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cover of episode ‘Big Daddy’ With Bill Simmons, Joe House, and Sean Fennessey

‘Big Daddy’ With Bill Simmons, Joe House, and Sean Fennessey

2024/6/28
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Bill, Joe, and Sean reminisce about Adam Sandler’s early career, from his start on SNL to his early comedy hits like Billy Madison and Happy Gilmore. They discuss whether Sandler was always destined for movie stardom and how his comedic style evolved over time.

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You're listening to the Ringer Podcast Network. We have a bunch of great pop culture podcasts, including this one, The Rewatchables, The Big Picture with Sean Fennessey and Amanda Dobbins, The Watch, Chris Ryan, Andy Greenwald. You can listen to House of R with Joanna Robinson and Mallory Rubin. You can listen to The Ringerverse and The Midnight Boys.

You can listen to the Prestige TV podcast. You can listen to the Ringer Reality TV show. You can listen to Bachelor Party. We have pop culture covered every which way possible. And we also have our Ringer Movies YouTube channel where we're putting up not only a lot of the rewatchables we've already done, full episodes, not only all of the new ones that we do on Monday nights, but we actually found in the archives, you know, we did...

probably 20, 25 other ones on Zoom or on video in our old studios for the rewatchables where we just cut clips from and we didn't run the full podcast. So we're going to start running those on the Ringer Movies YouTube channel, probably on Wednesdays during the summer. Maybe we'll just pop out one a week, something like that. Here's the other thing we're doing, and this is why you're listening right now.

We did a rewatchables 1999 series back in 2019, the 20th anniversary of 1999 movies, which was a fantastic movie year. So we did those for luminary. They were behind a paywall and then we got them back recently and we're just going to start running them on either Wednesday nights or Thursday nights during the summer as second episodes on the rewatchables feed. So yeah,

The Monday night will be same schedule as always. New podcast. As you know, we're doing bangers only the rest of the way here in 2024. But then on either Wednesday or Thursday night, we're going to be doing rewatchable as 1999 podcast. So this one, we did big daddy with Adam Sandler.

And it was me and Joe House and Sean Fennessey joined us for a bunch of it. I think he had to leave like two thirds of the way through because he had a meeting or something. But we had a lot of fun talking about Sandler and about this movie in general. So you can listen to it right now. His girlfriend dumped him for someone else. I found someone. This old guy? He has a five-year plan. What is it? Don't die?

Now, to win her back. I gotta do something big with my life. He's getting her. A little surprise. I want you to meet Julie and my son. Our son? I adopted him. Great. Now what? Big Daddy. Yeah, that's it. Okay, yeah, that's good. Trick or treat. Next year, be prepared, moron. Come set away. Come save. Come save.

all right so i'm not really sure what to do with this movie either this is the third rewatchables 99 we've done that has aged very strangely i really like this movie i'm not saying it's age great um i really like this movie and i really like this movie because it brings me back to a five-year glory period with with adam saylor which is why fantasy is going to join us here for the first 20 minutes this is timely because on saturday night

Sandler hosted Saturday Night Live for the first time he was in that building since he technically got fired. 95? Is that true? I didn't realize he hadn't hosted. That was his first time. Oh, yeah. Holy cow. There was some real bitterness. Unbelievable. So there was a nostalgic kind of feel. So it was interesting watching Big Daddy in that whole vacuum, like kind of reevaluating the whole Sandler run. His five movies, I'm going to exclude Bulletproof.

Okay. With Damon Wayans. I'm just going to nudge that out. It didn't really, I don't feel like that's in the move. I liked it at the time. People don't think of it as a Sandler movie. It's not in the Sandler canon. No. Well, Damon Wayans was a much bigger star than Sandler at the time. Yeah. And it was a weird casting thing. But anyway, all right, I'll add it. 95 to 99 does happy Madison or Billy Madison, happy Gilmore, bulletproof, the wedding singer, the water boy, and then big daddy. And this was the one that did the best.

It's kind of the tail end of this version of Sandler, and then he kind of didn't really know what to do from a movie standpoint. But explain the Sandler era to us, Sean. That specific five-year run. It's like the peak of adolescent movie comedy. You know, it's like stupid, funny, goofball SNL guy who was a successful SNL cast member, but you never felt like was the greatest SNL cast member. Yeah. And...

I think that there was a lot of doubt about whether you could build a movie career around him. This is a similar time to Mike Myers emerging as a movie star, Jim Carrey emerging as a movie star. These guys were sort of big and over the top and were very high concept characters.

Billy Madison is like high concept, but low execution. Happy Gilmore, high concept, low execution. Like all these movies look like they're made for like $2 million, but it doesn't matter because you can't take your eyes off of whatever weird like 13-year-old in a 28-year-old's body thing that Sandler's doing. Big Daddy, I think, is like a transition point, though.

It's like this is the most mature of these movies by far that he has made. It's like a movie with an actual idea as opposed to Happy Gilmore, which is like, what if some dumb bro was amazing at hitting golf balls? You know, like that's basically the story. I'm so surprised that Big Daddy was the most successful. It is my least favorite of all of those movies. I actually agree with that. But I will say...

It makes sense to me that it was the most successful. Why? Because he's building. Each movie was successful. He was becoming more and more bankable. But this was the movie that you could take your kids to. Well, no, you can't, as a matter of fact. Oh, yeah. So I made Housewatch it with that. I eliminated myself, even though I have an 11-year-old son.

I don't feel like he's a good litmus test for should you watch this with your kid because my son is depraved. Boy, you have a legendary, you have a 29-year-old, 10-year-old. Yeah. I mean, he watched the entire Big Mouth all the seasons before we even realized that he saw it. So House has a more typical normal son. He's eight years old. He'll be nine this summer. You wouldn't show him Big Daddy. I did show him Big Daddy. And guess what? It was a mistake. Yeah.

He wanted to know what Hooters was. Oh, over there. And now he's walking around saying the goddamn Jets and I wipe my own ass. His mother is not a fan. How is that a mistake? His mother is not a fan. What was the mistake in that part? That sounds great. I didn't expect that I was going to have to explain Hooters. That was one thing. That's about time you put some hair on that kid's chest. I don't care if he's eight. Throw some chest hairs his way. Well, he's definitely interested in chests now. Yeah.

