What do you all have dates or something?

I heard you got fired.

Laid off. We just laid off, honey, remember?

Technically furloughed, sport.

You're not a bum, are you, daddy?

No, but I'm working on it. Do you want my will be? Actually, I kind of would like it, but instead, I'll take a kiss.

Okay, come on, everybody. Let's take dinner. We're having a special dinner tonight.

What are we having?

Colonel Chicken.

We can't afford that.

Let's enjoy it. Colonel Chicken. So I guess somebody was too cheap to get, to be able to get just the right to say the name, Kentucky Fried Chicken. Is that what happened?

Presumably, they did not get clearance on that. I'm wondering if we also ought to clarify what a wubby is in this context.

Indeed. Well, we might even want to say what movie we're watching. Oh, yes, that's true. Now, Paul, that was a wholesome and lovely scene from the 1983 regarded as a classic, but really, we have some arguments about that.

By whom?

I feel like Mr. Mom is regarded as a classic. People remember it fondly, Michael Keaton. I feel like it's a movie that even the words Mr. Mom seem to be part of the vernacular. Don't you think? Am I wrong here? I could be wrong. I've been wrong so many times before, Paul.

I don't know. I'm genuinely asking out of curiosity. Because it is such a mediocrity.

It is such a just not good movie.

I think even minor classic would be a stretch. But yeah, it is definitely a kind of cultural touchstone of the time that has not aged particularly well. That might have seen as being more, having more of an impact when it came out. Whereas now it just kind of seems so what?

Like it literally, you know, it's not just so what. It literally the way that... Okay, I see producer Brad's face. And it's literally about to hit that bell. He's going to hit that bell. Here it comes. Okay. Okay. That wonderful clip was from a movie called Mr. Mom that came out in Memorial Day, Labor Day. Which day is the last day of the summer? I can't, I can never remember.

It came out in July. Oh, that's right.

We skipped it when it came out. We're watching it this weekend because the choices were, we thought the choices were, we thought we owed you our audience to watch a mainstream film rather than another cheap sword and sorcery movie. And boy, there we take one for the team. I will be receiving your thank you notes openly and with great generosity.

I, I, so here's the thing, Javi. I think we've, I think we've made a horrible mistake.

Oh, wow. You know what? Let's discuss that. But wait, before we discuss that, Paul, my name is Javier Grillo-Marxuach.

Oh yeah, my name is Paul Alvarado-Dykstra.

And this is...

Multiplex Overthruster Summer.

Your!

Your!

Again!

Will it, will it ever get as good as your? Did we even remotely begin to slightly appreciate the greatness that we found ourselves in then?

No, we did not. And Paul, but here's the thing. But here's the thing. I want to, let's get real for a second. Real talk, real talk, okay? Yes. The summer of 1983 sucked butt. Like literally, compared to 82, like we've been through it now. It's Labor Day. And we literally had to skip every movie that opened in order to see Mr. Mom, which is considered a minor classic. That's our last movie of the summer. Now we started, we started throng.

We had the, is it?

Oh, boy.

We'll come back to this later. I just I'm already fraught.

You're already fraught with what?

This is not a word. I think I maybe have deployed ever on the podcast. I just don't know that we can end on the note of of this turgidity.

All right.

I think we'll see. We'll see. Let's see how it goes.

Look, I think the problem is, is that, you know, we saw Michael Keaton and Teri Garr on that poster and we're like, we're in. And it's that iconic image of Michael Keaton holding the baby over the bathroom hand dryer, you know?

Yes.

Paul, I don't know what it is about you, but I have grown up thinking this movie was like an iconic classic of its time, which is why I'm so shocked at how bad it is going, but you don't have any of that residue.

Well, I had more of like a residue.

I had non-negative residual impressions of seeing it in childhood that were innocuous and unoffensive. And again, who doesn't want to hang out with Michael Keaton and Teri Garr and also kind of bookend Night Shift from Summer of 82, another fun Michael Keaton movie. This movie is like a sitcom stretched.

It's, but it's worse than that because also, it is like a sitcom stretch, but it's like a movie that's like the premise of it, that, you know, look, it's not, we, this kind of material has been done many times. The man has to stay home. And in fact, it's been done many times in my life, in my personal life. But like the, everything in this film is like just, it's like literally they took a hummer and they drove through the vast field of the low-hanging fruit. And there was not a single low-hanging fruit. They didn't hold themselves back from grabbing, Paul. It's a thing, like, right?

I hate to say I laughed each time, though.

You know, you know, then you win, producer Brad, you win. You know, because you had a good time watching a movie. That's a victory to me.

I have an over arching kind of headline point I want to make, but I feel like we need to move forward and ring the bell bell.

All right. So no, wait, wait, I got to tell them the premise of the movie, don't I?

Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, I guess we do.

So Michael Keaton is an auto industry executive. He loses, he gets laid off because it's the 1980s and the auto industry sucks. We from Detroit, we grew up in Ann Arbor, know this intimately. His wife, played by Teri Garr, gets a job at an ad agency because after all, she's been a mom for seven years, but she has a college degree and worked in advertising beforehand. She succeeds wildly and greatly. Mr. Mom has all sorts of, hey, guess what? He's got a hard time navigating the supermarket. Ooh, he can't operate the vacuum cleaner. Ooh, lots of comedic hijinks. He gets fat, grows a beard. She gives him a talking to, he straightens up. He becomes a really good mom. She succeeds in advertising, but she starts neglecting her family. He gives her a talking to, and then they live happily ever after, having all talked to each other and gotten, they both get newer, better jobs at the end, don't they? Isn't that what happens? Like it's all resolved by capitalism?

And more or less, they also have a brief misunderstanding of mutual infidelity that they sort of hallucinate.

Yes, she thinks that he's cheated on her with the hot neighbor, he thinks he's cheated on her with her rich boss, whatever. And it all, yeah, let's just get through this. Give us the bell, let's do this thing and then talk about that.

Ding, ding.

All right, so Paul, my first impression, Aaron Spelling produced this movie, what a shock, it's terrible.

Okay, so a few things right out of the gate. From the titles, notice that, that is, yes, that says a lot. It feels like TV, that is a big reason why. Also-

And I worked for Aaron Spelling, so I should know.

Yes, it is also from the kind of notorious Sherwood Productions that would next summer bring us the great Buckaroo Banzai, but is notorious-

That's right, that's why I remembered that logo so well. Yes.

Of course, of course. It is notorious for interfering with the production to the degree of looking at dailies and saying, oh, these beautiful shots in the club from the cinematographer Blade Runner looked too weird because they were gorgeous. Let's fire him and bring in another DP to make everything look flatter, which is why there's this-

That was in Mr. Mom or in Buckaroo Banzai?

No, that's Buckaroo Banzai. So I'm just, you know, this is kind of who we're dealing with, which is that, oh, whenever there's an emergence of artistry, we need to kind of-

Stamp it out with-

Stamp it down into, flatten it into mediocrity.

With a steel tip shoe, with a steel tip shoe cruelty, yes.

Yes. So they're too big.

By the way, Paul, but wait a second, it's funny that you should mention that because, so when I was working on, this is the part in the bingo card where I talk about somebody I've worked with before. When we're working on Charmed, okay, I was there the first season and the Charmed pilot was shot by a director of photography named Thomas Del Ruth, okay? Thomas Del Ruth was literally the Conrad Hall of network television. He shot the ER pilot, okay? Like this guy who shot beautiful, like Gordon Willis, like Dark Frames, that like, you know, sort of vignetted in.

I mean, gorgeous.

So immediately, Aaron Spelling saw the Charmed pilot and went, I can't see anything. We need a new director of photography. And the show was then made flat, much like The Love Boat and Fantasy and everything else, Aaron Spelling ever did or 90210 and everything. So yeah, so this so nothing you said shocks me. But sadly, the director of photography of Mr. Mom was not fired.

Well, it's it's fine. I mean, so much of this movie is just fine.

It's like relentlessly fine, isn't it?

Uh, yeah. And just knowing also the heights of brilliance that Michael Keaton and Teri Garr are capable of.

Oh, yeah.

It feels like you've got these two, I mean, just stars.

And they're just being held back by the script, by the direction, by everything. Yeah.

And they're being underutilized. They're not being let loose to fully bloom, which may be asking too much, but that's something that I just hit on that was frustrating throughout the film.

