already
leaked or whatever is like, Okay.

Speaker 1 (55:30):
I'm married to my seats at the Yeah, I'm just
I'm just married to them. I have to sit on
the right side. Oh really, angle or I'll have some
kind of anxiety attack.

Speaker 5 (55:42):
I don't know.

Speaker 2 (55:42):
I won't know what would happen because I don't. I don't.
I don't sit anywhere else. I can't sit in the middle.

Speaker 1 (55:47):
Yeah, but I did notice there was some uh if
the big theaters at Belle and Terra, it looks like
a section that's like in the front, front section that
you would normally.

Speaker 2 (56:00):
Well, I'm not sitting in the front.

Speaker 5 (56:02):
Yeah, it's too crazy. Why did it even make those seats?

Speaker 3 (56:04):
Right?

Speaker 1 (56:04):
But the last row in that front section the big
theater in Bella Terra is fine. Yeah, and no one
takes it because they think they're too close. So sometimes
if i'm but I don't have my act together and
I'm too late, I can get seats there, right, Okay,

(56:26):
so let me look at your letter box again. And
then you saw The Accountant too, I haven't seen that.
That's kind of the it's kind of like my next movie.

Speaker 5 (56:36):
Oh yeah, I saw it a couple of days ago.
It was just okay, you know, like and I went
and rewatched the old one, and I think it's really strange,
Like why would you It's a movie that's like nine
years old, the original one. Like you guys are just
rebooting or you're not, you know, you're doing a thing
that you know we're all going to go check out
because we are. It's a proven track record. It's kind
of interesting. But yeah, I have a few. I wrote

(56:59):
down a few of my very favorites, my top rated
that are on my letterbox that I think. I don't know.
I think everyone goes to movies for different reasons. I
talked to my brother about this a lot. He likes
action things. I like kind of like character development stuff
where you're really invested in the person in a way,
or like the story is really strange, And.

Speaker 2 (57:20):
I don't know.

Speaker 5 (57:21):
There's been a few, a few different ones. One last
year that was a really strange one was called nick
Nickel Boys.

Speaker 1 (57:27):
I think, Yeah, Nickeloys was great, great, Yeah, I noticed
you gave it four stars.

Speaker 5 (57:31):
On your Yeah, and it's hard to give something of five.
I don't know why it's hard to give something of
five star, but yeah, it was a weird It was
a strange one and some you know, the way that
it was shot, You're like, this is interesting. This is
like there are people I find that write by the way.
A letter box, I believe is like one of the
only places you can actually trust a community of reviews
because it seems like Roden Tomato is kind of like

(57:53):
purchased or I've heard it they like bribe people not
to write reviews originally, and it's weird. It's a strange thing.
But but yeah, that one was so peculiar, and there
were some shots, like there's a shot that's the cover
of the movie that it makes me want to like
rig up a thing to shoot portraits of people, because

(58:14):
did you see that movie nickol Boys.

Speaker 2 (58:16):
I did.

Speaker 5 (58:16):
Yeah, yeah, So there was a scene where like they
were out of the jail or the school that they
were in for a moment delivering something out in the world,
and they looked up at the sky or they looked
up at the roof and they were walking and as
they were walking, there was like a mirror and I
was like, well, how would you film that, Like you
would have had to have been above with rigging that
made it look like tiles and following them as they

(58:38):
looked up at the camera, like really weird things. Who
as like, it's like breaking my brain. I know that
no one else is or very few people are thinking
about how that shot is probably done. Most people are
just absorbing it. But when you like try to break
it down. You're like, this is a wild, wild thing
that they're doing.

Speaker 3 (58:55):
You know what.

