Episode 9: Fletch (1985)

In this episode of Chasing Chevy Chase, hosts Mike White, Mark Begley, and Chris Stachiw dive into Fletch (1985), the comedy that solidified Chevy Chase as a comedy icon. Directed by Michael Ritchie and based on Gregory McDonald’s bestselling novel, this film gave Chase one of his most beloved roles as the wisecracking investigative reporter Irwin M. Fletcher. From the film's sharp dialogue to its quirky disguises and unforgettable one-liners, we explore how Fletch became a cult classic and why it still stands tall in Chase's storied career.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:04):
Weird. Hello everyone, and welcome to the Chasing Chevy Podcast.

(00:46):
I'm one of your hosts, Christashie from the Culture Casts,
and I'm joined by my two good friends all the
way from Cambridge and with Sean and Wake Up Heavy,
Mark Begley.

Speaker 2 (00:55):
I have no interesting quote this time with this movie.
You didn't have a quote. I know, Jesus and also
go ahead. I was just sitting there watching it and going, oh,
I gotta remember to get my quote, and then I
never did.

Speaker 1 (01:08):
And also joining us all the way from the Projection
with podcast Mike White.

Speaker 3 (01:11):
You can call me ten new Gent for this episode.

Speaker 1 (01:14):
Victor Hugo, maybe God, oh, Jesus Christ, and Yes, on
this episode of the Chasing Chevy Podcast, we are going
to be talking about nineteen eighty five's Chevy Chase vehicle
comedy thriller based on the book of the same name,
based on in the heaviest of quotations, because in this movie,
he doesn't have sex with a fourteen year old. We're
talking about nineteen eighty fives fletch. So the film is

(01:35):
directed by Michael Ritchie, written by Andrew Bergman, based off
the book of the same name by Gregory MacDonald. It
is a long running series of books. This is based
off of the first book, not the chronological first book,
because he would release two more prequel books before this
book explaining how he got himself into this situation. And
the character in the film is played by Chevy Chase.
The film also stars Jodn Baker, Dana Wheeler, Nicholson, Richard Libertini,

(01:57):
Kareem Abdul Jabbar, and Tim Matheson. George Went is in
there as well as Fat sam And. The film is
about Chevy Chase playing the titular Fletch, a investigative journalist
who stumbles upon a beach drug front problem and that
is hired to kill a man sight unseen who has
been looking at him all week on the beach and
he thinks he's a drifter, so he hires him to

(02:18):
kill him. And that's where the intrigue begins. So I'm
going to kick it to you first, Mike thoughts on Fletch.

Speaker 3 (02:25):
So it took me a long time to finally watch Fletch,
and I knew that this was a favorite of yours,
So I finally sat down and watched it. Yeah, just
a couple of years ago. Maybe I could go through letterbox.
I don't pay for letterbox, so I don't know if
I can actually see you when the last time out,
I think you can.

Speaker 2 (02:42):
Yeah, you can tell.

Speaker 3 (02:44):
But this was my second time watching it. Yeah, put
up my Chasing Chevy Chase hat and sat down and
watched this one. Also listen to the book and always
wanted to hear how the book was. I was very
familiar with the books for Fletch, just because Gregor and
McDonald is pretty close to John D. McDonald, and it's

(03:07):
been looking around and used bookstores and kept coming across
these Fletch books.

Speaker 2 (03:11):
But how do you think I read John D. McDonald
by accident? It's a literally that.

Speaker 3 (03:17):
And then I don't know where Ross McDonald fits on
this whole thing. But at some point we're gonna have
to talk about a Ross McDonald project here. But yeah,
I think that that Avery Bergen did an amazing job
adapting this. I think that he really outdid himself with
the way that he crafted this screenplay, the way that

(03:39):
he changed up what was going on in the book.
And then we'll talk about that later on a little
bit more. But yeah, I had a lot better time
watching this the second time than the first time, and
this is another one of those kind of like vacation
where I'm like, oh, I can see where this could
be somebody's favorite movie easily, especially if you grew up
with it. I could see where, you know, it's very

(03:59):
cool and really, I think this might be the ultimate
Chevy Chase movie.

Speaker 2 (04:04):
What about you, Mark. I think I've mentioned that it's
one of the ones that I haven't watched all the
way through. I have seen quite a few of the
scenes on their own in various ways. I feel like
I may I may have, although last night when I
was watching it, there was a lot that was totally unfamiliar.

(04:25):
I may have seen it at a friend's house back
in high school or college, because I know a couple
of my high school friends this was their movie. Caddyshack
was kind of my Chevy Chase movie at the time.
This was their Chevy Chase movie, and they would quote
those lines steak, sandwich, et cetera, et cetera all the time,

(04:45):
and I feel like I, at some point one of
them had to have had it on when all of
us were over. But I never actually have sat myself
down to watch it on my own on purpose. Before
doing it for the show, and like Mike, I can
see why this would be a favorite, and especially for

(05:07):
teen boys that sort of I'm the smartest man in
the room attitude, but not really the smartest man in
the room, and I think that works well with teen
boys in particular. Not that teen girls or older women
or old men can't like this movie, but it hits
that that demographic I think pretty hard. It's not of

(05:32):
the movies that we've seen. It's definitely one of the better,
but it's not my It's still not my Chevy Chase movie.
I enjoyed it, I get a little tired of his
constant sort of over the shoulder remarks. It just doesn't
They don't hit with me very very hard.

Speaker 3 (05:47):
I don't know, I can totally see that. I just
think that this role matches his skills, yeah, better than
anything that we've seen so far, and I believe he
feels that way too. Yeah, how about you, Chris, tell
us your long and sordid history of Fletch sorted.

Speaker 1 (06:03):
This is one of those movies that I saw on
DiveX growing up, and there was like a large group
of movies that I remember seeing on DiveX growing up
that have made a significant impact on me. This was
one of them. Maul Rats was another, Basketball was another.
I mean, yeah, this is one of my favorite movies.
I you know, just to get it out in the
open and out in front of it. I've done an

(06:25):
episode on Fletch before on the Culture Cast with Father Malone.
We did an episode on I think Fletch Fletch Lives,
and then I know we did Confess Fletch, the one
that came out with John Hamm I think two years ago. Yeah,
I mean this is one of my favorite movies. I
think this is up there for one of my favorite comedies.
I mean, I agree with both of you that Chevy Chase.

(06:45):
I think this is the best he's been. I think
this is the best. I think I agree more with
you Mike than Mark, but I can see where you're
coming from. Mark. Obviously, I think this is the best
thing we're probably gonna watch the whole time we watch
anything here in terms of it being the fit for
Chevy Chase, because I think that this.

Speaker 2 (07:01):
Role is the role for him.

Speaker 1 (07:03):
He's a single guy, he's a smart ass, he's motivated
at his job but not too too much, and he
has a devil may care attitude about pretty much everything.

Speaker 2 (07:15):
So I like the character a lot. I think chevy
Chase works in this role.

Speaker 1 (07:18):
I mean again, I think we talked about it when
we did vacation, like, it's hard for me to take
this guy seriously as someone's dad, but I can take
him seriously as a single investigative journalist who's been divorced
and his ex wife hates him and you know, all
these things. I could believe all of that because.

Speaker 2 (07:34):
I don't know.

