Nightmare Alley & The Amazing Digital Circus

Nightmare Alley

Reegs: Welcome to Bad Dad's Film Review, the podcast that's doing for film review what Jeffrey Dharma did for dinner party hosting. I'm your ringmaster for tonight's Crimes against Humanity, and this week we are erecting our big top and juggling more balls than your mom for a circus themed episode. So expect us to make jokes that land about as well as a morbidly obese trapeze artist.

We kick things off with a chat about the top five circuses, and this week we'll be ranking them by how many animal cruelty violations and human dignity infractions they've racked up over the years. Next up our main feature, Guillermo del Toro's, 2021 Film Noir Homage Nightmare Alley. Caution Retail about the dangers of ambition.

Much like this podcast is a caution tale about the dangers of giving middle aged men microphones. And bringing us to Climax. Climax this week is viral sensation, the amazing digital circus, and it is absolutely bonkers, I can assure you. Let's introduce the evolutionary mistakes that somehow [00:01:00] avoided being naturally selected out.

Starting with Dan. He so old that when he was born, the bearded lady was just every woman over 30. When he is not busy complaining about his deteriorating joints, he's giving precisely zero fucks about your opinions on cinema.

Dan: True.

Reegs: Then there's Chris, a man whose film taste is narrower than an anorexic thigh gap.

It does, if it doesn't involve at least one dismembered corpse and a detective with a drinking problem, Chris would rather watch his own parents' sex tape. Interestingly this week he's willingly put us through a two and a half hour psychological film noir proving that even lost cause causes can occasionally surprise you.

And in third position, the man who just like a clown car, knows exactly what it's like to have dozens of guys inside him. It's

and then there's me res Hello?

Sidey: Hello?

Cris: Hello?

Dan: Hi.

Reegs: Yeah, so do we want to talk about the walking football? Because, you know, let's just get it out

Cris: there. What else? Are

Reegs: sitting with two world champions, I guess, or

Sidey: or might as well be.

Dan: [00:02:00] I think so. Yeah. The Mighty Sim ones. Yeah. We, we just took it on and walked all over the world, didn't we?

Sidey: The first Symons team ever to win the walking football

cup.

Dan: The walking football FA cup.

Reegs: you've got a medal, haven't you?

Dan: We've got, we've got a

medal.

Reegs: Have you got it on now or where is it?

Dan: It's

too heavy to actually wear all the time

Sidey: Being mine unfortunately, was a, was a victim of celebrations on

Dan: snake bite. Might have gone a bit overboard and brokens normally I, I damage the, the cup and I think that's why our,

Sidey: that made it that

Dan: we didn't bring it out

Sidey: Yeah. But we did.

Yeah, we did win that. It was great. It was good fun. And we got like monstrously drunk afterwards to celebrate. So good times.

Reegs: And you can see drone footage of Dan scoring the goals.

We should put it on Discord

Dan: It, it didn't eclipse the, the best moment for me this season still, which

Sidey: Oh, Pete again.

Not

Dan: Pete and but it was right up

Reegs: as well.

Sidey: Yeah. Yeah. So that was good. Did anyone watch any non homework

[00:03:00] stuff?

Reegs: Not really.

Dan: I did actually, I've started to watch the, the second season of the Star Wars

Sidey: and or, and or

Yeah. Yeah. I've

Reegs: the first episode of that.

Dan: that. Yeah.

So I'm up to season episode three

Sidey: Right. and

Dan: really enjoying that. If it hadn't have been the fact that I got kicked off the tv

Sidey: kept going. Watch more Yeah.

Yeah.

Dan: But the weather here has been fantastic. So, you've wanted to be outside

a

little bit, but then when and ORs on, you're thinking, oh God, I could actually sit here and watch it

Sidey: Like all the, the mundane stuff

like the wedding and you're like, yeah, it's

good It's like normal stuff.

Not Skywalker

shit. Yeah, it's good.

Dan: So, that was the non homework stuff we've been watching. We've also been going through house. The Hugh Laurie thing. Yeah, just never ending. It's never ending. Every single week somebody has a seizure every single week. It's not lupus. And every single week I'm just like, my ears are hurting and bleeding because of his [00:04:00] accent.

But

Sidey: Yeah.

Reegs: But you keep going. It's,

Dan: okay because it's a family thing.

Cris: Surely there must be something better than that as

Dan: Yeah. But I, I'm, I'm like third vote in a vote of two, you know, it's

Cris: I understand.

Sidey: What about you, Chris?

Cris: I've watched whatever the last episode of Moland was, because again, these dicks don't release the whole thing,

Sidey: Oh. so annoying.

Cris: Which I, I didn't actually, I, I, I can't be too critical because I think I've only found out about this, well, I knew about it, but I only

caught

up with it and watched it the last couple of weeks.

Sidey: So Right.

Cris: watched three or four episodes in, in a week, and then now another three, and I think

Sidey: six old, yeah,

Cris: six or seven, so I can't be too critical, but I'm never gonna watch it until it finishes and hopefully it finishes otherwise they can fuck right off with a second season.

Of

Reegs: of course. Yeah.

Cris: The, this last episode though was quite good.

Tom Hardy goes in a, like full on military AK 40 sevens. Proper angry. I [00:05:00] don't think I've seen anything else except for the homework. And even that I might have fallen asleep at a few times

during it is just, I, I've been working quite a lot this week. I worked seven days this week, so I didn't really

Sidey: time

day and night.

Yeah.

Cris: Yeah. End night. Yeah. Two nights and, and seven days.

Sidey: Yeah. it's hardcore long

Cris: for me.

Dan: Crack the whip like a, like a circus performer. You are. That's pretty intense. It is, yeah.

Sidey: I, I watched Eurovision?

yeah.

Cris: Who won? Austria.

Sidey: Austria?

Dan: They beat

Israel in second place, I believe.

Sidey: Israel

in second place. Are have

Cris: though?

Dan: heard any of

Cris: are they in Europe?

Sidey: the Brit, the Brits gave full marks gave their full marks to the Israel one.

Dan: Was

it any good?

Sidey: is weird politically and

mostly 'cause the song, I thought the

song was shit.

Dan: Right? Well, normally it's quite a political

Sidey: I just, I

like it when the songs are weird, wacky, and like

big

and GA camp, you know, gay and whatever.

Estonia

was good.

Sweden's was [00:06:00] good. Quite like Finland's one. The

commentary

who

Dan: who did it?

Sidey: It's was

Graham Norton.

Oh, was it? And he's just like

quite sarcastic

or whatever there

was the,

the, the Polish entry. And he's,

going, when they're introducing a meal, he'll do

a bit 'cause they, they

will be foreign

language or whatever and

he said, oh,

they, just to warn you, there will

be some flying in this performance

Prepared

to be

disappointed. And It was

disappointing. It was quite funny. The Brits one it was just to me, looked like three drunk women on a Hindu shouting it

was Fucking

crap. I'm not surprised. They got zero points.

From, from the public. It was Yeah. they do, they do a, they do like a panel vote and the public get to vote.

And they didn't get any votes.

Public. You can't vote for your own nation. So that's probably why. But I wouldn't have voted for anyone. It's crap.

Cris: Right.

Sidey: Right. I would've voted for Estonia. I think they came third. But yeah, it was good

overall. No, it was a bit of a letdown actually. There wasn't enough

Reegs: It

doesn't sound like there was any one big standout

Sidey: When they

when they come out and they do a proper song about,

oh, I'm so, [00:07:00] in love, and like, Fuck it off. Get the weirdos on, you know?

Reegs: Wearing something preposterous, singing a

Cris: Well, last time Austria I wanted was when there was that girl with a bid.

Sidey: Oh, yeah,

Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. And there was none of that. There was none of that. No. So I'm out.

Reegs: That's very on theme though,

Dan: I was about to say. Yeah. I thought that was Go with a beard. That's

circus ish.

Yeah.

Cris: It segues quite nicely into whatever you watched.

Sidey: Oh,

Reegs: Nothing really.

Cris: So so nightmare

Reegs: mean, it was a bit of Lego masters and whatnot, but in our house it was all

Sidey: co masters.

Dan: difficult to juggle it all,

Reegs: guess,

Sidey: what we

did, we did,

the contribution that we did have online was in relation to our,

oh, she mcg

our happy Gilmore episode. Did you see that the crocodile died?

Reegs: died. I know.

Sidey: So now, you know, they've got the shot on the roof of

Reegs: The, as the movie ends, it's got Abraham

Sidey: Lincoln. for some reason um, Chubbs and they are now all dead. It's, [00:08:00] it's become true. Top five. some

Dan: and, and shoot mcg. Gavin made a, well, he made an appearance in our cup

Sidey: he? did.

He did. Yeah. He celebrated, like shoot mcg. Gavin. We did have a nomination online for top five snakes for Mel. Mel is in Australia, which, as

Reegs: she knows her fair share about snakes.

Sidey: She's

nominated, That's Yeah. She's nominated the Black Mamba from Kill Bill. And also Don't forget Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets Res.

