Episode 12: Spies Like Us (1985)

Mike White (The Projection Booth), Mark Begley (Wake Up Heavy), and Chris Stachiw (The Kulturecast) go behind enemy lines to examine Spies Like Us (1985), a Cold War comedy directed by John Landis and starring Chevy Chase and Dan Aykroyd. The trio unpacks the film’s satirical take on espionage, its place in the Reagan-era political climate, and the chemistry between its two leads. They also dig into the film’s uneven tone, behind-the-scenes drama, and how it fits into the larger arc of Chase’s career.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:04):
Weird Way.

Speaker 2 (00:05):
Hello everyone, and welcome to the Chasing Chevy Podcast. I'm

(00:47):
one of your hosts, Christashi from the Culture Cast, and
I'm joined by my two good friends, all the way
from Norway. He's your friend and mine, Mark Begley, you
just watch your mouth, buddy, and all the way from
somewhere in Pakistan doctor Mike White, doctor doctor, doctor, doctor doctor,

(01:12):
and thus the funniest scene in the movie. On this
episode of the Chasing Chevy Podcast, we are talking about
the nineteen eighty five comedy classic If you could see
me now, I'm putting classics and air quotations. Spies like us. So.
The film is directed by John Landis. I'm not gonna
say anything else about that greenplay by dan Ackroyd, which

(01:33):
makes a lot of sense, Luel Gans and absolutely one
of my favorite named human beings in the entire planet,
Babblo Mandel. The story is by Dan Akrod and Dave Thomas,
and its stars the aforementioned dan Ackroyd and Chevy Chase,
along with Donna Dixon, Bruce Davison, Bernie Casey for Way
too Little and the film is all about Chevy Chase

(01:55):
and dan Ackroyd playing two ones in a nept moron,
the other one's dan Ad and they're sent into the
world as spies to be decoys for a real operation
that is going on that is attempting to start World
War three. Huh what that ever happened in real life? Guys?
Who knows? So, Micha, I'll kick it to you first.
What did you think of this comedy? Gem Spies Like Us?

(02:19):
A true comedic classic in the vein of Tennessee Williams.

Speaker 3 (02:24):
Yeah, Tennessee Williams known for his comedies, especially streetcar named Desire.

Speaker 2 (02:29):
That's what I've heard.

Speaker 3 (02:29):
Sure, Yes, yes, I laughed a can on a hot
tin roof like nobody's business. Yeah, so I saw this
one for the first time when I was probably in
my mid twenties. I believe I heard a lot of
people talking about how funny this movie is. There are
scenes like the aforementioned doctor scene, which I still do

(02:53):
quite a bit at work, just when you pass people
in the hallway doctor and then they say doctor back,
and it's kind of a shared little secret there. But yeah,
I don't remember enjoying it that much when I was
in my mid twenties, and I'm not a huge fan
it's okay. It's okay. It's an okay comedy. It's not
riprawing hilarious, it's not just grown worthy. It's funny that

(03:16):
they were making this in the style of the Road
To movies with Bob Hope and Bing Crosby when they
had just tried doing that with Ishtar a few years.
It's actually Ishtar comes after this, doesn't it. They So
Elaine may should have learned her lesson from this film.
That Road two movies were kind of a done deal,
and the comedy pairing of Chevy Chase and dan Ackroyd

(03:39):
it worked pretty well. I would have been very curious
to see how this would have gone had it been
dan Aykroyd and John Belushi as the original plan was.
I still feel bad for Dave Thomas, who helped write this,
and he wasn't involved at all, And eventually I think
his name still shows up as a story by credit.

Speaker 2 (03:56):
But yes, it's sure does. Yeah it does. And just
think if Paul Hogan was in this movie, it would
have been a crocodile done deal.

Speaker 3 (04:03):
But it was Wow, you stretch for that one.

Speaker 2 (04:08):
Yeah, I'm the stretch master.

Speaker 1 (04:10):
I've been told.

Speaker 3 (04:12):
How about you? Mark what's your memories of this one?
And what'd you think?

Speaker 4 (04:16):
I saw this? This is in the middle of this
trilogy of Chase movies that I saw in the theater.
So I saw European Vacation in the theater, didn't care
for it, saw this one in the theater, didn't care
for it. And the next one that we watch I
also saw in the theater. And then at that point
I was done with Jimmy Chase.

Speaker 2 (04:34):
Wow, and boy, folks, Mark Bigley's excited to talk about
the next one.

Speaker 4 (04:39):
I come back around, though, I come back around, trust me, Yeah,
I can hope. So I started to question, actually whether
I had seen this in the theater when I was
watching it the other day, because I remembered absolutely nothing
except towards the end when Vanessa Angel comes out of

(04:59):
the t like, oh I remember that.

Speaker 3 (05:02):
Yeah, of course, that's a very memorable shot. Yeah. So
they even put in the Paul McCartney video.

Speaker 4 (05:09):
Yeah, honestly, I really, other than that, remembered zero about
the film. I remember the snowy scenes, and I thought
more of it took place there. Like the whole movie.
I didn't remember anything about Morocco or wherever Morocco was
supposed to be in the film, and like that whole
doctor thing. I think I thought, I recall it. I

(05:31):
don't do it with people in my office, but I
know that scene, and I was as they were playing
it out, I was like, has this been done elsewhere?
Because I remember that gag, but I didn't remember it
being from this movie. I remembered it being from a
funnier film or something. So I don't know. Like Mike said,
it's okay, it's not horrible, it's I think I laughed

(05:53):
out loud in two or three spots, and other than that,
it's it's competent. I mean, John landis, whatever do you
think to him as a person. He's directed three of
my favorite films, and this I think after Trading Places,
we start to see kind of the slow decline from

(06:13):
him into not very sharp, not very clever direction. And
he had nothing to do with the script this time.
But I don't know, it just seemed very flat and
uninspired and nothing like American Werewole for Blues Brothers or
anything like that.

Speaker 3 (06:30):
So I think you just think two of your three favorites,
what's the third? Is it Schlock or Blues Brothers? Two
thousand if you have the Animal House. Oh okay, all.

Speaker 2 (06:41):
Right, Blues Brothers, I was waiting for one of us
to take of goddamn Blues Brother's two thousand Reference.

Speaker 4 (06:47):
And Trading Places isn't one of my favorites. But again,
as far as style and direction and humor goes, it's
much much better than this or the next one that
we're going to be watching. So I like your background, Chris.
How about you, Chris?

Speaker 2 (07:02):
This movie seemed like a good idea on paper. I
bet everybody was like Dan Ackroyd and John Belushi and
then they get Chevy Chase instead. I'm not saying instead
because I don't dislike Chevy Chase, but he is the
weaker of the two in this movie in a way
that I was thoroughly unprepared for. I want to say

(07:24):
I saw I'd seen this movie before. I remember bits
and pieces of it. I watched it. It must have
watched it at some point growing up. If not, this
is one of those movies that was on DiveX that
I saw. I you know, for the life of me,
I can't help but wonder what this would have been
like with the original cast. I don't think it would

(07:46):
have been any better. I think that the script for
this movie is directionless at best and tonally inconsistent at worst.
And I think there are moments in this movie that
seems like, oh, they just had a really funny idea,
let's put it in this movie, Like everything with Frank Oz,
let's just put it that way. Like a lot of

(08:07):
the early parts of this movie, I feel like are
such a kind of wheel spinning attempt at like physical
slapstick comedy, and it's not funny. I mean, there's parts
of this movie that are just broadly unfunny, and it's
disappointing for me because it's dan Ackroyd and Chevy Chase.
I mean, dan Ackroyd amazing, Chevy Chase amazing together should

(08:32):
have been a knockout I mean absolute, you know, knockout hit,
and then you got John Landis, I mean to both
of all's points, like John landis right now is still
John landis not you know, not now John landis where
He's got everything that's followed him since, including Blues Brothers
two thousand, the worst thing he's ever done. I'm kidding,

(08:53):
that's not the worst thing he's ever done.

Speaker 3 (08:55):
But movie wise, well, well, I know.

Speaker 2 (08:59):
Still no still no. Technically that other thing happened on
a movie set.

