Stripes

In this episode, Anna and Derek discuss subtle Bill Murray vs. over-the-top Bill Murray, if it's okay to shave someone's head without first telling them and much more during their discussion of Ivan Reitman's Stripes (1981). 

Connect with '80s Movie Montage on Facebook, Bluesky or Instagram! It's the same handle for all three... @80smontagepod.

Anna Keizer and Derek Dehanke are the co-hosts of ‘80s Movie Montage. The idea for the podcast came when they realized just how much they talk – a lot – when watching films from their favorite cinematic era. Their wedding theme was “a light nod to the ‘80s,” so there’s that, too. Both hail from the Midwest but have called Los Angeles home for several years now. Anna is a writer who received her B.A. in Film/Video from Columbia College Chicago and M.A. in Film Studies from Chapman University. Her dark comedy short She Had It Coming was an Official Selection of 25 film festivals with several awards won for it among them. Derek is an attorney who also likes movies. It is a point of pride that most of their podcast episodes are longer than the movies they cover.

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:00

Hello Where

SPEAKER_04 0:19

the hell have you been soldier training sir What kind of training son

SPEAKER_00 0:33

Whoa, and welcome to 80s Movie Montage. This is Derek.

SPEAKER_03 0:36

And this is Anna.

SPEAKER_00 0:37

And that was Bill Murray as John Winger in 1981's Stripes.

SPEAKER_03 0:44

Correct.

SPEAKER_00 0:45

Yeah. I paused for a second because IMDb doesn't give a last name. It's just John.

SPEAKER_03 0:51

Yeah, it is funny how sometimes they leave out a character's last name.

SPEAKER_00 0:55

You're not fooling me. It's Winger.

SPEAKER_03 0:56

It is Winger.

SPEAKER_00 0:57

No one even calls him John. Maybe at the very beginning. Not as often. His

SPEAKER_03 1:01

soon-to-be ex-girlfriend

SPEAKER_00 1:03

calls him

SPEAKER_03 1:03

John. But yes. Stripes. Stripes.

SPEAKER_00 1:07

In many ways, it's a very 80s movie. But in other ways, it also feels like they made it in the 70s.

SPEAKER_03 1:15

Yeah. I mean, it's so early in the 80s. A lot of those films have that feel to them. Especially like the haircuts and stuff feel very

SPEAKER_00 1:22

70s. Big time. Some of the music is super groovy.

SPEAKER_03 1:25

We'll get into the music. Yeah. Let's just dive in. Yeah. Sorry, I'm laughing because I hadn't seen this movie in a really long time, and I don't know how I feel about

SPEAKER_00 1:39

it. We haven't seen it in a long time, although it's on TV a lot. It's just on cable, and apparently you do get a slightly edited, watered-down version because this movie has nudity on par with Slumber Party Massacre.

SPEAKER_03 1:55

Yeah, it's like a Porky's with all the image, but yes. But it is one of those movies I saw far too young. All right, so let's jump in. Written by credits. Three people who are credited for this film.

SPEAKER_00 2:14

Okay.

SPEAKER_03 2:15

One, I think pretty much everybody knows, and we'll get to him last. Ooh. But... You know, it's always kind of interesting when you have multiple writers on something. I mean, a lot of time people are just not credited who do maybe polishes or punch it up with jokes or things like that. This

SPEAKER_00 2:32

feels like it's at least two separate movies, so it's not...

SPEAKER_03 2:34

Yeah, and there was a section of the film... I don't know if it was actually filmed, but there was going to be this big hallucination scene,

SPEAKER_00 2:43

I think. Yes, the LSD scene in Columbia.

SPEAKER_03 2:46

Yeah, they might as well have thrown it in because it already is... Kind of a disjointed film, but in any case, let's get to it with these writers. So Len Blum is the first person credited. And when you look at the credits, I mean, to be honest, both for Len and the next person, not a ton of credits. Because one person was mostly a producer. It makes all the sense in the world, like this kind of humor and comedy. Because Len has a credit for both the original Meatballs... Also directed by Ivan Reitman and starring Bill Murray. And Meatballs 3, colon, summer job. I

SPEAKER_00 3:29

haven't even seen 2.

SPEAKER_03 3:29

No, I don't think I need to. No.

SPEAKER_00 3:33

I

SPEAKER_03 3:33

think the original, which I do really enjoy the original, but it's just under the wire of the 70s, so we can't do it.

SPEAKER_00 3:43

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 3:43

But it would have been a really fun movie to cover.

SPEAKER_00 3:46

Well, we could just... Cheat on it and do two or three.

SPEAKER_03 3:50

No cheating. Oh.

SPEAKER_00 3:51

And then just talk about it. And then just talk about what? Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 3:55

I think I've never seen two or three. I think we'd be really disappointed from what I've heard. Okay. The rumor. The rumor. The rumor is that they're disappointing. But we have, like I said, those two meatball films, Beethoven's second, Private Parts, the one that covers-

SPEAKER_00 4:13

Harold-

SPEAKER_03 4:14

Howard Stern. Howard Stern. Yeah, Howard Stern. And then the Steve Martin Pink Panther. Okay. So that's what we have for Len. And then we have Daniel Goldberg. He recently passed away in 2023. He was more so a producer than a writer, but every once in a while a producer is going to get a writing credit because they did have influence on the script. And he has the same... So I don't know to what degree Len and Daniel work together, but he has... Two identical credits. He also was credited on Meatballs and Meatballs 3 Summer Job.

SPEAKER_00 4:49

Summer Job.

SPEAKER_03 4:49

Yeah, Summer Job. And then another film called Feds. And that's kind of all I have because, like I said, he more so had his hand in producing than writing.

SPEAKER_00 4:57

There's one other credit I just want to give credit for, for Len, which he wrote a couple segments, I think, in Heavy Metal. That weird, bizarre, fever dream animated musical movie.

SPEAKER_03 5:10

I am not

SPEAKER_00 5:10

familiar. From the 80s, yeah. It's... It's real weird. Okay. But it's very much like a cult classic kind of thing. Okay. Yeah.

UNKNOWN 5:17

All right.

SPEAKER_03 5:19

And then the third person that is credited as the writer, Harold Ramis, who also stars in the film.

SPEAKER_00 5:26

Heard of that guy.

SPEAKER_03 5:28

And, I mean, it still makes me really sad that he's no longer with us. He passed away in 2014, so that's crazy. It's already been over 10 years. Yeah. Yeah. He was amazing as far as his comedy chops. Definitely in front of the camera. I mean, I think he's most beloved as Egon, I would say. I think so, yeah. And Ghostbusters. But he was a phenomenal writer, great comedic genius. And so for the purposes of this section, I'm just naming off some other writing credits. So we have SCTV. SCTV.

SPEAKER_00 6:06

So

SPEAKER_03 6:07

that is kind of the Canadian version of SNL.

SPEAKER_00 6:12

Second City TV.

SPEAKER_03 6:13

Yeah, which is funny because Second City TV is Chicago. I mean, Second City Chicago. But in any case, so wrote on that, wrote on a different TV series called Delta House.

SPEAKER_00 6:23

Okay.

SPEAKER_03 6:23

He was a writer on Meatballs and Meatballs 3 Summer Job.

SPEAKER_00 6:28

Oh, well, it can't be all bad then.

SPEAKER_03 6:30

I'm wondering if maybe the third film... I wonder if it's like... I didn't take too close a look. I wonder if it's like characters, so they were just like grandfathered. I don't know. But, I mean, huge films that he was behind as far as the writing. Caddyshack.

SPEAKER_00 6:45

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 6:46

Caddyshack 2.

SPEAKER_00 6:47

Well... I think that's another... They can all be bangers.

SPEAKER_03 6:50

Or it's like, yeah, it's just money grab. But... All like basically all the ghosts. So because he originated characters in the original Ghostbusters film, like he was grandfathered into kind of all those other films.

SPEAKER_00 7:03

Call to action. Which sequel is worse? Caddyshack 2 or Meatballs 2? Let us know.