Speaker 1 (07:34):
Chevy Chase just has that energy, which is fine. I
mean some actors just have that energy. Another actor that
I think about when I think of having a specific
kind of energy, as William Hurt, he always has a
very specific kind of energy and everything that he's in
and it is always very muted for the most part,
and very reserved. Chevy Chase, he always is kind of
doing the same thing. I mean, at this point, we've
all said as much or alluded to as much in

(07:57):
our show, but this is the first time where it's like, yeah,
he's he's kind of just the solo man doing his
own thing, and I think for whatever reason that works.
I mean, it's again, he needs to be kind of
aloof at all times for his style of characterization to work,
and I think it works here. And yeah, I mean

(08:17):
I understand also mark where you're coming from with the
like over the shoulder comments being a bit much or
anything like that, Like, yeah, I mean there's a lot
of pupp and taco you know, don't talk to me
like that, ass face. I don't work for you yet,
Like there's a lot of that in the movie. And
obviously it can become a lot, a lot too much
for some people to handle because again it is just
kind of here, do you own rubber gloves? I rent them?

(08:38):
Like shut the fuck up, dude, Like but like I
get it. But at the same time, that for me
is the appeal of the character. But I understand also
like just finding it to be at times grating, if
not just like can you just.

Speaker 2 (08:51):
Stop for two seconds.

Speaker 1 (08:52):
It's like the thing that we've seen with Chevy Chase
where he bumbles and fumbles around. It's like, Okay, we've
seen this before and we don't need to see you
do it every movie that you're in, and he does
it here too. But yeah, unfortunately, you know, again I'm
a little biased, so I'll be as unbiased as I
can in this episode, and I've been able to do
that before when we talked about Fletch. But yeah, I mean,
it's one of my favorite comedies and I would put

(09:13):
it at the top of the pile for stuff that chevy.

Speaker 2 (09:15):
Chase has done.

Speaker 1 (09:16):
Yeah, and yes, I saw it as a teenage boy, Mark,
So thank you for calling me out directly.

Speaker 2 (09:23):
Hey, at least there was no gazuntite line in this one. Yeah. Yeah,
I was waiting for that.

Speaker 3 (09:29):
Did he drop something and then like hop back up
from the bottom of the frame and like kind of
bobble it because I don't remember that. That's another thing
that I gets his head.

Speaker 1 (09:38):
He gets his head, He gets his head caught in
that like ceiling lamp at one point.

Speaker 3 (09:42):
There you go.

Speaker 1 (09:43):
That's about as That's about as much as we get
in terms of like prat falling nonsense and at the
tennis court.

Speaker 3 (09:48):
I guess yeah, you know.

Speaker 2 (09:49):
It's it's interesting that you mentioned that about not being
able to see him as a husband and dad and
I I think I don't know if it was after
the last recording, it was sometime fairly recently. I stumbled
on either a post on Instagram by him or by
his wife or by his daughter, and I was not
aware of this, but he has been married to the

(10:11):
same lady since nineteen eighty two and they have like
two or three daughters. He has a house of women,
he's a girl and and his Instagram is just like
all about them. And I was like, it just didn't
jive with the image that I think you're kind of
you know, reporting on here that you get from his films.

(10:32):
And it was interesting. It was just a it was interesting.
I had no idea, not that I thought, you know,
he had, you know, was running through the divorce mill
in the eighties or one of those types. But I
don't think I've ever heard anything about his family life
in you know, since I've been a fan of his
since the late seventies early eighties, and that he's now

(10:55):
longtime spouse and girl dad like like Mike said, well,
it's interesting because again I think, uh, the way he
has portrayed himself and been portrayed in things would lead
us to believe otherwise. But I don't know.

Speaker 1 (11:10):
I don't know if he's ever been problematic for any
reason other than his own reason.

Speaker 3 (11:15):
Yeah, he writes in it all the time. Yeah, it
is only I think that's why you would think that
he's a fuck up in his real life, because it's like, oh, well,
I'm going to leave SNL because I'm bigger than the show.
I'm going to hell carry grant names on the television show.
I'm going to you know. I mean, if he didn't

(11:35):
have a drug problem, surprised. But it feels like Chevy
Chase was probably doing some Bollidian marching powder during the eighties.

Speaker 2 (11:43):
Yeah, somebody owes candy. I'm pretty sure that's.

Speaker 3 (11:46):
But the thing about Fletch that I really clicked with
this time is that it's a very solid story, and
I think you know that all of that, well, a
lot of that goes back to I almost MacDonald. Why
am I blanking Gregory.

Speaker 2 (12:02):
Greg Gregory McDonald or Andrew Bergman.

Speaker 3 (12:04):
Okay, all of that goes back to I guess it
is McDonald. All that goes back to McDonald. But then
with Bergen Bergman, he really does a great job of
pulling it together, even more so in the book. It's
two very separate mysteries, but it's very smart that he
takes that separate mystery makes it into part of the
first mystery, so that it's just one big story, and

(12:28):
that it helps Fletch move into the story from a
different angle rather than the one that he had where
he just was completely stuck being out on the beach
this whole drug story that is investigating. Eventually when he
gets approached by Stanwick. Alan Stanwick, that the Tim Mathsen
character that suddenly opens up another way into this mystery

(12:48):
because he tied the two things together. Bergmann tied the
two things together in the book. They are two very
separate things, and they eventually get tied together. Spoilers for
Fletch the book. They eventually get tied together because in
the book, Fletch's blonde and Stanwick is brunette. That's right,
and then Stanwick dyes his hair so that he can

(13:13):
basically impersonate Fletch. He's going to fly to Buenos Aires
with his childhood sweetheart and her son, and then that's
when the Jodahn Baker character shows up and just shoots
right through the chest of Alan Stanwick thinking that he
was Fletch, so he didn't get a good look at him,
and that's how the two cases come together. Yeah, otherwise

(13:35):
they were completely unrelated. So I'd like that say that
Bergman combines those two things, and really, I think that's
very smart. I always like that these two cases are
actually related type of thing. I mean, I'm a big
fan of La Confidential. You know, your case is my case,
but it's just one case.

Speaker 2 (13:52):
And I like that about the movie. I mean, you're
you're completely right.

Speaker 1 (13:55):
I mean, I think at the end of the day,
if you if you actually take Chevy Chase out of
this movie and put someone else and who was not
nearly as comedic, and I'm not saying with the same script.
I'm saying, take the fact that it's a comedic actor out,
which means the script will not be nearly as comedic,
if at all. And I think it's just I think
it's just a solid, like journalist story really like because again,

(14:15):
I mean, there are times where he is threatened with
his life that don't feel like put on, especially with
the Jodahn Baker character. And yeah, there are some stakes
to it, and like you said, they do have this
kind of through line between the two, which I am,
like you, I appreciate that immensely. I think that that's
well done storytelling. And yeah, Andrew Bergman, I think a
lot of the credit for this movie has to go

(14:35):
to him because, like you, like you've alluded to, the
book's great, but the book is very different.

Speaker 2 (14:41):
The book is very dark.

Speaker 1 (14:42):
I mean, he fucks a fourteen year old in the book,
like and he has really no compunction about it, Like
it's it's just kind of part and parcel of the
job is the way he makes it kind of sound
when he's describing it, because in the book, it's just
he's he's a very different character. And I don't even
when i've when i've because I listened to all the
books couple of years ago, I don't even see Chevy

(15:02):
Chase in the role in the book.

