iTunes Exclusive Episode The Night Before

The following is a sooner orgator production.
The following is a sooner orgator production.
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Welcome.
My name is Rob.
I'm the executive producer of the clubhouse podcast and Christmas is my favorite time of year.
For so many reasons.
This is the 158th.
I choose exclusive.
But I'm not alone for this particular edition.
Joining me across the desk is my co-host.
And a man who may have some Santa Beard's going on before too much longer.
He is chat, welcome sir.
I'll never let it get that long or that white.
Also joining me across the desk is the official fact checker of this show.
And a man who knows a little thing of two about snow.
You may know him as fun don go but his mom and even done for him.
I'm going to call him Don for the welcome sir.
You know I'm going to be in the frozen tender of my tenor for Christmas.
I thought the only one of those was the frozen tundra of the movie.
No my tenors.
I'm sorry.
Yeah.
Whatever do we do one of these particular episodes it is to review something.
And this one is no exception.
Today we are here to review the latest film from director Jonathan Levine.
You've got Joseph Gordon Levitt Seth Rogan, Anthony Mackie, Lizzie Kaplan,
Mindy Kayling.
It is called the night before.
Here's the bit.
Joseph Gordon Levitt plays Ethan.
And then in the little over ten years ago he had a tragedy happen and had no family.
So his best friends.
Isaac played by Seth Rogan.
And I had to scroll down here just a little bit.
And I lost it where to go.
And Anthony Mackie's character, which I all Chris Chris.
Okay.
I thought was odd.
That was Chris Isaac.
Oh yeah.
I didn't catch that.
They basically take you in as their family.
And so every year on Christmas they go out and they just whip it up.
Little karaoke.
What is this?
What is this?
Little visit to F.A.O. shorts.
And they try to find the greatest Christmas party of all time, which is known as the Nutcracker Ball.
Well, this current season is the last year they're going to do.
What their lives are all going in different directions.
And let's just say Ethan stumbles upon tickets to the old Nutcracker Ball.
And then hilarity ensues.
Before we get, we have to thank Ashden and Candice and everybody.
And everybody at Columbia Pictures provide us to this thing.
We love them.
We love them.
Great people.
Some of our favorite people.
Yes, they are.
Thank you so much for the invite guys.
All right.
Let's start with you.
It's almost time.
I mean, it's weird because as we record this, it's the week before Thanksgiving.
And I have a policy.
I live by a code.
I don't do Christmas music until the day after Thanksgiving.
But you kind of have to give in the nature of this film.
I'm with you 100%.
I'm the same way.
So a movie like this coming out before Thanksgiving.
How did you feel about it and did it?
Did it change your feeling going into the film?
Not at all.
Okay.
I mean, it's, it's smart marketing.
You know, a lot of people want to get that big big fat check in their,
and their studios bank roll before,
especially what's coming in the next month.
Fair enough.
You want to get out of its way.
So one month from the recording of this podcast, by the way.
So you want to get your money.
You can.
And you know, it's, people are already in a holiday frame of mind leading up to Thanksgiving.
Anyway, so it's a good fit.
You know, it's, I don't fault them for that at all.
Would you think of a story itself?
Uh, it's a very plausible story indeed.
Well, from a, from a, from a, from a, from a certain aspect,
but it, it was, it was new, but familiar at the same time.
If, if that's, if that makes any sense at all.
Um, you know, certain themes are touched upon that will remind you of of other holiday classics.
Uh, and not spoiling any, not spoiling any of that.
Uh, but, uh, it, it has a sense of familiarity to it.
It draws you in and kind of wraps its, uh,
red and green sweatered wearing arms around you and makes you feel a little bit more comfortable with it.
Done. Um, on that first question, he has Chad.
I'm old school.
I don't think that Christmas stuff should be out in the stores until the day after Thanksgiving.
Which nowadays, it's up like Labor Day.
Yeah.
Yeah.
It's up after Easter.
Yeah.
And I'm one of those guys who thinks every place should be closed on Thanksgiving.
I hate right there with you.
Great Thursday.
I hate that stuff.
But like you're saying, I agree with Chad on, on the marketing.
It's that time.
And some people may want Christmas thing over the Thanksgiving weekend.
You know, to see a movie.
You open this on, you know, the weekend, right before Thanksgiving.
