#66. Capone, Casinos, and Bennies!
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The movie is Josh Trank's Capone, and nobody defends it: Sonny argues it has accidentally achieved camp, the kind that only happens when someone earnestly tries to make something good, and he itemizes the damage — Tom Hardy's method grunting where "every shitting of the bed or peeing of the pants is a conspicuous idea," the boy with the balloon standing in for lost innocence, Kyle MacLachlan as (per Alyssa Rosenberg) Bugs Bunny gnawing a carrot, and above all the cheat of introducing Matt Dillon's character by phone before revealing he was never there, which Sonny calls internal inconsistency he "cannot abide." His verdict: "It's a shitty Shining. Put that on the fucking poster." Vic, a self-declared lover of gangster pictures and of Hardy, calls it his biggest disappointment since Widows, wanted flashbacks to Torrio and the Valentine's Day Massacre and got neurosyphilis instead, and notes that loss of bowel control is not on his quadrant. JVL takes it as a horror movie about his own future, jokes that Linda Cardellini's caretaker role could have been played by Kate Matus, and is mainly fascinated by the six production-company cards up front and by how Capone feels like a movie out of time — a Miramax-era vanity Oscar play that Harvey Weinstein would have humped to a Best Actor nomination, back when that business still existed. He begs the guys to stop reviewing whatever VOD junk gets dumped and do NeverEnding Story instead. Earlier: JVL broadcasts shirtless from a closet at his North Carolina beach rental, pounding 5.5% Barefoot spritzers since 4 p.m. and marveling at guests who steal Roku players; Vic recounts being scolded for walking two steps backward down a one-way Safeway aisle; and the back half turns to MGM's reopening plan, dead buffets, and how Atlantic City survives a virus when its clientele arrives by bus with oxygen tanks.
From the show notes
#cdata-section -------------- In this latest episode sponsored by Tommy John, we discuss Capone starring Tom Hardy. JVL goes back to the ...
Full transcript
Guest00:00:00Do you know what the difference is between Adolf Hitler and Al Capone? Hitler's dead. Capone was like a king in Florida.
JVL00:00:11He has full-blown dementia.
Guest00:00:13I have reason to believe that could all be an elaborate act.
Vic00:00:23Hello, and welcome to another edition of The Sub-Beacon, sponsored by Tommy John. 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 and search for Sub-Beacon. You'll easily find us. Please subscribe, tell your friends, and leave a review. Gentlemen, how are we? I want to start with JVL. You're back in the closet.
JVL00:00:47Yeah. That's right.
Vic00:00:50Why don't you elaborate for everybody?
JVL00:00:52I'm back in the closet, and I'm just pounding these guys. Oh, is that the spritzers? Peas are spritz.
Vic00:00:59Oh, wow. That must have almost 2% alcohol in it.
JVL00:01:02No, I've been drinking these since 4 o'clock this afternoon, and I believe that this is 55% by volume. It says it right here. 55% alcohol by volume.
Sonny00:01:19I don't think that's right.
Vic00:01:21You mean it's 110 proof?
JVL00:01:24Oh, 5.5%. Sorry.
Sonny00:01:28Well, that's still...
JVL00:01:29Did I mention I've been drinking these since 4?
Sonny00:01:31That's more than a... You're a wild man.
Vic00:01:34You are a wild man. That's right. It's great. It's great, great, great. How are you guys? We're doing well. You also... Forget about button-down shirts, JVL. How about just t-shirts? You are now permanently in tank tops.
JVL00:01:49Tank tops. And you know, the truth is, I only put them on for you guys most of the time. I just walk around shirtless. I embrace it all.
Vic00:01:55Thank you for... Allowing us that. And do you want to elaborate where you are, why you're in the closet, why you're back in the closet?
JVL00:02:04Down, we're down in North Carolina at our little place, the beach, where we had to get it ready for the summer rental season, which everybody down here is pretending is still going to happen. And, you know, I have to say, here in the real America, ain't nobody acting like there's no pandemic nowhere.
Vic00:02:31Oh, yeah. And I was looking at the map and it's like the lowest number of cases. So you might as well just go crazy.
JVL00:02:40And that's great because this little patch of the North Carolina is about to be getting 10,000 visitors per week, mostly from the D.C. Raleigh and New Jersey areas, which is primarily where they draw from.
Vic00:03:01I'm surprised. I'm surprised.
JVL00:03:04So I hope they have excellent luck because, again, down here, they think that masks are for pussies and, you know, like everybody's just doing their own thing. That's great. Do you ever take fluid dynamics, Victorino?
Vic00:03:21No, didn't need to. Didn't need to. And I'm still here. I still feel great. Go ahead, Sonny. Sonny, you're inside.
Sonny00:03:29Well, I was going to say, like, it actually, you know, in theory, you go to the beach outdoors in the sun. That's fine. You got all the people. The outdoor stuff is great. People, people live in there. Sunlight is good. People living in their their homes with each other that, you know, they all travel down together with. It should be fine. You'll be fine.
JVL00:03:48Everything. Yeah, well, I won't be here after another week, so I'll be fine when I'm back in my fortress of solitude.
Sonny00:03:56Do you do, like, Airbnb? Is that how you rent it?
JVL00:04:01No, no, no, no, no, no. Just on your own. No, no, we don't do it on our own, because that would be an enormous amount of work. There are essentially two companies on the island which handle 99% of the rentals. They are Pepsi and Coke. We go with Coke, and it is a turnkey operation. I don't do anything except come and deal with the damage. At the end of every rental season, because people will just, it amazes me the things that people will do. So we've had people take, like, stereo systems, Roku boxes, DVD players, just, like, take them. Imagine renting a house and be like, hey, I really like the stereo here. I'm just going to take it with me. I can't do that? Are you saying that that's not allowed? No, but can you even believe that this is a thing that people do?
Sonny00:04:55It's one thing if it's, like, they take home some towels, like, you accidentally, you know. Or a book.
JVL00:05:01Right, you know, like, we have bookshelves with a little note and, you know, DVD shelves being like, hey, if you see something you really like, just take it with you. You know, you don't have to leave these things here.
Vic00:05:10A book. You know, in the, like, if you...
JVL00:05:13Like a Roku player who's like, hey, you know what? This streaming stuff is really cool. I didn't know they had these Roku players. I'm just going to hear it. Let me just, you know, disconnect from the HDMI.
Vic00:05:24I always felt bad for taking the towels. The towel.
Sonny00:05:27I can definitely see... I mean, look, it's... Offensive. Let's give people the benefit of the doubt here and say, like, oh, they can't remember what they brought and what they didn't bring.
JVL00:05:35Electronics. They didn't bring the electronics.
Sonny00:05:37They tell the kids, like, oh, go grab all the things, make sure we have everything. And they grab and they bring it. You know, it happens.
Vic00:05:43Oh, I forgot I didn't pack the flat screen. Yeah, I didn't.
JVL00:05:47The TV. Right, they walked off with the TV.
Sonny00:05:49Oh, this is my 60-inch plasma.
