Paycheck 20th Anniversary Celebration

Hey, this is David Kay and you're listening to

the GeekCast Radio Network. All right. This is

going, that's going. Let's get this show on the

road. I guess. It's a good warm up for me and

Mikey to get back into the swing of things for

this season. There is nothing wrong. I feel like

Amy and Nicole are here now. Oh Lord. Wake up.

You got to give me like a quiet on the set. I'm

going to do an intro. Sorry. The hell up. Damn.

Yeah. There it is. There's nothing wrong with

your podcast player. Did not attempt to adjust

the volume. Hello. and welcome back into our

studio. You are now Inside Studio 2009. I'm,

of course, TF2 and Mike. And joining me are two

other Mikes. The first Mike has multiple podcasts,

and the second Mike is the cohort of one of the

first Mike's podcasts. So it's their podcast.

As there are two Mikes too furious, we have Mike

Seibert. Hello, sir. Hey, buddy. And Michael

Andrews. Hello, sir. Hello. The other Mike is

here. That's right. And the other line at the

end of this, hi, mics, how the hell have y 'all

been? Dynamite. Dynamite. Dynamite. Between the

three of us, we have six mics here, folks. Yeah.

We are three mics and we are three Furious. If

only the character was here, we could have four

mics, four Furious if Jennings was here. Talking

about reverse engineering. Today we are, speaking

of, reverse engineering and celebrating the 20th

anniversary of the film Paycheck, which stars

a future Batman and Harvey Dent slash Two -Face,

as well as a previous Dr. Pamela Isley slash

Poison Ivy. Paycheck is a John Woo Batman film

that we didn't know we needed in 2003. That's,

that's about as good a jumping off point as you

need. I love it. And it's so, it's so interesting

about this movie is that it really is kind of

a time capsule in a way. I mean, it's like you,

I mean, 2003, you've got, you've got Ben Affleck

coming off a daredevil. You got Uma Thurman coming

off a kill bill volume one, the, the, the cast

is stacked. And, and I think I'm hoping that

part of the goal of having this conversation

is that maybe we get a couple more eyeballs on

this. Cause I think it's kind of from, uh, it's

a movie that time forgot. I don't, I don't know.

Like I had a lengthy conversation with one of

my buddies here at work. He saw my, uh, uh, vintage

DVD that I've been, uh, carting around and he's

like paycheck. What the hell is that? I was like,

it's a John Woo movie. And, um, and yeah, I mean,

I, I don't know if this is gonna come up later

in conversation, but I don't know if either of

the mics have heard about the current John Woo

movie now in theaters called Silent Night. I

had to look it up because I did not believe the

blurb. The blurb says it's John Woo's first American

movie in 20 years, his first American movie since

Paycheck. And I'm like, I refuse to believe that.

And sure enough, that is absolutely accurate.

I don't know if I'm going to go see The Silent

Knight. I like Joe Kinnaman just fine, but I

don't know if that one's for me. I'm sure something

we'll talk about a little bit is kind of our

relationship with the oeuvre of John Woo, but

I'm maybe getting ahead of myself. He's certainly

a polarizing director with a spotting batting

average. Let's put it that way. I mean, yeah,

the average might be a little off in the last

20, almost 30 years, but it's a pretty damn good

average and we will get into that. Any initial

thoughts from you, Mr. Andrews, sir? Well, it's

funny you should mention like nobody's seen this

movie because as I was telling my coworkers about

it today and of course none of them had seen

it, I was like, well, it's interesting because

I found the two other people in the world that

have seen it. We found each other on the internet

and now we're doing a podcast about it. That's

right. What's a podcast? What's a podcast? It's

an iPod meets podcast. This is 2005 all over

again. Oh, boy. Somebody gave me a radio, and

I reversed engineered it to do a radio on the

internet. And I invented podcasting, but I don't

remember any of it. No. No, no. And the funny

thing is, and I did not plan this, but it's just

the way it's happening. Merry Christmas everybody

because 20 years ago today. I am releasing this

December 25th 2023 20 years ago today paycheck

was released and Holy crap to understand how

something works. You must first take it apart

and unravel its secrets Only then can you build

something better The process is called reverse

engineering And in the near future, corporations

will rely on it to gain access to their competitive

secrets. Michael Jennings is the best reverse

engineer in the business. Alright, what's the

pitch? I can't tell you. Other than to say that

it involves optics. What are you trying to see?

What he's hired to create... Whatever it is he's

asking you to do, don't do it. He's paid to forget.

We are now extracting his memory from the marker

forward to the present. But this time... What

happened? You're done. How long was it, Jimmy?

It's been three years, Mike. The rules of the

game have changed. What's going on? A mistake

has been made here. What you need to do is tell

us everything you did right now. I can't! You'll

wipe my memory. And all he has are 19 pieces

to a puzzle. I just need to find out who sent

these items. Well, you did. Don't you remember

doing that, sir? He must solve to stay alive.

From John Woo, the director of Face Off and Mission

Impossible 2. And the author who brought us Blade

Runner and Minority Report. Our boy didn't give

himself these items because he saw happily ever

after. Ben Affleck. I saw my future and I saw

what I needed to change it. Aaron Eckhart. Michael

Jennings is not a super agent. He's an engineer.

Uma Thurman. Don't you have secrets? I think

I'm pretty good at keeping them. Your future

awaits you no matter what you do. Hang on! Yeah,

like they said, John Woo, Ben Affleck, Uma Thurman,

Aaron Eckhart. Who else is in this? Paul Giamatti.

Paul Giamatti. Literally. every character actor

you can think of. I mean, you got frickin' Dexter

in this, Michael C. Hall himself, as like Joe

Morton's number two. He's not even the main FBI

guy, he's like the number two guy. Yep. So it's

funny because three years before this, back in

2003, so 2000, you had God in 60 Seconds and

you had Delroy Lindo and Timothy Oliphant with

Delroy playing Castleback. and Oliphant playing

his, like, detective underling dude. Same thing

here. You have Joe Morton's character playing

the lead detective and Michael C. And it's a

good thing I looked up all these, some of these

people beforehand because I know I've seen Michael

C. Hall's name before. I just didn't know where

from because I didn't remember because I've never

seen Dexter. It was just not on my radar. I'll

watch it eventually. One of these days, maybe.

But I'm looking at his filmography and I'm like,

holy shit, paycheck was his film debut. Oh, that

I didn't know. Yeah. According to, you take Wikipedia

with a grain of salt, but the way their website

is, it's better for my eyesight than IMDb. But

yeah. And then his television debut was in 99

as Jerry Klein on as the world turns. So he started

on soaps on TV and, but yeah, paycheck as agent

Klein. Was oh, wait a minute No way You mean

to know there's no way. Okay, this is gonna be

crazy If Jerry Klein the role from as the world

turns is the same Klein is in this movie. That's

just gonna be weird That's a shared cinematic

universe. Yeah Because there's felt the Klein

the last name Klein is spelled the same damn

way. So I don't know But yeah, yeah just the

facts on this thing Budget was 60 million. It

made a hundred and seventeen point two. So at

least it doubled its money back So it made you

get yeah Huge sleeper hit and if it wasn't for

one Split second scene. I would not have known

or remembered that this was a John Woo movie

Can either of you guess which scene I realized

this was a John Woo movie? The dove it's got

to be the dove Motherfucking white dove. It's

gotta be. And it's so funny because I hadn't

watched this movie in forever. And I ended up

watching it over two nights. And it's a tale

of two halves. Because that first half is a little

bit of a slog. But once it gets going, when you

get to the signature action scene and I started

doing this calculation. I was like, wow, this

is the most not John Woo movie that has ever

John Wood. And then it started knocking loose.

I was like, oh, right. Yes. Now I remember. Now

we're home. Chewy, we're home. Yep. And the the

dove progressively in John Woo films gets like

more and more ridiculous. Right. Like it starts

as a pretty subtle dove. And then by the time

you get to paycheck, it's like neon glowing.

uh like supernatural though yeah so let's talk

about mr woo's batting average here first film

i ever saw of his was broken arrow in 96 and

then face -off in 97 mission impossible two wind

talkers we got paycheck here and then like we

said he's done a bunch of international films

like red cliff parts one and two reign of assassins

the crossing one and two manhunt and then this

year He has returned to U .S. cinemas with Silent

Night. I'd say the average isn't, like, horrible.

I mean, Broken Arrow, Face Off, and Mission Impossible

2, those are... Okay, say what you want about

Mission Impossible 2, but I mean... Oh, I will.

Nothing bad here. And I know Michael Andrews'

will as well. Exactly. I mean, that's... I think

that is what... forever cemented our friendship.

It's like, you like that movie? I like that movie

quite a lot. And then like much like, uh, Arnold

Schwarzenegger and Carl Weathers in predator.

It's like, you know, we, we do like the, you

know, the, the, the arm wrestle fist grab. And

then, you know, I began bonded for life. I was

going to make a step brothers reference, but

yeah, same difference. Same difference. And I

guess we could make it a trio because that's

one of my favorites. I think the only one that

I have not absolutely liked, at least out of

the ones I've seen, because as of this recording,

Dead Reckoning is not on Paramount Plus yet or

wherever the hell it's going to land. I assume

Paramount because it's a Paramount movie. But

yeah, Three. Three was OK, but there was too

many exploding heads. Oh, sure. Oh, three is

my favorite. Yeah, really. I was going to say

that that's a very Michael Andrews movie. And

I'm hoping through this, through this conversation,

we kind of get into what makes for a, uh, copyright

TM TM Michael Andrews movie, because I think

it's a very specific thing. And I think I have

some, some specific thoughts on it, but I would

be interested to workshop that here. But yeah,

mission possible three, a very Michael Andrews

movie. Um, and, and also, uh, TFG one, Mike,

sorry to correct you on your own show, but it's,

it's, it's dead reckoning part one. No, and I

bring this up for a very specific reason because

I get so bogged down in title legislation. Let's

break this down. So the name of the movie, it's

Mission Impossible 7, but instead they call it

Mission colon impossible dash dead reckoning

comma part one. so much punctuation in there

but I don't know if you guys saw this or not

but recently they've announced that the eighth

mission impossible movie will not be named dead

reckoning part two they're going to give it like

you know it's a it's a real infinity war endgame

situation because remember it was supposed to

be infinity war part one and part two I now have

a steel book 4k on the way that is etched on

the box dead reckoning part one and there's never

going to be a dead reckoning part two. I hate

that. That is the stuff, you know, you kind of

learn to like, you know, not sweat the small

stuff. And I always scoff at that. And I only

sweat the small stuff. And that that is something

that will probably drive me mad till the end

of my days. I'm really bent out of shape about

it. Mm -hmm Yeah, huh Untitled eighth film 2025

Wow really like Okay, so Wait near this is not

the mission impossible episode. This is not the

mission impossible episode, but it's gonna turn

into that Ghost protocol rogue nation and fallout

rogue nation and followed are kind of part one

part two to each other Fine, they're two different

titles. It still has the mission colon, impossible,

dash, whatever, that's fine, doesn't matter.

I don't really, like, whatever. Dead Reckoning,

and let's talk about the whole thing of everything

has to be part one, part two. Why can't you just

have, not that everyone wants a three hour film

or a six hour film, but why can't you just have

one damn film be the one damn film and not have

to break it up into two parts? Who do you think

you are? George Lucas? Well, I, I agree. And,

uh, Michael Andrews, have you, have you seen

the dead reckoning? I have not, and I'm very

excited to, but I did not get to see it in theaters.

It's terrific. It is, it is one of my, it's probably

my favorite movie of the year that isn't Barbie.

So, but it's the thing that, that makes it go

is that yes, it's got this, this bullshit part

one. title to it, but it's also very self -contained.

It ends on a bit of a cliffhanger, but it's a

cliffhanger in the sense of like, ooh, I can't

wait to see what's next. It's not like one of

those, I don't know, like a matrix of resurrections

that reloaded. It's not like the end of matrix

reloaded where it literally just cuts to black.

it's not one of those it has a very satisfying

ending and so it's not like star wars where everybody

gets a medal and then that's it right right what

what i'm saying is it's a complete movie so it's

like so i i don't want to necessarily see like

a six hour dead reckoning part one part two because

part one kind of sits on its own weren't we here

to talk about paycheck i'm so sorry i'm so sorry

Was gonna say I'm sensing kind of a edge of tomorrow

lived I repeat situation Oh titled films. Yeah,

just can't lock it down. Oh My god, all you need

is kill. I mean the title was right there. You

just do that Yeah, so paycheck I know there are

plenty of other movies out there about reverse

engineering, but this is probably the only one

I really remember I Mean I put it on the map

for me. I definitely discovered what it was from

this Mm -hmm. So you got Michael Jennings who

is a reverse engineer and he has to do all this

stuff and then his buddy played by Aaron Eckhart

who is Harvey Dent two -faced in the future basically

is the villain of the piece Jimmy and Yeah, Michael

builds this future predicting machine for him

and It predicts a war so we got to go to war

because everything is war. Don't you know? Everything

is kill. No Punch of kill everything look see

I can pull it into the other universe, too, you

know Yeah, so he basically instead of taking

the the shares and the 92 million dollars and

all this and all that he sends himself everyday

ordinary items So he can reverse engineer his

life and figure out what the hell Jimmy wanted

to do as the villain and I'm synopsizing this

from my brain. I'm not actually reading anything

off of Wikipedia. This is gold. Yeah, yeah, exactly.

Well, I literally, like, I've seen the film twice

in the last week and a half, and I just finished

it 20 minutes ago, so it's to be very fresh in

my brain. And then he remembered we were doing

this podcast. That's how much he loves this movie.

No, I knew we were doing the podcast. And then

it turned out they wiped his memory. Right? You

know, there are certain things I do with, yeah,

well, yeah. Oh boy, memory wipes, jeez. Don't

let that heart rate go above 40. Yikes. Or brain

rate or whatever the hell it is. Cook your brain.

I think it's a temperature. Your brain gets too

hot because Ben Affleck's getting really sweaty.

He's like, oh no, quit playing Space Invaders

with my little brain memories. I like that there's

like a little sizzling crackle, like every time

Giamatti zaps one and it's like, Oh no brain

getting a little too hot, a little too hot. Yep.

