Ep. 7 - Guilty Pleasures! vol. 1

This transcript was automatically generated and might contain errors.

[0:00] J.J.: I just had a gig last night. Yeah. I lucked into the opportunity to emcee a private party for a very big company out of Maryland. The best. They did a beach theme and I was made up to look like the skipper.

[0:13] Olaf: Oh, that's why you don't have a beard.

[0:19] J.J.: I had to shave my beard. They put me in a wig, sailor hat. I had the blue shirt, a fat suit. There was a Gilligan and a Ginger but they were completely unattached from me. Doing their own thing. No real interaction with them. But it was a lot of fun to do. They had a very loose script and it was also exciting because right before everything got started they changed everything. Of course. I was just flowing now. So you're very much on your toes the whole time but it was just really really nice to get back into the swing of things. I hadn't been in front of an audience for a year and it is like riding a bike when you've, as you know, when you've hosted enough things but you still feel a little rusty because those instincts aren't quite firing as quick as you are used to. But I don't know. We'll see. Maybe there'll be more opportunities later. I hope so.

[1:34] Olaf: No, that's awesome man. Yeah. Unrelated to that is today's topic though.

[1:39] J.J.: Yes. You were actually the one who came up with this.

[1:44] Olaf: Was I? I couldn't remember who brought this one up. Actually you know what? I think you mentioned we were talking about another topic and you mentioned a movie came up and you said that's actually a guilty pleasure of mine. And I went oh that's probably what it was. I was like that would be fun. Yeah. Like sort of a fun topic to dive into because everybody has them. Films that you may like and other people like I don't understand. The world says hate this movie. It's bad. And I say I'm all in. All in.

[2:14] J.J.: That's my dad. My dad has his own like in the world of collecting DVDs you know he has his own cabinet. So my mom's got her side and then my dad's got his side and his name is Carlos, my dad's name. So C but my mom's like this is the C section for crap. Not so much for his name but for just movies that he's all about and not many people are. I guess a good example for my dad would be the Godzilla movie the Matthew Broderick from 1998. The Roland Emmerich. That's a guilty pleasure for my dad like that all in. That's he's all in. And that's the thing with guilty pleasure movies is they're all bad in most people's eyes and you just have those people who love them.

[3:06] Olaf: I am NOT one of those people that love that movie. It's so bad. But you know good for your father.

[3:14] J.J.: Yeah. Wow. Yeah. Oh so on that note let's get back to the movie theater and we're gonna talk today about guilty pleasures.

[3:20] Olaf: Guilty pleasure is something such as a film, a television program, a piece of music, etc. that one enjoys despite understanding that it is not generally held in high regard or is seen as unusual or weird. I don't know about that last part but I think we have an idea of course that like you said yeah people are gonna hate it but I'm gonna find a way to embrace it for everything that it is.

[3:55] J.J.: Yeah this is one of those weird topics where it doesn't matter what you say almost everyone's going to be against you. I mean you're pretty used to that with your lists of rankings of films but I'm on an island by myself a lot of times. As far as like these specific movies more than not you're going to be alone on it.

[4:18] Olaf: Well this one was interesting for me because you know when we were talking about talking about this I was over here with like one or two because I was really trying to think well what what do I consider a guilty pleasure because I think maybe maybe it's not a guilty pleasure I like it but and then you're over there and you're telling me you have like 16 17 movies and so I really had to dig into my head into my you know the history of movies I've seen and I've created a pretty good list now and we're not gonna dive in all of them here but no no no where this is gonna be a recurring segment where we dive into obscure bad movies that we love and it is our guilty pleasure series this being our first one and it was tough because I was making a list that was getting longer and longer and I thought maybe I should edit it down and now I'm just gonna keep that list going.

