Leaderboard

My friend Robert played Mikey's double in this movie. Should I call 1-800-PAUL-ASS?

I haven't seen this movie since I was young. I remember not liking it. But I am in the middle of the podcast and I want to ask you guys if I am remembering the FIRST movie correctly. As I recall, Mikey talks in Bruce Willis's voice, yes. George Segal is the bio dad and he's a real douchebag. He is her boss, was already married and Kirstie Alley thought he would leave his wife but he doesn't and she later finds out he has other women on the side as well. John Travolta develops and inexplicable relationship after the baby is born in his cab (or after he drives her to the hospital?) Then he becomes Mikey's babysitter, right? So he takes care of the kid. Which is how he bonds with Mikey and slowly falls in love with Kirstie Alley, right? (But they immediate have problems in this one? After all that build up?) Then she randomly becomes obsessed with Mikey needing a dad. Mikey meets George and thinks he's a douchebag. There is a scene where they wreck his office (I remember Mikey being like, "yeah let's trash the place!") And the end is Mikey is in jeopardy somehow and John Travolta saves him at which point Mikey utters his first REAL word when he calls him "Dada." I would think that after Mikey speaks for REAL, he would stop having the inner monologue? Wasn't it supposed to express his feelings when he can't actually speak? So why not just have Roseanne do the voice of the new kid? And maybe have Bruce Willis do a baby voice? I don't get it.

Bring your date!

How long does everyone think the original cut of this movie was? Since the movie goes all over the place with no real connective tissue between scenes, I can't tell if they just had a barebones script or had a huge list of ideas and only left in what they consider the "best" parts. It was a rushed production so maybe they didn't have a full script and figured we can fill it out with funny baby voiceover and we have great actors. On the other hand, the movie takes place over at least a year and nine months and they cut out tons of stuff that wasn't working (which is all the movie but you know what I'm saying). I imagine the producers saying "There's only 60 minutes here. We need another 20 minimum to release this" or "This monstrosity is over two hours and nothing is funny. Cut it down to 80 minutes and we can fit in an extra showing a day to make money." I can honestly see either scenario. That would potentially explain why this seems like a series of vignettes instead of an actual movie. Or why characters come and go for no discernible reason. Or why Mel Brooks is the voice of the toilet for one scene. For example, the first scene with Kirstie Alley and her accountant friend, it's introduced with two women getting keys from someone on a fire escape who walk by Kirstie Alley eating then are never seen again. Who were these women?

Hey whenever Cam isn't around I become the joke thief and I want the proper credit for it

I remember seeing these movies as a kid and all I could really remember was being deeply upset by the opening of John Travolta and Kirstie Ally fucking/ the sperm and the egg. I still hate it.

Fuck yeah. Get an anecdote.

I want to be in for this, but I think I might have a date this night. But if I don't, I'll be in. However, I'm not a scary movie person, so I'm slightly scared of watching this. It'll be lights on, lots of wine type of viewing.

I would LOVE this movie if Bruce Willis did a baby voice for Mikey actually speaking. That would be amazing.

Speaking of (somewhat) inappropriate baby outfits I used to own an obscene number of baby sized bikinis including one string bikini with two strawberries for a top. There's also a vhs of me and one of my mom's best friend's babies dressed as cheerleaders complete with headbands with hair sewn on them in pigtails. But my best baby stories involves the facts that apparently I used to enjoy riding the vacuum cleaner and locking myself in my grandparents dog's cage to chill. I have photos of all of these somewhere.

I wrote "there sure seems to be a whole lot of sound and fury that ultimately signifies nothing..." which basically echoes Paul's observation in the podcast about it seeming more like one of a film student's first films. Then I remembered I thought about that for Sixth Sense, but for some reason I rate the latter higher. And then I read Origami's post above, too. My attempt at quippy phrase was not the best one to follow that. Thanks, Origami, for your personal reflection (and your service!) and that contributes way more than mine. I don't think we'll see eye to eye on this film, but it's certainly not a 'crime' to respond to film in such a personal and heartfelt way.

