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- [00:00]
Lele Pons
This is an iHeart podcast.
- [00:02]
Michael Lasker
Guaranteed Human.
- [00:04]
Chad Millman
If you've been sitting on a business idea for a while, consider this the sign to take action. It can even be made official today by creating a website with WIX Harmony. Just tell WIX Harmony what you want and it will build the entire site, business features included and everything can still be edited by hand. It's your website, your call. Try it@wix.com that's wix.com hi, it's Colin
- [00:33]
Colin Cowherd
Coward from the Colin Coward Podcast. Every goal starts with an assist. As Official partners of U.S. soccer, this team is ready to deliver Sensodyne dentist recommended defense of your sensitive teeth Centrum Fueling your day with science backed nutrients. Advil of course. Powerful inflammation fighting pain relief. Voltaren Arthritis gel helps penetrate deep, keeps the joints moving and tums ready to counterattack with fast heartburn relief. Learn how Halion can assist your game day goals@helionassist.com Colin all new drinks are now at McDonald's with refreshers like the Strawberry Watermelon Refresher and the Mango Pineapple Refresher with Popping Boba to crafted sodas like the Sprite Berry Blast with berry
- [01:21]
Michael Lasker
flavors and cold foam.
- [01:24]
Colin Cowherd
Who knew ice cold drinks could be so fire six?
- [01:30]
Michael Lasker
All new drinks are here now at McDonald's.
- [01:34]
Simon Hun
Refreshers contain caffeine.
- [01:36]
Joe Jonas
Hey everyone, it's the Jonas Brothers.
- [01:38]
Michael Lasker
If you haven't heard, our new podcast is called hey Jonas.
- [01:40]
Nick Jonas
And this week we're hanging out with someone we're really big fans of, Millie Bobby Brown. We talk about her new movie Enola Holmes three family life and all the amazing things she has going on right now.
- [01:50]
Michael Lasker
Plus we find out what she really feels about the Stranger Things ending.
- [01:53]
Joe Jonas
You have over 60 animals.
- [01:54]
Millie Bobby Brown
I don't know where the number 60 and I really gotta figure that there have been plenty of sheep in my bed. Literally sleeping in the bed.
- [02:02]
Joe Jonas
Listen to hey Jonas on the iHeartRadio app, Apple podcast or wherever you get your podcasts.
- [02:07]
Chad Millman
Welcome to Sharper Square presented by Hard Rock Bet. We are part of the Volume Podcast Network. This is the betting show that makes the squares sharper and makes the wise guys pay attention. I am Chad Millman. I am joined as always by my co host, my bff, my companion, my compadre professional better Simon Hun. Hello Simon.
- [02:33]
Michael Lasker
Chad.
- [02:33]
Simon Hun
What a what? Another weekend of sports brother. It just never stops. I keep thinking we get a little break here but I guess with the World cup, the NBA trade news, it's never ending. It just keeps on going.
- [02:43]
Chad Millman
It's too much, Simon. It's too much to keep up with. There is no resting in sports, which is why, Simon, instead of talking about sports, we're continuing Hollywood Week because there's sports and then there are podcast BFFs. And this week, we're going to talk about underrated gambling, movies and getting some answers to burning Hollywood questions. Including right now, if you wanted to make some early bets for Oscar contenders in the next year, guess what? We're bringing back our good buddy, my lunch buddy. When I like to lunch in Hollywood, what I do is I call this guy and I say, let's power it up. Let's do pure power lunch. He is the ultimate Hollywood insider. He is our Academy Awards expert, talent manager to the stars at Mosaic in Los Angeles, California. Welcome back to the show. Michael Laskers.
- [03:49]
Michael Lasker
Guys, what, what an honor to be here, by the way. I thought that I guess because the World cup and yeah, the NBA trade stuff, isn't this, this is like the quiet, supposed to be the quiet part of summer, the NBA Finals. But yeah, it's like there's no rest for the weary now.
- [04:01]
Chad Millman
Also, like, you know, when this airs, we will have come out of the NBA draft. There will be free agency coming up. There is obviously the World Cup. There is baseball excitement happening. I mean, in theory, ESPN always did the ESPYs in the middle of July because that's the dead zone in sports. And now, of course, that'll be when the World cup finals are happening in New York, New Jersey, which is where the ESPYs are going to be this year. And then all of a sudden, you turn around and that week NFL training camps are opening. So Lasker, we're like, Hollywood, you know,
- [04:37]
Michael Lasker
there is, you never stop. I mean, I literally, I talked to, I was talking to an agent this morning who has a client who has a movie coming out at Christmas. And she was like, she's very bullish on the film. And she was like, but I wonder if my Christmas will be ruined. Because what you're thinking as the rep is like, and I've been in the situation where you have a client's movie open over the break and it doesn't do well. And then you're on the phone with the client, you're on the phone with the studio. You know, I mean, there's good and bad. There's also moments where movies can do amazing over Christmas because they do tend to do well in that Christmas corridor. That's an old, there's a marketing term going to teach your audience here. It's Called Seven Days of Saturdays. And that's the week between, like, Christmas and New Year's. And because the idea is that every kid is out of school. Most adults. Not most. I mean, whatever. But adults, by and large, probably have time off, and all you're doing is going to the movies. And that's why if you go back and look at a lot of the Christmas corridors, there's a lot of really weird. For you guys being in the numbers, there's a lot of really weird aberrations where the multiple gets much, much higher. So, like, I actually remember there was a year there was a good movie, not a classic, but this movie, Sisters, came out with Amy Poehler and Tina Fey. It was a comedy that came out from, like, Universal at Christmas time. And, like, I think the movie opened to, like, 12 or something, and it made, like, $90 million. You know, like, that's a huge multiple, you know, and you get that over Christmas. Now, of course, it happened last year with Housemaid. The housemaid opened pretty well and then became a juggernaut. It happened two years earlier also at Sydney Sweeney with Anything but you. That movie opened, like, 8 million bucks and made, like, $240 million or something in America. So Christmas can be very, very good because everyone just wants to go to the movies. You know, it's like rising tide, lift all boats.
- [06:18]
Chad Millman
Well, that's like betting during March Madness, betting on the super bowl in our business, like, it just. It compounds and gets bigger and bigger and bigger and bigger.
- [06:27]
Michael Lasker
Yeah.
- [06:27]
Chad Millman
The most surprising thing you just said, sisters made $90 million.
- [06:32]
Michael Lasker
Yeah.
- [06:32]
Colin Cowherd
Yeah.
- [06:32]
Michael Lasker
Look it up. Made like, 90 million bucks.
- [06:35]
Simon Hun
Yeah.
- [06:36]
Michael Lasker
Yeah.
- [06:37]
Chad Millman
That's ridiculous.
- [06:39]
Michael Lasker
Listen, there was a time when comedies, you know, you know, they worked better than they do now, unfortunately. But, you know, Hollywood is in a very upbeat mood right now.
- [06:47]
Chad Millman
Box offices, people are very happy.
- [06:49]
Michael Lasker
Movies coming out of nowhere, movies made for nothing, making hundreds of millions of dollars, big movies doing well. So we'll get into all that. I know I won't. I'm not going try to host your show for you. I know you have.
- [06:59]
Chad Millman
No, no, actually, I got questions. And, like, we can blow up the script a little bit, because when we knew you were coming on, Simon had a very specific question.
- [07:08]
Michael Lasker
Yeah.
- [07:09]
Chad Millman
And there has been news around this studio this week, which you can speak to Simon, just ask your question now instead of the order of the script, because it's incredibly relevant for what's happening in this world today. Yeah.
