November 3, 2017 • 53 mins
This week Movie Crush launches with two great episodes. Up first, actress Janet Varney talks with Chuck about the movie Tron and how much it means to her.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:24):
Hey, everybody, and welcome to Movie Crush. This is Chuck
Bryant and this is episode one. Very excited to welcome everyone.
If you're coming over from stuff you should know, then
thanks for your support. If you're just a movie fan
in general and happened upon this, then uh, welcome as
well into our studio here at Pont City Market in Atlanta, Georgia. So, guys,
(00:49):
I am so excited about this show. I'm so excited
about episode one because Janet Varney, i gotta say, is
probably the best Episode one guest and all the podcast history.
She's a she's a pal of mine. I met Janet Um.
I met Janet a few years ago at her comedy
(01:10):
festival that she co created many years ago, Sketch Fest
in San Francisco every January, and for for my money,
it's the best comedy festival in the land. And she's
been kind enough to ask Josh and I'd have performed
there for the past few years and it's become a
little tradition for us. And Janet is just awesome. She
is a very, very talented actress. She's a gifted improv comedian,
(01:35):
and she's smart and funny and just as kind of
a soul as you would ever hope to meet. So
she was here shooting in Atlanta, so I had her
in the studio, which is great. She was shooting season
two of her awesome, awesome show on if C, Stand
Against Evil, which actually just premiered yesterday on i f C.
Season two just premiered, so check that out. It's uh,
(01:58):
it's a really great show. It's the It's Dana Gould's
comic take on The Zombie Show, which, uh, if you
haven't seen it, bene season one and then check out
season two on i f C right now. Uh. So, anyway,
Janet was here shooting that. And the last thing that
people want to do when they're shooting a TV show
and the hot, hot summer of Atlanta, working a lot
(02:20):
of nights, is to come in and record a silly
old podcast. But Janet is a pal and very loyal
person and friend, and so she was. She was great.
She came in here, We killed it. We talked about
the movie Tron, the original obviously from the Disney picture
with Jeff Bridges and Bruce Box Lightner, Sindey Morgan, David Warner,
(02:42):
written and directed by Steven Lisberger. Way Ahead of its time.
We both agreed, and um, this is episode one. And
you'll notice here this was such an early episode that
as we get started here, uh, in our conversation, I
didn't even have a title for movie Crush yet. But
then I did get a title from my good good
(03:03):
friend in real life, Scott Ippolito. Scott's one of my
best friends, and I threw it out to him and said, hey,
what should I call this thing? And I gave him
the the idea and he went, how about movie crush?
And it was just that simple. So we we talked
a little bit about that at first, which was kind
of fun. So here we go with Janet Varney and Tron.
(03:29):
This show is so new, I don't have a title
for it. This is very exciting. Should we just spend
the whole time trying to figure out where the title is? Well,
it's funny. I was gonna call it like something dumb
and on the notes, like my favorite movie, but then
I was like, I don't want people to think it's
my favorite movie? About what about what's your favorite movie?
Notable person? And that's a bad title. So but all
(03:51):
those variations of all those things were taken, and that's
the thing about podcasting, and someone can do a show
for a month eight years a go and it's sort
of taken. Yeah, Like if you go to start something up,
they could always say, hey, I had that first story. Yeah,
when I've started my podcast, uh, which is now and
has always been the j V Club to the Public,
which is one of the greatest names ever. By the way,
(04:13):
that worked out. That worked out for me. I'm glad
about that. But I was originally and maybe that's for
the best, because this other I was going to call
I was a teenage podcast with this sort of you know,
like sixties era monster movie kind of theme to it.
But someone had a had had had a podcast where
they did a handful of episodes a couple of years
back called I was a teenage podcast. So I had
(04:34):
to throw that away. Those people the worst, the ones
that starts something and don't succeed, and then they're like
give me, like all of us, like all of us
at one point, all right, listen, here's some I do improve.
I surely can come up with some. My first instinct
was to suggest Chuck's Flicks instead of chicks Flicks, like
(04:56):
chick flicks, and then I thought it could be called
chucks flux. That's they won't know what it just sings.
My friend. I did ask my friend, who's great at
titling things, and he said, what about the confession stand Oh,
the concessions. But then that sounds like you really are
(05:19):
getting into it. Well, but it also sounds like it
would be just about guilty pleasures exactly, like you have
to confess that, and no one would confess like I
gotta say, like the Godfather's my favorite, right, don't tell anyone? Yeah,
something to say with pride. So I'm kind of big
ground at zero right now. I have no idea. And
then I thought about something like like um Psycho Psycho's
(05:43):
Godfather's and street cars named desire, like something big and
grand that just sounds like the title of a book.
Well then has a coal and after it, well, no,
it was. There was that book about movies called Stole It.
There was a book about seventies filming and called Easy
Writers and Raging Bulls, which I was like, I can
just rip that off, but I guess I can't because
(06:05):
that's the first said. And you don't even know the book.
It's a coffee table book. Without me knowing it's a
coffee table book. Well it later, okay, but what is
your bringing that up? Because now that's just going to
eat away and everything I would have said, I'm just
going to only be thinking about. But now you're just
gonna text me in the show I've got for sure,
I'll come up with a and then I'll put it
on a T shirt for you, like you did with
(06:26):
Benecker and his great dream joke, which we can't spoil. Uh,
did you were you like, did you go to movies
a lot when you were a kid, because I know
a little bit about your life because of your own
show in Arizona. Yeah, movies are very that's right. I
guess they can finally talk. But did you go to
(06:47):
the movies a ton like I did? That's definitely one
of the things that you can do in uh smallish
city in Arizona when the summer is just brutal and
there's nothing to be done outside really like literally exactly.
I have so many memories of like just the fold
out car, Like no one uses those anymore, I guess
(07:10):
because windows are better, or maybe they still do in Arizona.
Maybe you still have the sunshades that sort of opened.
But we just had those folding we just like folding cardboards.
Some of them, the fore fancying made the car look
like they were in sunglasses. Sure, sure, but that was
vitally important, as was trying to find any place in
the shade, because so many times I would get seatbelt burns.
(07:31):
Would have you that's one of the highest places on
the planet carpeted dashboards because of that. Yeah, two, there's
I mean, those are the moments where you really do think,
and you really think, how how I can barely survive here?
And we have all the technology and the idea that
(07:52):
the only reason we're here is because people have been
dealing with this heat for a couple of years, that
that there's even survivable beyond you know, free having car shades.
I imagine every time I drove to l A through
that desert and then I would eventually get get cross
over into the l A basin and that cool breeze hits.
(08:14):
I used to think about, like the settlers, what they
must have thought, those who pressed on, Yeah, like, well
this is clearly where I'm gonna live. But if you
stop in Yuma and go I think this is the
best we're gonna get. Guys, we're not going any further west,
just a screw us. Yeah. So the movie theater obviously
as a respite, Yeah, very much so, So you would
(08:36):
go see whatever I feel like I would, I mean
like we we dropped off by the parents, that kind
of Yeah. I would get dropped off by my parents
for sure. Um there you know. Then I would take
the bus. I saw a lot of movies by myself.
Oh for sure that the public bus. Of the movies,
yeah you bet, Um they're my My dad's house is
(08:57):
right in between two malls that have movie theaters. So
that was there's a really easy couple of straight line
go twos on the bus to see movies. And um,
and I have very I do have very specific memories
of seeing certain movies and and I can sort of
put them in context. And then there are other movies.
I couldn't tell you bus movies not bus Well, no,
(09:17):
I don't think that, like for example, when I did. Um.
Craig Atkowski has a podcast where it is just us
talking about his movie. He likes to talk about his
old list of his favorite movies and his wife Carlos
on it and I, uh, because they go in order.
I happened to Get Dead Poets Society. And that was
a movie that I could remember. I could remember everything about,
(09:40):
like going into l con Mall and seeing it and
then feeling that my life had changed, and I cried
so hard that I had to wait until they were
they kicked me out as they were sweeping their popcorn off. Um.
That was a heavy movie for people that, like, you're
a few years younger than me, but I well quite
a few actually, Um, but just to be a teen
(10:03):
or and or a young teen and seeing that movie,
that's like heavy stuff to process. Absolutely, you know. Yeah,
although yes, and then I feel like shortly after that
I got into like even darker stuff because you have
to go through that phase in high school where well
you sort of love a coffer for orange and yeah,
and like eraser Head and all that kind of stuff.
So and I'm having a lot of flashbacks to that
(10:24):
era because of Twin Peaks coming back and have you
been watching that? I have? What do you think? I mean?
I'm struggling with some of it. I'm I'm struggling deeply
with some of it. Producer very into it, you're into it,
the hook line and Sinker, including this last episode. Yeah, Well,
(10:44):
I've been watching, and my whole deal is the Twin
Peaks stuff I love and that's what it's like, five
of it and the other stuff like is total Lynch,
which is great and weird and awesome, but I kind
of wanted Twin Peaks. Yeah, um, listen, I'll say Dougie
all day long. I don't ever want I don't ever
want Colm McLaughlin to be anyone but Douggie. I love
him so much. As I will watch, Yeah, I will
(11:08):
watch the seven minute take of him eating potato chips,
but I don't know if I can watch the seven
minute take of X y Z all of these other
things that he's throwing in that are just they're so long. Um.
I just love lunch so much though, and like, I
just want him to be doing this stuff, like, even
if it doesn't resonate fully with me, just keep doing it.
(11:30):
I agree. I'm just I can't. Sometimes I feel like
he's pranking us a little bit, and sometimes I feel
like he's like they gave me final cut. I'm just
gonna do this. I'm just gonna show this for five
minutes because I can. Yeah, because I don't think it
fully makes sense in his head in a narrative way.
There are things that don't advance the story in any way,
shape or form. And the dude is like, how old
(11:52):
is he? And he's still that weird? Yeah, yeah, you didn't.
Interviewed him for Wired magazine and they sat down with
him and they got on really well because Brandon asked
really interesting questions and stuff like the questions that he
was supposed to ask. Probably Uh so we got all
this like fun backstory about David Lynch and the bird
(12:12):
that lived in his on his roof and all of
this kind of this and that the kind of stuff
that you want to hear that you want to go,
Oh God, of course that's how his brain works. Um.
But yeah, so lots of going to the movies when
I was younger, lots of My dad is a huge
movie fan, um, and he introduced me to a lot
of movies that I certainly wouldn't have seen as young
(12:34):
as I was had he not been like, I think
you're ready for this. You know, what was your first
do you remember that? I'm not sure. I'm not sure
what it was, but I know that my mom took
me to see Robocopy. You gotta be are there's no way,
that's not hard. There's some crazy violent stuff that happened
(12:56):
were back then. Yeah, so I don't know. And then
I and then she took me to Die Hard. Also,
my Mormon mom, who did not television at home for
some reason, wanted to take me to both of those movies. Yeah. Um,
so those were probably, I mean, those have got to
be the first our movies that I went to. I
don't know if I had seen something at home before then,
but definitely those. Yeah. Mine was my dad took me
(13:16):
to a war movie, the Big Red One, uh, which
was good and fine, good World War two movie. And
then the first one I ever saw, I think at
all was Escaped from New York. And I was over
at some friends house after church and they were putting
it on and I called my mom to ask if
it was okay adorable? What'd you say? Uh? Yeah, she said,
(13:38):
because I had called. If she had said no, you
think you would have been like, as I gonna go. Oh, now,
that's a good question. I mean I certainly then and
was an m a rule follower, so I don't know
what I would have done. I like to not walk
through those stories. She said, yes, that's all that matter.
