It's dark outside... There's an ominous feel in the air... Thunder and lighting crash everywhere... And somehow Dan Aykroyd has managed to accidentally send electronic waves at the speed of light to an alien planet, completely destroying their gravity!
Join Preston and Nathaniel as they navigate their way through this romantic science-fiction comedy with discussions of spaghetti westerns, Jon Lovitz, and conventional ovens.
Follow us on Instagram!
Interview with Dan for My Stepmother Is An Alien
Photo of Dan and then-President-Elect George HW Bush
It's dark outside... There's an ominous feel in the air... Thunder and lighting crash everywhere... And somehow Dan Aykroyd has managed to accidentally send electronic waves at the speed of light to an alien planet, completely destroying their gravity!
Join Preston and Nathaniel as they navigate their way through this romantic science-fiction comedy with discussions of spaghetti westerns, Jon Lovitz, and conventional ovens.
Follow us on Instagram!
Interview with Dan for My Stepmother Is An Alien
Photo of Dan and then-President-Elect George HW Bush
Hey everybody. We are listening to the best legs in Chicago real quick. I, I want to remind everyone that I have plans to make a Dan acro, but I'm waiting until I have an audience to send it out to. I wanna make sure that if I put the work into this, that it's gonna be enjoyed. So once we get 10 people who email us saying, Hey, I want a zine, uh, or whatever, then I'm gonna go and start making them. So if you want a Dan Aroy zine, email us best legs in chicago@gmail.com. Good evening. Oh, is that good? Okay. Ready? Yeah.
Speaker 2:Sorry. Go ahead.
Speaker 1:Good evening. You are listening to the S legs in Chicago, a journey through the life, career and mind of Dan Aroy. And today we are talking about my stepmother is an alien.
Speaker 3:Can this wait. Secretaries are like animals. When it comes to free food
Speaker 4:Lectures line up for 10 days only once every 19 months. And now with all this rain, we've got lightning. It's perfect. Perfect. For men like us.
Speaker 3:Oh, Christ Steve. When's the last time you went out with a woman? January
Speaker 5:Of 86, no, March of 86. I took Dr. Elizabeth Conway to see the Holly's comic retrospective. Superb. You see it
Speaker 3:Here? Couple of times. How can we be brothers? We don't have a single gene in common.
Speaker 4:We wrote up time. Cause we frequencies lower it below three centimeters. What
Speaker 3:Below? Oh, Hey, it's reading out here. I'm getting wet. Ah, this jacket is Ralph Lauren and it's smelling. Oh great. That's great. I'm what I'm Snell. They're gonna jump all over me. Hey, you guys smell this.
Speaker 6:Oh,
Speaker 3:Oh, it's me.
Speaker 2:This movie was a box office bomb.
Speaker 1:Yes, it was Daniel.
Speaker 2:It was a total disaster. What did you call me?
Speaker 1:Preston. Is that your name? Yeah. Have I been getting it wrong this entire past 11 years? 12 years. I've known you.
Speaker 2:Oh shoot. Yeah, no, this is a first. No, it's not a first. I take that bag. This is not a first, but today we watched my stepmothers an alien. It was great because it was the first time in a while where it was a film that we had never seen before. And we went in completely blind. Most
Speaker 1:Of the movies we had either already watched together or you had seen, uh, I think the only ones that I had previously seen were, um, nothing lasts forever. Was that it?
Speaker 2:Wait, what?
Speaker 1:Oh yeah. The movies have, had you not seen before
Speaker 2:Besides Mr. Mike Mando video never had seen it. Yeah. Neith
Speaker 1:Had I
Speaker 2:Shoot me to the moon. No. What is it? Nothing
Speaker 1:Lasts forever.
Speaker 2:Nothing last forever. Shoot
Speaker 1:Me to the moon.
Speaker 2:Well, I just think of a bus going to the moon.
Speaker 1:Yeah, no, shoot me to the moon. That's like my friend's mom always gets movie titles wrong. And one time she was talking about the movie dinner for schmucks and she said this was back when it came out. So we were like in high school or whenever that was. And she said, you should, you and your friends should go see that movie, take a dork to supper.
Speaker 2:Anyway, I think that we should make a movie called, take a dork to ser
Speaker 1:Really good. Yeah. It's a great time. You have to give her credit. So this movie gotta say not a great reputation. And uh, maybe that, that helped the fact that I was pleasantly surpris and you know what really enjoyed myself.
Speaker 2:I had a lot of fun in this movie. I do have a couple of complaints about it, but overall, I don't understand why this has such a bad reputation as it does.
Speaker 1:It is far from perfect.
Speaker 2:Yeah. Very far from perfect. There's a lot of bumps along the way. There are a lot of sex jokes. A lot of innuendos, some
Speaker 1:Are
Speaker 2:Fun are fine. Some are a little far, but overall, this movie is out there and it needs to be brought back closer to home, I think.
Speaker 1:And, and there's no, no or pun intended maybe. But I think that there's a lot of reasons why the script, the story is, is all over the place real quick. I'm gonna let let's get into a synopsis. So
Speaker 2:The, the basic plot is that, uh, an extraterrestrial woman is sent on a secret mission to earth after her home planet has a gravity problem. That's mistakenly disrupted by Steven Mills. Who's played by Dan Aroy. So she is on a mission to go to earth, to try to find this scientist who accidentally disrupted her planet's gravity problem and have him fix it. And then in turn, they're gonna destroy earth because they think that earth has weaponized this and can potentially destroy other planets. That's the simple plot,
Speaker 1:The, the details that matter, Dan Aroy Dr. Steven Mills, the scientist who inadvertently sends the signal is a single dad with a 13 year old dog named Jesse and a brother named Ron mills played by John Levitz, who works with him at the same facility. And his, his brother is basically only has one personality trait, which is horny. Then Kim BA shows up Dan Aroy, Kim BA fall in love. She is their own a mission, but immediately becomes enamored of earth, the earth way of life. And of course, Dan Aroy himself and who could blame her. Right. And she suddenly feels a conflict of interest because yes, she has to save her planet, but also doing that is going to mean, you know, saying goodbye and, and destroying everything. She's learned how to love. That's really it. So what's, what's interesting is that the plot bounces around because it went through, it has four different screenwriters.
