Watch. Talk to you for a second.
Oh,
Pops, tripping, man. You want me to ask for my bike back?
You know I wouldn't trip. What bike? The beach cruiser.
The one I let you use a couple of weeks ago. The one I've been
asking you about. Oh, that bike.
Hey, no, you wanted it back, homie. It's right here. Follow me,
homie. Yeah, it's just like it's both ours
down in my house. Cool.
Oh, oh yeah.
That's my punk.
You got knocked the out.
It's two Dads one Movie. It's the podcast where two middle aged dads
sit around and shoot the about the movies of the 80s and 90s.
Here are your hosts, Steve Paulo and Nick Brianna.
Hello everybody. Welcome to another episode of 2 Dads 1 Movie.
I'm Steve. And I'm Nick. And today we are talking about 1995
comedy classic Friday starring Ice Cube and Chris
Tucker. Yeah, this was my pick. I just,
I love this movie. This is the kind of movie that I don't
even know if you can quantify kind of how quotable and how
oft quoted this movie is. I mean it literally entire genres
of meme have been created out of this movie over the years.
Concept of by Felicia like took on a life of
its own, far outweighing anything in the movie itself. Yeah,
but I mean this is one I saw, you know, probably when it came out
in high school. I don't know if I would have seen it at Theater Knox.
My parents were, we were like 15 when it came out. My parents were a
little strict on the whole rated R in cinemas thing. So I probably saw it
the second it hit Blockbuster and rented it, you know, for, for a fun
evening with the guys or whatever and it's just, it's a laugh out loud riot.
Probably actually came out around the time I started smoking weed. So you know,
like that also was, you know, fun for you with energy, you know. Yeah.
Like, you know, feeling like oh, I'm in on this joke here, you know,
or whatever. When it's like no dude, you're just a 16 year old idiot smoking
weed. So don't listen. Mom and dad. No.
So yeah, Nick, what about you? What's your history with Friday? Yeah,
so probably similar to you. I think when this hit the video store, this is
something we would, one of my friends would have bought as a used Blockbuster
tape. Watched it a bunch. There's so much that I quote
without even thinking about it being from this movie. Like just little things
in this movie and we'll get into them as they come up. But yeah,
there's so much. And this was super different. I mean, this type
of comedy didn't really exist yet. Like, there were movies.
We had our, like, Boys in the Hood, our Menace to Society, very serious,
very dark movies that took place in this kind of, like, you know, Compton,
like, in the hood or whatever. But there wasn't like, a lighthearted take on that,
which also incorporated some very real, like, kind of dark things about living in that
area. Yeah. So, yeah, at the time, like, we watched
this a bunch, quoted a bunch. I didn't start smoking weed until very late in
my life, so I didn't. I was able to enjoy this just
off of, like, Mountain Dew, Code Red, but it. It really did it for me.
So, yeah, such a fun movie. I. I really, really am
happy to talk about this one. Yeah, you probably would have started on the weed
earlier, like me, if you were in theater. Like, I was in high school.
That's where I got to go. But, yeah, no, so completely
agree. Until Friday came out, at least as far as my understanding. And look,
we're a couple of white men. We grew up in the suburbs. You know,
we grew up in a scenario. Nothing at all like the setting of this film.
But my understanding, pop culture sense of,
you know, this is the first time that, like, a comedy was set in the
hood. Right. Any other time before this, the hood was this dangerous,
you know, almost dark kind of, like, place that, you know, people barely scrape
by to survive. And it's like, there's obviously the undercurrent of that here. This is
still, like, obviously a dangerous neighborhood. You know, there's lots of commentary,
especially from Craig's dad in the movie, about when I was coming up,
you didn't need to be this violent. You kind of defend yourself with your fist.
So there's a lot of that there. But this is a comedy. This is a
funny movie with a funny premise that characters have to
constantly get themselves out of problems they themselves started. And that's
all super classic comedy stylings. And so to set it in
the hood in Southern California and South Central LA is kind of awesome from
the perspective of, like, normalizing that, like, this is a place where families
live and they just live their lives. And, like, you know, not everything is colors
or boys in the hood or, you know, higher learning even or whatever.
Like, not all of it is that, like, there is an element to this.
There is funny stuff that happens in these places because it's a normal
place. It's just a place where people live. Right. And it does a great
job of kind of establishing the street that they live on as having, like,
all these different kinds of people. And yeah, the movie, it's.
It takes place in the hood. It is not exploitative.
Like, it's not exploiting the negative aspects of that way of life for comedy
necessarily. It is about real people who we grow to care about
who live in this place and the funny things that happen during their day.
So great one. I'd love to hear some facts about this one. Let's jump into
the facts on Friday. Friday has an R rating.
It came out on April 26, 1995, with a running
time of 91 minutes. Directed by F. Gary Gray, written by Ice
Cube, DJ Poo, starring Ice Cube and Chris Tucker.
The scores on Rotten tomatoes, it received 77%, which is a nice,
solid, fresh rating from Rotten tomatoes. And on IMDb, a 7.2. We've seen that
number a few times recently. I feel like that's our zone. Yeah, 7.2 is A.
We've kind of agreed. It's like a movie that generally the population is saying,
this is a good movie. Yep, this is a good movie. Awards. Okay.
This is fun. When the movie came out, it did not win any awards.
And that shocked me because I was thinking to myself, this. While I'm watching it
going, man, I wonder how this cleaned up at the MTV Movie. Yeah, right.
Because it's such an MTV Movie Award. Sure. So let me go over why it
did not win any of the awards at the MTV Movie Awards in 1996 when
it was nominated, it was nominated for three awards. Chris Tucker was nominated for
best Breakthrough Performance. He lost to George Clooney in From
Dusk Till Dawn. That's a tough break for Chris Tucker. He was also nominated.
Chris Tucker was for best Comedic Performance, and he lost to Jim Carrey in
Ace Ventura. When Nature Calls. Rough pull again. Yeah. Then finally,
Ice Cube and Chris Tucker as a duo were nominated for best on
screen Duo. And they lost to David Spade and Chris Farley and Tommy Boy.
A duo so good they gave them a second movie that wasn't even a sequel.
Right. Years later, we would get Black Sheep just because people were like, we've got
to have Spade and Farley on screen again together. Right. So it's like the most
like any. I did not look back at what won those categories in like,
95 or 97, but it feels like almost any other year Friday would
have had a good chance of winning these categories, but this was like powerhouse lineup
that year. Here Chris Tucker was like, like Sammy Sosa hitting 68 home
runs or whatever. You know, it's like, man, if it were any other year,
you would have. Won poor Susan Lucci of, of. Of hood comedies.
No. So the one award that it does have listed on its IMDb page,
and I'm mentioning it only because it is listed on IMDb as an official win,
is the 2016. So this is now 21 years
after the movie came out. All Deaf Movie Awards, which were apparently done by
AllDeaf digital.com which doesn't appear to exist anymore unless I'm missing something
gave it the were no nominees for most quoted movie,
which sounds legit for me. Yeah, but it's such a strange thing I wouldn't
mention it. Weird timing. It seems to me like this is someone was
like writing content on, you know, hip hop culture and,
you know, urban culture and things and then, and then, you know, awarded a bunch
of movies like these categories and then like Most quoted Movie.
Yeah, Friday. That makes sense. So it's like, yes, it's a recognition
of some kind, but it does not appear to be like a traditional awards
show where there's like nominees and voting and stuff like that. It looks more like
a single group just announced winners. And maybe there was a voting element that
came before that with audience polls or something. I don't know how it went down
because it was over 10 years ago and again that around 10 years ago and
that site doesn't appear to exist anymore. But it did win Most quoted movie at
the 2016 All Deaf Movie Awards. We're given so much respect to
the All Deaf Movie Awards. I almost take it as like when you go into
a really dumpy place in Reno and they just have a sign that says voted
Reno's best bet. That's not a real anything. What are you doing?
But hey, I it very quotable. So very quotable. Very legit.
Anyway, on a budget of three and a half million dollars, which is super low
for 1995, it pulled in 28 million at the
box office for eight times its budget. That is by any measure
a massive blockbuster. I don't care if it didn't make 100 million bucks. The fact
that it returned that much on what it cost, it was a huge, huge hit.
So those are the facts on Friday. All right.
Yeah. Three and a half million for the budget. I mean, you know,
Ice Cube was not, I'm sure, didn't pay himself like a huge salary as an
actor. Right. But at that time he was a star. Star like,
his biggest albums had come out basically. And like, so this
is like having. You know, and this is after he. So this is. He'd been
in a few different roles at this point. I think none of the at least
major films he was into this point. Did his characters have a first and last
name? Because he played Doughboy and Boyz N the Hood and he played Fudge in
Higher Lear and then now Craig Jones. He actually has a first and last name.
And it's not a nickname. Clearly, Food Doughboy and
Fudge dude seem like nicknames for those characters. And this is clearly just a character
with. With a name. He was a screenwriter along with DJ Poo,
obviously starred in it. I don't think he got a producer credit, but it's clearly
like, was being pushed forward by, you know, his sort of star power and his
desire to tell this story. And yeah, this was, you know, Ice Cube
was a pretty big name at the time. Like I said, the album the Predator
had come out and a couple others. You know, this point, he was America's.
