Well, well, well, Casey O'Brien, I haven't seen you since those days in Cambodia.

A million of Jericho her there.

Oh, how the hell are you?

Casey?

Oh?

Fuck, never thought i'd see your fucking ass out here again.

Back at you, brother, Listen, I got a mission for you, and I know that you're the only man in the world who can tackle it.

What do you say?

Well, you know, I'm inn I got my guys and we're ready to go.

All right.

The mission is very simple.

It's gonna use all of your strength, all of your resources, and all of your weapons, but.

I know you can do it.

We're gonna jump out of this helicopter down into the jungles and I need you to rescue these four hostages for me, bring them back to America where they could be free.

As good as done, my man, Let's go, go, go, go, go, go go go go go.

Get your men over here.

Let's go and go.

H what MILLI?

What is this?

What are you?

What are you talking about?

Brother?

You just you just let us to a room looks like kind of like a podcast studio with like a zoom call and like a podcast micro what's going on?

Listen?

My friend, my brother in arms.

I couldn't just you know, tell you.

I had to come up with the circumstance that would entice you down here to this.

You know, we're very boring studio with very little on the walls and just a bunch of computer equipment, because the actual mission is that you're gonna have to record a podcast.

Dear Movies.

I love you, oh man Millie.

I was all excited about the hostage thing.

I got all these guys, these big muscle guys, and I got a bunch of grenades and stuff, and you want me to record a podcast.

Listen.

I'm a bummer.

I'm not telling you you can't use the grenades.

I do think though, that you're gonna have to put the rocket launcher out in the parking lot.

We can't have that kind of weaponry in the building.

They're gonna be the guys are gonna be so disappointed.

They're really looking forward to this.

It's listen, It's beyond me.

It's a cod thing.

Okay.

I know I can't help it, but I mean, what was I supposed to do?

You were chopping your cigar.

You had guys in the in the helicopter that were carving things into their leg with bowie knives.

I mean, I couldn't just be like, hey, you want to record a film podcast with me?

Uh, you could have just asked me up front.

I would have done it.

I do these every week.

It's fine.

I just was excited about like going into the jungle and stuff.

I don't know, I just thought you saw me as more of a you know, a manly man than just a you know, a stupid pathetic podcaster.

But I hated lying to you.

But well it didn't feel good being lied to, really frankly.

So well, I mean, we have a good show, I guess.

You know, let's go to say.

Now that you're here, do you want to you know, maybe talk about about an incredible eighties action movie.

Yeah, yeah, let's do it.

I'm excited.

I'm back in.

I'm excited to record.

So okay, well you can hopefully your guys will understand they can go get something to eat while in record.

Hey, guys, you can you can head out where you can listen to subscribe.

You can listen to this later, but we don't need you right now.

Well, well, you and I are going to talk a little bit about a classic film from the nineteen eighties.

The name of it is Predator nineteen eighty seven, and we're both completely strapped strapped.

I have seen every Predator movie, have you, So I'm gonna rank them.

That's fantastic because I have not seen every Predator movie, so I can school you on that.

No, I'm excited by that because I have an interest after rewatching this.

And then we have a very exciting guest for my area of expertise.

It is the writer, director, editor, and actor of the People's Joker, Vera Drew, and she's on to talk about her area of expertise, which is the archetype, the character of quote the woman with no name.

We'll get into that more when we talk to her, but I will say she does talk about Predator in the conversation.

And we didn't even know she was going to be on the Predator episode.

That was just that was just lucky podcast magic.

That's right.

That was Oh man, she's so cool.

It's gonna be a treat for you guys.

So listen, stay tuned.

It's gonna be a meaty episode.

You're listening to.

Dear Movies, I Love you.

Whoops, dearvies, I Love you, and I've got to know you love me too.

Check the books.

Hey, y'all, this is Dear Movies, I Love You.

It's a podcast for those who are in a relationship with movies.

My name is Millie to Jericho.

And my name is Casey O'Brien.

And yes, we are in the throes of November.

We're recording this what like a week before it airs.

Can I just tell you that I am exhausted.

The World Series is over by now we have a winner.

And I will say, though about the Dodgers.

First of all, like they were maligned a lot this year, and I don't know why.

I think maybe because of the salary cap conversation stuff, and then just general hate for teams that have a lot of great players and have a vibe right.

And I'm a fan, but I'm also a critical fan, and so I listened to those criticisms from people saying that the Dodgers are they spend too much money, they're too powerful, and gotta get got to get rid of them.

I will say, though, they're a spreed.

Decorps is so good.

And when Freddy did that walk off Homer in the eighteenth and ay, they had played for so long and he was being hugged by his manager, Dave Roberts, full body, not at like one of these like two straight guys that don't know how to hug.

They were like, it was a very warm embrace.

And that's the thing about their team that I love is that they celebrate each other.

They're friendly, they're funny, they care about each other.

They're tender as straight guys that play sports.

And I just said it out.

I was like, you know what, it was a good.

There's an undeniable team vibe that goes beyond the money.

I agree, you know, And also other teams have just as much money, but the Dodgers organization is just the smartest organization and they have the most money, or a lot of money, I should say, so I kind of don't buy those arguments.

And also I will say the Toronto Blue Jays they have like the third or fourth most highest payroll.

Let me look that up real quick, but they have they have a really high payroll too.

They're not like it's not like the day of Minnesota Twins up there.

Yes, you know, the Blue Jays have the fifth highest payroll.

The Dodgers have the second highest payroll.

So yeah, well, there you go, there you go anyway, Well, way to defend your boys.

I just wanted to say it, and that's why.

If I'm a little loopy during this Predator episode, it's because I'm extremely tired.

And we're being hunted by the predator.

That too.

Duh, Millie.

Let's open up our film diary and read our passages from the last week.

Cut chunk, cut chunk.

Indeed, do you want to go first?

Sure?

I think I watched like eight movies Chasus, so I'm not going to go through all of them, but I'm going to point out a few that excited me.

Sure.

Number one, I want to talk about Ken Russell.

Do you know that director Ken Russell gave me a break?

She's rolling her?

Who doesn't know Ken Russell?

Come on, he did movies like what are some of his big hits, Layer of the White Worm.

Yeah, I mean, There's Devils, the Devil's Letstomania.

Actually that is not a big wist Tomania.

That is not a big Ken Russell movie at all.

I think he did Tommy the Who's Tommy?

Anyways?

He's great.

I saw a movie called Altered States from nineteen eighty.

This is on the Criterion Channel.

Man William Hurt plays a scientist who's trying to get to the depths of human consciousness and he goes so far that he begins to mutate and it's cool.

I liked it a lot.

Are think you're going to remake that movie or have they remade?

I don't know.

I don't know.

It could be good.

It's sexy too.

Speaking of sexy, have you seen Ken Russell's Crimes of Passion with h No, I haven't.

That's a good one.

Liked Alter States a lot.

Then I watched a movie almost as good, lawnmower Man Too Beyond cyber Space.

Now.

My wife Tricia has gotten really into lawnmower Man for some reason, and we watched the first one and I thought it was good.

It's like a good cyberpunk movie.

That's what we watched the second one.

This one isn't as good, but it's fun.

It's like a it feels like a Disney version of Blade Runner, kind of dystopian cyberspace cyberpunk kind of stuff.

But I enjoyed it.

Okay, okay.

Then I watched the John Carpenter two thousand and one movie Ghosts of Mars with Natasha Henstridge, Pam Grier, your boy, Jason Statham.

Yeah, and this was everything I wanted in more was it.

I've never seen it.

It's goofy as hell it is.

I thought it was.

If I saw this when I was a kid, I would have been scared.

It's the future.

People are living on Mars and they're transporting a criminal, which is ice Cube, and they get to this like small town that's been totally slaughtered and it's because there was this ancient civilization that used to live on Mars, and the ghosts of that civilization had started taking over people's bodies and making them go loco.

Okay, I thought this was fun.

It was violent, it was kind of scary.

It's goofy.

It's everything you want from a John Carpenter movie.

Fantastic.

And then last night we watched Megan two point zero.

I liked the first Meghan and you did not.

No, I didn't.

Okay, that's fun.

Well, okay, let me let me rewind.

I feel like.

I'm glad it exists.

A lot of people had a lot of fun with it.

It was fun.

I, you know, was annoyed that.

It was PG.

Thirteen, but I get what it's PG thirteen at the same time, so I thought it was going to be a lot more violent, and I wanted it to be.

I wanted it to be very violent.

But I get it.

You want to bring those kiddies in, and.

These teens they I feel like that that trend is actually ending where people were like, make a horror movie and make it PG thirteen so that the teens will go see it.

I just feel like the movies that do well, the R rated horrors, like Your Weapons and Sinners, those are doing so much better than those kind of teeny bopper horrible But like.

