Cooler Than Homework #015 – Alley Cats Strike & Weird Hobbies

Nicole Sweeney 0:18
Hello and welcome to Cooler Than Homework, a Disney Channel Original Movie podcast. I’m Nicole Sweeney and my best bowling score– I don’t know it but I’m very bad at bowling so like, low one– a little over 100 probably.

Matthew Gaydos 0:33
I’m Matthew Gaydos and my bowling high score is 233.

All 0:36
[exclaim!]

Nicole Sweeney 0:39
Yeah, like half of that is probably my best.

My name is Marines and my bowling high score is probably also like 110.

Ceri Riley 0:48
And I’m Ceri Riley and my bowling high score is probably like 150 or 160. I went a lot as a kid because that was– that and rollerskating were the only two things people did apparently.

Nicole Sweeney 0:59
And we are sharing this information with you because this week we are talking about Alley Cats Strike. And to tell us what happened in this movie, it was sadly not the rival gangs of…

Marines Alvarez 1:13
Collecting trash!

Nicole Sweeney 1:16
Yes. Instead, Mari what– what was the actual plot of this movie?

As soon as we like finished recording, and we were still on the call, we all went “Ceri, alley, bowling.” Alas, this is a sports movie DCOM, and it is about to the neighboring towns of East and West Appleton and the high schools in those towns participate in a sort of like sports tournament where the winner wins a trophy called The Mighty Apple. In the coming year. However, the two schools are going to become one giant high school meaning that this is the last year of The Mighty Apple and whoever wins it, wins it forever. The mayors of the two towns are super competitive, so they really want to win. In the last game that they play West Appleton wins the basketball game, but this actually results in a tie in the tournament overall, and the tiebreaker is basically some other sport, with the only requirement being that it must be team or club that already exists at both schools, and no new team members can sign up. So East Appleton picks the sport and it turns out to be bowling. So West Appleton’s bowling team is a group of best friends, a bunch of unpopular cool cats who like bowling and diners, and swing music and dressing in bowling shirts. They also find out that the school’s star player in like every other sport, the very popular Todd Macklemore, was signed up for the bowling team as a prank at the beginning of the year by some of the other popular kids, which means that he gets to play on the bowling team. And everybody’s like, great. He’s going to lead us to victory but like Todd can’t actually bowl and so.. that’s a problem but also the alley cats their–. they aren’t super competitive. So they’re taking this like really calmly, so they have to help each other along the way. That’s kind of the bulk of the movie. It’s rough at first and then that, you know, things get better between Todd and Alex, who is the other main character, but the more time that Alex spends with Todd, the more he starts acting like a popular kid, upsetting his original best friends. The kids all also join in on a plan to help save the dying bowling alley, which is owned by Alex’s father so they throw this big event. And at the event, Alex over hears some of the cool kids complaining about having to hang out with him and they’re basically like, once The Mighty Apple thing is over, we don’t have to hang out with him anymore. And obviously this hurts Alex’s feelings. He’s in general just like really upset about how his new friends aren’t really his friends and his old friends are mad at him. And then he like the I think the cherry on top is then the mayor comes over with like ugly uniforms. They really are some ugly t shirts, so– he’s like, “and we gotta wear ugly t shirts!” So he quits the team. Todd ends up visiting Alex and giving him like a pep talk. Also revealing their new cooler bowling shirts and it’s got like an alley cat on the back and fake names on the front. And after Todd leaves and his dad comes out and gives them a pep talk and reveals that he was best friends with Todd’s dad, the now mayor, and they lost they were on the baseball team together they lost a game and then eventually lost The Mighty Apple that year. So there– that created a huge rift in their friendship and his advice is basically like, have fun. Don’t let this ruin your relationships. So, the day of the game, Alex decides to join back on the team and then we watch the final– the final like montage of the competition and they end up behind but if Todd, who’s the last bowler can bowl a spare or strike, they win. So, Todd bowls his last ball. I don’t know what you say there, like… I don’t if that’s how you verb that correctly, but that’s what I said. And he ends up with a 7-10 split. So he had practice he had tried to like get the 7-10 split in a spare, and he never was able to master it. So everybody’s like, Oh, no, the West has lost but then the quietest member and the one who is serving as kind of like the the spare member of the team speaks up, Delia, and she says that she can do this. She is kind of like a math and I don’t know physics wiz or something. So she says that she can definitely get the 7-10 split. So they sub her out at the last minute everyone’s really upset because Todd’s like the star, but he’s– he has learned a valuable lesson of how to take a step back and let Delia do her thing. So she rolls like the ball spinning. She like spins it– you should see me making hand motions so you can see me…

The ball is spinning and moving really slowly and everybody watches it. And then so when it hits the I guess like the seven ball, it causes the pin to also spin and then it knocks down to 10 giving her the spare and West Appleton wins. And then her– Todd basically tells his dad that he just had fun and he should chill out and probably not name the school West Appleton because then he just kind of like erases the identity of a whole other half of the town. And so Alex suggest that they name it Appleton Central and everybody is happy and they dance and have fun. The end.

So Matt, where is the cast of this movie now?

Matthew Gaydos 6:50
They’re everywhere. Everyone, pretty much in this movie, most of them very still popular and acting so good on you, cast of Alley Cats Strike. First up, we’re going to talk about Matt McCoy, who plays Alex’s dad in this movie. He’s one of those guys who I saw him and was just like, hey, it’s that guy who’s in stuff that I think I’ve seen. And it turns out that’s true because he’s been on Seinfeld. He was in the Mary Kate and Ashley movie Passport to Paris. He plays the dad in that. But what I think I actually recognized him from his from an episode of The West Wing, which makes more sense because I watched that more times than Passport to Paris.

Nicole Sweeney 7:30
But Passport to Paris was an important film. Let’s not sell that role short.

