L.A. in the ’80s & The Terminator (1984)

This week on Dear Movies, I Love You, Millie and Casey divulge their weekly watches from their Film Diary. They take a trip back to 1980s Los Angeles with a special focus on James Cameron’s blockbuster hit, The Terminator (1984). Plus, Casey shares a cautionary movie theater seating tale in this week’s Film Gripe–and much more!

Follow, rate and review Dear Movies, I Love You wherever you get your podcasts. Find the show on Instagram: @dearmoviesiloveyou.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hi, Millie ou la cumusa on Oh mob cot Beryl.
That's no mine, no, no, nothing right now.

Speaker 2 (00:17):
Oh my god, dude, you just blew my mind. I've
I literally did not know you spoke that amount of Spanish.

Speaker 1 (00:25):
I don't really speak Spanish that well, but I worked
in a kitchen for a long time and I took
Spanish in high school. And yeah, I need, I'm I
need to get better. I would love to be like
completely flown in Spanish. But anyways, that's not We're not
here for that today. I'm not here to talk about
my language abilities. Yes, well, we have a very exciting

(00:45):
show today. As usual, we're going to open up our
film diary, bear our souls and talk about the movies
we watched most recently in the past week or so.

Speaker 2 (00:55):
And uh, you know, for our movie this week, we're
going to talk about the OJI, the Original Terminator from
nineteen eighty four. You know it, you love it. And
we're also going to talk about one of my favorite
time and places in history, and that is Los Angeles
in the nineteen eighties and more specifically La in the

(01:17):
eighties on film that is one of my favorite little
pockets of movieiness.

Speaker 1 (01:24):
Hell yeah, Yeah, and most importantly, I have a film
Gripe that is going to rock this podcast. Just you wait.
But we wanted to also say before we get started
in today's episode. So the bulk of the main discussion
about LA in the nineteen eighties and in regards to
Terminator this all we recorded that before the fires in

(01:48):
Los Angeles. So if it seems sort of strange that
we're not going into detail about that in the bulk
of this episode, that's why, because obviously that's very much
on our minds when it comes to Los Angeles, and
as we get into it, it's a place we both
lived and really love, and so we just wanted to
let you know that that is not going to be

(02:10):
covered in this episode because we recorded that prior to it.

Speaker 2 (02:13):
Yeah, and I you know, there was a we talked
about even whether or not we should even release it,
you know, because it, you know, we're talking about LA
so specifically, and we're also talking about Los Angeles and
sort of this like nineteen eighties doomsday apocalyptic perspective. So
we just wanted to let y'all know we're not omitting

(02:35):
the discussion about the wildfires. We just had recorded this
before that's right.

Speaker 1 (02:40):
And yeah, just to reiterate, we love Los Angeles. We
are you know as you we talk about how much
we love this city so much, and it's been like
pretty heartbreaking to watch what has happened to a city
I lived in for seventeen years and still consider like
my home, and so many friends and loved ones are

(03:00):
affected by this fire. It's very painful. So, like Milly said,
we were like, we were wondering should we even release
this episode. But it's a really great conversation. It's really fun,
and it really is a celebration of Los Angeles. That's
why we did this whole episode. We want people to
hear that.

Speaker 2 (03:14):
Yes, all of this and a lot more on this
episode of Dear Movies, I Love You.

Speaker 1 (03:23):
Dear.

Speaker 2 (03:25):
I love you, and I've got to.

Speaker 1 (03:31):
Love me to check the books.

Speaker 2 (03:43):
Hello, and welcome to Dear Movies, I Love You. This
is the podcast for people who are in a romantic
relationship with movies. My name is Millie to.

Speaker 1 (03:52):
Cherico, and my name is Casey O'Brien.

Speaker 2 (03:56):
How's it going this week?

Speaker 1 (03:58):
Oh? Just Dan, I'm feeling fresh and attractive and I
just feel really good right now, especially because we're recording
an episode of Our Lovely Little Podcast Dear Movies.

Speaker 2 (04:09):
I Love you, don't you love that beautiful theme song?

Speaker 1 (04:13):
Gorgeous? The Softies They're just not only are they great musicians,
they're great people. Did you know that?

Speaker 2 (04:19):
I knew that before you knew that.

Speaker 1 (04:22):
Actually, it's true.

Speaker 2 (04:23):
If you want to go to get down of brass
tacks about things, what's the weather like? Because we're like
in the throes of winter and you're, okay, Minnesota.

Speaker 1 (04:33):
I'm in Minnesota. It was eighteen degrees this morning. What
and you know, I suit it up properly, and because
I had to go get donuts for my family for
them to survive. And I went to my local bakery,
a baker's wife is what it's called. And I walk in.
I am bundled head to toe. I look like William H.
Mason and Fargo basically. And there's a man in there

(04:57):
who's buying a dozen donuts. He's in a hoodie, sweatshir,
he's wearing gym shorts, and he's wearing Adida's flip flops,
no socks, and it was eighteen degrees out. Isn't that awful?
Isn't that crazy?

Speaker 2 (05:09):
Yeah? I mean there are people that do wild things
in really really cold conditions that I'm just like, is
that sort of a like I just had to run
in real quick and I don't care what I look like?
Or is that like standard operating procedure for you? Are
you like the guy that's like, I don't give a
fook about no frostbite. I'll wear my flip flops, no socks.

Speaker 1 (05:31):
There's this weird pressure in Minnesota to dress like just
warm enough for the weather. Like you get kind of
like mocked if you're like overdressed for how cold it is.
And I think everyone has sort of a fear of that,
whereas I am like, I'm just gonna get so insanely
bundled up that I just I refuse to be cold basically,
and so if I look like a frigging dork, then

(05:54):
so be it.

Speaker 2 (05:55):
Yeah, there's no shame about preserving your body temperature. Yes,
sort of related to that story that you just told,
how just out of curiosity, how much is a dozen
donuts at your favorite donut place?

Speaker 1 (06:10):
God, I don't even know it's Is it over ten bucks?

Speaker 2 (06:14):
Is it double digits?

Speaker 1 (06:16):
Uh? The place for a baker's wife, I would say,
it's probably like twenty bucks, yes, for a dozen.

Speaker 2 (06:26):
A dozen donuts is over twenty bucks. Okay, So if
you've listened to episodes of my former podcast, I Saw
What You Did, you may have figured out that I
used to work in donuts in.

Speaker 1 (06:39):
High school, the donut industry.

Speaker 2 (06:42):
I was in the donut industry in high school. Not
only was I a donut sales lady, but I actually
made donuts at one point, Oh you did, yeah for
a very very very popular donut chain, Wow, which is
very closely affiliated with the old podcast that it did.
And this was ninety four, ninety five, perhaps maybe ninety six.

(07:05):
A dozen donuts was four dollars in ninety nine cents.

Speaker 1 (07:10):
Wow. That's amazing. I wonder. So the place I went
to is a little bit more I would say, elevated.
It's like kind of a nicer bakery than a donut shop,
I would say, sure. So it would be interesting to
go to like my local, I don't know, hole in
the wall donut place to see how much one of
like a dozen would cost there.

Speaker 2 (07:31):
Well, I mean, and this is probably gonna come up
perhaps when we talk about La, because La is like
completely filled with little shipball donut places on every corner,
which is like one of the things I love about LA.
But even in those instances, like in the shipball places,
I'm telling you a dozen donuts is over ten bucks.

Speaker 1 (07:49):
Oh yeah, definitely, And my gripe, I have a.

Speaker 2 (07:52):
Donut gripe, I guess wow. Which is that? I feel like,
even if we were having an elevated donut experience, I
still don't think it's that much more because the base
I agree the blueprint, the base level of a donut
is so inexpensive to make because you're just it's fried dough.
It's literal fried dough. And I remember my manager back

(08:13):
at said donut chain was like the ups charge in donuts,
like the production cost of a donut to what they charge.
The gap is so huge, Yes, that if you wanted
to be a millionaire easily, you just make donuts interesting
because people will overpay for donuts and they don't really
know how little it costs to make them.

Speaker 1 (08:33):
I've heard that same thing about like pizza slice places,
because it's like just like dough essentially, you know, it's
like it's so cheap to make like a cheap slice
of pizza. In the same way that it's like, yeah,
the up charge is like crazy, That's why those places survive,
you know.

