Ping pong movie let's go, leaving now to go see —

#49, or #2419, 2026's "Marty Supreme."

(Fully forgot to hit send. Pretend I tooted this 3 and a half hours ago.)

Know nothing about this 1990 Lawrence Kasdan picture my dedication to podcast completionism is making me watch, it's —

#50, or #2420, 1990's "I Love You to Death."

In a genuine Valentine's Day coincidence, my dedication to Blank Check completionism is forcing me to watch a movie with the word "love" in the title that I would otherwise never have put on, it's —

#51, or #2421, 2008's "The Love Guru."

It's another Best Picture nominee that seems like one of those that had a good point at the time but we wooshed past that point half a century ago, it's —

#52, or #2422, 1957's "Peyton Place."

With and after dinner, watched —

#53, or #2423, 2026 doc “Disneyland Handcrafted.”

Truly just wall-to-wall violations of even the most loosey-goosey of basic modern health and safety standards.

I've definitely seen at least one other adaptation of this that I fully do not remember, leaving now to go see —

#54, or #2424, 2026's ""Wuthering Heights"."

David has told me to watch this 1972 TV movie that dares to ask, "what if a Black man was President of the United States, wouldn't that be something," it's —

#55, or #2425, 1972's "The Man."

 🔗 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KXdA0z5BUig

The Man (1972) | James Earl Jones is the First Black President | #JamesEarlJonesRIP

YouTube

It's the 1957 Best Picture nominee that dared to ask, what if there was a —

#56, or #2426, "Witness for the Prosecution."

The first of the 1958 Best Picture nominees, I know nothing about this one, it's —

#57, or #2427, 1958's "Gigi."

One of those "well if you can see it on the big screen, ya gotta" movies, leaving now to go see a 30th anniversary screening of —

#58, or #2428, 1996 Baz Luhrmann picture "Romeo + Juliet."

In this one Glen Powell kills the rich for fun and profit, leaving now to go see —

#59, or #2429, 2026's "How to Make a Killing."

Alex Daily not going to improv comedy class tonight, on account of it being a vacation week, and so Alex Daily can instead go to the Mystery Classic. (Like Sneak Preview but the movie is old.)

The hints are "The day after carnival," and "Iron ....," and we like @kurt 's suggestion of it being "The Hangover," but only one way to find out, leaving now.

#60, or #2430.

It's the third of four movies that have ask, what if a star was born, it's —

#61, or #2431, 1976's "A Star is Born."

Obviously accomodating my brother's schedule isn't an issue at all, but I do sometimes miss seeing movies at like 10:15am on a weekday.

But he doesn't care about these, so leaving now to go catch the 10:15am screening of —

#62, or #2432, 2026's "Scream 7."

I'm... pretty sure?, this is Jewish Mulan, it's —

#63, or #2433, 1983 Barbra Streisand picture "Yentl."

Remember how bad "X-Men Origins: Wolverine" was, well, what if there was a moderately better movie about Wolverine that was also a little weird about Japan, it's —

#64, or #2434, 2013's "The Wolverine."

More movie titles should have exclamation marks in them to signal that they're Exciting!, leaving now for a screening of —

#65, or #2435, 2001's "Moulin Rouge!"

It's the movie that dares to ask, what if there was a prince of tides, it's —

#66, or #2436, 1991 Barbra Streisand picture "The Prince of Tides."

If you’ve known me long enough, you’ll know I’m obsessed with malls. Not “shrine in my basement”-obsessed, just “sometimes I’ll watch a movie specifically because it’s set in a mall”-obsessed.

You can probably extrapolate from that that I’ve obviously also been thinking about the secret mall apartment since the moment I first heard the story.

With and after dinner, I watched —

#67, or #2437, 2024 documentary “Secret Mall Apartment.”

The new Pixar is called "Hoppers" in America but "Jumpers" here, and so obviously I haven't been calling it "Joppers" but the other thing, leaving now to go see —

#68, or #2438, 2026's "Jumpers."

Let's wrap up Barbra Streisand's career as a director, I don't know anything about this one, either, it's —

#69, or #2439, 1996's "The Mirror Has Two Faces."

Say what you want about the actual flicks themselves, "The Prince of Tides" and "The Mirror Has Two Faces" are great 90s movie titles.