Not only are you totally right, here's the thing. I think Teri Garr and Teri Garr had a long and brilliant career, okay? Yeah. But I also think that if you took somebody like Teri Garr and you put her now, right, when comedians like her, you know, she's a little bit on the quirky looking side, even though she's gorgeous. I mean, I think she's a beautiful woman, but she's also kind of a little bit more on the quirky looking side, you know, and she's so talented and she's so good. And even though she had a great career in the 60s and 70s and 80s and 90s and beyond, like, if she were like the age she was when she made Mr. Mom now, she would be like Aubrey Plaza or like, like, Kristen Wiig. I mean, she would be like a star star, like she would be opening movies. She would be in Bridesmaids. She would be that person. And it makes me sad to see her kind of not being that, you know? Does that make sense?

Yeah. Yeah. So I, you know, I always try to look for positives and I don't, I don't want everyone just skipping this episode at this point if they, if they haven't already.

I know, I know.

So I'm just going to set kind of two goalposts of the maybe most positive and then maybe my most negative. And then we'll just, we'll just plow through them on the positive side.

Positive.

I was not expecting and was frankly delighted to discover.

Accentuate the positive, deemphasize the negative.

Sorry, go on. I thought I'd give you some, some accompaniment. I apologize.

Be careful what you wish for.

Okay, okay, okay.

Producer Brad and I may have something up our sleeves for later.

Oh, boy.

This film is an unexpected sort of meta crossover with Rocky III.

Yes, it is. Yes, it is.

Yes. Yeah. Yeah. It absolutely is. In both narrative, visual, and musical dimensions that manifest.

And it is spoken, in fact, in fact, in fact, Paul, if that is your name.

Yes.

Let us begin by, so Michael Keaton is a car industry executive, right? And things are bad in Detroit, and he starts by, he goes, right before he gets laid off, he's at the assembly line talking to assembly line guys who are saying that things are bad. And you know what, producer Brad, can you regale us with clip number one, just so we can begin this conversation about Rocky III?

You know, me and my wife went to the movies the other night, we saw Rocky. And I'm watching this movie, and I'm thinking, there's something about this movie that reminds me of the situation at work, you know?

Which Rocky was it?

One or two, or three?

One, I think. I don't know.

Who was he fighting?

Hey, did he ever mow off like Mr. T?

I don't know. I don't remember. The point is, here's a guy who's taking a pretty bad beating, you know? He's up against a rope. His eyes cut.

Was his manager dead or alive?

All right, forget Rocky. All right, forget it, Brad. Get it out of your head. The point is, when you're down, you're not necessarily out.

Paul, I don't think I laughed harder at any line in that movie. Was his manager dead or alive? That's hilarious. Come on.

I mean, it felt like it was just crafted there for you. The other thing that's...

Well, haven't we all had that conversation some point in our life, trying to figure out which Rocky movie we watched?

Well, I've never had to figure out which Rocky movie I watched, but I've had to help others. I have had to help others figure out which one they were watching. Yes, I have.

And later in the film, it is revealed that his kids, his sons, have a Rocky III poster in their room.

Yes, they do. Yes, they do.

Gloriously displayed.

And later in the movie, when Mr. Mom gets his shit together, it is to the theme of Rocky.

So, yes, yes. I mean, it is a nice through line that that's not just a random whatever. So, Jack, Michael Keaton's character, is an automotive engineer. Yes, he is. On the engineering team. And so that scene is him on the line with the blue collar workers on the line who are diverse.

Yes, so diverse. They are the only diversity in the movie. In fact, only working class people get to be ethnics. Yes.

Yes, we do see working class people periodically in the film.

Right.

And those, yes, are the only non-white characters in the movie. Yes. Just, you know, a thing. And here is my, and this is just a, almost a teaser. It's like a foreshadowing of the full emergence of my biggest problem with this film, which is that, this film emerges into a case study of what might be my biggest pet peeve.

Oh my God, you go on. What is it?

Movies or television, which is that when they are dependent on the implausible stupidity or ineptitude of their main character.

Yep.

And so much of this movie is about how Jack, who again, is an engineer, an engineer, an engineer.

Yes.

He is a senior at a pretty senior level.

He's making cars that you and I would be driving at the time.

So he's an accomplished, educated, very intelligent professional who is somehow also a moron when it comes to day-to-day basic human activity and functions. And I just, I don't buy any of it.

Any of it.

It just makes no sense to me. And the whole movie hinges on it. And to me, that's its biggest failure. Again, I admit that's a pet peeve of mine, but it feels lazy.

No, no, but Paul, but Paul, the thing is, this is a lazy movie. It is a profoundly lazy movie, you know? It is insanely lazy. And that's the word. And you know, like, look, it literally takes every cliche, you know, and just, just runs it over three, four times. Like that lady who, who hit the homeless guy and then drove him into her garage on top of his car. That's this movie's approach to humor, you know? And it's insane because you're literally going like, dude, is this man mentally deficient that he really can't operate a toaster? What the hell?

Yeah, or know how to set an iron down, or even like navigate a grocery store, or know which way to turn into a driveway that's not going the opposite direction of visible traffic. Like it's ridiculous. And the missed opportunity is that there are little moments, like in the opening, you see them wake up. There's the breakfast scene with the kids. We establish all the dynamics of their domesticity.

Yes, the breakfast scene that I've written on TV five billion times already because we've seen it a million times. It's the laziest scene ever.

It is. The only little spark in it that I appreciate, which also makes me think, oh, this is an engineer. He's a guy who is solutions-oriented and thinks outside the box, which is that he's got his coffee and he's not satisfied, and he looks over to his baby and he grabs the baby bottle and he squirts milk into his coffee from the baby bottle. It's a great little gimmick, but it also is a great potential setup of further development of this character and imagine you have Michael Keaton who we've established again, comedic brilliance and inventiveness and chaotic energy. What if he were written springboarded from that moment and that it wasn't ineptitude that was his problem, it was that he's just too unconventional. He can't be reigned in, he can't just do things the way...

But no, this movie is not doing that. And that's the thing is that every once in a while, look, Michael Keaton at this moment in his career was also doing standup comedy, right? And he was, I mean, he's quick on his feet. He's so, it wouldn't shock me if that baby thing was improvised on the set, maybe it was in the script, I don't know, but it's one of those things where like, I just think if Michael Keaton had been Michael Keaton, more Michael Keaton in this movie, and less John Hughes' idea, I don't, look, you know that I have humongous beef with John Hughes.

Yeah.

And we also know from our research in this movie that apparently, like John Hughes was taken off the movie by Aaron Spelling, who puts of the writers of Dynasty in it, whatever. The point is, this movie has no place for Michael Keaton's talent or genius other than whenever he can sneak something in the corners. And that's really depressing, you know?

Yeah. And there are, there's a lot of other evidence of that, because there are a lot of character actors that pop in and out of the film, and are given very little to do. They have...

Oh, you mean like Christopher Lloyd?

Yes. So we see, like when he's picked...

Like Jeffrey Tambor? Right.

When Jack is picked up from work, he apparently carpools with his supervisor, who's played by Jeffrey Tambor, who's called Jinx. And Christopher Lloyd is in the back seat, hardly gets to do anything except for one scene where then he attacks him. Right? Yeah, where he attacks him and tries to choke him to death and then apparently collect disability by jumping out of a window and then the coworkers have to stop them once they realize they're all being furloughed by Jeffrey Tambor, who didn't tell them until they had completed their carpool to work that morning.

Exactly. And that was apparently a huge, huge, horrible thing.

And then remember... And it's... The scene is so...

They get laid off and furloughed. Christopher Lloyd goes crazy, tries to beat up Jeffrey Tambor, tries to jump out the window. We're laid off and furloughed. It's not funny. It's just sort of like... You know what the thing is about this movie? It feels like shtick. So much of it just feels like shtick. It's just, oh, here's a shtick. There's a part of this movie that reminds me of Paddington. Have you seen the Paddington movies? And I'm sorry to bring up Paddington in this context, because Paddington is like... Paddington and Paddington 2 are literally the Godfather and Godfather Part 2 of Talking Bear movies. And I hate to... But there's this whole scene that's supposed to be this Rube Goldberg thing where, oh no, the washing machine isn't working and the toaster isn't working. And then like everything goes cattywampus and it's so hilarious. And it's like, you know, when Paddington does it, it's kind of hilarious. Why? Because he's a CGI bear, you know, when it's Michael Keaton, it's a shtick and it doesn't... It's not funny, you know?

Also, those sequences are designed with ingenuity and executed with verve. And right here, it's just kind of...

Oh, in Paddington. Here, it's just kind of amazing.

Yeah, in the Paddington films. Setting aside the... Look who you're talking to. Have I seen Paddington? I mean, of course, yes, I worship at the same altar of Paddington as all civilized beings.

That's right.

They are beacons of brilliance and lights in the darkness of our ongoing dystopia. But yeah, again, that's the frustration with this film, is that you have all these opportunities for a better version, not that I'm advocating a remake of this because it's so dated.