Speaker 2 (08:48):
Yeah, so I but that is I think the thing
that annoys me about modern donuts is that the communication
to the consumer is, well, you're getting like a very
elevated donut, so that's why we're charging like six dollars
per donut. And I'm just like fuck that, Like, yeah,
just because you put a crumbled oreo on top of

(09:08):
it doesn't make it six dollars, because I know it
costs you like twenty five cents to make it.

Speaker 1 (09:13):
And because like the disparity between, like the difference between
one of those like elevated donuts and like, what did
you say, shitball donuts. I could be the name of
a donuts store. We know, shitball donuts. The difference in
like enjoyment is so small, and sometimes the elevated ones
aren't as good as the shipball donuts. You know.

Speaker 2 (09:34):
Oh man, sometimes a shitball donut is the.

Speaker 1 (09:38):
Only way, the only way. Yeah, anyway, I would love
to talk more about shipball donuts when we get into
our La conversation, because La is secretly like the donut
capital of the world. Like, I don't think people realize that,
but it is.

Speaker 2 (09:50):
Yeah, for for good and for bad, to be honest.

Speaker 1 (09:53):
For good and for bad. Truly, well, malely, we got
to get into our film diary, and I would just
really love to hear which movies you watched this past week.

Speaker 2 (10:06):
My shit is real chaotic this week. I'll just let
you know I didn't watch a ton but I sort
of watched a couple by the same director, and then
a movie that's so radically different from all of those things. Okay,
So right now, I'm like I've mentioned this before. I'm
finishing up my master's degree. It's taken me like two

(10:28):
thousand years to finish this dance thing. And you know,
I was in a production class where I was making
my own movies, and I had not been in a
production class in many, many, many years. I mean the
last time I was in a production class, we were
shooting with like sixteen millimeter Bolex cameras, like there wasn't
even digital video at the time. Yes, So now that
I've been reacquainted with all of the little, you know,

(10:50):
modern bells and whistles of movie making, I'm like, yo,
I'm inspired. I want to run out and start making
a bunch of weird you know, shorts and documentaries and stuff.

Speaker 1 (10:59):
Oh, MILLI I love this. I think you should totally
do this. I think a lot of people get in
their own way, yeah, of being like, oh this isn't
this isn't the most professional I need it. It needs
to be super high end, Like I can't just make
something with my phone or like a small camera, but no,
you can. It can still be good. Yes, I love this.
Your inspiration is inspiring me.

Speaker 2 (11:21):
Thank you. I'm glad to you know that we co
inspire each other. Because here's the thing that I realize
about myself. So when I've been out here making these
like little mini docs doing all my little weird art, okay,
I realized that I'm very very much influenced by like
the old school way of making documentaries. And when I
see myself as a person who could potentially make my
own documentaries, I see myself as literally like a picture

(11:43):
of that guy Nick Broomfield, where he's like he's got
his like can headphones and his boom pole and his
like little you know, porta bag, Like he's just like
a one man operation. Yeah, And I love that. And
I'm a huge fan of documentaries and you know, I
love Penelopees, of course, but I'm also a big fan
of like the Masals and like, you know, just like

(12:04):
old classic documentarians Errol Morris, you know, like the whole Kid.

Speaker 1 (12:10):
Right.

Speaker 2 (12:11):
So I decided that I wanted to go back and
sort of do a little like light research about my
favorite ones, and so I started watching all those less
Blank documentaries.

Speaker 1 (12:18):
Again great.

Speaker 2 (12:19):
So less Blank was a very famous and influential documentarian.
So he did, you know, documentaries about blues artists, most
notably the Lightning Hopkins one that he made. But he
also talked a lot about like sort of polka music
and sort of Appalachian music and Cajun and Creole music

(12:43):
and things of like the kind of traditional American primarily
Southern musical tradition. So anyway, his work is incredible. He
also did a lot about I don't know what you
would call them, sort of these like pockets of like Americana,
you know, like Marty Gras kind of like a slighth
of life Americana kind of documentarian cool. I mean I

(13:03):
watched several I watched a poem as a naked person.
I watched God respects us when we work, but loves
us when we dance. I you know, watched the one
on Lightning Hopkins. So I just was like basically on
Criterion Channel rewatching less blank documentaries and it was lovely amazing.

Speaker 1 (13:21):
Yeah. I have only seen Burden of Dreams, the one about.

Speaker 2 (13:24):
Oh yeah classic, Yes.

Speaker 1 (13:26):
The Werner Hertzog. It's about the making of Fitzcaraldo Fitzkaraldo,
which is I mean, the documentary is almost is like
more insane than the movie itself, So.

Speaker 2 (13:37):
It almost became its own genre, like documentaries that are
about making of really ambitious, big swing movies that are
kind of crazy. Yes, And the only reason why I
didn't rewatch that one because I just recently watched that one,
so I was like, I can skip Burden of Dreams
even though it's fucking fantastic. Everybody should watch it. But yeah,
so I just was watching kind of the shorter stuff.

(13:59):
So having said that, the other movie that I watched
this week, which again very different, is that I watched
the new restoration of Rolling Thunder from nineteen seventy seven.

Speaker 1 (14:13):
I have never seen it. It's on my watch list.

Speaker 2 (14:16):
It is amazing, It's dark as shit.

Speaker 1 (14:20):
What is it? Give a quick a brief synopsis so it's.

Speaker 2 (14:24):
Essentially a movie. You know. It was like originally written
and conceived by Paul Schrader, and it was kind of
around the time of Taxi Driver, so it was like,
you know, basically he was sort of writing about disgruntled
Vietnam veterans that were coming home and sort of like
assessing their world. And of course this is the seventies,
late seventies where America was grimy as fuck and like

(14:48):
really dark. So it's basically William Devane. He's probably what
makes the movie for me because he's not an obvious
choice in terms of like the lead of a movie
like this, Like I would think, Oh, de Niro, Paccino,
like whoever, seventies actors like George C. Scott, like people
that appear in these types of movies in the seventies.

(15:09):
William Devane, I feel like, was mostly famous for he
was like on Knots Landing. He was like a TV guy,
and if you see him, you'll definitely know he is
because he's been in a lot of other movies too
before and since. But his portrayal of this character of this,
you know, basically he's like a guy that's home from Vietnam.
He was a pow in the war. Him and Tommy

(15:31):
Lee Jones, who's also in the movie. A bunch of
you know, POWs from Vietnam come home and they're just
trying to get readjusted to like their normal lives, and
there's tragedy that happens at some point with his family
and he just like goes fucking berserk. So there's this
kind of death wishish element to it, but it's also like, again,

(15:54):
it's kind of a character study because William Devane in
Rolling Thunder is a cool customer, and he's cool because
a he's a cool actor, but also like it's trauma. Basically,
the reason why he's so buttoned up and non emotional

(16:15):
is because he was you know, captured, And there's this
dance between you're like, man, this is the coolest dude
to ever live, or he's gonna explode and just take
out everyone. So you're waiting. You're just kind of waiting
in that moment. And he wears a really cool pair
of like aviators and he wears them all the time.

(16:36):
I don't know. It's like one of those classic seventies
movies that is about like kind of like anti heroes
and it's violin and you know it's crime related. So anyway,
I recommend you watch it immediate.

Speaker 1 (16:48):
Fabulous, Yeah, fabulous, what about you. I had a bit
of a light week this week. We watched a movie,
the latest Eli Roth film called Thanksgiving. Yeah, if you
ever saw the movie Grindhouse Quentin Tarantino and Robert Rodriguez.
There was a bunch of fake movie trailers, and a
bunch of those have been made into movies now, including

(17:11):
Michete and now Thanksgiving and uh It stars you know,
Mick Dreamy from Grey's Anatomy, Patrick Dempsey, and it was
I thought it was fun. It was a fun time.
I think the script could have used another pass. There
were some elements that I found kind of like confusing,
which isn't always a good That's not a good thing.

(17:33):
I don't feel like when you're like confused in a
slasher movie. So that was fine. I would say, Oh cool, Well.

Speaker 2 (17:40):
I always wanted Edgar Wright to make.

