10. The Naked Gun with Ali Plumb
[90 Mins or Less Film Fest Music]
SAM 0:20 Hello, I'm Sam Clements and welcome to the 90 Minutes or Less Film Fest. This is a podcast that celebrates films with a 90 minute or less runtime and is entirely curated by guests on this podcast. Today, we're joined by Ali Plumb, BBC Radio One and 1Xtra film critic, interviewer guy, press conferencer and Q&A host. Ali, I stole that from your Twitter bio.
ALI: 0:44 Sensible.
SAM 0:44 It's a really good Twitter bio.
ALI: 0:46 You're too kind.
SAM 0:47 Welcome to the podcast. Thank you for coming on today.
ALI: 0:49 Oh, an absolute pleasure.
SAM 0:50 You are a, you're a film guy! You work in film, you have to see films for your job.
ALI: 0:55 I'm a filmy man. Yeah, it's difficult to put what I do into words as my Twitter bio proves. Yes, I'm essentially the film geek, in-house film nerd for Radio One, and also it's iPlayer channels and YouTube and Facebook and Twitter and self-facilitating media node stuff. I get it, I do movies for the Beeb. There's basically two of us who work permanently for the Beeb in a sense. It's kind of me, kind of Kermode. It's a weird little job. I absolutely love it. And it does mean that I watch pretty much every movie that comes out every week as long as it's vaguely young. So I'm not necessarily going to be reviewing The Wife, but I am definitely going to be reviewing Battle Angel: Alita.
SAM 1:32 Not a bad lot really! I was going to say you have to watch films a lot for your job. Do you also watch films in your home time? Or is that a bit of a busman's holiday?
ALI: 1:42 There's a little bit of that. The trouble I have is that my better half really likes movies too, right. So I've seen them all already. And she understandably gets a little bit miffed when I'm like, I watched that last week, so you have to work hard to make sure that, you know if she really wants to see a movie I'll see if I can sneak her into a screening I'm going into. Now again, this is just nothing worth moaning about. But it is very specific to my life. But no, I do watch movies at home. I have a massive Blu-ray and DVD collection. I am currently obsessed with steel books, and I've just be en spending way too much money. When you look at what the markup is for a steel book, it's like what am I thinking? But the packaging so pretty! So yeah, I'm way in, way in. For Christmas I got this really nice Rocky steel book, for example. I was over the moon. But yeah, I do watch a lot of movies at home. Some might say too many.
SAM 2:30 It's tricky, I always find that in our home time outside of work, what do I do? How do I spend these free time hours? Is it playing a video game? Is it actually doing something productive? Is it housework? Or should I just watch a movie? But I do like to try and pack them in.
ALI: 2:44 Yeah, I have a tendency lately to watch a lot of TV as a kind of like counterpoint to 'well, it's not movies, I'll watch TV'. And you know the age old thing is that I had friends that I went to Uni with that will regularly say 'I don't want to sit down and watch a movie', my friends all speak like that 'don't watch a movie'. Four hours later, they'll have boshed two seasons of the US Office. And you go what, hang on? The maths doesn't check out on that.
SAM 3:09 There's sort of like a dark magic to that sort of stuff. I mean, I mean, I haven't seen The Wire. I've not seen The West Wing and it's purely because I'm like, no, I'm gonna watch films. But actually I still really want to watch those shows that I could have watched like 10 years ago.
ALI: 3:21 I don't want to be a spoiler here, but they're both very good. That's my hot hot take, hot review, fresh, fresh out of box.
SAM 3:29 So it sounds like film running times could come into your home viewing decisions.
