Movie Crush: Janet Varney on Tron

I am so excited about this show. I'm so excited about episode one because Janet Varney, i gotta say, is probably the best Episode one guest and all the podcast history. She's a she's a pal of mine. I met Janet Um. I met Janet a few years ago at her comedy festival that she co created many years ago, Sketch Fest in San Francisco every January, and for for my money,

it's the best comedy festival in the land. And she's been kind enough to ask Josh and I'd have performed there for the past few years and it's become a little tradition for us. And Janet is just awesome. She is a very, very talented actress. She's a gifted improv comedian, and she's smart and funny and just as kind of a soul as you would ever hope to meet. So she was here shooting in Atlanta, so I had her

in the studio, which is great. She was shooting season two of her awesome, awesome show on if C, Stand Against Evil, which actually just premiered yesterday on i f C. Season two just premiered, so check that out. It's uh, it's a really great show. It's the It's Dana Gould's comic take on The Zombie Show, which, uh, if you haven't seen it, bene season one and then check out season two on i f C right now. Uh. So, anyway,

Janet was here shooting that. And the last thing that people want to do when they're shooting a TV show and the hot, hot summer of Atlanta, working a lot of nights, is to come in and record a silly old podcast. But Janet is a pal and very loyal person and friend, and so she was. She was great. She came in here, We killed it. We talked about the movie Tron, the original obviously from the Disney picture with Jeff Bridges and Bruce Box Lightner, Sindey Morgan, David Warner,

written and directed by Steven Lisberger. Way Ahead of its time. We both agreed, and um, this is episode one. And you'll notice here this was such an early episode that as we get started here, uh, in our conversation, I didn't even have a title for movie Crush yet. But then I did get a title from my good good friend in real life, Scott Ippolito. Scott's one of my best friends, and I threw it out to him and said, hey,

what should I call this thing? And I gave him the the idea and he went, how about movie crush? And it was just that simple. So we we talked a little bit about that at first, which was kind of fun. So here we go with Janet Varney and Tron. This show is so new, I don't have a title for it. This is very exciting. Should we just spend the whole time trying to figure out where the title is? Well,

it's funny. I was gonna call it like something dumb and on the notes, like my favorite movie, but then I was like, I don't want people to think it's my favorite movie? About what about what's your favorite movie? Notable person? And that's a bad title. So but all those variations of all those things were taken, and that's the thing about podcasting, and someone can do a show for a month eight years a go and it's sort of taken. Yeah, Like if you go to start something up,

they could always say, hey, I had that first story. Yeah, when I've started my podcast, uh, which is now and has always been the j V Club to the Public, which is one of the greatest names ever. By the way, that worked out. That worked out for me. I'm glad about that. But I was originally and maybe that's for the best, because this other I was going to call I was a teenage podcast with this sort of you know, like sixties era monster movie kind of theme to it.

But someone had a had had had a podcast where they did a handful of episodes a couple of years back called I was a teenage podcast. So I had to throw that away. Those people the worst, the ones that starts something and don't succeed, and then they're like give me, like all of us, like all of us at one point, all right, listen, here's some I do improve.

I surely can come up with some. My first instinct was to suggest Chuck's Flicks instead of chicks Flicks, like chick flicks, and then I thought it could be called chucks flux. That's they won't know what it just sings. My friend. I did ask my friend, who's great at titling things, and he said, what about the confession stand Oh, the concessions. But then that sounds like you really are

getting into it. Well, but it also sounds like it would be just about guilty pleasures exactly, like you have to confess that, and no one would confess like I gotta say, like the Godfather's my favorite, right, don't tell anyone? Yeah, something to say with pride. So I'm kind of big

ground at zero right now. I have no idea. And then I thought about something like like um Psycho Psycho's Godfather's and street cars named desire, like something big and grand that just sounds like the title of a book. Well then has a coal and after it, well, no, it was. There was that book about movies called Stole It. There was a book about seventies filming and called Easy Writers and Raging Bulls, which I was like, I can just rip that off, but I guess I can't because

that's the first said. And you don't even know the book. It's a coffee table book. Without me knowing it's a coffee table book. Well it later, okay, but what is your bringing that up? Because now that's just going to eat away and everything I would have said, I'm just going to only be thinking about. But now you're just gonna text me in the show I've got for sure, I'll come up with a and then I'll put it on a T shirt for you, like you did with

Benecker and his great dream joke, which we can't spoil. Uh, did you were you like, did you go to movies a lot when you were a kid, because I know a little bit about your life because of your own show in Arizona. Yeah, movies are very that's right. I guess they can finally talk. But did you go to

the movies a ton like I did? That's definitely one of the things that you can do in uh smallish city in Arizona when the summer is just brutal and there's nothing to be done outside really like literally exactly. I have so many memories of like just the fold out car, Like no one uses those anymore, I guess because windows are better, or maybe they still do in Arizona. Maybe you still have the sunshades that sort of opened. But we just had those folding we just like folding cardboards.

Some of them, the fore fancying made the car look like they were in sunglasses. Sure, sure, but that was vitally important, as was trying to find any place in the shade, because so many times I would get seatbelt burns. Would have you that's one of the highest places on the planet carpeted dashboards because of that. Yeah, two, there's I mean, those are the moments where you really do think, and you really think, how how I can barely survive here?

