The Shadow LIVE! w/ Pete Davidson (HDTGM Matinee)

Summary

Podcast Summary: How Did This Get Made? – "The Shadow LIVE! w/ Pete Davidson"

Episode Information:

• Title: The Shadow LIVE! w/ Pete Davidson (HDTGM Matinee)
• Release Date: January 21, 2025
• Hosts: Paul Scheer, June Diane Raphael, Jason Mantzoukas
• Guest: Pete Davidson

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Introduction

In this lively live episode of "How Did This Get Made?" (HDTGM), hosted by Paul Scheer, June Diane Raphael, and Jason Mantzoukas, the trio along with special guest Pete Davidson convene at Largo at the Coronet in Los Angeles to dissect the perplexing 1994 superhero film, "The Shadow." Known for its convoluted plot and questionable execution, the hosts aim to unravel why this movie was produced despite its apparent flaws.

Paul Scheer [00:00]: "On January 24, Academy Award winner Michelle Yeoh takes command."

Initial Banter and Setting the Stage

The episode kicks off with the hosts exchanging humorous and offbeat remarks, setting a comedic tone for the deep dive ahead. They reference various pop culture elements and playful jabs at each other, engaging the live audience with their trademark humor.

Jason Mantzoukas [02:04]: "Or maybe see a burlesque show with Nick Crow and take a bubble speech to hitting cruise control J man Big."

Dissecting "The Shadow"

The primary focus swiftly shifts to "The Shadow," a superhero film starring Alec Baldwin. The hosts critique the movie's inconsistent storytelling, lackluster special effects, and underdeveloped character arcs.

Plot and Character Critique

They express confusion over the protagonist's abilities and the movie's enigmatic plot points, such as the invisible hotel and the protagonist's transformation into a shadow.

June Diane Raphael [04:25]: "I'm good, how are you, Paul?"

Paul Scheer [06:05]: "It is a hero played by Alec Baldwin who is a shadow and he stops an atomic bomb attack in New York in the 40s."

The hosts question the logic behind Alec Baldwin’s character navigating the opium trade with exaggerated physical traits and improbable narrative choices.

Jason Mantzoukas [07:27]: "What?"

Special Effects and Villain Design

Tim Curry's portrayal of the villain is a particular point of contention. The hosts mock the character's over-the-top design and ineffective use of special effects, highlighting scenes where the villain engages in absurdly staged confrontations.

Jason Mantzoukas [15:23]: "Why have we not talked about Tim Curry?"

Inconsistencies and Logical Flaws

A significant portion of the discussion centers on the film's numerous plot inconsistencies, such as the inexplicable invisibility of the protagonist's lair and the convoluted method of communication via pneumatic tubes.

June Diane Raphael [06:12]: "But why does he need a disguise? Why not just become a shadow?"

Paul Scheer [10:57]: "They seem to be very visible and like, why is there a tube shooting out of that building, connecting to it, and very ramshackle."

Audience Interaction and Theoretical Breakdown

The live audience participates by posing questions and suggesting sequel titles, further illustrating the confusion surrounding the movie's narrative.

Rob [54:45]: "The title would be the VO Superhero."

Mallory [63:14]: "Shadow two. Shad don't love that."

The hosts attempt to answer but mostly engage in humorous frustration, reflecting the movie’s difficulty in conveying a coherent story.

Reading Reviews

Contrasting their negative opinions, the hosts read a few misleadingly positive reviews from platforms like Amazon. These reviews praise aspects like Alec Baldwin's appearance and acting, which the hosts find either superficial or entirely disconnected from the movie's actual content.

Paul Scheer [78:48]: "The shadow is something like Batman, Superman, and the Phantom and other comic book hero movies."

Jason Mantzoukas [80:12]: "Doesn't Tim Curry call him a sissy?"

Wrapping Up the Discussion

As the episode progresses, the hosts delve deeper into the movie’s unresolved plot elements, such as the origin of the antagonist and the mystifying powers of the protagonist. Their dialogue becomes increasingly exasperated as they attempt to make sense of the film's convoluted mechanics.

Jason Mantzoukas [85:39]: "Why didn't that gigantic building cast a shadow?"

Paul Scheer [84:38]: "The crawl at the beginning is this. So it goes. The price of redemption for Cranston was to take up man's struggle against evil."

Conclusion and Final Verdict

Concluding the episode, the hosts unanimously agree that "The Shadow" is a poorly constructed film that fails to deliver a compelling superhero narrative. They humorously lament the movie's production choices and express reluctance to recommend it to listeners.

Jason Mantzoukas [87:55]: "No. Really, really genuinely, and I mean this from the bottom of my tiny stone heart. No."

Paul Scheer [88:13]: "I'm gonna just finish it up and say nope."

Post-Discussion Remarks

The episode wraps with the hosts encouraging listeners to engage with the podcast through social media and promoting their upcoming projects. They maintain their comedic demeanor, even as they express genuine frustration with the film under discussion.

Jason Mantzoukas [89:12]: "Parents, we invest in so many things."

Paul Scheer [89:23]: "That's a line for sensuality and that's a line for adult talk, not movie Talk."

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Notable Quotes:

• Paul Scheer [10:57]: "They seem to be very visible and like, why is there a tube shooting out of that building, connecting to it, and very ramshackle."

• Jason Mantzoukas [15:23]: "Why have we not talked about Tim Curry?"

• June Diane Raphael [84:16]: "It's so confusing. I mean, I guess we've already gone over this, but, like, why? The shadow's power is mind control. Like, why not just be a shadow and lean into that?"

• Jason Mantzoukas [86:25]: "I can't. I don't know from what's happening. I don't feel good about this. I didn't enjoy it. I didn't enjoy any of this. This was."

---

Conclusion

In this episode of "How Did This Get Made?," the hosts and Pete Davidson provide a thorough and comedic critique of the baffling superhero film "The Shadow." Through sharp wit and insightful observations, they highlight the film's numerous flaws, from its inconsistent plot to underwhelming performances. For those unfamiliar with the movie, this summary encapsulates why "The Shadow" remains a subject of amusement and bewilderment in the realm of bad cinema.

Transcript

[Paul Scheer]

On January 24, Academy Award winner Michelle Yeoh takes command.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

Gather your people. We're gonna need every one of them.

[Paul Scheer]

In Section 31, a new Star Trek original movie on Paramount. Section 31 is just a place for people to bend the rules. Starfleet is here to make sure no one commits murder. What a cute idea.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

This is chaos. Let's get messy.

[Paul Scheer]

Don't miss the worldwide premiere of Star Section 31, streaming January 24th exclusively on Paramount. Put educational improvement on your New Year's resolution list. IXL makes learning fun through engaging video lessons and interactive problems that adapt to your child's learning pace. Plus, with the app, kids can learn on the go, and one subscription covers all your children's educational needs. Make an impact on your child's learning. Get IXL now and our listeners can get an exclusive 20% off IXL membership when they sign up [e-mail] 20. Visit ixl.com 20 to get the most effective learning program out there at the best price this new year. Enrich your life by learning a new language with Rosetta Stone. Their immersive courses ensure long term language retention and their true accent feature even gives you pronunciation feedback. Plus, Rosetta Stone's flexible learning options let you learn anywhere, anytime. Start the new year off with a resolution you can reach today. Listeners can get 50% off Rosetta Stone's lifetime membership by visiting rosetta stone.com pod50 that's that's 50% off. Unlimited access to 25 language courses for the rest of your life. Visit rosettastone.com pod50 we saw the shadows so you know what that.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

How did Schwarzenegger grow baby in his belly? Rock a rhinestone vest while whipping Justin the Kelly?

[Paul Scheer]

Or maybe see a burlesque show with Nick Crow and take a bubble speech to hitting cruise control J man Big.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

Paul and the beautiful June gonna take.

[Paul Scheer]

You from the goob all the way to the room Ran the games in.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

Street Fighter hope to blow off steam.

[Paul Scheer]

Just a sucker punch the Odd Life.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

Of Timothy Green Bird Demick how we.

[Paul Scheer]

Staying alive they calling in the badass.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

And he's on the line cranking 88 minutes cause they cool as ice cause.

[Paul Scheer]

The bad Jim Varney looking kind of nice Paul and June getting literal Jason is getting laid June is making sure.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

All the monkey shots getting paid they judge a bunch of movies while they.

[Paul Scheer]

Making the grade Here's a real question for you. How did this get made? Hello people of Perth and hello people of Largo. We are live at Largo at the Coronet in Los Angeles, our LA based home with an amazing crowd. For the first in our special two part series, movies from the 90s about superheroes from the 40s that no one gave a shit about. To join me in tonight's dissection of the Alec Baldwin superhero classic, the Shadow, I am joined as always by my co host, Jason Mantzoukas.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

What's up jerks?

[Paul Scheer]

What's up, Jason? Are you excited?

[Jason Mantzoukas]

I just caught a flurble on my Pokemon Go back there.

[Paul Scheer]

I did tell the audience, do not catch Pokemon Go during the show.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

Yeah, guys, put your phones away. Do not catch Pokemon Go.

[Paul Scheer]

And by the way, I will tell you, there's a shit ton of Pokemon.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

Here in the theater. Did say fuck you in the theater.

[Paul Scheer]

That's our audience. They don't yell fire in the theater. They yell fuck you in the theater.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

This audience is like, no, do not make us choose between our nerdy pursuits. Cause that could threaten us. That could threaten Pokemon. Go is a legitimate threat to nerdy.

[Paul Scheer]

Podcasts, by the way. It's a threat to everybody.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

It's a weapon of mass destruction.

[Paul Scheer]

And I'm also joined by June Diane Rayfield.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

Hel.

[Paul Scheer]

Welcome, welcome, June. How are you?

[June Diane Raphael]

I'm good, how are you, Paul?

[Paul Scheer]

Very good, thank you. I'm surprised that you're not wearing your normal fedora and red mask. The Shadow, even you share very similar fashion sense. Normally, I mean.

[June Diane Raphael]

Ouch.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

Wow, wow, wow. We are 3:30 seconds into this, guys.

[Paul Scheer]

You're seeing a full on slam fest out here.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

This is the roast episode of how did this get made? Where you bring us out and then just trash us.

[Paul Scheer]

Guys, I was just trying to make a funny little starter. June, you look great as always.

[June Diane Raphael]

Thanks, mom.

[Paul Scheer]

We have What?

[June Diane Raphael]

I didn't say a fucking thing.

[Paul Scheer]

Wow.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

Oh my God. They're gonna fight so hard next time.

[Paul Scheer]

This is uncomfort. We have a very special guest joining us tonight. You know him from Saturday Night Live. Please welcome Pete Davidson.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

All right, welcome. Thank you. Yeah.

[Paul Scheer]

Well, here we are to talk about the Shadow. And for those who don't know it, very simply put, this is a movie about a hero played by Alec Baldwin.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

Very simply put, I want to hear what comes next.

[Paul Scheer]

I tried really hard.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

It's not simple.

