Episode 3: Seems Like Old Times (1980)

Chevy's hot streak of 1980 continues with his second pairing with Goldie Hawn.  This time she's an attorney married to Charles Grodin.  Meanwhile, Chevy Chase is her estranged husband who gets set up as a bank robber.  It's a complicated screwball comedy from writer Neil Simon where Chevy spends half the film hiding under beds. 

Episode Transcript

(00:04):
Weirding Hello everyone, and welcome tothe Chasing Chevy Chase Podcast. I am

(00:47):
one of your hosts, Christash you, and I'm joined by my two good
friends all the way from weirding WayMedia's Cambridge and with Sean Mark Begley.
I think the three of us makea wonderful pair, which is a quote
from the movie, but also Ithink describes our relationship how touching and also
joining us all the way from theProjection Booth podcast. Mister Mike White,

(01:11):
I'm not outside eating chicken, that'sfor sure. That was my second choice.
That's my second choice. High Andif you don't know what this shows
about, if you can't tell fromthe title, we are talking about the
films of Mister Chevy Chase. We'vetalked so far about Caddy Shack and foul
Play, and now it's uh nowwe're gonna find out if it seems like

(01:34):
old times with nineteen eighties Jay Sandersdirected, Neil Simon written, seems like
old times? Yes, this isa movie that the three of us watched
and now we're gonna talk about it. Uh believe Heavenly Dog by the way,
Oh my god, I'm a littleI'll stand up for that movie to

(01:55):
my dying day, I guess.So. I don't know if you chose
saw, but Cindy Morgan, whowas in Caddyshack as shoot what was her
name, Lacy? Underall it justpassed away? Oh wow, yesterday,
geez wow, sixty nine even thatold no so so yeah. The depressing
nature of this show aside because Nose, we're talking about how people from the

(02:20):
seventies and eighties. Mark, I'mgonna kick it to you first, what
did you think revisiting seems like oldtimes? Well? I wanted to say
that this is another one of histhat I saw in the theater, and
like Caddy Shak, it came outin nineteen eighty. I don't necessarily know
if I saw it when it firstran. I just know that I saw

(02:40):
it on a visit down south tomy cousin's place, and they lived in
Orange County like a Newport Beach,and we all went and saw it.
That's my strong memory of the movie. It could have been, you know,
second run or a year six monthslater, but we might have been
down there for Christmas or something.That's around the time it came out,
and this was one of those moviesthat I caught on TV or cable or

(03:06):
rental quite a few times, butit's been at least forty years probably since
I've seen it. Yeah, andso there was the overall story I kind
of remembered, and as things poppedup, I was like, oh,
yeah, I remember all this.I remember that the opening in Carmel was
always kind of a big deal forus because that's central coast California and a

(03:30):
lot of people from the valley gothere during the summer to cool off and
be in a nice place. AndI was like, oh my god,
I totally forgot about that. Iwas probably excited about that stuff when I
was younger watching it, and Ienjoyed it quite a bit. It's kind
of SITCOMI and I think that hasa lot to do with the director,

(03:50):
because this was his soul. UnlessI missed something scrolling through his IMDb credits,
which were quite extensive, this washis sole feature film. Everything else
was TV series or TV movies.Possible I missed something. But it has
that feel every once in a while, especially with their stage set, home

(04:10):
and backyard. But then it venturesaway from that and you know when they're
outside and of course they can swearand all that stuff, but that's stuff
kind of bugged me. The wrongman aspect can get annoying to me,
But overall I enjoyed it quite abit. Didn't mind revisiting this one.
That the way he did that damndog movie that I forgot about, which,

(04:32):
speaking of the dog movie, Mike, similar question posed to you.
But seems like old times. So, like we talked about on the foul
Play episode, I used to getthese two movies mixed up, and I
have no idea why because they areso different. Yeah, I mean,
I guess mark to your point asfar as the whole wrong man thing,

(04:54):
because this is a wrong man film, very hitchcock in in that way.
But foul Play is total like HitchcockWhite, whereas with this one it is
Neil Simon is it is a likeyou said, a sitcom. I think
if we turned that dinner set likeforty five degrees or maybe ninety degrees and
we had the kitchen over on theleft hand side or the right hand side,

(05:16):
and had all of the goings onbecause we have all that action in
the kitchen that we don't see,I mean, that's very very similar to
like, well, he've been goingback to Lucy. You know, Lucy
had the kitchen over on the righthand side and then the living room in
the middle there, and they couldalso dine in that area though all of
that stuff. I can definitely seethat. Yeah, this is a just

(05:39):
in time for Christmas movie, asthe trailer says, I'm not sure why
a Christmas movie, but it probablywould have been good for the whole family
to see something for everybody. AndI rewatched this one, like I said,
for the foul play episode, andI really enjoyed it, and I
remember liking it when I was younger. I don't think I had an appreciation
of Arles Groden for a long time. I used to just think he was

(06:02):
a jerk. But then I realizedthat he's playing a jerk, and he
plays a jerk like nobody's business.He is so great at playing a jerk,
and in this one, I cansee why he's angry at his wife
all the time. But also toyour point, Mark and Chevy Chase taken
like fifteen minutes to explain himself andespecially to have a conversation with Charles Groden.

(06:23):
I don't see this movie even existing. They could have found these other
two guys. I mean, RobertYome solves the entire case with a sentence
way late. Yes exactly, butI do think, yeah, that there
is a lot of TV issh tothis. But the one thing I liked

(06:44):
was the introduction of characters through photographs. How he had the idea of or
the introduction of scenes through photographs,the facts image of Chevy Chase, which
is better than any facts image I'veever seen in my entire life. That
being the introduction to the Charles Grodenscene, and then Groden looking at the
picture of Goldie Khan and that becomingthe Goldie Hawn scene. I thought that

(07:06):
was a very nice way to doit, But that's kind of the end
of the cinematics stuff. After thatit becomes much more TV. How about
you, Chris, what did youthink of this one? So had not
seen this before, So this wasa first watch and I watched it three
times. For the episode that we'redoing right now, it I think it's

(07:26):
for me. It suffers because foulPlay is much more fun movie. I
think foul Play is a much moreinteresting premise. I mean, obviously,
you know foul Play doesn't have CharlesGroden, so this movie has that over
foul play. I just what Ifound to be odd about this movie is
you really and you you kind ofalready mentioned it. Both of you have
like all you gotta do is tellpeople what's going on. That's it,

(07:48):
Like it's it. At some point, I was just like, for fuck's
sake, how much more contrived doesthis have to be? And I'm not
saying that I didn't enjoy the movie. I just I really have a hard
time. I'm getting as contrived asthe movie wants me to get because there
is no universe where you if thishappened to you, wouldn't just be like
I'm innocent, Like I'm not goingto keep running from the cops. That

(08:11):
just makes it look like I'm moreguilty than I am. And yeah,
I mean it's a comedy of errors, you know in a lot of ways.
You know, chevy Chase hides undermore beds in this movie than I've
ever seen him hide under. Butthe thing I'm kind of surprised by that
neither one of you guys had mentionedsince we talked about it a little bit
already, what is this chevy Chasepratfalls the movie Like it's oh boy,

(08:31):
so much, to the point whereI am surprised neither one of you mentioned
it because we've mentioned this before,this whole Chevy definitely. Yeah, it's
on my list. Yeah of complaints. Yeah, this stuntman is getting such
a workout in this movie. Imean necessarily, it's like so unneeded and
it's not. None of it isfunny. And I know that all of

(08:52):
it was meant to be funny,because that is at this time in eighty
that's the Chevy Chase shtick. That'sthe gag, but uh, it ain't
fun A bank in the bank inthe garage and the any room in with
a limp eventually like and they're notdone very well. I'm sorry, but
they're not done very well and notdone well at all. And that's the

(09:13):
and that's the thing with this movie. For me, it's like, again,
if I had seen this before foulPlay, I might feel differently.
But I like everything more in foulPlay because the characters don't feel like complete
fucking morons. And here the maincharacter of goldiehun and Chevy Chase, like
she's great and he's great, andCharles Groden's great also, But Charles Gruden's