Speaker 1 (17:43):
Don't Yes, Do you remember that? I think that's the
last one that had that's the only one that hasn't
been made.

Speaker 2 (17:49):
Yeah, it'd be fun.

Speaker 1 (17:50):
That would be fun. I would love that. You know,
the Thanksgiving movie in general is uh there there there
aren't that many good ones. I feel like I like
the uh what is it? The day trippers? Of course,
of course home for the holidays, But I don't know
Thanksgiving movies there aren't like that many planes, trains and automobiles.
I feel like there could be more good ones.

Speaker 2 (18:09):
So, yeah, there could be. If there were more, would
you make it a big tradition to watch them every year?

Speaker 1 (18:16):
That's interesting. I have to say, Thanksgiving is like one
of my least favorite holidays, so I don't really like
to like sit in that space. So I don't you know,
maybe that's why there aren't that many good Thanksgiving movies. Yeah,
because Thanksgiving can be kind of a bummer.

Speaker 2 (18:29):
I've advocated that it get canceled in the past, have
you no, Because I feel like Halloween is such a
strong holiday and Christmas is such a strong holiday that
why not just cut out the middleman? Literally just cut
it out. I feel like Christmas in terms of food
has pretty much become Thanksgiving.

Speaker 1 (18:45):
Yeah, it's like the same stuff, Like people.

Speaker 2 (18:46):
Serve turkey and ham and Christmas, So why do we
do Thanksgiving? Plus there's all this like you know, loaded
political stuff with it.

Speaker 1 (18:54):
With the actual holiday very loaded. I think Christmas and
Halloween have enough, you know, juice, They have enough juice.
Or maybe we could just sort of meet in the middle.
You know. It's like, you add another fifteen days to
the Christmas season, add another fifteen days to Halloween season.
We can kind of bridge the gap. Though.

Speaker 2 (19:12):
Oh, they've already added fifteen days, babe, Like Dave added
fifteen days to Halloween. I swear of got Halloween is
at least a week.

Speaker 1 (19:19):
Now, at least after the thirty first.

Speaker 2 (19:21):
Oh, before and after. It depends on when Halloween is. Like,
if it's midweek, people are celebrating before and after. If
it's on a Saturday, it's the week before. They've extended Halloween.

Speaker 1 (19:32):
They've extended it. So yeah, Thanksgiving it's very brown. It's
like the ugliest time of year. There's like no snow.

Speaker 2 (19:38):
Yes.

Speaker 1 (19:39):
Anyways, Then I also watched House of Games. Have you
seen this movie?

Speaker 2 (19:44):
David Mammott, Right, No, haven't seen it.

Speaker 1 (19:46):
It's fun, it's a good kind of like crime sexy
Jill Montana.

Speaker 2 (19:52):
It's not a Criterion House of Games.

Speaker 1 (19:54):
I think it might be. Okay, it's good and yeah,
that was.

Speaker 3 (19:58):
My last entry in my film diary.

Speaker 2 (20:10):
All right, So what you want to talk about La
Los Angeles?

Speaker 1 (20:14):
Let's do it.

Speaker 2 (20:17):
When I talk to you about. Hey, what are we
going to talk about this week? I had just come
off of seeing the new four K blu ray of
the original Terminator movie from nineteen eighty four. Great, so casey, Okay.
Maybe for the people who have never seen the Original Terminator,
I don't know how that's possible. It's only the best

(20:38):
movie of all time. Could you like tell the people
who haven't seen it a little bit about what it's about?

Speaker 1 (20:44):
Absolutely, you know. I feel like it's pretty common for
people to have seen T two and not seen T one.
I don't think that's insane.

Speaker 2 (20:53):
I don't think it is either.

Speaker 1 (20:54):
So I'm happy. I'm happy to relay some information. So, basically,
this movie is about Sarah Conna. She is a young
woman living and working in Los Angeles. She rides around
a little molliped and one day she's visited by a
robot man from the future, the Terminator, Arnold Swarzenegger, who

(21:18):
is there to kill her because she is the mother
of John Connor, the future mother of She's not a
mother at this point in the movie, but she eventually
becomes the mother of John Connor, who is like the
rebel leader against the robots in the future war against Robots,

(21:41):
So Arnold's there to kill her. She's confused, and then
this other guy shows up, what's his name, Kyle, Kyle
k Kyle shows up to protect her from the Terminator,
and that is essent the plot of T one, And

(22:02):
since I already mentioned T two, they're inextricably linked. Can
you just give a quick synopsis of T two?

Speaker 3 (22:10):
Millie?

Speaker 2 (22:11):
Yeah, I mean, I mean this is all insane. Oh yeah,
Kyle Rease, I forgot. I was like, what's this last naving?

Speaker 1 (22:17):
I think Kyle came back.

Speaker 2 (22:19):
We're back. So essentially, Terminator two is the scenario where
Sarah Connor has been sent to a mental facility because
she's crazy because she has these like robot visions and
is telling people about how the future is so fucked
and like her teenage son, John Connor, is now in
foster care running the streets. Here's the thing. The T

(22:41):
eight hundred, who was Arnold in the first movie, has
been reprogrammed, and now he comes back to help Sarah
and John against this brand spank and new robot. The
T one thousand, who was played by Robert Patrick. That's
the liquid metal cop if you if you know, if
you've heard about this before? So any wait, it's kind
of now Arnold, who was bad in the first movie

(23:04):
isn't actually now the good guy and he's kind of
a father figure to John Connor. Very interesting stuff.

Speaker 1 (23:09):
Did you know that Robert Patrick is the older brother
of the lead singer of Phil Or Sure? What are
you at?

Speaker 2 (23:15):
Nuts? You think I didn't grow up in the nineties
listening to alternative music? God? I mean, who do you
think I am? I knew that. Also, did you know
that Robert Patrick is from my hometown?

Speaker 1 (23:24):
Didn't know that?

Speaker 2 (23:25):
And probably his brother too, right, because they're related?

Speaker 1 (23:28):
A man? Nice shot.

Speaker 2 (23:30):
What is your history with Terminator? Did you watch it
as a child? Like I do you think I now saw?

Speaker 1 (23:35):
I saw both T one and T two very late.
I would say I've saw them in the last like
seven years for the first time. Some of those movies,
if you just don't see him at the right time,
you have to seek them out on your own, and
you don't necessarily do that, you know, And so I
just sort of missed them, and so I don't have

(23:55):
much of a relationship with these movies at all. I
have somewhat of a relationship with James Cameron. I like
some of his films a lot. Yeah, and I find
him to be a very interesting person. But I would
say I'm more like I was like more of a
fan of like Aliens than I was of The Terminator.

Speaker 2 (24:15):
Okay, okay, good to know.

Speaker 1 (24:18):
What about you, Millie.

Speaker 2 (24:19):
My history with Terminator is that I remember seeing the
First Terminator at some point in my early childhood, like
in the eighties, right. It was probably on TV because
I carried a knowledge of you know, certainly of like
Arnold Schwarzenegger as a Terminator at some point like I
was maybe when in elementary school, and I remember people

(24:40):
saying like, I'll be back, and I'm like, oh, I
know what that's from. Even though I don't really specifically
remember a lot of things about the First Terminator as
a child, it wasn't until T two came out. Now
Terminator Too. Judgment Day came out at a time almost
kind of the perfect moment for me for it to
have become my favorite not only my favorite movie, but

(25:02):
like one of my favorite movies still of all time.

Speaker 1 (25:04):
Wow.

Speaker 2 (25:05):
Yes, because there was several things happening with Terminator two
when it came out that completely radicalized me. Because number one,
it was a blockbuster. I mean, it was such a
huge film. I watched it in the theater, but then
I also watched it on VHS with my friend Karen
after school. We watched it like maybe twenty times.

Speaker 1 (25:24):
Wow.

Speaker 2 (25:25):
So it was exciting. And there was other things about
it too. But the biggest things for me, the things
that really grabbed me. Number one, guns n' Roses on
the soundtrack, sure, because they were my favorite band in
this era.

Speaker 1 (25:38):
Wow.