- [07:24]
Simon Hun
I've been a big movie guy. I love movies, and I am one of those people that thought we were in a dead age of movies, right. We kind of hit this period of Netflix, all these subscription programs and these Marvel movies. I could feel it killing what I think all of us love, which is the mid tiers, right. The goodwill huntings of the world. We want these original movie scripts. Not biggest budgets, right. The medium budget. So they still get maybe one or two great actors in it. For the most part, it's some unknown talent and it makes you feel something. That's what we want.
- [07:56]
Michael Lasker
Right.
- [07:56]
Simon Hun
And you go to the movies, you want to feel something like we had lost that. And I told Chad, I feel like a 24 is this dark horse sleeper that has saved the movie theater industry. They're not talked about this way, but something that loves original films. I'll never forget the first time I saw this movie called Witch, which probably hasn't heard of it. It's literally about these pilgrims that are in these woods of the like. I don't know if it is the pilgrims, but it's set at that time period of the original Americans living in the middle of the woods. And how terrifying, being alone in the woods, surrounded by animals and noises and what they thought was a witch. I saw this movie and it scared me so bad. I looked up the studio and it was a 24. And I was like, from that point forward, I've been all in on a 24 ever since then. And now all these years later, I just think about how great they've done and I would love to hear your take on it. Where we have the. Like you just said, we have the back rooms, we have these small movies. I mean, Obsession. I don't know if Chad's seen it. That movie also scared the shit out of me. Yeah, yeah. I would love to know your view of it. Is this. Are we in this new golden age of movies? Is this going to be this new age of these. These studios taking risks now? Because a 24 is taking so many big risks. They've hit all these home runs.
- [09:07]
Michael Lasker
Well, I think it's a great question and you have to break it down for a couple different angles. I mean, first of all, the answer is emphatically yes. A24, which I'm sure I've said here before, it's the modern day version of Miramax. You know, that's what miramax in the 90s and 2000s and even into the 2010s when it became the Wine Tin Company, that's what they were doing. They were making adult dramas that you go back and like I Always think back to this one in particular. God, I'm blanking on the name, but it's the Steve Coogan, Judi Dench movie, where Judi Dench is a nun who was forced to give up a child she had back, like, when she was, you know, 20. And Coogan's a journalist and he's taking her, you know, much later in her life back to, like, her roots to. I can't. I think maybe the kid, you know, was. Died early. I know I'm blanking on the name. We'll look it up in a second. But that movie made, like, $140 million and, you know, worldwide, and only Miramax could do that. Got to look up this movie. This is.
- [10:04]
Nick Jonas
This is.
- [10:04]
Michael Lasker
This is a rare miss for me, but Judy Den, Steve Newman film. But my point is, they were making all those movies, and without a doubt, I mean, and what Age24 has done is interesting. You bring up the Witch, because they decided a very long time ago they were going to make elevated horror films as well, because they felt like that was a big part of the audience that would come out that wanted to be scared, but also wanted to be, you know, stimulated. And the best horror films they didn't make get out, but the best horror films, like get out are really about social issues. And I think with Obsession, which I loved Obsession, thought it was brilliant, is that, you know, what it's really about. I don't know if I'd say it's toxic masculinity, but it's definitely about men not having the ability to say what they want. Not having the ability to actually, like, kind of be emotionally resonant on how they feel about something. And because this guy, this cuck, can't just say to this girl, like, yeah, I like you. Can I take you on a date? It unleashes this chain of events that ruins everybody's lives forever. And I thought it was so well done.
- [11:09]
Colin Cowherd
And.
- [11:09]
Michael Lasker
And I think going into it, you think, oh, it's an indictment of women, because it's about, like, women going crazy. Like, no, it's an indictment of men. The woman is the victim in the movie. And so, yes, I think. And A24 didn't make that. That movie was made independently for 1 million bucks, $750,000, and picked up by Focus, age 24, made backrooms. But, yeah, the answer is A24 without a doubt has led the way to say, we want to make the elevated adult film. Their movies at times have not been as, like, the Miramax films going Back to like Good Will Hunting and Cider House Rules and things like that. They were like a little more in ways down the middle, a little more syrupy, not in a bad way. But like, yeah, they give you the feels. A24 doesn't typically make like their version of that is Marty Supreme. And that's a movie that does give you the feels. A lot of people I know we covered it here during Oscar season. Some people liked it, some people didn't. But the people that loved it, it gave them the feels at the end of the movie with the big kind of reveal of how it ends. But that movie is much grimier and much dirtier and much more like kind of in the sewer than some of those like Miramax films back in the day. But a 24 has done it. They've definitely taken some of the landscape and the Runway from the major studios who are doing it less. We can get into that in a second. There's other companies doing it. This company, Neon, they made the movie Parasite. They've won the Palme d' or at the Cannes Film Festival seven years in a row. You know, they're, you know, they made an aura, you know, And I don't know why, I don't know why Nora wasn't an A24 film. I don't know what happened when that movie was being shopped and whatnot. But these are all films that you would put at these companies that are making these elevated films for adults where they feel like they can actually get them to real box office. Although ironically and Nora didn't actually make that much money. I mean, it's obviously Humongous Head and it won all these Oscars and a 24 has had a better run at taking these mid sized movies. And all of a sudden you're like, oh my God, that movie made like 50 million bucks, like out of nowhere. They had a really good movie last year called Heretic with Hugh Grant about the two Mormon girls that show up to the guy's house to talk to him about joining the religion. And turns out he's like entrapped all these people. That movie made like $50 million very quietly. It was a really, really good movie. Really good Hugh Grant performance. So I think that a 24 is a huge part of what's helping our business. For sure. Backrooms has been a smash. That movie was, you know, the way that movie originated is there were all these. A couple of different producers. James Wan's company, James Wan made the Conjuring films. And then Shawn Levy's company. Shawn Levy is more of a mainstream comedy elevated, you know, four quadrant director like Deadpool versus Wolverine. And he made like the Night at the Museums. Two executives, Michael Clear and Dan Cohen, at those companies, they found back rooms. They were trying to get it set up. It wasn't getting Hollywood was passing. They then went to an executive named Corey Adelson, who runs kind of a smaller division of Peter Chernin's company. Chad knows Peter Chernan very well. And they had a deal with A24 which was designed to take bets on challenging movies where the Chernin side and the A24 side would split the budget evenly. So that's what they did. They marched it into a 24, who had seen an early iteration of it and now they said, we'll pay for half of it. So it was a $13 million movie. Chernin writes a check for six and a half million. A 24, six and a half million. Then they split the marketing costs. I don't know what those were. And the rest is history. And this also is connecting to. A lot of people are like, is YouTube the new IP? And I don't think saying it's IP is the right way of putting it. I think it's just more like YouTube is a breeding ground for all of these directors to start building their fan base. I mean, it's no different than like a band that like, you know, we're a little older than you, Simon, but like there was a lot of people in like Seattle that like had seen Pearl Jam before. Like the world knew what Pearl Jam was. And then all of a sudden their stuff's getting more play on radio stations and they're having iconic songs like 10 or Jeremy, which is on the album 10, which turned into this amazing music video. And then they get bigger and bigger. But the people in Seattle knew who they were like five years earlier. I think that's what YouTube is doing on a much more massive scale. So Kane Parsons, who made Back Rooms, you know, already had a fan base. Same with Cory Barker who made Obsession. So it's, it's great. I mean we need them taking chances like this thing. I was going to say that I was thinking about when you guys asked me to come on. I think another reason that we have lost this mid budget adult drama, it is because of television. Because there's so many movies or there's so many TV shows and limiteds today that would have been movies in the 90s. And again, Chad and I are older than you in the 90s, the big boom was The John Grisham, Michael Crichton, that era, all those books were getting made into movies left and right, the Firm Pelk and Brief, Jurassic park disclosure, stuff like that. And also all the thinking about this, all the Stephen King books were always made into movies, not TV shows. With the exception of the standard. The Stand was this big miniseries on ABC because it's a really huge sprawling book and people thought it had to be done for television, not for movies. But everything else was turned into a movie. And then the early 2000s. Now the audience has been trained differently post Oz, the Sopranos and the Wire on HBO and then even things like on FX like Rescue Me and the Shield. And they're watching TV differently and they want stuff that develops, takes longer to develop, is deeper, is taking these chances and is more serialized. So now you have all these books that get that have been written or getting written in 2000s. And whereas they might have always been a movie, some of them are becoming TV shows because hey, why would I do it as a two and a half hour movie that only like William Goldman can adapt when we have all these brilliant people that could take it, make it an 8 hour movie or a 10 hour movie? I thought it was always interesting. Litmus test which would connect back to sports was Friday Night Lights. Friday Night Lights gets written in the 90s. Brilliant book by Buzz Bissinger and you know, it's about this small town in Odessa and about how football rules the town. And I read it in college and I thought, oh, this is a TV show, not a movie. Well, they ended up doing both. They made a brilliant movie with Billy Bob Thornton and then they made a brilliant TV show, Kyle Chandler. And so I think now you're seeing like, you know, it was announced, you know, Netflix is finally going to make the corrections and HBO was trying to make this 12 years ago. This is a very famous Jonathan Franzen film of Jonathan Franzen book that came out in the 2000s. So you just see that more and more. A client of mine, Lee Eisenberg, conveyed this limited for Apple a couple years ago called Lessons in Chemistry. That would have been a two and a half hour movie in like 2000. I watched that 1997. Yeah. With Brie Larson. It was really good.
