Elektra Boogaloo

Was Jason a big fan of the HP movies? I thought he listened to the audiobooks? Anyway, I've weirded myself out that I guessed who the guest was last week. I'm concerned that I know more about Daniel than I thought I did. Can I be unintentionally stalking him? What does that say about me? Am I okay? Should I lay down? So far my big take away is that I like Erin Darke.

If the guest is Dan Radcliffe I will lose my shit. (See this movie’s thread in bad movie recommendations.) Also, was I the only one who thought Cody was a man? I am shocked. Worried about the caller who thinks his sister’s fiancé is a dud. Like maybe she has a lot going on and a boring person is what she needs? Or maybe she doesn’t think he’s a dud? I love that the first Little Italy caller’s theory was basically “sex pollen.”

Do the laws of gravity just.... not apply to the Rock?

This is the kind of info they could’ve leaned into to make their Little Italy distinctive! I don’t know why I am so frustrated by this. They seem to have wanted it to be all Little Italys but the narration to th effect of “tHis was our Little Italy” actually works better with a less generic world.

They were definitely dressing the sets like Little Italy in New York which was why it was confusing. Like if they said no this is the Toronto Little Italy from the jump, it wouldn’t feel so odd. Like the sign in the front is like New York and the sign further down the street (which you can only half see in this shot) is ALSO from here. It’s for the San Gennaro festival which is celebrated every September. I know it’s not just a red/white/green Italy banner because now that you have screencapped it, I can see the Saint’s bishop hat—fun fact from Catholic school, it’s called a miter not a Pope hat—in that picture. Does Toronto’s Little Italy have a San Gennaro festival? He is the patron saint of Naples so only Napolitano Italian immigrants would celebrate it, and when I Googled “San Gennaro Toronto” it said it was “closed.” And a follow up, if I may, do you allow figs on pizza is Canada?

Another thing I forgot. The Starbucks. Did we all just accidentally give Howard Schultz money by renting this?

I've only really seen her in the terrible Nancy Drew movie. That was sad. This show might want to consider that. What else has she been in? Wasn't she in an American Horror Story?

This is a Paul-level tangent into my history, but I am Italian-American. Except we didn’t know it until I was in high school (my great grandfather came here from Italy in the early 1900s but he died young and we didn’t know about him, it’s a long story). So when we learned we were Italian my dad and his siblings would do a lot of Italian -American voices and jokes—mostly from the Sopranos and mob movies. And that is what the accents in this movie are. People with no actual connection to the culture. Taylor Anne made me feel really angry for Alyssa Milano. She is Italian too! She should’ve been the lead!

I feel quite honored! I haven't seen it myself but I was reading about it on Twitter and then Slate and I thought "this sounds amazing." I need to find a theater showing it.

I am already mad at this movie. It’s not set in THE Little Italy. It’s a Lake Placid situation. Argh. also I agree Kelly Thompson is great.

I am sure Mahershala Ali is good in GREEN BOOK. He's good in everything. The article I read about the Shirley family said they were not consulted about the movie, that the white driver and he were not friends and, in fact, he was fired. Mahershala Ali called them an apologized because he was told there was no close family left. https://shadowandact.com/the-real-donald-shirley-green-book-hollywood-swallowed-whole

I haven't seen a lot of the movies but GREEN BOOK looks legit terrible. I love, love Mahershala Ali but if you saw the Hollywood Reporter roundtable that was going around Twitter yesterday? It made me want to see it even less, which is saying something. I have been pretending he is winning things for his performance as Uncle Aaron in Into the Spider-verse. I liked RBG but it wasn't super in depth. But then neither was the book it was based on.

The husband was a real zero. Like somehow he got away from all those cops, immediately put the evidence in a safe deposit box. Then... just went home and pretended like everything was fine? He said his name loudly SECONDS before he saw the cops. Or they could just figure out who the realtor was. He never thought "maybe they'll go to my house?" Also he didn't do any fighting and, like, I'm used to husbands and/or fathers in movies having to really step up. Like if this was TAKEN? Liam Neeson would never. At least call the FBI if you know there are crooked cops after you. Geez.

I also thought KB was in her attic for about half of the movie and I couldn’t figure out why she didn’t just give an address. Then I thought she was in on it. I definitely thought the husband HAD to be a bad guy. Nope, everyone is good except 99% of the police force, apparently.

I agree that everyone is in a different movie. Probably because none of them met each other. I kept wondering why they didn’t reveal Statham & co were cops earlier, because then Jessica Martin could say DON’T go to the cops. It would make a bit more sense. Of course, we’d miss the riveting stairwell scene where he is losing the signal. Macy was great though. My FAVORITE thing was that after he shoots the female cop, by distracting her by kicking over the fish tank. The next time we see him, he’s in the back of an ambulance and he has saved the fish in a tiny glass. I really wish he carried the fish around for the rest of the movie. Funny this dropped today since it was recorded in Nov. Last night on “The Good Place” (which Jason was on) they mentioned torturing Shakespeare by telling him the plot of the Entourage movie and I thought, “hey didn’t Ike Barinholtz want to talk about Entourage? Maybe HDTGM should do that one...” Is it bad enough to torture Willy Shakes? (I only saw a couple episodes of the show and I hated all the characters but Shakespeare might be kind of into the sex stuff.)

John Wick 3 trailer!!

The crab thing (played by John Rhys Davies) is for sure the best character. I wanted it to have better music cues. I said on Twitter that they should've played Cher's HALF BREED while he rose up on the leviathan. No one else thought it was funny. WHY DID JULIE ANDREWS AGREE TO THIS? Does Warner have something on her?

I just watched it. I remember the commercials with Kim Basinger and thought it was more of a thriller. But I think it would’ve been better as a comedy. Because like one of the big obstacles is... a tunnel. You know? William H. Macy kind of killed it in the scene where he realizes foul play is afoot and...wipes green mask goo off his face. Except the stuff with Kim Basinger is dark. Maybe if it had been played as like a rich housewife, who like used to be a teacher and then married? The tone was very odd.

I wanted them to DO Aquaman.

Alert! Paul and Nicole Byer were on the Good Place this week. (West Coast, you still have time to see it live.) I was unprepared for how much I would squeal when I saw Nicole.

I relistened to this episode today and I love Jason’s description of Paul googling Mario Lopez’s chest hair as like a “a character in a movie who is trying to hack a system.” I work in publishing. That is the kind of detail I like! Jason, if you want to write a book, call me.

I am really glad that June remembers this one.

Where can we talk about the new Jingle All the Way content? I kind of want to write a movie starting Joe Mande about a depressed mailmain who tries to commit suicide by cop on Christmas.

I haven’t finished but I saw Jess was the guest and they immediately started talking about the hair situation, and Paul went into a weird childhood story, then back to the hair. This is like exactly what I wanted. Merry Christmas to us all.

Have you guys seen that RANKER did a list of worst movies ever and TWILIGHT was the "winner." I didn't care for the book or the film, personally, but I understood why young girls did. (Like for me I had already read VAMPIRE DIARIES and seen BUFFY so it seemed old hat.) And I don't know why this struck me as so wrong but it doesn't seem correct. I mean I got through TWILIGHT easily compared to HOLIDAYS IN HANDCUFFS. Thoughts? ETA It now seems that some TwiHards have gone in and voted Gigli to the top.