[5:18] J.J.: Okay but what were some movies to start with that was tricky for me don't wait looking at the list that I had made and I don't know I think I came up with a few good ones for our first episode and just so everybody knows I have no idea what his list is and he doesn't know idea what mine is we kind of like that idea because we like it's that whole element of surprise I'm gonna be shocked probably and I know he will with of mine and so I kind of without giving anything away with what you're gonna talk about I gave an example of Godzilla that was like I feel like that was the one that my dad he will die on that hill by himself on that movie he loves it unabashedly which is amazing which I love because he's like this is great and that's like always the go-to it's like the definition of guilty pleasure from as I well now we're not gonna go like hey and we don't watch Godzilla.

[6:07] Olaf: Yeah yeah these are all movies that we individually have a passion for that we just love even though we know a lot of people do not agree with us.

[6:23] J.J.: Well and here's the thing because I'm looking at mine and again we're not going to cover all of them hopefully we'll be able to touch on a few of them this time and hopefully leave the audience wanting a little bit more for the next one and I'm thinking some of these people might actually like but again for me I don't know if they're universally revered yeah I've got some on here that are very popular movies yeah but I think critically and maybe well I wouldn't say box-office but definitely critically they were yeah panned so sure they still have a strong audience yeah but from a culty standpoint like they gain some sort of cult traction later years later yeah though a couple of them that are on this list they had a huge box-office sure Godzilla they but they they weren't hated either they were loved and enjoyed by a large amount of people so I guess is that a guilty pleasure right but you have critics telling you this is terrible this is trash so I feel like there's a fine line.

[7:25] Olaf: Okay well we can argue about that but I don't have any concerns about that for the few that I've picked out for this so are you wanting to start this off?

[7:34] J.J.: I can yeah if you want absolutely and the first movie that I've picked I don't even know if you're gonna know it it is so obscure I almost forgot about it because it's been years since I watched it but I watched it all the time okay and even now I think back to it and I'm like god I loved watching that movie I want to watch it again but I can't find it anywhere right that's the other thing that's the other thing before the thing with these movies that I found because I don't have the big library so I'm like oh yeah this movie I can't find it anywhere because it's not streaming because it is so obscure or so not good or for whatever reason and anyway sorry this movie if I could find it right now I would pay money to own it so that I could sit and and relive my childhood.

[8:26] Olaf: Well come on suspense is killing me you've built this one up man.

[8:31] J.J.: Yeah it's so bad it is called Airborne and it doesn't star it's like I would say co-stars a very young Seth Green.

[8:37] Olaf: Okay is it like a snowboarding movie or am I getting...

[8:43] J.J.: It's a rollerblading that's what it is yeah the kid from California comes to Ohio where my family's from and it's cold and they do hockey there and he's just a California dude who likes to rollerblade.

[8:58] Olaf: Okay I just having this up Jack's running a bit in yes but I used to watch this movie all the time it is so terrible and it's so good there's these montages of the surfer dude he's surfing on his bed just to like daydream about surfing back home in California instead of the cold gray Ohio that it really is they didn't have to do much to portray Ohio as cold and gray it really kind of is I've got the trailer I can say that as someone who has lived there and experienced that cold greatness so I've got the trailer on mute I just went up to like IMDB and I was like I got why don't and I've got the trailer on mute Seth Green with this long skater hair I mean this definitely looks like a movie just on mute this movie only could have been made in the year it was made it was came out in 1993 and this looks very much like movies that were made in the early 90s late 80s early 90s but this even the trailer is bad.

[10:19] J.J.: Yeah it is so terrible and I love every minute of it it's just fantastic like the movie is is just a fish out of water movie the surfer dude is just depressed and sad and the bullies don't like him and his cousin he's living with his cousin who is Seth Green right yeah like trying to tell him that he's the cool guy at his high school when it turns out he is not cool at all and they're both outcasts then he meets this girl and she kind of likes him and he likes her but it it doesn't kick off until someone I think maybe his mom sends him a package and it's his rollerblades because he didn't bring them with him and now it's this huge montage of him just rollerblading all over the place and then he ends up rollerblading with the girl in like that sounds greenhouse awful it sounds I love it.