Speaker 2:Yeah. It had a very long development process. I think it was originally pitched by, uh, to the studio by Jericho stone, that it would be basically an allegory for child abuse. That was the original idea for the film, many, many moons before it was actually made. And the early 1980s and the original title was called they coming. Uh, and I think it was gonna be a drama. That's what it was gonna be. So paramount had it. And then it went a bunch of development, you know, steps. I think they had talks of bet, Midler, Julie Andrews and RA, uh, God, I can't ever say her name. Raquel
Speaker 1:We
Speaker 2:Shep. Yes. Uh, then it was dropped. Then it moved to other studio Fox considered it and Hey, they considered it with civil shepherd and Joan Rivers. Then they changed the title to two kids. Then it went into the hands of the wine tribe entertainment group. And I think that's when director Richard Benjamin had read an early unfinished draft in the 1980s, early eighties. Then after it had gone to that group, he read a newer version of it. And then at that time it was considered more of a horror film where there was like horror elements into it. It was just, it seemed like a mess. It had gone and through so many changes. And then finally somebody said this, it would do better as a comedy. So that's where we get Dan Aroy. The script is rewritten we're cast with John lovets. Uh, that's kind of what it leaves us at today. But as we were watching it, we both kind of commented. We were like, well, you can kind of see all of the elements from all of these different stories. Like, especially in the third act, acro still does not real lies that she's an alien and he's refusing to believe his daughter,
Speaker 7:Dad. She ate batteries. What? She took three D batteries out of a paper bag and ate him. She flattened him like a T year old rapper. And she was talking to someone who wasn't even in the room.
Speaker 8:Oh honey,
Speaker 9:Don't, you know that, I love you more than anyone else in the world nothing's ever gonna come between us, but
Speaker 7:Daddy, she ate batteries.
Speaker 9:Jesse. I want you to stop this right now.
Speaker 2:And in those moments you can see, I don't think that they were actually at that point still doing the allegory for child abuse, but you can see the, the blueprint of what probably was there, right. On a Bigger scale.
Speaker 1:Can't convince her dad to listen to her,
Speaker 2:Right. About
Speaker 1:Her other parent. That's the only scene that feels like it's left over from that initial idea.
Speaker 2:Right. I agree. And I, I do think that there, you also have this character that they call bag, which is this alien eyeball that comes out of Kim Bass's handbag, her purses. It's obviously a more, um, kind of, uh, powerful figure from the extraterrestrial planet. That's helping her. It's a prosthetic, it's like a, it's a, an actual, you know, it's
Speaker 1:Its a great prosthetic. It's a great puppet.
Speaker 2:Yeah. It's a great puppet. She can carry it. And it pops outta the bag. Does all these kind of crazy things, it was never scary. It was never a horror element. But I could see with these physical prosthetics, maybe that was also kind of a carryover from when the movie was more of a horror film, but they kind of kept that element to, to, to use it for its comedic advantage of a per with an eyeball coming out of it,
Speaker 1:Especially at the end, the eyeball Dan ECRO and we're jumping around plot wise. But I mean the spoilers don't really matter. He throws the bag with the puppet. It, it kind of, it looks like a snake except instead of a head it's just like an eyeball and he throws it into this beam as like electricity is cosing through it. And the eyeball grows and gets huge, becomes like giant. And the image honestly is very scary. And then it just totally, you know, explodes lightning. I wonder what the script two kids like how different that was, cuz there's, there's only one kid in this a, a second kid briefly shows up, played 14 year old, Seth green.
Speaker 2:Right.
Speaker 1:I wonder if that script was the horror one, right? Is that the one that was
Speaker 2:Richard Benjamin claims that the original screenplay Jericho wrote is what he resembled more of a horror film to him, which would make sense because that's when it was a drama and it was a, you know, child abuse. So he's, he's claiming that the I'm sorry, the original script that he read that was unfinished was more of a horror film.
Speaker 1:One, one thing we should mention as well is that Richard Benjamin was also an actor who was in a bunch of films, especially in the seventies, like the last of Sheila, which was the only film that Steven Sondheim wrote. Uh, as it, the only film that he wrote as a film, a lot of his stuff has been obviously adapted in the films. He also is in catch 22 and just kind of a bunch of this
Speaker 2:World.
Speaker 1:Yeah. He's in Westworld, a bunch of kind of random acting credits. Uh, some of which are very good. So he also directed the money pit, but anyway, so, okay. So the unevenness of this movie, you can kind of attacked all the different holdovers from various drafts, but the first 40 minutes clearly got the most attention comedy wise, cuz I really feel like the first 40, 45 minutes. So funny is really frenetic has a bunch of hijinks. Everyone is on Kimba has like the most material that she gets to work with. She's so good in this. And she's really funny, but especially the first 40 minutes gives her like the most kind of cuz that's when she's the fish out of water. So that's when she gets to really like lay on the, the sh the shtick really heavy.
Speaker 10:Well, of course you'd say that. And I think it's pink. Floyd, not pink, Fred. Right? Jesse pink. Fred is their nickname. Would you hold this for me, please? Hey, Hey, we're the monkeys. And people say we monkey around, but we're too busy singing to put anybody down. What do you know what they say? Nixon. The one Dick Nixon. Okay. See you later, bro. Do you have any spinach? My hands are
Speaker 11:Freezing. I'm pop by the sailor man. I'm pop by the sailor man. I'm strong to the spinach cuz I sweet spinach. I'm pop by the sailor man.
Speaker 10:Pop this bud for you. Now you're telling me the composition of your radar beam, wacky gram, right?
