#35. Hustlers, Briefcases, and Endless Trailers
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Hustlers splits the panel badly, and JVL leads by doing the Gene review himself since nobody else would — an innuendo-laden four-star rave calling it "an epic tale of greed, capitalism, and the financial crisis of 2008," complete with a Club International gag that Vic helpfully glosses as "the Dead Tree version of Brazzers." JVL isn't kidding about loving it: he calls Jennifer Lopez's Ramona the most interesting screen thief since Neil in Heat, praises the film for explaining its criminals without absolving them and for neither glamorizing nor condescending to the life, and argues it's the best movie yet made about 2008, better than The Big Short, because it traces the ripple effects outward; his favorite bit of pure showing-not-telling is guessing from Julia Stiles's bearing alone that her reporter character went to Brown before she says it, and the baby-shower scene where equal money still leaves the class divide intact. Vic goes A-plus-plus-plus and one of the year's best, describing it as "Lady Goodfellas" — great while times are good, then one bit of sloppiness and everyone rats everyone out — while praising the score, the Peter Pan and martini pole tricks, and Frank Whaley as the worst of the rich marks. Sonny, who barely gets a word in, dissents flatly: "Lady Wolf of Wall Street," visually uninteresting, choppy and slapped together, with characters he neither likes nor dislikes, and a Constance Wu arc that never explains how she got from stripper to the woman with the nice apartment and the classy outfits. JVL counters that Sonny's politics are the real obstacle, then delivers an aria on WeWork's Adam Neumann selling the company he founded the trademark "We" for $5.9 million: "What is a scandal is not what is illegal. What is a scandal is what is legal." Around the review, Sonny walks through his roughly $400 Saddleback Leather Gladstone briefcase (company motto: "they'll fight over it when you're dead"), Vic reports on a Pittsburgh trip and a Primanti Brothers sandwich with the fries inside it plus a burst pipe now requiring his kitchen counter to be torn out, and the two rant about 25 minutes of trailers before showtime, the 21 Bridges and Terminator: Dark Fate spots they've each seen fifty times, and the parents who brought a six-year-old and a nine-year-old to a 9:45 p.m. screening of a movie set in a strip club.
From the show notes
#cdata-section -------------- In this latest episode sponsored by DoorDash, we discuss the amazing Hustlers . Or at least Vic and JVL though...
Full transcript
JVL00:00:00I don't want to be dependent on anybody. I just want to be able to take care of my grandma, maybe go shopping every once in a while.
Guest00:00:07These Wall Street guys. You want them drunk enough to get their credit card, but sober enough to sign a check.
Vic00:00:26Hello and welcome to another edition of the Sub-Beacon sponsored by DoorDash. I'm Victor Matus along with Sonny Bunch and Jonathan V. Last. Just a reminder, the Sub-Beacon is available on iTunes, Google Play, and Stitcher. Look at our podcast, search for Sub-Beacon. You'll easily find us. Please subscribe, tell your friends, and leave a review. Gentlemen, how are we? JVL,
JVL00:00:46what's going on? Oh, just, you know, my life is, as always, a cavalcade of wonders. Oh, really? It's like otters playing. With baby polar bears while unicorns watch on. How are you guys? That bad, huh? That bad. Okay. What's going on, Santino? Wow, he takes a pass. Sonny. Shoes? What shoes are you wearing? Is that
Sonny00:01:09a new briefcase? I've had this briefcase for several months now. That leather looks incredibly
Vic00:01:17supple. It is. It's a very nice leather. But does it have sort of a firmness to it too? A body?
Sonny00:01:24Yeah. So it's actually strong. It's structured so it has this little mechanism so it like opens at the top and stays. Like a fish mouth. Stays flat. It looks like it. I can't remember exactly. There's like a name for it. I
Vic00:01:36don't know what it is. So it's an actual shape. I mean, it's leather, but it's not like a satchel per se, but it's also not one of the hard briefcases. Is it a saddleback leather? Oh,
JVL00:01:44yes, it certainly is. It's saddleback leather. Wow. That is 100%. Is it really? How much did you pay for that? That must have been insane. Well, you know, movie money. It was not cheap.
Sonny00:01:56But I also got it on sale on Amazon. So it was like cheaper on Amazon. Plus I get 5% because I have my Amazon visa. Give me a number. I can't remember exactly what it was, but it was like it was in the 300 range. Oh my goodness. That is cheap. No, actually it was. I'm sorry. It was in the 400 range. It was in the 400 range. That still is a sale price for it. You know what the
JVL00:02:20saddleback leather company motto is? What's that? They'll fight over it when you're dead. Yes,
Sonny00:02:25that's right. Hold on. Let me see. That's a good line. That's a good line. What is it? What is the thing called here? It's a Gladstone. Gladstone mechanism is what that is. Gladstone mechanism. Look at that
JVL00:02:34thing. Is there a zipper too or no? No, no zipper. My wallet, which is not a wallet. It's just a
Vic00:02:41credit card sleeve because I don't carry wallets anymore. It stretches. It fits about four credit
JVL00:02:47cards in it. And this way I don't have that wall, a bulky wallet in my, and this is saddleback
Sonny00:02:51leather. And this was like a hundred dollars. Yeah. It's not cheap. It's not cheap, but it's worth it because they'll fight over it when you're dead. Yep. It's got a sponsored by next week. It's got a 100, it's got a 100 year warranty on it. That's good. You know, I'm going to pass
Vic00:03:06that on to a certain listeners because I have a, my problem with briefcases, I'm always over stuffing it. Right. And then eventually over time, like the, um, the strap might break, it comes off. So my wife said to me a couple of Christmases ago, I know you have a problem with the strap. So I got you a briefcase that it's like, there's like these little bolts. So it doesn't come off. And it's a wonderful thing. And it's true. And it's, it's the nicest purse I've ever, I've ever used. It's a, it's a handbag, right? It's Dooney and Burke. And it is, right. It's it. Yeah. And, and in fact, there's like the extra little, you know, the strap and you know, next thing you know, I'm holding it like a purse. I put it where, where my, you know, at my elbow and just holding it around, but there's no body. So I could fit a lot of things, but it now no longer has the body of a briefcase. It's, it's, it's a bag. It's like a knapsack. Yeah. Yeah. It's a bag. Yeah. No,
Sonny00:03:56the big bag, this, this saddleback again, it's expensive. It's not cheap. Uh, but it's a good value, but it, but it is a very good bag and it will last you forever. And, uh, this is actually my second. I have one at home that I'm going to sell. So the other one didn't sell it forever. Did it? No, it just, it wasn't, it was the wrong size. It was, and it was, it was not quite big enough. And this one, again, this one has a feet. This one is designed. So it will stand up. Uh, it won't, it's not like a, it's not like a, um, uh, you know, like a messenger bag, which is what the other one more or less was. It was, it was like a messenger bag and it would kind of lean over and fall, but this one will just like sit there and I can put things in and out. It does. I have disconnected the shoulder strap for now. Cause I I'm carrying it like a briefcase, but it does have a shoulder, does have a shoulder strap. So you know what, you know, I could talk bags for
Vic00:04:41hours. Well, you know, our, our, our friend, Chris Caldwell, do you remember what he ended up resorting to? Uh, which is no longer the briefcase, but a, uh, uh, like the, the luggage with the, uh, the rack, the wire, the wire, like the old ladies in New York shopping with the wire. But it looks like, it looks like basically a carry on for your plane where you have the thing you pull out and then it's a car. You just use that all the time. Yeah. And he dragged all his books. He's got books in there. So, I mean, some people have, no, that's the
Sonny00:05:06thing. I can't do that. If you have, if you have a ton of books, if you're carrying around books all day, it's like, it gets heavy. And, and those bags, rollers, he's got rollers. So before, before I bought my first saddlebag bag, I had another leather briefcase, uh, messenger bag type bag that broke just like they, they did not fight over that when you just snapped, just snapped at the, at the, at the joint. Uh, and I, I returned it and I got another one. And that second one also just snapped at the joint like two months later. So I was like, okay, well I need to get like a real heavy duty because I carry around a lot of, I do carry around a lot of books.
