PUBCAS, if you're not listening to PUBCAS, the terrorist are winning. That's what James Morrison. Welcome to the PUBCcast. Sit down and enjoy your point.
Welcome to the undercover brother episode of the PUBCcast. Allison and Erich joined me to break down this amazing and overlooked comedy from 2002. Undercover brothers spruce the blast-ploitation movies from the 70s, shaft, superfly, coffee, faunty brown, but does it with a wink and a nod to the audience, admitting what they're doing in this movie is over-topping ridiculous. That said, this movie is packed with laughs and funny moments, and the cast is great.
What Eddie Griffin does in this movie, I don't think any other actor could pull off nearly as effectively. So pull up your bell-bottoms, strap on your platform shoes, and listen up as we break down undercover brother. Get me undercover bro! It's the coolest blackness in third.
You got so endless. Hit this movie in here. Welcome to the button. Raza.
We're gonna tell you again for a minute action. Move, they called it a fucker, don't it? I developed a device that allows you to absorb the whole of white culture in your seconds. I see white people.
A very funny spoof. Here's the Washington Post. It's time to unleash our secret weapon. I can't it.
Black man's script tonight. Would you like to be my friend? He had sex with a white girl. Excuse me.
No. Sometimes we're going to do things you wouldn't normally do. I'm gonna have dangerous, I'm gonna get a mitre fellow. Hey!
Eddie Griffin. This is a bro. You got to go. Undercover brother.
Come to you on DDN, VHS. Would you stop pulling around? Okay, undercover brother, 2002. It's the 20th anniversary.
Obviously. I just want to say. Well, it is. What was?
You're right. Damn it. Some of us. The no-nonsense plot.
When the man tries to derail a black candidate's presidential campaign, undercover brother and fellow secret agents come to the rescue. I don't know if that is. You know what's funny? I never think about the presidential campaign component of that movie ever when it's on.
It is the heart of the plot and it is completely over. It's completely crossover. It doesn't matter whatsoever. I don't recall that's the problem that they're solving for.
I know they're after the man. I understand all of that. I understand the attempt to whitewash and do all that stuff. I never think it's about a presidential campaign.
Yeah. It's a really big link. It's almost like they're trying to solve the kidnapping. It's like people are just kidding.
It's like people are just kidding. They're trying to get them back. It's the presidential campaign portion of it. If you take out the campaign, you never introduce Billy D.
Williams at all and you just have the undercover brother crew against the man. That's the movie. That's the entire movie. Yeah.
Whatever. I think just the presidential campaign part, I just don't think it's all right. I mean, there's a force like a five minute dialogue about it. It feels like an afterthought.
We have these 20 characters and these goofy situations. It's such a short, succinct movie. It's barely 90 minutes. That's what I wanted to talk about too.
In that first five minutes, what are they talking about? It moves on so fast. It's often running. It's an hour and 25 minutes.
26 minutes. It is a tight 126 too. I knew what to do. Some of these movies we mentioned that before, this one is especially true.
If this movie was an hour 45, or two hours being sent, but done hour 45, it would, I wouldn't like it much. It would be too much. There's not enough there, there to make that movie. Hour 26, the pacing is, I mean, it's constantly moving.
It's constantly going. There's no downtime. Straight. As far as short and sweet and to the point, and patience.
So this movie, I'm not getting into where we watched it when we saw it. Who cares? This is based on a 12 episode animated series that was on the internet in 2000. This is five years before YouTube.
There was no central hub for people to see this. I don't know. I assume, and I tried to look it up. I don't know what website it was on.
If it was on, like, undercoverbrother.com. I have no idea what it was. It wasn't like on whatever sort of video platform that preceded YouTube, like a daily motion or whatever sort of video. I have no idea where it appeared.
I don't know how people saw it. I thought it was a comic book before, but I think it was an animated internet series before. I had no idea. Yeah.