Vic00:05:51I thought that's part of the deal. You know, you could keep your soaps. You could take soaps with you. Anyway, so...
JVL00:05:56It's great. I love it down here.
Vic00:05:58So you're scheduled. You have people. You have people you don't know yet.
JVL00:06:01In theory, we still have people, but I imagine some percentage of them are going to cancel. I certainly would cancel if I were them. I would not be coming down to this petri dish. But it'll be great. And we'll be back in August, and we will have our August down here. And I'm looking forward to that already.
Vic00:06:22I'm surprised, you know, the New Jersey people coming down there. But that's because all the New York people come to New Jersey. You know how that works. No, that's exactly right. Yeah, exactly.
JVL00:06:30You know, what those New York beaches are going to look like. My aunt in Belmar was telling me what their protocols are. And it sounds insane. Are they checking driver's licenses?
Vic00:06:39Because my friends, Sue and Rich, they live up there in Bradley Beach. That's just up the road.
JVL00:06:42So the way, for people who don't understand this, in the Jersey Shore, the beach is a real big moneymaker. Not just the actual, like, businesses around the beach, but the beach itself. Because what they do is all these towns. Towns charge people to go to the beach. And if you are a town resident, you will get a beach tag or two beach tags, or however many you pay for, that are good for the summer. And everybody else has to buy passes just to get onto the beach. And so this is a source of enormous revenue. And there's a lot. You know, they're literally, like, at every entrance, there's a little old lady sitting there watching the checking. Let me see your beach ticket. Let me see your beach pass.
Vic00:07:19I could do that job, by the way.
JVL00:07:20So what they're doing for this year. Turn around. No, no. They're changing it. Closer.
?00:07:24Sorry.
JVL00:07:26They're saying no masks on the beach. You don't have to wear a mask on the beach. Good. However, the minute you come off the beach, you got to put a mask on. So even if you're going to the bathrooms, you got to have a mask in the public bathrooms. And they're going to have. Oh, this is Belmar.
Vic00:07:42I'm sorry. You're talking about Belmar.
JVL00:07:43This is Belmar. But I believe this is all of the central Jersey beach towns.
Sonny00:07:46This is why you just go in the ocean.
JVL00:07:48Yeah, that's right, Sonny. Well, but also they're going to have people roaming the beach. Like you tell you're not six feet apart because you're going to have social dissonance. You have to understand on the Jersey Shore, people are packed under the sand like sardines. I mean, you you know what it's like.
Vic00:08:05Yeah, that's I don't go to certain beaches precisely. Even pre-coronavirus. Like if you would, I would never go to like, you know, the beach at Seaside. You know, it's insane. It's insane.
JVL00:08:14It's gross. It's gross. But people and they're all from from New York. They come down the Benny's. Right. The Benny's. The Benny's. The Benny's come down.
Vic00:08:21I mean, that's the whole thing about Jersey Shore was they were all from New York.
JVL00:08:24Yeah.
Vic00:08:25OK.
JVL00:08:25I'm yelling. So so but how this is going to work in reality with like the nice, you know, 85 year old late New Jersey lady yelling at the 17 or 25 year old New Yorker like, yeah, put your
Guest00:08:40mask on.
JVL00:08:41No, you put your mask on. Gabagoo, you know, or whatever.
Vic00:08:46That was gratuitous. That was gratuitous. The gabagoo. And I got some recently. Some boards had gabagoo. And Kate said, oh, who bought the. It's Capicolo.
JVL00:08:56Thank you.
Vic00:08:58Anyway. Can I can I say so?
JVL00:08:59I bought this is actually segway something I was going to ask you about Victorino. Oh, because I would like to ask you about your people.
Sonny00:09:05Yeah. I guess the song of your people.
Vic00:09:08I said, which people are those?
JVL00:09:12I purchased a pizza pie from the pizza shop down here in North Carolina. In North Carolina. It is the largest pizza I've ever been able to order. The thing is so big. It's an extra large. It's it's so big that I can only fit it in the trunk of my car. I can't fit it in the, you know, through the doors. Yeah. But I noticed looking at the the top of the pizza box, it's got a little pictorial representation of the people who made it for me. And they've got these big mustaches. Oh, and is he flipping a pie? Is he flipping a pie? So good. What does it say? So good. I love reading pizza boxes. So good. Made a special for you. And I thought to myself, is this allowed?
Vic00:09:59Oh, this. OK, really? Oh, because like you wouldn't have it for Chinese.
JVL00:10:04Well, from a Chinese, would you have a.
Vic00:10:07Depends on who designed it. A pictorial representation with distinctive facial markings.
JVL00:10:15With some sort of broken English, like, you know, hey, we make egg roll for you.
Vic00:10:21You know, we would be frowned upon, you know, we were. Thank you. Thank you, Sonny. Thank you. I may have to bleep that. That's that's from the Christmas story. It's a Christmas story. It's a reference to movie reference. Come on. Hey, if we can.
JVL00:10:36But Victorino, do your people find this offensive?
Vic00:10:39That is my question. No, I don't think so. It just is what it is. It is what it is. I we went the last time I was in Jersey. We went to our local pizza place to bring pizza back to the house to surprise my folks. And then we were waiting there. And the guys were wearing. Old man, young man, you know, a bunch of workers. They're all speaking Italian interjected with the only English word would be the F-bomb. And my kids would hear that, you know, and it would be Italian, Italian, F, Italian, Italian, F, you know, and somebody complaining about making wings. No, I don't. Fonts. You got the mozzarella fonts. What's that? Do you remember the polio string cheese commercial? Look that up from the 80s. Do you remember the one where they go and it goes, hey, give me a pizza with nothing. And then and then I do remember. And then the three people there and there was three kids and the one says, believe some. Oh, but then the other two kids go magnifique. And then the third goes, say, say, bon, what's French for for for for for it at a pizza place made no sense. But look it up on YouTube. Polio string cheese, 1980s commercial. It's a classic, Sonny. That's all. That's all. How are you boys doing? Sonny, where are you?
Sonny00:11:55I had to go inside today. Apparently the neighbors across the alley. So there's like an alley behind my house where the garages are. But apparently the neighbors are having a party. The lockdown's over here in Dallas, man. Nobody, nobody, nobody gives a crap about this anymore.
Vic00:12:12So you go over later on. Hey, what's going on?
Sonny00:12:15What's going on? I should I should just take over my flask of Weller, which is what I'm drinking out of right now.
Vic00:12:20It's a well. Yes. Very nice.
Sonny00:12:21My it's funny. It's interesting here. In Dallas, it's much easier to get the Buffalo Trace distilled liquors than it was in Virginia or in D.C.
Vic00:12:32Well, you know, Virginia is an obvious reason, right? I mean, right. Well, Virginia Soviet. It's a Soviet. Right.