Speaker 4 (09:06):
Yeah, yeah, Belee, I realized that words escaped my lips.

Speaker 2 (09:13):
Mark Begley chun landis defender, No, of course not no,
And he doesn't need I mean, look, Max Landis, John Landis,
neither one of them need us defending them. And John
Landis is not involved in this the way that I
feel like he is involved in some of the other
things he's worked on, and that may actually pose part

(09:35):
of the problem with where the movie kind of stumbles
and fumbles, because it how do I put this, We're
gonna watch another dan Acrid Chevy Chase movie and it's
gonna it's a nineties It's a nineties dan Acrid Chevy
Chase movie. It is about as unfunny as this movie.
And I feel like, now just follow me on this.

(09:56):
One part of it is Dan Akred's fault because Dan
Ackroyd is not known for turning in concise scripts with
laser like focus. He is known for turning in what
was it like a three hundred page script for Ghostbusters.

Speaker 4 (10:15):
And as the same or more for Blues Brothers.

Speaker 2 (10:18):
Yeah, like some sort of like why and it's just
like Dan what are you trying to do? Solve world
hunger and tell a story about two brothers on a
trip back to Chicago to save an orphanage. Like, I
can't help but wonder how much of this muddle headedness
comes from dan ackroid because I've seen other dan Ackroyd joints,

(10:38):
as it were, and they always strike me as this.
It's like, I bet dan finds this funny, but you know,
you know what I mean. It's like, I bet dan
Ackroyd thinks that this is funny. However, broadly, I don't
think most of this movie works. There are a couple
scenes that do. The doctor scene is I think one
of the best scenes in the movie, but that's it.
Like it's like comes like twenty minutes into the movie,

(11:00):
is what it feels like, And then you've got another
hour and change with this movie. So I don't know.
It's not the worst movie that we've watched for this
show by far, but it's definitely not in the top
third of the things we've watched. And the biggest disappointment
is it's John. It should have been John Belushi and
dan Ackroyd, and it's Chevy Chase and dan Ackroyd. Which

(11:22):
should not feel like it's stepped down. This is still
Chevy Chase of the eighties, and yet somehow it feels
like a massive step down and on top of everything else,
though the viewer or the listener can't see it, the
album cover for the single for Spies Like Us is
fucking bizarre, just say, to say the least, it looks

(11:43):
like some sort of weird like late seventies early eighties
soft like adult listening album with the three of them
peeking out of a key hole together. And then, on
top of everything else, the single for the movie wasn't
included on the soundtrack for the movie, which is fucking
hilarious and insane in its own right.

Speaker 3 (12:03):
That whole thing where John Lands didn't really even want
this song, Like Paul McCartney was like, Oh, I'm going
to do a song for this, and he tells him
like way too late, and he's like, Ah, where the
hell am I going to put this thing? I've already
got the opening. The opening is very much set with
the way that these credits are, so he ends up
just throwing it as the second song during the credits,

(12:27):
So like, had you stuck around to see if maybe
Samuel l. Jackson's going to show up and offer these
guys a job as part of the Avengers. Otherwise you're
probably not going to hear this song. And then he
ends up directing the video which has the three Paul McCartney,
Chevy Chase and Dan Ackwright all over the place, and
that I'm like, all right, this little mini adventure that

(12:49):
they're going on inside of the studio and they're pulling
off each other's faces like they've got masks on, like
a mission impossible thing, and I'm like all right, yeah, yeah,
and it's I mean, Lane to Stephens said it's not
a very good song, and I agree with them.

Speaker 4 (13:05):
Yeah, it's it's not well I mean McCartney, that's for sure.

Speaker 2 (13:09):
It would have been better. It would have been better
if it had just been Drandrand, spies like US, Spies
like us. I mean, it's it's weird to me that
it's a McCartney song. I Like, when I was watching
the movie last night, I like left it on through
the credits and I was like, okay, I was doing
something else and then all of a sudden, I hear
this song and I'm like, wait a second, is this

(13:30):
Paul McCartney singing and then yeah, do it. I mean,
you know, coupling that with the research of like what,
you had a fucking Paul McCartney song and you just
tossed it into the end credits of your movie. Like wow,
must be nice to have to have that in your movie.
But uh, yeah, the music video for the song is

(13:53):
a thoroughly astounding in a way that I don't know
if you all have seen the film Dragnet, the song
for the film Dragnet has a very similar music video
where I believe it's Dan Ackroyd and Tom Hanks dancing around,
you know, but at least there's no Paul McCartney. Or

(14:13):
it's too bad there's no Paul McCartney. I don't know
why Paul McCartney wanted to be involved with this, Like
I really loved Live and Let Die. Let me get
involved with some more American action films, like.

Speaker 4 (14:25):
He had he had fond memories of Bingji the Beni
song that he did for that remember, or they got
one of his songs or something.

Speaker 3 (14:36):
Let me put to bed a internet rumor that I've
read several several times, which is that there are two
pages of the Spies like a script that just say doctor, doctor, doctor,
and it's just the people talking to each other. It's
not it's about half a page and a little extra
on the next page.

Speaker 2 (14:55):
That's how this one is.

Speaker 3 (14:56):
And then also, I don't know if you guys had
a chance to read the script, but the end of
the script pretty amazing.

Speaker 1 (15:03):
Uh.

Speaker 3 (15:04):
This is after they capture Keys and Ruby and they
start to say that they were kidnapped Keys and Ruby
the American like they're they're not really the heads of
the CIA, but they're the ones kind of running this operation.

Speaker 2 (15:18):
One of those guys is going to become a mutant
here in a couple of years.

Speaker 3 (15:21):
And oh, yeah, he's gonna he's gonna just turn into
water on an examination table. Yeah, Bruce Davison. So at
the very end of this page one oh seven of
the screenplay, So this isn't one of those dan Ackroyd
three hundred pagers at least at this point after Babbelo
has had his hand in here. Please note this scene
is still to be determined. It will be a happy ending.

(15:43):
A lah trading places and millions of other movies in
some exotic and amusing locale, Chevy and Doctor Boyer, Danny
and the gorgeous sovietet Soviet soldier and the other four
Russian soldiers are all happy together in some place safe comfortable. Sorry,
in some safe comfortable place. This will obviously be very funny,

(16:05):
very satisfying, and the audience will file out of the
theater and dutifully tell their friends, we will all make
lots of money. Any ideas for this sequence are welcome.

Speaker 2 (16:17):
And yet somehow they achieved none of.

Speaker 3 (16:20):
It them playing trivial pursuit slash risk at the end
of the Yeah, sure.

Speaker 2 (16:26):
Okay, I mean it's funny, get it because the entire
nuclear state of the world is determined on them playing
trivial pursuit and risk. Ha ha ha ha ha ha.

Speaker 3 (16:37):
Yes, that's where low level soldiers and two reject spies.

Speaker 4 (16:43):
We get back to the frank Oz scene.

Speaker 2 (16:45):
Oh my god, yes, please, let's let's go. Let's go
back to the one of the funniest scenes in the film.

Speaker 4 (16:52):
Has has Chevvy had a furt joke before this? Because
that really threw me off.

Speaker 2 (16:58):
I'm like, really like a Leslie that's like a Leslie
Nielsen thing.

Speaker 4 (17:02):
Yeah, I was. That was shocking. But I think you
kind of spoke to this already Chris and how it
seems completely unnecessary and I just thought they were going
to be I mean, I get that's where they're going
to pick these guys, but wouldn't have been it easier
to just have that be them at their jobs. Up
to that point, I didn't get the whole thing about

(17:22):
the test, Like it seemed like neither of them had
signed up for this test or knew kind of knew
about it.

