
Jason, June and Paul break down the 1984 masterpiece, Voyage of the Rock Aliens. The crew discuss the rocker aliens, greasers, all the incredible bops, Jermaine Jackson, the toxic tentacle monster, and yes... this movie really does have it all and MORE! (Originally Released 01/27/2022)
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Paul Scheer
This podcast is brought to you by Hulu.
Jason Mantzoukas
Hey everybody, Hulu has a bunch of new stand up specials that are not just funny, they're hilarious. Very funny, Hulu.
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Anyway, they're launching new exclusive stand up.
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Jason Mantzoukas
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Jason Mantzoukas
It's here. It's here.
Paul Scheer
We're under attack. We saw Voyage of the Rock. Aliens. Let's dance tonight. So you know what that means. Now it's time for how to Disobey.
Jason Mantzoukas
Let's wallow in the mediocrity of subpar art.
Paul Scheer
Perhaps we'll find the answer to the.
Jason Mantzoukas
Question how did this get made?
Paul Scheer
Hello people of Earth, and welcome to how did this get Made? I am Tal John Shear and Boyle Boy. Sometimes I think I'm jaded that I've seen every type of bad film. And then I get surprised. And this is one of those movies. Voyage of the Rock. Aliens. Colon. Let's dance tonight. We have a lot to say about this movie. I can't wait.
June Diane Raphael
I didn't know there was a subtitle.
Jason Mantzoukas
I didn't either. I'm just learning that now. And it's only because you've Said it twice that I realize it's a part of the title.
Paul Scheer
Oh, it is a part of the title. And those are my two co hosts. Please welcome Jason Manzukis and June Diane Rayfield.
Jason Mantzoukas
Wow. I mean, wow. Let me be clear. Let me be clear. We have been doing this podcast now for. Is it 12 years, coming up on 12 years, or is it coming over decade?
Paul Scheer
Over a decade.
Jason Mantzoukas
We've made it coming up on 11 years. Anyway, I have never heard of this movie.
Paul Scheer
Nope.
Jason Mantzoukas
No, this wasn't on my radar. This is from the era in which I was renting movies. I was not aware of this movie. And I'm here to say to both of you, this is one of the best movies we've ever done. Whoa.
June Diane Raphael
That's a big statement, Jason.
Jason Mantzoukas
This is this movie. I was laughing, so I loved this movie full stop.
Paul Scheer
I rewound. I rewound this movie multiple times. And June caught me this morning playing the soundtrack on Spotify. Oh, I am. Oh, it's great.
Jason Mantzoukas
Songs are great. This. The movie is once. What? There's something actually quite freeing about there not being a plot, really.
June Diane Raphael
So that. Really, as hard as you look sometimes, you can't. You can't really.
Jason Mantzoukas
You can't really get a grip on either a story. A story. Or there isn't. Because the movie is mostly songs and music video style stuff.
Paul Scheer
Yeah.
Jason Mantzoukas
Ish.
Paul Scheer
And I mean, it's ish.
June Diane Raphael
Well, okay, so you're right. As soon as I'm like. As soon as I was like, oh, okay. It's a story about aliens, like, searching for rock and roll. This music. Then it's like, no, no.
Jason Mantzoukas
Oh.
June Diane Raphael
Oh, no, no, no, no. This is a story about two escaped psychopaths who are murdering people in this town. Like, there were so many. But, Jason, I am with you.
Jason Mantzoukas
Everything. Everything was working.
June Diane Raphael
I really enjoyed it. And actually, I think there were. And I know we'll get into it. There were certain things in this movie that were absolutely elevated, transcendent, interesting, and, like, unexpected.
Jason Mantzoukas
Okay. When the movie starts with the Jermaine Jackson Piazadora planet, not Earth, it's a different planet's song.
June Diane Raphael
Yeah.
Jason Mantzoukas
That I was like, I would happily live in that world. If they'd gone to that world, I would have been into it.
Paul Scheer
The Mad Max, like, world, like Mad Max and new wave existing in a world together. Now, here's what I'll say, just because it's probably going to be very hard for you to understand what we're talking about. It is a movie in which multiple times I rewound Because I was like, oh, I must have missed some connective tissue to get to this next scene. No, I didn't, I didn't. It just really jumps and I guess if we want to just lay down the foundation, go right ahead. Yeah. It is about a group of aliens who are looking for rock music that travel in a spaceship in the shape of a guitar and they're trying to find rock music.
Jason Mantzoukas
That is, they are look like new wave, like Devo style Devo ripoff band. Yeah, they. And they are, that's what they.
June Diane Raphael
Just to stop there for a second at that premise, at that movie that you're describing. Like I never understood why they wanted to find rock music.
Jason Mantzoukas
I didn't.
June Diane Raphael
Yeah, like what? What? Because they are actually end up being a band themselves. So it's not like, oh, we don't know how to do this or we want.
Jason Mantzoukas
It's not like we are discovering music.
June Diane Raphael
No. Like it's not like oh my God, aliens. And then we once heard this thing over the traffic waves and yeah. You know, through light years we heard this sound and we can't get enough of this. Actually like no, they, they do it and better.
Paul Scheer
Well, here's the other thing about them. They are searching the universe for music and that's how we get this amazing opening with Piazzadora and Jermaine Jackson. Now I will say, just so you understand that as we talk about this later on, that Piazzadora is not the same Piesadora in the rest of the film. Yes.
Jason Mantzoukas
Right.
Paul Scheer
So Piazzadora plays Shit.
Jason Mantzoukas
I wasn't either. I was like, I was confused and I kept expecting frankly Jermaine Jackson to show up in me.
June Diane Raphael
She did. Did not.
Jason Mantzoukas
Because their duet was incredible.
Paul Scheer
Their duet.
June Diane Raphael
I want to play the music right now.
Jason Mantzoukas
I want to dance to it.
June Diane Raphael
This morning like I came into his office and I heard him playing it and we straight up like dance to the music.
Paul Scheer
Let's hear a little bit. Let's hear a little bit of when the Rain Begins to Fall.
June Diane Raphael
That's my favorite song.
Paul Scheer
We can have it all and everything will be alright. Here's what I'll say about that song. It's a banger, it's great. But the way that they sing it is fantastic. But the on screen chemistry between Jermaine and Piazzadora is not there. Like it is. They don't look like it's supposed to, I think have an evocative nature of like almost like the end of Greece with like Sandy and. And have that like kind of back.
Jason Mantzoukas
That's what they're doing in the Earth version is very much a riff on Greece, you know, with the. With the diner. And Frankie is kind of Danny Zuko. And you know, like, there's a whole kind of like the Earth stuff is Greece. But this duet between her and Jermaine Jackson was the. It. It starts the movie and it starts the movie strong even. Actually, I would say the song that opened like when the movie opens over credits. It's just already immediately great.
Paul Scheer
But it is. It's like a straight up. It's as if you made like a kid saw Alien and was like, oh, I want to shoot this in my garage. Like, it is a. Like it's this weird, very clunky, like, Forbidden Planet kind of robot. This slowly go for me.
June Diane Raphael
For me. Where I realized, like, this is gonna be a really wonderful motion picture. Was when. Was when that alien robot that Paul's describing took out to call up the crew who'd been asleep for like thousands of years. Took out a bunch of action figures who were each in two.
Paul Scheer
Opens up a refrigerator. A refrigerator that looks like it has leftovers in it. Like it is a dirty old refrigerator.
Jason Mantzoukas
A regular full refrigerator, but the entire crew is inside of it. So who's using the refrigerator?
Paul Scheer
Well, I guess maybe when they are. When they're rehydrated. I mean, these. Well, they clearly. They put the robot maybe put them in the fridge. So they didn't expo. But I'll tell you this much. This crew is bizarre because at one point they print out a paper version of a. Of. Of one of the members who blew up and they pump them up. I don't know what. I don't even know. Are they just like balloons? Are they balloons?
Jason Mantzoukas
When. When the guy. When the. The guy. First of all, we should check the. The. The best buy date on these guys because I think they might have spoiled a little bit in the fridge because they are weird times a million.
Paul Scheer
Yes, yes. The plot is tricky to describe. I would say the only true description of the plot happens by that robot that we're just talking about. Take a listen.
Jason Mantzoukas
Remember, observing physical properties and locating an intelligent life form are what we all came for. Am I making myself clear?
Paul Scheer
It is mandatory that this exploratory mission of interplanetary observation be accomplished without interfering or obtrusively interfacing with the inhabitants of this planet.
Jason Mantzoukas
What'd he say? And one of the guys, like the lead guy, who I think is meant to be like the hunk of the new wave alien abcd.
June Diane Raphael
And they shouldn't have Given him that haircut.
Jason Mantzoukas
I agree.
June Diane Raphael
Given him that haircut. They should have given him to be a hunk.
Jason Mantzoukas
I love that they should have given him.
June Diane Raphael
And honestly, that's my only note.
Jason Mantzoukas
Yep. They should have been like the hunky Karate Kid bad guy hairdo.
Paul Scheer
Well, he. He is a. He is abcd. That's his name. Tom Nolan. Which.
June Diane Raphael
Oh, don't you mean Obsidian?
Paul Scheer
Oh, is it Absid? Okay, because I thought abcd. I thought that was his name. Okay. Absid. Okay, so. Okay, so that's how they pronounce it.
Jason Mantzoukas
That's what Piazzadora says. She assumes she is. Oh, my God, Paul, get it together, my guy.