Sonny00:12:38Virginia has a Soviet system. That's no good. But in in Dallas, man, they I like I literally I so this is great. It's weird. I like I don't really want to go like super into detail into like my drinking habits, but I'm drinking a lot now. And I've always been I've always been a big fan of Buffalo Trace. But Buffalo Trace became almost impossible to find after the the Pappy Van Winkle craze kicked in for a variety of reasons. You know, people realize that the old Weller Antique, which is which is distilled by Buffalo Trace, was essentially the young version of Pappy Van Winkle. So it like it disappeared almost immediately. And then Buffalo Trace itself, which is like kind of a like distant relative of the Pappy Van Winkle, but affordable, hard to find, but very, very affordable, like totally reasonably priced. So in Virginia, it's extremely hard to get to get a hold of in. And I hadn't really had much luck in Dallas either until like a month ago. I found there was just a shelf of it at the Specs. The Specs is basically the total wine of Dallas. And I bought like I bought like three liters, just like just they just they didn't have handles, but they had the liters. I just bought three bottles. That's heavy. But yeah. So anyway. And then I found another and then I found another place that had Buffalo Trace just just last week. So I'm like, I'm in heaven.
Vic00:14:00I love even even even the ones even in the even in the ABC stories in Virginia. I like going in. It's like going. It's like being a kid in a candy shop or a toy store. Yeah. It's very exciting.
Sonny00:14:10But the problem is they are the ABC stores there. I mean, there are selection is predictable. The selection. The selection is not very good. And it's it's just crap. I like I really like the I really like what we have here in Dallas. And I prefer the D.C. The D.C. The liquor store. Oh, D.C.
Vic00:14:25Had some Calvert Woodley. I mean, there was. Yeah, exactly.
Sonny00:14:29So anyway, y'all just wander. I'll wander over there with my well.
JVL00:14:32Do they sell barefoot spritzers?
Sonny00:14:34I would assume so.
JVL00:14:35That's all I really care about. They have those.
Vic00:14:39So is it part of the barefoot wine?
Sonny00:14:41You're stepping up. You're stepping up from from the Shuffer Huffer to the barefoot spritzer. You'll be. I don't forget my Kirkland Irish County cream.
JVL00:14:49It's more like a side stuff.
Sonny00:14:51The Zima.
Vic00:14:54Yeah, something like that. So anyway, Sonny, you gave us you gave us that piece. We could talk about it now from The Hollywood Reporter about casinos.
Sonny00:15:03Why? Why don't we save that for like after? Yeah, we'll do that in a little bit. OK, no. What I oh, I did want to say I wanted to say thank you to a very, a very good friend, a very loyal sub beacon listener, Chris, Chris M. I'm not going to I don't want to say his full name. I don't want to blow up his whole spot, but he I got a package in the mail from him last last week, middle of last week. And it was just like it was like a carton of Hawaiian shaved ice syrups. And I was like, I sent him a I sent him a, you know, a text. I was like, hey, thanks. Thanks for sending these. And he was like, oh, wait, did the shaved ice machine come? So he for a housewarming gift, he bought a like a nice a very nice, you know, like ice shaving, Hawaiian ice shaving. I don't know what you call.
Vic00:15:54How big is the machine? How big is the machine?
Sonny00:15:56It's not that big. It's not that big. It's like it's that's the size. It's a little probably a little bigger than a blender. Yeah. Yeah. You put it on. Yeah, I've seen it. But it was extremely nice of him. And I was like, I was like, thanks for sending this. And he was like, yeah, you sounded so depressed on the sub beacon last week that I I thought the only way to make you feel better was to send you liquid sugar to feed your children like that will make all of your problems. It's also fun. It's also fun to do. It's fun to do. It makes a great sound. And it's going to be one hundred. Ten degrees here in like a month. So, you know, I need I need something. So anyway, Chris, thank you. Cheers to you. Cheers to you. Thank you very much. That was great. Oh, my goodness. JVL just cracked open another one to celebrate.
JVL00:16:37This one's for you, Chris.
Sonny00:16:40So anyway, thank you to my good friend, Chris. And I am I feel much less depressed now. I was going to say better or less depressed. I have the Hawaiian shaved. No, I'm going to be 100 percent honest with you. I trim my beard and I feel you're right. Look, I feel so much like cleaner and more energetic.
Vic00:17:00No, you you you are looking like like who is the bad guy in the remnant? Tom Hardy. Oh, speaking of which. No, we're not there yet.
Sonny00:17:08We're not we're not quite there.
Vic00:17:10You were talking about masks earlier. And I have to tell you a little bit of an insane story of my experience. So I finally Kate made me a mask. What she did was she took the hammock in the backyard and she just put it around my ear. Somebody asked me, oh, that's a really great mask. It's like made from like one of my son's old shirts or something like that.
JVL00:17:32The whole shirt.
Vic00:17:33And and and the lady said, well, how did you how did your wife know? Like how big to make? I go, well, she knows I have a very large head. So, you know, it goes around and it's gray. It's fine. So it's OK. You know, I hate wearing it, but I put it on because it makes other people feel at ease. I don't mind when I see other people who look healthy, not old people, but other people who look healthy without the mask. I don't have a problem. What that. But anyway, I had to go in to a Safeway. Not I don't even go to Safeway, but it was on the way. I just forgot I had to pick up coffee. So I said, let me just go really quickly into this. There's nobody. There's hardly anybody there. It was like, you know, mid morning or whatever. It was late, almost noon. So I go in and let me just go down the aisle to pick up a cup, a bag of coffee, anything. Just, you know, I had gotten the Cafe Du Monde with the chicory and she does not like that. So I just get regular peats, anything. So I said, OK, let me get that. There are arrows in the aisles, but not in every supermarket. So the supermarket we normally go to doesn't matter which way. But this particular Safeway, which is not small, has arrows, but there's nobody there. So I said, I'm going up this aisle, even though you're the guy who went the wrong way. That's right. So I go up there and I find it. I find the bag and it's like, I know you voted for in 2016. You got it. And it's and it's not. Oh, wait, it's whole bean. So I said, oh, I think. The ground coffee is like 10 feet back. I turn, take two steps and there's a guy who is turned onto the aisle and sees me. He's wearing a mask. I'm wearing a mask. He looks at me. No, no, no. Stop. Stop. You're going the wrong way. You're going the wrong way.
JVL00:19:07I said, what? He goes, you can't go. You can't go back. I go. I just got. No, no, no. You're moving backwards.
Vic00:19:13Panic. And I just looked at him. I said, OK, so I will go all the way around to go right. Two feet behind. I can't go to two steps. I can't. No, no, no. You moved an inch. Move forward. You must move forward. And so I went all the way around and on right behind him and grabbed and said, excuse me.
Sonny00:19:34And then you licked his face.
Vic00:19:36Yeah, pretty much.
Sonny00:19:37People have lost their minds and licked his face.
Vic00:19:39People have lost their minds. What is this? East Germany? Can I can I come Tyler Cowen?
Sonny00:19:45Tyler Cowen had a very good post about there. There is a there. There's a epidemiological reason to do things. There's a political reason to do things. And then there's just how much the people will put up with. And I think we have found Vic's breaking point. He will not. He will not be told which way to walk down.