And we have all the technology and the idea that the only reason we're here is because people have been dealing with this heat for a couple of years, that that there's even survivable beyond you know, free having car shades. I imagine every time I drove to l A through that desert and then I would eventually get get cross over into the l A basin and that cool breeze hits. I used to think about, like the settlers, what they must have thought, those who pressed on, Yeah, like, well

this is clearly where I'm gonna live. But if you stop in Yuma and go I think this is the best we're gonna get. Guys, we're not going any further west, just a screw us. Yeah. So the movie theater obviously as a respite, Yeah, very much so, So you would go see whatever I feel like I would, I mean like we we dropped off by the parents, that kind of Yeah. I would get dropped off by my parents for sure. Um there you know. Then I would take the bus. I saw a lot of movies by myself.

Oh for sure that the public bus. Of the movies, yeah you bet, Um they're my My dad's house is right in between two malls that have movie theaters. So that was there's a really easy couple of straight line go twos on the bus to see movies. And um, and I have very I do have very specific memories of seeing certain movies and and I can sort of put them in context. And then there are other movies. I couldn't tell you bus movies not bus Well, no,

I don't think that, like for example, when I did. Um. Craig Atkowski has a podcast where it is just us talking about his movie. He likes to talk about his old list of his favorite movies and his wife Carlos on it and I, uh, because they go in order. I happened to Get Dead Poets Society. And that was

a movie that I could remember. I could remember everything about, like going into l con Mall and seeing it and then feeling that my life had changed, and I cried so hard that I had to wait until they were they kicked me out as they were sweeping their popcorn off. Um. That was a heavy movie for people that, like, you're a few years younger than me, but I well quite a few actually, Um, but just to be a teen or and or a young teen and seeing that movie,

that's like heavy stuff to process. Absolutely, you know. Yeah, although yes, and then I feel like shortly after that I got into like even darker stuff because you have to go through that phase in high school where well you sort of love a coffer for orange and yeah, and like eraser Head and all that kind of stuff. So and I'm having a lot of flashbacks to that era because of Twin Peaks coming back and have you been watching that? I have? What do you think? I mean?

I'm struggling with some of it. I'm I'm struggling deeply with some of it. Producer very into it, you're into it, the hook line and Sinker, including this last episode. Yeah, Well, I've been watching, and my whole deal is the Twin Peaks stuff I love and that's what it's like, five of it and the other stuff like is total Lynch, which is great and weird and awesome, but I kind of wanted Twin Peaks. Yeah, um, listen, I'll say Dougie all day long. I don't ever want I don't ever

want Colm McLaughlin to be anyone but Douggie. I love him so much. As I will watch, Yeah, I will watch the seven minute take of him eating potato chips, but I don't know if I can watch the seven minute take of X y Z all of these other things that he's throwing in that are just they're so long. Um. I just love lunch so much though, and like, I just want him to be doing this stuff, like, even if it doesn't resonate fully with me, just keep doing it.

I agree. I'm just I can't. Sometimes I feel like he's pranking us a little bit, and sometimes I feel like he's like they gave me final cut. I'm just gonna do this. I'm just gonna show this for five minutes because I can. Yeah, because I don't think it fully makes sense in his head in a narrative way. There are things that don't advance the story in any way, shape or form. And the dude is like, how old is he? And he's still that weird? Yeah, yeah, you didn't.

Interviewed him for Wired magazine and they sat down with him and they got on really well because Brandon asked really interesting questions and stuff like the questions that he was supposed to ask. Probably Uh so we got all this like fun backstory about David Lynch and the bird that lived in his on his roof and all of this kind of this and that the kind of stuff that you want to hear that you want to go,

Oh God, of course that's how his brain works. Um. But yeah, so lots of going to the movies when I was younger, lots of My dad is a huge movie fan, um, and he introduced me to a lot of movies that I certainly wouldn't have seen as young as I was had he not been like, I think you're ready for this. You know, what was your first do you remember that? I'm not sure. I'm not sure what it was, but I know that my mom took me to see Robocopy. You gotta be are there's no way,

that's not hard. There's some crazy violent stuff that happened were back then. Yeah, so I don't know. And then I and then she took me to Die Hard. Also, my Mormon mom, who did not television at home for some reason, wanted to take me to both of those movies. Yeah. Um, so those were probably, I mean, those have got to be the first our movies that I went to. I don't know if I had seen something at home before then,

but definitely those. Yeah. Mine was my dad took me to a war movie, the Big Red One, uh, which was good and fine, good World War two movie. And then the first one I ever saw, I think at all was Escaped from New York. And I was over at some friends house after church and they were putting it on and I called my mom to ask if it was okay adorable? What'd you say? Uh? Yeah, she said, because I had called. If she had said no, you think you would have been like, as I gonna go. Oh, now,

that's a good question. I mean I certainly then and was an m a rule follower, so I don't know what I would have done. I like to not walk through those stories. She said, yes, that's all that matter. Do you know she had a good kid. What a relief. But my dad, this is kind of really I can't believe I'm going to say this to people out loud. My dad took my sister to see Body Heat in

the theater, which I don't know. I can't imagine. My dad did not go to movies ever, so I've got to think that he had no idea what he was going to see. He's called body Heat. It's not like the Postman always wrings twice where you're like, oh, that could be anything. It's probably about male It's about the U. S. Mail system exact body heat. Yea, what do you think

it was like a thermal tracking soldiers tracking? Uh, yeah, I'm gonna have well, I would say I was asking about that one day, but I'm never going to ask him that. Maybe I ask my sister. I'll ask him. You want me to ask him? Why didn't he Why didn't he get up and leave the movie? Yeah? I actually got up and left during Greece too, during the scene where the girls were having to sleepover and their underwear.