(09:33):
character is not the idiot character.It's it's the Chevy Chase character and by
extension, Goldie Hawn, because inthis movie, it's like, I don't
know how she doesn't know better,because it's made very clear that she does
know better, which is why she'snot with her husband anymore Chevy Chase.
But yeah, like halfway through themovie, you're just like, why is
she even Like why is Charles Grodenwith this person? He would have left

(09:56):
by now, like because and Imean, especially where the movie ends up
going, Like, the movie doesn'twant to take a stand on Chevy Chase
and Goldie Hawn. It wants usto kind of just be like, oh,
it's fine that she's with Charles Groden, but she also still feels for
chevy Chase, which is fine.It's just I think for the normies out

(10:16):
there, for a lot of people, I think her character just would come
off as weird for anybody just onthe face of it, given kind of
where this movie goes and how thismovie kind of ends. But I enjoyed
it. Like I said, Ijust think it feels a little derivative of
something that again I enjoyed more.But I enjoyed this too. It's just
I didn't enjoy it as much.Yeah, they are really going for if

(10:39):
we were going for Hitchcock in thefirst one in foul Play, we are
going for screwball comedy big time inhere, right, I mean right,
mark your line about the three ofus make a good couple. So many
of these Neil Simon lynes feel likethey're out of a nineteen forties film,
if not even nineteen thirties film.There's a lot of like his girl fry

(11:00):
a type patter that we haven't andhere and that stuff works. That stuff
lands for me almost every single time, and it made me laugh out loud
quite a few times, because Ido enjoy a clever turn of phrase.
But at the same time, it'sjust like, okay, yeah, that
was good, but yeah, justthe overarching plot doesn't hold together, like
had they up the stakes at all, Like when he has been thrown out

(11:24):
of the car and goes to agas station and is trying to get milk
duds out of the gaining machine.It's not coming and then the gas station
tenant shows up. It should havebeen something should have happened there in order
to make it seem like he's somesort of Mad Dog Killer and like really
cemented him into that role. Instead, it's still way too easy for him

(11:46):
to just tell the truth and explainthings away. I wanted it to look
like all fingers are pointing towards himand to make it really inescapable for him
to get out of that situation.More forces needed to be working against him.
If he the guess well him,you know, I've seen later seeing

(12:09):
his face in the paper and goingoh and then calling the cops and say
he robbed me too, And rightright, that trip, I mean,
Big shirt La is a substantial distance, so I don't even know how he
gets to Goldie Hawn's house. Butwalking for two days, mark, that's
what he said. Okay, you'retelling me that the makers of this movie

(12:33):
don't understand California distances. Yeah,so if a person can walk an average
of four miles an hour, ifhe walked forty eight literal hours, I
don't think he would make it there. Wow. Yeah, it would have
made more sense if he'd lived inSanta Barbara. But yeah. The fact
that people have to act like idiotsto make the conceit of the film work

(12:58):
is what drives me crazy, andit's literally the base conceit of the movie.
It is the singular conceit of theentire film, and it's no sense.
Yeah, he's prepared to hold herup, steal the car again,
and keep going. And it's like, why it's not. This is easy
to clear up. There has tobe other footage of these two guys there,

(13:20):
you know, And there was,I mean there literally was to his
I mean, hell, Mickey escapedfrom prison and eventually like hijack's that young
man I think his name was P. W. Herman and ends up getting
a right from him after he breaksout of prison. So this is a

(13:41):
known recidivist. Yes, I mentionedthat. I'm like, hey, Clil
that he's in pee wee. Herman'sa big adventurer, and I said he's
the guy in the car and she'slike, I know exactly what you're talking
about. And he got the shortend of the stick when it came to
the longer version of Dune because II think Jamas is almost completely cut out

(14:01):
of the theatrical version, but forme, he'll always be a good Jamas
may Thy Knife, Chip and shutter. I saw that credit and I was
like, who's that. Oh yeah, yeah, he's very very cut out
of that. Eventually Paul beats Jamas, kills Jamas, and then he gets

(14:24):
his family. He's the guy thatthey liquidate for his water, and then
Paul is in charge of Jamas's waterand also his family, his two sons
and his wife. Huh dude,yes, speaking of real weird. Before
we talk further about the movie,something I wanted to point out because it's
been really bothering me. Ah.The theatrical poster for this movie is,

(14:48):
without a doubt, one of themost bizarre theatrical posters because it makes Goldie
Han look like the Missus Voorhees shriveledhead in Friday the thirteenth two. It's
like it's weird, and like chevyChase is like laughing as well. I
don't know, Like I think,for me, what poster are you looking
at? Because I see when withtwo of them in bed, it's the

(15:09):
one that's the Robert Tannembaum one thathas their heads on the top, and
oh, I have to look forthat because I'm familiar with Goldiehan in bed
next to Charles Groden. There's dogson the round and Chevy Chase is sticking
out underneath the bed with his handsin his hand head. It's a little
variation of that or in bed aswell with dogs Chevy. But then there's

(15:31):
two floating heads above acidtle rectangle andChevy is laughing like an absolute maniac and
apparently, oh I see it,I see it. Nobody what Goldiehan looked
like? She literally like, Idon't know if anyone had ever seen Goldiehan
before making this poster, But Goldiehan, then, now and forever is a
gorgeous woman, and that is notGoldie. He don't have her no,

(15:52):
wow, he don't have her noseright at all. She looks like Diane
Cannon. It's a farophy. Yeahyeah, yeah, yeah, I can
see fair of much more. Andthen yeah, that look at Chevy Chase's
face, Like I said, likeI wanted to point that out because I
didn't know if you guys had seenit, But I just kept looking at

(16:14):
that poster and being like, ifI saw this poster in the theaters and
I was walking out, this isnot something I would readily gravitate towards because
and that's the thing, Like whatI did enjoy about this movie is that
it starts immediately like there's no wastedtime at the beginning of the movie,
But then about halfway through the movie, when Chevy Chase is hit under a
bed for like the fourth time,that's kind of where I'm like, oh,

(16:37):
it feels a little wheel spinning.It felt like this movie's an hour
and forty minutes, and I thinkhe probably could have gotten away with like
ten minutes less of just one moretime hiding under the bed, like we
don't need to see it another anotheranother, another time. Yeah. Yeah,
when he comes back and hides underthe bed, I think one of
the last times, it's so like, why did you give up your earlier

(17:02):
plan? How did you get backhere? Yeah? Why did he come
back? That was my big question? Right, I knew he was going
to be under the bed, butit's like, what happened? It's like
he can't. The last time wesee him before that is him driving off
and he can barely drive. Butand then I think we hear Roden say,
oh he sold my said he sold? Was it car stereo and something

(17:26):
else in the car? Yes?Yeah, yeah yeah. So it's like,
oh, okay, so he's he'smoving, so where is he going
to? And then yeah, whyis he suddenly back here, and I'm
always curious, like I kept lookingfor since this is Neil Simon, I
kept seeing like was this a playat some point point? And I could
not determine that it was a playat any point. It seems like this
was written for this, for thescreen. Yeah, that was my understanding.

(17:49):
So a lot like Murder by Death, I guess. Yeah, yeah,
I have to say I like Murderby Death a lot more than this,
and this too. Also. Ididn't realize just how many times Roden
and Neil Simon had worked together untilI was reading a little bit of Roden's
autobiography, and they got along okay, but they weren't always happy with each

(18:11):
other. But yeah, he hadbeen in TV. Groden had been in
Uh Sorry, The Heartbreak Kid,and quite a few other both plays and
movies that were based on Neil Simon'sstuff. You mentioned his ability to play
the jerk, and I always thinkof his good Letterman appearances in that regardless.
Oh yeah, his appearance in uhSo I Married an Expert? Or

(18:36):
when you're trying to have Adira's cardand she's like, no, no,
it's not quite as pointed in this. I think maybe it's because of your
other point is that, yeah,he's sort of right to be angry with
her, Oh yeah, throughout thewhole movie. And I was missing that
because when I saw the movie,I probably had no real clue as to

(18:59):
who he was or that whole personaof his. But these days I was
expecting him to be a little morebited and quippy with He could have matched
Chevy and repartee, you know.Yeah. And the other thing beside the
Pratt falls, I think that wediscuss about Chevy is the the quips,
and they're like the Pratt falls.This is probably the quippiest so far of