Matthew Gaydos 7:35
I was more of a Billboard Dad kid than a Passport to Paris kids so..

Nicole Sweeney 7:38
Yeah, that’s true. Same, actually, yes.

Ceri Riley 7:41
This is the second podcast I’ve been on that has brought up “Billboard Dad,” and it still sounds fake every time someone says it. It’s ust like, “uhh, you know that good old movie… Billboard Dad….?”

Nicole Sweeney 7:54
Don’t worry, Ceri. After we move on to SmugRats, after that, we’re doing our Mary Kate and Ashley podcast. And then you will watch Billboard Dad.

Ceri Riley 8:03
Good. Can’t wait.

Matthew Gaydos 8:05
I am excited for that. Next up, we have Todd’s dad played by Tim Reid, who I know best as the dad from “Sister, Sister.” But you might also know him from “That ’70s Show” or the old “It” miniseries, like the original Stephen King “It” adaptation. But more recently, he’s continued to act and in the past few years has been in a Lifetime Christmas movie, a Hallmark Christmas movie and Own channel Christmas movie and a Christmas movie on the Up TV channel, which I actually watched this movie it was called like a “Rooftop Christmas Tree.” I watched that when I was at home this Christmas break with my mom, which is also when I learned that Up TV was a channel that exists. Yeah, I was wondering– I assume sorry, Ceri, that you don’t know this man, but I was wondering for the other two of you where you recognize him from the most.

Marines Alvarez 8:59
“Sister Sister,” for sure.

Nicole Sweeney 9:00
“Sister, Sister,” yeah.

Matthew Gaydos 9:01
Yeah. Okay, last fun fact about Tim Reid, is that in real life he has been married since 1982 to Daphne Reid, who plays Todd’s mom in this movie, so they are a real life married couple, which I never knew until researching for this episode.

Nicole Sweeney 9:18
That’s great.

Marines Alvarez 9:18
That’s cute. I love it.

Matthew Gaydos 9:20
Yeah, and Daphne Reid is most recognizable as the second Aunt Viv from “The Fresh Prince of Bel Air” and she has continued acting often nonsense Alley Cat Strike, but not a lot. She was, however, just in the Oscar nominated movie “Harriet,” about Harriet Tubman. I don’t know who she plays. She wasn’t in the trailer and I haven’t seen the film yet. So I don’t know who she plays, but she’s in it.

Marines Alvarez 9:43
Oh my god. She was also in “Cagney and Lacey.”

Nicole Sweeney 9:45
Oh, wow.

I don’t know, it could’ve been one episode I’m literally just like scrolling on Wikipedia because I wanted to put a face to a name. And yeah, it says Cagney and Lacey which are now two names. I know belong together thanks to this podcast.

Matthew Gaydos 10:04
Yeah, look out for for the upcoming podcast, our Cagney and Lacy episode by episode rewatch or I guess, watch for the first time.

Nicole Sweeney 10:12
Yeah first watch.

Matthew Gaydos 10:14
During the plot synopsis, the quietest member of the group Delia was brought up because in some sort of bowling loophole, I guess you can just sub people in mid bowl. I don’t know that felt like a rule break to me. But Delia is played by Mimi Paley, who hasn’t been in a ton of things. She acts here and there there was like a couple, like recent sort of like horror short films that I saw that she has been in, but before “Alley Cats Strike”, she played a little Buffy in an episode of “Buffy the Vampire Slayer,” as well as appearing in some episodes of “Malcolm in the Middle,” “The X-Files” and “Entourage.” She doesn’t seem to be acting much beyond those couple of shorts, and like a lot of ex-DCOM stars. My research involves going to their Instagram and seeing how their life is going. And according to her Instagram, she’s seen go be living a nice happy normal life, which is, you know the best outcome we can hope for. I think the next one’s like the elephant in the room as far as like what this cast is doing now, and playing Alisa Bowers in this film is Kaley Cuoco, who obviously is most famous person because of “The Big Bang Theory.”

Nicole Sweeney 11:18
Ceri?

Ceri Riley 11:19
I did recognize her!

Nicole Sweeney 11:21
Oh my god!

Matthew Gaydos 11:22
Hey!

Ceri Riley 11:23
Yeah, I didn’t throughout the movie, and I was like that blonde girl looks vaguely familiar, but maybe she just looks like a blonde girl and I’ve seen plenty of those.

Marines Alvarez 11:33
Correct.

Ceri Riley 11:34
But then, in the credits it was Kaley Cuoco. It’s like I’ve seen that name somewhere and then I had to think for a little bit and then Big Bang Theory, but you at least got there. Yeah, that’s like two out of all these movies so far. The guy in “Parks and Rec” who was in–

Marines Alvarez 11:49
In the background.

Ceri Riley 11:50
In the background.

Nicole Sweeney 11:54
Wild.

Ceri Riley 11:55
I can like kind of see– after, after that, I like looked at her character and I like can see the resemblance how that child would grow up into that adult. But I still don’t know if I would have seen it on my own without reading the credits.

Marines Alvarez 12:09
She looks exactly the same! Literally… the same face…

Matthew Gaydos 12:17
It’s also very clear to me now that Ceri you never watched “Eight Simple Rules for Dating my Teenage Daughter,” which she was also in in sort of a midpoint between “Alley Cat Strike” and “Big Bang Theory.”

Nicole Sweeney 12:27
And that is like actually like a good funm I don’t know family sitcom. That like– Big Bang Theory” Fuck that show, but 8 simple Rules was good.? I liked 8 Simple Rules.

Matthew Gaydos 12:36
It had “Smart House’s” Katey Sagal.

Nicole Sweeney 12:39
Mmmhmm.