It's already been remade. Apparently, it's a TV series that's been on since 2019. What? Yeah, no, I was looking at the IMDB and it's like apparently this is Mr. Mom TV show and it was done in 2019. I don't know if it's still on or not, but it's on like Hulu or Wombi or Mubi or Tubi or Flingy Poop or something. I don't even know what it's on, but it's out there. It exists. Anyway, we cannot bring ourselves to keep talking about this movie because it's like so fucking familiar.

We opened with a clip of him then returning home.

Right.

They've already gotten the news that he's been laid off. They're all there to welcome him.

Yeah, it's one of those cheap mother colonels chicken because they're too cheap to get KFC because the movie's edge.

And then, Teri Garr, here's another thing. Oh, my God, I know I've got my things and I need to like whatever. This girl will be crazy in the film.

What specifically?

What is the name of Teri Garr's character?

Caroline Butler?

Caroline, okay. What does everyone call her in the film?

I don't know. What do they call her?

Carolyn.

Really?

Yes.

Really? They get it wrong the entire time?

It drives me fucking insane through the whole movie.

Don't these movies have, what do they call directors who's Javidist?

I like, her name is Caroline.

Right.

Why 90% of the movie, they're calling her Carol. It's a thing.

It's a sign that no one gave a fuck, dude. That's what they were showing up on.

Yeah. To me, it's the no brown M&M's in the concert rider for a rock band. It's the canary in the coal mine.

It's how you know they give a fuck or don't.

Yeah. If they aren't even bothering to take that, to care about that. Right.

So what else couldn't they care about?

I don't know. But here's then the crux, the springboard for the movie, which is not. It's not that he gets laid off. It's that then when Caroline suggests, well, she wants to do her part. Yes, she's got three young children, including an infant on the verge of toddlerhood, not quite there yet, that she could go back to work. And there's this whole patriarchal, masculine whatever, where his pride is not going to allow that. And he also is kind of diminishing.

Let's just hear clip number three, and we can talk about it on the opposite side.

Let's do it.

Producer Brad hit us.

Don't worry about it. I already put the word out.

What would you say if I did too?

If you did too what?

I put the word out. I mean, I have a couple of years' experience in advertising. I have a college degree. There's no reason why I shouldn't try to get a job myself.

Wait a minute. Excuse me. Have I been missing something? I mean, has your phone been ringing off the hook?

Oh, no, Jack.

You think you're going to get a job before I do?

Oh, Jack, this isn't a contest.

No, hon. This will be good. This is a good idea.

We'll make it a contest.

It'll be fun. I'll bet you a hundred to one you don't get a job before I do.

Okay?

Come on, doll face.

Give me a dollar.

I don't even have a dollar. Oh, you want to bet, but you don't have a dollar.

Hey, I don't want to bet.

Hey, I thought somebody said they wanted to bet. Where do I get the kids?

I don't bet. I don't take bets.

I don't believe in bets. Alex, Kenny, come here.

This is so ugly. It is. It's so ugly, you know? And I know that the 80s, different times, sexism, blah, blah, blah. It's just ugly. Like, just listening to it now just feels... Our environment has gotten so misogynistic anyway, that just listening to this as like the way just people were, it's just ugly, you know? I don't know.

Yeah, I recoiled from this so deeply, because it's the most meaningful, lengthy exchange these two lead characters have had yet in the opening stretch of the film. And it just shows such a disrespect and such a... And it just makes him seem like a jerk. And I guess...

Yeah, I fucking hate him.

He needs an arc, he needs to grow, he needs to learn, blah, blah, blah. But he can do that without...

Demanding his wife?

Yes. And it could have been more exciting, it could have been more like... I don't know, but it just... Again, I get it's of its time, but it just feels like that was not the right choice.

You know, Paul...

You know, I like this movie, but I do not like this scene either. But it also rings true from what I remember in the 80s. In real life, unfortunately.

Yes, I don't discount that. What I do give the film credit for is that rather than making the whole first act this protracted battle of wills and competition and kind of, you know, that follows this theme, what does the film do? It cuts to abruptly...

Thankfully, it has a Gilligan cut. He's like, hey, let's bet. He's just like, I don't take bets. And then she's at her job. Thank God.

And she's getting ready to go to work on her first day. We've cut, jumped ahead. That may be the best thing in the film. It is such a gutsy and effective power cut, just jump cut, that spares us so much. And I'm very grateful for that. And it is part of why, thankfully, this movie is 90 minutes and not two hours.

Yes, sir. I'm having, I'm having, Paul, Paul, I'm having a really, really hard time understanding why I hate this movie so much.

Do you know what I think? Maybe it's, it's, maybe that what we're missing and maybe, maybe what you need.

What, Paul, what do I need?

You need a fool?

No, a hero.

What the fuck is that?

Heroes and fools are the same thing.

What the fuck is that?

What is that?

What is that?

I'm just gonna start making digressions to Deathstalker because we have made a horrible mistake. And I know we promised-

Did you see Deathstalker without me? Is that what happened? Because we're supposed to, because Deathstalker was an opening movie.

Yes.

You saw Deathstalker? Oh my God.

I should cheat it on. I've only begun to see Deathstalker.

You have not yet begun to see Deathstalker?

No, I have. I have begun and I stopped myself in part because I didn't have time to finish it before we got on today. We have made a horrible mistake, Javi.

Have we?

Deathstalker is clearly a sub-amazing, and it clearly belongs on the mantle of such films that we have bashed in the glory of. If, if for no other reason, just to tantalize you. Do you know who directed Deathstalker?

I'm going to guess Curaçao wasn't available.

So the name is not going to mean much to you, but, but, but.

You don't know that.

But two credits will. James Spardelotti, James Spardelotti?

I have no idea who that is.

He was the first AD on the Beastmaster.

Oh my God. And he weighed the Deathmaster afterwards?

And on Battle Beyond the Stars.

Oh my God, Becky. I love that movie.

And do you, do you want to know who wrote Deathstalker? I promise we're going to get back to Mr. Mom.

Are we?

Do we have to keep it? A little bit, a little bit. Howard Cohen.

Who's that?

Yes. So Howard Cohen wrote The Young Nurses and Vampire Hookers before he later wrote Care Bears and Rainbow Bright.

You know, Paul, this actually, as a father, and I have a, and at this, at the moment this is being recorded, I have a five, I have a six and a nine year old, right? My son just turned six, three, two, okay?

Oh, I miss those ages so much.

You have just confirmed my deepest suspicion about kids' movies, and it is that they're written by middle-aged men who don't have kids. I don't know if Mr. Cohen had kids or not, but let me tell you. So I took my kids to see the Paw Patrol movie.

I think maybe he had kids between those bookmarks on his... I don't know.

All I know is that there are scenes in the Paw Patrol movie that looked like they were written by the guy who wrote Vampire Hookers. They are so intense. My kid was literally like his head stuck in my chest weeping because the intensity of this little puppy stuck in a crashing airplane. That was... Okay, you know what? Suddenly the world makes sense to me. Okay, go on.

It happens. So I'm just gonna continue intermittently make the case that we should have seen Deathstalker. And that maybe yet we still should. Maybe the summer can't end on the note of Mr. Mom. But going back to Mr. Mom...

But here's the thing. People, I looked at the IMDb page for this and people are literally going like, it's a classic. We love this film. It holds up. You know, people are more on... You and I are on the wrong side of history here.

People are more on the future-breadside of this.

And we're gonna get crucified for not... You know, like people are gonna be sending us... For the first time ever, we're gonna get viewer mail or listener mail. And it's gonna be like, you didn't talk about the scene with this. And we're gonna be like, no, cause the movie sucks. And they'll be like, well, the movie doesn't suck. It's a modern classic. You know, I don't know. What are we gonna do?

Javi, those people...

Yes?

I wanna say are dumb. But what I really mean...

You just called producer Brad dumb.

No, no. What I really mean, I said, he wanted to say that. Yes, but he and I have an understanding. But what I mean is that I think a lot of people maybe have selective memories of some high points of the film. Okay, let's talk about those. Like there's some little nuggets, like they give the kids to say. So, like when...

The kids are great.

The kids are great.

The kids are really funny.

The kids are great, yeah. So, like when...

And by the way, both still act.

Really?

Which is amazing, yeah.

Yes, it is amazing. They were not destroyed by being child actors.

And Javi, the older one, he was on Kate and Allie, and after that show ended, he went to Carnegie Mellon.

Is that right? Well, there you go, very cool.

You're an alma mater.

My alma mater.