Yeah. So let's, uh, let's go in alphabetical

order. Last name, Mr. Andrews. What did you think

of the film overall? Uh, well, when I first saw

it, I loved it. It was like right in my sweet

spot, uh, for film going, this is what I wanted

in a movie. There was. You know, I was a lot

more of a romantic back then too. So like it

would the love story actually really hit I was

like, oh perfect. I love it. This is what it

needed Also, there's martial arts in it. I couldn't

get enough martial arts back in the day. So gimme

gimme Yeah, plus it's sort of a time travel movie

a little bit. So that's that's big time for me

I was actually talking to my buddy because he

is obsessed with time travel movies and he's

got a list of like every movie that he considers

time travel. And I asked him if this was on the

list and he's like, yeah, it definitely is. And

I was like, oh, that's really interesting because

I don't know. Do you guys, did you guys think

of it as a time travel movie? Not specifically,

but that is fascinating to think about, you know,

because like, you know, what is lost memory if

not lost time? you know what is a reclaiming

memory but traveling through time and with the

fortune telling aspect of the machine there you

know there's there's prediction and that that

does kind of imply time travel i don't i don't

know if that passes my bar because i i associate

time travel with Physical yeah physical transportation

like it was funny I was watching my vintage DVD

of paycheck and one of the trailers on there

was for the Paul Walker RIP led picture timeline

If you guys remember that Michael Creighton doing

a Michael Creighton book Which I remember liking

at the time good book not so great movie RIP

Paul Walker But yeah, it was this now that's

a time travel movie. So paycheck is more kind

of like a metaphysical time travel if you want

to parse it out, but I wouldn't necessarily put

it in that category for me. Right. Yeah. And

I mean, for me, it's like the only time travel

thing I see in this besides like Mike just said

about predicting the future and all that is when

he goes under, when he goes, whatever he does

gets shot in the arm, whatever. And he. Goes

three months or three years or whatever the hell

it you know what I mean like that's kind of time

-traveling But yeah, you need a DeLorean you

need a police box if you're into police boxes

or whatever You need something that actually

takes you forward and backward through time for

it to be trying like a chair that you get clamped

into That shoots you three years into the future

in a blink of an eye. Is that a Rick and Morty

joke? I guess I guess though, you know, Michael

Andrews you turning me around on this Because

he he travels three years into the future Technically,

I mean at least as far as his perception goes.

Yeah, cuz they say It'll be three years for us,

but it'll be like five minutes for you. So it's

like Interstellar. Oh, it's a flat circle. Please

don't say flat circle. You're going to make the

Flat Earthers come out, man. Don't do that. We

don't do that. Oh, Lord. Should have vetted be

better. Yeah, I guess we should have. But then

again, I let anybody on this show. So let me

ask you, your buddy, is The Time Traveler's wife

on his list? Yes, yep. I love that movie. I haven't

seen that one, actually. Oh, well, future episode

in 2024, ladies and gentlemen. It's a good one.

I like it. It's fine. Seattle will knock you

out. It's a little strange, actually, but it's,

yeah. So paycheck, I did not see this in theaters.

Did you guys see this in theaters when it came

out? Yeah, you didn't? I don't remember seeing

it in theaters. Okay. Because your memory got

erased. Yeah, I know, right? They gave you that

shot in the arm and next thing you know, it was

20 years later and you're talking to two other

guys named Mike. It's like, who are you guys?

Who are you? What are we talking about here?

It's like, give me your boots, your motorcycle

and blah, blah, blah. There you go. For me, I

definitely saw it in the theater and I remember

this actually very vividly. You have certain

movie going memories that you kind of keep with

you. And this one ended up kind of being kind

of special to me and I didn't realize it. You

cuz like like memories are like muscles you know

it's like if you don't use them you kind of forget

this was kind of a little bit of a forgotten

memory for me when when the when this movie came

out back in two thousand three i was working.

and inventory job. I would go count inventory

in different retail stores and right after Christmas

was our busiest time of the year. So basically

from the 26th through the beginning of February

was basically like I'm gone for all hours doing

like split shifts, double shifts, you know, working

incredibly hard and being gone for an incredible

amount of time. I would not recommend it for

anybody ever. And we'll talk in a different time.

Like, you know, I remember Michael Anders and

I did a episode on Transformers 2007 with Ryan

Jett from Autopod Decepticast and kind of talked

about like the unremarkable middle time in my

life that kind of represented was represented

in 2007. In 2003, this was kind of like the beginning

of that, you know, I was I was incredibly obsessed

with work and not as present at home as I should

have been, you know, just, you know, for for

family, friends, you know, letting letting personal

relationships go to the wayside. And, you know,

my wife and I would go to movies pretty frequently

and we still do. But this this was a movie that

we were both very interested in. And but we were

struggling to figure out when we wanted to go

see it. And I forget what day of the week it

that was. But we didn't see it on Christmas Day,

but we saw it on the 26th. And the 26th, like

I said, is usually the kickoff to my busy time.

I was working that afternoon. And my wife had

nowhere is just like, Hey, man, how about before

you go to work? Let's go see a movie. I'm like,

Okay, but you know i have to go to work and all

that stuff now we got plenty of time will be

fine. And so we go on like this you know late

morning early afternoon date we go we go watch

the paycheck and i go off to work with instead

of like a chip on my shoulder. I kind of went

with kind of like a little bit of a spring in

my step because it was it was, you know, something

nice that I wasn't expecting. And it kind of,

you know, I mean, I don't want to compare work

to, you know, meaningful tasks or whatever, but

it kind of it kind of gave me like, oh, you know,

there's other things to life. And, you know,

it's basically gave you a Peter Gibbons moment

where you just went in with the drill and just

started drilling holes in the door. Absolutely,

absolutely. So like and I had forgotten about

that until I started watching the movie. And

then I started like it started like unlocking

all like these weird sense memories. Like, you

know, like the theater that we went to was like

particularly run down. So I just, you know, it's

like, I remember like the seats being kind of

torn and the floor being kind of sticky. And

I didn't realize that until I was watching this,

you know, seeing what was going on screen and

hearing it, it just unlocked this flood of sensory

memories that again, I'll be straight with you

guys that I had not thought of in 20 years. So

it was kind of like a weird, surreal experience,

not unlike what Ben Affleck's character goes

through as he remembers glimpses of what he saw

in the machine. You know, obviously you have

the scene on the catwalk that plays out multiple

times. There's flashes of his relationship with

Uma Thurman. And I'm not trying to be so melodramatic

as to my experience was like that, but it kind

of came back to me in flashes. It was really

kind of strangely profound. I know that that's

kind of a little more deep than, than probably

what you were looking for. Oh yeah. I went to,

I went to, I went to go see it and it was, it

was fine. And, but yeah, it just, it really just

kind of ended up being more important to me than

I think it was intended to be. But, but even

so here I am, uh, 20 years later speaking quite

romantically about it. I think I've been hanging

out with my buddy, Michael Andrews too much.

Yeah. Get a little soft about it. I was going

to say, I liked the idea that, uh, your wife

was like, let's go see a movie. And you're like,

no, work, work, work, work. And then she's like,

the movie's called Paycheck. And you're like,

all right, work stuff. We'll see. I'll get paid

later. Yeah, I'll get paid later. And I did a

check, please. And I did a quick little calendar

search. It was a Thursday, Christmas day in 2003.

I got you. So yeah, so this would be Friday then.

Oh, that's interesting. Oh, and I, I, and I'm

sure I was incredibly busy that weekend as well.

So I bet you that's what it was. I am like litigating

this in real time because I was, I was probably

doing doubles on the weekend and literally didn't

have time. So it's like, well, well shit, well,

let's just go Friday before you go to work. Yep.

That's, you know, Hey, anytime they suggest stuff

like that, it's like, you, you shut up, you listen,

you do whatever they say. Yeah, my story of seeing

it isn't quite as epic. But I was home. I do

know that I was home from my sophomore year of

college Christmas break. So I definitely would

have seen this movie. That's all there was to

do in that time between. And I'm I'm I know I

went with my friend Chris and I'm 90 percent

sure my friend Lindsay was there. But I asked

her and I texted her. I just said, do you remember

seeing paycheck Ben Affleck 2003 Christmas? And

she goes, do you mean reindeer games? And I was

like, no, but she was there. Lindsay, if you're

listening, you were there. That's a, you know,

sorry to interrupt you, Michael Andrews, but

like that, that's, that's also a very specific

memory I had because like my, my wife and I,

we're, we're, we're Ben Affleck heads. I mean,

still even now. And we went, and there, there's

a particular scene in reindeer games. That's

uh, Uh, especially uncomfortable when you're

there with the lady friend. It's just like, like

lady put, put, put your shirt back on, but also

kind of don't all moments with Ben Affleck on

screen are uncomfortable for me. If you know

what I mean, the back of a Volkswagen. That's

what it is. Good old Mr. Hamilton. And since

we are talking about Mr. Affleck, let's talk

about his filmography, because holy crap. I did

not know he was an extra in Field of Dreams.

He was in School Ties. He was in the 92 film

from Buffy. He was the basketball player, basketball

player 10. He did a, she directed his first short

film. I killed my lesbian wife. hung around a

meat hook, and now I have a three picture deal

at Disney. I kind of want to see this now, just

based on that title. I don't know why. Wow. It's

a real reverse Gone Girl situation there. Pretty

much, yeah. Like Cybert says, it's too long.

The title's too long. No, you need more punctuation.

Where's the colons? Give me an M dash. Let's

go. Well, it's got two commas. One dash between

three and picture, so. Oh, I think we're onto

something. I think we're cooking here. Yep. Dazed

and confused. Obviously, like we mentioned, Shannon

Hamilton, that idiot asshole from Fashionable

Mail and Mall Rats. Chasing Amy as Holden McNeil.

Yes. Let's see. Obviously, Chuckie Sullivan,

Good Will Hunting. He was in Shakespeare in Love.

Apparently, according to some people, he was

the bomb in Phantoms, yo. Yeah. He was. Is he

the only good thing about that movie? Because

I've never seen that movie. Yeah. I don't know

if I've actually seen it. I like it because it's

a Dean Kunz movie that got made. And I think

Stephen King is poor man's Dean Kunz. Ooh, hot

take. Yeah, I don't disagree with the take but

I appreciate that you stick your neck out like

that Yeah, I was reading yeah, I probably need

to watch this movie because I was reading a whole

bunch of Dean Kuhn's books back then And two

of his movies which Michael Andrews and I will

probably have to do in the future Hideaway and

Mr. Murder Oh, wow. I haven't seen either of

those, actually. Oh, that's gonna be good. Yeah,

okay, making plans. Let's do it. Hideaway is

Jeff Goldblum in the lead character, I believe,

if I remember correctly, without looking it up.

And then Mr. Murderer has Stephen Baldwin in

the lead character role as Martin Stillwater.

Oh, yeah, and then obviously AJ frost in Armageddon,

which previous episode to this my friend the

chaos Queen and I she and I Discussed 25 years

of Armageddon because that movie is old as hell

now to dogma forces of nature Bounce. Oh, God.

Oh, and I need to correct myself before the audience

comes after me. Reindeer Games was 2000, not

2002. So Reindeer Games was three years before

this, before paycheck. Obviously, Jay and Silent

Bob strike back. I mean, the man had Pearl Harbor.

He's got just everything. Geely. Have we got

to Geely yet? We're not quite there yet because

here's the... Well, because... The thing that's

fascinating about this moment in time, like I

said, this movie paycheck is kind of like a weird

time capsule too, because we're kind of like

at the cusp of Benifer. Like it hasn't quite

happened yet, but it's about to. So it's a fascinating

moment in time. We're nearing the event horizon.

Yeah. So I mentioned this to you guys off air.

I don't know if I mentioned it to you, Michael

Landers, but I know I mentioned it to Cybert.

I said, you know, in 2003, Ben Affleck had the

two biggest holiday movies. He had Daredevil

on Valentine's Day and Paycheck on Christmas.

Yes. And I took a date or what I thought was

a date to Valentine's Day Daredevil. That was

my claim to fame. I can one -up you on that because

this is just a story that lives on in infamy

and my cousin says it didn't happen but I know

it happened because I remember it like it was

yesterday. It's 2003. It's been two years since

Silver Side Up came out. It's been two years

since How You Remind Me took over the world.

I'm waiting and waiting and waiting for new Nickelback

and I go to see Daredevil with my cousin Rachel

and her then future husband Joe Valentine's Day

was a Saturday I believe and they were getting

married on a Sunday the 15th the Sunday or maybe

it was a Friday Saturday thing I don't remember

anyway but the point is they invited me out to

go see the movie and I'm like but it's the night

before y 'all's wedding I don't want to interrupt

that no no no and they basically just dragged

me to the mall to the cinema at the mall at the

time and I get to the scene where he's in the

bar and I hear these musical notes and it's slow

and it's like reverbera I'm like I know what

the fuck that that's motherfucking Nickelback

holy crap is that guy for real? yeah he's for

real what do you want? justice Uh. Soon as I

get out of the movie I went right into record

town before the mall closed and bought the soundtrack

to daredevil right then in there, but yeah, 2003

is Between daredevil G Lee paycheck surviving

Christmas and Jersey girl in 2004. Yeah, that

was the whole Bennifer Era there and then in

2005 he switched over to Gardner because of electro

All right, he was busy very busy unabashedly

love Daredevil. I'm looking at the Director's

Cut Special Edition DVD of it right now. I don't

like the Director's Cut version. Really? Yeah.

Tell me more. Tell me more. It's... You don't

like Coolio? I mean, rest in peace. Rest in power,

Coolio. I like that guy, but, like, it has nothing

to do with him. It's the fact that it added more,

like, I get it. Courtroom stuff. Yeah. It's Daredevil.

I mean, he's Matt Murdock, attorney -at -law.

I was a Matlock fan. Yes. Matlock, Matt Murdock.

Oh, I'm just sitting there like, please just

have a few more questions. Oh, man. What if Matlock

gets doused with the radiation canister instead

of Matt Murdock and suddenly you've got Matlock

Daredevil? Dinner would be a lot earlier Like

in that suit with like, you know, he's got like

old man punch like He's like trying to do the

thing with the billy clubs and stuff. That's

real dumb That would be hilarious. That would

be awesome Clerks to gone baby gone the town.

I love the town because that's a Boston movie

town is great. So if I can interject there, I

was talking to one of my teammates this week

and we were talking about movies that you love

so much, but because of it's so intense, you

can only kind of see it once. And maybe you only

seen it once, but it's just like one of the most

vivid spots in your mind of film. The town is

one for me, for sure. I've been meaning to rewatch

it, but like I just can't. I was holding my breath

for like two hours the first time I saw it. We'll

do it in 2024 folks I was gonna say give it another

go you you will be rewarded that that movie is

great. So And then he went and became Batman

and Bruce Wayne and did all the the Batman stuff

Justice League that kind of stuff and just looking

down through here as we get you know till last

year He had deep water Jennifer low How he was

in a documentary about Jennifer Lopez halftime

is I get it because Benifer and all that, but

like I saw that on his phone. I'm like, really?

