FH Mini 125 - Cinematic Mechanics

Welcome, one and all, to another episode of The Flop House.

Specifically, this week, it's a flop house mini.

What is a flop house mini?

Well, I'm so glad you asked.

A flop house maxi, you might say, is when we watch a bad movie and then we talk about it.

A flop house maxi pad is, you know, just for that time of day.

And flop house ministers

and flop certainly not so early in the episode.

And flop house minis are when we take a little time to talk about

When we take some time to do whatever we want.

So we didn't watch a specific movie for this episode, but we're going to have a specific talk about a specific thing.

And today, it's another episode of everyone's favorite Flophouse Mini that is being introduced this time.

It's another episode of Cinematic Mechanic.

That's right.

Cinematic Mechanic, the Flophouse Mini, where we take a movie that maybe has machines in it.

And we get under the hood of this lemon and tinker with it to make it into a movie that maybe, just maybe would work.

Today, we're in the middle of an unofficial theme stretch.

Obviously, our Max Fun Drive ended.

Thank you so much, everybody, for the pledges you made during Max Fun Drive.

We really appreciate it.

It's going to keep the podcast going.

It means we can put the time and the effort and the energy into it that we really want to.

And it means that we're going to keep going into your ears and then into your brain and then to your memories for hopefully for another year at least and hopefully many years to come after that.

So first, I want to say thank you very much for your pledges during Max Fun Drive.

Max Fun Drive.

If you didn't pledge, you can still go to maxmonfun.org slash join.

You can still join when it's not the drive, you know.

Please do.

Why not?

Anyway, we had our run of movies without Spider-Man in them, which ended with Heartbeats.

That was last week.

Next week, we're going to be watching The Electric State.

So we kind of segued into a robots theme month, this kind of secret theme month of robots.

And I want to talk about robot movies.

Having just watched Heartbeats, I want to say, Let's get into Heartbeats and cinematic mechanic that thing, as we do every time we become cinematic cinematic mechanics and make this a good movie about robots so dan stu the first thing i want to talk about is what makes a good movie robot like what is a good robot for movies but also what's a good robot movie because those are not the same things you know a robot movie and a movie robot the best movie robots are not necessarily in the best robot movies because let's talk about it what do you think are the best robot movies by which i mean the best movies with robots in them not robot in the family not robot in the family which is surprisingly like heartbeats.

And I feel like we should have compared the two as they're both about kind of goldish-colored robots that have incredibly annoying voices.

So there's like, there's,

you know, organic material covering the Terminator frame, but the Terminators are essentially robots, right?

Without the flesh on them, they're basically robots, yeah.

Yeah.

So I'd go with, those are some great robot movies.

I am a big lover of AI, even though some people don't like it.

No, Dan making a controversial statement.

He loves AI.

He wants it to replace real writers.

He just thinks it's better than normal artists.

You mean AI colon artificial intelligence?

We have to call it that.

Yeah.

Some other ones, Heartbeats tries and fails to do what Wally did very well.

Wally

robot movie.

Ex-Machina, another great movie about robots in love.

I'm going to say okay movie.

I like it better than Stuart.

The dancing is really great.

I would say The Iron Giant is a great robot movie that's about a different kind of love between friends, you know.

But then you've got your movies like Battery's Not Included.

Are you kidding me about this shit, guys?

Battery's not that kind of very good.

They think he's a burger.

He's on the low figure.

They think he's a burger.

One day, Stuart, I want you to do a presentation about best almost burgers in movies.

Did you ever do that?

Everybody wants some.

Everybody wants some.

This is going to lead into, I I think, the second category where I will argue that, like, the short circuit movies aren't necessarily great robot movies, but they have a great robot in them.

So that's what I want to talk about.

So, because there are some movies that are also great movies that have a robot in them that I don't consider robot movies.

Movies like The Day of the Earth Stood Still has a great robot in it.

Don't consider that a robot movie.

Wizard of Oz, The Tin Man's basically a robot, right?

Forbidden Planet.

The Forbidden Planet.

That's got a great robot in it.

I think we can all agree the robot in Interstellar is incredible.

Yes, whereas I love that movie.

And as Rocky 4, of course, is the combination of both.

It's a great movie with a great robot in it.

But it's not a great robot movie.

No, no, no.

But it's not a great robot movie.

Exactly.

So what makes a great movie...

What is the difference between a great movie with a robot?

It would have been crazy if

in the final bout in Rocky 4, he like Rocky's losing a looks over and the lower robot's there and is like, you can do it.

And he's like, I can do it.

It would have been amazing.

So here's a, yeah, here's a, what do you say, Dan?

Because then I have to.

Well, I'm trying to answer the question you're asking.

What makes a movie a great robot movie as opposed to a movie with a great movie with a robot in it?

Metropolis, I consider not necessarily a robot movie, even though the robot plays a big part in the robot.

I think a robot movie always has a touch of the Pinocchio in there.

It's about the, like, like, what makes where did Pinocchio touch you, Dan?

Can you show me on the stall?

Well, he lied.

His nose just, like, shot out.

And I don't think it was purposeful.

Sure, sure.

Yeah, of course not.

Telling a lie is a choice, Dan.

No, but I think that there's a bit of the, like, what makes one human?

What is sentience?

Like, that is always part of

the movies that are robot movies.

Like Chopping Mall.

Like, like AI

artificial intelligence, like short circuit, like heartbeats.

Yeah, chopping mall is kind of the best of both worlds, isn't it?

Incremental design is possibly possibly the best soundtrack of a little bit about that.

Well, so actually, Dan, that's a good segue into our segment right now.

It's called Debotters.

This is the debate segment about robots.

And this segment is, so the issue, is RoboCop?

a robot movie.

Now, I'm going to put you guys on either side of this.

Dan, Stewart, you're going to debate this issue with each other for points that will mean nothing.

And so, Dan, I'm going to give you first choice because you're so fired up about this already.

You get to choose, is RoboCop a robot movie or not?

And you'll have to argue that side.

I'm going to argue it is

not a robot movie.

So, Stuart, you're going to have to argue that RoboCop is a robot movie.

Okay.

And Stuart, because you didn't get to choose your side, you get to take the floor.

You had less time to think about it.

So now you get the opening statement.

So, Stuart, is RoboCop a robot movie?

You are answering Resolved RoboCop is a robot movie.

I believe that RoboCop is a robot movie because it focuses on Alex Murphy, a human man inside who has a computer tied in with his brain.