June Diane Raphael
She reads so Pizzadora. When she meets them on planet Earth, they have on their. They have on their little suits, like abcd, E, F, G, H. I, like, they all have letters. And so she. It's actually not her. It's the other woman. Who's the mechanic?
Jason Mantzoukas
Oh, who's the mechanic?
June Diane Raphael
I could talk about her for about Hol 5 hours.
Jason Mantzoukas
The journey that she goes on from. From, like, hanging out with Piazzadora to the majority of the second half of the movie, just helping the murderer fix his chainsaw in a static shot with tools she brought to the cotillion or whatever.
June Diane Raphael
That was amazing. It was amazing. I was like. It was a choice because I was actually watching that sequence. And I'm sorry that we're jumping all around, but it doesn't matter.
Paul Scheer
It doesn't matter.
June Diane Raphael
It really doesn't fucking matter.
Jason Mantzoukas
Does it matter when the movie turned.
June Diane Raphael
Into a horror film, but actually shot pretty well? Like when she was running away from him and he was behind her in the shadows with a chainsaw, I was like, oh, fuck. And then to have it turn around and have her, like, reassemble his chainsaw, it was such a.
Paul Scheer
And she's kind of giving him shit.
June Diane Raphael
Like, a wonderful choice.
Jason Mantzoukas
She's been having a hard time. Clean this. Like, what? And he's like, never. Like, she's shaming him. The status immediately shifts in the scene to where she's high status and he's.
June Diane Raphael
Low status, but also another layer of what's happening, Jason, is that she is fixing his weapon, which she knows is, like, we all know is probably gonna kill her. So it's the craziest. I've never seen anything like it. I love this.
Paul Scheer
The final scene arcs with him putting down his chainsaw and they go off into the sunset. Now, just so you know, this man that we were talking about, if you've ever seen the COVID box for the Hills have Eyes. He is the bad guy from the Hills have Eyes. A notoriously interesting looking man.
Jason Mantzoukas
Scary, balder.
Paul Scheer
Interesting eyes. Yeah. And so when we first meet him and the other psychopath who he's wearing a straightjacket the entire movie because they've escaped from a mental institution, they don't speak until this one moment where this girl who's kind of a tough girl who can't really find a good guy and seems to be like, just irritated by everyone and everything. Like she softens with this complete, you know, psychopath who's like, they break out.
Jason Mantzoukas
Of a hospital for the criminally insane and they go to a gun store and buy all of like multiple carriages full of guns. It's also just fucking funny. There's jokes that are working all the time. I was shocked.
June Diane Raphael
I want to talk about my favorite.
Jason Mantzoukas
Joke and I hate, you know, how I feel about singing in movies, but I. This movie is better than Annette. This movie right here is better than Annette, by the way.
Paul Scheer
I would put them on the same level as being as experimental. This movie is as experimental as wishes it was.
June Diane Raphael
As Annette could never.
Jason Mantzoukas
Annette wishes that it was as organic as this movie. That it felt as organic.
Paul Scheer
Well, just so you know, not because I don't want to. I don't want to reveal too much, but I'll say that this movie was written as a send up of B movies. And someone read it and they said, you know what? This doesn't work. We need to make it a musical. And then they just shot in the musical numbers. So this was a conceived script without any music. Then they're like, we're going to make it a musical. And then when they had bad test screenings, like, we need to put more music in this. So they put that Piazzadora Jermaine Jackson song at the top because it was supposed to just be the end sequel. So this movie is just like Creatures.
Jason Mantzoukas
So so initial initially it was a movie movie, a non musical movie. Then they added music and then they kept only the music and got rid of the plot. Because there is zero plot in this movie. Really genuinely like. Except that there's aliens. There's kind of a battle of the band. I just want to give like shouts to Ruth Gordon as the sheriff.
June Diane Raphael
Okay, okay, okay.
Jason Mantzoukas
Doing incredible work.
June Diane Raphael
No, no, she is Ruth Gordon.
Jason Mantzoukas
Ruth Gordon from Harold and Maude.
June Diane Raphael
She deserves it all. She's the greatest scene. This scene where. Which is such an unnecessary scene where she's in her sheriff's office and there's a dead body and she says she Picks up the guy's wallet and she's like, this is the hardest part. The way she delivers this whole sequence is the hardest part of the work that I do. And then calls that widow. I was. I was laughing hysterically.
Jason Mantzoukas
She calls and she says, is this the widow of John.
June Diane Raphael
What's his face?
Jason Mantzoukas
John. What's his name? And the person. The person basically you could tell, says like, no, I'm not a widow. I'm not a widow. And she says, well, you are now.
Paul Scheer
He's dead, by the way. I understand. It shouldn't be that. She clearly doesn't do it. She doesn't know enough to even lead with the right question. But she. How did she fall out of her perch in the beginning? Cause she catches the alien ship on a telescope, a very high powered telescope. Cause she's seeing people inside the phone booth.
Jason Mantzoukas
She's creeping out. She's looking at people right through their windows and stuff.
June Diane Raphael
Yeah, I thought she was looking. Well, first I thought she was a man. So it took me a second to hear, to recognize who she was. She was looking at a guy, like undressing, right? Yeah.
Paul Scheer
So she's a peeping sheriff.
June Diane Raphael
Yes. She has so many layers.
Jason Mantzoukas
Holy shit. She is so. Everybody in this movie is just. I don't know what they're doing. They're just crushing. This movie has no business.
June Diane Raphael
Everybody was great.
Jason Mantzoukas
It has no business working. Especially for just the fact that it's no story. And wall to wall songs. And the songs also don't tell a story noises are like.
Paul Scheer
If you were to break down the lyrics of the song.
Jason Mantzoukas
Nonsense.
Paul Scheer
They are legit bad. They are bad lyrics that are fantastic. Yeah, they're like. I have pulled up some lyrics here. I mean, nature of the beast I really want to get into, but it is here. Here's some of the lyrics.
Jason Mantzoukas
Bangs, women's bangs are a character in this movie. Like June. I feel like. I feel like you could talk about the hairstyles in this movie forever. It was. This movie is so aggro. 80s, both in the sense of like embracing all of the new wave kind of rockabilly stuff that was also popular at the time.
Paul Scheer
Well, is it new wave verse, rockabilly?
Jason Mantzoukas
Because it's like versus like, like the Greasers. Like there was also like the 50s nostalgia too, which was going on, you.
June Diane Raphael
Know, I didn't know that was a thing. So that was a thing in the 80s. The 50s nostalgia.
Jason Mantzoukas
Yeah.
Paul Scheer
Yes.
June Diane Raphael
Okay. So that was new for me. I didn't understand that.
Paul Scheer
It was very hard to pinpoint anything in this film. Because in the beginning of the film, when they are looking for music in the universe, they find it three different times. Like, one is like a ballroom dance. Like, ew, boring. All right, great. And then they find that Mad Max world, that Jermaine.
Jason Mantzoukas
Then there's one that's just like, Muppets, right?
Paul Scheer
Muppets.
Jason Mantzoukas
Like Muppets or something.
Paul Scheer
Something bizarre. And then they find that Jermaine Jackson world, and there's no music there. And like, ooh, this is good. But it's basically like the precursor to a song. Like, they, like, they're looking for music, and that's the only world that doesn't have music. And they're like, we like that music before. Even what they are on that TV screen looking for music in the world.
Jason Mantzoukas
Watching that music, though, because they're trying to figure out if that's rock music. And they decide, no.
Paul Scheer
Well, but the first one, they're like, that's not rock music. The second one, that's not rock me. But then they watch.
Jason Mantzoukas
Oh, they watch all of the duet.
Paul Scheer
Well, there's like, about a 40 second. Not music. It's just like. It's just Jermaine Jackson, like, hanging out.
Jason Mantzoukas
With, like, rival gangs and motorcycles.
Paul Scheer
There's no music there. Let's keep this on.
Jason Mantzoukas
Like, they don't even, like, in all white dress and white motorcycles. I mean, like this and then Piazzadora running through, like, what looked like an Italian village just to get to Jermaine Jackson so that they can sing. I mean, like, Jermaine Jackson. That was incredible.
Paul Scheer
That open whoever. I mean, clearly, Jermaine Jackson was in Italy and, like, we need to shoot this part in Italy the rest of the movie. Like, I don't know where they shot it, but there is also. I want to talk to whoever scored the movie, because someone definitely put up the volume level on Jermaine's snaps because his snaps are louder than any instrumentation or any song. It's just like, like, so incredibly aggressively loud over the music. I was laughing.
Jason Mantzoukas
Also, like, it's also like two gangs are in a fight. It's almost. I don't know if it's supposed to be like, a Romeo and Juliet riff. It feels like warriors. Yeah, they're from different. They fall in love, but they're from different gangs or whatever. But when they fight, when they actually get to fight, all anybody knows how to do is front kicks. It's like the gentlest fight ever. It's so. There's like, everything feels like every fight feels like it's dance choreography instead of fight choreography.
Paul Scheer
It feels like a music video and gymkata mix.
Jason Mantzoukas
Yes.
Paul Scheer
It's like. It's weird. And that's what this movie is like. I always say people go like, what's your favorite movie you've done on the show? I'm like, oh, it's tricky because I think the room is like, the ultimate one. But then I'm. Now I've been saying, like, oh, I think Miami Connection.
Jason Mantzoukas
I was gonna say Miami Connection felt this felt like the discovery of Miami connection.
