Romance or Red Flag? | '90s Movie Crushes That Did NOT Age Well

[00:00:00] Before we let Naomi into the Walker House, we're putting her 90s knowledge to the test. We'll decide which movie boyfriends are romantic and which are secretly Red Flags, and find out what she would stock on the Blockbuster shelves.

[00:00:27] Welcome to the No More Late Fees podcast. I'm Jackie. And I'm Danielle, and we're just two best friends and former Blockbuster employees re-watching some of the best and worst movies of the late 90s and early 2000s. This week on our bonus episode, we're welcoming Naomi Carmack, creator and host of the Dope Nostalgia podcast.

[00:00:49] And it's her first time, which we're very excited about because both of us have visited her show, and it's long overdue, truly. We're here. It has taken too long, yeah, for sure. And now I feel like it's very timely with Taylor Hansen being on Dancing with the Stars, because I was on your Hansen episode of Dope Nostalgia. Facts.

[00:01:14] So anything interesting that you're currently watching or reading or any of? It's not that interesting, but I've been watching It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia season 18. Jesus, how many seasons does that show have? I can't believe how long it's been on now. Like, it doesn't even seem that old. Yeah. I can't binge it, though, because there's only so much of horrible people you can take at one time.

[00:01:41] Like, I'll watch one episode, and that's good for the week because they're just such awful people. I've never seen an episode, and I always want to watch it, and I just haven't. So now I'm going to go try to see the awful people. The only episode I've seen is when they're at, like, the school dance, and they think they're dancing the last dance.

[00:02:03] And then they show what they're actually doing, and it's mediocre at best, and it is hilarious. Yeah, they're just insufferable. Yeah. But it makes for good TV. It's really funny. Jackie, what are you watching? Still re-watching The New Girl. Oh, I didn't know you were re-watching it. Yeah, I realized I had only seen, like, the first few seasons, and then, like, sprinkled in probably through social.

[00:02:33] And then I watched, like, season seven at your house. So I'm like... No, me and Ken watched those seasons. You happened to walk in as we were. I'd be adjacent. Yeah. So I'm doing a full re-watch. I'm on season four right now. So keeping up with that. Then, of course, The Challenge is new. Thousand Pound Sisters restarted. I got all my programs back. So hot and heavy. With the...

[00:03:02] And I was like, how did we do this where we managed to juggle so many shows in a week and sit down in front of the TV while it was airing live? I'm like, I have, like, four and it's too much to keep up with. Because we didn't have social media to distract us in the same way. That takes up, like, half of my viewing hours. But speaking of The Challenge, you saw that CT and Phaedra are dating? I am living for this.

[00:03:34] I... CT, he's, like, in my blind spot. Like, I just can't... I can't hate him. You just can't quit him. Yeah. And he and Phaedra look so sweet together. And they were at the Emmys and she was posting about him. And then Johnny Bananas trolled the post. And it was just... He's... What do you call himself? The Repo Man? Well, he called himself The Repo Man. But he also posted exactly what Phaedra posted. Like, the prize.

[00:04:03] And then it was the photos of him and CT at the Emmys. So, it was lovely. So, funny enough. I don't know. Do you watch The Challenge, Real World, any of that stuff, Naomi? I don't watch any reality television. Girl, you're better than us. I don't know why. I just... I'm not... It doesn't appeal to me at all. Well... I like escapism. Yeah. That's fair. Valid. I think the challenge... Like, Jackie loves it.

[00:04:32] And every time I visit her, I'll end up watching some. But there were some in the beginning that I watched because I used to watch Real World die hard, right? So, CT was on Paris season. And now he's like a reality star. Like, this is his profession. Essentially, he's been on multiple different shows. And so, he was on the show Traitors. I didn't watch it, but I saw some clips.

[00:04:58] But what's killing me is that the Black side of TikTok has now figured out that they're dating. And some of them don't watch the challenge. And so, they're like, who is this dude? And... Like, CT, in his younger days, he's crazy. Yes. Okay. He's from... Yeah. He's giving some fear vibes. Yes. Like, he's from Boston. He's from Boston.

[00:05:28] Yes. Like, used to get in fights and get kicked off the show all the time. I've literally seen him walk through a wall like the Kool-Aid man. I'm not exaggerating. I'm not. Like... Oh, yeah. Yeah. And then he's like, but on the challenge, he's just so endearing and so funny. And just... Yes. Now, he's coming to his own. But that's what I'm saying. People are watching the old clips when DM was... Is that her name? Yeah. Yeah.