And it's, we see the differences between when he is controlled by that computer and when, Dan, no interruptions.

But the listeners at home, Dan's face is incredulous.

Almost from the first moment.

He's really playing.

He's putting in the seats like

dirty comedy, vibrating beads up his butt.

Yeah.

The tinkler is underneath Dan right now.

And

we also get to see the difference between RoboCop and a full-on robot, Ed209, and we can see the differences.

And we can see the essential element in something that requires

nuance, requires a human touch, whereas something like Ed209 is just a

unstoppable, unfeeling killing machine.

So in that way, I believe it is a, I'm not saying that RoboCop is a robot.

I am saying it is a robot movie.

Oh, wow.

That's a strong argument.

Dan, what's your rebuttal or robot movie?

I was incredulous from the beginning because Stuart chose to start his argument out with, it's about a human, Alex Murphy.

And that's the central

argument I make.

It is about a human, Alex Murphy.

The last lines of the film are,

what's your name, son?

Murphy.

He doesn't say, my name is Robocop because he isn't a robot cop.

He is a man inside a robo-suit, and it is about knowing his humanity.

A robot suit, Dan, this is when the judge is going to come in.

I just point out, maybe I'm doing Stuart's work for him, but the original tagline for the movie is part human, part robot, all cop.

So

he's all cop.

He's only part robot.

Oh, okay, interesting.

All right, turn it around.

The robot suit is essentially a, you know, again, I'm going to push back.

The judges are going to push back.

Maybe I'm doing Sword's job again on the idea of suit.

It's his physical body.

Most of his body is robot.

It's an exoskeleton.

It is, it is the brain is where the humanity exists and the brain is intact.

And the movie is a journey to him saying that his name is Murphy.

His name is not RoboCop.

He is Murphy.

He is a man.

There is a robot in the film, as Stuart indicates, Ed 209, but that is a supporting robot.

That is not the primary character and the primary thrust of the film.

Okay, now closing statements for both of you.

Stuart, you go first.

What's your closing statement?

I think the essential element, the essential story of RoboCop is how, what makes us human and the differences and the necessity of keeping that humanity in a world that is becoming more uh robotized

yes and

your closing statement i uh i believe that the theme of a robot movie is what makes us human but it's it is explored through robots that become human-like and this is a uh movie about rejecting uh the techno technologicalization of the man.

I would argue that kind of binary thinking is a robot talk.

Wait, wait, wait.

Twisty thing.

This is the debate.

The debot community has been rocked by the accusation that Dan is, in fact, a robot programmed to debate.

Oh, his disqualification.

You know what?

There's no winner, unfortunately.

Oh, cool.

This debate is being shut down.

I knew I should have had you guys tested by having you urinate into a cup.

And when Dan's urine came out, his motor was a little bit more.

It's like a blade runner, right?

This is our new

test.

The old one was really weird.

Yeah, Decker's

little turtle questions.

We realized when we looked at your eye while we asked you the weird questions, a weird person could just give weird answers, and their eye might look weird.

But if you pee and oil comes out, you're a robot.

Yeah, yeah,

and uh, and Blade Runner 3002 or whatever, the next one, he's Decker's like, okay, just pee in the cup.

That's That's Harrison Ford's getting grabblier is not.

Yeah, it's incredibly gravel, yeah.

But it's Void Conf.

That's what I was saying.

Well, because I couldn't remember it.

I kept being like, Wayland Yutani's from Alien.

I was pretty desperately trying to find a way to make Voigkonf into a piss-related joke, but I couldn't do it.

So I just abandoned it.

It's so much easier to make it into a Mein Conf joke, which we don't.

That's not what we're doing right here.

No, that's not a joke, Illian.

We're going to give these replicants the Mein Konf test

to tell if they're actually Nazis.

That's what happened in the world.

Ichbien eine replicant.

Ich bien noticte eine eine, you know, and so forth.

So, guys, let's move on to what we were talking about before.

Let's go back to movie robots.

What makes, okay, so we talked about what makes a good robot movie.

Dan says it is the theme of humanity and sentience.

What does it mean to be a machine?

What does it mean to be alive?

I think that might be limiting this to human ideas of life and robotics.

But again, these movies right now are made for a human audience, so that makes sense to me.

But okay, it's about what what it is to be human through the medium of robots.

But what makes a good movie robot?

So, as we mentioned, Batteries Not Included.

Stuart is still going to die on the hill that it is a great movie.

But I will say it is a very cute robot.

It seems like there's two kinds of movie robots, right?

There's the cute-friendly ones, Batteries Not Included, Short Circuit.

BB-8, R2-D2.

R2D2, BB-8, Megan, and the scary, deadly ones, chopping ball, Westworld, Megan.

Megan straddles the line there.

So

what is it about those aspects of robots?

They're either cute and friendly or they're scary and deadly.

What makes a good version of each of those in your guys's mind?

What makes a good cute robot and not an annoying cute robot?

Like RTD2, great cute robot.

BB-8, okay.

That robot in Rise of Skywalker was just a cone on a wheel or some shit.

Shitty robot.

Crappy, cute robot.

Scary, deadly robot.

Some are really cool.

Some don't pull it off.

What's the difference?

What do you think?

Well, I do think that part of this this is a Uncanny Valley thing.

Like

the cute robots.

The valley the Uncanny X-Men live in?

Yes.

The ones that are the most lovable tend to be the ones that are less human.

Like your R2D2s or your batteries not included or even your interstellars.

Now, I'm going to argue with that.

I think you're usually right.

It's funny I think that you think Cinder the Interstellar Robot cute.

I didn't say cute.

I said you like them.

Oh, you like the show.

Because in Heartbeats, the robot they make, Phil, is, I guess, maybe he just looks a little too much too attempting to be cute.

Because I found that robot despicable from moment one, that little kid robot.

Sure, but I don't find him as off-putting as

an Andy Kaufman robot.

No, that's true.

Which is, I think that if you get too human-like, it's frightening, you know?

Yeah.

And that's where Megan.

It's kind of like the garbage pail kids in the garbage pail kids movie.

Yeah, exactly.

Yeah.

Check it out one, fine.

The The ones that look more like humans, get them out of here.

And in the middle, you got C3PO, who is irritating, but lovable.

Yeah.

He looks kind of like a human, but not that much.

I mean, he's a human shape and a human face arrangement, but it's, I mean, C3PO, that design is pulling so much from Maria, the robot from Metropolis, who is a cool-looking robot, but is also supposed to be kind of off-putting in that way.