Speaker 2 (15:04):
It's such a different character.

Speaker 1 (15:05):
And it's you know, the first couple books existed before
the movies came out, and then the other books start
coming out after the movies have come out, and so
the character feels a little more in line with Chevy
Chase once you get past the movie books or after
you get to the books past the movie. But yeah,
I never see him as that character when I read
the books. It's such a different He's not as comedic

(15:28):
in the books, and it's not as like broadly comedic.
It's more riley comedic. It's a little bit of kind
of you know, oh, he's you know, yeah, Ted NuGen
or something, but that he's not showing up like a
giant fucking ten gallon hat and a mustache. I mean,
you know, that's the thing in the movie. There's a
lot of the physical comedy is added into it, which
kind of allows for chevy Chase to there is some
physical comedy. Actually, you know, there's a thing where he's

(15:50):
stepping on the where he's like fumbling and bumbling around.

Speaker 2 (15:53):
Getting dressed up as like a nurse and stuff. I mean,
there is some of it.

Speaker 1 (15:56):
But for the most part, this movie leans heavily on
the fact chevy Chase is a comedic actor and takes
the narrative in a direction that the book would never
have gone, because that character is very different.

Speaker 3 (16:07):
It is strange though in the movie, just the level
that he goes to, like, yeah, he puts on some
scrubs at one point, and okay, puts on some scrubs
at one point, and but for the most part, it's
you know, oh, I'm this name, I'm that name kind
of thing. And then suddenly he puts in the big
fake teeth in the wig. Yeah, like oh, Okay, really

(16:29):
up in your game here for no real good reason
other than just to be funny, I guess. And then
he goes for a few more like, oh, I'm so
and so you know I hit a water buffalo. Can
I borrow your towel? All these things, and then suddenly
at the end dresses up. Is basically it looks like
Richard Libertini he when he's in that like guru skating
pointing or roller skating outfit. I'm just like, Wow, you

(16:52):
really outdid yourself just to go back to the beach,
dear Fletch. And I don't even know if there was
a reach of the reason why Fletch had to be
a disguise to go back and talk with Gummy at
that point.

Speaker 2 (17:04):
Well, I think it went back to the last time
when the cops kind of beat him took Gummy away.
That was my But the get up itself seemed a
little excessive because he hadn't really other than the airplane
mechanic or whatever he was trying to do. I'm like,
why are you These people don't know you Stanwick does.

(17:26):
I guess maybe it's in case Stanwick was there or something.
But I always think in my head that every scene
is gonna include a costume or disguise, because I have
seen those particular bits where he is or they were
in the ads, or you know, they show clips from
the movie, they show the Lakers game, which is really

(17:49):
just a fantasy, but you always see that image of
him in the afro. Thank god they didn't put him
in blackface.

Speaker 4 (17:55):
Oh god, Yeah, because they mentioned something about him growing
up in Harlem and the in the voice over the
you know the commentators sports commentators lines there, and I'm.

Speaker 2 (18:06):
Like, oh, thank god they didn't do that. Yeah. I
always felt like, oh, he's in a disguise every time,
because that's just part of his stick. But it's really not.
It's it's sometimes he's that. Sometimes he's just dressed a
little differently. But yeah, when he rolled back into the
office with that beard, I'm like, oh, was he supposed
to be his boss? You know, Libertini in this with

(18:29):
the patch and the big glad. It wasn't just me. Yeah,
oh yeah, he kind of looks like him, but the
outfit sort of threw me off.

Speaker 1 (18:37):
You know.

Speaker 2 (18:38):
I was just gonna say that point you made about
the end of the book where the cop shoots Stanwick
on accident is is so much more poetic, and but
it makes me think of how Silence of the Lambs
was streamlined and streamlined so well for a movie where

(18:59):
they kind of cut some of this and you know,
took out a lot of the Catherine stuff and added
to this other character because it makes more sense than
I'm like, Okay, it makes sense that these converge at
the end, because I was like, are they going to
shoehorn these together or do these stays separate? And then
when they showed Jodhn Baker in the car that Stanrick

(19:19):
was walking back to him, like, oh okay, so we're
connecting these right, had no idea about whether they were
in the book or not.

Speaker 3 (19:26):
But when Burton gillim is like, oh yeah, he drives
so much he could be flying to South America, I
was like, oh, okay.

Speaker 2 (19:34):
Right, right, right, yeah, he uses so much fuel. And
then I was like, oh, well, that's what he's part of.
He's part of the thing too, right. So then was
it by chance that he caught that he picked Chavy?
I guess it was. I guess it was. It's supposed
to be literally, it's supposed to be chance.

Speaker 3 (19:50):
Yeah, right, oh, and that's another thing that they change,
which is well, for better or for worse, which is
so In the movie, it's Missus Stanwick that gives Chevy
a suit and says, oh, you're about the same size
as Alan. You know, you're about the same height. In
the book, it's after they fuck she goes, oh, you've

(20:11):
got the exact same bone structures. Alan. She's much more
chased in the film, which I think just speaks to
the era that we were in at that point. She
was not, you know, out there for hunting for bear
as it were, and which she definitely is in the book.
She is flirting with him incredibly much in the first

(20:33):
time that they meet, and then yeah, of course they
end up getting together. But I have to say I
haven't seen nearly enough Diana Wheeler Nicholson, because I thought
she was great in this movie.

Speaker 2 (20:44):
She had a real genuine like effervescence or something, and
it seemed like she was genuinely cracking up at just
you know, sort of out of character cracking up. And
I don't know if that's just good acting or if
she really was, but she just had a pleasant demeanor
and put up with the snarkiness really well. Plus, she

(21:05):
also has a subtle kind of similarity to Beverly D'Angelo,
So I that's you said. It go on down the
line here. I actually prefer her chemistry with Chevy Chase
to Beverly DiAngelo's because I feel like she actually pushes
back on Chevy Chase a little bit. Yeah, which I
appreciate because again, the thing about the character of Fletch

(21:26):
really is the best characters are the ones that push
back on his bullshit and don't let him just kind
of walk.

Speaker 1 (21:30):
All over them with it, right, right, So she's great.
I mean, everybody in this movie is great. I mean
you've already mentioned Burton Billiam, who many of.

Speaker 2 (21:39):
Us thrown those said that time movies.

Speaker 1 (21:42):
Yeah, many of us from North Texas will will recognize
Burton Gilliam as the guy who sells Fords now, which
is a real thing because in Texas he goes doesn't
matter how you get here, folks, just get here, And
it is literally Burton Gilliam dressed up like his character
from Blazing Saddles too. On top of every else.

Speaker 3 (22:01):
Take a letter to the main office and tell him,
I said, oh, saying why our main office tell him?
My said, ow, it.

Speaker 1 (22:12):
He's great, He's great. I mean mm At Walsh has
a great scene with Tibbie Chase the Moon River. I mean,
my god, Kenneth mar Is another person we've seen in
a bunch of things.

Speaker 2 (22:22):
What kind of name is poon? Twoyes looked up at
me and he said his name at the beginning of
that scene. I'm like, yeah, I think you heard that correctly.

Speaker 3 (22:33):
Jeeves Avery showing up in here too, I love that man.

Speaker 2 (22:38):
William Sanderson's in here too? Is swarth that of all things?

Speaker 1 (22:41):
Just like a there's a random cutaway to William Sanderson
on the phone.