Speaker 3 (17:28):
Or well, what's going for it? Yeah, what's going on
there is that Chevy thinks that And I'm sorry, I'm
going to call them Chevy because these names, these fit
bits human mill barge names. I'm not having it. Chevy.
He thinks that he's going to be able to pass
with flying Colors, and he's taken the test three times already,
hasn't passed it yet. Very sergeant's exam for wo Jahowitz

(17:51):
and his I guess it's his desk mate, desk partner
is like, oh no, they've changed the test completely. Oh,
and I know it is. It is because he's sleeping
with his boss and he thinks that she's going to
help him pass the test. That's what it is. And
taking the test, well, they're taking the test to move
up to basically like be spies, like because Dan Ackroyd

(18:15):
is a civilian contractor and he actually wants to get
a job with the government, and then with Chevy, it's
he wants to move up to the next level. And
with Ackroyd's character, he has intended on taking this test,
but then his boss, who basically made him his personal slave,
is like, oh, yeah, good luck on the test tomorrow.

(18:36):
Oh what, Oh I'm sure I told you the test
was tomorrow.

Speaker 2 (18:39):
Ha ha ha.

Speaker 3 (18:40):
So yeah, very very tenuous reason for them to be
taking this test.

Speaker 4 (18:46):
Yeah, I didn't, I know, like knowing it didn't seem
like either of them wanted to or or I didn't.
I don't understand why Chevy wants to advance when he
seems perfectly fine watching Ronald Reagan movies at his desk.

Speaker 3 (19:00):
Everybody's watching Ronald Reagan movies, even the guy who's monitoring
the little press conference thing that Chevy is doing, which
again doesn't really make sense, like, oh, you're stuck doing this,
Like I was hoping for more like connection between these scenes,
like even the idea of them being the fake spies
and there's the real spies out there, like that even

(19:21):
doesn't feel like they should really set these guys up
for failure or like be monitoring them constantly. It's like
when they call and they're like, oh, hey, we're it
in you know, in Pakistan or already or whatever, it's like, oh, wow,
these guys are still alive. I'm like, no, you should
be monitoring them the whole time and like setting up
obstacles and like pointing signs that these guys going like,

(19:42):
look at these spies.

Speaker 2 (19:44):
You mean like Colonel Rambas did.

Speaker 3 (19:46):
Yes, exactly, just like Colonel rahmbas Colonel Rambus.

Speaker 2 (19:51):
Why is Bernie Casey in this movie?

Speaker 3 (19:53):
I wish I knew? That whole scene feels very truncated
as well.

Speaker 2 (19:58):
Yeah, and there are moments in that scene throughout that
kind of extended training scene where I'm like, were they
just sitting in a room together stoned and or high
off of cocaine? Coming up with like, how can we
waste the budget of this movie the fastest? Because they
have you know, they put them in the centrifugal force machine,

(20:19):
they put them in a airplane that they drop out
of this like what is it? Radical vertical impact test?

Speaker 4 (20:28):
That was one of my lol's actually might hit the ground.

Speaker 2 (20:33):
I don't know. I mean, that's probably the only one
that kind of works. But then we have like the
you know, then you have to run the obstacle course
and it's scorched earth, and then we never see them
do it right right.

Speaker 3 (20:45):
Yeah, which is in the script, but it's not in
the movie. I was like, why is this insurance?

Speaker 2 (20:50):
Probably, uh, insurance, but I didn't cover Dan and Chevy
to do that. No, nor did it cover them to
jump out of an airplane night per day and and
have them just going whoaoo like I am right now
in front of a green screen. No different. They just
rotate the footage three sixty over and over again because
they're falling out of the sky. Yeah. It's it's like,

(21:13):
I don't know who injected the quote I'm putting it
in quotes here quote slapstick unquote comedy into this movie.
But that, for me, is the worst part of the movie,
is the slap sticky nature of it. Because I haven't
seen a lot of those Bing Crosby Bob Hope road
movies or Road two movies, and so I'm assuming that

(21:37):
that's part of it. Is kind of this like slapsticky
nature of the two of them, and so I get
that that's what they're going for here. I mean, look,
we haven't even mentioned it yet. Bob Hope is literally
in this movie at one point, and then so is
BB King, Like why is bb King in this movie?

Speaker 3 (21:55):
Oh geez, the amount of cameos in here.

Speaker 2 (21:58):
I mean, what's a John Landis film, Mike, Yeah, he's
friends with everybody? Yeah, god, it's yeah. The slapstick of
the movie for me, really sticks out as the weaker
points of an already weak movie in terms of comedy,
and on top of everything else, somehow we are still
getting Chevy Chase doing the the Chevy chasing. I mean,

(22:23):
I don't know what you would call that, but it's
eighty five and he's still doing the bumping into shit,
knocking shit over, and oh, that's supposed to be funny.
It's like, how many times can we see this guy
do this in movies? And it's just not funny. It's
been it wasn't It's not that it was never funny,
it's just after a while they went to the well.
It's like it with Schwarzenegger post a Terminator too. I'll

(22:46):
be back. Just has to be in the movie somehow
it's like, wait a second, these movies have nothing to
do with the Terminator, so why does I'll be back?
I mean, oh, it's because it's Schwarzenegger, got it. There's
some of that here where. It's just like, I don't
know why I were doing some of the things we're
doing in this movie because they just don't work. They
just don't wear. A lot of this movie doesn't work
for me, and I, like I said, I think broadly

(23:08):
a lot of it is the slapstick comedy. I don't
think that the dialogue is poorly written. I mean, clearly,
the doctor scene is the dialogue scene of this movie
that is so kind of memorable. But most of the
physical like slapstick comedy in this movie is really poorly
done and just not funny, just not humorous at all.

(23:29):
Nothing about the scenarios that they're putting themselves into are
even remotely funny.

Speaker 4 (23:32):
Well, the centrifugal force machine and they're hamming it up
with horrible faces, and I'm like, have you not heard
of a leaf blower blast that on their faces?

Speaker 3 (23:43):
Exactly?

Speaker 4 (23:44):
You know, do the Martin Short thing in inner Space.
Don't do this. I'm not buying it.

Speaker 2 (23:50):
I'm not buying a lot of the movie is the problem.
It's just it's ewo.

Speaker 4 (23:57):
You know, It's like, really, we're doing that? Yeah, well
they're holding blast of leaf blower in their faces.

Speaker 2 (24:02):
They're holding their faces like this. Yeah. At the end,
here's some coffee. I'm sure so many little kids dressed
up as Emmett fitz Hume and Austin Millbarge for Halloween
that year, such as Meatume.

Speaker 3 (24:18):
Yeah, I love that.

Speaker 4 (24:21):
Speaking of dan Akroyd's dan Akroyd's writing, I love that
he can't write himself as the bumbling fool. He's always
got to be kind of a genius.

Speaker 2 (24:30):
Oh yeah, yeah, I've worked in the private sector before.
They expect results.

Speaker 4 (24:37):
I guess, except maybe for Blues Brothers. He's not an
idiot in that. But he's not a genius either.

Speaker 2 (24:44):
No, But to be fair, he's paired up with God's
perfect idiot, John Belushi, which is why he doesn't have
to be and I do and that I do wonder
how well this movie would have worked with Belushi instead,
But I don't think.

Speaker 4 (24:57):
I can't see him doing it. It must have been
a written a different way because I can't see him
being that way. He sort of approaches that in Neighbors.
I mean, he's not bumbling, but he is.

Speaker 3 (25:07):
Not the well they switched roles for neighbors.

Speaker 4 (25:10):
Yeah, yeah, he's not the cool guy in neighbors, right,
but it's not a bumbling idiot. It's more of the
put upon, you know, hapless working man type of character.

Speaker 3 (25:23):
Lord loves the working man. Yeah. The thing with Ackroyd
at the beginning where he's talking like, oh, yeah, I
captured this Chinese radio chatter and they were using a
twenty point encryption and I solved it with this toy
from a box of lucky charms. I'm like, okay, where's
that coming back in the movie, Like why is he? Like? Yes,

(25:46):
he's the line at the very end when somebody says
interception or something. He's like, oh, we can intercept the
missile and do this with it. And I'm like, okay, yeah, Like,
I guess you're still pretty smart. But I didn't see
that between you know, minute five and minute one thirty,
you know, I didn't see that genius coming through here.

Speaker 4 (26:06):
He picks out the Russian dudes the animal house alum,
and oh that's true.

Speaker 3 (26:13):
Yeah, yeah, you with wristwatch yeah.