And he would want to distance himself. I'm sorry.

Are you saying the deep water is a documentary

about the Jennifer Lopez? No, no, no, no, no,

no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no,

no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no,

no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no,

no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no,

no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no,

no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no,

no, no, no, One that I need to see came out this

year. I have not seen it yet, but I want to air

with him and Matt, Matt Damon. Oh, it's great.

Yeah, I need to see that. It's also one of my

favorite movies that's not Mission Impossible,

Dead Reckoning, or Barbie. It's probably number

five for me, actually, if I were to think. It's

terrific. You probably mentioned it, but I forgot

the title already, but I really like that movie.

He was in about the alcoholic basketball coach

That would be air It's it's I I know what you're

talking about Michael Anders, but the the title

is Is that what it is? Okay. No, I don't know.

I don't think that's it. No, that's a 2009 movie.

Yeah Yeah, that's like a thriller. Yeah, hang

on. As we take an IMDB break. Way back. Yeah,

way back? Really? Yeah, the way back. Not the

way way back. The way back. Yeah. Way back. Way

back. Yeah, totally. Yes. Yes. Oh, okay. And

a lot of people didn't see it because it got

swallowed up from COVID. It's like it was one

of those things where it was supposed to be three

actively released like in like, I don't know,

like March of 2020 or something like that. And

then just kind of like quietly got pushed onto,

uh, I guess streaming or PVOD or whatever, but

yeah, it was, it was definitely a COVID movie.

Wow. yeah that one's tough to watch but yeah

i did not know that because like you said it

was a covid movie it was one of those ones that

kind of got lost in the whole year and plus change

that was that was covid wow that's that's crazy

holy crap all right we're going to move on to

the next in the actors here we have mr aaron

eckhart Honestly looking at that card, sir. Oh

my god. Yeah. Oh my god. That's somebody else

entirely Yeah, that's uh, yeah, I did not know

he was a prisoner in hot shots part do in 93

that was his debut and other than any given Sunday

Aaron Brockovich and nurse Betty the first thing

I saw him in was Paycheck and then the Dark Knight

I did not see the wicker man. I did not see black

Dahlia. They're just not my, my type of type

of movies, but yeah, it's paycheck and dark night

for me when it comes to this guy. It's time to

keep your appointment with the wicker man. No,

I don't think so. Not the bees. That's interesting.

Yeah. I guess I haven't seen him in too much

either. I definitely saw Aaron Brockovich before

this movie, but yeah. Yeah, it's interesting

because I feel like in another timeline, another

mirror universe, Aaron Eckhart is like an A -list

leading man because like, I mean, he's got the

square jaw, he's got the chin, he's got the,

you know, kind of, I'm trying to find a different

synonym for like a lantern jawed. Action guy

it looks like I mean he looks like a leading

man and for whatever reason It just either never

happened for him, or if he was just too choosy

with his roles I think he's terrific in this

movie because like he's got that that smarmy

charm that I think the character needs and I

think when that when that evolves into Him being

Harvey Dent, it's kind of that smarmy charm with

that undertone of darkness and and kind of like

just under the boiling pot rage, you know, just

like, you know, just kept under the surface.

Like I really, I really like that Harvey Dent

performance and this kind of feels like what's

kind of like a prototype of what that would become.

Yeah, Jimmy and Harvey could be twins really

I mean seriously true true Yeah, I wonder if

he I wonder if he told his agent like I need

another paycheck give me something with gravitas

We have Uma Thurman the first thing I ever saw

her in was 1991's Robin Hood opposite Kevin Costner.

She played made Marion in that movie I'm sorry

what? You did not know that? That can't be right.

That's... That's what it says here. She played

Maid Marian in the Robin Hood 1991 Kevin Costner

film. Prince of Thieves. Oh, wait a minute. Is

this Prince of Thieves? I'm like, what movie

are you thinking of? Oh, the British. Oh, this

is the British version. That's why. Sorry. I

was going to say, I mean, like Mary Elizabeth

Mastro Tronio is a long way from Uma Thurman.

I mean, like there's, there's like, yeah. I mean,

talk about a mirror universe or whatever. I don't

know what that is. Yeah, because like there is

that one scene where like Marion is in disguise

when like, you know Robin first comes to the

castle and stuff and she's all like stealth of

the ninja and stuff I was like, I don't know.

I guess maybe that that could be a Uma Thurman

in a mask or something like that. That's real

dumb. So then the first one that I would have

seen would have been Pulp Fiction. Sure. Ninety

four. She was in beautiful girls in 96 the truth

about cats and dogs. Obviously Poison Ivy, Dr.

Pamela Isley, and Batman and Robin. She was Irene

Cassini in Gattaca. Gattaca, another film I love

with... Oh, beautiful. Ethan Hawke. Ethan Hawke,

thank you. Ethan Hawke, Jude Law. Mr. Thurman.

Yeah, absolutely. She was in the 1998 Avengers

movie. Oh, I like that one too. Of course you

do No, it's it's fine. It's it's fun. It's uh,

it's it's of its time and I man I I ain't gonna

turn down an Uma Thurman and a in a cat suit.

I mean, come on, man. That's right. That's right.

I got needs. I know what's up Doesn't matter

if it's black or green I was wondering as I was

watching paycheck again, like if if maybe she

got the role because of Gattaca, like I feel

like there's some connective tissue there. And

I wonder if they saw something you liked in Gattaca

that would translate to this. Yeah, probably.

I could I could totally see that. And and interestingly

enough, a note on Uma Thurman, because like,

you know, I, you know, I'm making playfully lecherous

comments and whatnot. But like, I mean, Uma Thurman

obviously incredibly attractive, you know, it's

like, you know, very you know a very like action

star presence but like not traditionally like

quote unquote hot as as like one one would think

and because I think she does have like a very

unique presence and a unique energy and and a

and a distinctive physicality about her that

isn't just like quote unquote hot chick. So it's

like, you know, you know, I, I, I make my, my

smart mouth cat suit references, but when she

becomes M appeal, you know, there, there, there

is, there's a lot to that role other than just

being sex pot. You know, it's like even wall,

uh, the poison ivy role is obviously, you know,

very over the top and, and sexual and sexy and

seductive. that there's, there's more going on

there, but really it's, you can't look at Uma

Thurman the same way after experiencing Kill

Bill. I mean, because that, that is like such

a, it's such a complete performance and it gets

you to look at her as a, as a full and complete

actor, you know, completely in her own. And it's

interesting. And this might be mildly controversial.

I think Her role here in paycheck is almost kind

of like a step backwards Like I I had to kind

of kept reminding myself I was like wait a sec

This is post kill bill because like in my mind

like like the remarks I was making about Aaron

heck art earlier about how it's kind of like

a prototype of what we would see It feels like

this is reversed like this Uma Thurman in this

role feels like What like like this character

walked so the bride could run? You know, that

kind of thing, as opposed to the other way around.

I had the same note, Mikey, that is spot on.

Yeah, but I don't think it, I don't think it

is a step back because she, this came, paycheck

was before, Kill Bill Volume One released, when

did that release? I know it was 2003, but what

was the actual, oh, okay, you're right. October

10th was Kill Bill and this was just, wow. Really?

Oh, wow. Yeah, that's interesting Yeah, that

doesn't seem like in my head. But yeah, it's

right. Yeah, it's so weird It's and and at a

time where you see her basically and I remember

this, you know, we talked about like, you know

vivid movie going memories I remember watching

Kill Bill volume one with my wife and I elbowed

her a little bit and I'm like that's proof positive

that the yellow daredevil suit can work yeah

i remember that was like oh man daredevil suit

has to be red i think maybe this was about the

time daredevil yellow was was on uh comic stands

maybe maybe i'm misremembering that but there

i remember conversations about like oh man daredevil's

yellow outfit is dumb it's passe it's you know

it's all red all the time and it's funny that

like you know it takes 20 years but you know

charlie cox shows up in the yellow costume and

in a in she hulk and i i don't know i there's

something about that the yellow costume that

always spoke to me cuz it's like it's like daredevil

that's not quite daredevil so but to go from

ben afleck is daredevil in the red suit. to Uma

Thurman rocking a, I mean, it's a Bruce Lee riff,

obviously, but to me, especially when she's in

like the motorcycle riding version, I mean, that's

a yellow daredevil suit to me for that time.

So, but they're not quite on the equal footing

that I think my retroactive. Brain would have

liked them to be like like the fan fiction version

of this is like when they're doing like the motorcycle

chase Like she's like or right before the motorcycle

chase. She she has the keys and she's like that's

not a car I think in in the version I wanted

in my brain or the version that would happen

today She rides the motorcycle. Yeah, like like

you or like halfway through when like they like

she goes for the envelope and you know and he

does the slide and all that and then they're

they're both off the bike it would have been

cool to see them switch places but but that's

but that's not something you could do in 2003

and now my 2023 brain is kind of like i kind

of would have liked that though that would that

would have given her a lot more agency so i was

thinking that too through that whole scene but

i love I love, love that joke of when she's like

on the back and she's like, I said you were good.

Okay. Not for that joke alone. It was worth it.

Yeah, I agree. He's, he's a little high on his

own supply there. Yes. Uh, Paul Giamatti. Oh

boy. Singles, Cameron Crowe in 92. Uh, I did

not know this, but I actually saw this in theaters.

He was in, he was Scott in Sabrina in 95. If

this is the up with Harrison Ford and Julia Ormond.

I saw that movie in theaters for some odd reason

when I was 15. I don't know why. On solo, you

had to see everything he's in. No, not really.

Oh boy. Uh, Donnie Brasco and of course his kind

of I can't believe I'm going to say this, kind

of breakout role as pig vomit in Howard Stern's

private parts in 1997. I don't think anybody

would disagree with you on that. That is an iconic

performance. I mean, it's like you could walk

up to anybody and go WNBC and they know exactly

what you're talking about. Yep, yep. He was in

my best friend's wedding also in the same year

He was in dr. Doolittle in saving private Ryan

negotiator and safe met in 98 Cradle will rock

and man on the moon in 99 big mama's house and

duets in 2000 and where I other than Howard Stern's

private parts where I first found him after that

was 2002's big fat liar as Marty wolf You're

a little blue man in a little blue car. The blue

man group in that one, right? That's right. Yeah,

I love Big Fat Liar. Thank God they never made

a sequel to that movie. Great movie, and it was

written by Dan Schneider, who wrote iCarly. Great

writer, great comedy writer. Also directed by

Sean Levy, which Sean has a whole other podcast

episode because that man's an awesome director,

too. That guy smokes real steel. Watch out. Yeah.

Oh, yeah that movie fucks dude. Yeah That is

the Rockham Sockham robots movie that we thought

we should huh? Yeah That's the Rockham Sockham

robots movie. We deserve yeah paycheck sideways

Cinderella man. Yeah, aka the movie where the

Rhino and Sandman team up. Oh Yeah sideways I

saw it He was also in Fred Claus. He played as

Nicholas Nick Claus in that he was in he's been

in a bunch of stuff that Just appears in everything.

Yeah 12 years a slave. He was in love and mercy

in 2015 more recently He was just in the holdovers

from this year. I have not seen that yet. So

There's that. Oh, that's right. He was Nathan

in gunpowder milkshake a Netflix movie. I watched

that movie two years ago I like that movie. It's

good That's the Karen Gillan one, right? Yep.

Yeah, I missed that one I I want to do a double

feature with a gunpowder milkshake and Kate the

the Mary Elizabeth Winstead movie that I think

is basically the same movie but because they

both seem to kind of have like that that that

pink neon aesthetic that yeah, I'm like super

into so Yeah. Yeah. Well, I was going to say

one, one, uh, particular role for, for, uh, old

PG there. They didn't mention is, uh, he he's

terrific as John Adams in, in that, in that,

uh, HBO mini series. I mean that, that is, he

he's incredible in that. If you haven't seen

John Adams, check it out. Yeah, I didn't get

down to his TV credits that was just film credits

I'm just saying it's like I mean like I I would

put that in the top tier of GM Audi rolls for

me I did a back in 2021 we did an episode of

the podcast where we talked about my buddy Tom

DJ and I We each picked a film and we did a double

feature about it. He picked the protege and I

picked gunpowder milkshake So the title of that

episode the protege has a gunpowder milkshake

Those are kind of the same movie too, right?

Yeah I mean that that that's a that's a Samuel

L. Jackson bait and switch movie. It's like starring

Samuel L Jackson For a couple minutes. It's a

real geezer teaser Yeah, very much is like those

Bruce Willis movies that says like hey Bruce

Willis is totally in this movie At the beginning

and a little bit at the end You got geezer teased

Oh Boy and then the last one I want to talk I

mean we can talk about Michael C Hall, but I

have never seen Dexter I don't even think I've

seen six feet under so like really This this

role is pretty much all I know him from the the

agent Klein role here in paycheck Yeah, I haven't

seen Dexter either III was gonna say you guys

probably didn't recognize him or listeners might

not recognize him as as the guy from Dexter without

the the Mountain berry punch a dye job that he's

got in Dexter. He shops at the same hair dye

store that Ben Affleck's Daredevil shops at.

It's like that, it's that same color of rockadiol

red. Oh my God. Please clap, beautiful man. No,

no, it's funny. Yeah, it's funny. Rockadiol red.

Oh God, it just brings me back to 1994 when I...

Died my hair red myself and that didn't go so

that's that's a there's photographic proof of

that never left You're dying your hair Don't

don't use fruit punch. Yeah. No, you're gonna

go in looking like Kimber. You're gonna come

out looking like Jim And Joe Morton Joe Morton

man, he's one of those sleeper actors because

holy crap I forgot He's frigging Mack from Speed.

Yep. I was like, oh, for me, sometimes it's not

about the actor or actress's face. It's not about

me seeing their performance. It's about me hearing

their voice. And Joe is one of those voices that

if I hear it, I instantly will recognize it.

And as I was looking through his like when I

was watching the movie, I was like, OK, all right.

He was met. And then like our. or two later when

I'm doing the research, I'm like, holy shit,

he was Lieutenant Herb Mac McMahon from Speed.