Paul Scheer
I agree 1,000%. And. But it's like this. You can tell, like, there are moments of this movie that feel like a corporate retreat business video. Like, they're like, all right, we're all going on a retreat and we're gonna learn how to share and we're also gonna do a TikTok together. Like that, like, level of like, there's like some sort.
Jason Mantzoukas
Like there's someone there all singing at the beach. And then Frankie comes up and they're like, it's Frankie. And then Frankie goes. I decide who sings with the band around here. I was like, oh, who is this guy? Frankie's some sort of, like, music bully who, like, decided. I was like, well, he's also kind.
June Diane Raphael
Of a gang member. Oh, yeah, I loved Frankie. I thought he was great.
Jason Mantzoukas
He was.
Paul Scheer
This podcast is brought to you by Hulu. Hey, everybody. Hulu has a bunch of new stand.
Jason Mantzoukas
Up specials that are not just funny, they're hilarious. Very funny, Hulu.
Paul Scheer
Anyway, they're launching new exclusive standup specials.
Jason Mantzoukas
From awesome comedians like Jim Gaffigan, Ilana glazer, Roy Wood Jr. Bill Burr, and tons more. A new special drops every month, and they've got a huge library of stand up specials to check out. Go to Hulu and get your stand up fix Now.
Paul Scheer
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June Diane Raphael
I also like, we're forgetting that there's another story. There's the aliens looking for rock. There's you know, the escaped convicts. Convicts, yeah, Psychopaths.
Jason Mantzoukas
There's Ruth Gordon and her, there's that her deputy.
June Diane Raphael
Then there's also like the toxicity of the land and what's happening. Oh my gosh, like a like chemical giant octopus.
Paul Scheer
They're like on Lake Erie. They're on Lake Erie and Lake Erie is, it's like do not hang out. And this is why I'm saying like, I don't even understand what planet this is.
Jason Mantzoukas
Lovecraftian tentacle monster that lives in the water.
Paul Scheer
They're doing like a neck funicello back at the beach kind of energy. But on the beach, when you put a surfboard in the water, it disintegrates and you see a tentacle and it's like. And this water, they are in a nuclear. There Is something going on that they don't really address, although it comes into.
June Diane Raphael
Was it Spielberg or Spielberg?
Jason Mantzoukas
Spielberg.
June Diane Raphael
Spielberg, isn't it?
Jason Mantzoukas
Is it.
Paul Scheer
Well, Spielberg is the guy.
June Diane Raphael
Spielberg.
Jason Mantzoukas
Oh, what is it?
June Diane Raphael
Spielberg is the town.
Paul Scheer
I thought Spielberg was the guy.
Jason Mantzoukas
No, the town is called, I think Spielberg or is it Spielberg?
Paul Scheer
Well, I thought it was Lake Erie. I think it may be Steelberg because. Oh, man, this is interesting here. I have a clip. I have a clip where they.
June Diane Raphael
Molly said it's Spielberg.
Paul Scheer
Yeah, the town is Spielberg.
Jason Mantzoukas
The town is Spielberg.
June Diane Raphael
Steven Spielberg.
Paul Scheer
That's what I said, Spielberg. Oh, not like the director.
June Diane Raphael
No, like Director.
Jason Mantzoukas
Well, it's a homonym. It's spelled differently, but it sounds the same.
Paul Scheer
Okay.
June Diane Raphael
So, yeah, I mean that. And by the way, that was like. So. So here's the thing that I didn't understand about that. But again, I was fascinated. I couldn't take my eyes off of what was happening with that sort of like Beach Boy's energy over this toxic wasteland. But that tentacle, the first time we see it is the first time we're in Spielberg.
Jason Mantzoukas
Yes.
Paul Scheer
Yes.
Jason Mantzoukas
Yeah.
June Diane Raphael
So does no one else see it at that point?
Jason Mantzoukas
No, they. And the guy, he notices his. His surfboard disintegrate. Like, everybody seems to know.
Paul Scheer
I think, well, there's enough warnings on that sign. The beach sign basically is like, no loitering, no sitting, no having fun. It was a lot. You know, the sign went on like they clearly are. These kids are like, we don't care.
Jason Mantzoukas
Did anybody ever address, like, the horrors that are going on outside, like, like the. The monster in the. In the lake or.
June Diane Raphael
Well, Piazzador has a monologue which I thought she delivered beautifully to. I liked her the. I liked her a lot to the head. Alien hunk, quote unquote. But she says that at one point. They did, yes, Absid. They did try to like, take care of the, you know, the toxic water and all this stuff that was happening. But then a chemical plant opened or something. But it just seems like this is the way of life.
Jason Mantzoukas
This movie is a better. Better addresses climate change than. Don't look up this movie.
Paul Scheer
Really. I mean, the metaphor here is very clear. And I honestly, you know, I walk away and go, the climate change is a problem. I mean, this is it. It's affect. Affecting our kids. It's affecting our kids. And you know, what are we gonna realize when this tentacle comes into our schools? Is that when we're gonna finally open our eyes.
June Diane Raphael
I want to talk about the tentacle because the tentacle is A big part of the end of the movie, which.
Paul Scheer
Is not a threat throughout any of the rest of the movie. It's like. It's like introducing King Kong or Godzilla in the last three minutes.
June Diane Raphael
Here's what. Yes. Here's what the tentacle reminded me of. Because so. So a lot of things are being resolved at the same time. Like, the, you know, the chainsaw murderer is now falling in love with the greaser girl, and P. Is back with Frankie, and Frankie's going to include her in the band. Like, all we're resolving so much.
Paul Scheer
But then they put the panther back in the locker.
June Diane Raphael
But then. Oh, my God.
Jason Mantzoukas
Oh, my God.
Paul Scheer
Welcome back to Panther. Sorry, Frank.
Jason Mantzoukas
Is that a cougar or whatever? When he. When he puts a big cat, a jungle cat, into his school locker and closes the door, I was like, this movie has everything.
June Diane Raphael
It really does. So then. But. But when. Just when we think, like, things are going to be okay, turns out that Heidi High is being attacked by this now really big octopus creature.
Paul Scheer
But not even octopus, June. Tentacle, Just tentacle. It is Lovecraftian. Yeah. You don't see a face.
June Diane Raphael
You don't ever see a face. But, like, I'm watching this tentacle and they couldn't even. It has no. How to describe it? It's like you have to fall into it. Yes. It looks like one of my pregnancy pillows that I used to use that were just like. That are soft. And if they hit you, they would never attach or wrap around you. There would be no way they could hold you down.
Paul Scheer
Everyone falls into the tentacle and then is not held by it. But it's almost as if there is a gravitational pull because the tentacle is not even opening and closing. Like a small grip. It's just like it kind of comes like a cane. At Showtime at the Apollo, we're gonna pull you off the stage. It's like that kind of level.
Jason Mantzoukas
You can tell everybody's being directed. Like, pretend. Once it touches you, act as though you're stuck to it.
June Diane Raphael
Now don't go crazy, because it's also so slow. It's like there's no world in which you couldn't get out of this tentacle hole.
Jason Mantzoukas
Holy.
June Diane Raphael
No, I mean, you just simply honestly walk away.
Paul Scheer
And what does the tentacle do? Because there's no mouth and it doesn't seem to be constricting you. So, like, what's the end game of the tentacle? Just to, like, kind of hug you, Touch you.
Jason Mantzoukas
Yeah, yeah, yeah. It just wants to be part of the gang. I think.
Paul Scheer
And when they decide to kill it or when it's defeated, it's defeated. This thing is giant. It's over. Heidi High. It has multiple. An entire school. And our guy from the hills has eyes. Who has now had his chainsaw fixed and found love. Slices off a piece that seems to.
Jason Mantzoukas
Be like 3 inches, 6 inches long. I was gonna say, like, very small. Very small. It would be like, cutting off, like. Like one knuckle of your pinky.
Paul Scheer
Yeah, I was like, when you.
June Diane Raphael
I was gonna say, like, after you've peeled a carrot. Or before, like, just cutting off the perfect.
Paul Scheer
Yes, just a little. Like, especially in contrast to how big it is. That is what defeats it. But when he does that, what happens is bubbles come out. Yeah, like a bubble. Like a bubble maker, water gun, bubble.
Jason Mantzoukas
Blower just is, like blowing bubbles out of it. And everybody's like, that's the thing is insane happen. Things happen throughout this movie. Like in the malt shop, when the. When Absid, the head of the alien guys, sees Piazzadora for the first time, smoke comes out of his neck and his body literally explodes.
Paul Scheer
He explodes, and he explodes in such.
Jason Mantzoukas
A way onto people. His arm is on his arm, his head.
Paul Scheer
And by the way, everybody in the.
Jason Mantzoukas
Malt shop is, like, cool.
Paul Scheer
And by the way, that head, when they are traveling around with his head, which is not a replica of his face. It is a dump. It is a mannequ. And by the way, I know that these are not, like, we're not, like, attacking it. It's just brilliant. And I think maybe that's why he had to have that haircut, because it matched the wig on the mannequin. They're running around with this head around town, and they have to get back to their phone booth, which clearly Bill and Ted stole, and to go back to their ship to then put all of the pieces in, like, a compactor that, like, then prints out, like, a fruit roll up of him or in different pieces. And then they put the fruit roll up in another machine that then PR. Another, like, a color form of him. And then they just pump, pump, pump him up. I mean, that's it. And then he's back.