- [17:53]
Chad Millman
It was really good.
- [17:54]
Michael Lasker
But I think what's happened is better example, even like Big Little Lies, right, Which they've made two seasons of. This hasn't been announced officially that they're going to make a third season on Breaking News on your podcast. And Big Little Lies would have been A really good movie in the 90s that would have starred Nicole Kidman and Sandra Bullock and Julia Roberts and Meryl Streep and all the people that are in it today, minus Julia Roberts. And so now I think the culture and the industry looks at the whole board, and you nailed it, Simon. It goes back to the Marvel stuff. Hollywood just got. We got too addicted to, oh, my God, we can make these movies that can make a billion dollars every time out. And Hollywood's kind of paying for that right now. I mean, look at what happened last month. You know, Lucas made a Star wars film that was from a TV show. I think the fan base felt like this is just a TV show at the movies. They didn't want that. And in the meantime, they went and saw backrooms. They went and saw Obsession. They wanted to see something that is new. I was talking to a producer on Sunday who was playing golf on a trip, and he had a caddy, had like a young caddy. This producer's in his 40s.
- [19:00]
Chad Millman
Everything about this sounds like a cliche. Lasker talking to a producer. He's playing golf, he's got some caddy.
- [19:06]
Michael Lasker
I know, it's like. It's like I'm talking to Joel Silver or something. This. This guy is not Joel Silver.
- [19:11]
Chad Millman
And then he killed the caddy because the caddy gave him bad advice and he wrapped his club around his head.
- [19:16]
Michael Lasker
But he said to me that. He said to the caddy, do you watch? Do you go to the movies? Like, what are you watching? And the caddy was like, oh, my God, I saw Back Rooms. I saw Obsession. I saw this, I saw that. And what the caddy said. And I have always believed this is that. Yeah, me and my friends, we. We are obsessed with movies, and we go to the movies all the time. We need more movies to go see. And this is what Hollywood has been relearning post Covid is that you have to flood the zone. You know, when people go to the movie theater, they need to see all these movie posters on the wall. It makes them want to go back. You know, you can't. You can't spread it out. And I think there were some real naysayers during COVID that thought, well, the only thing that's going to be back in the movies is going to be Top Gun, you know, like it'll be the big, big movies. It's not true. People want a communal experience. They do it in every other walk of their life. They go to concerts, they go to stand up shows. All that stuff is like up tenfold, especially stand up. And so they will go to the movies, give them a reason. And I think with Obsession, you know, that movie obviously resonated because if you're under like 25 and you know, you're basically in the beginning part of your life of like, I like a girl, I like a guy that I want to get to know, like that movie was made for you. It's like an anthem for what it, you know, you have that first shitty job, you know, you know, you like the girl, you're not sure if she likes you back. It spoke to so many things that are, you know, kind of going on in our society. And I actually think, I mean, backrooms is also fantastic, but I think in a way obsession is like more relatable. You know, Backrooms has some really big ideas in it that people are obviously very interested in, but I don't know which, where, which one stands. But I think obsession maybe has passed a little bit and there's something about obsession of just like it's a date movie, it's a friend movie, it's, you know, it's got kind of everything. So I was very impressed by it.
- [21:02]
Chad Millman
Lasker number one.
- [21:03]
Michael Lasker
Yeah.
- [21:04]
Chad Millman
The Judi Dench, Steve Coogan movie.
- [21:06]
Michael Lasker
Yes.
- [21:07]
Chad Millman
Philomena.
- [21:07]
Michael Lasker
Philomena. Oh my God, Philomena.
- [21:09]
Chad Millman
Yes. Thank you. Credit to producer Matt Mitchell. 2. You mentioned Stephen King books becoming movies now becoming series. Isn't Widow's Bay, which is now one of the biggest shows on Apple and one of the best shows of the past two months, Isn't that a Stephen King book turned series? I won't even like I'm watching that, Simon. I'm not going to any horror movies. I get afraid to take my dog into our front yard at 10:30 at night because there's so many bears and you know, coyotes in our neighborhood. I like, I'm just afraid I'm going to have to confront something. So there's no way I'm going to see a scary movie. But I'm glad, like Lasker, this conversation is exactly about the movies we want to discuss. Because when you talk about gambling movies, whether it's sports betting or otherwise, these are the mid lane movies. No one's making a 300 million dollar big budget gambling movie. They're always going to be the movies that are made by age 24. Right. They're always going to be the rounders, they're always going to be uncut gems.
- [22:23]
Simon Hun
As close I think we'll get you, that was 824 uncut gems.
- [22:26]
Chad Millman
Like all of these, like, those are the most fun movies. And I feel like there's a real discrepancy between casino gambling movies, poker gambling movies, sort of side hustle underground gambling movies.
- [22:42]
Michael Lasker
Yeah.
- [22:42]
Chad Millman
In sports betting movies. And Uncut Gems is one of the only, like sexy, exciting sports betting movies. Every other movie that's about betting is.
- [22:52]
Michael Lasker
Even that, even that movie, even that movie makes you feel bad about yourself. I'll come back to that. We're gonna address Widow's Bay because you're gonna laugh. So Widow's Bay was created by my dad, very good friend, Katie Dippold. She will be so honored that you think it's based off Stephen King novel. No, it's her idea. But they're channeling Stephen King. They're channeling everything. I mean, did you finish the series?
- [23:13]
Chad Millman
No, I haven't. And give her my compliments.
- [23:18]
Michael Lasker
I will.
- [23:19]
Chad Millman
Hey. Matthew Reese is ridiculous.
- [23:21]
Michael Lasker
He's amazing. He's a national treasure. And Katie is a die hard horror aficionado. And so, so good. It's so good.
- [23:28]
Nick Jonas
I love it.
- [23:29]
Michael Lasker
Everybody in Hollywood loves it. I think people in the all over the world love it. I'm so happy for her. And she's worked so hard on it for so long. She loves horror in general. And when I watch the show, because I've known her for so long, we've been such good friends, I can see how in each, like this is not a spoiler, but episode eight is kind of the homage to the slasher movie to like Michael Myers. And I can see in every episode where, oh, this is where Katie was like, I've seen the Halloween movies 10,000 times. I have a very funny spin on like that type of character. And because you look at the, at the episodes and it's like some are, you know, you could argue is like a zombie episode and some's like a slasher episode.
