Speaker 1: You know, speaking of like trinkets and movie going and everything,
Speaker 1: I'm just curious to ask you about popcorn buckets, these
Speaker 1: like movie themed popcorn corn buckets, because like when I
Speaker 1: go to my theater, they now have like a huge display.
Speaker 1: It's like when you're you know, like a target or whatever.
Speaker 1: You know, how they make it so when you're walking
Speaker 1: to the register, you have to pass all these sort
Speaker 1: of little odds and ends that you think, oh, that'd
Speaker 1: be fun, I'll buy that, you know, that sort of gimmick.
Speaker 1: So when you go to the concession stand, now you
Speaker 1: sneak through this area where they have all these shelves
Speaker 1: of popcorn buckets. Yeah, and I mean they've had these
Speaker 1: for a long time. I think the Dune popcorn bucket
Speaker 1: was the one that really brought a lot of people's
Speaker 1: attention to it for the first time. But I mean
Speaker 1: every movie since, like I have, there was an Andrea
Speaker 1: Bocelli movie that showed for like a week, but they
Speaker 1: made a popcorn bucket for that really, yeah, which I
Speaker 1: have because I thought it was so funny. And so
Speaker 1: you know, you have certain ones that are just regular tins.
Speaker 1: So I remember ferm Mission Impossible. It was just like
Speaker 1: a red bucket with an image of Ethan Hunt dangling
Speaker 1: from a mountain or something. Right, But then some of
Speaker 1: the others get really really elaborate. And the one that
Speaker 1: really stood out to me when I went to the
Speaker 1: movies the other night was they had this tron arcade
Speaker 1: cabinet popcorn bucket. So look, it looks cool, like it
Speaker 1: looks like a mini arcade cabinet, and you know, but
Speaker 1: that movie just didn't perform like I think people expected.
Speaker 1: People weren't interested in buying merch for that film. And
Speaker 1: they still have those tron arcade things every time you
Speaker 1: walk up to the register, and it's like, you know,
Speaker 1: I think when they came out, they're probably like sixty bucks,
Speaker 1: and then it's like thirty bucks, and now it's like
Speaker 1: two for fifteen dollars. I mean, yeah, yeah, well, and
Speaker 1: then I still pass like wicked stuff. But then there's
Speaker 1: new things, you know, like Michael and it looks like
Speaker 1: it's like a bucket, but it looks like there's a
Speaker 1: gold record on top. But anyway, with Mandalorian.
Speaker 2: One battle after another where it's just Colonel Lockjaw's head
Speaker 2: that you eat popcorn out of.
Speaker 1: Yeah, or it's like the paternity test machine, you know,
Speaker 1: like the two levels. You just like open that up
Speaker 1: and eat the popcorn out of it. He may not
Speaker 1: be her father, DiCaprio, but you know he is her
Speaker 1: dad eating out of that machine. So but Mandalorian and Grogu,
Speaker 1: I saw that they have this big, elaborate, freaking at
Speaker 1: at Walker. Okay, popcorn bucket quote unquote bucket. Yeah, and
Speaker 1: it looks like something I would have wanted as a kid,
Speaker 1: just like a toy, right right, But it costs I
Speaker 1: want to say, it costs eighty dollars.
Speaker 3: What the Okay?
Speaker 1: Yeah, and I remember the Avatar thing also, I don't
Speaker 1: remember the creature's name, but whatever, those you know, the
Speaker 1: sky dragon things that they fly, They had those and
Speaker 1: they lit up and they were like eighty dollars or something.
Speaker 1: And I don't know, I mean, I don't have a
Speaker 1: point to all this. I just think it's kind of
Speaker 1: fascinating that they are investing so much in these things. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and some of them become collector's items. I think the
Speaker 1: Yoshi popcorn bucket from Super Mario Galaxy, right, you know,
Speaker 1: probably sold for like sixty dollars or something. And now
Speaker 1: you can go on eBay and see them for who
Speaker 1: knows one hundred plus. But then it's interesting seeing you've
Speaker 1: got all these leftovers, and I just wonder, I don't
Speaker 1: know how this is like netting out for them, if
Speaker 1: it's maybe they only cost five dollars to make, you know,
Speaker 1: so not much as lost. But I just find it fascinating.