Speaker 2 (22:45):
For a second, I thought it was our man, Tracy Walter,
and I was like, oh, another one. And then I
was like, oh no, it's the other guy. It's the
other guy. And then we Tony Longo. Tony Longo, just
a year prior, was playing a high school senior in
sixteen Candles.

Speaker 3 (23:04):
Wow, And how strange is having Geena Davison here. Her
role is Larry and there is no Larry in the book.
So I was like, was she Larry in the screenplay?
And they just gender swapped, like just brought her in
because he doesn't have an assistant, doesn't have anybody, it's

(23:24):
just him. And also going back to the book story
to keep doing that. He fucking hates his boss and
she does that stupid thing that Libertini doesn't here by
putting out like feeling out the story and seeing if
the cops have something to comment on, which almost gets
him killed. And in the book he's super angry at

(23:44):
the woman editor. But I think he barely does anything
to Richard Libertini in here, and I think Libertini, his
character should have been way smarter.

Speaker 1 (23:53):
Yeah, as was it telling the coughs, just outing chevy. Yeah,
it's so weird. That's one of the weirdest stories beats
for me because like you're this, you're in an you
know that this guy does investigative journalist under a pseudonym
and just gonna be like, hey, by the way, La.

Speaker 2 (24:08):
Why would you tip your hat? Yeah, it didn't make
any sense to me either. I'm like that seemed really
really dumb.

Speaker 1 (24:15):
Yeah, it's the one part of the movie that I mean,
I like the scene with Jodn Baker in his office.
I hate Tommy Lasorni punches the fucking thing like that's
all that in Those interactions are great, but it always,
in my mind, feels really forced because of Richard Libertini's
character making a bizarre decision that makes no no, no
logical sense in the in the scope of the script,
and especially given if this were a serious story, your

(24:38):
editor would not do that. It's almost like it's done
because it's a comedic story. But that scene is like,
oddly not comedic. When he's like in the jail side,
like I'm gonna stick myself with this knife. I'm gonna
shoot you in the head.

Speaker 2 (24:48):
Oh wuch, whoa, whoa whoa movie like, what the fuck?
Calm down?

Speaker 1 (24:53):
But that's the thing, Like it's weird because those two
kinds of things don't rub well together. And it's those
scenes in this movie that for me watching it this time,
they didn't work because I was like, why is this
in this movie? Like this is not needed to The
steaks are already there. We know that there are stakes here,
and I don't think his editor outing him is a
good idea, and it makes no sense in a story

(25:16):
from a story perspective, even.

Speaker 2 (25:18):
It's he gets a little heavy for the rest of
the tone of the movie, but I thought, yeah, I
mean I can I can handle those versions. Every once
in a while and if it makes sense, but yeah,
it was. It seemed a bit much up to that
point that to the rest of the tone of the film.

Speaker 3 (25:34):
It's just give me a little PTSD. The first time
I ever got into a car accident when I was sixteen,
and the cops are questioning me, and they apparently didn't
like my attitude. So they're like, you know, we could
take you out someplace and beat the shit out of
you and it would just be your word against ours.
I'm like, wow, that was I was sixteen years old

(25:54):
at the time. Really didn't like cops ever since then,
so they wow, Yeah.

Speaker 1 (26:00):
Yeah, dude, I don't like cops either, and I really
don't like him now Jesus. Yeah, yeah, I mean this
is also I mean again, the LAPD dirty cop thing.
I do like that bit, I mean I do. I
do like the idea that you know, these I mean again,
cops don't get paid enough, right, So this is how cops.
You know, at least these kind of corrupt cops make
up the differences selling those drugs on the side.

Speaker 3 (26:22):
But it's amazing. Sorry, real quick, I was just looking
at Geena Davis's career and before this, she was just
doing tiny little things like you know, showing up in
riptide Buffalo Bill, you know, which we said like in
all these episodes a Buffalo Bill, nice rider, family ties.
And then it's like she hits Fletch. And then the
next movie, our favorite Chris Translving, the six five thousand,

(26:46):
and then boom, it's like the Fly Beetlejuice Earth Girls
are easy and accidental tourists, and I think she gets
an Oscar nomination for as accidental tourists. It's like, what
a run.

Speaker 2 (26:57):
She just speaking of William Hurt.

Speaker 3 (26:59):
Yeah, exactly.

Speaker 1 (27:00):
Yeah, she's great. I mean, she's great in this, but
this comes so early in her career, Like yeah, but
but but she has a standout in the movie, which
I think also helps with where she would be going
with her career, because yeah, Jana Davis is one of
the I consider her to be one of the I mean,
she's one of the great actresses period. But yeah, this
this seems to be kind of a turning point for
her career.

Speaker 2 (27:20):
Now.

Speaker 1 (27:21):
George Weiner, on the other hand, maybe not so much.
I love George Weiner as the as the attorney who's
just waiting out on the Lunai as one would say.

Speaker 3 (27:32):
Yeah, there's I don't know if you guys had a
chance to look at the extras, but there's some really
good extras for this on the Keno Blue ray, including
one I mean that's the really great making of but
they have this rapping story of Oh, I'm going to
be Fletch and I'm going to track down all these
people and they know it's just really embarrassing. The interviews

(27:54):
are great, but the host and just the way that
the host is kind of shoehorned in there, because you
can tell he's not where all of these interviews are
taking place. And I just I wonder if something happened
and they had to hurry up and replace them. But yeah,
that was bad. But yeah, I was amazed at how
many people they got for these extras to talk with them.

(28:15):
I mean, they didn't get Geena Davis, but just about
everybody else. Yeah, oh and Chevy Chase. Of course I
couldn't get Chevy Chase. But this was when Leberghini was
still with us, so that was good. The extras helped
me with was so in the poster, there's all of
the little IDs of the people and you see everything

(28:36):
other than the hockey one. I think, right, you don't
see him play hockey in the movie, right, Okay, And
I know that on the extras they had deleted scenes.
There was one of him with Tommy Lesorda, there's him
in the hockey outfit, so there was a lot more
to that. So it kind of goes there what we
were saying, Mark as far as I expected disguises all

(28:58):
the time.

Speaker 2 (28:58):
Well, and then I think Libertini mentions when he's kind
of running through the checklist that the item I the
itemization that there was a gorilla suit, So I wor hereious,
I'm like, was that a cut scene?

Speaker 3 (29:12):
Well?

Speaker 1 (29:14):
Well, and then you have the the I would say,
the part of the movie that feels like again another
like why is this here?

Speaker 2 (29:20):
The thing with Kareem abdul Jabbar. Yeah, yeah, Jimmy.

Speaker 1 (29:24):
Chase all of a sudden just starts daydreaming that he
plays for the Lakers six foot four with the afro
six foot seven. Uh.

Speaker 2 (29:32):
It's so weird because again like it's what does it
have to do with anything?

Speaker 1 (29:37):
I don't know, but just talk about the Lakers, right,
Well that's yeah, but this isn't any place for the Lakers.

Speaker 3 (29:44):
No, No, definitely not.

Speaker 2 (29:46):
Yeah, the thing on the wall in his apartment. I
always wanted that as a kid growing.

Speaker 1 (29:50):
Up, was like that is the coolest ship where he
just has the basketball fall down. It's like this guy's
like an adult man child like yeah, yeah, I don't understand,
go ahead, No.

