Episode Transcript
[00:00:06] Speaker A: Welcome to Five Minute Film Finder, brought to you by Pioneer Library System.
[00:00:13] Speaker B: Welcome to Five Minute Film Finder, a Pioneer Library System podcast where we talk about movies that you can watch with your Pioneer Library System library card. My name is Tracy, and I'm here today with Ben, and we're gonna talk about some movies.
[00:00:27] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:00:28] Speaker B: Specifically starring John Malkovich in the 90s. Specifically in 1998.
[00:00:36] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:00:37] Speaker B: Both of these movies came out in 1998. They were the two films that John Malkovich put out in 1998. And I can't imagine two more different films, truly.
[00:00:48] Speaker A: What's your relationship to John Malkovich?
[00:00:51] Speaker B: We talked about this a little bit before we started. I'm in love with him, absolutely. Yeah. I think he just brings, like, a really great energy. He's always doing something weird, and I'm usually quite drawn to it.
[00:01:06] Speaker A: Yes. Like, kind of his thing. Like, big, big choices. Like, I don't know how he's escaped, like, the absurdity of Nicolas Cage's, like, career. But, like, similar. Like, he goes big, he does tons of stuff, never says no.
[00:01:25] Speaker B: I think that he has reached the.
He's in reds.
[00:01:29] Speaker A: Oh, that's true. Yeah.
[00:01:31] Speaker B: Like, he's in some weird stuff. Yeah. When I think of John Malkovich, I immediately think of him in Annie Lennox's Walking on Broken Glass video, which is just a play on Dangerous Liaisons, which is, like, his crazy swings in his career. But he can do all of it in a way that if I don't find it convincing, I do at least find it compelling.
[00:01:52] Speaker A: Compelling, yeah. You want to watch and you're like, what's he gonna do next? Yes.
[00:01:58] Speaker B: So in one of these films, he is absolutely doing the most, oh, so much. And in one of these, I think we're seeing a slightly subdued John Malkovich.
[00:02:10] Speaker A: Yeah, weirdly.
[00:02:11] Speaker B: Yeah. So we'll have a lot of range to talk about in the John Malkovich zone. But, yeah, 1998.
[00:02:20] Speaker A: So 1998. With that. Do you want to kick us off with Rounders?
[00:02:25] Speaker B: I do want to kick us off with Rounders, so Wilhelm can start the timer.
Okay. Rounders came out in 1998, like both of these films did. It was directed by John Dahl, I believe the guy's name is. He didn't direct a lot of other movies that I was super familiar with, I want to say. The other one that I knew was called the Last Seduction had Linda Fiortini in it. That was pretty big in the 90s. But he's directed a lot of TV. He's done a bunch of Roy Donovan. He's done several episodes of Billions.
[00:02:58] Speaker A: Sure. Okay. Yeah, he's got it.
[00:02:59] Speaker B: So, like some real dude bro television shows. Which makes sense that he made this real dude bro movie.
[00:03:06] Speaker A: Absolutely.
[00:03:06] Speaker B: Right off the bat. This is a hard R movie. There is a lot of swearing and there is a lot of offensive language.
But the premise, my IMD plot synopsis, as you know I love, is a young reformed gambler must return to playing high stakes poker to help a friend pay off loan sharks while balancing his relationship with his girlfriend and his commitments to law school.
Yeah, yeah. It's right there on the tin. I feel like that doesn't get into the fact that this movie is wild. Yeah. It's. Matt Damon is our main character. He's Mike McD. We're introduced straight off into the movie with Mike McD is going to a high stakes poker game with three stacks of high society, which is $30,000.
[00:03:52] Speaker A: I love all the lingo.
[00:03:54] Speaker B: It's so fun.
[00:03:55] Speaker A: Give me lingo.
[00:03:57] Speaker B: This movie is like, do you know anything about poker? Too bad.
And just runs you into it immediately. He is in a poker game with a Russian mobster named Teddy kgb. Teddy kgb, who is played by John Malkovich, doing the least Russian accent I've ever heard in my life, but also.
[00:04:19] Speaker A: Doing an accent which is different from our other movie today.
[00:04:22] Speaker B: Yeah, the accent is Borat.
[00:04:24] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah, yeah, for sure.
[00:04:25] Speaker B: The accent is Borat.
[00:04:27] Speaker A: Broad Eastern European.
[00:04:29] Speaker B: Yes.
[00:04:31] Speaker A: We'll just accept it.
[00:04:32] Speaker B: Yes.
Mike D. Loses all of his money in the first poker game. And then we're seeing him quit poker and build back up because his friend gets out of prison. His friend is played by Edward Norton, who is doing a bit in this movie.