Get real, when I was thirteen, I didn't want to see a thirteen year old's movie.

I wanted to see.

Goddamn cannibal Apocalypse or whatever.

I mean, cannibal Holocaust.

Well, an apocalypse.

There's actually I wasn't familiar with the Apocalypse.

Listen, there's I could I could lay in all that Cannibal fair Ox.

There's also Cannibal fair Ox.

It's a lot of cannibal blank.

Movies out there, by the way.

But it's like, I part of the joy of being a teenager is getting, you know, sneaking into like adult movies and watching some shit that isn't for me.

And again, maybe.

It's just a generational thing, to be honest, because you know, my generation, the chan exers, we were constantly trying to, you know, do things that we weren't allowed to do now and knowing this era of I don't know, you can speak to it parenthood.

They're a lot more involved in their kids' lives and they don't want them to see, you know, a Joe Demato movie or whatever.

You know.

Yeah, I think parents now are like, they're too friendly with their children.

They've become too like their pals.

Now.

I was never pals with my parents.

That's why I would sneak R rated movies and watch Starship Troopers at my friend's house, you know.

So, I don't know.

Yeah, it's a different it's a different thing.

It's like Johnny Pemberton said, people who want approval of their parents.

It's a disease.

That was literally one of the greatest h takes I think we've ever had on this podcast.

But yeah, anyway, I hear you, I hear you.

This is a larger conversation.

I know, my dear friend Patrick Mallin, he hates when a movie isn't violent enough and he wants it to be more.

So I understand that, but I would say, Megan two point zero is actually more of a action movie and so it kind of it's not a horror movie.

I would say, okay, okay, And there's a lot more Brian Jordan Alvarez, which I love.

Yeah, he's great, and I maybe I'll take it again if you ask me to come over to your house and we just want to have a chill movie night and you're like, let's watch Megan two point Oh, I'm gonna do it.

I'm never gonna I'm never gonna not sit in front of a movie.

But you know, I generally the whole I guess I'm talking really about the Megan fanfair.

Just generally, I thought, yeah, what a great opportunity to go like really hardcore.

But yeah, you do want it to be like Child's play, Yeah, but it's not.

Yeah anyway, Okay, what else?

That's all I got.

That's it.

No, I don't I have other ones, but I don't want to go into them.

They're not worth your time.

Millie.

Wow, I can't believe you or our listeners time.

Well did you log them on letterbox?

They're on there.

Follow me, Yeah, Casey Leo Brown.

I was gonna say, go to our letterbox.

It's usually like if we don't talk about them, at least you know that we logged them.

I only watched two movies this week, hit me.

One of them was basically cleared up some paperwork from a couple episodes ago when I recommended this movie but didn't recommend this movie.

Do you know what I'm saying?

Hmm, uh so I did.

I don't remember that what this was, but.

Well, I told people to watch the two thousand movie Almost Famous.

We were talking about fans, fan films or movies about fans, and I was like, don't watch this movie because this movie has been seen enough.

It's been it seemed into the culture enough.

And then it was on TCM one night very recently, and I was like, fuck it, I'm just gonna sit in front of Almost Famous.

I just talked about it, man, I don't like that movie.

Who sorry?

And this is shots fired.

I know because I actually talked to a good friend of mine, Patrick, not the Patrick that you know, another Patrick that I'm friends with, who's also a huge movie fan here on the East Coast and he's younger than me, and this was such a like flashpoint movie for a certain generation.

And I talked to him about it because I was like, oh, I know, people your age like really love this movie.

And I and I remember when it came out.

I watched it and was like, Okay, cool, you know, being that I'm a big fan of Cameron Crowe.

But I was like, man, this movie kind of sucks.

Like it wow.

I thought most characters were annoying, although I will say that I actually thought Kate Hudson was great okay, and she for her like, for her whole role which sort of gets tucked into like the mannic Pixie dreamgirl trope a little bit, she was surprisingly not annoying and believable and great, and she wasn't like too you know, like sparkly darkly like.

She was very like, I don't.

Know, believable in that kind of role that she was playing.

And she's very cute and I loved it.

And I will say there was a couple of other like God, I was like, Francis McDorman, this must be my age, because now I'm like, poor Francis McDormand stressed out that her sons on the Road with rock Stars, but I love her, and every time they cut to her freaking out on the phone, I was like, I see you, I understand.

And then I generally.

Think that like I don't know, I don't know what they were evoking with the Billy Crudup character.

He kind of reminded me of a seventies James Taylor during you know, two Lane Blacktop, which I appreciated.

I thought he looked great, but like everybody else, that movie annoyed the shit out of me.

Jason Lee just drove me fucking really.

You know, God, I haven't seen this movie in so long.

It's it was such a cultural thing.

It was such a big movement.

Yes, and I don't I get listen.

I get why, but I also am like, ugh, anyway, now sorry.

I get it.

I get it.

I I think it might it's definitely worth revisiting, but I haven't seen it since, like I want to say, came out in two thousand.

I think I don't think i've seen it since Then's.

To be honest, exactly when the last time I saw it, And that's why I was like, I gotta watch it again.

And that's so you're officially revoked.

That was it your actual staff pick?

It was my staff pick.

Okay, So is it is that being revoked or like, are you no?

Because I don't.

I want people to form their own opinions about it, obviously, I'll better recommend that people see it.

Now.

I'm just saying I sort of liked it when it came out, and now I just don't like it.

That's my revision.

I think I related to it because it was like about a square, non free spirit having to hang out with a bunch of free spirited, annoying people, and I related to the boy.

Yeah, I hear you.

I wanted to be able to do that, but I just it was just too corny for me.

I hear you, I hear you.

What else?

Well?

The only the only other movie I saw drastically different than the one I just mentioned is that.

So over the weekend, I was in Washington.

D C.

And the district the district correct, And I was invited to Washington, D C.

By Actually, I want to shut them out.

I want to shut them out by name?

Is that?

Okay?

Ye?

Names Donald Trump.

I was invited by Steven Miller.

He really wanted to talk about almost famous with me.

Okay.

So I was invited to the George Washington University.

Uh, I was invited by I know, I was fantastic.

I was invited by Ivy and Menley, who were part of the Visiting Artists and Scholars Committee, which is basically a group at g DUB that brings people in to speak to students about, you know, stuff.

And they asked me to come and speak to a group of art history students about my career and my podcast and my work.

And it was very flattering, and of course I said yes.

So I did a little presentation.

I swear I bored them to tears.

But they were very nice and said it was very enjoyable.

That's great.

Yeah, gets new podcast listeners, you think, I hope.

So they were really sweet.

They took me to dinner afterwards.

I got to talk to them about their So a lot of them were in grad school, so I got to talk to them about grad school.

We all talked about they a lot of them because there aren't history majors want to work in the museum world.

And I talked to them about my two failed attempts at joining the museum world myself.

And that they laughed about it.

So Yeah, it was a great time, and they were so nice.

They took such good care of me.

They sent me a note when I got back to be like, hey, hope your trip went well and you know, thank you so much.

Like it was so sweet.

They were so great.

That's so cool.

So that's awesome.

Yeah, they're so lucky to have you.

Million.

Oh you're sweet.

I felt like I I was like I should not be here.

I was having a poster syndrome.

But they were really really kind.

But while I was in DC, I spent an extra day hanging out with friends and I went to see so they were doing Noir City, which, if you don't know, Noar City, it's an annual festival that's put on by my old coworker, Eddie Muller, who's the Tzar of Noir, and it's basically like a little mini film festival.

It's all noir films.

And my friends and I went to see Detour from nineteen forty five at Noir City at the AFI Silver Springs Theater and it is a short movie, which is fantastic.

I mean it's like Tetsu of.

The Iron Man length.

It's like an hour and eight minutes or something, and it was really fun.

I haven't seen Detour in a long time, and it's, you know, like a noir about a guy who was trying to travel across country to get to his girlfriend but then gets caught up in all these like weird strangers who you know, basically at some point try to blackmail him.

So it's very it's very fun.

Cool.

Yeah, amazing.

I gotta check that out.

Yeah, that's it.

That's my film diary.

All right, let's close it up.

Get out of here, Get the fuck out, all right, everybody, we are back to talk about Predator from nineteen eighty seven.

Hoo boy.

This is directed by John McTiernan and it was written by Little Jim and John Thomas Little Brother screenwriting duo Little.

It's kind of fun.

Some cataloging.

This is an action science fiction horror movie.

Some of the themes are military stuff, aliens, cold War, maybe even a little some standout actors.

Well, we got our man, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Carl Weathers, Bill Duke, see the body Ventura, my former governor fellow Minnesota.

Hey, we're good at that.

I've had to hear him talk a lot in my life.