Speaker 2 (29:59):
I was like, say, I wonder how many takes it
took for him to do the wish when he's walking
through the door with the beer. I don't know how
they never thought Ryan Reynolds couldn't play Fletch, Like.

Speaker 1 (30:10):
You know, I could see that because like in the
day and age that we live in now, where you
and I are going to record an episode talking about
the latest Deadpool movie after we're done with this, Pithy's
smart ass characters are still than They're more a thing
now than they probably ever have been, given how popular
a character like Deadpool is, And in a lot of ways,
this version of Fletch in the movie is Deadpool adjacent.

(30:32):
Like again, he doesn't necessarily break the fourth wall, but
he does because he narrates it, so that's technically like
fourth wall breaking. So I don't know why they never
went to that, you know, well, I mean it makes sense.

Speaker 2 (30:47):
Who they got.

Speaker 1 (30:47):
I mean, John Ham's great in the role, but chevy Chase,
I think embodies the role in a way that it's
hard to divorce him from this role in terms of
all the things that he's done. This is the chevy
Chase role for me, and I understand why for so
many other people it is too. But it is a
specific note. It's almost one note that he is playing
the whole movie, which is fine, but that one note

(31:10):
just seems to work better than I think a lot
of the other notes that he's being forced to play
in something like Modern Problems or Under the Rainbow as
it were.

Speaker 2 (31:18):
Very true. Yeah, yeah, and the end of the Rainbow
episode just dropped, so I was kind of listening through
and I was like, yeah.

Speaker 1 (31:27):
Well, and the other thing is and we talked about
veneration again, right and Mike, you and I does a
couple of weeks ago.

Speaker 2 (31:34):
This movie also is very similar to Beverly Hills.

Speaker 1 (31:37):
Cop, Like, oh yeah, like he's he's he's a journalist
in this movie, not a cop. But I mean Axel
is doing all of the you know, the he's doing
the disguises without the disguises, I.

Speaker 2 (31:48):
Guess, you know, impersonation.

Speaker 1 (31:50):
Yeah, like, yeah, making up characters on the spot. But
chevy Chase takes it upon himself to dress up like
the characters. Axelf never does that at times.

Speaker 2 (31:59):
That's yeah. We were talking about that when you were
off off camera. The sometimes he's disguised and sometimes he
isn't right right, that's fair. Yeah, yeah.

Speaker 3 (32:09):
Well the other thing that really helps tie these movies
together is that incessant Harold Faltermeyer's score too.

Speaker 2 (32:14):
God, Okay, I love the Harold Faltermeyer score. I mean
it's great, but it is very much yea of the
things that I remember about this film. Once that started playing,
I was like, oh my god, this I know this,
I know, and you know some of the scenes rang

(32:36):
a bell. But and I by the end, I was like,
I'm ready to put a screwdriver in my ear. Wow, Jesus,
it's funny to see the incessant Oh I get it.

Speaker 1 (32:47):
I mean it is like they don't they don't go
back to anything else really other than a couple like
songs made for the movie.

Speaker 3 (32:53):
So it's funny that the one person they were talking
about possibly casting because they threw around like Jeff Bridges
gls Groden even early on Bert Reynolds and Mick Jagger,
it seems weird George Siegel, but the one that they
threw run was Richard Dreyfus. And it's funny because as
I was watching it this time, I kept thinking of

(33:13):
The Big Fix, the Richard Dreyfus movie from seventy eight,
I want to say, where he played a character named
Moses Wine and he has that same kind of quit hatter,
like his arm is broken in that movie, and whenever
somebody asks him, how'd you break your arm? He comes
up with a different story that kind of ingratiates him
to the person that he's talking to. So reminds me

(33:34):
of this whole You know, I'm going to keep bluffing
and bluffing and bluffing and coming up with crazier things.
The thing I liked again, desire to keep doing this,
But going back to the book, he doesn't. Some of
the names he chooses are crazy as far as like
the last name will be really long or something very
difficult to say, but he doesn't go with the like
Ted Nugent or you know, the names that.

Speaker 2 (33:57):
People would know.

Speaker 1 (33:58):
Yeah, right, movie he says, Victor Hugo, that's that. Yeah,
it's like or no, is it this movie? He says
Victor Hugo. Now he says it to Jim Swarthow. He goes,
I'm Igor Stravinsky, Like there's no universe where someone would
be like, your name is Igor Stravinsky? Like right, really,
parents are big fans of classical music?

Speaker 2 (34:17):
Or yeah, yeah, I like a better win. He makes
them up, like with her with the what is it?
John Kokotojayes and John Kosten Scotch it's Scotch Romanian, right,
it's a weird combination. So were my parents. Yeah, yeah,
it's yeah, I think that's I mean that's the other issue.
I mean when you when you were when.

Speaker 1 (34:38):
You take this idea and update it, you can't do
those names anymore. You can't have John Ham saying my
name is Axel Rose, Like what the fuck are you
talking about? Like you so, yeah, the new movie ends
up being more like the original books because it, like
you said, Mike, it's it's more about like just making
a character that's a Axel in Beverly Hills. Cop never said, oh,

(35:01):
I'm Richard Prior.

Speaker 2 (35:03):
Like there's none of that.

Speaker 1 (35:04):
He just makes up a character on the spot and
goes with it, and yeah, That's that's why I think
chevy Chase is at his best in this movie. And
that's when the character is at his best, is when
it's you know, with Kenneth Mars or with Burton Gilliam.

Speaker 2 (35:17):
And again with m m at Walsh. It's great. But yeah,
then there are some of those like Ted Nudge. It's
like Stanwick would look at him and be like, your
name's Ted Nugent? What the fuck?

Speaker 3 (35:24):
Like well, and I wonder if his name is Stanwick
just because it's such a double indemnity type plot, you know, right,
well I wanted to kill me kind of thing. I mean,
it's very classic fil noir, which I thought was great.

Speaker 2 (35:37):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (35:37):
I mean again, if this weren't a Chevy Chase movie,
this would be a lot more hard boiled and a
little bit more noir facing, because I think it's noir adjacent.
It's light on it. I mean, it wants to get there.
But I think in terms of what it's actually trying
to do, it's just trying to be a funny movie,
not like a thriller. But the thriller parts are so
kind of intriguing and well done that I kind of

(35:59):
wish there was more of it, which is again, what
kind of the New Fletch movie does. It kind of
makes a case that like, yeah, the character can be
reinterpreted in an interesting way because Greg Matola does a
great job of taking the character and not just having
it be a you know, gag best every five seconds,
you know, saying wild nonsense.

Speaker 2 (36:18):
And the other thing is Chevy Chase. I feel like
he plays it straight for the most part. That's the
other thing.

Speaker 1 (36:24):
When he it doesn't work when he's not playing it straight,
when he's kind of like Riley staring at the audience
and like winking at them about these names, like the
Ted Nugent thing, It's like this just doesn't work as
it just doesn't work as well logically for me.

Speaker 2 (36:36):
Anyways. Well, the Stanwick to go back to that real
quick bese that made me think of he and it's
in the script they put a point on he spells
it out WYK no C and didn't Barbara Stanwick's name
have a C in it. It's almost like like they're
pointing it out that you know we're going there, but
not quite.

Speaker 3 (36:55):
Yes, it does, yeah, good good call Mark, And.