Speaker 1 (58:56):
My reviews are usually really short and they're just designed
to remind me of what the movie was about. But
in that case with Nickel Boys, I gave it. I
think this is the best thing about this conversation so
far as we're recommending people who ninety nine percent of
the people in the world did not see Nickel Boys,
you should see it. And so I'm going to read
you my review. It's probably the longest one I've done

(59:18):
in years. It was a dear diary, because this is
a diary, pretty much a masterpiece, chronicling the memories of
two boys who grew up in an abusive reform school
in the nineteen sixties. It has little to do with
the spade of movies made in the last decade that
bombard you with white bad and black good morality tales,

(59:39):
which were really popular, like like three years ago, there
were four years ago. They were just out of control.
Everyone was like, you think this one might be but
it's not. It's just these two boys memories of abuse
that happened to everyone in the reform school, black or white.
Their abusers were both black and white. You have to
watch it more than once because it's pretty arty and
confusing at times. But I started understand it more when

(01:00:01):
I realized this is a disjointed collection of the two
boys memories. Like all our memories, they're spotty. When I
looked at the internet, it was based on a real
academy in Florida that was finally shut down, and it
would be interesting to see a movie about the white
kids section of this place. Yeah, and then I wrote,
maybe you could make that movie whoever's reading this review,

(01:00:22):
because they did. It was primarily on the black side,
but it would be just saying if you went into
that big house where the white the white kids were
getting abused.

Speaker 5 (01:00:32):
Yeah, there were a number of things, you know, like that.
I liked that it made you it was I don't know.
I think that's the similar thing about like it happens
in Eternal Sunshine a little bit where there's like a
there's like a weird like when the credits roll, or
there's a moment where you're like, wait, where are we now,
and like they do it a number of times, like
the moment when they're in the cafeteria and they like

(01:00:52):
replay the same scene from different a different perspective, and
you're like, wait, who am I? Now? Like I bit,
and then the feeling of the I guess it's like
the greatness of like the empathy of being literally living
as someone. You're not even looking at them from the outside,
you living as them for like the first thirty minutes.
It's so interesting, and then it's like, yeah, it's such

(01:01:15):
an interesting thing. But then even like they're jumping, they
jumped to them later on in life, and that was
another thing where you're like, wait, what's happening now? Is
this where am I? And I think there's something to
that that made it super interesting.

Speaker 1 (01:01:29):
But okay, I've got I'm gonna read you my four
top four because this is what letterbox does that you
put your top four out there. And my top four
are High Noon and The Hidden Fortress, which is like
kind of like a Samurai movie, Kirosawa movie, The Deer Hunters.

(01:01:50):
I could have filled it all with Vietnam movies, but
The Deer Hunter is my favorite one. And black Beard's
Ghost because I like to keep it light. Have you
seen black beards?

Speaker 5 (01:02:00):
I haven't seen.

Speaker 2 (01:02:01):
I know that I know that well.

Speaker 5 (01:02:04):
I feel like it's gonna ruin my credibility. But it's
just a different type of thing. But I know that
I know that on my list just because I'm I'm younger.
But Deer Hunter I have not ever seen, which is crazy.
It's one of those things where I envy you because
now you're gonna get to see it. It's mind blowing.
And yeah, I saw it in the theater when I

(01:02:26):
was at summer camp. I was like a ranch hand
at the summer camp and the leader of the ranch
hands was a Vietnam vet and he took us to
see it in Susanville, California, and and then he was
so quiet on the way home.

Speaker 2 (01:02:41):
We're like, was it really like that? Ted? And he
goes way worse and.

Speaker 5 (01:02:46):
We're like just jarred because it is Oh, it took
him there.

Speaker 1 (01:02:49):
It is the worst like depiction of Vietnam that you
could imagine. It's it's a horror story almost, but it's real.
And then the worst movie I've seen lately is The
Surfer Nicholas Cage.

Speaker 5 (01:03:02):
The poster today, I don't know if I really trust
much for Nicholas Cage. I mean, I saw that weird,
the horror one that he did a little while ago.

Speaker 1 (01:03:11):
I like a vampire. One where he was a vampire
was good. It was kind of like like rough Child
or Reginald or something like that.

Speaker 2 (01:03:19):
That was good.

Speaker 3 (01:03:20):
Yeah.

Speaker 5 (01:03:20):
There was one where he's dressed up as a woman
or something that was like that was like a couple
of years ago or no, last year. It was.

Speaker 3 (01:03:27):
It was.

