#259 Crossing The Streams Needs A Lawyer (Bonus Ep69) – Great TV binge watching suggestions!

CTS Announcer 0:01

Looking for your next TV show or movie to binge? Well buckle up, grab the remote and settle into your couch for this special edition of crossing the streams. We're here to help you tune in and get the most out of those 50 monthly streaming channels you're currently paying for. So without any further ado, here's your host of crossing the streams. Jeff Dwoskin.

Jeff Dwoskin 0:29

Hey, oh, it is Hi, Jeff Dwoskin, your host of classic conversations and your guide through this bonus episode of crossing the streams. What is crossing the streams? It's where we answer the universal question. What should I binge watch next? I just watched something and now I gotta watch something else. Well, you've come to the right place. We have over 120 hours streaming on our YouTube channel of binge watching suggestions. This bonus episode brings together three segments from three of those live shows we got from the Live episode 64, Jim and Andy the great beyond we got from Live episode 76 Though Lincoln Lawyer and from Live episode 77 Hustle crossing the strings is me and my co hosts and guests that we come together and we just talk about great stuff that we're watching so that you can check it out. Also, let's kick the show off from Live episode 64. Jim and Andy the great beyond Bob Phillips is going to take us through this one. Take it away, Bob. This next one Jim and Andy the great beyond will be served. Bob Phillips Bob, you just tell me when to put that up.