Speaker 12:The best
Speaker 1:Kind of, I guess I don't know. Comedic moment in the film comes when the two of them they've been hitting it off all night and she obviously being an alien, wants to see the satellite from where the signal was sent the radar beam. The, and he shows it to her, but it also turns into a romantic moment where they come in close for a kid. Of course she's never kissed before cuz her planet got rid of, um, uh, sex and romance like 50 centuries ago. So she has to ask her handbag to she's like what, what is the, so like all the, her handbag, like the, I guess the alien, the I thing it's there's a lot of, it's just kind of like go with it. Like it does explain how the handbag is able to like produce items out of thin air. But in addition to having a creature with like one eye, it also can project images out of it. So behind Dan Aroy, there's this image being projected into the air. That's all of these old classic movies of, you know, famous scenes of kissing. So the first one it shows is Ingrid Bergman and Humphrey Bogart and Casablanca. So that's what she starts copying and kissing Dan aro. And then it shows more and more variety of kisses and she keeps mimicking it. But then it'll be like, uh, it'll show like the three Stooges. So then she starts like slapping Dan Aroy and pushing him over.
Speaker 2:It is really funny because it's, it feels like the internet almost like if you were to just Google kissing and if Google brings you up, like everything that ha that is possibly related to kissing. So yeah. It's like, it's going through an encyclopedia of like kissing, making out and then the three Stooges where they like give each other, like a Peck on the face and then slap each other. And so then she's doing that or like, or, or like then it brings up birds kissing and they're pecking at each other. And so she starts like nibbling at'em and then it brings up drugs. She like takes a bite out of it.
Speaker 1:Wait there's there's a great scene where it shows like politicians like Reagan and some like Russian dignitaries or something doing some sort of like, you know, custom where he lay lean forward and kiss them on the cheek and then shake hands. And she like, and she does that, kisses him on the cheek and then very diplomatically shakes his hand. And what's great. Is that Dan Aroy just goes along with it. Like when she starts dancing, like a bird, like doing this like bird mating dance, he just is right alongside her. Doesn't he's just like, Ugh. Okay. It's very, and it's just, it's very funny. And it goes on for like three minutes. It's so long.
Speaker 2:Uh, this movie's kinda long too. It's 108 minutes long. It's just shy of two hours. It's
Speaker 1:A little too
Speaker 2:Long. I, I think that it really could have succeeded a little bit better if they had trimmed out like 25 minutes of it or something, which
Speaker 1:Would've been easy. Cuz I mean, honestly I would, would've just cut everything about her needing to save her planet. Like it should have just been like, oh we found this signal, let's go check it out. And then she falls in love and then the stakes are low and just let him again, we always, we want everything to be a hangout movie, but
Speaker 2:This movie suffers from that problem where suddenly there's like four endings. It's like an ending. And then an ending, they succeed. They, he figures out how to do the lightning in the satellite dish, save her planet and they send it off and then they destroy the bag alien and it's like, ah, success. They did it. And then all of a sudden The Lords from her planet show back up and they're like, now we're gonna destroy your planet and they've gotta do a whole Jimmy Duranti Dan sequence. And then they're like, they're like, Nope, we're still gonna kill your planet. And they're like, God, Can I tell you why I loved it? And she goes through all of her memories of earth and then they're like, oh, earth is weird. And then they're like, oh no, no, no, no. Now we have to take you back to our planet. And they're like, oh no. Now we It's like five times. There's like this ending and then suddenly this ending and then suddenly this ending
Speaker 1:And it's so, and that all happens in one location. So we're in the like one location for 10 minutes. Yeah. And it's very UNS, cinematic and boring, cuz it's just a high angle on them. Kind of talk shouting at this of like these three planet elders who have like projected themselves into the sky. And it's just, they're just in this like parking lot looking up and it's just very boring UNS, cinematic, UNC climactic. And I think like it could have just, I don't know.
Speaker 2:I think you're right. I think, I think it would've worked. It would've been stronger. I'm not saying it's bad, but I'm saying maybe it would've potentially been stronger if they would've just gotten rid of the planetary destruction thing and that maybe, uh, Dan Aros accidental, you know, message that he sends into space is more just like seen as a message, like communicating to some kind of other world. And then they come to visit because they receive the message. And so she's on like a recon mission or something like that. So the ending, you just get rid of all these crazy elements of like the trying to sabotage earth or whatever. And it's more of her trying to understand our culture and he doesn't believe it. And then at the end you, you do have to still deal with the, oh, is she gonna go back or stay? Because I just feel like the destruction adds all of these crazy side plots that take up a lot of time, especially with the bag alien character. Who's always bad. And like when they're ever at the, whenever they're at that house, there's all these great sequences where she's cooking. Lots of like, she's just misinterpreting what being a human is. So like she prepares breakfast, but instead of just breakfast, she prepares like 18 double Decker cheeseburgers, an entire Thanksgiving, Turkey, 14 omelets, a martini. But all, meanwhile the bag character is still trying to like, you know, sabotage the relationship and all this stuff like that. And it's just, it adds a little bit too much. I feel like to the plot and, and it adds quite a bit of time that I feel like could have otherwise been focused on the great chemistry that all the characters have together.
Speaker 1:I agree this and it, and it, what makes it kind of contributes to that problem is that this stakes, I feel like are very unclear until about 45 minutes in. Maybe I missed it, but I, I felt like I didn't really understand what the stakes of her planet were like, why exact, like it's kind of mentioned, but it sort of was like 45 minutes in after the most fun portion of the film. It, it is like, oh, by the way, there's all this stuff. And it makes the mistake that a lot of comedies make, which is that lots of high jinx. And then they, they have to take a backseat halfway through for plot and character development, which in a comedy is it's not handled well or focused on too much is just death.
Speaker 2:That also brings up something that I think about a lot, which is perspective from a storytelling standpoint and like whose per active as this film being told from, obviously if it's like a hangout movie, there might not be a singular perspective. And it's more of like a fly on the walls, cinema verite kind of situation. However, on like a through line narrative like this, generally you would have some kind of perspective. I think it's kind of muddled in this movie who, which perspective you're cuz it, the movie opens up with Dan Aroy you, you get all this exposition that his wife died and he's raising his daughter and then, then Comba shows up and you get a lot of stuff from her perspective, much like what you said, where the film suffers from perspective. I feel like a lot of films don't take the time to really get serious with themselves about like what is actually needed. What, like, if something is cool or great, should we show this? Is there a more creative way of showing this to retain the perspective? And that takes me back to like Ghostbusters afterlife. For instance, when we were talking about that a couple weeks ago, where I really loved that opening prologue with ego, I thought it was a lot of fun, but the perspective doesn't make really any sense because the whole movie's perspective is technically from the kids. So for us to see this piece of history that's happening, you know, a week prior where he dies, it's kind of almost like a selfish indulgence to just like catch the audience, you know, be like, we're gonna show you this really cool sequence, but perspective wise, it doesn't really actually make any sense. And then it kind of ruins certain more mysterious elements of the movie where the, you could just be with the characters, actually figuring all these things out and finding these things. And I feel like a similar problem exists within this movie too.