[Paul Scheer]

I tried to write the simplest explanation. It is a hero played by Alec Baldwin who is a shadow and he stops an atomic bomb attack in New York in the 40s. Light up your llamas. We have a lot to talk about.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

Is that your new catchphrase? Light up your llamas.

[Paul Scheer]

Light up your llamas. Well, because you know the llama cigarettes. Yeah, llama cigarettes.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

Oh, I'm aware. To the most erotic billboard I've ever seen in my life. I am gonna have wet dreams about that mouth and the smoke rings coming out from it.

[Paul Scheer]

There it is.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

I'd climb a mountain for a llama. How sexual is that? Look at that mouth.

[Paul Scheer]

It is like a blow up doll mouth. It is.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

Yeah.

[Paul Scheer]

This movie is really interesting.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

Is it? And that's a real question.

[Paul Scheer]

I think what I found interesting was in watching the movie like tonight, I'm like, well, here's what superhero movies were. And this is why people never thought that superhero movies could be successful. Cause they were so bad. Like, this is like to make a movie in the 40s, but also they take away arguably one of the most interesting things. You meet up with Alec Baldwin and he is like the head of an opium trade.

[June Diane Raphael]

What?

[Jason Mantzoukas]

What is that? I rewound the movie assuming I'd missed something. Spoiler alert. I had not.

[Paul Scheer]

I mean, we're introduced to him.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

Long fingernails.

[June Diane Raphael]

I hate those fingernails.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

You do? I was like, I bet June's gonna like these fingernails.

[June Diane Raphael]

I'll just show them as like, okay, they're long. Like, I can get behind that.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

Sure.

[June Diane Raphael]

Opium and like, they might need to be long. Maybe they're being used as spoons.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

Okay.

[June Diane Raphael]

But what I can understand.

[Paul Scheer]

But we wouldn't need them on all fingers.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

Like nails are part of the opium trade.

[June Diane Raphael]

Well, I know that sometimes like cocaine addicts will have like one really long nail to like stick. Okay.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

A huge coke addict in the audience. If anybody needs drugs, talk to that person after the show.

[Paul Scheer]

I thought he. These long fingernails. Cuz he just likes to play like guitar, you know, just like, oh, like.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

He'S like a flamenco guitarist.

[June Diane Raphael]

Why are they painted?

[Jason Mantzoukas]

No, this was like, this started weird, got weirder, and I did not care for it.

[Paul Scheer]

I just want to play. I just want to play a second of.

[June Diane Raphael]

Just so you get the idea of not too much. Paul.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

I think they're. I think they're kind of dope.

[Paul Scheer]

Here we go.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

They're pretty cool.

[Paul Scheer]

I promise you I'll bury them beside you.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

What?

[Paul Scheer]

Kill him.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

Those nails, they don't even seem anything to me. Hey, that's the. That's the villain from Die Hard who ate the candy bar.

[Paul Scheer]

Yes. I was so psyched because I was like, there are like two like. Like Asian actors working and they were in every movie. Like, that's the guy from Lethal Weapon who tortured Mel Gibson. And that's a guy from Escape from Big Trouble in Little China. Like they were.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

That other guy also plays Kung Fu Panda's dad in the Kung. But he's a stork, I believe. And Kung Fu Panda doesn't realize that it's not his real father until the second movie.

[Paul Scheer]

The stork delivered Kung Fu Panda.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

What's that?

[Paul Scheer]

Did the stork deliver Kung Fu Panda?

[Jason Mantzoukas]

No. No, he didn't. He runs a. He runs a noodle bar.

[Paul Scheer]

Oh, yeah, Yeah, I know that guy.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

Right, of course. Wait, I'm sorry. Have you guys not seen the Kung Fu Panda movies?

[June Diane Raphael]

Out of one.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

Okay, we're gonna need to talk about that.

[June Diane Raphael]

I mean, I'm seeing for the time now is does Alec Baldwin in this section of the movie have the prosthetic nose on?

[Jason Mantzoukas]

No.

[Paul Scheer]

No.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

When he's the shadow, when he turns into Stephen Baldwin.

[Paul Scheer]

What if all the Baldwins could morph into other Baldwins?

[Jason Mantzoukas]

That's what it looked like.

[Paul Scheer]

Well, it's so weird because they don't even. You wait until the very end of the movie. They're, oh, he's not wearing, like, a weird mask. His face is.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

That's his transformation.

[Paul Scheer]

He never established that.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

Why does that happen?

[June Diane Raphael]

Okay. Cause here's the thing, and I mean.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

This with all due respect. Why the fuck does his face change in this movie?

[June Diane Raphael]

Here's the really confounding thing. If he is a hero that can become a shadow, that means he can't be seen.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

Correct.

[June Diane Raphael]

So why does he need a disguise? Why not just become a shadow?

[Jason Mantzoukas]

Great.

[Paul Scheer]

I would argue that this movie is full of those questions, like, why would he need an elaborate system of pipes, pneumatic tubes all over the city?

[Jason Mantzoukas]

Oh, you mean the 45 second montage.

[Paul Scheer]

Of someone just putting a note in a pneumatic tube? It, like, shoots all around the city to a larger bank of pneumatic tubes. And then the guy's like, oh, here it is. And then he puts it in another device, but then eventually gets to him and he goes.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

10 of them.

[Paul Scheer]

Yeah, there's 10 tubes.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

At which point Alec Baldwin has to put on a dark suit, put a scarf over the lower part of his face, and morph the upper part of his face into something weird, like he's wearing a wooden mask.

[Paul Scheer]

But then he also goes to get the message from the pneumatic tubes. And the message is a little guy on a tv, he's like, hey, someone was killed later. Like, it wasn't. There was really no information that you couldn't get out of a Newspaper or just why. Didn't even know why that needed to be a secret message.

[June Diane Raphael]

I think my best guess at this movie is that Alec Baldwin had been living a really bad life for a really long time.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

The actor, Alec Baldwin? No. Oh, no, I don't think that's well documented.

[June Diane Raphael]

The shadow. And so he. Then somehow some way becomes a shadow. And then.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

That's the part I really want to talk about.

[June Diane Raphael]

His guru, whoever that guy was who showed up, somehow changed him into. Changed his perception of his life.

[Paul Scheer]

Well, June, would you argue that maybe some of these questions would be answered if they didn't eliminate the montage, the training montage. Like, he. He basically is kidnapped. Then there's a title card. He's like. And then he became the shadow. Anyway, we're in New York, and it's better.

[June Diane Raphael]

I guess what I'm saying is he becomes this sort of dark knight where he is doing good things as a former bad person.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

Is the villain in this movie a knife?

[Paul Scheer]

That's what I wrote down. I wrote that the knife is really.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

The only constant because the other guy is just like. Not a bad guy.

[Paul Scheer]

No. He likes suits and good whiskey.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

Yeah. No, bourbon.

[Paul Scheer]

Oh, bourbon.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

Sorry. No, I. I could not. I really had so much trouble figuring out why Alec Baldwin became the shadow. Why he was chosen, why they went to him to get him. To get. To bring him to the temple. Why they. Why he. Yeah, why we didn't lose. Why we lost the whole thing. Why Genghis Khan's relative showed up and was like, oh, you're actually this ancient guy from, like, so long ago, but you now look like Alec Baldwin. Because our hero needs to be a white American man.

[Paul Scheer]

Yes.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

He used his powers for such stupid fucking things. He showed up to a dinner, and the guy's like, you're always late. And he was like, I was not late. And the guy's like, oh, yeah, you were right on time. And it's like, what?

[June Diane Raphael]

And that was my problem with the.

[Paul Scheer]

Movie, too, is he is the worst user of power. I mean, there seems to be moments where he could get out of anything. At one point when he's caught as a shadow, like, not like in the shadows, literally as a shadow. He freezes and stays there long enough for them to throw something at him. And he's, like, pinned. His shadow gets pinned to the wall.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

His shadow gets pinned. And he just. Which is his cloak or whatever. But then he doesn't just walk away from it.

[Paul Scheer]

No.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

He just is now like, uh, oh, busted. But meanwhile, cackling Laugh and then he gets caught. I was like, you're terrible at this.

[Paul Scheer]

His strength, like, he could. In the beginning, when you first. The first fight scene where you see the shadow is. I mean, just to give you an idea, I mean, the tone of this movie is all over the.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

You could tell they were going for Batman in the beginning.

[Paul Scheer]

Yes.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

It feels very beginning. It was very Batman.

[Paul Scheer]

It feels like Batman and like a Batman with like, maybe like a third of the budget.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

And how much did that guy love shooting that machine gun? Oh, that guy fucking loved it, by the way. Director was like, go. He was like, oh, I would love. I would love to have a job where I get to shoot a Tommy. That looks fucking sick.

[Paul Scheer]

I mean, we haven't even gotten into Tim Curry's character, but, man, when he goes nuts at the end with this Tommy gun.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

Fat Tim Curry. Tim Curry.

[Paul Scheer]

These people. Like, I feel like the only way I've ever pictured someone shooting a Tommy gun is like, you have to be mental to shoot it. You can't just be like, and then.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

He shoots his own car.

[Paul Scheer]

Yeah, he. He's not the car. You already in that.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

Yeah.

[Paul Scheer]

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[Jason Mantzoukas]

It's a very short bridge.

[Paul Scheer]

Did you think I wouldn't know? You don't scare me. You said it. You will go to the 8th Precinct house on 2nd Avenue and surrender yourself and you will do it now. I'll do it. I got it. Oh, my God. Oh, my God. So this is the. Of the shadow really never shows his face again. Like, I mean, he's never this intimidating or bad or like a. Like he's punching people at all. Like, I don't. Yeah, he doesn't really use his powers.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

He doesn't do anything.

[June Diane Raphael]

And this is interesting. He seems to just. He recruits a lot of other shadows or shadow adjacents. I don't know what they are.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

Shadow pals.

[June Diane Raphael]

France. I don't know who those people are.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

Yeah, Peter Boyle's his homie, Peter Boyle.

[June Diane Raphael]

The cab driver, also have done something wrong. Yeah.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

Why is he always like, we're too.

[Paul Scheer]

Boss, but also Peter Boyle, you would think, oh, that's the cab. Seems specially outfitted to be like the special shadow cab. But then, like later on in the movie, Peter Boyle's just, like, picking up regular fares.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

Yeah.

[Paul Scheer]

Like, he's like, hey, look, I'm not gonna put you on the payroll. You gotta. You gotta work for a living. What if I call you? You gotta.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

We understand at this point in New York City, cabs are the only way that people travel. Whether the high class playboy that Alec Baldwin is when he's not the shadow. When he is the shadow, he's on. He's in a cab. Chinese warriors are constantly engaging into cabs and being like, go, go, go. It's so weird.

[Paul Scheer]

And by the way, Chinese warriors, not out of their costume.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

They'Re wearing armor in a cab, like hailing a cab.