(14:01):
Do you know she had a good kid. What a relief.
But my dad, this is kind of really I can't
believe I'm going to say this to people out loud.
My dad took my sister to see Body Heat in
the theater, which I don't know. I can't imagine. My
dad did not go to movies ever, so I've got
to think that he had no idea what he was
going to see. He's called body Heat. It's not like
(14:22):
the Postman always wrings twice where you're like, oh, that
could be anything. It's probably about male It's about the U. S.
Mail system exact body heat. Yea, what do you think
it was like a thermal tracking soldiers tracking? Uh, yeah,
I'm gonna have well, I would say I was asking
about that one day, but I'm never going to ask
him that. Maybe I ask my sister. I'll ask him.
(14:43):
You want me to ask him? Why didn't he Why
didn't he get up and leave the movie? Yeah? I
actually got up and left during Greece too, during the
scene where the girls were having to sleepover and their underwear.
My mom took me to see Grease and I was
so like embarrassed, I said, Mom, can we leave even
remember their underwear. I feel it wasn't just a jo
it was I was Southern Baptist, I was on ankle,
(15:05):
on ankle, there was a lot of refreshing going on.
I didn't know what was going on. My dad let
me watch Animal House and I was like, boobs, boobs.
So your dad was cool, yeah, he Well, that's what's
weird is he really didn't want me to see violent
stuff because he knew how sensitive us I was. But
he was like, yes, sex is fine, it's silly, it's
(15:26):
in you know, nomies, it's fine. Uh. And then my mom,
who again Mormon, didn't have a television, somehow wanted to
take me to see those two movies. I just don't
to this day, I don't understand. You get the violence
from your mom, I guess from your dad. Yeah, that's
great as it should be. Yeah, the American way, everything
was covered. So do you remember we're talking about Tron specifically, Yeah,
(15:49):
as your pick for all time favorite movies. And first
of all, I'm really bad at ranking anything anything like Yeah,
I mean, that's that's what the show. But some people
really like going like I mean, again, using Craigs an example,
he loves that he has this order that shifts and
he plays with it and he kind of he knows
it any giving care but it though, Yeah, that's true.
(16:11):
Didn't that the point? Yeah, Like, no one can anyone's
all time favorite movie on any given day, It's probably
gonna be different. I guess, Yeah, I guess so. But
I do feel like there are people who take pride
and kind of like it helps define me. This is
my all time favorite movie, and for many is The Godfather?
How many go? How many times are gonna have to
talk about The Godfather? And are you going to tell
people if that's your favorite movie of all time? We've
(16:32):
talked about it three times already. Can you pick a
different one? Yeah, I'm not. I'm not going to repeat movies.
I don't think unless it's unless there could be some
like a fresh take right now. But it's funny that
everyone I've asked so far as immediately been stressed out
about the notion of picking one and then going public
with that, because I think everyone does think it says
(16:54):
something about them. Yeah, well that's I think. Could I
if I really sat down and tried to pick something thing?
I mean, someone asked me. I think actually when I
did a brief interview at the l A Podcast Festival
where we have pointing to you because we saw each
other there and you did my podcast. Um, I think
I blurted out Harold and Maud because for a long
(17:14):
time that was I would have I would have that
would have been the situation, like from my teens into
my twenty In my early twenties, I was proud to
say that was my favorite movie cool and and I
still love it a lot. But um, but I think
so I couldn't and I said that when I was interviewed.
(17:34):
Then I was like, Okay, I'll put Harold and at
the top of the list. I guess, but screw it. Yeah,
I'm going. I'm going. I'm I'm gonna go with Tron
because it's been important to me far longer and I
I love it. Nerd dudes all over the world listening
to this that are super excited that that's your favorite, Well,
I probably will. You're probably also safe and that I
(17:55):
don't think anyone else will. It's not gonna be like,
oh on again, is everybody's number one? Glass loves Tron? Um.
I have a confession to make about Tron. Have you
never seen it. I've seen Tron. I hated saw it
this afternoon. You really it was the first time you've
ever seen it. I don't know how I didn't see Tron.
(18:18):
I never saw Tron. This is what a great first episode.
I know. I loved the Arcade game. I played it obsessively,
and I never saw the movie. Oh my god, this
is great. And I don't know why. I was trying
to figure it out today. I was like, I've seen Tron, right, Yeah,
it's like, yeah, the movie with the light cycles. But
then it started to dawn on me. I never never
ever saw Tron. Oh my god. So I watched it
(18:40):
today in full uh, and we should talk about it. Okay,
what was your first like Tron experience? Do you remember
seeing it in the theater? I don't remember my first
time seeing it. I really don't. I don't. I couldn't
tell you if I saw VHS. Um, well, I could
have seen it in the theater. I mean it's a
Disney movie number one, yeah, but I mean you know
(19:02):
I would have. I mean I was what six, Um,
I think I probably saw in the theater. And the
reason is that like rocked my world. And so I
can't imagine that I would have seen it on VHS
for the first time. Um uh I. I maintain to
(19:22):
this day that it was so far ahead of its time,
so far ahead of time, and it is pretty peculiar
and amazing that it's a Disney movie. I think it's
it's worth like it's of note for that reason and itself.
Um I don't play video games. I'm not a game
at all, so it has nothing to do for me
with like I didn't I never played no No No.
(19:45):
I mean I would play like handheld pac Man games,
like at my friend's houses, and I played whatever, like
PC learning games my dad got me that. We're like,
I don't even think I had an Oregon trail that
that was more advanced than I didn't even have Arizona
Trail truck. I'm talking about. The only thing you think
of right now was a game called spell It that
(20:07):
was a spelling game that involved a frog who the
little tongue would come out and like lick it would
lick and absorb the letters after you spelled something correctly.
That was like your prize. How old were you? I
mean it was little. This wasn't like fifteen years old.
I mean it was like, you know, when you're year old,
(20:30):
two year old, maybe like this was when it was
you know, still like it was shocking that there was
any kind of a game to be played, So probably
around six years old or something. Yeah, and liken' listen.
Some of the words would get pretty tricky. I don't
want you to think that it was like a sugar
and cat frogs frogs are hungry maybe a long word. So, uh,
(20:53):
arcade games that got you in there, not at all? No,
um No. I just loved the world of it. I
loved I and to this like I would have dreams
about it. I still sometimes have dreams about it. Yeah,
that I'm inside the game grid um and uh. And
I think part of the reason that I didn't play
(21:14):
the arcade games is that because I saw the movie first,
the arcade games were just see flat, two dimensional things,
and the whole point was like, but no, that don't
understand these games exist for regular people to play. I'm
a user, I should, but I should be inside the game.
That's the only way I want to experience it. Is
like viscerally with my cute uniform on. And uh and
(21:36):
I love the music. The music again totally ahead of
its time and crazy and weird and great um and
uh and without Now we'll get into the kind of
the sentimentality of it, which was that my dad also
loved it, and we would play this game at night
like when yeah, when I was this is why you
(21:58):
love trying to suck out, just closed the door behind me.
We had um an alarm system in the house where
you know, you have the motion detector and the little
red light blinks when there's motion. And then we also
had like you know, everything digital, so like our micro
wave was digital, or all our VCRs clocks, all that
kind of stuff was digital. And that's all yeah, so
(22:18):
that's all great. So and our house was this little
tiny three bedroom house, but it you could go in
a complete circle around it, right, so you could come
in the front door, you could go through the living room,
turn left, go down the hallway where all the bedrooms were,
go back into the back room, and then that reconnected
with the kitchen that reconnected with the front room, so
you can go in a full circle. And there was
(22:41):
there was zero atria nor koi pond uh. And so
my dad would we would play this game where we
were inside the game where we would turn off all
the lights in the house, and he would when I
was really when I was a little like I guess
six or whatever, because I would have that's as little
as I would have been able to be. He would
kind of hold me Superman style, UM, and we would
(23:04):
like scoot around the house and we would be trying
to avoid um Sark and like all the bad guys,
and so if we were trying to creep past the
motion detectors, I mean, listen, it was a great would
be great training for me if I'd become an expert
cat burglar. We would be we would kind of get
as far as we could before we would see a
light and then we would see the red light. We'd
be like they see us, the recognizers, and then we'd
(23:24):
like run into the next room like like you know.
And so to this day, I'm not afraid of that,
Like I've never been afraid of the dark, because I
only equate the total darkness with playing Tron And Yeah,
and it was this like super great cool game that
my dad made up that was legitimately like kind of
scary and exciting, and it made me feel like I
was inside that game grid And then at Disneyland, UM
(23:49):
we would go to Disneyland every summer. My dad would Um.
We had friends who lived in La Canada, which is
kind of like Pasadena area, and he would because of
the Arizona summers, he would wake me up up. He
would he would take a nap, like he would sort
of sleep for a couple of hours, and then he
would get up in the middle of the night and
wake me up and put me in a sleeping bag
(24:09):
in the covered cab of our Dots and truck which
was carpeted and uh, and he'd be like he would
wake me up at you know, say two or three
in the morning, say like, miss Jay, are you ready
to go to Disneyland? And I was like and then
and so then I would get into the car and
fall asleep, and then I would wake up and we
would be almost there, and then I would kind of
clamber through the little window and then come sit with
(24:31):
my dad and um, and then we would get there.
And then at Disneyland they had the people Mover, which
one little tiny sliver of the People Mover was that
you would go inside this kind of room that they
had just put Yeah, they just all it was was
movie screens, but you would be on the people mover
and then suddenly you would be on the game grid
(24:52):
and they recognized were coming, almost squash you, and then
you would go inside the light cycle maze. So again,
no interest in the arcade game I did. I was like,
I just want to live here full time. So, um,
those are all like very they're very deep embedded childhood
memories for me. And uh, but but there's nothing about
(25:12):
the movie now when I watch it, it means every
bit as much to me. There's no There are plenty
of movies that I loved that I can't. I can
sort of go, what does it hold up? I'm not
able to see if it doesn't hold up, Like you
just watched up for the first time. So your experience
was your experience, and I totally respect that. But I
it's I mean, I've brainwashed myself. I've still watched it
(25:34):
and think, God, this is ahead of its time. God,
this is good. It's so good. Well it was ahead
of its sign because it was in a little research
today it is um it was one of the very
first movies to use computer animation at all. And who's
the director. The director is Stephen Liz Burger. Oh you
(26:00):
nailed it earlier, Peter, I think, ye the Giants Stephen
Lisberger and he, uh, it was kind of a not
kind of it was a passion project for him, like
he thought of this world and was ahead of his
time and couldn't get anyone to make it and like
(26:23):
sunk his own money into like test shots, and we
took it around to the studios and was like, look
at what I have. Look at this amazing thing. And
I was like, man, I don't know about that. And
finally Disney took a flyer and said, all right, we'll
give you like ten million bucks or whatever, which was
huge because he wasn't in the Disney clan. He was
an outsider. And he said he always felt that way too,
(26:43):
which is kind of sad. But um, it was way
ahead of its time and no one knew what they
were seeing. Like now, for someone like me to watch
it who's never seen it before, sure it might look dated,
but it also looks modern in a weird way, you know,
like especially the stuff with the and I didn't know,
(27:03):
but they really shot in black and white the characters
and did this rotoscoping process and that because of how
they had to do it painstaking. That ends up looking
kind of cool. Now, yeah, it looks fantastic and all
the way the city lights up at the I mean,
it's all so wonderful. Also collect these um these like
at some of the kind of like hipster like Japanese
(27:25):
toy shops. Uh, when I was well there, you know
there are they exist in like San Francisco and Los
Angeles and you know some of the kind of certainly
on the western coast cities. Um there was a place
in San Francisco that's sold the They're called Kubrick of course,
um just I'm saying that because of course it's named
(27:46):
after something also equally like Nichian hip where they would
do these limited edition lines of toys from beloved movies
like that, and so they I have these really cool
they almost look like um like mobile like m I
is the um um O b I L or those
or those little people. It's just a little kind of
(28:07):
like Lego people. So they sort of do look like
Lego people, but you know they're in their uniforms and
then there's a great but but the design is so
great and there's this great UM. I wish I if
we were in l A, I could have brought it
with me. But there's a recognizer that you can you
can pop the legs off and then turn the legs
inward in the center so you can make it into
like the there's a tank that's really beautiful. But they're
(28:29):
just so well done and well made. I have the
whole set of the Kubrick stuff, and then I have
like a scattering of the original toys that look more
like you know, Star Wars figures or whatever. Um, yeah,
and I have I mean that's a that's a good
go to gift someone stuff. Yeah, And they did this
(28:51):
really cool. They had it. They showed it at the
Arrow in Santa Monica years ago in Los Angeles and
and Stephen the director was there, and then one of
the producers and um and uh, I think Bruce box
Lightner was there, and for sure what's her name the
woman was there and Cinny Morgan was there, and so
they all kind of talked and traded stories and talked
(29:11):
about it. Oh, it was so cool. And they had
a couple of you know, costumes from there. And and
I hate Tron legacy, like nothing that came after Tron.