Apocalypse Now is my favorite movie. So I'll go ahead and admit to my crime. I waited a day to post a response to the episode, because as I was hiking and listening to it, I was wondering if I was listening to a a review of the movie, or listening to an episode regarding all the background information (making, financing, producers, editors...), and even a review about a pseudo-documentary about the making of AN. (If I'm not mistaken, wasn't the doc made by Coppola's daughter? And if that is true, I think Coppola is hamming it up for her.) I saw the Heart if Darkness doc when it was in the theater, and I only remember that I felt Coppola was a bad actor. I'm 55, so I saw the movie back when the original ending was the fire mission on Kurtz' compound, which has since been deleted in all the redo's of AN. Kurtz leaves the note in his memoir to Willard to kill them all. So in the end, Willard is actually following the order of Kurtz. Why Coppola removed the scene is lost on me. (then again Coppola went on to make "Wind", so maybe he just wanted to make turds) Back to the ep. The idea that Americans in war are white hat wearing good guys that spread glad tidings, and that the movie makers should somehow be ashamed that they presented scenes of women being objectified, isn't true to the culture in which the movie was made, or the reality of sending Playboy Bunnies to a combat area. I was in an infantry division, the Big Red One. This is the early 80's (so just a few years after AN comes out), but back then there were NO WOMEN IN COMBAT UNITS, just guys. The average age for these young men in Vietnam was 19. Nothing more than kids. The only time we saw women was when we were in the rear, and went to bars, and the only women around were strippers. So you end up with 20,000~ young guys having only a look at a handful of women and your interaction is to throw $1 bills at them. Its a business transaction between the woman and the men. Its distressing, Guys are yelling, its been months since a woman has even looked in their or our direction. You are yelling just so you can gain some sort of attention and validation from someone or something outside of your world. So I understand why they are yelling obscenities at the women, but you can't look at these scenes with 2018 sensibilities, they are desperate to be be seen. Why the desperation? There was no email, the ability to even find a telephone is scarce to impossible. There is no skype. As time goes by, you get fewer and fewer letters from home. As a soldier you are cranking out letters all the time, but families and friends trail off. You live to see the mail distribution guy, you have a lot of hope that you will get mail, but when your name isn't called, you're gutted. When days without mail turns into weeks & months you lose your sense of importance in the world. You become a non-person. You existence isn't even validated by loved ones. So the yelling and obscenities is desperation for validation. If someone from the world can at least see you, its enough to get you through another day. One time I got to see a USO show. Its important to point out, the soldiers do not get to dictate what act or acts they see. I know for the one show I saw, we weren't told anything beyond "Its a USO show." We've been in the Mojave for a month, get back to the rear, and are now going to a USO show. Half an infantry division. All young guys, haven't seen a woman in well over a month, Russians are in Afghanistan, so we get switched from winter training to desert training, this is under Reagan, Casper Weinberger is in attendance, and the act they put on the stage was an all girl dance school. So you have a couple adult women wearing their tight dancer outfits, and clearly this is a dance school, because there is also a lot of kids wearing leotards dancing on the stage. Guys are screaming for the adult women's attention, but make no mistake, its awkward that they brought children into this environment. I'm in the back, I can barely see anyways, and the guys in my platoon are looking at each other, because those were kids. Finally the dance recital ends, and the one adult woman comes back out on stage wearing a skimpy burlesque outfit, and slinks around the stage for ten minutes while the song "Hey Big Spender" blares over the PA. Guys are screaming, but its obvious the clothes are staying on, who cares, we just want out of the field. My platoon is about a football field away. Its all odd, and out of place, but the soldiers are not the organizers, and they are going to behave in a way that a group of rowdies behave. Because all we know about women is you throw dollar bills at them, just hoping they acknowledge you. "Fuck on the front of their helicopters," the line in the movie's meaning was just as it was presented, when you are in the business of murder, why draw the line at the word "fuck?" When I was in, we wore the steelpot helmet, on top of that steelpot is a cloth camo cover to hold down the fabric cover was a thin elastic band. Usually guys would put their last name on the band, or the name of their favorite bands, or maybe peace signs or religious symbols. I wrote the word "FUCK." Now by 1983, not many people had seen Apocalypse Now. Not many soldiers had a video tape player, cable TV, (I think when Back to the Future came out on VHS it cost $80.00, so you need to remember that you can't view Apocalypse Now with 2018 perspective.) So I caught shit from officers, because they didn't like "FUCK" on my camo band, so they made me flip it to the other side (where they probably thought things got better), but on the reverse side of the camo band I wrote "YOU." Guys like me would be labeled as bad attitude, and was constantly in need of adjustment. The Do Long Bridge scene. Do Long Bridge would be a bridge that is being pointlessly rebuilt and friendly troops killed, because it would be a meat grinder. You send your troops with bad attitudes to meat grinders. When Roach is asked by Willard, if he he knew who was in charge, Roach's response of "yeah," meant that their was no official leadership, and Roach considered himself to be in charge. Why? Because the panicked soldier Willard is talking to is firing a 50 cal into a pile of bodies, but he can't kill the guy that is taunting them from underneath those bodies. (the VC soldier clearly yells "Hey GI, fuck you!" They call Roach over, who had been sleeping through all this, comes over with his M79 grenade launcher, turns down the radio, and without having a visual of the enemy, by simply hearing where the VC's voice killed him with that grenade. Its badass. That's skill, so when Roach says "yeah" its Roach knowing he's badass. (I should reel myself in, I said I had a bad attitude and guys with bad attitudes would be sent to meat grinders, my attitude might never register on anyone's radar, because no one wants to be in that situation). Point being they send expendables to meat grinders. Putting off a day to respond, its a dick move on my part to review a review, but after this word blast, it boils down to me saying, that AN can not be viewed with 2018 sensibilities. When the movie came out, there were only a couple other movies that were about Vietnam. Coming Home, Green Berets, and some Burt Lancaster movie. So the perspective AN gives, is a perspective that was unknown to a global audience. A perspective only a few years removed from the end of the war. It was so recent, that even when I served, I was getting called names, and hissed at in airports. I stopped wearing my uniforms on planes because of the abuse. As far as the reduxes and alternate endings, Coppola should admit those as failures, and go back to the original ending of the destruction of the compound during the credits. * I came back to edit a little bit. It was early in the morning when I posted, and I was still a wittle sweepy. Paul, I think you mentioned that you had done some USO shows, glad that whoever organizes the new shows, follows Harris Wittels' adage "mother fuckers just want to laugh." The organizers probably told Paul to shake as many hands, and say hello to everyone that he could. Those things go a long way to to buoy a kid's spirit, and each spirit you lifted made that a good day. So thank you for your service Paul.