Speaker 1:You know, this is I, you can decide whether or not to keep this in, cuz I'm about to go on it. But thinking about what you just talked about, Ghostbusters afterlife using that as an example of perspective and how the beginning kind of contradicts the perspective it takes, you know, it would've been better. You could have taken the exact same flashback sequence that opens that movie. Cuz the flashback sequence at the beginning of the movie is probably like, what five minutes long you
Speaker 2:That's about five or six minutes.
Speaker 1:So if you had taken that and chopped it up. So throughout the movie, as they move into the house, the, the kids keep finding clues. Like when she finds the trap beneath floorboards, remember she moves that chair back or the chair moves and it like, she sees on a floorboard,
Speaker 2:She's like the puzzle on the ground thing. Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1:Exactly. It's like she pulls it out and she like looking at it and studying it and then you, they like start piecing it together. And as they find all these clues, you keep cutting to more of the flashback.
Speaker 2:See? Yeah. Then you would get the best of both worlds. I think you, you really lose that mystery with the kids in the house because you've seen it already. So as an audience member now you're no, you're no longer subject actively viewing it. You're objectively viewing it. And you're like, oh yeah, she, here we go. She's found the trap that he put there that obviously has one of the terror dogs in it. Exactly.
Speaker 1:So then you, the back to like a ten second clip from the flashback of him using the trap. Right,
Speaker 2:Right.
Speaker 1:Yeah. I know you liked that movie more than I did, but regardless you should make every movie cuz we're always right. All our ideas. I know we're we're right about everything
Speaker 2:We're obviously correct about everything. Ah yeah. Anyways, the, the perspective I was talking about it, does that make sense? Like it, the movie opens with Dan Aros perspective and then it's suddenly not totally his, the whole time. And then you get to the Endy and, and you're with the daughter and it's like, oh she's not being, it just feels like there are so many writers and this is a problem that happens in Hollywood. You know, you, you, which I, this is something that when I was watching it, I wanted to talk about like how we would each deal with it if we were ever faced with this problem. But like there are situations in Hollywood where you get a script that somebody writes and then somebody eyes that script and then they're gonna make that script and they end up hiring another writer and you are not to rewrite it. So somebody else is now writing it and you're no longer part of that process. And then sometimes they'll even hire yet another writer and they'll rewrite it. And so sometimes you get a situation where, for instance like this movie, my stepmother's an alien where it's going through hand after hand, after hand re writing, rewriting, rewriting, get getting rid of things. And the older writers are not a part of the process. It's a very common thing in, in Hollywood. And it can often make bad movies because there's too many cooks in the kitchen. We've seen it before. And I, and I wonder if a lot of the like Mudd plot and the confused perspective and you know, the five endings is because it went through so many different hands to get to where it is.
Speaker 1:Absolutely. You can understand the, the horror version of it, the, the horror drama kind of, kind of mix of it, whether or not that was one screenplay or if it, it was kind of a drama and then a horror was most likely from the kids' perspective because horror movies, a lot of times horror movies, especially in the eighties were from teen perspectives, you know, or kids' perspectives. And, and that's because a lot of things are scary when you're a kid you're very vulnerable. So the title would indicate that the perspective is from see Dan Aros, uh, 13 year old daughter, but then the, the comedy portions of the film are very much from Dan Aros perspective. Also from Kim Baer whose character's name is Celest a lot of times the humor that she does is funny because you're seeing it from an outsider's perspective and is therefore Dan's. So you can tell that just at some point, I don't know, it's, it's almost like one writer rewrote the first act and then didn't touch the second act or the third act.
Speaker 2:I mean, what would you go through if you, you know, obviously we're both independent filmmakers were not represented by any means, but like say you were to sell a script. I mean, I feel like that would be a painful process if like, even if it was a script you didn't care much about, and somebody was just like, oh, I wanna, I wanna option this and make it. And then they hire somebody else to do a rewrite. And then, you know, a writing duo comes and does yet another rewrite. And so finally when the movie comes out, I mean, my stepmother's an alien started as a drama, semi who, or a film about child abuse. And here we end up with a movie, uh, with Dan awe and Kim passenger. That's a comedy about an alien woman from outer space. It's almost like the stereotype of what happens in Hollywood. You know,
Speaker 1:I mean, it would depend on the scratch. I'd probably be upset, but if I sold it, then I wouldn't be able to do anything. You wouldn't
Speaker 2:Be able do anything. And in a weird way that is success selling anything in this town.
Speaker 1:Yeah. So I guess if I was the director, I don't, I don't know. I've never worked in that system. The system, this movie was made in, even though like, it's weird. We talk like the system, this movie was made in is in the grand scheme of things. Not that long ago, but is nonexistent now. Like I like, you know, you know what I mean? Like this kind of mid side, like, I don't know what exactly you could compare this to today, but so I've no idea. Uh, but I would probably, if I wrote this script, I would probably be like, eh, whatever. I made some money off of it. I'll, I'll go use this money maybe for something I'll go, you
Speaker 2:Buy a,
Speaker 1:Put a pool in my house.
Speaker 2:I'll put a pool
Speaker 1:In my house, in my living room. Yes. So talking about those different perspectives though, the opening of this film is so good. The opening scene, I love
Speaker 2:It's really good.