Now, what about Stuart?

You can always remember his name, and I can't remember, the Japanese artist who paints the sexy robots uh soriyama yeah does that work for you guys are you into that

where it's like a like a lady's body but with a with like a bald faceless head on top or and like and or like her legs look like they're i don't know the spokes of a motorcycle i mean when i was a young purvezoid uh looking through the quote-unquote art books at beat alton booksellers like i was never all that into the soriyama books there i'm like okay i guess this is kind of sexy but they're also robots so it's not for me but i feel like like putting it down for someone.

I feel like there should be a third category.

There's cute friendly, scary, deadly.

There should be a category of sexy attractive because you see, and there was just an article in, I think, the New Yorker about what are we going to do in the future when people start falling in love with robots and AI.

And yet, aside from robots.

Yeah.

No, I'm just saying that I think that that's all.

We're already down.

No, but that's

they're saying we're

entering that phase.

So what do we do about it?

But in movies, I feel like unless a robot is basically just a woman or Giccolo Joe from AI who's just Jude Law, like there's not

but shiny, yeah, but kind of plastic, but he looks like the Duracell battery family, you know, where they have plastic rubber skin or whatever.

Oh, yeah.

Awesome.

Oh, baby.

What I love is the human features, but it looks like it's made out of latex.

Yeah.

There isn't a, we haven't yet figured out what is sexy for a robot without just imitating a human form.

Is that because as humans who are programmed mostly, not all of us, but most of us, to reproduce with other humans, that's just what we're into?

Are we going to enter a world where people

find that there's a new form, a robotic form that they are attracted to?

Dan, what do you think?

This is off-topic.

But it is a hot topic.

Can we abstract something that is still sexy, like that does not look like humans?

Yes.

Yeah, like hedonism bot in Futurama.

Yeah, yeah.

I mean, he still looks kind of like a person.

Oh, yeah.

I mean, I'm sure people can get there.

People find all sorts of things sexy, God bless them.

But, you know,

I don't think that, like, I don't know.

I think that something has to look reasonably human for me to be into it.

Okay, so let's go back to what we were talking about before because I'm getting uncomfortable talking about Dan's particular interests.

But the

Dan brought it up.

I'll give you a pamphlet on it.

So, what a cute friendly robot, Dan, you're saying the more kind of the less kind of humany, probably the shorter it looks.

There's a reason that probably the cutest robot in all of robots is the gonk droid, the power battery droid in Star Wars, which is basically just a garbage can on legs.

But what makes a good scary, deadly robot?

A robot that looks really like it, like ED209 is a great scary looking robot.

A lot of them just look like people, you know, Megan,

you'll probably have to go to the bottom of the room.

Something about an unfeeling, uncaring face that is performing an act of violence is terrifying.

Whether it is one that is a simulation of a human or if it's just like something flat and blank.

Yeah, I would either go terrifying, either has to be uncanny valley, you know, like a human, but as Stuart says, like a human,

hey, or you take advantage of the fact that a robot can be anything and, you know, it's like, I don't know, it's got a bunch of robo-tentacles or it looks like a big spider or something like that.

What I don't find scary is sort of the like middle ground of like, you know, we mentioned shopping mall before.

It's a very fun movie.

I like it.

I would be scared if robots were trying to shoot me with lasers, but the design isn't scary because it's just like, okay, well, these are like, I don't know, like big vacuum cleaners.

Yeah.

I think that makes sense.

I think, Stuart, something you've hit on reminds me of why I think the alien from Alien is such a scary design.

It's because you can't see its eyes, you know?

It's like a, it's like a kind of strangely human mouth with a, I mean, except for that little mouth inside.

I haven't met anybody yet who has one of those.

But it's strangely, strange

with this

with this eyeless face so it's it's not projecting emotion except aggression at any point um okay so i think we figured out something a good robot movie has to really take advantage of what it means to be a robot and what it means to be a human.

It can't just be a fun story with a robot in it.

So for this, I would think you guys would say Star Wars, not a robot movie necessarily, even though there's so many droids in it.

And a good robot, a good movie robot, if it's going to be cute, can't be too human-like.

And if it's going to be scary, it has to have some aspect of a lack of human emotion, or at least an exaggeration or character of human emotion.

It's less a, it's partly a design thing, but also partly a behavioral affect thing.

The Terminator, although he's a cyborg technically, because he's got flesh on him, he's scary in Terminator because he shows no emotion while he's doing these things.

He's just walking through a police station.

mowing guys down, but he's not, he's showing no

reaction to any of that stuff.

The Terminators, when they don't have the flesh on them, they're always smiling.

They look like they're having a great time, even when they're crushing skulls and they're shooting fingers.

Yeah, robot party.

It's a huge robot party.

I feel like, I feel like,

did either of you guys see last year's Oscar-nominated animated film, The Wild Robot?

Yes, I did.

Yes.

How was that robot?

I didn't see it, but I've heard good things.

It is.

That movie is all right.

I feel like it was hard for me.

The movie itself is very loud.

I was expecting a movie that was a little bit more meditative and a little bit more tranquil or

what's the word?

Flow-like.

Yeah, flow-like because the book is much more like that.

The robot in it is okay.

The design is all right.

You know, it never, I feel like it's not one of those robots where you see it and you're like, I'm in love with this robot, you know, and it's also not one of those robots where the

it is it kind of starts already with a certain amount of humanity to it, you know?

So it's a,

so it's all right, you know, I feel like I feel like design when talking about robot design, I feel like like going to Pixar is a pretty good place for a lot of these things, whether it's Wally or even like the villainous robots and the Incredibles.

Yes.

Because they're like very straightforward, but they manage to add a lot of personality to something that does not speak.

It's just this like uncaring ball with tentacles

that comes after.

And even the other robots in Wally that just the side robots all feel like they have a lot of personality, even when they don't have faces or things like that.

I would say Wally is the best story about two robots falling in love that's ever been told in film, at least.

In film, at least.

I'm sure there's fan fiction and erotic out there that maybe does it better, but I've read it.

So, okay, we figured out what makes a good robot movie, kind of, or at least what defines a robot movie.

Wait, real quick.

Dan, if you were going to have to write erotic fan fiction about two robots, what two robots would you select?

I thought we didn't want to.

No, this is a good question.

This is good.

We got to dig into it.

Well,

you know, I'd have to go to like, what robots do I think are sexy?