Please everyone, stop talking about Jordan and humdingers, this is exactly the trouble we need to avoid to keep earwolf hiring non white men.

Sorry, one most post! Since I do really like Kubrick, and I think I've read at least some other people here do as well, so I feel his take on AN is worth putting out there: https://www.bfi.org.uk/news-opinion/sight-sound-magazine/polls-surveys/stanley-kubrick-cinephile

Hey guys! I’ve had a ton of crap going on so I haven’t been around, but I am in for 10/5 and Sleepaway Camp! Cant wait!

"Only a Gamma man is a real man" (or "Stay away from Gamma Rays" -- your choice)

I thought the scenes with Rachel about Dap's ancestry and about her pledging the Gamma Rays (sp?) were there to call him out, and that his willingness to accept her pledging a sorority were part of his coming to terms with his own elitism. Also, on Half Pint's pledging - at first I didn't realize he was sincere, but thought the movie was going to have him infiltrate as a favor to Dap.

I think the first thing I knew of that referenced Apocalypse Now (before I'd seen the movie) was an Animaniacs episode that was a full parody. The studio boss sends the Warners in to stop a film shoot that's gone way over budget. I don't know why they put all these references into a show for kids, but there you go. They did also have a whole recurring segment dedicated to parodying Goodfellas.

5% there

Yeah. I appreciate that as well. I also like that Dap is intelligent but also wrong/misguided as well. He had very little respect for people he thought were multi-racial. And it shows a lot of ignorance to put that on a person. People literally can't control their ancestry but also the ignorance of going back far enough since he mentions "octoroons" that in the 1980s someone who was that racial breakdown could potentially have been the product of a slave master raping a slave. There's just something refreshing about our lead character being flawed like this where it's not a huge story point like Indiana Jones biggest fear is snakes so, of course, he encounters snakes. Dap's flaw is pride/ignorance but there's not a scene where someone calls him on it leading to a scene of reflection unless someone wants to argue WAKE UP is that moment for him.

Agreed. We can really only speculate, but I'm guessing Gamma was supposed to be the most prestigious. But really, I don't think it would have mattered much anyway. I would guess that to Lee all fraternities are the same. Dap wouldn't have wanted him to join any fraternities. And the only only reason why Dap hates the Gammas in particular was because of Julian - and that's because, in a weird way, Dap kind of respected him. One of my favorite lines in the movie was when Dap says about Julian: "No, Julian is smart, Rachel. He's confused, but he's smart." It was nice to see a character recognixe that just because people disagree with one another doesn't just automatically assume that they're dumb. Dap recognizes that Julian is smart and that's part of the problem.

I think that's part of the failure of the film but it's part movie shortcut because we only have two hours. I think there are a lot of reasons we speculate on. It could be Half Pint is a virgin and Gamma's slogan is "only a Gamma man is a real man". So we might be expected to interpret that as an attack on masculinity or could be a comment on Half Pint's insecurity.

When I was a kid I saw a magazine that kind of suggests that some people even look at butts just for fun. Lol, don't ask me why but for reals, they do!

Not to be pedantic, but every doctor is capable of looking at your butt, and believe me I've tried. Most just don't know what to do with it. I have a medical (marijuana) license, so I am also qualified to look at butts, but just as confused and disoriented when I see one. I've heard that a lawyer is officially a Juris Doctor so I'd start there.

I saw one that had the words "Future Porn Star" written across the front.