Speaker 1: Weary. We welcome back midnight viewers to Father Malone's weekly roundup.
Speaker 1: I am Father Malone with me as always is one
Speaker 1: of the little people of Downenge Miss Ripley Gen say
Speaker 1: hi to everyone. Rip, What's new? What's good? Are you watching? Digman?
Speaker 1: Exclamation Point? It's an animated show if You're Unaware, created
Speaker 1: by Andy Samberg and Neil Campbell about a world where
Speaker 1: archaeologists are basically rock stars. They're called archies. It features
Speaker 1: all of your favorite comedians as voices, including Samberg doing
Speaker 1: his Nicholas Cage impression as the lead Rip Digman. It
Speaker 1: is a joke machine on the level of Season five
Speaker 1: of The Simpsons. I don't know that I can praise
Speaker 1: anything higher than that. Also new is NBC's desperate attempt
Speaker 1: at remplicating The Office with The Paper. I knew you
Speaker 1: all love The Office, and I liked it for a
Speaker 1: few seasons, but I gotta admit I think John Krazinsky
Speaker 1: is really smug. I don't get the appeal. Maybe he's
Speaker 1: a good guy. I don't care. Life short and watching
Speaker 1: a show with someone you detest is not any way
Speaker 1: to live. But The Paper has Donald Gleeson in the
Speaker 1: lead and you've heard me about mister Gleeson in the
Speaker 1: past in our episode about a futile in stupid gesture,
Speaker 1: and he's great here too. The show overall is really good.
Speaker 1: Probably a little late if they're hoping to slack the
Speaker 1: thirst of the office crowd, because it is a very
Speaker 1: close to it. But now that it's streaming they can say, fuck,
Speaker 1: I watched all of season one. I really liked it.
Speaker 1: Probably not going to follow it to season two, which
Speaker 1: it's already been renewed for. As desperate as the idea
Speaker 1: of capitalizing on the office might be in concept, the
Speaker 1: actual attempt at making another Sophia Vargara character happen is sad.
Speaker 1: It's so fucking sitcom it hurts anytime any real emotion
Speaker 1: starts coming in. Here comes this loud in appearance and
Speaker 1: loud and attitude foreigner from Central Casting to tacky it
Speaker 1: up and introduce some tired trope that felt old back
Speaker 1: on happy days. You guys like werewolf stuff, spooky seasons.
Speaker 1: Here got to start thinking about monsters all the time now.
Speaker 1: So just a reminder that Paul Waller from A Year
Speaker 1: in Horror podcast and I are collaborating on a new
Speaker 1: show all about our lichanthrope friends, our Children of the Moon.
Speaker 1: That's going to be over on his channel. It starts
Speaker 1: up in October. That's called Little Old Lady Got Mutilated
Speaker 1: Late last Night. It is a cinematic odyssey from Larry
Speaker 1: Talbot all the way up to the New Eggers Werewolf
Speaker 1: movie next year. Also new shows also starting in October.
Speaker 1: It's another fest, folks. It's Books of Blood Fest. I
Speaker 1: was so inspired by the recent episode of Tales from
Speaker 1: the Dark Side we looked at that was an adaptation
Speaker 1: of Barker's short story The Yattering and Jack, that I
Speaker 1: went back and dusted off my old volumes of the
Speaker 1: Books of Blood, and I've been delighting and revisiting these
Speaker 1: tales and Barker's work in general. But like Stephen King's
Speaker 1: Night Shift or Skeleton Crew, there have been at least
Speaker 1: a dozen movie and or TV episodes that drew their
Speaker 1: inspiration from the Books of Blood. So we're gonna be
Speaker 1: looking at those films if you want to to jump
Speaker 1: on it. Here are the titles Rawhead, Rex candy Man,
Speaker 1: Lord of Illusions, Quicksilver Highway, The Midnight Meat Train, Dread
Speaker 1: Book of Blood, Books of Blood, and those are just
Speaker 1: the movies to that end. If any of you have
Speaker 1: easy access to the film Dread from two thousand and nine,
Speaker 1: please hit me up. The email address is in the notes.
Speaker 1: I'm having a devil of a time tracking it down. HB,
Speaker 1: who is not really a horror guy. It's his only
Speaker 1: true defect is sitting out the books of Bloodfest instead.
