Summer 1989 saw major releases such as Lethal Weapon 2, Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, Batman, Do the Right Thing, Licence to Kill… and three hugely successful films starring Rick Moranis: Ghostbusters 2, Honey, I Shrunk the Kids, and Parenthood. #podcast #rickmoranis #funny #legend #ghostbusters
Transcript:
[Music] and we’re back in the car like we never
left welcome to episode 2011 of the
Confessions of a not so dangerous mind
podcast
once again we’re going to skip all the
promotional stuff and get right to the
meat of the
episode today’s discussion will Center
on a particular actor who doesn’t really
act anymore at a particular time one
magical summer in which this actor
starred in three huge hit
films two of them were part of a
series and well one of them became a
series one was part of the series and
the third one was later spun off into a
very successful TV
series the actor is Rick
Moranis the three movies that he starred
in all came out in the summer of 1989
over a 6- week
stretch Ghostbusters
2 Honey I Shrunk the Kids and
Parenthood so Rick Moran
[Music] is
71 and he kind of became a breakout star
he’s Canadian I should point that out
he’s part of the incredibly
talented uh comics from Canada that
include um Eugene Levy John Candy
Katherine O’Hara um just so many
stupendously talented uh well Victor
Garber is Canadian he’s not he’s not
really a comedian that’s Victor Garber
if you don’t know the name he was in
Electra with Jennifer Garner and most
famous Leon Titanic he plays Andrews the
ship
Builder but Rick Moranis was onv which
is kind of I guess you could describe it
as the
Canadian uh Saturday Night Live except I
think it actually started before
Saturday Night Live so oh no no it was
right around the same time it may have
been the same season or maybe the season
after I got my my dates mixxed up so
sorry Saturday Night Live first season
was 75 and I think that SCV may have
started in 76 or maybe it’s just that
Moranis joined it in 76 on that I’m not
sure but it isn’t critically important
he was onv for eight years and just was
incredible playing different characters
uh what was it Dave and Bob McKenzie a
couple of couple of guys couple of
Canadians like to have some SS e like
that kind of thing
but Moranis although he um acted in
movies he made he was in a couple of
films in the early 80s it wasn’t until
the original Ghostbusters that he made a
very serious impression playing the
nextdoor neighbor of sorney Weaver’s
Dana Barrett um he’s of course
desperately in love with her because how
could he not be a Sigourney
Weaver he takes what could easily have
been a throwaway role a nothing
supporting part and he turns it into
something memorable just by sheer force
of will and the fact that he’s just this
little kind of nebbishy
guy but he just has such he just has a
way about him in his own fashion Rick
Moranis is an actor who has a very
particular kind of magic and in the
right role guy’s a [ __ ] home run
hitter so he’s a big reason I think as
to why Ghostbusters are so successful
because so many of the scenes with Lewis
Tully are either hilarious or you’re
kind of on the edge of your seat because
you don’t know what this guy is going to
do or
just he has the kinds of scenes that you
want to watch again and again when he’s
trying to dance he’s throwing a party
and he’s giving out what amounts to
private information about all of his
accounting clients Ted’s still receiving
a deferred bonus from two years ago
he’s got a small carpet cleaning
business in receivership as if this is
something you should just be saying out
loud uh at a party about clients and
friends yeah no
problem by the
time of
1986 Moranis was he was a star he was a
Hollywood star and he made a movie that
I absolutely adore even though the
official version is not really what
director o intended and it Strays from
the original concept of the Broadway
stage play Little Shop of
Horrors Rick Moranis is not yes he can
sing but he he was not a singer first
and in the movie version of Little Shop
of Horrors his co-star Ellen green is a
terrific actress and a great
singer I really love his performance in
Little Shop of Horrors a his character
of Seymour krelborn
he seems like a sad sack but he’s really
not he’s just somebody who has dreams
and his life hasn’t turned out the way
that it could have but also from a
certain point of view he’s kind of
gotten lucky because yeah he’s got to
get out of skid row but he does have
people around him who care and um
meeting Audrey or you know getting
closer with
Audrey he thinks she’s out of his league
and she thinks he’s out of his league
and there’s a c certain charm in that
because it goes against it goes against
a grain and it’s unexpected and I when I
first saw a little shop of hars I hadn’t
seen uh I knew people who had seen the
the musical but I didn’t actually I
didn’t know the story so I was even as a
kid I was pleasantly surprised by that
angle I thought that was really well
done and of course The Supporting Cast
John Candy his old buddy in a small role
Bill Murray [ __ ] home run hitter also
in a cameo and Steve Martin
spectacular as the world’s most sadistic
dentist Orin scell
DDS it ended up being a significant box
office hit and got a lot of a claim
there was some awards nominations for
makeup uh and Levi stubs of the Four
Tops did the voice of uh of Audrey 2
that’s the kind of uh maning plant from
outer
space even though the original version