Most Wanted, one of the best. So, you know, there's all kinds of, you know,
America loved Ice Cube at this point. And then, you know, Chris Tucker
had been one or two things, but this was really his breakout performance. He got
nominated for that, of course. And this is, you know, before he was in Rush
Hour, in the Fifth Element and all the other kind of great Chris Tucker would
go on to do. But yeah, this, this really, you know,
obviously it's a movie that doesn't have, like, a big budget feel to
it. You know, most comedies are relatively low budget unless they're Spaceballs or something,
where it's like there's a lot, like a lot of required special effects or something.
But yeah, this is, this is. This is good stuff. And, you know, a very,
very reasonable budget for. For the kind of movie it is.
And. Yeah, so let's jump into it. So we start off with Morning
in America, basically, right. Like, it is morning, I think, clocks around
or, you know, saying that it's like 8, just before 8:30. Some people are waking
up, some people are out and about, some people aren't yet. Great song playing.
And it's. It's all this way. And we see love. Chris Tucker's character Smokey
wakes up and we see for the first time. And it will happen over and
over again in the movie. His shoulder kind of twitches and he looks at his
shoulder like he doesn't know why. And every time that happens, I laugh. I laugh
at that every Time I've laughed at that, every time I've watched this movie.
But every time Chris Tucker twitches a shoulder, I go,
every single time. It does not matter.
Yeah, we have everyone waking up. Craig's dad,
Mr. Jones is sleeping in bed. And it looks like he's talking to
sleep, like ordering chicken. He's like ordering a side of biscuits and two pieces,
all the fries. So good. And then his
sister shows her sleeping in a room and she's kind of propped up on her
elbow to avoid her hair touching the pillow, which is. Like that dent
in her hair. Yeah, I gotta keep it perfect. Yeah,
really, really funny way to kick it off. And I think the first interaction
we have is there's a knock on the front door. That's right. And Craig walks
up to the the door very slow, like, steps into his house shoes and
comes over to the door and sticks his head out. And it's these two old
women and they're like church outfits or Jehovah's Witnesses. Jehovah's Witnesses. A couple of J
Dubs at the. Door and he just slams the door in their face,
basically. And the lady says, well, fuck you,
half dead motherfucker. Come on. The way
she delivers that line, it's classic. Cause it's this church lady, do you
know Jehovah, are you saved? Or whatever? And he just shuts the door. Which,
by the way, became my go to response. Response to any people at my front
door that I didn't want to talk. To is just too trained for anything else.
Exactly. I try to be nice, but I agree, you got to slam the door
in their face. Actually, actually, generally that doesn't happen anymore. People don't come to the
door that much. But it absolutely is how I deal with like people on the
phone that call, you know, telemarketers or some service that I'm on.
In my line of work, I get contacted by a lot of like, people that
are trying to reach my company, things like that. And you know, I used to
be all like, oh, no, hey, you know, you've got the wrong number. Oh,
I'm not interested. Or data, whatever. I just hang up now. And I definitely credit
at least some of that to Craig Jones. But yeah, but now that he's up,
right, he goes into the kitchen to go get some breakfast. He gets, you know,
a salad bowl. Like an enormous, like salad that. The bowl, you toss the
salad in the enormous plastic bowl and he like,
not a ladle, but like a huge serving spoon. Like he's going to make the
Biggest bowl of cereal in history. Yes. It's got, he's got. They're a
generic, they're not a real brand, but it looks like Captain Crunch, you know,
sort of style cereal. Dumps the whole box. I mean, it's got to be like
half full box, all of it into the bowl, goes to the fridge to grab
the milk. And this is like the part where it's like, dude, how can you
not feel that the box, the carton of milk is empty? It is. Basically,
there is three tablespoons of milk left
in this thing. But he grabs the carton, sits down and goes to pour it
and it's basically empty. And he's just like, God damn. Nothing in this house.
And he's like tapping the milk on the bottom of the carton, which I
really like. And he looks into it. Ice Cube hams it up in a few
ways in this movie that I really appreciated on this, watch through.
Also, when he first walks into the kitchen, he open the cupboard to see
the box of Captain Crunch up there and he goes, yeah, yeah.
Like I. That's one thing that I find myself,
like I would say all the time and not even realize that it's from this
movie. I do that too. I will react if something positive happens or something surprisingly
good, I will just. Go like, yeah, like, it's just so good.
So he's looking, he basically, you know,
there's no milk. I'm going to go back to the fridge and see if maybe
I missed the full gallon of milk that was in there. And he's in there
looking in the fridge. And then the door closes and there's
his dad, John Witherspoon, talking to him. So good. And one of the best sort
of interactions between Witherspoon and Cube in the movie. And there's. And there's several of
them. Yeah. But this one's fantastic. And it starts off with, you know, hey,
how come every time I come in the kitchen, you in the kitchen in that
goddamn refrigerator? And he goes on about all the food that Craig eats that he
wishes was there. This was an interesting thing too. We talked about this, you and
I, before we got on the pod. But it turns out I didn't realize at
the time, but I was actually watching the director's cut of this movie. It's four
minutes longer altogether. Nothing crazy, but this is one of the scenes that actually
had significantly longer bits because I was basically,
you know, mouthing the words along with John Witherspoon because I've heard them so
many times. But he goes on for much longer. There's probably an extra. In this
scene alone, there's an extra 60 to 90 seconds of Witherspoon talking.
All right, well, I have to watch it just for that. Honestly, it really is
fun. And it's nothing. You don't miss anything by not having it. I can see
why it was cut from the theatrical release. It's not that funny. But he goes
on and on even more. And it's funny in that.
In that sort of mel Brooks, Seth MacFarlane take the joke too far,
go too long with it. It feels like that. And it's a very funny kind
of interaction. Not that the original theatrical one isn't, but yeah, it was something that
I noticed. And so he goes on and on bugging Craig about going to get
the garbage. Why didn't you take the trash out? I told you last night.
All this stuff. And I love this too. Craig goes to scrape the cereal away
into the garbage can. Cause he's like, what are you doing? That's like all that.
And this is like, when I watched this as a kid, I remember thinking like,
man, the old man's like, like, it's a cereal. Like, who cares? Now that I'm
a dad, I would lose it on one of my kids. Nine bucks worth of
cereal. Dude, so much cereal. You cannot just throw that. Like when my kids don't
finish their plate, I'm like, this isn't even a nutrition thing. I hate that you're
making me waste food, man. I will say just overall,
the appreciation for the feeling of
every time I come in the kitchen, you in the kitchen. Because we
make an effort. At my house, I have a 13 year old daughter. We make
an effort to kind of be the house that the kids come to after
school and stuff. Because her friends are nice, we like it. It's good
to have them there. But we keep stocked in all these snacks.
And in my mind I'm like, oh, we just bought five weeks worth of stuff.
And then two days later it's just completely gone. And these are girls who are
supposed to be well mannered and not monsters, but they still come
in. So yeah, I can totally relate. And then the throwing the cereal way I
was, was cringing this time being like, you son of a bitch. How dare you?
You don't have NWA money as this character. Exactly right.
The ice cube can throw away all the cereal he wants. Craig Jones needs to
be saving that cereal, you know what I mean? Oh, God. So yeah, he has
to go take the trash out, right? And he
comes back in, and his mom has made herself this, like,
deluxe. Well, she's making it so it's on the stove. She's eggs, bacon, sauce.
She's, like, heating up some leftover pork chops in the microwave. Like. And again,
we get another, like, kind of. Yeah. He's all excited. A good breakfast.
I do want to say, in the Ice cube cinematic universe,
a little inconsistent because it seems that Mama made a breakfast with many types of
hog. Man, so much hog. Mommy made a breakfast of almost
all hog. So three kinds of hog and eggs. And it's.
Maybe this was not a particularly good day. I don't know. Good call.
It seems like. It seems like a hell of a breakfast.
So maybe he's wrong. And today it was a good day. He didn't want to
get upset while he was getting a triple double at the basketball court.
He didn't want to get a rumbly tummy. Oh, my God. So he has
to go talk to his dad, who's in the bathroom taking a dump, right?
He goes up to. It's like. Basically his sister tells him, hey, Dad's calling you.
Like, go, whatever. You know, go talk to him. Where is he? I don't know.
I think he's in the bathroom. So he goes. And it's like, you know,
he's like, I'll wait. I'll wait. And he's like, man, I smelled your shit for
22 years. You can smell my shit for five minutes. And he's talking about how
he got fired, right? But throughout this scene, the sounds
that are being made, ostensibly from underneath John Witherspoon, the kerplunk.
It sounds like a bowling ball being dropped into a trash can full of water.
Like an absolute, just monstrous kerplunk. Like, it's a. It's a.
It. It's a middle schooler doing a cannonball into a pool. Like, that's the
level of just. Just sound that is being generated
by these, you know, dookies dropping out of the man in the
path. So he's spraying the air freshener every five seconds
in a very funny way. All his physical mannerisms,
like when he's eating, he's constantly, like, licking his fingers, like, making these.
And I didn't even notice what he was eating. I always assumed it was,
like, sunflower seeds or something that got salt or powder on your fingers.
He's just eating grapes earlier, and he's doing this. But all
of that stuff seems like that would have been a killer SNL audition.
Just do this character of the way that dad eats and stuff,
because he killed that. So him in the bathroom talking about,
you should be a dog catcher like me because
you need a job to get a job. Craig's like, well, I don't even like
dogs. I don't like dogs either. That I grab a dog, I choke.
It all day long, my foot up a dog's ass. That's my pleasure.
And that's my pleasure. That's always
out there. I always say that. 100% have said that. That way,
that's my pleasure. Like, for just random stuff. Just doesn't
even matter. It just pops into my head. Okay, so he leaves.