ALI: 3:34 Yes, that's part of my life. Yes, definitely. I would say that often I'm watching movies in the evening, as part of my job. And again, boohoo woe is me. But this is a safe environment, I'm just going to be me. And I want to come home and watch another movie. But you need to wake up at a certain time next morning. So yeah, 90 minute movies are on point. And I regularly rant about this on air that a comedy, like the one we might be talking about today has to be a certain length, it has to hit it and quit it. Like it's not necessarily there to tell a story. It's there to make jokes that make sense within a story. I don't walk out of my favourite comedies going, 'yeah, it was funny, but I really felt like the plot wasn't going anywhere'. No-one cares! Make me laugh, make me feel better about consuming my body weight in a Slurpee. And I get the heck out of there. That's it. A pure comedy, not like a cross genre thing. 90 minutes, is the hotspot,
SAM 4:28 Oh you're saying all the right words.
ALI: 4:31 No, seriously. I mean, aside from the title of your, your podcast being grammatically incorrect, I'm all about it. I'm all about it.
SAM 4:38 We had a conversation about this. And I agree with you, but also for marketing reasons. Doesn't it sound cool?
ALI: 4:44 It does. Also, you could just say you're kind of playing with the fact that 30 Minutes or Less was a movie.
SAM 4:51 That's true.
ALI: 4:51 So you're kind of aping them so that's cool. And I'm into that. So just ignore what I'm saying. Total grammar idiot. Life is too short for long movies. Sometimes.
SAM 5:02 I think I mostly agree with that, especially in the sort of Apatow world of 2 hour and 20 minute long comedies, which don't need to be that long!
ALI: 5:11 That was a period in late 2012/2013. Where I mean, Trainwreck was too long. And I thought that was shorter than most. And yeah, the, can I start teasing what I might be talking about?
SAM 5:24 Please do.
ALI: 5:25 So this is one of my favourite films of all time, I would casually say. And when you asked me also, what would you include in your 90 Minutes or Fewer Film Festival I thought oh, no, I better come up with a good one, something worth talking about something we can really analyze and see what themes can be strung out within 90 minutes. And, you know, what can I find that's dense and interesting and has layers but also is 90 minutes long. And then I saw this film was under 90 minutes, and my face lit up. I haven't watched this in about 2 years. I love watching it. Scenes from this film are a part of my everyday discourse. I will quote lines from this without even meaning to all the time. Some of them might be "move along here, nothing to see here. Move along, nothing to see" I say that quite a lot, next to something that's really, really exciting. Might be a really famous person doing something in the Live Lounge at Radio One or whatever. The song I Love LA is often stuck in my head. And it's only because of this film.
SAM 6:19 On that, what film did you choose for the 90 Minutes or Fewer Film Fest?
ALI: 6:22 So I picked the best film from Zucker, Abrahams and Zucker aka ZAZ team. The best thing they've ever done the original Naked Gun or to give it its full title, The Naked Gun From the Files of Police Squad! exclamation point.
[90 Mins or Less Film Fest Jingle]
SAM 6:42 I've got the back of the DVD here and on the back of the DVD for The Naked Gun. It says an intrepid Los Angeles police lieutenant is determined to foil a plot to assassinate the Queen of England, no matter whose toes he has to step on, even his own. Based on the 1982 series Police Squad. That was quite a brisk synopsis.
ALI: 7:04 Treading on your own toes? Uh, LOL? It really does not communicate how witty and yes stupid this film is with a little weird wordplay on toe stepping, whatever.
SAM 7:15 Also this is the back of the DVD, maybe mention who's in the film?
ALI: 7:19 Yeah, also, the front cover is a man riding a bullet like a surfboard. And on the back, it's like, yeah, he might tread on his own toes. I mean, what?
SAM 7:26 It's bananas. Yeah, I was really surprised. I looked at several versions and listings of this film online and that is the copy. That is the one synopsis everybody goes to.
ALI: 7:35 Interesting. Just for the context of Leslie Nielsen fans, where in his back catalogue is this? Airplane! was before this right?
SAM 7:43 1980 I believe?