Matthew Gaydos 12:39
But, yes, Kaley Cuoco obviously “Big Bang Theory,” one of the highest paid actors around these days on TV, but between “Alley Cats Strike” and this she was not only on 8 Simple Rules, but also on some episodes of “Charmed,” and most recently, she is now the voice of Harley Quinn on the new like R-rated Harley Quinn animated series that they’re doing on the DC Universe streaming platform. Getting to our main two stars in this– getting to our main two stars of the film, we have Alex played by Kyle Schmid. You might recognize him maybe from “Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants,” or another DCOM that we’ll be talking about at a later date, ut he is still acting in a bunch of shows that I’ve heard of, but never watched, like “Being Human” and “Copper.” I have not seen “Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants.” So I don’t know if he’s like a main character or if he’s just like a friend of a friend in the film. Has anyone seen that and can vouch for his role?

Nicole Sweeney 13:39
I have seen it, but so long ago that I have no recollection.

Marines Alvarez 13:44
I have also seen it a bunch of times, but also so long ago, but he doesn’t strike me as a main character. But I can be totally wrong.

Matthew Gaydos 13:54
I mean, I’m guessing he’s not in the sisterhood. But yeah, I also have not seen “Being Human” or “Copper.” So I don’t know this man, but he does fall into the recurring category that comes up on this podcast of DCOM hot dads on Instagram. If you go check out his Instagram, he posts lots of pictures of himself shirtless and just being attractive either like with his cute daughter or his dogs and so, you know, not a bad follow if that’s what you’re looking for. But the beefy Instagram does not stop with Kyle Schmid. Because next we have playing Todd Macklemore Robert Ri’chard, who you might know from a lot of things like “Cousin Skeeter,” “House of Wax,” “Veronica Mars,” “The Vampire Diaries,” “Coach Carter,” lots of things. I don’t know if this man looked familiar to you. He looked familiar to me, but I could not place what I knew him from and I think it was “Cousin Skeeter.”

Nicole Sweeney 14:49
Yeah, I definitely– I mean, I recognize him but also like, I watched this movie a lot, so that was one but I also was aware of like him existing and other things like Veronica Mars. I just know his face. It’s very distinct.

Matthew Gaydos 15:04
Yeah, he’s very recognizable.

Nicole Sweeney 15:07
He is one of those people that I’m like, I have definitely seen you in a ton of things like picking what exactly is like a little bit trickier especially because his “Veronica Mars” arc was part of the end of the third season. So like… meh.

Matthew Gaydos 15:20
On top of still acting some, he is also a fitness instructor as well as a CEO of EPM, which is an herbal healing supplement thing company. I don’t know. I tried to like find some science on their website, and I struggled. Uh… they they used the word medicine, but spelled, instead of a C and medicine it’s with an X like “mediXin.”

Nicole Sweeney 15:49
Oh, no.

Matthew Gaydos 15:53
Yeah, there’s a quote that says, “EPM continuingly crafts “medixin” prepared with the Bible’s most powerful healing ingredients that deeply attuned muscles and decrease inflammation.”

Nicole Sweeney 16:04
I hate this.

Marines Alvarez 16:05
I do too. I’m so upset.

Matthew Gaydos 16:07
Yeah, but, whatever it is it’s working because he looks great, but…

Nicole Sweeney 16:12
Matt, no! Matt, no! You can’t say that.

Ceri Riley 16:15
We cannot endorse “medixin.”

Matthew Gaydos 16:19
I’m definitely not endorsing the medixin, but I think he maybe falls into the sort of I don’t want to speculate but like the guy who was already ripped and good looking starts like a healthcare company that like maybe doesn’t make you look like him in the end.

Marines Alvarez 16:36
This is like the second most upsetting outcome like first is obviously when an actor has passed away, but second is biblical medixin for sure.

Matthew Gaydos 16:48
Like death and then MLM. But if you want to avoid the medixin section of his life, you can watch a couple movies that he was in recently, one called “Chocolate City,” the second one called Chocolate City 2: Vegas,” that seemed to be very Magic Mike inspired if not straight rip offs. So yeah, if you’re looking for another attractive DCOM man to follow on Instagram, which is basically what my explore page is at this point because I keep looking up these people, check out Robert Ri’chard.

Nicole Sweeney 17:19
Former child stars who have now gotten ripped.

Matthew Gaydos 17:21
Yep.

Ceri Riley 17:23
That’s a really good way to mess up the algorithm.

Matthew Gaydos 17:25
Yeah. If you wanna know where this cast is Now, they’re on my Instagram explore page.

Nicole Sweeney 17:31
Nostalgia check. Do you remember watching this prior to watching it for this podcast?

Matthew Gaydos 17:36
Nope. I do not.

Nicole Sweeney 17:37
Yes, this movie taught what a 7-10 split was.

I also remember watching it, but in like this very hazy sort of way that like there are lots of things watching it this time that I didn’t necessarily know were going to happen. Like, I didn’t always know exactly what was coming next. But there then there would be these random moments that was like, Oh, yes, I remember everything about the This very specific scene or moment in the movie, but yes, I definitely watched this movie.

Ceri Riley 18:05
And… no. I”l deliver that better! I, like, thought about it for a second and then realized I didn’t need to think about it. No, I’ve never seen this movie before.

Nicole Sweeney 18:18
Your guess last week was a solid indicator of that.

Ceri Riley 18:23
Yeah!

Matthew Gaydos 18:24
It was not Newsies 2.

Nicole Sweeney 18:26
It was maybe your most wrong guess yet, I think

Marines Alvarez 18:30
You started with like rival something or others and I was like, okay, but that was like the only moment that, yeah.

Nicole Sweeney 18:36
And then that was it. It was all– it was all over.

Marines Alvarez 18:38
All downhill.

Ceri Riley 18:39
Yeah, I really just strayed from– I picked the wrong Alley Cat and once you pick the wrong thing…

Nicole Sweeney 18:45
There is a moment in this movie where Alex says something about not fighting like cats and dogs and I cheered a little bit for Team Mangy Dog.