[Paul Scheer]

Like, out of a textbook. And there was one great scene where Alec Baldwin's like, I think I'm being followed. And he, like, kind of does, like a thing where he, like, looks in a mirror to see the guy in the gigantic military wardrobe. Like, of course that's the guy following you. Oh, he's not blending in.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

Is it because of the metal clanging on metal that you hear 15ft behind you?

[Paul Scheer]

But there was a thing in the cab. Do you remember this? Like, in the beginning of the cab, he's recruiting one of his shadow friends and he's like. And he gets a guy out. And then the next scene, he's, like, sweaty. He's like. He's immediately upset. And then people's like, you okay, boss? Like, cobalt Club. Cobalt Club. But it's like his personality is the.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

Transformation between weird shadow face and him like, almost took something out of him again.

[Paul Scheer]

I would love to have seen what we missed in the montage where he understood some of it.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

By the way, it's only.

[June Diane Raphael]

Does it say seven years?

[Jason Mantzoukas]

Oh, years. Seven years later. Okay, that makes more sense.

[Paul Scheer]

Someone says, yes.

[June Diane Raphael]

So what was he doing in New York City before he left for Tibet?

[Paul Scheer]

His dad says, I didn't ask.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

He's got that big giant townhouse. So are we to assume that he's this Richie Rich New York kid who goes off to Tibet and becomes a drug warlord?

[Paul Scheer]

And by the way, how did they.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

Accept him into that?

[Paul Scheer]

I don't think a white guy could get into the opium trade that easily.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

Not just get into it, but dominate.

[Paul Scheer]

Just like, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, this guy, I like him. I like the way he thinks.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

You know what I'm gonna do? I'm gonna, like, do semester abroad in Europe. Then I'm gonna come back. I'm gonna graduate. I'm gonna go to Tibet. I'm gonna corner the opium market. I'm gonna become a vicious warlord. I'm gonna be recruited by a shadow organization to become a mystical being that is the embodiment of a Chinese warrior from, like, I don't know how far back. Then I'm gonna come back to New York, live in a giant townhouse and Medium. Fight evil and it's. Why do you.

[June Diane Raphael]

Wait, I have a question, though. You've said it a couple of times. Why are you saying that? He's embodying.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

Isn't he?

[June Diane Raphael]

What?

[Paul Scheer]

What?

[June Diane Raphael]

What? You think he's Alec Baldwin?

[Jason Mantzoukas]

Isn't Alec Baldwin like this. Doesn't he have, like, the spirit of some ancient warrior in him? Isn't that what he trained or what he got? That's what he turns into?

[Paul Scheer]

No, no, I don't.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

I think they just think he's stupid.

[Paul Scheer]

They just kind of, like, shot him with stuff.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

I think all this time, I'm. This is my. I'm. Allegorically speaking. Not allegorically speaking. I keep thinking of it like Iron Fist, the Marvel character, Iron Fist. So he is. He gets a ancient power that we didn't see in that montage.

[Paul Scheer]

You're really making a lot of assumptions.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

I'm trying to make sense of it. I was trying to make sense of it because I wanted it to make. I wanted it to add up.

[Paul Scheer]

Well, look, we should throw all sense out the window when the first kind of main bad guy we meet is a knife that has a face and that's it. And that knife comes back a lot. And he never learns the lesson that maybe the knife that's just powered by itself. You shouldn't fight that. I think the knife has the advantage at all times.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

The knife was terrible special effects.

[Paul Scheer]

Wait, but what was that knife? I'm always bad with this. What was that knife in? He played the dad in Terminator 2.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

That game.

[Paul Scheer]

Yeah.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

Yeah.

[Paul Scheer]

He's really good.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

And he was a waiter in the Blues Brothers. Oh, right.

[Paul Scheer]

Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's a good night. That knife is good.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

He's great.

[June Diane Raphael]

So the guy. So wait, now I'm thinking that maybe he was. Was he a police officer?

[Jason Mantzoukas]

Who?

[June Diane Raphael]

Alec Baldwin?

[Paul Scheer]

No.

[June Diane Raphael]

No.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

Okay. I think he's supposed to be.

[June Diane Raphael]

Scratch that.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

He's like Bruce Wayney kind of socialite, playboy. I. I think.

[Paul Scheer]

I mean, he drinks a lot. He definitely drinks a lot. Like, he puts away two martinis every time they come. Here's two martinis. Don't even finish it. Here you go.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

Well, he's always leaving. He's always coming late and leaving early. So he's got to get his drinks in as quick as possible.

[Paul Scheer]

I thought that this movie was full of, like, this, like, chin acting. Chin and eyebrow acting. A lot of arched eyebrows and a lot of cocked chins. Like, you know, and I don't know, but I kind of. I'm on board with Alec Baldwin's portrayal in this. I liked. I like the craziness of this character.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

It's not his fault.

[Paul Scheer]

No, he's great. I want to show you.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

I heard that's the reason, though, that they didn't give him Batman, really, like, on the next Come around was because his shadow performance, I guess it has.

[Paul Scheer]

A little bit of.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

He's Alec Baldwin the fuck out of. Of this role. You know what I mean?

[Paul Scheer]

It is. It's like Jack Donaghy from 30 Rocks. Like, Ian, super scary life.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

I met a girl, and she could think and have to run away. That was the most insane thing I've ever seen. He literally was just like, you like my dress? He's like, I have to go. She knows I like her dress. Fucking pussy.

[Paul Scheer]

By the way, Penelope Ann Miller never.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

Is that who that was?

[Paul Scheer]

Yeah. She never not. I felt like she was wearing a nightie the entire time. I don't know.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

I was one when this came out.

[Paul Scheer]

This is. Take a look. This is the Alec Baldwin acting.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

Acting.

[Paul Scheer]

I'm onto your plan, Khan. You still don't have the brilliance.

[June Diane Raphael]

I love it. I love it.

[Paul Scheer]

You can't complete the bomb. Besides, you know, I'm gonna stop.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

You American are so arrogant. You think your meaningless, decadent country is the new credo of civilization.

[Paul Scheer]

But let me tell you something.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

That's the U.S. of A.

[Paul Scheer]

You're talking about.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

I am talking about ruling the world.

[Paul Scheer]

I'd like to give you a name. Leonard Levinsky. Brilliant psychiatrist. You'll talk. Hills.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

I'm sorry. He meets him.

[Paul Scheer]

And there's the midnight.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

Like, you could have added. Like you could have added to any of Alec Baldwin's lines just at the end. Lemon.

[Paul Scheer]

Well, I think I.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

The U.S. of A. You're talking about, Lemon. He was trying to be really funny in this movie.

[Paul Scheer]

I think he was. And there's.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

He was really trying to be funny.

[Paul Scheer]

Like, I feel like there were, like, legitimate jokes in it. Like, there's one time where she. Like, Penelope. And Miller was like, I had this dream and my body was hot and whatever. And he's like, I had a dream I ripped my face off. All right. I laughed hard.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

That was great.

[Paul Scheer]

That was really funny.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

That was good.

[June Diane Raphael]

I thought the movie came alive when they were able to banter together.

[Paul Scheer]

I agree. I want to see more of them.

[June Diane Raphael]

But why was his uncle. Uncle. The police commissioner or father. Okay, uncle. Why was he so disgusted by Penelope Ann Miller?

[Jason Mantzoukas]

Yeah. No. Jonathan Winters was like, oh, here comes a trash bag full of nonsense. I don't even know what you. You would see in her.

[June Diane Raphael]

She's a beautiful, smart woman that just walked in.

[Paul Scheer]

But even. Even his presence, like, if you took Jonathan. I mean, by the way, huge Jonathan Winter fan, but if you took him out of the movie, it would make no difference. Cause he does nothing. He basically is like, I hate this fan. This shadow. And they're like, there's no shadow. Oh, okay. There's no shadow. And then that was one scene. The next scene, he was like, oh, someone got murdered here. Didn't ever really investigate it further than that. And I think you see him a little bit later, and he's just like. He's eating again. And the shadow is late.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

It's always late.

[Paul Scheer]

There's no. I feel like he shot all of his scenes in, like, two days. Like, that was it.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

Not even.

[June Diane Raphael]

I was wondering, too. Where did she get those powers from?

[Paul Scheer]

Well, I wrote this down.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

I think now I might be wrong. I think she's a reincarnated Chinese spirit. Okay.

[Paul Scheer]

I wrote this.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

Ancient Chinese. It would have been better if she was, like, the knife's daughter. Like, that would have been cool.

[Paul Scheer]

My mother was a knife?

[Jason Mantzoukas]

Yeah.

[Paul Scheer]

What do you mean? Well, you ever see Kung Fu Panda? How he thought his dad was stork? Four people in this movie are telepathic. Yeah, that's.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

That's a lot.

[Paul Scheer]

That's a lot.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

Which is crazy.

[Paul Scheer]

Like, you. You don't really want to, like, it loses its coolness factor. Four people can read each other's minds.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

What about when he was in the water and he was like, I'm drowning. And she was like, he's drowning. And then she drove all the way there.

[Paul Scheer]

And if you could shoot his memory out there, why wouldn't he just do it to a guy working on the docks? Like, dock worker. Save me. I'm gonna shoot it way across town. And then he has a place where he can breathe air out of a bullet hole, but he immediately goes away from that, like just to go out.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

Of the bullet hole to go to the door, which is still locked.

[Paul Scheer]

Yeah.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

You know how you're gonna know when it's unlocked? She's gonna open and all the water will be gone. Keep breathing, by the way. When she opens that door, the force of that water coming out would explode her body into mush. The door would ricochet out onto her, flatten her into just person mush. My favorite was when Alec Baldwin was explaining to her how to open it. Yeah. Through the window. He was like.

[Paul Scheer]

And it was not open to the door. The door was simply a circle. Turn one lefty, Lucy, righty tighty, like that's it. Not hard. I did want to just talk about this moment here. The. Cause it comes into play, but Penelope Ann Miller does a 2am visit to her father and we. This is this moment. Did she wear that dress the whole movie? That's insane.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

She's always. You said I look good in green.

[June Diane Raphael]

No, this is green. That's red.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

Red, green. Well, to me it's just a clean shirt.

[Paul Scheer]

Which wire?

[Jason Mantzoukas]

I don't remember.

[Paul Scheer]

I just don't remember.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

Pick one. Oh, well, what the hell. It's usually green.

[Paul Scheer]

No, green. This is green.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

That's good. I've gotta try to remember that. What a good callback. So I've got to say, right. That touched my heart at the end. That was really nice.

[Paul Scheer]

Is he colorblind or is he just too preoccupied in science to know the difference between colors?

[Jason Mantzoukas]

I would love to be in the writer's meeting. We'd be like, I got it. He can't see green and red. But he seems.

[Paul Scheer]

But he doesn't say, like, it would be so easy. Oh, well, you know, I'm colorblind. He's like, oh, to me it's just a clean shirt. And then he's like, I got to remember that if you're colorblind, you can't.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

You can't.

