1996: Bio-Dome

0:02 It was the mid nineties. Some of us were a year or two out of high school and some of us were a year or two into college. We didn't know who we wanted to be, but we knew where we wanted to be, the movie theater. These are the movies of nineteen ninety six. What's up, everybody. I'm Jeff Johnson from a Film by podcast and we're getting jiggy with another limited series. We broke down the fresh films of nineteen eighty six. Then we examined the gritty cinemascape of nineteen seventy six.

0:49 It's time now to check out the Hella good flicks of nineteen ninety six. One of our friends, author Andy Frye, is here today. Andy, I look at you kind of like a subject matter expert regarding nineteen ninety six. We tell us a little bit about your book, and that might explain why I feel that way. Yeah. So, I wrote this book called ninety Days in the Nineties, published it about eighteen months ago. It's it's ninety Days in the Nineties of rock and roll time travel story. It is what it sounds like. It's a book written by a gen x for anybody who's a gen x or who just loves has deep, deep cut love of music. And it's about a record store owner who's you know, kind of having a midlife crisis. And here's about this time travel train that may or may not exist in Chicago, part of the l the CTA line here that called the Gray Line, and finds a way to go back to nineteen ninety basically, to go back in time at a time when she is started getting nostalgic and trying to figure it all out and thinks, well, maybe I'll just go back and see if I can reado some things or make some amends or you know, all the stuff you could think about with time travel.

1:56 But when she gets back there to nineteen ninety six, as a term is out, she does everything about that, sorry John Cusack, and maybe maybe generationally appropriate that she gets caught up in the music scene and sort of her old life in her twenties and not dealing with her stuff. And you know, then eventually she does. She you know, she has to deal with it. And she also realizes that nineteen ninety six great great movie or great music here. We could talk about that in a few minutes. You know, we have this Golden age fallacy that we think about our youth or when we were a little younger and less responsibility, how awesome it was. We forget about all the hard stuff, Like you know, I think about when I was twenty two, I'd no responsibility, got to go see bands every night. I don't remember as easily the part about like having to do my laundry and a basement with quarters and eat noodles every night because I couldn't afford anything, you know, not that I have to, you know, not that I drive a Lexus her living a mansion or anything, but you know, we we kind of remember that the stuff we're fond of, and that's what makes nostalgia so great. I love the book. It's one of my favorites. I can't wait to see what you got coming next. But before before we do that, let's talk about one of those films from nineteen ninety six. Sit back, relax with a forty four ounce bladderbuster and some purple sticky punch because we're heading to biodome. Iron Man, iron Man. I can't poment that's Spider Man Black seven? Did iron Man? Oh? Come on, what do you think you're so smart? What do you think you're

3:27 some rocket scientist? Yes? Sorry, Button Doyle needed to impress their girlfriends. You guys, let's show the girls that we care about the environment too, do we? So they broke into the experiment of the century. Welcome to Paradise. Can you least make your taste like chicken? Because I'm gonna shrive up like a super model biodome. I am so fat. Nobody likes it. Starts Friday. So, after being dumped by their eco conscious girlfriends in the Arizona Desert, Bud and Doyle stop to use the bathroom at what they believe is a new shopping mall, but as in fact a high profile, secure biological experiment worth millions of dollars. Trapped inside with the scientists for one year, they must come to terms with their reckless behavior. This is one of those movies, right, like your initial thoughts, Well, it's weird because, as I mentioned to you before we jumped on here, I was asked after I watched this movie, did you lose brain cells? Of that happened, but the first thing that stuck out number one. I'm completely surprised by the fact that this movie made money because, as you know, you know what, I guess it's seven out of every ten films lose money, and you know, one out of every I don't know, a couple hundred are are something like A Home Alone where they hit it out of the park that and then it came out from MGM, the same people who put

4:58 out you know, Bond and and you know the brat Pack movies and all its kind of classy stuff. But the other thing that stuck at was it's considered to be one of the worst films ever made. So I mean, I think that there's a context of the times, a lot of innuendo and a lot of stupid humor, but you know, it was fun. Parts of it were fun, and a lot of it is ridiculous, and it kind of wears on you a little bit, as Polly Shore does. But yeah, I mean it's it's nothing that you wouldn't expect. There's no showstoppers and no major surprises. You're not going to decide also on the Polly Shore or Stephen Baldman a Lawrence Olivier. But yeah, that's kind of a sprinkling reminds me a little bit of Empire Records in terms of it's a little of bit sprinkling of everything in the nineties, from haircuts to sort of the mannerisms that people that were sort of projected as what was common in the time.

5:51 Just everything down to like how dudes wore their pants or which shoes they wore, you know, catchphrases. We could go into all that, but I mean, yeah, I mean, yeah, let's let's talk about, you know, the nineties culture influence on this film. I mean the first thing I think of, you know, following following Bill and Ted nineteen eighty nine, adolescent males are starting to be represented as like stoners, slackers, the extreme guys. I mean, think about think about movies like Point Break Clerks, you know with Jansen a Bob Cliffhanger ninety three, where you got the the two kids at all they want to do is just climb mountains and halo jump. Like. The nineties kind of gave birth to this this concept that you know, you had these two two guy you know, these two male characters that were inseparable, you know, and maybe I'm not all that bright.

