Fairs & Islands

Islands

Reegs: Welcome to Bad Dad's Film Review. The podcast that is to cinematic analysis as a coconut shy is to neurosurgery. This week we are discussing the top five fairs, a topic that promises to go round and round in circles, achieving absolutely nothing, which to be fair is indistinguishable from any other week on this podcast.

We'll be examining more fixed games than the North Korean Olympics and more dodgy rides than Dan's dating history.

thanks.

Our main feature, Caesar Marooned with Yan Ola Augusta's Islands starring Sam Reilly as a tennis coach whose idea of serving involves more cocktails than backhands in a film that manages to be both a meditation on stalled ambition and regret.

And the only movie this week, as far as I'm aware, to feature a deceased camel being extracted from the sea by helicopter proving that sometimes symbolism requires heavy lifting equipment. Before we start handing out goldfish, that will be dead by Tuesday. It's fair warning for you. We are about to ruin more endings than a faulty condom at a swinger's [00:01:00] party, and our vocabulary contains more filth than a Victorian chimney sweeps lungs. So if you value being surprised by plot twists or not being assaulted by gratuitous profanity, you've wandered into the wrong tent at this particular show.

But for everyone else, let's meet the deformed specimens that Victorian showman would've hidden out of basic human decency. Starting with Dan, he's so old, he remembers when fairground attractions were just watching someone get drawn and quartered for entertainment. And his capacity for giving a fuck has been out of order longer than the Chernobyl Ferris Wheel.

True

Dan: True story, thanks. Freaks,

Reegs: Manning the kids attractions in second place. Someone who's been furiously operating the machinery this week and has consequently developed a reputation for getting people off far too quickly and leaving them vaguely disappointed. It's sidey. Hello. And then there's me res. Hello

Sidey: Bon is Jo

Dan: Pon jour. Have you been watching up to much make some words out that,

Reegs: Yeah. Who? Who are you directing that at?

Well,

Dan: Well, anyone you

Reegs: Go on side, what

Dan: [00:02:00] one of you two for sure.

Reegs: What have you been watching up Too much?

Sidey: Definitely something.

Reegs: Okay.

Sidey: Okay.

Oh, I did, I watched, I got the wrong end of the shitty stick and I watched the wrong thing for the pod.

Reegs: Oh yes.

Which

Sidey: was discussed on the group, but not final. So we might do a, a conversation about that later on.

Reegs: And what was that?

Sidey: The island of Dr. Morro.

Dan: Well, we've got new equipment.

Sidey: Yeah. We're gonna trial the new equipment whilst talking about that and maybe keep that as a bonus episode for another time.

I can't remember if I watched another movie or not. I don't. Cool. No, let's say no.

Reegs: No Christmas stuff.

Sidey: I have fucking hell. I've seen home alone again.

Dan: What?

Sidey: Yeah. Soon as the tree went up, they wanted to watch that. So we watched that. Oh, there was something. What

Dan: fuck Tree's up.

Sidey: Oh, yes. Yesterday watched the Grinch Stole Christmas.

Okay. Yeah.

Reegs: Strong recommend or No.

Sidey: I mean. It's stylistically quite impressive, but it's just like, it's not my vibe really. Okay. So no. What about you?

Reegs: I've carried on with ppl. [00:03:00] Reverse the Apple TV thing, been watching. Is it cake, the holiday

Sidey: All right. Is it

Reegs: it is cake sometimes. World's most dangerous roads on I play is quite good.

They have the some comedians and whatnot. There's

No, no, no. A lot of sort

Sidey: of, I mean, you've not seen it all yet though.

Reegs: Just a one episode pretty much,

Sidey: maybe they do. Who

Reegs: knows? There's four Seasons, so Christ.

Sidey: Christ, that seems like a

Well, it seems like a, a theme that doesn't really need four seasons.

Reegs: It's as much about the chemistry of the people as it is about the fantastic country that they're driving

Sidey: in.

Okay.

Dan: It's a nice hotel too, isn't it? Did you watch any Christopher Collects? Have you seen that

Sidey: Yeah, I watch that all the time. He found the Northern Ireland Commonwealth Games coin The day it was 50 p.

Did you watch that one? No. Oh, it was really, he was fucking really excited. I think it's worth something like 90 quid if you

Dan: Wow.

Sidey: So he was amped about that as was I watching it? It was good. Yeah. So, what did you watch, [00:04:00] Dan? Anything

Dan: I've, I've started watching with the current. Mrs. Daniel,

Sidey: the current Mrs. Is there plans to upgrade her

Dan: she current?

No, she's current. I, I started watching Mr. Mercedes with Brendan Gleason.

Reegs: seen that the first two seasons of that. Right.

Dan: of that. Right. Okay. So you'll realize how. Fucked up. It is. And how

Reegs: how far into it have you

Dan: so I'm like episode three or four,

Reegs: Is he getting jacked off by

Dan: Yeah. Yeah. From the beginning. And it was just like

Reegs: the music's good, isn't it?