Speaker 1: I'll be joined by a different guest for every episode,
Speaker 1: including Paul Waller and appearing separately, though from their same
Speaker 1: show We Belong Dead podcast will have Lono and his
Speaker 1: partner Ian Wednesday. Season two is on Netflix. I haven't
Speaker 1: watched a frame. Turns out whatever number of episodes we
Speaker 1: got last year was the perfect amount of Tim Burton's
Speaker 1: vision of the Adams Family for me, I'd be willing
Speaker 1: to give it a go if I was promised more Fester.
Speaker 1: I really liked Fred Armison's Jackie Coogan throwback to when
Speaker 1: Fester was a dangerous goof my annual rant. Fester is
Speaker 1: Mortish's uncle, not an Atoms at all, not Gomez's long
Speaker 1: lost brother or whatever the fuck. The original series is
Speaker 1: always going to be the superior version of the Atoms Klan.
Speaker 1: You want to know why I'm gonna tell you anyway,
Speaker 1: the budgetary nature of television kept it ninety eight percent
Speaker 1: of the time in and around that house. Am I
Speaker 1: crazy for wanting to spend time with them in their environment?
Speaker 1: The normal world sucks and if it has to intrude,
Speaker 1: let it come to them. There's this perverse, really obvious
Speaker 1: tendency among writers to jump directly to can you picture
Speaker 1: them in the real world? Yes, anyone in the eighties
Speaker 1: wearing a fucking Bad Brain shirt or an Iron Maiden
Speaker 1: shirt for that matter, no doubt. At one point heard
Speaker 1: here comes the Atoms family. I don't want to watch
Speaker 1: more Tisha at the market or Fester interacting with street lights.
Speaker 1: Who cares that? Impulse the let's see them out in
Speaker 1: These outlandish real world scenarios kept me from Wednesday, And
Speaker 1: I gotta say, is a huge stumbling blo with today's
Speaker 1: topic spinal tap too, but we'll get there. Oh my god,
Speaker 1: Alien Earth. I have a prediction. Fuck I hope I'm right.
Speaker 1: This is speculation, not spoiler. There are five corporations on
Speaker 1: Earth in this series. I believe at the end of
Speaker 1: the show, one of those corporations is going to end
Speaker 1: up being run by a tiny invasive species. If that
Speaker 1: eyeball can move past grunting and get into our speech patterns,
Speaker 1: Oh my god, it's so tantalizing. But before that, is
Speaker 1: there any doubt we're getting a xenomorph versus a xenomorph
Speaker 1: fight coming up? I think not. I never want this
Speaker 1: series to end. Sigourney Weaver got interviewed recently and she's
Speaker 1: fully on board with the show, watches it every week.
Speaker 1: You know, she's just about the age Amanda Ripley was
Speaker 1: just before her mom was found floating out there in
Speaker 1: deep space. That's a free idea I'm sending out into
Speaker 1: the alien verse. Let's talk tartans for a moment, shall we.
Speaker 1: It's no secret I'm a fan of the kilt. I'm
Speaker 1: literally wearing one right now now. The kilt, in case
Speaker 1: you're unaware, is the bit of apparel, the pattern on
Speaker 1: the fabric that's the tartan, and each pattern is specific
Speaker 1: to the family that wears it. There's a registry my
Speaker 1: family's tartan. I guarantee every fucking one of you knows.
Speaker 1: Because Scotch Tape decided at some point that the Wallace
Speaker 1: Tartan makes a pretty good brand signifier. And get this,
Speaker 1: Every tartan has variations, So you've got the main design
Speaker 1: everyone knows. In that case it's red with black and
Speaker 1: yellow overlaid. But there's a hunting tartan which swaps the
Speaker 1: redout for forrest Green. Scotch Tape used the fucking hunting
Speaker 1: tartan as well. I'm not mad. I just don't understand
Speaker 1: how a company can grab something so personal and just
Speaker 1: claim it. Also, I think there ought to be compensation.
Speaker 1: I grew up in the seventies and eighties in suburban America.