But they're given like little nuggets. So, like when Caroline's won the bet, she's getting ready to go to her new job and is trying to like give Jack the to-do list that he's blowing off because he's like, how hard could it be to be a stay-at-home dad? And then I think the older kid says, mommy, it's a jungle out there. Like, so there are little nuggets of just random.

Yes, mostly the kids being funny.

Yeah.

So Paul, in order to fulfill our duty, our obligation to talk about Mr. Mom, can you just tell me three moments in this film you loved and I'll give you three and then we'll just get out of here.

We can fly through it like a pond, I mean, like a stone skipping across the pond, which is what I'm implying to do. So we've already mentioned that Jack doesn't know how to drive into a driveway to drop his kids off at school. He goes in the wrong way, it makes no sense. One little glimmer that honestly makes me feel like, oh, this is a precursor to Devil Wears Prada. When Caroline shows up at the Imperious Ad Agency in this imposing skyscraper tower, she is met by a very imperious and judgmental Carolyn Seymour, who's the secretary who we have seen in many villainously delicious roles, whether it's a Romulan.

Now, Paul, is it Carolyn or Caroline?

This is the thing. It is Carolyn in this case, which maybe that's part of where the mix-up came from. I don't know, but she's basically playing Emily Blunt in Devil Wears Prada.

Yes, she is.

Absolutely. In this ad agency context.

I have to say that the way that she was costumed, by the way, I loved it because she looked like a Patrick Nagel girl. She's got that kind of sharp features, she's got the short haircut, shoulder pads, which you know shoulder pads are like my kryptonite.

She avails herself of shoulder pads very well. For those of you who don't know, among other things, she was a Romulan commander on Star Trek. She was the evil Leaper on Quantum Leap. She's had all sorts of juicy villainous roles.

Paul, which Romulan commander? Was she the one in the face of the enemy or is she the one in...

I believe so.

Which episode?

I believe so.

That's a great episode. That's the episode where Deanna Troy wakes up in a Romulan ship and she's got a Romulan face. I love that episode. The episode was written by a man named Naren Shankar and I think we're in HMRD.

Yes.

Both amazing, amazing people. You go on, Paul. Let's talk about Mr. Mom. Okay.

We have the set up basically for then Caroline's work arc, which is she's brought into the Smokefield Conference Room at Agency.

Smokefield, by the way. How 1980s like this. The first thing I noticed was how smokey it was. Everyone's smoking.

Martin Mull is revealed as Ron, the boss, and Caroline's character, I blanken on it, I've got it written down later, Eve. Eve is her name.

Whatever.

Whatever. The British girl.

The mean British girl.

Okay, yeah. She is immediately jealous that Caroline regards herself as being on a first name basis with the boss because it is very clear that this is a sexual harassment situation that's been set up, that Teri Garr's interview with Martin Mull was off camera but referred to as being over a lunch, and it's very clear immediately that Martin Mull has the hots for Teri Garr, or at least their respective characters do. She's immediately mocked as the newcomer, as this housewife who doesn't know anything. They're trying to nail this canned tuna account. Is the big obstacle that they've got to overcome.

It is the lucky strikes in the Mad Men pilot, is the lucky strike cigarette.

This thing drags on for the whole movie, which is kind of crazy. But anyway, it's set up here. And then we have the whole grocery store scene where Jack again is inexplicably inept.

Unable to walk a grocery store.

And can't even keep track of his kids. Like he loses his kids. It's just so stupid.

In this scene though, we do meet in the supermarket scene. And Paul, we're going to get through this movie in 20 minutes. I am not subjecting our audience to two hours of...

We meet the foil.

You're kind of, you're kind of lapsing. By the way, the beautiful, gorgeous, wonderful crush of my childhood, Angélion, who was in a show called, in a sitcom called, It's a Living, where they were all waitresses in, and I mean waitresses, not servers, because they were waitresses at the rotating restaurant on top of the Bonaventure. And then she was in a show called Jennifer Slept Here, which was about the ghost of a movie star haunting the mansion where she used to live and the teenager who lives there, I don't fucking know. And Jillian, by the way, is gorgeous in this movie. Talk about also, she also looks like a Patrick Nagel girl. She's got the short hair, it's red. Oh my God, you know what? I feel like she was wasted in this film and I fucking love her. So yeah, but she was wasted in almost everything. She was-

Now, it's a living, Javi. You said it was on top of the Bonaventure, downtown LA.

Was it when they showed- When they showed The Atlantis in Atlanta.

I always thought it was LA. Am I wrong?

That's what I thought too. Yeah, no, were you gonna tell me it wasn't?

No, no, because when they showed Teri Garr going up the elevator to the office, it looks like she's at the Bonaventure, downtown LA. However, the same architecture is in downtown Detroit, the Renaissance Center.

That's right. The Renaissance Center is literally a clone of the Bonaventure, so it's bizarro. Here's a question. Brad, this movie is set in Detroit, right? Now, by the way, also the first movie of the 80s in which Michael Keaton plays a beleaguered auto industry engineer, the second one being Gung Ho. And I kept thinking, is this movie a prequel to Gung Ho? I don't know. Is it set in the same universe?

It's far worse than this movie.

I can't even remember Gung Ho. I just remembered it had a lot of stereotypes of Japanese people. But Paul, I'm gonna go on the positive. I'm gonna say to you, one of the things I love about this movie is that it actually shows the, like, I don't know what people's impression is of the 1980s. You see Stranger Things, and you know, you get that and all that. And this movie freaks, this movie like, one of the things I love about this movie, it shows how shabby the 80s actually were. You know, we have this image of the 80s as like the birth of music video. Everything's very slick, Memphis School, you know, whatever. And the 80s are actually kind of shabby and nubby, especially in Michigan. You know, and I feel like this movie really captured that. Like in 1983, it was still 1979 in Michigan, you know? Producer Brad, thoughts?

It was very brown. The inside of that house looked familiar.

Right?

Yeah, and as has been commented on previously, we have enjoyed an interesting period travelogue through the 80s in the films of the summer of 83. This may be the least interesting, and it's kind of heartbreaking as a fellow Michigander that I was like, oh, yes, you know, we were seeing representation of our home state and of Detroit, no less. And I think when we first see Teri Garr, she's wearing a Michigan sweatshirt.

That's right.

But it is so unremarkable. Also, like, they're hardly any exteriors in this movie. Like, all the scenes are interiors.

It's a sitcom.

It's literally shot like a three-film, pretty generic.

Everything was shot in LA except the assembly line.

I mean, you got to admit, though, Michigan was pretty, you know, Detroit was not exactly like you didn't want to go take a film crew to Detroit in 1983, you know?

But then the film and just to kind of...

I thought we were just going to talk about three things you liked.

Oh, okay. I'm sorry. Well, no, I was just going to say... I'm not going to Paul plot it. I'm just going to like compress then where the movie goes. Okay, go on. The movie that goes on a trajectory for each of the two characters, it sends Caroline on this trajectory of becoming a workaholic, of trying to seize the opportunity, a potential advancement, of demonstrating her capability and brilliance, yet with the burgeoning threat of Martin Mull's increasingly less subtle and more inappropriate advances and sexual harassment.

In fact, there is one ugly scene with a funny stinger in this theme that I really like because Martin Mull and Teri Garr go on her private jet to go meet the schooner tuna people and on his private jet and well.

With a jealous glaring Eve in the background of the shot.

So jealous.

She's delicious.

Yeah, she's delicious.

Let's just say you're an extremely attractive woman.

Well, thank you. My husband thanks you too.

Yeah, I'm glad you brought up what's his name.

Jack.

Jack.

What do you mean?

Well, I mean, we're going to be working long hard hours and you might be coming home pretty late at night. And, well, if there's going to be a problem, I want you to tell me about it right now.

Well, there's not going to be any problems, see? Jack supports everything I do. As a woman, in my career, as an executive, he supports me.

And if we can agree that you are an executive, then you can stop cutting my steak.

Okay, that's kind of funny. And literally, that's one of the few things in this movie that I remembered over 40 years. Like, that's a pretty funny beat, I gotta say.

And yet, wildly implausible. It just does, it makes no sense. It makes her a crazy person that she would presume, even by force of habit, to her boss reaching across the table and cutting his steak for. It's just not so.

I disagree. I've actually done that in my...

Sorry.

I've actually done that to people. It's bad. Maybe not as unconsciously, but I have done it since having kids. So you're just a much more thoughtful, impressive person at the moment than I am.

Everybody's different. But then meanwhile, the companion trajectory, our corresponding trajectory for Jack is then all the hijinks he gets into because of his ineptitude at housekeeping and taking care of the kids.

