December 28, 2025 • 34 mins
Joe Escalante's weekly plunge into the business end of showbiz. This week: Joe bids adieu to Brigette Bardot, who passed away at 91 today.
Joe saw three movies over the holidays... and none of them were the SpongeBob Movie... He saw Anaconda and was thrilled by the performances from Jack Black and Paul Rudd. Also, Marty Supreme was a great film... even if you don't like movies about ping-pong hustlers in New York!!! Jow was blown away by the performance of Kevin O'Leary... That's right, Shark Tank Kevin O'Leary.
Joe saw the Brazilian political thriller The Secret Agent. He saw it so that we don't have to...
In celebs behaving badly... Tyler Perry got hit again with a sexual harassment accusation. We'll keep following that story as it develops.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:03):
And now it's time for Joe Escalante Live from Hollywood.
If by Hollywood you mean Burbie across the Street promo
Meaners and it's at that serves beer.
Speaker 2 (00:27):
Hey, good evening. We are having a podcast edition of
this program because we are preempted by probably the evil
Matt money Smith and his Charger talk and things like that.
Am I right, Sam?
Speaker 3 (00:41):
No, no, evil Matt money Smith is not involved in this.
He was working yesterday. This is just normal NFL stuff.
Speaker 2 (00:48):
Okay, Yeah, that's true. He got day off today.
Speaker 3 (00:50):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (00:52):
Did they win yesterday?
Speaker 3 (00:53):
No?
Speaker 4 (00:54):
No, no, that was a very very bad performance by
the Chargers yesterday. They took It was disappointing, but they're
already in the playoffs, so they really didn't have anything
to lose they except for home field advantage.
Speaker 2 (01:07):
Oh yeah, yeah, okay, so it's going to be a
relaxed podcast show then, yeah, okay. Bridgie Bardow died, so
I'm like getting the I'm getting a little bit of
dirt about her right now, God rest her soul.
Speaker 4 (01:26):
Yeah, classic actress, I remember. Yeah, I think one of
my father's favorite people. It was very much. I thought
she was one of the most attractive people.
Speaker 3 (01:35):
On the planet.
Speaker 2 (01:41):
Well, yeah, let's let's go over it.
Speaker 1 (01:45):
Uh.
Speaker 2 (01:46):
Bridgard Parto was in a first big movie was and
God Created Woman. If you're the kind of people who
wants to see movies right when people die and you
have a film festival nineteen fifty six, God Created Woman,
La Parisienne nineteen fifty seven, Love Is My Profession nineteen
(02:10):
fifty eight, Contempt nineteen sixty three, Viva Maria sixty five,
and The Edifying and Joyous Story of Carlneau in seventy three.
I didn't see any of these movies.
Speaker 4 (02:23):
Did you, No, not one, but I remember my dad's
talking about how beautiful she was.
Speaker 2 (02:28):
Well, yeah, she was always thought of as just you know,
a ten basically, and she lived looks like here she was, Josh,
she was ninety nine or one hundred, depending on what
her birthday was. So that's pretty cool. She lived long
(02:48):
enough to see everything, including, according to her, a Muslim
invasion of her home country of France. Do you know
about that.
Speaker 3 (02:56):
Yeah, she definitely took some far right later on in life.
Speaker 2 (03:02):
Yeah, and then in France, you know, they come down
on you pretty hard for that. So she was convicted
multiple times of inciting racial hatred, stemming mainly from open
letters and statements that she published in the nineteen nineties
through the twenty tens. She repeatedly targeted Muslims in France,
(03:23):
describing Islam as invasive and incompatible with French culture. She
complained about halal slaughter practices, framing them not just as
animal welfare issues, where she probably had legitimate standing, but
as evidence of what she called the Islamization of France.
(03:46):
In open letters and interviews, she referred to Muslim immigration
as a threat to French identity and civilization.
Speaker 3 (03:53):
All she used the hellal meat.
Speaker 2 (03:56):
No, we know why, Sam, we don't have to dance
around it. She used language French courts found to be
collectively stigmatizing, portraying Muslims as a monolithic group undermining France.
So she was fined a bunch of times. And then
(04:20):
she's just basically saying that France is being destroyed by
muslim into immigration. And she supported the right wing figure
Marine La Penn And she never ever recanted these statements,
and she argued, she's just you know, free speech. It's
(04:41):
the kind of thing that happened to Morrissey. So according
if things go missus Morrissey talking things to go the
way they are going presently with immigration trends, you know,
France won't look like French France anymore, Germany won't look
like Germany, Italy won't look like Italy, Britain won't look
like Britain. And for that he was virtually canceled for
(05:04):
a brief period of time. Just people were horrified by
those statements, you know, and those are like things you're
not supposed to mention. So you know, if you're in
a position like Bridget Bardeaux, you can mention them all
you want because you're ninety years old or whatever. When
she started talking like this, and she's like looking around,
(05:26):
going this is not good for French culture. And how
long have the French been protective of their culture.
Speaker 3 (05:32):
They have been. They have been snobbishly protective.
Speaker 2 (05:36):
Of their culture, right right. They're always saying everybody's French
is not good enough. They protect the French language every year,
they like, you know, come up with things that that
you should not be put into the French vernacular. And
then so to me, it's not It's probably what most
French were thinking when they saw the waves of Muslim integration.
(06:00):
They're just like, well, wh whoa, whoa, this is not French.
People are not assimilating. I don't like it. So that's
their position from a lot of people, And what do
you do about it? The only people like Bridge Bardot
can actually voice it, and Morrisey got slammed for voicing it.
(06:22):
So I guess it's it's either not true that they
are not that it is not invasive and it is
not changing the culture and it is not a threat
to French society, or it is true but you can't
say it. It's one of the two. Okay, all right,
(06:47):
let's go to the book. Movies the box office. We
got all kinds of things happen in the movies. This
I heard.
Speaker 4 (06:52):
This was a great weekend, like this holiday weekend was
a great weekend for the for the theater industry.
Speaker 3 (06:57):
A lot of people went to the movies.
Speaker 2 (07:00):
I went on Christmas Eve, I went on Christmas Day,
and I went, well, not Christmas Eve, I went on
Christmas Day, I went the day after Christmas, and then
I went the day after that.
Speaker 3 (07:11):
You watched the SpongeBob movie three times, didn't you?
Speaker 2 (07:14):
And I'm going tonight four.
Speaker 3 (07:16):
Times for the SpongeBob movie.
Speaker 2 (07:17):
Yes. When I sign out, I'm going, well, you did.
You did encourage me to see the SpongeBob movie, but
I didn't, And I'll tell you why, because some other,
some other entrance into the field came about. And what
we got here we got Christmas Day. Let me just
(07:42):
go with the box office first number one, Avatar, Fire
and Ash, number two, z Utopia three, Marty Supreme, a
ping pong movie shot in a bar in Bangkok. Number four,
su Or Housemaid, number five, Anaconda six, David the Animated
(08:07):
Bible Story, number seven, SpongeBob, number eight, Songs Sung Blue
about the Neil Diamond Tribute Act, and number nine We
Could for Good. Number ten, five Nights at Freddy's.
Speaker 3 (08:26):
Yeah, so.
Speaker 2 (08:30):
Let's start with you. Did you see any uh?
Speaker 4 (08:32):
No, I stayed in for the holidays because I had
to work quite a bit during the holidays.