(19:25):
the four movies, including foul playthat we've done, and that whole exchange
in the in his car on theway to the bank, I really enjoyed.
Actually, oh yeah, that's Cheypeak Chevy Chase. Yeah that's what
I wrote down. I'm like,this is this is working for me?
That works, And then I'd likethis whole thing too. How we have
this theme of like the bank robberstalk for Chevy at one point, you

(19:48):
know, every time the gas stationguy another station guy asks him, yeah,
what are you doing and he's like, oh, I'm going to this
place and they correct him, andhe corrects himself, and then you get
that later on where he is fakingfull or Goldie hawn like she's trying to
give a story and he's there correctingher and getting her stuff. So I

(20:10):
was like, that's kind of anice little parallel there between those two scenes.
I mean, I think there's alot of clever things in this I
just don't know if it holds togetherone hundred percent, but I had a
lot of fun going back to itanyway. Well that's the thing, Like
I enjoy where this movie is goingand had I had a sufficiently good enough
time with it. But it islike so much of it takes place in

(20:30):
their house that it does feel likea play. And I honestly wonder like
if this had been a play,if it would have worked better, if
Neil Simon would have shored up someof the stuff that wouldn't have needed to
be there because it was a playand not a movie. Because the character
interactions, for the most part,are solid, it's almost everything else that's

(20:51):
going on, like all of theactual trappings of the plot seem to be
at odds with how well written thedialogue is and be surprising given that it's
Neil Simon. Obviously, like youknow, of people who write for theater
and movies, there are people whoI would There are very few people I
would rather have writing something for methan like a Neil Simon, But this,

(21:11):
I don't know. It's it suffersfor me at least because again,
like what they're inherently all engaged inis not that interesting. In the movie
is really trying to convince us thatthere is a level of threat here to
chevy Chase's character that we should beworried about, because, like we've already
mentioned, if there's no there's notreally an external threat in this movie.
The bank robbers show up at thebeginning, and then they show up at

(21:33):
the end, which also feels contrivedand tact on. Oh end, oh
yes. And so that's the thing. It's like, anytime the movie is
doing anything with the plot, Ikind of check out. But whenever it's
just chevy Chase and Goldie Hawn interacting, or the few times that chevy Chase
and Charles Growen interact, which islimited unfortunately, that's the parts of the
movie that really work for me.But for the most part, there's just

(21:56):
a lot of like it's just aweird movie, because I I know it's
a comedy, but in a lotlike, once about the first thirty minutes
is over, I wasn't laughing asmuch as I was in the first half
of the movie. The first thirtyminutes of the movie, well, they
missed opportunities for jokes, Like there'sthis whole thing of uh. She kind
of gets everything settled with Chivy Chase, He's going to stay in this extra

(22:18):
room, and then she's like,well, I'll take care of the extra
room. The next morning, shewakes up and Charles Groden is gone,
and so she panics. But youhave her in bed and she's like,
you know, oh what's going on? You know, just very groggy and
all this. She should have turnedover and rather than there being no Charles
Groden there that say Bernard should havebeen there because that would have been funnier.

(22:41):
And they're just like there's a lotof times where I was just like,
oh, you missed an opportunity fora joke here, And I'm playing
like as I'm rewriting this movie forpor Nel Simon Rip, it's just like,
hey, you know you've got You'vegot Rosita or whatever her name is.
The You've got Aurora, You've gotChester, You've got all of these
dogs, Like, between all ofthem together, you could so amp up

(23:04):
some of this comedy in here.Instead, poor Aurora feels like she's just
like other than her accent, shedoesn't have a whole lot to do.
I like Chester. I'm really gladthat T. K. Carter isn't in
that in this and I think hedoes a great job. So again,
I wish they could have just ampedit up a little bit more. I
think his scenes are my favorite,just him eating the or derves off the

(23:26):
plate when he's serving, getting drunk, driving the car. All that stuff
to me is wonderful. I lovehim, you know the Chris you mentioned
the external threat, and really theonly threat. It's not like there's a
nationwide man hunt for Chevy Chase.It doesn't even seem like there's a state
white state wide man hunt. Reallyeven recognize him, right. The only

(23:49):
people it affects are Charles Groden andin a way Goldie Han because they're married.
But it's really his threat because he'sgunning for Attorney General of the state.
And so again, clear it upwith him, clear it up amongst
yourselves. When he shows up,Goldie Hon already knows that he's wanted he

(24:11):
explains the story. She does explainit to him, and of course he
doesn't buy it, but just bringhim together to explain it. She tries
to get him to do that,but he refuses. But the whole thing
with the bank robbers at the end, that courtroom scene is completely unnecessary because
Robert Guiom already has the picture ofthem. M hm. So speaking of
contrived them holding up Aurora of allpeople, to do this again, I

(24:37):
guess, is just to initiate thatcourtroom scene of having everybody be there and
the dogs and everything else that's beengoing on the house the whole time.
It's already cleared up. Why arethey even why are they even in court
at that point? How easy didHarold Gould have this role? Is?
He never even leaves the courtroom.I think he was there for like three
four days tops, and shot allhis role right there. Yeah he's great,

(25:02):
though, Ah, he's fantastic.He's always good. No, I
was to say, I've remembered orsince it's been so long since I've seen
it, I figured I knew shewas a lawyer and Chovy's in trouble,
and she's this lawyer with a heartof gold who hires all the people that
she's representing to keep them out oftrouble. You think there's actually going to
be more courtroom stuff because that's herthing, and it would have been her

(25:26):
job to clear his name. Butit's just that end scene or almost und
scene. Talk about the end sceneat some point because it's ridiculous, Oh
my god, but it should havebeen. That should have been the stuff,
like her battling out in court becauseI kept expecting him to get caught.
And then Okay, now we're goingto have the courtroom stuff and she's

(25:48):
got to work to figure out whothese guys are, track them down,
et cetera, et cetera, andthen it just all kind of dis x
Macino's itself into nothingness at the end. What I was open was that all
of these people that work for her, we're going to come together under her
direction or something and be part ofthe finale of the show. Like somehow

(26:10):
they would use the two Native Americanguys and they would track down the robbers
and they would do something, andthen Chester would do something, and then
a rror would do something, andthen the dogs would do something like some
sort of like crazy. I mean, if we're in screwball territory, let's
just do it up. You know, we've got all of these characters.
Let's give them something to do.Those poor Native American guys, they get

(26:34):
nothing other than they they're basically recidiveto this again. They rob the they
steal the guy's car, and it'snot from why. From what I understand,
it doesn't seem like it's a goodreason. You know, they steal
grown his car, and I'm like, oh, well, that's funny.
And then Chevy Chase steals his carand I'm like, okay, well,
give me more, like give mea third car steal. Well, I

(26:55):
guess we do have a third carstealing, but it's a different car.
So I'm like, okay, no, Like again, let's let's use the
genre and really amp up all ofthe proceedings. Well, and that's the
thing like the for me, likeearlier in twenty twenty three, for the
first time, I saw What's Up, Doc, and it's like, like
this movie is like a poor facsimile of that. Like there's no chase

(27:18):
scene in this movie. But Ifeel like given and I mentioned this only
because you just mentioned the thing aboutthe cars being stolen. I feel like
there's a version of this movie wherethere was a car chase, like you
know what I mean, like becauseagain, like it would make sense in
this kind of movie, the kindof movie that they're making, and the
other kinds of movies that have comeout around this time that are doing the
same thing, doing a you know, quote modern day at the time in

(27:41):
the eighties slapstick comedy or like afarce which is exactly like What's Up?
Doc Nails that tone so much betterthan this movie does. I mean,
it's almost unfair to compare them.But I think a lot of it just
goes back to the script and likeand the direction, because again the script.
I what's funny for me is thescript gives charge like Charles Groden nothing

(28:03):
to do literally and it's so weirdbecause he's third build, but it feels
like a Chevy chasing Goldiehan movie withCharles grodenen and as an afterthought, which
in my mind again puts me inthe perspective of Neil Simon. Just it
needed like one or two more passesor there's or there's a different cut of
this movie, which I don't thinkis the case. I think it just,

(28:25):
you know, I just think itit needed another pass because ultimately you
don't get the sense that this isas much Charles Groden's story as it is
Goldiehn and Chevy Chase's story. Hereally feels like the third wheel when he's
Goldiehn's husband, Like, like perthe narrative, he shouldn't be the third
wheel, but because he is,you just don't get enough Charles Groden,
which is unfortunate because what he doesdo in this movie is pretty good for