[00:04:48] Speaker A: Truly. Yeah. He's having a grand old time.
[00:04:51] Speaker B: Yes. So other films that Edward norton did in 1998 were American history X, which got him an Oscar nomination.
[00:04:59] Speaker A: Wow.
[00:05:00] Speaker B: And then he's also in this. And this is the year before he does Fight Club.
[00:05:05] Speaker A: Yeah, I was gonna say Fight Club's right around the corner.
[00:05:07] Speaker B: So he is playing that kind of dude in this charismatic weasel man.
[00:05:12] Speaker A: Yeah. It seemed like I was just like, is this what made him wanna do Fight Club? Except this is more the Brad Pitt role. Huh.
[00:05:20] Speaker B: Okay.
[00:05:21] Speaker A: So that's even the jacket.
[00:05:22] Speaker B: Like, I was just like, literally dressed like Brad Pitt in Fight Club.
[00:05:26] Speaker A: It's incredible.
[00:05:27] Speaker B: It's really weir. And so he is getting. He is in huge gambling debt to a guy named Johnny Gramma, who is.
People are swinging for the fences in this movie.
[00:05:39] Speaker A: Big, big.
[00:05:40] Speaker B: They're like, subtlety Never heard of her.
[00:05:43] Speaker A: We don't need it.
[00:05:44] Speaker B: Nope. They owe him. Is it $25,000, I think, at the end?
[00:05:48] Speaker A: Yes.
[00:05:48] Speaker B: Yes. And so they're having to make it back playing poker because Mike D lost all of his money in that one poker game. He's been driving a truck. He's in law school. This is what they have to make money. And it is.
It sounds really boring out loud, but just scene after scene of them going to different poker games.
[00:06:09] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:06:09] Speaker B: But it is thrilling to watch somehow.
[00:06:13] Speaker A: Very compelling.
[00:06:14] Speaker B: Yes.
[00:06:18] Speaker A: I don't care about sports, but I also love sports movies. I feel like this falls into that same kind. You're like, I love to see them grind it out. I love to see them figure it out. And then, like, the fallback, it's like. I don't know, it's just.
[00:06:30] Speaker B: It's the falling grace. It's the rise to power. You've got. I loved Matt Damon and Edward Norton's chemistry in this, but I feel like the real heroes of this are. There are some character actors doing some work. One of them is John Turturro, who I am in love with in this.
[00:06:48] Speaker A: Movie, who plays Knish.
[00:06:50] Speaker B: Knish, who is a rounder, which is a person who goes around and plays poker games to make a living.
And he's amazing in this Martin Landau, like, four years after he wins an Oscar as one of his law professors, who gives, like, this beautiful speech about, like, I was supposed to be a rabbi, but now I'm a lawyer in the middle.
[00:07:08] Speaker A: That scene was so lovely.
[00:07:11] Speaker B: I was like, gosh darn it, he did it again when I was watching. It's so good. And then obviously John Malkovich, who is maybe in 15 minutes of this movie.
[00:07:22] Speaker A: But is on the posters.
[00:07:26] Speaker B: Yes.
[00:07:26] Speaker A: Like, somehow positioned as, like, the Big Bad, despite, like, not a lot of interactions with him.
[00:07:34] Speaker B: I think we're already out of five.
[00:07:35] Speaker A: Minutes, but there it goes. Yeah.
[00:07:37] Speaker B: You and I over talking about movies. Who would have imagined?
[00:07:41] Speaker A: So let's wrap it up in just a few minutes.
[00:07:45] Speaker B: Just 15 minutes.
[00:07:46] Speaker A: So, yeah. I love this movie. I didn't expect to love it quite how I did. It feels like late 90s.
[00:07:58] Speaker B: I don't know that a movie has ever felt more 1998 than this movie. Like, there's an energy coming off of it. It's still kind of got like a raw bad boy energy. Like, it feels very much like a starter to Fight Club, where Fight Club is, like, becomes people's personalities. Like, you see Rounders and then you see Fight Club. And I Can see how that made.
[00:08:23] Speaker A: Okay, Okay. A lot of fun. I'm buying this guy.
[00:08:25] Speaker B: Yes. And then it also gave us John Malkovich saying, ba. That man. He's men.
[00:08:32] Speaker A: That man is men.
[00:08:35] Speaker B: I anytime now, I say Mieni, I say it as John Malkovich in Rounders.
[00:08:42] Speaker A: Okay. So big thumbs up to Rounders.
[00:08:46] Speaker B: Big thumbs up to Rounders. It's a fun, easy to watch sports movie.
It's Matt Damon doing Aren't I such a Stinker. But I still look great.