[11:17] J.J.: Welcome back to the movie theater! Today, we’re diving into a new segment called Guilty Pleasures, where we talk about movies that we know are terrible but we love anyway.

[11:47] Olaf: Yeah, and we’ve got a fun lineup for you today. We’re covering six movies that definitely fit the bill.

[12:17] J.J.: First up is *Airborne* from 1993. This movie is about a teenager who moves to a new city and gets involved in rollerblading. It’s got some cheesy moments, but it’s just so much fun!

[12:47] Olaf: I remember watching that one as a kid! It’s got that classic 90s vibe, and you can’t help but enjoy the ridiculousness of it all.

[13:17] J.J.: Next, we have *Oscar* from 1991, starring Sylvester Stallone. It’s a comedy about a mobster trying to go straight, and it’s filled with slapstick humor and misunderstandings.

[13:47] Olaf: I love how over-the-top it is! Stallone really leans into the comedy, which is not something you see from him often.

[14:17] J.J.: Moving on to *Down Periscope* from 1996. This one features Kelsey Grammer as a submarine captain who has to deal with a motley crew. It’s a goofy take on military life.

[14:47] Olaf: It’s definitely one of those movies that you watch and think, “This is so bad, but I can’t stop laughing!”

[15:07] J.J.: And then we have the original *Clash of the Titans* from 1981. The special effects are pretty dated, but the story is still epic, and who doesn’t love a good mythological adventure?

[15:27] Olaf: Right? It’s a classic! The stop-motion animation is charming in its own way, and it’s just a fun ride through Greek mythology.

[15:47] J.J.: Next up is *Congo* from 1995. This one is a wild adventure about a group trying to find a lost city in the jungle, and it features a talking gorilla!

[16:17] Olaf: It’s so absurd! The plot is all over the place, but it’s entertaining to watch, especially with the over-the-top performances.

[16:37] J.J.: Finally, we have *The Wizard* from 1989. This film is essentially a long commercial for Nintendo, but it’s got a lot of heart and nostalgia for gamers.

[16:57] Olaf: Absolutely! It’s a road trip movie that culminates in a video game championship. What’s not to love?

[17:17] J.J.: So there you have it, our guilty pleasures for today! We hope you enjoyed this segment and maybe even found a movie or two to check out.

[17:37] Olaf: Be sure to let us know your guilty pleasures too! We’d love to hear from you on social media.

[17:57] J.J.: And don’t forget to subscribe to the podcast for more cinematic adventures!

[18:27] Olaf: Until next time, keep watching those guilty pleasure movies!

[18:57] J.J.: See you at the movies!

[22:35] J.J.: That maybe people were kind of tired of those. I don't know.

[22:40] Olaf: Because is Rob Schneider just Rob Schneider?

[22:43] J.J.: We're not asking much from him anyway, usually. You're getting Rob Schneider, but now he's playing a high-strung, angry navy officer who is just constantly berating everyone below him and then eventually he gets booted off the ship.

[23:00] Olaf: Got it.

[23:00] J.J.: Yeah, he's like trying to be by the book and angry. He might even be in cahoots with Bruce Dern. I'm trying to remember, but either way, yeah. I highly recommend it if you haven't seen it. And if it's been a long time since you've seen it, give it a rewatch and see what you think. But Down Periscope, definitely a guilty pleasure that I am happy to watch anytime.

[23:23] J.J.: And a credit to the director, David S. Ward, this dude directed The Program, which is like the college football movie with James Caan. He directed Major League. He directed Major League II, but he also wrote Major League II. But this guy wrote The Sting. He wrote Sleepless in Seattle, which is one of my favorite movies. So I mean, this guy's done some stuff. I mean, so good for him. And it definitely has kind of a Major League feel to it. It's worth a watch. If you haven't seen it, check it out. It's dumb fun. You can check your brain at the door and just enjoy yourself.

[24:02] Olaf: And then isn't that what these movies that we're talking about are anyway?