ALI: 7:45 So this is a significant chunk of time later, 8 years. Obviously Police Squad came out and beforehand he was known for being a relatively straight, if not the straightest, kind of straight, traditional American Hollywood hero. He had the voice, he had the hairline. Yes, he had now white hair, but he was a good looking well built American man. Then he started doing Airplane! films and it all got wonderfully out of hand. The question about this movie is do you prefer it more or less? When you look at Airplane! like what would you rather sit down and watch?
SAM 8:18 I think because I've watched this film quite recently I've just been reminded of all of the things I really enjoyed watching this film as a kid, I think nostalgia plays into that. So I think I prefer this more although I'm sure if I watch Airplane! I'll be like no, no, Airplane! is the better one. But it's a nice problem to have.
ALI: 8:33 I think it is one of those eternal, 'which is your favourite' conundrums of you know, is it Pulp Fiction? Is it Reservoir Dogs? You know, what are your favourites? And I think this is a tough one. Rewatching this, nostalgia, absolutely. I can remember this film, at least for the first two thirds, just scene by scene. I can think of it, I go there's the bit in Beirut, there's the bit on the boat. You know I can go through it. You know the beaver thing... And rewatching this I think in the first two acts, there's only one scene that doesn't have any jokes in it. And that's when Ricardo Montalban tells Miss Presley essentially says you need to go and spend time with Drebin so that you can find out more about him and there's no joke, no gags at all but everything else is absolutely stuffed like a beaver full of gags and I think even though not all of them necessarily hit now as an adult, as a 9 year old this slayed! I died. It was amazing! I mean, it still is amazing. In the credits, where it's just the rotating siren light. It goes on a roller coaster! Like oh my gosh what is...? It goes into a group of girls having a shower. Ah it's so naughty! It is just value for money. I think gag for gag, maybe it doesn't quite reach the heights of Airplane!. Which, you may not know this, but Kat Brown formerly of the Empire parish, she once for an Empire feature wrote down every single joke from Airplane! and it's more than one a minute. I mean, obviously when you think about it, it is a staggering amount.
SAM 10:13 It's what Zucker Abrahams Zucker do, there's so many jokes going on in the background, and there's like almost too many jokes going on in the background. And that's their style of comedy like, the action is Drebin walking from left to right or whatever, yes, but in the background, there's going to be four different things going on. And you're like, Where do I look?
ALI: 10:31 Yeah, there was a bit of that. Also, they've cast well and and set up gags so well, that when a joke isn't very good, or could be conceivably cornball, the way it's delivered and then reacted to is just on point. Another really good line from this film that when I worked at Empire was a really hot one to say, was "Norberg's only got a 50/50 chance to live, but there's only a 10% chance of that". Right. So that's the line. And so it gets said and they're both very, very straight about it. And then Drebin just turns to him and goes 'Mm?'. Cut. And that's it. And the joke's quite lame. It's kind of clever, kind of not but the way that he just goes 'mm?' . And then it cuts.
SAM 11:14 Leslie Nielsen's reactions are legendary, and like most of the laughs from this film are sort of how he responds to things around him and the fact that he can keep a straight face when everybody else is doing the most ridiculous thing
ALI: 11:27 Because he's the king of the 50s 60s straight laced ham, really down the barrel, this is what I'm reading off the autocue acting, but he is extraordinarily good. When he's beating up Idi Amin in the opening scene. This is an extraordinary film! 1988 was both yesterday and a long time ago when you watch this movie. I mean, there are really some ripe moments. But no I just love rewatching this. So what a great opportunity for you, with you, to rewatch this. I laughed a lot at some really stupid stuff when they start falling in love, Presley and Drebin, it's just hysterical. They're holding hands running through the sea. And because they're so in love, they refuse to let their arms break when another couple starts walking towards them. They clothesline them into the sea and you go, why not, it's a gag. Screw it. I'll be another one in a second. Fantastic.
FILM CLIP from The Naked Gun 12:23
Frank Drebin: Nice Beaver.
Jane: Thank you. I just had it stuffed.
Frank Drebin: Let me help you with that.
ALI: 12:32 What were your thoughts rewatching it now? Yes, there's nostalgia. But did you think this is still funny?