6:40 Yeah, there's I mean, and it goes further, It goes even into I mean, we those are all like sort of suburban white males. I don't know if you remember a show called Homeboys Outer Space. It was I'm like whatever whatever they called it. Then when it was this the CW, the WB network or something, yeah, seven names ago from whatever that network is now CW, it was a well, I mean so yeah, the buddy comedy. It's like a dumb down buddy comedy Dean Martin, Jerry Lewis. But you know there are punchlines that come on when the punchlines are supposed to, but they're almost dumbed down, and they're almost sort of I don't know. There was this one thing I keep harping back, and I talked about this I hint as strongly in my book with my narrator talking about the main character Derby, is that there was a huge emphasis on authenticity and just kind of letting your hair down and be this. And this is after the glamorous eighties and seeing rock stars dressed up in suits with skinny ties like Robert Palmer or you know, Prince decked out. So the opposite kind of took hold. And you know, we could talk about the gradual nature of it, but you know, the late eighteen n late nineteen eighty nine into the nineties and grunge just kind of fit in there. So yeah, the slacker thing just kind of I think it was maybe an amplification of the let your hair down be authentic. It's okay to be you know, just kind of a person who doesn't have aspirations and almost maybe if you take another step to like the Ethan Hawk character in what's that movie with brown up blaket,

8:15 reality bites, Reality bites. Yeah, but it's almost like a bad thing to be too ambitious. That was sort of the background narrative. So of course we're gonna get buddy comedies with these guys who have no ambition, who don't consider anything important. As an amplification of that, it was sort of the talisman of the time and also an exaggeration of you know, whether you want to say it's the best or the worst or the extreme of what was going on. I mean, I think there's a little superficiality to it, which I can go into and that with Empire Records and some other films that came out Scream, but I think there was a it kind of met a market segment, if you know what I mean. And we can talk about that on the back end of this if you want. Yeah, well, you know, speaking of marketing, the marketing to it, you know, Paul shores empty MTV royalty right at this point. You know, he's got he's got Encino man, he's got son in law behind him, and uh, you know you were talking about Stephen Baldwin. He's a he's on a slow burn of success. You know, he's got, he's getting, he's gaining the pedigree, he's got casualties of war. He's got eight seconds, the usual suspects. You know. The target audience, which I think is fair to say, is is the MTV generation. They love the movie initially, yeah, or they're not gonna not go see it, They're gonna see it if they're moviegoers on the weekends, or you know, I guess in very classic nineteen nineties, since we had in Chicago here, one of the music venues used to have this thing where they would show second run movies to call the Bruin View, where he could pay initials three bucks and then it got bounced up to a wopping six dollars to see all three movies. You

9:48 drink a beer, we could smoke in the theater and smoke some other stuff and watch whatever movies were out like two three months ago. Uh. On top of that, every Friday night for like a year or two, every Friday night at midnight was Days Confused. Every Saturday night at midnight was pulp fiction. Because we want to want to see those fifty times. So we're going to see oh, absolutely Biodome on you know, Friday at six and grab a slice of pizza while we're there, and then a couple of beers in. We're watching the same scenes we've seen a number of times with Days Confused and you know, loving it again. So they just yeah, I mean the think that he was the star of the Baldwin star of the mid nineties and The Usual Suspects was a more remarkable film. But also to think that he went from that to this, they must it must have been a big paycheck involved, or a crafty maybe a crafty agent at least getting them in there. I think. I think one thing that hurts the movie is that me, you and your buddies aren't going to the brew and view enough because it's budgeted, you know, has an eight eight and a half million dollar budget. It grosses thirteen point four, So immediately think Okay, we made some money, but in Jam drops ten million to market it, so it ends up losing money. Okay, well you know more I mean despite yeah, I mean, I mean Kurt Loader and Tabitha Tabitha's sore and are telling us, you know, hey, go check this out. And you know you got Polly Shore hanging out at the MTV Beach House. But it

11:18 just wasn't enough. I guess yeah, maybe uh, Kurt Loder wrote poly Shore favor or he just held his tongue because we know Kurt Loder is like he's more likely to criticize a sunny day than than anybody else on earth. And you didn't love the movie, I mean, I didn't love the movie, but I'm not gonna get bit out of tape about the language using the innuendo. But yeah, I mean again it's but what we also want to highlight, and maybe uh one grace of is that we need to see a first glimpse of Jack Black and Tenacious D Yeah playing on campus and obviously they had staying power too. Fifteen the sames and trees. We just want trees. Don't say we didn't say some freaking trees. So someone you could you could debate whether or not he has staying power. Uh. This is originally intended as a comedy vehicle for Harland Williams. He's under the impression from the director that it's it's gonna make him a star. And meanwhile, MGM already has deals in place with with Polly Shore. So he's you know, he has that quick brush with fame and then he's he's out. Is this Andy?

12:26 Is this a better film with Harlan Williams, uh taken over for Pauli Shore. I mean I can't know. I mean I don't I don't see anybody taking this leet other than Pali Shore. Okay, So I mean it's just kind of a poly short type of movie. And I don't really think that, you know, you got a hand to the guy. Paui Shore knows who he is. And again maybe ninety's authenticity. You know, he wasn't trying. He did stand up. His mom owned the comedy store, Missy Shore and around, just like Slash grew up with. Supposedly all these great songwriters and album covered his and rock Royalty. I mean, basically, Pauli Short is the same thing in La and the comedy and he's not trying to get in there and say, well, do you know who my mom is? I should be getting roles that Tom Cruise is getting. He kind of just rolls with it, probably loves his gig on MTV, doesn't have to work too hard and gets to be who he is in this movie.

