Brennan 0:00
You’re listening to Dodge Movie Podcast. Your hosts are Christi and Mike Dodge the founders of Dodge Media Productions. We produce films and podcasts. So this is a podcast about films. Join them as they share their passion for filmmaking.

Christi Dodge 0:17
Welcome back, everybody to the Dodge Movie Podcast. This is our last week for the month of June. And this painful theme that Michael came up with. We’ll see if any of you get it. This last this last chance to throw in your guesses.

Mike Dodge 0:35
Did you all see that bluebird bus that just ran over me?

Christi Dodge 0:41
Well, I was just pretty skeptical that anybody would get it.

Mike Dodge 0:45
Well, we’ve already had some some grumpiness from one of our superfans about this. And, in retrospect, perhaps we should have gone with a month of the film’s of June Squibb.

Christi Dodge 0:59
Ooh, I like that one. Actually. That’s a good one for the future. I also had it proposed to me and I do think that this is a fabulous idea that we do a John Hughes month and apparently there might be a documentary on John Hughes. We mentioned it in the Uncle Buck episode. I wanted one and somebody said they Superfan Darcy said that there might be one so I’m gonna go hunt for it. Right and and I agree with her. I think we should do you know Breakfast Club, 16 Candles, I don’t think we’ve done home alone.

Mike Dodge 1:35
Oh, I’m sure we haven’t. And so I’m sure we can find a fourth one. Right. I’m going up on fourth one. But he has had a bunch. Yeah, but we just did Uncle Buck so that’s off the table

Christi Dodge 1:45
Right, no. I’m saying for next year. I think that would be a great theme.

Mike Dodge 1:50
That’s it’s a nice callback. Because in this film there’s a line of dialogue where Olive says she wishes was it “for once I want my life to be like an 80s movie” and she does call out Mr. Hughes work

Christi Dodge 2:04
Yes, I was gonna bring that up so we’re kind of jumping the gun.

Mike Dodge 2:07
Okay you didn’t say anything every I’ll listen. If you didn’t hear it

Christi Dodge 2:11
No, it’s not your fault. Will Gluck is was a huge John Hughes fan as well as Emma Stone her dad showed her all of those so it’s just it’s all thematic here.

Mike Dodge 2:22
All right. Are we gonna get to Hughes later I don’t want to jump back.

Christi Dodge 2:24
We are we okay, all right to get back on. I’ll get back on track. This is episode 123. We’re going to be talking about Easy A which came out in 2010. Right now it is playing on Netflix. So if you subscribe to Netflix, you can watch it for free. So like I said, the director Will GlUck also did friends with benefits in 2011, Annie in 2014 and Peter Rabbit in 2018 and Woke in 2020 I don’t remember Woke.

Mike Dodge 2:56
No, I think that probably didn’t do well at the box office because of the title.

Christi Dodge 3:01
There was no box office in 2020.

Mike Dodge 3:06
Nothing kills a show faster than a bad title. How about too much exposition?

Christi Dodge 3:10
Or a pandemic. and it stars Emma Stone, Amanda Bynes. This was Amanda Bynes last film as of yet, hopefully, if it’s in her best interest, she might do another but but this would be the last one. Penn Badgley, Dan Byrd Thomas Haden Church Patricia Clarkson Lisa Kudrow, Stanley Tucci Fred Armisen, I mean, a wonderful cast really, right, right. I am super impressed with this cast.

The DP is Michael Grady. He also did He’s done a lot of TV as of late, Your Honor, The Morning Show, On the Basis of Sex, Ozark and The Leftovers. So a lot of TV or streaming shows, I guess I should say. It was filmed in Ojai where it takes place and the writer was Bert V. Royal, he also wrote Cruel Summer of 21 and Big Hero Six and 2014

Mike Dodge 4:07
Oh, wow, Big Hero Six wasn’t that the animated one?

Christi Dodge 4:12
The synopsis of this film is a clean cut high school student relies on the school’s rumour mill to advance her social and financial standing. I got three taglines for you. A comedy about a good girl a small favor and a big rumor. The rumor filled totally false account of how I ruined my flawless reputation.