[Paul Scheer]

And by the way, Paul, you can't train yourself. Cause you're colorblind.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

It does posit the theory that he forgets what colors look like.

[June Diane Raphael]

I have to say, Paul, you've had trouble admitting you're colorblind.

[Paul Scheer]

I guess you're right. You have. Didn't want to bring this up in front of all these people. Whoa. Yeah.

[June Diane Raphael]

But I think it's. I think it's. I think it's an uncomfortable thing to admit. I think it's hard.

[Paul Scheer]

I'm not as bad as that. I know it's the difference between red feed like you're wearing a beautiful blue shirt and green pants.

[June Diane Raphael]

I look a little bit colorblind. And I do think. And I think as a colorblind person, and I'm not one.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

Oh, thank God. And thank God. Thank God, thank God.

[June Diane Raphael]

But I imagine it's a strange feeling because you don't know. Like, you're just being told you're colorblind all the time.

[Paul Scheer]

Yeah. Right.

[June Diane Raphael]

You're not walking around with colors.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

Can you imagine if you lived in a world in which colors were a lie? When you saw things, they were lying to you.

[June Diane Raphael]

So scary.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

Wow. It was really deep.

[Paul Scheer]

Maybe I keep it under raps tune because when I say, hey, is that blue couch? You'd be like, no, you say, blue. That's weird. You make me hermit in my colorblindness.

[June Diane Raphael]

I mean, your colorblindness is a little bit more subtle than this.

[Paul Scheer]

Yeah, that's a giant one.

[June Diane Raphael]

It is.

[Paul Scheer]

Yeah. No, you would definitely know how to.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

Disarm a nuclear weapon.

[Paul Scheer]

Done it three times. By the way. That nuclear weapon was the dumbest. The atomic bomb that rolled like the Indiana Jones ball through a hotel.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

That was so stupid. And also the discovery that the guy goes through to be like, well, but I mean, like, a bomb, like, that would be impossible, I guess. Unless you did this, you did this, and you did this, and then it's like, fade out and fade into, Someone has built that bomb. Oh, this movie was dumb.

[Paul Scheer]

I guess we should get into Shere Khan.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

The last living relative of Genghis.

[Paul Scheer]

Khan, which seems to be impossible because, like, I. I don't know. It feels like, well, here's my issue. He speaks perfect English. He seems very soon. What?

[Jason Mantzoukas]

Everybody speaks perfect English everywhere they go in the movie.

[Paul Scheer]

Yeah.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

Even if it's like Chinese Warrior one talking to Chinese Warrior two, they're gonna choose to speak English to each other and be like, he went that way. Okay, I'll go this way. You go that way. Okay, cool.

[Paul Scheer]

And it also posits a world in which those people were not living in New York City. They somehow came. Like, I guess my whole thing is.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

How did he get an army of warriors? I kept wondering that I.

[Paul Scheer]

Well, look, I don't even understand why he had to come. And Genghis's. Genghis Khan's tomb. That made no sense. Like, was he in there for a long time? Like, for this ruse?

[June Diane Raphael]

Because you're saying there was. There are other ways to get here.

[Paul Scheer]

Yeah, just get on the plane. Like, it didn't seem like he was a mummy. Like, I thought oh, this is Genghis Khan come back to life.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

Was he no Ancient? No, he wasn't.

[Paul Scheer]

No. He was the last living relative.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

Why did. Okay, okay. I just chose that as transportation. This is.

[Paul Scheer]

He's like, it's cheap. Don't want to buy that first class flight.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

I genuinely now am really curious and have a little bit of fear that I don't understand what is going on in the movie the Genghis Khan.

[Paul Scheer]

You're gonna have a June moment.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

I'm going down the rabbit hole. I thought he was like a very old ancient warrior guy. That's what led me to believe part is I did. So why does he know Alec Baldwin? Why does he know who Alec Baldwin is?

[June Diane Raphael]

Well, because I think he came from the same place that Alec Baldwin.

[Paul Scheer]

They were both trained by the same guy.

[June Diane Raphael]

Yeah.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

When were they trained?

[Paul Scheer]

He said, I killed your master. Right. That's why he took the knife. Again, we don't see any of this.

[June Diane Raphael]

But it happened here.

[Paul Scheer]

It all is a quick line of exposition in between scenes.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

Okay.

[June Diane Raphael]

That's how he has the knife.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

Okay, okay, okay, okay, okay, fine.

[June Diane Raphael]

He's. He's. Yeah, no, he's born, you know, in the same.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

Okay, okay.

[Paul Scheer]

But why come in. In the tomb?

[June Diane Raphael]

You thought that. Because he came in. In a tomb.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

Yes, in a tomb in like ancient armor.

[June Diane Raphael]

Yes. But that was again, just the way he got there.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

Yeah.

[Paul Scheer]

And then he does a bunch of Garden state where he's just always like on the floor matching the rug and then you know, in the wallpaper paper matching the wallpaper. I'm like, all right, we get it. These guys are in the blending.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

I guess my favorite was the cops bit of like closing the little portholes.

[Paul Scheer]

Oh, yeah.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

For like 35 seconds.

[Paul Scheer]

But it seems like you. He drew so much attention to himself. He could have just come in the Brooks Brothers suit. I mean, he wants to get his nice suit and drink some. Yeah, like, I don't know. I don't like. I thought he was for a long time.

[June Diane Raphael]

I did too. I thought he was Genghis Khan. And by the way, why not like 15 minutes.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

Yeah, I thought so too. He did say he came in Genghis Khan's whatever it is, sarcophagus or whatever in order to like gain some of his power or something like that. Didn't he? Okay, so there's some. He gave some half assed screenwriters reason for like, oh, I can't. That's how I came because I got some power from it.

[June Diane Raphael]

His main power though, seems. Seemed to be like that. He loved getting people to kill themselves.

[Paul Scheer]

Loved it. The Empire State Building scene, I think is one of my favorite scenes ever in a movie. Like, a Navy guy walks by, is like, hey, nice hat, toots. To Shere Khan. And then that's his name, right? Is it? No. Is it? Sure. Donkey Kong.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

Shaka Kong.

[Paul Scheer]

Shaka Kong. And then, like, he's so upset that someone called him a lady. He was like, get up, get up. He makes this Navy man climb over.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

My favorite thing is he goes with his fingers miming the wall, finger walking gesture to tell the guy, like, climb up over the fence and jump off.

[Paul Scheer]

To which the man jumps off the Empire State Building. And then immediately as he. He's falling to his death, they cut down to Alec Baldwin going. It's all falling into place.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

And it's like seeing the guy going like, boom, boom, like falling and hitting the building twice.

[Paul Scheer]

And. Which leads me to believe, uh oh, somebody just exited the theater very angrily. But that leads me to believe that there was at some point more humor in it.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

Should we wait for him?

[Paul Scheer]

Let's just wait. Just kind of kill some time until he comes.

[June Diane Raphael]

The weird thing is, seemed like a fan.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

I don't want him to miss any.

[Paul Scheer]

Yeah, yeah, let's go.

[June Diane Raphael]

About that guy killing himself is that everybody else seemed to kill themselves happily. Yeah, with pleasure.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

No, this guy really was like, get me down. I don't want to do this. I felt bad for him.

[June Diane Raphael]

I felt really bad. He's. That guy's been in everything too.

[Paul Scheer]

That actor from the Mad Men and a bunch of different stuff. Yeah. Hey, everybody, just wanted to give you a quick heads up here. There's something we should all be doing. It's going to improve your life, make every day a little bit better. And that is. Eat more Reese's Peanut Butter Cups. Yes. Think about it. All the gurus, all the coaches out there, they've never said the words eat more Reese's. I mean, that combination of sweet chocolate and salty peanut butter, I mean, this is something that brings other people and ourselves joy. That's why there's two in a pack shop. Reese's Peanut Butter Cups now at a store near you found wherever candy is sold and often in my pantry because I love these. You know, growing your small business in 2025 comes down to how well you can hire, right? LinkedIn has the strongest hiring data and insights to help you identify the right candidates. So you can start the new year off by hiring smarter. Now, LinkedIn knows that hiring is a big deal for small businesses because every hire is crucial for a growing company. That's why LinkedIn pairs you with the best candidates, using data that you won't find anywhere else. From unique skills and interests to the connections that you have in common, LinkedIn lets you beyond candidates who are actively applying in a given week on LinkedIn. 171 million LinkedIn members aren't actively seeking jobs, but they are open to new opportunities. That's a big pool to miss out on. So hire smarter in the new year. Find your next great hire on LinkedIn. Post your job for free at LinkedIn.com valuable that's LinkedIn.com valuable to post your job for free. Terms and conditions apply. 2025 is here and Mint Mobile has a resolution for you. Skip the gym, skip the fad diets and skip the BS resolutions. Instead, make a resolution to save some serious cash by making the switch to Mint Mobile. And right now you can get half off their three month unlimited plan. All plans come with high speed data and unlimited talk and text delivered on the nation's largest 5G network. Now let me tell you something. I have a good friend. His name is Jack. Jack needed to have another phone. He got Mint Mobile and he literally said this to me and I wanted to bring this on the show. He said, paul, I don't know why I don't switch every phone to Mint Mobile because it's better service than any other provider I've ever had. Everyone loves Mint Mobile and you will too. Switch to Mint and new customers can get half off an unlimited plan until February 2nd. To get your new wireless plan for just 15 bucks a month and get a plan shipped to your door for free, go to mintmobile.com HDTGM that's mintmobile.com HDTGM $45 upfront payment required, equivalent to $15 per month. New customers on first three month plan only speeds slower above 40 gigabytes on unlimited plan. Additional taxes, fees and restrictions apply. See Mint Mobile for details. The well, so then the okay, yeah.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

How about the guy in a fight? This is the thing that infuriated me because you've got a hero. This is. Okay, we should say this is based on an incredibly popular radio drama of or radio serial serialized radio show of the 1940s.

[Paul Scheer]

Which by the way, you could argue the reason why he was invisible was because it was a radio show.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

Exactly. So in order to put it into a visual medium, a hero who is not seen, the only way to see him is see his shadow. They are constantly constructing ways for people to shine Lights around a room. Like there's a whole fight sequence where people are fighting. And one guy picks up a. A flashlight and he's like, scanning the room. And every once in a while he'll catch like, oh, the shadow. And then it goes away and then it's back. That was making me crazy.

[Paul Scheer]

But then at certain points too, like when he was beating the shit out of everyone on the bridge, he just seemed like a super fast, like, kind of Tasmanian devil kind of thing, like Ant Man.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

He had like a kind of smoky presence, which was cool. I was into it.

[Paul Scheer]

But then sometimes he's a straight up shadow, like a pancake shadow, like a one dimension.

[June Diane Raphael]

And then sometimes he's a human shadow.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

Yes.

[June Diane Raphael]

And by that I mean Alec Boss, one of the prosthetic nose and some mask on his face.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

I still don't know why that happened. I also.