Vic00:20:02There were two people in the freaking aisle. There were two people, me and him. He just turned in and he sees me take two steps back and I can't do it. Must report you.
JVL00:20:13So this is, as you guys know, I have been typically a catastrophist about. All of this stuff, as is my want. And what drives me crazy. Is that if you take all of this stuff seriously. Then you want to not do shit like that. Because what you want to do is get, you know, look, you can't cut everybody's contacts down to zero. But what, you know, if you take the the the pie chart of the number of contacts you have on a daily basis, you'd like to shave that down by, say, 80 percent. Right. And you can do the first 60 or 50 percent actually pretty seamlessly. Without causing much harm, and then it is you try to, you know, then whittle away until you get to the point where the inconvenience of removing the next five percent is actually once it gets big, that's where you stop. Because what you want, it would be better to have people reduce their contacts by 80 percent for 12 weeks than reduce it by 90 percent for six weeks because they've stopped being able to put up with that. And this sort of, you know, what's funny is that the state and local government, the state and federal government. I've been pretty good about this stuff, but it winds up being like the local governments that are insane and dictatorial about this. That is exactly right. And then private people. So I see this all the time. You know, you see like there will be the guy who probably is not wearing a mask who goes the wrong way up the aisle. And I see people getting upset about it. What I want to say is why are you getting upset? This is the whole idea. Again, if 80 percent of the people are following the different protocols, then that is the point, right? The idea isn't to get 100 percent compliance. That's right.
Vic00:21:53That's right.
JVL00:21:54Right. Who cares? Let it let it go. This is not you know, it's not worth getting the sugar over.
Vic00:21:59You know what I say? It is not worth getting your panties in a bunch. Speaking of which, at the top of the show, I mentioned we have a new sponsor. It's Tommy John. The problem is I have not worn it. And I know my co-hosts haven't. But somebody we know has and loves it. No, not him. I am talking about. Thank you. Our good friend and former producer or sometime producer, Paul. Crookston. That's right. The Sub-Beacon's very own Oliver, cousin Oliver. And we are actually thrilled to have him back on the show to talk about Tommy John. Paul, welcome back. Take it away.
JVL00:22:40Hey, Vic, it's good to be back. I'm here to talk about something I always thought I'd be great at selling, but I had imagined a more visual medium than a podcast. That is, of course, Tommy John, a product I know and love. Working from home used to be the fantasy of every professional, but it turns out it's not that comfortable. Unless you're wearing Tommy John. All that sitting down, standing up, answering the door, answering emails, picking up kids' toys, or putting down the dog's bowl takes its toll on your layers. Thankfully, Tommy John knows life has its ups and downs, so they've improved their men's underwear, making it more resilient to wear and tear. It's now two times more durable. It's still soft and super breathable, but now even more reliable and comfortable. And right now, when you shop the Tommy John Memorial Day Sale, you get up to 30% off site-wide. So treat yourself, and upgrade to a few pairs of Tommy John underwear in the softest, most breathable fabrics you've ever worn. Tommy John obsesses over every little detail and stitch by using proprietary fabrics that perform like nothing you have ever worn before. All of Tommy John's loungewear and leggings are built for next-level comfort. Whether you're hunting for lounge pants, sleep shorts, or lazing around joggers, Tommy John has you covered. Their underwear? It comes with a no-edgy guarantee, they've eliminated visible panty lines for women, which my lady friends tell me is a big deal, and their quick-draw fly has been proven to save men over 217 minutes of unfurling per year. That's a fact, boys. Look it up. Tommy John is so confident in their underwear that if you don't love your first pair, you can get a full refund with their best pair you'll ever wear or it's free, guarantee. Tommy John, no adjustment needed. So, shop the Memorial Day sale at TommyJohn.com and get up to 30% off. Site-wide with the code SUBBEACON. No space or hyphen in all caps. That's SUBBEACON, S-U-B-B-E-A-C-O-N. For 30% off, site-wide at TommyJohn.com. See site for details.
Vic00:24:34Thank you, Paul. Back to you guys. He sounded so suave, didn't he? I tell you, that voice was so mellow. Ladies, you're going to have to order two pairs. I'm sorry. I wrote that down. Look at you. You're both speechless. Sonny, oh, I got a smile from Sonny. I messed up the line. Okay, after listening to that, you better make your order a double. Okay. See, that was better. I hope you appreciate. Jonathan doesn't want to say anything. I hope you appreciate I deleted two words from that particular line in the script. One of the words was flooded. Okay. Oh, I thought one of the words was ended. Thank you. Double. Oh, no, no, no. Okay. Thank you, Paul. No, that was really good. You know, I actually saw Paul on Zoom not long ago, and he has now grown, if you can imagine this, a mustache and goatee.
Sonny00:25:35That sounds about right. Paul? Yeah. I can see that. He can do that.
Vic00:25:39That's what I said. I'm sure a lot of people have said that then. He's 12. I know. He is. The only thing he was missing was a beret, and he looked very French, like a French artist. Or the kind of guy you'd want to go up to and see if you can score some meth.
Sonny00:25:53Or like a Wes Anderson character. I imagine that actually, like, I can see Paul.
JVL00:25:59He is Steve Zissou's biographer.
Sonny00:26:00Totally. I can see that. I bet it's a good look for him.
Vic00:26:03You know what, though? People are going to love this, and they're going to order because he does this very well. So, again, thank you, Paul.
Sonny00:26:12We should have him do all our ad reads.
Vic00:26:14I'd be all for that, by the way. It takes a load off from me. And, okay, I have a really bad transition coming up here. Ready? All right. Okay. Okay. Moving along from... Transition. Here we go. Moving along from Tommy John to Tommy Guns, this week we decided to watch the movie Capone starring Tom Hardy. Yeah. See, Tommy Guns. I love gang... I'm still reading the script. I love gangster movies, and I love Tom Hardy. What could possibly go wrong? Sonny.
Sonny00:26:42Everything, apparently. Yeah. This is one of...
JVL00:26:47I wouldn't say it's the worst movie I've seen in a long time.
Sonny00:26:53Because I saw the Black Christmas remake, and that was pretty terrible. That's its own special brand of terrible. But this was bad. And it called to mind a conversation we were having last week about Flash Gordon. So last week, when we were talking about Flash Gordon, I am very strenuously in favor of the idea that you cannot make intentional camp, that camp only comes about when you earnestly try to make something that is good, and in your efforts, you make something that is so bad that it leaves kind of a special mark on the world. Like showgirls. The badness of it combined with the earnestness of it creates a sort of black hole of fascination. And that is, I think, what has happened with Capone. I think Capone is actually camp. Down to, I mean, just starting with, first and foremost, and most obviously, the performance by Tom Hardy, which he... He puts everything into, every grunt you believe is a thought-out method grunt. Every shitting of the bed or peeing of the pants is a conspicuous idea that is meant to convey some sort of meaning or emotion. The ghosts are all supposed to be very meaningful. The boy with the balloon represents lost innocence. Whatever. And it's all bad. Everything about this movie is bad. It looks okay. It is competently shot, I guess. And it has a nice setting, the kind of Florida mansion right off the swamps with the gators and blah, blah, blah. But it's bad on pretty much every level. The performances are weird and unconvincing, but very... very earnest. Kyle MacLachlan, I believe my friend Alyssa Rosenberg on another podcast described him as Bugs Bunny chewing on that carrot, trying to replace the cigar in Capone's mouth. But also just narratively, the movie's a mess. There's a title card at the beginning that says, this is the last year of Al Capone's life. That's what we're watching here. And fine. And he has syphilitic dementia. Mind is not there. He's hopping through time, you know. But the problem with this is that the movie breaks its own rules in certain very annoying ways. For instance, there's a character who's played by Matt Dillon.