Okay. And if I'm remembering correctly, the actor that plays Smart Brother was the voice of undercover brother on that internet series. Yeah. Yeah.
Yeah. And a smart brother was an actor. Yeah. Yeah.
Yeah. I'm curious to hear. You can find clips. I have not watched it in her rendition of his version of undercoverbrother.
This is obviously a spoof of black exploitation movies from the 70s. Shaft, Superfly, Coffee, Foxy Brown. And it exaggerates to some degree the culture, the black culture of the 70s. I mean, I was what I wrote down is that undercover brother is to black exploitation movies of the 70s.
What Austin Powers is to James Bond movies and the British Invasion type movie of the 60s. Sort of a big parody and a mashup of all that sort of stuff. Right. Right.
Obviously it's a goofy parody. Could this movie get made today? I actually think it can. As sensitive as everybody is right now.
I, because I think it is intentionally over the top. Yes. It definitely is. It's a two irrational thinking person.
Of course it's a satire exaggeration. It's a caricature. Yeah. But it's sort of winking at the camera like we know the 70s were weird and we're just making it even more weird.
Right. But today people are so crazy about that stuff. I don't know if it would work. It's going to have to be made by by and with the right people.
But yes, I think I think it definitely can. So undercover brother 2023 made by Jordan Peele. Yes. I think it's still be a hard sell.
I don't think so. I think there'd be equal support in backlash. You know what I mean? Yeah.
I've been trying to think of something because I figured we would have this conversation and I was trying to think of something that would be similar that is a bit more current and I couldn't quite get there. I don't think of the racial aspect because that's such a touchy or chemis. It's a place. No, I can't think of something that took a twist on a potentially explosive topic or serious topic and made it that funny.
It's kind of like those airplane movies from the 80s. It's got some of that feel to it. Obviously the awesome powers that we talked about. But I can't think of an equivalent in the past.
But I think there are shows out there. They might not be comedies, but they are like calling out a lot of kind of the same. Issues or stereotypes or whatever in a more direct way. Like there's that show Dear White People and stuff like that where it's like.
It calls out a lot of the. The. I mean, I'm kind of repeating what I just said, but like how people respond to different racial topics or discussions or whatever and it's intended to be a more serious like. Belor drama kind of thing, but yeah, but I think you change the genre.
And you it's it can be the same thing. I think that's my question. Could it be a comedy and then would it have to be a series so you have enough breathing room to do it to. No, do it, or could you do it in a tight movie?
I think you can do it in a tight movie. All right. I'm about to see. It just happens on us and all the time.
Yeah, well, but a few minutes sketch is different. I know, but there's a lot more landmines that fall into it and now we have a movie. But I think that's where you get into what you were just talking about. Can you.
I don't understand. I don't think I think if it could be made, it would be made. Hopefully it will be something. I wrote down I have a lot of notes at this point other than to.
I'm going to call them both cameos to amazing cameos in this movie. Billy D Williams, not exactly a cameo, but Mike well be. He is as provides as would in a performance as you could possibly give. He's in the movie, but he's not really in the movie.
He's just like guy. He's he's playing the cardboard cutout of Han Solo. He just. I'm not going to ask.
I'm not going to ask. I'm just going to stand here and smile as a general. Which is fine. Who cares?
James Brown. Yeah. He's like James Brown is insane in this movie. Oh my God.
He has all of 30 seconds of screen time. 45 seconds. And he's so James Brown. Yeah.
Mr. James Brown. Eric, what do you think of a thing around this movie? He he knows that he couldn't have checked every box.
He checks every blast you want from James Brown in that situation just to be. He does the dance. Yeah. Oh my gosh.
He's outfit the hair, the smile makes a stupid comment and then does a little squiggle foot dancing. Right. But I love how the he gets him to get Mr. Feather to break the sale out.
I'm glad. Yeah. All right. So box off of performance in 2002.