Speaker 1:This, the two conflicting tones of this movie, Dan aro playing a single dad, this movie came out in 88, but that kind of is sort of a hint of what is going to happen in the nineties where you get all those single dad movies, like, you know, Mrs. Doubtfire and the Santa Claus, what or what else? There's a lot of, you know, single dad divorced dad, movies were big in the nineties, but this is so like there's elements where he's like, you know, spending time with his daughter, he's like this single dad he's trying to, you know, do it on his own. That feels very nineties. Like it's looking forward. But the opening to this film feels so distinctly eighties, it's got thats, pseudoscience, jargon, kind of like government, like it's like the tail end of the cold war. So you have a little bit of a cold war vibe in the secret facility. That's using radar and satellites and there's this lightning outside and it's super frenetic and there's like red lights on and everyone's running around and there's like, alarms going off, Dan Arod is yelling and he's, he's screaming out jargon, uh, jargon. Like I won't let the Cly Dawn go above 300 gigahertz. And there's this white angle lens that keeps swinging across the room. As people cross back and forth to these giant walls of like, uh, radar screens and switches and buttons and gauges, and he's running outside and raining and he's like climbing up a, uh, a sat giant satellite dish. And it's really funny and really exciting at the same time
Speaker 2:It is. And it does a great way of introducing Aroy in the way that we, we love him because it immediately opens with a lot of his preoccupations. Uh, in fact, um, I think it was before we started this, I was telling you that there were like two very juxtaposed reviews of this movie one or from the New York times. One was from the LA times. And the New York times was saying that Dan Aroy was miscast. He was wrong for the role. It's a disaster of a movie. And then the LA times was like, this is, although it might be bumpy. Dan a has not been cast in a role like this in a long time that uses all of his comedic talents and strengths in the right place. And obviously, I mean, we both love him, but I did think I agreed with him. I was like, yep, this makes sense. He plays a great scientist. I mean, he, he opens the movie just like
Speaker 13:Jargon doing this kind of role, cuz this, this is an image change for you.
Speaker 9:Well, it was a, it was, that's why I took it. It was, it was a challenge, you know, because usually, you know, I rely on, on, on exterior props and, and makeup and building a thick, thick character with a different voice, a different walk like I did in the great outdoors with John candy, that obnoxious uh brother-in-law and the uh, guy who, uh, you know, the Jack web character in Dragnet, you know? So, um, this, I didn't have any of that to rely on. I couldn't fix my hair funny. I had to wear normal clothes. I had to be kind of more like myself and concentrate on really just feeling and opening up. And uh, when I read the script, I thought, Hmm, boy, this is really different for me. Should I take this or not? You know, I really had to think about it. Richard Benjamin was involved. I do trust him. And I like his work as an actor and as a director. And uh, so I signed on even before we had Kim. And then when we had Kim, it was like, well, there's, there's no going back.
Speaker 1:Yeah. Can I expound on that a bit?
Speaker 2:Yeah, please. I, I,
Speaker 1:I feel like the reviews that said, Dan Aroy doesn't work as a romantic lead. We're missing the point because he has to be believable as a scientist, not a romantic lead because romantic, not that this movie takes place in real life, but romantic leads don't exist in real life, but scientists do. So he like grounds the film because we buy him first as scientist. Like Dan Aroy is a very convincing scientist because he does give across the vibe of being like singular mind hyper-intelligent um, and you know, a centric. So because we understand that about him, he is more likely to look past all of Kim. Be's weird weirdness that anyone else would stop and be like, this is strange. Like, why is she acting like this? Just cuz he's so excited cuz he's been single for so long that this, you know, beautiful woman shows up is in love with him and is also as interested in everything that he is interested in. So he's willing to look past all, all the weird things because we believe him as a scientist.
Speaker 2:Right. It'd be like if 1988, Rob Lowe played that part. It wouldn't make as much sense. Cause Rob Lowe's very attractive. You know he's a hun. Yeah. I mean, but
Speaker 1:Imagine, imagine, imagine Rob Lowe trying to say the is telemetry tractors.
Speaker 2:Yeah. It doesn't make any sense. Yeah. Well also also it's weird because it's like, do you consider my stepmother as an alien to be a, a romcom or you do you consider it to be like a sci-fi comedy? It's many,
Speaker 1:It's a sci-fi romantic comedy, uh, fantasy.
Speaker 2:I, cause I almost don't. I don't think it's a rom comedy at all.
Speaker 1:Oh really?
Speaker 2:No, I don't think so.
Speaker 1:I mean, it doesn't obey the traditional romcom rules, but there is romance and comedy in it,
Speaker 2:But there is the comedy of romance and then there's the romantic comedy. So I don't know,
Speaker 1:Elaborate.
Speaker 2:There is the comedy of romance and then there's the romantic comedy. Okay. Tom Hanks movie where he does like sleepless in Seattle, that is a RO romantic comedy. But the comedy of romance is what I feel like is more happening in this situation where it's using that as an element of comedy. I don't see this film as a romcom. They do get together. It is a happy ending, but I think it's more of a science fiction comedy where it just, we just so happen to have a really relationship between an alien from outer space and a human. And they're figuring out what love is. I dunno. Maybe it's a hot take. What?
Speaker 1:Yeah. You, Twitter is gonna light up over this. Uh, what is your favorite romcom?
Speaker 2:I don't know. Would you consider working girl to be romcom?
Speaker 1:I haven't seen working girl.
Speaker 2:I like working girl a lot. I don't know if that's over, but I do. I do love some of the Tom Hanks movies obviously
Speaker 1:Sleepless
Speaker 2:In Seattle's great. Big, big is great.
Speaker 1:Is that a romcom?
Speaker 2:I don't know.
Speaker 1:My favorite. I think work working girl, I think is that would, I would call it Rocom uh, my favorite is Moonstruck
Speaker 2:Moonstruck is great.
Speaker 1:Yeah. Moonstruck is a masterpiece. It's in my top, like 25, I guess. Can we talk about John? Lovets
Speaker 2:I could talk about John lovets all day long. Let's do it. A fan of lovets. He
Speaker 1:Is so funny in this he plays Dan ad's brother as we a
Speaker 2:Yes, he plays, he, I, I was just thinking of a story. Do you ever listen to Conan's podcast?
Speaker 1:No, I know you're a big fan.
Speaker 2:Oh man. He was telling a story about um, John Lutz and I think it was Dana carve who was on I believe. And they were both talking about lovets and they were all like, they were like, oh Lovet man, what a trip that guy was. And they told these two particular stories.
