iTunes Exclusive Episode The Infiltrator

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It won't be official until the show after this one, which if you check our social media
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finale of season 6, this is technically the first show of season 7.
My name is Rob, I am the executive producer of the Clubhouse podcast, and if you can
probably tell, I'm in a really good place, I just got off of a cation, I'm feeling good,
I'm ready to get this thing done, but I'm not alone, because that would be really annoying
after a while.
Joining me across the desk is our special guest for this particular episode.
He's 222nd one of these, by the way.
He is a man who every time he watches Gilligan's Island, he has to pick ginger.
He is the ginger and ginger, he is the king of bowling.
He is Andrew Beckham.
Welcome, sir.
Thank you, great to be here.
Good to have you here, sir.
You know what I'm saying, you know what I'm saying, and she was on.
I'm leaving that alone.
Also joining me across the desk is the official fact checker of this show.
And a man who knows a lot of people that he can't claim that he knows through the nature
of what they do.
You may know him as fun, don't go, but his mom and name him Don Ford, I'm going to call
him Don Ford.
Welcome, sir.
You lost me on that.
I don't give him what we're about to talk about, and given what you talked about in the
beginning of your own review, which is located at www.theclubhouse podcast.com, which
is our website?
You get it.
I get it.
But question to you about your vacation.
Yes, sir.
How many thousands of items are in the ERDBR right now?
Really not very many.
Okay.
As far as weekly shows, I have two.
I have this week's episode of Rotis and a countdown show that I watch on Juice TV.
And that's it.
Everything else is movies.
Nice.
I really kind of timed it well on this one, when everybody else was in summer reruns.
Yes.
I think I don't think I have his Brazilian eyes.
My wife's a big fan of that show.
This is the final season, isn't it?
Yeah.
I don't think so.
Whatever we do one of these, it is to review something.
This is no exception.
Today we are reviewing for you the latest film from Director Brad Furman.
You would know him from the film runner runner, the Lincoln lawyer, he did the take.
It is called the infiltrator.
Brian Cranston, John Leguazamo, Diane Kruger, Amy Ryan, Leon Best, Daniel Mays, and a host
of other people are in this film.
It is based on a true story of the US Customs agent who goes undercover to bust up a
money laundering scheme that also happens to handle one of the biggest drug families
in the 80s, including somebody you may have heard of called Pablo Escobar.
Before we start this whole thing?
Yes, sir.
Think of best friends.
I'm going to record that, that's the new jingle, they don't know it yet, but that's
the new jingle.
We love this so much, they are our best people, so we can make a jingle.
Oh, I love you.
Do caucuses in this film when we're a big fan of this one.
Speaking of a couple of, we actually, with that, did a couple of reviews on that, like
the runner runner in the week of March, so we did.
No, we didn't do the Lincoln lawyer, Lincoln lawyer was before our time.
Was it okay?
I was wrong.
But yeah, runner runner.
I know exactly, so I was not able to attend this screening as it happened on the
last day of my vacation, so I am going to rely on you, gentlemen.
I'm just going to kind of make sure the boat stays afloat, and we're going to go through
this thing.
It runs about two hours, so let's start there, Andrew, did it feel like two hours?
Did it feel longer?
How was the pacing here?
Did it not feel like two hours?
How's that?
I did not look at my watch once.
Really?
Yes, there was enough action going on in an up story building, but they didn't spend too
much time on smaller things that needed to be included.
Don't have about for you.
You knew it was two hours, but it didn't break.
That's the big thing.
I could tell it was two hours, but it did not seem too long where you just like, please
get this over.
Oh, we got another half hour to go, this is just too long.
It was a good mix of the plot, they told the story well.
Now, we have the warm empire on this, there are some brutal scenes in this.
A lot of, I mean, you assume in any instance, like, if there's going to be fine.
We've had the empire, so we're going to warn them, but it was a good mix of the action
plus the undercover work of what they go through and all the side things in it showing
the life of an endocrine agent on this.
So it was a good mix of a storytelling plus the action, I thought.
Perfect, but no real drag times for me or anything like that.
We're going to move into the plot real quick, which I want to put in, basically, it's
a true story of a guy named Robert Mizzard, that's his role name, but he had so many undercover
ideas that's not even funny, played by the great, you know, Bryan Cranston.
And basically, he done some undercover and stuff like that where the wires and everything
he works for the customs.
But he says, you know what, why don't we go after the people that wander the money instead
of just the dealers?