Yeah. This is not a big box. No, I'll go through the top 10 as usual and then we'll get to. I'm going to come up with this.
2002. This is probably one of the most recent movies we've done, isn't it? Yeah. Snatch we did.
Casino Royale was 2006. Oh my God. Five or six. I think.
Yeah. Okay. Here we go. Spiderman.
$400 million. Yeah. Star Wars episode two attack of the clones. Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets.
Wow. 243 million. There's three just colossal franchises. Yeah.
Yeah. Undercover brother number four. Yeah. Signs.
Oh, the last vestige of my show ons genius or suppose a genius. 227 million. My big fat Greek wedding. Yes.
I mean it was a sensation for a while. Yeah. 223 million. Back to big.
Brandt prizes. Lord of the Rings. The two towers. 218 million.
Austin Powers and gold member. 212 million. Men in black two. 190 million.
Wow. Ice Age. 176 million. And then a beautiful mine with 154 million.
Wow. So heavy hitters. Right. What?
Only two of those are nine. Yeah. Beautiful mine and signs. Oh, my big fat.
Well, that even had a sequel. And a Broadway play and all that stuff. Wow. Just ten pole summer.
Yeah. One of those was the number one. Wow. Undercover brother was number 68.
Well. With 39 million. Wow. That's still a good, that's a decent number for any kind of movie.
What was the budget? The budget was 25. So 20 years ago, I don't know how they did the math or how you estimated like marketing and stuff. These days they say double the budget.
Right. Is the marketing, you know, so it would be 25 million for the movie, 25 million for the marketing, I'm not sure it's the case. But whatever, it made money or broke even or close enough. Yeah.
So 75, so seven spots below under cover brother. I thought this was interesting. ETE, the re-release. Wow.
35 million. No. Interesting. Weird.
I forgot that was released in 2002. That would have been the 20th anniversary. Yeah. Or that movie.
Yeah. But we're looking at 40 years for you. I'm both surprised it is that low and that high. Yeah.
That was, was that the, when they like did all the, they changed the effects when it's like, Yeah, like the guy had keys and sort of a gun and something like that. Yeah. Right. I mean, and then they reissued the DVDs or Blu-rays or whatever and all the new things were in there.
Yeah. Which I think that's what we have in our collection somewhere. Yeah. So I wrote down one little tidbit about that.
Undercover brother made 12.1 million during its opening weekend ranking fourth at the box office behind, I don't know if this is an order, maybe an order, the sum of all fears. Jack Ryan, Star Wars, Tag of the Clones and Spider-Man. So then undercover brother was fourth on that weekend. So let's do it, I guess.
So, all right. All right. Rotten Tomatoes. Audience or critics, let's do audience first.
What do you think the audience in 2002 said about undercover brother? The people that went to go see it, I would say 83%. 83. Eric.
75. The audience score for Rotten Tomatoes was 64%. Wow, really? No.
I would have thought in the 80s, for sure. Yeah. So critics, what do you think? No, but I gave it away.
Oh, it's going to be higher than that. I'm going to, I'm going to stick with 83. Eric. I'm going to go lower and I'll say 65.
Critics had it at 78%. Oh. Critics, almost eight out of 10, essentially, gave a thumbs up. Well, they hopefully sought for what it was.
Yeah. But I'm surprised audiences didn't like it. Less than two years. I'm chuckle or laugh out loud throughout that movie.
It's so great. So if you went, if you saw the pre- You went to this movie, you walked in. Did you not get exactly what you were hoping for? Yeah, I don't know.
Wow. Let's talk about this. There's a sidebar on that for a second. Any revenue.
I mean, it's so great. Great stand-up comic in the late 80s or mid 90s, I think. At least that's where I got, I saw him the first time. And it's real special.
It's the first time I'm. Yeah. Yeah. He did some TV shows either before or after this around this time.
Good solid comedic performer. He knocks it out of the fucking part in his movie. I mean, we're going to do the recasting later. I don't know how you recast it.