Ceri Riley 18:55
Yeah, their team names were the Alley Cats and like the the wolf pack or omething like that. And I was like, okay, I got maybe the names

Marines Alvarez 19:03
What is a wolf if not a mangy dog? That’s all I’m saying.

Nicole Sweeney 19:10
I’m getting ahead of myself. Did you guys like this movie?

Marines Alvarez 19:13
Yeah, sure. I thought it– yes I did. I– It’s not going to be one of my favorit DCOMs. I think it’s going to be pretty middling for I mean, middle of the pack, maybe starting like the third tier of my bottom movies, but definitely better than all of those bottom movies. Like I’d watch this over and over all day long over like, “You Lucky Dog” or “Under Wraps” or “Can of Worms.” So it’s definitely not there for me, but it was just okay. Even when trying to like recap it, I realized that like there wasn’t a lot of anything in the middle of the movie. So I don’t know. I just don’t think it will be memorable but I remember really liking this when I was a kid. I think probably because something about like the uncool counter-culturist group of friends with the hot little Alex kid in the lead, and then Todd over here also looking mighty fine to my child eyes. Some combination of all of that made it live good– well for me as a child but like looking back on it now I’m just like, okay, that was that was a sports DCOM.

Matthew Gaydos 20:29
Yeah and it wasn’t bad. Like I did not dislike it, but I totally agree that it sort of is then that sort of like bottom third, like top of the bottom third of my favorite DCOMs so far that we’ve watched because it’s not offensive to me in any way. I don’t hate it. I would watch it again. But when I started looking at like the what we’ve watched, so many other things. I enjoyed watching more than this. And again, not because it’s bad, but just because it’s kind of nothing and There’s a lot less charm and chemistry in this one than there isn’t a lot of other DCOMs. Like I wrote in my notes, the very few notes while I was watching, but my first one was these kids don’t exist, like these kinds of kids, just these that these that they don’t exist. They don’t they’re not real characters to me. And then also because the chemistry was so off, I wrote, I can’t tell if everyone’s flirting or if no one is flirting. Even like Alex and Todd, there’s like moments where like they flirt ,and I can’t tell like– they have more chemistry than like the girls on the team. And I’m like, wait, is there like romance brewing with any of these people? And then I was like, oh, wait, no, I think they’re just all really awkward kids.

Nicole Sweeney 20:29
Yep.

Yeah, even now that the movie is over. I still can’t tell you the answer to that question.

Ceri Riley 21:49
I don’t have anything really original to say, but yes, I rank this fairly low. I like triedto think about what movies I remembered. And I was like, I don’t really remember “Under Wraps,” kinda remember “Horse Sense” and so I stuck it between “Horse Sense” and “The Thirteenth Year” because I was like– I think all the movies below that could also be condensed to like 20, 30 minutes maybe. Like boy goes to farm resolves becomes a better person. Mummy gets back to life and then restored and so like this is like kids bowl… and then win the bowling tournament. so yeah. It wasn’t bad but and it had good like lessons. I think as a kid I would have been like oh good the nerdy kids have their time to shine and they’re just being themselves.

Nicole Sweeney 22:37
I agree entirely with everything that has already been said. This movie is like solidly middling. Right now I have it sitting at 11 out of 15 and basically the four that are below it are four that I’m like no, I did not really like those four movies. And like this one is fine. Like it’s not a bad movie. I just, I understand why I remembered so little of it, despite having been watched it a ton and also liking it when I was younger because it is very much just nothing. I did kind of like the fact that when we first see the dynamic between these kids and the cool kids, they are being mean to the cool kids. Like they are being more openly antagonistic first. Yes, the cool kids are mean back to them and are meaner. But like, I don’t know, there is something about that resonated with me as like a high school. Like, when I look back on my teenage years, there is definitely a sense of, I probably could have had a lot more friends than I did if I wasn’t just so like, salty and like, I don’t know, into my whatever weird teenager identity that I was attached to having at that point in my life, you know, and like, that’s definitely part of what is going on with these kids. So I actually kind of disagree with Matt’s sense that these kids don’t exist like I don’t know, they’re like, I buy that I buy the idea that you have these kids that have just constructed this version of, of an identity that is intentionally countercultural, and that they become very, very attached to it to a degree that they kind of look down on everybody else for being like normal, basically. And they start to sort of see the idea that like, things don’t really have to be that way. And Alex finds that, you know, when he actually makes an effort to be friends with other people, he can do that. And it’s fine. And maybe the, you know, normal kids or the cool kids or whatever, aren’t assholes, after all, but then like, in the end, they are assholes. So.. that– I don’t know if that was like it, like started to go somewhere that I thought was interesting. And then they didn’t. So.

Matthew Gaydos 24:42
Just to clarify, I will say that I think kids like that exist. Like I think totally like people in high school are like that. I think for me, the acting, writing in this film. I didn’t believe that those kids were real characters, like especially the one kid who was like super into the These music like he never really seemed like committed to any of these things. It was like he was reading a script. And it just felt to me that like it as much as it is a thing in high school to like sort of put on and like lock into a persona sometimes, it felt like– it felt like paper thin, this sort of character they had built for themselves.

Nicole Sweeney 25:22
Yeah, yeah.

Matthew Gaydos 25:23
They’re totally the bullies in the first like chunk of this movie. I wrote that in my notes, too. I was like, our heroes feel like the bullies because they’re just as mean.

Nicole Sweeney 25:23
To be honest, I kind of liked that they were just as me so many times in like movies and things you have like the nerds that are like kind of helpless. but the– they had such a like tight knit group. It was like a very insular kind of thing that they didn’t need anybody. And they obviously like had their own routine, and they had friends and they were having fun. And so they didn’t really feel the need to I don’t know, belong anywhere else, which was, I think what the movie was trying to tell us was part of the main like conflict? I don’t think it did a very good job communicating that necessarily, but the little group of friends was probably one of the better things for me.