of the film which I’ve seen
uh it’s available on YouTube uh it’s
pretty [ __ ] dark uh basically Audrey
takes over the world and we’re all going
to die it’s almost like uh we talk about
movies like Deep Impact or Armageddon
it’s an extinction level event uh that’s
what that’s what the original ending was
an extinction level event
so the movie is still terrific the songs
are great and the kind of Love Story
between Seymour and Audrey is is very
sweet and somehow it doesn’t feel
modling it it feels just right to me
anyway and I watched the film not that
long ago within the last uh year and
it’s still held up I love Vincent
gardino’s performance also as the shop
owner uh shop owner mushnik just great
all
around so if you fast forward to the
summer of
1989 the first of the three films to
come out was Ghostbusters 2 the sequel
to as I recently talked about on the
channel the massive box office hit the
original Ghostbusters Just a huge hit
well over 300 million worldwide well 5
years
later the sequel did it did I mean by
any metric it should be considered a
huge hit it made 220 million that’s
[ __ ] serious or was it 212 I’m sorry
212 but it was considered a bit of a
disappointment because a lot of people
didn’t like it and the word of mouth was
not really that great and I saw the
weekend at open with my dad and my
sister my sister was very young at the
time she was what was she five and um my
dad who of course I I saw as very old he
was 46 four years younger than I am now
he’s really old yeah uh and I was 15 I
enjoyed it but I thought it was a let
down I had seen the original I don’t
know at at least a dozen times already
and we used to watch we my sister was
obsessed with it she always had it on in
the you know VCR player always were
playing it uh it was a let down not
great but it was 200 plus million and
Moranis is character at least in theory
becomes more important in the second
film because he kind of becomes an
honorary
Ghostbuster and he has a moment and it’s
a great moment where he thinks that he
has actually played a role in saving the
day but he kind of Builds on the
awkwardness and the
extreme autism spectrum neurod
divergency kleinfelter syndrome whatever
it is that is going on with this guy he
builds on it and he has really wonderful
moments with Annie pots who herself is a
[ __ ] home run hitter she’s fantastic
um as uh you know the assistant to to
the
Ghostbusters I forgot the name of the
character but the scenes that they have
together are great like he’s trying to
ask her out he’s desperate to ask her
out on a date and he’s just stumbling
and bumbling and it’s it’s beautiful
screw ball comedy acting it’s right out
of the Carrie Grant uh bringing a baby
Playbook where he stumbles and bumbles
and he finally blurts out the phrase do
you want to have something to eat with
me do you want to have have something to
eat with
me still makes me
laugh so but that’s a very it’s a very
specific performance he’s not just
playing a nerd he’s playing a type of
he’s got the glasses and yeah he’s an
accountant and he’s still he’s just so
awkward and and weird and
Goofy so one week later Honey I Shrunk
the Kids opens on June 23rd and that
ended up being a bigger hit than
Ghostbusters 2 and Rick Moranis is in
the lead he is the lead character even
though the kids I think the kids have
more screen time than uh than Rick than
his character of Wayne
zalinski but he’s the lead and the ads
in the film show him with a microscope
the ads got people into the theaters and
honestly the special effects 35 years
later they still hold up because there
is some computer work but there’s more
great
uh practical effects makeup work a
little bit of animatronics in there if
memory serves and just the way that they
were able to size things appropriately
to make it believable like how big would
an ant be if a kid shrinks to a certain
size they really did a good job with
that and at its heart it’s an it’s an
adventure story he shrinks the kids and
how can they first get back home how can
they avoid being eaten or or killed by
insects or you know eaten by by a dog or
a cat or whatever it might be and the
film builds a good amount of suspense as
Wayne zalinsky attempts to CU he’s he’s
brilliant attempts to figure out how to
we got to find the kids and how am I
going to get them back because so far
all I know how to do is miniaturize so
in that movie Rick also
plays he’s a nerdy guy but he’s more of
a he’s more of a pure intellectual like
Wayne z Lin
is a Creator he’s an inventor he’s a
brilliant guy Lewis Tully is just an
accountant on the autism spectrum so
they’re both nerdy but what we get out
of Wayne zolinski is he’s not
necessarily awkward he’s not really a
schlam he is a guy who has been pretty
successful and has created something
that well they still haven’t figured
this out they still haven’t created it
you know it’s it’s postmodern the
science is postmodern even though the
story is not really SC I mean you can
call it Science Fiction it’s a fantasy
it’s a fair T basically but Moranis is
performance is he’s just great because
yes this is a serious situation but he
and the movie never lose sight the
primary goal is to entertain not to get
into an existential crisis about what
would it be like if we had to spend the
rest of our lives number one at from the
kids perspective we have to spend the
rest of our lives you know 6 in tall or
2 Ines tall I don’t remember exactly
what it is and Wayne zalinsky spends the
