Welcome to Mooseport transcript
Season 2 · Episode 28. Generated automatically, so expect the odd misheard word.
In this movie, the whole country was tuned into the mayoral debate of moose sports.
I thought the Fox News coverage was so strange in this movie. I was like, is this what Fox News was like back then? I know it wasn't, but I was like, where did they even get this idea from that this is how Fox News presents the news? We're talking about Welcome to Mooseport from 2004.
What do you call a moose with two legs shorter than the others? Moussolini.
That's a good one. Yeah. Did I tell the uh I told the joke uh a couple weeks ago about the one-legged woman named Eileen? Eileen. Yeah.
I just said Elaine. Like your grandma. My grandma, Eileen? What? I feel like your grandma always like tries to retell a joke, but then says the punchline first or like passes a punchline.
She messes up jokes all the time. She's notorious for it. Cut all that, by the way.
Yeah. Uh what have you been watching lately?
Uh last night Amanda and I finished season five of The Wire. Refinished our or finished our rewatch. Golf clap. Yeah. Kind of a disappointing end to the series, I think. It was. I I know that I've seen season five before. I don't remember a lot of it. I don't know that I even saw all of it, but um, yeah, it just felt rushed. The characters did things in season five where I was like, if you gave me like three or four more episodes to get to this point, I could get there. But they're doing things so quickly in the last season that I'm like, this is outside of their character, and I just had a hard time with it.
It was too rushed. And we didn't even see Barksdale in the final episode. Oh yeah. Which kind of felt like that would have been a nice, you know, bow on the arc. Yeah. And it was just like maybe he didn't have time to shoot or something. You know, I don't know. Yeah. It's really disappointing.
Yeah, I thought that they I mean they kind of tried to fit in everybody there at the end. You got a little Presbeluski, you got Cuddy for like ten seconds. Yeah. But yeah, I it seemed like they were killing off characters to kill him. I mean, spoiler alerts, big time for anybody who hasn't seen The Wire. But when they at the end of the fifth season, they kill off Omar, and it's just like a little kid walks up to him in a convenience store and shoots him without him even suspecting that he's in danger. And it's like, what a waste. But then that's I mean, that's probably how the drug game really is. Like it is a waste of life, uh, but it is like disappointing.
I hate that for the character, but I kind of like that in the storytelling because it's right after he has like he has like the superhuman escape, like he jumps down that like three flights you know, yeah, out the window balcony. Right. And it's just like, oh, he's just he's become this mythical character that's unkillable. And then it's just in the most like mundane, and like yeah, some six-year-old kills him. Right.
I mean, they kind of do that with Bodhi too, where um he just walks up and gets off. You're like, these are characters that I've loved for five seasons, and then they just get ended so unceremoniously, and they don't really get brought back. Like they don't even get Bodhi hardly even gets talked about again. Yeah. Um, but I mean it's kind of what the real world is like. Yeah. It's a bittersweet ending to the series, which is probably in line with real life. And um, like I thought that it was a fitting end, I just didn't love it as much as I loved the rest because they didn't have the season the the episodes to flesh out the story. And I also I hated that they ended ended the whole series on that green screen shot of McNulty and the homeless guy that he kidnapped in the car on the bridge. Like he gets out of the car and is like overlooking Baltimore's skyline and reminiscing, and then he gets into the car again and is like, Well, let's go or something, let's take you home. And it's like horrible green screen. It's like he's in the he's in a car in front of a yeah, it's just I'm like, oh my god, for a gritty realistic drama to end on five seasons of like terrible CG.
I was like, ugh. I don't remember that specific choice. Yeah. Do you remember my story about hanging out with the actor that played Cuddy? No. In Las Vegas.
Uh I remember you telling me that, but I don't remember the details.
Uh let's just say an elevator or a bathroom. We were on the the train the that goes between casinos and yeah, I was just standing next to him and like cheesing the whole time, like trying not to be too obvious. I'm not very like celebrity, you know, infatuated, but yeah, I was just like, oh, that's Cuddy. I know.
I love Cuddy.
Yeah. He was great. Um it was uh he was in the Green Hornet movie. Do you remember that? Uh he didn't have a big part, but it was right around the time. Yeah. Um yeah, from like, I mean, it's been over 10 years, but uh it was right around the time that that came out. And so might have been over 20 years. But yeah, that's my that's my The Wire celebrity interaction. Nice.
Uh it's been 15 years. 2011. Getting old, man.
I know. It happens so fast.
Yeah.
What have you been watching? I watched the movie Primetime that's still in theaters. Uh-huh. The Robert Pattinson one about uh I don't know what to think about that one. Uh what do you mean?
I haven't seen it. Uh I know it's controversial and that Chris Hansen is like against it. Yeah. Uh yeah, I mean it's about Chris Hansen. I love uh Robert Pattinson though, so yeah. Um I'm interested in that from that angle.
Well, I think I made a bit of an error because it is doesn't quite hit my no-biopic rule, but it's close enough in that it's not like a biopic of Christianson at all. It's just, you know, it just follows a year or two of the show, like um the end of the show. And the whole time I was just like, it's based on obviously real life, but it's based on an article from Esquire magazine. And I just wanted to read that article. Yeah, because I'm like, did this actually happen this way? Or yeah, what is the real life? Because it kind of it it mostly talks about the show and it follows Hansen and like he also has some personal problems that he's dealing with with his marriage. I think that stuff was like conveniently shoved into the same timeline as what was happening on the show just for for the movie. Um, but I'm not 100% sure about that. And then it followed also a producer um on the show, and then I guess the quote unquote actor who pretended to be uh the kid. So the producer's played by Merritt Weaver. Um I don't know if you'd probably recognize her. She I think became prominent in Nurse Jackie and has been in a bunch of stuff, but she was she was great in it. Um Skylar Gizondo, who is on Righteous Gemstones, he was the like young uh one of the kids of uh Danny McBride. Righteous gemstones. He plays uh the oldest. Yeah, the oldest son, yeah. Yeah.