Speaker 4 (26:17):
Yeah, there's a couple of little instances where he knows
something that nobody else does. And there's a show on
TV right now with the chick from It's Always Sunny
where she plays this genius and it's the exact same
kind of thing where you know, oh, I know about
fake Russian wristwatches for some reason, because it goes to

(26:37):
the point of the you know, the plot of the movie,
and kind of stuff drives me crazy. Sure you do,
Sure you do. Damn yeah, Mill Barge or whatever your
name is.

Speaker 3 (26:48):
It just feels weird to me that they parachute into
the training stuff, Like I thought that was parachuting into
like the combat zone. And then when all these fucking
ninjas show up, the.

Speaker 2 (27:05):
Literal ninjas, literal ninjas. Mike is not Mike is not joking.
They're literal goddamn ninjas.

Speaker 3 (27:12):
They show up, and then I'm like, Okay, so we're
in Japan now, but no, no, we're we're here. And
then we have that little dick for joke in the middle.

Speaker 2 (27:22):
What is the dick for joke? What is the dick
for joke for? What's a dick for Yeah? I know,
Oh god, it's like it's like, oh my god, this
is such a bizarre story. But we had a family
friend who used to have this thing on the wall
in his office and it was a lion's doos it
and he would get people to ask what's that, and

(27:42):
it's what's a do's it? And that's what a lion
dos it with, because it was a lion's ball and
penis mounted on a board like taxi dermaid. Yeah, it's
the same thing. I'm like, what do you have this
one thing in this movie? Yeah? Well, yes, a real one, Yes,
a real one. But I didn't under stand what the
dick for a joke was.

Speaker 3 (28:01):
For it feels so out of place.

Speaker 2 (28:04):
Yeah, it like it doesn't even it's not even out
of place. It's like, why is it in this scene
at all?

Speaker 3 (28:10):
It reminds me of the the mail plane m a
l E plane from Three Migos that we're gonna talk about. Yeah,
you know, like, how can you tell it's male plane?

Speaker 2 (28:21):
Oh?

Speaker 3 (28:21):
From the Little Balls? Like that joke makes no sense
in context, but I remember it, and everybody seems to
remember the dick for thing.

Speaker 2 (28:29):
I I yeah, well we do now I didn't before
rewatching this movie. The only thing I remember from this
movie like the the the memories of spies like us.
The thing that I remember, if I like sit and
kind of try to like jog my memory of the
first time I watched this movie is the scene where
they dress up like Aliens quote unquote Aliens.

Speaker 3 (28:50):
I'm surprised that Ackroyd did that without making it one
hundred percent scientist of the gag.

Speaker 2 (28:55):
Wh Yeah, I mean, you know my grandfather saw Aliens
in nineteen twelve. Dan we know, man. I think every
time dan Acwrod comes up, I will reference the hour
and a half long video on YouTube of him chainsmoking
cigarettes in a hotel room in Tahoe somewhere, probably talking

(29:16):
about how much he loves Aliens and how much he's
into Aliens, And it is that's dan Akroyd distilled down
to his base level. I don't understand if it's is
it Is it that people write better for dan Ackroyd
than he writes for himself. Is that what it is?
Because my favorite dan Ackroyd role at this point is

(29:36):
him and Dragnet, because that is like, that's a genuinely
fantastic dan Ackroyd role. He walks away with that entire movie.
His sergeant Joe Friday is a perfect character in that movie.
But memory serves he didn't write that.

Speaker 3 (29:50):
Yeah, I don't know. I remember hating that movie, so
I haven't seen it, god, since it was on cable
back in the eighties.

Speaker 2 (29:58):
Yeah, it's funny than this movie, I'll tell you that much. No,
I guess the screenplay was by dan akright, God damn interesting,
But it was based on somebody else's property. So dan
Ackroyd couldn't, you know, inject aliens into a script about
two cops in La though I'm sure he tried.

Speaker 3 (30:15):
He's all about Satan warship instead.

Speaker 2 (30:18):
Yeah, Satan worship.

Speaker 3 (30:19):
Yeah.

Speaker 4 (30:19):
Yeah, he's got kind of a When I think about
the movies that he's written, it's like a twelve year
old writing a movie. And I think that goes to
the length of him and throwing everything in. And when
I think about The Blues Brothers, I think there's this
patina of innocence around the whole film where it's kind
of childlike, but with the right direction and the right

(30:40):
person helping you hone.

Speaker 3 (30:42):
It, it works.

Speaker 4 (30:43):
But here it's like, I don't know, it feels like
a kid trying to be smart. Or something. A lot
of his stuff, even Ghostbusters, and I don't know, it's
just a weird everything that he does. It feels to
me like it's coming from a child that that sort
of thinks they're smarter than they are.

Speaker 2 (31:03):
Mark, have you ever seen Nothing but Trouble?

Speaker 3 (31:06):
No?

Speaker 4 (31:06):
I haven't.

Speaker 2 (31:07):
Oh boy, if you if you think that this is
like a child.

Speaker 1 (31:15):
Movie?

Speaker 2 (31:15):
Script is written in kran Yeah.

Speaker 4 (31:19):
The only thing I've seen is the Red Letter Media
review of it, and so I've gotten a little taste
of it, and it I think it reinforces that idea that, like,
I don't know, he has a child like innocence. I
guess now, is this the movie where he got turned
onto vodka? I'm just wondering, being at Norway and stuff.

Speaker 3 (31:37):
Could be.

Speaker 2 (31:38):
I got a bottle of his Crystal Skull vodka in
the other room, empty, just sitting on a shelf. Mike
saw it and he was like, Hey, is that dan
Akroyd's vodka? Sure? Is it? Must it must be? I
think maybe. And this is me here at least speaking
broadly about this movie. Would this movie not have been
better if it had kind of been a parody of

(32:00):
James Bond movies?

Speaker 3 (32:02):
Probably yeah, yeah.

Speaker 2 (32:04):
Because like I said before, I've never seen these Road
two movies.

Speaker 4 (32:09):
But Bing Crosby and Bob Hope they're performers. They're they're
not spies in those right, right.

Speaker 3 (32:15):
I think so, But they usually I mean, I think
if they are performing, there's probably like intrigue and things
going on around them.

Speaker 2 (32:24):
Right, things happening in some form of fashion.

Speaker 3 (32:28):
So it's very from what I remember, it's very Abbot
and Costello kind of thing.

Speaker 2 (32:32):
Right, So with that in mind, I guess my question
to y'all, because again I'm not alive in eighty five
are Dan Ackroyd and Chevy Chase the eighties version of
Bob Hope and Bing Crosby in terms of being that famous,
because Bing Crosby and Bob Hope are like American icons
and like legends in their own right. Like Bob Hope

(32:54):
being in this movie is kind of a big deal.
Like his cameo in this movie is like, I always
forget that he is in this movie, even like I said,
I've seen this movie more than one time, but when
he plays through, I was like, wait a second, Pob
Hope isn't. But I think the worst thing you can
do in a movie is reference something else that's better.
And I've got to assume those Road two movies are

(33:17):
better than this movie, because there were well several of
those films. It was a film series, and this is
the one of two times that these guys are together
on screen. And I guarantee if this movie had been
a success, they would have tried to do more with them,
but they didn't because it wasn't at all. Really.

Speaker 4 (33:38):
I wonder if that was part of the initial idea though,
if that was the idea going you know, in the
script about spies, Oh this will be like a road movie,
or if that came about just because oh, hey, you know,
we're going to two different places, let's make a road movie.
So anybody got Bob Hope's.

Speaker 2 (33:56):
Number, why not make them performers? Why not just make
them dan Ackroyd and Chevy Chase then right, like like
really like this starts.

Speaker 4 (34:07):
But to your point, Chris, I do think that they
were pretty I mean, Acroid's coming off Ghostbusters, one of
the biggest hits of the decade, and you know, Chevy's
got vacation behind him and they're still cashing checks office
Saturday Night Live fame. I think at that time still
even because that was a cultural phenomenon, so right, right.