Speaker 2 (36:59):
I didn't notice there's no is there narration at some
point in the script that didn't make it all the
way through because as I was reading and I was like, oh,
this is like almost exactly like the movie. The final
draft was at least but no narration, So I don't
know if it kicked in at some point and or
if it was just added in Toto afterward.

Speaker 3 (37:19):
I think there was just added afterwards.

Speaker 1 (37:21):
Yeah, I think it works for the most part, Like
you know, when the film opening on the beach and
then you know him kind of starting the narration in
the movie, I think it sets the tone in the
right direction.

Speaker 2 (37:31):
I don't.

Speaker 1 (37:32):
I mean again, I think that's like a noir thing,
and I don't think it ever really gets back there.
But the fact that they even kind of attempted or
approach it, I think is they at least understood the
source material's basic ideas, because the source material is humorous,
but it's not haha funny, and that's the choice that's
being made here. Is like, again, would this movie have

(37:52):
been as successful if it had not been a comedy?
Probably not realistically. I mean, the movie made a ton
of money. Million dollar budget, made sixty million dollars, Like
that's a lot of money. At the time, I mean even,
I mean even now, if you made a movie for
ten million dollars, you'd be happy to make six times.

Speaker 2 (38:10):
Your budget back.

Speaker 1 (38:12):
But I don't think this would have been as successful
if this had not been like a straight comedy either,
especially in the eighties, which is like the height of
this kind of comedy being a thing.

Speaker 2 (38:20):
I felt like the narration kicked in a little too
early because in the script, you're not sure what his
deal is until he gets back to the newspaper room,
and so you know right away that he is an
investigative journalist and undercover. Yeah, so that I was like, okay, well,

(38:44):
I feel like it would have worked for the audience
a little better to not know what he was. Is
he a bum too? Is he an undercover cop? Those
would have been my two thoughts. I wouldn't have thought
of journalists right off the top of my head. But
he just comes right out with it.

Speaker 1 (39:00):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (39:00):
Actually, I know, I actually agree with you.

Speaker 1 (39:02):
I think if if they had held it back, it
might have actually worked a little bit better, because, yeah,
you're just kind of in d he gets yeah, have
it start as.

Speaker 2 (39:10):
He gets to the to the paper.

Speaker 1 (39:13):
Yeah, you were kind of inundated with his bullshit immediately
as it were.

Speaker 2 (39:17):
Right, which I mean, I think a lot of the
narration is there because it's Chevy Chase and he gets
to add some more of those lines. Yeah, more color,
more color, just more color to the script.

Speaker 1 (39:29):
And I think for for someone like Chevy Chase, you know,
I'm not going to say like less is better, but
I think more specific is better with him, Like give
him a specific direction and go with that, because I
mean again, like with this character he is, I don't know,
this is the one character that I've seen him play
so far where I'm like, I am having a hard
time distinguishing between chevy Chase and the character. It almost

(39:50):
just feels like, in a lot of ways, just he's
in the movie, if that makes sense. It's it feels
like of all the characters we've seen him play so far,
this feels like the least put on character that he's played.
Really like maybe and again, maybe the closest would have
been his character in Foul Play, which this character is
kind of close to in terms of characterization, but a
little this guy's a little bit more dialed in the

(40:11):
nick was in Foul Play. But yeah, I have this
is one of those roles where it's like he just
kind of strikes me as chevy Chase, just being like, hey, Chevy,
just do the chevy Chase thing throughout, which, yeah, when
you said, Mike, like this is the chevy Chase movie,
Like that's why I think it is similarly to yourself,
because like this is just him being him, at least
the most distillant version of him that I think anyone

(40:33):
in the nineteen eighties would have been writing a script for.
This is what you want from chevy Chase, this specific thing,
and you're getting it. And I don't think he ever
reaches these heights again, which is a shame. And you know,
for me at least, because I love Chevy Chase as
an actor, but this is the really, for me, a
high water mark in his career. And for those of
you listening to this show and haven't seen any other
chevy Chase movies, pass this. This might sound like I'm

(40:55):
damning the rest of his career, but if you had
this high of a water rest in your career, but
if you had this high of a watermarks in your career,
like it's it's hard not to acknowledge it. I mean,
we'll acknowledge it now or we can acknowledge it when
we're done. But it's just one of those things like
he ends up getting cast in more things because of this,
and further, I think revealing his weaknesses as an actor,

(41:16):
because this is what everyone keeps trying to recapture for
a while after this movie. Even the sequel can't recapture
the magic of this movie. As much as I love
the sequel, it's odd that with the sequel that they
didn't adapt another one of these McDonald books correct, that
they just went all out on their own. It is
interesting that too, that this was one of free performances

(41:38):
that Michael Ritchie directed of Chevy Chase. So does that
feels like an odd marriage to me. I'm a big
fan of Michael Ritchie's other stuff, especially Smile, but you know,
even things like Hanada, Canada. Yeah, he did a lot
of great things.

Speaker 2 (41:53):
Sad News Bears.

Speaker 3 (41:55):
One of my favorite of that movie.

Speaker 2 (41:56):
And I know you don't like this movie, but The
Survivors is a nostalgic favorite of mine.

Speaker 3 (42:02):
Maybe I should had another shot.

Speaker 2 (42:04):
I don't know.

Speaker 3 (42:04):
I mean, I haven't seen it since it was out
at the theater, so oh well.

Speaker 2 (42:09):
I appreciate it a little bit more. I just like,
I like Walter Mathow and yeah, I just remember watching
it a ton as a kid, and the Golden Child
is kind of a hoot. I remember speaking Eddie Murphy. Yeah, yeah.

Speaker 3 (42:22):
I think the only other director he worked with as much.
And I could be very wrong about this, I want
to say, is John Landis. And I don't even know
if he worked with him that much. I think twice
at least.

Speaker 2 (42:32):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (42:32):
Well, and that's the other thing I mean, if you
look at so this movie comes out in eighty five, right,
which is center of the eighties. Fletch Lives comes out
in eighty nine. We have so far in between now
and Fletch Lives. We have Funny Farm, Caddyshack two, Three Amigos,
Spies like Us, European Vacation. We have a bunch of
stuff in between now and Fletch Lives. Is it not

(42:55):
surprising that Fletch Lives didn't just come out like the
next fucking year. It almost half a decade to release
another one. And then, like you said, Mike, when we
get to it, we'll get to it. But diminishing returns
is a is probably is being nice to the movie
because as much as I like it, I have no
preconceived notions that it is a hale comparison to this

(43:18):
film's successes.

Speaker 3 (43:19):
Well, it's kind of like when he had foul Play,
it's like, Okay, immediately followed this up with another golden
Horn vehicle that you can be in and make this
a thing. But it takes two years for it seems
like old times. And then that's not what we wanted.
If that wasn't another murder mystery, that was something completely different.
I mean, there was a little miss not really mystery

(43:41):
involved in that with the bank robbery. But yeah, it's like, no,
listen to what people want here, So continue on. Do
Confess Fletch next and whatever that one is, which I
think is the John Ham one, right, Yeah, yeah, like
that's the next book. Just fucking do the next book.

Speaker 1 (43:58):
I don't know why they didn't, because the plot of Confess, Conflesse, Confesse,
Conflex Come Fletch Fletch. The plot of that book has
to do directly with the money he makes from the
end of this movie.

Speaker 2 (44:11):
It's yeah, and.