I think would have to be.

Or which robots do you think would have the most interesting chemistry together?

Yeah.

Like, I would say Dot Matrix and R2D2, just because they seem like similar worlds, but, you know,

there's something a little bit different.

See, like, I feel like my real answer gets too gross.

Like, I'm just like.

Why don't you give us a fake answer then if you're worried about it?

No, I kind of want to hear this gross one.

Well, I mean, probably kick over a stone.

I think it would probably boil down to like X-Mac and a robot and McKenzie Davis from that One Terminator movie.

Oh, okay.

Yeah, I can see that.

But, you know, I don't know.

We're just

making laugh-em-ups.

I don't know, a Vitamix and G.

All right.

Yeah, let's laugh them up sit up.

Yeah.

All right.

So we've taken that bizarre detour.

I don't know.

Sorry

is Dot Matrix?

Is Dot Matrix a robot?

Because doesn't she live in a computer?

I don't remember.

I don't remember Spaceballs that well.

Oh, but Dot Matrix from Spaceballs.

I thought you took me Dot Matrix from Reboot.

I'm sorry about that.

Yeah.

But yeah, Dot Matrix from Space Balls is very much

a Phyllis Filler robot.

Yeah, yeah.

No, no, a Joan Rivers robot.

But Joan Rivers.

Yeah.

No, but I think that

Dan's suggestion, but isn't so Mackenzie Davis is a.

No, but because she hunts other, she hunts terminators all right she's turned herself into more of a robot to do this so would she kill alicia vikander's uh no see that's what makes it hot it's a forbidden love story it makes sense okay so i just want to explore like there has to be something taboo yeah yeah yeah i'm into it i guess i don't know it could just be it could just be two married robots that are having a hot night together that could be the story i mean it's the most alien thing i've ever heard you say

Part of what's hop is their commitment to each other.

Yeah, exactly.

What's

so sexy about it is knowing that there's a stable grounding for the relationship and they don't have to worry about anything.

They don't have to worry about it.

Middle-aged man, so I agree with that.

Who needs a sudden burst of passion?

No, no.

I want the long-term, bickering, reliable relationship of C-3PO and R2D2.

Are clearly either a married couple or,

as I mentioned in one of the flop TV episodes,

C3PO is John Arbuckle, R2D2 is Garfield.

BB-8 is Odie.

So, okay, guys.

So, get back to what I was saying before that other detour.

We've decided, we have identified the theme of a robot movie.

We've identified some of the characteristics that make a good movie robot.

I think we should use those things to cinematic mechanic our way into heartbeats.

But first, I believe we have a sponsor who wants to make their voice heard now that we've already heard Dan's voice about which robots he wants to see have sex with each other.

Yeah, they love being asked for,

yeah, it was my idea and also the sponsor.

Sponsors demand.

They said, they said, we know our ad will get better play, will get better play if it's placed next to something.

Sure.

Because people's hands are clasped over their face and ears rather than hitting the skip button.

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uh that's it for me if anyone has any plugs now is the time otherwise we'll return to the show i have two plugs that i'd like to plug.

The first is that every month, DC Comics comes out with a new issue of Harley Quinn.

It's a comic book about everybody's favorite former Joker girlfriend turned superstar in her own right, Harley Quinn.

And I write that comic book right now every month.

So why not go into your comic book store and say, hey, make mine Harley.

And then they'll say, what?

And you'll say, Could I have the new issue of Harley Quinn, please?

And if it's the week that that comes out, they'll say, here it is.

And if it's not the week, they may still have a copy.

But you should go in every month to do it.

And I also wanted to mention that

my new children's book, Sadie Mouse Wrecks the House, it's a new picture book that I wrote.

And the great Tim Miller, who did the art for my other book, Horse Meets Dog, did the art for this as well.

It comes out April 22nd and is available for pre-order now from all bookstore places.

Please patronize your local independent bookstore.

We just call them bookstores.

You don't have to add the places to.

Oh, okay.

Because I usually add place to things.

I'm going to the drugstore place.

I'm going to go to the movie theater place.

Please go to your local bookstore and say, Make mine, Sadie.

And they'll say, What?

And you'll say, Can you pre-order a copy of Sadie Mouse Wrecks the House by Ellie Kaelin?

It comes out April 22nd.

It's the story of a good little mouse who's tired of having to do all the chores, and she decides she's going to do the chores bad and she wrecks her house.

And my kids think it's funny, so hopefully, your kids will too.

Sounds delightful.

A special thank you to the Max Fund members who joined, boosted, or upgraded their membership during this year's Max Fund Drive.

And as a thank you to everyone who supports Max Fund, we're excited to announce that this year's pin sale is now open.

This year's proceeds will go to Transgender Law Center to support their continuing work in advocating self-determination for all people.

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Guys, we are back to Flophouse Mini Cinematic Mechanic.

Today, we are going to be fixing the last movie we watched for this podcast.

That movie was Heart Beeps, starring Andy Kaufman and Bernadette Peters, and written and directed by Paul Schrader.

And so here's the question that

we have to go with.

We're going to improve the robots and the robot movie.

First, let's identify, we did last week, let's identify some of the things that are problems with the robots in this movie.

One, annoying, very annoying.

Two, uncanny valley.

They look like people with weird cheeks.

Three, they don't do anything.

And that's the main problem with the movie.

The movie is very,

the

idea of it is we're going to watch two robots go through the stages of falling in love and starting a family while they wander through the New Mexico woods, it turns out.

But they don't really do much of anything else, even though they're chased by a crime buster robot.

That doesn't really mean anything.

So how do we improve this movie?

How do we improve these robots?

What elements are these robots missing that would make them more enjoyable robots?

They have like a big cannon on their arms, maybe.

Okay, okay.

They got big cannons on their arms.

So, so

the Annie Kaufman character, he's a valet robot, right?

And Burnett Peters' robot is designed purely to flirt with men at pool parties specifically, but they should both have cannons on their arms, what you're saying.

I mean, I think that's more realistic to, you know, the sort of,

you know, robot industrial complex.

Yeah.

Put cannons on them.

The same way that Johnny Five from Short Circuit, who I'm surprised we haven't mentioned up till this point, he has like a, like a rocket launcher on his back, right?

Even though it gets turned into an umbrella launcher.

Johnny Five talk.

Was there?

Yeah, he has like a he has like a shoulder-mounted rocket launcher type thing.

Yeah.

So, okay.

