Episode 168 - Hard Ticket to Hawaii: LIVE!

[taylor anne photo 11311]

Honestly, I'm just now starting the episode... because I've been binging My Favorite Murder... so to see that Karen Kilgariff is one of the guests today is making me lose my mind lol!

 

I'll have more comments later of course.

[taylor anne photo 11311]

Maybe. But after them sounding somewhat serious about Ninja Terminator being one of their most feminist movies, I want to nip any potential in the bud.

Okay yeah after actually hearing the beginning it is very obvious that they are joking about this being a feminist movie, but they have actually said that a movie passing the Bechdel Test is A+ feminism for a movie before so I agree with grudlian about nipping that in the bud.

 

I just want to say that the Bechdel Test is a good starting point. The reason why it was created was because that's literally the LOWEST you could possibly set the bar for women in movies and some still fail this test.

[The_Triple_Lindy 2482]

I thought "Hard Ticket" referred to it being a hard way to get to visit Hawaii. As in Taryn probably thought it was going to be an easy assignment to a wonderful part of the world but instead she ended up chasing murderous drug dealers and running from contaminated snakes on a former leper colony

 

That was my take on the matter, as well, and it seems to be confirmed by the lyrics to the theme: "It's a hard ticket to hawaii/it's not paradise all the time."

[FisterRoboto 7499]

"Let me know when you're done with your fucking stupid face."

 

Andrea Savage is the best.

[BenViolette 33]

Maybe. But after them sounding somewhat serious about Ninja Terminator being one of their most feminist movies, I want to nip any potential in the bud.

 

I 100% thought they were just making a sarcastic joke. The movie is very obviously just soft core porn.

[gustopher 5]

If this wasn't a Jacob's Ladder scenario, could we say it was an Snakob's Ladder scenario?

[Ofcoursemyhorse 1043]

I'm sorry, but why the fuck did they cover this movie. This is a like a half-step away from being one of those porn spoofs on Cinemax. Theres too many movies that are 1000% more appropriate for them to be doing than absolute garbage like this.

[Cameron H. 23786]

I'm sorry, but why the fuck did they cover this movie. This is a like a half-step away from being one of those porn spoofs on Cinemax. Theres too many movies that are 1000% more appropriate for them to be doing than absolute garbage like this.

 

But...snakes and shit...

[Ofcoursemyhorse 1043]

Yea its just painful to watch, I tried multiple times. But if no one on set gave a shit about what they were making, neither do I.

 

They havent even touched on any of the 80's/90's body switching movies and they're doing garbage like this..

 

SHAME!

[AlexSalcido 38]

No one mentioned the random scene with the gladiator babe doing the ritual dance?

[AlexSalcido 38]

Never mind it just popped up at the end.

[RyanSz 3140]

Do airplanes typically land on golf courses? Do they pull into parking lots like normal cars would?

 

I'm not familiar with the vagaries of small aircraft.

I think this should answer your question.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PZ8EeZoxjzk

 

As for Sidaris' Emmy, he won it in 1969 for his helping in the coverage of the Olympics, which is shared with seven other people. I can also save everyone the trouble of thinking if there is ANY connection between the films in this 12 movie "series," as there is nothing between the movies that connects, outside of the same actors being used and similar locations. One movie would feature a group of actors as the heroes killing another group which were the villains, and the following movie would feature most of the same actors but usually flipped in the roles of protagonist and antagonist. The latter few are basically just softcore pornos as while the first couple in the series had topless scenes that were basically done like mentioned in the show as being needing to shower or change into work clothes, etc. In the final few movies there are basically a bunch of scenes like the sex scenes in The Room with various subplots and quick gunfights in between.

 

As for Ronn Moss (Rowdy), I have to assume that he found the same fountain of youth that Keanu Reeves found because that man has not aged a day since this film or when he was on The Bold and the Beautiful, outside of a bit more gray in his hair. That man is still goddamn gorgeous. Also, with having him in the film, why the hell did they not get Player to do a song for the soundtrack or at least use "Baby Come Back" during one of the Jacuzzi scenes?

[LTL 154]

Can people at the live tapings please stop making "it's a jacob ladder scenario" reference that joke is done. Paul needs to shut it down next time.

[joshg 207]

The audience member brought it up, but the movie poster still poses too many questions to let go.