- [24:10]
Chad Millman
Yeah, yeah.
- [24:11]
Michael Lasker
Sounds like a possession episode. By the way. Back to obsession. What I liked, you know, also it was just such a fresh take on like basically a demon movie, because that's really what it was. But she'll be very. That I know with Widows Bay. What you might think about it, Stephen King, is that I think. I don't know this for sure. I've read about this. I think the font that they used for the, for the words Widow's Bay is a very Stephen King font. I think that was, I think that might have been intentional. But Stephen King has tweeted about the show. He loves the show.
- [24:39]
Chad Millman
Maybe that's why I thought it was just because maybe I read it or someone said like Stephen King, Widow's Bay.
- [24:45]
Simon Hun
And that's where you're thinking of Chad is Welcome to Derry, which that is actually his dv.
- [24:51]
Michael Lasker
That's right.
- [24:52]
Simon Hun
A lot of people might not have watched it. That's another show that's like. This is why I love the Age Rank because that's a brilliant show.
- [24:59]
Chad Millman
Simon, you're right.
- [25:00]
Simon Hun
You're totally actors into it. And again, like if anyone's seen the movie, it. It's about little kids surviving, right? Defeating this evil clown. The TV show is brilliant because the first five minutes they kill the main characters of these kids. So again, I'm watching this with a friend who we're going in thing. Oh, we're gonna. Here are these kids. We're gonna watch them for the next 10 episodes. No, the writers kill these kids in the first five minutes. And that's why I like this new age we're in where they're keeping you on your toys. I know the Boys. This TV shows on Amazon didn't end the way people liked, right. These TV shows have had rough endings. But that's another show where Seth Rogen had been pitching the Soup anti Superhero show for 10 years and no one would buy it. And then finally prime took a chance on that show, the Boys and it worked out. That's another show I think should have been a movie. So I think we're all in agreeance now where it's like not that, you know, Breaking Bad or the Sopranos, you can never make that into a movie, right? That needs to be a TV show. We need 12, 13 episodes of those type of characters. But like you say, an obsession that never. I mean it could have been a TV show, but it was so perfect as a movie. What it, what it was in the theater, what I saw. I'm so glad that became a movie because I feel like 5 years ago Netflix would have bought it and made it into an eight part TV show
- [26:14]
Michael Lasker
or just put it on Netflix where it doesn't have the same. I love Netflix, obviously, and we have a lot of clients who work there. But sometimes it feels like things resonate even more in the culture when they're seen in a movie theater and you can feel like the culture kind of like talking about it. I mean, there are certainly things on Netflix that resonate. K Pop Demon Hunters was like one of the biggest movies of last year that was all Netflix. They took it over from Sony Animation. I think going back to the gambling thing, you touched on some of the interesting Chad, you know, which is that you guys had asked me about, you know, talking about gambling movies and underseen movies and all that. And I was making lists and realizing that, like, there's like these different kind of lanes of like, there's. Yeah, there's the casino movies, which could be anything from literally Casino to the Ocean's eleven movies. And even though Casino by an hour in is like, we're just going to all feel bad, you know, for two hours, like, everything's going to go downhill, it still has a lot of, like, wish fulfillment and fun stuff. Of, like, them showing you the behind the scenes of a casino and how they cheat and how they catch the cheaters and all that stuff. The Ocean's eleven movies, obviously, are much lighter and much more wish fulfillment of like, how could you actually, like, take a casino down and this and that. And those movies are really con man movies, more so than betting movies. But then I think there is a whole nother angle, which is Uncut gems and many others that I'm going to list for you that are just like. And this is why I think back to your original point, which is like, why is a casino movie more fun than a betting movie? Because most of the betting movies are designed to make you feel bad because they are almost inevitably about addicts who can't get out of their own way. And we'll give your audience some of those examples in a second. And so although I do have a great betting movie, which I think I brought up on here before, that I'm going to bring up again that I do think is a really fun, kind of, like, uplifting betting movie. But in almost every situation there, you're following somebody who is making mistake after mistake and can't get out of their own way. And you're usually, like, left with nothing. And most of the movies end with, like, someone's life, like, completely, like, ruined. The rare one would be Rounders, right? Because at the end of Rounders, he wins. Spoiler alert. Movies been out for 30 years. He wins, and he's going to go to the world. You know, the world, you know, the World Series Poker. Now, you don't know what's going to happen after that. But that's a movie where, like, that movie has an interesting parabola to it because, you know, it lets you revel in what's fun about poker and betting. And then as it. Then it kind of takes you into the shit with the Edward Norton character and you realize how seedy it is. And, you know, the all the, the debts you owe and things like that. And then it kind of comes back up at the end because it's just really a sports movie, you know, it's really like Rocky, but he wins, you know, And I mean, I will just every now and again I'll just go on YouTube and watch that final scene when he beats Malkovich. It's so fucking good. And, and that's such a fun movie. And you know, obviously your audience knows it weirdly like preceded the poker boom. The poker Boom is like 2003 and we came out in 1998. The poker boom is when Chris Moneymaker wins out of nowhere. You know, you're like, oh my God, this like random dude, like won all this money and beat out guys like Johnny Chan and Phil Hellmuth. I, I actually remember it's not Phil Hellmuth. It's another one of the Phils. But no, no, no, it's. I think it's Mike Matisau. I was like, in the mid-2000s, I was watching so much Poker at Night on ESPN too, and they did the, they would do these like little mini like 5 minute docs on these guys lives and they were doing one on Mike Matisau. And basically it was like, yeah, he could win like $150,000 on a Monday, and on Tuesday he couldn't pay his phone bill because all these guys are fucking degenerates, you know, of course, any of them, if they're listening, but.
- [29:55]
Chad Millman
Well, it's my favorite, one of my favorite stories from when I did a cover story and an E60 piece about Phil Ivey heading into the World Series of Poker. I think it was 2009 or 10. I sat with him and you know, we had, we had traveled all over the world on a gambling tour. Basically, right. Like we started in Connecticut. He's in a private room, he's playing craps. He wins about 100 grand. We leave, we get on a plane, we go to Montreal, he gets another private room and he's got his own private croupier. And there's a table and a suite with a conference room attached where we have brunch. Again, there's like five people in the room. He draws a million dollars of his own money from an account that's at the casino. He plays, I lose him 750 grand in craps. He wins it all back, ends up walking away. We get to walking away up 750 grand, we get to the next stop and he's won 850 grand over the course of 48 hours at two different casinos. And I said to him, like, what amount of money makes you nervous? He's like, I don't know, five, ten? I go, five or ten what? He goes million. Like that. That's like, where the stakes change for him in one of these cash games. Lasker, I want you to tell us the movies. Let me take a quick break from our friends at Hard Rock. We'll come back. Tell us the movies you were thinking about. Today's show was brought to you by our presenting sponsor, Hard Rock Bet. Florida's sportsbook, the world's biggest soccer tournament is here. Everyone is watching. National pride is on the line. Superstars chasing immortality. And for the next month, every match feels like a final. If you haven't tried Hard Rock Bet yet, there's no better time to get in the game. Hard Rock Bet is the top rated sportsbook app built to viva la Copa. And if you're ever late to kickoff, don't worry. Hard Rock Bet lets you live bet all match long, from the first minute to the final whistle. Plus, Hard Rock Bet has new promos daily. We're talking profit boosts, no sweat bets, bonus bets and more. And be sure to check out no goals, no problem. And Super Sub 2 promos designed to give your bets insurance all tournament long. Sign up with Hard Rock Bet today and place a $5 bet. If it wins, you also score $150 in bonus bets, a winning bet plus an extra $150 to be bet with. Now that's how you get this summer's party started. Download the Hard Rock Bet app today. Roll with us. Go with us. Hard Rock Bet available in bonus bets, not a cash offer. Offered by the Seminole Tribe of Florida in Florida. Offered by Seminole hard Rock Digital LLC in all other states. Must be 21 or over and physically present in Arizona, Colorado, Florida, Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, New Jersey, Ohio, Tennessee or Virginia. To play, terms and conditions apply. Concerned about gambling in Florida, call 1833 playwise in Indiana, if you or someone you know is a gambling problem and wants help, call 1-809 with it. In Arizona, Ohio and Virginia, call 1-800-My reset gambling problem. Call 1-800- Gambler in Colorado, Illinois, Michigan, New Jersey, Tennessee.
