Episode Transcript
Thanks for tuning in to another episode of the Most Excellent Eighties Movies Podcast.
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Hello and welcome to the Most Excellent Eighties Movies Podcast.
It's the podcast where a filmmaker, a comedian and their fabulous guests travel through time to solve the problems of the movies of the eighties that we think we love or might have missed with these our modern eyes.
And today we're talking about Masters of the Universe, a movie selection from nineteen eighty seven, about which Letterboxed says, a battle fought in the stars now comes to Earth.
When the evil Skeletor finds a mysterious power called the cosmic Key, he becomes nearly invincible, seizing Castle Grayskull and the surrounding city.
The Sorceress is now Skeletor's prisoner, and he begins to drain her life force as he waits for the moon of Eternia to align with the gray Eye of the Universe, which will bestow godlike power upon him.
However, courageous warrior, he Man locates the locksmith inventor Gwildor, who created the key and has another version of it.
During a battle, one of the keys is transported to Earth, where it's found by teenagers Julie and Kevin.
Now both he Man and Skeletor's forces arrive on Earth searching for the potent weapon.
I don't know, Nathan, is that better or worse than the Google descriptions.
Speaker 2It's a better, longer description.
Okay, Yeah, we still need to find a happy medium.
Speaker 1Yeah, yeah, we do, all right, Here comes the trailer.
Speaker 3There is a place where legends are more, where the light confronts the darker.
A world of incredible mystery, magic and adventure.
A world where colossal powers will collide in a battle to control the universe.
The place is Earth, the time is now.
Masters of the Universe.
Don Lundren is Hethen, Frank Langella is Skeletor, and Meg Foster is Evil Lynn Semesters of the Universe coming to Earth this summer, Live the Adventure.
Speaker 2That's a pretty accurate trailer to the experience of the film.
Speaker 4I think, I don't know.
The trailer did not have nearly as much gwilldoor as the film did.
Speaker 5That's true.
Speaker 1There is no will in the trailer.
Speaker 2Out of the marketing.
Speaker 4All my notes are how much I hate Gwildoor entirely.
Speaker 2Oh no, that's.
Speaker 1Okay, all right.
I'm Chrissy Lynz, one of the directors at the Neighborhood Comedy Theater in downtown Mesa, Arizona.
And with me as always.
Speaker 2Is Nathan Blackwell, independent filmmaker.
Speaker 1Hi Hi, and joining us today.
We have a real treat for you, gentle listeners, because we have not one, but two fabulous guests for a movie as epic as Masters of the Universe, which we've been threatening to review on this podcast for years.
Threatening we have two guests.
The first is a performer at the Neighborhood Comedy Theater and the current producer director of the musical catering company which performs at the Neighborhood Comedy Theater.
It's Jordan Collier.
Speaker 5Hello everyone, thanks for having me, oh to have me.
Speaker 1Excited to be here, and also one of the producers of a new hit stand up comedy show called Roll for Charisma, which fuses the fun of D and D and the chaos of stand up comedy into one ultra exciting show.
It's mister Derek Tessen.
Speaker 4Helloa, Yeah, it's a fun one.
We had a show last night and I'm currently in pain from it with how active that show is.
Speaker 1It's it's very active and exciting and I highly recommend it.
And at the end we'll have everybody.
We'll have you tell everybody how they can follow you and find out more and possibly come see a show.
But for now we have to talk about Masters of the Universe.
Speaker 2The final episode of the podcast finally comes to the right if we had planned it.
Yeah, no, it's not the final episode, but it's a It is a movie that we, at least behind the scenes, been threatening to do for a long time, since the.
Speaker 1Beginning, since the very beginning, and we just kept putting it off.
But now it's on Amazon Prime.
It's free.
You can watch it if you have Amazon Prime.
So it became very clear, very fast that the time is upon us to talk about Masters of the Universe.
Had any of you seen it before?
Speaker 4I have not.
This is my first time watching it.
Jordan and I had a lovely dinner and watched the film together.
It was great.
Speaker 5It was very romantic.
Speaker 4Great experience was fantastic.
The film not so much.
Speaker 1Yeah, Yeah.
Speaker 2So that's that's a good that's a good tagline for the for like the movie poster, the experience is fantastic, the movie not so much.
Speaker 4Yeah, but that only counts if you're having smothered Britos with Jordan, right.
Speaker 2So this is so this is one of those movies that, for whatever reason, we've got, like some of those like campy sea level movies that we just end up for whatever reason growing up on and seeing like a hundred times this this, this was that for me.
Don't worry, gentlemen, you can't hurt my feelings because I probably agree with everything you'll say.
Yeah, my my enjoyment of this movie is purely on a camp level, like you know, in a nostalgia level.
So I enjoy it for what.
Speaker 4It is.
Speaker 2Flaws in all Again, don't feel like you've got to hold back.
This will never make my top one hundred movies of all time, but one that I find a particular level of enjoyment for top five hundred maybe.
Speaker 1Yeah, definitely top five.
Come on, gotta be.
I think this movie should have been good.
It has all the ingredients of a good movie, and it just never the The dough never makes bread.
Speaker 2You know, like, well, you have to understand that it's a canon films.
You know, so canon films they did like Ninja, the Domination and Delta Force, like which I loved.
Speaker 1Delta Force is amazing.
Speaker 2And so then so they made these beat these super b level movies, and and towards the end of Canon films, like Filmography, they tried to make a couple of they tried to go really big with a couple of big budget movies and just really like so these movies are are also notorious flops.
Speaker 4So this was.
Speaker 2Superman for the Quest for Peace, terrible movie, and then also over the top, well Sylvester Stallone.