Hence the scene with the washer, the dryer, the washing. Yeah.

So there's a thing where they're trying to do the laundry, wash all the sheets. He somehow, again, an engineer has no idea how to simply read directions on a box of detergent, much less operate a laundry machine.

Yeah. He wants to put in all the detergents in a Florence flask and make them.

He creates this whole brew concoction of random things in the basement of the laundry area that he's like, I might as well just add this in. Again, it makes no sense. It's insane.

However, Paul, there is in this stretch of the movie, there is one very funny scene where he goes to get a job. He goes to the job agency, right? There's two other guys, all of them in three-piece suits because this is 83, you wore three-piece suits. They have the following conversation. Producer Brad, may we have clip number six.

How about roasted eggplant?

I don't know.

Does your wife like seafood?

Yeah, but seafood smells up the kitchen and it can take hours to get rid of the order.

No. How about something simple?

Oh, I got a hamburger wellington that's out of this world.

Great.

Let me have it.

Okay. Start with two pounds of ground round, lean and mean, brown it in some butter.

Yeah.

Pardon me.

Could you use margarine in that or butter?

Oh, well, butter's my personal choice.

Yeah, but butter can scorch.

Higgins, you're next.

Oh, why don't you go ahead and I'll go after you.

Well, you were here first.

Yeah, that's okay.

I have no place to go.

There's not a job available anywhere in the city.

Well, no, but what I like about this scene is that I like, it was funny how, like, they can speak.

Yeah, I know, I get what you're saying. It just, it goes on, it goes on.

I'm trying to make something out of this, buddy. I'm trying to work here. I'm trying to work at this podcast. Me, a working podcast man, making a, I don't know what I'm saying, Paul, go on.

But again, like, that scene is a case study in, like, the inefficiency of a clean set up of payoff, okay? Because if he's looking for opportunities, he's out of his depth, and so he's eavesdropping on a conversation. First of all, it's kind of random and weird that it's these two businessmen who have somehow attained this level of interest, much less expertise in the kitchen, which...

Well, they're presumably all in the same boat. They're all unemployed Mr. Moms, right? Isn't that the whole...

Well, maybe, I guess, but it also undercuts the persuasiveness of us believing how inept Jack is.

Michael Keaton is, yes, indeed.

Because it's like, then they're not in the same boat. So it'd make more sense, because the one device that I think is underutilized later that is funny, just even as a sight gag, is that when Jack starts after dismissing the life of a housewife, before he fully embraces it and becomes this languid house husband, and starts bonding with the housewives in the neighborhood and setting up a poker night with them, that makes sense where he would be like, oh, I'm going to get intel from the housewives about how to be a housewife. That would be funnier and work better than this, which feels shoehorned. Like this scene isn't even connected to anything else. There's no payoff. He doesn't make that dish, really.

See, to me, these guys are ahead of him. They've been laid off longer for their experience, and then he's showing that he's starting to step forward because he asks about butter. For me, that's what this is signaling.

Yeah, I get it. It's just not great. The other thing is that coming out of this, we mentioned the laundry room that goes haywire, the washing machine. That's enough for a scene in a sequence. But this film puts a hat on a hat on a hat on a hat in that sequence. That is so, again, beyond implausible, it becomes this ridiculous cartoon because-

And it keeps going on and on forever, right?

Because more and more things get introduced that make it just like, come on, like, give me a break. So while he's trying to do laundry, a TV repair woman comes in, and points for making the TV repair person a woman who's got a mouth on her. Then the vacuum cleaner that is somehow possessed-

Did you guys remember seeing TV repair people back in the 80s?

Yes, but bear with me. The fact that all of these things happen to converge at the exact same time and moment is insane. It just doesn't make any sense. The vacuum cleaner that's referred to as Jaws, and they play Jaws music cue, setting something up.

Oh, can I talk about that?

Then it eats the kid's blanket.

Wait, I'm awake.

I'm awake all of a sudden. Sorry.

Welcome back, Javi.

Thank you. Paul, there are three moments in this film that hinge on there being a music cue that is recognizable as popular culture. The vacuum cleaner is this old iron vacuum cleaner they call Jaws. It eats things. Hilarious. And so they play the Jaws theme. When Mr. Mom unfucks himself and becomes a good Mr. Mom, they play the Rocky theme. There's a scene where they go to Martin Mull's house, and Martin Mull's hosts this ridiculous event where everybody has to go through an obstacle course wearing flippers down.

We think that they're going to a corporate party at the Boss' mansion. Yes. But then what's revealed in the backyard, again, wildly implausible, is that he mounts, and I get it's 83 and there's like Olympic fever coming up about the 84 LA Olympics coming. Whatever. He set up his version of a backyard Olympics competition.

Right.

But it's like a funny one. It's an obstacle course. You got to wear flippers. Yeah, flipper race.

It's like kids' toys. A tricycle race. Yeah, tricycle. Like it's this mishmash of stuff that and then yeah, but they can't afford the license fee for Vangelis. And so they do the ripoff. Okay. It's a fire. Right.

So they paid for Jaws. They paid for the Rocky theme, right? And then when it comes to this and the slow, by the way, also talk about the low hang.

First of all, it's such a lame joke.

I want to draw a line in the sand here. Okay, Paul. I want to draw a line in the sand. Okay. I fucking love Vangelis. Okay. I get it. Vangelis is kind of cheesy. Okay. I get it. 80 cents, that, that, that, that, whatever, you know, and then, and then.

And yet.

And I get it.

Also majestic. I mean, anyone who has not heard his 1492 score, which is a-

Oh my God.

It's incredible. Is a shit movie. But the score is a masterpiece.

It's beautiful.

It's astonishing.

Oh my God.

So first of all, fuck you for making fun of Vangelis.

It's not you, Paul. I love you.

The movie. Fuck you for going for the low-hanging fruit of Chariots of Fire, right? I've seen Chariots of Fire once, okay? But you know what? A really good, earnest movie about anti-Semitism being wrong and homoeroticism being a good thing, okay? I get it. That scene where the men are running in the beach and the theme is playing, that classic iconic scene is so earnest and epic and majestic and wonderful. And I love it. And I am so annoyed. That people keep making fun of it for its earnestness. I see the Charity of Fire theme brought up in every influencer video my kids watch as an object of mockery and ridicule. It pisses me off.

Because you know what it is? It is cinema. Cinema. It's cinema. It's cinema.

And that's the thing. It's like, Paul, those men running in slow motion across the beach, right?

It's iconic.

And it gives you a sense of uplift. It gives you a sense of that there is a world where people can work together, where the theme isn't just epic. And everybody fucking grabs that theme as if it were just the fun. And that's a problem, I think, with... Look, I don't want to get all fuddy-duddy on this shit, okay? But it's a big problem with the TikTok era is that it's literally about 15 second bites of everything, right? So everything is reduced to the most risible, snide, fun-poking of it. You're laughing at me, because it is... I know I'm being such an old fogey, but Paul, it's like, everything... It's like, I feel like our culture has gotten to a point where everything that is like earnest and big and iconic like that way just becomes a punchline, and it really bothers me.

I am only laughing because I feel so seen, and because I have such... I have such deep affection and admiration for Fuddy Duddy Javi, which is one of my favorite things in the world. And to have contributed in a small way to unleashing him today makes me feel like I've done something worthy of people's attention. But yeah, so that scene... I got to come back to one thing, but it's worth it, because it just underlines the insanity of it. Okay, so we have five minutes to get out of this movie.

I'm going to...

Jack cannot help himself, his pride and ego and male chauvinism and like patriarchal, whatever. He is goaded by Martin Mull to enter the competition and then has the excuse and has made a deal with Caroline that, you know, we'll just make an appearance, but then we may have an excuse so we can leave. And then she's agreed, she's willing to just basically compromise with him on that. This is the last place he wants to be. And he's being categorized as a wife because all the other employees, for the most part, are men. They're their wives. So a lot of this film is about emasculation, whatever, blah, blah. It's like, what are you, it's get over it. It's when you're being stupid. Then he's goaded into competing and conveniently has like sweats in the car, in the station wagon that he has his son go get. And then enters, but then is told then by the other employees that, because they're all more fit than Martin Mull. And they're said, no, we have to let the boss win. Are you insane? We want to keep our jobs. And he's like, well, what do I care? I don't work for you. And it's like, yeah, your wife does. And then there, so there is a little bit of drama and a moral conundrum of does he, because he can win even though he's not as good as he thinks he is, which is okay. But then at the last minute, he throws it. He trips intentionally to let Martin Mull win. But I think sort of symbolically showed that if he'd wanted to, he could have won. And that's a nice moment that he and his wife have because she appreciates the sacrifice that he made.

