Midweek Mention... The Burbs

The Burbs

Reegs: Peter. You're a big fan of this movie, cause you've talked about it a few times.

Pete: Yes. I am a big fan of it. I think how he's mentioned as well, that he is also a huge fan of it. The reason I'm such a big fan of it is you remember yesteryear where there was only four channels and like video cassette recorders.

And

stuff.

I had a collection of maybe like five or six videos and this is one and I just watched it endlessly.

Sidey: at the title of this movie is

Pete: the burbs.

Dan: Oh, not the burps?

Reegs: not the burbs.

Dan: Okay. Cause I didn't lie to him. Watch it.

Pete: Yeah, I know. And normally this would be where, where you would maybe sort of talk about it in a way that tries to convince you to watch it. I don't care whether you watch it or not.

Sidey: like

Dan: watch it.

Pete: I love this. film which is why I

nominated,

Dan: what's it about what happens is Tom

Sidey: I wasn't, till it started playing, I realized it was the suburbs.

Pete: Yes.

It's a positive.

Sidey: I thought it was,

it was going to be like, but people were called burbs. Yeah. Yeah.

people,

Pete: Yeah.

the burbs it's it's apostrophe, B U. RBS. So it's it's short so.

it's about suburban life, it's like a cul-de-sac at The film opens with like the globe it's like the universal globe,

Reegs: logo. And it descends

Pete: downtown Yeah We'd like some sort of a Reish music. And then you use it eventually zero in on like a cul-de-sac and there's only like five or six, quite large impressive houses on

Sidey: this.

Pete: Yeah. And yeah, the film is, is effectively about sort of like life in this in this

Dan: and every day, every man hero, Tom Hanks is the

Pete: Yeah, he's, just a normal guy.

Reegs: the first character. You see Ray Peterson and he kind of strolls out of his house in the middle of the night in his dressing gown.

Sidey: she's you can hear his wife saying you go and go and check something, you know, go find out what's going on.

Reegs: And he goes to this house, 6, 6, 9 street, just down the street from there.

Pete: right. it's his neighbors It's his next door neighbor. And they've only they've moved in about a month or so before, but no one sees. No one seems to go in or. out The house is left to kind of like, you know, rack and ruin it

Sidey: in a month that they'd been

Pete: Yeah. But I think, I think the suggestion and was that before that it wasn't, that the previous owners had kept themselves themselves as well.

And didn't really

um

Reegs: Gothic music playing and sort of like he steps in the wind blows that they're trying to suggest straight off the bat that there's something supernatural. That's how you're supposed

Dan: be.

Reegs: feel a bit. Adam's family ESC.

Dan: Right. And so he's gone down in at night time in his dressing gown to go and see what's

Pete: Well there's, there's a noise that keeps happening every night. He you're led to believe, and then he's gone out to investigator. another key thing is that all the other houses on the, in the colder soccer, The lawns are really well kept that they almost have, like lawn wars trying to make their, own lawn better than their neighbors or the people who live over the road or the, the trees

Dan: perfect American family kind of scenario.

Pete: That. And then there's this one sort of like misfit house.

and ans yeah, there's a lot of, lot of questions that people have

Reegs: and those people are Corey Feldman looking pretty cool.

Pete: How good is his hair in this

Reegs: amazing

Sidey: Dial up the Corey hotline for this one.

Dan: Yeah.

Reegs: So Corey Feldman, he's kind of this generation X, a sort of cynical attitude, punk dude, kid painting a house.

Then you've got Bruce Sterns. What's the guy's name? Rumsfeld.

Sidey: um Used to us putting up the American flag and slipping it. And he's the sort of military, but very eccentric.

Reegs: unbelievably hot.

Sidey: Yeah.

Pete: his, his, his misses As well put together. And there was a lot of very revealing sort of like negligee type outfits just out

Reegs: which Corey Feldman notices.

Sidey: them as a couple.

Reegs: No.

Sidey: Yeah. We're introduced to him as well. When one of the guys, I can't remember his name, his dog shits on his, on his lawn.

Pete: very pivotal in the, in the story.