[24:06] J.J.: Yeah. I mean, that's the, again, definition pretty much of the guilty pleasure is that you're not going in here thinking you're going to get moved emotionally in some sort of major way. It's just like you said, check your brain at the door, have some fun.

[24:21] Olaf: All right. So your next one, what is it? Lawrence of Arabia?

[24:26] J.J.: Yeah, not anymore. But it's funny you mentioned that because it has, when you mention Lawrence of Arabia, you feel like it's got this cachet of high quality Peter O'Toole, the acting Omar Sharif. My second pick came out in the early 80s, came out in 1981. And again, thanks to television and whatnot, I watched this movie all the time when I was a kid. This movie is one of the reasons why I really liked Greek mythology growing up along with my mom.

[24:58] Olaf: I think I know what you're going to say.

[24:59] J.J.: It came out in 1981. The movie is Clash of the Titans.

[25:04] Olaf: Yeah.

[25:05] J.J.: Yeah. With Harry Hamlin. And this is like one of his first major films. I mean, he ended up doing more television, big high quality, you know, LA Law back in the 80s, which is another one of my mom's favorite shows back then. But Clash of the Titans, the story, Lawrence Olivier as Zeus.

[25:21] Olaf: Oh, it's like a stacked cast.

[25:25] J.J.: It's a stacked cast of like heavyweights from back in the day, Lawrence Olivier, Maggie Smith, Ursula Andress, who I believe has one line of dialogue in it. She plays Aphrodite. Burgess Meredith. Of course, we mentioned Harry Hamlin as the lead as Perseus. And of course, they made a remake of it in 2010, which I didn't find as entertaining. But I loved this movie and the visual effects of it. They are so aged. They were aged even then. So they don't probably play. It's probably a really bad, tacky watch if you were to watch it as a first-time viewer now. But when I was a kid, like they go in and they got to get ahead of Medusa and they've got to defeat the Kraken.

[26:14] Olaf: The Medusa scene was my favorite.

[26:16] J.J.: That's an awesome. I love that scene.

[26:19] Olaf: Yeah.

[26:19] J.J.: And it was one of those movies that just seemed to get played on TV quite a bit because it's not like I owned a copy of it on VHS. I don't think I just remember watching it on TV a lot.

[26:30] Olaf: Oh, it was all the time.

[26:32] J.J.: All the time. So much so that there are like scenes that are so vivid in my mind that I only would have been able to recall them from just watching them on TV back then. But I don't know if many people of a certain age of our age would really clock this movie. They probably think the first thing they'll probably think of if they did it all would be the remake with Sam Worthington back in 2010.

[26:53] Olaf: Which isn't great. It's not that it's bad. It's just it's flat. It's a flat movie.

[26:59] J.J.: Well, some would say if they were to watch the original, they would probably think the same thing. They'd be like, this is so cheese. It's like cheesy. The visual effects aren't great. There's a mechanical owl animation. But the stop motion because the one of the characters that they created for the film that's not in mythology, which is like the one of the antagonists, Calibus is played by an actor, but they stop motion a lot of the movement. Same with Medusa. Like they just had to get clever with it. But for 1981, with like a lot of those types of movies that were coming out that were trying to stretch those visual effects boundaries. It's okay. I mean, it's for the time it worked. And it's one of those movies that because I watched it so young, I could watch it now with a much more forgiving set of eyes than if somebody were to watch it coming in brand new.

[27:55] Olaf: Yeah, it's one of those things where it's a movie of its time. The pacing of it is kind of slow and just the shots and the setups and all that. I think watching it now would definitely be harder to do.

[28:07] J.J.: Yeah, no doubt. It plays like a made-for-TV movie.

[28:10] Olaf: It does. Yes, that's a great way of putting it. It feels like a budget, too.

[28:15] J.J.: It really does. Like this was in the theater. Okay, because I could I never obviously saw it in the theater. And so maybe I've got it's got that made-for-TV element because you're right, watching it on TV and then seeing something that had a made-for-TV budget looked exactly the same in terms of quality. The only thing different was the heavyweight cast. I mean, Olivier.