You are now Harry Potter Convert. Which one are they talking

about?

Reegs: Chamber of Secrets of second one. Is

Sidey: It's the bass Lisk from that Yeah. He uses the Bassett's tooth

to

stab the. Tom Riddle's diary,

which is one of the haw cruxes. I,

I know,

I know I know. You know all that. Anyway and Mel also has gracious with a picture of a snake, which is trying to get into her house.

It's on

our patio.

Dan: wow.

Reegs: have a look. Have you got it on there? On

Cris: Yeah,

Sidey: have got on there. it's a

Cris: fairly big snake as well. Not, not, it's not a giant

Sidey: So that's, that's in

Australia. So almost certainly you could kill a thousand people with one

[00:09:00] venomous blow. Yeah. So yeah. Good.

Reegs: does she say? What kind of snake it is?

Sidey: She says a black snake.

Cris: Yeah. Black.

It looks quite shiny though. I dunno if

Sidey: This little red belied black snake tried to get in

my house. recently. Yes. They are extremely venomous and not welcome here.

No, I would say amen to that. Should we talk about circuses,

Reegs: please?

Dan: should we go round, round, round or

or

Cris: the roundabout?

Dan: The roundabout.

Sidey: the um,

Yes. Him.

Dan: Okay. No, I think, Chris, it's it's your week.

Cris: Okay. The Greatest Showman.

Dan: Okay. Right next. Um,

Reegs: Yeah.

Dan: I've, I mean, that was Hugh Jackman, wasn't it? Yeah. And the,

Sidey: Zendaya,

Dan: the soundtrack seemed to really inspire people as well, didn't it?

Reegs: We loved it in our house.

Dan: popular.

Sidey: Well, this

was when you. You had a big musical thing when your eyes were there. worse, didn't you? Yeah, yeah.

Cris: And I had to apologize to Pete because it is probably, I think because this was we, we reviewed it for the pod and [00:10:00] it was a time when I was at the formerly, the place, formerly known as Project 52, and we recorded it there, the, the talk about this episode.

And I watched it and I thought it was fucking shit. Yeah. And, after my eyes my eyes incident and when I couldn't see much. So I listened to movies. I had to, to apologize to Pete 'cause he nominated it. And I know Rowan, his son, his eldest, really loved it. And he loved the, the soundtrack, which I have to say I, I quite like the

Reegs: oh, it's a bango.

Yeah.

Cris: And and, and whenever Pete would pick me up to, for me, his five children to go to the zoo together, and I was the, the one that couldn't see. So his children were like, why is Chris not following along? I can't see. Anyway I, I got the, the, the music and were singing along the car and all that. And it was, in the end, it was really nice.

But I'll always remember this because it was I've seen it like actually with my eyes, but then I've re-listened to it without being able to see. [00:11:00] And I actually enjoyed it, as a, as a kind of visual and. Sound film. I, I, I really enjoyed it, so I I thought it has to

Dan: Yeah. It, it's it never really grabbed me to be honest, but it was hard not to be taken by the enthusiasm everybody had for it and for the, the show tunes and everything it played. And although it wasn't, you know, maybe I'm wrong about it. Maybe I'll need to revisit it and I'll get into the

Sidey: I don't think you can be wrong about your own opinion.

Dan: Oh, I can be frequently but at least I can, I can change my mind and my mood. Sometimes you're just not in the mood for that kind of movie. And then it, you know, you go, oh, that was shit. So I might revisit it in a, a little while and, and change my mind. Do you know there was a man that applied for a job at the circus and he goes well what can you do?

He said, the owner, he said, I'm really good at bird impressions. sorry, we've already And the guy goes, okay. And he just flew out.[00:12:00]

was

The film that I thought of when I first thought of this theme was Freaks.

Sidey: Yeah.

1932.

Reegs: Todd Browning.

Cris: Did you see, did you actually see that

Sidey: was in it?

Dan: I actually, actually

Cris: It was like, he must have been

Dan: I actually saw this film when I was a kid and it left. What an

Reegs: I think it was a kind of rite of passage thing when you, were you sort of early teens or have you seen this movie Freaks? There was a bit of an element

Dan: I was even younger than that. I would've been in single digits. I think when I,

Reegs: when it came out? Yeah. In 1932.

Dan: It was, you know, it's, it's about all these very strange looking people and,

Reegs: it

uses real sideshow acts from the thirties and obviously in those days they weren't shy about like putting people with disabilities and deformities essentially, or I don't know what they were on stage. But then it was reasonably revolutionary because they're all portrayed essentially as more human [00:13:00] than the humans in it.

Like the, the woman and the man who have a kind of love affair at the center of it. They're, they're depicted as really awful and in fact they get turned into freaks at the end of the movie. Like,

that's the, is she like a chicken or something? It's something really bizarre. It

Dan: It was a really strange, strange show, particularly as, as a kid to, to see it and, and you write the, the actual, you know, the freaks as it were. They were lovely. They were, you know, the real salt of the earth people. And, and it was the others that were really kind of the assholes.

But then it got flipped around and turned. But if you've ever seen that now, you'd probably, you know,

Reegs: it's coming up to a hundred years old and it shows in it, I mean, you

Cris: never gonna be the same impact.

Reegs: Well, it would have actually, it would be really still fairly shocking for a lot of people because the level of

Sidey: of Yeah. what [00:14:00] people were doing

Reegs: Yeah. Or what they would depict on screen real kind of disability is, is quite

Dan: so when we said circuses, that was

Sidey: suppose like the ultimate one would be

the elephant man.

Reegs: Mm-hmm. Yeah.

Dan: Yeah. Yeah. John Merrick

Sidey: that world. Yeah.

Dan: And, and this is it. I mean, you think of London Zoo that was. That's how it started, you know, London Zoo, the, the actual buildings and things that it used to be in asylum.

Sidey: right.

Dan: And then they, people would go there in the Victorian days to go and see people who had clear mental health issues as we would know. Now they would go and pay, you know, money to see them running into, you know, the walls and things and screaming at the top of their doors to say, oh, you know, they're absolutely nuts these people.

A little bit as we lead on to our main feature this week how they were making money from, from people with mental health illnesses and things, but then it turned into a [00:15:00] zoo years

Cris: Right. Okay,

Sidey: Right.

Reegs: Oh,

well you said freaks. That's what I had prepared. Well, big the plot of

Dan: Yeah. Right.

Reegs: Is

off

when a kid can't go on a rollercoaster, he is not big enough.

And then he goes off to find, is it Zoltan or Zoltar

Sidey: you,

Reegs: And then he gets to have sex with Elizabeth Perkins, which is just fucking great.

Sidey: Yeah.

Reegs: And he's 13.

Sidey: So it is been sort of Okay. Peter

Cris: all around.

Reegs: Yeah. Just, and we can all just enjoy it. 'cause the eighties and we can just go, she's really hot and now he's Tom Hanks, so it's fine.

Sidey: Tom Hanks

is sort

of the least sexual being though in the world.

Reegs: Yeah.

Cris: he is. Got a Bulgar wife as well.

Reegs: I still remember it being a pretty good movie though.

Sidey: Yeah. I enjoyed that when I was at the appropriate

age to enjoy it.

Reegs: Mm-hmm. Yeah. Yeah. It'd be interesting to see if it holds up.

Sidey: No.

Cris: Okay.

Sidey: He has to go and revisit the

same thing 'cause I think is it, Does he discover that it's not plugged in?

Yeah. When he is, When he does his wish and it's [00:16:00] real magic. Yeah.

Yeah.

As you know, there is a Simpsons for everything.

Reegs: Yes.

Go on. What have you got? 'cause there's quite a lot of Simpsons for clown

Sidey: I have got

season nine Bart Carney. It's, it's where the traveling circus comes to town and they

con Bart and Homer out of their house.

Yeah. And and basically squat in, the Simpson's

residence and they have to

outthink the con men

act to get their gaff back.

Dan: Nice.

Reegs: Yeah.

Sidey: Do You remember that one? Yeah,

Reegs: I

1. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Dan: I think Bart goes full Carney, doesn't he?

Sidey: He

Yeah, yeah. Yeah,

Reegs: he does. There's, there's obviously a lot of circus stuff 'cause you've got crusty and there's the human cannonball Luke Perry.

Sidey: Well Homer Homer does,

does the man

who gets hit with a cannonball routine. in, In

Lollapalooza. but it's not a lot of Palooza. It's something Palooza. Yeah. There's that

photo of the guy and they obviously recreate that. in The Simpsons. Yeah. He's doing, and it is the hometown show where he can't do it anymore 'cause he is been volleyed too[00:17:00]

Dan: you know, when the, the circus came over here.

Reegs: It's over at the moment.

Dan: Well, years ago I actually had a job there. Now I was,

Reegs: here we go.

Dan: No, I, I worked. Did you ever get jobs there? No. No. Well, 'cause they, they used to have a, a, like a human cannonball thing and Well, I got fired in the end.