SPEAKER_03 7:06

That's a great call to action. So just has credits for like all the Ghostbuster properties. Back to school. Groundhog Day. Oh,

SPEAKER_00 7:16

yeah. Back to school. Forgot about that. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 7:19

Yeah. Maybe. Maybe. Maybe. Monday. Monday. Did you say Monday or one day? One day. We're not doing it on Monday. Analyze This as well as Analyze That and Bedazzled, which you know what? I hadn't thought about that movie in forever. It's

SPEAKER_00 7:35

kind of a weird movie, but it's good. I like it.

SPEAKER_03 7:38

I actually really like it. Okay. So we will talk about Remus again extensively throughout the course of this episode. Moving on to directed by, already mentioned his name, Ivan Reitman. Unfortunately, this is going to be one of those episodes where a lot of the main players are no longer with us. And he too, he passed away more recently in 2022. And, you know, it's funny because I primarily think of him as a director, but if you go by credits, he definitely produced way more than he directed.

SPEAKER_00 8:10

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 8:11

And in fact, you know, he, I think it's interesting, his one Oscar nomination was for Best Picture because he was a producer on the film Up in the Air.

SPEAKER_00 8:21

Oh, really?

SPEAKER_03 8:22

Yeah. Okay. So he had that. But as far as his, strictly speaking, directing credits. So he, like I mentioned, he did direct Meatballs. He did direct the first two Ghostbuster films.

SPEAKER_00 8:34

And the Ray Parker Jr. Ghostbusters music

SPEAKER_03 8:37

video. Yeah. I mean, yeah. You know, this film shows a collaboration between a lot of these like comedic greats between Reitman and Murray and Ramis and even John Candy, where these people really liked working together. I mean, I'm not going to really go down that path of like the falling out between Murray and Ramis much later on. Essentially happened on Groundhog Day. They did reconcile to my understanding before Ramis passed. But I'm just going to focus more so on like the great collaborations that they had together um and this is i guess arguably one of them i don't know if it's my favorite i think ghostbusters is my favorite as far as it's yeah collaboration

SPEAKER_00 9:20

i think i think so

SPEAKER_03 9:22

so he and then and he also had a really great relationship with arnold schwarzenegger i think that are

SPEAKER_00 9:28

they still making the twins sequel like his son right i

SPEAKER_03 9:35

don't know oh yeah sorry i thought I thought you were talking about like character wise. I was like, no, I think they'd be playing the same characters. But yes, maybe. I haven't heard about that film in quite a while. Yeah. So I'm not sure. But yes, to that point, he directed Schwarzenegger for the first time in Twins. And then they came together a few more times because he directed Kindergarten Cop as well as Junior. He also directed Dave and No Strings Attached. So I think that was like kind of his last major film he directed, but ton of producing throughout the course of his career. And just, you know, a great as far as like cinematic history and specifically comedy. My one little Ivan Reitman, it's not even a story. Oh, what is it? It's got to be a story. So I interned at the Cannes Film Festival one year and we were just at the pavilion some– presentation or whatever was going to start and he was sitting behind me. That's my little story. I did not talk to him, did not make eye contact him, but I knew he was behind me. You

SPEAKER_00 10:45

didn't like try to sit up really tall to make him have to tell you like...

SPEAKER_03 10:48

Excuse me, you're blocking me. No. So there you go for whatever that's worth. Okay, moving on to cinematography. Not the first time we have brought up Bill Butler. Okay. Unfortunately, he's also passed. He passed in 2023 at 101 years old.

SPEAKER_00 11:06

Holy

SPEAKER_03 11:07

shit. I think he passed just a few days before he would have turned 102. Wow. But, yeah. So a really fun filmography with a lot of the films that he shot. And he– a lot of range. I mean, he did get an Oscar nomination for Best Cinematography. He– was very early in his career. And technically speaking, he's credited for additional photography. But for whatever the rules were at that time for the Oscars, he was included in the group for Best Cinematography. He was not the primary DP on that film. So just to make that clear. However, some of his other credits, Death Master. Oh, wow. The Conversation, which is a great film, which we... could cover it as well as i wish we could cover maybe we maybe we will do a 70s podcast at some point in the future because he's the dp on jaws shit so and i mean that is a whole story about just the the

SPEAKER_02 12:13

log that that was

SPEAKER_03 12:16

to film because look to his credit it worked out i thought it it it helps to make the film authentic. But Spielberg was like, we are shooting this on the ocean. So, but that comes with a slew of problems.

SPEAKER_00 12:32

They didn't, they didn't shoot all of it on the ocean. No,

SPEAKER_03 12:34

there was, I think a tank that was created.

SPEAKER_00 12:36

The tank on the universal lot. Yeah. But he

SPEAKER_03 12:39

wanted to film on, like he wanted the authenticity. Yeah. So a

SPEAKER_00 12:42

fair bit of. Like the beach scenes and stuff. Yeah. But no, but

SPEAKER_03 12:45

some scenes on the water. Okay. Which does, you know, water's bobbing. Yeah. So, so it was a whole thing. But in any case. He also shot Damien Colon Omen Part 2 or just Omen 2. Yeah. He did Grease. So that's a fun one. Also 70s. And then here we go. Because he was the DP, not on all of them, but like on a fair number of the Rocky films. Oh, okay. So he was the DP for Rocky 2, 3, and 4. And of course we covered 4. Yes. With David. And I mean, huge, huge, huge Rocky fan. So please go check that one out because he's just very fun to talk to about films he just loves so much. He also shot, he did a lot of sequels. He did The Sting 2.

SPEAKER_00 13:30

When did The Sting come out?

SPEAKER_03 13:32

73. Oh,

SPEAKER_00 13:34

damn.

SPEAKER_03 13:35

I don't know when The Sting 2 came out, though.

SPEAKER_00 13:36

83.

SPEAKER_03 13:37

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 13:38

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 13:39

He shot Biloxi Blues. That's an 80s film. Child's Play, which... You know what?

SPEAKER_00 13:44

What? Child's Play is an 80s? That can't be the...

SPEAKER_03 13:48

What? What do you mean it can't be the 80s? Of course it's the 80s.

SPEAKER_00 13:51

Really? Yeah. Of course. I had no idea. I

SPEAKER_03 13:53

mean, it's... actually a very thriving franchise

SPEAKER_00 13:58

well but that's why i didn't i don't think i real for some reason i thought it was like more mid 90s okay

SPEAKER_03 14:05

um and now that i'm thinking about it maybe that's just gonna be a part of our

SPEAKER_00 14:08

yeah exactly you

SPEAKER_03 14:11

need to get to that one

SPEAKER_00 14:11

yeah

SPEAKER_03 14:12

he also did hot shots and anaconda which i heard are they rebooting it or is it like a sequel

SPEAKER_00 14:20

uh i

SPEAKER_03 14:20

think that's happening

SPEAKER_00 14:21

it's got to be a reboot right i don't i don't know

SPEAKER_03 14:24

I think it's, I don't know.

SPEAKER_00 14:26

Son of Anaconda.

SPEAKER_03 14:27

Okay, here we go. You mentioned music. Elmer Bernstein. Holy cow. Not the first time we've brought him up. We've actually brought him up multiple times. But I think it has been a minute since we've brought him up. And he too has passed. He passed in 2004. Over 250 composing credits. This guy was a giant in the industry. I mean, holy cow. I've listed almost 30 credits for him because it's just like... Damn. And it is absolutely hilarious when you think about the range of films that he scored over the course of his career. I mean, it's all over the place. So I am also going to go through all the... He did win, but a ton more nominations. And because it's been a minute, I'm going to list them off. So... Early in his career, the man with the golden arm, he

SPEAKER_00 15:25

gets... Oh my God, that's so disappointing. I thought you were going to say the man with the golden gun.

SPEAKER_03 15:29

Sorry.

SPEAKER_00 15:30

That's okay.

SPEAKER_03 15:33

That's a visceral response.