Famous quotes I ain't got kind to bleed get to the Choppa, You're one ugly motherfucker.

Any others stand out to you?

I mean there's so many, you know what, there's so many.

Well, maybe we'll get you know what.

I realized Rewatching Creditor after a very long time.

This is such a memorable movie.

Don't you think is such a memorable movie?

Has been mean?

Yeah?

I mean the handshake of Arnold and Carl Weathers that was memed so much.

Oh yeah, I even memed it like at one point, wow in my own life, but I I but also just like the phrases and everything.

It's like like if you if you haven't seen it at all and you watch it, you're gonna be like, oh fuck, everybody says like this.

Yeah, which maybe we'll get to this later made the Shane Black character so annoying because I feel like his character was like trying to get in on the fun, but he couldn't keep up, and I find him kind of annoying in general.

Shane Black, Yeah.

Yeah, you wrote in your notes that you don't like him, and I was like, wow, how I guess I never really think about him, but I do like his the movies that he wrote, and.

I like Lethal Weapon.

I do not like kiss Kiss Bang Bang.

I did not like his Predator movie that he wrote and directed.

I didn't really like the nice guys.

There's probably some more I should see.

Have you never seen the Long Kiss at Night?

I've never seen that one.

That shit is fucking I just think he thinks he's so funny, he's so clever.

I don't know.

He just bugs me.

Damn, dude like Shane Blacks are gonna chomp cigars in each other's faces and start cussing each other out.

At some point, I'll meet him out in them film streets.

Is that just too hot of a take?

I don't know.

No, I don't think.

Listen, nothing shocks me anymore, literally nothing.

I don't want him.

I don't want him to send the Predator after me.

Millie, what's your personal connection to this movie?

Do you have one?

Go?

There?

You go with that contay, Tell me about your personal connection to this movie.

Nobody knows this, but before we started the episode, Casey made me laugh in such a deep, fucked up way that I was crying.

I had to get up.

I had to get up and walk in the other road.

She was gone for like fifteen minutes.

I was worried.

I was I felt like, basically to put my guts back in my body.

I was laughing so hard.

But like today, I don't know what it is.

You're doing your thing.

You're doing that accent.

Every time you asked me that question like that, I always always think Jimmy Click.

Always.

I love Jimmy Click so much.

My personal connection, that's what your personal connection.

I just found that I really gravitated towards arnoldchwartznigger, and I just like, and I know again, I always had to covey on it because it's like, I don't know, he's.

A Republican and people like hate him or whatever.

But I'm just like, and that's fine.

I mean, that is a totally rational argument.

But it's like as a as somebody who kind of came late to the action game.

But I was still kind of a college person, college age person.

I don't know.

I was like, yo, that guy's a star, and he was a star.

I mean you you say, you say gravitating towards him as something unusual.

I mean all of America in the world did, yeah, And I don't know why.

I don't know why.

I feel compelled to like sort of say, oh, sorry, everybody, but I love fucking Arnold in the eighties in nineties, and again it was also part and party of just everything that else that he's done that I absolutely love, like total recall and especially you know, my one of my top movies of all time Terminator to Judgment Day.

So it's funny because even though that stuff, he was an actual huge world movie star at that time, but then these movies that he did in the eighties were kind of the ramp up to all that, right, So like Commando, which is I think is fantastic one of my favorite eighties action movies, and then Predator, which I feel like is I don't know what you would think, like his one of his other big movies besides the first Terminator.

Like, like, if you were going to rank eighties Arnold.

Movies, what would it be?

Yeah, I was gonna ask, Yeah, I was going to talk to you about your kind of favorite Arnold performances.

But I think in terms of ranking eighties Arnold movies, now, did T two come out in the eighties or is that a ninety?

No?

That do you count that?

No?

Because I feel like that to me and I think it's because I saw it in the nineties.

It feels like an absolute nineties movie.

But let me level check.

Judgment day was ninety one and total recall was ninety.

I guess the only Eighties Arnold movies I've seen are the First Terminator, Predator, and Commando.

So you didn't see the Conan movies at all.

I didn't see the Conan movies.

Now I thought Cony.

But I love all three of those movies.

I think those are all three great movies that have stood the test of time.

And I feel like there was sort of this rivalry between Sylvester Stallone and Arnold in the eighties where they kind of went back and forth.

But if you look at like the Sylvester Stallone movies, I think those have not stood the test of time in the way that Arnold's movies have.

I think he had higher highs than Stallone too.

Maybe that is tiring to a person and they don't want to pursue it as much.

Yeah, and well, and.

I definitely think that the Sylvester thing is going to come back up when we talk about Predator, because obviously I feel like we're eighties action movies have kind of a connection to the Vietnam era, which we'll talk about later.

But yeah, I mean, I will say that like Predator is one of, if not one of the best Arnold movies in his filmography.

It's definitely one of the best eighties action movies he did.

And I don't know so and I just love like his shit.

I just love the vibe of like his tough guy shit.

It's somehow like not as aggressive as like other action stars are.

It doesn't feel as oppressively.

He has kind of an undercurrent of I don't know, like there's.

Something about him that's like I wish I didn't have to be violent.

Yeah, you know, there's like a peacefulnes He's like, I don't like this.

Yeah, and I just I you don't know, it's like when you I watched the Artold documentary when it came out not too long ago, And yeah, maybe it is because he's European.

There's something different about him.

But anyway, that's that's my personal connection to Predator.

And I haven't seen Predator in a really long time.

So my personal connection.

I have recently watched every Predator movie prior to us deciding to even do this episode.

Oh fantastic, like I would say, maybe two years ago.

Wow, I watched all of them.

Yeah, I don't know why, I just did.

And I had a great time.

And listen to the end of our conversation to hear my definitive rank.

Should I get into the synopsis, yes, of course of this movie.

Okay, So Alan dutch Schaeffer played by Arnold Swarzenegger.

He goes by Dutch.

He runs an elite military rescue team and they don't do assassinations.

They are hired by an old pal al Dylon played by Carl Weathers.

They're hired by him to rescue a local cabinet minister.

I'm not sure what that means, but they refer to that in the movie a few times.

A local cabinet minister whose helicopter was shot down in a Central American jungle and he's now hostage to gorillas.

So they go in.

They absolutely blow up this gorilla encampment.

And his team is great.

It's got Jesse Ventura, Bill Duke, Shane Black, like we mentioned, all these manly men, and they're great and they're funny.

But they blow up this gorilla encampment and they find out there's no cabinet minister that was all a ruse and a lie.

This is like a Soviet sponsored group that was going to take over this area, and Carl Weather's tricked Arnold into taking it out to prevent this invasion because Arnold would not have said yes otherwise.

Arnold is pissed.

They end up taking one of the surviving gorillas, Anna is her name, played by Elpdia Carrillo.

But also they discover while they're doing this that there were like other people who were going to go take out this gorilla encampment but were killed, skinned and hung upside down, but by whom they don't know.

So that's kind of the beginning of the movie is a little confusing with the deception with Carl Weathers.

I thought, yeah, which we try to replicate it and are open to yes, questionable success, but so okay.

Part of what I love about these types of like action movies that feature like groups of guys, yes, is the kind of cataloging I guess if you will, of like the different personality types in the group.

And it cracks me up because it's like, you you know, there's like such tropes in some of these things, like for example, one of the guys is Little Cadre or whatever.

Is this guy Billy who is played by the actor Sonny Lanham, and he's like two me.

It's clear that he's like the indigenous character that has like spiritual powers, you know, like.

It's he's a tracker.

Yeah, he's you know, Native American, I believe, I'm not actually sure actually is it.

Yes, he is one eighth Seminole descent and half Cherokee descent.

But then they use him in that way where it's basically he's like able to like track spirits and things, and it's just kind of like I don't.

Know, like in a way kind of like okay, we get it.

And then well then you have so then you have Rick, right, which is the Shane Black character your faith, who is like the guy making the pussy jokes and he's a real you know, funny guy with glasses and you know, no everybody blows him off because he's a dork.

Right.

And then yeah, I mean you've got on the other side of the equation the body Jesse right mm hm, who is all testosterone aggression, you know, dropping like f bombs, like chewing tobacco, you know, talking about is big dick type of thing, right, Yeah, and it's just as funny because he's like, Oh, what a bunch of guys and a helicopter about to be dropped in Central America.

But yeah, so you're like world building, right, and then you're.

Like, oh, Dutch aka Arnold is like their leader, and.

You know, like they've managed to stick together all throughout the years and they've got.

Like they're the best brotherhood.

They're not expendable, right, which is something that is a runner through the film.

But I want to know what it feels like because I mean, I certainly as a woman, are like looking at this like laughing, But what is it like for maybe you as a guy, and maybe even when you were a younger guy to see this type of masculinity.