Cris: I knew this was gonna happen. I'm not, I can't laugh to you anymore.

Dan: Well, do you know how you kill a circus? Chris?

Cris: You set it on fire?

Dan: No, you go for the juggler. Yeah, sorry. You

Cris: the juggler

Dan: on fire.

Cris: if you want. I've got one. Dumbo.

Cartoons,

Sidey: Attitudes, which were okay at the time, I think there's a warning for that. Now on Disney.

Cris: What does that mean?

Sidey: it's really,

Reegs: Crows, isn't there?

Sidey: Racist Crows? Yeah.

Reegs: racist.

Cris: What do you mean?

Reegs: There's crows that are racist in there. I think if, if I remember

Sidey: That is right. Yeah. in

Cris: in what [00:18:00]

Sidey: I think a sort of stereotypical voice slash the way they talk. is now deemed to be

Cris: but wait, is this the cartoon or is this the movie? Yeah. Right.

Sidey: The,

the animated

Reegs: about the recent one?

Sidey: Not the,

Cris: well no, no.

Sidey: I'm talking about

Cris: initially is a cartoon, right?

Sidey: 1941 version. Yes.

Cris: Yeah. But, but that's a cartoon.

Sidey: Yes, it's animated. Yes. Okay.

Cris: Apologies. Excuse me. Alright. The animated version was the initial release of Dumbo, the story of the elephant with

Sidey: the Yes. Yeah. Do you think the physics hold up?

Reegs: Yes.

Sidey: Okay.

Cris: Definitely. Yeah. I mean, and he lands and he puts the break with his cock.

Sidey: Okay. That's, it makes

Reegs: show that?

I didn't catch that

Cris: That's how,

Sidey: if you just think about it, it's, probably

Reegs: I, thought it was more like a rudder

Cris: looked really, really closely.

Sidey: Well,

Dan: it, it is funny you should say that because I had a job in a circus. I had to circumcised the elephants. I mean, the, the pay was rubbish, but the [00:19:00] tips, they were, they're huge.

Cris: Oh my God.

Reegs: that's very good. Very good.

Dan: Is it, is it come back round

Reegs: from one dumbo to another?

Dan: Well,

Paul Newman, he played in the Sting a guy, a kind of guy who looked after a carousel, kind of circusy carousel. And he was a, he was a grifter. It's an absolute amazing film, of course. And he was part of the big sting operation that took Robert Shor down downtown and took all his money.

It's still. From that era, one of the best ever Robert Redford, Paul Newman playing common Men playing Grifters that take people's money, but don't let them know that's what they're gonna do. That's the thing.

You've seen

it, haven't you?

Reegs: Oh, yeah. Love it. Yeah, it's a great one. I haven't seen it for a while, but the second one, not so good. No,

Dan: No, no. Often that's the [00:20:00]

Reegs: isn't Yeah.

Dan: the, second ones are just trying to force the issue a little bit, but this out on its own.

Reegs: Yeah.

Dan: Fantastic.

Reegs: Killer Clowns from Outer Space

Sidey: that's, I knew you'd have that one.

Reegs: I knew that everybody's seen that movie.

Sidey: haven't seen that movie.

Reegs: it's 1988 by the Kyoto Brothers, I think is how it's pronounced. Like a team of like creature animators and effects guys who got together to make this $2 million film that flopped horrendously about killer clowns that come from space.

They, their spaceship is a circus, Chris.

Sidey: Wow, It makes total sense. Yeah, exactly. Wow.

Reegs: Yeah.

And they are grotesque. And there's only one guy and, you know, a couple of others and whatnot can save them and it's like a send up of fifties b-movie tropes and all that sort of stuff. Found a bit of a life for itself many years after it was released as people got sort of caught onto it as a cult classic.

Air Budd golden receiver is definitely the Empire strikes back of that franchise in that it's the second one. [00:21:00] Right. And I think, do you know Air Bud. he might be the greatest athlete. Yeah. You are missing out on Air Budd. He might be the greatest athlete of all time. He's a golden retriever.

In the first movie, he dominates the NBA and yeah, in this movie he takes up American football. So just to switch codes or sports

Sidey: I mean, even Jordan couldn't do that. Yeah.

Reegs: And

Cris: Jordan tried the MLB,

Sidey: yeah.

but switching codes, I mean, he

Reegs: it's just playing completely different game that, you know.

Cris: so Air Max does it?

Reegs: He does Air bud.

And in the second one, the villains are a pair of Russians circus owners who see is like

Sidey: right.

Yeah.

Cris: Oh yes, that's correct. Yeah. Well done.

Russians,

Reegs: Yeah.

Sidey: pesky roski.

Reegs: unfortunately he does receive a traumatic brain injury like as many American football players

Cris: Yeah. There,

Sidey: The average

Reegs: CTE, yes, I've got hit chronic traumatic in surf

Sidey: there is a class

action lawsuit

against the

NFL and I think the average career length of [00:22:00] an N ffr, both Three

to four years, Yeah, yeah.

Reegs: So Air Bug can look

Cris: So get your helmets on much

pretty

Reegs: Cognitive function and other physical problems, antisocial behaviors, increased aggression, that sort of thing. So

Cris: probably gambling. Gambling issues.

Sidey: gonna get pet asbo.

Reegs: Yeah. So it's not gonna be all roses for Air Budd, I don't think.

Sidey: Octo Pussy.

Reegs: Yeah. It's be good bit of circus content. Is that Jane Seymours? No,

Sidey: it's Mord Adams James

Cris: V. Is James V.

Sidey: It's Maude Adams, is the Bon girl.

She's, I

I think this is true. The only Bon girl that's been

in two

movies. And she is in Octa. I think she might be the

titular.

Reegs: pissy.

Sidey: Yeah. Nice. It features clowning around. the, the,

Cris: Do they show the actual?

Sidey: Yes. It's a front for a smuggling

ring and there's also

a

nuclear device and it also features

watch more in clown makeup. Okay. Just

hammering home the

point that

Reegs: he's a clown.

Cris: fan, Roger.

Reegs: You'd never see bond wearing

Sidey: No Man, he's above [00:23:00] that.

He just would never, stoop. It's

He would never stoop so low, but he does diffuse

the nuke.

And what's

the time left

on the timer?

Cris: 0 0

Reegs: 0 0 7? Yeah. Oh, wow.

Sidey: wow. Yeah. What a dick. I know. Such an ego. Let it go down one number. Yeah.

Cris: No,

Sidey: so Octo, pussy,

Cris: the number I have is three.

for

Madagascar three.

Reegs: Madagascar. Three. Have I seen that? What happens in Madagascar?

Cris: They're in Europe. Escapade escapade in Europe or something like that. But

Reegs: I might have seen

1. 'cause I've seen all of the, I think I've seen all of the Madagascar movies

Sidey: seen the stage

Cris: I've been to the country of Madagascar.

Reegs: That's probably better. Although I liked the Madagascar movies.

Cris: Oh, I've liked the first one. I can't really say about the other ones. The first one was good. Yeah. But the other ones were you kind of, you know, as the same, they, they go to a

Reegs: well they rinse it all don't they? To oblivion like the penguins as well. They became

Sidey: their spinoffs on Netflix and stuff. Yeah, yeah.

Cris: But there

Reegs: what happens in the third one? They join a circus.

Cris: They, yes, there is a [00:24:00] circus scene where they engage in Afro Circus rescue Flying Trapes and jet pack. Pit bull. Action.

So I, I'll be honest with you, I have never seen this.

Reegs: Oh, it's

Cris: if I have, if I

Reegs: I have,

Cris: I have. If I have, I can't really remember it. But it's a circus scene in a movie that I think by the third time

Reegs: It's, it's really hitting its stride by the third

Cris: bit, it is. I, I dunno, it's, it's, the third one is already a bit too

Reegs: Mm.

Cris: you know, but, we'll, we'll give it that, because the first one was really good then.

It's quite funny. And, and it gave us quite a lot of spinoffs with the

king,

whatever

the, the Lemur guy and the minions and everyone sorry, the

minions

Dan: the, all in the same world.

Cris: the penguins,

they're all quite good.

Dan: When I was a, a kid watching the the, the circus films, it was always the, the trapeze that really was the [00:25:00] spectacular thing. And, and that's the movie Trapeze with Bert Lancaster. And you, you also have Tony Curtis and Bert Lancaster played like this crippled trapeze artist who'd one day take down the net, you know, to boost the 'cause they always

Reegs: Oh yeah.

Dan: you know, they always had a net to catch them if they, if they said they'd be doing flips through the air and catching them.

And one of them's on a swing. It's called trapeze.

1. Yeah, it is, you know, I've not watched it this week for the pod or anything, but it's, it's another classic circus tent. You know, you think

Reegs: well, I remember that scene

Sidey: traveling

he he did His own stunts, but, but Lancaster in this Really, yeah, he did.

Reegs: Did he really? He

Sidey: yeah.

Yeah.