And he was also in Speed 2, but we don't talk

about that movie. He was an ex -pupil. He was

in Ali. He's in Paycheck. He was in Stealth from

2005. That's a pretty good movie. I like that

movie a lot. He was Silas Stone in Dawn of Justice

in 2016. So he also got into that man I'm telling

you folks paycheck is the sleeper Batman movie

of the early 2000s that we didn't know we wanted

It really is. And well, it's funny. And it, and

it, and it goes a one step deeper. Cause I, I

don't know, honestly, we're so deep into the

IMDb now. I don't know how much deeper we're

going to get into the cab, but also, so it's

like, so yeah, you've got, you've got a Ben Affleck,

Batman. You've got a Aaron Eckhart, a Harvey

two phase, Uma Thurman, Poison Ivy, obviously

Michael C. But Michael C hall played the voice

of Kirk Langstrom, AKA the man bat. in one of

those animated movies justice league colon gods

and monsters monsters and then you already mentioned

uh uh the legendary joe morton is dr silas stone

uh but uh uh calm fury the uh or fury or what

it would however it's pronounced uh you know

the the the head goon who i did not recognize

i'm like i know this guy i know this guy from

somewhere and it clicked when i started making

this batman cast he was a dollmaker in gotham

So, right? Yeah. Yeah. And I was like, I know

this guy's face and it was like, and it instantly

clicked. So again, like you said, Mike at the,

at the top of the show, this is, this is a Batman

movie. Pretty much. Yeah. Now, now, now one thing

I did want to push back on you, Mike, a little

bit. I didn't know if you were excluding this,

um, on purpose or, uh, or an oversight, but I

mean, I think one of uh, Joe Morton's most iconic

roles is of course, Miles Bennett Dyson of Terminator

two judgment day, the father of Skynet. Yeah,

I hadn't gotten to it yet. Gee, thanks. Were

you going backwards or forwards? Like everyone

else? I was going all over the place. This guy

was a, this guy was an extra in a basketball

movie. No, yeah, absolutely he was he was Dyson

in in t2 and again Dyson he's gonna blow him

away. I'm gonna blow him away. That's right Yeah,

good old t2 get a love And then the only other

thing that I've got is the the composer John

Powell I'm one of those types of people that

I can watch a movie And as long as I like the

movie and I get into the movie and everything

else, I will pay attention to the music cues

and things like that. And how can you not pay

attention to the music in this movie when that

opening title, that main title for paycheck with

the open... And this is only 20 years ago, folks.

Opening title credits are a loss. It's like die

cast construction. It's a lost art. It really

is because you don't have a lot of opening titles

anymore. If you do, they're at the end of the

film. Like, no, you don't want to put, don't

back end them. That's ridiculous. But John Powell

has done amazing work as a composer. His first

score he did was the Road to El Dorado, the animated

film, the, is it the, yeah, DreamWorks Animation.

Chicken Run, Just Visiting, Shrek. He did the

music for the Shrek movies, a lot of them. But

in 2003, he had, I believe he had, yeah, he had

two big soundtracks for that year. The Italian

Job, directed by F. Gary Gray with Mark Wahlberg

and Charlize Theron, and obviously, love that

movie. I saw that one in theaters. That's a Michael

Andrews, hell yeah. Oh, hell yeah. Yeah, the

Italian job. Gotta love that one, too. And then

this one, Paycheck, and he's also done the music

for the Bourne films, most of them, if not all

of them, I think. Yeah, pretty much all of them.

Yeah, just absolutely love John Powell as a composer.

Nice. Yep, yep, yep. All right. I think before

we move on from the cast, though, you do have

to mention Catherine Morris. Because to go into

one of the the later questions about like What's

the thing that 20 years later still sticks out

about this movie? It is her from the beginning

and that little clip The the Jesus Rita is like

one of my favorite Yeah, no, she was great. And

the funny thing is, I don't know if she's retired

now or not. I haven't seen her in a lot of stuff

lately. You know, I was looking at her IMDb and

she was actually also in Minority Report, which,

you know, has connective tissue to this movie.

And I was like, interesting. She's kind of got

a type there. Yeah. Oh, she was in Moneyball

in 2011. OK. And Hayseed, whatever Hayseed was

in this year. Dark Comedy Murder Mode. I might

have to check out Hayseed. I like murder mystery

movies. Interesting. And I know I already got

thumped once for bringing up TV, but we cannot

talk about Catherine Morris without talking about

Cold Case. That is a show I miss every single

day. A day does not go by where I was like, you

know what? I miss Cold Case. That's a show I

still watch all of the time. Where do you watch

it? Where's it on? Well, I'll I'll have to tell

you off air because I know I think it's I just

I have to look because Illegally or anything

like that? I would the thing with cold case is

very similar to WK on P and Cincinnati the reason

why it's not using a where the exactly it's all

the music rights and you know, basically the

deal with music rights is like broadcast television

rights are completely different than digital

streaming rights or like physical media rights

and uh the thing with cold case is that the music

is so intrinsic and and foundational to those

episodes as it as it actually wait it's not it's

not illegal i think okay the music has probably

been yeah music most no it wasn't replaced they

got it they got the it's on max Holy shit, you

know what? This has been fun. You cannot tap

out right now. The only reason why I know it's

on Max is because a buddy of mine, Jesse Jackson,

who does a Bruce Springsteen podcast called Set

Lustig Bruce, there is an episode of Cold Case

in season four where they use like eight different

Springsteen songs in one episode. And I pointed

that to him and I was like, As soon as HBO, at

the time it was HBO Max, now it's just Max. But

yeah, it is streaming. I don't know how much

of the music has been replaced, but I mean, if

they have eight Bruce Springsteen songs, I'm

pretty sure Warner Brothers has the, yeah, it's

on Max. Yeah, I mean, I'm not eager to give Zaslav

any money, but that, I think you just sold me

a Max subscription. That's a revelation, dude.

You know what you do? You have it billed through

your this is what I do currently you have it

billed through your cable provider So it's only

a charge on your cable bill. So it's not an extra

charge I'm like when's the max subscription coming

up? I have to pay all right I don't have to pay

you I pay for it But I don't have to pay for

it because it's done through my cable company

But yes old case all seven seasons of cold case

are legally available on max unreal This portion

of the podcast brought to you by max Now with

more cold case. That's right now with more cold

case old cases heating up. That's right Oh, man.

Yes, it's been a series hot case just never And

the companion series McDLT case. You know, it's

like, he keeps the hots. See that that's the

rock block power hour. They're like, Oh man,

fricking McDLT. Ask your parents. It's like,

it's, you know, it keeps the cold side cold and

the hot side hot. Love it. I don't case followed

by cold case. I don't think there has been anybody

in my 15 years of podcasting that has made a

better McDLT reference than that. Holy crap.

I haven't. thought about the McDLT in a long

time. I think about it every day, much like cold

case. If only they would bring that back instead

of that ugly ass McRae bullshit. Well, folks,

we are we are not earning our paycheck tonight,

are we? Oh, buddy, I think I am earning all of

the no dollars I'm getting for this. It's buck

wild. I love it. Split it three ways, right?

of course we would have to because you know I

mean I would probably get a little bit more since

I'm not one on the editing side of this but we'll

talk off yeah which one of us is the Paul Giamatti

at the at the end where it's like hey hey man

hey man don't forget about your buddy Shorty

I mean Shorty's got bills too who's getting the

Shorty stick? Brilliant. So getting into more

of the film breakdown, highlights and lowlights.

Most of this film is a highlight, folks. The

only lowlight that I have, and it's not going

to take anything off my actual score, but when

did they buy the lottery ticket? I do not remember

when he bought the damn lottery ticket. Yeah,

you don't see it. That happened in the three

years. OK. That got erased. All right. Got it.

That's right because the lottery ticket was no

it wasn't in with the items No, it was not it

specifically wasn't and I I don't know if this

is too soon for this legislation but but I am

so as I posted on my Twitter Instagram and Facebook

that you know, I've watched this on my vintage

DVD that I have owned since 2004 about it used

from presumably like a, like a Hollywood video

or a blockbuster, but it has a nice price tag

on it of nine 99. And I've certainly gotten my

$10 worth of it 20 years later because, um, remember

when DVDs, well, first of all, remember DVD,

but also like when they were like stacked with

like special features, like, like there there's

two commentary tracks. I didn't have time to

listen to either of them, but, but there's like

two feature X on there and they are lengthy,

like, I mean, like exhaustive feature ads, as

well as a bunch of deleted and extended scenes,

most of which are a waste of time because they

don't, I mean, you know, like when you, when

you watch deleted scenes, it's like, yeah, there's

a reason why that got cut. But the, the coup

de grace on, on this, there's an alternate ending.

What are you guys familiar with the alternate

ending to paycheck? Uh, no. Do we want to talk

about the alternate ending to paycheck now or

do we want to save that for the end? Let's save

that. The stupid thing is the Wikipedia article

doesn't even, I don't think, it doesn't even

mention the alternate ending. It's only on Mike

Cybert's DVD. Yeah, my vintage DVD from 2004.

Maybe it was like a special video store version

or something. This is from the widescreen collection

from Paramount DVD special collectors edition

Ben Affleck Aaron Ackar Uma Thurman paycheck

quote a suspenseful thrill ride that will have

you gripping your seat that from Marina Jurica

from CBS TV and I love this where it's got like

this this collage kind of a terrible collage

of the poster. But at the very bottom of it,

this is how you sell a movie, folks, from the

director of Mission Impossible 2 and Face Off

and the author who brought you Minority Report

and Blade Runner. Oh, I'm sure he loves that

billing. You know, I'll bet. I'll bet. So it's

like, I mean, that's that's how you sell a DVD,

folks. But but anyway, so after we finish our

discussion of the movie, let's come back around

to the alternate ending. And because I think

that will shed some insight onto where the lottery

ticket may or may not have come from. Okay, good.

Mr. Andrews, do you have any high or low lights

of the... Actually, do you have any low lights?

We've been praising the thing for an hour and

a half at this point. So is there anything you

didn't like about this movie? I don't love giving

low lights, but I did have a couple. Okay. One

of them we already kind of talked about, so I'll

just cruise over it. I thought Uma Thurman was

a little underused in this she had a couple badass

moments but for the most part I thought every

like badass moment of hers was paired with like

a like a sappy I need a man kind of a moment

so yeah I think I think I would like to see your

little kick a little more ass and then the setting

for me was kind of a mixed bag because it felt

like it felt like It was trying to be futuristic

and then I was also trying to be like very contemporary

and I think John Wu does really good contemporary

stuff. I don't think he had the not too distant

future visionary quality that we needed for this.

Like I think it would have been cool if like

the ordinary objects that Michael sent himself

were juxtaposed with like like a really kind

of a little bit more futuristic world, right?

Like if we would have been, you know, if they

would have almost been like antiques. I think

that would have been. Oh, sure. Well, and apparently

one of the things that was changed from like

the items are completely different in the Philip

K Dick story, which I have not read. In fact,

I haven't my Amazon cart right now because I'm

that's my goal for this year. I want to I want

to finally read this. I find Dick's writing to

be a little impenetrable for my taste is his

process. well phrased. Weirdly dense for my taste,

but I'm a dumb dumb. So it's like, you know,

I don't read too good. I need to go to the Derek

Zulander school of kids who don't read too good.

But yeah, so I don't necessarily have this relationship

with the source material with any of the Philip

K. Dick adaptations, whether it be Blade Runner

or Minority Report or Total Recall or any of

that stuff. So it's one of the rare instances

where I don't have a previous relationship with

the source material. But one of the things that

I discovered is the items are kind of what you're

saying. Michael Andrews is like, you know, it's

like, it's like a playing card and a poker chip.

And it's like, so it's, it's even more lo -fi

because he wrote it in like 1953 or something

like that. So, you know, stuff like, you know,

beeping wristwatches hadn't, hadn't been invented

yet. You know, silver dollars hadn't been invented

yet. You know that, that kind of thing. Right.

Right. But, but I did want to address a couple

of the others. uh, uh, concerns you had. Um,

cause like I was, I was watching all these special

features and I'm like scribbling exhaustive notes

because well, cause like, like you had said,

Mike, you know, the, the, uh, Wiki is pretty

bare. And I, so I had my laptop open. We're the

only ones that have seen it. So I was, I was

watching these special features thinking it was

just, you know, just filling time. But then as

I was doing some research on the movie, I'm like,

Oh, this information only exists here. Oh my

God, I need to document some of this stuff and

share it in the show. So, but I do want to address

some of the couple things that you said, Michael

Landers. One, with regards to Uma Thurman, she

was actually suggested by Paramount Studios.

They're like, hey man, hey, put this Uma in this

movie. And in the... One of the highlights you

had mentioned the love story was originally downplayed

in the original script and the rachel character

added actually had a significantly smaller role.

So it's one of those things where you know we

talked about the role quite a bit and what what

she does and doesn't do it you know the amount

of agency she she doesn't doesn't have in this

movie. But it's interesting to look at it in

context. And like this was basically what we

do see is punched up from what it was. So I thought

that that was I thought that that was particularly

interesting. But why should if I can add something

quick, I should say, you know, for the for the

time for 2003, it's like. Feminist opera compared

to other movies, you know from that period but

maybe through the lens of 2023 it's like Yeah,

there could have been more Could have been more

Uma could have been more, you know girl power

Absolutely. Well, you know and if this if the

internet was a thing back in in 2003 there would

have been a thousand YouTube videos about talking

about, oh, you know, Rachel is a mouthy girl

boss. She's a Mary Sue. I didn't see her trained

for 45 minutes to know that those keys go to

a motorcycle and not a car. Where's the training?

What a Mary Sue. She's a mouthy girl boss. Whatever.

Nasty woman. Yeah, nasty woman. Now see the female.

Nasty female. Yeah, nasty. All right. I feel

gross using those those chud talking points.

But but Michael Andrews, the other thing that

you said about John Woo and his filmmaking sensibilities

and that like he was actually well, first of

all, he didn't have anything to do with the development

of the script. It was basically done and handed

to him. Um, I don't want to necessarily use the

term gun for hire. Cause I don't know if that's

entirely accurate, but basically love that title.

Well, yeah. Given what, given John Wu's oeuvre,

uh, the oeuvre of the Wu, um, yeah, no, I think

that would be apropos. See, that's, that's why

you're the smart one. That's why you're the writer.