[June Diane Raphael]

That was impressive.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

And, you know, and in my justification, I was like, ooh, I wonder if that's what the ancient warrior looked like and that's him coming out. Don't know anybody. I'm, like, confounded by the mythology of this character, clearly.

[Paul Scheer]

Jin, what did you think when he.

[June Diane Raphael]

Ripped off his face in the dream sequence? Yeah, I hated it. It was horrible. It was just horrible. You know, I didn't. I watched this movie in segments of like 10 minutes at a time.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

Why did he have nightmares, though? They never explained that.

[June Diane Raphael]

Why did he?

[Jason Mantzoukas]

Yeah, he just always had nightmares.

[Paul Scheer]

He. And he was always envisioning himself as the bad guy because I guess he was a bad guy, but he was envisioning himself as that bad guy, not the f. Yeah, it's like he has.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

A nightmare about being. It's him, Alec Baldwin in the bad guy's armor. Like, warrior armor? Yeah, like in a. In a fight. In my mind, in the very distance it passed.

[Paul Scheer]

Oh, I was thinking of it more like, how can I be fighting this guy? I am this guy. Like, I am all. I am, equally evil.

[June Diane Raphael]

Well, I think that was the idea that that's his internal struggle. Like, am I, you know, am I good or am I bad?

[Jason Mantzoukas]

I. You know, like, it's a bummer how impossible this movie is.

[Paul Scheer]

Well, because. Well, at the end, again, going back to your point, which I agree with, the knife seems to be the ultimate bad guy. The knife is the guy who hurt Alec Baldwin in the beginning. The knife comes back and stabs him in the middle. And at the end they have a full. By the way, this is the worst ending ever because it is just two guys battling with a Knife that they can both mentally control. Like, so it's like, wait, is this that.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

Is this hall of mirrors as well?

[Paul Scheer]

Yes, hall of mirrors.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

Also hall of mirrors. Which I was like, why is this.

[Paul Scheer]

What? I was doing some research. Or I should say Nick Kiley was doing some research. And I was like, this ending is shitty. And then I found out it was because the earthquake of 1994 destroyed the set. And they were like hollow mirrors. Oh, wow.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

So that's sad.

[Paul Scheer]

Yeah.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

Wow.

[Paul Scheer]

So that was. Yeah, so that was that.

[June Diane Raphael]

What was that going to be?

[Paul Scheer]

I don't know. The other interesting thing was we haven't.

[June Diane Raphael]

Even gotten into like, how that building became invisible.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

Sure.

[June Diane Raphael]

And then power he didn't seem to have before.

[Paul Scheer]

And also the building was invisible, but it also seemed like it was a hotel or a club. Like it had like a big logo on the floor.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

It was a hotel. Yes.

[Paul Scheer]

So that's odd. Like, if you're going to psychically create a building that you would also monetize.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

He's not creating it. He's hiding it.

[Paul Scheer]

But it was under construction when he.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

No, it was a bit. No, it was hypnotized.

[June Diane Raphael]

He hypnotized everyone to think it was gone.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

But it was. It was, I believe, his base of operations.

[Paul Scheer]

But I thought when he pulled the cab up to it, it was just an empty lot.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

This is hurting my mind.

[June Diane Raphael]

Okay. I don't want it. I don't want it.

[Paul Scheer]

I don't get it. I.

[June Diane Raphael]

But it was an empty lot because we as the viewer have also been. Are also seeing what basic civilians are seeing, which is an empty lot.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

That's the whole.

[Paul Scheer]

Wait. So he had somebody go there and hide a hotel like years.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

Paul.

[June Diane Raphael]

Paul.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

Guys, guys. Let's just all leave the room for a second. We'll let Paul and Jun.

[June Diane Raphael]

Now, the hotel was.

[Paul Scheer]

The hotel was. That was solid blue, right? What?

[June Diane Raphael]

They've been hypnotized.

[Paul Scheer]

Okay, okay. Yes, I get it.

[June Diane Raphael]

So he didn't have someone go over there and tear down the hotel. They had been hypnotized to not see it there and to just see like a construction pile.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

The hotel had always existed.

[June Diane Raphael]

It was never not there.

[Paul Scheer]

Paul. But I'm asking about. I'm asking about the people who are staying in the hotel.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

Well, nope, nope. We're checking in at 12.

[Paul Scheer]

But they were like, what if they were like. Cuz it seemed to be. It seemed to happen in the middle of the night.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

So if they were.

[Paul Scheer]

They woke up.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

Why don't you meet me in my room? I'm in room 201? No, I don't think. There are no guests in the hotel. It's just the bad guys. Lair. All right, this was a $40 million movie. The budget for this movie was $40 million in 1994, which is like $93 million today.

[Paul Scheer]

That is crazy. I'm gonna reveal more of my dumbness if I ask questions about this hotel.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

Both of us, I feel just as.

[Paul Scheer]

Dumb because I guess my question is this. I know he's hiding it. I get that. But for how long?

[Jason Mantzoukas]

How long have you been there?

[June Diane Raphael]

Well, he's only been there. He only arrived at the Museum of Natural History for. I mean, a couple weeks ago.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

Whoa, whoa, wait.

[Paul Scheer]

You say he's denied it. Hold on. Why is it.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

Hang on. Before we even go to this guy, is there something. Is there something fundamental about this movie's plot that we are missing?

[Paul Scheer]

Yeah. Oh, wait, hold on. Wait. Who. Who is. Who has.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

Can one person succinctly explain what we're missing?

[Paul Scheer]

You. You think you can or you think you can? Wow. You. Well, we'll have a duel. We'll see if she gets it right. You can't talk. All right, come over here. Here we are. Kumite. You wanted to kumite off, and now you come close. So I want to keep you both close here so you can. You can both kind of go off. All right, so here we go. They're not gonna fight, but. All right, so tell us what we're missing. Here we go. What's your name, by the way? I'm Kate. Kate, nice to meet you. What's your name, honey? Honey, nice to meet you. Kate. Tell me. Kate just complimented your name.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

Thank you.

[Paul Scheer]

Kate, say something nice about Kate.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

Oh, my God. What, are you guys falling in love?

[Paul Scheer]

She says that Kate looks very. Okay. All right, Kate.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

Did we just make a love connection?

[Paul Scheer]

All right, so, Kate, go for it. And at any point, honey, you go, eh. And I'll go to you.

[June Diane Raphael]

So in the scene right before the title came up.

[Paul Scheer]

Yes.

[June Diane Raphael]

When he was in the Severus Snape wig. Right. With all the chest hair, the trainer said, you are going to change your appearance. And so that's why he did all that. But he did.

[Paul Scheer]

You're not explaining the hotel part.

[June Diane Raphael]

Alec Baldwin isn't a fundamental plot thing.

[Paul Scheer]

All right, that's a fun. All right, that's a fun part.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

Okay. Okay.

[Paul Scheer]

So when Genghis Khan goes to meet.

[June Diane Raphael]

With the Shadow the first time, he.

[Paul Scheer]

Basically says, after you got trained, the master wanted to take on a new.

[June Diane Raphael]

Disciple because he saw that he could do it. So he can you say that again.

[Paul Scheer]

Immediately trained. And then.

[June Diane Raphael]

And then.

[Paul Scheer]

So he actually.

[June Diane Raphael]

Because then they also say later that the hotel disappeared six years ago.

[Paul Scheer]

So basically, by the way. Hold on. Kate just said.

[June Diane Raphael]

Right, well, we're talking. She's talking about the hotel.

[Paul Scheer]

I'm talking about. All right, got it, guys. Wow.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

Don't fight. You just fell in love.

[June Diane Raphael]

So he's been in New York, actually, for six years. No, wait, the movie.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

No, guys.

[June Diane Raphael]

No, no, no, no, no, no. He's hipped people to believe that the hotel is six years. Disappeared six years ago. Who could disappear the hotel? It has to be somebody that's powerful enough.

[Paul Scheer]

And.

[June Diane Raphael]

And Genghis Khan could actually overtake.

[Paul Scheer]

What did you just say?

[June Diane Raphael]

That's actually pretty good.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

But this is like.

[Paul Scheer]

Here's Genghis Khan could overtake the shadow.

[June Diane Raphael]

And the only reason he went into the.

[Paul Scheer]

He needed more power because he was draining his power.

[June Diane Raphael]

So he went into the tomb, and he was just sitting in that hotel room.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

Why do you know this? You shouldn't care that much about this fucking movie. I'm just gonna say this movie was ass.

[Paul Scheer]

I'm gonna say that. Six. Six people. Six people watch this movie. One can describe it. One can explain it.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

I feel a little better now because, like, you, like. No, none of it.

[June Diane Raphael]

The reason why that I don't agree with it is. Is why did the tomb arrive? Yeah, yeah, by, like, delivery.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

But it arrived. It arrived via delivery. And the people at the museum were like, we didn't order this. What is this? We didn't order it. But we didn't order it.

[Paul Scheer]

Right.

[June Diane Raphael]

So if he needs to go.

[Paul Scheer]

Weird security guy open it.

[June Diane Raphael]

Why not deliver it to himself or.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

To the invisible hotel? Yes, deliver it to your invisible hotel, because then this movie would be good.

[Paul Scheer]

But also, why kill the cab driver when everyone in your organization is also taking cabs all the time? You're keeping a record of where I'm going. There's gas.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

Also, why not just be like, yeah, the whole movie is Jedi mind tricks. Why not just be like. Forget you ever drove me anywhere. Okay, cool.

[Paul Scheer]

My power is suicide. Well, obviously, we missed a lot of stuff. I feel like. Did we?

[Jason Mantzoukas]

I don't think we did. Oh, it's. This one's a bad one. What did this get on the tomatoes?

[Paul Scheer]

Well, the tomatoes ratings may not have been around at this point. Yeah, it doesn't have a tomatoes rating. I imagine it's. Oh, no, I remember. I did see it. It was like, 30% like, in the 30s, low 30s. That's generous.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

Cat in the hat that got 10%. So fuck rotten Tomatoes.

[Paul Scheer]

This movie, in the grand scheme of things is the year that Forrest Gump, the Lion King and True Lies came out. And according to the movies that we did in this show, it was Street Fighter and Junior Beat this movie. But Color of Night did worse in this movie. Just to give it some context, let's go into the crowd here, because I think maybe the crowd might have some questions that we can kind of answer.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

35%. 35%. Or I'll also take answers.

[Paul Scheer]

Yes.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

Like in a rare. How did this get made exclusive? Like, please give us answers.

[Paul Scheer]

Okay. So, sir, your name?

[Jason Mantzoukas]

Name?

[Paul Scheer]

Your name. Maybe the title of the sequel and your question. Here we go. My name's Rob.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

The title would be the VO Superhero.

[Paul Scheer]

Oh, I like it.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

And I've got so much.

[Paul Scheer]

He says, hahaha.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

More than the Joker.

[Paul Scheer]

I mean, he's a cloud at one point. But my biggest thing is Tim Curry.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

Oh yeah.