- [33:25]
Colin Cowherd
Hi, it's Colin Cowardly from the Colin Coward Podcast. Every goal starts with an assist. As Official partners of U.S. soccer, this team is ready to deliver. Sensodyne dentist recommended Defense of your sensitive teeth Centrum. Fueling your day with science backed nutrients. Advil, of course. Powerful inflammation fighting pain relief, Voltaren arthritis Gel helps penetrate deep, keeps the joints moving, and tums ready to counterattack with fast heartburn relief. Learn how halion can assist your game day goals@helionassist.com Colin hey everyone, it's the Jonas Brothers.
- [34:00]
Michael Lasker
If you haven't heard, our new podcast is called hey Jonas.
- [34:03]
Nick Jonas
And this week we're hanging out with someone we're really big fans of.
- [34:07]
Joe Jonas
Millie Bobby Brown.
- [34:08]
Michael Lasker
That's right, eleven herself.
- [34:10]
Nick Jonas
We talk about her new movie, Enola Holmes three family life and all the amazing things she has going on right now.
- [34:15]
Joe Jonas
This blew my mind when I saw this. Millie Bobby Brown, you have over 60 animals. First of all, how do you even keep track of everybody? And second, do you have favorites? Who are they and why?
- [34:25]
Nick Jonas
Yeah, I need to know about this.
- [34:26]
Millie Bobby Brown
Okay, I don't know where the number's 60 and I really got to figure that out and I could actually have over 60. I just need to really know that number. There have been plenty of sheep in my bed and yeah, it's a big bed in the bed. Literally sleeping in the bed. Yeah.
- [34:42]
Michael Lasker
Plus, we find out what she really
- [34:44]
Joe Jonas
feels about stranger things ending five seasons, almost 10 years of your life.
- [34:48]
Millie Bobby Brown
I could have never have guessed it. I started when I was 10 years old.
- [34:51]
Joe Jonas
Our conversation with Millie Bobby Brown is out now.
- [34:53]
Nick Jonas
Go check it out.
- [34:54]
Joe Jonas
Listen to hey Jonas on the iHeartRadio app, Apple podcast or wherever you get your podcasts.
- [34:59]
Hoda Kotb
Hey, I'm Hoda Kotb, host of the podcast Joy 101 with Hoda Kotb. Okay, if you know me, you know this. I'm always searching for inspiration, for support and useful tools to help maximize joy. So this podcast lets us uncover all of that together. We're gonna have these meaningful conversations with the world's most fascinating people. Like when actress Olivia Munn shared how she overcame fierce health challenges that she never saw coming.
- [35:28]
Lele Pons
I've gone through breast cancer and then helped my mother through breast cancer, and that was more difficult. There's a lot of people who understand postpartum depression. I was not prepared for postpartum anxiety.
- [35:37]
Hoda Kotb
Olympic champ Shawn Johnson revealed why she had no choice but to be a gymnast.
- [35:42]
Millie Bobby Brown
There was something about gymnastics that was intoxicating to me. It's given me a belief that we all have one of those treasures inside of us. We just have to find it.
- [35:51]
Hoda Kotb
Listen to Joy 101 with Hoda Kotb on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts.
- [36:02]
Lele Pons
My first guest is Paris Hilton, Shakira, Luke and Yerin Samira E Grac. I'm so excited.
- [36:10]
Michael Lasker
On a bouncy bed, you have surprises, many surprises.
- [36:14]
Lele Pons
Welcome to Suite 305, where the group chat comes to life. What up?
- [36:20]
Michael Lasker
Hola, amiga. Hola, me jul, amiga.
- [36:22]
Hoda Kotb
Hola.
- [36:23]
Lele Pons
What up? Yes. You're the only person I know that loves a yellow starburst.
- [36:40]
Millie Bobby Brown
It's lemonade.
- [36:48]
Lele Pons
This is Sweet 305. Listen to Sweet 305 with Lele Pons as part of my Cultura podcast Network on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you get your podcasts.
- [36:59]
Chad Millman
All right, Lasker, list us movies.
- [37:03]
Michael Lasker
We'll start with. We'll go like light to dark.
- [37:06]
Lele Pons
So.
- [37:06]
Michael Lasker
So a movie that I promise you, your audience has not seen but is a really fun betting movie that is not. Doesn't make you want to kill yourself. Is this Michael ritchie film from 1992 called Digstown. And Digstown stars James woods and Louis Gossett Jr. And what it's about is James woods is a con man who's just gotten out of prison and he goes to this small town that is basically run by Bruce Dern. And Bruce Dern is corrupt and owns the police and basically like owns the whole town. And there's a kind of a backstory on how Bruce Dern kind of, you know, maliciously got control of the town. And basically James woods lures Bruce Dern into a bet where he basically says, because the town is like really big into boxing. And he says, I will bring any fighter I can find that can beat any 10 of your fighters in a 24 hour period. So I'm going to find one guy and he can beat 10 of your guys. That's the bet. And they bet like, you know, 500 grand. And so then the twist is what you find, find out is James woods is old, like con man. Partner is Louis Gossett Jr. Who at the time of the movie was probably in his, like late 50s, but he still looked really good and was relatively fit and he is a boxer. So James woods goes to Louis Gossip Jr. And is like, we're going to take this guy down. Like, we're going to. We're going to beat all 10 of his guys. And what you realize is that everybody is hiding something from the other person. And as the fight starts where it's this 24 hour period, they keep upping the ante and keep upping the bet. And James woods has all these tricks up his sleeve, but so does Bruce Dern. It just goes and goes. It just go. And, you know, it's like Boxer six, Boxer seven, you know, Boxer eight, and has all these really fun twists at the end of the movie. I won't spoil it, but it's a really fun movie that does not make you leave with, like, a bad taste in your mouth. And so it's both a con man movie and a BET movie because the whole movie is a giant bet that keeps escalating as the 24 hours goes on through the boxing match. It's a really good movie. Michael Richie, really talented director. He's not alive anymore. He directed Fletch. He directed the Bad News Bears, the Downhill Racer with Robert Redford. He directed the Candidate with Robert Redford. He's a really talented director that's been a little bit forgotten by the newer generations. Like, if you're 45 and over, you definitely know who Michael Richie is. If you're under, you probably have never heard of him. That's a really good movie.
- [39:30]
Chad Millman
Can I interject for one second, please? I once got pitched to write a book about Bruce Dern number one. Number two, I remember the digstown movie poster the way. And I never went to see it because I had no interest in seeing what looked like a boxing movie with James woods And Louis Gossett Jr. Now, the way you've described it, I would go to see it, but they did a terrible job marketing that movie because I thought it was a boxing movie with an old Louis Gossett Jr. 100%.
- [40:05]
Michael Lasker
I mean, I just remember, like, seeing the trailer, and I was 13 years old and I went to every movie possible, and my buddy and I went and we were, like, blown away by how much we liked it. And it's still like, that's another movie. I'll pop that ending on, you know, on YouTube. Watch the last five minutes. It's on. Yeah, you will. You will not regret it.