Speaker 2 (25:38):
And they did a song called you Could Be Mine
and the video used to play on MTV all the time,
and it contained clips from Terminator two and was like,
oh my god, guns n' Roses the best band ever.
So there was that. But then, really the biggest I
have to say, Edward Furlong. Huge crush huge. I mean,

(25:59):
like you don't even understand, like how big of a
crush I had on Edward Furlong when Terminator two came out.

Speaker 1 (26:06):
You know what it was? I spoke of this with
River Phoenix. He's got that beautiful cascading nineties hair that
just like little wisps are like dangling in front of
his eyes. He's kind of you know, and he's just
got this beautiful straight hair that I would have, As
I said in a previous episode, I would have killed
a person to have that hair.

Speaker 2 (26:25):
So absolutely, And Edward Furlong is my age. He might
be like a year or two older than me. And typically,
I have to say typically, I was never I never
liked the boys of my era for the most part,
Like you know, I talked about this on I saw
what you did with Leonardo DiCaprio, Like I just for
some reason was like, I don't like him. He seems
like he's a guy that goes to my high school

(26:47):
and he's an asshole. Like I'm just not I was
always liking guys who were like slightly older than me. Yeah,
but Edward Furlong was literally like the guy that was
my age, and I could not stand how cute he was.
And I was like all about those like sensitive, dark haired,
teen heartthrob guys.

Speaker 1 (27:03):
He seemed kind of like a bad boy, even like
it was a little kid. He kind of had like
a mystery to him, you know what's going on there?

Speaker 2 (27:09):
Oh yeah, with his like little thievery in the movie
where he's like stealing out of ATMs and riding his
dirt bike with Bobby Buttnick from Salute Your Shorts.

Speaker 1 (27:19):
Yes, yeah, yeah, Salut Your Shirts has come up in
a previous episode.

Speaker 2 (27:22):
Yes, we've mentioned Bobby Buttonick at least twice on this podcast.
So I was like obsessed with this movie and essentially
it informed my vision of Los Angeles before I knew
what Los Angeles was, before I lived there. Certainly, Yeah,
I mean it basically told me that there's this La

(27:44):
River basin that never has water in it that you
could drive cars through and like dirt bikes and shoot
guns and stuff.

Speaker 1 (27:51):
I feel like it never does have water in it,
and it is there.

Speaker 2 (27:54):
That's so exciting. Like as a person who's from the South,
I was like, oh my god, that looks so cool.
But anyway, point being is that Terminator two was my everything,
and it really is now my favorite of any of
the Terminator properties, sure and will be forever. It's just
it just came out during my childhood. It was a
flashpoint moment for me. So when I watched the first

(28:17):
Terminator again, it's you know, on again. Blu Ray four
K looks fantastic By the way. I have to say,
part of the greatest thing about four k's and new
restorations and that kind of stuff is that you get
to see so much of the background now of things, yeah,
totally that you've never noticed, like handwritten notes and like
weird little fucking characters that you're like, oh, I watched

(28:39):
this on a four x three black and white television
on a fucking VHS, Like, I didn't even know that
that character was back there doing a little dance. But anyway,
so yeah, rewatching the first Terminator movie again, I my
first instinct was like, I like this. Obviously, it's the
origin story for everything else and certainly my favorite term movie.

(29:00):
But I still like Terminator two better. I still do.

Speaker 1 (29:04):
To me, they're like different species almost, yeah, they really are.
T two feels like so much more modern and like
the Terminator feels like an old movie and they only
came out like six years apart, but T two feels
like one hundred years more advanced and more cinematic and

(29:25):
bigger and shinier.

Speaker 2 (29:28):
Right, And the biggest distinction, I think, which is probably
pretty obvious, is that the Terminator was a bad guy
in the first one, and he's a good guy in
the second one.

Speaker 1 (29:37):
Yeah, you know, another four K restoration. I feel like
you get to see Arnold's dick a little bit better
than you might have in the old you know, the
old VHS version. Uh huh.

Speaker 2 (29:48):
So glad you brought that up. That's the other thing
about four k's Blu Rays especially, is that you could
really drill down into the visuals of moments like this
where we we I mean I watched it with two
gay dudes, so of course we were gonna like, hey,
what are we looking at here? Yeah, And it was
kind of a kind of incredible because you are like, well,

(30:09):
you can see a lot of detail on this thing
we never saw before. But having said that, I mean,
the whole idea of Arnold and this is I think
part of the special features that we watched. But I
had always heard this was that Arnold really did not
want the Terminator to be a good guy.

Speaker 1 (30:24):
Interesting.

Speaker 2 (30:25):
He was like, he wanted it to be a bad guy.
And basically James Cameron when they made Terminator two, he
was like, there's no fucking way you can be a
bad guy again. You're like America's sweetheart.

Speaker 1 (30:36):
Yes, I mean, he was a huge movie star at
that point, like the Terminator, he is kind of not
the lead guy. No, you know, Kyle Reese is the
lead guy sort of, and if you do Tea Too,
it has to be Arnold obviously.

Speaker 2 (30:54):
Well, and like to that point, I forget about Kyle Reaes,
like I unfortunately feel like even though he is the
main character, he is overshadowed by Arnold Schwarzenegger in the
first Terminator.

Speaker 1 (31:06):
One hundred percent. I do like that actor though, Michael Bean.
I mean, he's like a really hot guy too, but
I mean we don't get to see his dick outline
but we do with Arnold, and we don't get to
see his butt like we do with Arnold, and that
overshadows him entirely.

Speaker 2 (31:22):
But it's also like not I mean, it's kind of
not his fault because it's almost like he's the good guy.
He's the one that is, you know, essentially like he
needs to impregnate Sarah Connor to you know, continue the
fucking human race. But it's almost like that task is
super boring. Yeah, when it comes back to, oh, well,

(31:44):
we have this other character that it's supposed to kill
that guy and kill that woman, and so why why
do we even care about his mission totally, So he
was kind of set up to fail in that way.
And I feel bad that I don't remember him.

Speaker 1 (31:57):
But like Arnold is so just visually seeing him on
screen next to other regular humans, He's so imposing and
so like beautiful as just sort of like this like
statue the sculpture of a human being that it's just
you can't take your eyes off him. He really just

(32:19):
look he looks incredible on the screen. Just walking down
a hallway, you're totally captivated by his presence. And so
when just like looking at him, when you're like your
eyes are feasting upon him in the movie, and then
it cuts to a scene with Kyle Reese, you're kind
of like, oh him deflated. I mean, it's like like

(32:41):
just from a visual excitement, you know what I mean.

Speaker 2 (32:44):
Yeah, of course, And I'll say this on Mike. Arnold
Schwarzenegger is probably the only Republican that I really love.

Speaker 1 (32:52):
Of Course, he's like a fake Republican too, I know.

Speaker 2 (32:55):
I mean, he doesn't want to be an economic girly man.
I get it. But he's also not like indoctrinated into
the whole like craziness of the modern Republican Party bullshit, right, yes,
and that's a slippery slope. I understand it, of course.
But I was introduced to him, you know, he was
commando and things of that nature. It was weird for me,

(33:17):
I think when I realized that he was like the
governor of California and he was just like a Republican guy,
like making you know, conservative politics happen. But I agree,
I don't think he's like a terrible one. But still
I still really fond of him. And so when yeah,
he's a bad guy and Terminator and he's scary as shit,
but he's also like to be admired gorgeous, like you know,

(33:41):
Greek statue guy. And so when the second one came around,
he'd refined his look. I mean he honestly looked fucking
amazing and Terminator two, yes, with the leather jacket and
the wrap around sunglasses, and he's like pumping those like
double barrel shotguns and shit, I'm like, this is so
erotic almost. But he his whole character in the movie,

(34:03):
in the second movie was that he was like a dad.
He was like a dad, yeah, And I responded to
that so much that I was like watching the first
termater going. I don't accept him as a bad guy.
I love him as like a robot dad and a
hot one at that.

Speaker 1 (34:21):
So, yes, you know that's interesting. Yeah, I will say
it's hard to go back. Yeah, after you've seen T two,
it's hard to go back to the Terminator. In the
same way, I'm sure it's kind of like when you know,
you go like after like a band's breakthrough album that's

(34:43):
like a masterpiece, it's kind of hard to go back
to their older stuff where they haven't quite figured it out.
I still love to listen to like Prince's Dirty Mind
and stuff, but like after you've listened to Purple Rain,
it's kind of like, this is such a cuter version.
It's not a yeah, everything before that is cute compared

(35:05):
to what what he eventually? Did? You know what I mean?