(28:48):
the most part. Oh yeah,well, it could very well be that
all of those characters that she's helpinghad a bigger role, And we rewrote
this to focus on Goldiehun and ChevyChase, because I know that he rewrote
it during rehearsals and daily rewrites toemphasize their strengths more so. That's why

(29:11):
we get the Quippie and I'm surea lot of those quips were also ad
libd, but we get the QuippiChevy Chase stuff. We get them constantly
coming together, and those minor charactersget sort of shoved out of the way
as the movie progresses. There's alot more of the Native Americans up until
that party, the first party,not the dinner with the governor, and

(29:34):
the the other Hispanic girls that arehelping Aurora. They're all people that she
has represented. And right, Iforgot about them completely, that's how much
they dropped out. Yeah, andthen they just kind of when we don't
need them anymore, but maybe theywere needed later on, and it's just
it got changed as as they weregoing. And let's focus on the Chevy

(29:56):
Goldie stuff because it's they were both, you know, pretty big stars by
that point. I mean, everybodyknows that the real reason you watch this
movie is to is to find outabout one of life's true culinary masterpieces,
which is chicken pepperoni. Which chickenpepperoni, yeah yeah, which is literally

(30:18):
just chicken cooked in like red sauce, like like with pepperoni chunks in it.
I had to investigate because I'm like, is that a real thing?
It's real enough. Half of thelinks that popped up were related back to
this movie or chicken pepperoni, andI thought okay, and then there were
actual recipes, but it's just likechicken parmesan with with pepperoni thrown on top,

(30:44):
you know as the kind of internetrecipes but hers, yeah, I
don't know. And then he throwsthat ivy into it, and I'm like,
do you that might not be edibleor that can toxic. I wouldn't
put that in the thing, butanyway, Yeah, it's I don't know,
Like the chicken pepperoni thing was justin my mind. It it goes
back to this movie just seems reallyall over the place, and that is

(31:10):
and that's one of the like theone of the things for me that was
like I don't need to keep hearingabout this because like the joke, I
don't know if it was ever funnyin this movie, but they they run
some of the jokes into the groundand they don't and like you said,
Mike, they also don't do stuffwith some of the some of the gags
that they have set up, LikeI'm surprised how little they did with the
dogs, Like the dogs really don'teven do anything. And there's like seven

(31:32):
dogs in your house at any onepoint, like again, another opportunity for
something to be mined, and itjust seems more like eh, not not
really, Let's just again like it'sif you wanted Chevy Chase and Goldiehan,
you got it. I just yougotta give them more than nothing. And
I don't know if Neil Simon reallywanted to focus on anything else. But
what's weird is, since you mentionedwhat you mentioned, Mark, if that

(31:56):
were the case, why isn't everythingbetween the two of them the best part
of it movie? I mean,I guess it kind of is. I
asked the thing, like the whatis the ultimate strength of this movie?
Because for me, the strength ofFoul Play was the interactions between Goldie On
and Chovy Chase. But those trappingsof kind of a noir movie also help
in this movie. While they're finetogether, every interaction that they have feels

(32:17):
very one note, like they neverfeel like they're actually because by the end
of the movie, I guess we'reexpected to believe that they could get back
together. I guess, like Idon't, like, I can't even really
figure out what this movie wants forthe characters. And because I can't figure
out what the movie wants, whatNeil Simon wants, having a hard time
understanding why they do the things thatthey do, it's just a lack of

(32:38):
tangible character motivation. Think that wastacked on. I have to believe that
was attacked on, ending because againit doesn't really make sense. Oh why
that makes sense? No, itseems like the end is, you know,
at the courthouse steps and Charles Grodensays, okay, you can get
her a kiss, and of courseit goes on too long and he starts

(32:58):
to move toward them. Actually,Charles Groton says, I don't want you
to kiss my wife. Yeah that'strue. Yeah, yeah, And they
do it anyways. I mean,like, I mean, Robert Gillolme has
to like hold Charles Groden hold eatingthe shit out of Chevvy Chase. It's
so tonally like, well then thatbut that whole setup of them in bed

(33:19):
and got him Charles Groden saying,hey, let's just take a trip and
let's go wherever. Right, andagain they're leaving from la in the middle
of the night when it's raining andsomehow get to Big surr which is like
five and a half six hours ona good day drive from you used to

(33:40):
working in the middle of the night, remember all those rabbits she was killing
in the middle of the night,and ends up in his bottom, Like,
what in the world is this andthen that goofy smile, that freeze
framed smile of hers at the end. Yeah, that's that's what they used.
That's the frame they used to createthose posters. Chris, I just
figured it out. Oh is it? Yeah? Got any references? I've

(34:06):
got any reference material I can usefor her face? Oh that's perfect.
Yeah, she's so cute and theface that she makes is usually very cute.
But that end shot just like,she looks bad here, what's going
on? It looks like it lookslike a horror movie, Like it fades,
it fades to blue, and she'sjust like looking proper rain drenched,
which like, what's Yeah, it'sit's such a strange. It's such a

(34:29):
strange conceit what this movie really wantsout of us, which is to believe
that Goldie Hawn is really reconsidering beingwith Chevy Chase's character, who is by
all intents and for all intents andpurposes, a complete fuck up. Like
we we never even get the sensethat this guy, like because they talk
about him being a writer over andover again. He's a writer, He's
a writer, writer, writer,We get it. He was in Mexico,

(34:50):
and it seems like there was maybelike miscommunication and he went to Mexican
jail for two years. Like,like it either this guy is the most
unlucky human being on the planet oryou should stay far away from him because
he cultivates chaos wherever he goes.And I think it's the latter, And
that's why like the ending, Likeit's just it's so weird that this movie
needed Charles Groden at all, becauseI think, like I think, by

(35:14):
having Charles Groden it makes this movieworse because it hurts the narrative even more
because there's no realistic way that ChevyChase and Goldbihan end up together at the
end of the movie. Then thatthe movie wants us to get there so
badly that they hijack their own narrativeto get us there is unnecessary to say
the least that, or Charles Grodenis in the car with a broken legs,

(35:38):
what are they gonna do? Boinkfor a couple hours and be like,
oh shit, I forgot yes,you know if that ending reminds me
of Mike. I don't know ifChris has seen this movie, but when
they approach the cow in the rainat night, I'm thinking, oh,
this is are we going into motelhell territory here? I kept thinking of

(35:59):
that they're going to find Frankenstein's Castleand that they'd be in Rocky or Picture
Show off. I would have preferredthat to what we got is a line.
I know, Charles Groad and GoldieHan. Boy, that'd be something,
wouldn't that. Yes, Well,And that is the thing, like

(36:20):
Charles Groden and Goldiehn have really goodchemistry together because she plays such kind of
like I mean and again like Idon't know how much is this character and
how much is this just Goldie Hawn? But she plays such a free spirit
in the things that I've seen herin that he is such a wet blanket
of a human being. That theywork really well together, playing off of
one another. That's why when she'sopposite Chevy Chase, it's like they're both

(36:43):
kind of competing for screen time asopposed to being complimentary. And they were
complimentary in foul Play. But that'salso because that was a Goldie Han movie,
Like at its core, it wasa like And that's the thing,
like I don't can this is reallyis this Chevy Chase's movie more than anybody
else's or this is Goldie Hawn andChevy Chase's movie, because it's not Charles

(37:04):
Groden's movie. That's for fucking damnshare. It feels very much like this
is chevy Chase's movie. That sheis, there's billing, of course,
but that she's introduced. Third,it feels like we have already established chevy
Chase as a character, and thenwe even establish what's going on with Grodin
even more than what we do withher, because her court scenes are pretty

(37:24):
light when it comes to I mean, we just get the explanation of I
hire the people that I defend incourt, right, which is fine,
but yeah, it's it honestly feelslike there's just stuff missing from this movie,
like additional scenes that I think wouldhave helped flesh out the narrative a
little bit more. But that's theother thing, Like they wrote themselves into
this corner and by day, Imean Neil Simon, that's the thing.

