Soderbergh Movies & Traffic

Traffic

Sidey: Hi, guys. Hi. Hello. Riggs is back.

Reegs: Yeah.

Sidey: Hello.

Reegs: Hey. Oui. Bonjour. Yeah. Bonsoir. Bonsoir.

Dan: Bonsoir.

Sidey: Bonsoir. Yeah. Two weeks en français. Oui. De semaine,

Reegs: De semaine, yes. Yeah.

Dan: Yeah.

Sidey: It was

Reegs: It was good. It was

Sidey: so I don't think you've had time to do proper intro. No, nothing like that. No. I don't think anybody's interested in that anymore anyway, are they?

And I- I am. I am. I am. I think it's quite funny. No. Well, I don't know. We'll see. We just like to punish you. It's, it's consuming a lot of time that- I like the way that it

Dan: intro? No,

Reegs: nothing like that. I don't think anybody's interested in that anymore anyway, are they?

And I d-

Cris: am. I- I am ... I think it's quite funny. Oh, well,

Reegs: I don't know. We'll see. We like the punishment. It's consuming a lot of time that I

Dan: I like the way that it all goes really downhill after it.

Sidey: Let's get straight into something that's... Something's back this week that we've missed over the summer

Reegs: the summer.

The Primitivo?

Sidey: No

Cris: walking football.

Dan: Oh,

Sidey: Oh,

Reegs: back, is it? Yes,

Cris: it was back

Dan: Guess who's back?

Reegs: back. First game of the season. Oh,

Sidey: right. We had our fir- had our maiden fixture of the season yesterday How

Reegs: you get on?

Sidey: The debut-

Dan: season, yes sir. How did you get on? The debut- Well- ... third season. You know, it's the third season blues. Yeah. A lot of teams, Rotations ... can't handle it

Reegs: it ... felt

Sidey: felt- ... like Hamlet ... our wrath. Okay.

Dan: Boom shaka-laka-laka.

Sidey: Put them to sword, didn't we?

Dan: we scored goals.

Sidey: Well-

Reegs: Goals galore? Yeah.

Sidey: I didn't score any goals

Reegs: Daniel, how many did you get? Let's-

Dan: I got one. Okay. I got a toe poke, and I forgot my boots and shin pads.

Reegs: Mm.

Dan: So overall, not a bad day at the office considering,

Sidey: a goal was scored by us that is possibly goal of the season contender already. Well, it is goal of the season contender, but it might be the winner already.

Reegs: Okay. Reminiscent of sort of Ajax of the '70s or Brazil? No,

Sidey: it was y- a through ball- Back of the net

where Ad did a kind of pirouette finish where he backheeled it, like fucking connected with it pure, like in the bottom corner. It was so good. It

Dan: w- it was just unbelievable. It stunned his-

Sidey: He only scores worldies ... silence. Yeah. Yeah.

Dan: stunned his... Everyone

Sidey: decided- 'Cause Martin their goalkeeper had saved like quite a...

He always saves quite a lot 'cause he's, he's a big fella and he, he, he knows what he's doing in goal. Yeah. If you're not hitting bottom corner,

Cris: Is that Martin Le Blanc? Yeah. Oh,

Dan: Oh. Yeah.

Sidey: So h- so he had been out the, on the Saturday

Cris: Son's wedding ... for

Sidey: Son's wedding ... for his son's wedding, and then at the end, I can't remember if it was James or someone, it might've been you.

No, it might've been Ally, 'cause someone had a shot and he fell back and he whacked his head on the post. Oh, it was actually, yeah. I'm like, "Well, if the hangover wasn't bad enough" "you just chatted your head against the post."

Yeah. he took

Reegs: a little

De- demoral- demoralized by a

Sidey: won 6-2 all in all.

6-2. Yeah.

I mean...

It was nil when I came off the

Dan: It was, Yeah, w- what was we, 2-0 up at- Yeah ... when you came off.

And I also came off, I think we scored another three after I came off. So, they're, they're learning to do without us- Yeah ... you know? Which is- Good ... what we want. We want our- It's a young game ... our, our fledglings to fly because we've been there since the early days, and it's lovely-

Sidey: Starters and

Dan: seeing these young... Exactly. Stars and finishers.

Sidey: who we think are just complete cunts.

Reegs: cunts. Okay.

Sidey: Oh, there is swears and spoils to come in this podcast, FYI.

If,

Dan: that didn't warn

Sidey: they've gone round and,

like,

acquired... Like a Man City, just got like players from other teams.

Dan: Or a Chelsea of old.

They just rebuilt their

Reegs: just rebuilt their midfield just at- That's what

Sidey: It's like, they've, they've- Twice ... you know, I think it's basically born out of First Tower That club folded and they, so they've, they're now under the- St.

Paul's ... St. Brella's umbrella. So they've got a couple of people from St. Paul's. They've, they've taken the best player from St. John, the best player from Rozel- Oh ... best player... And you're like, "What a

Reegs: "What a

Sidey: bunch of fucking losers." I just think it's really fucking tragic. Yeah. They're not

Dan: that any of them really like each other. They're just there to win

Reegs: what they've gotta do to, to try and beat you lot.

Yeah.

Sidey: no, to beat Trinity or people, they just... I don't know. Whatever. Fuck 'em. We'll, well, we'll take great delight in beating them. Yeah.

Dan: But that was big news, yeah. It was lots of fun, and coffees were had at the amazing- Socially,

Sidey: met after the, after the footy.

Town Dog. We're planning the Christmas do already. Okay.

Dan: Yeah. The, the germs of when do we s- we can o- we can only meet on a... What is it? The s- the, the 18th or the 25th. And the 18th's out.

So the 18th's out. So we're meeting on Christmas Day. It seems

Sidey: Christmas

Dan: the Christmas-

Sidey: Day in the morning.

All right, Christmas Day. Yeah.

Dan: Yeah. I agree ... that's, that's when- Yeah ... the best people meet.

Sidey: people meet. Other than that, what did you watch this week, Dan, anything?

Dan: I actually, beyond the, the homework, watched Early Man,

Sidey: God.

Dan: the Aardman-

Sidey: Oh. Oh, yeah. Yeah, I know. I know the other thing you're gonna say 'cause we did discuss

Dan: you were gonna say, 'cause we did discuss this. Yeah. So the Aardman, It's

Sidey: some anniversary year of Aardman, isn't it? 50 years of Aardman or something this year? Or 40

Dan: really? Yeah. It, it came on at work actually, and I was- UK ... just in my break time, and somebody had it on the TV.

And I was like, "I don't think I've seen this before." And it's football, you know. They're, they're playing- Cool ... against the

Sidey: Bronze Age, the cavemen against the

Dan: Bronze Age, the cavemen against the Bronze Age. And I was like, "It's really good." Like, you know, just as Aardman is. It's... They're just... The detail, the characters' faces, the, the animation and everything i- is so fantastic.

So I ended up watching it on Sunday as the, the wife and and Nelly had been away all summer. I thought, "Oh, it's a really nice one for us just to watch all together." It's about an hour and 20 minutes or

Sidey: Too long

Dan: minutes- Long ... or something. So we can... Just about the length of time that we can all sit in one room together.

And we watched that, and it was really good and enjoyed that. Also watched a bit of Ted Lasso, the

Sidey: the

Dan: last series. Not getting off to a- It's not started very well. We're three episodes in. We've had one collective laugh between us- Wow ... in three episodes. That

Sidey: in three episodes ... laughter to episode ratio. No, it's not,

Dan: is not ... a good ratio. No, it's not, it's not great.

But really enjoyed the first three seasons of this. So, felt a little bit of loyalty to

Sidey: give it a go.

I've seen a lot of not great write-ups of this.

Dan: It's, it... They're phoning it in really. It's, it's not fantastic. And then I watched... And I don't know why but- I'd not seen him before, and I watched that thing they did too, of Grown Ups.

Grown Ups, yeah ... Grown Ups. With Adam Sandler-

Reegs: them. Yeah, yeah, I've seen that.

David Spade.

Cris: David Spade Mm-hmm

Sidey: who

Dan: really like. I like David

Sidey: like David Spade?

Dan: Kevin James. Kevin James, and, Chris Rock ... and Chris... Is it Chris Rock?

Cris: did

Sidey: the racism.

Dan: and- No.

Sidey: No. It's Chris

Cris: Chris Tucker? Chris- No. It's Chris Rock.

Reegs: Chris Rock? And Chris... Is it Chris Rock? No, he did a racism- No. Chris Tucker? No. It's Chris Rock. Is it Chris Rock? It is Chris Rock. Yeah,

Cris: Yeah. I'm pretty sure

Dan: Yeah, I'd say it's Chris Rock. Yeah. Yeah, it's not Chris Tucker. Pretty sure it's Chris Rock, yeah. And they're all grown up together. They were on a basketball team together. The other one that was was it Roy...?

Sidey: Oh, Schneider. Schneider. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. I have a feeling that David Spade

Reegs: You can do it. They spent like becoming-

Sidey: do it ... D- David Spade might be a complete cunt. Is he?

Cris: he?

Dan: Maybe, but he's

Sidey: putting it out there anyway. He's, he, he, he's funny once. I don't

Dan: I wouldn't have him out there anyway. He's, he, he, he was funny in this. Is this the

Cris: where they go to some water park at some point? Yeah. This other one. Yeah. And,

Dan: schneider's got, I c- I... Why do I keep thinking... When I say Roy Schneider, I'm thinking of the Jaws guy.

Reegs: I think that's, you've got the name wrong, I think, isn't it? Yeah. But it's, Rob Schneider. Rob Schneider. Yeah. Yeah, Rob Schneider. The carrot. Yeah.

Dan: That's exactly why. Thanks, Reece. Good to have you back. Yeah. And he was, He's got really hot daughters. That's pretty much all I remember from it. No, there was a couple of laughs in it.

Surprised me. I like Adam Sandler. He wasn't on top, top form here.

Cris: this the one with Salma Hayek in it as well? Yeah. Where she's really fit- She's- ... and that's his missus

Dan: the, the wife of- Yeah, yeah ... Mr. Hollywood. He's a Hollywood producer. Yeah. And n- the, the others have had various kind of success or failures in

Reegs: in

Dan: growing up, and with families and things, and divorces.

But they all get back together because the coach has died, that they had their- Lost ... only successful basketball championship from their, their little town that, you know- Yeah ... only Americans really care about. But they'd all got together and rented this house and- Try to tap into the fact that, you know, life isn't in a mobile phone and they should connect together more like they did when they were young.

Sidey: Play walking football.

Reegs: Play

Dan: walking football, all that kind of jazz. And it had more laughs than, than I've had in Ted Lasso out of the

Cris: that the one where they go to some restaurant- Yeah ... and the kid goes, "Have you got Voss?"

Sidey: Yeah.

Cris: they're like, "So I can give you tap water." "What, like from the hose?"

Dan: Yeah.

Cris: So there... yeah, I've

Dan: that ... the kids really

Cris: all right. It's not, it's not as bad as you may

Dan: think I- have you seen it? No. Oh, honestly, it's not that bad. It's not as bad as- There's a Grown Ups 2

Cris: not that

Dan: They did a second one because obviously

Sidey: The first one made enough money to

Dan: not really my humor

the, the other people thought it was funny enough to

Sidey: sequel, yeah

the other people thought it was- Oh, I'm on board for Sandler, but the rest of them I'm not super

Dan: particularly interested

Sidey: James.

Dan: Well,

Cris: I'm

Reegs: Here comes the boom.

Cris: into. I... Well- Kevin James. There were- He can't sustain- Look, there, there's a few, there's a few

Dan: it What a- what, what about Roy Schneider?

Reegs: Schneider. European Gigolo and, Yeah ... whatever,

Cris: Oh, the European Gigolo

Reegs: Gigolo is daz. That's a huge bitch.

Dan: Yeah, I mean, there's a lot of jokes that don't hit home, but they just tell... They're relentless, so- Yeah ... some of them do

Sidey: Okay. Yeah. Chris, anything?