Speaker 2 (35:07):
Oh yeah, No, I think a cop for me would
be like the Beatles or something. Yeah, not that we
need any more Beatles fan discourse at all in culture, sure,
but I'm gonna say obviously my Beatles era are like
Rubber Sol Revolver. Yeah, to the degree which now if
I hear fucking like love Me Do and all that shit,

(35:27):
it sounds so corny totally and such like weird oldies
radio station Boober nostalgia shit that I'm just like, yeah,
I can't even listen to like old Beatles like I
want to hold your hand.

Speaker 1 (35:39):
I hate that shit. It's like you kind of like
cross an artistic threshold where it like makes everything before
it moved kind of like you know, I don't know
if you're a Radiohead fan, but like after you listen
to like Okay, Computer and kid A, it's really hard
to listen to the Bends. I feel like, or it's
like there's good songs on there, but it's like I
felt like they just yeah, pass sort of a threshold,

(36:00):
you know, where it's hard to go backwards. I hear you.

Speaker 2 (36:02):
I might disagree slightly because I absolutely love the Bends Okay,
and I actually love Pablo Honey too. I don't know,
but I do I do agree that, like normally, time
creates this sort of I don't know, like artistic difference
between like early work and later work. Sometimes that makes
early work seem very distracting. Yeah, when you've realized, oh,

(36:23):
the newer stuff is a little bit more complex, a
little bit more my speed. So yeah, yeah, that's how
I felt about watching The First Terminator again, even though
the minute I started playing it it made me super
nostalgic for LA.

Speaker 1 (36:37):
Interesting.

Speaker 2 (36:37):
Yeah, and I've been gone from LA for like a
couple of years.

Speaker 1 (36:44):
Now, how long did you live there? Five years? Okay,
which is not very long. That's a chunk.

Speaker 2 (36:49):
That's a chunk. And I speaking of Republicans, I was
actually there during the entire first Trump administration, So I
felt like I was. I really loved being there for that.
To me, I had visited LA so much for work
prior to moving there that I kind of if I
actually kind of remember when it was that I moved.
I was like, oh, I felt like I had moved

(37:11):
there a lot earlier than.

Speaker 1 (37:12):
I actually did.

Speaker 2 (37:13):
I see, because I was there a lot. But anyway,
I don't know how you feel because you've been back,
you've left. You left LA like way later than I did.

Speaker 1 (37:22):
Yeah, I moved to Minneapolis a year and a half ago.
Oh wow, And I lived in LA for seventeen years. Wow.
So I love Los Angeles. I spent a lot of
like my later teen years and all of my twenties
and a good chunk most of my thirties there, So
like I did a lot of growing up in that city,

(37:46):
and I still feel very connected to it. I don't
miss it really because I feel like it's a part
of me, if that makes sense. It makes sense. I
go back with some frequency. There are things I miss
about it, but like, yeah, I don't feel that pole
as much, just because I was there for so long,
and I sort of feel like LA is so weird.
I was talking about this with Tricia, my wife. It's

(38:07):
like all these little cities crammed together, and you'll live
in one area of Los Angeles and not go to
a certain area for years, and so for me, it
sort of feels like, right now, I move to a
different neighborhood in Los Angeles and I just haven't visited
those other neighborhoods, even though I'm in Minneapolis right now.
Right So, but I have a deep fondness for LA.

(38:31):
I feel like I have to defend it weirdly because
everybody likes to shit on Los Angeles. But it is
fun watching old eighties at LA and just seeing what
that world is like.

Speaker 2 (38:43):
Part of my and like this isn't anything new. I mean,
there's this fantastic documentary called Los Angeles Plays itself. Yes,
which if you haven't seen it, good luck, because I
don't know where it is.

Speaker 1 (38:58):
No, I don't think it's streaming somewhat. Is that really, Yeah,
because there's a lot of rights issues with that movie, right.

Speaker 2 (39:05):
Because it's basically like a video essay. It was made
by a man, Tom Anderson, who's like a you know,
he's like a professor, he's like a video essayist, he's
a documentarian. And it came out in two thousand and three.
But it oh, it's on canopy. I think it's on Canopy.
There you go, so get it through your library. But
you know, the reason why I think it's it's probably

(39:28):
legally kind of in a gray area is because it
uses a lot of clips from other movies that sort
of shape this argument about how like movies have informed
our view of Los Angeles as the town. Right, Yeah,
And it's great, Like I watched it before I lived there,
and then I rewatched it when I moved, and I
just had like such a much deeper understanding of the

(39:49):
way that movie culture has informed my view of the
town that I was living in. There seems to be
like this entire chunk of eighties films that I I
love that all sort of take place in LA roughly
the same kind of neighborhoods. Is sort of like I'm
thinking of stuff like Miracle Mile, which I know takes

(40:11):
place in the Miracle Mile neighborhood.

Speaker 1 (40:13):
But that's like Hollywood kind of like it's near Hollywood. Yeah.

Speaker 2 (40:17):
But then you have like things that are taking place
in like clearly downtown Los Angeles, which to me is
a great place for a post apocalyptic vibe, holy apocalyptic vibe.

Speaker 1 (40:29):
The downtown area feels nothing like the rest of the city,
and it does feel kind of post apocalyptic. I mean
down there it is Oh it's a scene, man.

Speaker 2 (40:38):
It's a scene. But then there are you know, of course,
other sort of general not like more eighties comedies and
romances that take place in the valley. So there's whole,
this whole other tradition of you know, eighties LA movies.
But I think specifically because I rewatched Terminator, I was like, oh, like,
what are some other movies that are kind of in
that vein that are filmed in Los Angeles and like

(41:01):
kind of the same part of town, right.

Speaker 1 (41:04):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, I you know, I think we
had discussed this before, but there's like Night of the
Comet is a really fun kind of like post nuclear
teen zombie movie that a lot of it shot in
the Beverly Center in LA and there's a lot of
shots in downtown as well. But that's like, that's a

(41:24):
really fun movie that's near this time too. And then
another movie came to mind for me, which isn't post apocalyptic,
but Predator two is a very like wild LA movie.
I think it's the eighties when that came out, but
that's like a really a really crazy representation of La
as like this wasteland.

Speaker 2 (41:44):
One of my favorite movies ever is To Live and
Die in La by William Freakin. Yeah, which also is
shot in the Emptied Basin. Yes, a lot of downtown stuff,
a lot of like warehouses, you know, it's like that
feeling of like people who are committing crimes and housing
their you know, counterfeit money in warehouses. A lot of dumpsters,

(42:10):
a lot of trash on the street, a lot of
you know, sort of like grimy sort of thriller noir
elements with like the lapd and you know, like weird
bars and weird apartments like that kind of stuff. Like
I love. Yeah, it's just such a vibe, and I
feel like it's this very specific vibe that you know
is sort of like yeah, time in place for sure.

(42:33):
But then it also I think is what makes me
like the movie more. Like I kept thinking, Okay, if
like Terminator was shot in Minneapolis, sure would I like
it as much if like if Terminator Too was shot
in Minneapolis or Atlanta, where I'm at right now. I mean,

(42:56):
I don't think i'd like Terminator Too without you know,
just like the La elements, the river basin, the desert stuff.
I mean, the desert stuff is like obviously like they
move to go get their guns, you know, over the
the war, the upcoming robots versus humans war. I mean
that feels very California. That is an LA adjacent thing

(43:20):
that has to happen.