(37:45):
Like, I just I don't knowwhy you needed to have so many moving
parts here, and I don't knowwhy chevy Chase had to keep coming back
over and over again, because that'slike that's where this movie drags. For
me. Is this kind of tiredbullshit of Chevy Chase Hunt hiding under the
bed and we have these like extendedcharacter interactions on top of the bed and

(38:07):
it's supposed to be funny because he'sunder the bed and we know it.
But Charles Groden doesn't like how manytimes can you do this gag? Because
the first time, okay, fine, the second time all right, third
time, holy shit, and thefourth time it's like, all right,
we're I'm good. I'm good.Even if he's not under the bed,
they're still playing those scenes like heis some of them, and it's just

(38:28):
like, why do we need tosee these same scenes over and over again?
Because Charles Groden's character, given thathe seems like a smart human being,
would have left. He would havejust left. He wouldn't continue to
put up with this weird ass behaviorfrom Goldie Han because again, like that's
the thing. You see her characterbefore Chevy Chase shows up, and she
seems rather well put together, andthen the moment he shows up, he

(38:49):
derails everything, like systematically derails everything, and Charles Groden just is like,
okay, fine, Like my wifeis enamored with this other man that she
used to be married to, Iguess I'm okay with that. It's like,
don't just don't include this character,just just have Goldie Honby single and
just and you know into it.Yeah, I guess. Well that's the
thing, like in this day andage, like you could remake this movie

(39:13):
and make it about that, theinteractions between three people that are in a
weird, non conventional relationship. Ijust don't think in eighty they were really
able to tackle it, if theywere trying to tackle it at all,
which I don't think they were,Like, this is not a Lucky Lady
situation. No, there's no implicationhere of anything between the three of them
the way it is and Lucky Lady. So that's the other thing, Like

(39:36):
maybe that would have been the pivotis pivot a little bit and lean on
the idea that like the like thethree of them together work better than the
two of them together, and likethey don't even go there. So I
don't know it, honestly. Justthere's a lot of really strange opportunities that
are taken and ones that are missed. Speaking of the under the bed scenes,
the one that drove me crazy waswhen Groden was standing on Chase's thing

(40:00):
and repeat the whole entire thing andkind of flubs it though, And I'm
like, you're not on his face? Couldn't you have ady r that so
that it came out a little sharperand cleaner and he stutters through it And
I don't think that's really supposed tobe his character. It's like they took
the actual, you know, sourcesound and just use that dialogue. And

(40:22):
I'm thinking, man, this couldhave punched. This could have been a
lot punchier. It was weird.It seemed odd to me. Yeah,
I can't disagree with that because thatwas odd that just to have her explained
everything and then have him re explainit back to her line by a line
by a line. I was like, Wow, you couldn't condense that somehow

(40:44):
like this it went on for waytoo long, and just that static shot
of the foot on the finger andwith Jevy Chase doing all those hand motions,
I'm like, yeah, okay,this goes on for a long time,
Jay, you might want to cutaway from this. Yeah, it
was her face even just like withlike a you know, oh my gosh,

(41:04):
what's going on here kind of thing, because we don't even know if
she sees that happening. Frankly,yeah, there's no indication, and it's
kind of funny. At one point, Croden says, or Ira, his
character says, you could have pointedunder the bed, and I think I
would have figured it out, right, And it's like, yeah, you're
kind of giving away one of yourown mistakes in the movie here right right

(41:25):
well, and and the other Iguess the other big conceit for me that
I have a hard time wrapping myhead around. And again this is just
like a yeah, they're like missed. I don't know, like one of
those like that guy movies or youknow, man a man in Trouble movies
is like the Charles Charles Groden's characterin this movie. Like again, like

(41:45):
I have a hard time believing theidea that he's going to be in such
trouble. If Chevy Chase is onthe land for stealing money, like this
guy is the attorney general of thestate, is gonna be the attorney general
of the state of California. Ireally don't think this has any bearing on
his life other than the fact thatthis guy is in your fucking house now
and your wife is aiding in abetting a fugitive. Yeah, that's a

(42:07):
problem. Now it is. Nowit is, But like beforehand, he's
just like no, no, no, no, no no, I have
to deal with this now. Andthat's like I don't think I have to
get him. I had to.I mean, I guess that's the conceit
is. He's it should be clearerthat he is on the hunt for him,
right because of you know, beingGlinda or what is her name,

(42:28):
keeps calling her Glenn Glenn. Yeah, I guess it's Glinda. Could be
Glenn or Glinda her first husband,and this and that, you know,
make it really adversarial instead of justmore of a jealousy thing. It seems
like, well can't even figure outwhat it is because again, like Charles
Groden lets his wife get like fullon tongue kissed at the end of the

(42:50):
movie by Chevy Chase and Robert Gielmholding Charles Groden back is fine. But
I just I find I like I'mwith you. Market's like, I find
this a little hard to believe becausethe movie itself never lays down any sort
of rules for what this is supposedto be, what this relationship is,
or what even Chevy Chase and Goldiehans'srelationship was before this all happened. We

(43:14):
never get a sense of like howdid they they got divorced? Why?
Like that's the question, like becauseand that's the other thing, Like I
can never figure that out because themovie, for all the times it says,
well, this is my ex husbandNick, and this is my ex
husband, this is my current husband, we never really get a census to
why they weren't together because when they'retogether, yeah, she seems a little
put upon, but I mean,she still manages to exist in her world

(43:37):
without Chevy Chase. But when heshows up, the movie wants us to
believe that, like he is somesort of chaos introducing force into her life.
And it just it all seems selfinflicted by Goldie Hawns character, And
that makes her again seem like aneven bigger dumb character in this movie seemingly
full of big dumb characters and notdumb in a fun way. Is he

(43:59):
even good writer? Like he's upthere at that cabin writing Did he ever
write that story about the Mexican drugdealers? Did he write a Pulitzer winning
story at all? In his career? Is he working on novels? Now
have his novels sold? Is heone of these guys that dicks around and
says he's going to write the greatAmerican novel and never does, or has

(44:20):
a manuscript twelve thousand pages high thatno one's ever going to read, Like
what kind of person is this guy? We don't really know? And yeah,
to your point, why did theyget divorce? We get a little
bit of that, but not anythingCotton Creete where you're like, Nick,
you are always doing this, Nick, You're always doing that, and then
at the end like, oh I'vechanged. No, he hasn't changed.

(44:42):
He's the same Nick. And it'sthat lack of character arc in this movie
that really just rings true to againthe idea of like I just wish Neil
Simon had gone over this one moretime, because then again, I mean,
if you really wanted this to bethe Chevy Chase and Goldie Hawn movie,
then I think you really need tolean on that more and not have
them separated because she's with someone elsefor a third in the movie, namely

(45:05):
the Charles Groden character, not becausethey don't have any like worthwhile interactions.
It's just her and Chevy Chase areso good together. You wanted to see
the two of them, and it'snot a Charles Groden isn't a talented actor.
It's just their chemistry is really good, which is why they're in this
movie together. Yeah, they're tryingto recapture the same magic that they had
before, but putting them in thissituation doesn't work had it been more of

(45:28):
a sequel to Foul Play rather thanwe're just gonna take these two actors and
put them together. And I knowwe get that a lot. I know
that we have. Like I didn'trealize how many movies Julia Roberts and George
Clooney have made together until it wasasked in a trivia contest, and I'm
just like, ah, the Ocean'smovies. And then I'm like, no
memory of any They're movies that they'vedone together, which apparently has been like

(45:52):
four or five. So I'm like, oh, okay, But it's not
like, oh, they made sucha great impression in Ocean's eleven that I
want to see them in more moviestogether like these two where it's like,
oh, wow, foul Play,that was great, Let's see them in
more stuff. And that is whythis movie exists in my opinion, right,
because but it's like it's a lesserversion of that because of primarily just

(46:15):
the plot. Like the performances arefine, but it's just the plot gets
so contrived after about the first halfhour that, yeah, the movie it's
almost feels like the movie is spendingmost of its time trying to convince you
why he hasn't just done the obviousthing, Like why hasn't he just done
the obvious thing? Oh, becauseher husband's the Attorney general and he doesn't

(46:36):
like Chevy Chase, so that's why. And it's like and he won't believe
him. It's like, oh,come on, Like I don't know,
Like Charles Groden's character doesn't seem thatimplacable. He seems like he could be
reasoned with. And that's again,like that's a failing of the script for
not like we've already mentioned writing thecharacter a further off the dial character.
He's just not he needs to beI guess he needs to be more of