13:16 And you know, it kind of makes you wonder like is there a script or is it just like uh, what we hear about the hangover, Like a lot of the or a lot of the scenes just kind of ad libbed and turned out better. When Paully Short's doing his yo buddy type thing and and Stephen Faldwin's acting stone laughing. I don't know the answer to that, but yeah, this this is Polly Short throw and through nobody else. I mean, I don't know, I don't know. I don't know either, you know, I have to. I have to wonder like if someone sitting down writing scenes where Stephen Baldwin is biting Pauli Shorre's toenails, you know, and they're they're sniff each other's fart. So it just doesn't seem like the kind of thing like a writer's gonna sit there and go, oh, yeah, this I'm gonna write this scene and it'll work. That's to me that sounds like Pauli Shore. He's just riffing on set, like, Oh, let's let's do this thing. Let's let's look like jackasses this way. You know. Harlan Williams is the guy, isn't he the guy in the abs in six minutes guy? And uh yeah one movie it was a bench.

14:11 Uh there's something about Mary where he picks up the hitchhiker. Yeah, the hitchhiker. Yeah. So I mean there's certain character actors that when you look at all the stuff they've done and then who like they're married to and all the right, like, wow, this isn't just some stupid even this movie that I like, these guys are pretty accomplished. I think Harlan Williams is one of that, and Dak Shepperd's another, and Pauli Shorts Stephen Baldwint aren't, I have to say, But I don't know what they got going on. It's, uh, you can only go so far with this movie, I'll put it this way. And the fact that we have the uptight doctor from Ghostbusters, the pa oh yeah, William Atherton William Mathews playing the brilliant sort of doctor. And he's actually tolerant of these guys, uh want to use them a little bit too, but he's not quite evil about it.

14:52 I don't know, And it's uh, maybe we can talk about the quality of the writing here and the story arc, but I mean, you tell me if you think gets worth to dive into that, because there's so many working parts that are sort of working at seventy I don't know. I don't know for sure. You know, you mentioned Stephen, Stephen Baldwin, you know, how do he gets how to get repped into something like this? It's funny. His older brother Alec Baldwin warns him that if he does this movie, it will kill his career. And when you think of the trajectory that he was on, you know he was he had some some great films under his belt. After this, he does like the live action Flintstone sequel Viva Las Vegas or Viva Viva Rock Vegas and kind of just fades away.

15:39 So maybe maybe Alec knew what he was talking about. One of the scientists plays a scientist Kylie Minoque. She stated this is her work. This doing this movie was her worst career move. Ever, so it's definitely got some some hate from from people. But you know, getting act to what you're saying, it's you know you should expect, uh, what you're paying for. You know, it's it's a it's a it's a stoner broke comedy. You know, you know it's not warm piece. I mean, it did not hurt Kylie UNA's career in Britain and Australia. Something I I'm I really want to hear your your take on. Let's talk about this film soundtrack because we've got some some incredible nineties music. You know, fourth Grade Nothing opened in that opening credits, which is one of the most nineties opening credits sequences I've ever seen in a movie. You know, with the just the the loud, bright abstract imagery flying by it, it's it's almost seizure inducing.

16:37 And uh, you know you got you got their song just blasting. Then there's bands like Wax, Magnapop Dance, all Crashers. Ah, you've got a great Uh, let's let's jump back to the ninety days and nineties for a quick second. You've got an excellent not not not one, but two excellent Spotify playlists for three now you're on three okay, the third one. Any tracks you're hearing that when you're watching this movie recently, and any any songs come to mind where you're like, yep, that's on the list, or did you hear ones who are like, you know what, I'm adding that one? No, I mean I don't, I mean yeah. The soundtrack on this one is very nineties. And this is the same issue I have with Empire Records is where I feel like, uh, you know, and the people who put together soundtrack, you know, aren't necessarily I know that they aren't necessarily related. They're not working side by side with the director in the production company and the big picture company that releases it. So I don't know how those decisions are completely made unless you've got, I don't know, somebody who's a you know, somebody who dictates what's going to go on from the front end. I think with both these both of these movies, Empire Records a biodome. I wasn't really super impressed with the selection, and I do kind of feel like, Okay, they came up with like a nineties ish playlist, but I also kind of feel like it it was sort of like, let's pick out some songs that are bombastic that the kids will like that are sort of they're alternative, but they're market tested, and that's why I wasn't particularly impressed with it. I mean, a separate thing about Empire Records is I do feel like even more than Biodome, it's like, all right, this is this is gonna be for the kids, and the

18:10 white kids who have their dreads and they're wearing junkos and baggy pants and they drink mountain dew. So like, let's line up all the dots here and make sure that certain things look a certain way. And we got a nineties hit on our hands, which is, you know, to what people with in the eighties. It's it's I feel like with some of these movies, you know, the soundtrack was just kind of put together in a way that that would make a business sense type of move But like, take another movie that isn't that great from the nineties, like Sliver or uh and I hate the people in this movie, but cruel intentions those soundtracks rock actually is his nineties soundtrack. I mean more than I mean every every type of like I never watched Melrose Place or any of those shows because those are the kind of people that if I was violent in realife, I would want to punch them in the face. Don't watch a movie about the cruel Intention. Soundtrack is pretty freaking awesome, and so was I think they've started putting out soundtracks with not melrose Place nine O two Win O started. I would come home from my job and I'd want to watch like Fresh Prince or MTV, and my roommate would be watching nine O two and oh, and I'd be like, Oh, there's the Flaming Lips and he's like, who, Like, you don't know who the Flaming Lips are? Okay? And then they would have like letters to Klio and all these good bands, and so sometimes you know they work in I think sometimes in Hollywood they trust the music people to come up with like this is your bag, dude, like pick us out some good bands. And other times I feel like with these soundtracks, it's just