I like Mary Weaver and Nurse Jackie.
Yeah. Uh Skyler plays Dan Plum, who's uh decoy Dan, uh is what they call him in the movie. Like he plays the decoy kid.
Uh he's got a great face for that kind of role.
Yeah, yeah. Weaver and Gazondo, that uh they their characters were probably more interesting to me than Chris Hansen. Um Pattinson, his acting was superb in it, I thought. Um he made some interesting stylistic choices, which I'm sure I I have no idea if it's what Chris Hansen's really like, but makes sense why Hansen doesn't like this movie. Yeah.
Um I I feel like Robert Pattinson always makes great choices with his characters. I love him and everything.
Yeah. Um, but yeah, the whole time I was just like, I I just want to know what actually happened. Like what is Merritt Weaver's character an actual person or is it a composite? Um is I assume Dan Plum is a real person, but what happened to him and what's the yeah. So anyway, I was just distracted the whole time by like just I want to watch a documentary, not this you know, fictionalized version of it.
So it did its job. It it got you interested in the story it was trying to tell, and you want to know more.
I guess. Um Yeah, I thought I thought the movie is the way it works. Yeah, it was fine, but it's not like I'm I'm not gonna seek seek this movie out again, rewatch it. So you don't know it, but you're a biopic guy. I don't understand why they do so well, but anyway, yeah. It's just I I I'm it's just me. I think I'm the only person that I've ever talked to that's that feels this way.
So uh I think it's people I mean it's probably the same reason that like tribute artists are popular. People just want to have their own like personal experience seeing whatever the thing was or see like for me, I'm an Elvis fan, so I loved the Elvis biopic, even though I know the whole story. And yeah, because I just want to see somebody do that well. Like I like to see the performance of it, and so I just like to see somebody, you know, get into the clothes and and become the person.
Maybe that would work for me if I knew the story well and liked the like if I was a big fan of Elvis and I was like, well, I you know, I can't see Elvis live anymore. Uh so I want to see a recreation of that. But nobody's a Chris Hansen fan, is like, I want to see Chris Hansen on screen uh in in this way. I mean, I don't know.
But it is an interesting story, right? Like it's yeah, they they also kind of yeah, it it is an interesting story, but I I I think it it like most people uh certainly our age know to catch a predator. And so like you'd know the story. You might not know all the details, but you're familiar enough with it to have a base level interest.
Yeah, but it only it kind of it's a snapshot of the story. Obviously, you know, you can't always tell the full story, you have to take some shortcuts, but yeah I it almost like stopped too soon to like I just kind of want to know like, okay, what next? Like why did um it kind of hinted at why the show got cancelled or did it? I don't know. Anyway, yeah, I don't want to ruin it. I think it did.
Uh what would you give it out of five?
I gave it three stars. I mean, I think it's a fine movie, but yeah, didn't love it.
Do you think that the you think the supporting characters carry it or uh was Pattinson good enough to go see? He was good at his performance.
Uh for me it was a combo of the three. Um those those two supporting characters specifically, as well as Pattinson. If it wasn't for their performances and the supporting characters easily like two stars, like not yeah, it wouldn't have been a movie for me.
So Tonally, like, is it funny or is it just a drama?
It's it's a drama. It's kind of a dark, like nightcrawler-esque. Did you ever watch Nightcrawler? I I really like that. A little intense. Yeah, I think that's a way better movie, but yeah, it's kind of has that intensity to it. Um and it kind of is a little bit of that like descent into darkness thing for Hansen. Um I mean that this isn't a spoiler, but yeah, the whole thing is like basically them trying to kind of up the ante to make the show more popular. Yeah. Um, so it kind of has that like nervous energy and tension around it.
Yeah, Nightcrawler was probably one of my favorite Jake Gyllenhaal performances.
Yeah, that was a really good movie. I've seen it a couple times. Speaking of great performances, uh, should we jump into Welcome to Mooseport from 2004? I will say there were some fine performances in this. Yeah, yeah, I'm actually not being facetious. Um this was directed by Donald Petrie, who directed Miss Congeniality, How to Lose a Guy in Ten Days, Grumpy Old Men, Mystic Pizza, written by Tom Shulman, who won an Oscar for Dead Poet Society, wrote Honey I Shrunk the Kids, wrote one of your favorite movies, What About Bob? Um we'll just table that for now. Uh stars Ray Romano, Gene Hackman, supporting performances by Maura Tierney, Marsha Gay Harden, uh, Fred Savage, Rip Torn, 13% on Rotten Tomatoes, and $30 million budget, $15 million in the box office. Uh most notable thing about this movie is it's Gene Hackman's final role before he retired from acting.
Um I'm gonna add to that. Okay. This movie nearly ended several careers. Yeah. Like if you look if you look at the directors and writers from this movie, they basically didn't do much of anything after this happened for a while. The uh the writers have recently put out a couple of movies, I think, but that like it's the first thing they've written in decades. This movie is the end for a few people's careers.
Yeah, there was a lot of pedigree here. Um yeah, great cast, very talented cast. I guess I just mentioned um Tom Shulman. So there's another writer, Doug Richardson, who's credited for the story, I guess. But anyway, he was he was a writer on bad boys and diehard 2. And um yeah, I mean that there's Rip Torn's in it. Yep, yeah.
June's June Squibbs in it, she won an Oscar. Yeah. Uh a lot of I mean, great casts on paper.
Justine Baransky. Great team on paper. Um yeah. Uh didn't really uh yeah, didn't really do well. I should mention too, this is we're we're on a new theme for the month of November, so this is politics month. Um, because I'm sure we all can't get enough politics. So uh thought we'd try our hand at some political movies. It's decision 2026. Uh what's your decision on this movie? No, I don't know. Uh you want to give a you want to give a quick synopsis?
Uh yeah. Gene Hackman plays Monroe Eagle Cole, a former president, two-term president, the most popular president in history with uh approval ratings in the 70s or maybe even 80s, if you trust his numbers.