(46:58):
an asshole, is really what itis. Like Charles Gruden's character needs to
be more of an asshole in thismovie like eight Well, and you see
it with Goldie Hahn where he's likefreaking out at her, but he when
he's around chevy Chase, like,this guy has every right to like sock
chevy Chase the fucking face over andover and over and over again, and
he doesn't because again, like that'snot what the script necessitates, but it
should have, because at least wewould understand that, like this guy just

(47:20):
doesn't want to deal with it withher ex husband anymore, and he just
seems like, oh my god,I guess I'll just let him have his
fun until he chooses to leave,versus me just being like, get out
of here, out of our livescompletely. Here's what they could have done.
That picture of the two bank robbersthat Robert Keome gets could have been
introduced way earlier and Groden buries it. And that also kind of makes the

(47:44):
end courtroom scene makes sense, wherenow they have actually done it to Aurora
and it's the same two guys andthey drag you know, and there's no
getting around it. Robert Killome knowsthis, he recognizes their faces front the
picture, et cetera, et cetera, so that that would make Groden more
of an asshole. And now he'ssort of invested in this and that he's

(48:05):
covering it up, and there's moretension there other than just I don't like
him because he was my wife's firsthusband, and it would make the courtroom
scene, I think also work alittle bit better, and that there's really
no point in that courtroom scene bythen, because Groden knows and Guillon knows
that he was accompanied by two othermen, So that I think would work

(48:30):
a little better. Yeah, makehim in two villain. Yeah, at
least of a jerk. I mean, that's you know, it's like,
that's what the movie wants us tothink. And that's the thing. It's
like, he's he's such a strict, authoritarian husband who just doesn't understand his
ditsy, lovable wife who takes careof all these people, and he hates
the like and he hates the dogs, and he complains about the dogs all

(48:51):
the time. It's jew Yes,five five giant dogs, one of them
being my future co star in avery pop with children's which I did find
to be rather funny that there's likea giant sa Renardist. I didn't even
make that connection. I remember thefirst time I met Beethoven, it was
on the set of Seems Like OldTimes Neil Simon actually introduced us. Yeah,

(49:15):
but I did laugh at that,But no, I agree, like
I think Charles Groden should have justbeen I don't know, like it's believable
to have him be the villain andhave Goldihan leave him at the end of
the movie if that's the direction youwant to go, and I think that's
the direction. The direction they shouldhave gone is just make Charles Groden the
character that Goldiehn leaves at the endof the movie. Because we've seen plenty

(49:37):
of those kinds of movies plenty oftime where it's oh, you're back and
you're a changed man now, oror I love the lifestyle that you you
know enabled, which was like literallyfucking chaos twenty four to seven, as
opposed to Charles Groden, who Imean again is like a seemingly normal human
being with seemingly normal human being reactionsto your ex wife's husband showing up and

(49:59):
refue using to leave your house,effectively breaking and entering and living in your
house like Charles Gruden's character. Really, yes, should have been the villain
of the movie, but justified likea like understandably so, because again,
if your wife was just kissing someother random guy that was not really random.
It's her ex husband. You'd bepretty angry too, and he's just

(50:20):
not angry enough. It's just forall the Charles grodonness of the movie,
there's not enough of him doing thatthing that I think he's really known for.
I think the movie really needed it. Yes, yes, yes,
have some, Yes have some.The short the short shrift given to Charles
Grodin. Yeah, yeah, Imean we have seen this before in so
many other romantic comedies. Like Ifelt so bad for anybody that wanted to

(50:44):
go out with Meg Ryan in theeighties and nineties. You know, it's
just like, oh, this guy'sboring, or this guy has allergies,
and it's just like, just becauseBill Pullman has allergies, it's okay to
dump his ass. I don't getthat at all. So yeah, there
were a lot of times just like, no, this guy's very like Grotin
can do dickish so well, aswe've continued to say, to just amp

(51:07):
it up a little bit, becauseas it is in this movie, I'm
just like, no, he's totallyin the right, you know, like,
yeah, he might want to giveChevy Chase a little bit of the
benefit of the doubt. But ifyour ex wife's husband starts coming in like,
oh I had all these crazy thingshappen to me, I'm like,
the fuck out of town, youknow. Or let's think you to court
and get this stuff all sold outfor you. Yeah, I'm trying in

(51:30):
court. I mean, yeah,find those two guys, let's do it.
I'd rather just have it. I'msure this can't be the first time
this has happened, right, right, that's the whole deal with them.
I'd I'd rather have my leads justact like idiots instead, like all three
of them at odds with one another, constantly unable to like figure out even
the basest of base things, eventhough two of the three people in the

(51:52):
scenario are lawyers, by the way, like literally, that's the other thing.
It's like they they're supposed to besmart and yeah, yeah, you
would have thought they'd just be like, well, we'll just do this,
this and this, and you'll befine and like and again, and given
that the pictures already exist, it'sjust I don't know. The movie feels
like it's spinning its wheels for almostthe entire time, which is so strange

(52:13):
to me because again, given howmany times Chevy Chase is under the bed,
given how many times Goldiehan almost tellsCharles Groden but doesn't until she does,
It's just I don't know. I'mshocked that this movie just didn't have
a stronger narrative because the performances areare fun, but I'm just surprised that
the narrative just kind of meanders andby the end of it, you're just
like, Oh, I forgot thatthey haven't dealt with the other bank robbers

(52:37):
yet, but they did, butthey didn't. It's like, and I'm
not sure I care enough about themto see their story through at the end,
because the story kind of gets handedoff to Chevy Chase and Goldie Han.
So why do we need to goOh, because, like we've already
said, they have to have everybodyin the court room at the end of
the movie. Because slapstick comedy.Okay, it's the sitcom conceit. That's
why it's sitcomy to me is everybodyhas to act a certain way to propel

(53:00):
the story. Like you said atthe beginning, Chris, if we don't
do that, then we don't havea movie right right, or it needs
to be just a lot sharper,yeah, and clearer written. And there
are ways to do it where itmakes sense for him to constantly be hiding,
like Mike mentioned, to have himactually do more crimes or be suspected

(53:22):
of more crimes, more mistakes thatmake it look like he is an actual
criminal, you know, a repeatoffender, and go that way to where
it's like the state, the wholestate is actually trying to track him down
because from Big sur to LA he'srobbed all of these gas stations, he's
the hijacked cars, he's carjacked people, whatever. But then he's too big,

(53:45):
then he's too much of a badguy, and he loses our sympathy,
I guess. So you know,everybody has to be kind of likable
in this, it seems yeah,yeah, yeah, and that's the downfall.
Yeah, I totally agree. Itends up. Yeah, you really
can't have a movie like this withoutone of the love triangle trio being kind

(54:07):
of the one you don't want tosee end up with someone at the end
of the movie. And it's justit's not yeah, it's not there here
And I don't watch romantic comedies veryoften, and it's not for any particular
reason, but I've seen enough toknow that again, like this movie is
really operating on some of like thetropius tropes of rom coms, and like
you mentioned, Begley, one ofthe big ones is characters having to act

(54:28):
in a what I would consider tobe naive or even one consider stylized way
of like just not using what somany of us would consider to be common
sense, Like oh, you know, it's the thing in the movies where
it's like two characters sitting on abench talking and one's like, I'm leaving
for I'm leaving to go out overseastomorrow. Is there anything you want to
tell me? And they sit thereand stare at each other and the one

(54:49):
character wants to say I love youbut doesn't, and they know if they
just said it, that person mightlike stick around. It's like, you
know, it's a narrative, sowe get that, and and that's fine
at all, But you I don'tthink as the screenwriters care enough about going
further into those ideas and really exploringthem at it's surface level. But in
my mind, if it's surface level, don't even introduce it, because that

(55:13):
means you've you've examined it and decidedit's not worth your time, which I
would disagree. It's completely worth yourtime. I mean, go back and
watch His Girl Friday and just seehow they treated like the Ralph Bellamy character
where he's a nice guy, buthe just is no match for Cary Grant
in that movie, when you've gotRoslyn Russell and Cary Grant and they are

(55:36):
just going back and forth with thisamazing banter. And then you've got Ralph
Bellamy who's just kind of like aoak from a skogie type of character.
We're just like, what is thisguy's problem. He's a nice dude,
but he is no match. Likeyou can tell, like these two characters
belong together, and this guy isdefinitely like the safe, you know,

(55:58):
kind of steady life type of character. And I don't get that Goldiehan is
missing that craziness that she had whenshe had Nick. It's not like you
look at those two and you're justlike, oh, they belong together.
I'd much rather see her and CharlesGorodon have a good time at the end
of it, because Charles Groden deservesto be happy to It's always the squares
that get left in the dust.Well, you know, what they say.