Speaker 5It's like, this is gonna be our opportunity.
Speaker 2We're gonna do these big movies, except their storytelling and business sense didn't evolve, like if anything, it's like, we're gonna make these ten million dollar movies, but we're gonna make them for four million dollars.
You know, we're just gonna cut the corners and they're not gonna know we make low budget films.
Speaker 4Yeah, well the budget on this one was like what twenty two million?
And I think it wasn't a cannon film's last movie before they shut down.
Speaker 2It certainly could be.
Speaker 4Yeah, they were like.
Speaker 1No more after this, We've we've told our stories, friends, it's time for us.
Speaker 2We finally told our final story.
Speaker 4Yeah yeah, like five minut it's into this.
As I'm sitting there watching it, I'm like, oh, it's trying to be a star War but with black stormtroopers and a white villain.
Mm hmmm.
Speaker 1It's definitely trying to be a star war for sure.
But like it has it has humor, it has uh like.
Speaker 2Battles, it Shakespearean dialogue.
Speaker 1Because Franklin Angela as Skeletor is is really selling it like he's doing.
He's in a movie that no one else is in.
Speaker 2Honestly, Like, if it wasn't for Franklin Angela, this would not be one of those movies for me at all.
You know, It's it's all all you know.
Dove Lungren God Bless his heart, didn't speak really any English at this point.
He was Swedish.
Did a much better job than Van Dam who had been doing English movies for like ten years, you know.
But it's really frank Langella as as Skeletor.
So I will go on record saying that his villain performance as Skeletor is one of my favorite villains, you know, in terms of of of just as kind of like a scenery chewing and then really just the performance, like he sells the crap out of it and he's going for it and you don't feel like he got you know, like he's doing it because he got divorced or something and needs the money or needs a swimming pool.
Speaker 4He definitely like has a lot of really intense direct to camera dialogue that happens.
And like the first scene going into this movie in Castle Gray or what is it Castle Gray School that they're in, I know nothing about he Man going into this outside of like the Cky two K, like right right, I Man star the Skeletor beast Man music video that they made.
So it's like that's my knowledge of he Man.
So I assume Castle Gray Skulls where Skeletor lived, not where the Sorceress and he Man lived.
But yeah, that first scene was very like it looked like like it was a play.
You're watching a play with like how it was all shot, because there's so many just like weird angles that look like you were just in the audience watching a stage play in that first scene, which was very weird to.
Speaker 5Me, so I did so.
Speaker 2I grew up on the he Man toys, which is probably the reason why I got my mom to rent this movie in the first place.
So, you know, there are different So like there's the he Man toys and then there was the he Man cartoon.
So there was a lot of stuff that weren't in the toys that were in the cartoon, and then there's so much that's that was in either of them that's not in the movie.
They just kind of like there was you know, they just kind of picked the stuff they liked.
You know, like there's no there's no laser guns in like in he Man, in like the toys cartoon, you know that's there.
That's their star, their star warsification of it.
Speaker 4Yeah, that was.
Speaker 2Yeah, they really were.
He Man really started off as kind of a oh, Conan is big, so let's do kind of a medieval fantasy mythology kind of thing Castle Gray Skull.
You know, you got two different sides.
And the whole idea with the toys is that like each villain had like a big gimmick to get the kid to buy the toy.
You know, it's like, oh, this guy switches heads, or this guy has like a robot arm you can attach different stuff, or like this this bad guy you know, squirts water, you know, right, And it was very much kind of like Conan Slash.
Speaker 5You know.
Speaker 2It's like, oh, they're of the bird people and and so they're like the King of the Bird people, but Skeletor has made them a minion, you know or whatever.
So the the thing of like having those like like beast Man and oh Cobra Guy and Blade of the Blade people like that.
Speaker 6Yeah, you love Blade Jordan's Big Blade.
As soon as he's it, it's it, huh.
Speaker 1I didn't think it was so such a weird JUSTI just juxtaposition to see he Man battling with a sword and a laser gun.
It's like these things could not be two more different, like fighting styles.
Are we doing swords or are we doing laser guns?
Like but apparently, yeah, he Man does everything.
But he Man is for being I mean, he's not the title characters called Masters of the Universe, not he Man on the Masters of.
Speaker 4The He shares Billy.
Speaker 1Yeah, No, he does almost nothing.
Speaker 4He really doesn't.
It's a Gwilldoor movie.
Is He's the central like his stuff is the central conflict of it.
Everything's kind of revolving around Gildoor.
And for a character who comic.
Speaker 2Relief story too, Yeah, he's.
Speaker 4Must be comic relief.
But he's I think has the most screen time of anyone else.
Speaker 2Is basically his bodyguard.
Speaker 4Yeah, it's like, maybe what's his name, Courtney Cox's boyfriend might have a little bit more screen time.
Kevin, Kevin and Julie.
Speaker 1Yeah, yeah, I just read Courtney Cox throughout all my.
Speaker 5Cox.
Speaker 1Yeah yeah.
Speaker 4I was referring to them as the actors names of the upcoming twenty twenty six Masters of the Universe movie.
So anytime Skeletor was on his on screen, like, oh, Jared let here El was on I'm like, oh Alison Brie Okay, so.
Speaker 2My gosh, is that a live action or an animated I don't know.
Speaker 6I'm pretty sure it's a live action.
Oh my goodness, from the very little research I did on it.
Speaker 4Uh huh.
And then uh oh, who was it?
Speaker 5It was I dress elbow right.
Speaker 4I just felt that playing Man at Arms in the twenty twenty six one.
Speaker 2Which has got to be a stage name that can't be like his birth name.