Speaker 2 (08:37):
Okay, yeah, sometimes, and we could do that in the
radio business.
Speaker 1 (08:42):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (08:42):
They used to have me substitute over at KFI during
the holidays. Didn't phone didn't ring this time?
Speaker 4 (08:48):
Yeah, I definitely was there. I was there in the
early morning. I believe it was a best of good
for you.
Speaker 3 (08:58):
Yeah, I didn't know they had best.
Speaker 2 (09:01):
All right, well, all right, let's start with the box
office number. I didn't see Avatar because I just couldn't
bring myself to do it.
Speaker 3 (09:11):
Yeah, I'm avoiding that one. I really I do not.
Speaker 2 (09:16):
My wife said she wanted to see it. So I
actually bought tickets for Christmas. I bought tickets like so,
and then she started like backing off of it like
she was. She she was talking a big game, like
I want to see Avatar three, Like okay, all right,
then let's do that on Christmas Day. Merry Christmas to you.
And then she started started, uh, I just backpedaling, I think,
(09:41):
cause what you call it? Yeah, And so I changed
those tickets and that cinema is pretty easy. You just
get a refund and then you buy No One on
the app. And I changed it to two tickets for
Ana Conda five. Nice Ana Conda.
Speaker 4 (10:00):
I know it's like, I don't want to call it
a sequel, but it's like, I guess a reboot.
Speaker 2 (10:06):
Well there's been there's been like six of them. I
think this is maybe the sixth one. Yeah. First of all,
it got a I think Avatar got like a seven
point three or something pretty high on the IMDb that's
what I usually look at one to ten. It's got
to be over seven, right, I'm really not going to go.
(10:29):
So Avatar was just seven point three or something like that.
Speaker 3 (10:32):
Okay, and this is what Jack Black and Paul Rudd.
Speaker 2 (10:36):
I'm talking about Avatar. First, Oh yeah, that's seven point three.
But I look at Jack Black and Paul Rudd's Anaconda
four point nine. So normally I would say, I'm not
falling for this. But then I'm thinking to myself, Wait,
Jack Black and Paul Rudd, they can do no wrong
even separately, but together, Oh my god, dynamite. So I
(10:58):
went and I thought, my uh, expectations be very low
because of the four point nine rating on IMDb, the
Internet and Movie database. And I went, and I tell you,
I laughed the whole time. I loved it. It's had
a great time. You know, you don't take it seriously.
Watch it. You're gonna have fun. So I can highly
(11:19):
recommend Ana Contact. Okay, yeah, super fun. They're gonna read
they they want to. It's just kind of guys who
used to make films in high school and wedding videos
and stuff, and they decide they're gonna fulfill their lifelong
dreams of making a real movie. So they decide they're
gonna make Anaconda reboot and they go into the Amazon
(11:42):
to do it, and things go way side ways.
Speaker 4 (11:49):
Like how how comedically far sideways?
Speaker 2 (11:54):
Good enough, it's really funny. It came from Sony Pictures,
and I wonder, like, this is this is what Sony
made instead of the sublime movie that was floating around there? Okay,
directed by a guy named Tony Gormakhan. You might know
him from a similar movie, The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent.
Speaker 3 (12:13):
Yes, great movie.
Speaker 2 (12:15):
Hey, yeah, so that is the movie with what's.
Speaker 3 (12:19):
His name, Nicholas Cage, Nicholas Cage, Yeah, and the guy
who's in everything right now.
Speaker 2 (12:26):
The Latin Pedro Pasco. Yeah. So he did a good
job at that movie. And this is kind of a
meta movie too, like they're making a movie. It's a
movie about making a movie that was a movie about
a movie star. It was the real movie star. And
rather than make a straight, you know, thriller remake of
(12:47):
nineteen ninety Seven's and a Conda, this one decided to
just pit these two lifelong friends against the horribly impossible
task of making a You'll and a Conda reboot with
forty thousand dollars or eight thousand dollars or whatever they
(13:07):
had to spend Steve's.
Speaker 3 (13:10):
On and then he was good about making a movie.
Speaker 2 (13:14):
Yes, okay, so they want to the one guy makes
a budget because it's gonna cost about three point five million. Yeah,
I think Jack Black says that, and then he says, no,
you got to trim it down. And then they get
their approved for a loan at the bank of like
eight thousand dollars.
Speaker 3 (13:31):
That's not enough for anything.
Speaker 2 (13:34):
So guess what, man, it's like a forty five million
dollar budget. They scored forty million plus on the on
the the opening weekend.
Speaker 1 (13:43):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (13:44):
Not bad. Yeah, so that's gonna make money. Good for them.
There should be more movies like that. Take some chances, Hollywood,
did you see You can only take chances if you
have Jack Black and Paul Rtt. Otherwise you can't take chances.
Speaker 3 (13:56):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (13:57):
Star power definitely carries it for you a few You
can have a very a movie with a budget that's
very low, but if you've got star power, you'll make money.
Speaker 2 (14:07):
So my message to people listening to this is, go
see Anaconda. Don't be afraid that someone told you, Oh,
it's stupid or it's probably stupid. Go see it. It's great,
and what do you want?
Speaker 3 (14:21):
Yeah?
Speaker 2 (14:22):
Okay, Now here's the next movie I saw day after Christmas,
Marty Supreme. It's a number two movie or number three
movie in America.
Speaker 3 (14:34):
Right now, Marty Supreme.
Speaker 2 (14:36):
Yeah, I would say best film I've seen all year. Really,
so yeah, I would say I gave it a four
point five stars. I only didn't give it a five
stars because it's not like it moved me. Like, if
you have a movie, it has to be great. Run
a five star for men on letterboxed. Not only does
it have to be great, great photograph, great story, and
(14:56):
great acting, great directing, great everything. It has to move me. Okay,
Marty Supreme. Fantastic film, Like you could if you were
tired and hadn't slept for three days and you saw
this at at eleven thirty pm, showing you would not
fall asleep. Really, there's no way you would fall asleep
in this movie. You're just like, what the hell is
gonna happen? Now? He's It's a nineteen fifties director by
(15:21):
a guy named Josh Saftie. He's known only for Uncut
Gems really, and think about how long ago that was
Uncut Gems with Adam Sandler.
Speaker 4 (15:30):
Yeah, that was a good eight nine, eight years ago
or so.
Speaker 2 (15:34):
So what has this guy been doing since then?
Speaker 3 (15:36):
Plotting the world takeover?
Speaker 2 (15:38):
Yeah? Unemployed? You're right. So that's what I'm telling you
about people who want to be film directors. This is
what your life is like uncut Jyms. Wow, what a
fantastic movie. People love it, and he doesn't get a
good another movie until you know, eight years later or whatever.
Speaker 3 (15:57):
Wow.
Speaker 2 (15:58):
Yeah, I mean the whole time, like, you know, what
are you doing? What are you telling your girlfriend? What
are you telling your mom that you live with? It's rough.
It's a rough life. So people that do it and
reach the top, wow, hats off to them. There's only
you know, there can only be one Quentin Tarantino that
just plots it so perfectly. Yeah, writes his own ticket.
Speaker 4 (16:20):
But I mean it's good that he's got another at
least movie out now that's performing well and doing well,
because then people won't think it's just a one hit
wonders Am.
Speaker 2 (16:31):
Now, this could accelerate. You could have lots of offers
and be working every year for the next ten years.