Speaker 2 (34:27):
Right right, which I think I understand that part, but
I just I just they don't feel like the Americana
level of actors that Big and Bob Hope do. End
noll And and the and the and the story over
and over of it all, goddamn dead giveaway.

Speaker 3 (34:43):
Well, I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry. Yeah, tomorrow, it's tomorrow.
I mean, I've got a real ambivalent relationship with Bob
Hope because I so growing up in the seventies, eighties, nineties.
I mean, whenever he would show up, it was just
not funny, especially those Spot Hope specials that he had

(35:06):
I just did. Maybe they would be funny now if
I watch them, but when I was a kid, they
were just not funny at all. And it wasn't until
I finally saw what was that, like the not the
Lemon Drop Kid, because I think we're talking about that
one later this year. It's another one with him and
my favorite Brunette maybe with him and Peter Lori, And

(35:28):
I was like, Okay, this is actually funny. And so
now I'm like I have yet to start my Bob
Hope journey. But I'm just like, Okay, I need other
movies like that one to ease me into Bob Hope
because I just still had this horrible taste in my mouth.
It was kind of like George Burns, because I'm sure
Mark you remember seeing George Byrns show up every fucking place.

(35:49):
He had just had like the oh God movies and
things and eighteen Again, which is just edgeable. Yeah, horrible,
horrible film.

Speaker 2 (35:57):
Oh guys, whoa that's eighty and again is so good?
Charlie Slatter, whoa now?

Speaker 3 (36:05):
But that was another one where it was just like, finally,
when I saw the Burns and Allen show, I was like, oh,
this guy was actually my hit, Like he's very funny. Yeah,
but by the time he's, you know, in his eighties
and stuff, I'm like, yeah, it's not nearly as funny.
And at least Burns was playing up the I'm older
than God type of thing, whereas with Bob Hope, he

(36:26):
was just like, hey, I'm super smarmy still. I mean
him and Chimmy Chase, like, it feels like they're cut
from very similar cloth as far as being a smarmy asshole.

Speaker 4 (36:35):
You want a good George Burns film Watch the Sunshine Boys,
Okay later George Burns, him and Walter Maths.

Speaker 3 (36:42):
That's the one where they robbed the bank. Right, No, no, no.

Speaker 4 (36:45):
Him and Walter Mathow are an old vaudeville comedy act
and they get back together for some TV special and
they've got this long history of hating each other. And
that's one of the ones, like like Foul Play or
Murder My Death that my dad and I would watch
whenever it came on TV, and I watched it. I've

(37:05):
seen it a couple times over the last few years
on TCM and I'm like, oh shit, this still fucking
holds up. It's really good. It might be another Neil
Simon thing. I'm not sure.

Speaker 2 (37:15):
So to speak to the Road Movies of It All,
or Road two movies, those movies run from nineteen forty
to nineteen sixty two, with one in seventy seven getting
canceled because of the passing of Bing Crosby. Why are
they making a Road two movie in nineteen eighty five

(37:36):
when they're.

Speaker 3 (37:36):
From the past, Well, I think they are there.

Speaker 2 (37:40):
Twenty three movies twenty three years later. Well, even where
it was that Bob Hope is in this movie.

Speaker 4 (37:46):
Yeah, I don't know.

Speaker 2 (37:48):
I don't think it's an afterthought.

Speaker 4 (37:49):
I think it's an afterthought. Really.

Speaker 3 (37:51):
I have a feeling that it is kind of acroid
trying to recapture the past, like taking stuff that he
enjoyed as a kid, and sure I put a new
spin on it, kind of like I mean, really with Ghostbusters.
I mean, there was the original Ghostbusters with who was
at Forrest Tucker and I can't even remember who else
was in that one, but like it, Yeah, it was Ghostbusters,
and then there's ghost Chasers, and like those movies is

(38:14):
what I think inspired the eighty four Ghostbusters, but they
just took it in a whole different way. You can
see that.

Speaker 4 (38:21):
You change your backdrop again, Chris, Yeah, brilliant shot.

Speaker 2 (38:25):
From sitting with Chevy Chase in the Little Thing.

Speaker 4 (38:29):
The faces do the faces?

Speaker 2 (38:32):
I mean, god, damn, Roger Moore did it better. And
in The Man with the Golden Gun or Moon Raker,
my god, even he was doing it. They actually I
think had him in the thing maybe as opposed to this,
which was just like make faces haha. Funny faces are funny.

Speaker 3 (38:49):
Well, and they were trying to us only more in
that scene.

Speaker 2 (38:52):
Right in this. They're not trying to kill them.

Speaker 3 (38:54):
They're just torturing them, but not doing a very good job.

Speaker 2 (38:57):
Yeah.

Speaker 4 (38:57):
Hey, at least Bernie Casey got to showcase his bad
ass by taking out all those ninjas.

Speaker 3 (39:02):
That's true.

Speaker 4 (39:02):
But like I said, Chris, he's not there long enough.

Speaker 2 (39:05):
No, And then uh, why is why is Joel Cohen? Sam?
Ray BB King? I'm just still sorry Cohen? Yeah, Ray, Harry.

Speaker 3 (39:18):
Hoousen, Astis Gravis, the director of Z right like coming
in here?

Speaker 2 (39:25):
What?

Speaker 4 (39:25):
Yes?

Speaker 2 (39:26):
Exactly? It's I mean Michael aPTT is in here as well.
And the movie is produced by Brian Grazer. On top
of every When I saw Brian Grazer's name in the
credits at the beginning, I was like, wait a second, really.

Speaker 3 (39:42):
Well, Babba Loo and the other guy were the writers
of Splash Glad night Shift, and those were both Ron
Howard Joints. And here I guess maybe Brazer was a
package deal with those two writers. I don't know.

Speaker 2 (39:57):
Well, and then Graser would go on to produce Next
Year Ever Famous, Armed and Dangerous, starring John Candy and
Eugene Levy. I am which.

Speaker 3 (40:07):
Candy also from Splash. I almost call it the last Splash.

Speaker 2 (40:13):
And then the year after that would produce like Father,
like Son, another film that speaking of eighteen going on
eighty or eighteen again or whatever the hell the name
of that other movie. It was another.

Speaker 4 (40:29):
Why did I watch all of those?

Speaker 2 (40:31):
No, but the fact that you did is the funniest.

Speaker 4 (40:35):
I'm gonna watch every movie on the list, wow, shit anymore.

Speaker 2 (40:40):
It was the one time you're just like, I can't
do this again.

Speaker 3 (40:44):
Yeah, and they don't really like this movie is so
specific with the political situation that was going on in
this particular time right, Like It's funny because as I'm
watching this, I'm also thinking of things like Real Genius.
I can go back and Real Genius has that whole
thing of like, yeah, like the satellite that's going to

(41:06):
you know, beam the laser down and take out the person,
and this one they've got the satellite that's taking the
photos at the beginning. And with Real Genius, I'm like, Okay, yeah,
that's a very specific Star Wars type reference. Star Wars
the Strategic Defense Plan, not Star Wars movie, but it's
a very Star Wars specific time and reference. But yet
that one I can watch that any day of the week.

(41:28):
Still and it's still was funny, whereas with this one,
it's like, Okay, we're very particular when it comes to,
you know, what's going on in Pakistan, what's going on
with the Soviet Union, what's going on with the strategic
defense thing? I mean, the whole movie is set up
for them to shoot off a missile and then get
it taken out with the strategic defense in order to

(41:49):
prove that it works, I guess, and then it doesn't.
So they're like, oh, which is.

Speaker 4 (41:55):
Also the plan, which is yes, exactly.

Speaker 2 (41:59):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (42:00):
I'm like, okay, well, now we're suddenly getting Doctor Streams Strangelove.

Speaker 2 (42:03):
Yeah yeah, no, no, no, but.

Speaker 3 (42:06):
The numbers have come through and we're going to lose
ten to twenty million tops tops.

Speaker 4 (42:11):
Yeah, I uh I th on the breaks.

Speaker 2 (42:14):
The whole purpose of this movie was to get to
the shot of the MTV satellite exploding and the kid going,
oh yeah, boy, John, that was a John Landis. No.
We got to get the kids in here. What are
the kids like MTV? All right, yeah, let me ask
Max talk about the worst things. Talk about the worst

(42:37):
thing John Landis is.