Let's do the money trial, so we'll get on this and that's why they went into the
new style of undercover at the time, so let's just expand this stuff.
So with that in storyline, it really showed the depth of what these guys go through.
And talking to a friend of the show, Kevin Daniels, who's a member of the movie brothers.
Which is all last night's today.
They were there right there.
They were there.
Kevin, I talked to today about this because we work together and he said, if anything
comes out of this film, it's just further proof that Bryan Cranston should have played
Lex Luthorne.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
And then Leguizamo plays his partner.
I believe.
Yes.
Yes.
And of course, you know, and you know, I'm a big Leguizamo.
Oh, so, so.
Yes.
So you know what you're going to get with him and he played the part well.
These two showed a very good partnership in this film.
Okay.
The, the, the, the agents who are partners in, you know, the real life partners in
the job.
And so they played that role where they fed off, fed off in each other very well.
Because these guys are experienced and watching them work together.
It's like, you know, they did such a good job.
You felt like they probably done 20 films together before like Cooper and Jennifer Lawrence.
It's like a buddy buddy movie, but they weren't really that close.
Okay.
Fair enough.
Yeah.
They fed off each other really well.
The storyline.
But, you know, went well.
I had no puns with it at all.
Did not direct.
Very good.
Let's, let's talk a little bit about Brad Furman's direction.
I mean, we've seen some of his works before.
Knowing that he directed a film like runner runner.
I, to me, why I've seen the trailer.
Yeah.
Visually it seems very similar.
Runner runner was kind of a, no different different different different.
Did you feel those?
Yes.
Because I just got the same kind of a feel to it when I watched the trailer.
Well, watch and runner runner.
That's someone with Justin Timberlake.
How that, where he plays.
And the F-like.
Yeah.
Totally different.
Okay.
This one.
This film was had that kind of gritty almost minor roadhouse feel to it.
Grindhouse.
Grindhouse.
Roadhouse was passionately.
Okay.
Roadhouse.
Yeah.
Grindhouse film.
Not too much, but ahead of that kind of influence on it.
Okay.
It showed 1980 very well.
They put a lot into it.
It showed all 1980 when they're showing the city like the York.
It showed stuff that wasn't there in like the 2000s or today.
They did the casting of the locations very well, I thought.
One thing I noticed is that Cranston with this is with this family doing game night.
And it showed all the old games.
All the, the house he lived in.
It showed all the styles of the time of the ugly wallpaper.
You never happened on your house now.
But in the 1980s was very of the time.
So with the cars and everything, I was really impressed with the, with the prompts on this,
which I put in my written here, www.theclaphousepodcast.com.
That is still our website.
Andrew, how about for you?
On a side note, I enjoyed this movie not being in New York.
Like I get tired of seeing just New York in general.
Maybe like just the locations in here were great.
I mean, travel around.
There was, there were, yeah, there was Miami and Miami and London.
I think.
Or Paris.
Paris.
Paris.
And something else that Kevin brought up to me is when we were talking to.
He said that.
There were a lot of really great tense moments in this where he was saying that.
Is he going to get caught?
It's he not going to get caught.
And, and, and, and as you said in your written review on, you were saying that there was a couple of points
or even you were on the edge of your seat.
And, and, and a guy who has a past and things of being a parole officer working for the state and things like that.
For somebody to have you kind of on the edge of your seat.
I thought was very interesting.
Because I know people who've gone undercover.
I know that for a fact.
I mean, there's people I know I will not give it their names and all that.
Who I worked undercover.
And they appreciate it.
Yeah, exactly.
But it shows the point where one little mistake could be a difference of life and death.
And it really showed that in there's one scene where he's out in public place out of character.
Because in this film, he made the mistake of saying he's engaged.
And so they actually had an agent come in and say, you're his fiance.
So whenever you're public, you're with her.
Right.
But once he's with this family and somebody comes out.
And he's a very, very, very well.
Very nice.
He handled that very very well on that.
So I mean, it really shows like I said earlier that what they have to go through and stay and
care for how they stay and character, it's a lot of behind the scenes on these guys.
But I want to get into the acting.
Let's talk about the action.
For an instant beyond, but we can this guy do anything not good.
I don't think so.
I mean, in this type of role.
No.
Oh, he was perfect.
Yeah.
He just seems like the kind of guy that puts himself into everything he does.
He played LBJ in HBO's version of all the way earlier this year.