Sidey: His dog takes a shit on his lawn and he steps in it. So he's in

Dan: that's a bad

Sidey: and rage. Then

Reegs: Bruce stern. You'll remember from a movie we reviewed on the pod, peanut butter Falcon, and also hatefully Quentin Tarantino.

I like to sit in the same

Pete: become a Tarantino collaborator He's in

Django Unchained as well.

Yes he is. Yeah,

Yeah. So he's become a, but you'll recognize him like older guy

I mean, he looks

Dan: still thinking

Pete: only in his fifties.

Dan: I was still thinking about the dog shit.

When was the last time you stood in dog? Shit.

Yeah. Good. I know you guys had recent dog shit,

Reegs: probably it, probably this evening on the way, just on the way into the man-cave.

Dan: scrape it off. My shoe now

Pete: It's one of the reasons why I hate dogs, especially I remember back in the day. getting, Picking dog shit off your bike tire. with a stick mother

Dan: the grips. Yeah,

Pete: Yeah. Anyway and and that's obviously a theme as well. Like the, this Walter Guy has trained his dog to shit on somebody else's lawn. So his lawn is pristine, but the other guys, and, and as he saluting the American flag, he steps in the dog shit.

So you can

Reegs: he threatens to wear staple

mix

Pete: between all of the. the, the neighbors, Sorry,

Reegs: A threat.

He threatened to staple the dogs off shot. Quite good.

Dan: Yeah.

Will that be one way of preventing it happening? And I

Sidey: Tom Hanks is married to Carrie Fisher? She's well, do you think she was hot

Pete: I thought she was

Sidey: really hot,

Pete: hair is not doing a

load of favors, but yeah, She's

Sidey: she was smoking in there.

Pete: yeah,

Dan: it kind of an it thing

Pete: It's a bit of a Bob.

Sidey: It's kind of nondescript kind of, not very sexy

Reegs: no, it's mum, mumsy, eighties, short hair.

But then you get his other next door neighbor art. He's played by a guy. Oh really? I like this guy, Rick. Done common.

Pete: He's he's basically like John candy light, isn't

Sidey: it? Yeah.

Pete: He's meant to be a John candy a side character. he's

Reegs: he was in Spaceballs

Pete: lot in the film, but he's he's yeah.

He's like

Sidey: Fat is fat, fat. Fat is fat is in fact kind of

Pete: Okay. But

like in suburban America nowadays. I think we're getting Like he would be considered sporty.

Reegs: Yeah. I mean, but the whole, but it actually, they do play the whole thing of like, oh, he eats a lot. ha.

Pete: Yeah. Did,

Reegs: But he died

Pete: the bit with, so he comes in the, he comes in the house.

He comes in in Tom Hanks, his house and then just starts helping himself to all the food in the fridge finishing off like the kid's cereal. As Carrie Fisher walks past with the dog food, he just helps himself to a big hand for the dog food, not knowing what it is.

And and eats it just wipes his hand on his shorts and stuff. So,

Dan: Sorry. Rakes, would you tell them about a sad story about how he died? Is

Reegs: Yeah, that's all it was, you know? Cause they do have the scenes of him eating a lot.

And then he died of diabetes. So it's not really that funny, but he's quite good. He was in Groundhog day, this guy Spaceballs a few other things, but he, his career never seemed to really take off, which is a shame. He was a

Pete: he was picked quite, quite prominent in this film. Yeah. So I think it then sort of sets up the,

So Ray, Tom Hanks and art, his next door neighbor and Rumsfeld Who's the first name.

but I don't think we get,

but

Reegs: mark. I think I

Pete: Right. Okay. but

Bruce Stone's character, they decide that so Tom Hanks, his character is on holiday for, for the week and he just wants to like kick back in his pajamas and not do anything

Reegs: He's having a staycation before, that was even a thing that

Sidey: people

yeah

Pete: Mrs. Keeps badgering him to take the, light the family to the lake or whatever, which he finds stressful.

Cause he's going to get bitten by measures and

Reegs: he's got, you've got to go outside. I totally understand. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, if you've got to go outside, that's

Sidey: a nice garden, so he's not yeah, yeah,

Pete: yeah.