[Paul Scheer]

Why have we not talked about Tim Curry?

[Jason Mantzoukas]

Tim Curry was actually pretty great.

[Paul Scheer]

I like it.

[June Diane Raphael]

It's wonderful.

[Paul Scheer]

His suicide, his rapiness, all of it.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

Well, it's Tim Curry.

[Paul Scheer]

He is playing his character from Rocky Horror Picture Show.

[June Diane Raphael]

It's interesting though, that he committed suicide at the end because then I started to think that he was. He believed that he was going to be. He did believe he was gonna be reincarnated.

[Paul Scheer]

I Not agreeing with that. Not disagreeing with that.

[June Diane Raphael]

Yes, he wasn't.

[Paul Scheer]

Wait, hold on. Tim Curry guy's getting back up.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

Wait, wait, Paul, Paul. Just in case. Once he stands up, you don't need to go to him.

[Paul Scheer]

Good point. That's a good point. I'll go back. Thank you, Jason.

[June Diane Raphael]

Because nobody was forcing him to commit suicide.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

Nobody was forcing him to commit suicide.

[June Diane Raphael]

He did that willingly.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

I at a certain point started to feel like any. And they spoke to it specifically. Was he under the bad guy's power? The whole. Was he basically under the Imperius curse the whole time? I was trying to figure that out. No, the case was. No. What a great excuse for being rapey. I was under this curse. Yeah.

[Paul Scheer]

Sir, your name, your title of the sequel, if there ever would be one. Because it was a planned trilogy and you're probably.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

Wow.

[June Diane Raphael]

It was.

[Paul Scheer]

Yes, it was a planned trilogy. And they had a bunch of merchandise ready to go. Toys, lunchboxes, everything.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

Invisible hero. What merchandise?

[Paul Scheer]

Oh, look, they killed it.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

I have it right here.

[Paul Scheer]

I feel like it's big empty box, just. Fedora. Yeah. All the kids Running around with fedoras.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

Wait, watch this.

[Paul Scheer]

Mom, can I get Ian McKellen for Christmas? My Ian McKellen action figure. And he doesn't know the difference between.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

He comes with a red and a.

[Paul Scheer]

Green wire, but you get to see it in his version, which is just two gray wires. Okay, here you go. Name's Nathaniel. And actually, like I was gonna say.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

That'S a trick question because there would never be a sequel.

[Paul Scheer]

Okay, my thing is.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

Calm down, everybody.

[Paul Scheer]

We skipped a part at the beginning.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

Where it's like a harem and it's an opium dim. They bring the guy in, his faithful.

[Paul Scheer]

Like, guy he grew up with gets.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

In front of him, they tell him to shoot him. Right? To kill him.

[Paul Scheer]

And then Alec Baldwin says, like, he's like, you're like my father. Shoot him.

[June Diane Raphael]

By the way, he couldn't have been like his father because he's only been there for six years.

[Paul Scheer]

Everything this movie is in six year.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

Intervals is his father. Also the knife.

[Paul Scheer]

I want to see the movie with a knife.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

Yeah.

[Paul Scheer]

So then he shoots him and then he tells a joke in like a foreign language and everyone laughs about it. And I was just wondering what you.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

Guys thought maybe the joke was.

[Paul Scheer]

Ooh, that's a good question.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

You want us to tell you what the joke was? The joke was, after this movie, they're gonna make me Batman. Does anybody that deserve more. Did anybody tell us what the joke was?

[Paul Scheer]

Anyone know?

[Jason Mantzoukas]

Anybody speak Mandarin?

[Paul Scheer]

Yeah.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

Completely impossible to assume.

[Paul Scheer]

It kind of is like. Like a low rent version of, I guess what that movie Doctor Strange will eventually be like. You know, like, I mean, Dr. Strange. I mean, in a way, I guess. No. All right, here you go, sir. Your name your alternate title for the movie and do your question.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

All right. Name's Jeremy. The movie would be shadow 2. The parts that make sense. Nice. Jeremy spoke at the show today. Like a lot of the movies, I.

[Paul Scheer]

Think there is an entire second movie.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

Just of the parts that you're missing from this one. There's the training montage. There's the six year buildup that San Khan uses to get control over Nuke and then hypnotize them from a building being gone. That isn't explained at all. So wait, do you think this movie takes place over?

[Paul Scheer]

No, but they say that when the.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

Building disappears six years ago, to believe that. Yes. Is he making you think it went away six years ago?

[June Diane Raphael]

He's hypnotized.

[Paul Scheer]

What happened to those people who were in the hotel six years ago? They booked it on Expedia and Then they get there and they're like, wait a second.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

Don't they say that they sold the building to somebody, Somebody in the Far east, and then somebody foreign. Okay, sorry. Jeremy's. Jeremy's got this. Yeah, yeah.

[Paul Scheer]

They said they sold it to somebody.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

In the Far east, and then nobody remembers it being torn down, but it disappeared right after that. So ostensibly, Khan bought it and then hypnotized everybody to it. Not existing anymore. There's probably. It's probably tied to that Llama cigarettes, because that's what he uses to hypnotize.

[Paul Scheer]

Both of the lanes.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

Right? That's true. That's that. That is like some sort of antenna.

[June Diane Raphael]

And that may be true, but what may not be true is that he's actually been in New York City for six years.

[Paul Scheer]

I'm just gonna throw down one more thing.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

I could make you.

[Paul Scheer]

Why even make the hotel invisible? Just lock the doors. No one will ask any questions. It's not like you. Like you would question like, why is that building here?

[Jason Mantzoukas]

Well, the whole movie is predicated on things being invisible.

[June Diane Raphael]

Yeah. But I do think your point is valid because I think if I were in New York and, you know, maybe a small business owner or doing what.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

What do you think?

[June Diane Raphael]

Wanting to open up a shop, a flower shop or some such. I would look at that property and.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

Think, oh, you're gonna open a flower shop of that property?

[Paul Scheer]

I would love to be a flower.

[June Diane Raphael]

Owner in another life. But I would think to myself, God, it's been vacant for so long.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

I bet I can get it.

[June Diane Raphael]

I bet I can get it.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

Yeah.

[June Diane Raphael]

Because the longer it stays empty and.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

Put up a hotel Siiz flower shop on this plot.

[June Diane Raphael]

But I agree, it. It begs more questions.

[Paul Scheer]

Do you think maybe it was a metaphor for, you know, maybe people from the Asian American community and, like, the 1940s were really not seen, especially in midtown and having a big business, you know. Thank you. Thank you. Yeah. Did we ever get to your question?

[Jason Mantzoukas]

No.

[Paul Scheer]

Jeremy, the question I had goes back.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

To his telepathically killing people or making them kill themselves.

[Paul Scheer]

He has the taxi driver drive into.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

A gas station directly adjacent to the lot of the hotel that he is taking control of. Why would you blow a gas station up in the building you're hiding into?

[June Diane Raphael]

Well, I think similarly, when Tim Curry asks him during the final act, is there an airplane that's going to get us out of here? He says, yeah, there is, but I don't think there was. So was he planning on dying with that atom bomb exploding? I. I guess My answer is, I. I don't know.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

I think he's okay with in general. Why was he going to blow up an atom bomb in New York?

[Paul Scheer]

What was it, world domination? He did say world domination.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

He was. He was saying, give me money. Right, Or I'll blow it. Right.

[Paul Scheer]

But he never really said that to anybody besides the shadow.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

It was on the news.

[June Diane Raphael]

Oh, yeah, it was on the news.

[Paul Scheer]

Good. Okay. That's good.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

A newsy. A newsy gave us that piece of advice, that piece of plot.

[Paul Scheer]

I gotta go to these people who are wearing shirts. What do we. What do we got? This guy has a shirt that says, a man who belongs ATOP a pencil 88 minutes. And then you are wearing the kumite shirt. I love it. Two homemade shirts. Okay. Oh, my gosh. We got fan art. This is amazing. Do you have a question? Okay. What's her name? Your title? And here you go.

[June Diane Raphael]

My name is Mallory. It would be Shadow two. Shad don't love that. So I feel like we've all watched this movie and maybe didn't understand it.

[Paul Scheer]

Are we gonna explain the red rings? Everyone is wearing a red ring and.

[June Diane Raphael]

No one has talked about this?

[Paul Scheer]

Well, the red rings are to keep the shadow people together, but then they're also going off at inopportune times. That would also call a lot of attention. It would be like wearing the bat signal on Batman's chest. And there's so it would be like, hey, Bruce Wayne, why is there a bat signal on your chest? Uh, nevermind. I have to leave.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

And there's so many of them that I feel like you would be constantly running into people and be like, oh, you're a shadow bro. Yeah, total shadow bro, bro.

[June Diane Raphael]

And the other thing is that we're told in the beginning that the Shad Bros. The Shadow Bros. Are actually only gonna be called upon by using the secret exchange of like, it's rainy outside today, or whatever that was.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

Yeah, I. I googled what was the point of the hotel in the shadow. And there's nothing. It don't exist. I would have loved it if, like, while walking through the lobby of the hotel, like, Jack Nicholson had been there on a typewriter.

[Paul Scheer]

You know what, though? Wouldn't have been cool cooler if the Shad Bros did a thing where they would whisper, like a whisper campaign. Like, hey, they murdered somebody at the museum. The next one murdered, like. And that's how he got information, like, through a whisper network.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

It was a combination of past notes that disappeared, pneumatic tubes and rings that lit up. It was Very convoluted.

[Paul Scheer]

And imagine trying to put in all those pneumatic tubes. Like, they. They seem to be very visible and like, why is there a tube shooting out of that building, connecting to it, and very ramshackle.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

I kept being like, oh, somebody's got to be repairing these constants. The pneumatic upkeep alone must be breaking the shadows bank.

[Paul Scheer]

Guys, forget a mechanic. Can I get some more shad bros that can fix these pneumatic, I will.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

Call upon you to fix my pneumatic.

[Paul Scheer]

You didn't even really save my life. You're just making me do work.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

You have now saved your life, so you will fix my pneumatic tube.

[Paul Scheer]

I wasn't even standing in the street. I wasn't.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

You think I don't see that? You haven't fixed my pneumatic tube.

[Paul Scheer]

That guy's got to work there all the time in the pneumatic tube depot.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

I love when Peter Bole get his ring goes when he's with his wife, and he's like, I gotta go. She's like, oh, come on.

[Paul Scheer]

All right, sir, your name, your title, and your question. My name is Daniel. My sequel title is the Shadow Knows too Much. Ooh, interesting. So I have a quick comment. 1. I think the reason he went to the museum is because he mentioned the Tibetan tapestries were really nice. That's where he got the Sikh tapestries to match his floor in his lair.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

Wait, wait, wait, wait. What?

[Paul Scheer]

He was like, the tapestry. The Tibetan tapestry. Tapestries are really excellent in your collection.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

That's not why he was delivered to a.