Dan: Bloody hell. Because

Sidey: it's

I mean, not everything in film, but he did do some of it,

Dan: It, which is just hugely brave really, because even with the, the net you, you know, it's a height thing. You're getting right up there and you're swinging. You've

Cris: still gonna, even if you fall, you still.[00:26:00]

It's a free fall.

Dan: It's, yeah. And he's, I mean, he's always a good nick, wasn't he was always, even in, field of Dreams playing like the, the old doc holiday, whatever it was he was playing in that he, he still looked in in, not like he was gonna be trapeze artist, but Tony Curtis in this as well. Who was an absolute heartthrob

Sidey: Jamie Jamie's

Dan: And you had Gina Lolla the Italian

Sidey: stallion.

Dan: Italian beauty and yeah, it was, you know, a talented trapeze artist against a beautiful but less gifted one. And who's he gonna choose to be? His partner in everything alongside really spectacular and circusy.

Sidey: Mm-hmm.

Dan: Not

clowning around.

Reegs: Well, big top peewee, right?

Sidey: Oh yeah. Right.

Reegs: You seen that? You seen any of the peewee Herman

Dan: Yeah, I have. I don't think I've seen this one though.

Reegs: Big Adventure I think was the other one. This was kind of on, its [00:27:00] in its own canon. And obviously has Paul Rubins as the sort of pasty faced manchild.

It takes its inspiration from the story Pollyanna and it's directed by the guy Randall Klier, who did grease and.

Sidey: your Favorite

Reegs: the Blue Lagoon. So two of my favorite movies, I guess,

Sidey: Grease the Blue Lagoon.

Reegs: In this one, he lives on a farm with a talking pig called Vans. And he's

Cris: jd. Yeah,

Reegs: yeah, exactly.

He's got, he's got trees that grow hot dogs. I remember that. But for some reason he's not rich. Maybe Monsanto sued him. I don't know. But anyway, one day a tornado, a tornado comes through and like brings a whole like, circus and all that with it. And he it's got Chris, Chris Christofferson.

He's married to a woman who's five inches tall and it's got an acrobat played by Valeria Gino from. Hot shots too,

Sidey: Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Reegs: and she does some acrobatics in that as well. And Reuben's falls in not Reuben's Peewee Herman falls in love with her.

Sidey: some good acting. [00:28:00] yeah,

Cris: Yeah, exactly.

Reegs: Yeah, so good bit of, and then the local community aren't that happy about circus people being there and all that

Sidey: they never are. Yeah.

I'll rattle through

a couple and then I'll keep my norm back. The circus 1928, Charlie Chaplin.

Reegs: Oh

yeah. Maybe I've seen that.

Sidey: wouldn't have happened if it weren't for the Battle of Flowers as we

know. yeah, I told you that. yeah. Couple of musical ones. Britney Spears Circus.

from

2008

it features the line All eyes on me. which I think this must be the chorus.

All Eyes

on me in the center of the ring. Just

like a circus. it's deep, isn't it? I do have quite a

lot of sympathy for

Brittany and how that's all turned out.

yes. The Beatles heard of them. They're all right. They're pretty good. They have an album it's called Sergeant Pepper's Lonely Heart Squad Band. but it features the song for the benefit of Mr. Kite.

There will be a show tonight on Trampolines,

and then it talks about

trapeze and all that sort of shit. It's good, it's quite decent album. Check it out. And then a couple of video game things.

Reegs: go on. What have you got?[00:29:00]

Sidey: fallout four new nuclear World downloadable

content.

I

Reegs: Oh, I, I played Fallout four, but I didn't play NewCo World.

Sidey: Batman Aham City has a whole load of joker

stuff around circuses. One of my favorite ever games was Twisted Metal World Tour.

As

a Character.

driving? Yeah. Yeah. It's all driving

and

Reegs: sort of driving Shoot him up,

Sidey: Yeah. It's got a character

in that called Sweet Tooth is a like,

Reegs: The psychotic clown

Sidey: cloud. It drives an ice cream van.

So that lot. And then I've just got my nomination to,

Cris: I've only got my, no.

Sidey: you could do that, Let's do that

Dan: spit

it out.

Cris: Can I do that? Yes. Okay. My norm is, my norm is freaks versus the Reich.

Which is a ludicrously, a ludicrous circus fantasy filled with lavishly, orchestrated carnage.

Sidey: Nice.

Cris: So there's, it's four guys with like superpowers who try to evade the six fingered leader of the Nazi Circus in Gabrielle, Latis, big Boldy or [00:30:00] ca here in action fantasy.

Reegs: Oh.

Cris: So if you've not watched that,

Reegs: you

Cris: should, you should. You definitely should.

Dan: Big fish. Oh yeah.

Sidey: Re Yeah.

Dan: Yeah.

Sidey: He's got another motorcycling

thing out, isn't he?

Dan: Has he? Yeah. Oh, right, okay. I really enjoyed the the Borman.

Sidey: Yeah.

it's Him, and Charlie.

gets like the long way round the up and down.

the, Yeah. Diagonal, zigzag

Dan: Yeah. I thought they were really good actually in that, in that first one.

But this one is a kind of fantasy film. And it's about a boy whose father hasn't been well, and it's kind of done in flashbacks. And one of the flashbacks is Callaway's Circus where he meets this beautiful woman and each time he goes to meet her or she goes to meet him, they. There's like a little more information about it.

A little more information, a little more information. And I think they find it sounds quite crazy with that, but it is circus world and

Sidey: can happen.

Dan: can happen. Anything can happen. Exactly. And it's actually a [00:31:00] really good film. This, I don't think we've ever done it for the pod. It may have had a mention before,

Sidey: but, it's Tim, Tim Burton, isn't

Dan: Yeah. It, it's it's quite

Sidey: he loves he loves

that gothic shit

Dan: And yeah, of course. Helena Bonum Carter is in it because

Sidey: the waf, the Waf

Reegs: it's a big fish. Are you

Dan: big Fish, you talking about Big Fish. Albert Finney was in

Reegs: It, it's mostly like, it's about the story between the father and the son, isn't it? It's like really heartbreaking. It story about how fathers and sons

Dan: bmi yeah.

Really, really

decent.

Sidey: right. Rigged,

Reegs: Gooeys two.

Sidey: Of course,

Reegs: That was the one, I dunno if you ever remember it, when you went to Blockbuster, you'd have almost certainly seen the video cover when you were a kid. It had a goli, which was kind of like a gremlin coming out of a toilet. Do you remember that?

I just, all those classic VHS horror movies were just

Dan: where are they now?

Yeah.

Reegs: And in goodies two the little demons come into a carnival, and at first they improve the carnival, but wouldn't, you it, goes wrong. Well,[00:32:00]

Dan: Well, let's hear

Sidey: Why? Hang

Dan: other people have got, including you.

Sidey: I,

if I

said to you the Red Triangle Circus

Gang,

would you know, the movie that's

from

Dan: the wander has come to mind, but that's probably wrong.

Reegs: Is it? It's not Gangs in New York,

Sidey: Nope. is it? There are weaponized penguins in it.

Batman Returns. Yeah.

Oswald Cobble Pot and his gang of Mary

Dan: zap Whack.

Sidey: Yeah,

Well it's not, that, but this is obviously Catwoman and and the penguin.

and then he is crazy like.

he's shunned from society.

and he goes out into the sewers.

Reegs: does. Yeah.

Sidey: And they, he's got all that

kind of circus thing. The really dark gothic. kind of Tim

Reegs: It's not that outlandish to weaponize aquatic. I mean, they did it with, didn't they, with dolphins and stuff. They taught them to lay minds and whatnot in the war.

Sidey: Reminds me of braai with the dogs.

Reegs: Yeah. Yeah, yeah.

Sidey: So yeah, what we do need is [00:33:00] one more nomination. Yeah. So please

do let us know your favorite circus moment.

Cris: How about we give a shout out to our sponsors, the mouth spray, blue graffiti and

Dan: the ne the Neon dreams,

Cris: tongue deodorant.

Sidey: I can tell

you that the tongue deodorant is a bit of a letdown.

Is it, it's also

impractical

in

sharing terms because you have

to l it, it, it is

like a roll on deodorant. That's how it's delivered to you.

Reegs: But

Sidey: But once one of us has licked it. No one else

is that keen to lick at it. And

I licked it first. So unless you want to,

Right? Effectively get off of me.

Dan: the,

Cris: But what is the flavor side?

Sidey: The

flavor is a letdown. The other one,

that one that Dan's Dan is

now holding

Reegs: this thing.

Dan: is the Sour Graffiti special.

Sidey: It is an aerosol

can. It

has a sour sort of flavor to it, but then this sort of really artificial sweetener

taste kicks in and it's

awful.

Reegs: It's like spraying a fine room spray. Directly into your mouth and it tasting of sour [00:34:00] sugar.

A

Dan: What you're hearing now is the neon yo-yo spinners.

Sidey: That's a remnant from last week.

Cris: the spinners that's from last week. But you can spin the yo-yo

Sidey: Yeah. like

Reegs: eating chalk.

