Episode 55 — The Devil's Advocate: LIVE!

[Elrod_Dunwoody 0]

I was in the cigar shop this morning picking up some Arturo Fuente's when it hit me...

 

We remix this episode by removing Jason's audio (starting at the first snore) and replacing it with a loop of him gently snoring the whole episode (nobody likes to listen to him anyway). All other audio remains the same.

 

We package it as a B-side on the RoadHouse:LIVE cassingle. That shit will sell like hotcakes. Hotcakes! I tell you!

 

Fuckin' NAILED IT!!

[RyanSz 3140]

How dare you! Jason is a national fucking treasure.

[Ghost of HST 71]

Nothing like a crazy Satan movie! I think it's obvious but the over-the-top smooching of Keanu and Charlene was to show their lustful nature. Charlize's whole subplot was absurd though, wasn't it? Beelzu just wanted to torture her as she played no useful role except to be some sort of conscience to Keanu so why not just have offed? Oh yeah, free will. So torture her with demons and rape.

Anyhow, like Jason, I am always reminded of DeNiro as the Satan in Angel Heart. Definitely made when DeNiro hadn't descended into taking hack roles and he plays it much more finessed than Pacino:

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YQfiuHK_U84

[DeathToMikeyBay 130]

I had the exact same experience as June. During college this movie was playing EVERY NIGHT on the student movie channel.

 

I always had a big issue with this movie. The whole "free will" thing has always been the cornerstone of the entire Christian Devil mythos. Not to mention its repeating a dozen times in this movie. The whole point of Satan is that he uses man's own flawed nature against him through temptation.

 

But then you have Jeffrey Jones' character making the free will decision to testify against Pacino and...the devil kills him.

 

Later you have Weaver trying to prosecute Pacino and...the devil kills him.

 

Then you have Charlize trying to act as Keanu's conscious and...the devil harasses her to insanity then rapes her.

 

 

Free will, right?

[Quasar Sniffer 4174]

I had the exact same experience as June. During college this movie was playing EVERY NIGHT on the student movie channel.

 

I always had a big issue with this movie. The whole "free will" thing has always been the cornerstone of the entire Christian Devil mythos. Not to mention its repeating a dozen times in this movie. The whole point of Satan is that he uses man's own flawed nature against him through temptation.

 

But then you have Jeffrey Jones' character making the free will decision to testify against Pacino and...the devil kills him.

 

Later you have Weaver trying to prosecute Pacino and...the devil kills him.

 

Then you have Charlize trying to act as Keanu's conscious and...the devil harasses her to insanity then rapes her.

 

 

Free will, right?

So you're saying this movie has problems and inconsistencies with its narrative structure? ...Actually, you make a good point about one of the fundamental problems with this piece of crap. That is, nothing fucking matters. No matter what the characters do, Pacino's Satan In Pajamas is going to kill them and/or steal their souls. Go along with him? He gets what he wants. Stand up to him? You get murdered and he gets what he wants anyway. Refuse his temptations? He gets to call it vanity and, in the world of 'The Devil's Advocate,' that's the Devil's favorite sin and he gets what he wants anyway. So yeah, the movie just shat out two-and-a-half hours of pointless nonsense just so Pacino could yell in monologues and actresses could take their tops off. Fuck this movie.

[metaphiller 2]

My main takeaway from this movie is that the Devil needs to learn more patience.

 

Consider the facts: he's spent years setting up the perfect scenario to usher in the anti-christ. And early on in the movie, everything is going according to plan. He's got a solid hold on Lomax. Just keep feeding him headline cases -- you know, appealing to his vanity -- while he and his wife steadily grow apart. She shows little interest in adapting to life in NY and he shows little interest in slowing down for her sake. Give it a couple months, maybe a year or two tops, and she'd be back down in Florida with divorce papers in tote. That leaves Lomax open to pursue his attraction with the redhead. He doesn't even have to know she's his sister until much, much later. The only unease Lomax would experience is the occasional guilt pangs from getting criminals acquitted, which he's clearly already come to terms with.