Speaker 1: I'm curious how much longer it'll go for. And I'm
Speaker 1: kind of curious what your experience with these is at
Speaker 1: your theater. I mean, do you see a lot of these?
Speaker 1: Do you see a lot of leftovers?
Speaker 2: I see ye, I mean, now that you mentioned it,
Speaker 2: I mean I don't. I guess I don't spend a
Speaker 2: lot of time glancing at things in the in the
Speaker 2: the concessions area.
Speaker 1: So you don't have to like pass them, right, Okay.
Speaker 2: So I have not seen like the more elaborate ones,
Speaker 2: but I see I not in person, but I see
Speaker 2: pictures online and and for me, there's just a practicality
Speaker 2: aspect of it where I mean that it's like taking
Speaker 2: up space forever, you know, like yeah, in a collection.
Speaker 2: So I'm kind of like for some of these, I
Speaker 2: mean I can see Star Wars fans obviously buying the
Speaker 2: Star Wars ones, right, But you know with.
Speaker 3: You know, some of this other stuff.
Speaker 2: It's so it's so transient that I wonder about, Like,
Speaker 2: I I think that, what was it like two years
Speaker 2: ago there was like the Deadpool and Wolverine one, right,
Speaker 2: and there was like a like people were lining up
Speaker 2: to get them.
Speaker 3: I think it's dead Pool and Wolverine.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I kind of remember that.
Speaker 2: I forget, I forget even what it was. I just
Speaker 2: remember there was like a limit one per customer thing,
Speaker 2: and I'm like, Okay, I can kind of see somebody
Speaker 2: wanting that. But not all movies are going to have
Speaker 2: sort of that toy ettek or collectible adjacent you know, yeah,
Speaker 2: or like an event.
Speaker 1: It's like when you go to a concert and you
Speaker 1: want to sort of memorialize it in sort of a
Speaker 1: way and you can put it on your shelf like
Speaker 1: a shirt or whatever you get. So I can see
Speaker 1: that maybe with a certain movie that's like an event
Speaker 1: and you go with a big group of friends and whatever.
Speaker 2: But like even Dune, right, it was just hey, it
Speaker 2: looks like a butthole, Like that was the whole.
Speaker 1: That was the novelty of it.
Speaker 2: The novelty of it, hey butt hoole bucket. Okay, I
Speaker 2: would imagine that wears off too after a while.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean it's it's funny for a week or
Speaker 1: a couple of days. But then I mean, is that
Speaker 1: thing still sitting on your shelf the in a proud spot?
Speaker 2: I don't know, leave it there as a conversation starter
Speaker 2: on Thanksgiving?
Speaker 3: Well, I think for.
Speaker 1: You know, Billy, I've been meaning to ask you taking
Speaker 1: a bite of turkey. But for me, I've been kind
Speaker 1: of lucky where you know, my friend works at a
Speaker 1: studio and so I've gone to a couple of screenings
Speaker 1: there that they host, and they've given out their buckets
Speaker 1: there for free. Oh interesting, and so I have like
Speaker 1: a mission impossible bucket and whatever. Well, like I said,
Speaker 1: the simple ones, it's just a popcorn bucket, right, but
Speaker 1: it's branded right right, and I do love it like
Speaker 1: I do use it. It's it's fun and it because
Speaker 1: it works as a popcorn bucket, right, you know. But
Speaker 1: sometimes I'll see certain ones that look cool, like if
Speaker 1: I saw a well, I think AMC had Deloreans. Okay,
Speaker 1: you know, for when the anniversary.
Speaker 3: That's the teacher that's cool. You know, yeah, it's cool.
Speaker 1: I can understand that sort of thing, but some of
Speaker 1: them are just so elaborate. And also for a movie
Speaker 1: that like I'm catching because I have the time and
Speaker 1: not because it's something that I'm really thinking much about.