Yeah, it's interesting.

I am such a different I wrote in my notes, I don't think I'd fit in with this group if they're all attle lunch table.

I don't know if I'd be sitting at that table.

You're trying, You're trying to tell me that none of these guys had Garden Stay posters up in their bedrooms.

If they did, they would you know, hopefully confide in me and feel safe telling me that secret.

But you know it's I am just like a different species.

I am like a smaller guy.

I'm five seven, so I've always been like small and I've had to I've never had any chance of like squaring up physically with another guy.

You know, I've certainly been in situations where I've almost gotten into a fight and I've had to escape because it would be bad, like for me, what do you mean escape?

Like?

Because you remember you told the story at the restaurant where the guy grabbed.

Bike and call me a cocksucker.

Yes, it's a lot of people grab my call.

That happens a lot.

So I was at a bar one time and the Daily Pint in Santa Monica, and I was closing on my check.

I not had a few, but this guy was like move over and I was like closing on my check.

I'm standing like shoulders shoulder with people at the bar and then he goes fucking move over and he grabs me, and I was like ah, And so I like ran away from him back to my group of friends, and I was like, this fucking guy over here was telling me to move over, and he heard that, and as I was leaving, he grabbed me again.

He goes, I heard what you were saying, you motherfucker, But then my bigger friends grabbed him, So I was lucky in that situation.

So I mean, it's a lot of things like that where I'm like a cowardly So that is.

So insane to hear somebody say that.

Yeah, but I think, you know, being a man is a little bit different you do.

When you walk around in the world, you do feel a little more like you have to be.

Men can be kind of like more aggressive towards you, like whether they like she'll hit you with their shoulder, just like walking down the street to kind of just be like what's up.

You know, Like stuff like that happens a lot as a man out in the world, and I've always had to I can't fight someone.

I just can't.

It can't happen, you know, and because I would be killed.

So I've always been felt like an other to that type of masculinity, you know.

So it just it does.

It feels foreign to me too, I guess, is what I'm saying.

Well, let me tell you, Casey, I think it's time if you ever found yourself in another situation where you got grabbed by some drunk dude at a bar.

I think the time will come when me and Tony Goldwin will show up to wherever you're at.

I will grow my nails out super long, just because it feels like I should do that, and we'll just fight these motherfuckers at the bar.

We'll throw them.

I think guy big.

There's a certain type of guy that doesn't like a small little guy and they want to beat him up when they see him.

Like I remember one time I was walking a Echo park and a guy just came out of a bar and just ran up to me and was like boom and punched me right in the stomach and was kind of like what's up.

And I was like, oh my god, So wow, I don't know.

Well, you can imagine what they think about women, Yes, I can very easily.

Well I'm sorry to hear that.

And but that is an interesting thing for me because it's it does feel like, I don't know, it feels like either like in my experience with like my guy friends, either that they run away from movies like this, or they kind of like weirdly embrace them in a kind of like ironic way, or something like.

It's kind of like they know.

The masculinity is over the top and it's kind of like cartoonish in a way, and that's kind of what Predator feels like to me.

It feels like these like guys are just hyper mass hyper like I mean, kind of just ridiculous at the end of the day.

But that's what makes everyone's everyone muscles look incredible.

Like Carl Weathers's arms and chest.

I was like, oh my god, he looks like a cartoon he Man character, you know.

And I want to talk about the meme, the famous meme of the two of the Like, because it happens very early on in the film where it's basically like Carl Weathers meets Arnold in the office or whatever, and they're like, what's up, brother, and like the two they look like two.

Pigs on a spit, like just these.

Two arms come into the frame and like their shirts, their tighters are like hooking the curves of their muscles, and it's just you just see these two guys, like, you know.

What a great directing choice we needed actually a two shot of just their arms.

But it's like, to me, I love that that became memes because it just was like it was a ridiculous shot, like in a moment where you're like, oh fuck, that is crazy how it's focused on their arms.

It's so weird to say, but funny and funny is what.

I kind of mean by that.

But yeah, anyway, it's cartoonish for that reason.

But it's also cartoonish like when they go into like quote unquote save these hostages, they blow this place up to like I'm like, I can't believe this scene is still going on, Like how much, how many explosions, how many people are being shot with like machine guns.

I was like, how would any hostage survive this situation?

We got to talk about this because I actually did a little bit of research on this.

So in the film Jesse, the body right has what they nicknamed old Painless Okay, which is what like and I don't know if I'm actually saying this right, but it's it's a weapon that is called the M one thirty four mini gun.

Yay.

Now, from what I've read, this gun, it was typically on airplanes, Like this was like a thing that you know because basically if you see it, you know what I'm talking about.

It's basically like a huge gun that has you know, this like rotating chamber that has like a bunch of holes in it, and it's like they used it in Terminator too as well.

Yeah, it's like it would be on the back of a plane, someone holding it with two hands, like shooting down planes that kind of thing.

That's what it looks like.

Yeah, and it's basically like shoots like twenty thousand rounds per second or something.

It's like just.

An absolute killing, destroying machine.

And according to what I read too, it's actually impossible to carry this gun as a human being, Like it's only meant for uh, further machines, right, but that they changed it for the film or something that he was able to carry it because think about this or like trapes think through the jungle, covering a lot of ground, and this guy's carrying this humongous mini gun as if he's you know, it's just kind of like a little baby rifle or something.

And listen, I am no authority on guns, but I always think whenever I see something like this, because now these this gone has been in other films, I'm like, it's just so unbelievably ridiculous that it gets used in movies.

Like I'm just like, this is so fucking ridiculously cartoonishly stupid.

And the minute I saw him take that shit out, I was like, there's no way any of these, any of these hostages are alive.

They killed they just decimated the entire forest.

The forest has blown to smithereens.

Dude, Yeah, I mean it is like laughable.

I mean, we haven't invoked this name yet, but the beginning of Magruber is essentially very similar to this movie.

The beginning of this movie, like the way they'mble the team and the amount of guns and stuff they have.

But the Grouper is brilliant.

As we've got up both on a record.

Okay, I'm gonna keep moving on here with the plot.

So they've taken out this gorilla encampment, but they don't know that they are being hunted by an alien.

The titular predator is following them.

Now he has a cloaking device, so he's invisible, you can't see him, but he's been watching them the whole time, and he starts kind of picking guys off as they're sort of escaping through the jungle.

They kill Hawkins played by Shane Black.

I add parenthetically, thank god he kills Jesse Ventura and now they're like, oh, fuck, there's something out there.

That's what Bill Duke is like, Oh, there's like an alien out there.

I saw some weird thing kill Jesse Ventura and and uh, we got to figure out what's going on with this fucker.

You know.

Bill Duke is my favorite character in this movie, by the way.

Yes, and now you said you asked the question, why is Bill Duke shaving?

Yeah?

Do you know?

No, that's kind of his tick.

This is a very sweaty movie.

Everyone is like so wet, it is so unbelievable.

He just has a little plastic bick shaver and it's just sort of constantly shaving.

I was like, is he microblading?

Like you remember in vander Pump Rules where everybody used to make fun of Tom Sandible for shaving his forehead.

Do you remember that?

I don't remember that, but oh my god, so basically every for years when that show was kicking, you know, Tom Sandivil, one of the characters in Vander Peppers Rules, used to shave basically do what Bill Duke's doing.

And he takes a razor and he just starts shaving his forehead.

Everybody's like, what is he doing that?

For and it's really like micro blading, which is a you know, kind of popular thing to do.

It wasn't popular, I don't think of the eighties.

Maybe.

I think you could only really do it at like if you were going to go get facials or something.

But it was like it's basically kind of peeling away.

It's it's basically taking blade and kind of peeling away all the little baby hairs, but also like kind of like the dead.

Skin off the surface of your.

Face, and so when you're done, you look all fresh faced and gorgeous.

And so there's this.

Moment where I was like, is Bill Duke just you know, trying to keep his skin looking good out here?

And I don't know what's he's shaving for.

It doesn't make sense out in the jungle.

Yeah, that's a great question.

Uh, seemed just kind of like a little character tip.

I don't know, what do you think what Millie, what do you think of the Predator as a villain?

He doesn't come into the movie to like it feels like a third of the way in the movie.

Yeah, I know.

This is the thing about all these movies that we've done recently, is that the ones that the ones that I haven't seen in a really long time.

Is that?

Like I always assume that the lead character, the villain, comes in a lot earlier.

I thought that with Hell Raiser two, you know, it's like that whole like, oh, I thought Pinhead was in the movie.

No, I thought that Predator would have showed up way earlier, but didn't.

And it's like not even like he shows up, but it's not his full reveal yet.

It's like his little glob, his little glob.

Yeah.

So you want to know what I think about Predator as an alien?