[00:08:57] Speaker A: Which was still looking like an all American sweetheart.
[00:08:59] Speaker B: Yeah. A lot of his 90s with Good Will Hunting and the Talented Mr. Ripley. And this really like a three fur of him as a young man, as an actor, which I love. That Matt Damon.
[00:09:11] Speaker A: Oh, yes. Yeah. One of the best eras.
[00:09:13] Speaker B: A good run for him and then just a truly weaselly Edward Norton.
[00:09:18] Speaker A: Yep. And doing his best weaseliness.
[00:09:21] Speaker B: Some fun poker stuff that I was genuinely thrilled by. Even though it's a bunch of people sitting at a table looking at cards and John Malkovich having Oreos whisper to him.
[00:09:31] Speaker A: Oh, and the voiceover. I love the voiceover.
[00:09:35] Speaker B: It works so good in this movie.
[00:09:37] Speaker A: I usually am like, yes, kind of.
[00:09:40] Speaker B: A weak device, but it works really well in this. It's nice because that's how the game gets explained to you, is in this voiceover. And so, yeah, it rules. Good times.
[00:09:50] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:09:50] Speaker B: Rounders. Rounders would recommend on Kanopy.
[00:09:54] Speaker A: Quick break and then we're back with our next movie.
[00:10:05] Speaker B: And welcome back to Five Minute Film Finder. We have another movie also on Canopy to talk to you about today. And Ben's gonna take the lead on this one, and I'm gonna have some feelings about it.
[00:10:16] Speaker A: All right, Wilhelm, start your timer. We are talking about 1998's the man in the Iron Mask. So this is a movie directed by Randall Wallace. So we were just discussing him. He not known for a ton of directing. He directed Secretariat many years later, but he's mostly known as a writer. He wrote Pearl Harbor. He wrote Braveheart. He wrote We Were Soldiers. Yes. This was his first big movie or first movie.
[00:10:50] Speaker B: It shows.
[00:10:51] Speaker A: Yeah. Yeah. It's so I have to admit, right up top.
I loved the Three Musketeers when I was a kid. For summer I had. And I think the 90s also had a period of loving the Three Musketeers. And this was one of the, like, five or six movies that came out.
[00:11:12] Speaker B: Yes. Cause we were all indoctrinated by that Bryan Adams song, All for One and All for Love.
[00:11:16] Speaker A: We gotta have it.
[00:11:17] Speaker B: Yes.
[00:11:17] Speaker A: My brother, we need to know more.
[00:11:19] Speaker B: Was also obsessed with the Three Musketeers. Okay, good.
[00:11:23] Speaker A: It wasn't just me.
[00:11:24] Speaker B: No. So I watched this movie a ton as a child.
[00:11:27] Speaker A: Sure.
[00:11:28] Speaker B: I think it used to be on TNT a lot. Oh, yeah, yeah.
[00:11:31] Speaker A: That makes sense.
[00:11:32] Speaker B: It has that vibe.
[00:11:33] Speaker A: Yeah. I remember this movie being great.
I was shocked to find out that may not be the case.
[00:11:46] Speaker B: I started this movie and I was like, we get to the Leo stuff pretty fast, right? No.
You start out with the most exposition that's ever been in a film. Ever.
[00:12:00] Speaker A: So much.
They hint in the prison, but you don't know that it's Leo. So you could say they showed him. Nah. But.
[00:12:10] Speaker B: Well, they do, but they're just like. They just show a man in an iron mask.
[00:12:14] Speaker A: Regardless of context.
[00:12:15] Speaker B: He is beating his head against the wall. Cut to different scene.
[00:12:20] Speaker A: Yeah.
So this movie is about King Louis.
[00:12:27] Speaker B: I called this movie in France, Louis xiv, the Da Vinci Code, featuring the Three Musketeers.
[00:12:34] Speaker A: Great. Yeah. I mean, honestly, perfect.
Cause it's like. It's a period piece. It's a heist movie. It's.
[00:12:44] Speaker B: It acts like it's an action adventure. It's an action adventure movie, but mostly not.
[00:12:49] Speaker A: Oh, man.
[00:12:50] Speaker B: It's mostly a political plotting movie.
[00:12:53] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:12:55] Speaker B: In which King Louis XIV is Leonardo DiCaprio. And he is a bad man.
[00:13:05] Speaker A: The worst.
[00:13:07] Speaker B: Turns out.
[00:13:08] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:13:10] Speaker B: Surprise.
He's a twin.
[00:13:14] Speaker A: Gasp.
[00:13:16] Speaker B: Jeremy Irons knew this.
[00:13:17] Speaker A: Yes.