JVL00:05:39Vic, I have a question. You weren't kidding. You really, you really do get into this. Do you carry around a lot of books, Vic? I do, but I never get a chance to open the books. You don't read them.
Vic00:05:48I don't know, but I'm carrying them around. I've been carrying around the same books for like the last year. May I, may I make a suggestion? Your struggle, if you will. What if,
JVL00:05:56what if, wow, wow. What if we were to get you some home fill books? Home fill books? Yeah. Like at Model Home. With the, they're just the exterior leather covers, but they're actually light. And this
Vic00:06:08way you could carry them around and carry your books, but since you're not reading them anyway. Right, exactly. You wouldn't strain. Oh my gosh. All six volumes of Plutarch, you know. I don't know if it's six volumes. This way anybody who happens to look into your bag is like, lives, lives, something else. That's right. Now that would be a like for the bookshelf and stuff and just people, and it's all connected. It's all stuck together.
JVL00:06:30Yeah, they all stuck together. Yeah, yeah. You know, who did we know who used to, who, Fred Barnes told us about some rich friend of his buying books by the yard.
Sonny00:06:39Just for film. So he had built a giant home with a library.
JVL00:06:44And he went to a used bookstore and he said, they said, how may we help you, sir? And he was like, I need 72 linear feet of books. And they were like, what? Yeah. He said,
Vic00:06:56yeah, I just, I got a library. I want to build books by, yeah, books by that volume.
Sonny00:07:00Capitalism works. This is why, this is why when I do win the Powerball eventually, when my strategy works finally, and I hit all the numbers, I am just going to buy the like Harvard ancient Greek and Roman. Harvard Loeb series? The Harvard Loeb series. And just, and just, and put that throughout an entire room of the mansion that I buy.
Vic00:07:22Be like, look at all of my knowledge. I want to read about Catullus. Uh, so, uh, when I went to a, uh, Creighton Barrel, this is, uh, years ago in the one in Arlington, the one in Clarendon. And we were looking at, it's like for, this is a long time ago. We're just looking at furniture and stuff in bookshelves, whatever. And I was just, we're going around that second floor and I look at, you know, cause they always have books on the bookshelves. And I found our, I found a book. Terry Eastland's book was on the bookshelf at
JVL00:07:47Creighton Barrel. Yeah, there you go. Yeah. What was it? The executive? Yes. Energy of the executive. It was that book. Look at that. That's funny. Deep pull. It was signed. It was signed to Bill Crystal. Joe Epstein wrote a piece about that. Yeah. About being in a bookstore and finding a book that he had signed. And it was like to a friend that, yeah, that
Vic00:08:07he was like, that, that, that, that's bad. Okay. So, um, I had a wonderful weekend. If my first time in Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh's great. I, it is. Everybody says it. Nobody's 90% less homeless and, uh, and, and given time, much fewer people, the window that's because the winters are harder and fewer people using the streets as bathrooms. It's really nice. Uh, so I went there to give a talk for the college kids, this collegiate network thing, collegiate network, collegiate network. And, uh, while I was there, I would say the highlight of the trip was, uh, before I left, I had lunch with two sub beacon listener friends of ours. Hey, Jason McKenna. Oh, and Tonya. Jason. No, no. It was just Jason because the Tonya that he was doing CCD stuff and Adam, no 80 Lewis, Adam Novak. Hey, all right. Two of them met me at Primanti brothers, which is a Pittsburgh sandwich shop sandwich shop. There are a couple of chains, some as far as like Western Maryland, I think, but mostly Pennsylvania and mostly the heart of it is
Sonny00:09:14Pittsburgh. Did you get a salad with French fries? That's what I got. No. Uh, but the
Vic00:09:18French fries thing is interesting. So they love in Pittsburgh, they put, you know, French fries and like all their sandwiches. And so that was like one of the classic, I got a classic Primanti sandwich called the Pittsburgh. And it's like a hamburger, but they, but it's unlike soft white bread. No, but I'll tell you what Jason got a sandwich that had like, you could order like double egg, like get eggs on top. I was a little nervous, so I just want, cause I'm getting on a plane. Uh, so I want to get just the basic, you know, and there was those small, but you know, those, those, those American eat, you know, those American shuttles, the shuttles, not good, not good for that. The embryo, not good for me. And so, um, so you flew. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Why would you fly? Because I'm
Sonny00:10:01not paying for it. Okay. No, but it takes more time. No, not at all. It doesn't take more time, but it probably doesn't take that much less time. No, no, no, no, no. It was
Vic00:10:10like an hour on Pittsburgh. It was like, right. I know that's the main thing. That's your
JVL00:10:15main thing. And there was turbulence. Uber to Reagan, security lines, flight time, Uber
Vic00:10:20to wherever you're going. From the office took me 15 minutes to get to the airport. Out of the gate, hung out, read copy while I was waiting to get on the plane. No delays. Got on the plane. It was about an hour. You're back down. And then, uh, take that to the
Sonny00:10:34hotel. You know, I don't want to be a four hour drive from here. Oh, Pittsburgh. Yeah.