[28:37] Olaf: Yeah. What are you doing in this movie?

[28:43] J.J.: And again, I haven't seen it in a really long time, but because I watched it at a young age, it always has that fond place, you know, in my memory and in my mind where, you know, I'm going to enjoy watching this movie. So that's my number two. My number two is Clash of the Titans.

[29:02] Olaf: Okay, kind of weak.

[29:02] J.J.: Well, it's I mean, it's a guilty pleasure. It's not it's not a movie you want to just sit down and watch all the time and be like, I love this. No, but like I said, because I because I watched it at a young age, I have that affinity to that. If it came up for some reason, I was able it was on. I'm like, oh, in fact, a couple like during the pandemic, I wanted to show my son. I was like, let's watch Clash of the Titans, you know, because at that point he was like eight.

[29:29] Olaf: Right.

[29:29] J.J.: And so it might have worked like now if I showed it to me to be like, what what is this?

[29:35] Olaf: So is it guilty pleasure for you or is it just guilty nostalgia?

[29:39] J.J.: Oh, man. Now you're going to like overanalyze like the pic here. I mean, I think it's I think it's a little bit of both. It's a guilty because I've got a list of movies. I have a list of movies where I get absolute pleasure in watching, even though they might be bad.

[29:52] Olaf: Oh, that would be Clash of the Titans for me.

[29:56] J.J.: Okay, just checking.

[29:56] Olaf: Yeah.

[29:56] J.J.: Oh, no. No. For me, if I were to watch it, that's I'm saying if I were to watch it, I'd be like, I know why I like this movie. I enjoy it. I remember why I enjoyed this movie.

[30:06] Olaf: All right.

[30:06] J.J.: Okay, even though I know it doesn't hold up and it's completely dated and played, it doesn't matter.

[30:11] Olaf: Yeah.

[30:11] J.J.: Okay, so my next one again, these are guilty pleasures. I love this movie. I know it's bad and I will watch it anytime. I'll hum the main music to myself because it's catchy and I don't care if everyone else hates it. I mean, it only has a meta score of twenty-four. It's not well liked at all. And I would call it an action thriller, action adventure thriller that came out in nineteen ninety-five.

[30:48] Olaf: And it's just it's just a Stallone movie.

[30:52] J.J.: It is not a Stallone movie, but it does have Tim Curry in it.

[30:57] Olaf: I know what it is.

[30:57] J.J.: It's just what it is. It's just shy of two hours. It's like an hour fifty. If you're giving me the correct year, I know exactly what movie you're talking about. And I remember seeing this movie in the theater with my cousin, with my cousin Joshua. This movie is not good. I love it. I love it all. I mean, okay, it is Congo.

[31:14] Olaf: Yeah, Congo.

[31:24] J.J.: Yeah. Laura Linney, Tim Curry, Ernie Hudson, Joe Don Baker, Bruce Campbell. Bruce Campbell makes a brief cameo in it, and I just love it so much. It's got everything and nothing all at once. I mean, it's a movie about going somewhere. The almost the whole movie, they're just trying to get somewhere.

[31:38] Olaf: Oh, my God. It's just so good.

[31:49] J.J.: And honestly, the best character in this movie is Ernie Hudson. He is the best. He is amazing. And if I ever saw him in real life, the first question I would ask is about Congo. He would come up going, oh, he's this guy. He's going to ask me about Ghostbusters. No, no. I want to talk about Congo because I loved him in it. I loved his character. And I'm wondering why there hasn't been other movies with that character in it. They could be spinoffs because he was great. I loved it bad.

[32:19] Olaf: Oh, so bad.

[32:25] J.J.: You did. You mentioned Dylan Walsh because he is like, oh, Dylan Walsh. Yeah, he's the main guy you mentioned. But Dylan, this was like supposed to be his vehicle. And Laura Linney's because this is like her first big budget movie. Like she did Dave as like a supporting role with Kevin Kline. But prior to that, she hadn't. This is like her big thing. So she's her talent is so good that her career survived this movie.