SPEAKER_00 15:35

I mean, I was right there. You were right

SPEAKER_03 15:37

there until the end. He did get a best score nom. He also scored the Ten Commandments. Oh, okay. I mean, it's like this guy, he does the Ten Commandments and he does stripes. It's kind of just wild to me, but... The guy had range. So he was very closely affiliated with the Magnificent Seven franchise. He got a score nomination for the first film. He also got a score nomination for the second film, Return of the Seven. Also scored on Guns of the Magnificent Seven, as well as the... It's hard to say it so many times. The Magnificent Seven Ride! Exclamation point. So he did that. The Birdman of Alcatraz. He gets his next score nomination for Summer in Smoke. He gets, and this is even more wild to me, the guy who scored Stripes also scored To Kill Mockingbird. Yeah, that makes sense. Got a nomination for that one. And then, you know, I've mentioned that every once in a while you see these composers who dip also into, like, songs. So he does get an original song nomination for Walk on the Wild Side.

SPEAKER_00 16:45

Really?

SPEAKER_03 16:45

Wow. He scored HUD, The Great Escape. He gets double nominations for for both original song and score for the film Hawaii. He finally wins. Finally, finally wins. His one and only win for the film Thoroughly Modern Millie.

SPEAKER_00 17:03

That was for best score. I'm not familiar with that picture.

SPEAKER_03 17:08

I'm not either. Does it have, oh my goodness, Warren Beatty's sister, I think, in it. I can't believe I'm blanking on her name and I'm naming her by her brother. What's her name? What? Oh, my gosh. Shirley MacLaine.

SPEAKER_00 17:28

Oh, my God. Okay. Wait, really? Yeah,

SPEAKER_03 17:32

you didn't know their brother and sister? I

SPEAKER_00 17:33

did not.

SPEAKER_03 17:34

Let me see if that is who I'm thinking.

SPEAKER_00 17:38

They changed their names to throw me off.

SPEAKER_03 17:41

Oh, no, I was wrong. It's Julie Andrews.

SPEAKER_00 17:43

Okay, that's different.

SPEAKER_03 17:45

But, you know, she was also very popular at the

SPEAKER_00 17:48

time.

SPEAKER_02 17:49

Yes. All right. I don't know

SPEAKER_03 17:51

why I thought it was Shirley MacLaine, but in any case. Okay. He gets another nomination this time for original song for the original True Grit. He gets another original song for the movie Gold. He scores The Trial of Billy Jack. And then there's just this like major pivot because then he starts scoring films like National Lampoon's Animal House. Amazing. Meatball. So he obviously is friendly with Reitman.

SPEAKER_00 18:17

Yeah,

SPEAKER_03 18:17

yeah. Yeah. He scores, and this is maybe not in chronological order, but one of the times that we brought him up, he scored Airplane. We did that one with Jeff. Go check that one out. He also scored Airplane 2, the sequel. We also talked about American Werewolf in London. He scored that. We also talked about Trading Places. He scored that and got a nomination for it. So there's that. Of course he scored Ghostbusters. He did Spies Like Us, Three Amigos. So it's just like a literally hilarious time in his career. And I'm not saying that in a negative way, but he just comedy after comedy after comedy.

SPEAKER_00 19:02

He was the composer of the God theme from the Blues Brothers.

SPEAKER_03 19:06

Oh, nice. I like that. I didn't list that one. He does, did I already say Three Amigos? Yeah. Then he swings back. And he scores My Left Foot.

SPEAKER_00 19:17

That's quite a swing.

SPEAKER_03 19:19

Yeah. He does The Grifters. So he kind of like does all these huge, like a lot of epics.

SPEAKER_00 19:26

Got range.

SPEAKER_03 19:27

Range. And then he goes through a time in his career where he's like comedy, comedy, comedy. And then as he gets to like kind of the final third of his career, he kind of swings back.

SPEAKER_00 19:37

Again, I don't know how to categorize it. And it's interesting because I think there's a lot of like just like rock music in it in heavy metal. But that same animated film that I mentioned before, he was a conductor on that too.

SPEAKER_03 19:50

Oh, conductor or

SPEAKER_00 19:51

composer? Conductor.

SPEAKER_03 19:52

Okay, conductor.

SPEAKER_00 19:53

Yeah. Got it.

SPEAKER_03 19:55

He gets another score nomination for The Age of Innocence. He does Twilight. He does Bringing Out the Dead. And then his final Oscar nom best score was for Far From Heaven.

SPEAKER_00 20:07

Okay.

SPEAKER_03 20:08

Okay. Moving on to editing.

SPEAKER_00 20:11

Twilight, not the Twilight with the Vampires. No,

SPEAKER_03 20:15

it's with, I think, Susan Sarandon.

SPEAKER_00 20:17

Gene Hackman. Gene Hackman, yeah. Yeah, just for clarification.

SPEAKER_03 20:22

Yes.

SPEAKER_00 20:22

Because I was confused. I thought vampires?

SPEAKER_03 20:24

Good clarification. So, film editing, Harry Keller. He actually passed quite early. He passed in 1987. He was also a director, so he has... A fair number of directing credits. However, strictly speaking, because he edited on this film, that's what we'll cover. His first editing credit, 1939. Holy shit. And I think, if I remember correctly, when I was kind of going through his bio, he had a very... He had his foot in a lot of Westerns. I think he directed a ton of Westerns. And also from some of these credits, you can tell he edited a fair number of Westerns. He did My Pale Trigger. The

SPEAKER_00 21:10

list of credits is like the most Western-ish list of credits I've ever seen.

SPEAKER_03 21:15

Twilight on the Rio Grande. Grande? Rio

SPEAKER_00 21:18

Grande.

SPEAKER_03 21:20

Okay. Lonely Heart Bandits. This is obviously much more recent in terms of the 80s. He cut Stir Crazy, the man who wasn't there. And then his final credit was Transylvania 6-5000. We got to

SPEAKER_00 21:36

watch that eventually. It's going to have to happen, isn't it?

SPEAKER_03 21:38

Is that 80s?

SPEAKER_00 21:39

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 21:40

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 21:41

So more of the Western titles. Sheriff of Sundown. Firebrands of Arizona. They're so

SPEAKER_03 21:47

fun, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 21:48

Tucson Raiders. Mojave Firebrand. It's just... It's endless. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 21:53

No, I mean, the guy... It's interesting that he... I mean, when I was in school, like, I know not everybody can be named who is part of the industry, but it seems like he was extremely, like... influential i think that yes there's the studio system but still directors were able to make their mark despite that and i have a feeling if we had talked about did i ever have a western specific course i don't think i did but i wonder if he gets brought up because it seems like he should

SPEAKER_00 22:24

i bet they bring up movies like days of old cheyenne king of the cowboys

SPEAKER_03 22:30

All right. Oh, this is what I was thinking of because there's actually a couple more editors on this. I'm going to say that Harry was probably the most influential, but maybe for different sequences. Who knows? But that's what I was thinking of because I remember seeing a female name. We'll get to her in a second. She just has a couple of credits. But Michael Luciano. So he also passed. He passed in 1992. Okay. really interesting filmography. He, some, I mean, multiple Oscar nominations. So I'm not quite sure what the dynamic was between him and Keller, but he cut on the return of Rin Tin Tin, Kiss Me Deadly. So he also very much had a career long before this film came along. Whatever Happened to Baby Jane. I think it's interesting because we have that one and we also have Hush, Hush, Sweet Charlotte, which both by Davis.

SPEAKER_00 23:28

Oh, really? Okay.

SPEAKER_03 23:29

Um, He got a Best Film Editing Oscar nom for that. The last three films I have for him as well, all film editing Oscar noms. The Flight of the Phoenix.

SPEAKER_00 23:40

The original one. Yeah, because there was a remake of that, I think. Was there? I think so.

SPEAKER_03 23:46

With

SPEAKER_00 23:48

Dennis Quaid.

SPEAKER_03 23:48

Oh, okay. He also cut The Dirty Dozen. So did that. And then the longest, the original, The Longest Yard.

UNKNOWN 23:59

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 24:00

Was the remake of The Longest Yard the Adam Sandler one?

SPEAKER_03 24:04

Yes.

SPEAKER_00 24:05

Yeah. The original is... Is

SPEAKER_03 24:08

that with Burt Reynolds?

SPEAKER_00 24:09

Yeah, it is. They're like different movies.