[Paul Scheer]

It was an inside job to steal tapestries. If that's the whole reason, he's like, all right, so I'm gonna make this hotel disappear. But then once I get that all.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

Set up, I wish that was the movie, because that I could be like, I get it. He wanted the tapestries.

[Paul Scheer]

An ocean's eleven of tapestries.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

Okay, so then I'm gonna. You guys to ship me to the museum.

[June Diane Raphael]

The tapestries were like the rugs that.

[Paul Scheer]

He laid down into the Garden State thing. Yeah.

[June Diane Raphael]

He's been disappearing.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

Didn't something come out of the tapestry?

[Paul Scheer]

He did.

[June Diane Raphael]

He did.

[Paul Scheer]

He did. He made the matching robe, the squares.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

Yeah. What was that? I feel like. Can I say I feel like Maroon shirt has all the answers. I do.

[Paul Scheer]

Maroon shirt.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

Do you know what's up?

[Paul Scheer]

Hold on, I'll come back to you. Stay here. Stay here, stay here. Let's see. Maroon shirt, maroon shirt, colorblind, right?

[Jason Mantzoukas]

What.

[Paul Scheer]

What question? Do you know anything More that you're not letting on, like, you.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

You have answers.

[Paul Scheer]

What do you know that. Yeah, that we should know.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

What question do you want to answer? What's the story of this movie? Start from the beginning and finish at.

[Paul Scheer]

The end with the squares.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

He's doing some sort of, like, power ritual where he needs to summon power to do something. So he's doing this thing, concentrating on the squares. They come out, they do a little dance, and then they, like, rush back into the tapestry and he goes like he's had some sort of power.

[Paul Scheer]

You just described what you saw.

[June Diane Raphael]

I can do that.

[Paul Scheer]

I mean, we're trying to understand. We understand what visually happen.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

We understand from the movie, like, is that. Does that connected to anything we've seen.

[Paul Scheer]

Energon, the movie makes.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

Is he just.

[Paul Scheer]

We're going back to Danielle.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

Is Danielle right? Do the tapestries themselves have power? That he is. Guys, what's this fucking movie about? I'm furious.

[Paul Scheer]

All right, so this is, by the way, now we're getting into the dozens of people who cannot explain this movie. That's a bad sign. There's bad movies, but if you can't even get to A to B, we're in trouble. All right, so Alec Baldwin, married to Kim Basinger at the time, right. Was in Batman. Batman. And the mythology was inspired by Gray Ghost, which was a character based off of the shadow. Alec Baldwin did this movie as a power play in his relationship. Thoughts? Great question.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

Oh, guys, I love that.

[Paul Scheer]

Everybody was like, ooh, burak. Bal was like, I'm going to get back at my wife through comics. I'll upset the comic balance of our relationship. Okay, Question. Better ask without an answer. Here we go. Your name, your title, and your question. My name is Killian, and my title would be Shadow Revenge of the Knife. Nice. All right, so I actually have, like, a theory on who Lamont actually is. Oh, great.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

Lamont is actually Peter Pan.

[Paul Scheer]

I'm listening.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

Yeah, yeah.

[Paul Scheer]

Let me explain.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

Peter Pan and his shadow.

[Paul Scheer]

So Peter Pan and his shadow are two different entities, right? So the shadow of Peter Pan can be captured. So the shadow is inside of Lamont. Okay, so Lamont was Peter Pan.

[June Diane Raphael]

I'm listening.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

In Neverland. All right?

[Paul Scheer]

He starts growing up.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

They kick him out of Neverland because he's aging.

[Paul Scheer]

So he wants his revenge, but he needs funding for his revenge to get back into Neverland. But in that process, forgets about Neverland.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

All right. Forgets about it. You are insane.

[Paul Scheer]

Yeah, I know, right?

[Jason Mantzoukas]

You're an insane person.

[June Diane Raphael]

That's the only way this makes sense.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

It actually does make way more sense than that.

[Paul Scheer]

Yeah, right.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

Like, so he forgets about Neverland and.

[June Diane Raphael]

He just goes on this quest.

[Paul Scheer]

He doesn't know why he's trying to, like, slaughter people and get all this money for revenge. Because he's Neverland.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

I would also watch that movie.

[Paul Scheer]

I love it.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

Because that adds up more than this does.

[June Diane Raphael]

Well, because I do love the sort of metaphorical, like, reuniting with your shadow self with the, you know, the bad part of yourself that you don't like to admit that you don't like to look at, but is always with you, so evil. So, yes, right.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

He's just straight up villain.

[Paul Scheer]

We killed him.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

Alec Baldwin. Yeah.

[Paul Scheer]

Yeah.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

He kills that guy. He's an opium guy.

[Paul Scheer]

Yeah.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

He has cocaine fingers.

[Paul Scheer]

He likes cocaine so much that it's just not the pinky. It's all ten fingers. So at any given point, if one.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

Finger gets tired, I see that as somebody very generous because they've got it one for themselves.

[Paul Scheer]

So he's like a serving tray of cocaine.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

Everybody. Everybody can come and get a little bit. Bit. It's, like more communal. It's not selfish. Like, here I am doing coke. It's like, hey, everybody, come on, come over here. Everybody. Good friends.

[Paul Scheer]

These are great. All great theories, all good questions. All right, I'm going to go back to maroon shirt, because we're just doing it.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

We have to.

[Paul Scheer]

What do you think? What do you have?

[Jason Mantzoukas]

Okay, so my name's Tim. And the sequel would be the Lady Shadow, where he trains Penelope Ann Miller to be. Now they're like a shadow team. Yep.

[Paul Scheer]

Anyway, we liked it.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

So my comment is, when they're in the noodle shop and he's got his business suit on, Alec Baldwin's like, hey, that's the US Of A. You're talking about, pal. Then they both draw their guns, shoot at each other, and the bullets hit each other. But they didn't make that happen. They, like, have a bond and look.

[Paul Scheer]

At each other like, oh, shit. Did that just happen?

[Jason Mantzoukas]

Yeah, yeah.

[June Diane Raphael]

It's because they were trained by the same person.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

But were they really?

[Paul Scheer]

So, wow. So it's a Harry Potter thing. Their wands are connected.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

Oh, you think? It's because they both have the same thing inside. The same Phoenix feather.

[Paul Scheer]

Who has a really good question. I see you're. Okay, you have a good question. You're wearing a cool shirt. I like that.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

Autism had the Elder Wand.

[Paul Scheer]

Wait, what is this? Tell me about it, sir. Your name, your title and your question.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

My name's Jason. Prove it.

[Paul Scheer]

You recognize the Jason? I didn't realize that.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

I know. Is it. Are you really named Jason? Yes, sir. All right. Oh, she's nodding. So I believe it. All right. You're cool. All right. This guy seems to get it.

[Paul Scheer]

The sequel would be the Shadow two.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

Pissing away millions more. And my question. So my understanding of the powers is as far as the building. And I have a question for you, though. Do you consider yourself to be the Jason of your group? Yes, sir. Because my name is Jason, which is the main qualifier. So you're probably the Jason of your group. Cool. Cool. Go ahead. So the way that he and the.

[Paul Scheer]

Building both would disappear was hypnosis based.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

They didn't actually turn invisible, which is why he still cast a shadow. So my question is, why didn't that gigantic building cast a shadow?

[Paul Scheer]

Nice big bam.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

I think.

[June Diane Raphael]

Wait.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

I think. Because I don't think the shadow is hypnotizing people to not see him.

[June Diane Raphael]

He's just becoming a shadow.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

His shadow's still visible because. But that's just because of whatever. I think the hypnosis. I think the hypnosis of the building is the same thing.

[Paul Scheer]

Totally separate.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

You don't see me right.

[Paul Scheer]

Now you see me.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

Now you see me. 3 Shadow. What's up, Shadow Bros. Revenge of the Shadow Bros. Who thinks.

[Paul Scheer]

They'Re have the question that's going to really knock it out of the park. The confidence is high with this guy over here. All right, here we go. Final question. I think. Here we go. Final question. Because we're not making any headway. Your name, Your name. We're further down the road.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

We know less about the movie.

[Paul Scheer]

I feel. Yeah, I really feel like. Yeah. Jeez. Name title question.

[June Diane Raphael]

David.

[Paul Scheer]

I'm gonna steal from June. Shadow Bros. Starring all the bald ones. Okay. If you wanna see a movie about the knife, you can. It was the Golden Child starring Eddie Murphy. It's the same knife. Which. Same actor from the beginning too.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

Yes.

[Paul Scheer]

Which means this is probably a prequel to the Golden Child. Holy. Yes.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

It's not the same knife, really. It's just there's also.

[Paul Scheer]

I mean, it looks. Wait.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

They're the same prop. It's the same knife, same face, same four. Wait, is this real? The Golden Child?

[Paul Scheer]

Is it called an Eddie Murphy. An Eddie Murphy movie?

[Jason Mantzoukas]

Find out if you're a l. Eddie.

[Paul Scheer]

Murphy movie with some of. I mean, it's definitely. Some of the actors are in the same movie. If this is a prequel to Golden Child, we have.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

We have not succeeded in making one. Oh, My God. It is the same fucking night. Okay. Holy.

[Paul Scheer]

So wait, Golden Child is a sequel.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

Wait, did these movies take place in the same cinematic universe?

[Paul Scheer]

That is crazy. That is it.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

It might be a little bigger.

[Paul Scheer]

That's pretty great.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

That's a good call.

[Paul Scheer]

Yeah. Cuz the guy is all the. The guy who's always like making fun of Eddie Murphy is. Is the guy in the beginning who gets shot. Yeah.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

Oh my God. It actually says this. It's the knife from the shadow.

[Paul Scheer]

It's the exact same knife.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

If you Google the Golden Child knife, the shadow knife comes up. But it. By the way, we made a joke about it earlier. That knife got a lot of work.

[Paul Scheer]

Holy shit.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

And it did. It was bad in both movies.

[Paul Scheer]

Well. Well, this is amazing. Wow. Obviously we had an opinion. Let's type in Golden Child knife just so we see a. What? Golden Child knife.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

Huh?

[Paul Scheer]

There we go. So can you get. No, no.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

I need to know if that really happened because I've been doing a lot of drugs and now I don't know if you said Google.

[Paul Scheer]

There it is. Same knife. Just so you can see it. Wow.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

Why. That doesn't. That doesn't. That only makes this movie worse.

[Paul Scheer]

Well, we can buy it for 12 bucks.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

Buy it, guys. @wholesalesworld.com wholesalesworld.com I want everybody to reach under your seats. Everybody gets a knife. Murder each other.

[Paul Scheer]

Wow.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

Only five people can leave this room. Oh, look to the left. It says the shadow. Yeah.

[Paul Scheer]

Yeah, there it is.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

Wow. This is very bizarre. But also the other images. Also bizarre. Yep.

[Paul Scheer]

This is a very visual part of the podcast.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

You were looking for the. You were looking for the shadow knife. Want to see a picture of this girl in a bikini?