Do I have any respect for what's it? Well, I
didn't see Tron Legacy, and I didn't I think there
was even a TV show. I'm not sure. Yeah, there
was something in between that between the two main big
Tron movies. But see, now that I've seen Tron at all,
(29:31):
the idea I know what the idea of Tron Legacy was.
It seems like a great idea that like this this
Jeopard his son has now come back. Now. Yeah, and
it doesn't even look I can't. I can't. I didn't
capture the spirit of the original at all, and not
to me. To me, it's just this sort of empty, soulless.
(29:54):
It just doesn't feel like and it doesn't do anything
from me at all. I see why they did it, though,
you know, like Tron was so out of its time,
and like now they have the technology and to make
a new and I like Garrett Headlin. Yeah, um, but
I don't know. I mean I never saw it because
I didn't see But also and I saw it only
once I saw it, I'll Copy Town. I mean I went,
(30:15):
I went hoping it would be great. You know el
copy Town you don't know was on Hollywood Boulevard and
it's Disney's big theater and they have sometimes live that
you came in fourhand. It's really it's a beautiful place, um,
and that was the right thing to do to see
it there. I can barely remember what it was about
out front. I wish I bet no, No, I don't
(30:36):
think they had. They might have had some costumes from
the then who cares because it's from the new stuff.
Why is ass enough? Right? Jeff Bridges character, he returns
in different variations of himself stuff. Yeah, and uh, he's
humorless from what I can remember. And Olivia Wild, Olivia Wild,
she's lovely but like she's everybody was just humorless. And
(31:00):
that was the I mean, the whole point. So much
of Tron is Jeff Bridges being a complete why that smart,
infuriating sark, which I mean obviously that's um played by uh,
don't tell me um David. Yes, I always forget his name,
even though I love him and he's one of the
great bad guys. Yeah, A Man with Two Brains is
very close to the the top of my favorite movie. But
(31:21):
if you have a podcast, Sam Levine and that is
his favorite. So I really struck that from the list
because I knew Sam would want to talk about with
two Brains. I could talk about that all day long.
Um year, you know, yeah, David, No, no, no, it
did not. Dead Men Don't Wear a Platt came out
that year. Sorry I can't remember his last name. David Warner.
David Warner, of course, one of the one. And you
know what's so freaky is, I don't know if you
(31:43):
do this, but you go back and watch some of
your favorite movies and then you think, wow, I'm older
than them when they meant this for sure, So Bridges
in box lightn or we're both around thirty one ish
when they made it. David Warner, it was five years
younger than me. He was one years old ancient in
that Yeah, of course he did in our brain because
(32:04):
we were kids and now and I even watched it today,
I was like, I look at that old, creepy guy,
these five years younger than me. Oh my god. Well
he he also has one of those faces where you're like, oh,
you're sixty twenty year old, and he wasn't you'll get
their cargo short? Wasn't it? Absolutely not? Absolutely not? And
then the and then the guy who plays Ram, and
then when Ram dies, yeah, it just still makes me cry. Yeah,
(32:28):
and the whole weird, the the whole idea of technology
and and like the gods and that sort of playing
with that kind of like theology, the idea that there
would be information living inside a computer that would be
you know, that would be intelligent enough to question where
itself came from and putting all of this faith in
(32:49):
the people who created it. And I mean, it's just fascinating. Well,
that was sort of the great fear I think at
first when you know, computers became a thing, But now
it's sort of a legitimate fear. You know, robots becoming
sentient master control program man. Yeah, like that's kind of
a thing now. It was ahead of its time, but um,
what's kind of struck me A couple of funny things. Um,
(33:12):
on that note, twin is it? Who is the main?
Was it? Sark was talking to the David Warner character
and kind of explaining MCP, that master Control program is
the main And then Sark is like his lackey kind
of MP is just you can just a little confusing
because I played CP. You just hear you hear that
(33:33):
deep scary voice, but then you see it as like
a computer grid face and yeah, oh, I also have
the toy of that. It's so cool. But um, a
couple of funny things. One is he said that, um,
he was getting involved with the Kremlin and uh who
else the Kremlin and the Pentagon because he said that
he could design things, uh nine hundred to twelve hundred
(33:55):
times better than any human. I just love that number range. Yeah,
like between nine times better. Uh. And the other thing
was the beginning and the end of the movie is
so weird and abrupt. How the movie starts it just
you know, it says Flynn's Arcade, which is in Culver
City by the way. I don't know if you've ever
(34:16):
been by that building, the whole building. Um, that's where
they shot the exterior. And um, it starts with just
a dude playing the Tron game, and then it goes
in on the Tron game and then you're in the
Tron game, and then it just starts and then and
then it says literally says like and meanwhile in the
real world, and then this Jeff Bridges and you're like, oh,
(34:38):
who is this guy? And then when the movie just
it just ends like they're in the computer world. They
have the big climax fight and then uh, he gets
out of a helicopter at the end and joins box
Lightner and Sydney Morgan. They're like, they hug, and that's
the end of the movie. I'm of there's the big
(34:58):
climax is definitely in side of the game, and that's
what the movie him come back out. And then when
he comes back out, we see that he's successfully gotten
all the information that's printing out very slowly on the
loud printer, and then David Warner sees that no, it didn't.
(35:19):
Then it's like he's toast and then it's like, hey,
we better the boss is coming, and you're right, it's Jeff.
Don't strike me as bad filmmaking. It struck me as
such a thing of its time period, like to where
movies would end with just everyone like high fiving and
that's it. Now we have now we've been tainted in
the other direction by too many false endings. For you're like,
(35:41):
wait a minute, this movie, every every scene now for
the last twenty minutes has felt like the last scene Tarantino,
let's keep a clean, let's get in, get out, And
then as the lights go down in the city, not
to quote a Journey song, then how much it looks
like what else that happened in the whole building. David
Warner pretty is pretty far with through anyone. Well, Senny Morgan,
(36:02):
you know, I know her from Caddyshack. She's a fox
us as Lacy Underhalls, which wow, I couldn't get away
that today. Uh oh. And then the other thing I
thought was neat was income as the name of the
company is like kind of one of the great evil
villain companies of all time. I think, Yeah, it sounds
(36:23):
like it could be anything, and that's what's so great
and terrifying about it. Yeah, I mean that's kind of
the key store and just all the stuff they're working on.
The whole idea that you could, you know, use lasers
to break down the atom to the point where you
could shoot it through space. I mean, that's a little
bit Wanta vision too. That's another movie I could have
probably said everything everything goes back to being a young
(36:45):
a young person, like I don't. I think, I'm so,
I'm so connected to that unbridled passion that feels kind
of unmatchable as Yeah, I can't. So those I think
those are all the movies that I really go back to,
because when I think about movies, I mean, you know,
after I saw in Bruges, I was like, this is
my favorite movie. And then I saw another movie that
(37:07):
I felt was my favorite movie. A year later, I
was like, no, this is my favorite movie. But you know,
and Bruges is in there, the Ice Storm. I still
think it is like made. There's artistically, you know, intact
and you know, brilliant movies that would also be kind
of in my list. But I like to say, like
(37:27):
I have a top It's like I have twenty five
top five movies. Yeah, you know you have like you
get twenty five, but they're all part of your top five.
But I did to think of a segment today that
I'm gonna do for everyone, which is, oh, you asked
me to remember some think about maybe something more like
guilty Pleasures. We'll do that later, okay, And by later,
I mean okay, uh, this is a segment. Maybe we'll
(37:51):
getting old to do some cool music for this called
what Ebert said this movie is a complete okay, all right,
because I thought he's awa. I mean, there's plenty of
legendary film critics, but he's always been my favorite. Absolutely
he gave well what do you think? First of all? Now,
do you have any idea Listen. I want to believe
(38:12):
that he was on board and that he understood how
special and important it was, and that he thought to himself,
Janet Varney will one day name this is her favorite movie.
But I don't feel like it got particularly good reviews,
and I don't think it did particularly well, so I
and he was pretty influential at the time, so I'm
prepared for him to have given it a thumbs down.
Eber loved it. He gave it four stars and a
(38:36):
thumbs up, and he says, uh, it was a technological
sound and light show that is sensational and brainy, stylish
and fun. Oh good, And then he went on to
rape about the special effects. He said that the holy
imaginary worlds of Toron are so cleverly composed that I
never ever got the sensation that I was watching some
actors stand in front of or in the middle of
(38:57):
special effects. Never And I think you see that so
much more today. You can really feel the sort of
flatness because you can do anything and screen. It's really hard. Yeah, No,
I felt like I can't again. I feel like they
were all there, They were all there living in that world.
They're starting to get it right though, Like did you
(39:19):
see the Jungle Book? Yes, yeah, like that was amazing,
It really was. But for a while they're people kind
of went nuts. Well even still, even with like Fantastic Beasts,
for example, I just I feel so strongly that I
can see like Eddie Redmain sort of looking at his
finger where something is supposed to be, and I just
I'm so aware it's not there. I'm so painfully aware
(39:41):
it's not there. I don't know about that finger scene,
but well, I know what you're talking about. Like when
there's a lot of mystical fun toy things around, Well,
the eyelines never right. It's always, even with all the
technology they're of, just enough to where it looks like
the Three Company episode where Jack's twin visits, you know,
(40:01):
which I don't think it ever happened. Um. And the
lasting here is I looked up the movies of nineteen
eighty two mainly because I was like, why didn't I
see this? What was I going to see? So I
can know now what was what else was two? Well? Yeah,
and it's is a powerhouse of stuff. Well, movies back
then we're amazing. Yeah, and this is just like when
(40:23):
you look at the list of movies that are out
in seventeen and then this list. It's it makes you
want to cry because two Blade Runner, Ship Et the Thing,
Fast Times to Reach My High, Poultergeist, Wrath of con
Tutsie hands down. Probably Blade Runner to Tutsie was just
(40:46):
a a March release in nineteen eighty two. It wasn't
like Oscar season's coming up, like that's where it would
be slotted today. Is blowing my mind? Uh did I
say Fast Times, Reach High? Forty eight hours, Officer and
a Gentleman Annie? Oh my god? First Blood very big
for me, The Dark Crystal Gandhi Rocky three. Never say
(41:11):
Rocky three was very big for me, but I did
see Rocky three. That's where my priorities. Like, I mean,
there are a couple of movies that I wouldn't say, like,
oh my god, this is so great, but they were
big for me, Like this Beast Master was it was great.