Vic00:29:37I know exactly what you're going to say.
Sonny00:29:38So there's a character who's played in this movie by Matt Dillon. And spoiler alert, it turns out that he's not actually there. And at a certain point, you see Capone say to his wife, you know, get more bourbon for my friend here. Camera moves and it's an empty chair. Oh, whoa. Except but there's there's no the the the language of the film does not allow for that explanation to work because we see Matt Dillon's character introduced off screen via a phone call in a totally it would be like it would be like if you took Lloyd the bartender from The Shining, right? You know, Lloyd and Jack Nicholson is there and then Lloyd appears. But it would be like introducing Lloyd 10 minutes earlier. Via a cutaway shot where Lloyd's like, well, I got to get ready for my gig at the bar at the Overlook and then and then he's there and then it turns out he's he's a ghost. So the the the movie it's the movie betrays itself in sloppy ways that I cannot abide. I cannot I can abide a certain amount of nonsense, but I can't abide internal inconsistency and laziness and sloppiness like this. I hated this movie. I hate I like I found myself laughing at things that may have been intentional and may have been unintentional. I don't know. I just didn't I nothing about it worked and what I resent the most what I resent the most is that I know for a fact that within five years there will be a cult surrounding this movie of people who are defending it to the bone as JVL is probably about to do right now. JVL, what did you what did you make of it?
JVL00:31:19You know, I read a review of this flick. On some artsy fartsy film site in which they talk very seriously about how this this film site may have been made by Josh Trank's mother, but about how the Fantastic Four is actually the best comic book movie of the last two decades.
Vic00:31:42I saw the headline and I wanted to get back. I said, I saw this comparison wrote it.
JVL00:31:46I couldn't tell you, but it was something like it wasn't film threat, but something like film threat. And and how that this thing is really a masterpiece that is way better than The Dark Knight Rises. OK, you know, who cares what I think, Vic? Well, you have a show for you.
Vic00:32:07People want to know.
JVL00:32:08Oh, for me. Yes. This is a horror movie.
Vic00:32:12Yeah.
JVL00:32:12Well, it's about your life.
Vic00:32:15We're the same age and we're pretty much the same physically, internally. We've all had those. Hey, come on. Who among us hasn't had that happen? Bad, huh? Come on.
JVL00:32:24Literally, the only thing I could think of the entire time I was going through this was that Linda Cardellini could have been played by Kate Mattis.
Vic00:32:32Once you hear the flies, you know something's bad.
JVL00:32:35I hear the fly like, oh, no. This guy who is doddering. It's the same. She's got to take care of me. She's got to take care of me. You know, he's got a very large head. Just go. He's got physical ailments.
Vic00:32:45Go upstairs. Too much shrimp. You had too much shrimp, everybody. You had too much shrimp. When did you sign away your life rights?
JVL00:32:52I don't know. Or is it that you wouldn't sign your life rights, and so they had to make the story around Capone?
Vic00:32:59Quote Al Capone. Quote Al Capone. But in fact, it was my last year. It was my last year before I left this earth. Yes, I was going to say. So how did this movie make you feel? Majorly. Okay, well, again, I was so fascinated because, you know, it's like Al Capone was born in 1899, and this is 1947. He's 40 when he gets out. Yeah, yeah. So, you know, I mean, obviously. I, you know, I don't have as much experience with neurosyphilis as he does, but a little bit. Well, that's not the same. It's not the same. No. So I, you know, I mean, obviously that has some impact on him. I had to struggle with this movie in terms of accepting his physical condition the way I liked in a weird way. This Paul Giamatti movie called Barney's Version. I don't know if you. Ever saw that. And at the end of it, spoiler alert, I think he has like Alzheimer's or something, but but he's young. So it's like, you know, a young person having that condition, it's hard to wrap your mind around that, you know, and does it work? So that was one problem. But I have to I was overall thoroughly disappointed. It's the most disappointed, I think, since I saw Widows, really. And I would say I would thank you. And I would say in terms of, you know, do you know what's not on my quadrant? It's loss of bowel control. That is not on my quadrant. So I was like, oh, it's got an A plus for that. So that was really a disappointment. You know what it struck me as? I watched this movie and all of a sudden you're like, oh, wait a minute. It's in his mind. I was like, this is like watching that Meryl Streep movie, The Iron Lady, about Margaret Thatcher, you know, and Dennis Thatcher's appearing. But nobody can see him, you know, and it's the same thing with Matt Dillon. It's the same thing. And it's not what I wanted. I was hoping there'd be more flashbacks. Sure, he'd have to. He'd have to have some sort of, you know, personal moral reckoning and things like that. But it was just a little bit.
Sonny00:34:59But does he actually have that in this movie? No, no, it's unclear. I was hoping. There's no actual moral calculus here. There's no, like, discussion of, you know, the tagline on this movie is that eventually, you know, crime, everyone pays for their crimes or something like that.
Vic00:35:20Oh, is that what it was?
JVL00:35:21And that's just not, that's not what the movie is about. That's not true at all.
Sonny00:35:24That's not, there's no, even the Matt Dillon character, like, tries to give him a pass on, you know, having to have him whacked. And I. For skimming. Like, and the whole flashbacks to the childhood and the whole, like, oh, look, he's a child in Italy. And I just, everything, everything about this movie rubbed me the wrong way.
Vic00:35:46I want, you know, I'm interested in, I've always been interested in Al Capone, you know, and when he. Came over from New York and then he joined with, you know, and I thought, oh, maybe there'll be a whole thing with him. You know, when, you know, with working with Johnny Torrio and he was part of that gang and then he took over for Torrio and then the Valentine's Day Massacre. And he was going up against Bugs Moran and the whole thing. And, and I like, you know, I mean, I went, I went to the Al Capone animatronic museum in Chicago with Matt Labash back in 1996. And, and it was ridiculous. It was corny, but it was great, you know? And so I've been, you know.
Sonny00:36:23Is that like the Hall of Presidents?
Vic00:36:24It's like the Hall of Presidents. He was an animatronic, an animatronic Al and he's got that fake voice and, and he's got the Tommy gun and the whole thing. It's great. It's no longer there.
Sonny00:36:35So I went to, so I went to the, the Museum of Crime and Punishment in D.C. Do you remember this?
Vic00:36:41Yeah, I always wanted to do that and I never did.