- [40:24]
Chad Millman
I'm in full summer movie mode with my kid as you Lasker. My kid and I, there were five movies. We felt like we had to watch a couple, which he hadn't seen. He hadn't seen Swingers Masterpiece. Yeah. He hadn't seen out of Sight with
- [40:41]
Michael Lasker
Clooney and Jennifer Masterpiece written by my good friend Scott Frank. Elmore Leonard novel, he adapted it. So incredible movie.
- [40:48]
Chad Millman
I'll read any Elmore Leonard novel. I'm reading one right now, actually, and out of Sight is one of my three favorite movies of all time. I think it is brilliant. That scene with JLo and George Clooney in the bar in Detroit is like the coolest, sexiest scene maybe in movie history. I think J. London as an actress is amazing. And I feel like I wish she never did any of the music, because every movie she's in, she's so good. It's fucking brilliant. It's a brilliant movie. We did Three Kings, also one of my favorite movies. And then we did Moneyball. And the last one is Super Bad, which we've both seen a million times, but it's part of our quintet. We interrupted it with Top Gun Maverick for Father's Day just because we both like to, you know, we cry a little bit. It's exciting.
- [41:48]
Michael Lasker
You can't not cry at the end of Top Gun Maverick when. When Miles Teller and Tom Cruise are on the boat together.
- [41:55]
Chad Millman
You can't.
- [41:56]
Michael Lasker
You can't. When he says, I did what your father would have done.
- [41:59]
Chad Millman
Yeah.
- [41:59]
Michael Lasker
You just can't. It's unbelievable. It's puddle.
- [42:01]
Chad Millman
Absolutely freaking puddle. But out of sight. Kudos to your buddy because it's brilliant.
- [42:06]
Michael Lasker
Well, Scott Frank is a brilliant.
- [42:08]
Lele Pons
So.
- [42:08]
Michael Lasker
You know, Scott Frank has been around for a long time. He's been writing since he's. He was right out of college. He wrote this brilliant film called Dead Again in the early 90s that Kenneth Branagh made.
- [42:17]
Chad Millman
Yeah, yeah.
- [42:18]
Michael Lasker
That was an homage to Hitchcock films. And then the first thing he ever wrote, actually, was a movie called Little Man Tate, which was a movie Jodie Foster made her directorial debut on. But Scott became a huge screenwriter. He still is. But speaking of sports, the thing he's most known for in the last 10 years is he did the Queen's Gambit Limited for Netflix. He won every award under the Sun. And he has right now, he has a show on Netflix called Department Q, which they're doing. He's making the second season right now, really good mystery that they shoot in Scotland. He did this show, Godless, this big Western with Jeff Daniels. He's a brilliant writer, and he's been a big adapter. And he, like. He grew up on Elmore Leonard and Out of Sight. I mean, you know the other thing about out of Sight for your audience? And again, the audience say, like, doesn't know as much about Steven Soderbergh, but, like, Steven Soderbergh makes Sex Lives and videotape in 1989 that, like, changes the movie industry. That's an early Miramax film, Simon, that, like. That's an early adult movie about sex that, like, takes everybody by storm. Then he makes two movies, King of the Hill and the Underneath. Excuse me, Kafka and King of the Hill, that don't do well. Then he makes another movie called the Underneath. Doesn't do well. He's literally in director jail. And then he makes out of Sight. And out of Sight does not make a lot of money, but it's incredibly critically well received. Nominated for two Oscars. Adaptive screenplay for Scott and editing for Anne V. Coates. And then from there, Soderbergh goes on a run that has never been replicated, which is he makes the Limey in 1999 with Terence Stamp. Really good movie, great movie. And then in 2000, he makes traffic and Aaron Brockovich. He's nominated for best Director twice in the same year he wins the Oscar for traffic. And in 2001, he makes Ocean's Eleven. I mean, it's the fucking mic drop of all mic drops.
- [44:04]
Chad Millman
That is the. That is the Alan Loeb of 2000, say 10 to 2012 run of directing. What's the. What is the.
- [44:16]
Michael Lasker
So I think some of the other movies, like, you know, that are not, you know, obviously you guys have discussed 21, written by Alan Lowe. Great movie. I'm sure you guys discussed it last time he was on Super Fun Movie, which I think is just the ultimate wish fulfillment of, like, you know, there's two wish fulfillments in that movie, which is one, what if as kids, you could beat the system? And then also weirdly, because Kevin Spacey plays the teacher. What if your teacher was cool, you know, even though he ends up not being cool later, but, like, what if he's cool and your teacher, like, helped you, like, make money, which is kind of fun. That's a movie that, you know, people love. You know, it's less. It's not so much of a betting movie. It's a con man movie, but it has all these bets inside it. The Sting. If you've never seen the Sting. And the Sting is on Netflix, I think, still, which is a famous film that won best picture in 1973, starring Robert Redford and Paul Newman. It's con men, but the method of conning people is to luring them into bets that are fake. So it has a little bit of petting. So you got the sting. Digstown 21. We covered rounders. Then I think you get more into, like, okay, these are the betting movies that make you want to kill yourself. Uncut Gems is a little bit of that. I mean, I love Uncut Gems. I think it's a masterpiece. But, like, that is a movie that. I think the point of it at the end is like, gambling is bad. Sorry, Simon. Gambling can undo your life because he wins and he loses, right? He wins the parlay, but they shoot him in the head because he's fucked them over so much. There's a movie that's really good that you guys probably have not seen called Mississippi Grind. That it was made by these, this husband and wife team, Anna Fleck and Ryan Bowden. They actually made like Ms. Marvel or Captain Marvel, the Brie Larson Marvel film that made like a billion dollars. But they're really indie directors and Mississippi Grind is Ryan Reynolds kind of before he became really famous. And then this really brilliant Australian actor, Ben Mendelsohn. And they're just gambling addicts and they're just like kind of going. They go on like riverboats in the Mississippi area and they're just like can't get out of their own way. And it's just kind of a little sweet story about these gambling addicts. That's a good movie. One of the more famous gambling films that I guarantee your audience has not seen is California Split with Elliot Gould. That's a famous Robert Altman film from the 70s. You've seen it?
- [46:38]
Chad Millman
I've seen it because when I wrote the Odds, the main character in the Odds, this guy Alan Boston was a 70 movies, 70s movies freak. So we watched everything from like California Split with Elliot Gould to what was that movie with Gene Hackman? I think it was Francis Ford Coppola Conversation. The Conversation, yeah. Like we watched all of those.
- [46:59]
Michael Lasker
Yeah. Well, California Split is a really great movie. Again, it's a movie that like a lot of these movies, you know, this is not a gambling film. But like I always enjoy the structure of Boogie Nights because boogie nights is 90 minutes of good times and then 50 minutes of bad times. Right after William H. Macy kills himself on New Year's Eve. Then the movie's like, now we're going to. Now we're going to feel bad for the next hour. And that's what a lot of these gambling films are. It's like they. You get to kind of revel in people that are like making money and then you see how self destructive they are. Really good movie. It's Ellie Gould and George Siegel. They're just like lowlife gamblers, can't get out of their own way. And then there's. We talked about these movies on here before, but it's both gamblers. There's the original gambler in the 70s with James Caan and then they remade it with Mark Wahlberg. The Mark Wahlberg remake is like not bad. It's kind of interesting. But the James Cabler is Basically a masterpiece. And it's, it is filled with so much dread. There's a famous scene in the movie where James Caen's in the bath and he has this is like, you know, in the 70s. And so he has like one of those like little mini pieces of wood across the bathtub that you can put something on, you could put a meal on. And he has a radio and he's listening to like the Knicks or something and he's clearly bet on the game and you can tell in real time he's losing. And the whole scene, the way it plays is, oh my God, he's going to knock the radio into the bathroom. He's going to electrocute himself. Like he's going to kill himself in this mo. He doesn't. That's like in the middle of the movie. But it's a really interesting look at a guy that like basically is just gambling to gamble. Like he doesn't derive any pleasure from winning. He just cannot stop betting.