SPEAKER_03 24:12

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 24:12

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 24:13

All right. And then finally, Eva Ruggiero. She too has an editing credit.

SPEAKER_00 24:19

Okay.

SPEAKER_03 24:20

And some of her credits include The Mountain Men and Savannah Smiles.

SPEAKER_00 24:25

And I don't know why I keep bringing this up, but it keeps coming up. Heavy metal. Jesus

SPEAKER_03 24:29

Christ. Okay. All right. Stars of the show. We're going to start with Bill Murray. We have brought him up a couple times. And actually, there's still space for us to bring him up again in the future. So to your point, you said it earlier, he plays John Winger. And I mean... He's still very much going strong. He has maybe just a touch, a touch of a Tom Hanks kind of career where like started very, very strong in comedy. He still really does comedy, but he has pivoted out time to time, sometimes into straight drama. He

SPEAKER_00 25:14

has, yeah, but...

SPEAKER_03 25:17

He isn't quite Tom Hanks in terms of like, does Hanks even do... any comedies anymore?

SPEAKER_00 25:24

I mean, other than when he's on SNL, I don't know.

SPEAKER_03 25:27

Oh my God. What's his name? David St. Pumpkin?

SPEAKER_00 25:31

David S. Pumpkins.

SPEAKER_03 25:32

David S. Pumpkins. Thank you. St. Pumpkins would have been fun too.

SPEAKER_00 25:36

So there's that. And then he was on like at least one episode of Black Jeopardy.

SPEAKER_03 25:43

Tom Hanks. Yes. Okay. But Bill Murray. So he's had a really interesting career. I don't think except for SNL, he's really done any television. It's really all film. And yeah, I mean, breakout role, maybe meatballs. I mean, that's right around the time of his time on SNL. I mean, it was like kind of his way of pivoting out.

SPEAKER_00 26:07

Yeah, I could see that.

SPEAKER_03 26:09

Into film. Yeah. In the same way that I would say John Belushi did with Animal House. Yes.

SPEAKER_00 26:15

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 26:15

So here we go. I mean, just hit after hit after hit. So Caddyshack, which we have not covered yet. Tootsie, which we have covered. I really like his performance in Tootsie. Actually... It's

SPEAKER_00 26:29

a little bit less, like, frenetic.

SPEAKER_03 26:32

I like understated Bill Murray.

SPEAKER_00 26:34

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 26:35

And I think he's great in that. So, of course, the role that really... I don't know. He's already a star. I mean, he was a star in this movie. That's why he and Harold Ramis didn't have to get the shaved heads like everybody else.

SPEAKER_00 26:47

That's right. And fun fact, they didn't know. Which is

SPEAKER_03 26:51

not okay.

SPEAKER_00 26:52

They didn't know that they're getting their head shaved. They got all lined up and they knew already that Ramis and Murray weren't because they're the stars. They were just going to get a trim. But that's why Candy was legitimately sad.

SPEAKER_03 27:05

It's not okay to do that to somebody. I hate when I hear those stories. You do it for the authenticity.

SPEAKER_00 27:12

They got it. They got the authentic sadness.

SPEAKER_03 27:15

Maybe let them be actors and just act anyway. Okay, so... All the Ghostbusters films for the most, yeah, actually all of them. Because even in Ghostbusters 2016, he has a cameo as a different character. But he's been in all of them. So that whole franchise, Little Shop of Horrors, which we've covered. So check that one out.

SPEAKER_00 27:36

That's right, yeah. Scrooged,

SPEAKER_03 27:37

which we have covered.

SPEAKER_00 27:38

He is possibly more manic in Scrooged than in like... So over the top. Yeah, it's a lot.

SPEAKER_03 27:46

It's a lot. Uh, what about Bob? So now we're getting into the nineties.

SPEAKER_00 27:51

Okay. Well maybe that's more, maybe what about Bob is actually, you

SPEAKER_03 27:54

know, I've never seen that whole film.

SPEAKER_00 27:55

I can't, it's difficult to watch. It's one of those movies where like there are some comedies where like the whole joke is just how uncomfortable can we make you for two hours? Yeah. That's what about Bob?

SPEAKER_03 28:07

So I've heard that he butted heads a little bit with Richard Donner on Scrooge.

SPEAKER_00 28:14

Okay.

SPEAKER_03 28:14

And then, um, Richard Dreyfuss. On What About Bob, right? Because that's the other co-star.

SPEAKER_00 28:19

Yes. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 28:20

And then, of course, like I alluded, well, mentioned earlier, the falling out he had with Ramis over the course of filming Groundhog Day.

SPEAKER_00 28:28

Well, in this movie, we haven't gotten to all the cast yet, but Sean Young.

SPEAKER_03 28:31

Oh, yeah. I can read that too. Yeah. But he got on swimmingly, apparently with Warren Oates.

SPEAKER_00 28:38

Yes.

SPEAKER_03 28:39

So I've also heard Sean Young... is a lot was a lot i don't know but i won't anyway i shouldn't even brought it up but okay so he also ed wood kingpin he has a very interesting role in wild things he might be my favorite character in that whole film because they're all awful people i

SPEAKER_00 29:02

didn't i've never seen that movie i didn't know he was in it

SPEAKER_03 29:05

oh you've never seen wild things

SPEAKER_00 29:07

no

SPEAKER_03 29:07

we own it

SPEAKER_00 29:08

oh

SPEAKER_03 29:10

I think we are going to have to watch it because I would love to know what you would think about it. It is a fever dream of a film. Okay. In a way. In a way. Okay. It's kind of insane that it even got made, but everybody's horrible in it. Lots of twists and turns. Okay. And he actually is really good in it. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 29:33

I had no idea that he was in it, but... Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 29:35

Okay. So here we go. This film kicks off his long standing relationship and number of collaborations. Rushmore with Wes Anderson.

SPEAKER_00 29:48

Yeah. Now you get your understated Bill Murray.

SPEAKER_03 29:52

Love him in that movie.

SPEAKER_00 29:53

Yeah. All of Wes Anderson's movies are more of an understated version for the most part.

SPEAKER_03 29:59

Yeah. Yeah. I would agree with

SPEAKER_00 30:01

that. That's like his thing.

SPEAKER_03 30:03

That's his thing. And so in between a couple Anderson films, he does Charlie's Angels, another story there about him and Lucy Liu. Oh, really? Yeah, so he's got a couple stories out there. He is a smaller role, but he's in the Royal Tenenbaums. And then he works with another, at the time, up-and-coming director, Sofia Coppola. For Lost in Translation. And this is where I think he really cements, if you're going to say like a status where he can do straight drama.

SPEAKER_00 30:39

They had all these like behind the scenes photos from that when I worked closer to where the Focus Features building was because that's a Focus Features film. Oh,

SPEAKER_03 30:49

sure. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 30:50

So they had a lot of stuff up on the walls for that.

SPEAKER_03 30:53

Okay. Another Wes Anderson film, The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou. I think he is the main character in that. Broken Flowers, The Lost City, The Darjeeling Limited. He does Zombieland, comes back.

SPEAKER_00 31:08

That was a huge, huge thing when he was in Zombieland. Like that was like this weird Easter egg that when you first see it, you're like, what the...

SPEAKER_03 31:17

I mean, I don't know how he comes back. He must be a zombie in Zombieland Double Tap because doesn't he die in the first film?

SPEAKER_00 31:22

I'm pretty sure he does.

SPEAKER_03 31:23

Yeah. Does voice work for Wes Anderson's Fantastic Mr. Fox?

SPEAKER_00 31:29

My favorite Wes Anderson movie possibly. Okay. It's so good.

SPEAKER_03 31:34

You do really like that movie. It's so good. Moonrise Kingdom, Hyde Park on Hudson, Grand Budapest Hotel, St. Vincent, Isle of Dogs. I mean, he's in all the Wes Anderson films. A film that I really wanted to like, but could not. The Dead Don't Die. It was so bad. Jim Jarmusch.

SPEAKER_00 31:52

Oh, my God.