85, according to uh Fred Savage's character.
Um so he's retired. He's no longer the president. He's gone through a divorce during his presidency, the first president to do that, I suppose, and lost half of his estate. And so he lost his house in Baltimore, and he only retained his house in Mooseport, Maine, uh, where he has retired to to spend out his golden years, I suppose. Uh, but when he gets there, they tell him that the mayor has just died and they would be honored if he would serve as their mayor. He accepts unknowingly, Ray Romano, the town handyman, has also put his name into the hat to run for mayor. Uh really the movie is not about the campaign, it's about the love triangle between Gene Hackman, Ray Romano, and Mora Tierney. What did you think about this movie? Let's just get it out of the way. I thought that it had potential, uh, but it is very safe, soft comedy. It's accessible, but it's not ultimately funny or that good. Yeah. It's very it's it's a plain movie at best, really. It's just very blah. It's entertaining enough, um, but there's just not I mean, I think that ultimately my my biggest beef is with Ray Romano. I just don't I don't think I like him that much.
Yeah, let's get into that uh in a little bit. But yeah, I think you're right. It is a very blah movie. It's boring a lot, and yeah, it's supposed to be funny, but there aren't really jokes. There's like some one-off crude humor, like, oh, there's his dog is humping his other dog that's just like okay. Yeah. Dogs have sex. Like dumb stuff.
And then Yeah, there's like the occasional like toilet humor, and then right. And then other like, you know, maybe like light chuckle jokes. It's like sitcom humor. Like safe. It's not gonna offend anybody. Like this movie for being political and everything, it's not gonna offend anybody on either side of the aisle.
It's I mean I mean, the big like message, if you want to like they try to almost preach like the the right way to win an election is by being nice to your opponent or something. You know, it's like it's it's very saccharine. But there there isn't anything in this movie that's like there's no scene or no performance, maybe say for Ray Romano, we'll we'll get to that, uh, that's like, oh, this is so terrible that this is a bad movie. I mean, it it just but it's like all almost all the mediocrity combined just makes this an overall bad movie. Like, don't don't watch this movie.
Yeah, there's nothing overtly bad about it. It's just not good enough or bad enough to really warrant your attention.
Yeah. Do you think the $30 million budget mostly went to Gene Hackman? You think that was uh this did not see it. This did not seem like a very expensive movie to make.
No. I mean, there was only a handful of sets. It was like the hardware store and town hall and some outdoor scenes that they could have filmed anywhere. Yeah, I mean, maybe that's I don't know, more powerful.
They filmed it in Canada, not Maine. Have you ever been to Maine? No, I haven't. I've not like to go. Especially after seeing this movie. There's no crime there.
Um Everybody knows each other's name.
Yep. Uh the town, there's some shots where it looks like you know it's a hundred thousand plus people, but you know, this is very like, you know, small town. People are just worried about stop signs and fishing, you know, and stuff like that. It's a very uh caricature.
The scale of this movie was hard for me to understand at times. Like the town, I had a hard time grasping how large it was because um it seemed like there was it was a big town, but every like you said, everybody knew each other. And then also Gene Hackman's staff. I I didn't understand. It seemed like at times he had this massive staff that you know he had tons of sway and uh you know he could get anything done. And then other times it's like he has two people working for him and they are completely devoted to his love life. Like it seems like he's got nobody working for him.
Yeah.
Uh so it was like it was this strange uh flip-flop of like he's all powerful and can do anything, and also he has um uh his staff completely devoted to um helping him get a date.
Yeah, there's a lot, there's a lot of dissonance of um it seemed like well well, one of the questions I had is have you ever watched a mayoral debate? Honestly, I don't know that I have. I don't know that I have either. You know, uh I but in this movie the whole country was tuned into the mayoral debate of Mooseport bleeding Fox News headlines, which I hate.
I thought the Fox News coverage was so strange in this movie. It was so like pre current era. Yeah. Yeah, it was unrecognizable. I was like, is this what Fox News was like back then? I know it wasn't, but I was like, where did they even get this idea? From that this is how Fox News presents the news.
Yeah. Yeah, it was it was I harkened to an era of politics that may not have existed, but you know, definitely doesn't exist today. So this movie itself, too, seemed like a product of that era. Like you said, it was kind of uh it felt like a 90s movie, like a very 90s movie premise. You know, it came out in 2004, so I think it was a little uh the fact that it wasn't successful meant it was a little what's the opposite of ahead of your time, like behind your time. Uh um today there's no chance this would go to theaters, it would be straight to streaming with a five million budget max, probably. Yeah. Uh but uh yeah, it felt felt like it would have been a you know one of those nineties movies that would do gangbusters on DVD.
Yeah, it's it's like a Hallmark movie with um Hollywood budget. Yeah. I think it felt like a nineties movie because Ray Romano is like a dinosaur of nineties comedy.
Well this was during uh um Everybody Loves Raymond.
Yeah, it was like right after Everybody Loves. It was dur it was like the final season, and this came out the same year, I think. So it was like he was trying to transition to to film after this, and it obviously didn't work. Oh well, yeah. He's done actually a lot of work, not necessarily like good work, but he's been working.
He's done a lot of the ice a lot of voiceover stuff.
Yeah, yeah, he was in The Irishman, um, which I actually thought he was good in that. I didn't love that movie, but I didn't finish The Irishman. It's so long. I thought it was so bad too. Yeah, I mean, I don't want to get off into a tangent about the Irishman. But yeah, I I thought that he was fine in it. Um he actually reminded me of John Mullaney's character in um The Bear. Yeah. Where I'm like, oh my god, this uh comedic actor kind of playing a older, more serious character that I I liked that um, you know, I don't like Ray Romano's comedy, but I liked him as a serious actor in that a a lot more than I did in anything else I've seen him in. In The Irishman or in the Irishman. Uh not even right, yeah. Mooseport was everything I don't like about Ray Romano.
Well, yeah. I mean, since we're dancing around, uh what I mean, you said you don't like you don't like Ray Romano, period. You don't like his comedy? Like, did you watch the show?