Jason Mantzoukas
Then he's back in action. You know, they're ready to go back down so he can. So they can do battle of the bands occasionally. I mean, is that like every. What would happen is there would be, like, a song would happen every. I would. I'm gonna say every three minutes, a new song would start, regardless of what had happened in between. Like, it. It didn't matter. A new song like the song Justine. I don't know why that's there.
June Diane Raphael
I don't know who that person was.
Jason Mantzoukas
I don't know who Justine was. I don't think she was. I don't think she was a character in the movie. But she's in that. She's there for that song.
Paul Scheer
Can I read some lyrics?
June Diane Raphael
I forgot about this.
Jason Mantzoukas
Please.
Paul Scheer
Justine, Justine, Justine, Justine. You don't treat me right. Justine, Justine, Justine. You don't treat me right. You'd like to ball in the morning, Stay out late at night. Going to the barbershop. Gonna have him do me up. Gotta clean up for my little buttercup up. Justine. Justine is Justine. Yeah. Mama's papa's sisters, brothers, uncles, crazy child. Woohoo. Justine. Justine is Gene. Like, I mean, this is the lyrics of this move. This is like there's. The majority of the song is just Justine.
Jason Mantzoukas
It's incred. And that's the level that the movie is at. Like most of the songs are just repeated words or phrases over new. Way over. Terrific New wave music.
Paul Scheer
Yeah. That's life. That's life. That's life. That's life. Finding an illusion, preserve the confusion. Always craving control. Searching for something to say. Ignoring what matters. For things that don't matter at all. That's life. That's life. That's life.
Jason Mantzoukas
Holy shit. Now I found my little bit of heaven. Holy shit.
Paul Scheer
Oh, wait a second. The song in the bathroom where they're singing and it starts with underpants around ankles.
Jason Mantzoukas
Yeah.
Paul Scheer
Everyone's shitting and pissing.
Jason Mantzoukas
Shot over the feet at the bottom of all of the stalls in the girls room at Heidi High. Panties around every set of ankles except for one. Somebody not wearing panties. Did anybody notice the graffiti in the bathroom?
Paul Scheer
No.
Jason Mantzoukas
There were two things that two spray painted graffiti on the wall. One said mustangs rule, comma, okay, Question mark. Mustangs rule. Okay. And then the other one was it ain't my job. Oh my God. That was spray painted on the wall of the girls room.
June Diane Raphael
Sorry.
Paul Scheer
Oh my. There are so many. Look, by the way, I also wanted to ask you what you thought. There's clearly a scene in this movie that they shot at a local county fair where they're on a circular ride. And then it also cuts to them playing a video game. Like an old school Asteroids.
Jason Mantzoukas
And I was like, oh yeah, yeah.
Paul Scheer
I'm like.
Jason Mantzoukas
But they.
Paul Scheer
But I think it was revealed that they weren't at a. It wasn't like. That wasn't part of like the thing I think that was just, like, part of their ship. I think they were trying to get production value to be like, oh, this old Atari game is actually our ship controls. I mean, by the way, their ship controls are a recording studio. Like, they are straight up reel to reel and. And volume knobs. That's how they. I mean, it's awesome. It's so. It's. It's Star Trek in a recording studio. Like, that's what their bridge is.
Jason Mantzoukas
Oh, my God, there's.
June Diane Raphael
It's so interesting because I know usually I have a hard time remembering all these movies, but I am. I'm genuinely. Like, when you're describing that roller coaster scene or whatever that that attraction was, I. It sounds. Of course I remember it now, but because the movie goes to places you could never expect, you could never anticipate, you could never come up with, it's really hard for me to. Like, I'm experiencing it in New right now because, like, I completely forgot about Justine. But of course I did because it was so separate from the rest of the movie. It's like, we saw a million movies.
Paul Scheer
You were saying that no narrative. It's just images.
Jason Mantzoukas
Yeah. And you can't think to yourself, well, what happened after the scene where they revealed. Blah, blah, blah. Because it's just a fever dream.
June Diane Raphael
Yeah.
Jason Mantzoukas
Of. Of. Of song segues. It's. It's.
June Diane Raphael
Yeah. You gotta let go and let God.
Jason Mantzoukas
Yeah. This movie felt more like watching MTV in the 80s than it did watching a movie.
Paul Scheer
I mean, the fact that Jermaine Jackson and Piazzadora. Well, first of all, the fact that Jermaine Jackson never comes back is odd. And he's billed as, like, the first person in the film, but the fact that Piazzadora looks really no different in both worlds and that she. I mean, I'm gonna say that they didn't. That she's not the same person. Like, it's bizarre. That is also bizarre. Like, wait, you. You don't even. You don't even go, oh, she looks like the girl in the video. I mean, we talked about with Gremlins at Ad Nauseam. Like. Like, why isn't anyone going, like, isn't that the same girl from the video? Or I guess they're just. I mean, there's only one. There's only three girls in the entire movie. Like, it's hard to not address the fact that we've already met this person on a different planet, but yet she's.
Jason Mantzoukas
Not the same person. That was needlessly confusing.
Paul Scheer
Just put a unicorn thing on her. Yeah.
Jason Mantzoukas
Like, Play both parts. I was. That confused me because I was like, oh, did she go from that planet to earth? I mean, I didn't get that. But to this movie's. To this movie's benefit, I didn't give a shit. I didn't examine it at all. It didn't, it didn't bother me, it didn't bump me. I was like, please don't. I can't. Like in my notes I have. I don't know what's going on, but I'm loving.
June Diane Raphael
Yes, exactly.
Jason Mantzoukas
I don't know what. Yeah, I have no. I wrote. I have no idea what is happening and yet I'm riveted.
Paul Scheer
I mean this. Can I just show you? Like I want to like this. And this is like. This is like a perfect example, a perfect example of like what we're talking about. Like, just like, listen to this dialogue. He dumped us like yesterday's garbage. Yeah, well, yesterday's garbage can still kick up a stink. That's right.
Jason Mantzoukas
Right on. He doesn't care about us. Yeah, and the garbage man ain't gonna stop here anymore either.
Paul Scheer
You're drinking.
Jason Mantzoukas
Yeah, any garbage man tries to get his slimy hands on me is gonna get his friggin teeth kicked. That garbage man's name just happens to be Frankie. So. So, so. So wait. Weirdly, Frankie seems to run the band, right? But he's weirdly not the lead singer. This blonde guy is I think, right?
Paul Scheer
Yes. Frankie I think is. Is putting it all together behind the scenes. But Frankie's not the. Frankie's the one who comes in.
Jason Mantzoukas
Frankie does sing his own songs. Yes, but like they are like solo songs.
Paul Scheer
But Frankie's also the one that. And I'm sorry if I'm mixing up characters. Who is shirtless, wearing a leather jacket, but the jacket's a little bit too small for him. So you're always seeing a little bit of belly like you're seeing midriff. Like I've never to seeing midriff in a leather jacket like that. It should just go down to meet the pant. It was uncomfortable for me to see his little belly button sticking out when he's trying to be cool.
Jason Mantzoukas
I can't express enough to you guys. I'm scrubbing through the movie looking for stuff and I'm like, it's the same four sets and it's the same characters. They're just singing different nonsense songs. And I'm even silently I'm having. And then I just realized the song that is Now I've found my little bit of Heaven is just the alien guy. Absid and Piazzadora singing in front of, like, a green screen that's just showing images of space. And then he's basically like that. He's like, we can be together as soon as I remove. As soon as you get an emotionectomy or whatever. What's it called?
Paul Scheer
Right.
Jason Mantzoukas
It's basically that, like, we're gonna remove your emotions. And she goes, well, what about sex? And he's like, well, don't worry about it. And she's like, I'm out of here.
Paul Scheer
No, no. He says, don't worry about it. Cause we have sex any, like, every day. And she's like, what? He's like, every Monday, every Tuesday, I'll play it for you here. But what about love? There is no love on our planet. Nor hatred. You're kidding. No. The operation takes it away.
Jason Mantzoukas
But with all the emotion gone, how can we have, you know.
Paul Scheer
Sad. Ah, that.
Jason Mantzoukas
Yeah.
Paul Scheer
Don't worry. On our planet, we have sex almost every night. Almost Monday, almost Tuesday.
June Diane Raphael
Maybe I don't have to have one.
Jason Mantzoukas
If we're going just to visit.
Paul Scheer
It wouldn't be just for a visit.
June Diane Raphael
No.
Paul Scheer
No.
Jason Mantzoukas
You mean I'll never see Spielberg again? Heidi. Hi, Frankie.
Paul Scheer
That's correct.
Jason Mantzoukas
I felt like the aliens were then shown to be devoid of emotion and sexuality. And so that's why she goes running back to Frankie, because he's all about, like, jealousy and emotions and. And they have, like, a sexual chemistry, blah, blah, blah. They're making out and et cetera. But that the aliens didn't have that. They were more like. Which kind of. The exploding alien guy supports this? Maybe kind of robots or. I don't know what's going on.
June Diane Raphael
Were robo or robot like.
Jason Mantzoukas
But because they also had to. Because they did invent a stimulator. They had to invent a female stimulator, which was weird.
June Diane Raphael
And then that went horribly wrong. But.
Paul Scheer
Yeah, but basically it made everyone want to. Him.
June Diane Raphael
Yes.
Jason Mantzoukas
Only men.
Paul Scheer
I forgot all about that, by the way.
June Diane Raphael
I know, but he. He was already having sexual, like, reactions.
Paul Scheer
Yes. He want. He wanted to be in love. He's like, you love me. Like, he was looking for love. He was there looking for rock. But what he found was love. That's the tagline. But wait a second.