SAM 12:37 Yeah, I mean, absolutely. I love comedy. We watch a lot of sitcoms in our spare time. And, and I do like a comedy film. I think with the 80s ones, I watched them so much as a kid, the big American 80s ones
ALI: 12:48 You're thinking like Hot Shots and stuff?
SAM 12:50 All of the Hot Shots to Bill Murry's, like the SNL sort of alumni type shows. And that's what I grew up watching on videotapes and on TV. And that's how I discovered a lot of these films on TV. I'm excited you've chosen this because I've never seen it in a cinema. And of course, comedy works so well in a cinema with a huge crowd of people laughing along. We watched it with a couple of friends. So there were four of us. And that's probably the most people I've watched this film with. And it was really fun to sort of see how they were reacting to it as well.
ALI: 13:15 Were there groans?
SAM 13:16 We were, we were wondering about this because we were worried a little bit about maybe some of the sexual politics, if any of that stuff would be okay. And I think the film mostly errs on the side of it's okay, because they are, they're really considerate for a lot of the film and the jokes are really funny. There's a few things which now you're a bit like, ooo, but the pacing of the film is such that it moves away from that stuff quite quickly.
ALI: 13:39 It doesn't take anything it does very seriously. Insomuch as we're making a jab at women here. I think it's a bit like Michael Scott in the US Office just to bring that back. Bad things are said and done in an off colour way, but it's very boyish. It's very I don't really know what I'm doing. This is all stupid, I'm stupid, he's stupid. But what's extraordinary is how this movie basically doesn't have any straight people. Even Jamie Presley is relatively, I mean, she is funny, and she says funny things. But it's I suppose the trick is everyone's straight. But also everyone's stupid.
SAM 13:54 They're all doing stupid things, but they're doing it in a very serious way.
ALI: 14:18 Yes.
SAM 14:19 So like, that's why I think Leslie Nielsen is so good at this. He is a proper actor. He's not a comedian who's gone into acting. He's not winking at the camera or trying to make people laugh. It's the fact that he's not trying to make people laugh is what works.
ALI: 14:29 Yes. Although this movie, when you press play on it, it does begin with him looking at the camera a few times, but it's not done in a Jim from The Office type way. It's just okay. But my favourite bit about it is the physical stuff. There's a bit where he is patting down a guest to the Queen's dinner. And they're doing it one..., they're both doing it both the Police Squad guys, and he starts fleecing the other guys pockets and says you brought a gun. And obviously it's the policeman's gun. He's got a picture of your wife in here in his wallet. And that is just old fashioned vaudeville. Classic nonsense. They get away with it. And I think we don't see that in comedy much you're not going to see in Daddy's Home or some kind of big Will Ferrell thing, a traditional mistaken oh, wrong pocket, went through that door should have been that door. That doesn't happen. And it is so refreshing now. I'm thinking obviously about the Laurel and Hardy movie, that came out lately Stan and Ollie, to see that in a more modern setting because it just it isn't done now.
SAM 14:34 No, not at all
ALI: 15:29 I can't think of a modern comedy film, not that many generally, that even tries to do this sort of thing.
SAM 15:34 It feels like that type of comedy that again, one of the things I was thinking about rewatching this is like why don't people make films like this anymore? And I know they sort of tried, they ended up becoming the parody films like the Scary Movies which Zucker directed a couple of, and Leslie Nielsen is in a couple of. And it doesn't work in those films. Why doesn't it work in those films? Is it just that they're not crafted so well, the people in them aren't as good as Nielsen and this cast? Or or is that, I don't know, as audiences, do we just want more from our comedies now?