- [48:33]
Chad Millman
So Mitchell knew that that was the Lakers Sonics game he was betting on. And, and I gotta say, neutral knew that a little bit too quickly.
- [48:43]
Simon Hun
Well, I will say this, Chad, what I feel like what he's talking about here. When you, when they want to make a movie about sports betting, it feels like Hollywood, which I get. They want it to end. Not happy. Right?
- [48:54]
Colin Cowherd
Hi, it's Colin Coward from the Colin Coward podcast. All right. You know what deserves more attention? The assists. Everybody talks about the goal. A big moment that gets replayed on the highlight reels. But too often we overlook all the contributions and collabs that happen along the way. That's true in soccer and honestly true in life. Halion is shining a light on the assists. An official partner of U.S. soccer, they got a whole lineup of brands ready to deliver for you. So here they are. Sensodyne Dentist recommended. Defense of your sensitive teeth Centrum. Fueling your day with science backed nutrients. Advil, of course. Powerful inflammation fighting pain relief. Voltaren Arthritis gel helps penetrate deep, keeps the joints moving and Tums ready to counterattack with fast heartburn relief. These are brands that are ready to deliver your essential wellness. Assists. Because every goal starts with an assist, learn how Halion can assist your game day goals@halionassist.com Colin hey everyone, it's the Jonas Brothers.
- [49:50]
Michael Lasker
If you haven't heard, our new podcast is called hey Jonas.
- [49:53]
Nick Jonas
And this week we're hanging out with someone we're really big fans of.
- [49:57]
Joe Jonas
Millie Bobby Brown.
- [49:58]
Michael Lasker
That's right, Eleven herself.
- [50:00]
Nick Jonas
We talk about her new movie Enola Holmes 3 Family Life in All the amazing things she has going on right
- [50:05]
Joe Jonas
now, this blew my mind when I saw this. Millie Bobby Brown, you have over 60 animals. First of all, how do you even keep track of everybody? And second, do you have favorites? Who are they and why?
- [50:15]
Nick Jonas
Yeah, I need to know about this.
- [50:17]
Millie Bobby Brown
Okay. I don't know where the number 60 and I really gotta figure that out. And I could actually have over 60. I just need to really know that number. There have been plenty of sheep in my bed and big bed in the bed. Literally sleeping in the bed. Yeah.
- [50:32]
Michael Lasker
Plus, we find out what she really
- [50:34]
Joe Jonas
feels about stranger things ending five seasons, almost 10 years of your life.
- [50:38]
Millie Bobby Brown
I could have never have guessed it. I started when I was 10 years old.
- [50:41]
Joe Jonas
Our conversation with Millie Bobby Brown is out now.
- [50:44]
Michael Lasker
Go check it out.
- [50:44]
Joe Jonas
Listen to hey, Jonas. On the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you get your podcasts.
- [50:49]
Hoda Kotb
Hey, I'm Hoda Kotb, host of the podcast Joy 101 with Hoda Kotb. Okay. If you know me, you know this. I'm always searching for inspiration, for support, and useful tools to help maximize joy. So this podcast lets us uncover all of that together. We're going to have these meaningful conversations with the world's most fascinating people. Like when actress Olivia Munn shared how she overcame fierce health challenges that she never saw coming.
- [51:18]
Lele Pons
I've gone through breast cancer and then helped my mother through breast cancer, and that was more difficult. There's a lot of people who understand postpartum depression. I was not prepared for postpartum anxiety.
- [51:27]
Hoda Kotb
Olympic champ Shawn Johnson revealed why she had no choice but to be a gymnast.
- [51:32]
Millie Bobby Brown
There was something about gymnastics that was intoxicating to me. It's given me a belief that we all have one of those treasures inside of us. We just have to find it.
- [51:42]
Hoda Kotb
Listen to Joy 101 with Hoda Kotb on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcast, Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
- [51:52]
Lele Pons
My first guest is Paris Hilton, Shakira, Luke and Yin Samira E. Gracie.
- [51:59]
Michael Lasker
I'm so excited. On a bouncy bed, you have surprises, many surprises.
- [52:04]
Lele Pons
Welcome to suite 305, where the group chat comes to life. What up? You're the only person I know that loves a yellow starburst.
- [52:30]
Michael Lasker
It's lemonade.
- [52:38]
Lele Pons
This is suite 305. Listen to suite 305 with Lele Pons as part of my cultura podcast Network on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you get your podcasts.
- [52:50]
Simon Hun
You didn't mention it. The only movie I feel like gets even close to what I do is Two for the Money, which is. Yeah, you know, we can make fun of it all the time because it is based on, I think it's Stu Finer.
- [53:01]
Hoda Kotb
Right?
- [53:02]
Simon Hun
Life.
- [53:02]
Chad Millman
Yeah. Yeah.
- [53:03]
Simon Hun
And that whole scumbag movement of these call guys. You'd call up a number to give you pics. Yeah, they were thieves, and I think we all know that now. But, you know, the 70s, 80s, 90s, you didn't know any better. That was your only option with some guy popping on your radio station saying, I'm 100 this. Recall this number. I'll give you winners. I love the Two for the Money. The stress of it, as someone that does. Does this for a living. When you're hot and you have guys above you, you work for, and they're betting you're hot, you're. You're hot, and they're betting it with you, you are a God to them. You literally. They'll let you sleep with their wives. Like, I'm telling you, these guys love you. As soon as that stops trickling off, you can feel that heat, that pressure. And not that you fear for your life, but there is some of that in this line of business. And I love that whole description of it of, like, you know, that that feeling of Makani has. And Two for the Money of this guy is kind of been lying to him and kind of, you know, misleading him. And now it's putting all this pressure on him and is losing his mind because of it. There's. There's real parts of that. That's why I think of all the movies you've talked about, the closest to my life in my world is surprisingly, that movie. Because I like the guys I work for. We do have an office space that's filled with desks like that. There are TVs everywhere of sports 247 and people on the phone making calls, working things. Now, it's died down, obviously, since the mid-2000s, but when I talk to people from the early 2000s to the 90s, that movie, that's what really. What it was like, right?
- [54:33]
Michael Lasker
It was funny. I think that is a good movie. I mean, that movie gets a little maligned because it's like it was made at a time when, like, Pacino was just, like, making every movie possible to, like, take the paycheck and just like, I'll come in and scream. And McConaughey had not had his, like, McConaissance yet. And so they're both like, really big in the movie, but it's like a perfectly fine movie. And I have no doubt that it connects to what you're talking about and some of your existence. I mean, I think it's a good movie. Actually. Another one thing we haven't covered and there's not a ton of them, and this is a really obscure movie. There's a movie from the 90s called Let It Ride, which is a horse betting movie with Richard Dreyfuss. And that's a really good movie too. That's also just like analyzing the betting on a horse track and just how up and down that can be. So, I mean, there's lots of subset bet movies. You could argue that indies A Proposal is like a betting movie, right? Because they're like, they go, they win all this money playing craps, they're trying to save their house, then they lose it all. And that's what induces them to Robert Redford being like, I want to pay a million dollars to sleep with your wife. I mean, there's so many different gradations of like casino culture, you know, gambling culture and stuff. But yeah, I mean, I think again, like I said, it's like the casino movies in general are flashier and more entertaining because usually it's like they're like process movies. And then these hardcore gambling movies are, you know, it's almost like they feel an obligation to let you know, like, this will end badly. You know, the house does always win. I mean, that's just a fact. I mean, maybe not if you got Simon betting for you, but maybe in a way you are the house, but the house knows what it's doing. You know, I mean, it's like we talked about in the past. I mean, it's that funny thing in the beginning Casino, where they're like, you know, Ace knows if, you know, the quarterback got laid the night before, you know, and like there's some new version of that today of like, what you guys are figuring out as to like, will Alabama cover? Or, you know, blah, blah, blah, you know.