Speaker 1: To you and me and everyone we knew, a kilt
Speaker 1: was a skirt, and it was heaped with all the
Speaker 1: bullshit gay panic that seemed to dominate in those days
Speaker 1: and still does apparently. And then one day a man
Speaker 1: arrived of villain, a heel, funny and smart and charming
Speaker 1: and fucking capable, mister Roderick George Toombs, a man wearing
Speaker 1: a kilt and who adopted a stage name. My God,
Speaker 1: have I patterned my whole life on rowdy Roddy Piper.
Speaker 1: Remember when he boxed mister t and then he was
Speaker 1: disqualified because in the middle of a boxing match he
Speaker 1: body slammed him. Oh, those were the days. Rowdy roddy
Speaker 1: Piper wearing the kilt and being a villain was so
Speaker 1: much more powerful to me than had he been a hero.
Speaker 1: I knew, knew that those same kids who were slagging
Speaker 1: him off for wearing a dress would have been praising
Speaker 1: him and his unique apparel had he been friends with
Speaker 1: Hulk Hogan instead of his enemy. Who was right in
Speaker 1: that case, motherfuckers, These were fair weather fucks. I knew
Speaker 1: the way they actually felt. So did Piper. And instead
Speaker 1: of cowering or switching to a sash or a beret
Speaker 1: or some other signifier, Piper used his kilt like a
Speaker 1: fucking rallying cry a shield and a cudgel. Even his
Speaker 1: initial action figures had that kilt, and I fucking loved it.
Speaker 1: It was like spotting someone in a Bad Brain shirt
Speaker 1: or that Iron Maiden shirt. That's what it was like,
Speaker 1: seeing someone else in a kilt enjoying the breeze. Piper's
Speaker 1: tartan is now registered, and it's the simple wine red
Speaker 1: with gray lines through it. But he seemed to wear
Speaker 1: whatever was available, whenever it was available. And I would
Speaker 1: like to point out a highlight in my life round
Speaker 1: about two thousand and five or so when Piper started
Speaker 1: wearing the leather jacket over his hot rod shirt. That
Speaker 1: fucking biker leather jacket. The kilt he was wearing more
Speaker 1: often than not is the Wallace Tartan. You can google it?
Speaker 1: Yeah baby? Wait? Why am I talking about Kilton Tartans?
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, Nigel Tough Noel lead guitar. Hi, I'm Marty
Speaker 1: de Burge. Forty years ago I was honored to direct
Speaker 1: a film called This is Spinal Tap. The numbers or
Speaker 1: go to eleven? One lot? Why don't you just make
Speaker 1: ten louder and make ten be the top number and
Speaker 1: make that all alone? These go to eleven? I like
Speaker 1: to think pink torpedo. That's literature. Yeah, yeah, really, A
Speaker 1: lot has happened since the last time I saw you, Cripto.
Speaker 1: Have you been playing music at all? I playing music
Speaker 1: at a pub. This is the site of Spinal Taps
Speaker 1: reunion concert? Why New Orleans? There was a cancelation. Who
Speaker 1: was supposed to be there? An evening with Stormy Daniels.
Speaker 1: Obviously there'll be the regular merch and Hope has had
Speaker 1: a rather brilliant says artisan, we're still shorter drummer? What
Speaker 1: happened to him. He sneezed himself into a Bolivian Is
Speaker 1: thatmatically possible? So you think he might fill the bill.