ALI: 16:01 I think maybe the problem those films had were that horror movies are quite goofy anyway. And obviously there was like Dead and Loving It and a bunch of that stuff. What makes Police Squad work great for me, at least within the movies is that this is a gumshoe story. It is a policeman slash detective story. He does voiceover, he just talks you know, that if they need to fill a gap between one scene to another they just get him in the sound booth and say something in a gumshoe 'and I went to go and see the guy because I needed to find out what was going on over there'. And it was just a detective story, which is inherently serious because it's meant to be, you know, gunfights outside a dog food sausage, hot dog factory or whatever. And that's relatively serious and is a quite funny gold mine of comedy. And then I just don't find the Scary Movie, that stuff serious enough, you know? I find that kind of you're laughing at horror movies anyway, aren't you? When someones head pops off in like a Scream, you know, that's it's kind of funny you know.
SAM 17:06 Scream is also like sort of a comment about horror movie tropes and this is about Scream which is already like a postmodern comedy horror. Like it's a weird thing to parody it's just I guess it's because those films were so popular and but like to do five or whatever Scary Movies...
ALI: 17:15 Do you find when you watch Naked Gun, you're not going ah, this is really good send up of police stories. You go, this is a funny film. I'm not, I don't keep thinking Ah, that's a reference to I don't know, the Black Dahlia. You just go funny guy doing a funny thing. He's sliding across across the table in front of the Queen or whatever.
SAM 17:38 It's like the scales are sort of tipped in probably the right balance here. It's mostly a comedy with detective stuff, tropes, things in it, whereas the other ones are painfully shoehorned references to things and then maybe some jokes around those.
ALI: 17:50 It doesn't have the painful shoehorn and I'm sure there is stuff in here that I'm just not getting I didn't get as a kid like all the Idi Amin stuff. Trust me I didn't get when I was 9. There's no way I did, or the Gorbachev with the birthmark. Wasn't getting any of that and that you know, whatever. But the stuff at the baseball at the end is just brilliant, so good. All of the silly dancing when he's trying... because he in order to just remind you guys listening, in order to work out which one of the people there could be the killer, he has to keep patting down and touching up all the different baseball players and he sneaks in as the back referee, umpire and him finding ways to touch people up is hysterical and then having to give signals to people and he's all like [clap clap slap whistle click click]. It's a fully grown man, who looks a bit like your dad doing silly dances. Funny.
FILM CLIP from The Naked Gun 17:55
Ed: A good cop needlessly cut down and ambushed by some cowardly hoodlum. That's no way for a man to die.
Frank Drebin: You're right Ed, a parachute not opening that's a way to die. Getting caught in the gears of a combine. Having your nuts bit off by a Laplander, that's the way I want to go.
SAM 19:05 What I really liked when researching this film for this pod is like, I loved it, because I grew up watching it and I was like 9 or whatever and people falling over and stuff just made me laugh and I remember that. But at the time, people also loved it, really serious film critics loved it. Roger Ebert gave this a glowing review. And the sort of famous line from his review is that 'you laugh and then you laugh at yourself for laughing'.
ALI: 19:26 That's true.
SAM 19:26 And it's true. You're like, Oh my god, I'm like doubled over just laughing and what a ridiculous thing.
ALI: 19:33 And that's so true. You do laugh at yourself laughing, so absolutely spot on.
SAM 19:38 It's nice that even quite serious film critics can sort of come out and like that's just pure comedy. Just and that's funny. And, and it did sort of make me feel like I missed this type of film. Because you're right, you mentioned earlier, it's usually a comedy drama now and there's an emotional third act. And can't we just have like less than 90 minutes of balls to the wall comedy, just make me laugh?
ALI: 19:58 Do you worry that this will get remade? And if so, if it does happen in the kind of National Lampoon type way, who would you be willing to let be Frank Drebin? Because I have a hot suggestion that I thinks gonna blow your head off
SAM 20:09 I'm really interested in your hot suggestion. I did sort of read that they were talking about first of all doing a sequel, like it would be a canonical sequel or whatever. And they had Ed Helms in the picture for that. But he has, of course, done the National Lampoon thing.
ALI: 20:24 He is the guy that people would suggest, I can see that.