I was arguing that Johnny Five was a great robot while not appearing in a great robot picture.

Or a great or a great roulette picture either.

He doesn't, you know, Croupier does not feature, does not feature Johnny Five in it.

So

what if, though, what if instead of Clive Owen, Croupier had starred Johnny Five?

Would the movie be different?

Would it still be accepted as a quality film?

It's an odd mix of tones at that point.

Sort of what's kind of like a brooding neon noir with just a robot in it.

A Billy chatterbox robot, too.

Yeah.

So for the most part, the humans in this movie wear normal human clothes.

Why do the robots wear weird, shiny clothes?

Why don't they just put them in regular human clothes?

That's a good question.

I wonder if the robots' metallic bodies would tear those clothes too easily.

So they have to wear, yeah, just like the Vlondi song, it would rip her to shreds.

And so I wonder if that's the reason that they're wearing what appear to just be vinyl clothes, you know?

But it's a good question.

So you would put them in regular clothes.

You think that would help it a little bit?

Regular clothes.

So we're fixing these characters.

I'm glad we're taking this very sincerely.

They both have cannons on their arms.

I would say the Val robot as a valet, he has fully opposable fingers, and due to the design design of the hand, uh, like glove, his hands, his fingers are all always splayed really crazy.

I think he should have just had a sealed, closed hand.

Here's oh, okay, so like like a like a mitten more than more than fingers, okay.

Yep, but it's a non-cannon hand.

My real does he have the thing where his mitten hand can kind of drop down on a hinge, revealing a cannon in the audience.

Duh.

Sorry, like guts from Berserk, duh.

So you're asking for sincerity in fact.

Not necessarily.

Yeah.

I'd be like, you know, like Bernadette Peters, robot, you're doing great.

You know,

no notes in particular.

You can basically be the way you are.

Andy Kaufman, robot, this voice you've been doing.

Okay, let's talk about this.

Dan, what does that voice?

To remind the audience, what does the voice sound like?

He kind of talked like this.

I can't actually do it.

He's like, it's very

little latka.

A little latk.

That's pretty good.

It is like a little latka.

And you want a big latka.

You You want a latka that can soak up a lot of oil, you know, get real crispy, you know.

Be a sour cream delivery system.

I'm more of an applesauce guy, but that's just me.

And I eat a plane.

I don't, I want, I want to taste the latka.

I want to taste the potato.

I want to taste the onion.

Yeah, I want to taste the fried grease element.

Yeah.

But not just the voice, like in heartbeats, not to return too much to our previous episode.

Like, they talk like...

dumb children.

They do.

It is that.

So that's something that I feel like we didn't really adequately describe in the last episode, which is that it is the thing that movies do often where they confuse innocence with dumbness.

Like a character is naive and innocent, therefore they talk like an idiot.

They don't know anything.

They sound like nuki all over again.

Right.

It is like nuki all over again.

Yeah.

I prefer a robot that, yeah, like talks with sophistication for a robot.

Like it's a lot of, you know, sort of like understanding of facts, but maybe naivete when it comes to, you know, human behavior is fine.

C-3PO is what you say.

C-3PO.

I mean, I was thinking the exact same thing.

You're basically describing C-3PO, who speaks very articulately, but has, even for a protocol robot who's designed to interact with humans, has no idea what humans are doing at any given time.

No, and is only.

So let's talk about C-3PO for a minute.

Okay, there's, I know people who don't like C-3PO.

I've heard the discussions between Jesse Thorne and Tom Sharpling on, and I think it was on Bullseye, about how much they both hate C-3PO.

And they hate him for the same reasons I love him, which is that he is the worst robot.

He is, only cares about himself, is oblivious to what's going on around him, unless in the way, except the way it affects him.

And he's constantly anxious and he's constantly fussy and he's very short-tempered and very, it's very easy for him to get thrown off his game.

All these things that you should not see in a robot, but he does them all beautifully.

And I think it's partly because Anthony Daniels does such a great job with the voice, but also with the movement.

So he's a robot who constantly looks like he is offended and wants to talk to the manager, which I think is very funny in a robot.

Because I feel like every single other movie of this type, if they had a character like this, that character would have a moment where he shines.

Yes.

C-3BO never has that moment.

I was just thinking to myself,

whether we can make a list of the times he is useful, and I can only think of when he is in Return of the Jedi and able to be a god to these Ewoks and convince them to

hate the humans that are little cannibalistic space bears.

And that's part of the joke of it is that he is the one character who's confused for a god is, again, the the most useless, least helpful character.

He spends most of Empire Strikes Back just as an annoying voice strapped to Chewbacca's back,

giving him directions which are mainly ignored.

Yes.

And I love it.

And I love how in the Trash Compactor scene that Seth Repio is like, oh, it's too late.

We've killed them.

Like his job, which is to be the liaison between R2D2 and the others, he's doing so poorly.

It shows such, I don't, it's one of these things where like the,

you you know, George Lucas doesn't get a lot of credit usually for his character personalities, you know.

I feel like outside of C-3PO and Han Solo and maybe a little bit of Darth Vader, he doesn't get a lot of credit for creating indelible characters.

There's some people who like Luke, but I don't, other people who don't, but the C-3PO is such a specific, funny character to me, and he is so out of, there's no reason to have him in so much of it, except to interpret for R2D.

Like, he's useful when he can interpret sometimes, but even when he's interpreting for R2D2, he does it in a way that is, that is totally misunderstanding what's actually important with what's going on in the story.

So anyway, I love all that about him.

So

you can have an annoying robot character and have them be the best thing in a movie.

I want to toss in, I mean,

you know, Leia's pretty intelligible, but I think that Carrie Fisher is bringing almost all of that to her.

I think none of that is on the page.

Yeah.

The personality of that character.

If you're just looking at it without her performance, it changes so much from scene to scene.

And she's the thing that ties it together, for sure.

Yeah.

So here's what we need.

So these robots either have to be, so we're saying they should not feel, sound like morons, basically, these robots.

They should misunderstand things, but in a way that is smart and specific to them, because again, they're robots.

Why would you make a dome robot?

Again, I feel like we are moving towards that in actual real-world technology for some reason.

Why would you want to create a robot that gives you just wrong information all the time?

That is essentially C-3PO.

He's like, I'm fluent in six million forms of communication, but none of them are basic human emotional signals.

So we can make these characters more like C-3PO is basically what we're saying.

Like Annie Covin's character should be more like C-3PO, which gives him more of an arc.