Speaker 1:He
Speaker 2:Was dead. He, no, he's not dead.
Speaker 1:Oh, okay. You said was so I
Speaker 2:Was, well, I think they meant when they were writing on SNL. Yeah. You know, he was very famous for like the whole acting thing.
Speaker 14:And now we bring you another page from the world's greatest.
Speaker 15:I'm capable of playing any role, even with half a finger. Oh,
Speaker 16:How did that
Speaker 15:Happen? It didn't acting. Ooh.
Speaker 16:Is it real?
Speaker 15:Oh yes.
Speaker 16:How did you do
Speaker 15:That? Acting brilliant and go Alex's H me why? Trust me.
Speaker 2:I had to come up with like memorable bits. And so sometimes he would come into the writer's room and he would be like, I've got an idea. I wanna do this. And then they would be like, John, how are we supposed to figure that out? And he he'd be you're the writer. You figure it out. You would love to leave that room.
Speaker 1:So he is just always doing a bit.
Speaker 2:He's just always being him. I think he's just always like, he's like the lovets that you imagine. I don't know. It's
Speaker 1:He's sort of is always playing John Levits. I can't think of John Levitz ever taking a dramatic turn as an actor. Really?
Speaker 2:Yeah. I mean, that's like even like at the end of the move movie, when, when, uh, the char the evil character of bag calls him in Kim Baer's voice and is like, you know, basically lying to him that, oh yeah. I want to get physical with you. We should talk about our relationship's. Out's not working out and then love it's hangs up the phone and he's like, ah, ah, but it's my own brother. Oh, well
Speaker 1:He like sings as he bounces up his stairs. That's in the middle of this house. That's covered in like neon lights and purple furniture and this weird art and it's did
Speaker 2:I miss so something. Why is, why is, why is John Lovet who plays Dan A's brother in this movie who we also said, it's hilarious casting because it's, he's obviously Jewish and Dan Aroy is a Canadian Catholic. That doesn't really, and it's just obviously physically, it doesn't make any sense unless they're adopted which they could be, but anyways, but they're,
Speaker 1:But they have great chemistry together. It's
Speaker 2:Very, they have great chemistry together, but why is it that Dan Aroy they work at the same place, but he makes$25,000 a year. That's the craziest,
Speaker 1:That's the most unbelievable part
Speaker 2:Of this movie. And then John Levitz drives a, a red rolls Royce lives in a huge house in like Manhattan beach and like is wearing Ralph Lauren thousand dollars suits. What does he do there? Did I miss that? Did I totally miss what his job was? I
Speaker 1:Don't know. He, he must be some kind of executive director or maybe he's in the financial division of this. It, it is not explained, but Dan Aroy is clearly sort of getting his hands dirty with science and John Lovetts, even though he works at the same research facility, doesn't know anything about the science, so,
Speaker 2:Hmm. Right. It's he
Speaker 1:Is very much a fancy boy. And he is, uh, very horny considering this film was made in the eighties. He's never creepy. He's always playing just kind of like a Gober idiot and his person that personality trait is I think executed in a way that is very funny.
Speaker 2:Yeah. My, my favorite moment was, is really his introduction and it really describes the kind of character like you're right. He's never gross or creepy. He's just kind like an idiot the whole time. And, and, uh, which makes it even funnier than he's so financially successful somehow. But at the very beginning, the whole sequence you described earlier with the wide lenses and it's kind of chaotic and the red flashing lights, and they're doing something crazy with this giant satellite dish in the middle of a lightning storm and they're running around and it's, it's a Dan Aroy and assistant. And then John Leviton,
Speaker 1:Who's cross side
Speaker 2:Who's Crossey and did wards like, come on, we've gotta go to the roof now. And they go outside and it's like raining and aro and his, his cross side assistant have on these rain codes. And then Levits is just carrying his rain coat, but in his Ralph Lauren suit and he's like, Ugh, I'm all wet now. And I smell bad. Why do I smell bad? And then it cuts to the next shot. And he, he realizes that he has a rain coat on and that last shot. So he is like, ah, and, and so then they cut away and suddenly he's got the raincoat tied around his neck. Like
Speaker 1:Instead of putting it on, he wears it like a scar.
Speaker 2:And it was a great joke. It's so
Speaker 1:Funny cuz you see him like toss it over his shoulder as if it,
Speaker 2:It would do anything funny. Yeah. Very well done. And that, that kind of is a great character introduction too, which is details like that don't happen much anymore in movies. I feel like,
Speaker 1:Uh, how so
Speaker 2:At one point I told you again, every movie nowadays it comes out it's Ryan Reynolds. He's dressed in like a, oh yeah. Field jacket field, Jack it with like a Henley and nice fitting jeans and boots, nothing to differentiate him or make him unique in any way, acro in this movie, for instance, that sequence where he's wearing the shirt that looks like it's buttons, but they're actually sewn on and it's snaps and he's like, look at this, it's easy snap on snap off. It looks like buttons, but it's not like it's such a great character
Speaker 1:Trait. He's also at one point wearing an MIT sweatshirt and the bottom half of the sweatshirt is like covered in mathematical equations that he clearly like scribbled on his shirt in pin. Like when he didn't have a piece of paper. Yeah.
Speaker 2:Like looking down like they're upside
Speaker 1:And it's, that's such a, that is a great character detail. That is, you know, it's, there's never an insert. It's never acknowledged. He's just walking around the scene where he has it on is maybe like a minute or so. But it's, it's a little detail that I believe and it's, you know, drives home his absentminded professor kind of vibe. I have a whole issue with contemporary period films in general. And I think it's because we move, we're moving further and further away. It's, it's harder to make a movie about the fifties than it was in the seventies. And in the seventies, like for example, we watched more American graffiti recently and in American graffiti it's was very easy probably to recreate the early SI late fifties, early sixties. A lot of the cars were still around and operable and probably in good shape. A lot of those like old diners and drive-ins and everything would, could be easily dressed up just to make them look like 15 years older. The like, it, it was just much, much easier. And now every period film goes after the same kind of signifiers of what the, the period is. Right. One thing that drives me crazy is that because there are fewer antique cars when you see like an antique car,
Speaker 2:It's super shiny
Speaker 1:In a movie it's, it's like bra it like looks clean and, and, and shiny. And you can tell that some collector like delivered it to set that morning and is standing off camera to make sure no one scratches it.