Speaker 1 (44:12):
What's I think the thing that's actually again not to
kind of give it away, but the movie's been out
since eighty nine. I'll just let you guys know, because
I don't think either one of you know, guess what
Fletch Lives does it even address this movie at all.

Speaker 2 (44:23):
So that's fun.

Speaker 1 (44:24):
There's one line in reference to this there's one line
in reference to the events of this movie in that movie,
and it is essentially in the closing minutes.

Speaker 2 (44:31):
Of the movie.

Speaker 1 (44:32):
I believe, Yeah, it's it's it's it's unfortunate because again,
you had an opportunity to turn this into a serialized thing.
Even given that that's what John D. McDonald of Jesus
Gregory McDonald was doing with the books, we've never gotten
to John D. McDonald's adaptation contemporary either. They talk about
things that they'd been kicking around forever. They've been talking
about doing those books as long as they'd been talking

(44:55):
about doing a fucking Fletch sequel.

Speaker 3 (44:57):
Well even before we started to record the MCU And
for a while he was on the hook, he was
going to be Travis McGee, he was going to do
a whole adaptation. I could see Robert Downey Junior being
a much better Fletch just because he can do those
little equips and one offs, I mean, kiss kiss Bang
Bang would really show you just like how great he

(45:18):
can be at that.

Speaker 2 (45:19):
That's still my favorite Robert Downey junior performance. Really.

Speaker 3 (45:22):
Yeah, I just I don't see him as Travis McGee.
And the other person that was trying to do it
was lean Andrew DiCaprio, and I just again, he has
to me has no gravitas, and really Travis McGee really
needs that grit belly.

Speaker 1 (45:36):
Yeah, And I mean again, like obviously we saw with
Fletch being recast, like they didn't go with the comedic
actor at least not one that's like, you know, baseline comedic.

Speaker 2 (45:45):
I mean, John Hamm is a funny actor.

Speaker 1 (45:47):
Don't get me wrong, his personal issues aside, but he's
not a guy that I consider a comedic actor. He's
someone that I think is more kind of just an
actor who can live within different spheres. But the fact
that they spent so long trying to reboot this series
and having no ability to do it when there are
actors who we could literally rattle their names off from

(46:07):
the eighties, nineties, twenty and twenty tens, like two or
three actors from each of those ten years that could
have done this as good or better. Yeah, I don't
understand what they didn't understand about the success of this movie.
That's kind of what I've never been able to understand
about Fletch as an adult, as someone who's you know,
critical and watches films a lot, is what did you

(46:28):
not see about what made this film successful that never
translated to anything else and had people waiting like damn
near forty years to see another one. Like I just
I've never been able to understand because the movie speaks
for itself, like it's what works with this movie is
on screen, it's there's no there's no trick here. You
have a comedic actor who you wrote a comedic script

(46:49):
for and it works like Gangbusters, and then all of
a sudden they just don't care anymore. And I never
get it because this movie made so much money and
it was a Chevy Chase vehicle, and then they just
stepped in and at every other time from here on
out in terms of trying to give him a movie
where it's just him.

Speaker 2 (47:05):
Doing something at Fletcher Lives, because I have not seen it.
I always wanted to see if anybody returned from this,
and it looks like Libertini and the attorney yep, that's it.
I don't even know. I don't even know if he's
playing the same character. Yes he is.

Speaker 1 (47:21):
It's a George Weiner and Richard Libertini are the only
characters that come back. Yeah, I like I said, And
it takes place in Louisiana for some reason?

Speaker 3 (47:30):
Is is J. D. Pepper there?

Speaker 1 (47:34):
No, But there are characters like that. Randal TeX's Cobb
is in the movie. Oh yeah, everybody's good.

Speaker 2 (47:42):
Oh good? Said like said nobody?

Speaker 3 (47:46):
Yeah a fan of Aura, Come on.

Speaker 1 (47:48):
I mean I am too. I mean, I just know
about Randall text Cobb in real life. Not a great person.
It's it's a vastly different movie. It's almost like they
don't care about the detective part of it, which is
the part of this movie that I think does I
think works maybe almost to the chagrin of the people
writing this movie. It's like, we have to write the
detective story into this Chevy Chase movie.

Speaker 2 (48:10):
But I think it works here.

Speaker 1 (48:12):
I just think they don't care about it moving forward,
which that may be the missing part here is you
needed to have there be an actual mystery and then
flesh out the comedy within the mystery. It's not just
about chevy Chase saying Victor Hugo and poppin Taco over
and over again, like that will get old and that
will go nowhere. And in a lot of ways, that's
the state of a lot of modern comedy movies is

(48:34):
just bullshit. I mean, like the improvisation of comedies now
without flawed. I mean, you know, that's a thing that
people have been lamenting for a while now. This like
just put a camera on people and they'll improv and
it'll be funny. Like or you could write a script
and the script be funny and have those actors deliver
your funny lines and then improv from time to time
like and and this, I mean, this is a good

(48:56):
This is a good case study in that because I
think that the lines that are delivered, like we both
or like we've already all said, given that we read
the script, they're all in the script. It's like chevy
Chase was coming up with these things out of his ass,
like they're in the script whole claw.

Speaker 2 (49:09):
He's just quoting the script.

Speaker 3 (49:11):
And that's what you would think, is that that that
was all ad lebbed from chevy.

Speaker 1 (49:15):
Chase, right, I mean in this day and age, like
there's kind of that weird expectation now where it's like, yeah,
they're just.

Speaker 2 (49:22):
They're funny people.

Speaker 1 (49:23):
It's like being funny, does it necessarily mean you can
like be like that. Some comedians aren't improvisational comedians. They're
just they work within the confines of what they know.
And I think when chevy Chase is at his best,
it's when someone knows what he is needed to do
in the movie. And again, he's the lead here, so
they really had to knock it out of the park,

(49:44):
and I think they did, but I think it also
sets an unreasonable expectation for chevy Chase's abilities moving forward
with other people who do not.

Speaker 2 (49:51):
Understand how to write for him as well as Bergmann did. Well,
it seems like it was written, at least the final
draft was written for him, because I know at the
end mention him by name and say, you know some
other chevy Chase will add lib here basically is what see?
It's like okay, yeah, but yeah, those those throw it

(50:11):
against the wall and see what sticks movies that we
get these days. It's just like, I mean, some of
them work. I love Step Brothers, and I know that
a lot of it was done that way, and you
just keep saying a different line each time, and then
Pete cobbling it all together. And but if you don't
have at least an outline of a story and some

(50:34):
idea of where things need to go, that's going to be,
you know, just a bunch of funny lines. Then you
get Ghostbus just twenty sixteen. That was what I was
going to say. I didn't want to keep using it
as them.

Speaker 1 (50:46):
I mean, look at the blooper reels for so I
recently rewatched Anchorman and they are like ten different versions
of the sweet Odin's beard line that he just says
like ten different things, and it's in the bloopers and
it's like, Okay, I'm glad you went with that one,
but I don't think you needed to show all ten
because nine of those aren't funny.

Speaker 2 (51:02):
You know why, because they weren't in the movie. Because
they literally weren't in the film. And this isn't anything new.
There's you can watch at the end of Grumpy Old
Men Burgess Meredith rattle off right fifteen different lines.

Speaker 1 (51:15):
Oh you know, uh, this is what the expectation is different, though,
it's the way it's being handled is different.

Speaker 2 (51:21):
Well, it's not every line them all done.