Cris: I've watched, I'm gonna say I'm probably six or seven episodes of In the Sun.

Dan: seven. Six, seven.

Cris: like the... I, I told you, it's the Pierce Brosnan Western thing. Mm. Oh,

Sidey: yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. That sounded good.

Cris: Yeah. It's... I, I, I still kind of enjoy it.

It's a Western. It doesn't, it doesn't bother me. It doesn't, you

know...

they kill loads of Mexicans in it as well, which is, you know- It's

Reegs: Something you

Cris: quite topical. No, I'm not pro. I know. I, I like Mexican. I don't have any

Sidey: week's film has got a

Cris: people in beds.

Yeah. I love Mexican food, and the people that I met from Mexico so far- I

Dan: taco or leave it

Cris: The lo- lovely

Sidey: lovely people.

Cris: So yeah, I watched that. Again, I think there's two seasons, and I'm gonna say maybe there's 10 episodes in the first season. I'm gonna watch that, then probably get bored and not watch the second season. And I finished the Earth, Wind & Fire documentary because I had, like, 20 minutes left of it and I quite enjoyed that. Okay. Earth, Wind & Fire. That guy was really cool actually the, the... Whatever his name was, something White.

Sidey: Peter.

Cris: White or whatever. Barry White. Yeah. Barry White, yeah. He was quite interesting and quite spiritual and-

Sidey: Walrus of Love.

Reegs: So Barry White was in Earth, Wind & Fire. Is that what we're

saying?

Dan: I don't, think- No ... I don't think we are saying that,

Reegs: Okay.

Cris: No. The, the guy- I think it was Barry ... that is the, the main guy from... I can't remember his name.

Sidey: Fat Harry White. I don't

Dan: it's Barry

Cris: I'm pretty sure his White is the surname.

But anyway,

Sidey: Angela White.

Cris: he- Angela White. Perm. He's got a perm anyway, the, the guy.

Dan: Is he a walker? Is he a White Walker? No. No, it's different shit.

Cris: I don't know, but it was quite nice. I enjoyed that because I like the music and it's, it's quite interesting. And that was it. Nothing really-

Dan: did they sing?

Cris: Do you remember? Oh, yeah,

Dan: Oh, yeah. I do remember. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Cris: 20 to 39.

Reegs: Do you remember? Oh, yeah, I

Cris: And there's loads of others, but that would be the one that I would

Sidey: say that's the most

Cris: famous.

What about you, Uncle Sy? Yeah. French... Have you watched, first things first, have you watched any French television? And if you did- I watched a little ... do you know that there's a TV show in France that is called Match of the Day?

Sidey: Match

Reegs: ze Day.

Cris: that's how they... It's exactly Match of the Day, and it's with Rory Smith who writes for The Athletic.

Yeah. But it's Match of the Ze Day, and it's, it's written S-E.

Sidey: But PSG keep losing, don't they? Yeah. A

Cris: So did you

Reegs: watch- I didn't see that, no, and I didn't watch any French television, no.

Nothing? No. Non? No. N- no. Ah. No. But I did... was accompanied on the trip with, by Jack Reacher in The Reacher TV. Oh, Reacher. I watched all of that. All four

Sidey: He said he's not doing any more, isn't he, the guy?

Reegs: one more, isn't there, I think? The season five, and then that's it.

Is it

Dan: any good?

Reegs: Yeah, I really like it now. I've come to... It's, like, sort of- People love Reacher

Dan: I think my mum watches it

Reegs: male power fantasy, like, escapism. Right.

Dan: Right. Okay.

Reegs: he's like this sort of 6'5", like, massive guy. He's always

Cris: really buff Adam- Yeah ... Richter or whatever his name is? Adam Richten.

Reegs: Ri- Richton?

Sidey: the- I haven't read the books ... The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen: League of Extraordinary Gentlemen

Cris: is that him? The- Yeah ... the super buff guy? Oh,

Reegs: Yeah. So, but he's, like, always in control of the situation, knows what's going on, even if he looks like he's on the back foot. And he's, like, he's this massive guy, so a lot of the fun is, like, seeing him throw people around like they're fucking children.

But also- Right ... he's not afraid to fight really dirty as well. Like, he'll poke someone in the eyes and, like- Oh. And then, so... but he's also really clever, and the first season is about him, like, uncovering this sort of scandal in a small town. And then the second one goes into the, his background, his-

Dan: fighting children?

Reegs: fighting children?

No, but everybody's like a child to him- Right ... 'cause he's 6'5" He's so big, yeah. He's so big. Like, he's al- that's the thing, like, he's always in control of the situation. And it gets interesting 'cause you see his background in the second one. He's a military, you know, former military- Of course he is

policeman and special investigators unit and all that. And in the third season- Rangers as well as pork ... he comes up against a guy who's bigger than him. Th- and they tease it from the first episode. The guy he's fighting, Olivier Rictors, I think is his name. He's 7'2". He's... Honestly, he's just ridiculous, this guy.

So then it's f- it's good, like, working out how Jack Reacher's gonna beat this guy. He's so much bigger than him. And then the fourth one has gone, like, to prison break levels of, like- Nice ... every episode ending on a, "Well, they're dead. They're, they're all dead." Yeah. "There's no way out

Sidey: "There's no way out." But they're not dead. But they're

Reegs: not dead.

Sidey: We

Dan: did a tall episode,

Sidey: We did. We talked about giants last week, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. That guy

Reegs: he would've definitely

Dan: in the conversation

Reegs: Yeah. Yeah, but it's strong recommend. Like, really- Okay, right ... it's funny. It's quite clever, the plots, and it's good violent action as

Cris: the episodes, the, the, the season have one story, or is it each-

Reegs: like each one is like a whole story, like a book, like, sort of thing. And there are recurring characters, but you could watch any of them out- sequence in it

Cris: no, but if it's... Like, so let's say each episode, does he solve a case in each episode? No. Or is it

Reegs: an overarching-

Cris: an overarching- Yeah,

Reegs: one, one plot for

Dan: one season is one book. One. And it's Lee Child, isn't it?

Yeah. The, yeah, the author of-

Reegs: And I started listening to the audiobook as well and that's good as

Sidey: gone all in.

Reegs: it's quite interesting to see what- Yeah

he actually took some of the character choices,

Dan: getting a Reacher round. Yeah. So you're watching

Reegs: Reacher and listening to the audiobook. W- Reacher in my head. That's the way to go. Getting a Reacher out. Fantastic.

Sidey: Nice.

Dan: Great holiday. Si, you? I

Cris: Fantastic. Amazing. Nice. Great holiday. Sy, you?

Sidey: I have continued with Barry.

Reegs: It's good, innit?

Sidey: I'm now on seas three. Yeah. Hank and Rick D- Cristobal. Mm, the plot is brilliant.

Reegs: it had the fight with is it Chad Stahleski or whatever? The one that he has in his apartment with that guy. It's just an unbelievable- Yeah, it's like- ... fight ...

Sidey: jamie, who was on the pod a couple of weeks back, I recommended Barry to him, and he messaged me yesterday for, "Just, just watched the first episode of Barry." And I was like, "What do you think?" And he replied, "Strong recommend." So he- ... he's been fully indoctrinated into the ways of the Pathead.

And then I saw him at work this morning, and he's done the whole of the first series, so he's gonna overtake me, actually. But it's been brilliant. And I watched a movie that wasn't homework. It was- What? ... a brand new one on Netflix, The Whisper Man.

Dan: yeah. Oh, De Niro.

Sidey: Oh, De Niro. De Niro, yeah. He's, Barry ... he's not the main guy in it.

It's Michelle Monaghan- Yeah

Reegs: Yeah

Sidey: And Adam Scott? Scott?

Dan: like Adam Scott.

Sidey: it's- Right ... it's a pretty generic serial killer- Mm. ... child sort of... His, his MO is killing kids, but they've caught him, and it was De Niro who was the police cop who caught him the first time round, and he's Adam Scott's dad, but it ruined his life.

He hit the booze. He was, became estranged from his family. Adam Scott really resents him. And Michael Keaton was the Whisper Man, but it's happening again. Oh. And,

Dan: It's... There's

Sidey: it's, there's two kids, so one- Michael

Reegs: Keaton was in it, did you

Sidey: He's the killer. He's the Whisper- Oh, right, okay. He's the original Whisper Man.

Reegs: But somebody else is whispering

Cris: told me about this film.

Dan: probably

Sidey: me.

Dan: Yeah, we talked about it a little while ago ... right

Sidey: There's another kid turns up dead, and then Adam Scott's kid is kidnapped and taken away. Oh. And so he has to get back in touch with De Niro and blah, blah, blah. And so they solve it, and spoiler alert, it turns out to be Michael Keaton's son, who's... There's a guy who's,

Reegs: in his father's footsteps? Yeah.

Sidey: a guy who collects serial killer memorabilia- I haven't seen Michael Keaton in a- ... and to get something, he's connected Michael Keaton. He's g- he's got a phone to him somehow, and he's got in touch with his son, who's actually in wi- witness protection, and

Reegs: Sounds really needlessly convoluted

Sidey: convoluted.

It's a copycat thing, and it's almost like a copycat movie of other sort of serial killer movies. Yeah. And, but I still really enjoyed it, 'cause it's sort of sinister and the performances are good in it. And then at the end, for some reason, and this is n- other people who have seen this may contradict me, but there had been no So Adam Scott's character had had an imaginary friend when he was a kid, and his son has an imaginary kid now. And he sort of, "Oh, don't worry, it's completely normal." Okay. But you

Reegs: completely normal." But you- but now it's a supernatural something or other, is it? Yeah.

Sidey: He's like, "Don't worry, it's it's completely normal to have an imaginary...

I had one, but you also kinda need to get over it." And sort of...

Reegs: so there's a ... And

Sidey: then at the end when he's being stalked and chased by the killer, when you get into the, the culmination of the film, you see the kid being chased with their imaginary friend, and then when it's all resolved, he's there with his dad, and he goes, "Oh," 'cause the mum is dead.

Yeah. He's like, "Oh, Mum helped me with that."

Reegs: She was the imaginary

Sidey: along ... and, and, and, and then he looks at a photo and he, and he goes, "Oh." And you're like, wait, in the last 30 seconds it turns out that there was- There

Reegs: a ghost

a ghost. A ghost of his mum- That was my problem ... helping the whole time

Sidey: It's all fine. Which really took the shine off it for me.

But I still

Reegs: you've said makes me not wanna watch the movie, to be honest.

Sidey: Yeah, I get that. I still enjoyed it. Apart from that last, that last sort of 90-second bit was stupid, but I enjoyed the rest of it. Michael, I mean, it's got Michael Keaton and De Niro. Michael Keaton's a good actor as

Reegs: some good actors, aren't there? Yeah.

Sidey: Yeah, he's good, and they, they're good in it. So I enjoyed that. And then Homework. Homework. And we're gonna do top five, talking about Steven Soderbergh stuff. Yeah. And then we're gonna talk about Traffic.

Cris: Yes. That is what the plan is. Traffic.

Sidey: Shall we,

shall we crack on with Steve?

Dan: Let's do him. Yeah. Let's do him

Reegs: Right.

Sidey: We haven't done a, a, like a specific person-related top five in a little while.

Dan: What drew you to this, Chris?

Cris: Well,

to be fair, I said last week that I'm gonna do either an actor. I initially I

Sidey: thought- John Actor

Cris: I thought it would be an actor that blah, blah, blah. And then I thought, well, what can I, what film can I do?

What... And, and I can't remember w- I initially I, I'm, I'm pretty sure I probably thought of Benicio Del Toro. Yeah. Because I do like him and, and he's- Yeah ... he's got such a wide range of- Yeah ... of

Reegs: Yeah ... of

Cris: everything and anything.

Dan: one of Wales's best actors.

Sidey: Yeah.

Cris: He's Puerto Rican. Oh,

Dan: Oh, that's him.

Cris: I'm pretty sure he's from Puerto Rico.