Speaker 4 (42:38):
We're done he was born yet, because he's thanked at
the very end of the credit. Oh shit, him and
his daughter. I'm assuming Rachel Landis and Max Landis are
the last thanks, so we can.

Speaker 2 (42:50):
Blame Max Landis for this.

Speaker 3 (42:52):
Ultimately, it would be really cool as if it blows
up an MTV satellite.

Speaker 2 (42:57):
Yeah, with a blue light going into the sky at
the end, giant blue laser beam. I mean, it has
a giant purple laser beam in space, so not far off, really,
I guess. I think the other thing for me that
kind of bothers me about this movie is that it
in a lot of ways we've talked about the pairing
of Chevy Chase and Dan Akroyd. It's almost like the

(43:18):
movie thinks that that's enough, that it's just, well, we
have Dan Akroyd, who's funny, and we have Chevy Chase,
who's funny, so putting them together will be funny. And
I don't get why it doesn't work, But I think
it's just I don't know. I do think it's man.
I want to say it's the script, but at the
same time, it just doesn't feel like their personalities mesh

(43:42):
well together because chevy Chase's character is very much written
the same way he's always written, right I mean this
is like, this is stock and Trade chevy Chase, right,
and similarly with dan Akroyd. So if they're both playing
like very typical versions of the kinds of characters that
they play, I guess my kind of biggest critique of

(44:02):
the movie is I don't think Chevy Chase and dan
Ackroyd work well together as comedians in this capacity. I
think they worked better. I mean they this might have
worked better if there had been a third person, a
third spy that was with them, you.

Speaker 3 (44:16):
Know, third amigo as one.

Speaker 2 (44:19):
Might say, Yes, a third amigo, as it were. But
I mean even his chemistry with them in that movie
is light ears better than this here is it? You
know what? Mark, Let me put it this way.

Speaker 3 (44:35):
My jery still out. I haven't seen that one since
I saw it at the theater.

Speaker 2 (44:38):
I haven't seen Three Amigos since I watched it as
a kid. I could do the whole night, so I
could do my little Buttercup routine almost by heart. But
I don't remember much else from the movie other than
el Woppo.

Speaker 3 (44:52):
I just remember would you say I have a plethora?

Speaker 4 (44:57):
It was on it was on TV the other day
and my wife was like, Oh, are you gonna be
watching this one? I'm like, yes, very soon, So let's
not get into it. And we watched a good chunk
of it.

Speaker 2 (45:08):
You did anyone, You're.

Speaker 4 (45:08):
Gonna go ahead and say it's not much better. Oh,
the chemistry is not much better.

Speaker 2 (45:14):
Oh no, but at least they're wearing those what about
But they're wearing those great outfits though. Yeah, I mean
they're wearing pretty great outfits in this movie, to be fair.
I mean those outfits that they're on on the poster
in is the Snow. Yeah, that's why.

Speaker 4 (45:29):
I always think it takes place in the snow, like
this spuy who loved Me or something?

Speaker 2 (45:34):
Some of it does, why I guess the other thing
and this feels like this is just a me thing.
You have James Dowton in your movie, and he's woefully
underused because he's so good an Animal House as Greg marmalarts,
and then here they just have him show up for
two scenes and I was like, ah, man, really like
that's yeah.

Speaker 4 (45:54):
I was surprised to see him. I don't know if
I've seen him in anything else other than an Animal House.

Speaker 2 (45:58):
In this he's he's in a couple, he's in a
couple of things, but it's not not a whole not
a whole lost things.

Speaker 4 (46:05):
He's not like William Babka, who showed up and everything
in the eighties. At least so Billy good old Billy
was in our Last movie for two seconds.

Speaker 2 (46:14):
James Dawnton is on his IMDb. He's known for this
National Lampoons, Planet of the Apes the TV series, and
V the TV series.

Speaker 3 (46:24):
Did you say National Lampoon's Planet of the Apes.

Speaker 2 (46:28):
I didn't National Lampoons. I should have said Animal House.
But National Lampoon's Planet of the Apes would also be
a great film.

Speaker 3 (46:34):
Yeah, this guy's back. It's Van Wilder coming to the
hoodah University.

Speaker 2 (46:41):
Yeah. Yeah, let's get Paul Williams back too.

Speaker 3 (46:44):
Paul Williams the singer, songwriter actor.

Speaker 2 (46:47):
Yeah, well yeah, okay, this wasn't he in Planet.

Speaker 3 (46:49):
Of the Apes? He was? He was Cyril. Yeah.

Speaker 2 (46:52):
I just want Paul Williams to do something with Ryan Reynolds.

Speaker 3 (46:55):
Oh that would be awesome.

Speaker 4 (46:57):
I just we haven't talked about Donald Dixon.

Speaker 3 (46:59):
Come on, yeah, she's a third or Charles mckun who
from Charles McCune's voice, I kept thinking he was Nigel
the guy from not Real Genius Sorry, the other uh
Val Kilmer film. Oh yeah, secret, he sounded like she

(47:22):
was from top Secret.

Speaker 2 (47:23):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (47:23):
But then I was like, oh, no, this is Charles McCune.
He's like a standard for all of these money Python movies,
Like he was in every Python that you can think of.
And I'm like, oh, okay, and yeah, what a thankless
job he has just come in, introduced these guys and
then you see him dead on a horse.

Speaker 4 (47:43):
I was surprised that he got taken out.

Speaker 3 (47:44):
Actually, yeah, me too. I really liked him.

Speaker 2 (47:47):
Well, speaking of we haven't even mentioned Terry Gilliam is
also just in this movement. One of the other one
of the other doctor cameos. Doctor.

Speaker 4 (47:58):
Yeah, here's here's a funny a bit of trivia for you.
Chris in particular, I was curious to see because I
haven't heard anything if Donna Dixon and dan Aykroyd were
still married, and apparently they're separated at this point, and
they've had a slew of kids and one of them,
one of their daughters, is a musician who goes by
vera solo or something like that. So I was like, oh,

(48:20):
that's interesting. So I looked on her Wikipedia page, and
apparently she performed a bunch and recorded with Elvis Perkins. Oh,
the brother of Oz Perkins.

Speaker 2 (48:30):
Yeah.

Speaker 4 (48:31):
I have to say I know that one of the
sons of Anthony Perkins, and I was like, oh, that's weird.
Wow connection.

Speaker 3 (48:37):
Yeah, yeah, there you go.

Speaker 2 (48:41):
That's all I can think of when I think of
Oz Perkins. Now, God damn god.

Speaker 4 (48:46):
I was like, oh wild and they they were uh yeah,
they were friends growing.

Speaker 2 (48:51):
Up, so fucking NEPO babies.

Speaker 3 (48:54):
Yeah, yeah, that is It is weird that Donna Dixon's
in this at the time she is with Akroyd, but
yet she's the levantry for Chevy Chase.

Speaker 2 (49:05):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (49:05):
I was like, oh, this is kind of an interesting situation.

Speaker 2 (49:07):
Here, which also kind of makes no sense because her
and Chevy Chase have no chemistry. No, yeah, like they
have negative chemistry, like the chemistry and the other direction.

Speaker 3 (49:21):
Well, and it's not even one of those where she
starts off hating him and then gradually grows to enjoy
him because he's just despicable the entire time. And the
way that they fuck up the surgery and killed the
Sheikh's son or whoever, I'm like, what the that plays
differently in the script, though, I have to say they
basically kill him with with the anesthetic. They give him

(49:47):
like a ton of anesthetic and it kills him, whereas
in this one, I don't think they give aim anastaesia
at all, or he's already been.

Speaker 4 (49:52):
Drugged, he's already been right, Yeah, so they kind of.

Speaker 3 (49:56):
Got out him murder them murdering this poor guy.

Speaker 4 (49:59):
That was like the test scene to me, Like this
is going on way too long. Why do they have
to be mistaken for doctors? Why you know, it's not
like everywhere they go there's a case of mistaken identity
that throws them into more danger. It's like just this
and it just seemed unnecessary.