I think that this movie, though, is... His movies before this almost entirely appealed to people between the ages of maybe right where your son is right now up to like 25. Big Daddy is the first time I feel like he started making movies that were... And maybe The Wedding Singer to some extent that were for like 30-somethings, 40-somethings. He was kind of a cult figure even on SNL. You know, his characters...

were the reason he was fired for a reason. You know, he just was not considered a successful sketch performer, even though you think of like Opera Man and Canteen Boy and all that stuff that was so funny and so seems iconic now. At the time, there was no guarantee that he was going to be the, he's the biggest comedy movie star the last 25 years, like bar none. Yeah, he said he made $4 billion in that SNL monologue song.

And it was kind of like, I won. And it's like, yeah, you did kind of win. I was trying to think like $4 billion. It felt low to me when he said it. And then I actually tried to think about how much money that is.

And how many movies you have to make that do well to get to $4 billion? That's a lot of box office. It's a lot of box office. Well, this goes in two directions. Like, in the one hand, Avengers Endgame made $2 billion in 11 days. Yeah. But Adam Sandler doesn't make superhero movies. He's just making comedies. Where he's the center of it, and then it's a bunch of random people, and then they just release the movie. So the Saturday Night Live thing.

This is a weird era of SNL where the show has this resurgence from like 87 and 91. And it's built around these old school performers and people who were in, you know, comedy troops and could act and Phil Hartman and Jane Hooks and all these people who are just really great actors who happen to be really funny. And they also have all these amazing writers and Conan O'Brien's there and Smigel and all these people go on to do stuff.

Then from like '92 to '95, that starts to flip. It becomes like SNL becomes this vehicle to basically use SNL to make movies. You can feel it starting to flip in the moment with Wayne's World. Wayne's World becomes a phenomenon, huge movie.

And then it's like, all right, who's the next person who can make a movie in this cast? That's how we get Tommy boy. That's how we get the it's Pat movie. That's how it becomes conceivable that Sandler's a movie star. But the problem was the show was shifting and I had all these people who were kind of their character was themselves. And that's just the whole cast. And that's why I cratered. And I think, you know, Sandler, I think unfairly got thrown into that.

Because you had Sandler, you had Farley, you had Norm Macdonald who's playing himself. The show kind of lost what its identity was. These weren't performer actors. These were just kind of personalities. Yeah, I mean, Sandler was a stand-up comedian. And his best stuff is Weekend Update stuff, I think, on that show, which is basically just stand-up comedy. It's him singing songs and doing stand-up. And

And he was a hugely successful music slash album artist at the time too. The albums that he released to people like me who were like 14 when they came out, that was a big fucking deal. Not just the Hanukkah song, but like They're All Gonna Laugh At You was on in my bedroom all the time. And it was a different kind of stardom. Like Spade and Rock, Chris Rock,

I think are a little bit of what you're talking about. Whereas like those guys... There's another one. Those guys are just stand-up comedians. They did their best to fit in. They just showed up on the show. And Farley was always going to be a movie star in some respects. And they were all trying to follow them like Myers and Dana Carvey model. But Sandler was like...

He could do a lot of different kinds of things, you know, he, and that's the, he ended up making a lot of different kinds of movies. And if you watch the first few movies, you think, well, he's just going to do this juvenile like man, boy thing all the time. Big daddy is almost like a comment on him doing the man, boy thing for the last 10 years. And it's like a, it's a segue.

It's funny when he does this SNL sketch where he's at the Sandler family reunion and everybody's doing these different characters he played. And a lot of them are variations from these five movies that he made. But when you go back to the Saturday Night Live era, the songs that he was doing when I was growing up,

Steve Martin, remember? He had the album and he had the songs and he would come on SNL and play music. Those were the songs we listened to. The banjo. Yep. And that kind of, that was a big part of sketch comedy back then, the Smothers Brothers, that old era. And then that kind of went away and he brought it back on SNL. I mean, there's no question. Some of the stuff he was doing on Weekend Update, the Hanukkah song was massive. Still holds up too, by the way. I mean, that was like one of the biggest things they had. They play it every year on the radio when it comes around. Right. Yeah. And some of the sketches that he did

I think really lasted. Like Canteen Boy is really funny. Incredible. Opera Man, which I was really happy they brought that back on SNL because that was probably the most successful version of whatever he did on that show. I did not think he was going to be a movie star. When, if mid-90s, it felt like he was petering out on SNL

I thought Farley was going to be a movie star. Farley was clearly like, I will go to the movie theater and see this guy. I didn't see Billy Madison in the theater. It came out. I was like, oh, Sandler made a movie? Oh, Jesus. I don't think Sandler thought he was going to be a movie star. I think he just made the movies that fit him and fit this personality that we're talking about from SNL. And it turned out that he caught the nation, you know, movie-going sort of public's –

He caught their ear right, their eye right. Something about what he was doing with that man-boy thing just caught everybody in the right place at the right time. Well, think of the other movies, though. Tommy Boy, Dumb and Dumber, the Austin Powers movies. It was kind of this absurdist or it was like there were certain angles with how people were doing the comedies for this specific stretch. And he fits in. But it didn't feel like he was fitting in in the moment. But then...

I always got the impression that he was just doing what he thought was funny. I agree. You know, like he's not overthinking anything. And in some ways, like over the span of time, he's gotten way more criticized for that. Like he gets criticized for making the grownups movies. You've talked about some million times, but he's doing the grownups movies for a very specific reason, right? He's like, I want to make a movie for my kids and I want to make a movie that lets me hang out with my friends. And like, what? That's cool. I agree with this. I have no problem with those. And he was so transparent about it.

Like it's a take it or leave it proposition and you know exactly what you're going to get. You would never pay to go see the theater, go see it in the theater. If it comes on on a Saturday afternoon, I'm going to watch 15 minutes of it and it's fine. It's great. I know exactly what it's going to be. There's a couple laughs. So Billy Madison, Happy Gilmore, effectively the same movie?

I love them both so much. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Me too. They're basically trying to do the same thing in two different settings, and they both work really well, and they've been exceedingly rewatchable. And that was another thing he tapped into mid-late 90s. DVDs are starting. These movies are on cable over and over again, hence the rewatchables. And these were just really rewatchable. Happy Gilmore is just rewatchable. Right this second. If it comes on, I'm on. I can't believe we haven't done a rewatchable about –

I'm ready, man. Happy Gilmore, yeah. I thought you deliberately invited me. This is my first rewatchable, by the way. Thank you for having me. Is it true? Yes, yes. This is my very first one. We're losing that card. Yeah. It's off the table now, so thank you. You're like Brianna Tarth. Yes, it really is. This is true. Yes, thank you. Thank you for taking my rewatchable V-card. I thought you invited me to this one on Big Daddy as a way for you and I to show the world, to tell the world how...