And then he tossed it for, you know, yeah. I gotta say, Paul, one of the things that is good about this movie is that Teri Garr is consistently sane, competent, and she and it's like, and she's actually good at her job. And there's very little of the kind of Peggy Olsen, Mad Men sort of, or being, she goes into that job and she fucking owns it from day one, even though she has an awful first day, right? The one thing that I can say I do love about this movie is that they do not like humiliate that character. They let her be, you know, they let her be good at her work, which I really appreciate.

Martin Mull's character, because I don't know how much time we're going to have to get to all the details of this, eventually and ultimately, of course, crosses the line with just impunity, just disgusting depravity. She stands up to him in such an impressive and noble way and literally punches him in the face.

She's taking a bath. He shows up in his dressing gown with the room service guy in Champaign.

At the Beverly Hills Hotel because they're there for the shoot, for the commercial.

And she punches him in the face. That is a really good scene. In fact, it's really interesting because the climax of this movie, she punches Martin Mull in the face. And then it's revealed that Jeffrey Tambor is Michael Keaton's boss. Not only is he mean to the kids and Michael Keaton says, if you're ever mean to my kid again, I'm going to deck you. And then he comes back to beg Michael Keaton to come back for the job. And Michael Keaton fucking decks him. And it's great.

It's very satisfying. Maybe the best set of payoff in the film.

Yeah, there are there are two great monologues in this film, and I'm just going to get into it. OK. One of them is is when Terry Garr finally takes Michael Keaton aside and tells him he's fucking up as a housewife, OK? And let's hear that exchange. That's clip number eight, producer Brad. This is really nice.

My brain is like oatmeal.

I yelled at Kenny today for color and outside the lines. Megan and I are starting to watch the same TV shows, and I'm liking them.

I'm losing it.

Honey, I know what you're talking about. I've been there myself, all right?

Well, if you were so unhappy, why didn't you say something about it?

Because I wasn't unhappy. Look, maybe I was a little confused, maybe I was a little frustrated, but I knew what I was doing was important because it means something to raise decent human beings. What saw me through was pride. I had pride in this house, I had pride in my kids, and I had pride in being Mrs. Jack Butler. Where are you going?

I'm going downstairs to sleep on the fat couch if I can get through the door.

Be over here and take pride in some of that fat, porky.

Look, I don't like the fat shaming, but I got to say, I love that Teri Garr's character does not give in ever in this movie. She knows who she is, and I love this monologue because the idea that as a, look, I'm doing a lot of stay-at-home parenting right now because, well, the entertainment industry is in the toilet, and this idea of her taking pride, you never hear in 50 years of consuming media, much of it about this subject matter, I've never heard a woman say that in a film, and I really appreciate it because that's how I feel about being Mr. Mom.

We are being hard on the film, but there are glimmers like this that say, this is thoughtful, this is actually good. But it's undercut by, we again are burdened with maybe more awareness than we had in 83 of the scope of their talents. And so when Michael Keaton is saying he's lost it, he's whatever, we know what unhinged Michael Keaton looks like. And we are not seeing it. We're getting like this tiny scratch to the surface. But we're hungry for, let's really go all out there. So there are little moments where like, you know, when Martin Mull shows up to pick her up in the limo to, you know, to fly to LA or whatever for the commercial shoot, he, and he's not expecting it and he's not dressed, he's in a housecoat or whatever, he immediately changes into like work gear and walks in with a fricking chainsaw. Like he's a manly man doing work around the house, whatever. But again, it's insane. It doesn't make any sense. He leaves the chainsaw running and on in a house that has children, which also is just like, it makes no sense just to kind of spook and scare him. And there are little bits of endearment where we see him kind of getting sucked into the young and the restless and becoming a soap opera junkie and then catching up on it with the housewives who he plays poker with. The thing I left out that I like is, what are they using as currency on the poker night?

Oh, the poker game is funny because they are using like coupons. And, you know, like in the 80s, I remember when coupons became a thing in the 80s, right? And it was like, you know, you clipped coupons, you collected coupons, so they're like trading. It's like, oh, I'll see you a Imperial Marjoram 50 cents off for the two for one. That was that was kind of. Yeah, I must.

Yeah. And so there are things that work, but then feel underdeveloped. But then there's also like throwing shit against the wall to see what stick. You know, going back just to finish a point I wanted to finish even before the backyard Olympics thing, this whole sequence where he's trying to do laundry, the TV repair person shows up, then the Josh vacuum cleaner comes in.

We keep going back to the...

But that's just the beginning. Then an exterminator arrives. Then a water heater repair man arrives. Then the kid leaves a pot cooking and burning in the kitchen, setting off the smoke alarm. Then the bathroom floods with the washing machine, the vacuum cleaner starts chasing the kid, eats his blankie, and then it's just like, what are you doing? This is... and it's not done well. And any one of those could have been a really great sequence if executed well, and you could have spread a couple of those out, but it jams them all together and it's just a mess. And that says so much about the film.

This is a movie that doesn't know what it is. It doesn't know what its tone is. Is it airplane? Is it a Frank Capra movie? Is it a screwball farce? This movie has no clue what it is. So the comedic tone is constantly going from one pole to the other, but also you get, by the way, Paul, I'm going to steamroll over here. You also get nice moments like, for example, clips 13 and 14, which are the flip side of the argument we just heard them have. And it's actually the climax of the movie. Can we hear these clips, producer Brad?

The point is, Megan just cut two new teeth. I'll bet you didn't know that. Alex is playing football. Remember Kenny's security blanket? He doesn't have it anymore. He doesn't use it. It's gone. You know, if you were here, I was going to suggest you go as a ghost. Because even when you're here, you're not here.

It's Halloween, by the way.

I'm sorry? It's Halloween, yes. Just for context. And she's flying off to Hollywood to do the commercial, yes.

It's Halloween, like literally night, and he's taking the kids out for trick or treating, but she has to go fly to LA for the commercial because of all the people in the ad agency who've been trying to pitch a new campaign for this canned tuna company that's struggling, she of course is the one who's come to the table with this simplest, most elegant pitch and solution that everyone thinks is stupid, except for the actual CEO of the canned tuna company who loves it, and then that makes your career and kind of, yeah.

So that's that, and then that follows me, that follows to clip number 14, which is her retort to that. Shall we hear it, Producer Brad?

All right, Jack, what do you want me to do?

Not go?

Not try? Not succeed?

Of course not, I want you to succeed. And you gave me some real good advice once. So now let me give you some of mine. It's real easy to forget what's important.

So don't.

Okay, I really like this scene because I think Michael Keaton's a really good actor. He's an underrated actor and he's so earnest and kind, the way they don't make it a fight. It's really cool. I actually think this is a nice moment of a husband and a wife having a real exchange. I don't know, Paul, what do you think?

I agree. And I wanted more of this. I wanted more of this. I want more substance and heart and kind of reality to these characters.

Can you imagine an 80s movie about this theme done entirely in a tone that's more like parenthood? You know, because sometimes this movie has that tone and it's really nice. And it's like, I wish this movie made up its fucking mind about what movie it wants to be. Is it a sitcom? Is it an earnest? Is it a light drama? What the fuck is it? And be it and let the actors do it, you know?

It also has these digressions into, I was going to say, connecting to other films we've seen. We've seen some like Rocky, but also like some of our teen sex comedies that have had dream sequences. This movie has a version of that.

Yeah, there's an extended dream sequence where they're in a soap opera. And because he's watching the soap opera, it's the end of his character. It's the decline of his character. He's watching a soap opera. He's got the beard. He's got the gut. He's wearing the flannel shirt he's been wearing for five weeks. He's watching the soap opera. But then his life becomes a soap opera because Anne Gillian shows up in an overcoat and lingerie and tries to seduce him. And then Terry Garr shows up with a gun and kills him. And it's Paul. Paul, Paul, can I just, you know, Paul, in that last scene we heard, there's a scene where he says Kenny doesn't have his safety blanket anymore. That's the other great monologue in this movie. It's clip number 10. It's where he talks about having the security blanket.

There's an important setup for the whoopie. Yes, there's an important setup for this. So the kid it has like Linus has a security blanket. And it's a nice thing. And if you've had small kids, they often have mine did, like a whoopie or whoopie or like a little like something. Yeah. And but there comes a time it's like part of me was like, of course you have it.

Of course my kids have a whoopie. What am I a communist?