I don't know.
Speaker 4 (16:35):
I mean, well, would you rather have that or be
like m Night Shyamalan where you have one really good
movie out of the gate, and then everything else is
a very quick collapse into just mediocrity.
Speaker 2 (16:48):
That's a whole nother style. Like, Yeah, it's a very
unforgiving vocation. Yeah, so hats off to you that can
do it. I couldn't do it. And I have directed
a feature film, just one. No one's asking for my
next one. Okay. So that's the film stars Timothy Shallowmey,
(17:09):
who you may have heard of.
Speaker 3 (17:10):
Yeah, yeah, he's.
Speaker 2 (17:13):
He's been in other movies. Nobody could have done this
except for him. I think the movie could not have
been made without him. He carries it, you know, just
carries the whole movie. Of course. He plays a guy
named Marty Mauser, a quirky and obsessive nineteen fifties in
New York ping pong hustler, loosely inspired by a real
(17:34):
life legend named Marty Riceman.
Speaker 3 (17:36):
Okay.
Speaker 2 (17:37):
Also, we have in the cast Gwyneth Paltrow, Fran Dresher,
and this is the genius casting that they did. That's
one of those things that like just kind of like
uncut gems, Adam Sandler, genius casting, unexpected, who would do that? Perfect?
This one? The second, probably the second lead in the
(18:00):
movie is Kevin O'Leary. Now, I know that name sounds
familiar to you, but you just can't place it. Yeah, totally,
he's mister what do they call mister money bags or
mister forgot what they call him on the shark Tank? Yes,
you got it, shark tank. What did they call.
Speaker 3 (18:20):
Him a shark?
Speaker 2 (18:23):
No, mister, they call mister money or something.
Speaker 4 (18:25):
I have I know his actual name.
Speaker 3 (18:28):
I don't know the nickname though.
Speaker 2 (18:29):
Yeah, Kevin, Kevin O'Leary. Yeah, and he's in the movie,
and you go, oh, that's cute. They put Kevin O'Leary,
got a little cameo in this movie, and then like
they realize that's a major player in the movie. Kevin
O'Leary so good. At no time does he not look
like a professional actor, So good doing what he was
born to do. So uh, maybe he'll get a supporting
(18:51):
actornaud from the Academy. Who knows.
Speaker 3 (18:54):
Really, it's like his performance was that like solid.
Speaker 2 (18:59):
Well, it's this good, It's not shockingly like, oh my gosh,
this guy's coming out of nowhere and like shallow May style.
But you could say he was playing himself, but he
did it so convincingly you would think he's an actor.
Speaker 3 (19:12):
He played so he was acting as himself.
Speaker 2 (19:15):
Kind of kind of a similar personality.
Speaker 4 (19:17):
He was a businessman, Okay, But it wasn't like I
am Kevin O'Leary playing Kevin O'Leary. No, not like Okay, yeah,
it's like he's just playing himself. It's like, does Nicholas
Cage get an Oscar for playing Nicholas Cage?
Speaker 2 (19:32):
Should but he's not. It's not like that. He's playing
a businessman, okay, in the nineteen forties, Okay, Okay, so
that's not you know, it's not himself. He's a businessman
in the twenty twenties.
Speaker 3 (19:45):
Okay.
Speaker 2 (19:46):
So pretty strong holiday performance. Twenty seven million domestically, I'll
take it, and sixty to seventy million budget, but it's
gonna have leg. This is the kind of movie where
the word of mouth like, right now, I'm telling you,
this is the next movie you must see. This is
(20:08):
definitely one of the top Oscar contenders. Shala May Best Actor,
Best Picture for this thing. Maybe Best Director Best Director
for Josh Safti really and then Kevin O'Leary. I'd love
to see him get nominated. Fascinating just for fun. Yeah, Now,
(20:30):
it's loosely based on some guy named Martyrisman who had
a book called The Money Player. Okay, and I asked
Chap GBT to come up with the summary of Marty Reisman.
Had this movie never been made, what whatd it look like? Here?
It is? Marty Reisman is a legendary American table tennis
(20:52):
hustler and champion from New York's Lower East Side.
Speaker 3 (20:56):
A pong hustler.
Speaker 2 (20:58):
Yes, legendary American ping pong hustler, known as the Needle.
He won dozens of national titles from the nineteen forties
through the nineteen seventies and made a living betting, barnstorming,
and out playing challengers half his age. He later chronicled
his life in the memoir The Money Player. How do
(21:19):
you like that? That's what he would have been. But
then this guy who came up with the script for
this movie, the Marti Supreme, made up a whole bunch
of other stuff made it even more fascinating.
Speaker 4 (21:33):
Well, and that's why it's based on their lives. It's
not just a documentary about their lives.
Speaker 2 (21:39):
Right, And do they need the life story rights? We
will ask from a legal perspective, because that's what the
show is all about. They, according to everything I read,
they did not license any life story rights for this.
They read the book The Money Player, They made up
a bunch of stuff, made a character, and they called
(22:01):
him Marty Mauer your mah okay, And so it's not him,
it's another guy named Marty something else. They could say
if sued, Hey, you stole the life story. But you
can do I've talked about this in the show a lot.
You can do a life story on anybody you want.
You can make a movie about you know, President Bush,
(22:23):
and as long as you're using things that are in
the public record, so you just make it. Because he's
a person, he's a public figure, make a movie about him,
and you don't need his permission. However, if there is
a book already about him, and that book like told
the story in a peculiar way, like started at the
(22:45):
end and then went or had a story device like
a gum shoe reporter or detective trailing the person. In
his notes are the story device and that could be
protected and you can't copy that. But you can tell
the story about this guy all you want. But if
you're going to make up stuff and make him seem
(23:05):
like a like at times a really bad guy, like
they make him look like you could get sued for
defamation even though he's dead. You could the estate could
maybe say, hey, you're harming the estate. We're trying to
sell ping pong balls here, but it changes his name.
It's not him. But maybe you're telling people in interviews
(23:28):
that it's him now that you know, you could get
things could get sticky. But in general, if you're making
a high profile film, you don't want to you're just
gonna say, hey, it's not about that guy, it's about
a different guy.
Speaker 3 (23:41):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (23:41):
There were a lot of ping pong hustlers back in
the day, and this is an amalgam of many, so
I don't think they are even you know, even even
explore trying to get rights to that book or or
But if you got the rights to that book from
the estate and game, let's say give one hunred and
fifty thousand buck for the rights of that book, they'd
take it. Yeah, then they couldn't sue you for stealing
(24:06):
stuff out of that book or the plot devices and things.
Speaker 4 (24:11):
But then you probably wouldn't be able to take as
much creative license, would you.
Speaker 2 (24:15):
Right then they might come back and say, hey, this
guy never did that stuff. Yeah, you're harming.
Speaker 3 (24:22):
His legacy of a better movie.
Speaker 2 (24:25):
Yeah okay. So the next day, which would be yesterday,
I went back to the theater, Sam and I went.
This time, you know, I got my wrap up for
the year so far from the Belitarira cinema. Cinema gives you,
like you know, like when your Spotify gives you a
(24:46):
wrap up of the year and tells you what you've
been listening to. So the movies do this now too.