June Diane Raphael
But here's the weird thing, though. So he. This misunderstanding between the two of them. Like, she. I thought, also really wanted to be. Yes. With him, maybe. But more than that, in his band. And she.
Paul Scheer
Yeah. She wants to get famous.
June Diane Raphael
And he's going back To Frankie because he's also willing to, you know, because.
Jason Mantzoukas
He sees her perform. Yes, he sees her perform at the Battle of the Band.
Paul Scheer
There's that moment where he goes, you can come back to my planet. And she's like, oh, great. And we can do marketing and have press and we'll do shows. He's like, oh, wait, don't you want to come back for me? And she's like, oh, yeah. But she's got her eye on the bigger prize. She's not here for love to.
Jason Mantzoukas
She's career oriented, which is great.
Paul Scheer
I mean, again, a beautiful sentiment in an 80s movie to show a strong, you know, a woman. This is like pre frozen. Then we're getting, we're getting a. You know, this is, this is exciting.
Jason Mantzoukas
She's ready to let earth go so she can go to some other planet to become a singing sensation.
June Diane Raphael
Well, that I guess was my question for her. It's like, well, to go to another planet to become a singing sensation, like, what is the. What is that? What is that world to you? Like, what does that mean to her? Exactly.
Paul Scheer
Yeah, yeah.
June Diane Raphael
I don't know.
Jason Mantzoukas
Nature of the Beast, Frankie's solo song.
Paul Scheer
Let's talk about this. Because Nature of the Beast is something that I need to study as it's a.
Jason Mantzoukas
Like this, this, this movie should be studied like the Torah. There should be like, there should be like a rabbinic.
June Diane Raphael
I do kind of want to watch it again and I don't know if we do a follow up, but. And maybe it's just a shorter version.
Paul Scheer
But I would watch this again or.
Jason Mantzoukas
A longer version, but it did.
Paul Scheer
If we did this episode back to back. Back the mini episode back next week, Voyage of the Rock, Aliens. We're going back in because I do think. And then going back in and going, all right, now I see the.
June Diane Raphael
I want to watch the whole opening sequence again immediately.
Jason Mantzoukas
I watched the whole opening sequence before we started.
June Diane Raphael
Oh, you did? I wanted to, but I didn't have the time. So did you learn anything new?
Jason Mantzoukas
No, I didn't. I just wanted to because I wanted to watch the Jermaine Jackson song again because I couldn't remember. Only later did I start writing down the names of the songs. So I wanted to go back and write that and get that one down. But there is. It starts so strong. It's been. Here's what I'll say. It's been an incredibly long time. I feel like since we watched a movie that I genuinely want to tell people to watch. And you know what I mean? I Want to proselytize for this movie because it's so good in the way in which we think movies are good.
Paul Scheer
Well, this is like. This is. And my issue with, like, a movie, like, and velocipaster and stuff like that is, like, it's trying so hard to be like this. And when you see this, you're like, that's my. Oh, I love it. It is like. You're right. I just want everyone to watch it. I'm listening to the soundtrack because it is, like, organically. It is insane.
June Diane Raphael
Other than the main alien's haircut is. I did want the sheriff to have her own musical number.
Paul Scheer
Yes. She felt like she was heavily ADR'd or they didn't have sound on days when she was working.
Jason Mantzoukas
Like, sometimes I felt like Gordon was. Was. Was near the end here. I felt like there.
Paul Scheer
There.
Jason Mantzoukas
She. She felt a little wobbly to me.
Paul Scheer
I mean, but she did have a moment where she kisses this guy, and you feel like you. You feel. She gets all excited, and they speed her up. Almost like she's in, like, an old, like, Benny Hill, like, episode. Like, it's. It is what's happening.
June Diane Raphael
Okay. I love the scene where. Where she tells that woman, you know, her husband's dead. But why in. I just want to stand up.
Paul Scheer
She starts off strong, like, we need to fight these aliens. I mean, she's against the aliens.
June Diane Raphael
She wants focus on that. And also has to, like, deal with all the murders that are happening in town. But. But the guy who comes in, who's dead, he's holding a piece of fried chicken, and then his hand, like, moves to grab it under the. Under the blanket. So what was going on there?
Jason Mantzoukas
Oh, I don't remember that.
Paul Scheer
I don't remember this at all.
Jason Mantzoukas
I remember. Didn't the. I remember the deputy taking.
June Diane Raphael
He was alive.
Jason Mantzoukas
I remember the deputy taking the chicken and eating it, but I don't remember the man's hand moving. Oh, that's interesting.
June Diane Raphael
Yeah. That man was alive.
Jason Mantzoukas
I'm gonna be honest. I maybe took more notes for this movie than I've ever taken in my entire life.
Paul Scheer
I'm going through my notes.
Jason Mantzoukas
None of them make sense.
Paul Scheer
That's what I'm looking at right now. What does this mean?
Jason Mantzoukas
My notes aren't jogging memory? Because this movie was just insane.
Paul Scheer
I mean, like, there are things, like I said, like, I played that garbage man clip. Like, they just say garbage man like, 10 times. Like, you know, it's like they also.
Jason Mantzoukas
Turn the robot into a fire hydrant, which we didn't talk about which is absolutely insane.
Paul Scheer
The robot fire hydrant is a beautiful idea for. It's also like that will fit in, but it clearly is cumbersome at every level. Molly adds in here. She does that. He was wiping grease off of his fingers.
June Diane Raphael
The dead.
Jason Mantzoukas
The corpse.
Paul Scheer
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Jason Mantzoukas
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Paul Scheer
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Jason Mantzoukas
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Paul Scheer
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Jason Mantzoukas
So good. And another way Jack gives you so much more. We also, I think June, you got interrupted when you were talking about when the robot takes the crew out of the refrigerator and reanimates them or whatever. They go through like an action figure set of tubes.
Paul Scheer
Like a hamster tubes.
Jason Mantzoukas
That is so funny to me. And it's just the movie is so visually satisfying.
June Diane Raphael
And that's what I loved about it. Jason, like that moment, that's where I was like, I all in. Because it's such a sort of low budget choice that is insane.
Paul Scheer
But also inventive.
June Diane Raphael
Very inventive, very interesting. I'm like, I loved it. Even the woman with the hairspray and all the stuff getting stuck on her and the arm getting stuck on her. Like, all of that stuff, I thought, really, they really worked.
Paul Scheer
I mean, they clearly have no money and they try to make the most of it. And they do it in the best ways. Like when that fucking tractor trailer pulls up on the beach, it's like, wait, now they have farm equipment.
Jason Mantzoukas
Like, they just get a tractor. The steamroller, right?
Paul Scheer
Yeah, the steamroller. Yeah.
Jason Mantzoukas
Don't they run over two guys and flatten them, too? Doesn't the sheriff run two people over with a no, I'm Talking about the flat in them?
Paul Scheer
No, I'm talking about the guys. The band arrive on the beach, like in like a big. Like a big. Like a farm truck. Like they're all performing on the farm truck. I'm like, what is this? And they also, the way that they transport themselves. Like one comes out of the urinal, like. Like.
Jason Mantzoukas
Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. They come out of bathroom stalls. They teleport into bathroom stalls. Except one guy's stuck in the urinal. I wrote in the middle of the. In my notes I have like, you know, we're catching up at the crazies at the gun store. Crazy set up at the high school dance. And then I wrote. I don't know what to do. Every scene needs full discussion.
June Diane Raphael
I know, I know, but there's choices. Okay, so the other choice I absolutely loved and this movie, this director is patient because there is a sequence where one of the alien. Because they're also, I think, coming. Yes. To find rock music, but also go out and do these observations. And so one of those observations about Earth is this one alien going to a mental institution. He's trying to figure out how to get in the way they shot him. Standing there at the wall with the chainsaw, like cutting out an outline of himself.
Paul Scheer
Right?
Jason Mantzoukas
Well, yeah, just basically around him. Like a doorway around him.
Paul Scheer
Yeah, it's a cartoon level.
June Diane Raphael
Yes. But it works.
Jason Mantzoukas
There's a lot of. Everything works. There's a lot of Looney Tunes level stuff in here that is really funny. Like I will say the, like the band being like. Like the alien band. Sorry, I should be specific cuz there's.
Paul Scheer
Yes.
Jason Mantzoukas
The alien band being aliens, they're perfectly cast as like they don't know what's going on. They're just innocent in the world. Right. So even so, like they're. When they're just wandering around looking and watching, everything they're doing is, I think, very funny and very silly.
June Diane Raphael
The whole sequence where they get to their diner and are sitting at the table.
Jason Mantzoukas
Incredible. Yes. Even. Even a scene which could be like not cool. Where they won't stop touching and smelling the hair of the mechanic girl. I laughed so I was like, they will not stop smelling her hair.
Paul Scheer
But what I think is so great about that is the way that she plays it. She's like, oh, like she. And that also like leads into like why she falls in love with this, this criminally insane man. Like she's like, oh, finally someone I can actually relate to. He's not like a super creep. He's outwardly More of a creep than them, but internally he's not. And that's what makes their love so real. And that's what I love about it.
Jason Mantzoukas
Holy shit. It's really fucking funny, man.
Paul Scheer
I mean, he. I want to like break it down in a way where we can just talk about the male Persona. So at this one moment, Piazzadora's boyfriend on earth, Frankie. Frankie is. Is upset. His girlfriend has run off with Absid. And. And now what does he do? He goes to his locker, which is, yeah, four times larger than a normal locker.