SAM 20:27 But I think, Nielsen's older in this Drebin's an older guy, so I think you want someone a bit more age appropriate. It's only because I'm binging The Office right now, but Steve Carell can do this.
ALI: 20:37 Yes, he can. And he did it in Get Smart. That's the problem
SAM 20:40 That's true. That is true.
ALI: 20:42 Again, he's more, even more boyish than Drebin in that. I mean, it's the same story as Spy, which is, oh, I'm the office guy, and here I am, you know, I know a bit of what's going on but I don't really. My suggestion, thinking of Spy and go with me here. This will be taking the mick out of hyper masculine, taking the mick out of Fast and Furious films, that sort of thing. And I think, in fact, if I were to suggest this, I would want it to be more of an obvious Fast and Furious mickey take is Jason Statham. Because he can do like Leslie Nielsen, the absurdly straight, 'I am action man, I will punch you in the face you big shark'. You can do that, obviously. But if you see him in Spy, the way he does all those lines of I'm gonna rip my arm off and hit you on the head with it, then I'm gonna plug it back in. You know, I parachute out of a, you know, volcanoes, stuff like that. That feels to me like the best new Drebin we could do. You couldn't call him that character. He'd have to be like his second cousin twice removed three times removed, I don't know. But he strikes me, as a Statham obsessive, as someone who could do the super straight and the funny at the same time. And I cannot think of many other people that can really do that justice. I don't want to hear stupid suggestions like, oh, he was in a comedy film, so why not Bradley Cooper? You know, you need to have that genre tone.
SAM 22:02 And he brings a lot of that with him as well from his previous roles, and that's great. You know, he can send himself up. And he's got all of that stuff behind him. He doesn't need to do it in this film. The audience just be like, yes, okay, Stath. I'm expecting something then he can just blow their minds when he does Drebin.
ALI: 22:16 And he can be so funny, he can be. I think The Rock is too winky. I think he's too knowing whereas Jason Statham does take himself a little seriously. That's my hot pitch. It will probably happen. Naked Gun 44 and forth.
SAM 22:29 It feels like, it feels like the way nostalgia is so popular in Hollywood, it's like the most valuable currency. And yeah, I think you're right. I'm sure, I think the original you know, producers are rumored to be working on something.
ALI: 22:43 Comedies are just so risky generally. And particularly as we do live in 2019, and for good or ill, people are more scared of making those risks. We've talked about how this movie doesn't age particularly well on certain instances. They'd have to go really long on the silly, and they couldn't have a scene where you burst into a woman's hotel room with a concrete dildo and scream at them. Or maybe you could I don't know, it works within the context of the movie. If you haven't rewatched The Naked Gun lately that will sound very scary.
FILM CLIP from The Naked Gun 23:15
Frank Drebin: It's the same old story. Boy finds girl, boy loses girl, girl finds boy, boy forgets girl, boy remembers girl, girl dies in a tragic blimp accident over the Orange Bowl on New Year's Day.
Jane: Goodyear?
Frank Drebin: No the worst.
ALI: 23:32 What other bits from this movie that really make you think, that really make you laugh when you look back on it? Do you like the samurai pen fish sequence?
SAM 23:40 That's sort of what when I was talking earlier about how there's jokes going on in the background. Like that's probably like the best example of that. When it's such a ridiculous... I just it's such a ridiculous situation to be in. It's also quite tense. Like you feel, you know, like he's in the presence of someone quite dangerous.
ALI: 23:57 They cast Ricardo Montalban very well.
SAM 24:00 I like that the whole cast is full of you know, these people who don't really come from a comedy background. They're just actors, character actors acting in this most ridiculous thing but I just love anytime that there is something or four things going on in the background. And it's especially good if Drebin doesn't notice it. Like when he gets out of the car early on in the film, and the car rolls off and he doesn't realize it's his own car.
ALI: 24:26 And it turns you know, the airbag starts...
SAM 24:28 Who's driving?