Ceri Riley 26:08
Yeah. Yeah, I agree. I thought it was, even though they were kind of snarky and mean, I think it was nice to not– It was nice to subvert the idea that just the like the star athlete would come in and pick on these bowling kids and be rude to them, but like they weren’t welcoming to him either. And I think that made for a more interesting story where like, they had to find out that this perfect star athlete wasn’t quite as happy because his parents are putting too much pressure on him. And so even though their parents don’t seem to care where they ever are, because they could just stay at a diner really late at night or go across the street in the dark to pin a bowling sheet on their friend’s door, Like they have it easy in some ways too. Again, I don’t think the movie really stuck the landing for it, but as an adult watching this, I can be like, oh yeah, this is like a realistic childhood relationship because you never just getting along with people. You have your core group of friends and then everyone else you’re like, you’re not my friend, really. Or at least that’s how I was. Maybe I was a mean nerd, or a loner, or somewhere in between.

Nicole Sweeney 27:15
Or just in general, though, like the idea that in sort of antagonistic dynamics like that there are two sides to that relationship. Like, I think that’s the thing that I really did like about the, like, the first half of it was just the idea that, like, it’s not just, oh, everybody’s so mean to them. And that’s why it’s like they have they’re out they’re–. They’re outsiders because everybody is so mean. But like, I don’t I don’t like they’re kinda snarky, too.

Matthew Gaydos 27:41
I think part of why it misses the mark is also it’s sort of inconsistent throughout the movie. Like, if there was a very clear arc of like, these people think they’re better than you and these people think they’re better than you. And then slowly they both learned that like, Oh, no, we have a lot more in common and we can work together and all this stuff, but it kind of like ebbs and flows throughout the film, like there was one part where I like rewind it, like 10 minutes and rewatch part of it because some of the, like other bowling kids– there’s a scene where they’re really sort of mean and snarky to Todd. And this is like 15, 20 minutes after he’s already been bowling with them for a little while, and they’ve been like in– and they’ve been encouraging him and sort of accepting of him more than Alex had been at this point. And then suddenly, they’re just like, really mean to him in one scene, and I’m like, and I had to go back and go, Wait, what happened? What did he do? And it was nothing. They just decided to make them be mean, to show that okay, but we’re not real friends yet.

Ceri Riley 28:39
What I also thought was interesting is how not complicated the parents were, like even more so than a normal DICOM it felt like, like what was going on with the mayor’s and betting against each other. That was one of the only notes I took What a weird bet 40 gallons cider versus 40 apple pies? Who are these men? And why are they– Why are they betting their apple products against each other? And parades? And then a middle school? I don’t know, almost like adults trying to be like, what would a child understand in betting language? Well, food, a name and a big thing like a big party. It almost felt like they didn’t have anything for the adults to do really besides just be in the background because it was about the bowling. They all kind of lingered, talked about their small town shenanigans and then encouraged their kids. And that was their whole purpose in the whole movie.

Nicole Sweeney 29:41
Yeah. Which I think ties back to the larger sense of this being a like, it was fine. Like there was this there was nothing about this movie that I’m like, oh, this was bad. It just, it has all the trappings of every other DCOM but simplified in most cases.

Matthew Gaydos 29:59
For me, the mayor stuff felt a little bit like they were trying to tap into that sort of the dean from “Genius.” You remember that character?

Nicole Sweeney 30:08
From Ceri’s favorite DCOM?

Ceri Riley 30:11
Yeah, I blocked it out.

Matthew Gaydos 30:12
I sort of felt similar to that sort of thing where they needed this character to have their own story on the side that we could cut back to when we ran out of bowling montages, and I think for me, the mayor bet sort of worked, because that happens in real life. Like I know the– for the Super Bowl, the mayor of San Francisco and the mayor of Kansas City like had a bet about sending each other food like seafood versus BBQ ribs and stuff. So that does happen. It didn’t ping on me as being weird other than the fact that like, yeah, they’re across town from each other. They could just drive and get those apples pies.

Marines Alvarez 30:46
They can bike. The kids biked to the other town.

Nicole Sweeney 30:49
Right.

Matthew Gaydos 30:49
Yeah.

Ceri Riley 30:51
Weird. I didn’t know– I don’t, this sounds bad. Like I don’t really know what mayor’s do in relation to other mayor’s. Like I know, like local governance. But I don’t I guess mares sometimes place bets. This is the new thing I learned. They become friends with other mayors and are like “you there. I’ll send you food if I lose a thing, a sports thing.”

Matthew Gaydos 31:14
I think that’s what half of what mayors do.

Ceri Riley 31:17
How did you guys feel about the freeze frame and then Alex narration over it, like “you might wonder how I ended up here.”

Nicole Sweeney 31:28
Oh, man, that was the worst part of this movie.

Matthew Gaydos 31:32
Yes. Agreed. It happened so many times. Why did it happen so many times?

Ceri Riley 31:36
How did you feel about it Ceri?

I thought it was really funny. Especially when–

Marines Alvarez 31:39
I’m glad you asked because I feel like after you guys were like, “uh, worst,” she was just gonna be like, “yeah…” and like peter off.

Ceri Riley 31:52
Especially when– It really got me in a couple of moments where I was like waiting for something to happen then they were like posit right before, I think Delia is ball hit the 7/10 split, I was like, “aw rats! That freeze frame got me again!”

Matthew Gaydos 32:08
See, for me, it felt like they were using it to draw out the length of the movie a little bit or explain things that maybe they had poorly written in the script. And were like, “maybe people won’t understand that. We better pause the movie and explain it to them.” Because for me, the biggest one that irked me was when the mayor and Alex’s dad are first like seeing each other in the movie. They clearly have a like a beef of some sort, where they used to be friends or something and as the baseball game went wrong, they’re not friends anymore. Like you can tell that from what they say to each other. It’s not that subtle, but the movie pauses and is like every time they’re in the same room they have a problem with each other, and I don’t know what–

Nicole Sweeney 32:53
“I don’t know what’s going on there!”