Sonny00:36:43It's, it was the worst, it was the worst museum I've ever been to in my entire life. Thank God I skipped it. I went, I went, I went to it, I went to it once just because we, like we had nothing to do. Yeah, it's like near galleries. And it, and it's, it was expensive too. It was like $30 or something to get in. It was insane. But the, but they had, they had a mock-up of Al Capone's cell in Alcatraz. Oh yeah, sure. And he had like, it had like a Barca lounger and like a little fireplace. You know, he really had it made. He really had it made. No, no, he, he did. On the rock.
Vic00:37:11Yeah, no, he did. You know what is, what's really interesting is the FBI used to give tours and when I had, after I interned at Justice Department, I got one of these little tours. I don't know if there's any tours in there, but they got like John Dillinger's death mask and stuff like that. Really cool stuff. And, and I actually, I would say one of the best tours I've ever been to in my entire life was Alcatraz. And yeah, that's a good one. The audio, if you, you got to do the audio and you're, you know, they put.
Sonny00:37:42When he got locked in the cell.
Vic00:37:43They put you in the hole.
Sonny00:37:45Ed Harris came out. It's like, I need you to, everybody be.
Vic00:37:49He's the good guy in that movie, I think. He was the good guy. He had a point. He did, he did. Were you annoyed, Sonny, about, there are moments where I thought, oh, this is like The Shining. This is like The Shining. I'm trying to be like The Shining. Oh, 100%.
Sonny00:37:59No, no, no. It's 100. It is. And not a homage. Not an homage. Well, I think it might be though. I think it might be slightly. It's something of an homage. So this is Josh Trank. This movie is Josh Trank working out all of his personal demons and professional demons and also like paying homage to the movies that he loved, like Wizard of Oz and The Shining. But the best way to understand this movie is it's like a shitty Shining. It's like a really. Terrible. It's like a really terrible Shining.
Vic00:38:25You're not going to see that in the review. You know how they do the.
Sonny00:38:28Put that on the fucking poster. It's a shitty Shining. It's pretty exciting.
JVL00:38:32And it had small prints. Sonny Bunch, Rebellion. So the only thing I found interesting about this is the company story behind it. There are six production companies credited with it. It was like forever. It's one of those things at the beginning of the movie, you just can't believe they keep flashing one card after another. Yes. Why is that? With Redbox Media. In a session with Alibaba Pictures in cooperation with, well, anyway. And what struck me is that this, it feels like, Capone feels like a movie out of time. By which I mean that if you wind back the clock 15 years to the heyday of Harvey Weinstein, this would have made perfect sense to me as a Miramax Oscar play. Vanity. Oh. Right? So you put a big name star who hasn't won his Oscar yet. This insane, over-the-top role. And then Miramax spends $80 million in four-year consideration ads in Variety and The Hollywood Reporter. And they hump it to an Oscar nomination. And then, for all we know, they win a Best Actor Oscar for Tom Hardy. And, you know, maybe it becomes a cult movie. Maybe it doesn't. Because Miramax just did that sort of stuff all the time. And that business, I think, is gone. I don't think those types of movies. really get made anymore. Or really, maybe I'm wrong about this. But, I mean, everything about this I found puzzling. Like, how did Josh Trank get out of movie jail to make this? You know, like, when you're stuck in movie jail, you're stuck in movie jail. The only thing I thought about. You either make little pictures or you break out by doing some big thing that's really good. You don't get to do another boondoggle.
Sonny00:40:18Do we know what the budget on this was? Because it couldn't have been that expensive. Because it's basically. It's all shot in one place.
JVL00:40:24One location.
Vic00:40:25Yeah.
Sonny00:40:26It's not a hugely expensive movie, I don't think, outside of whatever Tom Hardy's salary is for it. And he probably took a pay cut because he got to do an accent. I don't know if you know this about Tom Hardy. I wish I had. I thought about texting you guys to see if you wanted to rank the Tom Hardy accents. Oh. But this is like Hall of Fame bad Tom Hardy accent. I don't think it was actually that expensive, a movie, really. I just like, but you're right. They don't make this sort of movie anymore. And the studio that would make something like this is like an A24. And A24 would realize that what they have on their hands is a total piece of crap and dump it on DirecTV and not do anything with it. They would not push this for Oscar consideration.
JVL00:41:20Right. It was something. Tom Hardy thoughts, too, which is that he. So he is a movie star. Can we agree that he's a movie star?
Sonny00:41:30No. Yeah.
JVL00:41:31No, you don't think so.
Sonny00:41:33Tom Hardy is not somebody who opens a movie on his own. Correct.
Vic00:41:37What about the one with the, you know, Venom?
Sonny00:41:40Tom Hardy's undoubtedly. You know what opened that was Venom was was, you know, Sony Spider-Man Universe.
JVL00:41:49He doesn't suppose he's not supposed to resemble Spider-Man. But this was this was the point. I was actually going to get at, which is that he is, I believe, this weird commodity, which is he is a movie star who doesn't do big openings and even necessarily big leading man parts. You know, like he you put him like, you know, he does Bane or he does, you know, he's this straw that stirs the drink.
Sonny00:42:16Well, he's the best thing in the Revenant.
JVL00:42:17Right. So he's this star that straws the drink that stirs. Help me. I've had too many barriers. Yeah. And in a bunch of big movies where he's utterly essential and it's kind of the star, like he is a movie. Just look at him. He is a movie star. You look at the way he carries Mad Max Fury Road, even though it's actually Charlize Theron's movie.
Vic00:42:38By the way, can I just say, I don't think those words, quote, help me. I've had too many barefoots have ever been uttered outside of a bridal shower.
JVL00:42:46OK, sorry. Hey, I just think he's an interesting commodity. And. Oh, I do.
Vic00:42:51I do. That's why I wanted to see the movie. I said. Oh, wow.
JVL00:42:53This is not a character actor. So disappointed. Although he has the soul of a character actor, but he is a leading man.
Sonny00:42:59No, he's he's totally a character actor. I mean, look, what are what are his best movies? Right. Dunkirk, where he is behind a mask and in a cockpit the whole time. Right. Except for that shot at the end where he he kind of comes out in front of the burning. He was in Legend. Do you remember Legend, the movie about the Cray brothers?
Vic00:43:17Oh, I thought you were going to say Legend with Tom Cruise.
Sonny00:43:21No, no. Where he he basically he does he does his actorly thing where he plays two characters and one of them, you know, has a different accent and, you know, one of them is slightly slightly crazy and whatever. Locke, where he is like in a car by himself the entire time, which is probably his best movie, I think, as a leading man. I don't I mean, like he he is in he's in a bunch of things where he's doing a bunch of different roles. He is almost by definition a character actor, right?
JVL00:43:57Yeah, except that he's also a movie star. This is what I'm saying. He's oh, he's a weird hybrid. He's a very strange hybrid.
Sonny00:44:04Is he?
JVL00:44:05I can't think of a lot of guys who are equivalent.