[00:05:57] When she was still alive. And there's a huge infamous fight where this guy... He started it, essentially. He threw a soda can at him, but people... Well, so people say. And once he did that, it turned something on in CT. And there was like... A lot of the guys on the challenge are huge. It took like six of them. Even the actual security on set, nobody could stop.

[00:06:25] To the point where the producers were like, we don't know what to do. And the guy he was going... Like, the guy he was going after, by the time CT had already like ravaged through him like a caged animal and everybody had pulled him back, that boy went out the front door. He ain't had no clothes on, Naomi. Naomi, he had a pair of jeans holding on for dear life, falling off. That's how that man did himself. It was insane.

[00:06:54] And the boy was dumb because he was like, oh, no, I'm not him. If anybody tears me up like that... Was that Brad? No, it was Adam. Oh, okay. So, yes. Adam was... Yeah. But come to find out, Adam worked for Diddy and did all sorts of shit for Diddy. Yes, girl. So, everyone now is kind of like, maybe CT was right. Wow. Learning so much. Okay.

[00:07:24] Moving on. Sorry, rabbit hole. We tend to go down rabbit holes. Sorry, Naomi. I'm sorry. That's what you should. What are you watching, Danielle? What am I watching? Okay. Today was the first thing. I watched something in English. I did start adults. I will say that our good friend, Maria, has influenced me because she's been posting a lot of videos about the show Adults on Hulu.

[00:07:50] So, I started the first episode, but then I switched over back to my Korean shows. Not because it's not good. It's just, I don't know. I've been wanting to watch my Korean shows. So, I'm watching three shows right now. One's called Bonafide Killer, where she's an actual killer. But she kills people who get off early from doing horrible things to children. Okay. So, she'd be killing them. And then, but she has like a husband and a daughter and like thinks that's fine.

[00:08:18] Her husband just found out last episode that this bitch a killer. And he's like, I don't know what to do because I still love her. I still love her. I can't help it. So, really liking that show. And then I started some show where, what's that show with, that movie with, it doesn't even matter. The premise is this one girl, her sister dies. And this guy, his brother dies and they were, the two people were married. So, they're in-laws and they have a nephew.

[00:08:45] And so, now they're come together to take care of the nephew. Of course, it starts off like them fighting, but now they're becoming a family. So, I'm watching that. It's called Our Universe. Nice. Nice. And also, I also saw Coyote vs. Acme. Oh, yes. Oh, I want to see that. I think it's good. And I'm not even like a Looney Tunes head like that. And I thought it was a fun, a fun, good movie. Yeah. Is it in the theater right now? Yeah. Yeah. Okay. I saw it last week. Cool. Sorry, Jay.

[00:09:15] I watched, I almost called it The Handmaid's Tale. The Housemaid with Amanda Seyfried and Whitney Sweeney. Oh, how was that? I, the story was really good. Like, I just had a kind of blinders because Sydney Sweeney is not my favorite and she's very one note in it. But the story was great. Amanda was great in it.

[00:09:37] I recommend, like, I heard it was trash and I threw it on and then I was like, I need some popcorn with this movie. There were twists. There were turns. I, I like. I'm nervous about this recommendation. I'm taking it with a grain of salt. Maybe that might be a movie we, we rewatch when you come to visit or I go over there. So we'll see. Anywho, let's play a game. Sure.

[00:10:06] So our game this week is called Biggest Red Flag. And so our premise is rating our top three movie red flags and we have to say why there are top three. And, and go, sorry. And these are like people that a lot of people we maybe originally loved. And if there's somebody that you feel fits this criteria, but it's not on this list, please add them. Okay. These are just good starting off points. Yeah.

[00:10:35] So our examples are David from fear, Tom from 500 days of summer, Cal from Titanic, her fiance. Mark from love, actually Noah from the notebook, Joe Fox from you've got mail Harper from the best man and Edward Colin from twilight. A little outside of our time period, but I just felt like it was fitting. Yes, definitely. Okay. So who wants to go first?

[00:11:05] Oh, you know, I kind of feel like all the guys in those movies that took like, that made bets on any woman in a rom-com should be considered because I don't care if they fell in love later. You're trash. Like, what are we even talking about? Yeah. Yeah. I'm talking about you, Zach from she's all that. Yes. Totally. I'll start because I hate the notebook anyway.