I mean, everybody, of course, knows him from Malcolm in the middle, breaking bad.
Argo.
Argo.
Kung Fu Panda 3.
Yeah.
Trembo last year with Chad Saw and absolutely loved.
He was in.
He did Godzilla.
Well, I don't know if he wants to claim on that.
Well, but you know what?
I heard it.
He was very good.
He was in the remake total.
Yeah.
I don't know if you want to claim that either.
But he wasn't bad.
It just wasn't great.
Yeah.
I enjoyed it.
I didn't think it was great, but it wasn't terrible.
So John Carter, rock of ages.
I mean, he, he was also in the Lincoln lawyer, if you remember.
Yeah.
So he's worked with this director before.
He played the such the cool, calm, undercover agent that you cannot believe in this thing.
Sometimes I feel like they're just aren't enough awards in the world for this guy.
I mean, there's sometimes where he could have got caught.
And he handled the situation perfectly.
And this guy in the character in real life was he could have retired.
But he takes this mission, right?
Even though he could have retired from customs.
And he played the part of a guy who's been undercover for probably 20 years straight going from one
undercover to the next to the next to the next.
And those had a handle these situations, especially when he gets tense and it's like,
Uh-oh, um, I got to figure this out.
He handled it.
Well, situations where we would probably flip out.
And just in the end, give up our identity because we don't know how to get out of it.
He'd stay cool, calm, collected and played the part of an undercover agent who's been on the job for 30 years to the team.
Now, Andrew, was there anybody that you felt?
I mean, Brian Kranson's Brian Kranson.
It's a given that guy's going to bring his a game every time.
Was there anybody else in the film that you felt was on that level?
Or was he just head and shoulders above everybody?
Okay.
He was head and shoulders above everybody.
But the close second is Diane Kruger.
Played Kathy Urts.
Yeah, his, his, his fake Beyonce that, that, that, uh, Dawn alluded to earlier.
She, at first it was, she barely said anything.
And it was just, she was kind of like the eye candy.
And then she started acting.
Um, uh, along with Benjamin, uh, Benjamin Bratt and his wife.
Oh, Benjamin Bratt and his Benjamin Bratt.
Yeah.
I think he was, he, he had like the third.
Uh, maybe Ligwasama was better than him.
But Brett.
Oh, he really, he really brought, um, I guess, credibility to kind of that whole family.
Because we just saw a bunch of low lives up until we met Benjamin Bratt.
And then that's when he got real.
Dawn?
Yeah.
First off, you have John Isaacs in there.
But not too much, but still he played a kid.
But I totally agree with, uh, with him about, uh, Diane Kruger.
I mean, she played the part of a rookie undercover dude.
I mean, the first mission in real life.
That's the only mission she did undercover.
Oh, wow.
Yeah.
And she was able to, does it tell you things like this at the end of the film?
Yeah.
Because at the end, it showed like a scene of one of the actors.
And then it should the picture the real person would do that.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Really did that.
Uh, the one who really kind of got me to who I thought was kind of really good.
Who, um, uh, Mark Holden.
He was like in, he played like one of the top, uh, what he called.
Um, top, like big dogs when it came to the financials and stuff like that.
Uh, you don't have him from Captain Phillips World War C.
Any final destiny?
Yeah.
She's like getting the Miss America.
I mean, uh, Miss Congeniality and stuff like that.
The road to Guantanamo.
Uh, one second here.
He was also in, uh, 24 live another day.
Yeah.
Um, once again.
Who's a CIA liaison?
The, uh, once again here.
Which, which look at Barbara.
Oh, yeah.
Benjamin Brad, though.
Oh, Benjamin.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Benjamin Brad.
Benjamin Brad.
Yeah.
The guy was on law in order for like 9,000 years.
Yeah.
He was also in Miss Congeniality.
Yeah.
So it's a totally different thing than Congeniality.
Of course.
I mean, it's a different kind of film.
Yeah.
But still he played this Benjamin Brad.
Yeah.
I mean, he played the part.
He was like the top money guy.
He's like the guy who answers directly to Pablo.
You know, and who handles all the finances.
You know, uh, he played that part to a team.
Um, uh, so he'd be like my nominating roll shout out to him.
And I had to look her name up.
Olympia, Duke Caucus.
We played it.
His aunt Kathy.
Huge fan.
I said it the top of this episode.
Huge fan of the Olympia, Duke Caucus.