19:40 like all right, Geffen, all right, Slash Records, who you got who you're promoting this month? That kind of fits the bill, and I feel like that's where we were. So I'm not trying to shoot your jam session down here. To use a Wesley Willis term, but yeah, I wasn't terribly impressed, and I'm not expecting Alison Chains and Torry Amos on these soundtracks necessarily, but yeah, I don't know, they kind of fit the bill. And I also don't think that the songs are necessarily that memorable. It is a music's novel, I'll say. Okay, so I think it's fair to say then if you're giving this the soundtrack a pass fail grade where you're going to fail it now, I mean I would give it. I give it a B minus for efforts. Mind, Okay, does the does the eighties representation with songs like Safety Dance and I Want Candy? Does that?

20:25 Does that help the soundtrack? I think it does because there's and I don't know if it was intentional, but there is a sort of a soundtrack to it that a part of the soundtrack. Sorry, is where I'm trying to say, is there's a part of a nostalgic aspect to the soundtrack that obviously they deemed important. Why they picked the ninety songs they picked either they thought there this is going to be, you know, remembered in thirty years, or they just I think that actually they didn't really think it through that much and it's like, yeah, Wax is a hot new band, let's put him on here. Wax didn't really stick around. I remember that they had a pretty cool uh move or sorry video on MTV where like some dudes on fire running down the street, and that caught my eye for about twenty minutes. And beyond that, I don't remember anything about Whack. So yeah, they did a better job with the eighties music, and maybe at the time the economics were it was not that expensive to get I Want Candy and the Safety Dance, whereas you know Link later had to pay twenty five grand just to use Sweet Emotion in the beginning of the movie of Days Confused.

21:26 So some of that is dictated by the prices on the on the sheet, but yeah, that that was a highlight, I suppose. When it comes to the prices, I almost wondered if there's a fire sale going on for this guy DJ Apache Indians Boomshock a Lock Is this? Is it required that it's on most nineties comedy soundtracks, because I get you know, it was it's memorable from Dumb and Dumber. But then it shows up in this and now I'm starting to wonder, like how many movies in the nineties did I watch where I heard that song? Yeah, I don't know. I mean, again, it does it come down to the price or does it come down to somebody up high saying, you know, like David Geffen's sposedly telling MTV, you know, have to pay us for this play guns and Roses, Welcome to the Jungle every night at midnight. Somebody's gonna pay attention.

22:14 Just do it, do it, do it. I think that could be it, but I don't know. At the same time, you know, if you watch shows that are on now and I'm not a huge TV watcher, but my song Who's seventeen and a half watch he watched every episode of Lucifer, which does a great track. I mean they really took care to to really, you know, put some time and effort of that. And a song that pops out with that I'm hearing now is have Level Travel by the Sonics, which, like that was a one hit I guess in nineteen sixty seven. I can't member of the band, but I mean, I hear that song on car commercials now. I hear I'm in the store. It's in heavy rotation. Don't know, don't know if they their managers is working on overdrive me like, I'm I'm gonna cash every nickel we can get out of the song. Let's do it? Or are the rates really low or is there some Svengali behind it? You know it? Did Print secretly write the song and that's why it's everywhere? I don't know. Yeah, I can't tell you why, but obviously you're getting the fact that there are some songs that pop up everywhere and this is one of those. Yeah, So let's talk about the cast performances. Paul Shore. Okay, so we talked. You know, he kind of breaks out with MTV and Sino man Son in Law, maybe takes a little bit of a dip with in the Army now, yeah, and then he follows that one up in ninety five, I think with Tea Carreer and Jury Duty. You know. I yeah,

23:45 well you're not missing much. But I feel like, you know, you know, despite its detractors, I feel like Biodem's like a step, a step in the right direction for Paul Shore, like he's getting maybe he's getting a little bit of it back, and I'm just curious, like he has built this persona of the weasel for like all the nineties, and in this movie he's playing someone called Squarely. He goes from the Weasel to Squarely, and you see a lot of these flashbacks of him and Stephen Baldwin as they're growing up and in his teen years he's he is the Paully Shore weasel character from MTV. So I don't know what he is. He is he holding on a little bit longer to the to the persona he's built with this movie or is or were you just like, yeah, it's just another poly shore vehicle and I'm I'm over, you know. I After I got to college, I lived with the guy who went to film school undergrad and he used to call certain actors non actors. So think about the fact that in most of the movies you've ever seen with Brad Pitt, Brad Pitt is basically playing the same guy he's playing. I mean, maybe there's an exception for like seven Years at the Bet, but probably large Brad Pitt is playing Brad Pitt in every movie. Matt Damon mostly plays himself in every movie. I think PAULI Short is kind of like that, like he's again, he's not gonna I don't know, fake an Australian accent and you know, transformer to this this actor that he's not. And I think this is one of those movies that dustly for the budget, like they're not. This is kind of built that they know what the They know what the delivery method of this movie