[00:11:31] And so I made sure to point out all of the ways that Noah was trash in the notebook, the love bombing, the doesn't take no for an answer, the like guilt tripping, all of it. A thousand and one red flags. We need that red flag man that's on social media that just runs through a field with a red flag for him. Absolutely. A hundred percent. That's your third pick? Well, I figure we just go around Robin.

[00:12:01] Oh, but is it your, that's your least? Oh, we have to rank them? Yeah. No, Noah's my number one. It's not even like David where he puts on in a front and then later you find the crazy and it's just out on front street. Like, Noah never recognizes he's the villain. I would have gone for that rich man. I love me some Ryan Gosling. I do. But that, that fine ass rich man who was trying to marry me up.

[00:12:30] Oh, what's his face? Like James Marsden. Yeah. Oh, totally. Well, I must say that the notebook is, I have to agree. It's overrated. I've never understood the obsession with it. Thank you. I appreciate that. I had to watch it with my husband and Danielle who both love it. And I was just sitting there like, they're like tears in their eyes at the end. I'm like, is this movie over yet? Maybe I'm just dead inside.

[00:12:59] I don't know. That's been a theory that's been thrown out. Sorry. It looks like I'm petting Donnie's shirt, but it was my God. I mean, either way, acceptable. I feel like my third option is going to be Darnell, right? Played by Martin Lawrence in a thin line between love and hate. Now, I don't know if anybody's really saying he was the greatest or anything,

[00:13:29] but I feel like when that movie came out, a lot of people blamed the woman and she was crazy and she was this. And if you go back and rewatch the actions of that man, you will realize that she was, she might have been already crazy, but that man drove her to the edge. And I don't blame her for a second. I think her character's name was Brandy. It sure was. Justice for Brandy. Trash.

[00:13:56] I want to preface this by saying you got a music person on a movie podcast. Exactly. So I, I'm not even close to being as knowledgeable about these movies, but I have seen three of them on the list. So I'll work with that. All right. My number three would probably be Edward Cullen. Twilight. Definitely. I didn't find him that creepy or anything. I thought he was all right. I liked him, but I would definitely probably have been team Edward, but like, I just know about him.

[00:14:26] So he's number three. I'll help you. I'll throw out a few things for you, my friend. Okay. What do you mean? You're like 800 years old and you're looking at a teenager. Gross. And what do you mean? I didn't look at it like that. Yeah. And what do you mean? You watch me sleep at night. And what do you mean? You fucking glitter. What's happening? That's a man glitter. What? And what do you mean?

[00:14:52] You're trying to protect me by constantly leaving me and making me feel horrible. Knowing that you're leaving me. Okay. Nevermind. What do you mean? You want to marry me at 18? What? Is this a cult? Yeah. Red flags everywhere. Okay. Yeah. I can see that. I'm glad you brought that up. You marry me at 18. Get me knocked up when you told me you got your shit tied up.

[00:15:21] And now I'm pregnant and the baby's eating me from the inside. And now I'm going to die. And you're going to make me a fucking vampire. That glitters. And my power is that I'm able to block everything. And the way I do it is. No. I did not sign up for this. No. Thought I would give you that assist there. Oh, thank you. Please keep throwing them my way.

[00:15:50] Jackie, who's your number two pick? Because you went out of order, but that's fine. Okay. Werner Huntington III from Lele Blonde. Yes. He's absolutely. Another love bomber. Like, strings Ella Long and then dumps her for the old money bitchy girl that ends up being the best friend in the end. But, trash. Yeah. And then, like, doesn't... He's already dating... Is it Vivian? Yeah.

[00:16:19] When he breaks up with Al? Ugh. Can't stand him. What was the guy's name that she ends up with? Is it Wyatt? No. No. That's not right. Luke Wilson? Yeah. I do... He's... Because Warner's so bad, he looks like a prince in comparison. But, sir, you're, like, practically my teacher. Mediocre at best. And why is he always around? Yes.

[00:16:48] I could build a case. Yeah. That he's a stalker. I'm just saying. At this point, I'm believing that any of these dudes that seem, like, really lovely are stalkers. Yep. And I'm gonna stick with them. Who do you have to do? My second... Oh, it's real hard because all of these men are shitty. Yeah. I'm gonna go with 500 Days of Summer, Tom.

[00:17:15] I think we've all talked about it universally on the internet. I remember when I saw this movie and my heart went out for Tom. Oh, Summer did him so dirty. But then, as a fully grown adult, I rewatched it. And I'm like, yo, the director love-bombed me with all this great music.