Matthew Gaydos 32:54
Yeah! We all could figure that out. You didn’t need to tell us that.

Ceri Riley 32:59
Yeah, I think that is why it was unintentional comedic effect for me instead of annoying. It was just like, “what a dumb movie. It’s doing its thing.”

Matthew Gaydos 33:10
There’s also something about the quality of like early 2000s digital video technology that when they pause it, it just looks like you pause your VCR because it’s a little squiggly and it doesn’t look great. And it’s it just it looks very bad.

Ceri Riley 33:25
I could imagine if I wasn’t paying close enough attention and was watching this on TV, I’d be like, did something go wrong? Did I pause for some reason. But the other effects that I feel like are noteworthy enough to call out our during the party scene at Alex’s dad’s bowling alley, it just got all wiggly. I don’t know how to describe it.

Matthew Gaydos 33:49
Oh, yeah.

Ceri Riley 33:50
Matt, you actually went to film school? What, what do you– what would you call that effect? What would you call that keen edit right there?

Matthew Gaydos 33:58
Windows Movie Maker effects is what I would call that. Yeah, I didn’t really understand why it was happening. And I think that’s a lot of the editing choices in this film were just making me sit back and go, huh… They all felt like afterthoughts to me of either this movie’s not long enough. How can we make it slightly longer to fit into commercials? Or maybe our production design doesn’t look great. So how can we obscure this party a little bit? And I think that’s what happens is you apply a weird filter so people don’t pay attention to the background or that you only have 15 actors at this party or that you couldn’t afford actual decorations. I think those are the types of things you add in, in your like, last stretch, like final edits kind of thing where you’re trying to fix a movie that’s maybe broken.

Ceri Riley 34:47
That was my sense of it, too. It was like this party is not fun. How do we make it look more fun? Whoo, whoo, whoo! Do that, but with a camera.

Marines Alvarez 34:57
The beginning of it reminded me of like the shaky camera at “Don’t Look Under the Bed,” when the kids are just walking down the street like arm in and arm, and the camera was just like “whoa, we’re having fun!” And I was just like, “you know, I’m not having fun right now.”

Matthew Gaydos 35:14
And I got really afraid that was gonna keep happening throughout the whole movie. And it just seemed like they forgot to tell the camera guy that they were going to do it because he was like he was running away from them, “like this guys slow down, please slow.” My favorite moment of the whole movie is when Todd is trying to first sort of get to know these kids a little bit. And he’s asking about their music tastes. And they’re talking about sort of the the 50s swing music they listen to. And then Todd is like, well, why don’t you listen to today’s hits like Backstreet Boys, Savage Garden, and Aerosmith. And like that’s what, like a 40 year old man DCOM writer probably wrote, “what do kid listen to? This kid? He listens to those three very different musical acts. That’s what the most popular kid in high school is definitely listening to.”

Nicole Sweeney 36:08
This week we are talking about our weird hobbies, like these kids have their bowling and being retro and diners, I guess, those were their hobbies. What about you guys?

Ceri Riley 36:23
I guess I’ll start. I was just a weird kid so all of my hobbies I think were weird. I basically collected everything that you could collect as a person or a child: rocks, coins, shells, uh, Pokemon cards, Legos just like–

Nicole Sweeney 36:45
It sounds like you weren’t a collector. You were are a hoarder.

Ceri Riley 36:51
Marbles. Dice. Like, I don’t– but I only kept the ones that I liked, but I liked a lot of them. It wasn’t just like a pile of meaningless rocks. I could be like, “oh, I like this one because it’s shiny. I like this one because it’s petrified wood. I like this one because it’s a pyrite” or something like that. Marbles were a little bit dicier, whereas like, “I like these 40 because they all cat eyes, have swirly colors inside.” So maybe I was just ah hoarding. That was my weird hobby as a child.

Matthew Gaydos 37:24
Hoarding. I was somewhat similar as a kid where I also had a lot of weird collections. Like I collected Beanie Babies and Pokemon cards and Hot Wheels cars, and also a lot of NASCAR paraphernalia, because that’s the kid I was. I think the more embarrassing part is that most of that stuff is still at my parents’ house just sitting in their garage.

Nicole Sweeney 37:46
Yes, me also. To be clear, I have no right whatsoever to tease anybody for being a hoarder. I just saw that opportunity and took it and then immediately was like, no actually…

Marines Alvarez 38:03
It you! It you!

Nicole Sweeney 38:04
I’m literatly talking about myself.

So just in before any member of my family listens to this podcast and tries to come for me.

Matthew Gaydos 38:18
I was a weird bowling kid though.

Ceri Riley 38:20
Really? Is that how you got your 233?

Matthew Gaydos 38:23
As a kid, my high score was 165. I remember that clearly because I was in a bowling league when I was like eight and would bowl every single weekend. I had my own custom ball, and I do really enjoy bowling still. I get to do it like once a year because like a friend will have a birthday party at the bowling alley or something. And then I get try and show off, which is the main reason I suggested we do the bowling scores for the introductions is because I wanted to brag. Now I think my weirdest hobby is probably like model building and painting, but because it’s one of those hobbies that I specifically sought out to do for me, and doesn’t really involve anybody else, and no one else makes me do it, and I don’t have to, like, share it with the world if I don’t want. Like, I’ve had a lot of hobbies that were like music related or different podcasts and all these things, and I realized I was like, “oh, all those hobbies result in me having to give something to other people. So I need a hobby that’s just for me.” And so that led to weird model painting and building that I very much enjoy, but it’s sometimes weird and I have to remind myself of like, “oh, yeah, no, you’re doing a weird thing that not everyone does.”