Vic00:10:37No. So less. Uh, but, uh, back to the Permani brothers, Pittsburgh sandwich. So it's like soft white bread. So it's not a bun. It's soft white bread. And mine had a hamburger, uh, and coleslaw, which is interesting, but it's more vinegar based than creamy and French fries and a tomato. Uh, and I, I got the classic. I didn't get French fries are on the sandwich inside the sandwich. They're inside the sandwich. Uh, and cause the bun isn't enough carbs. That's
Sonny00:11:07that's right. And, but it's good because then you feel like, Oh, I didn't need a side. Oh, I just got the sandwich, which is really great. And, but, but they have, are they like steak fries or are they like, no, no, no, no, no. In between like the normal, a little bit bigger
Vic00:11:20than the McDonald's size, you know, sort of that medium sized fry. Right. Uh, not crinkle
Sonny00:11:25cut.
Vic00:11:26No, not crinkle cut. Although that I like, I like those two crinkle cut is the most underrated fry. Sorry. I love crinkle cut. They have that at Shake Shack. So anyways, uh, but I just got the classic and cause I was scared next time I'm going to get double meat and they have the strummy, the strummy and cheese, which is like their top other number Pittsburgh is number two. And the other one I said they have that I saw there is Capicola, uh, and cheese. I said to Adam, I said, do they say Capicola here? If I order and he goes, this is a Jersey. So the Capicola really? Oh, that's so weird. But I over, I, I over prepared cause I went running the day I was going to get ready for this big sandwich and actually it was quite manageable. However, I also got an appetizer, uh, of mozzarella, not sticks, but wedges. So they're like the triangles that look like when you're in high school and you can in grade school, you can fry them, but fry. And it was so good with a little marinara sauce. Now I have a question, were they breaded? Yes. It was delicious. It was a mozzarella wedge breaded. So it's deep.
Sonny00:12:21So it's a mozzarella stick just in a different shape of a triangle. I have a question. I
Vic00:12:25took the mozzarella wedge, I dipped it in the marinara, ate it, and then I switched corners and then did the other corner. Does that count as double dipping or no? Would
Sonny00:12:37you not allow that? Well, did you use the, did you use the corner where your finger was holding it? Eventually. Did you dip that in the eventually? I mean, cause there's three corners, three corners. That's like sticking your finger in the thing. Or is it like licking the thing? No, that's not. Was it a shared? Was it a shared?
Vic00:12:55Yeah, with me and Jason and, and, and, and, and Adam and, and, and then, and then I, for whatever reason I ate most of it, they let me eat most of it. And then like, no, you
Sonny00:13:05can have it now. It's not as bad as, it's not as bad as jamming it in your mouth and then you put it, you put that section in, but it's still pretty bad. You know, you know
JVL00:13:15what guys? What JVL? I think that all of the double dip rules basically break down at the level of family, right? Nobody worries about double dipping when it's just you and your kids, right? That's what Jason said. He goes, go for it. And with our, with our listeners, our audience is like our family.
Vic00:13:32It's like family. And as I told Jason, I said, that sucks for them. As I said, as I said to them, I said, you don't mind if I do that. I'm just going to put the tip in. I said, just the tip. Just the tip. Just the tip. Okay.
Sonny00:13:42Wait, wait, wait, wait. You can't stop there because you, you texted us emergency. Oh, wait, what did I say? What happened? Your, your house exploded.
JVL00:13:51Oh yeah. The water, the water in your house. That's a terrible story.
Vic00:13:54The water in your house exploded. We have a pipe, you know, our house is like 1939, 1940. So in many ways it's very solid because it's pre-war. The bricks are bigger. Everything is very solid before, before they had to make all those cutbacks and everything until for many years later. But we started seeing water marks on the ceiling in the basement and. When? I don't know, a month ago. Oh, okay. And I said, well, we were pretty sure it's coming from the outside. We said, it's got to be coming from the outside. That doesn't make it much better? So we're working on it. So we brought in these people from the outside who had all these different things about the roof. My wife can explain the details because she handles this and there's terminology about the roof that I don't know about, but the covering, the pipes and things where it drains out and then all this thing is broken. So we need to fix it and minimize it. And yet we thought it was fixed and then you'd see other marks. And then I went away to Pittsburgh and when I came back, my father-in-law, they were the in-laws were watching the house and the kids because my wife was on travel to a much larger stain that had spread. And now it's clearly like it's coming from inside the house inside the house, you know? And so, yes. And so it was clearly somewhere between the kitchen sink and the dishwasher. And then and then my father was like, and if you look here, it's it's now soft. It's soft. You know, that's always bad. At which point then we called a plumber. And then I came home one day and they had two large gaping holes and they said, yes, it's definitely a broken pipe, but I can't get into it because it's behind the kitchen counter. You're going to have to get a carpenter to rip the counter out in order that we can replace this particular pipe. And that's where we are.
JVL00:15:43So you're remodeling your kitchen, something like that. It's the only answer is just remodel
Vic00:15:48the whole kitchen and Kate's like, but I love the old cabinets. I just want it to be restored to the way it was. Okay. Anyway, moving right along. I did want to say, um, I don't know you, you, have you been to Pittsburgh, Sonny?
Sonny00:15:58I have. Yeah, I have been to Pittsburgh. I went to a, I went to a wedding at the Andy Warhol museum, which was, which was a lot of fun.