But then Sophie's Choice World according to Garp, my favorite year,
the Secret of nim Diner year, Like this is just
a smattering. This isn't all the movie crazy in Hollywood
(41:36):
in the early eight I mean I could comfortably pick
some of my all time favorite movies. Just out of that,
you could stop Blade Runner, Et The Thing and Poultergeist,
and you could say, and no other movies were made
that year, and it would be like one of the
great years. The Thing I just saw on the big
screen at the arc Light and it beyond holds up. Yah,
that's amazing and super gruesome. Yeah, really gross. John Carpenter
(42:01):
the Man. Yeah, and well he did all his still
does all his on music. It's great. Yeah. Um, any
finishing thoughts on Tron, I love it, thumbs up, I
love you, Tron. I know that you're a movie even
though you were also a character in the movie named Tron.
But I just wanted I mean I was for the
longest time. I was like, if I have kids, I'm
naming my kid Flynn, no matter whether it's a boy
or No. I wouldn't name that no, because I really
(42:25):
love m Yeah, that'd be a funny name. Michael Chadwick Peterson.
It's just so good. I could call him MCP. That
would be a pretty slick move. Um. But Tron was
a character, but also the name of the security system,
that's right, the box lightner was program. Yeah, exactly, No,
one just got up and I walked in. My walked
(42:48):
He's done. That's what was confusing to me a little
bit about the movie, So all the different characters playing,
but that's It's like, but that's what it's about, dumb.
It was invented the program Tron, so that's what Tron
looked like. Tron looked like his user, and then Flynn
designed a ton of stuff. So that's why I like
when you go inside the beginning of the movie in
(43:09):
the tank, that's Flynn too, because he designed that program
in the tank. What about this scene with when they
when Cyndy Morgan and when Lacey under als and and
the scarecrow. First he was a scarecrow, right, he was?
He certainly wasn't as scarc I never saw that show,
(43:29):
but I just did the match real quick, like, um,
they walk in the first time they go to see
Jeff Bridges or Flynn, excuse me, and he's so overly
sweaty from playing the video game. At first, I was like,
is he really that sweaty? Because the armpit sweats like
out to his chest. Then his chest was sweaty through
(43:49):
the shirt. It's like, why are they doing that? And
he goes up and takes off his shirt, and I
was like, I think that's exactly why they did it. Yeah,
he takes off one shirt and puts on a different
shirt and they're both Flynn's video game like it's it.
But he takes it off in front of her because
they used to date. And then he had that sly
line about leaving the house messy or whatever, and then
she practically shoves Bruce box Lighter on the couch because
(44:12):
of the quip about her leaving her house messy relationships?
Am I right? I say that Toron is a go
to to understand relationships between the two people who care
about each other. No, probably not, but maybe between man
and computer, between man and computer, between a bit and
(44:33):
a program for that a little bit. No, Janet Varney,
thanks for coming into the pleasures. Yeah, yeah, you're right.
You've been doing this podcast for one hour in life
and you don't remember the bold I have clothes with
guilty pleasure? All right, what's your guilty pleasure? Let program? Well,
(44:58):
I did think about it because I didn't want it
to be a thing. Listen, First of all, how dare you?
And I said that in our text too, I said
don't you even pretend like my favorite movie can also
be a guilty pleasure. I will never call it a
guilty pleasure. But I was trying to think because I thought,
I want to want to have some pretentious luck like
you said, where someone's like, my guilty pleasure is the Godfather.
Shut up. Um. But it's kind of hard because I
(45:20):
don't have a lot of the like, oh, I know.
This is the same with reality television stuff like that.
I can't. I don't find that I have a lot
of like this is delicious, and I know I shouldn't,
but here I watch, you know, I feel I get
really impatient with stuff that this isn't good. So I
was trying to think of things that, um, that I
would watch anyway, and I think I actually wrote a
couple of them down. I know for sure that recently
(45:42):
on planes, I can't stop watching movies about horses, which
was never something I cared about, but all of a sudden,
Sea Biscuit seems like the best movie I've ever seen.
I watched Secretariat. Secretariat. They didn't have well, this is Delta,
and they have some old movies that you can watch.
I hadn't gotten to the horse Whisper, which I've never seen.
I probably won't watch war Horse, but suddenly suddenly I need, like, uh,
(46:04):
feel good horse movies when I'm on a plane, because
I'm too tired to enjoy anything else. So feel good
horse movies. Apparently that's a new thing. Um. And then
I also admitted to like beauty. Did you see that?
When you're a kid? Give a crap? I didn't give
a crap about horse movies. I did see The Black Stallion.
I barely remember it. Last Unicorn. That was a tough one. Um,
(46:27):
I will always, but I did, especially because I know
you like Jaws so much. I feel the same way
about Jaws. And I will see no but a shark movie,
not Sharknado, not like intentionally campy shark movies. But I
will give almost any shark based movie a chance. And
I love the movie Deep Bluesy. I love it. I
(46:49):
love it. I've watched it. I've seen it so many times.
If it's on I will watch it till the end.
I love it. I liked how unabashedly schlocky it was. Yeah,
it knew what it was and so it camped out
in a good way. But it was genuinely, still very
scary to me, even though the sharks got smarter because
they were injecting them with some sort of growth hormones
(47:12):
that they could cure Alzheimer's. That's a side effect the
shop Scott smart. The sharks got smarter, Chuck. That was
the big pull line from the trailer. I remember that,
and I was so star struck when uh, my friend Oscar, uh,
we were going to dinner with Oscar and Ursla, or
are dear friends of ours? And he said, I hope
you don't mind, our friends are gonna be joining us.
(47:32):
And it was the shark. It was the shark. No,
it was Saffron Burrows. And I I said, I in
a million years, I never thought I would meet Saffron Burrows.
Not a person that I think I traveled the same
circles with. Its very excited that I got to meet
Saffron Burrows and it was everything you thought. It was wonderful. Yeah,
(47:54):
she's just great. That was her line, wasn't it The
sharks smart? Yeah, she made those sharks smarter, she made
those she put us all at risk. She got Sam
Jackson munched. That's a great moment that was snatches him
I feel that that moment. I can't think of having
seen that anywhere before that movie, and I feel like
I've seen it a million times since. Yeah, and like
(48:15):
Snakes on a Plane was a direct descendant of of
Deep Blue Seed. Yeah, because I think Deep Blue Seed,
I don't. I don't think they were. Was that Renny
Harlan is it? Was it? Gosh, I don't know if
it was. It might be I might be making that up.
It was not Stephen Lisberger because he didn't direct anything else. Yeah,
he was like a Silicon Valley nerd who just went
(48:36):
right back to do with a couple of things. His
claim to fame was animaniacs before. That's how he got
a little juice in the industry. Oh yeah, Animaniac scread
and dough swinging Johnson. So anyway, those are a couple
of my pusure geldy pleasures. And I also, um, this
(48:58):
is probably too far on the side. This popped in
my mind. It was the first thing that popped in
my mind. And I and that doesn't mean that it's accurate,
But for some reason, the first thing I thought it
was Intolerable Cruelty with Love, that movie with Kevin Zada
Jones and and George Clooney. And I think the reason
I classify it as a guilty pleasure is because I
somehow know I'm supposed to not like it because it's
(49:19):
not full Cohen Brothers. Yes, and so I'm I've been
told it's terrible, do you know what I mean? Like
the society has told me it's terrible, unlike over the
worl out there or whatever, and so but that's so,
that was what the first thing that popped in mind.
I love that movie. Yeah, I don't like when people
I think there's two Cohen Brothers tears, and I love
(49:40):
that second tier when they're clearly just having a good
time making a comedy. I love those movies, yeah, like
Intolerable Cruelty and the one I really love is uh
Man with with Brad Pitt and Cluney Burn. After reading Burn,
after reading I think that I think I hated that
when I saw it, and now I like it. And
(50:00):
I didn't love Hale Caesar, And I'm wondering if in
a couple of years maybe I'll love that too, because
maybe it I was fine with it. Yeah, would that
it were that simple? Is like maybe laughed so hard
so good. But think is another one where I'm like,
is that one of the all time greatest movies probably
probably has one of the all time greatest endings of
any movie about an ending. Yeah, and that I saw that.
(50:25):
That that's kind of one of my friends and minds
from college favorite movie. So we watched it saw in
the theater, then watch it obsessively in college. And he
went on to be friends with Tony Shalub, who, like
in real life, I r L and he was so
good in that yea, so good. Yeah and that little
part and everything. How do you feel do you feelers
went well? I think let's have a postmortem on on camera.
(50:47):
It went great. I might do a little solo postmortem,
not tonight because I have to go to bed, because
it's like, um no, I think it went great. The
pilot episode like how I jammed in like eight of
my other favorite movies, and so I think that's kind
of takes them. I still was the first one to say, yeah,
that's kind of the point though. Screw you. Sam Levine's right,
(51:11):
Sam Man with Two Brains is really great. I could
quote the hell out of that movie. You know, kind
of a real dork, what for that? Movie. Yeah, I
just on my favorite movie that everything I'm naming is
just so dorky. But well, you went after tron Hard
and now that I know the whole story behind it,
like it's really it's a it's a real thing. Yeah,
it's I get it. You weren't seeking a NERD credit
(51:34):
or anything like that. No, no, no, let's ask you
to back off that for a second. Untrue. Um no,
this is great, all right. Well, thanks for coming in,
Janet Barney for sure number one. Thanks Chuck, here I go,
I guess, I guess. I ran away only after the
(51:57):
dr was closed. Man, that was just I'm just so
excited about the show. That could not have gone any better.
A new Janet was a great choice as guest number
one because she's, um, well she's a professional podcaster herself
and does interviews herself, so she knows how to how
(52:18):
to keep the conversation going like a real pro. So, um,
that was just a lot of fun. Janet. Her feelings
on tron were, Um, I was kind of wondering what
to expect on why that was her favorite pick, and
it was very heartwarming to know to me that that
was a movie that she and her dad uh, bonded
over and it was a very special film from her
(52:39):
childhood because of the cute little Tron game that she
used to play with her dad. So as we go
on with Movie Crush, I think it'll be super interesting
to see, uh, sort of the why behind why people
pick these favorite movies. And I suspect that moving forward,
we're gonna get quite a few that have a lot
of sentimental value, and that is certainly the case with
(53:01):
Janet here in Tron and Stand Against Evil, guys, I
am so excited. I love season one. Janet is so
funny and it everyone's just great. And season two actually
premiered yesterday, uh in real time, So November one premiered
on i f C. Check it out Stand Against Evil
season two. It's wonderful, and check out j V Club,
(53:22):
the j V Club podcast where Janet interviews um people
about their embarrassing high school years. It's really really good show.
So thanks to Janet for her time and until next week,
Well would kill you to spare a little popcorn? Maybe?