 

It's perfect. Subtle. Devilish, even.

 

But NO. The Devil has to screw things up. Literally. He screws the wife, influences her suicide and asks Lomax to bang his own sister. Who wouldn't kill themselves after that?

 

So, Devil, a little advice: next time, have more patience. It's like that study with the kids and the marshmallows: don't grab the marshmallow right away. Wait the full three minutes and then get 2 marshmallows after the guy in the white coat comes back. Capiche?

[natezomby 0]

This and Desperado were the VHS tapes that got the most play when I was a teen. You can guess why.

[DeathToMikeyBay 130]

One thing about this episode: they totally should have brought back Pete Holmes for this. The dueling Pacino impressions from 88 Minutes is my personal favorite HDTGM moment.

[JacobCrites 4977]

I don't even like Pete Holmes, but him saying "What if I did, like, a bobble?" in a perfect Al Pacino impression is one of my favorite HDTGM moments.

[RyanSz 3140]

I actually just realized something about this movie and the "loop theory" that was brought up in the show. When Keanu is about to go to the bone zone with his sister, he cites free will and blows his brains out and foils Satan's plan for the Antichrist. He then wakes up back in the bathroom where he is defending the molester teacher. This is Keanu's personal Hell.

 

By killing himself he committed a cardinal sin and thus banishing his soul to Hell. This in turn gives Pacino as many chances as he needs in order to create the Antichrist because his son is now permanently within his domain, creating the loop for Keanu.

[DeathToMikeyBay 130]

and I also forgot to mention that "cigar shop cool" is the absolute perfect way to describe this movie.

 

I would almost bet money that around release, some promo for this movie ran on the cover of Cigar Aficionado magazine.

[DeathToMikeyBay 130]

ALSO I solved the whole time loop question:

 

 

The end was God looking down and saying, "Stop! Reset!"

[Mikeyfazed 65]

Quick question: When Pacino tells CHarlize to fix her hair, the ladies say that "the devil totally negs her".

I'm not familiar with this phrase... is it short for negate or something?

 

(Ps, I'm a new fan of the show, please don't neg me too hard)

[Shannon 2953]

Quick question: When Pacino tells CHarlize to fix her hair, the ladies say that "the devil totally negs her".

I'm not familiar with this phrase... is it short for negate or something?

 

(Ps, I'm a new fan of the show, please don't neg me too hard)

 

See there's this awful dude who calls himself Mystery and he wrote a book and had a tv show about how women are just stupid robots that can be tricked into sleeping with any old loser who puts the right combination of moves on her.

 

One of these moves is "negging" which is giving a girl a backhanded compliment. The logic being that she will become so desperate to prove to you that she's prettier/smarter/whatever than you give her credit for and she will then totally sleep with you.

 

Just a tip. None of this shit works. Don't do it. You'll probably end up with a drink in your face.

[RyanSz 3140]

But his name is Mystery, so his tips must be legit.

[imhatch 271]

please make sure to also give some real credit for being a shitlord PUA to neil strauss for writing "the game," which i think predates even ~mystery~

[seanotron 2307]

I just recently rewatched this on TV, and I noticed a line I had missed before. When Pacino is Pacinoing so hard in that last monologue, he says, 'I've had so many children and so many disappointments'. So apparently he has been going around impregnating women left and right. But for some reason Keanu is still The One, as even he points out that Pacino 'must need [him] pretty bad'. So badly, that he does that time loop thing instead of finding one of his other kids. Oi.

[diklein 0]

This is definitely my favorite episode. Every time I'm feeling down I just throw this on and start laughing hysterically.

 

Did anyone record a video of this?

[matthusmcc 2]

A special best-of edit of the Devil's Advocate podcast. I love this episode!!

HDTGUmmmmmmmm.mp3

[sarahmazing 5]

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.

 

I thought that line was her admitting that she lied about being molested by the teacher, because all her friends were molested by the teacher and she didn't want to be the only one who didn't get to play Special Places with the teacher.