Dan: Yeah. No. Should we let Nelly watch this with us? Like No. It was, yeah. Really kind of uncomfortable and it just makes me look at my, and we are

Reegs: I read the first two books as well, Mr. Mercedes. And

Dan: well then you, you might be able to answer me. Does. Is it a standalone series or do I need to,

Reegs: one and two kind of roll into each other and see?

I think season three is, I haven't seen season three. I think it's different season

Dan: three. Okay. Okay.

Reegs: one and two are sort of contained [00:05:00] story.

Dan: I'm not sure I'm gonna get all the way through it because it's just so dark with that kind of mother, son.

Reegs: Yeah, it's a lot of mum son jacking off. Yeah,

Dan: off thing.

It's

Reegs: it's just gone on side's.

Watch list. I

Sidey: Yeah. Should, well, do you want to just refresh your memory of what our last top five was?

Reegs: It was

Sidey: It was,

and we had a nomination.

Dan: What

Sidey: I'm sorry to break this to you, but we've gotta go all the way to Australia. Let's not talk cricket. But Mel has come up, trumps with an obscure jewel Aussie band,

Dan: right?

Sidey: U-M-I-U-M-I.

Yeah. They have a song called Jewels and Bullets in which the singer songwriter Tim Rogers wrote after reading a book about the Romanov murders and the theory that Anastasia survived because she had jewels sewn into her dress, which stopped the bullets.

Lifesaving jewels.

Dan: like that.

Sidey: and this week's top five is Faires and we've got some nominations for that. 'cause I got around to posting it on

Reegs: Oh, nice.

Sidey: So when we [00:06:00] get to that,

Reegs: we can have some premature affairs.

Sidey: We can talk about that.

Dan: Good stuff. Thanks for that, Mel. I haven't really been watching much else other than lots of mountain climbing videos

Sidey: Oh yeah. You're playing a new one,

Dan: yeah.

I'm, I'm planning, I'm planning a trip to Nepal and I'm gonna go and climb a mountain.

Sidey: I, I will wager that people are, are clamoring to find out about our walking football result this week.

Dan: Yeah. Tough game. One each

Sidey: one. Each. Yeah. We remain top of the

Dan: We remain top of the league. We remain top of the league. And we walk on.

We walk on.

Sidey: We walk on. Yeah. Should we get into the week's top five?

Dan: We should do.

Sidey: We won't have that blobby sound effect when we use the new equipment. Do

Dan: I'm so gutted about that. Well this is top five faires and all that goes along with that. I mean, fair hair, a faires any other

Reegs: anything that's got the letters. FAI and R in it. In it,

Sidey: in that order,

Reegs: Well, who knows?

Let's be generous.

Dan: But there are quite a lot of [00:07:00] fairgrounds and

Sidey: theme parks?

Dan: yeah, yeah. yeah. that's,

Reegs: there.

Sidey: No. Okay. Nice.

Dan: that's fair enough.

Reegs: I didn't wanna go too close to circus territory because there's, you know, we've had

Dan: we don't wanna do that. But no, you can, you can have certainly faires I've got Pinocchio.

Sidey: Yeah, Alright.

Dan: because Pinocchio it still disturbs us today, doesn't it? That story of the little boys going into the fairground and I mean, it's dark. That isn't it really dark story again, just of how kids were getting snatched by people and you had little Jim Lee Cricket trying to stop it and it wasn't happening.

And you've got these. You know, these,

Reegs: just, the idea that lying would make your nose grow is just a terrifying, like,

Dan: Yeah. And and getting turned into to donkeys and, and slaves effectively all these little kids a cartload of boys to be taking the pleasure island. [00:08:00]

Reegs: Yeah. Epstein Island,

Dan: they, get to go onto all these amusements and made to, to feel kind of.

Great and fun, but then the, the boys start trans transforming first in the ears and the teeth. And then they're into to donkeys and the coachmen gets them into slavery and drags them off for the, the kind of salt mines or whatever it is. Yeah, it's they're all the, the kind of bad boys that never had a chance and they get whisked away there in pour Pinocchio.

Sidey: He's a real life boy.

Dan: He's a real life boy. So there, that's a fair and it wasn't fair. That really was it. Guess not.

Sidey: I guess not guess.

Reegs: I guess

Sidey: Notre

Reegs: well, I, I think in a World's First for this podcast, I'm gonna vote for something that shouldn't be in the top five.

Okay. But it's what I keep thinking about and is endlessly spinning around my head. It's simply Red's,

Sidey: I've got that on the list.

Dan: Wow.

Reegs: I, I despise that song.

Dan: [00:09:00] Pleasure At the Fairground? Yeah.

Okay.

Reegs: Yeah.

Sidey: That was off the Stars album I think.

Reegs: Was it? Right?

Dan: was.

Sidey: My mom used to the album quite a lot soon.

Dan: after that.

Reegs: parents loved that album.

Yeah. They loved Simply Red.

Sidey: There's a video that I keep seeing of him on TikTok as in like an older man still doing it, but they've dubbed over someone just going I general really? It's really funny.

Reegs: Has he still got

Dan: number one for ages.

Reegs: dreadlocks?