Speaker 2:Yeah. I mean that, yeah. It's like American graffiti was 73. It's set in 62. So it's an 11 year and probably when they made it 10 year difference, I'd be like, if we were making a movie in 20, 22 and we were setting it in 2012, it'd be very easy. Yes. All you would have to do is just take out a, you know, just have to make sure probably the last like six years releases of automobiles are not in the shot. Even still a lot of them look the same. It'd be very easy to do a lot of the same technology, just music and all that stuff. So I, the, it is an interesting point you make on like wide shots and exteriors because I love a good wide shot. I guess you have to be picky about how you do things. You, you certainly could still do that. It's just like, obviously going, if you, if we were to make a low budget,$50,000 movie set in the seventies, we can't go do some wide shot in downtown LA that's. It just doesn't work. So that's why a lot of indie period movies end up being just like, you got a car to just kind of like insinuate we're in this and
Speaker 1:It's always in the desert.
Speaker 2:Yeah. It's always in the desert. Cause that's ease a timeless location. If you, if you're making like a period film and you wanna lean into the resources that you have, that's why people go to the deserts, cuz you can do a wide shot and it can be whatever year you want for no money. Or like if you're gonna make a Western, like yeah, you use the landscape. It's like you put, that's why. I mean, that's why Sergio was able to make so many speci westerns for so low budget cuz you put Clint Eastwood in like a blanket and a hat and just go out into the desert and shoot a beautiful landscape. And it's like, oh wow. Yeah, we're in the wild west.
Speaker 1:What I've seen, I haven't seen power of the dog yet, but the, the, the stills I've seen looks like the, that might be an exception. That movie looks gorgeous. It looks like the way it captures the land is in, you know, pretty incredible. So
Speaker 2:Yeah, there's, there are, it's hard to do period movies and, and I'm also a big pet peeve of mine as like when, uh, when it's, when you're doing a period movie that's shot on such high resolution cameras. So crystal clear and it's so clean and it's, it's just because I feel like, especially for, if you're making a movie about the seventies, like a lot of seventies films were made so grungy with the film stock and the cameras and run and gun. So I always, if, if I, if I'm able to do a film about that P period, I want to emulate the style of movies that were also made in that timeframe. And there are filmmakers that do that and shoot on film formats and large formats to, to emulate that style. But it's hard for me to get into a period movie when it's shot. So stabilized, so clean. So high key lighting, just, just Beau, you know, it's just like, so crystal clear, beautiful that it almost doesn't feel accurate. I had seen this movie at Sundance a couple of years ago called um, down low down. That's it? Yeah. Low down. And it was shot on like super 16, low down is a great example because it was an indie movie shot on super 16. They took a lot of time with the photography and the exposure to really kind of emulate one of these grunge, seventies, new Hollywood movies. I, I think it really works. Like it's, it's very immersive when you're watching it. You feel like you were in the seventies, it feels kind of dirty, you know, like it wasn't perfect and was rushed a little bit. And I, I like movies like that.
Speaker 1:We, this is the part of the podcast that we always reach eventually where we just have totally derailed from our topic and are now just complaining about our normal complaints. Maybe we should get back on topic.
Speaker 2:Well, let's talk about Dan.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Should we talk about Dan? Well, we've
Speaker 1:Talked about him a lot about how we think we, we disagree with the haters that we think he is, uh, perfectly casted in this movie. Yeah. I think
Speaker 2:He's used very, very well in this movie personally.
Speaker 1:Preston.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:We should talk about the cones
Speaker 2:Let's award. My stepmother is an alien, some cones,
Speaker 1:But first I wanna hear this little factoid. You discovered about the premiere.
Speaker 2:Oh my God. Yeah. What, what a weird little factoid, I guess a July press release had stated that my stepmother is an alien was gonna be released on November 23rd, 1988, but was eventually pushed to December and it was moved to Washington DC. And on December 3rd, 1988, my stepmother is an alien premiered in Washington, DC. It was attended by the stars, Dan Aroy Comba. And it was also attended by president George HW, Bush, first lady, Barbara Bush and vice president. Dan, Why was the president and the vice president? Well,
Speaker 1:I guess that this, he would've been the president elect, right? Cuz this was right after the election,
Speaker 2:I guess. You're right. Maybe he was president elect at the time. I
Speaker 1:Mean that it doesn't make it any less weird. Okay. Yeah. I found a photo of Dan standing
Speaker 2:With, oh, I see it. Yeah. Dan, George
Speaker 1:H w Bush in front of and Kim Basser in front of a poster. This is incredible
Speaker 2:And Jor and the president is eating popcorn
Speaker 1:On believable. This is, and this is incredible. The thesis of this podcast that we have been working on from the outset is that Dan Aroy is a key to understanding the 20th century. He is, he is the intersection of all culture. And this is just, and just more evidence in our favor.
Speaker 2:It is
Speaker 1:That George HW Bush was at the premier of my stepmother as an alien. There's no other movie premier that George HW Bush attending would have been funnier. This is the funniest possible movie for George HW Bush to attend the premier of
Speaker 2:It's so weird. And what's, what's what this connects him to even more because I've been doing a lot of reading and listening to podcasts and history about new world orders is that George HW Bush was one of the prominent members of the skull and bone society that a lot of people believe is secretly ruling the world.
Speaker 1:Do you think Dan knows that?
Speaker 2:I don't know, but here's a picture of him at this at the premier of my stepmothers. An alien. So Nathaniel, yes. We're not even to the cones yet. And yet we're you gotta get
Speaker 1:To the
Speaker 2:Cones. Yeah. Dan, Dan is mingling with higher powers here. I mean, he is at the top of, of, of the world. Really? Yeah.
Speaker 1:George HW Bush attending this premier. Of course he was the president elect, but also in 1976, uh, to 77, he was the director of the CIA. So
Speaker 2:We have our Lord Dan socializing. Yeah.