I know it's so good. I can't think of one person living or dead that would play that part as well or better. No way. It's so good.
And there are, it's his facial expressions. It's everything. It's his voice intonation. Yeah.
Yeah. His voice, his face, his comedic timing, his sort of charm and personality. God, it's so good. His weird physicality, the whole thing.
Yeah. That opening montage with him in that car. Hold on to that. I know.
It's also good. I got that under scenes. What are the most beautiful scenes? Okay.
So I looked up as much trivia as I could find on this movie. There's almost none. There's virtually nothing. I wrote down a few things here and there.
The casting, like who was almost cast and who wasn't cast. I didn't find one single thing about it. So there's like, there's no behind the scenes information about this movie. Right.
That I could find without maybe buying the DVD and then maybe there's some extras on there or something. I know. So there's going to be sparse and it would be great if this movie had like a director's commentary. Oh, that'd be great.
I don't want the director to go. I want Eddie Griffin. Well, yeah. Is director Eddie Griffin and Neil Patrick?
Yeah. The DVD that I have has commentary by the director and by Eddie Griffin. Oh, really? Together or two separate ones?
Oh, there you go. All right. Oh my God. Well, you may have more insight into this than I do, Eric, but.
I'm fortunate. I did not take the time to. You did not have to. This year weekend watching the movie and then two separate commentaries.
I want to get three times now. We talked about smart brother being the voice of the animated series. Right. Some of these are like Easter eggs.
I'll just go through some of these. They're not even really summer trivia. Some are not. At one point, Shy McBride, the chief, says that he's getting too old for this.
It looks like the photograph of Danny Glover on the wall. For those who don't know, Danny Glover is famous for his role as Roger Murtaugh in the Lethal Weapon series in the sequels and he would always say I'm too old for this year. So that's a nod to that. Nice.
If you have any knowledge of that, it was completely obvious. Right. Denise Richards, White She Devil, and Neil Patrick Harris Lance previously starred together in Starship Troopers. Oh, all right.
The following year, Eddie Griffin and Denise Richards, I think the following year after. Undergraduate. Eddie Griffin and Denise Richards have both appeared in Scary Movie 3. Don't forget Eddie Griffin and Dave Chappelle were together again in Stars Boring in the remake from a couple years ago.
Oh, right. I thought of that. I was watching. Oh my God, that's right.
Interesting. Undercover brother in Constrasapart, back together again. Slightly different movies. When Lance kills the three security guards after being called a Sissy, he does so using three fatalities from the Mortal Kombat video game.
Right. He knows heart-rip. Right. Sub-Zero's spine-rip-fertility.
Right. And Jax is a head-quat-fertility. Oh my God. I knew it had to be related to that.
I mean, the spine getting ripped out. The spine. I mean, it's part of the feel that felt familiar with it. Yeah.
The just that, yeah, we'll make sure we'll get to it again later in a couple of seats, but the I am not a Sissy. Yeah. Yeah. Yell is that.
I know. Perfect. Conspiracy brother played by Dave Chappelle complains about how Bubba dies so early and forest dump. Chappelle actually turned down the role of the offer to play Bubba.
What? Chappelle was going to play Bubba? I saw that multiple places. Get out of here.
Take it with the grain of salt, but that's what I saw. Whoa. Interesting. I think he's addressed it.
Well, yeah. That's a different movie. Very good movie. That's all I've got for trivia and any casting.
Eric, anything that comes up for you? No, yeah. I don't remember hearing anything or reading anything about casting either. I'm trying to think of any trivia that you can cover.
There were two things that I saw and I'm going to kind of bash him a little bit because I figured you might have caught them. One was that the director and I'm forgetting his name is a cousin of Spike Lee. And so the reference to Hollywood has a conspiracy against Spike Lee was kind of a inside joke, like family joke kind of thing. Yeah.