Jason Mantzoukas
Well, it's the. Yeah, it is four lockers wide.
Paul Scheer
So he opens up this locker and first my biggest laugh was just seeing the like, almost a poster sized image of Piazzadora.
Jason Mantzoukas
It is a poster sized image.
Paul Scheer
It's like, it's a shrine.
Jason Mantzoukas
It's a huge poster. It takes up the entire wall of his. Of his door. Wall of his locker, which is four lockers wide. Also, we've seen in this movie his picture on the bath. On the, on the wall of every female bathroom stall door. Yes, right.
Paul Scheer
Yes, yes.
Jason Mantzoukas
And so they are undeniably the. The queen, the beautiful people of this. Of Heidi. Heidi High, right? Was that. Yes.
June Diane Raphael
Heidi High, the movie.
Jason Mantzoukas
Amazing.
Paul Scheer
And. And so then this song starts. And this is the song that, like, I was already in love with this movie, but this cemented it for me, this song about the male Persona. We'll play a clip here. Take a listen.
Jason Mantzoukas
Thought my innocent face could hide my dark elusive eyes but now I think I know I'm committing and emotional homicide.
Paul Scheer
This song is masterful. I mean, truly, like he is performing with a cougar or jaguar.
Jason Mantzoukas
Then there's women dressed really in the shot with him too. I was like, dangerous.
Paul Scheer
Oh, this whole movie is incredibly dangerous. At one point I read Nick Kylie sent me some research and the chainsaw was wired the wrong way. So, like, what you do with a chainsaw in a movie is you flip the chain so it won't cut you. They had forgotten to flip it. And the guy from the hills have eyes. Like, actually, I think you gotta, you gotta flip that. And they're like, oh, good call. Thanks. So like, so I don't know if safety was of the utmost concern because that jaguar at a certain point also felt like they couldn't control him because he's just standing on top of like a heater or a radiator in an apartment. And they just get like a shot of that too. It seems like out of place in the whole rest of the song.
Jason Mantzoukas
I was like, does This I wrote. Does the cougar live inside his locker?
Paul Scheer
Well, clearly at the end, I mean. Or is he putting away his emotions?
Jason Mantzoukas
His song takes the way these. What's great is about what I like about these is that like the songs, not, they don't just exist in the space they are in. Right. He can start his song Nature of the Beast, but then it will like a music video. It'll cut to, like him in the forest with the jet, with the cougar, the desert.
Paul Scheer
Weird.
Jason Mantzoukas
You know, we have not seen. Yeah, this or that. Like, it's like a music video in that sense. Because like those. The songs are treated like short films. Almost like they don't just limit themselves to like, okay, it's just them standing here singing the song. It's like, well, we can do whatever the we want. And they go for it and it's hilarious. This song is insane. Is this the only song he sings? I believe so, except for the duet. They sing a duet at the end, he and Piazadora. But.
Paul Scheer
But I think he's lip syncing that one or this. But maybe he's lip singing both. I don't know. But there was something about it where I was like, it. That song just felt pure. That's the one that makes the most sense, you know? Yeah, like. But now I think I'm committing emotional homicide Leaving you alone had to be the worst thing I could do because look at me now Running around like a fool yes. That's the nature of the beast Keeping up the male Persona that's the nature of the beast Keeping up my status quota that's the nature of the beast who wants to give love and affection oh, the nature of the beast doesn't want to end up alone oh, no don't want to be alone well, here's the interesting.
June Diane Raphael
This is one of the reasons why I want to watch it again is because I want to like, drill down on and I can't believe I'm going to say it, but the bigger story, like, I know where. I know it's going to be hard to find, but I do, I do think ultimately these alien men were able to teach the real life men, the real life humans how to be more human. Right. And like, that's.
Paul Scheer
Wow, you're reading into that. Okay.
June Diane Raphael
Yeah, I think they were. I think that was sort of the bigger story that they were. Even though they were completely. And that's kind of an interesting commentary. Like, they're complete. They don't have hearts they don't have.
Jason Mantzoukas
They don't have emotions.
June Diane Raphael
They don't have emotions. And they are actually able to teach them humanity.
Paul Scheer
Well, let me. Let me. Can I just piggyback on this and say by acting like a fool, they show the cool kids that you don't have. Like, you don't have to be cool. You just have to be pure. Right. And so, like, their performance and the way they interact, whether it was, like, having that sex chip that made people attracted to them or having exploding in the diner, like, they are so unaware of authentically themselves. Yes. They're not embarrassed. They're not shy.
Jason Mantzoukas
They're also inclusive. Like, they're not about, like, making rules or this. You know, like, they're like, yes, Piazzadori, you should sing with us. You should. You know, like, there is. They're not. They. They're. They're. Yes. Anding everything. They're. They just wanna. They're happy to be there.
June Diane Raphael
Happy. They're not trying to.
Jason Mantzoukas
Yeah, they're exactly. They're not trying to, like, impose anything. The way that, like, I think Frankie's trying to, like, control everything and I'm in charge.
Paul Scheer
Get out of my way. Like, and I think I decide who.
Jason Mantzoukas
Sings with the band, which is crazy.
Paul Scheer
In this small town that seems like it's there. It doesn't seem like success in this small town is gonna translate into a larger.
Jason Mantzoukas
Well, Spielberg. The town that has, like, a toxic lake with a. With a tentacle monster. I mean, this is. The town's got a lot going on.
June Diane Raphael
It's a story about toxicity. The real sort of environment of toxicity.
Paul Scheer
Oh, yes.
June Diane Raphael
Toxic masculinity.
Jason Mantzoukas
I would. To your point, June, I would rewatch it just in, like, I would watch it, like, 20 minutes at a time. Like, I would just pop this on.
June Diane Raphael
That's a really interesting.
Jason Mantzoukas
And be like, oh, yeah, I'll watch three songs. Just visually and musically, this movie is insane and so compelling.
Paul Scheer
I might argue that this movie is better served. Bite size, like, you know, it is. It is. But here's what I'm saying.
June Diane Raphael
God, I wish. Quib. This is a perfect movie to bring that back to a.
Paul Scheer
This is a quibby. Now, June, you said before something about the director. You said, wow, this director had tremendous restraint, tremendous patience. Right? You said that.
June Diane Raphael
I did say that.
Paul Scheer
Would it surprise you that this director's first movie was a Dirty Harry movie? He directed the Enforcer.
June Diane Raphael
I thought there was that Clint Eastwood reference.
Jason Mantzoukas
Oh, I assumed that was also because Ruth Gordon was in Was it Every which Way But Loose with Clint Eastwood.
Paul Scheer
Well, and by the way, he also directed that movie as well. This guy is a legit. Like, he directed the Enforcer.
June Diane Raphael
Not surprised.
Paul Scheer
Every which Way But Loose. Then he directed. He directed a movie with which I remember just from a kid, it's Chuck Norris movie called Forced Vengeance. I always remember because it looks like he's breaking out of the VHS cover box. Like his. His elbow is, like, cracking.
Jason Mantzoukas
I remember that cover, but I've never seen it.
Paul Scheer
Yeah. And. And then follows that up with Voyage of the Rock, Aliens, and never makes another movie again. But he was coming off of two giant hits with Clint Eastwood, like a huge Dirty Harry movie and a huge comedy Dirty Harry. He's not like. I mean, a lot of times in these movies we talk about, like, oh, well, this is a guy who never directed anything. Oh, he did this, he did that. Like, this guy is coming off of a successful run of two big movies. Like, what's.
Jason Mantzoukas
What's fascinating about this, this movie is that it's got tons of characters, tons of songs, no story, no plot. The only discernible kind of emotional story that you can track is the Mechanic Girl and the serial killer and the chainsaw Serial killer.
June Diane Raphael
True. That was the.
Jason Mantzoukas
They are the only people who have a beginning, middle, and an end where they go through a change, where their lives are changed by each other.
Paul Scheer
Because how does it even really end? They just. Their ship is wrecked at the end, and then that's it. Like, they. They just go home.
Jason Mantzoukas
What do you mean? Wait, sorry. What do you mean?
Paul Scheer
I'm trying to remember. Like, how does it even end now? Like, I'm like. I'm like. I'm even. Like, the alien end.
Jason Mantzoukas
The movie end.
Paul Scheer
Yeah, like, they just go home. I mean, I know that they defeat the alien, but, like, their ship is kind of destroyed, but they go home.
Jason Mantzoukas
Right?
Paul Scheer
The aliens?
Jason Mantzoukas
I am assuming so, yeah.
Paul Scheer
I mean, it's not. It's not. Their. Their story isn't even very. It's not like. And that's what we learned. And we're out of here. It's like, the fact that basically the.
Jason Mantzoukas
End of the movie is the Piazzadora Frankie duet.
Paul Scheer
Right. And they're not.
Jason Mantzoukas
Which is all on green screen.
Paul Scheer
Yeah.
Jason Mantzoukas
Which is like. Which has, like. I'm just scrubbing through it right now. It's green screen with, like, behind them is, like, the sky or people on Windsurfer. Like, it's nuts. And then there's, like, a brief moment with the aliens, and then their ship just leaves our solar system.
Paul Scheer
Before we get into second opinions, I want to talk about the scene when he admits that he's an alien. I'm an alien. Well, that's okay.
Jason Mantzoukas
There's lots of English bands. What about Menudo?
Paul Scheer
We'll get you a good immigration lawyer.