That was 1999. And we were about the same age as that character, Sonny Koufax. Starting to get older. And here we are now, 20 years later, when you look back at what was going on in that era and the way that like social mores were kind of behaving and whatnot, the fact that you and I are sitting here today having this conversation, we're happily married with children. It's an enormous success story when you look

back to what we survived because holy mother F was it F'd up back then. Yeah. All the Hooters. We'll get into that with what stage the worst. You guys are both big daddies now. Literally. We are. Um, so he does Madison and Gilmore, the wedding singer, which was his attempt to be like, I'm actually not this guy. I'm going to go another way. I really liked the wedding singer. And I don't know if it's aged that well, because a lot of what made that movie work was, uh,

Period stuff. It's the nostalgic 80s, kind of having fun with it. It was the same thing like how the Brady Bunch movie worked, but if Craig watched, Craig the producer watched Brady Bunch movie, he wouldn't get two-thirds of the jokes. It's a very sweet movie. It's also, he meets his match with Drew Barrymore a little bit. They just have like a chemistry and they made a bunch of movies later on. And it was just worked on, it was more of a date movie. He caught a really nice Drew Barrymore...

Kind of early peak. Great period of her career. And she's really... All of us, like, everyone in me and House's age, we love Drew Barrymore. We were all in on her. I saw Mad Love in the theater. Humble brag. Well, I will say, you know, the thing, and we will get to it when we get to Big Daddy, the thing that I personally believe that Sandler...

through all of those movies, the single most successful aspect of them is him with, like, in a relationship. His taste. Yeah, his taste with actions. I agree. Well, not just the taste, but, like, the dialogue. Like, him with the Joey Lauren Adams. I'm going to get her name wrong 50 times today. I like when you call her Joey Lawrence Adams. I'm going to call her Joey Lawrence. I'm going to... But maybe I should just do J-L-A. Him and J-L-A. Their dialogue. I was shocked at how, like,

on point and, and, you know, snappy and, and it felt like, oh, this is good. He's got game. This is, I wish I had that game. Yeah. It was always, there's other guys and he made a reference to this in the SNL monologue when he made the joke about Seth Rogen and the goofy guys landing good looking women.

This is a trope that's been in TVs and movies since forever. He was one of the few guys that I always felt like actually could have gotten whoever he was going after in the movie. I agree with you. It's very believable. He's a very charming something that I could see it. It was never not believable. His personas are loud screaming guy or like jittery.

gibberish sweetheart you know and there's like I feel like there are a lot of women who just like the gibberish sweetheart you know and he could be very charming in that way he's obviously just naturally incredibly funny and clever so then he does the water boy

Not a fan of this one. It's a really weird movie. I remember liking it when I saw it in the theater, but it's not one I would rewatch. He's really going for it. It's very One Note. Yeah. It was almost... Yes, it is. No, but it's almost too over the top with that character.

He's basically a special needs character. This is it. You can't not say it. It's a tough watch now. I think in this point in time, I think people would react differently to that one. They're like, why are you making fun of special needs people? What's going on here? My biggest problem with it is I just don't think it's as funny as those other movies. The football scenes are funny. But the other stuff isn't. And I am not a Farooza Balk fan. That was the one misfire he's had, I think, with Leading Ladies. But anyway, so he does The Waterboy. It's a big hit.

And that leads to Big Daddy. I can't believe how successful Big Daddy was. I was just looking at the box office. It's freaking crazy. It opened first weekend, 41.5 million. In 1999. This weekend, that would be amazing for a comedy. What is that, like 120 this weekend? Pretty close, yeah. Because ticket prices are at least twice as much. It made 163 million. It's the most successful 1990s Sandler movie.

Rotten Tomatoes, 40%. I know Sean doesn't care. Metacritic, 41 out of 100. Sean's hero, Roger Ebert, one and a half stars. I hope he's my hero. Let's scale it back. Some actual Roger Ebert quotes. Big Daddy should be reported to the Child Welfare Office. That was his lead. Big Daddy is a film about a seriously disturbed slacker who adopts a five-year-old and tutors him in cynicism, cruel practical jokes, and antisocial behavior.

He ain't wrong. That was Roy Ebert. He ain't wrong. That did hit a little close to home. Yeah, people didn't like this movie. And this did start the Sandler backlash. And this leads to... Yeah, what comes after this? A really strange... Is this like Little Nicky coming right afterwards? Stuff like that? It's not great.

How do you feel about Sonny Koufax, by the way? As a name or as a character? As a character name. Pretty cool. Great name. Great name. Jewish-American Adam Sandler, a nod to his hero, Sandy. Felt like a great slacker name. Felt like the name of a guy that doesn't have any responsibilities. Exactly. Who doesn't love a Sonny? Yeah. This is a rough run. First of all, uncredited induced bigelow male gigolo. Yeah.

Little Nicky, which is a really atrocious movie. It's really one of the worst comedies of the last 20 years. It's staggeringly bad. Way too high concept in a way. It's really, really... What was the movie? The Love Guru? Myers made the same one. Also, similar fiasco. Where you have somebody who's at a certain point of his career and they're trying to mix it up.

But they're too powerful and nobody in their life can talk them out of it. And that's how you get Little Nicky. Little Nicky really is, it's a top five worst movie ever made for any comedy. Maybe the first episode of the unwatchables. Oh, it's unwatchables. Oh, I'd like to be invited to one of those. This is unwatchable. Punch Drunk Love. It's fine. It's fine. Yeah, it's an all-time classic. You guys can go to hell. That's my take. PTA forever. All-time classic you're going with? I love being...

One of the great romances of the 20th century. It's fine. 24th century. For weirdos, sure. Oh, man. Come on, guys. It's a weirdo. Weirdo rom-com. Did show a slightly different side of Sandler. That he was interested in the whole acting side. Yep. Then he does Mr. Deeds. Fine. Not a fan. It's not rewatchable. Winona. Winona's in it. It's okay. It's an airplane movie.