Vic00:16:05Didn't get a chance to go out that might just went out to a couple of restaurants walking around the block, but it does definitely have, um, an Eastern European feel to it. It's still very ethnic. You know what I mean? There's like a huge Polish population and like it's like even on the street, I'm bumping into polls and speaking of bumping into polls over the weekend, hustlers. Hustlers came in second place with 33 million behind it. Chapter two, which remained at the top of the box office with 39.6 million. And in third place, angel has fallen with about four and a half million, um, box office thoughts, Sonny, you're, you're, you're racking your head here. I have none. Oh, you have none. I went to see hustlers yesterday and you know what the movie was. It's at four o'clock. I left my office at four 10. I got to the theater at courthouse and it was just about to start. Why is 4:22, 4:25,
JVL00:17:034:25, 25 minutes of previews. Basically my, my AMC, it's a 22 minute preview window and
Vic00:17:10you can set your watch by it. Yes. What is going on? It used to be when we were kids, JVL, you go to movie. How many, how many trailers maybe three, four, four or five. Okay. What's
Sonny00:17:20going on here? I mean, I, what's going on is they, this, the studio's want, uh, this captive audience to have to watch their, you know, their, their dumb previews. It's interesting. I mean, look here. So the, the, the whole, uh, there, there was a piece in the Hollywood reporter, uh, suggesting that audiences are, audiences are getting tired of longer movies, which is just nonsense from start to finish. I mean, the, the highest grossing movie of all time came out this year and it was three hours long. Um, uh, lots of, there are lots and lots of movies that are. The dirt, the dirt was three hours long? Yeah, exactly. Uh, so the, it's not that audiences are tiring of long movies, but I do think audiences are tiring of having to be in the theaters for an extra 20 or 30 minutes longer than they used to be. And, um, you know, in theory, this problem should have in theory. So you, when you go to a movie theater, right, there's the 20 or new V or whatever, right? That, that like ad package that plays, excuse me. That ad package that plays before the, uh, before the trailer for the trailer for the people who show up at the movie theater 30 minutes early to have to get the good seats. No, no, but see, all right. So once upon a time that made sense. Once upon a time that made sense that people would go to the theaters and they would, they would, they would want to get dead center in the stadium seating. And so, so you have, you have something, you have something to entertain those people. But now that all of the theaters, essentially all of the theaters have transferred to a a, a, an assigned seating system, you don't need that extra 20 minutes of prep time. Now you still need some time to clear out the last theater, uh, and, uh, the last audience and like get in prep for the next one. Although I don't think these theaters are doing a lot of cleaning and prepping in between shows at this point, you know, I'm just going to throw that out there. Uh, but, but so you have like, you have like, you have the 20 minute person who sat in my seat. You got the 20 minute ad package. You got, uh, 25 minutes of preview. So there's 45 minutes. There's basically a 45 minute gap between, uh, the end of one movie in the beginning of another, right? Now all of these theaters are complaining about these long movies. They can't get enough show times and blah, blah, blah. If you cut out that 45 minutes between, uh, between showings or at least cut it in half, cut it down to 20 minutes or so, you could easily jam in another screening, another showing per screen every day. All right. Now look, there are, there are financial things here, right? Like I'm sure AMC and Regal and whatever get money from whatever company it is that makes new V and you know, the 20 whatever. Uh, and I'm sure the studios, the studios I think pay some sort of a premium to have the trailer shown. So like there's, there's a financial balance to, to hit here, but I would gladly pay an extra dollar a ticket to not have to sit through 25 minutes of previews after the start time. But you, okay. So first of all, you don't have
JVL00:20:25to sit through them. Now we know now that you know how long it is and that there's a signed seating, right? You just adjust your show up time. We now essentially get to see as many previews as we want because we just show up. If you want to see all the previews, you show up on time. And if you want to wait, you show up at, I'm also tired of seeing the
Sonny00:20:41same. I'm also tired of seeing the same previews over and over again. That's not a lot of movies. This is another problem. I've seen, that's not true. You know what I saw? You know what I saw recently? I've seen the 21 bridges trailer 700 times. That's bad. Tired. You know what
Vic00:20:53I just saw? I saw, I saw the one for dark Phoenix.
JVL00:20:55Again. So what if they got rid of new V and the 20 and replaced it with elevator news? Just elevator. I love elevator. That's how I run my educated. That would actually happen.
Sonny00:21:09People would be happy. That's how I run my office. You don't need anything. I don't know. I'm so anyway, I, this is one of my ongoing frustrations is too many, too many previews. We need, do you remember what a big deal it was when you were able to, for the first time see movie previews
JVL00:21:25on your computer? Oh yeah, I do. I do because. Oh my gosh. You know what I remember? Quick time will now play. Quick time. Quick time plays a movie. You can see video of the, and so all of a sudden this trailer for this new, this Fellowship of the Ring. They're actually doing Lord of the Rings and you could not have to go to a movie theater to see it. And how big was it on the screen, right? It was crazy. Or not have to go, look, you and I literally bought tickets to meet Joe Black so we could see a trailer for the first Star Wars prequel. No, that's not true, listeners.
Vic00:21:55I went to see Meet Joe Black for Meet Joe Black. I didn't go there to see the trailer at the end.
Sonny00:22:00And that's coming, that's actually coming back kind of. The new Christopher Nolan movie Tenet, they only showed the trailer in front of IMAX showings of Hobbs and Shaw.
JVL00:22:09Ooh. I would have gone to see that in IMAX.
Sonny00:22:12They, they, there was, there was, there was another one recently that was just in theaters, but like I would, I would be okay with sitting through trailers if they were just in the theaters. If it was like an event. An event. If it was like, I can only see this in the movie theater, fine. I'm, I'm happy to get there early and sit through it. Queen and Slam. That should be exclusive to theaters. But now that we can, now that, now that we can see trailers anytime we want on our computers on YouTube, I just like.
Vic00:22:35How about the, how about the Terminator trailer? I've seen that one a lot.
Sonny00:22:37Oh God. I'm going hunting. Every, every, every movie. Every movie.
Vic00:22:42I'm going hunting.
Sonny00:22:44Okay, so. Between, I've seen, I've seen 21 Bridges and Terminator Dark Fate. Yeah. The trailer. That's terrible. One, one, and there are several trailers for these movies, but I've seen one trailer for both of them. Like 50 times.
Vic00:22:56I remember seeing the first trailer, like I, one of the first trailers I saw on a computer, I believe on an iMac, was the first X-Men with Hugh Jackman. Yes, it was your iMac.
JVL00:23:06And it took, and how, and how long it took.
Vic00:23:09Seven minutes to load.
JVL00:23:10Yeah, yeah, yeah, to watch this trailer. For a 90 second teaser trailer.
Vic00:23:12Yeah, for a 90 second teaser, that's right.
Sonny00:23:14For like a 240, 240p image. Yeah, that's right.
Vic00:23:17So we, we continue to ignore it, chapter two. We're not going to talk about it this week. All, I think, saw Hustlers. You saw Hustlers first, I think, Sonny, yes? I did see Hustlers. And I just saw it yesterday as I just explained.
Sonny00:23:32Can I tell, can I, can I tell you how I saw Hustlers? Please. So I saw Hustlers at a 9.45. Please do. I saw Hustlers at a 9.45 p.m. screening. The Thursday it was released, because I missed the press, press screening. So I get there, and I go to my assigned seat, and there is a person in it. There's a man in it. A man who's sitting next to a woman. Who's sitting next to a five-year-old, six-year-old boy. And who is sitting next to his, I would assume, sister, who is maybe nine or ten.
JVL00:24:04And you said, Dr. Matus, I didn't realize you were in town.