I just don't yeah, I like I I I didn't like it. I watched Everybody Loves Raymond a lot when I was a kid. I was more into um was it Peter Boyle, the dad? Um Brad Garrett. I liked him from Young Frankenstein. Huh? Brad Garrett was his brother too. Yeah, yeah. I I thought everybody else in the show was better than he was. He was just like whiny and lame all the time. And his jokes are so like they're they're like the worst. Okay. I I have a so last week we talked about the useless woman uh trope. I also have a huge problem with the useless, stupid man uh problem in movies and and media. And this movie suffered badly from that, and I feel like that's a big part of his comedy is the I'm the mopey, relatable, uh clueless, like dopey, yeah, the regular guy. And I hate when they do that to characters where it's just like he's too stupid to function, he needs somebody to help him. Like uh, yeah. So I I generally don't like his brand of comedy because it it's it's just boring to me. Like I I don't laugh at anything he does. Like he's very likable, but he's not funny.
Yeah, I think I agree with you. I I didn't watch the Everybody Loves Raymond that much. I mean, I've definitely seen it uh uh a number of times to be familiar with it, but uh I don't think I have like a special relationship with it. It's it's not in my you know all-time favorite sitcoms or anything like that. Yeah. And I feel like I've seen some Ray Romanos stand up, but I couldn't tell you anything about it. In this movie, he just seemed not funny, and maybe to your point, like the joke was just supposed to be the character and how dumb he was about just like or oblivious to things like the I mean the setup is he's been dating more tierney's character for what's it, seven years or something like that, and just won't won't propose. Um and it's like I one of the early scenes, he's like, Oh, I got this money, so I'm finally gonna do it. And she thinks like he's going to buy a ring, but he buys a truck instead. And it's just like falls flat, but maybe that's like supposed to be the joke. Um, and it's just hard to yeah, it's just not funny. And he he he's just not a good enough actor to carry the not funny bits. I don't he he was I mean, I probably like him as a person. Uh like it's hard to the sound this feels really harsh saying this. I know, but but he he was the worst actor in this movie. Everybody else around him was great. Um would you agree?
Yeah, I I think that everybody else did the best they could with the script that was there. Um I'm surprised he didn't get a writing credit on this because it feels very on brand for him, and I would have thought that he'd write the comedy in this, but yeah, he was not that good. So I read a review about this uh movie um from William Arnold, the uh from the Seattle Post intelligencer. Okay, and he said that Ray Romano doesn't have the stuff to bring off a role that requires a Jimmy Stewart or a Tom Hanks. And I was like, it was like, oh, Tom Hanks would have been great in this movie. Yeah. This I like I think this movie would have been a hit if Tom Hanks was in it in 2004. Because it wouldn't have been the same type of comedy. I don't think it wouldn't like I don't think that Tom Hanks would have played the handy character the same way.
Yeah, I mean he would have brought yeah, just probably a lot more depth and nuance and all that to it. Yeah. Um and I was really impressed. Actual comedy chops. I mean, it seems ironic saying that uh comedy chops than Ray Romano. Ray Romano is like an actual comedian. Yeah. Um I was pleasantly surprised to see that Hackman was really good in this. Like I felt like he really brought like hearing this was his last movie. I guess maybe I'm a little jaded by legendary actors of his era where like you know, tuning into uh I don't know, I we don't have to name names, but like I feel like you know the the paycheck movie in the latter half of the career thing is kind of a a common thing, and I was just like expecting to see him phone it in. But he like I felt like he really went for it and like delivered some, you know, really like interesting. I mean the script was shit, but uh, you know, he like actually performed really well. Like I liked him in this.
Yeah, I I wrote that Gene Hackman was great right up to the end. Like uh I thought that he was good in this. I again think his character suffered from the stupid man syndrome. I I think every guy in this did. In fact, one of my hot takes is that the women carry this movie, uh, in my opinion. Yeah, that's right. Uh I I think that his ex-wife come into town was hilarious, and she was a good character, and uh Mora Tyranny was great doing the best she could with the script. Um June Squibb was fun. Marcia Gay Harden played uh Gene Hackman's like assistant number two. Yeah. Yeah, and Chief of Saf. Yeah, I like her and basically everything I've seen her in that I I went through her her IMDB and I was like, oh yeah, I remember from all these. And they were the interesting, thoughtful, smart characters that like had stuff happening for them, and the and all of the men in this movie were just dumb asses. Like they're they're playing a golf game to win their love, and I'm like, okay, this is the president of the United States trying to pick up a like I don't get it. It it yeah, the men were dumb in this movie, and the women, it should have been a movie about them.
Yeah, it was very sakami, like you said. Uh yeah, Christine Baransky, I don't know if I'm saying that her name right, uh, who played his ex-wife. She's in The Gilded Age. I don't know if you watch that at all. She's one of the um sisters that uh lives across the street from anyway. Uh, but she's she's excellent, and she carried I think she's the best part of the Guild Age, and I she was one of the best things about this movie too. Like, she's always fun to see on screen uh the probably my favorite scenes.
Um she knows all of Gene Hackman's shit. Like she's his ex-wife, she knows his secrets and insecurities, and like she calls him on all of his bullshit. I had a question that I put down it like, do you think this is a kind of a stereotypical Gene Hackman role?
Maybe a little bit, yeah. Yeah. I mean he um he tends to play what you know when I think about um his best performances, they're all like kind of alpha authoritative, yeah, confident men. Yeah. Right. That's who he is in this movie. So are you trying to say he's not a good actor?
No, I just think he he plays a lot of that role. I think he's great at that role. Uh but uh what I liked about her her character in this was that she constantly called out his bullshit every chance. Like he was I mean he's he's full of shit. Like he's he's a politician, so yeah. And she knew all of it and and didn't let him uh didn't let it slide, which I liked. Yeah. Uh what uh what's your favorite Gene Ackman movie? Oh my god. I I had this question and I was like, I don't even know if I can answer it. Um I don't know. I love the conversation. Uh I love Hoosier's. I don't know if I can pick a favorite. Let me look. Do you have a favorite?