They give you a think. I've been to the Belitaire
and Huntington Beach thirty two times this year. I did
that for you, the listener. But since I've already achieved
my platinum status for next year, I didn't really need
(25:09):
to go back to the Bellataarira. I wanted to go
to a theater where they would show something that they're
not going to show in my suburban town of Huntington
Beach where the Belataria is and the cinemak, and so
I always go look at the Alamo Theater in downtown
LA because it's super cool to see movies there. They
have full menu. The waiter brings you food. What do
(25:32):
you want? You want pizza, you want spaghetti, whatever, salad,
maybe like a salad, alcohol, cocktails, boozy shakes, boozy shake.
So I look over there and they had a movie
called The Secret Agent. So I went to see this movie.
It's a Brazilian movie, winning lots of awards at con
(25:53):
like Best Actor and Best Director, and you know, I go,
I'll give this Brazilian movie a shot. And it's like
a political thriller directed by this guy you don't need
to know, named Clever Philho and the actor. The actor
is pretty interesting, Wagner Mora. He's known as the guy
(26:20):
who played Pablo Escobar in Narcos.
Speaker 3 (26:22):
Oh very nice.
Speaker 2 (26:24):
Yeah, So he was in it. He's the star. And
it takes place in nineteen seventy seven Brazil during the
military dictatorship. So he is part of the underground, trying
to hide from the government people that are against him
and the business people that are against him, because it
(26:45):
looks like during those times the business people were in
cahoots with the military government to make money, and if
there's professors that are getting patents at universities, they like
to steal him from them and just accuse him of
being communists, that kind of thing. So it's a thriller.
He's running and he's a fugitive. But I would say
(27:05):
I cannot recommend it to you because it is pointless
if you're an American and you're watching this and like
it is interesting, but to authenticate it, they put you
in this depressing nineteen seventies Latin American world. Okay, think
about the seventies in America. It was depressing, Okay, from
(27:27):
the fashions to the economy, it was a pretty depressing time.
Now people try to glamorize it now they're like seventies,
you know, parties and outfits and seventies nights at on
the cruise ship or whatever. But really, for those of
us that live through it, none of that was cool.
That's why punk rock came along and you know, smashed
(27:47):
it all and started something new. But punk rock, yeah,
just a very depressing decade. But can you imagine if
it's depressing here, how depressing was it in Brazil Latin
American countries There are already a thousand times poorer than
the United States where it was depressing, and add a
thousand times more poverty to the nineteen seventy seventies depressing aesthetic.
(28:15):
So you're stuck in this world like the movie Roma,
where everything is meticulously recreated to simulate life in the
nineteen seventies in Brazil. The only problem is that's not
worth simulating, and Americans have no connection to this. If
you watch Roma, that movie. Americans have a connection to
that because Mexico is a lot closer to America, and
(28:38):
everybody likes Mexican food, at least people aren't, you know,
craving fejuada and other Brazilian goofball black being things. They're
just not so this movie's I'm not gonna have any
kind of life here in la but very well made
film and very interesting to me. Been to Brazil many
(29:00):
times and yeah, I get it, but still no connection
to it like I did have with Roma. Roma. You're
connected to the language more because Spanish, more people here,
no Spanish, Ah, the eat Mexican food and you just like,
you know, I've got Mexican relatives in Mexico. But this one,
Whosh the secret Agent Brazilian movie. You're gonna hear about
(29:24):
it during the Oscars, like as a Best Foreign Film
nomination or something like that. But don't worry about it.
You don't have to go see it.
Speaker 3 (29:31):
Well, thank you for letting me know what it's about.
Speaker 2 (29:33):
So I don't have you really don't have to. But
if you run across it on Netflix, yeah, yeah, you
know you might for a while a lot. This is
pretty interesting, but it's it's then on top of that,
it's two and a half hours long and kind of slow.
Speaker 4 (29:48):
Well, and I appreciate you, you know, jumping on the
grenade for me.
Speaker 3 (29:51):
On a lot of these movies.
Speaker 2 (29:53):
I really did. Now as far as like other kind
of stories we usually cover on this show, I got
a kind of a sad one. Tyler Perry was hit
this week with yet another sexual assault lawsuit, this one
seeking seventy seven million dollars. The plaintiff is Mario Rodriguez,
(30:15):
an actor who appeared in Boo madea Halloween. I don't
even know how to pronounce Medea. Is that how you
pronounced it?
Speaker 3 (30:21):
I think?
Speaker 1 (30:22):
So?
Speaker 3 (30:22):
Yeah?
Speaker 2 (30:22):
My day here? Uh okay, So, Mario alleges unwanted sexual
advances and retaliation Lionsgate is named as a co defendant
for allegedly ignoring complaints. Perry's attorney denies the allegations. So
we'll follow that one. You know, so weird. I just
(30:45):
think it's weird. But I just sold a song to
a Tyler Perry film will be coming out this year.
Really yes, and uh, very happy about it. I'm not
gonna talk about it because I think no one's supposed
to know about it yet. But it was, you know,
(31:07):
they described the scene to me, and then for the
first time, I turned it down and said, you know what,
for the first time, but I just go, they're offering
a lot of money. I just I just don't see
the vandals benefiting from being portrayed that way. And then
they said no, no, no, no. But then I said,
but everyone has a price. The price is this, and
(31:29):
I named some outrageous price. Two things happened. They paid
the price, and then they but they were very serious
about convincing me that it wasn't portraying us in a
bad light. And then they sent me a copy of
the scene, which they normally don't do, according to them,
(31:51):
and I watched the scene. I go, you're right, it's
not portraying us in a bad light. So, you know,
thank you for the money. It's a little bit of
hardball there, Sam.
Speaker 3 (32:03):
Nice, congratulations.
Speaker 2 (32:07):
Okay, before we go, make sure there's nothing breaking. Oh,
there's a little bit of news in the Paramount bid
to buy Warner Brothers. As you know, Netflix is trying
to buy Warner Brothers and they're just kind of moving forward,
moving forward, and Warner Brothers, Discovery or just mainly the
(32:32):
Warner Brothers would like to be purchased by Netflix. They're
cooperating incomes Paramount run by David Ellison. He wants to
buy Paramount, so that he just bought Paramount. He bought
Paramount himself. He had a company called sky Dance. Yeah,
he and he just bought Paramount. But now he wants
(32:53):
to buy Warner Brothers and he wants to have both studios.
It's kind of silly. He doesn't need them. I guess
he's in a buying frends. You know, sometimes you just
in the mood like you want to buy stuff. You
ever get that way?
Speaker 4 (33:03):
Yeah, yeah, impulsive controlling impulses would be a good thing
during those time, you know, financially, especially the holidays.
Speaker 2 (33:12):
I just want to buy stuff. Sometimes he wants to
buy stuff. He's not only gonna buy one of Brothers.
He's gonna buy CNN's gonna buy Discovery, He's gonna buy everything.
And the other purchase from the Netflix people is more limited.
It's gonna buy the Warner Brothers movie studio in catalog.
(33:35):
So anyway, the news this week is basically kind of boring.
David Ellison's dad has personally guaranteed the forty billion dollar
portion of the bid, the takeover bid, So that's one
of the things like, well, we can't go down this
road because you might not even have this money, but
a personal guarantee from a guy who has more than
forty billion is worth something. So this is not dead yet.
(34:01):
Paramount could end up buying Warner Brothers when we all
think Netflix is going to buy Warner Brothers. Does that
make sense?