SPEAKER_03 31:53

Didn't do it for me. No. And The French Dispatch. So still very much irking. So Harold Ramis. We're coming back to him because he is an actor in this film. And as far as his acting credits go, of course, he was in front of the camera for SCTV. Of course, he was in front of the camera for Ghostbusters and Ghostbusters 2. Then from there on out, he really, because he was focused more so on directing, he really takes a step back from his acting. But he has a couple fun little cameos and things. I mean, it's like a... Substantial Role in Baby Boom, in like the first part of it. He has a very small role, but it's nice. I like who he plays in as good as it gets. He's the doctor that helps... Yeah, yeah. What's her name's kid?

SPEAKER_00 32:41

With the asthma or whatever. Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 32:44

He plays... What's it? Hank's... Colin Hank's dad, I think, in Orange County.

SPEAKER_00 32:50

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 32:51

And I think he plays... What's his name's dad in Knocked Up? He plays dads.

SPEAKER_00 32:57

Yeah, he does. He's Seth

SPEAKER_03 32:58

Rogen's dad.

SPEAKER_00 32:58

He's either a doctor or someone's dad. Maybe both.

SPEAKER_03 33:01

Maybe both. Okay, moving on to Warren Oates. We briefly brought him up. He is Sergeant Holka. This is a real bummer. He passed very shortly after this film came out.

SPEAKER_00 33:15

Like within a year of the premiere. Yeah,

SPEAKER_03 33:18

he had a heart attack, passed away. But great character. In this film, I mean, his whole dynamic with Bill Murray is interesting. You know, they play him initially for like kind of a caricature of what you would expect a sergeant to be

SPEAKER_02 33:37

in

SPEAKER_03 33:37

the army. There is friction between him and John. Yeah. I know that there was like back and forth about whether or not to include that scene in the bathroom where they have their confrontation.

SPEAKER_00 33:51

Yeah, there was. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 33:52

I don't know if I needed it, but that's fine if they feel like they needed to have that to really have stakes between him and Winger. Yeah. But I'm

SPEAKER_00 34:02

fine with it because they wanted to show that Holka was like, I don't know if I needed anything else to show me that he was the real deal or that he had this like, that's how I feel. Yeah, because I fully expected he was going to get his ass kicked. Yeah. When he, you know, when he did that, it was so I was fine with it. I mean, of all the things that happened in the movie, that's the one where I'm like, yeah, that was fine. Let's talk about some of this other stuff. Like stuff.

SPEAKER_03 34:28

Yeah, well, I have a couple more people to get through, but we can kind of obviously do a deep dive on some of the storylines. So as far as his credits go, over the course of his career, a lot of TV work. I mean, for a lot of these other people, especially the couple last people I'm going to mention, a lot of like one-offs and two-offs on different TV shows. So... More extensive work on the TV series Stoney Burke, as well as Gunsmoke.

SPEAKER_00 34:59

Okay.

SPEAKER_03 35:00

And then some films for him. He was in Return of the Seven, like of the Magnificent Seven films. He was in the film In the Heat of the Night. He was in The Wild Bunch, Badlands, and the film Tough Enough.

SPEAKER_00 35:15

Tough Enough? What is that? I

SPEAKER_03 35:18

don't know.

SPEAKER_00 35:20

Um, he's also in 1983's Blue Thunder.

SPEAKER_03 35:23

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 35:25

With, uh, what's his name from Jaws? Roy Scheider.

SPEAKER_03 35:27

Oh, nice.

SPEAKER_00 35:28

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 35:29

I could see them working together really well.

SPEAKER_00 35:31

Yeah. So maybe we'll, maybe, possibly.

SPEAKER_03 35:33

Okay. So now we're getting to the love interests for John and Russell, respectively. Okay. So first we're going to talk about PJ Souls. So she plays Stella.

SPEAKER_00 35:47

We have talked about her before, haven't we?

SPEAKER_03 35:49

No.

SPEAKER_00 35:50

Well.

SPEAKER_03 35:53

But I could see why you would think that.

SPEAKER_00 35:55

We have talked about a franchise. Yes. Yes, we have. Yes, we have. But yeah.

SPEAKER_03 36:01

And no, she's really fun because she's one of my girls. Like she's a horror chick. And

SPEAKER_00 36:10

that would be the franchise.

SPEAKER_03 36:11

Yeah. She is in the original Carrie. So that even precedes Halloween. But yes. Yes. I think a lot of people know her from Halloween. I haven't seen all of her work. But I'm curious to see maybe some of her other roles because she– there's like a through line between who she plays in Halloween and the same kind of character she plays in this film being like kind of bubbly. Yeah. So I don't know. I'd be curious to see some of her other work. She also was in the film Breaking Away, very much not a whore.

SPEAKER_00 36:52

No. You know what? They changed the– IMDb changed the year for Breaking Away because now it's being listed as 1979.

SPEAKER_03 37:00

interesting it

SPEAKER_00 37:02

it had been listed as an 80s yeah yeah

SPEAKER_03 37:06

because i not really like where i was gonna throw it on the calendar anytime soon but i was like oh we could do that film but it's actually funny because as far as um this film goes she's in another military film private benjamin another comedy as well and then she i love i love the name of this film she's an alienator

SPEAKER_02 37:24

So

SPEAKER_03 37:25

she's in that. She's in Jawbreaker. Oh man, I remember seeing that film. It was a really uncomfortable scene with like... The death of a character and what you see visually.

SPEAKER_02 37:37

Oh.

SPEAKER_03 37:37

Yeah. Ugh. I don't like it. She comes back to horror. So she's in The Devil's Rejects. She's in a film called Grindsploitation.

SPEAKER_00 37:47

Grindsploitation. Okay.

SPEAKER_03 37:49

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 37:49

Wow.

SPEAKER_03 37:50

She does make a cameo in the 2018 re- reboot but like continuation I hate when they fucking do this I've talked about it before where they don't give it an original name so it is also just called

SPEAKER_00 38:04

Halloween yeah 2018 Halloween

SPEAKER_03 38:06

yeah 2018 Halloween she plays a teacher I don't remember her um that much I don't know how much of a role she had in that and then she's also in a film called Killer Therapy okay So, fun. Okay, you mentioned her earlier, Sean Young. She plays Louise. So, she is Russell's love interest. And she still is very much working. Almost exclusively films for her. And this isn't even the first time we've brought her up, actually. So, there are a couple other 80s films that we could potentially... you know, talk about her for. So we have talked about her for two films. We've talked about her for Blade Runner. And we've talked about her for Baby, two very different films. Baby colon Secret of the Lost Legend.

SPEAKER_00 38:57

They are very different.

SPEAKER_03 38:58

Very different movies. But check both those out. She also, other 80s films, Young Doctors in Love, the original Dune.

SPEAKER_00 39:08

We should cover that. Sure. Maybe.

SPEAKER_03 39:10

I don't have any stake in the Dune movies. I don't either. I would cover that one. She's in No Way Out. I think that's with Kevin Costner. And she's also in Wall Street. We could do that. I've actually never seen the entire movie. Neither have I. She is in Hold Me, Thrill Me, Kiss Me. That's a lot. Even Cowgirls Get the Blues.

SPEAKER_00 39:35

Is that a movie or is that just a western song title?

SPEAKER_03 39:38

I feel like it might, is it like a spin from a song? That does sound like a song.

SPEAKER_00 39:43

Feels like it,

SPEAKER_03 39:44

doesn't it? So she's not in Fatal Attraction and she's not in Basic Instinct, but she is in Fatal Instinct.

SPEAKER_00 39:51

God damn it. That is confusing as hell. So

SPEAKER_03 39:53

she's in that. Ace Ventura, Pet Detective.

SPEAKER_00 39:57

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 39:58

I love the title of this because I think it is a very interesting thing to ponder. Ghosts Never Sleep.

SPEAKER_00 40:06

Yeah, I've wondered about that. Do go sleep. I don't know. I

SPEAKER_03 40:11

don't know. I don't know. She did have a stint on the soap opera The Young and the Restless. So I don't know if you would know her from this, but she is in Bone Tomahawk.