Well, probably my favorite movie of all time is Royal Tenet Mom, so that's gonna be my favorite. And his performance in that is you know, just top notch. Uh yeah. Also a huge fan of Unforgiven. Um I really like The Quick and the Dead, uh, Superman. I probably watched that more than any movie, like you know, before I turned 12. Um I like him for that, at least. Uh I don't know if it's one of his best performances. Uh I watched The French Connection for the first time in the last year, really enjoyed the performance. Yeah.
Okay. Yeah. Do you think that Gene Hackman's characters are always a little bit racist?
Uh it's funny that you mentioned that because I feel like I've always the short answer is yes. And I think for a long time that held me back from like really liking him much. Because I'm like, was he a little bit racist? And I don't think that he was. No, I spent some time trying to figure that out.
Um he was I think he was very progressive.
Oh, we're saying opposite things. Uh well.
Prickly doesn't mean not progressive. Yeah, yeah.
He was I think he was very progressive, but also very prickly. Yeah. So did he say some things that would be offensive and would come across as racist? I don't know. I couldn't find any evidence of that. But in his real life? Yeah, it didn't seem out of character necessarily just because he's so prickly.
Gives me a public impression of like Harrison Ford, where probably a sweet guy, but um doesn't necessarily love fame uh and doesn't like to be the center of attention and yeah, like is not necessarily like media savvy.
Yeah, I don't know. I I read a bunch of um stuff about him on the set of Royal Tenon Moms, and I've heard he was difficult to work with, yeah. I mean he kept calling Wes Anderson the C-word uh on set.
Well, he's not wrong.
And and if this gives you an idea, apparently Bill Murray would come to set like put upon himself to come to set even when he didn't have any scenes to kind of play the referee.
Yeah. Bill Murray of all people. Yeah, Bill Murray's famously difficult.
Yeah, if Bill if Bill Murray is the guy who's like, hey, that's a little too far. I need I need to come in on my days off to keep the peace, then Hackman probably was a little uh yeah. So apparently Hackman on that movie, which was his uh wasn't right before Welcome to Mooseport. I think there was there was one between them, so it was like, you know, kind of uh you know pr pretty towards the end, pretty much towards the end. Uh yeah, apparently he really clashed with Luke Wilson as well, because according to Bill Murray, Luke Wilson was during the time in love with Gwyneth Paltrow and kept like fumbling his lines and would piss off Hackman so like Hackman would like do his take and Wilson would need a bunch of takes and he just like would blow up Adam. Yeah. Um and do you remember uh Royal Ten Moms that well?
No, you know, I'm not even sure I've seen it all the way through in one sitting. Gosh, I know. You've been talking about that movie for as long as I've known you.
All right, that's I mean, I'm gonna escalate that to my alternate pick because you gotta watch that. But um, there's a character, uh I can't remember the name of the actor, uh, off the top of my head, but there's a character on it that plays like Gene Hackman's characters, like uh, I don't know, side sidekick, like his valet or something, you know. Um, okay. And it's it's this guy that so Wes Anderson used to go to this coffee shop um when he was in school, and it's like the coff the guy who owned the coffee shop, it's his dad, and it's like this older man from India. He's gotta be like maybe in his 70s in Royal Ten Moms, and I guess he was like a vaudeville guy, like a I don't know, some sort of performer when he was like really young. But anyway, it's it's clear from watching, and he he shows up in a handful of Wes Anderson movies. He's in Rushmore, he's in Bottle Rocket. Um, and it's clear that he's not an actor at all, but he's with Gene Hackman in almost all the scenes. And who's like a master of his craft with no patience. Yeah. Uh yeah, and his um, yeah. And so I apparently he blew up about him a lot too. And and yeah, Wes Wes is just like putting him in because it's like almost it's almost funny, it's almost comical, like how it is comical, how bad of an actor this guy is. Uh so anyway, uh that reminds me called him a the C word a lot.
Um prickly is probably a good word. Uh it reminds me, Amanda was just telling me um she's been re-watching Golden Girls a lot uh lately. Yeah, yeah, which is a hilarious show. I love it. But apparently B. Arthur and Betty White didn't really get along that well personally. I think the one uh one of the reasons she said was because Betty White was not like a like a classically trained actress. She she did like game shows and was she was like an entertainer and a performer, but not necessarily like an actor or actress. Uh and she would mess her lines up and flub stuff, but she was super popular uh with people, and um I think that kind of rubbed B. Arthur the wrong way. But I think it's kind of because B. Arthur is like this classically trained theater actress that you know she's got all the talent, uh, but like somebody who's just really likable and charismatic comes along and gets a lot of attention. But I've I feel like I hear stories about actors like that all the time that are they're they're like, oh, I'm a professional actor. Right. I'm classically like um Michael Richards was the same way on Seinfeld, and he hated when people would break and mess up their lines, and because he's such a pro, he doesn't do that. But yeah. Um it seems like that's a common uh source of contention among these circumstances.
I think it'd be f frustrating just in general for for everybody because it it costs a lot of money, it wastes everybody's time, and it you know, especially if it seems like you're like not really trying to do your job well. Like I it would piss me off, and I'm not a classically trained actor or anything.
You know, um but one of my favorite outtakes from Seinfeld is this scene where Michael Richards and Jerry are walking down the sidewalk and they're about to go into the store, and for some reason Kramer has like two hot dogs, and he wants to go into the store with Jerry, and he's like, Oh, hang on. Uh so he stuffs both hot dogs in his mouth and he's like choking on these hot dogs, and he's like trying to rush. And Jerry like looks in and as he's choking down these dogs, he's like, Ah, you know what? On second thought, they don't have what I need. And he like, so they leave. But he's choking down these dogs, and it's so funny that Jerry can't get through the scene. Yeah. Uh, and like it's gotta be so frustrating for Michael Richards, who's he's going through physical pain and yeah, he's working down these dogs. But it's so funny. Like, how could you how could you get through that?