So

But then I think the other guy, I dunno what art does for a living, seemingly nothing. The Bruce stones characters, presumably had a

military. career and he's retired, so they spend their time just kind of snooping around and investigating what's going on at the, at the neighbor's house. or the bravest that they get is the sort of the, the next day after this night that opens the film. Arts and Ray go rounds to like,

Sidey: the kid, appears

Pete: oh, he appears at the door,

Sidey: like a blue Radley kind of character. He just, he opens just standing in the doorway, looking out and they're like, oh my God, one of them's there.

Dan: the spooky house, the first I've seen it, the neighbor

Reegs: he looks like Cletus, the slack jawed yokels

Pete: Yeah. He, he looks like a real sort of backward. where'd I think Bruce Dern's character says, oh no, one of the Huns has come out of the cave. So They go to investigate. The guy goes back in the house, closes the door. They they ring the door. or they knock on the door.

Sorry. And it knocks 6, 6, 9, the nine drops round 6, 6,

6.

And then the next knock on the door knocks, like the whole thing looks like a light off the front of the house and a swarm of bees come out and start attacking. Ray and,

art and

Dan: Well, just for ringing the Bauer and knocking on the door.

Pete: Yeah. And then I think the next thing later that evening they see.

Yeah. Yeah. That's,

Dan: this all kind of slapstick comedy? Is it

Pete: It's it's shades of, yeah. Yeah. It's I need to think too, like typical kind of like eighties

Reegs: Well the director was Joe Dante. So he did gremlins and in a space. And so it's that kind of eighties, screwball comedy type.

Dan: Not always, but they tended to be quite inappropriate stuff. What we would consider inappropriate

Reegs: Yeah. Joe Dante, he's got a history of like smuggling quite subversive.

Themes into his stuff. And then normally about how chaotic seemingly normal America is, you know, and this is another extension that gremlins is like that. And they're often about foreign powers invading and doing weird shit. This one is, they're a foreign family, you

Pete: Yeah. The CLO packs they're called the ones that have moved in. And then that, they're all trying to guess whether it's like Slavic or whatever, they're, outsiders, they're probably foreigners. And so they are to, you know, they're suspicious as far as the rest of the guys.

are concerned.

Reegs: There's a story about a local guy who Inc. He was, he ran a soda, pop stall. I think something like that. And he went crazy and killed his whole family with an ice pick. And there was the smell of rotting, flesh and stuff.

So they're playing up the sinister elements, but this is a fairly tame comedy on top of that.

Pete: Yeah. And then eventually they on on another night they watched the, the same guy that came out the house that they're just snooping, like hiding behind some bins across the road. And, one of the guys gets the garage door opens from this site, sinister house the, the kids. The younger fella drives to the end of the drive, which is only about 20 yards in a car with no lights on in the middle of that. gets a massive like bag that clearly looks like a body or like dismembered body parts, Shoves it in the bin and then just absolutely like hammers this, bag into the bin with like a hole or something. While it's like the lightening's going off in the background and it's made to look really like, almost like ghoulish and sinister just as they're about to go and investigate. Once the guys like fucked off back into the house, it starts chucking it down.

So they're like, right. We're rained off. We'll check. But the Ben Ben man, doesn't come until whatever time in the morning, Let's get sour alarms and investigate their bins, first thing.

Reegs: when they get up first thing in the morning, there's a really interesting thing because Tom Hanks is watching Mr. Rogers on the and it's weird.

It feels really matter now, obviously with Tom Hanks playing Mr. Rogers in the movie, and it's like a really long, and there's obviously because Mr. Rogers was about the perfect neighborhood as well. He plays into the theme. So that's quite a cool little moment in

Pete: Yeah.

they, they catch up with the, people who've already thrown, light. some of the rubbish the the garbage guys I've already thrown it into the back of the the Ben Laurie are, and then Rumsfeld and then eventually re all get in the back of the Ben Lawry. And they're just, turfing all the rubbish out.

of the Ben Laurie, the two guy. Yeah. to find out what they're saying. The two Ben man, anyone recognize either of those,

guys,

Reegs: Dick Miller was in gremlins and the other guy was Ricardo. No. I know.