Speaker 3 (50:22):
Oh and they get away so easily.

Speaker 4 (50:24):
Right, and then they just kind of walk away.

Speaker 3 (50:26):
Yeah, Like if there's going to be a chase scene
in this movie, this is the time for the chase scene.

Speaker 2 (50:30):
Well, that's what I was saying, Like, do like a
James Bond thing, Like we have James Bond ski chases
are like a three in the jameson We've literally had
up until this point on ranking on Bond, how many
ski chases Mike three?

Speaker 3 (50:44):
These three?

Speaker 2 (50:44):
Yeah, I just don't understand why the Road to movies
were the inspiration here with the title like Spies Like Us,
it should have been like a James Bond parody buddy
cop movie, like it really showed like I don't know
if that would have worked any better. Probably wouldn't have,
but at least there would have been more than the

(51:07):
more than just the fumbling and the bumbling around, which
is what it feels like we get a lot of,
which is all like both bumble around into these scenarios
by accident. It's like Frank Drebin on steroids, except not funny. God,
I wish Bosh Leslie Nielsen was in this movie.

Speaker 4 (51:24):
They should both think that they're the James Bond in
the scenario right right end up, you know, fucking things
up even more, or one one of them pulls it
through at the end and then switch rolls throughout and.

Speaker 2 (51:37):
Maybe have the bomb that's about to detonate at the
end of the movie end in double O seven, just
as a cheeky little wink in a nod. No, it's
instead they're referencing like traditional Americana films, which in eighty five. Yeah,
I guess somebody wanted I don't know who, Dan Ackroyd
and Dave Thomas, which which we've already talked about once,

(51:59):
but I think it does bear a little bit kind
of talking out. So Dave Thomas, known for being one
half of Bob and Doug McKenzie with Rick moranis from
SCTV is story by credit with Dan Akrot.

Speaker 3 (52:11):
Was this two Canadian fellas hanging out writing movies.

Speaker 2 (52:15):
About American spies. As you do, I've got to wonder
where the story idea started and then where they executed,
where the script execution went to the other direction, because
I've got to assume that the original story had had
more to it than this ends up having, because it

(52:36):
does ultimately feel like we have them just kind of
fucking around for about forty five minutes and then finally
getting to the Russian missiles and then they fuck around
there for like a half an hour, is what it
feels like, and then the movie's over and there's a
thirty minute training montage essentially like where they go take
the test and then they go meet Bernie Casey. Like

(52:58):
if that's what those Road To movies were like, great,
But I can't imagine those Road two movies were like that,
because there were like seven of them. There was not
more than one of these, thankfully, God, can you spies
like us too? We're back.

Speaker 3 (53:13):
Well, even the title is pretty dumb. I mean it
comes from them realizing that Don and Dixon and Charles
McEwan are spies like us. I'm like, oh, that's where
you got the line from.

Speaker 2 (53:23):
Okay, Hey, that's the name of the movie. Hey, yeah,
speaking of Brian Grazer and Ron Howard. That's what I
think of whenever anyone says the name of the thing
in the thing I'm watching, just the Ron Howard Arrested
Development cut in, Hey, that's the name of the show,
Like oh really, yeah, yeah, because yeah, in Arrested Development,
it's like, hey, that's the name of the show. Like, hey,

(53:44):
that's the name of the movie. Like yeah, we know,
there's spies life whatever.

Speaker 3 (53:48):
I can't remember who it is. I read about some
group of friends that whenever somebody says the name of
the movie in the movie, they stand up in the
theater and applaud and so whatever. I kind of do that.
I don't stand up, But when I'm on my couch
and I hear somebody say the name of the movie,
I'm just like, yes, oh, good, thank you, thank you.
Those are the titular spies like us.

Speaker 2 (54:09):
Yes, they sure are in fact spies like us.

Speaker 3 (54:13):
And at one and by that point Charles mcun's already dead.

Speaker 2 (54:17):
So one spy is like us, sphy like us. She
spy like us. So let's let's let's speak to the
John Landis of it all, obviously not talking about him
murdering Vietnamese children. What in the grand scheme of John
Landis's film career, obviously after after what is where the

(54:39):
line is drawn for with the movies that people like?
Is it coming to America? I don't mind Oscar. I
actually think Oscar is quite fun, But is it? Is
it like John Landis never really made it out of
the nineties or out of the late eighties early nineties,
because that's looking at his filmography. That's kind of the
way it feels. Because one of my favorite movies is

(55:01):
an American Werewolf in London, which I mean is a
genuine classic and an almost damn near perfect film, I
would say, in a lot of ways, similarly to Animal
House and Blues Brothers. I you know, I often say,
you know Ridley Scott, you know he has two great
movies back to back and then that's about it. John
Landis has three classics back to back to back with

(55:25):
Animal House, Blues Brothers and American Werewolf in London and
then if you if you go one step further, Trading
Places comes next. He does Coming Soon, which is a
documentary in between Werewolf in London and Trading Places. But
those are four like real like classics. And then I
guess even I mean, we watched the Kentucky Fried movie

(55:45):
what years ago now and it's Kent and yeah it's yeah, yeah,
it's pretty good too, I mean.

Speaker 4 (55:54):
Place property, but no, no.

Speaker 2 (55:56):
But John Is this is this the peak of John
Landis here, like the eighties and then the nineties are
just kind of.

Speaker 4 (56:02):
Like, I mean, you've got Into the Night prior to this,
which is okay, I've never seen I remember liking it one. Yeah,
it's with Jeff Goldbloom and Michelle Pfeiffer and had a
bunch of cameos including John Lennis himself. Wow, I remember
liking it.

Speaker 2 (56:20):
What do you think Quentin Tarantino gotten from Mike Does
he do cameos? Oh? Damn it?

Speaker 4 (56:27):
And then you've got this film three Amigos segments and
Amazon Women on the Moon, and then I think the
next one is coming to America, so I think after
that it's kind of all downhill. I haven't seen Innocent
Blood or maybe I have.

Speaker 3 (56:43):
Oh, it is not good. I rewatched that one a
few years ago, and it is not good.

Speaker 4 (56:49):
I don't remember much about that Beverly Hills Cop three.

Speaker 3 (56:52):
I just remember Innocent Blood feeling very grungy and dirty. Yeah,
in that.

Speaker 2 (56:57):
Goody has Tony Cirrico in it, though Mike and rock
O Sisto and Tony Lippen, David Pravall who are all
in the soprano playing gangsters in that movie. Apparently good Lord.

Speaker 4 (57:11):
I think after coming to America, which is eighty eight
into the eighties year, kind of done. There's a lot
of TV and stuff after that.

Speaker 3 (57:19):
Like you, Chris, I do enjoy Oscar, at least I
remember really liking it. I haven't seen it since it
was at the theater, but yeah, I would say probably
somewhere around this time. Around that time, I should say,
is the end of landis for me? Yeah?

Speaker 4 (57:34):
I don't see anything on here that I particularly care for.

Speaker 3 (57:38):
You not a big Beverly Hills three fan.

Speaker 2 (57:40):
The Stupids I watched the Stupids a lot growing up.

Speaker 3 (57:45):
Is it done good? I actually downloaded at.

Speaker 2 (57:47):
I don't remember. It's actually something i'd be willing to
revisit because I'm such a huge fan of Tom Arnold
drug Dealer, Tom Arnold oxy cotone Dealer, So I don't remember. Really,
I feel like it might be funny for the reason
it's attempting to be funny, which is like, you know,
these characters are all complete morons. But I also know

(58:08):
that that kind of movie can tend to get grating
with some people, where it's like dumb and dumber on steroids, essentially,
like these characters are dumb beyond the belief of real
human beings able to exist that don't need to be
told to breathe air every second of their lives. But yeah,
it's just, you know, just thinking of John Landis. I

(58:29):
think we think of John land as as someone who's
directed a lot of great movies but kind of stopped
directing good movies after a while. Yeah, and it hasn't
done a good one since the late eighties.

Speaker 3 (58:41):
I will say that I did like the Mister Warmth
documentary he did about Rickles, but that's a documentary. It's
not like it's a narrative.