Eight Crazy Nights. Not great. It's an animated movie. Not great. Uncredited in the hot chick. Anger Management.

You know, I caught this on cable recently. It's okay. I was thinking about it because Jack Nicholson just hasn't made very many movies in the last 20 years. Of course, he's retired now. Yeah. And it is a pretty funny Jack movie. It's not bad. What's interesting about it is it was a big deal when they were making it. I remember thinking like, holy shit, Sandler, Nicholson, this is going to be amazing. And it just wasn't. It was fun. Yeah.

Then he did 2004, 50 First Dates, and that moved him into this second part of his career where it was kind of the adult rom-com thing. And kept going, Rain Over Me is an interesting movie. Yeah. Drama. And then, in my opinion, the most interesting movie he made was Funny People. The first hour of him in Funny People is the best he's ever been in a movie, in my opinion.

I thought he was amazing in that Noah Baumbach Netflix movie, The Meyerowitz Stories. Oh, yeah. You love that one. I mean, I just think he's a really good actor. And...

It's interesting because he's definitely not a good actor during these movies. Big Daddy feels like the first time when he needs to have emotional stakes in a story, you know, because there's kids involved. With mixed results. Yeah, I mean, it doesn't always work. I didn't feel the stakes. I don't feel like he took the stakes very seriously. I thought Funny People, I thought he was terrific, though. He's very good. I'm fine with him going that route. The first, like, 65 minutes of Funny People, if I'm flicking channels, I'll usually watch. And as soon as he goes...

As soon as he's headed to Leslie Mann's house, I'm out. Yeah. That's a little wishful thinking. They just never figured out what to do with that part. And then the ultimate end result is...

It just goes terribly and they don't end up together. And he just kind of ends up with Seth Rogen. It's not what I wanted from funny people. I think it's one of the reasons, though, why he's now at this awesome moment in his career and why SNL was so good and that Netflix special from 2018 was so good is because he's basically got all the lessons of man, child, juvenile, boy character.

He's got all the lessons from I'm trying to be a serious actor. He's got all the lessons from I was like a big pop star with hit songs. All the lessons from I was an SNL star. Like those are all... You'd be lucky to have one of those things. I agree with you. And he's had four or five. And he's also a big animated movie star. He's got these Hotel Transylvania movies that kids love. He's had a lot of phases of his career.

And so now they're all kind of converging and you got this guy. That Netflix special, if people haven't seen it, I would highly recommend it. It's really kind of handed a sweet spot. And if you're a longtime fan of his, it's really rewarding. He's my kid's favorite actor. Whoa. And I don't say that lightly. They love Adam Sandler. What do they see? If they were on a desert island and they can only have movies from one actor, he's the hands down choice. Have they seen? They love all the 90s ones. Okay, that's why we're here. So going through...

It's Happy Gilmore and Billy Madison. They like Big Daddy. And then 50 First Dates. And then the run from 2010 on, Grown Ups. Just go with it. It's like Zoe's probably one of her three favorite movies ever. Ben likes That's My Boy, which is completely inappropriate. Grown Ups 1 and 2 are kind of like the iconic movies for the kids who were born in the mid-2000s. They're on a million times. That's their Billy Madison. I've seen all of them. Blended is another one.

And then the Hotel Transylvania stuff. Blended not aging well right now. It came out like three years ago, but that's a whole other story. I forget. What was that one? That was one in Africa. Not great. I don't remember. I don't remember it either. I don't watch that one. What are your favorite Adam Sandler? What's your favorite movie of his? Mine's Happy Gilmore. Surprise, surprise. Host a fairway role in here at Joe House. Yeah. Mine is Happy Gilmore as well. I'm going to make the case for just go with it though. Oh my God. Yeah.

Probably Zoe's favorite movie. Here's the cast. This is Aniston? Aniston, Nicole Kidman, Brooklyn Decker. Dave Matthews is in it. Nice. It's set in Hawaii.

Dan Patrick has a key role. It fits into my Hawaii theory. Who couldn't? Here's the synopsis. This is an incredible list. Like think about over his career. He could get everybody. Here's the synopsis of just go with it. On a weekend trip to Hawaii, a plastic surgeon convinces his loyal assistant to pose as a soon to be divorced wife in order to cover up a careless lie he told to his much younger girlfriend. So the assistant is Jennifer Aniston, which is ridiculous.

And the much younger girlfriend is Brooklyn Decker, who's throwing like 109 miles an hour in this movie. I got to watch a little bit of this about three weeks ago. Just go with it. It's a good movie. It's an awesome movie. I love this movie. Sandler figured it out. Like you said, he made a ton of money and then was just like, how can I hang out with my friends? Where can I go on location? I want to go to Hawaii. I want to do a safari in Africa for three months. Let's just make a movie there and come up with a done plan. God bless. He's not hurting anybody. Grownups is like, I love Kevin James and Spade and Chris Rock. Yeah.

What if we just all camp somewhere with our families and made a movie? It's a way to get Spade money. That's a paycheck. That's great. Yeah, he kept Spade relevant. I thought Spade was going to... And now Spade is like huge Spade-a-science. I don't know about that. 1130 comedy thing? Yeah, he's back. Spade's back. Huge Instagram. I don't know about a Spade-a-science. There's a Spade-a-science right now. It's a Spade-a-science.

All right. So we'll go to the categories. You don't have to stay because you watched me. I'm going to go. Thanks, Sean. Thanks, guys. That was great. Good luck on the show. Take your coffee. I'm honored to be on a movie podcast with Sean. Seriously. It's incredible. He's the new Roger Lieber. How lucky am I? All right. Settled.

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It's weird. This was one of the hardest rewatchables I've had to do because the first category is most rewatchable scene. I didn't really have a lot of rewatchable scenes. Actually, my favorite scene is when Sonny blows the surprise birthday party for Jon Stewart. At the very beginning. Yeah, I really like that scene. Which part? When he ruined the surprise? I just like the whole scene. Just ignore him. It's only Sonny. It's only Sonny. Yeah, it's only me. It's only me.

It brought me back to, you know, those dysfunctional relationships that you're kind of... It really did resonate. Yeah. And that was, again, to the point that I mentioned earlier. Like, that was our era of, I don't know, maybe that's still going on, where the girlfriend gets pissed off in a kind of irrational way and goes off. And the boyfriend disappears for all that time. You're at a party. Yeah.