Mike Dodge 4:43
Nothing It means rumor filled with a hyphen between very Yeah, it’s too confusing. It’s hard for the listener to parse bad tag line by

Christi Dodge 4:50
Okay. Let’s not and say we did.

Mike Dodge 4:54
Okay, that makes sense after the fact but I don’t think it serves well as tagline Yeah, this

Christi Dodge 5:00
Not the crack marketing team that we wanted.

Mike Dodge 5:02
Right. Okay, superfan RJ, you give us three more taglines, you think we’re better.

Christi Dodge 5:09
So this screenplay was part of the 2008 blacklist of the most liked unmade scripts of that year. And so I’m glad that they kind of got their bleep together and got it made because this is a really fun film. Kick us off with your pickup line.

Mike Dodge 5:26
The rumors of my promiscuity had been greatly exaggerated. It’s brilliant, right in my theory.

Christi Dodge 5:32
Yeah, exactly. That’s a better tagline.

Yeah, it really would be right to have Gray’s tagline Okay, Superman RJ homework averted.

So, oh, this is interesting in you’ll like this from doing your time down in the Orange Grove section of California. Ohio is apparently where there still are a lot of orange groves. To that extent, the director Will Gluck put oranges in every single scene of this movie. And he said he did this to be artistic. And he had a bet with Emma. He said people would notice and she said no one would notice. And as far as I’m concerned, she wins. She absolutely wins. I didn’t ever I never even saw like, even after I read this trivia, while we were watching the movie I never saw like a bowl of oranges or an orange on her desk, or

Mike Dodge 6:30
I’m immediately trying to think of like, in the Red Lobster.

Christi Dodge 6:37
Now in the opening credits when they’re kind of showing us Ojai., They did do a close up of like an orange growing on an orange tree. Yes. But he’s like a hidden Mickey. Right? Where I will stand your watch it again. We have so many so much to watch. Okay, I appreciated how they added a little bit of grain. Not a lot, but a little bit so that we clearly knew that she was kind of like vlogging. I mean, she is looking straight into the camera, which generally they don’t do.

Mike Dodge 7:14
But it could be breaking the fourth wall right is not uncommon.

Christi Dodge 7:18
But they did it in a way they never did like. In some movies. They’ll show like maybe one of her friends watching on their computer so that we see she’s vlogging or right. It was just her she filled the frame. And she was looking right at the camera. Oh, no, at the very end they showed us from behind the camera because I remember seeing her webcam. So yeah, the beginning. Yeah,

Mike Dodge 7:41
yeah. Well, the entire kind of diary shot. The one at the end was at was not that original, where she held up the different the five stages. That was a different one,

Christi Dodge 7:53
She shot that all in one day, all of those. And she had to get up in between and like, go outside and like run around because she was just tired of sitting. Oh, sure. But that like you said when we were watching it, that was her audition. And we’ll said that every actor he that tried out for that part. He said, Okay, now go home and make me this. And in four hours, Emma emailed it to his email the video she had gone home and done exactly as he said, and the other actors their representation called like, what format Do you want it in? Where do you want her to be sitting? How do you want it? Like they just they were overthinking. And Emma just did exactly what he said.

Mike Dodge 8:34
Yeah, directors love it when the accurate just as which ask don’t overthink it,

Christi Dodge 8:40
just do it. Right. So what were some of the things in the cinematography that you caught?

Mike Dodge 8:44
So it’s kind of image related, but I did like how they did the the credits were like CGI. I think standing on the grass. That was neat. Yeah, there is a fun a fun shot of all of her family interacting that they shot from through a window from outside the house. I thought they were pretty well. There’s a funny edit where Olive is cleaning the graffiti off the toilet stall and they cut to her friend Brandon making more on the next stall which I thought was kind of a funny sight gag.

They had two montages that I made note of one was the pretending to have sex with people montage. And the other was her creating somebody close montage. And lastly, I thought it was really well shot where she does after she’s completely slotted up. They do the like kind of like the perp walk where she goes down this long hallway with all the lockers on the side, and the kids are peeling back. So not only was it like the leading lines, but it kind of a little bit. The synchronized movement reminded me a little bit of like a Busby Berkeley kind of thing.