Pete: he's it. so he's in inner space which is around about a similar sort of time. And I think there's a few people who are in this. and in a space He's also the doctor in star Trek Voyager, which I don't

Sidey: think,

Pete: Yeah, I think he's

Sidey: hologram

Pete: but he's

Dan: Is it the Dick Miller? Who's just like in everything,

Pete: everything in

the eighties. Well, probably from like the fifties, sixties.

Dan: it was a film I watched about him actually Dick Miller and I just showed his, his life in film and how he'd just done all these little cameos and bits and pieces.

And

Sidey: yeah,

Pete: Yeah. He was

Reegs: Joe Dan, cause he was in gremlins and gremlins too. And.

Pete: Then I think the Bonnie Rumsfeld's wife finds Queenie running around just in the neighborhood and he's all like dirty and disheveled.

Reegs: It's a bit unfortunate characterization this

Pete: needs. Yeah, Because this guy Walter lives by himself.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Reegs: got this, a feminine dog called Queenie. It's a bit, you know, it's 80 stuff.

Dan: Yeah.

Pete: So they go over to Walter's house. They Rumsfeld breaks in through the back. He's got like some kind of light thing that's like sucks a window out. So he climbs in and lets them in the

front,

door. they go into the house and there's a scene of what looks like a struggle. So Walters basically disappeared. They knew that he wouldn't go away without the dog. The chairs turned over the TV, stuff.

Dan: Suspicious

Pete: very suspicious And then again, like more hilarity ensues where like art starts helping himself to like cookies and cake and stuff out of the fridge and things get smashed. So eventually they sort of retreat out the house and,

right.

a note to say hi Walter, we have your dog insides it under the what's it called under the.

door,

But Walter's also abandoned the house and left his wig.

So

Ray finds this and puts it through the letterbox and leaves.

Reegs: And they're all saying, like, if you're bored, you never leave the house without your wig is sinister.

Pete: your thoughts are turned to Walter's disappear. Cause he's the other side of the CLO packs.

Dan: I think we saw him putting a body in the garbage. Now he's disappeared without his dog and his wig. And they're foreigners and strangers. Really,

Pete: I mean, you're, you're right there with us now.

Dan: it's, it's all up right.

Pete: We're

Dan: And, and then I'm just waiting for the funny bits and I'm waiting for the bits that you love so much.

Pete: now. You're, you're saying that with sort of like

disdain in your voice, but yeah, you've not seen it, yet. Fuck off.

So Yeah. I mean, obviously, then they're all getting together. They're like discussing and by this time Ray's wife is totally sick of him getting all paranoid and wasting his holiday

Reegs: has a dream doesn't he? He has this like quite extended dream sequence where he imagines getting fried on a giant barbecue

Pete: Oh, it's like like even I, as a non horrified, like it sort of nods to Texas chainsaw massacre,

Reegs: And the Exorcist well, cause he watches them. He watches them on TV again, there's another moment where he's flicking across the channels. And yeah, so it's a nice little horror thing there. And obviously again, Joe, Dante's got his roots. He did Purana he did the howling. So that's, he's got his roots in horror,

Pete: Arts in race backyards, sort of trying to say, art is like the real catalyst of this.

He's convinced that the copays are up to no. Yeah.

Res you know, wants to leave it, but it keeps getting sucked back into it. He's a, there's a scene where arts in Ray's garden keeps picking up a bone, thrown it for his dog, and then eventually stops and looks at it and he's like, this is a femur. It's like a human thigh.

bone, Where did the dog get it? And it just so happens. The dogs dug it up from under the fence, which borders with the CLO garden. So then they're like, oh, this is

Walter

And then they

Dan: smoking gun.

Pete: Yeah.

they scream. I remember actually, W you know, whenever they showed this film, maybe whenever they showed it, that was one of the the bits that they had, like in the trailer, where it was like the camera like zooms in and out of them kind of like screaming and losing it.