Speaker 1: I don't want to die. We've only lost eleven or
Speaker 1: twelve eleven eleven drummers. The thing that you guys had
Speaker 1: as kids is that still there on a band. The
Speaker 1: constantly is breaking apart and coming back together. But the
Speaker 1: more we retreat into the music, the nicer things become,
Speaker 1: not to be profound or anything. And it would be
Speaker 1: a first time for me Stonehead, imagine l Weather Dragon,
Speaker 1: so were quite a tail go back in the time
Speaker 1: to that method. Lad. What we need to do is
Speaker 1: secure your legacy. If during the gig at least one,
Speaker 1: but ideally no more than two of you were to die,
Speaker 1: would you settle for a coma. Oh no, that's interesting. Yeah,
Speaker 1: that's a great bit of thinking outside well little box,
Speaker 1: I suppose. Yeah. Actually, way back in nineteen eighty four,
Speaker 1: during an interview segment in This is Spinal Tap, Nigel
Speaker 1: is sporting it. It's a Stewart Tartan. That's the Royal
Speaker 1: Family of England's tartan, which technically you're not allowed to
Speaker 1: wear without their permission, which makes it hilarious that it
Speaker 1: has become the generic go to Tartan you're most likely
Speaker 1: to find Nigel wearing it. Is the most subtle rock
Speaker 1: star excess in a film about rock star excess, so
Speaker 1: most folks probably didn't notice. If you ask anyone to
Speaker 1: describe how he dresses, you're probably gonna hear about his
Speaker 1: exact skeleton T shirt. But for me, around nineteen eighty five,
Speaker 1: which is when most of us were turned on to
Speaker 1: spinal Tap as it hit video and HBO, more specifically,
Speaker 1: seeing someone as fucking cool as Nigel in tandem with
Speaker 1: rowdy Ronnie Piper wearing Kilts Hoo boy, my Scottish soul
Speaker 1: was well fed. There are other charms to be had
Speaker 1: from this is spinal Tap, obviously, and if you want
Speaker 1: to hear me wax rapsotic about it, I'd head over
Speaker 1: to HP's show Noise Junkies. He had me on to
Speaker 1: discuss the film, and I'd be doing a poor job
Speaker 1: of rehashing my feelings about it here, so go there.
Speaker 1: I don't know if I mentioned this, but HP bought
Speaker 1: me twenty five years ago these eight eighteen inch incredibly
Speaker 1: detailed spinal tap action figures with instruments and tons of
Speaker 1: little doodads. No killed. That was a little disappointing, But anyway,
Speaker 1: Spinal Tap two, the end continues. This is a legacy sequel. Right,
Speaker 1: Sequels as we know them tend to follow in rather
Speaker 1: rapid succession within a decade. Let's say, anything else is legacy, right,
Speaker 1: like Color of Money to the Hustle dropping back in
Speaker 1: later in their lives, Trained Spotting two, Bill and Ted
Speaker 1: Face the music Fuck. I wish I hadn't mentioned Color
Speaker 1: of Money. That's the pinnacle, probably way better than the
Speaker 1: others I mentioned, But Spinal Tap two is at least
Speaker 1: better than any recent legacy sequels does Naked Gun count.
Speaker 1: I didn't review it here because I'm mad at Paramount,
Speaker 1: but I thoroughly enjoyed that movie. Of the comedy legacy sequels,
Speaker 1: that one is definitely the best, way better than Spinal
Speaker 1: Tap two. I'm sad to say, let me just dispense
Speaker 1: with the problems with the film. You can't spoil it.
Speaker 1: By the way, everything I'm saying is in the trailer.
Speaker 1: The basic setup is taps manager Ian is dead, his
Speaker 1: daughter has inherited their contract. The band split after Glastonbury
Speaker 1: in two thousand and nine and no longer talk their
Speaker 1: contract owes one more show. She reunites them in New Orleans.
Speaker 1: They play a show, and once again Marty de Berghey
Speaker 1: is back to document it in nearly identical ways to
Speaker 1: the first film. The first film works as well as
Speaker 1: it does because, had you not known any better, that
Speaker 1: could very easily just be a real documentary about a
Speaker 1: bunch of dummies on the road trying to keep their
Speaker 1: flagging career going. Everything that happens supports that they're on
Speaker 1: a tour that keeps falling apart. If anything is happening
Speaker 1: from without, it has to come to them. Spinal Tap, too,
Speaker 1: spends as much time seemingly away from the band as
Speaker 1: a whole, and away from the purpose of rehearsing and
Speaker 1: working through whatever problems they have to tell us side
Speaker 1: stories about them in some cases, but just as often
Speaker 1: about newer frankly not as interesting characters, and those moments
Speaker 1: with the band while de Berghey is trying to convince
Speaker 1: them to reunite are painful. Man I believed that Spinal
Speaker 1: Tap would be booked on to an Air Force base
Speaker 1: by an inexperienced manager. I don't believe David Saint Hubbins
Speaker 1: plays in a mariachi band to support his income. It's
Speaker 1: a funny visual kind of but really, and there's the problem.