Sonny00:24:07And I said, oh, sorry, you know, sorry you're in my seat. He's like, oh, okay, you know. So there was the awkward shuffle where he, like, moves down to the end, you know. But there, this doesn't change the fact that there is, again, a six-year-old and a nine-year-old in the front row, for the R-rated movie set in the strip club at 9.45 p.m. on a Thursday. And I just want, I don't understand. You want to say why? Now, look, they were, I will say the children were very well behaved. They had their eyes glued to their iPads the whole movie. Sucks for everybody behind us. I couldn't really see it because they were to my side. But if I had been one row further back, I might have actually had a heart attack. I might have actually had an aneurysm.
Vic00:24:53That's just irresponsible. That's terrible. They should be watching the screen.
Sonny00:24:57They should not be out. Look, now she's trying to give him a bleep.
JVL00:25:03So put your eyes on the screen there, Victorino.
Vic00:25:08Right.
JVL00:25:09Would your parents have taken you to see Hustlers?
Vic00:25:11No, no, because anything with kissing was bad. It was about violence. That violence is fine. Oh, there's kissing. Close your eyes. Oh, to live and die in L.A. And the guy gets his head blown off. I don't think there's a lot of kissing in Hustlers.
JVL00:25:21Yeah, no, but.
Vic00:25:22Not a ton of kissing. No, no. Uh, yes. So we all saw.
Sonny00:25:27Should we warn the people who listen to the show in the car with their kids that this is going to be a show where we discuss a movie that is set in a strip club? Yeah, yeah. We should. About dancers who steal from hardworking young men.
Vic00:25:42We'll get to that in a second too, Sonny. JVL, you saw it too, didn't you?
JVL00:25:45I saw it. Did anyone else see it? I think so. Hustlers is an epic tale of greed. Greed, capitalism, and the financial crisis of 2008 starring Jennifer Lopez as Ramona, a dancer who figures out how to scam drunk Wall Street bankers out of thousands of dollars. Ramona's plan is simple. She meets rich bankers at a bar, slips them a mickey, and then takes them to her club to party. You might say that this club has an international flavor. And the things that go on there are legal. Barely. Ramona and her crew take the bar. The boys out to play and run up their credit cards while they're half in the bag. Sometimes they use a hotel room. Sometimes they go to a penthouse. You might think it's wrong to give roofies to men who are trying to cheat on their wives, but no one really gets hurt. In fact, I bet that some of the guys wrote letters to their favorite literary forum about their experiences. I never thought this would happen to me, but I give hustlers four stars.
Vic00:26:55I thought Johnny Ivey was here.
Sonny00:26:58Vic, you got to watch Gene do one for once. Usually you're out of the room.
JVL00:27:02I walked out of that movie with like three different thoughts in my head, but bubbling above all of them was, I can't wait for the Gene review. And when you said you wouldn't do it, I said, by God, I'll do it myself.
Vic00:27:14And you did. The Club International.
JVL00:27:18How could you not want to make the Club International joke about this? Yeah, I don't get it.
Vic00:27:25Very good answer, Sonny.
Sonny00:27:26Good answer. What's Club International? Good answer.
Vic00:27:29It's like if Brazzers had a publication, it would be Club International.
JVL00:27:34It's like the Dead Tree version of Brazzers. Victorino, that's brilliant.
Vic00:27:41That is a brilliant. That's the only way I can explain it. Otherwise, it's a mystery to many of our listeners. Sonny, how about a big boy, big boy review?
Sonny00:27:52Well, Gene hit most of the... It was an actual review. That was an actual review. You know, here's what the movie reminds me of a little bit. It's like Lady Wolf of Wall Street in a certain way. It is about people who are breaking the law, but they are doing so in a way that is portrayed as an indictment of the system, right? So the whole point of... The final moments of Hustlers, Jennifer Lopez stares in the camera and she says, The whole country is a strip club. The idea is that you have these bankers who are essentially stealing, getting rich while bankrupting the country and causing the economic crash of 2008. And so it's okay to take advantage of them and relieve them of their excess property. And again, Wolf of Wall Street is kind of in... Is a similar sort of story in that it's... It is about a bunch of guys who are criminals, more or less, but legal criminals. And we are supposed to kind of be grossed out by what they do. Yet, you know, it is an indictment of the system as a whole, right? So what I... I guess my problem with this movie, aside from the fact that it is like totally flat. And visually uninteresting. And has nothing really going for it on an aesthetic or storytelling level. Is that you have all of these people who got all worked up about the Wolf of Wall Street. And, you know, does depiction equal endorsement, blah, blah, blah. Screaming about this, oh, girl power. Look at these ladies empowering themselves and coming together. And, you know, they're trying to get one over on the bad guys. And I'm just like, yeah, really? Are these people that we're supposed to like and to cheer for? Because the movie wants us to cheer for them. This sounds a lot like my criticisms of Black Panther. You're not reacting to the work. To cheer for them.
JVL00:30:06You're reacting to the Twitter.
Sonny00:30:08No, but I am reacting to the work because the work is, again, flat and visually uninteresting. And there's nothing on a storytelling level here that's particularly interesting. I just don't care about any of these characters. I don't particularly like any of these characters. But I also don't really dislike any of these characters. The movie is designed to make us cheer for them. So the movie does nothing for me. I didn't hate it. It was funny in spots. I was rarely bored in the theater. But it didn't really do anything for me.
Vic00:30:43It's like we watched two different movies.
Sonny00:30:46And also, you were reacting to Black Panther without having seen Black Panther. Once you saw Black Panther, you said you liked it a lot. True. I didn't see it out of respect. I was waiting. So please don't compare those two situations. They're not quite the same.
JVL00:31:03You just didn't have respect for the people who made this movie.
Vic00:31:06I loved this movie and I looked forward to this movie for quite some time. In fact, I went to the theater and I was wearing sweatpants. Speaking of which, here's a scenario for you. Your sweatpants are on for the day. But you're sick of microwaved leftovers and frozen pizza. Enter DoorDash, restaurant quality food with a living room dress code. DoorDash connects you to your favorite restaurant. restaurants in your city. Ordering is easy. Open the DoorDash app. Choose what you want to eat and your food will be delivered to you wherever you are. Not only is your favorite pizza joint already on DoorDash, but there are over 340,000 restaurants in 3,300 cities. So you might find a new favorite too. With door-to-door delivery in all 50 states and Canada. Order from your local go-to's or choose from your favorite national restaurants like Chipotle, Wendy's, Chick-fil-A and the Cheesecake Factory. Don't worry about dinner. Let dinner come to you with DoorDash. Right now, our listeners can get $5 off their first order of $15 or more when you download the DoorDash app and enter promo code SUBBEACON. That's $5 off your first order when you download the DoorDash app from the App Store and enter promo code SUBBEACON. Don't forget, that's promo code SUBBEACON for $5 off your first order from DoorDash. JVL, you like this movie.