Sidey: He's still got the hair. I suspect he probably dies it 'cause it's, you know, he's older than us.

Dan: He's still got a good voice. Yeah. He's had loads of plastic surgery.

Reegs: Yeah. So as for my nomination, I'll go with the Muppet movie 1979, if you remember that. Canonically, at least in that. Muppet movie the first time that Kermit and Fozzie Bear run into Miss Piggy is at a county fair. And although there were several beautiful farm animals in bikinis that day.

Nice. He picked out piggy.

Sidey: yeah. I'm gonna go, well, there's quite a lot of world.[00:10:00]

Reegs: Yes.

Sidey: various different TV and film. Medium. Yes. World's Fair is some sort of thing that gets moved around the world and is like a sort of. Fair. Do you remember over here you get like the trade fair?

It always seemed to me like it was, there wasn't like fairground rides, it was more just a, a showcase of

Reegs: of, the first one was in 1939 in flushing Meadows in New York. Yeah. And they had like displays of futurism and stuff there, and Jack Kirby and some of the comic writers, comic book writers were there.

And they took inspiration from a lot of stuff that was on display for things that came out in the late thirties and early forties. The very beginning of comic books, including things like Iron Man and stuff like that. and then with, you know, the world art eating itself, then in the Iron Man

Sidey: Man too, he recreates. Yeah. The, the thing from the stuff. But the one that I really like, and it's one of my favorite Simpsons episodes, is where they fake an ID and get a driver's license and steal a car. Yeah. And then [00:11:00] they drive, they go into the world. Fair. And it's like a really old one that's been gone for like 30 years and it's just a, it's just a we a wig storeroom.

But on the way they just do some funny shit. And at one point Nelson reaches out the car and slaps some guy around there. He just screams at his kids in the car and they go to a concert there and they do all sorts of funny stuff. But when they get to the World's Fair, they're all like Crest fallen.

'cause it's been gone

Reegs: It's dilapidated. Yeah. Well 'cause the real world fair was a financial disaster

Sidey: I think it collapses on them as well. They, they, at least, they certainly destroy the building. Yeah.

Dan: You've got kind of, record fairs as well that we could add in there, but I've got a a bit of a quiz, actually.

Oh,

Reegs: Oh yes. On

oh,

Dan: do I have, do I have two quiz competitors?

Sidey: in,

Dan: Okay. So it is a, it is a multi-choice multi answerer, multi multi quiz. Okay. And it's gonna really put your. Your general knowledge of, of fares to the test. I think a lot of people out there will be screaming the [00:12:00] answers to this, but let's, let's test yourselves.

The manufacturer famous for its hydraulically launched rollercoasters such as the King of Dar and the top Phil Dragster. Now the top thrill two was it Bollinger and May Bard? Was it.

was

it? Or was it M rides?

Sidey: M rides

Reegs: The second one.

Dan: You are saying it's inter min?

Reegs: I'm intermittent.

Dan: It is into Min.

Huh? You

Sidey: didn't even know what he was picking.

Dan: he was picking. He knew exactly what he was picking. He is the second one he said. He's won up already. The, the European amusement part that can be found and attracted, FLY first launched the flying coaster and the longest of its kind. That is the question. Is it Europa Park e telling Fantasia land or Port eventual world?

Reegs: The first one, Fantasia Land.

Sidey: that wasn't the first one.

Dan: wasn't the first one. The first [00:13:00] one was Europa Park. It is Fantasia land. It is

Sidey: one. Fucking got it wrong and I got it. Right.

Dan: Right.

Well, which rollercoaster manufacturer is known for popularized in hyper coasters. That's rollercoaster is over 60 meters tall.

Of course. Yeah. With attractions, like, and I might be making this too easy now. Apollo's Chariot and Nitro.

Sidey: Mm-hmm.

Reegs: Oh, they did Apollo's Chariot. Of course. It's

Dan: I Is it Gusti Leer, right? Is it Premier Ride? Is it Bollinger Mayard again, b and m or is it Rocky Mountain Construction?

Reegs: Is there a German one there? What was the first one?

Dan: It was Gutes le. Think they're Austrian, actually. But

Reegs: don't think you'd pr what you

Sidey: I'm going the last one. Rocky. Rocky Mount Construction. Yeah.

Reegs: I go for Premier Ian or whatever it

Dan: Premier,

in, it's the premier rides and I think you'll find, and I, I knew it is Bollinger and Malabar.

Yeah. The attraction steel vengeance at Cedar Point is a hybrid conversion, wooden [00:14:00] steel of an old wooden rollercoaster. What was the original name of the ladder? Was it mean streak? Was it the Son of a Beast? Was it the Rattler or Colossus?

Reegs: The Rattler

Sidey: Main Street.

Dan: It was mean streak. You knew that one.

You knew

Sidey: in two. One

Dan: Back in two, one. I'm gonna bring, again, just for the people I can hear out there asking for thi this kind of question. The Dutch manufacturer of a coma is particularly known for mass produced in a specific model of inverted, rollercoasters and boomerangs. What is the name of a coma most common inverted rollercoaster model?