And I just, I just got diarrhea for a mouth,

but, um, but no. So it's like, he was just essentially

hired. as a director based upon his, the strength

of his previous work, you know, Broken Arrow,

Hard Target, Face Off, and Paramount kind of

wanted some of, as Tom Cruise pointed out in

the special features for Mission Impossible 2,

he's the woo, you know, that you want that woo

factor, but John Woo isn't particularly interested

in sci -fi. He's more interested in uh, the human

story and, uh, when kind of pushed back on it,

uh, well, wait a sec, uh, face off is basically

a sci -fi movie and he's like, yeah, I mean,

I guess there's sci -fi elements, but I, I look

at it more as a crime melodrama. And I think

that's, that's incredibly interesting given the

aesthetic texture of this movie because it, I

think it's supposed to take place in like. 2007,

like the far -flung future of 2007, which is

only two years after the far -flung future of

2005, where the treacherous Decepticons have

finally conquered the Autobots homeworld of Cybertron.

But anyway, I think that the kind of contemporary

aesthetic does this movie a favor and helps it.

uh hold up i know we're going to talk about how

it holds up um in a little bit but like i i think

what aids in that is that nobody's running around

with like ray guns you know nobody's like driving

space cars or something like that futuristic

without being futuristic over the top yeah uh

yeah yeah absolutely absolutely who can be over

the top the white sure it's the perfect Example

of that but like it's not so over -the -top that

it's back to the future to or time cop or Whatever

kind of thing where where the future is everywhere.

Yeah, even good Well, I was gonna say even as

I wrote this note I was thinking about well It

does kind of work because we are trying to look

into the future when this plague happens So this

needs to like be pre the apocalyptic future.

I get it I just think I just think those items

could have been like highlighted more by a futuristic

setting You know, like if people almost didn't

know what those items were You know, they would

have made me slip under the radar I'll have a

couple more notes as we get to like the climax

of the movie because there's some other things

specifically to Michael Andrews points of Uma

Thurman being underused. So I'll throw that in

the bin of stuff I'll come back to. Yeah, you

wanted her to use that wrench more, didn't you?

Yeah. I love the wrench stuff. And it pays off.

It pays off. I mean, this is almost a Marty Eisenberg

joint because as I kept seeing things come back

around, I'm like, nothing wasted, nothing wasted.

It's like everything comes back around. I wish

she would have turned to Michael at that point

and be like, yeah, I left this for me from the

future too. That's awesome. Yeah, I would say

that the most futuristic aspect of this film

I guess maybe the part of the setting part of

the city the way the the way that like the downtown

where the bank is and where the Where Jimmy's

office is and where the the campus is maybe kind

of thing, but really it's the machine and What

Michael did before he had that job, which is

the living monitor without the monitor just remove

the monitor That's the most futuristic thing

about this movie. Yeah, he went full Tony Stark

there. That's right I think, you know, I think

to show that it was the future, it would have

been good if there would have been a fourth rail,

maybe even fifth rail in the subway scene. I

think that would have said the future. Yeah.

All right. Because even the train isn't particularly

futuristic. No, it's very, it's very, I don't

want to say contemporary or it's not very class.

It's more classic than contemporary, but yeah,

again, it goes to what Even though Wu may have

been handed the script he still had the vision

of putting like how how it's gonna look and You

know and all that as far as what he wanted is

his people to do to put the movie together I

mean and that that that car dealership bike dealership

scene. I mean, I don't know a car dealership

that has a motor dirt bike track next door to

it like okay we get it it's not a car it's a

motorcycle and of course they're all bmw's right

no bmw backwards is wanted mercedes -benz Whoo

I cannot take credit for that joke. That was

an al april original al april was an airline

comic years ago I had seen him a couple of times

in Louisville and he has these things called

auto names where he takes Like Ford found on

road dead and first on race day, etc. How about

Ford backwards drivers return on foot? Those

are all those are all al april jokes. Love that

guy Yeah, no, I like oh man just the way the

way the movie is a mixture of like I want to

say it's like 90 10 90 percent like normal Like

filming like normal kind of locations nor like

we don't have super futuristic cars and the other

10 percent is the futuristic part Which is basically

the machine of the monitor, right? so Then there's

the explosions, but explosions always look futuristic

sometimes. While we're on that monitor tear for

a minute, I did think it was interesting that

the giant machine at the end of the movie had

a monitor. I was like, I thought he took care

of that technology. I don't know. How do we feel

about the pacing of the film? Were you guys like,

did it go too fast? Was it too slow? Were there

any moments where you're like, yeah, I can pause

this and go to the bathroom. I think the pacing

is super good. Like I think it, uh, you know,

it starts the bang. Even the opening credits

are interesting, which a lot of movies can't

say that. Um, he uses the credits to like get

you up to speed and it does the thing that like,

Inception does which i really like which it's

not showing the technology at like it it's height

or it's peak it's like. One man kind of the end

of his career using the technology in a different

way right like now we're kind of seeing like

he's gonna go under for three years it's never

been done before one last score like we're not

seeing the invention of the of the mind erasing

technology. Yeah and then plus you have like

the you know the. Well, he goes under for three

years and it's just literally a blink of an eye

and then he's got these Items that are like,

you know, there's a payoff there, right? Like

it's it's making a promise to the viewer Like

we're you're gonna see how these work and you're

just kind of waiting for that next item to get

used it moves very quick. Mm -hmm Yeah, I I love

a good man on the run story and there's the in

the middle portion when we're really getting

a lot of item play. It's obviously very man on

the run. It, uh, but it, it, it feels like a

novel, like, and I don't say that from a derogatory

standpoint, but it's like, you know, I, I, you

know, screw you. Well, and that might get into

my, my thesis on what makes a Michael Andrews

movie, because I think, I think kind of like

man on the run. thinking on his feet, being inventive

is a Michael Andrews trope that I think kind

of resonates in some of these things. The industrialness

of it, being clever in a sense. I think I would

submit that you have a strong appetite for clever

and industrious and I don't know, I just think

you're onto something here, yeah. You might be

nailing it. I may have read some of your stuff.

I don't know. I may, I may do a podcast with

you. I don't know. I just like, or maybe, maybe

I just watched the Italian job recently and that

just kind of like unlocked a lot of stuff. It

really did. It kind of gave me like a lot of

insight into Michael Andrews. I don't know. I

just, I just never thought of my movie playlist

kind of our favorite movies as like a, like a

Rorschach test for me, right? Like now I'm like,

I've been exposing myself by talking about all

these movies that I love. But yeah, like, I mean,

I think, I think the pacing works for the most

part. I, I had the disadvantage of watching the

first half of it later at night than I should

have. And I was getting a little drowsy right

about the time that fake Rachel shows up. Did

I realize that is, that is the kickoff to the

entire pedal to the metal entire second half

of the movie. So, like I said, to me, for my

particular viewing this time around, it felt

like a movie of two halves. It was a little sluggish

for me this time around, a little bit of a slog

in spots. I don't know if I was just like, because

I was ahead of the characters, but I'm like...

all right fine yeah just just just use the damn

thing already but i think i think i think that

is more just indicative of my of my own personal

uh viewing experience than than of uh of the

movie itself but recontextualizing it on the

whole i think it works really well because you

know it it builds to a crescendo And then it

delivers. It blows it up is what it does. It

blows that crescendo all the way out the damn

window. It certainly does. But I mean, they don't

make movies like this anymore. No, they don't.

Even ironically enough, this being 2003, this

does feel like a relic of a different time, almost

like us in 2003 watching a movie from the early

80s. Or, uh, yeah, yeah, that, that, yeah, whatever

20 years, but like, from like 1983, those, those

movies are of a type and have a certain pace

and cadence. And like, you know, we were all

talking so much about like opening title sequences

and how, how refreshing that was. It was like,

yeah, let's just strap ourselves in and ease

into this movie. And I think, um, a great lot

of that can be dropped at the Marvel machine's

feet. You know, it's just like they've created

the template and have so thoroughly permeated

American filmmaking to where now movies don't

even start with title cards and everything has

a goddamn stinger at the end. And I mean, I like

those Marvel movies just fine, but it's fascinating.

Got to the end of the the movie and I kid you

guys not because like I Disney's has like Conditioned

me like that's raining like I actually fast -forwarded

through the credits and I do not know why I do

not know Why did you wanted to see if there was

gonna be a day you because that that's the condition

nowadays after? Oh, geez, what are the 15 years

of Marvel? You know and all the continuity and

everything you look look. I love the Marvel Cinematic

Universe I love the whole idea of universes,

but I've said this I've been saying this for

two and a half to three years now I miss the

enjoyment of having Beginning middle and end

a full film one film stories films like this

like One of the questions in how the film held

up, it's mainly usually if a film has a sequel,

are you itching to watch the next film now? This

doesn't have a next film. You can just rewatch

this and enjoy it all over again. And that's

what I miss with the whole everything has to

be a multiverse or this verse or that verse and

whatever. And one of the reasons why I am gravitating

more towards the, like I mentioned earlier with

The protege or gunpowder like gunpowder milkshake

kind of sets up there could have been a sequel

But I'm glad there wasn't one kind of thing the

atom project, which is another Netflix thing

with Ryan Reynolds That is a beginning middle

and end kind of film You know, so that that's

what I miss and I think Hollywood is is probably

gonna They have to start going back that way

because some people are just getting burnt out

on these cinematic universes, whichever cinematic

universe it is. I'm not picking one or the other

or anything like that, but yeah. Yeah. Mike,

Mike cyber waiting for Doc Brown to show up at

the very end of the credits. We got a lot to

talk about kid. Exactly. Well, I solve for it

though. So it's like, so you get through the

credits and it's like, they still have the envelope.

You know, they went through it early. Oh, there's

nothing left in the envelope. Picks up the envelope.

It's like, wait a second. Gives it another shake.

Playing card drops out of it. Ben Affleck picks

it up, flips it over. It's a goddamn joker card.

Yeah. I'll look into it. Cut to black. He's got

gravel in his voice. Don't you know? He keeps

chewing on that gravel. So much gravel in this

movie. That's where it comes from. Being kicked

up by the BMW motorbike wheels. In that very

futuristic junkyard that they drive through.

Anything else we want to mention before we get

into the alternate ending that Mr. Cybert found?

Oh, I got tons of stuff. So I will cede my time

to the Senator from Naboo. Just like, yeah, I've

got a couple of things from the special features

I would like to share, but I guess before I passed

the talking stick over to my two furious compatriot,

you had mentioned it. And one of the bullet points

in your discussion was a favorite special effect.

And you had already mentioned it, but I couldn't

get out of here. my time without talking about

how cool the bike slide was. And that was, you

know, much like when Michael Anders was talking

about Catherine Morris, you know, that was the

thing that stuck with me, was like the thing,

it's like, oh yeah, this is the one where he

slides on the bike and kicks the gravel up into

the windshield. so much that it punctured the

windshield like gunfire. And I was like, what

a cool stunt. I mean, I had like a, like an actual

audible exclamation to that. I was like, wow,

that is so cool. And it was just one of those

things to where it's like, I had, I had forgotten

about that stunt. Yeah. I had forgotten so much

about this movie, but like, again, once I had

like that sensory memory unlocked, Like again,

like those synapses just fired and like suddenly,

you know, I'm I am like, uh, you know 22 years

old and it's 2003 all over again i'm just like

wow I mean because yeah, I I that that is a really

cool stunt And it's it's um, you know, we were

talking about like the whole vibe and aesthetic

and making it contemporary How refreshing is

it is that the only computer graphics you have

is like, you know the machine and the monitor

everything else is built. I mean, there's people

like, you know, you're you're handling tactile

items. It's like everything is just real and

lived in. And like when the dude is like drilling

the holes into the into the walls of the apartment,

it's like, you know, he's actually like drilling

them holes and stuff. It's it's all real. And

it has a very authentic texture. that you don't

realize is missing from contemporary movies until

you watch something like this. You can tell it's

shot on film, you know, and it's just like everything

just has like a very tactile. We really built

this texture to it. So I just I think those are

those are incredible standouts for me. Absolutely.

And before Mr. Andrews goes, I cannot go without

saying this or else I would have to turn in my

Red Sox card. Oh, yeah, of course. You mentioned,

Mike, that basically when Fachel shows up, it's

kind of like the midpoint of the whole mystery

part of the movie to going into the action movie.

And he's like, what's my favorite baseball team?

What does it matter? Wrong answer. That would

be the Red Sox, right? Yeah. Oh, god. Anytime

either Matt or Ben can get a Red Sox reference

in a movie, I'm good. Totally unscripted, just

riffing. No, that was a Ben Affleck thing. He

kind of insisted on that, or at least suggested

it. That definitely comes from Ben. Yeah, it

would have to. All right, Mr. Andrews, what do

you got? Well, let's see. Yeah, I mean, kind

of talked about everything, I guess. Special

effect wise the slow motion. I really liked it

back in the day, but it might have been a little

cliche then it's really cliche now but there

was a lot of it and I love that John was just

doing what he loves like that slow motion thing

is like so this whole movie is just a culmination

of weird events right because like John who comes

off of like two pretty big hits or you know more

than that actually but like two major ones And

they just kind of let him do whatever they want.

They hand him this Philip K. Dick story. He's

like, I'm just going to do whatever I want. I

want to do a weird martial arts love story and

just gets it done. I think they just kind of

like gave him carte blanche and like he didn't

even have to answer anybody. It's just this movie

feels so purely John Woo. I think that's what

I love the most about it. Yeah, nice. Well, and

I was going to say it's fascinating, too, because

For the early goings of it because again, I hadn't

watched this in a in a good long time I I was

kind of fighting against the notion of like Wow

This is the most not John Woo movie that I've

ever seen and then again, you see you see those

flourishes We talked about the the dove like

but you get you get two Mexican standoffs So

I mean, so you're tick you're ticking that box

but like I gotta say one spot that was left Unpunched

on my John Woo bingo card at no point does a

character do wield Like I I need I needed to

see somebody with two guns Yeah, you're right.

But by your logic though Dark of the moon is

a John Woo movie. You're nailing all the boxes

for Dark of the moon Oh boy, my head hurts now.

I don't know how he could work in a white dove

with a giant robot. I don't know how that would

work. It can be done tastefully. Just be Air

Razor, you know, and then you can transform into

a robot. Act like that bird. Yeah, I love it.