Speaker 1Right, he wasn't a man when he was born.
He was a baby.
Was he called baby at arms?
Speaker 5Right, infant for arms?
Speaker 1So yeah, the movie starts out with like an info dump that like truly had me baffled, and I take extensive notes, but I was like, what on earth is happening here?
And like it was rather like a play because it just like Skeletor sashe about the place, being like I've taken over and you are captured as soon as the moon goes here, right to have your power?
And I was just like, slow down, buddy, this is too much.
This is too much information for me to take in.
Speaker 2Right now.
Obviously part two where we're what they call media in res, right, we're starting in the middle of action.
The Sorceress has already been captured on Matte Painting World, and then the heroes basically are in like the last the third act of their adventure.
You know, they've gone through this whole thing that that Skeletor has already taken over.
Speaker 1Yeah, but it was a little too top heavy for me, and I was just like, there's no way I can remember all this.
Let's just get to the fighting.
So he Man finally shows up it is Dolph Lundgren who are my son.
Rocket is a huge fan of Oh he's.
Speaker 2An interesting guy.
He is interesting.
Speaker 4Yeah, is an interesting guy.
Speaker 1Yeah.
Speaker 2Like again, I understand you have to understand that he did this movie not being able to just he was not fluent in English at all for this movie, you know, and that.
Speaker 1Way they dubbed all his lines.
Speaker 2Well, so here's here's the thing.
He dubbed his lines.
He had it contractually that he could get three attempts to do it himself in terms of the dubbing.
And again, just imagine if you had to make a movie in Swedish.
And so he did the movie.
He did the movie in real life, and then he got those three attempts to do his own voice, and they finally kept his voice, probably because they were just at a time to replace it.
But yeah, so so he dubbed his own voice.
It does sound eighty yard, but it's him.
Speaker 5It makes so much sense now.
Yeah.
Speaker 4There are a lot of non Dolph Lundgren adr lines going throughout this movie too, though, and it's very it throws you off, like when Skeletor's fall spoiler alert for the end of this movie.
But I don't think you need a spoiler alert if you're listening to this podcast right now.
As Skeletor's falling not screaming, and it has like the Wilhelm scream thing happening.
It was and like when like Courtney Cox and Kevin were hugging, they had like lines their adrd over.
So it's like there's plenty of like dialogue that goes in where there's no dialogue happening during the recording of it.
Speaker 1Well, there's so much friggin' plot.
There's so much to explain, Like there's so much happening at any moment in this movie.
This does not suffer from a lack of plot.
There's bcde plots.
There's Courtney Cox's whole thing where her parents are dead and she wants to move to New Jersey to leave her boyfriend who she still loves very deeply behind.
Speaker 5I love that dream for her straight to Jersey.
Speaker 1If you can make it in Jersey, you can make it anywhere.
That's what they say.
Speaker 2He's a realist.
Speaker 1Yeah, her parents died in a plane crash, and like that's a sad fact that we're reminded of throughout the movie.
Speaker 2And have yourself for Yeah, and we realized that it was her dad who was flying like it was so so it really.
Speaker 4Her unbomber father.
He had he had the big old obomber glasses at the end of that film.
Speaker 2Fun fact.
Yeah, her mom is played by Chris Pine's real mom.
Yeah, there are a lot of funny Star Trek connections with this movie.
Speaker 1Of course there are, of course there are.
So we need to talk of a little bit about gwildor.
Speaker 2Yeah, so Billy Party, which you've you've probably seen in like things like Willow and movies.
Speaker 4Yeah, so with this character.
So, this character was designed specifically for this film, did not exist in the Masters of the Universe universe prior, and he was their comic relief to replace Orco from the cartoons because Orco is too hard to make work.
And it's like, like what gets me with like comic relief characters.
I enjoy a good comic relief character, but when the characters in the film acknowledge it as comic relief as well, because there's so many lines where people are laughing at gwildor for his mere existence that I'm like, why, like, like come on, I don't need to hear fake laughs about this character right now?
Speaker 2I feel like the eterniums are are you know, like they come off as very enlightened, but they're still kind of racist.
Speaker 4Like and I didn't need to see Gwildor attempt to talk to a cow.
Cow's cute.
I love a cow, gwildor going over his arm.
I communicate with it, and just like I just everything about Guildor just bothered me.
Speaker 2Another thing with Gwildor is that he looks like he's melting all the time, and you feel terrible for the for Billy Barty inside m you know.
Speaker 1The makeup was not incredible.
Speaker 2He was very textured, exactly, Okay, So so yeah, So basically they can't afford to be in he Man Land in Matt Painting World for too long.
That's why they get portal jumped to our time, you know, And so they could have the sci fi people running around in modern and day you know, uh, small town California and and and honestly.
Speaker 4In the middle of the desert as well when we first meet he Man.
Speaker 2Right exactly.
And so the idea is that they've got to get this the what is it called the key, cosmic key, the cosmic key.
I'm the one who's seen it under times like I obviously don't care about the details.
They've got to get the cosmic key because Skeletor has one of those.
Gwildor made a copy, and that's going to be the thing that can get them to stop, to get back home and stop the bad guys because they're draining the sorcersus powers.
Become masters of the universe, you know.
Basically, Castle Gray Skull is where you can because receive the powers of the universe and become kind of godly, you know.
Speaker 4Yeah.
For anyone who hasn't watched this film and has listening to this right now, Gwildor picture jar Jar Binks was the catalyst of all of the events of the film and was the thing that helped solve the problems of the film as well.
So he created the problem, he also created the solution as well.
And he is a busy only one.