Speaker 1 (34:08):
Yeah?
Speaker 4 (34:08):
Yeah, they're trying to do their hostile takeover and they're
still in the game.
Speaker 2 (34:16):
Yes, Okay, I think that's good enough.
Speaker 1 (34:19):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (34:20):
For the podcast version of Joe Scalante Live from Hollywood,
and I now will leave you with just a taste
of the greatest song ever written
And now it's time for Joe Escalante Live from Hollywood.
If by Hollywood you mean Burbie across the Street promo
Meaners and it's at that serves beer.
Speaker 2 (00:27):
Hey, good evening. We are having a podcast edition of
this program because we are preempted by probably the evil
Matt money Smith and his Charger talk and things like that.
Am I right, Sam?
Speaker 3 (00:41):
No, no, evil Matt money Smith is not involved in this.
He was working yesterday. This is just normal NFL stuff.
Speaker 2 (00:48):
Okay, Yeah, that's true. He got day off today.
Speaker 3 (00:50):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (00:52):
Did they win yesterday?
Speaker 3 (00:53):
No?
Speaker 4 (00:54):
No, no, that was a very very bad performance by
the Chargers yesterday. They took It was disappointing, but they're
already in the playoffs, so they really didn't have anything
to lose they except for home field advantage.
Speaker 2 (01:07):
Oh yeah, yeah, okay, so it's going to be a
relaxed podcast show then, yeah, okay. Bridgie Bardow died, so
I'm like getting the I'm getting a little bit of
dirt about her right now, God rest her soul.
Speaker 4 (01:26):
Yeah, classic actress, I remember. Yeah, I think one of
my father's favorite people. It was very much. I thought
she was one of the most attractive people.
Speaker 3 (01:35):
On the planet.
Speaker 2 (01:41):
Well, yeah, let's let's go over it.
Speaker 1 (01:45):
Uh.
Speaker 2 (01:46):
Bridgard Parto was in a first big movie was and
God Created Woman. If you're the kind of people who
wants to see movies right when people die and you
have a film festival nineteen fifty six, God Created Woman,
La Parisienne nineteen fifty seven, Love Is My Profession nineteen
(02:10):
fifty eight, Contempt nineteen sixty three, Viva Maria sixty five,
and The Edifying and Joyous Story of Carlneau in seventy three.
I didn't see any of these movies.
Speaker 4 (02:23):
Did you, No, not one, but I remember my dad's
talking about how beautiful she was.
Speaker 2 (02:28):
Well, yeah, she was always thought of as just you know,
a ten basically, and she lived looks like here she was, Josh,
she was ninety nine or one hundred, depending on what
her birthday was. So that's pretty cool. She lived long
(02:48):
enough to see everything, including, according to her, a Muslim
invasion of her home country of France. Do you know
about that.
Speaker 3 (02:56):
Yeah, she definitely took some far right later on in life.
Speaker 2 (03:02):
Yeah, and then in France, you know, they come down
on you pretty hard for that. So she was convicted
multiple times of inciting racial hatred, stemming mainly from open
letters and statements that she published in the nineteen nineties
through the twenty tens. She repeatedly targeted Muslims in France,
(03:23):
describing Islam as invasive and incompatible with French culture. She
complained about halal slaughter practices, framing them not just as
animal welfare issues, where she probably had legitimate standing, but
as evidence of what she called the Islamization of France.
(03:46):
In open letters and interviews, she referred to Muslim immigration
as a threat to French identity and civilization.
Speaker 3 (03:53):
All she used the hellal meat.
Speaker 2 (03:56):
No, we know why, Sam, we don't have to dance
around it. She used language French courts found to be
collectively stigmatizing, portraying Muslims as a monolithic group undermining France.
So she was fined a bunch of times. And then
(04:20):
she's just basically saying that France is being destroyed by
muslim into immigration. And she supported the right wing figure
Marine La Penn And she never ever recanted these statements,
and she argued, she's just you know, free speech. It's
(04:41):
the kind of thing that happened to Morrissey. So according
if things go missus Morrissey talking things to go the
way they are going presently with immigration trends, you know,
France won't look like French France anymore, Germany won't look
like Germany, Italy won't look like Italy, Britain won't look
like Britain. And for that he was virtually canceled for
(05:04):
a brief period of time. Just people were horrified by
those statements, you know, and those are like things you're
not supposed to mention. So you know, if you're in
a position like Bridget Bardeaux, you can mention them all
you want because you're ninety years old or whatever. When
she started talking like this, and she's like looking around,
(05:26):
going this is not good for French culture. And how
long have the French been protective of their culture.
Speaker 3 (05:32):
They have been. They have been snobbishly protective.
Speaker 2 (05:36):
Of their culture, right right. They're always saying everybody's French
is not good enough. They protect the French language every year,
they like, you know, come up with things that that
you should not be put into the French vernacular. And
then so to me, it's not It's probably what most
French were thinking when they saw the waves of Muslim integration.
(06:00):
They're just like, well, wh whoa, whoa, this is not French.
People are not assimilating. I don't like it. So that's
their position from a lot of people, And what do
you do about it? The only people like Bridge Bardot
can actually voice it, and Morrisey got slammed for voicing it.
(06:22):
So I guess it's it's either not true that they
are not that it is not invasive and it is
not changing the culture and it is not a threat
to French society, or it is true but you can't
say it. It's one of the two. Okay, all right,
(06:47):
let's go to the book. Movies the box office. We
got all kinds of things happen in the movies. This
I heard.
Speaker 4 (06:52):
This was a great weekend, like this holiday weekend was
a great weekend for the for the theater industry.
Speaker 3 (06:57):
A lot of people went to the movies.
Speaker 2 (07:00):
I went on Christmas Eve, I went on Christmas Day,
and I went, well, not Christmas Eve, I went on
Christmas Day, I went the day after Christmas, and then
I went the day after that.
Speaker 3 (07:11):
You watched the SpongeBob movie three times, didn't you?
Speaker 2 (07:14):
And I'm going tonight four.
Speaker 3 (07:16):
Times for the SpongeBob movie.
Speaker 2 (07:17):
Yes. When I sign out, I'm going, well, you did.
You did encourage me to see the SpongeBob movie, but
I didn't, And I'll tell you why, because some other,
some other entrance into the field came about. And what
we got here we got Christmas Day. Let me just
(07:42):
go with the box office first number one, Avatar, Fire
and Ash, number two, z Utopia three, Marty Supreme, a
ping pong movie shot in a bar in Bangkok. Number four,
su Or Housemaid, number five, Anaconda six, David the Animated
(08:07):
Bible Story, number seven, SpongeBob, number eight, Songs Sung Blue
about the Neil Diamond Tribute Act, and number nine We
Could for Good. Number ten, five Nights at Freddy's.
Speaker 3 (08:26):
Yeah, so.
Speaker 2 (08:30):
Let's start with you. Did you see any uh?
Speaker 4 (08:32):
No, I stayed in for the holidays because I had
to work quite a bit during the holidays.
Speaker 2 (08:37):
Okay, yeah, sometimes, and we could do that in the
radio business.
Speaker 1 (08:42):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (08:42):
They used to have me substitute over at KFI during
the holidays. Didn't phone didn't ring this time?
Speaker 4 (08:48):
Yeah, I definitely was there. I was there in the
early morning. I believe it was a best of good
for you.