Donna says they haven't heard much from Cody Abilene, Rowdy's cousin, since he left the agency to become an actor.

So at the time of filming Malibu Express, Cody was either a) a spy, still in the agency, playing himself (maybe this was how he caught the acting bug, and that is this film's excuse for him not appearing in Hard Ticket to Hawaii, conveniently replaced by his cousin), OR already a full-fledged actor, playing a fictitious character in a made-up story.

Either way, are we expected to believe that Cody Abilene played a character named Cody Abilene? How often does one get a chance to play a character not based on himself, but exactly himself?

The boat named "Malibu Express" is a holdover from that movie, so we can speculate the Cody gave or lent the boat to his cousin Rowdy (Cody's dad owned a yacht club and built the boat). Which means that the previous Malibu Express is a cinema verite non-fiction film in this universe.

[joshg 207]

When they had ABC White House Correspondent Martha Raddatz play "Not My Job" on NPR's "Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me", the subject of the quiz was Andy Sidaris, who had recently passed away. The third question to Raddatz was as follows:

 

Mr. Sidaris was not unaware of his own limitations as a filmmaker. Which of these did he once say about himself?

A) I have the aesthetics of a newborn baby. Just show me the breasts, please.

I tried to watch a Woody Allen movie once but I walked out after 10 minutes because nothing blew up.

C) I couldn't spell "STORY" if you spotted me the 'S' and the 'T'

[RyanSz 3140]

I'm surprised at the guest's naivete about guys in the 80s-90s use of soft-core porn films like this as masturbatory fodder. If you were going through puberty back then, before the internet (and when I say "you", I mean "I"), then you sought out sources of inspiration from any available source. A glimpse of breast between the gray zig-zags that blocked premium cable? Check. The most side boob that they could get away with on "USA Up All Night"? Check. Renting the entire ouevre of Andy Sidaris from Blockbuster on VHS, because you were still too young to go to an adult video store? Definitely.

I now feel really old when this is brought up by my younger coworkers (18-20s) who have NO IDEA about scrambled channels or that one family member who had a black box to get free cable/PPV, especially in the era of where you can get porn on your fricking phone. As a kid going through puberty you always prayed for an adult movie to have a white background or setting because somehow that caused the scrambled channel to go unscrambled, so you had unfiltered free porn, albeit for a couple minutes, but that was like finding the Holy Grail for a growing kid. That was of course until you realized that the Drama section of Blockbuster is where all of the softcore or R rated versions of pornos were, unknown to most parents.

 

I buy DVDs for the library that I work at, and when the final Blockbuster in my town closed, my director decided to do some purchasing himself so he went nuts and spent almost a grand buying anything he could get his hands on at the store to use for our collection. I had to double check what he was getting because he too was naive about what was in that section, because I can tell you that parents wouldn't be too pleased if their kid brought home the R rated version of Pirates from Digital Playground.

[grudlian. 4725]

Can people at the live tapings please stop making "it's a jacob ladder scenario" reference that joke is done. Paul needs to shut it down next time.

There was an episode recently where Jason interrupts an audience member to say "I know where you're going and not every movie is a Jacob's ladder scenario." I was hoping this was a really good indicator to the audience that it's gotten old.

 

Placing the jacob's ladder scenario into the mind of a snake was at least so ridiculous that I kind of appreciated it though.

[Royboy 430]

I absolutely love Andrea Savage's appearances on this show. This movie is terrible softcore porn, but I reiterate what I said in another post; If they cover the other movies in this franchise with Andrea, it could easily contend with the Fast & Furious episodes.

[pscudese 701]

Regarding the opening credits, I can't think of another film which listed as many actors/actresses as "Hard Ticket to Hawaii" did.

 

We're talking 15 names people!

 

And of the 15 listed, one gem was totally shafted.... John Dunne.

 

You may ask what role did John Dunne play? Well none other then... SHADES!

 

 

How dare they disrespect John and the frisbee skills he bestowed upon this film. We must all cherish that he was simply no "thrower." And to further the frustration, Kwan Hi Lim who received the "Special Appearances By," simply played the roles of Bobby / Sumo Coach / Karate Villain.

 

You tell me who else could have done a better job of selling the shit out of a razor blade disc to the gullet?

 

 

Bravo Shades! Bravo! You shall not be forgotten!