If he is not a

lovable, already in love, you know, innocent from the beginning, it gives him a place to go.

I feel like

with Wally, he starts out as an innocent, but it is kind of the arc of him understanding that the job he's been doing for years is the wrong job, you know, that the things that he does that are outside his programming, where he keeps his old stuff, stuff, that is the good stuff that he's doing, you know?

Well, plot-wise, you know, I mean, and I'm mentioning this as it sort of associates with his character, like

there should be an

inciting incident that specifically catapults him beyond his comfort zone in a way that then he needs to like change his programming, become more human in reaction to it, rather than like in heartbeats, like it really seems to be like, oh, um, what's going on over there?

Let's go look.

Like, that's kind of all that motivates them.

And yeah, it needs something that sort of like

a little fish out of water thing.

I mean, they see a rainbow.

That's kind of the incitement.

If they see a rainbow, they want to get closer to it.

Andy chats with Bernadette Peters about banana daiquiris, dude.

You don't think that's inciting enough?

You don't think that's.

That's true.

I guess so.

I wouldn't incite a reaction in me, but

the idea of a banana daiquiri opens up a a whole world.

It's like, it's like Ariel finding that fork or whatever in Little Mermaid.

It's like, oh, I have to learn more about the civilization that we're creating.

Honestly,

that would be so much better.

Exactly.

Be like, I want to taste what a banana daiquiri is.

I've been programmed in with this chatter, but I don't know what a banana daiquiri is.

It would be a very funny quest to me if like this.

kicked off just being like, we have to go taste as robots a banana daiquiri.

Yeah.

Or she brings it up and he's like, okay, what does it taste like?

And she doesn't have an answer.

And then she actually has a quest of her own and not just I follow you around.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Well, now let's talk about the quest because I think this is a great.

Okay, so heart beeps.

The characters start talking about banana daiquiris.

She's never been asked the question, what does it taste like before?

And now she wants to go on that quest and he's in love with her.

So he's going to follow along.

Again, this is very Wally Eva where Eva is the one who's like doing stuff and Wally literally stows away to, you know, to follow along after her.

The quest.

So the quest in the movie now seems to be that they need to go somewhere to see a rainbow.

And then when they get there, they're like, we're running out of power.

We got to go back.

Again, we said last week, Fury Road plot structure.

What would make this quest more interesting than, say, just wandering through the woods and once or twice Crime Buster threatens them?

What, what, like, let's, let's quest it up, you know?

And keep in mind, they have cannons for arms now.

So that's a thing that could cause some trouble too.

And also that the Andy Kaufman character is going to be much more like C-3PO.

So he's constantly complaining and and probably getting into trouble because he's not programmed very well at what he does.

So what are some things?

Just give me some incidents, some incidents.

This would be very difficult to do in this world where the Stan Winston makeup does not look like

people.

It looks like weird energizer characters, like we said.

Yeah, they're not going to be mistaken for people in this movie.

I would love a scene where...

Because they're on the run, they have to pretend to be human.

Instead of pretending to be trees, as they do in the bar.

Yeah.

Okay.

Like they're at a busy bar, restaurant, or a public place and like the whole crowd of people and they have to behave like humans and pass as human.

Yeah, they put like masks on.

They're like, we got to protect from COVID.

You put your finger on something that is a problem with this movie that I didn't even necessarily realize while watching it because I was so eager to be done with watching it, which is we see them go to a party.

They don't pretend to be attendees of the party.

They pretend to be robots that are working at the party.

Woody Allen pretending to be a robot and sleeper who works at a party is a joke because he's a person.

He's not a robot.

For a robot to go to a party and then pretend to be one of the robots working at the party is not particularly funny.

It would be much funnier if they're like, oh, we got invited to this party.

Yeah.

We're the robot invitees.

Or they pretend they're people and like, oh, we had work done.

We had work done to look like robots or whatever.

A person pretending to be a robot and messing it up is funny.

A robot pretending to be a person and messing up is funny.

A A robot pretending to be a robot and not and messing it up.

You got to work much harder.

It just got to be that much better.

So I think that's great.

So one scene, they got to go somewhere and be people.

Maybe they go to a bar.

If this was a movie made, I feel like this movie was made

at a slow, just one year earlier or after, they would have gone to like a honky-tonk bar and they'd have to pretend to be cowboys or something like that.

One of them would have to ride a mechanical bull.

Yeah, arm wrestle on the road.

Someone would hit on one of the robots like a human being.

And there would, yeah, there'd be something saucy going on.

A woman would be hitting on the Andy Kaufman robot, not recognizing that he is a robot and not a person.

And it would be very awkward.

And also, Bernadette Peters would be getting, my jealousy circuits are kicking in.

I've never felt these before.

And be like, but I'm not even responding.

Why did they get, why do I feel pain?

Like in Star Wars, in Return of the Jedi, when they're torturing those robots, and it's like, well, why do they put pain sensors on the bottom of that robot's feet?

For this scene.

For this one moment.

You know, we got to make sure that these robots, which are, you know, they're just untiring workers that can do dangerous jobs, that they feel pain while they're doing it.

That is, it's a statement on capitalism.

Cruelty is the point.

Yeah, yeah, I guess so.

So, okay, so they have to go to a bar and maybe a honky-tonk bar, maybe not, and pretend that they are.

Maybe it's a swing dancing bar and they've got a swing dance and they win a competition or something like that, but they accidentally blow everybody up and they think it's part of the show.

What's another fun adventure for these robots to have?

Let's come up with like two more, and then I think we'll have maybe fixed heartbeats.

What are some fun robot adventures?

Fun robot adventures.

Okay.

We've already talked about having to find the banana daiquiri.

Yes.

Are we going to keep it?

And at the bar, they don't even, and maybe at the bar, they're just about to almost drink it when they accidentally start a bar fight.

It gets knocked out of their hands.

Oh, no, they were so close.

Are we going to keep the baby robot?

story this is okay so let's talk about it this is a big question it's a big part of the movie that they are becoming parents they're experiencing the things that parents do.

As I said during the episode where we talked about this movie, that made me really mad.

It felt like they were trying to tug on my heartstrings in a way that I didn't give them consensual permission to.

So I had to bat their hand away from my heartstrings.

So do we keep that little baby robot, Phil?

What do you guys think?

I don't think it's necessary.

Like, I think that it's enough to be like, oh, can two robots fall in love?

But if we did keep it, I would add that much later in the film.