Jeff Bridges is a maths professor who knows he can't handle another passionate love affair because the last one derailed him writing his book by 14 years.

Babs plays a professor of Romantic Literature who still lives with her mom, mostly watches baseball, and only goes on dates with nebbish little accountants she doesn't want to see a second time.

Presumably, they'll make it work.

A phone sex performer has given Bridges the tip to take out an ad to help him find what he's looking for:

"Columbia University professor (male) seeks woman interested in common goals and companionship. Must have a Ph.D. and be over thirty-five."

and then, in bold, underlined:

"Physical appearance NOT import!"

you see, the man is sick to death of constantly having sex with extremely hot women

Babs' sister Claire is getting married to Babs' former crush Pierce Brosnan. I'm sure Babs having a crush on him won't come up as we go.

In the middle of a test, Bridges is sorting applicants into piles of "rejects," "too pretty," and "possibilities."

He takes one look at an admittedly unflattering picture of Barbra Streisand and goes "hmm." Finally, he thinks, noted unattractive person Barbra Streisand.

(The sister sent it in, of course.)

This is a good lecture about romantic archetypes in literature. I believe her more as this college professor than I bought her as a rock musician.
Everything is going perfectly — he calls her, she accidentally turns on everything that makes noise in her room, she tries to spy on his lecture to get a sense of who he is, he immediately catches her, she gets in the cab to go to the date, both windows are busted and fuck up her nice hair.
Bridges is pleased to discover that not only is Barbra Streisand a hideous freak of nature, she's also quite pleasant to talk to.
The Jeff Bridges character, you understand, is objectively abominable.
He's explaining that he wants something unromantic, platonic, sexless, while she's looking at him like he's explaining he wants to put a horse in a car and ship it express to Narnia.

"Humour in calculus?"

inconceivable

They're honestly pretty good together. They want completely different things, but they make great friends.
I can't tell if Brosnan is meant to be doing an accent or not, which means he's probably trying and failing.
This is the opposite of a "being poly would fix this entire situation" romcom, they should objectively just only be friends.
They're getting married after having kissed exactly once.
As a retired asexual person, I would of course be 100% supportive of him wanting a completely sexless marriage if it wasn't explicitly robbing both of them of exactly what they want.
Bridges is frustrated to find himself increasingly attracted to his wife.
Finally, some sex.

"I don't want to do this."

I said nothing.

His whole issue is that he lets his life get completely run over by passion, and that's why he wants the sexless marriage, companionship without the problem. He wants 0% beer.

Unfortunately she /wants/ the passion, which he's scared to surrender to.

But for all his openness about what he wants, he's not talking at all about the why, they're not evaluating their options at all. Ergo, conflict.

They've separated over the sex issue, and at 90 minutes in, you could easily have them both have an aha moment and end the picture in another five to ten.

There's 35 minutes left.

(Presumably because the Pierce Brosnan thing still needs to go somewhere.)

He's on speaking tour in Europe while she's having the Babs version of a Rocky training montage.
*waves at Pierce Brosnan* hi there, other piece of shit
their maths textbook looks like my old Japanese textbook

"I might as well tell you, she's with Alex now."
"/Alex/?"

yeah I can't believe it either

I do appreciate her doorman fully wrestingly Bridges to the ground. He deserves it.
Finally, they talk about it.
Objectively unhinged, but still a real step back up from "Prince of Tides," which was the wrong kind of unhinged. This one can supports its unhingedness.
Look, as somewhat of a (retired) asexual myself, I’d be fully supportive of the Bridges character wanting a completely platonic marriage if he were, you know, asexual, I think that’s a thing it could stand to be a lot more normal to want.
But he’s not asexual, he’s a dingaling nerd who sees women only as life-derailing objects of lust, and so him seeking out an Ugly Broad (Babs, which, yeah, I know) he doesn’t have that with to get his life in order is: Mean, and: Sucks. He’s a piece of shit.
And for all his openness about what he wants, he never really talks to her about WHY he wants, which— Once they were already friends, I really think they could’ve worked it out half an hour earlier.

Unlike "Tides," this one knows it’s insane, I think, and so: Another good Barbra Streisand movie. 2 for 3 not a bad score.

If she ever makes another movie I’m there day one.