Christi Dodge 8:47
Yeah, I thought that was fun parting of the Red Sea. Bert V well, who wrote the screenplay wrote it, except for the last 10 pages. He wrote the whole thing in like five days. That’s No, I was as a writer. Is it? Is it because I’ve heard people say this before? Like I wrote it in like, just like an hour? Or something like, I remember fabro said something about one of his, like he wrote it over a weekend, is it a good thing to write it fast? Because that means you’re in the flow, and it’s just, you know, coming out of you really fast, like, or is it better to pour over something and rewrite and, or, or doesn’t matter.

Mike Dodge 10:34
So it can be a sign that you really, like, respond to the material, if you write the first draft quickly. But it doesn’t mean that it’s good just because it’s quick. And all everything, no matter how long it takes took you to write the first draft, you really need to, to edit, to go back through and polish in my opinion. So generally, though, when people say that, I think what they’re talking to is, they just had this idea, and they were able to just go start to finish, as opposed to other times you have an idea and you get to the enact one, and then you’re like, oh, okay, now.

I think that’s where they’re getting to, but I don’t I wouldn’t attach too much to that. I think there’s a lot of things that have been written in the right NWANIAM National Writing novel in a month that are crap, even though they were written quickly. So I wouldn’t give overly credit to the fact but it is kind of interesting that for him this idea, because I think this is not crap. I think this is a good story, that it just kind of flowed out. The other thing is, it’s, you know, it’s not like an intricate heist movie where you probably couldn’t do that in just a few days, because you need to spend a lot of time planning out the various, you know, interlocking pieces of the puzzle.

Christi Dodge 12:00
So this one opens with narration of her kind of taking us to the point that we get to after, like you said, is we’re going through the high school and kind of seeing all the credits. One thing about the credits I found interesting, usually, your top build actor is first and they go through everyone else. And then when Emma comes on the scene, then we see and Emma Stone.

Mike Dodge 12:25
Well credit to her because I would say some actors would have a hard time being last build .

Christi Dodge 12:33
This wasn’t like her first film, but this was her first time leading a film. And so I wonder if that was maybe part of it. I don’t know. But I liked that. You know, it gives us some exposition. It kind of gives us a little flavor of Olive, that she’s a little sarcastic, and she’s very self confident. We get to know her a little bit before we even see her really, right. And then that her relationship with her parents. It is so non typical from I mean, the John Hughes movies, all the parents were just idiots. They were vapid. They were vain, you know, as the ad so they’re obsessed with money. And her parents, like, I was like, everybody wants parents like that, like they were right. They were funny, and they were cool. And they were sarcastic with her and treat her kind of like an adult but not in an inappropriate way.

Mike Dodge 13:31
So I will mention that when I brought up this movie, just the title, sporadic fan Brennan said, I love Stanley Tucci’s work in that film. And yes, I think every father would aspire to be like Stanley Tucci. He’s awesome in this film. I do like with sporadic fan, Brandon, I did enjoy his “What you’re adopted, who told you right?” That was fine. And but of course, my favorite line from two shears. Well, he seemed a little incredibly gay. And I thought that was a funny plan word.

Christi Dodge 14:10
I thought it was funny when he’s talking about Olive. And he said, but we’re only related by marriage or something. And so some people said that audience somebody and says we’re confused, thinking that he was a stepdad. But no, he’s just being he’s being silly. He’s being sarcastic and funny. I liked how they were. They were kind of cool, like, not cool. What’s the word? They were? They they didn’t get all? What am I trying to say? They didn’t overreact when she was like, Hey, you guys, can you be my alibi? Because I got sent to the principal’s office. Right. And a lot of parents would have like what, you know, you got sent to the principal’s office and they were just like, okay, she did something school’s handling it. We don’t need to double down.