Come on. But he kind of realizes that he has his own. He's kind of adopted his own version of that, which is this flannel shirt that he just has been living in and not washing and has become his identity of slovenliness. And there's a moment with the kids, because he's also realizing he's not necessarily being the best dad, the best role model, the best version of himself to them. Right. And he is motivated to start changing and restoring himself. And one of the ways he does that symbolically is he takes the final shirt off and he throws it in the lit fireplace to burn it. And then there's this great, and again, great, in a relative sense, to the rest of the film. But in terms of visual storytelling, and these kids are really good, there's a great moment where he then exchanges a look with the middle kid, the younger boy, who's clinging to his yubby. He is a yubby. And is not ready, but the implication is, okay, this is an invitation, it's a time. You can also let it go. You can also throw it into the fireplace, which seems a little extreme. And they exchange this great look, and the kid is like, nope, and runs bolts to his room. And then there's this great moment of father-son, a father-son scene, in the bedroom, I love it. With the Rocky III poster on the wall.

Let's hear it.

Listen, Ace, you and I have to have a man-to-man talk here about your whoopie. Your whoopie's looking bad, bud. Now wait a minute. Now, listen to me. I understand that you little guy start out with your whoopies, and you think they're great, and they are. They are terrific, but pretty soon, a whoopie isn't enough. You're out in the street trying to score an electric blanket or maybe a quilt, and the next thing you know, you're strung out on bedspreads, Ken.

You're strung out on bedspreads, Ken.

That's the high point of the movie. That's it.

That's it.

And it's an important life lesson because you think you need the whoopie, but do you know what you really need?

Do you?

Do you know what you really need to be?

What do you really need, Paul, if that is your name?

You need a fool?

No. A hero.

Heroes and fools are the same thing.

Okay, you know what? I'm done talking about Mr. It calls to us.

It calls to us, Javi.

Yeah, okay. So, Paul.

There's that, we can wrap up the movie very quickly. And I think there's a satisfyingness to that. Is there? Yes, because we've had these trajectories, and we have this turning point of that, that's seen the interchange between the two of them, because he is trying to, after slipping and sliding and failing, he's recognized his failure. He's trying to build himself back up, to be worthy of his wife, and to beckon her back to reconnect with their home. But yet, at the same time, she needs to flourish and succeed and deserves to succeed, and goes and has the experience with being there for the commercial in LA for the shoot. Then we get the moment where, as she is on the rise, there's a moment where Jack is summoned back to his former job by Jinx, by Jeffrey Tambor, and he has to take the kids with him. And he's sort of being played and told by Jeffrey Tambor that if you vouch for him, because he's in trouble now.

If he helps him cover for some malfeasance he's committed in the work.

Yes, that then he can help get Jack's job back. And so then they go and he's kind of like...

At half salary.

Yeah, and he doesn't tell him that until he gets there. So he hasn't been honest with him. He's obviously, he's not a good person.

He's a dick, yeah.

So then they go into a meeting.

He's the kind of character Jeffrey Tambor played in everything in the 80s, yeah.

And so there's a showdown then in the CEO's office, I guess, or whatever, and where Jack then stands up for himself in a way that he is now more empowered than he's been before, which I think is good. And then that also then sets up, he has to take the kid afterwards to the bathroom and then we get the...

Bathroom and then there's the iconic, the iconic, over the...

But it's also the setup where the kid comes in asking for dad and Jeffrey Tambor is basically demeaning him, is sort of speaking, talking down to him. And that's where we get the setup where Jack is like, if you talk to my kid like that again, I'm going to deck you.

I'm going to deck you, yeah.

Which is great. And then while, but we've got our leads separated on, you know, Carolina's in LA handling this shoot.

I can't wait to see how you're going to wrap this up into like being, go on, I'm here. I'm taking this right with you, I'm here.

You asked me about a good moment, about a highlight.

Oh yes, I did.

What is redeeming to still be talking about in this movie? And Javi, I'm here to reward you and our listeners because we get an unexpected Detroit detour into Satan's alley.

What?

We get a scene that is a spiritual sibling to staying alive and Flashdance.

What?

I don't know how this has escaped your memory. Maybe it's just it's just burned too deeply into your soul because Jack is basically kidnapped by his housewife Poker Friends.

Oh, my God.

And they take him unwittingly to a freaky Silver Spacesuit Mail Strip Disco Club.

Yeah, where they do like a sci-fi.

Where it's like sci-fi male strippers. And he and one of the strippers have a moment that Jack feels is worthy of a cash tip. And this scene is so out of the blue, so out of nowhere and stylistically and setting-wise, it's...

And yet it is completely a sob to the culture of the time. Because if you remember, the early 80s is when Chippendales came out and that was like the whole sort of, oh, the Chippendales mania. So it was like, it's just another low-hanging housewife fruit that they grab. But yes, there is in fact a kind of magic Mike scene here.

And then we have this very rush, quick rush to the finale, because we're intercutting between LA and Detroit. And Jack is at home, kind of lonely and feeling abandoned, and Joan is, has, I'm just going to say throughout the movie, what has Joan been trying to do, Javi?

Have sex with Jack. She's been trying to seduce him.

She's been trying.

Oh, Joan.

Joan. She's been trying to put the whammy on him.

The whammy!

Oh, yes, finally.

Now, now we can finish the podcast.

And Jack has this, he's been resisting, but he's having this moment of crisis because he's there alone and she is showing up and she's gonna, then she gets into their bedroom that he has redecorated with the Sears Safari collection or something. It looks insane. Yes. And, but, though this is the next day, but it's all like comes together. But Caroline, you know, is being wooed by Ron very inappropriately. She, you know, wraps the commercial, coaches the CEO to actually deliver on camera, which doesn't, anyway, whatever. Has her bubble bath, he basically cons his way in. Ron, her boss, Martin Mull cons his way in with room service. No, we talked about this. But then there's the phone call. So what we did not talk about is that Jack gets home from the Maelstrip club. The sitter, who's another neighbor, housewife, presumably Annette, was a co-conspirator and is delighted by this. And the kids want to call mom before going to bed. And the sitter points out, oh, yeah, it's only 830. It's late in Detroit, but it's early. And so he calls Caroline's room at the Beverly Hills Hotel, I think. And Martin Mull answers, because it's just as he has infiltrated Caroline's room.

And he hangs up the phone when he says, I'm her husband. You know, he's just calling, he's like, I'm her husband.

Yeah. This sends Jack into, I mean, just a jealous agony of assuming the worst, which then we don't...

Because he's been jealous of her on the entire time.

But then we see the confrontation play out where that Caroline stands up, decks him, you know, blah, blah, blah. But Jack doesn't know any of that. So he like rips the phone out of the wall. He throws it, he kicks the TV, which again is a set up to bring the DV Repair woman back. Next morning, but he's like, the babysitter promises that she's not going to tell anybody. Annette, the friend who was there babysitting. But then lo and behold, the next morning or whatever, she runs into Joan in her Mustang, 83 Mustang. And Joan proceeds to race over, to seize the opportunity. As we then see Caroline flying back from LA. And the house is ascended into chaos. All the progress and restoration of Jack climbing, pulling himself out of the depths.

This is such a heroic effort on your part to remain Paul Plot. I'm just, I'm very, I'm so amazed by this. You're like, you're gonna push through this, aren't you?

I'm just standing, Joan is then like, you know, he's like trying whatever Paul Plot, but then he has like this monologue in a mirror to himself.

Like, Oh yeah, about whether, it's like John Travolta in Pulp Fiction when he's thinking about whether or not he's gonna have sex with Uma Thurman while she's ODing.

Yes.

Yeah. He's like, am I gonna do this? But the thing is he's running the shower and the room is getting steamier, so he's actually vanishing in the steam.

Yes, he's just had his shower and Joan took it upon herself to go into the bedroom, get ready with whiskey and whatever. But then Caroline arrives in a cab, sees Joan's car in the driveway. So now she's assuming the worst, bursts in, Jack is still having his existential angst in the bathroom, confronts Joan, is like, what are you doing in my bedroom? Although she doesn't recognize the bedroom, because again, it's been wildly re-decorated.

In the morning holding a bunch of, holding two glasses of booze, right?

And then we have maybe the second best cut in the film, because then we cut to Jack emerging finally from the bathroom, already talking to Joan as if he's going to reject her, but then sees not Joan, who's been kicked out, but Caroline. And Caroline thinking he has explaining to do, meanwhile, he thinks she has explaining to do, because she doesn't know that Ron, her boss, answered the phone when he called her hotel room. So we have this like thing, this could be its own booby, but then they get downstairs and Jinx arrives. Jeffrey Tambor arrives.

Oh Paul, why are we doing this?

This is it, this is it, I swear.