So, yeah. Then, then they they convinced that that they've killed Walter and buried him in the garden. The son has seen the the CLO packs in, in herds, out in their garden,

digging at night,

Sidey: the county fish, it gets fed up with all this nonsense and she's like, we're going over there. We're going to introduce ourselves and we're going to fucking meet them.

Pete: Do it properly, They make

brownies

Reegs: like, you're just being silly boys basically. And we're just gonna go over and meet them. Yeah. And

Dan: Some sense. Yeah. Yeah. Let's go, let's go and welcome the neighbors instead of gossiping.

Pete: And

they do. They, they go in and eventually, they meet all of, all of the neighbors they meet the younger lads name is Hans. He brings out some delicious snack of pretzels and sardines.

sort of Dean. I remember every word from this film a million times over if I had like the, the word frame, like it came with the frame because there's a picture of a a girl in a frame, but it just came with it.

Reegs: And you've got the sort of uncle

who's just staring at Tom Hanks and it's good. Physical comedy from Tom Hanks is good stuff. He's like sort of uncomfortable.

And then he's eating this disgusting sardine thing. It's really good.

This creepy little fuck. Henry Gibson is the actor's name and you've seen him in everything. And yet when you go and look at his, I am thing, you're like, what am I going to say? That people are going to know, but you know exactly who he's about four foot, three tall, and he's got white hair and he's just creepy, creepy bastard.

Pete: it comes out of the basement, which is where all the noise has been coming from, shakes raise hand, and he's got white gloves on. And then Ray pulls his hand back and there's like, what looks like blood all over his hand. And then it cuts and you find out he was painting down and he does some painting and stuff as well.

He's a doctor. It's because he's a doctor, he's a pathologist.

I think

That work takes him from light, moves him on from night town to town. And that's why they never stay in places very long. There was also the rumor that their last house burned down and so art saying it's because it's the gateway to hell and stuff.

So but yeah,

they meet,

Reegs: actually quite charming to them and, you know, dispels the illusions of that you think? Okay, well now everything's got a really plausible explanation.

Pete: And then after that visit Ray then says to, to, to his wife and his son, I'll let you go off to your sisters or whatever it is. They're completely normal.

They're absolutely fine.

I don't

Reegs: going to play golf with the

Pete: I'm just going to play golf for the guys and you know, art style, you know, disillusioned with se he's like, why why are you packing it in there? They're clearly up to something, we'll find something if we keep going. But Ray's only failing it because he then whilst he was round there, He found waltz wig again in the house this time.

they like suspect him speak to them of maybe going back to

Reegs: the wake they'd found earlier in Walt's house is now

Pete: now in the CLO house.

So, so the CLO packs have to go off to like the university to discuss possibly another move. And once they're out for the day and Ray's, wife's out of town, they go for it. They get. Bruceton like gums out with like full like combat gear.

He's got like a massive walkie-talkie thing, but like,

Sidey: He's got night vision.

Pete: vision goggles. Yeah, he like

Reegs: it's the middle of the day,

Pete: Like the whole, the whole time he's got a great big gun.

with him. it

was like a big sight on it. And he stationed himself up on his roof whilst he like

Reegs: red Rover red Rover

Pete: yeah, let Ray go on over,

Yeah.

Dan: full military operation to break into the neighbor's house and get to the bottom. Yeah.

Pete: So they go in, they dig in the garden, and they don't find anything.

They go into the house. Eventually they go down to the basement, they find this furnace, which is like fucking big industrial, like old school furnace.

Sidey: So they go up to 5,000 degrees

Pete: Yeah,

Which is like Fahrenheit.

we're nervy, but Yeah.

Yeah. That's, that's warm enough. Yeah.

underneath a table in the basement, they find some like soft like soil start digging and digging and digging. And eventually there's like a big pit.

Sidey: This is over the whole day. Cause it's starting to get dark.

It's done Corey, Corey. Feldman's got a gang of people around just to watch what's going on, having a party.