That they can Thanksgiving weekend.
They go the malls and go shopping.
They can see that film.
So it's, I think it's a good time frame.
Okay.
I would agree with that.
It's still a little weird.
Yeah.
But I get the logic.
Yeah. Exactly.
But still, it gives a good holiday weekend.
Um, opportunities there for it.
Uh, on the plot.
I kind of put.
In my review at the clubhouse podcast.com.
That's our website.
I thought this is a Christmas tree holiday version.
Basically of this is the end.
In a way.
Definitely.
Yeah, definitely.
Yeah.
No, no spoiler free.
Exactly.
Time to cam yous.
Yeah.
You would not expect.
I'm not gonna say any names.
A couple of nice little curve balls in there.
Yeah.
So it's just like in the movie.
This is the end.
Same thing.
But this has the, we got to warn the empire.
This is not for the kids.
There's a lot of drug use.
There's a lot of don't language.
A lot don't humor this thing.
It's a,
It's a guy's holiday film.
It's what the kids like to call a hard.
Yeah.
Exactly.
It's a modern adult day version of one Christmas story that we all love.
Okay.
Spoiling anything.
A couple of Christmas stories.
We're going to get to that in a minute.
Yeah.
But overall, it's going to be that kind of.
It might be a cult classic in a comedy sense of something like Clark's possibly.
But I do not think this film will be in that realm of like a Christmas story.
Fair enough.
It wasn't a little weird for me.
I was seeing a Christmas film this early.
But again, I get the logic.
I thought from a story standpoint, this far exceeded my expectations.
I absolutely it did by a country mile.
I, I just didn't want it to be this cheesy.
I expected so much cheese out of this and what I got is a film that rivals Bad Santa.
I was, I was expecting holiday hangover.
Honestly.
Fair enough.
That's, that's a fair assessment going in.
But it has like the humor, but it has some real serious issues.
Yeah, emotional, which I really like.
It's definitely a holiday film.
And not just because it's set in the holiday.
It's it has a lot of the emotions that come with the holiday.
humor with heart is as a way I tend to look at it.
There's a nice little bit at the very end.
It's all I'm going to say.
And it's, I mean, it wreaks of the Seth Rogan machine.
Yeah.
Let's just be honest.
This is a typical Seth Rogan film.
More geared towards the man you could say.
But still, a lot of women may like it.
The thing for me was this was, I put this in my written review, which is at www.theclubhousepodcast.com, which is our website.
This was like a Marvel crossover event in the late 80s.
There were so many layers to this thing that about three quarters of the way through my brain just melted.
Why not?
I saw you in the theater.
And not, and not just, not just within the story.
You know, being someone who is as deeply rooted in pop culture as I am.
You've got the green hornet, the Falcon Robin.
And there's another person, I don't want to go ahead and say it.
Michael Shannon's in this well.
So you've got General Zodd.
All in the same film.
And the guy that played Robin in the Dark Knight rises.
His parents died in a tragic accident.
There's so much going on here, even outside of the film itself.
That parallels that we can draw because we live in the age of the internet.
And that's what people do.
But even within references within the script to other Christmas favorites as Dawn said earlier,
one of which didn't even hit me until probably 80% of the way through the film.
And it was staring at me the whole time.
It, this film works on so many different levels.
And it's, you know, don't expect, you know, don't expect force gum.
Oh, no.
Go in there and have some fun.
Yeah, there's so much because that's what this is.
But you brought up Shannon.
I would not say Shannon is a cameo.
He has a, I don't know.
I didn't call it a cameo.
I would call the minor role though.
I didn't call it.
So I didn't call it.
So I said that wasn't going to ruin it.
And I was like, you know what?
I'm going to go.
But he has a kind of a big minor role there.
So I'd say keep him, yeah, it's okay to say that.
And I'm a huge Michael Shannon fan.
Oh, yeah.
I'm a huge Michael Shannon fan.
And to see him in this film, which is a role.
Totally outside the box from everything else I've seen him in.
And he makes it work.
It's just, it's awesome.
You know, Mindy Kaling who at certain points.
If you ever wondered.
If they use her character as a character model for disgust and inside out.
There's a couple of moments where you see her and you see that character.
Plain is day Lizzie Kaplan who I think is one of the most underrated
actresses of this current crop of actors.