Speaker 3 (08:58):
Yeah, I didn't know they had best.
Speaker 2 (09:01):
All right, well, all right, let's start with the box
office number. I didn't see Avatar because I just couldn't
bring myself to do it.
Speaker 3 (09:11):
Yeah, I'm avoiding that one. I really I do not.
Speaker 2 (09:16):
My wife said she wanted to see it. So I
actually bought tickets for Christmas. I bought tickets like so,
and then she started like backing off of it like
she was. She she was talking a big game, like
I want to see Avatar three, Like okay, all right,
then let's do that on Christmas Day. Merry Christmas to you.
And then she started started, uh, I just backpedaling, I think,
(09:41):
cause what you call it? Yeah, And so I changed
those tickets and that cinema is pretty easy. You just
get a refund and then you buy No One on
the app. And I changed it to two tickets for
Ana Conda five. Nice Ana Conda.
Speaker 4 (10:00):
I know it's like, I don't want to call it
a sequel, but it's like, I guess a reboot.
Speaker 2 (10:06):
Well there's been there's been like six of them. I
think this is maybe the sixth one. Yeah. First of all,
it got a I think Avatar got like a seven
point three or something pretty high on the IMDb that's
what I usually look at one to ten. It's got
to be over seven, right, I'm really not going to go.
(10:29):
So Avatar was just seven point three or something like that.
Speaker 3 (10:32):
Okay, and this is what Jack Black and Paul Rudd.
Speaker 2 (10:36):
I'm talking about Avatar. First, Oh yeah, that's seven point three.
But I look at Jack Black and Paul Rudd's Anaconda
four point nine. So normally I would say, I'm not
falling for this. But then I'm thinking to myself, Wait,
Jack Black and Paul Rudd, they can do no wrong
even separately, but together, Oh my god, dynamite. So I
(10:58):
went and I thought, my uh, expectations be very low
because of the four point nine rating on IMDb, the
Internet and Movie database. And I went, and I tell you,
I laughed the whole time. I loved it. It's had
a great time. You know, you don't take it seriously.
Watch it. You're gonna have fun. So I can highly
(11:19):
recommend Ana Contact. Okay, yeah, super fun. They're gonna read
they they want to. It's just kind of guys who
used to make films in high school and wedding videos
and stuff, and they decide they're gonna fulfill their lifelong
dreams of making a real movie. So they decide they're
gonna make Anaconda reboot and they go into the Amazon
(11:42):
to do it, and things go way side ways.
Speaker 4 (11:49):
Like how how comedically far sideways?
Speaker 2 (11:54):
Good enough, it's really funny. It came from Sony Pictures,
and I wonder, like, this is this is what Sony
made instead of the sublime movie that was floating around there? Okay,
directed by a guy named Tony Gormakhan. You might know
him from a similar movie, The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent.
Speaker 3 (12:13):
Yes, great movie.
Speaker 2 (12:15):
Hey, yeah, so that is the movie with what's.
Speaker 3 (12:19):
His name, Nicholas Cage, Nicholas Cage, Yeah, and the guy
who's in everything right now.
Speaker 2 (12:26):
The Latin Pedro Pasco. Yeah. So he did a good
job at that movie. And this is kind of a
meta movie too, like they're making a movie. It's a
movie about making a movie that was a movie about
a movie star. It was the real movie star. And
rather than make a straight, you know, thriller remake of
(12:47):
nineteen ninety Seven's and a Conda, this one decided to
just pit these two lifelong friends against the horribly impossible
task of making a You'll and a Conda reboot with
forty thousand dollars or eight thousand dollars or whatever they
(13:07):
had to spend Steve's.
Speaker 3 (13:10):
On and then he was good about making a movie.
Speaker 2 (13:14):
Yes, okay, so they want to the one guy makes
a budget because it's gonna cost about three point five million. Yeah,
I think Jack Black says that, and then he says, no,
you got to trim it down. And then they get
their approved for a loan at the bank of like
eight thousand dollars.
Speaker 3 (13:31):
That's not enough for anything.
Speaker 2 (13:34):
So guess what, man, it's like a forty five million
dollar budget. They scored forty million plus on the on
the the opening weekend.
Speaker 1 (13:43):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (13:44):
Not bad. Yeah, so that's gonna make money. Good for them.
There should be more movies like that. Take some chances, Hollywood,
did you see You can only take chances if you
have Jack Black and Paul Rtt. Otherwise you can't take chances.
Speaker 3 (13:56):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (13:57):
Star power definitely carries it for you a few You
can have a very a movie with a budget that's
very low, but if you've got star power, you'll make money.
Speaker 2 (14:07):
So my message to people listening to this is, go
see Anaconda. Don't be afraid that someone told you, Oh,
it's stupid or it's probably stupid. Go see it. It's great,
and what do you want?
Speaker 3 (14:21):
Yeah?
Speaker 2 (14:22):
Okay, Now here's the next movie I saw day after Christmas,
Marty Supreme. It's a number two movie or number three
movie in America.
Speaker 3 (14:34):
Right now, Marty Supreme.
Speaker 2 (14:36):
Yeah, I would say best film I've seen all year. Really,
so yeah, I would say I gave it a four
point five stars. I only didn't give it a five
stars because it's not like it moved me. Like, if
you have a movie, it has to be great. Run
a five star for men on letterboxed. Not only does
it have to be great, great photograph, great story, and
(14:56):
great acting, great directing, great everything. It has to move me. Okay,
Marty Supreme. Fantastic film, Like you could if you were
tired and hadn't slept for three days and you saw
this at at eleven thirty pm, showing you would not
fall asleep. Really, there's no way you would fall asleep
in this movie. You're just like, what the hell is
gonna happen? Now? He's It's a nineteen fifties director by
(15:21):
a guy named Josh Saftie. He's known only for Uncut
Gems really, and think about how long ago that was
Uncut Gems with Adam Sandler.
Speaker 4 (15:30):
Yeah, that was a good eight nine, eight years ago
or so.
Speaker 2 (15:34):
So what has this guy been doing since then?
Speaker 3 (15:36):
Plotting the world takeover?
Speaker 2 (15:38):
Yeah? Unemployed? You're right. So that's what I'm telling you
about people who want to be film directors. This is
what your life is like uncut Jyms. Wow, what a
fantastic movie. People love it, and he doesn't get a
good another movie until you know, eight years later or whatever.
Speaker 3 (15:57):
Wow.
Speaker 2 (15:58):
Yeah, I mean the whole time, like, you know, what
are you doing? What are you telling your girlfriend? What
are you telling your mom that you live with? It's rough.
It's a rough life. So people that do it and
reach the top, wow, hats off to them. There's only
you know, there can only be one Quentin Tarantino that
just plots it so perfectly. Yeah, writes his own ticket.
Speaker 4 (16:20):
But I mean it's good that he's got another at
least movie out now that's performing well and doing well,
because then people won't think it's just a one hit
wonders Am.
Speaker 2 (16:31):
Now, this could accelerate. You could have lots of offers
and be working every year for the next ten years.
I don't know.
Speaker 4 (16:35):
I mean, well, would you rather have that or be
like m Night Shyamalan where you have one really good
movie out of the gate, and then everything else is
a very quick collapse into just mediocrity.