Speaker 2Yeah, and he's the only one trying to fix it, trying to get them on task, trying to you know, use the device, and then everyone else is basically fighting amongst each other or acting as security.
Speaker 5Yeah, it's trying to protect him.
Speaker 4Yeah.
Speaker 5Yeah.
Speaker 1I have such a problem with Courtney Cox though, because she was like, uh, friend to he Man because she gets caught up in the battle and he Man's like, I will save you.
Where are my cape?
And then from there on out she's just the most useless, helpless being who only exists in the story to be threatened and hurt or tricked because she got.
Speaker 2Very Oh yeah, she was easily tricked.
She turned on them so quickly.
Speaker 5Yeah that was that was so fast.
Speaker 2Yeah, evil Lynne impersonated her mom, who is dead, and she immediately buys into it and it's like, oh, yes, I will steal for you, thanks mom.
Speaker 4Just a general general knowledge, like they took the key.
Speaker 1She took the key and it was like, no, bitch, you gave it to it.
Speaker 4Just generally if parents comes to you and says, oh, I had to go off in secret, sorry about this.
Don't trust it.
Maybe you don't.
Speaker 1That's only true for Spider Man, but yeah I had.
There are a lot of like weird parts of this movie, but one of my favorites.
One of my favorite things is that the principal from Back to the Future, principal Strickland, is in this movie as Lachlan the cop.
Speaker 2Basically yeah, yeah, yeah, lubick He's basically he's basically playing himself.
He realized that he plays he's playing the same character effectively in both movies.
Yeah, and it's funny.
It's like they literally opened a portal and stole a character from another movie.
Speaker 4Yeah, Lubick was my second least favorite character.
Speaker 1No, he was my very favorite.
I love the.
Speaker 4Most useless cop.
Speaker 2Yeah, he would always be, and I also enjoyed him, but also recognized that he was a terrible obstruction all at all times.
Speaker 4He said, no, one messes with Lubick, and everyone messed with Lubick.
He did nothing constructive.
Speaker 1But at the end, for no reason, he decides to stay in Eternia and be a king with a girlfriend who he's like, and.
Speaker 2They're like wait, he's like so so yeah, we're jumping to the end, but basically like the good guys win and yeah spoiler.
And then he's sitting there like dressed like royalty and he's got a woman and how much time has passed?
Like four hours, you know exactly, And I got a castle, I got a woman.
What do you know.
It's like what more than it's like wait a minute, no, no you don't get the castle.
Speaker 4Yeah, in the room.
Speaker 2Yeah, you can't stay in Castle Gray Skull, like we'll find you a cottage or something like.
Speaker 4They have a way to ask to project messages to the masses in the middle of a desert apparently, So it's like, Okay, it doesn't look like the city was entirely built up around the castle, so it's like, okay, there's a this is gonna be me going against people who are power now at this point.
So it's like, okay, so the rulers of Eternia are really just keeping everything to themselves and lubicks for some reason getting a piece of that pie at the end.
Speaker 2It favors for loyalty.
Speaker 5Huh, yeah, there you go.
Speaker 1I also me in my notes, like was kept making note of like how free and easy Kevin was with pushing that red button on the front of.
Speaker 2The key, showing everyone he would press the key thing which is like the size of a blender, but a bunch of buttons all around it and it would spin at the top.
But basically he'd press the red button and then there would be glowing energy above them.
And I really loved every time they did that because I was always so fascinated to see how well the actors would look at the same spot or not, because they're just like they have nothing, no reference to look at.
Especially in eighties movies, it's always fun to see like where the eye lines are for the visual effects because they're so confused about where they're supposed to be looking, you know, and how they're gauging their reaction to it.
Some are like, wow, film thing.
Speaker 4Maybe uh I will I will get into that in my deep cut.
Speaker 1But then at the end he's like, I memorize the song that plays when you hit the red button.
And I was like, oh, so it's good that he hit the red button over and over.
Speaker 2He's got the at the end right right, he's good phones because he's he's a master soundmaker.
Speaker 4Yeah, that was another thing, like Glen Door mentioned that like, oh, music's really important blah blah blah blah blah, and like that was twenty thirty minutes prior to him being like, yeah, I do music.
I recognize this thing.
It's like did that did you not make that connection when you were next to each other and him talking about how music is essentially the way to travel like this was this was discussed in the music shop like you were, well, if not earlier, I think it was actually before the music shop that that uh uh I already forgot his name.
I couldn't remember it was a GW or g L.
But it's like he he mentions it like a couple times prior to the like, oh, we need music to be able to get us back.
Speaker 1Yeah.
But Kevin is still he still has that moment of like refusing the call.
He's like, oh, my girlfriend is dying.
Uh, the world is on fire, Eternia is going to end.
But oh, I'm no master sound maker.
I'm just Kevin.
I can't help you.
And it's like, would you shut up and just play the chords?
Like, just do it?
Speaker 4I recognize these chords the first us.
Speaker 2Yeah, so like and they're amazed that he's able to remember this, and so are all Eternians like tone deaf, Like is that a thing that is native to humans?
Speaker 1Because he's the guy at the music store did say, oh, mister perfect pitch mmm.
Speaker 4Chekov's notes many And what also drives me insane about gwildor I'm gonna everything, I'm gonna be mad at is just a root cause of him is him being like, oh, I don't remember the tones how to get home.
But at the end of the film is like, oh, you're you want to go back, you know, two years from the date that we got you.
Fine, babe, sends you to a location that I know nothing about.
You know, I somehow know these tones.
Speaker 2We never established the fact that it controls time at all, Like it was just always space, like they were able to go to any planet at any time.