(53:42):
Movie Crush is produced, edited, engineered, and scored by Noel
Brown from our podcast studio at Pond City Market, Atlanta, Georgia.
Hey, everybody, and welcome to Movie Crush. This is Chuck
Bryant and this is episode one. Very excited to welcome everyone.
If you're coming over from stuff you should know, then
thanks for your support. If you're just a movie fan
in general and happened upon this, then uh, welcome as
well into our studio here at Pont City Market in Atlanta, Georgia. So, guys,
(00:49):
I am so excited about this show. I'm so excited
about episode one because Janet Varney, i gotta say, is
probably the best Episode one guest and all the podcast history.
She's a she's a pal of mine. I met Janet Um.
I met Janet a few years ago at her comedy
(01:10):
festival that she co created many years ago, Sketch Fest
in San Francisco every January, and for for my money,
it's the best comedy festival in the land. And she's
been kind enough to ask Josh and I'd have performed
there for the past few years and it's become a
little tradition for us. And Janet is just awesome. She
is a very, very talented actress. She's a gifted improv comedian,
(01:35):
and she's smart and funny and just as kind of
a soul as you would ever hope to meet. So
she was here shooting in Atlanta, so I had her
in the studio, which is great. She was shooting season
two of her awesome, awesome show on if C, Stand
Against Evil, which actually just premiered yesterday on i f C.
Season two just premiered, so check that out. It's uh,
(01:58):
it's a really great show. It's the It's Dana Gould's
comic take on The Zombie Show, which, uh, if you
haven't seen it, bene season one and then check out
season two on i f C right now. Uh. So, anyway,
Janet was here shooting that. And the last thing that
people want to do when they're shooting a TV show
and the hot, hot summer of Atlanta, working a lot
(02:20):
of nights, is to come in and record a silly
old podcast. But Janet is a pal and very loyal
person and friend, and so she was. She was great.
She came in here, We killed it. We talked about
the movie Tron, the original obviously from the Disney picture
with Jeff Bridges and Bruce Box Lightner, Sindey Morgan, David Warner,
(02:42):
written and directed by Steven Lisberger. Way Ahead of its time.
We both agreed, and um, this is episode one. And
you'll notice here this was such an early episode that
as we get started here, uh, in our conversation, I
didn't even have a title for movie Crush yet. But
then I did get a title from my good good
(03:03):
friend in real life, Scott Ippolito. Scott's one of my
best friends, and I threw it out to him and said, hey,
what should I call this thing? And I gave him
the the idea and he went, how about movie crush?
And it was just that simple. So we we talked
a little bit about that at first, which was kind
of fun. So here we go with Janet Varney and Tron.
(03:29):
This show is so new, I don't have a title
for it. This is very exciting. Should we just spend
the whole time trying to figure out where the title is? Well,
it's funny. I was gonna call it like something dumb
and on the notes, like my favorite movie, but then
I was like, I don't want people to think it's
my favorite movie? About what about what's your favorite movie?
Notable person? And that's a bad title. So but all
(03:51):
those variations of all those things were taken, and that's
the thing about podcasting, and someone can do a show
for a month eight years a go and it's sort
of taken. Yeah, Like if you go to start something up,
they could always say, hey, I had that first story. Yeah,
when I've started my podcast, uh, which is now and
has always been the j V Club to the Public,
which is one of the greatest names ever. By the way,
(04:13):
that worked out. That worked out for me. I'm glad
about that. But I was originally and maybe that's for
the best, because this other I was going to call
I was a teenage podcast with this sort of you know,
like sixties era monster movie kind of theme to it.
But someone had a had had had a podcast where
they did a handful of episodes a couple of years
back called I was a teenage podcast. So I had
(04:34):
to throw that away. Those people the worst, the ones
that starts something and don't succeed, and then they're like
give me, like all of us, like all of us
at one point, all right, listen, here's some I do improve.
I surely can come up with some. My first instinct
was to suggest Chuck's Flicks instead of chicks Flicks, like
(04:56):
chick flicks, and then I thought it could be called
chucks flux. That's they won't know what it just sings.
My friend. I did ask my friend, who's great at
titling things, and he said, what about the confession stand Oh,
the concessions. But then that sounds like you really are
(05:19):
getting into it. Well, but it also sounds like it
would be just about guilty pleasures exactly, like you have
to confess that, and no one would confess like I
gotta say, like the Godfather's my favorite, right, don't tell anyone? Yeah,
something to say with pride. So I'm kind of big
ground at zero right now. I have no idea. And
then I thought about something like like um Psycho Psycho's
(05:43):
Godfather's and street cars named desire, like something big and
grand that just sounds like the title of a book.
Well then has a coal and after it, well, no,
it was. There was that book about movies called Stole It.
There was a book about seventies filming and called Easy
Writers and Raging Bulls, which I was like, I can
just rip that off, but I guess I can't because
(06:05):
that's the first said. And you don't even know the book.
It's a coffee table book. Without me knowing it's a
coffee table book. Well it later, okay, but what is
your bringing that up? Because now that's just going to
eat away and everything I would have said, I'm just
going to only be thinking about. But now you're just
gonna text me in the show I've got for sure,
I'll come up with a and then I'll put it
on a T shirt for you, like you did with
(06:26):
Benecker and his great dream joke, which we can't spoil. Uh,
did you were you like, did you go to movies
a lot when you were a kid, because I know
a little bit about your life because of your own
show in Arizona. Yeah, movies are very that's right. I
guess they can finally talk. But did you go to
(06:47):
the movies a ton like I did? That's definitely one
of the things that you can do in uh smallish
city in Arizona when the summer is just brutal and
there's nothing to be done outside really like literally exactly.
I have so many memories of like just the fold
out car, Like no one uses those anymore, I guess
(07:10):
because windows are better, or maybe they still do in Arizona.
Maybe you still have the sunshades that sort of opened.
But we just had those folding we just like folding cardboards.
Some of them, the fore fancying made the car look
like they were in sunglasses. Sure, sure, but that was
vitally important, as was trying to find any place in
the shade, because so many times I would get seatbelt burns.
(07:31):
Would have you that's one of the highest places on
the planet carpeted dashboards because of that. Yeah, two, there's
I mean, those are the moments where you really do think,
and you really think, how how I can barely survive here?
And we have all the technology and the idea that
(07:52):
the only reason we're here is because people have been
dealing with this heat for a couple of years, that
that there's even survivable beyond you know, free having car shades.
I imagine every time I drove to l A through
that desert and then I would eventually get get cross
over into the l A basin and that cool breeze hits.
(08:14):
I used to think about, like the settlers, what they
must have thought, those who pressed on, Yeah, like, well
this is clearly where I'm gonna live. But if you
stop in Yuma and go I think this is the
best we're gonna get. Guys, we're not going any further west,
just a screw us. Yeah. So the movie theater obviously
as a respite, Yeah, very much so, So you would
(08:36):
go see whatever I feel like I would, I mean
like we we dropped off by the parents, that kind
of Yeah. I would get dropped off by my parents
for sure. Um there you know. Then I would take
the bus. I saw a lot of movies by myself.
Oh for sure that the public bus. Of the movies,
yeah you bet, Um they're my My dad's house is
(08:57):
right in between two malls that have movie theaters. So
that was there's a really easy couple of straight line
go twos on the bus to see movies. And um,
and I have very I do have very specific memories
of seeing certain movies and and I can sort of
put them in context. And then there are other movies.
I couldn't tell you bus movies not bus Well, no,
(09:17):
I don't think that, like for example, when I did. Um.
Craig Atkowski has a podcast where it is just us
talking about his movie. He likes to talk about his
old list of his favorite movies and his wife Carlos
on it and I, uh, because they go in order.
I happened to Get Dead Poets Society. And that was
a movie that I could remember. I could remember everything about,
(09:40):
like going into l con Mall and seeing it and
then feeling that my life had changed, and I cried
so hard that I had to wait until they were
they kicked me out as they were sweeping their popcorn off. Um.
That was a heavy movie for people that, like, you're
a few years younger than me, but I well quite
a few actually, Um, but just to be a teen
(10:03):
or and or a young teen and seeing that movie,
that's like heavy stuff to process. Absolutely, you know. Yeah,
although yes, and then I feel like shortly after that
I got into like even darker stuff because you have
to go through that phase in high school where well
you sort of love a coffer for orange and yeah,
and like eraser Head and all that kind of stuff.
So and I'm having a lot of flashbacks to that
(10:24):
era because of Twin Peaks coming back and have you
been watching that? I have? What do you think? I mean?
I'm struggling with some of it. I'm I'm struggling deeply
with some of it. Producer very into it, you're into it,
the hook line and Sinker, including this last episode. Yeah, Well,
(10:44):
I've been watching, and my whole deal is the Twin
Peaks stuff I love and that's what it's like, five
of it and the other stuff like is total Lynch,
which is great and weird and awesome, but I kind
of wanted Twin Peaks. Yeah, um, listen, I'll say Dougie
all day long. I don't ever want I don't ever
want Colm McLaughlin to be anyone but Douggie. I love
him so much. As I will watch, Yeah, I will
(11:08):
watch the seven minute take of him eating potato chips,
but I don't know if I can watch the seven
minute take of X y Z all of these other
things that he's throwing in that are just they're so long. Um.
I just love lunch so much though, and like, I
just want him to be doing this stuff, like, even
if it doesn't resonate fully with me, just keep doing it.
(11:30):
I agree. I'm just I can't. Sometimes I feel like
he's pranking us a little bit, and sometimes I feel
like he's like they gave me final cut. I'm just
gonna do this. I'm just gonna show this for five
minutes because I can. Yeah, because I don't think it
fully makes sense in his head in a narrative way.
There are things that don't advance the story in any way,
shape or form. And the dude is like, how old
(11:52):
is he? And he's still that weird? Yeah, yeah, you didn't.
Interviewed him for Wired magazine and they sat down with
him and they got on really well because Brandon asked
really interesting questions and stuff like the questions that he
was supposed to ask. Probably Uh so we got all
this like fun backstory about David Lynch and the bird
(12:12):
that lived in his on his roof and all of
this kind of this and that the kind of stuff
that you want to hear that you want to go,
Oh God, of course that's how his brain works. Um.
But yeah, so lots of going to the movies when
I was younger, lots of My dad is a huge
movie fan, um, and he introduced me to a lot
of movies that I certainly wouldn't have seen as young
(12:34):
as I was had he not been like, I think
you're ready for this. You know, what was your first
do you remember that? I'm not sure. I'm not sure
what it was, but I know that my mom took
me to see Robocopy. You gotta be are there's no way,
that's not hard. There's some crazy violent stuff that happened
(12:56):
were back then. Yeah, so I don't know. And then
I and then she took me to Die Hard. Also,
my Mormon mom, who did not television at home for
some reason, wanted to take me to both of those movies. Yeah. Um,
so those were probably, I mean, those have got to
be the first our movies that I went to. I
don't know if I had seen something at home before then,
but definitely those. Yeah. Mine was my dad took me
(13:16):
to a war movie, the Big Red One, uh, which
was good and fine, good World War two movie. And
then the first one I ever saw, I think at
all was Escaped from New York. And I was over
at some friends house after church and they were putting
it on and I called my mom to ask if
it was okay adorable? What'd you say? Uh? Yeah, she said,
(13:38):
because I had called. If she had said no, you
think you would have been like, as I gonna go. Oh, now,
that's a good question. I mean I certainly then and
was an m a rule follower, so I don't know
what I would have done. I like to not walk
through those stories. She said, yes, that's all that matter.