Sonny00:44:08Philip Seymour Hoffman. I feel like he came up the other week, but Philip Seymour Hoffman. I guess it's safe for me to talk about that same mode where he he could do basically anything and was also occasionally the star, right?
JVL00:44:21Yeah, I think that's right. Or maybe Matt Damon.
Sonny00:44:25Or maybe Matt Damon. But Matt Damon is a much more traditional movie star, though, like the Bourne movies and the Ocean's movies.
JVL00:44:34It's early. Tom Hardy could carry. Yeah, he was good. He was good in Mad Max Fury Road.
Sonny00:44:40I don't think he has it in him to be a franchise star. I don't think he wants it.
JVL00:44:46Well, too bad, because Sony really needs Venom, too.
Sonny00:44:50I can only imagine the stuff he's doing. I can only imagine the stuff he's doing on set to destroy that series. I don't envy Circus, Andy Circus, trying to direct that movie.
Vic00:45:06You know what? I was thinking about Capone, and we shouldn't have been surprised, because they gave you a hint that he's losing his mind, but there could be $10 million buried somewhere in there, and you never get to it. Remember Al Capone's Vaults? Do you remember that, JVL? I don't think he's time. I don't think he probably... Geraldo.
Sonny00:45:25I am aware of it. I don't remember it. And it was a total bust. I certainly did not live through that.
Vic00:45:29It was a total bust.
Sonny00:45:30So, there you go. All right.
Vic00:45:32So, this movie sucks. You know what? The only thing...
JVL00:45:35So, doing Capone this week simply underscores for me that we need to do NeverEnding Story next week. We need to do... Screw tying ourselves to terrible movies that are being shunted. Hold on, JVL.
Vic00:45:46There was one thing that... The only thing... I thought if Gene were to come in here, the only thing he would say was, Josh Trank. More like Josh Trank. Josh Stank.
JVL00:45:54That was it.
Vic00:45:55Sorry.
JVL00:45:57Anyway. We need to concentrate on doing great movies that we love and have a lot to say about instead of being hidebound by like, well, there's this new crappy thing being pushed out on VOD because there's no content.
Vic00:46:09Which is shocking, by the way. However, two things. Two things, JVL. One, I just saw the email from Variety that there was a box office weekend for a movie called The Wretched.
Sonny00:46:21The Wretched.
Vic00:46:22Which did something like... I'm looking at it here. Wait. $85,000 in 21 drive-ins. Was that the number one movie in America?
Sonny00:46:30Yes. Yeah. The Wretched. IFC's The Wretched. This is the second weekend in a row that The Wretched has been number one. That's questioning. It's questioning. It's got legs. It's got legs.
Vic00:46:41What about the trailer? I saw the trailer for that Russell Crowe movie.
Sonny00:46:44Yeah. I'm excited for that. I can't wait to go and get COVID to watch Unhinged.
Vic00:46:51So that's coming out in a theater. Is that right? That's coming out in theaters. Okay.
Sonny00:46:55So it's kind of an interesting story. The studio behind it. I feel like it's been done. The studio behind it, it's a $35 or $40 million movie starring Russell Crowe as a, basically in a falling down scenario crossed with a, I don't know.
Vic00:47:14Maximum overdrive. No. Sleeping with the enemy.
Sonny00:47:17Duel. Duel. You know, sort of situation. But the studio behind it had like been bouncing around. Bouncing around release dates because they kept getting big footed by bigger movies. So they just said, ah, screw it. We're going to do it July 4th weekend. We've got July 4th weekend all to ourselves. We're going to do it. So that's going to come out a couple weeks ahead of Tenet. And it'll be interesting to see A, how many theaters are open and B, how many people are interested in going to see a random Russell Crowe action thriller type movie. Yeah. What they really needed was Taken 5.
JVL00:47:50Taken 5 would have opened huge. That's the movie people want to see.
Sonny00:47:54Oh, Taken 5. If John Wick 4 could come out, could you imagine what the money would look like? Yeah. Yeah. So anyway, we should definitely do that. So you want to do the NeverEnding Story? Or something.
JVL00:48:08Or a movie that Vic loves. Or hell, put up a Twitter poll tonight and let the listeners decide what we do.
Vic00:48:15Speaking of 10 polls. So I was watching Taken that was on recently. And that still holds up very well.
Sonny00:48:26Well, the original.
Vic00:48:27The original Taken is really very good. And I thought to myself, if I could almost put together enough funds to outbid that chic. I'm kidding. I'm just trying to liven things up here. On the yacht. I was kidding.
JVL00:48:42Can we talk about casinos?
Vic00:48:43Oh, yes. Okay. So speak. Yes. That's all I really want to talk about. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay, good. This is terrible news. But Sonny, why don't you go ahead and start things off?
Sonny00:48:53Well, MGM is talking about how they're going to reopen the casinos in Las Vegas. And it's a series of. It's a series of.
Vic00:49:01And that's a big casino MGM.
Sonny00:49:03It's huge. It's a series. Well, they have like four or five casinos. All right. They've got the Grand. They've got the. I don't know. What else do they have there? They've got the Treasure Island. Is that an MGM?
Vic00:49:15Oh, it might be. I don't know. I had my bachelor party at MGM Grand. That's all I remember.
Sonny00:49:19Anyway, they've got they've got a bunch. You remember? I remember there are a number of jokes.
Vic00:49:26But speaking of neurosyphilis.
Sonny00:49:28OK, Sonny, they're making they're making a lot of changes that they should have made years ago, which is like digital check in. Right. Like you don't have to stand in line to check in to the hotel. Right. Right. And they're doing other things like social distancing at the card tables. God only knows how that's going to work. And nobody can stand behind you, you know, while you're playing blackjack.
Vic00:49:51Oh, it's all the. Unless you're.
Sonny00:49:53Clothes are closed. You know, the slot machines, like every fifth slot machine is going to be working, you know, whatever. So.
Vic00:50:00But you mean you can't do like two at the same time? No. Like certain friends of ours who we will not mention.
Sonny00:50:06Yeah. So it's it's a it's it's a fascinating mix. Oh, and they're getting rid of the buffets. No buffets. Right. No. That's the worst. You know, and and so it basically I think JVL, you're you made this point that they're they're really doubling down on their core demographic, which is problem. Degenerates. Yes. The degenerates. Yes. And look, and look, here's here's the sad fact of the matter, right, is that in all such businesses, in all gambling and liquor and other sorts of businesses, 10 percent of your customers give you 90 percent of your profits. Right. That's what it comes down to. Is that true?
JVL00:50:40So if I don't know the answer to this, is that is that really a true thing? It sounds like it. Yeah.
Sonny00:50:45Yeah. Yeah. Well, I mean, I don't know. I don't know. I should I should qualify that by saying I don't I don't actually know. But that's the case for Vegas, which relies on a lot of, you know, tour conventions or tourism. Right. Much more diversified. But in in most my understanding is that essentially in in most businesses like this, 10 percent of your customers, 20 percent of your customers are giving you 90 percent of your profits. It's certainly true in the alcohol business. I know that for a fact in the alcohol business that like 10 percent of your customers, 20 percent of your customers, they're buying 90 percent of the product. Um, more or less.