[32:51] Olaf: This movie is just so fun.

[32:51] J.J.: I mean, it really is a blast and it's so dumb. And it's got a talking gorilla. I mean, the gorilla doesn't talk. The gorilla does sign language in it, wears a power, a Nintendo power glove that allows, that translates what it's saying. And it's just this annoying little female computer voice. And oh man, some media conglomerate is trying to find this rare diamond to make lasers for their communication. I'm a little foggy on what they're trying to do there.

[33:30] Olaf: Because it's supposed to be based on the Michael Crichton book.

[33:34] J.J.: Is this loosely based on the Michael Crichton book? It's very loosely based. I have not read the book. I hear it's actually really good and it's nothing like the movie. Because I mean, obviously they were trying to get the studios were like, oh my goodness, what else is Michael Crichton written? Because he wrote Jurassic Park and look how amazing that turned out.

[33:54] J.J. Gonzalez: The movie is absurd, but it's just got so many great things about it. The music's great. That whole scene where they're on the rafts with the hippos, that's pretty fun. Tim Curry is outrageous. He's just got this weird accent. I don't really know where he's from.

[34:16] Olaf Adzick: I don't either. I have no idea. And I'm thinking, could anybody else have pulled this accent off? Because he's barely pulling it off.

[34:24] J.J. Gonzalez: Yeah, and his character name is Herkimer Homolka.

[34:30] Olaf Adzick: Herkimer Homolka. Who came up with that?

[34:35] J.J. Gonzalez: And the other thing that bothers me about this movie is John Patrick Shanley wrote this script based off of the book. And John Patrick Shanley wrote Moonstruck. And he wrote Doubt. And this dude is top shelf when it comes to writing. And he's got this piece on his resume. I don't know. I just don't know what to say.

[34:54] Olaf Adzick: Well, again, it's a guilty pleasure of mine. I own it. And I love sitting down and watching it from time to time. I just have fun with it. It's dumb. It's silly. It is a bad movie that I love to watch. And again, this is not one of those movies where I'm like, I need to see this again. Maybe I'll have a different opinion on it. No, it's completely bad and it won't ever change.

[35:25] J.J. Gonzalez: I don't know if I would sit down. If it happened to be on, I would probably watch a little bit of it. I'm going to say it right now. At some point on this podcast, we're going to do a rewatch. We'll watch it together and we'll comment on it in real time.

[35:39] Olaf Adzick: Why does it have to be that? There's so many other movies we could rewatch.

[35:48] J.J. Gonzalez: I don't know if that's on the top of my list of movies I would do a rewatch podcast episode on. But hey, we can add it to a list.

[35:56] Olaf Adzick: We can get that list going.

[35:58] J.J. Gonzalez: I think that would be great.

[36:03] Olaf Adzick: All right. I'm going to come back at you here with my third pick. And what's been interesting about the movies we've mentioned so far is that it brings up other movies that I hadn't thought about because of a particular actor that's in this movie. And I'm like, oh, this person was in this other. Oh, maybe that's. Yeah. OK, so my third pick is a movie that came out in 1989. It is I don't I mean, I feel like of the time people were people knew what it was.

[36:38] J.J. Gonzalez: It's bad. How dare you?

[36:42] Olaf Adzick: I love that movie. Quickly change my pick.

[36:48] J.J. Gonzalez: No, this movie centers around the video game world. It's a road movie.

[36:56] Olaf Adzick: I already know. Yes. Ready?

[36:59] J.J. Gonzalez: The Wizard. The Wizard with Fred Savage.