So Craig's able to leave his dad in the toilet behind. Goes out to the
kitchen where mom is now sitting down with her plate of food. So he sits
down next door. His sister Dana's got to go to school. Dad's got to go
to work. But. And go to work, he comes out. And it's another thing that
John Witherspoon says that I have absolutely said in my life before. Don't nobody go
into the bathroom. About 35, 45 minutes, somebody open a window.
And the way that they set it up, they're talking about Craig
and his girlfriend. The mom doesn't like Craig's girlfriend. Joy. Yeah. And says something
about, he doesn't have game. And then the mom says, now your father,
he's got game. And then he immediately comes out. Nobody go in
the bathroom for 35, 45 minutes. Oh, God. Just the structure,
the joke structure in this movie, just very. It's very classic. And so
much of that. I mean, obviously it's the director, F. Gary Gray. It's the screenwriting,
obviously, but it is Witherspoon's delivery and his timing and sort of, you know,
the way that he enters the scene, how quickly, you know, it is all these
little things is because he's such an accomplished comedic actor. And it just
really shows, like, he really does feel like the way Alec Guinness
must have felt to the people on the set of Star Wars. Like, John Witherspoon
is, like, mentoring all of these younger comedy. Regina King, Neil Long, like everybody
through this movie. You know, there is an element of it. I very
much feel like he Yoda to these people into, like, being funnier and being more,
you know, getting their timing down better and all this stuff. And it's really fantastic
to see. Yeah, that's a great point. He was like, levels. Levels above
them. So now Craig is kind of. He's going to get ready in his
bedroom. And his window pops open and Smokey pops
his head. Know. Check yourself fully. Good old Chris Tucker
stuff. And this is when we learn Craig has a gun. Because he says,
man, you better watch out whose window you crawl. Like, it blasts. He's like,
you don't got nothing. He shows him. No, no, he's got a pistol. He's got
a 9 millimeter, which we'd. Refer to as a Chickadee Chekhov's gun since
it's Ice Cube. Good work. Yeah.
So. So that's a great, great quick scene though, just to show,
like, what's up. And then we get Big Worm, who's like the local drug dealer
who's played by Faison Love. Yeah,
the fat Faison liar, as Katt Williams calls him on the
Shannon Sharpe interview. Really funny
character because the way that he speaks and everything is.
You're playing with my emotions. And he has his curlers
in. So Smokey's basically, he's a dealer for this guy, right?
He's street level Worms, the supplier. And Smokey's out there. But it turns
out Smokey has been smoking, smoking a lot of the weed he's supposed to be
selling for Worms. So he, you know, has issues. And Worm's
got a gun in the car, too. And he kind of, like, makes sure Smokey
notices. It's like, hey, man, like, I'm gonna come back later, you know, you're gonna
have my money. Like, like, right? And he's like, oh, yeah, it'll be fine.
It'll be fine. He's like, okay. So we don't get a lot of, like,
threat from Worm yet. It's a little on the. On the. Just kind of like,
okay, as long as you say it's okay, I'll still believe you for now.
Right? Like, he gives him that whatever. But obviously Smokey is like,
doesn't have much of a care in the world when it comes to this.
He doesn't really take it seriously that Worm might do something to.
Right. He's pretty laid back at
this point, I think is when Smokey also tells Craig a story about what happened
to Red. And this is when he's a little bit of a flashback to
Smokey and Red and Deebo, the neighborhood bully played
by a man with more nicknames than could possibly exist. So he's credited in this
movie as Tiny. And then in quotes, Zeus Lister Jr. Of course,
the man's name is Tom. So Tiny is a nickname for Tom Lister. And Zeus
is the character he played in no Holds Barry at Hulk Hogan. And later in
the WWF ring. And so that's. So here it's Tiny Zeus Lister. But really,
it's. It's. Apparently, according to Wikipedia, his middle name is Debo.
I think they got the character name from the fact that his middle name.
Oh, that's funny. That's what Wikipedia makes it look like. I can't verify.
But if they're correct and his name is Thomas Debo tiny Zeus
Lister Jr. That's, like, when you see the freeway
overpass, that's named after some guy. And there's like nine nicknames. Like,
did he approve of that? I just put the name he wants. Wants. So 6
foot 5, tiny Zeus Lister is. Is Debo. He's there. Another great wrestler
actor, by the way. Two in a row. Absolutely. So he's there, Smokey's there.
Little Chris, the. The punk kid that knocks over the garbage cans is also in
this flashback. And they're all playing dice. And I love one of
the lines because, like, Smokey rolls a dice, and he goes, I won.
And. And Debo goes, you what? I lost.
Yes. But basically, no. So Red's not there first. Red shows up and
is like, hey, Debo, I need my bike back. Yes. What bike? You know,
all the. The be. I lent you a couple weeks ago. It's my bad.
Is mine and my dad's. We just leave it at my house, like, whatever.
He's, like, trying to be nice. And. Yeah. D was like, oh, okay, homie.
Cool. I didn't know. You want it back. That's cool. So he takes a couple
steps, but he turns around and gives Red just the punch to the face.
I mean, he flies back so far, many, many feet, you know?
And Tucker, Smokey jumps up and it's like, oh, you got knocked the out,
like, the whole thing. And Deebo's like, you want some, old man? Because Red's dad
gets out of the car. He's like, absolutely not. No, no. Get in this car.
What are you messing around with these people? But, yeah, it gives us an intro.
To the Deebo character so we know how bad Debo is. Also. So Red,
DJ Pooh is so funny. Oh, my God, such a.
I don't know, like, what else he's been in or if he's acted elsewhere.
But that character is so funny. So when he walks over
to Debo and he's like, pops is tripping, man. He won't
even trip my bike back, but, you know, I wouldn't even trip. And then when
Debo goes walking to him, this. This line this is something I say all the
time is where he says, yeah, you know, it's just like it's both ours.
We just keep it down at my house. Like, something about that. That delivery
is so good. Like Chris Tucker's MTV Movie Award for best comedic performance
with Jim Carrey. It's like it's both of ours. They just keep it at Jim
Carrey's house. That's right. Yeah, exactly. We share it, though. Yeah. But yeah, Red gets
knocked out. Not a lot of sympathy for Red. Smokey, not the best friend.
Just gotta yell that somebody got knocked out for a fully unjustified
reason. Very unjustified. But also trying to stay on Debo's good side. He's terrorizing
the hood. I'm trying to piss off Deb. Bo. So back to present day,
then after the kind of laugh about this story. And that's, I think when
Craig's mom comes out and is like, hey, like, that girl yours
keeps calling this house and hanging up. And then she says something. She's now,
I want you to tell her that I said to stop. And that's
so relatable. I feel like not only did my mother say something like that when
we were kids, every one of my friends, moms, at some point, somebody did something
to piss them off, and it was like, no, no, no, no. You don't understand.
Understand. You tell them I said to stop. Right? That is like the
most relatable piece of this movie to a suburban kid, I think, like, because it's
that. That is a mother action. A mother phrasing across all
racial and class lines. Oh, yeah, yeah, for sure. Extra authority
to it. Yeah, yeah, No, I said they. They dip over to.
To Smokey's house real quick. And we see Smokey's mom,
who's a really funny character because. Because she answers
the door and is just kind of totally silent. Cause Smokey doesn't have his key.
So she's angry that she had to get up and open the door. And she's
like, I'm on the phone, but she's not saying anything. And she just kind of
stares them down as they walk in towards Smokey's room. And then the second
they walk away, she grabs the phone. She's just like, yes,
indeed. Launches right into her, right back where she left station.
But she comes in and basically. And Smokey's like smoking
weed in his room and everything. And she says, I need you to go give
me some cigarettes from the store. And she hands him a dollar bill.
He's like, Wait a minute, Mama, this ain't enough. She goes, make it
enough. It sounds like maybe he found some money or something to buy his
mom a whole pack. But, yeah, you know, he's got some cash that he had
set aside for other stuff. But so they end up going to the store.
Smokey. Very cinema friendly. Very good choice for the
vehicle. You always have to give the main character a convertible because
it's more film friendly. Yes. But it also has to be a funny piece of
shit. So it's a Ford Pinto that, like, he can't even put into park.
It'll, like, start, you know, backfiring and everything. Looks like he modified it himself.
I don't know. Really does, I don't think convertibles. It looks like he chopped the.
He cut the top off himself. Nip tuck on that.
And then this is actually, I want to point out for real quick with something
that occurs here and occurs a lot in this movie. I'm not sure if you're
familiar with the term, Nick, but there's a lot of diegetic music in this movie.
And that means music that's in the film not as part of a score
that is exterior to the plot and to the characters, but being played in
the world of the movie. So the characters can hear the music. So I believe
it's Keep their heads ringing is what's playing at this point as they're driving.
Driving, yeah. So they drive to the corner store, Keep the heads ring.
Keep their heads ringing is playing, and then they turn the car off and the
music stops. When they walk into the corner store, it's playing again
in the background, picking up basically where it left off. So clearly was on the
radio after they're in the store for a while and all this stuff happens there.
When they get back in the car, it's playing again until they park in front
of Smokey's house. And so there's a lot of music in this movie that is
either play from a car stereo, play from like, Craig's boombox on the porch.
And they're doing it so that these. This is music that exists in the world.
And the characters can react to not all the music, obviously, but like, most of
the sort of, like, you know, popular music songs that are in
the movie are, you know, exist within the world, which is not always
interesting. Yeah, that's interesting. Good point.