And the other is, which is one of those memorable scene or a quoteable lines is your body slam and so let's get to it. Yeah. Eddie Griffin, it's a play on a Prince lyric and he is a distant cousin of Prince. Right.
Right. I wonder if those happen because of those relations or if they just made sense because of the connection. Yeah. All right.
That was a quick trivia for this one. Let's get into recasting debates is time to recast debate. Better close the door. It's time to be castervate.
All right. We have one. Two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight people to cast. Only in two, three spots.
Do I potentially have three people? Yeah. I might maybe I'll mention them if I need to or can, but it's fine. There were some characters where I had more because I felt some were going to duplicate.
Oh, we're going to. And so I wanted to have backups. One, two, three. I bet we have three or four that we all have somewhere.
Yeah. Okay. Should we start with a recovery brother and work our way down? Yeah.
Yeah. All right. Undercover brother. This is where I really have to.
Okay. And I'll say the third for after everybody else. Okay. I found this hard because of the other.
Right. So the guy I want to play it. I don't know if he has the over the top humor. He's definitely a good enough actor, but is he enough of a comedic actor?
Can he get to those places where any Griffin does? I don't know. I want it to be David or John David Washington. No.
Yeah. I thought of him. Yeah. I think he could do it, but I don't know about his super crazy comedy stuff.
The guy I think can probably get there is Donald Glover. He's my. Yeah. That's what I have.
Yeah. I have a third that I'll look out later that I don't like, but now I had so down. Glover was my top. I've got Chris red.
Oh, that's pretty good. That's a good one. Yeah. So I have a third one that I can save.
All right. We'll have Eric give us one or two. Yeah. We'll go three for three.
I also have Donald Glover is my undercover brother. And then the second name that I have, I'm less enthusiastic about, but still I think he pulled it off is and I always try and put him somewhere and somebody somewhere. LeCue stands real. Yeah.
See? Yeah. Well, I'll come back to that. That's a good one.
I have him elsewhere. And so my number three that I don't want in this movie, but it kind of makes sense for this kind of role. Kevin Hart. No.
He's too. Yeah. But sure. Yeah.
That's why I thought about plugging him in other places and ended up passing. Yeah. I've got Gerard Carmichael as kind of a backup. I know the name.
Who is he? He's a stand up comic. He just did. He hosted SNL.
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
That's good. I have three for this too. I do have three more than I can. Okay.
Eric, why don't you lead off with sister girl? Okay. I have three names. I guess in no particular order.
I don't know. She put there isn't really necessarily a necessary need for real community timing because she's played it. Yeah. Leshana Lynch.
She's the actress that was the new double seven. Oh, yeah. That's good. That's good.
That's good. And then I have Zazzy Beets. Oh, yeah. And Janelle Monae.
That's who I am. Oh, that's a good one too. Okay. You mentioned Zazzy Beets.
I think I had her at my number one. I'll move her to the back and then reshuffle the deck. Okay. I have Kiki Palmer as an option from Nope.
Yep. I think the one I'm starting to like more and more is Ego Nwono Nwono. Yeah. I almost put her on there.
Yeah. I like that too. The more I think about her, I think I like her the best of the three, but Zazzy Beech. Yeah.
So I had Janelle Monae. She was like my top because you could think of the side eye that she gives all the time in that movie. Like it's perfect. The other person I've got is Jessica Williams.
She was a correspondent on the Daily Show when John's there. She was the teacher, Eric and book smart. Yep. Okay.
I did the crosswords. Yep. Her. And then I've got the teacher right as kind of a third.
The sister and Black Panther. Yeah. Yeah. Okay.
Alison, give us your conspiracy brother. Okay. I've got three pretty good ones. Okay.
All right. I've got Jay Ferro. Oh, sure. Right.
I've also got what he'd be doing an impression of Dave Chappelle. Yes. I've got Michael J. Son of a bitch.
I thought I was going to sneak that one in. Yeah, I got him too. Yeah. But I'm going to change it to conspiracy sister.