[37:02] Olaf Adzick: Yes. And Luke Edwards. Before they gave Luke Edwards the Minnesota Twins and Little Big League. He plays Jimmy, a kid who I felt like was on not so much on the spectrum, but I think he is. Their mom died. And so he doesn't talk. He's in this like facility. Christian Slater plays the older brother. Bo Bridges is the dad. But Fred, it's Fred Savage basically doing a Rain Man and breaking his brother out of some sort of institution. Then they're on this quest to go to this video game competition.

[37:34] J.J. Gonzalez: And of course, at the time, you know, Nintendo was big. This is where they introduce the Power Glove that we mentioned earlier in Congo. But like this is where they got to introduce the Power Glove. And then this whole movie is just a Nintendo commercial.

[37:51] Olaf Adzick: It really is because they're playing everywhere they go. They're like playing the kid, like the little kid, the little brother, Jimmy. Yeah. Who doesn't say a single word of dialogue to like the very end is this video game prodigy. And he's like gets the highest score on Double Dragon at this arcade at the gas station. And then that's when they decide to go to Reno, Nevada and to this Nintendo video game competition where all of the best of the best are going to be there.

[38:19] J.J. Gonzalez: And it was just one of those because again, it came out, I was like 11. So I was heavy into Nintendo with my brother and my cousin. And so we were playing all the time. But this was the movie that introduced Super Mario Brothers 3.

[38:33] Olaf Adzick: Yes.

[38:34] J.J. Gonzalez: Like nobody knew.

[38:35] Olaf Adzick: It debuted in the movie.

[38:37] J.J. Gonzalez: It debuted in the movie. And then what I love about debuting how they debuted in the movie is that and this is where it gets like sort of bad. It's like this kid is such a genius that he knows how to play the game at its highest ability. Like he knows where all of the spots are. He knows what to do because he's that good at this game that nobody's ever heard of.

[39:00] Olaf Adzick: Yeah.

[39:00] J.J. Gonzalez: But I thought it was just really cool to see a kid, Fred Savage, who's close to my age, like on this adventure going cross country. And it was video game related. And then for the culmination of the film to be Super Mario Brothers 3 as like the final game. And then, of course, I think the kid wins. But, of course, the deeper story there is that the mom passed away. And it's how everybody's dealing with the grief. Bo Bridges, the brother. I think that's what it is. Christian Slater's character, how they've dealt with the death or the passing of the mom.

[39:36] Olaf Adzick: Yeah.

[39:37] J.J. Gonzalez: Because other than that, there are some glaring holes in the movie. Fred Savage could do no wrong because he was kind of our window into the movies in these stories. Because he was similar to our age. And he was our outlet. And I loved The Wizard. This is your best of the three that you've given me. This is your best guilty pleasure choice.

[40:00] Olaf Adzick: Because it so is a guilty pleasure. Because it's not good.

[40:04] J.J. Gonzalez: Let's see. The meta score for this is 23, just like Congo. And it was just a commercial for a video game company.

[40:13] Olaf Adzick: Yeah. Well, it says here, the original pitch for this movie was The Karate Kid, but with video games.

[40:18] J.J. Gonzalez: Okay. I mean, I suppose. I don't know. It's not really a good pitch for the movie.

[40:22] Olaf Adzick: Yeah, it's really more like Rain Man with video games.

[40:24] J.J. Gonzalez: That's what I thought. I mean, that's exactly what I think of is Rain Man, which had come out the year before. But, yeah, The Wizard. And it was one of those movies where, like, you saw it. It was out in the theater. And then it sort of, that was it. You didn't really get a lot of play on TV. In fact, during the pandemic, I was able to locate it. And I think maybe it's because when everybody's in lockdown, now everything was being streamed. Like, obscure titles. Everything but Airborne.

[41:01] Olaf Adzick: Yeah, I missed that one.

[41:05] J.J. Gonzalez: But I showed it to my son. Because at the time, he was like, hey, and loved it. And I remember seeing it, having not seen it in such a long time and going, yep, this is why I love this movie. I remember why I love this movie. Because I was, I think I was eight when this movie came out.

[41:10] Olaf Adzick: Yeah, yeah.