My mom took me to see Grease and I was so like embarrassed, I said, Mom, can we leave even remember their underwear. I feel it wasn't just a jo it was I was Southern Baptist, I was on ankle, on ankle, there was a lot of refreshing going on. I didn't know what was going on. My dad let me watch Animal House and I was like, boobs, boobs. So your dad was cool, yeah, he Well, that's what's weird is he really didn't want me to see violent

stuff because he knew how sensitive us I was. But he was like, yes, sex is fine, it's silly, it's in you know, nomies, it's fine. Uh. And then my mom, who again Mormon, didn't have a television, somehow wanted to take me to see those two movies. I just don't to this day, I don't understand. You get the violence from your mom, I guess from your dad. Yeah, that's great as it should be. Yeah, the American way, everything was covered. So do you remember we're talking about Tron specifically, Yeah,

as your pick for all time favorite movies. And first of all, I'm really bad at ranking anything anything like Yeah, I mean, that's that's what the show. But some people really like going like I mean, again, using Craigs an example, he loves that he has this order that shifts and he plays with it and he kind of he knows it any giving care but it though, Yeah, that's true. Didn't that the point? Yeah, Like, no one can anyone's all time favorite movie on any given day, It's probably

gonna be different. I guess, Yeah, I guess so. But I do feel like there are people who take pride and kind of like it helps define me. This is my all time favorite movie, and for many is The Godfather? How many go? How many times are gonna have to talk about The Godfather? And are you going to tell people if that's your favorite movie of all time? We've talked about it three times already. Can you pick a different one? Yeah, I'm not. I'm not going to repeat movies.

I don't think unless it's unless there could be some like a fresh take right now. But it's funny that everyone I've asked so far as immediately been stressed out about the notion of picking one and then going public with that, because I think everyone does think it says something about them. Yeah, well that's I think. Could I if I really sat down and tried to pick something thing?

I mean, someone asked me. I think actually when I did a brief interview at the l A Podcast Festival where we have pointing to you because we saw each other there and you did my podcast. Um, I think I blurted out Harold and Maud because for a long time that was I would have I would have that would have been the situation, like from my teens into my twenty In my early twenties, I was proud to say that was my favorite movie cool and and I

still love it a lot. But um, but I think so I couldn't and I said that when I was interviewed. Then I was like, Okay, I'll put Harold and at the top of the list. I guess, but screw it. Yeah, I'm going. I'm going. I'm I'm gonna go with Tron because it's been important to me far longer and I I love it. Nerd dudes all over the world listening to this that are super excited that that's your favorite, Well, I probably will. You're probably also safe and that I

don't think anyone else will. It's not gonna be like, oh on again, is everybody's number one? Glass loves Tron? Um. I have a confession to make about Tron. Have you never seen it. I've seen Tron. I hated saw it this afternoon. You really it was the first time you've ever seen it. I don't know how I didn't see Tron. I never saw Tron. This is what a great first episode. I know. I loved the Arcade game. I played it obsessively, and I never saw the movie. Oh my god, this

is great. And I don't know why. I was trying to figure it out today. I was like, I've seen Tron, right, Yeah, it's like, yeah, the movie with the light cycles. But then it started to dawn on me. I never never ever saw Tron. Oh my god. So I watched it today in full uh, and we should talk about it. Okay, what was your first like Tron experience? Do you remember seeing it in the theater? I don't remember my first time seeing it. I really don't. I don't. I couldn't

tell you if I saw VHS. Um, well, I could have seen it in the theater. I mean it's a Disney movie number one, yeah, but I mean you know I would have. I mean I was what six, Um, I think I probably saw in the theater. And the reason is that like rocked my world. And so I can't imagine that I would have seen it on VHS for the first time. Um uh I. I maintain to this day that it was so far ahead of its time, so far ahead of time, and it is pretty peculiar

and amazing that it's a Disney movie. I think it's it's worth like it's of note for that reason and itself. Um I don't play video games. I'm not a game at all, so it has nothing to do for me with like I didn't I never played no No No. I mean I would play like handheld pac Man games, like at my friend's houses, and I played whatever, like PC learning games my dad got me that. We're like, I don't even think I had an Oregon trail that that was more advanced than I didn't even have Arizona

Trail truck. I'm talking about. The only thing you think of right now was a game called spell It that was a spelling game that involved a frog who the little tongue would come out and like lick it would lick and absorb the letters after you spelled something correctly. That was like your prize. How old were you? I mean it was little. This wasn't like fifteen years old.