Yeah, uh one last thing. I I don't know that it's just uh because Hackman and Angelica Houston didn't get along on the movie either. And I don't know what her background and training is, but she's clearly a good actor. Real actress, yeah. Yeah. Um there's a scene where she slaps him really hard and um it was real. Yeah, and she it seemed like she was uh put put real emotions into it, and uh good. But she was like, yeah. Uh but she she said she thought he was gonna kill her after that. Um yeah, I I mean yeah, it seemed it it seemed like it was bad. Um anyway, so Frickly. Um back to the movie. What plot holes did you have? Or any thoughts about the the movie itself?
Yeah, I had a lot of plot holes. I had questions. Um the movie starts with a naked man running down the street, and everybody just knows him. They're like, hey Harold, or whatever.
Yeah, I think that's just to show how like charming this little small town is. But he never comes back. Like it's not like they show him one other time. They did? When? Yeah. Uh it's at some point when Gene Hackman's campaigning or something, and it's kind of it's supposed to be a joke, but it's like one of those things that, yeah, it's not really funny. I don't know.
The the joke, non-jokes that this movie's full of. Yeah. What was the story behind the handy Mandy relationship? Was that ever explained?
No, it's it's this much younger woman. Beautiful woman who's in love with Ray. Uh he like doesn't even notice her. Right. Um, yes, I guess, yeah, I don't know why that's in there. Um, it doesn't resolve at all. Like she asks a question during the mayoral debate, and then I don't think we see her anymore. Or at least she doesn't have any more speaking roles. So Yeah.
Um, I just thought that was uh weird uh to have in there.
Which uh I'll uh I'll use that to one of my biggest uh I don't know that this is a plot hole, but problems with the plot is this love triangle. There's a 35-year difference between Gene Hackman and Maura Tierney is very uncomfortable. Yeah, it is. I was gonna ask if you felt weird about that. It yeah, I think that's one of the reasons why the movie didn't work either. It's like I Hackman was great in it, Tierney was great in it, but just trying to be like, why is she interested in I or even if you understood why they were interested in each other, it was just uncomfortable because 'cause they're like so different in age.
Yeah, I mean she was probably what late thirties, early forties?
Yeah, she was thirty nine, he was seventy four. I had to look it up. And that yeah, that's weird. Yeah, and then at the end he he gets together with Marcia Gay Harden. Spoiler alert. Also young. Yeah, yeah. She was, I think, 42. So like not much older than Moritz Tierney.
How old was Christine Buransky?
Uh yeah, I I didn't put that in my notes, but I did look it up and it was uh closer in age, but it was still like a 20-year gap.
She was fifty-two in 2004. Yeah. So yeah, I mean he's clearly got a thing for younger women.
Yeah. Yeah, it may have been. Not that I wouldn't. I I thought he was great in that part, but maybe an actor closer to everyone else's age would have made the story feel a little bit more relatable, believable. Yeah. I don't know. Interesting. Who would you uh recast that with? I don't know. Uh that's that's too hard. Because like I said, uh Hackman, I think, was great in it. Um yeah, I don't know if you find a younger ex-president or you find an older veterinarian. Uh so then you have to find an older Ray Romano. Uh which maybe maybe they just redo it today.
And uh I don't think Gene Hack Gene Hackman's gonna be on board.
Uh too soon. Too soon. Is it? Mm-hmm. Yeah, there's a bunch of dumb stuff in this too, where like, oh, this is dumb. Yeah. Um but just to mention like one example of like Ray Romano's so oblivious, he goes and cleans a septic tank and then doesn't take a shower afterwards, and more tyranny is like uh it's just like no human would be no man would be so oblivious that he's like if you don't smell your own scent.
Like that's not your own scent, that's shit. That's septic sewage. Yeah. The entire premise of this is done. Why would Gene Hackman have any interest in being mayor at all? I mean, it seems like his entire uh objective is to go relax and kick up his feet and read the paper and go on his jog like he's always wanted to do, why would he immediately jump into being mayor? He has nothing to gain from it.
The movie tried to give us two answer to answers to that, neither of which are very satisfactory. The first is that because Sally, uh Morituni's character, is like you should do it so that because like she's mad about her flight getting grounded because his anyway, uh trivial plot point that was stupid.
Uh oh, also one of the worst CG airplanes I've ever seen in my life. Yeah. The whole opening is is uh I guess it's Air Force One. It didn't look like Air Force One coming in to land, and and then also Mora Tierney's flying a helicopter pulling a donkey in the air, and they're flying and like gesturing to each other through the windows and stuff, and it's horrible. CG.
Yeah, it's terrible. Is it it's not still called Air Force One once you're not president, not president.
Any plane that the president uh is on is Air Force One. But uh yeah, it it was decked out like Air Force One with the blue paint and the seal and everything.
Mooseport apparently is a big enough town that has a runway for that jet.
So they also fly in donkeys on helicopters there too. So also we see the airport and it's like a little airport at the end. Like they're they're going that's true. They're like walking over the tarmac to get onto the stairs.
Which as as a mayor, he's able to ground flights, by the way. That's one of the plot points.
Um and nobody was um upset by that at all. Like all of the other people affected on that flight were just like go get your love interest.
Um yeah, everybody in rom coms are just like rooting for the central couple to get together. Um, they're all in PCs. Yeah, so I was saying so he wants to be mayor because he's attracted to Mora Tyranny. And then it's also He could date Mora Tyranny and not be mayor.
Like he's still the ex-president.
She's not just and yeah, throughout this whole movie, it's like the premise is she's only attracted to mayor, so that's why they're both running for mayor, which I don't know.
But that's not even the case. She just wants Ray to commit. That's it. That's all she wanted the whole movie.