[Paul Scheer]

The second episode where we're just googling images and enjoying them all. Okay, so obviously we had an opinion about this movie, but there are some people out there that had a different opinion. It is now time for second opinions. Okay, here we go. These are five star reviews culled from Amazon. Let me just tell you, the reviews for this film were so angry and they're mad at that. They are mad at Batman the character. Batman the movie. They have a lot to say. I'm gonna read you some of my favorites. Here we go. This is from Priscilla. The shadow is something like Batman, Superman and the Phantom and other comic book hero movies. But on the other hand, it's very unlike them in that. I totally loved it. I. I've always loved good looking Alec Baldwin.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

I like that qualifier. I don't love not good Looking Alec Baldwin, also known as Stephen Baldwin in this movie.

[June Diane Raphael]

I have to say, though, he does look amazing in this movie.

[Paul Scheer]

He does look very good.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

He's a hunk and a half in this movie.

[Paul Scheer]

His acting and expressions are very good.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

Which I took both acting and expression.

[Paul Scheer]

Oh, you have to. Did you have to? I took gestures.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

I took gestures. I failed gestures.

[Paul Scheer]

And then it goes, you know, at the end where Baldwin has the hat, the cape, and the scarf off, his outfit really looks like Neo's in the movie the Matrix. Alec Baldwin looks so cool wearing in this outfit with his chrome 45s in his hands. Exclamation point, exclamation point.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

This was written by Alec Baldwin.

[Paul Scheer]

Five stars. This is from Eric Hildebrand. In my opinion, this is a better film than Burton's or anyone else's Batman. It was written in 2008.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

That's a real fuck you to Schumacher right there.

[Paul Scheer]

Here are the reasons. Here are the reasons that it makes it better. One, a deeper backstory and even more ambivalent protagonist.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

That is simply untrue.

[Paul Scheer]

Two, richer characterizations. Three, better co stars. Yeah, I mean, there are some good ones. Yeah, Jack Nicholson's pretty good. Yeah, I really liked him. But, yeah, I guess I. I would take maybe this Ian McKellen. Yeah, this is good. Yeah, I would take this. All right, that wins. One point. Wins a better plot. No, no, I could argue that we could describe Batman.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

Yeah.

[Paul Scheer]

Pretty simply, even from memory. Better special effects draw.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

Same.

[Paul Scheer]

Yeah, same. A more interesting female lead.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

Boo.

[Paul Scheer]

Kim Basinger versus. I guess she was more interesting than Kim Basing. She's.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

Well, she does her own, like, you know, when the bad guy hypnotizes her to kill him. Like, there's a little bit of, like, business to that. But again, like, why is she so able to get into his house with a gun?

[Paul Scheer]

Very easy. Okay. And then this is where it gets off the rails. One of the greatest achievements of this production is that somehow the director avoided the temptation to overlay a modern sensibility onto 1930s characters. Many recent superhero films have imposed a Beverly Hills 90210 or Melrose Place approach to characterization. This is written in 2008, which is a loathsome, loathsome idea. More loathsome is that Frank Miller Sin City approach to character, which can best be described as Mickey Spillane on meth.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

Whoa.

[Paul Scheer]

Besides predating Batman, the Shadow is many ways more of an interesting character. The Shadow has a couple of.45 caliber pistols and used powers of mesmerism to cloud men's Minds. Also, the shadow wore regular clothes, but disguised himself with an overcoat, a slouch hat, and scarf, which is way more stylish and less sissy than leotards.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

Five stars. Doesn't Tim Curry call him a sissy?

[Paul Scheer]

Yes.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

I feel like he uses that word a lot because he sounds like Tim Curry. Yeah, it is.

[June Diane Raphael]

It's so confusing. I mean, I guess we've already gone over this, but, like, why? The shadow's power is mind control. Like, why not just be a shadow and lean into that?

[Jason Mantzoukas]

Yeah, yeah.

[Paul Scheer]

Just enjoy that one power. And the power of being a shadow running around real fast.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

Well, you know, he isn't a shadow.

[Paul Scheer]

He can become a shadow.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

No, I don't think so. All you see is his shadow.

[June Diane Raphael]

Right, but one of his. But what his power is is being just a shadow.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

No, this is where we are. We're at the end of the show and have just discovered this disagreement wherein half of us believe that his superpower is to become a shadow.

[June Diane Raphael]

The movie is called the Shadow, Right.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

All you see, he becomes invisible. And all you can see is his shadow. Right, but he is a physical invisible man, right?

[June Diane Raphael]

Well, of course he could.

[Paul Scheer]

He is a real man. But he can become a shadow.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

Don't. You know what, guys? I don't care anymore. No, this. We need to get to the. I will stay here all goddamn night. Of course, the other movie, the other crowd. I only want to get to the bottom of this piece.

[Paul Scheer]

Who here thinks that he is just a man? And. Well, I guess the question would be, who here thinks he's a shadow just by applause? Like, he can turn into a literal shadow by applause?

[Jason Mantzoukas]

Really?

[Paul Scheer]

Who here thinks that he just. What do you think, Jason?

[Jason Mantzoukas]

Go to the. What's the. What's the crawl at the beginning?

[Paul Scheer]

All right, the crawl at the beginning is this. So it goes. The price of redemption for Cranston was to take up man's struggle against evil. The Tuku taught him to cloud men's mind, fog their vision through the force of concentration, leaving visible the only thing he can never hide. His shadow. Yes.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

Don't worry about it, guys. Don't worry about it. Those of you who doubted me, don't worry about it.

[Paul Scheer]

Well, this is my favorite review, because this is someone who truly gets. Gets the movie. This is from Eve William, written in 2000. Lone displays a modern version of Iago. He must seduce the hero by joining him the conquest of a new empire, controlling the whole world. Great lessons come to display by Baldwin. And you see Baldwin refusing the temptation and Returns to mankind the righteousness which it deserves. Quickly. You see Baldwin in mind controlling a piece of broken mirror in the final scene that ends the dream of a tyrant.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

Five stars, by the way.

[June Diane Raphael]

Can I go back to this for a while?

[Jason Mantzoukas]

That review is better written than the movie. Go ahead.

[June Diane Raphael]

I see. Where. Okay, I see now. I'm understanding from the text, but if his main power weren't to be completely invisible, then like, why wouldn't he just be a shadow all the time? Like why is he not a shadow all the time? If that's the. If that's the pinnacle of his powers?

[Jason Mantzoukas]

I don't think that is. I don't think it's. Well, he's not a shadow. He used to cloud men's minds so they can't see him. So that he seems to be everywhere and nowhere. They don't know where. Like the guy in the. In the beginning shooting wildly because he can't figure out where this guy is. And that's why the cackling laugh. And that's why it is all this kind of disembodied threat. But as we see, he can be shot, you know, he can be hit and he starts to bleed.

[Paul Scheer]

So you could definitely still stay in the hotel.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

He could stay.

[Paul Scheer]

Yeah, no, the hotel still. You could still have like a king size.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

He could go to bed. He could go to bed. You wouldn't see him on the bed, but you would see the indentation of him on the bed.

[Paul Scheer]

And we'll continue this conversation on the wrap up show. We'll just continue the after show.

[June Diane Raphael]

I guess I'm just shocked at how complicated this power is.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

I'm shocked. I can't. I don't know from what's happening. I don't feel good about this. I didn't enjoy it. I didn't enjoy any of this. This was.

[June Diane Raphael]

Yeah, I don't care to talk about it anymore, actually.

[Paul Scheer]

Well, with that, I feel with that we can't go any further. We have discussed it. We have talked to so many people here. No one can make sense of this fucking movie.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

Paul, can I ask the audience a question? Just because I'm curious.

[Paul Scheer]

Go ahead.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

By applause. Who thinks they understood the movement? Okay, good, good. Cause I really thought they're all gonna applaud and we're idiots.

[Paul Scheer]

I'm so glad. But no, I'm glad, like one fourth of the audience got this movie.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

And I bet those like 5 people who clapped are like. Well, I listen to all the radio plays. They're all on audible.

[Paul Scheer]

Well, obviously, I guess we can answer this question, but would you recommend this movie, Pete?

[Jason Mantzoukas]

No.

[Paul Scheer]

June.

[June Diane Raphael]

No.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

Really, really genuinely, and I mean this from the bottom of my tiny stone heart. No.

[Paul Scheer]

I'm gonna just finish it up and say nope. So that is a big answer for all you there. If you want to find out out more about this movie, you can definitely read the article, the companion piece article up on slash film written by Blake Harris. I don't know who he's getting yet, but it will be good as we've just found out recently in Mannequin 2. Some really great stuff. Yeah, so he's getting to the bottom of this. But if you want to have anything that you would like to add, you can give us a call at 619-Paul-Ask. That's Ask Paul-Ask. Not Paul ask.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

It's not Paul ass. No, no. You sure? Because I've been leaving.

[Paul Scheer]

I am actually very. I'm gonna put down my foot and say I'm pissed off at people calling Paul Ask with movie related questions. That is a line for sensuality and that's a line for adult talk, not movie Talk. Call this 619Paul Ask For Movie talk. Okay. That's a profession.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

Paul Ask is where you get dirty dog on the fuck.

[Paul Scheer]

I get adult with other dalts. Yeah, that's what I do. So let's, let's, let's say where we are going to be. Pete, you have anything you want to plug?

[Jason Mantzoukas]

My stand up special will air on Comedy Central October 15th.

[Paul Scheer]

Now, are you a shadow in this? Are you totally corporal?

[Jason Mantzoukas]

Are you visible? No, I'm very visible and very drunk. Enjoy it, Everybody.

[Paul Scheer]

Wait. Said October 15th on Comedy Central.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

Yes.

[Paul Scheer]

All right, great.

[June Diane Raphael]

June, you can check out Grayson. Frankie Season 1 and 2 are both on Netflix.

[Paul Scheer]

Jason.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

I got nothing.

[Paul Scheer]

I'm gonna also just pass a buck and say, yeah, I got nothing.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

I mean, you can, you can follow us I guess on the. How did this get made? Twitter.

[Paul Scheer]

Yeah, you can follow us on Twitter and on our Facebook page. Yeah, we're at HDTGM and we're on the Facebook ad. How did this get made? Big thanks to Avril Halley, who cut all these amazing clips. July Diaz, Nate, Kylie, Marissa Zeitz, Leanna Waldron, everybody here at Largo, everybody at Airwolf. Thank you guys so much for coming out to the live madding us get made. We'll see you on a mini episode. Did you know adults with financial literacy skills have 82% more wealth than those who don't? From swimming lessons to piano classes, as.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

Parents, we invest in so many things.

[Paul Scheer]

To enrich our kids lives, but how much are we investing in their future financial success?

[June Diane Raphael]

With Greenlight you can teach your kids.

[Paul Scheer]

Essential skills like earning, saving and investing, giving them the tools for financial confidence. This investment costs less than an after school treat at Starbucks. Start prioritizing their financial education today with Greenlight. Invest in their future. At greenlight.com.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

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[Paul Scheer]

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