Bob Phillips 1:39

Okay. All right. So, so there's a little bit of a backstory to why I loved this documentary. First of all, let me say that this movie is like Inception, in that it is Jim Carrey talking about himself. And archival footage of him playing Andy Kaufman in man on the moon, as well as Tony Clifton, this fictional character who Kaufmann invented to do all this crazy sideline shit, you know that he that he didn't want to do himself? So I've been an Andy Kaufman fan my whole life. I mean, it's just I will, I will always remember you know, being like 14 and then seeing him on SNL just singing the Mighty Mouse theme. It was like, what what is going on here? What is this and I was just transfixed by this guy, and then the whole, you know, his whole stand up and the crazy appearances he had on talk shows and then the wrestling and then when he wound up being on taxi, playing Latka gravis, you know, one of the greatest characters in television history. Well, if you've seen man on the moon, which is one of my favorite movies, Milos Forman directed it and it's such an Jim Carrey just plays Andy Kaufman to a tee. I mean, if anybody and nobody could, nobody could play it completely. But he was the only one that could get 90% Right. So this documentary is about the making of the movie and all the outtakes and all the archival footage that According to Jim Carrey, the studio wouldn't let be shown on any outtake reels because everyone would think Jim Carrey, quote, unquote, is an asshole because he spent the entire movie in character, you know, the whole method thing. Ordinarily, I don't have any patience for listening to actors talk about their process and all that other happy horseshit. It's like look, you're pretending to be somebody for a while big deal. Get over it. But whatever Jim Carrey did to make himself feel and operate as Andy Kaufman. He that worked so I appreciated that. Well. Like I said, it's kind of it's it's so meta. It's double, its triple meta, it's triple meta probation. I don't even know how to describe this. It's him talking about and see, you see all the crazy shit. He's pulling on the set of the set of taxi as Andy Kaufman, but it's not Andy Kaufman. It's Tony Clifton. And it's Jim Carrey playing Tony Clifton, right. So you really have to there's this there's these levels, you got to kind of back out of and go back into to realize how ludicrous and how funny how absolutely outrageous. This is. The character that I loved so much that that Andy Kaufman played was Tony Clifton. And everybody else loves you know, locka Gravis the lovable sort of I don't know yeah foreign foreign it was based on his foreign man character that he you know, he didn't have you didn't really really know where he was from uses some some some Eastern Bloc country whatever it was Kauffman in order to get things done in his own career invented Tony Clifton Who is this asshole lounge chair This loudmouth, no talent moron who did Andy's bidding. He would, you would literally go off as somewhere as Tony Clifton and tell everybody and Kaufman I'm gonna go to Hawaii for two weeks and then Tony Clifton would surface in Vegas, right? And be this this jerk you know, entertainer who was just a just had no talent at all it was just terrible. But he was making headlines on his own now the thing that was so brilliant about Kaufman and here we are, we're talking about coffin even though the movie is about carry playing Kauffman right? You gotta you gotta kind of back in and out of it. So the thing that was so brilliant about it is that Kaufman for those that don't know, the Tony Clifton story, I'm going to abbreviate it key demand that he wanted to get out of playing Latka Gravis so bad because he was and he was a performance artist. He didn't want to be on a sitcom, he got fame and fortune. And then he's like, Okay, I'm gonna blow this up. Like I've done everything else. I'm gonna sabotage my career. And he invented Tony Clifton, to hold ABC hostage. And what he said was if he was going to play another season as laka gravis, then Tony Clifton, who was supposed to be the separate person was guaranteed a role on tax. So only one or two people knew that Tony Clifton was in fact, Andy Kaufman. So all this stuff that was written into a contract for this person was was nonsense. He didn't exist. Well, you've seen if you've seen my man on the moon, you've seen my all time favorite scene where Tony Clifton comes on the set of taxi with two hookers and just blows the place up, doesn't give a shit doesn't care. He's literally trying to get fired so that Andy can leave the show, right? Because if Tony doesn't get a part on the show, Andy is free to leave. So I'm not going to tell anybody what happens there. If you haven't seen the movie, you can find out for yourself back to the the the meta meta meta that's going on here. Like I said, I've never liked listening to actors talk about their process. I just it makes me crazy. But this is a fascinating show, because Kerry is playing it absolutely straight. There's no winking, he's not winking at all. And in the documentary or in his method acting on the set of Man in the Moon, everything is done very methodically, and for real, so for good, or ill, you know, he's, he's carry when he needs to be carry in this in this documentary. But for the most part, he's Andy Kaufman playing these other people. So this is sort of a side story. I brought this up to Jeff who has, and by the way, Jeff, and I and Sal done so many stand up shows together, and so many different venues over the last 20 years. I mean, I can't even remember them all. But when I watched this movie, again, I remembered that in 2018, I actually played Tony Clifton. And at the time that I say 2018 2008, yeah, 14 years ago, I played Tony Clifton at the International Detroit International Comedy Festival. I did it because I was upset with the way this and Jeff and Sal knew how this thing was run. I told the organizers You should have called this $35 entry fee. Because that's all it was for you know, and all the out of town. People got the big you know, the best times and that the best venues and I was stuck at the magic bag, doing nine o'clock on a Sunday. I don't remember it was so I thought you know, I'm not gonna go and I'm not gonna do 10 minutes of stand up. I'm gonna go I'm gonna be an asshole. So I was I went out and I bought the outfit. And I spent two weeks method acting. Everybody in my office was like, Okay, enough. hated myself. But I sang for larae I sang I will survive. I was I made this huge scene at the theater. I'm throwing water in a friend's face. I had I had a security guard come and get me off the stage. So I could, you know, do something that Kauffman did. I was obviously playing and it was it was a much watered down version. It was not an original play on my part, but it was fun. And I uncovered some pictures that Jeff Why have to show. That's, that's backstage at the magic bag. Hey, by the way, Jeff, thanks for finding these. That's me and my idiot costume and Jeff looking bemused. Like, what are what are we doing here? What's what's going on? The one on the right. I used to smoke a long time ago and I smoked on stage as Tony Clifton. You know with a bourbon and a water in my hand and those are my two musicians one played mandolin and the other played guitar, so I just had a blast with it. I've always been obsessed. So with Tony Clifton my whole life and certainly my comedy career, but I'm going to put a bow on it by saying this, watch this documentary, because it may be it may be the only one I've ever watched about actors being accurately where I liked hearing what I heard. And I believe that and I didn't think oh, you're off. It's awfully shit. It all makes sense. Carrie is is an absolute genius. He always has been. That's, that's all I can say.

Ron Lippitt 10:31

Do they? I'm looking forward to seeing

Bob Phillips 10:32

it. Do they show clips of taxi? Yes. Yeah, they show? Well, they show clips of the few clips of the actual taxi show. But they show it's mostly clips of carry in character as Kaufman and Latka on the set of taxi in man on the moon or as Tony Clifton. So like I said, it's, you know, you're going in and out of reel and taped. And it's just, it's a great hour and a half. Bobby, will

Ron Lippitt 10:59

you explain something to me? So I've love Man in the Moon. I think that's just an amazing

Jeff Dwoskin 11:06

movie. Great.

Ron Lippitt 11:08

I loved it. Will you explain the final scene? He's gone? Tony's back on stage. Yeah.

Bob Phillips 11:14

Well, what what do I think happened? Okay.

Ron Lippitt 11:19

I'm sure most of most

Bob Phillips 11:23

Well, I mean, remember that Kaufman was, was a trickster from the get, you know, he was always subverting your expectations. So I think the movie was just sewing sort of paying homage to that and, and in a very light hearted way, saying, hey, you know, maybe he's

Ron Lippitt 11:42

gone, right? Yeah, maybe it's just a big goof.