rest of his life saying my God I shrunk
my kids and and I never saw them again
because maybe they got eaten up by a a a
rat who the [ __ ] knows right maybe they
got stung by a scorpion in the backyard
and they died and decomposed whatever it
is he sells it and that triggered a
successful franchise although I think
two of the films went straight to video
they they sold well and they turned to
Prof didn’t have as big a budget um as
the first one so imagine he had two
movies in the top two or three at the
box office one week to the next that
doesn’t happen in Hollywood like that’s
very rare what it means is there were
staggered release schedules I’m sorry
not staggered there were staggered
shooting
schedules because if you’re working on
the same you don’t work on movies at NE
you’re not GNA work on in the same day
is what I’m trying to say there are
times where you shoot a film and there’s
like eight months before it’s released
and then other times where maybe it’s
only four it was probably something as
simple as that I don’t know which movie
was shot first my guess is that Honey I
Shrunk the Kids was shot first because
he had longer hair for that and it would
have been easier for him to get a
haircut to play Lewis Tully and
Ghostbusters 2 then vice versa it had to
be within a couple of months
though and um yeah he was a big reason
why the film was a hit the trailers were
interesting the kids kids were likable
and yeah that poster with him and the
magnifying glass it sold it and it was a
good movie generally speaking it got
better reviews than Ghostbusters 2 which
you know Ron Tomatoes is probably in the
50 range the actors are great everyone’s
terrific in that film The Story just
isn’t that interesting that’s the
problem that was always the problem with
Ghostbusters 2 they just sometimes you
don’t pick the right
script to me it was as simple as that
the script is just not that interesting
so my my little you know quick summary
of Ghostbusters to not very good two and
a half Stars maximum I’ll give it two
and a half out of four just because Bill
Murray is still hitting home runs and
akroy is hilarious and Harold Ramis and
Rick
Moranis now fast forward to later in the
summer the first week in August I want
to say it was August 2nd uh was the
Friday Parenthood
now it’s we know the name because shows
like
um oh I don’t I don’t remember the show
there was a show a very similar concept
of kind of an extended family because
there was the show Parenthood on TV and
um but this was a different show can’t
remember the name of it
um but Parenthood as a movie was a
oneoff it’s the kind of thing I guess
they could have done a sequel but when
you have such a huge cast of
in some cases big stars in other cases
just terrific performers it’s difficult
to get everybody back and I don’t know
if they were talking about making a
sequel but in Parenthood Rick plays
another intellectual his name is Nathan
in this
film and he is married to what I believe
or who I believe is Steve Martin’s
sister in the film it’s this big
extended
family
and his everybody has their own
situation going on each person in the
family has some kind of a a focal point
or a crisis point or a turning point in
their lives that takes place during the
story of this film and during the world
in in the world of the film so it’s very
much an ensemble story but it’s told in
sequence and Rick Moranis this thing so
he’s married to as I say Steve Martin’s
sister played by an actress who was in a
lot of movies in that era and then I
don’t know she seemed to kind of
disappear Char Jane
kak and they have I think they have two
kids if I’m not mistaken but they are he
his character is a little bit of an
antagonistic Force he’s not a villain
but he comes across as somebody who’s
kind of focused on the wrong
things and his theories of parenting
are he’s kind of the G-rated version of
um the movie Whiplash the sort of brutal
band
instructor who will not accept anything
less than 100% all the time and
Perfection
so his character has these Advanced
learning techniques with his kids that
he’s implementing to try to turn them
into
Geniuses he keeps saying they’re like
sponges that they absorb they can absorb
so much knowledge when they’re very
young and his wife Harley Jan’s
character is frustrated because all he
does now is drill the kids they don’t
really have much Social Life they don’t
play with friends because they don’t
have any friends all they’re doing is
schoolwork and supplemental uh
Scholastic academic activities she’s
just fed up and he needs not even an
attitude adjustment he just needs to
look at things a little differently
they’re kids they don’t need to be super
Geniuses what are we doing here
so Rick for the third time in a summer
is playing somebody who has a high IQ
and he is entirely different the
character in this movie is far more self
assured and far more confident than the
other two characters that he played in
the same summer he comes across as a guy
Resolute he’s utterly convinced he’s
right and it isn’t until his wife pretty
much threatens to listen you don’t stop
acting like addiction she doesn’t say
that but I’m going to take the kids I’m
going to leave you this is unacceptable
they are children and we need to start
treating them like children doesn’t mean
that school isn’t important or academics
we don’t want them to achieve but this
is not tenable and I can’t be part of it
anymore so Rick
Moranis I love this part of it at the