JVL00:32:21I didn't like it. I loved it. I thought it was an American epic in its own weird way. I'd say I went in with no expectations whatsoever on it. And I was kind of blown away. Away. It sounds weird if you don't say away. Victorino, so you and I were both looking at Sonny. And again, I was blown away basically at every level. I thought it was the storytelling was very sophisticated. I was looking at it.
Vic00:32:55Well, obviously a little disappointed about the nudity because what you saw, you did not want to see, number one. But that said, A+++. It's one of the best movies I've seen this year.
JVL00:33:07I mean, it's a gangster movie. It's like Heat or anything else.
Vic00:33:10But it's a gangster movie that's also about America. I loved everything about this movie. I loved the opening scene. Okay, it's a little derivative if you want to compare it to Boogie Nights, the opening scenes. This is how it works and this and that. But I found it very intriguing. Magic Mike, actually. Yes, yes, yes. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Right, right, right.
Sonny00:33:26Except not as good as either of those movies. Except choppy and slapped together.
?00:33:30Wait.
Vic00:33:30Inside, excuse me. Inside, you're going in to see what their world is like from behind. And it was like going back to Sapphire in Vegas or something or the Spearmint Rhino or Olympic Gardens or Crazy Horse. Or Crazy Horse 2. Or Go-Go-Rama, which is the juice bar in South Amboy. Or The New Villager in Tom's River. Oh, wait. My mother, in case she's listening, I'm kidding. Never been to any of those places. I was never kicked out of Joanna's on M Street. No, but I liked it. It's like going for free. You didn't have to pay. Well, you paid a cover. It's the film price. I'll tell you what else I thought, seriously. It kind of felt like, in a weird way, Lady Goodfellas. And I don't mean that disparagingly, but it's sort of like they're in this together. When times are good, they're great. And then all it takes is one bit of sloppiness, and then everyone can rat out on everybody else. And then it all comes crumbling down.
JVL00:34:24Lady Goodfellas is a perfect way of explaining it, except that it's not derivative. They are not just lady analogs of previous characters. Ramona is such a great character.
Vic00:34:37Do you think she or Constance Will will get an Oscar nom? I hope J-Lo gets an Oscar nom.
JVL00:34:42Jennifer Lopez ought to get a nomination.
Vic00:34:45If I see a better performance. Probably Best Supporting. It'll be the Best Supporting Actress role, because she's not the...
JVL00:34:49Well, she's not the lead, but she dominates everything. She dominates. She is like Brando in the original Godfather.
Vic00:34:54It's, you know, she looms over everything.
JVL00:34:56She does. She is the most interesting screen thief since Neil in Heat. Right, right.
Vic00:35:05I also thought the music was great. And in the mixture of classical and there's also the club music. And the part where she's showing Constance Will. The score is fantastic. The score is fantastic. And I thought the way she's showing the Peter Pan move, the twirling, and then she does the martini, which she makes look easy, but of course is probably one of the most impossible things to do, unless you have her kind of core strength.
JVL00:35:25And they do this, they do a bunch of different balancing acts, which, so they pull off the trick of both explaining these criminals without absolving them. And they don't glamorize the life, but they also don't condescend to it. You know, like, man, and even the marks. So the guys they're scamming are not a uniform type. And they're not just like a faceless, you know, hey, wealthy Wall Street white guy number five. You see the full range, some of whom are clearly asshats who you want them to get. And some guys are just hard-block cases.
Vic00:36:09The poor guy with the mortgage, that was the worst thing I ever heard.
JVL00:36:12The guy who winds up getting married, who, like, he's talking to him about a computer and the fonts, who is Steve, right, whatever.
Vic00:36:17You know who my favorite is? You know who my favorite is of those guys? Frank Wally, right? Remember the great Frank Wally from Pulp Fiction and from earlier? From earlier movies from the 80s. He's the young. He's a young actor. He was in Field of Dreams. He plays the young Burt Lancaster. And he's the kid. And, of course, he is the richest of the rich guys. The worst of the rich guys. The worst of the rich guys who comes through the back door. Oh, yeah, the great Frank Wally. He's fantastic. I love Frank Wally.
JVL00:36:42You know, and the characterizations are so good that when the lead, whose name I never really actually get.
Vic00:36:52Constant Woo's character. Her stage name is Destiny. Dorothy, maybe. I don't know what her real name is.
JVL00:36:59But when she asks. So, Julia Stiles is the sort of in real life reporter from the New York Magazine story. She went to Brown. I love it. That's perfect. When she says, where did you. So, Constant Woo asks her, where did you go to school? And sitting there in my seat, I say to myself, Brown.
Vic00:37:16And because everything about. Journalism.
JVL00:37:18Everything about Stiles' character and the way she. This is literally the definition of showdown. That I am able to sit there and guess where this character went to undergrad and be right before she says it. That's great. Right? I can't believe you didn't like it. And then on top of all of that, I would say it's the best movie made about the 2008 financial crisis. Better than the big short. And it shows the ripple effects of it in ways that nobody else has really managed to do. That it wasn't. So, what does it mean when Lehman Brothers goes under? Well, it means that a bunch. A bunch of people who work at Lehman Brothers wind up losing their jobs. And then it means a bunch of people who bought houses, have their houses foreclosed. But it trickles down even to people who weren't taking out crazy, you know, liar loan mortgages on overinflated houses. Everybody. Right. Everybody. Dependent on this. The whole. Everything is independent. And man, it is an indictment. This is an in-kind campaign donation to the Warren 2020 operation. Oh, boy.
Vic00:38:19Because if. Oh, boy.
JVL00:38:21I'm just saying that if you. Sonny looks like he. He endorses that kind of thing.
Vic00:38:24Sonny hasn't spoken for so long now. His mouth must be so dry. It's time for you to chime in.
JVL00:38:29Frankly, I think the politics of it are getting in the way of your appreciation for it. Now, for me, I like the politics of it, but that's a fourth level.
Sonny00:38:38I think the politics of it are really what is driving your enjoyment of it. Because you hate Wall Street banker types. You hate people who go to strip clubs. You. What? You tend to empathize. You tend to empathize with down on their luck. People who have been oppressed by the financial system in which we live.
JVL00:38:59Fair.
