S4E48.5: Mannequin

SPEAKER_1 (0:00)

Oh, look at him with a dummy!

Devon (0:01)

Who are you to criticize?

November Kelly (0:21)

Hello and welcome to another bonus episode of Kill James Bond. I am November Kelly, I am joined as always by my friends Abigail Thorn and Devon.

Abigail Thorn (0:28)

Hello, listeners!

Devon (0:29)

Cowabunga, ladies and gentlemen!

Abigail Thorn (0:31)

We are three plastic people T-posing in a window of a store to ring you this podcast. Mm-hmm.

November Kelly (0:38)

Because this is a Devonian pic, and I just want to- before I say anything else about it, I just want to tease that if you go by Metacritic's score, and my girlfriend went through all of the films we've watched to check this, this is the worst film we have ever seen! Beating out Rambo Last Blood for a score of 21 out of 100!

Abigail Thorn (1:06)

I'm sorry, I think that's misogyny.

Devon (1:08)

I think that's-

Abigail Thorn (1:08)

no, I liked it!

Devon (1:10)

That's so up.

Abigail Thorn (1:11)

I had a nice time with this.

November Kelly (1:13)

There are two things that I want to tease about this movie. That's one, and the other is that the 80% or the 79% of people are wrong.

Devon (1:22)

Yes.

November Kelly (1:22)

This movie, Mannequin, whips.

Abigail Thorn (1:25)

It's really good.

Devon (1:27)

Thank you.

Abigail Thorn (1:28)

It was made in 1987, so it has an interesting rhythm to it, which is that it's a comedy. You'll get five really solid jokes, then you'll be laughing along, and then it will just kick you in the shins with some horrible fucking transphobia or misogyny, just like, god, fuck you! And then it'll give you really five nice ones again, and you'll be like, oh! Just as you're forgetting it'll be like, chicks for dicks!

November Kelly (1:48)

You know like a motorcycle airbag? You know like those backpacks or those jackets that can detect when you're falling off a motorcycle and just inflate around you, the ones that we got John Cleese to say the word poppers about in Tomorrow Never Dies.

Abigail Thorn (2:01)

Those are real?

November Kelly (2:02)

Yeah, so they made those real from Tomorrow Never Dies. And I like to think that I have the kind of mental equivalent of those for 80s transphobic jokes in movies. And so I'm sitting here, I'm ensconced, you know? I'm waiting for it to happen, right? And I'm just prepared.

Abigail Thorn (2:17)

In your fucking bunker.

Devon (2:19)

And you know what? It doesn't come up that often.

November Kelly (2:22)

It really doesn't.

Abigail Thorn (2:23)

One's a powerful one right at the very start.

Devon (2:27)

But that's really about it. No, this is Mannequin. This is one of my, I thought we've been a bit serious recently.

And I decided to roll back to the classic philosophy that we got from Spice World, which is sometimes it's all about having a bit of fun. At the end of the day, isn't it?

November Kelly (2:43)

Yeah. That's very true.

Devon (2:45)

Humanism is when you have a little bit of fun. And this is a movie that I remember watching for the first time a year and a half ago and laughing harder than I ever have about anything with my beautiful wife. And it was just fantastic. And I wanted to, I was so, so happy to hear you both like this as well.

Abigail Thorn (3:04)

That's really sweet. No, no, no.

November Kelly (3:05)

The thing is, I was prepared to hate it, right? That's why I say I was ensconced. That makes sense.

Well, no, because it's an 80s rom-com.

Devon (3:11)

I roll the dice, I understand. It's okay.

November Kelly (3:14)

You do, you do. And like, listen, we take big swings. I love that about you. I admire that about you. You, you know, I just fucking flip through fucking Cahier de Cinema and I go, oh, fucking someone smarter than me said this was good. I feel an obligation to watch this now. Let's get really depressed, right?

Devon (3:32)

They are good movies.

November Kelly (3:34)

Sure, fine. But like you, you know, outside of the canon, just go, we're watching Five Deadly Venoms, and I go sick. But, you know, so in this case, I'm just, I'm braced, I'm braced for stuff, and I'm prepared to hate it. And so my mind wanders. And so immediately, scene one, act one, scene one, Ancient Egypt, a really long time ago, right before lunch, you know, and...

Abigail Thorn (3:59)

I love that we started Ancient Egypt.

Devon (4:02)

So good. They dropped that shit.

November Kelly (4:04)