Dan: Yeah, no, he, he...

Cris: and, and then I, I can't remember how I looked at Traffic because I was looking at

Reegs: But you were looking at Behind the Candelabra first, which we'd already done.

Cris: Yeah, but it was Traffic and Behind the Candelabra. Ah, I see. So it would've been Steven Soderbergh. Soderbergh double joint. Well, that was initially what I thought.

And then I thought, well, Benicio Del Toro. And I was like, ah, do you know what? I'm gonna do these ones because I, I've not seen the... Because I, you guys did it for the pod, but I, I didn't see it, the Behind the Candelabra. Yeah.

Dan: But you chose Michael Clayton for the mid-week- Yeah ... which we've recorded, and you could listen

Sidey: Soder- Soderbergh was a producer on that one, so it was connected.

Cris: Yeah. Yeah.

Reegs: Yeah.

Dan: was terrific. We loved that.

Reegs: And it had some of his collaborators, frequent collaborators in Clooney and all that.

Yeah. As well.

Cris: And, and I think that's kinda how... And I thought, right, well, I'm not gonna do the actor.

I'm just gonna do St- Soderbergh because he'd done so many films.

Sidey: does act occasionally. Yeah. He appears every now and then. Okay. He also- He

Reegs: retired in 2017, then

Sidey: then made about a million

Reegs: a million films over the next few years.

Dan: he edits- When the pressure's off ... he does,

Sidey: he does the cinematography- Yeah ... but under pseudonyms.

Reegs: Oh, right.

Sidey: Okay. So he did stuff on Traffic under a pseudonym. Yeah.

Dan: Well, he's got loads of,

Sidey: edits under a female pseudonym, Mary something.

Reegs: Ann. Mary Ann. Yeah.

Sidey: Yeah.

Cris: Right. Okay. Well, look, I, I... All this I didn't know, but,

Dan: mary Ann Bernard ... I'm gonna tell

Cris: you what I actually wanted to do was, which I probably can't because it's a two-part thing.

But my favorite out of all these ones that I've seen that he produced or he got involved with was Che,

Sidey: Because I- Oh,

Cris: I- Oh ... I watched-

Sidey: It's a two-parter, isn't it?

Cris: It's a two-parter, and they're both two and a half hours, and they're both Benicio Del Toro.

Sidey: Should've done it this week.

Cris: Well,

yeah, exactly. But that was the thing because I actually thought about that initially because I, I do like the story, and I do like the-

Sidey: Have you ever eaten in Bond Street Social over here? Yes. 'Cause they've got a massive Che picture. I'm like, "What's the vibe in here?"

It's weird.

Cris: weird. I, I don't think they're communist themselves. I think it's more of a,

Sidey: a- No, it's a bit random

Cris: I think it's because they went to Cuba and they got the- Right ... that as a souvenir.

Dan: Wow. Well, he, he, he's... Che has become all the kind of things that he probably wishes that he, he wasn't, but you know that his symbol of, you know, revolutionary and- Well, he's a symbol

Sidey: of, you know, revolutionary and-

Cris: he's a symbol for the- ... revolution and- For the revolutionary, right? And, and for-

Dan: saying that he wouldn't be that, but he, he's normally in places, in commercial places like- Yes.

Yeah ... you

Cris: Yeah ... you know, he's And

on 14-year-old kids' T-shirts and- Yeah ... people get him tattooed without necessarily knowing what he actually stood for- What his- Or, or what he- Yeah

what he really was. And I've read a book on, on Ernes- on Ernesto Guevara, and I've seen the films. And I have to give him the film is very, very accurate, and the film, especially the first part, is more his beginning, which is kinda

Sidey: Which is Motorcycle Diaries, isn't it? Yeah.

Cris: what I mean.

It's, it's bas- that's what I was gonna say. It's pretty much like The Motorcycle Diaries where he's just a guy, he's just at university. He but he goes to America. He's very well educated-

Sidey: he's more of a, like, an idealist before the, the revolution really, his

Cris: and there's a, apparently there's a, after he goes to America to translate for Fidel Castro, he is, there's a report on him because obviously in those times, whoever comes from Cuba in America, they were profiled and, and he did apparently, because on, that's wildly considered to be true, that in the report it said that he's dangerously educated, dangerously high educated for a South Am- South American.

Sidey: Yeah, can't have that. So-

Dan: Cut him down. Yeah

Cris: And, and he's always tr- tried to be influenced by certain people, but he stayed true to his... And, and he was, because he was a doctor, he treated so many people, but he was also conflicted with how the orders from Fidel Castro, because he wasn't their leader of the rev- the revolutionary the revolution in Cuba.

He was a, a general, he was a main character in it, but he still took orders. And if you take orders, allegedly he executed people. So it's not just this

Dan: Mm-hmm

Cris: idealism of what he stand for, and he's such a nice guy, and he saved so many lives. He was also a soldier, and he-

Dan: so there was two films on that by Steven Soderbergh- Yes. Yeah, yeah. Che ... and then he's done... Like, I was looking today just how many movies this guy's been involved in.

And-

Sidey: Guevara?

Yes.

Dan: Che Guevara- ... and Steven

Sidey: He's very prolific. Yeah.

Dan: He, not just, as you say, acting- He's made movies since we started recording

Reegs: made two since we started recording this podcast ... directing, directing.

At least two.

Dan: Photography and al- sound. He... And all aspects of film as well, because he started off with obviously, was it Sex, Lies, and- Sex, lies ... and

Sidey: a technician- Isn't Autor ... and videotape ... Sex and Videotape, yeah. It won the Palme d'Or ... which

Dan: was one of his earlier kind of movies which being budget, he did everything on, and, and then probably learnt to love film

Reegs: and- Andie MacDowell- Yeah

I think was in that one, wasn't she? Yeah.

Dan: A- and so you've chosen for us the whole week to get involved with Steve.

Cris: because it's also a wide enough palette of films- Yeah ... so we can all... I think we've all seen quite a few of his films- Yeah

Reegs: And I would say- I know it's true what you s- there's, he's got sci-fi in there, he's got action films, he's got, Biopics

thrillers, he's got comedies-

Dan: Probably surprised how many films he's been involved in. You'd have to go on his IDMB or IMBD

Sidey: or IMDB- Yeah, you could do

Reegs: one of those.

Dan: One of those. You'd have to go onto his page, his Wiki page, to see just how many films he's been involved in- Lots of films ... that you wouldn't actually even see his name on, because as you mentioned there's various pseudonyms that he uses for different roles that he plays.

Mary Ann Bernard is one. He plays a cinematographer. Or that's a cinematographer,

Sidey: Mary was the, the edit- his editing pseudonym ... editor.

Dan: But there's, there was a couple of others as well. At least one or two more Yeah. That--

Sidey: so the Mary Ann one, that was his mother's maiden name. That's why he chose that name.

Got it. And Peter Andrews is when he does the cinematography, which I think Traffic is one of the ones. Riggs, what are you gonna, you gonna, got any offerings for us?

Reegs: well, Solaris, did you ever see that one?

Sidey: Yeah, I did see that. I really liked it. Yeah. 'Cause it was a remake of a-

Dan: yeah.

Sidey: Sci-fi, yeah.

It was a remake of a very difficult Russian version. It was like seven hours long or something. Tarkovsky. Yeah,

Reegs: Tarkovsky or whatever his name

Sidey: Tarkovsky or whatever his name was. Wasn't it like a- Four-hour- Yeah

Reegs: of sci-fi thing. This one is still a pretty lengthy movie, and most of it is, like, pretty sparsely shot and- Protection

Sidey: McElhone or something, isn't it?

Yeah.

Reegs: Plays his... He's on a space station. Dead wife. Maybe a dead ghost alien wife maybe. Yeah.

They don't tell you, and it's better d- not to k- you know, worry too much about it 'cause it's more like a meditation on loss and connection and all that stuff. Yeah, and very quiet. A really quiet movie. You can hear anything, like, you know, you s- people squirming in their seats and all that sort of stuff as the movie goes on.

That's a really good one, Solaris. Yeah

Sidey: Yeah. I, I really enjoyed that one.

Reegs: It's another one you were talking earlier about Cla- Clooney. Like, he's in this one. Great character piece. Looking weary, but also kinda stylish at the same time.

Sidey: Hard to make Clooney look bad.

Reegs: It's hard to make him look bad. Yeah

Sidey: Do you remember Contagion? Yeah. Yes. That came out in 2011, and it was, people sort of liked that, and it did okay. And then COVID came along, and it had like a massive new like lease of life. Yeah. But it was really good . I really liked it. Not just because Gwyneth Paltrow dies early on and has her head cut open and her

Dan: the one with Matt Damon in, isn't it?

Cris: it?

Sidey: Matt Damon is h- her husband. He's playing a

Dan: has twins. Yeah, yeah.

Sidey: And you get all the conspiracy bullshit. It was like really like eerily spot on. Yeah.

Reegs: There was so much of it that was so prescient.

Sidey: Yeah. And it, it turned... You know, you saw that one, it was non-linear as well, as you saw She wasn't patient zero.

There was another guy where she fucked the guy

Reegs: a- Yeah

Sidey: Yeah ... on a on the way back from a work trip, and he-

Reegs: I know. Was that ... Like, was he, she being punished basically for being unfaithful by

Sidey: by dying from this? Well, yeah, sort of, yeah. And then you saw where it came from, and it was a bat, bat had shat into a pig farm or something, and then that had made its way into a bowl of food.

And so yeah, you had this sort of global pandemic. And I remember, I do remember Ed Laurence Fishburne was this head of the whatever, you know, authority it

Cris: The research, whatever. Yeah. CNC.

Reegs: saying, like,

Dan: "We're

Reegs: now in fucking lockdown." You know? Yeah. "This is eight years before we had the lockdown."

Mm.

Sidey: CDC. They were saying, well, saying, "Right, we're now in fucking lockdown." You know? Yeah. This is eight years before we had the lockdown, and people would say, "Well, you know, what you gonna... How can you justify that?" It's like, I'd rather have people being fucking annoyed about being, you know, in lockdown than having millions of people fucking dead on the street.

And then, you know, years later we had to fucking go through all

Reegs: Yeah.

In that one there was more sort of rioting and people vomiting blood, and our contagion was, like, m- more sniffling and, you know,

Sidey: yeah. But people did die.

Reegs: People did die. People did die, particularly in the early days, yeah.

Sidey: And in this one they had,

you know,

what the potential remedy might be, and it was such and such a drug that, Mm.

Reegs: It was lot- it was on a lottery basically for people's birthdays or whatever- Yeah ... when you

Sidey: And then there was rioting to get that stuff, so that was... That one really struck a chord with people, I think.

Reegs: Yeah.

Dan: Syriana. Hmm.

Reegs: Oh, it's another Clooney.

Cris: Clooney, no? Yeah.

Reegs: He's a bit fat in this one and got a big

Cris: I was gonna say, he's got the beard. Is he fat in this one?

I- I'm sure, I know he had his be- the

Sidey: make an in-joke about it in one of the Oceans films. Mm. Brad Pitt tells him to keep the weight off in between. Oh, right. Which was a reference to him putting on weight for this film,

Dan: Yeah. He w- he was a bit chunky in this. But a- again, like,

Reegs: I can't remember what it's about. Tell us, Daniel.

Sidey: Well, it, it- Middle East. Huh? Middle Eastern

conflict. It's,

Dan: Middle East conflict. It's about lots of political inning goings and outgoings and it was quite a, a confusing plot, to be honest. It wasn't anything that was, And I find a lot of his films actually, these serious ones, they do cut back.

They go back. They're, they're in sepia. They're,

Reegs: likes to play around with time and,

Sidey: he direct this one,

Dan: though. Is

Reegs: Syriana,

Dan: he was

Reegs: didn't he? No, he

Sidey: though? Is this one- He was, he w- no, he was executive producer. This is, this is, this is the Section 8 stuff with Clooney.

Yeah.