[00:17:39] And I didn't realize that Summer was very upfront with what she wanted from the beginning. And Tom made up this whole shit in his mind. And then got mad at her when she went and found a new boo. Because she wasn't trying... Like, she saw the signs. You trying to make me into something I'm not? You trying to make me fit into this, like, delusion you've got? Yeah. It's not working. The communication was poor. At most. So, Tom.

[00:18:10] Sorry. Trash. Trash. Trash. Naomi, who's the second person on the list you know? Okay. Caledon Hockley from Titanic. Oh, the worst. Billy Zane, right? Yeah. Yeah. Oh, yeah. Like, yeah. And it's... I always fall for men like this. This is the problem. So, like, you always have to, like, remind me, like, this is why he's trash. And then I go, oh. Okay.

[00:18:39] Yes. Yeah. Because I would have gone after him in the movie instead of Leo or Jack. I really would have. And that's really stupid. Yeah. Jack was also kind of trash in the movie. Jack, I mean, I should have put him in there. Yeah. Like, you are a hobosexual. Because why... Why? Where are you living, sir? Did you say hobo? I did. Yeah. Okay. You know he smells bad.

[00:19:09] Yes. Yes. But, yeah. His hair, that... How, like, oily it was. He wasn't bathing for sure. On that boat, I know none of them were bathing. I bet that boat smelled bad. It probably did. Moving on. Yeah. Moving on. Yep. Jackie, your third pick. Chris Brander, Just Friends. Ryan Reynolds. Oh, yeah. It took me a minute. Yeah, girl.

[00:19:37] Because the whole movie... And that was another movie where on the... Like, you... Girl, like, watching the movie as a youth, you're like, Yes, she should be with Chris. And then you're rewatching and you're like, No, girl. Run. Run from Chris. Run from Dusty. You don't need any of those men. Just run out of that town. Go with Samantha at that point. Yeah. Agreed. And that's one of those nice guy tropes, but he's really not that nice.

[00:20:07] He's just as controlling and thinking he's deserving of your love for just existing. Yeah. And it's... Oh, it's awful. Trash. Oh. My number one pick is really hard to pick between. One is Harper from The Best Man. But I do think if you watch The Best Man Holiday and then the TV show,

[00:20:35] it does dive into him just being trash in general. So he does get... Eventually get his comeuppance. But if you just watch The Best Man by itself, I'm like, Why is anybody fighting for this loser? Because what are we talking about? So that... I'm going to say he's my runner-up. I do believe that the honor needs to go to Joe Fox from You've Got Mail because... Sir. You're putting her out of business.

[00:21:04] You're Jeff Bezos. That's all, like, I need to say. Yeah. Is that Tom Hanks? Yeah. Yes. Oh. I didn't realize they did that. Yeah. He bought her bookstore. He was making all these big old box store bookstores and then stalked her until, like, he made her love him.

[00:21:33] And this was considered acceptable. I can't wait to rewatch it because it was, like, it's one of my favorite films. But now I'm like, Hmm. Hmm. Okay. Your last pick. It's got to be this one. It's got to be this movie. It's got to be Mark Wahlberg's David. Honestly. Like, I don't think there's much more of a scary-ass boyfriend that you can possibly think of. Oh, my gosh. Yeah.

[00:22:01] And the way he just flips the switch. Oh, my God. But the funny thing is, and I, like, we talk about this in the episode, it's just that to a 16-year-old girl, he seems dreamy. But now that we're, like, older, Yeah. immediate red flags from the jump. So it is... It's true. We can see these things better now from the other side. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. That first look when he's playing pool,

[00:22:31] I was like, Hmm, turn the other way. Nicole, run. I would even do the stranger danger immediately. That tight-ass black shirt. Oh, my gosh. Well, good job, ladies. Snaps on that. Yes. I have a quick question for us. Speaking of, since we're talking about fear, which song in the movie do you feel like was the best needle drop in the movie? I'm just going down to the soundtrack list here. Oh, if you... Yeah. If you have this.

[00:23:01] I was impressed with the number of Bush songs, because at that time, I was listening to Bush, like, a lot. Yeah. I was really into that band, so it was a very timely soundtrack for the movie. So I would say Come Down, maybe. That one always seemed a little off. You know what? I didn't even realize Marky Mark had a song on here. The Illist. Yeah. Oh, I didn't even... We'll get... Yeah. Yeah.