And when they end up in the store, I also like this scene
because we meet one of the funniest characters who doesn't get a ton
of screen time. But this is Ezel. This is the crackhead who kind
of is always trying to latch onto them, trying to catch the crumbs
of anything, trying to get any deal, any scam he can. So he
follows Smokey and Craig into the convenience store,
which first of all shows a sign that says black owned.
And then it pans down to show, like, a very clearly, like, older Asian man
wearing a beanie and, you know, kind of like a flannel. Yeah.
Dressed very much like Craig is. Plus a beanie. Very similar outfit. Yeah,
exactly. And we get Ezel, who we
hear from one of the other isles. He's like, oh, I fell my
neck, my back, my neck and my back. I want 150,000,
but I'll settle out of court right now for 20 bucks.
And then he keeps throwing out, like, a lesser negotiat,
$5 and some Skittles, $2 and some envelopes, or like, whatever he's saying.
It's so good. Feels very much like Chris Rock. And I'm going to get you,
sucka. Yes, right. Like, you know, how about you put some of the soda in
my hand? I have a one rib. Like the whole deal. That's another
movie we'll have to do at some point. But Ezel is. He's only in this
a few parts, and he kills it every single time he's on
screen. He's also one of those characters that, yeah, he only shows up a few
times. He's probably got a total of five or six minutes of screen time,
like, just if you combine it all together. But he's also, like, massively important to
the plot in several places. Oh, yeah. And so it' great character, very funny.
And yes, here's the sort of first time we see it in. But what you
hear is basically that Smokey agrees to buy him a 40 if he'll come wash
his car later. Right? So he's like, all right. So he buys the 40.
He's like. He said, it's my birthday. Well, is it your birthday today? I don't
know what day is it? You know? But he gets his 40, and then he's
better come by later and wash my car because we ael does need to show
up again later. So we've got that set up. So the boys drive back,
they park in front of Smokey's house. He gives his mom the cigarettes, and then
they go back to Craig's porch. At which point another great sort of
small character shows up, and it's the preacher from the local Methodist
church, I think played by Bernie Mac. Bernie Mac is fantastic.
And he basically admonishes
Smokey for smoking weed, but then also asks, I got some cataracts. Can I get
some of that, please? And it's a very, very funny moment between
them. He comes up to them and there's kind of a.
Like a montage where they're. We're just smokey
as smoking weed. And it's that Rick James Mary Jane song, which is really
cool in that. At Bernie Max says, you know, over here at
the Ebenezer Baptist Church, these drugs are what I call a sinny. Sin.
Sin. And then Chris Tucker's like,
well, round here on Normandy and Weston,
we call this here a 20. Twin. Twin. And then
he says something else that's funny for him to say, but not for me to
repeat, but, God, I mean, the two of them,
like Bernie Mac and Chris Tucker at that point in their careers,
that was just such a funny scene. And Bernie Mac's character, the preacher,
he heads over across the street because Ms. Parker, who we saw earlier wearing Daisy
Dukes and a little tiny top and lots of cleavage, was out, like, watering her
one flower. She has like a. It's all dirt front yard except
for one beautiful, like, purple honeysuckle or something, whatever it is,
and she's watering that. But, yeah, so he heads over to be like,
oh, Sister Parker. Like, you know, he's ready to. He runs
in. And one thing about this movie is, like,
it's kind of a constant introduction of the characters
of the street and there's no break. So it. The Bernie Mac preacher
character goes into Ms. Parker's house and then immediately Hector pulls up.
Oh, right, right. Yeah. And then. And then we get Smokey to tell the story
about Hector. Why you don't like Hector? Yeah, because he tells Hector to fuck off.
And then, you know, Craig's like, what do you like Hector for? He's. Oh,
man. I went smoking with him and his boy the other night. And it's show.
We get another quick flashback, which is always like a little. It's not quite black
and white, but it is like. Like desaturated. Yeah, all the flashbacks are.
And so, you know, basically it's him and Hector and Hector's buddy are all sitting
in Hector's car and they're smoking. He's like, hey, you know, let me get some
of that. I'm smoke dog, don't forget. Like, I can handle it, you know,
whatever. And he goes and he hits it real hard. And that's when they tell
him, like, oh, dude, that's angel dust. Like. Like, that's not.
And they're laughing about it, but he freaking out. And that's when we get the
origin of the. The shoulder twitch. Because he says, man, I have never been right
since, like, a few days ago. I haven't been right since. And he still.
Every time, he just twitches the shoulder and kind of looks at it as if
he expected something to be there. And it shows,
you know, Smokey, what happened is that he's like, I was running down my street,
my undies. So he's basically in front of the car, like, really funny, kind of
sped up scene of him, like, running and then, like, rolling on the ground and
getting up and going down the street. Very Keystone Cops. Yeah. Yes, exactly.
And then, you know, he comes to in the morning in Debo's
pigeon coop, and his mama had to come get him out of it. And this
is another thing that Smokey says that I always say is where he says,
that's why I'd be like, fuck, Hector.
I just love saying that about any, you know, any person who's wronged
me and be like. That's why I be like, this guy. Right? Yeah.
So. And then. And then Debo shows up. So we get basically right
into. We hear the beach cruiser, the squeaky beach cruiser, and here
comes Debo. We gotta tuck our chains. He's coming up to the porch. Well,
no, they say they take him off, like, so. So watch, he takes that off
and. And Smokey takes off his chain and takes his pager on. They kind of
all shove it behind, you know, this, like, crate that's there they're using as,
like, a side table. And Debo comes up and is like, you know, hey,
what you got on my drink? You know? And they're like, oh, no, I'm broke.
Like, I ain't got nothing, you know, and he's like. And that's when they see
Stanley, who's like, this sort of out of. We've seen him a couple times already.
He's got a beautiful green lawn. He waters it a lot. He asks everybody in
the neighborhood to stay off his grass. Yeah. You know, he's obviously got more money
than everybody else in the neighborhood. It's like he was. Either he
moved in there before the neighborhood was the way it is, or he got money
after that or something. He's an interesting character. I don't see. I don't know exactly
how he fits into this. And I don't know if, like, this is a scenario
where, you know, hey, every neighborhood In Cesatron's got this one guy or something.
I know. Don't know. But, you know, he really stands out in that sense.
And he's kind of like the
Def Jam era black comedian's impression of a white guy's voice.
Like, that's Stanley's character, Carl Benson. Yeah, for sure.
Jinx. No, but so he comes over
and is like, hey, you know, he comes over and he leaves, basically. He doesn't
come over, he leaves. He gets in his car and he leaves. And that's when
Debo notices that his window is open. And he's like, hey, let's go, Smokey.
Yumi, let's go inside. And Smokey first is like, no, man. Like, I'm on probation.
I'm not supposed to do none of this. And Debo basically peer pressures him into
it. Just like, don't be a punk. Like, let's go. And so, you know,
he asked Craig to, hey, if anybody comes, whistle, you know, like,
lookout. And at first Craig doesn't want to get that involved, but whatever, he's like,
fine. And so the problem is that before Craig, before Craig's mom left,
she said, like, hey, the cable people are supposed to call. So, like, listen for
the phone. Like, just let it go. So of course he's out there, there and
he's like waiting to see what's going on. And that's when
Tony Cox, Mr. Parker, shows up.
Who? He's probably the most famous black little
person in Hollywood, I think. But he's up there with Kevin Hart.
Good point. But he's up there with Warwick Davis, as far as prolific roles
in that way. And so he shows up, he comes home, and of course,
Bernie Mac's preacher character has gone into to see Mrs.
Parker. So this is about to go. So he knows something's about to go down.
So now he wants to see it. But now the phone rings. He's like,
God damn it. So now he's got to go inside. And of course it's just
Joy calling and hanging up. Yeah. So all this is happening. He comes back out
and he's ready and he's watching, you know, Basically the preacher's getting chased out of
the house by Tony Cox. And you know, you devil, I'm going to
get you whatever. And he, like, throws a brick through his window and he drives
away, at which point Stanley rolls back up. And so now it's like, oh,
no. Like, the boys are still inside, Debo and Smokey are still inside. So he
gives the big whistle and they're able to get out before Stanley gets in.
But it's like, real close. It's like a very close thing. Yeah. And after.
After Mr. Parker chases Bernie Mac away
and that whole, like, fracas happens, and then he runs back into the house
afterwards, we get another good ice cube who just holds his hand up to his
head and his mouth and he. Goes, damn.
Another big time quotable. So, yeah, he blows the
whistle just as Stanley gets home. But Stanley definitely notices him whistling,
right? And it's kind of like, what else do.
Debo takes off after this. And this is when Craig's
just like, all right, man, it's time for me to get high. This is
like, I haven't done it yet. Let's. Let's go. This is the. The when Tucker's
probably most famous line because actually it said in a voiceover at the beginning of
the movie and then is actually said in the film here, where it's like,
you ain't got no. It's Friday. You ain't got no job. You ain't got shit
to do. I'm gonna get you high today. And sure enough, Craig decides.
He's like. And even says, look, I drink. Like, that's my thing. Like, I don't
do this, you know? But he goes ahead and he, like, takes the joint from
him. And I love this moment. Chris Tucker goes, put it in your mouth.
And he goes, fuck you. Shut up. Shut up. Like. Like, what are you telling
me? So they're. They're, you know, smoking. They're passing it back and forth. He starts
coughing and he's like, oh, man. You know, you can't be, like, coughing like that.