(56:22):
I'm pretty sure Chevy Chase and goldiehandon't have a lot of They might
have a lot of fun together,but I don't. Again, like she
divorced him for a reason. Ithink the movie forgot about that. That's
the thing. It's like, it'sjust the narrative of the movie is so
weird because again, it goes It'snot that it doesn't go in the directions
that you would think, it justdoesn't really go anywhere with any of it.

(56:44):
And by the end of it,the movies like see, see they
should be together, See they shouldbe together. It's like, no,
it's fate at that point. Yeah, Charles Groden's femeral artery has been cut
and he's bleeding out in the backof a car like this is There are
bigger things that play here than Chevycha and Goldie Hawn's relationship. And you
mentioned we mentioned the chevy Chase physicalstuff. I'm so glad he didn't do

(57:06):
the limp throughout the whole movie because, oh my god, it's like all
the Chevy Chase physical comedy stuff inthis movie was just too much for me.
And I think it's because they reallyrely like I wonder if Neil Simon
when they realized they were getting chevyChase's like, I got to punch the
Pratt falls up like a thousand percentnow, but they're none. But it
feels it feels that way. Itfeels like someone who doesn't know how to

(57:30):
do it doing it the way thatthey are doing it, thinking that it's
going to just work, because chevyChase falling down has some like strength of
comedy to it. But I don'tknow. For me, I've never I've
never been the one to resonate withthat version of Chevy Chase, the falling
down constantly. It's always about thequips. One of them worked for me,
and it was falling down the stairsout of the mother in law house

(57:52):
in the back. That one workedwhen Aurora catches him and makes him fall.
That's the only one that worked forme. It makes makes sense.
Well, and again that's the stuntman. You know, you get chevy
Chase falls, but then you getthe stuntman falls, so like the being
thrown out of the car or fallingoff of the when he's going up to
Trellis Trellis. Yeah, Yeah,there are a few of them where you're

(58:14):
just like, Wow, this isreally bad. Like they don't even try
to do like a Texas switch withthe Trellis one. I thought for sure
it'd be okay, stuntman falls,Chevy Chase comes out of the bush type
of thing. Yeah, no,they just cut and that's how they transition
to from that stuntman to Chevy Chase. But yeah, it's the stunt guy
was definitely getting his pay for thismovie, that's for sure. Thank you

(58:37):
unting that Trellis Texas switch because thatshit made me laugh. So because we've
given how many times we saw ita naked gun where this where this show
essentially came from, Like that mademe laugh because I was like, that's
a Frank Drebin thing done really poorly. They do try a little bit in
the toss from the car, hegets to roll down some sand for an

(58:58):
insert shot, so try to coverit that way, which was I appreciate
it a little bit, but Imean even that roll down the hill could
have been extended to make it justridiculous. Ridiculous, right, I'll make
done. Just have it be likethe tallest hill in that part of the
state, you know, rolls pastthe couple having a picnic, Yeah,

(59:21):
rolls past like somebody else. Yeah, it should have been yeah a lot,
somebody using the metal detector, allkind of stuff. Yes, Yeah,
they don't work. They don't landat all for me. And I
know I've said it probably on atleast one of the episodes we've already recorded,
if not both, that physical comedyis the lowest common denominator of humor

(59:44):
for me. It just never lands. And that's just me. And I'm
sure that there are people now andthere were people back then in the theater.
Every time you fell, they laughed, but it I don't know,
it's never worked for me. That'sreally unfortunate, Mark, because I don't
remember Under the Rainbow being full cerebralcomedy. Oh. I'm sure there's going

(01:00:05):
to be plenty of these movies wherethat is, you know it. I
mean, you know, having seenthree of the Vacation films, I can
safely say that it's not all that. And especially Christmas Vacation, the physical
humor is done very well, superbly, what mighty That one actually works for

(01:00:25):
me pretty much all the way throughuh European Vacation I haven't seen in forever,
but and even the first vacation.I think most of it is is
done well and it's not the focus. So but I'm sure there are others
that I haven't seen where that's goingto be the go to to get a
laugh, and it most likely isnot going to work for me. I'm

(01:00:47):
and that's the thing, you know, because I hadn't really thought about that,
that style of the chevy Chase performancewhere he is doing the pratful because
again, like I didn't watch usin l as a kid, like I
mean, I did, but itwas like the nineties, so it wasn't
that same time, And the onlychevy Chase that I saw was in Fletch,
and Fletch doesn't Fletch has a couplebits of physical comedy. But I
feel like by that time, Ithink everybody understood that, like the thing

(01:01:10):
that is going to really put ChevyChase over the top and these performances is
his ability to you know, likead lib and do like improvisational like quips
in comedy because I don't know howmany of those are in the script and
how many of just him doing it, because I know, as do both
of you, he is really goodat that kind of stuff, at just

(01:01:30):
being off the cuff like that.And yeah, Like I'm not gonna say
I didn't laugh during this movie,but I laughed a couple times early on,
but primarily in the anytime that chevyChase feels put upon early on in
the movie, like the thing withthe like Verda mentioned the gas station attendant
where he's like grabbing his leg likestuff like that, but like that's the
physical stuff that worked for me withchevy Chase, like trying to get the

(01:01:52):
gas station attendant's attention, Like that'sthe kind of physical comedy. Not yet,
not him flying out of windows androlling down hills like he's fucking what
was it our sideo at the beginningof an Amazon Woman on the Moon,
It's like, yeah, it's likethat, but like that that actually works,
Like that's actually funny in this movie. I honestly feel like the pratfall

(01:02:13):
stuff doesn't serve this movie at all, Like it's it's out of another movie
completely. Yeah, it's his shtick, you know. I know we kind
of talked about this scene a littlebit already. The car I guess it's
sort of not really a chase.But when Chester tk Carter runs the stop
sign and we've got the cops,and we all know, and Goldie Han

(01:02:35):
knows at that point that Chivvy's inthe back Chester might as well, and
he has a blanket, but whenthe cop is at the window, he's
holding it up like this, Yeah, and you can see his hands and
the top of his head in thecorner of the frame, and I'm like,
why isn't he just under the blanket? That was so bizarre. What
about this man in the back ofyour car? Yeah, right, what

(01:02:58):
is he? Dowey? That opis Jack Lemon's son. I think that's
Christopher Lemon, huh. And itwas kind of weird that he was the
cop from the night before, butthe other cop wasn't right. I found
that odd. Yeah, that thatwhole thing. Like again, I thought
the cops are going to be muchmore of a presence in this movie,
and especially how they're outside and youknow, watching the house. So it's

(01:03:22):
just like, well, that's that'spretty smart, that's pretty cool. And
oh she forgets about them and bringsthem the chicken accidentally. I was like,
okay, but yeah, I wantedthem to be a force, but
they just kind of they're there andthen they stop them for the traffic and
somehow believe their bullshit story and startto take them to where they take them

(01:03:43):
to the hospital or to yeah,court because she can't keep her story straight.
But one of them too, Yeahright right, they're getting an escort.
That's all I caught from that.I'm like, oh, I think
I missed a line of dialogue.I think that's it for them. I
don't think they ever come back.No, that's it. They're done then,
which is odd because they're in consecutivescenes. They're there at the party

(01:04:06):
and then they're there the next morning, same cop or one of this.
She doesn't even recognize. Yeah,he's like, oh, thanks for the
chicken. She said, what.Okay, Hey, characters have to be
stupid, you know. Yeah,no offense either to Marvin Hamlish. But
I kind of missed this not havinga cool Berry Manilow theme song. I