Nicole Sweeney 39:42
It’s a thing that has very little space for external validation to like, determine your relationship with it. Like you can post pictures on Instagram or whatever. but like, ultimately, the thing is the thing and it’s like you making the thing. This is– I recently learned started learning how to sew. I, my mom bought me a sewing machine when I was 15. And again, because my parents also still have a ton of my shit in their house, this sewing machhine has been like languishing in my high school bedroom closet for 15 years. And so when I was home over Thanksgiving, we got it out. And like I had my mom teach me how to use it. And like I’ve been, you know, making skirts and quilts and all sorts of stuff that like ultimately making things and it is super time consuming. But then like the end result of that time is, yeah, maybe I will like post a picture of it, but it is a thing that I am doing for entirely self-motivated reasons. It’s a little bit less weird, I think than the kit bashing thing, but a little more basic. So I don’t know that entirely qualifies as a weird hobby, but it is definitely coming from like that same sort of place of, of like trying to find space to do a thing solely like for me and also it’s kind of cool because it gives me a reason called my mom. “Mom help me!”

Marines Alvarez 41:03
Think of any hobbies weird hobbies that I had as a kid. I was kind of just like a basic child really like nerdy. I read a lot. I watched a lot of TV. And I wasn’t allowed to go out a lot. Like I had overprotective parents. So, you know, nothing super interesting. Before we started the podcast, I was like, I think podcasting is my weirdest hobby. You know, you kind of lose that a little bit and making YouTube videos because, obviously have a bunch of media friends and friends that I’ve made through like making videos and podcasting, but every once in a while, like I’m in an Uber and somebody’s like, who what do you do? What do you in town for? Like, if I’m at a conference or– Oh, the Comcast guy was at my house. The cable guy was at my house recently to fix something. And he saw a bunch of my microphones and he’s like,” do you sing” and I was like, “Ha, I podcast.” And he was like, “ugh.” Like he made the werdest face. And I was cool, cool, cool, great great great. So yeah, as an adult this might be my weirdest hobby in certain spaces and circles. I think in high school– so you know what is joining a club if not a weird hobby. I was on the debate team, which isn’t like I guess super weird but everybody knows debate team for like, mock trials and debating, but I was on the speech and forensics side of it, which means that we just did a bunch of little scenes and acting and nobody ever knows what forensics was. So I had to be like no it’s like the acting part of debate and we also rehearsed and like I had a debate hour in my schedule, so we rehearsed like outside in the hallways, and a lot of times in like either it’s you and one other person or you by yourself when you’re doing like the the speech or the forensics or whatever. So basically, we’re talking to yourself in the hallways, um so people would be like, going to their bathroom break and I was rehearsing my dramatic scene at the gravestone of my best friend, which was the scene. But I was totally like an alley cat like I didn’t care. I owned my weirdness. So that was cool. Oh, as far as collecting things, this was also or like maybe like early 20s. So I was still you know, not you whatever, early 20s there was a point where I collected bottles of nail polish, I just– not on purpose. I think I just got really into nail polish and then all of a sudden I was like, wow, I own 200 nail polishes. So that was a thing.

Nicole Sweeney 43:42
This has become part of your identity now.

Marines Alvarez 43:44
Right.

Matthew Gaydos 43:45
That’s how it was with DVDs and that just happened because in college, I got my own money and was like I want to buy my own DVDs now. I went to college with like 12 DVDs. I came back from college with 500 DVDs, and I’m like, “oh, that’s where all my money went!” I wasn’t drinking in college or partying, I was buying all of the DVDs that existed.

Ceri Riley 44:10
Incredible.

Nicole Sweeney 44:11
The High School thing is interesting because it also kind of ties back to the whole, like, I don’t know, learning how to have hobbies again as an adult, because we’ve professionalized all of our hobbies in a classic millennial move. But I because my, like high school thing, I was the president of the Multimedia Club, which is basically the AV Club. Like we did all that, like we ran cameras at assemblies and we edited. We made videos for assemblies, basically a lot of stuff for assemblies. But like, that was like a thing that I did in high school that was a weird thing about me, and had basically nothing to do with what I went to college for, but kind of everything to do with what I do for a living now. So that didn’t even stand out to me as a thing until Mari listening to you describe like your sort of high school club experience because I was I was in a bunch of clubs, most of the clubs I was just in for the sake of putting them on my college applications, because I was that kid, but like the multimedia club was the one thing that I legitimately did out of sincere and earnest interest and like took an independent study period, so I could work on stuff more and and whatever but like, that’s, it’s like now my job so it doesn’t feel like it qualifies as a weird hobby because it’s not a hobby because I paid money to do this.

Matthew Gaydos 45:24
The discussion about high school clubs also reminded me that I was in chess club at one point in my life. Yeah, that was sixth grade. I think. Basically, I was the kid who my parents just let me try whatever I wanted for a short of a period of time as I wanted so I did wrestling and track and football and baseball and basketball. Probably more things that I’m already forgetting, because I would quit some of the things when I got bored and be like, “eh, sure football now. That seems fine.” And so I– jack of all trades master of none is exactly what I was, except for in high school, I fell into show choir and doing music stuff. And that’s actually what I stuck with all four years of high school was show choir. So that is a weird thing that I forget I did sometimes.

Ceri Riley 46:15
Yeah, this is also reminding me of my high school. I didn’t like people like you, Matt. So I did not join teams, but I did have a lot of weird activities where I was like, Dad, can you fund me? I wanted to learn how to widdle at some point. So I grabbed a stick from our backyard and a pocket knife and tried to widdle and with me, that’s like the best example I can think of but–

Nicole Sweeney 46:41
Ceri, that’s amazing. I feel like, this is an untapped resource. I don’t know what, what the future of this information is. But I feel as though we have to do something with this information. Ceri learned how to widdle.