[00:23:32] We'll get into it. Okay. Is that... Which one is... Like, I don't know. Like, it has that intro. Do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do. Is that Come Down? That's Come Down, yeah. That is a good one. Yes. Yes. What about you, Jackie? I'm going wild horses by the Sundays during the roller coaster scene. Yeah. It's so good. I definitely agree with you. And it's funny because so many of us either will say that movie

[00:24:01] or will say Buffy. Mm-hmm. So I think Buffy probably was bigger for me. But yeah. And I don't know why. I forgot they were on a roller coaster. I thought they were on a carousel. Not a carousel. A ferris wheel? A ferris wheel. Yeah. That's right. I remember very little of this movie. And we've talked about it on the episode.

[00:24:28] But the roller coaster scene was the one thing I remembered in full detail. Oh, man. Okay. It would be easier to do on a ferris wheel, honestly. Right? Yeah. Yeah. People don't know what happened. Yeah. Because my fingers are... I'm not... Yeah. We'll get into it. Okay. Never mind. All right. Well, let's go ahead, put Naomi in the hot seat and have her choose her three employee picks.

[00:24:57] So Naomi, at Blockbuster, we were able to recommend movies to customers. And so we're giving you the opportunity to recommend movies to our listeners. Okay. This is funny, too, because I didn't watch a lot of movies. But the ones that really stood out in my mind that were my absolute favorites of the era, we're going to start with Clueless. Yes. The classic. Everybody... You know, all of the different characters that came from that movie were just amazing.

[00:25:27] Paul Rudd never aged since that movie. Yeah. If you're a big Paul Rudd fan and you haven't seen Clueless, you need to get on that. And Alicia Silverstone's just timeless. I ran into her in an airport once. Oh, that's fun. In Chicago. I would have probably tried to touch her. I'm not proud. We took a selfie, so it was cool. Oh, that's amazing. That's cool. Yeah. Yeah. So there's that. I'm going to go with something weird, because this...

[00:25:53] I watched this movie because I was a big Bryan Adams fan, and there was a song of Bryan Adams called Have You Ever Really Loved a Woman? The movie was called Don Juan DeMarco, starring Johnny Depp and Marlon Brando. I got caught up in it, too. I went to see that movie because of that song, and I was like, what are we watching? I know. I love that. And then I was like, I fell in love with Johnny Depp. I went on a hardcore crush on him after that movie, and then I started watching everything

[00:26:20] he'd ever done before that and after that. The actual story itself is kind of weird and lame, and I wouldn't watch it again except to look at him. That's about it. And then my third would be Billy Madison, because I'm a Sandler fan, and it's just ridiculous, this movie, and so many catchphrases like, Veronica Vanga is a nice piece of A.S. or whatever Farley said. Yeah, Billy Madison.

[00:26:50] I like silly Sandler humor. So I was going to say Titanic, but that's just too cliche. Hey, we all have our things. Yeah. I would not recommend you watch our Titanic episode. We coined, there are two camps for Titanic in our opinion. It's Team Titanic and Team Let the Bitch Sink, and we are both in the latter. And we just mean for the movie, not the real people who died.

[00:27:19] Don't get your panties in a bunch. Yeah. Right. But yeah, excellent choice on Billy Madison. That as well is one of my favorite Adam Sandler movies. Yeah, it was a hard rewatch for me. I loved that movie. And then we did it for the show, and I was like, ugh. I love how he's lost his two best friends in almost all of his movies, and I can't even tell you what their names are. Yeah. But you'll see the same couple guys in all of them. Yeah. You don't know who I'm talking about.

[00:27:49] One of my family's sayings is if it's oppressively hot outside, we're like, it's too damn hot for a penguin to be just walking around out here. Oh, what's that scene where the professor is talking about this is the dumbest thing I've ever heard? Yeah. We're all dumber for hearing it? Yes. Yes. That's a clue. I give you no points. Zero points. And whatever else he said, but it's, yeah.

[00:28:19] It's so good. It's quotable. Well, Naomi, tell everybody where they can listen to Dope Nostalgia and follow you online. Okay, cool. I host a podcast about 90s music where I get to talk to the artists who made the music and friends like yourselves who love 90s music. It's called Dope Nostalgia. It's a member of a 604 podcast network here in Canada, but it's international and you can get us wherever you get your podcasts.

[00:28:46] And we just started on SiriusXM podcast app as well. Ooh. Amazing. That's so cool. I'm pretty mind blown. We'll ask you later. Okay. Well, don't forget to follow us on NoMoreLateFees on TikTok, Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, YouTube threads, Blue Sky, all the places. And join us next week as we kick off spooky season with Event Horizon. And as always, be kind and rewind.