25:18 is and who's gonna see it and where they're going to see it. They're not trying to win people over, and there's not a huge directorial debut going on here. I think they knew what it was and it fit Paully Shore perfectly. Again, I don't know what happened behind the scenes to get him to agree to it, or it's like, oh, well, I don't know, CIA and Universal decides that we owe Pauly Shore one more movie A what I what idea is do you have? Oh you got this the biotome thing. Yeah, let's work for him. We can get him off contract now it lets him be himself. I guess to go back to my original point, And you know, I didn't even think about it till today that maybe he's in that categorization of Brad Pitt and Matt Damon, not as a quality but actor, but as someone who basically plays himself in most of the stuff you see. You know, Sandra Bullock is kind of the same way too. Yeah, that you know, they're not gonna shake it up too hard. They're not going to be as multi dimensional as Kate Blanchette or I don't know, you know any number of actors out there that we've seen do a million different things. It's Paul Shore is gonna be Polly Shore in every Pauly Shore movie. And if you've seen the trailers for the Richard Simmons moviecause I played Richard Simmons, but you're also kind of seeing a less silly Pauly Shore. Paully Shore is, you know, pushing sixty. Now, did you watch the like the nine minutes short that they did the court? Juster what your thoughts? I mean, he's I'm watching it and I'm seeing more Richard Simmons and I am PAULI Shore. I mean, he kind of it.

26:47 He he does embody it. In my opinion, I think so too. Yeah. I guess what I heard was that Richard Simmons, wherever he is, was not pleased about it, and he's sort of coming out of the woodwork. At least he's writing letters or whatever, sending emails up. But I feel like it he gave in the ten minutes I saw there, he gave kind of a what I would call an honest portrayal. He's not trying to denigrate the character at all. And at the same time you're watching him saying why they pick him, you're saying, like it kind of makes sense if they pick him, and it's a different flavor because we've never seen anybody do Richards. So we've seen people do John F. Kennedy a million times. And the only thing that the only person I think who got it right was Bruce Greenwood in Thirteen Days. He's the only guy who, Yeah, Kennedy is superficial. The accent's not that great, the character is not very deep. I feel like Pauli Shore in you know, the upcoming movies, he's he's in that territory. He's not trying to fake it or he's not trying to be like Anthony Hopkins was doing Nixon and not really pulling it off. It's, yeah, it's a different thing. So I was, I guess mildly impressed. That's probably the top of his range outside himself.

27:56 But you know, so far, so good. We'll see. I'll watch the movie when it comes out. Probably not gonna go to the heater, but I'm sure I'll sit on my couch and watch watch it till it either gets bad or I'll watch it till the end. It's talk a minu about Joey Lauren Adams. You know she's this is before she does Chasing Amy in ninety seven, where I kind of feel like that is her movies where she really got to break out and she had a little bit of range in that one, the Kevin Smith movie. Here she's kind of doing like the same. You know, hey, we need a girlfriend, you know, we need a pretty girlfriend for the dufist that is starring in the movie. So, I don't know, know, she's not doing anything special, miss is she? I don't think so. I mean she's kind of the little sex pot with a high pitch voice who can wear type of her pants. And you know, there are all types of archetypes of women in the nineties.

28:48 I mean we really saw in the nineties on the music side, women go from like either cutesie you know Taylor Day or sorry like Debbie Gibson and Tiffanyil's pop stars or the sex spot like Taylor Dane and Madonna, you know, sexpot on steroids to Alanis Morissette. You're writing in her own songs and just kind of wearing what she wants to wear, a jean jacket or whatever, and you know, selling what seventeen million records in the first nine months after Jagged Littlepill came out, and you know, doing it her way. And I think maybe some of the downhold of this movie is that there are some sort of young people typeass and Scream is guilty of this too, But yet Joey Adams has not not been brought on because she's, you know, the best acting talent out there. Not trying to knock her too much, but she's not. She's not Renees Elwigger, that's for sure in terms of she's but she's adorable, right, I mean yeah, I mean if you're a straight white dude, you'd like, yeah, I could dig this, and you're watching with your wife or girlfriend. Now she's gonna be like, Okay, why are we watching this? So I mean credit to are filling the role, but it's not a very strong role. But you know, the protagonists aren't particularly strong in this film either. They're sort of categorized by their facial expressions, their jokes, their air, sort of their Selphamore extensive humor, and that's sort of the plot you run with. So yeah, Tracing Amy was a whole different. I mean, I think there's so much going on Chasing Amy that I'm not even sure that Kevin Smith understood the depth of that movie and how I think it really took him from Clerk's which is about,

30:25 you know, these these dudes hanging out in New Jersey with nothing to do, to something a little a deeper, wider conversation about sexuality and what's normal and what's offensive and what you know, kind of makes us sit up. And when when did Chasing Amy come out? In ninety six, ninety seven? Okay, yeah, so and that was light years ahead of where we are now. I mean it was, you know, over twenty five years ago, and Kevin Smith was having a conversation with young America in a way that nobody else was. And I think it's good to see Joey Lauren Adams transformed. Obviously, if you're saying that seen Baldwin's career went down from this movie. Obviously, the it didn't stump Joey laarn Adams to go to this from I think she was probably selected for Chamising Game before this, but you know, she hasn't really had a stellar deep career either as an actress.

31:15 But again maybe she's uh, you know, she tends to get type cast like some of these other actors do well. Speaking speaking of that type casting, William Atherton, he you know, you think you say the name you immediately if you're not thinking Walter Peck, the dick from Ghostbusters, then you're thinking, uh, Richard Thorne, you know, the dick from from die Hard. He's always the guy that you just want to see someone punch in the face. And here he's kind of like a he's a kinder guy, you know, at least he starts out that way before he goes crazy, uh and tries to blow the place up. But what, you know, I don't know. I don't know if he was the right choice for this, you know, especially with that mullet that he's rocking. It's just it was a weird I watch it and I just I can't not see Ghostbusters or die Hard and see that guy. And then maybe that's the generational juxtaposition.