Sidey: Yeah, those, they had almost no flavor

at all. They're

Cris: they're

Reegs: So thanks from our disappointing sponsors.

Cris: Okay. Well you know, you're welcome.

Dan: Yeah. Terrible.

Cris: There was some peanut butter cups and, I

Sidey: dunno, Yeah, those aren't Reese's. These are like

actual peanut butter cups They're like The healthy version.

Dan: We did have Taylor's salt and vinegar crisp, which are bang on.

Sidey: Yeah,

Oh good. But we also watched a movie.

Cris: Yes we did. Yeah. At my recommendation.

Sidey: Nightmare Alley.

Reegs: Yeah.

Cris: Which is a remake.

Reegs: It is. Of 1947. I haven't not seen it. Which itself was based on a book. Yeah.

Dan: which was based

on an idea.

Reegs: Yes.

Dan: Yeah.

Cris: It's

also quite, I dunno, from a European point of view, it's also quite not [00:35:00] disturbing, but quite strange to think that in 1947, while we were in the thick of a.

World War in brackets.

Sidey: Well, the aftermath,

Cris: this was, well, 1947 was not the aftermath. It was the middle of the war, I

Dan: it was. Yeah. Early forties. This is set, isn't it? Sort of mid to,

Reegs: well, 41 is, is when it jumps the

Dan: Well, that's about

Cris: no, but

Reegs: Yeah, it's about right in the war. And they mentioned the back. The war is a backdrop to it. But the Americans of course, ignoring it because they did until extra time.

Dan: This

movie

starts off with a body being dragged in a house and then that house being set on fire.

And then that same

Cris: in the middle of nowhere,

Dan: Bradley Cooper getting on a bus and getting off

Outside,

a, a nondescript town with a cafe. And he sees a a circus. He

Reegs: He sees a little person

Dan: He sees a little person. He follows the little person who, who we find [00:36:00] out later on is called the major. And he follows him into the,

Reegs: to all the major characters actually in this bit. It's like a long tracking shot as he walks through, like he follows him. We've

Dan: got Wil Defoe, who is

Clem

and he is a horrible bastard. Really. As a lot of these people are just scratching a living in, in the circus world. They're all con men. They're all faithful to each other to some extent. They don't seem to have any secrets between each other.

But certainly to the punters, they're, they are exactly that. They're just punters. And you, you see the first parts of one of the, the shows, one of the, the events features or whatever, and it's this guy who they just called the geek who is thrown a a chicken.

Reegs: Well, it's all the big circus buildup, isn't it? Is he man, [00:37:00] is he beast? All this stuff. It's some deranged homeless guy, you know? You obviously could see that straight from the beginning. And he's introduced like it's a horror movie comes out like, I think he grotesquely bites the head of a chicken, doesn't he?

Dan: Yeah. He, he, as you, as you say, he's kind of science doesn't know if he's a man or a beast, but he has been known as human.

And as we learn a little bit later, he is absolutely just somebody who's been taken sweet advantage of. And he's, mumbles every now and again in the beginning, in the, in the film, the first sort of half an hour of the

Reegs: who's Stan? Bradley

Dan: the, the, the geek. I'm thinking, he says, this isn't me.

You know, I'm not like this, but he's deranged and he's

Reegs: well, he's just making animal noises at this point. I mean,

Dan: yeah. It's, it's all pretty, it's all a, a pretty dark noir start.

Reegs: So, yeah. Bradley [00:38:00] Cooper is this character. Stan, like you say, we've seen him drag this body out, so we've already like, not, you know.

His motivations from this point onwards have always got this kind of doubt about them. And as he moves through, he hasn't said a word, by the way, for, for at least the 10,

Cris: years, I would say 15 minutes.

Reegs: Yeah. As he kind of drifts through meets cl sees the show, he ends up meeting Clem via a radio that he's holding.

He gets a job there via Ron Perman, who's a strong man. And he, you know, he meets all the major characters. He ends up being part of the crew. Like you say, he, the sort of plot kicks up a gear when he goes for a bath at Tony Collette's. Madam Zeer.

Is it,

Dan: He pays a dime for a bath and gets a

Reegs: 10 cents.

It was half the, yeah. A bath and a hand job was half the price of watching that guy eat a chicken. So, yeah. That's the economy for you, I suppose.

Cris: But also she has a husband.

and he's there in the room when he [00:39:00] shows up, and he basically doesn't really

Reegs: Well, he's a, he's an old drunk.

He had, they have a a very successful mesmerizing act when they were younger. They've, and, you know, it'll be shown, it'll be demonstrated to Stan by Pete David Strahan's character who will sort of reveal that he still has the tricks of the trade and can sort of, cold reading is what it's called, where you, and they have a very complicated system of code words that she feeds him Adam Zeer that sort of tell him like objects that she might be holding on the other guy's behalf.

So he's able to do this. He demonstrate his prowess, the cold reading techniques, and

Dan: and also his hand signals if he's holding three fingers up or two fingers up. And depending on which hand signals might be like a, as we would see it.

Okay. Or if he holds it to his head, he's asking her certain

Cris: for information.

Yeah.

Dan: to with [00:40:00] different coded

Reegs: Yeah. It's really very clever and he has a little pocketbook of which all of his secrets are in. And you know, it's not completely clear at this point in the movie. 'cause what kind of happens next is there's a mix up with some alcohol. Backstage Clem's got some, like, this is the drinking alcohol and this is the,

Dan: the word

Reegs: the wood, the wood alcohol, the

Dan: This will kill ya. This will get you

Reegs: And there's a mix up. And it's not really clear at this point how this mix up occurs, but Pete ends up dead.

Dan: Yeah. And the, the book ends up and we,

Reegs: in his possession.

Dan: in his possession during

Reegs: demonstrated is like the, the police have come because the geek escaped, right?

Yeah. And he beats that guy up

Dan: Well, that, that's it. During this time Bradley Cooper has demonstrated his, his skills and his usefulness, I guess to the, the rest of the, the [00:41:00] circus. He's sweet on one of the girls. He's already been warned off her by

Pearlman, the strong man who's promised to look after her.

He gains the confidence of them.

Reegs: Yeah. Particularly through this night where the police come down to shut the carnival down the geeks. They're, they're worried about the geeks 'cause I think they have to get rid of their geek, don't they? And this is when we hear

Cris: to hide them.

Reegs: them. He's, he's just gone too far.

And Clem reveals that he basically targets homeless men. If they're not already addicted, or even if they are, he offers them alcohol with opium in it.

Dan: Yeah. And they'll come back and it's all about how, I mean, it's a clever

Reegs: It's a mind game.

Dan: a really dark way. 'cause he's just telling him over food after they've dumped the, the old geek outside the hospital rang the bell and just put him outside of the puddle in the rain.

I mean, basically leaving him for dead.

Reegs: and it said Jesus saves, but the, the Le Neon lettering was out. So it said Usave and I dunno, [00:42:00] Spanish, but that must mean something like the, there was,

Dan: zero fucks. I imagine it means, because that's what they gave him. And they go back and, and order food and he says, nah, get a geek.

What you need to do is get somebody who's really already desperate, maybe somebody who's been shellshocked from the war or, or whatever it is, and then you tempt him in and you say, I've got a job for you, maybe, but it's only temporary. And basically manipulate him until he's begging you for that job. And he says eel geek, heel geek, which means he'll bite the head of a chicken.

If it means that he's gonna get another drink or he is gonna get another lot of heroin or

Reegs: just be

Cris: whatever it is.

Reegs: So after that scene, then the police come down to the carnival because Clem hires another geek and they're sort of following that.

And Stan Bradley Cooper demonstrates now his prowess that he's been learning from Pete. He's able to kind of, he does a bit of [00:43:00] cold reading stuff, grabs the warrant so he knows the guy's name. Deduces a load of stuff about him that he probably had polio as a kid 'cause he's got shoes that have got lifts in and all sorts of other stuff.

And he's able to kind of save the day through his sort of burgeoning understanding of Pete's techniques. So when Pete does die

Dan: he's ready to take over

And he's all

Cris: the girl away,

Dan: He is also ready to leave the circus and go onto bigger and brighter things. And we fast forward

Reegs: Oh, well it is just quickly worth mentioning 'cause it's important for the plot, is that both Zema, Madam Zema and Pete Warn Stan, like not to abuse the power when they do the, the cold reading technique. If, when they do the kind of contacting the dead and that sort of thing, if people come up to them afterwards with more questions, they

Cris: they tell them

Reegs: it's an act and they, you

Dan: don't do a spook show,

Reegs: They don't do a spook show because you keep following it. You, you lose control of it. And also there's a kind of thing where she's got tarot cards and is reading [00:44:00] his future a bit as well.

Dan: Yeah. She actually believes in the tarot cards like that's for real. But the Spook show they know is an act and they know that you shouldn't follow that beyond what is decent within the the act.