Pete: He's a, he's like become sort of famous for throwing party. Cause his entertainment.

he's I, I don't need TV or the stereo. or anything. my neighborhood is the entertainment. He just watches all of this with all that. stoner mates and they just sit there and drink cans. And I Laugh like Bluestone falls off the roof and a gun goes off and shoots a windscreen that they all get up and applaud.

It's like

a,

Reegs: they're basically the audience. Yeah. Yeah, pretty much.

Sidey: She's getting more and more crazed and like obsessed as the day goes on and he left, they've dug a big hole. It's now full of water. There's big puddle on there. I think they hit some metal.

Pete: Yeah, they think it's a tomb. But eventually they find out that by this time the CLO packs are coming back.

They see that there's people in the house, they go off and get the police Come back with like a police escort. Ray's Wife comes back just as Ray is stuck his pickax into something, pulls it out and you just see bubbles in the water. Smells gas realize they've heard like a gas line. Art gets out.

And then the whole house just explodes,

like

like, tote, like totals the house.

You think Ray's not going to have made He comes out. He's all. disheveled.

Sidey: never thought that. No, no, no.

Pete: Yeah. He's like, He's got

Dan: why would hair in a

Pete: Yeah. Yeah. Like that, like cliche sort

of like, someone's been blown up, like the ends of his trousers are all like flailing around he kind of like

stumbles

Reegs: he gets arrested as he, as he rightfully should

to be fair

Pete: like, you know,

Dan: breaking entry and blowing somebody's house

Pete: Exactly. Yeah. Like attempted murder. because you know, there's all sorts of stuff. going on.

Reegs: Walter had had a heart

Pete: Yeah.

Yeah.

Reegs: The horse I was telling you about earlier. James. Yeah. Anyway, Walter Walter had had a heart attack and CLO Peck, the creepy little fucker. He was just going around to help out

Pete: picking up his mail.

And stuff. So that's how he had the wig. Again,

Reegs: yeah, it was all completely normal explanation. Well, it's not quite the end,

Sidey: No,

Reegs: although there is a good moment where Tom Hanks throws himself into an ambulance. It's a pretty funny

Pete: That was ad-libbed

Sidey: A lot of this is up to level. We can get onto that.

Pete: yeah.

Reegs: So he holds himself into the ambulance and says, he's going to go off to

Dan: hospital. Tell me they really did something

Reegs: Well, then the creepy little fucker gets in the back of the ambulance with him.

Pete: And suggests that he's like, you fooled everyone. Because by this time, like Ray is quite a good, it's kind of like,

soliloquy.

Sidey: it's a good word.

Pete: Yeah. it's quite a good. soliloquy by Ray where he's just basically saying like, you know, all those people they talk about in the burbs of lost it and they're acting weird and they're all like, you know, they're suspicious and they're paranoid and everything like that.

It's us, it's us. It's not them. It's us like, and it's quite impassioned. And he tries punching arts lights out about 10 times. as well. But then he's in the back of the, the ambulance copex come in and says, listen, you fold all the others, but you haven't folded. So, what are you talking about?

He's like, come on you, you saw my furnace, you saw one of my skulls. I know, that you're on to me and I'm onto you. So he tries injecting him with something in the back of the ambulance. He realized that the younger fellow, the younger co-pack Hantz is is driving the ambulance as he drives off.

the what's it called? It's a bit like carry on style. The, the stretcher falls

Sidey: up

Pete: the back of the ambulance.

They go down the street,

crash into the back of a car and then Ray like gets that CLO pack and he puts him on the citizens arrest. And the police come over to arrest Raya gang. Cause they think he's,

he's lost. It Turns out the

car is the CLO PAX car and Ricky Butler. Who's Corey Feldman's character just lifts a sheet in the back of the car. And there's just the skeletons of the naps who were the previous owners of the house. And they've obviously like, you know, throwing their bodies in the furnace. And then they've got the bones in the, they've exume them from the garden and put them in the boot of the

car.

Dan: they were bright all

Pete: they were right. All along.

Reegs: I personally hated that ending.

