Episode 55 — The Devil's Advocate: LIVE!

[admin 330]

STOP. RESET. This might be the sexiest/dirtiest movie we’ve done! Special guest Julie Klausner joined us to talk about The Devil’s Advocate on this week’s How Did This Get Made? LIVE at the Bell House! We cover everything from Keanu’s multiple southern accents, Pacino’s 30 minute monologue, and the insane double twist. Also, we debate with the audience over the country of origin of different actors, share our favorite Pacino line, and cast our dream sequel!

[Handinpants 91]

I love the live episodes and this is one of my favorite insane movies, so I was ecstatic when I heard that this was the next episode. Great showing on this one, across the board.

 

Indeed, I have splashed cold water on my face to jar myself back into reality, but I only ever got the idea from horrible movies and I have never questioned it because, despite being a grown man complete with a beard, I am a dumb child.

[Cabbagehead 61]

"Wait a minute hang on. I think you might want to re-phrase that."

Haha, I love you guys. Good catch Jason.

[ScotchBingington 11]

Wow, this episode really highlights what a terrible decision it was to show this movie for a high school English class. We had to write an essay about it and everything...

[JustinL 216]

Two words: Holy Water. My favorite single shot in the movie has to be Pacino's goofy smiling take to the camera right before dipping his finger in the basin of holy water. The camera whose point-of-view was supposed to be from, what, the cherubim painted on the wall of the church?

 

Thank you for making me watch this again. Funny thing about Keanu's sister being consistently unidentifiable: when I originally saw this in the theater and she appeared in the final scene, I didn't even realize she was supposed to be someone we'd met before. I only caught that this time.

[Gym Sockerman 1326]

Did June's Gainesville boner remind anyone else of the guy in the lit class that only read the first two chapters but wants to get some class participation points? I don't mean that as an insult to June, just really brought back memories.

 

I can't believe that I watched this whole movie a few years ago without realizing how terrible it was.

 

Edit: After hearing that Pacino monologue toward the end, I think I actually love this movie and want to see it again.

[boognish00 48]

Fucking great episode. I watched this movie with a friend in a 2 AM weed daze and it made just about as much sense as it ever will. One question though, were we to believe that the gun Keanu took from Coach is the gun he used to 'kill' himself? All of this taking place in what amounts to be a dream sequence is, as Jason would say, NEXT LEVEL BONKERS. Inside that alternate universe where Coach killed his family and Keanu commited suicide, Coach is now going on trial for the murder of his family, giving Keanu the gun he used to kill himself, and probably manslaughter charges for all the times Pacino was shot. Clearly the real moral of this story is more gun control and to close the lawyer/client firearm transmission loophole!!!

 

 

PS

Just a tip for Paul or whoever was operating the laptop during the show, if you go to the sound preferences > sound effects > you can turn off the feedback when volume is changed

[Joshie 125]

1. After Scott Walker/OWS union solidarity is totally in and the docks season has risen up. General critical consensus is season: 4-2-3-1-5

 

2. Can't tell if Paul was serious or not but Germany didn't co-opt the word "Deutschland" it's just that "Dutch" entered the English language way back when Holland was part of the Holy Roman Empire and we called all those people "Dutch" (Hollanders/Germans/Bavarians/Bohemians/Austrians, all the yellow/orange bits on http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Empire-Roman-Emperor-Charles-V.jpg ) and the way nation-states and the English language evolved after the Peace of Westphalia Germany became and a separate thing ended up that the only people that remained "Dutch" in the English language were in the Netherlands (north orange bit on http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Empire-Roman-Emperor-Charles-V.jpg)

[Handinpants 91]

1. After Scott Walker/OWS union solidarity is totally in and the docks season has risen up. General critical consensus is season: 4-2-3-1-5

 

2. Can't tell if Paul was serious or not but Germany didn't co-opt the word "Deutschland" it's just that "Dutch" entered the English language way back when Holland was part of the Holy Roman Empire and we called all those people "Dutch" (Hollanders/Germans/Bavarians/Bohemians/Austrians, all the yellow/orange bits on http://en.wikipedia....r-Charles-V.jpg ) and the way nation-states and the English language evolved after the Peace of Westphalia Germany became and a separate thing ended up that the only people that remained "Dutch" in the English language were in the Netherlands (north orange bit on http://en.wikipedia....r-Charles-V.jpg)

 

It's a comedy show. Of course he was being serious.