Speaker 1 (43:21):
Well, I think the Terminator has to exist in Los
Angeles because you know it is LA is kind of
like on the edge of the desert, so it feels
like it's sort of creeping towards the like apocalyptic wasteland
a little bit, like sort of gradually. And then also
there's just like with LA, there's a lot of like
and I like this about the city. There's sort of

(43:41):
like a lot of nothing space. Within the city itself,
there's like a lot of cement. There's like a lot
of like pockets of like weirdness that it doesn't feel
like a cohesive city, but it is urban at the
same time. You know, it's like almost got like all
town elements within the city itself, because it's just kind

(44:03):
of like these neighborhoods that are sort of ban dated
together and it covers like a huge, a vast amount
of space. So there's like a lot of movement, like
the terminator and terminator too. It's like there's a lot
of movement across the city, across spaces, and that type
of environment you really only find in Los Angeles, and

(44:26):
it reflects itself in the movie itself. You know, it's
a lot of like urban decay. But I don't know,
it's a la is a strange place. It's unlike any
other city, and so when a movie is set there,
it has to like it does have an effect on
the movie itself.

Speaker 2 (44:44):
Yeah, and I think too, you know, part of living there. Finally,
after being informed by these movies about this location for
so long, I don't know if you felt this. I
you know, again, I I'm such a romantic when it
comes to Yeah, cinema, of course, tell me too.

Speaker 1 (45:02):
Of course, the name of our damn podcast is called
Deer Movies. I Love you, Milly, come on exactly.

Speaker 2 (45:07):
We have very amorous feelings towards this industry of ours.
But when I was living there, I could not help
but get caught up in just the feeling of being
in the movies. Like I was sitting there, like I
lived in West Hollywood, and I looked at you kind
of like the Russian part of West Hollywood, by the way,
Like there's like the fancy part that's near Beverly Hills,

(45:28):
and then there's my part that was closer to actual Hollywood, right.
And there would be times where I'd be like walking
the dog and I would be like, oh, this is
where like Salminio got stabbed or something, you know, or like, oh,
this is where like Eve Babbitts used to live. Like
it's just like you're literally just out walking the dog
picking up poop, and you're just like, oh, there's just

(45:51):
history happening all around you, and it's all about this
like thing that I really love, and it's just wild.
It's such a wild feeling and then you would drive
like what I would drive down Fairfax, you know, and
you would see like the coffee shop that's in Miracle Mile. Yeah,
Johnny's right, and you're just like, holy fucking shit, I'm
just going to the gym and there's Johnny's right there

(46:13):
where you know, half of the movie Miracle Mile was shot.
This is my one of my favorite movies of all time.

Speaker 1 (46:18):
Yeah, no, I think that's really interesting. And something I
you know, something that has been a little bit of
a relief since moving from there is kind of like,
when you're in Los Angeles, you do feel like you're
in the movies, and in a way, it feels like
there's a camera lens on you in a weird way.
It feels like you're the center of something in a
way that you can't escape. And so when I moved

(46:39):
back to Minneapolis, it sort of felt like I felt
sort of a relief to be out of the center
of everyone's eyeballs in a way. And I know that's
sort of a philosophical existential idea, but there's kind of
an oppressiveness to that too when you're there.

Speaker 2 (46:55):
Sure you know, yes, yes, well listen, thanks for chatting
with me. This yes, because I just was wanting to
discuss it with someone who also used to live in LA, which, yeah,
you know, I mean I think that's really important when
you're wanting to, like, you know, really parse out these
feelings about watching the original Terminator and you know, basically
like driving cars through shopping centers in downtown LA or

(47:18):
like who can I talk to you about that? Oh
my friend who lived there three times as long as
I did, So.

Speaker 1 (47:23):
Absolutely I have a few other just Terminator notes real quick,
Oh let's go. So watching it this time, I couldn't
help but think it was sort of funny that Reese
went back in time to fuck his best friend's mom, right,
And did John Connor know that that was his father?
That part of the movie I kind of was like

(47:45):
I forgot about. Yeah, it was sort of like, oh,
that's right, and he's a virgin. That was made clear too,
And I don't know, it was just like there was
that was sort of an odd thing, gotta.

Speaker 2 (47:56):
Be honest, a little slap together. Yes, And I understand
you just had a lot of story about the other
thing happening again. It's like justice for Kyle, I suppose,
but it's like that feeling of like, okay, like they
could have maybe give us a little bit more thought.

Speaker 1 (48:11):
Did you have you noticed this. I'm not the first
person to make this observation, but James Cameron's movies always
end either in the water or in a factory.

Speaker 2 (48:21):
Wow. That's interesting. Yeah huh.

Speaker 1 (48:24):
I don't know if that's true across every single movie,
but a lot of them do, including the last Avatar
film kind of ends in a factory or kind of
a factory setting, I should say, yeah, industrial factory type place.

Speaker 2 (48:41):
I mean, listen, I remember seeing the first Avatar in
IMAX when it came out.

Speaker 1 (48:47):
Uh huh, I.

Speaker 2 (48:48):
Remember nothing about it. I remember there are blue people.
I remember there were people like maybe like leaping from
tree to tree with some kind of satchel across their body. Sure,
but I don't remember anything about Avatar.

Speaker 1 (49:02):
I mean, we can keep this very brief. But what
do you feel about James Cameron in general? Are you
a fan? I mean, I mean T two is in
it sounds like one of your favorite movies of all time,
but top five? How do you feel about him as
a filmmaker beyond T two?

Speaker 2 (49:17):
I mean, well, now having seen Titanic, because remember I
was a huge Titanic holdout huge. Yeah, I always saw
Titanic in the past year for the very first time. Yes,
I sort of appreciate him a tiny bit more, but generally,
like it's that kind of thing where I think, maybe
I do think the opposite of what we just talked about,

(49:37):
which is that I like the earlier James Cameron stuff,
more early period stuff, but then the later stuff. I'm
kind of like, huh, like the whole Avatar thing honestly
missed me. With all of that, I am not a fan.
I don't really feel good about the mythology really like,
I mean, it's fine, the mythology is fine. I just
don't I'm not interested. I suppose sure, but I mean
the Abyss Terminators, I'll even maybe even throw Titanic in there.

Speaker 1 (50:02):
I'm good with, okay, but you know, like aliens.

Speaker 2 (50:06):
Yes, true lies. I don't know. He's sort of like
I guess he kind of feel doesn't feel like super
exciting to me as a director, even though he makes
huge movies. But like, yeah, even though I do think
it's really interesting that he's like this oceanographery guy. Now,
like he's like the number one guy we go to
to find things that have gone missing in the ocean.

Speaker 1 (50:28):
Yeah, I find him interesting as an artist and a person.
I like his approach to movies because like it seems
like he really follows his passions and is passionate about film,
and some of his passions are sort of odd, like
are not odd, but just not maybe necessarily commercial or mainstream.

(50:50):
Like the latest Avatar movie there's like I feel like
there's like a forty five minute sequence in the middle
where they're just swimming in the water and there's like
no dialogue and it doesn't really move the plot for
you know. It's like I appreciate that about him because
in a normal blockbuster they would have just cut that out.
But it's like he's passionate about these I keep saying
the word passion, but I do like that he is

(51:11):
a passionate filmmaker and cares deeply and obsessively about his films,
and they just happen to be like generally mainstream ideas.
But sure, it's almost like his approach is non mainstream,
if that makes sense.

Speaker 2 (51:26):
Yeah, makes sense to me.

Speaker 1 (51:27):
Interesting, So yeah, I kind of I enjoy him. Also,
I just want to say one last thing about the Terminator.
When I was five years old. I really wanted this
terminator to toy the bioflesh regenerator, which is basically you
get the toy skeleton metallic skeleton of you know, like

(51:48):
at the end of the terminator that's like just the
skeleton is running after Sarah Connor. You get that toy
and then you put it in this device and you
pour like goo and it hardens around it so it
looks like a naked arnold. But you can like rip
this gooey flesh off of this metal skeleton toy, and

(52:10):
so you can kind of reenact the terminator, I guess.
And I had that toy and it was thrilling. Wow.

Speaker 2 (52:17):
What do you think it's going for now? Probably like
seven hundred dollars.

Speaker 1 (52:20):
The bioflesh regenerator more I wonder. Let me see, it
looks like about one hundred bucks. That's not bad. I
don't want one. Don't buy one for me, but for me.

Speaker 2 (52:32):
If you all are listening right now.

Speaker 1 (52:33):
A bioflesh regenerator, shoot a message.

Speaker 2 (52:36):
In our socials. I'll give you my PO box address
and we can I'll make that gift possible.