Mike Dodge 14:56
Tthen there is I think it was Patricia Clarkson as the mom, but it could have been Stanley Tucci as a dad or both of them, but they said like, oh, you know, not that we’re getting concerned. But should we be getting concerned? So they weren’t completely out of it parent, but I liked how they were letting her kind of establish the boundaries. Like, do you need this to step in or you got this? Okay. Yeah. And then also related to that was Thomas Haden Church, His character as a teacher, where I mean, he was kind of like the cool guy. Teacher, that’s fair enough and credit to Glock or Clarkson, whoever did the John Hughes callback, he did the mess with the bull get the horns from Breakfast Club?

Christi Dodge 15:39
No, there were, I think that was Gluck there. He said there were. He’s such a fan of Hughes. There were hundreds of references that he put in this picture.

Mike Dodge 15:48
But so but I liked how called all event and he’s like, what’s going on with this? Look? Is everything okay? And that was nice. I don’t think my experience at that time was that adults had any, like, there was no back and forth. It was not a dialogue. You were just told stuff. And I think John Hughes movies, I think, reflect more our experience with adults, which is they’re generally idiots and telling you to do stupid things. Whereas this film, I actually think that’s cooler, I’d rather teachers and parents that are like this film.

Christi Dodge 16:24
So what did you think about basically, we need to inform the audience that this film is similar or inspired by The Scarlet Letter, so we have Olive, explain it in an, you know, an exposition,

Mike Dodge 16:41
Well, that was the kind of the conceit of that blog was it was an opportunity for the filmmaker to talk directly to the audience. I think it worked well, because later in the film, she actually does cut out The Scarlet Letter, which by the way, I said this while we’re watching it, I’m not sure why she had to ruin a dress to do that. She probably could have just gotten a yard or read fabric at Jo-Annes.

Christi Dodge 17:03
Well, I realized, yeah, I don’t know. Was it a dress? Or did she just get fabric?

Mike Dodge 17:09
Maybe she did. But it was with all the other bags from the expensive places. So maybe I just missed it, which is very common. I often misunderstand things.

Christi Dodge 17:17
So one beef I have and I suppose I mean, this was what, almost 20 years ago?

Mike Dodge 17:23
Oh, no, I suspect this might be the same beef that I have. But please continue.

Christi Dodge 17:27
Thirteen years ago, just people’s understanding. So the poor chubby kid kind of comes up to her and he wants to improve his reputations by now asking her if she would be willing to, to say because he, the first boy that asked her to say that they slept together to improve his reputation told I should have gotten this kid’s name because I hate calling him the chubby kid.

Mike Dodge 17:54
So Brandon was the young gay boy and Evan was the Chubby.

Christi Dodge 17:58
Okay, thank you. So Evan comes up. And he’s like, Well, you do to me what you did for Brandon and help his and so she feels used because instead of being empowered, and kind of it being her idea, now, boys are trying to kind of write on her coat tails. And so she says no, and he sits down because he feels done only dejected. But he’s probably bummed out that his idea. He sits down and and I get that like he could be sad and just sit down and kind of feel bad. But then he pulls out a candy bar and he starts eating it and it’s just like, okay, yes, some chubby people eat their feelings. But we don’t a we don’t do it immediately. And we don’t do it in public.

Mike Dodge 18:46
And then he was wet in swim trunks at a swimming pool. You don’t put your Snickers in your pocket and go swimming. That doesn’t make any sense. I had a problem with it, just as a stereotype ended really poorly. Yeah, that was my I had made note of that as well.

Christi Dodge 19:03
So and then we see her having a conversation with Mrs. Griffith who is married to Mr. Griffith played by Thomas Haden Church, and she’s talking to Olive to say, Hey, what’s going on with the outfit. And I feel like this is very, very, very right on the mark because something like this happened to one of our kids. I was trained to say go talk to the teacher, go tell the teacher to try to get the kids to, you know, not only speak up for themselves, but then make the system kind of do what they’re there to do. The teacher led me down and it was you know, kind of like, oh, just ignore it go play. I feel it and they missed an opportunity to kind of be part of the change and Mrs. Griffith also did this because all it was about ready to confess to her what’s going on and why she was dressing that way. She basically just handed her condoms and said, Be careful.