Is it the SLC, the suspended looping coaster, the Flying Dutchman, the Invertigo, or the giant inverted boomerang.

Sidey: I think it's the SLC.

Dan: It is the SLC. You've just paused. It causes the

Reegs: so we got now here we go

Sidey: It's a tiebreaker. The tiebreaker.

Tiebreaker.

Dan: There's a couple of questions. I could be going back to the [00:15:00] Dutch, I may go to the Japanese for this one, but it's.

I'm giving Riggs you, you did get the Fantasia land question right earlier. The Terran Raic are two intertwined rollercoasters located in Heim themed park at Fantasia Land. Yeah. What is the manufacturer of these two attractions? Is the Gertz layer, is it the intermittent, is it Matt Rise or is it the co.

Sidey: Scratch there, isn't it?

Reegs: No,

it's interim again. It

Dan: It is interim again.

Sidey: it did so well to bring it back. Absolute

Reegs: I know that. I know how Fantasia

Dan: that it I'd just like to

Sidey: oh, raging.

The

Dan: holiday Park,

Sidey: Fucking gonna sleep tonight.

Dan: and and at interim for the sponsoring this one. Thank you.

Let's get back to the serious questions hand. It is

me.

I'll tell you what's big.

big. Yeah of course it's

Sidey: it's old. Yeah.

Dan: And Tom Hanks goes [00:16:00] big or he goes small from big. He's, he, he is big.

Reegs: He just gets off of like, I remember the scene because he, he can't get onto the ride. He's too short, isn't it? So we've got like, he needs to like literally be

Sidey: beaten. Mm-hmm.

Dan: Yeah. It's he's, he's Josh at 12. He's, he's embarrassed to be seen with his parents at, at the fairground. He's too short to go on Super Loops. And so he, he spends his. Quarter on an arcade game called Zar Speaks and makes that wish. And he wakes up being big.

Reegs: Yeah. And

Dan: And

Sidey: it, but still a child, a It was bigger than that, Dan.

Dan: It was bigger than that. It's it kind of yeah, showed us what big kids would be getting up to if they were kids and they were big

Sidey: Mm-hmm. and

Reegs: yeah,

Dan: he ends up being a success in a.

Sidey: deep.

Dan: An entertainment kind of factory shop, I think they call them or just shops.

Reegs: No, he bring,[00:17:00]

he

Sidey: he becomes a toy exec, doesn't he? Yeah.

Reegs: He brings a childlike quality. Would you believe it? To the,

Sidey: and it's sort of statutory rapes in a way.

What's her name?

Reegs: It's a good performance from Tom Hanks,

Sidey: I found him much less irritating back then.

Reegs: Well, because he was pretending to be the kind of idiot that he just is later on,

Sidey: saying. yeah.

Reegs: What about Fara Ba.

She was in a movie that you watched,

Sidey: Oh, she was in Dr. Morrow.

Reegs: She was in Dr. Morro. She made her debut as Dorothy Gale in Return to Oz, which talked about this on the pod quite a few times. She was in things to do in Denver when you're dead the craft. If you remember that one, but witchcraft that came back, I think they did like a reboot of it.

Or other credits include American History X, the Water Boy, almost Famous and a personal favorite of mine. Bad Lieutenant Port of Cool New Orleans. The name Fara is of Persian origin, meaning turquoise. her father gave it to eyes [00:18:00] apparently, but that's got to be bullshit 'cause he hadn't seen them.

Surely. Well, I suppose you can name them after they're born. Did you do that? Did you name it yours? After they were born or did you have an idea?

Sidey: No, I had no idea

Reegs: because some people change it, don't they? In the first like couple of weeks they go, oh, Jimmy. And then,

Sidey: yeah, me won. They weren't sure. Were they with the second? Yeah.

Dan: We, we knew our first from the off, that was, that was a done deal.

And we only named Nelly when we saw her. Like literally like

Reegs: you had no ideas or anything. You hadn't tossed around

Dan: We, oh, we, loads of, I loads of ideas, but Nelly hadn't come up until we saw her, which was just. Yeah, that was her mom chose that. Have you had any norms did you say?

Sidey: I have, yeah. Yeah. I was just, I haven't, we have, who do you think you are?

Yeah, Darren Leafly because I put this on discord yesterday when I was replying to Mel. So he has come up with Babe, that's the county fair. Oh. Where the sheep

trials.

Dan: film that

Sidey: It goes down. Meet me in St. [00:19:00] Louis. That is actually the 1904 World's Fair, which we, we talked about world fairs. Kevin, the teenager from Harry Enfield's television program.

That's so unfair. Is his catchphrase nice fair game. Not very good. Action film. Mostly known for starring Cindy Crawford,

Dan: right?

Reegs: Oh yeah. It's on my list that their sexual chemistry is only matched by their acting ability. Wow. And I mean that in every sense

Sidey: And then I think his, his main one is Men in Black.

It's more, more world fair. This, this 1964 Worlds Fair where the the ship is the top of the Yeah. Pavilion thing. Yeah. So strong World's fair content. Thanks, Darren. And then I've got some musical ones if you like. We've had Fairground, obviously from Simply Red. What about Scarborough Affair?