Yeah. Uh yeah, and so and he's trying to prove that he can commit by running for mayor instead of just proposing. Committing. Yeah. Yeah. Um, the other reason why Hackman's character runs for mayor is so he can keep his house in Mooseport and the divorce. I don't know how divorces work, but it seems like she's getting everything. Also, he's he's like, if I'm mayor, I can claim this house as my office and keep it in the divorce. If it's your residence, though, that's just it's not your office. And it's also, couldn't it just be your office anyway? Like it starts off talking about all the like speeches he has to make and like books. Like you could just be like, I'm writing a book and it's my office. I d I don't know. It didn't make any sense. Yeah. They just they just clearly the writers were like, hey, let's let's pair off Gene Hackman versus Ray Romano, and it'll be this funny like hijinx, and they just like backed into the the story.
Why does being mayor make that his office? It's just his house still. Like, what does being mayor have to do with anything? That was my point. Yeah. I mean, I don't know. Um yeah. Why doesn't he hire a good lawyer? He's the former president of the United States. Like be becoming mayor doesn't solve any of the property dispute with his wife or his ex-wife.
It it does in this world, apparently.
In the land of make-believe. Yeah. Why was this race dominating the national news cycle for what seemed like weeks or maybe days? I don't know the time.
Yeah, I don't know the time frame either. Um yeah, everybody's really into it. I mean, I guess he was the most popular president in history. So I mean, if I mean, I'll tell you what, if if post-Trump presidency Trump runs for mayor somewhere, we probably all would pay attention.
Fair.
To be fair.
Yeah.
You don't even have to be the most popular president to be interesting, uh, if there's Trump versus the handyman of and and if it was Trump versus specifically Ray Romano, we wouldn't and then there's a side story that Trump was Trump that Trump was trying to get with Ray Romano's seven-year girlfriend during the race, like that would be uh yeah, that'd be the news story of the century.
Man, could you imagine stepping into the ballot box and your options are Trump and Ray Romano? I mean, to be fair, if what is this a California gubernatorial race in 2004?
Yeah. I I mean if it was Obama versus Ray Romano running for mayor or some small town, that would be pretty interesting too.
Yeah, yeah. I I think that's true. But uh I don't know that even like even in those days, I don't know that that would be an everyday news story. Like all the insane shit that happens today, it's like 20 minutes and then it's on to the next thing.
Yeah. I mean, back in the day you had longer news cycles, so I don't know.
There was no this was pre-social media, all that, so who knows what Yeah, but it was still like right in the thick of the 24-hour news cycle. Yeah. Yeah. Uh so yeah, I don't know. There's just such a like the premise doesn't make sense. And when you've when you've got issues with the premise that's the whole basis of the movie, it's just not gonna be good.
By the way, speaking of former presidents, which current or former president do you think has uh most likely seen this movie? George Bush. W. Yeah. W. I I think you're probably right. Actually, that was amazing.
They kept mentioning Clinton in this movie because um Gene Hackman kept comparing his like presidential library and everything else to Clinton's. Yeah. But I would bet George Bush has seen this movie. He was in it in the background, I think. He was in on TV. Oh, really?
I didn't catch that. I think so. I did catch a they had a picture of Gene Hackman shaking Putin's hand. Uh in in his uh at his house. I was like, that's that's why weird. Why did they have Putin in the background?
That aged strangely.
Yeah. Um, but yeah, I I think W is probably most likely. I I don't think there's any way Trump has seen this movie. Um I bet W laughed his ass off at this movie. I bet so too. Yeah. Uh yeah, that is funny. Would you would you want to be president, by the way?
No. Okay. So I was talking about this with Amanda uh when we were watching The Wire. Um, because it the fifth season of The Wire deals with a lot of politics and journalism. And all of those jobs seem like horrible jobs. Like you're working all the time, it's hard, it's contentious, you're fighting with people, uh, it's always under a deadline. Yeah. I would hate that. Like I can't even decide what to have for dinner every night. Uh I couldn't imagine making important decisions every day.
I agree, but my hot take is I think former president would be the best job in the world.
Oh, yeah.
Easily. You get paid $100,000 per just for a speech, and then you can you can go paint or you collect salary, you get secret service protection for the rest of your life. Yep. You can go produce movies like Obama or do podcasts or whatever you want. Like build a library. Yep.
Uh kick your feet up, read the newspaper, run for mayor, date a 40-year-old. I don't know.
Yeah, that seems seems awesome. Oh yeah. Well, do you have any other notes about this movie?
I hated that they played a game of golf to win Mora Tierney's love, like that would matter. I thought that that was a huge waste of time in the middle of the movie. Like this doesn't this isn't gonna work. Like she's not gonna be like, oh, okay. Yeah. You play golf better. Yeah. Um, why would the townsfolk even care about the love triangle between the three of them?
I don't know. I mean, it's uh small town, I guess they're all into each other's business anyway.
Yeah, it was just a disappointing movie because it it had potential. The plot, uh, the the premise of the movie though is flawed and it wasted a lot of good talent, in my opinion.
Yeah, I think I mean the premise was terrible. I uh but it it probably would have been fine if it just like was funny. I mean, there are a lot of movies that have no premise or the plot is or meaner.
Like if this movie had some like edge to it, um like the if the comedy was a little bit yeah, had more bite, it would have been funnier, but it was like so saccharin and like just like rolling your eyes the whole time.
Very neuter, yeah.
Um which to me is is very on brand for Ray Romano.
Yeah. Uh quick uh quick tangents. Did you know? Um, so Fred Savage is in this movie. Did you know they remade The Wonder Years? Recently? Yeah, in 2021. It was on ABC for for two or three seasons with an all black cast.
All black cast set in the 60s, like the original?
Yeah, late 60s. Um it uh had starred Dooley Hill, who was on um uh Psycho Psych, yeah. Yeah. Yeah, and I don't know, I don't I don't know the rest of the cast, but I was like I was looking at Don Cheadle did the narration um as like the uh I forget who did it in the original Wonder Years, but like the reflecting back. Yeah. Um yeah, I was doing when I was like looking up Fred Savage stuff, I was like, oh, they remade the Wonder Years.