Like, how many times did that go down? The guys and Jon Stewart. There's no texting. There's no way to communicate. Right, right. By the way, the boyfriends would flip out too. But if it was like...

Somebody would take off. Then it became a huge soap opera. We got to find so-and-so. It wasn't just the girlfriends. That's right. To be fair, there were a lot of- I would say maybe a higher ratio for the girlfriends. Off their rocker. Well, but no, but the boyfriends would get drunk and irrationally mad. Yeah, yeah. And then storm off. Exactly. There was a lot of cajoling in our era. What?

Why did Anthony do so much cajoling? We have to find so-and-so. He disappeared two hours ago. Nobody knows where he is. How can we get that time back? So much time of our college years devoted to going in search of either a drunk- Or hoping we'd run into each other later in the night. It's a miracle that we ever saw each other. We'd be like, oh, yeah!

Hey, you're here. There's a lot of that. There's so much. Craig, your internet doesn't have that. Now, we have the Find My Friends app. You know where everybody is every moment of the day. Yeah, I don't know if I like that. I don't use it. I keep it off. You might as well have like a microchip up your ass. Might as well. We basically do. You know exactly where with the GPS and everything else. I mean. Junior year. My junior year. Your senior year. Jacko, when he was hanging out with the Carrow Street guys. And we just assumed he was at the Carrow Street. But I. Right.

If I wanted to see him, I would go over there and hope he was there. I couldn't just text him and be like, yo, where are you? You coming back? Can you imagine? All of our texts would have been, yo, want to play hoop? Yeah. 630? Cool.

You want to eat? Want to eat? Yeah. Food? Sure. Right, food. It would be like food. It would just be food. It was more fun the other way where we'd have to actually get a hold of each other. Make a plan and I'll meet you at this time and I'll see you in several hours and then you'd have to show up on time. Otherwise, it wouldn't happen. Yeah, so the surprise birthday party, it brings me back to 1999 in a lot of different ways. Yeah.

Him blowing the engagement was my favorite part. Yeah. Wait, wait, you're not going to propose to him. I tried to do a Sandler voice. That was terrible.

I also really liked the McDonald's breakfast meal scene. That was my favorite one, except for it was very jarring. I forgot about it. How upset he was? Well, he yells at the poor African-American lady behind the counter. It's a violent, horse shit! Horse shit! Horse shit! Whoa! I had to put my head back on my shoulders after that. It's very antisocial. You can't really do that.

It's so over the top that I enjoyed it. Plus, it has the Steve Buscemi part where they're going to bring him a sausage sandwich and they don't bring it to him. Why was Steve Buscemi in this movie? It's a great question. This was the era, though, where these crazy-ass cameos. You don't know from what walk of life Sandler and Buscemi were boys. He's like, come on, be in my movie. They ran into each other at a cocktail party. Probably. I also like when he takes the kid to the park

And they're watching the rollerbladers and then he puts the stick on the thing. Again, so antisocial. And fine if that movie is... If the whole movie is just a slapstick movie where it's all physical comedy stuff and the point that you're making is like in that era, you know...

people falling down and busting themselves up has a sort of charm to it. It has continuously throughout comedic history. It is why the guys getting hit in the balls remains the all-time top YouTube watch. Right.

Well, this was a year before Jackass, and it makes sense. Yes, sure. That's right. This was how can we torture other people with humor, basically. And to be fair, there's a little assumption of the risk. Like the folks on the rollerblades are coming around that corner flying, and it's a death turn to just merely survive it. Throwing the stick down takes it to another level, though. Any other rewatchable scenes, Craig?

I love when he's watching the hockey game and it's the playoffs and he wants to watch the kangaroo thing and they're yelling at each other. All right! That's right, yeah. It's overtime right now and there's a penalty shot about to take place. This happens like once every 10 years. Kangaroo shot. Kangaroo shot. Kangaroo shot.

It's a good one. I like that one too. I was going to say the kangaroo one. I also like, and this is because as I mentioned a bit ago, the element of this movie that works the most for me, the best for me is Sandler with JLA. And so I like him sending the five-year-old and her immediately like, oh, you sent the five-year-old? Yeah. This is the game we're going to play. Yeah.

So I'm going for most rewatchable surprise birthday party. What do you go for? I'm going to do the kangaroo dance. Okay. What's the most 1999 thing about this movie other than all the stuff we just mentioned? For me, it's all the Hooters material. That feels so trapped in 1999 in 10 different ways, like making fun of somebody that they worked at a Hooters, the fact that they end up back at a Hooters,

how Hooters-y the whole movie is. Like, it just is right from 1999. And this is the point I was making earlier about you inviting me onto this as my first rewatchable and us at this moment in our lives looking back at that era and how... I mean...

I don't know how to say it. It's casual misogyny, right? It's like, it's funny. The beat down that he's going to administer throughout this movie to this woman is her having worked at a Hooters. And it's like a, it's a, it's a double thumbs up,

comedy storyline. Ten jokes to Leslie Mann about Hooters. Yes, yes, yes. I'm telling you. Hooters shaming her. This was the issue with my eight-year-old. This is not a movie for an eight-year-old who was born in 2010. Yeah.

Sorry. I would say that's the most 1999 thing about this movie, other than the terrible cartoon that the kid liked. That felt very 1999 to me. Your kid wouldn't watch that now. But you know what? He gave Barney 35 seconds. There was a 30-second stint when he indulged it. Also, we'll get to this later, but there's also his two gay friends being in love.

was like a very, let's be edgy in 1999 way. And now it's like nothing. It was edgy. And it was genuinely... It felt very 1999-ish. Yeah, but it was progressive for that time and for that movie. I mean, as a counterbalance to the Hooters line, you know, it's like a pretty interesting that it was just an accepted thing. I have that as we're going to what's aged the best. I have that as one of the what's aged the best is...

I hadn't seen this movie in a while. And I saw, I remembered the whole two gay friends thing. And I was like, Oh man, this is going to go really badly. And I was like, it's, I mean, I'm sure they would change a couple of things, but for the most part, it was actually like pretty interesting that they did that 20 years ago. Yeah. Yeah. And, and, you know, the five-year-old kid is introduced to the, to the two gay guys and, you know, he's instructed to just roll with it. And that's, that's solid. Another what's aged the best for me is young pre-daily show. Jon Stewart as his brother.