And it's not until it became story convenient that that that time was involved, Like at the very last five minutes of the movie, Yeah, couldn't they have traveled before Skeletor took over Castle grays Call, you know.
Speaker 4And there's a time loop that has happened in this film, but they they don't show it because as Courtney Cox's turning around to say hey, wait and then travels off, Gwildor didn't hear what she wanted, so he had to have like brought her back.
He's like, hey, what were you trying to tell me this?
Okay, fine, We're gonna send you a year earlier.
So there's a time loop that was just cut because there's no way Gildoor knew that she wanted in her heart to go back before her parents Yo kick the bucket, because she.
Speaker 1Doesn't ask for it.
He's like, I can send you back in time, and she's like there's no need and.
Speaker 4He's until like, wait a minute, willdoor then flash?
Speaker 2He just surpriser, Yeah, surprise.
Speaker 5He's gonna love this.
Speaker 1What if she hated it?
Yeah, I am at quilledoor.
Speaker 5I was going to Jersey quilldor.
Speaker 2I had a whole house to myself.
Speaker 4Yeah.
Yeah, just attacks her mom because she thinks it's evil in again.
Speaker 1I also love that in her house where she was moving away this night, on the night that this all happens, she was moving to New Jersey.
Her house is like hardly packed up at all.
Speaker 2Oh yeah, full furniture, and.
Speaker 1She left behind the article about her parents dying and a picture of them all together, like she's like, don't eat this in Jersey, so long, suckers.
She just left that stuff behind.
Speaker 4I'm like, no, yeah, I didn't pay attention to like if they had any type of reference of time frame from when her parents passed to now, because I know they had the headstones.
I didn't pay attention to like, oh when did they pass versus is when the current setting is.
Speaker 2Well, guilf Door figured it out.
Speaker 1Yeah, you figured it out.
There's there's still so much I want to say, uh, why are there no people in this city?
Why are there no people in this city Skeletor there's like the guy who runs the music shop, Lubick and his uh his.
Speaker 4Like three cops that show up at the.
Speaker 2Skeletor taking when Skeletor is taking over the city and our dimension, there's literally no people.
Speaker 4Yeah, the marching down the street was weird, like people.
Lynn was in a scene somewhere else and then the next scene she's marching in front of Skeletor with a I want to say Krang, but that's not right.
Speaker 5Yes, you're right.
Speaker 6I wanted to talk about KRK because I just love everything about what's going on there.
Speaker 2The spot, it's on you.
Speaker 5Uh, It's just it's like an orc with a perm.
Speaker 6It's like the the design is just so it's so great and so awful at the same time.
It sticks out like a sore thumb, Like I just love that.
That that that's what they went with.
They saw that costume and they were like perfect, yeah, no notes.
Speaker 4No, I can't remember his name, not beast Man, not Blade, not Card, but the fourth one, the one who's whose Skeletre is Zapps to death who did nothing wrong, like he was the most innocent of all of them.
Just yeah, yeah, it's just like we don't want their talents to be wasted.
Speaker 1It's like, and I loved I loved Skeletor's mask, Like we talked about for how good Franklin Jela is a Skeletor.
But like his mask, the makeup is actually pretty good except for the nose.
Speaker 2Yes, yeah, it's tough because it's got to be a skeleton nose, which is, you know, no cartilage, and so they're basically hiding the point of the nose with like black makeup.
Speaker 5Yeah.
Speaker 6It reminded me of like a Halloween costume, just like the very Yeah.
Speaker 2So here's one of the fun Star Trek references.
That mask appears again in Star Trek the Next Generation.
They just for whatever reason, they reused it when Wharf fights like has a combat training program.
In the Hula deck the skull there's like a white skull head guy.
It's like, oh, that guy looks cool And I never pieced it together until I read the trivia.
So that's the Skeletor mask.
Speaker 1I love it, huh.
I also love the part where he man is skysurfing.
Speaker 4That was that they're standing, but they're also trying to sit at the same time, so like on a standing platform, but like in a weird like sitting posh my core.
Speaker 2Yeah.
The thing that's so funny about the Cannon Films is that this is a sci fi movie made by people who don't know or like sci fi m M.
And so they're saying, oh, yeah, let's give them a big disc or we'll have them have swords and laser guns.
We'll give them this outfit.
Like they're not necessarily they're not making this for sci fi fans per se.
You know, they're they're coming up with their own weird stuff.
At least the people have.
Speaker 5The knowledge of, Yeah, I.
Speaker 2Have a feeling like the product, like I'm talking about like the the heads of the studio, Like I have a feeling like the director and like some of the production people.
They wanted to do something cool, but it was like, no, no, this is good, just do this instead from Golan and Globis from the Cannon Films, guys.
You know, like I never got the sense that even with like with like super like when they also did Superman four, like they understood Superman at all.
Speaker 1Right, Yeah, and they didn't really understand he Man as being like a product for kids.
Speaker 2Yeah.
Speaker 4Yeah, it definitely wasn't a kids movie, Like, no, not at all.
The series was made to sell the toys.
Like that's why he Man was made, was to sell the toy.
Speaker 2Right, Yeah, it's they haven't done he Man so dirty because he Man itself was a thirty minute commercial for toys.
Speaker 4You know.
Speaker 1Yeah, But I again, I think Dolph Lungren was beautifully cast.
He is a beautiful man.
He did his best, even though he is not the star of this movie whatsoever?
Speaker 5Uh the star, he's the star.
Speaker 4Derek quilledor who's the villain Derek also Guildoor.
Speaker 1But yeah, like I tried to get Rocket to watch this movie with me because he's he's a big Dolph lungering guy.