[00:13:18] Speaker B: Jeremy Irons in this movie. Jeremy Irons, incredible cast in this movie.
[00:13:22] Speaker A: Just like our last movie.
[00:13:23] Speaker B: Yes.
[00:13:23] Speaker A: Stacked cast. Everybody's doing whatever accent they want to thank you. Sometimes none at all.
[00:13:30] Speaker B: They said it's the 1600s in France. Our king is from New York. I guess Jeremy Irons is also here. John Malkovich just sounds like John Malkovich, which is crazy in its own way.
[00:13:43] Speaker A: Yeah. Especially after our last movie.
[00:13:45] Speaker B: Yes. And we hired one French man to make up for it. It's the most French man.
[00:13:50] Speaker A: So French.
[00:13:51] Speaker B: It's Gerard Depardieu.
[00:13:53] Speaker A: And he's really doing the heavy lifting selling the Frenchness of this movie.
[00:13:58] Speaker B: I wanted to follow him into battle in this movie.
[00:14:01] Speaker A: I mean, honestly. So I think that's why I love this movie. It was like Porthos. What a fun guy. I just. I want to see more of what he's into.
[00:14:09] Speaker B: Yes.
[00:14:10] Speaker A: Even though I was too young to understand what he was getting into.
[00:14:14] Speaker B: Well, his whole bit in the whole movie is, I would like to flirt with a lady, be in battle or die. And I was like, yes, sure. I would also like those things. Less of them are happening.
[00:14:31] Speaker A: Ostensibly, the plot of this movie follows John Malkovich's son, who is played by.
[00:14:41] Speaker B: Oh, that pretty man that.
[00:14:43] Speaker A: That Skarsgard.
Peter Sarsgaard.
[00:14:47] Speaker B: Yes, yes, yes.
[00:14:48] Speaker A: Played by Peter Sarsgaard.
He is sent to war by the bad king.
[00:14:54] Speaker B: He is killed because he wants his girlfriend.
[00:14:56] Speaker A: Because he wants his girlfriend.
[00:14:57] Speaker B: Because they're wearing the same wig.
[00:14:59] Speaker A: Truly.
[00:15:02] Speaker B: I took a screenshot at one point of how I'm like, I think those two are wearing the same wig. And I will pull it up and.
[00:15:07] Speaker A: Show you lots of good wig work. Hugh Laurie in a fantastic period wig.
[00:15:12] Speaker B: Hugh Laurie doing great work in the five minutes he's in this movie.
And so since he's so evil, they're like, surprise, secret twin who is nice. Thank goodness.
[00:15:27] Speaker A: Oh, thank goodness.
[00:15:29] Speaker B: We're going to replace evil king with nice king.
[00:15:34] Speaker A: Nice king.
[00:15:34] Speaker B: And no one will notice.
[00:15:36] Speaker A: Like, a weird prince and the pauper situation.
[00:15:39] Speaker B: Yes.
[00:15:41] Speaker A: But then they immediately mess up.
[00:15:43] Speaker B: Immediately. And then I would say hijinks ensues, but it kind of doesn't.
[00:15:47] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:15:48] Speaker B: I wish there had been more hijinks. And so many people in this are doing their best. And it is. And it looks good enough.
And the people look good. It's like a bunch of attractive people.
But it's slower than I wanted it to be, and there's not enough action scenes.
[00:16:10] Speaker A: The tone's really all over the place.
It wants to be super silly. It wants to be super saccharine and sweet. It wants to be, like, deathly serious at times. And then, like. It also aspires to be an action movie at times.
[00:16:26] Speaker B: Yes. It wants to swashbuckle.
[00:16:27] Speaker A: The one scene of cgi. I don't know if you caught this, but the. The. The sword being thrown very early on through the fountain, I laughed out loud because I was just like, I can't believe that's where they spent their cgi budget in 1998. Because nothing else. Everything else is practical and kind of, like, poorly done. But, like, they're like, we're gonna make this sword swinging through this fountain look amazing.
Oh, just. Okay, we're gonna keep going.
[00:16:54] Speaker B: Well, it's just there's a bunch of stuff in this that's so crazy.
So there's a final battle scene where the three musketeers who are Gerard Depradieu, John Malkovich, Jeremy Irons, and then Gabriel Burns as D'Artagnan, who is technically the fourth. Yeah, I said Mouseketeer. Musketeer.
Are with, you know, one of the Leo characters. They're going into battle against current musketeers.
[00:17:23] Speaker A: Yes.
[00:17:24] Speaker B: And the plan is basically. I don't know. They're kind of obsessed with us. What if we slayed?