And, and when one woman who is convinced that she can feel the, the hand of her. Lost son or,

or or husband on her shoulder comes to see them afterwards. Pete says, no, I told her the truth. I sent her away with an ambulance and said, you know, sorry, we just tricked It's an act. It's an act. And

that will become relevant because it's a line that.

Bradley Cooper ends up crossing a little bit later on because we go forward two years time and he's playing in bigger shows for more impressive

Cris: and really interesting, like really cool outfit suits.

Yeah.

Reegs: He's absolutely perfected [00:45:00] the art.

He's got a really posh accent now. He's like,

Dan: he's playing for the, the ho Tolo and you know, you've got this really almost like roaring twenties, although we're back into

Reegs: well, it's the thirties because it's all gorgeous art deco and in the Yeah, exactly.

Dan: Art deco stuff. And it's the first time we see Cape Blanket.

Reegs: Yes, it is.

He's giving a performance and he's doing a cold reading of a woman and her sister. Yes. And she overhears and then Kate Blanc's character. She's been at a couple of performances, I think, as we've seen, and she suddenly kind of steps in and take commandeers. The show, obviously as a skeptic, tries to remove the element of the coded language between Rooney Mara and Bradley Cooper.

But he is able through other cold reading techniques to kind

Cris: Yeah. He, he's like, in your bag there's a pistol. You look like this, you have this. And then

Reegs: he, he tells her it's a nick, you know, I know you've got a nickel plated [00:46:00] handgun.

Dan: And she is suitably impressed. A little bit later on when he goes to her in her office, he explains exactly how he came to those

Cris: And then we find out she's a

Reegs: I was gonna say it's after he's already kind of exploited Kimball,

Cris: Alright. Yeah.

Reegs: the 'cause she's there on the behalf of the judge to verify his authenticity as a, as a guy who can contact the spirits

Cris: because

they have a son.

Yeah. The

Reegs: died in battle.

Dan: That's why he, he

Cris: and, and especially the wife is very religious.

Reegs: Yes. Mary Steenberg.

Dan: And so, and so they wish to get in contact with him and, and and then have tried to verify Bradley Cooper is authenticity.

Reegs: That's what sends him off to.

Dan: and, and to be fair, he goes straight up to Kate Blanchet, she's the psychologist, and he goes, look.

You've got a racket just like mine. You are a little more polished than [00:47:00] I am, but this is how I did that. And she said, well, how did you know about me? And then he goes, he breaks it down. He says, you like bad things. I could see you. Or a girl that goes out on her own, probably to the bad bit of town. And she says, oh yeah, I like to get a bit of mud on my skirt. Meaning she goes down to,

Reegs: It was sexier when

Dan: was, yeah. Yeah. Not much sexier. Thank you. But yeah.

Reegs: because she looks smoking hot in this

Dan: She does.

Reegs: She's got that proper curled hair and very

striking,

Cris: look.

Dan: Bleach blonde hair and, and red lipstick. And, and they strike a deal where she will give information on the judge.

If he promises to say the truth and go

Cris: in her

Reegs: therapy sessions with her, have

Dan: therapy session, which they agree to do. Yeah. And he gets more information on the judge and he finds the judge at this son and they finds the name and

Cris: died in the war.

Dan: his [00:48:00] sessions to manipulate the judge for a bit of money.

And the judge has taken hook, line and sinker and he's actually able to, to help the judge and his wife come to. Yeah. It certainly seems come to some kind of closure in the fact that Julie and their son had hadn't been in pain, that it was his own decision and that together they'll be together one day and that gives Mary Steenberg the wife of the judge, a little bit of solace.

So it seems at the time,

Reegs: yeah. Also, it's probably worth mentioning that Mary, is that Molly his partner that he went away with, she has objected from the circus. She has, we've seen their relationship has deteriorated. He's cold to her when she fluffs a apart of the performance.

And you know, it's taken a toll on them. This like

Dan: Yeah. Well she's not into the Spook show.

Reegs: and she's not into the spook show and she tells him not to fuck around with Kimball and then she's not on board with it when he goes through with it. So their [00:49:00] relationship

Dan: very Well he, yeah, he's, he's about to say. Right. Look, it's just an act.

I'm not gonna go. Yeah. But then he gets offered a bit too much money. And it's greed, isn't it? It is greed. And he goes down the wrong path.

Reegs: So anyway, we've done Kimball and then next I mean there are

Dan: the stakes are raised,

Reegs: they?

The stakes are raised. There are some therapy sessions where we learn, they talk about the black rainbow, which is like a one size fits all description.

Every person has mommy issues or daddy issues or both, right? So, and there are certain stock phrases or sayings that will resonate with virtually every human being. It's

Cris: like, and also he always says about the dad and the drinking. Yeah. No, not me.

Reegs: No, not me. Yeah, she picks up on that. No, not me, never.

And you make it a point of pride, don't you? And she coaches that out of him, as you notice over the phone. Another thing that's quite interesting is Bradley Cooper himself is an alcoholic, so. Obviously this part of the plot probably strongly spoke to

Dan: right? Yeah.

Reegs: As he, he falls into alcoholism as he falls in love with her [00:50:00] and he gets this then opportunity to take a crack at a very rich guy called Grindle.

Yes.

Cris: Who is in the like proper private property, up in the stakes, blah, blah, blah.

Yeah.

Reegs: And when you go to meet him, this guy's not fucking about it, Holt McInally, I think is the bodyguard. He's a really good

Dan: Oh, I like him. Yeah, he was, he was

oh,

he

was in a one. One series show that was really good about serial killers.

I can't remember.

Cris: Mindhunter yeah.

Dan: Yeah. I really, I really liked that. Partly because of his performances really strong. And he

Reegs: to see this guy and it's really fucking tense.

Dan: Yeah. There's polygraphs coming out and there's all kinds of checks and balances. He has found out some information though through Kate Blanket about the, this guy, this Griswold

Reegs: Grindle Griswold Grindle

Dan: Griswold

family Christmas.

And so he's, he's able [00:51:00] just before the polygraph's about to sound him out, he finds a way to calm himself down and, and share this information and. Then he starts giving him the spook show

Reegs: it it's information that only,

Dan: Yeah. He starts to fall and he does his own homework. He goes to find out about this girl that grid.

Bold.

Grimball.

Reegs: he steals an imprint of Ritter, the psychologist, Kate Blanche's key to her cabinet where all of her sessions with Grindle Grindle recorded. So he goes in one night and finds out all kinds of information,

Dan: digs a little bit, gets the information enough to, to sell the story enough to make him

Cris: just get him off the, get him on the hook.

Right.

Reegs: and they milk him and milk him.

Dan: each time though, he gets money. He doesn't like to take it home because he knows Molly isn't up for it. He [00:52:00] knows that she doesn't want this

Cris: spook. He makes a deal with her. You

Dan: So he says, have you got a safe. And he gives it to Kate Blanket to keeping her safe. He does. Eventually the Spook show needs to come to a climax and, and this guy wants to see the young lady that he made pregnant and and then died.

Reegs: Well he's led him to believe he can materialize. Yeah. The, the spook the dead. And Right. The movie is at pains to point out that this guy before you even, you really learn about him is violent and not to be fucked around with at all this guy. So he's weighing over

Dan: we see a terrible scar that riter the clay Kate blankets got, and she kind of

Reegs: implies that,

Dan: implies that it's.

This

Reegs: as a result of

Dan: me

going too far with, you know, Grindle in the past.

Reegs: but yeah, so he comes up with his plan. He has to, he's milked him for so long. Everybody's getting pissed off. The [00:53:00] bodyguard is especially pissed off. So he comes, he comes to Molly who's on the cusp of leaving him and says, you've gotta, you know,

Dan: it's all Christmas after this.

Come on, we, we can get it done. And, and it's weird because this spiritualism and this mentalism was actually quite big at the time. So Conan Arthur Conan Doyle Sherlock Holmes Wire, he was really into it as well.

Reegs: Yeah. Darren Brown's into it.

Dan: Yeah. I mean, but really into like believing about, you know, bringing up spirits from the, the, the after world and things.

And and particularly during this time, it was a big kind of thing, you know, we didn't have maybe the science and, and, people

would be fooled by photographs of the fairies and things like this that you can look to during those kind of days. So even clever people who had all the money in the world but were trying almost to buy that extra bit of solace.

And at one point,

Cris: or remorse or

Reegs: [00:54:00] yeah,

Dan: at one point he says you know, you're trying to buy your way out the guilt area. And he says, look, yeah. And I've got the money to do it, so just fucking make it happen. Yeah. Make it materialized. And he does freak out. He does say she's gotta be materialized. And then when she is materialized, he can't stop himself by going over to her.

Reegs: Well, it goes horribly wrong on the way, you know that it's going to, because he starts talking about I've done terrible, awful things to women. As he starts marching over, you're like, uhoh. And he keeps emphasizing that. Yeah. And he just reaches out for Molly and then he realizes it's not Molly. He realizes in that moment he's been conned and he slaps Molly, doesn't he?

He's like, who are you? And then he just slaps her. And Stan just beats him to death.