Remember that? Yeah. Simon and Garfunkel teamed up for that one. And then there's various other ones, but Bruce Springsteen, who I'm a big fan of there's a song called Tunnel of Love, which is a a literal fun, fair ride as a metaphor for his relationship. Right.[00:20:00]

Dan: right?

Yeah. We talk about,

Sidey: you've got the album down.

It's the Tunnel of Love Tunnel, the title track from the album of the same name.

Dan: There, there was a, a few that we hadn't mentioned, black and white films always used to go in. There'd be fairgrounds and things like that and general shoot 'em ups that would go in there. We watched that film where it was Bradley Cooper.

What was that? Remember that one? It was

Reegs: nightmare Alley. Yeah.

Dan: at the fair as well.

Reegs: Stan

Dan: was. That was quite a, a spooky one Brighton rock, which kind of connects to our main feature this week because although the original one back in 47 starred Richard Attenborough and was a real hit and a really good film, they remade it.

With Sam Riley later on, and we watched it for the pod in the early episodes of the pod. I think it was Howie that chose that one. And we

Sidey: of us knew going into it that it was gonna be that bad. So when we all watched it and [00:21:00] started talking about it, we were like, man, that was fucking turned.

Dan: it was, it was awful. And he, Matt Riley.

Done control that I'd seen before. Sam Riley sorry.

Sidey: his best role

Dan: Matt. And it is still his best role. I thought, actually we'll talk about it later, but I thought he was getting back to some of his best with islands actually. So that was another one, Brighton Rock where it does kind of go along the there's a, a fair, it's on a peer in all the rest of it,

Reegs: Yeah. There's so much to choose from, but how long have we been going? Are we more likely on non sort of time? What about, oh gosh. Go on. You do decide. You go.

Sidey: Well I've got a scene that takes place in the Prorata FFA in Vienna. Oh, on the Vienna Rising Rad giant Ferris wheel. Are you down with that one? Yeah.

Yeah. The third man. It is where Harry Lime has appeared and he's with his mate, Joseph Conn.

Dan: Yes, I think it is. Yeah.

Sidey: And [00:22:00] he sort of. Because theyre, he realized he is a racketeer and, and all these, like, hooky medicine is causing fucking hideous amounts of like carnage. And Caroline doesn't give a fuck as long as he is making money and he is trying to sort of appeal to his ethical side, which he clearly doesn't have.

You know, how can you do all that? And he looks down there at the top of this Ferris wheel and they just looked down at these people and they're just little specks on the ground. And he says, what does it matter if we just, you know. Squished, they're just ants and we just get rid of a few, doesn't make any fucking difference.

And he's like, wow, you are fucking cold. He doesn't say it that he's, it's a much more he's much better vocabulary than that. But the, the, the message is the same. And we realize that this guy that we've seen who's super charismatic and a real charmer is actually just a real fucking bastard. Great, great film.

I think we did, we did do it for the pod, didn't we? And it was well received by all.

Reegs: it. No, I didn't

Sidey: have you ever seen it?

Reegs: No.

Sidey: Oof.

it's a

Dan: of my, it's one of my favorite, certainly black, black and white films. I think it's, you know, it's

Sidey: it's one of the ones that you've seen.

Dan: It's one of the ones I've seen that that's [00:23:00] definitely it.

There's another, I dunno whether awesome Wells just liked those kind of fairground scenes or that being a period of the time where that was. What people went and did, you know, that was their entertainment, these, these kind of fairgrounds and things. And they would travel around. But the lady from Shanghai also ends up at a scene where he, he gets kind of distorted within the world of mirrors and everything and has those double meanings.

Is this the guy you're looking for? Is it the right person? And there's a, a great scene there. So, I was gonna do third man as well, but I'm now changing to another Oron Wells Fest. So the, the lady from Shanghai.

Sidey: Nice,

Reegs: Nice, nice. I'm gonna do the Tooth Fairy.

Sidey: serial killer thing.

Reegs: No. Dwayne the Rock Johnson.

Sidey: Oh, right.

Reegs: He's a hockey player. He specializes in knocking people's teeth

Sidey: out. Yeah,

Reegs: Because that's characterization. And he is even, he's like mean as well to, [00:24:00] he steals a six year olds like dollar that's gone under her pillow when she's lost her tooth and like. Nearly tells her that it's all bullshit. and, then is spirited off to the, by the tooth

Sidey: Is it his best role?

Reegs: It's the essence of pure cinema.

Dan: Wow. Okay. Is it actually any good

Reegs: no, it's fucking awful, man. It's

Dan: Well, that's our norm then. Yeah. We've, we've had those ones. Can you beat 'em? Can you get better than that? Otherwise they're all

Sidey: them.

Yeah.

Dan: I talked about this for a couple of weeks actually, since I was on a plane and watched it. And I rarely remember films that I've watched on a plane.

I dunno why I was drawn to this.