32:07 He's the guy from the eighties who is very well spoken and has a deep voice and as you know, kind of typecasting an educated person who's trying to be innovative. Wait, you know, before we knew who Elon Musk was, before he knew who Jeff Bezos was, you know, the smartest person in the room was you know, a geek like Bill Gates or the angry guy in the turtleneck Steve Jobs. There wasn't really other than that. There were you know, I guess some character. You know, he kind of he's kind of like a mcguiver, Yeah, like eighties TV character, kind of guy with the sort of the blown out mullet and represents, you know, a generation that told you that you want to make fun of if you're these characters. Of course, even though the guy is kind of nice of them in the beginning and he's not a complete dick, and he's trying to get them into the experiment and you know, as a variable that could really help this thing and be open to them, it's you know, they're relentless. They still want to make fun of the guy. So I think it's a generational choice. And he represented what he was supposed to represent in that movie as he was presented in costume. I'll give you a recast.

33:13 Uh. While, while I love him playing playing a dick in movies, I think a better choice with him John Glover, you know, because he's shown us he's the nice guy, he's he's likable, but he's also shown us how minucing he could be. You know, like when you look at like him playing Lionel Luther on Smallville and you're used to him playing the nice guy in most of his films. I would have liked I would have liked to see him, but uh, you know, moving on. You know we got we got a couple of cameos. You mentioned Tenacious D. They're rocking out on the quad at Arizona Tech. Rose McGowan, who will see later this year. In ninety six in Scream, she kind of shows up as Joey Lone, Adam's friend that's trying to get her to go to some keegar to save the rainforest. One one guy that I love anytime he pops up in a movie ever since Fast Times originally High I'm talking about Taylor Negron.

34:08 He plays the Joey Loan adams mom's boyfriend. Russell. Oh yeah, yeah, Yeah, he's a real slimy guy. Yeah, another eighties generational, like the douchey generation older than us. Yeah, the la guy who is you know, can't get off the couch because he doesn't want to, you know, mess up his loafers or whatever. I think. Yeah, he's he's definitely perfect for that role. Yeah, and I think that's kind of a generational juxtaposition as a choice in this film. And hats off to them to try to separate the the you know, the forty somethings from the twenty somethings, or the thirty nine year old from the twenty two year old, and you know, make them contrast a little bit, not just in the lines they wrote for them, but the way they look and dress, I think is something that stood out here. Well, let's take a quick break, and when we come back, we'll be keeping it real. We got a couple questions for Andy. A friend of mine told me try America Online. I said, why, I've got a computer, He said, try it. You'll see. It's simple. Every time you sign on welcome, it tells you if you've got mail. You've got mail, want to send some email? Type the message click here and it's done. I like this. With one click, I can browse all kinds of great features on America Online. I've gotten help with Mike golf swing, planned my next vacation.

35:32 I even get stock price updates every fifteen minutes. America Online puts over one hundred newspapers and magazines right on my screen, everything from Time to Cycle World, and I can browse them all. With America Online, you can even point and click your way across the Internet, and their web browser makes it easy to explore the world wide Web. Call it total free number and you'll receive your free startup hit in ten free hours to look around. It's worth the try you'll see. To try America Online, call one three ninety eight seven seven nine nine you'll receive your free America Online Startup kid and ten three hours your first month. Call. Now we are back. Uh, It's time to keep it real. So let's start with Uh, I got I got a couple questions for you, Andy. Uh. Let's start off with the fact that one of our favorite actors, Billy Zopka, was dominating Dojo's high school cafeterias and college swimming pools in some of the best movies in the eighties, then he's he's notably absent from Hollywood for the most of the nineties. So the question is, what about zob I want you to replace one actor from this film with William Zopka. Well, am I allowed to change the the how the three ends? Or go for it? All?

36:51 Right? I mean I would just nick Stephen Baldon and put Billy Zabka in there. It'll probably be some excellent fight scenes too, But I don't know. I mean, yeah, I think that probably I can't really see like Billy's Abka, you know, the badass from the Karate Kid who you want to punch him in the face too, but he comes around. I can't really see him on the scientific team because he would just be He's too authentic. He just couldn't be like, Yeah, I'm gonna roll with this experiment in this strip mall for a year and not try to get with Kylie Kylie Minogue or Derek tom Jonovich or whoever unless he was the cop or something, you know, in the way in the beginning and the way into the Yeah, I guess what you're hinting at is that we can look back at sort of these minor who were kind of minor actors in the eighties that they were type cast people, and then when they come back twenty five thirty years later, you realize how big their impact on is when they step on set and when they're on screen, even if they were given a secondary role or they're the antagonist and they never they don't win in the end. That totally builds up could could have been in this movie and completely change the trajectory of it.