Yeah?

Like I guess would you compare him to like others like killers like Michael Myers or Freddy or is he like more like the alien what the zen?

You know?

Yeah, like a he's more of a creature and not a human.

Yeah, I guess it's.

More of a Actually I don't know, because here's the thing about Predator that I always always used to throw me off.

Dreadlock Right, pre has dreads.

He doesn't, which I'm kind of like.

Somebody had to do those dreads, right, That's true, I mean that's what I assumed.

So I'm like, is he human?

Like he's getting his.

Hair done right?

Yeah?

But Also he's from space.

He's obviously hiding himself.

And yeah, to that point, this is the thing that I always thought was so fucked up about Pretter is that, in a very baseline way, he would be impossible to kill, right under normal circumstances, if.

You were not inexpendable, if you were not.

Arnold in his cadre of hyper macho dudes, right, he could never be killed.

No one would ever know he was there.

And he's just like shooting rounds in your fucking chest and you're dead and you don't even know where he is.

I mean, like, I took Arnold a millionaires to fight out that he had to just cover himself with mud.

More on that later, But I'm just saying, like, it's kind of this weird improbability where I'm like, oh, these guys would be dead in five seconds.

How did this even go past the first ten minutes?

Yeah, there is something like a little like unbelieving.

I mean, this whole movie's unbelievable, but it kind of takes you out of it a little bit when this kind of cup becomes more clear.

At the end, he's doing this all for sport, and the only reason he gets defeated is because he's like, oh, this isn't a fair fight.

I should get rid of my weapons or something, you know.

So it's like the Predator is the one who is saying is like giving in and making it easier for his opponents to kill him, and so it makes it like a little less exciting.

They're not exciting, but like a little less You're like less interested in how this is going to get.

Yeah, because I think that's like.

The unfortunate bridge that you have to gap if you're like a screenwriter or like somebody who's making concepts for like science fiction.

Movies, is that you have to, like to me, in order for.

Just my brain to be able to process the world that you build, you can't have it be so completely stacked that you know, you can't imagine, like you can't make the villains so powerful that you just we're all just like, well that would kill everyone within seconds.

Like there has to be some you know, level of playing field in that way.

Yeah, And so I always feel with Predator, I'm like, oh, he's like a fucking indestructible, like really like, so I don't know, but we have to have the rest of the movie and we have to have a franchise, so like, I guess it gets rolled out eventually, but yeah, at that jump at very first, I'm like, oh, they're dead period.

Yeah, yeah, and a lot of them are dead.

Did you have anything you wanted to say about Anna Elpdia Carrillo, who is the only woman in this movie and is kind of their hostage.

Of course, of course, I do.

You know, this is the interesting thing about this movie is that for all this mantoism, it's like, of course they had to bring a woman with them who was a hostage at some point.

But then Carl Weathers is like, I.

Think she was a gorilla.

Oh I see, I think she was working with the gorillas.

She's just but she becomes their hostage.

Because basically she does become their hostage.

Carl Weathers is like, she has to come with us because she knows too much or whatever.

So then she's just sort of toted along with these fucking dudes.

And I was like, the entire time she's around, I'm like, she's hot, Like I think Arl kind of wants to.

Get with it, but there's no you know, there's no even a whiff of romance.

I felt like, no, Now when you're carrying old paintless or whatever painless.

You can't.

There's no tough for love at all.

But I will say she's gorgeous.

Like I was, like, she's gorgeous, and there was this is neither here nor there, but there was like a moment where they like, she's just like in a scene and she like flashes this very elegant side boob in her like little take Tom and I'm like, damn, I wish I had.

I'd kill for that side boob.

It's so elegant inside boob elegant.

So well, she doesn't provide much to this.

They didn't.

They didn't make her a very fully formed character.

I will say, uh.

And I think I mentioned this on another other episode.

I do have a Carl Weather's story.

He came into our restaurant.

He stole a pie pan.

He was supposed to return it.

He returned it several weeks later, and we were all very mad at him.

So I won't get into that.

But why don't you all give a shit about a pie pan?

It was an expensive black crusette pie thing.

It was our It was a restaurant pie pie.

Man.

Do you say that like it wasn't a pie tin.

It was yeah, it was black glass.

Yeah.

Anyways, uh, okay, we're moving forward now to kill the predator.

They said a bunch of movie traps, but it out maneuvers them because he's smart and he's invisible.

Dylan, Carl Weathers is killed, mac Bill Duke is killed.

Arnold is left alone, but he makes a discovery that if he covers his entire body in mud, the predator cannot see him because he only has like thermal vision.

So he covers his body and mud and he's entirely invisible to the predator.

Now I want to point out, you know, the predator has like laser eyes, and he lasers Carl Weathers, and Carl Weathers fucking arm blows off.

But there's like he does the exact same thing to Arnold, and Arnold's like ah, and Arnold just gets like a little scratch and you never see him tend to that wound again later.

So I thought that was kind of fun.

Well, that's because in the when you see the arm contrast at the beginning of the movie, Arnold's again is the bigger, the bigger pig, Like, yeah, his pig on a spit is hues.

Pig, and I do I do appreciate that they don't.

They always do this with movies with like The Rock, and they do do this with Arnold too, But it's like, I'm glad they didn't give Arnold like a storyline where he's like, I get back, I gotta get back to my daughter who I love, or like some weird backstory that like makes us sensitive to him.

You know.

Yeah, I hate when people do that, like or like when movies do that to like be like he's got more going on below the surface.

They don't do any of that.

They don't have any of that pretense in this movie.

They don't have time.

Yeah, you don't want you don't want the whole uh.

Reason for him to be out there to be like the Alissa Milano character from Commando or something, right, Yes, just let him just be an enigma, a military enigma.

He doesn't do assassinations though, so that means he yeah, he's got a soul.

Well, and I want to.

Talk to you a little bit about the predator tech, which in twenty twenty five looks like shit, uh huh.

I mean that's heass thermal seeking.

The fact that he can only see like thermally.

I'm like, that seems like a big hindrance for all of his tools and stuff.

I know, I mean, here's how was that.

It's actually kind of surprising that he doesn't have more to do in that way.

Like I'm like, he should be a little bit more sophisticated.

He's from space, like come on, and then you get this like little blurry, little uh infrared bull I mean it's like, I mean, I know at the time that tech was probably like eight.

K or whatever.

Yeah, but I was like, man, this is when you look through his perspective, You're like, I can't see shit out here?

Really?

Yeah.

So yeah, what was the last thing that John McTiernan directed, Because he directed die Hard obviously and Predator.

But see he's only seventy four.

You think he would still does he makeing anything?

Let me see?

He directed a movie in two thousand and three.

That was the last movie.

He directed, a movie called Basic in Chill.

Isn't that interesting?

He was played guilty in two thousand six.

The line to an FBI investigator incarcerated.

John McTiernan, am I wrong with He had legal trouble.

Oh my god?

He was in jail.

He directed.

In twenty seventeen, he directed a video game ad or something.

But yeah, it seems like he had legal trouble.

Seems like he had bankruptcy and maybe.

That's mcierney pleaded guilty to line to an FBI investigator in regard to hiring a private investigator in two thousand to illegally wiretap the phone calls of two people, one of whom was Charles Roven, a co producer on his movie Rollerball.

That's insane.

They hired Anthony Pelicano, right, that was like the Yeah, don't you find that insane?

I didn't know anything, Yes, crazy, Well there, okay, so he was busy.

It's not making movies.

Yeah, I'd say, Oh, he was hanging around with these musclemen too much.

Kind of corrupted his brain, I guess.

Okay.

Anyways, let's get to the end of the movie.

Arnold's covered in mud.

He injures the predator, destroying his cloaking device.

Arnold.

They set some more booby traps, but smarter ones this time, and the predator this is the predators, like, I see you as a worthy adversary.

Let me throw away all my weapons and we'll just fight each other.

Hand to hand wow, and then he gets killed by Arnold.

What a dumb ass.

I don't like that.

That happens all the time, where Like I don't like when the villain gets kind of like tricked, or like I don't like that kind of stuff.

You don't like.

You don't like it when uh and Ningo Mantoya from The Princess Bride is like here's a sword fight me Like, it's like he gives up his advantage to be fair.

You don't like that.

I don't because I'm like I don't know, Yeah, I don't like that.

Well, and is not even a villain, but like villains do that.

It's like, let's make things a little more interesting.

It's like, get out do it.

That's because they they are all I mean, they're all about the pageant and honestly, like for me, like no, it's it's survival in these streets.

If I have an advantage somehow, which I never have, I'm using that shit.

But also it begs the question.

About Predator as an alien where it makes me think, well, then what's his motivation?

Like why does he give a fuck about being fair at all?

What about his race of beings on his planet?