SPEAKER_00 40:23

Oh, my God. I've really tried to not think about that. So I'd have to. I'd have to. You've

SPEAKER_03 40:30

seen it. I have not.

SPEAKER_00 40:31

I'm not watching it again to find out where she is. I can tell you that much.

SPEAKER_03 40:34

Sure. I understand. And she's also in Planet Dune. What's that? A movie. Okay. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 40:43

Is it really? Yeah. Planet Dune. Okay.

UNKNOWN 40:46

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 40:48

Okay. So we have four more people, but we're going to get through them pretty quickly. They have much smaller roles. However, small role, giant figure, John Candy. And I mean that like not in the literal sense. Presence. Yeah. Presence of the movie. Yeah. Exactly. So he plays Ox. He is also a recruit. He... You know, we all miss him. He passed too early. He passed in 1994. So we did talk about him fairly recently. At least Thanksgiving doesn't seem that long ago. It doesn't, no. I guess

SPEAKER_02 41:24

it kind of is. It

SPEAKER_03 41:25

is. So I will kind of go through some of his credits pretty quickly. I mean, really similar in nature to having started out on TV because he was on SCTV. And then he pivots out and he becomes a huge movie star. So almost entirely, I would say, straight comedy. Yeah. I don't know. A little bit of asterisk there. He is in 1941. He is in The Blues Brothers. We've covered that. Go check it out. He's in National Lampoon's Vacation. He has a small role, but actually I think he's pretty funny in it. I've said it before. Probably my favorite role of his of all time is the brother in Splash.

SPEAKER_00 42:07

Yeah. Yeah. He was really good in that. I love

SPEAKER_03 42:09

that character. He is fantastic in that. We did it. With Kelsey, go check that one out. Brewster's Millions. Summer Rental. I mean, a lot of these films we are definitely going to cover at some point. Volunteers. We did do Little Shop of Horrors. Go check that out. He is in Spaceballs. We will have to do that film at some point. I know it's not really a

SPEAKER_00 42:33

favorite. It's not. I mean, I feel like it's awful to say that, but it's not for me.

SPEAKER_03 42:40

It's not for me either, but... So the film most recently that we covered with him was Planes, Trains, and Automobiles, where, yes, it is very much a comedy, but there is a lot of bittersweet, dramatic.

SPEAKER_00 42:56

Very much so.

SPEAKER_03 42:57

Yeah. So he's great in that. He's in The Great Outdoors, Uncle Buck. He has a very fun. So now we're in the 90s, but he has a really fun cameo in Home Alone. He's great in that.

SPEAKER_00 43:08

Yeah. Yeah. The polka, polka, polka.

SPEAKER_03 43:11

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 43:11

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 43:12

Cool Runnings and Canadian Bacon. And like.

SPEAKER_00 43:14

Cool Runnings is one of my favorites of his.

SPEAKER_03 43:18

yeah yeah you do really like that movie um there were a couple other films i didn't put in but like he did kind of fair like i don't know how big the roles were i never saw all of jfk but i'm pretty sure he's in jfk he's in a film called only the lonely like so he he did a little bit step out of straight comedy but just great actor

SPEAKER_00 43:37

what if i told you that he was in one segment of a film called heavy metal Oh, geez.

SPEAKER_03 43:45

Okay. All right. Moving on. John Larroquette. So he's Captain Stillman. He's a dick in this film. And he's gross. He's all those things. But I do really like him. Not necessarily in this film, but I really like him. Yeah. I think he's a great actor. And, you know, he's still going strong for sure. I

SPEAKER_00 44:12

don't know if the Night Court reboot is still going. I don't know if

SPEAKER_03 44:17

it is either. But that's like literally the last credit I have for him. But yeah, that's most recently what we've seen him in. He has a really fun career because he has like this connection to a horror franchise that's very interesting.

SPEAKER_00 44:29

Really? He

SPEAKER_03 44:30

is the narrator for the original The Texas Chainsaw Massacre.

SPEAKER_00 44:34

What the? That's crazy. He is that person. That is wild.

SPEAKER_03 44:38

I think it's just at the beginning of the film. I don't remember if there's narration at the end, but he's the dude. He has a very distinctive voice. He does. You can clock it right away. Yeah. He and then I'll just kind of finish that off because then he also I think this is so fun that he comes back to it. He is also the narrator in the 2003 The Texas Chainsaw Massacre.

SPEAKER_00 45:01

That's cool.

SPEAKER_03 45:02

As well as the narrator in the 2006 The Texas Chainsaw Massacre colon the beginning.

SPEAKER_00 45:07

There are so many massacres.

SPEAKER_03 45:09

As well as the narrator in the 2022 Texas Chainsaw. It's really fun that he does that for

SPEAKER_00 45:15

all of us. That's really interesting.

SPEAKER_03 45:17

So there you go. Okay, so he has done, he's definitely obviously done films. I think maybe people know him. You already mentioned it, Nightcore.

SPEAKER_00 45:27

Dan Fielding.

SPEAKER_03 45:29

He has like a nice little back and forth between film and television. So earlier in his career, he was on a TV series called Black Sheep

SPEAKER_00 45:36

Squadron. Oh yeah, I remember that show.

SPEAKER_03 45:38

You do?

SPEAKER_00 45:39

Yes, I love that show.

SPEAKER_03 45:40

Okay. Yeah,

SPEAKER_00 45:41

it was a fun show.

SPEAKER_03 45:43

So now I have a slew of films for him. He is in Altered States, Cat People.

SPEAKER_00 45:48

I

SPEAKER_03 45:49

don't think we brought him up, but he is in Twilight Zone, the movie. I

SPEAKER_00 45:53

don't think we did. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 45:55

So he's in that. He also is in Star Trek 3, The Search for Spock.

SPEAKER_00 46:00

We'll get to that one eventually.

SPEAKER_03 46:02

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 46:03

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 46:04

He is also in Meatballs Part 2, Summer Rental. So he

SPEAKER_00 46:11

kind of reteams with John Candy. I didn't realize that.

SPEAKER_03 46:14

But yes, Night Court. Night Court is, I think, the thing that most people know him from. However, he also had his own show, The John Larroquette Show. So did that for a while. And then the rest of what I have for him, more TV work. So he was on Boston Legal for a while. librarians and then you mentioned it there has been this reboot of night court yep i don't know if it's continuing but he came back he originally he originated the role of dan fielding he comes back in that role i think he's the only original cast member i think who came back

SPEAKER_00 46:47

um i think that's probably right yeah so

SPEAKER_03 46:51

okay moving on to the last two people like look it's an ensemble cast but The other recruits we might see FaceTime with a lot of them, but I just brought up two. So the first is Cruiser, played by John Deal. Cruiser is the, to put it nicely, dim-witted recruit.

SPEAKER_00 47:11

So he stayed in that. In that frame of mind or whatever you would call it for the entire movie. And at the end, he apologized to Reitman for just acting so stupid all the time. I

SPEAKER_03 47:25

don't think you had a good method for that role, but okay.

SPEAKER_00 47:28

I don't think you had to for Stripe, no.

SPEAKER_03 47:30

Yeah, so okay. That's fine. But he's been very busy. I mean, he's working up to this day. Yeah. Mostly films that I have for him, although perhaps not leading roles, but nonetheless. He actually was in Escape from New York. Really? I guarantee you we didn't bring him up. He's just listed as punk, but he was in it. He also has a role in National Lampoon's Vacation. I think if we're going to say breakout, maybe. He, for a while, was on the TV series Miami Vice.

SPEAKER_00 48:09

Oh, okay.

SPEAKER_03 48:09

So he did that. I didn't really want to put this in, but good lord, he's just in a movie called Horror.

SPEAKER_00 48:16

Oh, wait. Not horror, but just...

SPEAKER_03 48:19

No. W-H-O-R-E. Wow. He's like, okay.

SPEAKER_00 48:23

That's an aggressive title.

SPEAKER_03 48:24

That is an aggressive title.

SPEAKER_00 48:26

Wow.

SPEAKER_03 48:27

He's in Mo Money? Gettysburg? The Client? Now that I'm thinking about it, I do recognize him from Stargate.