He's a big he's a big Drago guy.
He just wanted to tell me facts about Dolph Lungren and then leave the room.
He wanted no part of Masters of the Universe.
Speaker 4Why does your son know so much about Dolph Lungren.
Speaker 1Because he loves Ivan Drago.
Speaker 4Oh yeah, I'm gonna I list.
Speaker 1He would just come in and say, Mom, is your movie still on and I'd be like, yeah, it has like.
Speaker 2To your movie to yeah, your movie to rocket.
Speaker 1He would say, you know, Dolph Lunggren's a genius and he is like eight degrees and like he's a doctor of science and medicine.
And I was like, okay, thanks.
Speaker 5I do noutes mom.
Speaker 1Uh huh uh.
This movie was definitely longer than it needed to be, Like I paused it a lot.
I paused a lot and walked away, and then you know, had to come back and be like, how is there still forty minutes left of this movie?
Speaker 4Uh?
See, I didn't pause it because if I would have paused it, I wouldn't have continued watching it.
Speaker 5Yeah, we just had to just let it happen to us.
Speaker 2Just come through, just submit, all right.
Speaker 1Who who has something in their notes we haven't talked about yet?
Speaker 4All right?
Speaker 2I feel like, let's see.
Speaker 4There is one line of dialogue and that the IMDb page age has.
This is like one of their only quotes that are on there.
But when when skeletor as he's like about to defeat he man before he just falls into a pit, that like, uh tell me that the loneliness of good he man is equal to the loneliness of evil.
It's like, oh yeah, hurt you.
I could fix them.
Speaker 1I read that Franklin Jella wrote that line.
Speaker 5That's great, that's crazy.
Speaker 2He also he also has a Shakespeare quote in the movie.
I forget what it is, but one of my favorite lines I wrote this down was beast Man full force attack at my command.
Speaker 1It's like a little haiku mm hmmm.
Speaker 6I like gwildor at the very beginning he says I don't like adventures.
Speaker 1Yeah, thank you.
Speaker 4It was like right.
Speaker 2It was like right before they go through the portal or something, wasn't.
Speaker 6It Like it was like we're getting all the exposition, we're setting things up, and he just.
Speaker 2He's a Bilbo Baggins.
Speaker 4Or when Evil Limb's like, oh gray skulls ours and the skills is like no mine, it's like oh damn.
Speaker 2Oh yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1I also love that Gwildor when he first is inviting them over to the house, he's like unlocking his door and he's like, remember when we used to not lock our doors.
We'll get back there someday.
Speaker 2Color.
Speaker 4But the one thing I do like about Gildoor is and it only was it was only Kevin and Lubic, who are both like what the what, what the hell is this thing?
Like it was a scene where he's like, I'm wearing We're wearing the local clothing, so no one will recognize us dressed like yeah, yeah, he'ss et when they like the checker glasses on and and then lu Bek was like, what the hell is that?
It's like, yeah, that should have been the reaction of everyone who saw.
Speaker 5Gwildor for the whole movie.
Speaker 4You had one of those like large orange like orangutang faces where it's kind of like.
Speaker 1And at the end when they're all in their Eternia finery, he's got little bow's.
Speaker 2Os yeah, like and is like like the Star Wars Awards ceremony, look.
Speaker 4Yeah, where he's got the look on his face where the look on his face is just saying I'm a silly guy.
And I know I'm a silly guy, and I just like hat it.
I hate it.
So I am irrationally angry at Gwildoor and all of his choices the silliness.
Also when he when he transitioned the car from being a rudimentary internal combustion to Eternia Magic, where did he get parts that has attorneyal language on it.
Speaker 2M that's the that's the biggest plot hole in this movie, that's for sure.
Speaker 4I also like how they just throw out random sci fi terms that had no like, oh, we just need a displacement regulator.
Oh, I got one gator.
Oh I got one of those here.
Speaker 5It's like I wrote, I wrote that down.
That was one of my quotes.
If I can find it.
Speaker 6Yeah, I had to go back and like get those lines verbatim because they were wonderful.
Speaker 5I can find them.
Speaker 4Who is Duncan?
Okay, I'm going through quotes right now, and they referred to him as Duncan.
I'm like Duncan.
Speaker 2So did the actress who played the Sorcerer.
Her name was Christina Pickles.
Speaker 1Yeah, she's She's Monica, So it's a it's a friend's tie in.
She's Monica and Ross's mom on Friends.
Speaker 2Oh that's funny.
Speaker 5Oh wow.
Speaker 4Okay.
The one thing cinematically like in terms of just set design that I did like is when they were doing the portal key to get back to Gray Skull, and it was like, since it wasn't like the portal key that was creating a portal, but it like it where it like did an orb of where it took the scenery with them scenery.
I thought that was cool.
I did enjoy that the set design, it would have been great.
Willdor wasn't there when it happened.
Speaker 1Look, but Lubick is there.
And that's how it gets to So on a scale of one cosmic key to ten cosmic keys, Mmm, how many cosmic keys do we give Masters of the Universe.
Speaker 4It it was bad, go for but not so bad that it's good, right, I mean it's like a three to four for me.
Speaker 1Wow, Okay, three to four, my goodness, is not very many cosmic keys.
You did?
You did, and you're gonna have to watch it a third time just to be sure you don't like it.
Speaker 4Yeah, I'm gonna watch it right before I watched the twenty twenty six Masters of the Universe.
Speaker 2There you go, there you go.
Speaker 6For academic reasons, I would give it.
I'm a little higher than Derek.
I gave it five cosmic keys, okay, because.