Speaker 1: I just think it's interesting that they just went all
Speaker 1: in on that and making this really expensive merch for it.
Speaker 2: And you know, this feels like a ramp like a
Speaker 2: ramp up from we're talking twenty years ago. I remember
Speaker 2: Slurpy Cups used to be very elaborate.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2: I remember going to seven eleven when Revenge of the
Speaker 2: Sith came out and there were like four different Slurpy
Speaker 2: cups all with the Darth Vader topper.
Speaker 3: I was like, these are cool, and then I got them.
Speaker 2: I had four of them, and then at some point,
Speaker 2: you know, when I moved or whatever, I'm like, Man,
Speaker 2: what am.
Speaker 3: I supposed to do with these?
Speaker 1: Yeah?
Speaker 3: Sure, sure, and in.
Speaker 2: The trash they went. I probably could have put them
Speaker 2: on eBay now that I think about it. But anyway,
Speaker 2: this is like exponentially more in terms of the sort
Speaker 2: of the logistical hassle factor, the func stue of it all,
Speaker 2: you know.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and when you're like pricing the average person out
Speaker 1: of a popcorn bucket. Yeah, it's just like, I don't know,
Speaker 1: it's just the natural evolution of things. I guess, I
Speaker 1: don't know.
Speaker 2: It's sort of you know, you know comic books used
Speaker 2: to do this where in this is in the nineties,
Speaker 2: at the height of the speculator era, so we're talking
Speaker 2: early nineties and the and you may even have memory
Speaker 2: of this, like the were trying to out gimmick each other.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I kind of remember this.
Speaker 2: So you had like, yeah, you had like glowing the
Speaker 2: dark cover and yeah, you know, hologram cover, and then
Speaker 2: it became like pop up cover and color forms cover
Speaker 2: and and it became it eventually became such a pain
Speaker 2: in the ass because you're paying extra for literally there
Speaker 2: was a there was a Superman cover that was it
Speaker 2: came with those those plastic clings and you could make
Speaker 2: a little color form scene interesting, and it's like, you know,
Speaker 2: there again, there is a novelty, a brief novelty, but
Speaker 2: then when it comes to storage and everything.
Speaker 1: It's a big hassle, right yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2: So all of this is to say, like when I
Speaker 2: was doing my bindings, I realized that like, if you're
Speaker 2: trying to flip through a book, a big, heavy cardboard
Speaker 2: hologram thing is makes it hard. Right, So I, even
Speaker 2: though I owned the like the the the Gimmick covers,
Speaker 2: I went back in and purchased the like the normal
Speaker 2: version of those issues.
Speaker 1: Yep.
Speaker 2: So right, eventually it's like, well the gimmick becomes a pain, yeah,
Speaker 2: and it's like, just give me the normal thing, and
Speaker 2: I feel like just to transfer the analogy. At some point,
Speaker 2: you just want a thing to eat popcorn out of
Speaker 2: that you throw away?
Speaker 1: Yeah right right, right right now, or like it's cool
Speaker 1: to take something home and I can use it because
Speaker 1: it's actually useful, but I don't need like twenty of them.
Speaker 2: Yeah, like how much popcorn it does one intend to eat?
Speaker 1: Yeah? Yeah, but although I do, I am susceptible sometimes
Speaker 1: to the shiny thing. You know, when you're in the
Speaker 1: moment you're going to see a certain thing and then
Speaker 1: you see like a little thing that you can hold
Speaker 1: in your hand, like I get the draw.
Speaker 2: Well sure, but like okay, so you use the ad
Speaker 2: at as an example, Yeah, it's just kind of yeah,
Speaker 2: that's a neat thing. I wouldn't pay eighty dollars for it.
Speaker 1: No very cool though, I mean I just always love
Speaker 1: ad at Walker, sure.
Speaker 2: Right, or the DeLorean or like, give me an anton
Speaker 2: first Batmobile popcorn holder. Well, I would just put that
Speaker 2: on my shelf.
Speaker 1: Yeah, so I just instinctively held up my hand with
Speaker 1: cash in it when you said that.