I love it. Oh man. All right, Cybert, what do

you got for bonus for us? All right. So I got

a handful of things. So this I thought was funny

that this was a, this was a little bit of a,

I'm doing some myth busting. I do my own version

of Snopes here. So within the, the feature at,

and there are two feature ads on the DVD. One

of them is called paycheck colon designing the

future. And the other one is tempting fate, colon,

the stunts of paycheck. And both of these are

like, Substantially long. I mean, I think each

of them is like a half hour or something like

that 20 minutes to a half hour Shockingly long

by today's standards But one of the things that

John Wu had said when they interviewed and it

includes interviews with everybody Which I thought

was pretty interesting and it's interesting to

see all of these people like especially like

Ben Affleck and Uma Thurman as we know them now

they they look like baby children in this movie,

you know, it's like, oh, baby Ben Affleck. But

anyway, so John Woo had said that he wanted Matt

Damon for the role. Um, but as, as he says through

a translator, he wasn't available to a scheduling

conflict. So, uh, Matt Damon then recommended

his best good friend than Affleck for the role.

So that's what was said in the, in the featurette.

Turns out, uh, Matt Damon actually turned down

the role, not being interested in wanting to

do another amnesia movie. Cause what's another

movie that came out in, in the year of our Lord

2003. So I thought it was funny. It's like, so,

so there, there, there, John Woo's a treading

in fake news. I mean, where's that content warning

on there? I was hoping you were going to say

something like Jimmy Kimmel was a producer and

go into that long joke. Oh my goodness. Um, with

regards to like the, the kind of the vibe and

aesthetic, you know, you notice how Ben Affleck

looks like early in the movie, like, you know,

when, when he's at the height of his cynicism

and, and his full paycheckness, his name is just

paycheck at that point. Um, John Wu grew to like

Ben Affleck, like, you know, they, they hit it

off, but he liked his look. and he called him

kind of a Cary Grant kind of old timey Hollywood

look. And like, especially like with the way

that his hair is slicked and like the suits that

he's wearing. And it kind of goes on from there

where Wu talks about that his approach to this

movie was to do kind of like a throwback, kind

of like an old school Alfred Hitchcock mystery

thriller. Like, again, the sci -fi element didn't

really appeal to him. but he liked the idea of

doing a Hitchcock style thriller. And then Ben

Affleck mentions that he was a huge fan of North

by Northwest. And that, I mean, if anybody's

familiar with that movie, you could definitely

feel the influence here because it's literally

Cary Grant with slicked hair and a dapper suit.

as, as, you know, arguably the original man on

the run, you know, North by Northwest is like

one of the, you know, kind of like foundational

for the man on the run genre. So like, I, I thought,

I thought it was interesting to discover that,

that, that connectivity between paycheck and

Hitchcock and North by Northwest. So, so that

was, that was kind of the, the main stuff that

I found from that one feature at before I get

into the alternate ending though, One of the

things that was talked about in the other feature

at the one about the stunts is that the the climax

of the movie was originally meant to be significantly

larger. It was it was pared down a lot, presumably

for budget reasons, but that's just me presuming

because again, this this is a documentary commissioned

by Paramount Pictures. So they're not going to

say like, oh, well, you know, the studio said

we had to like cut it down or whatever. But one

of the DPS, one of the director of photography

guys said something that they they ended up only

doing about a quarter of what they designed.

for the climax of the movie. Apparently Uma Thurman

was supposed to have significantly more to do.

Like she referenced that she did a lot of harness

work that didn't make it into the movie. I mean,

it was stuff that they rehearsed but never actually

filmed for the movie. So it's not like there's

deleted scenes of. They just, you know, they

just kind of ran out of money or time or whatever.

But apparently, and this was kind of set up earlier,

where when we first meet Rachel, she basically

has like this weather dominator. And, you know,

she's like changing the weather and stuff. Apparently,

the climax of the movie was to involve far more

with the weather because like you see that like

you know that that that kind of with the clouds

and all that you know it kind of it kind of sets

a foreboding mood for the uh for the climax especially

the stuff that that happens out on the count

walk but apparently what was a one of the things

that was originally supposed to happen is there

was supposed to be significantly more weather

including lightning strikes oh so yeah so so

that so that was kind of similar to what we saw

in the beginning of the movie where it was where

the weather you it's kind of like foreshadowing

that never pays off in that like you could see

it's like wow you could you could weaponize the

weather you know that kind of thing so instead

you kind of see that more manifested in you know

kind of like you know the robot arms and uh and

things like that so so i i thought that was incredibly

interesting and that kind of speaks to What i

think in my imagination fits more for kind of

a post kill bill ooma thurman you know like doing

like you know harness work and wire work and

then i'm imagining the sequence where she's you

like doing the weather dominator controller thing

and like zapping dudes with lightning or something

like that and then of course is brain and people

with a with a big her can rent as well but yeah

but i thought that was fascinating that that

the. Two things that Michael Anders had talked

about earlier. It's like, you know, the, the,

the climax kind of feels a little, um, you know,

under designed and a little under undercooked

and, and that, you know, Uma Thurman's role is

kind of, especially in that sequence, kind of,

kind of minimized, like she's not entirely damsel

in distress, but She becomes a hostage. Yeah,

I mean, I mean, yeah, I mean, you even get like

a good old sumbo wrist grab at one point. So

right. So yeah, it's like so it kind of it kind

of passes that test. So so I thought that was

pretty interesting. I'm looking through my notes

here. Oh, so one of the other things this this

I wrote it in the same portion of my notes that

talked about the alternate ending. I was just

like, that doesn't have anything to do with it.

One of the things that I found fascinating is

that they revealed that the one of the things

I liked is that the machine is kind of like weirdly

ill -defined and like that a lot of the technology

is weirdly ill -defined. I think that actually

plays to the movie's strength because like, as

I've gotten older, I appreciate a defter touch

in not over -explaining things. Like, you know,

we talked about the Marvel effect earlier and

I think... We're in a culture now where everything

is so over explained and everything has like

a origin movie and a six episode spinoff TV series

that, you know, like, you know, there are no

nooks and crannies. So I, I like that this, um,

the, the nature of the machine, other than it

can vaguely protect the future and that the user

can, you know, you know, kind of, kind of touch

the touch the the ball and click a couple buttons

and and you know see with some kind of clairvoyance

something into the future and something about

uh some manner of predictability but it's they

don't really tell you how it works which which

is great but one of the things that the that

the design team mentioned in that featurette

is that they were operating under the head cannon

for lack of better term, that the machine is

basically just kind of a big palm reader. That

it kind of works kind of on kind of like a fortune

telling type of thing. And we talk about things

that aren't wasted and come back around. There's

a lot of like Eastern philosophy and mysticism,

not mysticism, but I guess just philosophy. with

Ben Affleck's character like, you know, he's

got like the the the jingling stress balls and

you know, one of the totems he has in his apartment

is This this statuette showing palm reading so

It's fascinating to consider that. I don't know.

I mean, I mean not to get on a on a tear about

astrology and fortune -telling and how we feel

about you know, like, like, like psychics and,

and, and that kind of thing. But to me, this

adds a really cool layer of that future might

not be so as defined as much as Aaron Ericart

thinks it is. Like, you know, like, so like,

for example, you, you open up a fortune cookie,

right? And it, from that point, it kind of becomes

a self -fulfilling prophecy. So it's like, if

you do something to, for lack of a better term,

change your fate or to make that fate happen,

you're self -actualizing to make the fortune

cookie accurate or to find the truth in that

fortune cookie. So I think it's interesting that

it's in one of those kinds of things like to

be less esoteric and philosophical about it.

It's the future could be what you see it to be.

You know, it's like, you know, you you interpret

your future to match the fortune cookie. You

match it to match your horoscope. You know, that

that kind of. I will tell you, though, if I could

match that fortune cookie and materialize a 90

million dollar lottery ticket right now, that

would be the best fucking thing ever. Yeah, no

kidding. Mike I like that take on it though you

know at the very least it's sort of uh foreshadowing

right I mean just in the in the visual language

of the movie that's something I didn't catch

a little nod to palm reading yeah right it is

very palm reading it's also very like the machine

itself is not AI it's reading your body it's

reading your hand it's reading your whatever

And it's getting data from you, but the first

thing I'm thinking of as you're talking about

that is like, oh, this is a few years before

Person of Interest started in 2001, when Person

of Interest started. Yeah. And I'm like, ooh,

the machine, the super AI, the super intelligence,

but the machine only gives you a number, and

then you have to go and figure the shit out.

That's the way I like AI, where it's not all

like, take over the world kind of bullshit like

we have now. Do our art for us. Yeah, exactly.

No, I mean, I'm no artist, but I would rather

pay an artist to do something for me than have

fake GPT things done. Yeah, it was kind of going

back to, you know, sort of cemented my Point

I was trying to make about it being like inception,

right? The thing that works in inception is just

like here's a technology You know, it's the Don

Cheadle like we're here get over it kind of a

thing. I really liked that about it Yeah, I I

love that and and that is not to say that Aaron

Eckhart didn't see his future because much like

when you see your horoscope in the newspaper

or you crack a fortune cookie then it becomes

what you make of it. So if he sees war, then

his actions from that point forward become a

self -fulfilling prophecy. Yeah. Yeah, and I

think that's a little bit of a missed opportunity

to make him, you know, he took kind of a hard

right into like hardcore villain. And I think

there could have, you know, there's some subtext

there of, you know, him really believing like

he needs to change the world and war is coming,

I need to stop it. And Michael Jennings is in

my fucking way. You know, I think that could

have been maybe a little more character development

for him. And as you guys are cool. Yeah, and

as you guys are talking about this all as I can

think is Jennings is Marty and Jimmy is Biff

Mm -hmm. Yeah back to the future Batman 2003

All right, let's get to this alternate ending

I've heard so much about yeah. Yeah, so so To

kick off from there, let's talk about how the

movie as we saw it ends, you know, basically,

you know, evil is is crushed and destroyed. And,

you know, the the FBI kind of turns a blind eye,

you know, just saying that, you know, Jennings

was, you know, he didn't make it. That guy, two

detectives fall in love. They make eyes at each

other. I was broken watching my pocket. It's

like how you do it. You want to get out of here?

So then we cut to they reunite with Paul Giamatti

who has yet another set of facial hair like we've

we've gone a couple hours now and have and said

not a thing about Paul Giamatti's facial hair

in this. Like, first of all, and it's so funny

because like, so, so I, I wear a short beard,

you know, we're, we're all kind of like, you

know, beard adjacent folks, Michael Andrews dabbles.

And obviously a TFG one, Mike is the super beast.

I love it. I have a bit of jealousy for, for

the, for the, for the Hagrid aesthetic there.

This is all your goddamn fault. Yes. Ladies and

gentlemen. a half a second of Rob Zombie right

now, Super Beast. Yeah, I'm the one you wanted.

Yeah, I'm Super Beast. Oh my God, I have in my

new car, I have XM radio and I have been stuck.

on this channel it's called XL turbo and it's

it's hard rock from the 90s and 2000s and and

um uh and it's a real time capsule a real time

warp because it takes me back to a time that

music was aggressively not good like i mean but

but the thing that that got me to fall in love

with this with this station because most of it

it's like a lot of nostalgia busters, a lot of

like, hey, I remember that. Hey, you know what?

I kind of like that. Oh, I really don't like

that. You know, it's a real, real acid test there.

But like, in the same hour, I heard a deep cuts

track. from the Mission Impossible 2 soundtrack.

I think it was the Metallica song. So actually,

that's not a deep cut. I disappear. Yeah. Which

is a banger. It is a banger, but it's kind of

a deep cut because it's from the soundtrack first

more than the album itself. Exactly. But the

other one was the Rob Zombie song from the Escape

from LA soundtrack. Oh, shit. I mean, a song

I have not heard in 20 years. And you want to

talk about a time warp. I was just like. That

that just again, I've had I've been having a

lot of transportative moments in in the last

week or so. But basically, like, you know, we

cut to Paul Giamatti to where he's got like a

more sensible kind of like Van Dyke type of type

of thing. Oh, that's where I was going with this.

Like who amongst us has not had the folly of

the goatee sideburns combo? Yeah, I, um, I spent,

you know what? In fact, that may have been the

look I had in 2003. And I remember, um, one of

my coworkers who was, uh, very young and very

attractive. And she rolls up to me again, very

nicely and platonically, but she's just like,

she's like, nobody has sideburns and a goatee

pick one. pick one and, and seeing Paul Giamatti

come out with that look, it just like, it was

a shock to the system because it is, it is a

horrendous look. It is, it's upsetting. Um, but,

but anyway, so it's like, so, so you see Paul

Giamatti he's got like, you know, kind of normal,

uh, facial hair, uh, you know, uh, uh, Michael

and Rachel have settled into like this, this,

uh, uh, misty uh greenhouse garden thing where

they're like, you know, uh, rescuing plants and

there's, you know, some kind of analogy about,

you know, uh, saving the world. Ben Affleck is

like hauling fertilizer because apparently he's

a blue collar guy now, you know, really nothing,

nothing really says forsaking the white collar

lifestyle. Then like, hauling two bags of fertilizer

from one side of the room to the other. But then

like you get this whole sequence with the birds

and it's like, Oh man, you really like those

birds. That's really a thing. And he starts thinking

about like, you know, the, the, the fortune cookie

fortune and the numbers and the birds. And it's

like, he does like this entire calculus to where

he figures out that there's a winning lottery

ticket underneath. the uh the bird's cage and

it turns out they they you know they they're

they're in the money uh and i i love giamatti

he's like oh you remember the birds but you can't

remember something that's gonna give us a payday

Yeah, right. Right. Exactly. Oh, man. Don't forget

about your buddy Shorty. Shorty needs to get

paid too. Oh, man. Oh, man. It's back to sleeping

on the street for Shorty. I've lost three damage

deposits on this garden center. Yeah, exactly.

Oh, man. This business is seeking real quick.

What are we going to do? So, and then, of course,

it's in the, you know, trying to tie back to

the beginning. It turns out it's $92 million

and the movie ends, you know, happily ever after.

So, in the alternate ending, it's quite a bit

different. There are similarities, but it opens

where plants are still involved, but this time,

The three of them are in a pickup truck together.

Paul Giamatti is driving and, um, you know, Uma

is kind of, you know, kind of snuggled up next

to Ben there. And there's, there's a flatbed

truck full of plants. And Paul Giamatti is giving

this, this whole speech about, you know, the

dichotomy between like, you know, trying to,

uh, change the world. And, uh, you know, because

he's like rambling about like, uh, plants and,

you know, kind of like it's, it's kind of like

a different version of some of the things that

Uma Thurman says in the original ending. And

he, and he says something kind of like with a,

with a Paul Giamatti shrug, something about,

you know, making the world a little more green

and pretty. And then that scene ends and cut

to we're outside a pawn shop. with Ben Affleck

and Uma Thurman, and they're just aggressively

making out on this motorcycle. And Ben Affleck

suddenly sees out of the corner of his eye the

kid from the bus at the beginning of the movie.