She, what I love about her is she has a subtlety to her where she can speak volumes
just in her facial expression.
It's her eyes.
And she does such a great job.
My shadow role went to Shannon.
Oh, my, but he got my shout out role.
Because I thought the part he played and how he played it.
And what this character is.
It was very entertaining to say the least I thought.
And you got to give a little special recognition to Jillian Bell who seems to be showing up in everything this year.
Really didn't we, we saw her and she was in goosebumps.
What's she?
I have to look someone.
He keep talking because I don't look something up to that.
She kind of, she kind of provides a, an emotional rudder so to speak for.
For Seth Rogan's character.
I know.
She's the kind of actress that your surprised isn't in more stuff.
Well, she's in Bridesmaid's 22 Jump Street.
She's in where she, she's on work.
She's very, very funny.
I run it.
Consider, we're saying she's in everything this year.
I run it.
She's in work.
Yeah.
And I thought she, she was really good in this.
And she plays Seth Rogan's wife and works with him really, really well.
Yeah.
You could see them being an off screen couple.
Honestly.
I mean, who watched this film.
They would love to have a wife like her and some of the stuff.
She does.
She's pretty cool.
Yeah.
See the trailer.
The trailer will explain all.
She's pretty cool.
I've only seen one body of work that the director of this has done before.
Do you see this is the end?
He didn't direct.
This is the end.
He directed.
He directed.
All the boys love Mandy Lane, which I've never seen.
He directed the whackness, which I've never seen.
Which I've heard very, very good things about the wife.
He directed 50 50, which Joseph Ford 11 and Seth Rogan previously starred in together.
And the, the only movie that I've seen before this one that I have seen is warm bodies, which are really, really light.
I thought he directed.
Well, they kind of throw you on the poster, but because I saved from the guys that brought you this is the end.
The writers did resist.
Yeah.
Yeah.
But because I was wondering what else this guy had done.
And I was like, okay.
Well, that one I can relate to.
And it really makes me want to go back and watch 50 50 to see how Seth Rogan and Joseph Ford 11 work together.
Besides living.
There were three other writers on this one.
Right.
Yeah.
They were the ones that did.
That's just crazy.
Yeah.
Hunter Schaffer in Goldberg on that.
Were the writers along with living on this thing.
And it's written incredibly well.
It really is.
It doesn't come off as as trying to work too much.
Stick into it.
And like you said, it avoided cheese.
And I like the job was hate, which I was thankful for.
And you know, still going to acting a little bit.
And there's one thing I want to bring up later and something else is those three guys.
When you watch this film by the end, you think that they have literally been friends for decades.
They're like, you know, brothers from another mother kind of thing,
where they're that tight knit.
They actually showed it well in this film.
But one of the thing I like was the look of the film.
It had the right setting and tone for the mood of the film at the time.
Yeah.
It really showed.
Yeah.
Show New York.
New York is going to the certain places.
But it didn't say, hey, hey, we're New York.
We're New York.
You know, it showed the mood of the weather and everything else.
Show the beautiful parts of New York by some back parts.
I thought the mix of the look of the film and the scenery was done very, very well.
Yeah.
I agree with you there.
Anything else you want to do for you to file analysis?
I've often wondered if at one point maybe they were considering Craig Robinson and
and Mackie's role because he's worked with Seth Rogan so many.
Yeah.
But not given the it wouldn't have worked as the character was portrayed.
But I'm wondering if maybe they thought about it and Craig Robinson couldn't do it.
So they tweaked it and got it.
And I'm going to come in.
And I'm going to see an entity.
I'm actually getting more and more.
I'm a two fan.
I am too.
I've never seen this side of him.
Maybe you guys have, but I've never seen him be all.
I don't really know him as is the Falcon.
Oh, no. He's been these been some good stuff there.
But yeah, one thing I want to bring back on look real quick is that you showed New York well,
but there wasn't much CGI but the parts that had the CGI.
They made me roll.
Yeah.
It was used when it had to be.
Yeah.
And you watch parts I'm talking about.
Oh, yeah.
Yeah.
I mean, there's a couple of seeds or you just like, okay.
That's funny.
That's funny.
Oh, I think Mackie there's something else you've seen him in sir.