Just as like the fifth lead in this movie? What do you mean his brother? You mean as his pal? As his pal, I mean. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I wasn't... I was surprised. And the reason I was surprised is because...

It is apparent that at that point in Jon Stewart's career, he was not on a parallel track with Adam Sandler. Adam Sandler, the balance of power there. He's lucky to be in an Adam Sandler movie. Yes, exactly. The real problem for Stewart was he just had a bad agent.

Like James Dixon was his agent back then. Yeah, and he just was, as usual, making a lot of mistakes, putting him in positions to fail. Jon Stewart succeeded despite his agent. Well, that's not surprising. Love to baby dolls. A lot of baby dolls clients have worked out that way. No, I remember Big Daddy. This is going to be a big movie, baby. Big movie. It was a big movie. It was. He was right. Actually, it was really smart for Jon Stewart to be in this movie.

It made $164 million and it kept him... I remember he was in this. He was in some rom-com that Angelina Jolie was in. He was in Larry Sanders. He was really trying to be an actor. I actually thought he was a good actor. He was good in Larry Sanders. He's fine. We love Larry Sanders. I mean, Larry Sanders is incredible. I don't think you and I have ever been closer from a pop culture standpoint than we were in 1999. Because we had Oz, The Sopranos. Oh my God. All these movies.

And we had to talk about them with each other. I didn't have a podcast back then. I would just call you and Jack. We had to talk on the phone though. You couldn't like send texts. You couldn't send notes. You couldn't watch simultaneously and exchange because we weren't on the phone watching at the same time. We would call each other.

And hope the one of us answer. And then if they answer, we would just talk for 45 minutes. That's great. That doesn't happen anymore. No. Now you have to text, say, hey, man, you around? I mean, I know it's a completely different category, but this is how we enjoyed the malice in the palace. We both knew we were going to be home watching that. You called me, I think. Well, it was incredible. I watched the game and then was away from the TV when it happened. And then you called me, being the good friend you are, 45 seconds into the brawl.

I got to see, I came in late, but I got to see it anyway. The Christy Swanson, Leslie Mann combo. I'm throwing that in what's aged the best. Christy Swanson, goddess from the nineties. Yes. Buffy the Vampire Slayer. She was in that Charlie Sheen movie. Yep. She was in Higher Learning.

Everybody had a crush on her. Never quite got to where I wanted her to get to career-wise. Do you feel that way? Want a little more from Christy Swanson. I don't know. What was the other one she was in? She was in Ferris Bueller. Yeah, early. Yeah. I think she hit her proper ceiling. Really? Yeah. I'm going to go through that really fast. This was the era also. She's a Playboy cover model.

Christy Swanson. That felt a little desperate to me. I mean, that was the era. There was a stretch in the late 90s when you were in Playboy. It was actually like a detriment versus a pot. I don't know. Like when Jeannie Bust did it. Cindy Crawford was in Playboy. Well, that was wonderful. Christy Swanson. Oh, The Program. That was the other one. I knew I was forgetting one. She's good in The Program. Good in The Program. And then it just kind of lost momentum. Her late 90s were The Phantom.

Eight Heads in a Duffel Bag, Lover Girl, Tinseltown, Ground Control, early edition of the TV series. I don't remember that one. I'm not familiar. Big Daddy, and then it was really over. That's right. Way to go out. Great way to go out. In Dude, Where's My Car, she played a character named Christy Boner. That sounds appropriate. That's when it really ended. Yeah. And Young Leslie Mann.

Wow. Congrats, Judd Apatow, yet again. Congrats. Spectacular. Great job by you. Yeah. Because she was also in She's the One, which had the best looking cast in the history of any movie. I'm still... Cameron Diaz, Jennifer Aniston at her apex, Amanda Peet, Leslie Mann, and who was the fifth one? The one, Maxine Baines, the one that...

Ed Burns dated. That's right. What year is this? 96. Aniston, like during her, like Barry Bonds, 73 home run season. Incredible. The height of her friends powers. All time. Top five all time for me. I understand. Yeah. We're probably getting in trouble just talking about this. Undoubtedly. Sandler, I was going to say, we mentioned this earlier, but never got enough credit for the casting of whoever his babe in the movie was going to be or love interest.

Brigitte Wilson Julie Bowen really early on her for Happy Gilmore and everybody was in love with her forever and then she finally hit it huge in the ABC show Drew Barrymore and then just kind of kept going Aniston and Selma Hayek pretty good always a great job by Stanley it's true

Another what's aged the best, Mr. Hurley. But everybody's so busy with their crap lately, no one ever comes. Like I'm not busy? Hey, Mr. Hurley, how about you shut up or I'll smack you through the wall like last Monday. Last Monday was a fluke. Bring it on, woman. I like, Sandler would always have these old characters that wanted to fight him. It was like Bob Barker, Mr. Hurley, which has always made me laugh every time. It's a good gag. Yeah.

I like the concept of the new school of child raising when he feels like he stumbled onto something and he goes, you give the kid options, not orders. It was so stupid. That is not how it works, Adam Sandler. It was pulled in a lot of different directions with this movie. And then the soundtrack, I felt like did actually a nice job of, it felt 1999-ish to me. I totally agree with this. Sweet Child of Mine, the Sheryl Crow cover, When I Grew Up by Garbage, Limp Bizkit.

Everlast, Big Audio Dynamite. They had some old 70s ones that were a little nostalgic, like Styx and Eurythmics, things like that. Growing up, Bruce Springsteen. The new Radicals were in there. You get what you give. Harvey Danger's in here. Just felt 1999-ish. Some of the staples that you would want. I don't know why Everclear wasn't what they did not to be in this movie. They must have just been in disbelief. I mean, they were right there. They were around the hoop.

You only need one. How does father of mine not get in this? It would have been a great one. Would have been a great one. So what stage the best test? Out of everything I listed. Wow. Let me think about this.

I'm going to say Leslie Mann. Okay. I really, because her, her career, it's a really, really impressive, uh, long 25 year career. And, and, and, you know, God bless her for, you know, the, the Apatow relationship and whatever that's created for her and, and self-determination of the roles that she takes on. But I,

I'm a huge Leslie Mann fan throughout the entirety of her body of work. Yeah. And you're doing a great job tiptoeing through this. I'm enjoying it. I'm a huge Leslie Mann fan. But like, you know, the body of work. She's hot and you had a crush on her. That's right. Okay, good. What's aged the worst? I forgot that I did. This is the thing.