Speaker 1: Time after time they go for the joke, which would
Speaker 1: be great if the jokes were funny, but they're not,
Speaker 1: so it all feels like time wasted. That's unfair. These
Speaker 1: are comedy giants. Nobody comes off bad. But the humor
Speaker 1: now is like reading a New Yorker cartoon as opposed
Speaker 1: to watching an episode of SNL in its heyday. It's funny. Yeah,
Speaker 1: you might even show it to a coworker, but is
Speaker 1: it worth a forty year weight? Was Beetlejuice? It does
Speaker 1: everything we expected to do except make us laugh, although
Speaker 1: I did laugh a lot. Actually, during the end credits,
Speaker 1: they throw out all these seemingly throwaway lines while the
Speaker 1: credits are rolling, and they're bangers, and they're all Nigel.
Speaker 1: In fact, that's something that remains consistent from the original
Speaker 1: to sequel. No one can put a button on a
Speaker 1: scene like Christopher Guest. If you enjoy a trans position
Speaker 1: in this movie, it's because he said something genuinely amusing
Speaker 1: to get you there. This movie is operating under the
Speaker 1: notion that the original film exists, it came out, and
Speaker 1: everyone knows them now. They even make reference to and
Speaker 1: include footage from their shows in ninety two when they
Speaker 1: were on tour to support Break Like the Wind and
Speaker 1: then the aforementioned Glastonbury Festival. It's not crazy to think
Speaker 1: that a few celebrities might have become fans. But Paul
Speaker 1: McCartney and Elton John and Questlove and Lars Ulrich wait
Speaker 1: actually Lars makes sense. Remember that Spinal Tap is a
Speaker 1: metal band, right, I do, some of us do. I
Speaker 1: don't think the band does. I don't think they've thought
Speaker 1: in metal terms since nineteen eighty four. Every piece of
Speaker 1: music since then has been barely hard rock. Even the
Speaker 1: first movie soundtrack is just dancing on the edge of metal,
Speaker 1: at least what metal was at that moment. Now I
Speaker 1: can forgive the band that Christopher Guest came up impersonating
Speaker 1: James Taylor in National Lampoon's Lemmings. The whole of them
Speaker 1: seem way closer to the folksmen. There are other alters
Speaker 1: that were featured in A Mighty Wind in real life
Speaker 1: than they would ever be Spinal Tap. But still, where
Speaker 1: was Bruce Dickinson or Dave Mustaine or Corey Taylor or
Speaker 1: lead A Ford or Alice Cooper. If you're going to
Speaker 1: have a gay music icon show up, how about Rob
Speaker 1: Halford instead of Sir Elton. I would kill to see
Speaker 1: a scene where he and Derreck Small's discuss fashion choices.
Speaker 1: Admittedly McCartney comes off the best. His scene is genuinely funny,
Speaker 1: but there's so much stuff, so much outside bullshit that
Speaker 1: keeps creeping in that we never really settle down with
Speaker 1: these guys and their problems, which is a total drag,
Speaker 1: because that is when the movie works. Whatever slight amusement
Speaker 1: you're getting from the various gags leading up to their
Speaker 1: first scene together, it's all e femera once they do.
Speaker 1: Watching these old men try to get back into some
Speaker 1: sort of semblance of normalcy, the kind that they exist
Speaker 1: in is magic. Their interactions seem genuine and heartfelt and
Speaker 1: achieve that level of slight amusement. The rest of the
Speaker 1: film is trafficking in but in a sincere way. These
Speaker 1: guys have been living these characters for so long that
Speaker 1: they basically are them now, so their instincts are always
Speaker 1: great with each other, and because they've played them so consistently.
Speaker 1: They never veer into the awful land of Dan Aykroyd
Speaker 1: coming back to Elwood Blues after nearly two decades, and
Speaker 1: suddenly he's the most Chicago guy whoever chicagoed am I right?
Speaker 1: Give me two Italian beefs and a dog that's been
Speaker 1: dragged through the garden. My favorite moments in the entire
Speaker 1: film are in no way funny. They involved Nigel and
Speaker 1: his wife Moira. Nigel owns a cheese and guitar shop,
Speaker 1: That stuff is all pretty funny. In fact, all of
Speaker 1: Christopher Guest's stuff is really funny, and his wife is
Speaker 1: holding down the fort while he's away. Their FaceTime calls
Speaker 1: to each other are sweet in a way even the
Speaker 1: first film couldn't touch. Let me keep praising Christopher Guest.