Reegs: Oh, right. He

Dan: this is the sex change doctor Clooney. Yeah. He w- he was a executive producer, which basically

Sidey: in this one as well?

Dan: film

he helps get people into

Reegs: into

Dan: Supporting the movie to get it made, doesn't it? And I...

Sidey: I,

Dan: Yeah, I believe Matt Damon was in this one- Yeah ... as well. Doesn't a

Sidey: kid goes in the swimming pool at one point? I remember that- Yeah ... from this film. Yeah.

Dan: And I'll, I'll be honest, like when I was looking through the, the Soderbergh films there, I've seen a lot of them.

Sidey: There's loads.

I've got so many gaps, loads of gaps I've got.

Dan: I've got. But there's... I- when I was trying to make a top five here, I was like... And you know, I do... Normally, when I do this, I, I do my own top five, and I know that one of those is gonna go into- Yeah ... our top five. There wasn't any that I would say that st- there's a few that I'll get into that I, I really get behind and I think they're, they're really great movies.

And Michael Clayton would be like one of those that we did for the midweek- Yeah ... that I would certainly suggest now as being a

Sidey: classic, yeah ...fantastic,

Dan: fantastic movie. I just... Like I've only seen it once. I will watch that again, like definitely. But he's very, very talented, but there's... And can do all this different, different genres.

But yeah, n- none that... Not as many as he's done films. They're not all bangers for me is what I'm saying.

Cris: What, his

Dan: His film. His- His filmography. Oh. I

Reegs: I think he delivers a consistently high

Dan: They're high, they're good, they're whatever,

Sidey: he can do... So Traffic I would say, like he can do highbrow stuff, he can do kind of Oscar baity stuff. I'm gonna put it out there. Yeah. Yeah. I think that's quite Oscar baity. But he can do like multiplex, like not lowbrow, but like bums on

Reegs: seats, really entertaining stuff.

Cris: front-row seats really- Logan Lucky.

Sidey: stuff. Logan Lucky. Yeah. Which, which w- I really enjoyed.

Yeah,

Reegs: That was great. Which,

Cris: which I was gonna say because it's, for me that's

Sidey: it's comedy really

Cris: It's also, it's a comedy and

Sidey: movie.

Cris: quite funny. Yeah. It's, it's got a bunch of good actors and, and A-listers, if you wanna call them

Reegs: Adam Driver

Cris: with people that you would know and everyone, and, and they're again, you know they're good actors.

You

Sidey: know- It's Daniel Craig in the midst of his James Bond stuff- Yeah ... doing a like guy with silly hair and a

Cris: a silly Southern with an accent and all that. Yeah. And again, is it gonna be an Oscar-hitting film? Absolutely not.

Sidey: it's just for fun.

Reegs: is it gonna be- Well, no, but then it did have s- like, it was this sort of heisty thing, wasn't it? But then it also had a bit to say about, like, disability and how the Americans treat their, like, m- returning

Cris: Yeah. Gr- great message. But at the same time, this is what I mean, it's, it's almost like, okay, well, he can do... And, and I'm not gonna, I'm gonna put the name out there because I actually, as much as I think it's based also on a true story if I'm, if I'm sh- if I remember correctly.

And I'm pretty sure he got at least an Oscar for this, or Julia Roberts got an

Dan: an Oscar. What, what's after

Cris: for Erin Brockovich. Yeah. So it's not Erin Brockovich where it's like this serious- Yeah ... you know, court case you know, where e- the world should be watching, and a single mom doing all this.

No, this is Logan Lucky. It's quite funny, and these two prisoners-

Sidey: a popcorn

Cris: Yeah. It's, it's

Sidey: like- It's just for fun

Cris: it's a breeze. It's an hour and 20 minutes or whatever. It's just how an

Dan: don't think I've seen it, to be fair

Reegs: We did it for the pod, you fuck.

Dan: Was I in that

Sidey: I don't know. You might have been. Maybe you were away.

Dan: I would suggest that I wasn't

Reegs: were there. Everyone that watched it really enjoyed it,

Dan: as I recall I, I would suggest that I wasn't there that

Reegs: You were

Cris: it. I would say that was really good. So, so again, I'm, I'm gonna say Logan Lucky, and then I didn't mention Erin Brockovich, but someone might have a lot more to say about that because I think-

Sidey: to watch that one. Really? Yeah. I don't like Julia Roberts, so I gunned it

Cris: It's a good film though

Sidey: I know.

I'm sure

Reegs: Her Wonderbra did a lot of the marketing for that movie, didn't it? Yeah.

Sidey: She win the Oscar?

Cris: the Oscar? Pretty sure there was a ... I'm pretty sure either her or someone in that film or the film itself won an Oscar, so.

Reegs: That's a truey as well, and it's about, you know, somebody just won't go away, being really persistent with this,

Sidey: carried on with other s- like cases after the fact.

Yeah, she has, yeah Yeah, yeah. She's still going as an activist, so fair play, but- Yeah ... I don't wanna watch that

Reegs: Yeah.

Cris: Have you got anything else?

Reegs: I've got... Yeah. Well, how... Are we nomming or are we,

Cris: like- Yeah. We're get- Let's just nom Let's

Sidey: can

Reegs: a quick

Dan: a few. I

Cris: can go through a

Reegs: Mike, I was gonna

Dan: Oh,

Sidey: yeah. Yeah. Male nudity.

Reegs: not seen this one. Have you not? 'Cause

Cris: Yeah. I've not seen- That was- I've

Sidey: That was-

Dan: one. 'Cause a lot of his- You what? No, I've not seen Magic Mike. I know a lot of his- You did ... movies around, like, greed and, and corporate greed

Reegs: and, and

Dan: and kind of- It's one of

Sidey: male nu- male nudity ... but

Dan: it, this one isn't though, I take it?

Reegs: no, again, it is a little bit about the American dream and chasing money because it's Channing Tatum becoming a sort of Chippendale, and it's got Matthew McConaughey as the boss man. McConau- who? Yeah, exactly. So

Sidey: fucking buff.

Cris: some amazing

Reegs: Oh, my God

there's an amazing scene where he's

Sidey: They're so hot. He's- Yeah ... he's an amazing singer. 'Cause Channing Tatum was this with pre-acting career, wasn't he?

Cris: yeah. Well, that's what he was doing. Yeah. He,

Reegs: he took a thing that was being used to kind of ridicule him and turned it into this story with Soderbergh. There's a great scene where he's trying to get a loan, and the woman can't give it to him in the bank, but she's basically eyeing him up like he's a piece of meat, like salivating at him.

It was really good, and

Sidey: think Meek nominated it. He did Like, it was, like, the sixth week of the pod. We've done, thinking that me and you would have a,

Reegs: And thinking of me and you, Dave, we were like,

Sidey: fucking great. We loved it. Yeah, it was

Reegs: Yeah, it was really good. It had Kevin Nash in it as well. He's a former wrestler, one of those fucking massive guys.

Sidey: Yeah, there were so many buff dudes in it

Reegs: he was called in that

Sidey: was called in that. I can't remember. Do- we must have seen dick in that film. I'm sure.

Cris: Oh, they might ... Yeah, there has to be. You

Sidey: was amazing. Are we just nomming? Are you put- is that your nom?

Reegs: No, I've got one more that I wanted to talk

Dan: do another round if you can do another round, 'cause I've got another, I've got another one or two.

Sidey: I was gonna talk about the Oceans ones, but I thought someone- Yeah ... probably got that for their nom. It's not mine. No.

Dan: No.

Cris: No.

Reegs: No.

Sidey: So that's the, that's the trifecta. Oceans 11. So this is, like, where it's proper popcorn stuff. It's- Yeah

just exists for fun and entertainment, and they are fucking really entertaining. 12, not so great, I don't think,

Cris: The first one

Sidey: actually still enjoyed 12, but-

Cris: first one is qu- very,

Sidey: one's really good ... amazing, but it's really good. I really like 13.

Reegs: it I really like 13. 13's good

Sidey: I, that's my favorite.

Reegs: it takes place in that weird reality where w- is Julia Roberts actually a real person in it or not? Like, you know,

Sidey: Well, the- this, the tw- Oceans 12 is the one where she plays herself. Yeah. Well, doesn't play... That's the one where she doesn't play herself, but they've, they like... She looks a bit like that famous actress, and they're like, "Oh."

Reegs: So they're like, "Ah."

Sidey: like, "Oh my God." There's, there's a lot of phoning in in that one. But 13's Al Pacino, and he kind of is, like, mega acting Al Pacino. Yeah. Yeah. You know when Rob Brydon does impersonations of Al Pacino, I think it's based on this- Yeah ... where he's just sort of shouting and just being s- like 11.

Clooney like being super fucking smooth. Yeah. Brad Pitt making sure he's eating, I think in every single scene he's like shoveling food in his mouth. The cast like obviously is

Cris: Brilliant, yeah.

Sidey: Like

Reegs: the locations are good.

Yeah. And there's always a little bait and switch with the plot, isn't there? Some bit of information you

Sidey: where you know they're gonna do something, and they've got funny names for them all, though. It's a thingy with a da-da and a blah-blah, and you're like, "What does that mean?" And

Reegs: could be all, like, smug and self con- g- you

Sidey: it probably is a bit, but you can forgive it

Reegs: but- Yeah, it probably is a bit, but you can forgive it

you feel like you're inside with them on the joke,

Cris: they're also really, they all look really cool, and really all put together and all that, and they all play the role individually so well that,

Sidey: And the first one they kind of, they win, but they don't really win because they can't spend the money. They're being watched, you know.

So, I enjoyed those. They were good. They were good fun. Yeah. And they've all just appeared on Netflix if you wanna watch them. Okay.

Dan: Yeah.

Sidey: Mm.

Dan: Okay, so Erin Brockovich, we, we've mentioned, which I'm glad we did because I really like

Reegs: film.

Cris: I liked it.

Dan: it.

Cris: I liked it.

Dan: or, or again, around corporate greed tapping into a true story as well.

The fact that this this character, this, this lady, Erin Brockovich, wasn't a law student wasn't a, an official kind of person into it, but just started digging at and picking at the scab of something that felt wrong and found out this huge kinda case where similar to,

Sidey: u North

Dan: Well, i- similar to the story that we, we did with Michael Clayton.

There was this UNorth-

Sidey: U North-

Dan: big corporate greedy arseholes

Sidey: Corporate cover-up

Dan: cover up and, and she, she clapped into that. The Laundromat was another one that, Laundromat pod, yeah ... which we did for the pod, which was fantastic. And he was

Sidey: a cinematographer,

Dan: a cinematographer, I think in that under Mary Ann Bernard, one of his pseudonyms.

But the one that I was gonna nom actually, and-

Reegs: Olivia's sister

Dan: I... Was, w- wasn't Olivia's sister. It was her,

Reegs: her.

Dan: though. Oh. It was her.

Reegs: That Soderbergh,

Dan: That... So he had some small part in either executive producing

Sidey: the one with the- With-

Reegs: Jones ... with whack in- Whack in Phoenix and-

Sidey: like

Reegs: Scarlett Johansson's. Yeah.

Dan: Scar- Scarlett Johansson,

Reegs: know

Sidey: that film ...

Dan: is an artificial intelligence, and it's set some way into the future.

And think this was 2013, so 13 years ago. Now we're into AI, and

Sidey: think she had to sue someone 'cause it, someone did try and use her voice- Right

on some sort of product as like an AI. Probably. She's like- Yeah ... "Fuck off. No." She's she's got a great sort

Dan: her voice- Right ... on some sort of product is the thing. Probably. She's like Yeah. She's got a, she's, she's got a great sort of voice and, and people connect to it. And she,

Cris: her,

Dan: Her, a computer kind of software

Reegs: I think accurately predicting people

Dan: is promoted really.

You know, loneliness is,

Reegs: Or people having a relationship with their AI that

is- Yeah,

Dan: people have, have no relationships with other people, but having relationships with AI- Mm ... is something that's quite usual. And as it goes through actually it becomes so complex that

Cris: AI

Sidey: AI

Dan: AI does away with humans, and he's dumped by a fucking computer.