Um did it do well? I mean I never even heard about it, but was it well received? I don't know.
I mean it survived for a few seasons, so I guess so. I d I don't know. Did you like The Wonder Years as a kid? I did, yeah. I watched that growing up. I don't think I watched all of it, and I probably didn't appreciate it enough because I was how old was I? It was probably like middle school or high school, I think, when I was on. When when was it on? I want to say mid to late eighties. Maybe I was yeah, maybe I was much younger. Uh it'd be an interesting show.
88 to 93. Yeah.
But it was on reruns for a long time. It'd be an interesting show to watch as an adult because it like I think probably has more themes that are it's you know, it wasn't a kid's show. Right.
Yeah. I watched it as a kid a lot. It was always on, it seemed like, but I didn't get it. Yeah. It was it seemed like adult uh messages w with told by kids. Yeah. So I'm watching and I'm like, when are they gonna like I don't know, do something fun? But it's like oh your brother's going to Vietnam, okay. Right.
Yeah. Um did you also know that they did a get shorty TV series? No. In 2017, so Ray Romano's in that. Um there are three seasons. Oh.
Does Ray Romano play the John Travolta character?
Who does he play? Uh Rick Mooreweather, a film producer. Oh. I don't I don't remember the uh movie well enough to know.
Uh Travolta was a mobster and he got wrapped up in some film production with Danny DeVito was the producer, I think. And Gene Hackman was maybe the star. I don't know. Yeah. But I I think that the I think Danny DeVito played the producer character in the in the film.
Yeah, that sounds about right. Uh yeah, there's just so much TV these days that like had a Wonder Years remake and a get shorty TV series. Like I mean, maybe it's one of those things where I heard about it and I just forgot about it, but uh it's kind of funny.
I think that they just have decided they need to fill every possible second with something and they have no ideas of what to fill it with. Maybe. Um what are your all picks for Mooseport? Well, um we kind of touched on it. Uh I I maybe have two for you if you don't like my first one. Uh but the writer of this, uh Tom Shulman also happened to write a little uh comedy in 1991 about an obsessive compulsive neurotic patient next to who comedically harasses his successful uh psychotherapist and endears himself to the therapist's family.
I've watched that movie so many times.
It's a little film uh starring comedy legend Bill Murray, uh Richard Dreyfus, Julie Haggerty. Never heard called What About Bob. It's uh Bill Murray's best comedy.
Is that uh is that eligible for the worst movie podcast?
Um just gonna be. It doesn't have to be bad to be an alternate pick. Um no, I imagine. Oh, you're it's I think it got well reviewed.
Yeah. I think that movie. I keep saying it over and over. The movie's fine. It's a very okay movie. It's not the best, it's not the funniest movie in the world somehow. It is the funniest Bill Murray movie. Uh I I don't think that's true. Anyway, what's your next what's your second I'll pick? I don't even know if I should give you a chance that I'm so angry about your first alt pick.
So this is not I've only seen this movie once. I did really enjoy it. It was a hard watch. Uh I don't know what its um reputation is, uh, but Mississippi Burning has Gene Hackman in it, uh, 1988. Uh and it's kind of about the Klu Klux Klan uh and the racial tensions in Mississippi in the 60s. Uh it's also got um Willem Defoe or Willem Defoe, however you pronounce it. Uh is it really pronounced Defoe? He says that half of his family pronounces it Defoe and half of it pronounces it Defoe. And he said that um when he was going to auditions that people kept thinking he was saying Dave O or something, and uh so he just went with Dafoe. But uh yeah, it's uh it's a it's a hard movie to watch, and it's one of those movies again where I'm like, oh, here's Gene Hackman in another um racially charged movie, but he's great in it. It's a really good it has Francis McDormand in it, who I love. Uh yeah, she's nominated for an Oscar for it. Yeah. It was nominated for seven Oscars, I think. So um it's uh I I've only seen it once. I really liked it. I don't know if it's like controversial or anything. I'm sure it is to some worth.
All right. I've never seen it, but um yeah, it seems like it's worth adding to the queue. Yeah. My pick is uh Thelma from 2024, starring June Squibb. Did you see this? No.
Uh I remember when it came out, uh I wanted to see it, but I didn't.
Yeah, June June Squibb was one of the best parts of Welcome to Mooseport. She didn't really have much, she just yeah, it was almost cameo-esque. Like I think she had just a handful of lines, but uh, she's great in Thelma. So Thelma is about a woman who I think uh I think June Squibb, I looked it up as 96 now. Um and so yeah, a woman in her 90s who gets scammed into sending uh some people money who are like pretended to kidnap her grandson or something like that. So basically, like this all happens in the first few minutes of the movie, and then the whole movie is her like trying to get back her get her money back and get revenge on the scammers, and uh it's hilarious, and I yeah, her performance is awesome. Uh the dynamic between her and her grandson is great, and um, yeah, I I love the movie. I've seen it twice. Um already in the last couple years.
I'll have to look for that. What was the um I'm having a like stroke or something? What was the movie we watched within the last year that was like the two black sisters who were burned and it was like a revenge movie? What was the name of that?
Yeah, Is God Is?
Is God Is, yeah. I don't know. You were talking about a revenge film and made me think of that.
I like that. Yeah, Is God Is is a very stylistic Kill Bill-esque movie. Thelma is more of a comedy. There's no there's no uh um, you know, no sword fighting in that I can remember.
Uh choose whips, not uh she doesn't have nunchucks in this.
Yeah, no, no, uh not that I can remember. Um Richard Roundtree is also in it. He uh played Shaft. Um in his final role. Yes, and he um yeah, him and Thelma team up for a little bit um in the movie. And yeah, it's just hilarious. They they're both great in it. Nice. So that's my pick. Good one. Thank you. I think that's about all we have for Welcome to Mooseport. Any thoughts or questions? Uh send us an email at the worst moviepodcast at gmail dot com. Amate. I'm Aaron.
Thanks for listening to the Worst Movie Podcast.