Mike Dodge 20:11
Yeah, I think the character of that counselor played by Lisa Kudrow was pretty accurate in the experience of, you know, the last, I guess, the 2000s, with high school counselors as they were effectively useless. That was our experience. And I really felt like that this may sound weird, but I thought that was a very feminist character, because she was screwed up, not because she was a woman. But in spite of being a woman she did, the behavior that I think the cliche thing would have been to have the male teacher be sleeping with one of the students. And in this case, they inverted it, but not in kind of like a tawdry way where that made it more titillating. It was just like, oh, this was the character that that had that flaw. And so I did like that. And I thought that was good for Kudrow. That role was good for her. But yeah, from a character standpoint, it was a sad that all of didn’t get any support from the counselor. But again, yeah, that’s really what I think the modern experiences

Christi Dodge 21:21
Move along out of my office. Yeah. Oh, I loved it. When Brandon, the boy who has a crush on Olive, it’s about two thirds to three fourths of the way through the film. So we’re kind of nearing the end. And he’s trying to kind of he takes her on on a proper day, takes her out to dinner. He’s trying to show her that he he truly cares her not because of her reputation, but because of her. I thought it was funny. He says if I promise not to tell anyone. Can I kiss you right now? And she says no.

Mike Dodge 21:59
Right? You mean in the Volvo? Yes. Yeah.

Christi Dodge 22:01
Right after they had gone on the date. And so everybody else, all the other boys were like, can we pretend like we kissed or can we pretend like it went somewhere. And so I thought it was sweet. Because he’s like, I don’t want to tell anybody. I want to keep this between us. And can I kiss you? I thought that was sweet.

Mike Dodge 22:20
That is sweet. I think with the casting. Unfortunately, that actor was too good looking for that sweet of a character. I felt like he had way too much the like popular boy looks and I think they tried to, you know, humanize him by making the mascot, which is generally pretty dorky. And they did. But that actor sorry to say this thing, isn’t it? That’s the Penn Badgley but he was just I think way too handsome for just the regular guy role in my opinion.

Christi Dodge 22:55
But I don’t know if he was because I think I feel like I’m too old to know this. But was he and other things? And was he a name? Right? Well,

Mike Dodge 23:04
I think like, is he. It was it was nice writing in that sense. And they definitely played with kind of the the era of social media. It was just starting to get there. Yeah, though, I did make a note that this was, I believe, three years after the iPhone was released. And there were no iPhones in it, which I thought was a little odd. It was on the computer. They they did have phones, but I feel like if you made it today, there would be oh my god, there would be 10s iPhones.

Christi Dodge 23:37
I do think that this does kind of speak to unlike the John Hughes films, how different it is, even though we had like the rumor mill and but I think the thing they talked about this in more than one interview, the scene where she kind of says something or she’s outed and they show it through. I don’t like sped up. It just showed how the rumor went through the school all the way around. Then like 15 seconds later came back to her because of social media. That is something that we all kind of those of us who grew up before iPhones didn’t have to contend with. Yes, there were other ways that rumors got spread, but not not as fast.

Mike Dodge 24:22
Well, to play the devil’s advocate, though, it was harder to get in front of the message than it is now. Right? Because it was all you’d have to tell your friend and hope that they told their friend and and so everything goes faster, but that can be for good or for bad, right? I don’t think it’s necessarily all that different. I think people are people. The speed is faster, that’s for sure.

Christi Dodge 24:47
The scene where she gets hurt and she’s upset and she runs. Oh, because I think Mrs. Griffith kinda let her down again. And she runs straight to Mr. Griffith and tells him right about Mrs. Griffith’s affair. I felt like that was true because I think you are more reactionary in your teens.

Mike Dodge 25:15
Yeah, totally reading accurately.

Christi Dodge 25:17
You want to get even more when you’re a little bit more immature and kind of have it. And immediately after she said it and kind of saw his reaction and knew that she couldn’t take it back. And now what the fall out was going to be, she immediately regretted it.