Do you know what I mean? It's like, it basically comes down to that. But and he's gutted, you know? He's absolutely broken-hearted about it. But between that, the beginning and, and the end, he's skipping a lot of the time because he's just so happy that he's got somebody who understands him so well, who can obviously not giving him those physical kind of things 'cause it's just a voice.

It's just a... But,

Reegs: sort of AI psychosis more and more common now, isn't

Dan: Yeah. Yeah.

Reegs: Remember Matt Paul? He f- fell in love with a toaster. Really, really

Dan: re- Remember that movie, fell in love with a toaster ... really, really interesting. Well, you know, easy to do it because they're

Sidey: He helped edit that movie,

Reegs: Oh, there you go. Oh, he

Dan: There you go.

Sidey: was wondering what the connection was. He helped edit it,

Dan: go. He was the editor. Well, I can give you- And that's my nom

Cris: you can tell me what what he helped to do with Equilibrium,

Sidey: but

Cris: he's definitely involved in that, and I can't tell you exactly what. Reegs: that the

Sidey: Christian Bale sci-fi

Cris: Yes, that is the one. The one and only. And it's written and directed by Kurt Wimmer, but,

Reegs: but, Kurt Wimmer ... i,

Cris: I like that film as he's called John Preston, and he's like a police officer in the future, and-

Sidey: Felt like a, it

Reegs: gun kata ... a, a

Sidey: Matrix or rip-off at

Reegs: Yes. Kinda

Cris: like similar to that, but, but they use swords.

Sidey: Yeah.

Cris: And there's a great scene at the end where he cuts the, the, the face, and he just cuts the guy's face where... But from the top to bottom, and then you can see the face just kind of slide off his head-

which is amazing.

Reegs: He takes, They, they're supposed to rou- Everybody takes a, an emotion suppressant basically. There's

Cris: kinda like the Universal Soldier where they do the

Sidey: to- Where they destroy- I have to make a, a point of fact is that there was a short film directed by Steven Soderbergh called Equilibrium, but the Equilibrium that you're talking about- Oh,

Cris: Oh, no.

Reegs: Oh. Oh. Oh.

Cris: to Chris then.

Dan: reverse

Cris: sorry.

Dan: it's never been done before ... did- Si, what have you got for us?

Reegs: Well, I've got a sort of twofer, which is Haywire is the movie.

It launched the career of Gina Carano,

Sidey: Oh.

In

Reegs: In film? In film, yeah. She was obviously in women's mixed martial arts. But that is a pretty competent,

Sidey: She's full MAGA now ... martial arts. Yeah. But that

Reegs: starring Michael Fassbender and a few others, like action thriller-y, sort of espionage-y one with her in a sort of Jason Bourne-type role, and it's got a fucking amazing soundtrack by David Holmes, who is a frequent Soderbergh collaborator and-

Sidey: one on the, the one I'm going on. Do you mean- Is he the

Dan: brother of John? Yes. Yeah. Okay. He's

Reegs: done loads of great,

Dan: He's done loads of great, Yeah

Reegs: stuff with Soderbergh. D- he scored all of the Oceans ele- Oceans movies, and like I say, Haywire is fucking off the

Dan: the Oceans movies were basically taken from the Rat Pack, Yeah

Sidey: it was the remake. It was the remake with

Dan: Which were awful ... Sinatra and Caine, yeah Which we- weren't

Sidey: weren't great, you

Dan: that great. I had seen one or two of those when I was kids, and other than the fact they had Sinatra-

Reegs: Mm

Dan: Mm. Dean Martin Sammy Davis Jr., I think they're quite tough watching going back. But the Oceans films were actually quite good, weren't they?

Like at least one or two of them were-

Sidey: Well, I liked them ... really watchable. You done?

Reegs: you done? Yeah.

Sidey: I'm putting in "Out of Sight." It's one of my favorite movies. Oh, yes. I really, really like

Dan: you'd, I knew you'd have this one.

Sidey: it's got Luis Guzman- Straight away

who's in "Traffic." It's got Clooney, of course. It's David Holmes does the score for it. Clooney is the bank robber who can rob banks just by going in and smiling at the teller and saying, "Just give me that money." And where he gets caught, 'cause this is another one where you s- you see him get caught at the start and end up in prison, then we flash later on to how it happened.

And he does go into the teller, who's this middle-aged lady, and he smiles at her, and he's very, very charming, and he's, he points to a guy who's having a meeting in the middle of the bank and says, "See that guy? That's my partner, and if you do anything untoward, I'm gonna look at him and he's gonna shoot your bank manager in the face."

Yeah. And she's like, "Oh." And

Dan: like, "Oh." And

Reegs: him the

Sidey: in that envelope." And then he s- she, she hands him the money. He says, "Now, y- you know, you have a good day." And you can see she's, like, really taken with him. She's like, "You too."

Reegs: "You too." And he

Sidey: then he goes over and he speaks to the fella, and he's like, "Oh, you, you know, you see that?"

You know, he points at her, and, "She's really, she really good job there, you know. She's really good." And, and then he walks out, and the guy sort of looks back and he's really confused. That's Steven Soderbergh. Like,

Reegs: Oh, okay

Sidey: he's in the movie.

Reegs: In the movie. He didn't realize he was complicit in a bank

Sidey: yeah. And then as it turns out, he can't get the car started and he, he ends up getting arrested.

Reegs: She's the cop, isn't she? In,

Sidey: there. J.Lo, yeah. She's really good in it as well. You think, God, if you just made, like, good movies like this- More movies like this ... than the fucking shit pop music that you churned out and became a complete twat.

Dan: And then started fucking

Sidey: this is a 10 out of 10 movie for me. I fucking think it's brilliant. Really, really good. It's also got the actress that I can't think of. Oh, my God, I can't remember her name. She's great. She's in being in John Malkovich as well. Catherine Keener.

Reegs: Oh, yeah.

Sidey: Brilliant, brilliant, brilliant, brilliant.

Love this. Cris: Okay.

Dan: you have number one, Chris? Did you look in your,

Cris: yeah, I had "Confessions of a Dangerous Mind." Ooh,

Sidey: love that

Cris: Which is it, it's really... I, I thought it's really good.

Reegs: Oh, yeah. Starring

Sidey: Pardon? Sam Rockwell. Yeah,

Cris: yeah.

Sam Rockwell, who plays Chuck Barris. George Clooney, obviously.

Sidey: Supposed to be a true story.

Cris: Apparently, except for the CIA thing. Yeah. Apparently, that's like, they, they fabricated the fact that he was a CIA agent, but everything else is meant to be based by, on, on Chuck Barris'- Hitman ... Hitman, but the-

Reegs: He was a fantasist though as well, wasn't he? Or no?

Cris: He's a, he was a TV presenter. Yeah. Like a-

Sidey: He's doing all these game shows but also going off and killing people,

Reegs: Yeah. Yeah.

Cris: yeah.

Sidey: yeah. It's directed by George Clooney, this

Cris: Yes. It is his de- de-debut as a... But he's, he's an actor in it. He's a director. Sam Rockwell, Julia Roberts, Drew Barrymore, Rupert Hauer, Matt Damon, and Michael Cera.

So again, it's very strong cast in this. But my nom is gonna be Che.

Sidey: Okay, nice.

Cris: It has to be Che.

Reegs: Nice.

Dan: we've got one more spot for the top five.

Sidey: Mm.

Dan: Hiters with it.

Cris: Boom

Sidey: Tell

Dan: what we haven't done in a while

Reegs: Ow

Sidey: is

Dan: the foods that we're eating and the drinks that we're drinking. 'Cause you've brought some absolutely fine Cordon Bleu Nerds

From Robert's garage.

Sidey: Garage.

Cris: Garage. They're not from Robert's Garage, they're from Grand Marche.

Dan: Oh, these are Grand Marche. Oui.

Sidey: Ah, oui.

Dan: bonjour.

Reegs: They're free range.

Dan: grape and strawberry flavor

Nerds. We've also got the signature caramel chocolate rounds.

Sidey: are very good.

Dan: These are very

Reegs: that an own brand, or is

Sidey: that

Cris: like McVitie's or- McVitie's.

Sidey: or- They're McVitie's, yeah- Oh, McVitie's

but they're,

Dan: McVitie's.

Sidey: the, the writing is in gold, so you know

Reegs: know it's gotta be good

Sidey: Yeah. You know

Dan: you know they're gonna

Cris: offer as well. It's like £1.10 or something like that. Wow. Because I had

Sidey: they're on offer- Wow ... because I had a packet appear in my cupboard at home, which my mom has bought, and she would only buy things that are on offer.

Reegs: buy things that are

Sidey: So you know. And they are fucking

Dan: the offer is, is a good

Cris: Oh, it's great offer,

Sidey: yeah.

Dan: we've also had various vinos. Riojas. Riojas.

Cris: we're south, south of Spain now, Rioja

Dan: going to Rioja.

Sidey: Oh. The

Reegs: classic Campo

Sidey: to Rioja.

Dan: Rioja.

The, the classic Campo,

Cris: the Campo Viejo is not open yet.

Reegs: Oh, the Tempranillo We're saving that to the end 'cause there's a

Sidey: We're saving that till the end because we've got the good stuff first. We, we

Dan: we do have the Imperial Reserva

Cris: 2019, and

Reegs: 2019,

Cris: the Marques de

Dan: 2019, and we've got the Marques

Reegs: The

Dan: de Realto which was-

Sidey: And- ... a nice way to start that day ... in tribute to the movie this week, we're also gonna- Yeah

freebase some heroin.

Dan: Yeah,

Sidey: well

Dan: that's the way we're

Sidey: way we're rolling ... yeah, because that's what everyone does when they get together apparently according to this movie. Well,

Cris: do have some aluminum, some kitchen foil with me

Dan: Have you got a rusty old spoon and a lighter?

Cris: I've got a rusty old sheriff's badge.

Dan: Oh, we're halfway there.

And we were-

Reegs: about traffic jams and stuff then? No,

Sidey: that's the other one. Right. That was, There was another film called Traffic, wasn't there? That won. Or was it... Was it the one that had,

Cris: traffic cones?

Sidey: other people in it? Anyway. Yeah, it was. This was- Yeah, I know

Dan: what you mean. Yeah

Sidey: 2020. This was properly directed by Steven Soderbergh. No, this is 2000.

Reegs: properly directed by

Dan: Soderbergh.

Cris: No, this is 2000.

Sidey: Sorry, 2000, yeah. I

Cris: was gonna say 2020 is-

Sidey: got the,

he got the Oscar directorial Oscar for this one.

Dan: Did it beat Ridley for- Gladiator

Sidey: No. Gladiator got Best Picture. This got-

Cris: Best Film

Sidey: Best- Director ... it got Best Director. Sorry. Gladiator won Best Film. This got Best Director, Best Supporting Actor, Best Screenplay, and Best Gorill-.

It got four. Let's go. Best Gorill-. And, and I had seen this before. I used to own it on DVD. It... And what I remembered about it, going into watching it again for this, is that it's three... They had a real hard-on for this at the time. Three sort of interlocking story things. yeah,

Reegs: yeah, yeah.

Sidey: it had a very specific literal color lens on each-

Reegs: Oh, yeah. Yeah. That's right,

Cris: For each story there's a different color tone.

Sidey: start off in Mexico. Yeah. And this is kinda orangey, kinda sepia toned on this one. Benicio del Toro and his partner, and they

Basically bust some cartel guys with a load of heroin, like a fucking load of heroin.

Dan: A truck,

Reegs: yeah.

Sidey: Truck, yeah. Take that, and then as they're driving a- along, a huge fucking convoy of, Military, yeah ... you know, proper... You think, "Oh, I've, I was..." Well, the first time I saw it I thought, "Oh, they're just gonna get fucking executed by

Reegs: Yeah ... fucking- Well dodgy

Sidey: But it's some general, and he's like-

"Oh, listen you've done well there.