Hated it. Yeah. Why? It just, they just needed to be, we were the monsters all along. That

Pete: Yeah. I think that would have been, yeah, it's been a bit too deeper, meaning. So I've just left it there.

Reegs: Well, but then having them turn out, I dunno, it did both

Pete: Yeah. Yeah. Th th they were

the, they were the exact things that they suspected them of being in the first place, Although the stuff still does ring true, They were like paranoid like messages throughout the whole of it. And yeah, they, they're all gonna go to prison for a long time.

It's pretty much the

end of the film. Pup from Corey Feldman does a bit to camera about how much he loves the street And then walks off, down it with his mullet bouncing.

Sidey: recognize the street from anything else?

Pete: I didn't recognize the street from anything else, but Ricky Butler's house was where the Munsters live.

Sidey: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Cause this is very, obviously a fake straight it's a lot. It's this is where it's yeah, it's we're stereo line from.

Pete: never really watched much

Sidey: Festivities was sort of, okay.

Pete: Yeah.

Sidey: There's also a connection to science. Yes. I know

Pete: what it is Queenie. the dog

Sidey: is precious from

Pete: Yeah. it's the same dog from silence of the lambs. Yeah. Another comedy

logs

Reegs: in the basket?

Sidey: yeah. Same dog. Same dog.

Reegs: Oh, wow.

Pete: Great burbs fact

Reegs: Wow

Sidey: during a writer's strike. So there was a lot of ad-libbing cause they would have had the actual, you know, draft, whatever the script. And there were some writers there, but they weren't allowed to contribute anything on set. So anything that they needed to do, but it just has to be made up on the spot.

Yeah.

Reegs: So you do get

Dan: ad-libbing and things

Reegs: but you do get some good moments. Most of them from, from Tom Hanks, the sardine that bit is funny. The ambulance bait is funny, you know, it's that physical.

Dan: and

Sidey: it's just after,

Pete: This is

89

Reegs: so

Sidey: just after big. And he didn't want to first, he didn't want to play a married guy. Cause he's like, I'm still, I can still play younger roles.

I don't do

Pete: you didn't wanna have a kid? Yeah. You don't wanna have a kid?

in the film. Yeah. This is like the, the, the tail end of like comedic Hanks from the eighties. slightly played.

You know, bachelors, of bachelor parties in, is that.

Yeah.

So

Dan: this would have been just before Philadelphia or something

then

Pete: Philadelphia and then and then your favorite Forrest Gump. So yeah, this is like big and, and other stuff that he was in, in the eighties where he was like an Dragnet as well.

This is after, after that. This is the

Dan: it a big hit this for him or, I mean,

Sidey: Well I've gotten, I've got monetary numbers for you. If you'd like the budget for it was 18 million. It's a lot

Dan: right.

Pete: a lot.

They, they blew some stuff up.

Sidey: Yeah. House blowing up is quite a good effect, actually.

Pete: It looked like they just blew our house up.

Sidey: yeah. So 18 mill, do you reckon it made money or lost?

Pete: I think over time it will have.

I think I, from what I recall, it became like a bit of, it was, it was shit

at first

and then became a

bit of a cult.

Dan: Well, that, that's how I always understood this. Wasn't a great mainstream film bay had its fans and that kind of made it a cult success.

Reegs: Yeah. I think the script needed a bit of a Polish. You can show, you can really see that the the writers, the writers strike effected it. Not that the ad-libs aren't good. I just think there's a, probably a slightly better movie to be made out of this. Because.

So like gremlins and small soldiers and in a space and some of his other movies a lot

Pete: yeah, yeah. Yeah. I mean,

I think what I loved about it is, Kid and why, why it's sort of like stuck with me.

It's in my

it's in my special

Dan: to old age.

Pete: like the CA I love the characters. I like the, you know, Bruce Stone's character are, I don't mind, I don't mind John candy. And I liked John candy films from back in the day, growing up like, have, will they have like stayed the test, of time, probably not Same with this like art character I liked Tom Hank, early Tom Hanks.