I would be like, that seems like that should be a third act thing that happens is like they create this life together.

Do you want to have like a weird birth scene, or should it be the way it is where they like build it?

Like, she doesn't have to like squirt it up.

I don't want any body horror thing.

I don't want a robot.

I've seen Titan.

I know what a good movie looks like.

It just shows, Dan, that the act of birth, maybe the most beautiful act of creation a human can create.

That goes straight to horror for you.

You're right.

You're right.

I was talking about that and not the idea of a robot giving research.

Oh, no, my water broke.

My oil broke.

This is a very dumb idea, but I somehow, in my head, I really want to see them.

It's set in the water world world, so if they come out of the water.

I was going to say, I want to see them at a water park where they keep being

like people keep trying to encourage them to go down the water slide.

And they're like, they can't.

So we can't.

So they've gone to the bar.

They're hiding out with the people who think they're the woman who thinks they're humans.

Oh, the next day she's going to a water park.

Yeah.

They have to go with her or else they'll blow their cover.

And so they can't get wet.

Yeah, because they're grandma.

See, this is what I'm saying.

Like the screenwriting gurus say, you got to get your heroes up a tree and throw rocks at them.

There weren't very many rocks being thrown at these characters.

To be fair, there were a lot of trees, though.

They passed a lot of trees to go up.

Now, taking out the shrub, the little kid, it raises a question.

It opens a Pandora's box.

I'm not sure you want to get open, which is, do we need cat skill?

Is cat skill a necessary part of the movie?

I

don't know.

I don't want to fucking laugh, Elliot.

Does this podcast need an Elliot Kalen in it?

Wow.

Wow.

It is.

So if I'm Cat Skill, which I guess, Dan, you're Andy Kaufman and Stuart, you're Bernard at Peters, I guess.

Fucking dreams.

Yeah, and I'm Cat Skill.

So, so I guess we're saying is: what do I mean?

He shows up in one scene.

No, I don't think he could be Dick Miller.

So, well, okay, I'll let you be Dick Miller, sure.

For Halloween this year.

Dan, if you were to dress up as Dick Miller for Halloween, how would you do that?

What would you just get a mask of Dick Miller?

That is.

go to Spirit Halloween, get

Beloved Character Actor.

Well, so it would be, it would be

a generic set, though.

So it would just say Beloved Character Actor, and it would clearly be a Dick Miller costume.

Yeah.

No, I mean, like I would have the same way that you get a jumpsuit and a proton pack, but it says like spirit fighter.

Yeah, the Dick Miller one is older gremlin disliker.

Snowplow victim, question mark.

He shows up in the second movie.

Yeah, I think I would have to show you.

I wish he had showed up in the second movie with one bandage on his forehead, just like an exit bandage.

That's what he got from the snowplow.

That would have been great.

So, Dan, what are you saying?

So, you want makeup, you know, like some like forehead lines, some smile lines, and then just, you know, wear like old man clothes.

Because in most of his, most of his roles, he's just wearing regular clothes.

It's rare that Dick Miller is wearing something flashy, you know, or yeah, I just mean like, you know, like old man, like he's of like an earlier generation.

You can like,

he's like, you know, Dick Miller.

I think you look at him, you're like, this guy was cool, but he's also older now, you know?

Yeah.

So I feel like if he's in a movie that has exciting costumes, it's important for him to look like a normal guy.

Yes, I agree.

I agree.

He's like a jack.

Yeah, he's the janitor who cleans up after He-Man or something.

So this is all, so this is all to say that Catskill stays in the movie.

So what's Catskill's, does Catskill get in this movie?

He does get a scene where he kind of proves his worth by giving his life literally to Phil.

That is that moment that you expect C-3PO to get in another movie that he never gets.

Does Catskill need that moment, or can he just be like a real Borschbelt

hack stinker the whole movie?

Yeah, he can just be, I don't know that he needs that moment, but it is weird that they make it out to be like,

you know, these

robots have their specialties.

Like, the specialties never come into play, really.

Like, there's no moment where Catskill gets up on stage and people are like, yeah.

They like him at the party.

They like his joke at the jokes at the party doesn't help in any way.

It's the closest it comes, but it feels like if you're going to have three robots who have different strengths, like that should pay off at some point in the film.

Maybe I'm crazy.

I mean, that would be kind of textbook screenwriting.

We've been talking about

robots in a lot.

We haven't even mentioned probably one of the most popular robot movies.

The Transformers films, which we've talked about.

Robot jocks.

Yeah.

They're not even robots, dude.

They're driving all things.

They They don't even spell jocks properly.

Yeah, there's a lot of problems with that, with calling robot jucks a robot movie.

Those are mechs, Dan.

Yeah.

Yeah.

So Transformers really sucks.

So what does Transformers do so right that it's been such a successful series and that people love so much and the stories are so great?

Is it you're saying this movie also needs a character who has laminated the rules about what constitutes statutory rape and what doesn't in case a police officer gets mad about

that.

What a weird moment.

It is the thing that sticks out to me the most from those movies because it's so unnecessary.

It's not fun.

And it's like, yeah, I took my kids to see this action movie about robots that change shape.

Oh, this guy's going to spend a whole scene justifying why he has a relationship with a 17-year-old girl.

Like, I don't like it.

I don't like it at all.

Or the two young robots who speak in slang and can't read.

Yeah, I guess

I don't like that.

And also, and I do like that there's a robot with a beard, though.

What about the robot that has the giant swinging wrecking ball testicle?

Secret to their success is crassness and

racism.

It makes me wonder if

every Transformers movie, Michael Bay was like, why doesn't my friend John Waters take over one scene in this movie?

Every installment.

And John Waters is like, well, of course, this robot needs huge wrecking balls.

And Michael Bay is like, I gave you total control today.

I don't like it, but you've got to do it.

What if this character is all talking all about their illegal, taboo-busting, cross-age relationship?

All right, John, you're America's favorite dirty uncle.

I can't say no to you.

Even if it's a billion-dollar franchise, but go for it.

TJ Miller has been in this movie, Beloved by America.

Let's just kill him with

no fanfare.

I think we'd all agree Cogman is awesome.

Cogman, the robot butler guy.

You remember?

I don't remember Cogman.

Don't remember Cogman from Transformers the Last Night?

I think you'll find that I

retain very little about the Transformers series.

So what is it, Stuart, that makes them successful robot movies to me?

Because again, the Transformers, they don't do a lot of the stuff that Dan was talking about earlier about what it does to mean to be human.