Speaker 1 (51:24):
Yeah, yeah, just keep them all yeah, it goes bus
just twenty sixteen. Look like with all of that footage left,
it'd be like a twelve hour movie or just people
did all right, let's do it again.

Speaker 3 (51:34):
I mean they just rewatched the original Deadpool and the
whole thing of TJ. Miller's describing how Ryan Reynolds looks.
I mean, yeah, you can tell they use like two
or three ad libs too many in that section.

Speaker 2 (51:47):
You look like a.

Speaker 1 (51:47):
Scroed them that bucked that avocado. Yeah, I man, I
was just rolling my eyes.

Speaker 2 (51:51):
I'm like, fuck this shit. Who likes like? Who likes
this anymore?

Speaker 1 (51:56):
But you still but no, like no, no, not not
not that specifically talking about exactly what you're lambassing, which
is like leaving them in, like leaving one or two
more in, Like sometimes less is better, and in comedy,
sometimes you don't have to bombard the audience with a
thousand jokes. Actually it would be better if you didn't,
because then it shows that you actually have some sort

(52:17):
of wherewithal to understand the timing of comedy, because timing
is everything with comedy, it really is, it really is,
and just ignoring the timing and just plowing through. It
is not that that's Robin Williams, and very few people
can do that well, which is just go go, go, go,
go go. Not everybody can.

Speaker 2 (52:34):
Do that unless they're on cocaine. Well it was eighty five.

Speaker 3 (52:38):
If only we have been able to get this Kevin
Smith version with Jason.

Speaker 2 (52:42):
Oh my god, thank you for bringing that up.

Speaker 3 (52:46):
That would have really sealed the deal and made a
real solid entry to the franchise.

Speaker 1 (52:52):
I was gonna say, before we bring this episode to
a close, I think to mention the amount of people
that were going to play flats at one point, Jason Sudeikis,
Jason Lee, who else I think, Zach Brath at one point,
Brad Pitt, Jimmy Fallon, Ben Affleck I think was also
mentioned in the Kevin Smith discussions. None of those people

(53:16):
would have worked at all. The only one I could
maybe see is Jason Sudeikins. Maybe Ben Affleck would have
been like, no, God, I mean he's fuck he can
he can be funny. Yeah, he's funny. And Kevin Smith's stuff.
He has some of the best lines in Jay and
synd Bob strike Back. Fictional characters he's funny when he
wants to be. But what in God's name what Kevin

(53:38):
Smith's Fletch looked like? Just like there was a version
of me a long time ago, because that's the other thing.
Fletch came out in eighty five. The most recent Fletch
movie didn't come out until I was thirty two years old.
So there was, however, many years in between of me
just being like, when are they making a Fletch movie.
They're making a Fletch movie.

Speaker 2 (53:53):
At some point.

Speaker 1 (53:53):
Is that Fletch movie happening at any point? Because I mean, again,
it was my favorite movie. It is one of my
favorite movies, so of course I wanted another one. And yeah,
I mean I've been looking at the Wikipedia for fucking
Fletch sequels for twenty years now, is what it feels like.
And then it finally comes out and it's actually good,
which is the other thing, because all these other things
that had been mentioned would not have been There's no
universe where Jason Lee would have been a good Fletch

(54:16):
and Kevin Smith directing it would have just been dick
and fart jokes, which is fine, but I don't think
that would have suited the character of Fletch and then
go watch a movie like cop Out, and I think
the ability to write something like this maybe is made
a parent that we dodged a.

Speaker 2 (54:30):
Bullet as it were.

Speaker 1 (54:32):
And you know, I would say, anybody who likes Fletch,
go check out Confess Fletch. Honestly, like we're going to
be doing an episode on Fletch lives on this show.
But I would say go check out Confess Fletch if
this movie is something that you enjoyed, because the Confess
Fletch is more more of the things that this movie
does right than it is the things that this movie
doesn't succeed at, and it fleshes out more of the

(54:54):
investigative stuff that this movie does do. It does even
more of it, which I think again, it sounds like
the three of us are somewhat in agreement that those
parts are good and some of the better parts of
the movie. So Confess Confess Fletch leans into that even parder,
which I think works in its favor.

Speaker 3 (55:10):
And Fless Fletch.

Speaker 1 (55:11):
Yeah, to say, fucking Christ, I just want more Fletch
movies with John Hamm now, because like he's so good
as the role that I'm kind of like well, I mean,
you know, again, with the movie industry the way it is,
and it just kind of got unceremoniously dumped on streaming.

Speaker 2 (55:26):
I don't know how in a lot of gotta work.
It got a lot of good notice when it shouted out.
I noticed people were talking positively about it, and so
you expect that. Well, and it's Greg Matola. I mean
I like Greg Mottola a lot. Greg Matola directed the
only uh Simon peg Nick Frost movie that Edgar Wright
hasn't done that almost feels like an Edgar Wright movie

(55:47):
with Paul. I mean, Paul is like the the fourth
Coordnetto trilogy movie that you know isn't but is so
Greg Matola knows knows what he's doing. And he wrote
the script too, which I think is even more impressive
for confessed. So I'm good, Yeah, me too? What about you? Bagley?
Sorry the rest, I got my window open. Somebody was
yelling at their kid outside. I'm good cool? Anything else

(56:09):
we want to say? Are we good? We're just good good.

Speaker 1 (56:11):
So on the next episode of Chevy the Chasing Chevy Podcast,
we are going to be taking a look at Orange County,
which is a more recent film that barely has Chevy
Chase in it, but it's a bonus episode, so we'll
be taking a look at that. It has Jack Black
and Colin Hanks in it, all right?

Speaker 2 (56:24):
Is that the one that's written by our own Mike White?
I think so, Eve it is? Did you write that movie? Mike?

Speaker 1 (56:30):
Yeah?

Speaker 3 (56:30):
I sure did. I'm rolling in money Workless Yeah, hey man?

Speaker 2 (56:35):
So uh and on trick it down as we were
talking about, Yes oday, you're else. So until then, where
can people find you and the things that you work on?
Mark Begley? You can find my two other podcasts, Cambridge
Mishaun and Wick Up Heavy over on Weirdingwaymedia dot com.

Speaker 3 (56:49):
About you, Mike, Right, I'm do the same thing. You
can also find all the stuff that I do over
at Waingwaymedia dot com, including the Projection Booth and Life
and Time So Captain Barney Miller, The Chabby Detective, yet
another Lumbo podcast, all kinds of good stuff. How about you,
Chris Weirdingway Media.

Speaker 2 (57:06):
That's the That's the place. Go check it out.

Speaker 1 (57:08):
All the audio diversions that I work on and even
the ones that I don't, But I definitely advocate for
our overt Weirdingwaymedia dot Com, adestv Ladies, Cambridge of Mahan,
the Projection Booth. I could go on, but you should
just go and find out for yourself at Weirdingwaymedia dot com.
Like rate and review the show on iTunes please. Anywhere
else doesn't help us as much as iTunes, so iTunes
would be the place to go if you're listening to

(57:30):
this show to help other fans of Chevy Chase and
maybe Chevy Chase find our show. I've gotta assume at
some point he may listen, just based on the fact
that I don't think anybody else is doing what we're doing.
And you know, if you're listening, we hope you're enjoying it.
If not, we'll catch you on the next episode.

Speaker 3 (58:02):
S