ALI: 24:29 ...giving the car life. Did anyone catch the number plate?
SAM 24:32 Yeah! Again, simple joke but it's just the way he plays and the way he reacts to that. I guess it's all on Nielsen really like put him in a situation and see how ridiculous it can get. And he still manages to sell it.
ALI: 24:47 Yes.
SAM 24:47 It's such a fun exercise for this movie.
ALI: 24:49 It is. I think the stuff they must have suggested and said No, that's too silly would be the things I want to ask the Zuckers, would be like, what didn't make the cut? What was like no no no that's too much or that's not funny enough or not silly enough? or How did you find that perfect balance. I really like the scene where everything catches on fire when he goes and breaks into someone's house, into the bad guys house and then sets off his automated piano system and then breaks every Ming vase he has and then he manages to save the painting from being caught up in the flames and then spikes it on a giant pot plant. It's, again, when you describe this movie out loud you go is that funny? Really? Sure it's funny Ali?
SAM 25:28 I think a lot of it as well as the fact that it's in a time before CGI and green screen and actually all of that stuff. There is a room full of Ming vases and there are these giant shelves that all fall over and when they're shooting in LA and they're actually shooting in LA on the streets or outside of town in a desert and and I just liked that you actually, it's made like a real detective movie. It's not like oh put some cheap green screen on and we'll do this.
ALI: 25:52 We'll use cheap paper mache but we won't use this green screen. Yeah, that bit with the Ming vases. He catches one he catches another they would have to have done that many times to get one continuous shot him go grab, grab, grab, grab, grab, grab, grab, grab, grab then the whole thing falls over anyway. You can't really fake that. But you can think right now somebody would have gone 'could we not just CGI that? That seems like it would take a long time to shoot'.
[90 Mins or Less Film Fest Jingle]
SAM 26:21 There we have it. The Naked Gun is in the 90 Minutes or Less Film Fest.
ALI: 26:25 It is genuinely one of the best big screen comedies I could think of, off the top of my head slam dunk gonna make everyone happy. Great movie. And the fact that it's 90 minutes fully lends itself to why it's funny. Doesn't outstay it's welcome as I'm sure people say on this podcast a lot, and it is condensed and taught and just ticks along really nicely. You laugh, you get out of there. I just really love this movie. But you're about to ask me if this were in the film festival how would I set up?
SAM 26:54 Absolutely.
ALI: 26:56 Given what I've said about things being overdone and too many trappings and you know, would you really want to walk through, I don't know the science lab where they come up with the exploding cufflinks and whatever. You could go secret cinema on this, you could, there is fun to be had. But I think honestly this is a film that requires a lot of very sweet popcorn, lots of Coca Cola, other soft drinks are available, and just a big shouty cinema. You want it to be in like kind of a Peckhamplex. If you guys know that, which is a very kind of like paper-thin wall shouty cinema, you want that because you want people, you want to not catch every joke because people are laughing too hard. And so I would just keep it cheap and cheerful.
SAM 27:37 Do you think the audience would be people like us who grew up watching the film? Or do you think like this film has the power to get a new audience in who maybe haven't seen it before or really seen any of the Zucker Abrahams Zucker movies?
ALI: 27:48 I think this one and Airplane! would still have the sheer silliness factor to pull people through. And I think almost there'd be a cute factor of 'oh was it really like that back then?' No I think this is got it, I could definitely see a 10 year old, 11 year old chuckling away at you know, all the nonsense.
SAM 28:08 You don't have to do this but some people like to invite a special guest when they put their film on at the festival. If you could invite anyone to the screening who would it be?