Like, whatever, you know. And this is another thing that has survived. And I have
said this over my life, not as much anymore, because I don't do this as
much anymore, but, like, you know, puff, puff, give. You fucking up the rotation with
somebody, you get killed with somebody else. You lucky. You look at my boy like,
absolutely. Puff, puff, give. That has become law. And then.
And then Craig is. He's getting high a little bit.
He says, yeah, you said this was indo.
Smell more like outdo. I have said that in
so many scenarios before. Even if it's like I'm watching,
like, Full Metal Jacket in there in Vietnam. It's like, you said this was Indochina.
It smelled more like outdo China. It really works no matter where.
Those two scenarios. Yeah, that's so good. Yeah, those two places. So.
Oh, man, that's good shit. Okay,
so now we get a visit from someone who's like,
A famous character in this movie who doesn't show up very much. No,
no, no. Yeah. Felicia is not. She's in it, but she's not in it a
lot. But she is clearly not the most hygienic
young woman. She's got like this oversized kind of baggy
clothes. I mean, she looks homeless. We know she's not because her sister Debbie and
her, they both live on the street with their. At least with their mom.
I don't. They don't say anything about a dab, but like, definitely their mom lives
with them. And so she's not homeless, but she comes off like a homeless woman.
She's got her hairs, all these kind of like crappy little braids and stuff.
And like, whatever. She comes over and there was a moment, I don't know if
it was here, but I want to mention because I think again, it was only
in the director's cut, but correct me if I'm wrong, where she asks to borrow
the microwave. Does she do that? Yes, she has to borrow the microwave here
and then she has to borrow the VCR later. But when she borrows, there was
a line about like, she didn't want to come cook something, she wanted to take
it home with her. And it was like a very funny sort of exchange.
She's like, no, no, I wanted to borrow and I'll bring it back later.
He's like, what are you talking about? Anyway, but yeah, so she shows up and
asks, you know, can tell that they've been smoking. She's kind of smelling like,
what are you smoking? What do you got for me? What do you got?
And they're like, no, no. And this is the classic, you know, she turns to
Smokey, is not having it, but she turns to Craig. And so the very famous
simple two word line that maybe is more popular or
survived in a more meaningful way than anything else in this movie when he simply
says, bye, Felicia. Yeah. That has become a part of culture.
I'm not being facetious or hyperbolic when I say this. Like lines from
Shakespeare became part of culture where they just became things people say by
Felicia to mean get out of here, person. I don't want. Yeah,
that is standard American English now. It is. Really is.
I mean, even like, you know, Obama would be like, oh, a lot of.
Folks say, bye, Felicia. Like, he just.
That's a good Obama pressure. Mom. I can do an okay Obama.
I'm gonna do one episode as Obama. Oh, boy. But the
one beef I will say, though, and I think that's a funny Thing and stuff.
But I hear people using it in weird contexts
a lot. Cause it's just like everywhere. And once they start making buy Felicia
ugly Christmas sweaters, I'm like, all right, fuck it, I don't like this anymore.
But in the NWA movie,
which was also directed by F. Gary Gray, I found out 30 seconds
ago, there's a scene. Did you see that movie? I have not seen it.
Straight out of Compton, right? Yeah. So good movie and everything and
kind of biopic of all of them during this time period. But during the time,
I guess Ice Cube was writing Friday and there's a scene where he's
writing Friday and he's like, haha, this is funny. This is
gonna be funny. And. But then there's just an unnecessarily.
There's an unnecessary by Felicia in the NWA
movie and it's like you're already making a biopic. How much more fan service
do we need in this? We really gotta throw slop to the masses like that.
Anyway, that being said, I'm sure I'll say it tonight once I have one drink.
Like I said, it's become. It's become ubiquitous of
it. But yeah, so. So she leaves. I think that's when Debbie shows up.
Is that right? Is that at that point or. Yeah. So they go in the
house and they're. They want to have some Kool Aid. Oh, that's first. And then
we get Chris Tucker's very funny thing where he's like, oh, we don't have any
sugar. He's like, damn. He's like, you never got two things that go together.
Got Kool Aid, no sugar, peanut butter, no jelly, ham,
no burger. The last one doesn't quite work, but I love it anyway.
But this is before he goes to get the Kool, a thing that he
sees Worm. Craig does. Sees Worm's head in the cabinet. Oh, right. And it's like,
oh, you smoking my shit too? I'm gonna kill him. And you. I mean,
hallucinating about Worm being there. And so he shuts and opens back up and is.
But yeah, they're all out of sugar. And so. So I think
Debbie shows up because she's there to see. She wants to see Dana.
Right. But she's not there. So she's kind of sitting with them on the couch
and they're like trying to have a conversation, but also really high.
Like Craig's trying to be slick with the her. There's one scene where he's just
kind of spacing out and then we get him Go, what the fuck? And it's
these ceramic hound dogs that are sitting there. It's like the.
Oh, my God. So it's the hound dog
that they lose. That belongs to Screech's mom. And saved by the bell
that they lose in the poker game to the evil nerd guy.
Him saying, what the fuck? And looking at those dogs really made me
laugh out loud because I'd forgotten that that kind of comes out of nowhere.
So she's kind of there, not really impressed with them. Right. Well, this is
when Smokey asks her, like, hey, what about that girl you were gonna hook me
up with? Right? Yeah, yeah. Like, give me that number, you know, Let me talk
to her. And he. Is she gonna be home? Yeah, she should be home.
Here's her number. So he goes over to the kitchen to use the phone.
He's talking to this girl and she sounds nice. And, you know, he's like asking
her to describe herself. She's like 1-5-2. Like, I'm curvy. Like,
whatever. I kind of. People say I look like Janet Jackson. He's like, janet Jackson?
No, no, like, for real Janet Jackson. And so they make a date.
You know, she's gonna come by. He's like, come by my. My buddy's my homies
place. Come to my friend's house at like 7:30 or whatever. They make a plan.
So they're gonna, you know, she's gonna come by. And he's super excited. He's like,
man, this is great. A girl looks like Janet Jackson is, like, interested. This is
gonna be wonderful. And this is also to them. While he's doing that,
Debbie and Craig are sitting on the couch together. And Debbie's like, are you high?
Are you high? And he's like, what? No, no, no. And he's like.
Smooths out his shirt like five times. I just.
It's so funny. But they are so cute together. Nia Long and
Ice Cube have got really great chemistry in this
scene. You can tell that she's, like, a little into him, but she also knows
that he has a girlfriend, which is why he's off limits. But. And we already
know he doesn't really like, his girlfriend's sort of, you know, not. They're not on
good terms. Great terms right now. So. And he's obviously interested in
Debbie, but it's a great. I really love when two actors can get together on
screen like that and they have this little moment where it could go
either way. You know, obviously there's meant to be. Be. Chemistry is Meant to be
attraction, but, like, you know, if they didn't have great chemistry, you'd kind of like,
wouldn't care. You just move on and go on through the movie or whatever.
But these two really did. There's a lot of really great,
just kind of small bits of chemistry between them that are.
That are really great. I think they work well together on screen. Yeah, they.
They are. And I mean, Nia Long has been in a ton of stuff
and very successful past this. Yeah.
Big Worm shows up outside the house now in
his ice cream truck. Yeah. And the kids. He obviously has a lot
of disdain for the kids, you know, and in
the middle of taking their orders, and he just points at Smokey. He's like,
you get over here, right? Trying to find out, like, where's my money?
Or where's my weed? Like, well, he says, he's like, hey, have you sold that
weed? He goes, I sold some of it. He's like, okay, well, you know,
give me what's left because I got somebody who wants to buy a bunch,
so I'll take it back from you. I'll sell it myself, whatever. And he's like,
oh, you know what happened? And you know me, my buddy Craig and he got
fired. So we just been like, you know, talking. And you know how we do,
like, you know, we get to talking and we get to smoking. And Worm's like,
okay, so you don't have my money and you smoke my weed, My bud.
Like, I'm coming back at. What did he say? Since 10 o'?
Clock? 10:03, 10:36. Coming back at 10 o'. Clock.
And if you don't have my money or my bud, I'm killing both
of y'. All. And that's it. I mean, that's. We have. Now, this is the
start of. In a lot of ways in this movie. This is the start of
Act 2. We're now in a position where. Where we have a ticking time.
You have a ticking clock for Smokey and Craig. If they don't have $200
for worm at 10 o', clock, they're dead.
Now here's the good News. They have 100 bucks because Smokey
counts out a hundred dollars, Right. So they really only need 100.
And Craig picked up his paycheck yesterday before he got fired. So I'm assuming he's
got a hundred bucks and the movie can end here, right? Nope. Let's just keep
going. We're just going to pretend they actually need 200. But, like, what was he
doing picking up his Paycheck if he has literally no money. We need 200 different
DOL. Oh, it's a sequential bills. Yeah, exactly.
Got it. He Big Worm read the serial numbers on all those twenties so
he would know if they're the same or not. I do love Smokey turning over
as he's trying to counter. He turns it over to count it again. And Worm
does not even for a second, it does not get past him. He's like,
hey, that is. That is $100. Like, stop it.
So Smokey. Smokey goes and tells Craig, and he's
kind of like beating around the bush of, like, what the deal is. And Craig's
just like, what'd he say? He's like, well, you know, he's like, what is.
I like that scene there. So then Craig rightfully
is like, you got me into Smokey's like, well, you smoke the weed too.
He's like, you. You know, you've been pushing it on me all day. And Smokey
says, oh, why? Why? Got to bring up old shit. Another great quote
from this movie. And so this is now their buddy Red shows up, DJ Poo.