38:04 And obviously is a way better actor than someone like Steven Baldwin. So if he, if he was the sidekick, definitely Pauli Shorts character, he'd be a better guy, and he might get his actors together a little bit, you know, try to. I don't know, Andy Well would probably steal his girlfriend too. So well, my hot take, yeah, my hot take, I'd replace William Atherton. Let's let's see him play the role like a young, brilliant but assertive scientist who maybe has a little bit, a little bit of a slimy side. Maybe he's trying to get with both the girls, you know, or what's that have a short patience for these guys. For sure, Oh, he would, he definitely would, And he would also he'd offer button Doyle a worthy adversary. You know, William Athorts is just kind of putting up with all their bullshit about the movie until he cracks. I feel like Zapka's gonna make a stand, you know, I could see like poly Shore like hold on, you know, kind of kind of cringing and carrying away from him. But yeah, obviously you're better at this than I am. I think if if Zabcover places Atherton, then before the end of the movie, s Team Bowlin's character is a broken nose for sure. He definitely does. Let's talk SQL prequel remake. So if you control this ip, what would be your pitch to the studio to revive it? Are you gonna are you gonna do a sequel, a prequel or a remake? Well, you say prequel. In the first thing, I

39:35 think of his better call Saul, and I think of I don't remember the actress name, the bald guy who's kind of scary, who was also in Yeah, I played Mike, Yeah that guy. Yeah, yeah, okay, all right, stick him in this. You're already in the desert, ye stick. Maybe you're not in Arizona now, you're in New Mexico and the biodome is you know it's controlled by the Russian mafia or there's there's something else and you gotta fixer all of a sudden, or the fixer's right hand man to you know, he's someone's gonna turn up dead in the biodome. That might be a not a prequel, but yeah, maybe he's a Paully Short's father and oh, okay, and his disappointed father. I would think it's very disappointed father, who I don't know is was on a crack team with UH, you know, in in Vietnam with UH, with Chuck Norris.

40:31 Of course, you know, I don't know. I'm thinking of like Missing an Action part three or something, whatever we call it. And that's the prequel. Maybe he comes out the sequel. He's gonna rescue his son. Paully Shore Squirrely, whatever his name is is is now revered UH as by accident as an environmentalist for helping pull off the biodome, and you know, all of a sudden, his his his grubby dad comes back from history and wants to set the record straight. And you know there's one hundred million dollars in a bank account that he needs his son's help to you know his son's unwinning help for him to access just like he too. I like it, who knows? I you know again, I'm not great at this.

41:15 I don't know how you do a prequel for something like this because I don't really think that the underlying plot is all that interesting. It's it's sort of a acts as like a comedy sketch on stage type plot that there's a couple of beats that you can do and then it gets old. But maybe the sequel is a lot more sinister and yeah, you the got that. You got Sasha Baron Cohen comment come in and he's the long lost father, he's the rival scientist. And William Averton, Oh, I like that one scientist realize that there was all a hoax. The biodome wasn't really it was really controlled by an underground air conditioning unit and they were I don't know Portillo's every day and didn't he's you know, he's I think the sequel is the way to go. As recently as twenty seventeen, both Paully Shore and Stephen Baldwin expressed a desire to do it. So I say up the stakes and put these two idiots on like the International Space Station somehow, you know, where they can, you know, screw things up, lovable hijinks, and then they gotta save mankind. But we might see a biodome two before we know it. One more question for keeping it real. DVD extras. In nineteen ninety six, the DVD format is initially introduced to US markets, and while the simplicity of the compact disc pleased US, the high definition wowed us and had us tossing out our VHS tapes. But for cinophiles, the exclusive special features were usually a no frills package of scene selection, French and Spanish subtitles,

42:52 and a trailer. So my question to you, what DVD extra would you want on your DVD for this film? You can choose between an audio commentary, deleted scenes, or a making of documentary. I would say, well, I don't know, all right, so I'll just put out there that I've not seen everything. My favorite all time DVD extra, if you would classify it, is I think from the Hangover is it for two or three? Where you they talked to Ken Jung and mister Chow is a real person and Ken Jung's a map character and he kind of imitates you know, like, oh, how are you doing? I'm Ken Jung. Really, mister Chow is the real person, mister Chow. Yeah, I love stuff like that, So I mean I would say an extra like that. That's sort of a behind the scenes gotcha type of thing where yeah, maybe it was, uh, I'm not sure how you'd go about it, but yeah, there's some sort of roague character in here that you know. Kylie Minogue is I don't know, she's really not like Milli Vanilli. She really didn't sing all those songs. It was was Pauly Shore. Paul Shores got a great singer, you know. Then you cut to she's on stage, dance around. You cut behind the scenes you see Polly Shore with the headphones on like you're aware and actually belting out the tunes with his voice, and thank god for Polly Shore. A terrible actor, we're a great singer. Nobody's known this, but now you know, audience, how about that? Hey, you and I are down man? Because uh, in my notes I'm

44:22 looking at I say give me a poly Shore Steven Baldwin in character audio commentary because it would just be ridiculously stupid but fun, I think, you know, like, oh, you know, Hey, this is you know, hearing them discuss the film like like they actually were playing themselves. They were the people that I think that'd be kind of cool. I'm a huge Beavis and butt Head fan, and I would say that Beavis and butt Head what it does. So we're talking about the buddy thing and oh yeah, unintelligent. You know, people have given it more than five minutes. I know that it's not just you know, them making far jokes and stuff. There's actually a lot of beefs and buttead is really all satire in social commentary.

45:07 They're making fun of the characters that they are that are riff raff America, while they're also commending on you know, they're making fun of with the videos they're watching, the movies or whatever the TV. You know, maybe even something like that that behind the scenes you realize that Beaves and butt Head, you know, these guys Paul Shore and Set Baltimore supposed to be them, but they really did a terrible job, and the artists behind the the idea of the film are really disappointed, and you know, I don't know, maybe something like that. Let's talk about the film's legacy. So when we talk Biodome and how it's aged over time. Andy, would you say this is a classic, a cult classic, or just a product of its time.