To beg him back for the job with the company car, while Ron arrives and begging Caroline to come back to this job, because it's revealed that she quit her job out of loyalty to her marriage and to his advances. And then the patent theme plays? What? Doesn't it? Patent or something? I don't know. No, I don't know. But it's some... What is it that plays? It's some... It's gonna bug me. It'll come. And then the tuna commercial she made suddenly plays on TV, which would not happen that quickly.

Somehow they did post-production in 12, eight hours. They did all the post-production and sold it.

Basically, like, and then there's this just rapid wrap-up where they both get what they want. The truth is revealed. Their faith and loyalty to each other is validated and rewarded. The family unit is restored and it ends with Lee Holdridge's very cloying score.

By the way, it sounds like, it sounds like, do you remember romancing the stone at the end of it where, like, she shows up and there's the boat on the street and he's wearing the crocodile boots? And then it just goes into the saxophone. And as cheesy as 80s saxophone is, at least that was, like, kind of fun and triumphant and romantic, you know? But wow, just going from this movie to the cheesy sax is just...

And the film opens with cheesy sax, too. So it's book ending.

The whole score is cheesy.

And so even like that scene, and I didn't want to rain on the parade of your appreciation, but the Halloween scene of their conversation and his pleading with her, which is a great scene. It is so sabotaged by this soapy, just syrupy score that I was just like, and why? Just didn't know.

Look, everything about this movie reeks of an assembly line. It's literally the entire film is just...

Like an automobile assembly line?

Like an automobile assembly line, except with less funny minority people. Yeah, no, I mean, this movie feels like something that they somehow... Producer Brad, how did this movie do?

Well, I will just say that one thing I like about this movie is when it came out is around the same time that my mom was creating her own business. So for me, I kind of liked it for that. I also think that being a tween, this was the first time that I knew anything about sexual harassment. And I think this movie is what caused it to stick for me.

Oh, really?

Yeah, I mean, what else back then would have taught you about it?

Yeah. Well, I think producer Brad makes a very important point that we would be remiss to not...

This is the 180s movie where sexual harassment is actually called out as sexual harassment. It's supposed to just accept it like, let's say, stroker ace.

Exactly, exactly. Because we have seen so many bad bits of badness, just modeled, very bad examples of just horrific attitudes and behavior and perspectives of the time. And this is an anomaly. And I think it is an important one. And I, again, cannot speak for what the impression it made on women, but I think that even movies that are of their time like Working Girl are, and this, are significant in having an empowering representation of a capable, confident, professional, working mother. That was not the norm. But, and now it's kind of dated and quaint that it seems like such an anomaly and like a curiosity at the time, like how, you know, what was wrong with those people? What was wrong with those people was that they were living in 1983. And that's what's the norm that this movie was pushing against. So for all of its kind of failings and constraints of mediocrity, that is something that the film should be applauded for in excelling. And I think is why probably the film stands. It's not about the representation so much of Michael Keaton's character, which I think is important in terms of that, oh yeah, men have responsibilities at home too, and should. But it's also about treating women as equally capable professionals in the workforce.

As far as I'm concerned, not the only redeeming virtue, but one of the few redeeming virtues of this film is that, as I said before, Teri Garr's character is good at her work. She is good at defending herself. She never backs down. And she's shown to be like, and God, I love seeing Teri Garr in that role. She's just so good in it.

She's wonderful. And the two of them are good. It's not at the level of, say, our ideal, perfect domestic couple of poltergeists. I think right now that still is where the bar is set.

Well, that's also such a good movie, which it's not. That's the thing. It's like, you need to have a good relationship and a good movie.

Yes, but it is. Like, it's ultimately, even though it's a bumpy road along the way, it's a nice parry.

All right, Javi, you're ready?

Yes. Oh, give it to me, producer Brad.

All right, Mr. Mom was released on July 22nd, 83. And on that weekend, we chose to see Flashdance instead.

Oh.

Mr. Mom opened it.

You know, we made the right decision because I love Flashdance. Go on.

That was a good surprise. Mr. Mom opened at number 13 with $950,000. But by August 26th, it was the number one movie at the box office and stayed there for six consecutive weeks, which equals Return the Jedi, which was number one for six weeks.

Wow.

It just climbed right back up and it just stayed there.

This movie hit a cultural note. It really did at the time.

It did break out in like a pop culture regard. I remember that, yeah, it was a thing. It was around and that was one of the big movies of the summer.

But Paul, let's go back to what I said at the beginning of this thing. Because I think the summer was a shockingly, I think somebody made the point in an earlier podcast that we're not going to reap the fruit of the summer of 82, which is genre blockbuster stuff until 84. This is really the summer of 81 part 2, isn't it?

Yes.

Because you had a great Lucasfilm film, you had Raiders, but then you've got this.

Yes, but.

But? But.

I don't think our summer is over. I think we owe it to ourselves and our listeners to not end on this note, because there were glimmers. There were glimmers of hope. There were beacons of brilliance, of inspiration drawn from the genre films of Sword and Sorcery of 1982 that dared to make themselves known and seen in the summer of 83. And I feel like I made a great oversight in not recognizing, literally not recognizing, Deathstalker as anything I'd ever heard of or knew about. Because apparently, there are a lot of people who love the hell out of Deathstalker, which is-

Wait, wait, wait. Unlike Mr. Mom, which we say is apparently not a classic, but it's the top of- Deathstalker has a cult-

What? Deathstalker, currently being remade, produced by Slash with a score by Bear McCrary. What? Who worships-

Deathstalker?

I got to tell you, Deathstalker, from the opening scene, you're going to be like, this score rules. This is by Argentinian composer Oscar Cardozo Ocampo.

You mean this opening score?

How do you not want to see that?

Mr. Mom would have been greatly improved if it had this score.

Javi, Javi, all of our lives would, and dare I say, will, because I hereby propose, because what is this podcast? What the name of this podcast is Multiplex Overthruster? Not Underthruster. We cannot leave the summer of 83 on the dissatisfactory note of Mr. Mom and this far afield from our genre wheelhouse and warm embrace.

So you feel like, yeah, you feel like we really, we've not let our audience down, but the lineup of films has created a kind of weird void at the end of our season in which it's just kind of ending with a pfff, you know, instead of like with a pfff. So, Paul, you know what? I'm with you. I am with you. I will watch Deathstalker.

I'm telling you.

And we will discuss. It'll be, it'll be, it'll be, before we do the multi-awards, Deathstalker.

In a break from format, given that we have kept this episode fairly tight, I wanna leave everybody with a tease, a clip, a foreshadowing of what you have awaiting you in Deathstalker. And this is, this is just a, just to tantalize you of, of why we must proceed to Deathstalker.

Give it to me, producer Brad.

Get any poorer, you're gonna have to eat that dog.

I hope it will be as tasty as the one you're enjoying.

Real kings live in castles, like Lord Munkar.

Munkar was my magician. That castle was mine, and will be again.

It is said that once an entire army marched against him. A real army. Munkar waved his hand and turned the whole army into a flock of sheep.

An army isn't the way. A brave man could get inside one car's castle and kill him.

You need a fool?

No. A hero.

Heroes and fools are the same thing.

Oh, God. I'm in.

I just, just for everyone listening, if that clip, if that sounds like something you think maybe you might enjoy, you have no idea how much joy awaits you. This is, this is for like a nice, let's say, after dinner mint from yore.

Now, now just know that we're talking about, we're on Labor Day weekend of 83, where all these movies opened. Deathstalker opened at number 20. So, but it has lived on. Also, Mr. Mom was the seventh highest grossing film of the year with $65 million, third highest grossing comedy behind Tootsie and Trading Places. And all time, it's $100,000 ahead of Cocaine Bear.

Wow.

Okay. You know what? This is something that has happened to us, Paul. We have had to rewatch Mr. Mom, but I am gladly moving on and back to my beloved sword and sorcery genre.

Yes. This is our reward. We are going to storm the castle of Lord Munkar.

Munkar.

Oh, my God.

And his evil general, Kang. But just from the opening, 10, maybe 15 minutes that I've seen, there's a witch. There's ogres. Oh, my God. This movie is amazing. I cannot wait. I am so delighted and I feel so stupid that I didn't go with my gut and say, yeah, let's roll the dice. Because Deathstalker, I believe we're going to realize, as others have since told me since the last episode, this is essential cinema.

Like Chariots of Fire, like that scene in Chariots of Fire. OK, great.

Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah.

All right.

Oh, yeah. And it's only 80 minutes.

Oh, I'm in. So ladies and gentlemen, ladies and gentlemen, we are going to extend the summer of 83 by one week that we may watch the apparently classic film Deathstalker. And until then, bonus round, bonus round. And until then, we will see you in line at the Multiplex. Catch you later.