Dan: Yeah. He, he

Reegs: got his teeth in his

Dan: the bodyguard comes he runs him over in the car. They manage to escape in,

Reegs: You see his brain, [00:55:00] like his head

Cris: Yeah. Flopping out

Dan: arm kind of comes off and he goes straight to, to Ritter to grab the money.

And he still thinks that they're probably gonna run away together, or they're gonna, you know,

Cris: be something.

Dan: gives him the money,

Reegs: Wait. It's all ones and starts

Dan: pressing record and plays the ultimate.

double

fucking bluff here because all the sessions she's been recording has now pound painted him out to be this psychotic guy living in in a world where all this plan that he's put together is all in his own mind.

And all this money that he's made is just bullshit money. And

Cris: Yeah.

Dan: she

manages to call security. He has to be and pull a gun on him. He runs away. And he manages to escape. He manages

to,

Reegs: think a lot of it is the power [00:56:00] dynamic was not how it was portrayed in the movie between them, right?

Yeah. Because it seemed like he was in control for large parts of it, but actually she kind of geeked him a bit. It's the definitely the start of his journey to, towards the end of the movie, because she gets him hooked on alcohol. She, she uses the daddy issues stuff on him, the, the same clinical cold reading techniques that they use as well.

She's played a play. She's played the, she's played him.

Dan: and as he returns to his sort of earlier roots of being in the circus, he goes into what would've been one of his friends I dunno who it might have been Clem or, or one of the the circus reader's tents.

Reegs: Right at the end now?

right at the end

Well, yeah. 'cause there is he, so after all of that stuff, he runs off and becomes an alcoholic really quickly. And he's like covered it basically. It's like in a blink of an eye. He's covered in piss with a huge beard and like selling his father's watch that we've [00:57:00] revealed at the end of, at the beginning in the movie was actually he killed his own father.

He hated his father. And he had

Cris: his dad was an alcoholic and

Reegs: His father was an alcoholic. Yeah. And beat him. And so he like purposefully denied him medication, opens a window, takes a blanket off him and lets him die. So, and then so his, he collapses, he's rock bottom when he sells. His father's watch for a swig of whiskey when he stumbles into Tim Blake Nelson's tent.

He's got some of the remnants of the old Clems Carnival. He has Enoch, the three eyed baby, who I think is a metaphor throughout the whole

Dan: Yeah. And he's he gets played. He, he knows it's happening as well halfway through when he asks for a job, gets turned away,

Reegs: he gives him a drink. The drink is the,

Dan: he, well, he walks out, doesn't he?

And then

Reegs: the tincture bottle is on the table.

Dan: Yeah. And he says maybe I've got a job, a temporary job. And it's the same story Clem has told him on how he finds a geek. Yeah. And he says, you know, you [00:58:00] give him a drink, he'll geek for you, he'll geek. And he knows exactly what it is. And we end the film of,

Reegs: well, he says, do you think you can do it?

And, and it's about 40 seconds of him like sort of starting to laugh, starting to cry. And and then he says, I was born for it.

Dan: I was born for the role geek. And we

Reegs: we end. Yeah.

Dan: Dark. Yeah, it was a really bizarro film. It wasn't an easy watch. For me. It was yeah, really, as I say, dark in, in places.

And it was great seeing the characters, though. There was some really, particularly the circus scenes and everything. I thought there was some fantastic characters,

Reegs: Mm-hmm.

Dan: you really didn't know what to, you wanted to like Bradley Cooper because he's. Plays almost a likable person halfway. He's trying to, who's trying to better himself?

Who's trying to do,

Reegs: and yet you've seen [00:59:00] that thing at the beginning, so everything, it is true.

You do sort of want to root for him a bit as he builds himself up, especially in the first act, but also you've seen something has happened, so you are, the whole time you're on edge

Dan: a body and lighting on fire.

You assume he's killed a guy, but you dunno who it is or why it

Reegs: but

Dan: And then you only see him trying to, you know, get over that or improve himself. But he's obviously the kind of guy who would end up doing what he did

Cris: you also see him trying to steal the guy's notebook we before he even dies.

Reegs: Yeah. but he passes it off as like, I was curious and you know, at that point in the movie, you are willing to throw him a bone.

Dan: Yeah. And also he offers the book back to Tony Collette and says, do you want it? And she says, no, you've earned it.

Reegs: Yeah.

Dan: and and you think, well, he, he can't be all bad.

Like, you know,

Reegs: they all seem to like him, but I mean, then Clem has that great line about, you know, nobody cares what you've done here Carney. [01:00:00] But yeah, I liked this one. It had a very distinctive look as well.

Cris: It was a very darkly filmed, it seemed like every day. It was a cloudy day.

Reegs: It

was a lot of, well, even there's a lot of

Cris: or rainy rain, if not cloudy. Yeah.

Dan: Very atmospheric. Yeah,

Cris: Yeah,

the costumes were really good. Yeah. Throughout the bad and the good times.

Reegs: It's really long. It's two and a half hours, but I really enjoyed it, especially the way it's structured.

'cause you've got the whole first act, maybe the first hour of the movie about is kind of rising and then it's a different sort of thing in the second half. And it's not really a twist. You know, we sort of covered up talking about it, but it seemed fairly obvious to me the direction in which he was heading

Dan: He was gonna be the geek. Although there was, because it's such a long film, you, you kind of forget about that part of it

Reegs: it doesn't matter though. You, it's more, it's in, in the

Dan: arc is

Reegs: in the destination, you know?

Dan: But no, you're, you're right. It, it didn't really matter how he was gonna get there, but you kind of knew [01:01:00] that he was gonna end up that way. Molly seems to, you know that, that character, she's a very innocent kind of girl. In, in, I mean, she says at one point, you know, as he goes off with her, like, I've never let any man

Take me.

Reegs: not by, not by con not that I agreed to

Dan: that I agreed to. Yeah, it's all very kind of dark

Reegs: But also against that, it does actually have a really good theme of like, people telling you who they are and wanting to be seen.

That is like a big, strong thing that emerges through the narrative about people wanting to be seen

Dan: Well, it was and, and Nightmare Alley are the places where the geeks are found. These kind of, you know, skid rows basically. The places where your nightmares.

Cris: show up or come to life show up, and I liked it and

Dan: the mirror and it's you.

Cris: I, I, you remember, I, I said I washed it and [01:02:00] I was gonna nominate it at some point. I always knew that I, I know it's a remake and, and this was a thing that happened before.

I really like the cast. The first things first, I really like the way they acted. Most of them I really like William Defo, and the guy that is the initial guy with a notebook, I can't remember

Reegs: Oh,

David

Cris: He's, he's really good in

Reegs: And Bradley Cooper is good in

Cris: and, and Bradley Cooper's good in it because he's a handsome, like, wanna be hero, but you also kind of like, fuck off, don't do.

I'm gonna do this. I'm gonna do, you know, like you say, you know, where, where this is ending is not gonna be good. Yeah. And with the way that Cade Blanchet is, is like, he goes really up to the, to the top of the mountain and he comes back really crashing really, really fast down. Yeah. I really liked it.

It's not a happy movie. No, it's a long movie, but I think the way [01:03:00] William Defoe is good, I, you know, the actors are really good in it. The lighting is really good. It is not, it's not sunshine and rainbows, but it's, I, I, I enjoyed it, so that's why I nominated

Reegs: it.

Strong recommend, I think.

Dan: Go for it.

Cris: Yeah.

Sidey: It's Completely normal

kids thing. that we watch.

Cris: It is,

Dan: just the kind of thing that

Cris: 13 rate to 13,

was 12. Was it 12 12.

Dan: But there, there may be some drug references and

Sidey: Some sort of, some barely,

barely beeped out swearing,

Reegs: some innuendo and that sort of thing.

Dan: Think magic roundabout on acid.

Reegs: the amazing digital circus. Yeah, this is, and I will tell you gentlemen, the pilot of this show

Dan: which we watched,

Reegs: had 100 million views within the first 30 days of its release. It is the most viewed independent animation pilot on YouTube

Sidey: crumbs.

Cris: Yeah. I thought that's the only reason why I put it up there, because I nominated the [01:04:00] midweek, I nominated the, and I didn't really have a, a top five properly.

And then I thought

Sidey: Yeah.

Cris: because obviously nightmare alley and circuses. And then I thought, okay, let me see what's a cartoon or something. And then this popped up as the most popular thing

Sidey: Yeah. I said one of the first things that you think of with the circus would be like the

ring

Dan: ringleader.

Sidey: Yeah. Yeah. And this one

is a set

of teeth.

Reegs: Yeah.

Dan: Eyes

Cris: and a

Sidey: Two different colored eyes.

Even

Reegs: hetero, hetero, chromia

Dan: Inside the mouth. Yeah. Very David Bowie,

Sidey: but just constantly screaming at

you

Cris: the, for, for, for the time it

Reegs: Also, he's an ai which is, is quite mad. So yeah, he's,

Dan: Mad ist theme tune,

Reegs: which goes like this. No. Then he in, but the theme tune was kind of important 'cause it does introduce the rest of the gang.