Speaker 2: See, yeah, right, but yeah, I mean at some point
Speaker 2: again and actually, you know, if you give me the
Speaker 2: Colonel lockjaw head, put that next to the butthole thing
Speaker 2: and just let people have their own conversations.
Speaker 1: Excuse me. Yeah. Wait, by the way, this is completely random,
Speaker 1: but have you this is Sunday, May seventeenth. Have you
Speaker 1: seen last night's SNL.
Speaker 3: I've only seen a couple of sketches. I fell asleep.
Speaker 1: Did you see the opening with the Jeffrey Epstein. Yeah,
Speaker 1: Will Ferrell played Jeffrey Epstein and you know the talking
Speaker 1: to Donald Trump.
Speaker 3: I did.
Speaker 1: Did you think that Will Ferrell with his wig and
Speaker 1: his sweater and everything looked like Harrison Ford from The
Speaker 1: Fugitive when he steals that old man's clothes from the hospital.
Speaker 3: That's funny. Wow, right, He's.
Speaker 1: Got that like gray grandpa sweater and I couldn't stop
Speaker 1: thinking about it. And then I wanted to make sure
Speaker 1: to tell you. And then this morning on Instagram or something,
Speaker 1: I saw someone say is it just me or did
Speaker 1: well Phair look like Harrison Ford in that opening sketch
Speaker 1: last night? And I was like, wow, yeah, there you go.
Speaker 3: You keet in on something, you know, I The Fugitive.
Speaker 2: It's so funny that you mentioned that, because, like, you know,
Speaker 2: I screened that in my class, and you know, I
Speaker 2: teach a class clued Cultural Expression in Media, and I
Speaker 2: try to culminate the course by talking about film itself
Speaker 2: as culture, like the experience of watching a movie with
Speaker 2: an audience that that becomes a shared cultural moment, you know.
Speaker 2: And so I like using The Fugitive as an example
Speaker 2: because it's a great Obviously it was a huge blockbuster,
Speaker 2: but also it was a critical and you know, Awards favorite,
Speaker 2: and so it has that dual layers of credibility and
Speaker 2: plus for most you know, we're talking about pop culture
Speaker 2: half life. I mean, gosh, well, overwhelmingly students have not
Speaker 2: seen this in a movie they enjoy. And in my
Speaker 2: my final one one question that I close out with
Speaker 2: is what was your favorite movie that we watched this semester?
Speaker 2: And it gratifies me so much that so many of
Speaker 2: them are like, well, I know it's the last one,
Speaker 2: but manned, I love The Fugitive really, you know, and
Speaker 2: it just makes me happy because I'm like, this is
Speaker 2: a movie that in terms of the situation that it presents,
Speaker 2: it's it's so technologically removed from where we are now, right.
Speaker 3: Like.
Speaker 2: Richard Kimball in twenty six has a whole he runs
Speaker 2: a very different gauntlet, you know what I'm saying, And
Speaker 2: that would be an interesting story. But in that sense,
Speaker 2: this is very it's very out of date, right, Yeah,
Speaker 2: the idea that Kimball can just sort of disappear into
Speaker 2: a maze of humanity and sort of function with a
Speaker 2: certain level of anonymity, it feels very very quaint.
Speaker 1: I mean, like every movie now is like, you know,
Speaker 1: check the CCTV and people.
Speaker 3: Pulling out their phones and recording whatever.
Speaker 1: Yeah, like Running Man, which I know is supposed to
Speaker 1: be slightly futuristic, but it's not that far off where
Speaker 1: everyone can just pull out their phones and find that
Speaker 1: person exactly. So that's a great point.
Speaker 2: Yeah, you know, it's very different, but yet they plug
Speaker 2: into the the character drama and the performances and that,
Speaker 2: you know, like the stuff that the same stuff that
Speaker 2: you and I have loved about that movie for decades
Speaker 2: that makes it so so utterly rewatchable.
Speaker 1: You know.