Speaker 1My reasoning.
Speaker 6There was there was entertaining pockets of it, and I did enjoy elements of it.
Speaker 5But as you said before, there's just so much going on.
It's confusing.
Speaker 6It's not something that I will revisit because it's so bad.
It's good, but I was entertained in some parts.
Speaker 1Yeah, I think that's fair for sure.
So Nathan, this is a childhood favorite.
Speaker 2Okay, so okay, so I fully so this is I'm doing it on nostalgic personal entertainment.
This is not an objective opinion on it.
Like if if I was going to be objective in terms of the quality of the movie.
Speaker 4Like.
Speaker 2If if I had like an amnesia episode and then had to rewatch it, I would go, what the fuck is this movie and give it give it something way lower.
But I'm going to give it a seven.
I'm sorry it you know again, I'm this is not one of my top one hundred films.
But it's just tied to a silliness of one of those movies you saw, like Beast Master or whatever, or or even Buckeroo Bonzai, like that doesn't make any sense to most people, but just because it got programmed early in your brain.
Yeah, you know, like the stuff I remember and the stuff I like is is has very little to do with the story or the dialogue.
You know, it's the general silliness and setting of it, and really frankl Angela.
Speaker 1Yeah, yeah, he's great part.
Speaker 2Yeah, so.
Speaker 1Excellent.
So I'm all gonna go right in between you guys.
So we're gonna cover all the bases.
We're gonna have three, four or five, six, okay, and seven from Nathan.
So I give it a six because I really thought this should have been a good movie, Like if if they had given a better editor another pass.
I think there's a good movie in here.
Speaker 2They just couldn't if there was less movie.
If there was less movie.
Speaker 1There was significantly less movie, it would have been much much better.
Yes, I agree, less movie, but it just needed to be chiseled out a little bit more.
Speaker 4So.
Speaker 1Yeah, so I give it a six.
But I didn't have a bad time when I was watching it.
The number of times that I paused it and was just like, good lord, there's so much aside.
I was like, okay, all right.
Speaker 4Let's.
Speaker 2Where are they gonna take this?
For forty five more minutes?
Speaker 5Yea more minutes.
Speaker 1Let's see, let's see what Eternia has to say about this.
Also, what was the significance of the little ball of Eternia she had at.
Speaker 4The end, Like, I don't well, I think they were trying to because there's originally a sequel planned for this movie.
Ew, so that might have tied into what this is one of those men?
Speaker 2Yeah, being before they even made the first one they said there's gonna be a sequel to this.
You know, this is them trying to manufacture a franchise.
Speaker 6That's that Star Wars brain again, thinking that they're going to have a trilogy.
Speaker 1Right, yep, yep, yep, yep.
All right, so let's talk about deep cut.
Recommendy that's my new theme song for it.
Uh, what can we recommend based on liking this movie or experiencing this movie, not necessarily liking it, but experiencing this movie, you should also experience what Derek.
Speaker 4The episode of Community intro to Recycled Cinema, if you love Gildoor, they got Garrett playing glip Glop, which he has a he has a tennis ball at the end of the stick, and there was the do we look at Garrett?
Do we look at the tennis ball?
It's like, why would you why would it be I hold in the tennis ball if you were looking at but his voice exactly the same as Gilldors But it's just a little green alien guy with boxing gloves that's doing this example, Like, so yeah, if you if you enjoy this movie, you would unironically enjoy the episode intro to Recycled Cinema because it's similar production value.
Speaker 1Excellent, And that's an episode of Community.
Speaker 4Yes, do you know what?
Like?
Speaker 1Season or episode is?
Speaker 4Season six, episode number eight?
Speaker 5I need to go back and watch that.
Speaker 1Making a note, make a note.
But what about you, Jordan, what is your deep cut recommendation?
Speaker 6Yes, I said before, I'm not sure how deep cut this is, but I recently watched this movie, like maybe two months ago.
Speaker 5Big Trouble in Little.
Speaker 1China Nathan's favorite movie.
Speaker 5Oh there you go.
Speaker 6It's like the like so much going on, and like the fantasy elements and like the humor.
Speaker 5I obviously I think A.
Speaker 6Big Trouble Little China is much better, but it just kind of like if you like, if you like that, then you know, check out there.
Speaker 2It is signed by John Carpenter.
Speaker 6That is super exciting.
I'm making my way through his filmography and I told I told.
Speaker 2Him that it was the best movie ever made.
Yeah, I don't know, and he said, yeah, no, that's literally what he said.
I don't know about that.
Speaker 1So he agrees, Jordan, have you gotten to They Live yet?
No?
Speaker 6I want things to be on streaming, So I'm waiting for that one to be on streaming.
Speaker 4That's a good.
Speaker 2That's a good, like climax to the marathon rather than to have because I'm kind of a John Carpenter officionado like that.
That's that's honestly, even though I Big Trouble is my favorite, like They Live is probably his.
Speaker 6Okay, So yeah, I'll get through some of the other ones first and then I'll kind of leave that one, yeah, towards the back.
Speaker 1All right, great recommendation.
I love it, Nathan.
What have you got for me?
Speaker 4So?
Speaker 2I would say, so a movie that kind of does that's more accessible and kind of actually has the camp and so bad it's good and actually is kind of fun and campy and and does what this kind of what we wish it would have done is the nineteen eighties Flash Gordon you know, soundtrack by Queen.
Speaker 7Yeah, it's it's, it's it's You could run them back to back and think that they reuse some of each other's sets and costumes, but Flash Gordon is is more cohesive.
Speaker 2It's it's one of those movies I didn't grow up on.