I loved him in Dragnet and, and you know, the other things he was in in the eighties. So this was like it's got yeah, I, I love this film. I can see why it's. not Going to be a go-to or you have to watch this film, nowadays kind of thing, but yeah,

Reegs: I, paid three pound 49 to rent it from

Pete: How much do, How much of that do I owe you

Reegs: no, no, no, none of it, because I did enjoy it. And it's part of watching the pod, but I would say to listeners, wait until it's free on Amazon prime or Netflix, because it will be at some point and watch it then, but it's pretty good.

Pete: It's,

silly,

Dan: What is that? An hour and a half time

Pete: hour 40, yeah.

Dan: And did you, it did,

Sidey: cause you went off on a tangent that it did make money made 49 million.

So that's decent. Yeah. Corey Feldman was at this time, very close friends with Michael Jackson. Michael Jackson didn't visit the set, but. bubbles, the chimpanzee was a frequent game. Wow. Yeah. In the end he had to be confined to Feldman's trailer. Feldman would return to his trailer to find that the Chimp would spread shit all around him,

which chimps would pro prone to do.

So he was banned bubbles and fans.

Reegs: Why didn't bubbles have his own trailer?

Sidey: Why was he there at all? It's the same slope though. I didn't like this.

Pete: Right. I knew you wouldn't

which is why. No, because you yeah. Your tiny, tiny mind that

you.

have is so cold. It's so closed.

Sidey: Tom Hanks is such a fucking vanilla dude. And this is such a fucking mediocre film

Pete: a really good point. from

him. He, he he captures that cause he's meant to be a vanilla guy he's just an everyday slowly kind of like unraveling he's torn between his wife. Who's talking to him like he's acting like a kid. which he is And his mates who were like dragging him out to come and like piss about in the neighborhood. I think he plays it really well.

Sidey: If I'd watched it in the eighties or when I was a kid, I probably would have liked it when you watch it now.

Like going in cold it's so obviously a set

Reegs: Yeah, it is. Yeah.

Sidey: it's so full of the eighties, sort of those films of the time tropes, you know, you're just taking them off

Dan: as soon as you

Sidey: hard. It's hard to just watch it and not have all that stuff.

Reegs: Though, the artificial, it does look really artificial, but that doesn't really matter. Cause that's part of it, right? The perfectly manicured lawn. And then the

Pete: you know, as, as, as I say, as comedic characters, like Bruce Stone's character, Corey

Feldman's character.

yeah. I liked Corey Feldman and they said, this is basically for me, this is his last good film. Everything else he did, that was good was before that, like stand by me and the lost

boys and obviously the Goonies and things like that. After that He S I mean by this time he must be like 17.

18 in this film.

Yeah. Like the

Reegs: Well when was the

Pete: hold by then. Yeah.

Sidey: So Jackson's probably taken holders,

Reegs: Micah license to drive? Do you remember that was that

was him. Wasn't it? And it was at the other one as well. Corey

Dan: Corey high minute as well. Double Cory.

Pete: Both Both of them had

Tough times. I

think

Reegs: one of them.

Pete: Yeah Corey Haim died

a little while ago, 10 or so years. ago. Yeah. I think.

Dan: Really great fun actors at the time. And, and those films, but yeah, I was a success obviously. Led them down a dark path.

Pete: Like Corey Feldman is fucked Now. Like have you seen him?

in Yeah.

Dan: Yeah,

Pete: Yeah,

they keep taking him out for stuff.

but.

Sidey: I didn't hate it. I just didn't love it. It is a bit, it was just a bit new for me,

Pete: for me. It's fun. It's nostalgia. I probably hadn't watched it for at least a decade and I'm not going to watch it again now for you know, another long time. It's the sort of thing that maybe like the boys would watch and find quite silly because it is.

silly, But I think it's silly in an endearing

Dan: I think I'll take rigs advice. And when it comes out on Amazon or prime, which inevitably it will do, then I'll have it on at some point, you know?

Sidey: Tom Hanks completists need to watch it otherwise.

Pete: Yeah. I've lost a bit of last bit of trivia in the kitchen in Ray's kitchen.

There's a box of gremlins.

cereal.

Reegs: Ah,

Pete: Yup Unlucky