end of at the end of a summer where he
had to know that they were all going to
release in the summer and that they were
probably going to be hits because he was
very confident in the Parenthood script
yeah it’s Steve Martin’s movie Martin is
the closest thing we have to a central
character as Gil and Martin is terrific
as is Jason Robards Jr in one of his
last real meaty roles in a great film
and former Academy Award nominee Tom hul
as the kind of wayward son he’s great
the whole cast Mary steenberge and Keo
Reeves Diane whis a very young Wen
Phoenix Martha Plimpton everybody brings
their a
game towards the end of the movie Rick
Moran’s character gets this terrible
shock of just how
unhappy his wife
is and he shows up she’s school teacher
he shows up in her
class and he starts to sing Close To You
by The
Carpenters and it is such a great moment
it’s a great movie moment and it’s a a
Rick Moranis moment where here’s a guy
who starred in three movies with a
combined gross of
like 470 million no 500 570 million
combined gross over the summer or
somewhere in that ballpark 212 223 126
call it 560 so three huge box office
hits in one summer and he caps it off
metaphorically by winning back his wife
by
singing why do birds suddenly appear
shut up every time I’m not listening you
are near just like
me she goes for it and as much as it’s
possible for an ensemble story with so
many different narratives taking place
at the same time for a story like that
or a film like that with like eight
different plot lines and plot threads
going once it ends about as up as it
possibly
can and it feels real it feels
believable it does not ever Pander to
the audience and for my money Rick gives
the best performance I mean if you want
to go Jason robarts Jr because his
character was actually very interesting
and man robarts was a home run hitter
what a great actor he was he plays he’s
the patriarch of this family that Rick
married into and Rick gets along with
everybody Gil gets a kick out of Steve
Martin’s character he kind of thinks
it’s humorous with the drills that he’s
doing with his kids and stuff like
that but Robards as the
patriarch he seems to be a guy’s hard
worker and he has a we’re led to believe
he’s a successful sorry a successful
entrepreneur the Tom Hall character
comes back and we get the idea that
Tom’s character is was the favorite
Child and he’s intelligent but he’s a a
bit of a wasil he’s gotten in huge
gambling trouble and he just can’t stay
focused on any one thing at a time and
the way that Robards handles the scenes
with Tom hul where he wants to believe
that this kid can make something of
himself but he just keeps screwing
around and not taking it not taking
anything seriously
enough and Robards is just fantastic and
it’s sad that’s the one sad piece of the
story which is his dealings with his the
youngest son this essentially hul is
playing Steve Martin’s younger
brother sometimes you got to say goodbye
but he doesn’t exactly say goodbye he
knows that his son is not coming back
and Tom Hall’s character has pretty much
left his grandson meaning robarts
grandson with with him and he’s okay
with it he seemed resistant to it at
first to the idea of this is my
grandson and a grandson who is very
quiet doesn’t have much in the way of
dialogue in the film his name is cool
that’s a moment of humor between Moranis
and Steve Martin when Tom hul introduces
this is my son
cool and Rick Moranis actually kind of
leans over to Steve Martin and goes did
he say cool and Steve Martin goes cool
just like that so everybody in the movie
has a moment an up moment a down moment
just an actorly moment and Steve Martin
has many memorable scenes a scene where
he has to he dresses up as a cowboy for
his son’s birthday it’s a wonderful film
and easily for
me it’s my favorite movie it’s my
favorite movie of the three that Ste
excuse me that Rick Moranis starred in
or co-starred in cuz in Honey I Shrunk
the Kids his name’s above the titles
he’s the star in Ghostbusters 2 it is a
supporter performance and in Parenthood
it’s a supporting performance but each
time he brings different tools to the
set to the construction of his character
and the film he’s working on he brings
what he
needs the neurod Divergent autism
spectrum magnificently awkward Lewis
Tully and Ghostbusters 2 the slightly
space cetti but very very focused and
intelligent Wayne zalinski in Honey I
Shrunk the Kids and the
brilliant but he needs an attitude and
life adjustment Nathan huffner and Ron
Howard wonderful memorable fantastic
underappreciated in my
opinion
Parenthood
1989 the summer of Star Trek 5 the
summer of Indiana Jones and the Last
Crusade
the summer of Spike Le do the right
thing the summer of Karate Kid
3 was also the
summer of Rick
Moranis retired gone from the movie
business but not forgotten and I for
one I’m still waiting for him to make a
comeback this has been episode 2011 of
the Confessions of a Nots so dangerous
mind podcast I’d like to thank you all
for spending some of this afternoon this
Monday afternoon drive with me here in
New York if you checked out this episode
on the YouTube channel haven’t done so
already please click like subscribe
comment share turn on those
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applies click like subscribe share and
turn on those notifications I’ll be back
with episode 212 real real soon till
then peace

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