(14:01):
Do you know she had a good kid. What a relief.
But my dad, this is kind of really I can't
believe I'm going to say this to people out loud.
My dad took my sister to see Body Heat in
the theater, which I don't know. I can't imagine. My
dad did not go to movies ever, so I've got
to think that he had no idea what he was
going to see. He's called body Heat. It's not like
(14:22):
the Postman always wrings twice where you're like, oh, that
could be anything. It's probably about male It's about the U. S.
Mail system exact body heat. Yea, what do you think
it was like a thermal tracking soldiers tracking? Uh, yeah,
I'm gonna have well, I would say I was asking
about that one day, but I'm never going to ask
him that. Maybe I ask my sister. I'll ask him.
(14:43):
You want me to ask him? Why didn't he Why
didn't he get up and leave the movie? Yeah? I
actually got up and left during Greece too, during the
scene where the girls were having to sleepover and their underwear.
My mom took me to see Grease and I was
so like embarrassed, I said, Mom, can we leave even
remember their underwear. I feel it wasn't just a jo
it was I was Southern Baptist, I was on ankle,
(15:05):
on ankle, there was a lot of refreshing going on.
I didn't know what was going on. My dad let
me watch Animal House and I was like, boobs, boobs.
So your dad was cool, yeah, he Well, that's what's
weird is he really didn't want me to see violent
stuff because he knew how sensitive us I was. But
he was like, yes, sex is fine, it's silly, it's
(15:26):
in you know, nomies, it's fine. Uh. And then my mom,
who again Mormon, didn't have a television, somehow wanted to
take me to see those two movies. I just don't
to this day, I don't understand. You get the violence
from your mom, I guess from your dad. Yeah, that's
great as it should be. Yeah, the American way, everything
was covered. So do you remember we're talking about Tron specifically, Yeah,
(15:49):
as your pick for all time favorite movies. And first
of all, I'm really bad at ranking anything anything like Yeah,
I mean, that's that's what the show. But some people
really like going like I mean, again, using Craigs an example,
he loves that he has this order that shifts and
he plays with it and he kind of he knows
it any giving care but it though, Yeah, that's true.
(16:11):
Didn't that the point? Yeah, Like, no one can anyone's
all time favorite movie on any given day, It's probably
gonna be different. I guess, Yeah, I guess so. But
I do feel like there are people who take pride
and kind of like it helps define me. This is
my all time favorite movie, and for many is The Godfather?
How many go? How many times are gonna have to
talk about The Godfather? And are you going to tell
people if that's your favorite movie of all time? We've
(16:32):
talked about it three times already. Can you pick a
different one? Yeah, I'm not. I'm not going to repeat movies.
I don't think unless it's unless there could be some
like a fresh take right now. But it's funny that
everyone I've asked so far as immediately been stressed out
about the notion of picking one and then going public
with that, because I think everyone does think it says
(16:54):
something about them. Yeah, well that's I think. Could I
if I really sat down and tried to pick something thing?
I mean, someone asked me. I think actually when I
did a brief interview at the l A Podcast Festival
where we have pointing to you because we saw each
other there and you did my podcast. Um, I think
I blurted out Harold and Maud because for a long
(17:14):
time that was I would have I would have that
would have been the situation, like from my teens into
my twenty In my early twenties, I was proud to
say that was my favorite movie cool and and I
still love it a lot. But um, but I think
so I couldn't and I said that when I was interviewed.
(17:34):
Then I was like, Okay, I'll put Harold and at
the top of the list. I guess, but screw it. Yeah,
I'm going. I'm going. I'm I'm gonna go with Tron
because it's been important to me far longer and I
I love it. Nerd dudes all over the world listening
to this that are super excited that that's your favorite, Well,
I probably will. You're probably also safe and that I
(17:55):
don't think anyone else will. It's not gonna be like,
oh on again, is everybody's number one? Glass loves Tron? Um.
I have a confession to make about Tron. Have you
never seen it. I've seen Tron. I hated saw it
this afternoon. You really it was the first time you've
ever seen it. I don't know how I didn't see Tron.
(18:18):
I never saw Tron. This is what a great first episode.
I know. I loved the Arcade game. I played it obsessively,
and I never saw the movie. Oh my god, this
is great. And I don't know why. I was trying
to figure it out today. I was like, I've seen Tron, right, Yeah,
it's like, yeah, the movie with the light cycles. But
then it started to dawn on me. I never never
ever saw Tron. Oh my god. So I watched it
(18:40):
today in full uh, and we should talk about it. Okay,
what was your first like Tron experience? Do you remember
seeing it in the theater? I don't remember my first
time seeing it. I really don't. I don't. I couldn't
tell you if I saw VHS. Um, well, I could
have seen it in the theater. I mean it's a
Disney movie number one, yeah, but I mean you know
(19:02):
I would have. I mean I was what six, Um,
I think I probably saw in the theater. And the
reason is that like rocked my world. And so I
can't imagine that I would have seen it on VHS
for the first time. Um uh I. I maintain to
(19:22):
this day that it was so far ahead of its time,
so far ahead of time, and it is pretty peculiar
and amazing that it's a Disney movie. I think it's
it's worth like it's of note for that reason and itself.
Um I don't play video games. I'm not a game
at all, so it has nothing to do for me
with like I didn't I never played no No No.
(19:45):
I mean I would play like handheld pac Man games,
like at my friend's houses, and I played whatever, like
PC learning games my dad got me that. We're like,
I don't even think I had an Oregon trail that
that was more advanced than I didn't even have Arizona
Trail truck. I'm talking about. The only thing you think
of right now was a game called spell It that
(20:07):
was a spelling game that involved a frog who the
little tongue would come out and like lick it would
lick and absorb the letters after you spelled something correctly.
That was like your prize. How old were you? I
mean it was little. This wasn't like fifteen years old.
I mean it was like, you know, when you're year old,
(20:30):
two year old, maybe like this was when it was
you know, still like it was shocking that there was
any kind of a game to be played, So probably
around six years old or something. Yeah, and liken' listen.
Some of the words would get pretty tricky. I don't
want you to think that it was like a sugar
and cat frogs frogs are hungry maybe a long word. So, uh,
(20:53):
arcade games that got you in there, not at all? No,
um No. I just loved the world of it. I
loved I and to this like I would have dreams
about it. I still sometimes have dreams about it. Yeah,
that I'm inside the game grid um and uh. And
I think part of the reason that I didn't play
(21:14):
the arcade games is that because I saw the movie first,
the arcade games were just see flat, two dimensional things,
and the whole point was like, but no, that don't
understand these games exist for regular people to play. I'm
a user, I should, but I should be inside the game.
That's the only way I want to experience it. Is
like viscerally with my cute uniform on. And uh and
(21:36):
I love the music. The music again totally ahead of
its time and crazy and weird and great um and
uh and without Now we'll get into the kind of
the sentimentality of it, which was that my dad also
loved it, and we would play this game at night
like when yeah, when I was this is why you
(21:58):
love trying to suck out, just closed the door behind me.
We had um an alarm system in the house where
you know, you have the motion detector and the little
red light blinks when there's motion. And then we also
had like you know, everything digital, so like our micro
wave was digital, or all our VCRs clocks, all that
kind of stuff was digital. And that's all yeah, so
(22:18):
that's all great. So and our house was this little
tiny three bedroom house, but it you could go in
a complete circle around it, right, so you could come
in the front door, you could go through the living room,
turn left, go down the hallway where all the bedrooms were,
go back into the back room, and then that reconnected
with the kitchen that reconnected with the front room, so
you can go in a full circle. And there was
(22:41):
there was zero atria nor koi pond uh. And so
my dad would we would play this game where we
were inside the game where we would turn off all
the lights in the house, and he would when I
was really when I was a little like I guess
six or whatever, because I would have that's as little
as I would have been able to be. He would
kind of hold me Superman style, UM, and we would
(23:04):
like scoot around the house and we would be trying
to avoid um Sark and like all the bad guys,
and so if we were trying to creep past the
motion detectors, I mean, listen, it was a great would
be great training for me if I'd become an expert
cat burglar. We would be we would kind of get
as far as we could before we would see a
light and then we would see the red light. We'd
be like they see us, the recognizers, and then we'd
(23:24):
like run into the next room like like you know.
And so to this day, I'm not afraid of that,
Like I've never been afraid of the dark, because I
only equate the total darkness with playing Tron And Yeah,
and it was this like super great cool game that
my dad made up that was legitimately like kind of
scary and exciting, and it made me feel like I
was inside that game grid And then at Disneyland, UM
(23:49):
we would go to Disneyland every summer. My dad would Um.
We had friends who lived in La Canada, which is
kind of like Pasadena area, and he would because of
the Arizona summers, he would wake me up up. He
would he would take a nap, like he would sort
of sleep for a couple of hours, and then he
would get up in the middle of the night and
wake me up and put me in a sleeping bag
(24:09):
in the covered cab of our Dots and truck which
was carpeted and uh, and he'd be like he would
wake me up at you know, say two or three
in the morning, say like, miss Jay, are you ready
to go to Disneyland? And I was like and then
and so then I would get into the car and
fall asleep, and then I would wake up and we
would be almost there, and then I would kind of
clamber through the little window and then come sit with
(24:31):
my dad and um, and then we would get there.
And then at Disneyland they had the people Mover, which
one little tiny sliver of the People Mover was that
you would go inside this kind of room that they
had just put Yeah, they just all it was was
movie screens, but you would be on the people mover
and then suddenly you would be on the game grid
(24:52):
and they recognized were coming, almost squash you, and then
you would go inside the light cycle maze. So again,
no interest in the arcade game I did. I was like,
I just want to live here full time. So, um,
those are all like very they're very deep embedded childhood
memories for me. And uh, but but there's nothing about
(25:12):
the movie now when I watch it, it means every
bit as much to me. There's no There are plenty
of movies that I loved that I can't. I can
sort of go, what does it hold up? I'm not
able to see if it doesn't hold up, Like you
just watched up for the first time. So your experience
was your experience, and I totally respect that. But I
it's I mean, I've brainwashed myself. I've still watched it
(25:34):
and think, God, this is ahead of its time. God,
this is good. It's so good. Well it was ahead
of its sign because it was in a little research
today it is um it was one of the very
first movies to use computer animation at all. And who's
the director. The director is Stephen Liz Burger. Oh you
(26:00):
nailed it earlier, Peter, I think, ye the Giants Stephen
Lisberger and he, uh, it was kind of a not
kind of it was a passion project for him, like
he thought of this world and was ahead of his
time and couldn't get anyone to make it and like
(26:23):
sunk his own money into like test shots, and we
took it around to the studios and was like, look
at what I have. Look at this amazing thing. And
I was like, man, I don't know about that. And
finally Disney took a flyer and said, all right, we'll
give you like ten million bucks or whatever, which was
huge because he wasn't in the Disney clan. He was
an outsider. And he said he always felt that way too,
(26:43):
which is kind of sad. But um, it was way
ahead of its time and no one knew what they
were seeing. Like now, for someone like me to watch
it who's never seen it before, sure it might look dated,
but it also looks modern in a weird way, you know,
like especially the stuff with the and I didn't know,
(27:03):
but they really shot in black and white the characters
and did this rotoscoping process and that because of how
they had to do it painstaking. That ends up looking
kind of cool. Now, yeah, it looks fantastic and all
the way the city lights up at the I mean,
it's all so wonderful. Also collect these um these like
at some of the kind of like hipster like Japanese
(27:25):
toy shops. Uh, when I was well there, you know
there are they exist in like San Francisco and Los
Angeles and you know some of the kind of certainly
on the western coast cities. Um there was a place
in San Francisco that's sold the They're called Kubrick of course,
um just I'm saying that because of course it's named
(27:46):
after something also equally like Nichian hip where they would
do these limited edition lines of toys from beloved movies
like that, and so they I have these really cool
they almost look like um like mobile like m I
is the um um O b I L or those
or those little people. It's just a little kind of
(28:07):
like Lego people. So they sort of do look like
Lego people, but you know they're in their uniforms and
then there's a great but but the design is so
great and there's this great UM. I wish I if
we were in l A, I could have brought it
with me. But there's a recognizer that you can you
can pop the legs off and then turn the legs
inward in the center so you can make it into
like the there's a tank that's really beautiful. But they're
(28:29):
just so well done and well made. I have the
whole set of the Kubrick stuff, and then I have
like a scattering of the original toys that look more
like you know, Star Wars figures or whatever. Um, yeah,
and I have I mean that's a that's a good
go to gift someone stuff. Yeah, And they did this
(28:51):
really cool. They had it. They showed it at the
Arrow in Santa Monica years ago in Los Angeles and
and Stephen the director was there, and then one of
the producers and um and uh, I think Bruce box
Lightner was there, and for sure what's her name the
woman was there and Cinny Morgan was there, and so
they all kind of talked and traded stories and talked
(29:11):
about it. Oh, it was so cool. And they had
a couple of you know, costumes from there. And and
I hate Tron legacy, like nothing that came after Tron.