Or whatever are they.

Maybe he's not as as evil of a baddie as Yeah.

Maybe he comes from you know, a society where they believe in the sportsmanship.

Yeah, he has a code of ethics.

I don't know.

You remember in Austin Powers when Doctor Evil has Austin Powers and he's like, puts him on that table to get killed by a laser, and Seth Green's like, why don't you just shoot him?

Yes, exactly, And Doctor Evil's like, you just you don't get it, do you you really, you really don't.

It's the drama of it.

It's the drama.

I guess, oh, oh golly.

And then the Predator sets off a bomb, but Arnold he gets away the end the end, well, because predator believes in palm circumstance.

Yeah, Arnold gets away and gets Well.

Here's the thing.

As much as I do love this movie, I thought this entire last third was so long, dude.

It is unlike the rest of the movie because it's it's like dialogue less.

It's like a Kelly Reikert movie out there, you know, we're watching Old Joy or something.

I was like, what is this la Samurai?

Why isn't he speaking?

This is crazy and it is long.

Yeah.

Yeah, And I think that that.

I think that that notion is completely underscored by the very the first two thirds of the movie, where it's just a lot of fucking gunfire and loud mouths and crazy shit and ship and then it turns into this like extremely you know, this like meditation piece about warfare with no talking.

It's like again Le Samurai or something like that.

And I'm like, god, damn, this ship is long.

And I kept looking.

I kept looking at the Do we ever do this, by the way, when you're watching a movie and you're like, man, this is taken forever, you like click on the little menu and then you look at the bar and be like, oh, the bar is so long.

Until the end of the movie, I ever do that every movie I've ever watched at home.

I pressed the button and then what Okay, I like, damn, man, this bar, there's half the bar's not been filled in.

Yeah, I mean the last I mean, the end of the movie did feel like Uncle Boone me who can recall those path lives?

You know, It's like wandering in the jungle.

Like I was like, I don't remember Predator being this for it?

What the hell is going on.

Shit.

Let me just rank my Predator movies real quick, unless you do you have anything else, Millie?

What else can I say?

I've said everything, so okay, okay, this is worst to best, and I haven't there's one that actually there's an animated one that came out this year that I haven't seen.

And there's a brand new one with El Fanning.

I also haven't seen that one.

That one's not out yet though.

Okay.

Number seven, the worst one the Predator twenty eighteen.

That was Shane Black's movie.

It's just so bad.

It thinks it's so funny and it's just so irritating.

And also Olivia Munn was really upset working on that movie because she discovered that they hired a sexual ups a sexual, a convicted sexual predator was working on that movie because he was friends with the director.

Oh dude.

Uh.

Then number six Aliens Versus Predator Requiem, This was just bad two thousand and seven, it's bad.

Then Predators from twenty ten.

This is the Adrian Brodie Predator movie where they go back to the Predators like or it's like a different planet.

They bring all these like convicts, the Predator Alien Race kidnaps a bunch of humans, like the best, most devious evil ones, and then hunts them.

I don't know, it was kind of stupid.

Then I would put Prey, which came out in twenty twenty two.

That's like the one that's like set like hundreds of years ago and includes like a bunch of like a native population that's getting attacked by the predator.

This was pretty good.

It's not Hulu.

This is the latest one that was pretty good.

I'm writing it down.

Then I liked Alien Versus Predator, the first one from two thousand and four.

Yeah, it's like an antarctical movie and it actually like follows the mythology of the alien movies.

So I thought it was pretty good.

Yeah, this was like I remember when this came out.

It was like like Freddy versus Jason had just come out.

Yeah, and I felt like this like kind of cool, you know, melding of sort of two ips together to like fight each other.

So I was like kind of excited by it.

I was like, oh, man, Alien Versus Predator must be so fun.

And then I just forgot to see it.

Yeah, wow, so it's pretty fun.

I'm gonna do it as my third best Predator movie.

All right, I'm gonna gonna watch it.

Then I put this Predator Predator nineteen eighty seven as my number two favorite.

Ooh, because I really like Predator too, which is from nineteen ninety with Danny Glover, because it takes place in La Predator in La, Yeah, La, and he's really rock and shit in Los Angeles and what neighborhood.

It's a good time.

What neighborhood It seemed like Korea Town and downtown seemed very urban, MacArthur Park maybe okay, well cool.

Anyways, that's my definitive list.

If you disagree, yeah.

Please do dear movies at exactly right media dot com and tell Casey his taste is shit or it's good, shove it.

Fantastic.

Well listen, what a what a great movie.

I'm so glad I got to see it again.

To me, one of the most definitive action movies of the eighties.

It's definitely like like a lot of nineteen eighties action movies.

It's like very feels very tied to the Vietnam era with like soldiers kind of remind me of Rambo in that way, right, speaking of Sylvester but honestly, like predator as a creature or human or hybrid, whatever you want to call him is uh seems unkillable, I guess until he's not, which is in.

Until Arnold gets his meaty pause on him his ham arms.

Yes, I yeah, this is like it's so pulpy, and it's like it's kind of what you want from like a mustly action movie, sci fi action movie.

It's kind of the prototype of like that type of movie.

And it's great.

I was.

I enjoyed watching it again, me too, me too.

All right.

Next up, we're gonna be talking to Vera Drew about her area of expertise, the woman with no name.

I just have to say I messed up her recording a little bit very at the very beginning, so her audio will sound a little different right away and then and it'll sound good for the rest of it.

So that was my fault.

I'm sorry, Vera, and I'm sorry audience that you have to listen to that.

But it only is just right at the beginning.

So here's our conversation with Vera Drew.

All right, everybody, it is another installment of our segment my area of expertise, and I am very excited to have our guest on today.

I'm a huge fan.

She is a writer, director, actor, and editor and the creative force behind The People's Joker.

We have Vera, Drew Vera, thank you so much for joining us today.

Thank you so much, Thank you so much for having me.

Thanks so much, all, my Hysen.

Absolutely, before we get into your area of expertise, I just wanted to ask you about your movie, The People's Joker.

The screening I went to.

I live in Minneapolis now.

Milly and I both lived in LA for a long time, but I live in Minneapolis now and the screening I went to here was like electric, it was insane.

I mean, people were really like hooting and hollering during the whole screening.

And I think it's a testament to how much your movie has connected with people.

What is it like as an artist and as a person to have something that you've made that's so you know, hyper personal to you connect with so many people and have it like understood and accepted and celebrated in that way.

What is that like for you, just sort of like on a personal emotional level.

Well, I really wasn't prepared for it in any any way.

I mean like it's obviously I think all you could want, like especially from the first view you make, you know, but but kind of never in my wildest dreams, uh what I have imagined that that like the first thing that I would ever make, you know, the first like feature film I'd ever make, like would would have that kind of response.

I think I feel very emboldened by it, Yeah, because it was a movie that really was like, yeah, it was the I needed to make for myself to sort of like understand my life and and and you know, the fact that I kind of consciously tried to break every single rule I was taught, like uh as like a like gun for hire like editor and writer and producer and stuff like it really kind of validated the fact that like, Okay, like I guess I know what I'm doing, and like I guess the this sort of like assignment for like what the kind of stuff I'm going to make going forward are going to be like pretty personal personal project.

Well let's move on.

You know, we brought you here to talk about your area of expertise, and you pitched.

I got me my brain buzzing.

The area of expertise you pitched is what you called the woman with no name?

Can you kind of elaborate on what that means to you?

So, yeah, I don't.

I want to.

I want to qualify all this is like I don't think this is like a film RKT type that I've discovered.

I'm sure somebody way smarter than me has like written about this or like noticed.

This the idea.

The idea came to me like the last time I was watching show Girls, which is like really like one of my favorite movies of all time.

Is like we've discussed it very recently on this show, so it's very fresh in our minds.

It's like it's it's so good, right, Like it's it's it's it is crazy that like people ever thought it was like bad, like because like it's it's clear that it's just like.

I don't know it just there was nothing like it, and.

Like culture was just so horrible at the time that like you watch a movie like that, But like I remember like watching it this last time and having a really emotional experience watching it because it kind of clicked in a place for me that like know me is just like one of the most sympathetic characters like film history, and like the reason she is is because she actually like kind of follows this like Clint Eastwood like anti hero archetype yes, where she's like a chaotic, like you know, protagonist in like the heaviest quotes, like she is like a crackhead.

In it, like literally like a crackhead in it.

And like.

But we you know, when we meet her, we get this sense that it's like there's this whole story we're not seen, and even by the end, we don't really know what happened to her.