It wasn't because I knew any of the actors particularly well. The runtime, I think comes in around about 97 minutes or something. That might have been the influence because after I'd watched Gladiator [00:25:00] or whatever else I'd watched on there I needed to just have a, a shorter film, but

Reegs: it's about an hour and 48, something

Dan: 47,

Reegs: something. Yeah.

In that region.

Dan: okay. In the region of 47 or 48. And. It's with our oh, friend of the pod Sam Wiley. Yeah. And when I say friend of the pod, he's well, he won't, he won't stop, you know? Contacting his just leave us the fuck alone, please, Sam. Ever since we, we slammed his performance in Brighton Rock.

He's not left his alone, but we did like him in control and thought that this actually was him back to some of his best. And he plays a tennis pro. Ex pro who's retired to the, not retired. He's, he's found work. He's pretty much retired. I mean, he's just getting pissed and partying because his job's so easy at a five star resort, being the tennis coach.[00:26:00]

Reegs: that, that is all Ventura.

Yeah. In the Canary Islands, that is all revealed nicely in the sort of slow burning, like first 50 minutes of the movie. It's like the first impressions of it. He just wakes up, face down on in the sand.

Dan: Yeah.

Reegs: Doesn't he? It's one of a few times that you'll see him.

It's

Dan: It's beautifully shot actually.

There's lots because of the sand dunes and the blue

Reegs: Well, and also it was using cinemascope, so it has, it like really evokes the sixties or seventies type feel to it. And that's reinforced through the choice of the fonts and stuff that they use as well. It's like really quite cool stylistically

Dan: So it's kind of a psychological drama and it's, it's slow moving.

It is not Patterson's slow Pete, so you're okay if you can handle that, but it isn't an action movie. There's, it's more intriguing over to the relationships of people. So things are going pretty well in the sense [00:27:00] that he's just cruising through life. He's. Getting drunk. He's,

Got

Reegs: with him face down in the sand, don't we? And then he walks back to his truck and has some water. It's obviously not the first time he's done this. His truck just abandoned on the side with the door open where he is crashed out on a sand dune. And then the camera pans right across, doesn't it to the show, the sort of holiday the, the hotel where he.

Works. And it's, it's exploring One of the themes that I really like at the moment that you're seeing in lots of stuff like the White Lotus, like the difference between the people who serve and the people who you know the people who work there and the people who holiday there. So yeah, he turns up to work late as he always is, but I think in the morning, his first couple have always, it's a French couple and they never turn up to their,

Dan: yeah.

Reegs: lesson.

Dan: he's in his forties. He's got no kids.

Reegs: Is he as old as that?

Dan: He's

in and around that late thirties maybe he's drinking too much. He occasionally kind of has [00:28:00] sex with like tourists and things, and then they head off. It looks from the outside and all, and you hear it a couple of times with, oh, you're living the dream.

You know, when he is having. A drink with people that are playing tennis with him afterwards. And

Reegs: Well, it's got this sort of Groundhog Day, almost like structure to the first few bits of it. So you see him living the hedonistic lifestyle, but you know, pretty quickly you

Dan: zero commitment, zero

Reegs: alcohol at work.

You know, and he's like sleepwalking his way through. It's a great physical performance from him 'cause he is put on a. He looks like a tennis player. He is, got the physique of and shoulders and build of a tennis player. Like he's really like done it and he's clearly like on absolute autopilot no matter what the level, whether it's little kids, whether it's like old people, he's sort of making them feel all right.

But sometimes there's people who are a bit better and he, you can see he can do a little bit more as well, but

Dan: And he's, he's kind of coasting on past glories a little bit as well. He's, he has had a past where he's played some [00:29:00] big guns, which we'll learn a

Reegs: learn a bit about, we also see that he, Maria, a hotel receptionist, he's always asking her, can you do me a favor?

He's always asking her. That's like the first thing he says and he's always calling that in. And another local couple in a bizarre scene really. They own a camel farm and this camel keeps escaping that they own a female camel. She's a metaphor for him, his own. Desires to escape that he's not really leaning into yet.

Dan: So he's,

Reegs: oh, and he's nicknamed ACEs. Do we, have we found that out yet?

Dan: Yeah, I think, I think

Reegs: people are calling him that we'll get the story for it later, but everybody's calling him Ace

Dan: one one day. This kind of younger English couple turn up and they've got their, they wanna try and get their 7-year-old son playing tennis.

And so

Reegs: Anne, her name is Stacey Martin. She, you can see her getting fucked by Sheila Leber in Nymphomaniac.

Sidey: Okay. Strong recommend.

Reegs: She's kind of got the fem [00:30:00] fatal type noir quality to her. She's very seductive.

Dan: They look like you know, ravers or, or piss heads from another time, but now they've got a kid and they're, they're trying to get on together.

He's made a few quid and they're prepared to throw money at at stuff and they're kind of saying, look. Do is this, we can pay you double the price and everything. We just want to, you know, get him playing tennis and everything.

Reegs: We've already had had hints that the dad's a bit of a douche before we meet him.

Right.