[The_Triple_Lindy 2482]

It's a hard ticket to say anything about a movie where there are equal numbers of bras and bazookas ... and the only bra in the movie was worn by a man.

 

But I will say that I was pleasantly surprised by the movie's treatment of the Michelle/Michael character. I like others figured that Michelle was a man the second the character spoke, and I was almost immediately on-guard for a trans-phobic Ace Ventura "Finkel is Einhorn" moment considering the ridiculous racism and casual mentions of rape that had already taken place on-screen by that moment. But no ... the wig and make-up just came off and no mention of it was ever really made after that. The worst is when Taryn calls her the "wannabe female bartender." So, kudos (?) to this movie's one progressive-ish moment.

 

However, as much as I loved Andrea Savage on the show, she needs to let go of the word "transvestite." No judgement really, since I didn't know until recently how pejorative that word has become.

[The_Triple_Lindy 2482]

So, after they save Edy and are driving away in the van, someone asks "What about Seth?" and then Rowdy shoots out of the back of the van on a motorbike. And we don't see him again until later in Donna's house while she's fighting off Seth and then the snake ... where he comes bursting through the wall, still on the motorbike! What the fuck has he been doing the whole afternoon?!? Was he out all day, biking around, looking for Seth? And where was Seth ... hiding out in Donna's apartment?

[SweatyPremise 28]

Okay yeah after actually hearing the beginning it is very obvious that they are joking about this being a feminist movie, but they have actually said that a movie passing the Bechdel Test is A+ feminism for a movie before so I agree with grudlian about nipping that in the bud.

 

I just want to say that the Bechdel Test is a good starting point. The reason why it was created was because that's literally the LOWEST you could possibly set the bar for women in movies and some still fail this test.

From my understanding of Bechdel's writings, the Bechdel test was itself a joke about how low the bar is for female representation in Hollywood films in the first place. Did I misread her book completely? I thought in its first version "Two women discussing something other than their appearance" and the second revised version, "something other than their appearance or a man" it was intended to illustrate the paltry and pathetic offerings for women, even in supposedly empowering films. Wasn't Aliens her first and only example? Or am I misremembering?

 

Anyways, I think more blatantly offensive in this movie is something that was touched on in the podcast by Andrea or the other guest--why was the half Chinese guy obviously white? They didn't even do old-style Charlie Chan style yellowface. Talk about white-washing. What is it with movies in Hawaii and white washing? Isn't there one with Emma Stone?

 

This movie makes no sense on any level, but I have to make a public service announcement. If anyone is tempted, don't listen to the vitamin guy's advice. You can most certainly eat too much vitamin C. Even in the amounts he suggests, taken in conjunction with all the other vitamins, you would most certainly get ill.

[Quasar Sniffer 4174]

WARNING: CISGENDER WHITE MALE OPINIONS ON FEMINISM AHEAD!

 

The Bechdel Test being the most prominent measure for feminism in media and art (or at least movies) is problematic at best. Sure, it is one useful tool to measure how women are being represented, but it definitely does not tell the whole picture (as other, more intelligent people on this board have already pointed out). It would be like going to a doctor for a physical and getting your blood pressure measured, then the doctor clapping his hands together and saying, "Well, that's all you need to know! My work is done here!" If Hard Ticket to Hawaii passes the Bechdel Test, it is only a function of the film attempting to achieve a Maximum Tits-Per-Minute ratio, thereby necessitating making its leads a pair of, I believe the academic term is, "Chesty Broads." If, say, a romance film doesn't pass the Bechdel test... well, that's probably because a romance film is about relationships so EVERY conversation is going to be about the object of that character's affection. Obviously, a well-rounded character will have more things to talk about than the object of his or her desire. The Bechdel test is definitely useful when, if it were applied to men (do men have conversations with each other that aren't about women?), and it passes muster in that context but fails when traditionally applied, then we have a fucking problem, no matter the genre of movie, action schlock or romance.

 

When applied to something like Fun Home, the work Allison Bechdel herself is most known for... it doesn't really pass. Fun Home is about her childhood and her relationship with her father, how dominating her father was in that ironically named childhood home hers. So of course it doesn't pass the Bechdel Test because her first 18-or-so years were so dominated by her father, so any narrative about that period in her life would be consequently dominated by her father. Even her relationships with other women are shadowed by her father's disapproval of her lifestyle. But if I were to say that Fun Home doesn't have an assured, original feminist voice, I would be FULL OF SHIT. And Hell, Bechdel herself credits a friend of hers with coming up with the test, and she got the idea from an essay by Virginia Wolf.