So like the idea is almost like the Woman with No Name is sort of that like it's it's borrowed from like the Dollar's trilogy, like Man with No Name, where it's like it's this character that feels like an anthologized character that we'd see in in some sort of like series, but there is no additional prequel material that like paints their lower or mythology or backstory like it's it's it's literally just like we just feel that like like shit went down, and you know, like I think for me, like it was kind of the thing I kept thinking about, like I'm watching revisiting that movie and then that coming up was like it's it's basically like if like Clint Eastwood like wandered into like a star is Born instead of a saloon, or like if Dutch from Predator was a sex worker instead of a Vietnam that like, it kind of follows these like same like hyper mass, hyper violent tropes that you'd see and stuff like that.

When you brought this up, the first thing I kind of thought of.

And I know that this has changed because there's been subsequent films, but when I first watched Mad Max Fury Road and Furiosa kind of shows up and you're like, what is the story here?

And you know, she kind of embodies that sort of Western archetype in that way.

I mean obviously it's in the desert too, which helps, but then you're just sort of wondering like where she comes from and like what her story is.

And then you know, obviously they made Furiosa the next movie and they kind of tied up some loose loose sense, but she definitely dropped in feeling like she was.

An anthologized character.

To me, Yeah, I don't know if you thought that if you'd seen it, but I had.

I had.

I mean, like I don't I think like that's like a perfect example because like and I think like that it's a perfect example too, because like it's like it colors the whole movie ultimately, like like that like we have this like pathway in like you know, the character, the characters sort of being this like comic book like Oh, there's like all this lore here that we're not really seeing immediately like makes the entire reop.

Like I mean, I remember when I saw Mad Max, when I saw Fury wrote the first time, just like the the it feels feeling like a lightning storm in my head or something, just this like world of like oh my god, like waters being rationed and there's like these like women like kept in this like vault that are like forced birthers, like yeah, just being like and she's like she's like the link the link into that.

And like also I think because I mean I qualified all of this as like I don't know that this is necessarily like a trope that I've noticed, because like I do think to some degree like this is like a femme fatale type, but like it's not necessarily I think the thing that like, like I think the Woman with No Name can be a femme fatale.

But I also think like the thing that like makes her distinct from just being that is like it's it's kind of a main character.

It's kind of a character.

It's it's a character that's sort of propelling the story forward and and also like is kind of the most compelling character in the film.

There's no they're not like outside of the moral center of the movie either, Like because.

Another one that comes to mind is uh.

It's another movie that I hadn't seen until like very recently, Like I was always a big fan of Texas Chainsaw Masacer like the first one, but the UH.

I recently like worked my way through all of the sequels, which are amazing, Like I don't know about the reboot ones like that that happened in like the two thousands, but like those like that og like you know, seventies through nineties Texas Chainsaw sequels are like they're all good, and I think my favorite one is the one with Matthew McConaughey the Next Generation, and the final girl in it is this girl Jenny, and it's like she's just bonkers, Like there's there's just no understanding her motivation at all, Like she seems like kind of like outside she's like operating outside of like the tropes of like a Final Girl, and like is also just like propelling the story forward in this way where like she.

You know because by the end of that.

Movie, like you basically find out that like the family from Texas Chainsaw Massacre is like some sort of syop that the literal illuminati is like wow in charge of and shit, Like it's so and I think like that's the thing with with with with.

This kind of trope.

It's like it like it allows you to like kind of like move through this like this crazy uh, this crazy reality of that that like is ever unraveling.

Another character that I was thinking about was Trinity from The Matrix because it feels like she has like this whole other story before The Matrix begins, Like there could be a whole other movie about that, and she's just sort of dropped into the Matrix fully formed.

Yeah.

I hadn't even thought of her, but that is such a good one because yeah, it's like she's she's just totally dropped in and also is like there's no questioning that, like she's good at what she does.

There's no like, yeah, it doesn't need to like I actually, I mean speaking of the Wachowskis.

I just rewatched Bound a couple of days.

Yes, yeah, absolutely, I think they both.

They both are actually because like to some degree too, it's crazy.

It's so it's so.

Like, god, what a fucking good movie, like and what a like so good just speaking of like anomalies, like it's crazy that that movie existed what it did.

But yeah, absolutely, but yeah.

Like when we meet when we meet Jranick gersha or we quirky, uh, I gotta say her name.

Of course, she just got out of jail.

We don't know any reason why.

We just know that she like stole some stuff like and that's kind of it.

She's also playing like a jaw harp the entire time, which I think, like I don't know, that kind of counts as part of the trope for me because it's like, I don't know, it's it's not quite a cigarette, it's not quite like a like a cowboy with a cigarette or whatever.

But Violet's character, like her character too, like it's just has that like full of secrets thing like and even by the end of the movie, you know, there's an interpretation of that movie that is just like this is pure like romance Love Story, but you could watch it and walk away from it going like Violet played everybody like she literally was like manipulating the entire situation.

I have no idea if she's actually a lesbian or if she's just like kind of using all these people to get out of the mom Yeah, and I don't know, And I don't like fault her for it, Like I you could.

See her popping up in another movie completely without you know, like, yeah, a quirky.

We were talking about David Lynch a lot before we started recording, but I do feel like he employs that for a lot of maybe not his like Protect I mean I think you mentioned moholland Drive in your email, and but also I was just sort of like thinking through his other movies.

I mean, like you brought up Inland Empire, but also like Joan Chen and Twin Peaks, her character is very like where is she from?

Who what she?

You kind of learned about her past, but there's like it feels like there's a lot more there.

And also Dorothy Vallen's from Blue Velvet, it feels like there's a lot happening.

You could see a whole other movie made before that movie about her.

Yeah, Oh I love that.

Yeah.

No, I mean like it's it's it's got to be, it's got to be.

I also.

I want to come back to that, but before I forget, just because like it keeps like it keeps leaving my mind and then coming back.

But I almost think for me, like I said, like this idea crystallized for me the most recent time I watched Showgirls, but like if I trace it back even further, like I the first time I hadn't I The first Terminator I ever saw was Terminator too.

Me too, And like it's like, yes, I think that's a lot of people, but it's it's crazy because like that's a lot of people.

And when you think about it, it's like you're having the experience of like you're meeting Linda hammil You're meeting Sarah Connor while she's doing pull ups a mental institution.

I know, like that is so fucking awesome, and it just being like it doesn't matter, It doesn't matter that like we don't know that she was a waitress or who the hell Kyle Reese is or anything like that.

Like I think like the like tendrils of like whatever, this this this like.

Obsession because I'm so hesitant to call it an expertise.

I've I've seen so many movies and I'm so self haty that I'm always like but I think it's just because like I don't I don't always like know all the deep cuts and like you know, I've I've brought up like a tech a late Texas Chainsaw sequel here, But like I think, like I think like that is like I just love, I just I love this idea of like you can meet a female character who like is like just completely as flawed as a male kid, because that's what character is.

Like I think that's the other piece of all this.

It's like and not to bring it back to like a plug or whatever, but I mean, I mean one of the things that was, like, you know, when I first started screening my movie occasionally and it stopped happening pretty quick, but like occasionally I would get asked this question of like, like why would you make a trans character like a villain?

And for me, it was always this thing of like it's it's like what am I supposed to like what kind of character?

Like what kind of trans character am I supposed to make?

Like I want to make a trans character that's flawed.

Like characters are flawed.

Like we come into a movie watching a character that requires some sort of change or some sort of journey.

And I think so often like women characters and like queer characters and things like that, like they're not allowed to they're not allowed to like start from this like flawed, imperfect place.

I mean, like like jo John Sheen's character in Twin Peaks is a perfect example that I hadn't bought him because like we know instantly that like there's something up.

We don't know if like she killed Laura Palmer.

But like like it's and by the end of it being like, oh, she's like a girl who was like literally stuck in this pattern of like forced sex work and like and like then like just just became this like fucking badass like manipulator and then she became like a doorknob or something.

Insane, insane.

That's my favorite part of her story is I think she's the first I could be wrong about this, but I think she's the first character we see in twin Peaks.

She is the show.

Yeah, she is absolutely interesting.

It's crazy too, because like.

I mean, I'll be this is a movie podcast but like Twin Peaks counts as movies, like especially the oh.

Yeah, we talk about it that all the time, so I feel like it counts.

The the like the way she does end up showing up in the Return, I wish Joan I have a few like criticisms of the Return, ultimately one of them being like I wish I wish they found more of a role for Ray Wise, and like I also really wish like Joan Chen could have been it, just because I think she's fucking brilliant.

But like they do show her again, they show like old footage of her, like from the series, and like it's it's such a crazy reminder that like when that show starts, like you're introduced, you're introduced to Josie and then like there's just a dead girl washed up on the shore, Like there's an interiortation where it's like she's one of the main characters of the show.

Yea.

But yeah, I also another one that I had, This is like a super problematic one, but like I don't really care as kind of my shit.

Like the.