Bob Phillips 11:45

Maybe it's just big goof but that guy who played Clifton was his buddy Bob's Muda. And I think you know, I just that I think that moment was just sort of created to give a nod to Andy's career, which was always what the hell did we just see? Right? Right. That's my opinion.

Jeff Dwoskin 12:07

Yeah, I always heard that they the mood did it to keep up the Izzy Izzy, not dead.

Ron Lippitt 12:14

And he still played amazingly, by Paul Giamatti was

Bob Phillips 12:19

great. The nightclub scene is just so achingly funny, where you know it Tony Clifton's yelling at him. You know, I'm up and down on the water. I mean, it's just he just assaults him, you know? Anyway, so that's my, that's my take. See that? That documentary?

Ron Lippitt 12:44

And I love to also Danny DeVito his characters the manager, because then, like Danny was trying to understand he knew he had talent in front of them. He just was understanding what exactly this thing was. Yes. Right. And he

Bob Phillips 12:56

was always bemused. Like what wait what I'm out

Jeff Dwoskin 13:00

great job Bob. That was awesome. I think I started to watch that once and I'm gonna go back and watch it I

Bob Phillips 13:09

started to and then stop because I thought it was going to be a bullshit actorly thing. And then I watched it again and was glad that I did

Jeff Dwoskin 13:21

all right, and I promise you I was there Bob Phillips made a an amazing Tony Clifton. I'll post a photo so everyone can see it. All right, up next from Live episode 76. Ron live, it's going to take us through Lincoln Lawyer Lincoln lawyers Season Two just debuted this was a review during season one. So if you haven't started the show yet, this will hopefully tip you in that direction. Take it away, Ron. There we got Lincoln Lawyer. The Lincoln Lawyer is gonna take it.

Ron Lippitt 13:52

This is you know, I will tell you, I went into this series. Not expecting a lot. Now. Did any of you guys have you Anybody seen that? I never heard of it. I've watched it. What's interesting about this is that first off, it's off of a best selling book from 2008. But not the book itself. The sequel to the book, which is what the series is based off of, which then rolled into the movie, The Lincoln Lawyer, which starred Matthew McConaughey and William H. Macy. And, and did did okay. It wasn't it didn't crush, but it was a pretty good movie. And you would think that two books and a movie would be quite enough, right? But then CBS Viacom picks up the rights to the series, which was executive produced by David E. Kelly. And for those of you know, David de Kelly. He actually raw was the original Doogie Howser executive producer and then went on to just become fabulously wealthy and successful with like a slew of successful dramas like picket fences and Chicago hope and Ally McBeal and Boston Public Boston Legal

Jeff Dwoskin 14:59

and Okay, Michelle Pfeiffer

Ron Lippitt 15:01

and Mary Michelle Pfeiffer Exactly. In fact, they do NYPD Blue and he did do and my NYPD Blue and blue sky and blue sky. Yep. So I mean, this guy. As soon as David Kelly got into the mix, people started getting serious about this, like maybe maybe we can make this thing work. So CBS Viacom picks it up and goes into production, right, right at the front end of COVID. And the thing just dies on the vine. No one's showing up but it's over budget immediately. They can't get the thing going and they shelve it and ultimately kill it. And then one season not even so it's like in the air CBS Viacom says nope, we're not going to do it. You know, we're we're shelving it we're killing it. And in just like they do every freaking time in swoops Netflix, and says, we'll pick it up and a deal was cut, and Netflix went ahead with production right in the middle of COVID, March of 2021.

Bob Phillips 15:58

That's where they had money. You know,

Ron Lippitt 16:00

total fu to CBS picked it up. And this is now the most watched English speaking Netflix show in history. And and not only that, when it first came out on Netflix, the first two weeks of its availability, its ratings were three times greater than its next competitor for English speaking, new series and that

Bob Phillips 16:25

just isn't Stranger Things English speaking that's all.

Ron Lippitt 16:28

Well now now it's I mean, that Stranger Things is the is the Juggernaut at this point. But I'm saying when it when Lincoln Lawyer came out, it was fabulously successful. And you know, for those of you guys, I don't know if you guys know the story, but and I won't go too far into it. But this is a criminal defense lawyer who receives all the cases of another lawyer who gets killed, and he suddenly finds this guy in possession of some really hot commodity cases, some of which, you know, take a big left turn as to why the lawyer got killed. So, so it's a really interesting story it stars Manuel Garcia Rodolfo who I hadn't seen, up until this point was in The Magnificent Seven, the remake from 2016. You guys saw that? But gosh, guess who else is in this as his co star is Nev called horrible

Fredd Carroll 17:20

actors.