They just kind of take it.

They're aliens.

They're not aliens.

They're aliens who happen to be sentient machines.

That's what makes it different, I think.

But they also turn into cars and dinosaurs.

Yeah.

The morphing.

So you're saying that heartbeats.

So let's say it's the big climax.

We're going to the climax of the movie.

Are we keeping the Crime Buster story or is there some kind of robot police that's after them or something like that?

There's got to be something

that they're in danger from.

So let's say it's Crime Buster, but he's like, but it's ED209.

Let's say ED209, he's been out of work for a while.

They hired him for heartbeats.

I would argue if you are, if you are trying to

tell this kind of a story and you are going to have the Crime Buster character, the conclusion of the Crime Buster character should not involve an armed conflict where they like deactivate him or whatever.

It should be that they like convince him that he's wrong, basically.

You'd say that could be the moment where Catskill makes Crime Buster laugh

or they share a banana daiquiri with him and it messes with the circuits and he becomes a loving robot, you know, or something like that.

Yeah, the taste of a banana daiquiri poured through his

court.

Yeah.

Famous Iranian film, Taste of Banana Daiquiri.

No robots in that movie.

Surprising.

So it would be the power of love or banana daiquiris that's a very good thing.

Or that they have changed so much that

they are not behaving like robots anymore.

does not want to capture them.

And there's a moment in the movie that almost gets to that point where it doesn't compute that they're

acting like humans in a robot.

So I think that's that's a very, that's a surprisingly sweet way to end it is that the is that the uh the robot police officer no longer recognizes them as robots.

They've done it.

They've done every robot in a in a movie's dream of becoming a person.

It's that Pinocchio aspect Dan was talking about.

And maybe, maybe some of the, some of their robot parts start becoming all squishy and fleshy like an existences or something.

And now she can give birth to Tainstyle to a Dan is thinks it's sexy again.

and and so and then we basically I guess have to rip off the end of short circuit two which was also a ripoff of the end of Mac and me where

and they they take the citizenship oath and they're they're robot citizens you know god I forgot about that that's awesome yeah that's it's there's a

I I wish that Mac and Me was not about them discovering the aliens and all that but was just about them studying for the citizenship exam because as far as we can tell they can barely talk they can just kind of whistle at each other and they look like they're so totally at a loss loss to understand anything that's going on around them at any moment.

How they memorize the First Ten Amendments, the Bill of Rights.

Like, I don't know.

I don't know how they did it.

Guys, I've never seen Mac and Me.

Should I watch it?

I have seen it too many times since we had to do a Mystery Science Theater for it.

I've seen it.

At this point, it might be in the double digits of times I've seen Mac and Me.

But at some point, we might have to do Mac and Me just so you can see it, Stuart.

Yeah, I'd like to see it.

No, I feel like you probably want to share with your kids.

Oh, my God.

Yeah, that's a classic.

No, I think I've told the story before of being at a sleepover.

It might have been at my house where we were watching the first half of Mac and Me and the and the parents came in and said,

no, it couldn't have been at my house because it wasn't at my mom who came in.

It was

the kid's mom came in and was like, you're going to have to finish watching this movie tomorrow because it's late.

And we were all like, but do we have to finish watching it tomorrow?

Like just to leave it unfinished here?

We did finish it the next day, though.

So guys, just to, I think we're running out of time in this episode of Flophouse Mini Cinematic Mechanic, but I think we did what we needed to do.

I think we fixed heartbeats.

The characters are, they're like, they have a stronger reason for leaving the factory, which is to learn the taste of a banana daiquiri.

We've given Bernadette Peters more of a, more of a starring role in it.

Well, Andy Kaufman's voice, I assume, will have to, we can just take it for granted that it's changed.

Dan, just jump onto, Dan can just jump onto Facebook Messenger and hit up Uncle Paul Schrader and tell him all these tweaks and changes.

Yeah, or talk to you guys, talk through Letterboxd a lot, right?

Yeah.

And

they, they're not dumb characters anymore.

They're just kind kind of unknowing they're much more like c-3pio they have cannons in their arms uh and mitten hands uh if they make a baby it's much later on after their parts start becoming fleshy cronenberg style through the power of kind of love or maybe they're a different version of this is they are literally stealing the organs of humans and putting them in their own bodies you know sure

yeah kind of like a more a more criminal version of jonas from the uh from the book of the new sun you know a robot who's getting flesh parts put on him a reverse tin man uh and by the end of the movie they're they're so human that they're no longer robots.

And Crimebuster just doesn't want to stop them, perhaps aided by having a banana daiquiri poured into its drink intake port.

Perfect film.

Perfect film.

We keep the same score.

Great score.

And we add in a scene at a bar, a scene at a water park.

And I think we've got a second scene with Dick Miller.

A second scene with Dick Miller.

And I think we'd so that maybe that's just Dan in his Dick Miller costume.

I'll play him.

Yeah.

And I think we fixed it.

So we fixed heartbeats.

We finally made it a movie that really deserves to be on the same level as American Gigolo, Mishima,

first performed, you know, the great films in Paul Schrader's film.

Paul Counter, Blue Collar, yeah.

Oh, yeah, Blue Collar.

Thank you.

Oh, for sure.

So, you know what?

It's time for us to

go back and watch some more Paul Schrader movies, including Heartbeats.

Thanks so much, everybody, for listening.

I want to thank my guests slash co-hosts, Dan McCoy and Stuart Wellington.

I want to thank our producer, Alex Smith.

You might find him online as Howell Dotty, where he is a talented musician, but he is the one who edits this and makes it all good and probably puts some sound effects in there here and there.

I don't know, maybe some like,

you know, those kinds of sound effects,

ratchet, ratchet, you know, gearhead type sound effects.

We are a member of the Maximum Fun Podcast Network.

Go to maximumfun.org and listen to some of the other great podcasts that are there.

Go to maximumfun.org slash join.

If you want to become a member as a pledger, the drive is over, but you can still do it.

You know, there's nothing stopping you.

There's nothing in the role.

I'm not stopping you.

Until next week, when we will be talking about a movie as opposed to nonsense,

though I think we'll get some nonsense in there.

Join us next time.

We're going to be talking about the electric state.

And until then, I remain Elliot Kalen.

I've been Dan McCoy.

I am Stuart Bott Wellington Bot.

Oh, no, it worked backwards, guys.

We got to fix Stuart before the next episode.

Boop.

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