Oh, and then a what's aged the best, which I'm also putting in what's aged the worst. His two gay buddies. It also aged the worst from a standpoint where if you did this now, you would do it probably in a smarter, more nuanced way. But I'm still proud how they handled it. Very progressive. Yeah. Nice job.

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What's Aged to the Worst? The Sandler jokes about Leslie Mann, the Hooters jokes. We talked about that. That's by far it to me. The TV shows the kid watches. I don't have any problem with those. I didn't like it. The trick-or-treating scene is just crazy. He breaks into the guy's house. Right. The guy, he's giving his watch. Yes. I don't know what happened to that. I'm telling you. It's just a bad idea. And then the trial is just long and boring.

That's the worst eight minutes of this movie. There were two things that resonated to me that made this, that elevated this from, you know, because I feel like it's pretty much a disaster, this movie. I mean, it just... You mean as it's aged? Yeah, well, because the entirety of the kid portrayal

plot is so implausible and incredible and not, you know, it's a vehicle for the relationship component. And if it was a movie, you need to take something on a little less weighty to get your relationship, you know, sort of dynamic worked out. You can't have a kid show up on the doorstep whose mother died. And that's the reason that he's been orphaned. You're nitpicking with a guy whose previous movie was about a special needs football player in New Orleans who became a sensation.

But that was a single-note vehicle. Like, it wasn't... You're saying Sandler tried to achieve more with this one and didn't quite get there. And, you know, it was a launching point for something, it feels like, you know, where he was trying...

on things more, uh, seriously. But to me, the best part of the two best parts of the, of, of big daddy are most of the dialogue that he has with JLA. Cause I think it really does, you know, it's, um, smart, it's, uh, thoughtful, it's snappy. There's a good exchange. They have chemistry. And then I thought the dad, uh,

The dad's speech at the trial was the single best part of the movie. This kid, this is an abject moron. You would never entrust him with any kind of responsibility. And he came in and gave it all the whole thing, a dose of realism that I subscribe to. Okay. Sandler's response to it was, you know, Sonny Koufax's don't be scared dad speech preposterous.

I think it's probably the lesbian jokes that have aged the worst. They still made me laugh. I think I'm just a bad person. Casting what ifs. I only had one. Bill Murray and Jack Nicholson allegedly considered for the lead role of this movie. Wow. Bill Murray would have been intriguing. Yeah. What's funny is this is basically the Stripes character that Bill Murray played, right? Big Daddy.

The guy who had a chance to do a lot more, but he's got the shitty job. He hates it. Lives with a girlfriend who thinks he needs to grow up and make more money. This is stripes. This is stripes as Big Daddy. Except it doesn't come at the expense of a five-year-old boy, which is still- Just comes at the expense of national security. That's fine. We can live with that. Dion Waiters Award.

I just had, I mean, we could have written down nine names. I just wrote down Leslie Mann. I thought we'd move on. Fine. Unquestioned winner. She's in like five scenes. She hits like seven threes. Half-assed internet research. I do like Hurley for the, Mr. Hurley for the Dan Waiters Award, though, the old guy. He's terrific. Every scene with him is a terrific one. Would you go with him or Leslie Mann? It's got to be Leslie Mann. I've already conveyed mine. How about Rob Schneider?

It's too Rob Schneider-y for me. Yeah, he's like so in the Rob Schneider-Venn diagram. He's got bad facial hair, weird accent. Yeah, it's not even a... He's physically abused. The diagram. It's just like every Rob Schneider. He's vaguely Eastern European. Yeah. It's borderline racist. Is he Turkish? I mean, I don't know. Half-assed internet research. Adam Sandler met his wife in this movie, Jackie. She played the waitress in the bar that gets Julian Rootbeer. Started this tradition of having his wife cameo in almost every Adam Sandler film. Hmm.

The Scuba Steve action figure, a fictional doll made up by Adam Sandler. Alan Covert plays one of the two gay guys. He's appeared in 25 Sandler movies. It's his buddy from NYU. Yeah. It's like if I was Adam Sandler and I just put you in every movie. Yeah. That's his house. Covert is his house. Yeah. It's the last Adam Sandler comedy before he founded Happy Madison Productions.

which then proceeded to make a ton of money. The young boy was played by the Sprouse twins, Dylan and Cole, who also played Ross's kid on Friends. Oh, wow. I would not have got that. And was in the Suite Life of Zack and Cody. They were the two stars of that Disney show, which apparently happened. I don't remember. You remember that show, Craig? Yeah. Okay.

Those were those kids. The urination scenes were faked with hand pumps that were held and squeezed when the actors turned away from the camera. That's a relief. I'm glad you looked that up. This is a big Syracuse movie, apparently. Lots of Syracuse reference sprinkled throughout, including the Barney Stones, which was their equivalent, I think, of Meguiar's at Holy Cross. Okay. Congrats. The Barney Stone. Congrats, Syracuse. If somebody made a Holy Cross movie and it was like Meguiar's was prominently featured, we would have been excited. Yeah, that's fine.

Meguiar's was this dump bar that was, the two Holy Cross bars were Meguiar's and Jody's when we were there. They were just disgusting. They wouldn't change the pumps ever on the kegs. It's incredible. So you drink the draft pitchers and you just get headaches the next day, but it was like $2 cheaper than bottles. I mean, the headaches really like started while we were drinking. I feel like we might have CTE from those kegs. Probably. Probably.

I can't even imagine how disgusting those taps were. Yeah. It's amazing that we didn't end up in the hospital more often. Jesus. Apex Mountain. I guess the Sprouse twins, I'm going to throw them in, coming off Friends and this movie. Things are really looking up. They get a Disney show. You could talk me into Sandler for Apex Mountain here. Huh. Why? Because this is the biggest movie he made. At that time. It allows him to launch his own company. He's now had five hits in a row, comedy hits. Mm-hmm.

He is an A-plus list comic actor.

And there's just no question he's going to make a multi-billion dollar slate of comedy movies at this point. It's incredible. I'm going to say Apex Mountain. I'm going to agree with you. And it was such a shitty movie. It is a shitty movie. I liked it. Craig liked it. I like it. I love that movie. Yeah, Kyle loves it. I think you're just an old fart. New category, the Christy Swanson Award for most predictably borrowed 80s movie trope. This goes back to the stripes thing.