Ron Lippitt 17:21

Tom netter rebel. Net Campbell is just beautiful. She's just, she's timeless. And I I've loved Neff Campbell, from from way back. And she I gotta tell you that she just does a an amazing job as his ex wife in this series. And then Becky Newton, who I had to look her up originally I was looking I'm like Ash, where do I know you from? Because she's she does such a great dramatic portrayal of his of his other ex wife, the lead actors. And it's, he's, she's from How I Met Your Mother. So she came she came from a comedy series into into the Lincoln Lawyer. And I just have to say, this is a really, really well done series. It's well acted, well scripted. I think it mixes in comedy and drama at the same time. I think that you know, Manuel Garcia Rodolfo is excellent. I don't I can't imagine that they just found this guy, you know, out of nowhere, because he plays the role. Perfectly. He does he mixes in is is Hispanic background perfectly. Which is interesting, because that's not in the original script of the Lincoln Lawyer because I did see the the original movie with Matthew Matthew mechanic. But they did a little twist on this. And I have to tell you, it really works. And I think this is a incredibly interesting show. And I really recommend it. It's 10 episodes, each episode, roughly 45 minutes on Netflix, it's only one season and it's gonna it's going to continue on and you can catch up really, really quickly with it.

Fredd Carroll 18:53

Yeah, they definitely use the CSI Miami template they did with it. It's very CSI Miami ish, with the comedy. You know, they use those little comedy roles and the ex wives and the good looking guy

Ron Lippitt 19:06

they throw in a bunch of comedy you're right is that it is a tried and true formula with good looking people and and I think some some elements of the series without me giving anything, anything away. There's some hard to watch situations in the show. And it's a little gross at some point, but but it's well done. You know, legal dramas are interesting. I think they're the reason why you keep seeing legal drama after legal drama is that people consume this stuff. It's an interesting series. And on Netflix, they get to take it to the next level with, you know, swearing and nudity and violence and they can do all these cool things with it. And I think

Jeff Dwoskin 19:45

all of the things are mostly legal dramas. I'm excited. Thank you

all right, thank you Ron. libbets for that deep dive into the Lincoln Lawyer. All right, I've next our final segment from Live episode 77. I want to take us through the Adam Sandler movie hustle, take it away me. I so this is hustle starring Adam Sandler. Let me say this is, is or was the number one movie on Netflix, and it is Adam Sandler's ninth movie for Netflix. I will say along the way. Some of those nine movies are unwatchable. However, I will also say that hustle I would put as one of my I could watch anytime movie movies. I really, really enjoyed this movie a lot. Adam Sandler was great. Like if you'd only seen Adam Sandler do this and then you put showed somebody Oh, you got to see Billy Madison and so this is like the you know, Adams has moments of acting and brilliance where he you know, is a very good actor, you know,

Bob Phillips 21:08

gems is a top five movie of mine. Uncut James's

Jeff Dwoskin 21:11

great and Big Daddy is a great movie. And don't get me wrong. I love PT Anderson movie he did wear yeah and reign over me. Yeah, I will say though I in all fairness, one of my favorite movies is waterboy as well. I love water, which doesn't find the same level. Now. I will say