ALI: 28:18 I suppose it would be ZAZ or the Zuckers, any available. I know some podcasts are really good at this, like the Q&A with Jeff Goldsmith managed to unearth some amazing people. Like they got the two writers of Die Hard to meet each other for the third time and really talk it out. I would like that for this movie. I would I know there's an element of don't unpick comedy really, as we've discussed before, but screw it. I think they would have good moments, 'oh you wouldn't believe how difficult it was to shoot that firework scene, to get that shot', whatever. It's the second movie that has the triple slap, isn't it? Or is this this film? They're on a date, I think it is second film, they're on a date. And she tries to slap him he catches her hand, she tries to slap him with the other hand, catches her hand and then a hand comes out from under the table and slaps him anyway. And he looks at the hand and looks back at the camera. And I want to know how annoying that was to shoot. So I would like ZAZ to be there if they'd be willing.
SAM 29:15 I think to go into the real detail.
ALI: 29:17 Obviously, this is a post screening Q&A, this is not one of those annoying, awful, 'yes, so the movie's great. Can't really talk about it. You know, it's great. Oh, yeah. No, it's great. It was great. Oh, yeah. Yeah, it's great. Okay, good. Any questions? No. Okay, bye.' This has to be a proper...
SAM 29:32 An hour long.
ALI: 29:33 Yeah. 45 to an hour, almost as long as the movie discussion about how they made the movie.
SAM 29:37 And on run times, do you think this film could or should be longer than 90 minutes?
ALI: 29:42 No. Very easy. No, I don't think there's anything in this where I was like, Oh, I would like more from that. There are gags that I love a lot, but there's a reason why they've kept them that short. So I don't think there's any reason to extend anything.
[90 Mins or Less Outro Bed]
SAM 29:58 Thank you so much Ali for coming by and talking about this movie and also making me and producer Louise rewatch it we had a blast.
ALI: 30:05 I'm so glad. That makes me so happy and I'm so for monopolizing this whole interview slash podcast. I've got so much to say about it, and mainly it's going 'huh huh that bit was funny wasn't it?'.
SAM 30:14 We want to know, the point of this podcast is to know what you chose and why you chose it. And I think you made a very compelling case.
ALI: 30:20 The other movies I'd hoped were 90, but I kind of can tell aren't are the Hot Shots Part One and Two, which definitely would be in this category for me. And if you like this, obviously there's Airplane!, there was a hot, hot pockets of movies like this around late 80s, early 90s. There was a bit of Jim Carrey in the late 90s with Liar Liar and stuff like that. But nothing really captured what this was.
SAM 30:44 No, it didn't. People tried to make this film in the 90s. And some did well, some did bad. But I think in the noughties, it just went away just went away. It's disappeared. Ali, If people want to hear more of your voice and follow you on the Internet, where should they go?
ALI: 30:58 If you follow people on the Internet, why don't you try following me on Twitter @aliplumb. My whole life is telling people yes with a B. I'm on Twitter. I'm on Instagram with same addy and yeah, Facebook too. But I've also got a podcast, which is called Radio One's Screen Time. You can find it on BBC Sounds. You can also find it on any other podcast provider. And it's essentially me and my friend Ace at 1Xtra talking about the week's news. And then every Sunday, we have a big interview as well. So yeah, there you go, that's what I do.
SAM 31:30 Something you do on Instagram, which I really enjoy is your felt tip pen review.
ALI: 31:34 Yes, that is really acknowledging the fact that no one cares about your thoughts on mise-en-scene. Is How to Train Your Dragon Three, good. Give me four reasons why it's good, couple of reasons why it's not perfect, star rating, who's in it, who directs it? Importantly, how long is it and then scribble that down and then that's pretty much all anyone needs. Though my voice is kind of irrelevant there. I work for the radio and most of my stuff is written down.
SAM 32:01 So thank you, Ali, and thank you for listening to this episode of the 90 Minutes or Less Film Festival. If you liked what you heard, you can rate us on iTunes or your podcast app of choice. Give us give us a like give us a review. Maybe subscribe. It's up to you. We are also on Instagram and Twitter @90minfilmfest. The show is produced by Louise Owen and me Sam Clements. Our music is by Martin Austwick. The show is edited by Luke Smith and our artwork is by Sam Gilbey. We'll be back in a couple of weeks. Goodbye!