He shows up to the. To the porch. He's got sunglasses on, and he's just
kind of like, hey, guys, you know, how's it going? Whatever. And he goes and
takes his sunglasses off. And this is now again, this has become another piece that
just really is in the lexicon in general, because the meme of
the two of them leaning away and going, dude is from
seeing Red's eye from where he got just absolutely shithoused by
Debo the day before. And it is really quite bad. Right before
this, though, Smokey,
he like, I gotta go. I gotta take a shit. Oh, that's right.
I gotta go back to my end. I kind of bring this up because of
Ezel. So he goes back to his house, and he had forgotten his key.
We saw that earlier. No answer at his house. He goes back to Craig's house
and Mr. Jones answers the door and he's like, oh, you're going to take
number one or number two? Number two. He's like, oh, you're not going to be
stinking up my house eating. By the way, what looked like a delicious pastrami
sandwich. I know, really wonderful. He's just pulling bits out with his face,
like, dude, take a bite out of that. Yeah, it looked like a hell of
a. Where do you get that? In Compton? I thought that was a food desert.
Yeah. So Smokey's like, what do I
do? And he ends up ducking between a couple houses. Kind of almost like the
side yard of his house is kind of where it looked like he was at.
Yeah, yeah. And here comes Ezel down the street. He's like,
smokey, you know, I ain't the smartest man
in the world, but from here it looks like you're taking a shit.
And Smokey's like, get out of here. What are you doing here? Get out of
here. He's like, you told me to come back and wash your car. Yeah,
you gotta wash your car. Yeah. He's like, quiet. Don't tell anyone.
He's like, okay. And then he turns around, just cups his hands to his mouth.
Hey, Smokey's back here taking a. Hey, everybody,
Smokey's back here taking a. And then he looks around, he says,
I won't tell nobody else. I can tell anybody else.
Oh, okay. So, yeah, so after that happens and Smokey gets back to the porch,
that's when Red shows up. He's got the eye, you know, damn the whole thing.
And then Debo rolls up on him. And so again,
Craig and Smokey go back to the same thing. Craig takes his watch off,
Smokey takes his chain off, takes his page or whatever. But Red quite specifically goes,
I'm going. To tuck my tuck. So he kind of tucks it. He's got like
a ups, you know, uniform on. He kind of tucks it into his T shirt.
And sure enough, Debo's basically coming up looking like, you know, hey, Red, what you
got on? My drink? You know? And Craig kind of reminds me, he's like,
hey, didn't you find $200 in Stanley's house? Which he didn't share with Smokey.
Right. You had to. And I was like, yeah, but I want to spend Red's
money, you know? And that's when he grabs the chain. He sees the chain,
he grabs it and goes off to. I guess, you know, the idea is he'll
pawn it and whatever. And that's when Red tells us, man,
my grandma gave me that chain, you know, and he is really upset. Yeah.
He starts crying and then runs away. The funniest ever.
His hands are just flopping by.
Absolutely hilarious Run. And as he's like, kind of,
he says, my grandmama gave me that chain. And he's increasingly just kind of.
Of like, like turn in his head, See him
just getting more and more upset. And then he finally gets to a speed and
he just runs away. It's so funny. Again, DJ Poo. Just unbelievably
Funny. Yeah. Craig's dad sees him
in the room where he's, like, getting the gun out of his dresser. And we
get kind of an important speech there where his dad's explaining to him,
like, no, like, this isn't how we did it when I was a kid.
You know, this is what makes you a man. He shows his fists. You win
some, you lose some, but you live. You live to fight another day. So that's
kind of like going on at the same time. Because Craig is like, dude,
it's getting towards 10 o' clock and Smokey is not really earning money.
He's not taking it seriously. He's doing a terrible job. He's doing
a terrible job. His dad asked Craig to bring him a
glass of water. And he goes into the freezer and grabs the ice and drops
an ice cube on the ground, picks it up off the ground, and then kind
of of looks up at the camera and, like, smiles and drops it in the
cup. There's, like, I think, three really good ice cube breaking the fourth wall moments.
There's a few of them. And that's a great one. I think the ones near
the end of the movie, even better. But, like, that is a wonderful moment.
We've all been there, right? The ice cube hits the floor. How clean
is the floor? How confident are you in the cleanliness of the floor? Are you
going to toss that one? Are you going to use it? And he goes ahead
and throws it in. And of course, John Witherspoon reacts in a great way.
He goes and he sips the water and kind of. Kind of like puts his
finger in. Like he's got something on his gums or teeth. What was that?
You know, kind of thing. Like, it must have been some. Like, it was covered
in sand. Like, they don't seem to have a cat or dog. So it doesn't
seem like there's, like, pet hair necessarily. But yeah, like,
definitely, definitely not good for him. But. But yeah. So then now Dana's
come home from school and Craig asks her for $200.
And. And again, like, I gotta. I gotta bring it up. Like, they only need.
At this point, they actually only need 80 bucks, I think, because. Because Smokey got
20 bucks selling to Hector. So he's got 120 bucks. They only need
80. Maybe if he'd asked Dana for 80 instead of 200, she would have given
it to him, I don't know. But they don't actually need $200 right now.
But that's okay. It's a commentary about addiction. A true addict is never
going to lower the amount they're asking you for. Also, this was the point where
I noticed in the film Craig in his bedroom, because he lays on his bed
for a little while here, as time passes, he has a basketball
hoop laundry basket attached to, like, next to his closet. I had that exact
same. I definitely had that hoop laundry basket where you could,
like, open the bottom to, like, dump them out and, like, cinch it again or
whatever. Yeah. Fantastic. That's. That is. That is all 90s right there,
buddy. Yeah. A car shows up and they're freaking out. So like,
every car that's kind of coming by, they're just like, dude, what is this?
And a car shows up and they're kind of freaking out, and then they realize,
oh, it's 7:30. It's Janet Jackson, right? Yeah, yeah, yeah. So we get Smokey
meeting his Janet Jackson lookalike, you know, who's definitely a big
girl. Yeah. She is five' two. It appears she does look.
She was not lying about being five' two. She takes her hat off and basically
has fake braids and everything. It's the hat and the braids does look like Janet
Jackson in Black justice, right? Is that the. I think that's like the character hat.
A similar. But like, it was actually hair and a hat, not a hat
with hair built into it kind of thing. And so it's just not. But.
But, you know, this is funny. Smoky was actually could have been just like,
oh, fuck off. Like, like, like, just get out of here. But instead he's kind
of like. Like he wants to, like, let her down softly in a little bit
of a way. I mean, it's still rude and mean and don't get me wrong,
but he's basically like. She's like, you sure you going to call me? Are you
sure you call me? He goes, I'm going to call you, but not if you
come back here. Don't ever come by here again.
Then I won't call you. But if you never, ever come here again, again,
I'll call you.
It felt like he wanted her to go away. Not devastated.
Right. He didn't just want to be like, oh, you don't look how I thought
you'd look, so fuck off. Which is a little bit like, okay. I think he
was being a little sensitive to her feelings, honestly. Yeah. Yeah.
It is funny, though. Like, the pedestal that Smokey puts himself on
is deserving that much better of a person. It's like,
whatever. This woman looks like, she has her Own car. She seems to be
self sufficient in ways that Smokey is not even close to being. I think she
goes to college because I think that's how Dana knows her. Their classmates, basically.
So at least junior college. And then, yeah, he is a street dealer
who smokes his own stash and is probably dead in the next few hours.
I'm not really sure what he offers as far as being a potential partner.
Yeah, not a whole lot. This line, I feel like history just wasn't necessarily
as kind to it. But when Smokey says Janet Jackson,
bitch got out of the car looking more like Freddy Jackson, they were thinking Freddie
Jackson would be way more of a household name, you know? You know, it still
works even if you don't know who it is. I was too. And I was
like, wait, he's lost weight since this reference was made. So this isn't
really present day Freddy Jackson. This is. You should redub
it. Say like Planet Jackson or something if you're trying to. I don't know.
I did like, Debbie's reaction when he said, like, she told me to look at
Jenna Jackson. She goes, oh, she did not do that. It's like, so it's like
she knows that's something that she has told people before, but clearly,
no, nobody actually believes that she looks like that. No one's telling her that.
That is something she has made up in her own mind. So last ditch efforts
to get some cash. They know that Debo has 200 bucks from Stanley's
house. And they went over talking when Smokey talked to Debbie about. About the Janet
Jackson care to the friend, right? He says like, well, what you guys got going
on here? Like, because Debo's bike was out front and it's like, what's Debo doing
here? Oh, Debo's in there with Felicia. And it's like, oh, damn. Debo and Felicia,
like, whatever. No. Where's your mom? Well, my mom's in Vegas with her boyfriend.
It's like, oh, well, let's party. And she's like, get the hell out of here.
So she boots him. But now Smokey knows Deebo is at Debbie and Felicia's house
and he's asleep, right? So he goes back to Craig and he's like, hey,
we can get. We can get that money back from. We can get that money
that Deebo stole. And that could be the money we used to pay Worm.
So Smokey goes to break in, basically climbs in through the window and is
actually like reasonably quiet and decent. You know, he's able to Kind of do it.
I do love it. There's a moment where as we're just watching Smokey sneak into
the room, both Debo and Felicia are asleep in the bed. And Deebo rolls over
just slightly and just knocks Felicia onto the floor. So she is just not
in the bed anymore. But he goes and the nastiest
pair of underwear ever in the history of the world. Just like, how could
you even sit in underwear like that? And so he gets the
straw from like the Big Gulp that's on the bedside table to try and like
use it like a stick to pick it up. But it ends up dropping on
Deepo's face. Yes. It's like he's going to wake up.