Do I have any respect for what's it? Well, I
didn't see Tron Legacy, and I didn't I think there
was even a TV show. I'm not sure. Yeah, there
was something in between that between the two main big
Tron movies. But see, now that I've seen Tron at all,
(29:31):
the idea I know what the idea of Tron Legacy was.
It seems like a great idea that like this this
Jeopard his son has now come back. Now. Yeah, and
it doesn't even look I can't. I can't. I didn't
capture the spirit of the original at all, and not
to me. To me, it's just this sort of empty, soulless.
(29:54):
It just doesn't feel like and it doesn't do anything
from me at all. I see why they did it, though,
you know, like Tron was so out of its time,
and like now they have the technology and to make
a new and I like Garrett Headlin. Yeah, um, but
I don't know. I mean I never saw it because
I didn't see But also and I saw it only
once I saw it, I'll Copy Town. I mean I went,
(30:15):
I went hoping it would be great. You know el
copy Town you don't know was on Hollywood Boulevard and
it's Disney's big theater and they have sometimes live that
you came in fourhand. It's really it's a beautiful place, um,
and that was the right thing to do to see
it there. I can barely remember what it was about
out front. I wish I bet no, No, I don't
(30:36):
think they had. They might have had some costumes from
the then who cares because it's from the new stuff.
Why is ass enough? Right? Jeff Bridges character, he returns
in different variations of himself stuff. Yeah, and uh, he's
humorless from what I can remember. And Olivia Wild, Olivia Wild,
she's lovely but like she's everybody was just humorless. And
(31:00):
that was the I mean, the whole point. So much
of Tron is Jeff Bridges being a complete why that smart,
infuriating sark, which I mean obviously that's um played by uh,
don't tell me um David. Yes, I always forget his name,
even though I love him and he's one of the
great bad guys. Yeah, A Man with Two Brains is
very close to the the top of my favorite movie. But
(31:21):
if you have a podcast, Sam Levine and that is
his favorite. So I really struck that from the list
because I knew Sam would want to talk about with
two Brains. I could talk about that all day long.
Um year, you know, yeah, David, No, no, no, it
did not. Dead Men Don't Wear a Platt came out
that year. Sorry I can't remember his last name. David Warner.
David Warner, of course, one of the one. And you
know what's so freaky is, I don't know if you
(31:43):
do this, but you go back and watch some of
your favorite movies and then you think, wow, I'm older
than them when they meant this for sure, So Bridges
in box lightn or we're both around thirty one ish
when they made it. David Warner, it was five years
younger than me. He was one years old ancient in
that Yeah, of course he did in our brain because
(32:04):
we were kids and now and I even watched it today,
I was like, I look at that old, creepy guy,
these five years younger than me. Oh my god. Well
he he also has one of those faces where you're like, oh,
you're sixty twenty year old, and he wasn't you'll get
their cargo short? Wasn't it? Absolutely not? Absolutely not? And
then the and then the guy who plays Ram, and
then when Ram dies, yeah, it just still makes me cry. Yeah,
(32:28):
and the whole weird, the the whole idea of technology
and and like the gods and that sort of playing
with that kind of like theology, the idea that there
would be information living inside a computer that would be
you know, that would be intelligent enough to question where
itself came from and putting all of this faith in
(32:49):
the people who created it. And I mean, it's just fascinating. Well,
that was sort of the great fear I think at
first when you know, computers became a thing, But now
it's sort of a legitimate fear. You know, robots becoming
sentient master control program man. Yeah, like that's kind of
a thing now. It was ahead of its time, but um,
what's kind of struck me A couple of funny things. Um,
(33:12):
on that note, twin is it? Who is the main?
Was it? Sark was talking to the David Warner character
and kind of explaining MCP, that master Control program is
the main And then Sark is like his lackey kind
of MP is just you can just a little confusing
because I played CP. You just hear you hear that
(33:33):
deep scary voice, but then you see it as like
a computer grid face and yeah, oh, I also have
the toy of that. It's so cool. But um, a
couple of funny things. One is he said that, um,
he was getting involved with the Kremlin and uh who
else the Kremlin and the Pentagon because he said that
he could design things, uh nine hundred to twelve hundred
(33:55):
times better than any human. I just love that number range. Yeah,
like between nine times better. Uh. And the other thing
was the beginning and the end of the movie is
so weird and abrupt. How the movie starts it just
you know, it says Flynn's Arcade, which is in Culver
City by the way. I don't know if you've ever
(34:16):
been by that building, the whole building. Um, that's where
they shot the exterior. And um, it starts with just
a dude playing the Tron game, and then it goes
in on the Tron game and then you're in the
Tron game, and then it just starts and then and
then it says literally says like and meanwhile in the
real world, and then this Jeff Bridges and you're like, oh,
(34:38):
who is this guy? And then when the movie just
it just ends like they're in the computer world. They
have the big climax fight and then uh, he gets
out of a helicopter at the end and joins box
Lightner and Sydney Morgan. They're like, they hug, and that's
the end of the movie. I'm of there's the big
(34:58):
climax is definitely in side of the game, and that's
what the movie him come back out. And then when
he comes back out, we see that he's successfully gotten
all the information that's printing out very slowly on the
loud printer, and then David Warner sees that no, it didn't.
(35:19):
Then it's like he's toast and then it's like, hey,
we better the boss is coming, and you're right, it's Jeff.
Don't strike me as bad filmmaking. It struck me as
such a thing of its time period, like to where
movies would end with just everyone like high fiving and
that's it. Now we have now we've been tainted in
the other direction by too many false endings. For you're like,
(35:41):
wait a minute, this movie, every every scene now for
the last twenty minutes has felt like the last scene Tarantino,
let's keep a clean, let's get in, get out, And
then as the lights go down in the city, not
to quote a Journey song, then how much it looks
like what else that happened in the whole building. David
Warner pretty is pretty far with through anyone. Well, Senny Morgan,
(36:02):
you know, I know her from Caddyshack. She's a fox
us as Lacy Underhalls, which wow, I couldn't get away
that today. Uh oh. And then the other thing I
thought was neat was income as the name of the
company is like kind of one of the great evil
villain companies of all time. I think, Yeah, it sounds
(36:23):
like it could be anything, and that's what's so great
and terrifying about it. Yeah, I mean that's kind of
the key store and just all the stuff they're working on.
The whole idea that you could, you know, use lasers
to break down the atom to the point where you
could shoot it through space. I mean, that's a little
bit Wanta vision too. That's another movie I could have
probably said everything everything goes back to being a young
(36:45):
a young person, like I don't. I think, I'm so,
I'm so connected to that unbridled passion that feels kind
of unmatchable as Yeah, I can't. So those I think
those are all the movies that I really go back to,
because when I think about movies, I mean, you know,
after I saw in Bruges, I was like, this is
my favorite movie. And then I saw another movie that
(37:07):
I felt was my favorite movie. A year later, I
was like, no, this is my favorite movie. But you know,
and Bruges is in there, the Ice Storm. I still
think it is like made. There's artistically, you know, intact
and you know, brilliant movies that would also be kind
of in my list. But I like to say, like
(37:27):
I have a top It's like I have twenty five
top five movies. Yeah, you know you have like you
get twenty five, but they're all part of your top five.
But I did to think of a segment today that
I'm gonna do for everyone, which is, oh, you asked
me to remember some think about maybe something more like
guilty Pleasures. We'll do that later, okay, And by later,
I mean okay, uh, this is a segment. Maybe we'll
(37:51):
getting old to do some cool music for this called
what Ebert said this movie is a complete okay, all right,
because I thought he's awa. I mean, there's plenty of
legendary film critics, but he's always been my favorite. Absolutely
he gave well what do you think? First of all? Now,
do you have any idea Listen. I want to believe
(38:12):
that he was on board and that he understood how
special and important it was, and that he thought to himself,
Janet Varney will one day name this is her favorite movie.
But I don't feel like it got particularly good reviews,
and I don't think it did particularly well, so I
and he was pretty influential at the time, so I'm
prepared for him to have given it a thumbs down.
Eber loved it. He gave it four stars and a
(38:36):
thumbs up, and he says, uh, it was a technological
sound and light show that is sensational and brainy, stylish
and fun. Oh good, And then he went on to
rape about the special effects. He said that the holy
imaginary worlds of Toron are so cleverly composed that I
never ever got the sensation that I was watching some
actors stand in front of or in the middle of
(38:57):
special effects. Never And I think you see that so
much more today. You can really feel the sort of
flatness because you can do anything and screen. It's really hard. Yeah, No,
I felt like I can't again. I feel like they
were all there, They were all there living in that world.
They're starting to get it right though, Like did you
(39:19):
see the Jungle Book? Yes, yeah, like that was amazing,
It really was. But for a while they're people kind
of went nuts. Well even still, even with like Fantastic Beasts,
for example, I just I feel so strongly that I
can see like Eddie Redmain sort of looking at his
finger where something is supposed to be, and I just
I'm so aware it's not there. I'm so painfully aware
(39:41):
it's not there. I don't know about that finger scene,
but well, I know what you're talking about. Like when
there's a lot of mystical fun toy things around, Well,
the eyelines never right. It's always, even with all the
technology they're of, just enough to where it looks like
the Three Company episode where Jack's twin visits, you know,
(40:01):
which I don't think it ever happened. Um. And the
lasting here is I looked up the movies of nineteen
eighty two mainly because I was like, why didn't I
see this? What was I going to see? So I
can know now what was what else was two? Well? Yeah,
and it's is a powerhouse of stuff. Well, movies back
then we're amazing. Yeah, and this is just like when
(40:23):
you look at the list of movies that are out
in seventeen and then this list. It's it makes you
want to cry because two Blade Runner, Ship Et the Thing,
Fast Times to Reach My High, Poultergeist, Wrath of con
Tutsie hands down. Probably Blade Runner to Tutsie was just
(40:46):
a a March release in nineteen eighty two. It wasn't
like Oscar season's coming up, like that's where it would
be slotted today. Is blowing my mind? Uh did I
say Fast Times, Reach High? Forty eight hours, Officer and
a Gentleman Annie? Oh my god? First Blood very big
for me, The Dark Crystal Gandhi Rocky three. Never say
(41:11):
Rocky three was very big for me, but I did
see Rocky three. That's where my priorities. Like, I mean,
there are a couple of movies that I wouldn't say, like,
oh my god, this is so great, but they were
big for me, Like this Beast Master was it was great.