Vic00:51:24So they pulled one person. It was me.
Sonny00:51:26I would assume I would assume that it is a similar it's a similar sort of thing with with other addictive substances like gambling. Yeah. Yeah. So anyway, Vic, when are you going back to Vegas?
Vic00:51:40I know. How are the craps tables going to work? I mean, you know, oh, wait, don't touch that dice. You're going to get their own dice. Yeah.
JVL00:51:47You don't get to roll dice anymore. They'll have a robot hand rolling the dice.
Vic00:51:50Well, I mean, it's like people play stuff like this. One line where, you know, you're relying on a computer to do the probability. That's insane. But I don't you know. Yeah. I don't know how they how they'll do that because rolling the dice is everything.
JVL00:52:04What I thought about and what I think about a lot is not Vegas, but AC. Oh, because Vegas has a lot of young customers. They get a lot of people who go to Vegas once a year because they're there for a convention and whatnot. I don't know what the average age of a gambler. Atlantic City is, but I guess it's 117. And they are all of these old people with their oxygen tanks on a bus come down from New York with their Social Security checks. These are the people for whom COVID-19 is like a death sentence. Ah, how is Atlantic City going to work? Yeah, because it was already done. It was already struggling.
Sonny00:52:50But my understanding is that Atlantic. My understanding is that gambling in Atlantic City is basically already dead outside of like, you know, the revels, right? What are what are the wells, the wind? Oh, revels.
Vic00:53:02God revels. God, it's it's it's the the Borgata, the Borgata. And then the and then Tropicana 2.0, I guess. And Harris is still there, I think.
Sonny00:53:14And so wait, wait, did the did the Borgata sister casino? Because didn't they open like a second casino? Maybe they did.
Vic00:53:20There was the revel was there. The revel died. And and that was a huge property. So, yeah, I don't know. But that's that's that's that's the big question, JVL, because it's all bad across. It's all bad.
JVL00:53:33Yeah. So what what killed Atlantic City gambling was Pennsylvania and the Indian tribes in Pennsylvania and then New York, too.
Vic00:53:43And then New York did the same thing. New York.
JVL00:53:45But what that did was that sucked away, I would say, more of like the weekend crowd, the core, the people, the old. The old biddies on their buses coming down. Those people are still there. They just, you know, they only give you so much money. However, there are a lot of them and they will die. You know, they're there for the buffets. Like, how how is that going to work? How how is it? How is Mohegan Sun going to work? Right. These places where the clientele is much, much older. Oh, I don't know.
Sonny00:54:16Mohegan Sun was a was a little younger, I think. Right. Mohegan was a little different. I get that sense.
Vic00:54:21Yeah. Mohegan and. I don't know. You know, like, yeah, Foxwoods. Yeah. Yeah. Good luck.
Sonny00:54:26But like all the like Indian casinos in in California and all around there. Like, I just don't like.
Vic00:54:34Yeah. California.
Sonny00:54:34I don't know.
JVL00:54:36I mean, it would be nice if the white man didn't like kill the Native Americans with another plague. We've done that to their people once already.
Vic00:54:45Well, it didn't come from the white man, as you know, JVL.
JVL00:54:47OK, moving right along. Victorino. Corrections. Shout out.
Vic00:54:52Victorino. Corrections. Shout outs. Sonny, you already gave the shout out to Chris. Anything else? No. OK. And once again, thank you to Paul Crookston for that great ad read for Tommy John. OK. Well, that's all the time we're giving to this episode. Then questions, comments, complaints, compliments. Tweet us at Sonny Bunch at Victorino Matus. Again, be sure to subscribe to us on iTunes, Google Play or Stitcher. Just type in SubBeacon on a podcast. We're there. Leave a review. Tell your friends. Until next time. Sonny, I'm so glad you're in better spirits now.
Sonny00:55:38Yeah, I feel I feel better. I'm glad the lockdown is ending. You know, I'm gonna go get a haircut this week. It's exciting. I'm gonna wear a mask, get a haircut.
Vic00:55:47It'll be wild if you did the full thing, you know, got a haircut and then shaved your mustache and beard. That would be wild. You'd be a different person.
Sonny00:55:56I don't want to do that. How are you guys doing? I feel like we didn't really dive into the casino topic enough. I feel like we could. Is there anything else? I feel like, Vic, what are you going to do at a casino if you can't be the life of the craps table? Well, I mean, that's the whole point. Like, blow on my dice, lady. Just come on. Let's do it.
Vic00:56:14Vote for me. I know. I love. Vic for president. What I loved is going on. Oh, man. I mean, at some point, it'll all be. It's going on here. It'll come back. OK, it'll come back because because this is, you know, like the bubonic plague or some black death. We could get through this one. Careful. OK, fine. But, you know, it is what it is. But when it comes back, I loved, for example, when we were like on the on the standard cruises. And I remember that first one in 2005 and and playing craps. And I and I got on that hot streak and I think I went 15 or between 15 and 15. And 20 minutes before I crapped out. And I remember you remember that crazy. There was a crazy guy named Fast Eddie who was like a NASCAR guy. He wasn't even part of the standard cruise. And he and I made him like three thousand dollars, you know, in 15 minutes, you know, and everybody's everyone's cheering and, you know, everybody loves you. That's what it is for. I am not one of these people who like leave me alone. I want to hide in the corner and play a machine. So that but I mean, that is in my nature just to be around people. And that sort of positive energy. So I don't know.
JVL00:57:26I mean, you know, maybe when the person finally knows are a place where I often see positive
Vic00:57:30positive for me. And when I, you know, I imagine maybe what you could do is, you know, if you when you start rolling the dice, when you crap out, then you can just, you know, get new dice and which they always do anyway to throw things off when you're doing well. And then they can disinfect the other dice. That'll be fine.
JVL00:57:51I got a little something for you, boys. What do you got? Kind of funny. So, uh, so G Money has been, I would say, the least, least well adapted to lockdown life. Doesn't like it. Misses his little kinder preschool class.
Vic00:58:06I was going to say, so he still has a sort of a memory of like what that, you know, what
JVL00:58:11it's missing out on. Oh, yeah. Yeah. And he's like a pain in the ass who wants attention all the time because he's three. This is what, well, you remember, Vic, right? So we're, uh, we're doing breakfast for dinner as we do six or seven nights a week. And he is sitting on the deck the other night and I've just put him through the bath before breakfast for dinner and breakfast for dinner is waffles and sausage. And so, of course, his entire chest is coated in maple syrup, meaning we're going to have to do another bath before bedtime. He's sitting there and he goes, Dad, can I get some more syrup, please? I said, no, no, not getting you more syrup. Why not? I want more syrup. I said, because you look, your whole body is covered in syrup and he looks down and goes. Oh, and he takes his piece of waffle, just rubs it up and down his chest, pops it in his mouth.
Sonny00:59:03That's problem solving. Good for him. Like a monkey.
Vic00:59:06I'm sure it's fine.
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