Very funny scene. And he ends up like
getting to Debo's pants and he's going through it. And then in the background you
see Ezel come in through the window. God damn it is out. So the way
that guy moves is just so funny. It's like a spider monkey. And he's like,
what are you doing here? It's like, I thought I might see someone fucking like
how short sighted all of his stuff is. So are you
suggesting the crackheads don't plan ahead? Well, good to know. So they end
up. He ends up having a bail. And he's kind of telling Craig. He's like,
damn it. He's like, I almost got it. Gizelle didn't come in. He's like,
I should beat his ass. And then Craig's just like, nah, you ain't catching no
crackhead. He ran. I was gonna beat his ass, but he ran off. Yeah,
actually, I love. There's a moment where Debo does wake up and Smokey and Ezel
have gotten out of the room before he does. But he goes to sip that
Big Gulp or whatever he's got with that plastic straw. And it just. It doesn't
taste right because it's been touched watching his disgusting dirty drawers.
Terrible. Yeah. So then this
is a time where I was actually, I want to ask your opinion on this.
Because now Craig and Smokey are out on the street. It's after. It's not 10
yet, but it's like after dark. It's in the evening and they hear a car
come and slow down the street and they say. And they go, what's that?
Who's that drive by? And they go and hide. Now an actual
drive by occurs later. Was this a potential drive
by? If so, was it related to Big Worm? Or would it have been more
of a random act of violence? Because it's not the same guys that come back
later and actually, actually like try to kill them. But it's an interesting like moment.
I don't, I can't tell if this was like a drive by that would have
happened, but since they hid and there was nobody out on the street, there was
like nobody to shoot at or if they were wrong and it was somebody just
cruising the street like for some other reason. It's just I didn't quite understand what's
going on. So I don't know if you have any insight like, yeah, this was
supposed to be. No, it seemed to me like it was the drive by about
to get them, but it didn't spot them. So interesting or I mean even just
we got to scout this out and see if these guys are around because it's
not 10 yet. But I don't. Because, I mean Warren didn't seem too concerned with
like waiting till exactly 10, even though he was specific about that. He seemed very
concerned about it to me. Yeah, he said not 10:03, not 10:36, 10: O'.
Clock. But then this was a drive by the ascent. It was before 10.
That's why I said, I think we need to really, really look inward and understand
that big worm as a drug dealer obviously is a man of his word.
And he's never come before 10 to do anything, anything and to.
And to try to surprise these people. He's going to. If he's giving you till
10 o', clock, you get every second until 10. Right. There's no one you can
trust in this world quite like you can trust drug dealers. Absolutely, absolutely.
Yeah. So I'm not sure about that. And, but also
like, what do you do? Because the parents are kind of,
kind of like, yeah, don't bring that mess to our house.
Right. There's no community to be like, hey, if everyone throws in like $15,
I think we can solve this for the night. So yeah,
like do you sit out front? Do you skip town? Because the
drive by might still happen even if you're not at your house. And then maybe
your parents get shot through the window or something. Yeah, I mean that's. So they
are kind of in Craig's room smoking cragger together in Craig's room kind of waiting
it out. And that's when, when, you know, Craig's dad comes in
and is someone talking about all the kids smoking them tweeds and all that stuff
and whatever, but basically tells smoking like, hey, get the hell out of here.
You can go to your house, but you're not, you're not staying here while this
is going on again, Craig, you stay here. Like you don't leave. Right. Because he's
thinking to himself, yeah, more, more than likely. And I don't know how accurate this
is, but he lives there. I don't. You know, more than likely that drive by
is not going to happen if they don't see anybody that they're trying to hit.
Right. They're not, they're not going to just shoot into every house or even just
that house. Right. Hoping for it. They want to see the guy and kill the
guy. You know that. I think that's where he's thinking is that if we keep
him inside, that's one more day for us to try to figure this out kind
of thing, you know. So that's the. Seems to be the plan at this point
is everybody just stay low, like stay in your house, keep it down and
just. Yeah, then it'll be okay. That's John Witherspoon's idea. Right.
We end up getting an actual drive by.
It's like a white van. It's a van. It shoots like 1500
bullets. None of them hit anything. Not really. Yeah.
Smokey even. Smokey even turns around at one point to shoot back at them with
Craig's gun. Yes. And then they, they aim slightly differently and then scare him
off the roof he was on and whatever. But they do seem to get away.
They jump into the. They don't seem to get away. They do get away.
They jump into the truck bed of a pickup truck, kind of hide.
And there's a funny exchange where it's like, look and see if they're coming.
No, you look. No, no. Okay. On the count of three. One, two, three.
And then Craig doesn't move. He's like, Craig, God damn it.
But they do eventually look and they are coming and then this. Yeah. They slow
down. You can actually even over. You hear the guys in the van talking as
they're looking for themselves. I know I hit one. I know I hit one of
them, you know, so. Yeah. And so now the neighbors have all kind of come
out on the street. You know what this has happened. And it's kind of funny
the way that Stanley comes out. He's like, did you hear that? I think that
was machine gun fire. It's like that's the most clear machine gun ever.
Like, how did not everybody pick up on that? Yeah.
So he. They're all out and they're out for different reasons.
Yeah. And Debbie kind of steps
up to Debo. Because she reveals like her sister Felicia has
been sleeping with Debo, but he's also, like, smacking her around, which,
you know, he's been abusive to her. So she steps to him and he
basically slaps her, Right? Yeah. He said he claims Felicia rifled through his
pants, which obviously we know Smokey did, so someone did. So you're not wrong with
that. But he thought Felicia was doing. So he kind of beats her, gives her
a terrible black eye. Very much looks like red, smacks around. Like he smacks around
a man. And that's what Debbie. He says, you hit my. My sister like she's
a man. Like, that's. That's not okay. And if I were a man, I would
beat your ass right now. At which point, yeah, he doesn't, like, closed fist hit
her. He kind of slaps her down and knocks her the ground. At which point
Craig loses it. And. And, you know, what are you doing? That's a
female. Like, all this kind of stuff, you know, he's obviously very protective. He's very
interested in Debbie's. Very protective of Debbie. And so there's this. And this is when
he pulls the gun on Debo and. Right in his face. And Debo's like,
what you gonna do about it? What you gonna do? What's that gonna do except
make me mad? Yeah. And say. And Craig's dad's like, give me the gun,
son. Give me the gun. And. And Debo. This was one. This is literally like
a jump scare. And it's one of my favorite moments in the movie is that
Craig's got the gun in Deebo's face. And Deebo says, yeah, punk. Like, you know,
put that down. So beat your ass. Like, you know, your daddy used to get
his ass beat or whatever. It was like that. At which point Craig pulls the
trigger. I mean, it really. It's. It's. It's. It's. You know, and it's like he
just killed Debo. And we get this momentary flashback to Mr.
Jones telling Craig about how when I was coming, or we just needed our fists,
this would make you a man. Like this whole kind of thing from the conversation
earlier. And then we cut back to Debo saying that line again. So clearly he
hasn't shot and killed Deebo. But it's a good. It's such a good storytelling
device to make us think that for a moment. Yeah. And that way. Because what
I realized is, even this time, watching. I've seen this movie 30, 40 times.
I don't exactly. I held My breath a little bit after it happened. And,
like, listening to the recap of what, you know, John Witherspoon's character told
him. And I feel like I paid more attention to that because
of that shocking moment that led right up to it. Yeah. Then we come back
to reality. We come back, oops, it goes gravity. And then we get this moment
where, you know, they're still pointing at it. So he does hand the gun over,
and this starts the brawl. This starts the big fight between Craig and Debo.
And it's a good fight. It's not quite frank and nada. And they
live good, but, you know, but it's a good fight. It's solid. And we get
a lot of accessories involved. Yes. We get a brick. We get a
garbage. I love someone getting a clip.
Classic Oscar the Grouch style. Garbage can smashed over the head as
part of a fight. That always works for me. Absolutely. Yeah. And Craig,
you know, and Craig gets punched a bunch.
This is a fight where both these guys are getting very beat up.
But he does finally get Debo to put the sunglasses on and
see that. No, wait a minute. Nobody gets. He gets the brick,
right. He turns the tide of the fight by hurling a brick, one of Stanley's
little mini retreat retaining walls or one of the bricks from there and just,
you know, hucks it and gets Debo right in the face. And then he's able
to sort of finish him off from there, because that's going to. I don't care
how big you are and how strong you are, taking a thrown brick to the
face will, at the least disorient the hell out of you. That is.
That is rough for sure. Yeah. And everyone's celebrating,
okay. And Smokey gets a. That's my
dog. That's my dog. That's my dog.
And then he gets to get over Debo's face and give him.
You got knocked the fuck out, man.
And I think takes the money, right? He gets his money.
Red walks up, says, my grandmama gave me this chain, and takes
his chain back. And then he gets on the. The beach cruiser,
and when he's. When he is riding the bike away, he kind of gives,
like, the Judd Nelson, like, fist in the air. He's like, red.