Speaker 1 (52:42):
Very good. Uh well, moving on, Millie to our next section,
which I've teased a little bit and you don't know
what it is. But something we discussed when we started
this podcast was bringing up film gripes. And this is

(53:05):
a pretty broad genre of segment because it can be about,
you know, things that are happening in movies, sort of
like trends. Trends, yeah, trends in movies, or the theater
going experience other people in the theaters a lot of times,
so it's kind of a broad, you know, genre. But

(53:27):
I wanted to talk about something today and I'm curious
to hear your thoughts about it. What do you think
about assigned seating at the movie theater? Because this is
a relatively new thing, I would say, in the last
ten to fifteen years. Now, it feels like almost every
movie theater is assigned seating, sure, especially nicer, newer theaters.

(53:51):
But what are your thoughts about that? Okay, I do
you have any thoughts? I haven't checked this.

Speaker 2 (54:00):
No, no, no, Right off the dome. I actually kind of
like it because I feel like the biggest issue that
I always had about everything being all willy nilly was
that the organization of seating was always so weird. Right, Yeah,
So there was this whole like you know when you

(54:20):
go into a movie theater and it's like half full
or something. Obviously people were congregating towards I wouldn't know,
the middle, slightly back or something, and it felt like
there was no rive or reason to things a lot
of times, and there would be like entire rows that
would be like, you know, empty, but then there would

(54:41):
be like two three people squished into this one thing,
and then I'm like, should I sit in that row
or should I?

Speaker 1 (54:46):
I don't know.

Speaker 2 (54:47):
To me, it feels like it takes out the like
awkwardness of trying to figure out how to sit with strangers,
which is that sure, and then it does sort of
help to organize things with friends a little bit better.
But it also like yeah, cuts down the weird like
saving of seats and saving of rows, like you can't
like do that because sometimes like people would like save

(55:10):
seats for their friends and then like those friends didn't
show up, and so all of a sudden, there's two
amazing seats that go unused. So anyway, I think I
like it because I like organization.

Speaker 1 (55:21):
I guess, yes, it's much more efficient. Here's why I
like it because in the olden days, you'd have to
get to the movie theater. If it was like let's
say it's like a popular movie, you have to get
to the movie early to get one a ticket. Yeah,
but you also have to get there early two to
go get a seat, right, and so you like sometimes
you get to a movie, like a popular blockbuster movie,

(55:43):
like I don't know, forty five minutes an hour before
the movie starts, just so you could get a seat.
Now you can buy the tickets ahead of time. A
lot of times you don't have to waste all this time.
You don't have to get there early twice. Essentially, you know,
you don't have to get there early to get the
ticket and to go get a seat. You can just
get a ticket ahead of time and then show up
when the movie's starting, essentially. But I have found that

(56:07):
there is like a war going on between older generations
and younger generations. And I feel like a lot of
people my parents' age hate the assigned seating, okay, and
I have gotten into altercations with people who are sitting
in my seat that I bought the ticket for whoa.
And it's not just old people. I'm not just raging
on old people. It's other people too, where it's like,

(56:28):
you're in my seat and they'll be like, no one's here,
can't you sit somewhere else? And it's like, but I
have the ticket for that seat. So that has happened
to me.

Speaker 2 (56:37):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (56:37):
But also one time Trisiaan and I were going to
see a movie. Admittedly we got there right as the
movie was starting, sure, which I'm against. I like to
be there on time.

Speaker 2 (56:46):
Good.

Speaker 1 (56:46):
So the theater is dark, it's dark. I think this
was at the Arc Light in Hollywood, and I go
to the you know, the guy who worked there, and
I was like, these are our tickets, and he was like, Okay,
your seats are up there, but I can see that
there are people sitting in your seats, so you're gonna
have to ask them to move. And I'm like, oh, man,
isn't that your job, sir? That's what I should have said.

(57:09):
But this kid was like fifteen and I'm grown.

Speaker 2 (57:11):
Man, so make a man out of him? Man, Like, yes, exactly,
you're gonna have to confront.

Speaker 1 (57:16):
So basically, this older couple, one of them is seated
in our seats. They both needed to move one seat
to their right. There's a free seat on both sides,
but Tricia and my seats are together, so we have
to scooch them over. The movie has started. This is
like a ten am screening. There's a lot of older
people in the theater. So I go up and I'm like, hi, sir,

(57:39):
you're seated in our seat and he goes what, And
I go, you're in our seats. I paid for these seats. No,
this seat is mine and those two do you guys
just have to move over? And then his wife goes,
what's going on? Oh god? And I go, you're in
our seats and she goes, we paid for these seats.

(58:01):
I go, I know you did. You Just move over
one seat. And then the people behind us, because we're
standing up while the movie is going on. The people
behind us goes, why are these people standing in the film,
And I'm like, oh my god, it's a disaster. I'm
finally like, move over one seat. This is my seat.
That seat next to you is yours. Just both of

(58:22):
you shoot over and they're like oh, and I sit
down next to this guy and I'm like I thought
he was like embarrassed because he had messed up, because
he should have been humiliated and embarrassed by his ridiculous behavior. Yeah,
I go sorry for that, and he just goes he
grunts at me like it was my fault. Yeah. So anyways, Wow,

(58:42):
that's a film grape of mind that people don't always
follow the seat assignment that they bought for the seated seats,
you know, in the theater.

Speaker 2 (58:54):
That is so bowld of somebody to be like, why
can't you just move? I don't know, is that wrong
with me? Like that's crazy.

Speaker 1 (59:04):
My dear aunt Nancy recently had a problem with this
as well. Now this isn't my story, but I'm telling
her story. She went in, there was a guy in
her seat. She lives in Fargo, Moorhead actually, and she
went to the theater and the guy she's like, you're
in our seats and he's like, no one's here, go
find another seat.

Speaker 2 (59:21):
Oh my god.

Speaker 1 (59:21):
And so she's like, okay. She sits down. Other people
come in and they go to her and they're like,
you're in our seat. And she's like okay. She moves again.
Other people come in, Hey, you're in our seat, lady.
She gets up and walks back to her seat, and
the old guy goes, looks like, you're not having any
luck today. She goes, get out of my seat.

Speaker 2 (59:40):
I would have kicked him in the nuts. What the fuck?

Speaker 1 (59:43):
Yeah, that is so bold. There's a war going on
out there, Millie. Anyways, that's my film, Gripe.

Speaker 2 (59:49):
Gripe, accept it, that is. I mean, I think you
and I see very much eye to eye on the
assigned seat thing, which makes sense because I think I
feel like you and I are both very like. We're
both kind of methodical. We like a little organization. We
like a little bit of rules, like like some light rules, you.

Speaker 1 (01:00:05):
Know, we like we like laws and order. I don't
think that's like an insane thing. We don't like all
these like independently minded people going ham you know in
our theaters.

Speaker 2 (01:00:18):
I know you mean, well, it's really more. I don't
even want to call it a law because I'm punk rock.
I don't really like all laws me too, I'm punk
rock two. I like a little bit of infrastructure and
what I think it's just an organizational tool, infrastructure to
just create a little bit of order when it comes
to like public things and you know, strangers, because if

(01:00:41):
you're out here with no fucking rules and movie theaters again,
like this is what will happen is that people are
just gonna be like, well, I'm gonna save five seats
because I'll want to lay down and put all my
snacks on they all my snacks, get one seat, yes,
and you're gonna have to sit in the front row,
you know. So I like the assigned seat thing, but honestly, like,
people are going outside of that and I don't appreciate it.

(01:01:02):
That's wild.

Speaker 1 (01:01:02):
I don't like it at a baseball game either, because
that's happened before where I've gotten to my seats at
a baseball game and people are in my seats and
I'm like, oh, these are our seats, and they're kind
of like, can't you go somewhere else? It's like no,
but those are our seats. Get out of them.

Speaker 2 (01:01:14):
It's like this place created the rule of the assigned seats,
so you have to abide by them too, Like come.

Speaker 1 (01:01:19):
On, yes, Like jerks.

Speaker 2 (01:01:21):
Wow.

Speaker 1 (01:01:21):
Anyways, I like that you accepted my gripe. Maybe that
can be a part of this segment where Gripe accepted
Gripe accepted.