Speaker 2: I saw somebody online say once that that's that's a
Speaker 2: finish watching from wherever you happen to channel surf across
Speaker 2: it movie completely. Yeah, it's so true, right, And you
Speaker 2: know I always say what was favorite movie and why?
Speaker 2: And the responses were great where it was like I
Speaker 2: was glad that the deputy came around to his side,
Speaker 2: or that that he believed him, you know, like in
Speaker 2: other words, sort of reckon, like liking both characters, yeah, or.
Speaker 3: One one comment I loved.
Speaker 2: I loved how doctor Kimball went out of his way
Speaker 2: to help others when it.
Speaker 3: Would have been easier not to.
Speaker 1: Wow.
Speaker 2: And I'm like, man, if those are the responses, I
Speaker 2: feel like I'm doing something right.
Speaker 1: Is that funny They're not talking about action sequences exactly. Yeah,
Speaker 1: Like they really locked into the characters and who they are,
Speaker 1: and that's that's amazing. That's that makes me so happy.
Speaker 2: It really does, you know, because because I try to
Speaker 2: frame it, I'm like, you know, what is the shorthand
Speaker 2: that films give us. How do we know instinctively when
Speaker 2: a character is a bad guy good guy? To talk
Speaker 2: about save the cat and things like that. In The Fugitive,
Speaker 2: one of the first instances we first indications we get
Speaker 2: that Kimball is a good guy is after the train
Speaker 2: crash he's the only one who helps the cop who's
Speaker 2: been stabbed. Yeah, yep, and like right away you're like, okay,
Speaker 2: good guy, you know. And so I try to walk
Speaker 2: them through what a movie is doing to make them
Speaker 2: better aware of, like this is everything that's in the
Speaker 2: film is there intentionally and there it's trying to make
Speaker 2: you feel a certain way. So interrogate your your feelings.
Speaker 2: Why are you why do you feel this way or that?
Speaker 3: You know?
Speaker 2: And I use the same thing about Gerard. I'm like,
Speaker 2: what how do we know he's not a bad guy?
Speaker 2: You know? And I talk about protagonists versus antagonist, and
Speaker 2: I'm like, you know, a protagonist is not a good guy.
Speaker 2: Antagonist is not a bad guy. It's protagonist is who
Speaker 2: we spend the most time with. Antagonist is whoever's trying
Speaker 2: to stop our protagonists from achieving their goal, you know.
Speaker 2: And I try I walk them through this where I'm like,
Speaker 2: the more time you spend with the character, the more
Speaker 2: you feel invested in them. And I'm like Girard and Kimball,
Speaker 2: we spend the equal time. We like them both, you know.
Speaker 2: So it's fun to me when they are picking out
Speaker 2: this stuff.
Speaker 3: You know, I just.
Speaker 1: I wish you could almost take this like your your
Speaker 1: students and use this as a study to show studios
Speaker 1: what resonates. Yeah, right, you know what I mean. It
Speaker 1: isn't trying to top yourself with visual effects. It isn't
Speaker 1: you know, any of that sort of thing. It's if
Speaker 1: the characters resonate and their journey resonates, people walk away satisfied.
Speaker 1: So like, that's what you should be working on first.
Speaker 2: Yeah, you know, And I think it gets to like,
Speaker 2: what are the movies that that outlive their moment and
Speaker 2: what are the ones that maybe burn white hot for
Speaker 2: a second but are utterly forgotten.
Speaker 1: You know what's funny. This reminds me. I rewatched the
Speaker 1: movie Splash recently, and that was a huge hit when
Speaker 1: it came out in nineteen eighty four, and it was
Speaker 1: in the top ten box office of the year. And
Speaker 1: I was listening to a podcast and they were interviewing
Speaker 1: Ron Howard just reflecting about Splash being this big breakout
Speaker 1: moment for him and Tom Hanks and everybody, and so
Speaker 1: it's like, oh, I want to it's on Disney Plus
Speaker 1: I've rewatch that.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 1: And it's funny because it opens with he and Tom
Speaker 1: Hanks and John Candy are brothers, and it shows a
Speaker 1: flashback with their little boys, and you see the John
Speaker 1: Candy boy basically throwing change on the ground and picking
Speaker 1: it up, but it's just an excuse so he can
Speaker 1: look up women's skirts, gotcha. And so then it you know,
Speaker 1: shows them in the present and John Candy is still
Speaker 1: throwing stuff on the ground so he can look up
Speaker 1: women's dresses.