[41:11] J.J. Gonzalez: And, yeah, no, I loved it. Video games, Nintendo, they were all huge at the time. And the Power Glove looked so cool.

[41:20] Olaf Adzick: I never owned a Nintendo as a kid. I had to go to a friend's house to play. We had the Sega Genesis. Actually, we had the Sega Master System. And then eventually we moved up to the Sega Genesis. But, yeah, I was all about that stuff as a kid.

[41:37] J.J. Gonzalez: Yeah, I never had the Glove. I had the Nintendo, especially at the time. And then when Mario 3 came out, I ended up having Mario 3.

[41:44] Olaf Adzick: Well, the Glove never worked. The Glove was a piece of crap.

[41:47] J.J. Gonzalez: But it just looked cool.

[41:52] Olaf Adzick: It looked so cool. Especially with the driving games. Like, you could drive with your arm. Nintendo was trying so many different things around that time. And they pretty much all flopped. But the Power Glove was the coolest thing that they ever came out with that just never worked.

[42:08] J.J. Gonzalez: Yeah. I agree. I agree.

[42:10] Olaf Adzick: So, that's my number three. As we sort of went into three different movies each there. And I like this idea of doing this as a recurring episode. Because we're definitely leaving people with a little something more here.

[42:26] J.J. Gonzalez: Oh, God. There's so many more on my list. In fact, while we were talking, I added a Power Glove. I added three while we were talking.

[42:33] Olaf Adzick: Yeah.

[42:34] J.J. Gonzalez: So, go check out Airborne. Go check out Down Periscope.

[42:37] Olaf Adzick: If you can find it.

[42:38] J.J. Gonzalez: Yeah. If you can find it. If you can find it, you tell me. Because I want to watch it again. Down Periscope is just a fun, dumb adventure in Congo. You know, get lost in Africa.

[42:50] Olaf Adzick: Oh, boy.

[42:51] J.J. Gonzalez: Oh, boy. And here I am going, you can watch Oscar on YouTube right now. And I'm sure it will still be there. I don't think it's going anywhere. I'm going to find time to watch Oscar.

[43:03] Olaf Adzick: Yeah. The Wizard, I feel like of the three movies that I, I mean, Clash of the Titans is old. So, if you can't get to it, that's fine. Again, I mentioned it because it's a movie that I loved growing up. And I would watch it again, too. And then The Wizard is, it is, like you said, it's the definition of guilty pleasure. Because it's not great. And it's okay. But the idea, like, around it and the video game. Like you said, it's this big commercial for Nintendo. That's just a lot of fun.

[43:32] J.J. Gonzalez: Yeah. And kudos to the young kids in it because they sell it.

[43:36] Olaf Adzick: Oh, yeah. Absolutely. As most movies of that time that were relying on kid actors to carry films, this was another one of those that they did a lot with very little. Like, they didn't have a whole lot to work with here. But they did a lot with the little that they were given.

[43:50] J.J. Gonzalez: Yeah. Well, that is our guilty pleasures episode. But we've got more of those coming down the pipe because we've got so many more guilty pleasures to talk about. We both hope that you check out the ones that we mentioned today. Mine are definitely more on the guilty pleasure side of things. But Lawrence of Arabia is a lot better than you might think. As is Batman. And Citizen Kane.

[44:17] Olaf Adzick: And Citizen Kane.

[44:19] J.J. Gonzalez: Oh, man. But, yeah, stay tuned and switch on, and you'll hear what we have coming up next on our next episode. So, as always.

[44:29] Olaf Adzick: To be continued.

[44:37] Johnny Clay: Back to the Movie Theater is hosted by J.J. Gonzalez and Olaf Adzick. Produced by me, Johnny Clay. J.J. Gonzalez and Olaf Adzick. Theme song and incidental music by The Dimes. Follow us on Instagram and TikTok at BackToTheMovieTheater. And find us on YouTube at BackToTheMovieTheater with J.J. and Olaf.