Speaker 2 (58:49):
Film, right right, And I enjoyed that too. But I'm
also I'm just a fan of Don Rickles. Oh yeah,
So put Don Rickles in this movie. Put anybody in
this week, somebody who's funny in this movie? Oh wait,
you did, Dan Ackroyd and Chevy Chase, who should be
funnier than they are. So I would say, I would
say to both of y'all, because this is obviously a

(59:11):
Chevy Chase podcast, to speak specifically about Chevy Chase what
we've seen up into this point. I think we should
do this on every episode at this point, what do
we think of Chevy Chase specifically in this movie? Because
he is the reason that we are here. That's the
name of the show, right, Like, this is a typical
Chase thing.

Speaker 4 (59:30):
It's one of those typical Chase roles where he's smug
and bumbling and ineffectual. The only line that I laugh
of of his was you have a tint at the
very end of the movie. Yeah, just the delivery of
it was perfect to me.

Speaker 3 (59:47):
Yeah, this feels like a real typical Chevy Chase thing.
You do have the bumbling stuff, you know him, even
when he's has Donna Dixon in the tent and he's
tripping over things and right being this way and having
a hard time sitting down, or the thing where he
goes up and just puts his hand on her boob,
like some of those things. I'm like, Okay, this is

(01:00:09):
very very chevy Chase, and I think I just don't
like pure, uncut chevy Chase going up my nose.

Speaker 2 (01:00:16):
Yeah. I feel like he's doing exactly what he's done
in other things, and we've enjoyed him doing those things
in the other things we've seen him in. It's just here,
I think it kind of feels like all it is
as opposed to like part and parcel of whatever it
is we're seeing, like the concept of Fletch or the
concept of National Lampoon's Vacation. We're so strong that they

(01:00:40):
kind of worked with chevy Chase's inherent comedic stylings here.
It just doesn't It's not He's not believable. Dan Akroyd
is more believable than chevy Chase's in this movie in
terms of being like a put upon civil servant. Like
dan Akrod is a put upon civil servant in this movie,
so is Chevy Chase. Chevy Chase just there's nothing about

(01:01:02):
him in this movie that strikes me as comedic or
even it's not even comedic, because he doesn't see he
doesn't seem like he's trying. But I'm not sure at
this point he really felt like he had to, given
that he's, you know, nineteen eighty five chevy Chase. But
I don't think the movie would have hurt itself. I
don't think the movie would have helped itself by by

(01:01:25):
casting someone other than Chase. I just think chevy Chase
and dan Ackroyd's two things don't work well together. And honestly,
I'm not even sure if chevy Chase paired up with
somebody else really works that well. I think chevy Chase
on his own might be enough. And in a lot
of ways, I think the best things that we've seen

(01:01:45):
him in he is kind of the comedic rod of
the movie and everybody else is around him. Vacation, Fletch,
I mean some of those are some of the you know,
foul play, like there's not I mean, in foul Play
it's him and Goldie Hawn. It's not him another male
actor and Goldie Hawn. That's it.

Speaker 4 (01:02:04):
Seems like Brian Denehee, you're dismissing Brian Denhey and foul play.

Speaker 2 (01:02:08):
Sir, Sorry, sorry, but I'm speaking more likely that much.
Seems like Old Times had Charles Groden in it, and
that's lesser than foul play. I think, you know, a
little lesser. I think for me, Chevy Chase does work
best kind of as a solo act.

Speaker 4 (01:02:25):
And I'm sure he would agree.

Speaker 3 (01:02:27):
Oh yes, get all these other big comedians out of
my life. Yeah, yeah, I'm the real deal.

Speaker 2 (01:02:35):
Yeah, I don't know. That's just my that's that's my thoughts. Anyways,
on Chimvy Chase in this movie.

Speaker 4 (01:02:40):
So I think that's a valid point.

Speaker 2 (01:02:42):
Yeah, I think he's a single. I think he likes
to be the star of the vehicles as they were
so too.

Speaker 4 (01:02:49):
I think he would agree. I'm glad those Russian guys
found true love at the end of the film.

Speaker 3 (01:02:54):
That was Yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:02:56):
Yeah, there's a very completely out of left field gay
moment in this movie. All right, John landis everybody. He's
a fan of the queer community, and he's a good ally,
I'm sure.

Speaker 4 (01:03:11):
And he's never manslaughtered anybody.

Speaker 2 (01:03:18):
Allegedly, allegedly, allegedly it was not caught on camera on anything.
I'm just kidding. What Mike proceeds to share link in YouTube?
Do YouTube?

Speaker 4 (01:03:31):
I want to cut that out?

Speaker 3 (01:03:32):
No, no, no, I was just like, well, I'm pretty
sure there was a trial, and I'm pretty sure this
was around the time of the trial they were throwing
him a bone to be like, come on, John, you
can help us out here with this. We'll give you
a job.

Speaker 2 (01:03:49):
Yeah, you're not mired in legal problems or anything. Are
they threatening to take your car? John? Come direct some
movies for us.

Speaker 3 (01:03:57):
I mean October nineteen eighty four, the nts BE issued
its report about the accident, So this was right around
that time.

Speaker 4 (01:04:04):
What's this, sir?

Speaker 3 (01:04:05):
Is been wrapped up? Yeah, Landis Folsey Wingo production manager
Allingham and explosive specialist Paul Stewart were tried and acquitted
on charges of manslaughter and a ten month trial in
nineteen eighty six and eighty seven. They were acquitted. So
why are you guys rest see.

Speaker 4 (01:04:23):
What I mean?

Speaker 2 (01:04:23):
That's why I said allegedly. That's why I said allegedly
because he was acquitted. There's no fault. Those Vietnamese children
went under that helicopter and it landed on top of
them by choice. No one's fumped.

Speaker 3 (01:04:37):
Oh, don't forget Vick mar.

Speaker 2 (01:04:39):
Well, yeah, oh god boy, Father Malone. If you're listening
to this, you're welcome. He hates when we bring up
John Landis and then proceed to reinforce that John landis
not a great person. Well, speaking of that, on the
next episode of the Chasing Chevy podcast, we're going to
be talking about another John Landa's directed film starring Chevy Chase,

(01:05:04):
Steve Martin, and Martin Short, which one of those people
I'm sick and tired of seeing recently for good reason,
Mike White, the Martin Short of it all, Mike, how
dare you more Martin Short for everyone?

Speaker 1 (01:05:20):
Uh?

Speaker 2 (01:05:20):
Yeah, we'll be talking about three amigos. So until then,
where can people find you and the things that you
work on?

Speaker 4 (01:05:27):
Mark Begley, you can find my shows Wacapivy and Cambridgemaean
over on Weirdingwaymedia dot com. How about you, Mike White.

Speaker 3 (01:05:36):
Same thing, Weirdingwaymedia dot com. That's where all of my
stuff is at, except for the one thing that Chris
and I work on with Richard Haddam, which is available
on our Patreon which is ranking on Bond, where once
a month we talk about James Bond films and talk
about guest key chases and g forces and all those

(01:05:56):
kind of things and pigeons that do double takes. Yeah,
it's pretty good. That's over at patreon dot com, slash
Projection booth and patreon dot com slash culturecast. Find it
there and how about you, Chris weird Way.

Speaker 2 (01:06:09):
Media is where you can find this show in so
many other shows. If you are a fan of what
we do here, go check out everything else that we
do because you might vibe with it as well. Like
rate and review any content that you get. However you
get it, be it on YouTube, subscribe and smash that
like button, or on iTunes like and subscribe. Please. It
helps us out. It feeds the algorithm what the algorithm wants. Yeah,

(01:06:33):
and that helps us helps us find our audience. Patreon
dot com, like Mike said, is another great way to
interact with us financially, if that's something that you feel
like we add to your life in a financial way. Yeah,
thank you so much for listening, and make sure to
come back for the next episode where we talk about
yet another film made by a guy who killed people
allegedly acquit it.

Speaker 4 (01:06:52):
Now he's never going to do an interview once.

Speaker 3 (01:06:54):
Did one look me once