I mean it was like, you know, when you're year old, two year old, maybe like this was when it was you know, still like it was shocking that there was any kind of a game to be played, So probably around six years old or something. Yeah, and liken' listen. Some of the words would get pretty tricky. I don't want you to think that it was like a sugar and cat frogs frogs are hungry maybe a long word. So, uh, arcade games that got you in there, not at all? No,

um No. I just loved the world of it. I loved I and to this like I would have dreams about it. I still sometimes have dreams about it. Yeah, that I'm inside the game grid um and uh. And I think part of the reason that I didn't play the arcade games is that because I saw the movie first, the arcade games were just see flat, two dimensional things, and the whole point was like, but no, that don't

understand these games exist for regular people to play. I'm a user, I should, but I should be inside the game. That's the only way I want to experience it. Is like viscerally with my cute uniform on. And uh and

I love the music. The music again totally ahead of its time and crazy and weird and great um and uh and without Now we'll get into the kind of the sentimentality of it, which was that my dad also loved it, and we would play this game at night like when yeah, when I was this is why you love trying to suck out, just closed the door behind me. We had um an alarm system in the house where you know, you have the motion detector and the little

red light blinks when there's motion. And then we also had like you know, everything digital, so like our micro wave was digital, or all our VCRs clocks, all that kind of stuff was digital. And that's all yeah, so

that's all great. So and our house was this little tiny three bedroom house, but it you could go in a complete circle around it, right, so you could come in the front door, you could go through the living room, turn left, go down the hallway where all the bedrooms were, go back into the back room, and then that reconnected with the kitchen that reconnected with the front room, so you can go in a full circle. And there was

there was zero atria nor koi pond uh. And so my dad would we would play this game where we were inside the game where we would turn off all the lights in the house, and he would when I was really when I was a little like I guess six or whatever, because I would have that's as little

as I would have been able to be. He would kind of hold me Superman style, UM, and we would like scoot around the house and we would be trying to avoid um Sark and like all the bad guys, and so if we were trying to creep past the motion detectors, I mean, listen, it was a great would be great training for me if I'd become an expert cat burglar. We would be we would kind of get as far as we could before we would see a

light and then we would see the red light. We'd be like they see us, the recognizers, and then we'd like run into the next room like like you know. And so to this day, I'm not afraid of that, Like I've never been afraid of the dark, because I only equate the total darkness with playing Tron And Yeah, and it was this like super great cool game that my dad made up that was legitimately like kind of scary and exciting, and it made me feel like I was inside that game grid And then at Disneyland, UM

we would go to Disneyland every summer. My dad would Um. We had friends who lived in La Canada, which is kind of like Pasadena area, and he would because of

the Arizona summers, he would wake me up up. He would he would take a nap, like he would sort of sleep for a couple of hours, and then he would get up in the middle of the night and wake me up and put me in a sleeping bag in the covered cab of our Dots and truck which was carpeted and uh, and he'd be like he would wake me up at you know, say two or three in the morning, say like, miss Jay, are you ready

to go to Disneyland? And I was like and then and so then I would get into the car and fall asleep, and then I would wake up and we would be almost there, and then I would kind of clamber through the little window and then come sit with my dad and um, and then we would get there.

And then at Disneyland they had the people Mover, which one little tiny sliver of the People Mover was that you would go inside this kind of room that they had just put Yeah, they just all it was was movie screens, but you would be on the people mover and then suddenly you would be on the game grid and they recognized were coming, almost squash you, and then you would go inside the light cycle maze. So again, no interest in the arcade game I did. I was like,

I just want to live here full time. So, um, those are all like very they're very deep embedded childhood memories for me. And uh, but but there's nothing about the movie now when I watch it, it means every bit as much to me. There's no There are plenty of movies that I loved that I can't. I can sort of go, what does it hold up? I'm not able to see if it doesn't hold up, Like you just watched up for the first time. So your experience was your experience, and I totally respect that. But I

it's I mean, I've brainwashed myself. I've still watched it and think, God, this is ahead of its time. God, this is good. It's so good. Well it was ahead of its sign because it was in a little research today it is um it was one of the very first movies to use computer animation at all. And who's

the director. The director is Stephen Liz Burger. Oh you nailed it earlier, Peter, I think, ye the Giants Stephen Lisberger and he, uh, it was kind of a not kind of it was a passion project for him, like he thought of this world and was ahead of his time and couldn't get anyone to make it and like sunk his own money into like test shots, and we took it around to the studios and was like, look at what I have. Look at this amazing thing. And

I was like, man, I don't know about that. And finally Disney took a flyer and said, all right, we'll give you like ten million bucks or whatever, which was huge because he wasn't in the Disney clan. He was an outsider. And he said he always felt that way too, which is kind of sad. But um, it was way ahead of its time and no one knew what they

were seeing. Like now, for someone like me to watch it who's never seen it before, sure it might look dated, but it also looks modern in a weird way, you know, like especially the stuff with the and I didn't know, but they really shot in black and white the characters and did this rotoscoping process and that because of how they had to do it painstaking. That ends up looking kind of cool. Now, yeah, it looks fantastic and all the way the city lights up at the I mean,

it's all so wonderful. Also collect these um these like at some of the kind of like hipster like Japanese toy shops. Uh, when I was well there, you know there are they exist in like San Francisco and Los Angeles and you know some of the kind of certainly