Mike Dodge 25:36
I thought that was good acting from Emma, but also very realistic. That’s how you learn. That’s how you grow up and mature as you make mistakes. And you see the consequences. I think an adult would have that same instinct, but it would be informed by knowing the stakes of what that would. And I think most people would not want to know what Mrs. Griffith was up to because they wouldn’t want the responsibility of choosing whether or not to tell Mr. GRIFFIS but when you’re a teenager, I could see Yeah, he wouldn’t think that far

Christi Dodge 26:12
ahead. Right. Right. That’d be horrible. So I remember the fourth movie, or I realized the fourth. Yeah, because I was talking about that Penn bachelors care.

Mike Dodge 26:23
I feel like there’s an obvious John Hughes movie I’m missing Ferris Bueller’s Day Off

Christi Dodge 26:27
The one with the with the speakers.

Mike Dodge 26:31
Oh, Say Anything? Yeah. Is that it? Yeah. John Cuisak?

Christi Dodge 26:35
Would Chuck Todd is Penn Badgley so he was standing outside her window because she said she wanted to. And he I think calls it out. You said you wanted to be in a John Hughes film. So here I am. And he’s playing the song In Your Eyes.

Mike Dodge 26:49
From Peter Gabriel, on portable speakers instead of a boombox and standing on a lawnmower funny. Good sight gag.

Christi Dodge 26:57
What did you think of the ending of this film? Because I think they just kind of ride off into the sunset.

Mike Dodge 27:08
I’m gonna say, I don’t remember a final scene.

Christi Dodge 27:11
So it wasn’t memorable.

Mike Dodge 27:13
No, I don’t. I don’t think the ending was it wasn’t like a film that had a big ending. It was the resolution of her of her character arc.

Christi Dodge 27:23
I think she was. Yeah, cuz she the ending, she was speaking to the vloggers. Right.

Mike Dodge 27:32
So so we don’t necessarily know what goes on with her and with Chuck Todd, but that wasn’t what the film was about. The film was about her closing the loop on her own kind of infamy.

Christi Dodge 27:45
Right? So she’s explaining so she does the it was funny, because I don’t remember this from every John Hughes film, but they said a musical number that makes no sense. And they were referencing the Ferris Bueller parade. Yeah. And so she did that. Oh, the gym, the Assembly, where she sang knock on wood. In the lingerie

Mike Dodge 28:07
Breakfast Club. They have a dance musical dance number in the in the library about halfway through the film, inexplicably.

Christi Dodge 28:15
And so they did that. And then she basically is doing her vlog and she did that to get everybody to watch her final vlog where she was telling what had happened. basically telling the movie,

Mike Dodge 28:30
Saying there wasn’t actually a slot. I just said this. It’s been a control here, the bad choices I made. So I feel like from my perspective, that was the ending was her wrapping it up. And I liked that just fine. This is a concept I was first exposed to, I think in Atlas Shrugged, which is you can diffuse a lot of these things if you just own them, that a lot of the trouble you get into is when you start trying to deny things. And so she did that. She diffused all of her detractors by just saying, Okay, here’s what happened. Right?

Christi Dodge 29:06
Yep. Oh, before we move on, is there anything in writing that you would like to include?

Mike Dodge 29:12
There is a couple of fun lines, but the one that I remember was, “If there’s one thing that’s worse than calamity, it’s Florida.” Probably not used by the Florida travel travel bureau. Although Florida has a lot of oranges. And then I had a writing question was, presumably there was a reason why they chose this number. Why were there eight people in Amanda Bynes God’s squad? That just seemed like a large number of kids in the Christian club? I don’t know why

Christi Dodge 29:45
You’re saying it was more than you think there would have been?

Mike Dodge 29:48
Yes. cinematically, that’s a large number of people because it’s hard to get them all in frame and to make them visually distinctive five, that’s a pretty standard number. So as you Just curious. I’m sure the filmmakers chose eight for a reason. I’d love to know why.

Christi Dodge 30:05
I can’t answer that one. You can’t? Yes. Um, so under costumes I noted from the trivia that there’s a nod to Ferris Bueller’s Day Off when she is in the shower, singing Pocket full of sunshine. Okay, which is a bit of an ear worm. Now for me, now that you mentioned it, right. He does sing in the shower does. He’s seen this art and he makes his hair into a Mohawk. And she does. Yeah, you’re right. So it’s just fun to see. So I definitely agree with superfan Darcy, we need to do a John Hughes. Totally next year.