Yeah. But he's also doing the, like the. The Daytona 500 pace
car, like, going back and forth through the lane in the street. Just really
enjoying that beach cruiser for a while. It's good stuff. Red gets. He loves that
bike so much. I would do a whole, like, peewee's big adventure style
movie about Red trying to get his bike back from different places. Oh,
my God. So, yeah, Red gets it. And then, you know,
it's nice that they, you know, they got their stuff back. So we got a
little justice to D out there. And Debbie and
Craig flirt a little bit, and it's clear that there's interest between the two of
them. We get another little Ice Cube looking at the camera, breaking the fourth wall
moment with, like, Debbie, like, you call me. And she's like, when you get up
in the morning, like, 8:30. All right, well, give me a call. And he's like,
I make it 7:30. Yeah. And I think
he looks at the camera and says, that's right. When he gets his date with
her. That's right. And then he uses the clapper
to turn his lights off. Right? Yes, Very nice. So funny enough,
real quick, in the director's cut, there's a scene in between those two. So there's
that scene outside, and there's him in the bed. Right, Whatever. In between those two,
we have another scene in the bathroom with John Witherspoon. Again, not really anything
that happens. They kind of reiterate like, hey, I'm so proud of you, boy.
Like, you. You were a man today. Like, all this stuff that. Whatever. But there
are more bowling ball kerplunks while he's sitting there
on the toilet. So. And you know, and I think at that point, Ice Cube
is covering his face because he's actually holding, like, an ice bag. He's like a
bag of ice and, like, a handkerchief, like, to his face because he's obviously got
his ass whooped. So. Yeah, but, yeah, it was very funny. And I noticed that
was not in the original. Original version. And then. Yeah, then I think the very
last thing is Smokey on the phone with Worm. Like, I don't appreciate you sending
guys after me, but, hey, I got your money. Yeah, and you got to get
somebody else to sell this. I'm going to rehab. But then he smokes the joke.
Yeah, I was just bullshitting. And you know this man,
so good way for it to end. Nothing's.
Nothing's really changed too much. No main characters
in the same position that they are. Craig doesn't have a job, but he has
a date. That's good. Oh, that's the other thing that happens actually in the scene,
the deleted scene with Witherspoon in the bathroom. He says something and said, hey,
your supervisor called. She wants you to call in tomorrow. So it's like setting up
the job on that tape. Right. And he might get his job back.
So that's another little piece in the director's cut that was deleted. Very nice.
Very nice. Well, yeah, that was Friday. Wow,
good. So many quotes in that. So many characters that I remember
and do think about a lot. Yeah. So this was a great, great one.
Who do we want to hear? This was my pick. So why don't you go
ahead and give us your opinion on Friday? Yeah. So I've seen this a million
times, quoted it a million times, watching it with
a more critical eye. I guess there are things that I could pick apart
about the movie a little more. But Jesus, I mean, for how
different this was from other comedies at the time.
And I'm trying to think of just like another Contemporary Comedy and 1995.
You had like the Ace Ventura types or like a really goofy one.
We didn't really have the eyes. We had like
a dumb and dumber and stuff. But this is kind of just like a family,
like a character driven comedy. Like look at the crazy
people that live in my neighborhood on the street. And like you said, it does
show it as just a regular ass place with a bunch of different kinds of
people who just want to mind their own business and live their life. Even the
song that opens the movie, right? It's like trying to live another day. Yeah,
yeah. Better way. It's just people trying to just live in this isn't. It doesn't
have to be the butt of the joke that it takes place here. The story
can exist in this place and normalize it and not have to make
it part of the comedy, basically. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So I
think it holds up very well. I think the quotes are still
funny. I mean, the only thing this is almost like it suffers from Anchorman
syndrome where the source material can get blamed by how
annoying some people are about quoting it. You know, even though it's like, well,
well, it's not the movie's fault that these people decided to really run with
this stuff. It's how I felt about Tool in college. Like, I discounted
the music because the fans were so insufferably irritating. Right. Only later in
life that I started actually listening to and go, oh, wow, this is really good.
I really enjoy this because I didn't have to deal with any Tool fans.
Yeah, college. And then the other thing is that this spawned a
lot of sequels that are really not that good. I like, I like
Friday after Next, the Christmas. Christmas one. There's. There's. Because next Friday. Or is it
next Friday. Which Friday? Christian X is the one with Cat Williams. Okay, so next
Friday. That's the first equal. It's like Christmas time. Okay. And. Or something like the
one of them is a Christmas movie. And I enjoyed that one, but I don't
think I've seen the other. The other ones. It's just cheap and a little bit,
but also, you know, get your money, is it. I'm sure Ice Cube didn't get
as much as he should have out of this. For this being a first film,
I had a lot of fun with it. I. Ice Cube as an actor,
I think, think is great. Absolutely. I think DJ Poo
was just so funny and all the small characters. Like, there wasn't
really a distractingly bad character actor in this whole thing.
Everyone was good, down to Craig's mom, sister, dad, like the whole family.
Smokey's mom and stuff. I am going to give this one. I had
a three and a half written, but the more we talk about it, I get
to bump it up to the standard score of a 4 just
because I don't know what to pick on other than that
comedy just kind of ages the way that comedy ages. So it doesn't hit
quite as hard. But Jesus, this is a solid, solid first effort
for Ice Cube. Yeah, great screenwriting from Cube and Pooh. They co wrote
it together, obviously came with the story, did the whole screenplay themselves. And like I
said, this was the movie that it put Chris Tucker on the map, period.
And Ice Cube had been in a few films. Obviously, Boys in the Hood was
what sort of showed us, oh, he's not just a rapper, he's also an actor.
Well, now he's not just a rapper and an actor. He's also a filmmaker.
Right. He's now involved behind the scenes. He's a screenwriter. He would go on to
direct, to produce everything, Right? So this, in a lot of ways, like,
gave us so much of what Ice Cube ended up doing is because this
movie worked and is a success. And I agree with you. Like,
it suffers from its ubiquitousness, you know,
in culture right now. It kind of suffers from, you know, just like,
how often you'll see or hear by Felicia Damn, you know, etc. So whatever,
right? But it's really, really good and it's really funny
and it's so indicative or what's the right word?
It's such a product of its time and place. It is so mid-90s.
Like, this movie screams mid-90s from the pager on Chris Tucker's
pocket to like, you know, the every, just everything about it. I think
that this, you know, it's not a perfect movie. I'm not like there on it,
but I'm giving this a four and a half. Like, I honestly think that this
movie is hilarious. It was original at the time and it's
still again, even though if anything it suffers from its own success because it does
come off as maybe it's a little overexposed. But that's
just really a testament to how good it was and continues to be for people.
So that makes an eight and a half out of ten for our combined score,
which is great. We're sort of above both the rotten tomatoes and IMDb numbers,
which I'm perfectly happy with. I think that this is a super fun movie.
I also feel like this is not one where you have to say like,
hey, if you haven't seen Friday, go see if you haven't seen Friday, what are
you even doing listening to this podcast? Yeah. If you haven't seen Friday, I hope
that your cryo prison programming went well. Welcome back,
John Spartan. Yeah, but, but do you see, I mean, if you missed
it for some reason, because there's plenty of stuff that I just missed for some
reason. Yeah. And if this is one that missed you, I don't think that your
chance to enjoy this movie is done. No, I think it's something you can,
could watch today and you can enjoy it. And yeah,
and it's, and the comedy isn't as dependent
on like, you know, a lot of like Adam Sandler stuff. It'll be like,
okay, we cast this really like weird looking guy and the jokes
are about how weird looking the guy is. Even with Mr. Parker, like the fact
that he's a dwarf. There was like some physical comedy just in the unexpected nature
of seeing it, but no one was like, you know, saying anything about that.
And then the Janice Jackson woman was being made fun of because she's a liar,
saying that she looks like a famous person. So. A gorgeous famous woman.
Yeah. Yeah. So I think that this movie had like a certain amount of heart
to it as well. Yeah. Which, which makes it really work.
Yeah. So, yeah. Cool. Eight and a half for Friday. I like it.
And am I. I'm up next. Yeah. What are we going to watch next week,
Nick? Okay, well, I think we're, we're going to leave the,
the streets of Compton and we're going to end up in
the fast paced high rise world of Manhattan and
we're going to hang out with a guy named Michael J.
Fox. We haven't seen any Michael J. Fox yet. We haven't foxed it
yet. Very excited about Give me that mjf. So, you know,
he's, he's a lowly mail room attendant trying to make his way,
you know, up the corporate ladder. And we're going to watch 1987's the
Secret of My Success. Ah. This is absolutely the best movie in the history
of cinema based off of a Night Ranger song. So I
think they wrote the song for the movie, but whatever. It's a great song.
It's a great movie. I'm a huge fan of the Secret of My Success.
This is absolutely one that I would have picked first at some point. Yes.
Because I love this movie. It's so good. It's another
really quotable movie. Legitimate, Legitimately. No joke, no hyperbole.
And no, I'm not being facetious. It has my favorite usage of Katrina
and the waves walking on sunshine. Okay. That I in any movie. I love the
use of it in this movie better than anywhere else it's been using. My God,
that, that song's been in 100 films. Right? So, so much fun. Cannot wait
to watch Michael J. Fox and the Secret of My Success. That's going to be
a good one. Yeah, man. Thanks for picking it because that's fantastic.
All right, if you're listening and you like what you hear, please go over to
Apple, go to Spotify, give us a five star review. It helps people find the
show. If you want to give us some feedback, you can do that at the
showdadsone movie. Com. That's the number two and the number one.
We love getting your emails and we'll happily read them and respond to you.
So, yeah, this has been Friday. This is another
episode of 2Dads. One movie. I'm Steve. And I'm Nick and we will be.
Back with you next week. Thank you, everybody. Take care.