on the western coast cities. Um there was a place in San Francisco that's sold the They're called Kubrick of course, um just I'm saying that because of course it's named after something also equally like Nichian hip where they would do these limited edition lines of toys from beloved movies like that, and so they I have these really cool they almost look like um like mobile like m I is the um um O b I L or those or those little people. It's just a little kind of

like Lego people. So they sort of do look like Lego people, but you know they're in their uniforms and then there's a great but but the design is so great and there's this great UM. I wish I if we were in l A, I could have brought it with me. But there's a recognizer that you can you can pop the legs off and then turn the legs inward in the center so you can make it into like the there's a tank that's really beautiful. But they're

just so well done and well made. I have the whole set of the Kubrick stuff, and then I have like a scattering of the original toys that look more like you know, Star Wars figures or whatever. Um, yeah, and I have I mean that's a that's a good go to gift someone stuff. Yeah, And they did this

really cool. They had it. They showed it at the Arrow in Santa Monica years ago in Los Angeles and and Stephen the director was there, and then one of the producers and um and uh, I think Bruce box Lightner was there, and for sure what's her name the woman was there and Cinny Morgan was there, and so they all kind of talked and traded stories and talked about it. Oh, it was so cool. And they had

a couple of you know, costumes from there. And and I hate Tron legacy, like nothing that came after Tron. Do I have any respect for what's it? Well, I didn't see Tron Legacy, and I didn't I think there was even a TV show. I'm not sure. Yeah, there was something in between that between the two main big Tron movies. But see, now that I've seen Tron at all, the idea I know what the idea of Tron Legacy was. It seems like a great idea that like this this

Jeopard his son has now come back. Now. Yeah, and it doesn't even look I can't. I can't. I didn't capture the spirit of the original at all, and not to me. To me, it's just this sort of empty, soulless. It just doesn't feel like and it doesn't do anything from me at all. I see why they did it, though, you know, like Tron was so out of its time, and like now they have the technology and to make a new and I like Garrett Headlin. Yeah, um, but

I don't know. I mean I never saw it because I didn't see But also and I saw it only once I saw it, I'll Copy Town. I mean I went, I went hoping it would be great. You know el copy Town you don't know was on Hollywood Boulevard and it's Disney's big theater and they have sometimes live that you came in fourhand. It's really it's a beautiful place, um, and that was the right thing to do to see it there. I can barely remember what it was about out front. I wish I bet no, No, I don't

think they had. They might have had some costumes from the then who cares because it's from the new stuff. Why is ass enough? Right? Jeff Bridges character, he returns in different variations of himself stuff. Yeah, and uh, he's humorless from what I can remember. And Olivia Wild, Olivia Wild, she's lovely but like she's everybody was just humorless. And

that was the I mean, the whole point. So much of Tron is Jeff Bridges being a complete why that smart, infuriating sark, which I mean obviously that's um played by uh, don't tell me um David. Yes, I always forget his name, even though I love him and he's one of the great bad guys. Yeah, A Man with Two Brains is very close to the the top of my favorite movie. But if you have a podcast, Sam Levine and that is

his favorite. So I really struck that from the list because I knew Sam would want to talk about with two Brains. I could talk about that all day long. Um year, you know, yeah, David, No, no, no, it did not. Dead Men Don't Wear a Platt came out that year. Sorry I can't remember his last name. David Warner.

David Warner, of course, one of the one. And you know what's so freaky is, I don't know if you do this, but you go back and watch some of your favorite movies and then you think, wow, I'm older than them when they meant this for sure, So Bridges in box lightn or we're both around thirty one ish when they made it. David Warner, it was five years

younger than me. He was one years old ancient in that Yeah, of course he did in our brain because we were kids and now and I even watched it today, I was like, I look at that old, creepy guy, these five years younger than me. Oh my god. Well he he also has one of those faces where you're like, oh, you're sixty twenty year old, and he wasn't you'll get their cargo short? Wasn't it? Absolutely not? Absolutely not? And then the and then the guy who plays Ram, and

then when Ram dies, yeah, it just still makes me cry. Yeah, and the whole weird, the the whole idea of technology and and like the gods and that sort of playing with that kind of like theology, the idea that there would be information living inside a computer that would be you know, that would be intelligent enough to question where itself came from and putting all of this faith in

the people who created it. And I mean, it's just fascinating. Well, that was sort of the great fear I think at first when you know, computers became a thing, But now it's sort of a legitimate fear. You know, robots becoming sentient master control program man. Yeah, like that's kind of a thing now. It was ahead of its time, but um, what's kind of struck me A couple of funny things. Um, on that note, twin is it? Who is the main?