I actually grew up on more of the nineteen thirties Flash Gordon stuff, So I kind of scoffed at the eighties silly version.
You know, it's the eight The eighties Flash Gordon is almost like like a musical, a rock musical where no one sings, you know, it's the music itself that kind of becomes a rock musical, like the Queen music.
But it's a lot of fun, and so it kind of it's kind of a better version of Masters of the Universe.
Speaker 1Should we review it for this podcast?
I've never seen it, I think.
Speaker 2So yeah, and I only saw it like maybe four five.
Speaker 1Years ago, So oh nice.
I would love to see it, and we'll bring you both back to discuss it and you can compare Masters of the Universe.
Speaker 4Is there a Gwilldor?
Speaker 2There is there?
They have a Russian scientist that's the closest to gwildor okay, okay, there's no, there's no.
There's kind of aliens, but there's not really aliens.
Speaker 4They've got that's so concerned about aliens as I am come a.
Speaker 2Jar jar right, Yeah, No, I would say, no, there's not there's there's Timothy Dalton.
Speaker 1Oh, I love Timothy Dalton.
Speaker 2A young Timothy Dalton.
And then there's also Brian Blessed with hawk Wings so interesting.
Yeah, who played Boss Nasts.
So it's kind of a jar jar connection, but not really.
He's kind of worth it though.
Speaker 1Mmm.
I love that.
I just realized while you were talking that this movie really reminds me of a better version of it, Ice Pirates.
Speaker 4Mmmm Pirates.
Speaker 1Ice Pirates is amazing Pirates.
Speaker 2I feel like Ice Pirates is a slightly like lateral move.
Speaker 1Yeah, that's not my deep cut recommendation.
Speaker 2They're in the same shelf.
They're in the same shelf, absolutely, Yeah.
Speaker 1Their posters are next to each other in someone's living room for sure.
Speaker 4Yes.
Speaker 1But my deep cut recommendation, and Jordan you actually touched on it was that I immediately knew when Gwildor was like I hate Adventures, that my deep cut recommended was going to be the Lord of the Rings because you got little guys who hate adventures and hate leaving their little hometown being forced to go on an epic adventure.
But at the opposite of He Man, where we're saying he Man needed less movie to be better.
Lord of the Rings you couldn't give us enough of that movie.
We wanted extended cuts that were four hours long.
We were like, more of this movie would make it a good movie.
So it's the exact opposite.
Speaker 2Until the Hobbit.
Speaker 1I hat until the Hobbit, Yes.
Speaker 4The animated Hobbit movie.
I got a little sad after Bilbo stole the ring from Smiegel.
I'm like, all, poor.
Speaker 1Guy, yeah, poor little guy.
Speaker 4I was a very I was a very ampathetic child.
Speaker 1Mmm, you were ampathetic.
Speaker 4Yeah, it was empathetic, but amped up.
I'm not me doing a verbal flood.
Speaker 5That's the thing.
Speaker 1I also say ampathetic.
Speaker 5Yeah.
Speaker 4Sure, my accent came out and I you know what my accent is?
Speaker 1All right, lovely, Well, thank you so much for listening, Thank you for being with us.
Here at the end, we are going to let you know where you can find us and friend us and follow us and do all that fun stuff.
Let's start with Let's start with Derek.
We've been starting with you.
Let's start with you.
Where can people fine follow and friend you and support your work?
Speaker 4Yeah?
So the biggest thing to report my work?
If you follow on Instagram, roll for Charisma comedy all one word it is the D and D theme stand up show where we assign abilities to performers that they have to roll dice and then there's a whole table of punishments that they have to survive through their ten minute sets.
So roll for Chrisma Comedy on Instagram is how you can find me and the work that I'm doing.
Speaker 1Excellent And Jordan, where can people support you and the Musical Catering Company?
Speaker 6Yeah, so we are at the Neighborhood Comedy Theater first Friday of every month.
We have an Instagram which I believe is just Musical Catering Co.
Yes, very active on that, of course I know that information.
Yeah, first Friday of the month, we do about an hour and a half musical all made up on the spot.
Speaker 5It's a ton of fun.
Speaker 4It is a fun show.
Speaker 1It's great.
It's great and I love it and you can definitely see it in the Neighborhood Comedy Theater first Friday of every month.
Go to Nctphoenix dot com for more details on that to come out and see us do that show.
Nathan, where can people follow your filmmaking endeavors?
Speaker 2Yes, those Squishy Studios dot com you can find our movies and web series and things like that, and our feature film, The Last Movie Ever Made is on Amazon, Apple.
Speaker 1And two B so yes, and it is worth worth watching, worth buying.
Speaker 2Chrissy's in it, as is Dorian's voice.
So if you're at then there's you can say there.
Speaker 1Yeah, excellent, And so you can listen to me in other places on the Gank That Drank a supernatural drinking game podcast, also a true Story FM product.
But if you're here with us at the end and you're like, look, I need more of this of this quad Drupel Powerhouse episode, you want to hear more from us.
You want the bonus content, baby, you need to become a member.
Go to true story dot fm and click on join and you can become a member and you get episodes early.
What that's great, Early, it's amazing.
You get them ad free what no ads at the top of the thing.
That's wonderful, And you get the bonus content at the end.
And I'm going to ask these cats, what is the worst movie or TV show or book that you love?
Speaker 2Oh, and mine's not going to be Masters of the Universe.
Speaker 1Okay, okay, it's okay if it is.
But so you can get that on the bonus content and more so, thank you so much for listening, and when you're out there in the world, please keep the most excellent eighties movies podcast model in mind, be excellent to each other, and party on, Party on, dudes,