Inn Escape from La Pam Greer plays a trans a trans woman, and it's like I mean, like if if you.

Just got it not I've seen this movie within the last two years.

I did not remember that.

It's it's so.

It's like a block out of your memory situation, because like it's not handled in a way that's like tasteful at all, and like it does like like Snake does not like her either, like he keeps misgendering or he keeps.

Like being like whatever, pal like I don't know.

About this, but like he it's it's kind of it kind of like works because like you really just like get the sense that like because like the in the in the story, they they were partners, like they were partners in Detroit and like they were on some job and Pam Greer's character like fucked it all up or whatever.

I'm like, it's like you just get the sense that like these two like had a really bad history.

Like I mean, like it's not cool.

For Snake Flaskin to be like misgendering a trans woman, but maybe we should like listen to his feelings because clearly this was not a good this is not a good life partner in crime for him.

That's one where it's like I would give anything to see like some sort of like spin off of of that.

I mean now they would never do it and oh my god, I shouldn't.

Yeah, oh my god.

Well, Vera, this has been wonderful.

Thank you so much for coming on the show to talk about your area of expertise and your movie.

Is there anything else you know besides The People's Joker that you want people to to check out right now?

I do, I have some plugs.

The People's Joker is on movie, but you know you you can also find it in other legally precarious ways if that's more your jam, or if you're you know, don't want to don't want to shell out subscription fee.

It also is available on physical media at our physical media run of it is so good, Like we have it on VHS.

I panned and scanned it on VHS myself.

Uh.

It also is on Blu Ray.

It's loaded with special features.

Highly recommend you check that out if you if you're into the movie, or if you like haven't seen it seen it before, Like that's the perfect perfect way to watch it.

And we still screen it all the time.

If you want to screen it, uh somewhere in your area, just hit me up on Instagram or blue Sky or Twitter.

I still go on there sometimes ve're Drew twenty two.

I also want to plug two movies that I worked on.

I just edited Alice Mayo McKay's new movie, which is called The Serpent's Skin, and uh, it is so good.

It is her best movie.

It's like a psycho, witchy, lesbian, toxic romance movie and is a lot of fun.

It was a lot of fun to put together.

And I'm also in a movie that Josh Fatum started, and.

Nick end of the Show's on the show.

Josh fu love Josh Fatum so much, like Josh Fatum is is one of the best we have.

Like he's pure, just so pure, and like his best work is ahead of him.

But we're in a movie together called Every Heavy Thing that's premiering at Beyond Fest next month.

Amazing.

Yeah, so check that out if.

Credible.

I missed Beyond Fest me too.

Well, Vara, thank you so much, and yeah, good luck with everything.

Thanks thanks for having me.

This was a lot of fun.

All right.

We're back for employees picks film recommendations based on the theme of our discussion, Millie, what is your pick, fellow employee, Well, because we.

Just talked about Arnold and because you had mentioned that you did not see any of the Conan movies from the early eighties.

I have to recommend Conan the Destroyer from nineteen eighty four.

And uh.

You know, people have their opinions or their tolerance levels for what they call sword and sandal movies, which is basically like just what you imagine guys that were sandals, that wieled swords, and there's kind of this like sorcery or fantasy element to it or whatever.

It's a sequel to Conan the Barbarian, which came out a couple of years before.

And you know, it's kind of like, man, it is like a display of Arnold's body in a way that you just like cannot fathom.

Like he just looks like.

He looks like a goddamn Hercules, and you know, he's got like a little he's got his hair long, and he's got you know, his little headband on or whatever.

But it's great, uh.

And I love Coda the Destroyer more than The Barbarian.

I just think it's just too is red Sonia part of it?

I feel like red Sonia was directed by the same guy, Richard Fleischer who did The destroy ConA and the Destroyer, so maybe that's the tie.

But and it's also, you know, again a sort of Sandal movie.

But Coding the Detroyer are super fun.

Uh over the top.

Grace Jones is in it.

That's probably the most memorable character besides Wilt Chamberlain.

But I know it's fantastic though, Like it is so much fun.

I can Arnold in his prime, in his prime eighty four that's when Terminator came out, like he is ready to go.

So I don't know if you're gonna enter the world of these movies, I would say, just.

Just go to codin the Destroyer share I One thing I really appreciate about Arnold is that I actually feel like he sought out good directors on occasion.

And also I liked that he made sci fi movies, like he really did move towards sci fi and including Predator, I suppose.

But one of my favorites of his sci fi movies is Total Recall by Paul Verhoven.

I mean, we're we we've gone on a record on this podcast.

We love Paul Verhoven and Total Recall is great set on Mars.

It's kind of a trippy, real sci fi movie, and I don't think a movie would like that would get made if unless Arnold attached himself to that movie, you know what I mean.

So I think it's really cool that he did that and made that movie, and it's great.

It's just like very imaginative and weird and dark and set on Mars, and I love total recall.

I want to watch it again.

I know that's my wreck, so super fun.

I think the most iconic thing I've ever seen in an Arl movie is when he comes into the little airport as the lady and then his face disassembles it it's him.

Uh huh.

I thought you were going to say the three boobed woman because that was very enticing.

Yeah, I love a three boob woman.

She's super hot.

Man.

Have you ever heard the expression Martini's are like boobs on a woman.

One's not enough and three's too many?

Have you ever heard that?

No, I've never heard.

That in my entire life.

I think I heard.

I think that line is in the movie Parallax View.

I don't know why I remember that, but it isn't there.

Well.

I don't even really drink martinis unless they have twenty olives in them, So okay, there you.

Go uh, Millie, thank you for talking about Predator with me.

Yeah, the light.

Thank you Vera Drew for coming on and talking about the woman with no namely.

That was a fun conversation.

That was awesome, which is so cool.

We want to talk about next week.

Maybe I would love to touch upon next week.

We've got a big holiday coming up.

Huh my least favorite holiday.

Same here.

Yes, uh, we're going to talk.

Glad we're in agreeance.

That's fun.

I feel like, you know.

We don't have to agree on everything, but the most important things are that Halloween is great, Christmas is great, and thanks Giving.

Should go to hell.

Hell yeah.

And we're gonna be talking.

About Thanksgiving movies or you know, movies that are set around or in Thanksgiving.

And so we're gonna talk about On Lee's nineteen ninety seven movie The Ice Storm.

Gonna have a lot to say about that movie.

It's a it's a favorite of mine.

So it's good.

Can't wait to watch it again.

It's been a few years.

Yeah.

My friend and co worker Kara Klank, the comedian Kara Clank, host of co host of That's Messed Up.

This movie was shot in her hometown.

Oh wow, Is it new Haven, Connecticut?

I believe so.

Yeah.

I've never been to Connecticut me neither.

I was afraid that they wouldn't like let me in or something I would be.

I was afraid they were gonna be too excited to have me there, enthusiastic.

We love we love this guy.

Okay, Well, you know that's the show.

If you want to.

Email us for any reason, If you want film from us, if you need a recommendation for something movie related, if you have a film grape, if you have a consensual film growth, if you have a film regrets also known as a film grets, please write us at Deer Movies at exactly rightmedia.

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Please, actually, Millily, I have one last thing I want to plug plug it.

So in twenty twelve, I started working on a feature film with my friends.

It's called Pockets, and we finished filming in like twenty fourteen.

We did it like on weekends, and I just finished it last year and you can watch it on Vimeo right now.

I did the whole score, I shot it, I edited it, I directed it, and it's kind of a fun time capsule of twenty twelve.

But it's sort of a spooky movie in black and white.

There's no dialogue, but it is about a girl who goes back to her room in her apartment and everything is missing and she doesn't know why.

And it's sort of nourish, little Lyncheon.

Check it out on my Instagram page at Casey le O'Brien and watch it.

It's kind of fun.

Check it out, intriguing.

I want to have more congratulations on finishing.

By the way, I know how hard thank you to finish creative projects.

So yeah, it was hard because there was no I had to redo the sound and the entire score myself.

Wow, and that took a really long time.

But I did it well and it's I think it's pretty good.

I think it's kind of a fun little it's like an hour sixteen minutes.

Oh, that's good.

That's good.

Anyways, check it out.

Awesome.

Well, on that note, thanks everybody for listening.

You're the best.

Bye bye everyone.

This has been and exactly right production hosted by me Milli to Cherico and produced by my co host Casey O'Brien.

This episode was mixed by Tom Bryfolgal.

Our associate producer is Christina Chamberlain.

Our guest booker is Patrick Cottner, and our artwork is by Vanessa Lilac.

Our incredible theme music is by the best band in the entire world, The Softies.

Thank you to our executive producers Karen Kilgareff, Georgia hart Stark, Daniel Kramer and Millie.

To Jerico, we love you.

Goodbye Beker