- [56:34]
Chad Millman
So, Lasker, before we let you get out of here, what would you say are the early contenders as of now for the Oscars, whether it's best movie or Best Picture, Best Director, Actor, Actress, you know, thing that people can go look for because. Because right now you can already bet on these things.
- [56:52]
Michael Lasker
It's a, it's a great question and I'm going to let you down. I've been having this conversation with many of my friends who, you know, love this stuff as much As I do this, there is not. I'm not saying it's a light year. I'm sure it will end up being fantastic movies, but there's not that many of, like, oh, these 10 movies. So last year was one of those movies where, like, we're getting a new pta, we're getting a new Safdie movie. Like two Safdie movies. Like, last year, you know, there were so many movies ahead of time of, like, these are Oscar films. You know, we've got the Bruce Springsteen movie coming. We've got the Wrecking, you know, the. The Smash Machine coming. Obviously, the big one that people are already betting on, which would be an easy bet, is the Odyssey, right? Is Nolan going to do it again? The trailers are incredible, it seems to me. It's funny, there was this weirdo Elon Musk blowback about why is everybody either white or not white in these certain roles. But the bigger blowback I've heard is people are now being like, why does everybody speak American speaking. You know what I mean? Matt Damon just sounds like Matt Damon. Why didn't they try to make him sound Greek? But, you know, famous little story for you is that when they started shooting Gladiator, Russell Crowe was like, well, I'm a Spaniard. Like, I need to have, like, a Spanish accent. And Ridley Scott was like, no, no, no, no, no. Just sound how you sound. You sound fucking awesome.
- [58:13]
Chad Millman
He's like, no one gives a fuck.
- [58:15]
Michael Lasker
Just no one cares. We're not going for authenticity. Authenticity here. Just. Just be cool. But the Odyssey, obviously, I mean, you know, there's this movie coming out this week, next week, called the Invite that Olivia Wilde directed with Seth Rogen. It's like a sex farce comic.
- [58:28]
Chad Millman
Oh, yeah.
- [58:29]
Michael Lasker
And people think that could be, like, a screenplay nominee. You know, there's people that are talking. I don't think it'll happen. As of today, people are already talking about Obsession, and for Dune 3, you
- [58:40]
Simon Hun
think he has a chance?
- [58:40]
Michael Lasker
Well, Dune 3 could be amazing. I mean, look, Dune 3, you know, I think that I'll. I'll come back to June three in a second. On Obsession, there's early chatter of, like, could that actress be nominated for best Actress? Could the screenplay be nominated? Dune 3 could be great. Denis Villeneuve's brilliant. They're all brilliant. I don't think for a third movie. It's been built. It's been building in a way that, frankly, the way Lord of the Rings built, where, like, those movies were so dominant. And, yes, both Dunes have been nominated for best picture. But it's a slightly different time because you have to remember at Lord of the Rings is that was three best picture nominations in a row when it was five nominees. Now it's 10 nominees. And I love Dune. I love all the people at Legendary. I don't know if Dune II would have been in the five nominees if there had been five a couple years ago, but there were 10. So people are hyped for Dune. Chalamet is brilliant. No one really knows. I mean, people know that it's darker. They know that the material is darker, even darker than the first two. But I don't really feel like there's a buzz yet of, like, ooh, we're ending. We're ending the final chapter of this story that we've all been, like, glued to. It's tough. I mean, it's tough for a third movie to get nominated. I mean, Avatar 3 didn't get nominated. The second one did. So I don't know. It's an interesting year where, like, there isn't just. There aren't a ton of, like, oh, this person is, like, the odds on favorite. Maybe I'm, like, forgetting something.
- [60:05]
Chad Millman
But, like, what about Project Hail Mary?
- [60:07]
Michael Lasker
Project Hail Mary, I think will be nominated for best Picture. Gosling could be nominated. It's tough. It's like, you know, movies obviously can stay having come out in March, but I think that people love that movie. I'm not feeling in this moment right now that it has the exact staying power that I felt like Sinners was having a year ago. And I think it's because I love Project Hail Mary and love all those people involved. It might not have enough of an issue inside it. I mean, it was, you know, and granted, the Martian was nominated for best picture, but that was a. That movie came out in October. And so, I don't know. I mean, I think it'd be nominated for best picture, but I'm not sure it's gonna, like, sweep the Oscars yet. I think it's one of those years where, like, we don't entirely know. There were a couple of films that popped at the Cannes Film Festival that shows a really good performances. Movies you've not heard of that your audience will not care about today. That will pop up into the fall award season. But, yeah, I mean, there's, like, not a big, like, Leo movie this year. There's no Scorsese film, obviously. PTA was last year. It's so funny. Like, I'm not exactly sure off top of my head, like, what would Be like the full. It's like it's early, you know, I mean, obviously things have been dated, but I'm just literally thinking of like, yeah, I mean, Universal's big movie is the Odyssey. You know, I mean, a lot of the big movies that have been dated for December are just like tentpoles, you know, in December, you have Jumanji three, you have Dune three, you have Avengers five. You know, but these are. Those are not going to. Outside of maybe Dune. Those are not necessarily going to be Oscar films. So we can come back. We can do this again in like September. Because I know you're getting at. It's like you want to give your audience a chance to make some bets in, like, October. I mean, look, you talked about the witch Simon, Robert Eggers, who's really talented, he has his big movie. He made a big werewolf film that's coming out at the end of the year. And, you know, his last movie was the Dracula film he had made that was huge and got a couple Oscar nominations for, like, below the line stuff. So. I don't know. You just don't know until you know, you know, it's a crapshoot, Lasker.
- [62:13]
Chad Millman
We'll get to December and we'll be into the seven Saturdays. Christmas.
- [62:17]
Michael Lasker
That's right, Corridor.
- [62:19]
Chad Millman
That's right, Michael Lasker. You got insight, you got taste, you got talent, you got news. You got it all, brother. Thanks for coming.
- [62:28]
Michael Lasker
I love hanging out with you guys. Thanks for having me back.
- [62:30]
Chad Millman
We love it. I want to wish everybody a happy Independence Day day. We're going to be back on Tuesday with our NFL playoff predictions show. That's always a good one. This has been Sharper Square, part of the Volume Podcast Network. Watch or listen on YouTube at Sharper Square like this video. Subscribe to the channel. Download us with Spotify, Apple pods, wherever you get your pods rate. Review. Subscribe. Leave us five stars. Say whatever you want. Feedback is a gift. Until next time. Love you.
- [62:59]
Colin Cowherd
14.
- [63:00]
Michael Lasker
Too many.
- [63:01]
Colin Cowherd
18. 14.
- [63:03]
Michael Lasker
What's the count?
- [63:04]
Chad Millman
Minus nine. Make it minus eight.
- [63:06]
Michael Lasker
Minus nine.
- [63:07]
Chad Millman
What makes you so sure?
- [63:09]
Michael Lasker
It's a rule.
- [63:11]
Chad Millman
Always stand by the first count.
- [63:12]
Michael Lasker
The odds are you're right.
- [63:18]
Lele Pons
This is an Iheart podcast.
- [63:20]
Michael Lasker
Guaranteed human.