Speaker 2 (01:01:28):
Dingy All right, Casey, well, listen, I had a blast
talking with you today about the terminator and the terminators
and kicking old men and the balls in the movie theater.
All right, so let's move on to a section that
we lovingly call employee picks, and this is where we
recommend a film based on what we've talked about today.

(01:01:50):
So what do you have, Casey.

Speaker 1 (01:01:52):
This is not necessarily an apocalyptic movie, but it's kind
of a fun LA movie that is very low budget
and it is about a ghost and a haunting and
it kind of I like Los Angeles because there's sort

(01:02:14):
of like and I like movies set in Los Angeles.
I like slacker type movies set in Los Angeles because
it's like a fun place to just sort of bum
around and walk around, and there's a lot of slackers there.
It's a very easy place to live weatherwise, you don't
need much. The movie I'm recommending is called The Civil Dead.
It came out in twenty twenty two. It's co written

(01:02:35):
and directed by Clay Tatum. The comedian Whittmer Thomas is
in it, and Wittmer Thomas plays a ghost that only
Clay Tatum can see and it becomes really annoying. It's
all kind of set in the Silver Lake, Los Fela's

(01:02:55):
area and it's a good kind of slacker buddy comedy
with heart, but it also kind of has some scary
elements too. And they made it for like I want
to say, like fifteen twenty thousand dollars. It's really great. Yeah,
you can stream it in the usual places on you know,
Prime rented, on Apple TV. It's on Hoopla if anyone

(01:03:17):
has access to that app. That's another library card app, Hoopla.
But yeah, it's a really fun movie that I really enjoyed.
And I always enjoy, you know, super low budget films,
and this this movie, when I watched it did make
me miss Los Angeles. You get to see all the
apartments of Los Felis and stuff, and it's it's a

(01:03:40):
fun movie. I really enjoyed it.

Speaker 2 (01:03:42):
Okay, well that's a great recommendation. I'm gonna have to
check that out. Plus it's very topical to our theme,
that is, you know, I was thinking about what's an
LA movie, Like I was like, oh, I should go
like really obscure, you know, something like that. But I
don't think I want to don't do I think I
want to go real broad, which is that I am

(01:04:06):
going to recommend a movie called Swingers I love Swingers.

Speaker 1 (01:04:11):
That's a great LA movie.

Speaker 2 (01:04:13):
A great LA movie, and also was another film that
educated me about what it would be like to be
living in LA before I moved to La.

Speaker 1 (01:04:22):
I actually think that's a good representation and somewhat accurate
representation of just like living out in La, bumming around
in your friend's apartments, kind of just hanging out at
the usual places, driving around the city. I think that's
I love that movie. I need to rewatch it.

Speaker 2 (01:04:38):
I do too. I like how the Jon Favreau apartment
has those like weird built in bookshelves that are like
usually like in between the kitchen and like the rest
of the living space. That was like something that I
found in like every old LA apartment, and I was like, oh,
I'm so fond of those built in little bookshelves. But
the one thing about that movie that I and actually

(01:05:00):
you know part of there's a section in the movie
where basically like they're going up to the hills to
go to like a party, right, yes, And there's five
guys in their little group of friends and they all
the joke is that they all drive separately to go
to this one party, right, And then they all like
drive really close to each other, and then they all
park their cars next to each other, and then they
all put the club on.

Speaker 1 (01:05:20):
Yes.

Speaker 2 (01:05:20):
And part of the ridiculousness I think of that is that, like,
why would like the five people who are going into
the same place not carpool And it just kind of,
I think as a joke about La car culture and
sort of that kind of thing. Sure, and at the
time I was like, that is so funny and weird,
but now as I've gotten older, I kind of am like, no,
that's actually how I want to do things too. When

(01:05:42):
I go to a party and I know that I'm
going with friends, we should all drive separately. And the
reason why is because I want to leave when I
want to leave, but I don't want to go alone
to the party. I still want to go with my
friends totally, but I think we should all drive separately.

Speaker 1 (01:06:00):
You don't want to be beholden to their schedule. They're
leaving schedule.

Speaker 2 (01:06:03):
Of course, there's that huge issue, which is that I
like want what I want to leave, I'm leaving, and
it's gotten to the point now where I want to
drive myself for the most part. If I don't get
trashed or something. I want to drive myself, because actually
waiting on an uber to leave a party is one
of the most awkward things in the entire universe.

Speaker 1 (01:06:23):
Yeah, you're kind of hanging out near the doorway. You've
removed yourself from the party. You're not present there as
a human being. You're just sort of like in this
transition dimension, yes, waiting for the uber.

Speaker 2 (01:06:34):
And then if like god forbid, like if you're alone
or somebody was standing there and you're like sitting here
looking at your phone and the only conversation you're having
is like, where's this guy? It says, this is twelve
minutes away.

Speaker 1 (01:06:43):
I don't know.

Speaker 2 (01:06:43):
He's going in the wrong direction. It's like that weird
dance of like a waiting on an uber.

Speaker 1 (01:06:48):
He must be at a stop light or something. Yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:06:51):
Yeah, And then you're just talking to strangers about your
fucking uber.

Speaker 1 (01:06:55):
Yeah sucks, And I'm like, why am I doing that?

Speaker 2 (01:06:58):
Because it's awkward. We both left the same party, but
now we transition out of party mode into being weird
about uber mode.

Speaker 1 (01:07:05):
I don't know.

Speaker 2 (01:07:06):
I fucking hate it. So bottom line, Swingers is my
film recommendation. It's on like every platform. You can watch
it on Pluto, for free. You probably have already seen
it already, but I'm recommending it anyway.

Speaker 1 (01:07:17):
So great soundtrack too. We owned that soundtrack on CD
in the nineties and it was on repeat in our
house growing up.

Speaker 2 (01:07:25):
Would you see Big Bad Voodoo Daddy in twenty twenty five?

Speaker 1 (01:07:29):
Are they still a band? Sure? Why not? Did you
ever go to the Dresden when you're in LA where
they go too frequently? Hell?

Speaker 2 (01:07:38):
Yeah, boy, of course I did love.

Speaker 1 (01:07:39):
That place, love that place.

Speaker 2 (01:07:42):
Well. Well, well that is the end of another episode
of Dear Movies. I Love you So speaking of the future,
if you want to, you know, get a couple of
answers to some of your burning film questions, like if
you need a recommendation from us, if you have a
question about a director's somography and you want to know more,
or if you just have a film gripe and you

(01:08:02):
need two film gripe judges in your corner, you can
write us or email address is dear Movies at exactly
rightmedia dot com.

Speaker 1 (01:08:11):
And you can also ask for advice via voicemail, which
would be just fabulous if you could hear your voices
on the show. Just record a voicemail on your phone
in a quiet place. Please keep it under a minute, please,
and you just email it to us at Dearmovies at
exactlyrightmedia dot com.

Speaker 2 (01:08:26):
That's right, and you can follow us on our social
media accounts. We are at Deer Movies, I Love You
on Instagram and Facebook.

Speaker 1 (01:08:34):
Our letterbox handles are at caseyleo'brian and at md'cherico. Check
us out.

Speaker 2 (01:08:42):
That's right, well, Casey. As always, I had a really
good time doing this podcast with you, and I can't
wait to do it next week.

Speaker 1 (01:08:49):
Me too. I hope we are not visited by a
futuristic robot sex god and uh well yeah, I don't know.
I hope that doesn't happened to us in between this
recording and the next, because I want to keep doing
the show and I don't want you killed by a robot.
Thank you anyways, that's us, Bye, everybody, goodbye.

Speaker 2 (01:09:12):
This has been an exactly Right production hosted by me
Milli to Cherico and produced by my co host, Casey O'Brien.

Speaker 1 (01:09:20):
This episode was mixed by Tom Bryfogel. Our associate producer
is Christina Chamberlain, our guest booker is Patrick Cottner, and
our artwork is by Vanessa Lilac.

Speaker 2 (01:09:29):
Our incredible theme music is by the best band in
the entire world, The Softies.

Speaker 1 (01:09:34):
Thank you to our executive producers Karen Kilgareff, Georgia hard Stark,
Daniel Kramer and Millie to Chercho, we love you. Goodbye
Beker