Jason Mantzoukas
And you'll have your green card and citizenship paper in no time.
Paul Scheer
No, I mean, I'm from another planet.
June Diane Raphael
Wow.
Jason Mantzoukas
But, you know, I guess it's not surprising I'd fall for an alien.
Paul Scheer
Lois Lane fell for Superman.
Jason Mantzoukas
There have been lots of mixed couples like that. There's Fay Wray and King Kong.
Paul Scheer
The fact that she's like, oh, it's. Mixed couples are fine. She's so open to Fay Ray and King Kong as a.
Jason Mantzoukas
As a romantic couple.
Paul Scheer
As a romantic couple, like, that's their.
Jason Mantzoukas
They made it work.
Paul Scheer
They made it work.
Jason Mantzoukas
They didn't make it work.
Paul Scheer
They were not in love. Oh, my God.
June Diane Raphael
Well, she had her eye on the prize. She was like, yes. She was like, I've only been thinking in this, like, limited way of this earthly market for music, like, there might be a whole other.
Jason Mantzoukas
Here's what. Here's what else. I'm going to offer a different read on this movie, which is. Is Piazzadora has been traveling from planet to planet trying to be the star, trying to be the lead singer, trying to be the star. And on the Mad Max Jermaine Jackson planet, it's like, there's too much violence. The gangs can't get along, and. And so she finally travels to Earth. And Earth still has all of this kind of. The men are fighting and the men won't let her sing or whatever. And it takes these aliens to show the men of Earth that they should let Piaz Adora sing. Let her sing. And boom, she does. And she's incredible. So I think the movie is about her traveling from planet to planet, trying to find her spotlight or whatever, trying to find her moment. And this. And this is it. I don't know.
Paul Scheer
I love it. Look, it's happened again. You know, we normally come to this part of the show and we say, you know, clearly we have an opinion, but there are people out there with a different opinion. But honestly, we are sharing the opinions here because we think this movie is genius. It is now time for a second opinion, which is truly just our opinions. Hit the theme. All right, these are five star reviews, cold from Amazon. 97 reviews of this, 63% are five stars, which we agree with. And I'm going to say we agree with these opinions. This one by Kelly R. Is my life is now divided into before Votra, which is Voyager, the Rock, Aliens, and after votra, 21st century is the dreamiest, catchiest box. The B story romance of Allison Laplaca's character Diane, moved me to tears. Ruth Gordon is in this movie rarely enough that every time you see her, you go, oh, yeah, Ruth Gordon. I don't know how I went four decades without this film in my life, but I stumbled upon it at last, and I am so grateful. Five stars. And you know what? I feel the same way. This one from Teasley Nielsen Kirby says, I'm only partly finished, and it's difficult to swallow all at once, but I love this movie so much. A masterpiece of sorts.
Jason Mantzoukas
Five stars it is. I agree. And again, like, I'm scrubbing through, and the fashions and the hairstyles are all perfect. Like, you can't. Like, when people try and do 80s set movies now, they blow it. This is it.
Paul Scheer
Well, that's something like.
Jason Mantzoukas
Even this weird combination of, like, new, wavy, kind of modern, poppy colors. There's big bangs, like, the big bangs going up and going down, that whole situation, but then also 50s pompadours and all that bullshit. It's all represented.
Paul Scheer
What I'll say, too, is, I know I said that thing. It's like a corporate retreat trying to make a TikTok. But there's something also about that that is so dynamic as well. Yes. Now, June, here's what I'll say. This is one that you may agree with or disagree with with, but I'm gonna throw it out there. We've talked about it a lot. Donna Lynn Gerhard wrote this. This film ranks alongside Grease 2 as the greatest musical ever. 5 stars. June, what do you think?
June Diane Raphael
I disagree, but I loved this movie. But Grease 2, like. Like thinking about your reading of this movie, Jason, I'm like, yeah, that would have been great, but she should have ended up with a solo career. And I agree. I main. I don't.
Jason Mantzoukas
I don't really think that.
June Diane Raphael
Yeah, I. I just. I just think, yeah, it doesn't Compare to Grease 2, but we don't need to compare them, right?
Jason Mantzoukas
And. And if I'm. I'll be honest, like, I would. I'm. I would be thrilled to show anybody this movie. To Show Somebody Grease 2 would be great, but there is a way in which I almost feel like I'd have to show them Grease, you know, or something, versus I feel like I could drop this on and people would just freak out. Like, also, I think there's something wonderful about. And I don't know, maybe I'm just wrong but it sounds like it was the same for you two. I've never even heard of this. This is not.
Paul Scheer
Thank you to our producer, Avril Halley, for finding this. And she talked about this movie, and I've been putting it off a little bit because. Oh, it sounds like a little bit. Like, maybe it would. I was nervous that it would fall into that category of, like, okay. But I always trust Avril, and my gosh, I'm so happy that we got to it when we did. I almost feel like it's a great palate cleanser to start our new year off with, you know, even after Shadow in the Clouds. Cause that movie also is bizarre and weird.
June Diane Raphael
But I'm sorry, you guys. I'm just jumping off of this zoom.
Jason Mantzoukas
Okay, bye.
Paul Scheer
And unfortunately, that was June. She has to go. She's talking to our pediatrician. But, yeah, no, this is a movie I want to see in a theater with a bunch of people. It makes me excited. Like, what we should do.
Jason Mantzoukas
I would want this to be like a. How did this get made? Screening at the album.
Paul Scheer
I'm going to. When we get a little bit past where we are in Covid, I'm going to talk to Alamo, and we are going to host this at Alamo Draft.
Jason Mantzoukas
This is audience. An audience would fucking lose their minds over this. It's so funny.
Paul Scheer
But it's.
Jason Mantzoukas
It needs to be seen. Fun. Yes.
Paul Scheer
This. This is. This is the movie. This is the movie. I mean, this is it. And it's like. And the fact that it's only on YouTube for free is.
Jason Mantzoukas
Oh, no. I rented it on Amazon. No, I watched it on Amazon.
Paul Scheer
Oh, wow. Oh, okay, great.
Jason Mantzoukas
I don't even think I had to rent it.
Paul Scheer
Okay. I was gonna say I just. I watched it on YouTube. I was like, it was great.
Jason Mantzoukas
I watched it on Amazon. Yeah. That's interesting. Oh, but that's why. Well, I see. That's why. Because mine only says Voyage of the Rock Aliens.
Paul Scheer
Okay. So when I saw it, it was. The title said, Voyage of the Rock Aliens. And then with the colon, let's dance tonight.
Jason Mantzoukas
There's so much I'm just again, scrubbing through. There are so many scenes we haven't talked about, and I don't even know what happens in.
Paul Scheer
We should just do another episode. Let's do another. Rewatch it and do another episode. This almost should be our New Year's resolution. Every year we watch this movie and just come back to it. Like, what have we learned? We've talked about doing that for our first episode. We should do that for this. Well, this has been. I mean, yeah, I'm changed. We all are. Are.
Jason Mantzoukas
Jason, a lot of 100% recommend it.
Paul Scheer
A lot of press on this new role that you got. I've known about this for a while, and I've forgotten to talk to you about it. And to see people's reaction to this new role, I want to maybe tell everybody what you have going on.
Jason Mantzoukas
I believe you are talking about the fact that it has been announced that I will be playing the voice of Tommy Lee's penis in the Pam and Tommy Lee Hulu series.
Paul Scheer
Yes.
Jason Mantzoukas
That. That Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg and Craig Gillette lesbian. A bunch of great people are making.
Paul Scheer
And I didn't realize that that penis conversation that you are. That you are voicing was in a book. Like, it was. It was.
Jason Mantzoukas
It's a real. It's a real moment from Tommy Lee's memoir where he talks about how after he met Pam, he had to have, like, a talk to his penis. He had to talk to his penis because he, like. And. And in the book, it's like a conversation with his dick about, like, I think I'm in love. And his dick is basically like being like, whoa, whoa, whoa, man. Are you sure? You know, it's. It's. I mean, this. It's. It's nuts. It's pretty nuts.
Paul Scheer
I will say, I am so excited to see this. And, I mean, it's with a great cast and, man, I like. I love these stories that are also completely reinventing what I thought was something I knew about in a completely new way. I'm in this brand new series that I really think is great. Ed Helms, our friend Ed Helms and Randall park, who you know from our. Our Face off episode, he. They have created a show called True Story where they interview real people about things that have happened in their life, and then they dramatize those stories and.
Jason Mantzoukas
Oh, cool.
Paul Scheer
And Adam, Pally and I are in one about a guy who snuck into the locker room of the Steelers after they won the super bowl and got on the bus to. Oh, funny, he didn't even have tickets to the Super Bowl. Pally plays that guy. I play the equipment manager. They're great stories. It's funny. It's sweet. And Ed and Randall interview, and they got a great cast. It's kind of like if you like drunk history, it, I think, has some similarities without being exactly that, because it is. These are the people telling their stories. They're narrating.
Jason Mantzoukas
It's a first person Telling the first person storytelling, not like telling some other story.