Speaker 1: Remember the moment in the first film where Janine is
Speaker 1: complaining about doubly and Nigel jumps on that, and what
Speaker 1: we'd consider to be a total dolt in life shows
Speaker 1: wit and knowledge. That's Nigel through this whole movie, always
Speaker 1: pushing back, always a bit smarter than he lets on. Which,
Speaker 1: don't get me wrong, they're all still monumentally stupid. But
Speaker 1: if there's a reason to watch this movie. It's Nigel Toughnel.
Speaker 1: Returning cameos are mercifully brief, with Artie Fuckin and Bobby
Speaker 1: Fleckman showing up to remind us they were in the
Speaker 1: first film. They missed a chance to have Dana Carvey return.
Speaker 1: He's a mime in that tour launch sequence in the
Speaker 1: Tap into America scene. Come on, mime is money. That's
Speaker 1: Billy Crystal. Where was he? Let's not forget Marty de
Speaker 1: Berghy is close friends with him, having directed his HBO
Speaker 1: special back in the day. De Berghey, by the way,
Speaker 1: is a little too present in this film, which leads
Speaker 1: me to the real problem here. In trying to replicate
Speaker 1: the first film as much as possible, I think they'll
Speaker 1: cut their legs out from under themselves. The fact is
Speaker 1: the mockumentary format was created by Spinal Tap and then
Speaker 1: given full form by Christopher Guest in films like Waiting
Speaker 1: for Guffman or Best in Show and Now It's just
Speaker 1: the norm the office, the paper, Curb your enthusiasm, actually
Speaker 1: curb is where they should have leaned. Dispense with the
Speaker 1: documentary altogether and just tell us the story of Spinal Tap.
Speaker 1: In their later years, just them and their rehearsal, just
Speaker 1: them working their shit out, but with the new drummer,
Speaker 1: DeeDee Crockett played by Valerie Franco is the only lively
Speaker 1: thing in this entire movie. Yeah, Christopher Guest is still
Speaker 1: killing it, but any new fun energy it's coming from
Speaker 1: the drum kit. She's got a Neil Perk clobbering style
Speaker 1: that knocks me out, and her enthusiasm is fucking everything
Speaker 1: she should have been in every scene. The movie's worth
Speaker 1: a watch overall. If you're a fan, you're gonna see
Speaker 1: it anyway. If I could recommend anything to you, though,
Speaker 1: if you haven't seen that show from nineteen ninety two,
Speaker 1: it's called alternately the Return of Spinal Tap and a
Speaker 1: Spinal Tap Reunion. The twenty fifth anniversary London sellout see
Speaker 1: that they are at the top of their game musically.
Speaker 1: The comedy bits sprinkled throughout the concert are funny. The
Speaker 1: comedy bits sprinkled out through the interstitials are funny. Even
Speaker 1: get Artie Fufkin again. That's gonna do it this week,
Speaker 1: No rips pick. I'm afraid we were gonna take a
Speaker 1: look at that final conjuring film and then I realized
Speaker 1: that I'm so fucking tired of that entire universe. Then
Speaker 1: I treat myself to not seeing it. How about that
Speaker 1: tune in Friday it's the return of Tales from the
Speaker 1: dark Side. The week after is at yahoucha FS where
Speaker 1: we're looking at predators. That's Adrian Brody fighting a predator. Well,
Speaker 1: he talks like a badass. Tune in a week from
Speaker 1: Friday to hear that, or head on over to Patreon
Speaker 1: and hear it right now. In fact, you can hear
Speaker 1: that dark Side and on the next dark Side after that.
Speaker 1: Everything's at patreon dot com. Follow them Alone, doc, whatever
Speaker 1: is it fucking worth it? Yes it is. Write to
Speaker 1: me if you recognize that quote. Father them Alone seven
Speaker 1: to one at gmail dot com for Ripley, Gene and myself.
Speaker 1: Here's some spinal tap I didn't mention eleven one time.
Speaker 1: One looks like a wedge of cheese. No, it's a pizza.
Speaker 1: But now m h it's not. Someman's singing through a
Speaker 1: duck