Dan: And dad's a bit of a douche. but he

Reegs: gives, he gives some tennis lessons to the boy and it's clear that he's had a bit of instruction or whatever, and he's actually got some natural ability, which will ring into the plot later as they subtly suggest that this kid is actually his son. But, where does it, where does he go? He sort of gives her a lesson and it goes off really

Dan: well. They, they, yeah. They, they get on well, they go for a meal. They say that, oh, do you want to be a tour? And he says, well, actually I've got a day off [00:31:00] tomorrow. I could show you around the island a little bit. It's actually not as bad as that.

Their room's pretty shit. And he helps him sort out a better room. That's right. And they kind of feel indebted to him.

Reegs: It's not an, you know, he's, he's gravitates towards her a bit

Dan: he fancies

Reegs: sleep with her. He likes the boy as well, and also he's had this little challenge the first time he met the dad where they had a little rally and it's clear that the dad's played a bit, but I still, Sam's character Tom isn't, it, is still a bit

Dan: he's a, he's a better kind of player and, and doing it. But it also makes you feel, is there something else going on the, the film, there's just the way it shot, you think have, have they got a history? This girl? 'cause the way she looks at him and the way she,

Reegs: she'll drop a few stories and things and something will emerge in the plot. But also there's a thing of like, he knows where he is and you see him getting more and more like desperate with his life.

So does he envy this life. The beautiful woman, the marriage, the the son. You know, [00:32:00] a little bit And is he feeling washed up and

Sidey: unfulfilled? Unfulfilled, yeah. yeah.

Dan: And you, you get that sense? And, and he goes out with Dave despite his. Sort of know him better and he gets talked into going into the, the nightclub where he normally ends up

Reegs: after

they've had an argument.

Dan: as soon as he gets in there, Dave the douche is an absolute douche and he's looking for drugs and getting drunk and trying to act cool

Reegs: He's teetotal

Dan: girls and things.

And he's, you know. Normally a a bit of you know, up for that kind of stuff himself, but he's, he's not, now, I dunno whether he's feeling bad for the misses and he's saying, well, you know, you came out with me and I'm not gonna start trying to pull some other girls. And they, they get split up anyway and then he goes missing the next day.

Dave's missing. Yeah. He's vanished without a

Reegs: Well we cut to, he

Dan: tumbled into the sea after a drunken.

Reegs: Well yeah, it [00:33:00] suggested that bit, suggested earlier. 'cause he's going along the rocks and stuff, isn't it? It's really stupid.

But yeah. What's his name? Tom just wakes up, face up on a,

Dan: yeah, he's, he's

Reegs: deck chair or whatever knowing, not knowing what the fuck's going on. He goes to the tennis lesson and obviously the boy, only the boy and the mom are there, but dad isn't. And he's

Dan: like, there's, there's initial kind of panic and she calls the police. Yeah. But as that kind of progresses and he doesn't get fi found, she just seems to give less and less of a fuck

Reegs: she goes more and more snake bite. Yeah. She, as it seems the time goes on, she seems to give less and less of a shit about finding Dave.

Dan: She's sipping back like martinis in, in the

Sidey: sipping on gin and juice

while

Dan: the the, the cops are checking

Reegs: There's a really dodgy moment where he's like, oh, he nearly slipped over there. And she's like, oh, here's his phone. And you're like. Really, but it's like, yeah,

Dan: yeah, he's

got friends in the police [00:34:00] force that kind of let him get away with drink driving or certainly kind of turn a blind eye to it 'cause it's just a, a tour horse town to, to go in nowhere and,

Reegs: well, he was gonna give her tennis lessons. The

Dan: he was, he was promised that the policemen daughter some tennis lessons, but. Eventually starts running out of of favors with the police and they become really suspicious of her. And he says, no, she was with me at one stage.

Reegs: he does.

Dan: we didn't see that. So we are thinking,

Reegs: and there's a really bizarre bit. She abandons her child completely. Just leaves him in the care of Tom. Like completely unannounced. She just goes off, we don't know where she is and he has to do a whole day with him, like, you know, takes him to the beach, takes him to

Dan: well he starts filling that fatherhood role, doesn't

Reegs: Yeah. And he seems to like it a little bit as well.

Dan: and there's this tension between him.

There's load more evidence that Dave isn't coming back and that [00:35:00] he's but. Alarm bells are kind of ringing and you're thinking, has she somehow topped him because she's caught lying a couple of times to the police? Yeah,

Reegs: she said she, that she's caught on CCTV going out the hotel after. She said also the phone, it turns out definitely was planted. There's a police inspector over from the mainland. It's all starting to build up and build up and build up

Dan: police inspector. Yeah, the police inspector from the mainland, he thinks he's Colombo and like the, the copper. He knows. He goes, look, the guy's just strolling off and he's, it's happened before.

He's fallen into the sea and he's, he's got drunk and then there's a helicopter. And

Reegs: Yeah. 'cause they, they found a body unusual and they're like, where you're like, oh shit, he's it.

That is what happened. He did slip in the water. Did she push him? We won't know. And all that. And then they go in the water and they bring the body out and it's a camel. It's the camel that wandered off. The one that always wanted to escape at the beginning, had wandered off and drowned. And then Dave does turn up like really just.