SPEAKER_00 48:34

You know what I recognize him from? I recognize him from Falling Down. Oh, I didn't even list that one. There's the moment when whatever his name is, the character's name. Michael Douglas. Michael Douglas. Yeah, I can't remember his character. But so he's like running through like a wealthy neighborhood and he's in the backyard. And there are these people who work at the house who are just kind of like using the backyard to have like a barbecue. But they just work there because the family's like on a trip or something. Okay. And he's just like, Please, please don't tell anyone. He's just very embarrassed that he got caught because he thinks Michael Douglas is part of security because he shows up with a shotgun.

SPEAKER_03 49:18

Gotcha. Okay.

SPEAKER_00 49:20

That's what I recognize him from.

SPEAKER_03 49:21

He is in the film Nixon, A Time to Kill. This is, I think, so fun. He had a brief stint on the John Larroquette show.

SPEAKER_00 49:31

That is fun. So I

SPEAKER_03 49:31

like that. More film work anywhere but here. Jurassic Park 3.

SPEAKER_00 49:41

Okay.

SPEAKER_03 49:41

And then more recently, that show Dark Winds. And just a ton of one-offs and two-offs in different shows. So finally, because it's probably maybe the most famous line from the film, lighten up, Francis.

SPEAKER_00 49:56

Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 49:57

Conrad Dunn. So real name Francis in the show or in the movie. Nickname Psycho. Okay. AKA taxi driver, essentially.

SPEAKER_00 50:08

Yeah. That's basically what his character was going for. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 50:11

I feel pretty confident that. This was his first role. All right. It's very new, but still very much working still. Alien Nation. It was a film he was in. It had a very long stint, which is funny to me because of the role he plays in this film. He was on Days of Our Lives. What the fuck? Really? For like hundreds of episodes. Wow. For like 10 years, I think he was on that show. So he did that. Another show, I don't know it, but it's called A Nero Wolf Mystery.

SPEAKER_00 50:41

Never heard of it.

SPEAKER_03 50:42

He had a small role in the film Chicago. And then Samesy's just a lot of one-offs and two-offs on different TV shows. Okay. All right. Film synopsis.

SPEAKER_00 50:54

I mean, I don't know. I don't know how important the synopsis is. Let's see. What do we got?

SPEAKER_03 51:01

Two friends who are dissatisfied with their jobs decide to join the army for a bit of fun.

SPEAKER_00 51:07

That works for me. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 51:10

I mean, yes. I... It's clear that they don't really take it seriously, but they're also just escaping, not to get too whatever about this, but they're escaping their lives. Their lives suck.

SPEAKER_02 51:25

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 51:25

They're unhappy. I mean, they really double down on John's story. He flat out says it to Russell in the space of two hours. I lost my job, although he quit, to be fair. He didn't lose his job.

SPEAKER_00 51:37

It's true.

SPEAKER_03 51:38

But he loses his job, loses his girlfriend. Yeah. loses his car he says loses his apartment so i'm curious

SPEAKER_00 51:47

yeah that was new i never saw any

SPEAKER_03 51:49

yeah i it didn't seem like it was her place it seemed like it was his place so i'm not quite sure what that's about but the other thing too though is like i don't I don't know if there's really strong arcs for either one of them in terms of like, look, it's I'm not judging them from being kind of like aimless in their lives. As far as like what the army does for them. I don't know. It's

SPEAKER_00 52:22

he gets better at pushups.

SPEAKER_03 52:24

Yes, that's true.

SPEAKER_00 52:25

It's really just like an over overextended because I think the movie is a little longer than it is. than it needs to be. It's more of just like a comedy bit with these guys in the army. There's no long end goal for these characters. No,

SPEAKER_03 52:43

there's no real character

SPEAKER_00 52:45

growth. There's not.

SPEAKER_03 52:46

But the thing is, the original script was meant for Cheech and Chong.

SPEAKER_00 52:51

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 52:52

So that gives you some indication as to what the film was going to be about. They dropped out, I think. And then Murray signs on and he just... he and Remus were really good friends. He just really wanted Remus because they're friends and, you know, wanted to do a movie with him. And so they did. And I know I shouldn't put any undue pressure on this because it's just a stupid comedy, but they're interesting characters. I don't know if I like, like them, don't like them. And the whole thing with Czechoslovakia, like they did that to themselves. Like they come out these heroes supposedly, but it's like, Everything that happened was because of their own actions.

SPEAKER_00 53:34

Yeah, I guess Reitman didn't love that part of it.

SPEAKER_03 53:39

Otherwise, the movie would have been like 50 minutes.

SPEAKER_00 53:42

Yeah, they needed... I mean, between that and the LSD Colombian revolutionaries thing, I think I would have... I think it would have been okay with the Columbia thing. I

SPEAKER_03 53:54

think it actually would have maybe balanced out the film a little bit because then it's like, oh, okay, it's just these series of weird sequences. It's

SPEAKER_00 54:02

just like the graduation, which that clip to start off the episode was from, that could almost be the end of the movie.

SPEAKER_03 54:12

Yes, yes. That very much feels like the end of the movie, but then it would have been too short of a film.

SPEAKER_00 54:16

So maybe give us more basic training. You could have made a whole movie about them in basic training.

SPEAKER_03 54:22

And that's what's really interesting about the film is because, yeah, I feel like there was more to mine there, but they just didn't. And then they're like, okay, well, what else can we do? And so they come up with this idea of... sending them overseas.

SPEAKER_00 54:38

So it could have been put in more for the basic training, and then at the end of the graduation ceremony, you find out that they've passed, and then maybe the very last thing is how there's this other thing that they might...

SPEAKER_03 54:50

Yeah. That's

SPEAKER_00 54:52

how they would do it now, because they'd want to set it up for a sequel. 100%.

SPEAKER_03 54:55

Yeah. So I'm really not hating on the film. It just is a little unbalanced, it

SPEAKER_00 55:03

feels. I've seen it so many times, and this is always... Like why in some ways it's easy to watch if it's just on TV because you like have it on and then the ceremony happens and you're like, all right, I'm going to see what else is

SPEAKER_03 55:14

on. And I mean, the other thing too about it, which is funny because like Meatballs does not have nudity, but... It

SPEAKER_00 55:24

doesn't?

SPEAKER_03 55:25

No.

SPEAKER_00 55:26

Okay. I'm surprised.

SPEAKER_03 55:28

Or does Spaz and what's his name? I don't think.

SPEAKER_00 55:31

I don't think there actually is. I

SPEAKER_03 55:33

don't think there actually is. It's like a cleaned up version of the same scene in Animal House where John Belushi goes, sneaks in, looks through the windows. There's always a fucking looking through windows scene, isn't there?

SPEAKER_00 55:46

Well, the thing with Laraket where he's like.

SPEAKER_03 55:48

Yes.

SPEAKER_00 55:49

Watching the women in the shower. And I guess he like improv'd. Those lines, but they need to explain to Reitman what a loofah was.

SPEAKER_03 55:57

Yeah, it just... You did your homework on the fun facts. It is what it is. We've said it before. Except it feels a little different from Slumber Party Massacre because it's like Ivan Reitman. It's a male-directed film. So it feels very much so... You know, it's all for the male gaze. It's early night. It just feels almost a little bit beneath.

SPEAKER_00 56:23

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 56:25

The people involved in the film.

SPEAKER_00 56:27

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 56:27

Like I would expect it more from just like a real cheap, you know, let's get it out there. Schlocky teen flick.