Little thing like it's called the hurt locker.
I saw that one.
But you didn't see it.
But, but he was he was still playing a serious role.
He wasn't really playing it for laughs.
Now granted.
Falcon offers a little bit of comic relief because he's the guy that's.
That can't believe he's even involved in this whole thing as far as the Avengers goes.
But I've never seen him play just straight up comedy.
Pain again.
It was kind of a comical serious road.
I haven't seen that.
I've never seen that.
I have.
But there's some real.
The rock was in that one.
The rock and the Mark Wahlberg on that one there too.
Because he needs to talk to the don't.
What?
No.
Do you like it?
Yeah.
I'm trying to figure it out.
You know, we are marshal million dollar baby.
I mean, it's it's going to try to figure what he has.
Hollywood homicide might be one that you might be a comedy.
But that's.
Yeah.
I wouldn't really call that one.
He was well Johnson and Abraham Lincoln vampire hunter.
Yeah.
Which I thought was a good film.
Which is a comedy regardless.
Yeah.
I thought it was a good movie.
I enjoyed vampire hunter more than that.
I enjoyed Lincoln the day.
All right.
Shall we get to the.
To the final analysis.
The way we do the final analysis on this show.
We don't give you thumbs up thumbs down.
We don't give you letter grades numbers rankings.
Nothing like that.
Our audience whom we affectionately refer to as the empire is better than that.
We're going to ask these boys two questions.
Question number one.
Would you see this film again?
If the answer is no, then we're done here.
The answer is yes.
And I'm going to ask how far are you going to go to see this.
Will you pay full price in the theater?
Would you go to a twilight matinee early morning on a weekend?
Would you wait for it in second run at the dollar theater?
Would you venture out of your house or run it on red box?
Would you stream it on Netflix?
Would you wait for it on cable?
Done.
Yes.
Would you see this film again?
Yeah.
How far are you willing to go?
I would say I'm recommending this as a twilight for a guy's night out.
So get the guys together or some women who like that don't comedy who are not offended.
Go to this thing that hit buffalo wildlings after or hooters or some of their place after the fact.
I think that'd be a great guy's night out film.
See it and go get some child after.
Shall we see this again?
Yeah, how far.
Same way is done and I definitely plan on making this part of my annual tradition of Christmas films to watch.
See, I'm going to go a little bit less to you guys.
I really didn't enjoy this film and I would say for somebody who hasn't seen it go ahead and see it in the theater.
But I think for a repeat viewing, I'd like to have everybody over at the house.
So we could act stupid and cut up a little bit while watching it.
Yeah.
You know, and still have people that want to go see it, the theater respect the theater going experience.
This is a film best experienced with friends.
Yeah.
Yeah.
You know, because that's the go grab the food bring it back to the house.
That's some more of the story is friendship.
It's shout out, shout out.
I don't watch this movie.
I'm with him on that.
Go get the hooters and bring it back to the crib and watch it together.
Yeah, you know what I mean?
Well, but it's it's it's it's it's in theaters, you know.
But it's something that you could make part of your tradition every year.
Absolutely.
Watch it with the buddies.
But before we finish up here, we got to think Ashden and Candace and everybody at Maroc and Columbia pictures.
I love them so much.
Thank you, guys.
Thank you, guys.
Appreciate it.
All right, gentlemen.
Let's do the little thing.
We like to call the plugs.
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I am a yes that Rob Urban that has spelled ERV.
I am at chat in PG69.
I'm at fondango and you can email me at Don at theclubhousepodcast.com.
Email Don for information on how we can come to a live show for you.
We love getting out and doing live remote shows and hanging out with the empire.
You can email me if you'd like questions, comments, concerns.
Tell me to go pound sand.
I am Rob at theclubhousepodcast.com.
I am Chad at theclubhousepodcast.com.
Charlotte Parker is on Pinterest because we are morally obligated to say that.
And by the way, the day after we record this podcast is her birthday.
So happy birthday to Charlotte.
And Jules Womick.
Did you enjoy this?
Yes, she did.
Outstanding.
Our normal show is every Sunday, night, seven Eastern, four Pacific.
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So until the next time that we get to hang out for Don, for Chad, I'm Rob and for the empire.
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In the Nutcracker Ball.
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The preceding was a sooner orgator production.
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