Speaker 5 (01:03:31):
Horror woman. Let's see computer, tell me what it tell
me what the long legs. It was so strange. I
didn't see it because you're like, I see Nicholas Cage,
this ray he's right there, like this isn't You're supposed
to be. It's supposed to be some scary lady. But
I can't not see his eyes in his face, and
it just is some of those movies, they get better
when you're like, I have no context for who this
person is. It's much kind of nicer, you know.

Speaker 2 (01:03:54):
Here's my review of The Surfer Dear Diary.

Speaker 1 (01:03:58):
After this, you will never want to visit Australia or
see another Nicholas Cage movie ever again.

Speaker 2 (01:04:04):
That's it.

Speaker 1 (01:04:06):
Okay, let's take a break right there, Rob. When we
come back, Rob will tell us his movie recommendations for
this week. Joe Scalante Live from Hollywood.

Speaker 3 (01:04:25):
Yeah, Joe Ascolanti, here's my lawyer.

Speaker 1 (01:04:41):
You don't want Joe Sclante live from Hollywood. We are
back talking to Rob Wallace, the Orange County movie fiend.
I hope you don't mind. I made up that nickname
for you. Everyone's got to have one.

Speaker 2 (01:04:50):
It's radio.

Speaker 1 (01:04:51):
You can call me the Goblin. Any recommendations before we
get out of here.

Speaker 3 (01:04:55):
Oh that that.

Speaker 5 (01:04:58):
Sinners movie that's out right now, really really good. But
I know everyone's already said it it's so good.

Speaker 2 (01:05:03):
I haven't seen it, but yeah, so well, so okay,
well I'm gonna Yeah.

Speaker 5 (01:05:07):
It feels it feels different, you know, but people say
it's kind of like from Dust Till Dawn or whatever,
like in a way, but it's it's an interesting movie
and it doesn't you know, it kind of has you know,
people say some of the stereotypical stuff that it falls
into as far as race stuff, but it's like not
really like it's a well done movie. And the way

(01:05:28):
that they actually they do like a twin Michael B.
Jordan's Twins, but like the technology and the way that
he's able to actually feel like it's not split screen,
like he's actually at acting with himself is so so interesting.
But I have a few from my last few years.
I have a few, and there there's three of them

(01:05:49):
that are very similar. There's like a new I don't
I don't know if it's a new genre of movie
that exists. But the first one that I saw was
called Robot Dreams and it was it was by the
studio Neon, which I think is really cool. But did
you ever see that movie. It's very strange in that
it's it's it's like a full like ninety minutes that

(01:06:10):
feels like a Pixar short because they don't speak. I
think it's a French movie. And you'll be able to
tell right when you see the trailer, like the vibes.
It's the most adult. It's not like I was gonna say,
it's like the most adult movie cartoon movie I've ever seen.
But it's not like like Sausage Party was adult adult

(01:06:31):
like jokes and stuff. This was like somehow because they
didn't use language. They just use gestures and like emotion.
And it's set in the eighties in the in New
York and it's all animals and like everyone in the movie,
everyone in the movie doesn't have a there there. It's

(01:06:53):
purposefully like nobody nobody's thought like looked at as it's
just like dog and robot. They're not like girl dog
and boy robot or whatever. It's just some weird thing
about companionship. They tell a story. It's kind of like
allegory in a way, but they tell a story of
like basically two people trying to make a relationship work

(01:07:14):
and then they get pulled apart and this whole complex
thing of like you know, early love in your twenties
or something, or some weird thing that you like go
your separate ways in life. But they do it all
in like the with just gestures and music. They did
earth Wind and Fires and what's it called Robot dreams.

Speaker 2 (01:07:37):
Robot Dreams Okay, yeah, and it.

Speaker 5 (01:07:38):
Has earth Wind and Fire September as like a song
that they do in it. And then and then one
of the characters is whistling it and a lot of
it is them like kind of like you know when
you're broken up from someone or some I don't know,
like thinking of where their life is. It's kind of strange.
But then they go their separate ways and then it's
a weird thing to just like I don't know, there's

(01:08:01):
there's some weird thing in it that it gets a
message across. It's so universal and done in such a
universal way without even language that by the end of it,
you watch it and you're somehow. I just think there's
something artistic about the way that they're able to get
it across.

Speaker 2 (01:08:16):
People can watch that on Hulu and on you can
rent it on Apple.