Howard Rosner 21:33

only will I do it for you. But I will. I will. I will. Yes, I will do it

Jeff Dwoskin 21:36

for you. Do you Do you remember the time to Babu che showed up at halftime and we won the bourbon bowl they this has a astounding 92 rating on Rotten Tomatoes for both are both critics and 92. For audience, though critics are loving this. And I believe people that shows that people are watching are loving it as well. I will say at the end of the movie, it's a two hour movie. It's literally almost I think almost exactly two hours at the end of the movie. They show the credits. And admittedly and Howard knows this. I don't I don't know anything about sports. This is a full on. We thank you for confirming it. But I love it. I love it. I can enjoy this, you know the stories and all that kind of stuff. By the end of this in the credits. Every single person was as himself as himself as himself. So I can imagine if you're a true sports fan, there's a level of this movie that didn't hit me it wasn't necessary, but would probably make it even a cooler movie. Are you if you know who all these people are? So it's a story of Adam Sandler. He's a scout. He's like one of the greatest scouts and pro basketball the 70 Sixers Robert Duvall has a small part in the movie. He dies shortly into and his son takes over the 70 Sixers was a bit of a dick sets Sandler's career into a different direction. And so while scouting in Spain, he finds Ben Cruz who was played by Anthony I don't know why. I've gotten on her and on. Gomez. Gomez, thank you. Everyone's drinking. And He's great. He's great. A little trivia I found was that the original script was it was supposed to be someone from China. But Netflix doesn't do business in China and they changed it to Spain. But watch out. Who plays boat cruise is amazing. It just is really, really good. And Santa takes him under his wing. And he recognized that this guy is like a unicorn and no one believes in him and the 76 years they get into a thing and he gets fired. And he basically trains the character boat cruise and gets him into I think it's called a combine the showcase. And of course there's the drama. There's the ending, which is happy. I'm not gonna spoil anything but other than you know, it turns out, it's a good, it's a good, it's a great movie. I'll tell you who else is great in this movie. I enjoyed Queen Latif ah, who plays Adam Sandler's wife in this movie. They had a very lovely on screen relationship I thought and I thought that was really nice. And overall Heidi Gardner she's not funny in it, but she's from Sunday live on Sunday live I think she's one of the funniest cast members they have. But in this unit she has kind of a bit part an important role at the beginning and and she's delightful. But yeah, I mean, Dr. J's, and there's all these people some great basketball, the training scene goes on a long time. My wife's like, wow, this is going on a long time. I enjoyed it. But for her she felt maybe we've gone on about five minutes too long. Yeah.

Howard Rosner 25:00

I got a basketball player that was in it is the player who played the character named Kermit. That's Anthony Edwards, who was the first pick in the draft a couple years ago and really just had his first big season this year. He's probably one of the NBA players. That's next out as a top level superstar in this movie certainly won't hurt and watch Oh, Herman Gomez is a bit player on NBA teams a decent we'd call a rotation player, but there's never going to be a star but Anthony Edwards who played Kermit is going to be going to be a star.

Bob Phillips 25:31

I'm going to watch this because of the the mix of all the things you're saying Jeff and who's who are who are in key roles. And I like seeing athletes play themselves. And I don't know why that is. I'm always kind of fascinated by that. But I feel like I've heard this or seen this movie before. Did you guys ever see my giant with Billy Crystal? Sure. And this is the same premise.

Howard Rosner 25:54

Well, it's been done a ton of times. It's been done in baseball. You know,

Jeff Dwoskin 25:58

I think I think they said that Raging Bull was a big influence, kind of,

Howard Rosner 26:03

I mean, shit. But Billy Crystal was down on. Brendan Fraser in the scout. Yeah,

Jeff Dwoskin 26:09

there you go. Yeah, I'm I don't know that anyone's. I don't know that anyone's claiming this is the most original movie ever. But it's an excellent execution of this type of story. And watch. It's definitely I think, worth checking out for sure. Which I like sports, but I'm not into it. But I enjoyed it a lot. So it's not like you're like, oh, it's all sports. See? I'm not gonna watch it. Now. It's it's just a great sport of choice. My sport choice

Howard Rosner 26:36

thing.

Jeff Dwoskin 26:40

I like going to baseball games. But

Howard Rosner 26:42

I'll tell you a funny story years ago. We Jeff used to think it was funny, and probably also uncomfortable when we would talk about fantasy football. And Jeff one day announced that he was creating a game called fantasy life where you hold a draft of all your friends and family. Somebody gets a new if somebody gets a new job. You get more points if somebody gets a very Oh, yeah. That was a joke joke for a while. That's really good. Actually. That would be fun to play. I actually wouldn't be opposed to that. You're

Bob Phillips 27:22

right. Jerry no football in this town. You're right. You're

Howard Rosner 27:25

absolutely right.

Jeff Dwoskin 27:27

Thank you car man. And Lee's here. Everyone's here. Group we've had

Bob Phillips 27:31

like, like the lions lay.

Jeff Dwoskin 27:35

Man. Alright, so that was fun. Hi, good one. All right. I'm live episode 77 Hustle and Adam Sandler. Definitely check that out. Well, you got a lot of homework. I got hustle. Yeah, Jim and Andy got The Lincoln Lawyer So much for you to bench I'm gonna let you go. Go hop on the couch, find your cozy spot, grab your remote cross your own streams, and I'll see you next time.

CTS Announcer 28:06

Thanks for listening to this special edition of crossing the streams. Visit us on YouTube for full episodes and catch us live every Wednesday at 9:30pm Eastern time. Now turn this off and go watch some TV. And don't forget to tell your family yeah, I'll be busy for a while.

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