Was it? Sark was talking to the David Warner character and kind of explaining MCP, that master Control program is the main And then Sark is like his lackey kind of MP is just you can just a little confusing because I played CP. You just hear you hear that deep scary voice, but then you see it as like a computer grid face and yeah, oh, I also have the toy of that. It's so cool. But um, a

couple of funny things. One is he said that, um, he was getting involved with the Kremlin and uh who else the Kremlin and the Pentagon because he said that he could design things, uh nine hundred to twelve hundred times better than any human. I just love that number range. Yeah, like between nine times better. Uh. And the other thing was the beginning and the end of the movie is so weird and abrupt. How the movie starts it just you know, it says Flynn's Arcade, which is in Culver

City by the way. I don't know if you've ever been by that building, the whole building. Um, that's where they shot the exterior. And um, it starts with just a dude playing the Tron game, and then it goes in on the Tron game and then you're in the Tron game, and then it just starts and then and then it says literally says like and meanwhile in the real world, and then this Jeff Bridges and you're like, oh, who is this guy? And then when the movie just

it just ends like they're in the computer world. They have the big climax fight and then uh, he gets out of a helicopter at the end and joins box Lightner and Sydney Morgan. They're like, they hug, and that's the end of the movie. I'm of there's the big climax is definitely in side of the game, and that's

what the movie him come back out. And then when he comes back out, we see that he's successfully gotten all the information that's printing out very slowly on the loud printer, and then David Warner sees that no, it didn't. Then it's like he's toast and then it's like, hey, we better the boss is coming, and you're right, it's Jeff. Don't strike me as bad filmmaking. It struck me as such a thing of its time period, like to where movies would end with just everyone like high fiving and

that's it. Now we have now we've been tainted in the other direction by too many false endings. For you're like, wait a minute, this movie, every every scene now for the last twenty minutes has felt like the last scene Tarantino, let's keep a clean, let's get in, get out, And then as the lights go down in the city, not to quote a Journey song, then how much it looks like what else that happened in the whole building. David Warner pretty is pretty far with through anyone. Well, Senny Morgan,

you know, I know her from Caddyshack. She's a fox us as Lacy Underhalls, which wow, I couldn't get away that today. Uh oh. And then the other thing I thought was neat was income as the name of the company is like kind of one of the great evil villain companies of all time. I think, Yeah, it sounds like it could be anything, and that's what's so great and terrifying about it. Yeah, I mean that's kind of the key store and just all the stuff they're working on.

The whole idea that you could, you know, use lasers to break down the atom to the point where you could shoot it through space. I mean, that's a little bit Wanta vision too. That's another movie I could have probably said everything everything goes back to being a young a young person, like I don't. I think, I'm so, I'm so connected to that unbridled passion that feels kind

of unmatchable as Yeah, I can't. So those I think those are all the movies that I really go back to, because when I think about movies, I mean, you know, after I saw in Bruges, I was like, this is my favorite movie. And then I saw another movie that I felt was my favorite movie. A year later, I was like, no, this is my favorite movie. But you know, and Bruges is in there, the Ice Storm. I still

think it is like made. There's artistically, you know, intact and you know, brilliant movies that would also be kind of in my list. But I like to say, like I have a top It's like I have twenty five top five movies. Yeah, you know you have like you get twenty five, but they're all part of your top five. But I did to think of a segment today that I'm gonna do for everyone, which is, oh, you asked me to remember some think about maybe something more like

guilty Pleasures. We'll do that later, okay, And by later, I mean okay, uh, this is a segment. Maybe we'll getting old to do some cool music for this called what Ebert said this movie is a complete okay, all right, because I thought he's awa. I mean, there's plenty of legendary film critics, but he's always been my favorite. Absolutely he gave well what do you think? First of all? Now,

do you have any idea Listen. I want to believe that he was on board and that he understood how special and important it was, and that he thought to himself, Janet Varney will one day name this is her favorite movie. But I don't feel like it got particularly good reviews, and I don't think it did particularly well, so I and he was pretty influential at the time, so I'm prepared for him to have given it a thumbs down.

Eber loved it. He gave it four stars and a thumbs up, and he says, uh, it was a technological sound and light show that is sensational and brainy, stylish and fun. Oh good, And then he went on to rape about the special effects. He said that the holy imaginary worlds of Toron are so cleverly composed that I never ever got the sensation that I was watching some actors stand in front of or in the middle of special effects. Never And I think you see that so

much more today. You can really feel the sort of flatness because you can do anything and screen. It's really hard. Yeah, No, I felt like I can't again. I feel like they were all there, They were all there living in that world. They're starting to get it right though, Like did you see the Jungle Book? Yes, yeah, like that was amazing, It really was. But for a while they're people kind

of went nuts. Well even still, even with like Fantastic Beasts, for example, I just I feel so strongly that I can see like Eddie Redmain sort of looking at his finger where something is supposed to be, and I just I'm so aware it's not there. I'm so painfully aware it's not there. I don't know about that finger scene, but well, I know what you're talking about. Like when there's a lot of mystical fun toy things around, Well,

the eyelines never right. It's always, even with all the technology they're of, just enough to where it looks like the Three Company episode where Jack's twin visits, you know, which I don't think it ever happened. Um. And the lasting here is I looked up the movies of nineteen eighty two mainly because I was like, why didn't I see this? What was I going to see? So I can know now what was what else was two? Well? Yeah, and it's is a powerhouse of stuff. Well, movies back

then we're amazing. Yeah, and this is just like when you look at the list of movies that are out in seventeen and then this list. It's it makes you want to cry because two Blade Runner, Ship Et the Thing, Fast Times to Reach My High, Poultergeist, Wrath of con Tutsie hands down. Probably Blade Runner to Tutsie was just a a March release in nineteen eighty two. It wasn't like Oscar season's coming up, like that's where it would be slotted today. Is blowing my mind? Uh did I

say Fast Times, Reach High? Forty eight hours, Officer and a Gentleman Annie? Oh my god? First Blood very big for me, The Dark Crystal Gandhi Rocky three. Never say Rocky three was very big for me, but I did see Rocky three. That's where my priorities. Like, I mean, there are a couple of movies that I wouldn't say, like, oh my god, this is so great, but they were big for me, Like this Beast Master was it was great.