Paul Scheer
Yes. And it's directed by the great Jordan Rubin, who is also a friend of the show and super fun. And now, if June was here, I'm sure she would tell you to check out the Jane Club. You know, there's a bunch of great stuff going on there. You could also be listening to the Deep Dive with her and Jessica St. Clair. Get it? Wherever podcasts are heard, it's a great show and I love listening to the two of them even though I'm not allowed to. So every now and then people tell me and then I'll I, it sounds great, but I'm forbidden to listen to it. And now let me just give a big thanks to our producer, Cody Fisher, our producer Molly Reynolds, our engineer Devin Bryant, our other movie finding producer, Avril Halley. Thank you for bringing this movie into our lives. You forever changed us once again. I don't know how you manage to do it, but you do it all the time. Make sure you check out movie bitches on YouTube. Nate Kiley finding research on this movie hard to do. And he did it. And of course, July Diaz making sure that this episode always sounds smooth and cool. The art is provided by the great people that we have met on Instagram and Facebook. That is Zack McAleeseGhostOfCraigtnelson on Instagram and of course Kyle Waldron, who has made all of our Facebook and now our Instagram post with all the quotes from the show. If you want to get a shirt for this episode, and the shirt is simply a beautiful silhouette of Piazzadora with that tentacle sneaking up behind her, will it get her? Of course not. But now you can have it in any way you want it. Just go to teepublic.com, type in how did this get made? And you will see it probably is on sale. You can get it as a sticker, you can get it as a hoodie, you can get it as a beer koozie, whatever you want. And we want to hear what you have to say. So please give us a call at 619p a u l a s k. That's 619p a u l a S k. That's Paul Ask. And what you'll be doing is telling us what you thought about the movie. But if you just want to sit back, relax and chat with me about your life, have a question for Cody or Molly or Devin. They'll also chime in. We'll help you out in every mini episode and we will see you next week for a mini episode. And I mean, I'm just already upset because I don't know how we're going to top this for our next movie, but I'm sure Avril will find a way. Also, if you're still listening, that means you're a super fan. And that also means that you might have bought a ticket for our show in Canada, which is now being postponed. That's right, our show in JFL is being postponed because of the COVID restrictions. So more on that rescheduling visit hdtgm.com you will see when we re announce that hey Fidelity. How can I remember to invest every month? With the Fidelity app, you can choose a schedule and set up recurring investments in stocks and ETFs. Oh, that sounds easier than I thought. You got this?
Jason Mantzoukas
Yeah, I do.
Paul Scheer
Now, where did I put my keys? You will find them where you left them.
Jason Mantzoukas
Investing involves risk, including risk of loss.
Paul Scheer
Fidelity Brokerage Services, LLC Member nyse, SIPC.
How Did This Get Made? – "Voyage of the Rock Aliens (HDTGM Matinee)" Summary
Release Date: April 1, 2025
In this episode of "How Did This Get Made?" (HDTGM), hosts Paul Scheer, Jason Mantzoukas, and June Diane Raphael delve into the bafflingly chaotic and hilariously convoluted film, "Voyage of the Rock Aliens: Let's Dance Tonight." Joined by insightful commentary and sharp humor, the trio dissects every facet of this avant-garde homage to B-movies, exploring its plot, characters, musical numbers, and the bewildering directorial choices that make it both a masterpiece of mediocrity and an unexpected gem.
At approximately [02:01], Paul Scheer welcomes listeners to the episode, expressing both skepticism and excitement about tackling yet another enigmatic film. The hosts quickly establish their enthusiasm for "Voyage of the Rock Aliens," with Jason Mantzoukas proclaiming it as one of the best movies they've ever tackled on the show ([03:01]), setting the stage for a deep dive into its peculiarities.
The film centers around a group of aliens traveling in a guitar-shaped spaceship, seeking the ultimate rock music across various planets. The narrative is intentionally disjointed, leaning heavily into musical numbers that often sidetrack the main storyline. Paul summarizes the plot succinctly:
"It is about a group of aliens who are looking for rock music that travel in a spaceship in the shape of a guitar and they're trying to find rock music." ([05:36])
However, the absence of a coherent storyline compels the aliens—and, by extension, the audience—to navigate a series of disjointed scenes that oscillate between absurdity and moments of unexpected brilliance.
Piazzadora and Jermaine Jackson Duet: One of the standout elements is the opening duet between Piazzadora and Jermaine Jackson. June remarks on the lack of on-screen chemistry despite the song's infectious energy ([07:35]), highlighting a misalignment between performance and visual portrayal.
Ruth Gordon as the Sheriff: Ruth Gordon delivers a performance that becomes a focal point of discussion. Her portrayal in a scene where she awkwardly interacts with a widow showcases both comedic timing and unintentional hilarity:
"And the person basically you could tell, says like, no, I'm not a widow. I'm not a widow. And she says, well, you are now." ([16:32])
Jason praises Gordon's ability to infuse the role with an unpredictable flair, adding layers to what could have been a one-dimensional character.
Frankie – The Managerial Enigma: Frankie emerges as a complex character, juggling roles between band management and being the object of affection. His portrayal, especially his flawed attempts to control the band's dynamics, is both laughable and strangely endearing:
"Frankie seems to run the band, right? But he's weirdly not the lead singer. This blonde guy is, I think, right?" ([39:18])
The film's backbone lies in its relentless barrage of musical numbers, each more perplexing than the last. The hosts dissect several songs, noting their repetitive and nonsensical lyrics juxtaposed with catchy new wave melodies:
"Justine" ([33:17]):
"Justine, Justine, Justine, You don't treat me right."
Paul marvels at the song's simplicity and how it encapsulates the film's overall disarray. June expresses a desire to revisit these segments to fully appreciate their quirky charm ([44:04]).
"Nature of the Beast" ([44:06]:
Jason describes it as a "masterful" piece that combines deep lyrics with over-the-top visuals, further cementing the film's status as an avant-garde experiment.
The hosts commend the film for treating songs as standalone short films, giving each musical number a life of its own rather than serving as mere plot devices:
"The songs are treated like short films. Almost like they don't just limit themselves to like, okay, it's just them standing here singing the song." ([56:16])
Directed by a seasoned filmmaker known for action and comedy, the movie's shift to a musical format is both baffling and intriguing. Paul provides insight into the director's journey:
"This movie was written as a send-up of B movies. And someone read it and they said, you know what? This doesn't work. We need to make it a musical." ([15:27])
The hosts debate the effectiveness of these choices, acknowledging the challenges posed by low-budget constraints while appreciating the inventive solutions:
"They clearly have no money and they try to make the most of it. And they do it in the best ways." ([50:19])
Visual elements such as the tentacle monster and the alien band's spaceship are scrutinized for their low-budget charm and how they contribute to the film's unique aesthetic.
Beyond its surface absurdity, the film subtly explores themes like toxicity—both environmental and societal. Paul interprets the tentacle monster as a metaphor for looming environmental threats:
"The metaphor here is very clear. And I honestly, you know, I walk away and go, the climate change is a problem." ([28:34])
June adds another layer by suggesting the aliens teach humans about humanity, despite their lack of emotions:
"I think that was sort of the bigger story that they were. Even though they were completely... they are able to teach humanity." ([57:51])
However, the hosts acknowledge that these themes often get lost amidst the film's chaotic narrative and relentless musical interludes.
The hosts express a mix of frustration, amusement, and genuine appreciation for the film's audaciousness:
Jason Mantzoukas ([03:15]): "This is one of the best movies we've ever done. Whoa."
June Diane Raphael ([12:23]): "That film turned into a horror film, but actually shot pretty well."
Paul Scheer ([34:19]): "Bangs, women's bangs are a character in this movie."
Jason Mantzoukas ([34:31]): "Most of the songs are just repeated words or phrases over new wave over."
Their dialogue oscillates between mockery of the film's inconsistencies and genuine admiration for its boldness:
"This movie feels like watching MTV in the 80s than it did watching a movie." ([37:20])
"Voyage of the Rock Aliens" is frequently compared to various cult classics and genre-defying films:
"Mad Max" and "Grease 2": The hosts draw parallels in terms of setting and the film's attempt to blend disparate genres.
"Forbidden Planet" and "The Muppets": These comparisons highlight the film's eclectic mix of sci-fi elements and whimsical musical segments.
"Miami Connection": Jason likens the discovery of this movie to their experience with "Miami Connection," suggesting a shared sense of unexpected delight in unconventional cinema.
Despite its bewildering narrative and technical shortcomings, "Voyage of the Rock Aliens: Let's Dance Tonight" emerges as a film that challenges conventional storytelling through its unabashed embrace of musicality and absurdity. The hosts unanimously agree on its cult status potential, with Paul Scheer even suggesting repeat viewings to fully grasp its layered chaos.
Jason Mantzoukas encapsulates the sentiment best:
"This movie is so visually satisfying and so compelling." ([49:32])
They conclude by expressing a desire to host screenings and encourage listeners to give the film a chance, recommending it as a must-watch for fans of experimental cinema and unintentional comedy.
Notable Quotes with Timestamps:
Jason Mantzoukas at [03:15]: "This is one of the best movies we've ever done. Whoa."
June Diane Raphael at [12:23]: "That film turned into a horror film, but actually shot pretty well."
Jason Mantzoukas at [34:31]: "Most of the songs are just repeated words or phrases over new wave over."
Paul Scheer at [28:34]: "The metaphor here is very clear. And I honestly... the climate change is a problem."
Jason Mantzoukas at [37:20]: "This movie feels like watching MTV in the 80s than it did watching a movie."
"Voyage of the Rock Aliens: Let's Dance Tonight" stands as a testament to the unique charm that can emerge from cinematic missteps. Through their insightful and humorous analysis, the HDTGM hosts not only critique the film's flaws but also celebrate its unorthodox brilliance, making this episode a delightful exploration of one of the most unusually crafted movies in recent memory.