Speaker 2: I believe that's what you were doing the first time
Speaker 2: you and I met.
Speaker 1: That's how we met. Yeah, actually, yeah, that's right. But
Speaker 1: I was like, wow, that is so funny that this
Speaker 1: like really creepy thing, Like in eighty four everyone was like, yes, yes,
Speaker 1: that's our guy, you know what I mean. And and
Speaker 1: even that's one example, but then Tom Hanks and Darryl
Speaker 1: Hannah's relationship is just so empty, you know what I mean.
Speaker 1: It's like she's she saw him once and now she's
Speaker 1: obsessed with him, and as soon as they see each
Speaker 1: other they have sex like immediately, and then they want
Speaker 1: to get married. And I'm like what what like what? Yeah,
Speaker 1: you know what I mean. And it's like she's the
Speaker 1: love of his life. I'm like, she hasn't spoken a
Speaker 1: word to you yet, you know what I mean. So
Speaker 1: I just feel like a movie like that would not,
Speaker 1: you know, hold up to today's audiences for many reasons.
Speaker 1: Yeah yeah, but in the moment it worked, you know.
Speaker 1: But we're talking about there are just certain movies where
Speaker 1: they do like a great job, you know, with like
Speaker 1: the human condition and characters and what they want and
Speaker 1: what they need and making them relatable or at least understandable.
Speaker 1: And those are the movies where maybe culturally we don't
Speaker 1: talk about the Fugitive as much, but if you show
Speaker 1: it to a group of younger people who might never
Speaker 1: have put it on themselves, it holds up just as
Speaker 1: well as it did thirty some years ago.
Speaker 3: Yeah. It's gratifying.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, so that's I think that's really cool your class,
Speaker 1: just that it exists. I mean, that's such an amazing thing,
Speaker 1: not only to show exposed kids to like amazing movies
Speaker 1: they may have missed, but also to give them like
Speaker 1: a kind of a literacy or get them into a
Speaker 1: dialogue about like not just watching a movie, but thinking
Speaker 1: about a movie and digging in the way that you
Speaker 1: guys do. I think that's awesome.
Speaker 3: Yeah, well I hope.
Speaker 2: So you know, I saw a thing online and maybe
Speaker 2: this was bait to some extent, but it was somebody
Speaker 2: responding to the question of like, what is a good
Speaker 2: age to show your kids the Lord of the Rings films,
Speaker 2: And this person says, well, if your kids are a
Speaker 2: little like five, that's probably too young. So another five
Speaker 2: years then they're ten ish. But at that point the
Speaker 2: movies are going to be more than thirty years old,
Speaker 2: and no kid is going to watch a movie that's
Speaker 2: more than thirty years old.
Speaker 1: Hey, this is Brian. And that was a preview of
Speaker 1: an hour long bonus conversation Zachi and I had where
Speaker 1: we talked about everything from novelty popcorn buckets to Masters
Speaker 1: of the Universe, tracking and tie in toys, and we
Speaker 1: also had a surprisingly in depth conversation about the two
Speaker 1: thousand and one John Travolta, Hugh Jackman, Halle Berry movie
Speaker 1: Swordfish You can find this conversation in its entirety over
Speaker 1: on our Patreon feed, along with other bonus conversations we've
Speaker 1: previously dropped, which usually happens about twice a month, as
Speaker 1: well as ad free versions of all our commentaries and
Speaker 1: regular episodes. Just head over to patreon dot com slash
Speaker 1: moviefilm Podcast, hit subscribe, and for only five dollars a month,
Speaker 1: you can get in on all this ad free fun
Speaker 1: that's patreon dot com slash moviefilm Podcast