But then Sophie's Choice World according to Garp, my favorite year, the Secret of nim Diner year, Like this is just a smattering. This isn't all the movie crazy in Hollywood in the early eight I mean I could comfortably pick some of my all time favorite movies. Just out of that, you could stop Blade Runner, Et The Thing and Poultergeist, and you could say, and no other movies were made that year, and it would be like one of the great years. The Thing I just saw on the big

screen at the arc Light and it beyond holds up. Yah, that's amazing and super gruesome. Yeah, really gross. John Carpenter the Man. Yeah, and well he did all his still does all his on music. It's great. Yeah. Um, any finishing thoughts on Tron, I love it, thumbs up, I love you, Tron. I know that you're a movie even though you were also a character in the movie named Tron. But I just wanted I mean I was for the

longest time. I was like, if I have kids, I'm naming my kid Flynn, no matter whether it's a boy or No. I wouldn't name that no, because I really love m Yeah, that'd be a funny name. Michael Chadwick Peterson. It's just so good. I could call him MCP. That would be a pretty slick move. Um. But Tron was a character, but also the name of the security system, that's right, the box lightner was program. Yeah, exactly, No, one just got up and I walked in. My walked

He's done. That's what was confusing to me a little bit about the movie, So all the different characters playing, but that's It's like, but that's what it's about, dumb. It was invented the program Tron, so that's what Tron looked like. Tron looked like his user, and then Flynn designed a ton of stuff. So that's why I like when you go inside the beginning of the movie in the tank, that's Flynn too, because he designed that program

in the tank. What about this scene with when they when Cyndy Morgan and when Lacey under als and and the scarecrow. First he was a scarecrow, right, he was? He certainly wasn't as scarc I never saw that show, but I just did the match real quick, like, um, they walk in the first time they go to see Jeff Bridges or Flynn, excuse me, and he's so overly sweaty from playing the video game. At first, I was like, is he really that sweaty? Because the armpit sweats like

out to his chest. Then his chest was sweaty through the shirt. It's like, why are they doing that? And he goes up and takes off his shirt, and I was like, I think that's exactly why they did it. Yeah, he takes off one shirt and puts on a different shirt and they're both Flynn's video game like it's it. But he takes it off in front of her because

they used to date. And then he had that sly line about leaving the house messy or whatever, and then she practically shoves Bruce box Lighter on the couch because of the quip about her leaving her house messy relationships? Am I right? I say that Toron is a go to to understand relationships between the two people who care about each other. No, probably not, but maybe between man and computer, between man and computer, between a bit and a program for that a little bit. No, Janet Varney,

thanks for coming into the pleasures. Yeah, yeah, you're right. You've been doing this podcast for one hour in life and you don't remember the bold I have clothes with guilty pleasure? All right, what's your guilty pleasure? Let program? Well, I did think about it because I didn't want it to be a thing. Listen, First of all, how dare you? And I said that in our text too, I said don't you even pretend like my favorite movie can also be a guilty pleasure. I will never call it a

guilty pleasure. But I was trying to think because I thought, I want to want to have some pretentious luck like you said, where someone's like, my guilty pleasure is the Godfather. Shut up. Um. But it's kind of hard because I don't have a lot of the like, oh, I know. This is the same with reality television stuff like that. I can't. I don't find that I have a lot of like this is delicious, and I know I shouldn't, but here I watch, you know, I feel I get

really impatient with stuff that this isn't good. So I was trying to think of things that, um, that I would watch anyway, and I think I actually wrote a couple of them down. I know for sure that recently on planes, I can't stop watching movies about horses, which was never something I cared about, but all of a sudden, Sea Biscuit seems like the best movie I've ever seen. I watched Secretariat. Secretariat. They didn't have well, this is Delta, and they have some old movies that you can watch.

I hadn't gotten to the horse Whisper, which I've never seen. I probably won't watch war Horse, but suddenly suddenly I need, like, uh, feel good horse movies when I'm on a plane, because I'm too tired to enjoy anything else. So feel good horse movies. Apparently that's a new thing. Um. And then I also admitted to like beauty. Did you see that? When you're a kid? Give a crap? I didn't give a crap about horse movies. I did see The Black Stallion.

I barely remember it. Last Unicorn. That was a tough one. Um, I will always, but I did, especially because I know you like Jaws so much. I feel the same way about Jaws. And I will see no but a shark movie, not Sharknado, not like intentionally campy shark movies. But I will give almost any shark based movie a chance. And I love the movie Deep Bluesy. I love it. I love it. I've watched it. I've seen it so many times. If it's on I will watch it till the end.