But then Sophie's Choice World according to Garp, my favorite year,
the Secret of nim Diner year, Like this is just
a smattering. This isn't all the movie crazy in Hollywood
(41:36):
in the early eight I mean I could comfortably pick
some of my all time favorite movies. Just out of that,
you could stop Blade Runner, Et The Thing and Poultergeist,
and you could say, and no other movies were made
that year, and it would be like one of the
great years. The Thing I just saw on the big
screen at the arc Light and it beyond holds up. Yah,
that's amazing and super gruesome. Yeah, really gross. John Carpenter
(42:01):
the Man. Yeah, and well he did all his still
does all his on music. It's great. Yeah. Um, any
finishing thoughts on Tron, I love it, thumbs up, I
love you, Tron. I know that you're a movie even
though you were also a character in the movie named Tron.
But I just wanted I mean I was for the
longest time. I was like, if I have kids, I'm
naming my kid Flynn, no matter whether it's a boy
or No. I wouldn't name that no, because I really
(42:25):
love m Yeah, that'd be a funny name. Michael Chadwick Peterson.
It's just so good. I could call him MCP. That
would be a pretty slick move. Um. But Tron was
a character, but also the name of the security system,
that's right, the box lightner was program. Yeah, exactly, No,
one just got up and I walked in. My walked
(42:48):
He's done. That's what was confusing to me a little
bit about the movie, So all the different characters playing,
but that's It's like, but that's what it's about, dumb.
It was invented the program Tron, so that's what Tron
looked like. Tron looked like his user, and then Flynn
designed a ton of stuff. So that's why I like
when you go inside the beginning of the movie in
(43:09):
the tank, that's Flynn too, because he designed that program
in the tank. What about this scene with when they
when Cyndy Morgan and when Lacey under als and and
the scarecrow. First he was a scarecrow, right, he was?
He certainly wasn't as scarc I never saw that show,
(43:29):
but I just did the match real quick, like, um,
they walk in the first time they go to see
Jeff Bridges or Flynn, excuse me, and he's so overly
sweaty from playing the video game. At first, I was like,
is he really that sweaty? Because the armpit sweats like
out to his chest. Then his chest was sweaty through
(43:49):
the shirt. It's like, why are they doing that? And
he goes up and takes off his shirt, and I
was like, I think that's exactly why they did it. Yeah,
he takes off one shirt and puts on a different
shirt and they're both Flynn's video game like it's it.
But he takes it off in front of her because
they used to date. And then he had that sly
line about leaving the house messy or whatever, and then
she practically shoves Bruce box Lighter on the couch because
(44:12):
of the quip about her leaving her house messy relationships?
Am I right? I say that Toron is a go
to to understand relationships between the two people who care
about each other. No, probably not, but maybe between man
and computer, between man and computer, between a bit and
(44:33):
a program for that a little bit. No, Janet Varney,
thanks for coming into the pleasures. Yeah, yeah, you're right.
You've been doing this podcast for one hour in life
and you don't remember the bold I have clothes with
guilty pleasure? All right, what's your guilty pleasure? Let program? Well,
(44:58):
I did think about it because I didn't want it
to be a thing. Listen, First of all, how dare you?
And I said that in our text too, I said
don't you even pretend like my favorite movie can also
be a guilty pleasure. I will never call it a
guilty pleasure. But I was trying to think because I thought,
I want to want to have some pretentious luck like
you said, where someone's like, my guilty pleasure is the Godfather.
Shut up. Um. But it's kind of hard because I
(45:20):
don't have a lot of the like, oh, I know.
This is the same with reality television stuff like that.
I can't. I don't find that I have a lot
of like this is delicious, and I know I shouldn't,
but here I watch, you know, I feel I get
really impatient with stuff that this isn't good. So I
was trying to think of things that, um, that I
would watch anyway, and I think I actually wrote a
couple of them down. I know for sure that recently
(45:42):
on planes, I can't stop watching movies about horses, which
was never something I cared about, but all of a sudden,
Sea Biscuit seems like the best movie I've ever seen.
I watched Secretariat. Secretariat. They didn't have well, this is Delta,
and they have some old movies that you can watch.
I hadn't gotten to the horse Whisper, which I've never seen.
I probably won't watch war Horse, but suddenly suddenly I need, like, uh,
(46:04):
feel good horse movies when I'm on a plane, because
I'm too tired to enjoy anything else. So feel good
horse movies. Apparently that's a new thing. Um. And then
I also admitted to like beauty. Did you see that?
When you're a kid? Give a crap? I didn't give
a crap about horse movies. I did see The Black Stallion.
I barely remember it. Last Unicorn. That was a tough one. Um,
(46:27):
I will always, but I did, especially because I know
you like Jaws so much. I feel the same way
about Jaws. And I will see no but a shark movie,
not Sharknado, not like intentionally campy shark movies. But I
will give almost any shark based movie a chance. And
I love the movie Deep Bluesy. I love it. I
(46:49):
love it. I've watched it. I've seen it so many times.
If it's on I will watch it till the end.
I love it. I liked how unabashedly schlocky it was. Yeah,
it knew what it was and so it camped out
in a good way. But it was genuinely, still very
scary to me, even though the sharks got smarter because
they were injecting them with some sort of growth hormones
(47:12):
that they could cure Alzheimer's. That's a side effect the
shop Scott smart. The sharks got smarter, Chuck. That was
the big pull line from the trailer. I remember that,
and I was so star struck when uh, my friend Oscar, uh,
we were going to dinner with Oscar and Ursla, or
are dear friends of ours? And he said, I hope
you don't mind, our friends are gonna be joining us.
(47:32):
And it was the shark. It was the shark. No,
it was Saffron Burrows. And I I said, I in
a million years, I never thought I would meet Saffron Burrows.
Not a person that I think I traveled the same
circles with. Its very excited that I got to meet
Saffron Burrows and it was everything you thought. It was wonderful. Yeah,
(47:54):
she's just great. That was her line, wasn't it The
sharks smart? Yeah, she made those sharks smarter, she made
those she put us all at risk. She got Sam
Jackson munched. That's a great moment that was snatches him
I feel that that moment. I can't think of having
seen that anywhere before that movie, and I feel like
I've seen it a million times since. Yeah, and like
(48:15):
Snakes on a Plane was a direct descendant of of
Deep Blue Seed. Yeah, because I think Deep Blue Seed,
I don't. I don't think they were. Was that Renny
Harlan is it? Was it? Gosh, I don't know if
it was. It might be I might be making that up.
It was not Stephen Lisberger because he didn't direct anything else. Yeah,
he was like a Silicon Valley nerd who just went
(48:36):
right back to do with a couple of things. His
claim to fame was animaniacs before. That's how he got
a little juice in the industry. Oh yeah, Animaniac scread
and dough swinging Johnson. So anyway, those are a couple
of my pusure geldy pleasures. And I also, um, this
(48:58):
is probably too far on the side. This popped in
my mind. It was the first thing that popped in
my mind. And I and that doesn't mean that it's accurate,
But for some reason, the first thing I thought it
was Intolerable Cruelty with Love, that movie with Kevin Zada
Jones and and George Clooney. And I think the reason
I classify it as a guilty pleasure is because I
somehow know I'm supposed to not like it because it's
(49:19):
not full Cohen Brothers. Yes, and so I'm I've been
told it's terrible, do you know what I mean? Like
the society has told me it's terrible, unlike over the
worl out there or whatever, and so but that's so,
that was what the first thing that popped in mind.
I love that movie. Yeah, I don't like when people
I think there's two Cohen Brothers tears, and I love
(49:40):
that second tier when they're clearly just having a good
time making a comedy. I love those movies, yeah, like
Intolerable Cruelty and the one I really love is uh
Man with with Brad Pitt and Cluney Burn. After reading Burn,
after reading I think that I think I hated that
when I saw it, and now I like it. And
(50:00):
I didn't love Hale Caesar, And I'm wondering if in
a couple of years maybe I'll love that too, because
maybe it I was fine with it. Yeah, would that
it were that simple? Is like maybe laughed so hard
so good. But think is another one where I'm like,
is that one of the all time greatest movies probably
probably has one of the all time greatest endings of
any movie about an ending. Yeah, and that I saw that.
(50:25):
That that's kind of one of my friends and minds
from college favorite movie. So we watched it saw in
the theater, then watch it obsessively in college. And he
went on to be friends with Tony Shalub, who, like
in real life, I r L and he was so
good in that yea, so good. Yeah and that little
part and everything. How do you feel do you feelers
went well? I think let's have a postmortem on on camera.
(50:47):
It went great. I might do a little solo postmortem,
not tonight because I have to go to bed, because
it's like, um no, I think it went great. The
pilot episode like how I jammed in like eight of
my other favorite movies, and so I think that's kind
of takes them. I still was the first one to say, yeah,
that's kind of the point though. Screw you. Sam Levine's right,
(51:11):
Sam Man with Two Brains is really great. I could
quote the hell out of that movie. You know, kind
of a real dork, what for that? Movie. Yeah, I
just on my favorite movie that everything I'm naming is
just so dorky. But well, you went after tron Hard
and now that I know the whole story behind it,
like it's really it's a it's a real thing. Yeah,
it's I get it. You weren't seeking a NERD credit
(51:34):
or anything like that. No, no, no, let's ask you
to back off that for a second. Untrue. Um no,
this is great, all right. Well, thanks for coming in,
Janet Barney for sure number one. Thanks Chuck, here I go,
I guess, I guess. I ran away only after the
(51:57):
dr was closed. Man, that was just I'm just so
excited about the show. That could not have gone any better.
A new Janet was a great choice as guest number
one because she's, um, well she's a professional podcaster herself
and does interviews herself, so she knows how to how
(52:18):
to keep the conversation going like a real pro. So, um,
that was just a lot of fun. Janet. Her feelings
on tron were, Um, I was kind of wondering what
to expect on why that was her favorite pick, and
it was very heartwarming to know to me that that
was a movie that she and her dad uh, bonded
over and it was a very special film from her
(52:39):
childhood because of the cute little Tron game that she
used to play with her dad. So as we go
on with Movie Crush, I think it'll be super interesting
to see, uh, sort of the why behind why people
pick these favorite movies. And I suspect that moving forward,
we're gonna get quite a few that have a lot
of sentimental value, and that is certainly the case with
(53:01):
Janet here in Tron and Stand Against Evil, guys, I
am so excited. I love season one. Janet is so
funny and it everyone's just great. And season two actually
premiered yesterday, uh in real time, So November one premiered
on i f C. Check it out Stand Against Evil
season two. It's wonderful, and check out j V Club,
(53:22):
the j V Club podcast where Janet interviews um people
about their embarrassing high school years. It's really really good show.
So thanks to Janet for her time and until next week,
Well would kill you to spare a little popcorn? Maybe?
(53:42):
Movie Crush is produced, edited, engineered, and scored by Noel
Brown from our podcast studio at Pond City Market, Atlanta, Georgia.
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