[Dormanlap 1]

I thought he took off his wedding ring in the beginning to seduce jurors.

[dparekhee 0]

I didn't hear them mention this specifically. But crew talked about the voodoo guy, and how and why al pacino's defended him. And the crew had jokingly said he must have had alot of money.

But I believe that the goat he was killing was actually him sacrificing a goat to 'satan' and therefore, Al pacino defended him in court and got him off of all charges past and present. That was my understanding of all that.

[Joshie 125]

 

See there's this awful dude who calls himself Mystery and he wrote a book and had a tv show about how women are just stupid robots that can be tricked into sleeping with any old loser who puts the right combination of moves on her.

 

One of these moves is "negging" which is giving a girl a backhanded compliment. The logic being that she will become so desperate to prove to you that she's prettier/smarter/whatever than you give her credit for and she will then totally sleep with you.

 

Just a tip. None of this shit works. Don't do it. You'll probably end up with a drink in your face.

you're totally wrong here

 

1. strauss/mystery didn't invent negging as a technique, it's always existed as teasy flirting, or flirty teasing, they just gave it a codeword for nerds to recognize

2. you're wrong that it's meant to cut down a girl or program her like a robot. it's meant to be a parry to someone giving off a certain sort of reaction so you don't get flustered and learn how to flirt. nowhere does it say negging wins over a girl, just that getting flustered or angry totally destroys any chance you have of continuing to talk, so you need to keep to a rhythm. most dudes can do that, but some poorly socialized dudes that never had it explained have to learn to stay smiling and playful and engaged. it's about keeping the dude going in an anxious situation as much as engaging the lady

3. it's meant to be used on 9's or 10's (extremely attractive women) that have a certain attitude about getting compliments and know they are great so these sorts of things don't get under their skin and it stays playful. it's true that it doesn't work on most women, most women are not 9's or 10's and have insecurities that keep them from even wanting to joke about certain things. no one ever said "this is a catch-all technique go out and use it on everyday nerdy mousy girls to win them over"

[imhatch 271]

pick up artists are human garbage, dogg. sorry

[DeathToMikeyBay 130]

There's a definite element of teasing to flirting, but anyone who has to use ten billion acronyms to describe social interaction probably shouldn't be listened to. It's hard to tell who's more in love with acronyms: World of Warcraft players, the military, or PUAs. (If you're going to start a book burning though, be sure to toss in all copies of The Rules along with The Game)

 

 

ANYWAYS, just rewatched this movie again:

 

- Again, wtf "free will"? The devil RAPES his wife, kills Jeffery Jones before he can act on his will, and kills Weaver before he can prosecute his firm. Jeffery Jones can maybe be explained away as he made a deal with the devil and could be killed for going back on it, but Charlize rape and Weaver murder? And can inducing horrific demon hallucinations in someone until they kill themselves really be considered free will? The whole point of the devil is exposing the selfish desires of man. Forcing insanity on someone is cheating, dude.

 

- So you're soaked in the still warm blood of your wife. Aren't you in the mood to fuck this beautiful woman? No? How about I sweeten the deal by fondling her while telling you I'm your father? Does dad watching get you hot? Still no? How about I throw in the fact that she's your sister? What do you mean "answer's still no"? Okay okay, for a limited time only, I guarantee that she's ovulating right now and will become pregnant with your incestuous child who will destroy the world! Doesn't that make you just want to rip your clothes off?

 

- Totally disagree that the devil keep putting him in a time loop. Keanu kills himself, and the devil is so distraught that he appeals to god for the first time since he fell. That's why he transformed into a younger angel version of himself. God took pity and reset everything and of course the devil is going to make a 2nd try at it, coming from a different angle.

 

- Charlize morphing into Keanu's sister was just him fantasizing after being captivated by the woman at work, and becoming fed up with his wife's mental state.

 

- The monologue on Jeffery Jones made sense to me. It was bashing god's creation by pointing out how far people would go to fuck over everything just to get ahead and how it's reached unsustainable levels in the modern era.