I love it. I liked how unabashedly schlocky it was. Yeah, it knew what it was and so it camped out in a good way. But it was genuinely, still very scary to me, even though the sharks got smarter because they were injecting them with some sort of growth hormones that they could cure Alzheimer's. That's a side effect the shop Scott smart. The sharks got smarter, Chuck. That was

the big pull line from the trailer. I remember that, and I was so star struck when uh, my friend Oscar, uh, we were going to dinner with Oscar and Ursla, or are dear friends of ours? And he said, I hope you don't mind, our friends are gonna be joining us. And it was the shark. It was the shark. No, it was Saffron Burrows. And I I said, I in a million years, I never thought I would meet Saffron Burrows. Not a person that I think I traveled the same

circles with. Its very excited that I got to meet Saffron Burrows and it was everything you thought. It was wonderful. Yeah, she's just great. That was her line, wasn't it The sharks smart? Yeah, she made those sharks smarter, she made those she put us all at risk. She got Sam Jackson munched. That's a great moment that was snatches him I feel that that moment. I can't think of having seen that anywhere before that movie, and I feel like

I've seen it a million times since. Yeah, and like Snakes on a Plane was a direct descendant of of Deep Blue Seed. Yeah, because I think Deep Blue Seed, I don't. I don't think they were. Was that Renny Harlan is it? Was it? Gosh, I don't know if it was. It might be I might be making that up. It was not Stephen Lisberger because he didn't direct anything else. Yeah, he was like a Silicon Valley nerd who just went right back to do with a couple of things. His

claim to fame was animaniacs before. That's how he got a little juice in the industry. Oh yeah, Animaniac scread and dough swinging Johnson. So anyway, those are a couple of my pusure geldy pleasures. And I also, um, this is probably too far on the side. This popped in my mind. It was the first thing that popped in my mind. And I and that doesn't mean that it's accurate, But for some reason, the first thing I thought it was Intolerable Cruelty with Love, that movie with Kevin Zada

Jones and and George Clooney. And I think the reason I classify it as a guilty pleasure is because I somehow know I'm supposed to not like it because it's not full Cohen Brothers. Yes, and so I'm I've been told it's terrible, do you know what I mean? Like the society has told me it's terrible, unlike over the worl out there or whatever, and so but that's so, that was what the first thing that popped in mind.

I love that movie. Yeah, I don't like when people I think there's two Cohen Brothers tears, and I love that second tier when they're clearly just having a good time making a comedy. I love those movies, yeah, like Intolerable Cruelty and the one I really love is uh Man with with Brad Pitt and Cluney Burn. After reading Burn, after reading I think that I think I hated that

when I saw it, and now I like it. And I didn't love Hale Caesar, And I'm wondering if in a couple of years maybe I'll love that too, because maybe it I was fine with it. Yeah, would that it were that simple? Is like maybe laughed so hard so good. But think is another one where I'm like, is that one of the all time greatest movies probably probably has one of the all time greatest endings of any movie about an ending. Yeah, and that I saw that. That that's kind of one of my friends and minds

from college favorite movie. So we watched it saw in the theater, then watch it obsessively in college. And he went on to be friends with Tony Shalub, who, like in real life, I r L and he was so good in that yea, so good. Yeah and that little part and everything. How do you feel do you feelers went well? I think let's have a postmortem on on camera. It went great. I might do a little solo postmortem, not tonight because I have to go to bed, because

it's like, um no, I think it went great. The pilot episode like how I jammed in like eight of my other favorite movies, and so I think that's kind of takes them. I still was the first one to say, yeah, that's kind of the point though. Screw you. Sam Levine's right, Sam Man with Two Brains is really great. I could quote the hell out of that movie. You know, kind of a real dork, what for that? Movie. Yeah, I just on my favorite movie that everything I'm naming is

just so dorky. But well, you went after tron Hard and now that I know the whole story behind it, like it's really it's a it's a real thing. Yeah, it's I get it. You weren't seeking a NERD credit or anything like that. No, no, no, let's ask you to back off that for a second. Untrue. Um no, this is great, all right. Well, thanks for coming in, Janet Barney for sure number one. Thanks Chuck, here I go, I guess, I guess. I ran away only after the dr was closed. Man, that was just I'm just so

excited about the show. That could not have gone any better. A new Janet was a great choice as guest number one because she's, um, well she's a professional podcaster herself and does interviews herself, so she knows how to how to keep the conversation going like a real pro. So, um,

that was just a lot of fun. Janet. Her feelings on tron were, Um, I was kind of wondering what to expect on why that was her favorite pick, and it was very heartwarming to know to me that that was a movie that she and her dad uh, bonded over and it was a very special film from her childhood because of the cute little Tron game that she used to play with her dad. So as we go on with Movie Crush, I think it'll be super interesting to see, uh, sort of the why behind why people

pick these favorite movies. And I suspect that moving forward, we're gonna get quite a few that have a lot of sentimental value, and that is certainly the case with Janet here in Tron and Stand Against Evil, guys, I am so excited. I love season one. Janet is so funny and it everyone's just great. And season two actually premiered yesterday, uh in real time, So November one premiered on i f C. Check it out Stand Against Evil

season two. It's wonderful, and check out j V Club, the j V Club podcast where Janet interviews um people about their embarrassing high school years. It's really really good show. So thanks to Janet for her time and until next week, Well would kill you to spare a little popcorn? Maybe? Movie Crush is produced, edited, engineered, and scored by Noel Brown from our podcast studio at Pond City Market, Atlanta, Georgia.