[RyanSz 3140]

I never knew that Pacino turned this down FIVE TIMES, though that was when he was still doing some quality movies. If it was today he would have taken the movie the instant he heard the title. I always wondered how the pedophile was acquitted when all Keanu did was confirm that the girl had basically played doctor with other students, and even more creepy in that scene was when he was badgering her with everything outside of calling her a soulless whore, she says, "I didn't want to be the only one," which means that the other kids lied, but she still contends that she was raped. Yet it's meant to show Keanu as the Devil's son as he doesn't care that his client his a kid toucher, he needs the win.

 

Also don't think Keanu is the worst actor ever, that battle is between Josh Hartnett and Hayden Christensen.

[PlanBFromOuterSpace 3138]

I hadn't seen this movie in at least a decade, having seen it once in the theater and maybe once on DVD, so I gave it a spin the other night, and I'm so, so glad I did. First off, I've owned the DVD since '99, so my copy is a first generation disc, and holy shit does it ever show. Of course it wasn't enhanced for widescreen TVs (they wouldn't really be around until the next millennium), so it looked like VHS quality, which is probably the way that this was supposed to be seen anyway. Perfect! Also, being that this was an early DVD, the chapter stops (there were more than 40) were all named and listed in the packaging, so you can accidentally ruin the entire movie for yourself in 30 seconds. OH, and if you click on "Recommendations" on the menu screen, it ONLY brings up Al Pacino and JEFFREY JONES movies. Apparently, Keanu and Charlize hadn't done any movies for Warner Brothers yet. They'd team up for "Sweet November" for WB a few years later.

 

Hmmmm, this might have made a nice double feature with a later Keanu film where he plays a guy that can interact with the spirit world that's basically trying to buy his way into heaven after an unsuccessful suicide attempt earlier in life (sound familiar?) damns his soul to Hell. "Devil's Advocate 2: This Time It's CONSTANTINE!".

 

While I've had issues with Keanu's non-acting in a lot of films, I don't think they could have picked a better guy for the "Matrix" films. He is PERFECT in the first film as the guy that doesn't know what's going on that has to have things explained to him very slowly, the ultimate audience identification character!

[imhatch 271]

i don't think keanu is the worst but my favorite guilty pleasure is the replacements, so ;_;

[seanotron 2307]

Woohoo! One of my favorite bad movies, ever. I was a little nervous about this because I knew it was recorded at the same time as the Anaconda episode and I felt that one lacked the usual energy. Glad to see my worries were unfounded! I'm also glad Paul pointed out the weird racial stuff. Poor Delroy Lindo, it's weird to think he was probably shooting this around the same time as A Life Less Ordinary.

 

And June Diane Raphael, don't you ever stop doing what you do.

[pbnews 93]

Just saw Jason on a print ad for "Enlightened" or whatever that show is on HBO. Can anyone recommend this show? Is it a comedy?

 

Love Jason, but hate every pay-cable "comedy" since Mr. Show (I just remembered "Curb", but other than that my point stands). Is Jason new to the cast? I don't think I've ever heard him plug that.

[PlanBFromOuterSpace 3138]

Oh yeah, does anyone that was around at the time remember the mini-controversy that surrounded the film shortly after it's release? Apparently, one of the paintings or pieces of art in Pacino's office was either used without permission or the artist had a problem with some of the crazy shit that was happening with it towards the end, so when the "Special Edition" came out on home video, the only thing that was special about it was that the artwork had been removed from the scene. I just looked it up on Wikipedia to be sure, and here's what they had to say about it...

 

"The film was the subject of legal action following its release. The claim was that the sculpture featuring human forms in John Milton's apartment closely resembled the Ex nihilo sculpture by Frederick Hart on the facade of the Episcopal National Cathedral in Washington, D.C., and that a scene involving the sculpture infringed Hart's rights under copyright law.^[8] After a federal judge ruled that the film's video release would be delayed until the case went to trial unless a settlement was reached, Warner Bros. agreed to edit the scene for future releases and to attach stickers to unedited videotapes to indicate there was no relation between the sculpture in the film and Hart's work.[9"

 

 

I forget, but did anyone mention that Taylor Hackford went on to direct "Ray" and had also directed "An Officer and a Gentleman"? Oh jeez, he also did the current Jason Statham/Jennifer Lopez joint, "Parker". If most of Statham's non-"Crank" work wasn't so horribly average and generic, I'd almost suggest doing a show on THAT film, since it stars two esteemed HDTGM alumni.