Cris: Should come-" We'll take over now

Sidey: over, and y-

Reegs: I'll take the lorry full of heroin It's

Cris: "Yeah, we'll take over now, but also you're a Policia Federal or whatever. How come you come across this information?"

Yeah. "You need to come and see me."

Reegs: Mm. You're gonna... You're

Sidey: gonna... You're basically gonna work for me." Yeah. "Or help me, whatever." See, I, I- "We're gonna, we're gonna bust the cartels together" ... I, I'm gonna,

Dan: have already." See, I, I, I- "You bust the cartels together" ... I, I'm gonna let you into my viewing experience here, 'cause I took out a subscription on Lionsgate on Prime- Yeah ... to watch this. And it's one of those free subscriptions, try a week or something- Yeah ... and you, you cancel it- And you

Cris: And you cancel it

Dan: so you've just got your week. But

Sidey: the

Dan: didn't work on- Yeah. Same. Same ... any of the Spanish bits. Oh. And my Spanish isn't good enough to understand the nuances of what people were saying. I could understand, like, the

Sidey: the gist. Yes, I had the same. There was no subtitle track at all.

The acting was good. But I had seen it before, and I just had to look up the bits that I wasn't quite

clear on. And, and I

Dan: I was looking at this not knowing this, 'cause it was something that I looked at afterwards.

And

Sidey: the bit with the,

Dan: that we, Well, the Diggler's very good in it ... these guys have got their heads so far up their asses, they think I'm gonna watch, like, you know... Because these little vinaigrettes of,

Sidey: Well,

interestingly- Five-minute-long stories ... they didn't want... They were gonna have all the bits in Mexico just in English, and Benicio To- del Toro was like, "Fucking no."

Like, "They would be speaking Spanish." Yeah. Like, "You have to have them

Reegs: in

Cris: they would be speaking Spanish if they're in Mexico. Why would they speak English? Yeah.

Sidey: So they, so, and Sodeber- Soderbergh was like, "Yeah, of course. We've got to do that." But they were- Of course he

Dan: they would. But for me it was like-

Sidey: No, I had the

Dan: the viewer- Yeah

and I don't understand what the fuck you're saying, so I'm disengaging from this film- Yeah ... for like five, seven minutes each kind of-

Reegs: Mexico ... each time

Cris: in

Dan: time that the the

Reegs: of the streaming future, isn't it? That like, if you'd have borrowed a DVD, there would've been, like, 14 dir- different

Dan: directions- Languages.

Yeah,

Sidey: like-

Reegs: You could have different types of chyrons,

Dan: It just said speaking Spanish. That was, that

Reegs: That was,

that was- I fucking know that. Yeah, yeah.

Dan: like that. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I've worked-

Reegs: what made me laugh

Dan: That's amazing ... I'd worked that bit out.

Sidey: Yeah. Yeah, yeah. That's amazing. I'd work, I'd work that bit out. But what, what the film then does is it jumps from... 'Cause I don't propose that we go through every...

It's a long film, and there's lots of stuff that goes on. Essentially, you are in a place where the drugs originate to the people who are trying to stop the drugs coming across. Yeah.

Cris: DEA guys and that.

Reegs: and

Sidey: so you've got that. You've got Don Cheadle and Luis Guzmán as the- Yeah ... as the federalized.

As the DEA guys, yeah. They've been given some intel about Miguel Ferrer, RIP. Love that guy. Oh,

Reegs: yeah,

Cris: Miguel Ferrer, yeah Oh yeah,

Sidey: he's- And it's, those are really good scenes where they catch him. But and then you've got Michael Douglas' character who's the guy who's, like, the drug czar. District attorney, whatever. He's given, like, the top job of, like, trying to win the war on drugs.

And so you see, you know, where it comes from, how they're trying to stop it, where it ends up, and where the demand is, and just how fucking futile the fight is against it. And, and it all

Reegs: of the themes of The Wire coming

Sidey: Basically done- Yeah ... in more, a lot more detail in The Wire, but it's, it's done, it is done well here.

So they're ... So we see that it, it, you know, there's cartel shit going on, and they're pushing it, you know, across the border. And you do get loads of border stuff, and you can't help but think about build the wall, build the wall,

Cris: There's also the fourth story about Catherine Zeta-Jones. Yeah.

Reegs: And ICE as well, right?

Sidey: Yeah. So but then we get , we do get Don Cheadle and and Luis Guzmán. He's the one- And I love him. He's

Reegs: He's really good, isn't he? He's really good. He's good. Oh.

Sidey: And they're, they're undercover trying to buy, you know, do a, do a, a sort of a fucking number on- Deal ... on Miguel Ferrer's character.

And it, it goes fucking Pete Tong, and he, he does a runner. And, and Don Cheadle actually gets shot. He, he pulls a gun out on him and fucking shoots him. Shoots him

Cris: the chest, yeah

Sidey: And another guy comes around. Guzmán shoots him, and he does a runner. He runs into this sort of smallish kind of funfair thing, doesn't he?

And then when it, It's fucking- Cheadle's wearing a vest, so

Dan: he's-

in the balls.

Sidey: killed. Balls. But, and a clown just walks out. And it's like one of those sort of training things where, you know, boards appear, and you're like, "Don't shoot

Reegs: Don't shoot the clown.

Cris: clown." Don't shoot the clown.

Sidey: shoot the clown. And the clown, like, backs away. And then they just look at the ball pit, and they're like,

Cris: they're- There's a shoe

Sidey: sticking up.

And then Don Cheadle's like, "Well, I think, I guess he's gone." And then he just looked down. There's a fucking shoe back out. It's like, bang, just shoot him in the foot. He's like, "Ah." So they've got him. And their, their, the rest, the crux of their story is, like, this is the guy who is bringing it over and, and he works

Cris: He was washing the money for this guy,

Sidey: Catherine Zeta-Jones' husband, who her-

Dan: star witness, this guy

Sidey: So their story is we've gotta keep this guy alive long enough, because they know once they've got this guy, he's the number one target. Yeah. He's gonna be fucking ... He's gonna get got, and he's gonna testify against I can't re- Carl something.

Cris: something.

Sidey: Carl Ayala.

Cris: something. Yeah. Aya- Carl Ayala. Yeah, yeah.

Sidey: And Catherine Zeta-Jones and her ... She's pregnant, but she's got, they've got another little nipper and, you know, there's some party going or whatever. And they just come down, swoop, take him away, and she's like, "Oh my God, I can't believe that my

Cris: my-" My husband is this respected businessman is getting taken by

Sidey: the DEA.

Cris: the

Sidey: it's like Breaking Bad where he's, he owns, like, a laundrette- Yeah ... and he's, they're living in a £5 million

Reegs: like-

Sidey: like gaff. Yeah. So she's totally taken aback. And we've seen her life pre-arrest where she's in the country club, and they're, like, really, you

Reegs: all- Or like Nicola Sturgeon, where her husband- Yeah.

was knocking off like, "Oh, he... we've suddenly got five new cars. I didn't know where..." Yeah.

Sidey: A- and afterwards she's, you know, she's an outcast from all this because they can't, you know, her, her hoity-toity friends can't be hanging around with a fucking crim. And she goes from knowing nothing about

Cris: Her husband's-

Sidey: to

Reegs: running the criminal empire Like a

Sidey: kingpin. Yeah. Like, absolutely. Like, her journey is, like, I would say the bit of the film that's

Reegs: like

Dan: know,

Sidey: come on, really.

Reegs: But this is a long movie, right? So I

Sidey: It's long. It's two and a half hours, so you get quite a lot of stuff of Benicio del Toro. He's, like, caught up in stuff.

He just gets-

Cris: a police officer, but he's, He's not just,

Sidey: the only one in it who, like, really wants to do good. Yeah. But he gets caught up in all kinds

Cris: Because what, what the whole story is, he is a police officer in Mexico. He tries to do good. He tries to do well. He does in the end witness the assassination of his partner in, in the- Best friend, yeah ... in, in the police where you think they're both gonna go. But in the end, the idea for him is he wants to stop at least one of the cartels if not all of them in Mexico.

But what he really wants is electricity for the area where he's from.

Sidey: So the kids can play- Baseball ... pee wee baseball at night and-

Cris: or something at

Sidey: at night

just something, just to give a

Reegs: to give them- Blimey, it's not a lot really, is it, that you're asking for? He just

Cris: wants

Sidey: He just wants electricity ... he gets the chat from the, the, the, the military general guy who's pulled them over. But it turns out that this guy is only interested in breaking this cartel because he works for the other cartel.

Cris: He... There's the cartel de Juárez and cartel de Tijuana, and he wants to, to exterminate the cartel de Tijuana. But he works... But he doesn't say it, and then the news comes out that the leader of the cartel de Juárez has died during plastic surgery.

Reegs: All right. And-

Sidey: Kanye's mum

Cris: want their... The hitman Frankie Flowers, Francisco Flores, lives in San Diego. And Benicio del Toro and his partner sent by the general. The general is like, "Look, that guy is knows. He's a, he's a hitman for the cartel, and he knows who assassinated all my colonels, all my subordinates, and he knows where all the money is. Can you get to that guy?"

Sidey: He

Reegs: the one you need.

Sidey: They get him That's

Cris: when he plays the gay guy with the packet- Yeah ... of cigarettes there. He's got a packet of cigarettes in his sleeve like that.

Reegs: it's a strong look.

Cris: puts it on the table and on the bar, and he's got a condom in the plastic. Okay. And Frankie Flowers, this Francisco Flores, they're in a gay bar in in San Diego.

Reegs: looking for some

Sidey: sweet. He's sweet on him straight away.

Cris: in straightaway. Straightaway. And-

Reegs: del

Sidey: of course she would be And

Cris: they

Dan: go and- Looking great. Looking really hot.

Cris: Oh yeah, he's young. He's

Dan: like- Before the, the eye

Reegs: deliberately trying to sort of seduce him or- Yeah.

Yeah, yeah. Yeah, yeah. He's-

Cris: he- But,

Sidey: you

know, there's, there, there, there's a price

Dan: in a car and take him off

how the fuck

Cris: you,

Reegs: put him in a car ... there's a price for that H- how far can you go in service of-

Dan: then they, they just fucking chuck him in a

Sidey: in a room and this guy gets fucking tortured

Reegs: All right. Okay

Dan: It's not nice.

Reegs: doesn't- It makes you like- No blowjob or anything first, or? No, man. No. No, there's no

Cris: hand job or anything first, or? No, man. No, no. There's no hand jobs.

No. It's

Dan: He's go straight to jail

Sidey: couldn't see what they did to him first. They s- sprayed something on him or... You just hear him scream, and they spray something on him. It's like-

Dan: like- Yeah ... ... some acid or some

Cris: Yeah. I don't know. They don't... Good thing they don't show

Sidey: So really, like the crux, obviously the whole...

It's, it's fairly obvious, but the whole sort of thing of the film is that you just... This is a fucking unwinnable

Reegs: Drugs are bad.

Dan: also got Michael Douglas's daughter, Caroline, who's the one that's taking the drugs. She's the, the kid at the end of the line really- Yeah ... who's-

Sidey: are-

Dan: got loads of money

Sidey: 16? Her

Dan: is the- 16 ... her dad is the drug s- tsar- 16 or 17 ... of, of America, and she's the preppy kid- Yeah ... not happy with a bong, going to the next level-

Sidey: straight away, they're on, they're, they're, they're chopping up lines- Going to, like- ... and then it's Topher Grace takes her into the- "Want to try something?"

He's like- "Yeah,

Dan: go and do some fucking-

Reegs: remember a few people I knew about the same age doing something similar.

Like, you know- Oh ... people who were like sm- who were just smoking weed suddenly-

Sidey: this like freebasing?" He's like, "It's not like, this is." And you're like, "Fucking hell, you're 16.

You're doing heroin."

Dan: let's do it. And, and she was like hooked straight away. Next thing she's getting further and further down the line of addiction- So she's like a drugs

Sidey: mode, isn't she? Yeah.