Speaker 2 (16:48):
That's a whole nother style. Like, Yeah, it's a very
unforgiving vocation. Yeah, so hats off to you that can
do it. I couldn't do it. And I have directed
a feature film, just one. No one's asking for my
next one. Okay. So that's the film stars Timothy Shallowmey,
(17:09):
who you may have heard of.
Speaker 3 (17:10):
Yeah, yeah, he's.
Speaker 2 (17:13):
He's been in other movies. Nobody could have done this
except for him. I think the movie could not have
been made without him. He carries it, you know, just
carries the whole movie. Of course. He plays a guy
named Marty Mauser, a quirky and obsessive nineteen fifties in
New York ping pong hustler, loosely inspired by a real
(17:34):
life legend named Marty Riceman.
Speaker 3 (17:36):
Okay.
Speaker 2 (17:37):
Also, we have in the cast Gwyneth Paltrow, Fran Dresher,
and this is the genius casting that they did. That's
one of those things that like just kind of like
uncut gems, Adam Sandler, genius casting, unexpected, who would do that? Perfect?
This one? The second, probably the second lead in the
(18:00):
movie is Kevin O'Leary. Now, I know that name sounds
familiar to you, but you just can't place it. Yeah, totally,
he's mister what do they call mister money bags or
mister forgot what they call him on the shark Tank? Yes,
you got it, shark tank. What did they call.
Speaker 3 (18:20):
Him a shark?
Speaker 2 (18:23):
No, mister, they call mister money or something.
Speaker 4 (18:25):
I have I know his actual name.
Speaker 3 (18:28):
I don't know the nickname though.
Speaker 2 (18:29):
Yeah, Kevin, Kevin O'Leary. Yeah, and he's in the movie,
and you go, oh, that's cute. They put Kevin O'Leary,
got a little cameo in this movie, and then like
they realize that's a major player in the movie. Kevin
O'Leary so good. At no time does he not look
like a professional actor, So good doing what he was
born to do. So uh, maybe he'll get a supporting
(18:51):
actornaud from the Academy. Who knows.
Speaker 3 (18:54):
Really, it's like his performance was that like solid.
Speaker 2 (18:59):
Well, it's this good, It's not shockingly like, oh my gosh,
this guy's coming out of nowhere and like shallow May style.
But you could say he was playing himself, but he
did it so convincingly you would think he's an actor.
Speaker 3 (19:12):
He played so he was acting as himself.
Speaker 2 (19:15):
Kind of kind of a similar personality.
Speaker 4 (19:17):
He was a businessman, Okay, But it wasn't like I
am Kevin O'Leary playing Kevin O'Leary. No, not like Okay, yeah,
it's like he's just playing himself. It's like, does Nicholas
Cage get an Oscar for playing Nicholas Cage?
Speaker 2 (19:32):
Should but he's not. It's not like that. He's playing
a businessman, okay, in the nineteen forties, Okay, Okay, so
that's not you know, it's not himself. He's a businessman
in the twenty twenties.
Speaker 3 (19:45):
Okay.
Speaker 2 (19:46):
So pretty strong holiday performance. Twenty seven million domestically, I'll
take it, and sixty to seventy million budget, but it's
gonna have leg. This is the kind of movie where
the word of mouth like, right now, I'm telling you,
this is the next movie you must see. This is
(20:08):
definitely one of the top Oscar contenders. Shala May Best Actor,
Best Picture for this thing. Maybe Best Director Best Director
for Josh Safti really and then Kevin O'Leary. I'd love
to see him get nominated. Fascinating just for fun. Yeah, Now,
(20:30):
it's loosely based on some guy named Martyrisman who had
a book called The Money Player. Okay, and I asked
Chap GBT to come up with the summary of Marty Reisman.
Had this movie never been made, what whatd it look like? Here?
It is? Marty Reisman is a legendary American table tennis
(20:52):
hustler and champion from New York's Lower East Side.
Speaker 3 (20:56):
A pong hustler.
Speaker 2 (20:58):
Yes, legendary American ping pong hustler, known as the Needle.
He won dozens of national titles from the nineteen forties
through the nineteen seventies and made a living betting, barnstorming,
and out playing challengers half his age. He later chronicled
his life in the memoir The Money Player. How do
(21:19):
you like that? That's what he would have been. But
then this guy who came up with the script for
this movie, the Marti Supreme, made up a whole bunch
of other stuff made it even more fascinating.
Speaker 4 (21:33):
Well, and that's why it's based on their lives. It's
not just a documentary about their lives.
Speaker 2 (21:39):
Right, And do they need the life story rights? We
will ask from a legal perspective, because that's what the
show is all about. They, according to everything I read,
they did not license any life story rights for this.
They read the book The Money Player, They made up
a bunch of stuff, made a character, and they called
(22:01):
him Marty Mauer your mah okay, And so it's not him,
it's another guy named Marty something else. They could say
if sued, Hey, you stole the life story. But you
can do I've talked about this in the show a lot.
You can do a life story on anybody you want.
You can make a movie about you know, President Bush,
(22:23):
and as long as you're using things that are in
the public record, so you just make it. Because he's
a person, he's a public figure, make a movie about him,
and you don't need his permission. However, if there is
a book already about him, and that book like told
the story in a peculiar way, like started at the
(22:45):
end and then went or had a story device like
a gum shoe reporter or detective trailing the person. In
his notes are the story device and that could be
protected and you can't copy that. But you can tell
the story about this guy all you want. But if
you're going to make up stuff and make him seem
(23:05):
like a like at times a really bad guy, like
they make him look like you could get sued for
defamation even though he's dead. You could the estate could
maybe say, hey, you're harming the estate. We're trying to
sell ping pong balls here, but it changes his name.
It's not him. But maybe you're telling people in interviews
(23:28):
that it's him now that you know, you could get
things could get sticky. But in general, if you're making
a high profile film, you don't want to you're just
gonna say, hey, it's not about that guy, it's about
a different guy.
Speaker 3 (23:41):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (23:41):
There were a lot of ping pong hustlers back in
the day, and this is an amalgam of many, so
I don't think they are even you know, even even
explore trying to get rights to that book or or
But if you got the rights to that book from
the estate and game, let's say give one hunred and
fifty thousand buck for the rights of that book, they'd
take it. Yeah, then they couldn't sue you for stealing
(24:06):
stuff out of that book or the plot devices and things.
Speaker 4 (24:11):
But then you probably wouldn't be able to take as
much creative license, would you.
Speaker 2 (24:15):
Right then they might come back and say, hey, this
guy never did that stuff. Yeah, you're harming.
Speaker 3 (24:22):
His legacy of a better movie.
Speaker 2 (24:25):
Yeah okay. So the next day, which would be yesterday,
I went back to the theater, Sam and I went.
This time, you know, I got my wrap up for
the year so far from the Belitarira cinema. Cinema gives you,
like you know, like when your Spotify gives you a
(24:46):
wrap up of the year and tells you what you've
been listening to. So the movies do this now too.
They give you a think. I've been to the Belitaire
and Huntington Beach thirty two times this year. I did
that for you, the listener. But since I've already achieved
my platinum status for next year, I didn't really need
(25:09):
to go back to the Bellataarira. I wanted to go
to a theater where they would show something that they're
not going to show in my suburban town of Huntington
Beach where the Belataria is and the cinemak, and so
I always go look at the Alamo Theater in downtown
LA because it's super cool to see movies there. They
have full menu. The waiter brings you food. What do
(25:32):
you want? You want pizza, you want spaghetti, whatever, salad,
maybe like a salad, alcohol, cocktails, boozy shakes, boozy shake.