Speaker 5 (01:08:23):
It's a really good one.

Speaker 1 (01:08:25):
I always look up these movies on just watch dot com.

Speaker 2 (01:08:27):
Do you use that too?

Speaker 5 (01:08:29):
I just google kind of like where can I stream it?
And figure out you go to just watch. Okay, that's
all it is.

Speaker 1 (01:08:38):
It's here's the movie, here's where it's streaming, here's it
and they they categorize it. Here's where it's free. Here's
where you need a subscription, here's.

Speaker 5 (01:08:45):
We get Yeah. Yeah, I have been on that website before,
so that's when I google it. That's normally where it
takes me.

Speaker 1 (01:08:50):
So yeah, I'll take you there. How about Dreams? I
saw the posters and everything and it just didn't I
just didn't get it.

Speaker 5 (01:08:57):
But but it's a strange one.

Speaker 1 (01:08:59):
All Right, I'm gonna with that on my list to see.
I'm now gonna I'm gonna leave you quickly because we're
this is a lot for you, and and we have
you know, commercials and all kinds of things to show.

Speaker 5 (01:09:09):
Okay, and then but I'm going to have you back, Okay,
I mean I got a lot of nerding movie things
to uh, well.

Speaker 1 (01:09:15):
You get tip you've given us this time. Is the
the Regal, the one where they don't check.

Speaker 5 (01:09:22):
For ticket, big Newport six. That's the one.

Speaker 2 (01:09:25):
Newport six And you got to go to the far building.

Speaker 5 (01:09:27):
Is that what you do? No? I, no I, I
do the Regal unlimited. It's worth it.

Speaker 2 (01:09:31):
But there's the one where's the building where they're not checking.

Speaker 5 (01:09:35):
Half of them. It's a theater four through six. Yeah,
they don't check any they don't check any tickets. They
can just walk right in.

Speaker 1 (01:09:40):
And it's crazy for all you scrounges there. Yeah, you
don't want to just at least buy one ticket for
one movie.

Speaker 5 (01:09:46):
That well, and it's Recliners. Yeah, it's really nice, fancy fancyville.
But anyway, thanks for having me on.

Speaker 1 (01:09:52):
Before we leave, I'm going to give you my my
top ten twenty fours. Okay, my number one was Wild Rowe.

Speaker 2 (01:10:00):
Did you see it?

Speaker 5 (01:10:01):
Yes?

Speaker 3 (01:10:01):
They did.

Speaker 2 (01:10:02):
Okay, I loved it. I hope you liked it. Knee
cap number two, did you see it? No to see cap.

Speaker 1 (01:10:09):
It's about an irishman, the Irish rappers, like the Irish
Beastie Boys, the only rap and game.

Speaker 5 (01:10:15):
And now we're I'm writing them down.

Speaker 2 (01:10:17):
They just got canceled because they're.

Speaker 5 (01:10:20):
Oh yeah, I heard they were.

Speaker 2 (01:10:22):
They were bad boys. Number three is flow with the cat.

Speaker 5 (01:10:27):
I was gonna mention that's what Robot Dreams is like flow.
It's similar because you're.

Speaker 2 (01:10:32):
Yeah, yeah, the animals don't talk in that movie.

Speaker 5 (01:10:35):
You're just feeling it.

Speaker 2 (01:10:37):
Is my talking parrot downstairs. Okay.

Speaker 1 (01:10:41):
Number four I had Nickel Boys. Number five I Norah.
Number six A better Man. I thought that was really
good with the Robbie Williams is a monkey.

Speaker 5 (01:10:51):
I don't know why the previous didn't catch me on that.

Speaker 2 (01:10:54):
Yeah, I thought it was going to be a hit,
and uh it just died.

Speaker 1 (01:10:59):
Cabrini Umber seven because I'm Catholic, so I gotta give
the Catholic movies upgrade. Number eight, The Brutalist number nine, well,
number ten, I'm still here. We talked about that, the
bad one. Number nine, though, I want to I'm dying
to know if you've seen this Snackshack.

Speaker 5 (01:11:18):
No, what is that?

Speaker 2 (01:11:19):
Oh, snackshack is about it?