Dan: And from going to the dealer with her boyfriend, friend, whatever she's going alone.

Sidey: Well, they have-

Dan: getting all ki- getting to up to... She's turning a trick then for-

Sidey: Well, they

have another party, don't they? They have another party and someone OD's on the floor, and at first of all they're like- Yeah ... "Oh, look at him." And they're like, "Fuck, he's like, he's gone blue." And they, they don't know what to do. They can't call... Someone's like, "Your dad's a doctor, you'll have to phone him."

And he's like, "Oh, fucking no chance." My

Cris: dad's in Barbados. They're

Dan: 3:00 o'clock in the morning- He just drives to the hospital ... like, you know, all looking after themselves, high as kites.

Sidey: They drive to the hospital, just dump the guy on the hospital doorstep. And I was thinking, r- I've forgotten about it 'cause it'd been a long time since I watched it, but I was thinking, "Well, just the g- the...

Fuck have your, your fucking license plate," like, you know what I mean? You're not gonna get away with that. Anyway, there's a fucking police car literally just, like,

Dan: yards away.

Sidey: Straight away just drives over, they're arrested. They've got them all banged to rights, and they're trying to... They're first of all, they're like, "Fuck, no one's got anything on them, have they?"

No. And I know someone, someone I went to primary school with, this happened to them. They got dumped somewhere and, you know- Primary school? Fucking hell. I went to... No, they s- they, they died later on, but it was a fucking tearaway in our primary

Dan: Oh, you went to primary school, it happened after primary school. But

Sidey: after primary school.

But he got, he OD'd and they just dumped him. They

Reegs: So there we are. I mean- At

Sidey: school were you in? They dumped him in a public toilet and just phoned an ambulance, and he was

Reegs: what about those kids a few years... Well-

Sidey: Yeah. I think so. Reagan, yeah. Yeah. So this fucking shit happens.

And a- anyway, there's obviously then it's Michael Douglas having to confront, he's doing, like, a global war on drugs, but it's fucking happening in your house. Yeah. And the wife, he's, he's obviously... They're, they're quite distant, him

Reegs: really heavy-handed really a bit

Sidey: Yeah. Him and his wife are having a bit of a distant relationship, but also it turns out when they're sort of arguing about how to deal with this, he's, he's, he's sort of like, "Hang on a minute.

How the f- how long have you known she's been doing stuff?" And it turns out the mom's known for fucking

Cris: Yeah, she knew for a few months,

Sidey: Six months- Six months, yeah ... that the, the girl's been taking drugs- Yeah ... of some kind, she

Cris: kind. She didn't know

Sidey: there's smack but- And he's like, "Oh, fucking brilliant.

Like, I've been in the dark and I'm supposed to be the one out there talking about this is how we're gonna win the war on drugs," blah, blah, blah. Yeah. So there's that going on. And then there's this various, like, attempts on Miguel Ferrer's life Mickey Flowers. Yeah. Frankie Flowers basically comes out of his torture den and,

Cris: Because he gives away- He's

Sidey: Yeah.

He's given enough intel out ... the

Cris: intel and-

Dan: and- Which y'all wouldn't know because you're all in fucking Spanish.

Sidey: He's... But he's, he's there to assassinate Miguel Ferrer- The witness ... before he can give the, the game away. That they... He's also, he's planted a car bomb, because this is a, at this point Catherine Zeta-Jones has gone from knowing nothing about anything- Yeah

to basically running the- Running

Reegs: the whole

Cris: went to Mexico- Yeah ... and spoke to the cartel leader who- Negotiate

Sidey: with the top fucking guy. Yeah.

Cris: Who is Benjamin Bratt

Dan: Yeah

Reegs: a bit more. Who's that?

Sidey: You'd recognize

Cris: You'd recognize

Dan: alright. He actually

Sidey: he, He had- There, there's a shot where she's on the phone-

a

Dan: her at one point?

Sidey: on the, she's on the phone to, Yeah, he did have a barrier ... she's on the phone to her husband when it first kicks off and he's in prison. And first, the first time you see them, they're on the phone, you know, either side of the plexiglass thing, and it, and she's fucking, like, giving him hell because, you know, she's in the shit now and she can't get any money.

And you know, rest of development when, Yeah ... Jeffrey Tambor's in there and he's like, "There's always money."

Reegs: In the banana stand.

Sidey: literally like that. He's like the... Yeah he's d- doing some really like, you know, 'cause o- obviously everything's been recorded and he gives some, like, really thinly veiled- Coded thing.

Yeah, yeah ... coded thing like, "There's some stuff in the, in the corner of the room. We, we, we made that together." Yeah.

Reegs: Yeah.

Sidey: And so she cuts this thing down in the room and there's there's like a reel with all his, you know, Cayman bank accounts where all the money is.

Reegs: all the money in

Sidey: it's- And

Cris: with Frankie Flowers' number.

Sidey: so she's like, "Sweet, still got some money. The money's still there." And yeah, she arranges for some hits. She basically is like, "Fuck it, let's just go all in." So she's found a way to-

Dan: the pretext of saving her son.

Sidey: Yeah. She's getting more and more frantic about, "Look, this guy's gotta get killed or my husband's going

Cris: You've also got Dennis Quaid, who is the family's advisor.

Sidey: He's sweet on her. Who is

Cris: honestly, you can see him just sniffing around her.

Sidey: The first time he appears, Kay's like, "He wants to fuck her."

Dan: Yeah.

Reegs: Yeah. Yeah.

Cris: though she's pregnant, he still wants to fuck her. But yeah, this is kinda where the story is, is heading. And I can't remember how the-

Reegs: The,

Sidey: the,

the daughter, Michael Douglas' daughter gets more and more into you know, like the hideous spiral of despair.

She's sent to a few meetings, but she's paying it no mind. She's still getting off,

Cris: Oh, yeah. She runs off, and then runs

Sidey: she nicks some money and she does a runner, and he has to go find her, and he takes he takes Topher Grace because he knows where all her hangouts will be and actually he, he follows him and Topher Grace is banging on the door of some sleazy motel, and Michael Douglas goes up and just fucking kicks the door down, and sh- there's just some fucking horrible businessman guy's, like, effectively raping her.

Dan: to rape her while she's fucked

Sidey: comatose on the bed. Nice. Horrible. And that's, that's kind of her rock bottom. But he's still, he's still got the drug czar thing. He's written his speech where he's in the White House, you know, about go on the fucking podium, say, "This is how,

Dan: on the podium.

Cris: He's like,

Sidey: he's got a meeting first, and the guy, the guy's like, "Brilliant speech. The speech is gonna be fucking brilliant. This is what we're gonna do." And he's seen him doing all these rooms where he- he's got just, like, different people telling him about, "Oh, this is how we'll do it," or, "This is the problem we've got."

And then he's like, "Oh my God, this is fucking crazy." And he's written a speech then and the guy's like, "Yeah, brilliant." And, and he goes and he just brushes his daughter's problem. He's like, "Listen, don't worry about your daughter's thing. You know, we'll just... That, that won't even be a thing, and if it does come out, we'll just use that

Dan: Yeah, they all know it ... "a learning experience."

You've been in the trenches,

Sidey: trenches. You know how to fight this because you've done it at home. He's like, "Mm," that's the bit for him where he's a bit like, "Fuck, this

Dan: bottom dropping out a little bit. Yeah. But

Sidey: but he's still- So he stands up to

Dan: do the speech ... got that pressure. I mean, imagine the pressure on the guy.

He's, he's about to talk as the drug czar of America. He's got that shit going on. They know that, about his daughter, but they're covering for him, so he's like, "Okay, that's not gonna be the problem. They're actually gonna try and turn it into a positive spin. All you gotta do now is keep that spin going."

Yeah. So he knows how much bullshit is being spun here, and he's just gotta go and spin it to the rest of the world.

Sidey: Which he can't do

Dan: He can't do. He

Sidey: gets through his speech, but he's like pausing and he's not really delivering it very well, and they're kinda looking at him like, "What's going on?"

And he just says, "I can't do this." And just

Cris: And he just walks out.

Sidey: fucks off.

Cris: From the pr- press conference, he just walks out. Yeah.

Sidey: the other side of it is that Miguel Ferrer, Frankie Flowers, has tried to kill him. Mm-hmm. It's f- it's failed. They've actually... He's got a shot away, but he's been sort of

Cris: Yeah, he then, yeah

Sidey: he's killed, and Luis Guzman goes over to the car, and it's that point Don Cheadle's like, "No, no, no, don't start it." And it fucking goes gutted. He's, he's the coolest dude, Luis, isn't he? Yeah. He was, he was, he was actually in- The,

Reegs: was, he was actually

Sidey: the car blows up ... in a whole fucking film worth of real asshole

Reegs: characters- Yeah.

Sidey: Yeah ... and nobody likable. He died. He was the only one that you actually- At one point yeah, Miguel Ferrer goes, "I need to, I need to, like, I need my phone call." And he goes, "Yeah, why don't you try 1-800-CRIMINAL?"

Reegs: Love.

Sidey: So they've, so they've still got the witness there, and it, it's sort of like boiling down to,

like,

are they gonna get him there kind of thing. Are they gonna get him on the stand? And it's so sloppy what actually does happen because they're in a room. They're in a, you know, the hotel room waiting for the day to go to trial.

Ding-dong, fucking knock at the door. "Here's your food." They sign for, you know, blah, blah, blah. They all tuck in. Well, they eat some food.

Cris: The guy also s-s-

Sidey: say a fucking thing

Cris: but the guy stands there and looks at them almost to make sure the

Reegs: sure they're gonna

Sidey: Yeah.

Reegs: And, And,

the

Cris: eat. Yeah

Dan: What

Cris: Don Cheadle looks at him, he's like,

Sidey: and he's like- He's waiting for a tip or something. Like, like he's waiting for a tip. Yeah. A- and- And he's like, they, they does one and then like five minutes later, ding-dong and they're like, "Oh." Breakfast ... they think, they think this guy, the second guy is the one

Reegs: Oh. Yeah.

Sidey: And when they like c- clearly tell once they fucking arrest him and go, "Fuck." And then Don Cheadle, the penny drops, like, "Oh, we've got the wrong one."

Dan: Call an ambulance before he

Sidey: even sees him ... he's in, in, he's in the bathroom and he's pretty much already dead, like- Closing mouth. Yeah.

Dan: has already

Sidey: already gone

yeah, no chance. So he's gone and then we cut to the, the the courtroom and they're like, "Well, due to the untimely death of our fucking star witness-" Yeah. They-

Reegs: to let

Sidey: we're go- we can't proceed with this case." And they're like, "Yeah, we beat the case. We beat the rap." And they're like fucking happy as Larry and he's done.

He's out. That's it. Back to- Right ... back to the day job. Futile. Yeah. And then the next time we see him- Which is mentioned

Dan: at one point, he goes, "You're fucking...

You're pointless. Your whole job is pointless because, y- y- you know, it's going on. It's fucking... It's going everywhere.

Sidey: Everyone wants this shit They really labor that point, because it's obviously very valid.

He says, you know, the, th- so what if some drugs get in? Everyone's taking drugs. You know? Yeah. There's drugs, not me, some other guy, someone. And and then, and the other point, he's like, "The only reason you know anything about me is because you got a tip-off from the other cartel. So you are basically policemen working for the other cartel.

That's all you're doing is helping them. And in six months' time, it'll be the other way around-" Yeah ... and blah, blah, blah. And you're like, "Yeah, this is like completely futile." You know? It's just prohibition of another kind, I guess. Yeah. So big celebration back at the Zeta

Cris: the Ayala residence, yeah ... house.

Sidey: But Don Cheadle just fucking, like, bold as brass, just walks straight in under the pretense of kicking off and saying, "You fucking murdered my, Partner ... my partner," which is a valid, you know, grumble that he's got. But two heavies just fucking wrestle him to the ground. And while he's on the ground, he just fucking reaches up, whacks the, the desk, and he leaves a little bug.