Ceri Riley 46:58
Yeah, but it was a lot of like a very small one off things like that where it was an activity I could do by myself so I learned how to jump on a pogo stick. I learned how to ride a unicycle. So, so basically like all I did all these weird skill based things. Also became a master of none but could possibly do these things and then joined theatre because my friend who is the president of that club bullied me into it, not to act but to build sets because she’s like, “Ceri, you just make all these things for fun and to no end. So how about you make things with a purpose?” I’m she said it much nicer and was like you can you can just like use power tools and build sets. And so that’s what I did was like, monopolize my garage and be like, “well, we need a microphone now or we need a tree with candy hanging off of it. How am I gonna do that?” And then just do that for hours and hours and hours. In my spare time.

Marines Alvarez 47:48
Shout out to her parents who taught us how to widdle and let us join clubs and funded field trips. I went to Harvard with my debate team for competition once and I think listening just now it clicked in my head that my mom was like, “okay, I guess I’ll work some overtime…” So she could send me on this vacation, not vacation on this, like school trip or whatever. And now I’m like, Damn, my mom was the MVP. She worked extra hours for that. So yay, parents who support kids hobbies, weird hobbies, I guess.

Nicole Sweeney 48:22
Yes.

Matthew Gaydos 48:24
Yes.

Nicole Sweeney 48:25
Support their kids in hobbies that they really don’t understand.

Marines Alvarez 48:28
Correct.

Matthew Gaydos 48:30
There’s so many things that now as an adult who has to spend his own money, I look back on when I was a kid, whether it was like toys I had or trips I went on or hobbies like this, that I look back and go, Wow, I cost my parents so much so much money on top of just keeping him alive money that I’m like, wow, good job, mom.

Nicole Sweeney 48:54
That was the experience the first time I went to Disney World as an adult and I had to go to the ticket booth first. And they were like $100 of your dollars please. And I was like “excuse you. My mother brought me here every summer.”

And now it is time to talk about the lessons that we learned from “Alley Cats Strike.”

Ceri Riley 49:17
I learned that the coolest trophy that everyone’s gonna fight over for decades has an apple on top and an apple kind of looks like a bowling ball.

Marines Alvarez 49:25
I learned that sometimes you love something but that something doesn’t make you money, so you should get a real estate license.

Matthew Gaydos 49:31
I learned that it’s not about how good you are at sports, but how well dressed you are when you’re playing those sports that matters.

Nicole Sweeney 49:37
And I learned that if you have a business that’s failing, all you have to do is throw a party and your business is fixed. And now it is time for Ceri to guess the plot of the next movie. Next time on Cooler Than Homework, we are watching “Rip Girls.”

Ceri Riley 49:53
After– I’m like demoralized after how far off I was with “Alley Cats Strike.” I feel like, I feel like I’ve lost my touch. And by my touch I mean, whatever wild guesses that we’re getting more accurate. With that -caveat in place to prevent myself from future embarrassment. Rip Tides–

Nicole Sweeney 50:13
Rip Girls.

Ceri Riley 50:13
–makes me think. Okay. See, there you go “Rip Girls” makes you think of rip tides, which are so like ocean related things. So it’s a beach movie. And so Johnny tsunami was surfing. So I’m guessing this girl is like a lifeguard maybe. I think I’m circling back to my original guess for one movie or another. It’s like a girl. Okay, so it’s a teenage girl. It’s always a teenager who’s a lifeguard on the beach. And for some reason, the there are a lot of people swimming. And there’s like a shark that goes in the water at some point and people are like, sharks or they’re just afraid of it. Maybe there’s like– Oh, okay. Take it back. There’s a girl who’s a lifeguard on a beach. She loves it. Usually teenagers don’t like their jobs as lifeguards because one you have to protect other people’s lives. Two you have to sit in the hot sun all day and you don’t get to swim. But she, her name is Caroline– loves it. But then the town gossip magazine says that there are shark infested waters at the beach. And so what’s usually a very fun summer activity– she has like her parent friends and her child friends and like a group of girls that always comes to, I don’t know, like play beach volleyball, maybe. So she’s like indirectly related to them. Or she sees them playing beach volleyball volleyball in there. She’s like, you go, and they’re like, you guard and then they all leave. And so then she has to like forge a local campaign to fight against the shark misinformation and get our beach back. Tagline?

Nicole Sweeney 50:59
Oh, man. Ceri, I cannot find a tagline for this movie. This is your phone a friend. And instead of giving you a tagline since I can’t find one, I’m just going to tell you that Johnny Tsunami is not a surfing movie. It’s a snowboarding movie. And that’s your phone a friend.

Ceri Riley 52:16
That makes me think that this might be a surfing movie. And maybe Caroline, instead of being a lifeguard is in fact a surfer with big dreams. And I don’t know she like wins a surfing competition or something that’s like how these things go. The bowling movie, they bowl. It’s a surfing movie? She surfs, and she has a girl gang of surfers and the boys are mean to her. And then she’s like, no girls can surf too. And then she wins a gold medal given to her by Johnny Tsunami’s grandmap.

Matthew Gaydos 52:54
Nailed it. That was perfect. That’s exactly what the movies about.

Nicole Sweeney 52:59
Well, join us next time to find out how close that is to the plot of “Rip Girls.” if you are enjoying this podcast please tell your friends, rate and review it, all that good stuff. We would love to hear your thoughts about “Alley Cats Strike.” There will be a post dedicated to this episode or you can find us on Twitter at @DCOMSquad. I am @SweeneySays.

Matthew Gaydos 53:19
I am @MatthewGaydos.

Nicole Sweeney 53:21
You can find me @mynameismarines.

Ceri Riley 53:23
And I am @ceriley.

Nicole Sweeney 53:25
This podcast is a Snark Squad, production edited by me, transcribed by Mari. And our theme musicis by Stephen Chin.