Sister and it's going to be Tiffany Haddish. That's good. Nice. See, okay.
I had Michael J. Yeah. This is where I had the Keith Stanfield. Oh, yeah.
I think he'd be my number one of my list of old shaker then. Yeah. One more that I'm going to wait until after Eric mentioned it and then I'll throw it out there. I don't have him here, but I have to mention it.
Okay. That's making me nuts. Eric, give us your conspiracy brother. All right.
I had I also like said I also had Michael Che. I thought I was going to get that. Maybe I'm thinking maybe Keith and Michael Key. Oh, yeah.
And then I think the one I like the best is a little bit. Oh, yeah. Who? What's his name?
Well, how are you? He was in. He was in. Get out.
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, he's good. Trying to think should I mention this guy's name?
It hasn't come up yet. I'm going to hold this one. I have a name here. Just when we get there, we'll get there, but I have a name here that is not on any of my lists, but I can't believe I don't have him in this movie somewhere.
I mean, not so he should be in this movie. Right. Okay. So I'm going to go to smart weather.
All right. There is, if we don't all three have one name, I'm going to be upset. I have only one name we could probably call this count to three and I'll say it. Well, okay.
Let's do that one. Let's do that one. And then I'll go to my other two, but. It's all.
Go ahead. Some country. Someone's going to say Tom Hardy, right? No.
On the count of three, one, two, three. Sam Richardson. Thompson. I've got to King and Thompson also.
What'd you say Eric? You and Thompson. I got him too. That's the answer.
Yeah. Oh. Yes. No.
What are you talking about? It's Keen and Thompson. No. So my other ones.
I had him seconds. My third place Eric already mentioned him is Keegan Mecke. Has my mother my number one, which sort of came at the last second. Hannibal Burs, I want to, I had a little bit of a.
It'd be good. Yeah. I thought Keenan would lay up. I mean, he's on my list for sure.
I don't give us your, the rest of yours. My brothers. I had Keenan Thompson, Sam Richardson, and Jordan Fiel. There you go.
Eric, you had Keenan? That was it? That was my only name. Yeah.
I thought about just having one as well. OK. This one could be interesting. Chief.
Al, why don't you start with your chief? So it's funny you mentioned Keegan Michael Key for Smart Brother. I put him in as the chief because of the, you think of the substitute teacher Skit and it's perfect. That's fine.
That's easy. Yes. I also have Craig Robinson. Oh, I like that one too.
Eric, give us your chief. I've got a couple. Wesley Snipes. I did not expect that one.
No, but it's good. Terry Cruz. That was definitely coming. Yeah.
And then a going in a different direction, but I think it's my favorite, Angela Bassett. Oh, I thought it was good. That is good. So I've got, I think, three very different chiefs.
At least their performances will be different. Number three, because I like to put him as many movies as I can. Anthony Mackie. Oh, I think he could do it.
My number two is not Angela Bassett. It's Viola Davis. Oh, yeah. That's good.
Yeah. My number one is Brian Tyree Henry. Oh, yeah. I think he'd be perfect word.
Yeah. He's really good. All right. Let's have Eric, you start with white sheet of all.
I struggled with this one a little bit. I have, I think my number one, I think is Alexandra D'Dario. Oh, yeah. Sure.
I really, I really struggle. I guess maybe a backup. I have like, I have cake up them, but I really couldn't. I started with this a little bit.
Yeah. Yeah. I was trying to think who is the Denise Richards of today? Yeah.
I don't know if there's an answer to that question, but. I have a good one. The only one I really wrote down was Sidney Sweeney from Euphoria, right? Yeah.
Yeah. That's, oh, yeah, for that one. I had written down a bunch of names and then when I found this one, it's the only answer and it's only Rhettajowski. That'd be funny.
Yeah. I don't know if she can ask though. It doesn't matter. It's Denise Richards.