Dan: a bug just under

Sidey: He leaves his little listening device there. Not before that-

Dan: In a kind of struggle so they don't

Sidey: he's just got off the phone with Dennis Quaid, and he's like,

Reegs: "You know

Sidey: "You're gonna fucking sell me out." And he's like, "No, no, it wasn't like that. It wasn't like that."

Cris: He's like, "You got $3 million while I was in prison. My wife was struggling for money. You didn't say a word for that, and the cartel was asking for the money, and you didn't say a word.

You think I

Sidey: wouldn't find out?" And he's like, "No, no, it's all about timing. It's timing." He's like, "Yeah, okay, cool," and just, like, ends the call.

And you just see two people with fucking, with silenced pistols just turn up from the door. And Dennis Quaid looks around, cut. And you're like, "Okay." You think, "Do we know what's happening to him?" Yeah. So it kind of ends with He's got away with it, but he's been bugged, so they're

Cris: And Michael Douglas and his wife goes to the, Rehabilitation ... the reha-

Sidey: daughter's back at a meeting this time, but you can

Reegs: pres- presumably the implication though is that they'll flip that guy, but he'll end up being killed- Yeah ... in custody, and it'll still be pointless and-

Dan: just being relentless cycle.

Reegs: the

Sidey: the only upside to it is the daughter has-- is now in meetings but means it.

Cris: And they're there with her.

Reegs: And

Sidey: he's, he's jacked it all in.

And their relationship, the husband and wife, Michael Douglas' wife is, seems better 'cause they were like, like at the end of their marriage.

Cris: They were kinda accusing each other and yeah

Sidey: And he's, and, and they say to him, "Oh, d- you know, what do you wanna do?" And he says, "I, I'm just here to listen."

'Cause the, the, the rest of him, the rest of the time in the film, he's been like, "Blah, blah, blah."

Reegs: blah. Yeah. Oh, the drug czar who

Sidey: like, "No, no, I'll

Reegs: but doesn't listen.

Sidey: I'll just listen." So they've got that. And then at the real end, it cuts back to Mexico, and it's Benicio del Toro's just sitting in the stand watching the little league, you know, the peewee, and they've-- he's got his electricity for

Cris: for the- Because what, what we didn't say about, because obviously in, in the Spanish bit what they d- the, the version I watched had the English subtitles for all the Spanish speaking scenes.

And I understand Spanish probably better than anyone. Not to be cool, but I do. And also-

Reegs: Donde

Cris: Donde

Dan: zapateria

Cris: cerveza,

Reegs: el

Dan: Dos cervezas, por

Sidey: Yeah.

Cris: So, so

Benicio del Toro's character makes a deal with the DEA in America to sell out on the general in Mexico in exchange for him to become... to, to get electricity.

Yeah. So he goes to the DEA, and the guy's like, "I hope you get what you wanted. What about what you want?" He's like, "Don't worry what I, about what I want. I told you already what I want." They

Sidey: have to do that in a swimming pool, don't they? So they know that no one's wearing a wire. Yeah.

Cris: And they just sit...

Honestly, it's the best scene. It's like where do you wanna talk?"

Reegs: that actually, I

Cris: And they, they just go out, they sit in the swimming pool. It's like a public pool where there's kids playing and all that, and it's like these- Is it safe?

Reegs: Safe, though

Cris: these three men just sat, standing there in the pool and talking.

But it is safe. And then that happens, and that's how the film ends with Benicio del Toro watching the kids play baseball in-

Sidey: were fucking lame at it as well.

I didn't really hear any home runs or anything.

Reegs: So it's really just a film about Benicio del Toro getting an excuse to watch children play.

Dan: Getting an

Sidey: bit, yeah. I mean, the, the point really is that this is an unwinnable war.

Dan: It's, it's

Sidey: it's a long film. It's a really serious film

Dan: Unless the war is an Oscar

Sidey: It does feel a little bit Oscar-baity watching it again now.

Yeah. But I think it is good. It, it's a good film. A

Reegs: little bit worthy-

Sidey: It's really well, it's really well made. The way it's filmed, this is obviously Steven Soderbergh, he did win the best Oscar for director. It's all handheld and, Yeah ... very fluid, and this weird angle as though when the planes come over, it's

Reegs: like It's

Sidey: watch them come in like

Cris: quite, shaky a little bit. So, so- He

Dan: He

Sidey: wanted it to have a kind of documentary kind of feel. Especially the

Cris: bit

Sidey: is- It's a bit like a ride along, isn't it? Yeah. Like they're, they're in the thing with

Reegs: That could be a lot though in a-

Dan: I felt it

Sidey: I broke... I did break it down into chunks when I watched it this time.

I did it in a, in a couple of bits.

Dan: Yeah. I, I felt it was a film that got lost up its own fucking arse, to be honest. Maybe that was because it had those Spanish interludes that I didn't fucking

Sidey: That's not gonna help. No.

Dan: it didn't, really didn't help. And there were certain scenes of it that I liked. It wasn't an Oscar film for me. Like, you know, I, I was thinking, to be honest, if you give me Gladiator to watch or you give me this to watch, and you say you're gonna watch each film like twice in a row, I'll go Gladiator every fucking time.

It, it was a tough watch for me. Like, not... A- and I... Looking at the trailer, I was really into it because it had Michael Douglas, and he, he, he's wandering out and he's, he's talking about his role, and it was just that kind of political thing. I just watched Michael Clayton, which we did midweek which put me in the mood for, for movies and, and I had seen a couple of Steven Soderbergh's kind of movies before. But

Which I thought was, was really cool. But this, I don't know, just, it was long film. Yeah It was serious. It, it did miss the translation out. W- so it depends which version you'd watch. If you took on a lot of that,

Sidey: I can't believe they had that on an official like linescape.

Reegs: I can. I was... After watching The Big Blue on Prime, and they fucked it with the,

Sidey: The aspect ratio

Reegs: aspect ratio. They just don't care anymore. That's what peop- No ... that's why people get moody about the transition away from physical media that you- Yeah. True, yeah ... you can't have nice things.

Dan: And yeah, it, it, it- Would you like to look

Sidey: Would you like to know about the monetary side of it?

Dan: Yeah, go on. Give me- It definitely made money

give me, show me the money. I don't think

Cris: This definitely made money because

Sidey: the Oscar. There are various different,

Dan: Oh, maybe. All right

Sidey: Yeah ... budget numbers for it. It's

Cris: a big budget though

Sidey: top one is 48 million- Yeah ... 'cause it does have a big cast. But it is a fairly, like, miserable-ish film about, like, a serious thing.

Dan: And there wasn't one likable character apart from the guy that died in a car bomb.

Sidey: Yeah. But it fucking did make a load of money. Made 200... It made 208 million from- Wow. Oh

Dan: of money. It made 200, it made 208 million. Wow. Right. Which is about- That's a chunk of

Sidey: money. Yeah, yeah.

Cris: I don't know, I really like this, especially with the way it's filmed. None of the characters meet each other. None of the storylines meets each other, although there are some times in the film where you see them walking past each other, but they never actually...

Like, Catherine Zeta-Jones never meets the DA guys or the... Or no, she meets the DA guys, but never meets Mich- Michael Douglas or the-

Sidey: you say?

Her husband? ... the

Cris: or whatever. So, so it's, the other guys does- doesn't meet the other ones. It's all, it's all connected, but it's not, nobody bumps into each other. They all follow their own storylines.

The color, the way they film the color so that you understand which-

Sidey: Like a chapter marker, isn't it?

Yeah, yeah.

Cris: person you're following or which character you're following. I thought that was really cleverly done. The, the thing I understand your point with the Spanish bit, but I think that's the, for me, the Mexican side of the film is the best part because- It sets you in a different country, in a different world rather than the DEA and the

Dan: Yeah, I li- I like the premise of it.

I didn't understand while I was watching the film- That's, yeah, yeah ... why they didn't have subtitles, and I was thinking, "Do they just expect you to know Spanish, or do they, are they, you know, is this part of it?" 'Cause I'd not- No, honestly- Because I was watching it through... I wasn't streaming this illegally.

I was watching it through a, like, a paid subscription service. Yeah. I thought, "Well, they're gonna have the fucking subtitles." But that's on them. That's

Reegs: thinking this is the way I'm supposed to be experiencing this movie, and I don't like it, basically.

Dan: Yeah. And, and I, I get it wasn't, you know, if it, it should've been

Sidey: They've done you, they've done you dirty there.

Dan: done me

Reegs: Yeah. It's bad streaming. Bad

Cris: That's, yeah.

Dan: which, which I shouldn't hold against the, the movie,

Sidey: I was not watch- It should- See, I did not, I did not do it through... I did not stream it through a paid- What?

subscription. I have, however, bought the DVD in the past, so I feel like I'm okay to watch it- Yeah ... through a different medium. And

Reegs: yeah. Well, you can watch the official one and be completely confused by a

Sidey: it though. Well, I was... I had the same experience 'cause they didn't have the, the translations.

Well, this

Cris: the thing, and I set aside this morning.

I wa- I didn't watch it. I watch it through a through the naughty box at home. And-

Reegs: That turned out to be the best experience of all

Cris: and it had the subtitles in the Spanish bit. So I don't know what

Sidey: have been all right anyway.

Cris: which I kinda would've understand most of it anyway.

Dan: if we take anything away from this

Reegs: So next week's movie is gonna be a Spanish language film. Yeah.

Sidey: It's your night home, so you do what you like.

Reegs: Mm.

Dan: Yeah. It's your house.

Sidey: But no, it is well put together. It's just I say, you know, it's a strong recommend, but it's a strong rec for, like, a one and done. It's not, like, a multiple viewings.

Cris: It's a long film as well. Yeah. So yeah, you're not, yeah, you're not

Dan: Yeah, watch it over a couple of

Sidey: days,

Cris: I'm gonna say though the acting-

Sidey: John Actor

Dan: Yeah, John Actor was good

Cris: I would say all of them, not just Benicio del Toro. Obviously you got Michael Douglas who you know you what you're gonna get, charisma, all that. And-

Sidey: Zeta-Jones is good. I didn't really believe her character arc, but she's good in it

Cris: she's good in it,

Sidey: convincing She's very, very easy on the eye

Cris: Yeah. The Luis Guzmán and Don Cheadle, they played really cool, and they, they're really

Sidey: were in Out of Sight together Pardon? They were both in Out of Sight Really? Yeah Okay I could have done with more full-frontal male nudity

Cris: Maybe,

Reegs: There aren't many films that you can't say that would be

Cris: improve it.

But you do have Benicio del Toro taking his top off.

Sidey: Yeah

Cris: So but not the pants.

Dan: You can't have everything.

Sidey: Strong Yeah

Dan: Medium strong.

Sidey: Medium well

Mm.

Dan: Medium well.

Sidey: Another week, another Steven Soderbergh related podcast done.

Dan: Yeah.

Cris: Or Steven Sourbread.

Reegs: Sourdough.

Dan: Ri- Riggs has already got his noms ready for us. What are they, Riggs? No,

Reegs: I don't

Dan: okay.

Sidey: he's keeping it quiet. So okay. He's keeping

Dan: quiet. He's keeping it quiet. He's playing his

Sidey: his- Let's start relentlessly bullying him immediately

Reegs: Yeah. As soon as the pod ends.

Sidey: are- Where

Dan: what we're really good at.

Sidey: Well, great. I thought that was good, solid week.

Dan: It was a strong week.

Cris: I really enjoyed

Sidey: Michael Clayton. Fucking great film. Yeah.

Dan: Yeah. Michael Clayton midweek was excellent. We heard a lot about different food and drink, and we also

Reegs: learned

Dan: a little bit about the, the drugs war.

Cris: Yeah. A

Reegs: A little bit more-

Dan: Little bit more

Reegs: than you knew before.

Sidey: All that remains is to say Sidey signing out.

Reegs: Riggs has left the building probably. Light over there.

Cris: Later, buddy.

Dan: Dan's gone