SPEAKER_00 56:35

There was definitely just like in order. Like if you want to get people in the seats to see these movies. boobs you got to do it

SPEAKER_03 56:44

yeah and and i think i hadn't remembered how many times there is nudity i mean even just like john coming home and his fucking girlfriends just like has her shirt open i'm like okay um so that happens and you know i could

SPEAKER_00 57:00

the whole mud wrestling scene was was wild yeah

SPEAKER_03 57:03

i was gonna say as far as like the lara katt character

SPEAKER_00 57:06

oh

SPEAKER_03 57:07

okay maybe that further justifies what a like gross person he is like you're just kind of building on the fact that like he's not the baddie but like he's the guy that everybody hates in this movie

SPEAKER_00 57:18

but you could definitely do that without

SPEAKER_03 57:19

yes you can yeah I'm just grabbing at straws to justify the nudity but yeah the whole thing with the mud wrestling is like oh my god like there's just

SPEAKER_00 57:31

John Candy was not comfortable with that

SPEAKER_03 57:33

and that's the other thing that kind of bugs me is that it's like

SPEAKER_00 57:36

I don't think anyone was comfortable with that. I

SPEAKER_03 57:41

don't know what the directive was to Reitman. I don't know if at that point in his career he's being told, got to have the boobs. I don't know. But it's like I don't like the fact that you're pushing an actor to do something that they inherently didn't really want to do.

SPEAKER_00 57:57

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 57:58

It does bother me when I read that.

SPEAKER_00 58:01

Well, he already had his haircut, so at that point...

SPEAKER_03 58:04

Yeah, he really went through it for this stupid film. So, in any case, it's... And then it was weird to me, too, that, like, with PJ Soul's character, you know, they do... It was very much like an Animal House ending where they're giving little... epilogues to a lot of the characters

SPEAKER_00 58:23

yeah and she's on like a penthouse cover yeah

SPEAKER_03 58:25

I'm like why why does she have to be doing pent okay that was

SPEAKER_00 58:30

that was the first what I think I didn't get

SPEAKER_03 58:32

any indication from that character that like that was part of her story but okay yeah you know as far as like like I actually if I'm being really honest I enjoy Harold Ramis's performance more than Bill Murray's in the film Yeah. I think he's a funnier character.

SPEAKER_00 58:50

Well, he's... Like, the John Winger character is just so cocky and arrogant that after a while, it kind of, like, wears thin, where Ramis's character is still funny, but he feels a little bit more like a real person.

SPEAKER_03 59:08

Yeah, and he does often play the straight man to Bill Murray. Yeah. And not even just in this film, but...

SPEAKER_00 59:17

Because if like Winger versus Venkman, Venkman is even a little bit more grounded. Yes. Than Winger. And I love

SPEAKER_03 59:24

Venkman in Ghostbusters. But I just I maybe it's because I've just seen so much of Murray and doing that kind of character. And Ramis is. I was paying more attention to his character, I think, with this screening and just little things like facial expressions. When

SPEAKER_00 59:42

he's talking to Reinhold at the beginning in the bus station or airport or whatever, and Reinhold's asking him about... It seems like he's got weed on him or something. Right. And Remus's reaction was just... It was just gold. Yeah. Yes. It was like... He was making fun of like Reinhold's character and like he was just so goofy in that moment. Yes.

SPEAKER_03 1:00:06

No, he's he was a really funny actor.

SPEAKER_00 1:00:09

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 1:00:10

So so I yeah, I got a lot more out of his performance. And I mean, the movie as a whole. I don't mind it at all. There's a certain kind of comfort and nostalgia in it again because I saw it. Way too young.

SPEAKER_00 1:00:27

Yeah, I like it because I like Bill Murray and I like Harold Ramis and I've just seen it so many times. Right. But it almost reminded me a little bit of my experience watching Airplane from start to finish. I've gotten more used to just experiencing some of these movies at this point in like smaller bites and watching the whole thing. I'm like, okay.

SPEAKER_03 1:00:49

Yeah, exactly. No, I think that's a great way to put it. So that is Stripes. I mean, what was your call to action earlier?

SPEAKER_00 1:00:59

Which is the worst sequel, Meatballs 2 or Caddyshack 2?

SPEAKER_03 1:01:03

I'm honestly in some ways surprised they did not do a sequel to this film.

SPEAKER_00 1:01:07

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 1:01:08

Because they could have.

SPEAKER_00 1:01:10

I already know where they'd go and what they'd be doing. It's Columbia and LSD.

SPEAKER_03 1:01:15

So, I mean, well, I think we've already kind of answered our own question about... watching the film again I think it is a great film to just have on the background yeah when you're doing whatever instead of like actually sitting down and paying close attention to every single minute of it

SPEAKER_02 1:01:30

yeah

SPEAKER_03 1:01:30

but in terms of that I mean I guess I'm curious other people's feelings about the film in terms of like like everybody knows stripes we just mentioned it to somebody earlier today that we were going to be recording stripes they immediately know the film everybody knows this movie shout out to Trader Joe's I'm very curious how people feel about, like, as far as comedies of the 80s where this one ranks for them.

SPEAKER_00 1:01:59

I think, like, people's memory of this movie probably is going to rank it higher. And then you watch it and you're like, you know what? There are some other 80s movies that I think are at, like, when you watch them again, you're like, that still holds up really good. And this one, it's not that it doesn't, but... It's very much a product of its time. Very much. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 1:02:19

And so, yeah, I'm really curious how people feel about it in terms of like beloved comedies and also kind of as an offshoot, like a part B to a call to action. Because now I've talked about it a couple of times just in terms of like Bill Murray performances, him being understated versus like really kind of over the top, even in the clip that you pulled with the way that he's talking to the general, you know, just when he's kind of goofier like that. I mean, another really great example, which we haven't even covered this film yet, is like his character in Caddyshack and just being completely silly and kind of like all over the place. So I'm just... Very curious what people enjoy as far as his types of performances. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:03:01

You got options, people. Yes.

SPEAKER_03 1:03:02

So if you want to reach out, we'd love to hear from you. You can reach out through Facebook, Instagram, or Blue Sky. It is the same handle for all three. It is at 80s Montage Pod and 80s is 80S.

SPEAKER_00 1:03:14

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 1:03:16

Sneak peek.

UNKNOWN 1:03:17

Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER_00 1:03:19

You

SPEAKER_03 1:03:20

maybe should know this. We were just talking about it this morning. I

SPEAKER_00 1:03:24

do, I think, but I will accept a clue. Oh,

SPEAKER_03 1:03:28

you will accept a clue. Okay. Gosh, you know, I don't know this movie that well. So as far as pulling clues.

SPEAKER_00 1:03:38

You know, sometimes when we talk about these movies and they're from, you know, decades ago, it makes me feel really old. And I just wish sometimes that I would feel a little young. That's my clue to you. You're

SPEAKER_03 1:03:54

a clue to me. Okay. Well, then I'm going to say the movie is Cocoon. That's it. That's the movie.

SPEAKER_00 1:04:01

I don't know what just happened. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 1:04:03

And I mean, look, this is a film that definitely we've talked about. And I feel like I've said even a couple of times, oh, we should totally do that one. Well, now we are in part because we were requested to. And so I'm really excited to get to do this.

SPEAKER_00 1:04:17

We take requests. All you have to do is look at every single episode that we've ever published and let us know if there's something we missed.

SPEAKER_03 1:04:24

we're getting there

SPEAKER_00 1:04:25

yeah

SPEAKER_03 1:04:26

uh i think this one we're just coming under i think 140 episodes

SPEAKER_00 1:04:29

yeah

SPEAKER_03 1:04:30

so not too shabby but yeah i'm really excited to cover this one it's it's a film that i don't know particularly well but i've always been like curious about sitting down and watching the whole thing and i think it'll be an interesting conversation in terms of i i personally always really love when there are films that really feature prominently older actors it's been a while since I feel we've had a film like that. The last film I can remember, and this has been several seasons at this point, I thought that they did a great job on Moonstruck. There are several older actors who just fucking knock it out of the park, and I'm excited to watch a film where I feel like that might be similar. I

SPEAKER_00 1:05:07

think in Moonstruck, the difference is that they were just older people who were just living their lives in a cocoon. It's going to be like,

SPEAKER_03 1:05:14

I'm

SPEAKER_00 1:05:15

so desperate to not be old aliens.

SPEAKER_03 1:05:18

Aliens,

SPEAKER_00 1:05:19

please help me.

SPEAKER_03 1:05:20

I'm really, really interested in watching the movie. So on that note, thank you to everybody for listening. We really appreciate that with the very limited time everybody has nowadays that you are choosing to hang out with us for a bit. And we will talk to you again in two weeks' time.