Speaker 1 (01:11:22):
Just it just looks it's like a movie that was
made in the eighties or nineties, but it's it was
made last year. It's two boys get an opportunity to
take over the snackshack at the community pool and they
think they're going to get rich, and so they're working.
They're working the community pool in a snack shack all

(01:11:42):
summer long.

Speaker 5 (01:11:42):
And I'll just say it's got good, it's got good ratings.

Speaker 2 (01:11:45):
I'll just leave it at that. It's awesome.

Speaker 1 (01:11:47):
Uh So those are those are my recommendations. But you
know my audience has heard them before.

Speaker 5 (01:11:53):
I would say from mine. Last year, the Substance was
just a wild, wild one that I saw a couple
of times.

Speaker 2 (01:11:59):
I liked it.

Speaker 5 (01:12:00):
Yeah, I also really loved it.

Speaker 2 (01:12:02):
Was it was really good, and then all of a
sudden it was a teen horror movie in the last yeah.

Speaker 5 (01:12:05):
The last the last ten minutes. It could have gone without.
And then I saw a couple of times was Saturday Night.
I really loved Did you see that?

Speaker 2 (01:12:14):
I didn't?

Speaker 5 (01:12:15):
It was so so good and I went a second time.
I got to go, I'm probably friends of yours, but
I got to go with Bill Stevenson and watch it
in Denver or uh Fort Collins, and he just talked
the whole time. But it was hilarious, like, yeah, yeah,
it was about it was It's just about the first
episode of Saturday Night Live. It was a real a

(01:12:36):
real like theatrical like and it was a wonner. Everything
was a one one take the whole movie.

Speaker 2 (01:12:42):
Okay, yeah, I haven't seen that and I and I'm embarrassed,
so I'll definitely.

Speaker 5 (01:12:45):
You should go. Yeah, tech, let me know how what
you think of that one. I would I think that's
one of the best. You have anxiety the whole time,
and then it ends right when they right when they
start the first episode.

Speaker 1 (01:12:56):
I'm old enough to remember the first episode and because
I was watching like late night Saturday Night show every
Saturday night, and then that came on, and I'm like,
you know, in like sixth seventh grade or eighth grade
or something like that, and I'm like, these guys are funny. Yeah, yeah,
I should have seen it. I don't know what's wrong
with me, all right, anything else you walk out?

Speaker 5 (01:13:16):
I think those are the best ones for sure.

Speaker 2 (01:13:19):
So go see meecap that's my number one recD.

Speaker 5 (01:13:21):
Yeah, okay, I've got it. I've got it on here
and this the Snackshack. Those are my two. I'm jumping
into oh the oh one other one. There's a new
show out that's kind of about movies on Apple TV.
It's The Studio. I think it's so cool.

Speaker 2 (01:13:33):
Yeah, it's good. Okay, yeah, dive into that one too.

Speaker 5 (01:13:36):
It's it's about making movies. Every one of them is
every different episodes about making movies in some way, different
celebrity on every episode, so you never know what. It's
kind of cool. But yeah, anyway, okay, thanks for having
me on.

Speaker 2 (01:13:49):
Thanks for going to movies. Yeah, Rob x Wallace on
on Letterbox.

Speaker 1 (01:13:54):
Do you go to letterbox and you can follow him
and see all these movies that he's talking about if
you didn't get if you didn't write him down, and
then you can always do that on my letterbox also
and find your letterboxed is spelled funny.

Speaker 2 (01:14:08):
It's it's there's no E boxed.

Speaker 1 (01:14:11):
They leave out the E at the end, but you'll
figure it out, all right, Rob, Until next time, thanks
for calling the.

Speaker 5 (01:14:18):
Show all right, thanks later.

Speaker 1 (01:14:22):
Okay, that was Rob Wallace sometimes known as Rob x
Wallace online Letterboxed, and he likes going to movies even
more than I did. So I hope you've got something
out of that and maybe learned about a movie that
you're missed like I did. And I hope you enjoyed it.
And don't forget my letterbox to count just Joe Escalante.

(01:14:42):
You'll find it at letterboxed dot com or get the app.
And I now leave you with just the taste of
the greatest song ever written.