Mike Dodge 30:37
So I will mention a little teaser for next year’s month is I was talking to a friend of the show and guests on the show Dustin Morrow, about Breakfast Club. And he did mention that John Hughes was very much interested in the dialogue. There was a that was one of his focuses was on the dialogue. And so of course, as a filmmaker myself, who makes movies about people standing around talking, I obviously respond to films about dialogue.

Christi Dodge 31:07
And this one had really good. I liked the balance of witty teenagers without being so much that you’re like, No teenager talks like that.

Mike Dodge 31:19
That was a great point. Olive’s dialogue was witty and fun, but still sounded like age appropriate. Yeah, age appropriate. All right, good job writers.

Christi Dodge 31:30
When olive and Maryanne become friends and they start playing the song from Greece, we go together and then. So it’s it’s kind of montage, but I guess it is because the music is playing. But they go through all these stages. Then by the time the song is over, is when Marianne finds out that her boyfriend has chlamydia, right. I think Did he initially say it was all over something. So by the time the song is over, their friendship is over. I like that. But I’m partial, or, yeah, I’m partial partial because I liked that song from grace. All right. Any head trauma in the film?

Mike Dodge 32:09
Yeah, there’s quite a bit. It starts out with Todd the mascot face plants while trying to dunk as a beaver instead of a Blue Devil or a woodchuck. I’m sorry, Blue Devil. At 32 minutes, Olive paddles Brandon’s bottom pretty aggressively. So I think that’s like an honorary mention, but then she punches him in the gut, so that he makes a suitable groan for their fake. Boom Boom, sexy time right? At 43:10 Todd punches all his shoulder pretty hard. Again, a lot of punching two teens punches much anymore. And at 54:50 all of Pat’s Marianne’s head when she cries about Mike His parents divorced, but that was a pretty vigorous pat that could qualify. And then at 57 minutes exactly Mike is mom slaps the crap out of him for having chlamydia. That qualifies as lots of head trauma for poor old Mica

Christi Dodge 33:03
Poor old Mica. How about a smoochy? Who got to kiss in this film?

Mike Dodge 33:08
Smoochy smoochy smoochy there’s an almost smoochy between all of and Todd 116:55. But then at 127:18 Olive toddler hugs and then kisses Todd.

Christi Dodge 33:21
And I don’t remember any driving, but did you pick up any vehicles?

Mike Dodge 33:26
Well, there were some big vehicular action. First of all I did earlier mentioned to this is a callback for all you paling along at home. Bluebird is the classic bus vendor. So there is bus there and it’s a bluebird, go figure. All of drives a 72 Volkswagen bug, and that shows us that she’s vintage and cool, man. Now, I have to say a little bit self serving here but not everyone who drives dodge vehicle attempts to purchase sexual favors. The guy who took her to Red Lobster was driving a very nice 2006 Dodge Daytona charger. And just because he drives a VA does not mean he’s a scumbag. I just wanted to bring that up. And Todd’s 93 Volvo station wagon is a dork mobile. So I think the you know, they looked at the actor and they said this guy is really attractive, we need to dork him up a bit and that vehicle does it.

Christi Dodge 34:24
The original script had the F word 41 times the S word was 13 times and the C word was used three times. The uses of these words were later cut down in the final script so as to receive a lower rating of PG 13. The movies target audience as opposed to the rating of R.

Mike Dodge 34:47
Okay, so unrelated to this film necessarily. But speaking of censoring, which is ludicrous. I caught a little bit of Mike and Dave Need Wedding Dates on a broadcast television last night. And there is a scene which is critical and could not be cut where the bride appears full frontal nudity. And to make it broadcast worthy because they couldn’t cut that scene out. They just pixelated basically her entire body. And it looked ridiculous. I think kids would probably then immediately go and look up on the internet, just to see because it was like, whoa, whoa, what was so bad that they had to pixelate her entire body chin to admit ankles, right? This is ridiculous.