And the kid sees Ben Affleck, makes eye contact,

and the kid runs off. Ben Affleck looks into

the window, the window shop of this pawn shop,

and he sees the ring from the envelope that the

kid took on the bus. All right. That as we saw,

you know, there's earlier in the movie, there's

a line about like, oh, well, you know, I wouldn't

have chased the kid off the bus or something

like that. But he sees the ring and it goes exactly

the way you would predict. He he he sees it.

He smiles, tells Uma Thurman to stay put. I'll

be right back. immediately returns. So I don't,

I don't know what the, the legislation situation

was here. And yeah, I mean, cause it's, it's

real. Like he's just going back and like snapping

necks or something like that. And he comes out

with a spring in his step and he's like, well,

you know, and they're there. She says something

to the effect of like, um, are you, are you,

are you sure you can't remember anything? Um,

you know, you still can't remember anything and

he's like, well, you know, I, I do remember something

I was going to ask you cut a fade to black. Okay.

Movie's over. There is perfectly happy with the

ending we got then. Cause that's just fucking

lame. But the, the, the, the mystery, the mystery

of where the lottery ticket went. or where it

came from, it came from nowhere because the theatrical

cut ending is a reshoot because the facial hair

that Paul Giamatti has matches what he has earlier

in the movie. And if you go back and watch the

movie again, everybody's got slightly different

hair. But Paul Giamatti is the one that really,

really tips it off. This was totally a reshoot.

That's crazy because I remember when movies like

when they like I forget which actual movie but

like if a movie says oh it's delayed because

we have to do reshoots or whatever or like in

the case of Daredevil when they add a scene or

they leave a scene in or the whatever in the

case of the director Scott it's like oh Sometimes

I notice the difference obviously in daredevil

you can't help but notice. It's a whole courtroom

saying how do you miss that? But like some of

the reshoots you don't really notice and have

it. Yeah. Wow. That's, that's crazy. I still,

I still like the, the actual ending we got versus

that. I'm like, yeah, I think we need to see

him get paid. Like, yeah, I think we all would

have been like, if you would have shown that

he knew the numbers, but not made money off of

it. It's like, what are we doing here? Yeah.

And that's the thing about the way the movie

ends is that they, he said to her, You know,

I wouldn't trade our time for the war or she

says to him or whatever the line is like I wouldn't

trade our time for anything kind of thing But

at the same time it would be nice if we could

also have this cushion for ourselves And they

get that so we know that Rachel and Michael are

gonna stay together We know that shorty is gonna

still have all his ski Shorty to me in this movie,

he reminds me of, he reminds me of Wimpy with

the hamburgers and popcorn. So basically Ben

Affleck is Popeye, Uma Thurman is olive oil.

I don't know how many more references I can make

in the last two hours of different things that

this movie could be. I don't know, man. I kind

of want a Paul Giamatti as Wimpy spinoff movie.

Know right because I really I really like that

casting because I mean it's it's a real. Oh,

man I'll gladly pay a hamburger today to be on

Tuesday to get a hamburger But it needs to be

real like dark and artsy. We need like a French

director It needs to be like Joaquin Phoenix

Joker I want to see oh Here's here's what you

do. Here's what you do it It's just sideways,

but with, with the cast of Popeye and it's hamburgers

instead of alcohol. Yeah. Yeah. So like at the

end of the movie, Wimpy is, is kind of sitting

in a nondescript hamburger shack, but he's got

like this, this glorious, you're like wag you

premium steak, the steak burger that he's been

hanging onto. And he's just eating it in like

this dirt as diner. you know he's finally got

like that that premium hamburger that he'd never

never thought he would get into get out of my

head dude my first thought was fucking luther

stickle vingrays arby's we have the meats i don't

know i'm picturing sort of uh uh Barney's film

entry in the Simpsons episode, right? Like that's

Yes. Oh my god. Yes. Don't cry for me for I'm

already dead Poor sad smart Barney But you know,

it's, it's interesting though, because like,

I am interested to see what's on these two commentary

tracks. It's like one of them is from John Wu

himself, who not to be uncomfortable about it.

English is obviously not his first language.

And, and there, there are portions of that feature

ed I spoke to where he is speaking through a

translator. So I to me that that commentary sounds

like it's it's rough sledding. And then the other

one is by the screenwriter, who I really need

my reading glasses. I cannot read this. Dean

Dean somebody. Yeah. So anyway, so, you know,

I might check those out and and report back on

on social media. But yeah, I'm kind of interested

to see. uh what other further treasures are in

the in the paycheck uh special collectors edition

dvd from 2004 yeah i just like the idea that

someone sat down and was like i have a lot to

say about this we don't get that a lot anymore

I mean, well, 20 years later, we're getting it

right now. But I was going to say, we've been

here for two hours, my friends. We've already

eclipsed the runtime of the movie. I know, right?

Even with the editing down, I'll end up doing.

Yeah. It's still going to be a two -hour tour

here. All right. Which a hundred and eight, actually.

Yeah, I was going to say, man. I mean, I could

go for two more easily. It's on par. Don't you

goddamn. I will make you edit this shit. You

talk for two more hours. When you say it's only

been two hours, cut to the ACE venture. I'm sorry.

It must be cold. I will leave bat guano in your

stocking. Damn it. But yeah, guys, I mean, I

mean, 118 minutes. I mean, like just, just an

eyelash under two hours. Delightful what what

a treat what a treat this one. It's a great movie

It's and this is what I miss about movies and

movies are enjoyable today that I've seen a lot

of them that I like but We've gotten like we've

already mentioned in the last two hours. We've

gotten so entrenched in Cinematic universes and

and look I'm the biggest one of the biggest continuity

buffs you'll ever find because I like my continuity,

but I also like that This is one of the reasons

why I don't like doing single issue comics. I

need the trade, I need the whole story all at

once kind of thing. And this movie has it, beginning,

middle, and end, and it's exciting. And again,

the music, as soon as I finished watching the

thing, I put the soundtrack, the score on from

John Powell, and I'm like, this music outside

of this movie still is amazing. and because it

just is but I'm glad you brought that up because

it kind of reminded me I was noticing like especially

at the ending it definitely had like kind of

a Star Wars feel to it. Yep very much so. Hello

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Transform and roll out! On the Simplistic Reviews

podcast, we talk movies. We talk TV We talk trying

to make our spot sound more exciting by adding

explosions Yeah, I'm pretty sure you could have

got the point across with sound effects. Not

the real thing Download the show on iTunes or

if simplistic reviews dot blog spot dot com I'm

sure your insurance company will cover that.

No, they won't. No, they probably won't What's

my favorite baseball team what? What's my favorite

baseball team? Who cares? That would be the Red

Sox. Alright, so we have a special segment on

this episode of Studio 2009 because Mr. Cybert

has to, you know... go that extra mile that extra

extra mile and on social media he told everybody

to say nice things about paycheck and i remember

what i said uh the best reverse engineering movie

or best movie about reverse engineering or whatever

the hell it was but yes you have all these responses

from the people so let the people be heard sir

I was really surprised by the quantity of responses

I got. I got a lot of responses on Twitter. I

got a lot of responses on my personal Facebook.

Um, Mike, I think you were the only person who

commented on the Instagram. So that, that tells

you about my, my reach and influence there. Maybe,

maybe I just need to start wearing like less

clothes or something. Cause it just seems like

my, my Instagram is just, it's just like overrun

with just like, uh, thirsty, thotty posts. It's

just like no more thoughts. I love you, dude.

We do not need streaking Cybert on Instagram.

Thank you very much. Nobody get that hashtag

trending. Nothing. I a million percent agree

with that. In fact, I'm going to start a Patreon

so that you can pay me to keep my clothes on

because nobody needs that. Nobody needs that.

He started a website called NoFans. I triple

dog dare you. You have to do it now. Once again,

the master of naming things that no fans use

a use promo code. Nope. At checkout to get no

percentage off zero mics, zero furious. Yes.

Yes. Do not want, do not want. All right. So,

uh, so I'm going to do do these just rapid fire

because some of them are, you know, smart mouthed.

But let's see, so I put out, say something nice

about Paycheck. It's got puzzle pieces on the

cover. It lists some great movies on the cover.

This one this one from dr brainstorm the the

writer of thunderclash goes bananas that that

transformers fan comic a girl I liked in high

school was really into the quote -unquote twist

and I got more than one conversation with her

out of it No dates though a better movie would

have landed me a date I really liked that one

though. I did see that one that that to me uh

man after my own heart there like that was that

was me in high school just just take her to the

right film it'll it'll yeah surely unlock it

quick aside here folks it's funny that that is

the story that comes up because i took the girl

i had a crush on in 2003 to the italian job well

that's a good move that's right can i tell you

one of my great ones uh please in high school

i landed a date with the uh gorgeous foreign

exchange student from Spain. She agreed to go

to a movie with me. I took her to The Musketeer.

Do you remember The Musketeer, martial arts retelling

of Three Musketeers? The singular Musketeer?

No, I don't know if I know this one. Oh, yeah,

it's kind of hot on the tails of Crouching Tigers,

very martial arts heavy. But anyway, so The Musketeer,

I took her to that and I'm into the movie. A

lot of action. It's great. I look over at her,

she's got her hand over her face and she goes,

my people, they're dying. Cause it's all Spanish

people dying in that movie. Oh no. Drones of

Spanish people dying. No second date for you.

Nope, zero. I do remember this one. I could see

the poster for it now where it's like the dude

like hanging off the side and he's getting, he's

getting, he's getting ready to Merk a Spaniard

right there on the poster. As you've never seen

it before. This dude's got an appetite for murder.

Starring Mina Savari, Tim Roth and Justin Chambers.

Yeah. Merkin the Spanish on the, on the, on the

regular there. My goodness that this trailer

is rolling here and now I want to watch this

Because it again this looks like a checks notes

a very Michael Andrews movie Also if I can throw

another clue please like kind of Monte Cristo

that Retelling of it. I really like that one,

too. Yeah. Yeah good good ass movie good ass

movie Let's see. What what was I gonna say? I

was gonna say something about something else.

I lost my train of thought damn it Go back to

your rapid fires then. Oh, I got it. I got it.

Yeah. So yeah, it was something, something about

something about the musketeer, but, uh, and maybe

counter my crystal. It does not matter. We, we

go back to the tweets and my buddy Skeeter. Um,

I liked the font they used. He's not wrong. It's

a good font. It's a good, it's a good ass. It's

a good ass font. Yeah. Yeah. Looking at you,

avatar. Um, Uh, let's see, uh, from found on

shelf podcast, dot, dot, dot. At least it's not

things. I don't know what things is, and I'm

not going to look it up. Hello, Justin. I know

that guy. He helped me move from Washington to

Indiana. Oh, no shit. That's funny. Yeah. I need

to listen to more of his show, but, but yeah,

that, that was awesome. Apparently, it's a 1989

independent direct -to -video horror film. Oh,

boy. I wonder if that's just something that they

covered recently on their podcast or something

like that. That's just a very weird... Anyway,

we continue with Rapid Fire with my dude G .I

.J., given all the bargains out on Twitter .com.

Batman and Two -Face are in it? Question mark?

And that's it for Twitter. The gold is really

in Facebook, though, because my friends really

showed up. Said no one ever. Stop it. There's

no reason to be mean. Before you go, I need to

correct Dustin. I'm sorry, Dustin. But yes, Dustin,

one of the hosts of Found On Shelf, he helped

me move a lot of my stuff out of the apartment

when I had to move a couple of years ago. Go

ahead. Sorry. Thank you, Dustin. I appreciate

it. Yes. Thank you. Thank you. I bonded with

that dude over a movie called New York Ninja

that came out their last year of the year before.

Cause yeah, it seemed to strike both of us a

very similar cord, delightful movie from vinegar

syndrome, but we could talk about that a different

day. I keep promising my audience. I'm going

to do a podcast on New York Ninja and I never

do, but I'll, I'll get to it. Maybe I'll reach

out to Dustin and do a, do a collab or something

like that. I know he really likes that movie

and his, uh, uh, they, they did a terrific episode

on it. So it's like after listening to their

episode, I kind of felt like I didn't need to

do one because they're so good. Uh, but anyway,

so, uh, uh, Steve King writes, um, I like when

I get my paycheck question mark, uh, world from

side fest, uh, uh, once in future guests. It's

one of the movies of all time. of which many

people threw a ha ha on that. That's great. I

thought it was going to be a born identity ripoff

and was not, was not only pleased that it wasn't,

but that I also enjoyed it. That, that, that

for my buddy, Tom, my buddy, Garrett, a nemesis

slime, right? It's in widescreen. And this is,

this is going to be a little bit of like, Facebook

foreshadowing. So one day ago, Rebecca writes,

I enjoyed it quite a, I quite enjoyed it. Now

I feel like watching it again. More folks writing

based on a Philip K. Dick story. One of my favorite

authors. I loved this film that from Jeff, one

of my coworkers. Oh, awesome. Another mic. uh,

enters the chat. I know, I know I saw it, but

I don't remember it all. So comma kind of forgettable.

Ooh, put that right on the cover. Speaking, speaking

of on the cover, uh, my, my buddy Anthony Burkali,

tfu .info himself, right? It was previously viewed.

I'm gonna punch that guy. With kindness. Yes,

yes. Diecast writes, it has Uma Thurman in it.

It does. Good call. My buddy Nathan, the disc

the movie is on occupies physical space. My buddy

Eric, it was only $9 .99. Crying laughing face.

Jerrica writes this makes me want to rewatch

it again exclamation point. I remember it being

interesting. Yep Nice Burr Martin the selfie

dad himself writes. It's a prequel to Snyder's

Batman in two -face To which my buddy Nick comments

it says and poison ivy Yes Nick made a comment

of his own sequel to poison ivy since she was

first in 97 that is true Nick made a comment

of his own. The case says it all on the bottom

of the cover. LOL. And then, and then this, I

think I need some legislative assistance from

this because I don't, I do not understand it.

Let's see. So where is it? Uh, um, Dale writes,

it was a great read in 1953. and a great movie

50 years later. He included a screenshot of a,

I can't tell if it's a, oh, it's like a pulp

novel or something, because it says like, imagination,

stories of science and fantasy, June 1953, 35

cents, The Star Lord. by, uh, by Boyd Landbury.