45:52 I think it's just a product of its time. I don't think it's a classic or cult class sick by any stretch. And I also don't think people will fight me on this. I don't think Scream is and I don't think Empire Records are classic. Maybe Scream is a little bit in a kitchyway and in the same way that the Nightmares on Elm Street are if you consider sort of a kitschy genre classic. But yeah, Biodome, I mean, I don't know that it was meant to be a complete throwaway movie, just kind of throwing something out there. But like I put it up against let's say, a movie like The Brady Bunch Movie, which is a reboot, but the brilliant Brady Bunch Movie, which I think is one of the better, better comedies of the nineties. That they have this clueless family that's still in the sixties, which is the same Brady Bunch of people that were on the show in the sixties, living in the nineties around grunge, around devious people, and they're all sunshine and rainbows and everything. Yeah, I mean I think that this Biodome is just sort of let's put Baldwin and Shure out there and have them be their hey buddy's silly thing and you know, make it crazy and put a soundtrack out of make it very nineties, and don't really think that it didn't fail completely. But it's not a talisman of the nineties the way that a number of other movies we could talk about are.

47:07 So if not a talisman, is it is Biodeme a strong representation of nineties culture? I think it's a strong representation of nineties corporate film trying to come along again. Remember we went from okay, so this came out in ninety six gun completely new. But if you were a forty five year old movie director or producer that said had success on Hollywood at the start of the nineties, you're going, wait, wait, why why isn't Springsteen big anymore? What people don't want to listen to a CDC Alison Chains who lanasmar set. You know, people were wearing the cool people are wearing flannels on in concert in front of a crowd of fifty thousand people, And then what you do is you kind of structure a movie and a character set around what you have just noticed is the failing style of the time. And I really think that's what Biodome is. It was, you know, here's where the market's going, Here's what those crazy kids are wearing and saying and listening to. Here's the catchphrases they used to, musical they listened to. So let's make that in a movie. And you know, that's definitely inauthentic way to put together a movie. And I think they try to be earnest about it and really be with the times. They did a little bit, but they didn't.

48:27 They didn't do it by putting together a great product. And that's that's just Hollywood and that's filmmaking. Sometimes I agree Stoner Bros, Hot Girls, alt rock and eco themed parties on campus. It definitely says says nineties a lot, but maybe doesn't say maybe doesn't capture the essence of what the nineties were about. So andy, it's it's always a pleasure, man. I gotta know what's next for you, And please please say a film version of ninety Days in the Nineties is coming soon. Well, I don't know about that. We did have someone option in the film rights for ninety days in the nineties. Talked to with an up and coming an investor who's also done a couple of I guess documentary type things, and I don't know the story.

49:13 I had this guy connect with me back about April last year. I didn't know who he was at first, and he, you know, he just kind of like emailed me out of the blue. We talked, we did a zoom and all that stuff, and yeah, I think what he told me was that, yeah, I was in I was in LA. I was talking with a film director's a pretty successful guy from my hometown in Texas, and I think what he told me was we had a margu reader two. We were talking about breath the nineties were and we should do a movie about the nineties. And I went home to my Hometo hotel room and just went on Amazon ordered twelve books, and years popped up and I read it in a day or two. I was like, Oh cool, what'd you think. I loved it. So, yeah, it took a little while, but someone optioned the film rights, which doesn't mean that's going to be made into a movie, but it could be, so we'll see I'll let devil let you know if the trigger is pulled. But yeah, somebody has the rights to do that, and that's kind of where it begins. I hope that's the case next time you're with us. In the meantime, where can our listeners get access to you and the book and your social media presence?

50:13 Yeah, I mean I'm on Insta, a little bit less on Twitter now that it's going the way that has. But if you want to check me out Andy Fry dot com, fry with me on the end. I mean, you get a sampled by sports writing other stuff that I do there. But the first thing comes up is the book. If you want to order it from Amazon, it's right there and be at your house and today. If you want to sign copy, you can do that too, and I can send it to or can can sign it for conscript it to your uncle Larry or whoever in the front of the book, if that's what you want to do, And a portion of it goes to charity. There's a charity called Katie's Kids. I donate some money too that. What they do here in Chicago is they set up field trips for physically disabled kids who can't walk around in the museum by themselves or can't do rock claim by it, but they want to do all the fun stuff that we get to do when we have weekends. So yeah, definitely try to. It's mentioned in the front of the book, but yeah, Andy Pride dot com or Nineties in the Nineties dot com or if you're on Spotify. I got three I think it got free. Maybe even got four playlists in the works now, but all with different flavors. You know, ninety songs, most of them from the nineties. I try to. I guess retell the story of the decade as I remember it. It's fantastic. Man listeners, definitely check out Andy's website, get a copy of this book. You are absolutely gonna love it, and thank you for checking out the first episode of our limited nineteen ninety six series. We're gonna cover a lot of movies from the year, but we won't get them all in so let us know which film from nineteen ninety

51:45 six is a must, or maybe you've got a hit in gym to recommend. Please let us know. You can email us at a Film by Podcast at gmail dot com, or hit us up on our social media channels, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and as always, our website www dot a film by podcast dot com. We got a bounce, but next time. On nineteen ninety six, my Home Skillet, Jason Covin will join us for a nutty conversation about an Eddie Murphy film that stars plenty of Eddie Murphy's peace Out. I'll tell you what, zab cobra Kai made me realize how much it reminded me when it came out. I was like, I never really liked Daniel LaRusso. I just thought he was a kind of a whiny bitch.

52:42 Right, thank you,