Christi Dodge 35:35
And when this film was shipped to theaters, it was shipped under the codename Major Cities. And I thought, why? Yeah, it’s not like it’s a Marvel movie. It’s not like, if somebody saw Oh, this is the next Guardians of the Galaxy. You know? I mean, why was Easy? A? Why did it need a pseudonym?

Mike Dodge 35:57
Right? And I’m just gonna be maybe go out on a limb here. Why not just use like an n number? Like, okay, this is A13? Who Why does it have to be a Major Cities? Or like, you know, free holy city or something? Why did they give these other than is it just for fun? Is there somebody there who gets to?

Christi Dodge 36:21
I don’t know, it’s trivia. I’m just sharing it. Yeah, no, but it’s a good, good point.

Mike Dodge 36:25
Why do they have these code names anymore? And, okay, I’m gonna back up even further shipped to theaters who ships it anymore as well, digital?

Christi Dodge 36:34
Well, this was 13 years ago.

Mike Dodge 36:36
Okay, fair enough. But as of today, do we know any exhibitors? I would be curious if they still ship anything? Do they ship them like a hard drive?

Christi Dodge 36:45
Well, or do they still ship them? Because if it’s digital now, that can be torrented? Or so if it’s a physical copy, can they put better, right? What’s that called? Like safeguards? Or what’s a? There’s a word for when you take the tab off? Nope.

Mike Dodge 37:05
Protection. I don’t know why. But anyway, so now my mind’s I see the guy with the sunglasses and he’s got the briefcase handcuffed to his wrist. Yeah, that’s got that’s got the discs in it. He’s got to bring it. And he has to stay there the whole time.

Christi Dodge 37:19
Right. It would be curious. I wonder if our former theater employee would know if they are digital copies, or, oh, you know what I think they do. Okay, we should talk about this offline.

Mike Dodge 37:32
Okay. Okay, sir.

Christi Dodge 37:33
Should we go to the numbers?

Mike Dodge 37:34
Let’s go to the numbers. Okay.

Christi Dodge 37:36
This movie was made for $8 million. Domestically, it made $58.4 million. That’s 9.5 times their initial investment, which is fabulous. Adjusted for today. That would be like 67 point 8 million and worldwide in 2010. They made 76 million. So they did quite well.

Mike Dodge 38:01
That Emma Stone is boxoffice goal. Yeah.

Christi Dodge 38:03
She’s gonna go places I think. This one got a seven out of 10 on IMDb critics loved it. 85% and audience is not as much that 77%.

Mike Dodge 38:17
I’m saying that the critics liked it more than

Christi Dodge 38:20
we’ve asked this before. But I haven’t done the research. Are these numbers that are on Rotten Tomatoes? Are they critics? At the time? Did these reviews or? And like the audience reviews, is it somebody like to yesterday watched it and wrote a review?

Mike Dodge 38:41
I mean, I do I think the critics have to be at the time because a critic is not going to go back and review a movie in the past, but I don’t know about the users,

Christi Dodge 38:50
This is an hour and a half. It is like I said rated PG 13. The film is labeled as a Comedy Drama, Romance. It was Screen Gems and Olive Bridge entertainment. It won a Critics Choice Award for Best Comedy at the MTV awards. And also Emma one for Best Comedic Performance.

Mike Dodge 39:13
Good job, Emma.

Christi Dodge 39:14
So this is a good film. Good flick. And that closes out our month of June. You have five days to get your guests in for what the what the theme for June is and like I said, take a look at that graphic that will help you out. This one is different than any one we have ever done and I kudos to those who can guess it

Mike Dodge 39:38
Apparently it’s all my fault. All right, everybody never forget. I just never stop and neither do the movies.

Brennan 39:44
Thanks for listening to Dodge Movie Podcast with Christi and Mike Dodge of Dodge Media Productions. To find out more about this podcast and what we do. Go to dodgemediaproductions.com. Subscribe, share, leave a comment and tell us what we should watch next Dodges never stop and neither do the movies