[Julia 477]

I never knew that Pacino turned this down FIVE TIMES...

 

I just want to know what changed the fifth time that made him say "Yes!" and then commit so hard to those crazy monologues.

[PlanBFromOuterSpace 3138]

i don't think keanu is the worst but my favorite guilty pleasure is the replacements, so ;_;

I was a fan of his as a teen, and I got a new appreciation for him after my dad got to work on "Speed". To this day, watching the movie with him is like watching the DVD if the only thing you could listen to was the commentary track. Anyway, my dad was working with people that were working on the freeway, and for the most part he was just doing his normal job the whole time, except for occasionally having to toss non-English-speaking workers out of the way of speeding buses and camera vehicles (their BOSS hadn't told them to move), but managed to get fed on 20th Century Fox's dime for 6 weeks and got to know the cast and crew. He managed to take a pretty great picture of Keanu that Keanu later signed to my sister, which made for a pretty great Christmas for HER. Apparently, he forgot to get a signed shot of young, nubile, about to break big in "Demolition Man" Sandra Bullock for ME, the bastard...

[RyanSz 3140]

While I've had issues with Keanu's non-acting in a lot of films, I don't think they could have picked a better guy for the "Matrix" films. He is PERFECT in the first film as the guy that doesn't know what's going on that has to have things explained to him very slowly, the ultimate audience identification character!

 

Well the funny thing about the first Matrix movie is that the director's purposely made it so that Neo never said more than five sentences in a row before his final speech at the end. Maybe that's how he should do all of his movies.

 

I just want to know what changed the fifth time that made him say "Yes!" and then commit so hard to those crazy monologues.

 

I think it was the under table BJ, they just hired a hooker and counted her as payment for Al.

[PlanBFromOuterSpace 3138]

 

Well the funny thing about the first Matrix movie is that the director's purposely made it so that Neo never said more than five sentences in a row before his final speech at the end. Maybe that's how he should do all of his movies.

 

 

And then that whole final speech was in voiceover, right? That reminds me of one of my pet peeves in films (though I don't think it really happens in "Matrix"), which is when there's narration or a voiceover and you can clearly tell that the person saying the words has never seen those words before, like it's a first take. I mean, those can be done over and over and edited every which way, the filmmakers and the actor saying the words can essentially cheat, and THAT'S the best they come up with? Maybe in those cases it's more of a last-minute "We need to add some sort of voiceover to spell it out for the slow kids" thing that's slapped together.

[Jamie Power 224]

I'm surprised nobody mentioned this mad bit of scriptwriting:

[seanotron 2307]

Ok, this is an example of thinking too deeply about a dumb movie, but I've always had a weird soft spot for this, so bear with me.

 

it seemed like Pacino-Devil had pinned all his hopes on Keanu to father the Antichrist. Yet we know he impregnated at least one other woman, thus Connie Nielsen, his daughter (assuming she was human and not a demon or something). Why not hedge his bets and go out and impregnate a bunch of women? Why could he only father one son at a time? And why wouldn't his son, Keanu, be the Antichrist? Why did it have to be his grandson? Did the Antichrist have to be a pure-blood? Was Keanu a muggle?

 

Also, I was confused as to why he just sort of walked out of Keanu's life after he was conceived, but seemed to be involved in Connie Nielsen's life for some time. Didn't she have Free Will? Why was only Keanu's choice important? Is there some kind of weird misogynist message there? Women are getting raped left and right in this movie and seem to exist solely as temptations, so I'm just not sure what to make of that. Even Charlize's character isn't necessarily 'good' even though they seem to present her that way, since she seems totally aware of the guilt of Keanu's pedo client and in the rebooted universe still questions why he's doing the right thing. Oi...

[TheChoctaw 8]

Thanks for the show guys, but I thought I'd add my two cents and say I'm not digging the live episodes.

[DubipR 485]

 

I just want to know what changed the fifth time that made him say "Yes!" and then commit so hard to those crazy monologues.

 

I'm sure it was the truckload of money that was backed to his home the sixth time that got him to be so inspired.

[grkpektis 3]

I think was one of the first R rated movies I was allowed to watch (I saw it when I was 12) and for a while I thought it was the greatest movie ever made, I still love it

[Skeevins 322]

Was it me, or did every gunshot in these clips sound like a Star Wars blaster?