This was an 80s movie trope of the kind of lovable loser guy who overachieved with his girlfriend who realizes he's a loser and sets the tone early on like you're a loser.

Usually moves out, has sex with somebody. Body double, I remember, with the Brian De Palma movie. He's a loser actor. He comes home. His wife's just riding some dude in the bedroom. This was over and over again a theme in the 80s, and it's a callback with that character. Yeah. As soon as you see her for a split second, you're like, oh, I know what this is. I know what's going to happen. Right. She's going to tell him to grow up. She's going to get her shit together. She's probably cheating on him. We've been here before. The Joe Panaleone Award for Best That Guy.

It's probably Mr. Hurley. I don't even know what his name is, but I will say Joseph Bologna is in this movie. Oh, yeah. He's definitely one of those guys. We know him as Joe Bologna, but I think probably Craig's generation probably doesn't know who that is. He's the defense attorney. I mean, the attorney for the state. Yes. Right. I want to make sure I got it right. Would this movie have been better with Steve Buscemi, Danny Trejo, Michael K. Williams? We have Steve Buscemi. He's in it. The category has been canceled. The Saul Rubinick They Knew Award for Best Overacting.

I got to say, sorry, Adam Sandler. Your acting after social services takes your kid away is really bad. It's incredible. It's really like a really bad two minutes where he's like kind of upset. And it's just, I maybe would have done a second take on that one. They,

This is the whole point of why this movie is absurd and why using the storyline of a five-year-old child as the vehicle for this relationship maturity thing is absurd.

So dead wrong. There's no resonance whatsoever. No emotional resonance. Old fart. I mean, the five-year-old whose mother is dead is now living with a, with a, with a moron. And he knows that he's, that there's a moron and you know, they, they have some laughs together. And then the, the, the, the jig is up and the kid's like, Oh, I was kind of having fun here. And Santa was like, well, I'm not, I can't give you any promises, but he may not see you again. Yeah.

What? What? What a party pooper. I know. Jesus. And me? That's the movie. God. Who invited you? Hooters. Picking nits. I mean, you can pick nits with every scene in this movie. You just pick the nit. My big nitpick that's an actual nitpick is the little kids watching shows that you don't watch when you're five, you watch when you're three.

I feel like he would have graduated beyond the idiotic show. Out of all the nits to pick, that's the one. Yeah, it just bothered me. Okay. I was like, when my son was five, my son was watching like real shows at that point. I mean, what... The kid was kind of a dumbass. I guess is my bigger point. Is it a gag that Rob Schneider's character can't read? Is that a gag?

Is that funny? If we're going to pick nits, Rob Schneider's character, I don't know what's going on there. Well, I mean, this is the thing. Also, Jon Stewart, his character, he goes to China, but finds out he has a little kid who's left on his doorstep. What's he do? Stays in China. You got it under control, right, buddy? I'll be back in four weeks. You got it under control? I got it under control. Okay, I'll see you in four weeks, buddy. Another picky nit.

Leslie Mann, the Hooters character, it's kind of established she's not a good person. She's out when he's like, I'm keeping the kid. All of a sudden, the last scene, the kid's calling her mommy. Come on. She's out. She's finding a new guy. Best quote. He didn't cheat on her. I don't think they're working that one out. Best quote.

I'm going with, so from now on, it's Dr. Big Boobs McGee. Hey, congratulations. You and Big Boobs McGee are going to be real happy. Don't call her Big Boobs McGee. You want to explain to your children you met their mother while she was waitressing at Hooters. Sonny, that was five years ago. She's a doctor now. And my fiance. So from now on, Dr. Big Boobs McGee. Congratulations. I like that. It's terrific. That was funny. It is terrific. That quote's good. Yeah. Could this be remade as a 10-episode Netflix show?

Actually, yes. Oh, my God. No. Yeah. No. I think you could. How? You could remake it. How? As like a slapstick eight episode Netflix comedy where I'm trying to think who's the 2019 Sandler? Is there one? No, probably not. I don't think. It's just a different type of comedy now. You have to choose which comedy it's going to be. This is part of the reason why the movie was, you know, not that easy to watch. Is it going to be slapstick? Is it Andy Samberg? Yeah.

Oh, Andy Samberg has a kid left on his doorstep. I don't, I say no. It's not, it's not a, not remake. That's what I said. I don't have any unanswerable questions about this movie because there's just not a lot of depth. So we're gonna have to cancel that category this week. Spat all over my iPad. Who won the movie? This is a great one. The dad, the dad won the movie for me. He called his son exactly what he is. A total moron.

I felt vindicated. When the dad gave his speech, I felt like, ah, this is it. This was validating everything that I am experiencing watching this movie up to this point. And the dad and the judge, the judge is like, I'm this far away from throwing your ass in jail. I say Sandler won the movie because of what it did for his career and his production company. But also, it goes back to what Ebert wrote.

Big Daddy is a film about a seriously disturbed slacker who adopts a five-year-old and tutors him in cynicism, cruel practical jokes, and data social behavior. The question is, who could have played the lead role in that movie and still made you want to root for him? Not many. Man, that's a great call. So Sandler, Will Ferrell, maybe? Yeah. Well, right. But Will Ferrell's track record in terms of the relationship dynamic. Because again, that was the thing that made sense to me. I want to nitpick something. I forgot, by the way.

The idea that he's living where he's living in New York on $200,000, that that was the settlement, even in 1999, it needed to be like a $2 million settlement for him to be. Oh, in that apartment? Yeah, the kind of jerk off that we're supposed to believe that he is.

$200,000 is gone. Like just the rent itself, unless his dad's paying for that rent, you know, the one day a week. And it's funny with the, the, the toll booth taker or whatever that that's, you know, uh, he brings home $70 a week, I guess at that point, but $200,000 is not, well, no, I'm just saying nitpicking $200,000 is not enough. That money's gone. 1999. That's like $750,000 now. Still, that's not enough. New York at any time.

That's it for Big Daddy. Thanks for listening. Thanks to Joe House. Thanks to producer Craig. We'll be back next week. All right, that's it for this special edition of the Rewatchables 1999, produced as always by our guy Craig Horlbeck. Don't forget, you can go to the Ringer Movies YouTube channel and watch a lot of the movies that we've done over the last seven years. And I will see you back on this feed with a brand new episode on Monday night.