 

Soooo.... I guess I'm asking America to take a more nuanced and sincere look at the way women are represented in the media, even beyond one simple test? Not a tall order, right dudes and dames?

[Quasar Sniffer 4174]

But about Hard Ticket to Hawaii and the women in it... I could not help but genuinely enjoying the friendship between the two women. I think part of it was all the Bond conversation, which I admit I am a sucker for. My Bond fandom does not reach the intellectual potency of a Matt Gourley or the technical specificity of a Matt Mira, but I do my best. Plus, My Best Friend in the Universe is as much of a Bond fan as I am, and the fawning-over-Bond conversations I've had with her are reminiscent of the way the Bond fan (was it Taryn?) talks about Bond here. Maybe in jest, sure, but that immediately made me a fan of her so I was on board with whatever kind of shenanigans they would get into, as long as their banter and friendship remained. I know it's a totally subjective characteristic to get attached to, but it is an ACTUAL CHARACTERISTIC on a character that might otherwise have had none. She had jokes and was allowed to be funny! It made the movie worth watching (other than the rocket launcher to the blow-up doll)

[grudlian. 4725]

WARNING: CISGENDER WHITE MALE OPINIONS ON FEMINISM AHEAD!

 

The Bechdel Test being the most prominent measure for feminism in media and art (or at least movies) is problematic at best. Sure, it is one useful tool to measure how women are being represented, but it definitely does not tell the whole picture (as other, more intelligent people on this board have already pointed out). It would be like going to a doctor for a physical and getting your blood pressure measured, then the doctor clapping his hands together and saying, "Well, that's all you need to know! My work is done here!" If Hard Ticket to Hawaii passes the Bechdel Test, it is only a function of the film attempting to achieve a Maximum Tits-Per-Minute ratio, thereby necessitating making its leads a pair of, I believe the academic term is, "Chesty Broads." If, say, a romance film doesn't pass the Bechdel test... well, that's probably because a romance film is about relationships so EVERY conversation is going to be about the object of that character's affection. Obviously, a well-rounded character will have more things to talk about than the object of his or her desire. The Bechdel test is definitely useful when, if it were applied to men (do men have conversations with each other that aren't about women?), and it passes muster in that context but fails when traditionally applied, then we have a fucking problem, no matter the genre of movie, action schlock or romance.

 

When applied to something like Fun Home, the work Allison Bechdel herself is most known for... it doesn't really pass. Fun Home is about her childhood and her relationship with her father, how dominating her father was in that ironically named childhood home hers. So of course it doesn't pass the Bechdel Test because her first 18-or-so years were so dominated by her father, so any narrative about that period in her life would be consequently dominated by her father. Even her relationships with other women are shadowed by her father's disapproval of her lifestyle. But if I were to say that Fun Home doesn't have an assured, original feminist voice, I would be FULL OF SHIT. And Hell, Bechdel herself credits a friend of hers with coming up with the test, and she got the idea from an essay by Virginia Wolf.

 

Soooo.... I guess I'm asking America to take a more nuanced and sincere look at the way women are represented in the media, even beyond one simple test? Not a tall order, right dudes and dames?

First of all, I agree with all this and also, I'm a man just to put my perspective in it's proper place. I'd like to hear more how women on the board feel about this though.

 

Second, as pointed out earlier, I don't think Bechdel herself ever meant this to be a legitimate test or certainly not in the way it's caught on. I think it has some validity for seeing trends in large groups of films or for comparisons of groups of films (movies in 2017 compared to past years or action films compared to other genres for examples). Since the test is such a pathetically low bar, one would think that most films pass but the vast majority don't. So, in my mind,it's purely a numbers/statistics measurement of representation not necessarily good representation.

 

The Bechdel test's other benefit is that it's an unquestionable list. Either the film has two women talking to each about something other than a man, or it doesn't. Measuring if a film has complex, nuanced female characters is harder and is much more opinion based. So, the Bechdel test can be used in conjunction with other measurements that might be out there that I'm not aware of. We need both more representation and better representation.