Gangy, which is, she's sort of got one of those like drama [01:05:00] masks. Yeah. That's always crying and she's made out of like red ribbons and it's just permanently depressed.

Cris: He always

Sidey: losing, she Keeps losing

1. Rock, paper, scissors. Yeah. Law.

Reegs: There's Kinga who's like this mad,

Sidey: I work with someone called Kena.

Reegs: Oh. Is that Swedish name?

Cris: Scandinavian? Definitely, yeah.

Sidey: Polish. She's a total

Reegs: Well, in this Kinga is a sort of chess piece wearing a purple robe. Completely insane. It's like a cynical almost sociopathic rabbit called Jacks ragga. The a raggedy and, and probably my favorite was Calf Mo. A cartoonish clown.

They say in the intro, they're like, oh, he couldn't be bothered to turn up this week. And they just put like a, an a sort of cardboard cut out of him. And that's what this thing is like. And it's gonna be, I don't think we should bother describing the whole plot. 'cause the

Sidey: think we came up watching the whole block.

Cris: though. Yeah.

Dan: It's 25 minutes

Reegs: 25 minutes long and it's like thousand like loads of

Dan: minutes wrong.

Sidey: It's intense. It's, it's

our biggest

criticism. [01:06:00] and regular. listeners will know it's too long,

but it is

far too long. because they throw, they vomit. So much stuff.

Reegs: so many ideas and there's a lot of them are really funny.

Like when the new girl she comes, right? So basically the plot happens when this kind of girl jester thing arrives and she will find out is from earth in this strange world and all these crazy creatures are actually from Earth and being kept there. And

Cris: They just put a headphones set on or a something and they ended up there.

Reegs: Right at the end of the episode, it'll be revealed that they're sort of inside a computer game as it all

Cris: So

it's basically Jumanji, but without the Rock and all that

Sidey: Jumanji slash tron tron

Cris: tron Yes.

Dan: Slash magic roundabout.

Reegs: But in this episode. But it's way darker than that because they talk about some of the existential implications of that, like, you know, some of their memories from the old

Sidey: Well, they keep telling her when she, when they, when she, it's revealed to her that she's come. From the real world into this world. They keep [01:07:00] telling her there is no way out.

Reegs: Yeah. There's no way

Sidey: are now trapped

Dan: Even though she, she's at an exit door.

Sidey: It's an existential nightmare. So

Dan: that's. That's not real. You're just seeing that that's kind of just a digital hallucination.

Yeah.

Reegs: And it's actually that digital hallucination door that will reveal the truth of the what's going on

Dan: And there's a few really, really bizarre moments. And when I say a few, I mean a more

Cris: lot. Yeah.

Reegs: because they, they introduce all of this information in the space of about four or five minutes and then loads of character work so that we understand just how crazy this lot are.

And like you say, in the gags are going a thousand miles an hour and then they introduce a kind of bee plot, which is these goin things that have turned up. They're like geometric shapes that have stuck to everything and it turns Cal FMO into a raging kind of black hole of eyes and nastiness. Yeah.

Cris: not,

Dan: yeah.

There's, there's little bits of gross out stuff where an eyeball licks up the sick of.

our, our

Reegs: hero. [01:08:00] Poney.

Cris: Poney, Yeah.

Dan: Poney because she can't remember her own name. It's just Bizaro after Bizaro. It's it's digital animation, like on

Reegs: Yeah, it's

Dan: CGI

Reegs: I did not, I can see it was like lovingly, the characters are like really crazily designed and sort of quite lovingly put together, but I'm not a big fan of that CGI 3D modeling look.

So this, the aesthetic was not for me. But the script was bonkers, like thousands of like hundreds of ideas and just going a thousand miles an hour,

Dan: what would you say, like a hundred million people have seen this?

Reegs: and Well, a hundred million have seen the pilot in the first 30 days and 300 million have seen it

since.

Dan: So it's almost like the. Bad dads.

Sort of

Reegs: It's sort of difficult to know who it's for a little bit because the references are

Dan: it's not for kids.

Reegs: like

Sidey: it's not for young. kids. That's

Cris: so.

Reegs: a bit at the end drugs, there's a bit at the end that references the Last Supper painting and you're, you're like, well, you,

Cris: how do you even know about that?

Sidey: within the 300

million? I [01:09:00] mean, some people are gonna get those references. Yeah. But who they initially pitched this,

just

for, would be like,

I don't know, I like thinking 14 plus. But it's,

it's just a lot. Everything on there is a

lot.

Mm-hmm.

Cris: And a very,

Sidey: a lot of runtime. A lot of gags. Visually. And very

quick.

Cris: very fast.

Everything is very fast.

Dan: apart from

Sidey: It's mainly the,

the guy who's

trying to lead you round is the ringleader guy.

and he's just shouty,

like

Reegs: he's

Sidey: nah, constantly It's like really in your face all the time. And it's just like, man, I kind of, I want to light this more than I do. But you are making it difficult for me.

Reegs: Yeah. Yeah.

Dan: There's more episodes than what we

watched.

Reegs: Many more.

Cris: You, you should actually, because you have a, a TikTok account, so you should actually be, the way I see it is I don't have a TikTok account, but I have an Instagram account and with reels is, is, is a very similar way of. [01:10:00] Watching information basically for me, and, and I could be wrong here, so, so, you know, whatever it, it's, it's almost like the way you see, a 30 seconds video and then you change to the second one and the

Sidey: I can, can a hundred percent see that

Cris: it's just a lot, a lot, a lot of information and a lot of, of noise and, and garbage thrown at you in the context of a 25 minutes cartoon thing where there is a storyline, but they want to change so much. So you don't stay focused on just the one thing you add and you interpret all these characters and all these things from a reel to a 25 minutes cartoon.

Yeah. Yeah. That's my opinion

Sidey: It's a big step. I mean, the, the

IP here is obviously brand

new.

But there's,

you know, so it doesn't, it doesn't have a, it's not bringing something with it

that make, that would make you

want to stay with it for 25 minutes in an episode.

Dan: but too much as, as Chris said, maybe the, the flip flopping of ideas and just [01:11:00] constant regurgitating different plot lines and different things is what keeps people interested.

If their dopamine levels are so fucking low after TikTok that they just don't stay concentrated on one whole theme, but it's a weirdo show. I would recommend just to see the first five minutes and

Sidey: everyone's already seen it

Dan: of

Sidey: we're the

last ones to the party.

Dan: people

Cris: I know. I was gonna say, and, and again, I said it before where. I looked at something that was circus related and in a cartoon form.

And, and this was by far the most popular thing I found and what kind of draw me to it or drawn me to it was the fact that it was an Australian

Sidey: yeah. Oh

kind of

Dan: down under,

Cris: some, or a website or something that they were like, finally, this is on Netflix.

Sidey: Yeah. This is where you can find it.

Cris: And, and I was just thinking, well, obviously like everyone else in the world, apparently in these days, especially from the western world, [01:12:00] I have a Netflix account and I just thought, okay, let me, let me

Sidey: it doesn't, Yeah. It doesn't look cheap, but you know, it's good enough

to be on Netflix. It's, yeah.

it's got some, and it's only quality here, five

Cris: episodes on

Reegs: and it's an independent animation studio.

It's pretty cool that you could get that

Sidey: Yeah, yeah, yeah,

Dan: Yeah, I would basically give this more thumbs up if it was half the length of time that it was,

Sidey: Yeah, I would agree with that.

Cris: Yeah.

Dan: and

Sidey: Strong recommend.

Dan: And other than that, strongly

Cris: Yes,

Dan: Well, it's another week that we are walking football champions. Um,

Reegs: Another week

Sidey: I've spotted where you

put the medal.

It's up on the dartboard there. yeah.

Hang on, hang on from there. I'm being like selfish and causing more

Dan: mayhem.

Sidey: Yeah, Yeah. Chaos

in mayhem. So we're gonna do more like midweek stuff

next week.

Dan: What is that side?

Reegs: Yeah. What's happening

Sidey: Hitched. a week on

Saturday. in the rain.

Dan: Okay.

Sidey: Here.

Reegs: might not rain. It was nice today. It might

Cris: Thunderstorms, apparently.

Sidey: Anyway, so we'll do that. So we need all of us and other people. Anyone to [01:13:00] suggest stuff

for us to talk about.

Do you know, I just thought of a clown that we

like

That we didn't talk

about today.

Dan: Oh, the it

Sidey: No, I was

thinking of Art the clown

Reegs: from er.

Sidey: Yeah.

Reegs: I thought that was more clowns than circuses, though. I did have him on my list.

Dan: Well, I think we've gotta do hitched, we've gotta have a marriage. We've gotta have like a, a marriage

Sidey: Ooh. hitch We could do, yeah. okay. That's interesting. Yeah. I could be, I could be Down with that all that remains for now is to

say, side something out

La

Reegs: Res has left the building

Dan: Zero fucks.