[00:17:29] Speaker A: They think we're so cool.
[00:17:32] Speaker B: They're like, I don't know. What if we. Five men simply charge?
[00:17:35] Speaker A: We're kind of legendary.
[00:17:37] Speaker B: 20 men with muskets. So, like, actually, we're too cool to die.
[00:17:41] Speaker A: We're pretty iconic. There's, like, a plot point in this movie. Truly. Yeah.
[00:17:45] Speaker B: And I said, what?
[00:17:47] Speaker A: They just turn at each other's. Like, they think we're pretty cool. I don't think they'll do it.
[00:17:53] Speaker B: Basically, literally dialogue from this movie. And I was like, who's losing their minds? Is it me or everyone who made this film?
[00:18:01] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:18:02] Speaker B: And I mentioned to you this was the year after Leo did Titanic.
[00:18:06] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:18:07] Speaker B: And then he was in this.
[00:18:08] Speaker A: Shocking.
[00:18:09] Speaker B: And that's wild. He is pristine in this movie, though. Like, this is possibly the most beautiful he's ever been.
[00:18:17] Speaker A: Yeah. Primetime Leo.
[00:18:19] Speaker B: So that's.
It's great to look at. He's not doing horrible work. Even though, as we discussed earlier, he did get a Razzie for worse chemistry with himself.
[00:18:30] Speaker A: Yeah. For his interactions with his twin.
[00:18:34] Speaker B: Like the Parent Trap.
Lindsay Lohan did it better.
There's so much in this movie that I like. It's fun to look at. The actors are great.
[00:18:47] Speaker A: Oh, I would never say somebody shouldn't watch this movie. No. It's absolutely a fun time.
[00:18:52] Speaker B: I saw someone describe it as, like, great movie for a cozy afternoon. Or like, you don't really want to challenge yourself.
[00:18:58] Speaker A: Yeah, absolutely.
[00:19:00] Speaker B: You're like, I would like to see a film.
[00:19:03] Speaker A: Yeah. This is absolutely a film.
[00:19:06] Speaker B: A movie.
But it's. I wanted more from it.
[00:19:10] Speaker A: Sure.
[00:19:11] Speaker B: And that might just be nostalgia.
[00:19:12] Speaker A: Yeah.
And there's plenty of Musketeers films in the 90s that you can choose from for a little more depth and breadth. But I don't think any of them are quite as light and fun and airy as this one.
[00:19:24] Speaker B: No. This one is, certainly.
[00:19:25] Speaker A: And they don't have John Malkovich.
[00:19:27] Speaker B: They don't. And most things are better with. If John Malkovich had not been in this movie being too serious, which might have been part of my problem with it.
[00:19:35] Speaker A: I recently found out I'm gonna be a dad, and the dad stuff in this movie just really got me.
[00:19:41] Speaker B: Okay. So I will lie if I. I did cry a little bit at the dad reveal at the end.
[00:19:46] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:19:47] Speaker B: There were two kind of two dad moments at the end where I was like, oh, boy, I moved. Gosh darn it, I moved.
[00:19:56] Speaker A: You've got me.
[00:19:57] Speaker B: Oh, no.
So I will say it's not. It's not completely lacking. There are things in it that work. I just wish it had been more of an action movie, which speaks to uranized combined taste.
[00:20:10] Speaker A: This is not an Action Buds episode by conventional terms, but I think we had hoped that it would have been a little bit more of an action Bud episode.
[00:20:20] Speaker B: Yeah. It's crazy that there's more action in the poker movie where people sit at a table.
[00:20:25] Speaker A: Absolutely.
[00:20:25] Speaker B: There's more thrill in that than there is in this.
[00:20:27] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:20:28] Speaker B: But still fun. Nostalgic.
My brother's excited to listen to this episode.
[00:20:34] Speaker A: Good. Yeah. So both of these movies were on canopy. Yes.
High recommends on both.
[00:20:41] Speaker B: Absolutely. Watch the man in the Iron Mask for the nostalgia. Watch Rounders because it's silly and fun.
[00:20:47] Speaker A: Yeah. Both solid.
[00:20:49] Speaker B: Yeah, absolutely. Support John Malkovich, truly.
[00:20:54] Speaker A: And if you have any questions, concerns, or comments, or you want to suggest something to us, you can email us at podcastioneerlibrarysystem.org podcastioneerlibrary system.org yeah, that's right.
[00:21:12] Speaker B: You nailed it.
[00:21:13] Speaker A: And until next time, I've been Ben.
[00:21:16] Speaker B: I'm still Tracy.
[00:21:17] Speaker A: Bye.
[00:21:18] Speaker B: Bye.
Okay.