So I look over there and they had a movie
called The Secret Agent. So I went to see this movie.
It's a Brazilian movie, winning lots of awards at con
(25:53):
like Best Actor and Best Director, and you know, I go,
I'll give this Brazilian movie a shot. And it's like
a political thriller directed by this guy you don't need
to know, named Clever Philho and the actor. The actor
is pretty interesting, Wagner Mora. He's known as the guy
(26:20):
who played Pablo Escobar in Narcos.
Speaker 3 (26:22):
Oh very nice.
Speaker 2 (26:24):
Yeah, So he was in it. He's the star. And
it takes place in nineteen seventy seven Brazil during the
military dictatorship. So he is part of the underground, trying
to hide from the government people that are against him
and the business people that are against him, because it
(26:45):
looks like during those times the business people were in
cahoots with the military government to make money, and if
there's professors that are getting patents at universities, they like
to steal him from them and just accuse him of
being communists, that kind of thing. So it's a thriller.
He's running and he's a fugitive. But I would say
(27:05):
I cannot recommend it to you because it is pointless
if you're an American and you're watching this and like
it is interesting, but to authenticate it, they put you
in this depressing nineteen seventies Latin American world. Okay, think
about the seventies in America. It was depressing, Okay, from
(27:27):
the fashions to the economy, it was a pretty depressing time.
Now people try to glamorize it now they're like seventies,
you know, parties and outfits and seventies nights at on
the cruise ship or whatever. But really, for those of
us that live through it, none of that was cool.
That's why punk rock came along and you know, smashed
(27:47):
it all and started something new. But punk rock, yeah,
just a very depressing decade. But can you imagine if
it's depressing here, how depressing was it in Brazil Latin
American countries There are already a thousand times poorer than
the United States where it was depressing, and add a
thousand times more poverty to the nineteen seventy seventies depressing aesthetic.
(28:15):
So you're stuck in this world like the movie Roma,
where everything is meticulously recreated to simulate life in the
nineteen seventies in Brazil. The only problem is that's not
worth simulating, and Americans have no connection to this. If
you watch Roma, that movie. Americans have a connection to
that because Mexico is a lot closer to America, and
(28:38):
everybody likes Mexican food, at least people aren't, you know,
craving fejuada and other Brazilian goofball black being things. They're
just not so this movie's I'm not gonna have any
kind of life here in la but very well made
film and very interesting to me. Been to Brazil many
(29:00):
times and yeah, I get it, but still no connection
to it like I did have with Roma. Roma. You're
connected to the language more because Spanish, more people here,
no Spanish, Ah, the eat Mexican food and you just like,
you know, I've got Mexican relatives in Mexico. But this one,
Whosh the secret Agent Brazilian movie. You're gonna hear about
(29:24):
it during the Oscars, like as a Best Foreign Film
nomination or something like that. But don't worry about it.
You don't have to go see it.
Speaker 3 (29:31):
Well, thank you for letting me know what it's about.
Speaker 2 (29:33):
So I don't have you really don't have to. But
if you run across it on Netflix, yeah, yeah, you
know you might for a while a lot. This is
pretty interesting, but it's it's then on top of that,
it's two and a half hours long and kind of slow.
Speaker 4 (29:48):
Well, and I appreciate you, you know, jumping on the
grenade for me.
Speaker 3 (29:51):
On a lot of these movies.
Speaker 2 (29:53):
I really did. Now as far as like other kind
of stories we usually cover on this show, I got
a kind of a sad one. Tyler Perry was hit
this week with yet another sexual assault lawsuit, this one
seeking seventy seven million dollars. The plaintiff is Mario Rodriguez,
(30:15):
an actor who appeared in Boo madea Halloween. I don't
even know how to pronounce Medea. Is that how you
pronounced it?
Speaker 3 (30:21):
I think?
Speaker 1 (30:22):
So?
Speaker 3 (30:22):
Yeah?
Speaker 2 (30:22):
My day here? Uh okay, So, Mario alleges unwanted sexual
advances and retaliation Lionsgate is named as a co defendant
for allegedly ignoring complaints. Perry's attorney denies the allegations. So
we'll follow that one. You know, so weird. I just
(30:45):
think it's weird. But I just sold a song to
a Tyler Perry film will be coming out this year.
Really yes, and uh, very happy about it. I'm not
gonna talk about it because I think no one's supposed
to know about it yet. But it was, you know,
(31:07):
they described the scene to me, and then for the
first time, I turned it down and said, you know what,
for the first time, but I just go, they're offering
a lot of money. I just I just don't see
the vandals benefiting from being portrayed that way. And then
they said no, no, no, no. But then I said,
but everyone has a price. The price is this, and
(31:29):
I named some outrageous price. Two things happened. They paid
the price, and then they but they were very serious
about convincing me that it wasn't portraying us in a
bad light. And then they sent me a copy of
the scene, which they normally don't do, according to them,
(31:51):
and I watched the scene. I go, you're right, it's
not portraying us in a bad light. So, you know,
thank you for the money. It's a little bit of
hardball there, Sam.
Speaker 3 (32:03):
Nice, congratulations.
Speaker 2 (32:07):
Okay, before we go, make sure there's nothing breaking. Oh,
there's a little bit of news in the Paramount bid
to buy Warner Brothers. As you know, Netflix is trying
to buy Warner Brothers and they're just kind of moving forward,
moving forward, and Warner Brothers, Discovery or just mainly the
(32:32):
Warner Brothers would like to be purchased by Netflix. They're
cooperating incomes Paramount run by David Ellison. He wants to
buy Paramount, so that he just bought Paramount. He bought
Paramount himself. He had a company called sky Dance. Yeah,
he and he just bought Paramount. But now he wants
(32:53):
to buy Warner Brothers and he wants to have both studios.
It's kind of silly. He doesn't need them. I guess
he's in a buying frends. You know, sometimes you just
in the mood like you want to buy stuff. You
ever get that way?
Speaker 4 (33:03):
Yeah, yeah, impulsive controlling impulses would be a good thing
during those time, you know, financially, especially the holidays.
Speaker 2 (33:12):
I just want to buy stuff. Sometimes he wants to
buy stuff. He's not only gonna buy one of Brothers.
He's gonna buy CNN's gonna buy Discovery, He's gonna buy everything.
And the other purchase from the Netflix people is more limited.
It's gonna buy the Warner Brothers movie studio in catalog.
(33:35):
So anyway, the news this week is basically kind of boring.
David Ellison's dad has personally guaranteed the forty billion dollar
portion of the bid, the takeover bid, So that's one
of the things like, well, we can't go down this
road because you might not even have this money, but
a personal guarantee from a guy who has more than
forty billion is worth something. So this is not dead yet.
(34:01):
Paramount could end up buying Warner Brothers when we all
think Netflix is going to buy Warner Brothers. Does that
make sense?
Speaker 1 (34:08):
Yeah?
Speaker 4 (34:08):
Yeah, they're trying to do their hostile takeover and they're
still in the game.
Speaker 2 (34:16):
Yes, Okay, I think that's good enough.
Speaker 1 (34:19):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (34:20):
For the podcast version of Joe Scalante Live from Hollywood,
and I now will leave you with just a taste
of the greatest song ever written
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