It's [00:36:00] like a sucker punch, almost like, it's like a anti-climax in a way. Dave just turns up. He did get drunk with some people and then he went swimming, took all his clothes off, went swimming, got picked up on a party boat, ended up somewhere else, and

Sidey: then,

Reegs: you know,

Sidey: just been living the dream

Reegs: a little bit, well, no, actually he's really, he ends up quite

Sidey: Oh, he is got

Reegs: He's in a hospital and that sort of thing, but. Yeah, it goes back. And so the reason they'd fallen out is that the son that they have, he had learned that he's infertile.

Sidey: Oh dear.

Reegs: And she talked about party hopping seven or eight years ago. And he's been on that party lifestyle for that same sort of thing.

So the son with the could easily be his never resolved 'cause

Sidey: they Oh, so there it is not explicit. No.

Reegs: No. She never even looks at him again after that. She never even looks at him again. Like there's a deliberate scene when they're getting on the bus where she's. Just doesn't look at him so they go and then the next scene is him rushing back and going, I'm going to the airport.

And I thought, is this gonna be some like big romantic declaration of love or [00:37:00] whatever? And he gets to the airport and he gets her to the ticket desk and he says, I just wanna take it

Sidey: Basically he just wants to get out as well.

Reegs: He's just like, yeah,

Dan: and that's it. He's had enough end, end of

Reegs: and there is a scene that we missed that.

So part of his backstory as Ace is he was really good. There's been a, he played as a training partner with Raffa. Nadal in the story of the thing, and Nadal struggled on his surf. So his is really a story of like very much unfulfilled talent. He had an injury. Yeah. It threw him into this lifestyle, like lost his way completely.

Dan: Was a really kind of understated film. Understated performance. It's not a lot of dialogue or words.

Reegs: A very physical performance. The tennis seems believable enough to

Dan: Yeah.

And it, I, I dunno, I mean, it's, it is a story of, of a guy who's just you know, it's very normal kind of story at the end of it.

Where you just think this guy's just terribly unfulfilled. He's looking for solutions. [00:38:00] There was a real kind of lovely orchestral

Reegs: The score

Dan: through as, as well. Yeah. He's, he looks great actually. He looks, you know, he does look the every inch, the, the tennis pro. And I just really liked his performance actually.

I think that's what stuck with me as much as anything else, like in control. I remember him being really great in that movie. And in Brighton Rock I remember thinking, fuck, you know, this is just.

You

Sidey: I don't think that Wolf was bad because of him. No, it was just a bad film,

Dan: but he didn't help it.

Whereas this one, I think he did help and

Sidey: I don't think he's the kind of guy.

I don't like him, but he's never gonna sell a movie on his own.

Reegs: I don't know. After this I was really ta I thought he was really strong in

Sidey: this. Well, I should Tracey that, but say I didn't see

Reegs: I had nev, you know, on the fence ness, but he was very strong in this. It's a great character. I think the first like 50 minutes to an hour is, is a bit stronger just because there's so much tension. And then because Dave, the [00:39:00] dynamic, the love triangle, all that stuff, and then soon as Dave disappears, it changes the movie.

It's not. Worse, but it changes the energy of it. And no, I really like this. It looks fabulous. The score is great.

Sidey: Who directed this? Do we Know Ya

Reegs: Jan Ole er,

Dan: er, er,

Sidey: Oh, German, is it?

Yeah.

Reegs: Yeah. Really a standout performance from Sam Riley. I thought he was truly great in this and like really interesting themes for like about men.

Like, you don't often see a sort of sensitive side or open emotional side of men. And that was something in this

Dan: Yeah,

I was it, it is, it is, you know, low voltage if you like. There's not a lot going on as far as action if you are after that. But the underlying tension and and performances really made it stick with me. And it, as I say, I, I watched it on a plane. Often I'll forget films that I've seen on a plane, [00:40:00] but this one stayed with me.

Reegs: I resented you picking this because it was so damn hard to watch legally, but I did watch it on the BFI player and that's where you can watch this movie. Nice. And it is well worth watching.

Definitely

Dan: strong recommend. Well, that's it. What a solid week of choices. Well done to anybody who's involved in that.

Sidey: Well, yeah. Good. Well done. Done. I think we ought to maybe do something Christmasy next week. Yes. Because

Dan: is it already?

Sidey: year or certainly holiday themed,

Dan: wonder if any, if anybody's got any recommendations for a Christmas film.

Sidey: that I I did see that there's a new Michelle.

FIFA one FIFA on Prime.

Reegs: I'm watching Elf with the Kids and they've never seen it at the weekend. I think so we could do that.

Dan: Maybe get their review.

Reegs: Yeah.

Elf

Sidey: yeah. Well, we'll, we'll figure something out. El could be a bit up for Elf. That's good, isn't it? We are gonna great. We're gonna do a little bit of experimentation with new equipment and see how that goes.

Reegs: Mind altering new equipment,

Dan: times. Okay, well, Dan's gone.[00:41:00]

Reegs: It. It's good Night from Res.

Sidey: Reed's. All that remains. It's to say Sunny signing out.