(01:04:27):
really was hoping for that, especiallywhen it starts off with like that helicopter
shot over the water and everything.I was like, where's my Verry Manelo
song? Yeah? Apparently, AndI don't know how much I believe this,
but Paul McCartney wrote a seems likeold Times tune that was supposed to
be used, that wasn't I knowhe has a song called Seems Like Old
Times as well. I know thatthey're friends. Who's at Paul? Uh

(01:04:51):
wait, did you say Paul McCartneyor Paul Simon? Okay, I'm I
meant Paul McCartney. If I saidPaul Simon, I misspoke. But well,
I I was thinking of both becauseI know that. Well, this
doesn't mean that they're friends, butI'm pretty sure that there's a music video
that you can call me out.Well no, no, I think there's

(01:05:12):
also a music video for Spies LikeUs where Chevy Chase plays a record producer
in it for the Paul McCartney song. Oh okay, yes, because that
was the title song with Spies LikeUs that not to be out done by
Livin Let Die. But okay,yeah, it's like that definitely was a

(01:05:32):
theme song. I mean, LoveLet Die has a great Paul McCartney reggae
section, so oh yeah, Iknow you like that the best whole song
as far as I'm concerned. It'sthe best James Bond song. So I
agree it is okay, I agree, but that doesn't mean I can't look
at Paul McCartney and go why wereyou doing the reggae thing? Man?
I love it because music is theinternational language. Oh god it okay,

(01:05:58):
fair, it's not cultural creation,cultural appropriate. I wasn't even going there.
I just think it's funny to hearPaul McCartney do reggae as all bla
dah. Also fair. Yeah,I don't know. Again, like I
didn't have any expectations going into thismovie, but I definitely think the movie
just I feel again like I feellike for me, the movie just could

(01:06:21):
have been better if everyone involved hadtaken the time to just shore up the
script because they had the right ideawith the with with casting the right people.
I mean, at least the twoleads and Charles Grodin, who doesn't
have anything to do. Unfortunately,Robert Gilloma is underused. I love him.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, Imean I think T. K.

(01:06:41):
Carter gets gets enough screen time.The Aurora is great. You know,
we've got to have this sassy Mexicanhousekeeper in there, pretty much a seventies
and eighties staple. She's a chicken. I was really open that TK Carter
would call somebody Buana in this oneas well. Oh yeah, great,
honest, honestly, the the TKCarter character is, he's he's like he

(01:07:04):
almost steals the movie. He's somuch fun, Like he is having a
great time. You can tell,like just being in this movie with the
people that he's you know, starringopposite, which he's opposite everybody because he
gets to interact with everybody. Ithink he, for me might be the
best part of the movie t K. Carter, because again, like I
haven't seen him in a lot.I know he was an Amazon woman on

(01:07:26):
the moon, and I know obviouslyhe's in the thing, but this is
like a pretty extended performance from him. He's great. I would say he's
definitely one of my favorite things aboutit. And I didn't realize he would
be in it that much. Tobe honest with you, I knew he
was in it. We discussed thaton one of the other episodes. But
he's he's in it quite a bit. He's in it a lot. I
mean, he's almost a third lead. That's less Charles Groeded and more him.

(01:07:48):
Like he's really in a lot ofthe movie. He's even in the
courtroom at the end opposite and sayshi to the judge. Wait. I
love that bit when you know we'retalking about the whole thing of like all
Chevvy Chase has to do is explainit and it would all go away.
That's true. But I do likewhen he says that out loud and he

(01:08:09):
says, is that how it works? Schester and T K. Carter right
back with not my neighborhood? Yeah? Yeah, like that was good.
That was good. Yeah, yeah, they get so they get some decent
progressive stuff in there. And then, of course, but except for calling
the Native Americans Indians the whole timeour Indian, my Indian, Your Indians

(01:08:30):
Indians? Yeah, your your Indiansis a good one. What is she
says something to Chester at one pointtoo. He calls her boss and she's
like, don't call me bost didn'tyou see roots? Right, that's like
the first interaction that they have witheach other. Yeah, alrighty, anything
else we want to talk about withuh? Seems like old times? No.

(01:08:51):
I think we did good. Almosttaught the entire length of the movie.
Yeah. The one gag. Theother gag that I also appreciated is
when Chevy takes the bone to thethroat in the kitchen when she opens the
door. That was good. Yeah, that was the other sight gag or

(01:09:11):
practical gag. I liked. That'sabout it. Well, I don't know
if Under the Rainbow has a lotof sight gags. It might. I'm
sure it does, Sure it will. But that is the next movie that
we are covering on the Chasing ChevyChase in a Chevy podcast, it was

(01:09:32):
dry. I cried. I'm excited. I'm excited to see this mess.
This is one I have not seenat all. Same I've heard. I've
heard about it, that's all Iknow. And it has Chevy Chase and
Carrie Fisher, which seems like aweird pairing to me. But I'm sure
it's a great movie. I'm surewe're gonna have a great time with it.

(01:09:55):
They will probably have very little problems, right, It will all be
very politically correct. I'm sure wecould hate a little person on this episode
and they would just be like,yeah, all checks out, all good,
it's all true. Yeah. Hey, it'll be another pairing of Billy
Bardy and Chevy Chase yeat wait yeah, although they didn't interact in foul play,

(01:10:15):
but just keep thinking about foul playwhen we're watching this movie. I'm
excited to see Kerry Fisher in somethingother than a Star Wars movie. To
be honest with you have ser shemight be partially undressed in this movie,
not as much as she was anAmazon Woman out in the moon. But
yeah, now one of those wildHollywood parties like you see in that or
Star Wars Return of the jedi'st Itor I may have to rewatch Amazon Women

(01:10:43):
on the Moon because I don't rememberthat. Yeah, there was part of
the She's in that VD movie sectionand they show some of the wild parties
that they're in where it's like allthe women in like like skimpy, but
not that skimpy, you know,like it's very very team since it's supposed
to be from the Night teen fifties, I think, m Yeah, so
one with Pearl Paul Bartel where he'sthe doctor and yes, yes, and

(01:11:06):
with the cigarettes exactly. I forgotyou guys weren't on me with that episode
that was Father Malone. Yeah,I watched that with Yeah, yep,
yep, yeah, Carrie Fisher.Yeah, I'm excited. So uh so
until then, where can where canpeople find you and your assorted works?
Mister Mark Begley, You can findme at wakeupavy dot com and Wheredowaymedia dot

(01:11:30):
com for both of my shows WakeUp Heavy and Cambridge and with Sean and
on social media at Wake Up Heavyon where can people find you? On
X? At Wake Up Heavy,I was gonna say my handle on all
social media and to find me thelocal gas station on X if you know
what I mean, Mike, whatabout you? Where can people find you?
And the things that you work on? I was talking to a co

(01:11:50):
worker who insisted on calling it X, and I just said, what is
wrong with this guy? And thenlater on he was talking about what he
likes to do for fun and howhim and his kids are really we like
to send up rockets into the chemtrailsso we can see what heavy metals are
in there. No like, ohno, wonder you call it acts?
Okay, okay, all right,all right, this makes sense. Oh

(01:12:13):
my god. We'd to the wiseif somebody you know calls it access out
of Twitter, go the other way. So yeah, I'm on there as
pro boothcast and other places. AT'sProjection Booth podcast because yeah, on weekends
and Tuesdays, Thursdays and Friday afternoons. Every other week, I work on
a podcast called The Projection Booth andalso I am on a podcast called The

(01:12:38):
Shabby Detective, and I'm super excited, Chris, because I am about to
go upstairs and watch the next episodeof Colombo so we can talk about our
favorite rumpled detective. Both of thoseshows, as well as a lot more,
as available over at Weirdingwaymedia dot comand Chris, how about yourself?
Well, similarly to y'all, Ican be found over at weirding Way Media.

(01:13:00):
Yeah, Culture Cast, which isa weekly show, a bunch of
weekly shows on two weekly shows,My My, My, My, two
weekly shows I Guess and then ourmonthly and other shows are all there,
so go check them out, givethem a listen. If you're into movies
or TV shows from the seventies withcops, that might be here. I
don't know what our thing is withseventies. Yeah, oh yeah so that

(01:13:21):
yeah. Where this, uh,where this random little project essentially came from,
was the three of us going,let's talk about naked gun and we
did. And all that can befound at weirding Way Media, including this
show that you're listening to right now, so uh yeah, until until the
next time you hear us, We'llcatch you on the next episode.