So not Philip K Dick. I don't understand. So

maybe that was like a collection of short stories

of which this is included. It was first, uh,

featured. Ah, the short story that maybe inspired

it. Got it. Probably. Yeah. Uh, my, what did

you say it was called Mike? Uh, imagination,

uh, stories of science and fantasy. Oh, yep,

right here. That's uh, that's where it premiered

And this uh, this story this uh, this cover is

sick because so like i'm uh, you know mike you

could uh, feel free and edit this out if uh,

you feel the need to but i'm gonna i'm gonna

post a Uh picture of the cover here in the skype

chat. So you guys can kind of get yeah Yeah,

I mean it's it's pretty wicked. I mean there

there's like this, uh you know, it seems like

a star -crossed lovers and an exploding spaceship

and, and she ain't wearing a whole lot. It was,

uh, it was certainly, it was certainly the fifties,

uh, in that, but yeah, I just, uh, I, I thought

that was, uh, that was incredibly, uh, fascinating

there. Uh, we, uh, we continue just a couple

more here. Scotty, the driver of the bumblebee

Camaro here, uh, locally, uh, adds the actors

involved got one, you know, the, the Well done.

Jesse from robots and coffee wrote it's not the

worst movie Ben Affleck has done to which he

responds to his own comment and says he's been

in some real turkeys if you know what I mean.

Winky face. Winky face. And and and to and to

close this out on a profound note. uh, Rebecca

writes who we heard from earlier saying like,

what was it? I quite enjoyed it. Now I feel like

re -watching again. So apparently 10 hours ago

she watched it again. Um, uh, so I'm watching

it again and have a better analysis. Now it's

based on the Philip K Dick short story, which

means there's a major theme of quote. If we do

figure out how to do XYZ, we need to ask ourselves

if we should do it, end quote. It's got explosions,

hypothetical science, greedy bad guys, and other

fun stuff. I still enjoy exclamation point. And

I figured that that was the best way to close

out this segment called Say Something Nice About

Paycheck. Beautiful. Love it. Like I said, there's

like, a couple of nitpicky things, but even those,

I mean, it's a good movie. The two times I've

seen it in the last two weeks, as I said at the

top of the two hours that we started this thing,

up until that goddamn white dove, I did not remember

this was Wu at all. Like, it does not fit to

me other than that one thing that... quote unquote

defining thing that I know him because he does

that like it just a very subtle thing that he

does it's just no I didn't say blink can you

miss it your eyes are bloodshot in order to see

that damn clockwork orange yeah that's some of

that that signature Michael Andrews dry wit that

folks are more than accustomed to now over on

two mics too furious that's right here's Johnny

Bone dry. Bone saw is ready. Bone saw is ready.

Yeah. His favorite Mario Kart character is Dry

Bones. He's like, that's my guy. He's a little

too damp for me. Wow. On that note, we're going

to go to a quick ad break. You're going to hear

an ad for 2 Mike's 2 Furious, Mike Cybert radio

program, and a bunch of other stuff. We'll come

back to close the show right after this. We are

2 Mike. Mike's Too Furious, a podcast where we

watch every episode of Transformers Animated

and discuss from two different points of view.

I'm Mike Seibert, and I've never watched Transformers

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later, I think is the answer. Subscribe to Two

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Toycast is back. We are talking toys once more

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It would be way worse. All those comments would

be less... No, no. He plays Aaron Eckhart's character.

That's what I'm picturing now. Oh, God. No. Uh

-oh. Hi, Mike. Oh, shit, bro. I saw the future.

Fucking Sax win again. There's war, Mikey. What

are we gonna do? Oh man. Then it's like, so the,

the climax of the movie is just Marky Mark Wahlberg,

V, Ben Affleck, and they just have a Boston off.

Yeah. Hell yeah. It's just a Dunkin donuts commercial.

It's like, it's like, how can, how can we out

Boston this? And then suddenly the door swings

open, the white doves come out and then out comes

Matt Damon. Oh, God. Oh, shit. It's funny you

say that. He's just wearing an all -white suit

like he's in an equilibrium or something. The

thing I was going to say was, all right, a Boston

off. You got Afleck and Wahlberg. Matt Damon

is the Mills Lane of Boston. Yes. Oh, shit. I

was going to say, you could just have it end

exactly the way The Departed ended, if you're

going to put Mark Wahlberg in it. Pretty much,

yeah. Every week on my show, I talk about all

kinds of pop culture. I talk about music. I talk

about movies, TV, comics, collectibles, and so

much more. I also feature a guest on my show

periodically, who you might enjoy. I have a couple

of special segments on my show, one called the

cover song of the week and my favorite thing

in the world this week. If you think this sounds

cool, check it out sometime. I hope you do. We

are back here inside studio 2009 I hope everyone

has enjoyed this Christmas extravaganza as we

all don't get our paychecks here Mr. Cybert,

mr. Andrews cybered first then Andrews final

thoughts anything you want to say before I run

through the closing is paycheck a Christmas movie

Yes, yes it is The other one sure as hell isn't

Yeah, no, I think this this movie is an underrated

gem It's like it's like we've already talked

about so much throughout this episode There's

so many people that just like either haven't

heard of it or vaguely remembered much like me

I mean, I think I think of the three of us. I

was probably Less of a student than you guys

were like I you know, I I shared this this wonderfully

beautiful romantic story earlier in the show

but like basically after I watched this DVD in

2004 I think it just kind of faded into my long

-term memory You know like right next to the

Italian job of movies that like I know I like

but I don't necessarily Go back to so this this

was a pleasure to go back and resurrect this

and share it with the folks on my socials and

to really like rekindle some of those sensory

memories that I talked about earlier. But really

just kind of like in the John Woo Odyssey, this

is an interesting footnote because for whatever

reason, despite this being a massive hit, this

is John Woo's last American movie until Silent

Night. So and I don't know what the story is

there. I don't know what to make of that. Obviously,

he went back to Hong Kong to make maybe he had

had enough of the Hollywood system. I don't really

know that story. But yeah, this is I would classify

paycheck as a hidden gem and kind of a forgotten

treasure. One thing I forgot to talk about with

with regards to when we were talking about the

performances. How charming is Ben Affleck isn't

this like you know there there's like on your

bingo cards you have like the Ben Affleck side

smirk smile and that's that's just magic there

that that's that that's just gold and it's like

you know for all the jokes about who else could

have been in this movie it's it's 2003 era Ben

Affleck you know post Armageddon post daredevil

it's the right star at the right time for the

right role. And yeah, just seeing that smile

flash even then kind of brings in just kind of

like this wave of like 2000 era nostalgia. I'm

going to drive home and listen to as much shitty

new metal as I can. But yeah, this was a blast,

guys. So much fun. Yeah, no, absolutely. And

if there were any more days that I... So ladies

and gentlemen, You're going to get sick of Studio

2009. You're probably sick of this podcast already.

Part of my goal for the show this year was to

celebrate as many anniversaries as I could. We've

gotten Armageddon. We've gotten, what else came

on next? At Jurassic Park. We've gotten a bunch

of other things. Like I said, this is coming

out Christmas day. The final episode of the year

is a Star Wars episode, I believe. Is it solo?

I forget what Dave and I did, but that's on New

Year's Eve. Oh, nice. But if I could have gotten

one more episode in here, and we'll probably

do it next year in the early parts of the year,

but the three of us are definitely going to be

doing Italian job, because I love that fucking

movie. Hell yeah. I just watched that two weeks

ago. It is a right banger. Well, we can record

it next Friday night. Jason, Jason, say them

with hair. Yes, please. My friends don't believe

me. They're like, that guy never had hair. And

I'm like, well, it's, it's yeah. Yeah, I think

that's your nickname at the office. Isn't it

Mike Jason? So, uh, so random question for us

before, um, um, obviously Michael Andrews, I,

you know, we gotta, we gotta hear your closing

thoughts as well. I don't mean to stomp on it,

but like, but, but, but a question, if I don't

ask it now, it'll slip from my mind. What is

the origin of this episode? Like, I don't even

remember the story of how is it that TFG one

Mike's reach out to the two furious Mike's and

says, let's talk about paycheck. you guys mentioned

he mentioned it i think it was him mentioning

it because like you said you were kind of just

you were on the fringe he mentioned it on one

of the two mics two furious episodes and The

first thing I was like, wait a minute, was it

2003 or 2004, 2003, 2004? I went and I looked

it up and I'm like, okay, we're doing the 20th

anniversary because it was December 25th, 2003,

like I've said multiple times in the last two

and a half hours. So yeah, it was basically,

Mr. Andrews had mentioned it on Two Mics Too

Furious and I was like, ooh, I don't know if

I know anybody else that really loves this movie

the way I, like. If I was to watch this movie

on repeat, I probably could. I'm glad I don't.

But every once in a while, this is a movie that

I will. Yes, I've watched it twice in the last

two and a half weeks to make sure I'm prepared

for this recording. But before that, I think

I watched it like four years ago. It's just a

movie I can go back to a lot of the time because

it's just enjoy. It's like we've said in the

last two hours, it's an enjoyable kind of sci

-fi thriller action movie. with Back to the Future

bits in it. Yeah, I think actually, too, it was

it was August 20th. It was airing on Pluto. That's

right. I tweeted out I Love Paycheck with the

Michael Scott I Love Bankruptcy gif under it.

I declare. Yes, I declare. So I was watching

it on Pluto. And, you know, it's one of those

movies when it comes on. It's like, yeah, I got

nothing better to do. I'm going to stick right

here and watch this till the end. Absolutely.

All right, Mr. Andrews, give us your final thoughts,

sir. Sure, sure. Well, I'll keep mine short and

sweet here. I just think, like I was saying,

it's a lot of fun when it's on. I like to watch

it. It's a good thing to pop in. And I'll say

this, it's better than the movie Tenant. That's

where I want to leave it at. Thank you for joining

us here inside the studio. If you'd like to get

in contact with us and leave feedback for the

show, there are several ways to do so. Visit

the website geekcastradio .com where you can

listen to and comment on all of our content.

Send an email to feedback at geekcastradio .com.

You can check us out on any of the podcasting

clients you choose to use. I personally prefer

Spotify, but that's just me. Follow us on X at

geekcastradio .network at itsits302009 all one

word for the show. I'm at TF2 and Mike, Mr. Cybert,

your Twitters, please. I know you have like seven

of them. Oh, sure. Well, actually, and like,

I think I'm going to try and experiment here

with Michael Andrews. I'm going to put Michael

Andrews on the, on the spot a little bit. So,

um, but, but I'll, I'll start off. It's like,

you know, we're, we're going to, we're going

to do the, the, the tango, not, not unlike that

scene in mission impossible two. I just happened

to be the, in the Tom Cruise role here, but I'll

kind of start us off. It's like, Yeah, exactly.

So you can you could listen to my podcast, Mike

Cyber Radio, pretty much everything wherever

you listen to everything else on the GeekCast

radio and all of TFG one mics, find podcasts,

you know, Apple, Google, Spotify, whatever your

preferred podcast platform is, you can connect

with me on social medias. I am on Twitter, Facebook

and Instagram, all at Mike Cyber Radio, all one

word, the spelling on my last name. is S E I

B E R T. And I am also a part of another podcast.

I'm, I'm by myself. I am only furious, but by

our, but our powers combined, uh, we are two

mics, two furious, but, uh, but Michael Andrews,

could you please tell folks Where they could

find two mics too furious and and how they could

follow us in all those awesome places Oh, you

are really putting me on the spot, aren't you?

No, you get to be canned away Newton in this

in this scene with like your flowing red dress

and stuff and yeah Yeah, you can find us anywhere.

You find your podcasts Spotify Google Play while

it lasts Anywhere you get your Apple? I hear

Apple's a good time You can find us on Twitter

and Instagram at two mics too furious and you

can find me at Michael Andrews on just about

everything. Nice. And you can also creep the

2M2F YouTube channel, which while we don't necessarily

have a whole lot of videos on there, that seems

to be the hub for listener feedback and commentary.

But that also includes our recent Michael Andrews

slash sorry, Sumdac birthday uncontrollable extravaganza.

That was like a five hour live stream we did

that I swear eventually I'm going to chop down

and edit and put up. podcasts. I just, I just

haven't had time, but, but that's okay. That

was, that was, that was a ton of fun though.

But my finest hour, I think is the subtitle for

that. Your finest hour or your darkest hour.

I can't deal with this now. Yeah. But thanks

buddy. I appreciate you jumping in on that. Yeah.

Thank you. All right. We are also on Facebook,

Geekcast Radio Network. You can also check out

Studio 2009 podcast over there as well. Join

us next time when Dave and I will be closing

out the year with 12 months of Star Wars as we

discuss Solo, a Star Wars story, as we are going

through all of these Star Wars films to this

point in chronological story order. Oh, boy.

I'm not looking forward to Rogue One. So for

now, I'm TF2 and Mike with I'm Mike Cybert. I'm

Michael Andrews. You'll hear us back in the studio

soon and make good choices and eat some pizza.

Yeah. Right now Domino's Pizza is dealing and

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for 888 but don't miss out this deal ends soon

call Domino's pizza now Yeah, I was tossing pizza

back about yeah Well, it is Friday so it's pizza

night it is pizza night Well now I'm gonna have

to get some pizza tonight I I was not intending

to get pizza tonight, but uh, I We just made

your mind up for you. I guess so. I was unaware

of this Friday pizza ritual that I guess I will

now have to observe. So I do this to my work

team every Friday on their stand up. I start

talking about pizza and they're like, ah, damn

it. That's right. It does sound pretty good.

Yep, yep, yep. What kind of Zuh are you slinging

over there? I gotta pop a Murphy's tonight to

take him bake. Oh hells yeah. Yeah, it's good

stuff. You guys have, is that like a chain everyone

has access to? Is that pretty big? Sort of, yeah,

kinda. I'm down with the Murphy. I'm a member

of the Murphy militia, for sure. I am not. I

find it lazy. Here, we're going to half bake

it, put it in the freezer. It's essentially frozen

pizza that you can cook at home. You lazy bastards.

I can see that. The price has gone up quite a

bit. So it's not like you're saving money by

doing it. No. I could spend the same amount of

money on DiGiorno or Red Baron or whatever. It's

all frozen pizza. Yeah, I was gonna say we got

two pizzas tonight and it was like 40 bucks and

I was like, oh wait, and we had a coupon and

I was like, oh second This is restaurant pricing

see I was gonna say that's why you gotta get

that XL New York. That's like 10 buck That's

that's like the best deal. They got hell. Yeah

with like that that that enormous pepperoni there

love it