Sonny00:38:59So, I think that is why you find this so entertaining. But Vic, on the other hand, loves all of those people. Vic just loves strip clubs.
Vic00:39:07I mean, going back, it's like if I ever went to one, I imagine that's how it would be like. And that was really what was great. I'll also tell you this. I can sympathize with their motives. They're saying, hey, these guys are doing bad things, so it's okay to fleece these bad guys. It's like this guy I heard about. Who was charged 18% when he went to the Poke Bar, so he took an extra mochi. It's the same thing. Nothing wrong with that guy.
JVL00:39:31So, some of the stuff it does, I would say almost everything it does is done without a heavy hand. One of the most brutal attacks on the class structure actually comes in a moment where Constance Wu calls Julia Stiles a reporter. And we are given the passage of time because all of a sudden we see Julia Stiles and she's pregnant. And she has... Hasn't been pregnant before this. And at this point, Constance Wu is at least as wealthy as the Stiles character. Like, we've seen their two houses, right? They're equivalent. But the difference is that Julia Stiles is having a baby shower filled with a bunch of women who look like they have stepped out of a restoration hardware catalog. And Constance Wu, like, is a single mother who, like, struck... You know what I'm saying? Like, the class divide shows that even with the money, the class divide is still enormous.
Sonny00:40:24And it does all of that with a simple scene without ever saying it. But see, here's the problem with that scene. Because I was actually confused as to how Constance Wu was living this life without post-engaging in her robbery. Banked a lot of money. She'd lose all that. She'd lose all that in fines. Who would have wanted to marry her?
Vic00:40:50And I'm saying that as an Asian. Who would have wanted to marry her?
Sonny00:40:53But, I mean, this is a series. This is a serious question, right? In the way the film is structured, you see Constance Wu as this stripper with these terrible bangs and awful outfits. And she looks like she doesn't really have any class, whatever. And then in the interviews with Julia Stiles, she looks like she has her life put together. But there's a disconnect there. I don't see how she gets from point A to point B. Like, where in the story does she get her life together? Where does the redemption happen? Where does her... It doesn't happen.
JVL00:41:27But at the end of the movie, she's moving back to Queens. It has all fallen apart, right? She's run out of money. That's why she's moving back to Queens.
Sonny00:41:35Is she?
JVL00:41:36Yes, she says, I'm moving back to Queens. This is all...
Sonny00:41:39Maybe this is just me not understanding the economics of New York real estate. I don't know. But she's living in this nice place with these classy outfits. She looks like she has put it all together.
Vic00:41:53There's still stuff that she didn't do.
Sonny00:41:54She looks like she has everything all together. And there's no sense in the movie of how she actually accomplishes this shift.
Vic00:42:03Do you like the introduction of the sloppy... Was it the redhead who J-Lo brings in at the end? Who is sort of that unravels the string. You know what I mean? And it's like... Well, this goes all the way back to... She's Wayne Groh. Right. She's Wayne Groh. That's a deep pull, J-Lo. Yeah. Excellent. I was going to say it goes all the way back to All About Eve. It's the ingenue, the new, the up-and-comer. And then Constance Wu's character is staring at the new girl. Or it's like Johnny...
JVL00:42:30What was his name? Was it Johnny Doe in Boogie Nights? Johnny Doe.
Vic00:42:34And all of a sudden, Brent Reynolds is talking to him. And this is the new guy. And she has that feeling the whole thing falls apart. And she's really, really sloppy. I just... I don't know. I found it all very compelling.
JVL00:42:44You know, can we talk... Because, Sonny, you are... You really like the capitalist system we have today. That's fine. Have you followed...
Sonny00:42:51Gets me these great bags.
JVL00:42:53Have you followed...
Sonny00:42:54Oh, I have been following the story.
JVL00:42:57It's fantastic. So, for those of you who do not pay attention to WeWork, WeWork is a really interesting company founded by a fellow named Adam Newman, which rents individual workspaces to gig economy workers. You have one across the street from you here. We do. At the Washington Free Beacon Tower. It's a great idea. I actually think it's the future. Here's how WeWork the corporation works, though. They rent space in buildings. They then resell at a micro level that space. Even down to the desk level. Funnily enough, they tend to rent their buildings from Adam Newman, the CEO and founder who owns the buildings, and pay him for that. And he is, of course, also then paid by WeWork with the equity of WeWork. And Adam Newman sold to his company, of which he is the majority stakeholder, WeWork. He sold the trademark for the name WeWork, which he came up with.
Sonny00:43:52Just the we part. $5.9 million. Yes.
JVL00:43:57He has been acquiring venture capital to the tune of, with a market valuation of $47 billion. All in advance of his coming IPO. Now, they've run into some problems. But I ask you, when Ramona is taking drunk guys and maxing out their credit cards to $50,000, God, but when Adam Neumann sells the name We to the company for which he founded the name We for $5.9 million, well, that's just capital as a baby. This is what is a scandal is not what is illegal. What is a scandal is what is legal. But what's illegal is still illegal.
Sonny00:44:47And they get caught. And they get caught and they get punished. They didn't get punished very much, though. It's worth thinking about. Does that?
JVL00:44:52No, they didn't.
Vic00:44:53I was surprised about that.
JVL00:44:54So this is I've never read. This is an Albright. I should have read the New York magazine piece. I have not. But I can only assume that somebody just wanted this to go away. Yeah. Somebody somewhere in the New York judicial system was caught up in this somehow.
Vic00:45:11Well, it's like when they explain the cops. And that's also true about the cops. I stopped going.
JVL00:45:16Quote, investigating. Right. I mean, you know, this is how that worked. I spent a little. You remember this, Vic. I don't know if you know this. I mean, I was going to say a day of my life.
Vic00:45:23And I was going to. I was going to say. Oh, well, that's right. For the New York press. The New York press.
JVL00:45:29You had a great opening lead. I remember that. It was. And man, that was one of the most depressing days of my life. It was.
Vic00:45:37Yeah. They did multiple things, right? She was. Was it also phone stuff, too, or no? I mean, I think of a different piece.
JVL00:45:43No, I went to this place because it was the beginning of what would become the cam girl revolution. And so it was. They were playing. You know, broadband was just starting to happen. And the idea was what porn was going to be. It was going to do with broadband. So what. Cutting edge. And man, oh, man, that was a rough, rough day.
Vic00:46:04It is not.
JVL00:46:04I would say even this depiction of strip club life, at least in comparison to the 24 hours I spent in a strip club with being backstage with the girls, even this was a very optimistic view.