She's not in a much, but when she's in it, she plays it very well.
Yeah.
She, she, she, she steals this.
One of the great actresses of my lifetime.
Yes.
The, the, the number two.
Remember saying that we're in.
She's just steals this.
She just steals it.
Yeah.
Okay.
And once, and that's what Cranson and Brad in one of them.
Yeah.
She was very good.
She played the, she worked for the customs of a play that an old aunt Grant.
Yeah.
I mean, uh, the great aunt or whatever.
Mm-hmm.
And even though she's undercover and played that to the team.
Okay.
Yeah.
So she, she was only there by two, three scenes told.
But I want to make sense.
She, she hit it out of the park for her.
Any other, anything else we want to discuss before we get to the final analysis?
I thought the, the, the look.
What's kind of gritty bit of felt the mood of the, of the show.
And it made you feel like you're back in the 1980s.
It really, everything.
I mean, I, one thing I really stuck out was like, in the guy's house.
It's all that ugly wallpaper.
Yeah.
You know, which, which during the 80s, hey, that's cool, but no one to have it on their house now.
You know, that kind of thing.
So, and all the violence in there, like, the blood that was there.
It wasn't too much.
Like, they got a quick shot of it and then they moved on.
It was necessary.
Yeah.
It was not overdone.
Yeah.
I got that.
I'm with you on that.
And I think Don kind of asked me what it was.
But the, the music over the, over the credits.
Oh, yeah.
Yeah.
They had the soundtrack starts off with Tom Sawyer.
Do I have to keep going?
Yeah.
I mean, it's just, that's soundtrack.
I, uh, fellow, uh, friend and critic that we've seen at like the different stuff.
Uh, Daniel, he, he said, I love the soundtrack.
I'm just saying this was in the credible soundtrack.
The, the, the music of the moment really hit the point.
You know, it really helped.
I mean, just starting off Tom Sawyer that, that, that way, you have to say it's rush.
Okay.
Anything else?
No, I think final analysis.
All right.
It's good to do the final analysis on this show.
We're not going to give you thumbs up thumbs down.
We're not going to give you numbers, letter grade stars.
Anything like that.
Our audience, whom we affectionately refer to as the empire.
They want us to go deeper.
We're going to go deeper.
I'm going to ask these gentlemen up to two questions.
Question number one, is would you see this film again?
The answer is no, then we're done here.
But if the answer is yes, the way we gauge it is how far are you willing to go to see it again?
From the top down, it's full price evening show.
Twilight, Matt Nay, early morning on a Saturday.
Second one at the dollar theater.
Netflix, red box cable.
Andrew, would you see this film again?
Yes, I was.
How far are you willing to go?
I am going to go with a Matt Nay.
So almost almost to the edge, but not quite.
Yeah, because I think you'll have a lot of questions that you might want to research and it depends on how
that you want to stay up.
That's why I say all right fair enough.
Dom, would you see this again?
Definitely.
How far are you willing to go?
I mean, I know because I read your reviews.
Yeah, I really cannot find anything wrong with this.
And I really love how I put you on the edge of the seat.
Sometimes, but not too much.
Right.
And maybe even jump a few times when you have heart.
I'm going to covet it.
Because I want to tell you, I want to see this film.
Yeah, I'm very excited to see this film.
And I'm very excited to know that you guys enjoyed this film.
Oh, yeah.
Yeah.
I didn't hear anybody say anything bad about the film walking out.
Of all the fellow critics like Marcus and everybody else that we know up there.
I can find anything really wrong with it.
Except it's not for the entire family.
And we also want to say, I'm sorry, go ahead, Andrew.
No, I'm saying I don't know much about the real story itself, but I hope it will
like put some true to it.
And we also want to say by the time you hear this, you may want to go check out the movie
brothers on YouTube, be our UTHAS because their review is being filmed at the same
time that we're doing the audio here.
That's their website.
That's their website.
And the movie brothers.com is their website.
So make sure that there are partnered show.
We're big fans of those guys.
They do amazing works.
So make sure you check out their review.
We have to thank our best friend in a great marketing.
Yeah.
It's catchy.
It's got more hooks and a tackle box.
And I'm given a clinic and my clinics are free.
It's on sale.
Thanks Ashley.
Everybody there.
There are best friends for a reason.
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Clubhouse is closing.
You can't tell me you couldn't find a place for pretty palmering this.
I'm just saying, because she wasn't on a paper view at all.
It's Saturday.