Speaker 1:So anyway, something to think about.
Speaker 2:So now we're gonna award some cones here. Alright. Okay. The first one I have right outta the gate, probably within 30 seconds of meeting, Dan is technical jargon
Speaker 1:Immediately
Speaker 2:And we meet him. He's in his lab. He's just listing off jargon, left and right about satellite being trajectory, things and pressing buttons and gala going off it's just wall to L jargon. And it continues through the whole movie because he is a scientist.
Speaker 1:The one line that I was able to catch was I won't let the K Tron go above 300. Yeah. Who knows what that means? Uh, next cone we have is I'm just gonna get this the most obvious one outta the way UFOs, duh, Kim Baer. She's an alien comes down in the UFO.
Speaker 2:There we go. We got it. The next one I wrote down was my favorite one, cuz I, I just didn't see it coming was appliances. And it was kind of a joke. He's getting ready to get dressed and he has to go some he's, you know, putting on a suit and stuff like this. And he's like, do we have any socks? And then he smiles and he puts his finger up and it hard cuts to the kitchen and, and he opens the stove and he pulls out socks. And he's like, I've been cooking these for a day And he uses the stove to cook his
Speaker 1:Socks or the oven
Speaker 2:You're the oven. Yeah.
Speaker 1:And again, that one like is in particular is great. Cuz he is using an appliance for something that is not for non intended purpose.
Speaker 2:Right? Exactly. Like putting a bass in it or something. Yeah,
Speaker 1:Exactly. Next one. Weird voices slash body horror. We get a weird voice, which is he multiple times. He does an impression of Jimmy Duranti, especially at the climax of the film.
Speaker 17:Hello up there, you um, and super being from some other dimension of planet hit it. Did you ever have the feeling that you wanted to go still had the feeling that you wanted to stay know it was right. Wasn't wrong still, you know, you wouldn't be very
Speaker 2:Long. All right. Uh, next cone, junk food, a lot of junk food in this movie. There's two big ones that stick out to me. The first one is within minutes of meeting his character. It's shortly after he's fired. His daughter says what's for dinner, dad and Dan aro sands up and says, fish sticks, pop tarts are frozen pizza, take your pick. So that's junk food, but then we physically see junk food manifested multiple times in the movie. The best scene is in, in which Kim BAS trying to prepare what she thinks breakfast is where she's taken a diner menu and she's cooked everything on the diner menu. So she's putting out a whole Turkey. She puts out a plate of like 18 double Decker cheeseburgers there. He's got a martini there's like giant pastries and tarts on the camera just pulls out. And it's just Dan and his daughter sitting in front of like dozens and dozens and dozens of plates of junk food. And they're just like, wow, this is a little weird. So lots of junk food.
Speaker 1:Last one of our favorites, one, uh, that was, that appeared throughout the entire film dancing.
Speaker 2:Yes.
Speaker 1:So he dances at John lovet's party when Kimba, ISER first shows up, he dances, um, and is walking through the house scattering like boo boo, boo boo, the morning after, uh, he has sex. And of course when they get married, they get married. Somehow they're able to put together a whole wedding, 24 hours after meeting each other a lot happens in this movie. Like, and it, the movie takes place over the course of like two days and a lot happens, uh, at the wedding. Of course there is a lot of dancing and he's wearing this great, like seventies ruffle tuxedo.
Speaker 2:See it's it's like that powder blue. It's
Speaker 1:Great. This did not earn a cone references to Chicago did not get a cone, but he does
Speaker 2:Mention it
Speaker 1:Mention the state of Illinois.
Speaker 2:What, and what does he say? Do you remember
Speaker 1:Some, something about how, if she asks a question about the radar beam and he says, if we had that much power, we could land the state of Illinois on the moon or something like that.
Speaker 2:Right. So it was an honorary mention, but it doesn't, it doesn't specifically mention, uh, Chicago. So we are only going to count six total cones, which yeah, we're
Speaker 1:Very strict in our cone assignments.
Speaker 2:Yeah. As you, as you all know, so six cones, uh, is what this film has earned and I would recommend it. I think it's a lost comedy. That's not really ever put on any comedy list. It was a lot of fun. It was like a, I would watch it again. Yeah.
Speaker 1:Especially, especially the first 40 minutes has some really great stuff. Um, Dan has moments where he gets to like go off, but Kim BA is really good in this and really funny and gets to do a lot of really great physical, uh, humor, a lot of stick
Speaker 2:She shines through. She's incredible and um, definitely worth watching for her comedy. It's very good. It's very, very good. Yeah. Next week we're gonna watch something really crazy. Something that I've been excited about for years,
Speaker 1:For years since before I,
Speaker 2:Well think about it. We talked about this podcast last year, this
Speaker 1:Really started 2020. Actually we started 21, but we started our Dan Aroy journey in 20, 22 year, almost two years ago. I know because it was shortly after the pandemic started.
Speaker 2:And so this movie that we're watching next week is something that I have been wanting to watch for two years. I've seen it. You have not
Speaker 1:Ghost busters too, which I have never seen. And I, you love it. Uh, and I cannot wait.
Speaker 2:I'm gonna make a crazy prediction that there is gonna be. It's gonna earn another Remy lock medal of honor for
Speaker 1:Two, that would only be our second one.
Speaker 2:I know go Ghostbuster.
Speaker 1:Ghostbusters
Speaker 2:Was the only one that got 10 cones. I'm gonna predict I haven't seen in a while, but I think there's a lot of'em in there. And
Speaker 1:I think the, I think the next one, I, I mean, I would love if nothing, but trouble gets the relock medal of honor, but I, if it doesn't cone has almost certainly will. Oh
Speaker 6:Yeah.
Speaker 4:I wake up in the morning in my room, come away. The curtains wash away the room. You say, I up getting a terrible with my hot
Speaker 18:Wife
Speaker 4:Watching TV and just like me, you need that hot life To live that hot life. I went to a party for the young win with the winner, with the died, but nobody froze to was all hanging around the, with
Speaker 18:Theves or
Speaker 4:Watching
Speaker 18:TVs.