Vic00:46:17Oh, sure. You recognize the actress who played Mom, the mom? Who was that? She was the mother in Big. Oh, she's she's Josh.
JVL00:46:26I love it. I went to who are these girls? Mostly Russians.
Vic00:46:29Yeah, right.
JVL00:46:31That's how the times change.
Vic00:46:32OK. Any other thoughts? Sonny, I really can't believe I know I know he has nothing to say.
JVL00:46:38He has nothing to say. OK, here's a real question. Do you think this is a semi serious awards contender?
Sonny00:46:43I think J-Lo will probably get some buzz. I cannot imagine the film gets like best picture because it's too early. If this was released in November, then it would be a clear. But it's also it's also just like it. It is also, frankly, just not that good. It is just not that good.
Vic00:46:59I'm so taking him in the Oscar pool. What would we do? The Oscar draft. Oscar draft. Yeah.
Sonny00:47:05Not going to get a lot of nominations from this one. This is a this is like a four point movie right here. You get you get maybe two points for the J-Lo nom for best supporting actress. Six points. Maybe, maybe if she wins. Right, right, right. I choose mid 90s.
Vic00:47:18That's what I'm taking. Mid 90s. Boy, that was a lot then. I never even saw it. OK. I just totally. Does not predict the reaction that it had, which was none. OK. Corrections, additions, shout outs. I've got two. I have a correction. Good, good, good. You go, J-VL. I got an email from Tyler Olsen.
JVL00:47:34Is that the one you were going to do? Maybe, but it could be repeat. I mean, Tyler Olsen sent us a very long and very sternly worded email. You guys, I'm quoting here, were wondering if the Mandalorian was based on his arm. Let me tell you, there is a rich history of the planet. Mandalore. Mostly, he says, they are a warmongering people that have fought wars against the Jedi and themselves. But that doesn't mean they're all bad. The armor is worn both by Jango Fett and Boba Fett. But the character in the Mandalorian is just wearing traditional Mandalorian armor. He would like to tell us all sorts of things, including that the Mandalorians were the inventors of the Darksaber, which is a badass, one-of-a-kind black lightsaber. And I blacked out after that.
Vic00:48:21I was going to say, shouldn't you be reading this in the comic book guy voice?
JVL00:48:24The Mandalorian inducted the Jedi.
Sonny00:48:26So wait, are Boba Fett and Jango Fett not Mandalorians then? They just wear Mandalorian armor? Is that my takeaway? I guess so. And that's a planet. You know what? You can email Tyler.
Vic00:48:39I sent you his email.
JVL00:48:40I was going to say Listener Charles, but he said the same thing. Watch the Clone Wars, he says. Season 6 Clone Wars.
Sonny00:48:45Not watching any of that crap.
Vic00:48:47Mandalorian is from Mandalore. Is that the planet? It's called Mandalore? Mandalore. I've been to Mandalore Bay. Mandaloria. I've been to Mandalore Bay.
Sonny00:48:53Mandalore Bay. Mandalore Bay. They have $10 tables there.
Vic00:48:56I was going to say, there's some good craps at Mandalore Bay. I think there's even a House of Blues at Mandalore Bay. Okay, and then the other one was Listener Jess says yesterday regarding JVL's statement about losing copyright. The truth is, you can lose trademark rights over time if you stop using slash defending, but copyright doesn't dilute. I don't even remember what the conversation was. It's perfect.
Sonny00:49:21I mixed up the legal definitions here. I did, and I almost said something during the show, and I wasn't 100% sure, so I didn't because I spent a lot of time reading about copyright for some reason about 10 years ago. But we should note that you meant trademark, not copyright. And I borrowed this concept, actually, from my Washington Post piece. I gave you full credit, don't worry, this week. So look for that.
Vic00:49:43That's exciting. Thank you. Okay, that's all the time we're giving to this episode. Questions, comments, complaints, compliments, tweet us at Victorino Matus at Sonny Bunch. Again, be sure to subscribe to us on iTunes, Google Play, Stitcher, just type in Sub-Beacon at a podcast, we're there. Leave a review, tell your friends. People should leave more reviews, by the way. Yeah. Because somebody left us a two-star review last week. I saw it. Yeah, what's up with that? Did you know it? Did you read it? I read it. Because it said something like JVL is a tool, and Sonny's ideas are bad or stolen, and Vic is a pervert, and obviously only one of those things is three.
Sonny00:50:20How, I mean, if you get our show that... Well, if you understand us that perfectly... Stop listening. How can that be a two-star review? I mean, like, you... That's right, that's right, that's right. They clearly understand what we're trying to do. Yeah, yeah. Again...
Vic00:50:32We're doing what we're trying to do, people. Again, only one of those things is true. Okay. Until next time. JVL, I was going to ask you, when you were talking about strip clubs, that I forgot about that you had written a piece in the New York Press, but I think you all, didn't you have to go to... At least once in your life for a bachelor party, perhaps?
JVL00:50:58So, I've been in strip clubs three times in my life. Once for about 30 seconds when I walked into one with a... It was back when I was driving around the country playing basketball. Oh, yeah. And the guy was like, hey, we should go in a strip club. And we walked in, and I sort of looked around, and I was like, this is depressing as hell, and I turned around and walked out. And then the next time was for a bachelor party, and I made it for about five minutes before I had to leave because it was just so grimly depressing. Like, everybody was sad. The women who were working were sad. The bouncers were sad. The guys in the club were sad. It was one of those situations where it looked like everybody was pretending to be enjoying themselves, which is the worst kind of sad. Because at least you could have, like, some dark bone in me of, like, boy, we're all, you know, got the short end of life right here tonight, and, you know, we might as well keep each other company. But instead, it was like, yeah, isn't this great?
Vic00:51:54Man, I hated it. So I went to a bachelor party in New Orleans, but I had arrived on Saturday, so apparently a bunch of the guys had gone out in New Orleans on Bourbon Street on Friday night, and they went crazy. I wasn't there for that. And you just missed it. I just missed it. So a guy, I will not use his name, he got, all of a sudden, there was like a, what do you call it, on your credit card when they block, you know, you get blocked, there's like a, you know, you- Card decline. Card decline. A card decline on his credit card. And he had to call to clear it up. And the woman on the other end tells him, well, you know, it was suspicious activity because it was this, you know, Larry Flint's, you know, hustler club. No, no, no, that, I'm at a bachelor, that's me. That's where I am. Yes, sir. That's where I am. But then 20 minutes later, there's another charge at Larry Flint's barely legal club. Yeah, yeah, that was me too. That was me too.
JVL00:52:45I'm sure it's fine.
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